Ratio Analysis Essay

The aims and objectives of this report are to compare the two companies, Kingfisher Plc. and Home Retail Group Plc., using their annual report published for the year 2011. With the help of the financial statements, it will be possible to calculate different ratios that are relevant to the comparison between the two businesses. Through this comments can then be made on the performance of both companies for the year, stating some of the possible factors that could have made affected this. Comparison will be on a year-to-year basis and then between the two companies as a whole. When comparing two companies like Kingfisher and the Home Retail Group, there are a few limitations needed to be considered before this is possible. The first would be the different accounting policies that each corporation have chosen to adapt to their financial statements; this could be in regards of the depreciation or inventory valuation method used for the preparation of relevant statements. Another important point to note is that financial statements are based on historical information and therefore this would not be as objective to when we come to use them for the comparison. Expanding on this, the closing balances on the statement may make the ratios appear misleading when comparing the two companies for the period, i.e. seasonal sale boost; Christmas and New Year promotion. The main issue that should be considered is the date that they have published their account Kingfisher being 31st January 2011 and Home Retail Group at 28th February 2011. So it would not be possible to make a more accurate comparison, as the economic conditions may have changed for that one month Kingfisher did not trade. Although it would suggest comparing the two businesses is not ideal, the two companies are somewhat similar. Therefore this should make the approximation more accurate and thus the comparison more meaningful. Kingfisher PLC Kingfisher is a company that focuses on mainly offering its customers home improvements products for DIY and such likes. Its main retail brand in the UK is B&Q with a market share of 14% and they are currently top of the market. They are also making a respectable breakthrough in France with their brands, Castorama and Brico Depot taking 21% of the market share with the top place. Moreover they have expanded to Germany, Turkey, Spain, China, Poland and Russia

Modes Of Transportation

Metro Manila is the metropolitan region which has the most populous metropolitan area in the Philippines and 11th most populous in the world. Based on 2010 national statistics it had a population of 11,855,975 populations that is 13% of national population (2010 Population and Housing Census: NCR). The rapid population growth corresponds to more economic needs and mobility for transport of goods, services and products. The direct relationship between urban areas and its population must meet the standard for deficiency of road and highway length as well as modes of transportation in metropolitan area. Nowadays, transportation is accessible at it is. Different modes of transportation are well available for the passenger in provinces and more advantageously in metropolitan area. It is the prerogative of the passenger to choose what will be the mode that would bring him/her to their destination as fast as possible. Sometimes, comfort and convenience are sacrificed in order to meet the ti me in school, work, event, etc.Theoretical frameworkFigure shows the model of the study – the theoretical framework. The respondents, from the first year students of pharmacy, shall be exposed to three experimental conditions, to elicit their waiting behaviors. Economic – efficient mobility for good vehicles that comfortably good for passenger, local economic development like LRT and MRT that are functionally good, and operational efficiency that passengers are satisfied from their travel. Social- social equity (fairness), human safety and health affordability, community cohesion, and cultural preservation from the passenger, Environmental – air, noise and water reductions, climate change emissions resource conservation, open – diversity, and biodiversity protection.Statement of the ProblemThe study aimed to determine the behavior of Freshmen Students in Pharmacy of Centro Escolar University in considering different modes of transportation possible throug h certain place. Apart from that, the researches aimed to identify the following: 1. What is the attitude of the passenger towards selecting mode of transportation that suits their comfort and convenience? 2. What is the mode of transportation that is easy to ride?3. Why are freshmen Student of pharmacy are being late and absent in class? 4. How can they limit their late and absences?HypothesisAmidst the growing number of population in the Philippines and blinding pollution it possess, students nowadays still resist to fight back these struggles they face as they go to school every school days. These troublesome concerns had been giving negative impacts to students. Due to this, alternative solutions are arising for a comfortable way of going to school. Options given to students are renting condominiums, owning a car or ride the hassle-free mode of transportation the environment offers. This study will show the adjustment of freshmen students of the School of Pharmacy of CEU when it comes to modes of transportationSignificance of the StudyThe study will represent the behavior of freshmen Student of pharmacy in considering different modes of transportation possible through certain place. The considering factor will be enumerated and thoroughly discussed to inform possible modest and safest modes for a respondents that selected randomly. Data will also give volume of traffic occur daily to determine what specific day will have congested traffic that varies the choice of passenger and take into consideration the factors that provided by studies. The study is very essential into what mode of transportation will be convenient according to daily traffic state. At the end of the study, readers will understand why does majority of passenger’s took certain mode and why minority prevails choose other.Scope and LimitationCommuting is considered to be one of the daily tasks done especially by freshmen students of pharmacy. To commute or travel from one place to ano ther varies by which mode of transportation is best, either by road or LRT/MRT, when reaching your destination. For this study, the data collection is limited to CEU students who travel by jeeps, bus, and taxi, LRT, MRT coming from different places within Metro Manila and nearby provinces to arrive in our campus. This will be in the form of survey questionnaire both in print and paper that will be handed out to students randomly to ensure that all the answers that will be collected from our respondents vary.Since the research is concerned with the different factors, which affects the various choices of transportation for commuters, this would mean that students who drives and rents condominiums, apartments and/or dormitories are excluded in our study. Psychological analysis through series of survey will provide different factor that commuter’s takes priority in choosing most convenient modes of transportation. The research will only be limited to a small portion of the school s’ population since this will only last for 2 days, the data that will be collected will represent the entire freshmen student of pharmacy of the school.

