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External Threats That Face Coca Cola Commerce Essay

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The report provides a detailed analysis of the external environmental threats of coca cola as well as how it monitors its environment to deter all the possible threats that may exist /arise there from, to enable it maintain a competitive position over its key competitors in the persistent shrinking business world with its attendant intense and unbridled competition. This report, in a bid to review of the current monitoring system of coca-cola, will take a problem/solution approach. This approach will help find out threatening environmental factors that affect decision making, and strategy formulation and the actualisation of the strategic intent of the coca-cola, such as economic regulations, tax changes, new laws, trade barriers, demographic change, and government policy changes among others. Books, articles, journals and periodicals were reviewed, internet sources were also visited, to elicit information. The major threat identified were more of environmental, arising majorly from its sludge which was alleged to contain a high level of toxic chemicals, including cadmium and lead, both of which can be harmful to human and plants. The case of coca-cola plant in Perumatti in the southern state of Kerala in India was used as a case study. Amidst these threats, key areas of opportunities for coca-cola were also identified. An epitome of this is its partnership with International Olympic Committee ( IOC) since 1928 and its recent renewal till 2020, covering a 12 -year pact from the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games through the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, the London 2012 Olympic Games, the Sochi 2014 Olympic. (http://www2.coca-cola.com/ ) Considering the level of uncertainty and changing circumstances in the international business arena, especially in the face of the looming economic down-turn, the report, proffered the following recommendations: The use of environmental impact assessment , both before building a plant and afterwards. development of daily/weekly/monthly reports which will keep it abreast of what’s new and significant in the market especially at the street level. the use of scenario planning which will constantly keep the company informed about what is happening in its marketplace as well as the gap between where they are, and where they intend to be. The use of bench marking, to be able to find out the gap between what they are doing and those of their competitors. development of essential competitor information which includes statements on strategy, new product development, marketing initiatives and key appointments and expansion plans and capacity variations. development of spot pattern/ trends that will be able to identify weak signal and thus keep ahead of its competitors. INTRODUCTION Not only is coca cola the world’s largest beverage company, but in 200 nations ( with consumers enjoying an average of 1.6 billion servings a day), sells about 500 sparkling brands, including 4 of the top sellers (coca- cola, diet coke, sprite and fanta), sparkling beverages, juices, and ready to drink teas among others. (http://www2.coca-cola.com/ ) Established: 1886 with its official headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia Company Associates: 92,400 worldwide (as of December 31, 2008) New York Stock Exchange Ticker Symbol: KO Supporting Communities – In 2007, The Coca-Cola Company and The Coca-Cola Foundation made charitable Contributions of $99 million to community initiatives worldwide. . (http://www2.coca-cola.com/ ) 2008 Financial Highlights: Our portfolio includes 13 billion dollar brands. Unit case volume grew 5% to 23.7 billion unit cases worldwide. Net operating revenues grew 11% to $31.9 billion. More than 70% of our net operating revenues and more than 75% of our unit case volume were generated outside of North America. (http://www2.coca-cola.com/ ) With reference to SWOT analysis, PESTLE analysis and Porter’s five competitive strategy, I am analysing the precarious regulations, tax laws, trade restrictions, tariff, demographic changes ,in the business environment of coca-cola and a review of the current monitoring system of the external environment as well as proffering a recommendation, with regards to what coke could do better, to maintain and its competitive rim over its competitors. THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT OF COCA-COLA USING SWOT ANALYSIS IT’S STRENGHTS “At the heart of strategic planning, is environmental scanning ; a process of studying the environment of the organization to pinpoint opportunities and threats”(Mathis, R.L, and Jackson,J.H:47). To analyse coca-cola’s environment, i am going to use SWOT and PESTLE analysis tools as well as the Michael porter’s five of competitive strategy. This is so because, it is the developments in the macro business environment , relating to political, social, technological, etc that automatically create opportunities or threats and in turn, impact on the strategic development of coca-cola which may either bring success or mar its strategic intent. For coca-cola, matchless opportunities abounds, which cannot be delinked from its strengths in innovation and product line expansion aggressive advertisement and promotions. According to Morrison, J.(2006:130-1) “coca- cola’s strength has been in the carbonated soft drinks market, served by its flagship brand, coke, and promoted by global advertising campaigns”. This has helped it build a strong brand recognition and brand loyalty, which is created by sets of positive associations that links the collector to the brand, thus building a relationship of trust, likability and loyalty(Jones, J.P 1999:263).Coca-cola has built around all its brand some “personality characteristics”(ibid:253) which is not only unique but timeless. Coca-cola’s brand name is well known throughout 90% of the world today. Also of strength is the ‘multi-local’ strategy which is in keeping with the company’s changing markets. Through this, local managers are enabled to devise their own marketing strategies and choose the products from the coke’s portfolio that are best suited to local tastes. Morrison, J.(2006:132) Its implication is that every community of consumers is recognized and carried along, and this goes a long way to make them more loyal to coca-cola amidst other producers of similar product. Another unequalled opportunity that coca -cola has is the long lasting historic bond with International Olympic Committee (IOC: (the organizers of the Games of each Olympiad, and approximately 200 National Olympic Committees around the world)) since 1928 and its recent renewal of this historic bond, through 2020 to cover the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games through the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, the London 2012 Olympic Games, the Sochi 2014 Olympic. (http://www2.coca-cola.com/ ) salt lake 2002 www.thecoca-colacompany.com The Coca-Cola Company is proud to be the longest continuous corporate partner of the Olympic Games WEAKNESSES: Amidst coca-cola’s reputation of innovation, and recent product line expansion, it is riddled with some weakness factors that pose some threats that can be detrimental to the organization if unchecked, such as; lack of continuity of workforce, negative publicity and communication among others. Negative publicity: Coke’s flagship product; coca-cola classics is known to contain high levels of sugar and caffeine, contributing. In the recent times, this is causing uproar on the increasing health conscious world. Communication gap: Due to the complex size of the organization, there exists a communication gap between the superiors at the top of the hierarchy and their subordinates at the bottom of the ladder. In effect, conveying ideas about fixing problems that may occur on the “street level” may be delayed. Continuity of workforce: According to a 5 year employee of Kyle Hughes, Coke has a frustrating high turnover rate of retraining, averaging about 1, 600 sessions per annum. A PESTLE analysis will be done for a more understanding of the external environment of coca-cola. This will specifically look at how other external factors such as political, economic, social, technological, legal as well as environmental affect coca- cola. EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT OF COCA-COLA, USING PESTLE ANALYIS The analysis of coca-cola, using the PESTLE cannot be duly separated because these factors are inter-locked, and as such, a development in the environment, could affect the economic situation and as such call for political decisions to be taken, and vice versa. The political aspect of PESTLE looks at what is happening politically in the environment, the constraints the government has imposed or is likely to impose in future, Morrison, J.