Tesco Case Analysis Free Essays

Tests had an In store policy that a new checkout line would be opened If there was m re than 1 person waiting In line and they were pioneers In self service checkout terminal. Tests was also innovative with its store formats. Tests stores ranges in size and service fro m; Express, Metro, Superstore, Extra, and Homeless. We will write a custom essay sample on Tesco Case Analysis or any similar topic only for you Order Now Tests used consumer purchase data to tailor assortments to local customer needs. Tests also increased the amount of non food items they stocked to include a clothing line. The Club card, which offered cash back rewards and redeemable vouchers, was successful In creating loyalty among Its consumer. Tests proved successful In International operations by expanding Into emerging entries with minimal competition such as those in Eastern Europe and Asia. It AC aired smaller, established retailers and kept local management in place. They were flexible in their strategy and acted locally using multiple formats. Tests also leveraged its brand loyalty to expand in other service areas such as; flan telecommunications, and grocery delivery. This by partnering or eventually acquiring recognized and trusted brands/organizations. 2. Which success factors are or are not transferable to the US? Transitioning to the United States presented a challenge for Tests considering that t Eire major factor of international success have been the lack of strong competition in the new areas to expand. Clearly not this case, because there were around 35,000 supermarkets In t and in addition, almost every retailer from drugstores to home improvement centers sold some grocery items. There existed intense price competition as the U. S. Was over stored, according to some industry analysts, and the average U. S. Supermarket realized an operating proof t of 2% to 3% of sales, presenting a much different landscape from what Tests was transitioning g from in the U. K. Nevertheless, Tests identified an increasing consumer interest in wellness, in health conscious food choices and a continuing trend towards on the go consumption, especially evident in California as a result of greater automobile commuting times compared to the national average. Tests hoped to avoid the headed head competition for the weekly family shopping trim with the established grocery chains, a niche it dominated in the U. K. , and rather focus s on targeting an undeserved niche in the marketplace. 3. Was Tests smart to enter the US market? In California, Arizona and Nevada? Although early analysis led decision makers to believe the US, especially the Southwest was a good market to enter actual performance leads one to think otherwise. Tests c inducted a great deal of due diligence prior to entering the US market. They analyzed trends I indicated by market research, sent senior managers to live with Californian families, and conducted d a mock store tour with 200 focus groups. By targeting an undeserved niche in the marketplace ace, Tests hoped to avoid headed head competition for the weekly family shopping trip with established grocery chains. Several other factors demonstrated potential to include: o Grocery retailing in the US embraced multiple formats (in keeping with Tests strategy No national grocery retailer in the US None of the principal supermarket chains (Kroger, Safely, Supernal) commanded more than 15% of US grocery sales Market size: $600 billion Possible gap between convenience stores and supermarkets that might be filled by neighborhood markets o Increasing customer interest in wellness, in health conscious food choices, and a Tests specifically looked to the following benefits of California, Arizona and Nevada: S Grocery retailing not dominated by any one chain S Lower penetration by Wall Mart than in other US regions S CA: rapidly growing, ethnically diverse population of over 35 million, median house hold income well above national average S AZ, NV. Similarly diverse and growing rapidly Despite all of the potential benefits, Tests faced several challenges to include: Competition (35,000 supermarkets) Almost every retailer from drugstores to home improvement centers also sold grocer y items (overstated) Intense price competition Economic downturn Low average operating profits of 23% of sales Prior attempts by British supermarket chains to expand into the US had proven nuns successful 4. What is the Fresh Easy value proposition? Is it likely to be appealing in California, Arizona and Nevada? â€Å"C†¦ ] customers wanted great service, choice, and value† (p. 4) â€Å"offer fresh, wholesome food at affordable prices† (p. 7) â€Å"strong commitment to being a good neighbor and a great place to work† (p. ) emphasis on everyday low pricing rather than weekly specials hoped to leverage lower operating costs to deliver â€Å"honest low prices† on â€Å"fresh wholesome food† that â€Å"should be available to everyone† in a â€Å"neighborhood market† ( Employees from local community, carefully selected to fit Deco’s culture (p. 7) Nonfood items would account for only 5% of sales (p. 7) â€Å"ready to sell† approach, whereby many products sent from distribution center to store packaged, extending product freshness , protecting produce from damage, cutting down on spoilage, requiring less refrigeration, and reducing labor needed to stock shelves (p. ) Leveraging relationships with collaborators for distribution (p. 8); this