Case Write-Up

In the sense of the promotions, Population Services International distributed to both Raja and Maya $400,000 advertising dollars per year, which was the second largest of all advertisers In Bangladesh. Their approach was to skip the Intermediate level of Influences and go directly to consumers. In this case, It works to sell Raja condoms directly to the market since It's more like a one-time use consumer products. However, it'll be difficult for Maya to build up the brand image since customers perceived Maya as a drug, which will bring more concerns when people try to buy oral contraceptives.Hence, it still needs recommendations from doctors to convey the effectiveness and proper information about the drug. Third, the pricing of Raja and Maya can also be an influence to their performance when compared to their competitors' price. For example, Raja is priced more than competitor Tahiti, which is government sponsored condom manufacturer. The higher price of Raja made a premium image fo r customers to buy the condoms even If the price is higher. On the other hand, however, Maya is priced lower than its competitors, creating a hurting image that for oral medicines, cheaper may mean bad laity.And this situation got worse when it didn't get the recommendations from intermediate level influences. Finally, the distributions for both products were to focus directly to customers. So SSI planned to sell their products via pharmacies, general stores, and pan stores. Nevertheless, the difference in nature of these two products caused deferent performance. For Raja, it's easily to sell their products since men accounted for 80% of the purchasing behaviors of the birth control products.But it became difficult for Maya to have the same efficiency since people till prefer to see a doctors before decide which medicine is safe and reliable, which Is the critical cause for the sluggish sales of Maya. 2) How do you characterize the competitive environment in Bangladesh? That Is, whe n you look at SSI vs.. The other organizations In the space, how do they view each other? How does this differ from the other for-profit contexts we've studied? What might It mean for the strategy? ) Create a marketing plan for Improving sales of Maya Given the analysis that I described before, It Is the difference In nature that causes the difficulty to sell Maya successfully. In order to create a marketing plan for improvement, we need to modify the flaws in the previous one. To begin with I'll suggest to create a new brand. To explain, it's already been perceived by Bangladesh that Maya is a brand that is cheap and mistakenly regarded as an inferior product. Reputation, competing with their main competitors, which are the government sectors and Vast.So my recommendation for the price would be to price their oral contraceptives the same price around their competitors, getting rid of the inferior image of the product. Also, Its important to target their customers not only for males but males as well. The reason for this is because for the buying behaviors of the birth control products, 80% of the purchases were made by men. As a result. They can put more effort to their advertising to educate male customers the effectiveness of their products.Finally, to achieve SKI'S goal, which is to broaden their market share to help control Bangladesh population explosion, they'll need to increase their profit margin to retailers and RPM (Rural Medical Practitioners) in order for them to promote more diligently to the end customers to increase the overall market share. To explain, the profit for retailers now are low due to the low pricing of the Maya. So increasing the price of the product will enable SSI to provide higher profit margin to retailers, incentives them to put more selling effort to sell out new product.For Ramps, they can be critical since they are the one that can reach out to distant area and provide their recommendations to consumers. So including the in termediate level of influences will bring a better communication and education to customers, enabling a better brand perception and awareness of the new products. By providing more profit incentives to RPM, we'll be able to achieve this goal. 4) How will you evaluate your plan? How can you calculate the ROI? The â€Å"l† is relatively straightforward but how would you go about evaluating the â€Å"R? What challenges do you face in this regard as compared with most of the other cases we've discussed? How would you address it? In order for the plan to be feasible, we'll need to take into account multiple data and information from the current selling circumstance of Maya to make a thorough evaluation. To begin with, I'll conduct surveys to see how people perceive the Brand of Maya to make sure that the issue of he produce is the cheap quality and also to see the why customers are unwilling to try out Maya.Moreover, the COPY (Couple Years Protection) for industry and SMS (The So cial Marketing Project) products from Exhibit 8 is an indicator for us to observe the change of market share and growth rate from 1978 to 1983. And based on the change throughout the years, we can further conclude whether the approach for Maya had problem that need to be addressed. Finally, I'll try to get the distribution data from retailer, wholesaler, and smallholder to see how they sell their products in terms f the sales ranking of the products in the same category.Therefore, by using the data mentioned, we can reconstruct a new marketing plan for the new product and focus more on the culture of Bangladesh in terms of selling birth control products. Given our plan can be successfully implemented, we need to figure the challenge in the long run. And since the project is lunched by a not-for-profit agency, they mainly relied on funding to support their operation. According to the case, the barely earn profit by this product since the profit margin for the product is very low. Cha llenge, use project, longer no fund

Difference between personnel management and HRM Essay

Difference between Human Resource Management and Personnel Management Human resource management involves all management decisions and practices that directly affect or influence the people, or human resources, who work for the organization. In other words, Human resource management is concerned with ‘people centric issues’ in management. The Human Resources Management (HRM) function includes a variety of activities, and key among them is deciding what staffing needs you have and whether to use independent contractors or hire employees to fill these needs, recruiting and training the best employees, ensuring they are high performers, dealing with performance issues, and ensuring your personnel and management practices conform to various regulations. Activities also include managing your approach to employee benefits and compensation, employee records and personnel policies. Usually small businesses (for-profit or nonprofit) have to carry out these activities themselves because they can’t yet afford part- or full-time help. However, they should always ensure that employees have — and are aware of — personnel policies which conform to current regulations. These policies are often in the form of employee manuals, which all employees have. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HRM AND PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT ALTHOUGH both human resource management (HRM) and personnel management focus on people management, if we examine critically, there are many differences between them. Some are listed below: i) Nature of relations: The nature of relations can be seen through two different perspective views which are Pluralist and Unitarist. There is a clear distinct difference between both because in personnel management, the focus is more on individualistic where individual interest is more than group interest. The relationship between management and employees are merely on contractual basis where one hires and the others perform. Whereas, HRM focuses more on Unitarist where the word â€Å"uni† refers to one and together. Here, HRM through a shared vision between management and staff create a corporate vision and mission which are linked to business goals and the fulfillment of mutual interest where the organization’s needs are satisfied  by employees and employees’ needs are well-taken care by the organization. Motorola and Seagate are good examples of organizations that belief in this Unitarist approach which also focuses in team management and sees employees as partners in an organization. Relation of power and management: The distribution of power in personnel management is centralized where the top management has full authority in decision-making where even the personnel managers are not even allowed to give ideas or take part in any decision which involves â€Å"employees†. HRM, on the other hand, sees the decentralization of power where the power between top management is shared with middle and lower management groups. This is known as â€Å"empowerment† because employees play an important role together with line and HR managers to make collective and mutual decisions, which can benefit both the management and employees themselves. In fact, HRM focuses more on TQM approach as part of a team management with the involvement and participation of management and employees with shared power and authority. The nature of management is focused more on bottom-up approach with employees giving feedback to the top management and then the top management gives support to employees to achieve mutually agreed goals and objectives. ii) Leadership and management role: Personnel management emphasizes much on leadership style which is very transactional. This style of leadership merely sees the leader as a task-oriented person. This leader focuses more on procedures that must be followed, punishment form non-performance and non-compliance of rules and regulations and put figures and task accomplishments ahead of human factors such as personal bonding, interpersonal relationship, trust, understanding, tolerance and care. HRM creates leaders who are transformational. This leadership style encourages business objectives to be shared by both employees and management. Here, leaders only focus more on people-oriented and importance on rules, procedures and regulations are eliminated and replaced with: Shared vision; Corporate culture and missions; Trust and flexibility; and HRM needs that integrates business needs. iii) Contract of employment: In personnel management, employees contract of employment is clearly written and employees must observe strictly the agreed employment contract. The contract is so rigid that there is no room for changes and modifications. There is no compromise in written contracts that stipulates rules, regulations, job and obligations. HRM, on the other hand, does not focus on one-time life-long contract where working hours and other terms and conditions of employment are seen as less rigid. Here, it goes beyond the normal contract that takes place between organizations and employees. The new â€Å"flexible approach† encourages employees to choose various ways to keep contributing their skills and knowledge to the organization. HRM, with its new approach, has created flexi-working hours, work from home policies and not forgetting the creation on â€Å"open contract† system that is currently practiced by some multinational companies such as Motorola, Siemens and GEC. HRM today gives employees the opportunity and freedom to select any type of working system that can suit them and at the same time benefit the organization as well. Drucker (1996) calls this approach a â€Å"win-win† approach. iv) Pay policies and job design: Pay policies in personnel management is merely based on skills and knowledge required for the perspective jobs only. The value is based on the ability to perform the task and duties as per the employment contract requirement only. It does not encourage value-added incentives to be paid out. This is also because the job design is very functional, where the functions are more departmentalized in which each job falls into one functional department. This is merely known as division on labour based on job needs and skill possessions and requirement. HRM, on the contrary, encourages organizations to look beyond pay for functional duties. Here, the pay is designed to encourage continuous job performance and improvement which is linked to value-added incentives such as gain sharing schemes, group profit sharing and individual incentive plans. The job design is no more functional based but teamwork and cyclical based. HRM creates a new approach towards job design such as job rotation which is inter and intra-departmental based and job enlargement which encourages one potential and capable individual to take on more tasks to add value to his/her job and  in return enjoy added incentives and benefits. Human resource management is the new version of personnel management. There is no any watertight difference between human resource management and personnel management. However, there are some differences in the following matters. 1. Personnel management is a traditional approach of managing people in the organization. Human resource management is a modern approach of managing people and their strengths in the organization. 2. Personnel management focuses on personnel administration, employee welfare and labor relation. Human resource management focuses on acquisition, development, motivation and maintenance of human resources in the organization. 3. Personnel management assumes people as a input for achieving desired output. Human resource management assumes people as an important and valuable resource for achieving desired output. 4. Under personnel management, personnel function is undertaken for employee’s satisfaction. Under human resource management, administrative function is undertaken for goal achievement. 5. Under personnel management, job design is done on the basis of division of labor. Under human resource management, job design function is done on the basis of group work/team work. 6. Under personnel management, employees are provided with less training and development opportunities. Under human resource management, employees are provided with more training and development opportunities. 7. In personnel management, decisions are made by the top management as per the rules and regulation of the organization. In human resource management, decisions are made collectively after considering employee’s participation,  authority, decentralization, competitive environment etc. 8. Personnel management focuses on increased production and satisfied employees. Human resource management focuses on effectiveness, culture, productivity and employee’s participation. 9. Personnel management is concerned with personnel manager. Human resource management is concerned with all level of managers from top to bottom. 10. Personnel management is a routine function. Human resource management is a strategic function. Human resource management past and present Human resource management has changed a lot in the past 100 years. Previously, HRM was called personnel administration or personnel management, that is, it had to do with the staff or workers of an organisation. It was mainly concerned with the administrative tasks that have to do with organising or managing an organisation, such as record keeping and dealing with employee wages, salaries and benefits. The personnel officer (the person in charge of personnel management) also dealt with labour relations.such as problems with trade unions or difficulties between employers (those who employ workers) and their employees. Before we look at the role of HRM in organisations today, we will examine the way people were managed in organisations in the past. Definition Personnel Management – Personnel Management is thus basically an administrative record-keeping function, at the operational level. Personnel Management attempts to maintain fair terms and conditions of employment, while at the same time, efficiently managing personnel activities for individual departments etc. It is assumed that the outcomes from providing justice and achieving efficiency in the management of personnel activities will result ultimately in achieving organizational success. Facts [+] The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is the world’s largest HR department. OPM provides HR services for the federal governments workforce of nearly 2.8 million workers. It’s staff carry out the tasks to recruit, interview, and promote employees; oversee merit pay, benefits and retirement programs; and ensure that all employees and applicants are treated fairly and according to the law. To set the COLA [cost-of-living allowances] rates, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) surveys the prices of over 300 items, including goods and services, housing, transportation, and miscellaneous expenses. OPM conducts these surveys in each of the COLA areas and in the Washington, DC, area. Human resource management is concerned with the development and implementation of people strategies, which are integrated with corporate strategies, and ensures that the culture, values and structure of the organization, and the quality, motivation and commitment of its members contribute fully to the achievement of its goals. HRM is concerned with carrying out the SAME functional activities traditionally performed by the personnel function, such as HR planning, job analysis, recruitment and selection, employee relations, performance management, employee appraisals, compensation management, training and development etc. But, the HRM approach performs these functions in a qualitatively DISTINCT way, when compared with Personnel Management. Main Differences between Personnel Management and HRM HRM has a long history of growing from a simple welfare and maintenance function to that of a board level activity of the companies. In recent years, the focus on people management from human capital/intellectual capital perspective is also shaping firmly. However, the hard fact is that this growth can be generally witnessed in management literature and rarely in practice. Peripheral observation of people management in organization can mislead the observers since, hardly there could be any organization that is  yet to rename its old fashioned title of industrial relations/personnel/welfare/administration department into HRM department. But, in practice, these organizations continue to handle the people management activities the way they had been handling earlier. The reasons for this could be many and varied. Among them, the potential reason is lack of clear understanding about the differences between personnel/IR and HRM. Professor John Storey brilliantly portrayed these differences in 27 areas of people management in 1992 in his book titled Developments in the Management of Human Resources. These differences are illustrated in Table Dimensions Personnel and IR HRM Beliefs and assumptions 1. Contract Careful delineation of written contracts Aim to go beyond contract 2. Rules Importance of devising clear rules/mutually ‘Can-do’ outlook; Impatience with ‘rule’ 3. Guide to management action Procedures Business-need’ 4. Behaviour referent Norms/custom and practice Values/mission 5. Managerial task vis-a-vis labour Monitoring Nurturing 6. Nature of relations Pluralist Unitarist 7. Conflict Institutionalized De-emphasized Strategic aspects 8. Key relations Labour management Customer 9. Initiatives Piecemeal Integrated 10. Corporate plan Marginal Central 11. Speed of decision Slow Fast Line management 12. Management role Transactional Transformational leadership 13. Key managers Personnel/ IR specialists General/business/line managers 14. Communication Indirect Direct 15. Standardization High (e.g. ‘parity’ an issue) Low (e.g. ‘parity’ not seen as relevant) 16. Prized management skills Negotiation Facilitation Key levers 17. Selection Separate, marginal task Integrated, key task 18. Pay Job evaluation (fixed grades) Performance-related 19. Conditions Separately negotiated Harmonization 20. Labour-management Collective bargaining contracts Towards individual contracts 21. Thrust of relations with stewards Regularized through facilities and training Marginalized (with exception of some bargaining for change models) 22. Job categories and grades Many Few 23. Communication Restricted flow Increased flow 24. Job design Division of labour Teamwork 25. Conflict handling Reach temporary truces Manage climate and culture 26. Training and development Controlled access to courses Learning companies 27. Foci of attention for interventions Personnel procedures Wide ranging cultural, structural and personnel strategies

