A Jury of her Peers by Susan Glaspell Essay -- A Jury of Her Peers Ess

In Susan Glaspell’s, â€Å"A Jury of her Peers†, it is the women who take center stage and captivate the reader’s emotions. Throughout the feministic short story, which was written in 1917, several repeating patterns and symbols help the audience to gain a deeper understanding of the difficulty of prairie life for women and of the bond that women share. The incredible cunning the women in the story demonstrate provides insight into the innate independence that women had even during days of deep sexual discrimination. In â€Å"A Jury of her Peers†, the hardships women of the early twentieth century must endure and the sisterhood that they can still manage to maintain are manifested as a mysterious, small-town murder unfolds. In the beginning of the story, Martha Hale leaves her house in half-disarray to meet with her husband, the county attorney, Mrs. Peters, and Mr. Peters, the county sheriff. The five travel up to the Wright household to investigate the murder of Mr. Wright. Mr. Hale explains to the county attorney that the previous day Mrs. Wright had told him in a shockingly matter-of-fact way that her husband was dead. She had said that he was strangled in their bed by a rope and that she was never awakened by any commotion. It is obvious from her odd laugh and the incoherence of her explanation of her husband’s death that something is emotionally wrong with her. Immediately after Mr. Hale explains his story to the county attorney, the men leave to look around the house for more evidence. While alone together, the women start to talk to each other. Mrs. Hale comments that she would feel uncomfortable to have men roaming in her kitchen, but Mrs. Peters defends them. Her view of the men searching the house is more t... ...box with the bird in it. The men enter with some condescending remarks toward the women to which neither Mrs. Hale nor Mrs. Peters remarks. The county attorney says that it seems pretty clear that Mrs. Wright is guilty but that he has failed to uncover any evidence that would explain any motive. The women do not mention that they have found the bird. They know that proof of motive is the most critical piece of evidence against Mrs. Wright and that when she is tried in court, she will not technically be judged by a group of her peers. Women are not allowed to vote and, therefore, cannot be members of a jury. If the court does establish a motive, Mrs. Wright will surely be convicted by a group of chauvinistic men. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters know the motive but decide to take the law into their own hands and, in doing so, demonstrate both autonomy and fellowship.

Bcg Matrix Critique

Marketing Critique: BCG Matrix Your Name Here Table of Contents Introduction3 Concept Overview3 Functional Critique5 Intellectual Critique6 Ethical Critique7 Political Critique8 Conclusion8 Bibliography9 Introduction This paper will attempt to provide a broad critique of the Boston Consulting Group Matrix in light of the ideas of Hackley (2009). In his book Marketing:A Critical Introduction, Hackley presents a framework for analysing marketing models.He suggests that well established marketing concepts should be re-evaluated from time to time, to determine if the marketing studies for that area are applicable to current practice, and revisit the functional, intellectual, ethical, and political relevance of the said concept. I opted to evaluate the Boston Consulting Group model, which is an established tool of the strategic management field, used frequently in marketing circles to optimize product mix.Where alternative versions of the matrix have come up in recent studies, the traditi onal BCG Matrix continues to be popular and this paper intends to evaluate whether the support for the model is justified or needs to be rectified. Concept Overview The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix was initially designed in the works of a leading management consulting firm, the Boston Consulting Group. Henderson (1970) first presented the concept of the Product Portfolio Matrix, the framework of which categorized products within a company's portfolio as â€Å"stars†, â€Å"cash cows†, â€Å"dogs†, or â€Å"question marks†.Also called the Growth-Share Matrix, the model presented by Henderson (1970), organized the products as per their respective growth rate, market share, and positive or negative cash flow. The Matrix was said to create further growth opportunities for the firm if more resources were invested in those products which generated positive cash flows. The model described â€Å"Stars† as those which enjoy a large market share in a rapidly growing industry. Where these stars generate cash, the nature of the market mandates the business to invest cash in order to maintain the product’s market share.The model suggests that continued investment in these â€Å"stars† will eventually lead to these products in becoming â€Å"cash cows† â€Å"Cash Cows† are products which have a large market share in a