Greek victory over the Persians in 490 to 480/479 BC Essay

Assess the reasons for the Greek victory over the Persians in 490 to 480/479 BC. Make a judgement based on outcome, results and values. The reasons for the Greek victory against the Persians in 490 to 480/479 BC was a mixture of exceptional leadership, skilful tactics and strategy, superior weapons and soldiers, and Greek unity. Strong leadership was the most important aspect of the Greek defence, as without the intelligence and bravery of the leaders, the Greeks would have been easily defeated. As a result of the excellent leadership; Greek tactics, strategy, and unity were greatly strengthened. Combined with their better weapons and soldiers, the Greeks held the advantage and seized opportunities at the perfect moment. Also, with each victory the Greeks grew more confident of success and defiant of the Persian attempts to invade. The poor organisation and disarray of their enemy led to an undermining of the Persian might and further improved Greece’s chances of success. Despite the lack of official unity throughout Greece, many brilliant leaders from individual cities combined their skills and abilities to defeat the Persians. Greek leadership developed from weak and conflicting to united and strong, directly contributing to a Greek victory over the Persians as they promoted unity, strategy and a determination to defend their homeland. Without this firm leadership, the other reasons for Greek success would not exist as strongly. Despite the Greeks strong defiance of Persia, Darius and many of his council still foolishly believed that they could easily overcome the Greeks. They were short sighted as they saw only personal fame and glory to be gained, and as a result, did not prepare for the possibility of difficulties, and certainly not defeat. This arrogance reflects the poor leadership from the Persian side, which aided the Greeks in defeating them. When Darius invaded, there was conflicting debate at Athens as to whether they should defend the city walls or meet the enemy. However Miltiades’ excellent leadership persuaded the council to take supplies and leave the city if the Persians landed. This is seen in the ‘Miltiades’ Decree.’  Despite being the Polemarch, Callimachus relied on advice from Miltiades who had in depth experience in Persian combat. As opposed to the Persians, the Greeks were willing to co operate in the defence of their country which directly lead to their success. Both Callimachus and Miltiades convinced the Athenian Assembly to send an army to Marathon. At Marathon, the 10 strategoi were equally divided in decision as to whether to attack the Persians or retreat, as they were heavily outnumbered. A decision was made to attack, and each of the generals was given one day to hold in command. Aristides and three other leaders gave their leadership command to Miltiades. This meant that Miltiades was in command for five out of the ten days of battle, and due to the generosity of the other generals, was able to carefully plan a much more effective attack over five days instead of one. When Miltiades was informed that the Persian calvary was absent, he timed the attack to surprise the Persians. â€Å"We know enough to realise the brilliance of Miltiades’ generalship at every stage: his decision to march to Marathon, his determination to attack, his grasp of the suitable opportunity, and his tactical disposition of the infantry line.† (Hammond) It was this brilliance that allowed the Greeks to win at Marathon, which directly increased their confidence and improved future chances of defeating the Persians. The Persian leaders Datis, Hippias, and Artaphernes were confident of a victory over Athens after their defeat of Eretria. â€Å"Their experience at Eretria will have encouraged them to believe that there would be divisions among the Athenians at Athens, and possibly on the field.† (Bury& Meiggs) They therefore did not predict the Athenians to challenge them at Marathon, and dismissed their own cavalry. This foolish decision costed them the battle as the Athenians would have been intimidated by the excellent Persian cavalry, which could have easily defended a Greek attack. It is this arrogance and poor insight from the Persian leaders that added to a Greek victory. After the death of Darius, his son Xerxes was persuaded by his overconfident advisor Mardonius to attack the Greeks, and in doing so, Mardonius exaggerated Greek weaknesses and character. Even when Damaratus repeatedly told Xerxes that the Spartans were the bravest and best fighters of Greece, Xerxes still mocked them for their appearance and actions. â€Å"For four whole days he suffered to go by, expecting that the Greeks would run away.† (Herodotus) Contrasting with Persia’s arrogant and assuming leaders, Greece produced the finest leadership after Marathon. Themistokles was an example of excellent leadership, as he prepared for the possibility of renewed attacks from Persia. He fortified the Piraeus bay, and used surplus to build 100 new triremes to fight against the Persians. â€Å"The pre eminent importance of his statesmanship was due in the first place to his insight in discerning the potentialities of his city and in grasping her situation before any one else had grasped it; and then to his energy in initiating, and his adroitness and perseverance in following, a policy which raised his city, and could alone have raised her, to the position which she attained before his death.† (Bury& Meiggs) Themistokles’ clever tactics and strategy emerged from his high quality leadership, as he carefully selected the positions and methods for the Greek defence. Themistokles persuaded the Greek navy to battle against the Persians despite being outnumbered as Artemisium. Herodotus says that Themistokles even bribed some of the navy leaders to keep the Greek unity together. He again exhibited his leadership skills when he planned the attack on the Greek navy. Themistokles chose excellent timing and precision in attacking the Persians where the weather, tide, and narrow straits made it difficult for the enemy. At Artemisium, â€Å"The Persian admirals did not know the coastal waters of the Greek peninsula, and they were comparatively inexperienced in naval warfare†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Hammomd) The Persians were unorganised as they did not  expect attack and disadvantaged because of their lack of competent leaders. At Thermopylae, Leonidas was a responsible, respected, and courageous leader; and despite facing inevitable death, he continued to fight for the Greek cause, whilst dismissing many of the other soldiers from battle because â€Å"he tendered their safety†. (Herodotus) Sparta was given overall command but did not abuse her powers as a leader. â€Å"The fact that Sparta did not seek to extend her own Alliance and assert her own supremacy, but preferred to treat as an equal with the other states and let them choose their leader, is an outstanding mark of her far sighted statesmanship.† (Hammond). This again contrasted with the competitive and all-for-one nature of the Persian leaders, as the Greek leaders promoted unity and alliance. Themistokles also cleverly chose the position of the battle at Salamis so that the Greeks few numbers would be placed at the biggest advantage- â€Å"Themistokles had managed that a naval battle should be fought at Salamis, and under the conditions most favourable to the Greeks.† (Bury& Meiggs). However the Persians were â€Å"badly generalled† and this spread chaos throughout the Persian navy. Themistokles made an extremely clever and daring plan to fool the Persians at Salamis. He sent a slave to tell Xerxes that the Greeks would attempt to escape during the night through the straits. The Persians wasted their energy guarding the exits and in the morning the Greeks successfully attacked them. Themistokles’ ingenious plan lead to the defeat of the weary Persians at Salamis, and once again proved that the main reason for the Greek victory was the insightful and daring leadership shown at that time. Pausanius â€Å"won the most splendid victory which history records† (Herodotus) at Plataea. He found it necessary to withdraw from Plataea as the battle had developed into a stalemate. Whilst the Persian leader Mardonius assumed that the Greeks would be weak whilst they were changing position, the Greeks counter attacked. â€Å"But when the main body of Persians had drawn up within  bowshot behind their fence of wicker shields, the order to charge was given, and the heavy Peloponnesian infantry dashed at a run upon the enemy’s line†¦The result was decisive.† (Kagan) The clever strategies used by the Greeks were a direct result of their qualified leaders, and lead to the defeat of Persia. All the locations and tactics chosen by the Greeks contributed immensely to their victory and was the second most important reason for the Greek triumph. Miltiades chose Marathon as a strategic site for the battle- the high lands surrounded both roads to Athens and hid the Athenians until the perfect moment to attack. Due to Miltiades’ former knowledge, he knew that the Persians would be strong towards the centre, and so he placed the skilled Athenian infantry into wings to encircle the Greeks. Miltiades aimed at surprising the Persians and â€Å"the men charged at the double and hurled themselves upon the Persian infantry†. (Hammond) This was the first time such an attack had been attempted, and the creativity and excellent strategy was all due to the amazing ability of the leaders, Miltiades and Callimachus. The run created fear and confusion in the Persian ranks and allowed the Greeks to close in before the Persian bowmen could release their arrows. Despite the Persians breaking through the middle Greek troops, the Greek wings wheeled around to attack the Persians from the rear, as Miltiades planned. He had even organised the attack so that the Persians could only flee north towards a difficult marsh, where many died. The Persians did not realise the Greek tactics and strategy, as they underestimated their ability. Instead they believed that â€Å"the Athenians were bereft of their senses, and bent upon their own destruction: for they saw a mere handful of men coming on at a run without either horsemen or archers.† (Herodotus) As they were caught unaware, the Persians had little time to adopt new tactics for battle. Their strategic preparation was poor. At Thermopylae, Leonidas selected his position carefully, and fought in a narrow pass in which the Persians had difficulty in passing through. This greatly advantaged the Greeks, as the narrow space could only admit a small  portion of the Persian army. They also had a stone wall to protect the army camp. In addition, the Persian cavalry were unable to fight in the small area, which would increase the Greek chances of winning dramatically. The Spartans planned strategies on drawing the Persians into the pass and would then wheel around and attack them. Themistokles understood that the Greeks were unable to fully defeat the Persians over land and selected Artemisium as the ideal location to battle their navy. At Artemisium the Greek leaders developed strategy of combining the triremes to form a circle facing outwards to attack the Persians. This plan overcame the disadvantage of being greatly outnumbered. Themistokles carefully chose the timing and position of the battle. The strategy of drawing in the Persian fleet into narrow waters meant that the enemy ships began to collide with each other. Themistokles waited until the tide rose and began to push the Persian ships off course, â€Å"the low-built Athenian triremes, which were less affected by the swell, rowed in to the charge and rammed their opponents, shearing their oars or holing their sides†¦A great victory had been won by tactical skill, by the use of the ram, and by the fighting quality of the Greek marines.† (Hammond) Despite using citizen troops, the Greek hoplites were better trained and equipped than the Persians. The hoplites wore bronze visored helmets, solid bronze breast plates, and carried longer shields and javelins. On the contrary, the Persians wore light armour, wicker shields and used bows and arrows, which became useless in close contact. The discipline in which the hoplites were famous for was shown through their ability to encircle the Persians and attack from the rear. â€Å"In hand to hand fighting their defeat of a more numerous enemy was due to their courage, spearmanship, general and the finest infantry force in her whole history.† (Hammond) At Artemisium, the navy was extremely well disciplined whilst facing many Persian ships surrounding them. They responded to two signals and successfully formed a close circle to attack the Persians. This shows the exceptional skill from the sailors that contributed to their victory. Both the Spartan hoplites and the Tegeans were acknowledged as having great fighting skills and discipline at Plataea- â€Å"by the superb spirit and skill of the Spartan hoplites, who proved themselves to be the finest infantrymen not of Greece alone but of the civilised world.† (Plutarch, Aristides) Thus the incredible skill and ability of the Greek soldiers, combined with their superior weapons contributed immensely to their victory. The battle at Marathon was to be a direct planned attack by the Persians on Athens. After the downfall of Eretria, Athens united under their leaders like Miltiades and planned on how to save the city. Their appeal to Sparta for aid was reluctantly refused as the Spartans had an important religious festival to attend to. Despite Sparta’s inability, the Plataeans sent help â€Å"in full force† (Herodotus), and 2000 Spartans did arrive soon after the battle and congratulated the Athenians on their defeat. â€Å"No one in antiquity doubted the sincerity of the religious scruples which had prevented them from participating in the battle.† (Kagan?) Sparta and Athens â€Å"now joined hands to resist the invasion† as they were singled out by Persia as the Greek leaders. (Bury& Meiggs) In 481 BC the congress at Isthmus united 31 Greek states to discuss the possible Persian threat. Athens discarded her claim to leadership, knowing that the other states would prefer Sparta to lead. In doing so, a quarrel that may have divided the union was avoided. All past disputes were ended, and deadly enemies Athens and Aegina combined their naval superiority. The meeting of the Greeks was â€Å"an attempt to combine all the scattered cities of the Greek world to withstand the power of Persia.† (Grote) Themistokles issued the Troezen decree so that â€Å"all Athenians may in unity ward off the Barbarian† (Troezen Decree) by calling back Greek exiles. This plan was clever, as the exiles like Xanthippus and Aristides combined their efforts to resist the Persians, despite being previously forced to leave their own country. At Thermopylae â€Å"the Thespians stayed entirely for their own accord, refusing to retreat and declaring that they would not forsake Leonidas and his followers.† (Herodotus) Despite the number of forces joining the army at Thermopylae, many of them, including the Spartans were unwilling to provide full assistance as they did not think it was feasible to defend the northern states. Thus unity was at times strained and lacked the full force it potentially had. Mardonius attempted to offer peace with the Athenians in an attempt to undermine Greek unity and overpower the Spartans. However the Athenians angrily refused, displaying their courage and alliance with the Greek cause. Mardonius made a second offering, and he even believed they would change their minds. The underestimating of the Greek unity and Athenian determination was one reason why Persia failed to defeat Greece. â€Å"Artistides declared that, so long as the sun continued in his course, the Athenians would attack the Persians with the aid of the gods†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Kagan) â€Å"The campaign of Plataea was the finest achievement of Greek unity.† (Kagan) 23 states took an oath of comradeship to fight together until the Persians were defeated, and over 100 000 Greeks joined the battles. In comparison with the Greeks, the Persians were ominously competitive. Pausanius and his second in command Artabazus were rivals and schemed to take control and glory from each other. The strongest reason for a Greek victory against the Persians in 490 to 480/79 was the extraordinary ability of the leaders. This led to the next most important reason- the cunning tactics and strategies used by the Greeks. The skill of the Greek soldiers and their superior armour also  greatly contributed to their victory, as only their bravery and aptitude would help them overcome the size of the Persian army. Unity was the least contributing factor throughout the battles as it was inconsistent and was only really significant when Athens and Sparta joined forces.

