Sunday, November 24, 2019

The Mexican Revolution essays

The Mexican Revolution essays The historical facts of the Mexican revolution uncover a country that endured an aggregate number of violent insurrections fought by multiple, diversified bands of revolutionists. At the heart of the conflicts and the quest for ultimate control was a nation determined to free itself from the social and political bondage of tyranny. Perhaps the most significant change produced by the Revolution was its creation and distribution of corruption through the struggle of power. The years of rebellion would bring many into power that would use force to ensure and preserve their rule consequently weakening the country while fostering a politically and socially hostile climate. The birth pangs of Mexicos revolutionary transformation began in 1810 with a rebellion led by two poverty-stricken priests, Miguel Hidalgo and Jose Morelos. Spanish colonial officials were controlling Mexico. In northern Mexico, Hidalgo incited the Mexican Indians to revolt against the wealthy Spanish plantation owners. The battle cry was for a new government and the redistribution of the land owned by the church and plantation owners. Hidalgos army was eventually defeated and in 1811 and he was executed. Jose Morelos then took full control of the Revolution and led guerrilla attacks until the Spaniards captured and hanged him in 1815. The Revolution of 1810 would fade quickly following the death of Morelos. In 1821, a plantation owner named Augustin de Iturbide led other plantation owners in a revolt against Spain, declaring their independence. By 1822, Iturbide declared himself Emperor Augustin I. However, he was unable to pay the troops that supported him and was overthrown by the army and replaced with a republic headed by Guadalupe Victoria. From 1823 to 1855, the new Mexican Republic was plagued with political disputes between Mexicos liberals, who sought free trade and looked to model Mexico after the United States, and conser...

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Human resource-staffing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Human resource-staffing - Essay Example The first thing is that it is worth paying these individuals what they are worth or what they demand from you, if you want to attract them to work for you. Quite possibly because of their reputation for producing results, they are being targeted by headhunters and competitor organizations in the industry. So giving them the kind of compensation and benefits they want- of course within reasonable limits- coupled with a free hand in running most things will attract them to the organization (Berger & Berger, 2003, 35). Of course, we do not want a clash between two or more top performers, so budgets and areas of operation and control have to be carefully delineated, with the CEO making decisions if there is an impending conflict. Quite possibly a performance bonus or sweetener has to be offered if they are involved in an organizational turnaround, with stock options in tow. Developing a talent inventory for the most promising individuals in the organization and giving them ample opportunities to be responsible as well as get training, learning and development will help prepare a talent pool from within the enterprise itself. It is best to put such individuals under direct reporting of the top performing individuals, so that a talent pool is developed that could be used in case the top performer resigns, dies or is lured by a competitor. 8. Keeping an eye on the market and the top performing individuals in different areas of the industry can also help in filling important positions from outside if relevant talents are not available within the organization. I think that the best single practice I have learned in this regard is to be prepared and it is always best to have a succession plan or backup plan in place in case an important individual leaves the organization. This is possible if one keeps an eye on what is happening in the industry from time to

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Journal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 4

Journal - Essay Example Attractive person strikes the cords in the hearts of most individuals who belong to the same community because he or she is believed to prove that harmony exists. Harmony, in its turn, can be viewed as a combination of ‘right’ and ‘desirable’ phenomena or concepts. Getting the idea of what is right, people start looking for the proof that the ‘right thing’ exists. Natalia Vodianova, the main character in the commercial, is seen by many as a very attractive woman. When she is shown in the video running with a prosthetic leg her aura of strength, glamorousness and grace is enhanced. In most cases, new things, unknown traits disagree with the concept of harmony and are not universally seen as attractive. But the video once again shows that the beauty is, indeed, in the eye of the beholder. Worrying about ‘norms’ and labels people are ‘blindfolded’ and don’t see every person’s beauty. As the song goes â€Å"Money can’t buy me love†. But the same can be true about any other emotion or sensation. Money basically cannot make you feel something other that the joy of having money (provided you are prone to avarice). Thai commercial â€Å"Unsung Hero† inspired me to consider what money really means to people and what ‘currency’ can be invested in life. According to the authors of the commercial what people really want has nothing to do with fame, fortune, and success. It is the emotion or feeling of happiness. And in many cases it has nothing to do with money. Going on holiday to a new location, trying new dishes, buying new things is exchanging money for sensations. The holiday sun tan disappears, exotic food is digested, new clothes or gadgets soon become habitual and start serving their purpose be it protecting us from the rain and cold or facilitating communication. But the sensations, the emotions such as the excitement of the discovery of new destinations, fascination with one’s own reflection in the mirror

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Aspects of Contract and Negligence for Business 2 Essay

Aspects of Contract and Negligence for Business 2 - Essay Example A court system has to provide a form of remedy to help deal with the issue. It arises when a person’s right are violated causing private wrong doing and damage in the event. Evaluation of the evidence is done before a verdict is raised. Tort law is considered an English common law and is related to situations that one of the parties is injured and sues the other party for the damages (Burton &Steven, 24). The intentional civil wrong or the negligent is not arising out of statue or contract. These may involve defamation or tort for negligence. The situation can also be applied when a person’s injury is based on the breach of duty care by the other person. Contraction liability on the other hand refers to the responsibility of one party over the other as indicated by the terms and condition of the parties involved. The provision for contractual liability can be stated in the contract between the two partners who are in business. It can also be included by one party while presenting the contract to others. One party protects the other in the event of damages as applied in the various insurance companies. The contract is usually stated in written terms (Whittaker &Simon). Torts are acts wrongfully done and may results to, harm or damage to the other person’s body, legal rights or property. The damage may have occurred due to a breach of duty stipulated in the contract or statute. The person affected can sue the other person whose negligence amounted to the harm which occurred. A civil court can give advice on injunctions or compensations toward the person who was affected in the process. On the hand, contractual liability occurs when a contract is created between two parties voluntarily binding them in the process. Contractual law like tort law applies to both companies and persons. Both laws are considered as part of the obligation laws. The contract law is voluntarily assumed whereas tort law applies to relevant situations. Tort