mature industry. Cash cows are therefore well established, and do not require much investment (marketing expenditures) to continue to generate cash flow. As these products generate cash flow, they are highly guarded. Over time, however, these cows may lose appeal in the market and may have to be retrenched. â€Å"Question Marks† are products which have a low market share in a high growth industry.These products require significant cash investments to generate any kind of boost in sales. Strategies in the case of question marks may either lean towards expansion or retrenchment, depend ing on the market share growth enjoyed by the product. Lastly, there are the â€Å"dogs† which are product lines with low market share in low-growth markets. The nature of the market usually results in these products being produced at a cost disadvantage, and as a result, the cash flow generated from these products is negligible. Businesses usually seek to divest these products, unless they serve an alternate strategic aim.Functional Critique The BCG Matrix presents a strong framework as to how products can be managed from a strategic marketing perspective. At the core of it, the functionality of the BCG Matrix is focused around maximizing returns on investment and how best to deploy organizational resources (Cooper, Edgett, Kleinschmidt, 1999). However, there have been several critiques of its applicability (Stalk and Stern, 1998). In particular, the model has been criticized for its polarities with respect to how the market growth and market shares have been presented.In th e real world, products do not have a high or low share, and are often stuck somewhere in the middle (Hambrick, MacMillan, and Day, 1982). The matrix presents no ideas as to what kind of strategies are to be implemented for the product in this case. Further, market growth rate has been cited as an important driver of product development. Contrary to the advice of the BCG Matrix, market growth rate is viable only till the point of saturation, after which point it would be counterintuitive for the firm to be investing in a product that does not enjoy majority stake (Stalk and Stern, 1998).The critical view of the BCG Growth-Share Matrix was also shared by Morrison and Wensley (1991), who claimed that the model was â€Å"myopic† as it prescribed a set of strategic solutions, rather than encourage marketing executives to think creatively with respect to their product lines. On the contrary, Cooper, Edgett and Kleinschmidt (1999) found in their study that firms which centered strat egy on the product portfolio model were not only more financially viable, but marginally outperformed other firms.Therefore, it is safe to conclude that where the applicability of the BCG model may be challenging, the results it produces are enough for strategists to continue using the model. Intellectual Critique Morrison and Wensley (1991) found that the BCG Matrix set a standard for strategic models, and that a plethora of similar matrix style models came about in the years after the BCG Matrix was introduced (Wind, Mahajan, and Swire, 1983). However, this is where the intellectual contribution of the BCG Matrix ends, they argue.They claim that the Matrix oversimplified the nature of marketing strategies, and streamlined product arrangements in a way that was confirmatory rather than innovative, a view shared by Marren (2004). Other researchers tend to believe that the introduction of the BCG matrix brought forth the importance of financial management in marketing. In particular Schoeffler, Buzzell, ; Heany (1974), Wind, Mahajan ; Swire (1983), and Dirkinderen ; Crum (1984) found that the model recalibrated organizations to focus their strategies more around portfolio management and enhancement.The simplicity of the matrix meant that it could be applied to other areas of marketing management, such as product life cycle model (Barksdale ; Harris, 1982), sales force management (Strahle ; Spiro, 1986). Despite the fact that the model faced significant critique from the academia when it was first launched, it is ironic that the BCG Matrix continues to be an inevitable curriculum component in almost every Marketing and Business Management program around the world.In their study, Morrison and Wensley (1991) found that a majority of instructors continued to espouse the benefits of the matrix to their students, despite having some reservations about its applicability. Perhaps the best appraisal of the intellectual value of the BCG Matrix was provided by Henderson, the creator of the model: â€Å"a milestone on the search for insight into business system dynamics, but certainly not the end of the road† (Moore, 2001). Ethical Critique As per Hackley (2009), marketing studies need to examine the ethical and social values which surround marketing practice and theory.In the case of the Boston Consulting Group Matrix, the model is an internal strategic tool which shapes product assortment which is to be deployed to the market. The nature of the model is such that it advocates products with