centralized MO del was similar to Walter’s Smaller stores = easier permitting process Taking over existing, vacant drugstores = cheaper than building from scratch New stores built from prepare materials = quicker construction, lower overhead, streamlined supply chain Energy efficient stores (30% less energy than comparable, traditional stores; some stores LED certified) Fresh Easy emphasized everyday low pricing rather than weekly specials and hope d to on â€Å"fresh wholesome food† that â€Å"should be available to everyone† in a â€Å"neighborhood market. Fresh Easy leveraged relationships with collaborators for distribution to create value e by minimizing costs and emphasize fresh. Their â€Å"ready to sell† approach, whereby prepare caged products went directly from distributors to local stores, promotes that it extended pro duct freshness. The prepackaging protected produce from damage, cut down on spoilage, required less refrigeration, and reduced labor needed to stock shelves. Fresh Ease’s appeal in new markets relied on various factors. California offered the rapidly growing, ethnically diverse population of over 35 million with a median house hold income well above the national average. The percentage of Caucasians had fallen to below 45 and 40% of people spoke a language other than English at home. Hispanic Americans accounted for 37% of the population, Seminarians for 12% and African Americans 6%. The populations of Arizona and Nevada were similarly diverse and growing rapidly. Ethnically diverse pop populations are likely to appreciate Fresh Ease’s value propositions. The emphasis on â€Å"honest 10 w prices† and a â€Å"neighborhood market†appeal to various ethnicities. However, Fresh Easy built many stores in suburban neighborhoods. The population n in these neighborhoods tend to shop less times per week but spend more at each visit. These habits clash with the Fresh Easy concept of daily visits to grab a quick and inexpensive vive bite. It may have been a better idea to have targeted urban cities like New York or Chicago w here the population’s buying habits are more compatible with Fresh Ease’s intended target. 5. How to cite Tesco Case Analysis, Papers

A Project on Distributed Systems

Question: Describe about the Report for A Project on Distributed Systems. Answer: Introduction The Application Programming Interface in consideration with Java is nothing but the prewritten classes, packages, interfaces with their respective constructors, fields and methods. Generally the user interface facilitates the interaction between computers and human (Reisinger et al. 2012). In case of the API, software program interfaces facilitates the interactions. The most basic tasks related to programming are performed through the API packages, classes those are helpful for minimizing the number of lines used in a developed ode. There are several models used in Java programming language. In this report two models related to Java programming language are discussed in details. These are: client server model and multithreading model in Java (Ahrendt et al. 2012). The model concerned with the Multithreading concept elaborates process of executing number of threads at a time. The client server model elaborates essential mechanism utilized to use the internet in a proper way. This report is elaborating the detailed information about the java interfaces, and serialization of the Java objects (Paterson and Law 2012). In addition to this, two models concerned with the java interfaces are also described in this report to analyze the impacts of Java interfaces on the technological world as well as in the contemporary situations. Review of Java Interface Definition of Java Interface Java comprised of the concept of the interfaces within it. It is almost similar to a class but its not a proper class. The Java interfaces do not contains the implementation of the Methods only considers the signature of the Methods (name, parameters and exceptions). The java interfaces are mainly used to achieve a way of Polymorphism (Arend et al. 2012). The interfaces can have the methods and variables just like the classes but the methods are default abstracts, they only consist of the signature of the methods. Example: The Java interface can be easily explained by this example: public interface MyInterface { public String hi = Hi; public void sayHi(); } In this example, the Java interface is shown by using the keyword interface. The java interface also can be declared as public or package scope (Java Excel 2013). The above example contains one method and one variable. The variable in the interface can be directly accessed as follows: System.out.println(MyInterface.hi); This process of accessing the variable is almost similar to the accessing of variable from a class. In addition to this, the Method must be implemented in some class before it is accessed. Utilizations of Java interface There are several usages of java interfaces in Java programming. To understand these usages it is important to understand that where the java interfaces should be used first (Platform 2014). The interface defines the rule of functionality in the programming. At the time of the implementation of these interfaces these functionalities should be implemented in the concrete classes. Generally the user interfaces cannot be understood but when the consideration is about the large evolving program then it is important and mandatory to implement the interface within the program (Yu et al. 2014). The most particular advantage of using the interface within the program is that it offers and allows multiple inheritances. The strength of the interfaces is analyzed when the dependency techniques related to injection is implied for injecting on required implementation (Reisinger et al. 2012). The ripple effects are minimized as the concrete implementation of classes helps in it. Implementations of Java Interface Implementation of Java interfaces introduces the implementation of that interface within some predefined Java class (Ahrendt et al. 2012). This aspect explains that the java interface have to be implemented on the some predetermined and defined classes before it can be accessed or its variables are accessed through the instructions. Example: The following example can explain the variables and implementation technique of interfaces within Java programming: public class MyInterfaceImpl implements MyInterrface { public void sayHi() { System.out.println(MyInterface.hi); } } The above example shows the implementation technique of Java interface within any Java program. The part implements MyInterface is the part of the declaration of the class. This part sends the signal to the Java compiler that the MyInterfaceImpl class has implemented the MyInterface interface (Paterson and Law 2012). As stated before that the Methods should have to be implemented in some interface before it is used. In addition to this, the Methods must have the similar signature as the interface (Name + parameters). This is done according to the declaration in the interface (Arend et al. 2012). The class does not have to implement the variable that belongs to the interface; it only needs to implement the interface within it. Review of Java Object Serialization Definition of Java Object Serialization It defines that the objects can be identified as the sequence of bytes that provides the information about the type of the object as well as the data stored in the objects (Imre, G., Charaf and Lengyel 2013). The next step of data serialization into the file, the content can be desterilized and read from that file. The type of the information and the type of the object introduces the techniques of recreating and recovering the data from the format. It is totally related to the memory. The entire process explained in this section is independent of the JVM (Yu et al. 2014). This aspect states that, one object is serialized in one object and can be desterilized from some other objects. The classes ObjectInputStream and ObjectOutputStream are two high level streams that are used in case of the serialization and deserializing an object. Example: the following example is explained is the aspect of serialization in Java programming: public class Employee implements java.io.Serializable { public String name; public String address; public transient int SSN; public int number; public void mailCheck() { System.out.priintln(Mailing a check to +name + + address); } } Use of Object Serialization in Java There are several usages of serialization these usages are described as follows: Communication: Two machines those are running the same code needs to be communicated. An easy way to make the communication possible is that these two machines should build one object with the information to be transmitted through serializing their codes (Imre et al. 2013). This aspect makes the communication possible. Persistence: The state of any operation in a database is stored. This aspect makes the object serializable to a byte array. This information is stored in the array to be retrieved later. Deep copy: The replication of a concerned object can easily be done by avoiding the conceptual method of writing the same specialized class again (Tauro et al. 2012). Serialization of any object to a byte array and then deserialization of the same object makes the fact possible. Caching: There are certain processes that need 10 minutes to build an object, whereas, it only takes 10 seconds to desterilize an object. Therefore, it is not necessary to store a giant object in memory (Pratt-Szeliga et al. 2012). This can be cached though the process of serialization. In addition to this it can be retrieved any time after the serialization. Objet serialization The object serialization can be easily explained with respect to the following example: Any object which have the java.io.Serializable interface within its class can only implemented within the class within a few line of code (Imre, G., Charaf and Lengyel 2013). This interface identifies the classes that can be easily serialized at the run time. Serializable classes are identified as: public class UserData implements java.io.Serializable Example: FileOutputStream f_out = new FileOutputStream(myobject.data); ObjectOutputStream obj_out = new ObjectOutputStream (f_out); obj_out.writeObject (myObject); In this example, it is shown that any serializable object can be implemented within any serializable interface. This is core part of the Java API. Any object refereed by the serializable object can be also be stored in the interface (Imre et al. 2013).. This implies that the collections, lists, vectors and other many elements can be stored accordingly in a same manner. There is no need to save each one individually. This aspect helps to develop a code that is time efficient and is of short length. Java Multithreading Model Definition of Multithreading Multithreading is the concept in Java programming