Friday, December 27, 2019

Volumetric Mri, A Future Tool For Diagnosing Alzheimer s...

Volumetric MRI, A Future Tool for Diagnosing Alzheimer’s Disease? April 13, 2015 In medicine, an early diagnosis can mean the difference between life and death. With today’s advancements in technology, early diagnosis is becoming a real possibility for many diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease. Worldwide it is estimated that 24 million people have dementia, the majority of these people are thought to have Alzheimer’s disease. (Mayo Clinic, 2014) According to Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (AFA) (2015) Alzheimer’s disease is among the top ten leading causes of death in the United States. Affecting 5.1 million Americans. Alzheimer’s disease is not a normal part of aging, but the risk of developing this disease increases with age.†¦show more content†¦According to (Mayo Clinic, 2014) Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia among people over the age of 65.  ¬ In Alzheimer’s disease, the brain cells actually degenerate and die, causing a steady decline in memory and mental function . When a person has Alzheimer’s disease the cortex will shrivel up, this causes problems with thinking, planning, and remembering. The hippocampus of the brain will also shrink, which is the part of the brain that helps form new memories; an Alzheimer’s patient’s brain will also have enlarged ventricles. Individuals with Alzheimer’s disease show two types of abnormal lesions that clog their brain: Beta-amyloid plaques—sticky clumps of protein fragments and cellular material that form outside and around neurons; and neurofibrillary tangles—insoluble twisted fibers composed largely of the protein tau that build up inside nerve cells. However scientists are unclear whether these lesions actually cause the disease or if they are just a byproduct of the disease. (Mayo Clinic, 2014) Some early signs and symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease include memory loss that interrupts daily life, confusion with time or place, trouble understanding visual images and spatial relationships, new problems with speaking or writing, withdrawal from work or social activities, and changes in mood and personality. Alzheimer’s disease dates back to 1906; a German physician named

Thursday, December 19, 2019

Alcatel Receivables Case Example

Essays on Alcatel Receivables Case Case Study ALCATEL CASE STUDY Number Department Grade 5th March, Question F: Average Collection Period According to Alcatel’s balance sheet, the trade receivables of the company for the years 2000, 2001 and 2002 were 15,819 million Euros, 14,956 million Euros and 8,753 million Euros respectively. This clearly shows that there was a plunge in accounts receivables of 863 million Euros in the year 2001 and a sharp descend of 6203 million Euros in the year 2002. Assuming that all sales are made on credit, 2000’s sales were 31,408 million Euros, 2001’s sales were 25,353 million Euros, and 2002’s sales were 16,547. The accounts receivable turnover ratio for 2000 was 1.9855, for 2001 was 1.6952 and for the year 2002 was 1.1064. This can be established by dividing each year’s credit sales by its account receivables, in this case 31408 divided by15,819 for the year 2000, 25,353 divided by14,956 for the year 2001 and 16,547 divided by8,753 for the year 2002. The average collection period for year 2002 can be established by dividing 365 by year’s accounts receivable turnover rate to get 330 days. The collection period for the year 2001 was 215 days. This is contrary to Alcatel’s CFO who pointed out that that the average collection period for accounts receivable in the year 2001 was 117 days and that of the year 2002 was 104 days. According to the wall street journal of February 5th 2003, the decrease in accounts receivables was as a result of the company’s decision of reduce inventories and compelling their customers to meet their bills faster in the fourth quarter. The decision has also negatively affected the sales of the company since there is an observable decline in sales through the years 2000 to 2002.This action resulted in generation of 704 million Euros during the fourth quarter in operating cash flow in the year 2002. The high earnings were not only affected by the two decisions made by the company but also the issue of convertible bonds in December of that financial year. Question G: Quarterly Average Collection Period The standard compilation period for the fourth quarter of 2002 can be established by dividing 4,508 by 2188.25 (which is a quarter of 8,753) to get an accounts receivable turnover ratio of 2.0601. Therefore, the average collection period of that quarter was 44 days since the quarter had 91.25 days. The standard compilation period for the fourth quarter of 2001 can be established by dividing 6,766 by 3739 (which is a quarter of 14,956) to get an accounts receivable turnover ratio of 1.8096. Therefore, the average collection period of that quarter was 50 days since the quarter had 91.25 days. It is observable that there is a down trend in the average collection period on a quarterly basis and this may have resulted in the yearly decline of the accounts receivables of the company. Question H: Factoring Receivables Factoring is a financial operation whereby a business vends its trade receivables to a third party (known as a factor) at a discount (Chandra 45). Factoring receivables ensures that a company maximizes its cash flow in the event of a credit sale by eliminating the need for cash sales, hence attractive terms of sale and business cycles of waiting for payments. In order for a company to get attractive rates from a factor, the creditworthiness of a debtor should be considered. Most companies which are involved in a credit sale find factoring as of great significance since it not only ensures immediate cash without incurring new debt but, the company has expanded growth capability through an increase in its production and sales. Factoring guarantees relief from the accountability of collecting slow pay or bad debt. Question I: Securitization of Receivables Effects of Securitization on Average Collection Period Securitization of receivables is whereby a company pools together different of types of debts then sell the consolidated debt as bonds, securities or collateral to investors (Chandra 48). The investors are paid back by the interests on the debt on a regular basis. Securitization of receivables therefore ensures that the company involved has finances to cover for its expenses. It transferred debt also guarantees continuous production before the customers pay their debts. Availability of finances to cater for expenses will enable the company to further increase its credit sell which may lead to an increase in the average collection period. On the other hand, the management of a company may compel its debtors to pay their debts since the investors in the company’s security need to be paid interest. This may result in reduction of the average collection period. Alcatel’s Average Collection Period if it had not Securitized its Receivables If Alcatel had not securitized its receivables for the year 2002 and 2001, the average collection period for the two years could have been expected to be higher compared to the current average collection period. The accounts receivable could have been high which could have resulted to a low accounts receivable turnover ratio. The accounts receivable for 2001 and 2002 was 14,956 million and 8,753 million Euros. This figure could have been less by 408.312 million Euros in 2002 and 786.1 million Euros in 2001. This would have resulted to an accounts receivable of 8344.688 million Euros in 2002 and 14169.9 Euros in the year 2001. The estimates for the average collection period for year 2002 could have been 184 days and that of the year 2001 could have been 204 days. Question J: Effects of Securitization on Balance sheet in U.S GAAP In the United States of America, the General Accepted Accounting Principles provide that securitization of receivable should be classified as secured borrowing and therefore taken to be a debt or a liability to the company. All liabilities should be deducted from current assets. Accounts receivables could still be treated as non current assets but factorizing the receivables would mean taking a loan since the accounts receivables are taken to be like collateral for the loan. Works cited Chandra Prasanna. Financial Management: Theory and Practice. New Delhi: McGraw Hill Publishing Ltd, 2008. Print.

