Express Script Holding Analysis: Powerpoint presentation

An informational analysis on the company

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Analysis of Mozambique

Mozambique shows an average population growth of 2.89 % during 2012- 2016. The population pyramid in 2016 shows that among the total population 51.50 percent population is between 15-64 years and 45.65% is between 02-14 years, and 3.14 percent is more than 64 years. 

The economic indicators show that between 2011-2014 the GDP annual growth percentage is above 7 percent which declined to 6.5 % in 2015 and 3.84% in 2016. The GDP per capita in 2011 is 22.1 percent which declined to -26.1 % in 2016. The overall average growth rate between 2011-2016 is -0.2%. The contribution of agriculture, industry, and services in total GDP is 24.77, 21.64 and 53.58 respectively.

In 2016 debt per capita in Mozambique is $444. The debt to GDP ratio is 1.13%. The external debt stock to export ratio increases from 35.9% in 2011 to 95.7% in 2016. On the other hand, the debt service to export percentage increases from 2% in 2011 to 12.6% in 2016.

The imports and exports of goods and services show an increasing trend in years 2011-2014 and declining trend in 2015-2016. The balance of payment in 2011 is -3.3$ Million which increases to -6.25$ Million in 2013 and declines to -4.19$ Million in 2016. The main export partner of Mozambique is Netherland, India and South Africa which contributes 30.8 %, 15.2% and 14.6% respectively in 2016. The main export products are Aluminium, Bronze, Cashews, Cotton, Sugar and Timber etc.

The import Partners are South Africa, China, Netherland, Bahrain, France, Portugal, and UAE which contributes total imports of 36.6%, 10.9 %, 7.8 %, 5.2%, 4.2%, 4.1% respectively. The import products include machinery and equipment, vehicle, fuels, chemicals, metal products, food products and textiles.

 The unemployment rate in 2016 is 24.37%. The employment percentage in agriculture is 72.1% which shows the largest sector for employment.

While analyzing the social indicators of Mozambique it is observed that in 2015 the HDI value is 0.418 which puts the country in low human development category positioning it at 181 out 180 countries. In 2015 life expectancy of male and female at birth is 56/59. In same year the expected year and mean year of schooling is 9.1 and 3.5. The GNI per capita shows an increasing trend of 480-620 during 2011-2014 and then decreases to 590.

In 2015 the inequality data shows that life expectancy at birth, inequality in education, and inequality in income is 36.4 percent, 33.8 percent, and 28.4 percent.

The global hunger index (GHI) shows 98^th rank. The water access shows that 9% of population only uses a piped drinking supply water on premises. 38% of population using an unimproved drinking water source. 

Thus, the overall conducted analysis of Mozambique between the years 2011-2016 shows that the country has faced many problems in financial, economic and social sectors. For example, the debt has also increased in these years and the citizens of the country have also faced much trouble in getting good jobs. There are also several problems related to the water resources and people are not getting enough water which is important to carry on daily activities. Several steps should be taken by the federal authorities in order to come up with concrete solutions to the above mentioned issues.

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Production Cost. Subject ( Business, marketing )

List 5 reasons why reducing the number of parts in a product might reduce production costs. 

By minimizing the number of parts in a product can give huge cost savings especially in cases of large quantities. Also, this kind of approach might result in the better quality of a product. Following are some of the important reasons that show how by reducing the number of parts in a product can reduce the product costs (Devinish, 2008).

1). Less Suppliers:     If the product has less number of parts this means that there will be chances of less suppliers to deliver the parts. In this way the cost can be cut down as one becomes less dependent on others in delivery as well as in communication and documentation processes.

2). Less Inventory Management:     During the production inventory management plays a vital role. It is often observed that if any of the parts for the product is not available and is out of stock then it becomes hard to assemble the product. This also causes obstruct toward the complete production of a product.

3). Less Inspections and Associated Fixtures:   Every part of the product must be properly inspected before it is assembled. Therefore, if there are more parts then this means more work must be done on the quality inspections and thus more expenditure. On the other hand, if there are less parts then less expenditure will be on the inspection and associated fixtures.

