Friday, August 21, 2020

Sample Exam Paper Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Test Exam Paper Questions - Essay Example Worthington and Britton (2009, p.6) characterize the large scale condition as â€Å"those ... factors ...which influence a wide assortment of organizations and which can exude from neighborhood and national sources as well as from global and supranational developments†. There are numerous variations, including various elements, yet the structure to be utilized for this examination is the STEEPLE system, speaking to the Socio-social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political, Legal and Ethical elements that influence business and over which business has no control. A large scale ecological examination is contained inside the accompanying graph: Figure One: Macro-Environmental Analysis for UniQlo Expansion into the UK Consumer Behavior The British retail culture is based around an utilization model that centers around items and the picture that such items pass on when found related to the buyer. Hoyer and MacInnis (2010) recognize a few parts that make up the consumerâ⠂¬â„¢s culture: decent variety, social class and family unit impacts, psychographics (counting esteems, character and ways of life, and social impacts. They interface these to the mental center which incorporates inspiration capacity and opportunity; presentation, consideration and discernment; knowing and comprehension; disposition development and change; and memory and recovery. This feeds into the way toward deciding (after an intelligent dynamic procedure of issue acknowledgment and data search, judgment and dynamic and post-choice procedures. The last component of the consumer’s culture is prove through the appropriation of, protection from and dispersion of advancements, emblematic customer conduct and morals and the clouded side of purchaser conduct. For the UK purchaser where extravagance style is control, assorted variety is influenced by pay levels and the requirement for extravagance merchandise as a feature of their way of life. With the present severity program b eing executed inside the nation, just those with a significant salary who won't be influenced by such things as an expansion in charges, or a decrease of pay, or both, will have the option to enjoy extravagance products. The buyer showcase for UniQlo is in this way restricted by levels of pay, instead of by different pointers of decent variety, for example, race or religion. Social class and family impacts will again be resolved, all things considered, by accessible salary, regardless of whether created by working or as pay from speculations. UniQlo should focus on the upper white collar classes or more, who need extravagance design things for social events or for their work appearance. Qualities in the UK give off an impression of being experiencing significant changes, including an increasingly egotistical standpoint that sees those without work, for instance, as scroungers as opposed to people who have just lost their positions through no shortcoming of their own. The equivalent applies to the individuals who are destitute or handicapped. The concentration for characters is, as referenced beforehand, the utilization of products that pass on a specific picture that works for the shopper. Ways of life will be changing for most of the UK populace as assessments increment for those gaining up to six figures for every annum, and advantages decrease for the individuals who are unemployed, handicapped or potentially destitute. Social impacts are likewise changing, as more individuals start to question the grimness program and the impacts of that program start to produce results. There is the chance of mobs as the electorate become embittered with an alliance

Tuesday, July 14, 2020

How to Write a Chemistry Lab Report

How to Write a Chemistry Lab Report Chemistry lab report Lab reports are one of the most important part of scientific study while gaining knowledge at schools or in the university. For any chemistry lab report you are writing, you will need to write down the entire procedure of the experiment and everything you observed during it, as well as any interesting facts took place in the lab activity. Any lab report should allow the person reading and using it to be able to reproduce the exact procedure following step by step of what you performed and achieve the same result you did. This chemistry lab report guide will provide you with advice of how to write a simple proper lab report for a school, college or university level General which you may adjust to your specific needs: from organic chemistry lab report to formal lab report in chemistry you are asked to write. Getting started with some useful information you might need. Check the lab manual. When given a task to write a lab report you need to be informed with instructions given to you by your teacher or professor. Make sure you know and understand exactly what you are doing, why the sequence is as described and what you are going to achieve. If you have questions, ask your supervisor or instructor and get them answered. Create the title page. In the top right corner of the page, you will want to include your surname, your school and class information, the date of report submission followed by your team members names if they assisted you in experiment. These points should be written on a separate line, one after another. The next part is the title of the report placed in the middle of the page. Starting from here, the points such as the class title, the name of the experiment, and the content of the parts within the experiment you performed should be placed in the middle and listed on separate lines. Depending on the college guidelines, you might be needed to include the semester there, however in most of the cases it is optional. Apart from points above, nothing more will be included on the title page. Write an introduction. Start with word “Introduction”. This is to be clearly stated in the first part of the lab report. The purpose of the introduction is to introduce the lab to the reader. Thus, writing a short paragraph (no more than five sentences) is important here. What next is to be included? -The methods you used in the experiment and the goal of the experiment you were to achieve. The last but not least, any equations, values and numbers, or terms and conditions which are obligatory for completion your lab report should be defined in the introduction part as well. Write a body of the lab report. After Introduction part is written, the next part of your lab report is writing the body of it where the data of experiment is the main focus. Add a clear heading for the reader, so he is informed you are going to start presenting him the numbers and math-part so to say. The data, placed in the body section, should include all values, proportions, calculations, tables, schemes and/or graphs that are necessary for the lab. You will need to get advice from your teaches or supervisor on the amount of data to be included here as well as if there is specific requirement for the type of data to be included. All values should include description of measures used (units). In addition the report should consist of formulas for all calculation, examples of formulas used in your calculations. Tables and graphs you used in the lab report should include labels, titles and description of what is on it. Write the conclusion. The last part of the lab is writing the conclusion for it. The lab conclusion should include the result of the experiment and its main goal stated in the introduction previously. To summarize the outcomes of the experiment you want to add some significant values that were obtained, followed by percent errors correlated with the values, any deviations took place in the experiment. It is a good practice to analyze the results of your experiment comparing them with the main scientific concepts you were trying to prove or challenge. Such example will show that you understand purpose of the experiment and the underlying scientific background behind it. After completion of this, your lab report is complete! Chemistry lab report format Many students search for formal lab report example chemistry, chemistry lab report cover page in the internet. Thus it is very important to know the style and formatting aspects of the reports. Know the format. Laboratory reports are required to have a particular writing style. Unlike creative essays for humanities classes, a report for chemistry is not supposed to have your own personal stamp on it â€" it has to comply with formatting and style guidlines. The essential writing elements of the lab report are: Write in complete sentences with “closing ending”. Use passive voice while writing “Water was added” rather than “I added water.” Say from the third person “Scientists claim X” rather than “I discovered that scientists claim X.” Revise and watch the verb tenses you use. Most of your report should have present tense verbs, unless you are explaining what you did in the experiment, or what has been written by other people in the past about it. For example, “One problem in conducting this experiment is Y” rather than “One problem in conducting this experiment was/will be Y.” Choose readable font such as Times New Roman, Arial, or Cambria. Font size is of personal preference but 11 to 14 is reasonable to use. Many students pay a great deal of attention to the lab work itself (which is a good thing), but then neglect the lab report which costs them a bunch of points! Writing a lab report is something which is really important and sometimes â€" not very simple to do. If you don’t know how to write a lab report or need some pre-check before you send for approvalâ€" you will need a qualified assistant to help. Consider it while chasing for the high grades!

