7 Strategies for Landing Your Dream Job (Even If You Arent Qualified)

7 Strategies for Landing Your Dream Job (Even If You Arent Qualified) â€Å"Do what you love.† This is pretty common career advice, and you’ve probably heard it before. There’s just one catch- how do you get to that dream job, the job you really want? Especially if you don’t really have the experience or qualifications you need? All is not lost. Assuming you don’t want to jump from, say, retail clerk to astronaut, there are ways to help boost yourself up into your dream job. 1. Know What You WantIf you don’t have a goal in mind, it’ll be awfully difficult to set your path to get there. Before you start combing job listings or working on your resume, it’s important to know what your goal is here. This is especially true if your dream job is a bit of a stretch, professionally. Winging it won’t get you ahead here.If you’re having trouble deciding what that dream job can be, there are fun tools like this interactive dream job quiz that can help you speed up the thought process by taking your interests and offering real-world odds of getting a related job. (Sadly, it turns out my odds of becoming a TV-watching spy aren’t super high.)If you’re still not sure about how to juggle what you want to do versus what you’re qualified to do, career coach Laura Berman Fortgang has some great advice about how to cut through the noise and figure out what you want to get from your career:2. Know Your ValueExperience is a great attribute to have in your job hunt, but it’s not the only one. You also need to look at the quality of that experience: the skills and knowledge you have accumulated over time. Whether you’ve been working for 1  year or 15  years, you have steadily built your skills and your professional value. When you’re crafting your resume, think about using a format that showcases your skills, instead of using the traditional chronological format where you list your jobs, working backwards.3. See the Job Requirements as Gui delines, Not Set in StoneIf you think of the job description requirements as more of a starting point than an ironclad list of requirements, it can help remove some of that mental block to applying to a job that may be a reach. While some things may be non-negotiable (such as particular skills), other things may be more flexible if you have equivalent skills or experience. For example, if a job description calls for a Bachelor’s degree but you have an Associate’s and a number of skills related to the job, don’t let that scare you off. Just make sure you emphasize the qualities and skills that you do have to support the job description.4. Set Your StoryEveryone loves a good story- and hiring managers like a story that shows how great a person would be for this particular job. Your resume is the snapshot of your skills and professional experience, but your work doesn’t end there. You need to help set the narrative. Are you the savvy underdog looking to trad e up your skills for experience? Are you a bold career-changer looking to translate your skills and experience to a new industry? Your resume doesn’t tell a reader everything about you- just the highlights. This is why a cover letter can be essential, even in these days of automated submissions. Not only is it a chance to add more key words (more on that in a bit), but it lets you add some color and context about who you are, and summarize why you’re such a great fit for this position.If you don’t have tons of experience, it’s also a way to start the conversation about how your skills bridge a potential experience gap. Give the reader a reason to keep reading, instead of flipping ahead to the next resume. Work on your elevator pitch, which is a quick, succinct headline that answers three questions: who you are, what you do, and what you’re looking for. That’s the line you can hit in your cover letter, in a summary statement/objective on your resume, and again in the interview. This is your chance to set up your brand.5. Outsmart the Resume RobotsThese days, there’s a good chance that the first reader of your resume/application package isn’t even human. No offense to the robots out there, but this is not ideal if you’re trying to punch above your weight class, professionally. The smartest thing you can do here is know exactly what the company is looking for- and you have the job description right in front of you to help you do that. Make sure your resume and cover letter are hitting the key words that jump out of the job description- especially the ones related to experience, education, and skills. This is also where careful proofreading of your resume comes in handy; you want to make sure that your high-priority key words are spelled correctly, and match the way they’re presented in the job description. You don’t want to lie, but if you’re trying to get somewhat creative with y our qualifications, hitting as many of the key points from the job description as possible may get you past the first round, and one step closer to an interview where you can wow them with the skills you do have.6. Network Like CrazyYour network isn’t just a nice little collection of Twitter handles or LinkedIn headshots. These are people whose experience and professional kinship can help boost you from faceless applicant to contender. According to LinkedIn, a whopping 85% (!) of jobs are filled by network referrals. Why is this? Filling open jobs is time-consuming and expensive, and companies like to feel good about the choice and investment they’re making.Having someone else vouch for an applicant can help make that process easier, and push the applicant higher on the list than they might have made it if they just went through the usual process of 1) find job; 2) apply online; 3) wait for HR rep to call. Having someone talk up your skills and fitness for the job is i mmensely helpful. And you never know when an opening or an opportunity may pop up from your old boss, or that guy who sat next to you in Accounting class. Keeping these relationships fresh, and making an effort to attend industry events or networking events is definitely worth your time.7. Package Yourself CarefullyYou already know you need a resume, but that’s merely the first step. If it’s been a while since you redid your resume from scratch, guess what? Now’s the time to burn that sucker to the ground (not literally- no fire hazards, please) and create a new one for the opportunities you want:What Your Resume Should Look Like in 2017Here’s the Number One Resume Mistake You’re MakingWhat’s the Best Format for Your Resume?Your 5-Question Resume ChecklistAnd as always, it’s important to make sure you’re tailoring your resume to match the job you want. Customizing your resume doesn’t take long, and it can mean the differ ence between Joe, the Generic Okay Job Applicant and Joe, the Impressive Interview Candidate Who Would Fit in At Rodeo Clown Inc.But don’t neglect the other pieces here- the cover letter can be an essential part of your applicant package, especially when you’re trying to level up:Important Cover Letter Trends in 2017 That Will Help Your Job Search5 Must Haves for an Effective Cover Letter4 Steps to Writing a Kick-Ass Cover LetterAnd don’t skimp on interview prep, so that you’re ready when the call comes. Make sure your interview outfit and lucky shoes are ready to go, and get yourself in interview fighting shape:7 Real Life Interview Mistakes You Can Learn FromThe Most Important Talking Points for Your Upcoming Interview12 Easy Steps to a Successful Job InterviewIt also can’t hurt to brush up on what not to do. A few cautionary tales can help your interview game when the time comes:5 Reasons You Just Had a Really Bad Interview10 Personal Things Not to Say in an InterviewAfter all, this is your dream job, and you don’t want to feel like you’re scrambling to cover weaknesses or a lack of experience. The more you practice and work on your total package, the smoother you’ll look when you’re finally presenting yourself as the ideal applicant.

