Thursday, October 31, 2019
Practice Intercultural Speaker Summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words
Practice Intercultural Speaker Summary - Essay Example This acted as his core source of motivation that sought to unravel the finer details of what entailed the suffering of Indian minority in American land. At some point, he would even pose to question if the expensive infrastructural facilities across the American land would be in place if the American natives had not come there. Through his works, he explores consequences minorities face because of cultural differences. The majority forcefully try to assimilate the minority by making them believe that their culture is superior and superb. Sherman tries to bring out the raw picture of the plight of minorities in societies that are dominated by a majority. He goes ahead to state that the majority can do anything just to get away with their culture. In this pretext, he asserts that the Native Americans are the ones who suffered all kinds of humiliation ranging from ethnic cleansing to genocide not because they choose that was, but just because they fall victims of circumstances (Billmoyers.Com, 2013). That notwithstanding with the cultural gap that was evident between the minorities and the majorities it was for a minority to make up to understand the culture of the majority and not the other way round. That is why he says he knows the American culture more than anyone would think he knows the Indian culture. The majority will use all means possible including force to make the minority feel like they are in the wrong culture and thus the need to assimilate to the dominant culture. Throughout his literal works, Sherman Alexie was always trying to bring out the cultural indifference that existed between the Native Americans and Whites. He vividly narrates first-hand accounts of the suffering and indiscrimination that befall the Indians in American land because of being a minority in a white dominated land. The targeted audience may be the public but most specifically the audience will be divided into two; the majority who represent the whites for this
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Educator Resume Essay Example for Free
Educator Resume Essay EDUCATOR Sociology / Psychology / Human Services Goal-oriented Professional with an education in Social Services pursuing a teaching career at a local junior college in the areas of sociology, psychology, and human services. Currently completing a Masters Degree in Social Work and an Internship as a Group Facilitator at Brighton Rock. Prior professional experience includes 10 years with DePaul Medical Center and a part-time position at Sentara in the Healthcare Administration field. Dynamic Leader known for being caring and compassionate, who enjoys helping the community through case management, referrals, needs assessment, and goal setting.  Excellent communication skills with an ability to provide superior social services to individuals, families, and community organizations in a faith-based setting. In-depth knowledge of Medicare, Medicaid, and third-party payment plans. Technically proficient in Microsoft Office Suite and Window’s Operating Systems. Functional Areas of Expertise                            Personal Assets  Fundraising Grant Writing Skills Psychosocial Assessments Program Development Support Group Facilitator Case Management Medicare / Medicaid Knowledge Community Outreach Programs Event Planning Office Management Customer Service Excellence Highly Organized Detail-Oriented Analytical Skills Hard Working / Reliable Self-Motivated Team Player / Positive Attitude Caring Compassionate Excellent Time Management Skills Oral / Written Communication Crisis/Problem Resolution Skills Excellent Interpersonal Skills EDUCATION Norfolk State University Masters Degree in Social Work, Graduating in May 2008 Bachelor Degree in Social Work, 2005 Tidewater Community College Associates in Applied Science in Liberal Arts, 2002 COLLEGE COURSEWORK Human Behavior in the Social Environment Social Work with Individuals Social Work with Groups+ Social Work with Families Fundraising and Grantsmanship Differential Assessment for Social Work Practice Community Mental Health Policy and Services Case Management in Social Work Advocacy and Social Planning Research Method Continue†¦page 1 of 2 INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE Brighton Rock, Inc., Portsmouth, VA                                                                                                           2007-2008 Social Work Internship Serves as Facilitator for Grandparents as Parents Support Group. Assists with fundraising and grant writing projects. Effectively plans conferences and workshops for grandparents. Sentara Norfolk General, Norfolk, VA                                                                                                          2006-2007 Social Work Internship Assisted in providing Psychosocial Assessments and Counseling for individuals with chronic illnesses and providing them with community resources. Evaluated, monitored, and assessed client outcomes and maximized the ability of families to move through the assessment process. Determined psychosocial stresses, coping mechanism and long term adaptation to chronic illness. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE  Gethsemane Baptist Church, Norfolk, VA                                                                                            2006-Present Director of Ministry Provides leadership development and oversight for ministry staff and volunteer services. Oversees the ministry programming and consults with ministry leaders in the implementation of a comprehensive ministry strategy. Recruits ministry staff and trains servant leaders in their specific area of ministry expertise. Develops community outreach programs. Transplant Sentara Norfolk General, Norfolk, VA                                                                                  2002-2006 Financial Coordinator Conducted the initial financial interview with patients. Screened and educated them on transplant process, policies, and procedures. Utilized established procedures for pre-certification, preauthorization, and letters of medical necessity. Coordinated the process for all transplant services. Maintained a comprehensive library of resource materials for patients, families and medical staff. Identified patients who qualified for indigent programs such as medications and charity care. Assisted patients with billing questions and collection notification.  DePaul Medical Center Rehabilitation, Norfolk, VA                                                                               1998-2002 Office Manager Managed all daily office activities, provided administrative support for the site Director, and prepared monthly budget reports. Created and implemented office administrative procedures. Effectively mediated and resolved patient complaints and problems. DePaul Medical Centers Clinic, Norfolk, VA                                                                                               1990-1998 Office Administrator Conducted interviews with patients to establish eligibility at Clinic. Provided educational materials for uninsured and underinsured patients. Significantly increased patient experience and provided administrative support to medical staff. COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER SERVICE Norfolk Drug Court Foundation Norfolk Detention Center Advisory Board Member Second Chances Ex-Offenders Fundraising Campaign Norfolk State University Community and Outreach Program National Association of Social Worker Association of Black Social Worker, Norfolk, VA Gethsemane Baptist Church, Norfolk, VA Kinship Connection Inc.
