Robinson fruit shoot market share Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Robinson fruit shoot market share - Essay Example To understand better preference and market share, it was worthwhile taking the time to study previous reports on the Robinson Fruit Shoot brand that had been compiled earlier by different studies. This helped the researchers go to the field with knowledge of the perception of the brand and an expectation of opinion. This, however, could, however, influence the objectivity due to response anticipation. From the studies done by Mintel, Fruit Juice, Juice Drinks, and Smoothies - UK - November 2012 and Fruit Juice and Juice Drinks - UK - November 2011 placed Robinson Fruit Shoot at number three and number two respectively as a market share player. They proved that the Shoot was popular among the other brands but was not in pole position as to control the market. That, therefore, seemed to suggest that more marketing and sales were required so as to make the brand the market leader. From another survey by Mintel for Cordials and Squashes in October 2012, there was increased demand for sof t and low alcohol drinks in the United Kingdom hence showing that there was an increasing market for the Shoot as more, consumers preferred soft drinks. The third survey used in the secondary research was Fruit Juices, Energy & Juice Drinks Market Report 2013 that showed the preferences of the children aged between 1 to 15 years, the target consumer group. The survey’s findings are important for the marketers of the shoot to execute a marketing plan that carters for the children’s taste and preferences.

Do the right thing by Spike Lee Essay Example for Free

Do the right thing by Spike Lee Essay I dearly love the film and maintain that its one of the great pictures from the last 10 years. I dont know what the director of this movie (Spike Lee) intended the moral to be, but my take on the film has always been that NO ONE does the right thing, and this is the cautionary element of the movie. The racial message about racial injustice is very deep and one that every race should see. The climax of the movie is very powerful and deep. The heat is blazing, tensions are running high (especially racial ones), and under this kind of pressure no one behaves according to common courtesy and decency. The entire film is a chain of uncontrolled outbursts of anger that lead to everyones misery. The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability could be wrong, so is the belief that a particular race is superior to others. Anyone can have a belief like that black, white, whatever. I am not about to buy into this rhetoric that any race shoulders 100% of the blame for racism in America today. Indeed, but racism is a belief, not an action. Sociologists clearly delineate between prejudices and acts of discrimination. One can be racist (prejudice) and not act on it (discriminate). By the same token, one can discriminate against others and not hold racist beliefs (prejudice). There is simply no way, short of telepathy, to determine if anyone is truly racist. One can easily assume that Adolf Hitler was a racist based on his writings and horrific actions, but there is absolutely no way to know for sure that Hitler *truly* hated Jews or simply used the hatred of Jews as a convenient means to attain power. Anyway, those in a position of power have more opportunities to act discriminatorily than those without, but I see no evidence to suggest that The Powers That Be are more *likely* to engage in such behaviors. As such, a discriminatory action by a powerless person can be more effective than the lack of such an action by someone in power. Riots are NEVER true result of racism, but rather the violent, destructive impulses of citizens with no faith in the justice system to take matters into their own hands. They are simply an opportunity for a misguided youth, unsupervised or uninstructed on issued of morality, to appease their violent appetites by destroying the livelihood of someone who is not exactly like  them. In every major example of the last 40 years in US, the violent rioters were not good citizens who felt pushed to the breaking point by some act of injustice, but degenerates whose prejudices against anyone with more money than they found an excuse in the politicized racial arguments to act out what they never truly cared to know was wrong (Heath Petraitis, 1987). The only result of a race riot is hatred, looting, and murder. It is not the answer to anything, and should never be treated as such. It is an insult to the millions of black citizens who seek to live their lives as normal, peaceful, law-abiding citizens of the United States to associate them with the few degenerate thieves and murderers who commit race riots (Singer Singer, 1986). Thats why Do the Right Thing has always touched its viewers. The ending turns a decent, fine comedy-drama into a vessel for class and race related hatred. I do believe in violence as a last measure to protect ones self, or their personal freedoms, or in the case of a moral war. Just look at my signature closing line. I do not in any way believe that the situation in Do the Right Thing presents a need for violence. It is merely a bunch of tempered people retaliating against the brutality of the police by burning an innocent mans pizza shop down, apparently only because he was a white business owner. That is sad. I think, really, this films central theme if there really is one is the path black men in America today face as inspired by their most prominent leaders. Radio Rahiem is easily the wisest in the entire film as hes aware of the dichotomy and thus tries to balance his existence under both directions fight the power constantly playing takes on an entire new meaning here as the film doesnt really know what the power is that PE wants us to fight. Rahiem knows though, its the self. Pretty amazing imagery. But on the other hand, he rarely speaks but instead relies on his radio to speak for him. Likewise, he doesnt understand his own rhetoric on the nature of love and hate. That made him as racist as any other character in the film, with the possible but unlikely exception of smiley, and brings his own death on himself. I wondered what would be the cops reactions if racial positions had been  reversed (ie a black mans pizzeria, a white man accidentally killed after basically making a complete, hostile mess of himself, then resisting arrest etc) Would a white cops strangle a white man to death? Thats where racial issues arise. I was upset at the death of radio Rahiem, but just couldnt escape the fact that he had brought it on himself. No one deserves to die like that. But if he had avoided escalating a completely unnecessary confrontation by assaulting Sal, he wouldnt have died. He was responsible for his own death, just as Sal was responsible for the destruction of the pizzeria (very nearly his own death) when he destroyed Rahiems radio. Radio Raheem was pissed off, his whole existence was that radio. Sure he physically assaulted him, but he didnt say anything like, Ill kill you. Maybe if Radio said in an earlier scene Man Im gonna kill that irk bastard etc. Id be more apt to agree that Radio Rahiem intent was to kill Sal. Technically Sal brought the destruction of the pizzeria on himself too, by (through the chain of events) not putting up pictures of brothers on the walls; but it is his pizzeria and he was within his rights to do so. He yelled racist epithets which is a direct act of aggression and smashed someones property to pieces. Instead of destroying someones property, he should have called the police to escort Buggin out and Radio Rahim. Radio Rahiem was NOT within his rights when he entered the store and refused to turn his radio down. Of course Sal and Radio Rahiem are both racists, everyone in the film is. No one did the right thing in the end, but the unfortunate fact is that, in the final encounter with Radio Rahiem, Sal was just a little more right than Radio Rahiem. Imagine Radio Rahiem and Sal were both black (or white.) Imagine the ultimate reasons behind the clash were not racially based. Radio Rahiem is the aggressor, and because of this, ultimately audience sympathy would lie with Sal. Radio Raheem and Buggin Out were trying to bully an innocent business owner. It was Sals restaurant, if they did not like his regulations than they could leave, but he was entirely within his rights to demand for them to either leave or turn off the music. He certainly gave fair warning, and he never ever tried to physically harm anyone until Radios attack. While it is  unfortunate Radio died, he simply was not worth the destruction that was carried out in his name. I also find it mystifying that Mookie, supposedly the levelheaded character in the movie, was so superficial that he blamed Sal for Radios death. I cannot reconcile myself with the notion that Mookie throwing the trash can through the pizzeria window was even remotely doing the right thing. I sympathize a lot with Sal, but I also sympathize with Mookie. Sal also cared a lot about the black in Bastury, and was genuinely hurt when some of them turned against him. I will vehemently argue that Sals character is not racist; he drops an n-word at the end, but the man is watching his lifes work being torched by arson at the hands of a group of African-Americans; his outburst is understandable and forgivable. Vito, Lees Sister, and the baby are as decent as people could be. Da Mayor is a good man who has made mistakes but is trying to change so at this point hes a good man trying to be a better man. He does drink too many beers with little money, though. One thing that always confused me about this film (although its one of my favorites) is why Mother Sister painfully screams noooo, when only a few minutes beforehand, she was right with the crowd yelling burn it! burn it! it seems like a bit of a flaw to me, but I could be wrong. My guess is the Burn it down Burn it down is with respect to the pizzeria. The noooo is with respect to radio Rahiems death. Lets assume that the film is about the cyclical nature of violence. Does Spike Lee( the director) think that all violence is bad or only certain violence is? After reading Martin Luther Kings quote I thought it was all violence; after reading Malcolm Xs quote I got the message that some violence is ok. I know that Blacks have been prejudiced against for a long time, but I dont see how violence ever solved their problem. It seems to me that Martin Luther Kings non-violence approach ultimately did much more to further equality than Malcolm Xs approach of violence-sometimes-needed approac h. The cops didnt necessarily care for Sal or anyone there. They didnt kill Rahiem because they wanted revenge. They did a right think by choking Rahiem, but they should have weakened him enough to handcuff him and then have thrown him in the police car. I doubt either Clubbing or strangling  will ever equate to, to use your words, holding him in place until he calmed down. I doubt those are the only options law enforcement officers have. They shouldnt have killed him. It was an extreme use of force pure and simple. The key being that if as you say they were trying to prevent Sal from being chocked by a criminal than why didnt they release their choke hold on Radio Rahiem after he had let go of Sal? They kept choking him long after he was a threat to anyone and it was obvious he himself was being choked to death. Why did they not throw him to the ground at that time and handcuff him? They didnt even try. In the film, Da Mayor says you gotta Do The Right Thing. Rahiem does not because he wont respect Sals wishes to turn off or turn down the radio (Also didnt respect Sals decision to represent only his culture in the pizzeria). Bugging Out is just a racist who knows nothing and wants to pretend to have a calling so he rides in on Radios coattails. Rahiem did the wrong thing and Sal did nothing wrong until he uttered the N-word. I dont think Sal meant it in that way. He was angry so he exploited a characteristic of Radios boom box. The people were angry at Sal for saying the n-word but they didnt go against Sal. They got confused and yelled. Then the police came in and everything went up in flames. Obviously, a spark leads to a fire. The spark: The police killing Rahiem. The Fire: The mob. It was understandable for there to be a riot and it was understandable that they got angry at white men in general because they are black people and they live in an ugly area. But just because its understandable, doesnt mean its right. The name of the movie is Do The Right Thing. And to be honest, even though thats very straight and very literal, towards the end it becomes ironic. The moment that they could do the right thing, they did the worst thing of them all. And that riot could have been right but it went wrong. Their anger went in the wrong direction. Things just happen. Sals pizzeria going down in flames is symbolic of the fact that people just destroy each other. And in the end, the face of the oppressor (The white man) is thrown on every white body and someone with the face of the oppressor is oppressed. Well, theres a line (Not from this movie) that goes You become the monster so the monster will not break you. You become what you terrify you. And in  this case, the oppressed (The black community) gets so fed up (Throughout the entire movie, there is talk of there recently being a police brutality situation involving black civilians being killed) with being oppressed that they become what they hate and they oppress someone else: Someone whos been more of a family member to them then most of their families has a different face than they do. He has the face of the monster, and they dont like past skin deep and treat him the way they should treat the people who do oppress them. And its painful and we dont know what to think. Im the least racist person in the world and Im also the person who is more annoyed than anyone with jokes being allowed to be made about white people and not about black people. I dont like going to the park and having some guy say, White boy, dont want none of this. It irritates me because I want plenty. Sometimes it gets so hard to hear all the unfairness and listen to a persons lack of understanding for another. This film is just a day. Its the hottest day of the summer. You can do nothing, you can do something, or you can Do The Right Thing. You can. So do it.

