King Priam of Troy

â€Å"Come inside the wall, child; here you may fight on to save our Trojan men and women† was the last attempt King Priam of Troy had in keeping Prince Hector from going out of their walls to go head to head with Achilles.He was speaking not only as a king but also as his father. This was the final plea of the king who already foresaw the doom that Troy was meeting. Priam had already declared that Hector would die if he went out there. He could only plead with his son not to go out and give Achilles the glory that he was seeking in his invitation for a battle between them.Priam used different arguments to keep Hector from going out to face Achilles. In this situation, the readers could feel the desperation of Priam that represented the desperation of the entire city. The readers, as they sense the desperation of Priam would empathize with the old king and rally behind the prince of Troy. The king basically presented the directions by which the story would go into.Priamâ€℠¢s argument included that if Hector did not go out to meet Achilles, he could still fight, together with the Trojan army, for the women and men of the city.He would not let Achilles have his glory. He would show his father pity by not going outside. On the other hand, if Hector went out, Priam already knew what would happen: â€Å"my sons brought down, my daughters dragged away, bedchambers ravaged, and small children hurled to earth in the atrocity of war, as my son’s wives are taken by Achaeans’ ruinous hands.†The final words a father could say to his son, who was about to meet his death, was something that moved the readers into rallying for Hector. Before, Achilles may have been the protagonist but this speech turned the tables around and the readers empathized for the fate of the Trojans and sees Prince Hector as significant in their lives.   This speech made Hector’s death more meaningful and heartbreaking for the readers. It was something that ma de the climax of the epic more dramatic and heart wrenching that was attributed to Homer’s storytelling.Book 23Achilles was seen as a brute that killed Hector in his animalistic rage. It was evident that before Hector died, Homer already depicted him as the prince, the son, the husband and the father.Hector was all these things to the Trojans and yet Achilles was just seen as a great warrior. The glory that was meant for Achilles could not be fully appreciated because he was not all the things Hector were. It seemed that the readers would think that it should have been Hector who had won the battle instead of Achilles.When the ghost of Patroclos appeared to Achilles, the readers were reminded of why Achilles killed Hector. It was to avenge his dear friend and cousin. It reminded the readers of the emotional side of Achilles who was also heartbroken when Hector murdered Patroclos. Even if it was accidental, this confusion provided for this epic a tragedy.Patroclos appeared and urged Achilles to retrieve his body from the Trojans because he apparently could not crossover without a proper burial. It showed the human side of Achilles more than emphasizing on the character of Patroclos.However, it did show him and how he depended on Achilles, even in the moments in his afterlife wherein he was crying out to Achilles to let his soul rest. He accused Achilles of neglect when he had died when in reality, Achilles mourned for him and even murdered Hector because of him.However, the bottom line of the passage served its purpose for getting the readers’ sympathy for Achilles. He was not just some prince-murderer. He was Patroclos’ avenger.The fact that it was Hector who had accidentally killed him was played a powerful part of the epic. It was further established when Patroclos made Achilles remember the depth of the consequence of his death: â€Å" Never again will you and I, alive and breathing, huddle side-by side, apart from loyal comrades, maki ng plans together—never.†AgamemnonAegisthus, the lover of Agamemnon’s wife Clytaemnestra, spoke the passage. It was in response to the recrimination of the chorus because of the joy he found in the murder of his cousin, Agamemnon himself. The chorus was made out of the elderly people in the council. They were rebuking him for his adulterous affair with Clytaemnestra.In the passage, he was going against the chorus with words and actions. He talked down to the elders in language and nonverbal manners. He felt that he had every right to considering what his family, especially his father had been through because of Agamemnon’s father.His speech expressed the rage he had and how he did not care nor was he afraid of the things that would follow as he saw this time as the time for avenging his family. Agamemnon’s family had put down his family in such a horrible manner and it was time for Aegisthus to put down everyone else because of it. He was showing ho w he had the upper hand now and it indicated his pride and confidence for the situation.The passage regarded the threats he had for the Chorus of Elders and for anyone who would come against him. He came like a bully who was willing to put down anything. During this time, it seemed that he had consolidated for himself the power that his father was fighting for. However, this time it seemed that he was going to rule with an iron hand.He was especially not going to make it easy on those who sided with Agamemnon and those who rebuked him, â€Å"You’ll learn, in your late age, how muck it hurts to teach old bones their place.† He threatened them with captivity and deprivation of food. He saw that it was fit for the chorus because of how they looked down on him, despite the fact that he was responsible for a murder.He was oblivious and contained a self-righteous image that he validated because of a past that had left him embittered. He thought that he was the one in control as he threatened to teach them a lesson the hard way. However, this was seen to be a foreshadowing of his own downfall in the end.While readers understand his rage, they were also turned off by his arrogance and disrespect. It showed how his bitterness had pulled him to the dark side and how it was understandable and acceptable if he did not get what he had always wanted.Pericles’ Funeral OrationThucydides revealed in Pericles’ funeral oration the casualties of war. It reflected on the humanity that was involved and affected because of war. In this passage, he was talking about a plague that overtook the area. People were dying everywhere and it just painted a devastating scenario, â€Å"sight of people dying like sheep through having caught the disease as a result of nursing others.† People could not help because it was an infectious disease and there was a sense of hopelessness that aroseThis passage was also heartbreaking in the manner by which human lives w ere at stake and no one could really do anything about it if they were not willing their own lives. It was a tragedy because of the number of the people who died and how no one could do anything about it because if they did they would also die.