Philippine Literature Essay

Literature (from Latin litterae (plural); letter) is the art of written work and can, in some circumstances, refer exclusively to published sources. The wordliterature literally means â€Å"things made from letters† and the pars pro toto term â€Å"letters† is sometimes used to signify â€Å"literature,† as in the figures of speech†arts and letters† and â€Å"man of letters. † Literature is commonly classified as having two major forms—fiction and non-fiction—and two major techniques—poetry and prose. Literature may consist of texts based on factual information (journalistic or non-fiction), as well as on original imagination, such as polemical works as well asautobiography, and reflective essays as well as belles-lettres. Literature can be classified according to historical periods, genres, and political influences. The concept of genre, which earlier was limited, has broadened over the centuries. A genre consists of artistic works which fall within a certain central theme, and examples of genre include romance, mystery, crime, fantasy, erotica, and adventure, among others. Important historical periods in English literature includeOld English, Middle English, the Renaissance, the 17th Century Shakespearean and Elizabethan times, the 18th Century Restoration, 19th Century Victorian, and 20th Century Modernism. Important political movements that have influenced literature include feminism, post-colonialism, psychoanalysis, post-structuralism, post-modernism, romanticism, and Marxism. Literature’s three main divisions When most people speak of literature they may be talking about short stories, novels, poems, verse, odes, plays, tragedies, even limericks. This wide variety of terms describing types of literature, at first, appears overwhelming. However figuring all of this out is simplified when you take into account that the menagerie of types begins with three major paradigms: prose, poetry, and drama. Prose Prose is derived from a Latin root word, prosa, that means â€Å"straightforward† (other scholars argue that the root for â€Å"prose† is proversa oratio, which means † straightforward discourse. † Prose is generally defined as direct, common language presented in a straightforward manner. A victim of identity by negation, prose is frequently defined as â€Å"that which is not poetry. † Prose demonstrates purposeful grammatic design in that it is constructed strategically by the author to create specific meaning. Prose also contains plot and the attendant narrative structures of plot. In most cultures, prose narrative tends to appear after a culture has developed verse. Prosegenres are many and varied, ranging from science fiction to romance. The major generic divisions of prose are: * novel – A lengthy fictional prose narrative. * novella – A fictional prose narrative ranging from 50 to 100 pages, most common in science fiction and detective fiction. * short story – a brief fictional prose narrative. * anecdote – A very brief account of some interesting, usually humorous, event. Poetry Poetry, from the Greek poetes which means â€Å"doer† or â€Å"creator,† is a catch-all term that is applied to any form of rhythmical or metrical composition. While poetry is considered to be a subset of verse (and also considered to be superior to verse) both are rhythmical/metrical. What distinguishes poetry from verse is its â€Å"imaginative quality, intricate structure, serious or lofty subject matter, or noble purpose. † Most culture’s first serious literary works are poetry (In Western tradition, we need look only as far as Homer and Hesiod). The purposes of poetry are said to include: 1. A didactic purpose, meaning that it aims to instruct the reader. 2. Unique insight that is not available in other genres. 3. To provide pleasure to the reader. 4. To uplift the reader to some higher insight or meaning. Drama Drama, is simply a work that is written to be performed on stage by actors. From the Greekdran, meaning â€Å"to do,† drama is thought to have developed from ancient religious ceremonies. For instance, Greek comedy is traced to ancient fertility rites. Tragedy (which comes from the Greek word for â€Å"goat song†) can be traced back to sacrificial rituals. The term play has come to mean drama written exclusively for performance, while the â€Å"loftier† term drama, is commonly reserved for works that are considered to be more.

A Students Guide to Economics Written by Paul Heyne Essay

?Monograph Review A Students Guide to Economics Written by Paul Heyne When you first thought about Economics, what did you think of? To me it was pretty much the study of money, as simple as that. I thought it would be interesting to ask a few people what their thoughts were and I heard many different definitions from as simple as â€Å"Money† from a family member to â€Å"To me it is the state of well being – money, housing, unemployment, industry etc. † told to me by a coworker. The true definition of Economics is the study of how individuals transform natural resources into final products and services that people use. This definition is quite a bit different than what I thought it would be, so I was very interested to read the monograph A Students Guide to Economics, Paul Heyne and hopefully learn how this definition came to be. As I was reading the book I found that the changes came and were documented by many different economists and were explained in many of the publications that those economists had written. In the monograph A Students Guide to Economics, Paul Heyne describes the history of economics and how this definition evolved to what it is today. The book starts out with the â€Å"discovery† of the Economics. In 1776, Adam Smith was the first person to question economic growth with a book titled Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Adam Smith summed up economics as â€Å"the volume of the nation’s annual production will depend primarily on the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which people apply their labor to the natural resources available to them. I take this as, in a good economic society, people will use the natural resources personal talents wisely. Smith also states that everyone is a merchant, by this I think he means that with every transaction, you are making a trade. For example, if a shoe maker sells a pair of shoes, the money that is paid for them is not really the trade, the leather that he buy with the money so he can make more shoes is the trade for the shoes he sold. The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money written by John Maynard Keynes was published in 1936. This book stopped many economists from focusing on the trade cycle and started them focusing on government spending to make up the deficiency in private spending that had caused and prolonged the slump during World War II. From what I understand about this publication, Keynes was one of the first people to hold the government accountable for certain economic problems. For example after World War II certain people wanted the government to be responsible for bringing the unemployment rate up to 100% when the employment rate was extremely low at that time. Macroeconomics was brought up for the first time in 1948 in the publication Economic: an Introductory Analysis written by Paul Samuelson. A Students Guide to Economics states that Microeconomics or â€Å"the modern theory of income determination† as Samuelson called it, uses variables including total expenditures on personal consumption, total business investment, and total government purchases of goods and services. Microeconomics is not considered one of the two parts of economics, the other being Microeconomics. People have two possible responses when they start feeling that the organization has changed in a negative way (decrease in quality or benefit to the member), they can exit (leave the organization), or they can voice (try to improve the issue by communicating with the organization). This theory was written about in Exit, Voice, and Loyalty written by Albert O. Hirchman. An example of an exit response would be going into a grocery stare and finding out that they do not carry the type of salsa that you like anymore, when you find this out, you decide to switch grocery stores and go to the one that has your salsa. An example of a voice response would be going to a salon to get your hair colored, you go home and realize the color is not what you asked for, instead of leaving the salon and finding another one, you call and voice your frustration, you end up going back and they fix your hair for free. Written in 1957, The Economics of Under-Developed Countries by Peter Bauer and Basil Yamey looked into the theory of â€Å"growth economics†. At that time people had the notion that if there is an under-developed country, another country can go in and help it with a quick fix. Economists believed that with a small amount of funds and a good economic model an under-developed country would have major economic growth. With this growth they assumed that the country would not cause their country any issues. Bauer and Yamey were not buying into this theory. They wrote in their book that to help an under-developed country many other things would determine the countries outcome like the citizen’s attitude and knowledge. Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit written by Frank Knight in 1921 explains how a market-coordinated economy handles the problem of coordinating activity in the presence of uncertainty. One of the things that stands out most about Frank Knight was that he distinguished between two types of change, risk and uncertainty, defining risk as randomness with knowable probabilities and uncertainty as randomness with unknowable probabilities. Frank Knight stated that risk arises from repeated changes for which probabilities can be calculated and insured against but uncertainty arises from unpredictable changes in an economy changes that cannot be insured against. Uncertainty, he said â€Å"is one of the fundamental facts of life. † (Review by Gail Owens Hoelscher). Fire would be an example of a risk, you know what will happen if a fire occurs. A customer’s preference would be an example of an uncertainty. Deirdre McCloskey wrote that there was no such thing as a scientific method for economics in The Rhetoric of Economics written in 1985, scientists merely argue what they believe is true. McCloskey states that economics needs to get back to the science of facts or responsible rhetoric and get away from the things that economists are trying to persuade people is true. A businessman may know what his costs will be to produce a product and may be very aware of what the demand will be for that product but he may not be able to predict the competition he has from companies producing a similar product. Economics is the study of how individuals transform natural resources into final products and services that people use. A Students Guide to Economics has helped me understand why the definition â€Å"Money† doesn’t quite cut it. There are so many aspects that I never even thought of when it comes to economics like planning for risk and uncertainty and understanding exit and voice responses. Economics has evolved tremendously from the time it was first brought to peoples attention in Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations to the current writings of Deirdre McCloskey. Looking into the future, I predict we haven’t seen the last changes.

