The Importance Of Water Treatment

The Importance Of Water Treatment Water is very important for human being and other living things. In human body, more than 70% are fluid such as blood and all these fluid are basically formed by water. Bone marrow needs water to generate blood then blood carries the oxygen from lung to whole body. Besides that, water can maintain humans body temperature and provide natural material with mineral. Water is not only essential for human body, it is also playing an important role in our daily life activities, examples like washing clothes and food, bathing for personal hygiene and acting as solvent for all cleaning reagent. Consequently, water industries refer to a problem solver in this situation. First of all, water industries are divided into three major types which are water purification, wastewater treatment and also the new type called desalination. For the water purification means purifying water to become the drinking water. Although natural water is drinkable for human but without any purification or method of killing gem, the natural water is harmful for human being nowadays. Purified water and natural water seems like no different when we look at it but sometimes we still smell the different, natural water might have some pungent smell. Natural water consists of a lot microorganism and bacteria inside it, just we cant observe it with our naked eyes. In addition, water pollution is getting serious thus purification is necessary to ensure the drinking water is clean and not harmful to our health. After that, another type of water industry which is very vital for the Mother of Nature is the wastewater treatment industry. Wastewater treatment refers to the processes of controlling the wastewater on Earth; this is the most important method to solve the water pollution. Wastewater is directing to the chemical wastewater from factories, wastewater from household and some water from polluted river or lake. The usage of wastewater treatment is to killing the gem/bacteria in the wastewater; remove solid impurities and odor smell. Irresponsible human behavior will make the wastewater treatment become more essential for the world. The new type of water industry is about the desalination. Desalination is a meaning of transforming the seawater or saltwater into pure water or drinking water. Due to the natural water on the land is getting lesser and the population of human is increasing, hence we found out a new method to produce normal water from seawater. Seawater source is so much on Earth, so this method is highly developing around the world. Seawater cannot consume by human because it consists of high salt component such as NaCl, this cause our body unaffordable to consume the seawater. Furthermore, we will discuss deeply about the process of water purification and desalination in this article. The importance of Desalination and water purification industry Water treatment process brings many importances to the society today. One of the importances of water treatment process is to ensure that water is more suitable to be used by industries and individuals. The purpose of water treatment process is to remove contaminations from water, so that it would be more suitable for it to be used. There are several processes that can be used to treat water such as filtration, disinfection that is majorly in use to clean water. Water is the key to a persons survival because without water survival is simply not an option. Hence, it is important to make sure water is purified in order to drink otherwise bacteria in the water can be harmful to your organs if drunk in normal consumption. According to a global research, a large number of people at their early ages die from water born diseases in most of the developing countries. Thus, it is very important to get the proper treatment of the water for a healthy living. Water treatment industry can be very helpful for the society today because they are saving the lives of many innocent human beings who die from fatal diseases such as cholera, typhoid which cause by consuming contaminated water. According to United Nations statistics, the worlds fresh water consumption since the 20th century increased by 6-7 times higher than the population growth rate of two times, around 1.4 billion people lack access to safe and clean drinking water, or an average of every 5 people who have a lack of water. So, the idea of desalination plays a major role to provide us the constant supply of water as the sea water is an unlimited resource. Sea water desalination process is actually done by converting salty sea water into fresh usable water. Further purification of the sea water after the desalination process can convert it into drinking water. These industries are important to ensure that there is enough water supply as the population is growing and growing rapidly. These are the major roles of the water treatment plants in. Water supply and demand Water is one of the most important resources in our life and it is the major Earths natural resources. However the freshwater supply in our earth is a control resource, which means the total amount of freshwater, is limited. Most of the worlds water supply is saltwater stored in the oceans. Converting saltwater to freshwater is generally too expensive to be used for domestic, industrial and other freshwater uses. About 97% of the water stored in the ocean is salt water. Only 3% of the worlds water supply is a freshwater where two-third out of the 3%, of that water is frozen, forming the polar ice caps, and icebergs. The remaining one-third of freshwater is available as either surface water or ground water; ground water accounts for two-thirds of this amount. Surface water is water that is visible above the ground surface, such as rivers, ponds and lakes. Ground water is water that either fills the spaces between soil particles or penetrates the cracks and spaces within rocks. The demand for water supply includes water consumption by the domestic, industrial, commercial and other sectors. In addition to this, the total amount of water that needs to be produced, and hence the total water demand includes provisions for water lost as a result of the leakages between the source (treatment plant) and the end users of consumers. Malaysia, like the rest of the world, is faced with a growing population. The population of Peninsular Malaysia will be more than double its size from 18.1 million in 2000 to 38 million in 2050 as reported in the National Water Resources Study (2000) thus the population growth and socio-economic development are currently driving a rapid increase in water demand. The government is now working on the creation of an industry structure to purified water that will ensure long-term sustainability of the water supply and sewerage services industry. Purified water is water from any source that is physically processed to remove impurities. Distilled water and deionised water have been the most common forms of purified water, but water can also be purified by other processes including reverse osmosis, carbon filtration, micro porous filtration. Prospect of water industry in Malaysia Nowadays, the water industry in Malaysia is filled of challenges. There is either too much, too little, polluted or inaccessible water to meet the needs of our nation. As the increasing of demand to the quality of life, peoples are pursuing for an abundance of safe, low cost and high quality water. Globally, more than 90% of water and sanitation systems are publicly owned and operated. However, a trend that industry experts acquired smaller utilities has been increasing. This phenomenon is called consolidation. There also was an increase in privatization-private companies that contract to operate or to purchase the public utilities. Moreover, many larger systems were investing in new testing and treatment methods. Under Malaysian conditions, erosion by water and the decay of nations of pipes that transport water into homes are the most significant. As pipes corrode, water pressure decreases and foreign materials such as bacteria and debris may enter the system. In order to reduce the negative health effects to humans, government officials flush out the water and add large doses of chlorine to eliminate contaminants. However, this is a short-term solution. Obviously, the countrys water-pipe system, much of which is over one hundred years old, needs a major overhaul. Increased privatization of the water system is being seriously considered to help alleviate the plight of countrys water as the government can receive funding for structural adjustment programs. This is because private water companies have a high potential of bringing efficiency, savings, and environmental responsibility to communities, cities and the country. Besides that, as we know that fresh water that is available for human use is just 1 percent of the total water supply, and that supply is dwindling as supply cannot keep pace with demand. Thus, the prospect of water industry may be focusing in the alternative to increase the freshwater. Since most of the earth water is seawater, desalination technology has arisen as a potential alternative to solve the problem of water shortage. Desalination has been present throughout the 125 countries and territories around the world, the worlds desalinated water to feed about 5% of the population. In fact, desalination is an excellent way to solve water shortage problems in many countries. This is indeed a strategic choice as its validity and reliability has been more widely recognized. Research indicates that the cost of producing water from desalination is often less than half that produced by the distillation method of processing water. Improvements in effienciency have led to reduce energy con sumption, cheaper processing costs and a superior product being produced. The Impact On the Environment As our world industrialised, water pollutions are getting serious. There are three main types of water pollutions caused by human activities, which are domestic sewage, industrial wastewater and agricultural wastewater. In these wastewaters, contain pathogens, detergents, toxic waste, chemical waste and heavy metals. These harmful chemicals not only poison aquatic organisms, also affect sources of drinking water, and pollute our environment. Toxic wastes, generally, are not easy to metabolise out of body of organisms. Wastes tend to bioaccumulate inside the organisms. The bioaccumulation of toxic wastes not only happen in single organism, but all members from food chains. The concentration of toxic wastes gets higher as the trophic level going up. Not only that, the agricultural wastewater contains fertilizer, pesticide