(2006:30) This may also include tax laws, trade restrictions, government reforms and tariff. According to a report on Guardian of August 7, 2006, government policy affected coke in Guyarat, Madhya, Pradesh and Rajas in India as the selling of coke was banned in government offices and educational institutions which was estimated to deprive coke of a potential market of 30 million house hold. The above assertion cannot be delinked from the environmental factors in which, it was perceived that the presence of coca-cola’s plant in perumatti in the southern Indian state of Kerala had brought untold hardship to the host community as it was estimated that coca-cola uses an average of 1 million liters of water for its production on daily basis, thereby bringing about drinking water scarcity in the area. This according to the Guardian report, the waste sludge from the cleaning of its bottles was also seem by local farmers as detrimental to their farm lands as it was perceived to contain high levels of lead and cadmium. And lead according to Paul Brown; an environmental correspondent, in Guardian of 25th July,(2003), “is particularly bad for children, affecting their nervous system and cadmium if taken up by plants, is toxic to the kidneys and liver and can cause cancer”. In the light of this therefore, the government resolved in public interest, not to renew its license which we can see has a political undertone. The economic aspect looks at what is happening within the economy, example, economic growth/decline, interest rates and inflation rates, etc.albeit, there has been an economic recession, coca-cola has been making constant profit as can been in the recent fourth quarter report that was published in some periodicals. Profit- $6.82bn (£4.36bn) for 2009- a rise of 17% on the previous year Sales increase: 4% on coca-cola, 10% coke’s zero brand 55% profit and 5% global sales. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8506495.stm) and Net operating revenue-:5%,$7.51 billion topping analyst forecast of 7.22 billion. (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/business/10coke.html) PORTER’S FIVE COMPETITIVE FORCES Another strategy used by coca-cola to monitor its environment is the use of Michael Porte’s five theories. Michael Porter (1980) considers the external factors, that can impact upon an organizations competitive positioning, and thus identifies five competitive forces that govern the rule of competition and how the rules prevail in any organisation , both at home and at the global market.A comprehensive understanding the nature of each of these forces gives organisations the necessary insights to facilitate them to create the suitable strategies to be successful in their market. Porter further suggested that the relative strengths of these forces also determines the intensity of competition.These five forces are: Threat of new entrants; threat of substitutes/ replacement products; bargaining power of buyers; bargaining power of suppliers, and rivalries between firms of the same sector. THREAT OF NEW ENTRANTS Considering the brand loyalty, economies of scale, access to channels of distribution, etc, which coca-cola has acquired over the years, there is little or no threat for its products from new entrants into the non-alcoholic beverage sector. In the light of this, Coca-cola is place in a good competitive position. THREAT OF SUBSTITUTES/ REPLACEMENT PRODUCTS: Bargaining Power of Suppliers This is very low for coca-cola considering the fact that there are variety of sources from which it can source inputs from. In other words, the supplier chain for its raw materials is reliable, fast, and prices are negotiable. THREAT FROM COMPETITION Coca-cola is a matured and dominant player in the worldwide soft drink industry , with a strong brand loyalty. Albeit, there exist the ‘cola wars’, between coke and Pepsi, both of them basically share the entire soft drink market, making use of harsh marketing, advertising and promotion tactics and this often lead to hampering profits between the two soft drink war-lords. HOW DOES COCA-COLA MONITOR ITS EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT? An understanding that coca-cola does not operate in a vacuum has made it to continually scan its environment in order to find out or foresee likely environmental threats and thus develop appropriate responses to them. This has helped it to take advantage of its opportunities, and minimize threats and again, determines how it will achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. Certain models and frameworks that can be used for this purpose includes: Scenario planning, customer surveys/ opinion polls, bench marking, among others. Customer Surveys /Opinion polls: This is a strategy coke uses to find out the opinion consumer have about is products or other changes especially as it concerns its activities and those of its competitors. Over the years, coca-cola and Pepsi have been locked in fierce battles, sometimes described as “the cola wars” Shimp, T.A (2007:43). One sensational battle began in 1975 when the traditional coke was tested against Pepsi.( ibid) The result gotten informed a change in the coke’s formula for more sweetness, the result was that the folks who liked old Coke went crazy–so crazy that the Coca Cola Company decided to bring it back as Coke Classic. (http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-3961611.html) Scenario Planning: “Scenarios are realistic descriptions of the organisations possible futures that allow the scenario team to set aside its individual and organisational assumptions about how the external environment will operate and explore new ones ” (Ralston, B.2006:141) Coca-cola is constantly aware of the link between its strategy and the changing future, thus, itself for the ‘if…then’ probable future. This is exemplified it its mission statement, thus: “the world is changing all around us. To continue to thrive as a business over the next ten years and beyond, we must look ahead, understand the trends and forces that will shape our business in the future and move swiftly to prepare for what’s to come. We must get ready for tomorrow today. That’s what our 2020 Vision is all about. It creates a long-term destination for our business and provides us with a “Roadmap” for winning together with our bottler partners” (http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/ourcompany/mission_vision_values.html) Benchmarking is the comparison of performance in one organisation or part of an organization against that in another, with a view to finding ways of improving performance. (Needle, D.2004:433) This avails the company the opportunity to take corrective measures actions. Recommendation It is recommended that coca- cola should take immediate action to launch and promote environmental impact assessment of locations before citing their plants for operations.coca-cola should also The International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) defines an environmental impact assessment as “the process of identifying, predicting, evaluating and mitigating the biophysical, social, and other relevant effects of development proposals prior to major decisions being taken and commitments made.”[1]
