Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Information Security of Information Technology

Presentation This is a paper on data security. The article will give a concise history of data innovation and practices. This will incorporate what set off the requirement for data security, explicitly in the human services area and the job that HIPAA has played.Advertising We will compose a custom article test on Information Security of Information Technology explicitly for you for just $16.05 $11/page Learn More An audit of the innovations and practices utilized today and how they could or will be utilized later on will likewise be talked about in subtleties. Furthermore, the exposition will address the various sorts of data security, thoroughly analyze the various applications that are accessible for use. It will indisputably address the current lawful and moral issues that apply to the topic, both as of now and potential issues that could emerge later on. The article will usefully give pertinent and genuine instances of the data safety efforts/innovation that have been talked abo ut just as an individual encounter upon the fulfillment of the paper. An electronic wellbeing record framework will shape a premise of this paper, and henceforth its advantages and disadvantages will be broke down including security and protection. Data Security So exactly what is data security? Data security is viewed to as the procedures and strategies set up and actualized to ensure print, electronic, or any secret data be it print, private, electronic, and touchy data or information from unapproved get to, use, obliteration, disturbance, abuse, divulgence or alteration at some random time (SANS, 2011). Data security is commonly the way toward ensuring data accessibility, protection and trustworthiness. Business substances and people are established on data put away in a PC database. Such data could be close to home staff subtleties, advertising and deals data, customer records, debtors’ records, pay rates, and ledger subtleties. Notwithstanding, there are as yet a couple of people illuminate regarding programmers who can get to this data on the off chance that they have the correct equipment and subsequently appropriate methods and frameworks should be applied so as to control this misbehavior. PC specialists and data technologists save the privilege of structuring, working, making sure about and keeping up a productive data system.Advertising Looking for article on it? How about we check whether we can support you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More History of Information Technology and Practices Algorithm, which is the strategy concerning which things ought to be cultivated is the briefest yet most right meaning of Information innovation. In the course of the last 300 years, devices have been made to characterize and duplicate happening and developed examples scientifically. This has been to a great extent showed in equipment and programming forms. In any case, it is Aristotle’s investigation of rationale that uncovered calculatio ns. The maker of analytics, Leibniz, later on watched and demonstrated that genuine procedures could be mapped utilizing scientific images and this gave a hypothetical chance of displaying social procedures, arrangements of DNA and numerical reflections. Data security bore its foundations from this demonstrate. Data security can be characterized as the meaning of an intelligent mathematical capacity that yields steady results for given procedures at that point coding them in equipment or programming groups. In spite of the fact that it took a very long time for this Leibniz origination to be realized, data security history has its underlying foundations in this idea. Advancement of machine PCs was the underlying advance to the IT improvement and it began in the mechanical transformation. Various endeavors were made to make savvy machines to tackle the basic and complex scientific counts that appeared. During the 1830s, Charles Babbage endeavored to build up the distinction motor in England to deliver answers for tide-table precisely, productively and precisely. Be that as it may, there was no possibility to build the motor however, the idea was surely known. This prompted the advancement of the scientific motor that could play out numerous numerical undertakings and it framed the reason for a PC. In any case, the expanding interest for data preparing abrogated the general thought for multi-reason computing machine and as of that Herman Hollerith built up a mechanical framework for handling registration information in the US by 1890. The advancement was effective and subsequently he went forward to shape the Tabulating Machine Company that established the IBM. Nonetheless, the quest for mechanical intends to produce and control data proceeded on mechanical simple PCs throughout the years and arrived at its top on the planet wars with improved models assisting with breaking down the mind boggling building and logical issues from the wars. In 1931, notwithstandin g, Vannevar Bush of MIT built up a differential analyzer that could play out a progression of designing and logical problems.Advertising We will compose a custom article test on Information Security of Information Technology explicitly for you for just $16.05 $11/page Learn More But it was after the World War II that paired rationale of Leibniz, Babbage’s broadly useful processing machine thought, Bush’s down to earth model of a multi-reason machine, business experience and the requirement for unadulterated numerical data that prompted the improvement of a cutting edge PC. The principal completely programmable PC, Mark 1 came to be in the August 1944 graciousness of Hathaway Aiken and a group at Harvard. It was intended to deliver ballistics calculations and code breaking for the US Navy. It was actualized by IBM. Progressively specialized headways proceeded on the PC with time. The primary electronic PC was likewise finished in 1944 by the National Defense Research Co uncil (NDRC) with 18,000 vacuum tubes, 6,000 switches, 1500 transfers and 10,000 capacitors. During the 1950s and 1960s, processing was uniquely for huge organizations for it included a great deal of cash with IBM commanding the business. The making of a small scale processor by Intel in 1971 was noteworthy in joining all figuring components. This aided in partition, warming issues, size and registering power. A multi-reason data machine that could make data in numerous arrangements was later evolved followed by the chance of isolating programming and equipment advancements. The scope of projects expanded with time, memory and storerooms, internet providers, systems administration and availability headways all prompted the current interest for utilization of PCs. The open scattering of licensed innovation has likewise helped proprietorship and insurance of projects. Every one of these examples and structures will characterize the advancement of IT later on (Kyle, 2000). What set off the requirement for Information Security Specific to Healthcare? It is commonly realized that individuals decide to unveil their most cozy data to get the best treatment. Furthermore, in light of the fact that disorder doesn't involve festivity and the way that many view it as a shortcoming, individuals will just give such data with respect to their disease in protection and to individuals they can trust in confidentiality.Advertising Searching for article on it? How about we check whether we can support you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Find out More Indeed, even specialists gain trust just in the event that they ensure security. Without security individuals will lie or exclude data consequently getting more debilitated. Individual data that patients gave out was not put away in an agreeably way but instead so that anyone could undoubtedly get to the data. The patient data was not put away well and as such any close to home subtleties could without much of a stretch be spilled out. Following quite a while of meetings, the U.S. Division of Health Businesses related with clinical associations would likewise focus on those records for reasons for selling a patient a portion of their items. American merits care and protection subsequently, the requirement for a data security framework (Privacy Rights Clearing House, 2003). The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act In 1996, the Congress passed The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This was planned for setting a national standard for electronic exchanges of wellbeing information. HIPAA has a reasonable job in data security in that â€Å"it sets the standard for protection in this electronic age where wellbeing industry, government, and open interests frequently beat the patients’ want for confidentiality† (Privacy Rights Clearing House, 2003, p. 1). Patients would now be able to get to their own records and any private dealings with their documents must be unveiled to them. Bookkeeping of divulgences ought to likewise be benefited to the patient and a patient has an option to record a protest if his security is damaged where both common and criminal punishments can apply to the violator. Patients can be allowed uncommon solicitations for private interchanges where conceivable and they can decide to have their names remembered for an emergency clinic registry. They can similarly decide to have their clinical data talked about with assigned individuals (Privacy Rights Clearing House, 2003). Audit of the advance s and practices utilized today and how they could or will be utilized later on The development of innovation has with it numerous valuable employments. The utilization of innovation has improved the modes and speed of correspondence and systems administration; this is clear in long range interpersonal communication, video conferencing, broadcastings and amusement. Innovation has likewise been utilized in the development business with compositional plans being finished with PCs. Innovation effectsly affects present day farming where green lodging has become the dominant focal point. Hybridization, cross reproducing, mechanized cultivating and rearing administrations are completely entwined with innovation. Conservation and promoting of horticultural items online is