Friday, November 15, 2019

Properties of Phagraphene via Hydrogenation and Fluorination

Properties of Phagraphene via Hydrogenation and Fluorination Modulation of electronic and mechanical properties of phagraphene via hydrogenation and fluorination Donghai Wu ab, Shuaiwei Wang ab, Jinyun Yuanab* Baocheng Yang ab, Houyang Chenc* a Institute of Nanostructured Functional Materials, Huanghe Science and Technology College, Zhengzhou, Henan 450006, China b Henan provincial key laboratory of nanocomposite and application, Zhengzhou, Henan 450006, China c Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York 14260-4200, USA ________________ Abstract: Recently, a new carbon sheet, phagraphene, was proposed by theoretical calculations [Nano Lett. 2015, 15, 6182]. In this paper, the hydrogenated and fluorinated phagraphene (denoted as H-PHA and F-PHA) sheets have been systematically studied using first-principles calculations. The results of formation energy, ab initio molecular dynamics, phonon dispersion and elastic constants confirm that the modified phagraphene sheets are thermodynamically and dynamically as well as mechanically stable. We find that hydrogenation or fluorination is an effective way to modulate the bandgap, and we also find that adsorption-induced semimetal-semiconductor transition and adsorption-induced semimetal-insulator transition occur. Configuration-dependent bandgap for partially H-PHA and configuration-independent bandgap for fully H-PHA are determined. Adsorption-ratio-dependent bandgaps of H-PHA and F-PHA are also identified. Calculated bandgaps from HSE06 and PBE functionals of fully H-PHA ar e larger than those of F-PHA, and they are comparable to thehydrogenated/fluorinated penta-graphene while they are larger than their corresponding graphene. Dependence of bandgaps of fully H-PHA and F-PHA on the tensile strain is investigated, and our calculations show that an insulator-semiconductor transition occurs upon increasing the tensile strain. Our results also determined that the mechanical properties are controllable by using hydrogenation and fluorination. The calculations of Youngs modulus and Poissons ratio reveal the functionalized phagraphene sheets possess suitable stiffness and resistance to volume deformation, and both are smaller than the pristine phagraphene. 1. Introduction Two-dimensional (2D) carbon-based materials have been attracting great attention due to their fascinating mechanical, thermal, electronic, optical and magnetic properties.1-11 In particular, graphene is the most representative example. Since synthetized by Novoselov et al.6 in 2004, graphene has been extensively studied for its robust stability,12 high crystal quality,13 captivating mechanical and electronic as well as thermal properties.14-18 The covalently bonded honeycomb lattice with perfect hexagonal symmetry of graphene plays a crucial role in forming Dirac cones,19 which gives graphene massless fermions, resulting in the anomalous quantum Hall effects,20 ultrahigh carrier mobility21 and other properties.22, 23 Recently, a new carbon sheet, phagraphene,19 composed of rings containing five, six, and seven carbon atoms, was proposed by theoretical calculations. It can be considered as a defective graphene.24 This planar carbon allotrope is slightly more unstable than pristine graphene while energetically more favorable than other carbon allotropes.19 The notable stability benefits from its sp2-hybridization and dense atomic packing structure.25 Zhang et al.19 have proven that the electronic structure of phagraphene has direction-dependent Dirac cones, which are robust against external strain with tunable Fermi velocities. This unique performance makes the phagraphene an advanced material for numerous applications in photoelectric technology. However, like graphene, the phagraphene suffers a major drawback of zero bandgap and rather robust gapless state, limiting its potential applications. In order to overcome this disadvantage, we use hydrogenation and fluorination to modulate its bandgap in this paper. Thanks to the surface unsaturated C-C dangling bond,26 the chemical modification by adsorbing non-carbon atoms on the surface is an effective way to create a bandgap and tune the electronic, magnetic and mechanical properties of graphene.14, 24, 26-32 Hydrogenation is not only the simplest and manageable adsorption but also the generating hydrides are promising hydrogen storage materials in energy field.33, 34 The fluorine atoms with ultrahigh electronegativity are adsorbed on the graphene surface forming fluorinated graphene, which have been investigated experimentally and theoretically.14, 35, 36 After adsorbing such atoms, the forming C-H and C-F bonds could give rise to the carbon atoms transforming their hybridizati on state from sp2 to sp3, 33 correspondingly, the structural and electronic properties would undergo dramatic alterations. In this work, by employing first-principles calculations, the effect of hydrogenation and fluorination on the bandgap opening of phagraphene sheet is examined. After hydrogenation or fluorination, the bandgap of phagraphene could be opened sizably, changing its electro-conductivity from Dirac semimetal to semiconductor or from Dirac semimetal to insulator. The structural stability and mechanical properties of the modified phagraphene sheet are also investigated. 2. Computational details All the first-principles calculations and abinitio molecular dynamics (AIMD) were carried out by density functional theory (DFT) with the projector augmented wave (PAW) method and performed by the Vienna abinitio simulation package (VASP)37 . The 2D periodic boundary condition was adopted and a vacuum space of 20 Ã… along the perpendicular direction of the phagraphene sheet was included in order to avoid the interactions between adjacent layers. The generalized gradient approximation (GGA) of Perdew, Burke, and Ernzerhof (PBE)38 was applied as the exchange-correlation functional in most of the calculations. Meanwhile, to accurately calculate the band structures, the hybrid Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof (HSE06)39 was introduced. The Brillouin zone (BZ) was sampled using 2à Ã¢â€š ¬ ÃÆ'- 0.01 Ã…Ã ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢1 Monkhorst-Pack40 k-point mesh density, and the plane-wave basis set with cutoff energy of 600 eV was adopted. The total energy difference of 10à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢5 eV and forc e tolerance of 10à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢2 eVà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Ãƒâ€¦Ãƒ ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢1 were used for the convergence criteria of geometric optimization and self-consistent field. The phonon properties were calculated by the Phonopy package41 with force constants obtained by the finite displacement method.42 3. Results and discussion 3.1 Structural properties Figure 1 displays the structure of phagraphene19 together with its hydride and fluoride. The hydrogenated or fluorinated phagraphene (denoted as H-PHA or F-PHA) sheet is obtained by adsorbing hydrogen or fluorine atoms on both sides of the plane. For fully H-PHA and F-PHA, the ratio of C : H/F is 1 : 1. After optimization, the structures of both fully H-PHA (Figure 1c) and fully F-PHA (Figure 1d) are greatly distorted compared to pristine phagraphene (Figure 1a), resulting in low symmetry with a space group of P21/m (No. 11). The 5-6-7 carbon rings no longer remain in the same plane and become crumpled. The buckling height hb (i.e. the height between the bottom and top carbon layers) of fully H-PHA (0.856 Ã…, see Table 1) is larger than that of F-PHA (0.704 Ã…), and they are much larger than those of hydrogenated/fluorinated penta-graphene (0.42/0.40 Ã…) and graphene (0.46/0.49 Ã…).12 The calculated C-C bond distances of pristine phagraphene in Table 1 are in agreement wi th previous calculations,19 indicating the computational method is valid. All the C-C bond distances in fully H-PHA and fully F-PHA are enlarged compared to the pristine phagraphene, and are close to that of 1.546 Ã… in diamond43 while larger than that of 1.42 Ã… in graphene.1 These facts indicate the C-C bonds of phagraphene transform from the sp2-hybridization double bond to the sp3 single bond by hydrogenation or fluorination. The C-C bonds of fully F-PHA are longer than those of fully H-PHA, which can be explained by the depopulation of bonding orbitals between carbon atoms.27 The depopulation of these bonding orbitals stems from the electron transfer between carbon and hydrogen/fluorine atoms. The C-C bonds (C4-C4 in Figure 1) connecting the adjacent 5- and 7-carbon rings are enlarged to a greater extent than others, which is because of the repulsive interactions and steric effects between the adjacent two H/F atoms in the same side of phagraphene. The C-H and C-F bond di stances are approximately 1.11 and 1.38 Ã… (Table S1), approaching to the typical hydrocarbon and fluorocarbons compounds.44 Similar structure distortions and C-C bond elongation are found in hydrogenated/fluorinated penta-graphene and graphene.12, 26, 44 3.2 Stability analysis To investigate the stability of H-PHA and F-PHA, the binding energy Eb and formation energyEf are calculated (definitions of Eb and Ef are given at Section S1 of Supporting Information). The values of Eb are -2.540 and -2.977 eV/atom for fully H-PHA and fully F-PHA (see Table 1), respectively, implying strong interactions between C and H/F. A possible explanation of the strong attractive interactions between C atoms (of phagraphene) and H/F atoms is that, by adsorbing H/F atoms, the C-H/C-F bonds are formed, and the C-C bonds of phagraphene elongate greatly, which could partially release the stress imposed by the 5-6-7 carbon rings.12 Another important factor for synthesis is the formation energy, which applies to measure the stability against molecular desorption from the surface.44 The negative Ef (-0.276 eV/atom for fully H-PHA and -1.615 eV/atom for fully F-PHA) means that the surface modification is exothermic process and the H-PHA (or F-PHA) has lower energy than that of pristi ne phagraphene and H2 (or F2) molecules. The Eb and Ef of hydride are larger than those of fluoride, which are in accordance with similar systems of hydrogenated/fluorinated graphene (-2.48 eV > -2.86 eV)27 and penta-graphene (-3.65 eV > -4.22 eV).12 It is noticed that the Eb of fully H-PHA and fully F-PHA are close, whereas the Ef of fully H-PHA and fully F-PHA have huge difference. This is because of large difference in the dissociation energy of H2 and F2 molecules.27 The thermal stability is also important for H-PHA and F-PHA and is evaluated using the AIMD simulations with a 2 ÃÆ'- 2 ÃÆ'- 1 supercell and a time step of 1 fs for 5000 steps at room temperature (300 K) and 1000 K. Temperature (T) and total energy (Et) as functions of simulation time are plotted in Figures 2 and S1. T and Et converge to constants and the fully H-PHA and F-PHA keep their integrated structures during the AIMD simulations at the setting temperature. These facts demonstrate that hydrogenated or fluorinated phagraphene not only possesses robust thermal stability at room temperature, but also is resistant to high temperature such as 1000 K. In order to examine the dynamic stability, the phonon dispersion curves along the high symmetry points in the BZ and the corresponding phonon density of states (PDOS) are calculated  (Figure 3). No imaginary frequencies are found for both fully H-PHA and fully F-PHA, demonstrating that they are dynamically stable. There are three obvious acoustic modes in the bottom of the phonon spectra for the two structures, and the double degenerates arise along the XZ path of the BZ. These features are similar to the pristine phagraphene,19 graphene45 and its derivatives.12 From the PDOS, one can see that the H-PHA has a tremendous phonon gap of approximately 40 THz, while it is small for F-PHA (about 3 THz). The vibration frequency is inversely proportional to the effective atomic mass,12 thus the larger phonon gap of H-PHA than F-PHA may be attributed to the much lighter atomic mass of hydrogen than fluorine atom. Meanwhile, the narrow high frequency zone around 87 THz in Figure 3a is c orresponding to the C-H bond vibration modes of H-PHA, in accordance with the case of hydrocarbon.46 These C-H stretching modes are infrared active and useful in characterizing this compound.44 The low frequency range from 5 to 10 THz in Figure 3b mainly consists of the phonon modes of C-F bonds. The middle frequency range is dominated by the motion of C atoms. The C=C double bonds were broken by hydrogenation/fluorination, resulting in the disappearance of C-C vibration modes in the region of 40-50 THz for pristine phagraphene.19 3.3 Electronic structures In order to explore the electronic properties and bonding features, the band structures and density of states (DOS) of partially and fully hydrogenated/fluorinated phagraphene are calculated using both PBE and HSE06 functionals. As an example for partially H-PHA, 60% hydrogenation of phagraphene is chosen and four stable configurations (see Figure S2) are designed. The band structures of these configurations are shown in Figures 4 and S3. One can see that the band structures disperse greatly to single band, leading to the sharp peak appearing in the DOS at the EF. Meanwhile, a sub-bandgap located below or above the primary bandgap was observed. From calculations with PBE functional (Figure S3), the bandgaps of the four configurations vary from 2.65 eV (Figure S3a) to 1.72 eV (Figure S3b) to 0.93 eV (Figure S3c) to 0 (Figure S3d). The PBE functional usually underestimates the bandgap of materials.12 To obtain a more accurate Egap, the hybrid functional HSE06 is adopted. The calculated bandgaps with HSE functional in Figure 4 are 3.70 eV, 2.46 eV, 1.56 eV and 0.54 eV for the four configurations. Thus, one can conclude that the bandgap of partially hydrogenated phagraphene depends on configuration and adsorptio n-induced semimetal-semiconductor transition occurs. Such a functionalized 2D material with a proper bandgap has promising applications in optoelectronics and microelectronics.29, 47 The band structures and DOS of fully H-PHA and fully F-PHA are shown in Figures 5 and S4. From calculations with PBE functional (Figure S4), fully H-PHA and F-PHA have direct bandgaps of 4.29 eV and 3.23 eV, respectively. To examine the influence of configuration on the electronic properties, another four configurations of fully hydrogenated phagraphene (see Figure S5) are taken into account. The calculated band structures of the five configurations (Figures S4a and S6) are almost the same and the bandgaps are approximately 4.29 eV, indicating that the Egap of fully hydrogenated phagraphene is independent of the configuration. Similar behavior was found for fully hydrogenated graphene.27 We also calculated the band structures and DOS with HSE06 functional (Figure 5), and obtained that Egap for fully H-PHA and fully F-PHA are 5.37 and 4.98 eV, respectively. These values are comparable to the Egap of hydrogenated/fluorinated penta-graphene (5.35 eV and 4.78 eV) while they are larger th an those of corresponding graphene (4.97 eV and 4.74 eV).12 Obviously, the Egap of F-PHA is smaller than that of H-PHA. Similar results are found in cases of hydrogenated/fluorinated graphene26, 27 and penta-graphene.12Compared to the pristine phagraphene with zero bandgap, the surface modification via hydrogenation or fluorination can effectively tune its electronic structure from semimetal to insulator. Analysis of the partial DOS (Figure 5) reveals that, for H-PHA, the electronic states near the Fermi level (EF) are primarily originated from the C atoms, while they are dominated by both C and F atoms for F-PHA. Additional, from Figures 4 and 5, one can conclude that the bandgaps of H-PHA and F-PHA depend on the adsorption ratio of H and F atoms. We also examine the effect of strain on the band structures. The obtained stress-strain curves of fully H-PHA and F-PHA under biaxial loading (Figure S7) show that their fracture strains are 0.17 and 0.13, respectively. By changing the biaxial tensile strain, the bandgaps of fully H-PHA and F-PHA remain the direct gaps (Figures S8 and S9). Furthermore, upon increasing the biaxial tensile strain, the bandgap of fully H-PHA increases first and then decreases (Figure 6a), whereas the bandgap of fully F-PHA decreases monotonically (Figure 6b). These behaviors indicate that bandgaps depend on the strain. Strain-dependent bandgaps of other 2D materials were also determined previously.48-52 More interestingly, our calculations show that the bandgap of H-PHA reduces from 5.62 eV (ÃŽÂ µ = 0.10) to 4.42 eV (ÃŽÂ µ = 0.17) and the bandgap of F-PHA decreases from 4.98 eV (ÃŽÂ µ = 0) to 3.01 eV (ÃŽÂ µ = 0.13), indicating that an insulator-semiconductor transition occurs with the tensil e strain changes. To visually describe the electronic structure of fully H-PHA and F-PHA, we calculate the charge density. As shown in Figure 7, the charges are redistributed after hydrogenation or fluorination. Compared to the charge densities of C=C bonds in pristine phagraphene (see Figure S10), the charge densities of C-C bonds in H-PHA and F-PHA are reduced. For H-PHA, the shared charges donated by hydrogen are mainly located between the carbon and hydrogen atoms. For F-PHA, a large number of charges are focused on the fluorine atoms. This difference is a consequence of the different electronegativity of hydrogen and fluorine. For a selected element, its attraction of electrons becomes stronger with higher electronegativity.53, 54 The electronegativity increases gradually from hydrogen to carbon to fluorine.53 Thus the charge transfer is from hydrogen to carbon atoms in H-PHA while it is from carbon to fluorine atoms in F-PHA, which is consistent with other hydrocarbons and fluorocarbons.12, 55-5 7 Moreover, the charge density between H and C is lower than that between F and C, implying the weaker C-H interaction than C-F. The Mulliken population analysis58 shows that the transfer charge amounts are approximately 0.22 and 0.33 electrons for H-PHA and F-PHA, respectively, manifesting the weaker bond strength of C-H than that of C-F. 3.4 Mechanical properties Since the ultrathin 2D phagraphene as well as its derivatives is susceptible to external influences, including mechanical deformation,24 it is necessary to develop an in-depth understanding of their mechanical properties for practical application. The elastic constants are calculated (definitions are given at Section S2 of Supporting Information) and the obtained results are tabulated in Table 2, together with the existing reference data24 for comparison. All the elastic constants of fully H-PHA and fully F-PHA satisfy the mechanical stability criteria of C11C22 à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ C122 > 0 and C66 > 0 for 2D sheets,3, 59 indicating that they are mechanically stable. The in-plane Youngs modulus (E) and Poissons ratio (ÃŽÂ ½) can be derived from the elastic constants using the formulas of E = (C112 à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ C122) / C11 and ÃŽÂ ½ = C12 / C11.24 The E of fully H-PHA and F-PHA are 151.3 and 176.3 N/m (see Table 2), respectively, which are consistent with the results from the stress-strain curves (149.2 and 178.5 N/m for fully H-PHA and F-PHA, respectively). The Poissons ratio ÃŽÂ ½ of fully H-PHA and F-PHA are 0.078 and 0.152, respectively. Because the larger E implies the stronger stiffness and the larger Poissons ratio signifies the stronger incompressibility,24 the F-PHA has better stiffness and resistance to volume compression than the H-PHA, which may ascribe to the stronger C-F bonds than C-H bonds. Compared to pristine phagraphene, the E and ÃŽÂ ½ of H-PHA and F-PHA are significantly reduced. Such reduction may be related to their different charge density distribution and bond nature.12, 24 4. Conclusions In summary, we systematically study the structure, stability, electronic and mechanical properties of hydrogenated and fluorinated phagraphene sheets. Our results show that H-PHA and F-PHA are thermodynamically and dynamically as well as mechanically stable. The binding energy and formation energy of fully F-PHA are smaller than those of fully H-PHA, implying the stronger stability of F-PHA than H-PHA. After hydrogenation or fluorination, the bandgap of phagraphene is opened properly, resulting in an adsorption-induced semimetal-semiconductor transition or adsorption-induced semimetal-insulator transition. Strain-induced insulator-semiconductor transition is also identified. Our band structures demonstrate that bandgap of fully H-PHA is insensitive to the configuration whereas the bandgap of partially H-PHA is sensitive to the configuration. Adsorption-ratio-dependent of H-PHA and F-PHA is also determined. The obtained bandgaps from both PBE and HSE06 functionals of fully F-PHA are s maller than fully H-PHA. The charges are transferred from hydrogen to carbon atoms in the fully H-PHA while it is from carbon to fluorine atoms in the fully F-PHA. The positive Poissons ratios of fully H-PHA and F-PHA manifest that they can well resist the volume deformation.Both the Youngs moduli and Poissons ratios of the two phagraphene derivatives are significantly smaller than the pristine phagraphene. This investigation suggests that hydrogenation or fluorination is an effective strategy to modulate the electronic and mechanical properties of phagraphene for its possible applications in nanoelectronics. Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21401064, 21206049 and 51472102), the Natural Science Foundation of the Education Department of Henan Province (15A150060), the National Natural Science and Henan Province United Foundation of China (U1204601), Special Program for Applied Research on Super Computation of the NSFC-Guangdong Joint Fund (the second phase), and Leading Talents for Zhengzhou Science and Technology Bureau (Grant No. 131PLJRC649) for supports. We thank the National Supercomputer Center in Guangzhou and the High performance Computing Center of Huanghe Science and Technology College for the computer time provided. References 1.A. H. Castro Neto, F. Guinea, N. M. R. Peres, K. S. Novoselov and A. K. Geim, Rev. Mod. Phys., 2009, 81, 109-162. 2.D. Malko, C. Neiss, F. Vià ±es and A. Gà ¶rling, Phys. Rev. Lett., 2012, 108, 086804. 3.S. Zhang, J. Zhou, Q. Wang, X. Chen, Y. Kawazoe and P. Jena, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 2015, 112, 2372-2377. 4.Y. Liu, G. Wang, Q. Huang, L. Guo and X. Chen, Phys. Rev. Lett., 2012, 108, 225505. 5.L. Xu, R. Wang, M. Miao, X. Wei, Y. Chen, H. Yan, W. Lau, L. Liu and Y. Ma, Nanoscale, 2014, 6, 1113-1118. 6.K. S. Novoselov, A. K.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Why Napoleon Is Bad

