Reducing Juvenile Delinquency Essay examples -- Papers Teen Crime Essa

The current statistics of juvenile delinquency are astounding. I will look at the most recent statistics and a few of the programs implemented to reduce or prevent delinquency. Before delving too deep into juvenile delinquency, it is important to consider the definitions of "juvenile" and "delinquent". The Merriam-Webster Dictionary gives two definitions of "juvenile": 1. Showing incomplete development, and 2. A young person; one below the legally established age of adulthood (1997). Merriam-Webster defines "delinquent" as: offending by neglect or violation of duty or law (1997). As a complete definition of juvenile delinquent it is safe to repeat "a person below the established age of adulthood that offends by neglect or violation of duty or law (1997)". The history of juvenile delinquency had harsh beginnings. Children were viewed as non-persons until the 1700's(Rice 1995). They did not receive special treatment or recognition. Discipline then is what we now call abuse. It was believed that life was hard, and you had to be hard to survive. The people of that time in history did not have the conveniences that we take for granted. For example, the medical practices of that day were primitive in comparison to present-day medicine. Marriages were more for convenience, rather than for childbearing or romance. The infant and child mortality rate was also very high. It did not make sense to the parents in those days to create an emotional bond with children when there was a strong chance that the children would not survive until adulthood (1995). At the end of the 18th century, "The Enlightenment" appeared as a new cultural transition. People began to see children as flowers, who needed nurturing in order to ... ...s. Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon. Galaway, B., et al. (1995). Specialized foster family care for delinquent youth. Federal Probation 59 (March): 19-27. Greenwood, P., & Turner, S. (1993). Evaluation of the Paint Creek Youth Center: a residential program for serious delinquents. Criminology 31 (May): 19-27. Haghighi, B., & Lopez, A. (1993). Success/Failure of group home treatment Programs for juveniles. Federal Probation 57 (Sept): 53-58. McNeece, C., & Roberts, A. (1997). Policy & Practice in the Justice System. Chicago: Nelson-Hall Publishers. Mish, F. (Ed.). (1997). Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Massachusetts: Merriam- Webster Incorporated. Wilber, S. (1998) Can Prevention Programs Stem the Tide of Delinquency? 3 (3), pp. 3. Retrieved March 5, 2000 from EBSCO database (MUONLINE) on the World Wide Web: http://www.ebsco.com

Biography of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson Essay -- American

Biography of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson George Washington was commander in chief of the Continental army during the American Revolution and later became the first president of the United States serving from1789 until 1797. He symbolized qualities of discipline, aristocratic duty, military orthodoxy and persistence in adversity that his contemporaries valued as marked of mature political leadership George spent his early years on the family estate on Pope's Creek along the Potomac River. Although Washington had little or no formal schooling, his early notebooks indicate that he read in geography, military history, agriculture, deportment and composition. He showed an aptitude for surveying and simple mathematics. An early ambition to go to sea had been discouraged by George's mother. His father died in 1743, and soon thereafter George went to live with his half brother Lawrence at Mount Vernon, Lawrence's plantation on the Potomac. Lawrence became something of a substitute father for his brother. Upon the death of Lawrence in 1752, George inherited the Mount Vernon estate. Washington played an important role in the struggles preceding the outbreak of the French and Indian War. He was chosen by Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia to deliver an ultimatum calling on French forces to cease their encroachment in the Ohio River valley. Washington's diary account of the dangers and difficulties of his journey published on his return helped win him his ensuing promotion to lieutenant colonel. Although only 22 years of age and lacking experience, he was ordered to lead a militia force for the protection of workers who were building a fort at the Forks of the Ohio River. Discouraged by defeat, Washington resigned his commission in 1754. In May, 1755, he began service as a volunteer and aide-de-camp to British General Edward Braddock. Braddock was mortally wounded and Washington narrowly escaped death. He escaped injury although four bullets ripped his coat and two horses were shot from under him Braddock's troops were ambushed by a band of French soldiers and their Indian allies on the Monongahela River. At age of 23, he was promoted to colonel and appointed commander in chief of the Virginia militia. His responsibility was to defend the frontier. Washington left the army in 1758, assured that the Virginia frontier was safe from French ... ... strictly enforced they Operated as a check on the majority, and gave "shelter and protection to the minority against the attempts of power." Jefferson much enjoyed the office of vice president, partly from the interest he took in the art of legislation and partly because his presidency of the Philosophical society brought him into agreeable relations with the most able minds of the country. He took no part whatever in the administration of the government, as Mr. Adams ceased to consult him on political measures almost immediately after his inauguration. The administration of Adams, so turbulent and eventful, inflamed party spirit to an extreme degree. The reactionary policy of Hamilton and his friends had full scope, as is shown by the passage of the alien and sedition laws, and by the warlike preparations against France. During the first three years Jefferson endeavored in various ways to influence the public mind, and thus to neutralize in some degree the active and aggressive spirit of Hamilton. He was clearly of opinion that the alien and sedition laws were not merely unconstitutional, but were so subversive of fundamental human rights as to justify a nullification of them.