Essays - More Capital Punishment and Less Taxes :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays

Essays - More Capital Punishment and Less Taxes More than 13,000 people have been legally executed since colonial times, most of them in the early 20th Century. By the 1930s, as many as 150 people were executed each year. However, public outrage and legal challenges caused the practice to come to a halt. By 1967, capital punishment had virtually halted in the United States, pending the outcome of several court challenges. Since our nation's founding, the government, colonial, federal and state, has punished murder and, until recent years, rape with the ultimate sanction: death. I think that the nation should still actively use this form of punishment when necessary. More than 2,000 people are on "death row" today. Virtually all are poor, a significant number are mentally retarded or otherwise mentally disabled, more than 40 percent are African American, and a inappropriate number are Native American, Latino and Asian. Does the Death Penalty deter crime, especially murder? No, there is no credible evidence that the death penalty deters crime. States that have death penalty laws do not have lower crime rates or murder rates than states without such laws. And states that have abolished capital punishment, or instituted it, show no significant changes in either crime or murder rates. Don't murderers deserve to die? Certainly, in general, the punishment should fit the crime. But in civilized society, we reject the "eye for an eye" principle of literally doing to criminals what they do to their victims: The penalty for rape cannot be rape, or for arson, the burning down of the arsonist's house. We should, therefore, punish the murderer with death along with all other heinous crimes. If execution is unacceptable, what is the alternative? Incapacitation. Convicted murderers can be sentenced to lengthy prison terms, including life, as they are in countries and states that have abolished the death penalty. Most state laws allow life sentences for murder that severely limit or eliminate the e possibility of parole. At least ten states have life sentences without the possibility of parole for 20, 25, 30 or 40 years, and at least 18 states have life sentences with no possibility of parole. A recent U. S. Justice Department study of public attitudes about crime and punishment found that a majority of Americans support alternatives to capital punishment: When people were presented the facts about several crimes for which death was a possible punishment, a majority chose lengthy prison sentences as alternatives to the death penalty. Maybe it used to happen that innocent people were mistakenly executed, but hasn't that possibility been eliminated?

Sustainable Environment

Environmental sustainability involves making decisions and taking action that are in the interests of protecting the natural world, with particular emphasis on preserving the capability of the environment to support human life. It is an important topic at the present time, as people are realising the full impact that businesses and individuals can have on the environment. What is Environmental Sustainability? Environmental sustainability is about making responsible decisions that will reduce your business' negative impact on the environment.It is not simply about reducing the amount of waste you produce or using less energy, but is concerned with developing processes that will lead to businesses becoming completely sustainable in the future. Currently, environmental sustainability is a topical issue that receives plenty of attention from the media and from different governmental departments. This is a result of the amount of research going into assessing the impact that human activit y can have on the environment.Although the long term implications of this erious issue are not yet fully understood, it is generally agreed that the risk is high enough to merit an immediate response. Businesses are expected to lead in the area of environmental sustainability as they are considered to be the biggest contributors and are also in a position where they can make a significant difference. Businesses can potentially cause damage to all areas of the environment.Some of the common environmental concerns include: damaging rainforests and woodlands through logging and agricultural clearing polluting and over-fishing of oceans, rivers and akes polluting the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels damaging prime agricultural and cultivated land through the use of unsustainable farming practices For much of the past, most businesses have acted with little regard or concern for the negative impact they have on the environment.Many large and small organisations are guilty o f significantly polluting the environment and engaging in practices that are simply not sustainable. However, there are now an increasing number of businesses that are committed to reducing their damaging impact and even working owards having a positive influence on environmental sustainability. Environmental sustainability forces businesses to look beyond making short term gains and look at the long term impact they are having on the natural world.You need to consider not only the immediate impact your actions have on the environment, but the long term implications as well. For example, when manufacturing a product, you need to look at the environmental impact of the products entire lifecycle, from development to disposal before finalising your designs.

European Integration of Ukraine Is the Main Task

European Integration of Ukraine is the main task, which unites government and opposition In connection with the new political season, which began not only in the Ukrainian Parliament, but also in the European Parliament, delegation of MPs of Ukraine from the Party of Regions arrived on an official visit to Strasbourg.Delegation members are Chairman of the Party of Regions parliamentary faction Olexander Yefremov, Deputy Chairman of the Party of Regions for International Affairs Leonid Kozhara, First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech and Information Olena Bondarenko, member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Banking, Tax and Customs Policy Vitaliy Kaliuzhny.Today, September 13, in the European Parliament took place a public meeting on â€Å"The Future of EU-Ukraine Relations and Ukraine’s Internal Political Situation†, where the Chairman of the Party of Regions parliamentary faction Olexander Yefremov informed about the current situation in Ukraine. Particular attention Olexander Yefremov paid to reforms, which are being carried out by authorities. â€Å"Over the past year and a half great changes took place in Ukraine. Unfortunately, in Europe, few people know what is actually happening in the country.The country's leaders held a number of reforms – this is pension and judicial reforms, adoption of anti-corruption legislation and the new Tax Code,† the politician said. â€Å"Now we are preparing such global documents as a bill on the land market, new Criminal Procedure, Housing and Communal and Labour Codes. In Ukraine these laws have a long history, they are not modernized. And, unfortunately, over the 20 years of existence of Ukraine as an independent state, no one worked on them. It is our task.Therefore we have a lot of work to do. And as you can see, we are working very hard,† said Olexander Yefremov. MEPs stressed the importance of the visit of Ukrainian parliamentarians becaus e now it is a key moment in relations between the EU and Ukraine, and Europe needs first-hand information. Olexander Yefremov reminded that in 2009 Party of Regions started with very bad starting positions. â€Å"When we conducted an audit of the national economy, it was found that in 2009 we began with minus 15% of GDP.It was a disastrous number. And we had to find quickly the tools for economic growth, to overcome the economic crisis. However, our operational work and the actions that we undertook, gave a good positive result. 2011 we are to finish with 5% increase of our economy,† he stressed. Representatives of the European Parliament agreed to this. They noted how significantly increased the intensity of work of Ukrainian Parliament and adopted documents. According to Olexander Yefremov, today the government command faces many challenges.And one of the most important is the European integration of the country. â€Å"And at the moment it is one of the uniting issues for opposition and authorities. There is no dissent and no opponents here. Everyone understands that we need to work on this common goal,† said Olexander Yefremov. Answering the question, what Ukraine will choose: Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area with Europe or the Customs Union, Olexander Yefremov said that our first priority is the EU, but at the same time we want to maintain good relations with Russia, if that's possible from its side. In turn, we declare that we want to be a part of civilized Europe,† said the politician. The head of the Party of Regions parliamentary faction got stronger conviction that there is practically no opponent of integration between Ukraine and EU, everybody is trying to help, to give an advice; no one wants to see Ukraine worse or poorer, or further from the EU; everybody is trying to support it. MEPs, in turn, said that Europe would like to see Ukraine developing further and happy people living in Ukraine.The MPs acknowledged that Europ e knows very little about what is actually happening inside the country. In addition, Olexander Yefremov said that judging by the questions he was asked about Tymoshenko case, there is a significant lack of information about the topic. That is, people know about it, but nobody goes into details, and, as a rule, the very essence is hidden in details. He reminded the gist of the charges against ex-Prime Minister of Ukraine. â€Å"In January 2009 Tymoshenko was in talks with Russia on gas supplies.Under the Law â€Å"On International Treaties of Ukraine† the authority to negotiate and to sign international treaties is granted by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine as a collective body. The Prime Minister can not alone authorize someone to negotiate on behalf of the Government. When negotiations with Russia began, most of the ministers at the Cabinet of Ministers session refused to support Tymoshenko's personal position, as evidenced by minutes of meeting. Despite of this, she p rovided the Ukrainian negotiators a document entitled Directives of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine†, which contained the signature of Tymoshenko and official government seal. Thus, the ex-Prime Minister is charged with single-handed decision and document forgery,† said Olexander Yefremov. In addition, the MP informed about extremely unfavorable conditions for Ukraine, which are in the contract. This, above all, is the highest price, unreasonable amount of compulsory gas purchase (Ukraine consumes 40 billion cubic meters and must buy 52 billion cubic meters), and extremely inadequate penalties.If the country does not buy stated in the contract amount of gas, then there is the penalty 150% in summer, and in winter – 300%. â€Å"If such a contract was signed in the business between the two businessmen, one of them would be admitted to be crazy, that is absolutely inadequate and disadvantageous contract for the country,† said Olexander Yefremov. EU Integra tion and Trade: a Look from the Outside of the EU Eastern Border. Oleksandr Shepotylo*, Kyiv School of Economics and Kyiv Economics InstituteAugust, 2009 Abstract: This paper develops a methodology for trade policy analysis of costs and benefits of alternative regional integration scenarios, based on the disaggregated gravity equation, and applies it to calculate the impact of the EU enlargement on integration strategies of non-member countries. In particular, the paper measures the impact of the 2004 EU enlargement from the standpoint of Ukraine – a country that has been left on the sideline.This angle allows estimating the costs of non-integration that occurred due to trade and investment diversion, and forgone opportunity to carry our structural changes in the Ukrainian economy. According to the results, EU accession would dramatically change the composition of Ukrainan exports by almost doubling exports of manufactured goods by 2007. The costs of non-integration accumulat e towards the end of the investigated period. Projecting the results into the future clearly indicates that the benefits of EU accession for Ukraine would have been unambiguously positive.By showing that costs of non integration are high, the results shed some light on the debates over the benefits of EU integration for the newly accepted states. They also give guidance on the potential export gains from signing a deep FTA between EU and Ukraine which is currently negotiated by policymakers. JEL categories: C33, F12, F17 Keywords: gravity model, EU enlargement, Ukraine, CIS, heterogeneous firms, trade policy Introduction The studies of European Union (EU) enlargement mostly focus on the impact of the enlargement on the current and new EU members (e. . Bussiere et al. 2008, Nilsson, 2000, Baldwin, 1995 and 1997, Gros and Gonciarz 1996). This paper looks at the impact of EU enlargement from a different angle and estimates the costs of non-integration into EU. It develops a methodology for evaluating alternative regional integration scenarios. Comparing costs and benefits of different integration scenarios, a policymaker decides on the best integration strategy for a county. When an additional country joins a regional trade bloc, it imposes additional costs on outsiders due to trade and investment diversion.The costs of non-integration are growing when more countries join the bloc, which triggers a new wave of enlargement, a so-called domino effect introduced by Baldwin (1993). For example, the enlargement of the European Economic Community (EEC) – a process that started in 1960s – induced integration of the members of the European Free Trade Agreement (EFTA) into the EEC: â€Å"The 1960s saw rapid discriminatory liberalisation with the EEC and EFTA. This had a dramatic effect on trade patterns. The EEC’s share of trade with itself rose from 30 to 50 per cent.The share of EEC imports from other European nations stagnated or fell. This discri mination meant lost profit opportunities for exporters in both groups, but since the EEC market was more than twice the size of EFTA’s market (and growing faster), the EEC club was far more attractive to exporting firms. This generated new political economy forces within the EFTA nations – forces that pushed for EEC membership. † (Baldwin, 2008) Currently, a similar process involving the EU and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) trading blocs is evolving.The differences in size and level of development between EU and CIS blocs imply that the EU bloc is more attractive and the opportunity costs of not-integrating into the EU are higher. Recently, EU has expanded by 12 new members, mostly by countries that for a long time had been important trading partners of CIS countries. At the same time, Georgia left the CIS in August, 2009, while Ukraine and Central Asia countries significantly reduced their involvement into the CIS programs.These developments indirectl y indicate that the EU accession strategy looks as an increasingly attractive policy for the CIS countries. However, the literature says little on how the different integration scenarios can be compared. What are the costs for the CIS countries of not integrating into EU? Do the costs of non-integration exceed the benefits of staying in the CIS? Empirically, this question has not been studied and the primary goal of this paper is to evaluate the ex post costs of non-integration. To answer these questions, the paper focuses on Ukraine.De facto, Ukraine is a member of the CIS. However, Ukraine participates in the CIS programs very selectively and the Ukrainian parliament never ratified the CIS Charter. Moreover, after 2004, Ukraine explicitly declared the EU accession as its strategic goal. Ukraine is an eligible candidate for enlargement based on the geographical criteria. It is an important EU trading partner that moves towards EU both politically and economically. In February, 2008 , the Ukraine has started a round of FTA negotiations with EU which is the next step towards the EU integration.The launch of negotiations followed the finalization of Ukraine’s WTO accession process on February, 5 2008 , which was a prerequisite for FTA talks. Therefore, the advantage of looking at Ukraine while comparing costs and benefits of a deeper EU integration vs. deeper CIS integration is as follows. First, it is not a purely theoretical exercise but a question of practical importance. Did Ukraine make a right choice when declaring the EU integration as the policy priority? Second, the answer to this question gives guidance for policymakers of the EU and Ukraine for the decision on the future of the EU enlargement process.How Ukrainian exports would look like if the country joined EU in 2004? To answer these questions, this paper develops a methodology that allows predicting trade patterns of Ukrainian exports in such a hypothetical situation. The offered method assu mes that the main differences between being an EU member and being a typical CIS country stem from the changes in behavioral relationships of the parameters of the gravity equation rather than from the changes in factors that represent the gravity forces per se (see Egger, Pfaffermayr, and Schmidt 2006).By setting its regulatory framework in line with the EU standards, signing a deep FTA with EU, and, in the long run, achieving its final goal of becoming a full-fledged EU member, the Ukraine would gradually evolve from being a part of the CIS trading bloc with its distinct reliance on export of raw materials towards being a part of the EU trading block with a high degree of intra-industry trade in processed goods. Therefore, its trade patterns would become more in line with the trade patterns of the Eastern European countries.The behavioral changes would come from better access to the EU market, changes in the institutional environment, deep reforms of the regulatory framework, and standardization of export and import regulations. To capture the behavioral changes, the gravity model is estimated for two samples: one sample includes sixteen Eastern European countries – twelve EU member countries that recently joined EU (EU12) and four countries that are not member of the EU but are considered as candidates for enlargement in the future (EUC4) ; the other sample includes nine CIS countries .In addition to evaluating the behavioral change, the novelty of the paper lies in applying an estimation of the disaggregated gravity equation using the two stage procedure developed by Helpman, Melitz, and Rubinstein (2008) (henceforth HMR). The method explicitly deals with a substantial number of zero trade flows, and unobserved firm-level heterogeneity.Unlike the HMR method, we exploit both cross-sectional and time dimensions to remove the pair-specific fixed effects that can bias the cross-sectional results and estimate the impact of the EU accession on bilateral t rade flows by the Hausman-Taylor method (Hausman and Taylor, 1981) treating the EU accession as an endogenous decision that correlates with variable and fixed costs of trade. The model demonstrates substantial costs of not integrating into EU.If the Ukraine had became an EU member in 2004, it would have benefited from an increase in export volumes, redirection of trade from CIS trading partners towards the EU trading partners, and restructuring of exports from industrial products with low value added, primarily exports of raw materials, towards exports of manufactured products with high value added and exports of agriculture and food .The benefits would have come not from the EU accession per se but from the gradual process of reforms, economic restructuring, and behavioral changes in the bilateral trade relationships with its trading partners. The initial losses from breaking the trade relationships with other CIS countries would be more than compensated later along the development path. The structure of the paper is as follows. Section 2 compares existing trade patterns of the Eastern European countries with trade patterns of the CIS countries.Section 3 briefly discusses the methodological issues, presents a theoretical model and develops the estimation procedure. Section 4 discusses data. Section 5 presents estimation results for aggregated trade data and discusses advantages of the Hausman-Taylor method. It also presents estimated gains in disaggregated exports from the EU-Ukraine trade integration for two counterfactual experiments. Finally, Section 6 concludes. Trade patterns of EU and CIS countries: first glance at the data The theory of regionalism and preferential trade agreements (i. . Baldwin, 1993; Baldwin et al. 2006) stresses that costs of non-integration into a regional trade bloc increase with the size of the bloc which, in turn, induces more countries to join the bloc due to a so-called â€Å"domino effect†: by lowering trade barriers a nd improving market access, a discriminatory liberalization of trade within a trading bloc gives an edge to the companies located within the bloc over the outsiders and create additional incentives for multinational companies (MNC) to move their activities inside the bloc.This creates an additional pressure for inclusion on outside countries. Hence, once started, the process of regionalization captures ever-growing number of countries. The story of the latest EU enlargement illustrates this point. The Council of Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) that, by 1989, included fifteen Soviet republics, six Eastern European countries – Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Romania, Poland –, and three other countries – Cuba, Mongolia, and Vietnam generated a substantial intra-bloc trade due to a high degree of economic and political integration The economic cooperation with the rest of the world was limited at best and in some instances prohibited. Since the b eginning of transition, Eastern European countries and Baltic States have rapidly moved away from the Moscow-centered economic gravity towards the Brussels-centered one. As was correctly predicted by some scholars (i. e. Wang and Winters, 1991 Hamilton and Winters, 1992, and Baldwin, 1994), this led to the reorientation of their trade flows away from the CMEA countries towards the EU members.By 1995, Eastern European trade flows did not differ considerably from that of similar Western European countries and mostly exhausted the westward expansion of exports at the intensive margins of trade (Gros and Gonciarz (1996). This view is supported by a more recent World Bank (2005) report which shows that currently most of the EU12 countries trade above their potential or ‘normal’ level.

