STS401 Mod 5 TD Example

STS401 Mod 5 TD Example STS401 Mod 5 TD – Coursework Example Statistics in the business world I have learned numerous statistical factors which shall all be beneficial to me in life in one way or the other. I cannot say for a fact that there are some of them which I regret learning or which was a waste of my time and memory space. They are all key tools that can be applied at some place at some time.In the business world specifically, the tools that shall be most beneficial to me are measures of central tendency and spread, hypothesis testing, simple and multiple regression. These I shall apply in dealing with the facts and figures that pose a challenge in the business world every day. I shall apply the measures of central tendency to get to compare figures between months and even years; I shall use hypothesis testing to determine whether my set targets were achieved at the end of the day; I shall use simple and multiple regression to determine whether or not certain variables are related to each other or not.There are some tools which I shall not quite make use of in the business world. These are the data types, frequency tables and probability. It would not benefit me much in business to get to know whether data is a Boolean or an integer. Likewise, I would not wish to know how certain frequencies come out from the data I have in the business world. I would also not need to make use of probability in business as I would want to be sure of what I am doing and hence I would base my projections on past data analysis and not on probability analysis. ReferencesKaul, C., & Tomaselli-Moschovitis, V. (1999). Statistical handbook on poverty in the developing world. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press.

Political instability in the Solomon islands and Australias relations Essay

Political instability in the Solomon islands and Australias relations - Essay Example Australia is helping the Solomon Islands Government address continuing problems of lawlessness and economic decline.† (Year book, Australia, 2005, P. 82). Therefore, the diplomatic relations of Australia with the Solomon Islands have essential role in the peace keeping process of the nation as well as the region. To analyze the background information of the Solomon Islands, the British Government established a protectorate over the Solomon Islands in 1893 and they provided some of the bloodiest land, sea and air battles of World War II from 1942 to 1945. The land achieved independence in 1976 following the struggles by the indigenous people after World War II. In a careful analysis of the history of the Solomon Islands, it becomes lucid that political instability was a ground reality from its establishment and the diplomatic relations of Australia played a significant role in this context. Various political situations and developments in the Solomon Islands required the interve ntion of a political power such as Australia and it has been seriously involved in working to promote stability and growth in the nation and the region. In this paper, Australia’s deep and longstanding relationship with the Solomon Islands is analyzed in detail in order to determine the various aspects of the nation’s relationship with the Solomon Islands. Australia’s relationship with Solomon Islands, which has been deep and longstanding, has played a major role in the attempts to promote stability and growth in the nation. The bilateral relationship between the two nations has been very significant and Australia maintains a serious business relationship with Solomon Islands. â€Å"Australia maintains a close business relationship with Solomon Islands†¦ Recognizing the scope and scale of the challenges confronting Solomon Islands, Australia continues to provide

Answers of qustion the Business process management (BPM) Essay

Answers of qustion the Business process management (BPM) - Essay Example The Support activities in an organization that increases the added value of the product are; Organizational Infrastructure, Human Resource management, Technology development and Procurement. The primary activities of the value chain are inbound logistics, Operations, Outbound logistics, Marketing and sales and Services. Theses nine operations of the value chain play an important role in making the product more valuable in terms of utility and the profit. The Primary Activities – Inbound logistics: This process consists of receiving, storing of raw materials, and distribution of the raw materials to the various operations of production. This involves the inventory maintenance, transportation scheduling and return of the defective parts back to the suppliers. Operations: This process includes the various activities that transform the raw materials or unfinished products into final products. This area involves processing the raw materials through machines, equipment maintenance, testing of machines and other methods to optimize the production. Outbound logistics: This process involves the distribution of the finished products to dealers, distributors and to the warehouses. The entire process of delivering the finished goods to the end customers is handled under this operation. Warehousing, material handling, delivery operation, processing of the order and scheduling the delivery transportation is taken care of under this operation. Marketing and Sales: This process deals with the sales and marketing of the finished product. Functional areas like advertisement, promotion, stationing of the sales force, channel selection and pricing. Services: These operations include the after sales services like repair and maintenance. Functions like installation, repair, training, part supply and production adjustments. These services play an essential role in increasing the value of the product. The Support Activities- Firm Infrastructure: The infrastructure of the organi zation adds immense value to the product. The kind of facility available at the organization increases the value of the product. A general firm infrastructure is represented by the general management, planning and finance department, the legal department. These departments ensure smooth functioning of the entire production process. Human Resources Management: this operation regulates the recruiting and training of the employees. Human resource is the backbone of any organization. Managing the issues related to the employees such as benefits and compensation. Cost of hiring and training the employees and most importantly assigning the right job to the right person add a lot value to the product. Technology Development: An organization’s most important initiative in being effective and innovative is the stress given on technology development. Having the most efficient technology ensures fast and cost effective production. The quality of the product also increases with incorpora tion of latest technology. Procurement: Procurement deals with the function of purchasing materials for further processing. A cost effective and quality effective procurement ensure the cost and quality effectiveness of the finished product. When these nine basic yet essential operations are run efficiently by the organization the Value is added to the product. T