Sunday, October 27, 2019
The National Rural Health Mission Health And Social Care Essay
The National Rural Health Mission Health And Social Care Essay The project as a pilot has been introduced in 9 states of the country including Rajasthan where Prayas has been selected as the nodal agency for the implementation of the program. Currently, the pilot project in the state covers 180 villages from the four districts, namely, Alwar, Chittorgarh, Jodhpur and Udaipur (45 villages per district). Three blocks from each district have been identified and from each block three PHCs have been selected. From each PHC 5 villages have been identified, making it 15 villages per block. There are 5 Levels of monitoring committees: Village health and sanitation committee PHC Health monitoring and planning committee Block Health monitoring and planning committee District Health monitoring and planning committee State Health monitoring and planning committee The Composition of monitoring committees is as follows: One-third PRI representatives, One-third health officials, One-third CBO / NGO representatives including non-official delegates from lower committees , Chairperson from Panchayat Executive chairperson Health official Convener from CBO / NGO The main objective of the program is to develop synergy and partnership between the public health service providers and community for regular communication and coordination between them to enable better delivery and utilization of health services. The role of PRAYAS was to mobilize the communities and prepare them to come together, take responsibility and influence decisions. State Nodal Agency assists in implementing the decisions taken at the Community Monitoring Mentoring Team. Arrange for technical and resource support to district/block level NGOs. Support the process of adaptation, translation and publication state level materials/manuals. Supervise community level documentation processes, Maintain documentation of state level processes. Provide progress, process and financial reports and documents to the National Secretariat on a regular basis. Financial support and disbursement to district level and block level processes. Maintain state level accounts. Supervise progress and s upport processes/activities at the district, block and community levels. The role was challenging because of various reasons. Firstly it involved a decisive change in the balance of power, likely to be resisted at various levels of the public health system. Secondly, health officials had to be an active participant in the process but may not be assumed to be its sole and prime mover. Thirdly, it was important that genuine voices from the community get represented in the process. Fourthly, panchayats are major stakeholders but at the same time they often represent the elites of the village. To bring voices of the disadvantaged and marginalized in the forefront was a challenge. Fifthly, community may be disinterested in the beginning due to continuing disappointments from the status quo. The implementation was carried out in various phases: Preparatory phase : Distributing pamphlets to literate people Putting up poster in the common meeting place (e.g. near temples, wells, market place, etc.) , Informal meeting with key people (leaders of CBOs, women leaders, Pradhan, in the village) to get an idea about General layout of the village Different social groups in the village and where they stay, key health problems of the community , key service providers of the area, expense related to health problems, Communities opinion of the existing services and use of government health facilities and service providers. Village meeting to share findings, share NRHM information and facilitate information of VHSC. Sharing the Village health services profile in the village and informing community of NRHM and community monitoring in NRHM Pamphlets and posters and leaving multiple sets behind in the community. Elicit interest from members of the community about formation of village health and sanitation committee. formation and strengthening of Village Health and Sanitation Committees (VHSCs), primary health centers (PHCs), and district and block committees; community level investigation and monitoring involving village health report cards and facility score cards; and Sharing of reports (through public hearings) and planning at the PHC, village, and block levels. The very act of including a local NGO explains the importance of familiarity and identification for community action. The civil society organizations and NGOs for participation in various committees were selected by examining them on their response to a questionnaire which assessed their experience of monitoring public services, organizing public dialogues or public hearings. The selection could also be facilitated by the mentoring team of the respective level, with guidance from the mentoring team of the higher level. The volunteers working with the NGO are usually locals. They know the people, their aspirations and needs. Villagers identify with them and trust the information they give. To bring people together there should be some incentive. Also, there should be both short term and long term benefits to keep the action alive. In this case the short term benefit was the improvement in infrastructure as the government was pouring in money and the long term benefits were many. Impro ved health of the people, increase in power to influence government policies, platform for discussing other developmental issues and so on. They approached it by making it a non zero sum game wherein there is ample for everyone and one person will benefit from the involvement of other. Also everyone was affected by the concerned issue in one way or the other. May be poorest of poor, women and children were affected more due to vulnerability and discrimination but lack of ample heath services creates disadvantage for everyone. For example, snake bites are quite common in villages and non- availability of the required medicine in the nearest PHC may prove fatal. In this case risk is same for everyone. So, it was tried to communicate the need for community monitoring rapidly through meetings, posters and workshops. PRAYAS attempted to spread awareness in a village by flooding their minds with the goodness of the new program. It was a strategy to keep the time period for mobilization ju st 3 days to avoid slackness in the process. This was done to produce a contagion effect, so that people develop an urge to move out of the current situation and take charge. People were given assurances that their participation will be sought in planning of health services, they should help in solving problems faced by health machinery but, at the same time, the villagers would point out any negligence or mistake made by health employees while providing health service, Villagers should also be given information about what action has been taken to avert mistakes pointed out by the villagers