Wards Model Essay Example Pdf - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 10 Words: 3040 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Analytical essay Did you like this example? In their book- Corporate Financial Strategy-(CFS), Bender and ward (1995) had tried to build closer links between finance and strategy. Dealing first with CFS, it should not be considered with corporate finance as the discipline addresses a range of issues which interconnects finance and competitive strategies. In the book, they based their model with the product life cycle (PLC) by matching external sources of finance to strategies for corporate development throughout the life cycle of a company and composed financial elements mainly venture capital, debt, dividend, profit, P/E, and risk into the model. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Wards Model Essay Example Pdf" essay for you Create order In their model, they tried to describe each stage of the PLC and the effects on these financial elements throughout the stages of the company life cycle and described in details how to raise finance throughout the company life cycle and whether to pay dividend or retain earnings etc. In this article, the main purpose is to analyse each stage of their model and how these stages have effects on these elements and evaluate the model in terms of its strength and weaknesses and recommendations if any to improve the model. Bender and Wards model The use of the PLC concept as a framework to formulate and implement timely financial strategies can be justified in bender and wards model of CFS as they have adopted the same curve as PLC where the main objective is to ensure overall company profitability and maximize shareholders wealth over the life cycle. In their model, they describe optimal financial decisions that a company should take at various stages of the company life cycle (CLC). The PLC concept has an essential impact on companys strategy in different areas such as finance. The basic issue Ward and Bender explained through their book- is that there are loads of finance textbooks, which explain the theory and put it into some sort of context, but there did not seem to be anything that said look this is what you actually do, and this is why you do it. They started the model with defining the risk in two ways- financial risk and business risk. By financial risk, in the model it specifically means the amount of borro wing a company has in its capital structure. So, if a company has a lot of borrowing then it is taking on a lot of financial risk; if it has no borrowing or gearing at all, then it has got no financial risk. And that way it is easy because it means that business risk is everything else, but business risk really is what it says. In their model, the business risk refers to the volatility of profits and cash flows of a company and that is going to depend on whether it is a younger company or a mature company, what sort of industry it is in and how susceptible it is to the economic cycle. Moreover, to connect the strategy and financial, they put emphasize on the importance of P/E ratio which represents the ratio of current share price to its earnings per share (EPS), where high P/E ratio represents the high potential for growth in future. According to their model, at the beginning stage, venture capital is the main source of financing the operations in any company and will remain the main source of funding until the company will start heading towards the maturity stage. According to the model, at the launch stage, the business risk is so high because of the product risk in the new market and low operating income (or some time even suffering losses), so to create the balance it with the financial risk the company should not borrow to keep the financial risk low. Static trade-off theory also supports the opinion that a firm in growth stage should not finance with debt because of the high bankruptcy cost. There is also no benefit in tax with expenditure of interest because of their low revenue. Moreover if a company try to finance it business with debt at the launch stage it might lose the opportunity to increase its revenue or minimizes its losses as it has to pay interest on the fund acquired through debt. And when the company is unknown and the business risk is high at this stage and it is likely that company might suffer initial losses, borrowing does not soun d an attracting option for funding as it will create an imbalance between financial risk and business risk. And also at this stage, according to the model, it is wise no to pay dividend as company has not sufficient earnings to pay out. Ward also mention that at this stage the P/E ration of the company is normally high because of the low earning per share (EPS). Even at the growth stage the company is still facing high business risk as it has to pay promotional expenses for increasing the sales. At this stage company can enter in to small stock market to raise their equity from the broader range of equity investors and keep the level of its financial risk still low. Despite of that many companies still fail to manage the rapid growth sales, so it is wise not to go for borrowing at this stage as well and finance should be taken from capital market in the form of equity and by retaining the profit of the company and company should pay small dividend to keep the investors interest i n the company (Bender Ward, 2003). Capital structure may be influenced by the firms life stages, as needs for funds may change with the changing circumstances of the firms from equity to cheap source of financing that is debt (Bender Ward, 1993). It is not always advisable for mature company to only use equity financing therefore, company should use debt financing in order to balance companys finance and business risk in particular circumstances during the maturity stage. Damodaran (2001) also proposed that expanding and high-growth firms would finance themselves primarily with equity mostly through venture capital and when it enters in the maturity stage, the funding would be replaced by debt. Likewise in the Bender and Ward model also, as the company progress towards the maturity, the business risk tends to reduces and at this stage, company can think of taking the advantage of borrowed money from the market to decrease its cost of equity by the mean of cheap debt. As company moves from equity to debt financing, its financial risk gradually increases as it uses more and more debt financing. Since the potential opportunity for growth is low, the money is not working hard in the business and now company should start to repay the invested amount to its shareholders in form of dividends. Now at the declining stage, company knows that what is going to happen, so here it should use debt financing for the business activities because the business risk is low at this stage. Dividend should increase to its maximum level at this stage as the opportunity for growth is very low. At this stage, the principle source of finance that is debt is associated with high financial risk, which offsets the low business. Critical Evaluation of the Model Looking from the practicality of the model, Bender and Ward model seems very attractive and guides company how, when and by what mean to raise money. Nevertheless, what about the companies (industry) which are already at the maturity stage. However, their model finds difficulty to answer this question, as these mature companies want growth. Their model simply adopts the PLC model and extended it to company life cycle. Another consideration about their model is that the PLC is not following the classical mode of theorising and since their model is based on PLC, the weaknesses of the PLC can also affect their model (Sion 2012). It is not clear that the PLC is a concept, theory, model or framework? Management only looks for the practicality of the model but what is the underlying theory behind that which is missing in bender and wards model. It is also not necessary that all the companies go through all the stages of the life cycle. It is not unusual for product to gain second life or even reincarnation that can help companies to progress from maturity stage not to decline or death but to fresh period of repaid growth. And now a day, many companies borrow money from the financial institutes as they are the cheap sources of financing and government also provides financial support for companies to start the business and encourage them for borrowing and also help the mature companies or industries to bring them back to the growth track. There is also a lot of confusion about the fact that what kind of evidence can prove the model. There are number of mature companies who have no dividend which is against their model. It is also not clear that what kind of hypothesis can prove or disprove the model. Moreover, the model is over emphasized on finance and give relatively low importance to the strategy thus difficulties can be found to interlink finance and strategy. In addition, the concept of value is also not very defined in their model; however, they came very close to define the value in their model. For linking strategy and finance together, value can be considered the main concept that is required to interlink these two disciplines. However, their model gives more weight to finance and thus it misses the link with strategy. The value is behind their model but they did not realize the actual value, which arises from the consumption of the financial resources and utility. The model is developed by using PLC idea but there are many other strategic theories like porters five force, value chain, generic strategy which are well defined in terms of value and can help to interlink finance and strategy together. One of the limitations of the PLC is that it cannot predict the length of the each stage of the life cycle and also cannot forecast the sales accurately. Although the PLC stages concept provides the manager directions about the changes of characteristics of companies and diagnosis tool to direct the company to reach and keep their b est life stage. However the limitation of the model is that it is not clear that when and how a company should raise the money as the model fails to predict the length of each stage and as a result company cannot clearly decide when the best time to use debt funding is. The PLC also assumes that the entire product passes through these four stages of the life cycle. If this is correct then the company must enter to decline stage after the maturity stage and company usually wants to avoid this stage. In reality, as said earlier, a product can rebirth after the maturity stage and can avoid the decline stage by improving the quality of the product and thus it can again enter in the growth stage. Another possibility is that a product may perform so badly at the launch stage because of the poor marketing strategy and thus it straight away move towards the declining stage of the life cycle. And bender and ward has applied the same concept of PLC in their model, so these limitations of PLC are directly affecting their model. In addition to these, another criticism against their model comes from the MM theory developed by Modigliani and Miller (1958). According to their theory, borrowing can help small companies to grow rapidly as borrowing supports the sales increase and consequently the growth of the company. They argued that the change in debt-equity ratio will not affect the value of the company and as a company increases its debt the overall cost of equity tends to decreases and shareholders bear higher risk due to the increased possibility of the bankruptcy. Also the agency problem is missing in Bender and Ward model. In their model it is not clear who controls the company, managers who are the agents or the shareholders who are the source of financing at the launch and maturity stage? And one of the important criticisms against their model is risk. In their model the business risk is keep on declining as the company progresses to maturity and decline so the q uestion arises here is that what motives company to proceed to decline stage? It is not clear in their model. Although there are lots of limitation for the model, Bender and Ward are the first one who came with the concept to link finance and strategy together, and it is impossible for any model to meet out all the necessary criteria in the relevant field of research. Despite of that, there are also lots of advantages of their model. The interesting thing about the model is that it is very simple to understand and managers can use it easily to grow their business and change the financial sources for the company over the stages of the organization life cycle. The model gives crucial weight to venture capital for any company as it is the best way of financing the new business at the launch and maturity stage which keeps the balance between business and financial risk and when the company is in mature stage it can use debt funding. Adding to this, their model clearly identifies the high risk of borrowing and kept risk grounded to the firm level, which can help to company to avoid the credit crisis. Frielinghaus, Moster and Firer (2005) also conclude that capital structure life stage asserts that more debt should be utilised by firms as they mature, but they also have mentioned that there is a little test has been done to test this model empirically. It also helps people to understand the difference between junior and major stock markets which will help them to guide in their financial decision. Although the model is not tested against the evidence so far, it can be tested against the real situation of the companies in the stock markets. Porters budge Others might still give the importance to the simplicity of the model and will criticise the model, however, complexities can be built into the model. An important step in improving the model is taken by Sion by introducing the porters bulge derived using the porters five forces model. Many companies who are at the growth stage want to remain at this stage for longer period. But the potential high growth attracts entry and rivalry in the industry which can shake out the present companys life cycle and that is where the PLC and Porters five force model can be combined together to improve the model. In porters bulge, Sion introduced three new stages in the life cycle of a company by taking into account the industry in which a company operates, shaping between growth and maturity stage which are new entries, rivalry and shake-out. The five-force model will help to compare bender and ward model and can bring different point of view which can affect the company at the growth stage. A t the growth stage, the industry attracts the potential entrants and that can cause the market share of a company. At this stage, a company might experience slow but positive growth in sale, no growth in sale or a negative growth in sale and then accelerates with rapid pace depending on the rivalry increased because of the new entrants. At this stage a company will face stifle decline earlier in the life cycle but with the help of differentiation or new product introduction or developing alternative use of the old product can help the company to avoid the initial decline stage (porters bulge) in their sales. The introduction of revitalized product will smoothen the porters bulge. This idea of Sion is supported by the from the real world as many growing companies continuously keep on spending on the research and development to introduce new product every year to remain in the growth stage for longer period of time. But the problem with this is that competitors might also follow th e same trend and some time the company which is not able to compete in this kind of environment will straight away face the declining stage before the maturity period of the life cycle because of the shakeout in the industry. Another concern is that the five-force model assumes the neoclassic economics and perfect market which are not robust enough the present financial situations (crisis). It isolates the finance from the capital market, business and accounting. Conclusion The points Bender and Ward are trying to pull out very simply are that one can take a life cycle model of the company and can correlate what business risk and financial risk looks like over the life cycle, adjusting it for the type of business that the company is in. And say in these early stages company need equity it doesnt matter that debt is cheap, it need equity and this is what dividend policy should be and this is the type of investments it should be making and this is how it should be funding them. And then the message, as move through the life cycle and through the book, is company can make it more complex after this, but the only reason for complexity is if it benefits company rather than its investment bank. Its basically a practical guide to corporate finance for people who do understand a little bit of the theory. Their model also explains what the corporate financial strategy is all about and how a company should raise money throughout the life cycle of the company a nd how it should apply the money within the business. The link between Bender and Ward model and Porters five-force model can also help to connect the finance and strategy as these two models are interconnected with each other. To further evaluate the model, it will be required to analyse the number of companies where the focus should mainly be on the launching and growing companies to test the practicality of the model. This will help to fully understand the model from both qualitative and quantitative. Words count: 3039

