IT-Management Essay

Assignment # 10 Question 1: Global Information Systems are the systems developed for the multinational users in order to provide free flow of information within the divisions of a single company and between the MNCs. Question 2 Think globally and act locally means a product should suit the regional and cultural preferences of the local people and at the same time the product line should be global and strategic planning needs to be centralized Question 4 Yes every website is a global IS, because there is a free flow of information through the website and almost all the websites are now catering to global customers irrespective of their location. Question 5 If I were an executive of a multi lingual website, I would strike a balance between manual interpretation and software based translation, because at the end of the day the quality and accuracy of translation is more important. Question 7 Data privacy laws are different in United States and European Union and there is a discrepancy in the collection & use of personal data in US and European countries. Question 10 It is important to provide the Time Zone converter in the Global SCM because the shipping and delivery time and the payment time should match with the time zone of the customers and the suppliers. Assignment # 11 Summary of the Case: Fairchild Semiconductor is world leader in design & manufacturing of microprocessors. It has 36 offices in 17 countries.   Fairchild ships more than 17 billion units of its products annually to as many as 45 countries. The company has assembly and testing facilities in China, Malaysia & Philippines. The work-in-progress is often shipped from one country to another and back to the original country for further processing. Fairchild integrated the software called Trade Export Solution into its ERP system. It helps automate the global logistics. The software has helped Fairchild cut costs by readily providing the trade compliance documentation, avoiding shipping delays, reducing the shipping staff and standardizing the shipping procedures worldwide. Question 1 Answer: The software reduces the risk of logistic & shipping delays due to non-compliance of export & import laws and regulations of country including US homeland security issues. Question 2 Answer: The software helps company cut the costs by shortening the shipping duration; avoiding shipping delays; minimizing the duties; by providing fastest delivery and by reducing the shipping staff. Question 3 Answer: The integration of Management Dynamics’ software into ERP system helps automate the global logistics. The digital forms are generated, the information on fastest & least costly carriers is provided, various costs related to shipping and exports are calculated automatically, the trade compliance documentation is readily available saving the labor-intensive search and shipping procedures are standardized worldwide. Question 4 Answer: The standardization of processes is important in Fairchild because the company has its global presence in 17 countries and the work-in-progress is often shipped from one country to another and back to the original country for further processing. Also it is easier to implement the benchmarked procedures in the new facilities, in future.

