Delta Essay Example

Delta Essay Delta Airlines traces its roots back to 1924, when Huff Daland Dusters founded the worldsfirst aerial crop dusting organization.In 1928 the company became Delta Air Service and on June 17, 1929, Delta began its airline service with thefirst passenger flights over a route stretching from Dallas, Texas to Jackson, Mississippi.Today Delta Air Lines transports more passengers worldwide than any other airline, through a vast worldwide route system.Some of its worldwide partners include Air Jamaica, British European, China Southern, Malaysia Airlines, and South African Airways.Since the founding of Delta Air Lines, they have stood for safe and reliable air transportation, distinctive customer service and hospitality from the heart.Deltas vision is to build on its traditions and to always meet their customers expectations while taking service to even higher levels of excellence.In 2001, 104 million passengers chose to fly Delta, more than any other airline in the world.Delta is dedicated to being the best airline in the eyes of their customers. They are determined to provide value and distinctive products to their customers, a superior return for investors and challenging and rewarding work for Delta people in an environment that respects and values their contributions. The events and challenges that Delta had to face in 2001 was unlike any they had to encounter in 2000 or for that matter unlike any in the history of aviation.Prior to September 11th, the slowing economy reduced the demand for air travel among both business and leisure passengers.The events of September 11 had an astronomical impact in the airline industry.Our nations aviation system was called to a halt and the skies became silent and empty.Passengers, crew members, and aircraft were grounded in unplanned destinations.Every airport in the nation was shut down within hours of the event.During the period when airports wer

Lillian Hellmans Little Foxes essays

Lillian Hellmans Little Foxes essays Anton Chekhov is a Russian writer. He was born in 1860 in Taganro, Russia. His childhood was spent in the slums of a poor neighborhood. He and his brothers worked long hours in the shop owned by his father. Later, he develops pleurisy in his lungs which develops into tuberculosis. One year later, his father went bankrupt. His father had always dreamed of a better life, and had recently moved into a better house on a better street. To escape from being thrown in prison for not paying his debts, his father took part of his family and fled to Moscow. Anton stayed behind in Taganro. While in Moscow, his fathers family sunk even deeper into debt. They were living in a basement in the slum area of town. In 1879, Anton graduated from the university and went to Moscow to study medicine. During this time, he wrote short stories, and drew comical sketches to help support his family. While he was in Moscow, he and his best friend would save their money to go to the local theater. Later, they made their way back stage, and were asked to perform in some plays. This was the beginning of Antons theatrical performances. Even though he began his medical studies in Moscow, his great love was writing short stories and plays. Subsequently, he became famous in the literature field, but in 1889 his health was deteriorating. By being a doctor, he knew that he had tuberculosis of the lungs and the intestines. Later, in 1901, while writing The Three Sisters, he returned to Moscow to be married to Olga, an actress who had leading roles in several of his plays at the Museum Art Theater. During their marriage, they wrote numerous letters back and forth. Chekhov was now in constant pain and would tire easily while writing. He decided to travel with Olga to Berlin to see a specialist, but the treatment only provided temporary relief. He died on July 9, 1904. ...

MLA ARGUMENT RESEARCH PAPER ON CIVIL WAR IN LIBERA Dissertation

MLA ARGUMENT RESEARCH PAPER ON CIVIL WAR IN LIBERA - Dissertation Example Thus, their attack by the America Liberians is totally uncalled for. Adebajo has this to write about the America-Liberians, â€Å"This coastal settler elite established a corrupt, nepotistic system that excluded and oppressed the sixteen main â€Å"up-country† indigenous ethnic groups: the Bassa, Belle, Dei, Gbandi, Gio, Gola, Grebo, Kissi, Kpelle, Krahn, Kru, Loma, Mandingo, Mano, Mende, and Vai† (21). The America-Liberians â€Å"waged several wars against the indigenous peoples of Liberia whom they overran and subjugated as menials.† (Bassey & Oshita 111). The America Liberians are actually the force behind the series of unrest in Liberia as the injustice in the land forced Liberians to react. This is not as if the Liberians were right for staging a civil war in the first place, but the fact remains that the America Liberians should not have targeted innocent people. â€Å"Even though Liberia was established because of the ‘love of liberty’, the h istory of this country has been characterized by different and ugly experiences: political repression, lack of rule of law, social exclusion and deprivation, economic mismanagement, and poor governance.