Hello comrades, today right this second, I am supporting Snowball because he is not a thieving liar, a pig of trust and a pig with honor. He is the real pig behind the farm; not Napoleon. He has saved many animals during the Battle of Cowshed and he too shed blood. Napoleon, he is the real liar he has done nothing contributing to the leadership of the society! He is the traitor and not Snowball because he is the one with the ideas and with his heart so bright; brighter than the sun. His heart so pure, the purest even. And we have Napoleon. His heart so dark and evil it almost conceals him and no light can even be seen in his heart.We cannot trust this man of hell. He is the fake leader of this movement, he is not kind, he will never careless about the animals and he will never be pure of heart because he is consumed by the evil within him the greed, the thirst for power, the abuse of power he has acquired. He will have a tongue of lies which god may even curse and a life full of sin ahead of him. I do not encourage the leadership of Napoleon. In stead I would let Snowball a true believer take on the challenge because I feel that he who is pure at heart will be our leader and not a pig with a thirst for too much power.And when either takes over who shall be the one? My guess is simple. Snowball the Great Leader. He is the one who fought bravely for the animals, the one who loves the animals to heart’s content! He is not a coward, not an idiot and down to earth and he deserves your support and he does not deserve Napoleon to backstab him! He is the very best of his league the very best strategist. The animals are not doing this for fun! They are doing it for the sake of their society everything they do is for them and they deserve a leader like Snowball. They deserve better!They deserve the intellectual Snowball he always looked at other ways to solve problems and never failed! He is the chosen one. He is the one who will lead for the future. He is pure. H e is not one of those people who would not give a damn if someone was hurt he is caring and he is honest that is the best thing about him. He has chased our beloved Snowball of the farm! EVEN THAT SHOULD BE A SIGN! He is the traitor! He must be subjected to mutiny! Throw him in the pits at the least! He has done nothing for the people but only for his own affairs! They do not accept domination over the animals they are all EQUAL!No one will be unequal! No one shall have more power than others! No animal shall have as much power as the humans because they themselves have seen how power has corrupted the human race! They are against the policy to be unequal are they not? Or are we just slaves to our own kind? It is up to you! But I say HE IS EVIL! Snowball believes in equality does he not? He protected them! Until this tyrant has taken over and put their days of Jones back in action! Napoleon believes in creating fear! And using the animals for himself! He trained the dogs for his own protection not for theirs!The creator of this revolution has blessed Snowball! Old Major himself! Do not forget what they stand for! Do not forget how they must stand for their principles! DO NOT TRUST THE TRAITOR! DO NOT FOLLOW HIS TYRANNICAL JUDGEMENT! He has killed! Is that not against the 7 Commandments? He sleeps in a bed too and influenced the pigs that were not corrupt! He is not to be trusted! Not to be trusted with power of the country! And their leader abuses the power! Snowball would never do that! He would never give into corruption! He was the best, one and only true leader of this movement! Cheers.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Multinational Perspective Essay