Business Model And Strategic Plan - 2380 Words

Business Model and Strategic Plan Part 1: Conceptualizing a new product or service division of an existing business Miracle Spa is a therapy store center on relaxation as an aid in healthy living. Miracle Spa gives a mixture of products, techniques, and tools for customers to follow at home relaxation therapy. These goods combine body and cosmetics services, reflexology, aromatherapy products, candles, and perfumes. The performance of a healthy balance of spirit, mind, and body is Miracle Spa’s focus point. Miracle Spa offers facials, massages, nails, and waxing services at the store. Miracle Spa wants the customers to feel comfortable to decide to buy the items for relaxation, or just come in and have individual therapist provide them†¦show more content†¦Miracle Spa store will establish a niche because the business store has become a tremendous opponent for resorts and stores. Every market will have and present and a variety of Guided imagery, which is a method utilize by several for coping and stress management. These guided models will be ready for clients to use and buy for at home therapy sessions. Miracle Spa’s mission statement is to give the best quality of products and services for at home relaxation therapy. With the diversified collections of tools, products, and methods for the clients to obtain a healthy balance of spirit, mind, and body. Organization Vision: â€Å"A vision statement performs the firm’s strategic plan that centers the services and resources of the company on delivering a desirable tomorrow† (Pearce Robinson; 2010, p38). The vision of Miracle Spa is to produce the best tools, product, and methods available to meet the customer’s desires and demands in a relaxing, comfortable, and discrete environment. The future vision the author has for the company is a vision that workers will be please, it will become managed by the business helping and contributing back to the public. By doing all the above Miracle Spa values. It will benefit the company to make what pronounce in the vision and

Sports and Drugs Free Essays

Consider if steroids were legal, how much more exciting sports would be and t would be fair to everyone. Why: As an athlete and competing in a high level sport, I easily understand athletes and their reasons for doping in sports. At a high level you’re always striving to be the best you can be ad better than your opponents to win. We will write a custom essay sample on Sports and Drugs or any similar topic only for you Order Now Also, as a candidate for the Provincial and National Team for Canada I have experience in knowing what you need to know and expect while participating in these events. At a camp for team Canada, WADA showed up unexpectedly and took one of the girls’ urine test. So really this is why the topic of doping in sports caught my attention to is because I can relate to it and I’m interested in learning more about it. Why Illegal: it gives you an unnatural advantage against your opponent. Drugs or blood transfusions can provide a 5 or 10 percent advantage (Thomas Murray, Hasting report). Doping up your body and eliminating the concept of fair play is different from exceeding to your best abilities natural and being competitive. When participating in sports, it builds character to be determined, honest, and cooperative, but when an athlete pumps illegal performance enhancing drugs into their system it shows true character on what they would do just to win. It has a big effect on the athlete altogether. Doping also effects the psychological aspect of your morals and becoming a criminal by being dishonest and putting illegal substances in your body, it can be mentally damaging. Not only mentally damaging but doping messes up your body, the natural growth and development of it from unnatural drugs is something all athletes should be concerned about. Sacrificing your body to win isn’t a right way to compete. Most likely sport: From Peter Sullvan: The first overall highest percentage(3. 6) of positive illegal drug tests is cycling, in the 2006 tour de France( Including Floyd Landis in first) the top 5 placed athletes were all guilty of drug use. Along with Lance Armstrong admitting to doping after winning 7 tour de France titles. Floyd Landis describes cycling as â€Å"Professional cycling is organized crime. † Coming in second not too far behind cycling is Weightlifting with a 3% average of positive testing. Seeing how these athletes need to lift mass amounts of weight, its almost predicted that this sport is top 5 for positive doping statistics. Turkey and Russia are common countries who’s athletes are accused of steroids. Thirdly, Boxing is a candidate for doping in sports with a 2. 9% average. A case in 2007 was where an anti- aging agency was distributing steroids to famous boxers such at Even Fields. Boxing requires strength and stamina and some feel the need to enhance their training with steroids to just be stronger than their opponents. Coming after boxing in fourth, is Triathlon. Athletes involved in this race are super humans, in perspective of many people. To run, swim and bike with out stopping is impressive and takes mass amounts of mental and physical strength. Lastly, Baseball makes top 5 sports in doping with a 2. 5% average in positive testing. Even though this sport isn’t in the Olympics, Major League Baseball players have been known for steroid use in the past of 1999 and early 2000’s, as well this past year 20 players got suspended for steroid use. Types: EPO (Erythropoietin): This is a method of an increase of blood oxygen. Erythropoietin is a natural hormone found in the human body. It revitalizes blood cells to have more oxygen, which then increases anaerobic activity. (Kelland, 2012). CERA(Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator): This is another form of EPO. It increases your blood oxygen level without having to inject yourself as often. Anabolic Steroids: This is a fake replacement of testosterone to help the body utilize protein allowing the athlete to train with more intensity, along with building muscle mass and strength easier. Another aspect is that it acts as an anti- inflammatory to recovery quickly.  (Kelland, 2012) Diuretics: A substance that can mask illegal substances so they wont be detected. Side effects of weight loss. (Kelland, 2012) Blood Doping: Methods of substances to enhance red blood cell mass, to move more oxygen to muscles which increases stamina. 2 types; Autologous is where you use your own blood from being put aside until needed. Homologous is where you take someone else’s blood that’s the same as yours. (Kelland, 2012) Insulin: This enhances glucose in take that helps increase endurance levels by making the storage of muscle glycogen bigger for the athlete. If not used properly it can lead to low blood sugar which leads to unconsciousness and seizures. (Kelland, 2012) Gender? : Which gender is most likely to dope in sports? Well males are a dominant factor for doping. They are much more likely to dope in sports by using steroids. Steroids effect women in a much more negative effect then it does to men. For women, steroids have side effects such as growing hair in unwanted places, clitoral enlargement, and deepening of the voice. T’s easy to tell when a women is taking steroids because of the testosterone over load in their body and manly features. Their physical, behavioural and functional part of the women’s body are out of natural sync as well. Why would women want to take steroids in the first place? other than getting very strong? Women want equality and by taking steroids they can feel equally strong as men in the same playing field. Who’s in charge? the name is WADA (World Agency of Anti Doping). This organization keeps it fair throughout sports. The Olympic committee wanted an agency like this for all countries to follow to specialize on key activities include scientific research, education, development of anti-doping capacities, and monitoring of the World Anti Doping Code and it was quite a success. A cool fact is that WADA’s headquarters is right in Canada, Montreal. Their objective is to have a doping free sporting environment. Consequences: As an Olympic athlete it is important to keep your body clean of illegal substances. Why? Some of the consequences are quite serious. If caught by WADA (The World Agency of Anti Doping) before the Olympics, he/she is suspended for 6 months or longer. (Freedman, 2012) If an athlete has cheated during an event, and won, their medal is taken from them and the results are re-evaluated. Conclusion: In conclusion doping in sports is a serious social issue that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Doping shouldn’t be seen as a way to make an athlete feel better. Not only are they cheating themselves, but they are unfair to their opponents and should take into consideration what mental and physical harm they are really doing to their bodies. WADA is a great service to help deal with keeping sports all around the world fair by testing athletes for performance enhancing substances in their bodies. As an athlete myself I choose to really look into this topic because I’ve dealt with WADA myself. If you are an athlete, beware of what you put into your body. Its important to train to your full potential without being artificially enhanced with chemicals. The natural way is the way to go! Most important thing learned was how harmful steroids can be to your body and mind. Always important to stay true to yourself and not cheat. Be the best you can be How to cite Sports and Drugs, Papers

Face of Bravery free essay sample

â€Å"My parents are freaking out†¦ but I’m fine.† These are the words of my best friend just after being told she had a brain tumor. The tumor began growing off of the Schwann cells of her facial and hearing nerve, inside of the innermost ear and brain. The tumor was slowly growing into her brain stem. Upon hearing the news I was utterly shocked, terrified, and fascinated by the science of it all at once. According to her, the tumor was benign but the doctor warned of a probable malignancy. At first I told no one about Kathryn’s predicament, not even my parents. Why would I? How could I? I was having trouble believing it myself. My best friend, my partner in crime did not, could not have a tumor. Benign or not, I had heard countless horrors stories of brain tumors and I was scared out of my mind. We will write a custom essay sample on Face of Bravery or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page I did not cry when she told me, I know I needed to be calm and collected for her sake (and maybe even mine). As I sit here and recall those dark times, I realize now that Kathryn did not need any help being calm and collected. She told me about her situation without a tear, underwent a total of three intense surgeries to clear her head of that horrid threat, and still found time to succeed academically (she was ranked number three in our class at the end of the year). At first I was dumbfounded at her apparent indifference towards the whole situation and it was not until later that she told me of countless nights she spent crying herself to sleep, hating her new half-paralyzed face that resulted from surgery, hating her new crooked smile, hating the pain that she was going through. I even doubted myself as a friend for some time, wondering if I was giving adequate support to such a strong young adult. A year later, she took me aside and thanked me for all that I have done for her over the years. The moment moved me in many ways, knowing that I had made such a huge difference in one’ s life. Now I feel as if I should be thanking Kathryn. Thanking her for teaching me what genuine strength and courage are, for showing me the importance of supporting others, of giving back to the community that has fostered my growth. She has inspired me to join a Special Olympics swim team at the local town hall, to read to elementary school children and see the light of bright futures in their eyes, to strive in all of my academic and extracurricular endeavors, and to appreciate those wonderful people that surround us in our everyday life, those people that make all the difference. There is no doubt that Kathryn, who is today alive and well, has made all the difference, and I am truly grateful that she is here for me to tell her just that.

