Clean Edge Razor Splitting Hairs in Product Positioning Essay Example for Free

Clean Edge Razor Splitting Hairs in Product Positioning Essay Paramount’s newest non-disposable razor, Clean Edge, has brought a new hope for the company whose other products are either on the mature stage of product life cycle or on the declining stage. Clean Edge’s improved design provides superior performance and hence the top management is extremely excited. They need to come up with a marketing strategy including product positioning, brand name marketing budget allocation for the upcoming launch. Another area of concern is how to deal with the cannibalization effect on the other range of non-disposable razors sold by Paramount. It is very important to come up with a suitable strategy to make the product successful in the market. Through a proper economic analysis considering the razor market and the facts available, we have come up with a conclusion that Paramount should position Clean Edge in the Niche Segment. Statement of the Problems Paramount needs to come up with a marketing strategy to effectively position its new line of technologically advanced non-disposable razors. Over the last five year years the industry has seen major advancements in the male grooming industry with the entry of new formidable players turning on the heat for the existing market leaders. Some of the major highlights include * Male specific grooming products seem to have outpaced the growth in women’s beauty market and have become more mainstream * In the male grooming product category, the replacement cycle of razors and cartridges have shortened * Advertising expenditures in the category have been rising faster than retail market sales * The demand has had a cumulative effect on technology as newer advanced products have hit the market resulting in approximately 5% growth per year from 2007 to 2010 * Super-premium segment has experienced significant growth with numerous product innovations By 2009, Paramount had already established itself as a global consumer products giant having expertise in Health, Cleaning, Beauty and Grooming. This helped the company to quickly position itself as a trusted brand in the non-disposable razor market. Capitalising on its reputation it offered its products By 2009, the replacement cycle of non-disposable razor cartridges had shortened due to consumers trying out new products. The challenge with Paramount was that two of its mainstream products – Paramount Pro and Paramount Avail had not introduced any significant technology innovations since 2005. However, its competitors, especially Radiance is on the verge of launching Naiv razor which promises a better shaving experience.

Understanding Of Elemental Cost Analysis Construction Essay

Understanding Of Elemental Cost Analysis Construction Essay The analysis is actually done to be used by the designer and the client for future project and therefore, comparison between two or more buildings can be made. This is brief project cost information gathered from bills of quantities. Apart from the cost analysis, information such a brief project specifications and the overall project information are also included in the ECA. Purpose for ECA To show the cost relationships between several sections/ parts of the building, if there are any. To allow comparisons of cost with other different projects. The cost that is obtained from the cost analysis is insufficient to determine the actual price. It has to take into account the conditions and the details of the project and the quality and quantity of work involved. The cost analysis has been introduced to provide cost information especially for the process of cost planning. The cost analysis is prepared by examining the information of a project which has been planned or constructed in which the bills of quantities have been priced. Therefore, the cost analysis is prepared based on the data received from the successful tender and is not based on the actual sum of the project. However, there are several reasons as to why the cost analysis is not prepared based on the actual cost: The final account is often complex and requires much ttime to analyze the changes in the account. This would result in the decreasing interest of the individual preparing the cost analysis. The preparation of the final account is time consuming due to several reasons and this could result in the cost analysis that is published to be out-dated The historical data for cost planning may not be accurate especially during high inflation (although there are procedures to update this by using indices). It is difficult to make allocations for the increase in cost and contractual claims, which are tailored to the individual elements. Uses of ECA Appreciation It enables clients and designers to know and appreciate how cost is distributed among the functional components of a building and compared to the overall cost of a building. Judgment It enables clients and designers to develop ideas as to how