Exploring the Validity of the Statement that the Eruption of Thera Caus

Minoan Crete was a civilization experiencing great social and economic prosperity during its zenith around the time known as Late Minoan 1 (LM 1) (Sheppard Baird 2009). However the Minoan population ended abruptly and seemingly simultaneously 430 years later, this left archaeologists and historians searching for the cause (Castleden 1990, 143). The main reason archaeologists are studying the reason for the downfall is because if a date was known, a more precise historical timescale could be produced that would give a more accurate chronology of ancient history during this time (Barber 1990, 221). Ever since Sir Arthur Evans developed the concept of the Minoan civilisation, there have been many proposed reasons for the downfall, each with their own evidence and supporters (Sheppard Baird 2009). It was in 1939 that Syridon Marinatos, a leading 20th century archaeologist of Crete, initially suggested that the volcano Thera was the reason for the Minoans demise (Castleden 1990, 143). Ma ny more hypotheses as to what caused the destruction have stemmed from this initial thought, such as tsunamis, economic and agricultural decline as well as foreign invasion. However due to advances in science and further studies into Thera and the Minoan’s history, this volcano no longer seemed the only plausible cause for the disappearance of Minoan Civilisation (Sheppard Baird 2009). Thera was located on the present day island of Santorini, 120 km north of Crete, and for hundreds of years there was little to no activity. It wasn’t until three and a half thousand years ago when the historic eruption occurred (Cecil 2011)(Ancient Greece org 2010). There were three phases to the eruption, first pumice was ejected which covered Akrotiri in a layer rang... ...h: a new view of the â€Å"Palace of Minos† at Knossos, Routledge, London. Cecil J., 2011 The fall of the Minoan civilization , BBC-History , BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/greeks/minoan_01.shtml accessed: 30 April 2012. Hood S., 1971 The Minoans: the story of Bronze Age Crete, Praeger Publishers, Michigan. MacDonald C. Driessen J., 1997 The Troubled Island: Minoan Crete before and after the Santorini eruption, Università © de Lià ¨ge, Histoire de l'art et archà ©ologie de la Grà ¨ce antique. Platon N. 1966 Crete, Archaeologia Mundi series, Frederick Muller Limited, London. Pyle D.M, 1989 Thera and the Aegean world III, Ther Thera Foundation, London. Sheppard Baird W., 2009 The Bronze Age Eruption of Santorini and Late Minoan IB Destruction Event , Minoan Atlantis http://www.minoanatlantis.com/LM_IB_Destruction.php accessed: 30 April 2012.

The Star Spangled Banner

English 101 November 21, 2012 The Star Spangled Banner The Star Spangled Banner is a very powerful and moving song that not only defines our country as a free and independent nation, but it also presents us with the struggles we went through to become who we are. The Star Spangled Banner originated as the poem â€Å"Defense of Fort McHenry† in 1814 by Frances Scott Key. The national anthem was not written during the American Revolution, contrary to popular belief. It was, in fact, written in the War of 1812. Although the poem has four unique stanzas, we normally only recognize the first one, and sometimes the second stanza as well.Our anthem, regardless of its patriotic values, is a great example of rich English literature that symbolizes our people even after 200 years. But, in reality, the song has a wide variety of meanings and interpretations deeply embedded in the historical significance it represents. The first line of the song reads, â€Å"O say can you see by the dawn ’s early light? What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming? † Translated in to today’s contemporary language, this means, â€Å"hey there, can you see by morning what was there before the sun set yesterday evening? Frances Scott Key introduces the topic of this song by grabbing the reader’s attention. This first line of the song makes readers wonder what Key is referring to, making them want to read the poem on further. When Key mention’s the â€Å"dawn’s early light† he is referring to an early morning; a new day and a new beginning. The â€Å"twilight’s last gleaming† suggests a very special time of day; right before the sun is setting and there is a tiny streak of light that appears in the sky. These two verses show a lot of symbolism.Once again, we must use the historical context of this poem to make meaning of the lyrics. The War of 1812 was a war fought by the British and Americans. Key was on a British ship when he wrote this poem, negotiating with the officers to release some of the American hostages. He was watching the battle of Fort McHenry in Baltimore. The battle took place in the late evening, when the American flag was still up and flying. In these lines, Key is asking himself, â€Å"Will the flag still be up tomorrow morning? † The twilight’s last gleaming could represent hope.Key still has faith and trust in his country. Even