Case Study Review Essays - Health, Confidentiality, Secrecy, Source

Case Study Review Essays - Health, Confidentiality, Secrecy, Source Case Study Review Laura Rubio BSHS/335 March 30, 2015 Stephanie Chupein Case Study Review In case study 9, the case talks about Physician Access to Information as a Noncustodial Parent. In this case it talks about a 14-year-old boy by the name of Rajiv who was recently treated in the Emergency Department. Rajiv's mother has sole custody of him, and Dr. Singh who is his father does not have visitation rights of him. Due to circumstances of his divorce, Rajiv's mother was able to provide documentation for inclusion in his health records stating that under no circumstances would Dr. Singh would be allowed to access Rajiv's health information. Rajiv's father Dr. Singh ran into Mrs. Singh's neighbor in the grocery store, and that is when the neighbor had asked about his recovery. That is when Dr. Singh said that he was unaware of any issues concerning Rajiv's health, prompting the neighbor Mr. Smith to fill him in on the details. Mr. Smith was unaware of the custody arrangements and details of the divorce. The next morning, Dr. Singh went to the Health Information Services department requesting a copy of his son's records for review. Thanks to talking with the neighbor, Dr. Singh was able to provide a date and circumstances of his son's medical treatment to the Release of Information clerk pulled Rajiv's chart, as she was getting ready to copy the record she noticed a note prohibiting Dr. Singh from accessing Rajiv's records. Dr. Singh who knew that this clerk did not like confrontation with physicians, he simply told her that he was trying to assist Rajiv's mother in getting a copy of his records to take to a specialist that was she did not have to come and get them herself. Even after Dr. Singh telling her that the clerk, defended the confidential nature of Rajiv's records and she refused to copy the records. Dr. Singh then became loud and abrupt with the file clerk to the point that Jane, the Director of Health Information Services, came out of her office to determine what the pr oblem was. Jane reminded Dr. Singh of the confidential nature of all patient health records and the privacy and security issues presented through the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act. Dr. Singh then said that he understood and respected that regulations must be followed. About a half hour later, Dr. Singh presented to the Physician Record Assistant's desk. This is when he requested his incomplete records so that he could sign and dictate outstanding reports. He also requested for them to pull Rajiv Jones' chart for him to review. She had some difficulty locating Rajiv's chart, she went to other areas of the Health Information Services department to see if anybody else had the chart. When the Release of Information Clerk was approached about the record, she was informed the Physician Record Assistant that Dr. Singh was not allowed access to Rajiv's records. She then informed Dr. Singh that she could not give him Rajiv's chart, and if he has any questions, he should talk with Jane. Then he apologized for any inconvenience, completed his incomplete records, and then went to the nursing units to do his rounds. That is where he has developed a relationship of respect with the nurses on the unit and made another attempt at requesting his son's records while on his morning rounds. He had asked Betty, a nurse on the orthopedic unit, if she could call and have the chart sent up for him, she promptly called Health Information Services, simply stating that a physician needs the chart. That is when Betty was asked which doctor was requesting the chart and Betty said that it was Dr. Singh. She was then told that he was not able to have access to the records. That is when Betty responded by demanding that if a physician requests records, that physician's intentions should not be questioned. The Release of Information Clerk finally transferred Betty to Jane, who continued to protect the confidentiality of the records. Finally Dr. Singh went to visit the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the facility Charles to make arrangements for their weekly golfing outing. Dr. Singh reported that he was having problems getting

Tips for perfect proofreading - Emphasis

Tips for perfect proofreading Tips for perfect proofreading Its turned into proofing week here at the Emphasis blog. In this final part, we aim to finish turning you into mistake-spotting machines. How Stocking up on red pens is just the beginning. Follow these tips to ensure you always prove your proofreading prowess. Proofread in the morning if you can if youre tired, youre more likely to miss things. Proofread at least twice once for sense, once for technical accuracy. Read backwards for typos so youre not distracted by the meaning of the words. Use a blank sheet of paper to cover material not yet proofed and point to each word as you go. Print documents off to proofread its much more effective than trying to do it onscreen. [Note: If, however, your office or personal policy is to minimise printing for the sake of the environment, at least use a pen or pencil to point to each word onscreen as you go.] What Look out for: clusters of mistakes: the elation of spotting one may lead you to miss the one right next to it repetition of words particularly split over two lines commonly mixed up words, eg there and their, or principle and principal little words big words draw the eye brackets and speech marks is the second one in the right place? And finally Here are a few clarifying pointers inspired by the challenge worth raising: Its very easy to overlook titles, subtitles and headings, or subject lines in email (particularly as they wont be spellchecked). Dont! There was a howler in this one. Depending on your companys style, you may not need to put a comma after the salutation and sign off in letters and emails. If you do use them, be consistent ie use them after both Its only needs an apostrophe when its short for it is or it has. When it shows possession, it doesnt have one. If youre having trouble placing an apostrophe in a less-than-familiar construction (eg each others work), just reverse it like so: the work of each other (not others). So here it needs to go after the r. Youd only put a full stop or any other punctuation inside a bracket if the brackets contain a full sentence. If they contain an aside, the punctuation will be outside. For example: From now on, lets make sure that nothing is sent out without first being proofread (this includes email). Happy proofing!

Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 25

Art - Essay Example The statue sits in a corner spot, well lit by natural windows from behind and both sides. This position forces the viewer to appreciate the work from the frontal position, and does not allow a good view from the sides or the back. The positioning of what amounts to a severed head onto a base places great emphasis on the facial expression. The work is representational and very detailed, showing realistic touches such as the wrinkles on the forehead and the waves of hair sticking out in patches from the head. This realism is modified somewhat by the blue coloring, which is an unusual choice for a representational self-portrait because it does not represent the human skin tones very accurately. The head maintains the usual proportions of adult human anatomy and conveys an expression of intensity and concentration, indicated by the pursed lips and protruding neck veins. The beard, head hair and eyebrows are represented by tufts and clumps and they all sit frame-like around the central eyes and nose which form the focus of the whole piece. This lumpy texture contrasts with the smoother texture of expanses of skin. The glaze is shiny, which makes the surface of the cheeks and the forehead glisten. This adds to the realism of the piece because it is reminiscent of human perspiration. My first reaction on viewing this work was surprise. The incongruous color and startling expression drew my attention to the piece. At first I did not notice the inscription on the base and I wondered what the meaning of the strange expression might be. I imagined that the head was rendered speechless by something that it had seen. It did not look too pleased, and something about the eyes suggested to me that the person was unhappy and perhaps a little afraid. The head reminded me of an ancient sculpture and the color made me think of the sea. I thought it might be an ancient image of the sea god Neptune or perhaps a Biblical character like Noah or Moses. When I

