Density Lab Report Essay Example

Thickness Lab Report Paper Thickness is characterized by its mass per unit volume, and is frequently written in scientific terms as; Mass is normally given in grams, g, and volume is given in cubic centimeters, g/com, or, grams per millimeter, g/ml_ Density isn't a property that relies on the measure of substance present. For instance, one gram of lead and one ton of lead have a similar thickness. Thickness likewise relies upon temperature. For example chilly water is denser than warm water; ice is less thick than both. The technique utilized for deciding the thickness Of a substance relies upon the nature f the substance. In this lab the densities of obscure sporadically molded solids and fluids was resolved. Exactness and accuracy of the outcomes will be evaluated, and consideration Will be paid to the right utilization of the huge figures. The examination approach that will be utilized will tell the mass and volume of the metal and fluid controlled by estimating these two amounts with a graduated chamber and Beirut. System: a) The thickness of metals First acquired an amount to obscure metal. Recording the obscure number, I utilized just one kind of metal for this piece of the analysis. The obscure metal that was told to utilize was a piece, along these lines, utilized a Some graduated chamber, When utilizing the Scam chamber, I filled it with water to roughly the ml mark. At that point recorded the specific volume of water that was included. Set the chamber and water on the equalization and recorded the mass to each 0. Slack. Added the metal to the graduated chamber until the water level expanded by roughly 2_Mom_ Being certain to tap the sides of the chamber to discharge any air bubbles. I at that point recorded the volume of the water in addition to greenish blue to the closest 0. ml Then recorded the complete mass of the chamber, water and metal. Added more bits of metal to the chamber until the water level had expanded by 2. Mi. At that point recorded the specific volume Of water in addition to metal and all out mass of chamber, water and metal. Rehashed the system twice more. Being mindful so as not to go over the Mimi mark. Furthermore, recording the informat ion each time. Counts: decided the all out volume of metal in the chamber by taking away the volume of water from the volume of water in addition to metal. We will compose a custom paper test on Density Lab Report explicitly for you for just $16.38 $13.9/page Request now We will compose a custom exposition test on Density Lab Report explicitly for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Recruit Writer We will compose a custom exposition test on Density Lab Report explicitly for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Recruit Writer At that point found the relating ass of metal by taking away the mass of the chamber and water from the mass of the chamber, water and metal, I plotted out the diagram indicating the all out mass of metal on they-pivot, and the volume on the x-hub. I found the incline of the line by taking two arbitrary focuses from the diagram, playing out the slant equation and finding the thickness. From the table gave, I recognized the obscure metal to be silver, b). Deciding the thickness off water/ethanol blend. Acquired an obscure arrangement from the teacher. At that point recorded the quantity of the arrangement. At that point washed a burette with a tad bit of the ethanol arrangement, and filled the burette with that equivalent arrangement. Peruse the burette level to the closest 0. Ml. At that point gauged a vacant Mimi Erlenmeyer cup. Turned the handle Of the burette and put around 23. Ml of arrangement into the cup. I read the burette once more, to O_Osmosis and recorded. Next gauged the jar and its substance, by setting the cup on the parity and recording the temperature Of the arrangement. I at that point decided the thickness Of the arrangement by taking the mass of arrangement and partitioning by the volume of arrangement. Rehashing the strategy twice all the more utilizing a spotless flagon and a similar equalization each time. Computations: For every one of the three preliminaries determined the thickness of the arrangement and decided the mean, normal deviation from the mean, percent exactness and the range. At that point drew an alignment bend from the information given on page 17 of my Laboratory Manual, Discussion: Based on the estimation of my thickness, and dependent on the writing esteems given on page 16 of my Laboratory Manual, the obscure metal is silver. The thickness I had acquired jog the slant of the chart was 9. Egg/ml. En contrasted my thickness with the diagram given, searching for a comparative thickness, The thickness of my obscure metal was not precise with a specific metal given in the graph, however remembered that the thickness of silver can shift depending of the state it is in, Error Analysis: The potential wellsprings of blunder in finding the thickness of the obscure metal and fluid would need to be my consistency all through the examination had approximated with my uncovered eye and was not reliably careful. Hence, there was a mistake in perusing the volume uprooted from the graduated chamber and the Beirut.

Purchasing Power Parity

Buying Power Parity Ever asked why the estimation of 1 American dollar is not quite the same as 1 Euro? The monetary hypothesis ofâ purchasing power equality (PPP) will assist you with understanding why various monetary forms have distinctive buying forces and how trade rates are set.â What Purchasing Power Parity Is The Dictionary of Economicsâ defines buying power parity (PPP) as a hypothesis which expresses that the conversion scale between one cash and another is in balance when their household buying powers at that pace of trade are proportional. Case of 1 for 1 Exchange Rate How does expansion in 2 nations influence the trade rates between the 2â countries? Utilizing this meaning of buying power equality, we can show the connection among expansion and trade rates. To outline the connection, lets envision 2 anecdotal nations: Mikeland and Coffeeville. Assume that on January first, 2004, the costs for each great in every nation is indistinguishable. Therefore, a football that costs 20 Mikeland Dollars in Mikeland costs 20 Coffeeville Pesos in Coffeeville. On the off chance that purchasingâ power equality holds, at that point 1 Mikeland Dollar must be worth 1 Coffeeville Peso. Something else, there is the opportunity of making a hazard free benefit by purchasing footballs in a single market and selling in the other. So here PPP requires a 1 for 1 conversion scale. Case of Different Exchange Rates Presently lets assume Coffeyville has a half swelling rate while Mikeland has no expansion at all. On the off chance that the expansion in Coffeeville impacts each great similarly, at that point the cost of footballs in Coffeeville will be 30 Coffeeville Pesos on January 1, 2005. Since there is zero swelling in Mikeland, the cost of footballs will at present be 20 Mikeland Dollars on Jan 1, 2005. In the event that buying influence equality holds and one can't bring in cash from purchasing footballs in a single nation and selling them in the other, at that point 30 Coffeeville Pesos should now be worth 20 Mikeland Dollars. On the off chance that 30 Pesos 20 Dollars, at that point 1.5 Pesos must rise to 1 Dollar. In this way the Peso-to-Dollar conversion scale is 1.5, implying that it costs 1.5 Coffeeville Pesos to buy 1 Mikeland Dollar on remote trade markets. Paces of Inflation and Currency Value In the event that 2 nations have various paces of swelling, at that point the general costs of products in the 2 nations, for example, footballs, will change. The overall cost of products is connected to the swapping scale through the hypothesis of purchasingâ power equality. As illustrated, PPP discloses to us that in the event that a nation has a generally high swelling rate, at that point the estimation of its money should decrease.

5 Persistent Myths About Social Anxiety Disorder

5 Persistent Myths About Social Anxiety Disorder Social anxiety is a common psychological problem, but it is not well understood by the general public and even by some professionals. People who experience social anxiety feel as though they are being judged and evaluated when they are in social and performance situations. Although they know that the anxiety and fear that they feel is unwarranted, controlling or preventing the anxiety seems impossible. If you always experience social anxiety when you are around other people, it can become very difficult to ever relax and be yourself around others. When it feels like everyone is judging you, it sometimes seems easier just to avoid social situations altogether. Often people who experience severe social anxiety believe that they are the only people in the world with the problem, and they do not tell anyone. If you believe that you may have social anxiety, this article will help you to understand some of the myths about this type of fear and make a decision about getting help for your problem. Myth #1: Social Anxiety Isnt That Common Fact: Social anxiety is experienced by most people at some point in their lives. Whether it was during a speech that they gave in high school, or when going for their first job interview, everyone gets butterflies once in a while. Between 2% and 13% of the population is thought to have social anxiety to the point that it would be considered social anxiety disorder (SAD). Myth #2: Social Anxiety Only Refers to Public Speaking Fears Fact: Social anxiety refers to anxiety and fear in many different social and performance situations. These may include formal events, such as public speaking and performing; informal speaking and interaction, such as meeting strangers or going to a party; difficult situations, such as expressing disagreement; and everyday events, such as eating in front of others. The common thread among each of these triggers is that there is the potential of being evaluated. Tips for Managing Public Speaking Anxiety Myth #3: Social Anxiety Just Means That You Feel Nervous Fact: Social anxiety brings with it a collection of symptoms, only one of which is a feeling of nervousness. If you suffer from social anxiety you will experience cognitive (thinking) problems, somatic (physical) problems, behavioral problems, and effective (emotional) problems. For example, when meeting a stranger for the first time you might think to yourself: She must be able to tell that Im a poor conversationalist. Your hands might start to shake, you may feel like escaping the situation, and even feel hopeless about ever doing well socially. Myth #4: Social Anxiety and Shyness Are the Same Things Fact: Although social anxiety and shyness are very similar, they are not the same thing. Social anxiety involves feelings of fear about social or performance situations, but it does not always involve the avoidance of, or withdrawal from, these situations. Some people may appear to be very outgoing,  but on the inside, they are terribly anxious and simply very good at hiding their feelings. In contrast, those who are shy tend to withdraw from or avoid social contact because of feelings of social anxiety. People who are shy always experience social anxiety, but those with social anxiety may not always act shy. Myth #5: Social Anxiety Is a Problem That You Just Have to Learn to Live With Fact: Some people experience such terrible social anxiety on a daily basis that they cant work or even leave the house. Others function well in general but have a specific fear that gets in the way of achieving goals, such as a fear of public speaking. Neither situation is hopeless or something that has to be lived with. With effective treatment such as medication or cognitive-behavioral therapy, everyone has the potential to live life without social fears. Activities to Help You Manage Social Anxiety