Free Essays on The Roots Of Ancient Greek Theater

The roots of ancient Greek theater lie in the cult of Dionysis, the god of wine and fertility. In myth, Dionysis’ followers were satyrs, drunken half-animal, half human creatures and maenads, or mad women. In ancient Greek times, Dionysis’ followers would sometimes assume these roles in their religious rituals resulting in much singing, drinking and dancing in honor of their god. Members of the dionysiac cult would always tell myths centered on their god by singing and dancing out their stories together as a chorus. They always did this until about sixth century BC, when a man named Thespis stepped out of the chorus and took the role of an actor. He acted out a Dionysiac myth through spoken dialogue rather than song creating Greek tragedy. He was considered to be the first actor and the first playwright. Tragedies were based largely on the myths or stories of the old narrative epic poems. A chorus of twelve members and a maximum of three male actors performed these plays. In order to help the audience figure out who the performers were supposed to be, costumes and masks were used. Costumes generally were designed to show the characters social status or gender, while masks depicted emotions or age. Masks, often made of wood or cork, helped to make the actor’s voice louder as well. Unfortunately, they also completely covered the actor’s facial expressions. This setback forces performers of tragedy to depend on their gestures and voice to convey a message. When a large noisy audience was at the performance, this proved to be an extremely difficult task. After this new form of performance was introduced to the general public, it quickly gained popularity. Its popularity leads Pisistratus to construct a theater for the performance of tragedy in Dionysus’ honor. Under Pisistratus’ rule, tragedy turned into competition for the best play in 538 BC. Soon thereafter, these theatrical performances gained new importance and meaning,... Free Essays on The Roots Of Ancient Greek Theater Free Essays on The Roots Of Ancient Greek Theater The roots of ancient Greek theater lie in the cult of Dionysis, the god of wine and fertility. In myth, Dionysis’ followers were satyrs, drunken half-animal, half human creatures and maenads, or mad women. In ancient Greek times, Dionysis’ followers would sometimes assume these roles in their religious rituals resulting in much singing, drinking and dancing in honor of their god. Members of the dionysiac cult would always tell myths centered on their god by singing and dancing out their stories together as a chorus. They always did this until about sixth century BC, when a man named Thespis stepped out of the chorus and took the role of an actor. He acted out a Dionysiac myth through spoken dialogue rather than song creating Greek tragedy. He was considered to be the first actor and the first playwright. Tragedies were based largely on the myths or stories of the old narrative epic poems. A chorus of twelve members and a maximum of three male actors performed these plays. In order to help the audience figure out who the performers were supposed to be, costumes and masks were used. Costumes generally were designed to show the characters social status or gender, while masks depicted emotions or age. Masks, often made of wood or cork, helped to make the actor’s voice louder as well. Unfortunately, they also completely covered the actor’s facial expressions. This setback forces performers of tragedy to depend on their gestures and voice to convey a message. When a large noisy audience was at the performance, this proved to be an extremely difficult task. After this new form of performance was introduced to the general public, it quickly gained popularity. Its popularity leads Pisistratus to construct a theater for the performance of tragedy in Dionysus’ honor. Under Pisistratus’ rule, tragedy turned into competition for the best play in 538 BC. Soon thereafter, these theatrical performances gained new importance and meaning,...

Transitive Verbs

Transitive Verbs Transitive Verbs Transitive Verbs By Maeve Maddox The grammatical term â€Å"transitive verb† occurs in numerous posts on this site, usually with a reminder of what it means, but perhaps a dedicated post will be useful to readers who remain shaky on the concept. Note: To keep this post focused on the concept of transitive verbs and their direct objects, I am not going to mention terms that apply to other kinds of objects or verbs. The prefix trans occurs in many English words. It’s from Latin transire, a combination of the Latin preposition trans, â€Å"across† and the infinitive ire, â€Å"to go.† English words beginning with trans usually have something to do with moving something â€Å"across† to something or someone else. For example: transatlantic: passing or extending across the Atlantic Ocean. transcribe: to make a copy of something in writing; to copy out from an original, i.e., move the original writing â€Å"across† to another place. transfuse: to pour a liquid from one vessel or receptacle into another. In the case of blood, cause to flow from the donor or bag â€Å"across† to the recipient. The trans in â€Å"transitive verb† indicates that the action of an action verb carries across to a receiver of the action. The receiver that receives the action of a transitive verb is called its â€Å"direct object.† The dog bit the intruder. (Bit is an action verb. Intruder receives the action.) The batter hit the ball out of the park. (Hit is an action verb. Ball receives the action.) A flock of sheep halted traffic from here to the highway. (Halted is an action verb. Traffic receives the action.) Here’s how to decide if an action verb is transitive: First, identify the main action verb in the sentence. For example, in the first sentence, the main verb is bit. Then, ask the question, â€Å"Bit what?† The answer to â€Å"what?† will be the direct object: intruder. Not all action verbs are transitive. For example, the action verb kick may or may not have a receiver. For example, compare these sentences: 1. The girl kicked the football over the goal. 2. The baby kicked furiously in the bath. In the first sentence, when you ask â€Å"kicked what?† you find the answer â€Å"football.† In this sentence, kicked is a transitive verb because the action of kicking is received by the football. Football is the direct object of kicked. In the second sentence, when you ask â€Å"kicked what?† you do not find an answer to the question. The action does not travel across to any receiver. There is no direct object. In the second sentence, kicked is not transitive. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar 101 category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Redundant Phrases to AvoidHomogeneous vs. Heterogeneous25 Idioms with Clean

