The Alamo ..... This is about the heros or the main people in the alamo and what the alamo is about

The Alamo ..... This is about the heros or the main people in the alamo and what the alamo is about The Alamo is about the battle for San Antonio in 1835. The siege San Antonio became the first major campaign of the Texas Revolution. From October until early December 1835 an army of Texan volunteers laid siege to a Mexican army in San Antonio de Bexar. The Alamo is a historic structure in the center of San Antonio. A famous battle was fought there from February 23 to March 6, 1836, during the war for Texan independence. To prevent the success of this independence movement, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, in command of the Mexican Army, approached San Antonio with his troops to fight the brave Texans at the Alamo.Colonel William Travis, Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie are names associated with American history and legend. They all died at the Alamo, the world famous battle for Texas' freedom. There are some stories that came out of the heroic struggles that cannot be prove to be definitely true, but which are believed to be true in American culture.English: Antonio LÃ ³pez de Sant a AnnaJust 189 men bravely defended the mission walls against Santa Anna's army of up to 4,000 soldiers.One of these legends recounts how Col. Travis, when all seemed hopeless, drew a line in the sand with his sword and asked all that were willing to die for the cause to step over it. Travis gave the men a chance to bail out and save their lives. The line is remembered as "The Grand Canyon of Texas" because it meant so much to Texas very survival as an independent territory. One man did not cross that line and indeed escaped from the fort and avoided capture. He wasn't caught by the enemy but, sustained many leg wounds from cactuses and thorns, which is weird yet funny. His name was Louis Rose,

Japans Alternate Attendance System

Japan's Alternate Attendance System The alternate attendance system, or sankin-kotai, was a Tokugawa Shogunate policy that required daimyo  (or provincial lords) to divide their time between the capital of their own domain and the shoguns capital city of Edo (Tokyo). The tradition actually began informally during the reign of Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1585 - 1598), but was codified into law by Tokugawa Iemitsu in 1635.   Actually, the first sankin-kotai law applied only to what were known as the  tozama  or outside daimyo. These were lords who did not join the Tokugawa side until after the Battle of Sekigahara (Oct. 21, 1600), which cemented Tokugawa power in Japan. Many of the lords from distant, large, and powerful domains were among the tozama daimyo, so they were the shoguns first priority to control. In 1642, however, sankin-kotai was also extended to the  fudai  daimyo, those whose clans had been allied with the Tokugawas even before Sekigahara. A past history of loyalty was no guarantee of continued good behavior, so the fudai daimyo had to pack their bags as well. Alternate Attendance System Under the alternate attendance system, each domain lord was required to spend alternating years in their own domain capitals or attending the shoguns court in Edo. The daimyo had to maintain lavish homes in both cities  and had to pay to travel with their retinues and samurai armies between the two places every year. The central government insured that the daimyo complied by requiring that they leave their wives and first-born sons in Edo at all times, as virtual hostages of the shogun. The shoguns stated reason for imposing this burden on the daimyo was that it was necessary for national defense. Each daimyo had to supply a certain number of samurai, calculated according to the wealth of his domain, and bring them to the capital for military service every second year. However, the shoguns actually enacted this measure to keep the daimyo busy and to impose hefty expenses on them, so that the lords would not have the time and money to start wars. Alternate attendance was an effective tool to prevent Japan from slipping back into the chaos that characterized the Sengoku Period (1467 - 1598).   The alternate attendance system also had some secondary, perhaps unplanned benefits for Japan.  Because the lords and their large numbers of followers had to travel so often, they needed good roads. A system of well-maintained highways grew across the entire country, as a result. The main roads to each province were known as the  kaido. The alternate attendance travelers also stimulated the economy all along their route, buying food and lodging in the towns and villages that they passed through on their way to Edo. A new kind of hotel or guesthouse sprang up along the kaido, known as honjin, and built specifically to house the daimyo and their retinues as they traveled to and from the capital.  The alternate attendance system also provided entertainment for the common people. The daimyos yearly processions back and forth to the shoguns capital were festive occasions, and everyone turned out to watch them pass. After all, everybody loves a parade. Alternate attendance worked well for the Tokugawa Shogunate. During its entire reign of more than 250 years, no Tokugawa shogun faced an uprising by any of the daimyo. The system remained in force until 1862, just six years before the shogun fell in the Meiji Restoration. Among the leaders of the Meiji Restoration movement were two of the very most tozama (outside) of all the daimyo - the restive lords of Chosu and Satsuma, at the very southern end of the main Japanese islands.

Fundamentals of Information and Information Systems Essay

Fundamentals of Information and Information Systems - Essay Example This report pertains to the current position of Hewlett Packard (HP) Information Systems, its current business problems and the way ahead for this business organization. My first impression at the outset of the ESS Information System (E-Services Solution)group is to point out that this venture may be successful at the outset given the period 1999 until 2000 but it has all the ingredients of becoming a victim of its own success and potentially damaging the work culture of HP with the so called aim of "infecting" the entire spirit.(see Case Study 2000).I would reach such a bleak conclusion for many reasons which I will discuss below but the pith and substance of my analysis as a management consultant is that "small is beautiful" but once it gets large it becomes ugly. And this is true for HP's future if the ESS information system which is under discussion here is allowed to grown into its organizational management and Information System culture. ... And this is true for HP's future if the ESS information system which is under discussion here is allowed to grown into its organizational management and Information System culture. It can be seen that in 1999 alone through the efforts of the ESS Information System,HP has achieved the status as a leading manufacturer of computer products, including printers, servers, workstations, and personal computers and is generating a revenue of $42.4 billion and net income of $3.1 billion.It has over 80,000 employees worldwide and a strong local presence in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area. The problems of HP and the role of ESS.The case study has given us a bird's eyes view of the historical problems with the management strategy of HP as follows. 1. In 1939 Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, found HP and were an instant success with their venture and wanted to pursue their own unique way of doing business: "The HP Way." The evolution of the HP Way began early. Even though their decentralized management information system style was a success in the earlier dealing and by 1957 Hewlett and Packard had their own corporate objectives, underling the "The HP Way" through management strategies like Management By Wandering Around, Management By Objectives, and the Open Door Policy inspired later additions, including Open Communication and Total Quality Control .These practices cannot be seen anywhere today and later on the conservative attitude of the HP information system management with in a decentralized company was more product oriented than customer oriented.(refer to Case Study 2000) 2. At this point HP's corporate software and support division and corporate systems