4). Simple Production Cost:   There will be less cost on the part itself which means that if there are less parts then less production cost.      

5). Less Labor Cost :    Similarly if there are less parts then the labor cost will also be reduced as fewer parts mean less assembly and which in turn will result in less labor cost.

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SAY NO TO Plagiarism

Plagiarism and Falsification

Adopted and Revised from:

 Victoria E. McMillan, Writing Papers in the Biological Sciences (3rd edition, 2001)

Academic dishonesty, in any form, will not be tolerated.   You are responsible for upholding University Academic Honesty standards, understanding what constitutes acts of academic dishonesty, understanding academic honesty procedures, and understanding what penalties can be imposed for acts of academic dishonesty.  This is what is usually we see in the beginning of every course. Here are some details about it.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the representation of someone else's words, work, or ideas as your own.  It includes such acts as (1) turning in a friend's paper, or a paper copied from the WWW, and saying it is yours; (2) using another person's data or ideas without acknowledgment; (3) copying an author's exact words and putting them in your paper without quotation marks; and (4) using wording that is very similar to that of the original source, but passing it off as entirely your own even while acknowledging the source.  This last example of plagiarism is probably the most common one in student writing.   Here is an example.

Original Passage:

A very virulent isolate of Alternaria mali, the incitant of apple blotch, was found to produce two major host-specific toxins (HSTs) and five minor ones in liquid culture.  The minor toxins were less active than the major ones, but were still specifically toxic to the plants which are susceptible to the pathogen (Kohmoto et al. 1976, p 141).

Plagiarized Passage:

Kohmoto, Kahn, and others (1976) found that a very virulent isolate of Alternaria mali, the incitant of apple blotch disease, produced two main host-specific toxins, as well as five minor ones in liquid culture.  Although the minor toxins were less active than the major ones, they were still specifically toxic to the susceptible plants.

Although the writer has altered a few words here and there, the second passage is strikingly similar to the original.  It is still plagiarism if you use an author's key phrases or sentence structure in a way that implies they are your own, even if you cite the source.  The only way to make this passage "legal" as it now stands is to enclose everything retained nom the original wording it quotation marks.  Better yet, you should first determine which facts or ideas in a source are relevant for your purposes, and then put these in your own words and word order.

Plagiarism of this kind is usually unintentional, the result of poor note taking and an incomplete understanding of the ethics of research and writing.  Typically the problem arises when you lean heavily on notes that consist of undigested passages copied or half-copied from the original source.  These become the source of all the information and ideas for your paper. When you sit down to write the first draft, it is all too easy for this material to end up barely changed as the backbone of your paper.  Thus your text becomes an amalgamation of other people's words disguised as your own.  Even if you cite references for the facts and ideas, you are still guilty of plagiarism because the wording is not completely yours.

Another problem with this kind of note taking is that it consists of reading without thinking. It allows you to speed through a stack of references without necessarily understanding the material.  It conflicts with your major purpose in conducting a literature review: to evaluate and interpret information on a subject.  You need to start making judgments, comparisons, and contrasts while you are still working with the original sources; otherwise, your prose is just a mosaic of other people's material.  Your own paper, like professional papers, should be more than just a sum of its parts.

Form the habit of taking notes mainly in your own words. If you are not used to doing this, you may be frustrated by the additional time it takes.  However, once you start the first draft, these notes will save you much time and effort. You will have already worked through difficult material, weeded out many inconsistencies, responded to the conclusions of other authors, and made connections among related ideas.  Much of the preliminary work will have already been done.  To take notes effectively you need to understand how to paraphrase and summarize material.  A paraphrase expresses certain facts or ideas in different wording - your own - but in the same or fewer words as in the original.  A summary expresses the important facts and ideas in fewer words than the original; for example, the abstract of a research paper is a summary.  Both paraphrasing and summarizing require that you understand material fully before you write about it.  Although you will probably use both methods as you work through your sources, you'll find that learning how to identify and summarize the points that are most relevant to your particular needs is a highly valuable research skill.  For example, the writer of the plagiarized passage above might have written the following in his or her notes, to be incorporated later in the final paper.