How to start a new business venture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 1

How to start a new business venture - Essay Example The entrepreneurs have to take multiple troubles for making their new business into a profitable venture. The success of a new venture mainly depends on the entrepreneurs’ skills and success of the new products. According to the Councils to America’s Small Business, Score, during 2008, â€Å"there were  627,200 new businesses,  595,600 business closures and 43,546 bankruptcies† (Score, 2010). Therefore, the risks involvements in a new business are very high due its vulnerability in the new market. However, in order to combat with such issues, entrepreneurs must consider a number of tasks before starting a new venture. Effective planning for plausible set of market strategy is one of the most crucial tasks for an entrepreneurs and for this a comprehensive marketing analysis and research is mandatory task (Longenecker et al, 2005, p. 147). This paper will attempt to present marketing mix strategies for a new venture based on the situational analysis in respect of proposed business plans. 2. Background of Scenario This business report deals with the formulation of marketing mix strategy for a new venture of private medical clinic in Birmingham. The private medical clinics offer wide ranges of health care services by taking care of the out patients. As this business associated with the people heath services, it is very necessary to offer a high quality of services to its patient. Besides the high quality services, marketing strategies are very important to promote the brand name in the health care market of Birmingham. Birmingham is a popular city of West Midlands county in England. This primary objective of this paper is to offer a set of plausible marketing mix strategies to the new private clinic supposed to be started in the Birmingham city. In this process, the health care market of Birmingham city as well as the entire UK needs to be assessed for identification of the target market. 3. Situational Analysis 3.1. Marco-environmental Fac tors Any industry and its players are supposed to be influenced by the multiple macro-economic factors which are uncontrollable external forces. Assessment of macro-economic forces is very necessary to evaluate the viability of new business. In this regard, PEST models are very useful which analyse the political, economic, socio-cultural and technological impact on a certain business (Allen, 2008, p.114). These factors are analysed below in respect of the new venture for private medical clinic. 3.1.1. Political The stable political system of UK is a major strength for the growth of a business. The chief of the state is the Queen and head of the government is the Prime Minister and it is responsible for regulating the business and health care related issues. The department of Health, UK is the apex body in regulating the heath care sectors of UK who develops proper legal frameworks (Department of Health, 2011). Besides, the Birmingham City Council is also responsible to regulate the Birmingham city’s affair. 3.1.2. Economic Stable economic condition of UK is also major requirements of the success

Continuation of Design principles 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Continuation of Design principles 3 - Essay Example The detailed architectural model is used to achieve the level of security in the system, the performance of the system as well as the effectiveness and efficiency (Coulouris, Dooimore, and Kindberg, 2001). There are three (3) forms of the system architecture include: the client based, server based and the client-server architecture. As the proposed system for ‘Electronic Credit Checking and Mortgage Approval’ is online, therefore, I have chosen the client server architecture. The client-server architecture for the proposed system that presents the client has to place a request to the web server by utilizing the web browser (Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, etc.). The web browser takes the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request, Files Transfer Protocol (FTP), data, etc. to the web server of the Mortgage Company; the web server would interact with the database server for the relevant information. The database server would send a SQL query to the database and the database returns the information against the query. The database server would reply to the web server with the information received from the database. The web server would display the information on the web browser of the client. The web application would be deployed on the web server or application server; the database server would contain the database as shown in the following diagram (Kambalyal, n.d). The system architecture that has been used for deploying the web application is 3-tier architecture that provides higher flexibility; high security can be implemented at each level of the service, and high performance due to sharing of tasks between servers, moreover, it can be extended (scalable) with the requirements of the Mortgage Company (Kioskea, 2012). The client has to use the web browser to access the web application over the internet, in order to provide security the client’s request has to be passed through the firewall deployed

Diversity in the work place Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Diversity in the work place - Term Paper Example Definition of Terms The concept of diversity emitted from studying culture in organizations. Martires and Fule (2004) define culture as â€Å"the accumulated system of ideas, values, beliefs, customs, mores and traditions transferred from one generation to another that reflects and influences the pattern of living as well as lifestyle of a people in a given society† (Martires & Fule, 2004, 227). Accordingly, organizational culture is a set of symbols, myths, ceremonies that reflect the underlying values and beliefs of the organization or its work force. Organizations that begin to acknowledge the need to hire people from diverse cultural orientations support global operations included diversity in their corporate policies. In an article written by Greenberg (2006), diversity in the workplace is defined as â€Å"the variety of differences between people in an organization†¦Diversity encompasses race, gender, ethnic group, age, personality, cognitive style, tenure, organiz ational function, education, background and more† (par. 1). ... Advantages of a Diverse Workforce There are eminent benefits for organizations that support and manage a diverse workforce, to wit: (1) privilege of workers to learn from others of different culture orientations; (2) availability of diverse perspectives and approach in problem-solving; and (3) the creation of positive working environments conducive to honing of skills, abilities and competencies; among others. The study made by Kirby and Harter (2003) validated the effect of diversity in improving the financial performance of an organization. Further, Greenberg (2006) clearly stipulated that diversity has the capacity for â€Å"increased adaptability, broader service range, variety of viewpoints, and more effective execution†, among others. Challenges and Barriers of Supporting a Diverse Workforce Some organizations tend to focus more on the challenges and barriers in supporting diversity, precluding them from harnessing its benefits. From among the most pressing challenges ar e: (1) language or issues of communication; (2) resistance of employees to support diversity; (3) dilemmas on policy implementation; and (4) the difficulty and incompetence in managing diversity (Greenberg, 2006). In addition, Green, et.al (2009) recognized that there are additional barriers and challenges for organizations reflecting on implementing a diverse workforce: â€Å"negative attitudes and behaviors can be barriers to organizational diversity because they can harm working relationships and damage morale and work productivity (Esty, et al., 1995). Negative attitudes and behaviors in the workplace include prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination, which should

Explain the role of the FASB in monitoring and controlling busines Assignment

Explain the role of the FASB in monitoring and controlling busines repotring and practices in the modern organization - Assignment Example These reports are verified by such interest groups from time to time in order to oversee whether or not companies are using their funds and resources well. These reports are of significant importance to investors who take valuable decisions related to investment and financing. These reports reflect flow of fund in and out of the business. They reveal how a firm is utilizing its assets so as to facilitate sufficient productivity and revenue. The different standards established by the organization help companies to develop and maintain a well-structured accounting system (Whittington, 2008). FASB has adequate power to formulate different policies, but the organization does not have rights to impose them upon the companies. Enforcement of accounting standards falls under the jurisdiction of SEC. The standards set by the FASB are required to be followed by public companies in maintaining their books of accounts and financial statements. So, the organization acts as a leader to different corporate entities. The FASB takes necessary advice from SEC and American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) for formulating or improving the different accounting standards. FASB is not required to consult with any business organization before setting accounting standards. Hence, the organization has superior authority over ways whereby companies maintain their accounts and financial reports (King, 2006). The primary motive of standards established by the FASB is to ensure that organizations can develop their financial reports in such a manner that different interest groups can develop correct perceptions about organization’s financial structure. This facilitates stakeholders to make informed decisions. The standards are developed in a way, which promotes transparency in management of funds in a company and corresponding disclosure in the reports. The set

Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 20

Economics - Essay Example This is shown in diagram 1. D1 is the least price inelastic demand curve and D3 the most price elastic with D2 lying in between in terms of price elasticity. The initial equilibrium price is assumed to be 10 dollars per unit and the quantity demanded at this price is 3 units. Thus the initial revenue is 30 dollars. Now suppose the unit price falls to 6 dollars. If D1 is the demand curve, then the quantity demanded rises to 4 units. Thus the revenue in this case falls to 24 dollars. If D2 is the demand curve, the quantity demanded rises to 6 units and the revenue increases to 36 dollars. For D3, the quantity demanded rises to 10 units and consequently the revenue jumps to 60 dollars. Similarly, in case of a price rise, we would have observed that the fall in demand being minimal in case of D1 and greatest in case of D3. In the context of Will Bury’s business to appropriately estimate the viability of engaging himself fulltime in pursuit of his plans leaving his present job, the first step is to identify the potential revenue derivable. And to aptly estimate this, and to address other issues like what prices should be charged, whether price cuts can improve sales etc, the importance of identifying the price elasticity of demand for his product surfaces. If there is high price sensitivity in the market in which Will Bury seeks to compete, then his strategy of offering cheaper alternatives to the already present products is likely to be successful. From the fact that the usual clients of digital and audio books come from relatively affluent economic tiers, it can be predicted that the demand is likely to be elastic. This is reinforced by the existence of a number of close substitutes. However, it should be noted that the products that Will is offering actually can be classified into a few segments according to likely buyers and their preferences since these will actually result in different price elasticities for the different groups. Books which are no

McDonald's Financial Accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

McDonald's Financial Accounting - Essay Example McDonald’s was formed in 1940 as a barbeque restaurant but later developed into a huge chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. â€Å"McDonald's is the leading global foodservice retailer with more than 33,000 local restaurants serving more than  64 million people in 119 countries each day. More than 80% of McDonald's restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent local men and women† (About McDonald’s.com, 2011). The accountant’s report accompanying the Annual Report usually refers to the auditor’s report. The purpose of the accountant’s report is to give an opinion on the presentation of the financial performance of the organization. The auditors review the entire financial data before forming an opinion on the financial statements of an organization. The accountant’s report of McDonald’s is reviewed by the Ernst and Young, who are a Public Accounting firm and are the auditors of McDonald’s. According to them, the financial statements of McDonald’s seem to be fairly presented in all material respect and that the financial statements are prepared in accordance with the U.S Generally Accepted Accounting Principle. The main idea or the main purpose of this report is to assure the shareholders and the investors that the company in question is not performing any fraudulent activity that may not be in line with their respective objectives (McDonald’s, 2010) Financial Statements are a proper record of financial performance of any given business entity. These financial statements provide a reflection of an organization’s performance with respect to the resources being used in order to attain the favorable/unfavorable results. The most important financial statements are: Income Statement The income statement displays the net profit or loss made by a company through the normal course of its operation. The profit or loss reported within the Income statement pertains to a specific period of time (usually 12 months which constitutes a year end). The only transactions recorded within the Income Statement are those which affect the profit. These transaction normally tend to be affiliated with the income earned and the expenditure incurred during a period of time. The Consolidated Income Statement of McDonald’s shows a profit of $4946.3 million in the year ending 2010. This profit figure is 8.6% and 14% higher than the profit figures of 2009 and 2008 respectively. These figures clearly suggest that McDonald’s has performed extensively well; keeping in mind the global economic crisis that had prevailed within the global economy(McCallig, 2008). Balance Sheet The Balance Sheet is a statement that portrays the result at any particular point in time. The Balance Sheet provides a snap shot of the entire business in question since its inception till the point in time when the Balance Sheet is created. The Balance Sheet is categorized into broader categories showing the assets, liabilities and the equity of a business entity. These categories are shown separately with the assets portion under one heading while the equity and liabilities portion under the other heading. The assets portion must eventually tie up with the amount displayed under the equity and li