buy custom Supervised Machine Learning essay

buy custom Supervised Machine Learning essay The recent technological developments in areas such as the internet, DNA microarray, hyperspectral imagery, database among other notable areas have resulted to the emergency of large amounts of data in wide spectrums of applications. These include areas such as search engines, proteomics, genomic, text categorization, and information retrieval. According to Tan (2007, p. 17), it is estimated that, the total amount of information stored doubles each twenty months. Machine learning thus offers tools to alleviate this problem by analyzing large quantity of data automatically. However, it is notable that, the many applications of features or attributes makes it hard for machine learning to extract all the useful information from a gigantic data streams. Guyon (2003, p. 42) candidly indicates that machine learning provides the necessary tools, through which, large quantities of data may be automatically analyzed. Future selection, which selects a subset of all the most salient features as well as removes redundant, noisy and irrelevant features is the process that usually employed in machine learning in solving highly dimensionally problems. Feature selection focuses the learning algorithms to most useful and crucial aspects of data, thus making learning task more accurate as well as fast. It is notable that in the last five years, feature and variable selection have become one of the main areas of focus in research. This is especially in area of applications for which datasets with hundreds of thousands of variables are present. The objective of feature selections is mainly three fold; offering more coat-effective and faster predictors, developing the prediction performances of all the available predictors, and offering an improved understanding of all the underlying processes, which generated the data. The contributions of the feature and variable selection cover wide range of aspects of the associated problems, such as feature ranking, feature construction, multivariate feature selection, feature validity assessment, as well as offering improved definition of the available objective functions. As indicated above, the rapid developments of applications and novel technologies having large as well as more complex accumulation of data, mainly at unprecedented speeds, there has been collection of large and unknown quantities of candidate features, usually collected to represent data. Tan (2007, p. 18), indicate that although the features, which are irrelevant may fail to add anything to the target concept learning through the learning machine as well as the redundant features, they raise the computation costs of the overall learning process. There are four main advantages of using feature selection in supervised machine learning. First, feature selection reduces computational complexity of prediction and learning algorithms. Most of the well-known learning algorithms have become computational intractable, especially in the presence of huge numbers of features. This applies in the prediction step and training step. Therefore, preceding step of feature selections can enormously solve this problem. Feature selection greatly saves on the costs of measuring non-selected figures. Once a smaller set of the features, which allow good predictions of all the labels are established, one does not have to measure the other features. The other advantage of feature selection, e specially in supervised machine learning, is higher levels of improved accuracy. In most circumstances, feature selection can enhance the accuracy of predictions by improving signals to noise ratio. Generally, in most of the real word tasks, the dimensionality of the data is very high such that it is practically prohibitive or computationally costly for machine learning. Most of the traditional learning algorithms have failed to scale o the large size problems as a result of the curse of the dimensionality. In addition to this, the existence of the noisy features highly degrades the performance of learning algorithms. Feature selection techniques are thus crucial in solving this problem in machine learning. There are two types of machine learning, supervised and unsupervised machine learning as indicated on the diagram below. In the supervised learning, all the class labels of training data are well known. The training example is well represented as pairs of input objectives as well as its desired output, such as class label. The main task of supervised learners is to establish functions to approximate the mapping between the training data to their classes, in order to predict the classes of the new data. Some of the algorithms and approaches that have been proposed for the supervised learning include k-nearest neighbor, decision trees, nave Bayers classifiers, SUVs (Support Vector Machines) and random forests. Guyon (2003, p. 40) supervised learning can be termed as the machine learning duty of inferring a function a labeled (supervised) training data. The training data mainly consists of sets of training examples. In a supervised learning, every example is a pair consisting of an input object, typically a vector, and an output value, also known as the supervisory signal. Supervised learning algorithm an alyzes procedures and training data an inferred function, which is known as a classifier, if the output data is discrete, or a regression function, if the output data is continuous. On the other hand, unsupervised machine learning can clearly be distinguished from the supervised machine learning due to the fact that the class labels used for training data are not usually available. The unsurprised learning method mostly decides which objects can be grouped together in one class. Put in other words, they mostly learn class by themselves. The K-nearest neighbors, self-organizing as well as data clustering algorithms, such as fuzzy c-means clustering and K-means clustering are mostly used for the unsupervised learning tasks. It is crucial to note that good representation of the input objects is crucial due to the fact that the accuracy of the entire learned model enormously depends strongly on the way input objects are indicated typically, the entire input object is changed into a vector of attributes or features, thus being used to describe the object. 1.1 Objectives There are different feature selection algorithms having various objectives to be attained. Some of these objectives include: Finding the minimally sized feature subset sufficient and necessary to the target concept. Selecting a subset N features from a set of M features such that M , such that all the values of the criterion function is fully optimized, over all the subset size N Selecting a subset of features aimed at improving the accuracy of prediction or reducing the size of the structure, without substantially reducing on the accuracy of prediction of all the classifiers, built by using only the features selected. Selecting small subset such that, the resulting class distribution, is very close to the original class distribution if all feature values are given. 1.2. Feature Selection Procedure As indicated above feature selection, also known as feature reduction, variable selection, variable subset selection or attribute selection is a method of selecting a subset of the relevant features, useful for building a robust learning model. Guyon (2003, p. 40) argues that feature selection is critical in problem understanding. This is due to the fact that the selected features can offer great insights on the nature of the problem being tackled. This is enormously crucial, since in most circumstances, the ability to point out the important informative features is necessary as compared to the ability f making good predictions in itself. The main goal of the feature selection is to select small sublets of feature, such that recognition rate of all classifiers do not decrease substantially. Liu and Yu (2005, p. 32) argues that the feature selection method depends on the way in which subsets are generated as well as the evaluation function employed in evaluating all the subsets under examination. There are numerous types of feature selection procedure based on generation procedures of all the subsets as well as the evaluation functions employed to evaluate them. However, a typical feature selection procedure consists of four basic steps, namely: Subset generation Subset evaluation Stopping criterion, and Results validation The flow chart below briefly indicates the four notable processes The process starts with the generation of subset that employs a particular search strategy in order to give rise to a candidate feature subsets. This is followed by evaluation of each candidate subset according to a particular evaluation criterion and then compared with the best subset. If it is better, the previous best one is replaced. It is notable that the process of generation and evaluation of the subset is then repeated until a certain stopping criterion is attained. Finally, the selected best feature subset is carefully validated by the test data or prior knowledge. Liu and Yu, (2005, p. 20) argues that search strategy as well as evaluation are the key points when studying feature selection. 1.2.1 Subset Generation As indicated by Ng (1998, p. 14), subset generation is first a process involving a heuristic search, with every state in the search space having a certain candidate subset for the purpose of evaluation. It is notable that the nature of this process is enormously determined by two basic issues. To start with, one must make a decision on the search point or points that will in turn going to influence the direction. The search process may start with a set that is empty and successively add features (forward) or begin with a full set of and then successively remove features (backward). The search can also begin with both points and then successively add and remove features (bi-directional). Further, search can also begin with a subset that is randomly selected. This is crucial as it avoids the subset being trapped in local optima (Liu and Yu, 2005, p. 16). Secondly, one must decide on a search strategy to be used. For a data set having N features, then there exists candidate subsets. For an exhaustive search the search space is exhaustive, even where N is moderate. There are other search strategies, which have been explored. This include complete, random and sequential search. 1.2.1.1 An exhaustive Search This method guarantees to establish all the optimal results as dedicated by the evaluation criterion adopted. In other words, exhaustive search is complete as no any optimal subset is missed. For instance, for a data set having five parameters, X1 X4, X5 there can be a number of combinations of the independent variables as indicated on the table below. (Rogati and Yang, 2002, p. 44) Note: For a given dataset having Y independent parameters, exhaustive search method will have 2^Y-1 regression models to selected from. This type of search is said to be exhaustive due to the fact that the search is guarantee to generate all the reachable states, prior to it terminate with failure. Liu and Yu (2005, p. 12) candidly indicates that an exhaustive search always build a regression model, with each possible combination of the parameters. However, it is crucial noting that, if a search is complete this does not mean that it must have been fully exhaustive. This is based on the fact that various heuristic functions may be used, in order to reduce the selected search space without necessarily jeopardizing any chances of establishing the optimal results. Though the order of the selected search space is O, smaller number of subsets can be evaluated. An exhaustive search may be performed, on the condition that the numbers of variables are not too large. A wide variety of search strategies, such as branch-and-bound, best-first, genetic algorithms, simulated annealing among others, may be used. Some of the notable examples include branch, bound and beam search. The branch and bound procedure performs an exhaustive search that is done in an orderly fashion, such as search tree, but it halt the search a long a given branch, if bound or limit is exceeded. This can be done if sub-solution fails to look promising. In spite of the time complexity, this search method is usually fast for some given problems. 1.2.1.2 Sequential Search This method gives up completeness, therefore risks loosing the optimal subsets. There are various variations to the greedy hill-climbing method. Some of them include sequential backward elimination, sequential forward selection, as well as bi-directional selection. Sequential forward selection begins with a feature subset that is empty. For all iteration, exactly one of the features is added to the subset. In order to determine the feature to be added, the algorithm exactly adds to the existing candidate feature subset one of the feature, which is already selected as well as tests the accuracy of the classifier build on the tentative subset. Sequential backward deletion is almost similar to the forward selection, but this one begins with all the features as well as tries to remove the feature, resulting in the highest levels of accuracy gain. In some instances, a greedier version of the sequential search method can be implemented where there is the possibility of deleting or adding m ore feature o very iteration. In supervised machine learning, the greedier version is faster, due to the fact that, it examines reduced number of candidate feature subset. It is notable that these methods add or remove some features each at a time. The other method is to add or remove p features in a single step and adding or removing q features in the proceeding step (p q) (Liu and Yu, 2005, p. 15) It is simple to implement algorithms having sequential search. It is also fast to produce results. This is due to the fact that, the order of the sequential search space is mostly O, or even less. 1.2.1.3 Random Search Random search usually start with a subset that is randomly selected and then proceeds into two distinct ways. One ways is to follow sequential search, thus injecting randomness into the sequential approach. Examples include simulated annealing and random-start hill-climbing. The other way is to generate the subsequent subsets in completely random manner, a method that is known as Las Vegas algorithm. According to Tan (2007, p. 21), random search evaluates large sets of random feature subsets and the returns the best feature. Based on this, it is crucial to implement more complex strategies of selection, such as the genetic feature selections or as initialization of the greedy search. For instance, bad choices that are done on the early stages of greedy search usually become hard to be undone, while forward search mostly suffers if all the features, which are judged individually, are poor. Generally for all the approaches, the use of randomness significantly helps in escaping local op tima in the given search space. Further, the optimality of the selected subsets largely depends on all the available resources. 1.2.1.4 Individual Search Liu and Yu (2005, p. 13) argues that the individual search method evaluates every feature separately. The main advantage of this is the fact that it is a high speed search method s compared to others such as exhaustive, random, sequential search among others. As a result of this, individual search is used in for pre-selection of candidate feature subsets from large sets of feature. However, it is crucial to note that, individually, poor features can yield to a high class of separability when they are used together. In individual search, it is possible for one to provide additional test sets using test options. 1.2.2 Subset Evaluation As indicated above, every newly generated subset requires to be evaluated carefully by a given evaluation criterion. It is crucial to note that the goodness of the selected subset is usually determined by a particular criterion. That is, an optimal subset selected using a certain criterion may fail to be an optimal according to the other give criterion. One of the paradigms, which have been dubbed as filter, operates independently of any of the learning algorithm. This is due to the fact that all the undesired features are filtered out of the data prior to the commencement of learning. These algorithms mostly use heuristics based on the general characteristics of data to evaluate merits of the feature subsets. The other school of thought indicates that, the bias of the given induction algorithm ought to be taken into account before selecting a feature. This method is known as wrapper method. It uses an induction algorithm along side a statistical re-sampling technique, such as the cr oss-validation in estimating the final accuracy to all feature subsets. Generally, feature selection algorithms can be divided in three broad categories namely wrapper, hybrid and filter. 1.2.2.1 Filter Method Independent of all the other induction algorithms, the filter method filters out all redundant, noisy, or irrelevant features in the processing steps before induction takes place. Liu, Liu, and Yu (2005, p. 10) argues that filter method select a feature set for any of the learning algorthms to be used when leraning concepst from the training set. The bisaness of all the future selection alogrithms as well as the learning alogrithm do not intearct. The search usually proceeds until pre-specified number of the feature is obtained or some thresholding criteria is met. The key advantage of the filter method as comapred to other methods, such as wrapper method among others, is the fact that this method is fast as well as the ability to scale to the large database.Unlike other methods, such as wrappers, filters usually utilizes the intrinsic properties of the data in evaluating feature subset. In general, the featurse are mostly assesed using their discriminatory or releavnces powers in re gard to the target classes. 1.2.2.2 Wrapper Method In wrapper methods, the performances, such as prediction or classification accuracy, of an induction algorithm is used for the feature subset evaluation as indicated o the figure below. In most of its general formulation, the wrapper method consists in the usage of prediction performance of a certain learning machine, in order to assess the overall usefulness of all the usefulness of the subsets of variables. When applying the wrapper method one should define, the How to search all the usefulness of the subset of variables How to assess the prediction performances of learning machine, in order to guide the search as well as halt it Which predictors will be employed Wrappers are usually criticized due to the fact that they are seen as a brute force method, which require massive amount of computational, though this is not necessarily the case. Greedy search strategies are usually seen as computational advantageous as well as robust against over fitting. In forward selection, wrappers are useful in estimating the accuracy of adding every unselected feature to all the feature subset as well as choosing the best feature to be added according to this kind of criterion. The method usually terminates when the estimated accuracy of adding any of the feature is less as compared to the estimated accuracy of the feature set already selected. Generally, for every generated feature subset S, the wrappers usually evaluates its applicability by using induction algorithms to dataset using the features present in the subset S. Wrappers may easily find features subsets within the high level of accuracy. This is due to the fact that the features match well with al l the learning algorithms (Liu, and Yu, 2005, p. 12). 1.2.2.3 Hybrid Method In order to improve the classification performances as well as fasten feature selection, it is advisable to build a hybrid model. This is due to the fact that it takes the advantage of wrappers and filters by employing both independent criteria and the learning algorithms in measuring feature subsets. Filters offers an intelligence guide for the wrappers, like reducing search space, offering a good start point or shortening the search path, all of which are crucial in scaling wrappers to the larger size problems. Hybrid method employs the independent measures in deciding the subset that is best for any given cardinality (Liu, and Yu, 2005, p. 13). 1.2.2.4 Feature Ranking Among the entire proposed feature selection algorithm, the aspect of feature ranking methods, which rank or score features by a particular criterion. The use rankings of the features as base of selection mechanism are mostly attractive due to their scalability, simplicity as well as the good empirical success. Computationally, the feature ranking is efficient due to the fact that it needs only the computation of M scores as well as sorting all the scores. With regard to ranks of the features, the subsets of important features may be selected in order to build classifiers or predictors. 1.2.3 Stopping Criterion It is important to note that a feature selector should be able to decide when to stop searching through the space of the feature subsets. Depending on evaluation strategies which are available, a feature selection may remove or adding features, when none of the alternative improves on the merits of the current feature subsets. Alternatively, algorithm may continue to revise feature subset as long as the merit has not degraded. Based on this argument, a further option may be to continue with generation of subsets until reaching the other end of search. The best subset is then selected. In most cases, the test is not able to measure the distance existing between the last iterate and the true solution. Generally, a feature selection process may terminate if: The search is complete A predefined size of the feature subset has been selected A predefined number of iterations have been executed A sufficiently good or an optimal feature subset has been obtained, or When the change of feature subset does not result to a better subset (Tan, 2007, p. 23). 1.2.4 Result validation In some of the applications, all the relevant features are usually known beforehand, thus allowing one to validate the results of feature selection. However, in many real-world applications it is hard to understand the features that are relevant. Hence, one has to rely on some of the indirect methods through monitoring the change of the mining performance with all the changes of features (Liu and Dash, 1997, p. 23). Buy custom Supervised Machine Learning essay