Thursday, May 21, 2020

Role for Physician-assisted Suicide in Cancer - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 11 Words: 3197 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2019/06/12 Category Law Essay Level High school Topics: Assisted Suicide Essay Did you like this example? A woman suffering from terminal cancer became the first person to die under the law of physician-assisted suicide in Oregon in 1998. The New England Journal of Medicine states that more than 4,000 doctors have approved of the physician assisted suicide law (The Anguish n.pag.). In just the United States, forty-two percent of people have had a friend or relative suffer from a terminal illness (The right n.pag.). Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Role for Physician-assisted Suicide in Cancer" essay for you Create order Although cancer is the leading cause of death in terminally ill patients, many other illnesses destroy someones quality of life. Most treatments for terminally ill patients are long, expensive and leave the patient and family in an intense amount of physical and emotional pain. Assisted suicide is frowned upon by some people, these concerns are usually rooted in religious beliefs. In the United States that practice is legal in Oregon, Vermont, Montana, Washington and California. Patients throughout the US with ALS, terminal cancer and paralysis should have the option to receive a lethal dose of prescription medication to die peacefully. ALS is a complex disease that sends the patient into a slow cycle of physical suffering. The disease attacks the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Sometimes early stages of ALS are hard to diagnose because the symptoms fatigue, nausea and muscle weakness can be easily diagnosed as other illnesses (Leveneand Parker n.pag.). Assisted suicide would not be optional for someone in early stages of ALS although each patient progresses differently. It usually takes about five years until patients are in the final stage of the disease. Patients who are considering assisted suicide should start planning when to do it in their third or fourth year. Doctor Lorne Zinman of Health Sciences center states ALS has sort of been at the forefront of the physician assisted death debate because of how awful the disease is(Zinman n.pag.). With the progression and severity of this disease other doctors can agree with Zinman that assisted suicide should be an option to patients with ALS. Physical suffering progresses the later the patient is into the disease. By the final stages patients are usually paralyzed, unable to swallow and breathe on their own. Patients at this stage are usually living off of feeding and breathing tubes. The physical pain arising from complications of the feeding or breathing tube can sometimes cause more pain than the disease itself. Some complications can be UTIrs, pneumonia and even collapsed lungs (Zinman n.pag). Assisted suicide will benefit the patient before reaching the late stages and prevent him or her from suffering the complications along with ALS. These complications can be treated but include serious side effects. The most commonly used treatment for ALS is Ritalek, which has been connected to liver failure. The patient would therefore have a chance to end the suffering before any painful side effects. Many doctors who treat ALS patients have to watch their patient slowly deteriorate, eighty percent of ALS doctors believe t hat in the moderate-severe stages the patient should be eligible for physician assisted suicide (Zinman n.pag.). Physical quality of life may be the number one reason behind some patient requests for assisted suicide but they are also struggling through their emotions. The social and emotional quality of life deteriorates for patients with this disease. Some doctors believe that the patients quality of life is based on psychological factors(Zinman n.pag.). Along with two specialty doctors patients must also be seen by psychiatrists before they are eligible for assisted suicide. It is possible for the patient to have a bad hqol (health quality of life) but a decent QOL (quality of life) (Rummans, Botswick, Clark, n.pag.). Both of these play into the patients needs for assisted suicide. The support system that the patient has plays a big role in the quality of life which can affect them emotionally. This physical and social strain can deeply affect the emotional quality of a patients life. Although ALS patients lose control of their physical and sometimes social abilities, their minds are still competent. Many patients either become over-emotional or not emotional at all. The feeling of not being able to express themselves can be deeply damaging (Weiss et all n.pag.). In this stage the patient may feel extreme loneliness or burdensome and all of this plays into the emotional quality of life. Giving them some kind of control will allow them to feel some peace while living before they pass away , without that control patients could easily start to feel anxious. Anxiety is a common psychological problem developed in patients with ALS. Itrs caused by the feeling of the body slowly shutting down but not knowing exactly when they will die. Assisted suicide could help eliminate this problem by allowing the patient to plan the date of their death (Weiss et all n.pag.). Giving patients control when they die would deeply benefit them, especially since theyve already lost control of their bodies. Anxiety and lack of control can easily manifest into depression. Depression in ALS patients is fairly common especially if the patient is under the age of forty (Cirino n.pag.). Psychiatrists are brought into evaluate the patients depression just in case the patient was depressed before diagnosed although this is usually not the case (Zinman n.pag.). Under certain circumstances, depression can be caused by the profuse amount of medical bills. Costs for terminal illness are extremely expensive and can deeply affect the patients quality of life. For ALS alone, the annual patient cost is $31,000.. This amount is before the final stage where a feeding/breathing tube is introduced (Weiss et all n.pag.). It can be very stressful to the patient spending such an exorbitant amount of money on a terminal disease. Assisted suicide would reduce the costs drastically. A lethal dose of prescription medication for assisted suicide costs between $35-50, while a breathing tube can cost up to ten thousand dollars (Gardner n.pag.). By allowing the patient to receive a lethal dose of medication, the burden of medical bills would be almost nothing on the patient and their family. The family plays a crucial role into the patients life during their illness. Death is hard on loved ones either way, but in many cases the lack of suffering assisted suicide offers the patient is merciful to the family as well. Many patients are required to have counseling sessions with their loved ones, to help with the processing of letting them go. In most cases the patient talks with the family and the family physician before requesting assisted suicide (Zinman n.pag.). Loved ones influence the patients decision critically, but at the end of the day the patient still gets to decide. Families often feel many emotions under these circumstances. In typical suicide cases families often experience anger and abnormal grieving, while in terminal cases assisted suicide often makes the grieving process easier on the family because they have a chance to say goodbye without seeing their loved ones suffer (Zinman n.pag.). Overall the disease takes a toll on the family because of how little the patient can do in the progressing stages. Assisted suicide has been the right alternative for many ALS patients. Betsy Davis, a forty-one year old woman living in Southern California, was diagnosed with ALS and told with her progression she had about six months to live. She talked to her family and decided to exercise Californias law to participate in physician assisted suicide. Betsy decided to embrace this opportunity to die on her own terms by celebrating with her friends and family in an end of life ceremony(California women n.pag). The party she threw had dancing, laughing and one rule: no crying. Betsy became an advocate for assisted suicide in ALS patients because she proved that patients and their families didnt have to spend their time in constant grief (California Women n.pag.).These circumstances are unlike any party you have ever attended before, requiring emotional stamina, centeredness and openness(California Women n.pag.). With this option, Betsy was able to take control of her illness and say goodbye in her o wn way on her own terms. Although ALS is a detrimental disease there are other terminal illnesses to which assisted suicide should be available. Being diagnosed with terminal cancer is one of longest and hardest processes a patient endures. Each patient that is diagnosed with terminal cancer takes the news in a different and personal way. Its hard to imagine the thought process that a patient takes on knowing that s/he is going to die. Certain patients fall into a pit of depression, this is why psychological evaluation is required (Llevene andMichael n.pag.). The level of their depression is based on different factors, the patients support system and family. Depression is extremely common among terminally ill patients, especially those with cancer. Before their request for assisted suicide is approved psychologists work together to determine whether the depression is caused by their terminal illness or if the depression was already present before diagnosed. If a patient is suffering from depression due to his or her terminal cancer, a psychologist will try and help pull the patient out of the depression (Yun et all n.pag.). Some terminally ill patients are at higher risk for depression if they have a past of social stress, addiction, family problems or history of depression (Weiss et all n.pag.). Terminal cancer patients with depression go through different stages of emotions. Common ones include anger, bitterness, grief, loneliness, acceptance and for some peace. Baylor University Medical center states up to seventy-seven percent of terminal cancer patients experience some kind of depression (Cirino n.pag.). The grief and depression pa tients endure can cause more pain than they already have. With assisted suicide patients would receive comfort knowing that they will die in peace. There is no cure for terminal cancer but there are many treatments and medications the patient can receive. The problem with these is that it causes pain medication resistance. Over eighty five percent of terminal cancer patients and oncologists believe in assisted suicide. Their number one reason being pain resistance (Cirino n.pag.). As cancer withers away the body, doctors prescribe more pain medication until they are unable to prescribe anymore and the patient builds up a tolerance to it. Ten percent of terminal cancer patients turn to street drug opiates such as heroin just to decrease their pain (Gardner n.pag.). Allowing the patient to receive a lethal dose of medicine before the cancer reached this stage would give the patient a chance to live without daily pain. Eighty percent of patients suffer in the last six months of their illness with severe pain but only twenty nine percent want to increase medications (The long n.pag.). This is caused by the fear of addiction, being drugged out and increasing tolerance. Overall, medication can be helpful in the beginning stages of terminal cancer. However, many patients would benefit from assisted suicide once they got to a certain point where medication was of no help. The quality of life for cancer patients can vary from patient to patient. Over 75% of patients spend their last days on a morphine drip in the hospital (Gardner n.pag.). This is no quality of life the patient or the patients family wishes. Radiation is another treatment that can prolong life but it comes with serious side effects such as skin irritations, muscle fatigue, nausea and sometimes even radiation poisoning (Rummans n.pag.). These treatments may prolong life two to three months but assisted suicide would be an alternative to patients who dont want to live their last moment in extreme pain. No death is easy on family but with the assisted suicide law cancer patients are able to plan their death, where they want it and who they want with them. This would make saying goodbye easier. By dying in the comfort of their own home the patient would feel more in control and feel less bad for his or her family. Sister of Kay Schellenberg, terminal cancer patient was relieved when my sister finally passed because watching her suffer was the hardest part and knowing that she died in pain broke me (Schellenberg n.pag.). Kays family often believes that if assisted suicide would have been an option at the time both Kay and her family would have had an easier time saying goodbye. Another advocate that became the spokesgirl for assisted suicide was twenty-nine year old Brittany Maynard who was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and a prognosis of six months to live. Her and her newly husbands life consisted of doctor visits, medical research and hospital stays which was no life brittany wanted (Griffin n.pag.). With four months left Brittanys doctors offered her the idea of full brain radiation that would give her maybe six more months, this did not appeal to her at all. Full brain radiation horrified her; she was told it would singe her scalp and she would be extremely sick with first degree burns all over her head. After talking with her husband she decided to exercise her right to assisted suicide, she traveled around the country for the next month until she got too sick. After being approved for assisted suicide by two oncologists and a psychiatrist she said goodbye to her family and died peacefully in her home with her husband (Griffin n.pag.). Termin al patients such as Brittany are often the front runners for assisted suicide but other patients that are suffering deserve the right to pass peacefully as well. Patients that suffer an injury causing permanent paralysis go through a long process of learning to adapt to their new lifestyle. Every patient who suffers an injury like this is different. It depends on their personal resources such as home, family life, hobbies and coping style (Levene, Ilana, and Michael Parker n.pag.). For some patients becoming paralyzed is a struggle that they can overcome with a good support system but for others its an ongoing struggle. Assisted suicide should be an option for adults with severe paralysis that have no treatments left. Coping with the initial injury is one of the first steps after becoming paralyzed. Many patients need time to think and consider how their life is changed and if they can live like this, especially if they are considering physician assisted suicide. Paralysis is not a terminal illness but it puts some patients in the same position and mindset as a terminal patient may feel (Levene, Ilana, and Michael Parker n.pag.). Patients with paralysis face getting denied for assisted suicide more than terminally ill patients because they are technically not dying (Levene, Ilana, and Michael Parker n.pag.). Although these patients are not dying, assisted suicide should still be open to them due to the quality of life they are living. Complications are extremely common among patients with paralysis. Some are UTIrs, autonomic dysreflexia, depression and infections (Levene, Ilana, and Michael Parker n.pag.). Before the initial injury, patients may have been healthy all their life. These complications add on to the costs which averages around seventy thousand a year for patients (Burns n.pag.). The burden of healthcare and complications can cause the patient anxiety and depression. Depression in paralysis patients following the initial shock is extremely common. Obviously for some people, depression is part of the healing process and they work through the difficulties of this new life. Rates of depression differ from twenty to forty-four percent of patients depending on their situation. Some psychologists have presented that certain patients depression decreases when they know that they have the option to end life on their own terms (Yun n.pag.). The sense of relief when patients find out they can make a choice is what the option of Assisted suicide gives them. Personal resources play a major role in the patients feelings toward assisted suicide. This ranges from a wide variety of things such as family members, care facilities and the money to afford living as a fully paralyzed person (Levene, Ilana, and Michael Parker n.pag.). The simplest things such as bathing or using the bathroom becomes impossible. This causes the patient to rely on family members or friends which can be inconvenient and embarrassing. The feeling of being trapped inside a body unable to move is a nightmare to any healthy person. Nobody should take the right to die away from patients with paralysis. Tony Nicholson, a fifty eight year old paralyzed man lost his case to assisted suicide. He was a former rugby player and after an accident he was unable to speak or move. His life was described as a nightmare and he described the feeling of being locked in(Burns n.pag.). Pneumonia was a complication Tony endured and although he was not pronounced terminally ill doctors said he would most likely not be able to defeat the pneumonia (Burns n.pag.). He desperately begged the court for the option to request a physicians help to suicide but when he was denied he felt devastated and heartbroken. If assisted suicide more available to patients with paralysis others like Tony would not have to suffer and could put their mind to ease peacefully. Although many people agree that Tony should have had the right to assisted suicide some believe it would have been unethical. Some opponents of assisted suicide challenge the idea by saying doctors are violating the hippocratic oath when they are allowing and supporting the patients wish to take a lethal dose of prescription medication. There are still many doctors today fighting against assisted suicide law by sticking to their hippocratic oath. In Washington DC at the international symposium Dr. Margaret Cottle spoke out, Euthanasia kills the patient twice once when we say, Yes, your life is not worth living, and then when we help him die(St.Clair, Jane n.pag.). Although doctors who believe in assisted suicide are technically violating the hippocratic oath no doctor believes their patients life is not worth living. The oath has been around for thousands of years and should be modified as new technology and diseases are understood (St.Clair n.pag.).. Doing no harm which is one of the first lines in the hippocratic oath does not necessarily mean death, harm can be suffering as well. Doctors number one job i s to treat the patient but when there is no treatment left doctors must be able to understand and accept the patients wishes for assisted suicide. With the amount of suffering terminally ill patients go through, physician-assisted suicide should be an alternative for them. Death is a natural part of life, and patients should have the option to pass peacefully. Euthanasia has been an ethical issue since the beginning of western medicine but as new knowledge grows in the medical field, many doctors are realizing assisted suicide is the ethical option for patients. As human beings, we must put ourselves in the place of the patient or the patients family before we judge someone who is terminally ill and chooses to go through with assisted suicide.