E-Ticket

INDEX 1. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 2. FEASIBILITY STUDY a) ABSTRACT b) PROBLEM STATEMENT c) FORMULATION OF SOLUTION STRATEGIES and d) ANALYSIS OF ALTERNATE SOLUTIONS 3. REQUIREMENT ANALYSIS a) HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS b) SRS DOCUMENT i. SOFTWARE MODEL ii. ARCHITECTURAL PATTERN iii. DESIGN PATTERN iv. SCOPE AND PROCESS v. OUTLINE OF ANALYZED PROCESSES 4. SYSTEM DESIGN a) PROJECT SYNOPSIS b) ER-DIAGRAMS c) UML DIAGRAMS i. USECASE DIAGRAMS ii. CLASS DIAGRAMS iii. SEQUENCE DIAGRAMS d) DATABASE DESIGN 5. MAINTENANCE 6. CONCLUSION 7. BIBLIOGRAPHY ABSTRACT ? Name of the Project: e-Ticketing Vision: The Ultimate motto of the project addresses all the problems that were faced by the current traveling agencies. Coming to the feasibility aspect the current project focuses on 1) Economical Feasibility 2) Technical Feasibility 3) Operational Feasibility ? Deliverables/ Functional Specification:- 1. Current Administrators 2. Current Agents 3. Customers 4. Details of the services. 5. Timings, Sourc e, Destination details. Note: The application should be secured with different levels of access control. INITIAL INVESTIGATION Project Request and Problem initializationThe first step in System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is the identification of need. The user request identifies the need for change and authorizes the initial investigation. The objective is to determine whether the request is valid and feasible. The outcome of the initial investigation is the presentation of results called project proposal. An acceptance signature on the project proposal by the authorized person and its acceptance by the MIS department makes it a formal agreement to proceed with the detailed analysis and design of the candidate system. PROBLEM DEFINITION:This project is basically about the â€Å"e-Ticketing† for â€Å"xxxxxxxxxx†. The existing procedure of â€Å"e-Ticketing† was done locally respective to the travelling agency, looking up and checking the various details of di fferent services in different places was a tedious and cumbersome process. It was even error prone and definitely not a pleasant task to perform. There are many problems involved in the existing system and has the following limitations- †¢ Time consuming (All process was done involving manually). †¢ Lack of integration. †¢ Difficulty in data processing (Since for each time the customer has to manually involve). Changing the decision at the last moment is a tedious task. †¢ Difficulty in viewing the service details. These were the chief reasons for the development of the project. To alleviate the above lacuna and thus achieving better information retrieval, the organization has decided to introduce the use of â€Å"e-Ticketing† FORMULATION OF SOLUTION STRATEGIES AND ANALYSIS OF ALTERNATE SOLUTIONS Organizations today can be benefit from the availability of these alternatives and evaluate how they can best benefit from them in the short to long term. Full tr easury centralization is today more accessible than ever.The traditional centralizing structures are still the preferred options, but payment factories are becoming more critical as the integration layer between treasury and the rest of the organization. Furthermore, strategic outsourcing is lowering the investment and project risk barriers and can significantly reduce the execution time of a centralization initiative if not even leap-frog some of the intermediate phases. While organizational centralization is a concept that is well understood, its practical application faces many challenges that often lead to a slow progression towards fully centralized management models.Transition can take different forms and can proceed at different speeds depending on the corporate organization. Individual business as well as form-wide initiatives, driven by cost efficiency, process integration or performance visibility, generate new centralization-fostering opportunities The use of reference to centralization terminology requires some qualifications: †¢ Strategic coordination – the less intrusive form, relying on policies, procedures and guidelines centrally issued. Compliance control – based on a formal and strict compliance and reporting framework, which could extend to central approval for certain activities †¢ Mandated execution – involving the transfer of some value-adding activities to a central entity †¢ Functional consolidation – migration and reorganization of entire activities into a new infrastructure Over the past decade functional centralization has experienced a strong acceleration thanks to rapid developments in application technology and communication protocols.By breaking down some of the barriers to effective exchange, access and circulation of data and information, the functional distribution of tasks and activities can be designed in a more flexible manner. Business applications can be deployed as single globa l installations and accessed remotely and securely. They can interface more easily with other systems and integrate a number of independent or standalone processes. The combination of these features takes centralization to a new level of sophistication and at the same time makes it more accessible and appropriate to a broader number of organizations.While organizational centralization is a concept that is well understood, its practical application faces many challenges that often lead to a slow progression towards fully centralized management models. Transition can take different forms and can proceed at different speeds, depending on the corporate organization. â€Å"Centralization† is commonly associated with a number of strong benefits that range from pure cost savings to control improvement, full compliance with corporate policies, process standardization, increased productivity and expertise consolidation. Hardware and software Requirements User interface requirements: D reamweaver MX.IDE : Eclipse Database requirements : Oracle8. 1 Server : Tomcat 5. 0 Preferred Technologies : JavaScript, Java ( Jdbc 2. 0,Servlets2. 1, JSP 1. 2 ,Struts) SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS MODEL In this project we are using the â€Å"Evolutionary Model† which is also referred to as the successive versions model and sometimes as the Incremental model. Comparison of different life cycle models Although classical waterfall model is the basic model for all the other life cycle models but it cannot be used in practical development projects, since these models supports no mechanism to handle the errors during the phases.This problem is overcome in iterative waterfall model but it is not suitable for very large projects and for projects that are subject to many risks. This model assumes that the requirements be completely specified before the next of the development activity can start, it cannot be satisfactorily used in projects where only rough requirements are available at the beginning of the project. This model creates blocking states in the system i. e. , some team members would have to wait for a phase to be complete before they can start their next activity. This is clearly wastage of resources and such wastages are rarely tolerated in real projects.In this life cycle model, the software is first broken down into several models (or) functional units, which can be incrementally constructed and delivered. The development team first develops the core modules of the system. This initial product skeleton is refined into increasing levels of capability by adding new functionalities in successive versions. Each evolutionary version may be developed using an iterative waterfall model of development. Each successive version of the product is fully functioning software capable of performing more useful work than the previous versions.In this model, the user gets a chance to experiment with partially developed software much before the complete version o f the system is released. Therefore, the evolutionary model helps to accurately elicit user requirements during the delivery of the different versions of the software, and the change requests therefore after delivery of the complete software are minimized. Also the core modules get tested thoroughly, thereby reducing chances of errors in the core modules of the final product. Further, this model obviates the need to commit large resources in one go for development of the system.The main disadvantage of the successive versions model is that for most practical problems it is difficult to divide the problem into several functional units, which can be incrementally implemented and delivered. Therefore, the evolutionary model is normally useful for only very large products, where it is easier to find modules for incremental implementation. Often the evolutionary model is especially when the customer prefers to receive the product in increments to be able to start using the different feat ures as and when they are developed rather than waiting for the full product to be developed and delivered.Evolutionary model is very popular for the object-oriented software development projects, because the system can easily be partitioned into stand-alone units in terms of the objects. ARCHITECTURAL PATTERN Model-View-Controller The Model Layer The model layer in a Java based web application can be implemented using any Java-based technology, such as EJB, Hibernate, or JDO. In our CoreBanking System. The model is represented as simple JavaBeans containing the data and business logic in a simple data access object. As far as possible, the model objects should be developed so that they have no knowledge of the environment.This allows us to more easily reuse them across environments and applications. The View Layer The view layer of most Java based web applications is made up of JavaServer pages. To facilitate the development of the view, Java provides a set of JSP tag libraries. Th ese tag libraries allow us to easily provide fully internationalised user interfaces that interact with the model components of a web application. The vast majority of dynamic Web front ends are based on HTML forms, and users of such applications have come to expect from these applications certain behaviours, such as form validation.With standard JSP, this is a tedious process that involves recording the contents of the form and populating every form element with information from a JavaBean in case of error. Java facilitates this sort of form processing and validation using Custom tags. These, in combination with the JSP tag libraries, make View development with forms really simple and natural. The Controller Layer Java includes a Servlet that implements the primary functions of the Controller, which is to map the incoming URL to a model object. The Servlet provides the following functions: 1.Decide what action is required to service a users request 2. Provide view data to the view 3. Decide which view to show next A Java developer must provide these actions (models) to implement the logic of their application. What is Model-View-Controller? . Let’s start by looking at how the Model, the View, and the Controller interact with one another: [pic] Figure 1: Model 2/MVC architecture As you can see from the above diagram, the user interacts with the Controller components (usually represented by Servlets) by submitting requests to them.In turn, the Controller components instantiate Model components (usually represented by JavaBeans or other similar technology), and manipulate them according to the logic of the application. Once the Model is constructed, the Controller decides which View (usually represented by JavaServer Pages) to show to the user next, and this View interacts with the Model to show the relevant data to the user. Using Java Server Pages or Servlets alone is known as Model 1. Model 2 was not particularly innovative or new; it uses Servlets to resemble Controller and Java ServerPages for resembling views.Many people realised that it follows the well-known MVC pattern that was developed back in the days of Smalltalk. As such, Java programmers tend to use the terms Model 2 and MVC interchangeably. DESIGN PATTERN Data Access Object Context Access to data varies depending on the source of the data. Access to persistent storage, such as to a database, varies greatly depending on the type of storage (relational databases, object-oriented databases, flat files, and so forth) and the vendor implementation Problem Applications can use the JDBC API to access data residing in a relational database management system (RDBMS).The JDBC API enables standard access and manipulation of data in persistent storage, such as a relational database. The JDBC API enables J2EE applications to use SQL statements, which are the standard means for accessing RDBMS tables. However, even within an RDBMS environment, the actual syntax and format of the S QL statements may vary depending on the particular database product. There is even greater variation with different types of persistent storage. Access mechanisms, supported APIs, and features vary between different types of persistent stores such as RDBMS, object-oriented databases, flat files, and so forth.Such disparate data sources offer challenges to the application and can potentially create a direct dependency between application code and data access code. When business components-entity beans, session beans, and even presentation components like servlets and helper objects for Java Server Pages (JSP) pages –need to access a data source, they can use the appropriate API to achieve connectivity and manipulate the data source. But including the connectivity and data access code within these components introduces