Tips for Writing Dialogue

Tips for Writing Dialogue Skillfully written dialogue will grab readers and pull them right into a story. The trick is to make it sound realistic. There are many tips for writing dialogue but everyone will find that they have their own special spin to put on this. After all, everyone has his or her own style of voice when speaking, likewise when in writing. However, there are some basic tips for writing dialogue to keep in mind next time you’re writing a story. One of the best tips for writing dialogue is to use it as a way of defining your characters. This builds a much more realistic image of your characters in the reader’s minds when they can actually â€Å"hear† how they speak. Some people are short and succinct in their speaking while others love to use eloquent and flowery words. Still others may speak with a heavy foreign accent or a very southern drawl. If you can convey this in your dialogue, naturally, then you’ll have the readers hooked. Some of the tips for writing dialogue are to make sure the dialogue is believable. The reader has to actually feel as if these characters could really be speaking. This has to be one of the most important tips for writing dialogue that you’ll need to remember. It needs to imitate what one would normally hear in the speech patterns that are all around us every day. Think about how much quicker a book will pull you along when you are reading a dialogue between the characters. It creates action and speeds up the storyline. Some of the best tips for writing dialogue include thinking of how best to hook the reader. Use action words in their speech towards each other. Make it exciting so that the reader wants to keep reading. Readers don’t really want to hear the characters saying â€Å"Ok, I’m going to the grocery store now.† Dialogue needs to be exciting, action packed or perhaps even funny. Show the reader what’s happening through dialogue rather than using boring narration. Have the characters talk about where they are going, what they are feeling, seeing or thinking through dialogue. This is one of the best tips for writing dialogue that you can keep in mind. By doing this you’re letting the reader form the pictures in their minds while being entertained. The readers enjoy figuring things out. By reading good dialogue, they can. This is much more entertaining for the reader than having everything described to them in narrative style. Use dialogue to describe previous events instead of relying on flashbacks or other cliche writing tools. This shows the readers what happened in the past that led the character to this point in the story without getting into boring narrative detail. By doing so, this accomplishes two things; first is that the readers can hear about the past event the way the character sees it and second, one gets a feel of how the character feels about what’s happened in the past. More good tips for writing dialogue would be being able to use dialogue in such a way to build tension in the plot. By using certain words and inflections, the tempo of the story line can be increased in a dramatic way. Use these tips for writing dialogue to create a great story that flows and ebbs with emotion and action. The reader needs to be able to completely lose themselves in the dialogue between characters. If one can accomplish this then you’ve grasped the important tips for writing dialogue in such a way that you have what it takes to be a successful writer.

Sony TV Marketing Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Sony TV Marketing - Case Study Example Australians are generally overweight, less likely to marry, and consuming more goods and services. (Australian Social Trends 2007). As their household income increased, household spending also rose. Since 1985-86, real (i.e. adjusted for inflation) household final consumption expenditure per person has increased on average by 2% each year (from $17,500 in 1985-86 to $26,100 in 2005-06). The largest increases have been on communication services and goods for recreation and culture. The Sony television set falls under the goods for recreation and culture. Australia has experienced an increase in marriages registered. In 2006, there were 114,222 registered marriages, representing an increase of 4,899 (4.5%) from 2005. (Australian Bureau of Statistics). This signals the most significant increase in the number of registrations from 1999. This increase in registration numbers is consistent across all states and territories. New South Wales contributed the highest increase in registrations at a national level, reporting a rise of 2,144 (6.0%) marriages from 2005 to 2006. Consequently, Australia's total fertility rate has increased, reaching 1.81 babies per woman in 2005. This constitutes the highest level of increase from 1995. The main source of this increased spending are women aged 30 years and over. The immigration rate has also increased. ... EconomicEconomic growth and development has been steady at 7% per annum. Australia forms part of the developed country block. International trade has quadrupled as businesses produced various goods and services for export to the United States, Japan and South America. Agricultural commodities and machinery constitute a significant portion of outbound trade. Industrial goods also form a sizeable component of Australian export. Imports are made up of raw materials and tools for industrial production. Natural The Australian government, business sector and civil society have banded together to push for the adoption of adaptation and mitigation efforts given the global climate change. Many local companies have implemented efforts to save energy and to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The legislature is studying proposals on how to speed up the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. The Australian government had ratified the Kyoto Protocol. This enabled Australia to be active in international negotiations on climate change for the first time. The new government has set a long-term target of a 60% reduction in emissions by 2050, with a national emissions trading scheme to be implemented by 2010 to enable it to reach the target. The signatories to the Kyoto Protocol have committed to achieving certain emissions targets on average over this 5 year period. TechnologicalSony is selling a thin TV (just over 3 millimeters thick). The new televisions have an 11-inch screen and cost 200,000, or almost $1,800. The Sony TV which is known as the XEL-1, features saturated colors and superlative slimness due to the emerging technology of organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs. OLED displays are produced not by the fluorescent bulbs of LCDs, but by

Oil Company and Pipeline Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Oil Company and Pipeline - Case Study Example The case fall under the Alberta’s Pipeline Act, Pipeline Regulation, and applicable Canadian Standards Association (CSA) standards. Lance was hired by Bikal within the contract period to inspect the pipeline. Bikal’s contract was under the following condition â€Å"to maintain Akel’s refinery with the agreement of payment only during the uptime of the refinery†. This shows that Baikal was in the line of duty and sought to hire an outside company to work on the inspection. It is professionally ethical to consult with other companies to provide services. Baikal therefore, was to enforce a contract with Lance by having a written agreement so that the contract between the two was enforceable by law. Lance duty was to ensure proper inspection was done. Engineering allows for non-destructive testing of the materials in this case the refinery has the pipelines. What lance did was to work on the minor aspects of the pumping system as well as keep time as required by Baikal. This case is based on the pressure in the system where they were right to check the source of the pressure that is the pump. Engineering formulates guidelines on how to undertake such measures to prevent leakages in the drainage and unnecessary pressure build up, the material under testing. This provides necessary actions and safety measures for pressure testing. Akel the contracting company who owns the refinery plays a role in the case as the paying party. Failure of the system to operate means the termination of the Baikal contract. This case has incurred Akel several expenditures from the replacement of the pump as well as the broken pipeline. Akel is obliged to ask what went wrong as he enquired and found out that the first report submitted by Lance engineers was inadequate, missing standard tests. The problem was primarily due to erosion in the pipe and could have possibly led to a disaster. Lance engineers cited that â€Å"Baikal had given them

Walmart Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Walmart - Essay Example The tool of success touched the door steps of Walmart early in the century when it overcame the existing Exxon Mobile and other notable players of the market namely General motors and Ford. The core policy adopted across the United States was based on the principle of discounted sales across its large number of super stores. The success can be measured and evaluated by the figures, since figures speak no exaggeration, and tell the real story. While in 1993 the net sales stood at thirty three thousand dollars, by 2002 the entire sales had popped up to over 2 hundred thousand dollars. Similarly the number of associates, and the units also increased, speaking for its ever successful working and expansion. The number of super stores were also increased in the mentioned period of time which is another sign of the demand of customers and living up to it. Grocery retail is another area it has barged into and has found success. The endeavor was not limited to the local shores; instead the entire project was expanded beyond the borders and continents. In such pursuit, the company extended its services across Europe. The ever constant principle of Customer friendly services and reduces prices made its service and products sell like hot cakes anywhere it went. It was faced with number of obstacles in foreign lands, much in case of Germany, where profits were not as visible as in the rest of off shore markets. In bid to overcome this obstacle, it came up with the proposition of constant pricing across the local and international market in all the chains of Walmart. Germany hasn’t been the best of spots for hunting in terms of Walmart expansion. However it has received good response in countries like China, Canada and Mexico. Success does not come without a pre defined policy and procedure. Properly worked out mechanism needs to be in place which requires

Medical Genetics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Medical Genetics - Essay Example Individual II.5 is a homozygous normal parent while the partner is a homozygous affected person for a particular DNA coding conferring to a wild type phenotype. However, in an autosomal dominant inheritance, only a single copy of the wild-type phenotype allele is required for an offspring to be susceptible to expressing the symptoms. Therefore, each offspring has an equal probability of 50% of acquiring the mutant gene allele symptoms, and the other half would not be affected by the autosomal inheritance according to Onkers, I. (2009). Since the type of inheritance in this particular genetic pedigree is an autosomal inheritance, a heterozygous male (Bb) for the DNA coding mating to an affected female (bb)individual would produce one out of four offsprings expressing altered symptoms. However, within the unaffected offspring there would be two carriers (Bb) who will not show undesired traits for a particular condition. This is because when a homozygous wild-type mate with a heterozygous individual, there is a 25% chance of acquiring mutant (affected) individuals (Relethford, 2012). In a dominant, autosomal inheritance, individual III 1 (bb) can only acquire healthy offspring if she marries a homozygous normal man (BB). However, though the father (bb) of the individual III 1 (bb) suffers from the same disability as she does, the fathers’ disability does not affect her daughter’s subsequently genetic inheritance (Nielsen & Slatkin, 2013).

Attacks in Computer Systems versus Web-based Systems Case Study

Attacks in Computer Systems versus Web-based Systems - Case Study Example The similarities are also influenced by the homogenous nature of the technologies used in both types of systems. A web-based system is, essentially, a computer system that supports activities on the internet. This makes web presence the only contrast between the two systems and creates the uniformity in the types of attacks employed. The growth in web-based cybercrime has been enabled by various factors, which have had different magnifying effects on the observed increase in this type of criminal activity. The first factor is the increasing availability of internet connectivity in many areas of the world. Although it may appear trivial at first glance, greater access to the internet has inspired many hackers to engage in cybercrime; to the extent that they can find whichever resources they want (Provos, Rajab, & Mavrommatis, 2009:42). Using the internet, potential hackers can easily access information that instructs them on how to commit cybercrime. For example, currently, anybody with an internet connection can view links containing â€Å"tutorials† on how to engage in cybercrime. It is safe to say that this information is more easily accessible to people with internet connections than those without. The second factor is an increase in online transactions that have created opportunities for people to engage in criminal activities like stealing of online financial information. The internet has brought with it an explosion in e-commerce, and since e-commerce relies on web presence, cybercrime has grown alongside it. It is a case of people taking advantage of the weaknesses involved in online transactions like the provision of credit card information and identification data (Provos, Rajab, & Mavrommatis, 2009:44). However, this could also be said to be a direct result of technological development. As technology becomes more advanced, its flaws become more pronounced.  