Free Play Essays - Limits, , Term Papers, Research Papers

Free Play The title of the second section in the book Free Play appropriately called The Work. The word work has several meanings, for most it is some act of labor or some skill they perform for money. To others work could be an artistic term, a final product of creativity. Not only could a work be a painting or a sketch but it could also be a score or in this case a dance, choreographed or not. In everyday life one always hears "practice makes perfect." Lately in Improvisational Structures class we have been "practicing" improves for Winterdance. However in this case we are just getting used to structures and we are also still growing closer as a group. According to Free Play, "Competence that loses a sense of its roots in the playful spirit becomes ensconced in rigid forms of professionalism." There have been several improves when the group became too serious or too focused on making the improve look good. Usually as a group we feel different after those improves and realize that we need to let our playful side show through again. Even though there are structures for the improves, the structures changes every time and are not dead set. That is the beauty of improvisations there is no dead set path that one must follow. "Structures ignites spontaneity." If someone is feeling flowing and soft, not everyone has to feel that way. The next chapter of the book " The Power of Limits" explains how there are different types of limits, personal limits, limits from your body, limits from the group. "As in the case of the body, many rules and limits are God-given in that they are inherent not in styles or social conventions but in the art medium itself: the physics of sound, of color, of gravity and movement." Limits can grow and expand as one pushes them. For instance my body's limit has increased tremendously from the beginning of the semester. Another way my limit has grown is at the beginning of the semester I would have never felt comfortable doing a duet, let alone a solo. Now I enjoy duets and am even starting to think maybe about attempting a solo. In this class there has been a lot of risk taking and pushing limits. We engage in improves several times throughout the class period. It always seems that we are"playing together" and not dancing for others. I think that is an important part of improve, you have please yourself, not do what you think others want to see. You also have to commit to what you are doing. Eventually others will notice, just because you are the only one doing that type of movement doesn't mean you are wrong, it is just your way of expressing through movement. Improvisation is a part of our everyday lives, it is a beautiful art form that expresses what one feels without that person even knowing that is how they felt.

How to Write a Perfect Human Resources Resume

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Employee At Will Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Employee At Will - Research Paper Example re, it cannot allow any of its employees to endanger or compromise the lives of its employees or its customers through show of certain symptoms and behavior that are characteristic of using marijuana medical or otherwise. The labor laws provide for employee protection as well as maintenance of workplace safety by the employers. By having an employee working in this company who uses marijuana, the company would be breaking the labor laws mentioned above (United States Department of Labor, 2014). We however admit that there are questions we should have asked Mr. Casis before termination of his employment. One of these questions is how long he has been using the medical marijuana and what time he has been using it. He other questions that should have been asked should be what the side effects he experiences when he used this drug and how long they usually last. He should be asked to document evidence of his use of the drug as well as how often he uses it. All these should have been compared with his workplace performance and behavior since he first started using the drug to collect enough evidence that he is a risk factor to the well-being and safety of the employees and customers. The termination of Mr. Casias employment was rather sudden, rushed and unjustified. The correct channels normally used before an employee is fired were never used. The first question to ask the employer was what how they got to know about his use of medical marijuana which was prescribed by his physicians and employee health records are rather confidential. The other is on what evidence they had of his use of the drug. Did Mr. Casis portray any erratic behavior or other negative symptoms normally associated with the use of marijuana medical or otherwise? If so, what is the evidence of that behavior and how did the behavior affect his performance at work. Before any employee is fired he needs to have breached workplace code of performance and in this case, Wal-Mart did not provide the

The Pricing of Health Costs and its Effect on the Poor in the United Dissertation

The Pricing of Health Costs and its Effect on the Poor in the United States - Dissertation Example This part of the research paper focuses on reviewing relevant literatures about healthcare cost in the US and how it affects poor people who are relatively more needy to the healthcare-services than others. By reviewing various literatures, this part of the research develops a model presenting the relation between healthcare insurance claims and health risks. Healthcare pricing in the US According to Porter and Teisberg (2006), the US healthcare system is on a dangerous path due to toxic combination of high costs, uneven quality, frequent errors and peoples’ limited access to the services (p. 17). Out of these indicators, high cost seems to be a most challenging to the public, mainly to the poor. The healthcare services in the US are mainly delivered through private hands, but still, it is partially governed by free market forces. Healthcare service delivery and consumption do not meet the basic elements of a free market and is therefore often described as quasi-or imperfect m arket. In a free-market, there will be many patients- service buyers and many sellers, service providers who act independently. In such a situation, price is neither fixed by any external agency nor providers collude to fix it, but rather, prices are automatically governed by the forces of free-market due to the interaction of supply and demand forces (Shi and Singh, 2008, p. 12). But, when it comes to the US healthcare market, the consumers are general public with diseases who need quality medical services, payers are Medicare and Medicaid and sellers or providers are private or otherwise healthcare institutions. In such a marketing condition, prices are theoretically determined by the payers and not by market forces of demand and supply. Healthcare cost in the US has been rapidly increasing since 1960s, due to a number of factors including aging population, patient demand for high technology, need for best care available, technological advances, increasing therapeutic options and general economic factors like inflation (McCarthy and Schafermeyer, 2004, p. 649). A country can be said to spend in excess when it there is a differences between its spending per person on healthcare and its gross domestic product per person (Reinhardt, 2008). More specifically, the spending on healthcare in the US is more than that of other industrialized nations in the world and this cost increases surpasses the growth of various other important components of the US economy. most researchers found that Americans in general are highly dissatisfied of high cost of healthcare and its system as well (McCarthy and Schafermeyer, 2004, p. 649). How much does healthcare cost? Healthcare alone accounts to be one seventh of US national economy. The total spending on healthcare in the US in 1997 has been accounted to be $1,092 billion, which was twice as much as on education and three times as much as on national defenses. This spending also can be considered as one and half times as much a s on healthcare per capita spending of Canada (Heshmat, 2001, p. 67). The growth of healthcare costs has been slowing down dramatically since 1992, with 4.8 % in 1992, 3.1 % in 1993, 1.5 % in 1995 and so on. Healthcare cost growth, but in declining level, thus has been an unusual one in the recent history of US healthcare spending. Though there were greater advances in managed care and there were much efforts from

Product Reassessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Product Reassessment - Essay Example With respect to gender, 80% of beer consumers using SABMiller products are male. Women account for 20% of SABMiller’s products consumed. The company’s market segments in the US are dived into 21-27 year olds. The Latin America population segment, the African Americans population segment and finally the 50 years or older population (SABMiller 2010). The target market for SABMiller has grown steadily in the past. 9% of the Latin Americans consume SABMiller products. SABMiller has positioned itself in the market to expect a 13% growth in consumption of beer by 21-27 year olds, a 32% increase in consumption of its beer products by Latinos, 15% increase in consumption by African Americans and 25% increase in consumption by individuals who are 50 years and above. As at September 30th 2012, the company’s sales rose by 4 percent in Latin America (Geller, 2012). This shows that the company has positioned itself strategically to solidify it position as the number two brewe r world wide. The company has adopted a strategy to promote its products in the existing markets in the US and avoid markets that are either too volatile or too small. Types of research needed to reposition SABMiller products Branding research SABMiller requires to embark on branding research in order to reposition its beer products. Branding research is instrumental in creating a brand that has a positive and rusted image in the mind of customers and stakeholders. Branding research enables the company’s products to be structured in a way that reflect the products as the best in the market. Through this research, SABMiller will put strategies to make its customers see, hear, experience and believe the company’s products are the best in the market. Branding research provides information that is utilized to increase brand awareness, brand recognition, and improve the perceived quality and credibility of the company. SABMiller needs to undertake branding research to posit ion its brand strategically and ultimately increase the company’s sales and profits (Vernom research group 2012). Business forecasting research. It is paramount for SABMiller to undertake business forecasting research to focus accurately on business trends. This is vital for the company to reposition itself as one of the best brewing companies in the world. This type of research assesses the opportunities for new technologies as vital elements to reposition the company’s products. Business forecasting provides information on how the company is supposed to use its resources. The resources are used to identify the market that is vital with respect to the company’s operations. Through business forecasting research, SABMiller will understand the customer’s acceptance of SABMiller’s products and customer’s likelihood to purchase its products (Vernom research group 2012). Image and advertising research According to Vernom research group (2012), SA BMiller’s repositioning among the fierce competitor should focus on boosting its image in the beer industry. This information should be obtained through conducting image and advertising research. This type of research aids the company to put more emphasis on its brand image when repositioning. Image and advert