Kohmoto. Kahn, and others (1976) cultured the fungus Alternaria mali, which causes apple blotch, and isolated seven different toxins. Of these, two were particularly toxic to susceptible plants.

Some times it is difficult to determine when you must cite information in a reference.  It is not necessary to cite the reference: 1) if the information is found in several books on the subject (is common knowledge); 2) is written entirely in your words; 3) is not paraphrased from a source; and 4) it is not summarized from a source.

Plagiarism also includes allowing YOUR work to be copied by another student.

Falsification

Falsification is the intentional fabrication or invention of information or citations.  It is a blatant act of academic dishonesty.  Falsification can be an act of inclusion.  If, for example, you write that 80% of GMOs produce toxic alcohols, but you not observed this in any citable source, you have falsified information.  If you claim that the same fact in included in a reference by Smith and Jones, but no such reference exists, you have also falsified information. Falsification can also be an act of omission.  If, for example, you report that all published reports indicate that 80% of GMOs produce toxic alcohols, but you omitted that two references in your possession reported that only 50% produce toxic alcohols, you have falsified information.

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Health Care Issues for people with disabilities in USA

In general, the top two reasons given by people without disabilities for not getting medical care is that the treatment’s not covered by insurance or that it costs too much money.  There was a disability healthcare access brief published in 2007 that also went on to say that in terms of statistics, 28% of insured people with disabilities reported needing particular therapies, equipment or medications that were not covered by their health plans compared to only 7% of those people without disabilities.  In this report they gave several examples from parents and other individuals and for example, one parent reported that their annual out of pocket expenses were approximately $15,000 for healthcare needs for her child who had a disability because the family’s insurance covered only specific brands of supplies such as for example, diapers to which her child was allergic.  19% of people with disabilities reported they did not receive medical care needed in the past year compared to only 6% of non disabled people.  Interestingly, they also did some checking of athletes at the 2003 Special Olympics.  They looked at 3500 athletes, all of whom had intellectual disabilities and what they found was that over a third of them had obvious signs of tooth decay.  12% reported tooth or mouth pain and that’s compared to only 2% of all U. S. employed adults who go to the dentist.  A third of the athletes in the winter and summer games of the Special Olympics had never received an eye exam.  So you get the sense that, for example people with disabilities particularly developmental disabilities such as Down’s syndrome, need access to healthcare need access to vision care and it’s oftentimes not there.  One issue with that too is that these individuals may sometimes need a specialist to conduct basic vision and hearing tests but that insurance companies will refuse to refer the members who have such disabilities to an out of network specialist because the insurance covers only in network providers who may lack experience or familiarity in working with people who have a particular type of disability.

We should also note that the severity of one’s disability makes a difference.  Not surprisingly, the more severe your disability, the more likely you are to have needs that aren’t covered by insurance.  And in fact, again, compared to the non disabled population, people with severe disabilities are almost four times more likely to have inadequate health insurance compared to people in general and even people with slight disabilities.  40% of people with severe disabilities aren’t getting their insurance needs met compared to only 11% of those with slight disabilities. 

There was a survey done in 2003 sponsored by the Kaiser Foundation and this survey particularly looked at some of the issues faced by people who have disabilities and they looked at people who are non elderly – they view that as people under the age of 65.  The next few slides give you a brief summary of some of the information some of the data that they found.  Looking at this first slide here in terms of problems paying for selective health care services, notice that of their respondents and they had over 1500 people respond to this, all of whom had permanent physical and/or mental disabilities, they found that 32%, almost a third of them, reported significant serious problems paying for prescription drugs, a slightly lesser amount reported concerns with regard to paying for dental care.  You can read the rest of the slide yourself, but each of these areas, prescription drugs, dental care, equipment, were areas of concern for people with disabilities in terms of their ability to pay for it. 

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