Strategic HR Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Strategic HR - Essay Example R systems are the most critical in HR architecture since they are the source of value creation and have greater inimitability depending on how they are aligned with the overall corporate strategy. According to the Resource based View (RBV) of the firm, human resources are the most strategic assets for the firm and should be recognized in order to attain competitive strengths. In implementing SHRM strategy, the firm should focus on the key strengths and capabilities. According to Porter, the firm should emphasize on cost leadership and differentiation in the competitive strategy (Becker and Mark 902). Current trends in focus on differentiation in the SHRM since business processes should create value for the organization (Becker and Mark 903).unique and firm specific HR architectures will create and sustain competitive strength for the firm. Modern SHRM literature focuses on the holistic view of human resources since all employees have unique talents and contribute differently in the value creation process. Effective human resource management strategy includes both HR core architecture that creates equal value to all business processes and HR differentiated architecture that provides specific skills and attributes for the effectively performance of certain strategic jobs in the organization. According to five national surveys conducted between 1991 and 2000 and data from 3200 firms, the standard deviation from HR systems change is 10-20 percent in value of the firm. Increase of one standard deviation leads TO 4.6 percent increase in return on assets (ROA) (Becker and Mark 907). SHRM should focus on intermediate outcomes since financial performance should not be the only dependent variable and outcome of SHRM. Focus should be on strategic business processes that involve a high level of human resources. New focus should be on contingencies and fit since HR architectures should also be differentiated. HR managers face challenges of measuring employee performance

Attacks in Computer Systems versus Web-based Systems Case Study

Attacks in Computer Systems versus Web-based Systems - Case Study Example The similarities are also influenced by the homogenous nature of the technologies used in both types of systems. A web-based system is, essentially, a computer system that supports activities on the internet. This makes web presence the only contrast between the two systems and creates the uniformity in the types of attacks employed. The growth in web-based cybercrime has been enabled by various factors, which have had different magnifying effects on the observed increase in this type of criminal activity. The first factor is the increasing availability of internet connectivity in many areas of the world. Although it may appear trivial at first glance, greater access to the internet has inspired many hackers to engage in cybercrime; to the extent that they can find whichever resources they want (Provos, Rajab, & Mavrommatis, 2009:42). Using the internet, potential hackers can easily access information that instructs them on how to commit cybercrime. For example, currently, anybody with an internet connection can view links containing â€Å"tutorials† on how to engage in cybercrime. It is safe to say that this information is more easily accessible to people with internet connections than those without. The second factor is an increase in online transactions that have created opportunities for people to engage in criminal activities like stealing of online financial information. The internet has brought with it an explosion in e-commerce, and since e-commerce relies on web presence, cybercrime has grown alongside it. It is a case of people taking advantage of the weaknesses involved in online transactions like the provision of credit card information and identification data (Provos, Rajab, & Mavrommatis, 2009:44). However, this could also be said to be a direct result of technological development. As technology becomes more advanced, its flaws become more pronounced.  

Rewrite Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Rewrite - Case Study Example The protection also encompasses biodiversity conservation. 2. It fosters the process of furnishing the economic earnings to country, the region, and the local community. In essence, the protected area provides resources for conservation. 3. It provides financial resources for the conservation of other protected natural areas lacking tourism perhaps because they are unknown or because of their fragile ecological balance. 4. It can make protected areas more profitable thus encourages government or private investment in the establishment of other equally protected areas. 5. It can contribute to conservation if used as a tool of environmental education that sensitizes visitors so they can learn to conveniently value Nature, and respect not only the area they visit but also any other natural area. 6. It gives local communities alternatives to extractive activities that damage the ecosystems and endanger the natural resources. 7. It can help conservation process in other countries that emu late the success in the neighboring countries. Objectives of the Study: I. To secure and maintain the habitat and conditions necessary to protect significant species, groups of species, biotic communities or physical features of the environment where these require specific human manipulation for optimum management II. To facilitate scientific research and environmental monitoring as primary activities associated with sustainable resource management III. To develop limited areas for public education and appreciation of the characteristics of the habitats concerned and that of the work of wildlife management; IV. To eliminate and prevent exploitation or occupation inimical to the purposes of designation V. To deliver such benefits to people living within designated areas in line with the objectives of management Farwa MPA The Farwa MPA is located on Latitude 33Â ° 04' N and Longitude at 11Â ° 50' E to 33Â ° 08' N and 11Â ° 32' E (Approx) from Abu- Kamash in the east to the Tunisia n border in the west. It consists of Farwa lagoon, the largest lagoon on the Libyan coast that covers an area of 32 km2. The Farwa MPA, particularly Farwa lagoon, has meadows of Posidonia and Cymodocea sp., owing to certain economically significant species (shrimp, sponges, and fishes) as well as some endangered species that essentially make it an important area for larva and juvenile protection. In the biodiversity of Farwa MPA it is arguably easier to distinguish several economically important species and certain endangered species. Thus, it is imperative that this area gets adequate protection. The utmost altitude of the land on both sides of the lagoon is about 2-3 m (Sand type). Furthermore, the mean annual temperature varies from one month to another owing to the recent closing of the east side of the lagoon. The minimum mean temperature in winter is 10? C whilst the maximum mean temperature in summer is 27?C. The prevalent direction and speed of wind is largely NW and NNW. Ho wever, a hot southern wind sometimes blows from the Sahara. The Meteorological conditions of the region are those of the western part of Libyan coast. In such conditions, the winter season extends from November to April and is normally very cold and rainy with unstable winds blowing from different directions. The summer season (June to September) is rather hot and dry. The wind is more stable N and NW. Incidentally, spring and autumn are very short transitional periods. The lagoon is separated from the sea by some 11-km

