Saturday, August 31, 2019
Mkt Research
Assessment activity 1 1. 1 In conducting research on behalf of your organization or for a client organization, what factors could influence the choice of sources used? The intention of the research and also the types of products and services. 1. 2 Why can data and information cross-checks and cross-references be necessary when doing research? It is important not to rely on a single piece of information if you can avoid it, so also look for corroborating evidence unless the source is absolutely unimpeachable.Use reliable sources or cross-check and find supporting data wherever possible. Knowing how data was obtained is central to knowing its value. If the information comes from a survey look to find the sample source and size. Assessment activity 2 2. 1 Scenario: You have been asked to conduct research on behalf of the organization for which you work. Why is desk research the first research you should undertake? Their relative low cost, they can be an efficient use of time and they avoid duplicating research that has already been undertaken by others. . 2 What desk research sources could you use to collect and organize data? Company reports Data from previous research 2. 3 Why should your desk research include the collection and analysis of data relative to the organization’s current and past performance? It will help aid in the development of useful and useable hypotheses, accurately targeting research, designing and developing research tools. There is no point gathering information on the migration patterns of flamingos if the company is in the business of making clothes for the larger male.That is an absurd example, but if there are even subtle diversions between the company mission and your data gathering, you will be off track and have wasted energy and resources. Assessment Activity 3 Describe and explain the reporting formats that you have used or might follow when submitting desk research results. Normally each company has its own template but typically using chart and graphs besides tables and texts is a preferred way in most companies as it is clearer and more quickly understandable. Assessment activity 4 4. 1 Give 3 examples of hypotheses that you have used (or could use) when conducting market research.Salary packaging will increase loyalty and productivy at work Uncontrolled media undermines democratic government Plain packaging will not reduce the sales of cigarette. 4. 2 How do these hypotheses help to focus the research? A hypothesis will help to focus your research. It will help to guide the development of a research project and aid you in determining the direction you need to take and the questions to which you need answers. Assessment activity 5 5. 1 Why might a researcher choose to conduct qualitative research rather than quantitative research?Qualitative analysis provides information on how customers perceive a business, how they rate it in comparison to competitors and whether they plan to buy the organ ization products/services in the future. Also dealing with opinions, attitudes and behavior. 5. 2 Which method/s might be used to collect the data and why would you consider these to be the most appropriate? Processes used to collect customer information can include questionnaire surveys, face-to-face, written, and electronic or telephone survey methods; observational surveys; focus groups; product test results; retail audits.Data can also be collected, via desk research, from government organizations such as the Bureau of Statistics, the Census Bureau, from media companies, chambers of commerce, other research organizations or from university databases. 5. 3 What groups would you target and why? Customers, previous customers, stakeholders are often the target in a research, but it always depends on the information the company requests on its research. 5. 4 Explain what a measure of central tendency is and how it is used in analyzing market research data. Are measures used to locate the middle points of a distribution.The mean (average-obtained from adding all variables and dividing by the number of variables used), median (variable at the centre of the range) and mode (most frequently occurring variables are measures of central tendency). They serve to identify the points between the extremes. As an example, if a survey asked users of a certain product their age, measures of central tendency help to determine the typical age of the user. The youngest might be 10 years and the oldest 70. However, the values in between these extremes are the most useful for the marketer.Knowing that the mean (or average) age is 32, the median 34 and the mode 31, 32 and 35, indicate that typical age of a user is early thirties. Assessment activity 6 Complete the following table Method for collecting your data| Circumstance for choosing this method| Reason for choosing this method| Telephone survey| Large number of responses to a small number of questions required in a short peri od of time. | Efficiency and low cost per response. Responses can be qualified if necessary and data entry is immediate. | Focus group | Effective when qualitative data is required.Can be expensive but can provide effective results. | Effective results and efficient scribe. | Formal questionnaires | Inexpensive way to gather responses from a large number of respondents. | Effectively and can gather information to correlate performance and satisfaction among different groups of users. | Simple observational survey| Simplistic methods of conducting market research. | Can provide valuable and useful data. Determine who purchases what from where. | Mystery shopping observation | Actual experience of the service| Is needed from a trained observer| Product testing | New product valuation| Opinions for improvement| Informal discussion and feedback forms. | Gives you a simple and quickly answers. | Efficiently way and cheap processes which gives you answers in a short time. | As sessment activity 7 Why is it essential that market research plans demonstrate that they will collect information that will enable clear identification of customer needs, wants and expectations? It can be used to identify problems, strengths, potential markets, needs for change or to forecast sales of new or improved products/services.Customer focus is essential for success in the highly competitive markets of today. It should demonstrate to the organization exactly what is their customers or potencial customers require of them. Assessment activity 8 & 9 8/9a Explain how you might identify respondents for a product/ service survey. You can identify thru some surveys, segments and samples, questionnaires, focus groups and research such as: Geographic segmentation; Demographic segmentation; Psychographic segmentation; Beliefs and values; Lifestyle segmentation; stage of life; 8/9bWhich of the following are relevant in identifying and selecting respondents for marketing research Re spondent Characteristic| On a scale of 1-5 where 1 is important and 5 is not important – rate the importance (circle or make bold or delete unselected #)| A customer|           2         3       4         5| A potential customer|        2         3       4         5| Not a customer|  1          2                  4      5| Was selected at random| 1         2               4         5| Was a stakeholder| 1         2         3       4        5| Required an incenti ve to bother| 1         2              4         5| Was interested| 1                3       4         5| Had the time and was available| 1                3       4         5| Was someone who disliked the products| 1         2               4         5| Assessment activity 10Why is preparation of facilities and equipment in readiness for the research procedure important? Preparation is the key to effective data collection. Staff should be fully informed about what is required, must be appropriately trained and must be supplied with the necessary resources. Assessment activity 11 11. 1 Wh at reports might an organization ask to be submitted after the surveying process has been completed? What types of information would the report contain? Written responses, verbal recordings, e-mail, postal results or data and sets of numbers collected as a result of focus groups or testing groups. Information like- numbers of respondents; ease with which respondents were contacted; -ease with which respondents were encouraged to participate; -ease with which respondents were able to use the survey format;  -numbers of responses in various information collection categories; – suitability of the survey questions and other resources; -costs applicable to the survey; – a general assessment of the success of the survey; -problems or issues that were identified during the research  -suggestions for improvements to the research process. 11. 2 How might survey tools be kept confidential and accessible only to authorized people? Safe Locks on door Passwords Assessment act ivity 12 12. What procedures should be followed to check the quality of the data collected during market research? Quality of the data collect will have to be considered and will include: Quantity, Type of responses and Depth of responses. Ask: – Did the survey questions elicit the necessary data? –       Is there enough significant and useful data to support or reject the original hypotheses? –       Were the respondents properly targeted? –       Were respondents correctly qualified? –       Is the data useful and does it meet its intended purpose? –       Can the data be easily analyzed to produce the necessary information? 12. 2 Why are quality checks necessary?The quality of the data should be checked as early as possible because decisions depend on valid and reliable data. Data quality can be assessed in several ways, using dif ferent types of analyses: frequency counts, descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, and median), normality (skewness, kurtosis, frequency histograms, normal probability plots), associations (correlations, scatter plots). Other initial data quality checks are: †¢Ã‚          Checks on data cleaning: have decisions influenced the distribution of the variables? The distribution of the variables before data cleaning is compared to the distribution of the variables after data cleaning to see whether data cleaning has had unwanted effects on the data.           Analysis of missing observations: are there many missing values, and are the values missing at random? The missing observations in the data are analyzed to see whether more than 25% of the values are missing, whether they are missing at random (MAR), and whether some form of imputation (statistics) is needed. †¢Ã‚          An alysis of extreme observations: outlying observations in the data are analyzed to see if they seem to disturb the distribution. †¢Ã‚          Comparison and correction of differences in coding schemes: variables are compared with coding schemes of variables external to the data set, and possibly corrected if coding schemes are not comparable. Assessment activity 13Select a market research project from your experience or elsewhere. Explain how the data for this project was aggregated and summarised and why it is necessary to summarise the data. Answer is enterprise and experience dependent so use an example: We had done a random sampling with our product which is a Brazilian meat. So we go to a night clubs early night and offer some of our product to customers and give them a sample of our meat and also a voucher which gives them the opportunity to come to our restaurant and enjoy our food with 20 % off discount. So when them coming back to the resta urant we can analyze the number of respondents by noting the number of vouchers collected and wrote a report.Assessment activity 14 Describe software packages or filing systems that could be used to record and manage research data. (Suggest search of www for brand names) SPSS – is a computer program used for survey authoring and deployment, data mining, text analytics, statistical analysis and collaboration and deployment. MS Access – is a database management system from Microsoft that combines the relational Microsoft Jet Database Engine with a graphical user interface and software-development tools. Minitab – is a statistics package. Assessment activity 15 15. 1 Describe a format that might be commonly used in an organization to present research reports. Suggestion: search of www for examples) – Title page – shows name and type of study, date, who produced it and for whom – Table of contents – Executive summary – brief statem ent summarizing reports main points – Introduction – details research projects background and objectives – Research methods – strategies and techniques used and why – Study data – includes all relevant charts, diagrams, tables and study results – Recommendations / Conclusions – Appendices 15. 2 Under what circumstances might you use charts and graphs? Give examples of the data that might be represented by specific chart or graph formats. Most common are graphs, pie charts, tables, histogram, time line.To compare what’s the proposed now and what was the beginning of the research is important to use charts and graphs, also to determine whether the research has highlighted any threats, opportunities, weaknesses, problems associated with the product/service/company under review. 15. 3 Why is it a good idea to utilize charts, graphs and other visual presentations of data? They can easily show results and statistics data also show changes, percentages, compare 2 data sources and make clearly if you need any kind of changes. 15. 4 How can a force field analysis assist in presenting data relative to proposed change and how does market research data contribute to the analysis? In determining whether a change is necessary, list the forces the change and those opposing the change.Balance them against each other to determine the necessary outcome. This is very much like a pro’s and con’s list. It shows whether the forces for or conditions requiring change are greater than those for not changing. It is important to keep in mind that the purpose of the exercise is to make the information clear, unambiguous and easy to understand. 15. 6. To whom might an organizations research report and findings be submitted? Whoever asked for the research and anyone they said to give a copy to. 16: Additional Questions Create two Quantitative questions, one using a scale another using check boxes 1- How useful to you was the orientation session at the College? please circle the number that best represents your opinion) Extremely                                                                               Not at all Useful                                                                                     Useful            1         2         3        4 5        6         7         2- Did you know that when you recommend the college to someone and they then enroll in a course you can receive a $300 finders bonus? Yes  ____                  No _____ Create two different qualitative questions 1 – Can you describe the orientation session at the college? 2 – How you feel about the money you receive for recommend the college?