Windows 7 vs. Windows 8

Topic: Contrasting differences, resemblance and evaluation of two computer operating systems, Windows 7 and Windows 8. The release of Windows 8 has divided the online community in two contradictory groups. Some users appear to enjoy the new features and performance of the newest Windows operating system, while others recommend choosing its well-received predecessor Windows 7 (Mikoluk, 2013). The purpose of this essay is to examine some of the primary characteristics of these operating systems.These comprise of: user interface, essential built-in software components, system requirements and finally, performance of two systems based on various computer test results. This essay has been organised in the following way, firstly it looks at vital characteristics of operating system user interface, it continues by analysing essential built-in software components, then proceeds by highlighting system requirements and finally, it will outline the performance of two systems based on various co mputer test results.User interface is an outer layer and one of the key components of the operating ystem, which can be characterized and described by numerous aspects such as design strategy, start menu layout and touch screen functionality. Windows 7 keeps basic principles of conventional Windows interface building on â€Å"Aero† visual style features, such as subtle animations and translucent glass windows enabling a wide range of desktop personalisation possibilities (Bott et al. 2011). Incorporation of the Metro design language for Windows 8 introduces a completely new tile-based design strategy, which is radically different from traditional Windows representation ocusing on only what is needed † reducing to the essence and celebrating content. ‘ (Clayton, 2013). Windows 7 start menu keeps the familiar two-column layout with the Start button located in the left corner of the taskbar (Coward and Knittel, 2010).Whereas in Windows 8, the start menu is replaced w ith a Start screen, where well-known desktop icons have been substituted with large tiles and â€Å"Live† tiles displaying real-time information and is missing the Start button (Boyce and Tidrow, 2013). Moving to touch-screen characteristics, Windows 7 software operates with imited amount of touch gestures and its targets originally designed for a miniature arrow cursor are too small (Pogue, 2013).In contrast, Windows 8 is built with focus on touch input, featuring all the latest touch screen technology innovations and introducing an expanded number of available gestures as well as a touch-friendly interface with large targets (Cirque, 2012). and security applications. Internet Explorer 8 comes as a preinstalled attribute of Windows 7 exclusively for US customers featuring the familiar â€Å"Aero† visual style user interface with add-on browser extensions as well as integrated Web Search box and abbed browsing (Stanek, 2010).Windows 8, on the other hand, comes with lat est Internet Explorer 10 browser promoting the minimalistic Metro user interface, moving away from add-ons; counting on site developers to enrich the browsing experience for users by enabling feature detection technology (Boyce and Tidrow, 2013). Internet Explorer 10 Start screen includes web search box combined with address bar and also offers multitasking with tabs (Microsoft, 2013).Moving to Security Management, Windows 7 features include built-in Firewall network security system and Windows Defender spyware protection; however for the better defence it s advisable to additionally install Microsoft Security Essentials antivirus software (Bott et al. , 2011). In Windows 8, security is also maintained by Firewall and extended confguration of Windows Defender, which replaces Microsoft Security Essentials (Microsoft, 2013).When considering similarities, both operating systems have identical minimal hardware requirements, which enable the two to run on wide range of machines (Microsof t, 2013). At he Microsoft Worldwide conference 2011 in California Tami Reller underlined: In both of our Windows 8 previews, we talked about continuing on ith the important trend that we started with Windows 7, keeping system requirements either flat or reducing them over time.Windows 7 and Windows 8 software is compatible with computers consisting of: not less than 1 gigahertz processor or faster, at least 1 gigabyte of free RAM for 32-bit versions or minimum 2 gigabytes for 64-bit versions, a free hard disc space of 16 gigabytes for 32-bit systems or 20 gigabytes for 64-bit systems as well as Microsoft DirectX9 graphics card with WDDM driver (Egan, 2012). Turning to the criteria of performance, there are significant differences in the timings hat operating systems require for essential operations such as: booting up, shutting down, waking up from sleep mode and 3D graphics implementation.As stated by Walton (2012), Windows 8 continues to expand on the effectiveness of Windows 7, w hich has proven to be a fast and productive operating system, by showing a number of improvements compared to its precursor. Muchmore's test results (2012) revealed that the booting time for Windows 8 is significantly reduced by almost a half compared to Windows 7; 17 and 38 seconds correspondingly. He also reported that he shut down time showed similar improvements; the latest version of Windows took 10 seconds, while the older operating system was 2 seconds slower.According to Muhammad (2013), Windows 8 is also faster waking up from sleep mode with only 10 seconds required for this operation which is 3 seconds ahead of Windows 7. However, Windows 7 3D graphic performance was moderately faster, although both operating systems showed very similar results (Walton, 2012). differences in both operating systems. Firstly, the most obvious difference is that Windows 7 represents traditional Windows interface, while the most recent operating ystem promotes innovative Metro design strategy with large tiles instead of familiar icons.

