Strategic Choice and Evaluation Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Strategic Choice and Evaluation Paper - Essay Example The most suitable grand strategy for Hawaiian Airlines in this case will be concentrated growth. (Galor, 2005). The grand strategy of Hawaiian Airlines involves the division of the main aim into a number of major objectives that will gel together to achieve the overall strategy. This will include a number of long term objectives through which the organization will be able to achieve their main objective which is the reduction of their debt and raising additional capital (Weil, 2008). The achievement of these two objectives will lead to the accomplishment of the main aim which is the expansion and growth of the airline (Debraj, 2008). The grand strategy thus will consist of methods in which these two can be obtained in the most effective way. Though these objectives may have a number of sub-aims within themselves, the grand strategy will focus on the main objective itself and how to ensure it is achieved (Weil, 2008). With this in mind, the grand strategy can be designed as such: This objective will require adept skills in accounting if the aim of 25% is to be achieved in the amount of time allocated (5 years). Reducing the company debt can be done through a number of ways that will involve the management of the organization’s funds and may require the company to tighten its belt in certain areas (Galor, 2005). These ways include, increasing the premium amount that is being paid during the agreed periods of time with their debtors. This increase can be within the realms of 5% and 10% which will make a big difference in the long run (Debraj, 2008). A second means is cutting on unnecessary costs and expenditure to ensure that the current debt does not grow any larger. This may involve the cutting of costs such as paid vacations for the period of time that the debt is being reduced (Weil, 2008). The cutting of costs and increase of debt amount paid will mean that the money accrued will be paid off faster than was previously possible

Performance Evaluation Task Essay Example for Free

Performance Evaluation Task Essay All employees want a fair and accurate performance evaluation. It’s it important that an evaluation reflect each employee’s job duties and how well they have performed. In this scenario, the engineer’s first performance review ended with him being angry over the way in which he was being evaluated. There were three main issues with the engineer’s evaluation. The engineer felt that no one in the company, including the plant manager was qualified to complete his annual review. He felt this way because he is the only trained engineer in the company. As a result, the engineer had little confidence in the way that he was being evaluated and was upset that most of his review was based on relationships with other co-workers and his own personal characteristics. For the second annual review the plant manager is exploring other options when it comes to evaluating the engineer. The three most commonly-used sets of evaluation criteria which should be used in evaluations are individual task outcomes, behaviors, and traits. In this scenario, the engineer could be judged on what he was able to accomplish. For example, the changes that the engineer suggested resulted in considerable savings on manufacturing energy cost and eliminated a significant safety hazard that had been previously overlooked. Behavior refers to not only how the employee works with others but also organizational performance, promptness, and suggestions for improvements. In the scenario, the engineer clashes with other employees and has a poor attitude towards co-workers. However, the engineer’s suggestions have led to positive changes with the company. Traits are referring to the engineer’s attitude, showing confidence, and being dependable. In this scenario, the engineer demonstrates a poor attitude towards co-workers and does not pay close attention when the manager is speaking. When you compare the most commonly used sets of criteria of claim evaluation the manager needs to determine the importance or weight of each category. Is what the employee achieved as important as how the tasks were done or that they got along with the other members of the team? What the engineer achieved is something that can be measured though the completion of tasks.  Behaviors and traits can be more subjective. It could be the engineer’s personality to be standoffish or he doesn’t socialize well with others. This doesn’t necessarily mean the engineer is not a successful employee. In the annual review, the manager should consider the outcome of his tasks as the highest priority. Behaviors should be the next factor, and finally traits. In an effort to get more buy in of the performance evaluation process, the plant manager can include the opinions of supervisors, peers, and subordinates. This is an example of a full 360-degree program. There are advantages and disadvantages to this process. The advantages include the hope to give everyone more of a sense of participation in the review process and gain more accurate readings on employee performance. The use of multiple sources is more likely to capture a variety of behavior more accurately. It also provides employees with a wider perspective of their performance. Some of the disadvantages of the 360 degree evaluation are that it has the potential to be misused. Some corporations allow employees to choose the people who evaluate them which can provide some inaccurate feedback. There can also be issues in handling disagreements and contradictions between those who complete the evaluations. (E-textbook) The plant manager will also need to consider how the engineer would be evaluated. There are several options when considering how to evaluate an employee. The first method that can be considered is a written essay. This is a written narrative describing an employee’s strengths, weaknesses, potential, performance, and suggestions for improvement. The success of this method can be determined as much by the evaluator’s writing ability as by the employee’s level of performance. Another method of evaluation is critical incidents. In this type of evaluation, the evaluator focuses on the behaviors that make the difference between performing a job effectively or ineffectively. It provides an example of what behaviors are wanted and those that are opportunity areas. The third and one of the most popular methods of evaluation is the use of graphic rating scales. In this evaluation method, a set of performance factors such has quality of work; cooperation, attendance, and initiative are noted. The evaluator rates each of the factors on incremental scales. One of the advantages to this method is that  they are less time consuming to complete. They also provide for easy analysis. However, evaluation methods can be biased and have as much to do with the evaluator as with the employee being evaluated. For example, the evaluator unintentionally can inflate an evaluation or even undervalue the evaluation. The evaluator can also be influenced by the assessment of one characteristic. Some evaluations can be biased by the evaluator favoring employees who have similar qualities to their own. Or in some cases, the evaluator can see the process as an opportunity to reward or punish employees. While the evaluation process at times is not perfect there are ways that it can be improved. In the scenario, the engineer feels that no one is qualified to complete his evaluation including the plant manager. He has little confidence in the evaluation process and that the rating themselves focus on personal characteristics and relationships with co-workers. One way to improve the evaluation process is to train evaluators. If no one is qualified then the company needs to make a qualified evaluator. Training someone to be an evaluator can make for more accurate ratings of an employee. This can help to build confidence that the evaluations are accurate and fair. Another alternative is to use multiple evaluators such as in the 360-degree method. This provides an opportunity to achieve more accurate evaluations. The evaluators can review different areas of job performance such as evaluating suggestions for improvements and personal characteristics. A third option is to evaluate selectively. In the scenario, the evaluation would only be done by someone who has some expertise in the area in which they are evaluating. This again can help the engineer have confidence in the evaluations that are being completed. In conclusion, the engineer wants a fair and accurate evaluation. He wants to have confidence in the people who are completing that evaluation and that he is being evaluated on criteria such as improvements to company and how timely and effectively his tasks are completed.

Overall Summary on Existing Customer Service at Morrisons plc :: Business Management Studies

Overall Summary on Existing Customer Service at Morrisons plc After analysing the results I have obtained from the questionnaire, I have concluded that the majority of the public that shopped at Morrisons felt that the customer service overall is very good. Morrisons customers feel that the customer service is generally good because they are offered a lot of assistance from staff and also are given advice if requested by the customer. There are lots of facilities designed to make a visit to Morrisons as convenient and comfortable as possible for the general public. This is one of the causes for the customer service being rated as very good by the present customers I have surveyed. Morrisons have extended opening hours, including Sunday trading. This is so that customers have more flexibility on the time they prefer to shop. This is good for the customers who work or study because they tend to be free in the evening to shop. The parking facilities for the customers at the Mayo Avenue Morrisons store, has an extensive free car parking area. This includes spaces for parents with children and also drivers who have disabilities. At Morrisons there are Cash-Point machines for most major banks. This includes HSBC bank and Lloyds TSB. This is so that customers can withdraw money at the store and do not need to travel to the bank so that they can withdraw money from their bank account. There are recycling facilities including glass, can, bottle, paper and textile banks. This encourages customers to recycle. Also customers do not have to travel to other banks in Bradford to recycle. Morrisons have their own petrol station where petrol, diesel, free of charge tyre pumps are available and also confectionary and newspapers are on sale inside the petrol pump store. The tyre pumps enable customers to check the pressure of their vehicle tyres and can also pump the tyres if necessary. The Morrisons petrol pump is open long hours so that customers can utilise the pump during the period they shop at Morrisons in the late evening. At Morrisons, there are customer cafes offering snacks and hot meals freshly prepared in-store throughout the day. This is good for the customers with a busy schedule and also those who do not like to cook. For the parents and the babies there are baby-changing rooms with facilities. There are nappy dispensers and also a machine where you can purchase nappies from the vending machine. For all customers there are toilet facilities where there are soap dispensers. For the special needs customers there are disabled toilets that are specially designed for the customers with disabilities.