Friday, August 30, 2019
Neanderthals/Modern Human Interbreeding
In the advent of modern technology, it was found out that the now-extinct species of the Neanderthals do share a common ancestry with the modern human beings. This was through the analysis of the Neanderthal bone DNA from discovered Neanderthal fossil specimens. These Neanderthals were proven to be similar in the genetic makeup as compared to the modern human beings. This is despite the fact that Neanderthals and the modern human lineage have separated ways for some 370,000 years (Mozes; Gianaro). But then, the query lies whether or not the Neanderthals and the early human beings have interbred, which could have led to what the humans are now in the present. The Neanderthals, discovered way back in the 1850’s, are seen to be greatly related to the early human beings. This is because they were able to practice certain behaviors that are seen to be similar with that of the human beings, like burying their dead, skinning animals, building fires and being able to utilize tools made out of wood and stone. The difference they exhibit lie on their physical structure, wherein these Neanderthals are stockier than human beings, have comparably larger noses, muscle definitions, brows, and relatively larger brains. In relation to the coexistence of the Neanderthals and the early human beings, there are fossil evidences that these Neanderthals have existed in around 230,000 years ago in the European and western Asian regions. Dating back around 40,000 years ago, the early human beings, Homo sapiens, started moving northward, their migration patterns away from Africa, towards the European and Asian lands. And in a span of 10,000 years, the existence of Neanderthals have started to cease, vanishing from the old places they were situated, then had been isolated into smaller populations. After a few thousand years, they have totally disappeared from the face of the earth. The Neanderthal man was considered as the subspecies of the Homo sapiens, the species where the human beings are classified with. They got their name from the place where the remnants of the first Neanderthal were discovered, in Neanderthal, Germany. It was a valley where the fossils of the Neanderthal were unearthed. It was either classified as Homo sapiens neandertalensis or Homo neandertalensis depending on how scientists view them. Some scientists classify the Neanderthal as its own species, apart from Homo sapiens because of the large number of differences in the anatomy between Neanderthals and human beings (Gianaro). The anatomical structure of the Neanderthal has somewhat explained that they were the primary hominids to have survived and thrived in the harsh conditions of an extremely cold environment. They existed at the time of the glaciations in Europe, wherein they were forced to live and survive in the icy areas of the continent. Their bodies were built for adapting in these cold conditions, like their squat, stocky build which is efficient for maintaining the body temperature under the extremes of the cold environment. They have also developed large powerful muscles in their bodies which have proven to be useful in hunting animals in the cold. This is because there was no abundance of plants that could bear fruits that they can eat, leaving them with meat as their only choice. There bodies showed a lot of difference from that of the Homo sapiens. The H. sapiens contemporary of these Neanderthals which are from Africa and Asia have a relatively smaller skull and brow ridge thickness. With their differences laid, it is clear to see that humans and Neanderthals have a clear distinction, which may or may not have lead in what was speculated by other researchers as the result of interbreeding of the species. Some of these scientists say that even though they were different, they have interbred, which leads us to what the human beings are today. The present human beings have probably been the products or the cross between Neanderthals and the early Homo sapiens. Some say that these answer why the Neanderthals have disappeared, because they have blended in with the early human ancestors (Hsu). One of the studies that lead to the opening of doors for the idea of the Neanderthal interbreeding with early humans was when Neanderthal bones have been analyzed and underwent DNA sequencing. This study was done under the U.S. Department of Energy’s Berkeley National Laboratory and the Joint Genome Institute has yielded astonishing results regarding the similarities of the human and Neanderthal genes. The study arrived at a 99.5% similarity or identity between the two. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that there are evidences of crossbreeding between early human beings and the Neanderthals. The study has opened the door to the understanding that the early Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis shared a common ancestor around 700,000 years back time (Yarris and Rubin). This group of researchers, led by Edward Rubin, the director of the Joint Genome Institute and the Genomics Division of the Berkeley Lab, has achieved to establish the development of the Neanderthal metagenomic library, which was used for analyzing and characterizing more than 65,000 DNA groups which is rooted to Neanderthal ancestry. This is gives a new look at studying the Neanderthals, not only providing new information to the science world, but of further understanding these early hominids. This is essential in finding more about the roots of man, shedding new light to human origin. Erik Trinkaus, a resident anthropologist of the Washington University in St. Louis has published a set of new data analysis regarding the early modern human fossils. This was done along with his Romanian colleagues in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, wherein they have speculated a proof of the transition between Neanderthals and humans. The 30,000 year old bones that were unearthed in Pestera Muierii, a Romanian cave, was said to have resemblances in both Neanderthals and humans (Billings). What these similarities suggest was the possibility that early human beings and Neanderthals may have mated with each other and have successfully produced an offspring. According to Trinkaus, these Muierii fossils were the remnants of the early modern human beings plus some three or four characteristics which resembles that of the Neanderthals. This includes the bulge which is located at the back of the cranium. He said that these could either be a sign of re-evolving from the African ancestors or has acquired them as descendants of those who mated with the Neanderthals. This finding by Trinkaus has been disputed by two other top anthropologists, which are Jeff Scwartz from University of Pittsburgh and Ian Tattersall of the American Museum of Natural History (Billings). According to these anthropologists, the diiference that Trinkaus see as the product of the crossbreeding of the Neanderthals and early modern human beings, were actually the result of normal variation of species. Variations like being chunky or slender, tall or short are most probably the results of species variation rather than interbreeding. These are the things that make them distinct from other species, since no two species are exactly similar with each other. The bulge on the head that Trinkaus claims were actually is the wedge-shaped snouts of the Neanderthal fossils and a depression in the back of their heads, instead of a bulge. These differences in their findings were actually the result of their different attacks on the topic. Trinkaus point of view was more on the aspect of the physical differences that species has undergone. He attributed the size and built of the unearthed specimen as a character of the Neanderthals, while having features the same of that of the early modern human beings. He didn’t consider the possibility of a species variation, like when there are tall and short human beings. Schwartz and Tatersall considered the aspect of this species variation, and have dismissed the findings of Trinkaus. But they have agreed with the similarity which was brought about by the genetic makeup of the Neanderthals and the human beings. Furthermore, their idea dismisses the possibility of interbreeding happening on early modern human beings and the Neanderthals. Though they have almost the same genetic makeup, it doesn’t mean that they are able to interbreed with each other, though they are different species. What the genetic similarity would establish is that they are both coming from the same lineage, the same ancestry, that have branched out hundred of thousand years ago. In the advent of technology, researchers are able to find that Neanderthals are similar to that of the early modern human beings. Because of these they were able to establish that we came from the same ancestry as that of the Neanderthals. There were researches that points out that the present day human beings might have been the result of the interbreeding between the early modern humans and the Neanderthals, but there are also researches that dismisses this findings. We share the same lineage as that of the early hominid Homo neanderthalensis but it doesn’t necessarily mean that we are the result of them interbreeding with early modern human beings. The idea is nonetheless probable, but is close to being implausible. References: Billings, Lee. â€Å"Genetic and Fossil Evidence Comes Together to Reveal a Hidden Chapter of Human History.† 2006. Neanderthals in Our Midst. Seed Magazine. May 7 2007. . Gianaro, Catherine. â€Å"Humans, Neanderthals Share Common Ancestry, yet Have Nothing in Common after Evolutionary Split of Two Species†. 2006. University of Chicago Chronicle. May 7 2007. . Hsu, Steve. â€Å"Neanderthal-Human Interbreeding â€Å". 2006. Information Processing. May 7 2007. . Mozes, Alan. â€Å"Neanderthal DNA Shows No Interbreeding with Humans, the Two Groups Do Share 99.5 Percent of Their Genes, However†. 2006. Health On the Net Foundation. May 7 2007. . Yarris, Lynn, and Edward Rubin. â€Å"Neanderthal Genome Sequencing Yields Surprising Results and Opens a New Door to Future Studies†. 2006. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. May 7 2007. .  Â
Thursday, August 29, 2019
Building consumer demand by using marketing
Marketing munication can be increased by using social media sites. This assignment will describe about the chosen article â€Å"The use of social media: an exploratory study of usage among digital natives†. The objectives of the study will be mentioned in this assignment. Electronic word of mouth and web 2.0 has appeared as an event of significant interest to marketers.  