to Medical Officer. Since the monitoring will not be efficient without perspective of women and coming into picture, it has been ensured that two out of four members of Block Community Monitoring Facilitation Team will be women. Women are the ones who are most seriously affected by quality of health care due to their reproductive capacity. Strategy: People were made partners in managing public health institutions. If certain infrastructure or services were not properly functional, community representatives were involved in finding solutions. Community representatives were significant role in the day-today functioning of the health services at the local level. People were given clearly defined rights -People should be able to expect and demand basic services in keeping with their needs and expectations. If these rights are not fulfilled, it should be a matter of concern and concerted action for improvement by the public health system and community members. People were given responsibility to regularize health services provided at the village level. People in the village, were encouraged take up responsibility to support activities for vaccination in the village, etc. Community members were provided training to be able to fulfill their responsibilities and realize their rights. Ostrom claims that all efforts to organize collective action, whether by an external ruler, an entrepreneur, or a set of principals who wish to gain collective benefits, must address a common set of problems. These problems are coping with free-riding, solving commitment problems, arranging for the supply of new institutions, and monitoring individual compliance with sets of rules. So, in this case we see government itself wishes to enthuse people to reflect on the quality of health care making government officials, doctors and ASHA workers more committed to their work. Jan Samwad Mobilization capacity building Encouraged participation of stakeholders to express their experiences and concerns. To sustain a collective action it is important to share the information. This was successfully done under this programme. PHC and block level community monitoring exercises included a public dialogue (Jan Samvad) or public hearing (Jan Sunwai) where individual testimonies and assessments by lo cal CBOs/NGOs were presented. These meetings take place once in six months, here individual cases of denial of services are also addressed. In Jan Samvad Chief Medical Officer of the District or her/his representative , Block Medical Officer Member of District Community Monitoring and Planning Committee Members of PRIs in the block , Members of VHSCs , Member of CBOs in the block are present. The monitoring reports are shared at all levels. Once in every 3 months the village health report card is made in a span of 2 days. One member from the VHSC and one panchayat member is nominated for this purpose. Leadership: leadership plays a very important role in gearing up any community action. Good leaders can not only increase the probability of success but can also attract people to join the movement. People take up leadership responsibilities in the initial process of community action to reap leadership benefits like social and political recognition and so on. This is because in initial phase input costs are higher and the probability of success is quite low. Keeping this in mind, the arrangement was such that CBOs/NGOs and Panchayat representatives who had shown leading initiative in organizing community monitoring activities at any level were given representation in the next high-level committees. The committees were created from village to higher levels in sequential order. This was an innovative way to go about implementation of a program. Being leader at the village level came as an alluring option to the people. Capacity building: to ensure effective monitoring it has to be ensured that people are ready for change. For this a lot of measures were taken. Training and enhancing the capacity of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) to own, control and manage public health services, promoting access to improved healthcare at household level through the female health activist (ASHA), Health Plan for each village through Village Health Committee of the Panchayat, Strengthening existing PHCs and CHCs, and provision of 30-50 bedded CHC per lakh population. Strengthening capacities for data collection, assessment and review for evidence based planning, monitoring and supervision, formulation of transparent policies ,developing capacities for preventive health care at all levels for promoting healthy life styles, reduction in consumption of tobacco and alcohol etc , promoting non-profit sector particularly in under served areas. Another important step was to make people realize that access to good health is their constitutional right and they pay for it. It is the responsibility of the government to give a good life to them. Through the VHSCs, communities also have become empowered to voice their concerns and take action. Communities have become aware about their rights and entitlements .In a number of cases, local health departments responded to problems raised at public hearings and made appropriate changes in their functioning. There has been a change in the way people perceive health services. Earlier, they saw it as a zero sum game , now they are beginning to see it as a public good. This change will help in reducing disadvantages faced by certain sections of the community , which would eventually result in improvements in health and nutrition outcomes. Previously excluded and marginalized groups have started coming in front. An affirmative approach was used to ensure that Dalits(scheduled castes), scheduled tribes, and women were involved and headed the VHSCs. Community monitoring has built stronger relationships between communities and health service providers, as well. Communities have become mor e accommodating and have started understanding constraints of health workers. Overall , this program has lead to decentralization of power. Prayas has played a commendable role acting as a liaison between people and government. Sources: http://www.prayas.org http://www.nrhmcommunityaction.org/pages/states/rajasthan.php http://www.nagahealth.nic.in
Friday, October 25, 2019
Essay --
