Working with families is difficult and complex. Essay -- Social Issues

Working with children, young people and their families can be seen as difficult and complex for many different reasons. However, before these topics can be discussed and explored fully, it is important to completely understand the difference between the words ‘difficult’ and ‘complex’. ‘Difficult’ implies that things are not easily or readily done, where it requires much effort much effort, labour and skill to be performed effectively. In the same way, ‘complex’ implies a hard to deal with situation, but also involves many interconnected parts or complicated arrangements that consist of emotional attachment. Social work is rarely working with one individual, as stated in O’Loughlin and O’Loughlin (2008); it will involve working with the whole family which is constantly changing making it complex and diverse. It may consist of parents or carers who share the same race, class, culture, or sexuality, but alternatively it may not. Members within the family help to determine our behaviour, roles, rules and stereotyping. To add to this, people are constantly entering and leaving the family system either by marriage, divorce or death. These complexities are shown in ecomaps or genograms. It is important to understand that the child’s welfare is paramount, but in order to achieve positive outcomes for the child, effective work will need to be done within the family. Relationships within a family are known as a system with the family being viewed as a whole, rather than as many individuals. Within family relationships, everyone seeks to uphold the equilibrium so if one member seeks to change, the others seek to resist. However, difficulties include maintaining good relationships and knowing boundaries between professional and personal... ...children, young people and their families can be both complex and difficult. Social work practice is one of the most challenging as it involves work with a diverse range of both professionals and service users. However, there is more that one single reason for this. As all professionals, agencies and parents continue to work together in various different cases, a variety of skills are required including: communication, preparation, intervention skills, assessment of significant harm, research of current legislation and decision making skills, all of which contribute to the complexities and difficulties of social work. It could be argued that these difficulties are highlighted most in many public cases of child abuse; moreover these cases can be seen to be changing social work practice, affecting the difficulties and complexities of working within this profession.

No Universal Truth Essay -- Philosophy Religion Essays

No Universal Truth Hume wrote, â€Å"be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man,† (qtd. in Jones 351). This statement strikes me more than all others, written by Hume or any of the philosophers from W. T. Jones’ Hobbes to Hume. It demonstrates to me that even after all of the inquisition towards what and how we can know anything, and the very methodical ways in which Hume is reputed to examine these things, he realizes that nothing is truly certain and begins to lean towards a pragmatic and radically empirical point of view. It is, therefore, also my conclusion that, as much as we may aspire to find the universal, indubitable, and objective truth, none of it can be proven to be universal, indubitable, and objective. In support of this view—the â€Å"abandonment of the quest for certainty, acceptance of provisional solutions as long as they work, and readiness to discard them when changing conditions make them no longer appropriate†Ã¢â‚¬â€I will endeavor to briefly examine substance, the self, and the presumed necessary connection of ideas or events (Jones 349). By applying his own empirical criterion of meaning to the examination of such a notably philosophical concept as substance, Hume flat out disposes of the entire notion itself. As has been formerly introduced by Descartes, substance is a fluctuating thing that takes on the same meaning as is best described by that certain je ne sais quoi. It is that certain something you just can’t put your finger on, and â€Å"by substance, we can understand nothing else than a thing which so exists that it needs no other thing in order to exist,â€Å" (qtd. in Jones 174-175). Descartes naturally takes this thing to be God, but never questions the meaning of God or substance a... ... and finally removes reasons for the existence of any connection between any of the ideas which we as a species have always held as being related. Hume also refutes any reason to believe in the existence of an external world, or a world without us, which has not been discussed here. In the end, there is really no reason to believe in the existence of existence, if Hume’s deductions are to be taken quite so seriously. Of course, if that were to be done, none could live as they do. Since Hume himself is concerned with a philosophy that concerns the everyday individual, not even he can truly accept that nothing exists. It is when he reaches this point himself that he realizes one can â€Å"be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man,† (qtd. in Jones 351). Works Cited Jones, W. T. Hobbes to Hume. 2nd edition. Fort Worth: Harcourt, 1980.

