Merger, Acquisition, and International Strategies Assignment - 1

Merger, Acquisition, and International Strategies - Assignment Example From this paper it is clear that the company served 138,417 million customers. Further, the company employs four marketing concepts in order to generate higher revenues. The company sells quality air travel services. Service is sold at popular prices. The company excellently ferries the customers from one domestic location in the United States to another domestic location on time and in styly. Furthermore, the company offers its in-flight services at reasonable prices. The reasonable prices do not necessarily equate to the lowest airline ticket prices. Reasonable prices are meant to recuperate the expenses of operating the company’s airline business. Reasonable prices allow the company to squeeze out a certain profit percentage from the daily flight schedules. Additionally, the company promotes the benefits of riding in one of the company’s huge jet planes. Promotions include offering discounts to customers to increase loyalty. This research paper declares that promotio n increases customer loyalty. One of the promotion activities is advertising the company’s services on the Internet and other media advertising venues. Likewise, the promotion includes company granting 10 percent discounts to the elderly passengers. Elderly passengers are those aged from 65 years and above. U.S. Airways. U.S. Airways has its main office in Tempe City, Arizona. The company ferries passengers from one United States location to another domestic location. The company ferries international passenger clients from domestic locations to South American destinations, the European Union member states, and different parts of the Middle Eastern territories. During 2012, U.S. Airways generated $13.83 billion revenues. With the merger of U.S. Airways and American Airlines, the new head office of the merged company will be the American Airlines head office. Further, the merger will result in stockholders of American Airlines owning estimated 70 percent of the amalgamated com pany. The U.S. Airways stockholders will own 30 percent of the combined company. The combined company will retain the name of American Airlines. In accounting parlance, when the name of the combined company retains the name of one of the companies, the joining of the companies into one bigger company is classified as a merger. According to the Edgar online website, American Airlines generated passenger revenues amounting to $4,326 million during the first three months of 2007. American Airlines earned $558 million from the regional affiliate revenues during the same year. The company further generated additional $201 million cargo revenue during the same accounting year. Revenues include cash inflows from other revenue sources amounting to $317 million. Further, the merger is a beneficial strategy.  

Marketing strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Marketing strategy - Essay Example f the intangibility of its products and the fact that financial risk is significantly reduced with the expanding market and the increasing database of customers. The intangibility of the insurance products and the volumes of premiums have significant impact on the performance outcome of insurance companies. They are major issues that require innovative ideas and creative inputs to promote strategies that would be able to attract and retain customers. Indeed, the scholars assert that the financial services are characterized by intangibility; heterogeneity; inseparability; perishability; and high labor intensity (Zeithaml and Bitner 2000). The marketing of insurance products therefore becomes dependent on the way the new idea is projected to the people and information is disseminated amongst the prospects. Insurance products are mainly sold through agents. They also heavily rely on the external factors like trust in the protection provided and the goodwill of the agents through which the insurance products are sold. The intangibility of the products makes it difficult to judge its quality until it can be experienced and therefore, the marketing strategies need to rely on factors like credibility of the company, price, promotion, segmentation etc. The perishability of service makes it difficult to make forecast. Indeed, the fact that the quality and delivery of the services are closely linked to the human aspects makes it much harder for the insurance firms to convince their targets. Hence the creativity of ideas and dissemination tools become major facilitators of effective market strategy. The leading insurance companies Lloyds, Norwich Union etc. increasingly deploy new strategies like competitive premium, innovative products and differentiation in the product so new customers can b e attracted. While a sales process primarily involves five major steps to commence sales, it is imperative they must be accompanied by clear understanding of behavioural pattern of