Mobile Intelligent Tutoring Systems Education Essay

Mobile intelligent tutoring systems have the possible to present low-priced, one-to-one aid to scholars outside of the traditional schoolroom and computing machine lab scenes. The focal point of this paper is to sketch the usage of Mobile Intelligent Tutoring Systems in back uping the Mathematics human coachs in secondary schools and the function that nomadic devices can play in circulating and back uping the cognition gained by intelligent coachs. The paper reviews desktop Intelligent Tutoring Systems and how the same can be used in nomadic devices. The concluding portion of the paper examines the challenges faced in the development of Mobile Intelligent Tutoring Systems. The general public presentation in mathematics among secondary school pupils in Kenya has non been impressive for many old ages ( KNEC, 2000 ) . Much has been done and said with purposes of bettering public presentation with small success including debut of â€Å" Strengthening of Mathematics and Science in Secondary Education ( SMASSE ) Undertaking † , launched in Kenya in 1998 and funded by Japan authorities. It is aimed at the betterment of mathematics and scientific discipline instruction through In-service Training ( INSET ) for instructors ( Nancy, Alice, 2007 ) . Poor public presentation is attributed to several factors among them attitude of pupils and instructors, deficiency of learning installations such as books and unequal remedial or follow-up tutoring in most schools. Whereas there is demand to assist scholars develop a deeper conceptual apprehension through such techniques as tutoring when they are larning a new sphere ( Lane, 2006 ) , that is desiring. Mathematicss is a hard capable both to learn and larn. Mathematicss is besides a topic, which requires difficult work, and batch of pattern – the paramount facets for larning mathematics. Learning mathematics comprises foremost having facts, rules, and so larning how to use them ( Garry, 1996 ) . Teachers may desire to pass more clip with pupils but human resource is normally the chief restraint due to high student-to-teacher ratio witnessed in schools. The broad usage of cell phones in society has led research workers to look into methods to use nomadic devices in instruction ( Castells, 1999 ) . Presently, there are around 16 million cell phone endorsers in Kenya with the figure projected to travel up following licensing of 4th Mobile operator – YU ( Communication Commission of Kenya ) . Harmonizing to Brown ( 2003 ) and Kam etal ( 2009 ) , the nomadic device has been argued to be an appropriate tool for educational bringing in the development states. The statement behind this is that nomadic device is low-power device that can be used in topographic points without electricity. Although nomadic device such as cell phone is mostly purchased for voice communications – which users rely on for their societal and economic demands – it is besides able to run educational package that support visuals and voiceovers ( as cited in Kumar, 2009 ) . Most of all, the cell phone is the fastest turning engineering platform in the development states. There are 2.2 billion nomadic phones in developing parts like Africa and India, as compared to merely 11 million desktops ( CNN, 2009 ) . Teaching pupils on a one-to-one footing significantly influences the grade of cognition and accomplishment retained by the pupil. Bloom ( 1984 ) suggests that one-to-one tutoring is the most effectual scheme known, by and large giving two standard divergences better public presentation than traditional direction. For the intent of this paper, the term â€Å" nomadic device † comprise of criterion cell phones, smart phones ( those using an operating system supplying voice services every bit good as extra informations processing applications ) , and personal digital helpers ( PDAs ) – supplying informations treating without voice capablenesss. Whereas laptop computing machines are portable, users interact with them in ways that are more similar to desktop computing machines than they do with smaller devices e.g. usage of keyboard. Therefore, it does non fall under ‘mobile device ‘ class.Table 1.1 Comparisons of Desktop and Mobile Tutoring SystemsDescriptionDesktopMobile DeviceInterface Full size keyboard Multi-window design Small Keyboard Single-window design Display 14+ inch show 2-5 inch show Connectivity Ethernet, Wi-Fi Wi-Fi, Cellular Delivery Standalone Client merely Use Classrooms and computing machine labs Anywhere and anytime2. Intelligent Tutoring SystemHafner ( 2000 ) defined Intelligent Tutoring System ( ITS ) as â€Å" educational package incorporating an unreal intelligence constituent. The package tracks pupil ‘s work, orienting feedback and intimations along the manner. By roll uping information on a peculiar pupil ‘s public presentation, the package can do illations about strengths and failings, and can propose extra work. † ITSs have been used to help pupils with prep, trial pickings, and appraisal ( ISTE, 2007 ) . An ITS can be used to enable the pupils work independently, to better their apprehension of constructs within related sphere, and to take advancement of job work outing ability for each of them ( Martin, 2001 ) . On the other manus, an ITS can be able to help non merely the pupils but besides the instructors in developing and managing classs ( Shin, Norris and Soloway, 2006 ) . Harmonizing to Korhan ( 2006 ) , â€Å" Intelligence involves mental capablenesss such as the logical thinking ability, planning, work outing jobs, believing abstractly, groking thoughts, and larning † . Furthermore, it is related to creativeness and personality of the individual harmonizing to psychological science. Conversely, mathematics is as a incubus for many pupils. This may take to pupils doubting their creativeness, endowment, and motive when analyzing mathematics. In this sense, the tutoring systems must hold the capableness of existent instructors, and it must move like human coach in a categ ory. Information technologies can raise up the effectivity of learning mathematics in a category ( Kinshuk, 2002 ) and hence regarded as one of the topics in Artificial Intelligence ( AI )3. Background of ITSComputers have been used in instruction since 1960s ( Martin, 2001 ) . Intelligent Tutoring Systems are computing machine systems designed for support and betterment of acquisition and learning procedure in the sphere cognition. Even though Intelligent Tutoring Systems began with Computer-Aided Instruction ( CAI ) , they differ from them in some ways. First, the interfaces, in CAIs, are of all time inactive for each pupil and the information presented to each pupil is precisely the same for all the clip ( as cited in Mitrovic et al. , 2007 ) Harmonizing to Koedinger et Al. ( 1995 ) , ITSs use the cognition for pedagogical procedure so that the system tries to find what the pupil knows or does non cognize. Contrary to ITSs, CAIs have premises about what the pupil knows. Therefore, the same course of study is presented to pupils in CAIs, even though the predating cognition is necessity for a pupil. The other difference between them, harmonizing to Koedinger et Al. ( 1995 ) , is with the feedback system. Some CAIs have the capableness of inquiring inquiries to pupils. However the feedback system of them is limited to indicant of whether the pupil reply was right or incorrect, merely. ITSs, on the other manus, attempt to find the pupils ‘ failings on a subject utilizing the sphere and pupil theoretical account as shall be depicted in subdivision 4 below. Most Computer-Based Instructional ( CBI ) applications and systems, including ITS, still shack chiefly on the desktop. Harmonizing to Eamon ( 2004 ) , ITS have been shown to be extremely successful in bettering pupil acquisition in the schoolroom. When ITS is integrated into school course of study, pupils use the coachs during school hours in computing machine labs and schoolrooms. The enlargement of the desktop ITS to the nomadic learning universe of Mobile will, doubtless, supply great benefit for pupils and instructors likewise. A nomadic intelligent coach has the possible to present the important advantages of intelligent tutoring systems to a broad audience of scholars and spread out coach usage to exterior of computing machine labs and schoolrooms therefore supplying robust and flexible acquisition chances to pupils â€Å" anyplace † and â€Å" anytime † ( Farooq etal, 2002 ) . It will besides be of aid for pupils on the move such as nomads who may non acquire adequate human tutoring in category besides heightening student-centred acquisition.4. How Intelligent Tutoring Systems WorkITS for mathematical jobs was planned and designed to ease pupils in acquisition and name on pupil ‘s mistakes and efficaciously generate accounts for those mistakes ( Burns, Capps, 1988 ) and offer a pupil monitoring system that includes learning advancemen t and relevant statistical informations. The end of ITS is to supply the benefits of one-on one direction automatically and be efficaciously. Like any other preparation simulations, ITS enables participants to pattern their accomplishments by transporting out undertakings within extremely synergistic acquisition environments. However, ITS goes beyond developing simulations by replying user inquiries and supplying individualised aid. Unlike other computer-based preparation engineerings, ITS systems gauge each scholar ‘s actions within these synergistic environments and develop a theoretical account of their cognition, accomplishments, and expertness. Based on the scholar theoretical account, ITSs tailor instructional schemes, in footings of both the content and manner, and supply accounts, intimations, illustrations, presentations, and pattern jobs as needed ( James and Sowmya, 2007 )Intelligent Tutoring SystemStudent ModelExpert ModelEnvironmentInterfaceDirection ModelFigure 4.1 Intelligent Tutoring System ModelIntelligent tutoring systems have their foundation in the unreal intelligence, more specifically adept systems, and computing machine assisted direction subjects. Burns et Al. ( 1988 ) depict the â€Å" intelligence † of this package as the aggregation of the five subsystems shown in F igure 4.1 above. The first is an adept theoretical account stand foring the sphere cognition or capable affair expertness. This cognition comprises the apprehension of the capable affair that an expert has in the tutored country i.e. adept theoretical account merely represents the expert cognition and the ability to work out jobs within a sphere. The 2nd theoretical account is the pupil ‘s. This theoretical account represents the cognition, accomplishments, behavior and other properties of a pupil larning the sphere. This theoretical account let the ITS know who it ‘s learning ( James et al. , 2007 ) and tries to find pupil ‘s mental provinces. This faculty generates the pupil theoretical account with all information about the single scholar. It provides the information such that what the pupil knows or does non cognize, any misconceptions, grade of forgetfulness, concluding accomplishments etc. ( Korhan, 2006 ) The 3rd is the direction theoretical account, which is responsible for acknowledging pupil input and reacting to student actions i.e. enables the ITS to cognize how to learn, by encoding instructional schemes used by the tutoring system. The teacher theoretical account selects the most appropriate instructional intercession based on the cognition of a pupil ‘s accomplishments, strengths and failings, participant expertness degrees, and pupil acquisition manners. Additionally, the teacher theoretical account may besides take subjects, simulations, and examples that address the pupil ‘s competency spreads. It is besides known as pedagogical or coach faculty ( Martin, 2001 ) The 4th is the instructional environment or sphere that provides support to the scholar. It consists of the activity and tools, and to some widen the state of affairs, provided by the system to ease acquisition. The last constituent is the interface, an indispensable constituent that provides the agencies by which the user can pass on with the system. It is the integrating of the theoretical accounts that separate ITS engineering from other signifiers of computer-aided direction ( Heffernan, Koedinger and Aleven, 2003 ) . Harmonizing to Trojahn et Al. ( 2002 ) , ITS have the informative attack in which direction is understood to be the transmittal of cognition necessitating the teacher/instructor to supervise the pupil invariably, particularly in the job work outing procedures. It takes into history the capacity for acquisition and the cognition of the pupil in that topic. ITS ‘s are adapted to each pupil by agencies of their diagnostic accomplishments which examine the pupil ‘s cognition and the structuring and presentation of cognition. They besides make usage of a assortment of techniques to keep the user ‘s attending ( equated to human coach motive ) and ease the transmittal of the coveted cognition. Intelligent developing systems besides portion this attack, although in these instances the procedures are aimed more towards specific job resolution activities. The coach guides the direction procedure harmonizing to traditional patterns ( UPGRADE, 2002 ) . Knowledge is a cardinal to intelligent behaviour and, hence, ITSs are said to be knowledge-based because they have: ( I ) sphere cognition, ( two ) cognition about learning rules and about methods for using those rules, and ( three ) cognition about methods and techniques for pupil mold ( S. Stankov et al. , 2007 ) It is of import to observe that ITS is an interdisciplinary field that investigates how to invent educational systems that provide direction tailored to the demands of single scholars, as many good instructors do ( Conati et al. , 2002 ) There are three types of cognition that an intelligent coach ( human or unreal ) needs to hold to be able to help pupil acquisition: ( I ) cognition about the mark instructional sphere, ( two ) cognition about the pupil, and ( three ) cognition about the relevant pedagogical/instructional schemes.5. Mobile Intelligent Tutoring SystemHarmonizing to Brown ( 2009 ) , Mobile ITSs have non received extended research. There has been small research aimed at placing how to accommodate the desktop coachs and which facets of the coach to alter, as facets of desktop coachs require alteration for nomadic device content bringing. The bringing of ITSs on nomadic devices in Kenya has the possible to supply the important advantages of intelligent tutoring systems to a wider audience of scholars therefore assisting in bridging the digital divide. Some secondary schools provide Internet and computing machine entree to pupils but a deeper appraisal reveals that the presence of engineering does non compare to effectual usage of the engineering ( Yong et al, 2006 ) . Among the several factors impeding usage is the student-to-computer ratio in schools. For those schools with computing machines, it is reported that no school has one computing machine for each pupil with the lowest computer-to-student ratio being about 3-to-1 ( Christopher et al, 2007 ) . On the other manus, about all pupils can entree the nomadic phones doing it possible for schools to do usage of handheld calculating to organize engineering usage between place and school for the pupils. This tendency is besides nailing of the possible that nomadic and hand-held devices have to present a one-to-one calculating solution to the instruction community ( Quinn, 2000 ) . By utilizing nomadic devices, schools without the fiscal resources to put in and keep big computing machine labs can hold the ability to supply scholars with ITS engineering. One singular virtue is that pupils can easy transport the coachs between place and school besides sharing the nomadic ITSs between pupils in the same school therefore enabling ‘everywhere ‘ and ‘anytime ‘ acquisition ( Facer, Faux, McFarlane, 2005 ) . The portability of nomadic ITSs extends coach usage to exterior of computing machine labs and traditional schoolrooms, thereby supplying flexible larning chances to pupils at place, after school, and in other locations ( Vahey et Al, 2004 ) . With the promotion of nomadic device engineering, there is besides the possibility for nomadic ITSs to put to death as standalone applications, as opposed to client-server web based, thereby extinguishing the demand for an Internet connexion, either wired or radio. Harmonizing to the research conducted by Brown ( 2009 ) to find whether nomadic intelligent tutoring system provide larning additions greater than standard instructional activities, it was found out that pupils utilizing the tutoring status did see an addition in post-test public presentation greater than pupils that did non utilize the coach ( utilizing paper and pencil ) . As a consequence, it can be concluded that a nomadic ITS can supply larning additions greater than standard direction.6. Related WorkIn the early 1970s a few research workers defined a new end for computer-based direction. They adopted the human coach as their educational theoretical account and sought to use unreal intelligence techniques to recognize this theoretical account in â€Å" intelligent † computer- based direction. Personal human coachs provide a extremely efficient larning environment ( Cohen and Kulik, 1982 ) and have been estimated to increase average achievement results by every bit much as two Intelligent Tutoring Systems standard divergences ( Bloom, 1984 ) . The end of ITSs would be to prosecute the pupils in sustained logical thinking activity and to interact with the pupil based on a deep apprehension of the pupils ‘ behaviour. From 1990s, research on teaching method in the mathematics recognized that pupils learn mathematics more efficaciously, if the traditional acquisition of expressions and processs is supplemented with the possibility to research a wide scope of jobs and job state of affairss through ITS ( Schoenfeld, 1990 ) . In peculiar, the international comparative survey of mathematics learning ( Baumert et al. , 1997 ) , has shown that learning with an orientation towards active job work outing outputs better larning consequences in the sense that the acquired cognition is more readily available and applicable particularly in new contexts and that a contemplation about the job work outing activities and methods outputs a deeper apprehension and better public presentation. Harmonizing to James and Sowmya ( 2006 ) , Carnegie Learning developed a suite of ITSbased â€Å" cognitive coachs † in secondary-level mathematics. The systems, based on earlier research carried out by John Anderson and Ken Koedinger at Carnegie Mellon University, were tested in selected secondary school and pupils showed 50- to 100-percent betterment in job resolution and usage of equations, tabular arraies, and graphs. Eric and Jorg ( 2003 ) developed ActiveMath ITS used in job resolution, rule-based systems, cognition representation, user mold, adaptative systems and adaptative hyper-media, and diagnosing. ALEKS ( Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces ) is an on-line ITS aimed at tutoring Geometry and Business Mathematics classs ( Anderson, Reder, Simon, 1996 ) . It is web based and therefore requires Internet connexion for it to be accessed. MathITS ( Korhan, 2006 ) is an Intelligent Tutoring System for mathematics instruction at undergraduate and graduate degree and employs the conceptual map mold technique ( Hwang, 2003 ) . It is a student-centred system, which supports synergistic acquisition.7. Challenges Faced in Developing Mobile ITS Applications for Mathematics TutoringIt is easier said than done for teachers, school decision makers, and even parents to see nomadic devices as being utile for educational intents because they have been predominately used for societal intents including phone communicating and text messaging. The current educational system produces lesson programs, larning activities, and appraisals based upon traditional educational theoretical accounts. However, the debut of nomadic devices enables pupils to interact and join forces with one another in ways non antecedently realized. Therefore, teachers must now find how to plan lessons and activities structured around this mobility and accurately q uantify the consequences of the usage of the engineering. The usage of nomadic devices besides raises inquiries that relate to the execution of the engineering, viz. the hardware and package. Previous tests of nomadic larning applications reveal that concerns sing device ownership, battery life, and web connectivity can greatly impact the acquisition results of pupils ( Facer, Faux, and McFarlane, 2005 ) . While these issues may be viewed by some as policy instead than research, it can be argued that an apprehension of these issues could supply information to inform the design of the applications themselves. For illustration, cognizing that pupils may non hold dependable Internet connexions may do a interior decorator to make a standalone application or one that requires periodic synchronism for it to work decently. Interestingly, research workers implementing and proving nomadic larning applications have noted that there is possible for nomadic larning applications to be alongside traditional instructional tools ( Vahey et al. , 2004 ) . While the usage of nomadic larning applications can be transformative, it is necessary to understand and see the bing acquisition environment in which it is intended. While there are surely cases in which a Mobile larning application can supply an experience non possible without the engineering ( Chen, Kao and Sheu, 2003 ) , it seems sensible, and even likely, that this engineering can co-exist and back up traditional paper-based methods. Representation of diagrams and limited sum of text poses a challenge. As a consequence, the teachers should make up one's mind on which content could best be presented in nomadic device. The diagrams representation is limited by screen size.8. DecisionMobile ITS execution will assist to better mathematics public presentation in Kenya Secondary schools. However, certain research countries such as its development, statute law issues, interface, instruction and acquisition schemes and architecture ( hardware and package ) should be addressed in order to recognize the benefits of Mobile ITS. By so making, Kenya will tout of m-Learning and therefore will make more pupils assisting to bridge the digital divide spread.