Anomalous Resistance Behavior in Bilayer Graphene

Anomalous Resistance Behavior in Bilayer Graphene Observation of Anomalous Resistance Behavior in Bilayer Graphene Yanping Liu 1,2, Wen Siang Lew 2,*and Zongwen Liu 3,* Abstract Our measurement results have shown that bilayer graphene exhibits an unexpected sharp transition of the resistance value in the temperature region 200~250K. We argue that this behavior originates from the interlayer ripple scattering effect between the top and bottom ripple graphene layer. The inter-scattering can mimic the Coulomb scattering, but is strongly dependent on temperature. The observed behavior is consistent with the theoretical prediction that charged impurities are the dominant scatters in bilayer graphene. The resistance increase with increasing perpendicular magnetic field strongly supports the postulate that magnetic field induces an excitonic gap in bilayer graphene. Our results reveal that the relative change of resistance induced by magnetic field in the bilayer graphene shows an anomalous thermally activated property. ______________________________________ Introduction: The electronic properties of monolayer graphene have been extensively studied due to its intriguing energy band structure with linear dispersion around the Dirac point and chirality exhibiting Berry phase of [1]. There is a zero-energy Landau level (LL) with four-fold degeneracy due to interactions between electron spins and valleys in the magnetic field [2-4]. Recently, bilayer graphene became a subject of intense research due to the low energy Hamiltonian of chiral quasiparticles and a Berry phase of [5-8]. It has a double-degeneracy zero-energy Landau level that incorporates two different orbital states with the same energy under an external magnetic field. The bilayer graphene with a Bernal (A-B) configuration loses some features of monolayer graphene and has a unique band structure where the conduction and valence bands are in contact with a nearly quadratic dispersion [5]. In bilayer graphene, a parabolic band structure ( ) with an effective mass m*=0.037, has been calculated by using the interlayer coupling model [9-14]. What makes bilayer graphene an interesting material for study is that the interlayer potential asymmetry can be controlled by an electric field, thus opening an energy gap between the conduction and valence bands [16-18]. Various applications for bilayer graphene are possible due to the fact that its band gap can be modulated by using an external out-of-plane electric field and chemical doping. There is intensive research on bilayer graphene under the application of a perpendicular electric field, however, experimental reports on magnetic transport properties of bilayer graphene are not as well-studied. Recent theoretical work reports on excitonic condensation and quantum Hall ferromagnetism in bilayer graphene [22]. There are interesting features in bilayer graphene due to its extra twofold orbital degeneracy in the LL spectrum, which results in an eightfold -degenerate LL at zero energy. The scattering mechanism of graphene is current ly a subject of intense research and debate. The problem of magneto-transport properties in the presence of Coulomb impurities is still an open research problem. Our understanding of the nature of the disorder and how the mesoscopic ripple effect affects the transport properties still need improvement; hence, a better understanding on the general electric and magnetic transport properties of bilayer graphene is necessary. In this paper, we have systematically investigated the charge transport properties in bilayer graphene as a function of temperature, magnetic field, and electric field. Our measurement results have shown that bilayer graphene exhibits a semi-metallic R-T property and an unexpected sharp transition of the resistance value in the temperature region 200~250K. The longitudinal resistance decreases with increasing temperature and electric field, a behavior that is markedly different from the experimental reports of monolayer graphene. Our results reveal that the energy gap in the bilayer graphene shows an anomalous thermally activated property and increases with. We have shown that this phenomenon originates from a tuneable band structure behavior that can be controlled by a magnetic field, a property that had never previously been observed in bilayer graphene. It has been shown that Raman spectroscopy is a reliable, non-destructive tool for identifying the number of graphene layers and it can be done through the 2D-band deconvolution procedure [23-25]. The Raman spectra of our graphene structure were measured at room temperature using a WITEC CRM200 instrument at 532 nm excitation wavelength in the backscattering configuration [26-28]. Fig.1a shows the characteristic Raman spectrum with a clearly distinguishable G peak and 2D band. The two most intense features are the G peak and the 2D band which is sensitive to the number of layers of graphene. The position of the G peak and the shape of the 2D band confirm the number of layers of graphene. Additionally, the number of layers of graphene can be easily distinguished from the full width half maximum of the 2D band, as its mode changes from a narrow and symmetric feature for monolayer graphene to an asymmetric distribution on the high-energy side for bilayer graphene [27]. The 2D band inset in Fig.1a shows that the Raman spectrum of bilayer graphene is red-shifted and broadened with respect to that of the monolayer graphene. Fig. 1b shows the four terminal resistance as a function of carrier-density n, and the sample shows a pronounced peak at density . Note that the sharp peak in resistance at low n is enhanced by the opening of the small energy gap owing to disorder-induced differences in carrier density between the top and the bottom layers of the flake. We have characterized the current (I)-voltage (V) characteristics of the bilayer graphene via four-terminal measurement, at different temperatures and magnetic fields. Shown in Fig. 2a are the I-V curves for bilayer graphene under the application of various magnetic fields at three different temperatures: 2 K, 200 K and 340 K. The magnetic field is applied in the perpendicular direction to the plane of the graphene. For all the temperatures and magnetic field strengths, the bilayer graphene exhibits a linear I-V curve. This implies that the graphene layer is ohmic in nature. We observed that for a fixed magnetic field, the I-V curve displays a larger gradient at higher temperature than at lower temperature. Interestingly, the gradient of the I-V curve decreases with increasing magnetic field. In our structure, the gradient of the curve corresponds to the conductivity of the graphene layer. Such temperature and magnetic field dependent behaviour of conductivity is characteristic of an intrinsic semiconductor. The decrease in the conductivity of the bilayer graphene with increasing magnetic field is attributed to the excitonic energy gap induced by the magnetic field. This conductivity dependence on the magnetic field suggests that the resistance () of graphene is a qualitative fingerprint of its band gap. In the absence of a magnetic field, the band structure of the bilayer graphene at the Dirac valley has a parabolic dispersion relation. When a magnetic field is present, the band structure is changed to a split Landau level structure [19-21]. Fig. 2(b) is an illustration of the bilayer bandgap and Landau level splitting under the influence of a magnetic field. Inset shows an optical image of the bilayer graphene with the metal contact electrodes. In Fig.2(c) we plot the resistance of the bilayer graphene, as extracted from the I-V curve, as a function of magnetic field for three different temperatures. As the magnetic field was increased in a step of 4T, the resistance increase for each step was different, resulting in a non-linear relationship between the resistance and magnetic field. Interestingly, the observed non-line relationship is markedly different from Zeeman spin-splitting theoretical model with the line relationship, where gap with a free-electron g-factor g=2, where is the Bohr magneton. This potentially indicates sublattice symmetry breaking and gap formation due to many-body correction in this LL [32-34]. This is further confirmation that magnetic field opens an excitonic gap in the bilayer graphene. The temperature dependence of monolayer graphene resistance is mainly attributed to the different scattering mechanisms: Coulomb scattering [35-36], short range scattering [37], and phonon scattering [38-39]. However, the temperature dependence of bilayer graphene resistance has not been established yet. Shown in Fig.3a are the temperature dependence of the resistance of the bilayer graphene under the application of a magnetic field 0T and 12T, respectively. The results show that the resistance of the bilayer graphene drops following non-metallic behaviour as temperature increases from 2K to 340 K. This implies that the bilayer graphene resistors have intrinsic semiconductor properties as mentioned earlier. This can be explained by the decrease in Coulomb scattering with temperature for bilayer graphene due to its parabolic band structure. For B=12T, a similar trend as B=0T is obtained in Fig 3a, where the resistance decreases with increasing temperature. However, the resistance for the entire temperature range is much larger than for B=0T. This indicates that the magnetic field opens an excitonic gap in the bilayer graphene that is thermally activated due to the Coulomb interaction ion-driven electronic instabilities [20, 31]. Ripples are a common feature of cleaved graphene because it is never atomically flat, as it is placed on a substrate such as SiO2 in the term of nanometre-scale deformations or ripples [40-42]. Despite the magnitude of the ripples being quite small, it is still believed to be responsible for the unusual transport behaviour of graphene, also susceptible to adsorbed impurities, defects and the roughness of the underlying substrate [40-43]. On the other hand, it has been shown that suspended graphene films are corrugated on a mesoscopic scale, with out-of-plane deformations up to 1 nm [44-45]. The deformation is a typically smaller than the Fermi wavelengthand these ripples induce predominantly short-range scattering. The observed height variation shows that the surface roughness beyond the atomic-level is intrinsically present in bilayer graphene. Hence, one of the interesting features of corrugation of graphene is that it offers a new experimental opportunity to study how the corrugat ion-induced scattering impacts the transport properties of graphene. It is important to mention that there is a strange sharp threshold like decrease in resistance observed above 200K. The strong temperature dependence is inconsistent with scattering by acoustic phonons. One possible explanation is that the flexural phonons confined within ripples between the top and bottom layer causes the scattering. The presence of the ripple effect exhibits local out-of-plane ripples [44]. Theoretical calculations[41,46] show that the scattering rates for interripple flexural phonons with respect to two-phonon scattering process as, where is the flexural-phonon frequency, the derivative of the nearest-neighbour hopping integral with respect to deformation, a the lattice constant, , and the mass of carbon atom [46]. For low temperatures T () , few flexural modes can be excited inside ripples (). The conductivity of the surface roughness model at the limit at low temperature is[45-46]. As the t emperature increases and typical wavelengths become shorter, short-range scattering excites the flexural phonons. For the high temperature limit, based on the above expression, we can estimate that , which yields ~100 to 1000 at T=300K. The model of quenched-ripple disorder [46] suggested that the electron scattering of the static ripples quenched from the flexural phonon disorder can mimic Coulomb scattering when at room temperature. One should also note that the model predicts stronger temperature dependence (above a certain quenching temperature of about 100K) which is close to our experimental result at about 200K. However, the ripple effect normally leads to a rapid increase in the R-T curve rather than the sudden decrease in R-T as observed for our bilayer graphene. In the absence of a theory to explain the stronger temperature dependence behaviour, we propose that the behaviour is consistent with the ripple effect interlayer scattering instead of interlayer scattering. Fig. 3b shows the schematically illustration of scattering mechanisms in bilayer graphene. For a bilayer graphene, the interlayer scattering between the top and bottom ripple graphene layer is similar to coulomb scattering with