Internet banking applications Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Internet banking applications - Research Paper Example According to the research as soon as technology bulged out from the conventional manual working trends, people who were tired of time consuming repetitive tasks obliged, and accepted it. That is the sole reason behind technology gaining sudden fame and it is only the charisma of technology that the power of mainframes is now present in handhelds. Such rapid advancement in technology was due to man’s eagerness and need of making things work on his fingertips. Technology, soon after its introduction in the markets and after the revelation of its endless benefits became a necessity for everyone. From MNCs to home users, technology is everywhere. The usage of technology of course is different with everyone but the truth is that it is used everywhere in some capacity or the other. Banking is one of the oldest businesses in the world. Since the evolution of human mind, human beings are constantly involved in making transactions and carrying out trade and business. Slowly but steadil y, the banking system also gained popularity and became popular. This meant that the clientele of each bank were increasing exponentially. Therefore, banking theories and studies became a crux part of finance and accounting curriculum. It was soon realized that banks should use the numeric computation and storage power of computers to enhance their business processes. This made competition stiffer and this is by virtue of this competition that value added services were introduced by banks. These value added services such as ATM’s and Internet Banking not only provided the banks competitive edge but also first mover advantage. This influx of technology not only introduced several different technologies at the workplace but also ensure that banks were making great sales as customers were willing to pay more for these value added services (Ghaziri, 1998). The term ‘Internet Banking’ was coined in 1980’s (Scholasticus, n.d.) but it’s no more a technical jargon these days as even basic customers who have very little knowledge of internet can use this technology to make financial transactions. This idea of doing online transactions got very modest reception when it was first launched primarily because of high internet costs and the vulnerability of such applications. The idea of virtual transactions didn’t appeal the conventional users but time proved them, otherwise. The aim of this dissertation is to do a threadbare analysis on internet banking applications that are currently in use in the industry. Some relevant questions that we will look to answer are: How actually these internet banking applications work? Are these applications really worth it? How these internet banking applications have evolved over the period of time and what extra features are now available in these applications? These questions will just act as the starting point of our research and will be answered comprehensively. Moreover, a peep into currently used architectures and applications themselves will also be a point of focus throughout our studies. 2. Objectives The objectives of this research are clearly elicited and they will help in providing a broader overview of the complete architecture that is normally being deployed in a bank. To calculate ROI generated because of this value added feature To perform trend analysis on different internet banking applications To determine different KPI’s that will help us analyze an internet banking application’s efficiency To study the general 3-tier architecture of a complete internet banking application To study factors that can further enhance an internet banking application To study peripheral applications that work with mainstream Internet Banking application To examine other channels that interact and study if they can work in line with the internet banking application To determine factors that can affect internet banking software’s performance 3. Background The forerunner of the modern times, Internet Banking was started as distance

Health Policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Health Policy - Essay Example Among these the social factor can be considered to be the most influential. This is because it is only the awareness of the public that makes to utilize the medical resources. Most of the people lack awareness. This could be possibly due to illiteracy. Hence those sections must be taught regarding various aspects of health and care. Modern public health is often concerned with the addressing determinants of health across a population, rather than advocating for individual behaviour change. There is a recognition that our health is affected by many factors including where we live, genetics, our income, our educational status and our social relationships - these are known as "social determinants of health." A social gradient in health runs through society, with those that are poorest generally suffering the worst health. However even those in the middle classes will generally have worse health outcomes than those of a higher social stratum (WHO, 2003). The new public health seeks to ad dress these health inequalities by advocating for population-based policies that improve the health of the whole population in an equitable fashion. (Wikipedia -the free online encyclopedia) Managed Health Care, a general classification used for a type of health insurance that provides comprehensive medical care based on a prepaid contract