Paid fulltime firefighters are not compensated enough for the job they Essay - 1

Paid fulltime firefighters are not compensated enough for the job they provide citizens - Essay Example This paper will try to point out that despite the seemingly attractive salary of a firefighter in New York, there is a generally perceived low salary for firefighters that restrain many aspirants from seriously considering it as a career. A firefighter’s sworn duty is protect lives and properties from the threats of fire. But most of the time, they also need to respond to emergency calls for public safety from medical, disaster to terrorist acts. Aside from responding to emergency calls and situations, firefighters also include in their duty to educate the public for fire prevention as well as aid in the investigation process for cases that involve fire or arson (NYFD, 2). The firefighters are expected to be ready to serve, brave enough to bring other people and properties to safety despite threats to their own lives, committed and prepared to perform their duties (NYFD, 3). Prevost et al (42) suggested that firefighters face tremendous occupational accidents and the job requires physical and mental professionalism to be able to perform satisfactorily. They encounter in their job aerobic capacity and significant motor coordination. In one study, it was found that many firefighters do not receive salaries but work on voluntary basis, receive minimal government support, and work only as required and when needed, specifically in emergency situations only (Monares, Ochoa, Pino, Herskovic, Rodriguez-Covili, and Neyem, 36). In responding to emergency situations, the firefighters are expected to be aware of full information about the situation in order to take control. These information includes the dangers of the fire, type of fire, size, evolution; affected areas, building blueprints, emergency exits and access, electric or gas network; surrounding key resources such as schools, elderly care homes, chemical industries; the update of response process such as the number of fire trucks and firefighters in the area and capabilities of

Literature Synthesis Paper-Case study Case Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Literature Synthesis Paper- - Case Study Example Example 1 is the most common word order in German; it is a declarative sentence and has only one main clause (Weyerts, Penke, Munte, Heinze & Clahsen 216). So the verb is in second position in a sentence that is complete and can stand alone; in other words in an independent clause. Weyerts, Penke, Munte, Heinze & Clahsen claim that â€Å" it is always a finite verb or auxiliary that appears in second position, and it only appears there in main clauses† (216). In sentence 3, the first or main clause follows the subject-verb-object order but because the second clause cannot stand alone and is dependent on the main clause the word order changes to subject-object-verb (Monaghan, Gonitzke & Chater 816). If however, the subordinate or dependent clause comes before the main or independent clause the word order is different again. For example: Sentence 4 begins with a dependent clause and because this subordinate clause is in first position it is considered to be the first part of the main clause and the word order is SVO. The verb in the main clause follows the verb in the subordinate clause because it is considered the second position in the sentence (Verstraete 616). The infinite verb in sentence 5 is ‘changed’ and has moved to the final position after the object but the finite verb ‘has’ stays in second position after the subject in main or independent clauses, which is different to English as can be seen in the translation. Another example to illustrate this ordering is Sentence 7 illustrates how instead of the finite verb being in second position and the infinite verb being in last position as seen in sentence 6, both verbs move and follow the object but the infinite verb precedes the finite verb (Monaghan, Gonitzke & Chater 816). Another example of this ordering is Sentence 8 includes a subject of the subordinate clause and further illustrates how the infinite verb follows the object and the finite verb follows the

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Psychosis

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Psychosis A literature review in chronological order from past 5 years Introduction The blanket term Psychotherapy covers a multifaceted pluralistic enterprise in which a range of therapies is required to meet a patient’s various needs (Holmes J 2002). The National Service Framework cites cognitive behaviour therapy as being the psychotherapeutic method of choice for conditions that include â€Å"depression, eating disorders, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and deliberate self harm.† (Rouse et al. 2001) Literature review The first article we shall consider is a letter to the editor of the BMJ by Van Meer (R 2003). It is comparatively unusual since it is a clinician referring to clinical matters which are both intuitive and experience based. The author refers to the fact that many psychiatrists and related healthcare professionals actually avoid talking about the content of psychotic symptoms. The generally accepted rationale being that these are diagnostically of no significance and therefore therapeutically irrelevant. Van Meer contrasts this view with the basic concepts of cognitive behaviour therapy. He suggests that in his experience, the patient actually often will want to talk about issues that are central to their experience and are distressed when they are kept out of the conversation. He suggests that this is one of the reasons why cognitive behaviour therapy is popular with psychotic patients is that they have the opportunity to discuss with sympathetic professionals the significance of the ir experiences and this is capable of giving them a mechanism of dealing with what may be otherwise unexplainable to them. This publication is selected because of its counterintuitive thrust to support cognitive behaviour therapy against the â€Å"mainstream† of current clinical psychiatric practice and is written by an experienced practising clinician. This area of consideration is given a further twist with a different insight from Moorhead (S 2003). He agrees that psychiatric professionals tend to try to avoid engagement with psychotic patients on the subject of their psychosis and â€Å"thereby unwittingly add to the prejudice that blights the lives of people who live with psychosis† . He points, very succinctly, to the fact (and cites Brabban A et al. 2000) that the central tenet of cognitive behaviour therapy is that the therapist should endeavour to show a clear linkage between â€Å"personal experience, core beliefs (schemas), and emergence of psychotic symptoms†. The significance of this publication is that it is unusual insofar as it outlines the benefit of cognitive behaviour therapy for the staff as much as the benefit for the patient, by suggesting that staff trained in the techniques of cognitive behaviour therapy are able to empathise on a much deeper level with the patient and this, in itself, has a â €Å"remarkable remoralising effect of developing a meaningful understanding of the psychotic phenomenon with a patient†. This point is echoed in the discussion of the Craig paper. The Craig paper (Craig T K J et al. 2004) is a carefully constructed, but badly reported, randomised controlled trail of the current efficacy of specialised care modalities for cases of early psychosis. (Vickers, A. J et al. 2001). It is presented here as a case study in critical analysis. The interventions were delivered in two groups. The entry cohort was allocated to a standard care group (the control) or the intervention group (specialised care group). Both sets of treatment were delivered by the community mental health teams. The outcomes for both groups were rates of relapse or readmission to hospital. (Friedman GD. 1994) We present this paper to illustrate a common problem with this type of trial. On first appreciation, it demonstrates the fact that the intervention group did better than the control group. The difficulty in critical analysis comes in trying to decide which of the treatment modalities actually produced this beneficial effect. (Mohammed, D et al. 2003) The entry cohort was quite impressive for a study of this type with 319 presenting with psychotic illness over an 18 month period and 144 of these meeting the inclusion criteria. 94% of these were remained in the trial over the 18 months of follow up. We note that, although the programme of interventions did include cognitive behaviour therapy, it also included other treatment options such as low dose atypical antipsychotic regimens, cognitive behaviour therapy based on manualised protocols, and family counselling and vocational strategies based on established protocols (Jackson H et al. 1998). From the point of view of our considerations here, on the one hand the results appeared to be good insofar as the study showed that the intervention group had fewer readmissions to hospital in the study period and also they had fewer psychotic relapses (although this was of low statistical significance). On the other hand the paper tells us that all patients had medication and the ultimate choice of treatment pathway was decided by the intervention clinician, so although cognitive behaviour therapy was used, we have no absolute idea of its effectiveness from this trial. (Green J et al. 1998). All we can say with confidence is that, as part of a total package, cognitive behaviour therapy appeared to have helped to contribute to a beneficial outcome for a significant number of psychotic patients. A completely analytical and minimalist approach to this particular trial could suggest that it is indeed possible that cognitive behaviour therapy is actually ineffective per se. other than it served to keep the patient in closer contact with the clinicians. (Piantadosi S. 1997) In this respect this is an instance of a trial which is seemingly supportive but does not contribute greatly to the evidence base On first sight this particular view might be considered pedantic, but it is echoed by Yates (DH 2005) in a letter in the BMJ, where he specifically takes up this very point. He points to the fact that there is very little description of the regimes of cognitive behaviour therapy and the degree that it’s impact can be isolated from the overall effect. He also refers to the fact that a breakdown of the various therapies offered and the degree that each was helpful would have improved the paper tremendously. We have to agree. We will next consider a high profile paper by Morrison (A P et al. 2004) which has been widely cited. This paper took the pioneering work of Yung (et al. 1996) who identified a high risk group of patients who would develop psychosis and studied the effect of cognitive behaviour therapy on the prevention of the development of the clinical state. Morrison et al. identified the fact that other studies (McGorry, P. D et al. 2002) had demonstrated that it was possible to reduce the incidence of psychosis development with a multifaceted approach, like that of Craig, which included elements of cognitive behaviour therapy. Morrison however, elected to carry out a study that used cognitive behaviour therapy as a single strand approach in this high risk population. (Leaverton P E. 1995) The results from this study convincingly demonstrated that cognitive behaviour therapy alone â€Å"significantly reduced the likelihood of making progression to psychosis as defined on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale over 12 months.† (Kay, S. R et al. 1987) The authors were also able to demonstrate that cognitive behaviour therapy also reduced the likelihood of a patient being prescribes antipsychotic medication. Other criteria of analysis demonstrated that cognitive behaviour therapy â€Å"significantly improved the positive symptoms of psychosis â€Å" in the target population. This is an important study as it is one of the first to provide a reasonably secure evidence base that cognitive behaviour therapy works in the psychotic patient. It also shows that it works in the high risk group and has the possibility of a prophylactic effect by minimising the likelihood of psychotic relapse. A critical analysis would observe that the intervention cohort was comparatively small and a disproportionately small number were entered in the control group (37 and 23 respectively). High risk psychotic patients are comparatively rare and therefore one has to appreciate the practical difficulties involved in accumulating a sufficiently large sample to study. (Grimes D A et al. 2002), The last publication that we shall consider is that by Trower (P et al. 2004). It was published at the same time as the Morrison paper and is notable for the fact that, like the Morrison paper it recognises the shortfalls of the previous multi-modality studies and isolates cognitive behaviour therapy in its analysis. It also specifically targets a notoriously treatment-resistant group of psychotics, those who suffer from command hallucinations. (Haddock, G et al. 1999) This was a single blind randomised trial with 38 patients. The trial was complex in structure but, in essence, it was able to show, with convincing statistical significance that cognitive behaviour therapy interventions alone was able to reduce the patient’s compliance rate with the psychotic commands. The authors noted that this reduction in compliance was associated with a reduction in levels of both anxiety and depression. In conclusion we would like to commend the book by Eisenman (R 2004) â€Å"The Case Study Guide to Cognitive Behaviour Therapy of Psychosis† as a particularly authoritative and clinically useful overview. It cites a number of clinical case studies and analyses them in depth. It supports the view that cognitive behaviour therapy, by attempting to confront the patient’s distorted thinking and allowing them to appreciate their thoughts in a more rational and realistic way, can have beneficial results and it places cognitive behaviour therapy in a clinical context amongst the other, generally accepted modes of psychotherapy. It is not a peer reviewed publication so we shall not consider it further than that. References Brabban A, Turkington D. 2000  The search for meaning: detecting congruence between life-events, underlying schema and psychotic symptoms. Formulation-driven and schema focussed CBT for a neuroleptic-resistant schizophrenic patient with a delusional memory. In: Morrison T, ed.  A casebook of cognitive therapy for psychosis.  Brighton : Psychology Press, 2000. Craig T K L, Philippa Garety, Paddy Power, Nikola Rahaman, Susannah Colbert, Miriam Fornells-Ambrojo, and Graham Dunn 2004 The Lambeth Early Onset (LEO) Team : randomised controlled trial of the effectiveness of specialised care for early psychosis BMJ, Nov 2004 ; 329 : 1067 ; Eisenman R 2004 The Case Study Guide to Cognitive Behaviour Therapy of Psychosis Am J Psychiatry, Jul 2004 ; 161 : 1318. Friedman G D. 1994  Primer of Epidemiology. 4th ed.  New York : Mc-Graw-Hill, 1994. Green J, Britten N. 1998  Qualitative research and evidence based medicine.  BMJ 1998 ; 316 : 1230-1233 Grimes D A, Schulz K F.2002  Cohort studies: marching towards outcomes.  Lancet 2002 ; 359 : 341-5 Haddock, G., McCarron, J., Tarrier, N., et al (1999)  Scales to measure dimensions of hallucinations and delusions: the psychotic symptom rating scales (PSYRATS).  Psychological Medicine, 39, 879 –889. Holmes J 2002  All you need is cognitive behaviour therapy?  BMJ, Feb 2002 ; 324 : 288 294 ; Jackson H, McGorry P, Edwards J, Hulbert C, Henry L, Francey S, et al. 1998 Cognitively orientated psychotherapy for early psychosis (COPE).  Br J Psychiatry 1998 ; 172 (Suppl 33) : 93-100.  Kay, S. R. Opler, L. A. (1987) The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) for schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 13, 507 -518. Leaverton PE. 1995  A Review of Biostatistics. 5th ed.  Boston: Little, Brown, 1995 McGorry, P. D., Yung, A. R., Phillips, L. J., et al (2002)  Randomized controlled trial of interventions designed to reduce the risk of progression to first-episode psychosis first-episode in a clinical sample with subthreshold symptoms.  Archives of General Psychiatry, 59, 921 -928. Mohammed, D Braunholtz, and T P Hofer 2003 The measurement of active errors: methodological issues Qual. Saf. Health Care, Dec 2003 ; 12: 8 12. Moorhead S 2003  Cognitive behaviour therapy can help end alienation of psychosis  BMJ 2003 ; 326 : 549 Morrison A P , Paul French, Lara Walford, Shà ´n W. Lewis, Aoiffe Kilcommons, Joanne Green, Sophie Parker, and Richard P. Bentall 2004 Cognitive therapy for the prevention of psychosis in people at ultra-high risk: Randomised controlled trial Br. J. Psychiatry, Oct 2004 ; 185 : 291 297. Piantadosi S. 1997  Clinical Trials: A Methodologic Perspective.  New York: John Wiley, 1997.   Rouse, Jolley, and Read 2001 National service frameworks BMJ, Dec 2001 ; 323 : 1429. Rower P, MAX BIRCHWOOD, ALAN MEADEN, SARAH BYRNE, ANGELA NELSON, and KERRY ROSS 2004 Cognitive therapy for command hallucinations: randomised controlled trial Br. J. Psychiatry, Apr 2004; 184: 312 320. van Meer R 2003  To listen or not to listen  BMJ 2003 ; 326 : 549 Vickers, A. J. Altman, D. G. (2001)  Analysing controlled trials with baseline and follow up measurements.  BMJ, 323, 1123–1124 Yates D H 2005 Specialised care for early psychosis: More detail is needed BMJ, Jan 2005 ; 330 : 197 Yung, A., McGorry, P. D., McFarlane, C. A., et al (1996)  Monitoring and care of young people at incipient risk of psychosis. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 22, 283 -303. 5.5.06 PDG Word count 2,313