Saturday, August 22, 2020

What are the factors that influence consumer behavior towards choosing Essay

What are the elements that impact buyer conduct towards picking cell phone brands - Essay Example A cell phone is an electronic gadget which is utilized in two manner correspondence. To utilize a cell phone, association with a phone organize is required which is an interconnection of base stations through which signs are transmitted, henceforth the versatile uses those signs to produce and look after association. A client utilizing a cell phone can make or get calls to and from other cell systems and furthermore fixed line telephones around the world. Every cell phone holds a membership with a cell organize which at that point associates it to a versatile system administrator and in this way let’s correspondence to stream uninhibitedly. With the flood of endless models of mobiles in the UK showcase, with minor or critical contrasts in highlights, for the most part they are sorted into two gatherings. We have include telephones, which are ordinarily described as low end cell phones having less capacities, though at the other outrageous we have Smartphone which are top of the line telephones with complex, processing abilities. Thus the focal point of this report is to talk about a Market Research Study with the point of giving perusers a far reaching knowledge into the components that impact the buyer conduct with regards to picking cell phones, especially for UK showcase. When the variables have been resolved, this report will additionally reveal insight into the statistical surveying destinations just as the principle reason and strategy for this proposed statistical surveying study. Notwithstanding the previously mentioned themes in this report you will likewise discover plentiful data with respect to how to lead a subjective and quantitative statistical surveying study clarifying the better focuses in detail. Additionally a proposed announcing research timetable and timing, expenses and certifications will be a piece of this report. The report’s prime spotlight will be on the shopper impacts since it is these variables that guide the customer in settling on a balanced decision when given a few choices to look over. The

Now Is The Time To Be Computer Literate Essay -- essays research paper

Right now is an ideal opportunity To Be Computer Literate Right now is an ideal opportunity to become PC proficient. Right now is an ideal opportunity to turn into comfortable and alright with the PC on the grounds that later on we will turn into basically a paperless society and numerous every day exercises will be connected to the PC. Â Â Â Â Â Mail conveyance to the home and business will be predominantly staged out and email will supplant it. Bills will come by means of the PC and paid the same way. Checks will be electronically stored to your financial balance. On extraordinary events, for example, birthday events, welcoming cards will be sent from your PC to your friends and family PC. Â â â â â shopping centers will become digital shopping centers and we will do our shopping by means of the PC. You will have the option to see on your screen how you would glance in a certain outfit you are thinking about to purchase. Envision going over the whole shopping center in an agreeable before your PC. Press a catch and the whole supply of a store will be readily available. At the point when you do go to a store to shop you won't use cash. You will utilize either a Visa or platinum card which will consequently deduct the sum in the event that you buy from your ledger. Â â â â â Our homes will be controlled by PCs. PCs will modify the temperature. Home apparatuses will be connected to the PC. Envision driving home from work and calling your PC and having it start supper for you. Have it change the temperat... This is the ideal opportunity To Be Computer Literate Essay - papers inquire about paper This is the ideal opportunity To Be Computer Literate This is the ideal opportunity to become PC proficient. Right now is an ideal opportunity to turn into comfortable and alright with the PC in light of the fact that later on we will turn into practically a paperless society and numerous day by day exercises will be connected to the PC. Â Â Â Â Â Mail conveyance to the home and business will be essentially staged out and email will supplant it. Bills will come by means of the PC and paid the same way. Checks will be electronically kept to your financial balance. On exceptional events, for example, birthday events, welcoming cards will be sent from your PC to your friends and family PC. Â â â â â shopping centers will become digital shopping centers and we will do our shopping by means of the PC. You will have the option to see on your screen how you would glance in a certain outfit you are thinking about to purchase. Envision going over the whole shopping center in an agreeable before your PC. Press a catch and the whole supply of a store will be readily available. At the point when you do go to a store to shop you won't use cash. You will utilize either a charge card or platinum card which will consequently deduct the sum in the event that you buy from your ledger. Â â â â â Our homes will be controlled by PCs. PCs will alter the temperature. Home apparatuses will be connected to the PC. Envision driving home from work and calling your PC and having it start supper for you. Have it modify the temperat...