that defines the process of handling several threads at a time. The concept of thread can be easily understood if the concept of thread is made clear. A thread is the light weighted and smallest part of a process that can run at a time with any other part of the program (Roland et al. 2013). Threads are the processes that are totally independent of any other process. It is independent as there are totally separate execution path for the each thread. If there is any exception in between the execution of one thread then this will not affect the execution of the other thread. The process of executing more than one thread at a time is called the process of multithreading. Example: The following example shows the multithreading process: } publicclassWorkerimplementsRunnable { publicstaticvoidmain(String[]args) { System.out.println("Thisiscurrentlyrunningonthemainthread,"+ "theidis:"+Thread.currentThread().getId()); Workerworker=newWorker(); Threadthread=newThread(worker); thread.start(); } publicvoidrun() { System.out.println("Thisiscurrentlyrunningonaseparatethread,"+ "theidis:"+Thread.currentThread().getId()); } Difference between the process and thread Thread Process Threads are easier to be created. Processes are hard to be created than the threads. The process of multithreading requires comparative careful programming as threads share a data structure that can be modified by one thread at a time (Maeda 2012). the process do not share the same slot of address for the modifying data structures. A thread uses less number of resources within it. A process uses comparatively more resources than a thread. A thread shares the same address so they are interdependent. Processes are not dependent (Mastrangelo et al. 2015). A thread consists do not consists of multiple process. A Process consists of several threads. Two way of creating java threads There are specifically two way by which provides scope of creating the threads. These are: though the implementation of Runnable interfaces and though the extension f the Thread class. Runnable interface: The easiest way to implement a thread is to create a class that implements runnable interface (Panwa and Sharma 2014). After the implementation of the runnable interface the run() method is implemented within it to introduce a concurrent thread into the program. class MyThread implements Runnable { public void run() { System.out.println("concurrent thread started running.."); } } class MyThreadDemo { public static void main( String args[] ) { MyThread mt = new MyThread(); Thread t = new Thread(mt); t.start(); } } Output: Concurrent thread started running Extending Thread class: This is the way of creating the thread within the Java program. This aspect makes a new class which extends the Thread class while making a instance of that class (Reisinger et al. 2012). The extending class should override the run() Method that is concerned as the entry point of the new threads. class MyThread extends Thread { public void run() { System.out.println("Concurrent thread started running.."); } } classMyThreadDemo { public static void main( String args[] ) { MyThread mt = new MyThread(); mt.start(); } } Start of running of a java thread It is possible to make the thread runnable by two processes (Saternos 2014). These are: by providing a runnable object and creating a subclass thread. Runnable object: In this process the Runnable interface mainly defines a single method run(). This explains code executed in the thread (Ahrendt et al. 2012). The Runnable object is passed through the Thread constructor. public class HelloRunnable implements Runnable { public void run() { System.out.println("Hello from a thread!"); } public static void main(String args[]) { (new Thread(new HelloRunnable())).start(); } } Subclass thread: The following example shows the example of subclass thread: public class HelloThread extends Thread { public void run() { System.out.println("Hello from a thread!"); } public static void main(String args[]) { (new HelloThread()).start(); } } Review of Client- Server Model Definition of Client Server Model The client server model is most effective model for analyzing the distributed computing protocols. Any client- server application is typically stores the huge amount of data with costly and expensive server. in addition to this, most of the user interface and program logic is handled by the software running on the relatively cheap PC (Goel et al. 2015). There are several cases in which the server generally sends the data and the client receives the data at the same time. One of the most reliable distinctions is that the clients can initiate the conversations while the server can wait until the client start the conversation (Matos and Grasser 2014). The following figure explains the clients-server relationship. Figure : Client- Server Model (Source: Carr et al. 2016, pp- 60) Importance of multithreading of servers Multithreading is nothing but a certain condition where several threads can be operated at a time in the interface or program. There are several importance of multithreading of servers. These important aspects are described as follows: Time efficiency: The conventional way of running a program was very lengthy and time taking as well, this aspect was recovered through using the multithreading concept (Kremic 2012). In the contemporary time the aspect called thread have solved this problem, as more than one thread can be operated at a time. The multithreading