Project on Haleeb Milk Essay Example for Free

Project on Haleeb Milk Essay Dairy Queen Milk is a product of Haleeb Foods. Haleeb Foods is a largest company in Pakistan’s dairy industry. Haleeb Foods is one of the organization competing in the UHT Milk industry. There is a big room for development in dairy industry in Pakistan. UHT milk although costly but people know about the milk importance and its quality. Now, there are many products are available in the market regarding UHT milk but Haleeb found that there is a gap between upper class and lower class, so, Haleeb decided to introduce lower price milk with best quality and UHT treated milk for those whom can not afford high price milk. Dairy Queen is Haleeb another standardized and homogenized pure UHT Milk with 3. 5% fat and 8. 9% solid non fats. At an affordable price it has won the hearts of consumers everywhere. It is available in 6-layered Tetra Pak Fino Packaging, introduced for the first time in Pakistan and has 2 months shelf life. Government of Pakistan is now focusing on dairy industry. RD department of Haleeb Foods is continuous watching the market trend and the development in dairy industry. Strategy of the dairy queen is to provide UHT milk for those whom cannot afford high price milk and capture the share of the market. Dairy queen milk has no competitor in terms of actual condition of the packaging and price. So, we can say that there is no strategic group of dairy queen milk. It is unique product available in the market with its low price positioning. Government polices makes it easy to enter in this market but technology, availability of raw milk, and process makes it difficult for the up coming companies in this industry. Although, middle and lower class is the target market of the dairy queen but its quality and packaging attract the upper class as well. UHT treated milk is dependent on the production of the healthy animals and availability of raw milk. As the competition is concerned, there are many companies in the particular industry and they are competing with each other with price, positioning, packaging and availability. This is time of advertising because when customer knows about your product then he will be welling to purchase that product. Haleeb Foods Limited has hired Red Communication Arts as their new advertising agency which will be handling the following accounts: 1. BEVERAGES: Haleeb Good Day, Haleeb Funday, Tropico, Tropico Nectar, Candia, Candy Up, Haleeb Labban 2. Corporate account. Now, mostly companies are using these tools to promote their products and image as well. Total share of packed milk is 4% and 96% is for loss milk. Turnover of Haleeb is 9. 2 billon. Haleeb Rashmi is also providing profit to the company because this is low cost product and it has its own packaging. It’s daily sale is 11000 litter per day. As market share is concern, Haleeb got 44% last year, Nestle 43%, Good Milk 4. 5% and Norpur 10% last year. So, Competitor of Haleeb is Nestle because there nick to nick competition. Nestle has long rang product line as compare to Haleeb. When we talk about the gaps there is a gap in the implementation gap in strategies. Availability gape and awareness gape is still there and now company is going to eliminate these gapes. As we know that industry growth rate is 25% in the dairy industry. Now, the company’s focus is on the gross profit and company is doing the things to increase the gross profit. The cities which are very important in terms of sale share are Multan, Sahiwal, Fasil Abad, Gujranwala, and Rawalpindi. These cities are providing 60% to 70% sales of Haleeb. There are some problem from the customer side and distributor side. Dairy Queen has fino packaging and its shape is not convenient for the customer. It has three lair packaging so, leakage problem is from the distributor side. Now, the best strategy is penetration in maximum household and increase the awareness of the brand. This will be possible through activities and promotions. Tactical advertising will be best for the promotional activities of the Dairy Queen. ENVIRONMENT OF DAIRY INDUSTRY INTRODUCTION Dairy farming is an agro-based activity, buffaloes and cows can be raised for milk production in an organized manner for commercial purpose. For this project, animals can be purchased from the animal markets or breeders in Sahiwal, Sheikhupura, Faisalabad. More than 70 percent farmers hold less than 5 acres of land. Dairy farming may prove a profitable business for small landholders. They can also grow fodder on their land to feed dairy animals, without disturbing the main crop. Dairy farming is one of the best projects if professionally done on small land holdings. The return of the land used for feeding animals is higher as compared to land used for traditional cropping. The economical size of the herd is 50 animals, which will grow into 180 animals within a few years. Cows are also proposed in the herd, as they are high yields and efficient converters of feed into milk. This herd would consist of 75 percent buffaloes and 25 percent cows. A cow, on average, yields 14 litters milk a day over a lactation period of 305 days whereas the buffalo, on an average, yields 10 litters a day over a lactation period of 280 days. Pakistan is the fifth largest milk producer in the world. Milk production is 28 million tonnes from 125 million heads. Milk is used for drinking, tea, desi ghee, yogurt and butter making. Milk is also used to make Khoya and different types of sweets. Milk processing companies use milk as a raw material to formulate different types of milk for example pasteurized milk, UHT milk, condensed milk, skimmed milk, milk powder, etc. Different value added products like yogurt, ice cream, butter and cheese are also produced from the raw milk. The daily consumption of milk in Lahore is 2 to 3 million litters and that of Karachi is 4 million litters. The demand for processed milk has increased its share in quality conscious consumers. During the last two decades, processed milk has achieved 4 percent share in the milk market of Lahore, which is growing to about 4. 5 percent per annum. Therefore, metropolitan cities are the major markets for the sale of milk. With the every passing day, dairy products are becoming costlier because live stock farming has not scientifically grown with the increase in population and also it did not match with the pace of urbanization. Recently, milk prices in Karachi increased without any reason. In a short time of two years, milk prices have gone up from Rs 20 per liter to Rs 25, showing a 25 percent increase. Moreover, meat prices have also risen to about 25 percent in the last six months. In such a situation, the only way to control prices is to develop the dairy industry on scientific lines, which will not only provide meat and milk in abundant quantities to the domestic consumers but extra quantities can also be exported. In spite of having a large population of livestock, the country is spending some $40 million annually on the import of formula milk only, which is the highest amount spent by any country in the world on this particular commodity. Currently, there are some 160 varieties of infant formula milk available in the markets. â€Å"The milk processing companies have reduced supply of their tetra pack milk products in the domestic market for last couple of weeks in an apparent bid to increase the prices of processed milk on the pretext of short supply. According to market sources, milk-processing companies working in formal sector including Nestle, Haleeb, Dairy Queen, Pakola, Olper, and Good Milk had increased prices of their milk products on September 15, 2005 from Rs34 per litter to Rs35 per kg. Later on, these companies raised processed milk rates on February 6, 2006 from Rs35 to Rs36 per litter in retail market. â€Å"It was the second consecutive upward revision in prices by these companies in a short span of four months,† General Secretary Karachi Retail Grocers’ Group Fareed Qureshi told The News. â€Å"There is no autonomous authority or effective institution in the country to protect rights of consumers and to check frequent and unjustified price hike of different commodities. Neither Monopoly Control Authority (MCA) now renamed as Competition Authority nor local governments took stringent measures against hoarders, adulterators and profiteers to safeguard the interest of consumers,† a consumer said. Some three months back fresh milk sellers increased prices from Rs28 per litters to Rs30 per litter at retail and Rs26 to Rs28 per litter at wholesale level despite repeated warnings by the City District Government Karachi (CDGK), who fixed official rates of fresh milk at Rs26 at wholesale and Rs28 per litter at retail. A market source said in the past whenever these companies increased prices of their products they curtailed their supplies as a first step and then increased prices. Though Pakistan is the fifth largest milk producer in the world producing around 28 billion litres of milk annually, it is still importing milk powder and condensed milk. Out of total production only 5 percent milk is processed on hygienic lines whereas shelf life of the remaining 95 percent un-processed milk is very short and due to unavailability of proper storage facilities most of milk produced goes waste. Government has allocated around Rs230 million for development of dairy industry in fiscal budget 2006-07. The sector has been allowed duty free import of dairy and livestock-related machinery and equipment (not manufactured locally). Moreover dairy sector has been exempted from sales tax besides of withholding tax. In order to reduce the cost of packaging of dairy products, the duty on imports of raw materials and intermediary goods used in the manufacture of packaging material has been reduced to 5 percent. † DAIRY INDUSTRY ISSUES â€Å"LAHORE: Experts and representatives of leading players from private sector addressed various issues pertaining to dairy industry at a seminar on Dairy Farming for Profit here on Monday. The seminar was organized by the Pakistan Dairy Development Company, commonly known as Dairy Pakistan and Pakistan Initiative for Strategy Development and Competitiveness (PISDAC), a project for private sector development in Pakistan, funded by USAID. Speaking on the occasion, Anthony Christiansen, the CEO of Dairy Pakistan, said that Pakistan is the third largest producer of milk in the world with a total production of 32 billion liters of milk a year. This makes its value even higher than the combined value for wheat and cotton. To boost this vital sector, he added, a number of initiatives are underway, including milk collection and chilling projects, Joint Milk Collection Pilot Projects, research and capacity building and many more. He further said, We are also working on safety standards, dairy sector research work and strategy development by evaluating the significance of the sector in terms of contribution to GDP, employment and importance to serve as a vehicle to alleviate poverty especially among the rural population. He informed the audience that these initiatives were being taken in line with the recommendations of a Strategy Working Group (SWG), which was constituted by Federal Minister for Industries, Production and Special Initiatives, Jahangir Khan Tareen, to develop Diary Sector Development Strategy. Faisal Farooq, Chairman Dairy Pakistan, highlighting various milk-marketing options, said that to improve the dairy sector, we are emphasising on close coordination with key stakeholders across the dairy value chain as well as with partners from educational institutions, government and private sector. The Head of Agriculture Wing, Bank of Punjab, Moazzam Maneka briefed the participants on the financing tools and options available for the dairy and agriculture sector. The dairy farming experts and representatives of many leading players from private sectors also spoke on the occasion and discussed at length the issues related to the dairy industry including, milk marketing options and potential for dairy farming on a larger scale. Dr M Ashraf from Nestle Pakistan enlightened the audience on issues relating to animal health, farm layouts and shed designs and other speakers emphasised that dairy farming could be very profitable if full attention was paid to important factors such as employment of skilled farm management, high quality feed and breeding cows with high production capabilities. The seminar ended at a positive note with high hopes for the development and growth of the Pakistan’s dairy sector. † INDUSTRY DEFINITION BROAD DEFINITION When we look into milk industry as a broad definition, this industry operates in a fashion where raw milk is distributed in two main streams. ? Open ? Packaged This open milk is further distributed and transferred to different areas, which include the same area of production, households, urban and rural areas. Packaged milk is further processed through different types of processing techniques to produce different categories of packaged milk that will be categorized and defined in our narrow definition of milk industry. NARROW DEFINITION. Focusing towards our main industry and closing down our definition more narrow, we see that packaged milk being broken down to different categories starting from UHT milk, pasteurized milk, poly-pack milk, bottled milk, etc. Therefore, the industry which we have taken in narrow definition is packed UHT milk. UHT means Ultra Heat Treatment. In this process the milk passes through 140 degree centigrade in 3 seconds and then immediately cooled to 20 degree centigrade in the next 5 seconds, which in turn kills all the bacteria. This is the most sophisticated and advanced process in the world. At Haleeb Foods Limited we use the indirect method of UHT meaning that milk is heated by steam passing through stainless steel pipes outside milk. All other brands in Pakistan use the direct method of heating that is by injecting steam in the milk, this adds water content in the milk, where as indirect heating in fact evaporates water from the milk. PRODUCT COMPONENT MODEL CORE The core product or benefit is milk associating energy and health for all ages of people, men and women. BASIC Basic product is something that is sterilized and pure to use, so we can say that UHT treated milk is a basic form of our core product. As its containing the factor of purity and safe ingredients with preserved milk quality and features. AUGMENTED UHT milk is now coming with different flavors for the kids, then it has also been augmented through different packaging that are being used by different companies, trying to get potential out of UHT milk market. POTENTIAL MARKET UHT treated milk can be given with some extra hygienic ingredients such as nuts and other energetic ingredients to make it more hygienic and healthy to use product. FLOW OF MILK CHANNELS HALEEB FOODS COMPANY PROFILE. Building an excellent reputation over the years, Haleeb Foods continues to be at the forefront of product and packaging innovation. By the grace of God, it has achieved market leadership in several food categories with a very strong portfolio, consisting of leading national and international brands – Haleeb, Candia, Dairy Queen, Tea Max, Skimz, Tropico and Good Day. Apart from its extensive nationwide distribution networks, Haleeb Foods is also serving several export markets including South Korea, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and the Central Asian states. Haleeb Foods has the distinction of being the first company in Pakistan to use Tetra Pak’s novel packaging formats, Tetra Brick Aspetic (TBA) and Tetra Fino Aseptic (TFA). Haleeb Foods has also introduced a number of unique products previously unknown to the Pakistani market, like Haleeb Labban, delicious traditional lassi (buttermilk) prepared with pure thick milk and yogurt, Candia Tea Max, cardamom flavored tea whitener, Candia milk, packed in distinctive food grade plastic bottle, and Haleeb Good Day, 100% pure and natural fruit juice, free of added sugar, artificial flavors and preservatives. All this and more makes Haleeb Foods Pakistan’s number 1 and fastest growing packaged food company. As of fiscal 2005, its annual turnover is Rs. 7. 