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Customer Centric Strategy for Woolworths-Free-Samples for Students

Questions: 1.Identify the Concept of Corporate Objectives and evaluate an Organisation with information available in the public domain. 2.Discuss Marketing Orientation Concepts. Explain with examples which concept your Organisation follows. 3.What is your Organisation's core Marketing Strategy? Discuss thestrengths and weaknesses of the Current Marketing Strategy and explain how this strategy will help your Organisation reach its Corporate Objectives. Answers: 1.Identification of corporate objectives and evaluation of Woolworths Corporate objectives refer to the realistic goal of an organization that influences the internal strategic decision making of an organization. Woolworth is a well known retail organization of Australia. Their corporate objectives are as follow: To develop the store-led culture that is customer and team oriented To manage the physical and financial resources properly to enhance the productivity To provide more value to the customers in order to evolve the business To empower portfolio business to implement strategies to sustain the value of the shareholder To generate sustainable sales in the business The store-led culture of Woolworths that is customer and team oriented includes good price and great service to satisfy the customer. In order to provide good service and enhance productivity, this organization needs to arrange their physical financial resources that are the manpower and the money. Empowering the business portfolio will enable this organization to give value to their internal and external shareholder by involving them in the decision making, which leads them to get sustainable growth in the sales (Woolworthsgroup.com.au, 2017). However, giving value to the choice of consumers is important for such organization to understand the current market demand. 2.Discussion of the marketing concept Marketing oriented concept includes marketing concept, production concept, and selling the concept. Marketing concept focuses on the implementation of the strategy in order to satisfy the target market by identifying their needs. Therefore, the production concept highlights on the development of the quality product with innovative feature (Baker Saren, 2016). Selling concept focuses on the development of sales transaction rather than the establishment of long term relationship with the customers. In the context of Woolworths, they aim to give value to their customers thus they focus on the marketing concept in order to set goal according to the customer requirement. As for example, healthy food is a preferable thing for the customers. Keeping this in mind Woolworths offers sushi restaurant in all the Australia super market, as a result, the customers get fresh and healthy food easily that is handmade by experts. On the other hand, consumers have a demand to get ready food, which is easy to cook. Hence, Woolworths offers seafood in an oven-ready bag that is good marketing concept to satisfy the customers as customers get restaurant quality food at their home without any labor (Chavez et al., 2016). Hence, such innovative marketing concepts will be beneficial for Woolworths to get competitive advantages in the global market. 3.Identification of the core marketing strategy of Woolworth and evaluation of its strength and weakness Establishment of the customer centric business is the core strategy of Woolworths (Woolworthsgroup.com.au, 2017). Customer centric strategy will enable them to understand the customer needs and by developing a strong relationship with their customers Woolworths will implement such strategy. Strengths of Customer centric strategy Establishment of customer loyalty is the big strength of customer centric strategy (Carrilero, 2016). On the other hand, loyal customers act as the good reference that will maximize the sales revenue generation (Chavez et al., 2016). Weakness of customer centric strategy Lack of creativity is the big weakness of customer centric business. However, the organization fails to incorporate innovative idea in their product development as result profitability is affected. On the other hand, customers requirements are ever changing; as a result, it is difficult for the organization to cope up with the changing demand of the customers. Importance of Customer centric strategy for Woolworths Woolworths wants to give value to the customers, develop the business which is customer oriented and get sustainable sales. Hence, by the implementation of the customer centric strategy they will be able to understand the needs of the target market, which satisfies their customers and increase their numbers Baker Saren, 2016). Thus it leads to such organization to get sustainable sales References Baker, M. J., Saren, M. (Eds.). (2016).Marketing theory: a student text. London: Sage. Chavez, R., Yu, W., Feng, M., Wiengarten, F. (2016). The Effect of Customer?Centric Green Supply Chain Management on Operational Performance and Customer Satisfaction.Business Strategy and the Environment,25(3), 205-220. Palacios-Marques, D., Palacios-Marques, D., Guijarro, M., Guijarro, M., Carrilero, A., Carrilero, A. (2016). The use of customer-centric philosophy in hotels to improve customer loyalty.Journal of Business Industrial Marketing,31(3), 339-348. Woolworthsgroup.com.au. (2017).Strategy and objectives. Retrieved 8 August 2017, from https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/about-us/our-approach/strategy-and-objective