concept spent less time outside the accept() call. Requests of clients: There are several kind of requests raise from the side of the client, that may affect the total system of the server (Harold 2013). Multithreading saves the server from blocking. Conclusion The application programming interface is a set of predefined and prewritten classes, packages and methods those are almost same as the classes used in java programming language. The main aims of Java API are to minimize the line of codes and make it easier than the conceptual heavy codes. The interface provides the facilitation for enabling the interaction between two machines. The JDK setup provided by the Java platform helps make this interaction possible. The Java Development Kit (JDK) is the base of the developing a program in Java. These parts of the Java programming is comprised of three elements: compiler in Java, Virtual Machine in Java, Application programming Interface in Java. In addition to this, serialization of objects, multithreading model and client server model are three core aspects of Java. These three concepts related to Java are discussed in this report. This report has elaborated the concepts and importance of serialization, multithreading and client server mode l. Serialization is nothing but transformation of objects into a set of byte codes. Several importance of the serialization is discussed in this report. Secondly, the concept of multithreading helps to operate a set to threads at a time that makes the execution of program easier. Thirdly the concept of client- server model explained in this report elaborated that this model helps in describing the distributed computing protocols. References Ahrendt, W., Mostowski, W. and Paganelli, G., 2012, October. Real-time Java API specifications for high coverage test generation. InProceedings of the 10th International Workshop on Java Technologies for Real-time and Embedded Systems(pp. 145-154). ACM. Arend, D., Lange, M., Colmsee, C., Flemming, S., Chen, J. and Scholz, U., 2012, October. The e! DAL JAVA-API: store, share and cite primary data in life sciences. InBioinformatics and Biomedicine (BIBM), 2012 IEEE International Conference on(pp. 1-5). IEEE. Carr, D.W., Jones, C.A., Wesley, A.A. and Wong, C.A., International Business Machines Corporation, 2016.Interleaving the XForms processing model with java server faces request processing. U.S. Patent 9,256,407. Goel, N., Laxmi, V. and Saxena, A., 2015. Handling Multithreading Approach Using Java.International Journal of Computer Science Trends and Technology,3(2), pp.24-30. Harold, E.R., 2013.Java network programming. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.". Imre, G., Charaf, H. and Lengyel, L., 2013, August. Estimating the Cost of XML Serialization of Java Objects. InEngineering of Computer Based Systems (ECBS-EERC), 2013 3rd Eastern European Regional Conference on the(pp. 33-40). IEEE. Java Excel, A.P.I., 2013. A Java API to read, write, and modify Excel spreadsheets.2009-03-16]. https://www. andykhan, com/jexcelapi. Kremic, E., Subasi, A. and Hajdarevic, K., 2012, June. Face recognition implementation for client server mobile application using PCA. InInformation Technology Interfaces (ITI), Proceedings of the ITI 2012 34th International Conference on(pp. 435-440). IEEE. Maeda, K., 2012. Comparative Survey of Object Serialization Techniques and the Programming Supports.Journal of Communication and Computer,9(8), pp.920-928. Mastrangelo, L., Ponzanelli, L., Mocci, A., Lanza, M., Hauswirth, M. and Nystrom, N., 2015. Use at your own risk: The Java Unsafe API in the wild.ACM SIGPLAN Notices,50(10), pp.695-710. Matos, V. and Grasser, R., 2014. An experience on multithreading using Android's handler class.Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges,30(1), pp.80-86. Panwar, K. and Sharma, D., 2014. Multithreading In Java.International Journal of Research,1(10), pp.1595-1598. Paterson, T. and Law, A., 2012. JEnsembl: a version-aware Java API to Ensembl data systems.Bioinformatics,28(21), pp.2724-2731. Platform, J., 2014. Standard Edition 6 API Specification.Last accessed May. Pratt-Szeliga, P.C., Fawcett, J.W. and Welch, R.D., 2012, June. Rootbeer: Seamlessly using gpus from java. InHigh Performance Computing and Communication 2012 IEEE 9th International Conference on Embedded Software and Systems (HPCC-ICESS), 2012 IEEE 14th International Conference on(pp. 375-380). IEEE. Reisinger, F., Krishna, R., Ghali, F., Ros, D., Hermjakob, H., Antonio Vizcano, J. and Jones, A.R., 2012. jmzIdentML API: a Java interface to the mzIdentML standard for peptide and protein identification data.Proteomics,12(6), pp.790-794. Roland, M., Langer, J. and Mayrhofer, R., 2013, December. (Ab) using foreign VMs: Running Java Card Applets in non-Java Card Virtual Machines. InProceedings of International Conference on Advances in Mobile Computing Multimedia(p. 286). ACM. Saternos, C., 2014.Client-Server Web Apps with JavaScript and Java. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.". Tauro, C.J., Ganesan, N., Mishra, S. and Bhagwat, A., 2012. Object Serialization: A Study of Techniques of Implementing Binary Serialization in C++, Java and .NET.International Journal of Computer Applications,6(45). Yu, A.R., Wang, J., Ye, X.G. and Chen, G.Y., 2014. Application and research of instruction serialization technology in the simulation test system. InAdvanced Materials Research(Vol. 1049, pp. 2049-2053). Trans Tech Publications.

