Credible Sources a Key to College Success

Credible sources a key to college success College life can be pretty stressful and complicate it at times. There are several things that can help college life become easier and more manageable. One of the main things and if not the most important it will be the ability to identify and separate credible online sources from non-credible ones. It is very true that technology has help make college life easier, with search engines such as Google or Bing at just one click away of distance.The only problem is that with so many choices to pick from how to tell if a source is even worth to look at without having to expend a great amount of time looking at each one through. Even though non-credible sources are easier to find, credible sources are more reliable because they are usually written by experts and have more substantial information in them.If we take a credible source like â€Å"Rising prevalence of cohabitation in United States may have partially offset decline in marriage ratesâ₠¬  from the Family Planning Perspectives and compared against a non-credible sources like â€Å"Cohabitation in the United States† from Wikipedia, we can see that the article from the credible source has the components that help sort out a credible source from a non-credible. The article â€Å"Rising prevalence of cohabitation in United States may have partially offset decline in marriage rates† from the Family Planning Perspectives has the main things that you should look in a credible source.First of all I found the article in the CINAHL with Full Text database from the library most popular database list. I made sure I used the Boolean word Cohabitation in USA and I limit the results to only show full text and peer-review articles. The article is written in a very professional manner, also even though the article was written 1990; it has fairly recent review date of 2009. The information that the author explains is supported by numbers and statistics that help suppo rt her information.Some subgroups, such as cohabiting couples, single-parent families, stepfamilies, newlyweds, blacks and Hispanics, were oversampled. Interview questions emphasized cohabitation and the links between cohabitation and marriage. The final sample consisted of 6,881 married couples and 682 cohabiting couples; of these, 5,648 spouses and 519 cohabiting partners completed questionnaires (Vol. 22, Issue 2). In general most articles found in the library database re reliable, the only thing that is good to look for is if there is any biases in the article or reasons why the author may become bias, in the case of the author of this article Rebecca Turner is graduated it from the Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Essex, UK, which in this case helps to her credibility as an author. On the other hand the article that I found in Wikipedia â€Å"Cohabitation in the United States† is not considered a reliable source.The main reason for this is because is a Wiki and also because I found the article in Google’s search engine. Wiki’s in general can be a good way to start a research but they should not be used as a primary source to support an essay, wikis are open source which means that anyone can attempt to make changes or alter the information that is portrayed there, which mean one article can contain information from many different people that have never met each other. Also some of the information does not sound very professional and lack citations.It should be noted this model cites antecedent apprehension concerning commitment as the cause of increased break-ups and cohabitation only as an indicator of such apprehension. Another explanation is that those who choose not to cohabit prior to marriage are often more conservative in their religious views and may hold more traditional views on gender roles, a mindset that might prevent them from divorcing for religious reasons or confronting crisis in relationships despit e experiencing marital problems no less severe than those encountered by former cohabitants. citation needed] The fact that a citation is needed in that paragraph should be enough evidence to prove that wiki’s in general are not credible sources of information. In order for college life to be successful, a student should learn how to tell the differences between a reliable source of online information and a non-reliable one.Even though the articles in the library databases are more reliable than the ones found in Google, a student should always be on the look out and get as much information about the article and the author as possible, this would help the essay become a success. Work Cited Cohabitation in the United States. Wikipedia, 17 Sept. 2012. Web. 1 Oct. 2012. Turner, R. â€Å"Rising Prevalence of Cohabitation In United States May have Partially Offset Decline in Marriage Rates. † Family Planning Perspectives 22. 2 (1990): 90-91. CINAHL with Full Text. Web. 1 Oc t. 2012

Customs and Traditions of India Essay

Nearly every country in the world possesses some form of religion. With religion comes the need for people to express their beliefs. Often times, these expressions are seen as religious customs and traditions. Along with these religious customs and traditions, most countries also posses customs and traditions practiced by even the average non-religious citizen. These customs can be enormous milestones in the lives of young-adults, or something as simple as shaking someone’s hand. Everything from a child’s first day at school to a newlywed couples inauguration is celebrated through rituals and practices. Many of these traditions have been around for thousands of years. With religion came traditions and rituals and practices. A few examples of these traditions include: Datar. Datar is the welcoming of the bride into the home of the groom by the groom and his family. This practice is seen as sacred and as a necessity. It is believed that if the ritual is not done right or not done at all, then the family is doomed to fail. (IndiaNetzone) Another, less significant tradition, Upanayan, is the day that a male child begins his education. An interesting fact about Indian culture is that they still use the caste system and many traditions are open only to the top three castes: Brahmin, Kshatriya, and Vaishyas. Upanyan is one of those traditions. (Freshroads) Another vital part of India culture is always giving. Giving is seen as the ultimate kindness and in India culture, should be practiced by everyone. Danam is the Indian tradition of giving gifts to one another. Upanayan, The marriage ceremony described above, is a time where Danam is practiced constantly. The bride gives gifts to the groom and groom to the bride. These gifts can range from gold to coconuts to cows. No gift is seen as the clothes from grandma for Christmas. In the final ten days of someone’s life, they are given many gifts which are believed to help them cross the afterlife dimensions and get to heaven. In fact the gift of a cow is believed to help souls of the deceased across a river in the dimensions before heaven. (IndiaNetzone) It seems as though there are many traditions, but how many people practice these traditions? According to the 2002 census of India, approximately eighty percent of Indians practice Hinduism. This means that of the 1. 2 billion people that live there, about 960 million people practice these customs and traditions. That is pretty amazing considering the amount of gifts there must be given daily. With over one hundred perhaps two hundred traditions practiced by almost every India at some point in their life, this means that there are more traditions practiced in a lifetime than there are people in the world. Also, if every Indian practices Namaskara, the Indian form of salutation, around 3-5 times daily, in just eight hours, approximately, there have been more Namaskaras than people in the world. (HowStuffWorks) Christianity has over double the number of followers than Hinduism. Although this data makes Hinduism seem puny compared to other religions, many of the traditions and customs are very similar to those of other religions including Christianity. And many of the non-religious customs are very similar to many of those of the American culture as well. In Indian culture, it is seen as respectful to salute to others. Namaskara is the salutation of India. Namaskara is two people, bringing their hands together while bowing their heads and bringing their hands towards their heart and bowed forehead. This custom almost resembles the handshake of American culture. As stated before, people on their deathbed are given gifts. In American culture, flowers are brought to that person’s bedside and cards are often sent wishing that person good will. In Indian culture, the first day of school is seen as a special day. In American culture, the first day of school can be very exciting, and often times emotional. In America, the family members of the deceased decide whether to burry or cremate the deceased. In India, the dead are almost always cremated. This is because Indians believe that cremating the body of the deceased grants easier access to heaven by releasing the soul from the body. In Indian culture, there are almost always arranged weddings. Unlike India, weddings are consensual in the American culture, not to say that Indian weddings are not consensual, but, American weddings are between two people who have know each other prior to being married. In India, this is not always the case. Often times the bride and groom have never met until their wedding day. This is why Upanyan is such an important time for newly-weds, this is their first time, and their families first time, meeting the person they married. (IndiaNetzone) Although comparisons are not often made between American and Indian culture, once you see just how closely the cultures resemble each other, it gives you a different point of view on the two cultures and their similarities and differences. When you take a closer look, you really see the differences, and similarities, between the American culture and the Indian culture. The India culture is very interesting and full of many amazing and almost insane customs and traditions. There are many traditions and customs, and even more people that practice them. When you take a closer look, you see the similarities between the cultures of the United States and India. Whether they’re religious customs or non-religious customs, they are fascinating. Whether it’s a person’s death, or, birth, there’s a tradition for the occasion.