The article will be critically analysed in this assignment to get better understanding about the chosen article. Individual reflection shows the work advance knowledge of subject which can be utilized in real life by marketing practioners. The main object of the article is to analyze the importance of social media in the academic life of students. The research report has described about the knowledge of students regarding social media platforms and in depth notion of customer generated contents. Next section explains the digital natives in terms of age and behavioural characteristics. Another objective of the article is to understand about web 2.0 and word of mouth munication. The explicit theory framework is used in this research to describe the master phenomena. The description about the web 2.0 and electronic word of mouth is made under this theory. It has been analyzed that the term of web 2.0 defines the platforms that are connective and offer users with the ability to incorporate various media within their content creation. Analytical technique, instructional instruments, social media platforms, consumer generated message viewership and customer generated message creation are used in this article to analyze the article (Steyn, Wallstrà ¶m and Pitt, 2010). The central concept of this article is word of mouth in marketing munication. This concept is clearly defined in this article. It has been said in this article that word of mouth is mature exercise as are people municating with one another. They have b e the major part for the marketing mix for panies (Li & Bernoff, 2008). The discussion has been made about the web 2.0 world of marketing in which word of mouth happens on all municative digital media sites. It has been estimated that more than 85% firm in united states are applying the word of mouth strategy. The word of mouth strategy es out in the business when the orientation provider has no risk in the business (Li, 2010). The main argument has been made on digital natives and it has been argued in this article that a higher educating marketing firm defined that technology has b e so advanced and as recognizable as a knife to this college age market segment. On the other side it has been argued that customers gradually more use digital media not for researching the products and services but for engaging with organizations they buy along with other customers who may have effective insights (Williams, Crittenden, Keo and McCarty, 2012). The specific hypothesis of this assignment is that Generation C who born after 1990 is truly digital natives. The key attributes of Generation C is that they how to live in an adequate manner and they are much involved in the puters and latest technology. The main strength of this assignment is used methodology. The sample has been collected from millennial aged undergraduate college students of United States of America (Packaged Facts, 2010). The minimum age is considered as 19 years old and the eldest age is 21 years old. It is the strength because the selected age is perfect to analyze the tentative study of usage among digital natives. It would encourage them to encourage the campus events or they can use consumer produced content as a need of their jobs. The weakness has been found in this article is that there are so many students in selected sample who utilized their social media ecosystem for the reason of promoting their goods and services for those panies for which they are working. The risk has analyzed that the credible power in this the network of word of mouth will be eliminated for the extended time if the orientation provider lose the chance of the growth in the business. The hypothesis of this article is defined below: Qualitative research has been chosen for this article in regarding content analysis which permits the examination of the experience of social without unambiguous prospects. Sample, analytical technique and instructional instrument are used in the article for researching on digital natives. In the context of sample, data has been collected from a convince sample of the undergraduate students who were studied in the marketing class. 74 students were selected for sample in which the youngest student was 19 years old and the eldest student was 21 years old. Content analysis is being used in the analytical technique in mass munication research which was considered as appropriate analytical technique for surveying the descriptions of process within the phenomenon of culture of social media. Instructional instrument is a written assignment which was given to all enrolled students. The main concept of this written assignment is to get the response of students about the usage of social media for marketing. It was the big approach to motivate students for using the social media by sharing their experiences. Evidence is provided in this article to define the social media platforms and providers. The table has given which shows the social media platforms used by students. There are various digital social media platforms available which is helpful for marketing. It has been found that 50% students are engaged with blogging and 96% of the students are active on Facebook and twitter. 70% of the students were connected with text messages because text messaging was in the content prompt. Another table has been reflected in this assignment which was categorized in segments and number of students. Segments have divided into spectator, creator, joiner, collector and critic. 73% of the students answered to more than one of the five segments. For instance, an individual can have seen himself in the condition of critic as well as spectator. The literature is the description about the chosen topic which describes the scope of the topic. The article has defined the digital natives and electronic word of mouth which includes the web 2.0. It defines the stages that are extremely interactive and offer the aptitude to put together dissimilar media in their content formation. On the other hand web 1.0 was defined by one way and unreceptive munication. It is characterized by a process in which people are continuously the provider and giver of information. The social media platforms enable the opportunities for attract that did not survive a decade ago. For instance, it has been analyzed that more than 700 billion minutes are used by so many users on Facebook (Trainor, 2012). There are approximately 30 million stories, images, videos and contents are being shared by people on Facebook (Facebook Statistics, 2010). You Tube is another social media where the number of uploaded videos are high and the views has increased by two bill ion per day (YouTube, 2010). It has been found that millions of people building trillions of bonding by social media each day. In that scenario, the role of Web 2.0 has made the electronic description of unfounded information munications. The digital native is the person who born during the age of digital technology and so well known with internet and latest technology from an early age. The article has described the Generation C consumers who love content creation and mashing. Generation C consumers prefer to municate in an adequate manner. The tendency of generation C students is to work more creative industries (Gil-Or, 2010). Consumer generated content is not encouraged mercially but it is a form of electronic word of mouth (Muà ±iz and Schau, 2011). Essentially, the opinion of customer is about the product and services and after satisfying with the services and products, customers share their views, experience and beliefs with other people by using web. The ou e of this articl e is fit in to the wider literature. According to Hansen, et. al., (2011), there is numerous different social media platforms that provided to students as instance to quick their thinking in the term of text messaging, podcasts, and social networking and discussion groups (Zahay & Fredricks, 2009). Moreover, to discriminating the platforms utilized by this group of college student customers, the description about the particular providers were asked to respondents. The article is aimed at universities’ students of USA. The research shows that student should judge the true suggestions of liberty of speech (Crittenden and Klepper, 2010). Another audience of this article is Generation C who born after 1990. The credibility of author is trust worthiness because the authors David L. Williams, Victoria L. Crittenden, Teeda Keo and Paulette McCarty are professors of top USA universities. â€Å"The use of social media: an exploratory study of usage among digital natives†is credible as it has been published in Journal of Public Affairs (2012). This journal article is published online in Wiley Online Library which shows the credibility of the journal article. The credibility of this article can be judged by viewing the number of references which is authenticated. The used language of author is clear and concise which can be understood by readers. The predominate mode of this article is analytical as author used qualitative research to explore the research topic. Sample, analytical technique, instructional instruments, social media platforms and customer generated message formation are being used in this research to show the involvement of people in social media. It can be r mended that further research should evaluate the statistics and search for disparity between and among a multiple characteristics of demographics. The texts can be improved by using the more analytical data because it has been found that the study of this article was unable to connect different countries of source in the shown data. The analytical source has been chosen for collecting data in which the written assignment and content analysis were considered. These approaches and sources did not enable the pilation of the data. It has been r mended that further research should report for the effects of national so it can see if there are differences in country majorly in the utilization of the specific platforms and providers. The implications of the article for marketing practioners would be effective because it has described the use of different social media platforms for encouraging the market growth. This article assisted me to expand my knowledge regarding web 2.0 and electronic word of mouth which has huge contribution in the growth of market. I can use these social media platforms in my business as marketing practioner. The limitations and future research have been described in this article which assists me that the ment of personal social media should not be posted from any internet sources until and unless it is private. It concurs with my own experience because people has b e advanced and give preference to online marketing instead of going outside. By using these marketing munication techniques, marketing practioner can attract the customers towards the provided services and products. It has been concluded that the entire objective of this investigative research is to evaluate the multiple of electronic word of mouth in the context of Generation C market segment and this segment is generally defined as digital natives. The critical analysis of the article has been done by evaluating the objectives, methods, evidence, credibility, style and audience. Individual reflection has shown the position of social media sites in the life of marketing practioners. Crittenden, V. and Klepper, K., 2010, Social media and the b-school. BizEd, pp.72-73. Facebook Statistics, 2010, Facebook statistics, accessed on 26 th February 2018, from: https://www.facebook / press/info.php?statistics. Gil-Or, O., 2010, Building consumer demand by using viral marketing tactics within an online social network. Advances in Management, 3(7), pp.7-14. Li, C. & Bernoff, J. 2008, Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. Harvard Business Press: Boston. Li, C., 2010, Groundswell. Winning in a world transformed by social technologies. Strategic Direction, 26(8). Morrison, M. and McMillan, S., 2010, January. Oh, user, who art thou: an examination of behaviors and characteristics of consumers in the context of user generated content. In American Academy of Advertising. Conference. Proceedings (Online) (p. 77). American Academy of Advertising. Muà ±iz Jr, A.M. and Schau, H.J., 2011, How to inspire value-laden collaborative consumer-generated content. Business Horizons, 54(3), pp.209-217. Muà ±iz, Jr, A.M. and Schau, H.J., 2007, Vigilante marketing and consumer-created munications. Journal of Advertising, 36(3), pp.35-50. Packaged Facts, 2010, Millennials in the U.S.: trends and opportunities surrounding Gen-Y adults. accessed on 26 th February 2018, from: https:// www.marketresearch /product/display.asp? productid=2661911. Steyn, P., Wallstrà ¶m, Ã…. and Pitt, L., 2010, Consumer-generated content and source effects in financial services advertising: An experimental study. Journal of Financial Services Marketing, 15(1), pp.49-61. Trainor, K.J., 2012, Relating social media technologies to performance: A capabilities-based perspective. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 32(3), pp.317-331. Williams, D.L., Crittenden, V.L., Keo, T. and McCarty, P., 2012, The use of social media: an exploratory study of usage among digital natives. Journal of Public Affairs, 12(2), pp.127-136. YouTube . 2010, Youtube, accessed on 26 th February 2018, from: https://www.youtube /t/press. Zahay, D. & Fredricks, E. 2009, Podcasting to improve delivery of a project-based internet marketing course. Marketing Education Review 19(1): 57–63.