From my previous journal I stated that I was very interested in finishing the rest of the books in the Odyssey. Well I have finished all of them and got some of my questions answered in class and I got some question that I did not know I did not understand answered too. In book 4 I left off with wondering why Athena protects Telemachus when she’s still upset with. When finishing up the rest of the Odyssey there are many things that are many happening. You have everything from; â€Å"all of the gods are accepting that Poseidon has gathered again on Mount Olympus to discuss Odysseus’s fate†in book 5. To â€Å"Athena makes the Ithacans forget the massacre of their children and recognize Odysseus as king, and making Peace being restored†in book 24. How one man goes through all of this is amazing to me. The Odyssey is nothing more than Odysseus telling us his story and all the things that he had gone through. Odysseus encounters many things that people do not believe to be true because all of his crew is dead and no one had ever don’t anything like he is saying that he has. Because his crew is dead there is no one to help tell all of the great adventures that they endeared. The main question I feel that never truly gets answered in the reading is that of wither or not the stories are true. Does it really take someone who loves his family 20 years to make it home? To return to his wife and son? And are the wife and son still there waiting for him to return. We know in the reading that they are but how does he know this? Is it because that’s how it was back then or why? Why did it take him the seven years for him to build a boat to leave the island of Cyclopes and start to make is way back home. When he finally manages to get the boat made to ... ... I keep saying this but I really don’t know wither or not I can take this story ad being true I things some of the things could have happened but not all of them. I’m not sure why I find it so hard to believe but I do. While reflecting on this reading I have really stopped to think about what I am reading and if I believe it to be true or not. Could the Odyssey be written different so that it’s more understandable? Or should we already be able to understand the text? I feel that the book could take a whole semester to cover it we were to truly take the time to truly read it not just read it and go on. I can see myself rereading the books and trying to understand more and looking for things that I have missed the first time though. Works Cited Brian Wilkie, J. H. (2001). Lliterature of the Western World Vol. 1. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. The Odyssey, pages 273-594
Thursday, October 24, 2019
Best Fit Vs Best Practice Essay
Amazon.com In 1994, with a handful of programmers and a few thousand dollars in workstations and servers, Jeff Bezos set out to change the retail world when he created Amazon.com (ticker: AMZN). Shel Kaphan, Amazon’s first programmer, assisted by others, including Paul Barton-Davis, used a collection of tools to create Web pages based on a database of 1 million book titles compiled from the Library of Congress and Books in Print databases. Kaphan notes that â€Å"Amazon was dependent on commercial and free database systems, as well as HTTP server software from commercial and free sources. Many of the programming tools were free software†[Collett 2002]. In July 1995, Amazon opened its Web site for sales. Using heavily discounted book prices (20 to 30 percent below common retail prices); Amazon advertised heavily and became the leading celebrity of the Internet and e-commerce. Sales and Relationships Amazon made its initial mark selling books, and many people still think of the company in terms of books. However, almost from the start, the company has worked to expand into additional areasâ€â€striving to become a global retailer of almost anything. Some of the main events include: 1995 books, 1998 music and DVD/video, 1999 auctions, electronics, toys, zShops/MarketPlace, home improvement, software, and video games [1999 annual report]. By the end of 1999, the company had forged partnerships with several other online stores, including Ashford.com, Audible, Della.com, drugstore.com, Gear.com, Greenlight.com, HomeGrocer.com, Kozmo.com, living.com, NextCard.com, Pets.com, and Sothebys. Of course, most of those firms and Web sites later died in the dot-com crash of 2000/2001. Amazon also established partnerships with several large retailers, including Target, Toys ‘R’ Us, Babies ‘R’ Us, and Circuit City. Effectively, Amazon became a service organization to manage the online presence of these large retailers. However, it also uses its distribution system to deliver the products. The Circuit City arrangement was slightly different from the othersâ€â€customers could pick up their items directly from their local stores [Heun August 2001]. After Circuit City went under, the relationship ended. By mid-2003, the Web sales and fulfillment services amounted to 20 percent of Amazon’s sales. Bezos points out that most companies realize that only a small fraction of their total sales (5 to 10 percent) will come from online systems, so it makes sense to have Amazon run those portions [Murphy 2003]. In 2001, Amazon took over the Web site run by its bricks-and-mortar rival Borders. In 2000, Borders lost $18.4 million on total onli ne sales of $27.4 million [Heun April 2001]. Also in 2001, Amazon partnered with Expedia to offer travel services directly from the Amazon site. However, in this case, the Amazon portion consists of little more than an advertising link to the Expedia services [Kontzer 2001]. The deals in 2001 continued with a twist when Amazon licensed its search technology to AOL. AOL invested $100 million in Amazon and payed an undisclosed license fee to use the search-and-personalization service on Shop@AOL [Heun July 2001]. In 2003, Amazon launched a subsidiary just to sell its Websales and fulfillment technology to other firms. Bezos noted that Amazon spends about $200 million a year on information technology (a total of $900 million to mid-2003). The purpose of the subsidiary is to help recover some of those costsâ€â€although Bezos believes they were critically necessary expenditures [Murphy 2003]. With so many diverse products, and relationships, it might be tempting to keep everything separate. However, Amazon perceives advantages from showing the entire site to customers as a single, broad entity. Yes, customers click to the various stores to find individual items. But, run a search and you will quickly see that it identifies products from any division. Additionally, the company is experimenting with cross sales. In 2002, the Project Ruby test site began selling name-brand clothing and accessories. Customers who spent $50 or more on apparel received a $30 gift certificate for use anywhere else on Amazon [Hayes 2002]. By 2004, 25 percent of Amazon’s sales were for its partners. But, one of Amazon’s major relationships took a really bad turn in 2004 when Toys ‘R’ Us sued Amazon and Amazon countersued. The complaint by Toys ‘R’ Us alleges that it had signed a ten-year exclusivity contract with Amazon and had so far paid Amazon $200 million for the right to be the exclusive supplier of toys at Amazon.com. David Schwartz, senior VP and general counsel for Toys ‘R’ Us stated that â€Å"We don’t intend to pay for exclusivity we’re not getting†[Claburn May 2004]. Amazon’s initial response was that â€Å"We believe we can have multiple sellers in the toy category, increase selection, and offer products that (Toys ‘R’ Us) doesn’t have†[Claburn May 2004]. The lawsuit counters that