-19 Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

-19 - Coursework Example Juveniles are under the influence of their parents/guardians and the environment around them. They are not mature enough to differentiate between right and wrong and so, become a victim of what they acquire from their surroundings. So, rather than punishing them, it is wiser to provide them an environment where they can be shaped to become better citizens, hence the benevolence and rehabilitation centers. Punishing juveniles would give the juveniles a criminal tag which would be hard to remove. They would consider themselves as criminals and live a life based on it. The courts objective of making the society crime-free is better achieved by making juveniles responsible citizens of the state by providing them an environment where it would get easier for them to refrain from criminal activities. The most disagreeable difference between juvenile and adult court is denying juveniles the right to jury trials. This practice gives the judge the sole power to pass-on a decision. The judge enjoys extraordinary independence in reaching a decision as he/she does not have to take into account the views of the jury, as none exists. The chance of giving a wrong decision increases as human negligence and error are more likely to occur as decisions are made by one single person who is not assisted by the jury. Moreover, having a jury in place would show the juvenile the concern the society has for him. This would help him in realizing his responsibilities towards the society. To improve this difference, a jury trial should be mandatory for juvenile cases, not just their constitutional right. Not only would it benefit the accused, but it would also help the society in understanding the problems facing juveniles. Collectively, the society can come up with provisions to eradicate these problems. The Supreme Court decision in Re Gault drastically changed the juvenile courts. Do you agree with the decision and

Terrorist Group ISIS Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Terrorist Group ISIS - Research Paper Example This paper seeks to explain the origin of ISIS, now known as IS and its rise to prominence. Latwan Carpenter additionally explains the structure of the Islamic State and the sources of its financial strength. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) also known as ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) or Islamic State is a political and terrorist organization that embraces a radical understanding of Islam. ISIS operates as a military insurgency group that seeks to enforce its ideologies on Muslims and non-Muslims alike in the whole world. ISIS was barred from cooperating with Al-Qaeda terrorist group for being too extreme, and for using extreme measures in enforcing their ideologies (Hashim, 2014). ISIS changed its name to the Islamic State after gaining immense control of large parts of Syria and Iraq. Islamic State claims to be the rightful rulers for the entire Sunni Muslims in the whole world. Through their military and political operations, they have established what they observe in a state that contains huge regions of territory in Iraq and Syria. Islamic State operations are headquartered at Raqqa in Syria. Having changed their name from ISIS to IS (Islamic State), the group supports numerous theological ideologies to maintain its claims. Its supporters contend that they are just committed to what Islam teaches in totality, denouncing the individuals who do not agree with their ways. Their beliefs and ideologies are used to justify the killings of those who oppose their ways, usually by their trademark of slaughtering through cutting of heads. Initially started by Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the Islamic State organization was formerly known as AQI (Al-Qaeda in Iraq). The group took part in the US invasion of Iraq against the US forces after the American government toppled the Saddam Hussein administration. In the year 2013, IS became part of the civil war in Syria, however, instead of