What is the Bubonic Plague? :: essays research papers

What is the Bubonic Plague?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Bubonic Plague is a disease that is caused by a germ called Yersinia pestis. It is spread to humans by fleas from infected rodents. In the 1300s, fourth of the population of Europe was destroyed. The disease causes swelling of the lymph glands (up to the size of a hens egg). The Greek word for groin is boubon, which is bubonic. The number of reported human cases of this plague in the United States has increased since the 1960s because the environment isn't staying clean.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  How do you get this disease? When a rat is infected, the flea bites the rat then the flea gets infected. The disease fills the stomach of the flea making it so the flea can't digest any more blood. The flea then becomes so hungry that it bites the human. Now the human is infected. The first symptoms are headaches, nausea, vomiting and aching joints. Some others are fever, chills, the most horrible: the skin turns black.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the 1300s the plague spread so quickly in cities for many reasons. There were no regular garbage pick-ups. They let their food become rotten and kept them in their homes for weeks. Left over meals were thrown onto the ground for animals, also feeding rats and fleas. They had no running water, so bathing was every once in a while.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Galen's theory was that the disease was spread by poisonous vapors coming from swamps which corrupted the air. Heat was also believed to be a cause of the disease. People washed their feet and hands regularly but, not their bodies because this would open pores, another way for the disease to enter the body. Three Major Outbreaks   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first plague was the Plague of Justinian. The plague followed trade routes to France and Italy. It killed 70,000 people. It killed 1,000 people weekly. Smaller out breaks occurred up until 1340.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The second major outbreak was the Bubonic Plague. It was the most devastating. It occurred in Europe in 1346-50. The Bubonic Plague is also known as the Black Death. It began in Kaffa, a cathedral town on the Crimean Coast. By the end of 1348, the plague covered all of Italy and most of France. By 1351, the Plague reached Russia.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The third major outbreak was the Great Plague of London, in 1665 which killed 17,440 people out of the total population of 93,000. A fire burned most of the city and ended the outbreak. Human Cases   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There have been cases of Bubonic Plague throughout the United States.

Fangirl Essay

There are some kinds of love in this universe. Without love, a human being will not be able to live normally and there will be something empty inside their hearts. This can be love for our God, parents, families, lovers, or maybe just for our bestfriends. But now just think about this case: how about love for someone that we have never even met before? Maybe just fangirls who know how it feels, because they are the one who have a non-sense head over heels in love all over the time. What thing that comes in your mind when you hear the word â€Å"fangirls†? Maybe just a bunch of weird girls who are too much obsessed with the artist whom they admire to death. Why are they so weird? Because commonly, fangirls always have their own world, their own strange hobbies, and their own reason for being so crazy. The things such as plastering their idol’s face as their phone wallpaper, sticking so many huge posters at their rooms, overreacting when their favorite songs from their precious boys are played at the public place, sighing desperately when their hardisk is running out of memory due to a bunch of photos and videos that are too precious to be deleted, and other nonsense actions; they just do it naturally and with no other purpose than their own satisfaction over the idols. They just want to feel close with their boys. Moreover, fangirls even often call them as their ‘‘husband’’. See? It seems like fangirls’ imagination is their last hope. The other thing about fangirl is for most of them, every single thing about their boys always matters. That is why they joined some fanbases that keep updating about their boys’ current condition all the time. And believe me it means trully literally, starting from what their idols are doing, if there is any newest clip or tv show, attending some events, or even just being spotted at a supermarket without wearing any make up. They keep sharing the information with the other fangirls all over the world. That’s why for these girls, living in social networking such as twitter and facebook is much more interesting than their own and always-boring-real life. Being a fangirl sometimes can also be very annoying to the people surrounding them. I mean, when their â€Å"love†, or should we call it as an â€Å"obsession† instead? Yeah, stuff like that goes into an extreme level, obviously people may look at them in an oh-i’m-so-irritated-by-this-creature way. For example, when two angirls meet each other for the first time, have a little chit chat, and then find out that they are admiring the same person in a same group, those two will dive into their own world. Those fangirls will easily connected and nonstop talking about the newest news from their idols and ignoring the others who keep staring at them all the times, wondering what they are excitedly talking about. That is the reason wh y people always ignore the fangirls when they started talking about the topic-that-god-and-them-who-only-know. Now, let’s move on some obstacles that might bother most of fangirls in this earth. One of them is that being a fangirl is extremely expensive, since they always have the urge to wipe out their credit cards or spend lots of money to buy every single album, postcard, DVD, photobook, and other merchandise that has their idol’s face on it. This collecting habit will make their wallet pathetically empty. The most ironic thing about this is, when their idols’ groups come to their country and hold a big concert with such a high price ticket, the fangirls would separate into two paths. The first, in the case of fangirls who fortunately come from the have family, or maybe already have salary from their job, they will easily buy the ticket with no hesitation, watch the concert excitedly, and form a smile that will never leave their face for at least one month later. Such a sweet memories~ In the other way, for those who do not have enough money to own the ticket, they will just cry to death all day long, knowing that they will just let their boys come to their country and perform perfectly as always on the stage without witnessing it by themselves. Their sorrowful faces won’t dissapear easily for sure. Do you think fangirl is nothing than just a weirdo because theye’re crying for something that isn’t worth it? They do know it by themselves but they just couldn’t deny the feeling. Even though their obsession towards the boys sometimes makes no sense, there is still some positive things that can be taken from those fangirls. One of them that is, the faith. They always keep the faith, no matter what mistake that their boy’s done, they will find the excuse behind it, apologize them, and continue supporting them as always. That’s why the artist wouldn’t be exist without their loyal, caring, and supporting fans behind them.

Healthcare Management

The speedy shifts in the healthcare system, the opportunities to advance or develop my career, and a wide-ranging business edification which is helpful in facing the â€Å"real-world healthcare industry† are only some of the major reasons why I extremely want to earn a masters degree on Healthcare Management (World Wide Learn, 2008).Explaining further, the fast-changing system in healthcare industry makes me feel obliged to educate myself on â€Å"health care organizations, finance, infrastructure, strategic management, quality management, database management, etc† and learn more about trends, develops, tendencies, etc (World Wide Learn, 2008).In addition to that, the development of my career also lies in the accomplishment of this Master Degree since it entails market-relevant courses that will enhance the managerial skills that I possess into productive leadership and executive powers (World Wide Learn, 2008).Also, a Masters Degree in Healthcare Management will help m e achieve familiarity, comprehension, expertise needed to recognize, scrutinize, as well as, work out multi-faceted dilemmas in relation to management (World Wide Learn, 2008).Meanwhile, the qualities that would make me a successful candidate for this distance learning program include the following:First of all, I am self-motivated and driven to attain my personal goals and objectives. I do not really need to be reminded of doing something and so I am confident that I can make it in the world of distance learning.Second, I am not a â€Å"tardy type of person†. In fact, I am disciplined enough to accomplish my to-do-list on time. This is why even if distance learning entails studying at your own pace, I am very sure that I won’t be behind in the tasks assigned to students like me.Last but not least, I am a reader. I understand that distance learning entails reading a lot since there would be less face-to-face classes, if not none at all, and so lessons will be mailed/em ailed, thus, excessive reading is really required in this endeavor.ReferenceWorld Wide Learn. (2008). Health Care Management. Retrieved January 15, 2008 fromhttp://www.worldwidelearn.com/online-master/health-care-management-2.htm