element costs could have been allocated to obtain a more balanced design. This judgement is important to gauge the effectiveness of cost and quality of a building. Belated remedial action Allows remedial action to be taken on receipt of high tender, by revealing the sources of over-expenditure that is by making comparisons between estimated costs and tender price. This will enable belated remedial action to be taken. Planning The cost analysis could be used as a source of cost information to help with the cost planning of future building projects. Abbreviations of forms To simplify the elaboration the author will use the following abbreviations for each form. Form 1 F/1 Form 2 F/2 Form 3 F/3 FORM 1 Information on total project and analyzed building This form is divided into two sections; the first section provides overall information on the project including the location, the client, type of contract etc. The second section provides information and analysis of a single building. Each separate building in the project has a different analysis. The main purpose for the information in Form 1 is to inform the user of the analysis the background of the project and the condition of its price level. This will enable the user to make the necessary adjustments to cater for differences in location, market condition, type of contract, size of contract and specifications of the project. Building type and Code : There are ten classifications on types of building based on (C1/SfB Classification Table 0): 0 : Land, Planning, Landscape 1 : Civil Engineering Work 2 : Transport, Industrial Buildings 3 : Administrative Buildings 4 : Health and Welfare Buildings 5 : Refreshment, Recreation Buildings 6 : Religious Buildings 7 : Educational, Cultural, Scientific Buildings 8 : Residential Buildings 9 : Buildings, Spaces in general Residential Buildings for this project shall be classed under category 8: Buildings, Spaces in general Construction Classes: Construction classes are divided into: A : Reinforced concrete framed construction B : Steel framed construction C : Timber framed construction D : Light framed steel or reinforced concrete construction A 2 321 A 2-storey reinforced concrete framed construction with Gross Floor Area of 321m2 is expressed as follows: The combination of a 2 storey hall building made of reinforced concrete framed construction with Gross Floor Area of 321m2 is expressed as follows: A 321 3- Residential Buildings 3) Job Title: Cadangan Membina Sebuah Banglo 2 Tingkat 4) Location: Daerah Melaka Tengah, Melaka 5) Client: State the type of client whether government, private or semi government-Private 6) Tender date: Date fixed for close of tender- 7/1/2007 INFORMATION ON TOTAL PROJECT 7) Project details and site condition: Explanation shall include the following: Project description Accessibility to site Proximity of other buildings Site topographical and geological conditions Weather Any omission or exclusion from project Example of elaboration: The project comprise the construction and completion of 2 storey banglo and associated ancillary building and external works. The purpose site is flat and in good condition. 8) Contract: Type of contract used Standard PAM Form of Contract (with quantities) 9) Market Condition: Brief report on market condition shall be provided with regard to availability of materials and labour, keenness and competition Market condition is competitive and price of labour and materials are stable. 10) Tender List: List of tenders received. If the number is too many, state at least the lowest five, arranged in descending order. The highest tender value is listed last in the table. Indicate whether tenders were from local builders (L), by international builders (INT), or by joint venture between the two (JV). Refer to tender report. If there are only a few tenders, the list is as follows: RM Int/JV/L 325060 L 320000 L 289500 L 255200 L If the tender list is extensive, the list is as follows : RM Int/JV/L 325060 L 320000 L 289500 L *255200 L *The highest tender value AREAS 11) Gross Floor Area: Method of measurement: Total of all enclosed spaces fulfilling the functional requirements of a building measured to the internal face of enclosing walls (or column, door and the like) Enclosed spaces are defined as all spaces that have a floor and a ceiling and enclosing walls on all sides at full or partial height. Open balustrades, louvers, screens, columns and the like shall be deemed enclosing walls. The gross floor area is measured gross without omission to areas occupied by columns, internal structures or party walls, etc. Areas of lift rooms, tank rooms, engine rooms and the like above main roof are also calculated in GFA. Sloping surfaces such as staircases, galleries, tiered terraces and the like shall be measured flat on plan Spaces that fulfill the functional requirements of building which are not enclosed spaces shall be shown separately under Unenclosed Spaces. B L: Measured gross without omission to areas occupied