and also the fungicide. These pollutants cause the eutrophication. It is caused by excessive nutrients in the wastewater, and it brings the algal blooms and red tide. These leads to fish kills as algaes consuming most of the oxygen in the water. In a nutshell, water pollution can lead to a lower biodiversity. The decrease of biodiversity means that the variation of life decreased, and it affects the balance of ecosystem. It is important to maintain the balance of ecosystem, species of organisms will decline if the ecosystem does not balance. It will be a bad circle. Water industry helps in collecting the wastewaters from different parts to the water treatment plants. Also, water industry helps in controlling the quality of water. Before discharging the wastewater back to our ecosystem, the water is treated so it reduces the effect toward the environment. It also improves the water quality which means that provides not only the better quality of life, and save the environment for the future. Furthermore, it maintains the balance of aquatic ecosystem. As the contaminated wastewater not flowing into river and the sea, the aquatic environment will be free of dangerous and toxic wastes. The world cannot stand without water industry. Water industry gives us a solution to the world, a hope to the future. Reverse Osmosis Reverse osmosis is one of the water purification method that is popular in water treatment industry. Just as its name implies, water goes on the osmosis process another way. Normally, the solvent, which is water will go through the semipermeable membrane that having many tiny pores, from low solute concentration side to the high solute concentration side. However, for the reverse osmosis, a pressure is applied on the high solute concentration part. The pressure can be drove by electricity or it may get from the pressure exchanger. Thus, water molecules are forced to pass through the membrane to the low solute concentration side. By this way, clean water can be collected on the other side. There are three common membrane materials, which are polyamide thin film composites (TFC), cellulose acetate (CA) and cellulose triacetate (CTA). In generally TFC membranes are stronger and more durable among these three membranes. CA and CTA give a better toleration to chlorine. For different purpose, specified membrane will be used. Reverse osmosis can be used in residential, commercial and industrial water filtration, also the seawater desalination. By this method, impurities in the water can be removed to clean water. These impurities include ions, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), pesticides, and salts. This is because those impurities are larger than than the pores so they cannot pass through it. Water molecules are allowed to pass through the membrane as it is small enough. Impurities,yet will be left behind the membrane. The waste streams flow out and the pressure is high. Later, the streams go through the pressure exchanger to transfer the waste pressure to the low pressure fresh feed. Then, the low pressure fresh feed will be pressurised. The recycle of waste pressure can save the cost of running the reverse osmosis system. The water flowed out is now clean and ready for purpose of drinking or other uses. Coagulation, flocculation and sedimentation Natural and waste water include small particulates. Coagulation and flocculation processes are intended to form particles large enough to be separated. The small particulates are suspended in water forming a colloid. The particles with the same charge repel with each other and this prevents them from combining into larger particulates to settle. Thus, some chemical and physical techniques are applied to help them settle. The phenomenon is known as coagulation. To assist in the removal of colloidal particles from suspension, chemical flocculation is required. The process water will then enter a flocculation chamber, where further chemicals may be added depending upon the raw water characteristics and the level of treatment to be achieved. Gentle mixing during this stage allows particles to agglomerate and form settleable flocs. Starch and multiply charged ions are often used. The dirty water is cleaned by treating with alum, Al2(SO4)3.12 H2O, and lime, Ca(OH)2. These electrolytes cause the pH of the water to change due to the following reactions: Al2(SO4)3.12 H2O, -> Al(aq)3+ + 3 SO4(aq)2- + 12 H2O SO4(aq)2- + H2O -> HSO4(aq)- + OH- (causing pH change) Ca(OH)2 -> Ca(aq)2+ + 2 OH- (causing pH change) The slightly basic water causes Al(OH)3, Fe(OH)3 and Fe(OH)2 to precipitate, bringing the small particulates called flocs with them and the water becomes clear. Flocculation usually follows by sedimentation, the heavy floc particles settle to the bottom of treatment tanks, allowing for their separation from the water. It works best with relatively dense particles (e.g. silt and minerals), while flotation works better for lighter particles (e.g. algae, color). A big settling tank is needed so that it takes a long time to get through. Inlets and outlets are designed so the water moves slowly in the tank. Long and narrow channels are installed to let the water to snake its way through the tank. The settled particles, sludge, must occasionally be removed from the tanks. The water is next ready to be filtered. Sedimentation is used in pre-treatment and wastewater treatment. Thermal Distillation and Electrodialysis In the process of desalination, after the reverse osmosis, it comes to the thermal distillation process. Heat is used in the thermal distillation for desalination. It boils the salt water to causes the water to vaporize, at the same time, the salt is left behind. Most of the salt is sodium chloride (NaCl). After that, the vapor will moves to a second container to condensed and collected. The boiling process of water uses up a lot of fuel to make the salt water to vaporize so many alternative processes can be considered. These processes are called multistage flash distillation (MSF), multiple effect distillation (MED), and mechanical vapor compression distillation (MVC). All these process can reduce the energy that used to boil the water with reducing the waters boiling point by decreasing the waters vapor pressure. The mechanical vapor compression distillation (MVC) is a process which evaporates the sea or saline water is derived by the heat application delivered by compressed vapor. This process able to increase generate additional amount of vapor by using the latent heat during the condensation when the vapors compression increases both of the temperature and pressure of the vapor. The multistage flash distillation is a thermal process with the low temperature of obtaining fresh water by recovering the vapor of boiling sea water in a sequence of vessels, (called effects) each maintained at a lower temperature than the last. Due to the boiling point of the water reduced as the pressure reduced, the heat energy of the vapor boiled off from one vessel is able to heat the another vessel thus only the first vessel require the heat energy from other source to heat up the sea water. Furthermore, another process of desalination process is electrodialysis that used to separate the other ions and water ions by relying on the salt ions electrical charge. In this process, the water is pre-treated by reverse osmosis thermal distillation hence then transfer to a membrane stack. Two electrodes, a positive electrode located on one side of the stack and a negative one on the other, an electrical current is conducted through the water. The ions are attracted to the oppositely charged electrodes and flow through membranes that are designed to trap either the negatively charged ions (anions) or positively charged ions (cations). Once the ions are trapped, fresh water will filtered out. Filtration Water filtration improves the overall taste of tap water, appearance and smell. Water filters are design to remove several harmful chemicals found in drinking water. At the moment, there is no better way to make sure that the water you are drinking is clean. Compare the differences between a glass of tap water and bottled water. You will realize that tap water is cloudy and it smells like bleach. There are four stages involved in water purification process: 1. Pre-Filtration -Prevents large debris from entering the System 2. Sediment Filtration 5.0 Micron Sediment Filtration 3. Carbon Block Filtration Chemical removal and 0.5 Micron Filtration 4. Ultraviolet Treatment 99.9999% Elimination of Bacteria / Virus Ultraviolet exposure of 16,000 mw/cm2 or greater Pre-filtration is the first process of water filtration, it screens the water source starting from the point of entry. These pre-filter screens are connected to the inlet hose. This is important in preventing the filtration system that turns out to be plugged with rocks, faeces, mud and other large debris. Sediment Filtration is the second stage. In this stage, the water will pass through a sediment filter. In the sediment filter it gives five micron filtration and it expands the life of the carbon filter by eliminating invisible sediments that will impulsively block the filter. Sediment filtration would include the removal of dirt, mud, sand, scale, silt and other suspended solids in the water. Carbon block filtration is the third stage of the filtration process. This process has two different processes. The first process is called mechanical straining, carbon is compressed into a solid block of material. Each molecule of water is pushed through the microscopic pores of carbon that strain out substances efficiently. The second is called chemical bonding, it uses an activated carbon which has a trivial electro positive charge added to it, making bonding agents to impurities and chemicals even more attractive. When the water is pushed through the solid carbon block, it is forced to slow down and the increased quantity of contact time with carbon allows the carbon bonding to take place. The final stage of the filtration process is the ultraviolet treatment. After the water is cleaned by the carbon filter, the next step is to expose it to an extreme dosage of UV light. The UV light it produced will destroy microorganisms by changing their DNA structure. Aeration and Disinfection Aeration is a water treatment process where water is brought into the contact with oxygen. This is to increase the oxygen content in the water, to reduce the carbon dioxide content in the water, and to remove organic compounds such as methane, hydrogen sulphide and other volatile which is responsible for taste and odour of water. These will result in good drinking pure water. High iron and manganese content in water