at least one product (a Monopoly game) appears to be for sale by third-party suppliers as well as Toys ‘R’ Us. A month later, Amazon countersued, alleging that Toys ‘R’ Us experienced â€Å"chronic failure†to maintain sufficient stock to meet demand. The court documents noted that Toys ‘R’ Us had been out of stock on 20 percent of its most popular products [Claburn June 2004]. Although the dispute sounds damaging, it is conceivable that both parties are using the courts as a means to renegotiate the base contract. Small merchants accelerated a shift to Amazon’s marketplace technology. By 2007, Amazon was simply the largest marketplace on the Web. For example, John Wieber was selling $1 million a year in refurbished computers through eBay. But increased competition and eBay’s rising prices convinced him to switch to direct sales through Amazon. Similar small merchants noted that although the fees on Amazon are hefty, they do not have to pay a listing fee. Plus, eBay shoppers only want to buy things at bargain-basement prices (Mangalindan 2005). In 2010, Target ended its contract with Amazon and launched its own Web servers. Amazon does not report sales separately for its partners such as Target, so it is difficult to determine what impact the change might have on Amazon. However, Amazon has many other sellers who offer similar products. Digital Content Amazon has been expanding its offerings in digital contentâ€â€in many ways extending competition against Apple, but also leading the way in digital books. Although it was not the first manufacturer, Amazon is reportedly the largest seller of e-readers with the Kindle. Amazon does not report sales separately for the Kindle. Amazon also noted in 2011 that ebooks for its Kindle reader have overtaken sales of paperback books as the most popular format. The e-books had already exceeded hard-cover books the year before [Wu 2011]. For many of these reasons, Borders, a bricks-and-mortar competitor to Amazon went under in 2011. Amazon is also working to expand sales of music. The Web site has relatively standard pricing on current songs, but often offers discounts on older albums. By 2011, Amazon was also trying to expand into video streaming. Customers who pay $79 a year to join the Prime program gain faster shipping, and also access to a library of digital movies and TV shows. Unfortunately, with limited ties to the movie studios, the offerings initially were relatively thin. However, other video streaming sites, including Netflix and Hulu, were also struggling to develop long-term contracts with studios. In September 2011, Amazon announced a deal with Fox to offer movies and TV shows owned by the studio. At the same time, Netflix announced a similar deal with the Dreamworks studio. It will take time for studios to determine strategies on streaming video services and for consumers to make choices [Woo and Kung 2011]. In late 2011, Amazon released its own version of a tablet computer. The company continued to sell the Kindle e-book reader, but the tablet focused on audio and video, using a color LCD display screen with a touch interface. Although it lacked features available on the market-leading Applet iPad, the Kindle table carried a price that was about half that of the iPad and other competitors ($200). The obvious goal was to provide a device that encourages customers to purchase more digital content directly from Amazon [Peers 2011]. Sales Taxes Sales taxes have been a long-term issue with Amazon. The Annual Report notes that several states filed formal complaints with the company in March 2003. The basis for the individual suits is not detailed, but the basic legal position is that any company that has a physical presence in a state (â€Å"nexus†by the terms of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling), is subject to that state’s laws and must then collect the required sales taxes and remit them to the state. The challenge is that the level of presence has never been clearly defined. Amazon argues that it has no physical presence in most states and is therefore not required to collect taxes. The most recent challenges are based on Amazon’s â€Å"affiliate†program. Amazon pays a small commission to people who run Web sites and redirect traffic to the Amazon site. For instance, a site might mention a book and then include a link to the book on the Amazon site. Several states have passed laws claiming that these relationships constitute a â€Å"sales force†and open up Amazon to taxation within any state where these affiliates reside. In response, Amazon dropped the affiliate program in several states, has initiated a legal challenge in the state of New York, and in 2011, negotiated a new deal signed into law in California [Letzing 2011]. In the California deal, Amazon obtained a delay in collecting taxes for at least a year, in exchange for locating a new distribution center in the state and creating at least 10,000 full-time jobs. Amazon is also asking the U.S. Congress to create a new federal law to deal with the sales-tax issue. However, because the state sales tax issue is driven by the interstate commerce clause in the U.S. Constitution, a simple law will not alter the underlying principles. However, if Congress desired, it might create a Federal Sales tax law with some method of apportioning the money to states. But, do not be t on any major tax laws during a Presidential election year. Information Technology In the first years, Amazon intentionally kept its Web site systems separate from its orderfulfillment system. The separation was partly due to the fact that the programmers did not have the technical ability to connect them, and partly because the company wanted to improve security by keeping the order systems off the Web. By 1997, Amazon’s sales had reached $148 million for the year. The big book database was being run on Digital Alpha servers. Applications were still custom written in house. By early 2000, the company had over 100 separate database instances running on a variety of serversâ€â€handling terabytes of data. In 2000, Amazon decided to overhaul its entire system. The company spent $200 million on new applications, including analysis software from E.piphany, logistics from Manugistics, and a new DBMS from Oracle. The company also signed deals with SAS for data mining and analysis [Collett 2002]. But, one of its biggest deals was with Excelon for business-to-business integration systems. The system enables suppliers to communicate in real time, even if they do not have sophisticated IT departments. It provides a direct connection to Amazon’s ERP system either through programming connections or through a Web browser [Konicki 2000]. About the same time (May 2000), Amazon inked a deal with HP to supply new servers and IT services [Goodridge and Nelson 2000]. The new systems ran the open-source Linux operating system. Already by the third quarter of 2001, Amazon was able to reduce its IT costs by 24 percent from the same