Taxation Tasks Essay Example for Free

Taxation Tasks Essay 1) Patty owned Patty’s Cakes in Jacksonville, Florida. She sold her business to Fruity’s, Inc. a national pastry company. There was a non-compete agreement in the contract for the sale of her business. In the non-compete, Patty agreed not to work in any capacity in the food industry for 10 years on the entire east coast. A court would likely determine that the non-compete agreement a) violates federal law b) is unenforceable c) is enforceable d) both A and B 2) A liability that may extend from an employee to the employer if the employee is acting within the scope of his or her employment at the time the liability arose is called: a) vicarious liability b) employee liability c) employer liability d) adverse liability 3) A person who contracts with a principal to perform a task according to her or his own methods, and who is not under the principal’s control regarding the physical details of the work is called a/an: a) Contingent worker b) Temporary worker c) Independent contractor d) All of the above 4) Benita works as a nursing assistant in a retirement home run by Cottonwood Care Centers, a national operator of facilities providing care for the elderly. Benita works 53 hours a week. After looking at her payroll stubs for the past 6 months, she concludes that she has not received sufficient overtime pay. She complains to her supervisor but the company takes no action. a) Benita can bring a complaint to the National Labor Relations Board under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) b) Benita can bring a complaint to the U.S. Department of Labor, under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) c) Benita can bring a complaint to the U.S. Department of Labor, under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). d) Benita can bring a complaint to the U.S. Department of Labor, under Executive Order 11246 5) Ling frequently stocks shelves for Ace’s Market on an as needed basis. Ace pays Ling $5 per shelf. One day Ling falls off a broken ladder while stocking a shelf. Line is seriously injured: a) If Ling is determined to be an independent contractor, he is eligible for workers’ compensation b) If Ling is determined to be an employee, he is eligible for workers’ compensation c) Ling is eligible for workers’ compensation whether he is an employee or an independent contractor d) None of the above 6) ABC, Inc. solicited bids from various independent contractors to landscape the grounds of its new office complex. Drew, head of facilities management told Patty, his secretary, that he would not accept any bids from Hispanic contractors. Drew explained that he would authorize hiring only American contractors to work on the grounds. A Hispanic contractor brings a lawsuit against ABC for discriminations. a) Drew’s refusal to hire Hispanic companies is a violation of the Independent Contractors Act of 2006. b) Drew’s refusal to hire Hispanic companies is a violation of the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act c) The Hispanic contractor cannot prevail in a discrimination case because John’s conversation with his secretary is confidential and cannot be used as evidence. d) Drew’s refusal to hire Hispanic companies is not a violation of the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act because that law does not cover discrimination against independent contractors. 7) BRC Partners is a consulting firm. Sam and Arnie are analysts for BRC. Sam was hired as an employee and Arnie was hired as an independent contractor. They both work in the same BRC office under the same supervisor. They both must work Monday through Friday during the standard business hours. Both are required to report to weekly staff meetings. Sam is paid a salary and the proper federal and state tax withholdings are made. Arnie does not receive benefits like retirement and health insurance and his is paid by the project with no federal and state withholdings. Arnie signed a contract that clearly stated he was an independent contractor and not an employee. a) BRC has properly classified Arnie as an independent contractor b) BRC has improperly classified Arnie as an independent contractor c) BRC has improperly classified Arnie as an independent contractor, however, its contract with Arnie is binding and BRC will have no liability under federal or state law for the misclassification. d) BRC has improperly classified Arnie as a independent contractor, however, its contract with Arnie is binding and BRC will have no liability under federal and state law for the misclassification, but Arnie will have liability under federal and state law. 8) Pilar is hired by Axel, Inc. as an independent contractor. To avoid a determination by the IRS that Pilar has been misclassified as an independent contractor, Axel should: a) provide training to Pilar b) pay her by the hour c) pay FICA d) none of the above 9) Clarence works as an independent contractor for the law firm of Kafka, Rivera and Grisham. a) Clarence will be responsible for making payments for his Social Security (FICA), estimated federal income tax payments, estimated state income tax payments and Medicare. b) Clarence will be responsible for making payments for his FICA and Medicare and the law firm will be responsible for withholding payroll deductions for his federal and state income taxes. c) Clarence will be responsible for making payments for his Social Security (FICA) and Medicare, but the law firm will be responsible for making estimated federal income tax payments, estimated state income tax payments for him. d) Clarence will be responsible for making payments for his Social Security (FICA), withholding deductions for his federal and state income taxes and Medicare. 10) Which of the following is not covered by the EEOC’s definition of contingent worker? a) an employee hired through a staffing firm b) a temporary, seasonal, or part-time worker c) an applicant d) an independent contractor

The Role Of Stereotyping In Fairytales English Literature Essay

The Role Of Stereotyping In Fairytales English Literature Essay Fairy tales have a great history in Europe and they were transmitted from the one generation to the other by oral speech, until the Grimm brothers decided to commit many of them, around 1815. The fairy tales stories are very important for childrens psychology, as psychoanalyst Bruno Bettelheim says, because they communicate with the unconscious of the child, through their secret messages, like the battle between the good and the evil, where the good always wins. So, the children feel more hopeful and ready to pass through the difficulties that emerge in their lives (Salkind, 2004). Fairytales contain material that influences a lot the feelings and the cognition of children. Contemporary research has shown they are not coming into the world as black slates, but they bring reflexes, predispositions and capacities, with their birth. Although schemas, the cognitive structures, that represent organized knowledge about a given concept or stimulus, that influence perception, memory and inference, (Hewstone, Stroebe Stephenson, 1997, p.617), are transmitted to them through the contact with their guardians and the society (Hewstone et al., 1997). Another effect of fairytales is the elongation of some schemas, specially those that concern gender. There are three types of schemas, according to Baron and Burne (2009); those that have to do with persons, with roles and with events. The role schemas, that are correlated with specific social roles, concern the way that people act and are like. Gender identity is one of the major role schemas that people cope with (Baron, Branscombe Burne, 2009). Gender roles affect the behavior of men and women throughout their life, social and personal. Some characteristics of the male stereotype is that the man is able to be a leader, aggressive, forceful, competitive, independent, individualistic and defending his own beliefs. On the other hand, woman is affectionate, compassionate, shy, soft-spoken, tender, she loves children and she is sensitive to the needs of others. Men are also considered as the owners of their family and like the head of the wife. Stereotypes like that have still their place in many religions, but are also tought to the children through the fairy tales. Women are still presented as followers of the active male figures or helpless with the need to be rescued. Children attain the meaning of gender identity, the fact that they are boys or girls, by the age of two and between the ages of four and seven, they realize that the gender is a basic attribute of the person. As they grow up they come in contact with the stereotypes that concern what it means to be male or female, and they are enforced by their environment to show these traits Children also, learn gender stereotypes very early in their life. By the age of two they know to accord stereotyped behaviors and traits with each gender and at the ages between three and six, they seem more strongly sex stereotyped than adults. Furthermore they are convinced that these stereotypes are true. In particular, in the research of Urberg (1982, cited in Golombok Fivush, 1994), it was found that children espouse unconditionally the gender stereotypes at the age of five, but at the age of seven they become more conciliatory. Another finding of the same research was that children tend to stereotype oth er children more than stereotype adults. In another study of Haugh, Hoffman Cowan (1980, cited in Golombok Fivush, 1994), it was shown on a screen to two groups of children of three and five year old, a shortcut with two twelve month infants playing. The children of the first group were told that the infant on the left was male, and on the right female, and to the other group the opposite. Both groups described the babies labeled as males, with characteristics like big, mad, fast, strong, loud, smart, and hard, while the female labeled as small, scared, slow, weak, quiet, dumb, and soft. As for the predictions that children can make about the preferences of the two sexes, in the study of Martin (1989, cited in Golombok Fivush, 1994), it was found that children of all ages tented to predict the characters interest about some toys, based on his or her gender. But only the younger children relied absolutely on