will cause a bitter taste. Aeration is widely used for the treatment of high iron and manganese contaminants water to convert the dissolved ferrous and manganese compounds into insoluble ferric and manganese hydroxides. These can be removed by sedimentation or filtration process. There are many instruments and systems designed to aerate wastewater. These range from simple floating splashes and rotors to high-maintenance diffused air systems using membranes and complex man folding and piping layouts. These systems are designed to inject oxygen to every part of the water. The end result is better than water treatment with higher removal rates of microorganism contamination. Disinfection is an important step in ensuring that water is safe to drink, and limiting the effects of organic materials, suspended solids and other contaminants. It destroys microorganisms that can cause disease in humans. Primary methods of disinfection are chlorination, chloramines, ozone, and ultraviolet light. Other methods include chlorine dioxide, potassium permanganate, and nano filtration. Since certain forms of chlorine react with organic material naturally present in many water sources to form harmful chemical by-products. Common industrial method of disinfection is chlorination, where the chlorine gas is released to mix with water. The mixing and contact time must be provided after an injection to ensure complete disinfection of pathogens and other microorganism. Thus it kills microorganisms and it may be necessary to control the pH of the water. One chlorination had been done, the water will be finalized by some tests to make sure the water is neutral, clean and pure. Finally the water will be send to storage for the domestic, industrial, and commercial uses. Role of Chemical Engineer in the Water Treatment Industry Basically the role of a chemical engineer in a water treatment industry is mainly referring to the technical skills that the chemical engineers obtained because chemical engineers have to conduct the water treatment processes in the industry. Firstly, we talk about the role of chemical engineers before the process and industrial plant in the water treatment industry is formed. For a chemical engineer, the first mission has to do will be understood about the requirements of the water treatment industry to conduct a process with a specific industrial plant. For our case, the chemical engineer must know how to conduct a process of water purification to product drinking water. Chemical engineers must able to design an industrial plant which consists of different types of components to complete the process and get the desired product. The components that might involve in the plant are compressor, mixer, cooler, filter (separator). Furthermore, whether designing the plant, chemical engineer also may concerns about the chemical substances used within the process in the plant. The chemical substances added into the water along the process must not be harmful to consumers due to the water as output is the drinking water for human to consume. Some more, the costs for the substances and material used to build the plant and those components inside it must be save up to the lowest. Chemical engineers need to save the cost for the company and also form the product which is the drinking water with the highest efficiency. Besides that, chemical engineer has to evaluate the chemical process technology and equipment which suitable in the plant. The most important role of chemical engineer in this industry is determining the production specification. Once the plant completely designed, the most essential job that needs the chemical engineer to accomplish is establish and conduct quality control programs, operating procedures and control strategies to ensure consistency and adherence to standards for raw materials, products and waste products or emissions. When the process is running, there also something necessary for chemical engineer to provide checking for the plant and make a suitable maintenance on the processing units. Thus, chemical engineer is playing a very important character in the water treatment industry. Skills/Knowledge required by Engineer As an engineer, there are many skill and knowledge required to smoothen the task that have to conduct by engineer. The skill and knowledge required by engineer can be categories into six parts which are technical skill, computer literacy, communication skill, management/finance, international awareness and respect for diversity. Engineer requires the technical skill and knowledge to conduct and control the processing units in the plant. The technical skill is about the mathematics, chemistry, physics, mechanical and electrical knowledge. In the water industry, chemical engineers refer to separating dangerous materials from good water as a treatment train. At various stages in the multistage treatment process, unwanted constituents are separated using vacuum or pressure filtration, centrifugation, membrane-based separation, distillation, carbon-based and zeolite-based adsorption and advanced oxidation treatments Computers are used every day for communications, simulations, budgeting, monitoring controls and word processing hence the computer literacy is very important to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the simulations and assumption that did by chemical engineers. Before chemical engineers design a plant, they have to do some simulation by using some professional programs or software in the computer such as Aspen Technology Programs. Engineering involves working with others and communicating but not only deal with machines so that others able to understand and support the idea provided individually. Consequently, communication skill also must be trained by chemical engineers. When the time chemical engineers present their project or proposal, the others who listening and watching able to fully disgust what are the points and idea about. Management and finance are always the necessary knowledge for everyone in the society including engineers. Many decisions an engineer makes have business consequences. Understanding the business principle can help engineers become more effective. In finance aspect, chemical engineers require to know clearly how to manage a team because engineers can be leaders which work together with others. For the engineers, they are working in a global market requires an understanding of cultural, geographic, economics and environmental factors that influence the decision which made by engineers. International awareness means chemical engineers have to be caution with all the response and effect from the market around us. Lastly the respect for diversity, engineers regularly work in group setting so being able to interact effectively, professionally and respectfully with others will make you a more capable team player. A good engineer team leader must respect all the colleagues so that everyone can work together without any conflict. Conclusion In a conclusion Water treatment is an important processs in our modern life, due to the lack of natural fresh water and increase in population. Many new technology method has been introduce to water treatment industry nowdays. The raw sea water have to go through a certain number of processes strating with either reverse osmosis or thermal distillation to make it usable. Besides this two processes, an electrodialysis process method can also be used. A further water treament process need to be done to make it drinkable, the processes consist of coagulation method, followed by flocculation and sendimentation. A further filtration process is done and finally aeration and disinfection process will take palce before the water is kept in a storage. This processes can be used to make water more acceptable for a desired end-use. These can include use as drinking water, industrial processes, medical and many other uses. The goal of all water treatment process is to remove existing contaminant s in the water, or reduce the concentration of such contaminants so the water becomes fit for its desired end-use. One such use is returning water that has been used back into the natural environment without adverse ecological impact.

Overworked Americans :: Materialism Materialistic Society Essays

â€Å"There is the constant pressure from our materialistic society to get nice cars, big TV’s, and brand-name clothes. So, what if we can’t afford the nicest cars and other items? We can now use financing and credit cards to get thrown deep into debt,† Michael*, a financial consultant from Northeastern Pennsylvania said. He said people are forced to work longer hours and get multiple jobs to pay off their debt. The expensive products create stress and lead to family problems, including verbal and physical abuse, he said. Americans are overworked and recognize the need for reduced job hours, but are addicted to spending money, he said. Michael said he has difficulty juggling his high-pressure job with a personal life, yet still insists on creating time for his family and friends. â€Å"There should always be time to try to relax and cool off after tough days, and I consider it imperative to do so,† he said. He said that people need to recognize that work correlates with their family and friends, and it is important to balance work with a social life. Kristen Randall, 22, of Rumson, New Jersey is a recent college graduate at the beginning of her career. She said she has minimal expenses at this stage in her life and works 40 hours each week. Randall said she would need an additional job if she had more bills to pay. â€Å"A lot of Americans need to work overtime because they have minimum wage jobs and these jobs don’t pay enough for them to make a living,† she said. Long work hours lend little time for leisure, which Randall said is an essential aspect of a person’s overall health. She said that people who repeatedly work overtime are too tired to exercise or spend time with family members. â€Å"When a person doesn’t have enough time to relax or participate in activities that they are interested in, they tend to be in a bad mood and take less care of themselves,† Randall said. She said that households with two working parents are sometimes forced to send their children to daycare, where they sacrifice quality time together and lose some control in raising their children. â€Å"If people are sacrificing a great deal because of their job, they are probably more likely to be unhappy. They may be tired and stressed out. This makes them less likely to be productive, pleasant employees,† Randall said. Daljinder Mann, a sales employee in Somerville, MA, attributed Americans’ increased working hours to the rising cost of living.