Nowadays, our world consists of so many different societies, with their own preferences, interests, customs, and traditions. Culture of every society is unique indeed; it is a set of own values and goals, which characterize the society as a whole and separate institution. The representative of each society lives with his/her own ethnocentric attitude, the belief that his/her culture is much more superior than any other. In order not to become self-absorbed, it is necessary to train the sense of cultural relativism in the society and make certain differentiations between the idea of cultural relativism and ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism is a tendency, when a person uses the cultural norms of his/her own society in order to judge some other culture and its representatives. In addition, ethnocentrism underlines the superciliousness of one culture among the others. Cultural relativism is another tendency, according to which personal beliefs and preferences are relative to another culture. Cultural relativism shows that there are not right and wrong standards with the help of which cultures may be compared. Taking into account such simple and comprehensible definitions, it is possible to say that the ideas of cultural relativism are rather opposite to the ideas of ethnocentrism (Ned-Seelye and Seelye-James, 1995, p 70). Without any doubts, ethnocentrism affects considerably the international affairs. Lots of people truly believe that America is one of the countries with too high idea of ethnocentrism. Of course, American ethnocentrism is known to many countries: some countries admire America’s power and abilities, however, some other countries cannot still understand what makes this country so powerful and dislike it a bit. “The image of the ugly American prevalent in the 1960s has become increasingly rare. Although an occasional traveler still behaves as if the world owes him or her tribute as an American.” (Stewart
1.1 Introduction The U.S. Bureau of Census in 2000 (2001) defines a family as two or more persons related by birth, marriage or adoption who reside in the same household. This is a legal definition, relying solely on relationships determined by blood or contract. Families are important to provide safe, nurturing environments in which children can learn to function in society. While families in the past worked hard to ensure their children’s health and physical survival, today’s parents include in their concerns the children’s emotional health as well. David Olson (1983) discusses the findings of numerous research studies on the characteristics of functional families. Members of good families show unity and loyalty, are cooperative and deal problems in positive ways. They also provide love and understanding to their members. Healthy families are flexible and are able to compromise and communicate well. The parents become role models in the family to demonstrate good values. Student achievement is measured using grades. Grades are standardized measurements of varying levels of comprehension within a subject area. Grades can be assigned in letters (for example, A, B, C, D, E or F), as a range (for example 1.0-4.0), as descriptors (excellent, great, satisfactory, needs improvement), in percentages, or, as is common in some post-secondary institutions in some countries, as a Grade Point Average (Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia). The home process variables that have been found to be the best predictors of school learning were classified by Kellaghan et.al. (1993) as follows: Work habits of the family: The degree of routine in the management of the home, the emphasis on regularity in the use of space and time, and the priority given to schoolwork over other pleasure activities. Academic guidance and support: The availability and quality of the help and encouragement that parents give their children in their schoolwork and the conditions they provide to support schoolwork. Stimulation to explore and discuss ideas and events: Opportunities provided by the home to explore ideas, events and larger environment. Language environment: Opportunities in the home for the development of the correct and efficient use of language. Academic aspirations and expectations: Parents’ aspirations for their children, the standards they set for children’s school achievement and their interest in and knowledge of children’s school experiences. Children bring their family experiences with them to school, so teachers need to have a better understanding of their students’ families and how they function. Teachers’ putting more effort in understanding their students’ problems will lead to a good academic achievement of students. Henderson’s research (1987) provides the rationale of this need. First, because educator’s efforts at school correspond with those of the parents in the students’ home, educators need to know about their students’ families to be maximally effective. Second, by understanding those responsible for children at home, educators can work with parents to help children to be safe and move comfortably into society. Thirdly, this understanding will help to produce better teachers. Many researches began to look at home process variables, such as behaviors and conditions in the house, irrespective of social status, that are related to academic achievement. They include such factors as parents’ expectations for the child’s success in school, availability in the home of books and other reading material and the amount of attention the family gives to the child’s schoolwork (Chall et.al., 1990). 1.2 Problem Statement It is known that language problem limits children’s learning on key subjects areas. As the language of assessments and instruction is different from the language that is spoken at home, children hardly improve their new language skills. The language barriers persist over Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (Cina) Yuk Tse for years. This problem is inherent as the students come from a community in which the majority of them are Thais and Malays and the language spoken at home is their mother tongues. Even the Chinese in this community mostly speak in these languages. Parental involvement is considered an important influence on academic progress. Parental involvement has been positively linked to indicators of student achievement, including teacher ratings of student competence, student grades and achievement test scores (Deslandes et.al., 1999). Parent involvement has also been associated with other indicators of school success, including lower rates of retention in grades, lower dropout rates, higher on-time high school graduation rates, and higher rates of participation in advanced courses (Barnard, 2004). Families with many children will have limited time to supervise each and every child’s homework. In cases where both parents work, the responsibility is passed on to the grandparents. A local study on early primary school children showed a weak but significant association between poor nutritional intake and academic achievement (Zalilah MS et.al., 2000). These children were from low socioeconomic areas and of a single ethnic origin. As single parents need to work hard to earn more money, their children are left at home by themselves or with their grandparents. As a result, some students come to school with dirty uniform and without breakfast, while some have disciplinary problems at school. Students’ academic achievement in Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (Cina) Yuk Tse has long been a concern of the local community because of their poor academic performance. School achievement in the nation is classified into two categories: “Sekolah Berprestasi Tinggi (SPT)” and “Sekolah Berprestasi Rendah (SPR)”. Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (Cina) Yuk Tse is classified as “Sekolah Berprestasi Rendah (SPR)” because the percentages of passing in all subjects of “Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR)” do not achieve 50% continuously in the last 7 years from 2003-2009, so there is a need to study the factors such as family structure, family’s socioeconomic status, parental expectation, home environment and home language that are affecting the students’ academic achievement. 