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
SOAP Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words
SOAP - Essay Example 3 Appendicitis: patient lying still; involuntary guarding; tenderness in RLQ; other tests for peritoneal irritation positive; rebound tenderness; variation in presentation common, particularly with infants, children, and elderly (Dains, Baumann and Scheibel, 2012). 4 Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID): Abdominal tenderness, CMT and adnexal tenderness (usually bilateral); with peritonitis can also have guarding and rebound tenderness; fever and vaginal discharge common (Dains, Baumann and Scheibel, 2012). a Rationale: an abdomen or pelvis CT scan is done to diagnose the causes of abdominal pain which is often unexplained or infections (Corwin et al, 2014). Some causes of abdominal pain include infections such as appendicitis. a Rationale: the transvaginal ultrasound test looks at the reproductive organs of a woman, including the cervix, ovaries and the uterus. The test is conducted when there is an ectopic pregnancy or pelvic pain (Saccardi et al, 2012). a. Rationale: this is an ultrasound that focuses on the female pelvis. It examines a woman’s pelvic organs including the cervix, ovaries, uterus and the uterus lining (endometrium). A pelvic ultrasound is vital in diagnosing symptoms which are often felt by females such as pelvic pain. Also, a pelvic ultrasound is vital in monitoring the development and health of a fetus or embryo during pregnancy (Durham et al, 1997). Summary: (EXAMPLE GIVEN) I found this case particularly interesting because it allows me to utilize what I’ve learned during our health assessment workshop on campus I learned to evaluate the patient. By observing patient’s gait and performing test such as the Tinel’s sign test and Varus/Valgus stress test I was able to rule out possible sprain and/or tunnel syndrome (Graham & Uphold, 2003). I learned from my preceptor how to order test like x-ray and how to refer patients to other interdisciplinary
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Interventions Heart Disease- Malaysia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
Interventions Heart Disease- Malaysia - Essay Example According to the Malaysian National Census data, the demographic pattern of Malaysia was found to be rapidly changing, with the rural population speedily decreasing. Thus, the data indicated that the distribution of the Malaysian population by the year 2000 was 40.4 % as rural population and 59.6% comprising of the urban population (Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2009). In this respect, there has been a drastic change in the health state of Malaysia, where the non-communicable diseases have rapidly increased as the major causes of death compared to the communicable diseases (Anand, et al. 2008). Thus, the rapid change in the social geographical setting from the rural-based population to a more urban-based population serves as one of the major factors influencing the rate and geographical distribution of heart disease in Malaysia (Chia & Srinivas, 2009). The social demographic patterns have indicated that there has been a rapid change of lifestyle in this country courtesy of urbanization, resulting to the increase of the heart disease risk factors, such as obesity. Statistics have indicated that the rate of obesity in Malaysia has tripled within the decade closing the 20th century, with the obesity rate registered in the country increasing from 4.4% in 1996 to 14% in 206 (Department of Statistics Malaysia 2009). Further, the health data statistics have also indicated that the rate of hypertension has increased from 33% to 43% in the same period, while the rate of diabetes mellitus has been found to have doubled for the same period. Another aspect of the lifestyle change is the rise in the rate of tobacco use in the urban areas of Malaysia, where hypertension has also been observed to have the highest rate of prevalence (Chia & Srinivas, 2009). Thus, following this geographical and social lifestyle transformation, the ischaemic heart disease and cerebrovascular
Monday, August 26, 2019
Ethical Standards Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words
Ethical Standards - Essay Example The new code of conduct will act as a guideline for all the employees to follow, when confronted with a dilemma (Roth, 2005). The devised code of conduct will try to cover all the business aspects where any predicament can arise. Thus, code covers the matters of business conduct, marketing and sales practices, business gifts, relationship with colleagues and clients, insider trading, reporting measures and the use fo company or clients’ resources. Therefore, it is very important for every ECG employee to fully understand and abide by the code of conduct. A company’s image is affected by the manner the employees, within and outside the workplace. With ECG’s plan of venturing into international business market, acquiring rival firms and launching an IPO it is essential for the company employees to be on their finest behaviour. This will affect the company’s representation and in turn affect the planned investments (Johnson, 2006). The purpose of developing a code of conduct and policies is to ensure through mutual consent and understanding that these policies are implemented in order to achieve the ultimate target of integrity. The role of all the HODs is very crucial in this regard. The HODs have to become an example for their subordinates. Until the HODs follow these codes of conduct, it is very unlikely for the members of that department to do so. In order to ensure that these policies are adhered to at all times, the HODs should adopt the â€Å"lead by example†approach in this regard (Roth, 2005). The code of conduct clearly specifies the kind of behaviour which is expected from all the employees, irrespective of their stature in the company. Emphasis has been placed on integrity, honesty and trust which should be the foundation of any ethical code. The general business code of conduct lays down the rules for the employees, for the business practices and for the overall business as well. The code of conduct outlines the cul ture of the organization and provides the employees with a framework which will help them in their daily activities. The code also provides the employees with a framework by which they can judge their own behaviour and also learn how to interact with other colleagues and clients. A successful and positive relationship with our clients is essential for the success of ECG. We as a company have been proud of the fact that all out business activities are dealt with honesty, integrity and fairness. Since the relationship with our clients is so vital for our success, care should be taken with the information we provide to our clients, which is always accurate and never misrepresented. Even though client servicing is important, care should be taken when the company is incurring expenses on account of client entertainment or other benefits. These expenses should not exceed a reasonable limit and should always be approved by the finance department. This is made mandatory in order to increase transparency within the system (Lagan & Moran, 2005). Special attention needs to be paid to the marketing and sales department in particular. The marketing department is the department that directly interacts with the consumers. Therefore, the working of the marketing department is a reflection of the company’s image and policies. Documentation of the transactions is an essential part of the code of conduct. Employees are required to document every transaction which takes place between ECG and its clients. This not only makes audit very easy, but also helps
Critique essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words
Critique - Essay Example After perusing her points and arguments, one may be left scratching one’s head because the author appears out of touch. Here is the idea: Ms. Ehrenreich has painted two pictures, that of a man and a woman. In her depictions, the man is aggressive, go-getter, tough and brazen. One could hardly dispute that since men do tend to be boisterous, insensitive, loud and forceful. But there is something wrong about the way women were articulated in the article. Essentially, the writer was admonishing women to toughen up: that being tough is the most important lesson she and most women should learn from men. To rationalize this she cited many arguments that - in the process - depicted an idea of women from the author’s perspective. She first used a personal experience as an example. In a convention, she met a prestigious professor who invited her to his room. The invitation was supposed to be for the purpose of meeting of the minds or something to that effect. Ms. Ehrenreich obli ged, so she found herself with the professor in his room - in a conversation that turned out to be more than intelligent discourse. The man made several passes and sexual innuendos. From a simple and rigid perspective, the conclusion one would get would be, of course, repulsion. The author was properly disgusted, as the professor grew more and more lecherous by the minute. But there is more than what meets the eye in this situation. When a man - who is still virtually a stranger - invites a woman to his room, there is some sexual undertone to that gesture. It is going to be an intellectual discourse, so why not a more casual setting like a cafe or the bar? The room is an intimate place and the invitation should already hint something more than simply â€Å"meeting of the minds†. If Ms. Ehrenreich has helpfully provided the exact invitation, her readers might have no difficulty identifying it as a pick up line. The author accepted, so in principle she is accommodating the init ial overtures. And to think that she still stayed for 20 minutes. She must have perplexed the professor immensely. It is very difficult not to think about the author as naive and that is saying something because she stated that she is already thirty years old. She actually blushed while recounting the episode. Later in her article, Ehrenreich would claim that â€Å"we (women) tend to assume that it is our responsibility to keep everything â€Å"nice†. Unfortunately, she did not provide factual basis or empirical evidence to back this claim. But the question begs to be asked: Is it really the case? That women assume that role? It is perhaps part of her argument that women are trained to be ladylike all their lives. She defined â€Å"ladylikeness†as a persistent servility masked as â€Å"niceness†. One is hard pressed to disagree with this point. It is unfair to claim that this is the case in the American society when women are accepted across all positions and roles that are unladylike in the author’s book. There are women in the police force, in the army, in politics. There are female CEOs who most assuredly have climbed the corporate ladder not by being ladylike. It is also unfair to claim that American women are weak and that they need to toughen up. It is not uncommon for women to be aggressive these days, to be ambitious and to get and do what they want. Gender equality has been institutionalized in America. Even a sexually
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Potlatch Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Potlatch - Essay Example Mauss sees this gift exchange as a system of total services that combines both sacrifice and revenge and this cycle continues, until it exhausts itself into destruction. Thus for Mauss, the potlatch is driven more by the spirit of destruction rather than generosity. Therefore, he is more interested in exploring a totally different aspect of gift giving that is outside the dominant moral code of the capitalist and consumerist society of the West. The Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian have been studied for this aspect of religious exchange or sacrifice that resembles the phenomenon of potlatch. The potlatch, which is a gift, therefore becomes a symbol of sacrifice and demands an equal sacrifice, whose debt is not automatically cancelled always but may produce forth a fresh demand for exchange of gift and so forth. Thus Mauss says that by exchanging gifts that are symbols of power and status a kind of peaceful equilibrium is maintained and it is dangerous to not involve oneself in this sacrifice if gifts. "The Indian tribes of the North-West America, again, practice the "potlatch" system, consisting in two tribes or chiefs engaging in a competition of prodigality; whoever is the richer gives the most and destroys his possessions if necessary. All this, however, in order that he himself may prosper, since in this manner he shows that he has power"2 However, in Arguing with Anthropology, Karen Margaret Skyes argues that the economies of sacrifice seem to be a misnomer for the depth and crux of the issues that potlatch raises perhaps because Potlatch shakes the common sense of the capitalist ideology, which expresses the angst it expresses by the sheer generosity it shows through the exchange of warring gifts by displaying how much one can give to the other. It therefore stands for the total system of social status without which the ethnographic groups have no identity! Therefore, to gather social respect they agree to endanger their well being. Potlatch probably conjures up the fantasy of modern power, which combines luxurious self-destruction - an obsessive and slow yet megalomaniac suicide of a society on the whole and shatters the myth of progression towards the capitalist future. Or is it somewhat similar to where we as westerners are headed It is an ironical similarity - potlatch, self-destruction and capitalist consumerist philosophy converge at a point - buy at any cost and death by excess. Potlatch has been variously criticized as giving beyond reason - but is the capitalist economy reasonable Does presenting an island to a friend any less extravagant or any less unreasonable than a potlatch One can argue that it does not dangerously bind the recipient into any form of obligation to give back a gift of equal proportion. Yes, it may not - but in a capitalist society excess of ceremony is also a political game that fascinates and horrifies at the same time - it is an excessive display of power or a counterpower to som ething that already exists. Thus, festivities are always a symbol of subversion of power, and it is a separate display of power that already exists or which is seeking to overthrow the existing power and seek prominence. Let us also consider the exchange of gift that happens in the Indian society, which is also called dowry, is another