Listening Log Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Listening Log - Essay Example Furthermore, it is beautiful to hear a single unaccompanied instrument, which really brings the focus down to the skill of the individual musician and the abilities of the instrument. The second piece is a piano piece entitled Adagio Sostenuto performed by Daniel Barenboim It is by enlarge soft and delicate. The perpetual melody of only three notes bring all of the other elements of the composition into incredibly sharp focus. This piece is also almost entirely in a minor key, underscoring a sad or somewhat mournful attitude. This is an amazing piece that I like quite a lot. One of the things I like about it is its huge amount and variety of textures, and rolling mini climaxes without that show that you can create a peak in music without going overly-loud or increasing tempo overly much. I also like that it is soft and delicate without being in any way tentative, every stroke is done with precision and determination, and even after a moment of hesitancy the stroke comes down in a pow erful way. The next song is the classic â€Å"Smooth Criminal† by the ever-famous (even posthumously) Michael Jackson. Its genre is, strictly speaking, pop. It is incredibly danceable, in a strict and somewhat predictable four-four time. It also has an incredibly catchy and single-able chorus. It incorporates a wide variety of influences, however. There are touches of proto industrial music in the percussion, which sound like they may be clanging on metal pans or the sides of a building. Furthermore, rap has a significant influence on the song, with its tersely spoken-word style narrative, as does funk through a wide use of synth and base. So while this is a pop song through and through, it has a wide variety of influences. This song is a really enjoyable one to listen to for a wide variety of reasons. Firstly, Michael Jackson has an incredibly interesting voice, which he layers and uses to great effect in this song. It also is a great representative of 1980s pop, almost over using synth while somehow being able to pull it off effectively at the last minute. This is a song by Cold Play. It is definitely a pop-rock song, falling into four-four time with emphasis on the two and four, though it interestingly has a base drum on every beat. Unlike many pop-rock songs, this forgoes traditional insturemenation, choosing to augment the classical base-guitar-vocalist-drummer set-up with at least a quartet of string instruments (the cello carries the melody for much of the song, but there are places one can definitely hear a viola and or a violin as well), along with a wide range of non-traditional (for the genre). I am indifferent to this song, because it does some things well but some things poorly. I think the choice of instrumentation is very interesting to listen to, and carry the song very well. The problem, however, is that I do not feel that the lyrics are very evocative, and fail to carry the song properly. The final song is â€Å"Back to Black† b y the gone-all-to-early Amy Winehouse. This is an incredibly interesting songs. By far the most important instrument in this composition is vocals, with Amy Winehouse providing a powerhouse performance. It also has a string section, a drum kit and possibly some horns kicking in the back, which all lead to a very layered and rich sound. This song harkens back to Motown Era R&B, with a heavy influence from soul.