as opposed to traditional fee-for-service health insurance. Traditional health insurance pays a health-care provider each time a medical service is performed. Managed health-care plans, however, pay health-care providers a set monthly fee for each member of the plan, regardless of whether the member seeks medical care. Managed health-care plans are so-named because they attempt to manage or control the costs of health care by requiring participants in the plan to seek medical care from designated physicians. These physicians act as "gatekeepers" who determine if patients need to see more costly medical specialists. Most managed care systems encourage preventive medicine, operating with the philosophy that it is better for the patient and more cost-effective to focus on preventing illness or to treat an illness in its early stages than to treat an illness in advanced stages. Accordingly, managed health-care plans provide broad coverage for preventive care, such as immunizations and physical examinations, unlike traditional health insurance plans. Managed care plans are unique to the United States. They are usually offered through employers, although individuals and senior citizens who receive government-funded health insurance through Medicare can enroll directly in managed care plans. Most employer-sponsored plans allow an "open enrollment period" of one month when employees can decide whether they want a managed care plan or a traditional fee-for-service plan, also known as an indemnity plan. (See also Health Insurance.) There are three basic types of managed care plans: health maintenance organizations (HMOs), preferred provider organizations (PPOs), and point-of-service plans. II HEALTH MAINTENANCE ORGANIZATIONS HMOs provide comprehensive medical services in exchange for a monthly payment from the plan participant. HMOs developed in the early 1970s with the passage of the federal Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973. The law applied minimum, uniform standards in all 50 states for a health insurance organization to qualify as an

Features of Gender Inequality in the Workplace

Features of Gender Inequality in the Workplace Introduction Over the recent few years, world has witnessed biggest recession in almost a century. Thus, its clear that its recovery would among other measures; require best of talent, ideologies and innovation. It is thus; more essential than earlier for nations and companies to pay attention to one of the basic cornerstones of economic development to them which is the skills and talent of their female human resources. From being customers to voters, employees and employers, women play an important part of the global economic recovery. Even as, it is not just limited to financial and economic system which is requirement of restructuring, rethinking and reforming. Women make up of almost half the population and without their engagement, empowerment and involvement one cannot expect to efficiently meet these recent challenges nor attain rapid economic recovery. The global gap between men and women still persists as there is still a lot of efforts to be taken in terms of education, health, legislat ions and politics before women can be able counted in power with men. With the help of Global Gender Gap Reports, for the last four years, the World Economic Forum has been able to quantify magnitude of gender-based disparities and has been tracking its progress over the years. This report has provided a comprehensive framework for being able to benchmark global gender gaps. It reveals that the countries which are role models who have effectively divided resources between women and men. According to Global Gender GAP report till date, some of the multi-stakeholder communities of very influential leaders comprising of 50% women and 50% men from politics, business, academia, media and civil society have mutually recognized the largest gaps in every region have committed to improve and enhance use of female talent through their strategies. Every individual in the organization has collectively agreed to empower women, developing globally replicable frameworks and bridging the gap in the world and achieving gender parity. There are different views and perspectives through gender empowerment and equality is an important issue to be addressed to economically and optimally utilize human resources. From values and social justice point of view, empowerment of women and providing them with equal rights and opportunities for fulfillment of their capabilities has been due for a long time. From the business, economic and competitiveness point of view, aiming at gender parity is an essential requirement for progress. Measuring the Global Gender Gap The World Economic Forum introduced Global Gender Gap Index in the year 2006 which is framework to capture the magnitude and scope of gender based disparities and to constantly track the progress. This index is a standard for national gender gaps on economic, political, education and health based criteria and offers individual nation rankings which provide efficient comparisons across regions in the world. The main focus of the rankings is creating awareness amongst the people across the globe of the challenges posed due to gender gaps and chances created by decreasing them. It is a straightforward method and quantitative analysis behind the rankings which serve as a base for designing efficient measures to decrease gender gaps. Basically there are three concepts which underline the Global Gender Gap