Down with Downloading Essay -- Music Downloads Technology Essays

Down with Downloading Throughout the whole time when you were able to gain access to free downloadable music, you have been able to by pass the purchasing of music, but has it been morally right? People always insist that download is great, but are you thinking of who you’re talking it from. The artists are the ones losing there money as well as positive recognition. Musicians should obviously get a cut as should small record stores who are obviously going to lose out when the big chains all get together on this (newsfactor.com). Also, the factor that you have to pay for theses programs, you mine as well go to the store and but them yourself. Everyone likes to download, but sometime you can only get one song, what if you want the whole album. And lately there have been numerous viruses, and programs that have been affected from using these downloading sites. Bugs in software are common and most can be fixed with patches, but peer-to-peer technology can be riskier (http://www.ecommercetimes.com/pe rl/story/11667.html). After, reading several studies on the downloading process, many artists have been affected in the past. Madonna, Elton John, Eminem, Brittany Spears, Nelly, India Arie, Ludacris and Sheryl Crow among them -- in an upcoming TV ad campaign to persuade young people to stop downloading music from the Internet (http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/living/music/0902/27piracy.html) They have clearly been hurt financially, even though they are financially stable. It is the honor system, and also the freedom of giving access to your music. A huge percentage of the artists make money through selling the CD’s and selling music memorabilia. If we were taking away from this, more and more people will take the free music ... ... published for this agenda. If I had just a little bit more time, I believe that is paper could indeed be a little bit better, also if I did surveys and things of that nature I could find the real peoples perspective. Overall, this paper seemed to be not as stressful as the first because the first paper lacked information and quotes. â€Å"Celebrity TV ads will fight music downloading" ajc.com. 9-27-02 http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/living/music/0902/27piracy.html â€Å"Bad News Keeps on Coming for Napster Users† By Tim McDonald. Part of the News Factor Network. June 29, 2001 http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/11667.html www.musicunited.com â€Å"Celebrity TV ads will fight music downloading" ajc.com. 9-27-02 http://www.accessatlanta.com Dewalt, Mike ed. Through internet downloading, Microsoft Encyclopedia 2002 CD-ROM. New York, New York

Meaning of a Monologue from Hamlet

The proverb means one should be true to oneself. One should try to have his own identity by being himself or herself. This line is a monologue by Polonium, one of the characters of William Shakespearean â€Å"Hamlet†. This line requests/ advices a person to be truthful in his life. By engaging oneself into self deception, one will only lead his way to menace. The only way to success is through an honest and straightforward life. If we are honest then automatically we will get the friendship of honest people.We all have different thoughts and hopes. All the thoughts and hopes are very different and does not match with others. We also call all these thoughts and hopes as dreams. Our dream can be anything. The dream we see must be real and not some thin which Is Inappeasable on earth. A person can dream of being a dancer or a singer or a swimmer or a cyclist or a runner or a tennis champion or a artist or a cinema artist and these dreams are Just endless. Hen a child see a dream which moms very close and a attachment rises to our heart. We start our Journey of being of what we have dreamt. We try our best to be successful. These dreams are not as easy as It looks. The journey has a lot obstacles In Its path but Is our dream Is real then no one In the world can stop us for making a goal to our alms. A very Important thing Is trust In yourself. Elf this trust Is there then we will never lose a competition. So as a fact we should never stop Instead continue walking Into our life.

Wawa Inc. Research Paper

On the scale of company sizes In this country, Way falls somewhere In the middle. Initiating leadership in the convenience store industry in the Delaware Valley, while at the same time providing the employees with small-company personal immunization. The company hopes to maintain this relationship with the employees In the future, even though the recent strike hurt the morale among the delivery personnel. The organizational structure begins with the president, Richard Wood. There are six vice-presidents in the company, each serving an important function.The segments of the company are broken down to the following levels, with the vice-president for each level controlling It: Law & Human Resources, Marketing, Store Operations, Real Estate, Finance, and Distribution. As you can see, the real state segment is heavily weighted in the corporate structure. The reasoning behind this strategy is that the company is expanding at the rate of three to four stores per month. Devoting resources t o real estate includes the locating, purchasing, developing, and operating the new store until sufficient management can be established. I have witnessed two new examples of this strategy this semester.I have observed the demolition process of a store, and the construction of three stores, and the renovation of one! These experiences have taught me the process template hat Way uses to build every one of its new stores. With such stress being focused in this area, you can Imagine that the employees involved in the new construction process know exactly how to open a store, from the purchase of the land, to the grand opening day! The other segments of the company mentioned follow the same format as most companies of today. Story ‘Offs successful company, serving the convenience needs of the greater Delaware Valley with pride since 1964.Through the strong respect from customers, Way has achieved a dramatic increase in sales in the past five years. With the introduction of ewe â₠¬Å"superstores†, the future looks extremely bright for the company. Haw's branding strategy of its own products has achieved national recognition. From the dairy products that it has manufactured since the early sass's, to the new Way Bakery, which is destined to be a phenomenal success in the years to come because of its versatility in creating exciting new products, Way is planning on leaving the twentieth century with a bang!The following is a short history of how the company has become as successful as it is today. Way, Inc. Did not begin as a food business, as many people may believe. Instead, the company began operations in the textile industry as early as 1803. By 1865, the company, dubbed as The Melville Manufacturing Company, was incorporated and was operating mills quite successfully in several states, with sales offices throughout the country, but headquarters always remaining in Melville, New Jersey.In 1902, George Wood, who was the owner of Melville, New Jersey, w hich was a bustling town thanks to his family-owned textile business, opened a small milk plant in Way, Pennsylvania, which specialized in processing, and the home delivery of â€Å"certified† milk. Since bastardization had not yet been discovered, consumers relied heavily on the quality of Haw's milk for years. The Wood family summer home, called Red Roof, became the office center for the dairy farm. As the textile industry began to fade in the sass's, the Wood family considered enlarging the small dairy business to serve a larger area, covering the Philadelphia metropolis.Their dairy business began to thrive, Just as the textile industry collapsed due to lower prices for labor overseas. The original mill remains in Melville today, however, and is currently occupied by Wheaton Plastics, Inc. In 1998, Way manufactured more than 92 million quarts of their own dairy products, Juices, and teas. Customer service is the pillar, which keeps Way standing tall as the leading convenie nce store company in the greater Delaware Valley. While there are many factors which go into the way that Way addresses the issue of customer service, there are four that have stood out since the opening of the first store in the sass's.Greeting, understanding, directing, and retaining are the four key factors that go into the customer interaction model, which is learned during the training of every new associate in the company. Since delighting the customer is such an important part of Haw's success, the company has worked to a great extent in creating a product line that is extremely effective in today's volatile marketplace. The Way label has been synonymous to people in the Delaware Valley for years in the dairy industry. Way also sells its own brand of delicious coffee, of