Linguistics and Interjections Essay Example for Free

Linguistics and Interjections Essay In Western philosophy and linguistic theory, interjections—that is, words like oof, ouch, and bleah—have traditionally been understood to indicate emotional states. This article offers an account of interjections in Q’eqchi’ Maya that illuminates their social and discursive functions. In particular, it discusses the grammatical form of interjections, both in Q’eqchi’ and across languages, and characterizes the indexical objects and pragmatic functions of interjections in Q’eqchi’ in terms of a semiotic framework that may be generalized for other languages. With these grammatical forms, indexical objects, and pragmatic functions in hand, it details the various social and discursive ends that interjections serve in one Q’eqchi’ community, thereby shedding light on local values, norms, ontological classes, and social relations. In short, this article argues against interpretations of interjections that focus on internal emotional states by providing an account of their meanings in terms of situational, discursive, and social context. p a u l k o c k e l m a n is McKennan Post-Doctoral Fellow in Linguistic Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at Dartmouth College (Hanover, N.H. 03755, U.S.A. [[emailprotected]]). Born in 1970, he was educated at the University of California, Santa Cruz (B.A., 1992) and the University of Chicago (M.S., 1994; Ph.D., 2002). His publications include â€Å"The Collection of Copal among the Q’eqchi’-Maya† (Research in Economic Anthropology 20:163–94), â€Å"Factive and Counterfactive Clitics in Q’eqchi’-Maya: Stance, Status, and Subjectivity,† in Papers from the Thirty-eighth Annual Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society (Chicago: Linguistics Society, in press), and â€Å"The Interclausal Relations Hierarchy in Q’eqchi’ Maya† (International Journal of American Linguistics 69:25–48). The present paper was submitted 1 vi 01 and accepted 27 xii 02. 1. A longer version of this article was presented at the workshop â€Å"Semiotics: Culture in Context† at the University of Chicago in January 2001. Chris Ball, Anya Bernstein, John Lucy, and Michael Silverstein all provided very helpful commentary. This article also greatly beneï ¬ ted from suggestions made by Benjamin S. Orlove and several anonymous referees. Western philosophy and linguistic theory have traditionally considered interjections at the periphery of language and primordially related to emotion. For example, the Latin grammarian Priscian deï ¬ ned interjections as â€Å"a part of speech signifying an emotion by means of an unformed word† (Padley 1976:266). Muller (1862)  ¨ thought that interjections were at the limit of what might be called language. Sapir (1921:6–7) said that they were â€Å"the nearest of all language sounds to instinctive utterance.† Bloomï ¬ eld (1984[1933]:177) said that they â€Å"occur under a violent stimulus,† and Jakobson (1960: 354) considered them exemplars of the â€Å"purely emotive stratum of language.† While interjections are no longer considered peripheral to linguistics and are now carefully deï ¬ ned with respect to their grammatical form, their meanings remain vague and elusive. In particular, although interjections are no longer characterized pure ly in terms of emotion, they are still characterized in terms of â€Å"mental states.† For example, Wierzbicka (1992:164) characterizes interjections as â€Å"[referring] to the speaker’s current mental state or mental act.† Ameka (1992a:107) says that â€Å"from a pragmatic point of view, interjections may be deï ¬ ned as a subset of items that encode speaker attitudes and communicative intentions and are contextbound,† and Montes (1999:1289) notes that many interjections â€Å"[focus] on the internal reaction of affectedness of the speaker with respect to the referent.† Philosophers have offered similar interpretations. For example, Herder thought that interjections were the human equivalent of animal sounds, being both a â€Å"language of feeling† and a â€Å"law of nature† (1966:88), and Rousseau, pursuing the origins of language, theorized that protolanguage was â€Å"entirely interjectional† (1990:71). Indeed, such philosophers have posited a historical transition from interjections to language in which the latter allows us not only to index pain and express passion but also to denote values and exercise reason (D’Atri 1995).2 Thus interjections have been understood as a semiotic artifact of our natural origins and the most transparent index of our emotions. Such an understanding of interjections is deeply rooted in Western thought. Aristotle (1984), for example, posited a contrastive relationship between voice, proper only to humans as instantiated in language, and sound, shared by humans and animals as instantiated in cries. This contrastive relation was then compared with other analogous contrastive relations, in particular, value and pleasure/pain, polis and household, and bios (the good life, or political life proper to humans) and zoe (pure life, shared by all living things). Such a contrast is so pervasive that modern philosophers such as Agamben (1995) have devoted much of their scholarly work to the thinking out of this tradition and others built on it such as id versus ego in the Freudian paradigm. In short, the folk distinction made between interjections and language 2. D’Atri (1995:124) argues that, for Rousseau, â€Å"interjections . . . are sounds and not voices: they are passive registerings and as such do not presuppose the intervention of will, which is what characterizes human acts of speech.† Proper maps onto a larger set of distinctions in Western thought: emotion and cognition, animality and humanity, nature and culture, female and male, passion and reason, bare life and the good life, pain and value, private and public, and so on (see, e.g., Lutz 1988, Strathern 1988). In this article I avoid such abstracting and dichotomizing traps by going straight to the heart of interjections: their everyday usage in actual discourse when seen in the context of local culture and grounded in a semiotic framework. I begin by characterizing the linguistic and ethnographic context in which I carried out my research and go on to relate interjections to other linguistic forms, showing how they are both similar to and distinct from other classes of words in natural languages. Next I provide and exemplify a semiotic framework, generalizable across languages, in terms of which the indexical objects and pragmatic functions of interjections can best be characterized. Then I detail the local usage of the 12 most commonly used interjections in Q’eqchi’ and show the way in which they are tied into all things cultural: values, norms, ontological classes, social relations, and so on. I conclude by discussing the relative frequency with which the various forms and functions of interjections are used. In short, I argue against interpretations of interjections that focus on emotional states by providing an account of their meanings in terms of situational, discursive, and social context. Linguistic and Ethnographic Context While I am attempting to provide as wide a theoretical account of interjections as I can, thereby providing a metalanguage for speaking about similar sign phenomena in other languages, I am also trying to capture the grammatical niceties of Q’eqchi’ Maya and the discursive and social particularities of one Q’eqchi’-speaking village in particular. Before I begin my analysis, then, I want to sketch the linguistic and ethnographic context in which I worked. Q’eqchi’ is a language in the Kichean branch of the Mayan family, spoken by some 360,000 speakers in Guatemala (in the departments of Alta Verapaz, Izabel, and Peten) and Belize (Kaufman 1974, Stewart 1980). 3 Lin ´ guistically, Q’eqchi’ is relatively well described: scholars such as Berinstein (1985), Sedat (1955), Stewart (1980), Stoll (1896), and Chen Cao et al. (1997) have discussed its syntax, morphology, phonology, and lexicon, and I have detailed various morphosyntactic forms (encoding grammatical categories such as mood, status, evidentiality, taxis, and inalienable possession) as they intersect with sociocultural values and contextual features and as they illuminate local modes of personhood (Kockelman 3. Typologically, Q’eqchi’ is a morphologically ergative, head-marking language. In Q’eqchi’, vowel length (signaled by doubling letters) is phonemic; /k/ and /q/ are velar and uvular plosives, respectively, and /x/ and /j/ are palato-alveolar and velar fricatives, respectively. All other phonemes have their standard IPA values. 2002, 2003a, b). This article is therefore part of a larger project in which I examine how intentional and evaluative stances are encoded in natural languages and the relations that such stances bear to local modes of subjectivity. Alta Verapaz, the original center of the Q’eqchi’-speaking people who still make up the majority of its population, has had a unusual history even by Guatemalan standards. In 1537, after the Spanish crown had failed to conquer the indigenous peoples living there, the Dominican Friar Bartolome de Las Casas was permitted to  ´ pacify the area through religious methods. Having succeeded, he changed the name of the area from Tezulutlan (Land of War) to Verapaz (True Peace), and the Dominicans were granted full control over the area—the state banning secular immigration, removing all military colonies, and nullifying previous land grants. In this way, for almost 300 years the area remained an isolated enclave, relatively protected by the paternalism of the church in comparison with other parts of Guatemala (King 1974, Sapper 1985). This ended abruptly in the late 1800s, however, with the advent of coffee growing, liberal reforms, and the inï ¬â€šux of Europeans (Cambranes 1985, Wagner 1996). Divested of their land and forced to work on coffee plantations, the Q’eqchi’ began migrating north into the unpopulated lowland forests of the Peten  ´ and Belize (Adams 1965, Carter 1969, Howard 1975, Kockelman 1999, Pedroni 1991, Saa Vidal 1979, Schwartz 1990, Wilk 1991). In the past 40 years this migration has been fueled by a civil war that has ravaged the Guatemalan countryside, with the Q’eqchi’ ï ¬â€šeeing not just scarce resources and labor quotas but also their own nation’s soldiers—often forcibly conscripted speakers of other Mayan languages (Carmack 1988, IWGIA 1978, Wilson 1995). As a consequence, the past century has seen the Q’eqchi’ population spread from Alta Verapaz to the Peten and ï ¬ nally to Belize, Mexico, and even the  ´ United States. Indeed, although only the fourth largest of some 24 Mayan languages, Q’eqchi’ is thought to have the largest percentage of monolinguals, and the ethnic group is Guatemala’s fastest-growing and most geographically extensive (Kaufman 1974, Stewart 1980). The two key ethnographies of Q’eqchi’-speakers have been written by Wilk (1991) and Wilson (1995), the former treating household ecology in Belize and the latter upheavals in village life and identity at the height of the civil war in highland Guatemala during the 1980s. In addition to these monographs, there are also a number of dissertations and articles on the history (King 1974, Sapper 1985, Wagner 1996), ecology (Carter 1969, Secaira 1992, Wilson 1972), and migration (Adams 1965, Howard 1975, Pedroni 1991) of Q’eqchi’-speaking people. The data for this article are based on almost two years of ethnographic and linguistic ï ¬ eldwork among speakers of Q’eqchi’, most of it in Ch’inahab, a village of some 80 families (around 650 people) in the municipality of San Juan Chamelco, in the department of Alta Verapaz. At an altitude of approximately 2,400 m, Ch’inahab is one of the highest villages in this area, with an annual precipitation of more than 2,000 mm. It is also one of the most remote, access to the closest road requiring a three-hour hike down a steep and muddy single-track trail. Its relatively high altitude and remote location provide the perfect setting for cloud forest, and such a cloud forest provides the perfect setting for the resplendent quetzal, being home to what is thought to be the highest density of such birds in the world. Because of the existence of the quetzal and the cloud forest in which it makes its home, Ch’inahab has been the site of a successful eco-tourism project the conditions and consequences of which are detailed in my dissertation (Kockelman 2002). While the majority of villagers in Ch’inahab are monolingual speakers of Q’eqchi’, some men who have served time in the army or worked as itinerant traders speak some Spanish. All the villagers are Catholic. Ch’inahab is divided by a mountain peak with dwellings on both of its sides and in the surrounding valleys. It takes about 45 minutes to hike across the village. At one end there is a biological station kept by the eco-tourism project and used sporadically by European ecologists, and at the other there is a Catholic church and a cemetery. In the center there is a small store, a school for primary and secondary grades, and a soccer ï ¬ eld. The surrounding landscape is cloud forest giving way to scattered house sites, agricultural parcels, pasture, and ï ¬ elds now fallow. All villagers engage in corn-based, or milpa, agriculture, but very few have enough land to fulï ¬ ll all of their subsistence needs.4 For this reason, many women in the village are dedicated to chicken husbandry, most men in the village engage in seasonal labor on plantations (up to ï ¬ ve months a year in some cases), and many families engage in itinerant trade (women weaving baskets and textiles for the men to sell) and eco-tourism (the women hosting tourists and the men guiding them). Dwelling sites often contain a scattering of houses in which reside an older couple and their married sons, all of whom share a water source and a pasture. The individual families themselves often have two houses, a relatively traditional thatched-roof house in which the family cooks and sleeps and a relatively new house with a tin roof in which they host festivals and in which older children and ecotourists may sleep. Because of eco-tourism and the inï ¬â€šux of money and strangers that it brings, there has been an increase in the construction of such tin-roofed houses, and, as will be seen, many of my examples of interjections come from such construction contexts. My data on the use of interjections among villagers in Ch’inahab comes from 14 months of ï ¬ eldwork carried out between 1998 and 2001. The data collection con4. Before 1968, what is now Ch’inahab was owned by the owner of a plantation. Q’eqchi’-speakers who lived in the village of Popobaj (located to the south of and lower than Ch’inahab) were permitted to make their milpa in this area in exchange for two weeks of labor per month on the ï ¬ nca (Secaira 1992:20). Only in 1968, when a group of villagers got together to form a land acquisition committee, were some 15 caballerÄ ±as (678 ha) of land purchased from the owner  ´ for 4,200 quetzals (US$4,200). This land, while legally owned by the entire community, was divided among the original 33 villagers as a function of their original contributions.