Friday, August 21, 2020

A Hill Of Fury Essays - Volcanology, Volcanic Rocks, Soufrire Hills

A Hill of Fury: Soufriere Hills Volcano, Montserrat Island Following 400 years of calm sleep, the Soufriere Hills well of lava on the modest island of Montserrat in the Carribean Sea (Figure 1), became animated in the late spring of 1997. The emissions undermined the first 11,000 occupants of the island and even today keep on being an aggravation to the staying 4,000 individuals who will not leave the island, in spite of alerts of looming peril. At any rate 20 individuals have just been executed, and a few towns devastated. The Montserrat Volcano Observatory breaks down the dynamic spring of gushing lava and gives data to researchers and inhabitants of the island (Montserrat Volcano Observatory 12). The most exceedingly terrible of the emission could possibly have just passed. Fig.2 Pyroclastic streams arrived at the Sea and shaped a delta at the mouth of a significant waterway (Discovery 1). Inhabitants of Montserrat face numerous potential perils because of the Soufriere Hills Volcano. A destructive mix of debris, rock, and hot gases structure pyroclastic streams which travel down the precarious slants of the well of lava at speeds which are regularly in excess of 100 miles for every hour (Skurzinsky 39). Ejections of Soufriere Hills in June, August, and December of 1997 made pyroclastic streams which impacted toward the ocean along the White River at high speeds (Figure 2). A few towns were devastated thus. The capital city, Plymouth, was caught fire, and afterward canvassed in volcanic stone and debris (Figure 3). Twenty individuals were executed, in spite of departure endeavors and admonitions. One Hundred seventy-five homes were crushed and the streams came quite close to the air terminal (Williams 59). The money related measure of the harm has not b een determined in light of the fact that the wrecked towns are dreadful. Numerous individuals lost all that they had (Figure 4). An extract from the Montserrat Volcano Observatory depicts the circumstance not long after the ejection. Fig.3 The cleared capital city, Plymouth, consumed in Aug. 1997, because of the ejections (National Geographic 1). Pyroclastic streams from Soufriere Hills Volcano on Montserrat have arrived at the capital city of Plymouth. Numerous homes and organizations can be seen consuming from a few miles with extreme heat. Firemen have been not able to stop these blazes which take steps to expend the whole city. Ashfalls happened in Iles Bay, Ole Towne, Salem, and a few different zones west of the fountain of liquid magma (Montserrat Volcano Observatory 15). Fig.4 Plymouth was left covered in debris by pyroclastic streams in the mid year of 1997 (Discovery 2). Fig.5 A Montserrat occupant looks as the well of lava ejects and regurgitates remains over her town. Since the 1997 emissions, towns close to the well of lava consistently experience perilous debris tidying at whatever point the spring of gushing lava spits magma from underneath the world's surface. Here and there, volcanic stones go with the debris and can be perilous as they tumble from the sky. Debris gets all over; It executes gardens, grass fields, and makes the streets elusive and hazardous for movement (Figure 5). Furthermore, breathing the debris filled air can, after some time, add to silicosis, a savage sickness of the lungs. The continuous seismic tremors related with the Soufriere Hills emissions additionally represent a risk to inhabitants. The Montserrat Volcano Observatory announced that the likelihood of future passing is one of every ten, or 10%. After the spring of gushing lava revived in 1997, a US geographical group was sent to Montserrat, and the Montserrat Volcano Observatory get going. So as to appropriately screen the Soufriere Hills spring of gushing lava, tiltmeters, seismometers, and gas analyzers were introduced close by. Simon Young, A British volcanologist at the Montserrat Volcano Observatory remarked on the innovation set up. There are five fundamental territories of checking that we embrace. The first and actually the establishment of checking is recording the tremors that go on underneath the spring of gushing lava, and inside the well of lava, which are constantly connected with volcanic ejections. We additionally have an electronic instrument that discloses to us whether the well of lava is tilting . . . , expanding, or contracting . . . We gather tests from (the spring of gushing lava) and . . . measure the gases (Montserrat Volcano Observatory 19). Fig.6 Soldiers assist occupants with emptying the island in Aug. 1997 notwithstanding cutting edge observing and steady figurings, specialists have circulated protective caps and gas covers to the 4,000 outstanding inhabitants. The caps are to shield against airborne rocks flying from the fountain of liquid magma and