Explain the role of children and young people’s personal choices

As the children grow up they tend to do things that other children do, being influenced, and starting to hide stuff from their parents. Sometime children are really aggressive because they didn't get what they wanted so they start to abuse the other children or young people. Sometime it is just that they think that everyone else doesn't know what is good for him/her so they just want to do their own choice, but they don't know always was is good for them so they end up doing bad things, like smoking, drinking, drugging, etc.  which is going to affect them maybe for all their lives. Personal choices made as a child and young adult effect nearly every aspect of life. From education to family planning – poor choices can lead to poverty and few opportunities, while good choices can open up a world of possibilities. Family experience as a child can very much play a role, but young adults are fully capable of taking responsibility for the life choices they make.In accordance with Article 13 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child, the outcomes of the Governments Every Child Matters framework and the Early Years Foundation Stage, children should be provisioned for by ensuring that children are involved and engaged with, allowing them to be heard, to make decisions, contribute their experiences and be supported and safeguarded throughout their development.According to Tassoni (2010) the EYFS clearly states that a curriculum for children under five years should be balanced of adult-led and child-initiated activities; an environment needs to be rich in resources and displayed in such a way that the children can determine their own play. . An early years setting should encourage healthy snacks and encourage parents to supply healthy balanced lunchboxes.

Community behavior Essay

African American spirituality has woven collectively the best of African Anglo cultures to creatively shape their own African American identity. While black peoples have not been socially, politically or economically free in the history, the practice of spirituality has facilitated the development of different forms of cultural and spiritual freedom by interpreting, transcending and embracing, the constraints of an oppressive culture. Furthermore, the development of their own beliefs, norms, forms, practices, and structures has given rise to a culture and life that is a distinctive form of human survival, existence, and, freedom most importantly. The black churches as the centers of freedom influenced the praxis of African-American spirituality. They have become safe places where blacks gathered to embrace their combined concerns as a community of faith. They have been the only institutions in the African American experience that has continued relative independence from the domesticating influence of white pressure and overlords. Some black churches consider may be the last place to see integration due to the need to maintain a power base not available to black people elsewhere. After reviewing some aspects of worship as the context for cultural and spiritual freedom, black preaching in and out sides of the black churches are one of the most powerful expressions of freedom for black people in America. The ability to produce a soul language that defines truth into systems of meaning gives power and purpose to black people. Subsequently, Black community successfully adopts and adapts the structures of the much larger culture for their own purpose this practice comes from a double consciousness or translating. African Americans translated the experience of one kind to that of another which leading them to freedom. Therefore, black people spirituality gave freedom to the spirit and mind that the external condition could not take away. The religious approach is due to a deep faith in the sacredness of life that reaffirmed a personal dignity in blacks which resulted in the practice of nonviolence and mercy. Black community determines themselves how they responded to oppression. Various forms expressing improvisation and innovation from black soul forces constituted black culture. These forms under the subtitles black music, literature, humor, folk tales, sports, art and dance; and their worship forms under the headings of prayer, shouting, healing, dancing, singing praising and instrumental music transformation, teaching and preaching. These forms express that what is true and valuable will be determined by black community itself and will subvert and defy attempts of the larger culture to discern. Churches can prove to be of great importance as it helps in providing a psychological and physical assistance to their congregants by providing treatment and prevention oriented programs in the society. A great example from the history is the Black Church that has served through decades as an informal social guider. And its effectiveness posed people to research on the formal means. Substance abuse, support, health screening and education were some of the fields where the Black Church provided its services. Individuals and churches that are associated with it hold significant importance in the history as it created a chain between informal and formal system of care that benefited the society specially those who are marginalized or underserved. These programs were encouraged by many others like lay persons, natural helpers, and religious leaders. As far as these religious leaders are concerned, they made their finding in the treatment of mental illness and they made everyone realize that paraprofessional counselors are in no way less then the professional counselors. They made their achievement in four areas of community medicine: primary care delivery, health promotion and disease prevention, community mental health and health policy. The church had great potentials. It provided and outstanding performance in collaborating with formal care systems to maximize its programs. Eng et al. helped a great deal in promoting the church’s health care programs. Such