I Was the Only Girl, but I Was Determined to Make the Golf Team Essay

I Was the Only Girl, but I Was Determined to Make the Golf Team I began golfing in the past five years. I went out for the high school team and made it on the varsity co-ed team. I was the only girl, but I was determined to make it. The first day of practice was interesting. All my fellow teammates treated me as an outcast – even the coach. This was the coaches first year of coaching varsity golf and had no idea what to do with a female on the team. When coaching a sport you need to be able to help a team member when they are having difficulty with the sport. For golf, this includes touching the person to insure they are swinging the club properly. Being that the coach was male, and I am female he would never help me because there are particular spots where you can touch a guy but not a girl (for example the bust region). After playing nine holes of golf, the team would usually go down to the driving range to relax our muscles that we had just used. At the driving range, the coach would assist the team members with the problems they were having. He would help reposition your grip, hold your legs, arms, back, or hip region, whenever they were incorrect. He never approached me. If I needed help with an y of my golf game I would either go to another schools coach or get professional lessons. As the first few practices went on, my teammates just treated me as one of the guys. I did not mind this because they were treating me like a team member. However, the coach still avoided me whenever I needed assistance. In high school golf matches, the top six players compete. As I was ranked, I was number four. When the first match came I was terrified because I knew I was number four on the team and knew I would most lik... ... do get penalized with strokes. That was my first tournament and I was not prepared. I did not expect it to take ten hours. I learned to bring as much food as you can fit in your bag, and do not forget some Advil or pain medicine because your entire body will be sore in the end. All your muscles are ready to give out, your feet just want to be elevated and your back is slouched for carrying a heavy golf bag for many hours. After my first year on the team, the coach warmed up to me. He still however, kept his distance, but I learned to rise above him. I played a total of eleven tournaments and even went to the state championship. Golfing on the team made me so mentally strong. I learned that I could do something if I wanted to, even if there was no support for me doing it. I continued to play for the rest of my high school career, and improved with every shot.