which over 100 million cups were sold in 1998.Also, Way built over 24 million hoagies in 1998. Realizing this pattern, the marketing department in the past five years, has recognized this occurrence of brand loyalty by introducing several new products into the stores with the Way brand name attached to them. These products are breakfast â€Å"Sizzle† sandwiches, Waybill, and extremely successful, since consumers have developed a brand loyalty to Haw's high quality products. In the more recent months, the company has been suffering from the results of two key problems. First, the strike in October 1999 forced the company to a screeching halt, adversely affecting sales in every store.While an agreement was reached in less than three weeks, the effects are still being felt. Sales have still not ounces back to what they were, and plans to build a new headquarters are on hold. Second, there has been tremendous public scrutiny of an advertising promotion for cigarettes in the Delaware valley. This promotion does not include a surgeon generals warning on the advertisement, and it has been questioned if advertising for cigarettes through a convenience store is even legal. This problem, a long with the recent strike is nearly enough to change customers' minds when they decide to make a purchase.In the future, the company will have to not make any mistakes with advertising, and should steer clear of any type of controversial advertising. In the years to come, Haw's history of excellence and innovation will continue to be a major part of the Delaware valley, and quite possibly, the entire country!! POLICY There are hundreds of pages of policies that all employees have access to on the computer in every store and regional office. While some companies hide this information from the employees, Way encourages all employees to review the information at their leisure.Some examples of what is in the corporate policy would e information regarding political contributions, employment procedures (hiring and termination), changing from part time to full time employment, retirement, and policy regarding the emigration law. It was especially interesting to find that I was entitled t o 15 vacation days since changing to full time in July. Since I have been with Way for nearly seven years, I had accumulated the extra vacation days that are only good if you change to full time. I was able to find this information while viewing some of the policy during my internship.The corporate policies of Way ensure that sugarless of what the situation may be, there are rules that govern which process is necessary to take action. The corporate headquarters is very strict concerning the rules of the company, and enforcement is always carried out, no matter who the person in question may be. JOB DESCRIPTION My Job title at Way has been Customer Service Leader since July 1999. I was promoted at my request after carefully planning my senior year at Rowan. I realized that I would be able to handle 36 hours per week and have plenty of time for class also. This is because I have no social life.I feel that there will be plenty of time for that in the future! Basically, I run the store when the manager is not present from Thursday to Sunday every week. I perform cash functions, delegate all responsibilities to my co-workers, and myself and most important of all, wait on customers!! During the semester, I have participated in advertising in the Melville stores, and when necessary, I have created signs for hurricanes and other adverse weather in our area. In short, I really enjoy my Job, and I look forward to the opening off new superstore down the street from our present location.This will all take place in July 2000, and I am hoping to be a manager in training at the new store, having finished college. If everything goes as planned, I will have a career full of Primarily during my internship, I saw countless marketing concepts at work that I have learned in the past, in a real company setting. However, I will focus on the use of the â€Å"four up's†, relationship marketing, total quality management, and brand loyalty. For price, I have been exposed to the p rocess of changing the prices on the different items that we sell. During the strike, I saw the prices of many items skyrocket, while there fell.The products that Way offers all have one thing in common, they are essential items necessary to run a household, or a spontaneous item that someone wishes to have. New products introduced usually fit these criteria. Promotion is a key element in the company. Unfortunately, the company has focused a lot of attention to the promotion of Marlboro cigarettes, which may adversely affect other sales of merchandise negatively. While the company is attracting smokers, the ads have been detracting the non-smokers. Some non-smoking customers have dubbed Way a cigarette-friendly' company.This semester has been an interesting one when it comes to place. The delivery of all Way products and supplies was halted due to the strike. This created a distribution crisis, because the delivery system that has worked so well was now out of commission for three w eeks. Outside contractors had to be brought in to deliver the goods to the stores. It would have been a lot easier to simply settle with the drivers instead of start a nasty battle that created bad press, and angry drivers. Regarding relationship marketing, Way operates its stores on the Renville that the customer will return, time and time again.Therefore, in order to provide this high level of quality, Way strives to ensure that every customer is treated with the utmost of respect at all times, regardless of how indignant they may be. The most essential part of relationship marketing that Way engages in is customer service. All associates are trained to be polite, whatever the situation is. Being quick, while also being friendly is a difficult thing to do, but once the balance between the two has been achieved, the customers really appreciate it. Also, ordering properly is obviously important.If a store is out of stock on items, this leads to a disgruntled customer. Total quality management is constantly used with many products. One example would be the Washbowl program. The product has been changed three times since introduction. The changes have been made due to customer feedback through the use of surveys. Way is constantly receiving feedback from customers on every product that it produces. With the assurance of quality, the company has thrived with its own product line, ranging from milk products to breakfast sandwiches. Coupled along with TTS, brand loyalty is very important to the company.Through the constant innovation of its products, Way hopes to create a brand loyalty with the customers. This is extremely important to Way, unlike an electronics store or department store, which carries several brands. Way needs to constantly monitor the marketplace, to seek out the strongest performing products that people will buy. Since the store is small, we only carry one brand of everything we sell, so it is important that we sell the most popular brand of dry dog food, aluminum foil, toothpaste, etc†¦ Selling popular products is something that sets Way apart from its competitors. During the semester, I would say that I have never had more opportunities to meet key people. This has helped me gain the exposure to the key management of the headquarters as I was promised, I was still able to meet many of the to-management of the company, since the regional office is two blocks from our store. I will be visiting the headquarters in the next few weeks. I feel that I have performed my Job to the adequacy that it demands. While balancing school with work can be stressful, I was able to orchestrate my schedule to accommodate both successfully.I am looking forward to the months to come, with the construction of our new store, and the opportunities that await! Working at my store has exposed me to the hiring and firing of people, dealing with customer issues face to face instead of passing the issue on to the manager. I have had to balance th e tedious position of what percent of the time I need to spend with the customers, while also getting my Jobs done for the evening. My manager has worked with me regarding the flexibility of my schedule, even though I am sure e will be very happy when I am finished college!Working with my co-workers has been a rewarding experience as well. I could never begin to do everything myself, and I feel that the help I have received from a few key employees over this semester has been tremendous. Over the next few months, I plan to create more advertising material for our store, and others. With the winter season arriving, I am ready for the annual creation of signs warning customers that they need to prepare for a winter storm. All in all, the experience this semester has been very rewarding, thanks to the help of everyone that I work with at Way!

Financial Analysis of I.T Ltd.

