Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Networking Standard Organizations Essay

Today I’m going to talk about the different organizations there are and the standards they set for networking. These organizations are ANSI, EIA and TIA, IEEE, ISO, ITU, ISOC, IANA and ICANN. They all instruct of a particular product or service. Many different organizations oversee the computer industries’ standards. These standards are essential in the networking world, they ensure network designs compatibility. ANSI ANSI (American National Standards Institute) is an organization that has more than a thousand representatives from industry and government who both determine standards for the electronics industry and other fields, such as chemical and nuclear engineering, health and safety, and construction. This organization does not determine that manufacturers comply with its standards, but requests are voluntary. EIA and TIA There are two related organizations called EIA and TIA. EIA (Electronic Industries Alliance) is a trade organization that is composed of representatives from electronics manufacturing firms in the United States. A subgroup of EIA that merged with the former United States Telecommunications Suppliers Association (USTSA) formed TIA (Telecommunications Industry Association). (American National Standards Institute, 2012) EIA sets standards for its members and helps write ANSI standards and lobbies for legislation promising to the growth of the computer and electronics industries. It focuses on standards for information technology, wireless, satellite, fiber optics, and telephone equipment’s. Both EIA and TIA set standards, lobby governments and industry, and sponsor conferences, exhibitions, and forums in their areas of concern. IEEE IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) is a worldwide society composed of engineering professionals. They also maintain a standard board that creates its own standards for the electronics and computer industries and contributes to the work of other standards-setting bodies like ANSI. (Electronics Industries Alliance, 2012) To promote development and education in the electrical engineering and computer science fields is their goals. They host numerous symposia, conferences, and local chapter meetings and publish papers designed to educate members or technological advances. ISO ISO (International Organization for Standardization) located in Geneva, Switzerland, is a combination of standards organizations representing 157 countries. (Electronics Industries Alliance, 2012) Their goal is to establish international technological standards to facilitate worldwide exchange of information and barrier-free trade. It applies the fields of textiles, packaging, distribution of goods, energy production and utilization, shipbuilding, and banking and financial services. ITU ITU (International Telecommunication Union) is a specific United Nations agency that regulates global telecommunications, including radio and TV frequencies, satellite and telephony specifications, networking infrastructure, and tariffs applied to global communications. (Electronics Industries Alliance, 2012) It provides rising countries with technical expertise and equipment to better those nations’ technological bases. ISOC ISOC (Internet Society) is a professional membership society that provides help to establish technical standards for the internet. Their concern involves keeping the internet accessible with its rapid growth, information security, and stabilizing addressing services and open standards across the internet. They consist of thousands of internet professionals and companies from 90 chapters worldwide. (Dean, 2009) IANA and ICANN A nonprofit group called IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) kept records of available and reserved IP addresses and determined how addresses were doled out. It coordinated its efforts with three RIRs (Regional Internet Registries): ARIN (American Registry for Internet Numbers), APNIC (Asia Pacific Network Information Centre), and RIPE (Rà ©seaux IP Europà ©ens ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is a private, nonprofit corporation. (American National Standards Institute, 2012) They are mostly responsible for IP addressing and domain name management. Technically though, IANA continues to perform the system administration.

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Emerald City

Most people are pursuing a dream. The â€Å"American Dream† is the ideal of freedom and opportunity of achieving success and wealth; the belief that every individual can rise from rags to riches with a little grit, imagination and hard work. A dream could just as well be about personal fulfilment. We might not even need the success and glamour if we meet these personal dreams. Nevertheless we pursue opportunities in desire and expectation of living a better life, a life more glamorous and prosperous than our present. In Emerald City by Jennifer Egan, the main character Rory, an ambitious guy from Chicago, is seeking the â€Å"American Dream†.He has moved to New York in hope of reaching the glitter and success he expects the city to offer. Rory has built up expectations and ideas about New York through reading novels and envisioned the glamorous New York life he might be living even before arriving in the big city. In the beginning of the story Rory appears rather vain a nd irrational. He strives towards fitting into his own idea of the New York jet set, therefore he changes his behaviour: â€Å"†¦But no matter how much Rory ate, he stayed exactly the same. He took up smoking instead, although it burned his throat†1.He is pretending to be someone he is not, believing this change of behaviour will make him successful – â€Å"Fake it till you make it†. To emphasize this, Egan uses the Elmer’s glue as a catalyst to get Rory to reflect on his artificial life: the glue might look more appealing, but it is useless and fake as milk2. In the same manner Rory is misusing himself – he is not true to himself. â€Å"Rory had found this disturbing in a way he still didn’t quite understand†3. On a subconscious level he might be aware of this. Yet, it is not until the end of the story Rory realizes this.As one of the world’s largest cities New York, â€Å"The Big Apple†, is the epitome of a metrop olitan, emanating glory, greatness, opportunities as well as temptations. The immensity and diversity of the city makes the individual seem insignificant. Consequently you tend to get lost in the sea of people, feeling unimportant. New York represents today’s civilization of people trying to fit in. Like Rory and Stacey, everybody is reflecting themselves in other people in hope of being recognized and acknowledged. In addition the role of New York has a great importanceregarding the relationship between Rory and Stacey. â€Å"And it struck him that this was New York: a place that glittered from a distance even when you reached it†4. In this sudden revelation Rory realizes that New York always will be full of temptations and achievable success, and he understands that Stacey for him is the true glittering matter, he has been searching for. â€Å"He searched the dark shopfronts for something, some final thing at the core of everything else, but he found just his own re flection and Stacey’s†5. The relationship between Rory and Stacey seems to be the only deep matter in the story.Rory has the option of choosing one of the successful models. Nevertheless, he chooses Stacey: â€Å"†¦a failing model whom he adored against all reason†6. The narrator is a third-person narrator limited to Rory. As a reader you are not acquainted with Stacey’s feelings for Rory. It is implied that Stacey and Rory do not prioritize getting to know each other deeply. They are both too busy in their search of fulfilling their individual dreams. Yet, this changes in the end where Stacey realizes and accepts that her dream in New York presumably never will come true.Rory believed he had the power to crush Stacey by telling her she was not good enough succeeding as a model: â€Å"†¦ it would take so little, he thought, to crush her†7. But when he tells her this in the end she reveals an inner strength and ability to see new possibilit ies: â€Å"Rory held his breath, watching in alarmed amazement as the slender wand of her body swayed against the yellow sky. She had no trouble balancing [†¦] â€Å"If it doesn’t work†, she said, â€Å"then I’ll see the world some other way†8. Stacey is letting go of her dream, and she is able to see the world from a different angle.She may not know what will happen, but for the first time in the story she is showing heartfelt affection towards Rory: â€Å"She took Rory’s face in her hands and kissed him on the mouth – hard, with the fierce, tender urgency of someone about to board a train†9. This tells the reader that she does have feelings for Rory after all. The title â€Å"Emerald city† could be interpreted in several ways. The reflections in an emerald could represent how the people in New York are mirroring themselves in their unattainable conceptions of what it is like to be successful. That everybody is trying to be someone else, someone more successful.The title could moreover relate to the famous children’s novel â€Å"The wonderful wizard of Oz†, where everyone who enters the beautiful capital â€Å"Emerald City† has to wear green-tinted eyeglasses in order to protect themselves from the glory of the city. The city is not a special city, but the glasses make the city look green, although the city is no greener than every other city. Emerald City would in this allegory be New York, and clarify that New York is like any other big city. This would additionally explain why Rory disappointingly does not feel more successful than other people in New York.In â€Å"Emerald City† Rory and Stacey are pursuing their dreams of making it in New York. It is not until the end they realize that their hopes of succeeding is insignificant, as their dreams of a better life in fact are personal needs of acknowledgement and love. We are taught to believe that being successful will make us feel happier – that is what today’s society tells us. We rarely consider what could happen if our hopes of being successful do not live up to our expectations, if our life of chasing success does not make us happy or if being successful does not make us feel any more special.