Index. Firstly, it concentrates on measurement of gaps instead of levels. Secondly, it captures gaps in terms of outcome variables instead of gaps in means or input variables. Thirdly, i t ranks individual country as per the gender equality instead of womens empowerment. Gaps vs. Levels The Gap index is designed to quantify gender-related gaps in access to resources and opportunities in individual nations instead of the actual levels of available resources and opportunities in those nations. The index is constructed to rank nations on their gender gaps and not on the development levels. Rich nations have more opportunities in terms of education and health for the society but it does not relate to gender-related issues being faced by every nation at their individual level of income. Outcomes vs. Means The second fundamental concept which underlies the Global Gender Gap Index is that it accesses nations based upon the outcome variables instead of their input measures. The main focus of the index is a snapshot of where a man and woman stand in respect to some basic outcome variables associated to fundamental rights like health, education, economic participation and political empowerment. Gender equality vs. Womens empowerment The third feature of the gap index is that the ranking of nations is in accordance to their propinquity to gender equality instead of womens empowerment. The main focus here is on whether the gap between women and men in the selected variables is declined, rather than whether women are winning battle of sexes. Gender Inequality at workplace The most prevalent issue being faced among the UK workforce is inequality in the workplace since the beginning of the 21st century. Women have remained well below men in the terms of income due to latent prejudices related to sexuality in the modern British workplace, leading to major hurdle to greater political and cultural integration of the society. Companies today have to adhere to the most relevant legislation for the development of their business and for the society on the whole. The public sector is able to depend on the Government for funding while private sector businesses have no such kind of fiscal safety and are aware that their profit and loss are totally dependent on their optimal utilization of resources which include human resources as well. The most significant indicator of a countrys competitiveness is in its human talent which includes the skills, education and productivity of its workforce. Similar is the case in terms of a company wherein the employees talent is their pillar. In most of the developed world, women currently account for over half of the college and university graduates and in a lot of emerging economies, gender gaps in higher education decreasing at a fast rate. Women therefore consist of an impressive portion of the talent pool available to businesses presently. Over a period of time, a countrys competitiveness greatly depends on whether and to what extent the female talent is utilized. To maximize its effectiveness and competitiveness and development potential, every company must to strive to achieve gender equality which means give the women employees same rights, responsibility and pay as the men for the same work. The government plays a vital role in helping to create the correct environment for enhancing womens economic participation, especially through flexible maternity leave policies and childcare provision. Also, it is of primary importance for companies to create ecosystems where the best talent including male and female can flourish. The subsequent examination into inequality at workplace should essentially adopt dualistic approach, by tracing both cause and effect of the issues of workplace gender inequality. This would involve comprehensive analysis of legislation, most suitable practice and human resources. Human Resource managers have become to comply within new legislations which prevent any kind of discrimination of the basis of gender discrimination which include Equal Pay Act, 1970. Equal Pay Act 1970 The Equal Pay Act, 1970 refers that people must be paid equally or same regardless of their gender. It means an employee cannot be paid less than somebody else of the opposite sex for doing: The same work or identical work (legally known as like work. Different work which is of equal worth to the employer (also known as work of equal value) Pay Discrimination at Workplace There are many ways in which pay discrimination can take place, examples of this include: Women being appointed on lower pay rate than her male counterparts. Women on maternity leave are not given bonus received by other employees. Womens jobs are offered different job titles and grades in comparison to men doing similar type of work. Part-time employees, generally women, have no holiday or sick pay entitlements. Major companies across globe are recognizing the needs to identify potential and capabilities of women and are coming forward with equal opportunities at workplace to ensure this gender gap reduces across the globe. It is the need of the hour for Human Resource Managers to identify and recognize talents and skills based on capability of the individual irrespective of the gender for long term growth and development of the company. With a number of laws and legislations allowing women to have equal opportunities at the workplace, Human Resources managers in the companies must respect and comply within the rules framework to enhance the goodwill of the company. Goodwill of the company