by columns, staircases and partitions. GFA = 6156m2 Usable area 231 Circulation area 32 Ancillary area 48 Internal divisions 10 GFA 321 FORM 2 Summary of element costs In general, Form 2 shows the systematic breakdown of the costs of elements of a building. There are more than 20 elements in Form 2 and each element is grouped under six group elements (five building groups and one for each group element of external work and preliminary work). Form 2 provides information on the total cost of element, cost per m2 GFA, element unit quantity, element unit rate, ratio of element per m2 GFA, etc which could be used to make a realistic estimate and to prepare the cost plan for new projects. It could also be used to make cost comparisons to ensure cost does not exceed the estimate. Total cost of element (RM): This is the total cost of element and the cost shall follow the List and Contents of element in the Manual. If cost is not related to the said element, (-) shall be inserted. If costs of more than one element are group together, abbreviated notes shall be provided explaining where they are grouped. All the total cost made from Bills of Quantities or calculated by EUQ x EUR. WBLFF : Total cost of element = EUQ x EUR = 136 m2 x 125 = RM 17000.00 Cost/m2 GFA (RM) : Calculated by dividing Total Cost of element with GFA. FRAME : Cost/m2 GFA = Total Cost GFA = RM 255,200 321 m2 = RM 795.016/m2 Element Unit Quantity : All areas shall be the net areas, for example, area for external walls shall omit area of windows and doors, etc. if the quantity is measured in volume (air conditioning spaces) volume is calculated by multiplying the net area with the height of the space to be air conditioned. The abbreviation used is Tm3. All the amount according to taking off or measured through drawings. Element Unit Rate (RM) : Calculated by dividing Total Cost of Element with Element Unit Quantity. It is rounded off to the nearest ringgit. UPPER FLOORS : Element unit rate = Total Cost EUQ = RM 8000.00 185 m2 = 43.24 Element Ratio /m2 GFA : Calculated by dividing Element Unit Quantity with GFA. It is stated to three decimal places. ROOF : Element ratio/m2 GFA = EUQ GFA = 204 m2 321 m2 = 0.636 Reinforced Concrete (m3) : Quantity of reinforced concrete in elements in m3. Reinforcement (kg) : Quantity of reinforcement in kg. Formwork (m2) : Quantity of formwork in m2. FORM 3 Brief Specification Form 3 provides brief information on project specifications based on each element. It briefly describes the various components in each element including the types and quality of materials used. This form provides a brief picture of the building standards and quality and this information is important for cost comparison purposes. It can be refer to the list and contents of elements. Elaborate briefly the specifications according to the elements. All the specification had made from Bills of Quantities. For example of the specification in the elemental cost analysis, in piling works, the specification must have all works related to foundation piling including sheet piling left in and also need to state the system used, whether it is consultants design or otherwise, number, average length and size of the pile. BENEFIT OF ELEMENTAL COST ANALYSIS ECA means the analyze of cost related to the elements, in construction industry a building or any kind of construction we can divide into number of elements, and price of which is related with that element is called as an elemental cost, elemental costs include material costs, labor costs, and sub-contractor overhead and profit. ECA is also important and give benefits due to the companies that can intends to establish a cost information service by setting out goals and collecting information in a planned and systematic way in collecting and spreading information on a number of elemental cost plans available at the moment. These cost plans will further expanded and users will be able to select the database using a range of criteria, among others, type of building, floor area, date, client type, number of stories, location and method of construction. ECA does help a quantity surveyor when it comes to similar projects that are gone to be built next due to its feature that act as a reference about the price or cost information that is useful to prepare a budget plan. Although it is roughly similar, the project that is being compared to previous projects ECA must be in the relevant range of time CONCLUSION The Elemental Cost Analysis (ECA) is relevant to used. The cost analysis is prepared by examining the information of a project which has been planned or constructed in which the bills of quantities have been priced. Therefore, the cost analysis is prepared based on the data received from the successful tender and is not based on the actual sum of the project. That is the price quoted in the Final Account. There is a possibility for some to think that it would be better to analyses the actual cost as compared to the cost predicted in the tender.