a tight coupling between the components and the data source implementation.Such code dependencies in components make it difficult and tedious to migrate the appl ication from one type of data source to another. When the data source changes, the components need to be changed to handle the new type of data source. Forces Portability of the components is directly affected when specific access mechanisms and APIs are included in the components. Components need to be transparent to the actual persistent store or data source implementation to provide easy migration to different vendor products, different storage types, and different data source types. SolutionUse a Data Access Object (DAO) to abstract and encapsulate all access to the data source. The DAO manages the connection with the data source to obtain and store data. The DAO implements the access mechanism required to work with the data source. The data source could be a persistent store like an RDBMS, an external service like a B2B exchange, a repository like an LDAP database, or a business service accessed via CORBA Internet Inter-ORB Protocol (IIOP) or low-level sockets. The business com ponent that relies on the DAO uses the simpler interface exposed by the DAO for its clients.The DAO completely hides the data source implementation details from its clients. Because the interface exposed by the DAO to clients does not change when the underlying data source implementation changes, this pattern allows the DAO to adapt to different storage schemes without affecting its clients or business components. Essentially, the DAO acts as an adapter between the component and the data source. Participants and Responsibilities Business Object The Business Object represents the data client. It is the object that requires access to the data source to obtain and store data.A Business Object may be implemented as a session bean, entity bean, or some other Java object, in addition to a servlet or helper bean that accesses the data source. Data Access Object The DataAccessObject is the primary object of this pattern. The DataAccessObject abstracts the underlying data access implementati on for the Business Object to enable transparent access to the data source. The Business Object also delegates data load and store operations to the DataAccessObject. Transfer Object This represents a Transfer Object used as a data carrier. The DataAccessObject may use a Transfer Object to return data to the client.The DataAccessObject may also receive the data from the client in a Transfer Object to update the data in the data source. Consequences: †¢ Enables Transparency Business objects can use the data source without knowing the specific details of the data source's implementation. Access is transparent because the implementation details are hidden inside the DAO. †¢ Enables Easier Migration A layer of DAOs makes it easier for an application to migrate to a different database implementation. The business objects have no knowledge of the underlying data implementation. Thus, the migration involves changes only to the DAO layer.Further, if employing a factory strategy, i t is possible to provide a concrete factory implementation for each underlying storage implementation. In this case, migrating to a different storage implementation means providing a new factory implementation to the application. †¢ Reduces Code Complexity in Business Objects Because the DAOs manage all the data access complexities, it simplifies the code in the business objects and other data clients that use the DAOs. All implementation-related code (such as SQL statements) is contained in the DAO and not in the business object.This improves code readability and development productivity. Centralizes All Data Access into a Separate Layer Because all data access operations are now delegated to the DAOs, the separate data access layer can be viewed as the layer that can isolate the rest of the application from the data access implementation. This centralization makes the application easier to maintain and manage. Scope of the Development Project Database Tier: The concentration is applied by adopting the Oracle 8. 1 Enterprise versions. SQL is taken as the standard query language.The overall business rules are designed by using the power of PL/SQL components like stored procedures stored functions and database triggers. User Tier: The use interface is developed is a browser specific environment to have centralized architecture. The components are designed using Dreamweaver and Java server pages power the dynamic of the page design. Data Base Connectivity Tier The communication architecture is designed by concentrated on the standards of servlets and Java Beans. The database connectivity is established using the Java Database connectivity. PurposeThe generated application is the first version upon the system. The overall system is planned to be in the formal of distributed architecture with homogeneous database platform. The major objective of the overall system is to keep the following components intact. ( System consistency ( System integrity ( Overall se curity of data ( Data reliability and Accuracy ( User friendly name both at administration and user levels ( Considering the fact of generality and clarity ( To cross check that the system overcomes the hurdles of the version specific standards OUTLINE OF ANALYZED PROCESSES ACTOR: ADMIN Process:1 Registration of new Administrator Input: Enter all the admin details like first name, last name, date of birth etc. Process: registration (form) Output: registration success/ registration fail ? Process:2 View Pending Agents Input: All the Pending Agents Process: view Pending Agents (form) Output: Accept/Reject Process:3 View Permanent Agents Input: All the Permanent Agents Process: view all the permanent Agent Details Output: success/fail ? Process :4 Add a new Bus Input: Enter Number, Type, Source, and Destination†¦ Process: Add the details in the database Output: success/fail Process :5 Add a new Bus Type Input: BusType, Id†¦ Process: Insertion of new Type (Id. ) Output: succes s/fail ? Process :6 Add Offer Input: OfferName, Applicable for, time. Process: adding Offer (form) Output: success/fail ? Process :7 Add New Trip Details Input: Enter all the trip details like Tripid, Locationid, etc. Process: New Trip (form) Output: success / fail ? Process:8 Change Halts Input: Enter existing source, destination details of the Location Process: change Halts (form) Output: success/fail ? Process:9 Send Messages To Notice Board Input: Enter Description of the Topic, Applicable to†¦Process: sendMessages(adform) Output: success ? Process:10 Send Mails Input: Agents Id, Customer Id Process: send mails (form) Output: success ? Process:11 Create new group Input: Enter grid and name of the group Process: insertGroupDetails (GroupDetailsForm gdf) Output: success ? Process:12 View all the Buses Input: View All Process: get all the details from Database Table Output: success/fail ? Process:13 View Offers Input: View Offers, Time they will be elapsed. Process: view Offer s (table) Output: success ? Process:14 view Permanent Agents Input: view all the existing Permanent AgentsProcess: all the permanent Agents (table) Output: success ? Process:15 view messages Input: view All the messages that r sent by Agents, Customers Process: view Messages (table) Output: success ? Process:16 view Buses Input: view all the existing Buses Process: view Buses(table) Output: success ? Process:17 View TripDetails Input: view All the TripDetails Process: Get all the trip details like(Trip Id,Timings.. ) Output: success ? Process:18 view BusTypes Input: view all the existing BusTypes Process: View BusTypes(table) Output: success ACTOR: AGENT ? Process:1 RegistrationInput: Enter all the Agentdetails like first name, last name, date of birth etc. Process: registration (form) Output: registration success/ registration fail ? Process:2 View Pending Agents Input: All the Pending Agents Process: view Pending Agents (form) Output: Accept/Reject ? Process:3 View Permanent Agent s Input: All the Permanent Agents Process: view all the permanent AgentDetails Output: success/fail ? Process :4 Add a new Bus Input: Enter Number, Type, Source, and Destination. Process: Add the details in the database Output: success/fail ? Process :5 Add a new BusType Input: BusType, Id,Process: Insertion of new Type (Id. ) Output: success/fail ? Process :6 AddOffer Input: OfferName, Applicable for,time.. Process: adding Offer (form) Output: success/fail ? Process :7 Add New TripDetails Input: Enter all the tripdetails like Tripid, Locationid, etc. Process: NewTrip(form) Output: success / fail ? Process:8 Change Halts Input: Enter existing source, destination details of the Location Process: change Halts (form) Output: success/fail ? Process:9 Send Messages To NoticeBoard Input: Enter Description of the Topic,Applicable to†¦ Process: sendMessages(adform) Output: success Process:10 SendMails Input: AgentsId, CustomerId Process: send mails(form) Output: success ? Process:11 Cr eat new group Input: Enter gid and name of the group Process: insertGroupDetails (GroupDetailsForm gdf) Output: success ? Process:12 View all the Buses Input: View All Process: get all the details from Database Table Output: success/fail ACTOR: CUSTOMER ? Process:1 Registration of new Administrator Input: Enter all the admindetails like first name, last name, date of birth etc. Process: registration (form) Output: registration success/ registration fail ? Process:2 View Pending AgentsInput: All the Pending Agents Process: view Pending Agents(form) Output: Accept/Reject ? Process:3 View Permanent Agents Input: All the Permanent Agents Process: view all the permanent Agent Details Output: success/fail ? Process :4 Add a new Bus Input: Enter Number, Type, Source, and Destination. Process: Add the details in the database Output: success/fail ? Process :5 Add a new Bus Type Input: BusType, Id, Process: Insertion of new Type (Id. ) Output: success/fail ? Process :6 AddOffer Input: OfferNa me, Applicable for, time. Process: adding Offer (form) Output: success/fail Process :7 Add New TripDetails Input: Enter all the trip details like Tripid, Locationid, etc. Process: New Trip (form) Output: success / fail Project Synopsis Technical Descriptions ? Database: The total number of databases that were identified to build the system is 14. The major parts of the databases are categorized as administration components and customer of based components. The administration components are useful is managing the actual master data that may be necessary to maintain the consistency of the system. These databases purely used for the internal organizational needs and necessities.The Administrator, Agent and Customer components are designed to handle to transactional states that arise upon the system whereas customer makes a visit onto the portal for making his transactions faster. The Customer components are scheduled accept parametrical information from the users as per the system nece ssity. ? GUI: In the flexibility of the users the interface has been developed a graphics concept in mind, associated through a browsers interface. The GUI’S at the top level have been categorized as ? Administration users interface ? Agents interface ? Customer users interfaceThe Administration users interface concentrate on the consistent in that is practically part of organizational actuaries and which needs proper authentication for data collation. The Administrator and Agent user interface helps the respective actors in transacting with the actual information as per their necessities with specific to the required services. The GUI’s restrict the ordinary users from mismanipulating the systems data, which can make the existing system non-operational. The information with specific to their personal standards and strategies can be changed through proper privileges. Modules: ) Administrator Module: This module maintains the services related to system administrator who is authenticated upon the system. This module fairly maintains the integration between the modules related to backend database and the functionalities carried out in the whole organization. This module also binds itself with the agent and customer details. 2) Agent Module: This module maintains the information related to the customers who have been signed upon to the system as well as the internal information of the organization. The module integrates itself with the other modules like the Administrator module and customer module that are provided y the organization. This module acts as a major integrator with Admin transactions and the requests for approvals that are raised by the customer. 3) Customer Module: This module manages and keeps track of the details of the existing services. It has interaction to Agent as well as administrator to keep track of the consistency of information form time to time as they are executed. 