Harvard business school case Essay

1)Airborne’s performance from 1986-1997 can be described as dismal. Throughout the period the company managed to remain profitable every year, but they underperformed the McGahan averages. Airborne averaged 1.72% ROS (including 1997, which was an outlier for this set), 2.46% ROA, and 9.34% ROE. This was compared to the ROS, ROA, and ROE of 4.7%, 5.9%, and 12.6%, respectively. Airborne also had lower margins than its competitors, FedEx and UPS, so it can be inferred that Airborne’s performance is poor not just in general but also considering the industry. It should be noted that the industry leader, FedEx, could not consistently beat the averages either, so the industry is not earning large margins to begin with. However, UPS does consistently beat the averages, so Airborne should not be entirely excused due to its industry. The strategy seems to be low-cost, broad based. Based on Exhibits 1 and 8, it is obvious that Airborne is charging lower prices than the competition. This is only half of the low-cost strategy. It would at first appear that Airborne is simply charging lower prices, but has not developed a lower cost structure because its margins are so low. However, there is evidence to support a lower cost structure as well. First of all, it would be quite difficult to have a similar cost structure and even turn a profit if one looks at the FedEx comparison in Exhibit 1. This is not the only evidence of a low cost strategy. At first glance, it appears that Airborne may not have a lower cost structure because of the size of their Depreciation cost versus revenue. Because Depreciation was the only cost that was present in the Financial Results Exhibits for all three companies, it has to serve as the number for comparison. Versus revenue size, Airborne actually was much higher than UPS, and barely lowe r than FedEx. It is important to consider what the cost means though. Most likely, the depreciation costs are based on depreciation of the aircraft, the major asset purchases that these companies make. If the depreciation cost is divided by the number of planes in the fleet, then Airborne appears to be paying less per plane, this could be supported by the statement that they use planes from the 60s and 70s. It would seem that the cost structure is lower in this case. Also the case mentions that Airborne is able to fill its planes to a higher capacity, meaning less costs incurred per item because the flight cost is spread out  over more revenue generating packages. Also, Airborne does not invest in the technology that the others do, such as tracking, that would add to costs and also be the mark of differentiation. Airborne also uses the cheaper ground method over air to save money, another low cost method. Airborne does not engage in costly advertising campaigns. Airborne is definitely pursuing a low cost strategy, they just seem to be doing a poor job of it as far as earning similar margins. In terms of the broad versus narrow based, there may be an argument for Airborne positioning themselves for urban markets because the customers they serve tend to be in the major 50 areas of the US. The fact remains that Airborne does not specifically serve only these urban areas according to the case, so they would most likely serve any part of the country. They do seem to be focusing on domestic shipments because they do not operate their own aircraft on international shipments, but the still do have international shipments, lending more weight to the broad argument. 2)Substitution: this is a major threat. The specific service that Airborne provides is easy to find from competitors, not to mention that there is no proprietary characteristic of the Airborne service that would necessarily encourage a customer not to switch with the exception of price. Imitation: The threat of imitation is not as high. If a competitor were to imitate, they would have to develop a separate cost structure, and the Airborne way does not really fit into their business models. If a startup were to attempt to imitate, then there would be many costs that would be quite prohibitive. It would be expensive to buy all the planes, at over $5m each, the airport, and spend the money on getting customers. Hold Up: This threat appears to be quite low. The customers will most likely not ask for lower prices, and the company owns a lot of the planes and inputs. The only conceivable threat is from employees. Pilots typically have unions (the case does not mention a union of Airborne pilots), so they could use that union clout to ask for more money. The only clue to the likelihood of holdup was the employee description of â€Å"frugal† and â€Å"strait-laced†. These are not words that usually have positive connotations, so this could be a hint that employees are unhappy. Slack: Slack is harder to gauge than the others, but it appears that the threat is low. It appears that company is cutting costs in all areas where they can. This bare bones setup would definitely not be indicative of a management that could produce slack. They could conceivably get slack because they do not work as hard via advertising and promotion, so potential customers do not know about their price advantages. The only really pertinent piece of information I found was that the capacity was listed at 80%. That leaves extra capacity that they could be using, indicating slack. This observation is offset by the fact that this capacity is still higher than the competitors. All in all, there is more evidence to support a low threat of slack. 3)I think that Airborne should adopt a distance based pricing structure. While it may present a threat to the cost edge that they currently have over competition, it also could lead to higher revenues. The company already has a cost advantage, so it should be able to still outprice the competition. The distance based pricing model could let the company gain some of the revenue that they are missing. If the company uses more trucks anyway, over a larger distance, the cost savings should add up, and Airborne will still earn a profit. The only major threat that a pricing change presents is lost volume because of losing customers. However, customers are used to a distance based system, as it is the industry standard. Also, if they have the lower price compared to UPS and FedEx, the main selling point is still in place. I would not recommend this change only in the event that Airborne would cease to be the cost leader after adjustments, because that would destroy their edge and model. There is no evidence to indicate that this could be the case, so I stick by my recommendation. 4)The relationship with RPS looks like it can be quite valuable. I would have to say that I do recommend a change in terms of service offered, and that in turn could be a slight modification of strategy. I think that, with main competitors offering tracking and other information services, Airborne needs to offer some kind of tracking service as well. The tracking service might have moved from being a differentiated service that customers pay a premium  for into an industry standard. Part of the low cost strategy is at least giving the consumer what would be considered a typical service. If differentiation increases the willingness to pay, I think that not offering a key service that the customer expects could substantially decrease willingness to pay. Airborne should forge a stronger alliance with RPS and take advantage of the opportunities. If they can take market share away from UPS and offer a higher quality service, that should mean more revenues. Airborne is currently outpricing the competition substantially; in Exhibit 1 they have almost half the per package revenue of Federal Express, and in Exhibit 8 they charge almost 20% less per package. The extra service could justify a higher price but keep them in the low-cost position as there is plenty of room to raise prices. This should make a difference in terms of more revenue. I am unaware as to the elasticity of the price of shipping packages, but it would seem to me that, as long as they have the lowest price, the volume should not decline. Another reason to join forces with RPS is the large amount of ground shipments. This is where they get the higher margins, and RPS can increase the volume. It would seem that a company should jump at the opportunity to increase the volume of higher margin activity. There is little discussion as to the costs associated with the relationship, but it seems to be implied that Airborne does make money from the activities conducted together. This would mean looking a lot more like UPS than FedEx, and UPS is the only one of the three companies with acceptable performance indicators. All in all, I recommend that Airborne stay with a low-cost strategy, but they should use the relationship with RPS to get some more customers and raise their poor margins. As it stands the company is not doing well, and this could be what they need to finally get the company to earning a decent profit.

Religious Behavioral Development in the Stone Age

Religious behaviors developed to what they are today beginning in the pre-historic times of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and the Neolithic. There is evidence of these behaviors in the archaeological artifacts as well as mythological evidence. Religious behaviors evolved as humans evolved. Religious beliefs changed too. In the Paleolithic we learn that people were very spiritual; everything was treated as a spiritual act. They approached everything ritualistically and their behaviors were in response to the numinous. The numinous is described as a feeling you get when you can’t explain something. There is archaeological evidence pointing to animal worship during this time too. Spiritual beliefs in the Paleolithic gave way to forms of organized religion based on archaeological findings from the Neolithic. Beginning in the Paleolithic we see evidence of ritual burials as a form of religious behavior. Early modern humans buried their dead and some of those graves contained grave goods. These grave goods consisted of beads and various pieces of jewelry: bracelets, necklaces, and pendants. The grave goods may have implied that the people believed the dead would go on somewhere and they may need, or want, those items with them. This is a belief based on animism, that anything and everything has a soul or spirit. The grave goods could also mean that the living treated the dead the same way they treated the living. The burials suggested they had respect for the dead. These ritual burials continued on in the Mesolithic and the Neolithic. Starting in the Mesolithic and continuing in to the Neolithic, we see more religious behaviors develop. During the Paleolithic, people were living together and cooperating with one another, building temples, and gathering food and everyone spoke one language. The myths suggest that at one point the cooperation and harmony dissipated, and three new cultures evolved. With the three new cultures came three different languages. The cultures that emerged from the hunter-gatherers of the Paleolithic were replaced with farmers, herders, and hunters in the Mesolithic. The myths suggest that the three cultures (farmers, herders, and hunters), came from the three sons of Noah. Prior to that, in the myth of the First Family, there were two types of people, or two different cultures. There was Cain, who was a farmer, a iller of the ground, and his brother Abel, who was a herder, or keeper of the flock. In a later myth we are introduced to Nimrod, who was a hunter, thus rounding out the three groups. Those three groups had their own set of religious behaviors. Those behaviors included animal sacrifice, human sacrifice, ritual sex, and ritual abstinence. Other behaviors emerged that may not be considered religious behaviors but instead, ‘ways of life’, but are worth mentioning since they developed over time along with the religious behaviors and played a major role in the lives of the early humans and shaping evolution. Those ‘ways of life’ include: shamanism, priesthood, matriarchy, patriarchy, Apollonian and Dionysian. We can better understand the religious behaviors of the different cultures only after we identify the pattern of culture, or traits, each one exhibited. The patterns of culture are associated with the characteristics in the distinction between the gods Apollo and Dionysius. Apollo was the god of light and Dionysius was the god of wine. Therefore, the characteristics are referred to as Apollonian and Dionysian. During the Mesolithic, Dionysian tendencies gave way to Apollonian tendencies. Dionysian characteristics include: earth, Eros, epicurean, heart, emotion, feeling, chaos, excess, female, equality, art, spontaneity, country, and nature. A culture that exhibited characteristics of Dionysian would most likely practice human sacrifice, ritual sex, shamanism, and matriarchy as their religious behaviors. Apollonian characteristics include: sun, psyche, stoic, mind, reason, thinking, order, restraint, male, hierarchy, science, city, and civilization. Differing from Dionysian, a culture that showed signs of Apollonian characteristics would practice animal sacrifice, ritual abstinence, priesthood, and patriarchy as their religious behaviors. Based on the myths and the artifacts of the Mesolithic, and the Neolithic, we are able to determine that the farmers were most likely Dionysian. Some of the characteristics evident in the myths, which are told from the farmer’s point of view, include the earth, Eros, and female. The characteristics in the artifacts include the female as well, but also equality. The burials, being of the same type, and the houses they lived in, which were also the same, suggest equality, and the female is emphasized in the statues. Eros, which gave us the word â€Å"erotic†, is prevalent in the artifacts and the myths. Based on our understanding of how the characteristics define the religious behaviors, we learn that the farmers practiced human sacrifice, ritual sex, shamanism, and matriarchy. Stonehenge was believed to have been built during the Neolithic. Archaeologists found human remains there and a number of the skulls showed signs of blunt-force trauma which suggested human sacrifice. The herders in the Neolithic displayed more Apollonian characteristics. As mentioned earlier, Dionysian tendencies were giving way to Apollonian tendencies. The evidence of this is found in both the myths and archaeologically. The male is prevalent in both, hierarchy is established, and order is suggested. Again, based on our understanding of how the characteristics define the religious behaviors, we surmise that the herders practiced animal sacrifice, ritual abstinence, priesthood, and patriarchy. The restraint and stoic characteristics point toward the abstinence while the male dominated myths point to the patriarchy way of life. There were numerous animal bones discovered which indicated animal sacrifice. Evidence of the Neolithic hunters’ way of life is vague but if we use the myths from the Mesolithic, and the artifacts from the Neolithic, we can deduce that the hunters were also Apollonian. The myths are told from a hunting point of view and they imply hierarchy and are male prevailing. The artifacts hint at the sun and we learned that the hunters lived close to the farmers which means they were civilized, used reason, and thinking. Being of Apollonian in nature, the hunters shared the same religious behaviors of the herders. In summary, religious behaviors have undergone dramatic, and not so dramatic, changes through the different time periods discussed. Some of those behaviors are still around today. Human sacrifice is probably the only one that has almost completely disappeared in the modern day, but on the other hand, animal sacrifice, which we’ve seen since the Mesolithic, is still relevant in this day and age. The behaviors exhibited had benefits such as providing a sense of community, it proved to be a form of communication, it offered assistance during crises, and also provided psychological well-being.