A Team Guide to Productive Slack Use - Focus

A Team Guide to Productive Slack Use - Focus Slack is a great productivity tool but when you’re part of a decent-sized team, it can feel like you’re constantly trying to catch up. It’s a bit like a never-ending mission to reach inbox zero but instead of emails, it’s a notification that your colleague has just shared a photo of their lunch Fortunately, there are a few measures you can take to ensure Slack doesn’t take over your team’s professional and personal lives. Well share these here, in our Team Guide to Productive Slack Use. Slack: How Our Growing Team Stays Connected When Michael and Till founded our company, MeisterLabs, back in 2006, they envisioned a  way of working that would enable a globally-dispersed team to work as productively as if they were all based in the same room. This required team communication that was more efficient than email, faster and more connected. For the first few years, the MeisterLabs team communicated via  Skype chat. However, when MeisterLabs discovered  Slack, it fitted the bill far better and became the standard for all internal communication. All decisions, spanning from product direction to team drinking plans, were made over Slack. Company-wide announcements could be made in an instant and teammates would respond within minutes. Everything worked great. However, as MeisterLabs grew to a team of 30 (and continues to grow further) the quick notes that once worked amongst a team of 10 began to multiply. It was during the most recent round of employee talks that we realized we needed to change course. Due to the growing number of messages and Slackbot notifications, team members were finding that: a) It was hard to keep track, meaning important information and requests were getting lost b) It was difficult to focus on work  when feeling obligated to read so many messages, many of which weren’t relevant. 7 Guidelines for Productive Team Slack Use We want to keep Slack as our main tool for internal communication, so we came up with a few team guidelines to help ensure team Slack-use remains productive: 1. Presume they won’t see the message unless you @ them Simply being in a public channel shouldn’t mean that you need to scroll through every unread message to check you haven’t missed something:  if you haven’t received a mention notification, you can presume it wasn’t for you. This, of course, relies on team members always remembering to @ in the relevant people, like so: If your message is for no one in particular but is still important, you can also @ in channel or here: When writing in a public channel, the responsibility should always lie with the sender to make sure the message is received, so theres no need for team members to scroll through irrelevant messages, just in case something was meant for them. For those who are new to Slack, writing @here in a channel will notify  all channel members who are currently online. Writing @channel will alert everyone in the channel, while also triggering desktop and mobile notifications for all channel members. 2. Don’t be afraid to mute public channels If you don’t need to see every conversation in a public channel, mute it. You’ll still be notified if you’re mentioned, so you won’t miss anything important. However, it’ll be easier to focus on work as the chat won’t appear as emboldened and there won’t be a tempting red badge on your desktop icon unless you receive a mention, a message in a private channel, or a direct message. If you feel you don’t need to be part of the channel anymore, leave it, and if it’s not relevant to anyone anymore, archive it. This can be done via the ‘Additional options’ area of the channel. Discover MeisterTaskTask management made simple Sign-up free Its free! Sign-up free 3. Keep evenings, weekends and vacations free from Slack requests Your whole team should be able to switch off from work  during hometime. Although everyone can continue to chat on Slack if they’d like to, e.g. in #random, no one should be expected to respond to Slack messages outside of working hours or while on vacation. If it’s urgent, e.g. the server is down or there’s a critical bug, establish a policy where youll text or call the relevant person instead. This way, no one needs to feel obligated to check Slack over evenings and vacations, knowing that anything important would’ve been communicated over the phone. If you’d like to log something with a team member who’s on vacation, communicate it via a direct message rather than @ing them into a public channel. It’s a lot quicker for them to read through direct messages when back online, rather than scrolling through a long (often interrupted) discussion in a channel they’ve been mentioned in. If you or your team have Slack push notifications on your phone, make sure to snooze these overnight too, so your sleep isn’t interrupted by team members in other time zones. 4. Know when email would work better Although lots of companies want Slack to be the main internal communication tool, there are a few cases when an email would work better, for example: If you’re making an announcement that you want everyone to definitely receive and log e.g. details on your upcoming company retreat For longer messages that would look like a wall of text in Slack, like a team or quarterly update For formal messages that you’d like to take a more official approach to e.g. if making a company-wide change, like the introduction of a new Slack policy ?? If you’re sharing a document or resource that team members might want to refer back to If the message involves someone external. 5. Turn Slack requests into actionable tasks Requests over Slack can easily get lost in conversations, both in public channels when the chat moves on, and in private chats if the request isn’t completed then and there. To ensure that whatever you’ve asked for is logged and properly followed up on, make sure that all Slack requests are turned into something actionable, e.g. by creating a task or calendar event. At MeisterLabs, we turn all requests into assigned tasks in MeisterTask, including their due date, required documents, checklist items etc. 6. For focused working, try Do-Not-Disturb mode If you find Slack notifications distracting and want to focus on work for a set period, try setting your status to Do-Not-Disturb (DND) in Slack. This will snooze all notifications, including direct messages. If a teammate sends you a message during that time, they’ll receive a message from Slackbot telling them that you’re on DND. Slack offers the option to notify you anyway, meaning urgent messages can still be communicated. It goes without saying that if, like us, you want to continue to work collaboratively, you should encourage team members to not be on DND all of the time When not on DND, notifications can still be managed within the notifications area of Slack. 7. Keep your sidebar neat Cut down on what’s shown in your Slack sidebar by editing your settings to only show starred channels, those that have pending mentions and direct messages. It might seem like a superficial change but a shorter list of channels makes Slack a lot quicker (and less daunting) to check through. Changes can be made via Preferences Sidebar Sidebar settings. So those are our  7 guidelines  for productive team Slack use, which we follow here at MeisterLabs.   