this trait. It seems that younger children are more categorical with gend er stereotypes, and the gender of an individual is determinant for his or her characteristics and habits (Baron, Branscombe Burne, 2009, Golombok Fivush, 1994). The research about the gender roles in fairytales, has shown that even though women represent more than the half percent of the population, they are represented much less in childrens literature. Research during 60s decade found that women were underrepresented in a big amount in the book titles, central roles and the illustrations of popular childrens stories. After the political changes of the decades of 70s and 80s, it was found that women are better represented in childrens literature, but the male characters were represented double times. When a woman had a leading role was described as the males that had the same character. But when she had a secondary role, she was described with the traditional characteristics, as passive and depended (Golombok Fivush, 1994, Godden Godden, 2001). Furthermore, it was found by a research of DeLoache et al., cited in Golombok Fivush, 1994, that children get in contact with the gender stereotypes not only through the characters of their stories, but also by the way that their parents present the gender roles, while they are reading them a book. In particular, mothers that were reading a book to their children were presenting the 90% of the characters with unknown roles as males. Also, when they were asked to read a picture book with bears of indetermined gender, the 62% of them represented the bears to their children as male and a small percentage, about the 16% as female. It was also observed that the bears that were labeled as females, where those that were not been presented to interact with other bears (Golombok Fivush, 1994). According to the Banduras Social learning theory, cited in Cole Cole, 2002, gender is formed by social factors. He supported that the childs behavior is formed by that one of the others and specific by parents behavior, through the learning processes of reinforcement and observation or imitation of a model. Other factors responsible for socialization can be the teachers, the peers and generally the people that get in contact with the child, without underestimating the role of media, like tvs and children readings (Cole Cole, 2002). It has been observed that parents provide to their children except of patterns of imitation, rewards, when the behaviors of the last are compatible with their gender and they punish them for the behaviors that are not accord with it. In the studies of Beverly Fagot, cited in Cole Cole, 2002, in families, it was found that the parents were praising their daughters when they were trying clothes, dancing, playing with their dolls, or when were following them and they were punishing them when they were exploring things, running and climbing around. Contrary they were praising their sons when they were playing with cubes and they were punishing them, when they were playing with dolls, giving or asking for help. These findings are also supported by other studies, like those of Langois Downs, cited in Cole Cole, 2002. Except of the rewards, it has been observed by studies that the fathers in contrast with the mothers, treat their sons much more different than their daughters. More specifically they were considering boys as more strong and taugh and they were enforcing them to do similar activities, while they were rating them more strict than their mothers when they were playing with dolls. Also, when the boys were between the age of two and twelve, they were becoming stricter, more equable, less affectionate and more directional than with their daughters. Furthermore, it seems that the pressure to the boys to conform to their gender role, is bigger than this one that touch girls. As a result the gender role of boys is more cohesive than for the girls, something that continues to exist in mens and womens roles, when the male characteristics and roles are acceptable for women, while the opposite is not acceptable. Another stereotypic role for women in fairytales is that they have to stay in silence. Its inappropriate for them to express their thoughts and claim for their rights. This could be like an insult to their husband and only evil women, like witches, are taught with these behaviors. The only way for the women in fairytales to speak is only after asking a mans permission. Its also common for the man in fairytales to hit his wife when she dares to interrupt him. Women can only express themselves by crying and show helpless (Afanasev, 1973, Bottigheimer, 1986). In Snow White, Brothers Grimm classic fairy tale, the female gender is represented in a negative way. Snow White is displayed as being frightened, naive and helpless, and the evil Queen, her stepmother, the only other prominent female character is a narcissist. Thus, after reading or hearing this fairy tale, society begins to mold into these stereotypes. This quote demonstrates what society considers to be womens role. These traits are presented when the huntsman spares Snow Whites life and when the Dwarfs expect Snow White to do house work in order to live safely with them. Although the queen ironically is very powerful in this fairy tale, she also falls into the stereotype for females. She only uses her power for negatives, rather than positives, scheming vindictive plots on Snow White throughout the whole story. In which, naive Snow White falls victim, not once but three times. The evil queen sends the huntsmen to kill Snow White. This setting introduces the readers to Snow White as a scared helpless girl, a typical expected role of a female (Zipes, 2000). Although there are exceptions, the rule is that a woman has to lose her voice and her identity in order to provide a place in the society for herself. There are specific gender roles in the classic fairy tales that state that the men have the voice and the women are to be collateral. In the classic fairy tale, The Little Mermaid, the character of the seventh daughter is being taught what it is to be a woman. When she complains about grooming for her first trip above water, her grandmother remind her that someone cant have beauty without paying a cost. A woman must be beautiful and must suffer for the cost in silence. Silence is repeated throughout the tale as being a virtue. The mermaid suffers the pain and blood of her feet and the cutting out of her tongue as to be with her love, even though the man does not want her in return. The Disney version of this tale also shows Ariel learning about the importance of outward beauty and suppression. Ursula convinces Ariel that she doesnt need her voice in the human world. She has her beauty, her lovely face and she can use her body language. A woman can live in the mans world, only if she will lose her opinion. At first, Disneys Ariel seems not to follow the typical stereotype role for a woman. She is active, curious and rebellious sometimes. However, when she falls in love, her independent character, transforms into a dependent woman that only wants to become the wife of her beloved man. Moreover she decides to sacrifice her voice, as to become a human, and leave her underwater kingdom to live next to her man (Bell, Haas, Sells, 1995). Another example of the importance of women silence, is in the story of The Merchants Daughter and the Slanderer where the king decides to marry her only when it is mentioned to him that she is quiet and vestal. The value of silence is correlated with those of speech and power. Generally in fairy tales the speech comes from people that have authority, which most of the times are not the women. The women that appear to speak are evil, like witches, and only when they give a curse to their enemies, as it was mentioned before (Afanasev, 1973, Bottigheimer, 1986). Another stereotype in fairy tales, is that the mans role is to work and provide food to his family by this work. Besides that, in many fairy tales, the opposite fact happens. In Constantino Fortunato of Straparola, it is a woman, the mother Soriana, who provides the food to her three adult sons, who end helpless when she is dead. Their only way to survive is to use the items she left them and because they do not have any qualifications for work they become dependent on other people. Because of the fact that they have never worked, they do not appreciate the people who help them and they forget each one when a new person who can help them appears. And thats what Constantino does when is been ensured to him the marriage with the princess. In this fairytale the sons are completely dependent on their mother who has the main character in that. She is described as a very poor woman who had three sons, a description that appears in many points of the story. The important to notice is that never this family is been demonstrated as a poor family, but there is only a really poor mother and her sons. The sons are not considered as independed members of this family and they are not responsible for their poverty, even though they are old enough to have a job. They stay sideliners even when their mother is dead. Their only way to survive is to wait for their neighbors to ask them to borrow some of the items their mother left and give them something in return. When Constantinos brothers get a sweet like a gift from their neighbors they eat it by themselves and they dont keep anything for him but only advice him to ask the cat for help. That is what happens and the cat begins to provide everything to the young man, even his marriag e with the princess. When he becomes a prince he has to face many responsibilities but even in that time he denies to do it and continues to count on womens of the palace help (Zipes, 2000). Another common characteristic for the women in fairy tales is their passivity. Most of them when they find themselves in trouble, are waiting for a male to rescue them and dont take the situation in their own hands. In the story of The Footless Champion and the Handless Champion the sister of the family has to endure every day the minatory visits of a dragon, without doing anything to protect herself like to escape, but only waiting for her brothers to come back from a hunter travel, to save her (Afanasev, 1973). Another message that fairy tales give to