Racism And Sexism A Government Or Private Program

One of the largest injustices in the world is racism, and sexism, and America is no exception. There has been centuries of slavery, and decades of segregation, oppression, and unfair treatment. However, as time passed, and people worked tirelessly to bring to light the injustices in our society, and government, these practices became less and less acceptable. The government ended up removing laws and creating new ones with the goal of giving both minorities and women equal opportunities, which is exactly what those people were fighting for. The problem was just because the law says you can’t discriminate based on race, that didn’t change people’s long held perceptions and stereotypes, so something needed to change. So the government instituted Affirmative Action with the goal of tilting the scales toward the favor of minorities and women, to correct the tilt that racism and sexism created. According to Crash Course on Youtube, and PBS Studios, the definitio n of Affirmative action is â€Å"A government or private program designed to redress historic injustices against a specific group by making special efforts to provide members of these groups with access to educational and employment opportunities (CrashCourse, 2015).† Affirmative action was absolutely necessary when it was implemented, and for a long time after that. Everyone naturally has stereotypes of different people, and we also want to help out people we know, or we feel are like us. So when segregation wasShow MoreRelatedThe Inequality Between Upper Class And Lower Class967 Words   |  4 Pagesachieved in even in the most basic facets of our lives. There is no such thing as equality in the socioeconomic balance of today whether in terms of economic opportunity, or due to favoritism in the social elite, or at the very basis because of racism and sexism. 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Someone Was Movin Into Mrs. Dirk s Old House - 1732 Words

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Colonial Colonies The Atlantic Coast - 1666 Words

The English Colonies alongside the Atlantic Coast in the 1600’s- 1700’s began with the failed attempt to establish the Roanoke Colony in Virginia, which was later, suppressed by the Virgina Company, who established the colony of Jamestown in Chesapeake Bay. The Virginia Company was a joint stock company that primarily used the stock they obtained from King James to raise money to create Jamestown. Following this success of establishment was a series of devastation as food sources were scare, conflicts with natives raised, and starvation characterized the lives of the early settlers, but once the government was strengthend and once other colonies erupted in the New England Colonies, the Middle Colonies and the Southern Colonies, the†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"The New England colonies were the coldest of all the settlements, and they have a basic geography of hills, mountains, rivers and poor soil, which made farming unsuitable . Even though farming was unsuitab le in this environment, the colonists found ways to grow pumpkins, corn, beans, squash, and rye and even found ways to import/export goods with other colonies (). As they built a trading network through importing/ exporting goods, the New England Colony became focused on manufacturing, industries such as ship building and lumbering and resources, such as, timber, furs, fish, and whales (). Since most people lived in towns, the colony had innumerable amount of businesses. Furthermore, the New England Colonies characterized prominent events of the American Revolution: the Battle of Concord, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and The Capture of Fort Ticonderoga. Puritan Semitist, who were the first English emmigrants of the area, founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Massachusetts prospered with the help of the Puritan Semitist because through the help of local natives they learned to fish and farm, which provided ample amounts of food. Massachusetts’s major cities were Boston, Quincy, Plymouth, Salem, Lexington, and Concord. It became a state on February 6th 1788. As these major cities rose in popularity and as the settlers found more opportunities, so did the number of colonies. Colonists went on to find Connecticut, Rhode Island,