Obesity in Older Nurses Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Obesity in Older Nurses - Assignment Example The next part discussed an implementation plan that may help to reduce and prevent the problem. The plan will be implemented after the acquisition of permission from relevant sources. This plan aims at educating nurses about the foods that they should eat and the exercises that they should undertake to reduce excess weight in their bodies. This plan will be implemented by exercise and diet tutors using resources such as computers, handouts, questionnaires, and finances that will be used to purchase these requirements. The next section was the evaluation plan that aimed at discussing how to appraise the implemented plan to check if it achieves its goals. This plan indicated that it would use interviews, attendance, lists, measurement of weights, and questionnaires as the main techniques of appraising the results of the implemented scheme. The last section of this paper discussed the methods that would be used to disseminate evidence to the organization’s administrators, nurses, and the community. The techniques discussed include reports, workshops, websites, conferences, emails, and press releases. In conclusion, this research aimed at finding out the prevalence of obesity among older nurses and the methods that may be used to prevent and reduce this disorder in the nursing community. The analyzed sources of literature indicate that obesity is a common disease among the nurses of the United States. Since the nurses are mainly involved in giving other patient’s healthcare, it means that the continued prevalence of obesity among them may lead to the deterioration of the overall health of the country. Therefore, it is essential to address this problem before it leads to a destructible catastrophe of lack of health care givers in a giant economy. The main methods of addressing this problem are motivating nurses to eat healthy foods and undertake