Amazing Grace And Amazing Revelations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Amazing Grace And Amazing Revelations - Essay Example The entire book is devoted to moving real life stories of the poor and deprived of the district and mind boggling figures of poverty. Perhaps, the main reason behind the success and effectiveness of the book is that it does not put forth long, confusing scientific charts and graphs to explain the poverty and give related figures but exposes the situation by introducing the reader to real life characters - people who live and breathe in that district and are stuck in such a vicious cycle of poverty that is simply beyond our imagination. Kozol's prime focus is women and children. He tries to show that poverty, racial discrimination and lack of basic civic amenities affects this weak and vulnerable stratum of our society the most. For instance, Kozol points out how widespread AIDS actually is by simply stating that almost everyone knows someone who has died of or is currently suffering from AIDS. By 1993 alone, nearly 2000 children had lost their mothers due to AIDS (194). Health care facilities are almost non-existent and hospitals are over-crowded. Patients suffering from serious and at times terminal diseases actu ally have to wait at the hospital for days before they can get a bed or a room. Kozol relates the incident when he had a conversation with David about his sick mother. When asked if she got approval for SSI, David replies in the negative, simply saying, "They say she isn't sick enough" (99). The hygiene and sanitation conditions are so terrible that toxic barrels are strewn everywhere and a great majority of the children suffer from asthma due to the garbage incinerators operating in the residential area. Perhaps the most horrifying section of the book is when Kozol speaks of the problem of rat infestation. Kozol's relation of the incident when a child's fingers are eaten away by rats is too sickening (114). The poverty problem in the area is so acute that soup kitchens and shelters are crowded with mothers elbowing violently and hoping that their child might get some food today. During winter there is acute shortage of warm clothing and sometimes the city government is benevolent enough to hand over sleeping bags. The distressing words of a father of four haunt one by the ruthless honesty of their tone, "You just cover up ... and hope you wake up the next morning" (4). The extreme poverty and totally hopeless circumstances has given rise to widespread depression amongst the children. The seriousness of the problem can be gauged from the fact that the school psychiatrists have long waiting lists of patients. Kozol relates many cases, for instance, of a child staying awake late at night simply to smack cockroaches and of children who cry a lot without knowing or being able to explain why. Kozol's friends at Mott Haven are vehemently critical of the governments policies regarding the poor and are furious at Mayor (fmr.) Rudolph Giuliani for cutting back on a few basic and precious facilities provided to the poor (100). They claim Giuliani's policies, which aim to cut back on sanitation facilities, food programs, drug-rehabilitation programs etc., are unfair and will hurt the poor exceedingly. Saying that the book is an eye opener will be a terrible under statement. The first thought that comes to mind