Performance Driven Marketing-Free-Samples for Students-Myassignment

Question: Critically evaluate the proposition that Digital Marketing has replaced traditional Marketing in Strategy Management. Answer: Introduction With the advancement of technology, contemporary business organizations are more inclined towards adopting digital marketing tools towards promoting their products and services. Traditional marketing tools are mostly related to make customers aware regarding the products and service (Tiago and Verssimo 2014). Digital marketing tools have gone far beyond just customer awareness and focus more on customer interaction for gaining increasing customer insights (Lamberton and Stephen 2016). Therefore, digital marketing tools are more effective in providing customized value to the customers than those of traditional marketing tools. This study will critically evaluate the proposition that digital marketing has replaced traditional marketing in strategy management. The study will evaluate this proposition from various aspects of strategy development in organizations. Moreover, the study will also provide some examples for demonstrating the effectiveness of digital marketing tools over the tr aditional marketing tools. Discussion With the advancement in the technology, digital marketing and social media have significant influence on the life of people. Digitalization and social media are at every sphere of peoples life. With the popularity of digitalization, digital marketing has gradually replaced traditional marketing in terms of strategy development in an organization (Taiminen and Karjaluoto 2015). Marketing and strategy development in todays contemporary organizations are not easy job. It needs huge market research, information about changing customer needs, promotion of products and services with shortest period, fostering unique product information through unique channels and lots more. Any strategy formulation needs enough interaction with the customers for identifying their core needs. According to Stone and Woodcock (2014), in traditional marketing, there was very little interaction between the medium used and the customers. Moreover, the intension of traditional marketing was just to provide information to the customers regarding the existence of the brand. However, it was quite difficult for the organization towards understanding the perspectives of the customers regarding the brands. On the other hand, Karjaluoto, Mustonen and Ulkuniemi (2015) digital marketing is extremely beneficial for increased interaction with the customers and understanding the insights of the customers. Apart from just making the customers aware about the products and service, digital marketing can also help the organization towards getting the feedback of the customers regarding the product experience. In this way, digital marketing has actually increased the customer value, as it provide scope to the customers in sharing their experience with the customers. Franco et al. (2014) pointed out that unlike the traditional marketing, in digital marketing, the customers can also share their suggestion over the product improvement. In this way, contemporary organizations can better modify their products and service offerings as per customized needs. It facilitates the organizations towards gaining competitive edge over the rival organizations through formulating customized product strategy. While considering the example of Four Star Pizza, it can be seen that the organization uses digital media marketing for gaining deep insights about the customers regarding their foods. Based on the feedback of the customers, the organization constantly modifies their foods as per customized and preferred tastes of the customers. Such unique customer value facilitates the organization towards gaining competitive advantage over its rivals (Tome and Snoj 2014). Therefore, recently, this organization is much more concentrated on their digital marketing effusiven ess rather than focusing on traditional marketing. Therefore, digital marketing has gradually replaced traditional marketing in regards to strategy development. From the global study, it can be seen more than half of the world use digital media tools for accessing information. In such situation, digital media is the best tool for marketing the products and services with increased exposure of brands to the customers. People all around the world are quite busy in their work life. Wedel and Kannan (2016) stated that people in todays world do not have much time to watch or listen to product or service advertisement over radio, television or any print media. Therefore, traditional marketing is less effective in effective brand exposure to todays customers. However, Vsquez and Escamilla (2014) opined that people are always engaged with digital media either for the purpose of their work or anything else. Moreover, with high level of digitalization, todays customers are more inclined to search for product and service information through digital media tools like social media, emails, websites, video hosting, mobile SMS and others. Moreover, digital m arketing also direct the customers directly to the company websites, where they can access detailed information regarding the products and services. In this way, contemporary organizations can also access the customer visit rate of the websites and understand the popularity of the brand for strategy formulation. Unlike the traditional marketing, in digital marketing, organizations can see their business or product status in real time. According to Jrvinen and Karjaluoto (2015), digital marketing allows the contemporary organizations to oversee the factors, which is not working properly and need quick improvement for better business result. Moreover, modern business organizations can measure the popularity of their brand through measuring the traffic of their websites. As per Levy and Gvili (2015), contemporary organizations can easily measure the traffic of their websites using Google Analytics for measuring specific goals of the websites, blogs and other packaged e-mail marketing solution. The organization can also measure the amount the people opening, reading and converting from the e-mails. Strm, Vendel and Bredican (2014) stated that digital marketing is the best tool for simply measuring the success of the business and making any improvement over the strategy for gaining sustained competitive advantage. In this way, after measuring the brand popularity over the digital media, the organizations can quickly adopt improvement strategy for modifying their brand features for providing unique customer value. In this way, digital marketing has gradually replaced traditional marketing for making more customized business strategies. While considering example of Butlers Chocolates Company in Ireland, the organization uses digital media for getting more interaction with the customers. Moreover, with the help of digital media marketing tools, the organization simply measures the popularity of the chocolate products and makes immediate modification after getting any significant suggestions from the customers (Taneja and Toombs 2014). Such customer concerns through digital media to ols have built the foundation of the business success of this organization. Traditional marketing tools were limited within their era. According to Rani and Rani (2017), in traditional marketing tools, customers were nowhere provided with the scope to refer their preferred brand to mass of their friends and close circles. Therefore, promotional strategies were limited mostly to the individual level of the individual customers. However, Killian and McManus (2015) opined that digital marketing tools always facilitate the contemporary organizations in making their brand promotional messages viral. Moreover, the social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and others provide options to the customers towards sharing the information of their preferred products and services to their closed friends. In this way, unlike the traditional marketing tools, digital marketing tools go beyond the individual levels of the customers and make the brand promotional message viral (Stone et al. 2016). In this way, contemporary business organization can perfect manage their promotional strategies through digital marketing tools by replacing the traditional marketing tools. With the globalized nature of businesses, it is almost impossible for the organizations and its marketers to walk around world personally and collect insights about the customers. Furthermore, Abashidze (2017) pointed out that traditional print media marketing and radio, television and billboard advertising was quite ineffective to communicate important information about the products and services to the global customers in real time. In such situation, digital marketing tools are quite effective to reach information product and service information to the customers in real time. Bianchi and Andrews (2015) opined that organization can communicate their important information to the global customers with a fraction of time. Such real time communication of the information to the customers actually enhances the value of the information. On the other hand, Ahuja (2015) opined that traditional marketing tools could not guarantee communication of important information to the customers in real time due to breakthrough in communication channels. However, digital media tools are less influenced any through in communication channels. Therefore, such marketing tools are quite effective in providing real time product and service information to the customers, which manages the right value of the promotional messages. Cost is an important factor to be considered, which has replaced traditional marketing tools with the usage of digital marketing tools. According to Ribn, Monroy and Ortega (2017), traditional marketing tools were quite expensive and the design of traditional marketing media used to increase the overall organizational cost for managing the promotional strategies. Moreover, the advertising channels like television, radio, Yellow Pages, magazines require enough investment from the part of organizations for regularly updating and designing the promotional contents. On the other hand, Kleppinger and Cain (2015) opined that digital marketing tools sometimes needs little investment for updating the digital media pages. However, such investment cost is quite less than those of traditional marketing tools. Moreover, the organization can easily create an e-mail account, social media account, You-Tube pages within fraction of time and without spending much amount of money. In this extent, trad itional marketing methods like television advertisement, radio advertisement, billboards and other is quite expensive and needs huge investment for its perfect design and development. Gottlieb and Bianchi (2017) stated that Contemporary business organizations can develop online marketing strategies with very little cost than traditional marketing strategies. Therefore, digital marketing tools can effectively develop promotional tools for communicating product and service information with much lesser cost than those of traditional marketing tools. Hence, digital marketing tools have gradually replaced the traditional marketing tools in developing and managing promotional strategies. While considering the example of Aer Lingus, the organization has recently given major focus on the digital marketing tools for reducing their overall promotional cost. Moreover, the organization is quite successful in reducing the cost of overall promotional strategies. Furthermore, the organization is now more capable of reaching worldwide customers with lesser time, which enhances the value of the information in real time frame (Earley and Maislin 2016). Furthermore, the cost effecti veness of digital media is also insisting the organization towards replacing the traditional marketing tools with digital marketing tools for its strategy management. Most of the contemporary organizations are ramping up their brand and business on digital marketing campaign, using different channels. Hence, digital marketing tools are quite effective in knowing and understanding the core unique value of the competitor organization. According to Opreana and Vinerean (2015), digital marketing tools are quite effective in identifying and recognizing the core and unique value of the competitor organizations. In such situation, traditional marketing tools are less effective in recognizing the unique attributes of the competitors with limited brand exposure. Killian and McManus (2015) pointed out that with increased brand exposure, digital marketing tools facilitate the organizations to have a look on their competitors strategies and plan accordingly for gaining competitive advantage over their competitors. In this way, digital marketing tools are quite helpful over the traditional marketing tools in gaining competitors information and formulating comp etitive strategies towards beating the competitors. Furthermore, Karjaluoto, Mustonen and Ulkuniemi (2015) opined that real time results from the digital marketing tools facilitate the contemporary organizations in better understanding the competitive scenario in the market. Therefore, the organizations can easily track any limitations in their strategies and improve those strategies towards beating the competitive pressure generated from the competitors. Having a dominant and optimized online presence on digital media through smartphoneand tablets, contemporary organizations can easily influence the buying behavior of the customers. According to Franco et al. (2014), almost 82% of the mobile searchers around the world check on the in-store purchase using their phones. Furthermore, almost 65% of people look for most valuable and accurate information to their queries through the usage of digital media. 