Company background I. T Limited (0999. HK) is an investment holding company based in Hong Kong. It was listed on the main board of The Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 4-March-2005. The company offers a wide range of apparel products. It sells its products as well as offers a variety of national and international brands through its network of retail stores. As of February 28, 2011, it operated 392 stores in Hong Kong and Mainland China. Objective To undertake a comprehensive analysis on the financial performance of I. T. Limited. Detailed financial ratio analysis will be performed.An estimation of the firm’s cost of equity capital and weighted average cost of capital will also be provided. Horizon of analysis We will focus on its performance in the latest 5 fiscal years. A) Detail financial analysis The financial analysis will be conducted in two ways. First, the major accounts on financial statements will be inspected in order to derive a general picture on the healthiness of the business. Second, PERL (Performance, Efficiency, Risk, Liquidity) framework will be used to further analyze the financial performance of the company. I.Going through the financial statements We can get a glimpse of the healthiness of the business by looking into the trend of accounting items in income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement respectively. Consolidated income statement (Referring to appendix A – table 1 and 2) 2008/09 was a special year, financial tsunami happened. Therefore there was a huge profitability impact in that year, resulting in a large decrease in operating profit. And since the market recovered in 2009/2010, the profitability suddenly increased a lot in that fiscal year. Other than these wo special years, the overall growth trend in sales turnover, costs, and profit is healthy. (Referring to appendix A – table 3) Standardizing the income statement can extract extra information. All the accounts are expressed as a percentage of turnov er. The company has done a good job in cost controlling, since the cost of sales as a percentage of turnover is in a decreasing trend, hence the gross profit margin is in an increasing trend. On the other hand operating expenses fluctuates at about 50-51% of turnover, but since cost of sales has a greater decrease, the net effect is operating profit is in an increasing trend.Consolidated balance sheet (Referring to appendix A – table 4) In general, total assets experience an increasing trend. This is reasonable since the business is at a growing stage. One notable point is the growth of non-current assets look greater than current assets, especially property, furniture and equipment has a very significant increase in 2010/11, this is probably due to the rapid expansion of retails stores in Hong Kong and China. And as a result, there is a significant increase in inventories in 2010/11 too. (Referring to appendix A – table 5)Similar conclusions can be drawn by viewing th e same accounts in a standardized balance sheet (all items are standardized by total asset value in the fiscal year). Property, furniture and equipment, and inventories make up most of the total assets. (Referring to appendix A – table 6) Liabilities also grow a lot with total assets as the business expands. Notably there is a significant increase in both short-term and long term bank borrowings. In addition the payable accounts also increased more than 100%, meaning that the company bought stocks or services from suppliers on credit more than before.This growth of liabilities is fine as long as the company can generate consistent operating cash flows, as we will see in the next section. (Referring to appendix A – table 7) Similar conclusions can be drawn at standardized balance sheet, bank borrowings and payables increased significantly, especially for longer term bank borrowings. (Referring to appendix A – table 8) The growth of the business was mainly funded by growing liabilities, as we can see that the growth of equity is not so significant, the company has not issued new shares to get funding. The company has simply retained some of the profit in each year into reserves.Consolidated cash flow statement (Referring to appendix A – table 9) The company has improved its cash flow generation as its business grew. The profitability of the company increased, and so as the cash generated from operation. And since the company has increased in size, it has increased its ability to finance from banks, therefore it also increased its cash generated from financing activities. Although the company has increased investment in fixed assets and hence the cash outflow from investment, this is offset by the increase in cash flow from operation and financing.II. PERL (Performance, Efficiency, Risk, Liquidity) analysis (Referring to appendix B and C) 1) Performance Profit margins (Gross, operating, net) Gross profit margin keeps increasing. The la test figure is 63. 35%, which is a very high margin. This is probably due to the increased brand image of the company, hence the company can increase the selling price of the products. Also, the company shifted the focus on selling products of its own brands more than imported brands, this also increased the gross profit margin.Both operating and net profit margin are also in an increasing trend (despite year 2008/09, a special year which financial crisis happened). But it is worth noting that the current margins are 12. 08% and 10. 12% respectively, which show a great difference from gross profit margin. This indicate the operating expenses are very high, eating up more than 50% of profit margin. The company should think ways to further reduce operating costs. Return on Equity (ROE) The company has increased its ROE along the years despite the special year 2008/09. The latest ROE is actually a high return, 21. 6%. So what are the main drivers of such high return? By utilizing DuPon t analysis, the reason for return growth can be found: ROE = Net Profit Margin x Asset Turnover x Financial Leverage The net profit margin is increasing throughout the years. At the same time, since the financing ability of the company has increased, the financial leverage also increased. These two factors drove the ROE up, offsetting the diminishing effect on ROE by asset turnover. The asset turnover actually decreased in last two fiscal years, indicating the efficiency of turning asset to revenue decreased.It is a bit worry to see the ratio decreased from 1. 6 to 1. 17 in these 2 years. It may indicate that the asset size of the firm is too large, further expansion may not bring further increase in revenue. This may be an indicator of the firm has passed its optimum point and management must take extra care in evaluating whether the company should invest in expanding more retail stores or not. Extended DuPont analysis breaks down net profit margin into tax burden, interest burden, and EBIT margin. Tax burden of the company is actually increasing, i. e. it has to pay more effective tax hence impacting the net profit margin.But it’s still fine as the effective tax rate is still at about 20%, which should be quite low when compared to effective tax rate outside Hong Kong and China. Interest burden also experiences an increasing trend. This is reasonable since the company has increased financing ability and financed through more bank loans. EBIT margin is increasing, offsetting the negative effect of tax burden and interest burden. 2) Efficiency Fixed asset Fixed asset turnover is in a decreasing trend (from 16. 08 to 7. 98 in last five years). This indicates the efficiency of generating sales revenue from fixed assets investment is lowering.This confirms with the decreasing asset turnover ratio mentioned above. However the ratio is still at a high level, the management should still invest in fixed asset and expand the business, but extra care should be t aken to determine the amount and scale to be invested. Inventory Inventory turnover is decreasing (from 3. 72 to 2. 48 in last five years). This indicates that in general, the speed of stocks selling has slowed down as the business expands. When this ratio is converted to days of inventory on hand, the meaning can even be clearer. The days increased from about 98 days to 147 days in these 5 years.Overstocking, importing or producing products which are not popular, or insufficient marketing efforts are all possible reasons to this decreasing efficiency. Receivables Receivables turnover is decreasing. To get a clearer meaning, the ratio is converted to days of sales outstanding, and this ratio is increasing (from 1. 97 to 11. 49). This ratio means on average how many days the company’s customers who buy on credit will pay their bills. This increasing ratio means that it takes more time to collect the bill from customers, meaning that capital has to be tied up for longer period. However the number actually is not large, it’s about 12 days and therefore an acceptable value. Payables Payables turnover decreased from 11. 14 to 5. 51. The ratio can be converted to number of days of payable. This ratio increased from 32. 76 to 66. 