quarter in 2000 [Collett 2002]. By 2004, the supply chain system at Amazon was a critical factor in its success. Jeffrey Wilke, Senior VP of worldwide operations, observed that â€Å"When we think about how we’re going to grow our company, we focus on price, selection, and availability. All three depend critically on the supply chain†[Bacheldor 2004]. Almost the entire system was built from scratch, customized to Amazon’s needs. When a customer places an order, the system immediately connects to the distribution centers, determines the best way to ship the product, and provides the details to the customer in under two minutes. The entire process is automatic. Dr. Russell Allgor moved from Bayer Chemical to Amazon and built an 800,000equation computer model of the company’s sprawling operation. When implemented, the goal of the model was to help accomplish almost everything from scheduling Christmas overtime to rerouting trucks in a snowstorm. Allgor’s preliminary work focused on one of Amazon’s most vexing problems: How to keep inventory at a minimum, while ensuring that when someone orders several products, they can be shipped in a single box, preferably from the warehouse  the company had six  that is nearest the customer [Hansell, 2001]. Dr. Allgor’s analysis is simple, but heretical to Amazon veterans. Amazon should increase its holdings of best sellers and stop holding slow-selling titles. It would still sell these titles but order them after the customer does. Lyn Blake, a vice president who previously ran Amazon’s book department and now oversees company relations with manufacturers, disagrees with this perspective. â€Å"I worry about the customer’s perspective if we suddenly have a lot of items that are not available for quick delivery.†Amazon’s merchant and MarketPlace systems are powerful tools that enable smaller stores to sell their products through Amazon’s system. Amazon continually works to improve the connections on those systems. This system caused problems in 2001â€â€the main issue was that the data on the merchant Web sites was being updated only once every eight hours. The merchant’s link to Amazon’s main database servers, and internal applications transfer the data onto the displayed page as requested. As customers purchased items, the inventory quantities were altered in the main servers, but the current totals were not transferred to the display pages until several hours later. Consequently, customers would be told that an item was in stock, even it had sold out several hours ago. To solve the problem, Amazon installed Excelon’s ObjectStore database in 2002. The system functions as a cache management server, reducing the update times from eight hours down to twoà ‚ minutes. Paul Kotas, engineering director for the Merchants@Group noted that â€Å"with the growth of this business, we needed a zero-latency solution†[Whiting 2002]. In 2003, Amazon added a simple object access protocol (SOAP) gateway so that retailers could easily build automated connections to the system. Data is passed as XML documents and automatically converted to Amazon’s format [Babcock 2003]. One of the most successful technologies introduced by Amazon is the affinity list. When someone purchases an item, system makes recommendations based on similar items purchased by other customers. The system uses basic data mining and statistical tools to quickly run correlations and display the suggested products. Kaphan notes that â€Å"There was always a vision to make the service as useful as possible to each user and to take advantage of the ability of the computer to help analyze a lot of data to show people things they were most likely to be interested in†[Collett 2002]. The system also remembers every purchase made by a customer. So, the Amazon programmers created the Instant Order Update feature, that reminds customers if they have already purchased an item in their cart. Bezo notes that â€Å"Customers lead busy lives and cannot always remember if they’ve already purchased a particular item.†He also observed that â€Å"When we launched Instant Order Update, we were able to measure with statistical significance that the feature slightly reduced sales. Good for customers? Definitely. Good for shareowners? Yes, in the long run†[2003 annual report]. Capital expenditures for software and Web site development are not cheap: $176 million, $146 million, and $128 million for 2010, 2009, and 2008 respectively (2010 Annual Report). But, in comparison, in 2010, net income tax provisions were $352 million. New Services Amazon requires huge data centers and high-speed Internet connections to run its systems. Through vast economies of scale, Amazon is able to achieve incredibly low prices for data storage and bandwidth. Around 2005, the company decided that it could leverage those low costs into a new business selling Internet-based services. The company offers an online data storage service called S3. For a monthly fee of about 15 cents per gigabyte stored plus 15 cents per gigabyte of data transferred, any person or company can transfer and store data on Amazon servers [Markoff 2006]. Through a similar service (EC2), any company can use the company’s Web servers to deliver digital content to customers. The company essentially serves as a Web host, but instead of paying fixed costs, you pay 10 cents per virtual server per hour plus bandwidth costs. Amazon’s network can handle bursts up to 1 gigabit per second. The system creates virtual servers, running the Linux kernel, and you can run any software you want [Gralla 2006]. By 2011, the company had several locations providing S3 and EC2 Web services. It also offered online relational database services using either MySQL or the Oracle DBMS. Anyone can pay to store data in the DBMS, with charges being levied per hour, per data stored, and per data transferred. The point is that Amazon handles all of the maintenance and other companies avoid fixed costs. Even government agencies are adopting the benefits of storing data in these cloud servicesâ€â€including those run by Amazon. For example, the U.S. Treasury Department moved is public Web sites to the Amazon cloud. [Pratt 2011]. Perhaps the most unusual service is Mturk. The name derives from an 18-century joke where a â€Å"mechanical†chess-playing machine surprised European leaders and royalty by beating many expert players. The trick was that a human was hidden under the board and moved the pieces with magnets. Amazon’s trick is to use human power to solve problems. Companies post projects on the Mturk site and offer to pay a price for piecemeal work. Any individual can sign up and perform a task and get paid based on the amount of work completed. Amazon takes a 10 percent commission above the fee. For example, the company Casting Words places audio files on the site and pays people 42 cents to transcribe one minute of audio files into text [Markoff 2006]. The Amazon EC2 and S3 services suffered some problems in the summer of 