Saturday, August 24, 2019
Operation management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words
Operation management - Assignment Example The responsibility of a project manager can be identified by considering the following case. For instance, a particular project manager has been provided with the responsibility of constructing a bridge and who would also need to ensure that the bridge remains serviceable for the initial 20 years of use. Thus, any failure to build the bridge during the period would need to be corrected at the expense of the project manager. In order to complete the project i.e. construction of the bridge successfully, the project manager would have to perform the aforementioned responsibilities (Munns & Bjeirmi, 1996). Demonstration of Technique 1 The technique i.e. Critical Path Analysis (CPA) ensures the completion of a particular project ‘on time’ and ‘on budget’. It computes the time as well as determines the investment amounts which greatly contribute towards finishing a project ‘on time’ and ‘on budget’. Moreover, the technique i.e. ... CPA can make the differentiation between success and failure upon any complex project. It is much valuable for evaluating the significance of the difficulties which are faced while implementing a project plan. The technique of CPA can be implemented by following the diagram. Source: (Baker, 2004). Demonstration of Technique 2 The other technique which facilitates the execution of a project ‘on time’ and ‘on budget’ is ‘Gantt Chart’ method. This technique is fundamentally learnt to be a valuable tool in order to analyse as well as plan different complex projects. Moreover, it is recognised to be a strong as well as a standard instrument with respect to project management. The technique i.e. the ‘Gantt Chart’ can be used for making certain of the actuality that the project can be completed ‘on time’ and ‘on budget’ because it aids to divide the procedures in simpler forms, recognises every important tasks rel ating to the project , establishes duration and identifies overlapping works. These vital features of ‘Gantt Chart’ eventually lead to the accomplishment of a project ‘on time’ and ‘on budget’ (The Centre for Academic Development, 2001). The diagram of â€Å"Gantt Chart" has been provided hereunder. Source: (The Centre for Academic Development, 2001). Question 2 Principles of Performance Management The conception of performance management is principally described as a continuing procedure which is perceived as a strategic approach and offer successful results within a company by enhancing the performance and developing the proficiencies of the individuals and teams. The major objectives of performance management include supporting personal growth as well as team development, raising the degree of team performance by promoting
Friday, August 23, 2019
Wachovia Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words
Wachovia - Research Paper Example All the major cause will be expansively presented in this paper. The valuable lessons learnt from the crisis will also be thrown light upon in this paper. Wachovia, Bear Stearns, AIG, Lehmann Brothers, Northern Rock, Goldman Sachs are some elite names that suffered the most because of the economic crisis also known as recession. Wachovia was once the fourth largest bank in America but it could not sustain the wrath of recession and was taken over by Wells Fargo in the year 2008. Lehmann brothers filed for bankruptcy while AIG and a few other elites just hung in there with the skin of their teeth. This economic crisis is still having repercussions on countries like Greece and Spain; the whole of Euro Zone is facing a financial turmoil. There are a few other countries that have been not so severely affected by the same. The crisis triggered off because of unchecked debt, banks kept issuing loans to people who invested heavily in buying assets, several things were taken for granted but when proved otherwise there was hardly a place in the world to hide. Overvaluation in real estate is perhaps the biggest cause of the current economic crisis, it is better known as the subprime crisis in the US. The likes of Lehmann Brothers and other financial services went bust because they kept issuing credit to the people who thought the property price would increase and they would be easily able to pay off the debt that they are borrowing. It did not turn out that way and there was a short of equity, this is exactly why the financial institutions went bankrupt. The overvaluation is the biggest factor that caused the current economic crisis. Factors like bad income tax practices have added insult to injury, bad mortgage lending also contributed heavily to this current economic crisis. â€Å"The way to address the root cause is to let house prices drop to where an average house is within the means of an average household. (Or, alternatively, boost the income of the average h ousehold to the point that they can afford an average house. But that's very hard. Letting houses prices go on falling, although painful for everyone who owns a house or who has lent money to someone who owns a house, is very easy.)†(Root Cause of the Financial Crisis) The UK housing market was also greatly affected because of recession. The impact of the global economic crisis on UK property companies was dire. Previously well performing firms in terms of turnover and profits experienced drastic falls in profits and even losses. Tightened lending conditions and dips in confidence in the UK housing sector translated to inactivity in business and thus reduced turnovers, hindered growth and difficult operations. In the general pattern as the rest of the economy, property firms found it untenable to maintain workforce numbers as lack of activity and the heavy toll of remuneration on available resources. Reduced spending propensities and the lack of credit in the housing sector left most of these companies’ futures hanging in the balance. There is also the question of how the entire properties sector and the property companies have set out to recover from the economic crisis. Concerns also arise in terms of how well the instituted strategies can buffer such firms against an occurrence of another financial downturn in the future. The content analysis reveals that the property companies went through severe impacts on their management dispositions as well as on their employees. The managers were
Thursday, August 22, 2019
Mandatory Service Program Essay Example for Free
Mandatory Service Program Essay There are many debates concerning advantages and disadvantages of mandating community service, however, the practice of compelling adolescents to take part in community service is increasingly common. People seek to understand the relationships between mandatory community service and volunteering. A key distinction between mandated community service and volunteering is the freely-chosen nature of the latter activity compared to the compulsory nature of the former (Arai et al.). Even though college students may not comprehend the value of community service now, this is a great opportunity for them to achieve something in the future. What harm can several hours of service per week possibly do to youngsters? Instead of attending pubs, drinking alcohol and doing whatever they like to do, they will be busy with contributing to the society. The statistics shows that students who participated in community service while studying at college are more likely to find a good job because they have something to put in their resumes. Such people are welcome in every circle. Current statistics from the Department of Labor report that in the United States among the 26, 8% of the adult population who volunteer, college students are the majority of them (76, 3%). That shows that individuals with higher levels of educational attainment are more aware of the importance of contributing to the community, more aware of the impact the may have and the responsibility they carry as citizens to improve lives and solve problems. By implementing a mandatory service program for all college students, the number of active students should be increased, and that should be the start. The reason why that should be initiated at college is that college is where there already a wide culture of volunteering, where individuals are more responsive to the need of getting involved. College students carry fundamental information that should help in crafting solutions to existing social problems. At the beginning, the service will, of course, be mandatory, but later most of the students may like it, may like to pay tribute to their society and be responsible for something useful and good that they have done. The study of Ontario university students compared a cohort of students required to perform mandatory community service to a cohort that did not, in terms of their attitudes toward volunteering and civic engagement a few months after high school graduation (Henderson). Metz and Youniss note in particular the benefits of mandated community service for students who are less inclined to servedefined in this case as students who had no volunteer experience prior to beginning their mandated service, and who delayed beginning their service until their final year before graduation. In their study, these less-inclined students, once compelled to become involved in community service, experienced firsthand the benefits of doing so, and were likely to stay involved and report intentions to continue civic involvement into adulthood. While more-inclined adolescents similarly reported intentions to continue their involvement, they were likely to do so regardless of whether they had been required to perform community service (Arai et al.). Among the group less inclined to service, students required to perform mandatory service showed a greater likelihood of civic interest and understanding, future voting, and conventional civic involvement after their experience (Lerner, Zaff). Mandated community service experiences are not significantly different from those entered into willingly. Length and breadth of service is similar, and with the exception that high school students who were not mandated to perform community service tend to use their schools to identify volunteering opportunities, and as places to perform service, the two cohorts are indistinguishable (Brown et al.). Some may not agree that service should be made mandatory to all students at college because partner sites could lose with the program instead of benefiting. The argument is that sites will not have a long- term commitment from the students participating in the program and that might hurt their projects. However, the students might be so deeply involved with their projects that they may choose to carry on with their work and continue to help. Their enthusiasm may influence others in their lives, such as their family members, in such a way they become supports as well. Another strong argument against mandatory service program is that in 2002, Covitt found that girls had more positive attitudes about required service than boys, and that white students had more positive attitudes than black students (Lerner, Zaff). Of course, it is impossible for all nations and genders to have the same attitude and the same point of view. But that is the actual purpose of community service: to unite everyone for solving common social problems and achieving desired goals. Nowadays civic engagement is deteriorating, people become members of different associations less and less, they are not interested in social activities and do not care about obvious problems. They turn a blind eye on everything that is farther from their reach. There are three possible ways for mandated behavior programs to attain their goals: they compel, directly, the very behaviors that are seen to be essential; they create behavioral habits so that individuals might then begin to participate in other similar activities; and/or the act of participating instills in individuals the attitudes that then serve as motors for other behaviors deemed to be beneficial (Brown et al.). Among programs aimed at students, effects are clearest when service is regular and sustained, when there are broad opportunities for public action, or when the service provides students with an opportunity to experience power. Factors such as the amount of enjoyment, support, respect, and appreciation students encounter in their placements are very important in promoting a commitment to subsequent volunteering (Brown et al.). Mandatory community service is, of course, one example of mandated civic behavior deemed to benefit both individual participants and society as a whole. In order for college students not to be hostile towards the program, they need to get some benefits from participating. And this way they will not feel forced to do anything. Their contributions will become more voluntary and, therefore, they will become better people than they were before. In conclusion, it has to be said that the number of reasons pro establishing mandatory service program is overwhelming and fears about consequences are not reasonable enough to fight against it. Students will be busy with something useful for their lives and will not notice how they begin to enjoy it. Both, the young people and the society will benefit from it.