women is that disobedience to men and possible will for power will be strict punished. The womans role is to serve the husband and do the housekeeping. In the Mayoress fairy tale, the woman explains to her husband her intention to become mayoress and he decides to punish her with some elder men. Because of her inability as a mayoress she spends the public money and then its impossible to collect the taxes in time. Even though she makes efforts to control the situation, the Cossack decides to punish her by beating her. The meaning of this story is that this woman should never desire a position of power and disobey her husband. Generally this story teaches women to stay allegiant to the authority of their husband and also men that women are incapable for positions that have to do with the public affairs and power. Beauty is another value that is overestimated in fairy tales. Usually we meet in their pages, young and beautiful girls to be chosen by men with power, but ugly and much older, like what happened in Beauty and the Beast and the ugly girls to be rejected not only from men but also from society. It is also common that the beauty is correlated with traits, like honesty, purity, virginity, delicacy and modesty. Beauty is also a virtue that has to be well protected from the world outside and be well guarded like a treasure. In the story of Dawn, Evening and Midnight the king watches his daughters during all day not allowing to anyone else to see their beauty. He doesnt even leave the sun or the wind to touch them. It is obvious that he adores his daughters only because they are extremely beautiful. It is not only the beauty that determine a wedding but also the ability of woman for reproduction. More specifically, it is the ability of the woman to make male children. It is considered as an ability of the woman to control the sex of her child, something that does not correspond to the contemporary knowledge and when she fails to make a boy, she is usually considered as cursed or worthless and she is driven away from her husband. This is obvious in the Singing Tree and the Talking Bird, when the king chooses his future wife only after she promises him to make three children, two males and one female. No other traits are more decisive than this, like the worth of a woman is considered first of all, with her ability of reproduction (Afanasev, 1973). It seems that even nowadays fairytales attribute to women the stereotyping traits of their gender, like passivity and silence, and to men those of power and courage, as it was shown through the fairytales of Snow White, The Little Mermaid, Ariel and The Footless Champion and the Handless Champion. Although there are traditional fairytales like Constantino Fortunato, that shows the woman in a position of power, this one of the head of the family and modern, that describe their heroine with some male characteristics, like Ariel of the Little Mermaid, who is independed and curious, before falls in love with a man, it seems that social sciences have to make a lot of efforts to modify the gender stereotypes in children literature (Zipes, 2000, Afanas ev, 1973).

Food Processing Industry Analysis

Food Processing Industry Analysis 1.0 Introduction A strategic management process like strategy analysis, strategy formulation, and strategy implementation are important for an organization. (Anthony H,2008) 2.0 Strategy Analysis Macro-environment can act as an analysis which provide early warning system for organizations to anticipate threats, opportunities, and develop appropriate responses (Ginter and Duncan,1990) in the discerning trends in general environment which may impact upon its industry and markets. Strategy analysis can make organization to focus on factors and conditions which influence a firms profitability within an industry and focus on predicting the dynamics of competitors actions, responses and intentions. (Anthony H,2008) This tool of analysis will discuss about PEST framework, Porters Five forces framework and SWOT analysis for BreadTalk in BreadTalk Group Ltd. 2.1.0 Analysis of food processing industry 2.1.1 PEST Analysis PEST analysis is a useful tool to help Breadtalk Group Ltd to help detect and monitor all weak signals to recognize the discontinuities or fractures to shape the environment. PEST refers to political, economic, social and technological. i) Political Factors The political factor encompasses all legal elements like legislation, taxation, deregulation philosophies, labour training and etc. (Anthony H,2008) All organization within the food processing industry are forced to innovate and cut costs to remain competitive to prevent new entrants as new entrants will enter the market with lower cost and more clearing understanding of consumer needs by offering more innovative products and services. Increasing globalization and trade barriers has created an opportunity and challenge to BreadTalk as BreadTalk can enter the market by emerging companies in political stable country to explore the new market especially in markets where bread could be luxury but at the same time BreadTalk will have to challenge with all type of sources to source for low cost high quality from world over. ii) Economic factors The strengthening of an economy will generally benefit industries but its effect will vary according to which factors are most affected. The economic factors include interest rate, disposable income, inflation, gross domestic product, unemployment rates, budget deficit and surplus, personal savings rate, business savings rates and exchange rates. (Anthony H,2008) The rise and fall of commodity and raw material and rise in fuel prices all over the world cause the rise of purchasing costs for BreadTalk and the extra cost has to pass over to consumers by increasing the prices of products. The credit crunch can impact BreadTalk as it might decrease the power of purchasing of consumer and BreadTalk may face competition from local small bread retailers who offer at more affordable prices though less delicious to cost conscious consumers. iii) Social factors Social factors include all cultural changes like social cultural within the environment or country and it would influence consumer spending patterns. Social cultural include traditions, lifestyles, values, attitudes, beliefs, tastes, and workforce diversity. (Anthony H,2008) BreadTalk forays into the markets of China and India and social factors come into understanding. Chinese and Indian customers have different culture in lifestyle, and they have different opinions and needs on the current products offered. iv) Technological factors No doubts that major changes taking place in the general environment that are impacting the competitive environment are technological. Technological factors include product innovation, applications of knowledge, new communication technologies and etc. The rapid rate of changes of technology has allowed new entrants to enter the market at a lower cost base. (Anthony H,2008) Modern processes and machinery with many communications devices now can now be used by BreadTalk to ensure the cost of labor and production are reduced and orders to process faster due to globalization and changes in technological factors. 2.1.2 Porters five forces framework The five forces of Porter are, threat of new entrants, bargaining power of buyers, Bargaining power of suppliers, threat of substitute product and intensity of rivalry Threat of new entrants The threat of new entrants is when new competitors decide to enter an industry and reduce profits being earned by incumbent firms and to decrease level of customers loyalty within the food processing industry. (Anthony H,2008) With BreadTalks product differentiation and high brand name recognition and customer loyalty, it will prevent new entrants to enter the market, so the threat of new entrants will be low. Bargaining power of buyers Buyers have the influence power for an industry to force down prices and offer higher quality as consumers purchase represents a sizable proportion of organizations overall sales. (Anthony H,2008) BreadTalk produced products that are potentially lower price for customers as they design its own products and have their own factories. BreadTalk enhance customer loyalty by enhancing existing customer and getting new customers by providing positive shopping experience through good customer services, so the buyer power is high. Bargaining power of suppliers Suppliers have the power of bear or apply in an industry by raising price or reducing the quality of products. (Anthony H,2008) The increase of supplier power is the mirror image of increase buyer power. BreadTalk uses a strategy of building greater loyalty and long-term relationships marketing with suppliers and retailers and then to result in improve performance in work and provide good service to customers. Threat of substitute products or services By having a products or services that meet similar needs will make customers switch to substitutes in response to a price increase on product. (Anthony H,2008) In Singapore, there are many substitutes for bread like hawker centers and restaurants like Delifrance and McDonalds are close substitutes in terms of pricing and perform the same function to sell food. Intensity of rivalry among firms in an industry When an organization exhibit a high level of rivalry, it will cause the industrys profits to reduce because of aggressive competition on price as when rivalry cut down on price, the other organizations will cut down price to sustain in their market positions. (Anthony H,2008) BreadTalk main competitors are Four Leaves, Prima Deli, Q-Bread, Sweet Secrets, Bengawan Solo, and so forth. BreadTalk is facing an intense rivalry competition from both small-scale production like small family-fun in the neighbourhood and large retailers like Sunshine and Gardenia which produce affordable products. Due to this intense competition, BreadTalk attempted to enter Chinas market for diversity purposes. SWOT analysis SWOT analysis refers to strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Strength and weaknesses refer to the BreadTalkss internal environment within the firms control while opportunities and threats refer to BreadTalks external environment which the firm has less control. Strength The BreadTalks concept is unique from the traditional bakeries in the market as BreadTalk has a wide menu of confectionery products like breads, buns, pastries and cakes which allows the menu change on daily basis to satisfy customers varied needs. BreadTalk will introduce new products every four months to cater customers changing taste.