Current Concept And Machanisms In The Pathogenesis Of Atherosclerosis Essays

Current Concept And Machanisms In The Pathogenesis Of Atherosclerosis Essays Current Concept And Machanisms In The Pathogenesis Of Atherosclerosis Paper Current Concept And Machanisms In The Pathogenesis Of Atherosclerosis Paper Ramadan Shaafi, White A. White, 1989) Atherosclerosis manifests itself focally not only in space, as just described, but in time as well. Atherogenesis in humans typically occurs over a period of many years, usually many decades. Growth of atherosclerotic plaques probably does not occur in a smooth linear fashion, but rather discontinuously, with periods of relative quiescence punctuated by periods of rapid evolution. After a generally prolonged silent period, atherosclerosis may become clinically manifest. The clinical expressions of atherosclerosis may be chronic, as in the development of stable, effort-induced angina pectoris or of predictable and reproducible intermittent claudication. Alternatively, a much more dramatic acute clinical event such as myocardial infarction, a cerebrovascular accident, or sudden cardiac death may first herald the presence of atherosclerosis. Other individuals may never experience clinical manifestations of arterial disease despite the presence of widespread atherosclerosis demonstrated post mortem. INITIATION OF ATHEROSCLEROSIS FATTY STREAK FORMATION An integrated view of experimental results in animal and study of human atherosclerosis suggests that the fatty streak represents the initial lesion of atherosclerosis. The formation of these early lesions of atherosclerosis most often seems to arise from focal increases in the content of lipo-protein within regions of the intima. These accumulations of lipoprotein particles may not result simply from an increased permeability or leakiness of the over lining endothelium. Rather this lipoprotein may collect in the intima of arteries because they bind to constituent of the extracellular matrix, increasing the residence time of the lipid- rich particles within the arterial wall. Lipoproteins that accumulate in the extra cellular space of the intima of arteries often associate with proteoglycan molecules of the arterial extracellular matrix, an interaction that may promote the retention of lipoproteins by binding them and slowing their egress from the intima. (James S. C. Gilchrist, Paramjit S. (EDT) Tappia, Thomas (EDT) Netticadan, 2003) Lipoprotein particles in the extracellular space of the intima particularly those born to matrix macromolecules, may undergo chemical modification. Accumulating evidence supports a pathogenic role for such modifications of lipoproteins in atherogenesis. Two types of such alterations in lipoproteins bear particular interest in the context of understanding how risk factors actually promote atherogenesis: oxidation and nonenzymatic glycation. Lipoprotein Oxidation Lipoprotein sequested from plasma antioxidants in the extracellular space of the intima become susceptible to oxidative modification. Oxidatively modified low density lipoprotein (LDL), rather than being defined homogerous entity, actually comprises a variable and incompletely defined mixture. Both the lipid and protein moieties of these particles cab participate in oxidative modification. Modifications of the lipids may include formation of hydroperoxides, lysophospholipids, oxysterols, and aldehydic breakdown products of fatty acids. Modifications of the apoprotein moieties may include breaks in the peptide backbone as well as derivatization of certain amino acid residues. A more recently recognized modification may result from local hypochlorous acid production by inflammatory cells within the plaques, giving rise to chlorinated species such as chlorotyrosyl moieties. Considerable evidence supports the presence of such oxidation products in atherosclerotic lesions. Nonenzymatic Glycation In diabetic patients with sustained hyperglycemia, nonenzymatic glycation of apolipoproteins and other arterial proteins likely occurs that may alter their function and propensity to accelerate atherogenesis. A good deal of experimental work suggests that both oxidatively modified and glycated lipoproteins or their constituents can contribute to many of the subsequent cellular events of lesion development. LEUKOCYTE RECRUITMENT After the accumulation of extracellular lipids, recruitment of leukocyte occurs as a second step in the formation of the fatty streak. The white blood cells types typically found in the evolving atheroma include primarily cells of the mononuclear lineage; monocytes and lymphocytes. A number of adhesion molecules or receptor for leukocyte expressed on the surface of the arterial endothelial cell likely participitate in the recruitment of leukocyte to the nascent fatty streak. Constituent of oxidatively modified LDL can augment expression of leukocyte adhesion molecule. This example of illustrate how the accumulation of lipoprotein in the arterial intima may link mechanistically with leukocyte recruitment and subsequent events in the lesion formation. (Pierre-Jean Touboul, J. R. Crouse, 1997) Laminar shear forces such as those encountered in most regions of normal artery can also suppress of the expression of leukocyte adhesion, example branch points often have disturbed laminar flow. Ordered laminar shear of normal blood flow augments the production of nitric oxide by endothelial cells. This molecule in addition to its vasodilator properties can act at the low levels constitutively produced by arterial endothelium as a local anti-inflammatory autacoid, for example limiting local adhesion molecule expression. These examples indicate how hemodynamic forces may influence the cellular that underlie atherosclerotic lesion initiation and provide a potential explanation for the local distribution of atherosclerotic lesions at certain sites predetermined by altered flow pattern. Once adherent to the surface of the surface of the arterial endothelial cell via interaction with adhesion receptors, the monocytes and lymphocytes penetrates the endothelial layer and take out residence in the intima in addition to products of modified lipoprotein, cytokines can regulate the expression of adhesion molecules involved in the leukocyte recruitment. For example, the cytokines interlukin one (IL-1) or tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) induce or augment the expression of leukocyte adhesion molecules on endothelial cells. Because modified lipoprotein can induce cytokines release from vascular wall cells, this pathway may provide an additional link between accumulation and modification of lipoprotein and leukocyte recruitment. The directed migration of leukocyte into the arterial wall may also result from the action of modified lipoprotein. For example, oxidized LDL may promote the chemotaxis of leukocyte. Also, oxidatively modified lipoprotein can elicit the production by vascular wall cells of chemoattractant cytokines such as monocytes chemoattractant protein-1. (Frank Kessel, Patricia L. Rosenfield, Norman B. Anderson, 2003) FOAM CELL FORMATION Once resident within the intima the mononuclear phagocyte differentiate into macrophages and transform into lipid-laden foam cells. The conversion of mononuclear phagocytes into foam cells requires the uptake of lipoprotein particles by receptomediated endocytosis. One might suppose that the well recognized classical receptor for LDL mediated the lipid uptake. Patients or animals lacking effective LDL receptors due to genetic alterations however have abundant arterial lesions and extraarterial xanthomata rich in macrophage derived foam cells. Also the exogenous cholesterol suppresses expression of the LDL receptor, such that under hypercholesterolemic conditions the level of this cell surface receptor for LDL decreased. Candidates for alternative receptors that can mediate lipid-loading of foam cells include a growing number of macrophage scavenger receptors, which preferentially endocytose modified lipoproteins and other receptors for oxidized LDL or beta-VLDL (very low density lipoprotein) a type of lipoprotein commonly encountered in certain hypercholerterolemic states. By ingesting lipids from the extracellular space the mononuclear phagocytes bearing such scavenger receptors may remove lipoproteins from the developing lesion. Some lipid loaded macrophages may leave the artery wall, functioning to clear lipid from the artery. Lipid accumulation and hence propensity to form atheroma, ensues if the amount of lipid entering the artery wall exceeds that exported by mononuclear phagocytes or other pathways. Macrophages may thus play a vital role in the dynamic economy of lipid accumulation in the arterial wall during atherogenesis. Some lipid laden foam cells within the expanding intimal lesion perish. Some foam cells may die as a result of programmed cell death known as apoptosis. This death of mononuclear phagocytes results in formation of the lipid rich center often called necrotic core, of more complicated atherosclerotic plaques. (Shari R. Waldstein, Merrill E Elias, 2001) Macrophages taking up modified lipoproteins much like intrinsic vascular wall cells may elaborate cytokines and growth factors that can further signal some of the cellular events in lesion complication. A number of growth factors or cytokines elaborated by mononuclear phagocytes can stimulate smooth-muscle cell proliferation and production of extracellular matrix, which accumulates in atherosclerotic plaques. Cytokines found in the plaque including IL-1 or TNF – alpha can induce local production of growth factors such as forms of platelet derived growth factor (PDGF), fibroblast growth factor and others that may contribute to plaque evolution and complication. Other cytokines, notably interferon gamma (IFN-gamma) derived from activated T cells within lesions can inhibit smooth muscle proliferation and synthesis of interstitial forms of collagen. These examples illustrate how atherogenesis likely depends on a complex balance between mediators that can promote lesion formation and other pathways that can mitigate the atherogenic process. (Aron Wolfe Siegman, Timothy W. Smith, 1994) FACTORS THAT MODULATE INHIBITATION OF ATHEROMA Elaboration of small molecules by activated mononuclear phagocytes and vascular wall cells in the evolving lesion may also modulate atherogenesis. Notably reactive oxygen species can modulate growth of smooth muscle cells, activate inflammatory gene expression via the nuclear factor kappa beta (NFk beta) transcriptional control system and annihilate NO radicals, decreasing the effect of this endogenous vasodilator. However macrophage in the lesion may be activated to express the inducible form of the enzyme that can synthesize NO, known as inducible NO synthase. This high capacity form of the enzyme can produce relatively large, potentially cytotoxic amounts of No radicals. While at the low concentrations of NO produced by the constitutive NO synthase in endothelial cells, this radical may produce beneficial effects; when overproduced by activated phagocytes, however it may prove deleterious. Export by phagocytes may constitute one response to local lipid overload in the evolving lesion. Another mechanism, reverse cholesterol transport mediated by high density lipoproteins (HDL), may provide an independent pathway for lipid removal from atheroma. This transfer of cholesterol from the cell to HDL particle involves specialized cell surface molecules such as the ATP binding cassette transporter (ABCA1) (the gene mutated in tangier disease, a condition characterized by very low HDL levels) and a family of scavenger receptors (the B family). Such reverse cholesterol transport explains part of HDL’s antiatherogenic action. (Richard O. Cannon, Julio A. Panza, 1999) Although clear evidence supports lipoprotein disorder as predisposing factors for atheroma formation, other etiologies may contribute to or modulate atherogenesis. For example hypertension constitutes an independent risk factor for coronary events. Male gender and the postmenopausal state also augment the risk of developing coronary artery disease. Premenopausal women have increased HDL levels compared to age matched men. However a favorable lipoprotein pattern only partially accounts for the protection against atherosclerosis conferred by the premenopausal state. Although laboratory studies suggest that estrogens have direct beneficial effects on the arterial wall, clinical trials have not shown that estrogen replacement therapy prevents recurrent myocardial infarction in postmenopausal women. Indeed treatment with a combination of estrogen and progesterone appears to augment cardiovascular events in women with or without prior myocardial infarction. (Susan Wilansky, James T. Willerson, 2002) Diabetes mellitus aggravates atherogenesis. In addition to the well known microvascular complications of diabetes, macrovascular disease such as atherosclerosis causes a great deal of excess mortality in the diabetic population. Diabetes associated dyslipidemias strongly promote atherogenesis. In particular the constellation of insulin resistance, high triglycerides and low HDL often in association with the central adiposity and hypertension frequently seen in type 2 diabetic patients, seems to accelerate atherogenesis potently. As noted above hyperglycemia may promote the nonenzymatic glycation of LDL, LDL modified in this manner, like oxidatively modified LDL, may signal many of the initial events in atherogenesis. Triglyceriderich lipoprotein particles often elevated in poorly controlled diabetic patients also accentuate atherogenesis. Lp(a) (often pronounced lipoprotein little a to distinguish it from apolipoprotein AI and others found in HDL) provides a potential link between hemostasis and blood lipids. The Lp(a) particle consists of an apoprotein (a) molecule bound by a sulfhydryl link to the apolipoprotein B moiety of an LDL particle. Apoprotein (a) has homology with plasminogen and may inhibit fibrinolysis by competing with plasminogen. Other risk factors for atherosclerosis related to blood clotting include elevated levels of fibrinogen or of the inhibitor of fibrinolysis, plasminogen – activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1). Another nonlipid risk factor for coronary events, elevated levels of homocysteine, may act by promoting thrombosis, although the pathophysiology of this association is uncertain at present. Although individuals with marked elevations of Lp(a) or homocysteine do appear to have heightened risk of coronary thrombosis, in the population at large these factors show a much weaker correlation with vascular events than LDL, HDL, or the global inflammatory marker C-reactive protein (CRP). (Philip M. McCabe, Neil Schneiderman, Tiffany Field, A. Rodney Wellens, 2002) The relationship between tobacco use and atherosclerosis also remains poorly understood. The rapid reduction in risk for cardiac events after cessation of cigarette smoking implies that tobacco may promote thrombosis or some other determinant of plaque stability as well as contribute to the evolution of the atherosclerotic lesion itself. For example tobacco smokers have elevated fibrinogen levels a variable associated with increased atherosclerosis and acute cardiovascular events. INFLAMMATION In other situations, antecedent inflammatory states may predispose toward atherosclerosis. For example Kawasaki disease in childhood may promote developments of vascular lesions in the arteries of adults. Infectious agents continue to be proposed as instigators or potentiators of atherogenesis. However in humans atherogenic role for vital or microbial pathogens remains speculative. In some patients immune or autoimmune reactions may contribute to atherogenesis. In the particular example of the accelerated form of coronary arteriopathy that plagues heart transplant recipients, immunologic factors may contribute importantly to the pathogenesis. (James Shepherd, Sheperd and Gaw, Allan Gaw, 2001) Known monogenic defects in lipoprotein metabolism account for only a fraction of the familial risk for coronary artery disease. Thus other as yet undefined and perhaps multiple genetic factors may contribute to coronary risk. Mechanisms of disease susceptibility involving the arterial wall might account for some of the genetic predisposition to atherosclerosis unexplained by lipoprotein disorders. Application of molecular genetic techniques may identify new polymorphisms linked to coronary risk and may eventually shed light on new pathophysiologic mechanisms. For example some data suggest a link between certain alleles of the genes encoding angiotensin converting enzyme, the cytokine lymphotoxin, or PAI-1 with increased risk of myocardial infarction. Application of genomic technologies may aid identification of modifier genes that modulate individual responses to established risk factors. Large studies currently in progress should clarify these and other potential genetic factors that influence atherosclerosis. REFERENCES: Aron Wolfe Siegman, Timothy W. Smith, 1994. Anger, Hostility, and the Heart; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Frank Kessel, Patricia L. Rosenfield, Norman B. Anderson, 2003. Expanding the Boundaries of Health and Social Science: Case Studies in Interdisciplinary Innovation; Oxford University Press James Shepherd, Sheperd and Gaw, Allan Gaw, 2001. Lipids and Atherosclerosis; Taylor Francis James S. C. Gilchrist, Paramjit S. (EDT) Tappia, Thomas (EDT) Netticadan, 2003. Biochemistry of Diabetes and Atherosclerosis; Springer Philip M. McCabe, Neil Schneiderman, Tiffany Field, A. Rodney Wellens, 2002. Stress, Coping, and Cardiovascular Disease; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Pierre-Jean Touboul, J. R. Crouse, 1997. Intima-Media Thickness and Atherosclerosis: Predicting the Risk? ; Taylor Francis Richard O. Cannon, Julio A. Panza, 1999. Endothelium, Nitric Oxide, and Atherosclerosis: From Basic Mechanisms to Clinical Implications; Blackwell Publishing Rodney A. White, White A. , Ramadan Shaafi, White A. White, 1989. Atherosclerosis and Arteriosclerosis: human pathology and experimental animal methods and models; CRC Press Shari R. Waldstein, Merrill E Elias, 2001. Neuropsychology of Cardiovascular Disease; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Susan Wilansky, James T. Willerson, 2002. Heart Disease in Women; Churchill Livingstone