2011. A configuration error during an upgrade in the East Coast facility triggered a cascade that delayed all services in the facility. Internet services including Foursquare and Reddit that used the facility were impacted by the problems for almost a week [Tibken 2011]. Amazon engineers learned a lot from the problems and the same issue is unlikely to occur again [http://aws.amazon.com/message/65648/]. But, the outage points out the risks involved in any centralized system. Ironically, the main problems were caused by algorithms designed to copy data to multiple servers to reduce risks. On the other hand, with multiple facilities, Amazon provides the ability to spread content and risk across multiple locations. Adam Selipsky, vice president of product management and developer relations at Amazon Web Services observed that â€Å"†Amazon is fundamentally a technology company; we’ve spent more than one and a half billion dollars investing in technology and content. We began by retailing books, but it was never in our business plan to stay with that†[Gralla 2006]. Financial Performance When Amazon started, it spent huge amounts of money not only building infrastructure, but also buying market share. It took Amazon nine years to achieve profitability. And the profits started to arrive only after the company changed its pricing modelâ€â€focusing on retail prices for popular items and smaller discounts for all books. In the process, the company lost almost $3 billion. It was not until 2009 that Amazon had generated enough profits to cover all of its prior losses (ignoring interest rates and debt). The company’s financial position has improved since 2000. Most of the improvement is due to increases in salesâ€â€which is good. But, those sales increased largely by selling products for other firms, and from one more twist. Amazon no longer discounts most of the books that it sells. In fact, it is generally more expensive to purchase books from Amazon than to buy them from your local bookstore. For competitive online pricing, check www.campusi.com, which searches multiple Web sites for the best price, but the selection might not be as large. Another source of increased sales is the international market (largely Britain, Europe and Japan). Notice in the table that media sales (books, audio, and movies) are higher in the International market than in North America. More products are sold in North America, but clearly the growth path is the international market. Out of curiosity, where did all of that money go? In 2003, Bezos noted that $900 million went to business technology; $300 million was spent on the fulfillment centers; and $700 million on marketing and customer acquisition [Murphy 2003]. That last part largely represents selling books at a loss or offering free shipping while trying to attract customers. Those numbers add up to the $1.9 billion debt, but what happened to the other $1 billion in net losses? Interestingly, according to the 2010 Annual Report, Amazon still runs a loss on shipping. In 2010, the company declared shipping revenue of $1.2 billion, against outbound shipping costs of $2.6 billion, for a net loss of $1.4 billion! Amazon continues to expand aggressively. In 2011, Amazon estimated revenue increases of 28-39 percent but increased operating expenses by about 38 percent. Tom Szkutak, Amazon’s finance chief noted that â€Å"When you add something to the magnitude of 23 fulfillment centers, mostly in the course of the second half of last year, you have added costs and you’re not as productive on those assets for some time,†[Wu 2011]. For the longer term, Amazon’s leaders clearly indicate that they are aware of the stiff competitionâ€â€both from bricks-and-mortar retailers and from online rivals including small start-ups and established rivals including Apple and Google. Case Questions 1. Who are Amazon’s competitors? 2. Why would customers shop at Amazon if they can find better prices elsewhere? 3. Why did Amazon create most of its own technology from scratch? 4. If Amazon buys products from other firms and simply ships them to customers, why does it need so many of its own distribution centers? 5. Will other retailers buy or lease the Web software and services from Amazon? Can Amazon make enough money from selling these services? 6. Write a report to management that describes the primary cause of the problems, a detailed plan to solve them, and show how the plan solves the problems and describe any other benefits it will provide. Additional Reading Babcock, Charles, â€Å"Amazon Makes Online Merchandising Easier,†Information Week, September 15, 2003. Bacheldor, Beth, â€Å"From Scratch: Amazon Keeps Supply Chain Close To Home,†Information Week, March 5, 2004. Claburn, Thomas, â€Å"Amazon.com And Toys ‘R’ Us Are On The Outs,†Information Week, May 31, 2004. Claburn, Thomas, â€Å"Why Amazon Is Suing Toys ‘R’ Us,†Information Week, June 29, 2004. Collett, Stacy, â€Å"The Web’s Best-seller,†Computerworld, September 30, 2002. Goodridge, Elisabeth and Matthew G. Nelson, â€Å"Update: Amazon Drops Sun, Compaq For HP,†Information Week, May 31, 2000. Gralla, Preston, â€Å"Computing in the Cloud,†Computerworld, December 21, 2006. Hansell, Saul. â€Å"A Front-Row Seat as Amazon Gets Serious,†The New York Times, May 20, 2001, http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/20/technology/20AMAZ.html. Hayes, Mary, â€Å"CDs, High Heels, Flannel Shirts,†Information Week, November 4, 2002. Heun, Christopher T., â€Å"Amazon, Borders Team For Superior Customer Service,†Information Week, April 16, 2001. Heun, Christopher T., â€Å"Amazon Loss Shrinks; AOL Buys Amazon Search Service,†Information Week, July 24, 2001. Heun, Christopher T., â€Å"Amazon Plugs Into Circuit City In Profitability Drive,†Information Week, August 27, 2001. Konicki, Steve, â€Å"Amazon Taps Excelon To Redo Supply-Chain System,†Information Week, October 30, 2000. Kontzer, Tony, â€Å"Amazon Teams With Expedia On Online Travel Store,†Information Week, September 26, 2001. Letzing, John, â€Å"Amazon Wins Reprieve on California Tax in Exchange for Jobs,†The Wall Street Journal, September 23, 2011. Mangalindan, Mylene, â€Å"Threatening eBay’s Dominance, More Online Sellers Go It Alone,†The Wall Street Journal, June 22, 2005. Markoff, John, â€Å"Software Out There,†The New York Times, April 5, 2006. Murphy, Chris, â€Å"Amazon, The Services Firm,†Information Week, June 10, 2003. Peers, Martin, â€Å"Launching New Tablet, Amazon Plays With Fire,†The Wall Street Journal, September 29, 2011. Pratt, Mary K., â€Å"Feds Race to the Cloud,†Computerworld, July 13, 2011. Tibken, Shara, â€Å"Amazon Cloud Snafu Disrupts Websites,†The Wall Street Journal, April 21, 2011. Whiting, Rick, â€Å"System Overhaul Boosts Amazon’s Inventory Update Time,†Information Week, February 19, 2002. Stu Woo, â€Å"Expenses Eat at Amazon’s Profit,†The Wall Street Journal, January 28, 2011. Stu Woo and Michelle Kung, â€Å"Netflix, Amazon Add to Movies,†The Wall Street Journal, September 27, 2011.