(competitive strengths,2009) Other than this, strategic locations is one of the competitive strength. BreadTalks retail outlets are mostly near the public transport systems like bus terminals, the Mass Rapid Transit Stations, and the Light Rail Transport stations.(competitive strengths,2009) Weaknesses There is very much reliant on Singapore with a small domestic market of five million and it is also underserved in the emerging economies of Asia, in result this might drag BreadTalks company performance in long term fairly saturated with little growth in local market. Although BreadTalk offers a wide range variety of products, it does not have halal certificate, so it is very hard and critical to penetrate into the Muslim market, Malaysia market and Indonesia markets. Opportunities BreadTalk oppose its main weakness by expanding and emerge its market in China, Vietnam and other Asian countries with its affordable, low-priced high volume breads. Other than this, the increase of popularity of online shopping has provided an opportunity to BreadTalk to lower expenses by expanding its business into the realm of virtual marketplace. Threats Existing bread related firms like Gardenia, Ya Kun and Sweettalk are also competing BreadTalk directly to offer bread with fillings and more variety of bread, this move will significantly effect on BreadTalks revenue of the sales of bread. If the health conscious alternative like Subway decides to sell low priced bread, BreadTalk will face a challenge. 2.2 Value Chain Analysis There are two analytical tools like Value Chain analysis and Benchmarking to asses whether BreadTalks costs are competitive with those of rivals as is a crucial part of company situation analysis. Value Chain analysis is more suitable for BreadTalk Group Ltd. A companys businesses are consists of all activities undertaken in producing, designing, marketing, delivering, and supporting its product and service which perform internally combine to form a value chain. Value chain analysis was devised by Porter (1985) which helps us to assess an organizations resources to determine its strengths and possible weaknesses. Value Chain contains two types of activities which are primary activities where most value for customers is created while support activities facilitate performance of the primary activities. For bakery goods maker like BreadTalk, its primary activities would be producing bread from raw material to semi finished products by the activities emulsifiers, enzymes, sourdoughs and yeasts, supply chain management, recipe development and testing, mixing and baking, packaging, sales and marketing and then distribution. For its support activities, it would be quality control, hu man resource management and then administration. Value Chain analysis has a few characteristic: To combine costs for all activities in a companys value chain to define the companys internal cost structure To compare a firms costs activity by the activity against costs of key rivals from raw materials purchase to and price paid by ultimate customer To pin point the source of cost advantage or disadvantage on its internal activities 3.0 Strategy Formulation Strategy formulation can be argued that it can constitute differential firm performance and allows BreadTalk to achieve sustainable competitive advantage and to accomplish their objectives and mission. An organization must be mindful of its ability before it can implement strategy during the strategy formulation stage. Business level and corporate level strategy will be discussed as BreadTalk Group Limited used these two strategies to improve the companys performance. Business Level Strategy Business level strategy can work as separating out and formulating a competitive strategy at the level of individual business unit and sometimes referred as strategic business unit (SBU) which focuses upon a particular market or markets for its products and services.(Anthony H,2008) Business unit is needed to devise a strategy to allow it compete successfully to the marketplace and contribute to corporate strategy. Business level strategy can be evaluated by using Porters generic competitive strategies as business strategy is always in pursuit of a sustainable competitive advantage.(Anthony H,2008) Porters seminal work on industry and competitor analysis (Porter 1980) argues that what will drives an organizations performance and differential firm performance and it is also referred as to the positioning of the firm within the industry to take advantage and the attractiveness or profitability of an industry is determined by his five forces framework. Generic Competitive Strategies Performing different activities or similar activities in different ways which will be recognized as being superior to its competitors can create a sustainable competitive advantage. Porter (1980) argues that competitive strategy develop a defendable position in an industry which enable the firm to deal effectively with the five competitive forces and generate superior return on investment for the firm. BreadTalk can achieve it by following these steps; first, BreadTalk can offer its products at a lower price than rivals but without sacrificing the quality of products. Second, BreadTalk can produce differentiated product with premium price for customers who perceive better value than from rival firms, third BreadTalk should choose which market segments to compete within. Porter (1980) developed three generic strategies to help organization to outperform rivals and position itself against the five forces within the industry which are Overall Cost Leadership Strategies, Differentiation Strategies and Focus Strategies. Overall Cost Leadership Strategies This strategy involves firm to be the lowest-cost producer within the industry and target its products and services at a broad market to outperform rivals within the industry as it charge lower prices and its lowest-cost-base can still earn superior profits where the rival simply cannot match. According to Porter, cost leadership strategy require organization to pursue aggressive construction of efficient-scale facilities, vigorous pursuit of cost reductions from experience, tight cost and overhead control, avoidance of marginal customer accounts, cost minimization in areas like research and developments, service, sales force and advertising. (Porter 1980, p.35) BreadTalk generate above-average profitability where intense competitions exist in Singapore. Its lower cost base allows BreadTalk to still earn returns after other higher cost direct main competitors like Gardenia, Four Leaves and my bread (CIMB research report,2009) to competed away their profit through rivalry. A low cost position allows BreadTalk to defend itself against buyers who can only price down to the next most efficient competitor. BreadTalk provide a hedge against any increases in their input prices when facing with the bargaining power of suppliers as BreadTalk is being a low-cost producer. BreadTalk is at advantageous position to compete prices to prevent the threat of entry and acts as barrier to entry. Differentiation Strategies Differentiation strategy means organization produce unique or different products or services at a broad market for consumers and it also acts as an opportunity to meet different customer needs. Customers willing to pay a premium price for unique products and services. The major benefit of this strategy is that rivals will find it difficult to imitate. Organization can differentiate their product offerings like design, brand image, market abilities, reliability, creativity, customer service and so on. BreadTalk different themselves from other bakeries with their open-concept design and space-age looking store facades which actually allowed customers to view the bakers while they are working and it also generated interest in customers of their products.(Unique Concept and Branding,2009) BreadTalk also offer wide range of baked products every four months to satisfy every customers. All the creative and innovative differentiation methods will set BreadTalk away apart from their competitor.(Wide Range of Products, 2009) Corporate level strategy Corporate level strategy can be defined as the scope of the industries and markets within which the organization competes in order to achieve its organizational purpose.(Anthony H,2008) The managers of business units have freedom of action to create their business level strategy with the knowledge of local markets, customers and competitors and show their business strategy ultimately to contribute to the corporate strategy. Corporate parenting exists when an organization is made up with multiple business units which those levels of management that are not part of customer-facing and profit run business within the multi-business organization.(Anthony H,2008) There are many strategies in corporate level strategies like Growth Strategies, related diversification, unrelated diversification and so forth. Growth Strategies Ansoft (1965) invented a matrix to analyze different strategic directions organizations can achieve and there are four strategies for organization to follow, market penetration, product development, market development, and diversification. i) Market penetration Market penetration will increase market share in existing markets by using existing products aiming to get new customers to maximize organizations profits. Organization will improve its products quality and level of service and add on with promotional spend before the firm will achieve market penetration. This strategy is relatively low risk as organization will use the existing resources and capacities to penetrate to the new market. (Anthony H,2008) In 2009, BreadTalk successfully penetrate new markets and also infiltrated in countries like Singapore, PRC, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand with 119 outlets and 182 franchise outlets in Indonesia, Philippines, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, India, Korea, PRC.