1.3 Research Questions The main purpose of the study is to examine the effect of family background to students’ academic achievement. The research questions of this study are as follows: What are the demographic profiles of the students in this school? What is the academic achievement among students in Chinese Comprehension, Malay Comprehension and English? Is there any significance different between students’ academic achievement and family backgrounds such as family structure, family’s socioeconomic status, parent’s attitude and expectation, home environment and home language? Objectives of the study The objectives of this study are specifically: To determine the demographic profiles of students in terms of age, gender and ethnic group, number of siblings, marital status, parents’ income, parents’ highest level of education and parents’ monthly income. To determine students’ achievement in Chinese Comprehension, Malay Comprehension and English. To determine the relationship between students’ academic achievement and family backgrounds such as family structure, family’s socioeconomic status, parent’s attitude and expectation, home environment and home language. To validate previous research. Scope of research This study is conducted at Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (Cina) Yuk Tse in Tumpat, Kelantan. The respondents in this study are chosen from all the students from year 1 till year 6 and the study is based on the Mid Term Examination’s results for Chinese Comprehension, Malay Comprehension and English in year 2010. These three subjects are chosen because their average scores for the last ten years (2000-2009) are below 70%. The average scores of each other subjects such as Chinese Essay, Malay Essay, Mathematics and Science is above 70%. In addition, this study only focuses on five family background variables which are family structure, family’s socioeconomic status, parent’s attitude and expectation, home environment and home language. Organization This chapter describes and gives an overview on the problem statement, research questions, objectives and scope of research in this study. The next chapter contains a review of the literature on relationship between family background and students’ academic achievement. Finally, Chapter 3 will describe the theory used and the ways in conducting this study. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction There are many works in the literature which deal with the effects of family background in students’ academic achievement. In the view of Ajila and Olutola (2007), the state of the home affects the individual since the parents are the first socializing agents in an individual’s life. This is because the family background and context of a child affect his reaction to life situations and his level of performance. Although, the school is responsible for the experiences that make up the individual’s life during school periods, yet parents and the individual’s experiences at home play tremendous roles in building the personality of the child and making the child what he is. Researchers have shown that students and family characteristics affect levels of parental involvement. Different factors of family background are capable of influencing the academic performance of the students. The factors are such as parental occupation status, parents’ educational attainment, family structure and home language. Coleman (1966) concluded in his report “schools don’t matter”, and stated that students’ achievement is more strongly associated to their families’ social class than a function of the schools they attend. 2.2 Family Structure Analyses of the relations between families and academic achievement also need to consider children’s family structures. The absence of one parent in the students’ life, because of divorce, separation, abandonment can affect student’s achievement levels (Dronkers, 2003). Nzewunwah (1995) said that there is a significant difference between students from single parent families and those from two-parent families in terms of attitude to examination malpractices, attitude to studies and academic performance. This finding could be explained by the fact that life in a single-parent family can be traumatic and children brought up in such family structure often suffer some emotional problems such as lack of warmth, love and disciplinary problems, which may hinder their academic performance. On the other hand, children raised in two-parent family structure are often stable emotionally and they suffer less emotional problems thereby making them less anxious in the pursuit of their academic work. Furthermore, siblings’ variables are related to the quality and quantity of parent-child interaction in families. Taubman and Behrman (1986) found that differences in children with many siblings and those with fewer siblings may be a result of the amount of monetary and temporal resources available to each child decreasing with each successive child. The greater the numbers of children in a family, the more those children have to share family resources. As a result, children have lower scores on those academic outcomes affected by the diluted family influences. 2.3 Family’s Socioeconomic Status Parents’ socioeconomic status is an international educational indicator. It is a very important factor in students’ adjustment to and performance in school. In the literature of education policy research and social science research in general indicators of socioeconomic status typically represent any or all of three constructs: education attainment, occupation status, and income or wealth (Buchmann, 2002; Powers, 1982). The income can be measured indirectly through home possessions items. Students from lower income, lower educated families are less likely to succeed academically in high school (Chubb and Moe, 1990; Honan, 1996; Noble et al., 1992; Noble, et al., 1999; Noble and McNabb, 1989). Some of the researches also show that families with high socioeconomic status have more success in preparing their children for schools. They are able to provide their children with books, stationeries, tuitions and others. 2.4 Parent’s Attitude and Expectation Parents’ involvement is highly related to their children success in education. Students whose parents are more involved with their schooling are more likely to be motivated and have good achievement in school. Parents’ attitudes towards the education of their children are such as frequency of helping with homework, frequency of supervision children’s homework; times spent interacting with children, frequency of praising with children and provide enough stationary. Parents have high educational expectation also tends to motivate their children in their academic achievement. They take good care of their children either both in or out of schools (reward or punish due the children’s behavior). Pandey (1985) concluded that if proper system of reward and punishment is followed, children shall certainly perform well in school. 2.5 Home Environment “Even though family background does have a strong relationship to achievement, it may be how parents bring up their children…and not the parents’ occupation, income or education that really make the difference” (K.R.White, 1982, p.471). Families influence is very important in socializing children. Children need their family’s support and psychological stimulation of the children’s academic development by parents and other persons in the home environment. Students’ home environments such as reading materials are available in their house and place for doing homework. Some researchers suggest that home environment influences not only academic readiness for school, but also the level of achievement throughout students’ careers (Cooper et.al., 1998). 2.6 Home Language Students’ success in school depends upon their being proficient in academic language, the language of classroom instruction. The literature review suggested that students who use the school language at home achieve better at school than those who use another language (Moegiadi et al, 1979; Cooksey, 1981). The ways in which children communicate in their home cultures are critical to the development of written language models of reading and writing. The home language of students provides the foundation for the emergence of reading and writing behaviors. If there is a mismatch between the structures, values, and expectations of the home language and school language, children may be at a disadvantage for success in early reading tasks, and thus spend their entire school careers attempting to catch up (Gay, 1988; Snow, 1992). Research shows that language-minority students face many challenges in school. For example, they are 1.5 times more likely to drop out of school than native speakers (Cardenas, Robledo,