Explain The Term Structure Of Interest Rates Essay

Explain The Term Structure Of Interest Rates - Essay Example Interest date data for bonds with different maturities date is published frequently and investors can use it to determine the term structure of interest rates. Some of the most popular interest rate data sources are the Wall Street Journal, Federal Reserve Bulletin and websites like Bloomberg and CNN. The term structure can be verified at any point in time by using published data from renowned sources. Yield curves are drawn using this published data on interest rates. There are short term and long term interest rates. Since long term interest rates have an element of maturity risk premium (MRP), they are usually higher than short term rates. When researching on the term structure of interest rates, it is important to have knowledge of commonly used terms like the Yield to Maturity (YTM), which is defined as the expected rate of return on a bond held till maturity (Brigham and Ehrhardt, 2010). Another concept which is discussed with YTM is that of the zero coupon bonds (or discount b onds). A zero coupon bond is a financial asset which at the date of maturity T, pays its holder a lump sum amount, with no coupon payments before the date of maturity (hence the name zero-coupon). The YTM at time t of a discount bond with maturity T is the constant and continuously compounded rate of rate of return at which the price of the bond accrues from time t to time T and pays one currency unit to the holder at time T. The YTM is also referred to as the spot rate and the notation R (t, T) is used for it. Spot rates are short term interest rates and the term structure of interest rates depicts the relationship between spot rates and their dates of maturity (Gibson, Lhabitant and Talay, 2010). Interest rates are not only used in discounting and pricing for zero-coupon bonds but also other financial derivatives because their prices are sensitive to interest rates. If we go beyond the scope of an individual investor, we can see that interest rates are also important to corporatio ns. This is because when corporations are doing project appraisals, they use interest rate for computing the net present value and the discounted payback period for a project. The cost of capital which is of prime importance to corporations also depends upon interest rates (Benninga and Wiener, 1998). It will be useful to specify the type of interest rate before discussing investment decisions and discounting. There are two main types of interest rates: simple interest rate and compound interest rate. Simple rate of interest is interest on a lump sum principal amount and it does not itself earn interest. Quite contrary to this, is the compound rate of interest which itself earns interest. Investment decisions and discounting are all predominantly based on compound interest rates (Kelly and Tracy, 2010) Long term interest rates are an average of short term interest rates. The relationship between short and long term interest rates involves expectations. For example, if it is expected that short term interest rates will fall then the long term interest rates will fall below the current short term rate. The contrary situation is also valid: if it is expected that short term interest rates will increase then the long term interest rates will rise above the current short term rate. These two situations are possible only because long term rates are derived from short term rates. It is a general perception that long rates are greater than short rates and this is termed as the ‘

DAG in Nephron Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

DAG in Nephron - Research Paper Example pathway that can be activated by many of the metabolic and hemodynamic factors involved in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy† (Schrijvers, Vriese & Flyvbjerg, 971).   1) Bertorello, Alejandro M., â€Å"Diacylglycerol activation of protein kinase C results in a dual effect on Na + ,K -ATPase activity from intact renal proximal tubule cells†, Journal of Cell Science, (1992) 101, 343-347, September 4, 2010 from: http://jcs.biologists.org/content/101/2/343.full.pdf 2) Cerbon, Jorge & Rosa del Carmen Lopez-Sanchez, â€Å"Diacylglycerol generated during sphingomyelin synthesis is involved in protein kinase C activation and cell proliferation in Madin–Darby canine kidney cells†, Biochemistry Journal, (2003) 373, 917-924, September 4, 2012 from: http://www.biochemj.org/bj/373/0917/3730917.pdf 4) Jung, Kwang-Mook et al, â€Å"Diacylglycerol Lipase-ÃŽ ± and -ÃŽ ² Control Neurite Outgrowth in Neuro-2a Cells through Distinct Molecular Mechanisms†, Molecular Pharmacology, (2011) 80.1, 60-67, September 4, 2010 from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3127538/ 5) Nogaroli, Luciana et al, â€Å"Diacylglycerol kinase activity in puriï ¬ ed basolateral membranes of kidney tubules I. Evidence for coupling with phospholipase C†, The International Journal of Biochemistry & Cell Biology, (2005) 37, 79-90, September 4, 2010 from: http://artigocientifico.uol.com.br/uploads/artc_1152842008_32.pdf 6) Schrijvers, Bieke F., Vriese, An S. De & Allan Flyvbjerg, From Hyperglycemia to Diabetic Kidney Disease: The Role of Metabolic, Hemodynamic, Intracellular Factors and Growth Factors/Cytokines, The Endocrine Society, (2004) 25.6, 971, September 4, 2012 from:

The History Of The Ginger Smart Basics Tourism Essay

The History Of The Ginger Smart Basics Tourism Essay Roots Corporation Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Indian Hotels Company Limited. IHCL is a part of the Tata Group of companies, which is Indias premier business house. On December 24, 2003, RCL operated the first of its kind category of Smart Basic hotels across India. RCL develops and operates a fast expanding chain of economy hotels across India under the GINGER brand. The Smart Basic concept created a revolution in the Indian Hospitality Industry. These hotels are termed as GenNext category of hotels. GenNext means generation next, i.e., these hotels are completely new concept, which has changed the outlook of hospitality industry in India. They signify simplicity, convenience, informality, style, warmth, modernity and affordability. The concept of Ginger hotels was developed in association of renowned corporate strategy thinker Dr. C.K. Prahalad and the hotels have been inherently designed and established by IHCL. The first of the Smart basics hotels was launched in Bangalore and was called as IndiOne. First, they completed the test marketing and subsequent fine-tuning of hotel facilities and services of IndiOne then rolled out the concept across India. Now the category of hotels has been launched with a new name Ginger Hotels which is in accord with the fresh, simple and stylish world of Smart basics. The ginger Hotels are built in such a way that they meet the key needs of todays travellers at affordable rates. It follows the concept of Smart Basics which is a philosophy of providing intelligent, thought out facilities and services at a value pricing and reflects the new spirit in which people live and work today. Ginger Hotels target middle-income group people with increasing disposable income. This class likes to spend on travel but not on luxury accommodation, they look for accommodation, which can provide value for their money. All they want is a clean, secure and hygienic accommodation at affordable prices. Ginger Hotels follow generic strategy of growth in which they focus on the cities which has already experienced significant growth. Such cities generally show growth in certain business activities like population growth rates, tourism and convention activities, air traffic volume, local commercial real estate occupancy and retail sales volume. These cities tend to have strong demand for hotel facilities and services. They invest in hotels that are situated near both business and leisure centres which tends to create great demand for hotel services and enables them to attract both weekday business guests and weekend leisure travellers. They have a separate team consisting of members from finance, marketing, development and hotel management departments who assess the financial return of every new investment that the group decides to make and the team clears only those projects that they find are financially viable and which would provide them profitable returns. They target markets that do not have wide seasonal fluctuation in occupancy and focus on small entrepreneurs, traders etc. Ginger has the first mover advantage. Looking at the increasing cost trends in real estate market in the last few years. Ginger Group of hotels lease out the area, building, or takeover some non-branded hotel, in this way they save significant amount of cost and time and moves into the market early which helps them in capturing significant market share ahead of its competitors. The company has identified over 80 cities and intends to focus more cities in the future. In order to increase their customer base, the company intends to continue growing organically in the existing cities in which they operate by selectively establishing more ginger hotels. The Indian Hospitality Industry is highly competitive and fragmented. Ginger hotels compete with three star full service hotels from unorganised sector. Earlier ginger hotels were the only branded three star hotels from the organised sector but the competition for ginger hotels have grown significantly after the announcement by newer inte rnational and local hotel companies to set-up hotels across the country in the value segment. Some of the potential competitors of ginger hotels are Lemon Tree Hotels, Ibis (Accor), Keys (Bergruen Hotels), Hilton, Garden Inn Hotels (DLF) etc. Initially Ginger Hotels leased land in order to build hotels but now they are doing things differently from building a hotel on the top of a shopping mall and redeveloping an existing property. Ginger Hotels provide similar services that a normal hotel provides like rooms with T.V>, fridge, tea/coffee makers, laundry, restaurants, Wi-Fi connections, meeting rooms, business centres, Gyms, Car rental services, Doctor on call, Currency exchangers etc. The manner in which these services are provided differentiates it from other normal hotels. The tag line of Ginger hotels is PLEASE HELP YOURSELF which means most of the services offered have to be carried out by the customer himself. There are no room services or bellhops this strategy adopted by ginger, benefits customers and the hotel, customers, can save upon the tips, which otherwise they would have to pay for room services and hotel can save upon the cost of human resource. Most of the services have to be carried out by the guest himself like while checking into the hotel a guest does not need the assistance of the reception counter as ginger hotels have Self Check-In Kiosk. In addition, there is Give n Take Counter that th e guest can use to deliver used clothes for laundry. There is an ironing room in every floor of ginger hotels. Further are water dispensers on each floor. Ginger hotels also have round the clock vending machine to provide with packed snacks and hot/cold beverages irrespective of the working of the restaurant. In addition, a vending machine to supply other things like toiletries, combs, toothpastes, soaps, mosquito repellents etc. ginger has outsourced food and beverage partners operating on a revenue share model. They have introduced facilities like SMART wellness, which is Ayurvedic wellness facility for business travellers at a low cost. In addition, SMART sleep that includes posture-pedic mattress for absorbing and redistributing pressure from the body weight. In future Ginger Hotels intends to develop its own merchandise range that will be offered in hotel and on the website. The size of the room in the hotel is kept small around 180 sq. Feet as compared to 250-400 sq. Feet of p remium hotels. The concept of Help Yourself has helped the company in operating the hotel with just 25 staff members as compared to premium hotels where they employ around 250 people. The room charges range from Rs. 999 to Rs. 3000, which is quite affordable. All this practice has helped them to cut their marketing costs significantly. Early Mover status and establishes regional operational and synergy has enabled ginger to develop and operate its hotels efficiently and successfully. Ginger Hotels offer standardised products and maintain uniformity of hotel chain. They have come up with unique product features consisting of design, appearance, decoration, colour that attracts the customers attention. The company has developed a record of accomplishment of expanding the business operations through organic growth and maintain high quality, also achieve their financial target. Since there is a shortage of Human resource in ginger hotels, they have adopted a flexible and robust IT system in collaboration with Tata Consultancy Services, which is a company- wide seamlessly, integrated IT system developed by SAP. Ginger hotels has a unique value proposition that appeals the middle class budget people and makes it a flourishing