With everyone being a little more direct with messages, @ing in the right people and ensuring that real requests are turned into actionable tasks, Slack can still be wonderfully productive for growing teams. Have any questions or tips of your own? Let us know in the comments below ?? You might also enjoy:  The Art of Listening in Distributed Teams Discover MeisterTaskA beautiful task management solution Sign-Up Free Its free! Sign-Up Free A Team Guide to Productive Slack Use - Focus Slack is a great productivity tool but when you’re part of a decent-sized team, it can feel like you’re constantly trying to catch up. It’s a bit like a never-ending mission to reach inbox zero but instead of emails, it’s a notification that your colleague has just shared a photo of their lunch Fortunately, there are a few measures you can take to ensure Slack doesn’t take over your team’s professional and personal lives. Well share these here, in our Team Guide to Productive Slack Use. Slack: How Our Growing Team Stays Connected When Michael and Till founded our company, MeisterLabs, back in 2006, they envisioned a  way of working that would enable a globally-dispersed team to work as productively as if they were all based in the same room. This required team communication that was more efficient than email, faster and more connected. For the first few years, the MeisterLabs team communicated via  Skype chat. However, when MeisterLabs discovered  Slack, it fitted the bill far better and became the standard for all internal communication. All decisions, spanning from product direction to team drinking plans, were made over Slack. Company-wide announcements could be made in an instant and teammates would respond within minutes. Everything worked great. However, as MeisterLabs grew to a team of 30 (and continues to grow further) the quick notes that once worked amongst a team of 10 began to multiply. It was during the most recent round of employee talks that we realized we needed to change course. Due to the growing number of messages and Slackbot notifications, team members were finding that: a) It was hard to keep track, meaning important information and requests were getting lost b) It was difficult to focus on work  when feeling obligated to read so many messages, many of which weren’t relevant. 7 Guidelines for Productive Team Slack Use We want to keep Slack as our main tool for internal communication, so we came up with a few team guidelines to help ensure team Slack-use remains productive: 1. Presume they won’t see the message unless you @ them Simply being in a public channel shouldn’t mean that you need to scroll through every unread message to check you haven’t missed something:  if you haven’t received a mention notification, you can presume it wasn’t for you. This, of course, relies on team members always remembering to @ in the relevant people, like so: If your message is for no one in particular but is still important, you can also @ in channel or here: When writing in a public channel, the responsibility should always lie with the sender to make sure the message is received, so theres no need for team members to scroll through irrelevant messages, just in case something was meant for them. For those who are new to Slack, writing @here in a channel will notify  all channel members who are currently online. Writing @channel will alert everyone in the channel, while also triggering desktop and mobile notifications for all channel members. 2. Don’t be afraid to mute public channels If you don’t need to see every conversation in a public channel, mute it. You’ll still be notified if you’re mentioned, so you won’t miss anything important. However, it’ll be easier to focus on work as the chat won’t appear as emboldened and there won’t be a tempting red badge on your desktop icon unless you receive a mention, a message in a private channel, or a direct message. If you feel you don’t need to be part of the channel anymore, leave it, and if it’s not relevant to anyone anymore, archive it. This can be done via the ‘Additional options’ area of the channel. Discover MeisterTaskTask management made simple Sign-up free Its free! Sign-up free 3. Keep evenings, weekends and vacations free from Slack requests Your whole team should be able to switch off from work  during hometime. Although everyone can continue to chat on Slack if they’d like to, e.g. in #random, no one should be expected to respond to Slack messages outside of working hours or while on vacation. If it’s urgent, e.g. the server is down or there’s a critical bug, establish a policy where youll text or call the relevant person instead. This way, no one needs to feel obligated to check Slack over evenings and vacations, knowing that anything important would’ve been communicated over the phone. If you’d like to log something with a team member who’s on vacation, communicate it via a direct message rather than @ing them into a public channel. It’s a lot quicker for them to read through direct messages when back online, rather than scrolling through a long (often interrupted) discussion in a channel they’ve been mentioned in. If you or your team have Slack push notifications on your phone, make sure to snooze these overnight too, so your sleep isn’t interrupted by team members in other time zones. 4. Know when email would work better Although lots of companies want Slack to be the main internal communication tool, there are a few cases when an email would work better, for example: If you’re making an announcement that you want everyone to definitely receive and log e.g. details on your upcoming company retreat For longer messages that would look like a wall of text in Slack, like a team or quarterly update For formal messages that you’d like to take a more official approach to e.g. if making a company-wide change, like the introduction of a new Slack policy ?? If you’re sharing a document or resource that team members might want to refer back to If the message involves someone external. 5. Turn Slack requests into actionable tasks Requests over Slack can easily get lost in conversations, both in public channels when the chat moves on, and in private chats if the request isn’t completed then and there. To ensure that whatever you’ve asked for is logged and properly followed up on, make sure that all Slack requests are turned into something actionable, e.g. by creating a task or calendar event. At MeisterLabs, we turn all requests into assigned tasks in MeisterTask, including their due date, required documents, checklist items etc. 6. For focused working, try Do-Not-Disturb mode If you find Slack notifications distracting and want to focus on work for a set period, try setting your status to Do-Not-Disturb (DND) in Slack. This will snooze all notifications, including direct messages. If a teammate sends you a message during that time, they’ll receive a message from Slackbot telling them that you’re on DND. Slack offers the option to notify you anyway, meaning urgent messages can still be communicated. It goes without saying that if, like us, you want to continue to work collaboratively, you should encourage team members to not be on DND all of the time When not on DND, notifications can still be managed within the notifications area of Slack. 7. Keep your sidebar neat Cut down on what’s shown in your Slack sidebar by editing your settings to only show starred channels, those that have pending mentions and direct messages. It might seem like a superficial change but a shorter list of channels makes Slack a lot quicker (and less daunting) to check through. Changes can be made via Preferences Sidebar Sidebar settings. So those are our  7 guidelines  for productive team Slack use, which we follow here at MeisterLabs.   With everyone being a little more direct with messages, @ing in the right people and ensuring that real requests are turned into actionable tasks, Slack can still be wonderfully productive for growing teams. Have any questions or tips of your own? Let us know in the comments below ?? You might also enjoy:  The Art of Listening in Distributed Teams Discover MeisterTaskA beautiful task management solution Sign-Up Free Its free! Sign-Up Free