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Assignment (8 pages at leastFor the journal assignment, students should choose to investigate the world from the aspect of one of the sociological categories that we are discussing –race, class, or gender. The purpose is to view the world with a sociological eye, and to present your findings in a collection that provides a critical scientific observation, without bias or judgment.Each student is to choose a category (race, class, or gender). A student should be specific about the race/class/gender they choose, as a subcategory of their larger category. As such, students can choose the following groupings as possible populations➢ Racial (Black/White/Asian/Native American)➢ Ethnic (Latino/Irish/Pakistani/Jewish/Chinese/etc)➢ Gender (Male/Female/Gay/Straight/Bisexual/Transgender)➢ Disabled➢ Class (Upper/Middle/Working/Lower/Underclass)For the assignment, the student must collect a minimum of 8 articles on the category/subcategory that they have chosen. The articles *must* be recent; they can be no older than from October 20th, 2012. The articles _cannot_ be different perspectives on the same issue; each article must be unique. (For example, if the topic were African American, and there was a race-based riot that took place somewhere in the world, you couldn’t have multiple articles about the same riot).Additionally, no more than one article can be from any given day. In other words, you cannot have multiple articles produced on June 7th, for example.Each article must be printed and have information indicating its source (where it came from) and its date of publication/release. Please, NO blogs or generic website copy; these have to be actual articles from a newspaper, magazine, journal, or other periodical. Stories from television news sites would be acceptable.Each article should be summarized with at least ½ page of double spaced feedback/commentary from the student. It should highlight key points, and express how the article is relevant to the category/subcategory chosen.At the end of the minimester, a student is to present a stapled group of the 8 articles and their summaries for grading. Each grouping/journal should have a cover page that has ONLY the following on it:NameSOCI 243: Sociology of Race, Class, and GenderJournal AssignmentCategory and Subcategory Chosen:The organization of the journal should be as follows: (a) Cover Page, (b) First summary, (c) first article, (d) second summary, (e) second article, (f) third summary, (g) third article, (h) fourth summary, (i) fourth article, (j) fifth summary, (k) fifth article, (l) sixth summary, (m) sixth article. Summaries must be typed, double spaced, in either Calibri or Times New Roman fonts, 11 pt.No holders, covers, or report binders for journals. Simply staple them together in the order indicated. Make sure it is stapled by the time you come to class.
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What is psychological egoism?