Net Present Value is the most realistic technique for evaluation

Net Present Value is the most realistic technique for evaluation Introduction Drury (2000) stated, The theory of capital budgeting reconciles the goals of survival and profitability by assuming that management takes as its goal the maximization of the market value of the shareholders wealth via the maximization of the market value of ordinary share. Capital budgeting decisions may be defined as the firms decision to invest its current funds most efficiently in the long term assets in anticipation of an expected flow benefits over a series of years. (Pandy, 2005) According to the above definitions of capital budgeting, following features can be identified, I. Exchange current funds for future benefits II. Funds are invested in long term assets and III. Benefit will occur to the firm over a series of years. Therefore main objective of the capital budgeting decisions are to maximize the wealth of the shareholders by, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Determining which specific investment projects to be undertaken à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Determining the total amount of capital expenditure which the firm should be obtained à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Determining how this portfolio of projects should be financed. In capital budgeting process different investment appraisal techniques are used to evaluate the investments. They are mainly traditional and Discounting Factor (DCF) methods. In traditional method consist of Payback and Accounting Rate of Return (ARR) which dont have the time value adjustment. But in DCF method Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR) are included and they are adjusting the time value of money to the cash flows. These techniques give different benefits and limitations in investment evaluation process, although as per the theoretical view DCF analysis may give more benefit to the organization. However successful completion of a project mainly depends on the selection criteria adopted while choosing the project in the initial phases itself and the choice of a project must be based on a sound financial assessment and not based on impression. DCF techniques are being widely used in both public and private sector. This is the method recommended for evaluating investment proposals. In this method, the incremental cost and benefits of proposals are discounted by a required rate of return in order to obtain the net present value of the proposal. Investment decisions are essential for a business as they define the future survival, and growth of the organization. The main objective of a business being the maximization of shareholders wealth. Therefore a firm needs to invest in every project that is worth more than the costs. The Net Present value is the difference between the projects value and its costs. Thus to make shareholders happy, a firm must invest in projects with positive NPVs. We shall start this essay with an explanation of investment appraisal, NPV, then compare this method with other investment appraisal methods and finally try to define, based on the works of Tony Davies, Brian Pain, and Brealey/Myers/Allen, which method works best in order to define a good investments. What is Investment Appraisal? A means of assessing whether an investment project is worthwhile or not Investment project could be the purchase of a new PC for a small firm, a new piece of equipment in a manufacturing plant, a whole new factory, etc Used in both public and private sector Types of investment appraisal: Payback Period Accounting Rate of Return (ARR) Internal Rate of Return (IRR) Profitability Index Net Present Value (discounted cash flow) Why do companies invest? Importance of remembering investment as the purchase of productive capacity NOT buying stocks and shares or investing in a bank! Buy equipment/machinery or build new plant to: Increase capacity (amount that can be produced) which means: Demand can be met and this generates sales revenue Increased efficiency and productivity Investment therefore assumes that the investment will yield future income streams Investment appraisal is all about assessing these income streams against the cost of the investment Capital budgeting versus current expenditures A capital investment project can be distinguished from current expenditures by two features: a) Such projects are relatively large b) a significant period of time (more than one year) elapses between the investment outlay and the receipt of the benefits. As a result, most medium-sized and large organizations have developed special procedures and methods for dealing with these decisions. A systematic approach to capital budgeting implies: a) The formulation of long-term goals b) The creative search for and identification of new investment opportunities c) Classification of projects and recognition of economically and/or statistically dependent proposals d) The estimation and forecasting of current and future cash flows e) A suitable administrative framework capable of transferring the required information to the decision level f) The controlling of expenditures and careful monitoring of crucial aspects of project execution g) A set of decision rules which can differentiate acceptable from unacceptable alternatives is required. The classification of investment projects a) By project size Small projects may be approved by departmental managers. More careful analysis and Board of Directors approval is needed for large projects of, say, half a million dollars or more. b) By type of benefit to the firm  · An increase in cash flow  · A decrease in risk  · an indirect benefit (showers for workers, etc). c) By degree of dependence  · Mutually exclusive projects (can execute project A or B, but not both)  · complementary projects: taking project A increases the cash flow of project B.  · substitute projects: taking project A decreases the cash flow of project B. d) By degree of statistical dependence  · Positive dependence  · Negative dependence  · Statistical independence. e) By type of cash flow  · Conventional cash flow: only one change in the cash flow sign e.g. -/++++ or +/-, etc  · Non-conventional cash flows: more than one change in the cash flow sign, e.g. +/-/+++ or -/+/-/++++, etc. Brief Introduction to Discounted Cash Flow and Methods This section would give a briefing on the mentioned topic and explain them thoroughly later on in this report. Discounted cash flow (DCF) DCF focuses on the time value of money, Rs.1 is worth more today than Rs.1 in the future. The reason being that it could be invested and make a return (yes, even in times of low interest, so long as interest rates are positive). So thats the discounting methodology, DCF has two methods. Net Present Value (NPV) The annual cash flows are discounted and totaled and then the initial capital cost of the project is deducted. The excess or deficit is the NPV of the project, it goes without saying that for the project to be worthwhile the NPV must be positive and the higher the NPV the more attractive is the investment in the project Internal Rate of Return (IRR) The IRR or yield of a project is the rate of return at which the present value of the net cash inflows equals the initial cost, which is the same as the discount rate which produces a NPV of zero. For an investment to be worthwhile the IRR must be greater than the cost of capital. Due to the following reasons, DCF method is identified as a best method for Investment appraisal processes, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ They give due weight to timing and size of cash flow à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Thy take the whole life of the project in to irregular cash flows do not invalidate the result obtained. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Estimate of risk and uncertainty can be incorporated à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Use of discounting methods may lead to move accurate estimating and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ They rank projects correctly in order of profitability and give better criteria for acceptance or rejection of projects than other method. Because of that in theoretically said that DCF analysis is best method to evaluate the investment over its rivals. A survey carried out by the Arnold Hatzopolous (2000) and Graham Harvey (2000) to identify the practical usage of investment appraisal techniques among the large manufacturing firms of UK had revealed that NPV and IRR are less behind its rivals in practically. Therefore they have commented that there is a gap between usages of appraisal techniques in practically and theoretically. The economic evaluation of investment proposals The analysis stipulates a decision rule for: I) accepting or II) rejecting Investment projects The time value of money Recall that the interaction of lenders with borrowers sets an equilibrium rate of interest. Borrowing is only worthwhile if the return on the loan exceeds the cost of the borrowed funds. Lending is only worthwhile if the return is at least equal to that which can be obtained from alternative opportunities in the same risk class. The interest rate received by the lender is made up of: The time value of money: the receipt of money is preferred sooner rather than later. Money can be used to earn more money. The earlier the money is received, the greater the potential for increasing wealth. Thus, to forego the use of money, you must get some compensation. The risk of the capital sum not being repaid. This uncertainty requires a premium as a hedge against the risk; hence the return must be commensurate with the risk being undertaken. Inflation: money may lose its purchasing power over time. The lender must be compensated for the declining spending/purchasing power of money. If the lender receives no compensation, he/she will be worse off when the loan is repaid than at the time of lending the money. Internal Rate of Return The internal rate of return (IRR) is another widely used method of investment appraisal. It calculates the rate of return, where the difference between the present values of cash inflows and outflows, the NPV, is zero. Thus when would a company undertake the project? Simply when the expected rate of return, the IRR, exceeds the target rate of return of the company. This is called the IRR rule. When the IRR is superior to the target rate of return, the NPV is positive. When IRR is equal to the target rate of return then NPV is equal to 0, and when the IRR is inferior to the target rate of return, then the NPV is negative. IRR can easily be determined through interpolation, which assumes a linear relationship between the NPVs of a capital investment project obtained using different discount rates. The exact rate is calculated algebraically using the theorem of Thales. we would have to compute a complex weighted average of these rates to be able to compare it to the IRR. This very much complicates the task, and gives us yet another reason to stick to the simple NPV method to better appraise investments. It has been shown that NPV proves to be much more reliable and simple of use than IRR. IRR is indeed subject to many pitfalls developed above. Nevertheless, a very important proportion of managers still use the IRR method to define attractive investments. Why could this be? It can be argued that managers do not trust the cash flow forecasts they receive. In the case of two projects A and B having the same NPV, IRR plays an important role. Project A requires an investment of 8,000 and project B necessitates an investment of 80,000. As said earlier both NPVs are the same. In such a situation where the NPVs are similar, managers would go for the project, whose initial investment is the lowest. If the project were to be dysfunctional, it is always easier to recover from a small initial loss than from a bigger one. By looking at the IRR the choice is quickly made. The project with the highest IRR is the one with the less risk. To summarize we have seen that although easy to use when used correctly, there are many drawbacks to the use of the IRR. IRR ignores the size of investment projects. That is two projects may have the same IRR but one project can return many times the cash flow returned by the other project. If the project cash flows are alternatively positive and negative, then we obtain two or more IRRs, or even no IRR, which can be disconcerting for interpretation. IRR should not be used to make a choice between mutually exclusive projects because it proves to be unreliable when it comes to ranking investment projects of different scale. So Forth, the IRR rule is difficult to apply when the discounting factors used over the years are different. Indeed, it is not easy to define what opportunity cost IRR should be compared to. Modified Internal Rate of Return (MIRR) Modified internal rate of return (MIRR) is a financial measure of an investments attractiveness. It is used in capital budgeting to rank alternative investments. As the name implies, MIRR is a modification of the internal rate of return (IRR) and as such aims to resolve some problems with the IRR. Problems with the IRR While there are several problems with the IRR, MIRR resolves two of them. First, IRR assumes that interim positive cash flows are reinvested at the same rate of return as that of the project that generated them. This is usually an unrealistic scenario and a more likely situation is that the funds will be reinvested at a rate closer to the firms cost of capital. The IRR therefore often gives an unduly optimistic picture of the projects under study. Generally for comparing projects more fairly, the weighted average cost of capital should be used for reinvesting the interim cash flows. Second, more than one IRR can be found for projects with alternating positive and negative cash flows, which leads to confusion and ambiguity. MIRR finds only one value. Calculation MIRR is calculated as follows: , Where n is the number of equal periods at the end of which the cash flows occur (not the number of cash