in the midst of a bloodthirsty battle, Key hoped that he would see the American flag the next morning. He hoped he would see a sign of perseverance and strength instead of weak downfall. He wanted his country to reign through the peril it oversaw. If the American flag was still not up by â€Å"the dawn’s early light†, it would signify defeat the British. The second two lines of the Star Spangled Banner places emphasis on the American flag. Today, our flag is commonly referred to as the stars and stripes.Key not iced these two distinct features and decided to define the American flag by â€Å"the stars and stripes†. History has it that there were two flags that were flown over Fort McHenry, one of them being a â€Å"storm flag†. This was the flag that was flown during the rainy day and the â€Å"perilous night† and the flag that was described in the first part of The Star Spangled Banner. This line reflects the determination of the American army. The flag is a key symbol of our nation. Key cleverly used this patriotic symbol to show how persistent our soldiers were; they kept fighting through the sanguine fighting of the night.When Key woke up by morning, a new flag was hoisted up, apart from the storm flag that he saw the previous night. Fort McHenry was proudly flying its much larger â€Å"garrison flag†. This flag measured 30 ft. by 42 ft. , larger than a modern day school bus. Key believed this was the same flag that was flown the previous night, when the Bri tish had attacked. Regardless of whether it was the storm flag or not, the sight of the American flag flying over the fort after a gory battle gave hope and confidence to its citizens.It once again stated the power of America as a powerful independent nation. The flag indirectly told the world to never underestimate the potential of America. The third line of the poem is very awkwardly phrased and positioned, once again reflecting the time period Key wrote the poem. â€Å"O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming† is referring to the previous line. Ramparts are protective walls. In this context, Key is referring to the walls of Fort McHenry. He very cleverly uses the word â€Å"ramparts† to describe the walls.The ramparts were built in 1776 to protect the city of Baltimore in case the British tried to attack through the Chesapeake Bay. After the War of 1812 was brought to attention, a local committee raised over $400,000 to strengthen the walls t o protect the citizens in case of an unexpected British attack. The word rampart suggests that the citizens were able to watch the battle with a sense of security as the soldiers risked their lives for their country. It solidifies the expression of sacrifice. Over the whole scene, Key once again mentions the American flag â€Å"gallantly streaming†.This gives the notion that this concept of sacrifice is very much American. It is an American soldier’s duty to lay his life down for his country. The next few lines start to intensely invoke emotions from the reader: â€Å"And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there† During the battle of Fort McHenry, the British had more than 15 battle ships, each armed with heavy artillery and one armed with a rocket launcher. Through the night, as the rockets were fired in to the air, they illuminated the sky with a bloody red glow.That red glow showed th e British where the American flag was so they would know where to aim. But, here comes the notion of good that comes out of evil. While the British threw the bombs in the air to destroy the flag, they ended up illuminating the flag, giving hope to all the patriotic soldiers to keep fighting. The motive of the British was to destroy the American flag, according to the poem by Frances Scott Key. The American flag was the symbol of America. It was the identity of the United States of America, because it represented the journey of America.The alternating 13 red and white stripes showed represented the moments of bloodshed and light in America. The fifty stars represent each of the strong independent states. By placing the stars in the same box, it shows unity among the various states. By destroying the flag, the British are stripping away the identity of the Americans. The final line of the first stanza summarizes the whole message of the song: â€Å"Oh, say that Star – Spangled Banner yet wave? O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave! † This line clearly states that the flag of the United States represents liberty and independence for all.As long as the flag shall wave, it will mark America as â€Å"the land of the free and the home of the brave†. Throughout the song, Key expresses a hero journey; a journey through hell and back in to the light. This is the story of Fort McHenry. The Americans were plunged in to a world of blood and gore. But the outcome of the battle was very significant. The American flag became a physical representation of good over evil. It was the marking of the victory of America, once again. The battle was a memory of the importance of our â€Å"Star- Spangled Banner†.