Interdiction and Eradication of Drugs in the U.S Essay

Interdiction and Eradication of Drugs in the U.S - Essay Example The irony is that consumption of drugs has been on the increase, criminals are making more money from their annual turnover ranging from $ 400 to 500 billion. According to a confidential report from U.K. Government, only 20 percent out of 700 tons of Cocaine and 500 tons of Heroin illegally produced is being seized by enforcement forces. Supply being plentiful, prices are reported to be ruling low at $ 70 per gram today as against $ 184 in 1990. (Glenny 2007) This report is not alone. Similar observations. abound in the other Governmental reports and NGO studies Therefore the study gains significance in the wake of such reports to examine strengths and weaknesses of the Governments' policy initiatives towards interdiction and eradication of drugs. More so, because of opinions advocating legalizing the drugs besides the fact that policy initiatives focus on eradication of poppy cultivation without offering viable alternatives to the farmers concerned. The President rolls out National Drug Control Strategy for each year incorporating three key strategies namely (1) Stopping the Use before it Starts; (2) Intervening and Healing America's Drug Users; and, (3) Disrupting the Market. The Drug Budget for FY 2008 is $12.961 billion short of $0.167 billion from last year though it is compensated by additional request for $ 266 .1 million for emergency spending in Afghanistan.(National Drug Control Strategy). The Rand Report 2005 says that every year 16 million Americans forming 7 percent of the country’s population above the age of 12 consume about $60 billion worth of illegal drugs. And invariably the surveys on Americans have reveled that â€Å"drugs’† is one of the major ten problems of the country. ... (Caulkins P et al 2005 p 13) About 3 million drug consumers are affected by serious drug related problems and about 17,000 people have died due to problems illicit drug use in the year 2000 as against 20,000 in the year 1990. In 2003, 28,723 people have died for the same reason. (McVay) President's Drug Policy of Feb 2007 says that contrary to the reports in many quarters that drugs abuse has not been checked, performance records show a positive trend towards drugs control for the past six years ever since the present incumbent took office. As against the targeted reduction of drug abuse by 10 percent within 2 years and 25 percent within 5 years, administration claims to have achieved 11 percent and 23.2 percent respectively. And this was achieved by strategic benchmarking of each month's consumption. Figures beyond five years are even higher and in terms of number of youth who gave up drug use, it is 840,000. The lessons learnt during the last six years of the President's first of its kind National Drugs Control Strategy evidence that a sound policy can bring out results. Demotivating young users, identifying chronic consumers, maintaining vigil against steroid use for performance enhancement, and monitoring the use of other drugs such as Marijuana, Methamphetamin e, Amphetamine, pain relievers like OxyContin have been the features of the broad spectrum strategy of drugs control. Basically these will fall under the key elements of the above said prevention of drug use before its commencement by the potential users, intervention and healing of the people already on drugs, and disruption of the market for illegal drugs with the sole aim of reducing drugs consumption in the