To Build a Fire: Man’s Pride

To Build a Fire by Jack London is a story of man who believed that he is larger than nature itself, that he could conquer anything—even seventy-five degrees below zero. Throughout the story, London clearly depicted a very cold place, a place which obviously no human could survive. According to one critique, the story â€Å"pits one man alone against the overwhelming forces of nature† (Rhodes, 1994). Probably due to humans' achievements, the man has become engulfed with pride and has carelessly ignored the power of nature.The protagonist was described as a man who is keen to details and, through most of the story, exuded confidence that he could cross the place. In fact, he already had a targeted time when he could reach his other companions. He did not have apparent fear of danger and seemed to rationalize to himself so as not to face the real situation: â€Å"Maybe, if he ran on, his feet will thaw out; and anyway if he ran far enough, he would reach camp and the boys † (London, 2002). It was only near the end of the story did he realize the danger that he entered himself into, the death that he could have easily avoided.If he was not as arrogant enough to perceive the â€Å"old-timers† as â€Å"womanish† and heeded their advice, the man would never have died and would have enjoyed â€Å"camping out with the boys. † His arrogance took its toll—nature took his life. References Rhodes, K (1994). To build a fire: Overview. In N. Watson (Ed. ), Reference guide to short fiction (1st ed. ). Detroit, MI: St. James Press. London, J. (2002). To build a fire. In L. Jewell (Ed. ), Reading and writing about literature (1st ed. ). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

Cognitive development theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Cognitive development theory - Essay Example There are two perspectives in adult cognitive development. These are contextual and dialectical thinking. Dialectical thinking is shown, by reasoning and discussion, to create a meaning of the complexities and contradictions adults has to deal continually with them. It holds that dialectical sense thinking enables acceptance of alternative ways or truths of thinking on similar phenomena, which, in everyday life, abounds. Dialectical thinking involves a process of logical thought through which adults can take what, on the surface, may seem contradictory positions. Contextual approach shows how cultural, social, political and economic forces play a role in shaping adult thinking development (Dunkel & Sefcek, n.d). This approach argues that the contextual factors may constitute what affects cognitive development of an adult. I carried an interview on a respondent who showed various issues. I asked questions such as what is your name? How old are you? Have you a spouse? Do you have a hou se? Do you have problems paying fees? Do you drink? Do you have children? The respondent was 30 years and was married. He lived in a rented house and claimed that he had not enough income to settle his expenses including rent, electricity bill and payment of school fees. He also confessed that he occasionally did drink. I had to analyze this situation using contextual approach in order to understand my client. My client had issues in learning which were due to the situation he was undergoing. He could not concentrate because his focus shifted from time to time on the problems he was facing. Such a person needs help in learning to concentrate on issues at hand. I advised him to learn to avoid the thoughts about his problems whenever they came as he engaged other activities. While taking a contextual approach one should consider these social, economic, political and cultural factors rather than taking chronological factors as guiding tools for comparison. Contextual approach would arg ue consideration of contextual factors that have influenced behaviors rather than just evaluating behavior on its surface. Contextual approach plays a critical role in understanding issues and life events in a person’s life. Background, including family of origin, school, friends and place where raised determines the thinking pattern of an individual. For instance, an adult may be truant because of influence from peers. Family situation and a person’s age are also contextual factors that determine an individual’s decisions. For example, a married individual would take different courses from that of unmarried one. When a person reaches some age, he or she would like to act in some way according to what applies most to that stage. Consideration of prior and current learning experiences is a factor worth considering. An individual who has undergone formal learning would not act the same way as one who has not. An individual undergoing formal learning at present suc h as a college student will make decisions mostly as per his or her status quo. For instance, a woman would choose not to have children until she finishes her degree education. Similarly, a young adult man might not marry until he has employment in order to get some economic stability. Current life issues also play a role in an individual’s thinking. An individual experiencing adverse social issues may resort to certain behaviors in order to get relieve. For instance, a person can resort to drinking in an attempt to do away with disturbing thoughts. Past life issues and how the individual confronted them also matter in this case. Lifespan Ego Development Erikson’

Tesco Case study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Tesco - Case Study Example This paper seeks to discuss the macro-environmental characteristics of the Canada market where Tesco plans to enter through the use of the VRIO analysis. The company can use its financial strength to open new outlets in Toronto, which is the largest city in Canada. Tesco is a global supermarket whose brands have created a strong image to the target market. Through its diversified product portfolio, the supermarket has effectively met the needs of its customers. VRIO analysis which covers the four aspects that includes the question of value, the question of rarity, the question of imitability, and the question of organization can be used to candidly indicate how well Tesco is in a position to exploit the available opportunities in the foreign markets. Tesco has a strong financial background. This implies that it is able to exploit the opportunities that are available in the Canada market. With revenue of more than 70,000 billion USD and 597,784 employees as at 2013, the supermarket is able to provide competitive services and products to over 35 million customers in Canada (Humby et al, 2006). Canada has various ethnic groups which include the white, Asian, Black, and Aboriginal among others. Given the competitive nature that Tesco enjoys locall y and globally, it is able to meet the needs of the Canada customers who are served by relatively few supermarkets. Another point as noted earlier is on the imitation of the Tesco brands. As a company that value innovation and research, it will not be possible for the competitors in Canada market such as Bulkley Valley Wholesale, Bloor Street Market Foods, Provigo The Market, and Coopers Foods among others to imitate the products that Tesco will provide. In this way, the customers will be provided with a new experience that will make them loyal towards Tesco brands in the Canada market. Under the leadership of Dave Lewis and Sir Richard Broadbent, the CEO and Chairman respectively, Tesco

Theory and Analysis Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Theory and Analysis - Coursework Example The amount to be recorded would be either the present value or the fair market value of the asset. In this case the amount to be recorded is the present value which is calculated by discounting annuity due payments by discount rate of 8%. Amount totaled to be $86,243 in comparison to $96,000 i.e. the fair market value. b) The costs associated with the lease are taxes, insurance, maintenance and depreciation. These costs are obligatory to pay as it is considered incidental to ownership. These costs would be determined during the operations conducted by or on the property. Depreciation can be charged through straight line method. c) Lani would record lease transaction on December 31st,2006 on the balance sheet as: {Principal-[Payment-(Principal*interest percentage)]} This will give you the amount to be balanced as â€Å"Lease† in the liability section as well as provide you with the proportion of interest payment from the Annual annuity paid. CASE 13-5: Lease in order should mee t the following criteria for Doherty Company to classify it as a capital lease: Firstly, the lease should transfer ownership of the good to the lessee at the end of the lease term. Also, it should be noncancelable plus renewal options and periods should be attached.