Online reservation of Eden spring resort Essay

RATIONALE OF THE STUDY The web has become an opportunity for the marketers to add value to products and services. The phenomenal growth and rising of the popularity of the internet and the World Wide Web has become a key to attract more consumers and businesses to engage the benefits of Electronic Commerce (E-commerce). This E-commerce is sited as any form of business transaction in which the parties interact electronically rather than by physical exchanges or direct physical contact (Aldin, Brehmer & Johansson, 2004). This has transformed the traditional commerce and enhanced sales and exchanges of merchandise and information. It is not just considered as single entity of technology but a combination of technologies where applications, processes, business strategies are necessary to do business electronically. The availability of goods and services with the click of a mouse is changing the global setting. It is critical for companies to know how do they attract customers to their website, engage them to turn into paying customers and also retain them in returning to your website. Online communications techniques used to achieve goals of brand awareness, familiarity and favorability and to influence purchase intent by encouraging users of digital media to visit a web site to engage with the brand or product and ultimately to purchase online or offline through traditional media channels such as by phone or in-store (Chaffey, 2009). In the Philippines, e-commerce is mostly being implemented by major retailers and multinational corporations for bank-to-bank exchange. A number of Business-to-consumer transactions have emerged through the years such as auctions, online shopping, and online banking (Lacson, Pasadilla, 2006). This just shows that Filipino businesses welcome this new opportunity in selling goods since 16% of the population is using Internet. This new marketing strategy will not only benefit those big companies but also the small businesses who cannot afford to advertise their products. Just by creating a website in a very affordable cost would make the business grow in terms of sales and enhance the company image as well. As summer is fast approaching, everyone wants to relax and spend quality time with their family and have fun at the same time. One of these relaxation sessions that will come in mind is outing, nature-tripping and swimming. Eden Spring Resort was planned to be for private use only. Family gatherings, special occasion and some invited family friends. But as the time passed, they developed it and made it a business, a Resort, and as this resort started, many people may it be local or foreign appreciated the beauty of the resort. The nature, the view, the fresh air, the peaceful and quite environment enticed them so much that they want to come back and bring significant people from them to enjoy the same experience that they had. When their business started, we found out that the personnel of the Eden Spring Resort they’ve been using a manual reservation every time they have customers. we notice that the customer’s of the resort are having a hard time on how to reserved the resort like birthday parties, weddings, family reunion and different kinds of occasions. So our proposal is about the web based reservation of Eden Spring Resort. Through this research, we may be able to help the resort in the enhancement of their business in order for them to have many costumers and also they will have an organized filing of the different transactions. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Through this research project, we may be able to help the resort in their business and also to provide a hassle-free reservation for their customers. The aspects that are related to this research are the organized filing of reservations made by the customers, the level of the administrators’ computer literacy, assisting the management of the resort to be able to attain a smooth and systematic operation and procedures, to provide a dependable and accessible reservation system that will ensure their clients a quality service, the availability of management staff with related training and knowledge in modern information technology that will periodically update and improve service provider capability to sustain a quality and dependable internet connection. This study seeks to answer the following: 1. What are the possible transactions of the Eden Spring Resort that can be improved using the online reservation? 2. What are the needed information requirements of Eden Spring Resort in terms of: 2.1. Checking-In and out of  guests to rooms; 2.2. Reservation of different kinds of occasion (Birthdays, Weddings, Anniversary etc.). 3. What are the acceptance level of the developed online reservation of Eden Spring Resort in terms of: 3.1. Perceive of usefulness and 3.2. Perceive of ease of use? SIGNIFICANT OF THE STUDY Nowadays, computer plays an important role in our life, most especially to the people that are having their business. There are the people who will benefit on our research study: Owner. They will have an organized file with a complete data that they will be needed in the reservations. Employees. Their work will be much easier and faster. Present Researchers. This study will help them develop and improve their knowledge that they have learned and skills that they experience. This will also served as one of their requirements in passing this level. Future Researchers. This will serve as their additional reference for their research. SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY This study focuses on the online reservation of the Eden Spring Resort. The researchers will interview the owner and the employees, and also we will give some questionnaires so that we can gather information’s that we will need. This study will be conducted in the Eden Spring Resort, located at Sitio Tab-ang, Barangay Pagatban, Bayawan City, Negros Oriental Philippines and this study is limited only for the year 2014–2015. The respondent of this study are the owner and the employees of the said resort. DEFINITION OF TERMS Electronic Commerce (E-commerce) – commonly known as E-commerce or eCommerce, is trading in products or services using computer networks, such as the Internet. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) – is an electronic communication  system that provides standards for exchanging data via any electronic means. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY The theoretical framework of this study will be anchored on the Rapid application development (RAD) of James Martin (1991). Rapid application development (RAD) is a response to processes developed in the 1970s and 1980s, such as the Structured Systems Analysis and Design Method and other Waterfall models. One of the problems with these methodologies is that they were based on a traditional engineering model used to design and build things like bridges and buildings. Software is an inherently different kind of artifact. Software can radically change the entire process used to solve a problem. As a result knowledge gained from the development process itself can feed back to the requirements and design of the solution. The waterfall solution to this was to try and rigidly define the requirements and the plan to implement them and have a process that discouraged changes to either. The new RAD approaches on the other hand recognized that software development was a knowledge intensive process and sought to develop flexible processes that could take advantage of knowledge gained over the life of the project and use that knowledge to reinvent the solution. (Martin, 1991) As Shown in figure 1 there are four phases in RAD, they are: Requirements Planning Phase, user design phase, construction and cutover. Requirements planning phase combines elements of the system planning and systems analysis phases of the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC). Users, managers, and IT staff members discuss and agree on business needs, project scope, constraints, and system requirements. It ends when the team agrees on the key issues and obtains management authorization to continue. During the User design phase, users interact with systems analysts and develop models and prototypes that represent all system processes, inputs, and outputs. User Design is a continuous interactive process that allows users to understand, modify, and eventually approve a working model of the system that meets their needs. The third phase is Construction phase which focuses on program and application development task. In RAD, however, users continue to participate and can still suggest changes or improvements as actual screens or reports are developed. Its tasks are programming and application development, coding, unit-integration and system testing. The last phase is cutover phase. This  phase resembles the final tasks in the SDLC implementation phase, including data conversion, testing, changeover to the new system, and user training. Compared with traditional methods, the entire process is compressed. As a result, the new system is built, delivered, and placed in operation much sooner. This approach will help us in developing our system that will help the Eden Spring Resort in their online reservations. FIGURE 1: Theoretical Framework of the Study CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY Instead of using manual system that can cause a huge compilation of data using file cabinet of which is time consuming for the personnel in searching and retrieving a certain file. The researchers therefore suggest the use of a system which will help the management in terms of their transactions. The conceptual framework of the Online Reservation of Eden Spring Resort is presented below. The first phase is the requirements planning phase, the first thing that the researchers will do is to differentiate the different transactions of the Eden Spring Resort. However, the researchers already observe the common problems occur in their current system before the actual study begins. Because of the problems identified, the researchers proposed a system that will help them. After the researchers identified the different problems and the different transactions, the researchers will identify the needed requirements on every transaction to be use in developing a system. The researchers will also interview the owner and the employees to know how their transactions are being conducted. The second phase is the user design phase, the information that the will be gathered in the requirements planning phase will be used in making the user design of the system. The information gathered will be the bases in determining the inputs and outputs of the system. Researchers will also include the flow of the information so that users will be guided upon using it. The third phase is the construction phase; the researchers will start creating the program for the system and documenting as well. The documentation will serve as a guide on how to use the system. System testing will be done also while in this phase. Users can suggest some changes or improvements while the system is being developed. The last