Multinational corporations originated from the need for substantial capital and limited risks for large industrial or commercial consortiums for overseas trade. The modern concept of multinational corporations came into being during the 17th and 18th centuries and a good example of such a venture is the British East India Company in South Asia and the Dutch East India Company in South East Asia’s Indo-Chinese Peninsula. With the current communications and management technologies available, more companies are able to make the most out of international trade liberalization.  Ã‚   Today, multinational corporations are expanding themselves to increase their markets, increase brand presence and image and benefit from inexpensive raw materials and labor (Chang, 2003). Scenario for Multinational Corporations Currently, there is an estimated 40,000 multinational corporation’s world wide in and approximately 250,000 overseas collaborations running cross-continental operations. Most multinational corporations are from the United States, Western Europe, and Japan. By 1995, the top 200 multinational corporations alone had collective revenues reaching of $7.1 Trillion which is equivalent to 28.3 percent of the gross domestic product globally (Bernal, Kaukab, and Yu, 2005). The operations of multinational corporations are governed by the policies of The World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank. Though the traditional view of multinational corporations is that of big manufacturers, current trends and developments in technology have also given rise to â€Å"micro-multinationals†[1] as well business process outsourcing (BPO) ventures (Ewing, 2005). Among the countries being targeted for multination expansion, China and India are the current top favorites of multinational companies (McKinsey Global Institute [MGI], 2004). Globalization has allowed access to markets via technology and has reduced distribution, lower internal coordination costs.   It has also allowed for networking of specialized services and products in support of corporate functions through BPO’s whether within the companies internal operations or its external activities (Ewing, 2005). Entry to Developing Markets   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Though the scenario of multinational expansion has changed, the methods of entry remain traditional in most developing countries (Hoos, 2000; Tubbs and Schulz, 2006). Strategies to enter new markets for multinational corporations are by mergers or direct acquisition, sequential market entry and through joint ventures Mergers   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Merger or direct acquisition of existing companies is the forthright entry to a market. This is the strategy usually employed by large multinational corporations. It maximizes the economies of scale advantage to overcome barriers to entry (Ewing, 2005; Multinational Corporations, 2006). Considered as foreign direct investments (FDI), they are subject to not only commercial regulation but are also direct affected by fiscal and investment policies by the host country, and related international trade policies (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development [UNCTAD], 2005). Beginning in 2004, it has been identified as a critical in developing countries and studies have been commissioned to quantify their impact of the economies of developing countries (UNCTAD, 2004). The first ranked for FDI is India and was followed closely by China (Kearney, 2004). Though India has been able to outrank China and Mexico, China actually acquires more FDI significantly either country since 2002 (Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, 2005; MGI, 2004). Sequential Market Entry Sequential market entry involves foreign direct investment and getting hold of a sector if the market related to the parent’s companies core line of business, usually its key product or competency. It is different from a merger that it that the parent company does not bring in all of products, services or operations into a host country (Multinational Corporations, 2006). This method is the preferred by smaller companies and conservative business to begin their multinational operations (Kearney, 2004). Sony, in its initial expansion to the United States first limited its operations to manufacturing televisions but eventually expanded its operations to the production of magnetic tape and eventually to the production of audio in the 1970’s. Today, Sony’s operations in the United States include semiconductors and personal communications. Sony’s United States operation used its expertise and leadership in manufacturing television to establish itself in the industry and its local competition and then used this it as leverage to expand its products in the United States (Multinational Corporations, 2006). Another development in multinational operations is that outsourcing of operations or services to other countries. According to both UNCTAD 2004 and 2005 reports, BPO is one of fastest growing industries globally. Joint Ventures   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Joint ventures are operational or service partnerships with companies already existing or operating in the host country. This method of entry is limits is not as liberal as mergers or sequential market entry but is effective when entering heavily regulated markets. The method has been in particular use in entering the markets of China, the Soviet Union and that of Eastern Europe (Multinational Corporations, 2006). The issue of limited control for parent companies is the usually critique of this method and has raised issues regarding liberalization issues (Bernal, Kaukab, and Yu, 2005). Host countries and venture partners significantly benefit from the transfer of technology and management while parent companies are able to enter otherwise restrictive market. The concern for multinational companies however is the development of conflicts with joint venture partners who can become competitors (Multinational Corporations, 2006). Another concern for most multinational corporations regarding entering into joint ventures is that local policies, which their joint venture partners are subject to, are easily changeable. The creation of stable industry policies that may affect joint ventures and similar partnerships is one of the major focuses of developing countries trying to attract more investments (Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, 2005). This move has been supported by the current agenda of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the United Nations (UNCTAD, 2004). Multinational Corporations in Developing Countries   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Entering into s developing market requires the recognition and creation of strategies to deal with poor economic conditions, low educational levels, technological barriers or lack of existing channels and infrastructures for the distribution of the product and service (UNCTAD, 2005). Globalization and Trade Liberalization   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A major reason for multinational expansion is accessing a wider market. This coincides with the international agenda of globalization and trade liberalization. The Asian Financial Crisis may still be a haunting scenario for many investors (Bernal, Kaukab, and Yu, 2005), but the current trends in Asia, particularly China and India, is creating renewed interest in expanding to developing countries (MGI, 2004).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The efforts of developing countries to liberalize trade and industries have also been encouraging. Recent trends have allowed the return of Coca-Cola to India (Nayak, 2006), the ranking of Asia as the most attractive FDI region (Kearney, 2006) and the growing success on BPO’s in India and the Philippines (UNCTAD, 2005).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The operations of multinational corporations have been constructive in the development of markets, the introduction of new products and the development of industries as a whole. Investments of these companies have helped stressed local economies space and opportunity to expand. The technology and management knowledge that multinational companies bring in has helped local research and development to improve standard practices and policies.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Multinational companies have been able to benefit from reduced labor, materials or overall operation costs. A significant benefit of going global is establishing brand and product presence. Many companies have also benefited from the variated market that globalization has provided them increasing product efficiency and marketability. Global Trend and Scenario   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Though multinational corporations significantly contribute to international trade and development have not enjoyed acclaim. Their presence and nature if operations is said to be more detrimental to local economies than beneficial (Baitu, 2006; Tubbs and Schulz, 2006, Chang, 2003). Studies have also shown the negative effects of the operation of multinational corporations prompted some governments to take a protectionist approach which ahs deterred not only these corporations but trade liberalization in general (Wysocki, 2006).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   According to the UNCTAD report regarding multinational corporations in least developed countries (UNCTAD, 2002), the â€Å"highly centralized nature of these corporations† is the main apprehension against them. Though multinational corporations contribute significantly to local economies in the form of investment, technology and commerce, there is very little barrier to exit from the local industry in case of a national economic downturn (Hoos, 2000). They have been said to have contributed to the aggravation of labor conditions, environmental degradation, and degeneration of social conditions, declined local industries and livelihood, and raised inflation levels (Tubbs and Schulz, 2006).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Furthermore, the mobility of multinational corporations leaves host countries with less bargaining power and allows them significant leverage over countries that are highly disadvantaged and needy of the jobs and investment they provide (UNCTAD, 2002). Current Issues and Concerns for Multinational Operations   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In an international environment, a company’s concerns will have to consider more external factors. International trade laws, liberalization and globalization are the obvious concerns that emerging multinational have to face. More importantly, companies have to orient themselves to local markets, governments and policies that may they may not be familiar with (Wysocki, 2006). Exploring international markets also increases competition not just with traditional competitors but also for new business developments such as micro-multinationals (Ewing, 2005). The risks and challenges of becoming a multinational company need strategies that consider the company’s goals, international market scenarios and effective local marketing approaches. Recommendations In general, there should be further quantitative and qualitative studies on multinational corporations’ actual impact to host countries from individual to industry levels especially for the least developed countries that host them (UNCTAD, 2002).   Multinational companies nowadays are not just commercial ventures; they also serve as highways of liberalization. Some multinational companies have greater assets than the poorest of developing countries leaving these nations with limited bargaining power. The need to attract investments by multinational companies must not undermine the focus on welfare, health and social life (Baitu, 2006). The following considerations are framed UNDTAD’s World Investment Report for 2004 and 2005, the 2002 Report Multinational Corporations in Least Developed Countries; and Bernal, Kaukab and Yu’s The World Development Report 2005 for the WTO:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Host countries must focus on creating industry competencies that do not just cater to the current needs of multinational companies operating in the country. Developing countries must not become dependent on multinational companies and focus on boosting domestic growth.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Developing countries should be liberally cautious in accepting FDI to the country so as to ensure the survival of its local industries. It should not take a protectionist approach creating false security in its local industries but only to alleviate the pressures of advantage that multinationals have by reasons of economies of scale.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Closer coordination with trade associations and international liberalization agencies will allows for developing countries support and knowledge in dealing with multinational corporations. At the same time, multinational corporations can benefit form the standardization of commerce and industry, decreasing speculation and uncertainty for their ventures.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Consideration of social issues can help multinational companies have a better local feel for the host country’s markets. Pubic relations in smaller countries become crucial in building brand and product awareness, purchase and loyalty. It also allows for the feasibility of introducing product extensions and even non-related ventures.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Involving multinational corporations in the host country’s environment, community, research and development can establish a more meaningful relationship. Multinational corporations can benefit form having greater involvement in factors that affect its operations. Fears of multinational corporations being insensitive to local concerns can also be alleviated. Conclusion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Multinational expansion is but one of the key indications of globalization. Liberalization signifies a country’s acceptance of globalization. Together, multinational corporations and liberalization act as vehicles for development and cooperation.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As in all relationships, work must be put in to make it work. Multinationals grow when local economies grow through the development of labor, resources and market expansion. Host countries benefit from the investment, technology transfer and the development of its emerging industries. New multinational companies in particular could prosper and establish themselves well in developing economies where competition may not as stiff and industries not as crowded as they would be in developed countries.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The key is in finding a balance between multinational investment and local industry growth and in creating  Ã‚   a relationship between multinational corporations and host countries that are based on mutual development.          References Baitu, J. (2006) Globalisation for the Common Good and Social Justice in Sub-Saharan Africa [Online]. Available from [Accessed 12 September 2006]. Bergsten, C. F. (2000) The Global Trading System and the Developing Countries in 2000 [Online]. Working Paper 99-6 Institute for International Economics. Available from [Accessed 12 September 2006]. Bernal, L. E., Kaukab, R. S., and Yu, V. P. B. III (2005).The World Development Report 2005: An Unbalanced Message on Investment Liberalization. WTO Institutional Governance and Dispute Settlement, of the Trade and Development Programme: Geneva, Switzerland. Brown, A. G. and Stern, R. M. (2005) Concepts of Fairness in the Global Trading System. Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, The University of Michigan: Michigan, USA. Chang, H. (2003) Foreign Investment Regulation in Historical Perspective: Lessons for the Proposed WTO Investment Agreement [Online]. Available from: [Accessed 12 September 2006]. Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (2005) Foreign Direct Investment-Policy & Procedures. New Delhi: Government of India. Available from: [Accessed 12 September 2006]. Ewing, R. (2005) The New Multinational: Lilliputian, Not Leviathan [Online]. Speaking Freely – Asia Times Online. Available from: [Accessed 12 September 2006]. Hoos, J. (2000) Globalization, Multinational Corporations and Economics. Kiado: Budapest. Kearney, A.T. (2004) China and India Jockey for the Top Most Attractive Foreign Direct Investment Destination Globally While the U.S. Is Challenged by These Rapidly Evolving Economies: Global executives see the best business environment since 2000, yet a return to positive global FDI flows could be complicated by a new mix of operational risksâ€Å". A.T. Kearney:   London, United Kingdom. Nayak , A. K. J. R. (2006) Globalization of Foreign Direct Investment in India: 1900s–2000 [online]. Available from [Accessed 12 September 2006]. McKinsey Global Institute (2004). China and India: The Race to Growth [Online]. McKinsey Quarterly . Available from [Accessed 12 September 2006]. Multinational Corporations (2006) Encyclopedia of Management, Volume Mar-No. Available from [Accessed 12 September 2006]. Tubbs, S. L. and Schulz, E. (2006) Exploring a Taxonomy of Global Leadership Competencies and Meta-competencies. The Journal of American Academy of Business, Volume 8, Number 2, March   2006, Dissertation Paper presented at the Eastern Michigan University. Eastern Michigan University: Michigan. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (2002) Multinational Corporations (MNCs) in Least Developed Countries (LDC’s). United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (2004) World Investment Report 2004. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (2005) World Investment Report 2005. Wysocki, B. Jr.(2006) Symbol Over Substance [Online]. Original Article printed in The Wall Street Journal, September 25, 2000. Available from [Accessed 12 September 2006]. [1] Micro-multinational are companies who have small manpower and overall scale unlike the traditional multinational corporations. An example is Navin Communications who have engineering operations in Mumbai, India and headquarters in Mountain View, California (Multinational Corporations, 2006).