Disaster Recovery

Disaster recovery is the planning and implementation of a process whereby a company can recover from a catastrophic information technology failure. The three main categories of disaster exposure include natural threads and hazards (including hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes and fire), technical and mechanical hazards (such as power outages, gas leaks, accidental or deliberate Halon discharges, or chemical spills) and human activities and threats (like computer error, loss of records, vandalism, sabotage or epidemic) (Rike, 2003).The goal of disaster recovery planning in information technology is to restore access to business data and system resources as quickly as possible, as well as to minimize data loss and physical resource loss. Disaster recovery must address each of the main categories of threat, assess the likely impact and the chance of occurrence of each one and plan reactions and facilities accordingly. Disaster recovery is not only important for the IT-based company, but for any company which is vulnerable to natural disaster or malicious attack.Proper planning of a disaster recovery framework will increase response time, minimize data loss and speed recovery and regained access to data and computing resources. Disaster recovery planning for information technology includes: data assurance with a proper backup and restore procedure; network continuity; intrusion detection and response; proper facilities planning including air conditioning, fire detection and control and environmental sensors; and personnel training in order to ensure proper response.A business's disaster recovery framework may extend beyond its information technology into facilities management, human resources and other operations. Disaster recovery is a relatively new facet of information technology planning which has rapidly become more important as businesses have become more dependent on technology resources. Many modern businesses come to a standstill without their technology ba se, and this can be devastating to the business. Rike (2003) noted that 93% of companies which suffer a major data loss go out of business within five years following that loss.However, according to Rike, many companies are unprotected from this danger – two surveys noted that only 35% of small and midsize businesses have a disaster recovery framework in place, while only 36% of all businesses and government offices have such a framework. Disaster Recovery Case Studies One of the first discussions of disaster recovery in information technology occurred after the 1995 Kobe earthquake in Japan. Garland and Morimoto (1996) provide an account of the outcome of the Kobe University disaster recovery framework on their IT infrastructure, as well as the effects of the earthquake itself.The Kobe earthquake, referred to as the â€Å"Great Hanshin Earthquake Disaster†, struck the Kobe area in the early morning hours of January 17, 1995. Aftershocks and fires worsened the damage c aused by the earthquake, cutting off communications and electricity to the region. Transportation routes were completely blocked due to collapsed roadways and damaged rail lines. The earthquake, which measured at 7. 2 on the Richter scale and left almost 5,400 dead as well as 400,000 homeless in its wake, was one of the worst disasters that have occurred in modern Japan.The university, where the authors were teaching at the time, lost two professors and thirty nine students, as well as all its laboratory animals. Data loss was extensive, and computing equipment loss was exacerbated by physical damage caused by falling furniture and books. The university's telephone and fax connections were completely cut off. However, despite the damage to the university's infrastructure and community, Internet connectivity was able to be restored within a few hours of the earthquake.The resulting email access (there were no extensive Web-based resources at the time) allowed students and staff outsi de communication, a means to reassure loved ones and provided a connection to government disaster recovery resources. University personnel also used cellular phones, a then-nascent technology, to connect to the outside world. Kobe University was using the best available technology at the time, which allowed for quick recovery of the lightweight machines.The IT personnel at the university noted specifically that the hardest-hit IT resources were the older-style, stationary, heavyweight servers and storage units, rather than the newer equipment which was designed to be moved and handled. Specific successes of the Kobe University disaster recovery included: use of alternate routes of communication, broadcast communication to all personnel involved (including students and staff), fast restoration of outside connectivity, setup of alternate email access points and gateways to continue to provide communication and the use of more robust, newer hardware resources.Some of the problems with the university's disaster recovery were lack of system-wide backup plan leading to widespread data loss, insecure physical premises leading to damage, including fall damage to computer equipment placed inappropriately close to other hazards and environmental system failure leading to the death of the lab animals. Because Kobe University is the first instance of formalized study of disaster recovery in information technology, there are a number of questions which arise from the planning and execution of the recovery.What are the priorities of the business or organization when planning? How do you put into place organization-wide policies, such as data backup, which reduce the risk of failure? How do you deal with facilities and functions (such as public utility infrastructure) that are out of your control? A more recent demonstration of the importance of disaster preparedness and recovery was Hurricane Katrina, in 2005.Chenoweth, Peters and Naremore (2006) analyzed the disaster prepa redness and recovery response of a New Orleans hospital during the hurricane and the flooding that followed. East Jefferson General Hospital, located in Jefferson parish, was one of three hospitals in New Orleans to remain open during and after the storm. The hospital planned for a two to three day emergency situation; staffers brought appropriate supplies for only a few days.There were over 3,000 people, including staff, patients and community members, as well as a handful of pets, sheltering at the hospital by the time the storm hit New Orleans on August 28. The hospital's IT staff worked quickly to move critical equipment out of harm's way – they moved data center equipment to upper floors and PCs and other equipment away from windows, printed out hard copies of patient records, contact information and other vital data, and set up a hospital command post with PCs, telephones and fax machines for outside connectivity.The hospital itself did not sustain a high degree of phys ical damage in the storm, in contrast with Kobe University. However, the infrastructure of the city itself was virtually destroyed, with electricity, telephone and water cut off, roads blocked and food and drinking water supplies tight. The hospital was isolated from the rest of the world for over a week as external recovery crews worked. East Jefferson Community Hospital did have a written disaster recovery framework in place prior to Hurricane Katrina.According to Chenoweth et al (2006), the IT department had a hot site arrangement with SunGard; weekly backups of the hospital's data were stored in a local tape vault, occasionally retrieved for safe storage in SunGard's offsite facility in New Jersey. Unfortunately, the evacuation of the vault's staff left the tapes inaccessible. During the storm, the hospital lost first grid power and then generator power; communications were lost as the Bell South CO, then the onsite CO, and finally the hospital's Cox internet cable connection we nt down.The rapidly changing situation, according to the authors, forced a reprioritization of IT resources and efforts from internal systems maintenance to restoring and maintaining communication with the outside world. The IT staff found a usable dialup line and set up email access using some of the PCs on-site; they also leveraged spotty cellular service and messaging services to maximize communications, which allowed them to coordinate with rescue teams and officials and arrange for food, water and generator deliveries. The internal telephone system was also utilized to maintain communication throughout the hospital.A secondary concern to the hospital, according to Chenoweth et al (2006), was its employees; particularly, circumventing the normal payroll system, which was inaccessible, in order to provide funds to employees who were suffering high expenses due to evacuation. This was accomplished by using the Internet to provide a funds transfer to each employee approximating the ir last paycheck. Similar workarounds were created for accounts receivable, with employees manually entering charges and emailing them to the system provider for processing.The hospital's outsourced IT provider also had its own issues to deal with; it had to locate missing employees (which was accomplished within three days by using a broadcast approach of Internet connections and message boards and contacting family and friends of the staffers; this is in contrast to many other companies, which were still struggling to locate employees by November) and prevent employee burnout by arranging for relief staffers. East Jefferson Community Hospital's IT infrastructure was back up and running only a week after the storm hit, and began providing patient services immediately.Its disaster recovery framework, as well as quick thinking in repositioning the framework when it became clear that it did not match the profile of the disaster it was supposed to counter, was a clear factor in the hos pital's fast recovery and return to service. Following the experience during Katrina, the hospital's IT staff investigated its disaster recovery framework and cited a number of changes which should be made, including increased emergency communications capacity, maintaining high-speed Internet access and implementing an automatic switching mechanism should one generator go down again.Disaster Recovery Framework Design The experiences of Kobe University and East Jefferson Community Hospital clearly indicate the need for robust disaster recovery planning. While disaster recovery is not always a matter of life and death as it was in these two cases, it can often mean the difference between a company that recovers successfully and one that is driven out of business by a critical failure. How can a company begin to develop a disaster recovery framework, and how extensive does this framework need to be?Benton (2007) suggested that the disaster recovery framework must begin with a formal bu siness impact assessment. This assessment draws on the knowledge and experience of the IT staff and the CIO to determine what the critical pieces of IT infrastructure are for a given company. A business impact analysis (BIA) is a way in which the contribution or importance of a given business resource can be analyzed and expressed in dollars and cents terms, in order to allow corporate officers to determine the correct emphasis during disaster recovery.The BIA also includes subjective observations of the resource's importance, giving an overall view of the organization to the decision makers. The second piece of the decision-making process is the risk analysis. What kinds of disasters are likely, Benton asked, and how much damage are they likely to cause should they occur? Exactly how likely is a disaster to happen? Benton urged caution on this question; as he pointed out, the risk of being unprepared is potentially far greater than the cost of preparedness.Rike (2003) discussed the risk analysis that should be performed before beginning a business inventory analysis and disaster recovery planning. Risks should be analyzed in three different dimensions: the type of risk, the likelihood of the risk and the magnitude of the risk. Rike divided risk types into three general categories: natural threats and hazards, technical and mechanical hazards and human activities and threats. Rike noted that it is not always possible to predict some types of disasters, such as human activities, while some activities, such as common weather phenomena, can be planned for in advance.The third dimension of risk analysis is the magnitude of the potential risk. Rike identified three categories of magnitude: community-wide disasters, such as the Kobe earthquake and Hurricane Katrina as discussed above; localized to a building or a group of buildings, such as water leak or electricity outage; or individual, or only affecting a single organization, department or worker. A disgruntled w orker sabotaging data exemplifies this situation. Rike (2003) outlined a proposed schedule and method for designing a disaster recovery framework.The first step, obtaining top management buy-in and support, is critical in order to fund and implement the disaster recovery framework. It is also necessary for top staff to be informed of disaster recovery procedures because they will be ultimately responsible for its implementation. The second step Rike suggested was to establish a planning committee staffed with personnel from facilities, information technology and other critical departments who will be responsible for planning and implementing the policy. The third step in Rike’s method is to perform a risk assessment and conduct a BIA.The risk assessment should include determining the type of risk the behavior is subject to and its likelihood, the consequences of each scenario, the estimated cost of each scenario, replacement cost of data, equipment and staff recovery versus d isaster framework implementation, and the potential risk of the worst-case scenario occurring. Rike’s fourth step is determination of critical business facilities – business equipment, connectivity through Internet and phone lines, internal phone system, fire and fumigant systems and other facilities required to continue to operate.This step also includes the determination of disaster recovery procedures and documentation, vital records and personnel. Step five is the procurement and preparation of disaster recovery facilities, including offsite storage facilities, inventory of critical documents, policy and procedure manuals, master lists of staff contact information, vendor information, account numbers and other vital information, and a review of security and environmental systems. Step six is preparation of a written framework, taking into account the information gathered in steps one through five.Rike recommended that a standard format and software package should b e used to write the framework, rather than a customized solution. The framework should then be reviewed on a frequent basis to ensure continued alignment with company business and goals as well as changes to potential risk. The final step in Rike’s methodology is to test the written framework in order to make sure it is feasible. In order to begin developing a disaster preparedness framework, Benton suggested a company-wide IT inventory, detailing application, storage and server assets.These assets could then be ranked into categories depending on the importance of the business application and replacement cost of the equipment. There are two main ranking criteria. Recovery time objective (RTO) is the optimal maximum amount of time between disaster and service resumption. Recovery point objective (RPO) is the maximum amount of allowable data loss. Benton recommended a multi-tier system; at the top level should be no data loss and minimal downtime, or an RTO and RPO of close to 0, reserved for mission-critical services and business units that provide immediate revenue for the company.Business units should then be ranked in descending order according to their revenue generating potential and criticality. At its lowest level, Benton suggested that the RTO could be extended out to 72-96 hours. Rike (2003) identified key questions to use when conducting the BIA, including â€Å"how would the department in question operate if online systems were not available? † and â€Å"what is the minimum space required for the department to operate? † Benton prioritized two critical preplanning steps for disaster recovery.The first was data consolidation, or optimizing the protection of data by assembling all critical data in a single location for ease of backup and recovery. This can be established by use of a centralized file server in a small organization or use of a SAN or NAS scheme in a larger one. The second prerequisite, which can be more complicated than storage consolidation, is server consolidation. This step can be complicated because the performance profile of servers can vary, and processing and network access can vary between them. Benton further discussed the complexities of disaster recovery of data.Among the problems he noted are difficulties with logical consistency and order of recovery. If standard file backup technologies are used, these backups may not be logically consistent when they are recovered because they will be recovered to a slightly different point in time. Newer snapshot technologies can alleviate this problem, however. Another inconsistency issue is data replication, which may be interrupted when the write heads lose power. Finally, order of recovery will be important because some applications and servers will be dependent on other servers being restored first in order to maintain logical consistency.Benton also noted that disaster recovery should be maintained separately from periodic backups and arc hival procedures, because data storage procedures for periodic backups and archival procedures may not be adequate or appropriate for disaster recovery. Finally, Benton remarked that hardware designated for disaster recovery should be exercised in a non-emergency situation in order to ensure that it is properly configured and connected. Rike (2003) recommended a course of action in the event that the disaster recovery framework needs to be put into action following a physical disaster.The first step in Rike’s method is to perform a damage assessment in order to determine the scope and type of damage, the size of the area affected and what assets have been damaged. Rike’s second step is damage control by environment stabilization. In the event of physical damage, the damage can become permanent very quickly. Rike suggested that the physical environment must be stabilized by drying the air, removing water and soot particles, restoring air conditioning and whatever other cleanup can be performed.She suggested that material such as power generators, sump pumps to remove standing water, high-powered fans, plastic sheeting, absorbent materials and other cleanup equipment should be kept on hand in order to speed environmental stabilization. Once the environment is stable, Rike prioritized activation of the emergency team as defined in the disaster recovery framework, and then restoration and cleanup; this cleanup can in some cases be performed by business staff, but in some cases, such as a toxic spill or mold contamination, should be handled by specially trained professionals.While Rike discussed physical disaster recovery resulting from primarily natural or mechanical threats, Patnaik and Panda (2003) discussed data recovery from a malicious attack, addressing the human threat perspective. Malicious attack on data and application resources can come either from within the business (most often from a disgruntled employee) or outside the business (hacker s or industrial spies). As Patnaik and Panda noted, it is not necessarily possible to distinguish a malicious attack from a legitimate data transaction.According to the authors, requirements for protecting data from malicious attack include protection from unauthorized users, detection of hostile activities and damage recovery. Unfortunately, as the authors noted, in the case of a database storage system it is not always possible, even with these precautions in place, to catch all potential malicious transactions. This is particularly problematic when the malicious actor is someone who has trusted access to a system. If a malicious transaction is committed to the database, it is then seen as legitimate and may be propagated to other areas of the database through normal interactions.In order to prevent this spread, a quick recovery is required. Unfortunately, the authors noted, the size of database logs often precludes a fast recovery, due to extended periods of time spent accessing and applying the logs. In order to remedy this, Patnaik and Panda proposed a partitioned or segmented log solution which allows recovery of a malicious transaction to access only one of the log segments in order to perform recovery, rather than the full logs. This increases recovery time by an order of magnitude over applying the full redo log, according to the authors.Disaster recovery is a relatively inexpensive method of assuring business continuity in the wake of a natural, physical or human event or attack. The costs of not having a disaster recovery framework is, as Rike (2003) noted, extremely high – 93% of businesses which suffer a major data loss go out of business within five years. The experiences of Kobe University and East Jefferson Community Hospital demonstrate the value of a disaster recovery framework, as well as the importance of examining priorities when deciding on the framework.While physical premises may be covered by insurance in some cases, the same is not typically true for data, institutional knowledge, continued business and personnel. In order to implement a data recovery framework, one can follow Rike’s (2003) methodology, beginning with gaining the support of senior staff and the appointment of a disaster recovery planning committee, performing risk analysis, a BIA, and determining and putting in writing a disaster recovery framework and finally testing the framework to ensure its viability.These steps will help to protect the business in the event of a disaster, whether it is natural, mechanical or human in origin, and whether it is localized or community-wide. Research Proposal In order for a business to determine whether a disaster recovery framework is appropriate for their business, as well as to analyze the relative risks and costs of implementing a disaster recovery framework and replacing lost business assets and personnel in the event of a disaster. Following steps three and four of Rike’s methodology will provide a determination of utility of a disaster preparedness framework for a given business.In order to perform this analysis, the assent of senior staff members should be obtained. This analysis can be conducted in the following manner. First, perform Rike’s third step, that of risk analysis and assessment. This assessment should evaluate the potential threat to the business and its effects in three dimensions: type of threat (natural, mechanical or human), magnitude of threat (individualized, localized, community-wide), and likelihood (certain, likely, unlikely, extremely unlikely). Questions that should be asked during this risk assessment include: What is the natural environmental pattern of the geographic area? Is the area subject to earthquakes, flooding, hurricanes or other natural phenomena?†¢ Are current environmental control provisions such as Halon systems and fire detection systems up to date? †¢ How likely is attack by a human threat? Does the co mpany tend to have disgruntled workers, or no? How much access does any individual worker have to the data and application servers? †¢ What is the replacement cost of data, equipment and staff versus the cost of disaster recovery framework implementation? What is the potential for the worst-case scenario to occur?After the risk analysis is complete, step four of Rike’s methodology, determination of critical business resources, should be implemented. This step includes asking the following questions: †¢ What is the minimum amount of servers, Internet connectivity, communications capacity, space, documentation, data and staff the company can continue to operate on? †¢ Who is the critical staff? What is the critical data? How many single points of failure are there?Step four of Rike’s methodology, the business impact analysis or BIA, is the final method of analysis in determining the benefit of the disaster recovery framework to an individual organization. The BIA examines each aspect of a business’s function and determines which functions are critical to the business’s continued operation, as well as which functions can be brought back online after the most critical operations are stabilized. This examination should include all facets of a business, including seemingly unimportant functions such as facilities management, janitorial access and human resources records access.Business functions should be ranked on a matrix of direct and immediate benefit to the business, determined by their immediate monetary value as well as subjective perceptions of importance. Using a combination of a risk and cost analysis to determine the likelihood of risk occurring and the cost of implementation versus non-implementation, a business needs analysis to determine critical business requirements, and a BIA to determine critical business functions, it will be possible to determine whether a disaster recovery framework makes sense for a gi ven business, as well as what type of disaster recovery framework should be implemented.It is the author’s contention that disaster recovery planning makes sense for every business, and should be implemented at a level that will ensure business continuity and hasten recovery should a disaster occur. Customization of disaster recovery planning should be done using the risk, cost and business needs analysis to create a framework that will allow the business to secure its own interests in the event of a small or large disaster.No disaster recovery framework is perfect, and there can always be situations that remain unconsidered, as East Jefferson Community Hospital’s experience showed. However, having an initial disaster recovery plan in place made it easier to reprioritize resource allocation when there were unexpected issues. As von Moltke remarked, â€Å"no plan survives contact with the enemy† – but that is no reason not to plan.