33% of mobile users ultimately purchase products and services from different brands than they have in mind because of the information listed. Therefore, it can be said that digital media is quite effective in managing the strategies of customer attraction. On the other hand, Tome and Snoj (2014) stated that traditional marketing tools are ineffective to provide detailed information to the customers. Therefore, such marketing tools are not much effective towards influencing the purchasing behavior of the customers. The limited information provided through the traditional marketing are less influential on customer attraction strategies. Digital marketing tools directly direct the customers towards the main websites of the customers, where they can access detailed information regarding the products and services. Such detailed information provides clear and accurate ideas of products and services to the customers, which lead them towards taking purchasing decisions. In this way, digital marketing tools are quite effective than traditional marketing tools for managing the promotional strategies and attracting customers. Strong digital marketing strategies allow diverse business organizations towards competing with each other on similar line of the sizes. A well structured and reputed website design, which entitles smooth journey for the customers, can be unparallel in promoting the products and services. According to Lamberton and Stephen (2016), traditional marketing tools can be high expensive for the small scale businesses towards promoting their products and services. On the other hand, Vsquez and Escamilla (2014) opined that designing an attractive website can be less expensive for the small scale customers than those of traditional marketing strategies. Moreover, small scale organizations can use same digital media tools and techniques towards competing with the big companies in the same market. Moreover, well designed and developed websites facilitate organizations towards attracting the customers in visiting the products and services. Furthermore, Wedel and Kannan (2016) stated that websites having easy interface assist the organizations in selecting their products and services effectively and order for those products and services. Therefore, unlike the traditional marketing tools, digital marketing tools like attractive websites help even the small scale organization towards beating the large scale organizations. In this way, digital marketing assists in better maintain the competitive strategies. With such advantage of digital marketing, it has gradually replaced the traditional marketing tools. While considering the evidence from GoCar Company in Ireland, it can be found that the organization has attractively designed its websites for easy interaction with the customers. Such attractively designed websites of the organization provides detailed car service information to the customers to the customers. Such precisely constructed websites and detailed information encourage the customers toward taking purchasing d ecisions (Taiminen and Karjaluoto 2015). Therefore, the organization can effectively maintain its competitive strategies over the competitors for gaining competitive advantage. Tradition marketing tools are limited in direct interaction with the customers. Moreover, traditional marketing is only concerned with making the customers aware of the existence of the brands. As per Wedel and Kannan (2016), traditional marketing tools are restricted in gaining inner perspectives of customers with lack of direct interaction with customers. Therefore, organizations are incapable of knowing the information about the brand preferences. Moreover, in traditional marketing, customers are mostly avoided and their concerns are not given much priority. In this way, ignorance of customer concerns actually leads to customer dissatisfaction. On the other hand, Taiminen and Karjaluoto (2015) opined that digital marketing tools like websites and e-marketing even have live chat options for the customers. Such live chat options in the digital marketing tools facilitate the customers in resolving their queries in details. Furthermore, the customers can also provide their feedback on these live chat options regarding the brands. Stone and Woodcock (2014) stated that the customers can also communicate their complaints over these chat options for getting immediate solutions. In this way, organizations can better provide importance to the customer concerns for getting resolving their issues before those issues become the reasons for customer dissatisfaction. Therefore, digital marketing tools are more effective than the traditional marketing tools in maintaining customer retention strategy towards retaining customers for longer time. In this way, digital marketing strategies have replaced the traditional marketing strategies in terms of developing customer retention strategies. According to Tome and Snoj (2014), digital marketing tools are quite effective than those of traditional marketing tools in promoting attractive discounts and offerings in real time. With the limitation of time, customers can often skip the promotional advertisement on their television, radios and newspapers. However, Taiminen and Karjal uoto (2015) opined that most of people are becoming highly tech savvy in the todays world. Therefore, it is easier to persuade the customers with the attractive discounts and offerings with greater exposure in the digital media sites. In this way, digital media facilitates the organization in managing their customer loyalty strategies. Such facilities of digital media marketing have ultimately replaced traditional medial marketing. Conclusion While concluding the study, it can be said that advancement of technology has led the organizations to be concentrated more on digital media marketing than those of traditional media marketing. In traditional media marketing, the organizations get lesser scope towards interacting directly with the customers. On the other hand, in digital media marketing, the organizations can directly interact with the customers. Therefore, in digital marketing, organizations gain deeper insights regarding the customer preferences. Furthermore, the customers can also provide their preferred suggestions over the brands. In this way, contemporary organizations incorporate customized values in their products and services through the recommendations provided by the customers in the digital marketing tools. Such customized value has led the organizations in replacing the traditional marketing tools with digital marketing tools. Furthermore, increased customer interaction with the customers over the digita l marketing tools facilitates in better customer relationship, which is not possible in traditional marketing tools. Unlike the traditional marketing, digital marketing facilitates the contemporary organizations in enhancing its brand exposure through increased customer referrals. Moreover, digital marketing tools have the advantage to make the promotional strategies viral. Therefore, digital marketing tools have ultimately replaced the traditional marketing tools for its increased brand exposure. Apart from that, designing traditional marketing tools is quite expensive for the organizations. On the other hand, digital marketing tools are quite less expensive to develop than those of traditional marketing tools. Therefore, digital marketing tools have replaced the traditional marketing tools in terms of its cost effectiveness and increased brand exposure. Reference List Abashidze, I., 2017. Integrated Marketing Communications in web 2.0 environment: Challenges and Opportunities of online presence.Journal of Research in Marketing,8(1), pp.617-623. Ahuja, V., 2015. Development of an optimal solution for digital marketing variables in an online tool.International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising,9(1), pp.49-65. Bianchi, C. and Andrews, L., 2015. Investigating marketing managers' perspectives on social media in Chile.Journal of Business Research,68(12), pp.2552-2559. Earley, S. and Maislin, S., 2016. Data governance and digital transformation: Using the customer journey to define a framework.Applied Marketing Analytics,2(1), pp.25-40. Franco, M., de Ftima Santos, M., Ramalho, I. and Nunes, C., 2014. An exploratory study of entrepreneurial marketing in SMEs: The role of the founder-entrepreneur.Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development,21(2), pp.265-283. Gottlieb, U. and Bianchi, C., 2017. Virtual trade shows: Exhibitors perspectives on virtual marketing capability requirements.Electronic Commerce Research and Applications,21, pp.17-26. Jrvinen, J. and Karjaluoto, H., 2015. The use of Web analytics for digital marketing performance measurement.Industrial Marketing Management,50, pp.117-127. Karjaluoto, H., Mustonen, N. and Ulkuniemi, P., 2015. The role of digital channels in industrial marketing communications.Journal of Business Industrial Marketing,30(6), pp.703-710. Killian, G. and McManus, K., 2015. A marketing communications approach for the digital era: Managerial guidelines for social media integration.Business Horizons,58(5), pp.539-549. Kleppinger, C.A. and Cain, J., 2015. Personal digital branding as a professional asset in the digital age.American journal of pharmaceutical education,79(6), p.79. Lamberton, C. and Stephen, A.T., 2016. A thematic exploration of digital, social media, and mobile marketing: research evolution from 2000 to 2015 and an agenda for future inquiry.Journal of Marketing,80(6), pp.146-172. Levy, S. and Gvili, Y., 2015. How credible is e-word of mouth across digital-marketing channels?.Journal of Advertising Research,55(1), pp.95-109. Opreana, A. and Vinerean, S., 2015. A new development in online marketing: Introducing digital inbound marketing.Expert Journal of Marketing,3(1). Rani, K. and Rani, S.S., 2017. Impact of Big Data analysis in digital marketing.International Journal of Innovative Research and Advanced Studies,4(1), pp.140-142. Ribn, J.R., Monroy, R.M. and Ortega, A.C., 2017. Interactive Online Marketing Via Digital Terrestrial Television.Indian Journal of Science and Technology,8(1). Stone, M., Stone, M., Laughlin, P. and Laughlin, P., 2016. How interactive marketing is changing in financial services.Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing,10(4), pp.338-356. Stone, M.D. and Woodcock, N.D., 2014. Interactive, direct and digital marketing: A future that depends on better use of business intelligence.Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing,8(1), pp.4-17. Strm, R., Vendel, M. and Bredican, J., 2014. Mobile marketing: A literature review on its value for consumers and retailers.Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services,21(6), pp.1001-1012. Taiminen, H.M. and Karjaluoto, H., 2015. The usage of digital marketing channels in SMEs.Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development,22(4), pp.633-651. Taneja, S. and Toombs, L., 2014. Putting a face on small businesses: Visibility, viability, and sustainability the impact of social media on small business marketing.Academy of Marketing Studies Journal,18(1), p.249. Tiago, M.T.P.M.B. and Verssimo, J.M.C., 2014. Digital marketing and social media: Why bother?.Business Horizons,57(6), pp.703-708. Tome, D. and Snoj, B., 2014. Marketing communication on social networks: Solution in the times of crisis.Marketing,45(2), pp.131-138. Vsquez, G.A.N. and Escamilla, E.M., 2014. Best practice in the use of social networks marketing strategy as in SMEs.Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences,148, pp.533-542. Wedel, M. and Kannan, P.K., 2016. Marketing analytics for data-rich environments.Journal of Marketing,80(6), pp.97-121.