Political Culture of Russia Essay Example for Free

Political Culture of Russia Essay The nature of Russian political culture and by extension its politics has been shaped and molded over the previous centuries. While we can by no means attribute its entire political culture to a single event or time period, we also can’t point to a time period, say the Soviet time, and draw our perception of Russia’s political culture from that alone. That being said, the totalitarian nature of the Soviet State is by partial means attributable to Marxist-Leninist philosophies. The nature of Russian political culture was (and still is in many regards) authoritarian. Throughout Russia’s history there has been an authoritarian attitude in how the country should be ruled. The state was always there, the state was behind forced modernization policies from Peter the Great through Joseph Stalin, and today Vladimir Putin. Russia for the large part of its history been just as vast as it is today. The sheer size of it requires a centralized power to keep regional autonomy down. Every country that followed or still follows Marxist doctrine did (does) so with different flavors of Marxism, none of which are exactly and entirely what Karl envisioned. China and Russia were rivals in several policy areas throughout the 20th century. The same dichotomy can be seen between China and its smaller (communist) Southeastern Asian neighbors such as Cambodia and Vietnam. Communist countries were partially authoritarian because of Marxism. The nature of establishing and perpetuating a command economy demanded authoritarianism. While China has wiggled out of many of the responsibilities and pitfalls of running a command economy by establishing market-driven economic reform, it remains authoritarian. This illustrates that while the key components of Marxism are abandoned, the system and its actors continue to grasp to power as it seeks to adapt and integrate itself into the world system. This is counter to previous attempts to establish a parallel world system behind Soviet ideology. Bottom line: the only way a Communist system can take continued hold and root itself into the political system is through authoritarianism. Not to mention the guise under which many of the Soviet Republics were brought into the fold and behind the Iron Curtain. These weren’t spontaneous Communist Revolutions toppling several governments around the world; it was the Russian’s moving in after having kicked the Germans out and act ing marionette to their new puppets. If it were populist support that kept Communist governments in power around the world one would not see states efforts to cripple freedoms of the press, of assembly, and of religion. Current Communist governments fear a slippery slope, and perhaps rightfully so, where an inch of social freedom given would mimic Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms in the late 1980’s and lead to an eventual collapse. Russia’s Political culture is more authoritarian than a lot of countries around the world, but today it is a functioning quasi-democracy with authoritarian overtones. This goes to show that in the right circumstances, Russian’s can and will subject themselves to semi-authoritarian rule. Under other circumstances, such as the situation in the 1990’s that followed the collapse of the Soviet system, it’s a wonder that authoritarianism didn’t come back in force. Putin still governs with legitimacy at the front of his mind, and hasn’t suspended the constitution or ruled by decree. True democracy can and will eventually be realized, but realistically this is only possible through generational replacement and hard, slow change. The privatization process can be viewed with much rightful criticism, it didn’t take into account Russians lack of understanding of the West’s definition of ‘rational economic behavior’, nor did it find a happy middle ground between the two extremes of command economy and wild-west capitalism. What it did do was change the rules of the game being played. We can fault the broad shock therapy method for any number of shortcomings in the economic policy in the Russian arsenal, but it accomplished one incredibly more important goal. It changed the rules of the game. People who knew the rules (or knew which new rules were coming), mobsters, party officials, and Western interests, leapt upon the opportunity to make money hand over fist. This is still a vastly improved scenario as opposed to gradual economic reform, with the state greedily holding onto the â€Å"commanding heights† of the economy, and leaving the unprofitable sectors open for private investment and development. The large majority of the Russian people didn’t have a firm grasp on private property, or selling one of two cows to buy a bull, or how to ‘invest’ with these vouchers. The sharks ate them up in the incredibly free market. This is a point that was necessary for the facilitation o f real capitalism and eventually democracy in Russia. How does one instill in its population the concepts that go hand in hand with capitalism? My answer would be to force them to adapt to a changed environment. Gradual change would’ve perpetuated for a longer time the stagnation and poor cost-management of the Soviet period. An aggressive and immediate changing of the environment began the painful instilling of capitalist values into the populace and government. After the dust cleared and a new millennia unveiled, Vladimir Putin inherited a new Russia, with new problems, and an semi-regulated albeit capitalist system. I also reject the notion that a stake in a company translates to a certain level of commitment and productivity associated with it. I can think of just in my own history a number of bosses with a small level of commitment to the company, they weren’t there to operate or manage, they were there to own. That being said I’ve also experienced several hands-on owners, who corrected the techniques of severa l employees to their liking. My other inference comes from day-traders on the Stock Market. People with no vested interest in a company putting their money up because they think the stock will go up, not necessarily because they believe in the product. One doesn’t need a stake in a company to incentivize success within it, it sure helps, but it is not required and wouldn’t have made the Russian transition any less painful. The decades of propaganda had really affected some 10% of the population and they were the ones who fell off the cliff when the system changed. Russia in the 1990’s was bad, but it was nothing compared to the massive famines that led to the deaths of millions of Russians, or the Great Depression. Many Russian’s who bought into the Soviet ideology were left out in the cold, yet others found jobs, and others made easy money. 1991 was a turbulent time in Russia, the collapse of the system left countless questions unanswered about what the Russian state and its business sector would look like after the dust settled. I see absolutel y no way, no system, no path that could’ve mediated such a drastic change with minimal economic displacement and suffering. We could’ve lessened the blow with a Russian version of the Marshall Plan, but frankly that was much too much to expect from America. We were in a position of triumph after decades of struggle, and the prospect of the massive new markets had American businesspeople salivating. The Marshall plan also wouldn’t have worked as well as it did in Western Europe because the political and economic culture of Russia was very different from Western Europe. Saturating a country with cash and loans to build (or rebuild in the case of Western Europe) modern infrastructure was out of the question. Half the reasoning behind the Marshall Plan in the first place was to cultivate capitalism, and combat the spread of communism. What is to be gained from a US policy of propping up our old foe? This is especially true when there was so much money to be made via exploitation. Russia in the 1990’s was exactly was America desired it to be, complacent. The Russian mob played a major role in blocking true market reforms; they reveled in the post-collapse chaos and orchestrated the major piece of the Russian economy that is sti ll today conducted underground, and more importantly, free of tax revenue. While this percentage has decreased considerably, it still accounts for nearly a double digit hole in economic exchanges. Along with the mob, the Communist Party knew what was going to happen and planned accordingly. They snapped up the profitable sectors of the economy for pennies on the dollar and became fabulously wealthy. Both groups served as major obstacles in the path of real reform, and real democracy for Russia. The fact is that the reforms proposed were free-market in principle and not free-market in practice. Favors, subsidies, inside information, and possessing capital (not to mention the knowledge of how to use it) made for a grossly tilted economic playing field in Russia. Just like water, the money flowed down the tilt and into the hands of elites and future oligarchs, leaving real policy and progress for later leaders and generations to wrestle with. To quote Winston Churchill, â€Å"Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.† Western style democracy is by no means the pinnacle of human achievement, it is however a necessary condition to providing the basis for equality of opportunity, rule of law, and political representation. That is not to say that there is no value in the Russian path, or that it is inherently wrong. Order just isn’t as valuable (according to the West) when one holds the aforementioned societal values. Order works for Russia, much better than it ever could’ve worked in the â€Å"Go west, young man† America that encompassed so much of the formation of our identity. Order keeps the barbarians out, order keeps the serfs from rebelling, order centralizes power in an Empire. Russia, without the concept of order built in like ours of liberty, would’ve faltered and fell from the world stage many times, of this I have no doubt.. The two biggest examples of Order trumping Liberty (in Russia) I can imagine are the invasions of Napoleon and Hitler. In the former and the latter, slash and burn tactics were employed. Hell, Moscow was a husk in the dead of winter when Napoleon got there, and I have no doubt that similarly drastic measures would’ve been taken to preserve the Soviet state. People throughout the best land in Russia, burned their property, poisoned their livestock, poisoned their water, destroyed everything of use, and fled. The enormous sense of communal responsibility and togetherness that these behaviors exhibit illustrate that Order worked and may continue to work for Russians, in the same manner that Liberty worked for Americans. I could never imagine American’s destroying everything in the face of invasion and retreating. That’s sacrilegious in this country; luckily we didn’t have quite as aggressive neighbors as Russia had. The Russian political system must meet several criteria I believe before it is widely accepted as completely legitimate. First off, centrist parties crafted by United Russia have to dissipate. They’re there to fracture opposition support, and nullify the voices of the overriding political currents that sway governments to control of one party or another. Representative politics works best when it represents the electorate, if there are pressures to decrease opposition support via backhanded ways, then that is where one sees wide-spread dissent. United Russia may have the backing of a majority of the Russian citizenry, for now, but by treating the opposition as the problem rather than part of the solution, Putin and by extension United Russia is alienating many mainstream voters on the left and right. Their reaction is to then become more extreme and problemati c because they’re being talked down to. When legitimate political parties and beliefs aren’t represented, parties and organizations that hold them have nothing to lose by taking up much more extremist views. If they felt that United Russia would play ball, they wouldn’t be taking the positions that they have taken. They would come to the table with more of a pragmatist view and plan of compromise. The military’s role in the democratization of Russia needs to be minimal. I am of the belief that a Roman-style coup utilizing the military is a very real albeit remote possibility. Civilians need to be the head of their equivalent to the Department of Defense, and ending discrimination in the armed services is a must for minorities in Russia to truly feel that they have a say and a stake in the country as it moves forwards. Divided government demands compromise, and it is yet to be seen whether Russia is ready to grapple with and deal with people who don’t agree with you. As of this point, the answer has been to silence them, or to shuffle them into a centrist party like sheep, or to run up the tally of people who think like you. For Russia to move past the post-Soviet period it must start engaging opposition, utilize independent parties, and stop fighting the opposition. This is very possible, just not at a breakneck pace. Russia’s value of Liberty will inevitably keep the country moving towards a more representative and legitimate democracy, but its value of Order will make sure that it is a slow and deliberate process.