high market share in strong market growth. The ethical quandary posed here is whether the organization should retrench a product line which has low market share, in an industry of low market growth, but the product serves a purpose that is beneficial to society (such as pharmaceuticals).In a similar vein, is it ethical for a company to invest more resources into promoting a product in a growing market, even when the company is aware of the adverse effects of the product (such as cigarettes). In other words, should an organizations product assortment be negligent of social benefits, and be determined solely on market dynamics alone (McDonald ; Leppard, 1992), in a time when businesses are advocating principles of corporate social responsibility?It is also pertinent to note that the BCG matrix encourages organizations to continue investing in profitable ventures (â€Å"cash cows†), whereas it suggests retrenching investment to those products (â€Å"dogs†) which are not responding to market stimulation initiatives. Considering the large research and development expenditures that go into creating and launching a product, it is not clear from the BCG model about how long the company should wait before removing the product from markets altogether (Seeger, 1984).Therefore, users of this model may want to base decisions in the context of net social benefit to continue driving the long term sustainability of the company and soci ety at large. Political Critique As Hackley (2009) indicated, when analysing any marketing tool, it is important to analyse where the concept originated and what institutional forces stood to advantage from its evolution. In the case of the BCG Matrix, as described earlier, the model was originated in the work of Henderson (1970).The matrix was an integral component of the Boston Consulting Group and was used by several influential benchmark companies at the time of its launch. The matrix also enjoyed coverage in the press, despite strong criticism by academia (Morrison and Wensley, 1991). It is clear that the hype around the model stood to benefit the Boston Consulting Group the most, a fact that is confirmed by the fact that the company propagates its use to this very day, despite being aware of its shortcomings.It has also been found that aside from promoting and capitalizing on the â€Å"success† of their models, consultancies go great lengths to ensure that they attract the highest profiled organizations to employ their services, so that they can charge higher consulting fees citing the quality of their past work (O'Shea & Madigan, 1998). Conclusion In conclusion, it is clear that the Boston Consulting Group Matrix is flawed in many respects, but continues to enjoy support in academic circles for its implications of strategy.It also serves to purpose that the model has inspired the creation of numerous other matrices to assist organizations in strategizing better. However, as with any marketing tool, it is important to keep in mind the ethical implications of the decision-making advised by these strategic models. Bibliography Cooper, R. G. , Edgett, S. J. , & Kleinschmidt, E. J. (1999). New product portfolio management: practices and performance. Journal of product innovation management, 16(4), 333-351. Hackley, C. (2009). Marketing: A critical introduction. Sage Publications Limited. Derkinderen, F. G. & Crum, R. L. (1984). Pitfalls in using portf olio techniques—Assessing risk and potential. Long Range Planning, 17(2), 129-136. O'Shea, J. , ; Madigan, C. (1998). Dangerous company: Management consultants and the businesses they save and ruin. Penguin USA. Henderson, B. (1970). The product portfolio. BCG Perspectives series (The Boston Consulting Group, 1970). Hambrick, D. C. , MacMillan, I. C. , ; Day, D. L. (1982). Strategic Attributes and Performance in the BCG Matrix–A PIMS-Based Analysis of Industrial Product Businesses. Academy of Management Journal, 25(3), 510-531.Barksdale, H. C. , ; Harris Jr, C. E. (1982). Portfolio analysis and the product life cycle. Long Range Planning, 15(6), 74-83. Marren, P. (2004). The matrix revisited. Journal of Business Strategy, 25(4). McDonald, M. , ; Leppard, J. W. (1992). Marketing by matrix: 100 practical ways to improve your strategic and tactical marketing. Butterworth-Heinemann. Morrison, A. , ; Wensley, R. (1991). Boxing up or boxed in? : A short history of the Boston Consulting Group share/growth matrix. Journal of Marketing Management, 7(2), 105-129. Schoeffler, S. , Buzzell, R.D. , ; Heany, D. F. (1974). Impact of strategic planning on profit performance (pp. 137-145). Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University. Seeger, J. A. (1984). Research note and communication. Reversing the images of BCG's growth/share matrix. Strategic Management Journal, 5(1), 93-97. Stalk, G. , & Stern, C. W. (Eds. ). (1998). Perspectives on Strategy: From the Boston Consulting Group. J. Wiley. Wind, Y. , Mahajan, V. , & Swire, D. J. (1983). An empirical comparison of standardized portfolio models. The Journal of Marketing, 89-99.