business. If we look at the Indian Hotel Industry, there are certain strengths or favourable factors that contribute to the prosperity of the company in the industry. Ginger hotels are associated with low cost airlines and low cost mode of transportation thus providing a low price better quality accommodation. Apart from this Ginger hotels are located near railway stations and bus stops and are situated in places, which can be beneficial for both business people and tourists. They are mostly located in the city with less seasonal fluctuations in accommodation. Most of the employees are outsourced thus ginger maintains a low amount of staff as the hotel does not offer any room service thus it helps in providing cost benefit. Ginger hotels also provide all basic amenities like gym, ATM, Wi-Fi etc. that helps the hotel in maintaining its standard and quality. This brand is very fresh and simple. It gives a new feeling as expected by the new emerging middle-income group in the country. Ginger relies on regional advertising rather than spending on national campaigns thereby cutting significant amount of cost and successfully building a brand. They have also been able to gain a lot of reputation by being a part of Tata Group, which is a pioneer in the Indian market. Another aspect of their brand strength comes from their holistic value. They have also taken a great consideration for disabled people by designing the last room in the hotel especially for them. They are budget hotels and operate on low cost. They have the ability of spreading themselves quickly across the county in just span of 8 years they have opened up around 40 hotels across the country. The brand Ginger has become very successful hotel chain in India by achieving the occupancy rate of 80%. As Ginger Hotels enjoy certain advantages and strengths they have to face various threats and weaknesses. Ginger hotels is unable to attract higher-middle class and upper class who look for more luxury and services and ginger being a budget hotel does not provide much services. Since ginger is economy chain of hotels, they have a high employee turnover due to limited scope and remuneration provided by the group. This makes ginger incur huge costs by training new employees repeatedly. Ginger comes under the category of three star hotels and it has to face a tuff competition from the local hotels of unorganised sector that are even cheaper and provide services. Apart from these local hotels there are many new brands which have announced their desire to enter the budget hotel segment thus providing more competition to ginger hotels. There are always two faces of a coin, same is the case with ginger hotels, if there are strengths, weaknesses also prevail. Ginger is characterised by a high turnover of frontline staff, rapid, growth and dispersed location. Gingers ability to attract good talent and retain employees is critical for their growth strategy and that people are critical to maintaining the quality and consistency of its services and thereby their brand and reputation. Ginger has outsourced most of its activities only 8 to 9 managers per hotel are on the rolls of ginger rest other facilities like kitchen, restaurant, and backend maintenance are outsourced. Ginger has 175 permanent employees. Ginger hotels have collaborated with various hotel management schools to develop talented students who can meet the rapidly growing demands of the company. The company uses a multi- step recruitment process for retaining and recruiting the best talent. Ginger has implemented extensive training programs and periodic tests for managerial and other hotel-based staff primarily through training partners. They provide various career advancement opportunities to their employees. Ginger hotel organises a two-month extensive training period for new unit managers during which they receive training in managing all core aspects of the hotel operations and they get familiar with the company culture and philosophy. Ginger group also conducts timely web based tests to assess the knowledge and skills of the workers. The company uses performance linked compensation structure, career oriented training to motivate its employees. Even after having such an extensive human resource strategy. Ginger hotels face various challenges as it mainly operates in smaller non-metro cities where the employees are less exposed to new technology, comfort and modern amenities, it becomes a difficult task for the company to gear up the employees upto the standard of ginger hotels. Designing a system to recruit right kind of people and provide right training to employees is a difficult question for ginger hotels as the development inputs are different for different locations. Additionally acquiring professionally qualified employees in remote areas and non-metro cities and retaining them is an area of concern. In order to retain the employees, ginger has come up with various measures so that employees can get additional value in terms of non-monetary rewards like developing employee competencies by providing certifications etc. but consistently ensuring this across all the locations is a big challenge. Ginger uses unconventiona l recruitment process as conventional recruitment becomes very expensive for the group. They have created a portal called [emailprotected] from where almost 48% of the companys recruitment takes place and rest of the recruitment takes places through referral programmes in which existing employees refer a new employee and if the referred person gets selected the referrer gets reward in this way the company satisfies both the existing and new employees. They have also merged with various management schools and employees go to colleges and collaborate with them by linking with their syllabi, they call students for get together and use students as summer interns so that they build relationship even before the recruitment starts. They try to keep their staff motivated by giving them a chance to learn new things and upgrade their skills. Since they are budget hotels so they choose e-learning initiatives to cut costs. They have in house training, induction and e-learning modules based on c ustomer feedback systems. The compliance with quality standards are monitored through both scheduled and unscheduled visits, periodic tests and reviews at each hotel. In addition, the practice of mystery audits and of tracking customer comments through guest comment cards, allows ginger to improve its services and facilities at each hotel. Gingers corporate marketing and advertising strategies are designed to enhance consumer awareness and preference for the ginger brand as offering the value, convenience and comfort in the economy hotel segment in Indian Hospitality industry. Ginger has to reshape the customer expectations, as still Indian customers are uncomfortable with the concept of smart basics and self-service. Each day they have to entertain many customers who enter the hotel without knowing what to expect. Customers often complaint about services which are not provided by the ginger hotels. However, creating awareness for ginger brand is a difficult task to perform, as ginger is a budget hotel, as its business model does not allow huge expenditure on media and promotion. Nevertheless, even after facing various challenges. Ginger has been able to respond effectively to the changing dynamics and economies of the Indian Hospitality Industry. With the continuing expansion across the country, customers are now seei ng a greater value in ginger hotels. Ginger CEO Prabhat Pani said, Ginger hotels, like any other Tata enterprise, would continue to be driven by respect for people and nature, and would like to epitomise environment-friendliness and social responsibility in all aspects of business.