Essay examples --

Mass Mmedia is made up of several communications systems that reach millions of people every day. But who owns the media? Actually, through the long history of mergers and acquisitions, few big companies have been controlling what we see, hear, and read by maintaining the ownership of mass media. However, the issue of media conglomeration has produced a significant amount of controversy. Since the media’s power and the control of the communications system have been dominated by a few corporations, media conglomeration has been viewed as an obstruction and limitations of diversified contents. While opponents believe there is a crisis impending due to the perception of increased concentrated ownership and convergence of the media industry that interfere with message pluralism, supporters argue the media system has increased diversity more than before and large companies offer advantages that a small company can never afford . This paper examines the history of media owners hip and the current FCC regulations, and discusses the effects of media conglomeration on our society. In the United States, there are a few corporations that control the mass media. The Free Expression Policy Project (FEPP), founded in 2000 to provides research and advocacy on free speech, copyright, and media democracy issues indicates: there are ten corporations that control the mass media in the United Stets: Viacom, Time Warner, Walt Disney, General Electric, News Corporation, and Vivendi Universal. While media concentrations have been going on for quite some time, there are concerns about how this conspiracy of media monopolies started ? In early 1900, telecommunications markets were not monopolies. After the radio was invented, regulations were ... ...lt Disney Company, Liberty Media Corporation, AT&T Corporation, News Corporation, Bertelsman, Vivendi Universal, and Sony. After several rounds of rulemaking and court challenges, the FCC announced a new â€Å"Broadcast Ownership Rules† in June of 2003. This law raised the ceiling for national market share from 35% to 45%. Responding to widespread protests, Congress overturned this increase as part of its 2003 appropriations bill. However, after President Bush threatened to veto the entire appropriations bill, a compromise was reached at 39%, which allowed Viacom and the News Corporation to keep all of the stations they currently owned. (Miller) For many years, despite the enormous revenues that have been generated by these few big media companies, media conglomeration caused a mutilation of viewers’ thinking and suppression to segments of the communicated message. Essay examples -- Mass Mmedia is made up of several communications systems that reach millions of people every day. But who owns the media? Actually, through the long history of mergers and acquisitions, few big companies have been controlling what we see, hear, and read by maintaining the ownership of mass media. However, the issue of media conglomeration has produced a significant amount of controversy. Since the media’s power and the control of the communications system have been dominated by a few corporations, media conglomeration has been viewed as an obstruction and limitations of diversified contents. While opponents believe there is a crisis impending due to the perception of increased concentrated ownership and convergence of the media industry that interfere with message pluralism, supporters argue the media system has increased diversity more than before and large companies offer advantages that a small company can never afford . This paper examines the history of media owners hip and the current FCC regulations, and discusses the effects of media conglomeration on our society. In the United States, there are a few corporations that control the mass media. The Free Expression Policy Project (FEPP), founded in 2000 to provides research and advocacy on free speech, copyright, and media democracy issues indicates: there are ten corporations that control the mass media in the United Stets: Viacom, Time Warner, Walt Disney, General Electric, News Corporation, and Vivendi Universal. While media concentrations have been going on for quite some time, there are concerns about how this conspiracy of media monopolies started ? In early 1900, telecommunications markets were not monopolies. After the radio was invented, regulations were ... ...lt Disney Company, Liberty Media Corporation, AT&T Corporation, News Corporation, Bertelsman, Vivendi Universal, and Sony. After several rounds of rulemaking and court challenges, the FCC announced a new â€Å"Broadcast Ownership Rules† in June of 2003. This law raised the ceiling for national market share from 35% to 45%. Responding to widespread protests, Congress overturned this increase as part of its 2003 appropriations bill. However, after President Bush threatened to veto the entire appropriations bill, a compromise was reached at 39%, which allowed Viacom and the News Corporation to keep all of the stations they currently owned. (Miller) For many years, despite the enormous revenues that have been generated by these few big media companies, media conglomeration caused a mutilation of viewers’ thinking and suppression to segments of the communicated message.