Return on Investment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Return on Investment - Assignment Example It is highly essential that trainers are able to estimate the ROI, cost benefit analysis and break even analysis as they need all these to assess the financial viability of training projects. A high ROI project may definitely be worth it but computing the cost benefit analysis side by side would also enable a trainer to estimate how much benefit can be obtained per unit of cost and decide if the project is even worth entering into (Powell, 2008). As for breakeven analysis, trainers need to use this measure to figure out when exactly will they be able to cover the costs they have spent in training and then start making profits as they might need this information for project budgeting and planning needs. Further on if a choice is to be made between mutually exclusive projects, than these measures would aid trainers in deciding what’s the best project to go ahead with. Thirdly and finally, the computation of these measures will aid training endeavors when they alter/re-plan their training projects to achieve the maximum benefit out of it or to cut down on their costs (Young and Aitken,

Punctuality and Time Essay Example for Free

Punctuality and Time Essay Advantages: If we be punctual, we can finish up our work at right time. Punctuality checks unnecessary wastage of time. Time is very valuable for us. We can save it only by punctuality. Time and tide wait for none. Seconds, minutes, hours and days pass by in right order. There is a maxim We should hold the time by the forelock. If we be punctual, a single second of us will never go waste. The English men are very punctual. They put on wrist-watches to exercise punctuality. But we, the Indian put on wrist-watches only as ornaments for show. We cannot progress. If we do not be punctual. Punctuality helps us in our progress. It also saves money in other ways. There is a saying. A stitch in time saves nine. So, if we take our food punctually, we will never be sick and so we will never have to spend money on medicines and doctors or to worry our near and dear ones in this connection. And this principle applies well in all other cases. Conclusion: Everybody should be punctual in his everyday life. Every students should make a habit of punctuality. The people who have become great in their lives are very punctual. Punctuality is the first condition for becoming great in life. So, punctuality should be the motto in our life. We should not only be punctual ourselves but also advise others to be punctual. Related Articles.

The Clothes Make the Man Essay Example for Free

The Clothes Make the Man Essay The Grangerford family serves as an allegory meant to show Southern readers both the horror and the futility of hatred and violence. TSIn the Grangerford home, the feud with the Shepherdsons is kept alive by the authority of Colonel Grangerford. As the father of a typically male-dominated Southern family, he sets the moral compass for them. CDHuck tells the reader that â€Å"every day of [the colonel’s] life he put on a clean shirt and a full suit from head to foot made out of linen so white it hurt your eyes to look at it. CMColonel Grangerford’s â€Å"clean† shirt projects the idea that he is a person of the highest moral quality, even though he advocates racism, vengeance, violence and ignorance under his own roof. Huck voices the collective opinion of Southern society when he decides that the Colonel â€Å"was a gentleman all over† (p. 140) based almost entirely on the man’s possessions. CSTwain uses the Colonel to show that white Southerners judge the moral quality of a man by his superficial appearance rather than focusing on his character. TSThe oldest two sons, Bob and Tom Grangerford, symbolize the pattern by which the family ideology is passed from generation to generation. CDBoth are described as â€Å"dressed in white linen from head to foot, like the old gentleman. † (p. 141) CMThe Colonel imprints them with his belief system from the outside in. It is his rules and his understanding of the world that â€Å"dresses† the ideas of his children. CSJust as the boys try to emulate their father’s external appearance, they also adopt his worldview and moral guidelines. TSBuck’s limited moral and academic education is highlighted frequently during Huck’s time with him. CM Buck desperately wants to murder Shephersons, even though he doesn’t know the reasons behind his family’s feud. What makes the situation sadder is that he seems to respect his enemies’ courage and unity, two of his family’s core virtues, and defends them to Huck. CDâ€Å"There aint a coward amongst them Shepherdsons,† Buck says, â€Å"not a one. † (p. 145) His father’s corrupt teaching has left Buck unable to recognize when he is acting immorally. When Buck fails to correctly spell the name â€Å"George Jackson†, he also demonstrates his academic shortcomings. CSTwain does this to show that even though Colonel Grangerford has enough money to educate Buck, he shields his son from the classroom to maintain control over what he learns. As a result of his limited education, Buck grows up as an incomplete man. When Huck first sees Buck, he notices that â€Å"he hadnt on anything but a shirt, and he was very frowzy-headed. Buck’s unfinished outfit symbolizes his deficient schooling, and the frowziness of his hair represents his father’s negligence in his moral instruction. Huck tells us that when he goes to Buck’s room, â€Å"[Buck] got me a coarse shirt and a roundabout and pants of his. † (p. 131) The rough texture of the shirt is another metaphor for Buck’s stunted mental growth, and its rigid construction reminds us of the stern control that the Colonel, who bought the shirt, exerts over his son. Twain suggests that the Grangerfords’ demise is directly related to their lack of education, when their inability to foresee the Shepherdsons’ ambush results in Buck’s death. He shows the reader how the family stunted their intellectual and spiritual growth by focusing their time and energy on hatred, racism and cruelty. Any southerners of the time who shared similar values as the Grangerfords were likely given much to think about when they read this family’s story and the price they paid for their crooked moral values.