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Blank TAO Form
This is an application for a temporary assessment order for the following purposes (FL, 2008; Davis, 2011 and Powell, 2001). To facilitate the authorization of an officer of the law to contact the child and establish whether there is cause for intervention Authorize certified and procedural medical examination or suitable treatment for the affected child Facilitate the entry Of a police office to access the premise and perform survey and search locations where the child is suspected to be, and determine whether apprehension is necessary or not.Authorize the police officer to place the hill in custody in the order of the office in order to ensure that the needs of the child are taken care of. Direct the parent not to influence the upbringing of the child through restriction to contact Direct that the parent should have supervised contact with the child, with the name of the specified person outlined in the order. The grounds on which this application is made include the following. Lac k of access to nutrition is sufficient grounds for application of the TAO (Davis, 2014 and CPA 1999, 2014). The parents of the child have failed to provide access to nutrition for the child.From the findings, the child appears too small for her size, and the susceptibility to common infections originates from the weakened immunity system. The Notified doubts whether the children get three meals a day owing to the ill health and physique of the children. As indicated by the principal who is a figure of authority, has observed that Michelle appears to display signs of malnutrition. In addition to withdrawal and sadness, the child has failed to carry lunch for school in an institution where parents are expected to cater for that (FL, (2008).Davis, 201 1). In addition to that, the lack of hygiene Secondly, lack of access to a tranquil environment for normal growth has affected the ability of Michelle to bond and attach, and calls for a TAO. The parents of the child have tendencies which disturb normal structure for a child that age (Davis, 2014). As a dependent, the child requires a reliable system for play, growth and education. This is lacking due to the existence of a life style that is governed by substance abuse, criminal activity, delinquency, traffic offenses, violence, and misdemeanors.The constant presence of the police indicates that neighbors have lost good will with the patients, making t impossible for neighborhood participation in the growth of the children. In addition, the prevalence of domestic violence creates unfavorable environment for the progression of the children (FL, 2008), since they are sometimes left on their own as the parents clear the issues with the authorities. As the firstborn, Michelle is faced with a challenging task of parenting and ensuring that her brother is taken care of.Third, lack of support for education, growth and development for Michelle (Cooper, 2006) calls for intervention in the best interests of the child. As a yo ung person, Michelle requires role models and mentors in her life, armorial from parents and peers of the parents as well as other participants in a suitable case plan. Owing to the need for diversity and guardianship, good neighborhood relationships provide for growth and development of children, through interaction with adults and children in the family.However, this is absent for Michelle, due to the abrasive relationship between the parents and the rest of the society. The fact that the parents are not willing to take advice from neighbors and other members of society including teachers indicates dysfunctional family status. Four, the family has experienced challenges for a considerable period, actually since the birth of the first child and calls for implementation of strategies for protection of the child. Although they have managed to survive and get a second borne, Michelle has lived through hardships in her childhood.According to Powell (2001 a TAO is necessary, to provide for the establishment of whether the parents are ready and equipped to take care of the child through the hardships. Although both parents are alive, she has been exposed to challenges and limitations that propagate stunted mental and physical growth. The parents have a high sense of entitlement to decision aging and do not seem to have a way of implementing the strategies they verbally commit to. Five, there is need for protection of Michelle from the life of crime and violence.Children who are brought up under such circumstances are bound to lack certain aspects of empathy and understanding of life (Davis, 2011). At the current status, the parents have created a protective shell around the Michelle, creating lack of access to influence from professionals such as teachers and religious leaders. As result, CPA 1999 (2014) outlined that there is need for child like Michelle to get access to an environment that is eatable for children, away from the late night disturbances and exposur e to the cold nights at night.In addition to the squalid and neglected living conditions, the children lack a suitable atmosphere for survival. In addition to the mould which can propagate respiratory conditions, there is lack of basic sanitation which predisposes the children to water borne diseases. Six, Davis (201 1) pointed out medical care and preventive measures as expected from the parents is lacking owing to the pending vaccinations. The health care officials have indicated that the child failed to attend her connation sessions, which is primarily a role of the parent.
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