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

How Britain Should Move Forward With Respect For Its New...

Brexit – How Britain Should Move Forward with Respect to its New Independence from the European Union On August 24th, 2016 at the Heritage Foundation, a panel of speakers discussed the next steps on the road to Britain’s Independence from the European Union. The panel included Iain Murray, Vice President for Strategy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and co-author of Cutting the Gordian Knot: A Road Map for British Exit from the European Union, Rory Broomfield, Director at the Freedom Association and the Better Off Out campaign and co-author of Cutting the Gordian Knot: A Road Map for British Exit from the European Union, Marian L. Tupy, Senior Policy Analyst at Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, Cato Institute, and Victoria†¦show more content†¦According to Bromund, the Brexit vote was a landmark in Britain’s ability to regain its sovereignty and regulate its own domestic and foreign policies. Iain Murray began by explaining that the laws and regulations of the EU constitute a knot, one that the British must untangle itself from. According to Murray, Brexit could prove to be a disaster depending on how the British government chooses to move forward. He stated that for Brexit to be a success, the new British government must set out the vision of an open and welcoming UK, which means open trade and markets with the entire world. The British Government must invoke Article 50 of the Treaty of the European Union as a matter of adherence to international law, which will begin negotiations between the UK and the European Council regarding the withdrawal. Murray remarked that these negotiations will include the phasing out of the application of EU programs to the UK, the status of trade arrangements with third parties, and the status of UK and EU nationals resident in the other jurisdictions. Domestically, he suggested repealing undesirable EU laws and regulations, while keeping t he regulations of value. Murray proposed a Royal Commission on Regulatory Reduction with the targets of reducing EU generated regulation by 25%, suspecting it could reduce regulations significantly within five years of Brexit. He signified that the UK cannot apply for membership to the EEA because it brings with it a significant

Mobile ESPN response questions Free Essays

(1)  Ã‚   Mobile ESPN’s launch into the wireless market was definitely the innovative, out-of-the-box idea that the marketing executives at ESPN are known for, and the principle behind it—one more way in which to deliver up-to-the-minute sports information to sports fans anywhere, anytime—was very much on the right track.   I think what Mobile ESPN suffered from the most was the fact that it was basically nothing more than a shadow service provider. Without having a wireless infrastructure of its own, Mobile ESPN found itself dependent on Sprint for all of the technological and logistical implementation of the product. We will write a custom essay sample on Mobile ESPN response questions or any similar topic only for you Order Now    Whatever may or may not have been going on within Sprint internally, for Mobile ESPN to launch without any real autonomy of its own, completely dependent on its host carrier, and with no real knowledge or experience in the wireless world, Mobile ESPN was a good idea at a good time that was perhaps not thought through entirely.   Also, there is a lot to be said of consumers’ reluctance to switch wireless carriers due to high penalties, and many phones have Internet access which allow people to have access to ESPN’s website for that same up-to-the-minute information, making it unnecessary for them to have the special phone. (2)  Ã‚   When Mobile ESPN was launched, in order to attract a greater number of users it would have been helpful if they had offered a great deal of incentives for switching over to the Sprint service, host of Mobile ESPN. Perhaps they could have partnered up with Sprint and offered some sort of contract buy-out option, where they would pay for the pre-existing contract termination of new subscribers (at the cost of a 2-year agreement with Sprint and an astronomical cancellation penalty, to ensure that there would not be a great deal of money lost).   This is probably one of the biggest reasons why there wasn’t an initial mass attraction to the product because of the stringent rules of wireless carriers, and so to offer some incentive to attract these people and make it worth their time and money to make that switch would be beneficial. ESPN right now just needs to focus on its various television, print, and Internet presence for people to access its branded content, and really spend a great deal of time formulating a well-thought-out strategy to re-launch Mobile ESPN, something that not only appeals to the customers who want all sports all the time but who also want a great deal with wireless service. (3)  Ã‚   I don’t believe Mobile ESPN affected the image or brand of ESPN in either direction.   Presumably the 50,000 subscribers to Mobile ESPN were upset at the decision to cancel the program, but out of the millions of ESPN viewers that number is largely insignificant.   Mobile ESPN was simply an example of a company breeching into territory it wasn’t yet quite ready to break into—something which happens all the time, not all creative ideas are successful.   Because the presence of Mobile ESPN was so small, the repercussions of its failure simply could not be on a large scale. (4)  Ã‚   Honestly, I still believe Mobile ESPN was a great idea, just perhaps at the wrong time or poorly planned and executed.   If I worked with one of ESPN’s competitors, I would have viewed Mobile ESPN as a highly unique, creative, out-of-the-box idea that would be a threat to my own company, and demand from my Marketing team that they provide me with ideas as cutting-edge as that.   Despite its failure, Mobile ESPN is still a great example of how ESPN constantly strives to be on top, the best of the best, offering the most content with the most accessibility.   Mobile ESPN further demonstrated that, and as a competitor I would want to do something that would allow me to reach the same audience base. How to cite Mobile ESPN response questions, Essay examples

Friday, April 24, 2020

Kuru free essay sample

Kuru is a culture specific disease of the brain and nervous system. At one point, it was thought that kuru was caused by a virus with a prolonged incubation period. New evidence now point to priors, which are proteins that have the ability to cause the cells that it invades to repeatedly duplicate itself. The symptoms of this fatal disease include things such as contracted face muscles, slurred speech, palsy, and the loss of motor control, which results in the inability to walk and eventually eat. It is said that death almost always occurs within six to twelve months of the onset of symptoms. Kuru was first recognized among the South Fore at the beginning of the 20th century. It gradually became more frequent up through the 1950’s. During its peak period, it generally afflicted women in their 20’s and 30’s. After several attempts in the early 1950’s by a team of Australian doctors, as well as anthropologists, they failed to discover the cause. We will write a custom essay sample on Kuru or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In the late 1950’s, an American pediatrician named Carleton Gajdusek came to Papua New Guinea to try and solve the mystery. With the use of microscopic examination of tissue from people who died of kuru, he was able to discover that the disease organism was carried in the blood and was concentrated in the brain tissue. Cannibalism was found to be the means of this transmission. As part of their funeral practices, the South Fore women ate their dead relatives, as well as fed it to their children. Men thought this was â€Å"unmanly† and preferred to eat their pigs. It was in the early 1960’s that cannibalism was outlawed in Papua New Guinea, which resulted in a dramatic drop of the kuru disease. However, between 1996 and 2004, 11 people were still diagnosed with kuru, but they were all born before 1950 and had contracted it before the end of cannibalism. What this meant was that the incubation period was at least 34-41 years in these cases.