BYD Company analyse Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

BYD Company analyse - Essay Example Furthermore, the organisation has also marked its presence in the automobile industry during the year 2003 and since, then this Strategic Business Unit (SBU) has witnessed a robust growth. In the current day context, the organisation has also earned the reputation of being the fastest growing automobile organisation during the last few years. It also has been the global pioneer in manufacturing energy vehicles, which includes pure electric models and Dual Mode electric models (BYD Company Limited 2015). In is also worth mentioning that the organisational growth is largely because of the development of Research and Development (R&D) team of the organisation. The R&D team of the organisation has largely contributed in the development of energy storage system, LED lighting, and solar energy products, amongst others (BYD Company Limited 2015). Contextually, the objective of the current study is to prepare a business report that would guide the organisation in effective expansion in the c ontinent of Europe by targeting the car market operating in Germany. Analysis of the macro and microenvironment of European hybrid-car industry is extremely important for the current study. However, in the study special emphasis is provided to the German market. In order to conduct effective environment analysis, PESTEL and Porter’s Five Forces analysis are considered most suitable to increase the transparency and ensure effective development. Therefore, the underlying subheads address the analyses of the external as well as internal environment using these marketing tools. Alike most of the nations in Europe, Germany is also a democratic nation. It is notable that the political environment of Germany along with other nations of Europe is mostly stable. This considerably encourages investors from different nations to invest in European nations including Germany (Jerez-Mir and Vazquez 2009). Besides these, it is notable that the governments of

Case Analysis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Case Analysis - Research Paper Example It transports more passengers, and it is also offers more regular schedule for domestic flights compared to its competitors. It offers low fares than any other airline because of its low-operating expenses. Chris Lauer accounts â€Å"Southwest Airlines is the largest low-fare carrier in the world† (1). Southwest’s also has a good customer service, a dedicated staff and personnel, and an exceptional management team that keeps on making an excellent pricing and marketing plan for the company. One of Southwest’s successful strategies is serving less congested airports that helped minimize total travel time for passengers, and this allowed the company to avoid paying the higher landing fees and terminal gate costs. Southwest is routinely improving its information system for faster flow of information in order to enhance the airlines function, cut costs, and improve its customer service On account of Southwest’s aim to carry out its low-fare strategy continually, the company operated only one type of aircraft. Along with this, Southwest flight attendants were responsible for cleaning up trash left by passengers and getting the plane presentable for the next flight while rival carriers had cleaning crews. The airline also did not have a first-class section on any of its planes. Also, passengers with checked baggage who were connecting to other carriers in order to reach their destinations were not offered baggage transfer services. Southwest also has a tarnished reputation regarding the management’s failure to conduct the required inspections for fuselage fatigue cracking. Southwest’s has growth opportunities by having a first-class section on its planes and by serving more domestic flights and possibly international flights. The airline should also offer a baggage transfer services to passengers who have connecting flights with other carriers in order to improve its customer service.

Technology and Educational Instruction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Technology and Educational Instruction - Essay Example Computers are tools that can be used to accomplish a myriad of tasks and achieve any one of a number of goals. They can be used to promote higher order thinking skills or to play mindless games. However, research tends to indicate that technology is not being used appropriately in today’s classrooms (Kleiman, 2000; Glennan & Melmed, 1995). One way that this tool can be used is as a catalyst for change. Researchers have found that when a classroom is immersed in technology, many things begin to change in the classroom. Teacher/student relationships change as teachers get away from the role of instructor and begin to come alongside the student as facilitator or coach. This is a result of a change in the way that teachers teach, moving from traditional instruction with lecture, drill-and-practice, and rote memorization of facts toward a constructivist model which promotes active student learning through inquiry, problem solving, and collaboration with peers and adults. However, these are not the only changes technology can bring to the classroom. Technology integration, done correctly, can lead to success for everyone (Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow, 1995). In 1996, President Clinton and Vice-President Gore introduced the purpose for technology integration in the Technology Literacy Challenge. The reason for technology in the classroom is not to provide state of the art equipment for its own sake. Instead, the role of technology is to increase student achievement by using this tool (Wenglinsky, 1998). Many states have invested millions of dollars into technology. ... Teacher/student relationships change as teachers get away from the role of instructor and begin to come alongside the student as facilitator or coach. This is a result of a change in the way that teachers teach, moving from traditional instruction with lecture, drill-and-practice, and rote memorization of facts toward a constructivist model which promotes active student learning through inquiry, problem solving, and collaboration with peers and adults. However, these are not the only changes technology can bring to the classroom. Technology integration, done correctly, can lead to success for everyone (Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow, 1995). In 1996, President Clinton and Vice-President Gore introduced the purpose for technology integration in the Technology Literacy Challenge. The reason for technology in the classroom is not to provide state of the art equipment for its own sake. Instead, the role of technology is to increase student achievement by using this tool (Wenglinsky, 1998). Many states have invested millions of dollars into technology. In 1996, Pennsylvania launched a three-year program named Link to Learn, a project costing $ 109 million (Yakel & Lamberski, 2000). The goal, according to Governor Tom Ridge, was to "keep Pennsylvania educationally and econmomiclaly competitive in a world that increasingly relies on technology," (Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 1998). More specifically, the commonwealth wanted toassist schools in getting technology, to change education so that it extended beyond the walls of the schools, to give teachers resources and abilities to integrate technology in their classrooms, to enable schools and libraries to become technology

Requests strategies encountered by Iraqi students in Australian Dissertation

Requests strategies encountered by Iraqi students in Australian Universities - Dissertation Example Request strategies basically helps the students to clear their idea and concept regarding any reading they are doing of the text and then ask questions to the instructors in order to understand the key concepts of it and to clear all the queries. Sometimes requesters may hesitate to make any requests because it creates nuisance for the requester and for the recipient to answer it. Iraqi culture which is suppose to be the most influential culture in terms of protecting their values, beliefs and cultural positions follow their own language in order to communicate. Language is the first medium to communicate with the intercultural and the cross cultural variations and it is seems to be the barrier if the proper communication is not performed. For Iraqi’s, English is suppose to be the second language because they give priority to their own language first, whereas pragmatic competence is the ability beyond the understanding of the grammar and to understand the clear levels of any l anguage. This short research thesis basically discusses few issues and tribulations that are faced in the studies of pragmatic in order to create the idea of clear understanding of the communication and the politeness factor into it (Cook, & Liddicoat, 2002, Introduction, Para. 1). It also discuses the inter language issues that are faced by all of those for whom English is not their first language and due to this they do face threatening acts and unable to use appropriate strategies and politeness into their speech (Chen, 2006, Brown and Levinson’s Concept of Face and Politeness Theory, Para. 3). As for Iraqi students, English is the second language and for them it creates difficulty in communicating and following requests strategies with the teachers and the instructors there in Australia. The use of pragmatic inter language is used for all those who want to learn and to use L2 pragmatic knowledge (Kasper, 1996, Introduction, p. 147). The speaker should create the politenes s factor in order to build strong perception of the listener for understanding the context. To overcome various gaps between the communication and general pragmatics knowledge in order to understand English as second language the process of acculturation facilitates because bilingualism always helps students to understand the environment and helps in learning when such students like Iraqi’s go to some other place to acquire education. Now the pragmatic competence and knowledge of the learner is obligatory then the grammatical competence of any student. Pragmatics involve all the important factors including the style, conversational structure and various aspects that helps in building communication effectively (Quraishi, 1994, Personal Experience with L2 Politeness, p. 1). The importance of using and learning request strategies is that it helps the bilingual and monolingual learners to bring politeness into inter cultural communications so that it gets easier for others to fee l comfortable while dealing with them (Quraishi, 1994, The importance of Politeness Strategies in Effective Communication, p. 2). For those who are monolinguals it gets difficult for them to communicate if they are not polite or rude, therefore there are certain techniques and strategies that are important for them to learn which includes the politeness and request strategies and the certain pragmatics also help them in understanding the intercultural communication(Chen, 2006, Sociolinguistic Competence & Transfer, Para. 1). Rationale of the study The purpose of the study is to identify two things: How Iraqi learners of English realize their request strategies in relation to the social dimensions of power (P) and distance (D)?   How Australian native speakers and Vietnamese learners of Engli