Latin American Representation in Motion Pictures essays

Latin American Representation in Motion Pictures essays Latin American Representation in Motion Pictures My friends and I love going to the movies. There is nothing like the taste of buttery, warm popcorn, an ice-cold soda and a great movie. We enter the movie theatre and find the perfect seat, not too close and not too far, but perfectly in the middle. As the pre-views finish and the lights begin to dim, our anticipation and excitement builds for the movie we having waiting to watch. When the movie starts and the credits begin we are sometimes presented with Latino names, such as, "Lopez," "Garcia," "Hayek," "Banderas," "Perez," "Rodriguez," "Gonzalez," and many others. When I am with my friends we can't help but cheer and feel a sense of pride. However, this feeling is quickly disrupted when we realize that the roles of our Latino stars are that of servants or drug addicts. As I witness these images, my pride slowly disappears and I feel embarrassed. I ask myself why are they speaking that way? Why do they act that way? The answers that I found were more profound than I imagined. In this paper, I will explore the various representations, depictions and portrayals of Latin American women in American Hollywood. Specifically, I will identify the dark shadow of negative images that has followed Latin American women from the emergence of film through today. Finally, I will identify the ways in which these issues are beginning to change from the former negative representations to the emergence of a more positive, celebrated representation of Latin Americans. The New Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines power as " a position of ascendancy over others: authority, the ability to act or produce an effect, one that has control" (Merriam Webster 569). There is an underlying issue of power in American cinema. From the time that motion pictures emerged in 1895, the power in cinema was mostly defined and held in the hands of one elite group: the dominant white race. As Stuart Ha...

Maos Hundred Flowers Campaign in China

Mao's Hundred Flowers Campaign in China In late 1956, just seven years after the Red Army prevailed in Chinas Civil War, Chairman of the Communist Party Mao Zedong announced that the government wanted to hear citizens true opinions about the regime. He  sought to promote the development of a new Chinese culture, and said in a speech that Criticism of the bureaucracy is pushing the government towards the better. This was a shock to the Chinese people since the Communist Party had always previously cracked down on any citizen bold enough to criticize the party or its officials. The Liberalization Movement Mao named this liberalization movement the Hundred Flowers Campaign, after a traditional poem: Let a hundred flowers bloom/Let a hundred schools of thought contend. Despite, the Chairmans urging, however, the response among the Chinese people was muted. They did not truly believe that they could criticize the government without repercussions. Premier Zhou Enlai had received only a handful of letters from prominent intellectuals,  containing very minor and cautious critiques of the government. By the spring of 1957, communist officials changed their tone.  Mao announced that criticism of the government was not just allowed but preferred, and began to directly pressure some leading intellectuals to send in their constructive criticism. Reassured that the government truly wanted to hear the truth, by May and early June  of that year,  university professors and other scholars were sending in millions of letters containing increasingly assertive suggestions and criticisms.  Students and other citizens also held criticism meetings and rallies, put up posters, and published articles in magazines calling for reform. Lack of Intellectual Freedom Among the issues targeted by the people during the Hundred Flowers Campaign were the lack of intellectual freedom, the harshness of previous crack-downs on  opposition leaders,  the close adherence to Soviet ideas, and the much higher standard of living enjoyed by Party leaders versus the ordinary citizens.  This flood of vociferous criticism seems to have taken Mao and Zhou by surprise. Mao, in particular, saw it as a threat to the regime; he felt that the opinions being voiced were no longer constructive criticism, but were harmful and uncontrollable. Halt to the Campaign On June 8, 1957, Chairman Mao called a halt to the Hundred Flowers Campaign.  He announced that it was time to pluck the poisonous weeds from the bed of flowers. Hundreds of intellectuals and students were rounded up, including pro-democracy activists Luo Longqi and Zhang Bojun, and were forced to publicly confess that they had organized a secret conspiracy against socialism. The crackdown sent hundreds of leading Chinese thinkers to labor camps for re-education or to prison. The brief experiment with freedom of speech was  over. The Debate Historians continue to debate whether Mao genuinely wanted to hear suggestions on governance, in the beginning, or whether the Hundred Flowers Campaign was a trap all along.  Certainly, Mao had been shocked and appalled by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchevs speech, publicized on March 18, 1956, in which Khrushchev denounced former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin for building a cult of personality, and ruling through suspicion, fear, and terror. Mao may have wanted to gauge whether intellectuals in his own country viewed him the same way. It is also possible, however, that Mao and more particularly Zhou were truly seeking new  paths for developing Chinas culture and arts under the communist model. Whatever the case, in the aftermath of the Hundred Flowers Campaign, Mao stated that he had flushed the snakes out of their caves.  The rest of 1957 was devoted to an Anti-Rightest Campaign, in which the government ruthlessly crushed all dissent.

Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire

Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Suleiman the Magnificent (November 6, 1494–September 6, 1566) became the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire  in 1520, heralding the Golden Age of the Empires long history before his death. Perhaps best known for his overhaul of the Ottoman government during his reign, Suleiman was known by many names, including The LawGiver. His rich character and even richer contribution to the region and the Empire helped make it a source of great wealth in prosperity for years to come, ultimately leading to the foundation of several nations in Europe and the Middle East we know today. Fast Facts: Suleiman the Magnificent Known For: Sultan of the Ottoman EmpireAlso Known As: Kanunà ® Sultan Sà ¼leyman, Sultan Sà ¼leyman Han bin Selim Han, The Law Giver, Suleiman the FirstBorn: November 6, 1494 in Trabzon,  Ottoman EmpireParents: Selim I, Hafsa SultanDied: September 6, 1566 in Szigetvr,  Kingdom of Hungary,  Habsburg MonarchyEducation: TopkapÄ ± Palace  in  ConstantinopleSpouse(s): Mahidevran Hatun (consort), Hà ¼rrem Sultan (consort and, later, wife)Children: Åžehzade Mahmud, Åžehzade Mustafa,  Konya, Sehzade Murad, Åžehzade Mehmed, Åžehzade Abdullah, Sultan Selim II,  Hagia Sophia  Mosque), Åžehzade Bayezid,  Qazvin,  Ã…žehzade Cihangir,  Konya, Mihrimah Sultan,  AyÅŸe Hà ¼maÅŸah Sultan, Sultanzade Mehmed Bey, Sultanzade Osman Bey, Raziye Sultan   Early Life Suleiman was born the only surviving son of Sultan Selim I of the Ottoman Empire and Aishe Hafsa Sultan of the Crimean Khanate.  As a child, he studied at the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul where he learned theology, literature, science, history, and warfare. He also became fluent in six languages there: Ottoman Turkish, Arabic, Serbian, Chagatai Turkish (similar to Uighur), Farsi, and Urdu. Suleiman was fascinated by Alexander the Great  in his youth and would later program military expansion that has been attributed to being inspired in part by Alexanders conquests. As sultan, Suleiman would lead 13 major military expeditions and spend more than 10 years of his 46-year reign out on campaigns. His father ruled quite successfully and left his son in a remarkably secure position with the Janissaries  (members of the Sultans household troops) at the height of their usefulness; the Mamluks  defeated; and the great maritime power of Venice, as well as the Persian Safavid Empire, humbled by the Ottomans. Selim also left his son a powerful navy, a first for a Turkic ruler. Ascent to the Throne Suleimans father entrusted his son with the governorships of different regions within the Ottoman Empire from the age of 17. When Suleiman was 26 in 1520, Selim I died and Suleiman ascended the throne. Although he was of age, his mother served as co-regent. The new sultan immediately launched his program of military conquest and imperial expansion. In 1521, he put down a revolt by the governor of Damascus, Canberdi Gazali. Suleimans father had conquered the area that is now Syria in 1516, using it as a wedge between the Mamluk sultanate and the Safavid Empire, where they had appointed Gazali as the governor. On January 27, 1521, Suleiman defeated Gazali, who died in battle. In July of the same year, the Sultan laid siege to Belgrade, a fortified city on the Danube River. He used both a land-based army and a flotilla of ships to blockade the city and prevent reinforcement. Belgrade, part of modern Serbia, belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary in Suleimans time. The city fell to Suleimans forces on August 29, 1521, removing the last obstacle to an Ottoman advance into Central Europe. Before he launched his major assault on Europe, Suleiman wanted to take care of an annoying gadfly in the Mediterranean- Christian holdovers from the Crusades, the Knights Hospitallers. This group, based on the Island of Rhodes, had been capturing Ottoman and other Muslim nations ships, stealing cargoes of grain and gold, and enslaving the crews. The Knights Hospitallers piracy even imperiled Muslims who set sail to make the haj, the pilgrimage to Mecca that is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. Battling Oppressive Christian Regimes in Rhodes Selim I had tried and failed to dislodge the Knights in 1480. During the intervening decades, the Knights used Muslim slave labor to strengthen and reinforce their fortresses on the island in anticipation of another Ottoman siege. Suleiman sent out that siege in the form of an armada of 400 ships carrying at least 100,000 troops to Rhodes. They landed on June 26, 1522, and laid siege to the bastions full of 60,000 defenders representing various western European countries: England, Spain, Italy, Provence, and Germany. Meanwhile, Suleiman himself led an army of reinforcements on a march to the coast, reaching Rhodes in late July. It took nearly half a year of artillery bombardment and detonating mines under the triple-layer stone walls, but on December 22, 1522, the Turks finally forced all of the Christian knights and the civilian inhabitants of Rhodes to surrender. Suleiman gave the knights 12 days to gather their belongings, including weapons and religious icons, and leave the island on 50 ships provided by the Ottomans, with most of the knights immigrating to Sicily. The local people of Rhodes also received generous terms and had three years to decide whether they wanted to remain on Rhodes under the Ottoman rule or move elsewhere. They would pay no taxes for the first five years, and Suleiman promised that none of their churches would be converted into mosques. Most of them decided to stay when the Ottoman Empire took nearly complete control of the eastern Mediterranean. Into Europes Heartland Suleiman faced several additional crises before he was able to launch his attack into Hungary, but unrest among the Janissaries and a 1523 revolt by the Mamluks in Egypt proved to be only temporary distractions. In April 1526, Suleiman began the march to the Danube. On August 29, 1526, Suleiman defeated King Louis II of Hungary in the Battle of Mohacs and supported the nobleman John Zapolya as the next king of Hungary. But the Hapsburgs in Austria put forward one of their princes, Louis IIs brother-in-law Ferdinand. The Hapsburgs marched into Hungary and took Buda, placing Ferdinand on the throne and sparking a decades-long feud with Suleiman and the Ottoman Empire. In 1529, Suleiman marched on Hungary once more, taking Buda from the Hapsburgs and then continuing to besiege the Hapsburg capital at Vienna. Suleimans army of perhaps 120,000 reached Vienna in late September, without most of their heavy artillery and siege machines. On October 11 and 12 of that year, they attempted another siege against 16,000 Viennese defenders, but Vienna managed to hold them off once more and the Turkish forces withdrew. The Ottoman sultan did not give up on the idea of taking Vienna, but his second attempt in 1532 was similarly hampered by rain and mud and the army never even reached the Hapsburg capital. In 1541, the two empires went to war again when the Hapsburgs laid siege to Buda, trying to remove Suleimans ally from the Hungarian throne. The Hungarians and Ottomans defeated the Austrians, and captured additional Hapsburg holdings in 1541 and again in 1544. Ferdinand was forced to renounce his claim to be king of Hungary and had to pay tribute to Suleiman, but even as all of these events happened to the north and west of Turkey, Suleiman also had to keep an eye on his eastern border with Persia. War With the Safavids The Safavid Persian Empire that ruled much of southwestern Asia  was one of the Ottomans great rivals and a fellow gunpowder empire. Its ruler, Shah Tahmasp, sought to extend Persian influence by assassinating the Ottoman governor of Baghdad and replacing him with a Persian puppet, and by convincing the governor of Bitlis in eastern Turkey to swear allegiance to the Safavid throne. Suleiman, busy in Hungary and Austria, sent his grand vizier with a second army to retake Bitlis in 1533, which also seized Tabriz, in present-day northeastern Iran, from the Persians. Suleiman himself returned from his second invasion of Austria and marched into Persia in 1534, but the Shah refused to meet the Ottomans in open battle, withdrawing into the Persian desert and using guerrilla hits against the Turks instead. Suleiman retook Baghdad and was reconfirmed as the true caliph of the Islamic world. From 1548 to 1549, Suleiman decided to overthrow his Persian gadfly for good and launched a second invasion of the Safavid Empire. Once more, Tahmasp refused to participate in a pitched battle, this time leading the Ottoman army up into the snowy, rugged terrain of the Caucasus Mountains. The Ottoman sultan gained territory in Georgia and the Kurdish borderlands between Turkey and Persia but was unable to come to grips with the Shah. The third and final confrontation between Suleiman and Tahmasp took place from 1553 to 1554. As always, the Shah avoided open battle, but Suleiman marched into the Persian heartland and laid it to waste. Shah Tahmasp finally agreed to sign a treaty with the Ottoman sultan, in which he got control of Tabriz in exchange for promising to cease border raids on Turkey and to permanently relinquish his claims to Baghdad and the rest of Mesopotamia. Maritime Expansion Descendants of Central Asian nomads, the Ottoman Turks were not historically a naval power. Nonetheless, Suleimans father established an Ottoman seafaring legacy in the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, and even the Indian Ocean beginning in 1518. During Suleimans reign, Ottoman ships traveled to Mughal Indias trading ports, and the sultan exchanged letters with the Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great. The sultans Mediterranean fleet patrolled the sea under the command of the famous Admiral Heyreddin Pasha, known in the west as Barbarossa. Suleimans navy also managed to drive troublesome newcomers to the Indian Ocean system, the Portuguese, out of a key base at Aden on the coast of Yemen in 1538. However, the Turks were unable to dislodge the Portuguese from their toeholds along the west coasts of India and Pakistan. Suleiman the Lawgiver Suleiman the Magnificent is remembered in Turkey as Kanuni, the LawGiver. He completely overhauled the formerly piecemeal Ottoman legal system, and one of his first acts was to lift the embargo on trade with the Safavid Empire, which hurt Turkish traders at least as much as it did Persian ones. He decreed that all Ottoman soldiers would pay for any food or other property they took as provisions while on a campaign, even while in enemy territory. Suleiman also reformed the tax system, dropping extra taxes imposed by his father and establishing a transparent tax rate system that varied according to peoples income. Hiring and firing within the bureaucracy would be based on merit, rather than on the whims of higher officials or family connections. All Ottoman citizens, even the highest, were subject to the law. Suleimans reforms gave the Ottoman Empire a recognizably modern administration and legal system more than 450 years ago. He instituted protections for Christian and Jewish citizens of the Ottoman Empire, denouncing blood libels against the Jews in 1553 and freeing Christian farm laborers from serfdom. Succession Suleiman the Magnificent had two official wives and an unknown number of additional concubines, so he bore many offspring. His first wife, Mahidevran Sultan, bore him his eldest son, an intelligent and talented boy named Mustafa. His second wife, a former Ukrainian concubine named Hurrem Sultan, was the love of Suleimans life and gave him seven sons. Hurrem Sultan knew that according to the rules of the harem,​ if Mustafa became sultan he would have all of her sons killed to prevent them from trying to overthrow him. She started a rumor that Mustafa was interested in ousting his father from the throne, so in 1553 Suleiman summoned his eldest son to his tent in an army camp and had the 38-year-old strangled to death. This left the path clear for Hurrem Sultans first son Selim to come to the throne. Unfortunately, Selim had none of the good qualities of his half-brother and is remembered in history as Selim the Drunkard. Death In 1566, the 71-year-old Suleiman the Magnificent led his army on a final expedition against the Hapsburgs in Hungary. The Ottomans won the Battle of Szigetvar on September 8, 1566, but Suleiman died of a heart attack the previous day. His officials did not want word of his death to distract and discomfit his troops, so they kept it a secret for a month and a half while the Turkish troops finalized their control of the area. Suleimans body was prepared for transport back to Constantinople. To keep it from putrefying, the heart and other organs were removed and buried in Hungary. Today, a Christian church and a fruit orchard stand in the area where Suleiman the Magnificent, greatest of the Ottoman sultans, left his heart on the battlefield. Legacy Suleiman the Magnificent vastly expanded the size and significance of the Ottoman Empire and launched a Golden Age in Ottoman arts. Achievements in the areas of literature, philosophy, art, and architecture had a major impact on both Eastern and Western styles. Some of the buildings constructed during his empire still stand today, including edifices designed by Mimar Sinan. Sources Clot, Andrà ©Ã‚  (1992).  Suleiman the Magnificent: The Man, His Life, His Epoch. London: Saqi Books.  ISBN  978-0-86356-126-9.The Sultans. TheOttomans.org.Parry, V.J. â€Å"Sà ¼leyman the Magnificent.†Ã‚  Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica, 23 Nov. 2018.