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Admission College Essay Prompts

Admission College Essay Prompts Admission College Essay Prompts What Is Admission College Essay Prompt? If you decided to enter any college, you should wait several weeks for packages/applications to arrive. In the meantime, the following material should be read: your entrance essay, the essay or college admission essays, which you wrote for your college applications should be held in a ready folder. Many of the scholarship groups will ask for an essay touching on topics you have already written or thought about, and hopefully (perhaps with a little reshaping), you can recycle your work. Typical admission essay questions are: What person in your individual life or in history has had the greatest influence on you? Why? What are your future goals, and what do you think what your eventual impact on society will be? Diversity Admission Essays Admission committee wants to know more about you. The one way to do this is to read your admission essays. As a rule entrance English essays are similar and addressed to know you better as a future applicant. You may always read the list of application essays, which were assigned in your college last year. It helps you to have an idea about the requirements of the college. Writing essays, your task is to distinguish yourself from the mass of applicants. Attract admission officer attention and persuade him, that you are an appropriate candidate. There are eight areas, which colleges typically want to address in application essays writing. Motivation Industry Initiative Influence and leadership Concern for others Responsibility Integrity Emotional stability Admission Essay Writing Here is a part of admission essay writing that you are free to use as a model for your college admissions essay: I will earn my M.D., and come to the rescue as a primary care doctor. My residency (and eventually my practice) will preferably be served in an urban setting like New York City, Philadelphia, or Washington, DC. Across this country, economically disadvantaged people need help and support. At the next step, I will expand my knowledge on urban health and community needs (e.g., family dynamics, or trends in drug use). In a few weeks, I will be off to Harvard as an Arthur Ashe Fellow. And with my eventual residency and four year responsibility to the National Health Service Corps, I intend to take advantage of every learning experience. After all, I am on a rescue mission! Read also: Essays comparing poems Critical Literary Essay Conflict Essay Process Essay Custom Term Paper

Sunday, March 1, 2020

The Upside of Change No More Automatic Group Member Connections on LinkedIn

The Upside of Change No More Automatic Group Member Connections on LinkedIn On October 1, 2014, LinkedIn unceremoniously eliminated a widely relied-upon function: the ability to connect with anyone with whom you share a group, without needing to know their email address. Before October, if you wanted to connect with someone on LinkedIn with whom you shared a group, you would see a dropdown that looked like this: Now, the dropdown is one item shorter: While some LinkedIn members are postulating that the loss of automatic group member connections is a technical glitch that will be resolved, I’m assuming for now that it’s a permanent game changer. LinkedIn experts have recommended for years that you join the maximum number of LinkedIn group (50) so that you can easily expand your network. This reason for group membership seems to have disappeared. Or has it? The fact is, the people in your groups are still pre-filtered for shared interests and so you might still want to make the effort to connect with them. Just because you need their email address doesn’t mean you have to give up on building your network! Groups are still a great place to interact with valuable contacts, share information, and ask and answer questions. You can still do all that! The elimination of the automatic group connection feature might actually have an upside. Let’s say there’s someone in a group you want to connect with. What should you do? First, look in their Contact Information section or their Summary for their email address. If you find it there, you can easily enter it when prompted. Next, if you know what company they work for, Google them at their company. Or Google anyone at the company and you might be able to model your new contact’s email address on someone else’s. For instance, if you find an address like JaneSmith@Company.com, you can guess that your contact’s email address is JohnBrown@Company.com. If those options fail, you now must send an actual *message* to the person! Its free though. There are two ways to do this: Option #1 From Discussions, click on the members photo or name link to see that members activity. You will be taken to that members group Activity summary page. Click the Follow drop down menu on the right and select Send message. Option #2 Go to the group page and click on the number of members at the top right of the page. Search for the member you want to message. Then click the Send message link under their title. Your message might read something like this: Dear John, I was impressed by your contribution to the discussion in the Job Hunt group about HR practices in pharmaceutical companies. I would love to speak with you further about this topic and would be honored if you would provide me with your email address so I can send you an invitation to join my network! I would be happy to arrange a phone call as a starting point. Yes my dear social-media-savvy, you might have to interact with another human being before adding them as another number on your connection list. What I’m suggesting is that LinkedIn may have done us all a favor by forcing us to work a bit to connect with people whom we don’t really know even though we share a group. What do you think about this idea? Remember again that group membership is valuable for many reasons, not just for ease of connecting with group members. Smaller, more local group in particular provide a forum for you to become a thought leader in your niche. If you participate enthusiastically enough, it’s likely that other people will do the work of finding *your* contact information and send you requests to connect, rather than the other way around! What do you see as the impact of the â€Å"loss† of this connection feature? I’d love to hear your opinion.

Friday, February 14, 2020

The Urban Farmers Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Urban Farmers - Assignment Example It is realistic that the provisions are fresh; thus, the hygiene and health benefits accrued remain evident compared to the provisions availed by various supermarkets whose sources rest unknown to Eugene’s consumers. In the present, the market provides an uncontested array of provisions ranging from farm products to local artwork. Therefore, the journal’s mission through the volunteered project would assert the ongoing clientele and pricing practices in the market. 0930hrs-0959hrs- assessment of the random population of consumer groups entering and exiting the market. It is realistic that 50% of the clients entering target vegetable products. Another 10% of the clients seek the attention of floral farmers. The remaining 40% population of clients targets plants and animal product farmers. 1000hrs-1029hrs- The clients’ visit distinct farmers in the market. It is evident from the random population of clientele that some of farmers could be unknown to the clients in accordance to the behavioral practices. 1130hrs-1200hrs- Analyzing the differences in prices. It is recommended that farmers need to implement similar pricing models, which would avoid the unfair competition prevailing in the current market structure. The volunteer program in the evaluating the customer counts at Alley Street and in assessing the pricing practices shown by the farmers served towards the recognition of the potential economic yield that one would accrue from consuming the local products. Personally, the social practices shown by Lane County Farmers’ Market participants influenced the perception that they were devoted to ensure organic farming practices for healthy consumption. I realized that the prices were different amongst the competing farmers. However, it is evident that the prices were economical compared to those stipulated by the giant supermarkets on the same products. Therefore, buying and consuming products from the Lane County

Saturday, February 1, 2020

Panetti, Scott v. Quarterman, Nathaniel (Dir., TX Dept. of Criminal Essay

Panetti, Scott v. Quarterman, Nathaniel (Dir., TX Dept. of Criminal Justice) - Essay Example Negative symptoms are so named because they are considered to be the loss or absence of normal traits or abilities, and include features such as flat, blunted or constricted affect and emotion, poverty of speech and lack of motivation. Additionally, a 'disorganization syndrome' and neurocognitive deficit may be present. These may take the form of reduced or impaired psychological functions. Even the diagnostic category of schizophrenia has been widely criticized as lacking in scientific validity or reliability, consistent with evidence of poor levels of consistency in diagnostic practices and the use of criteria. The problems and issues making up the diagnosis of schizophrenia would be better addressed as individual dimensions along which everyone varies, such that there is a spectrum or continuum rather than a cut-off between normal and ill. This approach appears consistent prevalence of psychotic experiences and delusional beliefs amongst the general public. The word Schizophrenia has derived from the Greek shjzofre'neja, meaning "split mind" manifested as mental disorder characterized by impairments in the perception or expression of reality. A person experiencing schizophrenia is typically characterized as demonstrating disorganized thinking and as experiencing delusions or hallucinations, in particular auditory hallucinations. In relation to the case of the Panetti, Scott v. Quarterman, Nathaniel the question arises "Does the 8th Amendment permit the execution of an inmate who has a factual awareness of the reason for his execution, but who, because of severe mental illness, has a delusional belief as to why the state is executing him, and thus does not appreciate that his execution is intended to seek retribution for his capital crime" On Jan. 5, 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court accepted review in this capital case. LEAH FABEL, MEDILL NEWS SERVICE writes that "nothing stopped Scott Panetti, a diagnosed schizophrenic with a ten-year history of severe mental illness, from obeying the voices in his mind on Sept. 8, 1992. He shaved his head, sawed off the barrel of a shotgun and drove to his in-laws' home where he murdered them in front of his estranged wife and 3-year-old daughter. Then he showered, changed into a suit and presented himself to the authorities." By the time of his trial in 1995, Panetti dressed as a cowboy from the Old West and served as his own defense counsel. He subpoenaed John F. Kennedy, Pope John Paul II, Anne Bancroft and Jesus. We know on Sept. 21, 1995, the jury returned a guilty verdict and the state of Texas sentenced Scott Panetti to death. Today, after fourteen and a half years of legal wrangling, Panetti's fate rests in the U.S. Supreme Court. The final issue to be resolved is whether a state can execute a death row inmate who knows exactly what he did and the punishment that awaits him, but due to mental illness holds a delusional belief as to the reason for his execution. In the time since his conviction, Panetti has come to believe that the state of Texas actually is executing him for preaching the Gospel. His lawyers argue