assignment writer What is psychological egoism?.

This assignments consist of writing 3 to 4 paragraphs 400 words each paragraph in question 1. Go
to a newspaper or reputable online news source. (consider National
Geographic, CNN, BBC, Fox News, NY Times, etc.) Be sure to avoid the
opinion sections of these sources and focus on the news. Find two
stories: The first showing a legitimate instance of cultural relativism,
the second showing a controversial instance of cultural
relativism. Write one paragraph citing reasons and criteria on why the
first is a legitimate example of cultural relativism. Write a second
paragraph on why the second is a controversial instance of cultural
relativism citing reasons and criteria to support your
observations. Write a third paragraph discussing your personal
feelings/beliefs in terms of the situation and those involved in the
second story. (Each paragraph should be approximately 400 words.)
Ensure proper APA citations of the sources.Find a current news event. The article should be an example of apparent altruism. Please write on all of the following:

a. Why/how this article is an example of psychological egoism.

b. Why/how this article is an example of ethical egoism.

c. Why/how this article is an example of altruism.

d. Discuss which of the three examples/events above you most closely align with and why.

From Book I, Sections 5 through 10 of Nicomachean Ethics, which
“type” are you? Explain how this impacts your ethics. (Be sure to
research the historical figures referenced by Aristotle).
What is psychological egoism?