Superstar Is A Team Economics Essay

Superstar Is A Team Economics Essay Superstar is a team use to describe that the people who got special who is widely known, prominent and successful to dominate the fields in which they engage and superstars normally earning enormous amounts of money. This essay is trying to explain and analysis this phenomenon in the labour market of sports industry. The reason for the superstar phenomenon might cause by many factors. Production in the world of sports, as noted by Neale (1964), is decidedly different from production in most other markets. Argentine professional footballer, Lionel Messi is the worlds highest-paid football player, The talisman of Barcelona, Messi ,earns some 33 million euros ($43.5 million) a year with a 10.5-million-euro salary, 1.5 million euros in bonuses and 21 million euros in advertising and other contracts. (Levine, 1991)This salary might be far more than normal worker. There are many reasons for the super star phenomenon and the labour market of superstar will be analysis in the rest part of th e essay. This essay is aim to use economics model to explain the reason of the high salary for super stars in sport industry. Main body Assume that the labour market is perfect for athletes. Players are all identical. The labour market can be explained by the perfect competition model. In the figure 1, profit maximization requires that the MRP curve cut the MC curve from above. The firm gives up profits if it operates at point a because adding units of labour beyond the intersection adds more to revenue than it adds to costs. Once the firm reaches point b, adding more labour would result in the costs of each unit being higher than the revenue that unit generates. In long-run equilibrium in a perfectly competitive industry in a perfectly competitive industry only normal profits are earned. At that situation employment would be at E1, and the wage at W1, since ARP equal to MC. If above normal profits were being earned by the firms in a perfectly competitive industry average revenue product would be forced down by the entry of new firms. (Figure 1) In labour market of sports industry, monopsonist market means that there are too few of buyers so that the price of labour increases if a team attempts to employ more. (Sandy et al, 2004) Assume all the firms in the league are aim for profit-maximized. The monopoly power of sports clubs makes the question of motives important because the monopolies have much more discretion over pricing and output levels than do competitive companies. A model (Figure 2) is applied to determinate the salary for athletes. Team rosters are usually fixed and it is more sensible to consider the supply of labor in teams in units of quality rather than in the number of players. Even if the rosters were not fixed, if a club already has many players it may not be sensible to add another player of average quality. As superstars are extremely scarce, the supply of labor measure in quality units is not perfectly elastic. To add a unit of player quality the team has to pay a higher price than it paid for its last unit of quality. Marginal factor cost (MFC) is cost of hiring an extra unit of quality. Marginal revenue product (MRP) is additional revenue that the league receives as a result of hiring each additional unit of quality.The wage that tem willing to pay will be located at the intersection of MFC and MRP because marginal cost equal to marginal revenue is the maximum of profit. The profit will be maximized at W1 with L1 unit of player. (Figure 2) In the labour market of sports, athletes with outstanding talent are monopolistic due to scarcity and restrictions on mobility, especially draft system in US. The Agent or players unions also act as monopolists on account of there are very few union and most players are in the same union in each sport. The union helps player to bargain for their salary therefor it act as a single seller in the market. Similar to (Figure 2), the model (Figure 3) for players union determines the wage level for salary at the intersection of MRP and MC, where marginal cost equal to the marginal revenue product. The profit maximized for players union at W2 and L2 unit of player. (Figure 3) Because of the draft system in some sports is more special. For example in US, the teams drafted player from college and buy them. The trade, with only one seller and one buyer involved, has been defined as Bilateral Monopoly. The model of Bilateral Monopoly (Figure 4) is like combination of (Figure 2) and (Figure 3).The W1 stands for Monopoly wage and W2 is Monopsony wage. The salary will be between W1 and W2 depend on the bargain. (Figure 4) In superstar markets, tiny differences in talent at the top of the distribution will translate into large differences in revenue. sellers of higher talent charge only slightly higher prices than those of lower talent, but sell much larger quantities; their greater earnings come overwhelmingly from selling larger quantities than from charging higher prices (Rosen etc. 1981), Just like the (Figure 4).As the talent of player getting close to the top along the curve, little tiny change of talent can cause significant change in the salaryhe reason for this phenomenon is because the special skills are had to