Friday, January 24, 2020

The Great Depression Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Great Depression was a period, which seemed to go out of control. The crashing of the stock markets left most Canadians unemployed and in debt, prairie farmers suffered immensely with the inability to produce valuable crops, and the Canadian Government and World War II became influential factors in the ending of the Great Depression. The 1920’s meant prosperity for Canada. Canadians living in the 1920’s were freer in values, less disciplined, and concerned with material things more than ever before. Many people wanted to get rich quickly, and stock markets in New York, Toronto, and Montreal shot up. On October 24, 1929, many people wanted to sell stocks through the New York Stock Exchange. More stocks were being sold than bought, and they began to slump. The stock crash became known as the Great Crash of 1929. On Thursday October 29, 1929, the stock markets in Toronto, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec also began a steep descent. Suicide became common among men whom the crash meant financial failure and social ruin. After the stock crash a period of Depression occurred and unemployment was common. By 1933, one out of every four workers in Canada was without a job. Men begged for jobs cutting grass or shoveling snow. Wages were so low that even people with jobs ran into debt. Many businessmen went bankrup t and people all over the country were laid off. Many men disappeared in efforts to look for work. The province of Saskatchewan set up Relief Commission in 1931. For many, the acceptance of Relief meant failure. Those who did except Relief received $5.00 a week, or sometimes less. By 1932, many unemployed men were living in Relief Camps across the country. Work in the Relief Camps usually consisted of meaningless tasks. The camps provided its men with a poor diet and bunks to sleep in. Those living outside of Relief Camps could barely feed their families. Meals consisted of starchy foods such as bread and potatoes. With unemployment rates soaring, many people could not afford coal to heat their homes or to pay electricity bills. Single men, 18 years or older, were housed in rooming houses. In 1933, the Federal Government began herding single men into work camps run by the army. Camps held more than 115, 000 men over a four year period. Men in camps were paid twenty cents a day for l umbering or road building. All over Canada peopl... ...rnment became active in the lives of businessmen and workers alike. Mothers received a family allowance. War veterans received money also. Unemployment insurance was created and any man out of work could apply for it. By 1936 some parts of Canada began to recover from the Great Depression. In Montreal Public Holding Projects were underway, and the Trans Canada Airway gave jobs to men. For Canada, the real end of the Great Depression was caused by the start of World War II. The Great Depression lasted ten years and was followed by five years of World War. During the war the need for materials was massive. Chemical factories, aluminum works, and lumber processing all began to employ men. People could begin to buy more than they had during the Great Depression; therefore the manufactures could produce more. Prairie Provinces also benefited because the markets for wheat had began to recover. The Great Depression in Canada posed many problems for Canadians. During this period the economy suffered, unemployment rates raised, and farmers struggled through the drought of the Dirty Thirties. The Great Depression truly was an uncontrollable force assisting the shape of present day Canada.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