Friday, November 8, 2019

Vocabulary Tips Is Data Singular or Plural

Vocabulary Tips Is Data Singular or Plural Vocabulary Tips: Is Data Singular or Plural? In the grammarian community, there are some who will tip over a table and storm out of the room if anyone dares to combine the word â€Å"data† with a singular verb in their presence: e.g., â€Å"The data is conclusive: Many pedants have severe anger issues.† They’d probably also object to the singular â€Å"their.†(Image: CURavensLog/YouTube) Are these people overreacting? Yes, of course they are. But do they have a point regardless? Should we be using â€Å"data† as a plural noun? And, if so, what is the singular version? Datum and Data Traditionally, â€Å"data† was a plural. The singular form (i.e., the word for a single fact or piece of information) was â€Å"datum.† As such, we might say something like the following: This datum is not significant in itself, but the combined data are hard to deny. In this sentence, â€Å"datum† clearly refers to a single piece of information, with â€Å"data† reserved for a collection of facts. This is important when it comes to subject-verb agreement, so the singular â€Å"data† is paired with the singular verb â€Å"is,† while â€Å"data† is followed by the plural verb â€Å"are.† Data as a Mass Noun Over time, however, usage of â€Å"data† has changed. Thus, it is now commonly used as a mass noun (otherwise known as an uncountable or non-count noun). This means that although â€Å"data† still refers to a collection of facts, it is treated as singular for grammatical purposes: Information was collected from hundreds of respondents, so the data is very persuasive. Consequently, â€Å"data† is now essentially a synonym for â€Å"information,† another mass noun that refers to a collection of facts or a large amount of evidence. â€Å"Data is† or â€Å"Data are†? Most of the time, even in academic writing, â€Å"data† is now used as a mass noun, so it should be combined with singular verbs. This would mean that â€Å"data is† is usually correct. However, in some fields â€Å"data are† is still considered technically correct unless you’re referring to a single fact, in which case â€Å"datum† should be used instead. As such, it’s a good idea to check your school’s style guide on this issue. If it doesn’t provide specific instructions, the singular â€Å"data† is probably fine. But you could always check with your professor to see if he or she has a preference if you want to be absolutely sure!