Postural Sway and Self-Motion Perception Theory

Postural Sway and Self-Motion Perception Theory Tharushi Kaluarachchi People are often faced with a sensation of motion when gazing at moving clouds or when a train on an adjacent track moves at a railway station (Dichgans Brandt, 1978). Multiple senses contribute to this common visual illusion of self-motion. Optic flow stimuli induces a conflict between visual input, signalling movement of the body and vestibular input from inertial motion cues (A1). Visual-vestibular interactions also play an important role in maintaining postural stability (A4). Thus it is proposed that there is a common underlying mechanism between postural sway during quiet-stance and vection (A5). Recent research has shown that quiet-stance postural sway can be used to predict subsequent vection strength (A5). While many different types of global optic flow can generate self-motion (A2), this relationship has only been demonstrated for radial flow (Apthorp, Nagle, Palmisano, 2014). Therefore, does quiet-stance postural sway predict differences between multiple vection types, or is it simply a global measure distinguishing vection from non-vection? Concepts The experience of vection describes compelling visual illusions of perceived self-motion that are induced by presenting large patterns of optic flow to physically stationary observers (Palmisano, Allison, Schira, Barry, 2015). Optic flow fields provide visual signals for effective navigation through the three-dimensional environment. It describes a pattern of visual motion on the retina used to rapidly estimate the direction of movement (Duffy Wurtz, 1993). This direction is dependent on the nature of this field, differing with radial, lamellar, rotary and spiral patterns of flow (Britten, 2008). A radial pattern refers to expanding and contracting optic flow (Apthorp et al., 2014). A lamellar pattern refers to optic flow with horizontally parallel flow (Stoffregen, 1985). A rotary pattern of optic flow describes a rotating pattern also parallel to the medial-lateral axis. A spiral pattern of optic flow combines radial and rotary patterns, with the rotary component superimposed in radially expanding flow (Nakamura, 2011). The postural system concerns the position and orientation of body segments to organise balance and movement (Massion, 1994). Postural sway refers to readjustments in posture which can occur with medial-lateral (ML), side-to-side, or anterior-posterior (AP), back-and-forth sway (Ruhe, Fejer, Walker, 2011). Quiet-stance postural sway refers to both eyes open and eyes closed postural sway while standing which occurs prior to the onset of vection (Apthorp et al., 2014). Assumptions A1 (vection). Self-motion perception is a multisensory experience induced by conflicts between optic flow stimuli indicating movement and vestibular input which detects no variation in body position or velocity (Lestienne, Soechting, Berthoz, 1977). A2 (optic flow). Radially expanding and contracting optic flow stimulates forwards and backwards linear vection, respectively (Apthorp et al., 2014). For lamellar optic flow, it generates an illusion of self-translation parallel to the direction of flow (Stoffregen, 1985). A rotary pattern induces roll vection parallel to the plane of the presented flow (Tanahashi, Ujike, Kozawa, Ukai, 2007). Spiral optic flow induces a combination of roll and linear vection (Nakamura, 2011). A3 (optic flow and vection). The magnitude of vection varies with the nature of the optic flow, depending on the area, velocity, depth and spatial frequency of the pattern (Palmisano, Apthorp, Seno, Stapley, 2014). In general, more compelling vection will be induced by optic flow displays that generate significant sensory conflict (Palmisano et al., 2015). A4 (vision and posture). Maintenance of upright posture also depends on visual-vestibular cues (Del Percio et al., 2007). The extent of reliance on visual input in particular, indicates variations in posture, with a greater dependence resulting in more postural readjustments (Apthorp et al., 2014). A5 (postural sway and vection). Quiet-stance postural sway and vection are underpinned by the same basic mechanisms. This supports the use of quiet-stance postural sway measures to predict subsequent vection strength. (Palmisano et al., 2014). A6 (postural sway and vection). During upright stance, ML sway involves the control of hip and trunk muscles, whereas AP sway is regulated by ankle muscles. As these are controlled separately by the postural control system, independent variations in ML and AP are predictive of sway differences between vection types (Tucker, Kavanagh, Morrison, Barrett, 2010). Hypotheses Considering that vection magnitude varies with vection type (A3), it is hypothesised that global differences in the magnitude of future vection will be predicted by changes in quiet-stance. In addition, it is proposed that vection magnitude will be stronger for individuals who rely more on their vision for postural stability. Using local differences in sway axes, it is proposed that changes in AP sway will predict radial flow as it stimulates forwards-and-backwards self-motion (A2). For lamellar flow, which induces self-translation and roll vection generated from rotary flow (A2), it is hypothesised that ML changes will be more predictive. In addition, the combination of roll and linear vection from spiral flow may be predicted by sway in both ML and AP axes. Operationalisation Vection magnitude can be operationalised through a subjective verbal vection rating. Subjects verbally rate the strength of their vection experience on a 100 point scale, with ‘0’ indicating no perceived self-motion and ‘100’ indicating complete self-motion (Apthorp et al., 2014). Though self-report measures can be susceptible to subject cognitions, subjective ratings of vection are reasonably reliably as vection is a subjective experience (Palmisano et al., 2015). The multisensory visual-vestibular interaction for posture can be operationalised through postural sway measures. Quiet-stance postural sway, has been shown to predict subsequent vection, which makes it a viable measure of vection (Palmisano et al., 2014). Postural sway can be operationalised through the changes to the location of the centre of foot pressure (CoP) in the AP and ML direction (Ruhe et al., 2011). Larger sway amplitudes are indicative of greater postural instability. Though CoP is an indirect sway measure as it measures motor system activity, it is a practical method of measuring postural sway in standing (Ruhe et al., 2011). References Apthorp, D., Nagle, F., Palmisano, S. (2014). Chaos in balance: non-linear measures of postural control predict individual variations in visual illusions of motion. PloS one, 9(12). Britten, K. H. (2008). Mechanisms of self-motion perception. Annu. Rev. Neurosci., 31, 389-410. Del Percio, C., Brancucci, A., Bergami, F., Marzano, N., Fiore, A., Di Ciolo, E., . . . Eusebi, F. (2007). Cortical alpha rhythms are correlated with body sway during quiet open-eyes standing in athletes: a high-resolution EEG study. Neuroimage, 36(3), 822-829. Dichgans, J., Brandt, T. (1978). Visual-Vestibular Interaction: Effects on Self-Motion Perception and Postural Control. In R. Held, H. Leibowitz H.-L. Teuber (Eds.), Perception (Vol. 8, pp. 755-804): Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Duffy, C. J., Wurtz, R. H. (1993). An illusory transformation of optic flow fields. Vision Research, 33(11), 1481-1490. Lestienne, F., Soechting, J., Berthoz, A. (1977). Postural readjustments induced by linear motion of visual scenes. Exp Brain Res, 28(3-4), 363-384. Massion, J. (1994). Postural control system. Curr Opin Neurobiol, 4(6), 877-887. Nakamura, S. (2011). Effects of viewpoint jitters on roll vection. i-Perception, 2(4), 254-262. Palmisano, S., Allison, R., Schira, M., Barry, R. J. (2015). Future Challenges for Vection Research: Definitions, Functional Significance, Measures and Neural Bases. Frontiers in Psychology, 6. Palmisano, S., Apthorp, D., Seno, T., Stapley, P. (2014). Spontaneous postural sway predicts the strength of smooth vection. Exp Brain Res, 232(4), 1185-1191. Ruhe, A., Fejer, R., Walker, B. (2011). Center of pressure excursion as a measure of balance performance in patients with non-specific low back pain compared to healthy controls: a systematic review of the literature. European Spine Journal, 20(3), 358-368. Stoffregen, T. A. (1985). Flow Structure Versus Retinal Location in the Optical Control of Stance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 11(5), 554-565. Tanahashi, S., Ujike, H., Kozawa, R., Ukai, K. (2007). Effects of visually simulated roll motion on vection and postural stabilization. Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation, 4(1), 39-39. Tucker, M. G., Kavanagh, J. J., Morrison, S., Barrett, R. S. (2010). Differences in rapid initiation and termination of voluntary postural sway associated with ageing and falls-risk. J Mot Behav, 42(5), 277-287.