Monday, July 29, 2019

Dividend Policy & Capital Structure

â€Å"Comparative Analysis of Dividend Policy & Capital Structure† Prepared For: Lutfur Rahman Senior Lecturer, Department of Business Administration, East West University. Course Code: FIN-435 Course Title: Managerial Finance Prepared By: Md. Habibur Rahman Utpal Kumar Ghosh ID: 2006-2-10-175 ID: 2006-2-10-179 Date of Submission: August 11, 2009 East West University 43, Mohakhali C/A, Dhaka-1212 Introduction ? ? Origin of the Report: Mr. Lutfur Rahman, Senior Lecturer, East West University, has assigned this report to us, as this report is a requirement of the course â€Å"Managerial Finance†. Objectives of the Report: The broad objective of the report is to build a strong familiarity about the Dividend policy & Capital Structure to measure the performance of the company. By preparing this report we are trying to acquaintance of the overall dividend policy & capital Structuring. Moreover the superficial objective of the report is to acquire knowledge about the insights of interpreting the ratios. Preparing this report such kind of topic is extremely beneficial for us as the students of finance. Scope of the Report: This report is based on the dividend policy & capital Structuring. Through this report we are try to focus on the area related to the financial performance of the companies. We particularly focus on dividend policy & capital Structuring and related ratios; as those are the major indicator of the performance assessment of a firm. Methodology: For execution of the report we use MS office software. Topic of the report is not permitting us to input data from primary sources. As the report must be factual, the data source of this report is basically secondary sources. We gathered our relevant data from the different periodicals published by the two cement companies. We also collect our relevant information from different books as well. We also collected some data from the internet to broaden our scope of analysis. Dhaka Stock Exchange websites, Meghna Cements mills website, Confidence Cement Ltd, websites are few of them. Limitations: †¢ Inadequate knowledge in studying reports. †¢ Lack of in-depth understanding of certain terms and concepts prevented us from going into details. †¢ Lacks of research. †¢ Unavailability of updated data. †¢ Time limitation is also been there. †¢ Lack of information and coordination. Confidentiality of data was another imperative barrier that was faced during the conduct of this study. †¢ Power Crisis. ? ? ? 2|Page Dividend Policy ? Dividend: Dividends are payments made by a corporation to its shareholders. It is the portion of corporate profits paid out to stockholders. When a corporation earns a profit or surplus, that money can be put to two uses: it can either be re-invested in the business (called retained earnings), or it can be paid to the shareholders as a dividend. Many corporations retain a portion of their earnings and pay the remainder as a dividend. For a joint stock company, a dividend is allocated fast as a fixed amount per share. Therefore, a shareholder receives a dividend in proportion to their shareholding. For the joint stock company, paying dividends is not an expense; rather, it is the division of an asset among shareholders. Public companies usually pay dividends on a fixed schedule, but may declare a dividend at any time, sometimes called a special dividend to distinguish it from a regular one. Cooperatives, on the other hand, allocate dividends according to members' activity, so their dividends are often considered to e a pre-tax expense. Dividends are usually settled on a cash basis, as a payment from the company to the shareholder. They can take other forms, such as store credits (common among retail consumers' cooperatives) and shares in the company (either newly-created shares or existing shares bought in the market. ) Further, many public companies offer dividend reinvestment plans, which automatically use the c ash dividend to purchase additional shares for the shareholder. ? Forms of Payments: ? Cash dividends (most common) are those paid out in the form of a check. Such dividends are a form of investment income and are usually taxable to the recipient in the year they are paid. This is the most common method of sharing corporate profits with the shareholders of the company. For each share owned, a declared amount of money is distributed. Thus, if a person owns 100 shares and the cash dividend is $0. 50 per share, the person will be issued a check for 50 dollars. ? Stock dividends are those paid out in form of additional stock shares of the issuing corporation, or other corporation (such as its subsidiary corporation). They are usually issued in proportion to shares owned (for example, for every 100 shares of stock owned, 5% stock dividend will yield 5 extra shares). If this payment involves the issue of new shares, this is very similar to a stock split in that it increases the total number of shares while lowering the price of each share and does not change the market capitalization or the total value of the shares held. ? Property dividends are those paid out in the form of assets from the issuing corporation or another corporation, such as a subsidiary corporation. They are relatively rare and most frequently are securities of other companies owned by the issuer, however they can take other forms, such as products and services. ? Other dividends can be used in structured finance. Financial assets with a known market value can be distributed as dividends; warrants are sometimes distributed in this way. For large companies with subsidiaries, dividends can take the form of shares in a subsidiary company. A common technique for â€Å"spinning off† a company from its parent is to distribute shares in the new company to the old company's shareholders. The new shares can then be traded independently. |Page ? Types of Dividend Policies: ? Constant-Payout-Ratio Dividend Policy: A dividend policy based on the payment of a certain percentage of earnings to owners in each dividend period. ? Regular Dividend Policy: A dividend policy based on the payment of a fixed-dollar dividend in each period. Often firm that use this policy increase the regular d ividend once a proven increase in earning has occurred. ? Low-Regular-and-Extra Dividend Policy: A dividend based on paying a low regular dividend, supplemented by an additional dividend when earnings are higher than normal in a given period. Argument for Dividend Relevance : Gittman (10th edition) divided stock into two types, such as common stock and preferred stock. He also showed that dividends are the outcome of investment. So, common stocks are an ownership claim against primarily real or productive asset (Higgins, 1995), but he also said that if the company prospers, stockholders are the chief beneficiaries, if it falters, they arc the chief losers. Smith (1988) presented that stocks arc one of the most popular forms of investment. People buy stocks for various reasons: Some are interested in the long-term growth of their investment by buying low priced stock of a new company in the hope of substantially growth of share price over the next few years. Another reason he suggested that in a well established firm stockholders expect the stock growth will be stable over the long run. (Smith. 1988). Stockholders expect dividend but it is not promised (Gitman, 10th edition). Common stocks are hold by true owners of the business. Sometimes they are known as residual owners’ as they receive whatever left after winding up of the company (Gitman, 10th edition; Higgins 1995). Another type of stock is known as publicly owned stock. Common stock owned by a broad group of unrelated investors or institutional investors is called as publicly owned stock. However, all common stock of a firm owned by a small group of investors is denoted as closely owned stock. When all the stock is owned by a single person is known as privately owned stock. Due to the limit of number of share, stock can be classified in to four types. Such as authorize share, outstanding share, treasury stock and issued stock (Gitman, 10th edition). Authorized shares represent the maximum number of shares a firm allows to issue. Outstanding shares are hold by public. Treasury stock is repurchased by firm itself and it is no longer considered as outstanding share. Issued shared are the shares that have been put into circulation. Recently stock repurchase option is very popuLar as it is able to increase stock value by decreasing outstanding stock number (Port. 1976). Port also suggested that firms should avoid issuing stock to pay dividend as they slow down company growth. According to Short and Wclsch (1990), Johns (1998) and Port (1976), a dividend is a usually distributed in cash form to stock holders of a corporation approved by the board of director. It may also include stock dividend or other forms of payment. A stock dividend represents a distribution of additional shares to common stockholders (Higgins, 1995). On the other hand. Ross et al. (2005) divided earnings into two parts; either it is retained or paid as dividend. Whereas Wild et al. (2001), Johns (1998) and Kieso et al. (2004) argued that retained earnings are the primary source of dividend distribution to the stockholder. Dividends are only cash payments regularly made by corporations to their stockholders (Johns, 1998). He also specified that they are decided upon the declaration by the board of the directors and can range from zero to virtually any amount the corporation can afford to pay. 4|Page Jones (2005) said that dividends are the only cash payment a stockholder receives directly from firm and these are the foundation of valuation for common stocks. Stock price response to an unexpected dividend change announcement is related to the dividend preferences of the marginal investor in that firm where other things remaining same (Denis et al. , 1994). In addition, a company. Which changes dividend policy, is expected to xperience upward or downward trends in share returns (Gunasekarage et al. , 2006). They also said that for the initiating firms, the share prices continued to rise even after the initial public offering (IPOs). Higgins (1995) said that if the company will have less money to invest or it will have to raise more money from external sources to make the same investments stockholders cl aim on future cash flow, which reduces share price appreciation. Moreover, during dividend announcement period stock price also fluctuate due to announcement of dividend. Mulugetta et al. 2002) examined the impact of Standard and Poor are ranking changes on stock prices. In addition, Affleck-Graves & Mendenhall (1992) found that stock price reacts after 8 days on average up to 54 days of such earning announcement. With this believe, Hampton (1996) said that value of stock increase by more dividend and share remain undervalued by lower dividend policy. In addition, he also showed that there are two schools of thought regarding with the effect of dividend on stick price, one is dividends do not affect market price and the another one is dividend policies have profound effects on a firm’s position in the stock market. Benartzi et al. (1997), Ofer and Siegel’s (1987) and Bae (1996) found a positive correlation between share price and dividend. Furthermore. Campbell and Shi ller (1988) found a relationship between stock prices, earnings and expected dividends and he drives a conclusion that earnings and dividends is powerful in predicting stock returns over several years. Wilkic analyzed a 76 months share price index and dividend announced. He found a correlation coefficient. Which was under 0. 7 for the period 76 months and he also get that the maximum value of the regression coefficient being reached after 79 months. Moreover. ShilLer (1984. 