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Pizza Hut Company

Pizza Hut Company Company Background Pizza Hut is an American restaurant chain. It operates franchises internationally. The company operates in the food industry and offers food items like pizzas, pastas, garlic breads, breadsticks, drinks, and desserts. It provides catering service and franchise opportunity. The company was founded in 1958 by Dan and Frank Carney and is based in Plano, Texas. It is a subsidiary of Yum Brands Inc. (Pizzahut , 2015).Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Pizza Hut Company specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Pizza Hut runs three different formats of restaurants – first is the family dining in restaurants, second is the delivery and carry on types, and third is where the first and second are merged together. Pizza Hut restaurants aim at providing the best quality product and service to its customers. The vision of the company at inception was to provide a special pizza eating experience and 55 years later , the company still prioritizes customer satisfaction above everything. The vision of the company is to be the number one pizza company in the world and the mission of the company is to bring favor to life. Pizza Hut’s objectives or â€Å"customer promise† as they call it, is to invent the most flavorful experiences and never be boring. The chain has 15,605 restaurants in 92 countries worldwide in 2014 (Yum, 2015). In China alone, there has been a 25% rise in the number of restaurants and 22% rise in the number in India (Yum, 2015). However, the largest number of chains is still in the US, which is the largest market for Pizza Hut. Situational Analysis How did the company start? Two brothers, Dan and Frank Carney, in Wichita, Kansas, started the company in 1958. In the fifties, a pizza parlor was a rarity in America, and when they opened one, it proved to be a successful business venture. Theirs was a humble venture with $600 lent to them by their mother and they partn ered with John Bender. A year later they started opening other Pizza Hut restaurants and franchises. The company believed in a policy of aggressive marketing and it grew fast in the 60s. By 1966, Pizza Hut already had 145 franchises across US (Vlessing, 1998). In 1968, the company opened its first international restaurant, in Canada and by 1970 it had opened restaurants in Germany and Australia. Due to its fast expansion and aggressive marketing policy, the company had to undergo certain structural changes in order to sustain growth. Their advertising expenditure in the local market increased from $942000 in 1972 to $3.17 million in 1974 (Vlessing, 1998). The company merged in PepsiCo in 1977. Throughout the 80s, Pizza Hut bought new competitors and aggressively acquired those who threatened their number one position.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Initially Pizz a Hut faced local competition mostly from regional players like Shakey’s from Denver and Pizza Inn from Denver (Vlessing, 1998). The company faced strong growth through the 80s, expanding rapidly. However, in the 90s, there were challenges and in the early 90s, PepsiCo expanded into the emerging markets. By 1997, Pizza Hut operated in 90 countries around the globe. PESTEL Political Factors: Pizza Hut is an international restaurant chain and therefore face various regulatory and political turmoil occurring in various parts of the world. Political issues may include regulatory framework that affects the operations in a particular country. The business is open to risks that are inherent to international operations. They are susceptible to social and ethnic unrest as well as local corruption. The restaurants must comply with the local government’s license and regulations. In the Middle East, the restaurants are subject to local laws concerning security, labor, health, sani tation, and safety. Internationally, the restaurants are subject to tariffs and regulations on commodities and equipment that are imported. They are also subject t to anti-bribery and corruption laws (See Appendix table 1). Economic Factors: the global and local economic condition may affect the operations of the chain. Some economic factors that may adversely affect operations of the chain are increased unemployment, fall in disposable income, and decline in consumer confidence. Other macroeconomic factors such as increasing inflation and dwindling exchange rates may become a serious impediment to sales growth of the chain. UAE has one of the fastest growing economies with booming industries and high consumer spending, which is a positive factor that will influence the growth of the chain in the country. Social Factors: Pizza Hut is a symbol of American commodification and faces unrest from ethnic and social groups in other countries who oppose Americanization of their culture. Tho ugh the company strives to localize their menu offerings and imparting the image of a local chain, it often faces challenge. UAE has a young population with 41% of the population belonging to the age group of 15 to 44 (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2015). Further the demand for American fast food in the country is increasing (Valdini, 2012). Technological Factors: Pizza Hut is spending a lot of its revenue on technological advancements in order to meet the demands of the tech-savvy market. For instance, the company is investing amount $30 million in 2014 (Yum!, 2014). It is planning to adopt a smart technology that will anticipate the customer’s need before she places the order (Nield, 2014).Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Pizza Hut Company specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This will help in better services. Further, for delivery orders, the chain is testing Uber-Esque technology to track orders (Taylor, 2015). Thus, updating technology is essential to keep up with the technological changes occurring in daily life. Environmental Factors: These factors differ depending on the region they are operating in. A company can be charged of being harmful to the environment. One of the reasons that a company can be accused of that is using materials that are not biodegradable, and Pizza Hut does that. Legal Factors: This includes taxes, quality requirements, and employees’ specifications. Legal compliance is essential in all the countries it operates in order to meet the legal needs and the regulatory framework of the nations. Therefore, to get licenses and permission to operate restaurants, compliance to regulations is essential (Yum!, 2014). Industry analysis Pizza Hut belongs to the retail food industry. It is made up of various forms of retailers such as supermarkets, supercenters, warehouse stores, convenience stores, etc. (Yum!, 2014). The fast food casual dining industry in the UAE is growing very fast due to the rise in disposable income, change in high-end shopping mall induced lifestyle, and increase in demand for Western fast food (Valdini, 2012). Therefore, Pizza Hut does not hold a significant position in the overall industry (Yum!, 2014). The Pizza food service sales in the UAE have been growing at CAGR of 7.8% (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2015). In the fast food market, the largest brand is KFC based on the percentage of share based on sales. Pizza Hut has the third largest market share in the UAE (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2015). The fast food market is expected to grow at a very fast rate in the UAE, with the chained foodservice market to have an expected growth rate of 7.1% (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2015). Further, pizza sales in UAE are expected to grow at a rate of 12.38% (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2015). Competitor analysis The competitive environment in the fast food industry in UAE is highly fragmented. The m arket leader in fast food in UAE is Kuwait Food Co. (Americana), which holds 3% value share in 2014 (Europmonitor International, 2015).Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Domino’s Pizza is considered Pizza Hut’s number one competitor. The control of the pizza market by Pizza Hut started to be threatened when Domino’s entered the market as a delivery only chain. Other competitors include Papa John’s Pizza and Figaro’s Pizza. Other direct competitors for Pizza Hut are Papa Johns and Figaro’s Pizza that also specialize in pizza and have a number of branches around the UAE, but not even close to those of Pizza Hut (Wong, 2014). Indirect competitors of Pizza Hut include Subway, McDonalds, and other restaurants located in the food courts. Those restaurants also offer a fast service, a good price, and are located in a lot of places. However, the variety and creativity of Pizza Hut’s menu keeps it going and succeeding. A recent awareness among the people of UAE about the health hazards about fast food has increased the demand for healthy options provided by companies like Kcal Extra, Healthtrendz, and Liveâ₠¬â„¢ly who concentrate on deliveries to homes and offices catering to the health conscious consumers (Flanagan, 2015). Others like DinnerTime and Detox Delight provide food for the health and diet conscious consumers (Flanagan, 2015). One factor that might affect the industry of Pizza Hut and fast food in general is the increased health awareness. Media and doctors are focusing on promoting a healthy life style. In the GCC and specially the UAE, the number of nutritionists and gyms is highly increasing (Yum!, 2014). This awareness promotes people to taking care of the food they eat and focusing on eating healthy food. Domino’s Pizza is Pizza Hut’s first strategic benchmark company. Domino’s are working hard on their long-term strategies. They started already with the Customize Your Own Pizza option in some of the countries. Further, the company faces competition from other full-service restaurants as Pizza Hut operates in this market in the UAE. Customer analysi s The target market of Pizza Hut is both male and females of various age groups from all nationalities. The specific age group targeted is 12 to 40 years. They offer various pizzas that attract various age groups and nationalities. The price ranges at which the pizzas are offered are suited to low and middle income families. The targeted market is men and women, children, students, families, and travellers. The company has no geographic segmentation as it has its operations worldwide. The company follows lifestyle segmentation in the emerging Middle Eastern market where it has branded its restaurants as upscale dine-in. In the Middle Eastern market, Pizza Hut caters to a specific social class i.e. upper and middle class. More specifically, the target markets are those families who dine-out or order food at least once a week and have a high disposable income where a large portion of the target market’s spending goes to non-essentials. Target Segment of Pizza Hut The market siz e in the UAE is large as the country has a high percentage of young people with high disposable income and a high preference for American fast food. The target market of the chain is segregated based on the food they offer. For pizzas and pastas, they target a demographic group of 10 to 40 years of age, both male and female. Pizza Hut targets families with children, young professionals, and students. They target middle and upper middle class families in the Asian and emerging markets while in Europe and the US market they target low and middle class families. In terms of geographic segmentation, Pizza Hut puts a lot of importance on its expansion and sale in in the Middle East. The targeted market here is people within the age group of 20 to 40 and belonging to the upper to high-income group. Potential Size of Target Market The emerging and developing economies hold much more promise than developed countries. Figure 3 in the appendix shows that the emerging countries are more optimi stic about the growth prospects of GDP as well as the future of children in their country. Hence, from a futuristic view, targeting the emerging markets is an opportunity that Pizza Hut should undertake. According to the US poverty line, a household earning $10-20 daily belongs to the middle class and upper middle class is a household with income over $20-50 (Kochhar, 2015). Households with annual income over $73000 or above annually belong to the high-income group. Kochhar (2015) points out that the rise of the middle-income group has been highest in emerging economies like China, South America, and Eastern European countries. Further, the major population belonging to the upper-middle class and high-income group lived in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific region (Kochhar, 2015). The fast food industry in the UAE had a $8.5 billion market in 2013 and is expected to grow further (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2015). Hence, the target market of the young professional group b elonging to the age of 20 to 40 years will be rising in emerging economies (see figure 2 in Appendix). Top 3 strategic problems The three most important strategic problems faced by Pizza Hut are – Changing food preference and increasing health consciousness of the target market and introduction of healthy eating alternatives posses a threat to the market. Zero sales growth of Pizza Hut in the UAE by change in year on year sales from 2009 through 2013 (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2015). Lack of aggressive promotion in the UAE market of the popular products by Pizza Hut. For instance, Chicken Shawarma Pizza of Pizza Hut is one of the best selling ordered products of the chain, however, marketing for the product was short-lived. Recommendation Marketing Mix In the UAE the highest growth in the fast food service market are for full service casual dining and delivery model-based food service companies. In the full casual dining experience, the Pizza Hut holds the largest m arket share. However, Domino’s is the market leader in the delivery service (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2015). Product Building On Existing Product Pizza hut concentrates on offering local flavors to cater to the local markets. Pizza Hut needs to expand its menu offerings in the UAE. For example, Chicken Shawarma Pizza is part of the Flavors of the Arabia, which has 5 pizzas with flavors made to meet the Middle Eastern tastes. However, in the UAE only the chicken variant was introduced when there is a high demand for the beef variant. In addition the range includes Sujuk Pizza, Tawok Pizza, Sujuk Spirals, and Lemon Zaatar wings, which have been advertised in the UAE when the product was introduced, however, remain unavailable in the market. It is a strategic mistake to have made a promise in the advertisement and not committing to it as this creates negative image among consumers. Price Based On The Competitive Chart Price should be based on the marketing strategy that Pizza Hut employs and not directly based on the rice chart of its competitors. The prices must be competitive but concentration must be on building a brand and not start a price war. Further, Domino’s is gaining market through its online ordering business while Pizza Hut ahs not been able to match the sales rise in the digital age. Promotion Strategy The competitive rivalry between Pizza Hut and Dominos has led both the companies into price and promotional war. However, Pizza Hut has tried to move away from the business model followed by Dominos and caters to the dine-in experience of customers rather than the delivery business. Promoting restaurants with better ambience and happy dining experience will capture the mission and vision of the company and present a different form of competition to Dominos. Stakeholders According to the Yum Brand the stakeholders in their business and in turn for Pizza Hut are supply chain solutions board, the franchise associations, local commu nities, animal welfare societies, environmentalists, health and nutritionists, etc. (Yum! Brands, 2014). Budget The company should include three main strategies in their budget expenditure – first, innovating their services by increasing efficiency and better product offerings, second, entering emerging markets as inexpensive luxuries targeting the middle class and not only the upper-middle and high income group, and third, revamping their marketing campaigns. Further, many products are not properly marketed and promotion strategy is short-lived. Hence, proper budget should be in place to promote their products in the UAE market. Budget Plan Idea of returns and Sales Projections Table 3 in the appendix shows the growth of sales and marketing cost of Pizza Hut. The figures show that the sales of Pizza Hut are expected to decline based on the trend of sales in last three years (2012 through 2014). However, the cost of marketing will increase continuously. Finding the year-on-ye ar growth of sales since 2012 through 2014 was used to project sales of Pizza Hut. The compounded average growth rate is derived using the sales growth figures, which is then used to compute the trend in sales. The marketing cost was projected using the growth rate of marketing cost for 2013 and 2014. This is a warning sign for Pizza Hut, as it should revamp its product offering and boost marketing strategy to increase sales. References Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2015. Foodservice Profile The United Arab Emirates. [Online] Available at: agr.gc.ca/eng/industry-markets-and-trade/statistics-and-market-information/by-region/middle-east-and-north-africa/foodservice-profile-the-united-arab-emirates/?id=1432740194697 . Europmonitor International, 2015. Consumer Foodservice in the United Arab Emirates. [Online] . Flanagan, B., 2015. UAE health food market booming but is it getting too fat? [Online] Available at: thenational.ae/business/the-life/uae-health-food-market-booming-but-is- it-getting-too-fat . Gruley, B., 2014. Twilight of the Pizza Barons. [Online] Available at: bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-07-03/dominos-little-caesars-pizza-founders-contrasting-legacies . Kochhar, R., 2015. A Global Middle Class Is More Promise than Reality. [Online] Available at: pewglobal.org/2015/07/08/a-global-middle-class-is-more-promise-than-reality/ . Nield, D., 2014. Subconscious Pizza HUt Menu Knows What You Want Before Yuo Do. [Online] Available at: digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/pizza-huts-new-eye-tracking-technology-knows-want-menu/ . Pew Research Center, 2014. Emerging and Developing Economies Much More Optimistic than Rich Countries about the Future. [Online] Available at: pewglobal.org/2014/10/09/emerging-and-developing-economies-much-more-optimistic-than-rich-countries-about-the-future/ . Pizzahut , 2015. Our History. [Online] Available at: http://pizzahut.com.ph/about/our_history.php . Taylor, K., 2015. Pizza Hut Is Testing Uber-Esque Delivery Tracking Tech. [Online] Available at: entrepreneur.com/article/245897 . Valdini, C., 2012. Industry focus: Fast food in the UAE. [Online] Available at: arabianbusiness.com/industry-focus-fast-food-in-uae-483500.html . Vlessing, E., 1998. Pizza Hut Inc. [Online] Available at: encyclopedia.com/topic/Pizza_Hut_Inc.aspx . Yum, 2015. Restaurant Count. [Online] Available at: yum.com/investors/restcounts.asp . Yum! Brands, 2014. Corporate Social Responsibility Report. [Online] Available at: yumcsr.com/about/stakeholders.asp . Yum!, 2014. YUM! Annual Report. [Online] Available at: yum.com/annualreport/pdf/2014yumAnnReport.pdf . Appendix Table 1: PESTEL Analysis of Pizza Hut Political 0 Economic +2 Social +4 Technological +4 Environmental -1 Legal +2 Table 2 Competitors Pizza Hut Domino’s Papa Johns Product Pizza and fast food Pizza and fast food Pizza and fast food Service Restaurant and delivery service Restaurant and delivery service Restaurant and delivery service Production/Quality Con centrates of serving local taste and diversification of market. Focuses on delivery within 30 minutes and hence efficiency. Concentrates on taste and delivery efficiency. Location 94 countries worldwide. Around the world. Europe and US. Market Share The largest Pizza chain in the US and globally. 16.7% sales in US in 2013 (Gruley, 2014). Second largest pizza chain in the US and globally. 11.1% sales in US in 2013 (Gruley, 2014). Third largest is Papa Johns in the US. 7.3% sales in US in 2013 (Gruley, 2014). Figure 2: Growth and future (Pew Research Center, 2014) Table 3: Pizza Growth Rate (Source: 2014 Yum Brand Annual Report) Sales Forecast 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Income Sales 993 609 607 611.73 608.31 608.75 Growth rate -0.387 -0.003 0.008 -0.006 0.001 CAGR -0.91 Expense Marketing Cost Forecast Marketing Cost 173 180 187.28 194.86 202.75 Growth rate 0.040 0.040 0.040 0.040