Huck Finn - Life On The River Essay -- essays research papers

The difference between life on the river and life in the towns along the river is an important theme in the novel ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ by Mark Twain. Twain uses language to draw the contrast effectively as well as through the atmosphere that has been created, the diction, the punctuation and the figures of speech employed. The two paragraphs, which most effectively display this contrast, refer to the peaceful life on the river and the vile nature of the streets and lanes of a town. In the fist paragraph Huck describes in mostly monosyllabic and colloquial expressions how pleasant life on the river is. At the beginning of the passage Huck uses the image of swimming peacefully to describe how the time passes, ‘you might say they swum by, they slid along so quite smooth and lovely. The alliteration of swum, slid and smooth helps to formulate a mental semblance of the swift and steady motion of the river and like the rivers flowing the words also seem to easily flow. This image is appropriate as it directly relates to the motion of the river on which they are travelling. ‘Here is the way we put in the time.’ Presents Huck’s idyllic life on the river is as routine. The words ‘then’ and ‘next’ are repeated several times in the first half of the passage, their function and effect is ensure that the passage flows, much like the river, in a slow and constant sequential manner. A sense of relaxed movement is conveyed and emphasised by diction and alliteration throu...

Better to Die for Your Beliefs or Lie to Save Your Life Essay

I believe that it is better to die for what you believe rather than to lie to save your own life. Many people have died for their beliefs. There are martyrs from all over the world, and they were not afraid to stand up for what they believed in, even if it meant losing their lives. Those people have gone down in history, and are respected by many. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake at the age of 19 for believing that her visions were from God. The English leaders tried to force her to deny that God had spoken to her, but she refused. She went down in history as a great martyr and she is still today and perfect example of standing up for what you believe in. Another great martyr was St. Stephen, who was accused of blasphemy against Moses and God. St. Stephen was stoned to death by an angry mob, and he claimed to have seen God the Father and God the Son right before he died. He was considered the first Christian martyr. As well as there has been martyrs in the world, there has also been people that lied to save their life. In the Bible, Peter was recognized as one of Jesus’ followers, and was questioned in the public. As the crowd became more suspicious, Peter denied Jesus three times. He was too worried about his own life that he took the easy way out. After he denied him, he realized what he had done and the guilt almost destroyed him. Later in his life he returned and admitted to their accusations, and was crucified upside-down. In the story The Crucible, many teenage girls are accused of witchcraft, which in Puritan society the punishment is death. To save their own lives, they take the spotlight off themselves and begin to blame other women in their society for their own selfish gain. They were cowards and lived in lies, making innocent people suffer. All over the world there are people being persecuted for their own personal beliefs. The people â€Å"in charge† decide what they want everyone else to believe, and they enforce it with harsh punishments or even death. Martyrdom is not necessarily dying for spiritual beliefs; it is dying for anything you believe in. People everywhere are mistreated because of their religious beliefs, their political preference, or the color of their skin. Over time there have been leaders who have tried to make their â€Å"perfect race,† but what would this world be without diversity? No one should be able to decide what is the correct belief or the right way to live life. Everyone is different. But unfortunately there are leaders and people who believe they have the right to decide these things, so it is very important to have a good understand of what your personal beliefs are. It is very important to be willing to stand up for what you personally believe in, even if it may cost you something as great as your own life.