â€Å"natural helpers† have gone through a training program where they learnt how to interact with the health professionals, resource mobilization, primary self-care skills and prevention, organization of educational and services-oriented activities. Whilst the lay advisors were supposed to foster social support, they were expected to promote a healthy general well-being of people and were asked to keep a close link with the formal care system. As far as the roles of religious leaders are concerned, they are not fully described in the health care literature. In the early 1970’s, a need for psychiatrics developed in rural areas, as these individuals were recognized the more underserved population. These investigations evolved and helped in the contribution of understanding the mental health status between the urban and the rural individuals. Social, economic and geographical factors are the attributes of such rural problems. The main difficulty in the rural life of South was to separate the effects of poverty from the effects of race, color, cast etc. but after some time the solution was discovered. But later it was discovered that only 3% of the licensed psychiatrics were practicing the rural areas and the rest were gone to nowhere. Rural populations were again left to the same position as it was before. â€Å"The Black Church has no challenger as the cultural womb of the black community. Not only did it give birth to new institutions such as schools, banks, insurance companies, and low income housing, it also provided an academy and an arena for political activities, and it nurtured young talent for musical, dramatic, and artistic development† (1990, 8) The factor of race still existed between these populations no-matter if it’s urban or rural; it also greatly affected the mental healths of each individual. Many theorists believe that White American have been always against the black consumers, because they have no understanding of black’s culture, traditions, beliefs etc. But on the other hand blacks are not either interested in consuming goods or services from the Whites. They are less likely to trust White therapists and try not to interact with them in any case. Studies proved that Blacks are interested in consuming goods and seeking services from the blacks due to the understanding of same culture and traditions, it is also based on the preference of similar attitudes and racial compatibility. The research grew further and further. The research helped in understanding the need to change and acceptance of cultural and attitudinal differences and system-levels barriers. Studies proved that racial identity can be a part of success. Here racial identity means that identification of diverse racial backgrounds; it includes the basic knowledge of one’s culture and traditions. Accepting the non normative behavior of minorities can also help in dealing with societies; therapists play a big role in understanding the culture background. Lack of understanding of cultural responsiveness may result in disturbance between racial differences and help seeking environment. As compare to white blacks are more tolerant of psychological distress. They are very quick in diagnoses of schizophrenia and psychosis and control such diseases in their premature stages. Individuals, interpersonal and system-level factors promote understanding of service utilization and psychiatric morbidity. They focus on individuals because individuals predict reasonable outcomes related to services and treatment. Researchers always pick out individuals to get correct outcomes; the individual factors include race, religiosity, beliefs about mental health and copying styles. Social support, stigma and social distance are included in interpersonal level. â€Å"The Black church tradition provided an environment for reapplying already learned processes for interdependence. Embedded within the individual were past experiences, traditions, values, and norms for emotions, cognitions, and behaviors conducive to relatedness and â€Å"interpersonal ness† that reflected a collective sense of belonging with, rather than to, caring, similar others† (2001, 40) Management of mental illness is essential to the social support in rural areas. An alternative to expensive or inaccessible impatient or out patient services are neighbors or extended families. Researchers have also identified the contributions made by natural helpers in promoting positive changes to the environment. Mental illness and health care systems motivated natural helpers to provide social support to the rural black communities. A powerful indicator of poor utilization of care is Stigma that is influenced by individuals and interpersonal levels. It discourages the search for formal services but encourages the social support and informal care systems. The study says that Blacks have higher levels of tolerating psychological distress; the main reason behind this is stigma and fear of hospitalization. This sometimes results in help-seeking from specialty providers but this happens only in extreme cases. This hypothesis shows the higher emergency level among Blacks compared to Whites, Asians and Hispanics. Informal systems are fostered by fear and stigma amongst the rural Blacks. It was noticed that poorer Blacks were more likely to experience distress, physical, mental and interpersonal problems as compared to wealthier Blacks. But as compared to Whites, 15% Blacks are less likely to seek help for emotional problems than their physical or interpersonal problems. Furthermore, Blacks seek help for their financial problems but this is limited to their geographical boundaries and economic barriers. The above study has made it clear that, urban counterparts provide more social and mental services as compared to the rural churches and it also have less links with the formal system and promote the informal systems of care. We also analyzed that White churches have more links with the formal system of care than Black Churches but Black Churches provide more social and mental health service.