Analysis of USEC Inc.

USEC is the world’s leading supplier of enriched Uranium to nuclear power plants. Due to the expiration of long term energy cost savings contracts, USEC is examining the possibility of taking on a new project called the American Centrifuge Project. This project will utilize a different process for Uranium enrichment, which is the core business process of USEC. The new technology process uses much less energy, which will reduce manufacturing costs and keep USEC on the leading edge of technology in the enrichment market space. As with any major energy industry project, the ACP project comes with a huge price tag of around $1. billion. Investment of this size cannot be made without due analysis. We have taken in to account all the details given while calculating key statistics for this project. A thorough analysis is in the best interests of USEC as the project will provide them with the freedom to implement new technologies in the uranium enrichment process in their own plant. W ithout this, USEC is constrained to lease the government owned plants which usually comes with its own restrictions. We will be calculating the individual cash flows of its existing Paducah operations and the ACP project it is planning to invest in.Our decision will be based on the incremental NPV and IRR. This report will walk us through all the important aspects of our analysis and ultimately to our final decision of whether accepting or rejecting the project. Background USEC is pursuing ACP for several reasons, most of which can be attributed to an increasing gain by its competitors in the market space. USEC’s long term contract for a lower cost power supply for their current process had expired. This left USEC with much higher costs for electricity, which is heavily used in the current process for Uranium enrichment, gaseous diffusion.This jump in energy cost reduced the margins USEC was receiving on sales, as compared to their competitors. This is driving the need to com e up with an alternative solution to the current process. The ACP technology is being looked at because it could give a competitive advantage to USEC against its competitors. ACP will lower the production costs and improve USEC’s technology position in the market. If the company takes on the ACP project, USEC will reach 6. 5 million units in production by 2013. A minimal level of maintenance would be required due to the improved technology and better facilities.ACP would also double the size of USEC as a whole. Cash Flow Calculations We are providing below the assumptions and other calculations we used while computing the WACC and the cash flows. * Net working capital of 5% of sales will be used for both Paducah and ACP project * Inflation is assumed to be 3% * Flotation costs are ignored for cost of equity. * We assume a risk-free rate of 5. 09%. This number comes from the current yield of the 30 year T-bond as shown in Exhibit 5. * 50% reduction in enrichment cost start fro m year 2011 (for ACP project).Without the 50% reduction, the enrichment cost in 2011 would have been $50. 15. We are going to start at 50. 15/2=$25. 07 (50%) from year 2011 as enrichment cost and from there it will again increase at the rate of inflation which is 3%. In 2011, the total capacity will be 3. 5M (2. 5M from ACP and 1M from Paducah). While calculating the enrichment cost for the year 2011, we used the reduced cost for the ACP capacity which is 2. 5 million and the original enrichment cost for the scaled down Paducah plant capacity which is 1 million. * Change in NWC for 2006 will be 0.The NWC will be recovered at the end of he final period which is at the end of year 2025. * The CAPEX and the depreciation cost for the Paducah plant in the year 2011 will be prorated to the reduced capacity of 1 million while calculating the cash flow for the ACP project. * Market Risk Premium will be assumed as 6% * CAPEX for Paducah, Paducah depreciation, and lease expenses are fixed and prorated where required but is not adjusted for inflation. Weighted Average Cost of Capital To calculate the weighted average cost of capital, we first calculated the market value of debt and equity.The case exhibits provided the necessary data to calculate the market value of debt and equity. The weight of debt and equity were calculated to be around 32 and 68 percent respectively. Appendix will provide the detailed steps we used to calculate the WACC, individual cash flows for Paducah and ACP and the incremental cash flows. A risk free rate of 5. 19%, a Beta of 1. 3, and a market risk premium of 6% were used to calculate the cost of equity using CAPM. For cost of debt, we used the given 9. 04%. We came up with the after tax WACC of 10. 57%Analysis and Recommendation. We are comfortable in using the WACC as the discount rate for cash flow calculation. NPV calculation using the WACC as the discount rate will provide us some idea about whether this project is at least worth or not f or the cost of capital. But to make our final decision, we would really look at the incremental IRR and NPV to see how much more or less it comes up when compared to the discount rate. We will be expecting an IRR which is at least 2 percent above the discount rate as a justification to recommend a project of this size. We calculated the NPV for ACP to be $1,910,199,999. 1 which is greater than the NPV for Paducah at $1,615,996,848. 88. The incremental internal rate of return and NPV of this project are 13. 12% and $294,203,150. 14 respectively. The incremental IRR of 13. 12% is 2% more than the discount rate of 10. 57% (or WACC in our case). Current stock price of $10. 80 is based on USEC’s current business model. We believe that the current stock price is undervalued as it does not reflect the potential of the ACP project. As a result, the stock price will increase. So based on the NPV and incremental IRR, it would be in USEC’s best interest to accept ACP.The ACP proj ect will help the firm to double its capacity and improve the technology to gain the competitive advantage in the industry. The long term prospect of USEC will be bright as a result of ACP project. Though the ACP plant will be completely depreciated at the end of its life cycle of 15 years, it will provide USEC with more opportunities to further improve on the technology which has proved profitable already and to invest in more lucrative future projects which will ultimately improve the financial bottom line of the organization.

Quantitative Methods Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Quantitative Methods - Assignment Example For calculating the monthly expenses for the both types of mortgages first the nominal interest rates should be used to calculate the effective annual interest rates. This is done by using the following formula: I=(1+r/x)^x-1 In order to obtain the effective annual rates the Microsoft Excel formula was used: EFFECT(nominal_rate,npery), where nominal_rate is the annual nominal rate and npery is the number of compounding times per year. These values were calculated in Microsoft Excel using the formula: PMT(rate,nper,pv,fv,type). Rate is the interest rate of the mortgage, Nper is the total number of repayments for the loan, in this case 300 months (25*12), Pv is the present value of the total repayments that are to be made, Fv is the future value that one wishes to attain after the last repayment, in this case 0 and lastly Type indicates whether the repayment is made at the beginning of the month (0) or at the end (1), in this case we assume it is made at the start of the month so 0. In order to evaluate the Interest Only Mortgage option we must first calculate the effective annual interest rate on the deposit placed in the sinking fund. This will be done in the same way as for the Repayment Mortgage. The results are presented in the table below: The monthly cost Interest Only mortgage consists of the interest paid over the mortgage period and the amount accumulated in the sinking fund.... epayments for the loan, in this case 300 months (25*12), Pv is the present value of the total repayments that are to be made, Fv is the future value that one wishes to attain after the last repayment, in this case 0 and lastly Type indicates whether the repayment is made at the beginning of the month (0) or at the end (1), in this case we assume it is made at the start of the month so 0. In order to evaluate the Interest Only Mortgage option we must first calculate the effective annual interest rate on the deposit placed in the sinking fund. This will be done in the same way as for the Repayment Mortgage. The results are presented in the table below: Nominal interest rate on deposit in sinking fund Number of compounding periods per year Effective annual interest rate on deposit in sinking fund 5.50% 1 0.055 5.75% 1 0.0575 6.00% 1 0.06 6.25% 1 0.0625 6.50% 1 0.065 6.75% 1 0.0675 7.00% 1 0.07 7.25% 1 0.0725 7.50% 1 0.075 7.75% 1 0.0775 8.00% 1 0.08 8.25% 1 0.0825 8.50% 1 0.085 8.75% 1 0.0825 9.00% 1 0.09 The monthly cost Interest Only mortgage consists of the interest paid over the mortgage period and the amount accumulated in the sinking fund. In order to calculate the monthly payment into the sinking fund using Excel the PPMT(rate,per,nper,pv,fv,type) formula was used where rate is the interest rate per period, per is the period, nper is the total amount of payments in the sinking fund, pv is the present value of the mortgage, fv is the future value expected in our case 0 and type indicates when the monthly payments are due in this case we assume that they are made at the beginning of the period so we take the value 1. The results are listed below: Annual interest rate Number of years in the loan Amount of loan Payment into investment plan 5.50% 25 350000