(BreadTalk Financial Review 2009) ii) Market development Market development involves entering new markets with organizations existing products like targeting new market segments and new geographical areas. Certain social and cultural adjustments will be made to ensure the products will meet the needs of particular geographical market segments. (Anthony H,2008) BreadTalk increase their market share by penetrating their near existing market like Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Taiwan and India with their existing products. BreadTalk has good store locations in Chinas fast multiplying shopping malls which are easy to be found.(Daily Bread,2008) BreadTalk is trying to get halal certificate in order to fully develop its expansion in Malaysia and Indonesia. Other than this, BreadTalk had made some changes on its current existing baked products to fulfill the demand of china and India customer as they have different cultural beliefs and preferences in baked products Product development Product development will develop new products to sell in existing markets. A strategy of product development is necessary where organizations are faced with rapid changes in consumer markets and shorter product life-cycle. In food processing industries, organizations are forced to continually develop new products to keep competitors on the defensive and maintain and grow their market share. (Anthony H,2008) In bakery industries like BreadTalk, BreadTalk has to produce new products to maintain its position in the market to prevent its competitor to overtake it positions as customers will change to competitors products and services if BreadTalk never change its menu of serving. BreadTalk always produce with new baked products every four months to satisfy customer needs to sustain its position in the existing markets. The latest special was spring summer(fresh from oven,2009) Diversification Diversification can be defined as develop new products to serve new markets, in another word, organization that move away from its current products and markets to turn into new products and new markets to broaden its scope of activities are the steps of diversification for organizations. Broadening the scope of the organization can help to spread risk by reducing the reliance of any one market or product. (Anthony H,2008) Not only they offer convenient atypical of other typical bread stores, BreadTalk diversified their business by opening restaurants like Din Tai Fung targeting on family market as their priority market other than relying too much on the competition in the local food processing industries. BreadTalk diversify their operations in other countries like China to open a new market trying to dominate the new market and be dominant by importing the concept of smart food beverage retail and sells western-style baked goods.(Daily Bread,2008) BreadTalk now not only have Bakery business, they have diversified into Restaurant and Food Atria businesses. On 17 December 2007, BreadTalk Group Limited acquires and manages the franchise agreement with J.co Donuts coffee. 4.0 Strategy Implementation The best formulated strategy in the world would fail if the strategy is poorly implemented. In order to implement effective strategies, it requires organization to be sufficiently flexible in its organizational design and effectively communicated and properly resourced, the changes must be clearly understood and properly coordinated with stakeholders inside and outside the organization. Strategy implementation allocates resources for strategy-critical activities and establish strategy-supportive policies and to motivate people to pursue the 4.1 Management issues There are a lot of management issues in BreadTalk like annual objectives, policies, resources organizational structure, restructuring, rewards, resistance to change, natural environment, supportive culture, operations, and human resources to be implemented. BreadTalk has to manage conflicts in the management issues but not all conflict is always bad and no conflict may signal apathy. Conflicts can energize the opposing groups to action and also can help managers to identify problems. (Fred R. David, 2009) According to Chandlers (1962) strategy-structure relationship, he says when a new strategy is formulated, new administrative problems will emerge and cause the organizational performance to declines and then a new organizational structure will be established and finally organizational performance will improve and BreadTalk experienced this issue when they start implementing their formulated strategies. In order to let BreadTalk to be more effieciency, workers must be treated well in order for them to work willingly for the firm as employees are the greatest asset for company. Human resources strategic responsibilities are to assess staffing needs and costs, develop performance incentives, employee stock ownership plans, child care policies, work-life balance issues. (Fred R. David, 2009) By implementing all the extra benefits to workers, it will diverse workforce like improves corporate culture, improves employee morale, increases creativity, increases productivity, enables the organization to move into emerging markets, maximizes brand identity, leads to higher retention of employees, decreases complaints and litigation, decrease interpersonal conflict, reduces training costs and so forth. 4.2 Marketing strategies In a successful strategy implementation, organization will be in a good market and providing and experiencing well services and products and raise needed working capital. Marketing variable will affect success or failure of strategy implementation. Marketing issues like market segmentation and product positioning are centrally important to implementation. (Fred R. David, 2009) Marketing segmentation can be defined as company subdividing markets into smaller segments which can be reached more efficiently and effectively with products and services that match customers unique needs and buying habits while product positioning can be defined as the way of a product defined by customer on important attributes like the place of the product occupies in customers minds relative to compete products.(Kotler P, Armstrong G,2008) BreadTalk is facing problem of marketing segmentation around all its outlets around the world when implementing and formulating its corporate strategy level. 4.2.1 Marketing segmentation Marketing segmentation is linked to corporate level strategys growth strategy on market-development, product-development, market-penetration, and diversification. Market segmentation will directly affect the marketing mix variables like product, place, promotion and price. (Kotler P, Armstrong G,2008) Product Product means the combination of products and services offer by a company to their targeted markets. Product influence can affect on consumer behavior and it is important for the marketers to differentiate their products from competitors to create a perception to consumer that the product is worth purchasing.(J.Paul Peter and James H.Donnelly,2003) In order to sustain and maintain its strong brand name, BreadTalk has to offers more than 150 varieties of baked products, special occasions products and other services to provide more choices to customers and make its company to be different from its strong competitors like Gardenia in order to sustain in the market and success on its strategy formulation. Place Place means how the offer of product available to target consumers. Places of a product and services can influence on consumers buying power. A perfect location of a services or products should be in a convenient and strategic place to ensure consumers can find and buy them easily.(J.Paul Peter and James H.Donnelly,2003) In order to support to its strategy formulation and implement it, BreadTalk only open its outlet location near public transport systems like bus terminals, Mass Rapid Transit, and Light Rail Transport, departmental stores, supermarkets to attract potential customers and to mark down sales territories as having high customer traffic flow is crucial to Breadtalks success of retail outlets and avoid customers change their buying power to competitors offerings. Promotion Promotion means activities that communicate the merit of the product and persuade target customer to buy it. Promotions can influence consumers thoughts, emotions and experiences about purchasing and using the products.(J.Paul Peter and James H.Donnelly,2003) Every 4 months BreadTalk will offer special new baked products with promotion and for normal promotions with discounts for customers so that customers will not get bored and turn to alternative or competitors and inform consumers about products and services while creating favourable images and perceptions. Price Price is the amount charged on the products which need to be paid to obtain the products. The price of products and services often influence consumers whether to purchase them or not.(J.Paul Peter and James H.Donnelly,2003) BreadTalk has to offers affordable prices on their products even sometimes at loss to capture potential customers and capture the loyalty of existing customers as their local competitors are offering lower cost to compete with BreadTalk but at the same times, BreadTalk offers some offerings with higher prices but this will not deter customers to purchase as customer believe their products or services are higher quality or more prestigious . Market Segment Basis Organization must try different segmentation variables in alone and combinations to find the best way to view market structure and there are few major variables mostly used in segmenting consumer markets, the Geographic, Demographic, Psychographic and Behavioral. .