Medievel Knights Creative Essay Essays - , Term Papers

Medievel Knights: Creative Essay Sir Dolan was the greatest king to ever rule England. He was successful in uniting all of the weak kingdoms under his rule through a series of glorious campaigns with his army. Dolan silenced opposing nobility and aided the peasantry. In a m atter of years, he was loved and respected by those within his kingdom, all swearing allegiance to him. However, despite all of his fame and prestige, a dark shadow of sadness covered the king's face. No matter how many battles he won or how many of those in his court praised and thanked him, the blanket of sadness never disappeared. His onl y love, the beautiful Queen Ariah, had been taken from him by the evil Sir Francais months earlier . Sir Francais was Dolan's most loathed enemy, and during a battle for supremacy Francais was able to snatch the lovely Queen Ariah. For months Dolan wandered around his castle feeling nothing but sorrow. He dare not leave his castle for fear that his enemies were plotting revenge against him and his kingdom. On a certain day, Sir Rowa approached him and asked,"Sir, what bothers you so that you seem to be flooded with sadness?" "Ah, my brother Rowa, you have heard of Queen Ariah's kidnapping. This is what bothers me so. Without her, I am lost." "Sir Dolan," Rowa replied, "I am ashamed that such a strong and distinguished warrior as yourself has given up hope of rescuing his beloved Queen from the evil Sir Francais. I tell you, Sir, that it is not for a man of your honor to grieve and feel pity for himself. I also tell you, Sir, to rise up and rescue the queen. I will protect your castle with my life while you go in search of Queen Ariah." "You are right, Sir Rowa. What a fool I have been to allow Sir Francais to go unchallenged for the actions he has committed. I thank you, Sir Rowa, and will leave this castle to go in search of my queen. I leave you this promise my dear friend that if I do not rescue the beautiful Queen Ariah, then I will die trying!." "So be it !" Sir Rowa exclaimed. Early the next morning, Sir Dolan left the castle in search of the queen. With him he took his armor. Upon his shield lay his coat of arms consisting of a black horizontal line, with three arrows- one red, another blue and the third green and pointing downward. The red arrow represented blood and the bravery Dolan showed in battle. The blue arrow symbolized honor and his respect towards other knights. The green arrow, which was the most important resting in the middle, represented the land and the allegiance to his people and the queen of his kingdom. With his shield, Dolan carried only the sword given to him by his beloved father. As the sun rose over the land, Dolan and his trusty horse, Lightning, entered the forest, deter mined to return the queen to her rightful place. A short time had passed when Sir Dolan came upon a lovely woman in the woods. This lady was so beautiful that she reminded him of Queen Ariah. Approaching the woman Sir Dolan spoke, "How do you do my fair lady?" "Very well, sir, but I beg of you to tell me your name." "I am Sir Dolan, King of England," he replied. Upon hearing this, the eyes of the lady sparkled. Sir Dolan noticed this and realized that her sparkling eyes were the sign of a witch. He dismounted Lightning and asked,"How may I help you my fair lady? I am on my way to rescue Queen Aria h and will continue on my way if you are in need of no assistance." "No Sir Dolan. I need no help. However, I offer you this drink to satisfy your thirst from your journey." Sir Dolan, knowing her true identity, refused the drink. "Thank you miss. However, I need nothing to drink now." "Please, Sir, have but a sip. You have ridden far and must be thirsty." "Thank you, but I must be on my way." As Sir Dolan uttered these words, the woman became angry and transformed herself into an ugly, distorted sorceress. "You are clever, Sir Dolan, to resist my drink, but you will not be strong enough to stop the spell I will cast upon you!" she rasped in an evil voice. Sir Dolan, a valiant warrior, drew

history of middle america essays

history of middle america essays Central America is a land bridge that connects North America to South America. Today, this area of the world is under major reconstruction. Its recent history is filled with civil wars, military dictatorships, and native uprisings. Though the recent economy has turned toward the better, the history of the economy in Central America has not been a fortunate. Poverty, disease, and discontent were common among the people living in this region. Many of the problems faced by these nations date back to the Spanish Colonization of the area. Before the Spanish arrived, this region contained a civilization with a rich written history, sophisticated agricultural systems, and amazing cities. Civilized society in Central America can be traced back thousands of years to around 2,000 B.C. It is believed that around this time the native people began to plant crops instead of hunting animals. Pottery, which was discovered in the Parita Bay region of Panama, is believed to made around 2,130 B.C. and it reflects some South American cultural influences. After 1,000B.C. organized, sedentary farming communities began to sprout, and communication and commerce developed among them. After 500 B.C. an advanced civilization, the Mayas, emerged in the present-day lands of Guatemala and El Salvador. Kaminaljuyà º was on of the earlier Mayan cities, and was located in the highlands near present-day Guatemala City. Other Mayan cities arose southeastward, towards Nicaragua (a map of Mayan cities is located at the back of the paper). It is clear that the early Mayan people inhabited the higher terrain in Central America because of the suitable climate, but as the civilization grew, the lowland cities became centers for a higher civilization. In the Mayan cities they developed an advanced system of writing, and with their hieroglyphs on stone monuments, they were able to record their history. Many achievements by the Mayan people exceeded those of the same era European...