Application of Managerial Economics in Decision Making

1. 0 Introduction7 1. 1 Definition of managerial economics7 1. 2 Choice and opportunity cost9 2. 0 Basic concerns of economics9 3. 0. 0 Theories of economics12 3. 1. 0 The theory of demand13 3. 1. 1 Tastes14 3. 1. 2 Number of buyers14 3. 1. 3 Income14 3. 1. 5 Expectations15 3. 2 The theory of supply16 3. 3 The theory of production16 3. 4 The theory of price( in government)17 3. 5 The theory of consumer behaviour17 3. 5. 1 Rational behaviour17 3. 5. 2 Preferences17 3. 5. 3 Budget constraint18 3. 5. 4 Prices18 4. 0 Managerial Economics and Economic Theories18 5. 0 General overview of the office of the Attorney General19 6. Decision-making centres under the Office of the Attorney General20 6. 1 Decisions in the Office of the Attorney General:21 6. 2 The role of Public Procurement Act, 2007 in decision-making and application economic theories23 6. 3 Other decisions25 6. 3. 1 Employment decisions25 6. 3. 2 Training decisions25 6. 4 Economic decisions of the Office of the Attorney General and budget constraint25 7. 0 Conclusion26 References28 TOPIC:APPLICATION OF MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS IN DECISION MAKING Introduction This paper attempt to discuss the application of managerial economics in decision-making in an organisation of my workplace. In discussing managerial economics a link has been made to some economic theories and their influence in decision making. The organisation selected is the Office of the Attorney General. The first part of the paper discusses; what managerial economics is and how it relates to economics; the concept of opportunity cost and its application; what are the concerns of economics and how they have been responded. The second part of this paper discusses theories of economics which the office of the Attorney General apply directly or indirectly in its decisions. The theories which have been looked at are: theory of demand, theory of supply, theory of consumer behaviour, production theory and price theory. It is in this part where a brief discussion on the relationship of economic theories and managerial economics is made, emphasis being made on the general decision-making process. The third and fourth part of this paper discuss the general overview of the office of the Attorney General, its statutory functions, various decisions made under the office and decision criterion. Also the role of Public Procurement Act, 2007 in procurement decisions is briefly looked into. The last part of the paper discusses the applicability of economic theories in decision making under the conditions of budget constraints and global financial and economic crisis. 1. 1 Definition of managerial economics Managerial economics has several definition as defined by different economists and authors. Thomas J. Webster defines managerial economics as the application of economic theory and quantitative methods (mathematics and statistics) to the managerial decision-making process. Simply stated managerial economics is applied microeconomics with special emphasis on those topics of greatest interest and importance to managers. McGuigan and Moyer define managerial economics as a branch of economics subject which deal with the application of microeconomics reasoning to real world decision-making problem faced by private, public, and non-profit institutions. Managerial economics extracts from microeconomic theory those concepts and techniques that enable a decision maker to select strategic direction, to allocate efficiently the resources of the organisation, and to respond effectively to tactical issues. The role of managerial economics in a globalised environment cannot be overemphasized. From the above definitions it is obvious that managerial economics stems from the main subject of economics. It therefore important to briefly look at what economics is about so as to appreciate the nature of managerial economics. According to Lipsey there are three economics concerns: i)The allocation of a society’s resources among alternatives uses and the distribution of the society’s output among individuals and groups; ii)The ways in which production and distribution change over time; and iii)The efficiencies and inefficiencies of economic systems. The definitions above are based on the fact that the resources of any society consists not only of the free gifts of nature, such as land, forests and minerals, but also of human capacity, both mental and physical, and of all man-made aids such as tools, machinery and buildings. It is sometimes useful to divide those resources into three main groups: (1) all those free gift of nature, such as land, forests, minerals,etc. commonly called natural resources and known to economists as LAND; (2) all human resources, mental and physical, both inherited and acquired, which economists call LABOUR; and (3) all those man-made aids to further production, such as tools, machinery, plant and equipment, including everything man-made which is not consumed for its own sake but is used in the process of making other goods and services which economists call CAPITAL. These resources are called FACTORS OF PRODUCTION because they are used in the process of production. Often a fourth factor, ENTERPRENEURS HIP is distinguished. The entrepreneur is the one who takes risk by introducing both new products and new ways of making products. He organises the other factors of production and directs them along new lines. The things that are produced by the factors of production are called COMMODITIES. Commodities may be divided into goods and services: goods are tangible, as are cars or shoes; services are intangible, as are haircuts or education. This distinction, however , should not be exaggerated: goods are valued because of the services they confer on their owners. A car, for example is valued because of the transportation that it provides-and possibly also for the flow of satisfaction the owner gets from displaying it as a status symbol. It is undisputable fact that every nation’s resources are insufficient to produce the quantities of goods and services that would be required to satisfy all of its citizens’ wants. Most of the problems of economics arise out of the use of scarce resources to satisfy unlimited human wants. This problem brings economists and other persons to the concept of choice and opportunity cost. 1. 2 Choice and opportunity cost Choices are necessary because resources are scarce. Because we cannot produce everything we would like to consume, there must exist some mechanism to decide what will be done and what left undone; what goods will be produced and what left unproduced; what quantity of each good will be produced; and whose wants will be satisfied and whose left unsatisfied. In most societies many different people and organizations either make or influence those choices. Individual consumers, business organisations, labour unions and government officials all exert some influence. If you choose to have more of one thing, then , where there is an effective choice, you must have less something else. Think of a man with a certain income who considers buying bread. We could say that the cost of this extra bread is so many shillings per loaf. A more revealing way of looking at the cost, however, is in terms of what other consumption he must forge in order to obtain his bread. Say that he decides to give up cinema attendance. If the price of a loaf is one fifth of the price of a cinema seat, then the cost of five more loaves of bread is one cinema attendance forgone or, put other way round, the cost of one cinema attendance is five loaves of bread foregone. The concept of opportunity cost emphasizes the problem of choice by measuring the cost of obtaining a quantity of one commodity in terms of the quantity of other commodities that have been obtained instead. 2. 0 Basic concerns of economics There are basic questions which economists in any society or organization need to ask and have answers as part of the process of resolving the problem of scarcity of resources and choices of satsfiable needs among the possible alternatives. The following are some of the basic questions economists should ask and attempt to answer: i) What commodities are being produced and in what quantities? This question arises directly out of scarcity of resources. It concerns the allocation of scarce resources among alternative uses or resource allocation. The question ‘what determines the allocation of resources in various societies? ’ and ‘what are the consequences of conscious attempts to change resource allocation? ’ have occupied e conomists since earliest days of the subject. In free-market economies, most decisions concerning the allocation of resources are made through the price system. The study of this system works is the main issue in the THEORY OF PRICE (ii) By what methods are these commodities produced? This question because there is always one technically possible way in which goods and services can be produced. Agricultural goods, for example, can be produced by farming a small quantity of land very intensively, using large quantities of fertilizer, labour and machinery, or by farming a large quantity of land extensively, using only small quantities of fertilizer, labour and machinery. Both methods can be used to produce the same quantity of some good; one method is frugal with land but uses large quantities of other resources. The same is true of manufactured goods; it is usually possible to produce the same output by several different techniques, ranging from ones using large quantity of labour and a few machines to one using a large quantity of highly automated machines and only a very small number of workers. Questions about why one method of production is used rather than another, and the consequences of these choices about production methods, are among the issues resolved in THEORY OF PRODUCTION (iii) how is society’s output of goods and services divided among its members? Why can some individuals and groups consume large share of capital of the natonal output while other individuals and groups consume only a small share? The superficial answer is because the former earn a large incomes while the later earn small incomes. But this only pushes the question one stage back. Why do some individuals and groups earn large incomes while others earn only small incomes? The basic question concerns the division of the total national product among individuals and groups. Economists wish to know why any particular division occurs in a free-market society and what forces, including government intervention, can cause it to change. All these questions are discussed in discussed in the theory of DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME, which is not dealt with in Managerial Economics. (iv) How efficient is the society’s production and distribution? These questions quite naturally arise out of questions i, ii and iii. Having asked what quantities of goods and services are produced, how they are produced and to whom they are distributed, it is natural to go on to ask whether the production and distribution decisions are efficient. The concept of efficiency is quite distinct from justice. The latter is a normative concept, and a just distribution of the national product would be one that our value judgements told us was a good or desirable distribution. (v) are country’s resources being fully utilized, or are some of them lying idle? As we have noted that the existing resources of any country are not sufficient to satisfy even the most pressing needs of all the individual consumers. It may seem strange, therefore, that we must ask this question at all. Surely if resources are so scarce that there are not enough of them to produce all of those commodities which are urgently, there can be no question of leaving idle any of the resources that are available. Yet one of the most disturbing characteristics of free-market economies is that such waste sometimes occurs. When this happens the resources are said to be in involuntarily unemployed. Unemployed workers would like to have jobs, the factories in which they could work are available, the managers and owners would like to be able to operate their factories, raw materials are available in abundance and the goods that could be produced by these resources are urgently required by individuals in the community. (vi) is the purchasing power of money and savings constant, or is being eroded because of inflation? The world’s economies have often experienced periods of prolonged and rapid changes in price levels. Over the long swing of history, price levels have sometimes risen and sometimes fallen. In recent decades, however, the course of prices has almost always been upward. (vii) is the economy’s capacity to produce goods and services growing from year to year or is it remaining static? The capacity to produce goods and services differ in different economies. In some economies the capacity grows rapidly but slow or stagnant in others. Stagnation and slow capacity growth is the main feature of economies of less developing countries. There are, of course, other questions that arise, but these seven questions are the mojor ones common to all types of market economies. 3. 0. 0 Theories of economics The world is a very complicated place. In understanding how markets operate, for example, the economists make a number of simplifying assumptions. Without these assumption, the ability to make predictions about the cause-and –effect relationship becomes unmanageable. The â€Å"law† of demand asserts that the price of a good or service and its quantity demanded are inversely related, ceteris paribus. This theory asserts that, other factors remaining constant, individuals will tend to purchase increasing amounts of a good or service as prices fall and decreasing amounts as the prices rise. Of, course, other things do not remain unchanged. Along with ,changes in the price of the good or service, disposable income, the prices of related commodities, tastes, and so on, may also change. It is difficult, if not impossible, to generalize consumer behaviour when multi[le demand determinants are simultaneously changing. It is good to remember that economics is a social, not a physical, science. Economics cannot conduct controlled, laboratory experiments, which makes economic theorizing all the more difficult. It also makes economists vulnerable to ridicule. One economic quip, for example, asserts that if all the economists in the world were laid to end, they would never reach a conclusion. This is, of course, an unfair criticism. In business, the objective is to reduce uncertainty. Economic theories and principles are statements about economic behaviour or the economy that enable prediction of the probable effects of certain actions. Good theories are those that do a good job of explaining and predicting. They are supported by facts concerning how individuals and institutions actually behave in producing, exchanging, and consuming goods and services. But these facts may change in time, so economists must continually check theories against the shifting economic environment. Despite the fact that decision making in the government is not solely based on economic theories it is worthy discussing some of the common theories and later see if they are relevant to the office of the Attorney General. The following are some of the theories which are used in managerial economics: 3. 1. 