BUS IP1 Unit 5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

BUS IP1 Unit 5 - Essay Example This amount translates into US$ 13000. If on the other hand I choose to take the money to the US banks, then I will earn interest of (2/100*12500). This gives an interest of US$ 2500 for that particular year. The total amount that I would have will then be US$ 15000. The above calculations are based on the fact that Irish banks give 4% interest rate per a one year CD while the US banks give a 2% interest per a one year CD. If I choose to keep my winning and cash it into US dollars one year from today, the period during which the exchange rate changes from US$1 for â‚ ¬.80 Euro, to US$1 to â‚ ¬.85, then my overall winning will increase greatly. During that year the amount will have increased by 40 000 Euro and will be 1040000 Euro. This will then be translated into US$12235.294. Given this calculations, I would rather take my winning to USA than leave then in Ireland. Covered interest arbitrage refers to a trading strategy in which an investor takes advantage of the deference in interest rates between two countries. They use forward contract to shield themselves from risks that may arise as a result of exchange rate difference. An investor can choose to use forward premium to take advantage of forward premium in order to earn profit that is free from risk because of the discrepancies in the interest rates of the two countries involved (Madura, 2007). This condition is possible because the parity in interest rates is not always constant. Three economists Robert, Dunn and John have noted that in some cases financial markets gives data that proves not to be consistent with the parity in interest rates (Dunn et al., 2004). They further observed that instances where significant arbitrage profit of the covered interest appeared feasible was, in most cases as a result of assets having deferent risk perceptions, double taxation risks as well as cumbersome controls on foreign exchange. Purchasing power parity refers to the component of economic theories that determ ines the values of deferent currencies relative to each other (Frenkel et al., 1981). This is based on the assumption that one would require the same amount in one currency to buy another currency and proceed to buy a given amount of goods as to buying directly in the original currency. Under this assumption, the number of US dollars required to directly by a given quantity of goods would be the same if the dollars were first converted to Euros before buying the quantity of goods in question. The purchasing power parity concept enables investors to determine the exchange rate required to result into equivalence of the purchasing power between two currencies. In case of inflation in a country, the currency of that country depreciated in value. This means that the currency the currency has a lower value relative to other currency. As a result more of that currency can be converted into smaller number of other currencies. The purchasing power of that currency reduces with increasing in flation. In the year in which my lottery was invested the value of Euro reduced. This is an indication of inflation in Ireland. As I have noted, If I chose to keep my winning and cash it into US dollars one year from today, the period during which the exchange rate changes from US$1 for â‚ ¬.80 Euro, to US$1 to â‚ ¬.85, then my overall winning will reduce greatly. During that year the amount will have increased by 40 000 Euro and will be 1040000 Euro. This will then be translated into US$12235.294 as opposed to US$ 1300 when the

Visual rhetoric paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Visual rhetoric paper - Essay Example This can be done by direct action - force, threats, bribes, for example - or it can be done by the use of "signs", of which the most important are words in speech or writing" (Kennedy, 3) As we may notice, this definition doesn't exclude the possibility of using other types of signs than those commonly used, the linguistic signs. On the contrary, it implies the fact that rhetoric uses more than a system of signs. Newer approaches on rhetoric, as well as the broader definition of rhetoric as "the totality of connotators" (Barthes, 38) - connotators being the signifiers of connotation that correspond to the general ideology - place the image at the centre of a system of signs. Image is seen as able of conveying meaning and expressing ideas as well as having a persuasive function. Advertising images are the best illustration of the second function. They don't just denote, but they have very much to do with the connotation function. An image showing a mother and a little child sleeping peacefully, and a bottle of milk on the table near the bed, is meant to suggest that the peace of their sleep is a result of their drinking the respective brand of milk that contains everything necessary both to the adult and to the child's health. And it is meant, of course, to persuade us buy the respective brand of milk. ... Art has always been seen as more than a representation of reality. With its images, it's more difficult indeed to identify the message or the meaning, but there is no doubt, a message or a meaning is present. In fact, there is always more than one meaning attached to an image and that makes it almost impossible for us to exhaust the interpretations of a work of art. Richard Wendorf's opinion, quoted in Defining Visual Rhetorics, is that "writers and painters have always been fascinated by the relations that serve to join words and images." (Hill and Helmers, 63) More than being preoccupied with making a connection between the written and the visual work in arts, researchers in the field of visual rhetoric are concerned with showing how the work of art itself carries meaning.In painting, images become the replacement of language. The elements of the image and the way they are placed together in order to make up the painting may be seen as similar to the way in which words are chosen and arranged in a sentence or in a text in order to convey meaning or to determine change in the surrounding environment. Only that the meaning you find in the painting is more varied than in the case when linguistic signs are used. Ernst Gombrich expressed the following: "looking at a picture can take a good deal of time", as it involves "scanning, remembering, antic ipating, correcting and confirming impressions." (Hill and Helmers, 65) So, the viewer's interpretation gives the meaning of the image. Meaning is constructed or it may be said that it is chosen from a wide variety of latent meanings which are only activated through the viewer's acting upon them. And the meaning