BPR and TQM in Commercial Construction Industry

The commercial construction industry is the largest component of construction industry in United States. The business started to gain popularity in the 1990’s as the strong economic growth lead to strong demand toward the services in the industry. Companies worked within the industry vary from small contractors who have annual revenue of $1 million, until the multinational corporations whose profits exceeded $1 billion each year. The industry is a little different with other components in the construction industry.For example, commercial construction cannot rely on shrinking interest rates to prevent the downside of an economic surge in the early 21st century. As people started spend less on new construction works, the industry degraded. Commercial construction is a competitive industry. Contractors generally employ sub-contractors, which can be divided into two types, â€Å"group-up work† subcontractors and finish-out work† subcontractors. With stricter regulatio ns and more specific demands from the consumers, business becomes more challenging for everyone.Projects become more complex and time constraints become more demanding. All of which lead to considerably smaller profit margin in the end. Dealing with these challenges, players in the commercial construction industry are desperate for a radical solution, one that will deliver them competitive advantages to survive the all the challenging demands. In this paper, I am providing two alternatives of solution for the commercial construction industry. The first alternative is Total Quality Management (TQM) and the second is Business Process Reengineering (BPR).Both of these alternatives are worldwide known managerial concepts designed to improve the quality of corporate processes. II. Challenges in Commercial Construction Industry Before we discuss how TQM and BPR could help companies improve their processes, I will elaborate some of the challenges in commercial construction industry that ne ed to be addressed. II. 1. Highly Cyclical Demands The commercial construction business is highly affected by the health of US economy. Surges and downturns have direct contribution toward the increase or decrease in revenues, expenses and profits.Economic trends also define the direction of the business. Some commercial construction companies try to tackle the issue by developing multiple specialties. However, the fixed cost invested in all of the specialties is nevertheless burdening the business. Furthermore, by having multiple specialties, companies have to manage costs more carefully to maintain profit in each one. II. 2. Uneven Revenues and Expenses Contractors of commercial construction are demanded to have considerable amount of working capital at their disposal at all times. This is important due to two reasons. First, the price of raw materials fluctuates constantly.Second, clients of the business could decide to pay at random intervals, without considerations of contracto rs’ requirements. In large projects, the cash flow is even larger and thus created the need for careful cost management. II. 3. Availability of Skilled Personnel Personnel availability has always been an issue in the construction industry. This is due to the poor image of construction workers all over the globe. Nevertheless, with the increasing complexities of construction work and the need for more skilful construction workers, the issue of personnel availability has never been so important.Management cannot afford to use unskilled labor to fulfill complex demands from clients. Thus, training periods and becoming more important and also cost management to perform quality training sessions. II. 4. Consolidation of Projects With the increasingly high competitive pressure, many contractors decide to submit to consolidation process, and other contractors fall into the role of sub-contractors. This created an unexpected risk. As construction contracts becomes fewer and larger, c ash flow management of each project becomes a lot harder to manage and financial risks of each project also increases.Today, many commercial construction companies depend of only several annual contracts for most portions of their revenues. II. 5. High Insurance Costs The commercial construction business is characterized by high insurance cost. Contractors are demanded to pay high premiums for many insurance policies, including general liability, workers insurance, etc. This insurance problem is worsen by the material and installation defects issues and unqualified workers. Thus management cannot afford to have poor bookkeeping and cost management. II. 6. Investment in TechnologyTo serve the increasing demand for unique and modern feature of constructions, contractors in the commercial construction business must invest more heavily in high technology. This poses as another challenge for contractors because prices of equipment are also become more expensive and more vary. Contractors would need to make more capital investment management more diligently and more carefully. (â€Å"Industry Overview†, 2006) III. Total Quality Management Total Quality Management is a company-wide approach to quality improvement in corporate processes and activities.The concept has become a way of doing business for companies in various industries all over the globe to improve the quality of corporate processes in all departments and functional areas. Despite to the large nature of differences in corporate processes in different industries, Total Quality Management defines several functions that have become common features of all managerial structure. These defined corporate functions will then become the focus of process improvements. The common functions that become the center of attention in TQM are: 1. Serving customersThe focus of all companies whether they are manufacturing or services companies is to aim for their customers’ satisfaction. In the basis of this pr inciple, management must understand that categorizing business into manufacturing and service are actually senseless. The more important thing to achieve