Adidas Analyse

Nikkei appeared in 1978 in the USA and Aids started to lose market shares. By 1990, the brand was sold to a French Investor won uses ten colorless' endorsement communication strategy. In the aim of surpassing the American brand, one of the other main strategies of Aids was acquisitions such as the French ski equipment company: Salomon AS. The brand increased its revenues and was then able to acquire Rebook. Aids still had to overtake Nikkei but is now number one in Europe. In 2009, Aids made a profit of more than 245 million Ð ²? and employed almost 40,000 persons.The German brand is proposing products for a large range of sports such as running, football, tennis, golf, etc. Environment Context Nowadays, the competition on the footwear market has become really strong as in the current time people really care about well being but also because sports has still a strong place in our world. People also care about sports brand because they have become a social symbol and enable people to value their personality and show their membership in some certain social group. Consequently, sports brands fight with each other to become the leader by having the most market shares.Aids is fighting mostly with Nikkei which is the current leader in the footwear market as we will later in this case study (in the competition part). However, Aids has strong tools to become at least the leader in the future. Aids is recognized has the brand of excellence in the sport, in terms of technical and performing shoes but also has since the beginning of its history a strong link with the sports community, being supported by several famous athletes. Aids is also the leader in innovation and design in order to anticipate consumers' needs.The brand tries to help its athletes to increase their skills and their performance with every product of the Aids' range. Generally speaking, Aids is a global organization which is socially and environmentally expansible. It knows how to attract employees and shareholders for financial interest. Aims Aids' mission is to become the global leader with a real passion for sports and a sporting lifestyle. The best way to reach this mission is to have a wide brand and a unique product range for professional and fashion sportive.This gives the possibility to affect lots of consumer needs and exploit each opportunity that market can furnish. They do a difference between quality and quantity. This concept comes from the founder of the brand. Doll Dasher was passionate about sports. He wanted his hoes to be different. They provide excellent comfort while improving athletic performance. These are the statutes of the brand. Its heritage allows Aids to be different from competitors and gives it strength base for future. Marketing objectives In the medium term, Aids wants to increase its leadership in Europe and its shares in the US footwear market.It wants also to be as good as Nikkei, the actual leader. To reach them, it has to furnish constants ef forts to maintain and increase hopefully its position on footwear and apparel market. It has to imitate the competition on their trench points and in the same time, innovate in order to be different. Aids is completely Touches on Its consumers Ana on tenet expectations. I Nat Is winy teen are constantly improving the quality, the look and image of their products. With this, the company hopes to exceed the expectations of their consumers and at least becoming the leader in the footwear market.Contextual analysis The market * Presentation of the global footwear market The footwear market from 1998 to 2009 has gone up: demand for footwear has increased over the last few years. Thus, sales have grown by 9. 3% from 1998 to 2007, even though it went down abruptly in 2009 (-2. 5%). Women's shoes category is the most significant with 47. 7 % of market share, following by the men with 34. 1% part of the market. The children's footwear is the smallest market share category. * Aids footwear ma rket Aids is the world's second largest footwear brand with 22. 9% of market share, after Nikkei (37. %) in 2006. 45% of its revenues are from footwear. Aids distribute its products in 160 countries. They earn most of money selling to large retail stores such as Dick's Sporting goods, Foot locker, or directly to the customers. They had a total of 2 212 retail stores in the world. Western Europe and North America are the two main markets for the sale of Aids products with 31% and 23% of sales 2009. PASTEL analysts * Political First, it is beneficial for Aids to operate in democratic countries as they do not introduce drastic policies, which could affect its sales.Regarding to trading policies, there are no quotas for imported Aids products. However, there is the antiquating law which forbids any company to export its footwear products â€Å"in a country at a price which is below the price at which the product is sold in the market f origin†. Then Aids follows all the current e mployment laws, for the rights of its employees. However, the minimum wage in several countries (such as I-J, France†¦ ) is a constraint for Aids, and which could have a negative impact on its costs of production.That is why, Aids relocates its production activities where the workforce is less expensive such as Indonesia, China and Vietnam. This has made a bad publicity for Aids in these countries as Aids does not give to its employees good working conditions, with a low wage. We can quote as an example the â€Å"Play fair† 2008. * Economic The home economy situation which is the crisis could have a negative effect for Aids as the purchasing power is low. Thus, the unemployment and the decrease of wages could have a bad effect on Aids sales, as customers would not have enough money to spend in its product, vital costs having priority.Interests and exchange rates have also an impact on the consumer behavior. The increase of raw materials' prices as 011 wanly Is a componen t AT plastic NAS an Impact on ten Tall cost AT ten production. Aids has two solutions: increase the sales prices