Tata Indica Case Study Essay Example

Tata Indica Case Study Paper Tata Indica The Making Of The Small Car The case provides an understanding of the issues concerning the supply chain management system at Telco in regard to its small car, Indica. It outlines how Telco, built the supply chain for the car by leveraging its existing competencies and how it transformed itself from an integrated truck manufacturer to an automobile integrator and from a product-centric company to competence- centric company. The case discusses various components of the supply chain and emphasises how Telco orchestrated them with the objective of minimizing costs. Background Note The history of Telco, Indias leading automobile manufacturer dates back to the early 1920s. The location of the Telco plant originally belonged to Peninsular Locomotive Company (Peninsular), which was established in Tatanagar, Jamshedpur in 1923. In 1927, Peninsular was taken over by East India Railway to manufacture passenger carriage underframes for the Indian Railways. In 1945, Tata Sons purchased the plant from the Government of India for manufacturing steam locomotive boilers and other engineering products, under the name Tata Locomotive ; Engineering Company. Initially the company manufactured broad gauge open wagons for the Indian Railways. By 1947, it started producing boilers for imported locomotives. The company also entered into collaborations with Marshal Sons (UK) to manufacture steam road roller, and with Krauss Maffei (West Germany) to manufacture steam locomotives. In 1954, the company entered into a technical collaboration with Daimler-Benz to manufacture automotive vehicles | | The association with Daimler-Benz helped the company build up a strong in-house R;D center (Engineering Research Center ERC) at Pune, Maharashtra. We will write a custom essay sample on Tata Indica Case Study specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Tata Indica Case Study specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Tata Indica Case Study specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer In 1960, company’s name was changed to Tata Engineering ; Locomotive Company Ltd. By 1961, it was manufacturing construction equipments. Over the years, the company acquired technology from several collaborations and co-operation agreements with international companies (Refer Table I). TABLE I TELCO COLLABORATIONS AND JOINT VENTURES Tata Cummins Ltd. | Joint Venture with: | Cummins Engine Co. Inc. USA. | Business: | Manufacture of Cummins ‘B’ Series engines for M/HCVs. | Tata Holset Ltd. | Joint Venture with: | Holset Engineering Co. Ltd. UK. | Business: | Manufacture of turbochargers. | Concorde Motors Ltd. | Joint Venture with: | Jardine International Motors (Mauritius) Ltd. | Business: | Retailing of Passenger Cars. | Source: www. telcoindia. com In 1961, Telco produced its first crane in collaboration with M/s Pawling ; Harnischfeger (P;H), U. S. A. In 1966, it acquired Investa Machine Tools Co and set up a machine tools division at Pune. In the same year, it started its Press Tool Division and vehicle manufacture facilities at Pimpri and Chinchwad (Pune). The first commercial vehicle was produced in 1977. In 1983, Telco started producing heavy commercial vehicles. In 1986, the company rolled out its first light commercial vehicle TATA 407 that had a completely indigenous design. In 1991, Telco produced indigenously designed passenger cars Tata Sierra and Tata Estate and in the same year it started its assembly and training plant at Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh). The product range of the company included passenger cars, heavy commercial vehicles, trucks and buses (Refer Table II). TABLE II TELCO PRODUCT PROFILE CATEGORY| PRODUCTS| Passenger| Tata Sierra, Tata Estate, Tata Sumo, Tata Safari, Indica, Indica V2. Light Commercial Vehicles| Tatamobile, Turbo Truck, LPT 407 Turbo Truck. | Heavy Commercial Vehicles| LPT 1109 Turbo Truck, SE 1613 TC Turbo Truck, SE 1613 Turbo Truck, LPT 1613 TC Turbo Truck. | Buses| SFC 407 Turbo Mini- bus, LP 407 Turbo Mini- bus, LP 709 E Turbo Bus, LPO 1510 CGS bus (CNG bus). | Source: www. telcoindia. com By the late 1990s, Telco had emerged as a leading name in commercial vehicles, passenger vehicles, construction eq uipment, metal cutting and grinding machines, industrial shutters, high quality steel, alloy castings and other related products. In 2000, commercial vehicles accounted for 94% of its gross revenues; vehicle spare parts accounted for 5%; and hire purchase income, 1% The Story of Indica In the early 1990s, Telcos Chairman Ratan Tata (Tata), was flirting with the idea of developing a small car. By mid-1994 a rudimentary design was in place. In 1995, Telco announced that it planned to build a car which would be priced close to the Maruti 800, shaped like the Zen, and spacious as an Ambassador. Producing the new small car Indica represented a different kind of challenge for Telco. Should Tata succeed, he would change the face of Telco. As a truck-maker, Telco was so integrated that it even made it own castings and forgings. As an automaker, it would have to focus on the value chain that stretched between raw materials and after-sales service as well as assembling the parts into the complete automobile. For its new venture, Telco outsourced 80% of the components (1,200 of its 1,500-plus parts), from 200-odd vendors. To develop the Indica, Telco had to combine the learnings from its predecessors with its own unique supply chain management strategies to ensure a sustainable low-cost platform. By learning to build and manage a supply chain, it would set the ground for leveraging the capabilities of the automotive component-manufacturers who already operated in its target markets. In other words, Telco planned to use its skills as an integratorbringing together products and services from both upstream and downstream operations, and packaging them for the customer under a brand name in its new venture. Globally, a car could be built in 48 months with an investment of US $ 3 billion (Rs 127. 5 billion). Indica, was built in 31 months on a budget of Rs 17 billion. This seemed to have been possible by focussing on the supply chain. The Outsourcing Strategy For Telco, outsourcing seemed to be one of the most difficult aspects of producing the Indica. Unlike global automobile majors, Ford Motors or General Motors, which had a global vendor-base that could be replicated on a smaller scale in India, Telco had to create a vendor-base from scratch. Moreover, it did not have the expertise either to design a car or to build an engine for it. Against this background, Telco had to take its primary make-or-buy decisions for the key inputs-design, engine, and transmission. Telco decided to shop globally for the best deals and use its own expertise to make whatever modifications were needed (Refer Table III for the components outsourced by Telco). TABLE III OUTSOURCING THE COMPONENTS Components | Supplier| 5 door hatchback | I. DE. A, Italy| Engine | Institut Francais du Petrol, France| Assembly Line | Nissan’s Plant, Australia| Presses | Mercedes Benz| Pistons and Piston rings | India Pistons| Electrical components and fuel injection systems | Lucas-TVS| Steering systems | Rane TRW Steering Systems| Clutch facings and rear (drum) brake linings | Sundaram Brake Linings (SBL)| Seating Systems | Tata-Johnson Controls| Radiators | Tata-Toyo| Rear view mirrors | Tata-Ficosa| Front and rear bumper, dash-board, inside trims | Tata-Auto Plastics| Air conditioning kits | Subros Ltd| Wind screens and windows | Asahi Glass| Fuel lines | Imperial Auto| Differential assemblies | Sona Steering| Sheet metal items | JBM Tools| Source: Business Today, March 22, 1999 and December 7, 1999. Telco turned to the Italian company, I. DE. A, for the product-design. It bought the engine from the Institut Francais du Petrol of France, and applied its engineering skills to adapt the engine requirements. The transmission was developed in-house at its Engineering Research Centre (ERC), at Pune. Of the Rs 2. 5 billion it spent on designing the Indica, the major share went in buying design tools and training its engineers in new skills. Telcos engineers traveled regularly to the sites of its technology suppliers, to receive training before the actual delivery of the machines. Telco also outsourced its assembly line from Nissans plant in Australia for just Rs 900 million. Telco transplanted it at its factory at Chikli near Pune, which was newly set up for Indica. A new assembly line of the same proportions would have cost at least Rs 4 billion. Again, of the 3 presses for the Indica, only 1 was new, acquired for Rs 900 million, while the other 2 were bought second-hand from Mercedes-Benz and modified to suit the Indica. Telcos engineers and the ERC did the application engineering, programming, installation, and commissioning to save around 45% of the technology costs. The tooling for the car too was supplied internally by Telcos machine tool division. To manage the supply chain better, Telco kept the number of suppliers for Indica to just 200 as compared to about 1,000 for trucks. Most of the parts were supplied by Telcos traditional suppliers- TVS, Rane Group and Tata Auto Component Systems (Taco) who were single source suppliers. Pressed parts, assemblies, and drive shafts were sourced from single vendors. Vendor Development Once Telco made its make-or-buy choices, the next step was to identify the vendors. Most of the parts that went into making Telco were sourced locally. Except for some sheet metal parts, cylindrical gaskets, and beltswhich accounted for 2% of the component value, the Indica was totally indigenous. 1 K. Mahesh, CEO, Sundaram Brake Linings, said, Localisation of components is the most important challenge a new manufacturer faces. It is a time-consuming and painstaking process. Telco employed a simple yardstick for selecting suppliers: the ability to supply components at the negotiated quality, cost, and quantities. In the first stage of selection, an initial assessment team from Telco evaluated the supplier. This was followed by self-evaluation of the supplier, based on a format provided by Telco. Then there was a quality systems survey, carried out by a Telco quality audit team. This was f ollowed by design validation. And then there was a manufacturing validation to ensure that the supplier was following the proper manufacturing processes. This was followed by the Production Part Approval Process (PPAP), which certified the production quality. R. Chakraborty (Chakraborty), senior deputy general manager, materials ; supplier quality improvement group, said, â€Å"When a vendor reached this stage, our comfort level in dealing with him goes up considerably, with regard to quality and his ability to supply material to us. We feel that he has a proper production process in place to ensure quality and timely supplies. † Only a handful of vendors met Telco’s stringent requirements. Telco set up Supplier Quality Improvement Teams to improve the vendors systems to ensure that they produced defect-free parts. It applied a 13-step Quality Improvement Programme, covering supplier self-evaluation, thorough design-validation, and audit of supplier quality. Another key to Telcos successful vendor-base was a modern system of process management. Telcos target-costing was broken up into vendor-wise cost targets, and the suppliers had to carry out their own value-engineering exercises to lower cost and improve quality. For example, India Pistons, which supplied the pistons and piston rings, walked away with the Indica order because it benchmarked itself against supplies to Maruti Udyog; whereas the other vendors benchmarked themselves against pistons supplied to Telcos commercial vehicles. India Pistons invested Rs 1. 5 million in toolings, and Rs 25 million in a separate line at its Maraimalai Nagar (Tamil Nadu) facility. N. Venkatramani, CEO, India Pistons, commented, TELCO is very particular about logistics, that raw materials have a supply trace, be ready for assembly, need no inspection. It is a demanding customer. Telco even involved its vendors in the design-process to give suppliers more lead time to innovate, and for better supply chain coordination. Commented T. K. Balaji, CEO, Lucas-TVS, which supplied electrical components and fuel-injection systems for the Indica, By making vendors its partner early, TELCO ensured both quality and price-conformity. Late involvement would have yielded different results. M. S. Kumar, Director ; CEO, Rane TRW Steering Systems (Rane), which supplied the steering systems for the Indica, added, TELCO has been extremely supportive, making available its entire RD resources to our engineers. It is one of the best experiences we have had in product-development. Telco wanted Rane to design a system that would meet the peculiarities of Indian road conditions. Besides offering both manual and power systems, Rane also had to come out with a left-hand drive variant for the export market. Rane had to go deep into application engineering because the front axle-weight of the Indica was heavier, and its engine-displacement, higher. Indica was not only compact, which left less space, but also heavy, which strained the system. Telco wanted Rane to benchmark the maneuverability of the Indica against the Zen, a much-lighter car. Rane took about 16 months to develop and get the steering system approved, spending close to 2 man-years on it. It spent Rs 16 million on development costs for the power steering systemincluding tooling and diesand Rs 10 million for the manual steering system. Said P. R. Sarathy, President, Rane (Madras), TELCO gave us price-targets. We worked within them, using value-engineering and concurrent engineering to lower our development costs. For all effective purposes, we were an arm of TELCO during the process. In the case of small vendors, Telco examined their processes- and cost-levels. Telco configured its suppliers in 2 tiers. Tier I suppliers had to assemble sub-systems using components provided by Tier II vendors. Telco asked the latter to supply products at low margins to the former. On its part, Telco helped them lower their costs by solving quality-related problems. For instanc e, SBL, which supplied clutch-facings and rear (drum) brake linings for the Indica, developed them in-house. V. R. Janardhanam, President, SBL, remarked, Despite its size, Telco has a lot of humility. It is willing to work with even the smallest of vendors to meet its targets. A typical brake-lining usually went through the following steps: the raw material was converted into slabs; the slab was cut into the required length; the cut piece went through 2 stages of grinding for the inner and the outer diameters; then, the piece was drilled, and, finally, champered. But SBL brought down the number of operations to 3: the raw material was straightaway converted into pieces of required length, and the grinding was done to only the outer diameter. And the company saved 15% because of this single-piece flow technique. K. Pandarinath, Deputy General Manager (Research), SBL, commented, Telco is a transparent company. It allowed us to use all their facilities as long as it helps develop a better product. Our engineers spent several weeks working with Telcos engineers on perfecting the brake-linings. Supply Chain To keep its transaction costs low, Telco configured its supply chain on a just-in-time basis. All high-value components were delivered daily, and in the case of nearby suppliers, twice a day. Vendors who were located far away from Pune set up local warehouses near the plant. The rationale for the relocation: transportation costs alone accounted for 45% of the total logistics costs for a company, delays in supplies added to costs in terms of machine down-time at the plant. Meanwhile, on the shop floor, where the assembly line was located, Telco had done away with the traditional store function. There was no material store in the Pune plant of Telco. The truck loaded with the material first entered the factory at the material gate where there was a documentation center. A person at this center checked whether the material was scheduled to arrive or not, by keying in the part number and the supplier code. If the material was not scheduled to arrive, the documents were not processed further and the truck was not allowed to enter the factory premises. Once it was cleared at the gate, the truck proceeded to the receiving center. Once the items were unloaded, unpacked and cleared for quantity and quality, they were moved into the transit area. From there they went into what was called the super market. The super market was close to the assembly line. In the super market, the materials were arranged in such a way that the workers could easily access all the material required on the assembly line without wasting much time and effort. The benefits of this just-in-time inventory system were that the inventories were low and so the interest costs were also low. Again the manpower required to handle the inventories was also low. For Telco, a crucial link in the supply chain was its ability to forecast demand accurately, which would help the vendor plan his production-schedule in advance, thus lowering costs. Telco and Concorde2 employed market research agencies to help forecast demand through trend analysis, using the historical data technique. It used a complex web of correlation involving the countrys economic situation, competitors products, and their USPs. To ensure quick flow of information along the value chain, Telco electronically linked its demand forecasts to production, and backwards to its suppliers. All its dealers were linked to the plant through VSATs3 connected by e-mail to relay demand patterns on-line to the Pune plant. This reduced the order-processing time by 80%. Analysts felt that by being online, Telco would save a minimum of 4 days from the order-to-despatch lead-time. For speedy delivery, Telco resorted to inter-location transfers of the product between dealerships. This would ensure movement of the product to a place where there was more demand. This would make a big difference to finished goods inventory management once Telco started producing at optimum capacity. Telco also trimmed costs by making Concorde leaner than other dealerships, with just 3 levels: managing director, general managers, and managers. Each of Concorde’s general managers worked as profit-centre heads of their individual business regions, and reported directly to the managing director. Added, A. K. Seth, General Manager (Delhi), Concorde, The company wanted to create a lean and responsive network, with the primary objective being to meet customer requirements as quickly as possible. Leveraging the Supply Chain Indica marked the beginning of Telcos drive into Indias auto market as an integrator with a multi-product portfolio. Analysts felt that the competencies that Telco had grown in the process of marketing Indica would be the core around which it would build its future car business. Analysts also felt that Tata would use the supply chain that fed the Indica to feed a whole range of Telco cars of the future. D. C. Anand, CEO, Anand Group, said, Telcos capacity will be tested by how many new models it can come up withand how soon. Is Telco in a position to do so? Four years ago, I would have said no. Today, I am not going to underestimate their capacity. They have demonstrated it. Business Today5 wrote, Leveraging the low-cost supply chain that it has built, Telco will launch a series of other carspriced both below and above the Indica, straddling the entire spectrumeach of which will be progressively easier to integrate. The supply infrastructure would become economical as the volume of the business that Telco offered its vendors increased. The volume of business would increase with a larger number of cars. The learning that it was extracting from the Indica supply chain would also be available to the company as it moved into other products. There seemed to be a distinct opportunity for a smaller, cheaper car, positioned as an entry-level for the first-time buyer. Analysts felt that Telcos supply chain management would become the pivot around which it could assemble its passenger-car business. Questions For Discussion 1. Telco did not have the expertise either to design a car or to build an engine for it. In light of this fact, critically analyze the steps taken by the company to keep its product development costs low. 2. Discuss why the company decided to create a vendor-base from scratch for the smaller car and comment on how it developed its vendor base. . As an integrator of automobiles, Telco had to ensure that there was seamless flow across the supply chain. Explain how Telco managed its Supply chain. Notes 1) The only other new small car that came close was Hyundai Motor Indias Santro, which had a 78% local content. Daewoo Motors Matiz was just 35% local. 2) Telcos dealer for Indica. It had 9 dealerships and 25 ou tlets. 3) Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) is a satellite communications system that serves home and business users. A VSAT end user needs a box that interfaces between the user’s computer and an outside antenna with transceiver. The transceiver receives or sends a signal to a satellite transponder in the sky. The satellite sends and receives signals from an earth station computer that acts as a hub for the system. Each end user is interconnected with the hub station via the satellite. For one end user to communicate with another, each transmission has to first go to the hub station which transmits it via the satellite to the other end user’s VSAT. VSAT handles data, voice and video signals. 4) Most other car-marketers in the country operated with a minimum of 5 levels.