Case Analysis On Merloni Elettrodomestici Spa Economics Essay

Case Analysis On Merloni Elettrodomestici Spa Economics Essay Merloni Elettrodomestici SpA is an Italian company based in Fabriano and is one of Europes biggest makers of home appliances. In February 2005, Merloni Elettrodomestici was renamed Indesit Company, Indesit being the best known of the Groups brands outside Italy. The Company was also operating under its historic brand, Ariston, and the regional brands Hotpoint, Scholtes and Stinol. During the perio from 1984 to 1986, Merloni undertook a number of initiatives to improve efficiency in inventory control and logistics. One such initiative was the transit point experiment where in the Milano region, regional distribution centre was eliminated in favour of tranit points which held zero inventory. The following is an analysis of the Transit Point Experiment conducted by Merloni: Cost saving in terms of infrastructure cost of regional warehouses and their maintenance. The company would require lesser amounts of overall inventory to be maintained. As regional warehouses would be closed there would be lesser labor requirements. Transit Point methodology works similar to JIT where-in the required amount of goods are shipped at the required time. Since it works more on the Pull from the customer and due to elimination of regional warehouses, the effect of bullwhip should be lower. Because the regional warehouses will be eliminated, the capacity storage of the central warehouses should be expanded to meet the requirements of the extra Cycle inventory. This would come as an additional cost to the company. Intensive planning of daily shipment should be done. It is not only required to calculate the exact amount of goods to be shipped but also the arrangement of the goods (to eliminate time in loading/unloading activities). Because of this intensive planning more skilled administration staff would be required. If the customer does not order wihin 3pm, the delivery of the product would happen only after the second day. This can lower customer satisfaction. Since no inventory is maintained in near-by locations (as all goods come from central warehouse) if there is any excess demand or out of stock condition (for retailers), the goods will have to be fetched from central warehouse which would take a lot of time. This can lead to loss of goodwill with retailers especially those serving the rural markets. Demand variability is not easily supported by employing Transit Point methodology. If there is an urgent demand for goods in excess of truckload capacity then it can lead to huge additional cost. Another important point which is not mentioned in the case is the importance of the transportation medium. If any of the vehicles breaks-down it could lead to huge delays and pile up of demand. Merloni needs to keep some extra vehicle for a backup. It also needs to maintain the vehicles in good condition. The cost of this has not been accounted for. Since the experiment was carried out only in Milano a relatively smaller numbers of trucks (1 Trailer truck and 3 Small trucks) were required. If the Transit Point methodology is applied through-out Italy, Merloni will need to build up infrastructure and teams to coordinate the the movement of trucks and their transactions. In Merloni, it is the responsibility of the warehouse manager to manage and develop the customer relationship. If the warehouses are eliminated Merloni would still need additional office space for the warehouse managers who also act as Customer Relationship Managers. Another important question is where would Merloni keep the spare parts required for its service personnel. If these too are kept at the central warehouse it could lead to delay thus have a negative impact on the quality of service. The Merloni experiment was conducted when the weather was good. If the weather is bad near the central warehouse but alright in other areas where there is demand, then it can lead to delays. The cost of such delays would be large as Merloni would have to use extra vehicles to ensure the earliest delivery of all the goods once the weather becomes good. Quantitative Analysis: Now we shall look at a quantitative analysis of cost incurred by the company before and after using Transit Point methodology. The case is for region of Roma (information as per exhibit 10). (Ax) would represent cost incurred by using Pre-Transit Point methodology and (Bx) would denote cost incurred by using Transit Point methodology. Calculate the Average Volume/Month at the Regional Distribution Centre (RDC) in Roma. Assuming 20 working days in a month. Average daily demand served from regional warehouse = 154.8 pieces Average Volume/Month = Average daily demand x No of working days = 154.8 x 20 = 3096 pieces. Operating Cost at RDC From exhibit 10 of the case it can be seen that the operating cost at Roma is 3605 Lire/Piece/Month Average inventory levels at RDC = 1200 pieces (from Exhibit 8a) Total Operating Cost/Month at Roma RDC = Operating Cost/Piece/Month x Avg Inventory = 3605 x 1200 = 4326000 Lire Therefore, Operating Cost per piece sold = Total operating cost / No of pieces sold = 4326000 / 3096 = 1397.28 Lire (A1) As per the case, by using Transit Point methodology the Operating Cost has reduced to 20%. Therefore, New Operating Cost per piece sold = 20 % of original Total Operating Cost = 0.20 x 1397.28 = 279.45 Lire -(B1) Inventory Cost at RDC From exhibit 10 of the case it can be seen that the inventory cost at Roma is 1035 Lire/Piece/Month. Total Inventory Cost / Month = Invetory Cost/Piece/Month x Avg Inventory = 1035 x 1200 = 1242000 Lire Inventory cost per piece sold = Total inventory cost / No of pieces sold = 1242000 / 3096 = 401.16 Lire. (A2) Using the Transit Point methodology, zero inventory is maintained. Therefore, Inventory cost per piece sold = 0 Lire (B2) Short Haul Transportation Cost The short haul transportation cost is the cost of transporting goods from regional warehouse or transit point to retailers. This cost would be common for both pre and during Transit Point methodoly usage period Short Haul Transportation cost = 4300 Lire/Piece (A3),(B3) Long Haul Transportation Cost is the cost of transporting goods from the central warehouse to the regional warehouse or transit point. During the pre Transit Point period goods were transported from the central warehouse to the regional warehouses using trailer trucks. Total number of pieces to be shipped per month = 3096 pieces Capacity of one trailer truck = 120 pieces Therefore, Number of trailer trucks required = Total quantity / Capacity of trailer truck = 3096 / 120 = 25.8 trucks Distance between Roma and Fabriano = 165 Km approx. (source: http://www.distance-calculator.co.uk/distance-from-fabriano-to-rome.htm) From Exhibit 11, Cost of using a trailer truck for transport upto 165 Km = 0.36 Million Lire Therefore, Total transporation cost = Cost/Truck x No of trailer trucks = 360000 x 25.8 = 9288000 Lire Transportation cost per piece sold = Total transportation cost / No of pieces sold = 9288000 / 3096 = 3000 Lire (A4) In Transit Point methodology both trailer truck and smaller trucks can be used depending upon the lot size. Since the average daily demand is 154.8 pieces, a minimum of one trailer truck will have to be used every day. i.e. Total volume of goods carried by trailer trucks/month = No of trailer truck in a month x Volume carried by 1 trailer truck = 20 x 120 = 2400 pieces The remaining amount would be carried by smaller trucks. Volume to be carried by smaller trucks = 3096 -2400 = 696 pieces. Therefore, No of smaller trucks required per month = Volume carried by smaller trucks / Capacity of smaller truck = 696 / 45 = 16 trucks This means that in addition to trailer truck a smaller truck also needs to be done for 4 days in every week. From Exhibit 11, Cost of using a smaller truck for transport upto 165 Km = 0.2 Million Lire Total transportation cost = (Cost / Trailer truck x No of trailer trucks) + (Cost / Small truck x No of smaller trucks) = (360000 x 20) + (200000 x 16) = 10400000 Lire Transportation cost per piece sold = Total transportation cost / No of pieces sold = 10400000 / 3096 = 3359.17 Lire -(B4) Inventory cost at central warehouse Because the regional warehouses are going to be removed, some amounts of inventory will be moved to the central warehouse. Total inventory level at all 17 regional warehouses = 14330 pieces Assuming 50% of this is Cycle Stock and the remaining Safety Stock, the Cycle Stock (= 7165) will be moved to the central warehouse. Average Safety stock = 7165 / 17 = 421 pieces. Safety stock required at central warehouse as per Risk Pooling = 421 x à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡17 = 1735 pieces. Therefore, additional stock required at central warehouse = Safety stock + Cycle stock = 1735 + 7165 = 8900 pieces. Assuming inventory cost as those prevailing in Roma, the extra inventory cost at central warehouse = 8900 x 1035 = 9211500 Lire Additional inventory cost/month/piece sold = 9211500/(20*3096) = 148.76 Lire -(B5) Therefore, Total Cost incurred by the company before deploying Transit Point methodology = (A1) + (A2) + (A3) + (A4) = 1397.28 + 401.16 + 4300 + 3000 = 9098.44 Lire Total Cost incurred by the company by deploying Transit Point methodology = (B1) + (B2) + (B3) + (B4) + (B5) = 279.45 + 0 + 4300 + 3359.17 + 148.76 = 8087.38 Lire Therefore by using Transit Point methodology, Merloni has saved 1011.06 Lire. Now taking this Transit point experiment to India, we can make the following observations Geography The geography of India is different from Italy. India is equally wide in North- South and East West directions. The approximate width is ~3500Kms. This is very high compared to Italy. The towns and cities are farther apart compared to Italy. For a product like home appliances (refrigerator , washing machine , dish washer etc) the market is still in towns and cities in India. The road conditions are also not that good. This means the transportation time between cities will be more compared to Italy. Another point to consider is the demand in a town; this may not be enough to meet a truck load of products. Company will have to find a way to store the excess products which is not being supplied. See exhibit1 for details. Infrastructure Another option we can consider is to have a transit point method for big cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, and Bangalore etc. We can have a transit point set up in outskirts of city and we can have small trucks to distribute units to retailers. This will help to free up or reduce the storage space in ware house in each city. But this again will depend on where you have the center ware house located and will be applicable only if ware house is in a days drive from the city. Also we can try this in states like Kerala where the towns are closer by. But even though this frees up inventory storage space, company may still have to have a small space to store items which dont get distributed or collected the same day. As given in Merloni case we will not be able to leave products in alley or plan to keep in sales office as space is a big constraint. As in Merloni case we may not be able to reuse the storage space for an exhibition house in the case of India, as the storage location is located in outskirts of city in most places. The market segment for home appliances is the people who stay in the city limits and will be reluctant to travel so much for buying a home appliance. Transportation The fuel price costs and spare parts costs will contribute to the transportation cost and will drive it higher. This in turn will result in a higher transportation cost per unit and will eat into the margins. This will be significant in case of a transit point experiment since the delivery is made per day. Another concern is the quality of service timely delivery and state of goods delivered. The time of delivery is very critical in the case of a transit point plan. The delivery to the hub should reach on time to ensure the timely delivery of goods to retailers. With the poor condition of roads and lack of service/repair support along the way, there is a significant risk associated with timely delivery. If a truck breaks down, it is definitely going to add half a day delay to the delivery. Inventory As explained in Infrastructure section, the transit point plan will help to reduce inventory held in big cities and move the same to central ware house location. This again may help company to close down its own Storage location in cities and use private/public warehouse option for the storage of minimal inventory in cities. Customer Service With the transit point plan, the timely delivery of goods in big cities will improve. This will make the retailers in this area happy. But if we try to implement this pan India, it will result in poor delivery times and dissatisfaction. The reasons for this are given above. Labor Cost There may not be any significant reduction in labor expenses, as company may have to get new systems in place to support the transit point plan for big cities. This will kind of compensate for the reduction in storage space cost we are getting in cities. Again we will also need people to take care of the transit point plan execution in big cities. Recommendation Based on the above analysis, below given are the recommendations to implement a transit point plan in India. Implement this plan only in big cities like Bangalore, New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai ,Kolkata, Kerala etc. We can try out this experiment first in a big city like Mumbai and get learnings from there to improve the system and then fan it out to other cities. Another option to make this work is to have multiple large ware houses spread across the country so that every major city is located at a distance of 300-400Kms from the ware house. From this point we can try to run trucks to cities and do a delivery of products to retailers in the city and nearby areas in a 12Hr time frame. For e.g. We can collect distribution data from Tier II big cities like Ahmadabad , Bhopal , Allahabad ,etc. over a period of time and see if it any of the cities have enough demand to meet a truck load. We can also include the close by towns for this calculation. Based on this we can run a transit point distribution around those cities. See exhibit 2. The transit point plan will work well for a manufacturing line where the demand is more fixed than a home appliance store. This will work well as the factory have a well defined schedule on what products will be running in which Assy lines and for how long. In the case of a home appliance store the demand is driven high by a number of local factors like local holidays, local festivals, bonus pay out etc. For a diverse country like India these factors vary widely. A local festival is more limited to a local city or a town and may not be even applicable for the entire state. This makes it more difficult to forecast and plan. On a big picture the transit point plan in this format cannot be implemented pan India as it will result in delayed deliveries and low satisfaction levels. The poor infrastructure, widely spread cities, diverse culture and quality of transportation service all act as variables and makes forecast difficult and can cause a failure in the plan. Exhibit 1 Let us consider a case where the central ware house is located in Bhopal. The approximate distance to close by cities like is as given below. 1. Bhopal Ahmadabad 500Kms 2. Bhopal Allehabad 500kms 3. Bhopal New Delhi 700kms 4. Bhopal Patna 700kms In Indian road conditions we cannot expect a truck to cover more than 400Kms during night and to add to it there will be delays in check posts , for having dinner , traffic blocks etc. More issues will be there in rainy season winter. Hence it is clear that with a central ware house in Bhopal we will not be able to make a delivery to these cities on time. Exhibit 2 We can have ware house in Ahmadabad and use it to meet the demands of close by cities like Vadodara, Surat, and Gandhi Nagar etc. 1. Ahmadabad to Vadodara 100Kms 2. Ahmadabad to Surat 300kms 3. Ahmadabad to Gandhi Nagar 70kms 4. Ahmadabad to Udaipur 250kms. But before implementing this we need to do an ROI calculation to see whether this is viable or not.

Synaptic Transmitters Involved in LSD Administration :: Serotonin Psychology Essays

Synaptic Transmitters Involved in LSD Administration The nearly concurrent discovery of serotonin (5-HT) and LSD-25 in the 1950 's encouraged a lot of research to be done on the relationship between LSD and serotonin, which helped to develop a greater understanding of the role serotonin plays as a neurotransmitter in the brain (Nichols, 2004). Today it is believed that LSD (and other hallucinogens) stimulate 5-HT2A receptors (Kalat, 2004). Activation of these receptors causes cortical glutamate levels to increase. This is presumed to be a result of a "presynaptic receptor-mediated release" from neurons in the thalumus (Nichols, 2004). Early studies proposed that LSD antagonized the effects of serotonin on peripheral tissues. It was later proposed that the psychoactive properties of LSD may be a result of the blocking of serotonin receptors in the central nervous system (Nichols, 2004). This theory was short-lived however when it was discovered that a brominated derivative of LSD (BOL),a potent serotonin antagonist in peripheral tissues, was found to have essentially no LSD like effects. In 1961, Freedman found that systematic use of LSD elevated serotonin content in the brain (cited in Nichols, 2004). In a later study in 1967, Rosencrans, et al. reported that LSD also reduced brain levels of acetic acid (5-HIAA) (cited in Nichols, 2004). The combined findings of these two studies demonstrated that LSD decreased serotonin turnover in the brain. It is now widely accepted that hallucinogen action is primarily located on receptor 5-HT2A. In a study done in 1955, scientists found that daily administration of LSD resulted in an almost complete loss of sensitivity to the drug after 4 days. It is now believed that this is a result of 5-HT2A receptor down-regulation (cited in Nichols, 2004). In a later study published in 1985, it was found that daily LSD administration selectively decreased 5- HT2 receptor density in rat brains (Nichols, 2004). Studies have shown that activation of 5-HT2A receptors increase inhibitory post-synaptic potentials. However, when compared to serotonin, the maximum effect produced by LSD is 30-50% of that of serotonin. LSD is therefore a partial agonist, rather than an antagonist (Nichols, 2004). Antagonists block the action of a neurotransmitter, whereas agonists mimic or increase the effects of a neurotransmitter (Kalat, 2004). Conversely, LSD is a weak agonist when compared to less intoxicating compounds with stronger behavioral influences. Therefore it is thought that LSD must either activate another monoamine receptor that works with