stronger dependence on temperature. The rapid decrease in R-T above 200K can be attributed to the transition between the low- and high-T limits in the interlayer ripple effect scattering. On the other hand, it was suggested that the observed strong T dependence could be explained by thermally excited surface polar phonons of the SiO2 substrate [35-38]. The SiO2 optical phonons at the substrate-graphene interface induce an electric field which couples to the carriers in graphene due to it modulating the polarizability [38-39]. However, Coulomb scattering is dominant for bilayer graphene and the substrate surface polar phonon induced field is to some extent screened by the additional graphene layers [39]. Recently it has been shown that the substrate dielectric constant plays an important role in scattering in graphene. Theoretical predictions show that for dielectric constant , Coulomb scattering dominates, while for dielectric constant , short-range scattering dominates, as Coulomb scattering is more strongly screened for materials with a larger dielectric constant. In fact, our observed behaviour is consistent with the theory suggesting that scattering from charged impurities is dominant in graphene. We introduce a relaxation-time approximation and treat the unscreened Coulomb potential as [1,5] where Q is the charge of impurities. Based on the Boltzmann transport theory, we can obtain the bilayer graphene resistivity with massless Dirac-fermions (MDF) at low energies as. For high temperature , , we can obtain the bilayer graphene resistivity as[47], where is the density of impurities per unit volume, is the permittivity of the semiconductor, and is the charge state of the impurity. This shows that the resistance of bilayer graphene limited by Coulomb scattering increases as increases and decreases with increasing temperature. Considering the above analysis, we deduce that the temperature dependence of resistance in bilayer graphene is mainly determined by Coulomb scattering. The short-range scattering is independent of temperature for bilayer graphene, as the density-of-states, the matrix element and the screening function are all energy independent. As a result of the parab olic band structure of bilayer graphene, the energy averaging of the Coulomb scattering time can give rise to the resistivity decreasing proportionality to temperature : . Based on the above discussion, we fit the measured resistance in Fig.3a by using the following model for bilayer graphene:, where and are the resistance due to the Coulomb and short-range scatterings, respectively. Fig.3b shows the relative resistance change under the biased and unbiased magnetic field as a function of temperature, and the dotted line is the fit following the equation , where is the energy gap. The opening of the energy gap due to a potential difference between the two layers and Coulomb interactions could be a cause for this. These considerations explain qualitatively why the resistance of bilayer graphene decreases with increasing temperature. Note that the relative resistance change is a strong function of temperature. At temperatures of 2Kà ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ­180K and 220Kà ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ­250K, the relative resistance strongly increases as temperature increases, indicating that an energy gap forms due to many-body correction in Landau Level. When the temperature incr eases to T >250K, the relative resistance is roughly independent of the increasing temperature; this indicates that the energy gap is mostly stable at high temperatures. On the other hand, with the temperature increase from 180K to 220K, the relative resistance dependence of temperature shows a sharp decrease, which indicates that the energy gap shows an anomalous thermally activated behaviour as a function of temperature. For zero gate voltage (i.e., neutrality point), we measured changes in longitudinal resistance as a function of applied perpendicular field B. Fig. 4a shows the four-terminal longitudinal resistance of bilayer graphene as a function of magnetic field at T= 2K at the charge-neutrality point. We have plotted the resistance per square, because it is independent of a size effect of the sample. As seen from Fig. 4a, the resistance increases nonlinearly with the magnetic field strength followed by a plateau-like phase. One should note that the plateau-like phase in Fig. 4b disappears at higher temperatures. One possible explanation is the augmented sublattice spin-splitting due to the high surface-impurity concentration of the graphene layer [18]. The origin of the nonlinear magnetoresistance increment behaviour is the splitting of Landau level that gives rise to a bandgap opening at the zero energy level [32-34]. In our measurements, we fit our results to an analytical approximation for the non-linear resistance , where is the Boltzmann constant. We found that our results are in good agreement with this equation. These considerations explain qualitatively why the nonlinear resistance increases with the magnetic field. Fig. 5 shows the resistance of bilayer graphene as a function of electric field (E) under different magnetic fields. The dependent characteristics are symmetric due to the chirality of graphene electrons when an applied electric field changes from E to E. The normalized resistance curve describes the response under the applied magnetic field in the range of B=0T to B=12T and the temperatures of 2-340K. The results demonstrate that when the magnetic field increases from 0T to 12T at low temperatures (2à ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ­200K) and low electric field (E), the resistance of bilayer graphene drops significantly. The larger slump in the resistance at lower temperature T=2K and low electric field as the increasing of electric field are due to Coulomb scattering by impurities, which is a strong function of temperature. On the other hand, at high temperatures (T >200K) and electric fields (E>0.01 ), the resistance of bilayer graphene show a linear decrease. This can be explained by the scatteri ng from thermally excited surface polar phonons of the substrate being screened by the additional top graphene layers [39]. This further confirms that at high temperatures, the scattering induced by the electric field on the substrate surface polar phonons is significantly screened between top and bottom layers in bilayer graphene. In our experiment, temperature and magnetic field dependence of resistance of bilayer graphene was investigated. Intrinsic semiconductor behaviour at the range of temperature is 2K-340K was observed. The strange sharp threshold-like decrease in resistance around 200K is unexpected, and we attribute it to the presence of mesoscopic ripples between the top and bottom layer. Our results reveal that the energy gap in the bilayer graphene is thermally dependent. This potentially indicates the sublattice symmetry breaking and an energy gap formation due to Landau Level splits. The obtained results are important for the better understanding of magnetic field induced high resistance and provide indications of a theoretically predicted magnetic field induced excitonic gap. Acknowledgements Y. L would like to thank Prof. Wang and Prof. Yao for his useful discussions. This work was supported in part by the NRF-CRP program (Multifunctional Spintronic Materials and Devices) and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) SERC grant (082 101 0015). The authors thank Sun Li and Li Yuanqing for their assistance in experimental measurements. Experimental section The bilayer graphene samples for this study were prepared using mechanical exfoliation techniques [2] from the bulk highly oriented pyrolitic graphite (grade ZYA, SPI Supplies) and transferred onto the surface of a lightly doped silicon substrate covered with a 300-nm thick layer of thermally grown , The doped silicon substrate and were used as back-gate and gate dielectric, respectively. Graphene electrical electrodes were patterned using photolithography techniques. A pair of ohmic Cr/Au (5nm/100nm) contacts were deposited via thermal evaporation at a background pressure of 10à ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ­7 mbar and subsequently lifted off in warm acetone. Electronic transport measurements have been carried out on multiple samples, using PPMS (Quantum Design) with a fixed excitation current of 10 . Electrical measurements were performed in the temperature range 2K ~340K and a magnetic field up to 12T was applied. In order to enhance electrical transport, the sample was cleaned in situ by the mag netic and electric field. Four-terminal electrical measurements were used for transport characterization. References          Geim, A. K.; Novoselov, K. S, The rise of graphene. Nature Materials 2007, 6, 183-91. Novoselov, K. S.; Geim, A. K.; Morozov, S. V.; Jiang, D.; Zhang, Y.; Dubonos, S. V.; Grigorieva, I. V.; Firsov, A. A., Electric field effect in atomically thin carbon films. Science 2004, 306, 666-9. Novoselov, K. S.; Geim, A. K.; Morozov, S. V.; Jiang, D.; Katsnelson, M. I.; Grigorieva, I. M.; Dubonos, S. V.; Firsov, A. A., Two-dimensional gas of massless Dirac fermions in graphene. Nature 2005, 438 , 197-200. Novoselov, K. S.; Jiang, Z.; Zhang, Y.; Morozov, S. V.; Stormer, H. L.; Zeitler, U.; Maan, J. C.; Boebinger, G. S.; Kim, P.; Geim, A. K., Room-Temperature Quantum Hall Effect in Graphene. Science 2007, 1137201. Peres, N. M. R., The electronic properties of graphene and its bilayer. 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K.; Katsnelson, M. I.; Novoselov, K. S.; Booth, T. J.; Roth, S., The structure of suspended graphene sheets. Nature 2007, 446, 60-3. Barone, V; Hod, O.; Scuseria, G. E., Electronic structure and stability of semiconducting graphene nanoribbons. Nano Letters 2006, 6 (12), 2748-2754. Han, M. Y; Ozyilmaz, B; Zhang, Y. B; Kim, P., Energy band-gap engineering of graphene nanoribbons. Physical Review Letters 2007, 98 (20). Wang, Z. F.; Shi, Q. W.; Li, Q. X.; Wang, X. P.; Hou, J. G.; Zheng, H. X.; Yao, Y.; Chen, J., Z-shaped graphene nanoribbon quantum dot device. Applied Physics Letters 2007, 91 (5). Zhang, Y; Tang, T.-T.; Girit, C.; Hao, Z.; Martin, M. C.; Zettl, A.; Crommie, M. F.; Shen, Y. R.; Wang, F., Direct observation of a widely tunable bandgap in bilayer graphene. Nature 2009, 459 (7248), 820-823. Kuzmenko, A. B.; Crassee, I.; van der Marel, D.; Blake, P.; Novoselov, K. S., Determination of the gate-tunable band gap and tight-binding parameters in bilayer graphene using infrared spectroscopy. Physical Review B 2009, 80, 165406. Morozov, S. V.; Novoselov, K. S.; Katsnelson, M. I.; Schedin, F.; Elias, D. C.; Jaszczak, J. A.; Geim, A. K., Giant intrinsic carrier mobilities in graphene and its bilayer. Physical Review Letters 2008, 100 (1). Barlas, Y; Cote, R.; Nomura, K.; MacDonald, A. H., Inter-Landau-level cyclotron resonance in bilayer graphene. Physical Review Letters 2008, 101 (9). KrsticÃÅ' , V; Obergfell, D.; Hansel, S.; Rikken, G. L. J. A.; Blokland, J. H.; Ferreira, M. S.; Roth, S., Grapheneà ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢Metal Interface: Two-Terminal Resistance of Low-Mobility Graphene in High Magnetic Fields. Nano Letters 2008, 8 (6), 1700-1703. Bisti, V. E.; Kirova, N. N., Charge Density Excitations in Bilayer Graphene in High Magnetic Field. Jetp Lett. 2009, 90 (2), 120-123. Nomura, K; MacDonald, A. H. Physical Review Letters2006, 96, (25), 256602. Malard, L. M; Pimenta, M. A.; Dresselhaus, G.; Dresselhaus, M. S., Raman spectroscopy in graphene. Physics Reports 2009, 473, 51-87. Calizo, I; Bejenari, I.; Rahman, M.; Guanxiong, L.; Balandin, A. A., Ultraviolet Raman microscopy of single and multilayer graphene. Journal of Applied Physics 2009, 106, 043509 (5 pp.). Hao, Y. F; Wang, Y. Y.; Wang, L.; Ni, Z. H.; Wang, Z. Q.; Wang, R.; Koo, C. K.; Shen, Z. X.; Thong, J. T. L., Probing Layer Number and Stacking Order of Few-Layer Graphene by Raman Spectroscopy. Small 2010, 6 (2), 195-200. Ni, Z. H.; Wang, Y. Y.; Yu, T.; Shen, Z. X., Raman Spectroscopy and Imaging of Graphene. Nano Res. 2008, 1 (4), 273-291. Ferrari, A. C.; Meyer, J. C.; Scardaci, V.; Casiraghi, C.; Lazzeri, M.; Mauri, F.; Piscanec, S.; Jiang, D.; Novoselov, K. S.; Roth, S.; Geim, A. K., Raman Spectrum of Graphene and Graphene Layers. Physical Review Letters 2006, 97, 187401. Ni, Z. H.; Wang, H. M.; Kasim, J.; Feng, H. Y. P.; Shen, Z. X., Graphene thickness determination using reflection and contrast spectroscopy. Nano Letters 2007, 7, 2758-63. Zhang, C. H.; Joglekar, Y. N. Physical Review B 2008, 77, (23), 233405. Ezawa, M., Intrinsic Zeeman effect in graphene. Journal of the Physical Society of Japan 2007, 76 (9). Barlas, Y.; Cà ´tà ©, R.; Nomura, K.; MacDonald, A. H. Physical Review Letters