Teenage Magazines Lie essays

Teenage Magazines Lie essays In the Magazine (Cosmo Girl (UK) aimed at 14-17 year olds there are many summer images as its June issue and it is summer in the UK. The girls featured seem to look quite young in most of the photos. But there are some older girls advertising swimwear and are said to be models. These models with their flawless skin and tight bodies all from what I can see are about the same shape and size. They are no bigger than a size 10, look carefree and happy, tanned at the beach and swimwear advertisements, pretty and have a look that says Im popular and have lots of friends. Most of the models have either blonde or brown hair with highlights and there flawless faces have shinny bronze glaze upon them. I think that these images appeal to the eye but arent realistic. The models look even prettier because the photographer who posed them has the models looking as though they are having fun with friends, laughing and popular. You may think the lip gloss looks beach touched and summer kissed on the model so you buy it, but the reason its so perfect in the picture is only because it gets touched up but because the models look like they are having a good time and stereotyped as popular (as they are pictured with friends, fun-loving (as they are smiling), fashionable (in the lattest brands), and girls think to get more friends and even a boyfriend they have to be like this. lives so they look gorgeous, dreamy and desirable. The models skin isnt how it seems in the photo either. At school we do photography we touch up our images of trees for instance and why dont we realize that the photographers and multi media specialists are doing exactly by the same to the so called dream girls we see wearing the latest billabong swimmers in magazines. I think hair can make or break an outfit. Many underestimate the dangers teen magazines hold and harmful effects they can have on todays teens. Cosmo girl portrays slim, beautif...

Call centres and home working (or teleworking) solutions provide the Essay

Call centres and home working (or teleworking) solutions provide the answer to many process design problems of the 21st century...more in the order instructions - Essay Example hat come with extended use of call centers and home working services is the issue of delegating duties to operators who are non-experts, says Production and Operations Management Society (1998). How can a company achieve the maximum level of growth if it is relying on services offered by non-professionals, who are not even affiliated to the company? These operators normally work from a script; therefore, according to the Production and Operations Management Society, they do not have the interest of the company they are working for at heart. Over use of such operators can eventually bring a company down, and this becomes worse than an ethical issue. Another ethical issue that comes to light when companies rely on call centers is incompetence according to Starr (1999). Companies are supposed to be fully aware of the needs of their customers. This knowledge helps the companies to know what to do in order to meet customer demands. When the company works as a whole, there is bound to be more success than failure. However, with the advent of call centers and home working solutions, many companies have resorted to relegating some of their work to third parties, with no regard of how this will affect customer satisfaction in the services provided by the company. All the operations carried out in the company need to be taken with the same level of seriousness, even when they seem too trivial to have any major effect on the company. Even when the call center agents are aware of the firm’s customers’ needs, there is a very high likelihood of the agents not performing as is required of them. Good performance of the employees is one of the things that contribute to high levels of production for a company. Because the agent is far removed from the company, he will not bother to ensure that his services are up to the standards required. This poses a big problem to operations management in a company since the quality of services will have been compromised. The company may

Exploratory Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Exploratory Paper - Essay Example For one, various enhancements in the Internet such as flash playing and audio embedding has provided new and effective ways for people to communicate. In addition to this, the wideness of its reach has convinced companies to use the Internet as a major communication medium in tapping their primary target markets. Also, the immensity of information that could be accessed in the Internet has influenced the creation of passion groups or digital tribes. These are primarily comprised of people who interact with those who share the same interests with them. Lastly, the Internet has also been used by non-profit organizations in advocating their programs that aim at furthering social causes. For example, anti-human trafficking initiatives are commonly broadcasted in the groups’ Youtube, Facebook, or Twitter accounts. Through these examples, it can be claimed that the role of the Internet in connecting people has helped it foster the so-called ‘global digital community’. F or one, micro-blogging sites like Twitter keeps people updated with the current societal events—whether local or international. Youtube encourages people to be more ‘content creators’ rather than mere ‘passive users’ by allowing them to upload original videos. ... As such, miscommunications and disputes may transpire in the Internet, especially when taken into consideration the capacity of the Internet in disseminating information in a highly fast manner. It is through these aforementioned reasons that an in-depth analysis of the social implications of the Internet is vital. In this light, this paper shall expose the positive and negative effects of the Internet in peoples and cultures, and why key institutions of human society must work hand-in-hand in optimizing the benefits obtained from the Internet. Positive Implications of the Internet At this point, a critical examination of the social benefits of the Internet must be done in relation to technology and culture. Firstly, the Internet allows for an easier and more dynamic access and transfer to information (Brey 3). With the increase in the Internet’s storage capacity, massive information could now be stored and accessed in almost all websites, as supported by search engine giants like Yahoo! and Google. Interestingly, hard copies of numerous pieces of literature are now present in the Internet, too. In addition to this, the convergence of various media in the Internet paves the way for an easier exchange of information (Brey 3). For example, Tweeting is now linked to the user’s Facebook account, while websites now have share buttons that aid in the faster distribution of information. Traditional television, furthermore, has incorporated QR codes in its programs to lead its audiences to specific websites. Apart from these examples that reinforce how the Internet allows for an easier and more dynamic access and transfer of data, it can be claimed that the Internet