Creation, the Fall, and the Journey of Redemption

Describe how the architecture and rituals associated with early catholic cathedrals represent the Creation, the Fall, and the journey of Redemption that leads back to the presence of God. Include in your essay a discussion of the east-west orientation of the cathedral, the atrium, the baptistery or baptismal font, anointing, and the symbolic layout of the structure. Creation begins with the fall and continues as a journey towards redemption through the resurrection. Catholics are well known for their elaborate Cathedrals. Some are so famous that people travel from all over the world to admire its artistic workmanship. In Christianity the Catholic denomination is the largest denomination. The leader being the Pope who lives in Rome, Italy. The Catholic Church with their symbols can be related closely to that of what is found in LDS symbols. Many of the most sacred of ceremonies from these two religions are closely alike. This is due because they both originate from Hebrew origins in symbolic meaning behind the ceremonies. Cathedrals and LDS Temples can be related as a house here on earth dedicated to God. Cathedrals were set apart with the best the people had to offer. Examples of materials used to build the Cathedrals were purple, purple die was the most expensive dye in previous times, blue dye, red dye, silver, and gold. The stained glass and wall art was used to tell the stories of creation, struggles, faith, hope, and redemption. We can relate this to LDS temples because we try to build temples with only the best of materials. It is filled as white, blue, and gold linings. Temples are usually eloquent but they try to avoid from over expressing beauty in the temple and keep in clean. This is because one theme of LDS temples is clean. It is a place where clean beings can dwell, for example, God and even our souls because of the redemption power of God. Endless novels have been written about the fall. Perhaps the biggest change that has happened in the Catholic Church is when the ordinance of baptism started changing over time. Sometimes the change is a good thing because God will’s it. An example of this is when Joseph Smith first gave the temple ceremonies and ordinances it took 6 hours for the endowment session. Things are much different today. Other times things change because with time we forget, or at the very least we unknowingly change things. I remember a story when because of wars some LDS churches in Germany worked as best as they could under the circumstances. Eventually when the war was done and higher LDS officials were able to come into Germany and visit the Saints something astonishing happened. It had only been a matter of a few years and yet the way the Sacrament was being administered was not in line with the Church guidelines. Talk to Brother Openshaw on campus if you want a more credible and full detailed account of this story. The Journey of Redemption is all encompassing. I believe that everything in this mortal life has a creation, fall, and eventual redemption. The articles we read this week made strong bridges showing that Cathedrals perhaps paved the way for eventual LDS temples to be built. On a side note I find it to be a testimony builder for there to be so many similarities between LDS temples and the Catholic Church. It is true that we have more common than we do in difference. I believe God influences everyone around the world regardless of their religion. So when another group of people who are separate from us have so many of the same beliefs it gives me comfort knowing that God loves all men and women, and He reaches out to teach us and loves us all.