copy and it has been defined as productive of the players. (Figure 5) For non-team sports the difference is much easier to find that widely spread prize money. As Non- team sports normally don not have salary, the prize reward monitoring the relationship of the talent and the earning. An example is the prize reward of Wimbledon Tennis Championships, first prize money is 1,150 thousand pounds and the second places prize is 575 thousand pounds, the rest of players only share very little amount of money. (Hogg, 2012)The reason for this is because of the match host trying to have more attraction of latter game and match. The Tournament theory has the same pattern of (Figure 4). The theory used to describe certain situations where wage differences are based not on marginal productivity but instead upon relative differences between the individuals. In the study of labour market of super star, Sherwin Rosen (1981) found that threats of potential entry force the market became equilibrium. Free entry implies that total revenue must be driven down to opportunity cost P2 .Assume the buyer paid at P1.the value excess the P2 is profit and another seller would like to join in the market to share the profit .This behaviour will definitely shift price to P1 and makes profit to zero. (Figure 6) Even professional player are only for one kind of sport, but individual player have different talents they cannot simply shown by (Figure 5).Therefore using (Figure 7) to explain the situation. The superstars can make profit base on their unique talents. There are limitations of distance of competitors and unit rent, but total revenue for superstars still large because of scales economies. There might be a lot of people can do the similar skill but one skill by a professional player is still very special. Since the services produced by more talented sellers are less contaminated by crowding, the quantity-price gradient grows as talent increases. Therefore the better sellers can and do handle much larger players in equilibrium. (Figure 7) Hausman and Leonard (1997) found the presence of stars had a substantial effect on television ratings, even after controlling for team quality. Berri(2004) used data of NBA proved the relationship between the Gate revenue and the star player is significant. As Hausman argued, the star power attracts the fans. The analysis made by Berri (2004) also shows the star player have a strong relationship with number of wins, which also been assume as the performance of the team. A super star is not only benefit the own team which also benefit the competitors. As the product of the sports game is normally Broad casting has become an increasing source for the revenue of most of sports league for the last several decades. In the case of the National Basketball Association, each teams financial situation depends significantly on the revenue it generates through its local television contracts and national television contracts. Television Station are willing to pay high levels of rights fees to NBA games because they can charge high advertising rates to advertisers and because they add incremental subscribers. Advertisers are attracted by sports programming because it provides access sizable numbers of the funs of super stars. The famous case might be the return of Jordans first game, the highest NBA regular season game rating since 1975, generated a rating of 10.9 %.( Hausman et al 1997) For example, Manchester United benefit from the distribution and broadcasting of live football content directly from the revenue. The Manchester United with huge amount of fun around the world helps the c lub with its commercial achievement and utility ( Hogg ,2012) .Since a super star can draw so much attention and increase large amount of revenue .it is no doubt that a club would like to pay such high salary to these professional players. For example, Manchester united generates revenue from multiple sources, including sponsorship, merchandising, product licensing, media and mobile, broadcasting and match day. The super stars effects are not only happen during the matches, but also for the league commercial revenue. The Manchester United is not only a club with super stars .It also trying to combines the power of super stars to build up its own brand. Manchester United sells competitive sports apparel, training and leisure wear and other clothing featuring the Manchester United brand on a global basis. Over 5 million items of Manchester United branded licensed products were sold in the last year, including over 2 million Manchester United jerseys. Manchester United branded products are sold through over 200 licensees in over 130 countries. Super stars earing money when each product with their copy rights. ( Hogg ,2012) Limitation In this article, many situations and factors in the real word has been neglected as it is easier to analysis the labour market. Firstly, there are uncertainties of hire a new player. Secondly, when a team sign the contract with a player in long term, there is no guarantee for the quality of performance. Thirdly, Team work is also important in the real world. Finally, the club is not able to keep observe players future quality and effect. Because of the superstar phenomenon, many experts believe it reduce the