Rocky Horror Picture Show :: essays research papers

It was a cool, crisp November evening, while five teenagers were hustling and bustling around my house excitedly getting ready for their very first showing of the live version of their all time favorite movie. They knew it would be the best night of their lives. The night of my 15th birthday party, my friends and I all piled into my parents car around 11:00 PM and headed off down the road to the Heights Theater. The movie we are about to see is an all time classic. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the best cult film of all time. The movie has all the three basic elements it should have. It has funny audience participation, wonderful acting, and a great story line. Before the beginning of the movie, cast members will wander around the theater, and yell out various lines from the movie. When the movie curtain starts to roll its way up, you see a bright pair of red lips singing. When the lips appear, people will start to yell out their favorite audience participation lines. One of my favorite spots in the movie to shout out lines would have to be in the very beginning when the lips on screen are singing the song "Science Fiction, Double Feature." The song is full of participation lines and props that people can bring to the theater with them. There is one line that I particularly like that comes from this song and it goes a little something like this; "and from a deadly place it came from (where?) outer space! (Thank you!)." Another example of audience participation/prop use would be when one of the characters, Dr. Scott, goes flying through the walls of the laboratory in his wheelchair. As he is rolling down the ramp fro m where he flew through, another character, Brad, yells out "Great SCOTT" and that’s when everyone takes the toilet paper they have brought with them and throws it all over the place. Once all the toilet paper has been collected by the cast leader, they pick out one person from the audience and DOUSE them with toilet paper and it’s the funniest sight one will ever see! Even though there is a great amount of audience participation, one really has to turn your attention to the actors in the movie. It takes a special kind of person to really understand the movie they are in.

Symbols and Symbolism in Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie Essay

Symbols and Symbolism in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie    The Glass Menagerie illustrates how Tennessee Williams incorporates symbols to help express the central theme of the play. One of the recurring symbols, apparent throughout the play, is that of the "glass menagerie" - symbolic of Laura herself. Another symbol for Laura is the glass unicorn. Still another symbol is that of the picture of the father - symbolic of freedom. These symbols play an important part in the development of the plot, as well as the theme of the play. The glass figurines that reside in Laura's menagerie are symbolic of Laura herself. Laura is "like a piece of her own glass collection, too exquisitely fragile to move from the shelf" (849). Because of a slight defect, magnified several times over by her own mind, Laura's self image is as fragile as her collection. Because of her low self image, she is extremely withdrawn, even to the point of avoiding contact with others as much as is possible. Laura escapes "to the world of her menagerie where she is safe from the world of people" (Kahn 74)... Symbols and Symbolism in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie Essay Symbols and Symbolism in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie    The Glass Menagerie illustrates how Tennessee Williams incorporates symbols to help express the central theme of the play. One of the recurring symbols, apparent throughout the play, is that of the "glass menagerie" - symbolic of Laura herself. Another symbol for Laura is the glass unicorn. Still another symbol is that of the picture of the father - symbolic of freedom. These symbols play an important part in the development of the plot, as well as the theme of the play. The glass figurines that reside in Laura's menagerie are symbolic of Laura herself. Laura is "like a piece of her own glass collection, too exquisitely fragile to move from the shelf" (849). Because of a slight defect, magnified several times over by her own mind, Laura's self image is as fragile as her collection. Because of her low self image, she is extremely withdrawn, even to the point of avoiding contact with others as much as is possible. Laura escapes "to the world of her menagerie where she is safe from the world of people" (Kahn 74)...

What Are the Risks of an Extended Supply Chain?

What are the risks of an extended supply chain? In order to remain competitive, a company must offer superior quality goods or services at the lowest prices possible. Supply chain enables a company to reduce the cost while increasing the efficiency. However, there are risks that are associated with such benefits. These issues should be properly addressed when a company is trying to rely heavily on supply chain management in order to stay competitive within its industry. A company is exposed to risk by sharing confidential information to its vendors.For example, Apple recently reported that arts and specs for both the iPhone 5 and the iPad mini leaked out well before their release dates. Apple accused its vendors for information leak. â€Å"Apple’s security practices are targeted marking sure US employees don’t leak stuff, but everything comes out from China now. † A company is held accountable for its vendors being socially responsible. This includes making sure that vendors do not employ minors. For example, Nestle’s cocoa supplier, Ivory Coast, failed to pass the Fair Labor Association’s inspection because it employed children to process cocoa.Nestle’s held accountable for Ivory Coast’s violation of FLA, it will seriously damage the company’s image as well as its profits. While a proper supply chain management produces cost effective products, there is a setback as it is difficult to quality control products that a vendor produces from oversea. For example, in 2007, Toys R Us vendor Mattel produced 83 products containing lead based paint, which is hazardous to health. Consequently, Toys R Us had to recall 967,000 affected toys from reaching consumers. A natural disaster or political instability of a vendor’s country could affect a company’s operation.For example, Dallas-based Texas Instruments said late Monday that it had suffered substantial damage to its production plant in Miho, Japan an d slight damage to its Aizu-wakamatsu plant. Both facilities are located north of Tokyo in the areas most affected by the disaster. The company makes silicon wafers at its Miho plant, which are the thin pieces of silicon glass used to manufacture microchips. In conclusion, for those companies that rely heavily on extended supply chain management to remain lucrative should consider the following strategies to avoid the risks mentioned above.First, a company should have more flexibility. Flexibility, in this context, means that a company should incorporate a vendor-auditing program to make sure that it is meeting your standard. Second, a company should only share non-confidential information to its vendors to prevent them from compromising vital information. Lastly, a company should have multiple vendors to run a project in case one vendor fails to complete the project on timely manner. These are the key preventive strategy to avoid or mitigate the risks of a supply chain management.

