Research paper (predicting the number of internet users) Essay

Research paper (predicting the number of internet users) - Essay Example Ethically, sharing of data for other purposes other than the intended is un-ethical (Callahan 1998) To get a best predictor of the number of internet users, the researcher used multivariate linear regression. In this type of methodology, each of the predictor variable is modelled against the response variable, in this case the number of internet users. This process is carried over with different combinations of the explanatory variables and the values of R, coefficient of correlation, and R2, coefficient of determination for the different models are calculated. The model with the highest value of R is normally selected as the best fitting model for the data (Bryman 1992). R2 explains the variations in the response variable readings. In this case, the researcher used all the explanatory variables in the initial model and used the backwards which eliminates the variables which are not better placed to explain the response variable as anticipated. The only problem with this technique is that it may result in the elimination of explanatory variables even before their effects on the entire model have been determined. As a best practice, I suggest individual simple regression equations to determine the individual effects on the response variable and then stepwise inclusion of the variables (Hinton 1995).

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE - Essay Example aller subtitles such as ‘corporate governance’ and ‘implementation of corporate governance principles and recommendations in the UK and the US’ in order to cover the topic exhaustively. The conclusion section summarizes the main issues discussed in the paper and makes inferences where appropriate. Corporate governance refers to a set of laws, policies, institutions and customs that affect the manner in which a corporation is controlled, administered, or directed1. Corporate governance also incorporates the corporation’s goals of governance and the relationships among its numerous stakeholders2. The major stakeholders in any corporation include the board of directors, management, and shareholders or members. Others include regulators, suppliers, creditors who include bond holders and banks, customers and employees or labour. For non-profit organizations as well as other membership organizations, their shareholders are their members. Corporate governance is a many-sided subject3. One of the most important themes of corporate governance is ensuring the accountability of particular individuals in the corporation. This is achieved through mechanisms aimed at reducing or eliminating altogether the problem of principal-agents. Corporate governance also helps in improving economic efficiency by emphasizing on the welfare of the shareholders. Corporate governance also has encompasses other subjects such as the view of stakeholders and corporate governance models4. Modern corporations have increasingly renewed their interest in corporate governance practices, particularly since 2001. This has been attributed to the high profile crumbling of numerous big corporations in the United States, including MCI Inc and Enron Corporation. For instance, the US federal government enacted the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in order to restore the confidence of the public in corporate governance5. Corporate governance involves a number of parties such as the regulatory body that

Affirmative Action in the workforce Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Affirmative Action in the workforce - Essay Example Though there are no legal requirements to hire unqualified people, opponents argue that affirmative action causes the minority to get a job over a more qualified worker. This logic has two flaws. One, the employer can choose many reasons to hire a ‘qualified’ applicant. It is an open and ambiguous term that can easily be largely ignored or manipulated to suit the employer’s possible racist tendencies. Another problem with the opponent’s argument is the previously discussed method of standardized testing. The quality of education a person receives doesn’t necessarily predict their future potential. Another argument by those opposed to affirmative action is that it disproportionately benefits middle and upper-middle class minorities, not the poor and working class people of color who need it most. A more careful examination of this criticism shows that affirmative action programs have benefited substantial numbers of poor and working class people of co lor. â€Å"Access to job training programs, vocational schools, and semi-skilled and skilled blue-collar, craft, pink-collar, police and firefighter jobs has increased substantially through affirmative action programs. Even in the professions, many people of color who have benefited from affirmative action have been from families of low income and job status† (Ezorsky, 1991, p. 64). Opponents point out that affirmative action is patently unfair to white males because they must pay for the past discriminations of people of a different era and mindset and may not get the jobs they might be more qualified for. These opponents are correct in that specific white people may be passed by for some job opportunities because of affirmative action policies and that they and their families suffer as a result. Proponents counter that the lack of employment opportunities is unfortunate and its causes are what the debate should be

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) - Essay Example CSR benefits the society through responsible business. In the contemporary society, global warming and sustainable living are the biggest issues that have grabbed the attention of scientists and educationalists everywhere in the world. Need is being felt of a collective effort to combat the conditions emerging as a result of global warming and excessive use of extinguishing natural resources. In these circumstances, businesses need to be very responsible and considerate about several things that are not in their individualistic interest but are of great interest to the society as a whole. CSR makes the businessmen amend their business practices in such a way that they cause maximum benefit to the society and cause minimal harm. Thus, it makes them comply with the standards of ethics and makes them display good moral conduct. In an attempt to fulfill the requirements of CSR, businessmen are trying to do everything that would make their business