Life, change, and stress. Holmes, T.H., and Rahe, R.H.(1967). The Essay

Life, change, and stress. Holmes, T.H., and Rahe, R.H.(1967). The social readjustment rating scale. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 11, 213-218 - Essay Example A list of life events commonly viewed as stressful was rated by subject based on the amount of stress they think it produced. Stress was described as a change from one’s stable state, so raters may interpret it as either positive or negative, as long as it produced a degree of adaptation, change or coping. This scale was named Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS). This scale was used by many researches to link life stress with the probability or existence of illness in a person. However, such psychosomatic illnesses were argued to also be caused by other factors such as one’s experience with a stressful event, coping skills, the strength of one’s physiological system, how one deals with an illness when it occurs, Sudden, negative events that an individual has no control of were found out to be more predictive of illness than positive controllable life changes. The SRRS has helped in many researches to determine this finding. However, this common-sensical result has put the SRRS in question as to its reliability and validity in predicting illness from stress. One criticism is that it does not take into account a person’s interpretation of a particular event. An example may be one’s interpretation of retirement. Person A may view it as a loss of a career, or being put ‘on the shelf’, while Person B may view it as the ultimate highlight of a fulfilling career because it spells the end of a lifetime of hard work. To rectify this, some researchers suggest that the SRRS would be more accurate if it would allow an individual to rate the event on some measure of severity in accordance to his own interpretation. Cohen, Kamarck and Mermelstein developed such a scale and call ed it the Perceived Stress Scale. Nevertheless, many studies still rely on the SRRS in studies with stress. The authors claim that the balance of negative and