flows), PV is present value (at the beginning of the first period), FV is future value (at the end of the last period). The formula adds up the negative cash flows after discounting them to time zero, adds up the positive cash flows after factoring in the proceeds of reinvestment at the final period, then works out what rate of return would equate the discounted negative cash flows at time zero to the future value of the positive cash flows at the final time period. Spreadsheet applications, such as Microsoft Excel, have inbuilt functions to calculate the MIRR. In Microsoft Excel this function is =MIRR. Example If an investment project is described by the sequence of cash flows: Year Cash flow 0 -1000 1 -4000 2 5000 3 2000 Then the IRR r is given by . In this case, the answer is 25.48% (the other solutions to this equation are -593.16% and -132.32%, but they will not be considered meaningful IRRs). To calculate the MIRR, we will assume a finance rate of 10% and a reinvestment rate of 12%. First, we calculate the present value of the negative cash flows (discounted at the finance rate): . Second, we calculate the future value of the positive cash flows (reinvested at the reinvestment rate): . Third, we find the MIRR: . The calculated MIRR (17.91%) is significantly different from the IRR (25.48%). Lefley and Morgan have developed a financial appraisal model, which has extended the traditional appraisal methodologies so as to provide more considered comparison for individual investment projects. The Lefley and Morgan model creates a profile, which combines the uses of NPV, Discounted payback period, and the discounted payback index, (DPBI). The discounted payback period is interesting to take into consideration as the entity proceeding with the investment might be lacking money and would prefer having a quick return of the funds invested. DPBI is used to assess the number of times the initial cost of the investment will be recovered over the projects life. It is calculated by dividing the accumulated present values by the initial capital cost. Combined these methods give a fairly accurate view of an investment. Net present value vs internal rate of return Independent vs dependent projects NPV and IRR methods are closely related because: Both are time-adjusted measures of profitability, and their mathematical formulas are almost identical. So, which method leads to an optimal decision: IRR or NPV? a) NPV vs. IRR: Independent projects Independent project: Selecting one project does not preclude the choosing of the other. With conventional cash flows (-|+|+) no conflict in decision arises; in this case both NPV and IRR lead to the same accept/reject decisions. NPV vs. IRR Independent projects If cash flows are discounted at k1, NPV is positive and IRR > k1: accept project. If cash flows are discounted at k2, NPV is negative and IRR Mathematical proof: for a project to be acceptable, the NPV must be positive, i.e. Similarly for the same project to be acceptable: Where R is the IRR. Since the numerators Ct are identical and positive in both instances:  · Implicitly/intuitively R must be greater than k (R > k);  · If NPV = 0 then R = k: the company is indifferent to such a project;  · Hence, IRR and NPV lead to the same decision in this case. b) NPV vs. IRR: Dependent projects NPV clashes with IRR where mutually exclusive projects exist. Example: Agritex is considering building either a one-storey (Project A) or five-storey (Project B) block of offices on a prime site. The following information is available: Initial Investment Outlay Net Inflow at the Year End Project A -9,500 11,500 Project B -15,000 18,000 Assume k = 10%, which project should Agritex undertake? = $954.55 = $1,363.64 Both projects are of one-year duration: IRRA: $11,500 = $9,500 (1 +RA) = 1.21-1 Therefore IRRA = 21% IRRB: $18,000 = $15,000(1 + RB) = 1.2-1 Therefore IRRB = 20% Decision: Assuming that k = 10%, both projects are acceptable because: NPVA and NPVB are both positive IRRA > k AND IRRB > k Which project is a better option for Agritex? If we use the NPV method: NPVB ($1,363.64) > NPVA ($954.55): Agritex should choose Project B. If we use the IRR method: IRRA (21%) > IRRB (20%): Agritex should choose Project A. See figure below. NPV vs. IRR: Dependent projects Up to a discount rate of ko: project B is superior to project A, therefore project B is preferred to project A. Beyond the point ko: project A is superior to project B, therefore project A is preferred to project B The two methods do not rank the projects the same. Differences in the scale of investment NPV and IRR may give conflicting decisions where projects differ in their scale of investment. Example: Years 0 1 2 3 Project A -2,500 1,500 1,500 1,500 Project B -14,000 7,000 7,000 7,000 Assume k= 10%. NPVA = $1,500 x PVFA at 10% for 3 years = $1,500 x 2.487 = $3,730.50 $2,500.00 = $1,230.50. NPVB == $7,000 x PVFA at 10% for 3 years = $7,000 x 2.487 = $17,409 $14,000 = $3,409.00. IRRA = = 1.67. Therefore IRRA = 36% (from the tables) IRRB = = 2.0 Therefore IRRB = 21% Decision: Conflicting, as:  · NPV prefers B to A  · IRR prefers A to B NPV IRR Project A $ 3,730.50 36% Project B $17,400.00 21% See figure below. Scale of investments To show why: The NPV prefers B, the larger project, for a discount rate below 20% The NPV is superior to the IRR a) Use the incremental cash flow approach, B minus A approach b) Choosing project B is tantamount to choosing a hypothetical project B minus A. 0 1 2 3 Project B 14,000 7,000 7,000 7,000 Project A 2,500 1,500 1,500 1,500 B minus A 11,500 5,500 5,500 5,500 IRRB Minus A = 2.09 = 20% c) Choosing B is equivalent to: A + (B A) = B d) Choosing the bigger project B means choosing the smaller project A plus an additional outlay of $11,500 of which $5,500 will be realized each year for the next 3 years. e) The IRRB minus A on the incremental cash flow is 20%. f) Given k of 10%, this is a profitable opportunity, therefore must be accepted. g) But, if k were greater than the IRR (20%) on the incremental CF, then reject project. h) At the point of intersection, NPVA = NPVB or NPVA NPVB = 0, i.e. indifferent to projects A and B. i) If k = 20% (IRR of B A) the company should accept project A.  · This justifies the use of NPV criterion. Advantage of NPV:  · It ensures that the firm reaches an optimal scale of investment. Disadvantage of IRR:  · It expresses the return in a percentage form rather than in terms of absolute dollar returns, e.g. the IRR will prefer 500% of $1 to 20% return on $100. However, most companies set their goals in absolute terms and not in % terms, e.g. target sales figure of $2.5 million. The profitability index PI This is a variant of the NPV method. Decision rule: PI > 1; accept the project PI If NPV = 0, we have: NPV = PV Io = 0 PV = Io Dividing both sides by Io we get: PI of 1.2 means that the projects profitability is 20%. Example: PV of CF Io PI Project A 100 50 2.0 Project B 1,500 1,000 1.5 Decision: Choose option B because it maximizes the firms profitability by $1,500. Disadvantage of PI: Like IRR it is a percentage and therefore ignores the scale of investment. The Payback Period (PP) The CIMA defines payback as the time it takes the cash inflows from a capital investment project to equal the cash outflows, usually expressed in years. When deciding between two or more competing projects, the usual decision is to accept the one with the shortest payback. Payback is often used as a first screening method. By this, we mean that when a capital investment project is being considered, the first question to ask is: How long will it take to pay back its cost? The company might have a target payback, and so it would reject a capital project unless its payback period was less than a certain number of years. Example 1: Years 0 1 2 3 4 5 Project A 1,000,000 250,000 250,000 250,000 250,000 250,000 For a project with equal annual receipts: = 4 years Example 2: Years 0 1 2 3 4 Project B 10,000 5,000 2,500 4,000 1,000 Payback period lies between year 2 and year 3. Sum of money recovered by the end of the second year = $7,500, i.e. ($5,000 + $2,500) Sum of money to be recovered by end of 3rd year = $10,000 $7,500 = $2,500 = 2.625 years Disadvantages of the payback method It ignores the timing of cash flows within the payback period, the cash flows after the end of payback period and therefore the total project return. It ignores the time value of money. This means that it does not take into account the fact that $1 today is worth more than $1 in one years time. An investor who has $1 today can consume it immediately or alternatively can invest it at the prevailing interest rate, say 30%, to get a return of $1.30 in a years time. It is unable to distinguish between projects with the same payback period. It may lead to excessive investment in short-term projects. Advantages of the payback method Payback can be important: long payback means capital tied up and high investment risk. The method also has the advantage that it involves a quick, simple calculation and an easily understood concept. Discounted Payback Method Some companies require that the initial outlay on any project should be recovered within a specific period. The discounted payback appraisal method requires a discount rate to be chosen to calculate the present values of cash inflows and then the payback is the number of years required to repay the initial investment. Yet payback can give misleading answers. Project Year 0 Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 A -4,000 2,500 500 5,500 B -4,000 2,500 1,800 0 C -4,000 3,180 500 0 The cost of capital is 10% per annum Project A Year Net cash Discount factor Present Cumulative flow at 10% values present values 0 -2,000 1.00 -2,000 -2,000 1 500 0.91 455 -1,545 2 500 0.83 415 -1,130 3 5,000 0.75 3,750 2,620 Project B Year Net cash Discount factor Present Cumulative flow at 10% values present values 0 -2,000 1.00 -2,000 -2,000 1 500 0.91 455 -1,545 2 1,800 0.83 1,494 -51 3 0 0.75 0 -51 Project C Year Net cash Discount factor Present Cumulative flow at 10% values present values 0 -2,000 1.00 -2,000 -2,000 1 1,800 0.91 1,638 -362 2 500 0.83 415 53 3 0 0.75 0 53 The payback rule does not take into consideration any cash inflow that occurs after the cut-off date. For example if the cut-off date is two years, project A, although clearly the most profitable on the long term will be rejected. Thus if a firm uses the same cut-off regardless of project life then it will tend to accept many poor short lived projects and reject many good long lived ones. The Accounting Rate of Return (ARR) The ARR method (also called the return on capital employed (ROCE) or the return on investment (ROI) method) of appraising a capital project is to estimate the accounting rate of return that the project should yield. If it exceeds a target rate of return, the project will be undertaken. Note that net annual profit excludes depreciation. Example: A project has an initial outlay of $1 million and generates net receipts of $250,000 for 10 years. Assuming straight-line depreciation of $100,000 per year: = 15% = 30% We here see that ARR is based on profits rather than cash flows and that it ignores the time value of money. It therefore just gives a brief overview of a new project, and should not be recommended as a primary investment appraisal method. As said earlier the impact of cash flows and the time value of money are essential in making an investment decision. Another disadvantage of the ARR is the fact it is dependent on the depreciation policy adopted by the business. Disadvantages It does not take account of the timing of the profits from an investment. It implicitly assumes stable cash receipts over time. It is based on accounting profits and not cash flows. Accounting profits are subject to a number of different accounting treatments. It is a relative measure rather than an absolute measure and hence takes no account of the size of the investment. It takes no account of the length of the project. It ignores the time value of money. The payback and ARR methods in practice Despite the limitations of the payback method, it is the method most widely used in practice. There are a number of reasons for this:  · It is a particularly useful approach for ranking projects where a firm faces liquidity constraints and requires fast repayment of investments.  · It is appropriate in situations where risky investments are made in uncertain markets that are subject to fast design and product changes or where future cash flows are particularly difficult to predict.  · The method is often used in conjunction with NPV or IRR method and acts as a first screening device to identify projects which are worthy of further investigation.  · It is easily understood by all levels of management.  · It provides an important summary method: how quickly will the initial investment be recouped? limitations of NPV when evaluating alternative investment proposals NPV is not that flexible and only uses information available at the time of the decision. It does not account for changes to the projects after the initial decision is made. NPV factors in risk by using a single discount rate, but in reality choices in the future concerning the project will likely change its payoffs and risk. Try real option analysis instead if you want to get around this problem. NPV only evaluates tangible and quantifiable projects. Some projects with negative NPVs are carried out anyway because they have some kind of strategic value, e.g. it shows the firm in a good light, builds goodwill or allows access to as yet unknown earnings in the future. Conclusion In conclusion it can thus be stated that only discounted cash flow methods should be used for appraising investments. This leaves us with the discounted payback method, the IRR, and the NPV. The Discounted payback method, ignoring cash flows that occur after the payback point, cannot be used on its own as it simply provides an overview. Concerning the IRR, although easy to understand it has many pitfalls that have been developed above. Thus the NPV rule proves to be the safest and most reliable. Yet the ideal