Suitably qualified staff Essay Example for Free

Suitably qualified staff Essay Staffing to meet changing business demands Suitably qualified staff may be recruited or trained within the organisation to have the right level of skills when they first join the business. At XMA computers, they need to have enough staff to meet demand but not too many as they would be wasting money on their wages. They also need to pay for staff training and sick pay. During the holidays, such as Christmas, XMA need to hire more staff as retailers will want to buy more products for the sale season. Coordination of team resources to meet targets As well as making sure that individual employees are managed within the organisation, it is essential that resources are used effectively within terms to meet company targets that are set. At XMA all employees need to work together to make the business successful. The people receiving and sending out calls need to have good teamwork skills to work with those who organise and dispatch the orders. This helps the business become successful in taking and delivering orders on time. Monitoring of team performance Coordinating a team is likely to mean that a company knows what employees should be doing to work towards their targets; but it is also essential to monitor the teams performance to make sure that they are actually making progress.XMA need to keep track of employees progress and they have many ways of doing this. They mainly do it through appraisals. An appraisal is a meeting between an employee and his/her line manager. During this meeting they talk about the employees progress throughout their working time. This review can be done in two different ways: Formal and Informal. Liaison with other departments Large organisations may have hundreds of different teams working across the organisation and unless each is able to work with other departments and coordinate as a whole organisation there will be conflict or unsatisfactory performance. XMA need all their teams to work together so that the business is run smoothly without any problems. If the teams do not work together than the business may not be successful and details may be wrong. Establishment of professional culture Part of the management of human resources concerns teaching employees about how the business operates its professional culture; for example the level of formality it uses and the way that managers and staff deal with each other. XMA need to teach all employees about the way their business operates. Many employees call fellow colleagues by their first name but in some companies they prefer to be addressed by a title e.g. Mr, Mrs., Dr. Provision of appropriate incentives To manage human resources effectively managers may decide to use incentives to encourage employees to work harder or to produce work of a higher quality. At XMA, employees are given extra-pay if they can hit their daily phone targets or get higher. E.g. If an employee is given a target of 50 orders, and they get 70 orders, they may get and extra à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½50 for their work. Encouragement of creativity and initiative Businesses that are able to change quickly and can be adaptable to customer needs are more likely to be successful. XMA need to be able to do this in order to be the number 1 distributor company in the UK. As they also have a website, they have international orders which will get them more profit.

Organ Donation Essay -- essays research papers

How do you feel when you have to wait for something you really, really want?.............What if it was something you couldn’t live without?..........My cousin was five years old when he found out he needed a new kidney. He went on the organ waiting list right away. He was called twice during a six month span that they had a kidney wasn’t a good match. He had to wait again. The third time was a charm. A small adult was in an accident and his kidney was a good match. This story had a happy ending, but so many do not. One of the people on the waiting list for an organ transplant might be someone you know. Today I’d like to tell you about first, the need for organ donors in our area, second, how you can become an organ donor after you die, and finally, how your family and organ donor recipients benefit from your donation. People around the world, but also right here in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Illinois, need organ transplants, and they need our help. The problem is that there is a lack of organ donors who make organ transplantation possible. The need is many organs and tissues such as the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, pancreas, corneas, bone, skin, heart valves, and blood vessels. In spring 2004 the Official U.S. Government web site for organ donation states that, â€Å"A new name is added to the national waiting list every 16 minutes.† That means that 3 people will be added to the list during the time we are in class today. The problem is that 10 people will die each day waiting fo...