Small Business Strategies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Small Business Strategies - Essay Example In recent years, truck foods have tremendously grown. This tremendous resurgence had been fueled various factors including technological advancements in the food production industry, post-recessionary factors among others. Technology has taken part in a significant role in the development of truck food industry. The manufacturers of food production equipment have effectively managed to develop equipment that are effective in terms their mobility, reliability as well as environmental friendliness. In most cases, food truck businesses are sole proprietorship businesses. In this form of business, the business is owned by one person. The most important feature of this form of business and in particular to a truck food business the regulations do not make any peculiarity between the business and the sole proprietor. Virtually, all government regulations that are associated the owner covers the business. Food trucks are a question to the same choice of concern just like other food service business. Most they have a fixed address to receive deliveries of supplies. In other cases, a commercial kitchen may be required for the preparation of food. There are various forms of permits and licenses that may be required for a food truck business to be operational. Additionally, the business may require certification from the public health departments to ensure that the health code is observed. Although the legal requirements and definition for food truck businesses may vary depending on the location some typical elements include business as well as liability insurance, a commercial vehicle operator registration of the truck, a work permit for the area in which the business will be operated, food handler certificate, the necessary driver licenses for the truck driver among other requirements (Weber 139). After acquiring the necessary legal requirements, starting a truck food business is just like any other form of business. Apparently, the

The Activity Based Costing System Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Activity Based Costing System - Assignment Example ta for input may be used differently according to different methodologies of the costing information system which may result in the production of varying outputs of information. A costing system is aimed at generating information to find ways to minimize waste in production. It should be taken care of that the benefits that are derived from the costing system should be higher than the resources used in designing, implementing and maintaining the costing system so that wastage is minimized. It is important to understand the fundamental working of the two systems i.e. The Traditional Costing System and the Activity Based Costing System in order make a comparison between the two. The traditional costing system The traditional costing systems use a single cost driver which is based on volume. Due to this reason, the traditional costing systems tend to distort the cost of the products. ... ies, the correct proportion of activity actually used for a specific unit of product is not exactly corresponding with one single cost driver (Akyol, 2012, p. 64). The conventional cost accounting system uses a volume based driver like the number of machine hours or the number of direct labour hours for assigning all the overhead costs incurred in the manufacturing process. But in almost all modern companies, the production process uses a combination of technology and manpower thus incurring overhead costs for both. But in the traditional costing model, the cost of goods sold is based on absorption costing and includes only the product costs as described in financial accounting. Therefore, the traditional costing model assigns the costs directly to the products before assigning costs to the activities involved in producing the product units first. The results generated thus a report about the information on the amounts spent on the product units but they do not give the reason as to why they are spent. This costing system is based on the application of costs to indirect cost drivers and the indirect costs are generally based on financial cost drivers. The traditional costing model uses a system in which the total costs incurred in the production is divided among the different products thus produced. Therefore, all the costs incurred in the production process have to be allocated to one or another product. The traditional costing model has the disadvantage that if overhead costs are cut down for reducing the total costs, only the signs of high cost are treated and the cause behind the higher costs remain unaltered. Also, the reduction of overheads is likely to result in the reduction of the quality of the products rather than in long term decrease in the cost incurred

Love , Statement purpose Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Love , Statement purpose - Essay Example The presentation was so welcomed and acclaimed by the teachers that I felt the passion and energy grow in me. This propelled me to work harder when I went to high school. Indeed, my results in high school were a reflection of my passion in the field of electronics. The exemplary performance in this field did not come by hard work alone but was accompanied by discipline, focus, and mentorship from various teachers. I must say that most of the personal development I have today is because of the modeling I have experienced during my undergraduate degree. The electrical engineering course was one of the toughest tasks I have ever undergone in my entire life. It involved solving complex problems and performing rigorous researches in various units within the course. However, I did not relent in growing both personally and professionally. Personal development began with my enactment to the head of student council in 2006. The student leadership enhanced my leadership skills. However, personal development went beyond to encompass intercultural activities for which I received acknowledgment from UAE embassy. All the challenges and opportunities I have experienced have taught me to optimize my mental resources to think logically about difficult and complex problems. In the process, I have gained profound problem solving techniques, which I plan to use in the field of business logistics or financial engineering. I do understand that a lot of investment goes towards developing a globally recognized intellectual in any field. I count this stage in my life as a transition from a modeling to a refining stage where I will refine and tune my abilities towards one specific career. Therefore, I plan to utilize all the available opportunities towards achieving my goals. As I have grown more mature, learned, intelligent, and focused, I believe that I am the best candidate for consideration for any

Needs Assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Needs Assessment - Essay Example In order to effectively utilize modern technologies, user manuals become an essential part of business needs because it facilitates employees with certain information related to the proper process of utilization of technological features or applications. Consequently, through the gained learning from user manual related to the operational process of a technological application, employees could support and be beneficial to the organization to achieve the organizational goals through performing effectively or systematically. Moreover, satisfying employees through providing the primary requirements by the organization also becomes an essential need for the organization in order to increase commitment of the employees. Audience Audience in this particular circumstance is the employees. Employees play an effective role for the organization by helping and leading the organization to serve in the market with its products and services. With the consideration to this aspect, an organization s hould motivate its employees to perform better with the assigned tasks. In order to motivate its employees and maintain their work-life balance, the organization should implement new technologies i.e. ... fore starting the work assigned by the organization, employees should study the operational objectives of the organization in order to perform effectively. Situation Performing in accordance with the organizational requirements and considered or implemented modern technologies, the employees could face certain difficulties, i.e. lack of proper operational knowledge regarding usage of MS Office and office e-mail system. Lack of adequate knowledge related to the identified technologies refers to the situation in which employees are unfamiliar with proper functionalities of the undertaken technologies by the organization while serving and supporting the organization to achieve the objectives effectively. Furthermore, it is also observed from the interview that certain number of employees also face various problems regarding proper utilization of the applications because the employees have got a lack of information regarding the appropriate operation usage. Moreover, the problems can be identified as lack of knowledge regarding adaptability of the applications, frequent occurrence of errors while handling the applications and inadequate knowledge regarding the features of the applications. Goals Every organization has certain goals while operating in the market. The primary goals of organization are to assist the prevailing customers of the market by meeting their requirements through providing quality products and services along with maximizing the organizational profits. Furthermore, other fundamental goals of organization can be identified as facilitating usage of modern technology and innovative ideas in accordance with changing needs of globalization. The goals of organization are to provide facilities to the employees, such as insurance, better salary, and good

Test on British politics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Test on British politics - Essay Example Due to her membership to the EU, Britain’s government is not only concerned with the internal organization but also the various international dimensions as prescribed by the stated rules and regulations within the group. EU membership has had significant impact on areas of law that European Union Law cuts across. As a result, the EU membership has resulted into significant constitutional changes in Britain. For instance, through being a member of the EU, Britain has to drop the ‘old constitution’ thereby ceasing to be a sovereign state. No doubt therefore, that being a member of the European Union significantly affected the constitution of Britain. Other than being a legal source to the constitution as well as defining the activities and inclusions into the constitution, Britain’s membership to the EU has given the European Law primacy over the various national legislations developed. Impact of Britain’s constitution as a result of being a member of EU is determined by the proportion of laws in Britain that are derived from the EU laws. The proportion of laws, rules, and regulations derived from EU laws and incorporated into Britain’s constitution is significantly high hence indicating that the former has had significant impact on the latter. Another impact of the Britain’s EU membership on the constitution is the idea of task enforcing the law within Britain. Evidently, the enforcement of the constitution has been extended to the European courts and not to the Britain courts as it was earlier on.

What factors would lead to a rise in the cost of credit in an economy, Essay

What factors would lead to a rise in the cost of credit in an economy, and in what circumstances - Essay Example The formula, when applied, can show the annual rate of interest to be paid towards exhausting borrowed money. Acceptance of credit is often termed as a source of finance to a business due to the fact that it escalates with business expansion. (Siegel, et al, 1997) A nation’s central bank can determine the cost of credit in an economy by either raising or lowering it. For instance; in 1989 the bank of Japan raised the rates of discount by 0.5% to 4.25%. Once the new rate took effect immediately, it would help in stabilising the economy’s prices by curbing the pressures due to inflation and enhance economic growth. The discount rate is applied by the central bank while charging interests in the bank loans extended to other banks. Therefore, the raising of discount rates would amount to a rise in the cost of credit to the whole economy in entirety. An example to illustrate this instance of Japan is the immediate announcement by big banks in Japan, where they said that they would escalate the prime lending rates for long-term funds to 6.8% from the previous 6.5%. (Reuters, 1989) The apt measurement of the credit cost is the prevailing real interest rates in the economy. Market interest rates have been influenced by the inflationary levels and thus cannot present the true meaning of interest rates in the economy. Thus, it is the rise in the real interest rates in a nation that lead to a rise in the cost of credit in the market. Also according to the center for popular economics, the cost of credit in a country may rise due to an increase in taxes. If the real interest rates in an economy and which are reflected in the GDP deflator rose and the taxation levels did the same, they would have an upward effect on the credit costs. (Center for popular economics, 1896) A country’s economy depends so much upon the amounts of credit held by persons in it. Attitudes of people towards the credit can also change the course of things in the