Chinese video gaming Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Chinese video gaming - Essay Example It is obvious that this independence has definitely led to positive results for the country’s development. However, there are certain other aspects of the Chinese gaming industry that come to the fore on a closer analysis. The industry does not only have a positive side to it, there are also some negatives and drawbacks that can be seen. This is mainly in terms of the strict â€Å"state censorship† that the imported games pass through before reaching the markets of China (Wolf 108). Due to the various strict ideals of the government of China, it is not easy for foreign games to be sold in the markets. The content of every game is thoroughly checked and those found inappropriate are either deleted from the games, or the game is banned altogether. The gamers, however, are not satisfied with the new version of the games and, therefore, they resort to pirated full versions of the game. The gamers fail to understand that the real objective behind this censorship is to  "promote domestically made games,† in order to â€Å"protect the Chinese market† (Wolf 108). Studies have proved that the online games in China are now the â€Å"mainstream form of game consumption† and that the â€Å"market share of imported games† is on the decline (Wolf 109). This is significantly so because the broadband development in the country has been increasing considerably and due to the fact that China has not turned into the â€Å"second biggest internet market† on the face of earth (Chung). Piracy in China is a major problem and it has created conflicts with â€Å"game manufacturers in Japan and United States,† putting the membership of China in the â€Å"global gaming community† into jeopardy (Wolf 109). The game manufacturers are forced to produce online games and are reluctant to... With the massive advances in technology, man has transformed the impossible into the reality. Almost all fields have reached greater heights with the constant innovations in technology. This is especially so in the case of the entertainment field, including various industries such as movies, music, dance, gaming etc. The modern technologies in video gaming have taken entertainment to the next level through the creation of interactive user interfaces. For example, there are a lot of motion sensitive games that have become highly popular among the modern generation. These games are designed in such a way that the game processor detects the movements of the human body and replicates those movements into the respective characters of the game. These types of games are popular throughout the world and the gaming industries of different countries, seeing the potential of this sphere, plan to work hard towards tapping this niche much more. One such country that has recognized the significance of this field is China and its gaming industry, which is now â€Å"one of the fastest growing interactive entertainment† industries worldwide. Piracy in China is a major problem and it has created conflicts with â€Å"game manufacturers in Japan and United States,† putting the membership of China in the â€Å"global gaming community† into jeopardy. The game manufacturers are forced to produce online games and are reluctant to manufacture other games due to fear of piracy. Thus, the Chinese government needs to implement laws and devise ways in which it can get rid of piracy once and for all. The gaming industry in China is greatly influenced by â€Å"South Korea and the United States† and, therefore, it does import games from these countries in addition to Japan

Aqua Fish Canada Inc Essay Example for Free

Aqua Fish Canada Inc Essay May 2007 to April 2009 Update Over the past two years, AFC has faced more intense competition, particularly from aquaculturists in Chile. In addition, Chilean output has increased the supply of salmon and the Canadian dollar has strengthened in relation to the U. S. dollar. As a result, AFC has been unable to meet its budgeted revenue targets. Stocks of unsold harvestable fish have increased, as well as the corresponding cost of maintaining the fish, and the company barely made a profit in fiscal 2009. In January 2009, AFC lost one of its largest retail customers, SF Seafood, to a new salmon aquaculture firm, Nu-Farm Inc. This new competitor uses a sophisticated, computerized system for supply chain and product distribution functions. The system allows Nu-Farm to establish web links with customers, such as SF Seafood, and to manage orders and deliveries directly for each of the customer’s retail outlets. This has eliminated the need for customers to make separate arrangements to receive and warehouse fresh fish, and to ultimately distribute the fish to their retail locations. In February 2009, 2,000 kilograms of fish from Site 4 were rejected by three important customers, two of which are located in the United States. An internal investigation revealed that two employees at Site 4 had neglected to follow established procedures and failed to reject some fish that did not meet quality standards and were not certified by the staff veterinarian. In April 2009, employees neglected to secure some of the net-pens at Site 3. During a storm, more than 300,000 kilograms of young fish escaped from these net-pens and most were subsequently lost to predators. Although the company’s property and liability insurance covers criminal theft of fish, it does not cover the loss of fish from disease, parasites, escape, or predators. In addition, there is no liability coverage with respect to food poisoning or diseases caused by the salmon, or environmental damage caused by the farm’s operations. The lost salmon had a book inventory value of $690,000, which was written off in fiscal 2009. The ultimate sales value of the lost fish had they grown to harvestable weight is approximately $1. 5 million. It will cost $200,000 to repair the damaged pens. Domestic and Export Markets Guy Mills is dissatisfied with the company’s geographic sales distribution, which has not changed since 2006, and would like to increase overseas sales. He has requested Juliette Maise to investigate the possibility of opening an overseas sales office. Experts predict that demand for all forms of salmon will grow at a record pace in overseas markets, particularly in developing countries. It is expected that Canada’s international reputation for salmon and other fish will remain high. A market analysis by a respected source, published in May 2009, indicates that the market for fresh salmon is maturing very rapidly in Canada and the U. S. , as consumer tastes become more sophisticated and demand begins to shift to shellfish and various exotic, imported fish. New packaging methods have been developed for mussels, which has enabled live fresh mussels to be exported to markets at greater distances from the farms. The wholesale market price for Canadian mussels has remained stable at about $1. 40 per kg, but is expected to increase to $1. 0 over the next few years. In the past few years, global supplies of American oysters have decreased after hurricanes destroyed a significant percentage of the oyster farms in the southern U. S. At the same time, the popularity of these oysters by consumers in North America and Europe has been increasing. As a result, the market price for American oysters farmed in Canada significantly increased from $1. 80 per kg in 2006 to $2. 70 per kg in 2009. The re-established farms in the southern U. S. are expected to have their first new harvests in another year or two. New Strategic Goals The board of directors met in May 2009 after receiving the financial statements for 2009. Guy Mills provided the board with a summary of selected site and segment data (see Appendix 1), and reported that the decreased profits in 2009 were caused by the Site 3 problems, the decrease in market value, the strengthening Canadian dollar versus the U. S. dollar, and the increased feed costs. He also indicated that he expected the four sites to yield an average of 3. 8 million kilograms (950,000 kilograms per site) of harvested fish per year, assuming that no further unusual losses were incurred. Given the current market conditions and the risk of having to decrease prices or lose export sales to the U. S. , the board decided that the company should move into other markets and diversify into shellfish farming. No dividends would be paid for the next year or two to free up some cash to invest in new projects. The board directed Mills to investigate establishing shellfish aquaculture sites and develop a business strategy for increasing the profitability of the current salmon operations. They indicated that any proposed investment should generate a minimum after-tax return of 10% within five years. Shellfish Aquaculture Opportunity Mills explored opportunities for diversifying into shellfish aquaculture. He found two potential opportunities (a mussel farm and an oyster farm) and wondered which one should be pursued or whether both should be pursued. A summary of the costs and yields for establishing these farms is provided in Appendix 2. Project Blue Wave Over the past two years, Dr. Lily Stern has been investigating what makes some salmon in an aquaculture environment grow more quickly than others, have better disease resistance, and develop higher-quality flesh. Her studies have led her to submit a proposal for Project Blue Wave (see Appendix 3), which would use leading-edge genetic engineering to develop a strain of Atlantic salmon with superior qualities specifically suited to aquaculture. Dr. Stern insists that this is a new approach to finfish aquaculture and feels that it would revolutionize the industry. Executive Meeting – June 15, 2008 Mills suggested that AFC could increase revenues by pursuing overseas markets more aggressively. He also indicated that the company should find ways to decrease operating costs. He presented the two options for expanding into shellfish aquaculture and Dr. Stern’s Project Blue Wave proposal for discussion and asked for any new ideas to achieve the board’s goals. Mills also reported that residents in the vicinity of Site 3 were investigating the possibility of launching a lawsuit against AFC if they could gather enough evidence to prove that the escaped fish were causing environmental damage and contaminating the wild fish. In the past, similar lawsuits have had a 10% success rate with damages amounting to $10 million. Vanic questioned the wisdom of establishing a mussel farm in PEI. He indicated that many such farms become infested with an invasive parasite that attaches itself to the growing mussels. The parasites do not have a significant impact on the growth period or meat yields of mussels; however, maintenance, harvest and distribution costs are significantly increased (20% more variable production, 10% more fixed production, and 14% more variable distribution costs). Employees also dislike handling mussels infested with the parasite. Egin indicated that only about 25% of mussel farms get infected with the parasite. He was more interested in the Project Blue Wave proposal and suggested that it had a very good chance of realizing greater than market returns. He indicated that the RD department had been conducting some preliminary research on genetic engineering and the scientists believe they are on the brink of delivering results, if supported with a little more investment. Jacques Dubois wondered whether the chances of successfully developing a fastergrowing salmon were much lower than Egin or Dr.  Stern realized and that a much larger aquaculture organization, or the government, would be doing this research if it were a project worth pursuing. He felt that too much money had already been spent on RD and not enough on operational efficiencies, supply chain management, and technologies. Dubois also wondered whether AFC should consider adopting IFRSs for financial reporting and, if so, what the major implications of the conversion would be. After the meeting, Mills directed Adam Rice, Controller, to review the company’s strategic options and operational issues. Other Information Rice began by interviewing various staff members, and made the following notes: 1. The variability of the fishing industry has made banks very cautious. Consequently, the Eastern Bank of Canada would be willing to provide a loan of no more than $3 million at an annual interest rate of 8%, on the condition that AFC maintain a gross profit margin of at least 20%. 2. Maise has determined that Paris, France would be an ideal location for an overseas sales office. Space could be leased for CDN$5,000 per month and a local salesperson could be hired for an annual base salary of CDN$20,000 plus a four percent sales commission. Maise estimates that this office could generate annual sales of up to 500,000 kilograms of fresh whole salmon. She also indicated that there is a strong market for oysters in France, if they could be transported in an economical manner. 3. Rob Vanic predicts that world fuel prices will continue to increase and that the risk of spoilage of fresh seafood shipped overseas will double. In fiscal 2009, two percent of overseas shipments of salmon were lost or spoiled before reaching the customers. 4. An investigation of the variable cost variances at Sites 3 and 4 revealed that the employees were overfeeding the fish, resulting in an excess amount of feed falling to the ocean floor. At Sites 1 and 2, the employees are well trained and experienced. 5. In June 2009, an important, high-potential overseas customer asked an AFC salesperson to ship crates of fish purchased for US$6,000 with documentation that stated the value as US$2,000. Apparently, this request was for customs purposes. The salesperson consulted Maise, who indicated that the company’s policy to please the customer applied in this and all other cases. The salesperson brought the matter to Rice’s attention. 6. Costs of preliminary research on genetic engineering have been expensed in the year incurred. 7. Genetic engineering is a common practice in the agriculture and livestock industries. Proponents of organic and natural foods have increasingly complained about the ethical issues surrounding genetic tampering. 8. A discount rate of 10% after taxes is used for evaluating capital investments.