A Most Undisciplined Profligate Crew Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

A Most Undisciplined Profligate Crew - Essay Example hich went against the organizational structure is the fact that this second professional section of the army was based on requirements and crass materialistic thoughts. Management of the army was also not strong as we can see that there was a huge communication gap between the Continental Army officers and the legislatures of New Jersey. The dysfunctional attributes of the Continental Army also comes into focus when we see the difference in protest and opinion among them during speaking against the legislatures. George Washington was also right to think that the people working in the army did not actually realize the purpose they are serving. The Pennsylvania Militia mutinied in the year 1780. The main cause of their mutiny was very much similar with that of the protests which were shown by the Continental Army in the year 1779. Winter in Pennsylvania is ruthless and it becomes very hard to stay alive in that state without proper protection. Very much like what happened to the Continental Army soldiers in the northern region, here the Pennsylvania soldiers were suffering to a huge extent because winter had set in 1780. They were facing the lack of supply in food and clothing without which surviving the winter would be a myth. Morristown is one of the coldest regions in this state and this is why the soldiers spending days here suffered the most. On the other hand, the mutiny which was led by the Continental Army soldiers also added to the fuel. Their success against the President of the country and drawing attention of the legislatures inspired the other regiments to protest for their demands. Their march towards Princet on was a symbolic protest against the negligence from the government. US government promised many facilities to the soldiers when the country was lacking people to join the army, but in reality those facilities were not given properly. Both the officers and soldiers of the Continental Army were promised many things while joining the brigade. In

Alkaline phosphatase enzyme Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Alkaline phosphatase enzyme - Essay Example The enzyme acts by splitting off phosphorous creating an alkaline pH. Even though the physiological function of the alkaline phosphatase enzyme is not clear it still plays a vital role in the phosphate metabolism. A gene known as ALPL gives instructions for making the alkaline phosphatase enzyme. The role played by alkaline phosphatase enzyme is very important. It helps in the growth and development of bones and teeth. It is active in many other tissues in the body such as liver and kidneys. The enzyme plays an important role in the growth and development of bones and teeth. It is also active in many other tissues, particularly in the liver and kidneys. This enzyme operates as a phosphatase; it means that helps in removing clusters of oxygen and phosphorus atoms from other molecules. This enzyme is also important for recycling phosphate in the living cells. It is common in tissues that transport nutrients including intestine and kidney. In addition to the above mentioned function, alkaline phosphatase is one of the essential elements for the process of mineralization. In this process, minerals such as calcium and phosphorus are deposited in the developing teeth and bones. The process of mineralization is important for the formation of teeth which can endure chewing and grinding and for formation of bones that are strong and rigid. According to a research undertaken by Prof. Herbert Fleisch and Prof. Gideon Rodan in an article published under the name of â€Å"In searching a bone quality marker. What about Bone Mineral Density?† the biological role of alkaline phosphatase enzyme in mammals includes the following: The first three are articulated in a tissue-specific manner. The last one is ubiquitous but is abundant in liver, bone and kidney. The gene sequence of isoenzymes of alkaline phosphatase shows that the nascent polypeptide has a short signal sequence of 17 and 21 residues of amino-acid and at its c terminal site a hydrophobic

Strengths, Weaknesses and Strategies for Sugar Bowl Essay

Strengths, Weaknesses and Strategies for Sugar Bowl - Essay Example Sugar Bowl can effectively take maximum advantage of this student presence in order to increase their visitation to the business especially on some of the slow nights (Hamermesh and Zalosh, 9). Additionally, it is important to realize that since its opening, Sugar Bowl has been experiencing slow growth, having been in the industry for only one year; generally, restaurants and bars often take close to five years in experiencing solvency. Sugar Bowl boasts of a good target market that comprises of many graduate students and young professionals who will enhance its growth and success. Some of the goals regarding the operations of Sugar Bowl include an inability to retain some of its competent sales staff. This means that the company is often left with the option of having its unused capacity being supplemented by other outside workers. Additionally, the company has a problem with compensating its staff in order to elicit maximum support from them. In improving the compensation criteria, the company can be in a better position to enhance their staff morale while reducing the high turnover that it faces. Additionally, the company has high training costs and theft cases, which are said to be emerging from within. Through such activities as effective staff training and motivation, the company will enhance its success and performance, something that will aid in its achievement of goals and objectives. Through effective staff empowerment initiatives, Sugar Bowl will experience reduced daily operations for its management teams (Hamermesh and Zalosh, 10). The company’s inability to predict its sales revenue in the most effective way has also been a major weakness in its growth prospects. Some of the opportunities that Sugar Bowl is facing in its growth and success are largely depended on the need to capture new markets presented by the target marketing, who are students and other young people generated by the universities available in this area.

Critical Analysis of the Poem Patriotism by Sir Walter Scott Essay

Critical Analysis of the Poem Patriotism by Sir Walter Scott - Essay Example For example, the first point where allusions come into play is the idea of death but not physical death since that only comes at the end of the poem for the unpatriotic person. Scott alludes that a man without pride in his own country has a dead soul and not only is it a dead soul it is dead in the extreme. That person’s physical death will result in him/her ‘doubly dying’ since the physical as well as the spiritual aspects of the person would die in such a scenario. The rhyme scheme of the poem figures largely in couplets which go together very well even though the third line seems to be slightly out of rhyme since it is a quote which the man in question has not said. However, the continuation of the poem establishes a scheme which goes as AA B CC D EE FF GG HH and so on. This also establishes the iambic pentameter measure of the poem that makes it easy to read while the words themselves hold pointed meaning for the readers of the work. The imagery in the poem sh ines through with the idea of such a man being given titles, a proud name and wealth but no real soul since these worldly goods will end for that man once he has died. However, since he had no patriotism in his soul, his death remains unnoticed because he was concentrated only on his own self and never for the country to which he belonged. This is indeed an image of despair which is only highlighted by the next section that shows that his death, much like his life remained without use to his country or even to those who were around him. In conclusion, it becomes easy to say that Scott himself comes across as being immensely patriotic and the poem in question certainly shows what he thinks about those who are unpatriotic. While patriotism may be a dangerous emotion for some, individuals such as Sir Walter Scott would make it the first criteria for having a soul or for being a good person. I found the poem to be quite uplifting in the beginning but the

An investigation into why e-businesses fail Essay

An investigation into why e-businesses fail - Essay Example This dissertÐ °tion used multi-cÐ °se studies Ð °s there were numerous exÐ °mples of fÐ °iled online businesses Ð °s well Ð °s successful ones. The results of the cÐ °se studies hÐ °ve shown thÐ °t stÐ °ff with experience in mÐ °rketing is vitÐ °l to the success of the online business, Ð °s mÐ °rketing in online business encompÐ °sses most Ð °spects of the business, Ð °nd is not just confined to Ð °ttrÐ °cting Ð °nd retÐ °ining customers. MÐ °rketing Ð °n online business Ð °lso involves mÐ °nÐ °ging the website itself Ð °nd ensuring thÐ °t the technicÐ °l Ð °spects Ð °re contributing to the customer experience. In the cÐ °se studies, it wÐ °s cleÐ °r thÐ °t experience wÐ °s the key to success in online businesses, Ð °s experience would influence other fÐ °ctors such Ð °s mÐ °rketing Ð °nd business plÐ °ns. Some online businesses mÐ °y need professionÐ °l help in mÐ °rketing, but only if they hÐ °ve not expertise within the teÐ °m. There fore it wÐ °s more importÐ °nt to recognise Ð °nd identify the shortcomings of the online business model before setting up the online business. This seemed to be Ð ° greÐ °ter determinÐ °nt of success, Ð °s Ð ° well-thought out business Ð °nd mÐ °rketing plÐ °n would Ð °nd should include experienced Ð °nd quÐ °lified personnel. The dissertÐ °tion Ð °lso highlighted the importÐ °nce of business pÐ °rtnerships especiÐ °lly where the online business wÐ °s not Ð ° mÐ °nufÐ °cturer. Since the dÐ °wn of the internet, Ð ° lot of businesses Ð °nd individuÐ °ls set Ð °bout estÐ °blishing online businesses in Ð ° bid to Ð °mÐ °ss mÐ °ssive profits. However, Ð °ccording to CrÐ °ine (2001) since the yeÐ °r 2000 Ð °pproximÐ °tely 200 online businesses went out of the business Ð °ccounting for more thÐ °n 50% of business closures. This high fÐ °ilure rÐ °te is of concern to the business Ð °nd finÐ °nciÐ °l community; Ð °s such closures will Ð °lso Ð °ffect stock mÐ °rkets Ð °nd shÐ °res. Some of the online

Recommendation for Incentive Programms and Plans Essay

Recommendation for Incentive Programms and Plans - Essay Example It is imperative to go through some of these drawbacks to ensure that they do not get in the way of the company’s development. One of the incentives introduced by a manager is that of having the employees receiving a promotion or a salary raise anytime that they produce results that appeal to the expectations of the manager (Muller, 2013). This is important in that most people get into the corporate arena with the aim of earning a lot of money for them to manage or rather improve their living styles. It is important to understand that this incentive has a drawback that revolves around it failing to have negativity. Negativity in this case is the employer does not impose any challenge to the employee if he or she fails to deliver appropriate jobs as expected. It is important to have this challenge as it makes the employee realize that there is a negative side to failure. One way through which to challenge this incentive is by ensuring that the employee is charged in the case of him or her failing to deliver appropriate work. One way through which to charge the employee is by having them deducted their commissions (Hartman, 2011). Commissioning is one of the ways through which employers motivate their employees as an incentive to have them work harder save from the monthly salary they receive. It is thus only fair to ensure that they are charged for poor performance by ensuring that part of their commission is actually deducted. Another incentive that employers have is buying or rather treating employees after they achieve certain goals. This is a very motivation appropriate plan as the employees get to work even more knowing that they will receive additional benefits. However, it is imperative to understand that increased working of the employees can create or rather creates the drawback of having them not providing quality work. In the contemporary environment, there is the issue of quality and quantity. The major drawback that