1. Actor: Admin The Admin module consists of the followin g services: ? Register another administrator. ? View pending agents and Accept or Reject them ? View permanent agents ? Add a new Bus. ? Add New Bus Type ? Add Offer Add New Trip Details ? Change Halts ? Send Messages to notice Board ? Send Mails ? View All the Busses ? View All Administrators ? View Offers ? View Permanent Agents ? View Messages ? View Busses ? View Trip details ? View Bus Types Register another administrator: In this process, Admin submits the details of another administrator with whom he want to share his responsibilities. The person whom admin appoints as an administrator will have the privilege to do all the responsibilities that are performed by actual Admin only if he is properly authenticated after login. †¢ View pending agents and Accept or Reject them::In this process, he can view the pending agents, he may accept the agents or reject. The agents who r accepted will be treated as Permanent agents. Those who are rejected, their details will not be upda ted in the database. †¢ ViewPermanentAgents: In this process he can view all the permanent agents along with their complete details. And the details of new Agents which he made from pending to permanent agents. †¢ Add New Bus : In this process, if the existing services are not able to meet the requirements of customers, he may add new types to meet the requirements of customer. Add New Bus Type: In this process, if the existing services are not able to meet the requirements of customers, he may add new types to meet the requirements of customer. †¢ Add Offer: In this process, a strategy of new offers will be declared by admin to attract customers, and increase his business and thereby withstanding in the competition. †¢ Add New Trip Details: In this process, new trip details will be declared by admin as per the agent & customer requirements. By modifying the trip details according to customer and agent requirements they may feel convenient. †¢ Change Halts:I n this process, admin can change the halts of his buses according to the Requirement of customers and also the agents keeping in view of appropriate halts and timings. †¢ Send Messages to notice Board: In this process, admin can display the messages about the bus services, timings, charges, offers, trips, also the details of performance appraisal of his employees to motivate them. †¢ Send Mails: In this process, admin can send the messages about the queries that were posted by both agent and customer. A proper feedback must be there for every organization to withstand the competition and to be interactive with customers. View All Administrators: In this process Admin can view all the administrators that are appointed by him for responsibility division. and he can all the details of them completely in this module. †¢ View Offers: In this process Admin can view the offers he provided . Because he should delete the offers as and when the time of the particular offer has been elapsed. †¢ View Permanent Agents: In this process Admin can view the permanent agents that r under his guidance. By viewing this module he can have the complete idea that who are the new agents added as permanent and also their details. View Messages: In this process Admin can view all the messages that are sent by agents for enhancements and has the privilege to implement the enhancements if the requirements are really needed. Can view all the messages that are sent by agents for enhancements and has the privilege to implement the enhancements if the requirements are really needed. †¢ View Buses: In this process, admin can view the details of the services and their appropriate timings and their halts and also the type of services and all other desired details. †¢ ViewTripDetails:In this process, admin can view the details of the services and their appropriate timings and their halts and also the type of services and all other desired details. †¢ ViewBusTyp es: Instead of sending messages to each and every account with this service Admin can display the message into the notice board and is accessed by every person. †¢ Logout: Whenever the Admin wants to quit the application he needs to use this service so that the session will be invalidated so that no one can access his account thus restricting others in accessing the Admin’s account. 2. Actor: Agent Registration for new License ? Registration ? Add Offer ? View Offers ? Send Messages ? View Messages ? Book Ticket ? Block Ticket ? Add Customer ? View Customers ? Logout †¢ Request for new license: In this process, new bus station that is agent want to establish should take a license from the Central agency i. e. Head Office . In the license certificate establishment details. Location, date details will be there. Registration In this process, agent can change his password by submitting the specified fields like agent id, old password, new password, retype new password.I f he enters the correct values then his password and he will get new password. †¢ Add Offer In this process, offers will be announced by agent office to implement business strategies such that it will improve the throughput and withstand in the competitive environment. †¢ View Offers: In this process, the existing offers include and also to delete the offers if the specified offer time has been elapsed. †¢ Send Messages: In this process, the total offers include new & old will be maintaining at the agent office. If the correspondent agent office has some permanent customer it can send messages to them. View Messages: In this process, every agent maintain list of messages to which they have sent, the messages how the people (customers r interactive with both agents and Administrators. †¢ Book Ticket: In this process, agent can book the tickets as the requirement of the customer approached by verifying the availability of trips, timings, availability seats†¦. †¢ Block Ticket In this process, agent office maintains details of customers if any one wants to cancel the tickets immediately they can block the tickets by assigning to others who r ready that trip. .Add Customer:In this process, if any customer wants to register with the agent he has the privilege to add the customer and make the services available to this new Customer. †¢ View Customers: In this process, every agent office maintains data about the customers, and their complete details regarding the journey along with his journey details. And also the services he was using. †¢ Logout: Whenever the Agent wants to quit the application he needs to use this service so that the session will be invalidated so that no one can access his account thus restricting others in accessing the Agent’s account. 3. Actor: Customer ? Register ? View Offers View Messages ? Send Messages to Agent ? Send Messages to Administrator ? View Bus Services ? View Bus Trip details like t imings †¦ ? Send Request to agent for booking a ticket ? Logout †¢ Register : In this process the Customer who wants the intended services provided by the agency. He should submit the details required, and if they r valid then only he will be given with one unique ID, Password which he should submit while login phase. If he forgets the password or Id he will be provided with an option to regain its Uid And password, but he should submit some details correctly with the data which he was submitted during registration phase. View Offers: In this process, customer see offers according to that he can register to view the offers. If he is eligible for that offer i. e. time is not elapsed he may bargain that offer. †¢ View Messages: In this process, customer sees all messages that are given by Customers, Agents, and Administrators and may get the required information. †¢ Send Message to Agent: In this process, Customer Registration modifications (i. e. ticket cancellati on, buy new tickets, dates postponement) occur. If the customer has any problem-sending message to agent can solve him. †¢ Send Message to Administrators:If the agents could not solve problems of the customers, meesage are sent to the administrators to solve those problems. Such they may get the accurate information from the adminstrator or send their valuable suggestions to implement by the Organization. †¢ View Bus Services: This process helps to get overall information about bus services i. e. Bus timings, routes such that he may get the services for his desired timings And may travel accordingly. †¢ View Bus Trip details like timings †¦ This process helps to give overall information about bus services And No. f Trips, Bus timings, routes, availability at his desired timings †¢ Send Request to agent for a ticket booking: In this process customer can directly reserve the tickets in nearer agents or from far place. by submitting the source & destination det ails along with the fare details i. e. the way of amount to be paid. †¢ Logout: Whenever the Customer wants to quit the application he needs to use. This service so that the session will be invalidated so that no one can access his Account thus restricting others in accessing the customer’s account. IMPLEMENTATION Program Design LanguageThe program design language is also called as structured English or pseudopodia. PDL is a generic reference for a design language PDL looks like a modern language. The difference between PDL and real programming language lies in the narrative text embedded directly within PDL statements. The characteristics required by a design language are: ? A fixed system of keywords that provide for all structured constructs date declaration and modularity characteristics. ? A free syntax of natural language that describes processing features. ? Subprogram definition and calling techniques that support various nodes of interface description.PDL syntax should include constructs for subprogram definition, interface description date declaration techniques for structuring, conditions constructs, repetition constructs and I/O constructs. PDL can be extended to include keywords for multitasking and/or concurrent processing interrupt handling, interposes synchronization the application design for which PDL is to be used should dictate the final form for the design language. Testing Objectives: The main objective of testing is to uncover a host of errors, systematically and with minimum effort and time. Stating formally, we can say, ?Testing is a process of executing a program with the intent of finding an error. ? A successful test is one that uncovers an as yet undiscovered error. ? The tests are inadequate to detect possibly present errors. ? The software more or less confirms to the quality and reliable standards. Unit Testing : ? The purpose of the coding and unit testing phase of software development is to translate the software d esign into source code. Each component of the design is implemented as a program module. The end-product of this phase is a set of program modules that have been individually tested.To enable the engineers to write good quality programs, every software development organization normally formulates its own coding standards that suits itself. A coding standard addresses issues such as the standard ways of laying out the program codes, the template for laying out the function and module headers, commenting guidelines, variable and function naming conventions, the maximum number of source lines permitted in each module, and so forth. ? During this phase, each module is unit tested to determine the correct working of all the individual modules.It involves testing each module in isolation as this is the most efficient way to debug the errors identified at this stage. Another reason behind testing a module in isolation is that the other modules, with which this module has to be interfaced, may not be ready. Integration and System Testing Integration of different modules is undertaken once they have been coded and uni tested. During the integration and syste3m testing phase, the modules are integrated in a planned manner. The different modules making up a software product are almost never integrated in one shot.Integration is normally carried out incrementally over a number of steps. During each integration step, the partially integrated system is tested and a set of previously planned modules are added to it. Finally, when all the modules have been successfully integrated and tested, system testing is carried out. The goal of system testing is to ensure that the developed system conforms to its requirements laid out in the SRS document. Our project is integrated and tested by using an activity by name (- testing. (- testing is the system testing performed by the development team. MAINTENANCEMaintenance is any work done to change the system after it is in operational. The term maintenance is used to describe activities that occur following the delivery of the product to the customer. The maintenance phase of the software life cycle is the time period in which a software product performs useful work. Maintenance activities involve making enhancements to products, adapting products to new environments, correcting problems. In this be retrieve the data from the database design by searching the database. So, for maintaining data our project has a backup facility so that here is an additional copy of data, which needs to be maintained. More over our project would update the annual data on to a CD, which could be used for later reference. CONCLUSION ? WORK DONE: The â€Å"e-Ticketing† was successfully designed and is tested for accuracy and quality. During this project we have accomplished all the objectives and this project meets the needs of the organization . The developed will be used in searching, retrieving and generating information for t he concerned requests. ? GOALS ? Reduced entry work. ? Easy retrieval of information ? Reduced errors due to human intervention ? User friendly screens to enter the data Portable and flexible for further enhancement ? Web enabled. ? Fast finding of information requested BIBLIOGRAPHY Reference Books: 1. The Complete Reference ——————–Patrik Naughton, Herbert Schildt 2. Java Servlet Programming ——————–Orielly 3. Html Black Book ——————–Steven Hozner 4. The Programming Language ——————–Ivan Bayross 5. Software Engineering ——————–James Websites: 1. http://www. java. sun. com 2. http://www. sunsoft. com 3. http://www. javasoft. com 4. http://www. apress. com 5. http://www. oracle. com 6. http://www. jspin. com