Unit 1 Discussion Board Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 5

Unit 1 Discussion Board - Essay Example igh the strengths and weaknesses of the basic forms and choose the one -- or the combination -- that is most congruent with the strategy (Daniels, 2004). As the twenty-first century rapidly approaches, numerous questions are being raised in an attempt to guide health care policy toward greater social harmony, to alleviate social dilemmas created by competing sets of values, and to confront the realities of current health care economics. Instability, volatility, and incredible change are forcing a reexamination of societal values along with changing consumer expectations of health care (Kozier 2004). I agree with the statement that management is both science and art because it demands creative application of traditional theories and concepts. In healthcare, those values of individualism, competition, cost containment, efficiency, and technology that are currently driving health care policy and health care systems are also influencing nursings ability to provide quality care. A look to the past demonstrates the evolution of the changing scene in nursing practice. As health care increasingly runs along business lines, competition occurs through mergers, acquisitions, and the expansion into new markets (Mckenna, 1997). What becomes clear is that quality of care is not the major focus of the competitiveness. Reduced revenues have even led to a reduction in the registered nurse workforce as unlicensed assistive personnel are hired to reduce labor costs and act as nurse extenders. It is clear that new and creative approaches to health care and nursing care are needed (Daniels, 2004). Regulations in healthcare demand flexibility and creativity, new vision of old theories and practices. On the other hand, they stipulate strict limits and rules important for healthcare professionals. Now is a time of transition for health care institutions and health care in general (Kozier 2004). The issue of allocation of scarce health-related resources has become almost paramount,

Organizational change Essay Example for Free

Organizational change Essay Organizational change is everywhere, and its pace is increasing. Its objectives or why it is important is because after certain years of existence and evaluations there are areas and aspects in the organization that needs to be improved. Taking for example its quality of work life, at a certain point it needs to be elevated from where it was before. It can happen that during hiring time people are designated to wrong positions. Organizational change will enable the company to put the right people in the right place, to make them better people as their efficiency and utility will be to the maximum. In this way the company can adjust salary scale on the basis of the performance or output of employees. In the same way also in terms of personnel management, it can be an occasion for studying more specific positions for possible promotion or for trimming down extra baggage. Competition is so tight and for a company to meet the demands of the market an organizational change is important to have a higher quality of productivity and to improve certain strategies as to be in tune with the times. Technology comes and after sometimes new innovations are on the line again, to remain in ones business beliefs and practices the company will be left behind. Organizational change is important as it seeks to enhance its beliefs, values, attitudes, also its structures so that the organization can better adapt to competitive actions, technological advances, and the past pace of other changes in the business world. Another necessity for organizational change is brought about by some failures in the past in the training and orientation of the employees. The attempt to bring them to work without being able to let them carry or support the vision and failure to let the employees see that they are the central element of the organization brings poor result. Organizational change therefore is crucial to allow interplay of structure, technology and people working in it, to result to a higher quality of work life, adaptivity, effectiveness, better marketing strategies, and excellent productivity.