Monastic spirituality in the 21st Century Essay

In the 21st Century, it could be said that monastic spirituality in an outdated concept. In the contemporary world we live in today, it has become increasingly difficult to live obedient to the Churches teaching. Some people would argue that there should be no real set of moral codes, and that the Church should not have such high authority. This contrasts to the Celtic Monks belief that â€Å"Nothing must be refused in their obedience; to be Christ’s true disciple†¦it will not be pleasing to the Lord.† In society today, people don’t see a need for a moral code. They make their own subjective decisions about what is right and wrong from them, and don’t accept religious or government law. Grove argues â€Å"People do not see the Church as having a real relevance in their everyday lives, and therefore do not recognise its authority in everyday matters.† Some sociologists have said that it is this belief that has led to religious organizations â€Å"watering down† their beliefs to accommodate many beliefs, in the hope that this would make their religion more popular. However, in actual fact this can often lead to the religious organization becoming less popular, as they may lose the devoted members, who aren’t looking for a watered down religion. Pope Benedict said that â€Å"relativism†¦does not recognise anything as being certain†¦its highest goals are one’s own ego and desire.† Relativism is the belief that concepts such as right and wrong, goodness and badness, or truth and falsehood are not definite and that they alter in different cultures and situations. It could be described as the â€Å"cherry picking† for faith. An example of this would be ignoring the rule of no contraception, for promiscuous reasons. An other common example would be the issue of sex before marriage. The Celtic monks had a huge sense of Divine Will that had to be obeyed. Saint Columbanus reminded us of this by saying â€Å"by strict obedience shall the monk show his love of God.† Many of these traits, that the monks found so admirable, have been lost in today’s society. Monks believed that community was better than the individual, and that when we do something, it should be for the sake of the community, rather than for the sake of the individual themselves. The monks saw obedience as responding to God’s call. We can see a huge lack of obedience to God by looking at the large decline in vocations in recent years. In 2008, in Dublin, only three people were ordained into the priesthood. There are many reasons for this, a main possibility being the recent scandal the Church has been involved in in recent years. In 1968, 95% of Catholics went to mass. By 2004 this amount had dropped to a mere 50% (BBC Newsline). These figures support the view that as Christians, we no longer feel compelled to be obedient to God. This can relate back to what Pope Benedict described as â€Å"The Culture of Relativism.† Another debated issue is the importance of chastity and sexuality in our society today. Saint Columbanus said â€Å"a monk’s chastity is indeed judged by his thoughts.† He said that they were not only judged by sexual relations, but by the purity of the mind, and the sexual desires that they experienced. This view contrasts greatly to the view of society today. In our modern society, people are often sexually objectified. An estimated average of 75% of prime television shows include content of a sexual nature, and in soap operas it is estimated that extra-marital sex is referred to two out of three times every hour. This is because the television company’s know that in today’s society, sex sells. It is no longer thought of as a big deal, and there has been a massive increase in sexual promiscuity. This has led to a big increase in sexually transmitted diseases, which are becoming increasingly difficult to control. It also meant a big increase in the amount of unwanted pregnancies. Unlike monastic living which promoted the selfless giving of ones self to the community, we have adopted a hedonistic, narcissistic attitude. We have become our own lust. Michael Maher points out that the standards in Celtic monasteries are â€Å"severe, particularly in the area of sexual morality†. For many today, the idea of chastity is an outdated concept and is problematic for the future of the priesthood in the Catholic Church. This would lead me to believe that in regard to this aspect of monastic life, monastic spirituality could very easily be perceived as outdated in the 21st Century. Brigid of Kildare had a preferential option for the poor. She vowed to the king of Leinster, â€Å"If I had all your wealth, I would take it and give it away to the poor,† So Brigids monastery in Kildare, became known as the â€Å"City of the poor.† Aidan of Lindesfarm also expressed solidarity to the poor, when he gave away the kings’ gift of a horse to the first beggar he met saying â€Å"Surely this son of a mare is not more important to you than that son of man.† However, the Church didn’t always share the same view. Leondardo Boff argues that â€Å"the Church became an abstract speculation removed from the original spirit of the Gospel message, and out of touch with real life.† The Church has been criticised for siding with the vested interest, and in its history has even been involved in colonisation and the removal of land from the peasantry, in its commitment to obeying the laws of the land. Richard Woods reminds us that â€Å"justice and chastity were the main hinges of Celtic social action.† This is another way, in that it could be said that monastic spirituality is an outdated concept in the 21st Century. Views that should be had today have slowly died off, and have left places worse off. However, Bishop Casadaliga reminds us that â€Å"as long as there are poor people in the world, and as long as there is a God who cares for the poor, there will be a need for a theology of Liberation.† The spirit of Liberation Theology is very much evident in Celtic Monasticism in many ways, from the care of the poor and the sinner, to the welcoming of the stranger. Hospitality was always extremely generous in the monasteries, and any stranger who came was very well looked after. In 2004, 19% of asylum seekers were allowed to find refuge in Britain, while 78% were turned away. The Celtic monks in their openness to all, especially the weakest turned no one away. This shows another way that Monastic Spirituality could be considered an outdated concept in 21st Century life. In conclusion, it would appear that Monastic Spirituality is in fact an outdated concept in 21st Century living, with our lackadaisical views on chastity and sexuality, and our selfish views on poverty, it seems that Monastic Spirituality has been lost, and I believe it would be in the Catholic Churches interest to try and retrieve some of this monastic spirit.