is clearly identifying specific customers of the corporation and also their needs and preferences. TQM invites corporate managers to revitalize focus on this particular activity through market researches, surveys and other studies. Management must constantly learn about their customers 2.Top Management Role in Quality Improvement All business reforms started with the top managers and can only be maintained by constant and sufficient participation from the top managers. This includes quality management efforts. Top managers have the key function of providing direction and motivation for their subordinates. Employees will only participate when they already understand the importance of performing improvements. TQM invites managers to understand the crucial nature of their actions in quality improvements and thus, making the necessary adjustments to achieve the defined targets.3. Employee Participation After ensuring top management are doing their part in the quality improvement process, TQM takes us to focus on employees and how they have participate in support of the effort. Employees are the final station where products and services are still in the organization’s control. Thus, if they have sufficient commitment not to allow the spread of poor quality products and services, then there would be little chances that customers will ever discover unsatisfied products or services delivered to them. 4. Identifying Quality Issues and Developing SolutionsEvery company has a system designed to discover poor quality. The system is generally built from a cross section of various functions within the organizations so that their combined attention will be able to identify quality defects more diligently and furthermore, suggest possible solutions. TQM invites managers to take advantage of the system and focus on dev eloping their potential into maximum. In the new quality system, top management must also take part in defining quality defects, discovering existing opportunities for improvements and formulate possible solutions. 5.Employee Training and Employee Management Even the most highly automated companies require skilful and highly motivated employees to run their processes. TQM bring focus on employee management processes to increase the quality of corporate operations as a whole. First, management should develop their employee training process as corporate targets changes. Second, organizations should provide continuous educational support even to the longer-time employees. Third, organizations should design a working environment where employees would have a sense of pride when they are doing a good job.Fourth, management must ensure that the compensation system is bringing sufficient motivation to attract creativity and fresh ideas from employees. (Hammer, 1993) The perspectives of TQM elaborated above will assist managers within the Commercial Construction business to deal with the challenges of their environment. For instance: ? The first perspective of customer service can realign managers’ perspective in the commercial construction business in how to do their job. Managers of the commercial construction business could begin to see that all their construction work are but means to satisfy clients.Thus, they will begin to involve client more actively in their decision making processes. ? The second perspective of TQM, which is improving top management involvement in business processes, can develop managerial sensitivity on employees’ workload. If managers can understand their employees better, they will be more considerate in making consolidation decisions and technology investments ? The third perspective of TQM will help managers in the commercial construction industry to better integrate with their employees in performing business processes.Empl oyees must be informed of the corporate targets and goals so they can be more motivated in performing their work, knowing that they will make meaningful contribution for the organization as a whole. ? The fourth perspective or TQM can help management in discovering cost reduction opportunities in the midst of the more demanding business environments, especially when consolidation projects are extensively performed. ? The fifth perspective of TQM aligns perfectly with managerial sentiments of the commercial construction business to enhance training and education to ensure that each process is managed by highly qualified personnel.As complexity level enhances, this focus becomes more vital. IV. Business Process Reengineering IV. 1. Definition Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is a quality improvement system, the same as Total Quality Management (TQM). It is a management approach to improve the quality of processes by focusing on efficiency and effectiveness of the process that exis t across the organization. Many find difficulties in differentiating between TQM and BPR, but in most articles regarding BPR, it is always elaborated that BPR has a more radical view about business processes and its core necessities.According to BPR, business should define their core processes and focus solely on those activities. Other activities that do not add value to products or services being produced are considered waste. IV. 2. The need for BPR Oneil (1999) identified that there are actually three kinds of BPR causes. These causes can be explained by the conditions in which the organization finds itself: ? First, companies invite BPR concept and its implementation because they have no choice.These companies find themselves in deep trouble and they have no choice but to design changes in a depth and magnitude level that some would call radical. This is why the concept is referred to as Business Process Reengineering. ? Second, companies are not in trouble yet but they perceiv ed clearly that the future would be problematic. ? Third, the company is actually in its peak position, but they see opportunities to develop a competitive edge over their competitors III. 3. Implementation of BPR A short model of implementing BPR will be described in this subchapter: 2.Define mission and vision