or level down its profit margin. * Social Nowadays, the demography is special: the age distribution is getting higher in most of the world. The target is especially young people who identify themselves to the brand. Maybe Aids should think to the long term.Aids sells in large cities, as there are the highest amounts of customers able to buy sportive shoes in these places. The lifestyle trend of people has changed, compare to several years ago. For instance, more and more people use internet. Aids should have a good platform to sell its products. The obesity is a current problem in our society. Most of the time, these people do not practice sports. It could also have a positive effect: they could want to lose weight and so, buy Aids product to train. People are also becoming less busy and can spend more time to their leisure activities like sports.Regarding to the consumer attitudes, we can notice that the frequency of purchase of Aids footwear is, for most people, to buy one or two football shoes per season. Aids should take that in consideration to promote its shoes during the pre-season. Promotion could also be made before major events such as the World Cup or the European Championship which have an influence on the Aids ad and sales. There s also a fashion and role model with stars wearing Aids shoes: several endorsement contracts have been made with stars such as David Beckman or Lionel Mess. Technological In the footwear market, the key to success is the innovation. Thus, there are new technological advances are becoming more performer as the football shoes which allow the user to kick the ball with more precision and power. Aids needs to be aware of the latest technologies. The use of new materials could be strength for the brand, such as materials able to resist over long distances, humid conditions or extreme temperatures changes. A lot of r esearches are made in the aim to improve the quality of a product.Thus, Aids is the world's first smart shoes (adding a microchip inside the shoe for instance. * Environmental The Sustainable Development is an important subject in our current society, and also for Aids: it has launched its new ecological footwear collection made with natural raw material, recycling material and which are biodegradable. Then, in the aim to protect human health and environment, Aids eliminate PVC and is making progress in finding substitutes like polyurethane, ethyl vinyl, silicone thermoplastic rubber. Yet, global pressure is pushing on Aids which uses for its shoes materials from animals.For instance, it has been seen that Aids slaughtered million of kangaroos, for their skin using to produce leather shoes. In February 2006, David Beckman officially announced that he would not wear Aids shoes anymore. Thus, the environmental campaigners could be a problem for Aids, who should make some R&D to find o thers materials, not taken from animals. * Legal Concerning the regulation, Aids needs to be aware of the legal legislations (most of them protect the customers) such as Sales and Supply of goods act (1979), Trade ascription Act (1968).There is also the European Union (1993), which is the free trace Detente countries Trot EYE: traces are not changer Day customs anymore Ana there are no quotas. Aids has to deal with the counterfeit of Aids footwear products. Competition analysis The competition on the sport footwear has become really aggressive because of many reasons. Nowadays, many people do sports because of the care about well being but also because sports brands have become social symbols that permit to people to distinguish from the others and show their membership in a social group much as for making sport in itself.Consequently, competition on the sport footwear market increase dramatically with the idea of making everything to make your best competitor has a bad image in fro nt of customers and to prove that your brand is the best by all means, we can even talk in some case about unfair competition. In the market of footwear, Disdain's first competitor is Nikkei with 37. 9% of market share, and Aids had 22. 9% % in 2006. Nevertheless, Aids is gaining everyday market shares and we see a close fight between Nikkei and Aids for gaining the global market.Aids makes everything to become the leader on the footwear market. Consequently, to become a bigger threat for Nikkei, Aids has acquired Rebook in 2005, world non in the sport market, in a friendly takeover for 3. 1 billion of Euros (3. 8 billion of dollars). This takeover allows Aids to combine its popularity in Europe among soccer and athletics fans with Rebook popularity in US in basketball and football fan. This takeover is a highly strategic action as it is made in order to win market shares in the U. S where Nikkei is the leader and finally catch its eternal competitor, Nikkei.As we can see, everythin g is made to become a huge threat for Nikkei ND there is a real fight between those two global brands. It can also be seen by the war they lead during major sports events as the football world cup of 2010. They fight to have the biggest number of team who wear their brand and finally in this case it's Aids which wins but which stays close to Nikkei. Indeed, in this football world cup in South Africa, Aids sponsored 12 countries such as South Africa, but also major and favorite teams like those of Germany, Argentina, Spain and France.Aids also made huge benefits in other events, such as the official ball of the world cup, named â€Å"Jubilant† which was created by Aids. Nikkei owns also in this cup 10 famous teams like Brasilia, Netherlands, Portugal and Great-Britain (which wear Umbra, property of Nikkei). It's with this example that we see that Aids and Nikkei have another competitors, named Puma. This brand is well known by Aids, as it has been created by the brother of Aid Dasher after a huge argument between the two brothers. Puma is gaining everyday little by little market share and is gaining in popularity.Puma's strategy is different from its two other big competitors, they are positioned