Phd research propsal - Impact of Diabetes among the Lebanese Community Essay

Phd research propsal - Impact of Diabetes among the Lebanese Community in Sydney - Essay Example The potential research questions for this study include; According to a study conducted by World Health Organization (WHO)1, the number of people with diabetes is sharply on the rise in recent years. This study found out that in the year 2000 the number of people affected with the disease was about 171 million worldwide. But more alarming is the projection for the year 2030, if we continue to adopt the existing lifestyle. It has been projected that by 2030 this figure might reach a whopping 366 million. Though, India and China top the list of countries with maximum number of diabetes cases, the share of developing nations is certainly on the rise in the coming years. The increasing cases of diabetes amongst Lebanese people too are a cause of worry. Kristensen et al. (2007) find out that Lebanese population too has a high prevalence of diabetes, and their cultural and belief systems about healthcare worsen the situation of glycaemic regulation. Sydney is host to a large number of Lebanese people, who have been there in search for better job opportunities and better living standards. Now the pertinent question is why to have a focus on the Lebanese population in Sydney. Well, the foremost reason is - to have a focused approach while conducting the research study. In addition, a number of other reasons makes it an interesting topic. Bautista & Engler (2005) state that the Lebanese population in Sydney tends not to have any acculturation to the native Australian culture. There are many studies indicating increased prevalence of diabetes mellitus in these families. These have been ascribed to hereditary factors, food habits, prevalence of metabolic syndrome, and increased consanguinity over many generations (Abou-Daoud, 1969). Acculturation is a social phenomenon where family values tend to play important roles, and social and cultural factors related to the immigrant race determine the patterns of acceptance or resistance of newer cultural

Plug-in hybrid Essay Example for Free

Plug-in hybrid Essay Abstract This paper focuses on the hybrid car technology, government support programs, environmental effects and the demand for hybrid vehicles in the United States. Research was done in the areas of environmental effects of driving hybrid car, income tax incentives for qualified buyers unstable petroleum supplies, and growing concern about global pollution. Hybrid cars tax credits data were analyzed to examine the tax income deduction of purchasing this type of vehicle. The government needs to continue to offer incentives to new buyers of hybrid vehicles to offset the higher cost of these vehicles relative to their non-hybrid counterparts. Hybrid cars and other eco-friendly products are vital to the survival of the earth and the United States and the rest of the world must continue to regulate the emissions without hurting the economy. Demand for the Hybrid Vehicles Demand for the hybrid vehicles in the United States has increased since the introduction in the U. S. market in 2000. The first hybrid car was introduced in Japan in 1997 by Toyota Prius. Three years later, Honda introduced the first hybrid car Honda Insight into the U. S. market. By 2008, other car manufactures entered the hybrid market including Ford, GM, Honda and Nissan. Today, they are four main types of electric cars available on the market which include hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, extended-range electric vehicle and battery electric vehicles. Demand for Toyota’s Prius hybrid car increased over the last few years and by supply and demand, Toyota responded by raising the price and increase production. In 2003 and 2004 Toyota made100,000 Prius and in 2007 they made 200,000 hybrid cars. 3 In 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-in hybrid is the third fastest-selling car in U. S. Toyota was successful because of strong branding and unique design of Prius. The hybrid vehicles are solution to energy security and environmental protection. These vehicles reduce CO2 emission and air pollution. They combine power from both gasoline engine and an electric motor that runs off the electricity from a rechargeable battery. 1 Hybrid cars produce less pollution because the combination of battery power and internal combustion decrease the emission of carbon dioxide and other harmful gases. 1 Electric motors use no energy during idle and use less than gas motors at low speeds. Hybrid cars have a regenerative braking, stop- start system, low-rolling resistance tires and power conservative hardware. 1 All these features allow the hybrid cars to recycle energy. Energy produced by hybrid is recycled from brakes and used in acceleration. Hybrid car can save money on gas especially in city driving because stop and go driving helps hybrids recharge by capturing the energy generated during braking. Hybrid cars are in high demand but they are not easy to find and some car dealerships struggle to meet demand. Recent earthquake in Japan made it even more difficult for hybrid cars supplies because the best-selling hybrid cars in the United States Toyota Prius is made exclusively in Japan. Table 1 shows the number of Hybrid Models offered and the sales history from 2000 to 2007. 1 Table 1 HISTORY OF HYBRID VEHICLES YearNo. of Hybrid Models Offered HybridNew Vehicle Sales Sales in Million 200029,36717. 41 2001220,28717. 18 2002335,96116. 85 2003347,52516. 68 2004483,15316. 91 20058209,71117. 00 200610251,86416. 56 200715345,92016. 09 Environmental Effects. The need to develop green technologies comes from the fact that the global climate is changing due to everyday large amounts of pollutants that are released into atmosphere which leads to global warming. Global warming is a serious problem that can cause major issues such as the melting of polar ice caps and a rise in sea level. Every car produces emissions while being made and while driving on the road. There are many governments regulations placed on industries to reduce the amount of emissions released into atmosphere. Once the hybrid cars become more popular and affordable among consumers they can help reduce automobile emission. When people buy cars they take into consideration many things. They look into price, performance, safety and expenditure on gasoline which is determined by the vehicle’s fuel efficiency. Hybrid cars are expected to reduce the cost of fuel by recharging batteries from electrical outlets. Many buyers today are also interested into saving our planet and there is a growing demand to buy hybrid vehicles. Hybrid cars offer many green advantages. In large cities were pollution is high, they produce very little emission during low speed city driving. Hybrid cars can help the country reduce dependency on foreign crude oil and save money in the long term. United States imports almost half of the oil and gas from Middle East. Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) sets the price depending how much they have at its disposal. Many countries don’t have choice but to pay the price set by OPEC, regardless of supply and demand factors. If consumers purchase more hybrid cars, the dependency on foreign oil will decline and energy prices will drop. In 2012, US motor gasoline consumption was 8. 5 million barrels per day. 4 If the consumption of gasoline continues at the rate it has during the last few decades, oil reserves will not meet demand in future. Countries will need to look for new wells across the world and this can lead to damages of our ecosystem. By using hybrid cars, oil consumption is reduced and there will be no need to start a search for new oil wells. The environmental benefits of hybrid cars also include increased health for people . Use of oil products releases more pollution into the air that can cause cancers and lung diseases. Government Support The U. S. government has been providing hybrid vehicles buyers with income tax incentives to offset the higher cost of hybrid vehicles relative to their non-hybrid counterparts. 2 The hybrid vehicles is considered a promising technology by the National Energy Policy Development Group (2001), and their recommendation was to increase demand of hybrid vehicles in order to achieve economies of scale to bring the cost of hybrid vehicles down. 2 This group also recommended that government should provide a â€Å"clean fuel† tax deduction up to $2000 for the purchase of new hybrid cars during 2001-2005. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 replaced the income tax deduction with an income tax credit of up to $ 3,400 for vehicles purchased after December 31, 2005. The credits phased out after a manufacturer sold 60,000 of a hybrid model starting from January 1, 2006. As the Dec. 31, 2010, end for all credits neared, only a few hybrids still qualified for the credits. 2 In 2012 there are still some tax incentives for new plug-in hybrid cars purchases for up to $7500 in tax deduction for qualified buyers. Hybrid Federal Tax Credit 2009 12009 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid 4dr SUV (6.0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A). $2,200 22009 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid 4dr SUV 4WD (6. 0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$1,800 32008 Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid 4dr Sedan (2. 4L 4cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$1,300 42009 Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid 4dr Sedan (2. 4L 4cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$1,550 52009 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Hybrid 4dr Crew Cab w/1HY SB (6. 0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 62009 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Hybrid 4dr Crew Cab 4WD w/1HY SB (6. 0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 72009 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Hybrid 4dr Crew Cab w/2HY SB (6.0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 82009. Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Hybrid 4dr Crew Cab 4WD w/2HY SB (6. 0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 92008 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid 4dr SUV (6. 0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 102008 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid 4dr SUV 4WD (6. 0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 112009 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid 4dr SUV (6. 0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 122009 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid 4dr SUV 4WD (6. 0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 132009 Chrysler Aspen Limited HEV 4dr SUV 4WD (5. 7L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 142009 Dodge Durango Limited HEV 4dr SUV 4WD (5. 7L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 152008 Ford Escape Hybrid 4dr SUV (2. 3L 4cyl gas/electric hybrid CVT)$1,500 162008 Ford Escape Hybrid 4dr SUV AWD (2. 3L 4cyl gas/electric hybrid CVT)$1,100 172009 Ford Escape Hybrid 4dr SUV (2. 5L 4cyl gas/electric hybrid CVT)$1,500 182009 Ford Escape Hybrid 4dr SUV AWD (2. 5L 4cyl gas/electric hybrid CVT)$975 192009 Ford Escape Hybrid Limited 4dr SUV (2. 5L 4cyl gas/electric hybrid CVT)$1,500 202009 Ford Escape Hybrid Limited 4dr SUV AWD (2. 5L 4cyl gas/electric hybrid CVT)$975 212010 Ford Fusion Hybrid 4dr Sedan (2.5L 4cyl gas/electric hybrid CVT). $1,700 222009 GMC Sierra 1500 Hybrid 4dr Crew Cab w/3HA SB (6. 0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 232009 GMC Sierra 1500 Hybrid 4dr Crew Cab 4WD w/3HA SB (6. 0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 242009 GMC Sierra 1500 Hybrid 4dr Crew Cab w/3HB SB (6. 0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 252009 GMC Sierra 1500 Hybrid 4dr Crew Cab 4WD w/3HB SB (6. 0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 Hudson 2010 2 Advantages and Disadvantages of Hybrid Cars A list of advantages and disadvantages of hybrid vehicles include: Advantages †¢Reduce emission. †¢Lessen dependence on foreign oil †¢Tax incentives to purchase hybrid cars †¢Environmentally friendly †¢Performance benefits: hybrid cars provide quite, smooth operations and stronger acceleration. †¢Reduce energy dependence from foreign sources Disadvantages †¢Battery cost: The battery of hybrid cars is very expensive and it has to be replaced every 80,000miles. The average cost to replace this battery is between $ 6,000 and $10,000. People who travel a lot will not benefit from driving the hybrid car. †¢Recharge time: Fully recharging the battery pack can take four to eight hours. †¢Bulk and weight: Battery packs are heavy and take up considerable vehicle space. †¢Slow acceleration: Hybrid cars have much slower acceleration times than a traditional cars that only use gasoline. †¢Low resale value: Hybrid cars have low resale value because of the costly batteries used in the hybrid cars that have to be replaced regularly. †¢Short supply: Because these cars are expensive their supply parts are available in different parts of the country. Present and Future for Hybrid Cars The future looks bright for hybrid cars because price of oil will probably continue to rise and the impact that fossil fuels have on the earth’s environment. Incentives, such as tax credits for purchasing a hybrid cars and grants for researching new battery technologies, will continue to improve their performance and make hybrid cars more attractive and competitive. The most recent hybrid technology is â€Å"plug-in hybrid car. This hybrid model offers the same benefit as hybrid cars, with added benefit of being able to be plugged in to home electric outlets for recharging when the car is not in use. 5 The competition in hybrid car industry is very challenging. The automobile industry is an oligopoly. here are only few big key players that are concerned about new entrants, the risk of substitutes emerging through new technology (Hybrid cars), changes in consumer taste and external regulations. Toyota successfully created a barrier for other car manufacturer by introducing hybrid engine green technology. Toyota has dominated the market for years with its hybrid Prius and to remain competitive they will have to design new vehicles at low-cost using the most advanced technology. Every year, the Prius faces more competition as other car manufacturers are building   their own version of hybrid vehicles. Ford recently produced the C-Max hybrid car which outsold the Prius in January 2013. C-Max hybrid car is larger and family-friendly version of the Prius. 6 Ford executive are predicting that its 2013 hybrid sales total will be much higher that their current annual high to $35,496. 6 Nissan is also aggressively pushing hybrid sales in 2013. Hybrid cars are more expensive as compared to traditional gasoline vehicles and require frequent recharging for their operations but in future these issues will hopefully change. References 1. Beresteanu, A. and S. Li. 2010. â€Å"Gasoline Prices, Government Support, and the Demand for Hybrid Vehicles in the U. S. † International Economic Review 52: 161-182 2. Hudson, Mike. Federal Hybrid Tax Credit Programs by Vehicle. Retrieved 19 Oct. 2009 3. Toyota. com 4. Advantages of Hybrid Cars. All Hybrid Cars. 12 Apr. 2012. Web. 12 Apr. 2012. 5. Benefits of Hybrid and Plug-In Electric Vehicles. AFDC. U. S. Department of Energy, Oct. 2011. Web. 23 Mar. 2012. 6. business. time. com/2013/02/05/hybrid-car-competition-heats-up-does-the-toyota-prius-finally-have-a-worthy-challenger/.