Climate change - a global problem Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Climate change - a global problem - Essay Example The research will aim to provide intensive information regarding Building Design and Construction as against climate change. Scientists are predicting future environment and weather extremities and it is highly important to be prepared for potential changes. With future Sea level rise, flooding might be precipitated and if so, there is a need for protection. All EU Countries have ratified the Kyoto Protocol and agreed that they are responsible for 14% of World emissions and that the reduction of same is an EU responsibility. Ambitious new targets should be set to conserve all possible energy, working through adaptation. Homes and offices have to alter their design, construction and usage of material according to these highly relevant issues. There is an element of truth in saying that the buildings of medieval days were highly suitable for the climatic conditions prevailing in a particular region, because they had evolved over centuries with common sense and practicality and were the most suitable to that region. With climate change, any region's climate is not conventional any more and buildings have to be designed and built according to changing needs. Hence, this is a significant research area which would be very useful for future of buildings renovation and creation included. RESEARCH QUESTION AND HYPOTHESIS: A lot of uncertainty exists in this field as the climate changes are uncertain and unpredictable. The question of future buildings is based upon the research conducted in this area regarding future building designs, materials and methods of construction. I would like to concentrate on the design, raw material and construction of a 'Green Building' according to norms dictated by existing research information in all three fields. I will find ways and means of applying research into practice and look for as much information as possible, already available in scientific sectors of various countries, in an effort to combine it and make it suitable for practical use. As future weather conditions are not region-particular, but unpredictably universal, information from all quarters, economic, material industry, energy, solar studies, geography, climate surveys, history, archaeology, architecture, sociology, culture and heritage included, become necessary and relevant. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: Research will be done on material available from studies, research work, papers, journals, books, electronic media, mass communication, architectural reports and surveys, material production company reports and in-house research centre reports etc. Study has to be extended to Government policies, guidelines, Council regulations, norms and rigidities of City building creation that might provide hindrance and limitations for 'Green Buildings'. This will extend to practical matters like roof tile testing for their durability and power of withstanding elements, their overlap, pitch or slope, measurements and how they suit to the best possible weather

Social work Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Social work - Personal Statement Example f social assistance and responsibility, work to enhance practices of social work in developing countries, and successfully educate my audiences and patients on ways to empower themselves and pursue a healthy lifestyle. I enjoy helping people in need. Making a difference in people’s lives is the main reason for choosing a career in social work. I acquired some understanding in the field of family and child social care while growing up in a foster care ran by my aunt. I valued the intense hard work put into caring for the children individually. I realised from an early age that I would like knowing more about this field. I also volunteered at a child services centre to gain a better insight into the kind of skills and resources required to support needy children. I learned more about the role of a social worker in terms of working on multidisciplinary care reviews that helped the child services centre determine their current necessities and wishes. In the process, the centre recognized its future aims and preferred outcomes. Eventually, I helped the children become enabled, independent, realise their civil liberties, responsibilities, identity, and build on their self-worth. I enjoy dealing with children. At the social services centre, I offered constant emotional support to the children, especially during challenging events and development stages. This supports involves learning ways to communicate with children regarding sensitive more embarrassing issues in an appropriate way. As a result, I understood and was ready to support their responses to my social working skills and therapy methods. This post significantly enhanced my communication skills, patience with children, and initiative to offer social support. I needed this enhancement considering I only had experience with children going back to the foster care ran by my aunt when I was 12 years old. I enjoy helping children come more aware of newly learned principles and beliefs while expressing respect for

Gas Turbine Engine Compressors - Comparison Essay

Gas Turbine Engine Compressors - Comparison - Essay Example Its working fluid is air. The compressor then utilizes the mechanical energy that is imparted from outside so as to enhance static pressure head. In its configuration, it has four basic components: an inlet, impeller, a diffuser and a collector. The impeller increases the velocity of the fluid (Kerrebrock, 1992). In its working, the impeller rotates with a shaft and the casing which encloses the impeller. Due to this rotation, fluid is forced into the inlet as a result of the upstream pressure. As the impeller rotates, fluid moves to the discharge side. Movement of fluid to the discharge side creates a void. This implies that there is reduced pressure at the inlet of the impeller. There is pressure development in the compressor casing inlet. This provides additional air (fluid) into the impeller so as to fill the void (Carl, 2002). On reaching the impeller, the entering fluid flows along the impeller vanes. The fluid velocity increases as it progresses. Fluid at the impeller tip outlet is at maximum velocity. Fluid then enters the casing and expansion of the cross section area occurs. Diffusion occurs in the diffuser as fluid velocity reduces. The diffuser converts the high velocity (kinetic energy) of the fluid into pressure by increasingly diffusing the velocity of the gas. All these lead to the increase in the pressure of fluid (static pressure/ potential energy). This follows the Bernoulli’s principle (Carl, 2002). The final component of the centrifugal compressor is the collector. This is the chamber where diffuser discharges. Axial compressors are aerofoil based compressors utilizing rotatory movement. In the axial compressors, the working fluid flows in a parallel direction to the rotation axis. Axial flow compressors are capable of generating high pressure ratio on a single shaft. Several axial flow stages are combined so as to lead to high pressure ratios. Therefore, the axial flow compressor

The Ethics of Human Resource Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Ethics of Human Resource Management - Essay Example are considered as inalienable rights for workers (Fredrick, 2002) and these can be considered as negotiable too (Koehn, 2002) (Watson, 2003). Human resources management is also expected to address the issues of discrimination such as age, race, gender, religion, disability, sexual harassment etc. often through the use of affirmative action. (Smith, 1997) In a similar manner the employees of an organisation have certain obligations towards employers such as privacy over intellectual property rights, whistle blowing etc. Employees are expected to deal with these issues on an ethical plane such that the interests of the employer are not transgressed upon. On the other hand, employers have certain ethical obligations towards employees such as workplace safety through either modifying the workplace or through providing training and protection from hazards in the workplace. Within the problems listed above, individual companies can be considered as independent because most of these considerations can be handled in house or with the help of little external help. However there are certain issues that may pervade the limits of a company or firm’s authority to deal with them. The realm of more pervasive economic issues such as trade policies, trade unionism, immigration and globalisation all possess some kinds of ethical dimensions but it is often beyond the power of an individual company to deal with them (Legge, 2007) (Morehead et al., 1997). There are a number of leading theories on dealing with ethical issues in the human resource management sphere including Kantian ethics, consequentialism utilitarianism, virtue ethics and justice ethics. Arguments have been advanced both in favour of and against these theories that tend to make human resources management ethical as well as an unethical field of practice. There is however no denying that ethics plays a large part in human resources management and in order to create a lasting and

Gas Turbine Engine Compressors - Comparison Essay

Gas Turbine Engine Compressors - Comparison - Essay Example Its working fluid is air. The compressor then utilizes the mechanical energy that is imparted from outside so as to enhance static pressure head. In its configuration, it has four basic components: an inlet, impeller, a diffuser and a collector. The impeller increases the velocity of the fluid (Kerrebrock, 1992). In its working, the impeller rotates with a shaft and the casing which encloses the impeller. Due to this rotation, fluid is forced into the inlet as a result of the upstream pressure. As the impeller rotates, fluid moves to the discharge side. Movement of fluid to the discharge side creates a void. This implies that there is reduced pressure at the inlet of the impeller. There is pressure development in the compressor casing inlet. This provides additional air (fluid) into the impeller so as to fill the void (Carl, 2002). On reaching the impeller, the entering fluid flows along the impeller vanes. The fluid velocity increases as it progresses. Fluid at the impeller tip outlet is at maximum velocity. Fluid then enters the casing and expansion of the cross section area occurs. Diffusion occurs in the diffuser as fluid velocity reduces. The diffuser converts the high velocity (kinetic energy) of the fluid into pressure by increasingly diffusing the velocity of the gas. All these lead to the increase in the pressure of fluid (static pressure/ potential energy). This follows the Bernoulli’s principle (Carl, 2002). The final component of the centrifugal compressor is the collector. This is the chamber where diffuser discharges. Axial compressors are aerofoil based compressors utilizing rotatory movement. In the axial compressors, the working fluid flows in a parallel direction to the rotation axis. Axial flow compressors are capable of generating high pressure ratio on a single shaft. Several axial flow stages are combined so as to lead to high pressure ratios. Therefore, the axial flow compressor

Financial Analysis Of Marks & Spencer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5250 words

Financial Analysis Of Marks & Spencer - Essay Example Marks & Spencer Board comprises of the Chairman, Chief Executive, one executive director. The Board is responsible for the success of the company. Through the Chief Executive, the Board delegates to management the overall performance of the company through the setting of clear objectives, building long-term management capability and ensuring that the business is managed in conformity with the business principles.  Marks & Spencer Board comprises of the Chairman, Chief Executive, one executive director, and four on-executive directors. The Board is responsible for the success of the company. Through the Chief Executive, the Board delegates to management the overall performance of the company through the setting of clear objectives, building long-term management capability and ensuring that the business is managed in conformity with the business principles.   Marks & Spencer is into food, clothing, household items, and financial services business located in the UK with some wholly- owned and franchised operations worldwide. 49.9% of business in the UK is derived from food sales which account for 3.2% of market share1. Food sales were up 2.4% in 2005, however, in 2006 food sales were up by 7%. M & S significant international presence contributed 9.1% to the Group’s pre-tax profits in 2006. Most of these profits were a result of strong food sales. Food comprises of a big chunk of M&S retail business.   M&S food has a sound reputation for outstanding quality and innovation.