The Factors Affecting Marketing Marketing Essay

The Factors Affecting Marketing Marketing Essay Marketing is the activity and set of processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings which have value for customers, clients and partners. It is defined as the process of determining the needs and wants of consumers and being able to deliver products that satisfy those needs and wants. Marketing includes all activities that are necessary to move a product from the producer to the consumer, an example of marketing is window displays in travel agencies. Thomas Cook changes their window displays quite often as they have many holiday deals to attract their customers, displays have catchy slogans to invite them to find out more about that holiday and reasonable prices including a packaged holiday. The function of marketing is deciding as a whole what services and products the customer will want and what ways they will be delivered to the customer. It also helps a company to identify successful products for the marketplace and then promote them by separating them from similar products. There are seven main functions of marketing; distribution, selling, financing, market information management, pricing, product and service management and promotion. There are different aims of marketing; to increase awareness of the product or service, to increase market share, to research customer needs, to communicate with different customers and to solve any problems which involves affecting the process of marketing. Marketing mix is different elements of a products marketing plan which an organisation uses to meet their customers needs, this is also known as the four Ps; Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Product refers to physical products and services, the following are some examples of product decisions; brand name, styling, packaging, quality and repairs. Some examples of pricing decisions include; seasonal pricing, price flexibility, price discrimination and cash payment discounts. Distribution which refers to the place is all about getting the products to the customer, here are some examples of distribution decisions; order processing, transportation, distribution centres and channels and inventory management. Promotion represents the various aspects of marketing, its goals is to generate a positive customer response by following decisions which include; sales promotions, advertising, personal selling and public relations and publicity. An example of marketing mix is a new company who is starting up their own company is trying to spend more money on promotion in order to get themselves known, whereas at the same time an established business will need to monitor its prices and if needed they will make changes. Market segmentation is the process of defining a large market into clear segments by having similar wants, needs and characteristics; it has an objective to design a marketing mix which matches the expectations of customers. Market segmentation can be done in different ways using a combination of methods which include; demographic segmentation, socio-economic segmentation, geographic segmentation and psychographic segmentation. Demographic segmentation is separating your consumers to advertise the groups separately according to gender for example developing holidays for women, age for example designing holidays to meet the needs of the 18 to 30 age group and people over 55, and ethnic grouping. Whereas socio-economic segmentation is based only on occupation which is then advertised by the media to target people in an area. Geographic segmentation is collecting information according to the location of the customer so they know where there products are being sold which increases advert ising, an example of this is people living in a particular postcode area could be sent a holiday brochure. Whereas psychographic segmentation categorises there consumers according to motivation, lifestyle and personality types and this can be done by introducing new activity holidays. Marketing communication methods is part of the marketing mix which extends to all the areas of the organisation; this means the same marketing message can be presented in all areas of marketing through branding to customers and target audience. Marketing communication mechanisms, such as print, radio, television advertising, publicity and online advertising help promote a companys products and services. Using different methods of marketing communication allows the company to reach the widest audience. An example of marketing communication is tour operators such as Thomas Cook who advertise their holidays on-line followed by pictures, prices and activities they include within a destination and they advertise on shop windows to attract more customers to book a holiday within them. Thomas Cook also appears as a pop up if a person is on another website like Facebook in order to sell themselves and make them known. P2/M1: There are a variety of factors which influence marketing in the travel and tourism industry, this includes the negative and positive factors which have influenced the marketing decisions. On the next few pages I am going to explain the effect of all the factors and include examples in my answers from travel and tourism companies. Company Ethos is a companys defined set of beliefs and values which can be articulated in a mission statement, these statements are then advertised on websites and in an office reception area. They are very important as it tells customers what to expect as a product and gives an idea to employees about what the company wants to accomplish. Social responsibility is an organizations management heading towards the interests of the society in which it operates. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the commitment by a business in order to behave ethically and continue to contribute to economic development while improving the quality life of the workforce. Companies which meet their criteria can be listed which specifies to stakeholders that the company has suitable polices for CSR. A CSR strategy is all about managing the way a business deals with issues such as gender and supervising foreign workers, it helps ensure that a business has positive impact on people as well as the environ ment wherever it operates. The first example of company Ethos is the mission statement of the airline Easyjet which reads to provide our customers with safe and good value. To offer a consistent and reliable product and fares, appealing to leisure and business markets on a range of European routes. http://www.slideshare.net/esteewu/easyjet-presentation My second example is Thomas Cooks stock exchange overall price in December 2012 is  £48 and the change is 2.13%.http://www.lse.co.uk/shareprice.asp?shareprice=TCG My third example is British Airways objectives and strategies; they want to become the worlds leading global premium airline and to focus on customer service to help them create a sustainable future for their business. www.britishairways.com/cms/global/microsites/ba_reports0910/our_business/strategy2.html Consumer protection consists of laws and organizations which are designed to ensure the rights of consumers as well as truthful information in the marketplace. The laws are designed to prevent businesses who engage in fraud from gaining an advantage over competitors, they are a form of government regulation which aim to protect the rights of consumers. Consumer protection ensures that products purchased by consumers are safe to use, will meet all standards, that consumers have adequate  information  to make safe purchase and that marketers are prevented from using false methods to sell their products. An example of a consumer protection is the Data Protection Act 1998 which gave individuals a right of access to personal data, this is often collected when a person completes the purchase of a service or good from a company which consists of bank, contact details and any other important information. Personal data must be kept secure and up-to-date; this data can be held either on a computer or in paper files. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_protection_laws My first example is First Choice which is a tour operator who has regulations to protect the travelling public; they are protected by Air Travel Organisers Licence (ATOL). This will not allow customers to lose their money or become stranded. http://www.firstchoice.co.uk/about-us/who-we-are/ My second example is British Airways and its Data Protection Act; they treat all their information as confidential so therefore they protect every customers privacy. All personal information will not be passed onto third parties. http://www.bavirtual.co.uk/administration/privacy My third example is Thomas Cooks codes of practice to the Criminal Records Bureau; they treat all applicants fairly but however to assess applicants for positions of trust. http://www.thomascook.com/thomas-cook-careers/ Standards of practice are an alternative term for code of professional responsibility, an example of this is codes of practice; these are written guidelines issued by a professional association to its members in order to help them obey with its ethical standards. The British Code of Advertising is legal and honest, they value the principles, and they are prepared looking at responsibility within the society and the consumers and are also connected with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) who receives responses about rules on advertising. The ASA work includes acting on complaints and checking the media to take action against harmful or offensive advertisements. Their mission is to; be more effective with business and consumers, be an effective part of the response to social issues which are affected by advertising and making a success of regulating online advertisements. ASA is an independent body who checks samples of advertisements and work to publish standards of service so therefore they are committed to; resolve complaints without any delays, to deliver a high quality service, to be open about their procedures and the decisions in which they make, meet all their customers needs and respect the advertising industry and members of the public. My first example is tour operators such as Virgin Holidays who are subject to legislation in order to ensure the health and safety of their customers on their holiday. My second example is Ryanairs display advertising which is one of the most effective media formats achieving 82% of messages among the different passengers and overhead locker advertising is visible throughout the flight. http://www.ryanair.com/en/advertise My third example is First Choice sales promotion on their voucher codes which gives a boost to customers especially as they can get discount on their next holiday and money off on summer and winter flights. http://www.vouchercodes.co.uk/firstchoice.co.uk Political, economic, social and technological are factors that influence businesses, this is described as PEST analysis because the factors involved are categorized into four. PEST analysis helps an organisation to take note of external factors which are affecting its business; they help with the SWOT analysis which identifies threats and opportunities. SWOT analysis evaluates internal factors such as strenghts and weaknesses and internal factors such as opportunities and threats which influences the marketing. Political factors are related to government policy and administrative practices that can have an effect on something, these factors must be taken into account when considering a political change. These changes could involve employment laws which companies must therefore have respect for. Political  factors are how a  government  interferes in the economy, it include areas such as  tax policy,  labour law,  environmental law,  trade restrictions,  tariffs, and political stability. Political factors may also include goods and services which the government wants to provide and those that the government does not want to provide; www.puremoneymaking.et/pages/strategy_building/mission-vision/elements-of-pest.aspx therefore the governments have great influence on the  health,  education, and infrastructure  of a nation. International relations are an example of a political factor which is the relationship between countries, including the roles of states, organisations and corporations. It is the branch of political science that is concerned with the foreign affairs of and relations among nations, peoples and states. My first example is all tour operators have to be very careful of political incidents especially in all the different destinations they sell to their customers. My second example is the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) who gives up-to-date information on all safety techniques in the countries located all over the world. My third example is tour operators who can get all their passengers back home if something happens abroad such as an incident and so therefore they make sure that they will be safe out there with given advice. Economic factors are the resources that can influence a person on their everyday life and is the distribution of services and materials. Economic factors include economic growth,  interest rates,  exchange rates  and the  inflation rate; these factors have major impacts on how businesses operate and how they make decisions. www.puremoneymaking.et/pages/strategy_building/mission-vision/elements-of-pest.aspx An example of an economic factor is interest rates, it is the amount charged as a percentage by a lender to a borrower for the use of assets which can include cash and consumer goods. Interest rates  are typically  noted on an annual basis, known as the  annual percentage rate  (APR). Interest rates is charged or paid for the use of money, it is calculated by dividing the amount of interest by the amount of principal however the rates can change according to the result of inflation. Central banks generally tend to reduce interest rates when they wish to increase inv estment in the countrys economy; they are taken into account especially when dealing with variables like inflation, investment and unemployment. My first example is passengers travelling on different airlines have to pay air passenger duty only if their aircraft carries chargeable passengers. http://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/when-you-must-pay-air-passenger-duty My second example is interest rates in the Bank of England which holds interest rates at 0.5%; the reason they set interest rates is to keep the inflation as low as possible to preserve the value of money. http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/Pages/home.aspx My third example is exchange rates which affect a tour operators pricing strategy, this is because it can increase or lower the price of a product in store or abroad and prices of products from competitors can change. http://www.tutor2u.net/business/gcse/external_environment_economic_exchange_rates.htm Social factors are the facts that influence individuals personality, lifestyle and attitudes which include; the cultural aspects, health consciousness, population growth rate, age distribution, career attitudes and emphasis on safety. Trends in social factors affect the demand for a companys products and how that company operates. www.puremoneymaking.et/pages/strategy_building/mission-vision/elements-of-pest.aspx An example of a social factor is ageing population, this occurs when the median age of a country or region increases due to a rise in life expectancy and declining birth rates. Population aging is a shift in the distribution of a countrys population towards older ages, this is usually reflected in an increase in the populations mean and  median ages, a decline in the proportion of the population composed of children, and a rise in the proportion of the population that is elderly. Population ageing is widespread across the world and is most  advanced  in the most highly developed countries. http://coolgeography.co.uk/A-Level/AQA/Year%2012/Population/Population%20change/managing%20pop%20change%20new.htm My first example is ageing population in Japan; the elderly population which includes people over the age of 65 years hit a record of 22million. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1083097.stm My second example is the media which has a social influence on different cultures especially in America where media such as TV, magazines, movies and news media reflects and creates the culture. http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/The-Role-and-Influence-of-Mass-Media.topicArticleId-26957,articleId-26946.html My second example is holiday bookings to Madame Tussauds where you have the chance to see celebrity wax figures, the way these celebrities are made are amazing as they look real when you see them face to face. http://www.madametussauds.com/ Technological factors are influences which have an impact on how an organisation operates that are related to the equipment which is used within the organizations environment. The factors include technological aspects such as  RD  activity,  automation, technology incentives and the rate of  technological change. They can determine barriers to entry, minimum production level and influence  outsourcing  decisions and these technological shifts can affect costs, quality, and also lead to  innovation. www.puremoneymaking.et/pages/strategy_building/mission-vision/elements-of-pest.aspx An example of a technological factor is the internet which has changed the way customers book their holidays, on-line booking systems are used a great number of times by people for booking holidays as well as hotel accommodation and transport. Travel agents and tour operators are making use of new technologies now and again in order to market their services and products; this allows different companies to market via the internet. Technology has also changed the way that firms market their products, prices, places and promotions. My first example is the internet where now every customer prefers online booking for their holiday, this has affected travel agencies as they receive fewer customers to help book a holiday. My second example is Heathrow Airport and its self check-in scheme where the customer uses a computer to choose their seat and print out their boarding card and then take their baggage to the bag-drop facility. http://www.heathrowairport.com/heathrow-airport-guide/checking-in#selfservice My third example is new technology being brought out which is a good thing as it is benefitting each and every customer to carry out advertising via other companies as well as their websites. Environmental factors are a restricted element in the physical, cultural, demographic, economic, political, regulatory and technological environment which affects the survival, operations and growth of an organization. www.slideshare.net/Karvee/environmental-factors-business Environmental factors include ecological and environmental aspects such as weather and climate which may affect industries such as tourism, farming and insurance. Therefore growing awareness of the impacts of climate change is affecting how companies operate and the products which they offer. www.puremoneymaking.et/pages/strategy_building/mission-vision/elements-of-pest.aspxAn example of environmental factors is global warming which is an average increase in the temperature of the atmosphere near the Earths surface contributing to changes in global climate patterns. Global warming is often referred to the warming which can occur as a result of increased emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities. Another example of an environmental factor is natural disasters, this includes; earthquakes, avalanches, hurricanes, floods, mudslides, tornadoes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions. My first example is global warming which is a rise in temperature of the earths atmosphere and it can be good but if the thermal blanket gets thicker too much heat is kept therefore it is bad. http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/find_out/guides/world/global_warming/newsid_1575000/1575457.stm My second example is natural disasters which includes; floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes and tsunamis and most of the times they are unexpected and overwhelming. http://www.apa.org/topics/disasters/index.aspx My third example is Boris bikes which are bicycles named after Boris Johnson who is the mayor of London and the prices are as follows; 24 hours costs  £2, 7 days will cost  £10 and annual costs  £90. If the bike is damaged the charge will be up to  £300, late return charge will be  £150 and non return ch arge is  £300. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/14811.aspx All the factors which are mentioned above influences decisions on marketing which means companies may have to come to a conclusion to change their old products, change their prices, advertise new campaigns and make changes to marketing communications. Price and  competition  represent two of the strongest influences on marketing strategy which are classed as internal and external influences. For example, small businesses require direct short-term profits; therefore the marketing strategy introduces a high-performing product to a niche segment of the market before competitors. The business then generates as much profit as possible until competitors introduce a cheaper product and then it moves to launch a new product in a new market. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/influences-marketing-strategy-43431.html