prince hall :: essays research papers

WHO IS PRINCE HALL ? Prince Hall is recognized as the Father of Black Masonry in the United States. Historically, he made it possible for Negroes to be recognized and enjoy all privileges of free and accepted masonry. Many rumors of the birth of Prince Hall have arisen. A few records and papers have been found of him in Barbados where it was rumored that he was born in 1748, but no record of birth by church or by state, has been found there, and none in Boston. All 11 countries were searched and churches with baptismal records were examined without finding the name of Prince Hall. One widely circulated rumor states that "Prince Hall was free born in British West Indies. His father, Thomas Prince Hall, was an Englishman and his mother a free colored woman of French extraction. In 1765 he worked his passage on a ship to Boston, where he worked as a leather worker, a trade learned from his father. During this time he married Sarah Ritchery. Shortly after their marriage, she died at the age of 24. Eight years later he had acquired real estate and was qualified to vote. Prince Hall also pressed John Hancock to be allowed to join the Continental Army and was one of a few blacks who fought at the battle of Bunker Hill. Religiously inclined, he later became a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church with a charge in Cambridge and fought for the abolition of slavery." Some accounts are paraphrased from the generally discredited Grimshaw book of 1903. Free Masonry among Black men began during the War of Independence, when Prince Hall and fourteen other free black men were initiated into Lodge # 441, Irish Constitution, attached to the 38th Regiment of Foot, British Army Garrisoned at Castle Williams (now Fort Independence) Boston Harbor on March 6, 1775. The Master of the Lodge was Sergeant John Batt. Along with Prince Hall, the other newly made masons were Cyrus Johnson, Bueston Slinger, Prince Rees, John Canton, Peter Freeman, Benjamin Tiler, Duff Ruform, Thomas Santerson, Prince Rayden, Cato Spain, Boston Smith, Peter Best, Forten Howard and Richard Titley. When the British Army left Boston, this Lodge, # 441, granted Prince Hall and his brethren authority to meet as a lodge, to go in procession on Saints John Day, and as a Lodge to bury their dead; but they could not confer degrees nor perform any other Masonic "work".

Christmas Night at School

The issue presented for discussion is whether the state of Massachusetts can validly allow a â€Å"Christmas Night† event. For this event, the school is planning a theatrical production of the â€Å"Three Wise Men,† a presentation of several ‘Christmas songs’ and a grab-bag gift session, for which all students were asked to bring a gift costing between five and ten dollars. Steve and his parents do not celebrate Christmas, and have therefore asked the school to change the theme of the night to not be a â€Å"Christmas† night. The school has stated that the Christmas Night will go on as planned, but that Steve and his parents are invited to not attend if that makes them feel more comfortable. Weisman Ruling and State Law/Regulations Based on the present state of both federal and Massachusetts state law, the school will not be able to hold Christmas Night as planned. There are several reasons for this, most notably a relatively consistent line of United States Supreme Court cases which have held that any attempts by a state actor to sanction or sponsor an event which endorses or promotes a specific religion will be struck down as unconstitutional under the ‘Establishment Clause’ of the First Amendment to the Constitution. Weisman Ruling The most recent and pre-eminent case on point is Lee v. Weisman (505 U. S. 77 (1992)), which held that a Providence, Rhode Island middle school violated the Establishment Clause when it invited a rabbi to its commencement activities to give an invocation prayer to the student body and their parents. Upon objection by the parents of student Weisman to the invocation, the school districted defended its position as compliant with the Establishment Clause by virtue of the fact that participation in the invocation was completely voluntary and that there was no penalty for not participating. These facts are in many ways completely analogous to the matter of Steve’s â€Å"Christmas Night† at his school. Two keys areas of rationale by the Weisman court explain why the position of Steve’s school likelky will not pass muster. First, according to the Court, the option of not attending an event without penalty is not considered a viable and voluntary option. The Court places an intangible value on participating in certain events in a child’s educational life that not attending deprives one of. One of these certainly is the commencement exercise and, arguably, the school holiday festivities are another. While the Weisman court ruling is limited to the graduation exercise, it is reasonable that a student who is the only (or one of the only) student to not attend is being deprived the benefit of a valued experience that is being sponsored by the school. Secondly, the Weisman Court held that under, the ‘coercion test,’ which is the present standard for evaluating cases under the Establishment Clause, an event is unconstitutional even if it creates an indirect coercion. This means that a school can not authorize the practice of any particular religion. The Court rationed that â€Å"it is no part of the business of government to compose official prayers for any group of the American people to recite as a part of a religious program carried on by government† (505 U. S. 577, 588). Steve’s school is attempting to do exactly what the Weisman Court said it cannot do- create a school program which is composed of the prayers and messages of a specific religion. Massachusetts Law/Regulations This position is even further supported by the existing law in Massachusetts on the subject. The starting point for this analysis is the General Laws of Massachusetts, Chapter 71, Section 31A, which provides that the â€Å"school committee may set appropriate guidelines for the celebration of Christmas and other festivals observed as holidays for the purpose of furthering the educational, cultural and social experiences and development of children. † This statute does two things at the state level. First, it acknowledges the need and propriety for regulating the observance of Christmas (and other holidays). Second, it recognizes that school observance of religious holidays is of educational, cultural and social value to students. Massachusetts passed Regulation 603 in its Regulatory Code which contains a section (#26) on Access to Equal Educational Opportunity. The purpose of this section is to insure that Massachusetts public schools â€Å"do not discriminate against students on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, national origin or sexual orientation and that all students have equal rights of access and equal enjoyment of the opportunities, advantages, privileges and courses of study at such schools† (603 CMR 26. 01). Further, these regulations impose requirements on the schools to insure that all students are treated equally: No school shall sponsor or participate in the organization of outside extra-curricular activities conducted at such school that restrict student participation on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, national origin or sexual orientation (603 CMR 26. 07). Steve’s school is attempting to sponsor an event that will run directly counter to the mandate of the Regulation, especially 603 CMR 26. 07. The school will argue that Christmas Night is open to all to participate and that any restriction based on religion is on the part of the student’s family and not by the school. The Weisman Court ruled that to give the student the option of participating in a faith-based event which runs counter to his or her beliefs or to be excluded by virtue of a voluntary (and permitted) absence, and in so doing be deprived of the extra-curricular activity sponsored by the school, creates the indirect coercion and therefore violates the Establishment Clause. Writer’s Thoughts on the Issue This issue presents two sub-issues for discussion. The first is whether the laws and court cases are proper on their face and the second is whether justice is being served in this instance. Regarding the first the issue, it appears that the laws are generally consistent with our nation’s values and beliefs on the matter of separation of church and state. Our founding fathers fled their respective home countries often times in the face of severe religious oppression. Even on our soil, the Salem witch trials demonstrate the dangers of religious intolerance and regulation. One of the core values that Americans have always stood for is the individual right to practice faith and to be free from institutionalized religion. Thus, the default position of the law, which states that any adoption of a religion’s practices or dogma is a violation of our constitutional guarantee against the establishment of a religious or its practices, is well founded and consistent with our national values. With respect to the matter of ‘censoring’ Christmas however, the issue can get a little more muddled. Certainly, Christmas is a denominational holiday and certainly many of Christmas’ traditions and observances are very religious in their nature. However, Christmas above all other denominational holidays, has become quite Americanized since the middle of the 20th century. Many of the customs and traditions have no bearing at all on faith or theology or dogma. Many Americans when they say ‘merry Christmas’ are actually saying ‘happy holidays. ’ Most Americans when they hear ‘merry Christmas’ are actually hearing ‘happy holidays. ’ When left generic and without any of the religious or theological references, Christmas is one of the few events which actually has a unifying and pacifying effect on the nation. It would be a shame to lose out on this galvanizing and festive force. Analysis of Additional U. S. Supreme Court Cases Abington v. Schempp The landmark case regarding the establishment of religion in U. S. public schools is Abington Township School District v. Schempp (374 US 203 (1963)), which ruled that school sponsored Bible reading in public schools is unconstitutional. This Court ruled that the government, in matters of religion, must protect all, prefer none and disparage none. Neutrality was the only acceptable position for a state or federal government to pursue with respect to any expression of religion. In his concurring opinion, Justice William Brennan acknowledged that school prayer and Bible study was a significant feature of American life when the Constitution and Bill of Rights were ratified. However, Brennan noted that it was not in the nation’s best interest to seek to interpret the relevance of the Establishment Clause to modern society by applying the literal intent of the interpretation given to the Clause in the previous centuries. Wallace v. Jaffree In 1985 the United States Supreme Court, in Wallace v. Jaffree (472 U. S. 8 (1985)), found that Alabama’s practice of setting aside one minute during each day for silent prayer or meditation to be unconstitutional. The Court struck down the statute requiring the silent prayer because its purpose was to advance to religion and there was no significant secular purpose for the law. Further, the Court found that the statute placed prayer in favored status over non-prayer, which violates the Establishment Clause’s prohibition against endorsing belief over non-belief and worshippers over dissenters. Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe In a more recent case, Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe (530 U. S. 290 (2000)), the Court ruled that allowing student-led prayer during the schools sponsored football games is unconstitutional. While the school argued that the prayer was private and not public speech, the Court rationed that because of the fact that the prayer is led during the schools sponsored game, using school owned P. A. equipment and on School owned property, the listener will inevitably conclude that School has endorsed the prayer. Suggestions for a Modified Christmas Night. In order to be able to present a Christmas night, the school must effectively sanitize the event. First, the name should be changed to reflect a holiday season event, without reference to one or more particular religious holidays. Second the program should be expanded to include other cultural holidays. Third, the programs should endeavor to be educational in nature and not merely a celebration of one religion’s customs. Finally, the program should not include any aspects of a program’s dogma or theology (such as the Three Wise Men or the nativity scene). However, a Christmas tree (properly adorned) would be fine. Even these modifications might not be enough to prevent successful challenges by offended students and their parents. Conclusion The Supreme Court of the United States has, for the past 60-70 years, taken the position that any actions by Federal, state or local government which appears to or actually does promote one religion above another, or subjugates one below another, is invalid and unconstitutional. While the notion of a school Christmas Night does not seem to be nefarious by any means, it will impede on the rights citizens to not be indirectly coerced into participating in a religious event that is not part of their faith or beliefs.