statement that contains the unique value of the organization in comparison with others 3. Build clear business strategy based on this mission and vision statement thus generating project objectives 4. Define core processes that will help the organization in achieving these project objectives 5. Producing key performance measures to measure cost-benefit relationship of the processes 6. Improving effectiveness and efficiency of the processes using the performance measures At a glance, these steps seem to be similar to other process development stages.In BPR however, the strong focus is on how to radically improve effectiveness and efficiency by driving out all costs and activi ties that do not constitute the vital necessities of the processes (Chan, 1997). III. 4. Role of Information Technology in BPR BPR experts argued that BRP is different then TQM and other process improvement concepts because of its strong focus over the efficiency of the core processes. One of the well-known sentiments of BPR is that information technology should not be used unless it produces efficiency improvement toward corporate processes.BPR experts stated that in the midst of modern business environment, organizations sometimes implement IT system because of its popularity, failing to recognize the advantages produced by the IT system for organizational processes. BPR fight against those practices in the modern business environment (Davenport, 1990) III. 5. Critics In some literatures, BPR is also criticized due to its radical nature. For instance, most of the companies implementing BPR are discovered performing massive layoffs to enhance their process efficiencies.Observers be lieved that implementing BPR without other balancing concepts will lead to only short term benefits because BPR focus mostly on the financial factor of value production. The use of other concepts like the Balance Score Card should enhance BPR’s benefits toward organizations. III. 6. Benefits for Commercial Construction Business The use of BPR is perceived to be very much suitable for the construction industry due to the ‘hard’ and highly competitive nature of the environment. Furthermore, it has been stated that the BRP concept is suitable for organizations in desperate need for radical cost reduction and process development.One of the supporting factors is that the construction industry usually employs workers on the basis of short term contract. Thus, using the BRP concept, managers could increase the efficiency of their processes without having to worry about laying-off long-term employees. The construction industry is also complex with hundreds of types of ma terial and service costs that can be evaluated through the BPR concept. With the recent development of consolidations and usage of Information Technology, BPR will also assist managers in evaluating which costs are really beneficial and which should be considered waste.V. Conclusion The commercial construction business is the most competitive sector of the construction industry. Lately, the business sector is faced with serious challenges that require management’s attention. These challenges threaten the survival of organizations within the business sector. In order to face those challenges, we suggest that companies within the sector turn to Total Quality Management and Business Process Engineering. These are quality improvement concepts designed to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of organizational processes throughout the organization.TQM and BPR are rooted from the same idea, but they focus on different pressure points. BPR has a more urgent sense within it steps. It is a concept practiced by companies in need of a radical change in their business processes, in order to survive upcoming challenges. It focuses on the financial aspect of core business processes and driving-out costs other than vital ones. Some believed the concept to be harsh and insensitive to other aspects like maintaining pleasant working environment, etc. Nevertheless, its contribution is undeniable to modern companies today.TQM on the other hand, is a concept developed by the Japanese, along with the JIT and kaizen concept. It focuses on continuous process improvements which stronger sense of long-term orientations. Applied together, these concepts will assist managers of the commercial construction business in improving their operational processes and facing their challenges in the form of increasing business complexities. Bibliography Chan, S. L. , C. F. Choi, 1997. â€Å"A conceptual and analytical framework for business process reengineering†, International Journal Production Economics, vol.50, p. 211 – 223. Davenport, Thomas & Short, J. (1990), The New Industrial Engineering: Information Technology and Business Process Redesign, in: Sloan Management Review, Summer 1990, pp 11-27 Hammer, Carter, Usry. 1994. ‘Cost Accounting’. SouthWestern. ‘Industry Overview’. 2006. MSG. Retrieved August 12, 2008 from http://www. msgcpa. com/general. php? category=Industry+Library&headline=Construction+-+Commercial O’Neill, P. , and A. S. Sohal, 1999. â€Å"Business Process Reengineering A review of recent literature†, Technovation, vol. 19, p. 571–581.

Kyoto Protocol In Canada