in the luxury market of sport because it has been by the French luxury roof, PR. This brand has a strongly attractive for fashion people, seducing big stars like Brad Pit, or in the sport community the footballer Ankle. Puma is trying to follow Aids and Nikkei by making a lot of actions like for the football world cup. Puma has sponsored 7 teams, mostly African teams, but also a famous team, which won the previous cup, Italy.To better understand the market share that each brand has, we have found a pie chart which represents the market share of each brand in the athletic footwear market where we have decided to focus on, on this case study. Network wellness. Com/stock (It is important to notice that this chart is a bit old as it has been made in 2005, and that f or now, Rebook is now part of Aids) It can be also relevant to make a mapping (See appendix 1) to see where Aids is located / positioned relatively to its competitors in terms of price and technicality.Aids and its competitors Its second competitor is Puma which has been created after a huge argument between the two brothers Dasher ; Aids has to be careful about Puma because it has been buy by the French luxury group PR and is winning little by little market shares. Puma's strategy is different from its two big competitors Nikkei and Aids, they are more specialized in the luxury market, seducing fashion actors (Brad Pit) and famous footballer (Ankle). There is also another competitor in the footwear world named It is also important, in a world of globalization, to highlight the growing power of new entrants from China.There are two domestic famous brands in China: * Lie Inning * Anta They are leaders on the Chinese domestic market in footwear as people prefer to buy domestic brands but also because they are cheaper than Aids and Nikkei. Even if â€Å"Lie Inning and Anta are not competing directly with the two global leaders, they are taking more and more market shares in China, whereas Nikkei and Aids market shares remain the same. † Aids has to be careful of China competitors. Porter's five forces (including generic one) We can introduce this part by the Porter's five generic in order to describe the footwear industry.The five criteria are: * Fragmented * Emerging * Mature * Declining * Global The footwear market is global because the market is saturated in products (everybody has sport shoes at home) but the market is rapidly growing. Porter's five roses can be summarized by many schemes and then, we will apply these forces to our case study. * Threat of new entrants New entrants cannot easily enter in the running shoes' market because a few big companies control the market and they own very important brand awareness, thanks to their advertising budge t.It implies that no new firm can quickly win many market shares without be exposed to a competitive reaction of leaders that will kill the new firm. Nevertheless, some retail companies try to sell low-cost footwear with lower prices than Aids or other important company but with a lower quality as well. With such a positioning, they want to target the people who have not enough money to buy expensive shoes and who are not really the target of Aids. * Threat of substitute products or services Because AT some meal reports wanly Alamo ten running Ana can Impact AT ten leg on the ground.So, some sports which require athletic footwear can be dangerous for the bone structure. That means other sports which do not have such an impact on the health can be a threat for the footwear market such as: swimming, cycling etc. * Bargaining Power of suppliers Shoes' fabrication and technology needs are more and more complex, so Aids upends on more suppliers than before. Raw materials: The insole is a thin layer of man-made ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA). The components of the middle consist of polyurethane surrounding another material such as gel or liquid silicone, or polyurethane foam given a special brand name by the manufacturer.Outsells are usually made of carbon rubber. Increase of the cost of plastic because of the rise of the oil's price. Working conditions of outsourced production are often qualified to be against the human rights and Aids can be obliged to raise his employees' wages. * Bargaining power of buyers Demand is growing and companies are fighting for selling their products to consumers who become more and harder to please. In big retail stores, consumers have a large choice of running shoes. It means that if prices of a brand are too expensive compared to it quality, they will buy shoes of another firm with a better rate Price/Quality.The market is very competitive and customers can choose between several brands such as: Nikkei, Aids, Puma, Acacias, Mizzen, Ne w Balance, Puma, Spiral, Salomon, Lawful etc. * Rivalry among existing competitors The footwear market is growing quickly with 9. 3% of growth between 1999 and 2007. Despite of the footwear market is oligopolies, because a few companies control it, the competition is very intensive and all firms aim to be the first. The main actors of this market are: Nikkei (Leader), Aids (2nd), Puma, Acacias, Mizzen, New Balance, Puma, Spiral, Salomon and Lawful.Portfolio analysis * Product range Aids has more than 90 million pairs of shoes including 3. 