Thursday, June 25, 2020

Financial Risk Management Consultancy Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

Sometimes companies are faced with tough investment decisions to make. Mostly, these are decisions that affect the future growth or perpetuity of a particular company. Each company would like to know the expected returns in future so that it may plan ahead. However, with the current volatility in the market where prices are fluctuating without warning, it becomes hard to pinpoint what a company will be worth in future or at what price the commodities of the company will be at a certain date in future. This dilemma is faced by QGold Corporation. This company aims to expand. In so doing, it must make sure that its future is stable. Since the company gets its revenue from the sale of gold and gold products, it must have a way of making sure that these prices are stabilized to prevent unforeseen losses in the future. This report investigates the options available for QGold Corporation and recommends the use of hedging through the investment in the futures contracts market. The future contracts market offers price stability by enabling QGold Corporation have a definite expected return figure for when the contracts mature and thereby enabling the management to make viable decisions in the company. Introduction This report aims at investigating the avenues of risk present in QGold Corporation, the risk factor exposed to QGold Corporation, the current system in use by QGold Corporation in the management and/or mitigation of financial risk in their organization and provide ways and recommendations which QGold Corporation may use to eliminate financial risk in their system. This report will use a number of methods and approaches in the analyses of the financial risk in QGold Corporation. Correlation analysis will be employed as well as discounting of cash flows. Since the company aims at expanding its capital base and scope in the near future, and since the profit or loss realised by the company is solely dependent on the market prices of the gold mined by the company, there is a need to make sure that profitability is guaranteed in future in the volatile gold market. Discounting of the cash flows and futures will be done to be able to analyse this particular case. Correlation will also be used to find the profitability ratio of the gold now compared with the futures prices of the same as given arbitrarily by the Australian financial futures reports. QGold Corporation: Brief history QGold Corporation is a company based in Australia that deals with the mining, processing and sales of gold and gold products. QGold Corporation produces its product from Charter Towers gold field in Northern Australia. This field is deemed to be one of the highest grade fields in all of Australia. The company has a vision of expanding its operations beyond northern Australia. As such, massive capital has been employed in the prospecting of gold. It seeks to be capable of producing up to 50 million ounces. Those expansion policies are already underway as the company has started extracting gold and processing gold products. Financial risk factor in QGold Corporation QGold Corporation gets its revenue from the extraction, processing and sale of gold and gold products. Due to this, the corporationÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¬ÃƒÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¢s profit and loss is dependent on the price fluctuations of the gold. As projected by the board of the company, the company is expected to benefit one dollar (USD) for every one cent increment in the price per ounce of gold in November 2012. However, the market for gold in Australia and the world at large is currently very volatile and taking into consideration the massive amounts of money and input, both in personnel and other resources, it is crucial for QGold Corporation to manage its risk factor so as to try and avoid losses. Reasons for want of risk management in QGold Corporation There are quite a number of reasons warranting QGold Corporation to manage their financial risks and their level of exposure to risk. Triantis (2000, p.561) sums some of these risks as follows in the succeeding discussion. The company wants to decrease the probability of it becoming bankrupt, find ways of bettering its terms of transactions with its clients, suppliers as well as its employees. QGold Corporation also seeks to reduce cases of value-decreasing investment decisions such as prospecting mines without having them initially investigated to prove that there is existence of deposits. According to Newland Tanaka (2010, p. 24) entrepreneurial ship requires a degree of ingenuity so as to achieve its targeted revenues. Similarly, QGold Corporation is also aiming at trying to minimize cases that would to the decrease or falling short of projected and targeted returns on investments. Gold price fluctuations as an avenue of risk for QGold Corporation Gold price fluctuations in the market have been a factor that has led to the collapse and sometimes, the rapid rise of many gold mining corporations in Australia. According Wikiposit (2012) the average price of one ounce of gold in 2012 was placed at USD 1658.04. This is an increment from the average price of one ounce of gold in the year 2011 which was placed at USD 1534.22 (Wikiposit, 2012). Evans Brearley (1999, p. 696) claims that the price increase in gold resources and production in 1980s and in the subsequent years have precipitated into the increase in the prices of gold. This increase in production occurred as a result of advancement in technology and use of carbon-in-pulp and carbon-in-leach methods of production in the mining fields (Evans Brearley, 1999, p. 696). QGold Corporation expects the price of gold to increase in the coming months and this is confirmed by the PriceWaterHouseCoopers (2012, p. 6) who conceded in their research that 80% of the executives and key players in this industry were interviewed said that they expected the prices of gold per ounce to keep on rising. However, the volatility factor of prices of gold canÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¬ÃƒÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¢t be out ruled. Due to this, the company has decided to caution itself against impending losses by investing in the futures market through derivatives of the futures contract. Hedging strategy and the futures contract as a method of risk mitigation in QGold Co. Dodd (2001, p. 1) defines derivatives as financial contracts that are meant to bring about changes in market prices of a particular commodity without actually bringing about a change of ownership. According to Campbell et. al (2006), hedging is making a particular investment as a way of trying to mitigate the risk of adverse and unpredicted fluctuations in prices of a certain asset. A hedge is a very good way or reduction of risk. This is done by investing in the futures commodities market. According to Wikiposit (2012), the price of gold in October 2012 commodities futures market is given as being USD 1691 per one ounce of gold. The current price of one ounce of gold is given as USD 1674. Wikiposit (2012) also give the margin requirement for September 2012 as being USD 1687.60 per one ounce of gold. This figure, USD 1674, is not guaranteed to rise in future. As much as all the conditions as presented by PriceWaterHouseCoopers (2012) point and predict a rise in the future price of th e ounce of gold, the market could behave otherwise and adverse effects on the prices realized. If this happened, QGold Corporation could find itself exhibiting losses. To cushion the company from such losses in the unpredictable future, hedging should be employed here. QGold should employ the use of derivatives to enable it avoid future losses. However, the use of these derivatives should be well monitored as sometimes their misuse could lead to massive losses. Jo et. al (n.d, p.2) argues that the unethical or unprofessional use of derivatives could lead to a global financial crisis. QGold should take an offsetting position in case it decides to invest in the futures commodities market. Finnerty Grant (n.d) defines offset hedging as the liquidation of a futures position through making a transaction today of an equivalent value thereby getting rid of the futureÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¬ÃƒÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¢s delivery requirement. Currently, QGold Corporation has an exposure of a value exceeding 50 million ounces of gold. Data borrowed from CME group (2012) gives two options of futures for gold, that is, for the months October 2012 and December 2012 respectively. QGold Corporation may decide to either invest in both of these futures or one of them depending on their stand regarding risk management. Recommendations After the options available to company QGold have been analyzed in the preceding discussion, some recommendations are done as stipulated in the subsequent paragraphs. Firstly, QGold should look for ways of minimizing the risk exposure inside the firm. Before resources are employed in prospecting for mine fields, an intensive research and study should have been carried out beforehand to ascertain the availability of the said minerals. Sometimes prospecting might be carried out on a mine only to find that there are no mineral deposits thereby resulting into loss of massive resources and time. QGold Corporation should also get a good hedge fund managing company to offer them advisory services on how they will invest in the futures market to avoid losses resulting from unethical use of derivatives. The best futures should be identified and invested in. QGold Corporation should continue with their expansion plans and utilize its size for market advantage. A big company is more capable of exploiting the market better than a small company. Conclusion In conclusion, it has been made evident in matters discussed in this report that QGold Corporation will be able to avoid future losses by engaging itself in hedging through investing in the future contracts market. The volatility of the gold market in Australia and the world in general makes it very hard for companies to predict their future returns. This is because prices may fall leading to a decrease in the returns or they may rise resulting to an increase in the level of returns. Since the future lies unknown and no one knows for certain what will occur, itÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¬ÃƒÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¢s better to prepare to the future today. To prevent imminent losses in the future, investing today in a futures market will guarantee a company a specific return to investment regardless of the risks involved or the prices that will be existing at that time. However, QGold Company may also find itself making losses where the market prices that will be existing at the time of maturity of the futures contract exceed the price of the futures. Despite that notion though, investing in the futures contracts would be the best measure for QGold Corporation to take as it totally eliminates all risk, gives definite expected returns in future and allows the corporation the freedom to make other management decisions without fear.