Critical Issues Paper Essay

This paper will discuss the technology used in policing and how technology enhances or detracts from police organizations’ ability to function. Then, I would like to discuss the examples of less-than-lethal weapons and how less-than-lethal weapons affect policing in today’s society In addition, example of dangers faced by police and how police organizations address these dangers. In the 1900s when policing was created they had to face many issues to make sure that they handle lowering crime rates. Those were desperate times for policemen in a hostile country with unpaved streets and uneven sidewalks, sometimes miles from the police station, with little prospects of assistance in case of need. It took nerve to be a policeman in those days. The first use of technology in policing was cars, radios, computers, and firearms. If it were not for the creation of technology in 1900s police departments would have a very hard time to stop all the crimes that were being created. So in 1960 the Crime Commission was established. Today in the 21st Century there are many new kinds of technology used in policing and one is being created for the â€Å"future cops† which decreases the dangerous high-speed chases with criminals is the StarChase System. The StarChase system is a laser guided GPS tracking system that is launched from the front grill of the squad car and guided by a laser-light. The police departments would find ways on how to prevent and solve crimes with the use of technology. Only in recent years have many agencies found the use of information technologies significantly helpful. Some examples of these technology uses include fingerprinting databases, computerized crime mapping, and records management systems doing everything from inventorying property and cataloging evidence to calculating solvability factors. Police Agencies in modern society are a part of the American fabric to serve and protect the American public. The United States currently have more than 15,000 police agencies, (Walker & Katz, 2002). Police Departments across the United States face similar critical issues policing. All police officers face dangers in the job of policing the dangers can emanate from internal and external origins. Police officers have continued to evolve to serve communities by finding better less than lethal alternatives to weapons used. In addition, police departments have continued to keep up with modern technology to assist them with information storage and acquisition while in the field. Department of Homeland Security was also developed to assist Federal, State and Local law enforcement agencies with information sharing to prevent linkage blindness which was prevalent before the 9/11 attacks on the United States. There has been a major push in several areas of policing to make policing more efficient with regards to information access and safer for the officers, suspects, and communities. Police officers place themselves in danger every day. Danger is an inherent condition and circumstance of the job of serving and protecting the public. Police officers are injured and some have been killed in the line of duty enforcing the law and defending the justice system. The job of a police officer is to protect the life and safety of others, which means placing themselves at risk while performing their duties. Police training can lead to success of police officer preventing or limiting dangerous situations by anticipating and de-escalating the situations before they become elevated. There are additional dangers such as effects of stress. Law enforcement agencies use many different technology instruments to prevent and investigate criminal activity. These instruments assist officers to do their duties faster and more efficient than in the past. Information technology instruments, advanced weapons technology instruments, and crime analysis technology instruments are used to assist law enforcement officers to provide serve to their communities. Information technology includes database and information instruments, computer- aided dispatch instruments, record management system instruments, and mobile computing instruments. Computerized relational databases instruments gather and store information on suspects and convicted criminals and are used for management purposes, such as tracking the number and types of arrest that officers make and the number of complaints against an officer. An example of computerized relational databases are use by law enforcement are when the officer makes a traffic stop and runs the drivers information, such as name , date of birth , and driver license number , to determine if the driver has any warrants of arrest. Another example of computerized relational databases is the registration of sex offenders, sex offenders in most states have to give law enforcement agencies any change of address. Computer-aided dispatch instruments offer faster and more effective methods of communicating with law enforcement officers than in the past . Computer-aided 911 and the 311 dispatch systems helps dispatchers and law enforcement officers to prioritize calls for service. It also enhances law enforcement officer’s safety by monitoring the officer’s status, it alerts dispatchers to officers who have not updated their field status. Records management system instruments are used to input and organize information from different types of reports in one easy to access format.