000 different styles. The following shows some example of Aids shoes contingent on performance and price. This provides a clear idea of the various proposals of the mark. (See Appendix 2) So, this brand affected all sports. To be more efficient, we will find Aids athletic shoes in each sport. We choose to focus on it because Nikkei, the dominant brand on this market, is much stronger on fashion shoes. Aids gives priority to performance instead of f ashion.This means Aids will be aimed at professional person than those practicing a sport as leisure. The next list is not an exhaustive list: * Football: Predator, OFF, Dipper, Dizzier * Tennis: Barricade, Genius Novak * Hockey: ADSTAR, Gel Platinum, * Golf: Garbage, Million, Tour 360 * Badminton: Court, Stabile Optimist * Running: Dizzier, Supernova, Jumpstarted, Response cricket: Twenty's, HOOKAH * Basket: TTS Suspected CRU, The Oracle * Rugby: Flanker, Predator, Regulate * Boxing: ADSTAR, Box Hog You can Tina In appendix 3 a can't Witt some pictures way to illustrate the product range of Aids. The BCC manta Decease It Is ten more relevant Using this Boston Consulting Group Matrix, we will evaluate the interest of fields of activities of Aids thought two criterion's: the market share and the market growth. We can observe four areas, crossing the market share axis and the market growth axis: star, problem child, cash cow and dog. The Dog represents products which have low market s hare and market growth. These products do not have any interest for the company: indeed, they do not generate any profits anymore, and are usually products which have been around for a few years.In this case, the company has better abandon these products. In the Aids range of products, the Aids Predator Precision has become a dog, having declined, such as the previous version of the Original Stan Smith 2, dating from 2005 or the ancient Respect Low, Respect Mid or Midrib for running. The Question mark shows products with a low market share and a low market growth. It means that these products have an interesting potential for sails (consequence of the low market share), but their high market growth risks to reduce their competitiveness. It would involve significant investments from the company.The objective is to transform them into stars, with the possibility they can turn into dogs. In the Aids range of products, the Aids OFF is a question mark, recently introduced to the market. We will see if it turns into a dog or a star. The same situation is observed for the AS Wings from Jeremy Scott, which is the new collection, or the new men TTS Supernatural Commander ALT. The new environmental election with the Superstar, the Forum Mid Natural or the Vintage XX 500 are also recently introduced, and Aids will see if the â€Å"green spirit† will have a good effect on the sales of these shoes.The Star corresponds to markets having high growth, and where the company owns high market share. It represents the most profitable products for the company, as they bring in a large amount of profits. The Aids Predator Pulse fits in this section, as it generates profits and significant sales. The Goodyear Race and the new version of the Stan Smith are also the most wanted shoes, and generate an important profit! The Cash Cows are characterized by a low growth market and a high market share. These products are very profitable, as they generate high profits.Their dominated position gives them a competitive advantage concerning prices and margin. Arise from the low market growth, investments are not very high. Thus, these cash cow products are those which enable the company financing its question marks products. The Aids Predator Mania falls in this area, as it is a profitable product, with high sales. The new version of the Barricade V is also a profitable product as it generates high sales with competitive advantage on its price. We can see in Appendix 3 the BCC matrix. * Anions matrix The Anions matrix is a useful tool for noticing future intensive growth opportunities.We can observe four strategies. First, there is the Market Penetration Strategy: the idea is to gain more market share with current products, implementing different promotions. It is the least risky strategy, as it does not cost a lot of money to the company. Thus, Aids could consider this method to acquire more market share, using Its Totally snows, already present on ten market, dev eloping promotions around it. Secondly, the Market Development Strategy is the fact to develop new arrests for current products of a company, through branding and advertising.The current product should also be sold in area where it hasn't been located before. Using this medium risky method, Aids could sell a current footwear product in a new country. Then, there is the Product Development Strategy which is the fact to develop new products (in the aim to replace old products) to current markets. This is the case when each season, a new version of a previous product is bringing out such as Aids with its Predator football shoes. Finally, there is the Diversification Strategy which is for a company, the opportunity to develop new products for new markets!This method is the riskiest one, as there was no previous knowledge of the product or of the market. Thus, Aids could use this strategy to produce a product that the company is not familiar with, to be sold in a new market. We can see i n Appendix 3 the Anions Matrix. Strategic Business Units Strategic Business Unit or SIBS corresponds to the different units which structure the company and represent the corporate identity. It is typically a strategy used by large company. It is the case for Aids. There are several types of SIBS regarding the type f product, the geographic area, etc.Aids is applying a product strategy composed of four Subs: * Aids Sport Performance * Aids Sport Style * Aids Originals: from niche to fashion mainstream * The Fashion Group: Aids is fashion Aids Sport Performance It is the most sport-oriented SUB with all the products proposed to professionals. It represents the idea of performance that Aid Dasher wanted to diffuse. Innovation and transcendence are keys words of A. S. P. It covers most of the sports and focuses its efforts most particularly on five of them. * Football * Running * Training * Basketball * Outdoor Aids Sport StyleAs all of its competitors, Aids also provide street wear and lifestyle fashion footwear. It was primarily a niche but as the target market correspond to the mass market, it became quickly one of the most important SIBS of the brand and the firm started opening new divisions such as Stella Ms Carney and Propose Design Sport. Aids Originals: from niche to fashion mainstream This is the classical SUB which is composed of the first models designed at the beginning of the brand such as the Stan Smith model. It emphasis the â€Å"Celebrate Originality' philosophy. The target is more the youth and teenagers. That is why the