23. This ratio is the average amount of time it takes to pay its bills. The time has increased significantly. It showed the advantage of the growth of the company, i. e. when the company went listed and expanded, the ability to pay on credit increased. This increased time to pay bills increases the flexibility to manage working capital and hence benefits the operation of the company.Working capital The effectiveness of the company in using working capital has increased since the working capital turnover increased from 2. 72 to 4. 46 in last five years. This means that more sales revenue is generated for each dollar of working capital which funded the sales. This is probably due to increased size of the company, so that the compa ny can get more funding by short-term bank loans, and increase its payables to different creditors. These increased funding are used to purchase inventories to generate sales revenue. 3) Risk Gearing All debt-to-equity, debt-to-asset and financial leverage ratios are in an increasing trend.As the company grows, more funding is needed. Financing by debt issuance is better than equity issuance since the required return by debt is lower, and there is possible tax advantage on debt payment. These three ratios are still in a healthy range and further increase in the ratio is still possible. Debt-to-common equity ratio is 0. 32 and debt-to-asset ratio is 0. 18, these two numbers are fairly low. This indicates that the company has a considerable capacity in debt financing if needed. Coverage Interest coverage ratio maintains at a high level (159. at 2010/11), although the company has increased financing by bank loans. That means the operating profit is more than enough to cover the interes t expense and indicate that the business is healthy. Cash flow coverage ratio is also at adequate level despite it has fallen a bit (50. 54 at 2010/11). This is also a healthy signal because net cash flow is positive and adequate. 4) Liquidity Cash conversion cycle Cash conversion cycle is the days the company takes to convert its investment in inventories back into cash. The company has an increased cash conversion cycle, due to the increase in days on inventory on hand.This is still an acceptable length (92. 15 days), but the company should try to lower the days in inventory on hand as mentioned above. Current and acid test ratio Both current and acid test ratio are decreasing, but they are still at a healthy level. Current ratio is at 1. 85, meaning the current assets are 1. 85 times of current liabilities, which is sufficient for its short-term obligations. Acid test ratio is 1. 12, meaning the cash-like current assets are 1. 12 times of current liabilities, indicating that it i s sufficient to cover its short-term liabilities by short-term cash.Operating cash flow to maturing obligations This is also a measure of the company’s ability to meet short term liabilities from cash flow. Although the overall cash flow has improved, the current liabilities has also increased considerably, therefore this ratio is not at a high level (0. 44). The major cash outflow is from purchasing fixed assets and repayment of bank loans. Management should control the cash outflow in these two areas in order to improve the overall liquidity. III. Summary The company has a healthy business. It has an increasing net profit and positive cash flow.The ROE and profit margin are at good levels. It utilized bank loans to further expand its business, while the leverage ratios are still in a healthy range. There is no liquidity problem associated with the company as seen in liquidity ratios. However the management should focus on improving the efficiency of the company while expand ing the business. The major concern here is reducing days of inventory on hand, in order to reduce the length of cash conversion cycle. To sum up, this is a company with good financial performance, and therefore it is worth to invest in this company.B) Cost of equity capital Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) is used to determine the cost of equity capital. There are three major inputs in CAPM equation: risk-free rate, beta of the company stock to a benchmark market, and equity risk premium of the benchmark market. Since I. T. Limited is a Hong Kong based company, therefore the input parameters mentioned above should come from Hong Kong. Risk-free rate Hong Kong government do not issue bill or bond (despite the newly launched ibond, but that is a floating rate bond which its purpose is for general public to protect inflation).Therefore risk-free rate should be the yield on Exchange Fund Bills issued by Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Risk-free rate should be the yield on short-term bi ll, therefore the yield on one-month bill is selected, which is 0. 05%. Stock beta Hang Seng Index (HSI) is the benchmark index in Hong Kong. 5 years of monthly return stock of I. T. Limited and HSI were obtained. Stock Beta of I. T. to HSI can be calculated by using Slope function of Excel, or regressing both return series. The estimated beta is 1. 399, meaning that the stock of I. T.Limited is more volatile than the index. R2 coefficient is 0. 2261, meaning that about 22. 61% of the variability of the stock returns can be explained by variability in the index. Equity risk premium According to Zhu & Zhu (2010), the equity risk premium of Hong Kong is 8. 19%. Applying CAPM: Cost of equity capital = (0. 05 + 1. 399*8. 19)% = 11. 51%. C) Weighted average cost of capital (WACC) The company has not issued any debt. The â€Å"debt† of the company is in the form of bank borrowings, so the effective interest rate of borrowing will be treated as cost of debt.In the latest annual repo rt, the effective interest rate is 1. 4% (from notes 23 of annual report). Total bank borrowings is HKD594. 145M, total equity is HKD1846. 961M, therefore: WACC = 594. 145 / (594. 145 + 1846. 961)*1. 4% + 1846. 961 / (594. 145 + 1846. 961)*11. 51% = 9. 049% References: Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Exchange Fund Bills and Notes fixing (http://www. info. gov. hk/hkma/eng/press/index_efbn. htm) Zhu & Zhu (2010) – Estimating the Equity Risk Premium: the Case of Greater China, Jie Zhu, Xiaoneng Zhu (http://citeseerx. ist. psu. edu/viewdoc/download? doi=10. . 1. 175. 7333&rep=rep1&type=pdf) Appendix A – Selected figures from financial statements Table 1 – Excerpt from summarized consolidated income statement 201120102009200820072006 HK$'000HK$'000HK$'000HK$'000HK$'000HK$'000 Turnover3,834,422 2,995,952 2,733,256 2,021,283 1,530,763 1,314,443 Cost of sales(1,405,482)(1,176,707)(1,121,570)(819,423)(640,442)(540,243) Gross profit2,428,940 1,819,245 1,611,686 1,201,860 8 90,321 774,200 Other income – incentive income0 13,200 0 0 Other (loss)/gain(7,544)3,791 (11,123)1,900 (4,395)(273) Impariment of goodwill0 (4,217)(59,569)0Operating expenses(1,958,255)(1,524,760)(1,468,877)(1,002,046)(749,898)(642,553) Operating profit463,141 307,259 72,117 201,714 136,028 131,374 Table 2 – Growth trend of turnover, costs and profit, calculated based on consolidated income statement 20112010200920082007 Increase/Decrease (%) Turnover27. 99%9. 61%35. 22%32. 04%16. 46% Cost of sales19. 44%4. 92%36. 87%27. 95%18. 55% Gross profit33. 51%12. 88%34. 10%34. 99%15. 00% Operating expenses28. 43%3. 80%46. 59%33. 62%16. 71% Operating profit50. 73%326. 06%-64. 25%48. 29%3. 54% Table 3 – Excerpt from summarized and standardized consolidated income statement 01120102009200820072006 Turnover100. 00%100. 00%100. 00%100. 00%100. 00%100. 00% Cost of sales-36. 65%-39. 28%-41. 03%-40. 54%-41. 84%-41. 10% Gross profit63. 35%60. 72%58. 97%59. 46%58. 16%58. 90% Other income – incentive income0. 00%0. 44%0. 00%0. 00%0. 00%0. 00% Other (loss)/gain-0. 20%0. 13%-0. 41%0. 09%-0. 29%-0. 02% Impairment of goodwill0. 00%-0. 14%-2. 18%0. 00%0. 00%0. 00% Operating expenses-51. 07%-50. 89%-53. 74%-49. 57%-48. 99%-48. 88% Operating profit12. 08%10. 26%2. 64%9. 98%8. 89%9. 99% Table 4 – Excerpt from summarized consolidated balance sheet 20112010200920082007HK$'000HK$'000HK$'000HK$'000HK$'000 ASSETS Non-current assets Property, furniture and equipment727,022 233,395 229,124 179,850 93,191 Current assets Inventories736,717 394,520 411,145 323,724 196,299 Table 5 – Excerpt from summarized and standardized consolidated balance sheet 20112010200920082007 ASSETS Non-current assets Property, furniture and equipment22. 13%11. 83%13. 44%11. 59%9. 38% Current assets Inventories22. 42%20. 00%24. 12%20. 85%19. 77% Table 6 – Excerpt from summarized consolidated balance sheet 20112010200920082007 LIABILITIES Current liabilities Bank borrowings (214,911)(47,400)(47,400)(10,000)0Trade and bill payables(360,545)(149,488)(155,993)(121,840)(66,805) Accruals and other payables(349,524)(178,245)(135,677)(140,200)(71,648) Non-current liabilities Bank borrowings(379,234)(35,200)(82,600)0 0 Table 7 – Excerpt from summarized and standardized consolidated balance sheet 20112010200920082007 LIABILITIES Current liabilities Bank borrowings-6. 54%-2. 40%-2. 78%-0. 64%0. 00% Trade and bill payables-10. 97%-7. 58%-9. 15%-7. 85%-6. 73% Accruals and other payables-10. 64%-9. 04%-7. 96%-9. 03%-7. 21% Non-current liabilities Bank borrowings-11. 54%-1. 78%-4. 85%0. 00%0. 