Sunday, May 24, 2020

Term Papers on Class Action Suit

Introduction There have been various occasions when employees are discriminated against in terms of promotion on the basis that they are not of the required sex, not that they are not qualified to be in those positions. Because of this, class action lawsuit has been formulated to be applied by the victims of promotional or salary discrimination to fight for their rights. This write up explains the use of class Action lawsuit by the affected people to ensure they are not discriminated against in promotion at workplace on the basis that they are not of the required sex while they have the qualification to be in those positions. Main Text Class action is a situation where a group of employees join forces to file a case in court in which a particular group of defendants are being involved. This type of cooperative lawsuit was first used in the United States and is still majorly used in the U.S. The adoption of this law has spread to other European countries but some variations have been effected with time to allow various organizations to forward claims in defense of large group of consumers. By becoming a member of class action lawsuit, a person is required to sign an agreement that he/she ceases to have the rights to sue the organization as a person. If the plaintiffs are successful in their claim, the class action is usually rewarded in comparison to the damage afflicted by the defendants. On the other hand, it is not a guarantee that all the members of the suit should be compensated if the plaintiff becomes successful. The rate of compensation can be varied depending on the agreement (Crosby 52-59). There are two categories of awards from class action lawsuit: punitive and compensatory damages. Compensatory damages apply to awards claimed from the inflictions caused by the defendants. The rewards are meant to compensate for the damages caused by the defendant, for instance illness, death, or discomfort. On the other hand, punitive damages are form of punishment for the organization engaged in the unacceptable acts, or engaging in causing discomfort. The seriousness of punitive damages in a class action lawsuit can be witnessed when it is shown that a company has violated health, protection or psychological health of the plaintiffs. The settlement of class action lawsuits can be accomplished by jury trials or settled before trials. In the directed mediation suit, damages are agreed by the defendants. There can arise problems by the jury trial part if the entity accused with punitive or compensatory damages appeals for the decision. This is a consequence of the fact that the appeal can take a long time. As a result, the plaintiffs have to wait for sometime before they get compensation (United States, Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Company, Bancroft-Whitney Company 1458-1502). On other occasions the plaintiffs may never get any compensation if the companies declare bankrupt. However, there are several advantages associated with class action lawsuits. Firstly, combination increases the chances of success of a legal procedure, and minimizes the expenses involved in court case. In cases with common enquiries of legal procedures and the truth, combination of claims prevents the need to repeat cases of the same catego ry, witnesses and issues from case to case. Appeal to the US Supreme Court In this case, Walmart incorporation has been sued of systematic discrimination to women and payment. If this suit becomes a success, a group of 1.5 million women in United States could cause a lot of loss to the retail company. Several plaintiffs have been filed in the U.S Supreme Court against the giant retail outlet and the company has been filing asking for the review into the plaintiffs. It is believed that the case against Wal-Mart could be a milestone in class action (George 23-36). The beginning of the case was in San Francisco in 2001 during which a group of six women sued Walmart incorporation of discrimination, partly on the claim that they were neglected for promotion in place of men. Walmart On the other hand is not concerned with the validity of the women’s claims, it rather emphasizes on the legitimization of the class. Normally, gender discrimination cases are tackled by courts as they come. On the contrary, when cases come under federal law, and plaintiffs are based in different states, the plaintiffs can be pooled into a class action case. The Walmart plaintiff class incorporates all women who were employees in any of the company’s 3400 stores towards the end of 1990s. The claim of Walmart is that it is unable to handle the plaintiffs against it by a large class like the one it faces on the claim that each woman has her own facts. The company’s statement in court petition claims that the case incorporates vital issues about class action process and Title VII. It further says that the 9th circuit’s view opposes many decisions of other relevant courts and also the Supreme Court on its own. It claims that the 9th circuit view was more concerned with the class certification and not the validity of the lawsuit. It claims to have been an outstanding place for women to work and has been identified as a principal in ensuring development and success of women in place of work (George 26-36). In a petition for a reexamination, Walmart describes the class action as including every woman employed by the company in the precedent decade in any of the 3400 stores, 41 localities and 400 districts and who were in positions in any of its 53 departments and 170 job descriptions. The petition further claims that the large number of class members together demand billions of money in compensation with the claim that a large number of Walmart managers brought financial discomfort on each of the members of the class likewise by ignoring them on the basis of their sex, which is against the company’s policy of non-discrimination. The petition tries to persuade the court to apply injunctive relief and tries to question whether the validation of the enormous class passes congregate under civil rights law and the process constitutional process or the best measures available. The petition further contends that there could be gender bias in the branch stores due to delegation of duties to the branch managers, a charge that could be filed against any company regardless of size. In the event that the appeals court’s verdict stands, virtually every employer in the business world could be topic to the same suit. Despite the fact that Title VII does not necessitate employers to apply selective and biased treatment to escape costly cases, and heavy losses, the verdict will cause an actual negative effect on authentic business culture that the business must get rid of (Crosby 59-66). The petition appeals that the court’s evaluation would be important in providing the needed verification and to make it a duty that the truth is followed. A co-leading advocate for the plaintiffs referred to as Washington attorney Joseph Sellers dismissed the notion Walmart would find it difficult trying to protect itself against such an immense class action. While conversing on phone from his office, Sellers tried to defend Walmart that there was enough confirmation that could be obtained from Walmart employees that and workforce in defense of the policy of the retail giant. He claimed that there was enough evidence to show that Walmart the discrimination being talked about was not witnessed in all the branches of the retail company, in the same way plaintiffs can rely on the same claim to illustrate there was. He admitted that there were instances when there was discrimination against women that women are second class employees in any organization. He however defended himself saying these claims only took place when managers met in strip clubs or at restaurants. As the matter of class action against Walmarts continued spreading and inspiring the development of class action, sellers condemned the class action as having been certified six years back. After those six years, The frequency of Equal job opportunity Commission Class has drastically reduced. A judge in the U.S District Court and a couple of sittings of the 9th Circuit a panel of three judges and the other number representing the rehearing of the appeal approved the class. Nevertheless, the vote had a narrow margin (George 29-33).The panel of judges supported the opinion that the accurate evidence provided by