Bid Taxi for Business Administration and Management

In spite of the fact that passage confinements are regularly advocated on value grounds, there is no proof that drivers charge better in limited markets. Again, higher costs and lower accessibility irregularly influence low salary buyers of bid taxi administrations. Change of the bid taxi business has regularly been contradicted because it is probably going to diminish the salaries of drivers, which are often low where they are not themselves proprietors of bid taxicab licenses (Wen, 2017). Specifically, the industry supposedly suffers recurrent decrease, while the quantity of accessible cab drivers tends to ascend in monetarily less great circumstances. Nonetheless, there is no proof to propose that cab driver livelihoods are higher in business sectors with prohibitive passage conditions. Or maybe, the monopoly leases that accumulate because of these limitations give off an impression of being appropriated exclusively by permit proprietors. For instance, Melbourne has taxi licenses esteemed at nearly A$600,000, and driver livelihoods evaluated at A$8 - 10 every hour (Graells, 2017). In this way, passage limitations have all the earmarks of being inadequate methods for defending driver salaries (Chen, 2018). All the more imperatively, rivalry strategy does not, for the most part, acknowledge the suggestion that section to an industry ought to be obliged with a specific end goal to ensure the pay position of occupants, while there is no critical reason for belligerence that the taxi business constitutes an u mon case in such manner. By differentiating, confining passage to the taxi business causes outstanding value issues: low salary bunches are lopsidedly clients of taxi administrations. The effects of passage limitations in expanding cost and lessening accessibility is in this way very backward in its purchaser affect poor buyers are harmed more by section confinements than rich ones. Expanding quantities of OECD nations have evacuated supply confinements on Bid taxis. The ou es of these changes have been unequivocally positive, with decreased holding up times, extended customer fulfillment and, by and large, falling costs being watched. Emulating the undeniably far-reaching acknowledgment of the misfortunes to monetary welfare and purchasers es about because of confinements on the supply of cabs, a few OECD nations have attempted significant changes to taxi control which include the expulsion or generous decrease in the degree of passage limitations (Chen, 2018). These nations incorporate New Zealand, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Where taxi supply has already been vigorously confined, and these limitations were expelled, significant increments in taxi supply have been experienced. All in all, the degree of a section of the business has overwhelmed the levels anticipated preceding deregulation where endeavor to gauge real request were m ade. Also, these higher taxi numbers have by and large been supported in the medium term (Deng, 2015). Post-change confirms for the most part shows firmly positive ou es estimated against scope of criteria (Speta, 2016). Generously expanded taxi numbers mean client holding up times tend to fall significantly, while consumer loyalty levels have additionally considerably progressed. Value levels have regularly dropped after the change; however, this has not been the situation. Now and again, static or expanding costs, post-change, may reflect directed values being set misleadingly low in the pre-change condition. Also, if charges are not addressed there is a high probability, even under open passage conditions, that makers will have the capacity to practice a level of imposing business model, evaluating power because of market blemishes existing, in the rank and hail markets. Some value direction should, along these lines, be kept up even where changes have prompted an open section administrative condition. It may appear as most extreme value control or may constitute lighter-gave types of direction. Value control courses of action may likewise separate between the rank and hail markets and the pre-booked market, given buyers' more grounded relative position in the last mentioned. In insufficient taxi markets, prompt execution of an open passage arrangement is probably going to be politically testing. In any case, embracing arranged methodologies defers the a plishment of change advantages and stances significant down to earth chances that change will be slowed down or switched. Prompt changes have been efficiently finished in some exceedingly confined markets. Where substantial supply limitations have prompted vast syndication rents collecting, there will unavoidably be substantial resistance to change r mendations from occupant permit holders. Hostage administrative bodies are also far-fetched to go about as promoters of significant change (Leng, 2015). Adding to the political trouble of change is the measure of the bonus misfortunes that officeholder permit proprietors would bear in case of a quick move to an open-section administrative framework. Contentions are regularly made that permit proprietors ought to be made up for a lost permit an incentive in ca se of changes being authorized. There is little legitimacy to the contention that permits holders ought to be repaid by the citizen for the loss of their