(J.Paul Peter and James H.Donnelly,2003) Geographic Geographic can divide a market into different geographical units like region, country size, city size, density, climate and so forth. (J.Paul Peter and James H.Donnelly,2003) Although Singapores population is higher than Madium, singapores competitor is much higher and intense as it is a modern country, Madium has bigger field and resources and it is a potential opportunity for BreadTalks business. Demographic Demographic can divide a market into groups based on variables like age, family size, family life cycle, income or occupation, education, religion, race or nationality. (J.Paul Peter and James H.Donnelly,2003) Madiun is a small city in Indonesia and small population, despite small but there is no store that can satisfy their needs from south to west, but BreadTalk enter the market with its innovative and creative products and they understand what different cultured customer wants as they have been successful in all business wide, from small population to big. Once they obtained the halal certificate, they started to penetrate into muslim markets like Jakarta, Malaysia and then Madiun. Psychographic Psychographic can divide a market into groups based on social class, lifestyle and personality. (J.Paul Peter and James H.Donnelly,2003) Customers in Madiun likes healthy food, BreadTalk as offered four new varieties to compromise as healthy meal and giving the state in rice in their country. Behavioral Behavioral can divide a market into groups based on use occasion, benefits sought, user status, usage rate, loyalty status, readiness stage and attitude toward product. (J.Paul Peter and James H.Donnelly,2003) BreadTalk has developed a strong brand name and brand loyalty to customers, therefore customers are willing and they have the readiness to buy. BreadTalk sometimes will offer promotions to stimulate purchases. 5.0 Strategic Leadership Management issues can be solved by using strategic leadership. Leadership is concerned with creating a shared vision of what and where the organization is trying to aim and achieve, and formulate strategies to bring up needed changes to achieve this vision while management is about coping with the complexity to produce orderly and consistent results. Leadership activities are more to formulating strategy and then motivate and inspire employees while management activities implement strategy and control behavior and solving problems to ensure the strategy is implemented. (Fred R. David, 2009) The role of leader can help creating a learning organization and help to develop in shared vision and shaping the value of an organization. The learning organization can be defined as an organization which facilitates the learning of all its members and continuously transform itself and (Senge,1990) it comprises adaptive and generating learning. Adaptive learning is the ability to cope with change s in ones environment and generative learning is about creating change by being prepared to question the way we look at the world. (Fred R. David, 2009) The chairman of BreadTalk, Dr. George Quek, as known as the founder is a very good leader in leading its marketing team as he has 30 years of experience in the food and beverage industry. The chairman is always assisted by his senior management whom have vast experience in the food and beverage or retail industries, when a leader leads a team successfully, the performance rate will be maximum.

Phaedra Essay -- essays research papers

Theseus was the son either of Poseidon or Aegeus the king of Athens. His mother was Aethra. The childless Aegeus consulted the Delphic Oracle and was told not to untie his wine skin until he returned home. He did not understand what the oracle meant and so visited his friend King Pittheus of Troezen. Realizing that Aegeus was going to beget a powerful son immediately after the celebration feast for his safe return to Athens, Pittheus made his guest drunk and put him to bed with his daughter Aethra, and so Theseus was conceived. Before he left for home, Aegeus took the pregnant Aethra to a great boulder underneath which he placed his sword and sandals. He told her that, should she have a son, she must wait until he was strong enough to raise the boulder before she sent him to his father's court. After Aegeus' departure the wily Pittheus said his daughter's lover was really Poseidon. When Theseus came of age, Aethra explained that he was heir to the Athenian throne and he retrieved the sword and sandals. On his journey to Athens he slew several desperate bandits, a fearsome son of Hephaistos, and a dreadful sow, the daughter of the monster Typhon. At Eleusis, then a kingdom separate from Athens, Theseus was forced to accept the challenge of a wrestling match with its king, Cercyon. The aggressive ruler died as a result of the contest, so Theseus became king of Eleusis, which he later added to the Athenian kingdom. On his arrival in Athens, Theseus learned that his father A...

Hydrofoils and How They Work :: Hydrofoil Physics Boat Boating Watercraft

What is a hydrofoil? A hydrofoil is a watercraft that is supported on ski-like pontoons while in motion, with the bulk of the hull remaining entirely above the water (Encarta Encyclopedia 2002). Hydrofoils were first seen about in 1869. Emmanuel Denis Farcot was issued a patent on a boat that he had developed to go faster through the water because of less resistance. If you look at his design, he was using many little foils along the side of his boat to lift it out of the water in order to reduce the drag on the hull of the boat. Hydrofoils are not only used on boats. Guidoni and Croco took the idea of hydrofoils and put then on seaplanes. Their main reason for puting foils on the plane was to make the landings smoother and to make takeoffs much quicker. The plane can get out of the water much faster with foils because there is less drag inhibiting the plane from gaining speed to get airborn. This is useful when taking off of short lakes or in rough water. There are many purposes for hydrofoils. The main reason people or buisnesses install hydrofoils onto their watercraft is to decrease the drag of the boat as it travels through the water. By decreasing the drag, the watercraft is able to travel at higher speeds while burning less fuel. This makes use of the watercraft much more economical and provides a smoother, more comfortable ride because the watercraft rides above the reach of most of the waves. Another reason to use hydrofoils is because they are fun. The picture below shows a water ski that has been transformed into something that you sit on with your feet in front of you while you are "floating on air" behind a ski boat. When used on sail boats, hydrofoils can increase the top speed by quite a bit. Once the hull of the sail boat is out the the water the drag from the water is much less. Simply explained, there is less surface area "rubbing" on the water to slow the boat down. This means that even with gentle winds, a small boat can really get moving. Most hydrofoils lift the watercraft that they are supporting in the same way that airplane wings keep the plane supported in the air. With enough lift on the water foils, the hull of the watercraft is lifted out of the water.

Critique of Geoffrey Canadas Fist Stick Knife Gun Essay -- Fist Stick

Critique of Geoffrey Canada's Fist Stick Knife Gun The Book â€Å"Fist Stick Knife Gun† by Geoffrey Canada is a biographical account of his childhood in the south Bronx. He and his 4 brothers were raised by only their mother. She would survive on no more than ten dollars a week. He moved several times as a child until finally landing on union avenue, the place were many of his life lessons were learned and at times applied. He learned about the ranking process of kids on union Ave. and how the only way to improve your status was to use your fists to fight your way up the chain. Looking back Geoffrey Canada notices the major shift in attitudes concerning the rules of the streets. What once was harmless fist fighting has now turned over to guns. His opinions can be seen in his title â€Å"Fist Stick Knife Gun†. One of the earliest lessons he ever learned was from his mother. She told all four of her boys to never let people think they were afraid and that they were never to become victims. This is shown with each word that Canada uses in his title. The first phase of his life consisted of â€Å"Fist†. He recalls the time when he first moved to Union Ave and he was trapped inside his apartment because he hadn’t established himself in the neighborhood. He would sit up in his 3rd floor apartment and jealously looked on, as all the other kids would play in the streets. One day his older brother John had enough and walked outside to face his fate. The rest of his brothers followed and eventually each got beat up as a pass to the streets. None of them showed their fears or their pain, a lesson that they first learned from their mother. This was only one of many steps/ factors in becoming an established individual not to be reckoned with. Age was the other factor to be considered. Th e older you were, the more respect you got from others. There were the young adults, who were the biggest and badest on the block. They weren’t usually around to defend their turf because they all belonged to a gang, however everyone knew they ruled all. Next were the mid-teen boys who were the â€Å"real rulers of Union Ave (18)† They were the ones who enforced the rules. The lower categories were the early teens and the pre teens. The early teens were just learning the rules whereas the pre teens couldn’t go off of the sidewalk. Geoffrey belonged to the lowest rung, the sidewalk group. As time wen... ...hese rules. They may seem unfair and even ridiculous to us outsiders, but that’s because we have more options of obtaining success than those caught in the belly of the slums. These codes are all that they have and without them, they would have no meaning in their lives, nothing to live up to day in and day out. They give these people a reason to wake up in the morning and a sense of pride that can’t be provided in any other way.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Geoffrey Canada gives his readers a rare opportunity to look inside the life of a ghetto kid and what they have to go through just to survive. He also provides answers to the many questions asked of why certain things happen the way they do in the Bronx. He used his childhood experiences and turned them into a unique tool when helping the youth of today. Now that he works as a youth councilor he sees that the problem in the slums has gotten dramatically worse with the emergence of guns. It used to be about pride and status, now any thug with a gun can be feared in the community. This, to Canada is a major problem because guns gives kids a sense of power, a strong feeling that is often abused and results in someone, even an innocent person dead.