An Introduction to Tax

tax rate schedule, how much federal tax will he owe? What is his average tax rate? What is his effective tax rate? What is his current marginal tax rate? Chuck will owe $14,875 in federal income tax this year computed as follows: $14,875 = $4,750 + 25%($75,000 – $34,500)). Chuck’s average tax rate is 19. 83%. Average Tax Rate = [pic]=[pic] = 19. 83% Chuck’s effective tax rate is 17. 50 percent. Effective tax rate = [pic] = [pic] = 17. 50% Chuck is currently in the 25 percent tax rate bracket. His marginal tax rate on increases in income up to $8,600 and deductions from income up to $40,500 is 25 percent. 35) [LO3] Using the facts in the previous problem, if Chuck earns an additional $40,000 of taxable income, what is his marginal tax rate on this income? What is his marginal rate if, instead, he had $40,000 of additional deductions? If Chuck earns an additional $40,000 of taxable income, his marginal tax rate on the income is 27. 36 percent. Marginal Tax Rate = [pic]= [pic] = 27. 6% If Chuck instead had $40,000 of additional tax deductions, his marginal tax rate on the deductions would be 25. 00 percent. Marginal Tax Rate = [pic]= [pic] = 25. 00% 36) [LO3] In reviewing the tax rate schedule for a single taxpayer, Chuck notes that the tax on $75,000 is $4,750 plus 25 percent of the taxable income over $34,500. What does the $4,750 represent? The $4,750 represents the income tax on $34,500 – i. e. , $850 + 15% ($34,500 – 8,500). 42) [LO3] Scot and Vidia, married taxpayers, earn $240,000 in taxable income and $5,000 in interest from an investment in City of Tampa bonds. Using the U. S. tax rate schedule for married filing jointly, how much federal tax will they owe? What is their average tax rate? What is their effective tax rate? What is their current marginal tax rate? Scot and Vidia will owe $56,654. 50 in federal income tax this year computed as follows: $56,654. 50 = $47,513. 50 + 33%($240,000 – $212,300). Scot and Vidia’s average tax rate is 23. 61 percent. Average Tax Rate = [pic]=[pic] = 23. 61% Scot and Vidia’s effective tax rate is 23. 12 percent. Effective tax rate = [pic] = [pic] = 23. 12% Scot and Vidia are currently in the 33 percent tax rate bracket. Their marginal tax rate on increases in income up to $139,150 and deductions up to $27,700 is 33 percent. 43) [LO3] Using the facts in the previous problem, if Scot and Vidia earn an additional $70,000 of taxable income, what is their marginal tax rate on this income? How would your answer differ if they, instead, had $70,000 of additional deductions? If Scot and Vidia earn an additional $70,000 of taxable income, their marginal tax rate on the income is 33 percent. Marginal Tax Rate = [pic]= [pic] = 33. 00% If Scot and Vidia instead had $70,000 of additional tax deductions, their marginal tax rate on the deductions would be 29. 98 percent. Marginal Tax Rate = [pic]= [pic] = 29. 98% 47) [LO3,LO4 PLANNING] Fergie has the choice between investing in a State of New York bond at 5 percent and a Surething bond at 8 percent. Assuming that both bonds have the same nontax characteristics and that Fergie has a 30 percent marginal tax rate, in which bond should she invest? Fergie’s after tax rate of return on the tax exempt State of New York bond is 5 percent. The Surething bond pays taxable interest of 8 percent. Fergie’s after tax rate of return on the Surething bond is 5. 6 percent (i. e. , 8% interest income – (8% x 30%) tax = 5. 6%). Fergie should invest in the Surething bond. 8) [LO4 PLANNING] Using the facts in the previous problem, what interest rate does the state of New York need to offer to make Fergie indifferent between investing in the two bonds? To be indifferent between investing in the two bonds, the State of New York bond should provide Fergie the same after-tax rate of return as the Surethi ng bond. Fergie’s after tax rate of return on the Surething bond is 5. 6 percent (i. e. , 8% interest income – (8% x 30%) tax = 5. 6%). The state of New York needs to offer a 5. 6 percent interest rate to generate a 5. 6 percent after-tax return tomake Fergie indifferent between investing in the two bonds. 1) [LO5] Song earns $100,000 taxable income as an interior designer and is taxed at an average rate of 20 percent (i. e. , $20,000 of tax). If Congress increases the income tax rate such that Song’s average tax rate increases from 20 percent to 25 percent, how much more income tax will she pay assuming that the income effect is descriptive? What effect will this tax rate change have on the tax base and tax collected? Under the current income tax, Song has $80,000 of income after tax. If the income effect is descriptive and Congress increases tax rates so that Song’s average tax rate is 25 percent, Song will need to earn to $106,666. 7 to continue to hav e $80,000 of income after tax. After-tax income = Pretax income (1 – tax rate) $80,000 = Pretax income (1 -. 25) Pretax income = $106,666. 67 Song will pay $26,666. 67 in tax ($106,666. 67 x . 25). Accordingly, if the income effect is descriptive, the tax base and the tax collected will increase. 52) [LO5] Using the facts from the previous problem, what will happen to the government’s tax revenues if Song chooses to spend more time pursuing her other passions besides work in response to the tax rate change and earns only $75,000 in taxable income? What is the term that describes this type of reaction to a tax rate increase? What types of taxpayers are likely to respond in this manner? If Song only earns $75,000 of taxable income, she would pay only $18,750 of tax under the new tax structure (i. e. , $75,000 x . 25). Thus, the government’s tax revenues would decrease by $1,250 (i. e. , $18,750 – $20,000). This is an example of the substitution effect, which may be descriptive for taxpayers with more disposable income. 60) [LO5 PLANNING] Congress would like to increase tax revenues by 10 percent. Assume that the average taxpayer in the United States earns $65,000 and pays an average tax rate of 15 percent. If the income effect is in effect for all taxpayers, what average tax rate will result in a 10 percent increase in tax revenues? This is an example of what type of forecasting? This analysis is an example of dynamic forecasting. Based on the information above, the average taxpayer pays $9,750 of tax (i. e. , $65,000 x 15%), leaving $55,250 of income after tax. A 10 percent increase in revenues would mean that the average taxpayer pays $10,725 in tax ($9,750 x 1. 0). With this new tax amount, we can solve for the tax rate that would generate this tax amount. After-tax income = Pretax income x (1 – tax rate) After-tax income = Pretax income – (Pretax income x tax rate) After-tax income = Pretax income – Tax Substituting information from the problem results in: $55,250 = Pretax income – $10,725 Pretax income = $65,975 We can use the above formula to solve for the new tax rate. After-tax income = Pretax income x (1 – tax rate) $55,250 = $65,975 x (1 – tax rate) Tax rate = $10,725/$65,975 = 16. 26% An Introduction to Tax tax rate schedule, how much federal tax will he owe? What is his average tax rate? What is his effective tax rate? What is his current marginal tax rate? Chuck will owe $14,875 in federal income tax this year computed as follows: $14,875 = $4,750 + 25%($75,000 – $34,500)). Chuck’s average tax rate is 19. 83%. Average Tax Rate = [pic]=[pic] = 19. 83% Chuck’s effective tax rate is 17. 50 percent. Effective tax rate = [pic] = [pic] = 17. 50% Chuck is currently in the 25 percent tax rate bracket. His marginal tax rate on increases in income up to $8,600 and deductions from income up to $40,500 is 25 percent. 35) [LO3] Using the facts in the previous problem, if Chuck earns an additional $40,000 of taxable income, what is his marginal tax rate on this income? What is his marginal rate if, instead, he had $40,000 of additional deductions? If Chuck earns an additional $40,000 of taxable income, his marginal tax rate on the income is 27. 36 percent. Marginal Tax Rate = [pic]= [pic] = 27. 6% If Chuck instead had $40,000 of additional tax deductions, his marginal tax rate on the deductions would be 25. 00 percent. Marginal Tax Rate = [pic]= [pic] = 25. 00% 36) [LO3] In reviewing the tax rate schedule for a single taxpayer, Chuck notes that the tax on $75,000 is $4,750 plus 25 percent of the taxable income over $34,500. What does the $4,750 represent? The $4,750 represents the income tax on $34,500 – i. e. , $850 + 15% ($34,500 – 8,500). 42) [LO3] Scot and Vidia, married taxpayers, earn $240,000 in taxable income and $5,000 in interest from an investment in City of Tampa bonds. Using the U. S. tax rate schedule for married filing jointly, how much federal tax will they owe? What is their average tax rate? What is their effective tax rate? What is their current marginal tax rate? Scot and Vidia will owe $56,654. 50 in federal income tax this year computed as follows: $56,654. 50 = $47,513. 50 + 33%($240,000 – $212,300). Scot and Vidia’s average tax rate is 23. 61 percent. Average Tax Rate = [pic]=[pic] = 23. 61% Scot and Vidia’s effective tax rate is 23. 12 percent. Effective tax rate = [pic] = [pic] = 23. 12% Scot and Vidia are currently in the 33 percent tax rate bracket. Their marginal tax rate on increases in income up to $139,150 and deductions up to $27,700 is 33 percent. 43) [LO3] Using the facts in the previous problem, if Scot and Vidia earn an additional $70,000 of taxable income, what is their marginal tax rate on this income? How would your answer differ if they, instead, had $70,000 of additional deductions? If Scot and Vidia earn an additional $70,000 of taxable income, their marginal tax rate on the income is 33 percent. Marginal Tax Rate = [pic]= [pic] = 33. 00% If Scot and Vidia instead had $70,000 of additional tax deductions, their marginal tax rate on the deductions would be 29. 98 percent. Marginal Tax Rate = [pic]= [pic] = 29. 98% 47) [LO3,LO4 PLANNING] Fergie has the choice between investing in a State of New York bond at 5 percent and a Surething bond at 8 percent. Assuming that both bonds have the same nontax characteristics and that Fergie has a 30 percent marginal tax rate, in which bond should she invest? Fergie’s after tax rate of return on the tax exempt State of New York bond is 5 percent. The Surething bond pays taxable interest of 8 percent. Fergie’s after tax rate of return on the Surething bond is 5. 6 percent (i. e. , 8% interest income – (8% x 30%) tax = 5. 6%). Fergie should invest in the Surething bond. 8) [LO4 PLANNING] Using the facts in the previous problem, what interest rate does the state of New York need to offer to make Fergie indifferent between investing in the two bonds? To be indifferent between investing in the two bonds, the State of New York bond should provide Fergie the same after-tax rate of return as the Surethi ng bond. Fergie’s after tax rate of return on the Surething bond is 5. 6 percent (i. e. , 8% interest income – (8% x 30%) tax = 5. 6%). The state of New York needs to offer a 5. 6 percent interest rate to generate a 5. 6 percent after-tax return tomake Fergie indifferent between investing in the two bonds. 1) [LO5] Song earns $100,000 taxable income as an interior designer and is taxed at an average rate of 20 percent (i. e. , $20,000 of tax). If Congress increases the income tax rate such that Song’s average tax rate increases from 20 percent to 25 percent, how much more income tax will she pay assuming that the income effect is descriptive? What effect will this tax rate change have on the tax base and tax collected? Under the current income tax, Song has $80,000 of income after tax. If the income effect is descriptive and Congress increases tax rates so that Song’s average tax rate is 25 percent, Song will need to earn to $106,666. 7 to continue to hav e $80,000 of income after tax. After-tax income = Pretax income (1 – tax rate) $80,000 = Pretax income (1 -. 25) Pretax income = $106,666. 67 Song will pay $26,666. 67 in tax ($106,666. 67 x . 25). Accordingly, if the income effect is descriptive, the tax base and the tax collected will increase. 52) [LO5] Using the facts from the previous problem, what will happen to the government’s tax revenues if Song chooses to spend more time pursuing her other passions besides work in response to the tax rate change and earns only $75,000 in taxable income? What is the term that describes this type of reaction to a tax rate increase? What types of taxpayers are likely to respond in this manner? If Song only earns $75,000 of taxable income, she would pay only $18,750 of tax under the new tax structure (i. e. , $75,000 x . 25). Thus, the government’s tax revenues would decrease by $1,250 (i. e. , $18,750 – $20,000). This is an example of the substitution effect, which may be descriptive for taxpayers with more disposable income. 60) [LO5 PLANNING] Congress would like to increase tax revenues by 10 percent. Assume that the average taxpayer in the United States earns $65,000 and pays an average tax rate of 15 percent. If the income effect is in effect for all taxpayers, what average tax rate will result in a 10 percent increase in tax revenues? This is an example of what type of forecasting? This analysis is an example of dynamic forecasting. Based on the information above, the average taxpayer pays $9,750 of tax (i. e. , $65,000 x 15%), leaving $55,250 of income after tax. A 10 percent increase in revenues would mean that the average taxpayer pays $10,725 in tax ($9,750 x 1. 0). With this new tax amount, we can solve for the tax rate that would generate this tax amount. After-tax income = Pretax income x (1 – tax rate) After-tax income = Pretax income – (Pretax income x tax rate) After-tax income = Pretax income – Tax Substituting information from the problem results in: $55,250 = Pretax income – $10,725 Pretax income = $65,975 We can use the above formula to solve for the new tax rate. After-tax income = Pretax income x (1 – tax rate) $55,250 = $65,975 x (1 – tax rate) Tax rate = $10,725/$65,975 = 16. 26%

Should embryos be treated as human lives Assignment

Should embryos be treated as human lives - Assignment Example However contemporary views on the subject are changing to favor of pro-choice, today more people advocate and are tolerant of abortion than ever before and in majority of states, it is allowed as long as it is carried out safely in a hospital. Several factors have contributed to this change, among them is the empowering of women which made the idea of giving them choice over their reproduction become something of a right. In addition the increased secularism of society has contributed a great deal since the church and other religious organizations were key opponents of the practice. From a sociological perspective, abortion is viewed in numerous ways but the most overt as through the conflict theory. It embodies the underlying and overlying conflict between different opinions guided by either religion or morality. From a psychological point of view there is a contradiction of opinions since on one hand abortion is seen as a potential cause of psychological trauma on the mother while on the other not procuring one could also result in psychological problems especially if the mother is in distress or was raped (Sedgh et al, 2007). Anthropologist are even more divided because from a cultural perspective, abortion evokes a range of mixed reactions with some people advocating for it but majority decrying it as inhuman and immoral, many traditional cultures are against it and they have had to contend with contemporary acceptance of the practice. The functionalist theory is based on the interdependence of the various factions of society and it does not promote the changing of social environments simply for the sake of benefiting individuals. Functionalist hold that societal change always results in compensating change in other parts of society, in regard to abortion, the functionalist view is that when social change occurs as a result of its practice other aspects of society will make appropriate shifts