competitive balance .Therefore ,some policy and rules has been used to prevent from it ,for instance, Luxury tax ,Salary cap and gate sharing increase the competitive balance. Conclusion The labour market of superstar holds a key position in the analysis of the economics of sport and of professional team sports in particular, as a consequence of monopsonists and monopolists. The situations in sports labour markets are bilateral monopolies with only one buyer and one seller and the wage for player is indeterminate. Super stars with special abilities are scarcity and restrictions on mobility. Professional plays earning far more than others for tiny talent change when the talent level is relatively high. The combination of technology consumption and imperfect substitution leads to sport superstars can own a large market size and income at a same time. Power of super star also attracted fans and consumers to see their matches by live matches or broadcasting. Moreover, club can use the superstars to build up their brand and earing revenue from global basis funs. Even leagues of sports try to increasing the competitive balance of the labour market by using restrictions lik e salary cap; however, it is clear that super stars still deserve the high income and honour after the analysis all above. Reference Bibliography Berri, D. et al (2004) Stars at the Gate: The Impact of Star Power on NBA Gate Revenues. Journal of Sports Economics; vol. 5: pp. 33-50 Berri, D. et al (2006) On the Road With the National Basketball Associations Superstar Externality. Journal of Sports Economics; vol. 7: pp. 347-358 Depken, C.A. (2000), Free Agency and the Competitiveness of Major League Baseball, Review of Industrial Organisation, Vol. 14, pp. 205-17 Frick, B. (2007). The football players labor market: Empirical evidence from the major European leagues. Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 5, 422-446. Hausman, J.A. and Leonard, G.K. (1997) Superstars in the NBA: Economic Value and Policy, Journal of Labour Economics, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp. 586-624 Hogg, T (2012) Statistics and comparisons of annual incomes in the UK, 2010, Journal of Economics, Vol. 5, pp55-78 Kahn, L. and Shah, M. (2005). Race, compensation and contract length in the NBA: 2001-2 Industrial Relations, 44, 444-462. Levine, D.I.(1991) Cohesiveness, Productivity and Wage Dispersion, Journal of Econ. Behaviour and Oragnisations, Vol. 15, pp. 237-54. Porter, P.K. and Scully, G.W. (1982) Measuring Managerial Efficiency: The case of baseball, Southern Economic Journal, Vol. 48, No. 3, pp. 642-50 Rosen, S. (1981) The Economics of Superstars, American Economic Review, issue 5, pp. 845-58 Rottenberg, S. (1956) The Baseball Players Labour Market, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 64, No. 3, pp. 242-58. Scully, G.W.(1974) Pay and Performance in Major League Baseball, American Economic Review, Vol, 64, No. 6, pp. 915-30 Sandy. R et al. (2004), The Economics of Sport: An International Perspective, Palgrave Macmillan, New York: Toby ,M. et al.2003) The Over-Production of US Sports and the New International Division of Cultural Labor .International Review for the Sociology of Sport. Vol. 38: pp. 427-440 WALLACE, M. (1988) Labor Market Structure and Salary Determination among Professional Basketball Players. Work and Occupations; vol. 15: pp. 294-312

Views on War in Vonneguts Slaughter House Five Essay -- Slaughter Hou

Views on War in Vonnegut's Slaughter House Five    Many people returned from World War II with disturbing images forever stuck in their heads. Others returned and went crazy due to the many hardships and terrors faced. The protagonist in Slaughter-House Five, Billy Pilgrim, has to deal with some of these things along with many other complications in his life. Slaughter House Five (1968), by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., is an anti-war novel about a man’s life before, after and during the time he spent fighting in World War II. While Billy is trying to escape from behind enemy lines, he is captured and imprisoned in a German slaughterhouse. The author tells of Billy’s terrible experiences there. After the war, Billy marries and goes to school to become an optometrist. During his schooling, he is put in a mental institution. As it is later explained in the novel, Billy was abducted by aliens and lived on their planet in their zoo for a period of time. Throughout this novel, Billy’s life doesn’t occur in a series of ev ents. He also doesn’t have flashbacks of certain points in his life. Instead, he lives his life through time travel. His life jumps from many points in time including his experiences in the war, before the war, after the war and also on the planet of Tralfamadore. Throughout this novel, Billy Pilgrim’s and other humans’ views on war are simple: in essence, it’s one of the most destructive things that there is, but to the aliens on the planet of Tralfamadore, war is unimportant in the long run and should not be dwelled on.    