Analysis of Secure Real Time Transport Protocol on Voip over

Mohd Nazri Ismail / (IJCSE) International Journal on Computer Science and Engineering Vol. 02, No. 03, 2010, 898-902 Analysis of Secure Real Time Transport Protocol on VoIP over Wireless LAN in Campus Environment Mohd Nazri Ismail Department of MIIT, University of Kuala Lumpur (UniKL), MALAYSIA [email  protected] unikl. edu. my Abstract- In this research, we propose to implement Secure Real Time Transport Protocol (SRTP) on VoIP services in campus environment. Today, the deployment of VoIP in campus environment over wireless local area network (WLAN) is not considered on security during communication between two parties.Therefore, this study is to analyzed SRTP performance on different VoIP codec selection over wired. We have implemented a real VoIP network in University of Kuala Lumpur (UniKL), Malaysia. We use softphone as our medium communication between two parties in campus environment. The results show that implementation of SRTP is able to improve the VoIP quality between on e-to-one conversation and multi conference call (many-to-many). In our experiment, it shows that iLBC, SPEEX and GSM codec are able to improve significantly the multi conference (many-to-many) VoIP quality during conversation.In additional, implementation of SRTP on G. 711 and G. 726 codec will decrease the multi conference (many-to-many) VoIP quality. Keywords- Codecs, Softphone, SRTP, WLAN I. INTRODUCTION AND RELATED WORKS University of Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) has implemented a real VoIP over wireless LAN in campus environment. This implementation is not covered any security features. Therefore, the objective of this study is to enable the security function using Secure Real Time Transport Protocol (SRTP).We will study the performance of SRTP on different codec such as G. 711, G. 726, GSM, iLBC and SPEEX. iLBC is a speech codec developed for robust voice communication over IP, it uses 13. 33 Kbps. It provides low delay and high packet loss robustness for low-bit rate codec’s. SPEEX codec is open source patent-free audio compression format designed for speech. Codec is an algorithm used to encode and decode the voice conversation. Secure Real Time Transport Protocol (SRTP) defines a profile of Real Time Transport Protocol (RTP), intended to provide ncryption, message authentication and integrity and replay protection to the RTP data in both unicast and multicast applications. Previous work is to evaluate the trade-off existing between quality of service and security when SRTP [6] is employed to protect RTP (Real Time Protocol) sessions on VoIP calls [5]. There is no such study has been conducted on comparison of VoIP one-to-one call and multi conference call (many-to-many) performance using SRTP functionality. With its promise of inclusion, innovation, and growth, VoIP also brings challenges. VoIP is not easy to secure.It suffers all of the problems associated with any Internet application, and VoIP security is complicated by its interconnection to the PS TN. A host of trust, implementation, and operational complexities make securing VoIP particularly complex. In fact, the same aspects that make the VoIP software model so powerful—its flexible, open, distributed design—are what make it potentially problematic [7][8]. Various security requirements have to be met to secure VoIP transmission: Authentication, Privacy and Confidentiality, Integrity, Non repudiation, Non replay and Resource availability [9].The threats faced by a VoIP are similar to other applications including: unwanted communication (spam), privacy violations (unlawful intercept), impersonation (masquerading), theft-of service, and denial-of-service [10]. II. METHODOLOGY We have setup a real wireless network environment to analyze and measure implementation of VoIP service using security function (SRTP) at University of Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) in Malaysia. This study posits several research questions: i) what is the STRP performance level of the VoIP over WLAN based on one-to-one call and multi conference call? nd ii) which codecs are able to provide better improvement of VoIP conversation? Figure 2. 1 and Figure 2. 2 show the flow of VoIP conversation call between one-to-one and multi conference. We measure our voice quality using human perception. Mean Opinion Score (MOS) technique is the best approach to measure and ISSN : 0975-3397 898 Mohd Nazri Ismail / (IJCSE) International Journal on Computer Science and Engineering Vol. 02, No. 03, 2010, 898-902 validate voice quality between one-to-one call and multi conference call. Figure 2. 3 shows the measurement of VoIP performance over WLAN using SRTP implementation.We also test on different codecs selection such G. 711, G. 726, GSM, iLBC and SPEEX. III. ANALYSIS AND RESULTS Figure 2. 1: VoIP over One-to-One Conversation This section measures and compares VoIP performance over WLAN using SRTP function. In voice and video communication, quality usually dictates whether the experience is a good or bad one. Besides the qualitative description we hear, like ‘quite good' or ‘very bad', there is a numerical method of expressing voice and video quality. It is called Mean Opinion Score (MOS). MOS can be tested using: i) human perception; ii) simulation model; and iii) automated system [1] [2].MOS gives a numerical indication of the perceived quality of the media received after being transmitted and eventually compressed using codecs. MOS is expressed in one number, from 1 to 5, 1 being the worst and 5 the best. MOS is quite subjective; as it is based figures that result from what is perceived by people during tests (refer to Table 3. 1). We will select five different users to evaluate and rate the VoIP performance using SRTP and without SRTP functionality. When users cannot get a dial tone or there are excessive delays in ringing the other party’s phone, VoIP performance is unacceptable.Call quality is a function of packet loss rate, delay, and jitter is typically represented as a MOS [3], [4]. Table 3. 1: Mean Opinion Score (MOS) Ratings Mean Opinion Score (MOS) Ratings Excellent 5 (Perfect. Like face-to-face conversation Figure 2. 2: VoIP over Many-to-Many (Multi Conference) Conversation Good Fair Poor Bad or radio reception) 4 (Fair. Imperfections can be perceived, but sound still clear. This is (supposedly) the range for cell phones) 3 (Annoying) 2 (Very annoying. Nearly impossible to communicate) 1 (Impossible to communicate) Figure 3. shows the configuration of codec protocol such as G. 711, G. 726, GSM, iLBC and SPEEX. This 3CX softphone is able to active ‘Echo Cancellation’ and ‘SRTP’. The VoIP experiments will receive two types of modes: i) one-to-one call conversation; ii) multi conference call (many-to-many). Figure 3. 2 shows the result of VoIP one-to-one conversation. Figure 3. 3 shows the result of VoIP multi conference (many-to-many) call. Figure 2. 