Female Mutilation :: essays research papers

Female Genital Mutilation   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Almost every person around the globe has a different viewpoint of different subjects. One such example is that of female genital mutilation, or otherwise noted as female circumcision. Many groups of people find female genital mutilation to be sacred while another group believes it to be terribly horrendous. Each year millions of women worldwide undergo a procedure often referred to as female circumcision; there are many reasons why a woman would choose to have this be done as well as many more women who go through this malicious process against their will.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Female genital mutilation is called by a variety of different names. A couple of them include female circumcision and female cutting. Female circumcision is used in reference to female circumcision being the male circumcision’s counterpart. However, this is undoubtedly not the case. Female cutting is the most simplistic name given; it only regards the procedure as â€Å"cutting.† Female genital mutilation came along some years later with the intention of drawing attention to the horrid nature of the procedure (Source   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are several different types of female circumcision. Mainly the types vary by severity of degree to which they are performed. Type I includes the â€Å"removal of the clitoral hood with or without removal of part or all of the clitoris† (Source Type 1 Excision (removal) of the clitoral hood with or without removal of part or all of the clitoris. Type 2 Removal of the clitoris together with part or all of the labia minora. Type 3 (infibulation) Removal of part or all of the external genitalia (clitoris, labia minora, and labia majora) and stitching and/or narrowing of the vaginal opening leaving a small hole for urine and menstrual flow. Type 4 (unclassified) All other operations on the female genitalia, including: Pricking, piercing, stretching, or incision of the clitoris and/or labia; Cauterization by burning the clitoris and surrounding tissues; Incisions to the vaginal wall;