1989) recommended investors in his study to buy the stocks when price is low relative to dividends and to sell stocks when it is high payoffs. On the other hand to their opinion, Jensen and Johnson (1995) suggested that, dividend cut results reduction in share price. More interesting matter is that if capital markets are perfect, dividends have no influence on the share price (MilLer and Modgliani, 1961). MiLler and ModgLiani (1961) also states that if the market is imperfect, dividend may affect stock price. ? Current Practices of Dividend Policy in Bangladesh: As Bangladesh is a developing country, the corporate culture is growing very slightly in our country. Dividend policy is a major financing decision that involves with the payment to shareholders in return of their investments. Every firm operating in a given industry follows some sort of dividend payment pattern or dividend policy and obviously it is a financial indicator of the firm. Thus, demand of the firm’s share should to some extent. Dependant on the firm’s dividend payment pattern. Many investors like to watch the dividend yield, which is calculated as the annual dividend income per share divided by the current share price. The dividend yield measures the amount of income received in proportion to the share price. If a company has a low dividend yield compared to other companies in its sector, it can mean two things: (1) the share price is high because the market reckons the company has impressive prospects and isn’t overly worried about the company’s dividend payments, or (2) the company is in trouble and cannot afford to pay reasonable dividends. At the same time, however, a high dividend yield can signal a sick company with a depressed share price. Dividend yield is of little importance for growth companies because, retained earnings will be reinvested in expansion opportunities, giving shareholders profits in the form of capital gains. 5|Page MEGHNA CEMENT limited (MCML) ? OVERVIEW OF THE COMPANY The Meghna Cement Mills Limited (MCML) was the first undertaking Bashundhara Group in the manufacturing sector. This enterprise produces world-class cement and, as a testimony to this, stands the fact that the concern has been awarded the ISO-9001 certification for sustained quality control effort. The Company markets its cement under the registered trademark of King brand†. ? Basic Information: Market Category: A 400. 0 225. 0 100 2250040 Foreign 0 Public 10 Listing Year:1995 Authorized Capital in BDT (mn) Outstanding Capital in BDT (mn) Face Value Total no. of Securities Share Percentage Sponsor/Director 58 Govt. 0 Institute 32 Graph 1: The Market price of share of MCML in 2008-2009 (Highest Value: 678. 25, Lowest Value: 336. 25) 6|Page ? Dividend Policy Followed By Meghna Cement Ltd: EPS Dividend Payout Cash Ratio 24. 15 279 216% 25. 00 22. 80 348 164 25. 00 7. 37 246 75 25. 00 5. 93 277 54 25. 00 5. 35 352 46 30. 00 65. 6 1502 75 130 13. 12 300. 75 26 Table 1: Financial Data of MCML from 2004-2008 P/E ratio Share Price(MKT. ) Dividend Bonus Share 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total 25. 00 25. 00 25. 00 25. 00 30. 00 130 26 Year 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Total Average 11. 57 15. 25 33. 38 46. 71 65. 86 172. 77 34. 554 Interpretation: According to the above information it is visible that the company is following regular dividend policy (according to definition as given above). From 2004-2007 though the profit has increased subsequently but it was not sufficient for payment of dividend at a rate of the preceding years to all share holders of the company. For upholding the benefit and interest of general public the sponsors shareholders/Directors have decided to give up their dividend during those years under review of maintaining 31 consistent dividend policy for the 30 general public shareholders. So the 29 board of directors of the company 28 pleased to recommend cash dividend 27 26 @ 25% on par value of shares for the 25 public share holders taking into 24 consideration the profit and liquidity 23 position of the company during that 22 period under reviewed. 004 2005 2006 2007 2008 But In 2008, the EPS increased by almost Total Dividend 25 25 25 25 30 Paid 50% from previous year. So the directors ? Dividend decided to increase the dividend percentage to 30% instead of 25%. The company paid 25tk per share as dividend from 2004-2007 but in 2008 as the income increased by almost 50% than the previous year it paid a dividend of 30tk for the earnings of 2008. Total Dividend Paid Share Price(MKT. ) 400 350 Share Price (MKT. ) 300 250 20 0 The dividend policy that followed by the company has an impact on its share price. 150 As the graph shows the share price has 100 an increasing trend. As the company 50 declared 25% dividend per share from 0 2004-2005 this was more than its EPS so 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 the share price increased and reached to Share Price(MKT. ) 279 348 246 277 352 350tk. But in 2006- 2007 the dividend was lower than its EPS so the share price declined and again increased in 2008 with an increase in dividend. 7|Page Confidence Cement Limited (CCL) ? OVERVIEW OF THE COMPANIES Confidence Cement Limited is the first private sector cement manufacturing company in Bangladesh established in early 90's with having 4,80,000 M/T annual production capacity at Chittagong, 16 K. M away from Chittagong port, besides Dhaka Chittagong highway. CCL is the first ISO-9002 certified cement manufacturing in Bangladesh. It has a unique management system in quality Assurance, Marketing, Sales, and Procurements. It manufactures ordinary Portland cement. Our company aims to be the number one cement manufacturing company in Bangladesh, through continuous development and by producing high & consistent quality cement to meet all customers requirement at all time. To achieve these objectives CCL uses modern machineries, calibrated testing equipment's, computerized packing & raw materials mixing devices in its production process. Additionally the company frequently arranges internal & external training program for the staff of all level to develop the potentiality and skill of its human resources. CCL is always keen to keep the customers satisfied by proving the best possible service. ? Basic Information: Market Category: A 500. 0 209. 0 100 2090000 Govt. 0 Institute 25. 37 Foreign 0 Public 49. 17 Sponsor/Director 25. 46 Listing Year:1995 Authorized Capital in BDT (mn) Outstanding Capital in BDT (mn) Face Value Total no. of Securities Share Percentage Graph 2: The Market price of share of MCML in 2008-2009 (Highest Value: 627. 25, Lowest Value: 268. 5) 8|Page ? Dividend Policy Followed By Confidence Cement Ltd: Earnings per share -12. 65 10. 95 21. 65 27. 73 -14. 98 Diluted Earnings per share n/a n/a n/a n/a -13. 62 Net Asset Value Per Share 319. 83 326. 28 332. 93 345. 66 330. 67 Diluted Net Asset Value Per Share n/a n/a n/a n/a 300. 62 Net Profit After Tax (mn) -24. 04 20. 81 41. 13 52. 8 -28. 46 Year End P/E -9. 50 10. 78 6. 40 13. 30 n/a % Dividend % Dividend Payout Ratio 46% 69% 54% Year 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 5. 00 5. 00 15. 00 15. 00 10%B Interpretation From the above information it is visible that the company follows the regular dividend policy. That is the policy of the company is to pay a perticular dividend amount and if there’s higher earning for perticular year and if earning pe r share increases they also increase their Dividend amount. In 2004, due to tough competition the company couyld not earn desiered profit. This year EPS is tk(12. 65). However considering the 16 interest of shareholders the board of 14 directors decleared 5% dividend from 12 dividend equalization fund. In 2006 and 10 2007 , as the EPS increases than the 8 previous year so the board of director 6 decided to pay dividend of 15% per 4 share. But in 2008 the company 2 decleared a 10% bonous dividend which indicates the company has used 0 2004 2005 2006 2007 their earnings for farther investment so the company didn’t give any cash % Dividend 5 5 15 15 dividend. Dividend From the graph it is easily indentifiable that the share price had strong relationship with dividend. In 2004 the company decleared a dividend of 5% per share when it had a EPS of (12. 65) the increased. In 2006-2007 for an increased dividend of 15% the share price also maxmized and again declined in 2008 due to 10% Bonous dividend decleared by the company. Share Price (MKT) 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 Share Price (MKT) 2004 289 2005 250 2006 225 2007 368. 8 2008 318 9|Page Capital Structure Capital structure refers to the way a corporation finances its assets through some combination of equity, debt, or hybrid securities. A firm's capital structure is then the composition or ‘structure' of its liabilities. For example, a firm that sells $20 billion in equity and $80 billion in debt is said to be 20% equity-financed and 80% debt-financed. The firm's ratio of debt to total financing, 80% in this example, is referred to as the firm's leverage. In reality, capital structure may be highly complex and include tens of sources. Gearing Ratio is the proportion of the capital employed of the firm which come from outside of the business finance, e. g. by taking a long term loan etc. The Modigliani-Miller theorem, proposed by Franco Modigliani and Merton Miller, forms the basis for modern thinking on capital structure, though it is generally viewed as a purely theoretical result since it assumes away many important factors in the capital structure decision. The theorem states that, in a perfect market, how a firm is financed is irrelevant to its value. This result provides the base with which to examine real world reasons why capital structure is relevant, that is, a company's value is affected by the capital structure it employs. These other reasons include bankruptcy costs, agency costs, taxes, information asymmetry, to name some. This analysis can then be extended to look at whether there is in fact an optimal capital structure: the one which maximizes the value of the firm. 10 | P a g e Capital Structure Meghna Cement Mills LTD. Items Total Current Asset Fixed Asset Total Asset Current Liability Long term Debt Total Debt/ Total Liability Total Equity Share Outstanding Net Income Earnings Before interest and tax Retained Earnings Interest Charges/ Financial Expenses Market Price Per Share Debt to Total Assets Long term Debt ratio = Debt to Equity = Year 2004 1,003,252,653 1,422,581,752 2,500,368,171 952,991,742 923,377,280 1,885,115,488 615,252,683 2,250,040 26,021,799 195,208,573 390,248,683 162,297,008 279 Financial Information Year Year 2005 2006 979,316,891 1,427,560,032 2,406,876,923 970,701,416 812,529,812 1,783,231,228 623,645,695 2,250,040 34,311,762 176,319,775 398,641,695 67,785,759 3 48 2004 75. % 2005 74. 1% 1,189,929,096 1,397,087,008 2,587,016,104 1,197,987,718 718,168,213 1,916,155,931 670,860,173 2,250,040 75,106,875 201,332,892 445,856,173 118,067,797 246 2006 74. 1% Year 2007 1,064,749,181 1,378,737,392 2,443,486,573 1,128,318,964 787,868,674 1,916,187,638 527,298,935 2,250,040 105,096,707 236,610,206 88,286,676 120,127,996 277 2007 78. 4% Year 2008 1,588,397,601 1,307,816,629 2,896,214,230 1,443,833,003 833,152,269 2,277,035,172 619,228,958 2,250,040 148,181,023 278,378,580 57,399,542 99,849,906 352 2008 78. 6% Long Term Debt Solvency 6. 9% 33. 8% 27. 8% 32. 2% 28. 8% 3. 06 2. 86 2. 86 3. 63 3. 68 Times Interest Earned = 1. 20 2. 60 1. 71 1. 97 2. 79 Interpretation: According to the above information we can say that the company has a higher debt in its capital structure. As its Debt/Asset ratio shows from 2004-2008 it has been maintaining almost same amount of debt which is 75% of total assets in its capital structure. It indicates the company is a hi ghly leveraged firm and more risky in terms of debt. According to Long term debt ratio the company maintained a long term debt of around 33% from 2004 – 2008, which also indicates that the company had higher short term debt than it’s long term debt. Time interest earn ratio indicates that the company has enough liquid asset to payback its interest expenses. However Debt/Equity ratio shows the company had a capital structure containing higher debt than its equity. The total debt amount fluctuates throughout this given 5 years but it remains almost three times than its total equity. 