Jewish Migration to the United States Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Jewish Migration to the United States - Essay Example These migrations took place between 1919 and 1924. The Jews from Russia, on the other hand, began their westward foray earlier in 1880 and continued to trickle in towards 1913. This was the time when the Jews from the other Eastern European states began to journey towards the American shores. The Jews from Eastern Europe were close to 20 million, while those from Russia were about 2 million. Most of the Jews came to America through the Ellis Island, only to lay claim over the vast multi cultural terrains of large and crowded cities like New York and the Midwest. (Universiteit Leiden). There are a variety of reasons that have supported the Jewish immigration to America. Primary among these are reasons like political freedom as well as religious reasons. The Jews in general, have been an oppressed lot. Their religious duties bound them to a certain way of life which was soon stifling the slowly modern sensibilities that began to emerge just prior to the first world in communities the world over. There was a sudden surge of new found consciousness which the Jews felt too scared to acknowledge in their present locations. (Parrillo, 2002) The land called America presented them with opportunities galore. ... The land that belonged to the peasants was snatched away from them while children were forced to decide which profession to enter into by the age of 16 in order to ensure that they were not thrown into the torturous Russian army. The Russian army was fast becoming a target of negative publicity with its increasing number of suicide cases. (Universiteit Leiden). Further, in a free land like America, the Jews from Russia as well as Eastern Europe found that they had little need or pressure to affiliate themselves and their entire lifestyles with a certain political way of thinking or political party. This was a refreshing change and helped the Jews breathe in peace. Many Jews came to America temporarily at first, as political refugees, in order to join the labor force and earn a decent living before returning to their homeland in the hope that it will be free by the time they are done with their American tenure. This was the reason why many Jews did not enter into land ownership at the very onset like most of the other migrants like the Irish and Chinese. (Parrillo, 2002) These reasons were vastly different from the Irish, Chinese and Japanese migration experiences. The Irish entered America as a result of the famines that were constantly leaving them in a state of hunger and acute poverty, during 1840 to 1890. The Chinese on the other hand, migrated to America as a result of the Gold Rush in California. These migrations took place during the 1800s and were marked by an air of success and wealth. The Chinese migrants were essentially skilled craftsmen as well as merchants which eventually garnered a lot of discrimination against them. The Japanese, on the other hand, migrated to America in great numbers between 1886 and 1911, in order to make the most of the

New orleans after hurricane Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

New orleans after hurricane - Essay Example Many people in New Orleans experience post traumatic stress and need a lot of support and counseling to deal with this issue according to Rhoads, Pearman, and Rick (Nd). Nutrition and metabolism focus on food and fluid consumption patterns in relation to the metabolic needs according to Daniels and Daniels (2004). This involves evaluation of local nutrient supplies and their adequacy. In New Orleans, new restaurants have been established as well as new and improved types of foods such as praline, red beans and rice. The Foods Policy Advisory Committee has been established by the City Council of New Orleans to study access to health food access and reduce disparities experienced in accessing healthy food. Other issues such as problems related to tissue integrity, gastrointestinal system, fluid balance and host defense are also identified through this pattern. Elimination is a pattern where data collection focuses on patterns of excretion (Sonoma, nd). In New Orleans excretory problems including diarrhea and constipation were experienced due to disparities in food access after the hurricanes. Data collection is done annually by researchers in the health sector to establish changes in food consumption in New Orleans.

Ancient Greek Sculpture and the American Cinema Essay

Ancient Greek Sculpture and the American Cinema - Essay Example Sculptures of the Archaic Greek period are characterized by one form in particular: the standing male nude. The artistic style employed by sculptors during that time was heavily influenced by Egyptian sculpture (Richter 2); one can see immediately the similarities in the execution between Egyptian sculptures deities and statues like the Kouros (600 BC, 3 meters high). These sculptures predominantly portrayed athletic male subjects who were very structured in their appearance. Limbs were in pleasing proportion to the entire body, the bust was dealt with similarly and the entire piece might have served as something of an anatomy lesson. Archaic sculpture would be to Classical sculpture what the drawings of an elementary student are to that of a learned sketch artist. The figures lacked life; the stiff effect of the chisels and stone abrasives of the Archaic Greek sculptor meant that aside from quite accurately depicting the human form, statues like the Aristodikos (500 BC, 1.95 meters) could not inspire the mind of the viewer like the next artistic period (Goette 116). What the Classical Greek period of sculpture brought to the world was a celebration of how the body actually functioned; the Classical period brought movement. American cinema has followed a similar path since its inception in the early 20th century. The first films produced in the United States took one of two actions: recreating historical events or recreating classic literature on screen (Slide 151). The very first American movie was Richard III (1912), a remake of Shakespeare's 16th century classic. Three years later saw the release of The Birth of a Nation, a highly controversial film that depicted the events and atmosphere of a divided nation before and during the American Civil War from the perspective of the Ku Klux Klan and its followers. Like Archaic Greek sculpture, it was not the subject of these early films that was lacking, it was the execution. Actors were reminiscent of the Kouros in their rigidity and although the plot and stories of early American films were often of excellent quality, there were few attempts at subplot or undertone; very little existed in these films and many movies of the following decades that was not superficial (Finn 191). The Classical period of Greek sculpture saw the creation of works like the Youth of Anticythera (340 BC, 1.94 meters), crafted in bronze and succeeding in the portrayal of something that its predecessors had failed in: motion (Lullies et all 87). Instead of creation statues that stood straight and perfectly balanced on straight legs and flat feet with arms straight down both sides, Classical sculptors experimented with the movement of the limbs and the portrayal of the human body in more natural positions. In this way human sculpture became more geared towards the expression of beauty and of an essential aesthetic within each work of art. Curves, muscle definition and even subtle body language could be portrayed in this style where before statues were really no more than human figures carved out of stone. Classical Greek sculptures captured the human spirit within their work. American film changed in much the same way, albeit over a much shorter time period. Instead of merely producing historical

Maritime Transportation Security Act Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Maritime Transportation Security Act - Essay Example While the attacks focused attention on our aviation system's vulnerability, it became obvious that our maritime domain needed greater attention. Besides being gateways through which dangerous materials could enter, ports are attractive targets because they are often large and sprawling, accessible by water and land, close to crowded centers, and interwoven with highways, roads, factories, and businesses (Flynn, 2004). Security is made difficult by the number of stakeholders involved in port operations, which include local, state, and federal agencies; multiple law enforcement jurisdictions; transportation and trade companies; factories and other businesses. The MTSA imposed an ambitious schedule of requirements on federal agencies and called for a comprehensive framework that included planning, personnel security, and careful monitoring of vessels, facilities, and cargo. Table 1 contains the MTSA's key security-related activities. However, "Haste makes waste", and the urgent nature of the legislative and implementation efforts of the MTSA 2002 proved this to be true (Bouchard, 2005; Ervin, 2006; Haveman et al., 2007). The MTSA 2002, through the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), gave the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) lead responsibility for most of its requirements. Timetables for implementing the provisions were tight, and adding difficulty was the need to implement MTSA after the most extensive federal reorganization after the Second World War. Most of the 22 agencies with MTSA responsibilities were reorganized into the DHS in March 2003, less than 5 months after enactment. Some departments such as the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) were new, while others such as the USCG, Customs Service, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service were transferred from various executive departments. This recombination of organizational cultures and the need to coordinate with other agencies such as the State, Transportation, and Justice Departments introduced complex chains of command and reporting responsibilities (MTSA,2002; DHS, 2005; USCG, 2007). The deadline for implementing MTSA of July 1, 2004 was tight. Unlike other areas of critical infrastructure security where the government was unwilling to set clear mandates for the private sector and push for meaningful change, the MTSA was a catalyst for action. Unfortunately, in the face of unrealistic deadlines and disjointed implementation milestones, good intentions were not necessarily translated into greater security at the pier. And to add insult to injury, the USCG not only proved incapable of managing the projects designed to improve its capability but became open to graft and corruption and overspending (Economist 2007, p. 36). The priorities

West Nile Virus Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

West Nile Virus - Research Paper Example Over the next few years, this virus had spread across the whole of North America and the Caribbean, increasing the risk of new infections. While this virus does not commonly affect human beings, cases of infections are on the increase as this virus spreads globally. The first step, in the contamination process, takes place when a female mosquito bites an infected bird. This mosquito obtains the virus while consuming the bird’s blood and in the process, the virus is passed on to it. The infected female mosquito then spreads the virus through their bites to humans and most of the infections occur among the elderly and people who have impaired immune systems. There is also a high possibility of this virus to be spread to those people who live in areas where there are mosquitoes. According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, people who get the virus display mild symptoms as fever, headaches, body aches, skin rash, and swollen lymph glands, but in cases where the virus enters the brain however; it can cause inflammation of the brain (encephalitis) or inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord (meningitis). Most of the deaths caused by WNV have been among birds with few human cases, an example of which is in 2009, where there were 720 human cases of the disease in the United States amongst, which only thirty-two were fatal. There are currently no vaccines or treatments for the human WNV disease and now, scientists have accelerated the research on developing the tools necessary for its treatment and prevention. According to Margulies (47), the best way to prevent the virus is by continuously testing for it so that it can be detected early and steps taken to prevent its further spread. Furthermore, it is advisable to frequently used mosquito repellent on exposed skin so that the possibility of being bitten is reduced. Those living in areas where mosquitoes of any species