Effect of the Recession on Multinational Enterprises

Effect of the Recession on Multinational Enterprises Economic recession Is general slowdown of economic activity over a period of time that measured by Gross Product Domestic (GDP),recession is highly characterized by falling of investment spending, business decline, slow growth of new business high rate of unemployment.  [i]   Economic recession can be caused by widespread of drop in spending and investments, poor micro-economic policies, such as poor control of financial institutions such as banks, and other lender institutions as well as other economic variables During economic recession, many business profitability declines and other bankrupt due to lack markets for their products and services, many customers have inadequate money to buy these products and services. Economic recession also affect stock markets, where by share of the companies drops sharply and reduce confidence to investors Government revenues decline due to economic recession, hence government fails to provide social services and other future plans. Economic recession in one country can also affect others, in sense that recession has magnitude, many multinational companies operate more than one country, and hence impact in one county can have multiplier effects in other countries, many FDIs also will be affected E.g. economic recession which was hit USA in 2008/2009 which was contributed to united states housing bubble and subprime mortgage crisis, was affected not only in America but almost all over the world, many business affected with this recession, stock markets such as NYSE,LSTE, and other banks were bankrupted such as warner brothers.  [ii]   Impact of Economic Recession High rate of unemployment, recession can contribute to high rate of unemployment in sense that may company reduce number of staff in order to strive; in recession it leads to other problems, such as people who lack jobs may engage in criminals in order to survive. Recession may lead people to lack disposable income; and other fails to repay their loans hence many families are affected. Decline in productivity, where by many business profits falls, other firmà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s bankruptcy, hence and affect the whole financial system. Recession has negative impact due to decline of growth domestic produces (GDP) where by its affect economic as well social life. Many new businesses collapse, and hence fails to repay their loans banks. Recession can led to decline in living standard due to the fact people depend on wage and salaries, this can have negative impact on stability of families and individuals health and well-being Multinational Corporation (MNC) or transnational corporation, is an enterprise that manages production or delivered service in more than one country, multination cooperation has been achieved due to advancement in information technologies as well globalization, British is one of country which have many multination companies such British petroleum Vodafone, Virgin, Rynair as which operate within and outside the country, they are interested to operate in emerging economies such as India, china, Africa and Brazil British companies usually engaged in international business Acquire new markets, British multinational usually going international in order to search new markets for their products and services, many large firms flock to china, India, brazil and Africa due to growing of consumer purchasing power. Increasing sales, firms expand international so as to increase its market share hence being able to compete. Acquiring resources, large firms decided to go globally because to find resources so as to continue producing and ensure production cost can be controlled hence to able to pass benefit to customers. Cheap labor, due to growing of stiff competition in the markets, large firms fight to reduce production cost in order to earn profit, this led companies looking overseas areas where cheap labor is available. Global Strategies, many firms consider engaged in international business as strategies in order to survive in a stiff competition Growing consumer pressure, tastes and preferences of consumer has changed dynamic, income increase; consumer can be able to purchase luxurious products and services, growing income to emerging economies influence many firms to set their operation and respond to these markets The external environment is an essential element for the business to operate international due to the fact business do depend on external environment because and changes can have multiplier effect toward business, if the country policies towards economy are good and there is peace and security business will prosper as well as economy PESLTEL for British Multinational Enterprises are; Political British MNE they are highly interested to operate in where there high democracy and freedom of speech, and where there is a less government intervention towards business unless ità ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s breaking the abiding laws. Multinational Enterprise, interested operates in a country which there is peace and security, and that countries have diplomatic relation with other countries. Tax policy is well structured and can be predicted, this give opportunity for business to incorporate into their business, in a country where taxation policy is highly uncertainty many British MNE are not interested to invest in these countries Multinational enterprises interested to know all regulatory bodies governing trade, local and international business such competition laws, employment laws, Business ownership laws, health and safety laws, foreign and local trade regulatory, fair competition bodies as well as environment protection laws main objectives is to make sure the business running smooth. Economic British Multination enterprises are interested in invest in a country where a GDP is heading toward good direction, this is good conducive environment for growth of business Also British MNE prefer to engage in international business in a countries which their economies are growing and their citizen has disposable income in sense that this will provide market as well as access to raw material. British MNE prefer to invest in countries which have national comparative advantage, such as huge population as well as huge market, good climatically condition availability of natural resources such gas, oil and minerals. British MNE also interested to invest in a country which has efficient money supply low interest rate British MNE are highly consider types of economic system, preferred capitalism where by supply and demand is controlled by markets Multinational Enterprises interested to operate in countries which are not prone to recession and depression, due to the fact these affect companies profitability.. Technological factor Advancement in Information and telecommunication technologies (ICT) and innovation contribute for multination enterprises to participate in international business, technologies such as internet, teleconferencing, where company headquarters can have two ways communication with scattered branches around the world. Transport Innovation, development of maritime technology and existence of many airline companies, contribute MNE to engage in international business Transportation innovation, Development of maritime technology and existence of many airline companies in transportation system lead easier to fly around the world at competitive fares and conduct business. Many international companies inject huge sum of capital in research and development to come up with a newer, better and innovative products due to increase of competition among international companies as well growing of consumer pressure due to increase in of income Social factors Multinational enterprises interested to operate in country which there is large population, hence be a market of the products and services provided by these multinational companies, many multinational companies interested to operate in china, India and most of African countries due to large population. Due to powerful economies of western countries and globalization, social culture and life style affects other societies, such as Africans and Asian societies adopt a western culture, and hence create opportunity for MNE to engage in international business Ansoff Matrix Model Source; tuitor2u.net Ansoff Matrix Model is one strategic tools objectives, and most well-known framework for deciding upon strategies for growth, the firms which attempts to grow depend on wither its market to a new or existing products or in a new or existing markets Market Penetration is when a firm decides to market existing products to its customer, the aim is to maintain or increase market share to the existing products to customers and increase usage of existing customers Strategies such as, competitive pricing strategy, advertising, sales promotion and also personal selling as well as aggressive promotional campaign and led market to be unattractive for competitors. Market Development, Is when firm decide to sell its existing product into new market, firm can implement this strategy by, by moving into new geographical areas such as exporting to a new country, new product dimension or packaging, new distribution channel or different pricing strategies which can attract new customer. Products Development, is the growth strategy where by firm introduce new products into existing markets, strategies such as upgrading which can appeal to existing markets Diversification, is the growth strategy where by firms decide to market new products to a new markets, diversification can relate or unrelated depending with company policies. Strategies to execute in recession period In period of Economic Recession many multinational enterprises should review their growth strategies, due recession which affect the prosperity their business, By using Ansoff Matrix Model as strategic tools for growth, Multinational Enterprise can adopt this in survive. The first strategy should be execute for multinational companies in a recession period is cut operation cost and reaming with core business in order to survive The appropriate strategy, which Multinational Enterprise can execute, is by market development strategy, where by firm can decide to shut down their operations in countries which affected with recession due to the fact recession affect purchasing power, hence people fails to buys products and services, firms can decide to operate in countries which economy is growing. Other Strategies which can be adopted by the Multinational enterprises is diversification strategy where by firms can decide to market new products to a new markets, a Multination company can decide to diversity their business and start new business e.g. electricity firm can decide to enter into hotel business but there is lot of risk to be considered before making decision to diversify Multinational Enterprises can decide to diversify their operation into new emerging market, and which are not affected with recession, countries such as china, India and Brazil. Globalization is the broadening set of interdependent relationships among people from different parts of a worlds thatà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s to be divided into nations, the growth of globalization has accelerated due to advancement in information and telecommunication technologies such as internet, teleconferencing, Enterprise resource planning (ERPs),Knowledge management (KM), Customer relationship Management (CRM). I do agree that the benefit of new technologies will off-set the in investment in RD. in one perspective but in other circumstances new technologies might increase investment in RD, this can argued as follows. New technologies help multinational companies; to reduce cost as well as time which were previously invested in RD due to the fact the time taken to come up with the new product is essential due to competition among multinational companies Development of new application software, such has designing and drawings software, CAD, 3Ds helps companies to design a products which meets customers taste and preferences to customer across the world. Internet technologies help multinational companies to advertise and sell their products and services on line around where it can reach many customers at a low cost. Internet technologies also helps RD departments in multinational companies to get instant review about their products, such as how customer perceive that products, their weaknesses. This feedback helps companies to come with the newer and innovative products in the market. In other circumstances new technologies in RD contribute to increasing competition to multinational companies, due to the fact barriers for entry become low, companies now days can but these technologies on shelves and entering into business. Despite of new technology, in RD, the competition become stiff, due to emerging economies such as china, India have decide to engaged in international business. New technologies helps to reduce investment in RD but also create new challenges due to the fact many small emerging companies used technology as strategy to engage in international business, and create stiff competition.