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Ethics Handbook Essay Example for Free
Ethics Handbook Essay We chose you as an employee of Company X because we see you as a valuable person who can contribute to the same priority. As a team member of Company X, are goals are clear. Through public respect, responsiveness, and accountability as our core values, we are able to remain leaders in the industry. The success of our company is dependent on you, our stakeholders, and our customers. We take great pride in our reputation in the industry and continually monitor ourselves for ways we can improve business for our clients, stakeholders, policymakers, and the general public, both local and national. Our reliability is measured through our commitment to delivering service with integrity and through honorable conduct. Because we are at the forefront of public service, we are judged on our choices and decisions. Our reputation is based on the public’s view of our commitment to ethical business practices and our respect for society. As an organization we aim to maintain active engagement in ethical behavior that promotes social responsibility in everyday practices. This is where you come in as an employee. We encourage all employees to actively participate in community outreach and events that foster both your own growth and the growth of social values. Company X will reward this activity if accompanied with ethical decision making by increasing promotion opportunities and/or allowing this experience to be counted in your job description. If you are interested in this opportunity, see Human Resources for a list of approved community outreach opportunities. Company X Values It is the policy of Company X to embrace ethical behavior through clear communication of the laws, rules and expectations that are defined in this code of ethics. In addition, Company X values accountability for good ethical choices and socially respected behavior. We rely on every member to evaluate their own behavior and conduct respectable business through solid every day decision making. Ethics are not fixed, and subject to interpretation through each and every interaction between everyone involved. Because value s and ethical decision making can be challenging, Company X wants to take some of the pressure off the complexities of making difficult ethical decisions. Therefore, this manual provides directives used to evaluate and interpret best practices in the business environment. In addition, these policies and all regulations including administrative actions, apply to all staff members, contractors, and volunteers and are strictly enforced (see section Member Misconduct).The manual also contains fixed principles, mandatory training, resources for questionable situations, ethics mentor, anonymous hotline, and resources for situations that may be questionable. A signed copy of this manual will be placed in all member’s personnel file and will be used as reference for future use. Please be sure you understand these policies and procedures before you sign the document. We begin by outlining and defining the standards of social and ethical conduct. In addition to standards of behavior, training is outlined. Training is mandated to all staff employed by Company X. Additional training and resources are offered throughout the year in respon se to the changing needs of the industry and social issues and will be announced semi-annually. Principles of Behavior and Conduct No member, contractor or person acting as a representative shall: Discriminate against clients, coworkers, stakeholders, Accept monetary compensation, services in trade or benefit from any interaction directly or indirectly related to the services provided by company x if the value is determined to be at or above $30. Engage in, use or create an appearance of using official capacity to influence clients stakeholders, or other members for personal or professional gain. Knowingly make statements or take action that is untruthful or can be reasonably determined to be untruthful. Engage either directly or indirectly in political campaigns, nor engage in political conversation with anyone while acting in capacity of Company X business. Retaliate against any member who comes forward with claims of ethical violations. Retaliation is mandatory termination of employment without further warning (see section Member Misconduct). All members contractors, or persons acting as a representative shall: Report all incidents of violations to the Ethics Office. Interact and promote personal integrity, honesty, fairness and confidence in compliance with all laws, rules, policies and regulations both internally and externally. Maintain confidentiality in all interactions. Written, verbal, email, phone. Avoid inappropriate associations with clients or client representatives. Engage, actively encourage and support community involvement through support and reassurance in wrap-around service delivery. Utilize efficient use of resources in such a way that minimizes the impact to the environment (energy and materials). Report suspected, potential, or clear violation of ethical misconduct. All members in the chain of command are held to the same standards. Contractors, and any individual acting in a capacity to officially represent Company X are also required to carry out all actions with an intent to promote public trust, integrity, and confidence. From team members to corporate leaders, we expect the same set of principles through a set model of best practices. Best practices is recognized by asking yourself is this decision going to cause harm to someone, is this situation going to violate law or company policy, is my action going to violate stakeholder values, or compromise my position within my job role? Best practices will help us all to remove some of the risks we might face in everyday decision making by communicating set values, social responsibility and ethical standards for all members. Because best practices is subjective, training and resources will be available to provide leadership and mentoring. We encourage open discussion when personal values and ethi cs might cause conflict or confusion. As a condition of continued employment, mandatory ethics training is provided and monitored (see monitoring ethics section below). Ethics Training Leadership teams attend annual ethics training. Training includes skills to monitor and mentor lower staff. As a result, members can be confident that management is able to provide guidance and support for most ethical decisions. In order to communicate Company X’s policies, values, and changing trends in legal and social ethical issues formal training is required. Company X models this by providing training. As a result, all staff are required to complete the following formal training: In the first month of employment, all staff will go through instructor led training targeted toward individual and group acknowledgement of legal situations, ethical dilemmas, social responsibility and reporting requirements. This interactive training will present scenarios in which employees will make decisions whether ethical violations may or may not have occurred. Independent trainers with local management will evaluate answers and offer answers to difficult scenarios. All staff will take a yearly instructor led course on the history of civil rights and one follow up interactive on line course which presents current social, business and ethical issues in industry. General managers will receive value based ethics training tailored from annual risk assessment data. The goal is for managers to set modeled behavior and create positive influence. Company X sponsors an annual Industry Standards Town Hall meeting. We value transparency and company input from all of us and our intentions are to provide all of us the opportunity to go over changing social issues, our previous year’s successes and failures, and what can we do to support the values of Company X, our clients, and community partners. Our company will be closed on this day while each of us enjoy a paid day to come and participate in this interactive get together. Member Misconduct Company X recognizes ethical conduct is not always easy to define. We value fairness and strive to provide impartial judgment based on facts and data. All reports of violations are reviewed and judged by an independent review board who will at determination of reported violations, determine consequences and refer cases for criminal prosecution if necessary. Consequences for violation of ethical misconduct will be strictly enforced. Company X has zero tolerance for unethical behavior. Informal and formal offenses will be forwarded to the Ethics Committee for record keeping purposes. Informal counsel for misconduct not related to any act of gross misconduct. This is the preferred method for first time offenses. Formal counsel is written report placed in member file for duration of one year. Two written reports within one year that are found to be validated through investigation will result either in unpaid suspension or immediate termination. Unpaid suspension. Gross negligence results in immediate termination and will be referred for criminal prosecution. Monitoring Auditing and Reporting Video monitoring in central locations where customer interactions will be supervised by an independent contractor. This is to protect you as an employee, protect customer interactions, and protect the interest of Company X. All computer and resource use by all employees is subject to monitoring and will be strictly enforced. IT managers have unlimited access to company owned property. Due to the potential time sensitive situations that may arise, no notice will be given prior to IT management accessing company computers. Team members personnel files will be maintained and include reported violations. These files will be analyzed for trends that can be traced back to departments, leaders, hiring practices, or substandard training. The Ethics Office, and Human Resources do not require your written consent for release of information related to ethical violations. Semi-annual audits will be conducted on all departments within Company X by the Ethics A udit committee: Anonymous hotline reports will be compiled and reported to the Ethics Audit committee. Plan for Evaluating and Improving the Ethics Program After Implementation. The final results of all data compiled by the Ethics Office will be submitted to Corporate Leadership Committee who will analyze the results in order to evaluate potential changes to Company X’s ethical inventory. Data will also be collected from hotline calls, imposed ethical violations, and employee suggestions. This data will be measured against all complaints, judgments, and lawsuits both within Company X and the industry and be used to revise program standards. Data will also be analyzed and evaluated for ethical issues that need to be integrated in to future training and resources for staff. All staff will complete annual on line â€Å"How Are We Doing?†surveys. Focus groups tailored to each department’s group dynamic will analyze the data and make formal recommendations to the Ethics Office Staff, community and stakeholder input will be collected and analyzed for social and ethical value. The Ethics Office will compile the results from all departments and present the evidence to CEOs and senior management. Middle management and supervisors will be included in the final findings. Training will be adjusted and targeted to cultural, legal, and ethical risk factors. Positive yearly ethical performance evaluations, focus group opportunities, and promotional opportunities will be tied to annual employee review. Help and Resources Here at Company X we recognize that some ethical situations may be complex or blurred. Additionally, we recognize that the difficult decision to come forward with information against coworkers may prevent reporting incidents that need investigation. Furthermore, ethical decisions are often confusing and require complex decision making. We are here to help. Furthermore, if you have questions about your own decisions, questions about an incident, or just want to ask questions, we want to support you. For this reason, we provide an anonymous phone line that allows members to report violations, present questions and trouble shoot challenging scenarios. Ethics Office 360-555-1212 staffed by trained ethics officer. Anonymous hotline 360-555-4242 State Office of Ethics 1-999-555-2323 Federal Office of Ethics 1-777-555-7878 We provide annual reports of imposed ethics violations and the penalties imposed. Here is the link to www.companyx/ethics/reports.com I have read and understand the policies and ethical standards set for Company X. I am aware a signed copy of this policy will be placed in my team member personnel file.