Lung Cancer: Symptoms, Treatment and Literature

Lung Cancer: Symptoms, Treatment and Literature. Introduction According to Cancer research UK lung cancer is a rapid and uncontrol proliferation of cells that may start in trachea, bronchioles or pulmonary tissue (Cancerresearchuk.org, 2017). It is broadly classified into Non-Small Cellular lung cancer (NSCLC) type and small cellular lung cancer (SCLC). Additionally, NSCLC is further subdivided into the squamous cell, adenocarcinoma, large cell carcinoma and undifferentiated NSCLC (Travis et al., 2015). Clinically both types are presented with similar symptoms (prolong cough, thoracically lymph node enlargement), and typical X-ray image (shadows with define outline). However, a specialized distinction can be done with the help of biopsy and genotypic analysis (Hoffman, Mauer and Vokes, 2000). Current literature analysis will focus on epidemiological features, clinical features, and available treatment options, as well as highlight gaps in the lung cancer understanding. According to Cancer Research UK’s statistical data, lung cancer accounts for 13% of all causes in the UK. In addition, 22% of all cancer death is attributed to lung cancer, with 23% of all male cancers and 21% female. Additional examination shows that SCLC accounts for 12% of all lung cancers and NSCLC for 87%, with adenocarcinoma as a most common type (Cancer Research UK, 2017). Major cause of lung cancer is the tobacco consumption. The US statistics supports this notion, indicating that 90% of all lung cancer death in men and 80% of cases in women are caused by tobacco consumption (Szklo, 2001). Apart from environmental factors, there are individual genetic and epigenetic traits, which will alter lung cancer susceptibility. For example, according to meta-analysis data, having causes of lung cancer in family attributes to 1.7 fold increase in cancer development, with an additional increase if two or more relatives were affected (Lissowska et al., 2010). Studies identified DNA methylation markers, in cell cycle regulatory and repair genes. Specifically, significant changes in methylation patterns occurred in BNC1, MSX1, CCNA1,p16, LOX genes in comparison to non-malignant cells (Licchesi et al., 2008). There are multiple classifications which allow identifying a lung cancer stage. However, the current essay will focus on two mainstream classifications by American Joint Community of Cancer (AJCC) (Goldstraw and Crowley, 2006) and Veterans Administration Lung Study Group (VALSG) (Zelen, 1973) which are based on clinical and pathological examination. SCLC According to International Association of Lung cancer, the TNM classification is recommended for classification of patients with SCLC. Current 7h edition of the AJCC manual identifies three major criteria’s: T (TX-T4) – local cancer spread; N (NX-N3) – metastatic involvement of lymph nodes; M (M0-M1)- presence or absence of metastasis (classification check online). With grouping, SCLC causes into four stages (Table 1)( (Egner, 2010). However, TNM classification is not widely used in clinical practice, in comparison to VALSG classification (Zelen, 1973. Which divides SCLC into limited stage (encapsulated) and extensive stage ( local spread of tumor). Adaptation of the TNF was supported by a study involved 8000 patients worldwide, which pointed out limitations of VALSG. (Shepherd et al., 2007). Allowing to conclude that stratification of patients based on tumor encapsulation only does not accurately represent the patient’s prognostic outcomes. Overall, SCLC has a poor prognosis with survival rates up to 4 months without treatment (Foster et al., 2009). A major prognostic factor per TNM is the local disease spread, with metastasis as a critical factor for stage rectification. Thus, median survival for treated patients with Stage I-III disease progression is around 15-20 month with around 20% chance for 2 years’ survival. On the other hand, Stage IV of the disease is attributed to 8-13-month survival and only 5% survival up to 2 years (Lally et al., 2007). NSCLC Staging of NSCLC is fully regulated by the AJCC classification and divided into four stages. It has similar principles of TNM division mentioned above, with some prognostic adaptations (Egner, 2010). Specifically, variations within tumor size (T), are associated with decreased survival rates, for instance, primary tumor with diameter 2cm (53%), 3 cm (47%), 5cm (43%), more than 7cm (26%) (Rami-Porta et al., 2007). Lymphatic nodule involvement is a debatable topic due to a large degree of variability in classifications, but TNM staging attributes to worsening of the disease outcome (Rusch et al., 2009). Lastly, metastatic involvement is considered as the Stage 4 of the disease with average 8-month survival rate (Postmus et al., 2007). However, in addition to AJCC classification, it is important to take into account patient related factors such as gender, comorbidity, and age; environmental factors like nutrition and quality of treatment (Gospodarowicz and O’Sullivan, 2003). Last statements are not strictly limited to NSCLC as similar variables may cause changes in SCLC patients. Treatment for SCLC Standard of care for the extensive stage of the disease during the SCLC will be chemotherapy treatment. Usually, first line treatment will include six cycles of etoposide with cisplatin or carboplatin. Meta-analysis data on this topic is controversial, with no specific recommendations given by the authors about any of the benefits of the treatment (Galetta et al., 2000; Mascaux et al., 2000). A possible explanation was based on the toxicity of cisplatin or inconsistency in patient number in the control arm of the trials (Amarasena et al., 2015). In addition, second set of meta-analysis data, six drug trials with 1476 patients in total, identified irinotecan and platinum as a viable combination for treatment of Stage IV of the SCLC (Jiang et al., 2010). Indicating the lesser amount of off-target effects ( less anemia, thrombocytopenia), and increase in overall survival rates. Thus, patients who are falling into the first line treatment regimen should result in overall response rate more than 20 %, and maintain therapy-related mortality as low as 5%. Knowing the limits of chemotherapy, the second line of drugs for SCLC is in development. Possible target therapies include: inhibitors of cell proliferative signaling pathways ( c-Kit, Src, EGFR, m-TOR etc.); angiogenesis ( VEGFR, VEGF); promoters of apoptosis ( Bcl-2, HDAC); immunotherapy and vaccines (CD56, p53); multidrug resistance (P-glycoprotein, MDR-1). It is important to indicate that most of the second line treatments are at the stage of development and majority of them does not show significant results. For instance, Imatinib did not show any significant response from patients in phase II trial as single drug moderate dose (600 mg daily) or high dose (400mgx2 day) therapy (Johnson et al., 2003) Similar apoptosis regulators with specific Bcl-2 regulates, like Oblimersen, did not show significant results in a clinical trial against a placebo group, despite promising data in the pre-clinical validation (Rudin et al., 2008). Better outcomes can be seen in angiogenesis studies with bevacizumab, monoclonal antibody for VEGF-A receptor, maintenance therapy, phase II clinical trials, with combination with chemotherapy, showed 80% response rate, with 58 % chance of two years’ progressive free survival (Patton et al., 2006). Treatment for the NSCLC