By opening the cover of this novel, one might notice the subtitle. Underneath the title, Slaughter-House Five, reads the subtitle: The Children’s Crusade A Duty-Dance with Death. Without even reading the ... ...his novel believe war to be the most disgusting and most distructful thing in the universe, the Tralfamadorians enlighten one human on their thoughts of war. They don’t feel Billy should put as much time as he does into dwelling on something like war that is inevitable. They ignore it and rate it relatively low on a scale of importance. From World War II, Billy is left with many vivid memories that he would rather not have. He has first handedly seen what he thinks is the most evil thing in the universe. He is frequently haunted by images of his experiences. But maybe if he would just tell himself that there is nothing he can do about war, maybe if he just looked the other way and ignored it, maybe then he would be happy and in a state of peace like the Tralfamadorians. Work Cited    Vonnegut, Kurt. SlaughterHouse Five. New York: Dell Publishing Co., Inc. 1980

Lack of Rule of Law in China Essay -- International Law

Aristotle once stated, â€Å"The rule of law is better than that of any individual.† The essential characteristics of rule of law are: the supremacy of law, meaning both the government and individuals are subject to the law; a concept of justice that emphasizes interpersonal adjudication, based on importance of standards and procedures; restrictions on discretionary power and exercise of legislative power by the executive; independent judiciary, judicial precedent and common law methodology; prospective, not retrospective legislation; and underlying moral basis for law. (Cooray) In China, the justice system has been based on rule â€Å"by† law, also known as â€Å"rule of men† instead of rule â€Å"of† law. In other words, law has been an instrument of the government, which holds itself above the law as opposed to law being supreme. The goal of laws here are to protect the interests of the state, not the individual, and to keep stringent social control. Ch ina’s leaders are beginning to realize that establishing the â€Å"rule of law† is critical to China’s ability to sustain its rapid economic growth. The lack of legal knowledge and transparency, the complex judiciary and legislative system and cultural barriers rooted deeply in society are just a few main reasons responsible for an inadequate rule of law in China. Due to the lack of tradition of rule of law and the Chinese Communist Party rejection of the kind of liberal democratic government associated with it faces multiple challenges in its establishment. Understanding the importance of modernizing Chinas culture has had leverage on the political and economic level have substantially increased the progress of reform towards the use of rule of law. Being the oldest continuous major world civilization... ...accountability of the Chinese police." Policing -Bradford- 20, no. 1: 113-135. British Library Document Supply Centre Inside Serials & Conference Proceedings, EBSCOhost (accessed March 25, 2012). Wong, Kam C. 2009. Chinese Policing: History and Reform. New York: Peter Lang. Wong, Kam C. 2011. "Reform to police accountability." In Police Reform in China, by Kam C. Wong, 299-363. CRC Press. Wong, Kam C. 2004. "The police legitimacy crisis and police law reform in China: Part I." International Journal Of Police Science & Management 6, no. 4: 199-218. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed March 25, 2012). Wong, Kam C. 2005. "The police legitimacy crisis and police law reform in China: Part II." International Journal of Police Science & Management 7, no. 1: 1-14. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed March 25, 2012).

Uganda

1. What is the nature of OpenMRS and why was it developed? Why were US universities, US National Institute of Health (NIH) and US donors involved in developing this system? 2. What were the impacts of using OpenMRS in ISS Clinic? How did the healthcare system improve? 3. What were the problems encountered in using OpenMRS? Discuss the battle of forms and why there were disagreements about what forms to use. Make a distinction between research vs. clinical objectives, US researcher vs. local objectives. 4. Why the OpenMRS project is in danger of failure? Why did the clinicians at ISS clinic say that â€Å"we didn’t ask for it.It is your problem†? Why MOH and US researchers are at odds about the value of OpenMRS? 5. What can be learned from this experience when implementing IT projects in developing countries? Do culture and world politics have a role? Why? 1. The OpenMRS is an electronic medical record system (EMRS) that was developed to track of patients medical records across a variety of different countries to be used in different types of clinics. Having the software as open source also meant that the source code could be assessed by anyone and customized to fit their particular need.In the ISS Clinic in Uganda it was used for patients being treated for HIV/AIDS. The system was developed to replace paper records which would make the work of researchers and clinic workers easier. The EMRs was used to track patient progress and track the inventory of antiretroviral drugs. US donors were most interested in the system as it made the retrieving information on patients that is needed for their research on AIDS, antiretroviral treatment, and other disease research much more accessible. 