Chronic Low Back Pain (CLBP) Literature Review on Treatment

Chronic Low Back Pain (CLBP) Literature Review on Treatment INTRODUCTION Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is a major health issue in the western world and is a significant burden on health care; Americans spend $37 billion annually with a further $19.8 billion lost in absenteeism [1]. There is 58% life time prevalence of back pain in the UK, a 22-65% 1-year prevalence and 6-7% of all adults have constant back problems [2]. Although CLBP is usually benign ( Modern (Verum) acupuncture originates in ancient Chinese philosophy which claims pain and disease manifest because of imbalances in bodies forces of Yin and Yang. It is believed these forces flow through specific courses (meridians) and can be manipulated using specific acupuncture points to regain the balance. Acupuncture has evolved from the traditional Chinese application and some styles incorporating adjuncts such as electrical stimulation of the acupuncture needle [4], A recent systematic review of articles published between 1966 and February 2003 [4] concluded that the efficacy of acupuncture on CLBP was inconclusive due to the low methodological quality of selected studies. They found acupuncture had some short-term improvements in pain and function compared to control or sham but due to low methodological quality they concluded a need for higher quality studies. This review updates that study [4] by including articles published after February 2003 or studies that were published prior but were of high relevance and methodological quality. The objective is to provide firm conclusions about the efficacy of acupuncture therapy for CLBP. METHODS Study Selection Criteria Only randomised controlled trials (RCTs) available in English and available free of charge were included. Search Strategy In October 2009 the MEDLINE database (period 1950 to date) was searched for RCTs published after February 2003 and matching the search string Chronic low back pain AND acupuncture OR dry needling OR Sham OR Placebo AND randomised controlled trial OR randomized controlled trial. Further searches using PEDro, Web of Science (using ISI Web of Knowledge) and Cinahl (period 1982 to date) (see appendix A). Each articles reference list was also used as a source of relevant publications. Participants For inclusion the studies participants needed to be =18-years old with non-specific CLBP. Non-specific CLBP was defined as pain between the 12th costal margin and the inferior gluteal folds =12-weeks. If radiating leg pain was present this must be secondary to the lumbosacral region pain. RCTs that included participants with specific pathologies as the root cause of their CLBP, such as malignancy, prolapse of =1 inter-vertebral disc or spinal fracture were excluded. Interventions Studies that investigated the effects of traditional (Verum) acupuncture, trigger-point acupuncture and dry needling were reviewed. RCTs were included regardless of hand of electro-stimulation. Studies investigating non-needle based acupuncture, such as laser acupuncture, were excluded. Control interventions included sham, usual care, Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) or conservative orthopaedic therapy. Outcome measures There are four outcome measures considered to be important when assessing CLBP Pain intensity (e.g. visual analogue scale (VAS-P), numerical rating scale (NRS-P)) A global measure (e.g. Overall improvement, proportional recovery of patients) A back specific functional status measure (e.g. Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ)) Return to work (absenteeism, speed of return) RCTs must include =1 of the above. The primary outcomes were pain and function. Study selection A total of 544 studies were found through the searches with 17 potentially eligible RCTs identified. Of these 5 were excluded due to study duplication (n=1), sole inclusion of participants with specific CLBP (n=2) or use of non-needle based acupuncture (n=2). The remaining 12 articles were reviewed using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) to determine their methodological quality. CASP enables the systematic review of an RCT for validity, design, execution and reasoning. Assessment criteria included randomization and allocation of participants, blinding of participants and assessors, identification of potential observer bias, participant numbers at RCT start and conclusion, presentation and accuracy of results, and any identified limitations. Results were recorded and documented (Appendix B). RCT commonalities: Participants were excluded: if they exhibited contraindications to acupuncture, had received acupuncture for their CLBP previously, previous spinal surgery, infectious spondylopathy, malignancy, congenital spine deformity, compression fracture due to osteoporosis or spinal stenosis. No differences in demographic variables or baseline levels of pain and disability were detected between the groups at baseline (P >0.05). Randomization was computer-generated with random number tables. All participants gave informed consent. Each RCT received ethical approval Usual care is defined as a combination of drugs, physiotherapy and exercise. RESULTS [5] 298 participants with CLBP =6-months randomised to 12 sessions of acupuncture (n=146) or sham acupuncture (n=73) over 8-weeks, administering therapists had =140 hours training and 3-years experience, with a third delayed acupuncture group (n=79) who received no acupuncture for the initial 8-weeks followed by the acupuncture groups protocol. Outcome measures were VAS-P and back function using the validated German Funktionsfragebogen Hannover-RÃ ¼cken (FFbH-R) questionnaire. At 8-weeks VAS-P decreased from baseline in all groups; after 26 and 52-weeks the acupuncture groups results were better than sham however differences were not significant. Results from the delayed acupuncture group followed the acupuncture groups pattern. The trial had good methodological quality: outcome measures were assessed independently with participants completing questionnaires, attrition was reasonable (18%) but the acupuncture group was double the size of the others which may have influenced results. [6] 638 participants with CLBP =3-months randomised to standard acupuncture (n=185), individualised acupuncture (n=157), sham acupuncture (n=162) or usual care (161) groups. Acupuncture groups received 10 treatments over 7-weeks by acupuncturists with =3 training. The Primary outcome measure was RMDQ. Compared to baseline all groups showed improved function and pain at 8-weeks. Mean values for RMDQ were consistent up to 52-weeks with the usual care group having greater dysfunction than all acupuncture groups (P=.001). There was no significant difference between real and sham acupuncture groups (P>0.05). All forms of acupuncture had beneficial and persisting effects over usual care for CLBP treatment with clinically meaningful functional improvements. There were no significant differences between acupuncture groups. Outcome measures were gathered by blinded telephone interviewers and attrition was low (6%) resulting in good trial internal validity [7] 1162 participants with CLBP =6-months randomised to 5-weeks of twice-weekly acupuncture (n=387) or sham acupuncture (n=387), performed by acupuncturists with =140 hours training. A third group received usual care (n=387). Outcome measures were Von Korff Chronic Pain Grade Scale (GCPS) and Hanover Functional Ability Questionnaire (HFAQ). Results were presented as a percentage of improvement in function and pain at 6-month follow-up. At 6-months both acupuncture groups had significant improvements in pain and function compared to baseline and usual treatment. There was no difference between acupuncture groups (p=0.39). The trial was methodologically strong with good internal validity: the control group was an active multimodal conventional therapy, had high power with stated calculation, follow-ups at 1.5, 3 and 6-months, low attrition (4%) and balanced dynamic randomisation. This was a good, highly relevant, large, rigorous trial. [8] 35 participants, =65-years, with CLBP =6-months randomised to 1 of 3 groups receiving 2 3-week phases of 30-minute acupuncture sessions, with a 3-week interval between. Group A (n=12) received standard acupuncture, Group B (n=10) superficial trigger-point acupuncture and Group C (n=13) deep trigger-point acupuncture. Outcome measures were VAS-P and RMDQ score. Group C showed a statistically significant VAS-P and RMDQ reductions from baseline after phase 1 with VAS-P reduction persisting over 12-weeks. There was no significant reduction in VAS-P or RMDQ for either other groups. The RCTs methods are described well however small sample size, high dropout (27%), short-term follow-up and potential bias limited internal validity [9] 26 participants, =65-years, with CLBP =6-months randomised to 2 groups. Over 12-weeks each group received 1 phase of trigger-point acupuncture and 1 phase of sham acupuncture with a 3-week break between. Group A (n=13) received trigger-point phase first followed by sham, Group B (n=13) vice-versa. Acupuncturist had =4-years training and =7-years clinical experience. Outcome measures were VAS-P and RMDQ score. After phase 1 Group A had significantly lower VAS-P (P [10] 60 participants with CLBP =6-months randomised them to 6-weeks of 30-minute weekly sessions of either acupuncture (n=30) or placebo TENS (n=30). No details of administering therapists were given. The primary outcome measure was VAS-P. Although acupuncture showed highly significant differences in all the outcome measures between pre- and post-treatment, the differences between the 2 groups were not statistically significant. Generally the RCT was poor: therapists were not blinded, high noncompliance (23.3%), cointerventions might have influenced results, the dropout rate was not explained and there was no intention-to-treat analysis. [11] 131 participants 18-65 years old with CLBP =6-months were randomised to groups receiving 20 30-minute sessions of traditional and auricular acupuncture (n=40), physiotherapy (n=46) or sham acupuncture and physiotherapy (n=45), over 12-weeks. Outcome measures were VAS-P and pain disability index (PDI). After 12-weeks of treatment the acupuncture group showed significantly reduced pain and disability compared to the physiotherapy group but not compared to the sham group. At 9-months the acupuncture group was more effective than physiotherapy in reducing disability only and not different to sham. The trial was methodologically strong but short-term dropout was 24% and long-term 37%. The treatment scheduled was five-a-week for 2-weeks then weekly for 10-weeks which may not be clinically practical. [12] 55 participants =60 yrs, with CLBP =12-weeks were randomised to 2-weeks of twice-weekly acupuncture and electrical stimulation alongside usual care (n=31) or usual care alone (n=24). Primary outcome was RMDQ. At 6-weeks results indicate clinically and statistically significant improvements in the acupuncture group for pain and disability compared to control. Effects remained and only diminished slightly at 9-weeks follow-up. The trial was methodologically strong: balanced randomisation, clear methods, low attrition (14%). Participant inclusion criteria included prior imaging limiting generalisability. [13] 186 participants aged between 20 and 60 with CLBP =6-week were randomised to 4-weeks of usual care alone (n=60) or with either acupuncture (n=65) or sham acupuncture (n=61). Acupuncturists were experienced doctors trained in Beijing. Primary outcome measure was VAS-P. Immediately after treatment 65% of the acupuncture group reported a =50% reduction in VAS-P compared to 34% of the sham group and 43% of the usual care group. At 3-months 79% of the acupuncture group, 29% of the sham group and 14% of the usual