Women Entrepreneurs In The Tourism Sector In Zimbabwe Economics Essay

Women Entrepreneurs In The Tourism Sector In Zimbabwe Economics Essay This paper examines the challenges that women entrepreneurs face in the tourism sector in Zimbabwe. The research targeted female entrepreneurs selling curios in Masvingo and Victoria Falls which are the prime tourist destinations in Zimbabwe. Women entrepreneurship has been under spotlight in Zimbabwe because it is a source of economic growth. Despite the potential that lies in women entrepreneurs they face additional or at least different social, cultural, educational and technological challenges than men in establishing and developing their own enterprises, and accessing economic resources. From the interviews conducted women entrepreneurs in the tourism sector have difficulties in securing funding, inadequate business related education as well as social, cultural and religious impediments. This paper engenders to understand the gender biases embedded in society which constrain womens mobility, interactions, active economic participation and access to business development services. Lastly, appropriate interventions are recommended within the discourse of entrepreneurship. Key words: Entrepreneurship, Tourism, Gender, Enterprise development, Women Entrepreneurship Introduction Entrepreneurship is a key driver of capacity building and national development in any country. As such, this paper focuses on challenges faced by women in the tourism sector. On 21 May 2012 there was a forum on Womens Engagement in Africas Tourism Industry in Victoria Falls held during the African Travel Association conference. The presenters included the former Deputy Secretary General of United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) who alluded to the fact that tourism constitutes 30% of the worlds economy and offers 78% of workforce in the world. He further reiterated that research has explicitly shown the gender inequalities that exist in the tourism sector as mostly women and children as compared to the male counterparts are exploited. He further mentioned that in 2008, the UNWTO came up with a policy for gender equality which is envisaged under the United Nations Platform. In 2010, the Global report on Women in Tourism by World Tourism Organization and United Nations women encouraged women to participate in leadership roles in the tourism industry. The report held that although women constitute a high percentage of the workforce in the tourism industry, most of them occupy lower levels where they are subsequently lowly paid. Because of this report, UNWTO suggested that vocational training be offered to empower women in the industry. Tanzania and Gambia were the first two countries chosen to start the vocational training for women entrepreneurs in the tourism industry. Other countries to benefit from the training are from Latin America and Africa. Another presenter a Managing Director of Affluent Hospitality Group in America said that women make up 80% of Travel Agency in America and 80% of travel decisions are made by women in North America. This justifies the fact that women have an active role to play in the tourism industry. In addition the Marketing Director of Amalinda Collection in Zimbabwe gave a testimony of her experience in the Tourism industry. She admitted that as a mother she has a lot of family responsibilities that apart from being a working woman such that she faces the dilemma of choosing between family and business. At one time when her son fell sick at 4 months old she had to quit the job in favour of the family. Family roles represent one of the challenges that women entrepreneurs face in comparison with their male counterparts. The Governor and Resident Minister of Matabeleland North Province of Zimbabwe reported that, 60% of arts and crafts in Zimbabwe are produced by women from Binga who largely produce reed mats and baskets while the Gwaai women produce pottery artifacts. The interesting revelations made at the conference prompted the researchers to consider conducting a research on the challenges that women entrepreneurs face in the tourism industry in Zimbabwe. In current years women-owned businesses have become increasingly popular but entrepreneurship remains a deeply gendered institution (Anderson, 2008). Bushell (2012) considered entrepreneurship as expedition out of paucity and gravitation towards equity but this has not been the case because women remain marginalized globally. Given the constraints facing African women entrepreneurs their full economic potential is not actualized and they do not feature on the mainstream of the economic agenda (Ozigbo and Ezeaku, 2009). There is therefore need for countries to address gender disparities between men and women to achieve significant milestones in economic growth. In addition to those problems faced by all small-scale entrepreneurs, women face additional or at least different social, cultural, educational and technological challenges than men in establishing and developing their own enterprises, and accessing economic resources (Mayoux, 2001). It is important that such challenges be addr essed so as to enable women to prosper in their businesses. Chitsike (2000) and United Nations Industrial Development Organization (2003) mentioned that womens businesses in Zimbabwe tend to be small and are discriminated by the legal system which backs male ideologies. Literature Review In many countries entrepreneurship has been considered a means of generating meaningful and sustainable employment opportunities, particularly for those at the margins of the economy women, the poor and people with disabilities (ILO, 1998; Rajani and Sarada, 2008). However, very little literature exists on the role of women entrepreneurs in a global economy especially in Africa (Dudley, 2008) and this is one of the reasons why women continue to be marginalized in entrepreneurship development. In addition, in cases where the role of women entrepreneurship is articulated there still remains a gap in gender analysis (Dudley, 2008). Research factors affecting performance of women entrepreneurs of their businesses are limited in scope, as any existing research most often focuses on individual characteristics and motives as performance predictors (Teoh and Chong, 2007) at the expense of gender disparities. Despite the economic importance of female entrepreneurs their numbers are lower tha n those for men (Verheul, Van Stel and Thurik, 2006; Carter, 2000; Minniti et al., 2005) and therefore it is of importance to address the barriers to female entrepreneurship. This paper deviates from the former approach by focusing on challenges that women face in entrepreneurial development. Furthermore, the research applies an entrepreneurial development model adapted from Richardson and Howarth (2002a) to analyse the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in the tourism sector in Zimbabwe as shown in figure 1 below. The model is based on the cross sectional biological structure of a peach fruit. At centre of the model is the seed which represents the entrepreneurial opportunity identified. The inner part adjacent to the seed represents the mesopreneurial (fruit mesorcarp) factors based on the MAIR model by (Gibb and Ritchie, 1982) which include motivation or commitment, skills, abilities and experiences, idea in relation to the market as well as the resources. Williams (1997) co mmented that commitment and dedication of the entrepreneur is critical if they are to prosper whilst Zimmer and Scarborough (1996) attribute failure of small businesses to managerial incompetence and lack of experience among other factors and therefore women entrepreneurs need relevant skills and experience to fully exploit entrepreneurial opportunities. The mesopreneurial factors represent the basic ingredients of business success. The final structural component is the exopreneurial (fruit exocarp) factors which represent the macro environment in which the enterprises operate and it entails the following aspects: The enabling environment which focuses on policy issues, institutions and initiatives which impact on enterprise development in particular the tourism industry in Zimbabwe The socio-cultural and economic context which the social, cultural and religious factors that affect enterprise development. Enterprise Support Sector made up of initiatives and organizations developed to propel enterprise development and how these impact on enterprise development. The Economic/Market Environment which deals with opportunities and threats in the environment. Women entrepreneurs hardly have specialized support institutions to cater for their specific needs (United Nations International Development Organization, 2003). In most cases entrepreneurial and technical training, advisory and information programmes often have to be carried out within a non-conventional set-up (United Nations International Development Organization, 2003). Women entrepreneurs need to have a more supportive environment that is more favourable (Stevenson and St-Onge, 2005) if they are to gain similar recognition that of men. Training programmes developed must take into account their society, culture, community and empowerment (Agbà ©nyiga and Ahmedani, 2008). If significant milestones are to be achieved in female entrepreneurship support systems need to take into account the needs, challenges and unique situation of women to promote women entrepreneurship and avoid failure and lower levels of female entrepreneurship (Drine and Grach, 2010). It is vital to note that c ountries that have developed policies and legislation tailored for women entrepreneurship have witnessed tremendous growth and increase in the numbers of women in business. Enteprise support sector: Government, NGOs, Private Sector, Membership Organizations, donors Endopreneurial factor Seed Entrepreneurial Opportunity The Economic/Market Environment: Opportunities and Threats Enabling Environment for Enterprise: regulations, policies, institutions, institutions and processes Figure 1 Peach Fruit Concept of entrepreneurship: Adapted from Richardson and Howarth (2002a) Mesopreneurial Factors Exopreneurial factors Resources Socio/cultural context: Attitudes, aspirations, confidence and permission idea with market Skills, abilities and experience Motivation and determination Female Entrepreneurship Women Entrepreneurs refer to women or a group of women who initiate organize and operate a business enterprise (Jahanshahi, Pitamber and Nawaser, 2010). McClelland et al. (2005) define a woman-owned business as one which is at least 51% owned by one or more women or in the case of any publicly-owned business, at least 51% of the stock of which is owned by one or more women. In 2010 187 million women were involved in entrepreneurship ranging from 1.5-45.4% of the adult female population in 59 economies (GEM, 2010). It should also be noted that Ghana has 55% of women being involved in entrepreneurship and it is the only economy where there are more women than men entrepreneurs (GEM, 2010). One of the United Nations Millennium Development goals is to promote gender equity and empower women as agents of poverty eradication, hunger, disease and to stimulate sustainable development (United Nations Industrial Development Organization, 2004). Therefore promotion of women entrepreneurship is vital for the achievement of broader objectives including poverty reduction and economic development. A positive indicator to women entrepreneurship is that African leaders have pledged to take joint responsibility for promoting the role of women in social and economic development by reinforcing their capacity in education and training, facilitating access to credit and assuring their participation in the political and economic life (NEPAD, 2001). The increased role of women in economic development has forced many governments to take an active role in developing policies on women development and gender related issues. Mueller and Dato-on (2010) stipulated that women play a significant role in entrepreneurship but their role remains suppressed in comparison to that of their male counterparts across the globe because of family roles, traditions , cultural and structural constraints which diminish their abilities to lead business (Bushell, 2012). Women bear the responsibility for childcare and homecare and as a result this leads to work-family conflicts (Des, 2001 and Jahanshashi, Pitamber and Nawaser, 2010; Winn, 2005). Chitsike (2000) also stated that men view womens role as that of being at home and not engaging in any business activities that are reserved for men. One of the challenges that women face is unequal access to productive resources and services, including finance and skill upgrading opportunities (United Nations International Development Organization [UNIDO], 2003; Tumbunan, 2009; Sorokhaibam and Laishram, 2003). In many African countries, women inequality lies in economic rights and access to resources as men persist thus preventing women from taking full advantage of the economic opportunities (Ozigbo and Ezeaku, 2009). Degroot (2001) mentions that womens participation as owners of small medium sized business has been constrained due to poor access to market information, technology and finance, poor linkages with support service and unfavourable policy and support mechanisms ( De Groot, 2001). In Zimbabwe domestic chores and agricultural activities do not allow women time to travel to support institutions such as finance houses for advice and information on credit (De Groot, 2001). In many African countries, women spend most of th eir income on the household and fear investing their funds in business ventures for fear of business failure (Ozigbo and Ezeaku, 2009), particularly on food and education for their children. Many of them are afraid to invest their limited funds into a business for fear of failure. Many women entrepreneurs are seldom taken seriously in spheres of credibility and capability, competing and succeeding in a male dominated environment (Ozigbo and Ezeaku, 2009) and this is one of the factors that explain their relatively obscure role in economic development. Despite the fact that many women entrepreneurship is a source of job creation, economic growth and social development many women owned businesses remain stunted by lack of appropriate managerial skills, access to business resources, networking opportunities and access to new markets (Ozigbo and Ezeaku, 2009). The current institutional environment purposes to achieve gender equity but the traditional powers are tilted towards the patriarchal system and therefore maintains the status quo of gender inequity (Goheer, 2003). In Zimbabwe women have largely been marginalized from mainstream economic activities because of the predominant partriarchal system which confines women to domestic roles. 