Management consultant Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Management consultant - Essay Example It is not possible for a management consulting firm to render services in a domain in which it has no expertise. This will not only create a bad reputation in the market about the consulting firm but it would also not be able to retain its customers. This might adversely affect its business prospects. So while choosing clients a management consulting firm needs to chalk out the areas where it can offer management solutions to its clients. Identification of potential client organisations can be effectively done by choosing proper market segmentation strategies based on the nature of services offered by the organisations, the type of product it manufactures, its market position and the overall size of the company. In order to attract clients, proper promotional strategies such as various forms of advertising, should be adopted by the management consultancy firm. The consultancy firm would decide on such strategies by identifying the areas where it has expertise. This can be done by undergoing a thorough internal research and will be followed by enlisting the nature of services offered by it to its clients, the type of solutions provided, whether it is solely IT based or they act as change consultants, or act as catalysts in triggering certain changes within an organisation. Such things should be specifically and clearly mentioned by the consultancy firm so that in future it does not result in ambiguity. This informatio n would help the client organisations to understand the nature of services provided by the management consultancy firm and if they feel that their need matches with the expertise of the consultancy firm, then they would seek its help. Moreover, seminars on common management problems, which may be faced by most of the organisations, and the possible solutions to mitigate its effect, would help the management consultancy firm to attract increasing number of clients. The management consultancy firm needs to be up to date with the changes that are occurring in the area where it proposes to offer solutions so that it can earn the trust and the confidence of its clients. To make a more profound effect on the potential clients, the management consultancy firm must hire external experts to express their point of view on a common problem area faced by most organisations and this can be followed by a junior consultant's presentation in support of the views expressed(Kolli S., 2000.). This wou ld help the consultancy firm to convey the message to its clients that it is capable of providing the necessary solutions needed to help the client organisation register higher growth. To identify potential clients, being a management consultant, the help of various directories would be taken. These directories gives an overview of the type of business that the potential client organisations are presently in and provides the address and the contact details to the consultancy firm. This acts as a guide for the consultancy firm to reach its clients and find out whether any type of consulting services is required by them or not. Management consultancy had become a need of almost every organisation which wants to cope with the changing needs of the business scenario. The roles played by the consultancies usually differ from being just a catalyst, to being a mentor or a