The Kyoto Protocol has enormous implications on the greenhouse gas emissions scene in Canada and indeed all industrial countries. Its targets for reducing emissions has faced scepticism from both environmentalists who argue that it does not go far enough where as businesses and industry representatives complain over the enormous costs that will be endured in the process of achieving these targets.This essay gives a short description and background to the Kyoto protocol in the Canadian context. It then focuses on the benefits and advantages of the Kyoto protocol to Canada while the last section focuses on the disadvantages and potentially negative impact of the Kyoto protocol in Canada.BackgroundKyoto Protocol was signed in the Japanese city of Kyoto in the year 1997 between countries in order to decrease greenhouse emissions and counter climate change. The Protocol was signed a year later by Canada and formally ratified in late 2002 after a lengthy debate in the argument.The Liberal government in charge decided to decrease greenhouse emissions in the country by 6% below what they were in 1990. This was designed to occur over five years between 2008 and 2012.After the Conservative government came to power in early 2006, they called the Kyoto targets unrealistic as well as unachievable. In turn, the new government decided to focus on developing Canada’s own solutions to the problem, and decided to use the funds to improve the environment within Canada and not on global credits. It also decided to invest in the development of clean technologies.The Kyoto Protocol calls for these actions to be undertaken by national governments:Encourage Huge Final Emitter SystemAt the end of 2005 the government added greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane to the list of toxic substances. This was done under the umbrella of Canadian Environmental Protection Act in turn opening the doors to regulation.These regulations were published in 2006 as part of the Canada Gazette Part I and were followed by sector-specific greenhouse gas emissions targets. The deal was to decrease the total emissions by 45 mega tons in total.The Kyoto Promote Renewable Energy:This particular initiative offered the Wind Power Production Incentive as well as the Renewable Power Production Incentive. These initiatives included subsidy for producers of renewable energy of 1cent for ever Kwh of energy produced. These incentives were designed to decrease emissions by 15 mega tons in total.Promote Partnership FundDesigned to offer support to inter-government agreements, this fund offered cost sharing in order to sustain initiatives for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Cash was directed towards aiding the province of Ontario to close coal-fired power plants which were among the worst emitters.This had the potential to offer 10% of the reductions promised as part of Canada’s Kyoto commitment of 6%. The Partnership Fund was also to offer financial support to Quebec f or executing its own climate change plan and also to help other provinces in decreasing their own emissions. These initiatives have the potential to reduce anywhere between 55 and 85 mega tons of greenhouse emissions.Promote ProgramsThis initiative has as part of it the Ener Guide program for homes and residential estates. It also promotes incentives for motorists to adopt more energy efficiency practices.As a result of the high success rate in the Ener Guide program, the government decided to channel in another $225 million in the program as part of budget in 2005 in order to increase 4 times the number of residential properties that had been retrofitted from 125,000 to half a million.One more initiative that found a lot of success was EGLIH (Ener Guide for Low Income Households) which was started in 2006. This program was designed to pay the full cost for energy efficiency upgrades to those found to qualify as low-income households. These programs are expected to result in a net d ecrease of 40 mega tons over a period of 5 years.Promote the One-Tonne ChallengeDesigned as a public education program, it called for all Canadians to reduce their annual emissions of greenhouse gases from five tons to four tons. The exception for this program is to reduce emission by a total of 5 mega tons.Promote the Climate FundThis fund was set up to establish a permanent institution that would buy emissions reduction as well as removal credits on behalf of the federal government. The Climate Fund was to buy credits from domestic as well as international sources which were recognized as well as approved under the Kyoto Protocol. This program is expected to result in a net decrease of 75 to 115 mega tons in emissions.Negative impact of Kyoto protocolThe federal government allocated a billion dollars in the year 2003 in order to phase in the Kyoto protocol and to reach the target of cutting emissions by eight percent of the total target. Compliance of the Kyoto agreement is admini stered by an institution called Environment Canada.This particular agency funded close to a hundred and fifty million dollars or roughly eighteen percent of the annual allocation of $841 million. By employing this as the standard, the cost to administer the Kyoto agreement was put at 1.18 billion dollars and this was to be funded by collecting taxes.

Investment and Market Risk Premium

Cost of Capital at Ameritrade Day 1 1. What factors should Ameritrade management consider when evaluating the proposed advertising program and technology upgrades? Why? -They should see how revenues have changed after adopting the new ad program and technology upgrades -They need to see ROI for their investments over time 2. How can the Capital Asset Pricing Model be used to estimate the cost of capital (required return) for calculating the net present value of a project's cash flows? it will help us determine the Cost of capital or discount rate which we can use to calculate NPV, in other terms the numerator will never change (FCF), only the denominator will based on the cost of capital3. What is the estimate of the risk-free rate that should be employed in calculating the cost of capiual for Ameritrade's proposed investment? – the risk free rate should be the T-bills rate or the average annualized total annual returns on US government securities = 3. %. In my opinion, we sho uld use the risk-free rate equal to yield of 20-year US government securities, because it is long-term capital investment. We may use 30-year rate, but we are investing in technology, and concerning the speed of technological enhancements, 20-year rate is optimal. So it is 6,69% 4. What is the estimate of the market risk premium that should be employed in calculating the cost of capital for Ameritrade's proposed investment? Market Risk PremiumThree distinct concepts are part of market risk premium: 1) Required market risk premium: the return of a portfolio over the risk-free rate (such as that of treasury bonds ) required by an investor; 2) Historical market risk premium: the historical differential return of the market over treasury bonds; and 3) Expected market risk premium: the expected differential return of the market over treasury bonds. Also called equity premium, market premium and risk premium.Market Risk Premium = Expected Return of the Market – Risk-Free Rate The e xpected return of the market can be based on the S;P 500, for example, while the risk-free rate is often based on the current returns of treasury bonds. First to find the Expected Return of the market, from Exhibit 6, We take the aggregate stock market and multiply by 12: = 15. 