Literature Review on Mortgage Default

Literature Review on Mortgage Default Literature review The evolution of mortgage default studies is characterized by Quercia and Stegman (1992) into three types of studies. The earliest work dating back to the 1970s focuses from a lenders perspective on simple correlations and regression models capturing important borrower characteristics that can forecast bankruptcy. Home equity, income variability, loss of employment, death, and divorce are found to be the most important predictors of default risk (Von Furstenberg, 1969; Herzog and Early, 1970; Vandell, 1978). The second generation of default research, rooted in consumer behavior theory, models the behavior of households, who rationally decide to default, in a more structural way. Papers by Jackson and Kasserman (1980), Campbell and Dietrich (1983), and Foster and Van Order (1984) explicitly formulate net-equity maximization models of default. Such `ruthless default models predict immediate default if a propertys value drops a small margin below the level of the mortgage. These models emphasize the financial aspects of the mortgage default decision, ignoring borrowers characteristics. Towards the start of the 1990s, several models began examining transaction costs and crisis events that may delay, expedite, or eliminate the need to default. Quigley and Van Order (1992) find that transaction and reputation costs make the default option on mortgages less ruthless than in other frictionless financial markets. While transaction costs by themselves do not explain observed behavior, reputation costs in particular are consistent with observed default behavior. These second-generation studies constitute the basis for the current state of the theory. The examination of the default decision as an option and the central role of net equity constitute the dominant view in studies of default. Conceptually, the basic theory postulated by second-generation studies has not been revised since. The recent financial crisis has stimulated a revival of the academic interest in mortgage default, and the birth of a third generation of research models. Specifically, there have been attempts to integrate mortgage default into more general equilibrium models of consumer behavior. Campbell and Cocco (2014) model mortgage foreclosures structurally and find negative equity, borrowing constraints, high debt-to-income ratios and income growth as important determinants of foreclosure. Goodhart et al. (2011) and Foote et al. (2008) use a two-period model to show that households choose to default and lose their homes to foreclosure, if the net implicit rents from owning plus the expected net equity position over their tenure horizon is negative. They find that expected house price appreciation, and the size of the mortgage payment are the main factors in determining default. Corradin (2012) builds a life-cycle continuous-time model of household leverage and default in which the agents opti mally choose the down-payment, abstracting from inflation and interest rate risk. Garriga and Schlagenhauf (2009) also solve an equilibrium model of long-term mortgage choice and default to understand how leverage affects the default decision. Forlati and Lambertini (2011), the closest paper to this thesis, builds an infinite-horizon DSGE model with housing, risky mortgages and endogenous default. They introduce idiosyncratic risk in housing investment and the possibility for loans to be defaulted on, which results in an endogenous borrowing constraint exactly as the one for firms in Bernanke, Gertler, and Gilchrist (1999). Their model does not feature any penalties for the households that choose to default. This assumption is unrealistic, as in the United States as well as in other countries, defaulters incur reputation and credit score penalties which affect their possibility to borrow in the future, in addition to collateral losses. Hence, introducing non-pecuniary default penalties is useful when thinking about an equilibrium with default. The Forlati and Lambertini (2011) model also does not include a financial sector, therefore the financial accelerator mechanism is absent, in particular the banking side. There is no role for negative feedback loops operating through the banking sector as rising bad loan books and bank insolvencies, amplified by a liquidity crisis, can lead to a sharp credit contraction. This thesis builds a model incorporating some of these missing links. The literature review indicates a continued interest in mortgage default. While most empirical studies are well-advanced in their discoveries of the determinants of default, the theoretical literature is lagging behind developing models able to capture these determinants. I attempt to bridge the gap between the empirical determinants of default and the theory, by constructing a dynamic optimization model of borrower choice with housing market frictions and endogenous mortgage default, that will feature default centered around negative net equity, reputation penalties, and house valuation shocks. Refining the current DSGE models with the introduction of financial and micro-founded consumer behavior frictions is essential for the study of business cycles and financial stability. Theoretical Model This thesis builds a DSGE model drawing on a number of contributions in the literature on credit markets, housing markets, and debt default. The starting point is a model with financial frictions on the demand-side for credit (i.e. Kiyotaki and Moore, 1997; Iacoviello and Neri, 2010), to which I add a housing sector, a financial sector and endogenous debt default. The idea of default comes from the asset pricing literature, which allows for the existence of default as an equilibrium phenomenon (Dubey et al., 2005; Geanakoplos and Zame, 2013). A stylized representation of the model is depicted in Figure ref{fig8}. The economy operates in discrete time over an infinite horizon and combines five elements: 1) two types of households, namely textit{savers} and textit{borrowers}, who consume manufactured goods, accumulate housing, and work; 2) a financial sector collecting deposits and extending collateralized mortgages; 3) a large set of real (consumption habits, adjustment costs) and nom inal (price and wage) rigidities; 4) financing frictions in the housing and financial sector; and 5) a rich set of shocks, essential in taking the model to the data. The economy is populated by patient (savers) and impatient (borrowers) households. Patient households consume, accumulate housing stock, save, and work. They own the productive capital of the economy, and supply capital funds to firms on the one hand, and deposits to banks on the other. Impatient households consume, accumulate housing stock, borrow from banks, and work. Both patient and impatient households supply labor services through labor unions, which set their wages subject to a Calvo scheme. On the supply side, the non-housing sector combines labor and capital to produce consumption and business capital for both sectors. The construction sector produces new homes combining labor and land with business capital. The two groups of households have different discount factors. Discount factor heterogeneity between households induces heterogeneity in the marginal utility of saving across households. All else equal, borrowers have a lower $beta^*$ and a higher marginal utility of immediate consumption relative to savers, inducing a desire to trade inter-temporally. Borrowers obtain collateralized mortgages from banks, while savers have a high discount factor $beta$ and invest their resources into bank deposits. The availability of loans to borrowers is subject to a borrowing constraint linked to the market value of their housing stock and the ability of the lending banks to extend credit. Borrowers can experience negative housing value shocks that are only observed by the households themselves. When the value of their house falls below the value of their loan repayment, they choose to default on part of their mortgage. Default on secured debt is modeled through the partial loss of collateral and a non-pecuniary default penalty that enters the utility function of the households directly. In case of default, borrowers lose some of their housing stock which is repossessed by the bank, suffer a non-pecuniary default penalty, and re-enter the housing market in the next period as buyers again. Default is endogenously determined and, consistent with the literature on second-generation default models, triggered by shocks that are large enough to cause leveraged households to owe on their house more than the house is worth. Borrowers and savers are unable to directly write financial contracts. They do so through financial intermediaries. The financial sector is simply market-based: banks borrow from savers in order to give loans to borrowers. In this way, I layer two sets of financial frictions that interact in equilibrium: first, banks are constrained in how much they can borrow from ultimate savers, and second ultimate borrowers are constrained in how much they can borrow from the banks. Monetary policy is conducted by a central bank which faces a trade-off between output gap and inflation stabilization. The model provides a framework to understand the impact of house price fluctuations, monetary policy, demand shocks, and credit availability on the economy and the ways in which financial regulation can dampen boom and bust cycles in the housing market.

Plantation and Race in the Caribbean Essay -- Caribbean History Racism

Plantation and Race in the Caribbean The incredible history of the Caribbean is indeed, one of the most rich, and at the same time troubling, of the New World. Its incredibly heterogeneous population and its social racial base make it a very difficult place to, for instance, live and raise a family. While some children may have a future because of their light complexion, the others are doomed to a life of poverty in the unforgiving culture and society of the Caribbean. Three people have taken it upon themselves to portray the Caribbean in their own ways. The opinions of Sidney Mintz, Michelle Cliff and Antonio Benitez-Rojo are made clear in their works and are discussed below in relation to two main issues; race and the plantations. The Issue of Race Perhaps out of personal experience and perhaps out of direct experience with people of the Caribbean, Michelle Cliff makes, by far, the biggest deal out of the race issue and the role that it played (and still plays) in Jamaica. Benitez-Rojo and Mintz certainly mention race as a factor in determining social status as well, but they do not base their articles on this. Cliff dedicates both Abeng and her article to this issue. It seems to have touched her in a way that the other issues have not. Her works are far more personal than the other two, and this is certainly the most distinguishing characteristic between her and the others. Her accounts, though fictional, are much more gripping and interesting, because they involve so much more feeling and emotion. The others seem to be nothing more than basic historical accounts of the Caribbean. It is impossible to look at her novel for more than a few moments and not pick up some sort of passage about the tragedy of this issue.... ...ean is presented with, neither is able to portray what Cliff can. Simply reading about the dynamics of plantation and race does not illustrate it enough. Though it is certainly very important to understand these dynamics, and thus read the articles of Mintz and Benitez-Rojo, the study of these issues would be incomplete without Cliff’s works on the subjects of the Caribbean. Bibliography Benitez-Rojo, Antonio. "The Repeating Island," Post-contemporary Interventions, Duke University Press, Durham and London, 1992. Cliff, Michelle. Abeng, Penguin Group, New York, 1984. Cliff, Michelle. "If I Could Write This In Fire, I Would Write This In Fire," An Anthology of Literature From the Caribbean, The New Press, New York. Mintz, Sidney W. "The Caribbean as a Socio-cultural Area", as seen in Peoples and Cultures of the Caribbean, Garden City, New Jersey, 1971.

Understanding HIV and AIDS :: health, virus, medicine

HIV/ AIDS HIV/AIDS is an epidemic that effects both men and women of all ages. It has an impact on many people's lives either by themselves being infected, knowing someone who is infected, or being a health care worker. HIV is a virus that attacks the body's immune system. It also effects the blood cells (lymphocytes) and cells of the organs (bone marrow, spleen, liver, and lymph glands). It effects the lungs, central nervous system and gastrointestinal system. People begin with having the HIV virus. An HIV infected person is likely to stay fit and well for a long time. In time, however the infected person develops rare illnesses or cancers because their immune system is weakened. When this happens, the person now has AIDS. Some people live for several years once they have AIDS, but it is always fatal. HIV is diagnosed with a blood test known as an HIV antibody test or HIV test. If the test shows that HIV is present, the person is referred to as HIV positive. It may take up to 6 months after contact to show up. The number of women with HIV and AIDS in the United States is steadily rising. From 1985 to 1996, the proportion of reported US AIDS cases occurring among women increased from 7-20% (Women and AIDS). An analysis from the National Cancer Institute estimates that between 107,000 and 150,000 women on the U.S. are living with HIV infection (many of whom have not developed AIDS (Women and AIDS) AIDS presents a great worry for women. It is the third leading cause of death among women ages 25 to 44 and the leading cause of death among African-American women of the same age group. (Women and AIDS) Although AIDS cases are reported in all 50 states, the highest rates in 1996 were in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Maryland and Delaware (Women and AIDS) HIV may not produce any initial symptoms. However, as this disease progresses, symptoms begin to appear. Among them are: fatigue, unexplained weight loss, night sweats, fever, diarrhea, recurrent respiratory and skin infections, swollen lymph glands throughout the body, genital changes, enlarged spleen and mouth sores. Vaginal yeast infections, common and easily treated in most women, are harder to treat in HIV infected women. Bacterial vaginosis and common STDs such as gonorrhea, chlamydia trichomoniasis, and pelvic inflammatory disease are more common and aggressive in HIV-infected women.