phase or the forth phase is the cutover phase, researchers will let  the users test the program to observe some errors and eliminate them to make the system work successfully and to meet the needs of the user. Users can still suggest some changes or improvements while the system is being tested. After it will be tested and no more errors or bugs were found, the system will now ready for deployment. FIGURE 2: Conceptual Framework of the Study REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES The application of the Internet in the business world has become a major trend in practice and generated a hot stream of research in the recent literature. The Internet, as a collection of interconnected computer networks, provides free exchanging of information. Over 400 millions of computers or more than 400,000 networks worldwide today are communicating with each other (Napier, Judd, Rivers, and Wagner, 2001). As such, the Internet has been becoming a powerful channel for business marketing and communication (Palmer, 1999), and for new business opportunities – as it is often called as â€Å"e-business† or â€Å"e-commerce† today (Schneider & Perry, 2001). This new e-business or e-commerce virtual marketplace allows small companies competing with business giants by just having a better web presentation of their products/services. Under the same wave, online customers can enjoy a wider choice of products or services, more competitive prices, and being able to buy their favorite items/services from the sellers located thousands miles away. It provides communication between consumers and companies and through Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), buyers and sellers can exchange standard business transactions such as invoices or purchase orders with remarkable ease. The role of website quality in attracting online bookings and empirically test their proposed model with potential lodging customers. Authors indicate that information completeness and ease of use are important determinants of website quality. (Jeong et al.2005) According to the study of airfare reservation system, airfare reservation systems over attributes like information quality, system use, system quality, services quality, and customer loyalty. Their results show that North American-based websites outperform Asian-based ones.(Law and Leung 2002) The online booking in the hospitality industry (including  Hotel/motel, airlines, travels packages, etc.) is increasing at a very rapid speed recently, especially at the lower rate end. (Deegan & Horan, 2003) The hotel industry is certainly full aware of this trend and fully willing to contribute its share in this effort. In fact, the industry has realized that during those early forays into cyberspace, the industry didn’t view e-booking strategically (many hotels simply considered online room bookings at the time as a way to pick up additional business by selling distressed inventory through those online travel agencies), and handed over too much control of inventory and pricing to those third party online travel agencies. Now the industry is in the unenviable position of trying to take back the reins after early shopping patterns have been established. While the pressure to sell their inventory rooms online will be continuing, the industry has developed its new online stra tegy striving to get a better grip on this emerging marketing channel. (Jiaqin Yang, Jan Flynn & Krista Anderson) Online hotel reservations are becoming a very popular method for booking hotel rooms. Travelers can book rooms from home by using online security to protect their privacy and financial information and by using several online travel agents to compare prices and facilities at different hotels. People can book directly on an individual hotel’s website. An increasing number of hotels are building their own websites to allow them to market their hotels directly to consumers. Non-franchise chain hotels require a â€Å"booking engine† application to be attached to their website to permit people to book rooms in real time. One advantage of booking with the hotel directly is the use of the hotel’s full cancellation policy as well as not needing a deposit in most situations. (John Burns) According to Stuart study entitled â€Å"International Reservations Systems – Their Strategic and Operational Implications for the UK Hotel Industry†, presented details of the method and results of an investigation of the role and influence of international re servations systems within the UK hotel industry. The research comprised three questionnaire surveys of the use of computer reservations systems and distribution services by UK hotels. These were analyzed and produced an indication of general use of systems and the contribution which these currently make to hotel groups and consortia. The work also included a study of developments in access methods and changes in buyer behavior as observed by representatives of computer reservation and  distribution system, travel agency, hotel representation and intermediary companies. (Stuart 1995) According to this study, the system allows the guests to do their booking online by them self. Some of task that the system can do are providing a query for arriving date and the length of staying, providing the number of On rooms, view all available rooms and provides user the ability to choose one or more of them, recording the number of on rooms, view all available rooms and provides the user the ability to choose one or more of them, recording kind of guests and how many going to be in the single room, providing the cost of booking, asking the users if they want additional service; such as, dinner or breakfast, storing the guests detail; like, name, address and telephone, asking the user for confirmation, final confirmation views with the detail of booking and the guests can review or cancel the booking. (Louw, Door Janne, 2006) 658 Apartelle Online Reservation System, short term base lodging is the main reason that a hotel has been established. In the Philippines, wherein many foreign people go and have a vacation, hotel is always their first destination to have relaxation after long hours of travel in an airplane. Because of the rapid increase of foreigners visiting the Philippines for a vacation, a common sight is the establishments ad sophisticated hotels for competitive advantage. The 658 Apartelle Online Reservation Management System is not only a database for guest list but also an online reservation system, where potential guest can have online reservation which will automatically be sent to the database of the 658 Apartelle. Based on the proponent’s observation and interview, they have found many problems such as time consuming logging of the guest list names to the log book, difficulties in making reservations and difficulties in retrieving information on their previous guests because of the papers that are scattered everywhere and misplacing of the guestless records. (Bituin Abi, August 2010) A resort is a place used for relaxation or recreation, where visitors are being attracted to take their holiday or vacation. It refers to places, towns or sometimes commercial establishments operated by a single company. On the other hand, a hotel is differentiated as an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Computer programmers are continuously developing a system  application to better serve resort or hotel guests because some hotels and resorts are becoming fully automated while others are still striving for the similar setting. The researchers introduce a â€Å"LAN-Based Reservation with Billing System for Hacienda Gracia Resort and Hotel† to improve its reservation and billing system. The advent of new technology gave rise to easy and hassle-free interaction between and among humans. This is why most hotel and resorts prefer to employ computerization in their business. (Lagman , September 2012) RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES This section includes research design, research environment, research respondents, and data gathering procedure, research instrument and statistical treatment of the study. Research Design The researchers used the descriptive method in which the employees and the owner are the respondents in the Eden Spring Resort.   This method will be used in acquiring the response of the questionnaire and interview as the main tools in gathering the desired information that is needed for the study and getting the responses of the respondents regarding the information for the development of the online reservation of Eden Spring Resort. Research Environment This study was conducted at the Eden Spring Resort that was located in the Sitio Tab-ang, Barangay Pagatban, Bayawan City, Negros Oriental Philippines. The owners of this establishment are Mr. Dominador Torillo Ortaliz also known as Dennis and Mrs. Elizabeth Nodado Ortaliz also known as Beth. Eden was a combination of the names of the owners, Elizabeth and Dennis. They started constructing the Eden Spring Resort in mid of February but they started their business on June 14, 2012. Research Respondent The owner and the employees will serve as our respondent of our study. They are the one who will be frequently using the system. Data Gathering Procedures After asking permission to the owner of the establishment, we will be giving the questionnaires to the owner and the employee, we will also conduct an interview to them about the different problems encountered by the resort. Research Instruments The tool used by the researchers to gather the information’s needed is the questionnaires. The questionnaires are used to gather some data to the management of the resort regarding the current reservation or different transactions made by the Eden Spring Resort. Statistical Treatment of the Study This research study will use weighted mean formula in determining the acceptance level of the developed computerized recording system. Where: WX = weighted mean f = frequency x = values n = total number of respondents ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY This study will have (2) parts. Part 1 contains the Thesis write up which consists of three (3) chapters. Chapter I presents the problem and scope of the study. This covers the Rationale of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Significance of the Study, Scope and Limitation of the Study, Definition of Terms, the Theoretical Framework of the Study and its Schematic Diagram, Conceptual Framework of the Study and its Schematic Diagram. It also discusses further on the Review of Related Literature and studies of the research problem. It explained the research methodology, which comprises the Research Design, Research Locale, Research Respondents, Research Instruments, Data Gathering Procedure, and Organization of the Study. Chapter II includes the Presentation and Analysis of the Data Gathered from the respondents. The Data were presented in tabular form which were analyze and used as basis were implications can be drawn. Chapter III was the summary of Findings, Conclusion, and Recommendation, after which the program design. Part 2 contains the System Design, Flow Chart, Data Dictionary, and System  Requirements.