Biography of Felipe Caldern

Biography of Felipe Caldern Felipe de Jesà ºs Calderà ³n Hinojosa (1962 - ) is a Mexican politician and former President of Mexico, having been elected in a controversial 2006 election. A member of the PAN (Partido de Accià ³n Nacional/National Action Party) Party, Calderà ³n is a social conservative but a fiscal liberal. Background of Felipe Calderon: Calderà ³n comes from a political family. His father, Luà ­s Calderà ³n Vega, was one of several founders of the PAN party, at a time when Mexico was basically ruled by one party only, the PRI or Revolutionary Party. An excellent student, Felipe earned degrees in law and economics in Mexico before going to Harvard University, where he received a Masters of Public Administration. He joined the PAN as a young man and quickly proved capable of important posts within the party structure. Calderons Political Career: Calderà ³n served as a representative in the Federal Chamber of Deputies, which is a little like the House of Representatives in United States Politics. In 1995 he ran for governor of the state of Michoacn, but lost to Lzaro Crdenas, another son of a famous political family. He nevertheless went on to national prominence, serving as national chairman for the PAN party from 1996 to 1999. When Vicente Fox (who is also a member of the PAN party) was elected president in 2000, Calderà ³n was appointed to several important posts, including director of Banobras, a state-owned development bank, and Secretary of Energy. Presidential Election of 2006: Calderà ³n’s road to the presidency was a bumpy one. First, he had a falling-out with Vicente Fox, who openly endorsed another candidate, Santiago Creel. Creel later lost to Calderà ³n in a primary election. In the general election, his most serious opponent was Andrà ©s Manuel Là ³pez Obrador, representative of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD). Calderà ³n won the election, but many of Là ³pez Obrador’s supporters believe that significant election fraud took place. The Mexican Supreme Court decided that President Fox’s campaigning on Calderà ³ns behalf had been questionable, but the results stood. Politics and Policies: A social conservative, Calderà ³n opposed issues such as gay marriage, abortion (including the â€Å"morning-after† pill), euthanasia and contraception education. His administration was fiscally moderate to liberal, however. He was in favor of free trade, lower taxes and privatization of state-controlled businesses. Personal Life of Felipe Calderon: He is married to Margarita Zavala, who herself once served in the Mexican Congress. They have three children, all born between 1997 and 2003. Plane Crash of November 2008: President Calderons efforts to fight organized drug cartels suffered a major setback in November, 2008, when a plane crash killed fourteen people, including Juan Camilo Mourino, Mexicos Secretary of the Interior, and Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, a high-profile prosecutor of drug-related crimes. Although many suspected the accident was the result of sabotage ordered by drug gangs, evidence seems to indicate pilot error. Calderons War on the Cartels: Calderon gained worldwide recognition for his all-out war on Mexicos drug cartels. In recent years, Mexicos powerful smuggling cartels silently shipped tons of narcotics from Central and South America into the US and Canada, making billions of dollars. Other than the occasional turf war, no one heard much about them. Previous administrations had left them alone, letting sleeping dogs lie. But Calderon took them on, going after their leaders, confiscating money, weapons and narcotics and sending army forces to lawless towns. The cartels, desperate, responded with a wave of violence. When Calderons term ended, there was still a stalemate of sorts with the cartels: many of their leaders had been killed or captured, but at a great cost in lives and money for the government. Calderons Presidency: Early on in his presidency, Calderà ³n adopted many of Là ³pez Obrador’s campaign promises, such as a price cap for tortillas. This was seen by many as an effective way to neutralize his former rival and his supporters, who continued to be very vocal. He raised the wages of the armed forces and police while placing a cap on the salaries of high-level civil servants. His relationship with the United States is relatively friendly: he has had several talks with US lawmakers regarding immigration, and ordered the extradition of some drug traffickers that were wanted north of the border. In general, his approval ratings were fairly high among most Mexicans, the exception being those who accused him of election fraud. Calderà ³n staked much on his anti-cartel initiative. His war on the drug lords was well received on both sides of the border, and he forged close ties with the United States and Canada in an effort to combat the cartel operations all over the continent. The continuing violence is a concern - an estimated 12,000 Mexicans died in 2011 in drug-related violence - but many see it as a sign the cartels are hurting. Calderà ³ns term is seen by Mexicans as a limited success, as the economy continued to slowly grow. He will forever be linked with his war on the cartels, however, and Mexicans have mixed feelings about that. In Mexico, presidents may only serve one term, and Calderons came to a close in 2012. In the presidential elections, moderate Enrique Pena Nieto of the PRI won, beating out Là ³pez Obrador and PAN candidate Josefina Vzquez Mota. Pena promised to continue Calderons war on the cartels. Since stepping down as President of Mexico, Calderon has become an outspoken proponent of global action on climate change.