The Indigo Spell Chapter Five

I LEFT SHORTLY THEREAFTER with the Alchemists and didn't expect to see Adrian for a little while. He was staying on with the other Moroi a couple more days in Pennsylvania, so there was no chance of a repeat flight together. My trip back to California was quiet and uneventful, though my mind raced with all the developments of the last couple of days. Between Ms. Terwilliger's cryptic warning and my new lead on Marcus, I had plenty to occupy me. A text message from Eddie greeted me when I hailed a cab at the Palm Springs airport: We're eating at Marquee's. Wanna join us? A follow-up message soon came: You can drive us back. I directed the driver to take me to a suburb on the far edge of the city rather than Amberwood's home in Vista Azul. I was hungry, seeing as there'd been no dinner served on the plane in coach, and besides, I wanted my car back in my own hands. When I arrived at the restaurant, I found Eddie and Angeline sitting on one side of a booth with Jill on the other. Immediately, I knew why they'd chosen to eat so far from our school. Being away meant Eddie and Angeline could go out as a couple. Back at Amberwood, everyone thought we were related. Eddie, Jill, and I passed ourselves off as siblings, while Angeline was our cousin. Eddie and Angeline had recently started dating, so they'd had to hide their relationship from our classmates to avoid raising suspicions. We already seemed to attract enough attention as it was. Angeline was cuddled up in Eddie's arm. Even he looked like he was having a good time, which was nice to see. He took his responsibilities so seriously and was often so tense that it seemed as though it wouldn't take much to make him snap in two. Angeline – though uncouth, unpredictable, and often inappropriate – had proven remarkably good for him. That didn't make him any less diligent in his guardian duties, of course. Things were a little different on the opposite side of the table. Jill looked miserable, slumped into the seat with her arms crossed. Her light brown hair hung forward, covering part of her face. After ill-fated romances with a guy who wanted to become a Strigoi and with Eddie's human roommate, Jill had come to realize that Eddie might very well be the guy for her. It was fitting, too, because for a long time, he'd harbored a secret crush on her, fiercely dedicated to her in the way a knight served his liege lady. He'd never believed he was worthy of Jill, and without any signs of her affection, he'd turned to Angeline – just when Jill had come around and wanted him. At times, it seemed like some sort of Shakespearean comedy . . . until I looked at Jill's face. Then I'd feel conflicted because I knew if Eddie returned her affection, Angeline would be the one with that sad, sad expression. It was kind of a mess and made me glad to be free of any romantic entanglements. â€Å"Sydney!† Jill beamed when she saw me, brushing her hair away. Maybe it was because she needed the distraction, or maybe it was because Adrian's new attitude toward me had lifted some of her moodiness. Regardless, I welcomed a return to the old friendliness in her rather than the brooding and accusing looks she'd harbored since I rejected him. â€Å"Hey, guys.† I slid into the booth beside her. Immediately, I opened up my cell phone's picture album and handed it to her since I knew she'd want to know about the wedding right away. Despite all the intrigue that had gone down there, I had managed to take some pictures without the other Alchemists noticing. Even if she'd seen some of it through Adrian's eyes, Jill would still want to examine everything in detail. She sighed with happiness as she scanned the pictures. â€Å"Look at Sonya. She's so pretty.† Angeline and Eddie leaned across the table to get a look. â€Å"Oh. And there's Rose and Lissa. They look great too.† There was an odd note in Jill's voice as she spoke. She was friends with Rose, but her half sister was still a bit of an enigma. Jill and Lissa hadn't even known they were sisters until recently, and the volatile political environment had forced Lissa to behave more as a queen than a sister toward Jill. It was a difficult relationship for both of them. â€Å"Did you have a fun time?† Eddie asked me. I considered my answer for several moments. â€Å"I had an interesting time. There's still a lot of tension between the Alchemists and your people, so some of it was a little weird.† â€Å"At least Adrian was there. Must have been nice to have someone you know,† said Angeline, in well-meaning ignorance. She pointed to a picture I'd taken of the reception hall. My intent had been to get a full shot of the venue for Jill, but Adrian had happened to walk into the shot, posed and perfect like some handsome spokesmodel hosting the event. â€Å"Always so pretty.† Angeline shook her head in disapproval. â€Å"Everyone there is. I guess that means there weren't any celebratory wrestling matches?† It was a sign of Angeline's progress that she'd deduced that so quickly. Her people, the Keepers, lived in the wilds of West Virginia, and their openness to romance between vampires, dhampirs, and humans was only one of their more bizarre customs. Friendly fights broke out often, and Angeline had had to learn that such behaviors weren't acceptable out here in mainstream America. â€Å"Not while I was there,† I said. â€Å"But hey, maybe something went down after I left.† That brought grins to Jill's and Eddie's faces and a hopeful look to Angeline's. A waitress came by, and I ordered Diet Coke and a salad. Maybe I'd loosened up in my tight calorie counting, but I swore I could still taste the sugar from all the wedding cake I'd eaten after the spell. Angeline tightened her hold on Eddie's arm and smiled up at him. â€Å"If you ever get to see my home, you can fight my brother Josh to show that you're worthy of me.† I had to swallow a laugh. I'd seen the Keepers' community and knew she was absolutely serious. I worked to keep a straight face. â€Å"Aren't you breaking a lot of rules by being together without that having happened yet?† Angeline nodded, looking a little glum. â€Å"My mom would be so scandalized if she knew. But I guess this is a unique situation.† Eddie smiled indulgently at her. I think sometimes he thought we were exaggerating about the Keepers. He was going to be in for a shock if he ever did visit them. â€Å"Maybe I can fight a bunch of your relatives to make up for it,† he said. â€Å"You might have to,† she said, not realizing he was joking. It was hardly romantic banter, but Jill looked decidedly uncomfortable discussing their relationship. She turned to me, very obviously trying not to look at them. â€Å"Sydney, what are we going to do about Christmas?† I shrugged, unsure what she was asking. â€Å"The usual, I guess. Give presents. Sing songs. Have Yuletide duels.† Angeline lit up at that. Jill rolled her eyes. â€Å"No, I mean, we're going to be on winter break in a few weeks. Is there any way . . . is there any way we can go home?† There was a plaintive note in her voice, and even Eddie and Angeline broke their mutual admiration to stare at me. I shifted under their scrutiny. Angeline wasn't as concerned about visiting the Keepers, but I knew Eddie and Jill missed their friends and family. I wished I could give them the answer they wanted to hear. â€Å"I'm sorry,† I said. â€Å"You'll be staying at Clarence's for break. We can't risk . . . well, you know.† I didn't need to emphasize the need for Jill's safety. We were all familiar with that refrain. Ian's comment about how fragile the throne was drove home the importance of what we did. Jill's face fell. Even Eddie looked disappointed. â€Å"I figured,† she said. â€Å"I just hoped . . . that is, I miss my mom so much.† â€Å"We can probably get a message to her,† I said gently. I knew that was no substitute for the real thing. I was able to make occasional phone calls to my own mom, and hearing her voice was a million times better than any email could be. I even got to talk to my older sister, Carly sometimes, which always cheered me up since she was so bright and funny. My younger sister, Zoe . . . well, she was a different story. She wouldn't take my calls. She'd nearly been initiated into the Alchemists – to take on this mission, in fact – when I'd stolen it from her. I'd done it to protect her from committing to the Alchemists so young, but she'd seen it as an insult. Looking at Jill's sad face, I felt my heart clench. She had been through so much. Her new royal status. Targeted by assassins. Fitting in to a human school. Her disastrous and deadly romances. And now enduring Eddie and Angeline. She handled it all with remarkable strength, always resolutely going through with what she had to do even if she didn't want to do it. Lissa was praised for being such an exemplary queen, but there was a regality and strength to Jill as well that many underestimated. Glancing up, I caught a spark in Eddie's eyes as he too seemed to recognize and admire that about her. After dinner, I took them back to Amberwood and was pleased to see that my car was in perfect shape. I drove a brown Subaru named Latte, and Eddie was the only other person I trusted behind the wheel. I dropped him off at the boys' dorm and then took Angeline and Jill back to ours. As we were walking in the door, I caught sight of Mrs. Santos, a teacher I knew by reputation. â€Å"You guys go ahead,† I told Jill and Angeline. â€Å"I'll see you tomorrow.† They left, and I walked across the lobby, waiting patiently for Mrs. Santos to finish a discussion with our dorm matron, Mrs. Weathers. When Mrs. Santos started to turn around and leave, I caught her attention. â€Å"Mrs. Santos? I'm Sydney Melrose. I wondered if I could – â€Å" â€Å"Oh, yes,† she said. â€Å"I know who you are, dear. Ms. Terwilliger raves about you all the time at our department meetings.† Mrs. Santos was a kindly-looking woman with silver and black hair. Rumor had it she'd be retiring soon. I flushed a little at the praise. â€Å"Thank you, ma'am.† She and Ms. Terwilliger were both history teachers, though Mrs. Santos's focus was on American history, not world. â€Å"Do you have a minute? I wanted to ask you something.† â€Å"Of course.† We stepped off to the side of the lobby, out of the incoming and outgoing dorm traffic. â€Å"You know a lot about local history, right? Southern California?† Mrs. Santos nodded. â€Å"I was born and raised here.† â€Å"I'm interested in nontraditional architecture in the Los Angeles area,† I told her, the lie rolling easily off my lips. I'd thought about this in advance. â€Å"That is, non-Southwest styles. Do you know any neighborhoods like that? I'd heard there were some Victorian ones.† She brightened. â€Å"Oh, yes. Absolutely. Fascinating subject. Victorian, Cape Cod, Colonial . . . there are all sorts. I don't have all the information on me, but I could email you when I get home tonight. There are several I know off the top of my head, and I know a historian who could help you with others.† â€Å"That'd be great, ma'am. Thank you so much.† â€Å"Always happy to help a star pupil.† She winked as she started to walk away. â€Å"Maybe next semester you'll do an independent study with me. Provided you can tear yourself away from Ms. Terwilliger.† â€Å"I'll keep it in mind,† I said. As soon as she was gone, I texted Ms. Terwilliger. Mrs. Santos is going to tell me about historical neighborhoods. The response came quickly: Excellent. Come over right now. I scowled as I typed back: I just got here. Haven't even been in my room. To which she replied: Then you can get here that much faster. Maybe that was true, but I still took the time to put my suitcase back in my room and change out of my travel clothes. Ms. Terwilliger lived pretty close to the school and looked as though she'd been pacing in circles when I arrived at her house. â€Å"Finally,† she said. I glanced at the time. â€Å"It's only been fifteen minutes.† She shook her head and again wore the same grim expression she'd had out in the desert. â€Å"Even that might be too much. Follow me.† Ms. Terwilliger's home was a little bungalow that could have doubled as a New Age store or possibly a cat shelter. The level of clutter set my teeth on edge. Spell books, incense, statues, crystals, and all sorts of other magical items sat in piles in all rooms of the house. Only her workshop, the room she led me to, was neat and orderly – even to levels I approved of. Everything was clean and organized, to the point of being labeled and alphabetized. A large worktable sat in the center of the room, completely cleared off, save for a stunning necklace I'd never seen before. The chain was made of intricate gold loops, and the pendant was a deep red cabochon stone in a lacy gold setting. â€Å"Garnet?† I asked. â€Å"Very good,† she said, lifting the necklace. The candlelight in the room seemed to make every part of it glitter. â€Å"It's lovely,† I said. She held it out to me. â€Å"It's for you.† I stepped back uneasily. â€Å"For . . . me? I . . . I mean, thank you, but I can't accept a gift like that.† â€Å"It's not a gift,† she said. â€Å"It's a necessity. One that might save your life. Take it and put it on.† I refused to touch it. â€Å"It's magical, isn't it?† â€Å"Yes,† she said. â€Å"And don't give me that look. It's no different from any of the charms you've made for yourself.† â€Å"Except that anything you'd make . . .† I swallowed as I stared into the depths of that bloodred jewel. â€Å"It's going to be a lot more powerful than anything I can create.† â€Å"That's exactly the point. Now here.† She thrust it so close to me that it nearly swung out and hit me in the face. Steeling myself, I reached out and took it from her. Nothing happened. No smoke or sparks. No searing pain. Seeing her expectant look, I fastened it around my neck, letting the garnet lie next to my cross. She sighed, her relief nearly palpable. â€Å"Just as I'd hoped.† â€Å"What?† I asked. Even if I sensed nothing special about it, the garnet felt heavy around my neck. â€Å"It's masking your magical ability,† she said. â€Å"No one who meets you should be able to tell that you're a magic user.† â€Å"I'm not a magic user,† I reminded her sharply. â€Å"I'm an Alchemist.† A small flicker of a smile played over her lips. â€Å"Of course you are – one who uses magic. And to a particularly powerful person, that would be obvious. Magic leaves a mark on your blood that permeates your whole body.† â€Å"What?† I couldn't have been more shocked if she'd said I'd just contracted a deadly disease. â€Å"You never told me that before!† â€Å"It wasn't important,† she said with a small shrug. â€Å"Until now. I need you hidden. Do not take that off. Ever.† I put my hands on my hips. â€Å"Ma'am, I don't understand.† â€Å"All will be revealed in time – â€Å" â€Å"No,† I said. At that moment, I could have been talking to Stanton or any of the countless others who'd used me and fed me pieces of information throughout my life. â€Å"It will be revealed now. If you've gotten me into something dangerous, then you either need to get me out of it or tell me how to.