Impact of US Dollar on Canadian Economy Essay

The Canadian Economy is strong. According to the 2001 Canada Yearbook, factors contributing to the country’s economic health are: natural resources; manufacturing and construction industries; financial and service sectors; the ability to span distances using communications and transportation technologies; dynamic trade relationships with other nations; and the ability to compete in a global marketplace (2004). Being the 2nd largest country in the world, Canada’s natural resources accounts for 12. 6% of its GDP growth in 2003. The Energy Sector, Forestry, Mineral Sector as well as Geomatics Sciences are responsible for this growth. Exportation of natural gas, timber and wood products, potash, uranium and other minerals make up for the growth. Geomatics is the science and technology of gathering, analyzing, interpreting, distributing and using geographic information. Since 2002, when the Canadian Government initiated the focus on understanding and mapping its land resources, it became one of the leading suppliers of information, technology and equipment in Geomatics. Today, Geomatics is a $10 to $20 billion dollar industry growing at a 20% rate, and thus is a potential growth area for the Canadian natural resources sector. According to Industry Canada, the Manufacturing and Construction Industries contribute to about 40% of Canada’s GDP, with an actual gross approximately $25 billion in December 2005. The two industries combined showed growth near single digit levels, (manufacturing at 1% GDP and construction at 0. 7% in Dec. 2005) which propelled the 0. 4 over-all GDP, making up for the loss in the Agriculture section at -1. 6% GDP in December 2005 (2006). The services sector in general is boosting the economy. Canada Yearbook states that the sector employs three out of four Canadians in the 21st Century (2004). Though their output is not as tangible as manufactured or natural goods, the services sector is everywhere and serve as the backbone of every economic sector. From the driver of a courier van to the company financial analyst to the service providers in Civil Defense, all the roles belong to the services sector. Together with advances in information technology, the services sector is transforming Canadian Economy into a knowledge-based economy (2006), as claimed by the Canadian Yearbook, where-in its modern products are efficient back-end services, professional consultancy and breakthrough technologies and equipment. Despite the economic transformation, trade is still the main means of business for Canada. As such, relationships with trade partners play a vital role. Among the countries in the world, four markets are in constant and significant trade relations with Canada: United States, United Kingdom, Japan and more recently, China. Among the four, its close neighbor, the United States takes about 75 – 80% of Canada’s trading business. Thus, changes in the Unites States economy, particularly of the US dollar impacts Canadian economy. State of Canada-US Trade Geography and history have provided opportunities for the United States and Canada to be in close business relations. In the natural order of things, free trade between the two nations would be beneficial in toto. However, political and social ramifications have prevented the successful pact since the mid 1800s until such time when, despite the disagreement of Canada’s Conservative Party, the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between US and Canada was effected in October of 1987. The over-all provision is to minimize tariffs of all goods traded between the two countries to a maximum of 1%. With the FTA in effect, trade between the two countries rose to 40% from a pre-FTA level of 25%. However, there is strong opposition from Canada about violations of the United States in the provisions of FTA, to the disadvantage of Canada’s agricultural business. However, seeing the benefits of a free trade zone, Prime Minister elect Jean Chretien improved the FTA and broadened the extend of the free trade to Mexico. Thus, in January of 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the United States, Canada and Mexico, took effect. Such Agreement involves an immediate and phased release of tariffs and trade barriers for agricultural products traded between the three countries. A macro benefit of NAFTA is a systematic conduct of business within North America because of the creation of an impartial, rules-based system to resolve dispute among the countries. Significant increases in trade activity were observed among the three countries in the first seven years of NAFTA implementation as compared to agricultural trade activities with other markets outside of North America. Canadian agricultural and agri-food exports to the United States and Mexico have increased by 95 percent, reaching $14. 8 billion in 2000. In comparison, Canadian exports of agricultural products to non-NAFTA countries grew by 45 percent during the same period, according to Agriculture and Agri-food Department of Canada (2006). Prior to NAFTA, agricultural import-export activities between Canada and the United States was only at $13. 7 billion. However, this increased $25. 1 billion in 2000, 82% higher, since 1993. Because 61% of Canada’s farming produce are exported to the United States, agricultural exports for the same period grew 92% to reach $14. 1 billion. As a result, Canada’s agricultural trade surplus with the United States has more than tripled since 1993. As summarized by the Agricultural Department of Canada, Horticultural crops: volume exports of tomatoes increased twenty-fold while exports of peppers and lettuce increased seven-fold, and exports of cucumbers increased six-fold. Oilseeds products: soybean oil volume exports increased seven-fold, exports of sunflower oil quadrupled, and canola oil exports increased by 44 percent. Specialty crops: dried beans volume exports nearly tripled. Red meats: beef volume exports more than doubled while pork exports increased by 87 percent. Processed products: roasted coffee volume exports increased nearly seventeen-fold, malt exports increased nearly five-fold, exports of frozen French fries increased four-fold, and pasta exports more than tripled. Following the success of NAFTA and its predecessors from other continents of the world, Canada together with thirty-three other countries belonging to the American Continent are drafting a free trade agreement called Free Trade Agreement Among the Americas (FTAA). With its complex participation, the agreement is still under negotiations. Factors that Influence the Rise of the Canadian Dollar (against the US Dollar) With the rise of the United States as an Economic super power, it naturally assumed a role of having the US dollar as a worldwide currency. Significant markets such as Canada are always compared to the dollar. Moreover, being a majority trade partner of the US, the exchange rate of the Canadian dollar matters significantly over the US dollar. Since 2003, Statistics Canada has plotted the rise of the Canadian dollar against the US dollar and indicated its significant rise against the greenback. There are three factors that may have contributed to this growth: first, the weakening of the US economy brought about by increasing current account deficits; secondly, the worldwide increase in commodity prices; and thirdly, the improved performance of the Canadian economy resulting in trade surplus. Since 2001, there has been a common phenomenon in most major currencies in the world: they appreciated against the US dollar. The Euro and Canadian dollar were two of the strongest performers. When the Euro surpassed the greenback in 2003 analysts predicted that there was no turning back. While the loonie has seen significant appreciation at the rate of 25% since 2001 until 2005, surpassing historical performance by the US dollar. Such appreciation has been driven by the increasing trade deficits of the US. Since 2001, the US has been buying more goods and a service than the country is able to sell. More oil, gas, metals and services were bought with US dollars than were sold outside of the US. Some analysts believe that the on-going War on Terror has been the main source of the deficit. While the country is still figuring out how to address the deficits, major trade partners such as Canada are reaping the benefits of a weakening dollar. At the mercy (or because) of commodity supply, the Canadian economy remained resilient despite the volatility of oil, gas, metals and wood. Being a major supplier of such commodities, precarious world prices came at an advantage. Despite some internal losses as a crude oil refiner, the bottom line effect of this factor remained positive and contributed to GDP. Thus, the increase of the Canadian dollar. Last factor that weakened the dollar from Canada’s point of view is the initiative of its government to attract more businesses through higher interest rates (vs. that of the United States). The over-all effect therefore, of the three factors above is the weakening of the US dollar against the Canadian dollar. Today, the exchange rate of the Canadian dollar is rising and reaching its peak in 2001, at C$ 0. 846 vs. the US$. With such growth, the general assessment of Canadian economists, businesses and external analysts is that this is positive for the Canadian economy, now more than ever. The next sections will have full discussion of the different sectors in the Canadian economy as impacted by the weakening (or strength) of the US dollar. Impact of the US Dollar on Canadian Industries Exports Apart from agriculture and agri-products, steel is another commodity that Canada heavily trades with the United States. Canada’s steel production accounts for approximately two percent of the world’s total supply. This is very small as compared to the Asian producers (Japan, North Korea and Taiwan), which accounts for nearly 40%. Nevertheless, 89% of Canada’s steel export go to the United States while 58% of Canada’s imported steel come from the US. Trade barriers, transportation costs prevent small Canadian steel producers from competing outside of North America. North America’s open market is ideal for small and big steel manufacturers from Canada. Just by its size and high demand, the opportunity for supply is wide. In addition, proximity to such a large market allows for low transportation cost. Just-in-time supply is immediately served without much impact on delivery cost. Furthermore, inventory can be kept low unless preparing for construction peak. Steel pricing in North America is also higher than other export markets by as much as 40% when compared to Japan, where steel importation is minimal due to its own supply. In North America, particularly the United States, steel trade is predicted to continue growth. In this light, sustained and open access to the U. S. market is key to the Canadian steel industry. A slight fallback in the market, for example, experienced in 1995 posed a threat to the industry. Whenever such a slow-down happens, issues related to anti-dumping and government subsidies arise, without any proper venue for address under NAFTA. Unfair trade practice is an issue commonly raised by the US against Canada when market conditions appear to favor Canada’s steel industry. In the same manner, weakening of the US dollar may initiate such a condition when Canada’s steel industry continues to maintain a surplus against the US. Once again is likely to be subject to charges of unfair trading practices by U. S. steelmakers. In 1993, according to Industry Canada, the country had a global steel trade surplus of $580 million and a steel trade surplus with the U. S. of $909 million. While the trade surplus was maintained with the U. S. , the surge in steel demand in 1994 resulted in a dramatic rise in imports and produced an overall international trade deficit of $207 million. The total trade balance deficit increased in 1995 to $349 million as Canadian imports again exceeded exports. However, the steel trade surplus with the U. S. was $1. 0 billion in 1995. Over the period from 1989 to 1995, steel imports have increased from 18. 6 percent of apparent domestic consumption in Canada to 29. 9 percent in 1995. Meanwhile the import share held by the U. S. increased from 8. 6 percent to 17. 5 percent. In the U. S. market, imports increased from 17. 9 percent of apparent domestic consumption in 1989 to 21. 4 percent in 1995, with Canada’s import share increasing from 3. 1 percent to 4. 0 percent. With such steel trade dynamics between the two countries, the weakening of the US dollar means the increase in Canada’s export price. Either more US dollars are needed to purchase the same Canadian product in the 21st century, than during the slump 1990s; or less Canadian dollars are earned for every sale of a Canadian export. At the other end, when Canada imports from the US, the commodities and services become cheaper. Either way, both impacts sales and profits. When sales and profits are volatile, vulnerable small businesses tend to closedown and contribute to unemployment. In order to maintain profit margins, Canadian export companies will need to improve efficiencies. Improvement may come in three ways: production streamlining, outsourcing and amortization gains. When the US dollar is low, it is the best time for companies to reevaluate tools and machinery throughput. Technology improvements will present more-efficient, more-automated processes, which can be useful in improving production efficiency. Since most equipment are bought from the US or are priced in US dollars, lower dollar exchange rates mean cheaper equipment. This is one way that exports companies to maintain profit margins by reducing production cost through efficient machines. In the same line of thinking importing services also come cheaper than when the US dollar is strong. Whether obtaining services from the US, or from East Asia, where intelligent and skilled labor is cheap, outsourcing back-end process in export production always contribute to efficiency. Though this may result to redundancies, macro effects of outsourcing prove to be positive to the bottom line. Lastly, for businesses that amortize US dollar-denominated loans, there will be gains in the amortization payment because of the weakened dollar. Furthermore, during a round-table public forum in 2004, businessmen have suggested that the Canadian government consider lowering interests rates to match that of the US. Doing so will minimize the impact of loans on Canadian dollar-based denominations despite its appreciation. Imports The stronger currency benefits importers. Consumers and businesses benefit from a better Canada-U. S. exchange rate through less expensive imports from the U. S. The depreciation of the dollar lowers import costs and, more specifically, offers cheaper capital goods, making investment in new machinery and equipment in Canada cheaper. Canadian businesses import 80% of equipment and machinery, and with these imports now more affordable, a boost to business investment can be expected. However, some argue that with the loss of revenue, investments in new machinery and equipment would not be substantial.