Air Asia Marketing Essay

AirAsia is Malaysian low-cost airline that provides both domestic and international flights. AirAsia started operating on 18 November 1996, it pioneered low cost travelling in Asia. In 2001, the airline which was heavily indebted was purchased by Tony Fernandes’s company Tune Air Sdn Bhd. Under his charge, AirAsia has become one of the biggest low cost airlines operating in Asia today. Its main hub is based in the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). As such, AirAsia consumers tend to be from the lower to middle income population. Thai AirAsia and Indonesia AirAsia are subsidiaries of AirAsia and are based in Suvarnabhumi Airport, Thailand and Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Indonesia, respectively. Company Analysis I. Segmentation AirAsia target market segment consist of three different but overlapping segments that were segmented according to Geographic Segmentation, Demographic Segmentation and Psychographic Segmentation. AirAsia is targets mainly the Asian market, hence the name AirAsia. As such, they do geographic segmentation by focusing their services primarily in Asia. Being a low cost airline, they are targeting the low to middle income group (demographic) and the cost-conscious travellers (psychographic). II. TOWS In order to find the current marketing challenges faced by AirAsia and to determine what are the possible solutions that they can implement, taking into consideration their opportunities and take advantage of their strengths, the TOWS analysis model (Threats, opportunities, weaknesses and strengths) will be used. Threats | Opportunities | * Intense competition (i.e. Tiger Airlines, Singapore Airlines) | * Asia’s middle class growth * ASEAN Open Skies * Increasing oil price| Weaknesses | Strengths | * Fair availability | * Well established brand name * Low cost leader in Asia | Threats What was once a relatively small market of low-cost airlines when AirAsia was first established, AirAsia not only has to face indirect competitors such as non-budget airlines (i.e. Singapore Airlines), ferries (i.e. Kuala Perlis Langkawi Ferry Service Sdn Bhd) and buses (i.e. Aeroline, now they are also threaten with intense direct competitors such as Tiger Airways and Jetstar Asia Airways. Opportunities Countries in Asia, such as China and India, are up-and-coming huge potential markets in the future. In China, there were already 130, 000, 000 consumers just in the middle class range in 2006. It is estimated to increase to 340, 000, 000 in 2016, a 162% growth from 2006 as shown in the graph below. This is beneficial for AirAsia as it means that their targeted consumers (low to middle income) will grow exponentially in the near future. ASEAN Open Skies is an agreement, targeted for 2015, to allow unlimited flights between all the ASEAN’s regional air carriers, both full services and low-cost airlines. The rationale for the Open Sky agreement is to promote competition in the airline industry. Due to its strong brand name and â€Å"low-cost† culture among its workforce, AirAsia is more likely to gain from this agreement. The increasing oil prices may seem like a threat to AirAsia, however being the low cost leader in Asia, this can actually be seen as an opportunity for them instead. This is because high oil prices would affect all the airlines and not just AirAsia. Thus, AirAsia will still be the lowest costing among all the different airlines. This could result in an increase in market share for AirAsia as customers from the different airlines would relocate to AirAsia. Weaknesses The availability of AirAsia flights is not good as full services airline. While fair availability may seem like a huge weakness that would need to be tackled and solved, it would be difficult for AirAsia to remain cost leader if it offered comprehensive support as it would result in increased operational cost. Strengths AirAsia’s brand name is well established in the Asian region. This was not only due to the fact that AirAsia the pioneered low cost travelling in Asia, but also because of the extensive advertising & promotions they have done. Indonesia AirAsia and Thai AirAsia have successfully helped AirAsia to spread the brand throughout the regional beyond just Malaysia. Due to AirAsia Academy, which AirAsia’s regional training academy located in Malaysia, it has helped to create a low-cost airline mentality among their workforce. It is because of this workforce that AirAsia has become the low-cost airline leader in Asia in terms of overall cost. In the table on the following page, it details the difference in terms of cost per available seat kilometres (ASK, which is the total number of seats available on scheduled flights multiplied by the number of kilometres these seats were flown), between AirAsia and the other competitors. Its shows that AirAsia  has a large advantage over t he competitors in this area. Source: http://sandygarink.tripod.com/papers/AA_IA.pdf Marketing Challenge Looking through the company analysis, the biggest marketing challenge currently faced by AirAsia is to remain competitive and protect their market share in the increasingly competitive market of low-cost airline. Recommendations I. Tap into the growing Asian Market For AirAsia to remain competitive and not only protect their market share but expand it as well, it is vital that AirAsia taps into and take advantage of the growing Asian Market. They can do this by adopting the following strategies. Market Challenger Strategies The market challenger strategies are a set of strategies that a company can employ to gain market share and becoming the leader eventually (Kotler and Armstrong, Principles of Marketing, latest 2010, 13th edition). AirAsia can use these strategies, specifically, frontal, flank, bypass and guerrilla attack, to make itself standout from the rest of the competitors and hopefully gain a larger market share of the growing Asia middle income population. Attacker Defender (3) Encirclement attack (4) Bypass attack (2) Flank attack (5) Guerrilla attack Frontal attack Source: Frontal Attack: Frontal attack refers to when you attack the weakness of another company’s product. In the case of AirAsia, they should attack their competitors through their prices. Due to the reasons listed above, AirAsia has become the low cost leader in Asia. It is unlikely for their rivals to be able to complete in terms of price alone in the long run. Thus, AirAsia should use their comparative low prices to challenge their competitors directly. The limitation to this form of attack is that AirAsia has to maintain that low cost advantage that they have. This means that they have to invest a large portion of their capital into their research and development section to ensure that they are flying at the lowest cost possible. One way AirAsia can further reduce their operational cost is by standardizing their aircraft. As shown in the table in the following page, AirAsia has currently 5 different types of aircraft, ranging from the Airbus A320-200 to the Airbus A350-900. However, if AirAsia was to reduce this to just two to three different types of aircraft it would lead to a drastic drop in cost, as economies of scale comes into effect when they buy and maintain the same type of aircraft Staff cost also reduce, as they only need to know how to handle a few types of aircraft, this leads to training time being reduced and eventually reducing operational cost. Flank Attack: Flank attack refers to attacking competitors at their weak points or blind spots. One of the things lacking in the low-cost airlines in Asia today is the ability to travel long distance at the same low price offered for the short duration trips. AirAsia already has AirAsia X, which provides this long haul flight services, however, their destinations are limited as they only go to the more popular countries such as London or Sydney. For that reason, one of the strategies AirAsia could implement is to form an alliance with low-cost airlines outside of Asia like Virgin Blue. This strategy will be further explained later in the report. Bypass Attack: This form of attack refers to diversifying into unrelated products or markets neglected by the other competitors. One of the ways AirAsia could diversify is by offering affordable accommodations at their destinations. These accommodations can be provided by Tune Hotels which is an associated company own by Tony Fernandes, who is also the CEO of AirAsia. Travellers will see this as a value added service as not only would they be able to get a cheap form of transportation but a place to stay as well. The limitation of providing accommodations is that it is financially infeasible to set up a hotel at all of their current flight destinations. As such, it would be better to start off by offering this service only at location where it would be difficult to get cheap lodging, for examples in the city areas of Japan. And as the company grow further, it can start to expand on the location where these hotels will be provided. Guerrilla Attack: AirAsia can apply guerrilla attacks by launching small, intermittent hit-and-run attacks to harass and destabilize the leader. AirAsia can use promotions for short periods of time to try and steal customers from their competitors. One such example is when AirAsia had a 48 hours promotion between 28 Sept – 29 Sept 2009, where they offered a 20% discount on all seats, flights and destinations. This is a very useful type of attack for AirAsia because of their low cost advantage, as they are able to maintain promotions, especially discounted price promotion, longer than their competitors with a lower lost in profit. The limitation of offering promotions is the reduction in the profit margin when they give discounted prices. However, this negative impact can be minimized by placing the promotions at strategically moments, such as only when competitors are offering promotions. Alliance with Virgin Blue and America As mentioned under the flank attack section, one of the ways AirAsia can attack their competitors is by offering a more extensive flight network outside of Asia. While AirAsia X is currently filling in this market of long haul flights for AirAsia, it is still not comprehensive enough and should be developed further. Virgin Blue and Virgin America are low cost airlines operating in Australia and America respectively. By partnering with them, AirAsia would be able to extend their destinations into Australia and America. For example, if a Malaysian traveller wanted to visit Los Angeles, he would first take an AirAsia route to travel from Kuala Lumpur to Washington, DC, and then take a Virgin America flight to Los Angeles. The rationale for choosing Virgin America is because America is one of the top destinations in terms of international tourist arrivals as seen in the table below, which will only increase with the growing Asian economy. By joining together with Virgin America, AirAsia can capitalize on this existing high human traffic flow going to America. While Australia does not fall under the top 10 international tourist arrivals countries, AirAsia should still focus on the Asia to Australia route. This is because as China and India develop there will be a huge increase in the number of international travellers, a majority of which would be made up of people who have never travelled outside the Asia region or even their countries. Thus, these people, wanting to taste a culture different from Asia but do not want to travel to a far off location such as America or Europe on their first trip, would choose to go to Australia. The advantage of this strategy is that it will not only  target the Asian market segment who wants to travel to locales outside of Asia but also cater to the market segment outside of Asia that wants to travel to Asia. The limitation of this strategy is that AirAsia would have to first form an alliance with low cost airliners in those regions, which could be a difficult process as proven by the already long list of failed airline alliance such as Air Canada/ Continental Airlines and Saberna/Air France (Nigel Evans, David Campbell, George Stonehouse, Strategic management for travel and tourism, 2003) Take advantage of the ASEAN Open Skies agreement As mentioned above, one of the things AirAsia can do to remain competitive in the future is to prepare for the ASEAN Open Skies agreement. With open skies in the ASEAN region, it would be mean that more routes are available for the airlines. For AirAsia, this means that they would be able to fly to more destinations while taking shorter routes as they would no longer be faced with restriction from the countries in the ASEAN region from flying over them. The shorter routes means that flights will take a shorter time to complete, frills such as providing meals may no longer be needed and the frequency of AirAsia flights could be increase as the turnover rate is higher. Thus, they would be able to reduce operational cost, which translates to lower prices, hence making AirAsia more attractive to the consumers. The limitation to this strategy is that the Open Skies agreement applies to all airlines in the ASEAN region, meaning that AirAsia would face even tougher competitions when the agreement starts in 2015. However, because of the strong brand image and low cost leader advantage AirAsia has, if they were one of the â€Å"early movers†, they could grab a huge portion of this market. II. Capitalize on the corporate business AirAsia have seen a recent increase in the numbers of companies (almost double the last 3 years, as seen in the following page table) trading down to low cost airlines, this could be due to the global economic downturn. As such, AirAsia should also be focusing on increasing their share in this corporate business market as this market tends have a more consistent source of demand unlike tourism which is seasonal and easily affected by external factors, such as in the case of the swine flu. AirAsia’s seats sold to corporate clients: 2006 to 1Q09 Source: AirAsia Loyalty programme To capture this market AirAsia could start offering a rewards program. AirAsia could offer perks that are earned according to the amount of business a company does with them. For example discounted pricing or with the more frequently fliers, a point system whereby the companies could earn free flights if they accumulated enough mileage. The limitation of this strategy is that AirAsia would have to incur a lower profit margin as they would now be selling at lower discounted prices. However, the pros far overweight the cons in the case of AirAsia. Once again due to being the low cost leader in Asia, the rewards program offered by AirAsia would likely be the most attractive compared to the other competitors as they can offer better perks, hence they could easily become the market leader in the corporate flying market, making up for the lower profit margin per seat by pure volume. Conclusion To recap, the main marketing challenge facing AirAsia at the moment is the intense competition that exist in the low cost airline industry. The strategies that AirAsia can implement to remain competitive are two pronged, to tap into the Asian middle income class and focus on the corporate businesses. They can capitalize on the Asian market by using market challenge strategies, standing out from the rest by attacking their competitors. Finally, they can take advantage of the corporate businesses by offering a form of loyalty programme that would make it more attractive for companies to use AirAsia. Ultimately, the reason why the above strategies would work is because of the low cost leader advantage that AirAsia has. In order to survive in this market, AirAsia has to ensure that they maintain their low cost altitude.