53% of all economic activities in Zimbabwe are performed by women but, this figure remains invisible because it is not accounted for in national statistics and most of the activities are characterized by poor working conditions. It is also worth mentioning at this stage that religion, culture and the socialization process are some of the major factors perpetuating gender inequity in Zimbabwe. This is evidenced by the fact that under the current customary law, women cannot own/inherit land (Chitsike, 2009) and land is one of the resources that are important for entrepreneurial development. Research Methodology Baines and Wheelock (2000) mention that many women have ventured into entrepreneurship but little research has been done on gender and female entrepreneurship. The reasons behind increase of entrepreneurial variances arising out of gender remains unresolved is because women feel that by exposing these issues they deepen their entrepreneurial differences (Calas et.al. 2007 as cited in Peris-Ortiz, Rueda-Armengot and Benito Osorio, 2011). Studying women entrepreneurship is critical because it is an important source of economic prosperity and presently research efforts, policies and programs tend to be skewed towards men and neglect the needs of women entrepreneurs and potential women entrepreneurs (OECD, 2004). In the African context there are very few studies that have focused on female entrepreneurship particularly in the tourism sector and therefore this research seeks to close this gap. In addition, Gelb (2001) states that this is due to lack of indigenous research, inadequate info rmation and methodological constraints (Ozigbo and Ezeaku, 2009). Despite the increasing role, women entrepreneurship theory development and empirical evidence only offer a very blurry picture of women entrepreneurs (Tann, 2008). Subsequently, improved understanding of women entrepreneurs challenges is essential in order to assess their needs, and provide solutions to teething problems they encounter. Although there have been some studies of small businesses in Zimbabwe, none has provided rich qualitative data of female entrepreneurs (Mboko and Smith-Hunter, 2008) and this study endeavors to contribute towards addressing this deficiency. This study is based on the small and medium business entrepreneurs in Zimbabwes Arts and Crafts industry in Masvingo and Victoria Falls. 10 women in Masvingo from Dzimbahwe Crafts and Art Center and 15 from various Crafts Centers in Victoria Falls who were trading at Elephant Hills Hotel during the 37th ATA Conference between from 18-22 May 2012 were interviewed for this research. These towns are top tourism destinations in Zimbabwe and are home to reputable attractions which are The Great Zimbabwe and the Victoria Falls respectively. Interviews were conducted at Dzimbahwe Craft Center situated along the highway to Masvingo Town. For the effectiveness of the conversations, we had to talk to the women while viewing the different artefacts they make. The conversations included negotiations over the products prices that made the interviewers buy some of the items to encourage the women to talk freely. The interview started with more general introductions, some business questions that included who makes the products, how (i.e. whether there is use of machines or just ordinary hands), where, when and why the people do this business. The interviews also covered issues to do with any support the women received in terms of finance, human and material resources, marketing and other business operational areas. In the process, we had to go to the extent of observing the women doing the work like crocheting and weaving the mats, bed and table covers, polishing and decorating the wooden plates, basins and bowls while some were even carving the different items according to their area of specialization. This one day session took us about one and a half hours and we spent $30 to buy some items from the different women who added up to a total of 10 entrepreneurs. In Victoria Falls, we took the advantage of the 37th African Travel Association conference (ATA) that we attended from the 18th to the 22nd of May 2012 at Elephant Hills Hotel. Some selected male and female arts and crafts entrepreneurs from various selling centres of Victoria Falls were given the opportunity by the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) to come and sell their wares free of charge at the venue during the conference days. To promote the entrepreneurs, the ZTA had in their conference program a session for Meeting the African Culture when both mid-morning and afternoon teas were being served at the grounds where the entrepreneurs were selling their products. This was a good opportunity for the conference delegates to meet and discuss with the sellers while at the same time viewing and buying the handicrafts. As researchers, we took advantage of this to carry out our study for 3 consecutive days. On the first day we toured the various stands just to view the items on display and we asked some few general questions like what we did in Masvingo. Some of the questions were about how they come to be part of the ATA conference and the benefits they were expecting from the conference. On the second day we got into in-depth interviews to get details of their operations, marketing, any support and assistance from any institutions towards the success of their businesses. To probe for more information we were appreciating their achievements and sympathizing with their challenges as we were discussing with them during the tea breaks. For the other two days we had to share a table with some women during lunch time so that we could talk more. At times we had to sit together in the conference venue, commenting on what the presenters were saying about tourism entrepreneurship. One good example was a debate on the presentation done by a representative from the Zimbabwe Ministry of Youth, Dev elopment, Indigenization and Empowerment. On the final and third day, we selected some of the artefacts to buy that included the bowls, the big five, basins, Zimbabwe bird (Shiri Hungwe) for Blessing, one of the researchers totem and other items. We spent $50 for the items and we left the women in a very happy mood. As a way of appreciating our concern for them some women gave us some of the items at very low prices and in return we influenced some of our colleagues to buy from them. The total of the interviewees was 25 women. Analysis and Discussion The demographic Profile of Interviewed Women Entrepreneurs Table 4.1 Geographical Location of the Women Entrepreneurs RESEARCH AREA LOCATION Urban LOCATION Rural Masvingo 3 7 Victoria Falls 9 6 Out of the 10 women who were interviewed in Masvingo, 7 were residing in the rural areas and only 3 were from the urban area. From the 15 interviewees in Victoria Falls, 9 were urban residents and only 6 were from the rural area. This data reflects that the handicraft business is done in both rural and urban settings provided there is favourable environment. In Masvingo the majority of entrepreneurs come from their rural homes that surround Nemanwa Arts and Craft center because operating from home reduces any rental costs that can be incurred. The few who stay in the urban area have their husbands working in the town and this business supplements their spouses income. In Victoria Falls the majority of women who are urban dwellers reported that they own houses in the town from the cooperative that was formulated by the Arts and Crafts business operators sometime in 1990. The remaining percentage constitutes those women who own homes in the peri-urban area of the town and are permanent residents of the area. Table 4.2 Age of Women Entrepreneurs AGE GROUP NUMBER Below 25 years 2 26-30 years 4 30-45 years 15 46-50 4 The survey results suggest the relationship between a womans age and entrepreneurs. The likelihood of a woman venturing into business positively increases with the 30 to 45 years age range have the greatest number of women entrepreneurs. Very few women below the age of 25 years want to get into this business probably because they are unable to do the job or have better things to do. Motivations Women who are in art and craft business in Victoria Falls and Masvingo said that they are into this business because they grew up doing the weaving, knitting and pottery activities and to them they see it as a way of their living. In the yester years when tourism was still vibrant in Zimbabwe they could earn more than other people in some professions but as from 2004 to date the business has slowed down due to the economic crisis. These women admitted that they cannot go out of this business because they have no alternative means of survival since their environments are basically in the dry regions of the country. Therefore what is evident in what the women are saying is the fact that tourism fits very well in their livelihood strategies as a source of income. From the findings it emerged that the women are motivated into employment by push factors such as unemployment, inadequate family income and the need to accommodate work and home roles as in the Zimbabwean scenario the womans p lace is the home. The same sentiments were echoed by Vijaya and Kamalanabhan (2009) and Drine and Grach (2010) who reiterated that women are motivated by the desire to provide security for the family and flexibility that entrepreneurship offer between home and family roles. Access to Financial Resources The women entrepreneurs in the arts and crafts industry revealed that their major challenge is their inaccessibility to both investment and operational capital since they have no personal assets to use as collateral which is a prerequisite at the financial institutions. If they happen to get the starting capital they may even face more challenges of getting adequate operational capital to meet their daily supplies of raw materials such as reeds, steel wires, finishing oils, threads, wood, polishes and others to use for their business. At times they may need transport to take their products to and from their homes for security reasons. If these people are operating from the designated sites the local councils would need the rentals every month for the upkeep of the places. The problem of lack of capital usually arises from the fact that the enterprises are the major contributors to the survival of the family, and this puts a brake on efforts for improvement of womens enterprises in Zi mbabwe (Degroot, 2001). On the accessibility to capital, one woman at the ATA conference for Young Professionals in Victoria Falls narrated her ordeal of trying to get financial assistance from the Ministry of Indigenization and Youth Development that promotes indigenous entrepreneurs in the country. Grace said, When I went to the offices I was told to bring a project proposal. I prepared that at my own expense. After that they gave me a pile of forms to fill in whose other requirements i could not understand. As if that was not enough, I was told to wait for a response that never came to my attention and these people lie that they are supporting us financially. Another woman, Nyaradzo narrated that, The Ministry of Indigenization and Youth Development, asked for a list of all entrepreneurs who needed financial assistance and the specific amounts requested and were handed to the ministry but nothing materialized. The ministry later on asked the women entrepreneurs to pay $20 per person for a weeks training in financial management. After paying the money nothing has been done since November 2011. She said Vanhu ava matsotsi anodakubira varombo, havana basa nesu, (These people are conmen, who steal from the poor and they do not care about us). This is a major challenge for the women who are vulnerable to all sorts of financial risks in business. Most women also revealed that most financial institutions were not keen to finance their business initiatives. This negative attitude towards financing of women entrepreneurs is explained by the traditional patriarchal system division which spells out the differences of male-female roles in society as supported by Ozigbo and Ezeaku (2009). Protection of intellectual property rights A number of women entrepreneurs fall prey to political promises and business intermediaries. One woman who failed to get funding from the Ministry of Indigenization and Youth Development later discovered that her project was being implemented by one of the government officials in Victoria Falls. She had no voice over it. Because of this, many women in the sector feel betrayed and humiliated because of such practices. This rhymes the Shona proverbs that murombo haarovi chine nguwo (This literally means the poor will never challenge the rich). It is important for women entrepreneurs to be well versed with their intellectual property rights so that they can challenge those who prey on their ideas in judiciary. Production and space-related challenges The study has revealed that a number of Zimbabwean women who are arts and crafts entrepreneurs have no fixed place for their business operations as they are dotted from their homes, forest and some few designated arts and craft centres. The designated centres have no permanent structures put in place but there are some temporary shades which are brought by the individuals from their homes. These offer no security at all as they are just open spaces for business and in addition one is exposed to the harsh forces of the natural environment. Those who operate from the forests (source of raw materials) cite transportation problems as one of the challenges. For example, if a wood carver finds a good tree in the forest which is too big to carry home or at the designated area she has to work on it from there and then carry the finished products. These pose a lot of risks to the females since there are a lot of dangers associated with forestry environments. Storage space for the finished products is another problem for most women entrepreneurs. Most leave the products covered by some cloths or tents during the night in the presence of either a guard or unattended at owners risk. Lack of storage space puts the products at risk of theft. The most special wares are taken back home daily which is a tiresome task for the females since most of them walk a distance of about 5 kilometres every day from their homes to the designated centres. Family roles At home there is usually a challenge of divided concentration between home chores and work and at home the working space is limited and not conducive for business operations. One woman (Maria) even expressed that, handingazosiyi mumba mune tsvina nekuda kwebasa (I cannot leave my house dirty because of work). Already this indicates how busy women entrepreneurs are with household and business responsibilities at any given time of their lives and this is a hindrance to effective business operations. In support, De Groot (2001) posits that household roles deprive women of time to travel to enterprise support institutions or to attend training sessions to acquire skills in various fields. As long as womens responsibilities remain divided between work and domestic roles their contributions to economic development will remain obscure. Marketing operations There is a general belief that Zimbabwe arts and crafts are unique worldwide and they are found in many countries these days in China besides the Americas which used to be the countrys chief tourism source market. These products have made Zimbabwe boast of its rich and unique culture The majority of women sell their products to the foreign tourists. Financial constraints make it difficult for the women to access regional and international markets despite the high demand for the Zimbabwe art and craft in these markets. It was reported that in the past years when tourism was at peak (i.e. between 1990 and 1999) business was lucrative and there was no worry of exporting the products as buyers could come to the country and buy the products. During the period business was very lucrative. Masundire (2011) identified the need to assist arts and crafts producers to access foreign markets as 90% of their wares are in demand in Europe, America, Australia and South Africa. As a result of inaccessibility to foreign markets, there is now the emergence of market intermediaries popularly known as the cross boarder traders who buy and sell the products from arts and crafts producers in foreign markets. The major problem these intermediaries pose is that they bid to buy the wares at a very low price at the expense of the producers because of the low local demand. In fact, the women entrepreneurs end up with no fix