Customer Centric Strategy for Woolworths-Free-Samples for Students

Questions: 1.Identify the Concept of Corporate Objectives and evaluate an Organisation with information available in the public domain. 2.Discuss Marketing Orientation Concepts. Explain with examples which concept your Organisation follows. 3.What is your Organisation's core Marketing Strategy? Discuss thestrengths and weaknesses of the Current Marketing Strategy and explain how this strategy will help your Organisation reach its Corporate Objectives. Answers: 1.Identification of corporate objectives and evaluation of Woolworths Corporate objectives refer to the realistic goal of an organization that influences the internal strategic decision making of an organization. Woolworth is a well known retail organization of Australia. Their corporate objectives are as follow: To develop the store-led culture that is customer and team oriented To manage the physical and financial resources properly to enhance the productivity To provide more value to the customers in order to evolve the business To empower portfolio business to implement strategies to sustain the value of the shareholder To generate sustainable sales in the business The store-led culture of Woolworths that is customer and team oriented includes good price and great service to satisfy the customer. In order to provide good service and enhance productivity, this organization needs to arrange their physical financial resources that are the manpower and the money. Empowering the business portfolio will enable this organization to give value to their internal and external shareholder by involving them in the decision making, which leads them to get sustainable growth in the sales (Woolworthsgroup.com.au, 2017). However, giving value to the choice of consumers is important for such organization to understand the current market demand. 2.Discussion of the marketing concept Marketing oriented concept includes marketing concept, production concept, and selling the concept. Marketing concept focuses on the implementation of the strategy in order to satisfy the target market by identifying their needs. Therefore, the production concept highlights on the development of the quality product with innovative feature (Baker Saren, 2016). Selling concept focuses on the development of sales transaction rather than the establishment of long term relationship with the customers. In the context of Woolworths, they aim to give value to their customers thus they focus on the marketing concept in order to set goal according to the customer requirement. As for example, healthy food is a preferable thing for the customers. Keeping this in mind Woolworths offers sushi restaurant in all the Australia super market, as a result, the customers get fresh and healthy food easily that is handmade by experts. On the other hand, consumers have a demand to get ready food, which is easy to cook. Hence, Woolworths offers seafood in an oven-ready bag that is good marketing concept to satisfy the customers as customers get restaurant quality food at their home without any labor (Chavez et al., 2016). Hence, such innovative marketing concepts will be beneficial for Woolworths to get competitive advantages in the global market. 3.Identification of the core marketing strategy of Woolworth and evaluation of its strength and weakness Establishment of the customer centric business is the core strategy of Woolworths (Woolworthsgroup.com.au, 2017). Customer centric strategy will enable them to understand the customer needs and by developing a strong relationship with their customers Woolworths will implement such strategy. Strengths of Customer centric strategy Establishment of customer loyalty is the big strength of customer centric strategy (Carrilero, 2016). On the other hand, loyal customers act as the good reference that will maximize the sales revenue generation (Chavez et al., 2016). Weakness of customer centric strategy Lack of creativity is the big weakness of customer centric business. However, the organization fails to incorporate innovative idea in their product development as result profitability is affected. On the other hand, customers requirements are ever changing; as a result, it is difficult for the organization to cope up with the changing demand of the customers. Importance of Customer centric strategy for Woolworths Woolworths wants to give value to the customers, develop the business which is customer oriented and get sustainable sales. Hence, by the implementation of the customer centric strategy they will be able to understand the needs of the target market, which satisfies their customers and increase their numbers Baker Saren, 2016). Thus it leads to such organization to get sustainable sales References Baker, M. J., Saren, M. (Eds.). (2016).Marketing theory: a student text. London: Sage. Chavez, R., Yu, W., Feng, M., Wiengarten, F. (2016). The Effect of Customer?Centric Green Supply Chain Management on Operational Performance and Customer Satisfaction.Business Strategy and the Environment,25(3), 205-220. Palacios-Marques, D., Palacios-Marques, D., Guijarro, M., Guijarro, M., Carrilero, A., Carrilero, A. (2016). The use of customer-centric philosophy in hotels to improve customer loyalty.Journal of Business Industrial Marketing,31(3), 339-348. Woolworthsgroup.com.au. (2017).Strategy and objectives. Retrieved 8 August 2017, from https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/page/about-us/our-approach/strategy-and-objective

Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Turkish Banking Sector Analysis Essays - Bank,

Turkish Banking Sector Analysis INTRODUCTION The banking sector constitutes the greater part of the Turkish financial system. Banks carry out a great portion of the activities taking place in both money and capital markets. The share of the banking sector in the financial system as of the end of March 1997 was 71 %. Turkey's financial system and its banking sector are virtually synonymous as a consequence of the country's economic and historical development. There are a number of factors that give banking its prominent role in Turkish economy. These are: The economic structure peculiar to Turkey. The choice to turn resources into long-term investments through banks for the aims targeted in the development plans and programmes, and the establishment of banks by the state to finance certain sectors. The extensive application of continental European banking practices as a model in the legal structure of the banking system, and an emerging capital market that can compete with the banking sector in the forthcoming years. BACKGROUND The development of the Turkish banking sector may be divided into six periods which differ as to policy and method: The Period of the Money-Changers and the Galata Bankers (pre-1847): During this period, all quasi-banking activities were carried out by money-changers The Galata bankers consisted mostly of the ethnic-minorities in Istanbul. The Period of Foreign Banks (1847-1908): Since the financial situation of the Ottoman Empire deteriorated after the Crimean War, the Empire faced the need for external financial support. Representatives of several foreign banks arrived with the aim of extending credits to the empire at high interest rates. The Ottoman Bank (Osmanli Bankasi) was established in 1856. Its head office was in London and it served as a Central Bank until the 1930's. Development of National Banking and Implementation of Etatism (1909-1944): The years following the proclamation of the Second Constitution (1908) gave rise to the national banking movement which was a reaction to foreign banking. Twenty-four national banks were established in Istanbul and Anatolia between the years 1908 and 1923. However, foreign banks continued to dominate banking activities due to consecutive wars (1911-1922), capitulations granted foreigners and the scarcity of national capital. In 1923, the first National Economic Congress was held in Izmir. It dealt with a large number of economic problems that the country would have to solve. The Congress took the decision that banks would be established to finance the main sectors of the economy. T.Is Bankasi(1924), Sanayi ve Maadin Bankasi (1925), and Emlak ve Eytam Bankasi (1927) were established to provide commercial, industrial and housing credits, respectively. However, the negative effects of the Great Depression on the balance of payments and lack of domestic capital called for a government-supported economic development policy in subsequent years. As a result of this policy, six state banks were established in the 1930s, including the Central Bank of the Turkish Republic. Development of Private Banks (1945-1960) Despite the adverse effects of the Second World War, a significant growth rate and industrialisation were achieved with the support of the newly-established state banks. This created a tremendous increase in the capital stock of the private sector. Beginning in the early 1950s, etatism weakened because of positive developments in the private sector, expansion of international co-operation and transition to a multi-party political system. A more liberal and private sector-oriented policy was adopted in the following years, and as a result, more than 30 private banks were established before 1960. Planned Development Period (1961-1979) A new planned development policy was adopted in the beginning of the 1960s. According to this system, the state would administer the economy and issue recommendations to the private sector through five-year plans prepared by the government to cover all sectors. As recommended in the plans, several development and investment banks were established to finance various sectors in the 1960s and1970s: For example Turizm Bankasi in 1960, S.Y.K.B. in 1963, DevletYatirim Bankasi (Eximbank) in 1964, Devlet Sanayi ve Is?i Yatirim Bankasi (T?rkiye Kalkinma Bankasi) in 1975. Liberalization and Internationalization in Banking (post-1980): The new liberal economic policy implemented in January 1980 aimed at integration with world economy by establishing a free market economy. As a reflection of this policy, the 1980s witnessed continuous legal, structural and institutional changes and developments in the Turkish banking sector. During these years, a series of