11 | P a g e Capital Structure: Confidence Cement Mills LTD. Financial Information Items Year 2004 Year 2005 482627000 570818000 1053645000 429290000 4421000 52985936 433711722 619933000 1900000 20814000 176,319,775 208362754 21573000 250 Year 2006 424937956 580334331 1005272287 362205475 10501799 61807398 372707274 661065000 1900000 41132000 201,332,892 220862754 17559894 225 Year 2007 535307861 564884690 1100192551 413902667 1040702 97073198 414943369 685249000 1900000 52684000 236,610,206 240862754 19968848 368. 8 Year 2008 564074297 590057449 1154131746 525841496 0 58606753 525841496 628290000 1900000 -28459000 278,378,580 221862754 26294826 318 Total Current Asset Fixed Asset Total Asset Current Liability Long term Debt Account Payable/ Trade Creditors Total Debt/ Total Liability Total Equity Share Outstanding Net Income Earnings Before interest and tax Retained Earnings Interest Charges/ Financial Expenses Market Price Per Share 357315000 579526135 936841360 329088697 83293 39197784 329171990 607669370 1900000 -24039000 195,208,573 207412754 25264715 289 12 | P a g e Long Term Debt Solvency Debt to Total Assets = 2004 35. 1% 2005 41. 2% 006 37. 1% 2007 37. 7% 2008 45. 6% Long term Debt ratio = Debt to Equity = 0. 00% 0. 4% 1. 0% .01% 0. 00% 0. 05 0. 02 .02 .01 .01 Times Interest Earned = -1. 951485 -0. 035183 2. 54968 2. 9453453 -2. 0823 Interpretation: According to the above information we can say that the company has a lower debt in its capital structure. As its Debt/Asset ratio shows from 2004-2008 it has been maintaining increasing amount of debt in its capital structure which was 35. 1% in 2004 & reached to45. 5% in 2008. It indicates the company is a moderately levered firm and risky in terms of debt. According to Long term debt ratio the company maintained nonexistence long term debt only 2% in 2006, which also indicates that the company had higher short term debt than it’s long term debt. Time interest earn ratio indicates that the company has did not had enough earning to payback of its interest other than the year of 2006 &2007. However Debt/Equity ratio shows the company had a capital structure containing lower debt than its equity. The total debt amount remained almost constant throughout this given 5 years which is very negligible than its total equity. 13 | P a g e Comparative Analysis 14 | P a g e Divedend Policy Comparative Financial Data Analysis The financial data we gathered to find out the relationship between various variables with price of two different cement companies arc given. We attempted to explore some conclusion on the behavioral pattern of changing the share market price due to dividend, dividend policies followed. The data are extracted from annual reports of two selected companies that are The Meghna Cement Mills Limited (MCML) and Confidence Cement Limited . The annual data of these companies has been taken from the annual reports and other annual publications of Dhaka Stock Exchange. Confidence Cement Ltd Net Net Year % Asset Profit End Dividend Value After P/E Per Tax Share (mn) Meghna Cement Ltd Net Year % Profit End Dividend After P/E Tax (mn) Industry Average Net Year % Profit End Dividend After P/E Tax (mn) Year Earning per share % Dividend Payout Ratio Earning per share Net Asset Value Per Share Dividend Payout Ratio Earning per share Net Asset Value Per Share % Dividend Payout Ratio 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 -12. 65 10. 95 21. 65 27. 73 -14. 98 319. 83 326. 28 332. 93 345. 66 330. 67 24. 04 20. 81 41. 13 52. 68 28. 46 -9. 5 10. 78 6. 4 13. 3 n/a 10%B 5 5 15 15 46% 69% 54% 11. 57 15. 25 33. 38 46. 71 65. 86 273. 44 26. 02 277. 17 34. 31 298. 15 320. 42 275. 20 75. 11 105. 10 148. 18 24 . 21 25. 00 20. 61 25. 00 216% -0. 54 164 13. 1 75 27. 515 54 37. 22 46 25. 44 301. 72 315. 55 333. 04 302. 93 27. 56 58. 12 78. 89 59. 86 15. 69 7. 02 9. 61 5. 35 15 20 20 30 105 72 54 46 296. 63 0. 99 7. 5 15 216 7. 64 5. 92 5. 35 25. 00 25. 00 30. 00 15 | P a g e Interpretation: Earnings Per Share: The industry average of EPS is tk. (. 54), 13. 1, 27. 51, 37. 22, and 25. 44 for the year 2004, 2005,2006,2007,2008 consecutively. In 2004 EPS of Meghna Cement Ltd was 11. 57 & after that EPS has increased and reached up to 65. 86 in 2008, So that, the graph shows that the EPS of Meghna Cement is well above of the industry average EPS. In 2004 EPS of Confidence Cement Ltd was (12. 65) & after that EPS has increased and reached up to 27. 63 in 2007. After that EPS has decreased again and reached to (14. 8)So that, the graph shows that the EPS of Confidence Cement is well below of the industry average EPS. Comperative EPS 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 -10 -20 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Confidence -12. 65 10. 95 21. 65 27. 73 -14. 98 Cement Ltd Meghna 11. 57 15. 25 33. 38 46. 71 65. 86 Cement Ltd Industry Average -0. 54 13. 1 27. 515 37. 22 25. 44 So, according to our Comparative EPS analysis, we can easily say that Meghna Cement Ltd. is in the best position where Confidence Cement Ltd is the worst position. Price Earnings Ratio: The industry average of P/E ratio is tk. 7. 5, 15. 69, 7. 02, 9. 61, and 5. 5 for the year 2004, 2005,2006,2007,2008 consecutively. In 2004 P/E ratio of Meghna Cement Ltd was 24. 21 & after that P/E has decreased gradually and reached to 5. 35 in 2008, so according to Industry average, the graph shows that the P/E ratio of Meghna Cement is well above up to 2006 of the industry average P/E, then in 2007 it’s ratio falls below the industry average and in 2008 equal to industry average due nonexistence of P/E ratio of Confidence Cement in 2008. Comparative P/E Ratio 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 -5 -10 -15 Confidence Cement Ltd 2004 -9. 5 2005 10. 78 2006 6. 4 7. 64 2007 13. 5. 92 2008 Meghna 24. 21 20. 61 Cement Ltd 5. 35 In 2004 P/E ratio of Confidence Cement Ltd was Industry 7. 35 15. 69 7. 02 9. 61 5. 35 Average (9. 5), after that EPS has increased to 10. 78 in 2005, then again decrease in 2006 and in 2007 it has increased to 13. 3. In 2008 there is no existence of P/E due to no cash dividend declared by the company. So, according to Industry average, the graph shows that the P/E ratio of Confidence Cement is well below up to 2006 of the industry average P/E, then in 2007 its ratio rise above the industry average and in 2008 no P/E as discussed earlier. So, according to our Comparative P/E ratio analysis, we can easily say that Meghna Cement Ltd. is in the best position where Confidence Cement Ltd is the worst position. 16 | P a g e Comparative Dividend Dividend Per Share: The industry average of DPS is tk. 15, 15, 20, 20, and 30 for the year 2004, 2005,2006,2007,2008 consecutively. From 2004 to 2007 DPS of Meghna Cement Ltd was 25 & after that DPS has increased to 30 in 2008 due to extra earning as discussed before. So according to Industry average, the graph shows that the DPS of Meghna Cement is well above up to 2007 of the industry average DPS. In 2008 DPS is equal to industry average due nonexistence of Dividend of Confidence Cement in 2008. 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Confidence Cement Ltd Meghna Cement Ltd Industry Average 2004 5 25 15 2005 5 25 15 2006 15 25 20 2007 15 25 20 2008 30 30 From 2004 to 2005 DPS of Confidence Cement Ltd was 5 & from 2006-2007 DPS has increased to 15 in 2008 due to extra earning as discussed before. So according to Industry average, the graph shows that the DPS of Confidence Cement is well below up to 2007 of the industry average DPS. In 2008 there in no DPS of Confidence Ltd. due nonexistence of Dividend. So, according to our Comparative DPS analysis, we can easily say that Meghna Cement Ltd. is in the best position where Confidence Cement Ltd is the worst position. Dividend Payout Ratio: The industry average of Payout ratio is 216, 105, 72, 54, and 46 for the year 2004, 2005,2006,2007,2008 consecutively. In 2004 Payout ratio of Meghna Cement Ltd was 216 which is equal to the industry average payout ratio because of non existence of payout ratio of Confidence Cement Ltd. in 2004. After that payout ratio has decreased gradually and reached to 46 in 2008, so according to Industry average, the graph shows that the payout ratio of Meghna Cement is equal to the industry average payout ratio in 2004, then it’s ratio rise above the industry average up to 2006 and in the last two years equal to industry average. Compative Payout Ratio Compative Payout Ratio 250 250 200 200 150 150 100 100 50 50 00 Confidence Confidence Cement Ltd Cement Ltd Meghna Meghna 216 216% Cement Ltd Cement Ltd Industry Industry 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 46 46 164 164 69 69 75 75 54 54 54 54 46 46 46 46 16 216 105 105 72 72 54 54 Average Average In 2004 there was no Payout ratio of Confidence Cement Ltd as mentioned earlier. After that payout ratio has increased in 2006 and then again decreased in 2007. In 2008 there is no payout ratio because there is no cash dividend. So according to Industry average, the graph shows that the payout ratio of Confidence Cement i s well below compare to the industry average payout ratio in 2005 & 2006, and then its ratio is equal to the industry average in 2007. In 2008 there is no payout ratio as discussed before. So, according to our Comparative DPS analysis, we can easily say that Meghna Cement Ltd. is in the best position where Confidence Cement Ltd is the worst position. 17 | P a g e Capital Structure Interpretation: Debt/Asset Ratio: The industry average of Debt/Asset Ratio for the year 2008 is 62. 1%. Debt/Asset Ratio of Meghna Cement Ltd is 78. 6% and Confidence Cement Ltd. is 45. 6%. So, according to industry average Confidence Cement is in the best position while Meghna Cement Ltd is in the worst position. Long Term Debt Ratio: The industry average of Long Term Debt Ratio for the year 2008 is 14. %. Long Term Debt Ratio of Meghna Cement Ltd is 28. 8%, and Confidence Cement Ltd. Is 0%. So, according to industry average Confidence Cement is in the best position and Meghna Cement Ltd is in the worst position. Debt Management Ratio 4 3 2 1 0 -1 -2 -3 Debt to Total Assets Confidence Cement Mills LTD 2008 Industry Average 0. 456 Long term Debt ratio 0 0. 288 0. 144 Debt to Equity 0. 01 3. 6 8 1. 845 Times Interest Earned -2. 0823 2. 79 0. 35385 Meghna Cement Mills LTD 0. 786 0. 621 Debt to Equity Ratio: The industry average of Debt/equity Ratio for the year 2008 is 184. 5%. Debt/equity Ratio of Meghna Cement Ltd is 368%, and Confidence Cement Ltd. is 1%. So, according to industry average Confidence Cement is in the best position Meghna Cement Ltd is in the worst position. Time Interest Earned: The industry average of Time Interest Earned for the year 2008 is 0. 5385. Time interest earned for Meghna Cement Ltd is 2. 79; Confidence Cement Ltd. is -2. 0823. So, according to industry average Meghna Cement is in the best position and Confidence Cement Ltd is in the worst position. Return on Assets: The industry average of Return on Assets for the year 2008 is 2%. Return on Assets of Meghna Cement Ltd is 5. 1%, and Confidence Cement Ltd. Is (2. 5%). So, according to industry average Meghna Cement is in the best position Confidence Cement Ltd is in the worst position. Return on Equity: The industry average of Return on equity for the year 2008 is 0. 26%. Return on Equity of Meghna Cement Ltd and Confidence Cement Ltd. Is (4. 5%). So, according to industry average Meghna Cement is in the best position Confidence Cement Ltd is in the worst position. Profitability Ratio 30. 00% 25. 00% 20. 00% 15. 00% 10. 00% 5. 0% 0. 00% -5. 00% -10. 00% Meghna Cement Confidence Cement industry Average Return on Asset 5. 10% -2. 50% 2% Return on Equity 23. 90% -4. 50% 26% 18 | P a g e References ? Intermediate Accounting ( 11th Edition),Donald E. Kieso ? The Analysis and Use of Financial Statements(3rd Edition),Gerald I. White ? Scott Besely & Eugene F. Brigham, â€Å"Essentials of Managerial Finance†, Thirteenth Edition, ? ? ? ? Thomson South-Western, Ohi o, 2006 www. bashundharagroup. com/mcml/ www. confidencegroupbd. com/cement/ www. dsebd. org www. wikipedia. com 19 | P a g e