Do laundry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Do laundry - Essay Example I grew up in a small village, in Xiaolou town, Guangzhou province, in China known as Xijing. During that time, fabrics were placed in the running water along the water streams to diminish the unpleasant smells and dirty. I remember watching my mother washing clothes in Wei River, She used to begin by rubbing, twisting the dirty fabric, or slapping them against flat rocks. People also used pieces of wood in beating out the dirt. Afterwards, the fabric was rinsed, squeezed to drain water away and later spread on flat rocks to dry. We had to wait for the clothes to dry for about an hour then carry them home. Nowadays laundry has changed so much since the majority of families in suburb areas use washing machines, which are hand-operated in cleaning the fabrics. The machine moves round and round through the aid of the paddles, which cycles continuously. This repeated action swirls the clothing until it removes the dirt completely. In those days, washing of clothes to drying was cumbersome since it was a whole day process. These days washing of clothes by electronic machines takes a short period. The clothes are cleaned in the washing machine, dried by the clothe dryer. During the old days, the sun energy was the only source that people relied on to dry their wet clothes. Drying of the clothes was unpredictable since not all days were sunny days especially during the rainy seasons. However, this has much changed since laundry drying nowadays is mechanized, with the aid of clothes dryers. Dryers have spun perforated tubs where they blow heated air rather than water, which in turn dries clothes. A world without laundry is unpredictable since cleanliness is the first step in achieving good sanitation and maintaining health hygiene. Through laundry, people are able to prevent diseases like cholera and skin diseases caused by germs in dirty clothes. Yun. B. Zhongguo lao Qipao:

Healthcare Reform Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Healthcare Reform - Essay Example Health care reforms have led to many bureaucracies within the health care industry. For example, before a person can be attended to, he or she must produce identification documents. The medical personnel has to ascertain that you are who you claim to be and whether you have medical insurance. This screening process is flawed be against the poor who cannot afford medical insurance, as well as the illegal aliens in the country. These reforms have made the medical process slower in its service delivery, with the constant paperwork required to start the medical process. The long and prolonged processes lead to prolonged delays.Even as I oppose health care reforms, there is one undeniable counter argument in regards to these reforms. Health care reforms have led to the incorporation of technology within the health care industry. Before technology, processes like record keeping were tiresome because medical personnel could not keep track of which records were required for a specific task. There were constant mix-ups with information being put in the wrong files and documents, but the introduction of technological equipment such as computers has made work easier. Large quantities of data regarding the patients could be entered into computers and could be easily retrievable for use by the medical personnel. Technology has also enabled the monitoring of patients easier with the emergence of wireless and wearable medical devices, which alert the medical personnel of any issues that might arise remotely.