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
Theory of Heteronuclear NMR Spectroscopy and its Application
Theory of Heteronuclear NMR Spectroscopy and its Application SYED MASOOD HASSAN AKBARI Question 1: Describe theory of heteronuclear NMR spectroscopy and its use in pharmaceutical analysis. Current strategies for determining the structures of membrane proteins in lipid environments by NMR spectroscopy rely on the anisotropy of nuclear spin interactions, which are experimentally accessible through experiments performed on weakly and completely aligned samples. Importantly, the anisotropy of nuclear spin interactions results in a mapping of structure to the resonance frequencies and splatting’s observed in NMR spectra. Distinctive wheel-like patterns are observed in two-dimensional 1H–15N heteronuclear dipolar/15N chemical shift PISEMA (polarization inversion spin-exchange at the magic angle) spectra of helical membrane proteins in highly aligned lipid bilayer samples (Marassi and Opella, 2000; Wang et al., 2000). One dimensional dipolar waves are an extension of two-dimensional PISA (polarity index slant angle) wheels that map protein structures in NMR spectra of both weakly and completely aligned samples (Marassi and Opella, 2000). Dipolar waves describe t he periodic wave-like variations of the magnitudes of the heteronuclear dipolar couplings as a function of residue number in the absence of chemical shift effects. Since weakly aligned samples of proteins display these same effects, primarily as residual dipolar couplings, in solution NMR spectra, this represents a convergence of solid-state and solution NMR approaches to structure determination (Marassi and Opella, 2000). NMR structural studies of proteins There are three principal spectroscopic considerations for NMR structural studies of proteins: the overall rotational correlation time of the protein, the extent of alignment of the protein in the sample, and the strategy for assignment of the resonances to sites in the protein. Each of these considerations needs to be taken into account in the development of NMR for structural studies of membrane proteins (Opella, 1997). For relatively small globular proteins, the sample conditions, instrumentation, experiments, and calculations that lead to structure determination are well established (Cavanagh et al., 1996). The chief requirement for structure determination of globular proteins is that samples can be prepared of isotopically labelled polypeptides that are folded in their native conformation and reorient relatively rapidly in solution. Such samples have been prepared for many hundreds of proteins, and it is likely that this can be done for thousands more of the polypeptide sequence s found in genomes (Wuthrich, 1998). This is not yet the case for membrane proteins. Resonance assignments The traditional approach to protein structure determination is based on the same overall principles, whether solution NMR or solid-state NMR methods are used and whether the sample is aligned or not. This involves the resolution of resonances through the use of isotopic labels and multidimensional NMR experiments, the measurement of spectral parameters associated with individual resonances, for example, NOEs, J couplings, dipolar couplings, or chemical shift frequencies, the assignment of all resonance to specific sites in the protein, and then the calculation of structures. There are examples of the application of this approach to membrane proteins in micelles (Almeida and Opella, 1997) and bilayers (Opella et al., 1999). The availability of orientation information associated with individual resonances means that it is now possible to make effective use of limited amounts of assignment information, for example, some residue-type assignments or a few sequential assignments. It may al so be feasible to implement an â€Å"assignment-free†approach. The use of either limited or no assignment information prior to calculating structures would greatly speed the process of structure determination by NMR spectroscopy, especially in the case of membrane proteins where assignments are difficult to make in nearly all situations due to overlap of resonances and unfavourable relaxation parameters. Dipole–dipole interaction The local field, which results from the interaction between two nearby nuclei, is a direct source of structural information. Pake’s (1948) seminal paper demonstrated that the dipole–dipole interaction between two spin S = 1/2 nuclei is manifested as a doublet in NMR spectra, with the frequency difference a function of not only the distance between the two nuclei but also the angle between the internuclear vector and the direction of the applied magnetic field. The dipole–dipole interaction provides direct access to geometrical parameters that can be translated into molecular structures. Moreover, it is important for many aspects of solid-state NMR spectroscopy; for example, it is essential to minimize its influence through decoupling to obtain well-resolved spectra. In this regard, it is generally easier to deal with heteronuclear rather than homonuclear dipolar couplings. Heteronuclear dipolar couplings are used extensively to determine the structures of protein s, in particular the 1H–15N interaction at the amide sites in the protein backbone. Uniform labelling with 15N is particularly valuable in proteins because the properties of a â€Å"dilute spin†are retained, since the next nearest amide nitrogen is separated by two carbon atoms in the polypeptide backbone (Cross et al., 1982). In addition, each 15N label in an amide site provides three spin interactions for analysis: the 15N chemical shift, the 1H chemical shift, and, of course, the 1H–15N heteronuclear dipolar coupling between the two directly bonded nuclei. The dipole–dipole interaction is anisotropic; therefore, the value of the splitting varies with molecular orientation. It is maximal for an N–H bond parallel to the field, half-maximal when the bond is perpendicular to the field, and zero when the bond is at the â€Å"magic angle†. All of these possibilities are observed in experimental data from aligned proteins. The 1H–15N het eronuclear dipolar interaction has the dual roles of providing a mechanism for resolving among resonances with N–H bonds at different orientations and of providing the input for structure determination in the form of frequency measurements that can be translated into angles between individual bonds and the external axis imposed by the magnetic field. The angular information can then be used in conjunction with the well-established geometry of peptide planes to determine the three-dimensional structure of the polypeptide backbone (Opella et al., 1987). These methods can be extended to additional nitrogen and carbon sites for characterization of side chain conformations. Separated local field spectroscopy (Waugh 1976) combines several of the elements of high-resolution solid-state NMR spectroscopy to average out the unwanted broadening influences of homonuclear dipolar couplings and double resonance and multidimensional spectroscopy to average out and separate the heteronuclear dipolar couplings in different parts of the experiment. The chemical shift dimension in two-dimensional separated local field spectra is intrinsically high resolution because it is obtained while decoupling the hydrogens to remove the broadening due to heteronuclear dipolar couplings. Homonuclear dipolar couplings are minimal among the dilute nuclei and generally do not require attention. This enables the dipolar couplings between bonded pairs of 1H and 15N nuclei to be measured for individual 15N sites with different chemical shift frequencies. The original versions of separated local field spectroscopy have more than adequate resolution for studies of peptides or specifically or selectively labelled proteins. However, further improvements in resolution were needed for studies of uniformly 15N labelled proteins. PISEMA (polarization inversion spin-exchange at the magic angle) (Wu et al., 1994) is a high-resolution version of separated local field spectroscopy. Line widths in the key dipolar frequency dimension are reduced by more than one order of magnitude compared with the conventional separated local field experiment. The combination of narrow lines and favourable scaling factor has such a dramatic effect on the appearance of the spectra that it is now feasible to formulate solid-state NMR experiments where heteronuclear dipolar coupling frequencies complement chemical shifts as a mechanism for spectroscopic resolution as well as the measurement of readily interpretable