Explore Shakespeares presentation of love in As You Like It Essay Example for Free

Explore Shakespeares presentation of love in As You Like It Essay Love has always been a foremost feature of the plays written by William Shakespeare and As You Like It is no exception with love regularly being represented throughout the play in a variety of ways. Just like in Shakespeares other works As You Like It is also broken down in to a main plot, which is then accompanied by smaller sub-plots that are scattered thorughout the play. Shakerspeare along with the play As You Like It skillfully uses these plots well to demonstrate various types of love. One variety of love that Shakespeare anylyses deeply is that of courtly love, whose ideas featured heavily around the fact that love brings suffering and agony to the lover and the theory that the male lover is controlled by his mistress to whom he must adhere to. Courtly Love had become a popular subject to write about during Shakespeares Elizabethan period and was also strongly evident in english literature for centuries previously. The concept of pastoral romance is also expressed in As You Like It , in which characters in rural countryside areas appear to act freely and joyfully , and this causes relationships to revel successfully and contently. In other words Pastoral romance seems to betray the countryside in stories as some sort of catalyst speeding up the progress and success of overall relationships. On the other hand life in the court seems to lack this optimism and instead living in developed areas (towns, villages, cities etc) seems to damage love between characters due to the stress and demand of court life. This type of romance is also strongly associated with disguise and the thought of characters falling in love with the opposite sex even when in disguise. The love in Shakespeares plays was recognised by the public of the Elizabethan period who had a good understanding about how genuine and pure love was between characters along with a good perception of the characters personalities (such as social status) just through the language they spoke during the play. The relationships in As You Like It are tested in one way or another, as most have to overcome obstacles and problems in order to succeed The particular relationships we see in the play symbolize and highlight the variant types of love that William Shakespeare wishes to explore. For example the familial love between the brothers of Orlando and Oliver, Duke Frederick and Duke Senior are emphasized due to the fact that both relationships are struggling and are under much tension when in normal circumstances you would presume this type of Familial relationship to prosper solidily, but alternatively have crumbled consistently. The relationship amid Orlando and his eldest borther, Oliver has reached an even more dire state, due to the recent event of their father Sir Rowland de Boys tragically dying for reasons unknown to us. Since this death of Sir Rowland de Boys Oliver and Orlando have been at conflict over the acts of Oliver who is restricting Orlando from receiving a gentlemans education even though their father had wished him to have one. Both characters deal with this issue by becoming heated and ill-tempered towards each other. This is shown in Act 1 Scene 1 where Oliver says: Wilt thou lay hands on me, villain? Oliver and Orlandos relationship changes significantly during the course of the play and it is seen that the countryside and its links to pastoral romance are responsible for the reformation of their relationship. This is true because the turning point of their complex relationship takes place in the countryside to where Orlandos act of decency, (when he saves Olivers life from a viscous Lioness) provokes Oliver to want to become a more amiable person. Also the romantic relationships of the brothers between Rosalind and Celia respectfully seems to show that the concept of pastoral romance is functioning between them and therefore causing them to be more loving people. Understandably this friendly environment causes their own familial relationship to blossom. This transformation in their relationship is represented well when Oliver is delivering Orlandos bloody handkerchief to Ganymede in Act 4 Scene 2. In this scene he confesses about his shameful past by saying: Twas I, but tis not I. I do not shame To tell you what I was, since my conversion So sweetly tastes, being the thing I am. This indicates that he is aware that he was in the wrong before, but now values and loves his younger brother, even more so that he obeyed Orlandos order to deliver his handkerchief. Another familial relationship present in the play is that of Duke Senior and his younger brother Duke Frederick. This particular relationship is struggling due to the fact that Duke Senior has been exiled from the court by his usurping brother Duke Frederick. This unjustified act by Duke Frederick has left the two distant and bitter towards each other. This is shown in Act 2 Scene 3 when Duke Frederick is in the process of exiling Rosalind, the daughter of the banished Duke Senior. Duke Fredericks tells Rosalind the reason for her being exiled is because: Thou art thy fathers daughter. Theres enough. This shows that there is obviously some hatred between the two brothers, especially on Duke Fredericks part. Duke Senior and Duke Frederick react to this conflict in contrasting ways. Duke Senior seems to make the most out of the situation he has found himself in to positive effect. He does this to an extent that hes actually enjoying life away from the court. On the other hand Duke Frederick deals with their dispute by becoming heated and showing irrational behavior (This is shown when out of blue he aggressively orders Rosalind to leave the court and even goes as far as saying he will kill her if she was not to obey) in play. The hatred of Duke Frederick towards Duke Senior is incredibly similar to that of Oliver towards to Orlando, in that there seems to be no obvious reason for why they should detest their brothers so much. But just like Oliver and Orlando, Duke Frederick and Duke Seniors relationships turns around positively in the latter stages of the play. This turn of events is due to the remarkable change of mind from Duke Frederick who persuaded by an old religious man on the outskirts of the forest to not invade the Forest of Ardenne decides to conclude his search for his brother. Instead, as were told by Jacques de Boys in Act 5 Scene 4 that he: After some question with him, was converted Both from his enterprise and from the world, His crown bequeathing to his banished brother, And all their lands restored to them again That were with him exiled This act of love shown by Duke Frederick towards Duke Senior and his company could also be due to the powers the countryside possesses through pastoral romance. This could be explained by the way that Duke Frederick has a dramatic change of heart when entering the forest and he also wants to be freed from court life by deciding to join a monastery. A prominent relationship on display in As You Like is between the inseparable cousins that are Rosalind and Celia. This relationship is under strain mainly just because of the complications surrounding their fathers relationship. They have been brought in to the thick of their fathers own personal conflict due to Duke Fredericks antics, referring to him wanting to exile Rosalind and consequently separate Rosalind and Celia. Rosalind and Celia respond to the antics of their fathers positively, by promising to each other that theyll stand by each other religiously through the hard times that are facing them, causing them both to flee from the court together. This united type behavior form the cousins shows the audience that this love is extremely solid and their love for each other is cannot be doubted. This is shown when Celia responds to her fathers actions by saying to Rosalind in Act 1 Scene 3: Prithee, be cheerful. Knowst thou not the duke Hath banished me, his daughter? Furthermore Rosalind and Celia decide to overcome their complications by fleeing to the Forest of Ardenne to find refuge. This seems to work dividends, as when they are in the forest the pair seems more relaxed and joyful than they were when they were generating tentative feelings back at the court. This is shown through the way they act more freely and seem more comfortable expressing their views on topics than they were in the court. They also becoming more suspect to falling in love, and this shows in the way they fall in love with Orlando and Oliver. All this makes one presume that pastoral romance is in progress with this pair. A different type of alliance is show using Adam the servant and Orlando in the play As You Like It. Between these two characters is dutiful love shown from both sides. The obstacle that this exact relationships faces is down to the misbehavior shown from Orlandos brother Oliver, who Adam says is plotting to kill Orlando. The pair then address this situation in the same way as Celia and Rosalind did, by escaping in to the forest. This is where Adams dutiful love is evident when he swears allegiance to Orlando in Act 2 Scene 3 by saying: Here is the gold. All this I give you. Let me be your servant. Theses words are very strong, as Adam shows he will give Orlando everything he has even his fortunes just so that Orlando is able to be content and safe. Further on in the play Orlando also shows loyalty pointing to Adam. This dutiful love is expressed in the way Orlando carries Adam in to shelter and vows to find his poorly servant food; he even makes a fool of himself in front of Duke Senior and his Lords purely in attempting to find his loyal servant some much-needed food. This dutiful love shown on Orlandos part can be seen in the way he tells Adam in Act 2 Scene 6: Come, I will bear thee to some shelter, and thou shalt not die for lack of a dinner if there live anything in this desert Once again you can say that the concept of pastoral romance has left this pair living happily ever after as it looks to have solved all their problems, which they have now left at the court. A different relationship represented in As You Like It is that of Silvius and Phoebe. In this relationship the love is not shared from Phoebe in contrast to Silvius who seems to be suffering much grief and pain due to his immense and obsessive love for Phoebe. Both characters face their dispute concerning their conflicting views by becoming frustrated, Silvius because he cannot obtain Phoebes love and Phoebe because of Silvius constant pleas for her to welcome his fondness for her. The evidence to show that Phoebe does not show the same affection for Silvius can be seen when she comments on how much shed rather not be in a romantic relationship with Silvius in Act 3 Scene 5 by saying to Celia (dressed as Ganymede): Sweet youth, I pray you chide a year together. I had rather hear you chide than this man woo. This idea that Silvius is suffering thanks to the elements of love is very similar to the objectives of courtly love. Obviously this situation proves problematic for it to be possible for Silviuss and Pheobes relationship to advance, but a few twists occurring at the end of the play enable this couple to surprisingly tie the knot. The events which engineer Silvius and Phoebe to come together can be argued to be thanks to the pastoral romance theme, which is seen on a frequent basis in this play. This is true as pastoral romance is well known for its characters in disguise and its the disguise of Rosalind (Ganymede) that actually plays the vital role in bringing Silvius and Phoebe together. Thanks to Rosalinds slyness Silvius finally is able to be with Phoebe and it seems that she shows some genuine affection towards Silvius. This is noticeable when she says in Act 5 Scene 4 to Silvius: I will not eat my word. Now thou art mine, Thy faith my fancy to thee doth combine. A relationship that does not develop until the tail end of the play As You Like It is between that of Oliver and Celia. Celia who is dressed up as Aliena looks to fall in love with Oliver at first sight and these provides an ironic end for the character Celia in the play. This is an accurate observation, because during the play Celia is seen teasing her dear friend Rosalind about the hastiness about her love for Orlando. This is another classic example of how pastoral romance is a striking feature of the play, because even though Celia has been ridiculing Rosalind love for Orlando it seems that even she is eventually bewitched by the powers of the countryside air and decides to marry a man whom she has just met. A unique relationship in the play is that of Pheobe and Ganymede. This is correct, as Phoebe is falling for Rosalind in disguise, without being informed. The relationship between these two characters is a clear example of the courtly love evident in As You Like It, because of the agony and frustration, which Pheobe endures due to her love Ganymede. Ganymede reacts to Phoebe;s attempts to win her heart by saying in Act 3 Scene 5: I pray you, do not fall in love with me, For I am falser than vows made in wine. This dismissal of Phoebes love on Ganymedes part shows that Ganymede has no interest in Phoebe at all, but despite this in true courtly love fashion Phoebes decides to persist with her quest to win Ganymedes heart. In the end their relationship disintergrates when Phoebe says in Act 5 Scene 4: If sight and shape be true, Why then, my love adieu. The most influential relationship in the whole of the play is beyond doubt that of between Rosalind and Orlando. This is true, as this relationship seems to dictate the course of the storyline. This relationship falls down heavily in to the elements of stereotypical pastoral romantic stories. This is correct, as Orlando seems to endure a lot of agony and pain over the course of the play..I will finish this later In conclusion I believe Shakespeare has shown us that men actually behave in the same way as women when in love. The evidence ot prove this is the behaviour of most characters in the play. Most of these characters endure large amounts of suffering