plays an essential role in the development of the business in the society and any kind of negative publicity such gender discrimination would lead to the downfall of its market value. Thus, most of the companies are becoming socially responsible to ensure their reputation and goodwill is maintained in the corporate world. To illustrate, some policies companies have undertaken to promote equal opportunities for its staff let us briefly look at Marks and Spencers company policies. The company policy of Equal treatment for everyone states to encourage a working environment free from any kind of discrimination, victimization and harassment; making sure that everybody receives equal treatment in every aspect of employment policies and practices irrespective of their gender, age, marital status or hours of work; employing a workforce that reflects a diverse community serving and maximizing personal and commercial opportunities; constantly monitoring and reporting the composition of the Companys workforce and reviewing changes in attitude and implementation of Company policy and finally complying within the framework of legislation and rules of the government. Conclusion Women are a major part of the human resource of an economy and a company and thus their empowerment and development is essential for the development of the economy. Several studies have confirmed that decreasing gender inequality improves productivity and economic development and that the economic advantages of reducing back barriers to womens engagement in the workforce could be substantial. To illustrate, according to a research conducted recently, decreasing the male-female employment gap will have tremendous economic implications for developed economies boosting US GDP by about 9%, eurozone GDP by 13% and Japanese GDP by 16%. Decreasing the gender inequality in these nations could also play a vital role in addressing the future issues posed due to ageing population and increasing pension burdens. This means that companies would benefit from successfully integrating the female half of the available talent across their internal leadership structures. The studies which explored this aspect have displayed a positive correlation among gender diversity on top leadership teams and a companys financial results. However, regardless of increasing evidence in relation to the significance of womens economic integration and even when the global economys dependence on knowledge industries and skillful workers increases, there still a lot of significant gaps in the job opportunities available to women and in regards to wages paid to women compared with the male colleagues. Talent and human capital are the essentials for economic growth and development and business leaders and policymakers should ensure that any kind of barriers to womens entry to the mainstream workforce are eradicated and that equal chance and opportunity rising to positions of leadership are offered within the companies. They are important factors for determining that companies and economy on the whole is utilizing its existing resources in most efficient and effective manner and also encouraging flow of talent in the future as well.

The Most Affordable Vacation for a College Student :: Research Papers Travel Essays

The Most Affordable Vacation for a College Student In December, my boyfriend is heading to Iraq to fight for his country and for all of us in the United States. We have decided together, that upon his arrival home, we will reward ourselves with a vacation. The question we both had though was where should we take this vacation? We both believe that next year will be a really hard time for both of us, being separated for at least a year. I have decided to take the initiative to research our possible destinations with the most affordable rates. Together, we narrowed our choices down and decided to vacation in Hawaii or an island in the Bahamas. So with this information, I decided to research the locations of our choice to help us finalize our decision. The first thing I did was decide to research Maui, Hawaii. I have heard many great things about Hawaii, and thought that this would make a great report. I gathered information online, comparing airline prices, hotel prices and also attractions in Maui. To gather even more information, I traveled to the travel agency in which I belong to, AAA’s where I received a lot of great catalogs on Maui. I did not know definitely where I was going with this project, but decided to research the information. I discovered that Hawaii was just a little bit out of a college student’s budget, even if saving for a year. So I thought I would compare and research the Bahamas, our other choice. I once again started online, researching much like I did with Hawaii. This time when I traveled to AAA’s, I talked to Sharon Biggs, a very helpful travel agent. She gave me brochures explaining about the two islands in the Bahamas. She told me that because I was under the age of 21, the better vacation choice was the Bahamas over Hawaii. When we travel on our vacation, my boyfriend will be over 21, but I will not. The age of 21 meaning, I could not drink, but he could. My final step was to call my aunt and uncle, who have traveled to the Bahamas, Mexico, Bermuda, and taken several cruises. I wanted to receive their insight on the location that I had chosen. They were very reliable in the sense that they travel often and I have not been to all the places that they have been to.

Is Money an Effective Motivator at Work?