entitlement to keep on extracting restraining infrastructure rents (La, 2017). Notwithstanding, hardship based claims for making a few installments to officeholder permit holders in case of real change are probably going to demonstrate all the more extensively adequate. And now and then proposed elective is to embrace an organized way to deal with change. Arranged change is usually upheld as methods for decreasing maker restriction by spreading and lessening the regular misfortunes to be borne by occupants. It may be additionally advanced at times as an all the more "efficient" way to deal with change which will maintain a strategic distance from or limit real here and now showcase interruptions, "overshooting" on the supply side and other, and conceivably huge, transitional expenses. A few models of organized change can be recognized. One approach includes issuing extra licenses to every officeholder. This tends to limit their misfortunes by guaranteeing that the rest of the imposing business model rents keep on accruing pletely to this gathering. This model can help make more quick increments in numbers practical. On the other hand, new licenses can be issued for sale or ticket (Bhatnagar 2018). Now and again, these tallies are available to all, while in different cases inclination is given to representative cab drivers and additionally different gatherings. While arranged change is viewed as a method for making a difference all the more politically possible there is much uncertainty. With regards to the viability of this approach: makers are probably going to campaign similarly unequivocally against organized change while keeping campaigning is probably going to prompt the ending or inversion of arranged change programs before their culmination. Methods for lim iting this hazard incorporate reporting the points of interest of the long haul change program ahead of time, administering the subtle elements of the changes and giving control of future permit issue to a free, multi-sectorial financial controller. When "open passage" industry isn't unequivocally settled as the endpoint of change, it is likely that supply will stay limited. Evacuating section limitations does not infer expelling quality based direction. Without a doubt, strong control is a precondition for pletely a plishing the potential advantages of embracing an open passage arrangement (Guo, 2017). That said staying administrative plans must not unduly hinder the advancement of inventive administration offers and industry models. Financial control (grasping amount and value limitations) and quality direction ought to be unmistakably recognized. While significant monetary and shopper advantages can be gotten from a change of financial course, there is a substantial case for keeping up successful quality control in the taxi business. Quality direction grasps typically a scope of vehicle and driver gauges which try to guarantee traveler welfare and least administration measures. A few challenges of an open section to the taxi advertise to try to contend that passage confinements are basic if benefit quality principles are met. Nonetheless, there is minimal hypothetical or exact help for this suggestion. Then again, inability to guarantee that quality control is kept up and, where required, upgraded can altogether trade off the advantages of change and its acknowledgment by buyers and the general population (Velde, 2015). Quality direction must the be posed deliberately to guarantee that it doesn't keep the advancement of inventive administrations and market structures that drive a significant number of the advantages of change. For instance, vehicle norms ought not to be set in ways that would unduly confine the arrangement of low cost or low-quality administrations that might be sought after. Proposals Bid Taxi can do to enhance their administrations are; 2. As reported by the Minister for Transport, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will acquaint measures with enhancing taxi accessibility to serve workers better. This audit was started with the National Taxi Association (NTA) and the taxi administrators since May 2012 to guarantee that taxicabs better satisfy their open transport part, as an end-result of the concessions concurred to them. For example, bring down street charges, and the utilization of Category (CAT) A Certificates of Entitlement (COEs). Taxicabs have also been taking up a more significant extent of CAT a COEs as of late. Given these concessions, it is vital that cabs are used better and made more accessible on the streets to serve suburbanites, particularly amid top periods. There is tenacious criticism about cabs not being accessible. Pushing ahead, LTA expects to require taxi administrators to meet new taxi accessibility (TA) principles. In the long run, we plan likewise to connect taxi administrators getting COEs to extend their armada, to their gathering taxi accessibility norms (Lovri?, 2016). To permit the taxi business time to conform to this new prerequisite, LTA will give a transitional period, amid which taxi administrators will be permitted to get COEs to develop their armadas generally by the reported taxi ridership development, however without being liable to the taxi accessibility principles (Rwelamila, 2016). When moving towards a lower vehicle development rate, LTA will likewise roll out improvements to how taxis