Essay --

For this assignment, I chose â€Å"The Origin of Modern Humans† by Roger Lewin as my book to read for my book report. Roger Lewin is a British award-winning science author and writer of 20 books. He was employed at New Scientist in London for about nine years. He went to Washington, D.C. to write books and other pieces for science for ten years as news editor. The book by him that I chose, in 201 pages, this book explained answers to questions like where and when modern humans first appeared, what features distinguish modern humans, who our immediate ancestors were, and many more. For example, the subtopics are; the African origin, the multiregional origin, the archeology of modern humans, language and modern human origins, symbolism and images, mitochondrial divergence, human variation, and an overview of homosapieans and the modern debate. In this book there are two main views in paleoanthropology, the study of humankind, about the origin of modern humans: the African origin and the multiregional origin. The recent African origin of modern humans is the popular theory. The theory is called the â€Å"Out-of-Africa model†, and is also known more professionally as the recent single-origin hypothesis. The book speaks about how the hypothesis that humans have a single origin was published in Charles Darwin's book. The idea was mostly hypothetical until the 1980s, when it was confirmed by a study of DNA, combined with evidence based on physical studies of old specimens. According to genetic and fossil evidence, the original homosapiens evolved to modern humans only in Africa, around 200,000 to 100,000 years ago, with people from one area leaving Africa about 60,000 years ago and over a period of time taking over earlier human populations lik... ...was cute and very interesting how successful she was at speaking the English language and I also thought it was cute and heart-warming at the same time. It was fascinating how a chimpanzee could know more words than some toddlers. The thing I liked least about this book was the lengthiness and wordiness of it. It was very round-about in getting to the point or conclusion of the topic. It had a lot of extra information that I felt wasn’t necessary or just didn’t really have a place in the chapter. I also found some subtopics much less interesting than others. I personally would not recommend this book. I did like some parts but I disliked it more than I liked it and unless someone is very passionate about this subject I wouldn’t tell them to read it because they would probably find it boring or it would be hard for them to understand certain parts like it was for me.

A New Work Ethic

Describe how typical the attitudes that Sheehy reports appear to be in work environments you have experienced. They seem to be very typical in some of the work environments I have been in. I recall some years ago when I took on the fast-food world for about 14 days, a lot of the employees there were young and immature. Many company’s like McDonalds and Burger King employee these high school and college students who have not matured enough to fully understand the true value of work. For that reason, many of these companies are subject to much revenue loss due to fraud and theft within the work place. I’m sure that they account for that when they draw out their business plans and write out their policies and procedures to ensure mangers look out for employees with those traits. Explain the implications of the work ethic Sheehy describes for the future of American business. If I read the case right it seems as if he is saying that tomorrow’s leaders of America are ones that feel that you must claw your way to the top. They show characteristics of someone who would step on anyone or do anything to get what they want. It shows implications of a lot of ill will being performed in the future and how the structure of business competition may be a bit more competitive in the future. Explain whether it is more reasonable to expect workers, especially in a capitalist society, to be more devoted to their jobs, more concerned with quality and customer service, than Sheehy’s coworkers were. Yes, it is reasonable to expect more from workers that have been out there longer in respectable work environments. They have educated themselves enough to know when to show certain parts of their personality and have conquered their childish endeavors. Such individuals have formed a discipline within and know that the true way to the top of their careers is by showing true talent and knowing the fundamentals of your job. These things are just not learned over not and usually high school and college freshmen students are just beginning their journey down the literary path and have not learned these fundamentals yet. Explain the reasoning behind employee theft. I don’t think there is a true reasoning behind employee theft. Yet, if I had to pull one from the case reading I would say that it is the fact that the employees are young and naive. They lack discipline and respect and take for granted their jobs and the value of the job they do. The case seems to demonstrate how many fast food establishments have low moral within their employee body and lack good strong ethnic value training. I think if the employees should be trained to know what good ethics is. Also, they should be shown how to perform good moral ethics in their everyday work environment. Then, if it was actually implicated and enforced it would change the way many of the fast food employee staff viewed their positions and their overall attitudes toward their jobs would change. Explain ways the culture of our capitalists society encourages attitudes like those Sheehy describes. The capitalists’ society encourages attitudes like those by making it seem like it is a doggie dog world in the land of business. Every time you open a newspaper or turn on the television you hear how some accountant stole billions and trillions of dollars from some company. Stories of investment fraud and millionaires stepping on someone to get their lead in the market flood the airwaves on different Medias all over the world. Of course, after all that I would assume that the message that would be received by young, inspiring entrepreneurs is get in and get yours no matter how. This is what we are being told to do to only look out for number one. It is not until you actually get into the game and start dealing with the real action that you truly understand that what the media display and always real or remotely accurate. You have Politian’s that get up in front of the people and promise all the things to them. Saying that the can change things and offering things that they know they may not be able to achieve just to get a vote. These types of actions send the message that it is ok to tell a lie to get what you want in the business world and that the rules are only there to be broken. In conclusion, the culture of our capitalists’ society encourages attitudes like those Sheehy describes in its everyday actions and advertisements’, through Government leaders actions right down to the State leaders actions. What these officials and many like them do is seen and heard around the world and many follow in their footsteps in hopes that they would be smart enough to do it better and acquire all those luxuries without doing the work, just like the last man did.

Arguments against Euthanasia The Slippery Slope Ma Essays

Arguments against Euthanasia The Slippery Slope Ma Essays Arguments against Euthanasia The Slippery Slope Many people worry that if voluntary euthanasia were to become legal, it would not be long before involuntary euthanasia would start to happen. This is called the slippery slope argument. In general form it says that if we allow something relatively harmless today, we may start a trend that results in something currently unthinkable becoming accepted. If we change the law and accept voluntary euthanasia, we will not be able to keep it under control. It is impossible to create a regulatory system for euthanasia that will prevent the abuse of it. As a result, Doctors may soon start killing people without bothering with their permission. Health care costs will lead to doctors killing patients to save money or free up beds. The last few months of a patient's life are often the most expensive in terms of medical and other care. Shortening this period through euthanasia could be seen as a way of relieving pressure on scarce medical resources, or family finances. Family or others involved with the sick person may regard them as a burden that they don't wish to carry, and may put pressure (which may be very subtle) on the sick person to ask for euthanasia. Increasing numbers of examples of the abuse or neglect of elderly people by their families makes this an important issue to consider. Some people fear that allowing euthanasia sends the message, "it's better to be dead than sick or disabled".The subtext is that some lives are not worth living. Therefore it downgrades their status as human beings while they are alive. People who are ill and dependent can often feel worthless and an undue burden on those who love and care for them. They may actually be a burden, but those who love them may be happy to bear that burden. Nonetheless, if euthanasia is available, the sick person may pressure themselves into asking for euthanasia.