Care plan- Mental health Essays

Care plan- Mental health Essays Care plan- Mental health Essay Care plan- Mental health Essay Concept Map Care Plan E. T/49yr. old female, white Attempted Suicide/Bipolar Disorder Depression/Alcoholism/Herniated Disc Nrsg DX #1 (Psycho social) Supporting Data: (Include subjective, objective, lab, diagnostic, pharmacologic and other data which supports your use of this diagnosis. ) Long Term Goal: Short-term goals: Nursing Interventions: Summary of patient progress: Risk for Suicide related to suicide attempt Patient attempted suicide 4x in the last 3 years. Patient states she wants help, wants to be sober. Patient identified stressors (death of brother, abusive father, mother enabler, sister an addict) and uses alcohol binging as coping mechanism. Patient currently prescribed Depakote 1500mg/day, Celaxa 40mg PO am. Patient also stated she takes vicodin for pain due to herniated disc. Patient will recover from suicidal episode. Patient will describe available resources Patient will be med compliant. Patient will refrain from harming self. Patient will identify alternate coping strategies. Patient will find AA program and recovery site. Administer meds, assess suicide ideation, assess moods. Make short-term contract with patient to refrain from harming self. Monitor behavior. Identify alternate coping strategies for patient, identify community resources to help patient. Goal met: Patient states no thoughts of suicide ideation. Patient identifies crisis prevention resources. Patient expresess positive feelings about self. Plan to be continued. Prognosis is good. Patient has identified Star of Hope halfway house where she can ive and attend AA treatment group milieu therapy. Risk for Ineffective Coping related to personal vulnerability Patient states that she had a good Job in IT, but lost shortly after bipolar diagnosis. Finances are getting low, causes anxiety. She was also seeing a psychiatrist that prescribed her Klonopin (prn). (Suicide attempt was OD of Klonopin vicodin, mixed with alcohol). Patient is concerned about herniated discs. Patient stated that she needs to change her circle of friends. Doesnt need drinking buddies. Tried an AA rogram in River Oaks, didnt feel that she fit in there. Patient uses alcohol and pills to deal with anxiety. Patient describes emotions triggered by illness or personal crisis and usual coping behaviors. Patient describes one difficult interpersonal situation that was solved by identifying the problem and choosing alternative way to communicate and take action. Patient will identify effective and ineffective coping techniques. Patient will express understanding of the relationship btn emotional state and behavior.