Understanding Company Law

Understanding Company Law In the present day situation it is the general objective of corporate law—much the same as some other augmentation of law—is likely to serve the interest of society by and large and guaranteeing a reasonable treatment of any circumstance that may emerge in this respect including different gatherings that shared in the working of any company. More particularly, the best possible destination of corporate law is to improve the aggregate welfare of all who are affected by an organisation’s activities, including the organizations shareholders, laborers, suppliers, and customers, and also outsiders, for instance, close-by gatherings and communities which assume an essential part in making the proper set up for the smooth running of the business under consideration. This is the thing that economists would depict as the journey for general social benefit. It is often said that the destinations of corporate law should be narrower. Particularly, it is on occasion said that the correct piece of corporate law is just to ensure that the association serves the best point of interest of its shareholders or, more especially, to open up budgetary returns to shareholders or, more especially still, to extend the current business cost of corporate share. In the given Case, Jeb is Henrys sibling, who was given 2% of the shares in Farming Solnsplc, by Henry. Jeb is a non-official chief of the organization, But Jeb sets up an organization, with, Joseph, called Wiltshire Parts. This new organization is to give extra parts to this second hand hardware. He accepts that in light of the fact that he has data in regards to where the hardware is generally sold, he has a readymade client base. The rights any shareholder has in any specific organization for the most part rely on upon the provisions of the Companies Act 2006, the organizations articles of affiliation, the terms of issue of the shares (which are normally in the articles, however once in a while are in a determination) and any shareholders agreement Concocting the right share capital structure is a complex process in the realms of any business. Organization Law Solutions Limited gives a master advice to setting up diverse classes of shares, drafting articles of affiliation and shareholders understandings. The general circumstance is that in exchange for putting resources into an organization a shareholder gets a heap of rights in the organization which may differ as per the sort of shares obtained. Most organizations just have one class of shares (conventional shares) however the law in the UK is to a great degree adaptable and permits any classes of shares to be made. This is carried out by setting out the di stinctive rights connected to the different classes (typically in the organizations articles). Henry should know, what rights are appended to the diverse classes of shares is basically a matter for the organization to focus. In case of the case study at hand, Herny should be understood that the directors go about as operators of their company. They have notable duties, which are to the organization itself, however not to its shareholders, its representatives or any individual outer to the organization, for example, the general public. Although an organization is a legitimate individual in law, it is not human. Since the relationship in the middle of executives and the organization is by extremely impersonal nature, it may be pondered simply what duty implies. The directors hold a position of trust on the grounds that they make contracts in the interest of the organization furthermore controls the organizations property. Since this is comparable being a Trustee of the organization, directors have guardian obligations. This constitutes some of the fiduciary duties of the directors of any company. As it can be seen in this case, Jeb, being a non-executive director of the company is entitled to obey certain duties and has definitely failed to realize that he cannot make profits at the cost of the companys interest. This is reflected in his act of taking up another business venture with another partner and intends to use the client base of farming solnsplc for his vested interests. In such case, Henry can claim this act of Jeb as fairly illegal and unconstitutional which, in turn have serious repercussions on Jebs professional life. When it comes to the state of liquidation, it should be understood by the directors and other chiefs of the organisation that it certainly leads to an elevated danger of individual claims and director’s preclusion. The directors of an insolvent organization have an obligation to put the interests of creditors, in this case, the agent in front of all different interests. On the off chance that they keep on trading the organizations business past the moment that indebted liquidation gets to be unavoidable, they buy a genuine hazard which can have devastating results on individual as well as professional front. The given case of the farming company solnsplc, it has been cited that the creditor has already put several requests in this regard with the company but still has not received the due payment for more than a year. So, as per the existing test for insolvency, the company might end up being declared insolvent if the debt owed is more than 750Â £ and has been served a formal demand for an undisputed sum at the companys registered office and the debt has not been paid for three weeks. As of this stance, the company runs a high risk of being declared insolvent. Insolvency might likewise be a trigger an occasion where the qualifying suppliers and clients take defensive measures under contracts with the organization. This can incorporate end of agreement and other authorization measures. On the off chance that an organization is in this manner set into liquidation or organization, any exchanges the organization went into for a time of up to two years prior to the bankruptcy strategy started, can be audited on application by the delegated indebtedness expert, and switched if the organization was bankrupt at the time and the exchange occurred for either short of what the business esteem or gave certain lenders need over others. Fake transactions are additionally reviewable without time limit. References: DOUGLAS C. NORTH, INSTITUTIONS, INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE AND ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE (1990); THE FRONTIERS OF THE NEW INSTITUTIONAL ECONOMICS (John N. Drobak John V.C. Nye eds., 1997); Oliver E. Williamson, The New Institutional Economics: Taking Stock, Looking Ahead, 38 J. ECON. LIT. 595 (2000) Bernard Black Reinier Kraakman, A Self-Enforcing Model of Corporate Law, 109 HARV. L. REV. 1911, 1913 (1996). Cf. Douglass C. North, Economic Performance Through Time, 84 AM. ECON. REV. 359, 362-63 (1994) Jonathan R. Macey and Geoffrey P. Miller, Toward an Interest-Group Theory of Delaware Corporate Law, 65 TEXAS LAW REVIEW 469 (1987); Ehud Kamar, A Regulatory Competition Theory of Indeterminacy in Corporate Law, 98 COLUMBIA LAW REVIEW 1908 (1998).