Correlation Between Student S Grades and-Social Networks Essay

Abstract Social networking sites (SNS) have created a new social dimension where individuals can develop increased levels of their social awareness and getting information in many more aspects of everyday lives. SNS help people to enhance their knowledge, which is very beneficial especially for students. However, some argue the use of SNS also entails negative effects that overrule the gains. This may be reflected on students’ grades. The main objective of this research is to analyse the relationship between student’s academic performance and use of SNS. The research was conducted through the use of online questionnaires. Excel and SPSS software were used to analyse the data collected. Findings from this study showed that there is a weak, negative relationship between these two variables. Chapter 1: Introduction There is no doubt that the global revolution of SNS has brought great changes to many aspects of everyday life. People use them to keep in touch with distant friends and relatives or to make new social and professional acquaintances. Whatever the reason behind this increased use, SNS have for many become a way of life. Especially for young people, SNS are the most innovative tools that enable them not only to contact other individuals, but most importantly to create a positive ‘self-image’ (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). At the same time, however, there is an increasing concern about the threats arising from the excessive use of SNS. Although there is prior research on how SNS affect people’s relationships, the literature on how they affect students’ academic performance is still in its infancy. The main objective of this research is to fill this gap in literature and examine how the use of SNS affects academic performance. Paper Structure This paper commences with a short review of prior literature on the topic where some information about the various SNS will be given. It will then continue to Chapter 3 where the methodology followed to approach the objective and gather the necessary data will be explained. Chapter 4 follows, where the collected data will be analysed using statistical analysis tests and findings will be reported. The paper will then finalise with some conclusions and recommendations given in Chapter 5. Chapter 2: Literature Review The section of literature review has a purpose to put this study into context with previous research on SNS providing some examples of such sites and students use of SNS. Finally, prior research on the relationship of SNS and academic performance will be examined. Definition and Examples of SNS Social networking sites have been defined as â€Å"an online community of Internet users who want to communicate with other users about areas of mutual interest† (William, 2009). Globally there are many SNS, but the most popular ones are the Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. Facebook is the most widely used SNS with currently more than 1.2 billion users. It was created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, with the initial intention for students in a certain college to keep in touch with each other. According to recent statistics, the average time a user spends on Facebook per month is 15 hours and 33 minutes. Twitter is a real-time communication platform where users are able to interact and build relationships with their network of contacts by posting and receiving messages. It started in 2006 as an experiment of short online announcements and it now has more than 555 million users. Google+ is a social networking platform created by the search engine giant, Google, in an attempt to outperform Facebook. It was launched in 2011 and it currently has around 500 million users. Google+ enables targeted sharing of information within certain subgroups of users’ contacts and the viewing, managing and editing of multimedia. LinkedIn is the professional social network launched in 2003. People join this network mainly to make professional connections and use them to build a career. Companies that are in search of qualified employees and job-hunters also use LinkedIn. The profile created by users is like a resume but with the option to include extensive information in each field. Use of SNS Statistics reveal that 98% of people aged between 18-24 are using some form of SNS. Apart from socialising and staying in touch with friends, people in those ages use SNS for a variety of other reasons. As in the age of 18 most people are going to be in higher education, there is evidence showing that students use those sites to research colleges and assist their decision on where to enrol (Tisley, 2012). They also use them during their university life to enable their communication with other students or even staff. According to Oradini and Saunders (2007), students can use SNS to initiate a discussion and decide what information they would like to share and with whom. Many universities have recently recognised this increased use of SNS and their ability to act as a platform of online learning and have therefore taken steps to incorporate them into their strategy. SNS and Academic Performance The term academic performance is used to measure the ‘success’ of a student in terms of their achievements and their ability to meet certain standards defined by the institution they are attending. Reference? It can be assumed that by having access to the latest information available, either through visiting companies’ and broadcasting profiles or through the exchange of useful information, students increase their awareness towards a better achievement of results. However, there is a contradiction of views relating to the use of SNS and their effect on students’ grades. While some studies show that there is no link between SNS and academic performance (Truong, 2010) others provide evidence that there is an adverse effect of SNS on students’ grades mainly due to the fact that too much time is spent on them, leaving limited time for studying. Chapter 3: Research Methodology In this chapter, a methodology for collecting the necessary information for the research will be defined. This will include a description of the method for collecting information and an explanation of why the methods chosen were the most suitable, providing reliability to the report. Research Approach Selecting the right research approach is fundamental in order to answer the questions that were presented successfully. In this study, the researchers carried out scientific research and aimed to develop a hypothesis, which was then tested and examined to establish a theory. Therefore, a deductive research approach was considered to be most suitable (Hussey and Hussey, 1997). According to Robson (2002), the researchers had to deduct hypotheses from theory and then express them in operational