† Ms. Terwilliger stared at me for several quiet moments. A gray tabby cat rubbed up against my legs, ruining the seriousness of the moment. â€Å"You're right,† she said at last. â€Å"I do owe you an explanation. Have a seat.† I sat down on one of the stools by the table, and she sat opposite me. She clasped her hands together in front of her and seemed to be having a hard time gathering her thoughts. I had to force myself to stay calm and patient. Otherwise, the panic that had been gnawing at me since the desert would completely consume me. â€Å"You remember that woman you saw in the picture?† she asked at last. â€Å"Your sister.† Ms. Terwilliger nodded. â€Å"Veronica. She's ten years older than me and looks half my age, as you could undoubtedly tell. Now, it isn't difficult to create an illusion. If I wanted to appear young and beautiful, I could – emphasis on appear. But Veronica? She's actually managed to make her body young and vibrant. It's an advanced, insidious kind of magic. You can't defy age like that without making some sacrifices.† She frowned, and my heart pounded. Creating youth made all my Alchemist sensibilities reel. It was nearly as bad as Strigoi immortality, maybe worse if she was talking about a human doing it. That kind of twisted magic had no place in this world. Her next words drove home the wrongness of it all. â€Å"Or, in her case, sacrificing others.† Sacrifice. The very word seemed to poison the air. She stood up and walked over to a shelf, producing a newspaper clipping. Wordlessly, she handed it to me. It was a recent article, from three days ago, talking about a nineteen-year-old UCLA student who'd been found comatose in her dorm room. No one knew what had caused it, and the girl was hospitalized with no indication of when or if she'd wake up. â€Å"What is this?† I asked, not sure I wanted to know the answer. I inspected the article more closely, especially the picture it contained. At first, I wondered why the paper would show a sleeping old woman. Then, reading the fine print, I learned that the coma victim also displayed some unexplained physical symptoms: gray-streaked hair and dry, cracked skin. Doctors were currently investigating rare diseases. I cringed, unable to believe what I saw. She was hideous, and I couldn't look at her for very long. And just like that, I suddenly understood. Veronica wasn't sacrificing victims with knives and stone altars. She was conducting some kind of perverse magic on these girls that bent the rules of nature, putting them in this hideous state. My stomach twisted, and I gripped the table for support. â€Å"This girl was one of Veronica's victims,† confirmed Ms. Terwilliger. â€Å"That's how she maintains her youth and beauty – by taking it from others. When I read this, I thought – almost hoped – some other magic user was doing it. Not that I'd wish this on anyone. Your scrying spell confirmed she was in the area, however, which means it's my responsibility to deal with her.† I dared a look down at the article again and felt that nausea well up again. The girl was nineteen. What would it be like to have the life sucked out of you at so young an age? Maybe the coma was a blessing. And how corrupt and twisted would you have to be to do that to someone? I didn't know how exactly Ms. Terwilliger would â€Å"deal with† her sister and wasn't sure I wanted to find out. And yet, if Veronica really was doing things like this to innocents, then yes, someone like Ms. Terwilliger needed to stop her. A magical attack of this magnitude was one of the most terrible things I could imagine. It brought back all my ingrained fears about the wrongness of magic. How could I justify using it when it was capable of such horror? Old Alchemist lessons came back to me: Part of what makes the Moroi particularly dangerous is their ability to work magic. No one should be able to twist the world in that way It's wrong and can easily run out of control. I tuned back into the present. â€Å"How do I fit into this, ma'am? I already figured out where she is. Why am I in danger?† â€Å"Sydney,† Mrs. Terwilliger said, looking at me strangely. â€Å"There are few young women out there with your abilities. Along with youth and beauty, she intends to suck someone's magic away and use it to make herself that much more powerful. You, my dear, would be the ultimate coup for her.† â€Å"She's like Strigoi,† I murmured, unable to repress a shiver. Although those undead vampires could feast on anyone, they preferred Moroi because they had magic in their blood. Drinking Moroi blood made Strigoi more powerful, and a chilling thought suddenly hit me. â€Å"Practically a human vampire.† â€Å"Something like that,† Ms. Terwilliger agreed. â€Å"This amulet should hide your power, even from someone as strong as her. She shouldn't be able to find you.† A calico cat jumped up on the table, and I ran a hand over her sleek fur, taking comfort in the small contact. â€Å"The fact that you keep saying ‘should' makes me a little nervous. Why would she even come looking in Palm Springs? Does she know about me yet?† â€Å"No. But she knows I'm here, and she may check on me once in a while – so I need to hide you in case she does. I'm in a bind, however, because I need to find her but can't actively do the hunting. If she finds out I'm investigating, she'll know that I know she's here. I can't alert her. If I have the element of surprise on my side, I'm more likely to stop her.† She frowned. â€Å"I'm honestly surprised she would come so close to me in California at all. Regardless, I need to keep a low profile until it's time to strike.† Ms. Terwilliger looked at me meaningfully, and I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach as I began to put together what she was saying. â€Å"You want me to hunt her.† â€Å"It's not hunting so much as gathering some data. You're the only one I can trust to do this. She and I can sense each other if we're close, no matter how much we try to hide our magic. I know this is going to sound shocking, but I actually think it'd be best if you hunted her – even if you're the one she's after. You're one of the few I can trust completely and you're resourceful enough to pull something like this off.† â€Å"But I'd be putting myself out there. You just said I'd be a big catch for her.† The twists and turns here were mindboggling. â€Å"Yes. Which is why I gave you the amulet. She won't sense your magic, and if you're cautious in your investigation, she should have no reason to notice you.† I still wasn't following the logic here. â€Å"But why me? You have a coven. If you can't do it yourself, then there must be someone else – a stronger witch – who can do it.† â€Å"Two reasons,† she said. â€Å"One is that you have excellent investigative skills – more so than others older than you. You're intelligent and resourceful. The other reason . . . well, if another witch goes after her, she might very well kill Veronica.† â€Å"Would that be such a bad thing?† I didn't like violence and killing by any means, but this might be a case where it was justified, if it could save other lives. â€Å"You said you were going to ‘take care of her.'† â€Å"If I have no choice . . . if I must kill her, then I will.† She looked dejected, and I had a moment of empathy. I loved my two sisters. What would I do if I was ever in a deadly conflict with one of them? Of course, it was hard to imagine Zoe or Carly committing this kind of atrocity. â€Å"However, there are other ways of neutralizing and subduing a magic user. If there's any way – any way at all – I can do that, I will. My coven sisters won't feel that way, which is why I need your help.† â€Å"I can't.† I pushed the stool back and stood up, nearly stepping on a cat in the process. â€Å"There must be some other way you can do this. You know I'm already bogged down in supernatural affairs.† I actually couldn't bring myself to admit the real reason I wanted to dodge this. It was about more than just risking my life. So far, all my magical interactions had been with Ms. Terwilliger. If I signed on for this, I would be plunging into the world of witches, something I'd sworn I would never do. Ms. Terwilliger tapped the article, and her voice was quiet when she spoke. â€Å"Could you let this happen to other girls, knowing there's a way you could stop it? I've never heard of any of her victims waking up. The way this spell works, Veronica needs to renew it every few years, and it requires five victims within one month. She did this once before, and it caught me off guard. This time, we have warning. Four more people could suffer this fate. Do you want that?† There it was. She'd called me on the other part that had been nagging me because she knew me too well. I couldn't let innocents suffer, not even if it meant risking myself or facing the fears that haunted me. If I could stop this, I had to. No one deserved the fate of that girl in the paper. â€Å"Of course not.† â€Å"And let's not forget that you could soon be one of her victims.† I touched the garnet. â€Å"You said I'm hidden.† â€Å"You are, for now. And I hope against all hope you'll stay that way.† I'd never seen her so grim before, and it was hard to watch. I was used to her prattling, bumbling, no-nonsense nature. â€Å"But here's something I've never told you about how magic users sense each other.† Something I'd learned over the years: it was never a good thing when people said, â€Å"Here's something I never told you. . . .† I braced myself. â€Å"Untrained magic users have a particular feel that's unique from the more experienced,† she explained. â€Å"There's a oh, wild-ness about the magic that surrounds you. It's easy for advanced witches to sense. My coven keeps track of novice magic users, but those are tightly guarded secrets. Veronica won't have access to those names, but there are spells she can use that can pick up on some of that untamed magic if it's near her. It's how she probably found this poor girl.† Ms. Terwilliger nodded toward the article. The idea of me having some â€Å"wild† magical aura was as shocking as her saying I had magic in my blood. â€Å"When she absorbs a victim,† Ms. Terwilliger continued, â€Å"she gets a burst of that wildness. It fades quickly, but when she possesses it, it can briefly enhance her ability to scry for another untrained victim. The more victims she takes, the stronger that ability will grow. There's a chance,† Ms. Terwilliger said gravely, â€Å"that it could be enough to break apart the garnet. I don't know.† She spread out her hands. â€Å"So you're saying . . . with each victim she attacks, the chance that she'll find me increases.† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"All right. I'll help you hunt for her.† I shoved all my fears and doubts aside. The stakes were too high. My life, the other girls . . . Veronica had to be stopped for all our sakes. Someone like her couldn't be allowed to go on like this. â€Å"There's more,† added Ms. Terwilliger. Really? â€Å"More than hunting an evil witch who wants to drain me of my life and power?† â€Å"If we can stop Veronica from finding less powerful victims, we can save their lives and limit her ability to find you.† She produced a small velvet bag and emptied it out onto the table. Several small agate circles fell out. â€Å"These are charms that have some ability to mask magic. Not as strong as the garnet – that would take too long. But they're a quick fix that might save some of these other girls' lives.† I knew where this was going. â€Å"And you want me to deliver them.† â€Å"I'm sorry. I know I'm giving you some very difficult tasks here.† This was getting worse and worse. â€Å"Difficult? That's an understatement. And putting aside the fact that you want me to find a woman who could suck my life away there's also the very small detail that the Alchemists would flip out if they knew I was involved with any of this.† Ms. Terwilliger didn't answer right away. She just watched me. A black cat jumped up beside her and joined in the staring. Its yellow-eyed gaze seemed to say Do the right thing. â€Å"Where do I start?† I asked finally. â€Å"Finding that neighborhood is part of it, right?† â€Å"Yes. And I'll tell you where to find her potential victims, if you'll do the legwork of warning them. My coven keeps track of them. They'll be girls very much like you, ones with power who refuse to train and have no mentor to look after them. Once we have a clear fix on Veronica herself . . .† Ms. Terwilliger's eyes hardened. â€Å"Well, then. That's when I'll step in.† Once more, I wondered if I really wanted to know what that entailed. A moment later, she added, â€Å"Oh, and I thought it would be a good idea to obscure your appearance as well.† I brightened. I couldn't explain it, but somehow, that made me feel immensely better. â€Å"There are a lot of spells for that, right?† I'd seen a number of them in my studies. Even if I had to use magic, it was better to at least look different. â€Å"Yes. . . .† She drummed her fingers against the table. â€Å"But the amulet might not be able to hide you wearing an ‘active' spell, which would then defeat the whole purpose. What I was actually hoping was that your ‘brother' Adrian might be able to help.† My legs felt weak, and I sat back down. â€Å"Why on earth should Adrian be involved in this?† â€Å"Well, he seems like he'd do anything for you.† I eyed her, wondering if there was a double meaning in that. Her gaze was far away, her thoughts turned inward. She'd meant her words honestly. â€Å"Veronica wouldn't be able to detect vampire magic. His power . . . that spirit element he was telling me about . . . it can confuse the mind, right? Affect what others can see?† â€Å"Yes. . . .† She focused on me again, nodding in satisfaction. â€Å"If he could accompany you, help muddle whoever meets you . . . well, that would offer an extra level of protection.† I still didn't know what all I'd be doing to hunt Ms. Terwilliger's sister, but it sounded like, at the very least, there'd be a drive to Los Angeles in my future. Me, trapped in another small space with Adrian while he continued with that infuriating â€Å"loving from afar.† I was so caught up in the emotional turmoil that idea caused that it took me a moment to realize the larger issue I was letting myself get sucked into. â€Å"Do you realize what you're asking?† I said quietly. I touched the garnet again. â€Å"To be a part of this, you're asking me to expose myself to both human magic and vampire magic. Everything I try to avoid.† Ms. Terwilliger snorted, and for the first time tonight, I saw a return of her usual amused attitude. â€Å"Unless I'm mistaken, you've been exposing yourself to both kinds of magic for some time now. So, it can't go against your beliefs that much.† She paused meaningfully. â€Å"If anything, it seems like it goes against the Alchemists' beliefs.† â€Å"The Alchemists' beliefs are my beliefs,† I said quickly. She arched an eyebrow. â€Å"Are they? I would hope your beliefs would be your beliefs.† I'd never thought about it that way before, but I suddenly hoped desperately that her words were true.