2.The impact of using OpenMRS was that it had greater storage capacity than Microsoft excel and it could be customized for their own particular use. Using the new system clinicians were able to able spend less time reviewing patient data and more time with patients as w ell as reducing wait times. Since patients usually did not see the same clinic staff. The data also allowed them to analyze patient trends and reduce the instance of drug stock outs. They could also use the data base to generate random samples for new research studies. 3. The problem with the Open MRS system is that not everyone in the clinic was on board.Clinic workers generally thought of the system as more for the US researchers. Clinicians did not have much access to the system either as their primary tool was still paper forms. Another bump in the road was the Ministry of Health standardizing all forms for HIV clinics meant that ISS needed to redo their system to match the new forms, which also were lacking room the for the additional data needed for UCSF and MGH research. The Ministry of Health in Uganda was concerned with making the reporting of HIV treatment standard for all patients across all the different health platforms, public or private.For the US researchers they wan ted to include additional data for their various studies. Both the clinic and the researchers goal was to better and more efficiently treat the AIDS epidemic, however for the researchers they also needed to report back to their grant funders and publish studies in order to keep the program running. 4. The OpenMRS system was in danger of failure in 2010 because there was not enough financial support to cover the operational cost of the program. Funding was being stretched thinner and thinner and one of the clinics big grants was about to expire.The Ugandan Ministry of Health was also not willing to cover the gaps as they did not see the value in the system for their own objectives. The Clinicians didn’t see the immediate value of the system for themselves because they thought of it as a tool of the US researchers (US Researchers were the only ones publishing papers using the data) not thinking about how it’s effect on the day to day operations of the clinic. 5. I think that there is definitely a cultural element to the problem in developing support for the OpenMRS project. The US stakeholders seemed to come in and set up shop without any input from the local people or government.They thought that the government should automatically throw their support behind their efforts. The US stakeholders should have really engaged the local people more with the project, getting them more involved in developing the system and training them to use the system and showing clinicians why it is important for them. The Americans should have also gotten Ugandan researchers involved in using the system to publish their own papers. Having more of a local participation in the project and making it a collaborative effort would have made Ugandan government and workers see the system as their own.

Analyzing Edmund Spenser’s Sonnet 54 Essay

Edmund Spenser’s â€Å"Sonnet 54† The world is like a theater and his love is like watching drama unfold on stage. Love has it’s ups and downs, sometimes you’re happy and feel like you are watching a comedy, but then soon after you can become miserable just like the sadness you feel when watching a tragedy. The woman he loves doesn’t seem to happy when he is nor does she try to make him feel better when he is upset, instead she makes fun of him and mocks his feelings. She doesn’t seem to be affected by anything, so he comes to the conclusion that she isn’t a caring person nor can she be, she’s just a heartless human being incapable of love. The rhyme scheme is that of a Spenserian Sonnet. Spenser uses conceit throughout the first two quatrains in order to get his points across of how love compares to the shows of the theater. Beginning in the third quatrain, Spenser shifts from talking about what his love is like to talking about how the woman he loves mocks him. Spenser uses Caesura in line 13 of the couplet. â€Å"What then can move her? if nor mirth nor moan,† This pause is used to get you to understand the importance of this question. He’s so distraught by the fact that this woman is so void of emotion, he can’t believe that nothing affects her and that she can treat him so badly. He ponders if anything could make her feel. It is interesting how the third quatrain makes somewhat of a different point than the first two. Typically the first three quatrains are used to restate the point of the writer. Each of the three quatrains form their own sentence, as well as the couplet. I believe Spenser does this in order to try and make each point of each quatrain important to the reader. Each quatrain describes something specific but different, they do however all keep with his description of his love. It seems that the couplet’s sentence show’s that the woman is the main cause for his ups and downs and he comes to the conclusion that she will never change. Spenser uses many poetic devices such as his conceit of love being like someone watching a play, enjambment, breaks and caesurae to get his points across. The content of Sonnet 54 still rings true today, most people probably feel as if their love life is like that of a production on stage.