0 The theory of demand The demand function asserts that there is a measurable relationship between the price that a company charges for its products and the number of units that buyers are willing and able to purchase during a specified time period. Economists refer this behavioural relationship as the law of demand, which is sometimes called the first fundamental law of economics. The law of demand states that the quantity demanded of a good or service is inversely related to the selling price, ceteris paribus( all other determinants remaining unchanged). The demand schedule is the simplest form of the demand relationship. It is merely a list of prices and corresponding quantities of a commodity that would be demanded by some individuals at uniform prices. This can be illustrated as shown below: price of maize Tshs per tonQuantity demanded tons per month 100,000200 150,000250 200,000300 250,000350 300,000400 350,000450 400,000500 The concept of demand is based on the theory of consumer choice. Each consumer faces optimization problem, where the objective is to choose among the combination of goods that maximize his or her satisfaction or utility, subject to a constraint on the amounts of funds available(i. e. budget) to purchase these goods. Economists assume that price is the most influencing factor of quantity of any product purchased. But economists know that other factors can and affect purchases. These factors, called determinants of demand. The basic determinants of demand are (i) consumer tastes(preference), (ii) the number of consumers in the market, (iii) consumers’ incomes, (iv) the pr ice of related goods, and (v) consumer expectations about future prices and incomes. The determinants are expressed mathematically as follows: Qd=f(P, I, T, Ps, Pc, Pe, N†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. ) 3. 1. 1 Tastes A favourable change in consumer taste(preference) for a product, a change that makes the product more desirable means the more of it will be demanded at each price. Demand will increase ; the demand curve will slope rightward. An unfavarouble change in consumer preferences will decrease demand, shifting the demand curve to the left. New products may affect consumer tastes; for example the introduction of compact discs greatly decreased the demand for cassette tapes. Consumers’ concern over the health hazard of cholesterol and obesity have increased for broccoli, low-calorie beverages, eggs, and whole milk. Over the past several years, the demand for coffee drinks, bottled water, and sports utility vehicles has greatly increased, driven by a change in tastes. So, too for DVDs and digital cameras. 3. 1. 2 Number of buyers An increase in the number of buyers in the market increases demand. A decrease in the of buyers in a market decreases demand. For example improvement in communications have given financial markets international range and have thus increased the demand for stocks and bonds. Also, an increase in life expectancy can increase the demand medical care, retirement communities, and nursing homes. International trade agreements have reduced foreign trade barriers to most of the countries in the world, thus increasing the demand for those products. 3. 1. 3 Income How changes in income affect demand is a more complex matter. For most products, a rise in income causes increase in demand. Consumers typically buy more steaks, steaks, furniture, and electronic equipment as their incomes increase. Conversely, the demand for such products decline as their incomes fall. Products whose demand varies directly with money income are called superior goods or normal goods. Although most products are normal goods, there are some exceptions. As incomes increase beyond some point, the demand for used clothing, retread tires, and third-hand automobiles may decrease, because the higher incomes enable consumers to buy new versions of those products. Rising incomes may also decrease the demand for soy-enhanced hamburger. Similarly, rising incomes may cause the demand for charcoal grills to decline as wealthier consumers switch to gas grills. Goods whose demand varies inversely with money income are called inferior goods. 3. 1. 4 Price of related goods A change in the price of a related good or service may either increase or decrease the demand for a product, depending on whether the related good is a substitute or a compliment. A substitute good is one that can be used in place of another good. A complimentary good is that can be used together with another good. Substitutes: beef and chicken ars example of substitute goods or simply, substitutes. When the price of beef rises, consumers buy less beef, increasing the demand for chicken. Conversely, as the price of beef falls, consumers buy more beef, decreasing the demand for chicken. When two products are substitutes, the price of one and the demand for the other move in the same direction. Examples may include coca and Pepsi, and Kilimanjaro beer and Serengeti beer. Complement: Ccomplementary goods are goods that are used together and demanded together. If the price of gasoline falls and, as a result you drive your car more often, the extra driving increases your demand for motor oil. Thus, gasoline and motor oil are jointly demanded; they are compliments. So it is with ham and eggs, tuition and text books, movies and popcorn, cameras and films. When two products are compliments, the price of one good and demand for the other good move in opposite directions. Unrelated goods: The vast majority of goods that are not related to one another are called independent goods. Examples include butter and golf balls, potatoes and automobiles, and bananas and wrist watches. A change in the price of one has little or no effect on the demand for the other. 3. 1. 5 Expectations Changes in consumer expectations may shift demand. A newly formed expectation of higher future prices may cause consumers to buy now in order to beat the anticipated price rises, thus increasing current demand. Similarly, a change in expectations relating to future product availability may affect current demand. change in demand is to be distinguished with change in quantity demanded. A change in demand is a shift of the demand curve to the right (an increase in demand) or to the left (a decrease in demand). A change in quantity demanded is a movement from one point to another point, from one price quantity combination to another on a fixed demand schedule or demand curve. In summary, an increase in demand may be caused by the following factors: †¢A favourable change in consumer tastes An increase in the number of buyers †¢Rising incomes if the product is a normal good †¢Falling incomes if the product is an inferior good †¢An increase of the price of a substitute good †¢A decrease in the price of a complimentary good †¢A new consumer expectation that either prices or income will be higher in the future. 3. 2 The theory of supply While we have discussed some of the conditions under which consumers are willing , and able, to purchase quantities of a particular good or service, we also need to say something about the willingness of producers to produce those very same goods and services. This is discussed by the law of supply. The law asserts that quantity supplied of a good or service is directly related to the selling price, ceteris paribus. 3. 3 The theory of production The theory of production is centered around the concept of production function. A production function relates the maximum quantity of output that can be produced from given amounts of various inputs for a given technology. It is a technological relation between what is fed into the productive apparatus by way of inputs of factor services and what is turned out by way of product. The production function is mathematically expressed as: Q=q(L,K), Where Q is tons of output per day, L is labour days employed, and K is units of capital services( e. g. , machine days) used. In varying the combinations of the factor inputs the organisation has to consider three distinct types of decisions: decisions to be made over the short run, decisions to be made over the long run and decisions to be made over the very long run. The short run is defined as the period of time over which the inputs of some factors, called fixed factors, cannot be varied. The factor that is fixed in the short run is usually an element of capital( such as plant and equipment), but might be land, or the service of management, or even the supply of skilled labour. In the short run, production must be varied by changing the quantities used of those inputs that can be varied; these are called variable factors. It worth to take note here that the short run does not correspond to a fixed time period, it is a matter of fact. The long run is defined as the period long enough for the inputs of all factors of production to be varied, but not so long that basic technology of production changes. In our simple two factor example above, the firm varies q in the long run by varying L and K. The importance of the long run in the production theory is that it corresponds to the situation facing the firm when it planning to go into business, or to expand or contract the scale of its operations. The very long run is concerned with situations in which the technological possibilities open to the firm are subject to change, leading to new and improved products and new methods of production. 3. 4 The theory of price( in government) The decision-taking units in economic theory are households for demand, firms for supply, and central authorities for government regulation and control. Given the resources at their command, each household is assumed to act consistently to maximize its satisfaction, and each firm is assumed to act consistently to maximise its profits. 3. 5 The theory of consumer behaviour In addition to explaining the law of demand, the idea of diminishing marginal utility explains how consumers allocate their money incomes among the many goods and services available for purchase. The typical consumers’ situation has the following dimensions: 3. 5. 1 Rational behaviour The consumer is a rational person, who tries to use his or her money income to derive the greatest amount of satisfaction, or utility, from it. Consumers want to get â€Å"the most of their money† or, technically, to maximize their total utility. They engage in a rational behaviour. 3. 5. 2 Preferences Each consumer has clear-cut preferences for certain of the goods and services thathat are available in the market. It is assumed that buyers as well have a good idea of how much marginal utility they will get from successful units of the various products they might purchase. 3. 5. 3 Budget constraint At any point in time the consumer has a fixed, limited amount of money income. Since each consumer supplies a finite amount of human and property resources to society, he or she earns only limited income. Thus, every consumer faces what economists call a budget constraint(budget limitation), even those who earn millions of dollars a year. f course budget constraint are more severe to consumers with average incomes than for those with extraordinarily high incomes. 3. 5. 4 Prices Goods are scarce relative to the demand for them, so every good carries a price tag. We assume that price tags are not affected by the amounts of specific goods each person buys. The consumer cannot buy everything wanted. So, the consumer must compromise; he must choose the most satisfying mix of goods and services. Different individuals will choose different mixes. . 0 Managerial Economics and Economic Theories Most decisions made by managers usually involve questions of resource allocation within the organisation in both the short and the long run. In the short run, a manager may be interested in estimating demand and cost relationship to make decisions about the price to charge for a product and the quantity of output to produce. The areas of microeconomics dealing with demand theory of cost and production are obvious useful in making decision on such matters. Macroeconomic theory also enters into decision making when a manager attempt to forecast future demand based on forces influencing the overall economy. In the long run, decisions must be made about expanding or contracting production and distribution facilities, developing and marketing new products, and possibly acquiring other firms. Basically, these decisions require the organisation to make capital expenditure; that is, expenditure made in the current period that are expected to yield returns in future periods. Economists have developed a theory of capital budgeting that can be used in deciding whether to undertake specific capital expenditures. It is therefore not realistic to think that a firm will make decisions based on one theory or a combination of two. Application of economic theories is an issue which depends on each case. There may be cases which are not complex, these may be simple decisions to be made by organisation which are not faced with constraints. 4. 1 General decision-making Process The ability to make good decisions is the key to successful managerial performance. All decision making shares several common elements. First, the decision maker must establish or identify the objectives of the organization. The failure to identify organizational objectives correctly can result in the complete rejection of an otherwise well-conceived and well implemented plan. Generally, economic decision-making process involves the following steps: 1. Establish and/or identify Objectives 2. Define the problem 3. Identify possible alternative solutions 4. Evaluate alternatives and select the best alternative . Implement and monitor the decision. 5. 0 General overview of the office of the Attorney General Article 59(1) of the Constitution of the united Republic of Tanzania establishes the office of the Attorney General. It states â€Å" there shall be an Attorney General for the Government of the United Republic, who in subsequent articles of this constitution shall be referred to as the â€Å"Attorney-General† who shall be appointed by the president. Thus, t he office of the Attorney General is constitutionally established. The constitution also prescribe the main role and function of the Attorney General in article 59(3). It provides â€Å" the Attorney General shall be the adviser of the Government of the United Republic on legal matters and for that purpose he shall be responsible for advising the Government on all legal matters, and to discharge any other functions pertaining to or connected with law which are referred or assigned to him by the president and also to discharge such other duties or functions which shall be entrusted to him by this constitution or by any law† 5. Statutory functions of The Attorney General As the powers and functions of the Attorney General are derived from the constitution it is undisputed fact that decision making in this office is guided by law. In accordance with the Attorney General(Discharge of duties and functions) Act prescribe the following as functions of the Attorney General: (a)To advise the Government on legal matters; b)To institute and prosecute cr iminal cases in courts of law and defend criminal appeals, revisions and applications on behalf of the United Republic; (c)To litigate civil cases including constitutional and human rights matters on behalf of the Government; (d)To draft and vet legislative instruments, translate and revise legislation; (e)To research, analyse and advice the Government on constitutional and human rights matters; (f)To represent the Government in civil and criminal matters; (g)To represent the government in International Arbitration, mediation and negotiations of contacts, Government Loans and international agreements. . 0 Decision-making centres under the Office of the Attorney General From the organisation structure of the ministry of justice and constitutional affairs(attached as appendix) the following are main departments or directorates: Functional departments: †¢Public Prosecutions Division †¢Civil and International Law Division †¢Legislative Division †¢Constitutional Affai rs and Human Rights Division Supporting departments: †¢Administrative and Personnel Division †¢Policy, planning and Information Services Division 6. 