Pentium VS. Celeron CPU essays

Pentium VS. Celeron CPU essays When comparing a Celeron and Pentium processor, it is quite simple. The difference between a Celeron and Pentium processor is the price. My friend went to a local electronic store the other day and said that he wanted the most strongest and mightiest computer that is available on the market. He was only doing simple tasks such as word processing and e-mail and nothing more. He ended up buying a 1.7Ghz Pentium 4 for almost three thousand dollar. My friend has the chance of buying a computer with a Celeron process or for half the price. Even though Pentium and Celeron are both made from the same company, Intel, they are quite different. The main difference is the speed. Because the difference in speed, that does not mean that you should go with the Pentium processor. The speed depends on what you do. If you are editing digital video and converting mp3 to wave, the Pentium would be the most superior. But, if you were only doing computer applications and Internet, the Celeron would do ju st good. One of the reasons that Pentium is much faster in doing harder work is because the CPU more capable of doing mathematics more quickly. Another reason is that the Pentium is faster is that the Pentium has more cache memory. Cache memory is temporary storage that the CPU could fetch faster. For example, the 866 Pentium 3 has 512k level 2 cache, meaning that the cache is external, while the best 833 Celeron has only 128k cache. The Pentium has more cache memory therefore it performs more quickly. An advantage that the Pentium has over the Celeron processor is the bus speed. The Pentium has bus speeds up the 400mhz, while the Celeron has a bus speed on only 66mhz. The bus speed allows the CPU the get a higher performance out of your inputs. It all comes down to what kind of person you are. If you are like me and edit a lot of videos with your digital camcorder or your work relies on computer graphics, then the Pentium would be the best bet. But if you ...