The Definition Of Methodology

The Definition Of Methodology The purpose of this chapter is to present the research methodology adopted in this study. It first outlines the philosophical assumptions underpinning this research, discussing the researchers constructivist approach. The next section defines the scope and rationale for the research design, and details of data analysis. It also provides an overview of the data collection methods used for this research. The chapter concludes by discussing issues of rigor and trustworthiness and ethical considerations. 3.1.1 Definition of Methodology According to Polit and Beck (2004) methodology refers to ways of obtaining, systematizing and analysing data. Creswell (2003) portrays methodology as a coherent group of methods that harmonize one another and that have the capability to fit to deliver data and findings that will reflect the research question and suits the researchers purpose. Bowling (2002) explains that methodology is the complete structure of the research study; the size and sample methods, the practices and techniques utilized to collect data and the process to analyse data. 3.2 Research Design Burns and Grove (2002) define a research design as a blueprint for conducting a study with maximum control over factors that may interfere with the validity of the findings. The overall purpose of this study is to contribute further to the role-definition process of the ambulance nurse in Malta. In order to reach the overall purpose of this study a qualitative exploratory descriptive design will be used to identify, analyse and describe factors related to the nature of interventions and care nurses deliver in the pre-hospital setting and to explore barriers and facilitating factors perceived by ambulance nurses that hinder or enhance PHC in Malta. 3.2.1 Research Philosophy The context in which research is carried out establishes were the researcher wants to go with the research and what is sought to be achieved. It is therefore imperative that the researcher is clear about the paradigm issues that guide and enlighten the research approach, as they are reflected in the methodology applied in the research and help place the research into a broader context (Thorpe Lowe, 2002). This research study is associated with the constructivism paradigm. Consequently, the researcher will discuss the ontology and epistemology in relation to this research. 3.2.1.1 Constructivism Constructivism seeks to undertake research in its natural setting; therefore, constructivism which is developed from the naturalistic philosophy disputes positivism and post-positivism views of knowledge and science (Appelton King, 2002). Thus, the aim of constructivism is to identify the diverse knowledge that people own, this is done by seeking to attain some consensus of meaning but at the same time remaining open to new explanations (Denzin Lincoln, 2003). Constructivist research, therefore, may identify a spectrum of diverse views and insights that would be overlooked within the narrow confines of conventional positivist inquiry. In view of these issues, constructivism is the most indicative research paradigm to use for this research as this philosophy will aid in exploring through description participants experiences, views and thoughts in a more humane way, by presenting ambulance nurses quotes and developing themes rather than presenting results in statistical form. 3.2.1.2 Ontology When considering a research paradigm, the researchers first requirement is to locate a position on the nature of reality (Appelton King, 2002). In the ontological theory, reality is subjective and multiple as seen by the participants in the study. Hence the researcher will use quotes and themes in words of the ambulance nurses to provide evidence on different perspectives. This is done by articulating, appreciating and making the research participants voices and concerns and practice visible. In the constructivism stance, the researcher is obliged to give a true picture of reality (Schwandt, 2001). Truth is achieved by seeking to comprehend the shared meaning and embedded meaning of both the participants and the researcher. This may be apprehended by building up a researcher-participant interaction in the natural environment rather than in a controlled environment (Denzin Lincoln, 2003). 3.2.1.3 Epistemology Conversely, in the epistemological assumption the aim of the researcher is to try and lessen the distance between what is being researched and oneself (Creswell, 2003). Within constructivism, the ontology and epistemology merge because the knower is inseparable from what may be known within the overall construct of a particular reality (Schwandt, 2001). The constructivist, ontological and epistemological positions have specific implications for me as a researcher wishing to explore these ambulance nursing issues. As a staff nurse working in another ambulance service, I acknowledge that my account of reality of PHC may serve to enhance the description of the phenomena under study. My role as a researcher is to be actively engaged with the research process. Therefore, an emic position is taken which allows me to build data, which is generated rather than collected. Within constructivism, the ontology and the epistemology approaches are interwoven and cannot be detached as with the positivist and post positivist paradigms (Appelton King, 2002). 3.2.1.4 Disadvantages of Constructivism Constructivism, whilst being an ideal paradigm for the inquiry may have its own limitations and it is central that the researcher takes these into consideration. A limitation of constructivism is that by trying to explain the phenomena, the researcher will be stuck in trying to give an infinite number of interpretations which may result in less explanatory power (Appelton King, 2002). Thus, working with the constructivism paradigm, the researcher is obliged to be conscious in seeking equilibrium between the contribution of informants and ones own to ensure an authentic account of the phenomena. Moreover, certain issues and steps in the methodology of this study were taken into consideration in order to avoid any pitfalls. 3.2.2 Qualitative Research Qualitative research refers to inductive, holistic, emic, subjective and process-oriented methods used to comprehend, interpret and describe a phenomena or setting. It is a systemic, subjective approach used to describe meaning (Burns Grove, 2003). Qualitative research is more associated with words, language and experiences rather than measurements, statistics and numerical figures. Researchers using qualitative research take a person centred and holistic perspective to understand the phenomenon, without focusing on specific concepts. The original context of the experience is unique, and rich knowledge and insight can be generated in depth to present a lively picture of participants reality and social context (Holloway, 2005). Regarding generation of knowledge, qualitative research is characterised as developmental and dynamic, and does not use formal structured instruments. In turn it involves the systemic collection and analysis of subjective narrative data in an organised and intuitive fashion to identify the characteristics and significance of human experience (Holloway, 2005). Qualitative researchers are concerned with the emic perspective to explore the ideas and perceptions of the participants. The researcher tries to examine the experience from the participants point of view in order to interpret their words. The researcher therefore becomes involved and immersed in the phenomena to become familiar with it. The immersion of the researcher helps to provide dense description from the narrative data gathered from the participants, to interpret and portray their experiences, and to generate a more comprehensive understanding. However, immersion cannot be obtained without a researcher-participant trusting relationship. The relationship is built through basic interviewing and interpersonal skills. In qualitative research, the researcher is required to be a good listener, non-judgemental, friendly, honest and flexible. Brink and Wood (1998) point out that the qualitative data collection methods are flexible and unstructured, capturing verbatim reports or obser vable characteristics and yield data that usually do not take numerical forms. 3.2.3 Qualitative Description Approach Within a qualitative framework, and an interpretive stance, this research is concerned with identifying and describing factors regarding the pre-hospital nursing care in Malta. For this study a qualitative descriptive research design will be used. Sandelowski (2000) points out that a qualitative descriptive study is seen as less interpretive than interpretive descriptive studies as they do not require researchers to move as far into their data. However, all inquiry entails description, and all description entails interpretation (Sandelowski, 2000). Although no description is free of interpretation, basic or fundamental qualitative description, as opposed to, for example, phenomenology or grounded theory description, it necessitates a kind of interpretation that is low inference, this low inference interpretation in qualitative descriptive studies entails the presentation of facts in an everyday language (Neergaard et al. 2009). 3.2.3.1 Design features of Descriptive Qualitative Research Qualitative descriptive design is a typical eclectic but reasonable design that well considers a combination of sampling, data collection, analysis, and re-presentational techniques (Neergaard et al. 2009). Sandelowski (2000) explains that qualitative description is especially amenable to obtain straight and largely unadorned answers to questions of special relevance to practitioners and policy makers. Neergaard et al. (2009) explicate that the qualitative descriptive design favours to use an interview guide somewhat more structured than other qualitative methods though it is still modified and transformed as themes emerge through analysis. They continue to explain that the strategy of content analysis is the most commonly used method of analysis in qualitative description (Neergaard et al. 2009). A straight descriptive summary is the likely outcome of qualitative descriptive studies, which should be organized in a way that best encloses the data collected (Sandelowski, 2000). 3.2.3.2 Strengths and Weaknesses of Descriptive Qualitative Research All research methods have their limitations, and qualitative description is often criticized for lacking of clearness and the lack of theory based approach (Giorgi. 1992). However, this criticism is only vindicated if qualitative description is used for the wrong principles. Neergaard et al. (2009) emphasize that qualitative description should be the method of choice when a description of a phenomena is wanted. Furthermore, qualitative description has been criticized for its lack of rigor and for being flawed, when it comes to judging its credibility. However, Milne and Oberlee (2005), converse about enhancing rigor in qualitative description by focusing on strategies such as authenticity, credibility, criticality and integrity. Qualitative description may be seen as too subjective because description is always attributed to the researchers perception, inclinations, sensitivities, and sensibilities (Sandelowski, 2000). In order to reduce this, the researcher must put an emphasis in m eeting the criteria of integrity and neutrality (Milne and Oberlee, 2005). Qualitative description may be seen as a functional method when the researcher intends to focus on describing experiences of patients, relatives and health care professionals and when the researcher wants to understand their views on patient-professional interaction and the organization of the health care system (Sandelowski, 2000). Strength of qualitative description is more evident in mixed method approaches and in studies which need to develop their own questionnaire. Neergaard et al. (2009) point out that qualitative description performed prior to the development of a questionnaire or an intervention can give very significant and useful information. Qualitative description has also be an appropriate qualitative method for small interview studies were one needs to gain preliminary insight into a particular topic (Neergaard et al. 2009). Sandelowski (2000) also highlights a great advantage of the method is that it is suitable if time or resources are limited. 3.2.3.1 Rational for choosing descriptive approach According to Burns and Grove (2003) descriptive research is designed to provide a picture of a situation as it naturally happens. It may also be used to justify current practices and identify factors that hinder or enhance practice as one gets a whole picture from the informants (Burns and Grove, 2003). Qualitative descriptive study is the method of choice when straight descriptions of a phenomena are desired, Sandelowski (2000) explains that qualitative description is especially useful for researchers wanting to know who, what and where of events. Qualitative description will be used in this study to describe and document the perceptions and experiences of what different skills are used while delivering PHC and when they are mostly used. The design will also be used to explore what facilitators and barriers are encountered when delivering PHC. 3.3 Population and Sample 3.3.1 Population Parahoo (2006) defines population as the total number of units from which data is collected, such as individuals, artefacts, events or organizations. Burns and Grove (2003) describe population as all the elements that meet the criteria for inclusion in a study. They continue to explain that the researcher must recognize a list of characteristics that requisite to be eligible part of the target population. The criteria for inclusion in this study were staff nurses who work in Accident and Emergency Department at Mater Dei Hospital, and have at least five years PHC experience. 3.3.2 Sample Polit and Beck (2004) define a sample as a proportion of a population The sample was chosen from the target population as defined in the inclusion and exclusion criteria. A carefully selected sample can offer data representative of the target population from which it is drawn. However, the aim of qualitative research is to raise insight into a phenomenon rather than assume representativeness. To reach the purpose of this study a purposive sampling technique will be used. Bowling (2002) explains that a purposeful sample is a deliberate and non random method, which aims to sample a group of people with a specific characteristic. The main characteristic of the selected participants in this study is being knowledgeable about the topic, because of their involvement and experience in PHC. Sandelowski (2000) explains that purposive sampling is a preferred method when using qualitative description as it is deemed information rich. 3.3.3 Sampling process The sampling process for this study was carried out in two phases, purposeful sampling for the interviews and a random selection from a group of purposeful selected participants. 