1 Decisions in the Office of the Attorney General: (a)Statutory decisions In making statutory decisions the decision makers are guided by law as to which option to take and the procedure of making the decision. For instance, the decision to prosecute a criminal is both legal and economical but much consideration is given to legal. The criminals have to be prosecuted though the costs associated with prosecution may be very high. In these decisions the decision makers are less flexible. Thus, economic theories are given consideration at the level when the Government as a whole makes a decision of allocating its resources in accordance to preference of the services to offer to the citizens. b)Economic decisions Most of the economic decisions of the Attorney General’s Office are based on the budget which is approved by the parliament. Generally the budget is of two types of expenditures, development expenditure and recurrent expenditure. Development expenditure In the development expenditure each department proposes the development activities which it i ntends to implement in the next financial year. Each department is categorised as a vote and identified by vote number. Some department have divisions which are mandated to control their funds, these are categorised as sub-votes. As between various development requirements the department must choose which projects require immediate implementation, this is because each department has more demands of these expenditures, however, the funds allocated by the parliament in each year are meagre. The decisions for development expenditure are made by top management of each department, each department being led by its core functions. Some of the expenditures which are development include rehabilitation of offices, purchase of office furniture, computers, motor vehicles, etc. The foresaid expenditures are those financed solely by the government. There are expenditure which are financed by donors, these are also divided in two categories: basket funding and project funding. Basket funding are donations by donor countries which are to the general budget of the government. Each donor country individually or in groups contribute to the budget without specifying the project or activities which they wish to assist. The decision as how to spend the money is left to the government through normal budget process. Project funding is done by donor countries(development partners) whether individually or in groups who are interested to assist in specific area which they are interested. There are two main development projects in the ministry of constitutional affairs and justice, these are: the Legal Sector Reform Programme(LSRP) and the Tackling of Corruption Programme(TCP). In these programmes the decisions of what activities to be undertaken in each is a prior bargaining between the Government of the United Republic and the development partners. Usually the agreement in the form of memorandum of understanding(MOU) which stipulates the scope and focus of the project and the role of each party. The AG’s Office being one of the beneficiary of these project is responsible for implementation and monitoring of the progress. In the course of implementation and monitoring economic theories have to be applied. These theories include demand and supply and consumer behaviour. Generally development expenditure are determined by the government at top level and implemented by the departments. There is very little influence of the management of departments in this type of expenditure. hus, at this level application of economic theories is so indirect as most of the decision are made top-bottom. Recurrent expenditure The budget process of the government on recurrent expenditure does not differ much from development expenditure but there is a slight variation. While the great part of development budget is decided by the top level of t he government recurrent expenditure is in the ambit of management of each department. From the start to the implementation of the budget there are various decisions which are frequently made by departments. However, the decision made must confine to other liming factors. When the budget of the ministry has been approved by the parliament each department has to prepare its action plan which is sent to the ministry of finance. The action plan enables the ministry of finance to determine amounts of money which should be issued by way of exchequer issues to each department. An action plan is a timeframe based plan for implanting the budget(see appendix). In the action plan management of each department has to make an decisions on the following issues: (a)Activities which are to be implemented in each quarter, the department may choose an activity to be implemented in the 1st, 2nd , 3rd or 4th quarter. Some of the activities may be spread evenly in all the 4 quarters. The decision as to which quarter an activity should be carried is very critical due to the following reasons: †¢Prices of goods and services may rise and affect the budget adversely †¢Funds may not be available at the time when the goods or services are needed †¢Unexpected event or state may occur. (b)Activities which are not to be implemented as caused by changes in the approved budget (c)Activities which may require application for approval of reallocation and timing of the same. 6. The role of Public Procurement Act, 2007 in decision-making and application economic theories Enactment of the Public Procurement Act, 2007 has made the application of the theories of demand and supply and theory of consumer behaviour to be feasible. The law makes it a mandatory requirement to follow certain procedures when purchasing goods and services for public offices. Section 28(1) requires each ministry, independent department of Government, Region, District and others to establish a tender board for procurement of goods, services and works. Paragraph 4(1) of Government Notice No. 7 states the rationale of the law asâ€Å" the public procurement policies are based on the need to make the best possible use of public funds, whilst conducting all procurement with honesty and fairness†. Paragraph 4(2)(a) goes further to state that all public officers and members of the public and members of the tender boards who are undertaking or approving procurement shall be guided the following basic considerations of the public procurement policy:- †¢The need for economy and efficiency in the use of public funds and in the implementation of projects including the provision of related goods and services. The best interests of a public authority, in giving all eligible suppliers, contractors, and service providers equal opportunities to compete in providing goods or executing works or providing servi ces. †¢The importance of integrity, accountability, fairness and transparency in the procurement process. To achieve the above objectives the law requires that tenders are awarded by way of competitive tendering in which suppliers, contractors or consultants are invited by the procuring entity to compete with each other in submitting priced tenders for goods, works or services. By providing these legal requirements the enhances the application of economic theories in public procurement. Just as demand theory states that other factors remaining constant a consumer will increase quantity of goods demanded when its price is lower, Public procurement Act requires among other things to select the lowest bidder( assuming other things are equal to all bidders, for instance quality and time of supply) The process of budgeting in the Government is both top-down and bottom-top depending on the stage of the budget. The process starts by the Ministry of Finance(MoF) issuing budget guidelines and instruction which are to be followed by all Ministries and departments when preparing the budget. Included in the guidelines are government priorities in the financial year in reference. Budget for the AG’s Office is proposed for both the development and recurrent expenditure is done in departments on the following sequences: (i)Budget guidelines, budget ceiling and instructions issued by the Ministry of Finance (ii)Top Management of the ministry discusses the guidelines and priorities to synchronise with the ministry’s priorities. iii)The top management of AG’s Office make budget strategies and sets the way forward. (iv)Instructions to the Heads of departments are issued for implementation of the guidelines, overall government priorities and ministerial priorities. (v)Head of departments implements the above by proposing their expenditures in the year under reference. 6. 3 Other dec isions 6. 3. 1 Employment decisions Generally all matters related to staff requirements of any government office are dealt with the President’s office Public Service office. When the Attorney General’s Office is need of staff of a certain category, it will have to report the needs to this office. Practice has shown that the Public Service Office will scrutinise the needs and if satisfied will grant a permission to the department to employ subject to the given conditions. Thus, the room to make decision is not based on the application of the production theory, theory of demand but on policies of the government on employment. For instance, salaries payable are not based on the demand and supply for labour but on what are the government scales of salaries. 6. 3. 2 Training decisions Training of staff in the office of Attorney General is based on the training plan. The training plan shows the training needs of all employees and proposed period of training. It is from this plan that each department has to ensure that it includes in its budget funds for training staff. Practice has proved that the plan is hardly implemented due to the fact that funds allocated to training are always inadequate. This poses a problem as to what criterion will be used to select employees to attend training. There is no set criterion for this aspect and remains to be a challenge. 6. 4 Economic decisions of the Office of the Attorney General and budget constraint When budget of the ministry of constitutional affairs is approved by the parliament implementation does not start until the ministry of finance disburses funds by way of exchequer issues. It from exchequer issues that the ministry and its departments can start spending. Release of funds by the Ministry of Finance is made monthly and the amount depends on tax collections in the preceding month. It is therefore apparent that the funds availed to each ministry and department is not necessarily equivalent to the approved budget, in most of the times is less than the budget(see appendix). This compels the ministry or the department to revisit its decisions which were based on approved budget. In this regard some of the decisions are not based economic theories, but on other factors, e. g. , political and social factors. Global financial crisis and economic crisis has contributed to the above mentioned problem by causing a depression in the business sector which has a negative impact on tax revenue. Application of economic theories to make decisions is done both by the top government management and also departmental management. At the government levels directives are issued to cut down expenditures which are deemed not necessary. For instance in the year 2007, the Prime minister issued a directive which restricted government spending on workshops, seminars and unnecessary conferences. In 2008, the government restricted purchase of expensive vehicles. All these measures were aimed at ensuring that the scarce resources of the government are directed towards provision of essential services. This is linked to the theory of consumer behavior and the government as a consumer acts rationally and wisely in spending taxpayers money. Likewise, all departments after having been allocated with monthly funds less than their budgets are expected to act rationally by spending money in areas where they will maximize the value for money. They are automatically required to revisit their needs in the budget and rescale the preferences. 7. 0 Conclusion Managerial economics as a science is used as a road-map to show and aid decision makers in arriving at optimal decisions given various constraints. In its application managerial economics uses microeconomics principles and economics theories. Managerial economics is mostly applicable to risk analysis, production analysis, pricing analysis, and capital budgeting. However, practical life tells that almost all businesses apply managerial economics in one way or another. Managerial economics is used and applied in both profit-making and non- profit making organisations. While the objective of profit making entities is to maximize profit the objective of non-profit making entities is to achieve and maximise the objectives for their establishment. The government as an institution is also faced with economical and social dilemma some of which need application of managerial economics. Like any other institution, the government is faced with the problem of limited resources against unlimited wants. The resources in the orm of capital, Land, Labour, and Management are not enough to satisfy an endless list of their uses. In addition to this problem the world is operating in uncertainty, if decisions are made without accommodating the risk component adverse results are likely to happen. Examples of uncertainties which have impacted government resources in Tanzania include electric power crisis which compelled the government to incur cost to buy fuel for IPTL (Independent Power Tanzania Ltd) power plant. The crisis was erroneously not anticipated and therefore not pre-planned. This has impacted negatively government budget as it had to forgo some of the economic and social activities which were envisaged to be carried in the financial year 2009/2010. Explosion of bombs at Mbagala military camp caused loss of lives and properties of citizens and caused injuries and mental shock of thousands of Dar-es-salaam residents. The government made compensation for damaged property. All these events were likely to be foreseen and the risks minimised or eliminated. Elimination or minimization of these risks entails using techniques under managerial economics(risk analysis). Together with uncertainties which the government can analyse using managerial economics as above there are uncertainties which are beyond the control of the government. For instance, the global financial crisis (GFC) started in the United States of America in the second half of 2007. The crisis was prompted by increase defaults in subprime mortgages. The crisis spread all over the world and has much impacted developing countries than others. Impacts include loss of employment due to closure of businesses, loss of revenue and decline in new investments. Despite the importance and use of economic theories in decision-making process, the government sometimes use non economic factors to make decisions. This is so because according to the nature of some of the activities of the government and laws and rules governing the same. For instance, a decision to build a school in a certain area does not depend on expected revenue in the form of fees but the factor will be provision of education services. Thus, in some of the problems economic theories do not apply. The theory which assumes that the objective of the firm is to maximise profit does not apply to government because its existence does not depend on profit but on welfare of the people. Decisions of the office of the Attorney General apart from applying managerial economics, have to be in line with government policies and in some aspects with the law governing such decisions. It therefore important for decision makers in the governments and its department to make sure that not only policies and laws are considered in making decisions, they should make sure managerial economics together with applicable economic theories are taken on board. References McMconnell, C. R and Brue, S. L,(2005) Economics: Principles, Problems, and Policies (16th edn). McGraw-Hill Companies, inc. , New York. McGuigan, J. R. , Moyer, R. C, etal (2005), Managerial Economics: Application, Strategy and Tactics. (10th edn), United States of America. Lipsey, R. G, An Introduction to Positive Economics. (6th edn), Butler & Tanner Ltd, London Jehovaness, A. ,(2009),† The Impact of Global Financial Crisis on Developing Countries†. A paper presented in the seminar on International Accounting Standards and Global Financial Crisis, 28th March, Dar es Salaam. Ngowi, H. P. (20100. â€Å"The current Global Financial and Economic Crisis and its impact on Africa†. A paper for the Medals for Research on Development at the Eleventh Annual Global Development Conference, Prague, Czech Republic. The Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania The Public Procurement Act, 2007