Amino Acid Quantitative Analysis

Amino Acid Quantitative Analysis N.Koen Introduction Amino acids give the basic building blocks of forming a protein and play an essential role in the energy metabolism, neurotransmission, and lipid transport. Their quantitative analysis is important for various uses, including disease diagnostics and in elucidating nutritional influences on physiology (Fromm & Hargrove, 2012). Amino acid levels in the body fluids are used to diagnose metabolic deficiencies. Deprived or excessive levels of amino acids can show different defects of deficiencies (Lanpher, 2006). Preparation requirements and sample clean-up make the procedure a slow procedure. While some protocols may provide adequate chromatographic methods and derivatization procedures, that makes it more sufficient and quicker. Leucine is an essential amino acid, which means that it cannot be manufactured in the body. It is also well represented in all the proteins in the body. In vivo leucine kinetics presents a theoretically valid index of protein turnover. C onsequently, isotopically labelled (2H, 3H, 13C, 14C or 15N) leucine is most commonly used for the study of protein metabolism in humans and animals (Fromm & Hargrove, 2012). Literature review Amino acid involvement 1. Amino acid analysis Leucine is an amino acid which is usually obtained by hydrolysis of most common proteins. It was among the first of amino acids to be discovered in 1819 in muscle fibre and wool (Bauman, et al., 1992). Leucine is present in large proportions in haemoglobin. This amino acid is also known for preventing the breakdown of muscle proteins caused by injury or stress (Lanpher, 2006). In addition, Leucine may be beneficial for people suffering from phenylketonuria. Leucine is an essential amino acid, so your body cannot produce it naturally but can only obtain it from food, including protein-rich animal food like fish, chicken, beef, also dairy and eggs. Leucine is classified as a hydrophobic amino acid due to its aliphatic isobutyl side chain. It is encod ed by six codons (UUA, UUG, CUU, CUC, CUA, and CUG) and is a major component of the subunits in ferritin, astacin and other ‘buffer’ proteins. 2. Inborn errors of the metabolism Branched-chain organic acidurias are inborn errors of the metabolism involving the branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) leucine, isoleucine and valine. These diseases usually involve neurological symptoms. They are treatable with strictly controlled diets and enhancement of detoxification of toxic intermediate metabolites. Detoxification is enhanced through supplementation of glycine, carnitine, biotin and other vitamins where applicable. The most common branched-chain organic acidurias are maple syrup urine disease (MSUD), 3-methylcrotonyl-CoA carboxylase (MCC), propionic aciduria (PCC), methylmalonic aciduria (MMA) and isovaleric aciduria (IVA) deficiency (Heidelberg, 2012). Leucine is involved in a few inborn errors of the metabolism, from which maple syrup urine disease (MSUD) is one of the ma in mentioned. MSUD is caused by a deficiency in the branched-chain alpha-keto acid dehydrogenase complex. (Lanpher, 2006) Ketoacidosis, neurological disorders, and developmental disturbance can all be induced by the accumulations of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) and branched-chain alpha-keto-acids (BCKAs) in patients with MSUD. According to clinical investigations on MSUD patients, leucine levels over 400ÃŽ ¼mol/L apparently can cause any clinical problem derived from impaired function of the central nervous system. Damage to neuronal cells found in MSUD patients are presumably because of higher concentrations of both blood BCAAs or BCKAs, especially alpha-keto-isocapronic acids. These clinical data from MSUD patients provide a valuable basis on understanding leucine toxicity in the normal subject. (Fromm & Hargrove, 2012)

The Impact of Organizational Ethics on Employee Relations Research Proposal

The Impact of Organizational Ethics on Employee Relations - Research Proposal Example This paper illustrates that the perspective on employer-employee relations has in the past decades undergone a radical transformation This has been contributed by the ever-increasing competition in the business world and organizations increased competitive advantage. The study of the impact of organizational ethics on employee relations is important because an organization survives because of relationships between employers, employees, and other stakeholders. The biggest concern is what would happen if organizational ethics is not practiced, and the possible effect of this. Firstly, according to Goleman, it is necessary to note that workforce in any given organization is essential for the achievement of the organization. In fact, the weak the workforce is, the weak the organization is. Therefore, it can be argued that application of ethics in an organization can affect the employees negatively or positively depend on how it’s applied. In essence, Jurkiewicz and Giacalone noted that when there are unethical acts or conduct within the organization, especially instigated by management to the employees, the implication of this is translated to the customer and other employees, and which may have adverse effects to the performance of the whole organization. The local government system is not exceptional. In regard to the local government system, the system is considered to play a key role in issues pertaining public service ethics. The concern here is what would happen if there no codes of conducts to which, for example, elected councilors are expected to conform. Just like in any other organization, the focus of local government, in this case, is not only about corruption, but rather the misconduct, hospitality, relationship with other officers and any other behavior that would bring any member of the local government into disrepute.