2 billion. INTERNATIONAL CERTIFICATIONS Haleeb Foods’ products are made with great care, and marked with our quality seal of recognition. We are the only dairy company in Pakistan that undertakes 21 rigorous quality control tests on every portion of the milk collected by our teams. These internationally recognized tests are used to check for: a) adulteration, b) microbiological contamination and c) adequacy of nutritional contents. All processes, from preparation to quality assurance to packaging, are undertaken employing state-of-the-art technology and equipment. Therefore, we take great pride in the fact that Haleeb Foods is the only food company in Pakistan that has the following international certifications of quality and prestige: HACCP (in process controls for safer products) ISO 9002 (better quality for greater customer satisfaction) ISO 14000 (environment-friendly operations) COMPANY’S MISSION STATEMENT. Build Branded food business to improve quality of life by offering tasty, affordable and highly nutritional products to our consumers while maximizing stake holders value COMPANY’S VISON STATEMENT Most Innovative and fastest growing food company offering products enjoyed in every home every day COMPANY’S VALUES ? Enterprise ? Empowerment ? Accountability ? Trust ? Teamwork PRODUCT LINE DAIRY PRODUCTS HALEEB BUTTER Haleeb Butter is the best natural source of Vitamins A D for everyone, and by far the ideal way of starting yet another busy day. It is rich in its taste and revitalizes your energy for a long tiresome day. Shipping Units ? 20g pack: 300 packs/carton ? 50g pack: 120 packs/carton ? 100g pack: 60 packs/carton ? 200g pack: 30 packs/carton ? 1000g pack: 1 pack/carton HALEEB ASLI DESI GHEE Haleeb Asli Desi Ghee is obtained from pure milk through the traditional procedure of heating butter slowly. Haleeb Asli Desi Ghee is free from all artificial ingredients, it has pure and natural taste and is nutritionally preserved. Shipping Units ? 0. 5 kg pouch: 10 packs/carton ? 1 kg pouch: 5 packs/carton? 1 kg tin: 6 tins/carton ? 5 kg tin: 2 tins/carton ? 16 kg tin: 1 tin/carton HALEEB CREAM The premium cream processed hygienically from pure fresh milk, Haleeb Cream is luxuriously rich in its thickness and nutritional value. It promises the richest assortment of tempting toppings, delicious desserts and creamiest coffee with its unique taste, also great for eating with bread etc. Packed in 6-layered Tetra Pack Brick Aseptic packaging. 6 months shelf life. Shipping Units ? 250 ml: 27 packs/shrink-wrapped tray ? 65 ml mini pack: 24 packs/dispenser ? 6 dispensers/carton HALEEB YOGURT. Haleeb Plain Yogurt meets the highest quality standards and gives consumers unmatched quality, freshness and taste with every spoonful. Offered in 450g, 200g and 900g packing, with a freshness seal that keeps the product attributes fresh throughout its life. Shipping Units ? Plain Yogurt 450 gm: 12 Units/Tray ? Plain Yogurt 200 gm: 24 Units/Tray ? Raita 250 gm: 24 Units/Tray HALEEB TEA MAX In tune with the Haleeb Foods tradition of providing consumers high quality and value added products, Haleeb Tea Max is the ideal choice for all tea and coffee lovers. Tea Max is special milk that provides a rich taste in your beverage. It is also available in the unique and delicious cardamom flavor, packed in a 6-layered Tetra Pack Brick Aseptic packaging. Shipping Units ? 200 ml (plain) pack: 27 packs/carton ? 200 ml (cardamom) pack: 27 packs/carton HALEEB CREAM (with honey) Haleeb Cream with Honey is an exclusive treat: delicious thick cream fortified with the goodness of pure honey, making a tempting spread on bread. Enjoy it anytime and exude energy and freshness whole day long. It is packed in a 6-layered Tetra Pak Brick Aseptic packaging. Shipping Units ? 65 ml mini pack: 24 packs/dispenser ? 200 ml: 24 packs/tray. UHT MILK HALEEB MILK Consumers everywhere know that only Haleeb Milk makes the best tea ever because of its thickness. Haleeb is pasteurized, homogenized, and standardized pure UHT milk of the highest standard with 3. 5% fats and 8. 9% solid non fats. It is Haleeb Foods premier brand, and the choice of quality-conscious consumers who only go for the best. Packed in easy to open, 6-layered Tetra Pak Brick Aseptic packaging, it comes with a 3 months shelf life. Shipping Units ? 1000 ml: 12 packs/carton ? 500 ml: 12 packs/shrink-wrapped tray ? 250 ml: 27 packs/shrink-wrapped tray. DAIRY QUEEN Dairy Queen is Haleeb another standardized and homogenized pure UHT Milk with 3. 5% fat and 8. 9% solid non fats. At an affordable price it has won the hearts of consumers everywhere. It is available in 6-layered Tetra Pak Fino Packaging, introduced for the first time in Pakistan and has 2 months shelf life. Shipping Units ? 250 ml: 24 pouches per carton ? 500 ml: 16 pouches per carton ? 1000 ml: 9 pouches per carton CANDIA Candia is Europes Number One selling milk. Haleeb Foods Limited and Candia of France have joined hands to bring you the highest quality milk. Candia is pasteurized, homogenized, standardized, double sterilized milk. This not only ensures the highest quality, but also the best taste ever. For the first time in Pakistan, Haleeb Foods Limited has introduced milk packed in food grade plastic bottles. These bottles are manufactured from imported materials at Haleeb Foods latest plant and guarantee longer shelf life, highest quality and storage with ease of use. Shipping Units ? 250 ml Bottle: 12 bottles/carton ? 1000 ml Bottle: 12 bottles/carton CANDIA CLASSIC Classic times ask for Classic tea, a product by Europe? s No. 1 brand Candia. Its richness and taste is bound to add more life to your cup, and it is an ideal choice for real tea drinkers. Shipping Units ? 1000 ml: 12 bottles per case ? 500 ml: 12 bottles per case CANDIA SKIMZ Candia Skimz is the only completely fat-free milk with the richness of pure milk. Minus fats, it is an ideal choice for weight-watchers and heart patients. It is also high in calcium content, which prevents osteoporosis. Packed in a 6-layered Tetra Pack Brick Aseptic packaging, it comes with a 3 months shelf life. Shipping Units ? 200 ml: 12 packs/carton ? 250 ml: 27 packs/shrink-wrapped tray. SKIMZ Skimz is a fat-free milk powder, naturally low in cholesterol; yet high in proteins and calcium. There are mainly two types of milk powders, full cream and skimmed. SKIMZ is a skimmed milk powder. Full cream powder contains 28% fat, whereas SKIMZ contains less than 1% fat. Moreover, the protein and calcium content is higher in SKIMZ as compared to full cream milk powder. It is best suited for weight conscious people as well as those trying to maintain a low cholesterol level. Shipping Units ? 200 g: 12 skillets/shrink-wrapped tray ? 500 g: 12 skillets/carton CANDY UP. With the backup of Candia, Candy Up has been launched especially for flavored milk drinkers, in chocolate strawberry flavors to the sheer deli ght of children. The fact that it comes in a bottle makes up for convenient usage as well. Shipping Units ? 500 ml: 12 bottles per carton HALEEB GOLD Haleeb Gold The Thickest Milk with Extra Cream. This marvelous product provides all the benefits of the Thickest Milk along with the natural goodness of extra cream. Haleeb Gold with its extra rich creamy taste makes a perfect cup of Tea. It enhances your performance and helps to maintain a healthy, dynamic lifestyle. Shipping Units ? 1000 ml: 12 packs/carton ? 500 ml: 12 packs/tray ? 250 ml: 27 packs/tray HALEEB RESHMI PACK Haleeb Reshmi pack is long life packaged milk and offers consumers premium quality milk at an attractive price. Due to its multi-layered packaging material, Reshmi pack not only retains the natural thickness of milk for a longer time, but also protects the milk from light, heat and bacteria. Shipping Units ? 250ml : 5 liters ? 1000ml: 6 liters JUICES HALEEB FUNDAY Haleeb Funday is a delicious juice drink especially for kids, enriched with calcium, and vitamins A, C D. An exciting treat, packed with health and a great taste, Funday juices will surely be an instant success with kids with their unique and amusing names, Aamonka (mango) and Arrochee (peach and lychee). They are packed in a 6-layered Tetra Pack Brick Aseptic packaging. Shipping Units ? 200ml Pack: 36 Packs /Carton Shrink wrap units ? 200ml Pack: 27 Packs/Carton HALEEB GOOD DAY Haleeb Good Day offers consumers a range of 100% pure juices with the essence of four fruits in each glass, without any added sugar, flavors or preservatives. For consumption absolutely anywhere and anytime, Good Days?six premium juices (apple, pineapple, red grape, mango, orange, and mixed fruit) give you the absolute delight in taste, and revitalizes you at the same time. It is packed in a 6-layered Tetra Pack Brick Aseptic packaging. Shipping Units ? 250 ml Pack: 27 Packs/Cartons ? 1000 ml Pack: 12 Packs/Carton TROPICO JUICE DRINK With the quality assurance of Haleeb Foods, Tropico is the premium juice drink, superior in taste and pulp contents, for that invigorating fruity refreshment. Tropico is available in three flavors: apple, mango, and mix fruit, packed in a 6-layered Tetra Pack Brick Aseptic packaging. Shipping Units ? 1000ml Pack: 12 Packs/Carton ? 250 ml pack: 36 packs/carton ? 250ml Pack: 27 Packs/Cartons HALEEB LABBAN Lassi is an age-old traditional beverage in the South Asian continent. Haleeb Labban aims to give its consumers the same satisfying traditional taste of thick lassi, along with hygiene, convenience and accessibility. Haleeb Labban is the only ready to drink packaged lassi available in Pakistan. It is available in salty and sweetened variants, packed in a 6-layered Tetra Pack Brick Aseptic packaging. Shipping Units ? 250 ml pack: 27 packs/carton? 1000 ml pack: 12 packs/carton TROPICO NECTAR Juices play an important role in the functioning of our body, have many benefits associated with them, and help you achieve the desired healthy way of life. Tropico nectar is another product from the house of Haleeb Foods Limited, which is 100% pure nectar, available in four sumptous flavors including Red Blood Orange Kinoo, Mango, Apple and Kinoo. Haleeb Tropico is also the only brand that is offering Red Blood Ornage Kinoo Juice that is so deliciously different that you will want to have it in your house, all year long. Shipping Units? 250ml : 27 Packs/Carton ? 1 Ltr : 12 Packs/Carton BULK PRODUCTS CDL also produces bulk dairy products. Bulk Products Avaiable ? Instant Full Cream milk powder (IFCMP) ? Full Cream Milk Powder ? Skimmed Milk Powder ? Instant Skimmed Milk Powder (ISMP) ? Cream ? Ghee ? Butter SITUATION ANALYSIS DAIRY QUEEN MILK Dairy queen milk has developed a strong position in terms of UHT treated milk in the industry. Even being a new entrant and serving for just about few years in this industry still Dairy queen milk managed to obtain a strong position along with its other some competitors. The product being offered by all competitors is same (talking with respect to basic ingredient and contents), there is not much difference of offering in the product among the companies. Yet there has been some difference offered through the packaging of the product. As it is always important to have a good marketing plan to get itself into market and to grow in your own strategic group, thus for Dairy queen milk it is important to have a marketing plan that can help it retain its current market and also to help it grow gradually in the industry. Now, Dairy queen milk is become lowest price milk in the market with 6-layered Tetra Pak Fino Packaging. Dairy queen milk covers those consumers whom are not able to purchase the high price milk with best quality, low price, and best milk. MARKET DEMOGRAPHICS AGE As milk is a product that contains health and hygienic features so there is no particular age distinction to be differentiated. So Dairy queen milk is for everyone who loves to be healthy and who cares for the health needs. But still it is used in different age groups with some differences, like children and older people are recommended as a growth ingredient and something that gives a concept of strength and in middle age people it’s used in tea mostly. GENDER UHT treated milk by Dairy queen milk is meant for both the genders with no particular distinction. EDUCATION Being a product involving some technological issues to make it more fresh and hygienic, more educated people are using this product rather than uneducated. Also with the passage of time, we see an improvement in its usage. FINANCIAL BACKGROUND. UHT treated milk is an expensive product in terms of regular milk, so it is more in use of middle and upper class of people. But as it is available at various places , people from different financial backgrounds are using it according to their needs and requirements. FAMILY TRENDS As its being used in middle class mostly, and its penetrating downwards with time and with price issues being adjusted accordingly. But using UHT treated milk is a more of higher or upper level trends in milk industry and has been initiated with upper class. MARKET NEEDS UHT treated milk is something that is homogenized, standardized and is toned at 3. 5% FAT level. So its just maintained at a standard level of milk to give the same quality and diet that originally milk contains. SELECTION UHT treated milk by Dairy queen milk is available in ? liter litter packaging. ACCESSIBILITY Dairy queen milk is available at many stores, and is within reach of customer easily. So, Dairy queen milk has tried its best to provide its customers with the product by making it available within their reach. PEST ANALYSIS POLITICAL Dairy Sector in the Policy Context: â€Å"The planners in Pakistan have always been more concerned about development of the crop sector than dairying in the agriculture economy of the country. After in dependence, the livestock population in Pakistan significantly deteriorated due to good stock was taken away by evacuees, indiscriminate slaughter of animals by incoming refugees, dry cows and buffaloes brought from rural areas by milk dealers for supply of milk in urban areas were slaughtered at the end of lactation period, and increased demand for meat due to growth of population and incomes. Urban areas faced acute shortage of milk and dairy products. The planners faced a policy dilemma of how to increase draught power and milk production simultaneously. Efforts were made to improve stock of cattle by breeding of indigenous animals, but output of improved stocks was inadequate to make a dent on the dwindling supplies of improved cattle and buffaloes in the country. The First Five Year Plan (1955-60) recognizes the importance of improving breeding centers, operating more hospitals, dispensaries and mobile dispensaries to check spread of contagious diseases for animals, in addition to providing for research on increasing supplies of feeds and fodders, and starting pilot schemes for artificial insemination for improvement of cattle [Government of Pakistan (1957)]. The First Plan was very specific in removing gujar (a cast of milkmen) colonies from cities like Lahore to outskirts and in recommending milk supply schemes for Karachi and Lahore on a pilot basis. Under the scheme government was to buy milk from gawalas (milkmen) residing in gujar colonies and supply pasteurized milk in sealed bottles through registered milk depots. To reduce adulteration in milk, the Plan recommended testing of milk for purity. The Plan also suggested that most of the milk would be produced in villages near the cities where small farmers would specialize in dairying by keeping half dozen or more cows, produce their own feed and organize them selves in to cooperatives for assembling, transport and even processing of milk. Soon it became clear that the First Plan, which articulated the problems at hand quite well proved to be too ambitious in their implementation as compared to the Plan target. The question of how to improve milk production capacity remained un-addressed even in the Second Five Year Plan (1960-65), which experien.