Despite the mainstream therapy with platinum compounds as first line drugs, and signaling pathway, immunotherapy drugs as a second line therapy. Additional surgical intervention can be applied on initial stages of cancer. The main surgical procedure which is implemented in cancer treatment is the lung resection under the video-assisted thoracoscopic access (VATS lung resection). However, results are controversial with the improvement of 5 years survival outcome in 21 studies on one hand, and 1.6-time increase in post-surgical complications in 13 000 patients in the US (Gopaldas et al., 2010). Nonetheless, chemotherapy is the standard of care for stages III and IV. Multiple landmark trials have shaped the treatment plan for the first choice. Starting with the JMDB trial which included administration of pemetrexed with cisplatin or gemcitabine with cisplatin, with overall response rate(ORR) of 30.6% and 28.2% in order (Scagliotti et al., 2009). In addition, both combinations have similar 10.3-month survival rate. Second, ECOG 4599, for nonsquamous carcinomas with the administration of carboplatin/paclitaxel with bevacizumab and carboplatin/paclitaxel alone (Sandler et al., 2006). Study indicate ORR of 15% and 35 % for double combination vs single, with 12.3 months and 10.3-month survival, in the same order. Lastly, the study of IPASS compared carboplatin/paclitaxel against gefitinib with ORR 32% vs 43% in order (Mok et al., 2009). With progression-free survival index of 5.8 and 5.7 months for combination and single therapy. The addition of drugs altering signalling pathways was a promising approach. However, like SCLC trial, most of the NSCLC were not significant. With the exception of angiogenesis inhibition by bevacizumab, listed for first line therapy above, a monoclonal antibody for vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Evidence of a large randomized trial supports the significant improvement in ORR (Wheatley-Price and Shepherd, 2008) Second line therapy for the NSCLC includes docetaxel, pemetrexed (nonsquamous cancers), and tyrosine kinase pathway inhibitors erlotinib and gefitinib. In detail, the trial of JMEL examines pemetrexsed and docetaxel, with 9.1% and 8.8% ORR in order, and median survival of both drugs of 8.1 months (Scagliotti et al., 2009). Next drug trial, INTEREST, compared gefitinib and docetaxel , with ORR of 9.1% and 7.6% respectively, and median survival 8.3 and 7.9 month for each drug, same order (Kim et al., 2008). Lastly, clinical trial of BR.21 compared Erlotinib with the placebo group, with ORR of 9% and 6.7-month survival for the TKI (Shepherd et al., 2005). The addition of TKI was verified with a large cohort of patients in the randomized trial, with the exceptional activity of the gefitinib in EGFR mutations (Douillard et al., 2010). Overall NSCLC treatment options are oriented on chemotherapeutic approach with platinum compounds with the addition of EGFR specific TKIs. Gaps in general lung cancer There several potential areas of improvement in current treatment and patient management strategies. Critical gaps in the lung cancer can be seen in delayed patient referrals, administration of first line treatment, undertreatment of old age patients, under-utilisation of palliative care, lack of psychosocial support for patients. The current essay will address first two topics in greater details. One of the major gaps in the lung cancer field is the delay in the patient’s referral to the specialized help. (Yurdakul et al., 2015) According to UK guidelines people with possible symptoms of lung cancer should be referred to the specialists not later than 2 weeks after first GP visit (Nice.org.uk, 2017). Unfortunately, that is not always the cause and some patients will not see the specialist at all during the disease progression. For instance, it is estimated that 11% of lung patients in Australia will not be able to reach specialized care due to the socioeconomic background or old age (Vinod et al., 2010). Additional studies identified more factors contributing to patients late referral, like 23% of UK lung cancer patients will be diagnosed only in the emergency department even though they have had multiple visits to GP and presented typical pulmonary symptoms (Barrett and Hamilton, 2008). Next area of improvement is the underutilization of potential curative (surgical,chemotherapy) treatments in lung cancer (Blinman et al., 2010). For instance, Netherland study group identified that more patients receive surgical treatment in the active teaching and high-class hospitals than distant (Wouters et al., 2010). On the other hand, Australian group has identified no difference in curative surgical operations between rural and central areas (Jiwa et al., 2010). Raising the question of countries treatment protocols and the need for standardization on the multi-national scale. In continuation, international guidelines for successful chemotherapy utilization are 73% for NSCLC and 93% for SCLC where each patient received at least one course of treatment (Jacob et al., 2010). However, combined data (NSCLC SCLC) from the UK has dramatic differences , such as 21% for South East England and 20% for South East Scotland, so as the USA with 45% and Australia 30% (Jacob et al., 2010). Differences in numbers are attributed to variation in clinical judgments by a doctor, patient preferences and hospital preferences (Blinman et al., 2010). Thus, it is possible to assume that some patients do not receive any treatment. Statistical studies support this statement indicating that 19% of USA, 33% of Australian, 37% Scotland and 50% of Ireland patients does not get any treatment for lung cancer, even though some cases had a potential curative outcome. Lastly, from the perspective of novel medicinal treatment for pulmonary, it is vital to indicate difficulties associated with potential laboratory and clinical results. The general trend is observed with an adaptation of drugs from CML, breast cancer and colorectal cancers to the needs of lung cancer. However, most of the clinical trial are terminated due to the high toxicity of the drugs (Rudin et al., 2008) or absence of ORR (Johnson et al., 2003). Thus, based on available treatment options further development of monoclonal antibodies or glycoengineering of human-like antibodies seems a promising direction (Patton et al., 2006). In addition, implementation of EGFR related TKI’s, erlotinib and gefitinib, seems a good research avenue, with a focus on mutational aspects in EGFR signaling pathway (Douillard et al., 2010; Shepherd et al., 2005). Lung Cancer: Symptoms, Treatment and Literature

NSG 6210 UAB Forms of Nursing Inquiry Presentation

NSG 6210 UAB Forms of Nursing Inquiry Presentation.

I’m working on a health & medical presentation and need an explanation to help me learn.

Select a nursing practice problem and read the three associated articles Read the selected evidence representing the three forms of nursing inquiry (QI, research, and EBP) that address the chosen nursing practice problem. Analyze the aim, methods used, and outcomes sought for each type of inquiry. Determine how teamwork and critical thinking processes were implemented. Create a PowerPoint presentation using Microsoft PowerPoint. Include the following sections addressing the three forms of nursing inquiry (detailed criteria listed below and in the Grading Rubric).
NSG 6210 UAB Forms of Nursing Inquiry Presentation

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