Strength to love by martin luther king Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Strength to love by martin luther king - Essay Example It is therefore accurate to attach meaning of finding Christian version of interpretation of love to the book, within the context of a cold society in search of vital love lessons. In the definition of the actual meaning of the book for wider social interpretations, it is perhaps important to locate the historic time around which the author compiled his work. Martin Luther King Jr. as an African American living in the mid 20th century was not only a witness of massive social issues in the American society but also actively took part in advocacy of civil rights. America’s past within the context of social segregation and discrimination was full of cases of injustices ranging from mere intolerance to violent infringement of civil rights. The rebuilding of the society that was changing fast to adopt social reforms embracing human rights, social integration, and justice for every member of the human race was on the increase around the world. In light of the difficult circumstances exposed to the racial minority groups, the author had to emerge to the fore and contribute to regain cohesion based on deep convictions of love preached by the Christian faith. As highlighted above, the author’s target audience emerges not only from the title’s implied intention but also from the historic circumstances during the compilation of the book. The first impression created by the title is that the audience was in need of encouragement to gather strength, for which purpose definition manifests in the word love. In describing the injustices exposed to the racial minorities, particularly during the 20th century developments, it is clear that the book tackles important social and historic events in the United States. The culture of discrimination and social exclusion coupled to extreme human life violations exposed to the minorities had to end according to the author (King 8). Rebuilding hope

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Ethical situation in business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Ethical situation in business - Essay Example panies need to emphasize on ethics in order to satisfy their employee pool and use existing human resource pool in to fillip growth (Trevino & Nelson, 2010, p. 194). Code of ethics helps the company to build sustainable image in front of their stakeholders. Unethical business practice creates negative image in front of shareholders and government of the country. In the extreme case of unethical behaviors like fraud, bankruptcy, misrepresentation of company asset or any kind of forgery government takes legal action against the company. Legal action against the company not only hurts market reputation of the company but negatively affects shareholder’s interest. In the given situation companies of USA has designed ethical assistance lines for employees to report ethical concern or ask question about companies business pattern in order to create a transparent ethical environment in the organization. The following diagram will show propensity of employee to report unethical business practice of the company (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2009, p. 222). The company will only accept projects for which they have the requisite knowledge, expertise and experience to accomplish task successfully. The company will engage only those employees who have the requisite expertise and knowledge to complete the project in accordance to demand of clients. Employees of the company will take care of the confidential client information and must not disclose any of the information in public without taking formal permission from clients. Disclosing client information to their competitor’s is strictly prohibited and employees practicing such unethical transaction will be under legal jurisdiction of Federal Government. Employees and the company will not accept any kind of bribe, remuneration, commission or any kind of fringe benefit from third party connected to clients without taking prior permission from clients. The company will disclose such kind of monetary offer from third