Cases Against Mercer Canyons Inc

Cases Against Mercer Canyons Inc ABOUT THE COMPANY Mercer Canyons Inc. is a private company and operates as an agricultural firm. Located in Washington, the Firm provides carrot growing services to customers and has vineyards. Mercer Canyons also offers potatoes, grass seed, corn, garlic and organic products. CASES AGAINST COMPANY Mercer Canyons, Inc.s has been filed with breach of contract regarding recruitment and hiring of laborers in March 2014. There are two instances in which company has been filed cases against. These are: Ruiz Torres v. Mercer Canyons, Inc. filed in March 2014 Perez v. Mercer Canyons Inc. filed in January 2016 First will look at the Ruiz Torres issue which is regarding the Disclosure of Information and Underpayment of Jobs. RUIZ TORRES V. MERCER CANYON THE H-2A CLEARANCE ORDER Mercer Canyon undertook the H-2A temporary worker program which provides the domestic employers to hire workers from foreign country in order to fill their temporary agricultural jobs. For an employer to hire workers under this program, it first needs to submit a proposal clearance order to the State Workforce Agency (in Washington State, the Employment Security Department (ESD)), for review. Once the clearance order is accepted by the Workforce Agency, the employer needs to file an application for H-2A certification. An employers petition can only be approved if there are no sufficient local workers available. H-2A regulations asks employers to follow the duty, abide by the regulations and hire available local employees first. Mercer Canyon hired WAFLA to advise regarding the regulations of H-2A program. WAFLA- WA Farm Labor Association is a seasonal employers Premier HR association. WAFLA did all the procedures on behalf of Mercer Canyon. The clearance order was accepted and the company could employee the workers from March 24, 2013 to September 1, 2013 at $12.00 per hour. WAFLA assured that Mercer would comply with the regulations of the H-2A program (CIRCUIT, 2016). DISCUSSING THE BREACH There were 44 positions available under the H-2A program. Mercer hired only 22 domestic workers under the H-2A program. Among these, few were hired through WorkSource. WorkSource is and organization providing job referrals. Among the remaining 22 positions, Mercer hired only 19 foreign workers. These 19 workers arrived on May 2, 2013. Ruiz and Amador, the residents of Yakima Country applied to the company for work before the start date of the clearance order. They were qualified U.S. workers and were eligible for work under clearance order. These workers filed a suit in 2014 against Mercer Canyon, alleging that the company did not disclose the information regarding availability of higher- paying vineyard jobs under the H-2A temporary agricultural worker program and thereby misleading the local farm workers. Also, alleging that the company underpaid the domestic workers who were hired. On March 19, 2013, Amador went to Mercer Canyons offices and was informed by the Mercer employee that no work was available and he was never informed about the vineyard laborer jobs availability under the H-2A clearance order. Amadors claim was right because Mercer hired 19 foreign workers even though local workers were available for the job (casetext, n.d.). Ruiz Torres worked as a vineyard laborer at Mercer Canyons in 2012. He came back to the company to work again in 2013 as a vineyard laborer pursuant to the H-2A clearance order that paid $12 per hour. In his case, the company did not solicit his return as a vineyard laborer pursuant under H-2A clearance order and paid $9.88 per hour (casetext, n.d.). Judge Bastian certified an Inaccurate Information class and an Equal Pay subclass on April 8, 2015. The Inaccurate Information class, numbering approximately 600 individuals, includes the following members: All domestic migrant and seasonal farm workers who: 1) were employed as vineyard workers by Mercer Canyons in 2012; 2) sought employment at Mercer Canyons in 2013 between February 4 and June 15, 2013; or 3) performed vineyard work at Mercer Canyons between March 24 and September 15, 2013, and were not referred by WorkSource. Within this class, Plaintiffs identified an Equal Pay subclass, of approximately 200 individuals. This subclass is comprised of the following members: All domestic and seasonal farm workers who performed vineyard work between March 24 and September 15, 2013 for Mercer Canyons, were paid less than $12 per hour, and were not referred by WorkSource. The laborers were hired under the deceived workers class of certification which included following criteria: Workers who were employed by the company on 2012 Workers who sought employment at the company in 2013 before 50% of the Clearance Order Period elapsed Workers who were hired at the company in 2013 prior to 50% of the Clearance Order Period and were not referred by WorkSource This workers complaint fell under the violation of provisions of three Acts: Violating the Agricultural Workers Protection Act (AWPA) Violating the Washingtons Consumer Protection Act (CPA) Washington Wage Law Under Agriculture Workers Protection Act, section 1831 relates to seasonal agriculture workers and section 1831 relates to migrant agriculture workers. These sections state that: ÂÂ  No farm labor contractor, agricultural employer, or agricultural association shall knowingly provide false or misleading information to any seasonal agricultural worker concerning the terms, conditions, or existence of agricultural employment MERCER CANYONS TAKE Mercer Canyons appealed the decision on several grounds, including that several members of the class might not have been adversely affected because they would have not been hired or they may have not been seeking other non-vineyard positions at the time. Columbia Legal Services Attorney Lori Isley said that this case is about an employer taking advantage of the workers working in farm and who have contributed to the company and the community. He added that if the employer wants to benefit by hiring workers from forign labor market, employer has to abide by the rules (Federal Court Grants Class Action Status for Farm Workers Against Mercer Canyons for Unfair Deceptive Practices | Columbia Legal Services, 2015). HOW TO SOLVE Considering the issue, two questions are believed to provide the solution of the litigations: (1) Whether Mercer Canyons had a policy or practice to withhold information pertaining to H-2A jobs from job-seekers and current employees (2) Whether such withholding constituted providing false or misleading information concerning the existence of, or terms and conditions of, jobs . . . under the AWPA and CPA (CIRCUIT, 2016) Along with this a common question of Liability arises on the part of Mercer Canyon in the matter of disclosing the information on existence and pay-rate of the work under H-2A order. The individualized damages inquiries are common in the real-world scenario, especially in wage-and-hour disputes, and usually do not defeat certification. The laborers in this case had claimed the total amount of damage i.e. damaged caused to all class of laborers, rather than the individual calculations. Thus, mercer was made liable to the damages caused. Mercer had failed to keep the adequate records on accounting of each employees. It is a drawback for the company because company cannot show proof in the court. And the workers took the advantage of claiming an aggregate sum of money in the compensation. HOW DID MERCER SOLVE THE ISSUE The case was first taken at the district court where the court certified an Inaccurate Information class and an Equal Pay subclass, corresponding to plaintiffs claims. Then the case was taken to the federal court, where federal court agreed with the decision of the district court. Thus, despite of efforts by Mercer Canyons to prove themselves, they lost in February 2017 and decided to compensate $545,000 to the workers. A negligence on the part of the company lead it to pay a huge amount. WHAT NEXT CAN THEY DO TO BUID THE CONFIDENCE The company made a big mistake of not keeping the accounting records, the first thing the company needs to start with is to start maintaining the records of people and pay. Maintaining records helps and serves as a proof in cases like this Company needs to start abiding by the regulations of H-2A clearance order. And hence, hire the local employees first and pay proper wages. To ensure the confidence of the workers and other parties, company needs to have a proper communication among the parties regarding the issue. Explaining each party on what went wrong and what are the measures taken by the company to resolve the issue and make sure that such things does not arise in the future call of business. Company needs to keep one supervisor to keep a track of workers working on wage-pay. The supervisor can ensure on the workers satisfaction and can hear their problems. This would help the company solve any workers issue outside the court without getting into the companys reputation. PEREZ V MERCER CANYON On January 28, 2016, few plaintiffs filed a complaint against Mercer Canyon with respect to Mercers recruitment. These plaintiffs claim that Mercer Canyon asked them to appear for the interview. After the interview, they were asked to wait until they call for the start date and the rug test. Because of this the plaintiffs did not look for other job opportunities because they felt that their job at Mercer was approved. After a month, Mercer informed them that they are not selected for the job. Similar cases happened with few of the plaintiffs. Another plaintiff got selected after the interview and was waiting for the drug test. But then Mercer informed her that she is not hired because she left specific skills. Mercer in a way breached the contract by improper communication. The proceedings of this issue are yet to start. Mercer in this case does not abide by Good faith and Fair Dealings Standards. Mercer also excluded a class of people from being considered for an employment and thus engaged itself in Employment discrimination. Mercer Canyon should start gathering proper documents on its recruitment procedures to show proof in the court. It should also start gathering evidences and records. The company can also set the deal outside the court by making a negotiation with the plaintiffs. Both the cases look like one another in a way of miscommunication or employment discrimination. Because two cases are registered with the similar complaint, Mercer should focus on its communication to the employees and other parties. It needs to hire good staff members who are responsible for the proper flow of information among the company and to outside members. Company needs high concentration in managing the present or potential workers. REFERENCES (2015, April 09). Retrieved from Federal Court Grants Class Action Status for Farm Workers Against Mercer Canyons for Unfair Deceptive Practices | Columbia Legal Services: http://www.columbialegal.org/Farmworker-Class-Action-Granted-Against-Mercer-Canyons casetext. (n.d.). Retrieved from casetext: https://casetext.com/case/perez-v-mercer-canyons-inc CIRCUIT, U. S. (2016). RUIZ TORRES V. MERCER CANYONS. Washington.

The Art of Carrying Out Successful Drive-Bys :: essays research papers

The Art of Carrying Out Successful Drive-Bys   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  My mother has always said that any intelligent lady should be patient for her Prince Charming to come along one fine day. I do not necessarily agree. I mean, why wait? Any intelligent lady should manipulate everything in her sight until she is able to track down Prince Charming. There is no use in denying, each and every one of us carries the stalker gene, dominance varying. Stalkers can be either female or male, although studies have shown that male stalkers are more often than not called rapists. One of the missions most often carried out by stalkers is a drive by (DB). DBs usually take place on Friday and/or Saturday nights and it is when the stalker drives by the stalkee’s place of residence to see if the stalkee is home. DBs are purposely carried out with hopes that if the stalkee is home, the stalker perceives that the Stalkee is also having a horrible weekend, much like the stalker – therefore immediately improving the stalker’s tempera ment. To carry out a successful DB, the stalker has to convince him/her self that s/he is not really a stalker. There are usually two parts of the first phase, also called the convincing phase. This first step of convincing should take place in a quiet room, preferably with the stalker sitting down in a comfortable chair and convincing him/herself. The second step of convincing should be the stalker convincing his/her best friend to join in on the DB. If the stalker does not have any friends, s/he should proceed to the next step. If the stalker somehow does have a friend, the convincing thoughts should be something along the lines of, there is no harm in conducting a DB, DBs are normally harmless, it is not that often the stalkee is hospitalized after DBs are carried out, etc. Considering that the stalker is, well, a stalker, s/he should already know the way to the stalkee’s house by heart, regardless of whether not s/he was invited there by the stalkee before. It is at this point i n time when the stalker decides whether or not to change his/her attire to throw off the stalkee if s/he is to see the stalker. If the stalker decides go ahead with it, he/she puts on any type of clothing that the stalkee has never seen him/her in. Do not underestimate the power of a baseball cap.