00%Table 8 – Excerpt from summarized consolidated balance sheet 20112010200920082007 EQUITY Capital and reserves Share capital119,725 115,504 115,504 115,468 103,950 Reserves1,727,236 1,362,219 1,096,205 1,105,369 722,803 Non-controlling interests(3,749)0 0 0 0 Total equity1,843,212 1,477,723 1,211,709 1,220,837 826,753 Table 9 – Excerpt from summarized con solidated cash flow statements 20112010200920082007 HK$'000HK$'000HK$'000HK$'000HK$'000 Net cash generated from operating activities450,446 366,025 135,589 243,939 91,589 Net cash used in investing activities(508,347)(137,011)(156,242)(110,300)(101,843) Net cash generated from/ used in) financing activities204,453 (47,400)22,668 (76,497)(49,807) Net increase in cash and cash equivalents146,552 181,614 2,015 57,142 (60,061) Appendix B – Ratio formula Performance Profit margins Gross profit margin = Gross Profit / Turnover Operating profit margin = Operating Profit / Turnover Net profit margin = Net Profit for the year / turnover Return ratio Return of equity (ROE) = Net Profit for the year / Averageyear, year-1 (Share capital + Reserves) Decomposition of ROE ROA = Net Profit for the year / Averageyear, year-1 (Total Assets) ROE = ROA x Financial Leverage DuPont Decomposition of ROEAsset turnover = Turnover / Averageyear, year-1 (Total Assets) Financial leverage = Averageyear, year-1 (Total Assets) / Averageyear, year-1 (Share capital + Reserves) ROE = Net profit margin x Asset turnover x Financial leverage Extended DuPont Decomposition of ROE Tax burden = Net profit for the year / Profit before income tax Interest burden = Profit before income tax / (Operating Profit + Share of profit of jointly controlled entities) EBIT margin = (Operating Profit + Share of profit of jointly controlled entities) / Turnover ROE = Tax burden x Interest burden x EBIT margin x Asset turnover x Financial leverageEfficiency Fixed asset turnover = Turnover / Averageyear, year-1 (Property, furniture and equipment) Inventory turnover = Turnover / Averageyear, year-1 (Inventories) Days of inventory on hand = 365 / Inventory turnover Receivables turnover = Turnover / Averageyear, year-1 (Trade and other receivables) Days of sales outstanding = 365 / Receivables turnover Payables turnover = Cost of sales / Averageyear, year-1 (Trade and bill payables) Number of days of payable = 36 5 / Payables turnoverWorking capital turnover = Turnover / Averageyear, year-1 (Net current assets) Risk Debt-to-common equity ratio = (Short term + Long term bank borrowings) / (Share capital + Reserves) Debt-to-asset ratio = (Short term + Long term bank borrowings) / Total assets Financial leverage = Averageyear, year-1 (Total Assets) / Averageyear, year-1 (Share capital + Reserves) Interest coverage ratio = Operating profit / Interest expense Cash flow coverage ratio = Net increase in cash / Interest expense LiquidityCash conversion cycle = Days of sales outstanding + Days of inventory on hand – Number of days of payable Current ratio = Current assets / Current liabilities Acid test ratio = (Current assets – Inventories) / Current liabilities Operating cash flow to maturing obligations = Operating cash flow / Current liabilities Appendix C – Calculated ratios 20112010200920082007 Performance Profit margins Gross profit margin63. 35%60. 72%58. 97%59. 46%58. 16 % Operating profit margin12. 08%10. 26%2. 64%9. 98%8. 89% Net profit margin10. 12%8. 77%1. 56%8. 46%8. 0% Return ratios ROE23. 35%19. 53%3. 50%16. 70%15. 55% Decompsition of ROE ROA14. 76%14. 29%2. 61%13. 43%13. 05% ROA*Financial Leverage = ROE23. 35%19. 53%3. 50%16. 70%15. 55% DuPont decompistion of ROE Asset turnover1. 46 1. 63 1. 68 1. 59 1. 63 Financial Leverage1. 58 1. 37 1. 34 1. 24 1. 19 Net profit margin*Asset turnover*Financial Leverage = ROE23. 35%19. 53%3. 50%16. 70%15. 55% Extended DuPont decomposition of ROE Tax burden80. 65%83. 29%53. 97%81. 23%82. 63% Interest burden100. 46%100. 86%103. 66%106. 90%112. 12% EBIT Margin12. 49%10. 44%2. 8%9. 74%8. 63% Tax burden*Interest burden*EBIT Margin*Asset turnover*Financial Leverage = ROE23. 35%19. 53%3. 50%16. 70%15. 55% Efficiency Fixed asset turnover7. 98 12. 95 13. 37 14. 81 16. 08 Inventory turnover2. 48 2. 92 3. 05 3. 15 3. 72 Days of inventory on hand146. 89 124. 95 119. 58 115. 82 98. 19 Receivables turnover31. 76 31. 98 5 1. 12 81. 59 185. 10 Days of sales outstanding11. 49 11. 41 7. 14 4. 47 1. 97 Payables turnover5. 51 7. 70 8. 07 8. 69 11. 14 Number of days of payable66. 23 47. 38 45. 21 42. 01 32. 76 Working capital turnover4. 6 3. 91 4. 24 3. 39 2. 72 Risk Debt-to-common equity ratio0. 32 0. 06 0. 11 0. 01 0. 00 Debt-to-asset ratio0. 18 0. 04 0. 08 0. 01 0. 00 Financial Leverage1. 58 1. 37 1. 34 1. 24 1. 19 Interest coverage ratio159. 70 119. 70 29. 64 646. 52 45342. 67 Cash flow coverage ratio50. 54 70. 75 0. 83 183. 15 (20020. 33) Liquidity Cash conversion cycle92. 15 88. 99 81. 51 78. 28 67. 40 Current ratio1. 85 3. 00 2. 80 2. 93 4. 66 Acid test ratio1. 12 2. 08 1. 70 1. 91 3. 42 Operating cash flow to maturing obligations0. 44 0. 85 0. 36 0. 77 0. 58

Causes of stress and its solution

The circumstances that cause stress are called stressors. Stressors vary in severity and duration .For example the responsibility of caring for a sick parent may be an ongoing source of major stress , whereas getting stuck in a traffic jam mat cause mild short term stress .Some events such as death of a loved one are stressful for everyone .But in other situations ,individuals may respond differently to the same event. Stressors can be classified into 3 general categories: 1)catastrophic stress 2)Major life changes 3)Daily hassles In addition simply thinking about unpleasant past events or anticipating unpleasant future events can cause stress for many people. 1)Catastrophe: Is a sudden , often, life threatening calamity or disaster that pushes people to do outer limits of their coping capability example earthquakes ,tornadoes ,fires ,floods and hurricanes as well as wars ,torture ,automobile accidents , violent physical attacks and sexual assaults . They often continue to affect the individuals mental health long after the event has taken place. 2)Major life changes: The most stressful events for adults involve major life changes such as death of a spouse ,family member ,divorce , imprisonment ,loosing ones job and major personal disability or illness . The most stressful events for adolescents are death ,imprisonment or divorce of parents ,personal disability or illness .Getting married is a positive experience but planning the wedding ,deciding whom to invite ,and dealing with family  members may be stressful for the couples. 3)Daily hassles: Much of the stress in our lives results from having to deal with daily hassles pertaining to our jobs ,personal relationships and everyday living circumstance .Many people experience the same hassles everyday example living in a noisy neighbourhood ,commuting with heavy traffic ,disliking ones fellow workers ,worrying about money , waiting in a long line and misplacing or losing things .When taken individually , this hassles may feel like minor irritants , but cumulatively , they can cause significant stress . Studies have found that one’s exposure to daily hassles is actually more predictive of illness than is exposure to major life events . SOLUTIONS TO STRESS 1)coping with stress: Coping with stress means using thoughts and actions to deal with stressful situations and lower our stress levels. People who cope well with stress tend to believe that the can personally influence what happens to them .The usually make more positive statements about themselves ,resist frustration ,remain optimistic and persevere even under extremely adverse circumstances. People who cope poorly with stress tend to have somewhat opposite personality characteristic such as low self esteem and a pessimistic outlook on life. Coping strategies: Psychologists distinguish 2 broad types of coping strategies: a)Problem focused coping b)Emotional focused coping The goal of both strategies is to control ones stress level. In problem focused coping people try to short circuit negative emotions by taking some actions to modify ,minimize or avoid the threatening situation . In emotional focused coping people try to directly moderate or eliminate unpleasant situations. Problem focused coping is the most effective coping strategy. 2)Social support: Social support from friends ,family members and others who care for us goes a long way in helping us to get by in times of trouble. Social support system provides us with emotional sustenance ,tangible resource ,aid and information when we are in need .People with social support feel cared about and valued by others and feel a sense of belonging to a larger social network. 3)Bio feedback: Bio feedback is a technique by which people learn voluntary control of stress related physiological response such as skin temperature ,muscle tension ,blood pressure and heart rate .Normally people cannot control these responses voluntarily .Individuals learn to be sensitive to subtle changes inside their body that affect the response system being measured. 4)Relaxation: There are 2 types of relaxation A)Progressive muscular relaxation B)Relaxation We should learn to relax our body. 5)Aerobic exercise: Aerobic exercise such as running , walking ,biking and skiing can help keep stress level down because the increase the endurance of the heart and lungs ,an aerobically fit individual will have a lower heart rate at rest and lower blood pressure ,less reactivity to stressors and quicker recovery from stressors.