Saturday, July 27, 2019

Petroleum Development of Oman Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Petroleum Development of Oman - Assignment Example The Company's contribution towards training Omani Citizens has been phenomenal and is a part of the shared vision of an educated and qualified Oman as conceived by his Excellency the Sultan. In the aftermath of the World War II, the race for global market leadership has taken an aggressive outlook. Since the first ever discovery of oil in the Middle East the competition in the region is getting fierce and huge investments are being directed towards the exploitation of the so called 'Black Gold'-a name once used for Afro-American slaves. Under these circumstances firms are analyzing every nook and corner of their operation and investing millions of dollars on improving their strategies in the pursuit of a competitive advantage. Employees are no longer mere workers but a core human resource which is being greatly invested upon. Trends in employee training have shown an upward shift in the past decade and a huge budget is being spent on it, in the meantime with the advent of increasingly sophisticated technology training is no longer a choice but a need. Omani Government realizes that in order to achieve the conceived goals of development it is significant for the workforce of the most productive sector, Petroleum, to be motivated. And a key aspect of motivation as identified by the experts of Human Resource Management is Employee Training. With this view in mind PDO under the surveillance of the Sultan is making huge monetary investments for reshaping its workforce. Technical expertise has been imported from the Western World to meet this end and importance is being attached to the coaching of the mechanical staff in view of the future prospects. Emphasis on English and IT Training to employees is a growing trend in PDO and worker welfare programs appealing to different employee groups are being introduced consistently. Developments in this context include the Training to Young Omanis (TYO) program for young graduates and the Omani Technician Training Program (OTTP) for field technicians. An interesting aspect that can be highlighted in the above mentioned programs is the emphasis laid on the training in English and IT departments irrespective of the employee rank and needs. PDO recognizes English and IT proficiency as the traits necessary for the 21st Century employee and it therefore emphasizes on training its employees in these courses. Moreover the stress on English Language training can also understood from the fact that English is the global language. It is understood and spoken even in areas where it is not native thus in order to go worldwide it is pre-eminent that PDO' s workforce should have a solid grasp on the English Language so as to readily communicate with its foreign customers and trainers. In the meantime the lack of technical expertise available in Oman calls for the import of talent from abroad. This would ultimately mean the inflow of foreigners who would be incapable of speaking or understanding the local language. Thus the only

Friday, July 26, 2019

Theory practice gap Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Theory practice gap - Essay Example Consequently, the assumption that theory taught in class must directly apply in the nursing practice for it to be relevant can barely be termed as true. Nursing, therefore, cannot be viewed as a theory but rather as a practice. From the above observations, one would not term nursing theory as a science. This is because theory in nursing inadequately attempts to represent information that cannot be represented in theoretical form. While theorists propose that ‘nursing theories’ can be used by nurses to justify their interventions, it is important t consider that nursing is a dynamic field that cannot rely on theoretical knowledge for development. Nursing practice remains the most reliable source of knowledge for this discipline and as such, there is a need for change of the way nurses are trained, and are equipped with nursing skills. Unless this is done, students graduating from colleges will remain to find it difficult to familiarize with nursing

Thursday, July 25, 2019

E-Business Final Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

E-Business Final - Essay Example The layout or web design of any website plays an important role in the success of e-business. Websites should be user-friendly, well designed, attractive, easy to navigate and search-engine friendly. Qatar Airways have considered all these features in their website. Business to business transactions helps in building new and strong relationships with other companies worldwide. They are reducing the costs and providing best services with the help of their Oracle ERP project and partnership with other airlines, hotels, travel agents and car rental services. For Qatar Airways ethical issues are very important. It is part of their ethics to take care of confidentiality and security issues of customers and to provide the information that does not hurt the emotions of their global customers. Qatar Airways, an airline company, was established on November 22, 1993 and it formally started its operations from January 20, 1994. It is one of the most competitive and fastest growing airlines in the world. In the span of thirteen years, QA has achieved tremendous growth by serving 100 destinations worldwide (Middle East Aviation, n.d.). Due to the advancement in Information and communication technologies, companies are now using latest technologies to remain competitive (Beheshti & Sangari, 2006). Click and mortar model is employed by the Qatar Airways. According to this model company sells through internet as well as through the traditional ways of selling. Qatar airlines have commenced an extensive Oracle ERP system to link or centralize different departments. Although, it is a costly plan but it will help in increasing the efficiency in the long run. Qatar Airways is reducing its expenses by providing many online services. These include Online Booking, Online Time Table, Online Route Map, Flight Status Information, Information via SMS, Online check-in, SMS check-in, Phone check-in,

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Compare and contrast the scientific principles of Magnetic resonance Essay

Compare and contrast the scientific principles of Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound - Essay Example However, there are similarities and differences of these radiographic techniques in terms of scientific principles behind these, by which this paper intends to explore. Transmission and Reception of Waves. Magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound shares their similarity in their ability to transmit their respective waves, electromagnetic and acoustic waves respectively, while receiving the signals induced by these transmitted waves. In magnetic resonance imaging, transmit coils emit radio waves to the patient, calibrated at the precessional frequency or Larmor frequency of hydrogen-1 at 42.6 MHz under a magnetic field strength of 1.5 tesla or above, generates a strong magnetic signal within the hydrogen-1 nucleus which can be detected by the receiver coils of the device1. On the other hand, in ultrasound, ultrasonic acoustic waves come from the source transducer as a result of a piezoelectric effect (conversion of electrical to sound energy), and solid objects along the watery body tissues causes an echo, which will be detected by the receiving transducer using the same piezoelectric effect (conversion of sound energy to electrical energy)2. Type of Waves. There are differences between electromagnetic waves emitted by magnetic resonance imaging and the acoustic waves of ultrasound imaging, mainly on the speed of wave travel (electromagnetic waves are faster than acoustic waves), ability to travel in an empty space (acoustic waves cannot travel in a vacuum while electromagnetic waves can), and the type of waves traveling along fluid (longitudinal and transverse in electromagnetic waves, while longitudinal only in acoustic waves), yet both electromagnetic and acoustic waves are similar to be having properties of frequencies, amplitude, intensity2. How these properties are used in both devices is also dissimilar (the frequency of electromagnetic waves in MRI is set to a standard 42.6 MHz setting, while the frequency in ultrasound is calibrated according to the de pth of penetration)1 2. Non-use of ionizing radiation. Both magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound do not utilize ionizing radiation present in x-ray, computerized tomography and fluoroscopy. In magnetic resonance imaging, the electromagnetic wave frequency of 42.6 MHz is very low to cause ionization of molecules, while acoustic waves are not a type of radiation which causes ionization of molecules even in high frequencies2. Body Temperature Elevation. Both magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound produces heat. Heat is a form if energy, which can be appreciated in thermodynamics as â€Å"internal energy† in terms of excitement of molecules. From elastic energy, while the waves are being deformed by compression and rarefaction, there is energy transformation into heat or thermal energy which can be absorbed by the system3. Waves, whether it is radio frequency electromagnetic or acoustic, has the property of intensity, which is the power output per area (I = P / A) while e nergy can be computed as power over a period of time (E = P / t). If power will be substituted, energy is equal to the product of intensity and area, divided by time (E = [I x A] / t). By this formula, it is already clear that energy is involved in waves. Assuming that the wave is at rest, the energy of a wave is its potential energy. However, if the wave is put in motion, this potential energy will be

The Story of An Hour and In the Lake of the Woods Essay

The Story of An Hour and In the Lake of the Woods - Essay Example Art and protest are linked together, intrinsically. Even in ancient times when art would be about the glory of kings and religious verses, writers would manage to intersperse their lines with feelings of protest about social conditions that existed during a particular period of time. The importance of art in the success of certain social movements and in attaining for certain social ills the attention that they deserve cannot be stressed too much. Artists in every age have been the torchbearers of change and have managed to communicate the sentiment of the downtrodden in forms of protest, to the rulers of a community or nation. Forms of such protest can be directed against what an author feels is a social malaise-racial discrimination, discrimination based on gender, corruption, human trafficking and so on and so forth. The manner in which such issues are perceived by the world at large depends greatly upon the way in which they are represented in works of literature by an author. In In the Lake of the Woods, the author Tim O’Brien relates to the reader the story of a man named John Wade. The story revolves around the mystery of the murder of John’s wife and how he himself is suspected to have a hand in the murder of his wife. His wife, Kathy Wade, is found to be missing and the quest for the missing wife who is suspected to be dead forms a major part of the novel’s plot. Another important aspect of the novel’s plot is the political career of the protagonist. John Wade loses an election to the U.S. senate by a huge margin after his involvement in the massacre of an entire village is made public. This turns the tide of public sentiment against him. The issue of public perception is thus introduced at a very early stage in the novel. The novel also explores how the childhood of a person can influence the life of a person at every stage. John Wade is shown to have been very close to his father when he was a child despite his fatherâ₠¬â„¢s physically and emotionally abusive nature. His father’s death is shown to have been a major event in his life. His childhood sufferings led him to take refuge in an alter-ego, the â€Å"Sorcerer† (O’Brien, 1995). This helped him to escape the mundane sufferings of his life. Here, O’Brien makes his readers aware of the escapist attitudes of his protagonist Wade achieves this escape through a repression of his emotions. This aspect of his personality is very important from the novel’s point of view, especially on the thematic front. Later in his life, he is adept at hiding his emotions and feelings from other people, including his own wife. Many of the torments that John faces in his life are put down to the traumatic events that he had to face while he was a soldier in Vietnam. The incident where an entire village is wiped out is based on a true incident that happened during the Vietnam War where the residents of a village named My Lai were ma ssacred. Everybody, including women and children were killed in an inhumane assault that left the international community in shock. The people of Vietnam and the American soldiers who were a part of the operation were left scarred for life in an operation that was the result of a war that stretched on without an end in sight for either party. The tactics that the Vietnamese adopted made it difficult for the American army to pinpoint the enemy to a particular

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Analysis of Curriculum Perspectives Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Analysis of Curriculum Perspectives - Essay Example He did research on implementation of the curriculum and found that schools spend about sixty seven percent of their time focusing on hidden aspects of the curriculum yet they were not aware of this. Eisner (1979) asserts that those subjects that receive more attention are determined by the hidden curriculum. The latter is also responsible for the teaching styles adopted in classrooms and methods of delivering subject content. In relation to this argument, many philosophers and educationists came up with theories explaining the nature of the hidden curriculum. The proponents, critics and content of these perspectives will be examined in detail in the subsequent portions of the essay. These will incorporate five main perspectives. Psychology is one of the most important disciplines in education because rot was responsible for the creation of the experiential theory of the curriculum. It should be noted that before experiential approaches most theories of education revolved around reductionist views. However, with the passage of time, more and more psychologists realized that there was more to learning that reduction. This formed the background fro the experiential theory. The main proponents of the theory were Freire and Kolb. The proponents believed that learning occurred in a cycle. It first starts with experience, this is then followed by reflection where there is perception and processing, thereafter action takes place. For example, teachers may be faced with the task of awarding grades for a particular exam. The fact that they are undergoing that challenge denotes the fact that they are experiencing it; i.e. the first phase of experiential learning. Thereafter, teachers have to think about other circumstances where they have had to do the same. This will constitute the reflective part of the learning process. Thereafter, they are expected to consider all the angles to the issue. They may decide to consult with other teachers on the issue and this will cause further reflection. This reflective aspect is made of two major concepts. These are abstract conceptualization and active experimentation. In the latter part, one has to apply logic in the formation of ideas; feelings are not considered here. While in the active experimentation stage, learning occurs through experimentation with changing scenarios. Kolb therefore came up with four stages that help to identify learning styles depending on the earlier elements of the learning process. The stages are; activists, pragmatists, theorizers and reflectors. Those who focus on one stage more than another will fall into that respective learning style. Knox (1986) asserts that these stages can be applied in the classroom when students are trying to learn something. This is because they can relate to subject content on a cognitive level and can therefore internalize the learning process. Besides that, experiential theory can also be applied by teachers. Teachers can present information in bits or in phase so that they can allow learners to 'experience' it. Brookfield (1990) asserts that teachers should realize that curriculum ideas are tested through the experiences acquired from their lives.