orientationally dependent frequencies. PISA (polarity index slant angle) wheels The secondary structure and topology of a membrane protein can be described by the patterns of resonances observed in two-dimensional PISEMA spectra of uniformly 15N labelled polypeptides in aligned bilayers (Marassi and Opella, 2000; Wang et al., 2000). The characteristic â€Å"wheel-like†patterns observed in these spectra reflect helical wheel projections of residues in both transmembrane and in-plane helices. Therefore, PISA wheels provide direct indices of both secondary structure and topology. The resonance frequencies in both the 1H–15N heteronuclear dipolar and 15N chemical shift dimensions in PISEMA spectra of aligned samples of membrane proteins depend on helix orientation as well as on backbone dihedral angles, the magnitudes and orientations of the principal elements of the amide 15N chemical shift tensor, and the N–H bond length. It is possible to calculate spectra for any protein structure (Bak et al., 2002). The principals involved in the PISA whee l analysis of helices (Marassi and Opella, 2000) are illustrated in Fig. 2. In Fig. 2A, the projection down the axis of a helical wheel shows that the 3.6 residues per turn periodicity characteristic of an ÃŽ ±-helix results in an arc of 100 ° between adjacent residues. The drawing of a peptide plane in Fig. 2B shows the orientations of the principal axes of the three operative spin interactions at the 15N-labelled amide site. The 17 ° difference between the N–H bond axis and the ÃÆ'33 principal element of the amide 15N chemical shift tensor is of particular importance because of its impact on the spectral appearance of a PISA wheel. The striking wheel-like pattern of resonances calculated from a two-dimensional PISEMA spectrum of an ideal helix is shown in Fig. 2C. A PISA wheel reflects the slant angle (tilt) of the helix, and the assignment of the resonances reflects the polarity index (rotation) of the helix. When the helix axis is parallel to the bilayer normal, all of the amide sites have an identical orientation relative to the direction of the applied magnetic field, and therefore, all of the resonances overlap with the same dipolar coupling and chemical shift frequencies. Tilting the helix away from the membrane normal results in variations in the orientations of the amide N–H bond vectors relative to the field. This is seen in the spectra as dispersions of both the heteronuclear dipolar coupling and the chemical shift frequencies. Nearly all transmembrane helices are tilted with respect to the bilayer normal, and it is the combination of the tilt and the 17 ° difference between the tensor orientations in the molecular frame that makes it possible to resolve many resonances from residues in otherwise uniform helices and is responsible for the wheel-like pattern in PISEMA spectra, such as that illustrated in Fig. 2C. Figure 1: Illustrates principles of PISA wheels (Marassi and Opella, 2000). (A) Helical wheel showing the 100 ° arc between adjacent residues that is a consequence of the periodicity of 3.6 residues per turn in an ÃŽ ±-helix; (B) orientations of the principal elements of the spin interaction tensors associated with 15N in a peptide bond; (C) PISA wheel for an ideal ÃŽ ±-helix; (D) dipolar wave for an ideal ÃŽ ±-helix. Question 2: Structure Elucidation for C11H15NO.HCl Mw = 213.70 FT-IR Shows a sharp peak at 1690cm-1 which is representative of a C=O functional group. There is a broad peak turning up at the 3500cm-1 representative of a C-H group. 1H NMR Shows a cluster of peaks from 7.62-8.02ppm showing up as 5H. This means that the benzene ring is branched at one location. 5.25ppm shows up as a 1H this is the CH group 2.97-3.03ppm are the 2CH  3 groups bonded to the Nitrogen. 1.64ppm comes up as a doublet with 3H this means that it is a methyl. The strong peak at the 4.80ppm is representative of the amine. 13C NMR The useful information gathered from this spectra is as there are negative peaks showing up so the angle at which this spectra was got was at 1350 clearly showing the CH2 in the ring and the benzene facing down. 196.51ppm shows the negative peak of the benzene ring. 136.69ppm shows the CH2 groups in the benzene ring. The peaks ranging from 128.54-131.90 are of the symmetrical benzene ring carbons. 69.57ppm is the CH3 group close to the ketone. 41.29ppm is the CH group which is beside the ketone. 14.46ppm is the 2 CH3 groups bonded to the amine. EI-MS Shows a small signal at 29 m/z which is representative of a CHO group. And the signal at 72 m/z is representative of a H3CHC=N+(CH 3)2 ion. Chemical Structure Figure 1: Shows the structure of C11H15NO.HCl. References Almeida FCL, Opella SJ. fd coat protein structure in membrane environments: structural dynamics of a loop connecting a hydrophobic trans-membrane helix and an amphiapathic helix in a membrane protein.J. Mol. Biol.1997;270:481–495.[PubMed] Bak M, Schultz R, Vosegaard T, Nielsen NC. Specification and visualization of anisotropic interaction tensors in polypeptides and numerical simulations in biological solid-state NMR.J. Magn. Reson.2002;154:28–45.[PubMed] Bax A, Kontaxis G, Tjandra N. Dipolar couplings in macromolecular structure determination.Methods Enzymol.2001;330:127–172.[PubMed] Cavanagh J, Fairbrother WJ, Palmer AG, Skelton NS.Protein NMR spectroscopy.New York: Academic Press; 1996. Chou JJ, Kaufman JD, Stahl SJ, Wingfield PT, Bax A. Micelle-induced curvature in a water-insoluble HIV-1 Env peptide revealed by NMR dipolar coupling measurement in stretched polyacrylamide gel.J. Am. Chem. Soc.2002;124:2450–2451.[PubMed] Cross TA, DiVerdi JA, Opella SJ. Strategy for nitrogen NMR of biopolymers.J. Am. Chem. Soc.1982;104:1759–1761. Griffin RG. Dipolar recoupling in MAS spectra of biological solids.Nat. Struct. Biol. NMR Suppl.1998;II:508–512.[PubMed] Howard KP, Opella SJ. High resolution solid-state NMR spectra of integral membrane proteins reconstituted into magnetically oriented phospholic bilayers.J. Magn. Reson.1996;112:91–94.[PubMed] Ma C, Opella SJ. Lanthanide ions bind specifically to an added â€Å"EF-hand†and orient a membrane protein in micelles for solution NMR spectroscopy.J. Magn. Reson.2000;146:381–384.[PubMed] Marassi FM, Opella SJ. A solid-state NMR index of helical membrane protein structure and topology.J. Magn. Reson.2000;144:150–155.[PMC free article][PubMed] Marassi FM, Ramamoorthy A, Opella SJ. Complete resolution of the solid-state NMR spectrum of a uniformly15N-labeled membrane protein in phospholipid bilayers.Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S. A.1997;94:8551–8556.[PMC free article][PubMed] McDonnell PA, Opella SJ. Effect of detergent concentration on multidimensional solution NMR spectra of membrane proteins in micelles.J. Magn. Reson.1993;B102:120–125. Mesleh MF, Veglia G, DeSilva TM, Marassi FM, Opella SJ. Dipolar waves as NMR maps of protein structure.J. Am. Chem. Soc.2002;124:4206–4207.[PMC free article][PubMed] Opella SJ. NMR and membrane proteins.Nat. Struct. Biol. NMR Suppl.1997;I:845–848.[PubMed] Opella SJ, Stewart PL, Valentine KG. Structural analysis of solid-state NMR measurement of peptides and proteins.Q. Rev. Biophys.1987;19:7–49.[PubMed] Opella SJ, Marassi FM, Gesell JJ, Valente AP, Kim Y, Oblatt-Montal M, Montal M. Structures of the M2 channel-lining segments from nicotinic acetylcholine and NMDA receptors by NMR spectroscopy.Nat. Struct. Biol.1999;6:374–379.[PMC free article][PubMed] Pake GE. Nuclear resonance absorption in hydrated crystals: fine structure of proton line.J. Chem. Phys.1948;16:327–336. Sanders CR, Hare BJ, Howard K, Prestegard JH. Magnetically-oriented phospholipid micelles as a tool for the study of membrane-associated molecules.Prog. NMR Spectrosc.1993;26:421–444. Veglia G, Opella SJ. Lanthanide ion binding to adventitious sites aligns membrane proteins in micelles for solution NMR spectroscopy.J. Am. Chem. Soc.2000;122:11 733–11 734. Wang J, Denny J, Tian C, Kim S, Mo Y, Kovacs F, Song Z, Nishimura K, Gan Z, Fu R, Quine JR, Cross TA. Imaging membrane protein helical wheels.J. Magn. Reson.2000;144:162–167.[PubMed] Waugh JS. Uncoupling of local field spectra in nuclear magnetic resonance: determination of atomic positions in solids.Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S. A.1976;78:1894–1897.[PMC free article][PubMed] Wu CH, Ramamoorthy A, Opella SJ. High-resolution heteronuclear dipolae solid-state NMR spectroscopy.J. Magn. Reson.1994;A109:270–272. Wuthrich K. The second decade-into the third millennium.Nat. Struct. Biol. NMR. Suppl.1998;II:492–495.[PubMed]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)