When I saw this topic, my first reaction is yes. Because we are all work for money, which could support our family, for eating, dressing, traveling, shopping and so on. To be honest, money could bring everything, including happiness. So it is impossible for someone to work hard without money. But after second thought, I realized that there are some other motivators of work, such as self-interest, social status, or some other reasons. About working is for money and power, the impetus of ordinary workers is inseparable from the topic. Intermediate managers, especially Chinese, insist that money is the most powerful force. All things are obedient to money,really? Money – poor credit card, is it always a powerful motivator of performance? Theorists of Authoritative organization think that the policy with sticks and carrot can make the workers work, this type of carrot-and-stick could really use in the industrial revolution. Most economists who hold the concept of â€Å"economic man† has a similar view. To these views, Psychologist’s reactions are very strong. They cited some surveys as evidence. What is the most important factor? When the workers were asked about the work of judgment, â€Å"pay† generally is in the sixth, located after safety, colleagues at work, tastes, benefits, etc. Recently, some other survey found that pension and other benefits are of importance than salary. But money is not the only power. Work safety, fitting, a caring environment is motivation. About the power of work, I discussed with some classmates who have been working for several months. In the process of chat, students think work environment including leadership, colleagues and environment construction, people always think a good leader is the greatest power, their work colleagues of harmony and comfortable working environment is the premise that oneself like work, have harmonious environment is happy. When it comes to work, students from better family condition don not care for salary; while from poor families generally care salary a lot. About when they start working passion, everyone has many words to say, also have their own experience and the experience in the work can be said that at the beginning of every time, any work is ok. but with the time passed by, some people began to reflect on their behavior and pay, a few people began to complain that the blame, not to let oneself introspect neself. I have summarized the work force like our first job, to love our work and commitment in the present work, as his own life for most, can do his work, work motivation is quite enough, Work with high pay is the important factor generated power, Good working environment and harmonious interpersonal relationship is the leader of the work force, charger Leadership is highly beneficial supplement of the work force, it’s difficult for you not want to have power with the above conditions . Actually, every job contains many personal growth opportunities, when young just entered society; they should not concern too much about money, but the consideration of salary. We should pay attention to the work itself could brings what reward to us. As the development of oneself, increase their ability of social experience, enhance personal personality charm is more meaningful. And compared to work experience and acquired skills, a small salary is not so important. The boss pays you money, and you give his lifelong benefit, this can make you priceless. Facing the job, we should put more long-term vision, to see their future development, to see your future career. Because of our hard work, we can learn knowledge, experience, competence and skill, which laid the solid foundation for the future career. So, even though we now look like a silly person, and could get only little money, the harvest will come soon.

Bar coding

A taxonomic method that identifies the species of an organism by using a small genetic marker in the mitochondrial DNA of the organism is DNA bar coding. The mitochondrion of most eukaryotes contains the mitochondrial DNA, and the rate of mutations is faster that are responsible for a significant variation in the DNA sequences of the mitochondria between the species. The identification of the species via DNA bar coding relies entirely upon the short fragment of mitochondrial DNA.Recently interest is increasing to use a short sequence of tags namely bar codes for identifying and documentation of the species. (Blaxter,2003, Hebert and Gregory,2005). The standard sequence of the DNA used as a bar code is the mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase I or COI. A number of studies show that utilizing barcode gives accuracy in the classification of the species. (Kerret. et. al, 2007). The chitons live near the edge of the ocean they are mollusks.The chitons of the north pacific region are di verse comprising around 80 species, and all these species belong to the genus Mopalia. (Eernisse). The present paper discusses on identification of the species of the genus Mopalia from the extremely diverse community of chitons of the north pacific region using the DNA bar coding. DNA bar coding: To characterize the species of the organisms a novel technique exists termed â€Å"DNA bar coding†, and the technique uses a short sequence of DNA on the standard position of the genome.Obtaining the DNA sequences is quick as they comprise a very short sequence in comparison with the whole genome. The cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 of the mitochondrial region is the standard bar code region that contains a length of 648 nucleotide base pairs. There is a variation of the DNA bar codes among the individuals of the same species, but it is little. The effectiveness of the DNA bar code is directly dependent on the minor variation within the species, which is smaller than the differences be tween the species.