get their COEs, contemplating late COE patterns and criticism from both people in general and the engine business about the impact that taxi administrators may have on COE costs. First, taxicabs will be removed from the COE offering process. This is independent of whether the new cabs are planned to supplant deregistered taxis or to add to the current armadas. Second, the COEs applied for taxi armada extension will be removed from the Open Category (CAT E) (Kottapalli, 2017), which can be utilized to enlist vehicles in any COE classification. This is more intelligent of the part of taxicabs in our open transport framework, and it is more evenhanded to utilize CAT E amounts that are contributed by all vehicle poses, as opposed to drawing exclusively from CAT A quantities (Graells, 2017). This additionally mirrors the present circumstance in which taxi organizations enlist an asso rtment of cars as taxicabs, including both CAT A and CAT B models and also some minibus models. LTA is in discourse with the taxi administrators on the proposed taxi accessibility guidelines and COE related changes. LTA finishes the points of interest and gives data on the COE associated changes, before the beginning of the following COE offering cycle. It will provide subtle elements on the taxi accessibility models. 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Evaluating the Influence of Taxi Subsidy Programs on Mitigating Difficulty Getting a Taxi in Basis of Taxi Empty-loaded Rate. International Journal of Statistics and Probability, 6(2), 9. Zeng, C., & Oren, N. (2014, August). Dynamic taxi pricing. In Proceedings of the Twenty-first European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (pp. 1135-1136). IOS Press.

Predicting Child Abuse Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Predicting Child Abuse - Essay Example Predicting child abuse requires a multisided approach and more study is needed to establish causal relationships, though with proper and thorough evaluation of indicators and risk factors, as many as 75% of the child abuse that occurs within the first two years of birth may be identifiable at birth (Epstein, 2001). Risk factors that indicate increased incidence of abuse can be child factors, family factors, and social and environmental factors. (NCCANI, 2005) Family factors include poverty, substance abuse, history of domestic violence, and level of parental competency. Children who reside in a single parent home without the support of the absent parent are at greater risk than those that reside with two married parents (Bethea, 1999). Single parenting contributes to the likelihood that the child will be in a socio-economic disadvantaged situation which correlates to increased rates of abuse. Care must be taken when evaluating the effects of poverty on the risk factors for abuse. Outside influences associated with poverty may have a greater influence than the economic disadvantage itself. ... This may be directly related to the diminished mental capacity of the parent while intoxicated, or it may be a reflection of other factors. Parents who have previously been victims of child abuse have a greater risk of becoming a victimizer. This same set of parents also has an increased risk of alcohol and drug use. Substance dependency by the father may create negative attitudes toward the pregnancy and signal that the child is at greater risk (Epstein, 2001). Substance abuse is also correlated in homes that have a history of mental problems, inadequate parenting skills, and previous trauma. Research directly linking substance and alcohol abuse to child abuse is inconclusive and few studies have been undertaken to establish this link (NCCANI, 2005). However, when taken into context with other risk factors, it can be useful as an indication for risk. Other factors that signal an increased risk of abuse by the family are involvement with probation or jail, age of the mother, and number of small children in the home. Positive family factors that reduce the risk of abuse should also be evaluated. A stable home environment with two married parents, household rules, and prenatal education are indicators that reduce the risk of child abuse occurring in the home (WHO, 2006). When measuring risk it is important to consider the child's role in abuse. Younger children are more likely to experience neglect and physical abuse while older children are at greater risk for sexual abuse (NCCANI, 2005). Evaluation of the child's condition can also aid in predicting a situation that poses a greater risk for abuse. Premature birth, handicaps, attention disorders, and behavior problems correlate to an

United States of America and sale of weapons Essay