care group reported a =50% VAS-P reduction. Methodological quality was high: balanced (stratified) randomisation and excellently described methods however there was 30% attrition at 3-month follow-up and data collection was from general practitioners leading to potential performance bias. [14] 241 participants, aged 18-65, with CLBP for 4 to 52-weeks were randomised to 10 sessions of acupuncture (n=160) or to usual care (n=81) over 3-months. Acupuncturists were training for =3-years and =12.8-years clinical practice. Outcome measures were SF-36 pain scores and Oswestry low back pain disability questionnaire (ODI) taken at baseline, 3, 12 and 24-months. A power calculation stated a required 100 participants per group to detect a 10-point difference on SF-36 (90% power and 5% significance level). A 5 point difference in SF-36 was deemed significant. The number of participants in the acupuncture group was increased to 160 to allow for between-acupuncturist effect, usual care group decreased to 80 participants without power loss. Results were presented as point differences between randomisation, 12 and 24-months. At 12-months a 5.6 point intervention effect difference in SF-36 pain was found and 8 point at 24-months. No treatment effect was found for any other dimension o f SF-36 or ODI. Participants were representative of UK population, randomisation was balanced, methods were thoroughly documented and acupuncture treatments were individualised resulting in high methodological quality and generalisability. However 25% of participants were unaccounted for at conclusion reducing internal validity. [15] 11630 participants with CLBP =6-months were allocated to three groups. Group A were received 15 individualised acupuncture sessions with usual care as needed (n=1549). Group B received delayed acupuncture with usual care as needed (n=1544). Group C declined to be randomised but received 15 individualised acupuncture sessions with usual care (n=8004). Treatment was over 3-months. Outcome measures were FFbH-R and SF-36 pain scores. At 6-months the acupuncture group showed significant improvements in FFbH-R and SF-36 pain compared to routine care alone. The large sample size and broad inclusion criteria meant results were generalisable however groups were different at baseline and findings identified a degree of randomisation selection. [16] 52 participants with CLBP =6-months were randomised to 4-weeks of physiotherapy with daily 1-hour electro-acupuncture sessions (n=26) or standard physiotherapy (n=26). Outcome measures were pain (NRS-P) and function using the Aberdeen-LBP. There was a significant reduction in NRS-P and Aberdeen-LBP scores in the acupuncture group immediately after treatment and at 1 and 3-months follow-up. Methodological quality was limited by possible breach of blinding integrity due to lack of patient blinding and subjective outcome measures. DISCUSSION Acupuncture vs. no treatment Two high quality studies (11928 people) [5] and [15] found acupuncture more effective in short-term pain reduction and functional improvements than no (delayed) treatment. However both studies were weakened by insufficient blinding and participants were recruited from newspaper adverts [5] or an insurance company [15] limiting generalisability; both of which reduce results confidence. Acupuncture vs. sham Studies comparing acupuncture and sham acupuncture (2460 people) ([5], [6], [7], [11] and [13]) found both effective at reducing pain and increasing function compared to baseline measures; however no study found a clinically significant difference between groups With five methodologically sound trials all reporting similar results clinicians can have confidence in the effectiveness of acupuncture or sham-acupuncture in pain and functional improvements. However with no clinically significant difference between groups, placebo effect seems to be a substantial contributing factor. Acupuncture vs. usual care Five RCTs comparing acupuncture and usual care (12164 people) ([12], [13], [14], [15] and [16]) concluded that acupuncture was more effective at reducing pain. Increased function in the acupuncture group compared to control was reported in 1 RCT [12] at 6- and 9-weeks, [15] at 6-month and another [16] investigated effect immediately after treatment and 1- and 3-months follow-up; however 1 RCT [14] found no significant improvement in function in their longer-term study at 12 or 24-month. Unlike other papers reviewed, Thomas and colleagues used UK based participants who received treatments in private or GP clinics adding confidence to their conclusions when applied to the general UK population. From study findings clinicians can have confidence that the addition of acupuncture to their treatment of CLBP will be more effective than usual care alone. Acupuncture vs. deep and superficial trigger-point acupuncture One study ([8] 35 people) found greatest improvements in pain and function using deep trigger-point-acupuncture. However this study, while being methodologically thorough and having patient and assessor blinding, was limited by small size, high dropout (23%), short-term follow-up and possible centre bias leading to reduced clinical confidence. Acupuncture vs. TENS One RCT ([10] 60 people) found significant improvements using both TENS and acupuncture but no significant intergroup difference over 6-months. However, confidence in results are limited because participants also received usual care and exercise so may have improved regardless; furthermore the study had no therapists blinding, high noncompliance (23.3%), unexplained dropouts and no intention-to-treat analysis. Trigger-point acupuncture vs. sham In 1 cross-over trial ([9] 26 people) trigger-point acupuncture was found to be more effective than sham however small sample size, high attrition (23%), restricted to short-term follow-up and possible bias due to centre location (Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Meiji University of Oriental Medicine) limit confidence in findings. LIMITATIONS Studies were commonly limited by being unrepresentative: of the 12 studies 2 were UK based ([10], [14]), six restricted participants by age ([8], [9], [11] [12], [13], [14]), 2 used participant recruitment methods which may have introduced expectation bias (newspaper adverts, [5], insurance company [15]) and five had underpowered sample sizes or non-stated power calculations ([8], [9], [11], [12], [13]). Without representative sample groups the outcome measures cannot be applied to the general population with any reliability. Discrepancies were noted in treatment frequency with control group participants receiving less attention than intervention participants [16]. Blinding was inconsistent across studies: 1 study ([5]) blinded participants in the acupuncture groups but not the delayed group, 1 study ([6]) blinded participants only, four ([7], [8], [9], [13]) blinded assessors and participant, 1 ([10]) blinded assessors only, 1 ([11]) blinded assessors and participants but not acupuncturists, three ([12], [14], [15]) had no blinding and 1 ([16]) blinded assessors but not participants. CONCLUSIONS There is some evidence for the efficacy of acupuncture for CLBP; compared to no treatment there was short-term ([5] 8-week and [15] 3-month) pain reduction and functional improvements. Compared to sham therapy both showed similar improvements in pain and function at short-term ([5] 8-week, [6] 8-week, [11] 12-week and [13] 3-month) and mid-term ([5] 6-month and 1-year, [7] 6-month, [11] 9-month) follow-up but no significant difference was detected between groups. Compared to usual care acupuncture showed significant improvements in primary outcome measures at treatment, short- ([12]6- and 9-week, [13]3-month, [16]1- and 3-month) and long-term ([15]6-month, [14]1- and 2-year) follow-up. Compared to superficial and deep trigger-point all treatments showed improvements but none were significantly different from each other. Both acupuncture and TENS were found to produce long-term ([10] 6-month) improvements but no significant difference was found between interventions. Comparing trigger -point therapy to sham, trigger-point was found to be more effective although benefits were not sustained. There is evidence that acupuncture alongside other treatments relieves pain and increases function better than individual therapies alone. Further research needs to be conducted to determine treatment frequencies and sustainability of treatment effects. Effective sham treatments need to be developed to establish placebo effect compared to acupuncture and other therapy types. Additional Resources Stewart WF, Ricci JA, Chee E, Morganstein D, Lipton R. (2003). Lost productive time and cost due to common pain conditions in the US workforce. JAMA;290(18):2443-2454. Maniadakis, N. and Gray, A. (2000) The economic burden of back pain in the UK. Pain, 84, 95-103. Koes BW, van Tulder MW and Thomas S (2006). Diagnosis and treatment of low back pain. BMJ; 332, p1430-1434 Furlan AD, van Tulder M, Cherkin D, Tsukayama H, Lao L, Koes B, Berman B. (2005). Acupuncture and Dry-Needling for Low Back Pain: An Updated Systematic Review Within the Framework of the Cochrane Collaboration. Spine 2005;30:944-963 Reviewed Journals Brinkhaus B, Witt CM, Jena S, Linde K, Streng A, Wagenpfeil S, Irnich D, Walther HU, Melchart D, Willich SN. (2006) Acupuncture in patients with chronic low back pain: a randomized controlled trial. Archives of internal medicine. 166: 450-457. Cherkin et al (2009) A randomized trial comparing acupuncture, simulated acupuncture, and usual care for chronic low back pain. Haake M, Muller H, Schade-Brittinger C, Basler HD, Schafer H, Maier C, Endres HG, Trampisch HJ, Molsberger A. (2007). German Acupuncture Trials (GERAC) for chronic low back pain- randomized, multicenter, blinded, parallel-group trial with 3 groups. Arch Intern Med. 167(17):1892-1898. Itoh E, Katsumi Y, Hirota S, Kitakoji H. (2006). Effects of trigger point acupuncture on chronic low back pain in elderly patients a sham-controlled randomised trial. Acupuncture in Medicine. 24(1):5-12 ItohK. Katsumi Y. Kitakoji H. Acupuncture in Medicine. (2004) Trigger point acupuncture treatment of chronic low back pain in elderly patients: a blinded RCT. 22(4):170-7, Kerr DP, Walsh DM, Baxter D. (2003) Acupuncture in the management of chronic low back pain: a blinded randomized controlled trial. The clinical journal of pain. 19: 364-370 Leibing E, Leonhardt U, Koster G, Goerlitz A, Rosenfeldt JA, Hilgers R, Ramadori G. (2001). Acupuncture treatment of chronic low-back pain a randomized, blinded, placebo-controlled trial with 9-month follow-up. Pain 96 (2002) 189-196 Meng CF, Wang D, Ngeow J, Lao L, Peterson M, Paget S. (2003). Acupuncture for chronic lower back pain in older patients: a randomized, controlled trial. Rheumatology. 42:1508-1517 Molsberger AF, Mau J, Pawelec DB, Winkler J (2002). Does acupuncture improve the orthopedic management of chronic low back pain a randomized, blinded, controlled trial with3 months follow up. Pain 99 (2002) 579-587 Thomas KJ, MacPherson H, Thorpe L, Brazier J, Fitter M, Campbell M J , Roman M, Walters S J, Nicholl J. (2006). Randomised controlled trial of a short course of traditional acupuncture compared with usual care for persistent non-specific low back pain. British Medical Journal.doi:10.1136/bmj.38878.907361.7C Witt CM, Jena S, Selim D, Brinkhaus B, Reinhold T, Wruck K, Liecker B, Linde K, Wegscheider K, Willich SN. (2006). Pragmatic Randomized Trial Evaluating the Clinical and Economic Effectiveness of Acupuncture for Chronic Low Back Pain. American Journal of Epidemiology 2006;164:487-496 Yeung CKN, Leung MCP, Chow DHK. (2003). The Use of Electro-Acupuncture in Conjunction with Exercise for the Treatment of Chronic Low-Back Pain. The Journal Of Alternative And Complementary Medicine..2003:9:4:479-490