FADEC-Full Authority Digital Engine Control Essay Essays

FADEC-Full Authority Digital Engine Control Essay Essays FADEC-Full Authority Digital Engine Control Essay Paper FADEC-Full Authority Digital Engine Control Essay Paper FADEC is a system comprising of a digital computing machine ( Electronic Engine Control EEC ) and the other accoutrements that control all the facets of aircraft engine public presentation. FADEC is made for Piston engine and jet engines both but they differ in the manner of commanding the engine. A primary ground for the rapid technological advancement of the U. S. LCA industry has been its ability to pull on and benefit from inventions in other high-technology industries. For illustration. high velocity supercomputers accurately model aircraft air flows without the assistance of air current tunnels. Computers besides have been incorporated significantly in LCA cockpits as planimeters of information. With the increased use of flat-panel shows that project the image of an electromechanical gage. several shows either can be transferred separately to assorted panels or superimposed on one panel at the pilot’s discretion. In add-on. computing machines have aided in the development of Full-Authority Digital Engine Control ( FADEC ) systems. FADEC allows for improved monitoring and adjusting of engine runing parametric quantities. such as fuel flow and velocity. : This enhanced control of aircraft engines has led to a lessening in both fuel ingestion and care demands. History of FADEC A FADEC ( Full Authority Engine Control ) is an electronic system that controls all the important parametric quantities of aircraft power workss. One of the system roles is to take down the cognitive burden of pilots while they operate turbojet engines. and to cut down the happening of pilot mistakes. The purpose of any control system is to let the engine to execute at the maximal capacity for a status. The original engine control system is mechanical linkages and controlled by the pilot. By utilizing throttle levers which are connected to the engine. the pilot could merely command power end product. fuel flow. and the other parametric quantities of engine. These mechanical agencies of engine control was an debut of parallel electronic engine control. Analog electronic control varies an electronic signal to pass on the coveted engine scenes. This system was foremost introduced as an indispensable portion of the Rolls Royce Olympus 593 engine. The 593 engine was regarded best for the celebrated supersonic conveyance aircraft. Concord. In the 1970’s NASA and Pratt and Whitney foremost experimented on FADEC. it was foremost flown on F-111 fitted with extremely modified Pratt and Whitney TF30 left engine. The experiments led to Pratt A ; Whitney F100 and Pratt A ; Whitney PW2000 being the first civil and military engines severally fitted with FADEC and subsequently the Pratt A ; Whitney PW4000 as the commercial â€Å"Duel FADEC† engine. Rolls- Royce financess about 20 UTCs working on cardinal countries of engine engineering. Most of the UTCs focal point on facets of production engineering. e. g. high temperature stuffs and burning. The York UTC is comparatively unusual in that if focal points on procedure issues. In peculiar the York UTC investigates systems and package technology processes for the development of full Authority Digital Engine Controllers ( FADECs ) . A FADEC is a complex hydro-mechanical system which carries out all cardinal engine control maps. typically: Thrust provision- changing fuel and air flows through the engine to supply managed push. Thrust control- in peculiar proviso of contrary push from the engine for braking on landing. Heat management- ensures that parts of the engine are cooled suitably. Airframe communication- having control commands from the airframe ( e. g. from the pilot ) and returning engine position indicants. Fault management- detection mistakes in the engine position indicants. ( Henderson. pg. 38 ) Maintenance- entering mistakes informations for on land engine care. At the bosom of the FADEC is a computing machine system known as an Electronic Engine Controller ( EEC ) . The EEC and its package signifier a difficult real-time system and. typically. the system is safety critical. I. e. failures could potentially take to a loss of push and possibly of the aircraft. Functions of FADEC-Full-Authority Digital Engine Control There must non be any signifier of manual override available for Full Authority Digital Engine Control. This to the full places full authorization upon the operating parametric quantities of the engine to computing machine. If FADEC would neglect the engine would besides neglect. If the engine would be controlled digitally and electronically. it would be considered as Electronic Control Unit ( ECU ) or Electrical Engine control ( EEC ) . FADEC plants by the given input variables of the current flight place like engine temperatures. air denseness. engine force per unit areas. restrict lever place and others. The EEC receives inputs and analyzes them up to 70 times per second. Engine operates many parametric quantities like bleed valve place. stator vane place. and fuel flow and others are computed from this information and applied as appropriate. FADEC controls most of the maps like re-starting and get downing. The basic intent of FADEC is to give optimal engine efficiency for a given flight status. FADEC allows having engine care studies and plan engine restrictions. For case. FADEC can be programmed to take the necessary steps without pilot intercession to avoid transcending an engine temperature. Turbine engines The fuel control system on the turbine engine is reasonably complex. as it monitors and adjusts many different parametric quantities on the engine. These accommodations are done automatically and no action is required of the pilot other than get downing and closing down. No mixture accommodation is necessary. and operation is reasonably simple every bit far as the pilot is concerned. New coevals fuel controls incorporate the usage of a full authorization digital engine control ( FADEC ) computing machine to command the engine’s fuel demands. The FADEC systems addition efficiency. cut down engine wear. and besides cut down pilot work load. The FADEC normally incorporates back-up systems in the events computing machine failure. Jet engines Modern jet engine is really considerable: it forms an built-in portion of the engine and is indispensable for its operation. In many instances some of the engine control electronics is physically mounted on the engine. Many modern jet engines have a full authorization digital engine control system ( FADEC ) . This automatically controls the flow of fuel to the engine burning Chamberss by the fuel control unit so as to supply a closed cringle control of engine push in response to the throttle bid. The control system ensures the engine bounds in footings of temperatures. engine velocities and that the accelerations are non exceeded and the engine responds in an optimal mode to the throttle bid. The system has what is known as full authorization in footings of the control it can exert on the engine and the high unity failure endurance control system is indispensable. Otherwise a failure in the system could earnestly damage the engine and guess the safety of the aircraft. A FADEC engine control system is therefore similar in many ways to a FBW flight control system. ( Collinson. pg. 9 ) FADEC is used in about all jet engines and new Piston engines on chopper and fixed winged aircraft. With the operation of the engines so to a great extent trusting on mechanization. the most of import concern is its safety. Redundancy is provided in the separate indistinguishable digital channels. FADEC monitors a distinct and digital informations coming from the engine subsystems and assortment of parallel. and supplying for mistake tolerant engine control. In the civilian conveyance aircraft flight. the flight crew enters the appropriate informations to the day’s flight in the ( FMS ) flight direction system. The FMS reads the informations like air current. runway length. cruise altitude etc. and so calculates the scenes for the different stages of flight. The flight crew advances the throttle to take off which contains no mechanical linkage to the engine. The flight crew cheques that they have simply sent an electronic signal to the engines as no direct linkage has been moved to open fuel flow. This is the same stage for all type of flights like sail. ascent etc. The FADECs compute and use the appropriate trust scene. During the flight little alterations in operation are being made to keep efficiency. Full Authority Digital Control ( FADEC ) system is configured to guarantee safe. stable and dependable engine operation at all the points in the flight envelope. Control Torahs are indispensable for supplying the coveted engine operations safely. The control Torahs must be verified and validated before the engine starts for a flight. Reference Collinson. G. P. R. ( 2003 ) Introduction to Avionics Systems. Springer. pg. 9 Global Competitiveness of U. S. Advances-Technology Manufacturing Industries. DIANE Publishing Company. Darby. Henderson. Peter. System Engineering for Business Process Change: New Directions: Collected†¦pg. 38 Sullerey. K. R. Oommen. Charlie. Raghunandan. N. B. ( 2004 ) . Air Breathing Engines and Aerospace Propulsion Proceedings of NCABE 2004.

Journal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 48

Journal - Essay Example The story also presents an existing conflict between human rights bodies, tribesmen, and police, against ISIS. The group had done these actions before in Syria, which led to mass deaths, and abduction of women and children. The main aim of this story is to expose the extent of human rights violation by ISIS purporting to protect religion, but goes to the extreme mile of executing people, and kidnapping. The target audience in this story is human rights organizations and peacekeepers in Iraq. The writer presents photos and videos showing activities and executions done by ISIS in the past and seems to highlight the negative effects, pain and suffering people are going through because of ISIS. The picture presentation has an element of emotional appeal due to the dull pictures showing the ISIS in action holding guns, which gives a chilling effect. This story fails to give an in-depth background about ISIS and people reading this news for the first time shall not fully understand the

Antigone, Oedipus and Othello Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Antigone, Oedipus and Othello - Research Paper Example Thesis Statement This paper intends to present an in-depth study of the plays that have evolved from different ages in the literature through the manifestation of a comparative study. Along with that the comparative analysis of the themes present in the plays, culminates a perspective quintessential for the understanding of the role of these plays in comprehending the societies from which they have evolved. Comparison To compare the Greek plays Antigone and Oedipus with that of Othello by William Shakespeare, the first thing that will come under the scanner for choosing the parameter of comparison is the lapse of time running between the composition of Antigone, Oedipus and Othello. Yet, there are certain pre-cognitive planes on which the thread of comparison can be preceded. All the three plays are great tragedies of literature but Antigone is a tragedy of a princess and Oedipus and Othello speaks the tragic saga of two kings from two different parts of the world facing their predic ament at two different times, yet are united by their grief and suffering evolved out of misunderstanding, betrayal and infidelity with all-pervasive elements of destiny extending and exercising its spell on the characters of the play. Antigone was probably composed by Sophocles before or in the year of 442 B.C. Chronologically, Antigone stands in the third position among the three Theban Plays but it is assumed to be written first. The play focuses on the expansion of the Theban legend that is composed predated to it and picks up the note where Aeschylus’ ‘Seven Against Thebes’ ends. On the other hand, Oedipus is also composed by Sophocles and it is an Athenian tragedy that was first performed around 429 B.C. This play is the second in the chronological order among the three Theban plays but in the internal chronology, it comes first which is followed by Oedipus of Colonus and lastly by Antigone. Over the ages, Oedipus as a play has become the mark of the excellence which Greek culture and art possessed at that time and undoubtedly is one of the remarkable tragedies of all times (Knox, B. â€Å"The Date of the  Oedipus Tyrannus  of Sophocles†). Othello was composed by all-time master playwright of English literature, William Shakespeare and is assumed to be composed around 1603. Believed to be based on the Italian short story titled â€Å"Un Capitano Moro†, which in English means â€Å"A Moorish Captain†, the piece was composed by Cinthio who was a follower of Boccaccio. It is presumed to be first published in the year 1565. Othello as a tragedy has surpassed all the limits of the pain that love can bring and stands out as a shrine of aesthetic creativity, poetic verses and passionate presentation. All the three plays, Antigone, Oedipus and Othello are tragedies and all the three plays are set against a non-English background. Therefore, a comparative analysis of these plays would launch the readers into a platform that would yield a lot of information and perspective of Greek as well as Venetian society. At the same time, in all the three plays the role of women in society and their conditions from society to society at different times play important expression which would again launch into a macrocosmic interpretation of the social values pertaining during the different ages when the plays were composed.