the women, opinions of the experts, information from statistical sources and information from unreliable evidence provided enough information to show that Walmart’s female workers were exposed to one source of corporate laws  Ã‚   not mentioning a wide variety of personal segregation acts that may have contributed to illegally discriminate against them in contravention of Title VII. Seller reiterated that the practice of discrimination was a common phenomenon and it was not only used by managers of Walmart. Due to the gravity of each case, Circuit Judge Andrew Kleinfield differed saying there was a possibility that women employees of Walmart who have been victims of sex discrimination stood a chance of losing a lot if the discrimination class action is approved. All those concerned with the settlement based on the Rule, 23 in the Federal rules of Civil processes, the verdict would encompass all members, whether relevant or not to the class. The situation would be worse if the plaintiffs lose and even worse if the plaintiffs win. In the case where the plaintiffs lose, women who have been subject of sex discrimination will have to split their disciplinary damages awards with majority of women who did not. Women who are expected to benefit from immense compensatory damages in addition to missed payments will be underprivileged of them. Women who are no longer emplo yees of Walmart will not benefit from injunctive and declaratory relief of any importance to them, whereas new female Walmart workers will reap the benefits of justice done to previous women. He explained that in the event that the settlement is in most occasions, verbal communication for women and collection of money by the lawyers, the realistic possibility is that the victory would be ridiculous. In the April verdict by the entire court in support of the panel and the district court judge, the difference came as a result of political motivation. The six Circuit judges were appointees of democrats while four on the opposing side were appointed by Republicans, Kleinfeld being one of them. An opposing writing by Circuit Judge Sandra explained that in the absence of evidence of implementation of discriminatory decisions by branch managers in all the branches or any evidence in support of discriminatory practice in all the branches of the company, there was no reason to combine the purported 1.5 million claims to a sole action (United States, Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Company, Bancroft-Whitney Company 1501-1506). The decision to accept or reject the case still remains unknown to the Supreme Court. Previously Justice Stephen Bayer has lower-leveled himself from a Walmart case because he was a stockholder in the giant retail company. The information whether or not Bayer is a shareholder in the company remains unknown. It is also not known whether other member of the high court have shares at Walmart. Class action can be used to alter the intention of a class in which the defendant is a part. As an example Landeros v. Flood situation was applied with an intention of altering the motive of doctors and inspire them to acknowledge suspected child mistreatment. On the other hand, they stand a chance of facing the threat of national battle for misdemeanor in tort resulting from the letdown to account for established injuries. Earlier, many medical practitioners were not willing to account for situations of child maltreatment in spite of the law that demanded it. Also, in situations of low funds, class action makes it possible for all plaintiffs to be given relief and that before-time filing complains do not use the finance of all its resources before other plaintiffs may be repaid. Thus class action encompasses all claims into a single place in which the court can rightfully partition the assets between all the plaintiffs if the judgment is in their favor. Furthermore, a class action prevents a situation where varied court decisions could cause unwanted values for the defendant to go after. As an example, a court may confirm a plaintiff for class conduct wherever a number of entity bond-holders litigate to settle on whether they could change their bonds to general stock. Refusing to go to court on the case in one hearing might consequence in diverse outcomes plus conflicting values of behavior for the defendant company. Consequently courts will allow class action in similar occasions. Reasoning of the 9th Circuit Court on Employees A newly conceived judgment, the Court of Appeal of the US for the 9th Circuit has the opinion that the decision of law assumption in an unobstructed consensus of contractors with California truck drivers was not applicable in determining independent contractor exclusively. Somewhat California law was applicable. Consequently the drivers were able to file claims under the California Labor Code that their classification was misinterpreted and they were supposed to be considered as employees. This decision is a milestone to companies depending on assumptions of choice of law in making contracts to consider the extent of the assumption and to be cautious of depending upon it as a means to evade California Law. Considering Narayan, the 9th Circuit was of the opinion that EGL Inc. – a service whose base is Texas and governed by Texas Law, did not have the power to compel its California drivers to send away claims of employment affiliation beneath the California Labor Code despite the agreement in their signing that considered them as sovereign contractors and assumed that the contracts could be determined under the Texas Law (United States, Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Company, Bancroft-Whitney Company 1495). It was found out by the Court that the Texas selection-of-law assumption only applied to the conditions of the contracts on its own and did not consider the drivers’ claims that they were not allowed to earn their overtime pay, expenditure allowances, and meal durations as expected by California Law on the basis that those implied constitutional claims that were not included in the contract, include the explanation of the contract conditions f the contract, or necessitate there to exist a contract. Due to the reason that Texas law did not pertain to claims beyond the contract, the court used California multi-dimensional test of employment to the EGL drivers to ascertain if they were employees that were able to bring wage and time claims. In the test, it measured the possibility of employee’s ability for profit or loss on the basis of his skills of management, the possibility of employee venturing in facilities or resources required for his work, or his hiring of assistants, whether the service executed demands any skills, the level durability of the working connection and whether the work done is an important part of the employer’s business in question. It was stated by the court that the delivery work done by the current and former drivers of EGL formed a pillar in the daily operations of the company, that demonstrative videotape the company availed for its drivers showed that they undertook the key functions in the distribution operations, that a driver was guided on how to conduct himself by the driver hand book, that the drivers conducted business using the company forms and that meetings were conducted for drivers concerning company policies. It was also established by the court that EGL controlled the driver schedules, encompassing holiday times, and some disciplinary measures were subjected on the drivers if they did not appear for work on time. Furthermore, they were required by the company to put on shirts and boots with EGL brands and to brand their trucks with the EGL symbol (George 26). Less skill was required in performing the work done by the drivers and a contract between the company and a particular driver could end in a span of one month notice. Based on these assumptions, the court assumed that the drivers provided enough information of an employment connection to necessitate a jury trial of their legal claims against EGL. Works Cited Crosby Faye, Ropp Ann. Sex discrimination in the workplace: multidisciplinary perspectives. New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell, 2007. George, Bohlander. Managing human resources. Sydney: Cengage Learning, 2007. United States, Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Company, Bancroft-Whitney Company. United  States Code of Service. New York: Lawyers Co-operative Pub. Co., 2000.