Emotional Abuse of Children †Childhood Development Essay

Emotional Abuse of Children – Childhood Development Essay Free Online Research Papers Emotional Abuse of Children Childhood Development Essay Emotional abuse differs from the perceptions that many hold of abuse, as the infliction is not physical but rather verbal or psychological damage. Its intangibility and subjectivity to interpretation has problematized its recognition within the public sphere as well difficulty and incongruence in defining emotional abuse as a separate entity from other forms of abuse. This has posed a significant challenge in conducting meaningful research resulting in emotional abuse being â€Å"the least studied of all the forms of child maltreatment and its etiology is less developed† (Tomison and Tucci 1997 p2) While the exact definitional understanding and measurement of emotional abuse are difficult to determine, many of the implications of this form of abuse can be conceptualised based upon many of the experiences of children and its impact and effect can be understood. Emotional abuse may exist independently or in coexistence with other forms of abuse and is â€Å"increasingly considered to be the core issue in all forms of child abuse and neglect† (Tomison and Tucci 1997 p2) along with one of the most prevalent producing amongst the most destructive consequences (Tomison and Tucci 1997). The effects of emotional abuse are understood developmentally by researchers (Gabarino 1978 in Tomison and Tucci 1997) particularly in understanding children. Due to the characterisation of emotional abuse as a pattern of behaviour over a period of time rather than an isolated occurrence, we can see that although emotional abuse may be less easy to define its impact and effect on children’s development and wellbeing is detrimental. Significant to this is also children witnessing domestic violence which is gaining a growing recognition as having an immensely damaging effect on children and is of significant concern as it is the most common reason for a child to be referred to DoCS or other child protection agencies (Irwin, Waugh and Wilkinson 2002) The impact of emotional abuse on children may be particularly difficult for them to define as researchers have often found emotional abuse to be deep rooted and intergenerational within the family structure, often undermining or degrading a child’s development (Tomison and Tucci 1997) The effect of this behaviour can have far reaching short and long term effects and be extensively detrimental. The effect of and an individual’s reaction to emotional abuse will be determined by a multiple factors such as the individual circumstances and experience of abuse. A multitude of damaging effects of emotional abuse of children are evident, impinging on the ability of a child to develop and experience a sense of wellbeing and being loved. Such effects may include low self-esteem and poor self-confidence, feelings of guilt, shame and worthlessness, confusion over the abuse and their sense of identity, high anxiety levels, withdrawal from social interaction, aggression and behavioural difficulties, physical reactions such as illness, interpersonal and communication problems including problems expressing emotion or age inappropriate behaviour (Napcan 2005) The longer-term effects of emotional child abuse may vary taking into account the subjective experience of the individual and variable factors including the nature, duration, severity, perpetrator, family, support and interventions of the abusive behaviour and the construction of this behaviour within the individual experience. Some of these effects may include the inability to form positive relationships with others including the reoccurrence or recreation of abusive relationships as the victim or abuser, drug use, homelessness, limited life skills, mental health issues and self-destructive or suicidal behaviours. (Napcan 2005) Research has also suggested a strong link between child abuse and trauma including post traumatic stress disorder with the victim facing fundamental and multiple issues with the â€Å"defences formed in childhood becoming increasingly maladaptive.† (Herman 1997 p114) Research has also begun to question the role and effect of emotional abuse relative to other forms of abuse. It has been suggested that children who experience emotional abuse are more likely to experience other forms of abuse in conjunction with this (Higgins 2004). This raises the question of if these children comprehend the full impact of emotional abuse within the context of other forms of abuse and the devastating impact of multiple and repetitive abuse in the lives of children. Emotional abuse remains an area within the domestic violence and child abuse spectrum which is relatively under researched and explored with its impacts and effects conceptually less developed and the experiences of its victims often unheard, underrepresented within research and statistics. Unfortunately in many instances children are unsupported or even unaware of the magnitude and wrongful nature of the emotionally abusive actions and behaviours inflicted upon them. Children are particularly vulnerable members of our society, segregated and marginalised, relatively open to discrimination and abuse and often unable to express and represent their rights and best interests. Their developmental stage and limited access to information and resources are often used against them and the power held by adults and family members may be abused without a child fully comprehending why. Children may also be unable to determine what is and what is not appropriate or caring behaviour towards them, particularly in deconstructing the experience of emotional abuse, which may be multifaceted and complex, not always simply categorised by specific actions or behaviour. Younger children may also be less comfortable discussing violence within or outside the family feeling that they are powerless or even at fault. Many of the effects of emotional abuse such as low self esteem, depression, aggression and withdrawal may act as barriers in communicating their abuse or in having their disclosure of an abusive situation taken seriously. This may proliferate the growing distrust a child may feel towards adults and the care giving institution that has failed to support them and fulfil their needs. Children may have been told by their abuser or others that nobody will listen to their allegations of abuse or that worse results will ensue with disclosure. The child may also be attached to their abuser and may not want to be separated from them, rather wishing for the abuse to simply stop. Particularly relevant within emotionally abusive situations is whether a child will recognise the behaviour and actions inflicted upon them as abuse. With definitional problems and contradictions remaining in negotiating the construction of emotional abuse, a child may be unable to locate this behaviour as abusive and may be interpreting it as just having an argumentative, cold, unkind or emotionally unavailable caregiver. Children within emotionally abusive situations face multiple challenges and marginalisation as underrepresented groups in both their experiences as children and as those experiencing emotional abuse. Advocacy and research for children experiencing this abuse is very limited and thus has not yet been thrust into the discourse of the public sphere in the same manner as child sexual and physical abuse. This is problematic as it can lead to the further disengagement and exclusion of this group even within the abuse context and is not conducive to helping children and families understand and prevent emotional abuse. Multiple issues face children in accessing services and assistance with emotional abuse. Children, especially younger children are very dependent upon their parents and caregivers and thus may not be aware of or be capable of accessing services. Younger children may not be cognitively or developmentally able to process and label their experiences of emotional harm or violence as abuse or even conceptually construct an understanding of abuse is. Attachment and dependency also forms a major challenge, as children are unwilling to recognise problems and compromise their relationships with their parents. Children are often confused as they unconditionally love their parents and are perhaps more willing to accumulate personal responsibility and self blame for the events or dismiss them hoping that the abuse will end. This may facilitate patterns of abuse to continue with children remaining unwilling to take action against their parents. If children are willing to seek help they may be unsure of where to turn and daunted by the services available which are often adult centred. A focus within service provision limited to sexual and physical abuse may also be problematic, as the understanding and support networks established rarely cater specifically and do not always cater inclusively for the emotionally abused child, drawing back upon the lack of recognition of the scope and impact of emotional and psychological abuse. Children may also be unable to access assistance due to their close proximity to the abuser if they are a primary caregiver and the risks involved. The child may fear retribution is discovered and may be fearful that their disclosure will not be listened to or believed, potentially proliferating their already volatile situation opening themselves to further harm and abuse. The social construction of the child and family within society are also important to examine in further conceptualising the framework within which the child abuse and maltreatment paradigm exists. The ideology of the family as a private unit with which society has little to no interaction or control over, although somewhat outdated, often resinates within the experience of the emotionally abused child. The movement towards the inclusion of the family within the public sphere and the significance of individual experience to the collective societal functioning in the spirit of C Wright Mill’s sociological imagination has played a major role in the understanding of family violence over recent years. This has promoted an inclusion of family issues into public concern but it still an ongoing issue within abusive situations with family issues and problems hidden within the private dimension. This along side outmoded views of children as resilient and unaffected by the emotional abuse inflicted upon them reiterates that although much progress has been made within child abuse prevention; underpinning ideological standing and outmoded principles are still present within out soci eties construction of childhood and abuse. Policy and programs devised approaching and addressing child abuse and children within family violence situations have undergone a comprehensive reframing over recent decades. A movement departing from reactive and post-abuse intervention to early intervention and educative strategies within a preventative and supportive framework has become increasingly evident (Tomison 2001) Societal reconceptualisations of family violence as a societal issue rather than a private matter are leading towards a more holistic approach with a greater emphasis on contextual understanding of a child within their family and social milieu.