Air Pollution in Malaysia

In the fourteenth and fifteenth century, British tax assessors used ownership or occupancy of property to estimate a taxpayer’s ability to pay. In time the tax came to be regarded as a tax on the property itself. In the United Kingdom the tax developed into a system of rates based on the annual (rental) value of property. The growth of the property tax in America was closely related to economic and political conditions on the frontier. In pre-commercial agricultural areas the property tax was a feasible source of local government revenue and equal taxation of wealth was consistent with the prevailing equalitarian ideology. When the Revolutionary War began, the colonies had well-developed tax systems that made a war against the world’s leading military power thinkable. The tax structure varied from colony to colony, but five kinds of taxes were widely used. Capitation (poll) taxes were levied at a fixed rate on all adult males and sometimes on slaves. Property taxes were usually specific taxes levied at fixed rates on enumerated items, but sometimes items were taxed according to value. Faculty taxes were levied on the faculty or earning capacity of persons following certain trades or having certain skills. Tariffs (imposts) were levied on goods imported or exported and excises were levied on consumption goods, especially liquor. -1- During the war colonial tax rates increased several fold and taxation became a matter of heated debate and some violence. Settlers far from markets complained that taxing land on a per-acre basis was unfair and demanded that property taxation be based on value. In the southern colonies light land taxes and heavy poll taxes favored wealthy landowners. In some cases, changes in the tax system caused the wealthy to complain. In New York wealthy leaders saw the excess profits tax, which had been levied on war profits, as a dangerous example of leveling tendencies. Owners of intangible property in New Jersey saw the tax on intangible property in a similar light. By the end of the war, it was obvious that the concept of equality so eloquently stated in the Declaration of Independence had far-reaching implications. Wealthy leaders and ordinary men pondered the meaning of equality and asked its implications for taxation. The leaders often saw little connection among independence, political equality, and the tax system, but many ordinary men saw an opportunity to demand changes. MALAYSIA TAXATION The property tax is a compulsory contribution to be paid by the taxpayer, where the taxpayer in return will receive benefits from the local authorities in the form of tangible and intangible services, community facilities, infrastructures and development projects for their enjoyment . In the context of property tax, enforcement of the tax is intended as a tool to drive the development of areas administered by local authorities. Property tax imposed on the taxpayer is given back by local authorities in the form of services in their respective administrative areas. The imposition of property tax is related to the role of local authorities in developing the area and providing the necessary services and facilities. According to Section 127 to section 163 of the Local Government Act 1976, local authorities are empowered to impose property tax on property owners to carry out the functions and roles of local authorities as an organization which has autonomy over the local populace. The local authorities should ensure that the management of tax collection can be implemented effectively in the development process and services provided appropriately . -2- Local authorities have important responsibilities in carrying out their functions and roles, especially in property tax management to ensure the welfare and amenity of residents can be realized. If the local authority is weak and incompetent in handling the management of the property tax it would certainly affect the results of tax collection which is to be used as financing development projects and services provided. In addition, the arrears in property taxes will increase due to poor management and will burden the local authorities. This will have an impact on the quality of work and services performed. The prevalent issue of lower tax revenue in local authorities throughout the country continues to pose a very serious predicament. Complete procedures which have been established in the provisions of the Act will guide local authorities in managing the property tax but the property tax collection performance is still under unsatisfactory level. For example, according to the Economic Report of the Ministry of Finance, revenue of the collection performance in local authorities throughout the country showed a worrying decline in the rate of decrease of 11. 7% recorded in 2007 and 0. 3% in 2008. The implications of the tax reduction has resulted in a deficit spending of RM75 million and RM1,179 million in 2007 and 2008 due to the higher prevailing costs. Collection of property tax revenue statistics generally show the majority of Malaysian local authorities collect property tax of less than 70% of the total taxable amount, while for the collection of property tax arrears show only within 30%-50%. As an example, local authorities in the state of Johor and Kuala Lumpur City Hall (Dewan Bandar Raya Kuala Lumpur, DBKL) showed that the amount of property tax arrears recorded amounted to about RM168 million and RM435 million in 2009 and this is certainly an issue of concern. This depicts the overall situation of property tax performance of local authorities in Malaysia which is in a poor condition and has not reach a satisfactory level, where the country’s agenda has set the target and vision to encompass about 70% of communities in Malaysia will be living in municipal areas in the year of 2020. -3- TYPES OF PROPERTY TAX IN MALAYSIA Tax on property was introduced in 1974 under the Land Speculation Tax Act. This was subsequently replaced with the Real Property Gains Tax Act in November 1975. Although in existence since the mid-70s, the Government pro-actively adjusted the rates of the RPGT through the years to cater to the property market conditions. It’s natural for most people to react to the reintroduction of RPGT, having enjoyed full exemption for a few years previously, however, compared to the original rates of RPGT which range up to 30%, the recent hike of up to 10% is actually quite mild. There are several types of property tax in Malaysia and they are as follows . A) Assessment tax B) Quit rent C) Capital gain tax D) Inheritance tax E) Others tax A) ASSESSMENT TAX : Assessment tax is a type of local tax which is only applicable on the residential property. Rate of assessment tax is based on the yearly rental amount of the property on rent. This tax is assessed by the local authorities. Rules and regulations of the assessment tax are as follows : Usually assessment tax has a flat value of 6%. This assessment tax is to be paid in two installments. The scope of taxation are for a resident individual is assessable on income derived from sources in Malaysia and income received in Malaysia from outside Malaysia. W. e. f. Y/A 2004 income remitted into Malaysia from overseas by a resident individual, a trust body, a cooperative and a Hindu Joint Family is exempted from income tax. Second, for non-resident individual is assessable only on income derived from sources in Malaysia. -4- Third, for a resident company is assessable on income derived from Malaysia and ncome remitted to Malaysia from sources outside Malaysia. Starting Year of Assessment 1995 onwards only income derived from Malaysia are taxable. Banking, insurance, shipping and air transport businesses are taxed on world income scope. The Imputation Systems is applicable. Fourth, for a non-resident company is liable to Malaysian tax when it carries on a business through a permanent establishment in Malaysia and is assessable on income derived only from sources within Malay sia. There have two types of resident status : ) First, the resident status of individuals : For tax purposes, the tax residence status is determined by the duration of stay in Malaysia, and is not bound by reference to the nationality or citizenship. If a person stays in Malaysia for at least 182 days (not necessarily consecutive) in a calendar year, he would be treated as a resident. However, there are other conditions where the individual can be treated as a resident even if he stays for less than 182 days. An individual is resident in Malaysia in the basis year of assessment if he: is in Malaysia for not less than 182 days in the relevant basis year, is in Malaysia for a period of less than 182 days in the basis year and that period is linked to another period where he is continuously in Malaysia for not less than 182 days immediately before or after the relevant basis year. Where temporary absence occur, the period of temporary absence can be taken to form part of such period, where he is in Malaysia, immediately prior to or after the temporary absence, -5- is in Malaysia for not less than 90 days (need not be consecutive) in the asis year and is resident or has been in Malaysia for 90 days or more in 3 out of the 4 preceding years of assessment; or has not been in Malaysia in the relevant basis year but he is deemed to be resident in Malaysia in the relevant basis year if he is resident in Malaysia in the following basis year and also in the each of the 3 basis year immediately preceding the relevant basis year . Example 1: Resident Status John arrived in Malaysia on 1. 4. 2003 and stayed on until 15. 11. 2003 (total 229 days). Hence, John is resident for the year of assessment 2003 since he stayed in Malaysia for more than 182 days in the year 2003. ) Second, the resident status of companies : A company is deemed to be resident if at any time during a basis year for a Year of Assessment, the management and control of its business is exercised in Mala ysia. -6- B) QUIT RENT : Quit rent is also a type of local tax. Quit rent tax in imposes on all types of landed properties. This tax is payable annually. The rate of quit tax is 0. 003 to 0. 006 US dollars per square foot. Liability of this quit rent tax is usually figures less than 31 US dollars . Stamp duty for the transfer of the real property of RM 250,000 value is now halved. This new benefit on stamp duties was allowed on the 2008 budget. Stamp duty tax is one of the important Malaysia property taxes applicable within the country. For comparison, the stamp duties within the year 2007 and 2008 are given bellow. PRICE STAMP RM 250,000 RM 150,000 RM 350,000 STAMP DUTY IN 2007 RM 4,500 RM 2,000 RM 6,000 STAMP DUTY IN 2008 RM 2,250 (-50%) RM 1,000 (-50%) RM 6,000 (UNCHANGED) C) CAPITAL GAIN TAX : Capital gains tax is not applicable any type of income. Capital Gains tax was abolished on first April 2007. This relaxation also includes Malaysia real estate capital gains tax on all types of properties. Previously Capital Gains Tax was called Real Property Gains Tax and was applicable on the foreigners only. These Capital Gains Taxes had a direct value of 30% on all the income gains due to disposal of the property during period of five years. In this way RPGT becomes 5% thereafter. The 2012 Budget unveiled on 7 October 2011 included a revision of the Real -7- Property Gains Tax (RPGT) rate from the 5% to 10% as part of the Government’s efforts to curb property speculation. The increase was recently gazetted and took effect from 1 January 2012 onwards. Jennifer Chang studies the impact of this move on property purchasers. The rate of 10% applies to gains on properties held and disposed within two years while gains on properties held and disposed between two and five years will be levied a 5% RPGT rate and disposals after five years continue to be exempted from RPGT. RPGT is a form of capital gains tax that is chargeable on gains arising from the disposal of real property, which is defined as: †¢ Any land situated in Malaysia and any interest, option or other right in or over such land; †¢ Shares in a real property company. Anyone disposing of real property in Malaysia whether a resident or non-resident will be charged RPGT on the gains. D) INHERITANCE TAX Inheritance Tax is not assigned in Malaysia. E) OTHER TAXES VAT tax is not charged in Malaysia. On the other hand, government sale tax is charged. The value of 5% GST is assigned on all the hotel and restaurant bills. GST is also charged on other professional bills including lawyer’s bills. -8- INCOME CHARGEABLE TO TAX : ? Gains or profits from a business for whatever period of time carried on. ? Gains or profits from an employment. ? Dividends, Interests or Discounts. Rents, Royalties or Premiums. ? Pensions, annuities or other periodical payments not falling under any of the foregoing paragraphs. ? Gains or profits not falling under any of the foregoing paragraphs. ? Special classes of income. TAX EXEMPTIONS FOR INDIVIDUALS 1. Leave passages within Malaysia not exceeding three times on a year and one leave passage outside Malaysia not excee ding RM3000 2. Medical and dental benefit. 3. Retirement gratuity The full amount of gratuity received by an employee on retirement from employment is exempt if: i. He retires due to ill health; ii. He is an employee in the public sector who has opted for optional retirement or on termination of a contract of employment; or iii. If he retires at the age of 55 or at the compulsory age of retirement under any written law provided that he has been in the service of the same employer or with companies in the same group, for at least 10 years -9- 4. Compensation For loss Of Employment Compensation payment received by an employee for the loss of employment is exempt from tax at a sum of RM6, 000 per completed year of service with the same employer or with companies in the same group. However, the compensation payment received by an employee will be fully exempted from tax if the loss of employment is due to ill health. The tax exemption of RM6,000 per completed year of service is not given in respect of the compensation received by a director (not being a service director) of a controlled company. 5. Pensions Pensions received by an individual are exempt under the following conditions: I. He retires at the age of 55 or at the compulsory age of retirement under any written law; or II. He retires due to ill health For an employee in the public sector who elects for optional retirement, his pension will be taxed until he attains the age of 55 or the compulsory age of retirement under any written law. Where an individual receives more than one pension, the exemption is restricted to the highest pension received by him 6. Death gratuities. 7. Scholarships. 8. Income of an individual resident in Malaysia in respect of his appearances in cultural performances approved by the Minister. 10 9. Interests An individual resident in Malaysia is exempt from tax in espect of the interest received from the following savings or investments:- i. Interest that accrues in respect of any savings deposited with Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN). ii. Interest or bonus which accrues in respect of money deposited with Bank Simpanan Nasional under the Save as You Earn scheme. iii. Interest which accrues on savings deposits of up to RM100, 000 with a registered cooperative society, Bank Pertan ian Malaysia, Malaysia Building Society Berhad, Borneo Housing Mortgage Finance Bhd, or with any other institution approved by the Minister of Finance. v. Bonus which accrues in respect of money deposits in any savings account with Lembaga Tabung Haji. v. Interest which accrues on savings deposits of up to RM100,000 with a bank or finance company licensed under the Banking and Financial Institutions Act 1989 (BAFIA 1989). vi. Interest which accrues in respect of any fixed deposits account (including negotiable certificates of deposits) of up to RM100,000 for a period not exceeding twelve months with Bank Pertanian Malaysia, Bank Kerjasama Rakyat Malaysia Bhg. Bank Simpanan Nasional, Borneo Housing Mortgage Finance Bhd. , Malaysia Building Society Bhd. , or a Bank of finance company licensed under BAFIA 1989. 11 vii. Interest which accrues in respect of any fixed deposit account (including negotiable certificates of deposits) for a period exceeding twelve months with Bank Pertanian Malaysia, Bank Kerjasama Rakyat Malaysia Bhd. , Bank Simpanan Nasional, Borneo Housing Mortgage Finance Bhd. , Malaysia Building Society Bhd. , or a bank or finance company licensed under BAFIA 1989. viii. Gains or profits which accrues on deposits of up to RM100,000 in respect of money deposited in any savings account under the interest-Free Banking Scheme (IFBS) with a bank or finance company licensed under BAFIA 1989 or the Islamic Banking Act 1983, Bank Kerjasama Rakyat and Bank Simpanan Nasional. ix. Gains or profits which accrues in respects of money deposited in any investment account of up to RM100,000 for a period not exceeding twelve months with a bank or finance company licensed under BAFIA 1989 or the Islamic Banking Act 1983, Bank Kerjasama Rakyat and Bank Simpanan Nasional. x. Gains or profits which accrue in respect of money deposited in any investment account for a period of twelve month of more under the interest Free Banking Scheme with a bank or finance company licensed under BAFIA 1989 or the Islamic Banking Act 1983. xi. Gains or profits which accrue in respect of money deposits in any investment account under the interest Free Banking Scheme of up to RM100,000for a period of twelve months or more with Bank Kerjasama Rakyat and Bank Simpanan Nasional. 12 xii. Interest from securities or bonds issued or guaranteed by the Malaysian Government. xiii. Interest from debenture (other than convertible loan stock) approved by the Securities Commission. xiv. Interest earned from Bon Simpanan Malaysia issued by the Bank Negara Malaysia. xv. Interest earned from the Merdeka Bonds issued by the Bank Negara Malaysia (effective year of assessment 2004). xvi. Interest earned from a unit trust which is derived from Malaysia and paid or credited by any bank or financial institution licensed under the Banking and Financial Institution Act 1989 (BAFIA 1989) or the Islamic Banking Act 1983. 10. Dividends The following dividends are exempt formed tax: I. Dividends received from exempt accounts of companies. II. Dividends received from cooperative societies. III. Dividends received from a unit trust approved by the Minister of Finance such as Amanah Saham Bumiputra. IV. Dividends received from a unit trust approved by the Minister of Finance where 90% or more of the investment is in government securities. 13 11. Royalties An individual resident in Malaysia is exempt from tax in respect of royalties are as follows: Types of Services/ Amount per annum art works payment for to be exempted (RM) i. Artistic work (other than original paintings) 6,000 ii. Recording discs or tapes 6,000 iii. Translation upon request by any agency a) of the Ministry of Education or Attomey b) General Chambers 12,000 iv. Literary work or original painting 20,000 v. Musical composition 20,000 vi. Cultural performances Approval by Minister However, the exemption does not apply to paragraph (iii), (v) and (vi), if the payment received forms part of his emoluments in the exercise of the individuals official duties. 12. Income Remitted from Outside Malaysia With effect from the year of assessment 2004, income derived from outside Malaysia and received in Malaysia by resident individual is exempted from tax. 3. Fees or Honorarium for Expert Services With effect from the year of assessment 2004, fees or honorarium received by an individual in respect of services provided for purposes of validation, moderation or accreditation of franchised education programs in higher educational institutions is exempted. The services provided by an individual concerned have to be verified and acknowledged by the Lembaga Akreditasi Negara (LAN). However, the exemption does not apply if the payment received forms part of his emoluments in the exercise of his official duties. 14 14. Income Derived from Research Findings With effect from the year of assessment 2004, income received by an individual from the commercialization of the scientific research finding is given tax exemption of 50% on the statutory income in the basis year for a year of assessment for 5 years from the date the payment is made. The individual scientist who received the said payment must be a citizen and a resident in Malaysia. The commercialized research findings must be verified by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment. NOTIFICATION OF CHARGEABILITY TO TAX If an individual is taxable and has never received any income tax return form before, he has a duty to notify chargeability to the nearest LHDNM office and request for an Income Tax Return Form. If an individual already has an income tax file but has not receive an income tax return form by 31st March, he must immediately request for the said form from the LHDNM office which issued his last income tax return form. A taxpayer could also download an income tax return form from the LHDNM website http://www. hasil. rg. my. He must then complete and submit the return to the LHDNM office using the address where his income tax file is situated. In the case of a foreigner employed in this country he must give notice of chargeability to the nearest LHDNM office within 2 months of arrival in Malaysia. 15 FILING OF TAX RETURN The completed and signed Income Tax Return is substituted to LHDNM office before or by the required date, and the completed tax retu rn should be sent to the address of LHDNM office indicated on the said form. NON-RESIDENT CITIZEN RELIEF 1. Non-Resident Citizen Relief shall be allowed to an individual who is a citizen but not resident for the basis year for a year of assessment by reason of his employment (in the public services or the services of a statutory authority) which is exercised outside Malaysia 2. An individual who is claiming relief under this provision, should make his claim in the prescribed form and should furnish such further particulars as may be required by the LHDNM. TEMPORARY VISITORS PROFESSIONAL VISIT PASS All non-residents entering Malaysia using professional visit passes (excluding public entertainers) are categorized as temporary visitors. A sponsor for a temporary visitor is required to submit a letter of notification from the LHDNM to the Immigration Department when applying for a professional visit pass. The sponsor should make a written application to the LHDNM providing personal details of the temporary visitor and also submit a copy of the contract / offer letter or other relevant documents. The application for the letter of notification has to be made to: Director, Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia, Non-Resident Branch, Unit 11 (NR/IV),10th 11th Floor, Block 11, Government Office Complex, Jalan Duta, 50600 Kuala Lumpur . 16 IMPUTATION SYSTEM The income tax chargeable on a resident company is credited into a tax account which can be utilized to frank payment of dividends to shareholders. Income tax paid by a company is imputed to the shareholders by means of imputation credits attached to dividends. Where the franking of payment of dividends exceeds the tax credit available in the tax account, the deficit become s a debt due which is payable by the company upon requisition. The imputation system does not apply to a non-resident company and such companies are not subject to dividend franking. WHY MALAYSIA’S GOVERNMENT IMPOSE PROPERTY TAX ? MALAYSIA’ We take RPGT as one of property tax that government imposed in Malaysia . There are many reasons why RPGT is imposed . One of the more significant reasons why the government imposes this tax is to curb property speculation to avoid property bubbles forming . From time to time, the government may decide to increase or decrease RPGT to suit their agenda e. g. they could reduce RPGT to encourage investments (this actually happened between 1 April 2007 – 31 December 2009 where property transactions during this period were exempted from RPGT to spur investments) . The other obvious reason is that RPGT is a source of revenue for the government to develop the nation . WHO PAY THE PROPERTY TAX 1) Resident in Malaysia 2) Non-Resident who live in Malaysia and have assets 3) Companies that operating in Malaysia 17 TREND OF PROPERTY TAX IN MALAYSIA Diagram below shows the trends of the property tax in Malaysia from 1974 up to 2012 . Due to amendment that are made in the budget 2013, there are changes that are happening in the RPGT rate where there is an increase in the amounts of tax eing imposed . This changes that are made are due to the facts to reduce the factor of speculation that are making the price of land and houses to increase rapidly . 18 IMPACTS OF RPGT According to property consultant and analysts, the hike increase of Real Property Gains Tax (RPGT) in the budget 2013 will have very little impact . The increase of RPGT from 10% to 15% will barely give any impacts on the speculation even though the reason for the increase of tax are f or the purpose of solving speculation on houses . Reason as to why there barely any impact or little impact from the increase on RPGT tax rate are due to the facts that, the time taken for houses to be completed upon buying are 2 to 3 years and when the house are finish and ready to be live in or sold, its already 4 or 5 years and the rate of RPGT tax are already little as the periods of RPGT tax covers are only up to 6 years maximize . Taking that into consideration plus the fact that the price of houses are keep on rising, the impact that RPGT are very little . CONCLUSION The property tax in Malaysia can be consider as in the testing period as it just currently being reimposed . Which means that, the current rate of RPGT will change in the near future due to the rising trends of property in Malaysia especially in the housing sectors . The RPGT tax rate can be consider as a tool to reduce speculation of property in the short run,where as, in the long run the impacts that it will have is going to be very little . 19 REFERENCE 1. http://www. ipbre. com/countryProfile/Malaysia/Taxes/ 2. https://docs. google. com/viewer? a=vq=cache:Dj8b9BrRMAIJ:www. harteredaccountants. com. my/resources_assessment. pdf+hl=engl=mypid=blsrci d=ADGEESh8gp__2jEbPCrYONnp3AqFbAij_CBwdwbrQy0Re1bdAGCyoE oeKD7wS88c5AVLJLyDrzOuoYBPANEFQ3XpK5lBTfXQpXTfuDkNuwpD i_r2aMZxYDY0cBbZfKHS5o15HuPCjosig=AHIEtbRFB6TA8WHt5oQfy w1Y-pQs3k0smw 3. http://www. iproperty. com. my/news/5061/real-property-gains-tax-rpgt-the-propertyowner 4. http://savemoney. my/real-property-gains-tax-in-malaysia/ 5. www. iproperty. com. my/news/4258/real-property-gains-tax-gradual-impact 6. thestar. com. my/news/story. asp? file=/2012/9/29/budget/12101379sec=budget 20 APPENDIX 21 22 23