(Consortium). Genus Mopalia: Fauna and flora of the north pacific region is diverse with long coastline and cool temperatures. Many species of the chitons play an important role in the ecology of the rocky shorelines. The Mopalia group has its recent origin with an interesting morphological similarity that attracts case study for DNA bar coding. DNA bar coding using the genus Mopalia: Up to now focus of the studies on DNA bar coding was mainly with the collection of the species within the geographical areas. (Hebert et. al,2003a).Studies in DNA bar coding with reference to the monophyletic groups is less leaving the ambiguity whether this technique is useful in distinguishing the closely related species. (Moritz and Cicero,1994)The present study uses the genus Mopalia, a challenging case study for the DNA bar coding methodology. The genus Mopalia is a recently originated; monophyletic that has a wider geographical occurrence. (Kelly et. al, 2007). Kelly et. al stud ied 19 species of the genus Mopalia, and six closely related species that out group the 131 individuals of the total of the 25 species used.The character-based assessment referred to as the characteristic attribute organizations system is fast, that avoids the false-positive data and it also retains the information on evolution that is in the character-state data. (Desalle et. al, 2005). This approach gives a new perspective to the methods of DNA bar coding. This kind of information is more like a traditional taxonomy. (Desalle et. al, 2005). The CAOS method or the character based method gives clear information, and getting the information is faster, and there is accuracy in the identification of the query sequences of the given data set.The CAOS method is sensitive that distinguishes the taxa of the monophyletic group of the closely related species with a very short sequence of the mitochondrial DNA. The advantage in this method is that it preserves the evolutionary information in the form of character data that avoids the false-positive identification of the query sequences. The number of diagnostics that supports the placement of a query sequence in a clade also used as a confidence value. The bar coding group has no relevance with the CAOS method; this is because the diagnostic character distinguishes monophyletic groups.While distinguishing the monophyletic groups, reference is not a requirement about the relative degree of divergence within and between the taxa. The additional advantage with the CAOS approach is its use as a means of cataloguing the diagnostic molecular characteristics used to distinguish the species. These diagnostics complement the traditional taxonomy. (De Salle et. al, 2005). Even though the description of the species depends on the multiple lines of evidence, the CAOS approach is a good tool to identify significant intraspecific divergences.Additional evidence that includes morphological, geographical, ecological, and behavioral tha t is diagnostic for the new taxon. The CAOS method preserves the character state information, reports diagnostic differences for each node. This method helps the taxonomists to identify and describe divergent organisms that require further scrutiny. (Blaxter,2004). In this method threshold values for the species level are not necessary, which addresses the critical issues in other methods. (Meyer and Paulay,2005). This method of DNA bar coding corrects some pitfalls of the distance based approaches.The inclusion of the evolutionary and taxonomic information in this method gives a context in which there is interpretation of the sequence data and gives a real promise to the DNA bar coding. The CAOS method gives a way to the researchers’ confrontation to identify and make the sense of diversity. Conclusions: The distance based methods for DNA bar coding lack the accuracy that largely depend on the degree of disparity between the intra and site-specific variation that is the bar coding gap. (Meyer and Paulay,2005).Insufficiency in sampling the taxon will increase the disparity that increased the apparent accuracy. CAOS method of DNA bar coding addresses the problems associated with the distance based methods of bar coding. References: Blaxter, M. (2003). Molecular systematics—counting angels with DNA, Nature, 2003, vol. 421, pp. 122–124 Hebert, P. D. N. & Gregory, T. R. (2005),The promise of DNA bar coding for taxonomy. System Biology (54), pp. 852–859. DNA bar coding, consortium for the bar code of life. Available on http://barcoding. si. edu/, retrieved on 30 October 2007.