Introduction to the Periodic Table of Elements

Introduction to the Periodic Table of Elements Dmitri Mendeleev published the first periodic table in 1869. He showed that when the elements were ordered according to atomic weight, a pattern resulted where similar properties for elements recurred periodically. Based on the work of physicist Henry Moseley, the periodic table was reorganized on the basis of increasing atomic number rather than on atomic weight. The revised table could be used to predict the properties of elements that had yet to be discovered. Many of these predictions were later substantiated through experimentation. This led to the formulation of the periodic law, which states that the chemical properties of the elements are dependent on their atomic numbers. Organization of the Periodic Table The periodic table lists elements by atomic number, which is the number of protons in every atom of that element.  Atoms of an atomic number  may have varying numbers of neutrons (isotopes) and electrons (ions), yet remain the same chemical element. Elements in the periodic table are arranged in periods (rows) and groups (columns). Each of the seven periods is filled sequentially by atomic number. Groups include elements having the same electron configuration in their outer shell, which results in group elements sharing similar chemical properties. The electrons in the outer shell are termed valence electrons. Valence electrons determine the properties and chemical reactivity of the element and participate in chemical bonding. The Roman numerals found above each group specify the usual number of valence electrons. There are two sets of groups. The group A elements are the representative elements, which have s or p sublevels as their outer orbitals. The group B elements are the nonrepresentative elements, which have partly filled d sublevels (the transition elements) or partly filled f sublevels (the lanthanide series and the actinide series). The Roman numeral and letter designations give the electron configuration for the valence electrons (e.g., the valence electron configuration of a group VA element will be s2p3 with 5 valence electrons). Another way to categorize elements is according to whether they behave as metals or nonmetals. Most elements are metals. They are found on the lefthand side of the table. The far right side contains the nonmetals, plus hydrogen displays nonmetal characteristics under ordinary conditions. Elements that have some properties of metals and some properties of nonmetals are called metalloids or semimetals. These elements are found along a zig-zag line that runs from the upper left of group 13 to the bottom right of group 16. Metals are generally good conductors of heat and electricity, are malleable and ductile, and have a lustrous metallic appearance. In contrast, most nonmetals are poor conductors of heat and electricity, tend to be brittle solids, and can assume any of a number of physical forms. While all of the metals except mercury are solid under ordinary conditions, nonmetals may be solids, liquids, or gases at room temperature and pressure. Elements may be further subdivided into groups. Groups of metals include the alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, transition metals, basic metals, lanthanides, and actinides. Groups of nonmetals include the nonmetals, halogens, and noble gases. Periodic Table Trends The organization of the periodic table leads to recurring properties or periodic table trends. These properties and their trends are: Ionization Energy - energy needed to remove an electron from a gaseous atom or ion. Ionization energy increases moving left to right and decreases moving down an element group (column).Electronegativity - how likely an atom is to form a chemical bond. Electronegativity increases moving left to right and decreases moving down a group. The noble gases are an exception, with an electronegativity approaching zero.Atomic Radius (and Ionic Radius) - a measure of the size of an atom. Atomic and ionic radius decreases moving left to right across a row (period) and increases moving down a group.Electron Affinity - how readily an atom accepts an electron. Electron affinity increases moving across a period and decreases moving down a group. Electron affinity is nearly zero for noble gases.

Online Assistance for Social and Natural Sciences Students with APA Format

Online Assistance for Social and Natural Sciences Students with APA Format APA stands for American Psychological Association, which is the largest scientific professional organization of psychologists in North America. The association has developed its own formatting style, which is called APA and is mostly used when writing essays, research papers in social natural sciences. If you experience any difficulties with APA formatting request help from our professionals! Most current document governing the APA style is the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition. The manual is available on the APA website; furthermore, there is plenty information available online. APA REFERENCING TOOL Writing an essay and formatting it to match APA style is the most frequent question students ask us. Unlike the MLA formatting, APA is used in social natural sciences; naturally, a formatting style will inevitably differ from MLA. One of the major differences is paper structure. APA style essay should consist of 4 major sections: title page, abstract, main body references. For more serious APA style publications the structure will be somewhat different and will include: Title Page, Abstract, Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion, References, and Appendices. This article is going to deal with such aspects of essay formatting as paper, title page, font, formatting, numbering, spacing, indentation, heading, citation, and references.  Here you can see a detailed formatting of the APA cover page. Paper.  Your essay should be typed on clean, white sheet of A4 paper (8.5†x11†). Use one-inch margins on all sides. Title Page.  This is one of the mandatory parts of your essay. Include the phrase ‘Running head:’ and type your paper title. Flush left.  Press Enter eight times and write your title again, include your first last name, your teaching institution your professor. Center this block of text. Numbering.  Your paper should be numbered consecutively, starting from page 1. Page numbers should be placed in the upper right-hand corner. Spacing.  Use double space throughout your essay. Indentation.  Paragraphs should be indented. Press TAB once. Paragraphs.  Indent paragraphs. Flush left. Headings.  Headings should be centered and capitalized. Citation.  Basic in-text citation narrows down to Author-Year style, for example: The economic situation in most countries is forcing government departments to embrace change in order to survive (Gravenhorst, 2003). Brunes Jackson (2001) argue that success rates of organizational change efforts, however, have been found to be very low. References.  References come at the end of your paper. Once you are done writing, start a new page and title it ‘References’. Center your text. From a new line, list your references. Sort alphabetically. Your references will look like this: DiFonzo, N. (2013). 10 Rumors during organizational change: a motivational analysis. The Psychology of Organizational Change: Viewing Change from the Employees Perspective, 232. The good news about APA referencing is that it is fully automatic now. has created a special APA referencing machine that automatically creates references based on the information you specify. At the end it allows you to download the references file as a separate file that you can simply attach to your paper or essay. Formatting your essay to APA style is a great example of works that can be outsourced to professionals who work at ! We have hundreds of writers who are experts on APA style, they will save you time if you request formatting assistance from them. APA formatting can be ordered as a part of editing proofreading services at .

Testing Procedure Specifications Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Testing Procedure Specifications - Assignment Example TPS come in handy in ensuring that the software used by an organization is up to date and error-free. The accuracy of software is critical for any company (Haladyna et al. 57). By having regular TPS reports, our company will minimize complaints from clients about crashes. Remember, our clients are our greatest assets and we should, therefore, strive to maintain them and win their confidence and loyalty. Accurate TPS gives a company a competitive edge over the rest (Conley et al. 18). The staff is, therefore, advised to give regular and accurate TPS reports to minimize complaints from clients. This morning alone, two clients complained about crashes that seem to have emanated from sloppy code. In order to make everyone accountable, the company has introduced a new cover sheet. Consequently, from now henceforth, the company is putting cover sheets on all TPS reports before they are released. Kindly note that the staff is advised to stick to this new stipulation. This is simply a quality control check to ensure that everyone conducts a quality check on the TPS reports before releasing them. Programmers are advised to ensure they run the simulation so that it matches up to the template. This step ensures the simulation is up to manufacturer specifications (Rego et al. 16). They then have to document the test on the TPS report and put it on the cover sheet with their ID number. The new cover sheets will only act as quality control check to make everyone responsible (Williams et al. 71) Perhaps it is important to note that our clients are our priority; we offer them the best-customized software solutions to their software problems, and we safeguard our business. From tomorrow, I will select a team of staff to examine how the issues of quality control. If you want to be part of the committee, simply forward your name to the relevant office. Only programmers or managers with 3 to four years of experience will be considered.