Management Perspectives on Leadership & Motivation Assignment

Management Perspectives on Leadership & Motivation - Assignment Example She is a kind of leader who looks towards every single matter with deep interest because she is of the viewpoint that negligence towards even a minor issue can result in big problems for the company. She wants to be fully aware of every single issue related to the company. She is also a transformational leader because she has always motivated her employees to show improved efficiency and productivity. She focuses on creativity and innovation. It is due to her effective leadership potential that has kept General Motors on a top position among auto manufactures in the very intense competition within this industry. From the interview, we realized that Ms. Barra has always tried to motivate others to do their best for the company. She motivates employees by making them aware of the benefits that they can receive upon the completion of their assigned job tasks. She has played her role in building the culture of respect and encouragement within the organization in order to keep employees satisfied with their jobs and motivated towards achievement of goals. She thinks employees as the most precious asset of the company and does everything to meet their needs which we think is the best way to keep employees motivated. Although she is both an effective leader and a successful manager, but we think she is more of a leader as she has a visionary outlook and is able to see long-term effects of any organizational activity. She possesses the ability to influence others using creative and emotional thinking powers of the right brain. She said that today employees are not usually satisfied with their jobs and employee turnover is high even when finding a good employment opportunity is not easy. According to Ms. Barry, keeping employees motivated and lowering the employee turnover are the two main issues for organizations these days. Refer to your Summary Table to complete this section. Provide a two to three page summary (single-spaced, please)

Course Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Course Project - Essay Example When demand and supply situation in a country is unfavorable to the employers, they would prefer to compromise and give training to the available personnel rather than spend time and resources in search of ‘ideal match’, to avoid production loss. Gronau stated: â€Å"Since the length of service is directly related to the level of unemployment, one would expect wage demands (and hence the change in general wage rate) and unemployment to be inversely related† (290). If the pace of economic growth is robust, the increase in demand mitigates the effects of frictional unemployment in general. Development of transferable skills by a person could ensure transfers within the same company to other departments or make change of job easier and counseling facilities need to be strengthened. Uniformity in dissemination of information with regard to the jobs available, the attributes necessary and the experience required in relation to them is very important for proper understa nding in identifying the appropriate opportunities without any difficulty. Though the standardization could not be achieved completely in this respect in view of multiplicity of disciplines, grades and specialization, common parameters relating to jobs in a particular category acceptable to most of the employers or industry associations and understandable by majority of the workers would improve the situation considerably. In most of the cases relocation choices are not fully explored both by the employers or employees to the disadvantage of both. Moving cost to the employee and recruitment and training cost to the employer play an important role in making strategic management decisions. If the views of the employer and employee converge in this respect, solution could be reached easily. Diamond stated that â€Å"[t]he rate at which workers are offered jobs with different moving costs depends on the decisions of other workers as to which

Motor Cycle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Motor Cycle - Essay Example Provide a rationale for the response. A project organization is a formation that allows the management and execution of project tasks. Its primary motive is to create a setting that promotes communications amongst the group participants with a minimal amount of disorder, conflict and overlap. One of the significant results of project management is the type of managerial structure that will be applied for the project. Every project has its exclusive features and the framework of a managerial outline must deem the organizational background, the project attributes in which it will function, and the range of power and control the project manager is delegated with. A project framework can take on a variety of types with every type having its own benefits and limitations. One of the key purposes of the structure is to lessen uncertainty and perplexity that characteristically takes place at the project commencement stage. The type of project organization explains the relationships amongst a ssociates of the project team and the link with the outside ambience. The structure exhibits the ability through the way of a graphical diagram referred to as an organization chart (PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATIONS, 2007). For the present scenario a suitable project organization should be developed for manufacturing larger touring class motor cycles.... In this type of structure the project manager exerts total control over the essential resources and the project tasks necessary to attain the aims from within the parent management or from staying away from it, subject to the quality, budget and scope restraints recognized within the process involved in the completion of the project. For manufacturing larger touring class motor cycles it would be appropriate to choose the project based structure since a project manager is involved in this specific structure who would handle the organization’s new project of manufacturing large touring class motorcycles. The recommended steps for the organization are- Surveying the market for getting the response of the customers regarding the large touring class motorcycles. This will help the firm to acquire important information about the customer’s choice and competitor’s product. Considering all other environmental forces like political, economic, social, cultural, legal and technological factors and their effects on the product. Implementing the feedback collected from the market in efficiently developing a sample product. Marketing a few sample products to find out its level of acceptability. Finally setting up the product development framework. 2. Recommend one (1) strategy to the senior executives that the organization might use to balance short- and long-term needs. Specify the crucial resources that you would need as a project manager to run the existing business interests at the same time that the business changes to the production of touring class motorcycles. A strategy suitable for the senior executives which can be implemented by the firm to strike a balance between the short and long term requirements is the application of