71% The Risk-free rate is 3. 8% =;gt; The market risk premium= 15. 7 – 3. 8 = 11. 9% (That is why we may use the difference between US Government Securities rate (6,69%)and historical Large Company Stocks annual returns.But we have 2 numbers: during1950-96 and 1929-96. The difference between them is 1,3%. I think that we should useâ€Å" younger† value of 14%, because the years 1930-1949, of course, were under market economy, but at the same time there were not so stable laws, a Second World War passed, many companies at that time worked for government orders, so this number may be a bit out of overall tendencies. ) 5. In principle, how would one go about determining beta for purposes of calcula ting the cost of capital for Ameritrade's proposed investment?TO calculate Beta for cost of capital, or asset beta: We need to find first the Equity Beta = by regressing stock returns over market returns and it will then be the slope. We also need to calculate the market value of the equity of the firm which is the price per share multiplied by the total number of shares outstanding (see attached notes) A cost of capital is a weighted average of the cost of debt and equity. Likewise, the asset beta is the weighted average betas of debt and equity. We use market value proportions of debt and equity (see CAPM, p. 476). Ba = (D/D+E)BetaD+ (E/D+E)BetaEIt is common to assume that debt has no relationship to market risk; that BetaD=0 Empirical studies of corporate debt returns suggest it would be better to assign some market-related risk to corporate debt; and use estimates ranging from 0. 20 to 0. 30. To get BetaE, the equity beta for Ameritrade, we would normally run a regression of equ ity returns on stock market returns. That is, we would estimate the slope of the line that best fits: Unfortunately, Ameritrade had their IPO (Initial Purchase Offer) in March of 1997, so there is not enough data at the time of the case to calculate a reliable beta estimate.So instead, we will look at comparable firms. Firms in the same industry pursuing the same types of projects will have the same sorts of risks, thus their asset betas will be approximately the same. The returns we calculate for these firms, based on stock price movement, dividends, and stock splits, are their equity betas. These are influenced by the degree of leverage each company is using (recall that higher leverage leads to higher ROE, EPS and DPS, but also leads to greater variability in earnings).Knowing the amount of debt in their capital structures (at market values), we can calculate the asset beta for each comparable firm. Then we will average these to use as a proxy for Ameritrade’s asset beta N ote: An agent that mediates sales and exchanges between securities buyers and sellers at even lower commission rates than those offered by a regular discount broker . As one might expect, deep discount brokers also provide fewer services to clients than standard brokers; such brokers typically provide little more than the fulfillment of stock and option trades, charging a flat fee for each.The problem that must be overcome in determining the implementation decision is the uncertainty of the cost of capital. Other Methods of Estimating Cost of Equity Capital: †¢The EP Method r = EPS / Stock Price †¢The Constant Growth (Gordon) Model r = DIV1 / P 0 + g compute g from earnings, dividend, or cash flow growth or use the sustainable growth estimate ? Equity Betas, the relationship of a given equity’s risk to that of the larger market, reflects two kinds of risk –The risk of the business itself –The risk that the debt a business has will prevent cash flow to equity ?We can de-lever these equity betas to strip out financial risk associated with leverage and find the implied beta for the business itself (asset beta) –Asset beta measures the business risk only and does not change with capital structure ? Often, the best way to estimate a forward looking asset beta for a company is to take a median of its industry peers asset betas (historically calculated) since one-time company events in the past will be averaged out ? We can then find the equity beta for the company by re-levering the industry asset beta to the target debt / cap ratio of the company ?Exhibit 4 provides various choices of comparable firms. Which firms do you recommend as the appropriate benchmarks for evaluating the risk of Ameritrade’s planned advertising and technology investments? Determine the betas for these firms. Let us agree that Charles Schwab is a comparable firm. Their price changes, dividends,and stock split information for 1992-1996 is in Exhibi t 5. If there were no stock split, thereturn, compared to the previous period, is given by: For example, if the price the previous period was $100, then wentup to $104, and in addition had a dividend of $8, the return would be +0. 12, or 12%.In ashort time period, the returns will be much closer to 0. If there is an X for y stock split, use the formula: Copy the Return values into Exhibit 6 alongside the appropriate dates, then regress theSchwab returns against the value-weighted NYSE returns for the same period. The slopeof the line is the equity beta. Do this for the other comparable firms. Calculate the asset betas using the formula inquestion 5 (twice, once with Beta D = 0 and once with 25. 0). Average the results. This should be a good estimate of Ameritrade’s asset beta. Finally, put these results back into the equation in #2 to estimate Ameritrade’s cost of capital