An Analysis of William Carlos Williams Poem, The Young Housewife Essay

An Analysis of William Carlos Williams' Poem, The Young Housewife In this poem, Williams uses a series of images to capture a fleeting moment in time, an emotion of admiration and desire. The poem consists of three stanzas of varying length, and each share in a similar method in portraying the woman and the narrator's relationship with her. Each stanza starts out with somewhat broad statements about the scene, and as they each progress, they become more specific until the image is pinned down to a specific moment in time. After reading the poem the reader is left with three separate images, which describe the emotion/admiration felt by the narrator for the woman. Williams in the first stanza gives the reader a glimpse of the woman in "her husband's house". His description is somewhat voyeuristic, as the woman is in her negligee behind walls, and yet the reader is still able to see her. The poet also tells us the exact time, ten A.M.. This suggests that the woman while still in her negligee, is in no rush to prepare herself for the day. This is import...

Police Use of Force Essay

Police use of force is a tool that is taught to every Officer to help diffuses a situation, it is not meant to do harm, but to ensure the safety of the Officer and the people that are involved in the situation. In some rare cases there are Officers that abuse their power and with the use of excessive use of force on individuals is an issue, Officers not thinking of what the effects it has on the victim, the alleged perpetrator or the community that it occurs in. The ethical or unethical use of force is determined by the community, society, and often a judge and jury. Today’s society there are often electrical devices that capture uses of force which are often used against Law Enforcement, these devices often capture a use of force that had gone bad like in the Rodney King case for example . The Misuse of authority like in the case against Chief Charlie Beck in the Los Angeles Police Department the outcome and concerns with a case like this. The cause and effects of Police use of force in our society and the ethical and unethical outcomes it has. Police Use of Force Use of force is the â€Å"amount of effort required by police to compel compliance by an unwilling subject.† (National Institute of Justice) Police are given this special tool to help enforce their safety and the safety of others when in a dangerous situation, they are taught this through education and training that is kept up yearly to ensure they are the best they can be at all times. The ways that an officer can use force is verbally, physical-restraint, less-lethal force, and when necessary lethal force. â€Å"Police officers should use only the amount of force necessary to control an incident, effective arrest, or protect themselves or others from harm or death.† (National Institute of Justice) Unfortunately, at times there are some police officers have felt that they are above this rule and have used excessive force in unnecessary situations. This is a problem both ethically and lawfully. One of the most famous cases where use of force was abused is the Rodney Kin g beating, this case was national news. This case was a use of force that had accrued in California with the LAPD. Their Police Chief Charlie Beck is being accused of letting officers who have used excessive force go unpunished. It is important for all law enforcement officers to only use force when absolutely necessary and all verbal commands have been expired. In today’s society there is always someone watching and often with some type of recording device recording all actions of Law Enforcement to catch them in an unfavorable situation. Violating use of force protocol is unethical because it does harm to people who do not deserve it, it’s not just the physical damage it can do but the mental as well. It would also be viewed as unethical because it is not for the greater good or overall happiness of everyone. It also appears to makes the police officer look untrustworthy and uncontrollable. This was what happen in the case for Rodney King, who had beaten by three police officers while their supervisor watched. Unfortunately Mr. King was beaten with metal batons, stomped on, and kicked as he lay on the ground defenseless. King was being arrested after sending police on a high speed car chase, that could have injured many innocent bystanders, but that does not justify the actions that were taken upon him. While the officers were trying to arrest him, Mr. King had put up a fight, resisting arrest, so the Officers, shot him twice with a stun gun, unfortunately still he resisted. When he finally rose to his feet, t his is when the beatings began. Unfortunately for the Officers but fortunately for Mr. King, all of this was caught on tape. Even though it was apparent what the Officers had done to be unethical when the case went to trial all of the officers were found innocent. This verdict caused such outrage with many people who followed the case that soon after the verdict was announced riots erupted all over Los Angeles. This is a perfect example of society losing faith in our Criminal Justice System they see the proof of what the Officers had done wrong yet they hw were not held accountable for their actions. When things like this are released it makes our justice system look sloppy, unprofessional, and most importantly unethical. It is understandable that the officers were probably upset that King had sent them on a dangerous car chase and resisted arrest; however, once he was subdued they should have put the cuffs on him, and placed him in the police car, and take him away. Instead, it looks like these officers took out their frustrations on Rodney King brought justice they felt he deserved into the street without a judge or his peers or a right to a fair trial. This would be seen as unethical because it was not for the overall happiness of everyone, it did not do any good, and the officers did not follow by the rules. They took themselves and placed themselves above what society feels to be acceptable and they broke that trust. Another ethical case involving use of force is also in Los Angeles, California. This is a recent problem involving the Chief of Police Charlie Beck. Beck is being accused of not punishing police officers who have used excessive force. â€Å"Since Beck took over as chief in late 2009, the commission has ruled on about 90 incidents involving officers who fired weapons or used other deadly force. In almost all of them, Beck concluded the officers used force appropriately and urged the commission to clear them of wrongdoing. The board followed his guidance most of the time.† (Rubin) However, four shootings that involved three people being killed and another three wounded by gunfire the commission did not agree with the Chief. This did not persuade Beck to invoke punishment to the officers involved in the shootings. He agreed that one of the officers had been wrong in his choice to fire, but still did not punish him. The commission fears that the lack of punishment toward officers who use excessive force could be sending out the wrong message to members of the LAPD. I would agree with the commission that Beck is sending out the wrong message. If an officer is already lacking good moral judgment when faced with a dangerous situation they may over-react to it if they know there are no consequences for their actions. â€Å"Every day, law enforcement officers face danger while carrying out their responsibilities this is something they decided to do take an oath and are to abide by what they have been taught and represent. When dealing with a dangerous—or unpredictable—situation, police officers usually have very little time to assess it and determine the proper response.† (United) We can make sure that when faced with these situations police officers make the right decision through proper training. Such training could include knowing the Use of Force Model. As taught this model is a guide to what use of force actions are appropriate for each situation and should be carried out in such a manner. For example, if someone is assaultive (trying to cause bodily harm) the officer should use defense tactics to subdue the individual first trying all verbal communication before resulting in a physical altercation. Another training guide that is used is the Police Training Model, which w as created in 1999 by PERF and the Reno Police Department. This model â€Å"addresses the traditional duties of policing in the context of specific neighborhood problems and includes several segments on the use of force.† (United) It is very important for police officers to make ethical decisions while in the field. It is important because it is their duty to protect and serve. It is also important because we as citizens look up to law enforcement and if they are caught doing something unethical it can ruin the respect and trust we have in law enforcement. When faced with dangerous or a tough situation police officers need to be trained to quickly make the best and most ethical decision possible. Police officers like those who beat Rodney King should be punished and made an example of. It is not ethical to hurt someone just because you have the power to. â€Å"The criminal justice system is designed to enforce moral rules that have been written into the criminal law. Aristotle believed that justice consist of giving each person his or her due† [ (Jay.S, 2013) ]. Maybe the Police Officers in both cases felt they had to take on the ethical teachings of Aristotle. When looking at today’s society and if you go back as far as there is written proof the court systems and law enforcement rules and regulations have grown and developed into more evolved court system and law enforcement for society to follow. At one time it was not unethical to flogged or whip a person, this was to deter them from committing future crimes, this is where Officers like the ones in these cases may have gotten by with physical abuse and unnecessary of force. Fortunately for us as citizens we have constitutional rights and there are laws in place to protect us from unnecessary use of force and the citizens of The United States of America are allowed their freedom, a speedy trial among a group of their peers fair, representation and the right not to be harmed by those who hold authority by law in which they represent. We have ethical responsibility s citizens to follow the rules and regulation of our count try and they s Law Enforcement Officers have n ethical obligation to lead by example. References 1. Harari, O. (1993). Lessons from the Rodney King tape. Management Review, 82(8), 20. 2. Jay.S, A. (2013). Professional Ethics In Criminal Justice Being Ethical when no one is looking. 3rd edition. In A. Jay.S, Professional Ethics In Criminal Justice Being Ethical when no one is looking. 3rd edition (pp. 1-153). Upper Saddle River : Prentice Hall /Pearson. 3. Jefferis, E., Butcher, F., & Hanley, D. (2011). Measuring perceptions of police use of force. Police Practice & Research, 12(1), 81-96. doi:10.1080/15614263.2010.497656 National Institute of Justice. â€Å"Police Use of Force.† National Institute of Justice. Office of Justice Programs, 20 Jan. 2012. Web. 19 July. 2013. . 4. Matheson, V. A., & Baade, R. A. (2004). Race and Riots: A Note on the Economic Impact of the Rodney King Riots. Urban Studies (Routledge), 41(13), 2691-2696. doi:10.1080/0042098042000294628 5. Rubin, J. (2012, 04 16). Beck facing rare criticism Improper use of force is tolerated too often, police panel says. Retrieved from Los Angeles Times : http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/16/local/la-me-beck-discipline-20120416 6. Rubin, Joel. â€Å"LAPD to Hold Meetings on Use-of-force Policies.† Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 10 Sept. 2012. Web. 21 July 2013. . 7. Stuart, F. (2011). Constructing Police Abuse after Rodney King: How Skid Row Residents and the Los Angeles Police Department Contest Video Evidence. Law & Social Inquiry, 36(2), 327-353. doi:10.1111/j.1747-4469.2011.01234.x 8. United States Department of