terms, proposing a relationship between two variables. The objectives this research had led to the following hypothesis: Hypothesis: There is a relationship between the use of SNS and students’ academic performance. Therefore the Null Hypothesis is: There is no relationship between the use of SNS and students’ academic performance. This hypothesis was chosen as prior literature focused exclusively on the effect of the use of Facebook on academic performance and not the use of SNS in general. Time horizon This research is cross-sectional study, as the data collection methods were designed to â€Å"gather data at a particular point in time with the intention of describing the nature of existing conditions† (Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 1994). This approach was a suitable method to use given the limited time that was available to undertake the research. Data collection Methods The research was conducted through the use of online questionnaires. They were distributed to students via email from December 2012 to January 2013, a research period that is â€Å"distinct and discrete phase of the investigation† (Johnson, 2004). Respondents were informed that all material they provided would remain confidential while anonymity was promised. A briefing statement (See Appendix I) informed participants as to the purpose of the research and the extent of confidentiality. The full list of questions can be found in Appendix II. Data analysis methods Quantitative data was analysed using the SPSS analysis software, where correlation was used to examine the existence of a relationship between the variables and regression analysis to assess the strength of those relationships. In order to carry out regression statistics, it was essential to distinguish the factors between the dependent variable (y) and the independent variables (x). Since the purpose of this analysis was to discover the extent to which academic performance is dependent on changes in the variables investigated, academic performance was identified as the dependent variable while hours spent on homework, social networking sites, playing games and surfing on the internet were defined as the independent variables. It should be noted here that academic performance is defined using the latest available grades of the participants. This led to the following model being developed: Academic Performance = b0 + b1Hours spent studying + b2Hours spent on social networks +b3Hours spent on other activities The data was analysed by bivariate correlation and linear regression. Once this technique was completed, each variable was analysed explicitly in order to assess individual relationships and test the hypothesis by stressing the most noteworthy relationship between independent and dependent variable. Validity & Reliability In order for the research to be useful, actions had to be taken to safeguard the validity and reliability of results. According to Joppe (2000), the extent to which results are reliable depends on how consistent they are over time and whether identical results can be acquired if the investigation is repeated. Validity is concerned with whether the findings are what they appear to be and whether a relationship between two variables is merely a coincidence. There are many threats to reliability and validity. The subject error and participant bias are threats to reliability (Saunders et al., 2009) that can be tackled by carefully selecting the right research population. Mortality is a threat to validity, since it would result to a very small sample size that would be unable to determine whether relationships between variables were simply casual. In enhancing the validity and reliability, the research was conducted at the University of Southampton and the questionnaires were handed both to undergraduate and postgraduate students in various programs. Also, a pilot questionnaire was conducted with 10 students to complete that provided feedback. Chapter 4: Results & Analysis The purpose of this section is to present the findings of this study, which will be critically evaluated to identify their reliability. Implications will be acknowledged. Descriptive Statistics In total 303 responses were collected by students of the University of Southampton. Out of the total number of participants, 8 abandoned the survey without saving it so only 275 responses were used. The demographics of the sample are summarized in the figures below. The sample consisted of 149 males and 126 females (See Figure 1) and most participants (n= 193) aged between 21-24 (See Figure 2). Figure [ 1 ] – Participants’ Gender Figure [ 2 ] – Participants Age Out of the total sample, only 5 participants were not part of a SNS where as the rest 270 participants had a profile on either one or multiple SNS. Out of those who were part of an SNS, the majority of participants (n= 273) had a profile on Facebook (See Figure 3). Also, most of the participants (n=234) have been using SNS for more than 3 years (See Figure 4). Figure 3 – Number of Participants; profiles on SNS Figure 4 – Time period participants use SNS When asked about the reasons participants use SNS, many corresponded to keep in touch with their family and friends (n=108) whereas a significant amount of them (n=70) replied to keep updated on current affairs (See Figure 5). Figure 5 – Reasons for using SNS In relation to the academic performance of participants, most of them (n=76) study between 1-4 hours (See Figure 6) with 50 of them managing to get grades between 70-100 (See Figure 7). The average grade the participants received is 68. Figure 6 – Participants’ Time allocation on an Average Day Figure 7 – Participants’ Grades Data Analysis It is now necessary to relate these findings back to the initial hypothesis. We use correlation analysis in order to examine the relationship between two variables. Pearson’s r statistic is the one, which will determine if there is any relationship between our variables. As it can be seen from the table above, the Pearson’s r for the correlation between the ‘Hours spent on doing homework’ and the ‘Hours spent using SNS’ is -0.117, which is relatively close to 0. This means that there is a negative relationship between those variables, indicated by the negative sign, and as the one variable increases in value, the second variable decreases in value. However, since this valued is very close to 0, this is a week relationship and it is unlikely that changes in one variable are correlated with changes in the other. Observing the Sig. (2-tailed) value we can determine the significance of the relationship. If that value is less or equal to 0.05, we can conclude that there is statistically significant correlation between the hours spent on homework and the social network use. Here the value (0.052) is extremely close to the benchmark so the relationship is statistically significant.