BUSINESS LAW Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

BUSINESS LAW - Case Study Example Estoppel becomes applicable, only if the representation relied upon by the person claiming the benefit is unambiguous. In addition, the person claiming estoppel should undergo a detriment if there is a departure from the terms of the promise. As opined in Legione v Hateley, the party claiming estoppel should be placed in a situation wherein there would be a detriment to it, if the promise was to be broken (Gillies, 2004, p. 178). In order to deem the promise of the promisor to be consideration, it has to be proved that the promise was given or the act performed on the basis of the promisor’s request. Moreover, there should have been reliance upon the promise made by the promisor. The doctrine of promissory estoppel emerged with the decision in Central London Property Trust Ltd v High Trees House Ltd. Such existence has been subsequently confirmed in rulings made in England and Australia. This all important principle was defined in the following manner, during the ruling in Combe v Combe. Whenever, one of the parties makes to the other party a promise that has the intention of influencing the legal relations between them, and if the other party relies on this promise and acts on it, then the first party cannot revert to the prior legal relationship between them (Gillies, 2004, p. 178). Thus, promissory estoppel has an effect that is similar to a breach of promise. In instances, wherein a party convinces another party that a contract would emerge from their negotiations and subsequently fails to keep its word, the court can prevent such a party from resorting to the defense of absence of contract (Miller & Cross, 2012, p. 321).In such cases, it is deemed that a contract between these parties is in place. In order to establish promissory estoppel, the following conditions have to be proved. The presumption of a specific legal relationship between the first and second parties. The second

Maths Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Maths - Assignment Example The advantages of using a pocket calculator include calculations being carried out faster. It also allows to successfully complete more difficult calculations. Using a pocket calculator can give you confidence when you are doing difficult problems and can help you focus on the problems, not the calculations. A main disadvantage of using a pocket calculator may give you a false sense of confidence in your calculation abilities and might inhibit your ability to do even basic calculations in your head or on paper. You become reliant on electronic devices and there may be an instance where you need to work out a calculation by hand in the instance where you may not have a pocket calculator to hand. The formulae can be used to instantly recalculate totals. For example, if the builder changed his call-out charge, the total cost would be instantly recalculated taking the change into account. Using excel spreadsheets You can carry out "what if?" investigations. The information can be presented in different ways. For example, the grocer could produce a graph of fruit and vegetable sales by choosing the ranges A4:A10 and E4:E10 in order to make the graph. It is easy to make changes using excel, save your work and print it out again. The presentation is flexible on excel, the column widths and easily delete or add columns and rows. The program makes it easy to find out the relationship between predictable variables and measurable responses. The software also specifies the polynomial terns and their interaction. The software also transforms the responses with the help of the Box-Cox transformations. The average life of the bulb is dictated by the replacement policy. It would be cheaper to practically replace all the bulbs at once. There would need to be a permit to work, availability of manpower and available funding. d) The supplier offers a new type of bulb, Type B that has a mean life of 450 days and the same standard deviation (60

Motor Cycle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Motor Cycle - Essay Example Provide a rationale for the response. A project organization is a formation that allows the management and execution of project tasks. Its primary motive is to create a setting that promotes communications amongst the group participants with a minimal amount of disorder, conflict and overlap. One of the significant results of project management is the type of managerial structure that will be applied for the project. Every project has its exclusive features and the framework of a managerial outline must deem the organizational background, the project attributes in which it will function, and the range of power and control the project manager is delegated with. A project framework can take on a variety of types with every type having its own benefits and limitations. One of the key purposes of the structure is to lessen uncertainty and perplexity that characteristically takes place at the project commencement stage. The type of project organization explains the relationships amongst a ssociates of the project team and the link with the outside ambience. The structure exhibits the ability through the way of a graphical diagram referred to as an organization chart (PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATIONS, 2007). For the present scenario a suitable project organization should be developed for manufacturing larger touring class motor cycles.... In this type of structure the project manager exerts total control over the essential resources and the project tasks necessary to attain the aims from within the parent management or from staying away from it, subject to the quality, budget and scope restraints recognized within the process involved in the completion of the project. For manufacturing larger touring class motor cycles it would be appropriate to choose the project based structure since a project manager is involved in this specific structure who would handle the organization’s new project of manufacturing large touring class motorcycles. The recommended steps for the organization are- Surveying the market for getting the response of the customers regarding the large touring class motorcycles. This will help the firm to acquire important information about the customer’s choice and competitor’s product. Considering all other environmental forces like political, economic, social, cultural, legal and technological factors and their effects on the product. Implementing the feedback collected from the market in efficiently developing a sample product. Marketing a few sample products to find out its level of acceptability. Finally setting up the product development framework. 2. Recommend one (1) strategy to the senior executives that the organization might use to balance short- and long-term needs. Specify the crucial resources that you would need as a project manager to run the existing business interests at the same time that the business changes to the production of touring class motorcycles. A strategy suitable for the senior executives which can be implemented by the firm to strike a balance between the short and long term requirements is the application of

Maths Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Maths - Assignment Example The advantages of using a pocket calculator include calculations being carried out faster. It also allows to successfully complete more difficult calculations. Using a pocket calculator can give you confidence when you are doing difficult problems and can help you focus on the problems, not the calculations. A main disadvantage of using a pocket calculator may give you a false sense of confidence in your calculation abilities and might inhibit your ability to do even basic calculations in your head or on paper. You become reliant on electronic devices and there may be an instance where you need to work out a calculation by hand in the instance where you may not have a pocket calculator to hand. The formulae can be used to instantly recalculate totals. For example, if the builder changed his call-out charge, the total cost would be instantly recalculated taking the change into account. Using excel spreadsheets You can carry out "what if?" investigations. The information can be presented in different ways. For example, the grocer could produce a graph of fruit and vegetable sales by choosing the ranges A4:A10 and E4:E10 in order to make the graph. It is easy to make changes using excel, save your work and print it out again. The presentation is flexible on excel, the column widths and easily delete or add columns and rows. The program makes it easy to find out the relationship between predictable variables and measurable responses. The software also specifies the polynomial terns and their interaction. The software also transforms the responses with the help of the Box-Cox transformations. The average life of the bulb is dictated by the replacement policy. It would be cheaper to practically replace all the bulbs at once. There would need to be a permit to work, availability of manpower and available funding. d) The supplier offers a new type of bulb, Type B that has a mean life of 450 days and the same standard deviation (60

Reflection Letter Essay Example for Free

Reflection Letter Essay This document contains my knowledge and lessons on ethics and integrity I have learnt from the Academic Seminar as well as the reasons why I found myself interacting with the Office of Student Conduct. My suspension was based on misconduct of academic ethics and integrity. We were caught cheating on quizzes and on online tests. Being afraid to tell the truth, the school gave us suspension which I have served outside school. My involvement in academic misconduct in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas has taught me a lesson after the sanction posed on me. It was my actions that have caused me all these mess and according to the lessons I have learnt in the Academic Integrity Seminar, I believe in high degree of integrity from today. My friend and I were caught cheating on quizzes and online tests. Unfortunately, our instructor caught us red-handed and we were referred to the Office of Student Conduct. My relaxed efforts on academics led me into all these mess. Instead of going to do more studies on previously learnt topics, my peers and I would go to the clubs and any other place that we could have fun and forgot our academic roots were more important. Only to find that I had nothing to offer whenever there was an exam. That’s when my best friend would suggest that we improvise a way in which we can acquire high grades and achieve academic scholarship. The truth is that our efforts were imposing a great danger in my academic and personal life. This kind of incidences has also happened to my peers especially my best friend. To avoid such a circumstance occurring again in my life, I have decided to take my studies more seriously. Again, I have decided to make proper preparations in my studies prior to examination period or any other test and quiz. I have also decided to avoid the bad groups or peers in the campus and choose a company with good academic morals. During the Academic Integrity Seminar, I have learnt that I am only destroying my life. I am a person with great vision for my life, my country and the entire world. I don’t want to shun this away. My knowledge on ethics and integrity has gone a notch higher. Being able to know that ethics and integrity is part of my scholar achievement during my academic life, it’s an assurance that I will practice it both in college and after college. This lesson on integrity will go a long way in my life as I have to practice even at work place. Knowledge without ethics and integrity is harm to a scholar’s life. I went through all the modules in the integrity seminar and learnt that some of us fall victims of plagiarism knowingly or unknowingly. We have to include citations in our term papers whenever we use work from other authors whether it’s from the internet or from any other public sources. We should not have the assumptions that the sources belong to the community. From now onwards, I will make sure that I cite any reference that I quote in my academic term papers and any life research papers I work on.