(Tomison 2001) Within policy making and the provision of services specifically child centred and catering for emotional abuse it could not be argued that they are excluded; however fail to be given the focus and attention needed to support the victims of this type of abuse Many generalist child protection legislation, frameworks and policies have been implemented which underpin and complement the work of programs and service providers approaching the emotional abuse of children. The United Nations international convention on the rights of the child and the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 provide the framework upon which many policies and practices are developed (Kovacs and Tomison 2003 p517) Policies regarding the mandatory reporting of child abuse and the working with children check have contributed to preventing the emotional abuse of children as well as direct and indirect government support in funding services and programs involved in child protection. The Department of Community Services (DoCS) is a fundamental provider of policy frameworks and services to New South Wales regarding child protection and abuse including the emotional abuse of children. They are involved the planning and implementation of appropriate policy making effecting the provision of child protection services and supported placement services for children. They are also involved in the funding and provision of many services interacting with children who have been emotionally abused at an investigation and intervention level. There are many general child abuse child focused interventions many of which include on some level emotional abuse support but with little services or programs specifically designed with a focus upon the emotional abuse of children. Child personal safety programs are particularly useful in educating children of types and occurrence of abuse working towards locating, preventing and disclosing a wide variety of child abuse and family violence. These programs are very useful in assisting children in understanding emotional abuse when it is included in the program and open up discussion and thought as to what constitutes emotional and other forms of abuse. Programs aimed specifically at children who have been the victims of child abuse are becoming increasingly regular and effective in the support and assistance of children. Within the context of emotional abuse many recent programs have been piloted and implemented with children witnesses and victims of domestic violence aiming to provi de meaningful early intervention, increase children’s self esteem, normalise feelings and discuss responsibility, safety and support. Although these services are often inclusive of children who have been victims of multiple forms of abuse not only emotional abuse, the occurrence and detrimental impact of emotional abuse is included as a significant factor within the program planning and structure. This is particularly relevant to children who are victims of emotional abuse and witnessing domestic violence. Programs such as Kids in Motion and Kids Tome undertaken by LifeCare family and intervention services and the Kids and the Children’s Domestic Violence Support Group run by Parramatta Community Health Centre and Family Court Counselling are examples of this (Australian Domestic Violence Clearinghouse 2005) Family focused interventions may also be undertaken but again are rarely specifically addressing the emotional abuse of children. These may include parental education programs to assist parents in gaining information and skills. These take a strengths based approach in child abuse prevention, working towards supported and appropriate parenting and greater parental awareness and insight into their own behaviour and actions and how this may effect their child. Home visiting services are often also utilised as an early intervention strategy in assisting parent’s access to support and services they may be unaware of or unable to access. This may be beneficial as a prevention of the emotional abuse of children however does not specifically approach this issue. Community focused interventions have played an important role in shaping community beliefs and attitudes regarding children, abuse and domestic violence. Campaigns have been undertaken on domestic violence in the past that have included specific reference to the effect of domestic abuse on children. However current community education campaigns such as the Partnership Against Domestic Violence has focused upon young women and physical violence rather than a more holistic approach looking at other forms of abuse or other victims. The overhaul and development of primary prevention programs and secondary prevention programs to include emotional child abuse and the implications for children within family violence situations is an essential step in facilitating a more informed and aware community. This will assist to empower children to understand various forms of abuse and behaviour that they can recognise as unsafe or abusive. Working from this approach two major concerns can be addressed. Firstly little research has been undertaken of child abuse prevention programs in Australia. (Richardson, Higgins and Bromfield 2005) Within the overhaul and development of new prevention programs, evaluation of existing programs including their content and effectiveness can be undertaken with the findings contributing into the planning and implementation of the most useful and appropriate programs to the needs of children. Secondly, the inclusion of a broad range of experiences of abuse of children and witnessed by children with a greater emphasis on the previously omitted or under explored issues of child emotional abuse and witnessing family violence. This will promote a greater knowledge base on emotional abuse and work towards assisting children suffering from emotional abuse and mistreatment. An approach to educating the whole community as well as at risk groups such as children, parents and families works within a strengths based social and community approach aiming to reaffirm the values and needs of the community and educate all on their rights, responsibilities regarding safety and protection of children. This assists individuals in gaining a further insight of what constitutes abuse and family violence and where they can turn to for help and assistance. This holistic child friendly approach may assist in the creation of â€Å"cohesive communities, high in social capital, facilitating community members working together for their mutual benefit to improve their community.† (Tomison 2005 p1) Working with the community as a whole within this context will enable the much needed focus and exploration of child emotional abuse. This will work towards creating greater safety, education, knowledge and support for children while carefully maintaining a child-focused approach as paramount concern without the exclusion of the community as a whole. Evaluation and research within the Australian context will also prove to be beneficial in ensuring the most relevant and appropriate services can be offered to victims of child abuse. This will also help ensure that prevention programs can be dynamic, relevant and specific catering for the diverse needs and interests within the community raising awareness of issues such and child emotional abuse which is often overlooked or its impact not completely understood. This research and holistic focus may assist in developing a co-ordinated and consistent framework from which to provide relevant and needed information and services on child abuse. The resources can be allocated to areas of need such as child emotional abuse to increase awareness, knowledge and prevention within the community. A greater recognition within the policy and service provision context of the interrelationship between emotional abuse and other forms of child abuse is necessary in attempting to provide an effective and holistic approach to child protection and support of victims of abuse. An initiative to â€Å"move beyond ‘turf boundaries’ between those working separately on the different types of child maltreatment† (Higgins 2004 p54) is very important in recognising the need for policies and services that work inclusively of the child’s entire abuse experience rather than compartmentalise abuse in separate stigmatised categories which may further traumatise or devalue the impact of the abuse upon the child. It is important to be able to provide services that are inclusive of a child’s experience and which are able to support them and assist them. Emotional abuse may be a significant form of abuse in the life of a child suffering also from physical or sexual abu se. A greater co-ordination and inclusiveness of specific and generalised services is needed so that the child seeking help does not feel marginalised or labelled as a victim of one type of abuse only. Ensuring that a plethora of options and assistance for the variety of issues and needs faced by children who have suffered abuse requires greater attention within current service provision. By doing this recognition of the complexity and multifaceted implications of various forms of child abuse is being actively worked towards. Service provision that is client centred and focused rather than based on the abuse suffered is empowering to the child seeking assistance and understanding of each child’s experience. Children’s thoughts, rights and opinions need to be of paramount concern within all levels of policy and program planning and provision as â€Å"the adult centred child protection discourse has conceptualised the child as a ‘becoming’ person and ignored the subjectivities of children as beings† (Mason and Falloon 1999 p9). This is an issue of particular concern in child emotional abuse as it is an area of child maltreatment that is under researched and resourced and within which a top down approach is often utilised failing to take into consideration the diverse experiences and needs of children suffering abuse. Further research and study into child abuse, in particular child emotional abuse and the impact of domestic violence on children will assist in activating the voices of children who have been unheard, unrepresented and in too many instances unsupported. Educating the children and community as a hole is a comprehensive approach to alleviating the imp act of child emotional abuse. This is taking a primary prevention approach to improving the knowledge base and resourcing a community to prevent child abuse before it happens and understand important child protection issues impacting children in every community. Working towards this as well as further assisting children who experience emotional abuse will greatly assist these children and the community in providing the information, resources and support for a significantly detrimental form of child abuse that has often been overlooked. References Australian Domestic Violence Clearinghouse (2005) Good Practice Programs. [online] Australian Domestic Violence Clearinghouse. Available From: austdvclearinghouse.unsw.edu.au/gp_simple.htm Herman, J.L. (1997) Trauma and Recovery. London: Pandora. Higgins, D. (2004) Differentiating Between Child Maltreatment Experiences. Family Matters. 69 (Spring / Summer 2004), 50-55 Irwin, J, Waugh, F, and Wilkinson, M. (2002) Domestic Violence and Child Protection. National Child Protection Clearinghouse Newsletter. 11 (1)Winter 2003 7-9. Kovacs, K; and Tomison, A.M. (2003) An Analysis of current Australian Program Initiatives for Children Exposed to Domestic Violence. Australian Journal of Social Issues. 38 (4) 513-521 Mason, J; and Falloon, J. (1999) A Children’s Perspective on Child Abuse. Children Australia. 24 (3) 9-13. Napcan (2005) What is Child Abuse? [online] Napcan Foundation Avalaible From: napcan.org.au/what.htm Richardson, N, Higgins, D and Bromfield, L (2005) Making the Right Choices about Child Protection Programs and Services. [online] Australian Institute of Family Studies, National Child Protection Clearinghouse. Available From: aifs.gov.au/institute/pubs/papers/mrccpps Rogers State University (2005) C Wright Mills Homepage. [online] Rogers State University Available From: faculty.rsu.edu/~felwell/Theorists/Mills/ Tomison, A. (2005) Child Friendly Communities – Tailoring a ‘Whole of Community’ Message. [online] Napcan National Advisory Council. Available From: napcan.org.au/documents/AdamT2005NTLaunch.pdf Tomison, A.M; and Tucci, J. (1997) Emotional Abuse: The Hidden Form of Maltreatment. [online] Australian Institute of Family Studies, National Child Protection Clearinghouse. Available From: aifs.gov.au/nch/issues8.html Bibliography Hirigoyen, M. (2004) Stalking The Soul – Emotional Abuse and the Erosion of Identity. New York: Helen Marx Books. Jaffe, P.G, Wolfe, D.A, and Wilson, S.K (1990) Children of Battered Women. London: Sage Publications Kids Help Line (2005) Child Abuse 2003 – 2004. [online] Kids Help Line. Available From: kidshelp.com.au/upload/9951.pdf O’Hagan, K (1996) Emotional and Psychological Abuse of Children. 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