ERG11 in Drug-resistant of C. Krusei

ERG11 in Drug-resistant of C. Krusei Erg11 mutations and up-regulation in clinical itraconazoleresistant isolates of Candida krusei Some C. krusei isolates were resistant the antifungal drugs. Mutations including T939C, T642C and A756T were found in ERG11 of C. krusei. ERG11 was highly expressed in resistant C. krusei strains.. Abstract Objective We aimed to provide with light for better understanding of ERG11 gene in drug-resistance mechanisms in Candida krusei (C. krusei). Methods C. krusei strains were isolated from patients in the Dermatology from Jan 2010 to May 2013. Susceptibility assays, including 5-fluorocytosine (5-FC), amphotericin B (AMB), voriconazole (VCR), fluconazole (FLC) and itraconazole (ITR), was performed by broth microdilution method according to the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards M27-A2. Isolates were divided into susceptible strains and resistant strains based on their susceptibility to ITR. Mutations in the ERG11 gene sequence were detected using PCR amplification and gene sequencing. Expression levels of ERG11 were measured by real-time PCR. Differences of ERG11 expression levels between susceptible strains and resistant strains were compared by two-tailed Student t test. Results A total of 15 C. krusei strains were obtained, among which 8.0, 6.0 and 3.0% were resistant to FCA, ITR and 5-FC, respectively, whereas all isolates were found to be susceptible to AMB and VRC. Three synonymous codon substitutions were found in ERG11among all the C. krusei strains, including T939C, T642C and A756T. Expression level of ERG11 was significantly higher in resistant C. krusei strains (1.34  ± 0.08) than that in susceptible C. krusei strains (0.94  ± 0.14) (t = 3.74, P Conclusions Our study demonstrates that point mutations accompanied with the overexpression of ERG11 might be involved in the molecular mechanisms of drug resistance in C. krusei. Keywords: ERG11; drug resistance; Candida krusei; mutation; overexpression. Introduction Candida species are pathogenic microorganisms for systemic and local opportunistic infections and the fourth leading cause of nosocomial bloodstream infections worldwide [1]. In recent years, an increasing number of infections due to Candida krusei has been witnessed [2]. C. krusei generally causes infections among immunocompromised patients, especially those suffering from Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-acquired immune deficiency syndrome and hematological malignancies [3]. Mortality rates among such patients with C. krusei fungemia are reported to be as high as 60-80% [4]. Moreover, the increasing use of immunosuppressive drugs has inevitably increased the risk of C. krusei infection, and C. krusei has ranked in fifth place among all the species of Candida [5, 6]. C. krusei has been regarded as a multidrug-resistant (MDR) fungal pathogen by the reason of its intrinsic resistance to fluconazole (FLC) as well as its considerable reduction in susceptibility to flucytosine and amphotericin B (AMB) [2]. Resistance to these antifungal drugs is a major problem among patients with acute myelogenous leukemia, neutropenia and/or critically ill, since these drugs are frequently used for prophylaxis of C. krusei infection [7]. Therefore, a better understanding of resistance mechanisms in C. krusei was urgently needed to effectively prevent and control infections caused by C. krusei. It has been reported that multiple mechanisms are involved in drug resistance in C. krusei , including overexpression of several genes such as multidrug transporters (encoded by CDR1, CDR2, and MDR1), which lead to decreased intracellular accumulation of FLC. Nowadays, an increasing evidence proposed that alterations and overexpression of the ERG11 gene, which codes the target enzyme cytochrome P450 lanosterol 14ÃŽ ±-demethylase, are major resistance mechanism in C. krusei [8, 9]. However, the scarce information available regarding ERG11 gene mutation and gene expression in the drug-resistant strains makes C. krusei resistance to azoles poorly understood [10]. In the present study, we evaluated the susceptibility profiles of 15 C. krusei isolates, investigated the potential alterations in the ERG11 gene sequence of C. krusei strains, and further detected the differentially expressed levels of ERG11 between susceptible and resistant isolates of C. krusei. We aimed to provide with light for better understanding of molecular mechanisms in drug resistance of C. krusei. Methods 2.1 Fungal strains and media The strains used in this study were isolated from patients in the Dermatology of the Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University from Jan 2010 to May 2013. The standard strain, Candida krusei ATCC 6258, was purchased from fungi and fungal disease research center of Peking University and included in each test run for quality control. C. Krusei were maintained on agar YPD medium (2% peptone, 1% yeast extract, 2% dextrose) and stored in our Fungi Laboratory. RPMI 1640 medium with L-glutamate (Sigma, St. Louis, Mo.) was used as recommended for susceptibility assays and buffered to pH 7.0 with 0.165 M morpholinepropanesulfonic acid (MOPS). 2.2 Susceptibility assays The susceptibility assays of the isolates was performed in 96-well polystyrene microtiter plates by broth microdilution method described in the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards M27-A2 (NCCLS) [11]. The antifungal drugs including 5-fluorocytosine (5-FC), amphotericin B (AMB), voriconazole (VCR), fluconazole (FLC) and itraconazole (ITR), were obtained from their respective manufacturers and used for susceptibility assays. MIC was defined as the concentration of the drug that reduced the fungus growth by 80% compared to that grown in the absence of the drug. The interpretive criteria for susceptibility to the above drugs were published by the NCCLS and listed in Table 1. Samples were divided into susceptible strains and resistant strains based on their susceptibility to ITR. 2.3 PCR amplification and sequence alignment of ERG11 gene To amplify ERG11 gene, genomic DNA was firstly isolated from C. krusei cells using UNIQ-10 Column Genomic DNA Isolation Kit (Sangon Biotech, Shanghai, China) according to the manufacturer’s instruction and used as a template for amplification of the ERG11 genes. Specific primers of ERG11 (Table 2) were designed by Primer 3 [12], based on the available sequence information of C. Krusei ERG11 gene (GI:163311561) at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). The PCR amplification of ERG11 gene was conducted using 2  µl of genomic DNA, 2  µl specific forward and reverse primers (50  µmol/L) and Taq PCR Master Mix (TIANGEN, Beijing, China). The PCR condition was set as denaturation for 5 min at 94  °C, followed by 35 cycles: 94  °C for 30 s, 55  °C for 30 s and 72  °C for 30 s, and a final step of elongation (72  °C for 8 min). PCR products were then separated and sized on a 1.5% agarose gel by electrophoresis, and visualized under UV light after stai ning with ethidium bromide. Successfully amplified PCR products were sent for sequencing (Invitrogen, Shanghai, China). To verify the point mutations, sequencing results were aligned with the reference sequence of C. Krusei ERG11 gene (GI:163311561) using BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) program in NCBI. 2.4 Real-time PCR analysis For quantitative real-time PCR analysis, total RNA was extracted from C. krusei cultures with an Yeast RNAiso Kit (TaKaRa, Dalian, China) and reversely transcribed to cDNA with PrimeScript RT Master Mix (TaKaRa, Dalian, China) according to the instructions of the manufacturer. For the ERG11 target genes and GAPDH reference gene, a primer pair were designed with Primer 5.0 program (Table 2). Real-time PCR was processed with a 25- µl volume containing the following reagents: 12.5  µl of SYBR ® Premix Ex TaqTM II (TaKaRa, Dalian, China), 2  µl of total RNA sample, 1 µl of each primer pair at a concentration of 10  µM and distilled water up to the final volume. Samples were subjected to an initial step at 95  °C for 5 min, followed by 40 cycles each of which consisted of 10 s at 95  °C and 30 s at 60  °C. Melting curves were recorded every 5 s during the 65-95  °C by PCR amplifier. Fluorescence data (Ct) in each reaction were collected and were analyzed with the Rotor -Gene Q Series Software 2.0.2 software. A 2à ¢- ³Ãƒ ¢- ³Ct algorithm was applied to analyze relative expression levels of ERG11 at susceptible strains and resistant strains. 2.5 Statistical analysis Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 17.0 software (SPSS incà ¯Ã‚ ¼Ã…’Chicagoà ¯Ã‚ ¼Ã…’US). All data were presented as mean  ± standard deviation (SD). The two-tailed Student t test was conducted to compare the differences of ERG11 expression levels between susceptible strains and resistant strains. A p-value Results Antifungal susceptibilities of C. krusei isolates A total of 15 C. krusei strains were isolated from clinical samples during Jan 2010 to May 2013 in our laboratory, among which 14 isolates were from urine and 1 from hydrothorax (Table 3). Table 4 shows the rates of azole resistance for these C. krusei isolates. Among 15 C. krusei isolates, 8.0, 6.0 and 3.0% were resistant to FCA, ITR and 5-FC, respectively, whereas all isolates were found to be susceptible to AMB and VRC. Ultimately, by using an MIC ≠¥ 1  µg/ml to define resistance to the investigational ITR, the 15 isolates included 6 that were resistant and 9 that were susceptible. Mutational analysis in ERG11of C. krusei isolates DNA fragment with consistent length was successfully amplified from C. krusei isolates (Figure 1). Sequence alignment showed three synonymous codon substitutions in ERG11among all the C. krusei strains, including T939C, T642C and A756T (Figure 2). Among the three synonymous mutations, T642C and A756T only presented in ITR-resistant strains, while T939C in susceptible as well as resistant C. krusei strains. Nevertheless, no point mutation was observed in the standard strain. Different expression levels of ERG11gene in susceptible and resistant C. krusei strains Real-time PCR was performed to verify the varied expression levels of ERG11 in ITR-susceptible and ITR-resistant C. krusei strains. Result showed that mRNA transcription level of ERG11 was significantly higher in resistant C. krusei strains (1.34  ± 0.08) than that in susceptible C. krusei strains (0.94  ± 0.14) (t = 3.74, P Discussion With the drug-resistance character, C. krusei has emerged as one of the leading agents causing candidemia, especially in immunocompromised patients [13]. Previous studies have shown the crucial role of ERG11 gene in FLC-resistant clinical isolates of Candida species, while the molecular mechanism specially in C. krusei remains unclear. Herein, we evaluated the susceptibility profiles of 15 C. krusei isolates, subsequently searched for mutations in the ERG11 gene sequence of C. krusei using PCR amplification and gene sequencing, and further detected the differentially expressed levels of ERG11 between susceptible and resistant isolates by real-time PCR. We found three synonymous codon substitutions in ERG11 of C. krusei which have not yet been described previously. Among the three point mutations, T642C and A756T only presented in ITR-resistant strains, while T939C were also presented in ITR-susceptible strains. Moreover, mRNA transcription level of ERG11 was significantly higher in I TR-resistant C. krusei strains than that in ITR-susceptible C. krusei strains. It is reported that point mutations in the ERG11 gene can lead to conformational changes which may affect the affinity of the drug with the target, but not influence the enzyme function in ergosterol biosynthesis [14]. Many studies have been focused on the ERG11 alterationz in Candida species . Ricardo et al. [9] found two different types of mutations by sequencing the C. krusei ERG11 gene, including a heterozygous alteration at 1,389 bp (T→C) presented in all of the susceptible and resistant C. krusei strains in their study, and a missense mutation in two strains at position 418 bp (T→C) which yields a Tyr→His amino acid change. Tavakoli et al. [15] displayed a heterozygous polymorphism at position 939 (T→C) in ERG11 coding region, and speculated that this polymorphism might play a key role in the transcriptional regulation of genes and be involved in the processes of ergosterol biosynthesis. Sionov et al. [16] have indentified a single missense mutation at amino acid 145 in the ERG11 of C. neoformans strain isolated from an FLC-treated patient, and verified that this mutation was sufficient to lead high FLC resistance. In the present study, we discovered three novel synonymous codon substitutions in ERG11 of C. krusei, among which T642C and A756T only presented in ITR-resistant strains. These alteration in ERG11might be involved in the resistance mechanism of C. krusei. Many studies have also been designed to explore the exact molecular mechanism behind the ERG11 up-regulation in response to azoles and other antifungal drugs [14, 17, 18]. A well-characterized matched pair of FLC-susceptible and FLC-resistant C. albicans isolates was analyzed and the resistant strains were found mainly associated with up-regulation of ERG11 gene [14]. Henry et al. [17] demonstrated that treating C. krusei with the triazole FLC at a concentration of 2 to 9 mg/ml could resulted in four- to five-fold increase in ERG11 RNA levels. Accompanied with previous reports, they hypothesized that the the upregulation of ERG11 gene contributed at least partly to the ability of C. krusei to tolerate azole [19-21]. The overexpression of ERG11was also directly shown to confer FLC resistance in S. cerevisiae [18]. In accordance with previous studies, our results reflected that mRNA transcription level of ERG11 was found to be significantly higher in ITR-resistant C. krusei strains com pared with that in ITR-susceptible C. krusei strains. The increased production of 14a-demethylase was reported to exceed the inhibitory capacity of the antifungal drugs. Therefore, we speculated that ERG11 gene overexpression might be relevant in the drug resistance in C. krusei. In conclusion, there synonymous codon substitutions were observed in ERG11 of C. krusei. These point mutations accompanied with the overexpression of ERG11 might be involved in the molecular mechanisms of drug resistance in C. krusei.