Stakeholder Comparative Study Case Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Stakeholder Comparative - Case Study Example The companies of interest in this analysis do belong to industries which are very different in nature and which therefore carry different potential and impacts on the regarded interest of the stakeholder they represent. The environment in which they operate in, their industry, the state of their local economy, the overall sizes of their respective industries, their global impacts, their related risks, their economic values are all aspects that are determined in part by the composition of their respective stakeholders and the type of value they are able to offer those from a social, political, and economic perspective. British Land Company plc is the largest property investment company in Britain, with a current portfolio of  £14.6 billion. The Company’s portfolio focuses on areas where the principles of supply and demand have shown to remain strong in the long term. About 41% is invested in large town retail properties, such as Meadowhall Shopping Centre in Sheffield, 88 sup ermarkets and 66 retail warehouses (BL 2007). Another main area of focus of the company is on office properties in central London, with a comparable rate attaining 33% of the company’s overall property portfolio, with notable offices such as the Broadgate Estate, Liverpool Street Station, and Regent’s Place. The Group employs 186 staff members at its headquarters in the London office. Their activities are focused on the integrated core disciplines of strategic property investment, management, development, and financing.  ... The Group outsources the day-to-day operational management of its portfolio, and other non-core disciplines to third party members. The British Land Company's primary objective is to produce superior, sustained and secured long-term shareholder returns via the development, management and financing of chosen real estate activities. The company recognizes that environmental and social considerations should be integrated with everyday working practices and they are embedded into its corporate values. The structure of British Land's corporate responsibility (CR) committee ensures that CR is integrated at every level. The committee consists of the head of each department. Each member has responsibility for a different aspect of CR ( for example, employee volunteering) and reports back to the COO on that area. Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) (SPDC) of Nigeria is a subsidiary of the Royal Dutch/Shell group of companies. SPDC is 100% Shell owned, but it operates a joint venture on behalf of the Nigerian government, to explore and produce crude oil and natural gas. In this joint venture, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), a state-owned company, has a 55% stake and SPDC has a 30% stake (10% belongs to France's Total and 5% to Italy's Agip). The joint venture is the largest producer of crude oil in Nigeria, with around 1 million barrels of oil per day, accounting for about 40% of the country's oil production (SPDC 2007). SPDC employees almost 5000 staff directly (95% Nigerians). However, another 20.000 people are employed indirectly, because there are many day-to-day activities carried out by sub-contractors (e.g. exploration surveys, drilling for oil, construction of facilities etc.). The mission of SPDC is

Investigate the hybrids of the bisection and the secant methods Research Paper

Investigate the hybrids of the bisection and the secant methods - Research Paper Example The rate of convergence which records the number of iterations needed to attain a particular degree of accuracy, is not the key subject when assessing the computational effectiveness of the algorithm. The quantity of floating point operations (flops), for each iteration should also be considered. In case the iteration needs many flops, although an algorithm has a greater rate of convergence it might take more time to reach a required degree of precision. This method is therefore faster than Newton’s method and has an advantage since it only needs a single function evaluation for every iteration. This then serves as a compensation for the slower rate of convergence when the function and its derivative cost higher to evaluate. Another disadvantage of this method is that, similar to newton’s method, it lacks robustness, particularlty when the primary guesses are further from root. In addition, the method does not need differentiation. The bisection method is the modest and most robust algorithm for root-finding in a 1-dimensional continous function that has a closed interval. The basic principle of this technique is that if f(.) is a continous function expressed over an interval {a,b} and f(a) and f(b) with opposite signs, according to the theorem of intermediate value, at least a single r{a,b} exists making f(r) = 0. This technique is iterative and every iteration begins by breaching the existing interval forming brackets around the root(s) into two subintervals of matching lengths. The endpoint of one the subintervals must have different signs. This subinterval is now the new interval and the subsequent iteration starts. Therefore it is possible to define lesser and lesser intervals such that every interval has r by checking subintervals of the present interval and selecting the interval where f(.) changes signs. This is a continous process that ends when the width of the interval having a root

Humor is a Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Humor is a Philosophy - Essay Example In this regard, the philosopher has, I think, a family resemblance with the comedian, who also asks us to look at the world askance, to imagine a topsy-turvy universe where horses and dogs talk and where lifeless objects become miraculously animated. Both the philosopher and the comedian ask you to view the world from a Martian perspective, to look at things as if you had just landed from another planet. In its own way, a joke can reveal the pathos in laughter, grotesqueness in opulence and life's struggles' in the quiet that envelopes it. The power of humor in liberating the mind and enlightening it to see deeper also connects it to Zen. This is discussed in greater detail below. Zen says that reality can be understood in a way that is not conceptual. Zen philosophy believes that unitive point of view is not attained by logical dissection of reality but by the intutive method, which transcends subject and object and all logical categories including affirmation and negation. As pointed by Ha Tai Kim 1955: Zen transcends the logical bifurcation of subject and object, mind and matter, being and non-being, which always falls into the realm of relational knowledge. It is due to the thoroughgoing attitude of Zen that it pierces through relational knowledge, so as to acquire an absolute point of view. It attempts to see the world in its absolute wholeness (p. 21). This This is really the philosophical spirit and what connects it so beautifully with humor. Zen does not build any philosophical systems since it defies concept-making, much like comedy; for very often humor arises when a situation is viewed in its completeness with all its paradoxes and contradictions. Humor is related with people and situations, not concepts and objects. Just as Zen points to facts as they are, so does the comedy of recognition. Zen says, when you are offered tea, sip it, and, when you happen to take wine, drink it and that there is nothing more than this. Humor as a philosophy, too offers a view of reality by making one view situations in wholeness. Comedy of recognition for example reinforces status quo and does not criticize established order, much like Zen, which points to facts, as they exist. Paradox and Language Let us examine paradox. Paradox is apparent whenever there is incongruity. Humor, very often works by way of a felt incongruity between what one expects to be the case and what actually takes place in a funny situation. For incongruity to be humorous, usually, there exists congruence between joke structure and socially accepted norms. For example: "Someone's hat falls on the coffin in a freshly dug grave, the funeral loses its meaning and laughter is born"(Kundera, 1983, p.232-33). The incongruity that thus results and pricks, what is socially accepted, gives rise to laughter. Just like the incongruence in situations, there exists incongruence in what is being said, which can make statements comic. Language plays a crucial role here. Language is explained as "an approximation of thoughts through symbolic manipulation, and the gap between the expectations inherent in those symbols and the breaking of those expectations leads to laughter" (Wikepedia, 2005). The language connection and especially the paradox that can be inherent in language, reminds one of Zen. Zen teaching