Efficiency tests Essay Example for Free

Efficiency tests Essay Day of the week test The day of the week efficiency test is the investigation of a particular stock market to see whether it reveals day of the week effect in volatility of returns, that is, whether stock returns in that particular stock market follow a certain pattern which is associated with what day of the week it is. Investing in the stock market is a wonderful way to make money, but it has a risk attached to it in the form of uncertainty. Stock market returns do not operate independently of the economic, political and technological environment of a country. In fact the stock market of a country is completely driven by the aforementioned environmental stimuli. However the relationship is indirect. Changes in these environmental stimuli do not directly affect the stock market. What they do directly affect is the investor mindset. The investor mindset in turn directly affects whether the stock market returns are likely to be good or bad. A bleak economic prospect for example will make the average investor wary of investing in assets. As a result he/she will stay away from investing in the stock market and as everyone, unsettled by the bleak economic prospect, follows suit, share prices, due to lack of demand, will drop drastically and, as returns hit the bottom, it will not make sense any more to invest in the stock market. In this manner, the stock market can behave very erratically as it is held hostage by hundreds of environmental stimuli the behavior of which few can predict to a certainly. This is why the day of the week test is important, because by applying it, the stock market investor can predict whether stock market returns on a particular day will be high or low. He can tweak his investment pattern accordingly. The stock market is highly volatile and it has been explained above what accounts for this volatility. As mentioned before, this volatility gives rise to substantial risks which give the investor second thoughts about investing in the stock market. However, this means that if the element of risk were to be eliminated to some extent, then that would make the stock market the original Aladin’s lamp as far as making money is concerned. Therefore every investor is always looking for ways to eliminate risk. The way the investor tries to eliminate risk to some extent, or to minimize it, is to find a way to predict what the return of a particular stock is likely to be at a certain point of time. That is why we, as the investors, use the day of the week. If we are investing in the US equity market for example, then we apply the test to find out whether the market has a presence of the day of the week effect in it. If so, we invest only on those days on which the return of the stock we are investing in is likely to be high. In other words, we use the day of the week test to maximize the returns and minimize the risks of our portfolio. The question as to whether we benefit from this test has already been answered. We most certainly do as otherwise we wouldn’t be able to predict how the market is going to behave on certain days and as a result our investment decisions would be very risky indeed. So we do benefit from applying the day of the week test. But how do we benefit from it? We benefit from it because the day of the week test allows us to detect whether there is an element of seasonality in stock returns of our portfolio. As soon as we have detected seasonality, that is, returns are high or low depending what time period it is, we have immediately minimized the investment risk. An equity market for example which boasts the presence of the day of the week effect in it will tell us that returns on Mondays will be significantly lower than they are on other days of the week. Under the circumstances, the decision as when to buy stock and when to sell is not so difficult any more. In the aforementioned equity market, we should obviously stay away from making any stock purchases on any other day than Monday because the day of the week test that we have applied to the market tells us that prices will be lowest on Mondays. Therefore, to minimize expenses, we should buy stock on Mondays. By the same reasoning, when the time comes to unload the portfolio, we should obviously do the selling on any day of the week other than Monday, because in the six days other than Monday, prices will be higher, which translate into higher returns for us investors. So clearly the benefits from applying the day of the week test are substantial. They all center around the ability of the day of the week test to introduce an element of regularity into the midst of what on first sight seems unconquerable chaos. This test tells us there is a day of the week regularity functioning in the equity market and that if we invest accordingly, we shall have maximized our returns and minimized the associated risks. End of month test This is a test that seeks to establish the presence of a calendar anomaly in the behavior of stock market returns whereby returns are higher over a time period beginning with the last trading day of the current month and continuing over the first five days of the next month. The importance of this test is in taking advantage of the fact that stock returns are not completely volatile, that they do have a certain pattern hidden deep under the apparently wildly fluctuating numbers. This directly contradicts the efficient market hypothesis which states that any information, whether public and private, that is available to the investors, has already been taken into account in stock pricing, therefore no single investor is in a position to take advantage of the market. According to the efficient market hypothesis, risk is the same for all investors. However it has been recently discovered that there is a end-of-month or turn-of-the-month effect when stock returns are shown to be consistently higher on the last trading day of a month and over the first five days of the following month. This probably happens because during this time period the general level of liquidity goes up as a result of settling liabilities so that the investor has more cash with which to play around in the stock market. As has been mentioned before, the performance of the stock market is a direct function of the general mindset of the investing public. If the investing public are in a good mood, then the market will perform well. If they are in a bad mood, the market will perform badly. These mood swings on the part of the general investor are a direct function of the macroeconomic news items which they are exposed to though the different media. Therefore the timing of the release of these macroeconomic news items is an important factor in determining how the stock market will perform afterwards. Usually these news items are released during the first few days of a particular month. Stock market returns have been shown to maintain an upbeat trend as time approaches the scheduled release of macroeconomic news. That is why end-of-month testing is important because it shows the existence of calendar anomalies in stock returns brought about by scheduled release of macroeconomic news items. That is also the reason why we use this test. By using this test, we can detect the presence of calendar anomalies in the stock in which we are investing and take advantage of it to make capital gains. By using this test, we prove that the efficient market hypothesis is by no means the last word in the world of finance, that the risk inherent in investing in a particular stock is by no means the same and a test that gives us the ability to predict risk is a worthwhile exercise by any standards. As can be seen from above, we can benefit from the day of the month effect. The benefit to be gained from this test is inarguable inasmuch as we have the ability to minimize systematic risk inherent in any investment decision. According to the risk-return relationship, the risk in investing in a particular stock has two components. One is the unsystematic risk and the other is the systematic risk. Investors do not worry about the unsystematic part as it can be eliminated by means of diversification. Investors put their money in a wide variety of financial instruments so that even if one company is performing not so well thus dragging down its share performance as well, there are other companies in which the same investor holds shares and which is performing well thus canceling the negative effect of the under-performing company. It is highly improbable that all the companies will be underperforming at the same time. What is more probable is that one will outperform the other thus eliminating the unsystematic risk. However it is well nigh impossible to eliminate or to even reduce the systematic risk which affects entire market to the same extent so that no amount of diversification will cushion the effect of a high systematic risk. However that is according to the traditional finance theory. According to the new theory whereby there is a end of the month effect in every stock market, systematic risk is definitely lower in the last trading day of the month and in the first few days of the next month. So the benefit we get from this test is that we can predict a little better how the systematic risk is likely to be at what point in time in the month. Moving average As has been mentioned before, stock prices can fluctuate significantly over a certain period of time. If these prices are charted on a graph, then the trend line will zigzag substantially, making it difficult for us to evaluate whether a particular stock is underperforming or otherwise. Moving average is a technical analysis tool which allows us to smooth out these fluctuations, so that there is a consistent trend line which can serve as benchmark for the evaluation of stock performance. Moving average is a very important technical analysis tool. Inasmuch as it enables us to impose order upon chaos by creating a consistent trend of the performance of a particular stock, its importance can hardly be overemphasized. If the returns of a particular stock were to be presented in the form of a scatter plot, then on first sight it would appear as white noise. It would be impossible to make head or tail of this extremely chaotic scatter plot. However if one were to apply the moving average technical analysis tool, the widely scattered points would give in to a rising or declining trend line which could then indicate whether a particular stock is performing below that trend line or above. In this respect, moving average is a very important indicator of stock market returns. Before we make any investment decisions in respect of the stock market, it is obviously important for us to find out which stocks are performing above expectations and which stocks are performing below. Moving average allows us to make that determination and that is why we use this tool. The problem that every stock market investor faces is that the returns on the face of it seem to be impossible to predict. Charted on a scatter plot, as mentioned before, the returns are all over the place. That would not be the case however once we apply the moving average tool to these returns. Once the moving average technical analysis has been applied, it would appear that the returns conform to a predictably progressing trend line. And that is why we use the moving average technical analysis, to introduce an element of predictability into an area which would otherwise seem impossible to predict in any way. We certainly benefit from using the moving average analysis as it allows us to determine whether a stock at a particular point of time is performing below the trend line or above. This would enable us to determine when to buy and sell. When to buy and sell is the toughest decision that a stock market investor faces. Obviously an investor would like to buy a stock when the price is at its lowest and would like to sell when the price at its highest. But how does an investor know when the price has bottomed out so that he should buy and when it has topped out so that she should sell? These points the investor must determine and the benefit of using the moving average technical analysis lies in the fact that it allows the investor to determine those points. An additional benefit of the moving average analysis is that it can be calculated both short-term and long-term. A short term moving average can be defined as a 15-day moving average while a long-term moving average can be defined as a 50-day moving average. Thus there are two trend lines and when the short-term trend line moves below the long-term, the stock is on a downward momentum and it is time to sell. Conversely, when the short-term trend line is passing above the long-term, the stock is on an upward momentum and it is time to buy. In this way the moving average technical analysis allows the investor to decide when to buy and when to sell a particular stock. Correlation Correlation allows us to test whether there is any relationship between two variables and if there is a relationship, whether the relationship is positive or it is negative. For example, a correlation of +1 indicates a positive relationship exists between two variables. A correlation of -1 indicates that the relationship between two variables is negative. When the relationship is positive, it indicates that the two variables move in the same direction and when the relationship is negative, it indicates that the two variables move in opposite directions. Correlation is an important indicator of the future behavior of a particular variable in relation to another variable. It allows us to determine what other variables affect the performance of the variable of interest and to what extent. Once we have correlation figures quantifying the relationship between the variable of interest and other variables, we can predict how the variable of interest will change when the other related variables change. Inasmuch as correlation allows us to reduce uncertainty by enabling us to enhance predictability, it is an important indicator. We use it for example when we are trying to decide whether or not to invest in a particular stock market. As has been mentioned before, the performance of a stock market is affected by a wide variety of factors. The most prominent environmental stimuli are the economic, sociological, political and technological changes taking place both nationally and internationally. It is important to know therefore to what extent these stimuli affect the performance of a particular stock market. Correlation allows us to determine that extent. By applying correlation, we can find out how a certain change in the economy is likely to affect the stock market performance of that country. We come to know about these changes in the form of microeconomic news items which can be categorized based on their content. If we already have the correlation figures for these categories of news items, then as soon as they are announced, we can reasonably expect to be able to apply the correlation statistics to assess how the news items are likely to affect the performance of the stock market we are interested in. This reduces risk to a substantial extent. Risk reduction is the most important consideration in the mind of an investor. For this reason, we use the correlation statistic. We do benefit from the use of correlation inasmuch as it gives us a window into the future regarding the performance of particular stock market. An example of a benefit would be an US investor considering investing in one of the Arab stock markets. In assessing whether it would be a good idea or not to go ahead with the investment, the investor would find use of correlation of immense value. The investor would have to collect a great deal of knowledge connected to the economic, sociological, political and technological scenarios of the Arab country and determine by means of correlation how the different environmental factors are correlated to the portfolio performance in that stock market. Once that is done, he or she would be in a position to foresee how the different changes in the Arab country would affect the performance of the stock market in that country. This would enable the investor to buy and sell at the right time. As has been mentioned before, there are also international forces at work which will affect stock market performance in the Arab country. In this respect, what the investor can do is to run correlation tests between the Arab stock market and the US stock market to see how the two markets are related. In this respect, the two markets would be two variables which the correlation test will examine to find out whether any relationship exists between the two variables and if so, if the relationship is positive or whether it is negative. If the relationship is a positive one, then whenever the US market is performing well, the Arab market can also be expected to perform well and vice versa. Clearly this is of immense value to the investor as it allows him to pick the time as to when he should invest in the Arab stock market. That is the benefit. Descriptive Statistics So far the discussion has focused on predicting the future performance of the stock market. Now it’s time to focus on assessing the current performance of the stock market. That is what the descriptive statistics are for. Descriptive statistics such as the mean and the standard deviation and the normal distribution help us evaluate the existing performance of a particular stock market. Descriptive statistics are very important because they quantify the performance of the stock market. The most widely used descriptive statistic is the mean. We can calculate the mean stock return by calculating the average of several stock returns from past time periods. This tells us the return we are likely to get if we invest in that stock. However the mean does not take into account the risk that comes associated with investing in stock. As has been mentioned before, the stock market is a wonderful way to make money but every rose has it thorn and that thorn in this case is the risk. Stock returns are affected by so many variables both internal and external to the company that it is impossible to take into account all of them. This is where risk springs from. Because there are so many forces at work playing sixes and sevens with stock market returns, wild fluctuations are a necessary evil for the stock market investor. However even here, descriptive statistics can help by introducing order into chaos. The descriptive statistic in question is the standard deviation. Because stock returns fluctuate extensively, they are scarcely at the mean. Sometimes they are above the mean and sometimes they are below. Standard deviation tells us the percentage of returns which will deviate from the mean to a certain extent. Most stock returns conform to the normal distribution, that is, most of the returns are clustered around the mean return. 66% of the observations fall within one standard deviation away from the mean. 95% of the observations fall within two standard deviations away from the mean. And 99% of the observations fall within three standard deviations away from the mean. Inasmuch as stock market returns, given a sufficiently large sample size, follow the normal distribution, descriptive statistics are very important as they enable the formation of the normal distribution. This facilitates investment decisions. Descriptive statistics also come into play when determining the risk-return relationship. Risk is a prime consideration in any investor’s mindset. Investment in the stock market is meaningless unless a way can be found to minimize the influence of risk. To complicate matters further, there are two categories of risk: systematic risk and unsystematic risk. There is hardly anything the investor can do about the systematic risk. It affects all the stocks present to an equal extent. An example of a systematic risk is when there is a sudden political eruption. The political turmoil will have a negative effect in all areas of the business sector. Therefore even if the investor is holding a portfolio of stocks, it will be of little avail. The other element of risk however, the unsystematic risk, is more manageable. It means not putting all eggs in one basket. Managing a portfolio of stocks is key to eliminating or reducing unsystematic risk. An investor who has invested in a portfolio of stocks will reap more than an investor who has invested in only one stock. This is for the simple reason that external environmental stimuli do not hit all industries of the business sector to the same extent. If there is a technological change for example, some industries will benefit more and some less. Therefore the wise investor will invest in those industries which benefit more as a result of the technological change. Alongside the technological change, there will be other changes, economic or political or sociological, which will have a negative impact on some of the industries. As a result the stock returns in those industries will take a nosedive. However an investor who is maintaining a portfolio of a wide variety of stocks will not be hit adversely as he will have stocks in that portfolio of his which were immune to the economic or political or sociological change in question. In this manner the unsystematic part of the risk has been eliminated. The stocks present in a portfolio will be negatively correlated. That is, if one stock goes down in terms of returns, then another will go up. Thus the investor is well protected. However he is by no means protected from the systematic risk which no amount of diversification can eliminate. However all is not lost because descriptive statistics are there to help the investor. He already knows from the central limit theorem that most stock returns conform to the normal distribution. Once that is known, the investor can make an accurate prediction as to where the stock returns are likely to fall. This substantially reduces systematic risk. As mentioned before, there are some exceptions in terms of stock market returns which do not strictly follow the normal distribution pattern. These returns follow a different probability distribution. The use of kurtosis and skewness can help to identify that particular category of probability distribution. Determining which probability distribution a particular stock market conforms to, in which the use of descriptive statistics is key, is vital for picking the optimum portfolio. An investor would obviously want to invest in only those stocks the returns of which stick most closely to the mean. What the investor can do is to collect the percentage returns of a stock for a number of time periods and calculate the mean and standard deviation of these percentages to find out whether that stock shows a high volatility or a low volatility. The intelligent investor will obviously want to pick those stocks which have low volatility because their returns will be more predictable. So what descriptive statistics are very good at making sense of historical information to the immense benefit to the investor. As has been discussed so far, the historical returns examined without the benefit of descriptive statistics will not generate a lot of information. To the naked eye, stock returns on a historical basis reveal no pattern. There is no discernible trend. Viewed through the lens of descriptive statistics however, stock market returns suddenly become very orderly and systematic. Now the investor knows which stocks to embrace and which stocks to keep away from. Now the investor knows what the optimum portfolio will be which will take into account both systematic risk and unsystematic risk and generate the highest returns.