Bopomofo Chinese Phonetic System

Bopomofo Chinese Phonetic System Chinese characters can be a major stumbling block for students of Mandarin. There are thousands of characters and the only way to learn their meaning and pronunciation is by rote. Fortunately, there are phonetic systems that aid in the study of Chinese characters. The phonetics are used in textbooks and dictionaries so that students can begin associating sounds and meanings with specific characters. Pinyin The most common phonetic system is Pinyin. It is used to teach Mainland Chinese school children, and it is also widely used by foreigners learning Mandarin as a second language. Pinyin is a Romanization system. It uses the Roman alphabet to represent the sounds of spoken Mandarin. The familiar letters make Pinyin look easy. However, many of the Pinyin pronunciations are quite different from the English alphabet. For example, the Pinyin c is pronounced with a ts sound. Bopomofo Pinyin is certainly not the only phonetic system for Mandarin. There are other Romanization systems, and then there is Zhuyin Fuhao, otherwise known as Bopomofo. Zhuyin Fuhao uses symbols which are based on Chinese characters to represent the sounds of spoken Mandarin. These are the same sounds which are represented by Pinyin, and in fact there is a one-to-one correspondence between Pinyin and Zhuyin Fuhao. The first four symbols of Zhuyin Fuhao are bo po mo fo (pronounced buh puh muh fuh), which gives the common name Bopomofo – sometimes shortened to bopomo. Bopomofo is used in Taiwan to teach school children, and it is also a popular input method for writing Chinese characters on computers and handheld devices such as cell phones. Children’s books and teaching materials in Taiwan almost always have Bopomofo symbols printed next to the Chinese characters. It is also used in dictionaries. Advantages of Bopomofo Bopomofo symbols are based on Chinese characters, and in some cases they are identical. Learning Bopomofo, therefore, gives Mandarin students a head start to reading and writing Chinese. Sometimes students who start learning Mandarin Chinese with Pinyin become too dependent on it, and once characters are introduced they are at a loss.   Another important advantage to Bopomofo is its status as an independent phonetic system. Unlike Pinyin or other Romanization systems, Bopomofo symbols cannot be confused with other pronunciations. The main disadvantage to Romanization is that students often have preconceived ideas about the pronunciation of the Roman alphabet. For example, the Pinyin letter â€Å"q† has a â€Å"ch† sound, and it can take some effort to make this association. On the other hand, the Bopomofo symbol ã„‘ is not associated with any other sound than its Mandarin pronunciation. Computer Input Computer keyboards with Zhuyin Fuhao symbols are available. This makes it fast and efficient to input Chinese characters using a Chinese Character IME (Input Method Editor) like the one included with Windows XP. The Bopomofo input method can be used with or without tone marks. Characters are input by spelling the sound, followed by either the tone mark or the space bar. A list of candidate characters appears. Once a character is selected from this list, another list of commonly used characters may pop up. Only In Taiwan Zhuyin Fuhao was developed in the early 20th century. In the 1950s, Mainland China switched over to Pinyin as its official phonetic system, although some dictionaries from the Mainland still include Zhuyin Fuhao symbols. Taiwan continues to use Bopomofo for teaching school children. Taiwanese teaching material aimed at foreigners usually uses Pinyin, but there are a few publications for adults which use Bopomofo. Zhuyin Fuhao is also used for some of Taiwans Aboriginal languages. Bopomofo and Pinyin Comparison Table Zhuyin Pinyin b p m f d t n l g k h j q x zh ch sh r z c s a o e ai ei ao ou an en ang eng er i u u

American and Chinese Manufacturers in the Future Case Study - 2

American and Chinese Manufacturers in the Future - Case Study Example They are helping products move into quality and reduce prices. The American manufacturers can look for ways to reduce their costs so that they make products that are not expensive to the buyer. The manufacturers can cheap raw materials and make quality products. They can react fast to new technologies and make better products.   The American manufacturer can have high levels of secrecy in the production of its products. There should be no exposure of the technology they are working on. They should also release products into the market without staying for long in other countries like China. The Chinese cloners will not have time to make their clones and sell them as the first sellers. The American manufacturers can also work with the Chinese law enforcement groups to catch the cloners.   I do not think that we will all be forced to learn â€Å"Chinese manufacturing† 10 years from now. There will be changes in the manufacturing processes and new rules and manufacturing policies. This means that the world will not only see Chinese manufacturing as the only way to manufacture. The American manufacturing will also try to deal with challenges that cloners bring.   I think the federal government should talk with other governments from countries where counterfeits and cloning are high.