Monday, July 22, 2019

Future Competitive Threats of China and India for Industries Essay Example for Free

Future Competitive Threats of China and India for Industries Essay Discuss the future competitive threats of China and India for industries in developed countries. The emergence of China as the mass manufacturing pioneer in the world has lead to the concern that China will soon be competing with the industries in the developed nations. India, at the same time, is emerging as the centre of IT enabled services including software development, and poses significant threat to the developed countries in high-skill goods and services. Today, the main competitive threat that China and India pose to the developed nations is their cheap labour. They are able to produce basically anything at a much lower price compare to those in the western developed nations. Therefore, they signify threats to these countries. However, on the future prospects, China and India would acquire competitive threat that is different from what they were before. For instance, the education rate in China and India are both increasing, and they produce about half a million of scientists and engineers a year comparing to mere 60,000 in the US. Therefore, these skilled labours will take over the current low skilled labours in these two countries and further exploit the opportunities that they have, and compete better in the high skill sectors. In addition, many companies from the developed nations have shifted their RD centre to the China and India, therefore, China and India are able to learn and gain experience through these foreign RD centre and excel in innovations in the future. This makes the developed nations to lose their competitive advantage, and signifies competitive threat from China and India.

Sunday, July 21, 2019

PETRONAS | Employee Health and Safety Case Study

PETRONAS | Employee Health and Safety Case Study 1.0 Introduction The topic that we choose for our assignment in Human Resource Management is employee safety and health. Nowadays, safety and health is a significant issue for an organization to its employees. What is meant by safety and health for employees? Firstly, safety means the condition for employees are being protected from getting any danger, risk or injury in a working environment during the working hour. Meanwhile, health means the organizations efforts to prevent its employees from suffering physical or mental illness. In short, every organization should ensure the safety and health condition in the working environment since employee is the asset of the company. If the employees feel secure in their working environment, they will perform efficiency and effectively to achieve the companys goal. However, if the working environment is not safety and may cause them illness, it will affect the performance quality as the employees will think why should I going to do this, this is not safe for us. Inevitably, it is very important for an organization to ensure that their employees are working in a safe and healthy environment so that it will greatly influence the productivity and overall efficiency in any organizations. Secondly, it will also help to reduce and prevent industrial accidents. Consequently, the enforcement of employee safety and health will definitely help to reduce the absenteeism among employees. Also, it will also boost the morale among the employees inside the organization. Moreover, team spirit could be developed and the sense of belongingness among the employees could be enhanced as they are protected. As a result, the main objective of our topic is to determine the regular review of safety and health performance in an organization. Therefore, the employees can have a better working condition to perform their specific tasks. 2.0 Content: Theory and concept The first theory that we are going to apply for the chosen topic is Bounded Rationality. Bounded Rationality state that a decision maker makes decision at a satisfactory level rather than the maximum level because of the lack of resources and information needed. In order to implement a successful employee safety and health program in an organization, the managements have to well-planned with various choices of alternatives and decide the optimum one. Having said this, when a company intend to install employee safety and health program to replace the existed one, the switching cost involved may be much more higher than expected, that makes it difficult for the company to bear the cost. Therefore, the management shall decide the appropriate method with the sources available to fix the problems, so that both employers and employees could enjoy the benefits from the implementation of the safety and health policy activity. Herzbergs two factor theory is the second theory that we will apply to our topic. The Herzbergs two factor theory is also known as the motivation-hygiene theory. This theory states that there are certain factors in the workplace that can cause employees satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the working environment (NetMBA, 2010). The factors that affect employees to become satisfied are the sense of achievement, recognition for their accomplishment by the top management, meaningfulness of the work, growth and promotional opportunities. On the other hand, the factors that lead employees to become dissatisfied are the strict company policy, no fringe benefits, bad physical work condition and low salary. If employees are not satisfied with the working environment, it will decrease the productivity. In order to maximize the profit in an organization, the company should provide a good working environment for employees so that it can maintain the company production quality. Thus, the motiva tion of employee is the key factor for an organization since it is one of the several factors that significantly affect the productivity which in turns increase the profitability in an organization. In the third place, we are going to apply Maslow hierarchy of needs in our topic. Maslow hierarchy of needs can be categorized in five independent levels of basic human needs which are physiological, safety, love or belonging, esteem and self actualization that must be satisfied in a strict sequence starting from the lowest level. Physiological needs are the lowest level of basic human needs while self actualization is the highest basic human needs. In this topic we will focus on safety level, which safety needs security of body, employment, resources, morality, family, health and property. Furthermore, safety needs for an employee plays a vital role for an organization to take the responsibility because the employees are helping the organization to generate income. In return, the company should provide a proper working environment for the employees. In a nutshell, Bounded Rationality, Herzbergs two factor theory and Maslow hierarchy of needs are the theories that we are going to apply to our topic employee safety and health. Keeping to the adage that safe operations are smooth operations, these theories are extremely important for an organization to follow because it will assist the organization to increase the profit by providing a safety and health working environment to the employees. Significance and contributions In order to utilize individuals to achieve organization objective, we should have five human resource management functions such as staffing, human resource development, compensation, safety and health and employee and labor relations. Consequently, we know that the assignment topic that we choose is pivotal for an organization because this is one of the five human resource management functions. In addition, we know that safety and health not only for the organization to take the responsibility on the employees but also the employees themselves should aware and responsible for their own safety and health. Having said this, when the organization is providing the methods on how to use the machine in a safety way but the employees do not follow the instructions. Therefore, no matter how the organization implement the safety and health policy to employees, it is not effective if the employees do not follow the instructions given. Inevitably, it will cause danger to them and other employee s in the working environment. As a result, the organization and employees should take the obligation together on safety and health. Subsequently, it will assist the organization to increase the productivity by the workers if they are focusing on employee safety and health because employees can have a better satisfaction with the working environment which is safe and secure to perform their task. If the productivity increases, the company tends to sell more products. Thus, it will affect the overall profit of the organization. In addition, it will boost the morale among the employees inside the organization. Team spirit could be developed and the sense of belongingness among the employees could be enhanced as they are protected. As a result, the employees tend to spend more time to perform their task in a safety and health environment to assist the organization to generate income. In short, safety and health is not the only importance HRM function of an organization but also other HRM functions as well. This is because the relationship between these five functions is link together. Without one of them, the organization cannot operate well. Therefore, the organization should focus on all HRM functions areas. 3.0 Case Development (Practice) The company we have chosen to be discussed in our assignment is Petroliam Nasional Bhd (PETRONAS). PETRONAS is the national oil and gas company in Malaysia. It established in 1974 and wholly-owned by the government of Malaysia (Abdul Ghani Pg.Hi.Metusin and Ooi Kee Beng, 2005). Together with 127 direct subsidiaries and 54 associated companies, PETRONAS, a multinational corporation, has fully integrated oil and gas operations in a broad spectrum of the oil and gas value-chain and with global presence in 31 countries (S.A Zainal Abidin, O.Bekri, A.Jalaludin, 1996). In addition, it also conducts a variety of business activities include exploration, development and production of crude oil and natural gas in Malaysia and overseas; the liquefaction, sale and transportation of LNG; the processing and transmission of natural gas and the sale of natural gas products; the refining and marketing of petroleum products; the manufacture and sale of petrochemical products; the trading of crude oil, petroleum products and petrochemical products; and shipping and logistics relating to LNG, crude oil and petroleum products.ÂÂ   Safety issue always is high concern in the oil and gas industry especially since the Gulf of Mexico incident happened in 2010. PETRONAS has around 44,000 of employees. Therefore, it strives to contribute and take care of the well-being of people as well as nations, regardless wherever it operates by developing and adding value to oil and gas resources. It balances the commercial, environmental and social considerations carefully. A report from Social Security Organization shows the construction is one of the highest fatality rate in the accidents among the industry. PETRONAS experiences the worst ever group safety record in 1998 with 31 fatalities and followed by 13 and 17 fatalities in 1999 and 2000 respectively. To ensure the PETRONAS Corporate Policy Statement on Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) is implemented effectively, a proactive approach must be adopted in promoting Occupational Safety and Health (OSH). First of all, company HSE policy is the basis requirement to implement in PETRONAS as well as to any other organization. Thus, the legal liability of projects and the penalties imposed to owners and stakeholders are clearly outlined in the Environmental Quality Act 1974 and the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994. A good OSH management will be able to prevent and reduce accidents and ill health in the working environment. For example, HSE Management Procedure will be preparing for every project run by PETRONAS. This is to ensure that all phases of the project and the OSH requirements are clearly defined and spelt out. The purpose of this procedure is to helps the management in complying with the related local OSH Acts or rules and regulations, establishing the minimum OSH objectives to be met at the various stages of the project, developing the necessary guidelines to carry out a proactive management of consultants and contractors on OSH matters and ensuring a continuous OSH improvement for all project activities. In addition, with such procedure and policy, the management can make decision more efficiency and effectively. In the meanwhile, it applies the Bounded Rationality theory in which the decision maker or the management makes decision at a satisfactory level with limited resources and i nformation. When problem occur, the management can make decision at a limited time with the best alternative according to the procedure stated. Furthermore, PETRONAS enhance the governance of HSE through the restructuring of Group Health, Safety and Environment Division to enable Business Units to have greater accountability. It also proactively in developing a framework to consolidate the mandatory HSE standards to be implemented Groupwide. The Herzbergs two factor theory can be seen in this practice by developing a safety working environment with pervasive HSE culture. In addition, it can decrease the cost of common infrastructures, management system and services. Employee will feel secure and satisfied with their working condition and environment with international HSE standards. For example, PETRONAS won Gold Award from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) and Grand Award from Malaysian Society for Occupational Safety and Health (MSOSH) in 2010. Such honors definitely will add credit to PETRONAS that lead to the increase of employee confident to company HSE condition. To improve PETRONAS safety performance towards achieving operational excellence, it has carried out a Third Party Process Safety Assessment on its implementation across the Group. The latest external assessment and benchmarking exercise was conducted in August 2010. The assessment recognized that process safety standards and requirements have been adequately established at Group level and translated into site-specific systems and documents at operating units. Action plans have been identified to address implementation issues on specific elements such as management of change, integrity management, work planning and procedures in order to improve process safety performance. As stated before, PETRONAS restructure its Group Health, Safety and Environment Division to enable all Business Units to have greater accountability, the objective is to raise PETRONAS HSE performance, reduce business risks and exposure and maintain consistency in the implementation if HSE standards and requirements. Therefore, defining a clear roles and responsibilities of all personnel involved in OSH activities for those projects are necessary. Workers should and must know their duties and the knowledge that have to apply in their tasks. The effectiveness after the implementation Indeed, PETRONAS has exercised the human resource practices well in ensuring the safety and health of its employees. As above mentioned, PETRONAS obeys and follows the stated laws and regulations. Besides, PETRONAS also conducts an excellent HSE management system. However, there is still room to improve. It is because many fatal accidents have taken place in 2012. First, there are three fire accidents happened at PETRONAS sites, and two of which involved casualties. Second, the most recent incident that related to PETRONAS involved an oil tanker which caught fire and exploded at the jetty of PETRONAS Chemicals Methanol Sdn Bhd on 26 July 2012. This incident follows closely from another fire which blazed at the PETRONAS Caligalis Tukau B Platform offshore Miri on 11 June 2012. Moreover, there was a PETRONAS gas process plant in GPP Complex A in Kerteh was rocked by two explosions. Unfortunately, a worker died on the spot while 23 others were injured. There were 2000 workers at the site when the explosions occurred (Koh, 2012). Again, these accidents have indicated that it is time for PETRONAS to reevaluate the safety standards over again. 4.0 Recommendations Even PETRONAS has exercised its practise well in ensuring its employees are safe and health, but there are still a number of accidents that lead to the injuries and death of its employees. Its strongly to be suggested that PETRONAS might use joint labour-management safety team approach to involve its employees in developing safety program as the employees know the potential problem in their workplace more well compare to the management. A safety programme is launched to identify and minimize the unsafe condition to prevent the accidents that might happen in the workplace. It should contains an extensive training and enable autonomy for the employees who perform dangerous job. For example, PETRONAS might held a meeting for the employees and management to come together in order to evaluate the previous safety program and see if there is anything went wrong. If there is anything should be changed or a new program should be established, employees will be given autonomy in voice out their opinion in the meeting according to their working experience on what should be establish, what training should be provided, and what should be done. (Dessler, 2007) Secondly, top management of PETRONAS is suggested to involve themselves in the safety activities. Instead of just giving instruction from the top to bottom, managers and supervisors in safety and health department of PETRONAS are encouraged to involve themselves directly by going to the workplace and discuss with the employees with the production scheduling before the work of the day. Toolbox meetings are the meetings which held in a workplace involving the supervisors and employees to discuss about the work hazard and safety awareness. Toolbox meetings are suggested to be held in every time before the work at the workplace. The SHELL companies in the same industry with PETRONAS, practise it in this way: the supervisor and other employees will first discuss in the general safety with the employees and after this, employees are grouped into a smaller group to discuss in detail about the job procedure of the day, the hazards of the job, the precautions that should be taken to prevent anything bad happen in the workplace and what should be done in order to protect themselves for the duties that they are going to perform after this. The toolbox meeting is not only being held in each time before the work, but also should be held if there is any changing in hazard found. (Steve Beckett) Evacuation plans should be enhanced in PETRONAS as the accidents happened in the workplace often has caused death and injuries on its employees. An evacuation plan should include the three main things: an early detection of problems, the methods to communicate the emergency externally and the communication plans to initiates an evacuation. For example, an initial alarm to alerts the employees on emergency and following by the instruction given on what to do in next. This minimizes the number of death and injuries cause by fire and exploitation effectively(Dessler, 2007). Furthermore, PETRONAS is recommended to establish behavioural-based safety programme which it is to identify its employees working behaviour, understand the way they work and advice and lastly train them to avoid the working behaviour that might lead to accidents (Dessler, 2007). PETRONAS may use Human Resource Internet-Based System to manage their safety programme for it is more efficient and more effective in the way to communicate the safety and health information to its employees from the whole organization. The HRIS included the material safety data sheets from OSHA which stated the precaution that should be taken by employees when performing their duties and what to do in dealing with the accidents. The data sheet based on the new OSHA information can be uploaded and communicate faster to the employees if HRIS is to be used. In the other hand, PETRONAS might create also its own training websites which will allow the company to communicate the safety issues to its employee in the form of video, PowerPoint presentation sheets and etc. By this, PETRONAS will be able to organize and deliver the individual course to its employees according to their needs in anywhere and anytime (Dessler, 2007). 5.0 Conclusion Employee Safety and Health is a significant issue for every organization because employee consider as asset of the organization. Working environment is very important for every employee. It to ensure that provides a safety place for employee to prevent getting any danger or injury. Organization also need to concern employee health to prevent its employees from suffering physical or mental illness. The employee safety and health is high concern especially in the oil and gas industry. PETRONAS is a multinational corporation that has integrated oil and gas operations in a broad spectrum of the oil and gas value-chain. Employee has safety and health condition can perform the job efficiency and effectively and achieve the companys goal. Safety and health can impact the productivity and overall efficiency in organization. Organizations can put efforts to develop the team spirit among employees and to enhance as they are protected in the working environment. It can help organization to prevent industrial accidents and to reduce the absenteeism among employees. An important theory and concept such as Bounded Rationality, Herzbergs two factor theory and Maslow hierarchy of needs for an organization to apply in order to increase the profit by providing a safety and health working environment to the employees. The organization and employees should take the obligation together on the safety and health. Employees themselves should aware and responsible for their own safety and health in the working environment. PETRONAS conducts a variety of business activities in 31 counties. PETRONAS obeys and follow the stated laws and regulations and conducts an excellent HSE management system to ensure the safety and health of its employees. PETRONAS strives to contribute the commercial, environmental and social considerations carefully. A proactive approach adopted in by Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) to ensure the PETRONAS Corporate Policy Statement on Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) is implemented effectively. HSE policy is the basis requirement to implement in PETRONAS. OSH management can make decision at a limited time with the best alternatives according to the procedure stated. PETRONAS is restructuring the Group Health, Safety and Environment Division to enable Business Units to have greater accountability. It developed a framework to consolidate the mandatory HSE standard to be implemented in a safety working environment. Employee will feel secure and satisfied with their working condition and environment international HSE standards such as Gold Award from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) and Grand Award from Malaysian Society for Occupational Safety and Health (MSOSH) in year 2010. It will lead to increase the employee confident during working time with company HSE conditions. The objective of implementation in HSE performance is to reduce business risks and exposure and maintain consistency. Employees must know their duties and knowledge in order to apply in their tasks. Therefore, PETRONAS enable to have greater accountability.