Organisational Structure and Corporate Strategy of Toyota

Organisational Structure and Corporate Strategy of Toyota There are many factors other than organizational structure that have a significant bearing upon the performance of an organization. However, organizational structure is a particularly important aspect as, if properly designed, it allows the other aspects e.g. strategic work, to function properly. For example, Alfred D Chandler (in Foss, 1997) argues that firm structure follows strategy. That is not to say that, if an organization is inappropriately designed, it will not perform adequately (Walker, 1996). ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES All organized human activity give rise to two basic and differing requirements: the distribution of labour into various tasks to be performed, and the coordination of these tasks to complete the activity. The structure of an organization can therefore be defined merely as the sum total of the ways in which its labour is divided into distinct tasks and how its coordination is achieved amongst these tasks (Mintzberg, 1983). To design an effective organizational structure the elements of structure, (the organizations niche, how large it grows, and the methods used to produce) should be selected to achieve an internal consistency, as well as a basic stability with the organizations context (its size, its age, the kind of environment in which it functions, technical systems used and so on) (Mintzberg, 1983).Coordinating an organization engages a range of means. These can be referred to as coordinating mechanisms and are equally concerned with control and communication as coordination. Fiv e coordinating mechanisms appear to explain the basic ways in which organizations coordinate their work: mutual adjustment, direct supervision, standardization of work processes, standardization of work outputs, and standardization of worker outputs. Mutual adjustments realize the coordination of work by the simple process of informal communication. Meaning, the control of the work rests in the hands of the doers. Direct supervision attain coordination by having one person in charge for the work of others, issuing them instructions and monitoring their actions. Work can also be coordinated without mutual adjustment or direct supervision, through standardization. Workers that constantly work in a certain way and know what is expected, proceed accordingly. Work processes are standardized when the contents of work are specified, or programmed. Outputs are standardized when the results of the work, for example, the dimensions of the product or the performance, are specified. Skills and knowledge are standardized when the kind of training required to perform the work is specified. As organizational work turns into more complicated activities, the preferred means of coordination seems to shift from mutual adjustment to direct supervision to standardization, preferably of work processes, otherwise of outputs, or else of skills, finally reverting back to mutual adjustment (Mintzberg, 1983). As is illustrated in the figure above, Mintzberg (1983) illustrates and describes an organization in five basic parts: Strategic apex, techno structure, middle line, support staff and operating core. The strategic apex mission is to ensure that the organization serve its mission in an effective way, and also that it serve the needs of those who control or otherwise have power over the organization (its owners, government agencies, and unions of the employees). This involves three sets of duties. First, direct supervision, which is already discussed. To the degree that the organization relies on this mechanism of coordination, it is the managers of the strategic apex who affect it. They allocate resources, issue work orders, authorize major decisions, resolve conflicts, design and staff the organization, monitor employee performance, and motivate and reward employees. The second obligation is the management of the organizations relations with its environment such as negotiating major agreements, ceremonial activities and informs the organizations external stakeholders about the organizations activities. The third set of duties relates to the development of the organizations strategy. Strategy could be seen as an intervening force between the organization and its environment Formulating strategy entail many aspects as will be discussed more in further chapters. However, the managers of the strategic apex should develop an understanding for its environment and try to adapt the strategy to its strengths and needs. Yet, the process of strategy is rather complex and is not as cut and dried as it seems. What should be said is that he strategic apex typically has the most important role in the strategy process. In general the strategic apex takes the widest and most abstract, perspective of the organization. Work at this level is normally characterized by a minimum of repetition and standardization, considerable prudence, and relatively long decision making cycles. Mutual adjustment is a favoured mechanism for coordination among managers of the strategic apex itself (Mintzberg, 1983). The strategic apex is united to the operating core by the chain of middle line managers with recognized authority. This chain runs from the senior managers to the first-line supervisors, who have direct authority over the operators, direct supervision. Like the top manager, the middle manager is required to do more than simply engage in direct supervision. He also has boundary conditions to manage. Each middle line manager must maintain liaison contacts with other managers, analysts, support staffers, and outsiders whose work is mutually dependent with that of his own unit. The middle line manager, like the top manager, is concerned with formulating the strategy for his unit, although this strategy is, of course, significantly affected by the overall strategy. But managerial jobs shift in nature as they fall in the chain of authority. They become less abstract and comprehensive and more focused on the work flow itself (Mintzberg, 1983). In the techno structure the analysts is found who serve the organization by affecting the work of others. The analysts are separated from the direct operative work flow but they may design it, plan it, change it, or train the people to do it, but they do not do it themselves consequently, the techno structure is only effective when it can use its analytical techniques to make the work of others in the organization more efficient. In a fully developed organization, the techno structure might perform at all levels of the hierarchy. At the lowest level of the manufacturing firm, analysts standardize the operating work flow by scheduling production, carrying out time and method studies of the operators work, and instituting systems of quality control. At middle levels they try to standardize the intellectual work of the organization. At the strategic apex, they design strategic planning systems and develop financial systems to control the goals of major units (Mintzberg, 1983). If one gl ance at almost any large organization, a large number of units is exposed, all specialized, and exist to provide support to the organization outside its operating workflow. Those make up the support staff. None is a part of the operating core. Nevertheless, each gives indirect support to these basic missions. CORPORATE STRATEGY The operating core of the organization encompasses those members that perform the basic work related directly to the production of products and services. The operators perform four prime functions: They secure the inputs for production, they transform the inputs into outputs, they distribute the outputs and they provide the direct support to the input, transformation, and output functions. The operating core is the heart of an organization, the part that produces the essential outputs that keeps it alive. Yet, all organizations need the administrative components described above as well (Mintzberg, 1983). Centralized- and decentralized organization The terms centralization and decentralization have historically been used in many different ways and with different definitions. This thesis discusses the issue of centralization and decentralization in terms of decision making power in organizations. When all power for decision making rests at a single point in the organization, eventually in the hands of one person, one shall call the structure centralized; to the degree that the power is dispersed among many people, one shall call the structure decentralized. As could be understood, centralization and decentralization should not be thought of as absolutes, but rather as two ends of a scale (Mintzberg, 1983). Mintzberg (1983) separates the two terms in vertical and horizontal centralization and decentralization. Vertical decentralization is concerned with the delegation of decision making power down the chain of authority, from the strategic apex into the middle line. Horizontal decentralization includes the transfer of power from managers to non-managers, more exactly from line managers to staff managers, analysts, support specialists, and operators. Strategy In the complex world of organizations it must be stated that there is no best way to generate strategy and strategic management, and nor is there any one best form of an organization (Mintzberg, Ghoshal and Quinn, 1998). The context in which the strategy is set is therefore of great interest. Strategy context and content has been discussed and considered of by mankind, since organizations exist to fulfil a purpose and to create value (Schilling, 2005, De Witt Meyer, 2005). Strategies are then employed to guarantee that the organizational purpose is realized (De Witt Meyer, 2005). In the generic literature a split is made between the strategy analysis stage, the strategy formulation stage, and the strategy implementation stage (Thompson Strickland, 2001; Mintzberg, Ghoshal and Quinn, 1998; De Witt Meyer, 2005). In the analysis stage, strategists recognize the opportunities and threats in the environment, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. Next, in the formulation stage, strategists decide which strategic options that are obtainable to them, evaluate each and select one. Lastly, in the implementation stage, the selected strategic option is translated into a number of actual activities, which are then carried out (De Witt Meyer, 2005). Those di fferent stages will be discussed and explained further in the sections below. However, as the thesis focus on implementing strategies the analysis and formulating section  will not be as vast as the implementing section. TOYOTA Toyota management leads the way in many aspects of business strategy and strategic management and numerous companies have followed the lead of the Toyota business model. A key architect of the Toyota management style was Taiichi Ohno, who developed the Toyota Production System. Ohno summed up his theory behind the management of Toyota thus: I feel strongly that the word work refers to the production of perfect goods only. If a machine is not producing perfect goods, it is not working. On that philosophy the Toyota Production System was built, in which sensors halted machines when they started to malfunction. Those machines were operated by the workforce who could likewise halt the production line when imperfections occurred. The Production System adhered to the Toyota corporate strategy of cutting waste, listing specific advice such as: Cut down on the distance that things move throughout the plant. Another example of this advice, representative of Toyota strategic management and its attitude towards its workforce is: Utilise the inherent talent of your workers. Toyota business strategies include the development of hybrid cars. Part of Toyota strategic planning is developing a premium position in hybrids in tune with present consumer values. Seisei Kato of Toyota summed up a further example of the Toyota leadership model by saying: Never fail to reward merit, but never let a fault go unremarked. All the Japanese triumphs were personified by Toyota, including, of course, the worldwide drive to setting new standards of production engineering that left Detroit far behind. The foundation of the engineers breakthroughs was quality. Americans had seen the promise of a new philosophy of raising quality standards by systematic approaches. The pioneering hero, W. Edwards Deming, was credited with exporting these new ideas to Japan. They were just as valid for US use and would have won the same painless rewards. But Detroit didnt want to know a wilful ignorance repeated time and again in industry after industry. The Toyota Production System became the world standard, bringing fame to a simple engineer named Ohno whose pupils demonstrated their methods without any fear of successful imitation from the West. It was easier; it seemed, to write off the Japanese revolutions as products of a different culture which was inimical to Western ways. That was nonsense. The cultural advantage, put simply, lay in defining what needed to be done and working out better systems of doing it. That included rigorous methods for checking that the task was indeed better designed and done. At Toyota, the recalls of cars and vans to check on faulty brakes and accelerators represent a staggering failure of this basic philosophy. There must have been a breakdown in the mental conditioning at the Toyota factories, resulting in design and production faults that were as systemic as the traditional hit-or-miss performance of the Western rivals. Since these are beset by troubles enough of their own, such as GMs sorry bankruptcy, there is no room for self-congratulation. Toyotas fall isnt just a Japanese incident, but rather a sign that management in general is failing to deliver. If the management knew about the problems, did it fail to identify the root causes? If the causes had been identified correctly, was the reaction delayed while the company ignored the damage to its market status? If Toyota was capable of timely repair, why wasnt this put in hand? Remember the simple problem-solving rules: Identify the task that needs to be done. Work out systematically better ways of doing it. Employ rigorous methods for checking that the task is better designed and executed. The Toyota affair emphasises some basic points of management. First, any company, no matter how large and how famous for its merits, can stumble into grave error. Second, damaged pride and nervous fear make it difficult to correct the error in good time. Third, management decisions should normally never be taken on the basis of profit forecasts alone. RED CROSS Positioning We will make sure key people and groups know what we do and why and how they can help. By investing more in promoting our work, we will encourage beneficiaries, volunteers, the government, service commissioners, potential supporters, educators and the media to understand us, work with us or join us. We will also speak out more and advocate for change that will improve the lives of vulnerable people and promote our mission. Organisational development We will ensure those who use our services, and who support us in other ways, trust us and have confidence in how we work. We need to clearly demonstrate the difference we make to the lives of people vulnerable to crisis. It is important to us to be accountable to our beneficiaries, supporters and partners. Through doing this we will listen and learn from our beneficiaries, supporters and each other, and continually improve what we do. Funding the strategy We will maximise our net income as cost-effectively as possible. Every donation we receive strengthens our ability to respond to emergencies and help people prepare for and recover from crises. We will inspire more people to support our work by giving what they can, especially through regular donations, bequests, and the relationships we build with trusts and companies. Our charity shops will continue to provide a place for people to donate and shop on the high street and support our work at the same time. There are a variety of perspectives, models and approaches used in strategic planning. The way that a strategic plan is developed depends on the nature of the organizations leadership, culture of the organization, complexity of the organizations environment, size of the organization, expertise of planners, etc. For example, there are a variety of strategic planning models, including goals-based, issues-based, organic, scenario (some would assert that scenario planning is more of a technique than model), etc. Goals-based planning is probably the most common and starts with focus on the organizations mission (and vision and/or values), goals to work toward the mission, strategies to achieve the goals, and action planning (who will do what and by when). Issues-based strategic planning often starts by examining issues facing the organization, strategies to address those issues and action plans. Organic strategic planning might start by articulating the organizations vision and values, an d then action plans to achieve the vision while adhering to those values. Some planners prefer a particular approach to planning, e.g., appreciative inquiry. Some plans are scoped to one year, many to three years, and some to five to ten years into the future. Some plans include only top-level information and no action plans. Some plans are five to eight pages long, while others can be considerably longer. Quite often, an organizations strategic planners already know much of what will go into a strategic plan (this is true for business planning, too). However, development of the strategic plan greatly helps to clarify the organizations plans and ensure that key leaders are all on the same script. Far more important than the strategic plan document, is the strategic planning process itself. Major differences in how organizations carry out the various steps and associated activities in the strategic planning process are more of a matter of the size of the organization than its for-profit/non-profit status. Small nonprofits and small for-profits tend to conduct somewhat similar planning activities that are different from those conducted in large organizations. On the other hand, large nonprofits and large for-profits tend to conduct somewhat similar planning activities that are different from those conducted in small organizations. (The focus of the planning activities is often different between for-profits and nonprofits. Nonprofits tend to focus more on matters of board development, fundraising and volunteer management. For-profits tend to focus more on activities to maximize profit.) Also, in addition to the size of the organization, differences in how organizations carry out the planning activities are more of a matter of the nature of the participants in the organization than its for-profit/non-profit status. For example, detail-oriented people may prefer a linear, top-down, general-to-specific approach to planning. On the other hand, rather artistic and highly reflective people may favour of a highly divergent and organic approach to planning. CONCLUSION Corporate Strategy is concerned with the overall purpose and scope of the business to meet stakeholder expectations. This is a crucial level since it is heavily influenced by investors in the business and acts to guide strategic decision-making throughout the business. Corporate strategy is often stated explicitly in a mission statement. Operational Strategy is concerned with how each part of the business is organised to deliver the corporate and business-unit level strategic direction. Operational strategy therefore focuses on issues of resources, processes, people etc.