Rational Improvement of Writing Skills Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 5

Rational Improvement of Writing Skills - Essay Example One of the weaknesses in my essays is lack of strong introductions and conclusions. Presently, this remains my goal that in future, I master the writing of good introductions and conclusions. In addition, I feel that my essays portrayed good organization, as shown in their structures. However, I feel I need further improvements to my sentence transitions between paragraphs. Redundancy is another aspect I should work on in my future essays. In two of my essays, I noted that I tend to repeat some ideas in an unacceptable manner. Finally, the objectivity aspect of the essays was well above average. In most of my essays, I focus on the topic I am supposed to address, without deviating to a different course, or beating around the bush. However, I feel I need to perfect on this aspect since it is core to the writing process. During this semester, we have widely discussed the issue of human rights in the world. This issue is real and is given great attention in most countries. Each one of us was asked to choose a topic associated with the human rights issue and write an essay addressing the solutions to the problems that arise from this issue, as well as the effects of the problems in society. Choosing a topic was not hard for me, so I quickly identified peace and racial conflicts as my topic. This essay was engaging as I was required to research on this issue in different countries in order to establish the presence of this issue in those countries, as well as the possible solutions to the problems the issue presents in those countries.

Critically assess Marxist theories of fascism Essay

Critically assess Marxist theories of fascism - Essay Example One of these reasons is timing, in that it took several generations for the Left to realize that fascism was a not a clever manipulation of the populace by the reactionary Right, but was, rather, authentically popular to the masses. Another reason is because many states, during fascism’s heyday, tried to mimic the fascist governments, even though these states were not functionally fascist, essentially trying to identify themselves as fascists by their plumage or clothing. A third reason why fascism is difficult to define is because there is such a wide disparity between regimes due to space and time, as each fascist country derived their own fascist elements from their own community identity. For instance, religion would play a greater role in any kind of United States incarnation of fascism than it would in Europe, where the fascists were pagan. A fourth difficulty in defining fascism is that there is a tenuous relationship between its ideology and fascism as put into action (Paxton, 1998, pp. 1-4). While fascism is a concept that has eluded definition, there is some comfort in knowing that Marxist definitions and critiques generally differ from non-Marxist ones, in a number of different ways. In this way, fascism has a better theoretical ground when studied in light of fascist theories of the ideology, and these Marxist theories are the focus of this paper. That said, there are a number of fundamental differences between Marxist theories of fascism and non-Marxist theories. Marxist theories of fascism differed from the non-Marxist theories of fascism, in that non-Marxist theories do not study the class and social policies of Germany and Italy under fascism, doing little to explain how these regimes dealt with taxes, social services, business and labor conditions, as well as not asking for who benefited from fascism and for whom fascism was a detriment, while these questions are at the core of the Marxist critique of fascism (Pizzo, 1998, p. 97). This i s because the Marxist ideology sees class as central to government in general, whereas non-Marxists see state governments as being above class structures (Pizzo, 1998, p. 97). In other words, to Marxists, â€Å"fascism was a mass movement that acted independent of capitalist support† (Renton, 1997, p. 2). Another major difference between Marxist critiques of fascism from non-Marxist critiques is that the latter is concerned with fascism as a mature form of governing, focusing on the essence of fascism; non-Marxists concentrate on fascism as a movement. Thus, the non-Marxist critiques of fascism concentrate ideological themes and organizational principles of fascism than do Marxist critiques (Vanaik, 1994, p. 1730). Another major difference between Marxist theories and non-Marxist theories is that Marxist theories tend to view fascism strictly in economic terms, while non-Marxist theories see fascism in psychological and personality terms (Thomas, 1991, p. 1). According to the se non-Marxist theories, fascism is a product of a diseased society in crisis, or the consequence of moral failure and these theories revolve around the concept of a sick society and a world gone mad (Davies & Lynch, 2002, p. 4). These theories try to get into the psyche of leaders who embrace the fascist ideology, such as Hitler and Mussolini, as well as the psyches of those who were ardent followers of