United States of America and sale of weapons - Essay Example Many world leaders like the then Russia President Vladimir Puttin expressed their concerns that the US ideas of creating a uni-polar world was the main cause for increased arms race that seems to have reawakened since the era of the cold war.There have been other sentiments that the idea of US to arms its allies while it works hard to curtail their rights to develop defensive weapons is a world catastrophe that may explode to war at any time.In most of the time, the arms transfer by the US has ended up in fuelling conflicts in the region where the arms are exported. There have also been a lot of abuses of human rights by the regime which acquires the arms. The high level of tension that is caused by these transfer have always escalated to conflicts. For example the recent decision by the US to provide F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan which has been upheld with an aim of providing compatible military hardware to threat of rivals like Indian have lead to a lot of tension between the two n ations which is feared that it might soon escalate to conflicts. Rather than bring forces of stability in these regimes, US weapons sales has shown to serve as the source of power of conflicts, unstable and undemocratic regime which is detrimental to the US security in the world and the global security at large. There is already a big conflict between the two nations and India has expressed that the sell of F-16 jet to Pakistan is not meant to fight the Al-Qaeda as the US proposes but it is rather meant to fight India. It has been shown that the two countries have fought each other for more that 3 times and once one of the country acquired high tech weapons, the other will not feel safe and it is likely to acquire the same weapons in order to protect itself. Therefore the US may be creating a lucrative market for the jet since India is also likely to buy the same or other at a higher level (Deconde 2002, p. 534). The ABC of arms sales in the US There are two ways that have been used by the arms manufacturers in the US to sell their weapons to other nations. One of such way is the Foreign Military Sales which are government-to-government sales that are based on an agreement that has been negotiated by the two nations ostensibly involving the pentagon and the purchasing nation. The other one is the direct commercial sales which involves an agreement that it agreed between the manufacturing company and the country that wants to purchase the arms. This is then licensed the state department which gives the approval for the sale of the arms. (Gary 2003, p. 4) The US government in most cases can transfer from the stock of weapons that it is holding which can be for free or at a reduced price. This is usually implemented through the Excess Defense Articles (EDA). Allied government is also allowed to receive fast track grants of weapons in order to address crisis situation in their countries through the Emergency Drawdown Program. The above two departments are managed by the department of the Defense (Ohlson, 2006 p. 3). US is the top provide of weapons The US has consistently used the technologies that it has developed in its industries as the currency of friendly is not with the foreign nations where it has an interest to protect. It has been increasing its exports of deadly technology which helps to fuel conflicts in this nations rather than helping to bring peace and stability. With time, the US has been increasing its military export to regimes which are considered unstable like the Middle East and some parts of Africa. This has been against the pledge of President Bush of ending tyrannical in the world by fighting for the protection of democratic institutions and helping the world to come to peace with one another (Kriegers 2001, p. 121). The experience that US has had with Iran and Iraq has demonstrated that selling of arms to the strategic allies can sometimes backfire and work

Ethical Dimensions of Research Studies Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Ethical Dimensions of Studies - Research Paper Example He therefore, resolves to conduct his testing on HIV/AIDS patients in one of the poorest countries in Africa. This idea works, as this African country, unlike the U.S.A, does not have laws against the withholding of standard treatment. He justifies his action with his assumption that it is better for poor HIV/AIDS patients to receive an unfamiliar treatment, than to die without any treatment at all. This research is an ethics case as it fails to adhere to the principles of conducting a research. The main ethical issues involved in conducting research include informed consent, respect for anonymity, privacy, and confidentiality, and beneficence. Of all these ethical issues, the researcher fails to allow for informed consent of the people to whom, he was administering his new AIDS drug. By not telling the patients the truth about this new drug, and through taking advantage of the weak legal system of the African country, this researcher does not avail an opportunity for the patients to choose if they will be his guinea pigs or not. These patients therefore unknowingly are injected with the new drug, thinking it is the standard medication. In addition, when this researcher fails to give the patients information about the drug, he breaches the patients’ right to information, which is essential for them to base on while making their decisions of agreeing or disagreeing to the process (Murphy, 2004). The possible cause of this researcher’s actions could be the strict rules and standards that the American government places on such sensitive cases, which involve lives of people. In addition, the researcher could have been evading the standard procedure for testing of new drugs, which is often quite long, and costly. This kind of practice by the researcher is sub-standard and does not measure up to the requirements of medical research ethics, thus considered unethical. The researcher does not follow the required procedure for fear of