3.3.3.1 Phase 1 For the first phase of data collection eight nurses were purposely selected for semi-structured interviews. Purposeful sampling methods were used based on the nurses who have special training in pre-hospital and are considered more experts in the field. This non-probability sampling technique was used since the researcher wanted to get a more in depth description of the pre-hospital nursing care offered. The researcher informed the nursing officer to distribute an invitation letter to the selected participants and those that agree to participate in the study were given a consent form. 3.3.3.2 Phase 2 The sample for second phase where the focus group was carried out was selected randomly from purposefully selected nurses who satisfied the selection criteria (5 years experience in the ambulance service), since the aim of the focus group is to identifying specific issues commonly related to nursing care in the pre-hospital setting. Ten to twelve nurses were randomly selected by the nursing officer who presented them an invitation letter with information about the study. Those who accept the invitation were asked to consent their participation in the focus group by filling out a consent form after having had their queries addressed by the researcher. 3.4 Data Collection Qualitative data collection is the precise, systemic gathering of information relevant to the research problem, using methods such as interviews, participant observations, focus group discussions, narratives and case histories (Burns and Grove, 2003). Data collection techniques in qualitative description usually include minimal to moderate structured interviews and focus group interviews (Neergaard et al. 2009). 3.4.1 Methods of Data Collection Data was collected in two phases. Phase one included data collection by means of semi-structured interviews, were the researcher interviewed nurses who are experts in the field and by the way of their clinical experience and having received specialized training in PHC. Phase two included a focus group which had the aim of identifying specific issues, and add quality to the data obtained from the interviews. The data will be presented and discussed in the results and discussion chapters respectively. 3.4.1.1 Semi Structured Interviews According to Kvale (1996), using a qualitative interview offers the researcher an opening to understand the phenomena under study from the perspective of the interviewee. In this study face to face semi-structured interviews were deemed appropriate as this method is particularly efficient in collecting data which involves opinions and perceptions. Polit and Beck (2004) converse that when performing semi structured interviews the researcher has to prepare in advance a written topic guide, which is a list questions to be covered by the respondents (Appendix 2). The interviewers function is to encourage participants to talk freely about all topics on the list, and to provide as much detail as they wish, and offer illustrations and explanations (Polit and Beck, 2004). 3.4.1.2 Advantages of interviews Among the main advantages of semi structured interviews there are the benefits of conversation that is carried out between the researcher and the informant. However, the conversations are purposeful ones that require advance thought and preparation, so the researcher must not enter into them casually. These face to face interviews can probe fully for responses and clarify ambiguities. Bowling (2002) points out advantages of interviews are that one can check misinterpretations and inconsistencies, and that interviews can provide rich quotable material which enlivens research reports. Kvale (1996), also find interviews beneficial to the participants as they can freely communicate their perceptions and experiences to the researcher. 3.4.1.3 Disadvantages of interviews Nevertheless, despite the many advantages of interviews, there are some limitations for this method of data collection, mainly the fact that interviews can be expensive and time consuming, and there is the potential of interview bias. According to Bowling (2002) techniques for reducing interview bias include good interview training and managing to establish rapport with the participants by putting them at ease, and appearing non-judgmental. 3.4.1.4 Focus Group interviews Another method of data collection used in this study is a focus group interview. Neergaard et al. (2009) recommend the use of focus groups when using qualitative description as focus group interviews seem pertinent to get a broad insight into a subject. According to Parahoo (2006), a focus group discussion is an interaction between one or more researchers and more than one participant for the purpose of collecting data. Holloway (2005) states that in focus group discussion researchers interview participants with common characteristics or experiences for the purpose of eliciting ideas, thoughts and perceptions about a specific topic or certain issues linked to the area of interest. Therefore, in this study the researcher will carry out a focus group discussion with the nurses who deliver PHC, based on findings from previous face to face interviews to elicit discussion on the objectives of the study. 3.4.1.5 Advantages of focus group interviews Focus group discussions have several advantages in obtaining qualitative data. Contrary to face to face interviews, focus group meetings are cheaper, and are quicker in obtaining valuable data (Parahoo, 2006). Bowling (2002) points out that one of the main strengths of focus group meetings is that it makes use of group dynamics which stimulates group discussion to gain insight and generate ideas in order to pursue a topic in greater depth. Parahoo (2006) also points out that participants are provided with an opportunity to reflect and react to the opinion of others with which they may disagree or of which they are unaware. Holloway (2005) also finds focus groups advantageous as they give the opportunity to the participants and researcher to ask questions and informants can build answers on others responses. 3.4.1.5 Disadvantages of focus group interviews Nonetheless, Holloway (2005) also highlights limitations of a focus group as the researcher may find difficulties in managing debate and controlling the process. A disadvantage in focus group discussion may also be due to some participants being introvert while others may dominate the discussion and influence the outcome, or perhaps even introduce bias (Holloway, 2005). Therefore, the researcher must create a good climate to stimulate all informants to participate and keep a balance between participants. Another disadvantage when using a focus group to collect data is the fact that recordings can present problems. Parahoo (2006) stress that taking notes during focus group discussions is not feasible since many people may me talking at the same time. They also point out that tape recordings may only record those that are nearer to the recording making transcription a problem. 3.5 Data Analysis Data analysis is a mechanism for reducing and organising data to produce findings that require interpretation by the researcher (Burns and Grove 2003). Field and Morse (1996) points out that data analysis can be a challenging and creative process characterized by an intimate relationship of the researcher with the participants and the data gathered. 3.5.1 The researchers role in data analysis As researcher reflexivity, bracketing and intuiting were used to lay aside preconceptions regarding the phenomenon being studied and also carried out data analysis simultaneously with data collection. The intellectual process identified by Field and Morse (1996) were followed during data analysis. These comprise of comprehension, synthesising, and theorising. The researcher synthesises the data by putting the pieces together which will enable the researcher to comprehend what is actually going on, then the researcher can prepare a detailed description of the phenomenon under study and give explanations and determine correlation with data gathered (Field and Morse 1996). 3.5.2 Content Analysis Qualitative content analysis is the analysis strategy of choice in qualitative descriptive studies (Sandelowski 2000). Qualitative content analysis is a dynamic form of analysis of verbal and visual data that is oriented towards summarizing the informational content of the data (Polit and Beck 2004). Bowling (2002) explains that with content analysis, the key themes and concepts are identified in the transcripts, and are categorised. Sandelowski (2000) explains that qualitative content analysis is a reflective and interactive process, were the researcher continuously modify their treatment of data to accommodate new data and new insights about the data gathered. Content analysis was carried out for the analysis of data from both face to face interviews and focus group discussion. 3.6 Robustness of Study Critiques of qualitative research may argue that it is impossible to ensure a positivist approach of validity and reliability in qualitative work; however, naturalistic researchers have adopted other measures to ensure rigour and trustworthiness of the qualitative study (Shenton, 2004; Silverman, 2001). In order to pursuit a rigours and trustworthy study, the constructs proposed by Lincoln and Guba (1985), will be followed. These four constructs consist of credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability. 3.6.1 Establishing Rigor and Trustworthiness A research studies is trustworthy when it reflects the reality and ideas of the participants. Lincoln and Guba, (1985) add that trustworthiness of research depends on the extent to which it delves into participants experiences apart from their theoretical knowledge. In this study trustworthiness was guaranteed by the researcher by putting aside preconceived ideas about the phenomenon under study and returned to the informants to ascertain that the description was a true reflection of their opinions and perceptions. According to Polit and Beck (2004) credibility is similar to internal validity in quantitative research. Adopting a well established research method is one measure that can confirm credibility and ensure internal validity of the study. Bowling (2002) recognises the importance of incorporating correct operational measures for the concepts being studied. Therefore, importance was given so that the most adaptable methodology and methods used were suitable for this study. A thick description of the phenomenon under scrutiny was conveyed in detail so the actual situation that was investigated is understood. Lincoln and Guba (1985), stress the close ties between credibility and dependability, arguing that, in practice, a demonstration of the former goes some distance in ensuring the later. Without this detailed description it will be difficult for the reader of the final account to determine the extent of credibility and dependability. Another measure to ensure credibility is that the researcher shows familiarity with the culture of the participating organisation. Since the researcher works in a similar setting and was previously employed in the department which is being studied, gives the researcher a good understanding of the culture of the participants. However, the researcher must give special attention so that professional judgements are not influenced and must acknowledge this in order to reduce researcher bias. According to Shenton (2004), random sampling is also a great way to guarantee credibility and can help to reduce the researchers bias. However, random sampling in qualitative research may not always be possible. In this study a purposive selection technique was used to give the researcher control in choosing participants with different levels of experience. Even though a purposive selection was carried out, participants had the right to withdraw from the study and they were not required to disclose an explanation. Besides being ethically correct this ensured that participants were genially willing to take part in the study and that they were prepared to offer data freely giving more credibility to the study. Lincoln and Guba (1985) consider member checks, peer scrutiny and debriefing sessions important provisions that can be made to bolster a studys credibility and reliability. The researcher checked data during collection and perform dialogues with participants. Informants were also asked to read transcripts in which they have participated for verification. The researcher carried out debriefing sessions with supervisors and was open to peer scrutiny, in order to help identify the development of new ideas and interpretations which may assist the researcher to refine the research methods and strengthen arguments brought up from data collected. These meetings also helped the researcher recognise any biases. Transferability is related to the external validity of the research project. Since qualitative assignments are specific to a small number of particular environments and individuals, it is practically impossible to demonstrate that findings are applicable to other situations (Shenton, 2004). However, in order to offer transferability of findings the researcher ensured that sufficient contextual information about the phenomenon under investigation was provided to allow readers to have a proper understanding of it. 3.7 Ethical Considerations Research has many ethical implications and participants rights, such as the right to refuse to participate to the study, right to refuse to answer certain questions, the right for confidentiality and the right for informed consent, which should at all time take precedence over research objectives (Parahoo, 2006). Therefore, throughout all the stages of research process, it was ensured that ethical principles were maintained so participants were safe guarded against harm. Participants had the right to choose not to participate and similarly the right to withdraw at any point. In this regard, participants were informed of the study in writing and were asked for their consent to participate to both the face to face interviews and the focus group. The consent letters were distributed to the nursing officer who was instructed to pass these on to the selected nurses. In the consent letter, participants were informed about the confidentiality of their responses and also that some of the responses might be quoted to add value to the presentation of results and discussion in the study. However, they were also ensured that measures were taken so that no individual respondent was identified. After completion of the study all data collected and recordings of interviews and the focus groups will be destroyed. Gathering of all relevant permission from the hospital authorities, Data Protection Officer and University Research Ethics Committee of the University of Malta to carry out this research study were sought. (Appendix)