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Impact of Airports Political, Environmental and Social

Impact of Airports Political, Environmental and Social Airports play an important economic role within their local communities. Airports serve a significant role in the economic shaping of the communities of which they serve due to the sheer actuality that they are among the largest public facilities in the world. It is well understood that a viable and efficient transportation system is a fundamental and necessary component to the economy of any region (Wells Young, 2004). Although there is no doubt that the presence of an airport has great positive impacts on a surrounding community from an economic standpoint, the presence of an airport, much like any large industrial complex, unfortunately impacts the community and surrounding natural environment in what many consider a negative manner. These effects are a result of activity whose sources is the airport itself and of vehicles, as well as both aircraft and ground vehicles, which travel to and from the airport (Wells Young, 2004). Examine the political, environmental and social impact an airport has on its local community. Analyze some rules and regulations that govern environmental impact activities, and explain how their strategies help satisfy the needs of the local communities while maintaining sufficient airport operations. Determine and evaluate the role technology plays in mitigating the risks and reducing the environmental impacts created by airport activity. Determine if a relationship exist between community economic growth indicators and airport activity. Program Outcome addressed by this question. 1. P.O. #1: Students will be able to apply the fundamentals of air transportation as part of a global, multimodal transportation system, including the technological, social, environmental, and political aspects of the system to examine, compare, analyze and recommend conclusion. A literary review will analyze the environmental impacts of airports on the surrounding communities in which they serve. An evaluation of environmentally related complaints filed against aviation activity and reported to the FAA will determine the most significant environmental impacts associated with airports. Predicting the future of the global multimodal air transportation system is impossible without first understanding the local role and responsibility of each component of the air transportation system. This question will show evidence of satisfying the Program Outcome by demonstrating how the social, economical, political, and environmental fundamentals of an airport are an integral part of the air transportation system, and how these factors contribute to the relationship that an airport has with its surrounding communities. Research and Analysis Airports serve a significant role in the political, economic, and social shaping of the communities of which they serve due to the sheer actuality that they are among the largest public facilities in the world. Political Roles A major commercial airport is a huge public enterprise. Some are literally cities in their own right, with a great variety of facilities and services (Wells Young, 2004). Although the administrative functions and responsibilities of these facilities are governed by public entities, airports are also comprised of private dispositions. Commercial airports must be operated in cooperation with the air carriers that provide air transportation service and all airports must work with tenants, such as concessionaires, fixed-based operators (FBOs), and other firms doing business on airport property. This amalgamation of public management and private enterprise fashions a unique political role for airport management (Wells Young, 2004). Airline carrier-airport relationships. One of the most prominent and essential relationships in the aviation industry is the airport airline relationship. When viewing the relationship from the airlines standpoint, an airport is a point along their route system for the purpose of enplaning, deplaning, and transferring passengers, cargo, and freight. To facilitate effective and efficient operations, the airlines necessitate specific facilities and services at each airport. The specified requirements of the airports are as varied and unique as the airlines who request them; however, they scarcely remain stagnant, as they are ever changing and evolving to meet the needs of traffic demands, economic conditions, and the competitive climate. Before airline deregulation in 1978, response to changes of this sort was slow and mediated by the regulatory process. Airlines had to apply to the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) for permission to add or drop routes or to change fares. CAB deliberations involved published notices, comments f rom opposing parties, and sometimes hearings that could take months, even years, and all members of the airline airport community were aware of an airline carriers intention to make a change long before they received permission from the CAB (Wells Young, 2004). The Deregulation Act of 1978 enabled air carriers to change their routes and fares without awaiting the approval of the CAB. Many of these changes occurred on short notice, thus causing airline necessities and requirements at airports to change with haste. Contrary to the viewpoints of air carriers, which operate at multiple airports over a route system connecting many cities, airports concentrate on accommodating the interests of a variety of users at a solitary location. Airport operators and managers have the strenuous task of ensuring that they meet all the demands and requirements of their airline carriers while maintaining their resources. Due to the rapidly changing specifics of each airline carrier, airports often find their services and facilities needing improving or refurbishing, requiring major capital expenditures or even making obsolete an already constructed facility. Airport operators and managers must exercise diligence and caution in realizing that they accommodate and must meet the needs of other tenants and users besides the airline carriers, and must ensure that the airports landside facilities are effectively and efficiently utilized. Although the landside facilities are of minimal importance to the airline carrie rs, their efficiency can severely have an effect on and be affected by their operations. Despite their notably different perspectives, airline carriers and airports share the collective objective of making the airport a successful and established economic venture in which both parties can benefit and prosper from. Traditionally the relationship between the airline carriers and airports has been formally fused through the use of airport user agreements which establish the circumstances and methodology for establishing, calculating, and collecting usage fees and charges. These agreements are also used to identify the rights and privileges of air carriers, sometimes including the right to approve or disapprove any major proposed airport capital development projects (Wells Young, 2004). Residual cost airports, or airports where two or more air carriers assume financial risk by agreeing to pay any cost of running the airport that are not allocated to other users, typically have longer-term use agreements than compensatory airports, with agreements of terms of 20 or more year s and terms of 30 years or longer not being uncommon. On the other hand, only approximately half of compensatory airports, or airports in which the airport operator assumes the financial risk of running the airport and charges the air carrier fees and rental rates set so as to recover the actual costs, have agreements running for 20 years or more, with many of the compensatory airports having no contractual agreements whatsoever with the airline carriers (Wells Young, 2004). Concessionaire-airport relationships. Another vital relationship which attributes to an airports success is the relationship between the airport and the concessionaires. This is due to the fact that the majority of airports rely on their concessionaires in order to generate a considerable amount of their non-aviation related revenues. Airports maintain management contracts and concession agreements with the concessionaires who provided the airport with services and facilities such as banks, restaurants, hotels, car rental companies, parking facilities, bookstores, bars, gift shops, taxi services, and business centers. The context of these agreements varies to a great extent; however, they typically extend the various concessionaires the privilege of operating on the property of the airport in exchange for the greater payment of either a minimal annual fee, or a percentage of the revenues. These agreements can vary from outlet to outlet at the same airport depending upon location, nature of business, forecast turnover and whether or not the outlet is new (Francis et. al, 2004). The tenure of each agreement between the airport and the various concessionaires and the financial circumstances affixed to each will vary by airport and concessionaire. The length of the contractual agreement is dependent upon an array of criteria, with one of the most important being the level of investment required from the retailer. If little investment is required then a contract is often short term; however, if any substantial level of investment is required from the retailer then a contract of five years would be considered the minimum (Freathy OConnell, 1999). A concessionaire who is often overlooked when speaking of concessionaire, despite its critically important role, is the fixed based operator (FBO). FBOs generally provide services for airport firms, users, and tenants lacking facilities of their own, typically through fuel sales, and aircraft repair, service, and maintenance facility operations. The contracts and agreements between airport operators and FBOs vary due to FBOs constructing and developing its own facilities on airport property in some cases, and FBOs simply managing facilities belonging to the airport in other cases. In addition to concessionaires, some airport authorities serve as landlord to other tenants which may reside and operate on airport property such as industrial parks, freight forwarders, and warehouses, all of which can provide significant revenue. It is the responsibility of airport management to maintain fruitful political relationships with all tenants, by ensuring reasonable lease fees, contract terms, and an overall mix of tenants that meet the needs of the airport and the public it serves (Wells Young, 2004). General aviation-airport relationships. In contrast to airline carriers and concessionaires, contractual agreements are rarely used to characterize and solidify the relationships between airport operators and general aviation (GA). GA is a diverse group which can be comprised of GA aircraft owned and operated by an assortment of organizations and individuals for a miscellaneous number of leisure, business, or instructional purposes. Agreement when they are in place, are seldom long term due to the variety and diversity of owners and aircraft type and use. Airport facilities, in particular storage space such as hangars and tie-downs, are often leased from the airport with the airport playing the role of landlord in a landlord-tenant relationship. Thus, at the airport, the primary needs of GA are parking and storage space, along with facilities for fuel, maintenance, and repair. Whereas as air carrier might occupy a gate for an hour to deplane and enplane passengers and load fuel, a GA user might need to have property space to park an aircraft for a day or more (Wells Young, 2004). Airport-public relations. Indubitably, one of the most vital and challenging relationships that an airport must foster and maintain, is the relationship between the airport and its community it serves. The overall goal of the airport must be to create goodwill and a positive reputation for the airport and its products, services, and ideals with the community, who can affect its present and future welfare. Without regards to the size, location, or activity scope of an airport, every airport four publics in which it must deal with. These publics include the 1) external business public, which includes all segments of the business, government, educational, and general flying public; the 2) external general public, which is all the local citizens and taxpayer, many of whom have never been to the airport but who vote on airport issues or who represent citizens groups with particular concerns; the 3) internal business public, which includes the businesses and enterprises who interests are tied directly to the airpor t-the airlines, FBOs, other members of the GA community, government officials, and other aviation and travel-oriented local businesses and trade organizations, and the employees of all these enterprises; and the 4) internal employee public comprised of everyone who works for the airport and its parent organization (Wells Young, 2004). Like any other facility that is a part of and serves the total community, the airport requires total understanding by its community and publics, and must ensure that it creates an environment and atmosphere of awareness and acceptance. Airport regulatory policies. The airport has many organizations who are profoundly interested in their operations, and in developing and preserving airports due to their role in the national air transportation system and their value to the communities and publics they serve. The primary goal of these groups is to provide political support for their causes with hopes to influence federal, state, and local laws concerning airports and aviation operations in their favor (Wells Young, 2004). Some of the most prominent groups include the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), the Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA), the Air Transport Association of America (ATA), the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE), the Aviation Distributors and Manufacturers Association (ADMA), the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF), the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (G AMA), the Helicopter Association International (HAI), the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the National Agricultural Aviation Association (NAAA), the National Air Transportation Association (NATA), the National Association of State Aviation Officials (NASAO), the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), the Professional Aviation Maintenance Association (PAMA), and the Regional Airline Association (RAA). Economic Roles Unquestionably, airports are economic locomotives and a reflection of the community, publics, and region in which they reside, serve, and represent. Transportation, by definition, provides the ability for people and goods to move between communities, thus leading to trade and commerce between markets, which in turn, lead to jobs, earnings, and overall economic benefit for a communitys residents (Wells Young, 2004). Transportation role. Despite the fact that there are numerous modes of transportations, to include automobiles, trains, trucks, and ships, air travel has had a significant impact on trade and commerce that is absolutely unrivaled by any other transportation mode. In comparison to their sister modes of transportation, travel in the aviation system allows substantial amounts of passengers and cargo to travel internationally in relatively short periods of time, resulting in communities garnering extraordinary and exceptional economic benefit through providing them access to various world-wide markets. Stimulating economic growth. The airport has become vital to the growth of business and industry in a community by providing air access for companies that must meet the demands of supply, competition, and expanding marketing areas. Economic impacts of airports are measured according to direct impact and indirect, or induced, impact. Directs impacts include the economic activities carried out at the airport by airline carriers, airport management and operators, FBOs, and other firms, and tenants with a direct involvement with aviation. Airports and the agencies and tenants that directly impact the airports represent a major source of employment for their various outlying communities, with the wages and salaries earned by the employees of airport-related business having a significant direct economic impact on the local communities economy by providing the means to purchase goods and services while generating tax revenues as well. Local payrolls are not the only measure of an airports economic benefit to the commun ity. In addition, the employee expenditures generate successive waves of additional employment and purchases that are more difficult to measure, yet nevertheless substantial (Wells Young, 2004). Total Airport Earnings and Employment (Earnings in Millions) Category Earnings Jobs Salaries $208.91 4,870 Local Fuel Purchases $3.99 237 Local Non-Fuel Purchases $4.23 252 Rent $18.35 723 Equipment Purchases $1.39 82 Utilities $8.07 318 Contractual Services $41.77 1,647 State Taxes $10.16 125 Local Taxes $27.42 338 Other Spending $73.14 901 Hotel Spending $42.20 2,234 Construction $19.11 743 Total $458.74 12,471 * Totals may not add due to rounding Table 1: Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY) 2004 earnings and employment. Taken from MSY 2004 Airport Report In addition to the direct economic impact generated by the airport, the outlying communities receive indirect, or induced, impact generated by economic activities by on-airport businesses and off-airport business activities associated with the airport through-put, such as hotels, gas stations, restaurants, and travel agencies, as well their roles in facilitating trade and tourism, among others. The airport also indirectly supports the local economy through the use of local services for air cargo, food catering to the airlines, aircraft maintenance, and ground transportation on and around the airport, as regular purchases of fuel, food, goods, supplies, equipment, and other services permeate additional income into the communities surrounding the airport. The local economys tourism and business convention industry can also receive economic growth and substantial revenues indirectly impacted by the airport through air travelers patronage and use of hotels, restaurants, retail stores, sp orts and night clubs, rental cars, and local transportation, among others. Beyond the benefits that an airport brings to the community as a transportation facility and as a local industry, the airport has become a significant factor in the determination of real estate values in adjacent areas. Land located near airports almost always increases in value as the local economy begins to benefit from the presence of the airport. Land developers consistently seek land near airports, and it follows inexorably that a new airport will inspire extensive construction around it (Wells Young, 2004). TOTAL TAX REVENUE CREATED (In millions of $s) CATEGORY INCOME State Direct $9.95 Income $7.18 Selective Sales $7.52 General Sales $8.90 Business $2.48 Total State $36.04 Local Sales $10.57 Local Direct $23.83 Local Property Taxes $0.97 Total Local $35.38 State Plus Local $71.41 * Totals may not add due to rounding Table 2: MSY Tax revenue created 2004. Taken from MSY 2004 Airport Report Airports are a major force and contributor to the local, regional, and national economy with an impact that goes well beyond the actual physical boundaries of the airport. As cargo and passenger continue to rise, and infrastructure continue to improve, the importance and impacts of airports as economic catalyst will also continue to increase. Environmental Roles Although there is no doubt that the presence of an airport has great positive impacts on a surrounding community from an economic standpoint, the presence of an airport, much like any large industrial complex, unfortunately impacts the community and surrounding natural environment in what many consider a negative manner. These effects are a result of activity whose sources is the airport itself and of vehicles, as well as both aircraft and ground vehicles, which travel to and from the airport (Wells Young, 2004). Noise Impacts. Conceivably the most noteworthy environmental impact associated with airports is the noise emanated by the taking off and landing of aircraft, with engine maintenance and taxiing aircraft following closely behind. The impact of such noise on communities is usually analyzed in terms of the extent to which the noise annoys people by interfering with their normal activities, such as sleep, relaxation, speech, television, school, and business operations (GAO, 2000). According to a 1978 study that has become the generally accepted model for assessing the effects of long-term noise exposure, when sound exposure levels are measured by the method that assigns additional weight to sounds occurring at night (between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.), and those sound levels exceed 65 decibels, individuals report a noticeable increase in annoyance (Schultz, 1978). There is increasing evidence that high exposure to noise has adverse psychological and physiological effects and that people repeatedly exposed to loud noises might exhibit high stress levels, nervous tension, and inability to concentrate (Wells Young, 2004). Since the beginning of aviation, airports have always had conflicts with their neighboring communities; however, noise did not become an issue until the 1960s introduction of the commercial jet. It is estimated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that between 1960 and 1970, the land area affected by aviation-related noise and the complaints they received with noise as the culprit increased sevenfold.