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Are celibrities overpaid Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Are celibrities overpaid - Essay Example Herein, I shall undertake to demonstrate that celebrities are paid more money than they deserve or is proportionate to their effort, and the overall result is detrimental for society’s moral standing in the long run. The highest earning celebrities in America currently include Pollizi and Kim Kardashian, the latter earns a gross of $100,000 per episode in the filming of Jersey Shore (Sulla-Heffinger, 2012). Kardashian who has become a brand by herself earns slightly less. The irony of it all is that Kim earns these piles of money in her reality show for just being followed around by cameras and not really doing any acting. While she tries to justify the cash by saying even rappers like Kanye West were not taken seriously, and now they are some of the heaviest hitters on the celeb pay scale. I find these reasoning pedantic since the rapper were mostly poor youths hustling, but one often has to be rich and famous to be in a reality show especially one with your name as the title (Brockes, 2012). Kardashian husband is said to be demanding for a 7 million settlement out of court since he knows she cannot afford the publicity of a messy divorce, ironically the gross overpayments of Celebs leads to their being exploited and targeted because everyone assume they have money to pay of blackmailers and greedy spouses. The other international arena where the issue of overpayment is so pertinent is in international soccer in particular the European premier league. While a majority of people would be more than happy to make 138,000 pounds a year, John Terry the former Chelsea captain of England’s leading football club captain takes home this amount every week. In addition, it is not only him, but most of the top players make more money than ordinary mortals will make in a life time, and they cannot understand the colossal amounts when they hear such and such player has been sold for million. Kaka for instance takes home a cool 6.9 million pounds and Ronaldinho Gaucho (Barcelona) ?6.53mand this s just the tip of the iceberg with many players below them earning amounts that would baffle many top brass businesspeople internationally. These can be handles by applying a cap on how much money a team can use to buy a player, which would prevent the mangers from engaging in player price wars, with the concerned players gaining inapprehensible amounts of money. Thus, if it worked in the NFL, it can work in the premier league otherwise the salaries may get out of hand. Even the sports minster Gerry Sutcliffe has declared that these amounts are obscene, and they create too much disparity between the players and their fans (Jorsboe, 2008). Generally this, which makes it easy for them to acquire demigod status, and their fans literally worship them since they seem to have everything they can desire. The immorality of celebs especially music stars such as lady Gaga, Paris Hilton and the Game, just to mention a few, are examples of Celebs who portray b ehavior that contravenes many moral codes such as; public nudity, and drug and alcohol abuse makes it dangerous to have them held up as role models. Further evidence of the inappropriateness of these earnings is the manner in which they are spent, Celebs are known to be extreme spenders many sponging their millions to buy expensive

Friday, November 1, 2019

Should the Government provide health care Essay

Should the Government provide health care - Essay Example This implies that there needs to be a partnership between healthcare providers, social workers and the government to undertake this effectively. In the end, the well-being of the public will bring about a positive impact on the economy as opportunities for innovation and productivity will be ensured. â€Å"Strategies such as community oriented primary care are needed to address the upstream causes of social inequities in health and to foster intersectoral cooperation† (van Weel et al 469). Therefore, one would say that it is the responsibility of the government to be involved in the provision of health care to ensure accessibility of health services to many, especially the poor, health care industry regulation, and to enhance fairness in the distribution of funds allocated to health care. It is essential to define the role that the government should play in providing health care, as it is clear that this will be an advantageous step in ensuring citizens live healthily. It can be argued that the government’s role in provision of health care primarily should be to ensure access in two ways: availability and affordability. Health care services are a right to every human being thus they should be at their reach and at a cost that is within their capability. However, the government should not overspend on the provision of health care at the expense of other issues such as education and infrastructure. The best way to control this is by â€Å"playing a preventive role where the significance of public programs becomes clear as they create awareness† hence reducing costs that would be otherwise incurred on treatment (â€Å"What should be the Government’s role† 20). Therefore, government health care is defined as â€Å"direct payments made to doctors, medical facilities and supplementary health care providers† (White). Moreover, through the government taking a preventive as opposed to a reactive position drives down costs, and t his caps the debate on relevance of health care benefits to the poor who lack food shelter since health benefits are essential and indeed an income to the poor. Nevertheless, this debate is already countered by the fact that when measuring progress of a nation, the issue of accessibility to health care is considered alongside food, housing and other utilities. It has been suggested, â€Å"that the poverty threshold should be raised so that health benefits don’t vault the poor over the line† (Porter). In this case, health benefits would not merely be in terms of funds dispensed to the poor, but also information that makes them aware of costs that could be avoided through preventive measures. Moreover, it can be argued that the government should be involved in the provision of health care to ensure there is regulation and control. This advocates for the government to become concerned with optimizing costs that insurance companies impose in terms of add-on costs; for exam ple, processing claims and distributing insurance forms, which end up deterring people from seeking treatment in the event of illness. More importantly, the government should ensure that services offered are of good quality and equal to all in order to streamline the basic system in existence. This is an advantage because it improves â€Å"