How best to improve competition in the banking market Essay - 1

How best to improve competition in the banking market - Essay Example In most cases, application of the efficient structure hypothesis is projected in two primary ways depending on the nature of efficiency considered. When considering the X-efficiency form, the more efficient organizations have relatively lower costs, which results to higher profits and a larger share market. According to WISE, BLINDER & GORDON, (2001), this is true because of presence of superior ability in diminishing production costs. On the other hand, Scale Efficiency form serves the same purpose as the X-efficiency, since it works towards achieving production to the minimum average-cost point. Relationship between quiet Life Hypothesis and efficiency structure If quiet life hypothesis holds, then it implies that, the positive profit structure association is partially offset by cost increase from poorer cost efficiency, which explains why the profit-structure association is weak in numerous banks. A unified approach based on the both quiet life hypothesis, structure hypothesis can be used to define the degree to which competition, and stability in the banking sector is influenced (WISE, BLINDER & GORDON, 2001). ... Relationship between quiet Life Hypothesis and efficiency structure If quiet life hypothesis holds, then it implies that, the positive profit structure association is partially offset by cost increase from poorer cost efficiency, which explains why the profit-structure association is weak in numerous banks. A unified approach based on the both quiet life hypothesis, structure hypothesis can be used to define the degree to which competition, and stability in the banking sector is influenced (WISE, BLINDER & GORDON, 2001). Structure Conduct Performance The SCP studies of banking universally can be subdivided into two primary groups according to the measure of performance (JOHNSON, 2003). The groups include the use of measure of pieces of some banking products and service in order to capture the firm’s performance. The second involves the application of profitability measure such as return on assets or equity. Nonetheless, using the piece of a single product may be misleading sue to the multi-product nature of a bank’s output. On the other hand, profit measure may be more informative, however may exhibit difficulty in comprehending and interpreting due to the complexity of the accounting procedures. Relationship between QLH, ESH and SCP The relationship between market structure and performance treated within the framework of structure-Conduct –Performance (SCP) explains well, the competitive status of a banking system. The SCP closes relates with that efficiency Hypothesis (JOHNSON, 2003). When Efficiency Hypothesis is applied in a banking sector, the hypothesis defines that a bank, which operates more efficiently than its competitors achieve higher gains that results from low operational costs.

Midterm Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 4

Midterm - Essay Example History is a subject in which all the past events are collected, organized and studied in detail. The main purpose of history is to obtain all the information from past, organize it in a proper manner so that it could be provided at the time of need. The Spanish interest in Hispaniola is due to the fact that it is one the largest islands in the world i.e. 22nd largest and probably the second largest island in Caribbean. The Spanish interest was also due to the fact that the island provided a major trade route as well as an important place for Spanish colonies to invade and get settled in. 17th century i.e. the 1600s is called the century of misery due to various reasons. The first one being that the most of the population of the world spent most of the century fighting wars which led to a huge loss of money, manpower and lack of industrial skill. Secondly, the century was marked by different epidemics that came during different decades of the 17th century e.g. the epidemic of plague that went on to take millions of life throughout the time period. Lastly, from the very start of 17th century, different areas of world were marked by bad harvests which led to millions starving and dying because of that. In the years between 1791 and 1804, slaves of Saint-Dominigue started a movement or rather a revolt against the outlanders French to remove them of power and bring it back to the locals. The revolt ended up in the formation of Republic of Haiti and is known as the Haitian Revolution. The main effect it had on the island is that it led others to take lesson from and push the outlanders out of their own lands but also it led to the formation of a totally new country now known as Haiti. The global effects of this revolution include, it proved to be a guiding light for others to remove French and dismantle their rule worldwide, especially in America and it was the first time ever that the slaves stood up against the elite and ended up