GLUT 4 in Muscle Cells Essay -- Biology

Hypothesis During muscle contractions cytosolic calcium and adenosine monophosphate activated protein kinase (AMPK) levels increase. Exercise also increases GLUT 4 production, which allows more glucose to be metabolized in the muscle cell. The purpose of this study was to determine whether calcium and AMPK cause the increases in GLUT 4 production in the cell. The hypothesis regarding GLUT 4 being tested in this research article stems from related research, which showed that GLUT 4 and mitochondria increase due to repeated bouts of muscle contraction. Since raising calcium levels in the cytosol of the cell increases mitochondria, GLUT 4 is may increase as well. The hypothesis that is being tested with this research was that GLUT 4 will be increased in skeletal muscle cells due to induced increases in the cytosolic calcium levels. These calcium levels are increased in cells naturally due to exercise. Since exercise also increases activity of AMPK, the study tested the effects of increasing AMPK on GLUT 4 levels in skeletal muscle. Methodology GLUT 4 levels were determined after exposing muscle cells to the various stimuli. In order to test whether the various stimuli increased GLUT 4 muscle cells were either exposed to a single stimulus, a stimulus with an inhibitor specific of the stimulus, or no stimulus (control). Then the GLUT 4 protein levels in each set of cells could be tested in order to determine the effects of each stimulus. Various chemicals that are known to be produced in a muscle cell during normal exercise were used as stimuli. Caffeine, which produces increased cytosolic calcium, was used to simulate the normal increase in calcium in a cell during exercise. An... ... activity effect GLUT 4 protein. The results of this study show that during exercise GLUT 4 in muscle cells was increased by increases in cytosolic calcium levels as well as the activation of AMPK. The transcription factors that are responsible for "making" GLUT 4 are also increased by these two chemicals. The increases were found to be regulated by CAMK an inhibitor of calcium. This is important for muscle metabolism and effects on diabetes. The capacity for metabolism in muscle cells is enhanced with training because greater amount of GLUT 4 in the muscle cell is important to respond to stimuli. Consequently more glucose is transported into the cell to be metabolized. This GLUT 4 increase is an adaptive response to the body's greater need for energy. Ultimately this results in more glucose, which means more energy for the cell to use.