3: Measurement and Evaluation of VoIP over WLAN using SRTP Approach ISSN : 0975-3397 899 Mohd Nazri Ismail / (IJCSE) International Journal on Computer Science and Engineering Vol. 2, No. 03, 2010, 898-902 improvement on VoIP quality performance and at the same time able to provide element of security (refer to Table 3. 3 and Figure 3. 5). The significant improvement is GSM and SPEEX codecs after implemented SRTP. Table 3. 2: Multi Conference without SRTP User Codec Figure 3. 1: 3CX Softphone Codec and SRTP Configuration G. 711 G. 726 GSM iLBC SPEEX User 1 3 4 1 2 5 User 2 3 3 1 2 4 User 3 2 3 1 3 4 User 4 3 4 1 2 4 User 5 2 4 1 2 5 Figure 3. 2: One-to-One Call Conversation Result Figure 3. 4: Users Rate VoIP for Multi Conference Call Without SRTP Table 3. : Multi Conference with SRTP User Codec G. 711 G. 726 GSM iLBC SPEEX Figure 3. 3: Multi Conference Call (many-tomany) Conversation Result Most of the users agreed and rates this VoIP without SRTP will provide a good quality for G. 711 and G. 726 codecs. Other users agreed a nd rates 4 to 5 ratings for SPEEX codec without using SRTP during multi conference conversation (refer to Table 3. 2 and Figure 3. 4). After implemented SRTP on VoIP during multi conference session occurs, it shows some User 1 2 3 4 5 5 User 2 1 3 4 5 5 User 3 1 2 3 4 5 User 4 2 2 3 4 5 User 5 1 2 3 4 5 ISSN : 0975-3397 900Mohd Nazri Ismail / (IJCSE) International Journal on Computer Science and Engineering Vol. 02, No. 03, 2010, 898-902 Table 3. 5: One-to-One Call with SRTP User Codec G. 711 G. 726 GSM iLBC SPEEX User 1 2 3 2 4 5 User 2 1 3 2 4 4 User 3 1 2 2 4 5 User 4 2 2 2 4 4 User 5 2 3 2 4 5 Figure 3. 5: Users Rate VoIP for Multi Conference Call With SRTP Most of the users agreed and rates this VoIP oneto-one call without SRTP will also provide low quality for G. 711, G. 726 and GSM codecs. Other users agreed and rates 3 and 5 ratings for iLBC and SPEEX codecs without using SRTP during one-to-one call (refer to Table 3. and Figure 3. 6). After implemented SRTP on VoIP during o ne-to-one session occurs, it shows significant improvement on VoIP quality performance for G. 711, G. 726, GSM, iLBC and SPEEX over WLAN (refer to Table 3. 5 and Figure 3. 7). Table 3. 4: One-to-One Call Without SRTP User Codec G. 711 G. 726 GSM iLBC SPEEX User 1 2 1 2 3 5 User 2 2 2 2 3 4 User 3 2 1 2 4 4 User 4 1 1 1 3 4 User 5 1 2 2 4 4 Figure 3. 7: Users Rate VoIP for One-to-One Call with SRTP Figure 3. 8 and Figure 3. 9 show the average MOS score for VoIP conversation over one-to-one call and multi conference call (many-to-many), respectively.VoIP Conversation over Multi Conference Call: Before implemented SRTP, the average MOS score for G. 711 is 2. 5, 3. 5 for G. 726, 1 for GSM, 2. 1 for iLBC and 4. 5 for SPEEX. After implemented SRTP, the average MOS score for G. 711 and G. 726 are decreased the ratings approximately 1 to 2. 5. GSM, iLBC and SPEEX codecs show the average MOS score are 3. 5, 4. 5 and 5. GSM, iLBC and SPEEX codec show the increasing of VoIP performance after i mplemented SRTP (refer to Figure 3. 8). VoIP Conversation over One-to-One Call: Before implemented SRTP, the average MOS score for G. 711 is 1. , 1. 4 for G. 726, 1. 8 for GSM, 3. 5 for iLBC and 4. 2 for SPEEX. After implemented SRTP, the average MOS score shows the significant improvement for G. 711, G. 726, GSM, iLBC and SPEEX codecs. Therefore, implementation of SRTP can improve the VoIP quality performance for one-to-one call over WLAN (refer to Figure 3. 9). Figure 3. 6: Users Rate VoIP for One-to-One Call without SRTP ISSN : 0975-3397 901 Mohd Nazri Ismail / (IJCSE) International Journal on Computer Science and Engineering Vol. 02, No. 03, 2010, 898-902 dependency conditions that could influence voice quality.Future work, we will extend our experiment on VoIP over VPN implementation in Campus environment. References [1]. Moura N. T. ; Vianna B. A. ; Albuquergue C. V. N; Rebello V. E. F & Boeres C. â€Å"MOS-Based Rate Adaption for VoIP Sources†. IEEE International Confe rence on Communication, pp. 628-633, 2007. [2]. Masuda M. & Ori K. â€Å"Delay Variation Metrics for Speech Quality Estimation of VoIP†. Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (IEIC) Technical Report, Vol. 101(11), pp. 101-106, 2001. [3]. R. G. Cole & J. H. Rosenbluth. â€Å"Voice over IP Performance Monitoring†. SIGCOMM Computer Communication Rev.Vol. 31(2), pp. 9-24, 2001. [4]. L. Ding & R. Goubran. â€Å"Speech Quality Prediction in VoIP Using the Extended e-Model. Global Telecommunication Conference, GLOBECOM ’03. IEEE, Vol. 7, pp. 3974-3978, 2003. [5]. Alexandre P. ; Edjair M. ; & Edjard M. â€Å"Analysis of the Secure RTP Protocol on Voice over Wireless Networks using Extended MedQoS†. Proceedings of the 2009 ACM symposium on Applied Computing, pp. 86 – 87, 2009. [6]. M. Baugher, D. McGrew, M. Naslund, E. Carrara, & K. Norrman. â€Å"The Secure Real- Time Transport Protocol (SRTP)†. RFC 3711 (Proposed Standa rd), March 2004. [7] Douglas C. Sicker & Tom L. VoIP Security: Not an Afterthought†, FEATURE: Q focus: Voice Over IP, Vol. 2(6), pp. 56-64, 2004. [8] Vesselin I. , Theodor T. , & Amdt T. â€Å"Experiences in VoIP telephone network security policy at the University of Applied Sciences (FHTW) Berlin†, Proceedings of the 2007 international conference on Computer systems and technologies, Bulgaria, Vol. 285(3), 2007. [9] Wafaa B. D. , Samir T. , & Carole B. â€Å"Critical vpn security analysis and new approach for securing voip communications over vpn networks†, Proceedings of the 3rd ACM workshop on Wireless multimedia networking and performance modelling,Chania, Crete Island, Greece, pp. 2-96, 2007. [10] Nekita A. C. , & Chhabria S. A. â€Å"Multiple design patterns for voice over IP security†, Proceedings of the International Conference on Advances in Computing, Communication and Control, Mumbai, India, pp. 530 – 534, 2009. Figure 3. 8: VoIP Conversa tion over Multi Conference Call over WLAN Figure 3. 9: VoIP Conversation over One-to-One Call over WLAN IV. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK Based on the results, implementation of SRTP using GSM, iLBC and SPEEX codecs are able to generate high quality of VoIP conversation WLAN for one-to-one conversation and multi conference call (many-to-many).After implemented SRTP for multi conference call (many-to-many), the MOS result indicates that G. 711 and G. 726 codec will decrease the performance of VoIP conversation over WLAN. Overall of our finding, it confirms that enable SRTP will improve and increase the quality of one-to-one VoIP conversation and VoIP over multi conference call (only for iLBC, GSM and SPEEX codecs). Since the manual/human MOS tests are quite subjective and less than productive in many ways, there are nowadays a number of software tools that carry out automated MOS testing in a VoIP deployment.Although they lack the human touch, the good thing with these tests is that the y take into account all the network ISSN : 0975-3397 902 Copyright of International Journal on Computer Science & Engineering is the property of Engg Journals Publications and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.