The Return: Nightfall Chapter 9

When Matt, Meredith, and Bonnie were all on their way, Stefan was left with Elena, now decently attired by Bonnie in her â€Å"Night Gown.† The darkness outside was comforting to his sore eyes – not sore from daylight, but from telling good friends the sad news. Worse than the sore eyes was the slightly breathless feeling of a vampire who hasn't fed. But he'd remedy that soon, he told himself. Once Elena was asleep, he'd slip out into the woods and find a white-tailed deer. No one could stalk like a vampire; no one could compete with Stefan at hunting. And even if it took several deer to assuage the hunger inside him, not one ofthem would be permanently injured. But Elena had other plans. She wasn't sleepy, and she was never bored being alone with him. As soon as the sounds of their visitors' car were decently out of hearing, she did what she always did in this mood. She floated to him and tipped her face up, eyes closed, lips just slightly pursed. Then she waited. Stefan hurried to the one unshuttered window, pulled the shade down against unwanted peeping crows, and returned. Elena was in exactly the same position, blushing slightly, eyes still shut. Stefan sometimes thought that she would wait forever that way, if she wanted a kiss. â€Å"I'm really taking advantage of you, love,† he said, and sighed. He leaned over and kissed her gently, chastely. Elena made a noise of disappointment that sounded exactly like apurruping kitten, ending on a note of inquiry. She bumped his chin with her nose. â€Å"Lovely love,† Stefan said, stroking her hair. â€Å"Bonnie got all the knots out without pulling?† But he was leaning into her warmth now, helpless. A distant ache in his upper jaw was already beginning. Elena bumped again, demanding. He kissed her for slightly longer. Logically, he knew she was a grown-up. She was older and vastly more experienced than she had been nine months ago, when they'd lost themselves in adoration kissing. But guilt was never far from his thoughts, and he couldn't help but worry about having her competent consent. This time thepurrup was one of exasperation. Elena had had enough. All at once, she gave her weight to him, forcing him to suddenly support a warm, substantial bundle of femininity in his arms, and at the same time, herPlease? chiming clear as a finger swirling on a crystal glass. It was one of the first words she had learned to think to him when she'd woken up mute and weightless. And, angel or no, she knew exactly what it did to him – inside. Please? â€Å"Oh, little love,† he groaned. â€Å"Little lovely love†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Please? He kissed her. There was a long time of silence, while he felt his heart beat faster and faster. Elena, his Elena, who had once given her very life for him, was warm and drowsily heavy in his arms. She was his alone, and they belonged just like this, and he never wanted anything to change from this moment. Even the quickly growing ache in his upper jaw was something to be enjoyed. The pain of it changed to pleasure with Elena's warm mouth under his, her lips forming little butterfly kisses, teasing him. He sometimes thought she was most awake when she seemed half-asleep like this. She was always the instigator, but he followed helplessly wherever she wanted him to go. The one time he had refused, had stopped in mid-kiss, she had broken off speaking to him with her mind and floated to a corner, where she then sat among the dust and spiderwebs†¦andwept . Nothing he could do would console her, although he knelt on the hard wooden floorboards and begged and coaxed and almost wept himself – until he took her back into his arms. He had promised himself never to make that mistake again. But still, his guilt nagged at him, although it was growing more and more distant – and more confused as Elena changed the pressure of her lips suddenly and the world rocked and he had to back up until they were sitting on his bed. His thoughts fragmented. He could only think that Elena was back with him, sitting on his lap, so excited, so vibrant, until there was a sort of silken explosion inside him and he didn't need to be forced anymore. He knew that she was enjoying the pleasure-pain of his aching jaw as much as he was. There was no more time or reason to think. Elena was melting into his arms, her hair under his stroking fingers a liquid softness. Mentally, they had already melted together. The aching in his canines had finally produced the inevitable result, his teeth lengthening, sharpening; the touch of them against Elena's lower lip causing a bright flicker of pleasure-pain that almost made him gasp. And then Elena did something she never had done before. Delicately, carefully, she took one of Stefan's fangs and captured it between her upper and lower lips. And then, delicately, deliberately, she just held on. The whole world reeled around Stefan. It was only by the grace of his love for her, and their connected minds, that he didn't bite down and pierce her lip. Ancient vampire urges that could never be tamed out of his blood were screaming at him to do just that. But he loved her, and they were one – and besides,he couldn't move an inch. He was frozen in pleasure. His fangs had never extended so far or become quite as sharp, and without him doing a thing the razor edge of his tooth had cut into Elena's full lower lip. Blood was trickling very slowly down his throat. Elena's blood, which had changed since she had come back from the spirit world. It had once been wonderful, full of youthful vitality and the essence of Elena's living self. Now†¦it was simply in a class of its own. Indescribable. He'd never experienced anything like the blood of a returned spirit. It was charged with a Power that was as different from human blood as human was from animal blood. To a vampire, blood flowing down the throat was a pleasure as sharp as anything imaginable to a human. Stefan's heart was pounding out of his chest. Elena daintily worried the fang she had captured. He couldfeel her satisfaction as the tiny sacrificial pain turned to pleasure, because she was linked to him, and because she was one of the rarest of all breeds of humans: one who actually enjoyed nurturing a vampire, loved the feeling of feeding him, of him needing her. She was one of the elite. Hot shivers traveled down his spine, Elena's blood still making the world spin. Elena let go of his fang, sucking on her lower lip. She let her head drop back, exposing her neck. The head-drop was really too much to resist, even for him. He knew the traceries of Elena's veins as well as he knew her face. And yet†¦ All's right. All's well†¦Elena chimed telepathically. He sank twin aching fangs into a small vein. His canines were so razor-sharp by then that there was nearly no pain for Elena, who was used to the snakebite sensation. And for him, for both of them, there was the feeding at last, as the indescribable sweetness of Elena's new blood filled Stefan's mouth, and an outpouring of giving swept Elena into incoherency. There was always a danger of taking too much, or of not giving her enough of his own blood to keep her – well, frankly, to keep her from dying. Not that he needed more than a small amount, but there would always be that danger in trafficking with vampires. In the end, though, dark thoughts swam away in the sheer bliss that had overcome them both. Matt fished for keys as he and Bonnie and Meredith all crowded into the wide front seat of his rattletrap car. Embarrassing to have to park that next to Stefan's Porsche. The upholstery in back was in shreds that tended to stick to the derriere of whoever sat on it, and Bonnie easily fit on the jump seat, which had a jerry-rigged seat belt, between Matt and Meredith. Matt kept an eye on her, since when she was excited she tended not to use the belt. The road back through the Old Wood had too many difficult turns to be taken lightly, even if they were going to be the only travelers on it. No more deaths, Matt thought as he pulled away from the boardinghouse. No more miraculous resurrections, even. Matt had seen enough of the supernatural to last him the rest of his life. He was just like Bonnie; he wanted things to settle down to normal so he could get on with living the plain old ordinary way. Without Elena, something inside him whispered mockingly. Giving up without even a fight? Hey, I couldn't beat Stefan in any kind of fight if he had both arms tied behind his back and a bag over his head. Forget it. That's finished, however she kissed me. She's a friend, now. But he could still feel Elena's warm lips on his mouth from yesterday, the light touches that she didn't know yet weren't socially acceptable between just-friends. And he could feel the warmth and the swaying, dancing slenderness of her body. Damn, she came back perfect – physically, at least, he thought. Bonnie's plaintive voice cut into his pleasant reminiscences. â€Å"Just when I thought everything was going to be all right,† she was wailing, almost weeping. â€Å"Just when I thought it's all going to work out after all. It's going to be the way it wassupposed to be.† Meredith said, very gently, â€Å"It's difficult, I know. We seem to keep on losing her. But we can't be selfish.† â€Å"Ican,† Bonnie said flatly. I can, too, Matt's inner voice whispered. At least inside, where nobody can see my selfishness. Good old Matt; Matt won't mind – what a good sport Matt is. Well, this is one time when good old Matt does mind. But she chose the other guy, and what can I do? Kidnap her? Keep her locked up? Try to take her by force? The thought was like a dash of cold water, and Matt woke up and paid more attention to his driving. Somehow he'd already automatically navigated several curves of the pitted, one-lane road that ran through the Old Wood. â€Å"We were supposed to go to college together,† Bonnie persisted. â€Å"And then we were supposed to come back here to Fell's Church. Backhome . We had it all planned out – since kindergarten, practically – and now Elena's human again, and I thought that meant that everything was going to go back to the way it wassupposed to be. And it'snever going to be the same again,ever , is it?† She finished more quietly and with a little gulping sigh, â€Å"Is it?† It wasn't even really a question. Matt and Meredith found themselves glancing at each other, surprised by the sharpness of their pity, and helpless to comfort Bonnie, who now had her arms folded around herself, shrugging off Meredith's touch. It's Bonnie – just Bonnie being theatrical, Matt thought, but his own native honesty rose to mock him. â€Å"I guess,† he said slowly, â€Å"that's what we were all sort of thinking, really, when she first came back.† When we were dancing around in the woods like crazy people, he thought. â€Å"I guess we sort of thought that they could live quietly somewhere near Fell's Church, and that things would go back to the way they were before. Before Stefan – â€Å" Meredith shook her head, looking off into the distance beyond the windshield. â€Å"Not Stefan.† Matt realized what she meant. Stefan had come to Fell's Church to rejoin humanity, not to take a human girl away from it into the unknown. â€Å"You're right,† Matt said. â€Å"I was just thinking about something like that. She and Stefan could have probably worked out some way to live here quietly. Or at least to stay close to us, you know. It was Damon. He came to take Elena against her will, and that changed everything.† â€Å"And now Elena and Stefan are leaving. And once they leave, they'll never come back,† Bonnie wailed. â€Å"Why? Why did Damon start all this?† â€Å"He likes to change things out of sheer boredom, Stefan once told me. This time it probably started out of hatred for Stefan,† Meredith said. â€Å"But I wish that for once he could have just left us alone.† â€Å"What difference does it make?† Bonniewas crying now. â€Å"So it was Damon's fault. I don't even care anymore. What I don't understand is why things have to change!† â€Å" ¡Ã‚ ®You can never cross the same river twice.' Or even once if you're a strong enough vampire,† Meredith said wryly. Nobody laughed. And then, very gently: â€Å"Maybe you're asking the wrong person. Maybe Elena's the one who could tell you why things have to change, if she remembers what happened to her – in the Other Place.† â€Å"I didn'tmean that theydo have to change – â€Å" â€Å"But they do,† Meredith said, even more gently and wistfully. â€Å"Don't you see? It's not supernatural; it's – life. Everybody has to grow up – â€Å" â€Å"I know! Matt has a football scholarship and you're going away to college and then you're going to get married ! And probably have babies!† Bonnie managed to make this sound like some indecent activity. â€Å"I'm going to be stuck in junior collegeforever . And you'll both be all grown up and you'll forget about Elena and Stefan†¦and me,† Bonnie finished in a very small voice. â€Å"Hey.† Matt had always been very protective of the injured and ignored. Right now, even with Elena so recently on his mind – he wondered if he wouldever get rid of the feeling of that kiss – he was drawn to Bonnie, who seemed so small and fragile. â€Å"What are you talking about? I'm coming back after college to live. I'll probably die right here in Fell's Church.I'll be thinking about you. I mean, if you want me to.† He patted Bonnie's arm, and she didn't shy away from his touch as she had from Meredith's. She leaned into him, her forehead against his shoulder. When she shivered once, slightly, he put his arm around her without even thinking. â€Å"I'm not cold,† Bonnie said, although she didn't try to shrug off his arm. â€Å"It's warm tonight. I just – I don't like it when you say things like  ¡Ã‚ ®I'll probably die right' – watch out!† â€Å"Matt, look out!† â€Å"Whoa – !† Matt pumped the brakes, cursing, both hands wrestling with the steering wheel as Bonnie ducked and Meredith braced herself. Matt's replacement for the first beat-up old car he'd lost was just about as old and didn't have airbags. It was a miscellany of junkyard cars pieced together. â€Å"Hang on!†Matt yelled as the car skidded, tires screaming, and then they were all flung around as the back end swerved into a ditch and the front bumper hit a tree. When everything stopped moving, Matt let out his breath, easing his death-grip on the steering wheel. He started to turn toward the girls and then froze. He scrabbled to switch on the map light, and what he saw held him frozen again. Bonnie had turned, as always in moments of deepest distress, to Meredith. She was lying with her head on Meredith's lap, hands locked onto her friend's arm and shirt. Meredith herself was sitting, braced, leaning as far as possible backward, her feet stretched to push against the floor beneath the dashboard; her body bowed back in the seat, head flung backward, arms holding Bonnie down tightly. Thrusting straight through the open window – like a knobby, shaggy green spear or the grasping arm of some savage earthen giant – was the branch of a tree. It just cleared the base of Meredith's arched neck, and its lower branches passed over Bonnie's small body. If Bonnie's seat belt hadn't let her turn; if Bonnie hadn't flung herself down like that; if Meredith hadn't held onto her†¦ Matt found himself staring directly into the splintered but very sharp end of the lance. If his own seat belt hadn't kept him from leaning that way†¦ Matt could hear his own hard breathing. The smell of evergreen was overpowering within the car. He could even smell the places where smaller branches had broken off and were oozing sap. Very slowly, Meredith reached out to break off one of the twigs that was pointed at her throat like an arrow. It wouldn't break. Numb, Matt reached over to try it himself. But although the wood wasn't much thicker than his finger, it was tough and wouldn't even bend. As if it's been fire-hardened, he thought dazedly. But that's ridiculous. It's a living tree; I can feel the splinters. â€Å"Ow.† â€Å"Can I please get up now?† Bonnie said quietly, her voice muffled against Meredith's leg. â€Å"Please. Before it grabs me. It wants to.† Matt glanced at her, startled, and scratched his cheek against the splintered end of the big branch. â€Å"It's not going to grab you.† But his stomach was churning as he fumbled blindly for his seat belt fastening. Why should Bonnie have the same thought as he had: that the thing was like a huge, crooked, shaggy arm? She couldn't even see it. â€Å"You know it wants to,† Bonnie whispered, and now the slight shivering seemed to be taking over her whole body. She reached backward to undo her seat belt. â€Å"Matt, we need to slide,† Meredith said. She had carefully maintained her painful-looking bowed-backward position, but Matt could hear her breathing harder. â€Å"We need to slide toward you. It's trying to get around my throat.† â€Å"That's impossible†¦.† But he could see it, too. The freshly splintered ends of the smaller branch had moved only infinitesimally, but there was a curve to them now, and the splinters were pressing into Meredith's throat. â€Å"It's probably just that nobody can stay bent backward like that forever,† he said, knowing that this was nonsense. â€Å"There's a flashlight in the glove compartment†¦.† â€Å"The glove compartment is completely blocked by branches. Bonnie, can you reach to unfasten my seat belt?† â€Å"I'll try.† Bonnie slid forward without raising her head, fumbling to find the release button. To Matt it looked as if the shaggy, aromatic evergreen branches were engulfing her. Pulling her into their needles. â€Å"We've got a whole freakin' Christmas tree in here.† He looked away, out through the glass of the window on his side. Cupping his hands to see better into the darkness, he leaned his forehead against the surprisingly cool glass. There was a touch on the back of his neck. He jumped, then froze. It was neither cool nor warm, like a girl's fingernail. â€Å"Damn it, Meredith – â€Å" â€Å"Matt – â€Å" Matt was furious with himself for jumping. But the touch was†¦scratchy. â€Å"Meredith?† He slowly moved his hands away until he could see in the dark window's reflection. Meredith wasn't touching him. â€Å"Don't†¦move†¦left, Matt. There's a long sharp bit there.† Meredith's voice, normally cool and a bit remote, usually made Matt think of those calendar pictures of blue lakes surrounded by snow. Now it just sounded choked and strained. â€Å"Meredith!† Bonnie said before Matt could speak. Bonnie's voice sounded as if it were coming from underneath a featherbed. â€Å"It's all right. I just have to†¦hold it away,† Meredith said. â€Å"Don't worry. I won't let go of you, either.† Matt felt a sharper prickle of splinters. Something touched his neck on the right side, delicately. â€Å"Bonnie, stop it! You're pulling the treein ! You're pulling it on Meredith and me!† â€Å"Matt,shut up !† Matt shut up. His heart was pounding. The last thing he felt like doing was reaching behind him. But that's stupid, he thought, because if Bonnie really is moving the tree, I can at least hold it still for her. He reached behind him, flinching, trying to watch what he was doing in the window's reflection. His hand closed over a thick knot of bark and splinters. He thought, I don't remember seeing a knot when it was pointed at my throat†¦. â€Å"Got it!† a muffled voice said, and there was the click of a seat belt coming undone. Then, much more shakily, the voice said, â€Å"Meredith? There are needles shoved all into my back.† â€Å"Okay, Bonnie. Matt,† Meredith was speaking with effort, but great patience, the way they'd all been talking to Elena. â€Å"Matt, you have to open your door now.† Bonnie said in a voice of terror, â€Å"It isn't just needles. It's little branches. Sort of like barbed wire. I'm†¦stuck†¦.† â€Å"Matt! You need to open your doornow – â€Å" â€Å"I can't.† Silence. â€Å"Matt?† Matt was bracing himself, pushing with his feet, both hands locked around the scaly bark now. He thrust backward with all his strength. â€Å"Matt!† Meredith almost screamed. â€Å"It's cutting into my throat!† â€Å"I can't get my door open! There's a tree on that side, too!† â€Å"How can there be a tree there?That's the road!† â€Å"How can there be a treegrowing in here?† Another silence. Matt could feel the splinters – the slivers of broken branch – biting deeper into the back of his neck. If he didn't move soon, he would never be able to.