Achieving Service Excellence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Achieving Service Excellence - Essay Example Meeting these demands effectively requires us to be well equipped, not only with a trained work force but also with all sorts of medical products. Right from the inventory of medicines to the fleet of ambulances, each and every product that is utilized in our services are properly monitored and well managed.Keeping in lieu with the information technology, our management has implemented an online capacity utilization plan which keeps an updated record of all inventory, technological equipments, medicines, beds available, kitchen stock etc. The system is so designed that when ever quantity of any thing increases or decreases below the essential required level a warning email is generated and send to the concerned departments. This has been done to make sure that nothing obsolete is kept in the stocks. This system not only assists us in maintaining a streamlined control on our inventory but also helps us to evaluate and quantify the costs, benefits, risk factors etc. beforehand.

Energy - What Next Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Energy - What Next - Essay Example Offshore wind firms are more complex, inclusive of turbines, platforms, grids, cables, substations, interconnection and related construction activities. Currently, construction activities have centered in many rejoins of the U.K, representing over 3300MW of the entire capacity (Jay, 2008). I support the construction of these offshore winds with long-term charters of numerous highly specialized construction vessels and facilities to put up with the increasing dimensions of contemporary support structures, wind turbines, and balance of plant. Offshore wind farms are vital in their contribution to energy supply If these firms are constructed, they will be a suitable technology to meat the growing electricity demand, in a clean and sustainable way. Such firms will have minimal environmental impacts if they are logically well located relative to the places of electricity need. Further, higher wind speeds will increase energy production, since energy production is a purpose of the cube of the wind speed. I expect that a significant part of the future widely spread wind energy usage in U.K will be from offshore sites. Huge offshore wind farms are already in the planning phase of construction in several countries and especially in Europe. Just like Hirts put it, financial payback or economic viability of the farms depend largely on the renewable obligation Certificates, as well as on favorable wind conditions as compared to the sites constructed on land, I argue that the higher energy outcome has to recompense the extra installation and continuance costs. In constructing these farms, particularly siting large projects, a reliable and efficient offshore wind prediction is crucial (Burton & Jenkins, 2011). Present estimates based partially on U.K experience indicate that offshore wind energy can cost less than six cents per KW. In addition, capital costs are about 30-50 percent higher than those onshore because of bigger machine sizes, transporting and installing costs a t the sea, particularly offset by high-energy productions. However, just like onshore, I expect these prices to drop as technology advances and managers get more experience. As the European Wind Energy Association (2012) affirms, most offshore farms will be sited on monopiles or constructed on gravity foundations, there will be concrete structures stabilized by water or sand to allow the turbine towers to fit in. Monopiles must be included in these installations. They are long steel pipes, which are stroked, vibrated or drilled into the seabed to security levels then towers and platforms are installed on top of them. They will have a technical difficulty in mounting turbines on floating constructions, and monopiles get more expensive as one progress deeper into the water. In my opinion, technology has been growing rapidly for the past years and I can predict that technical advancements may make suspended offshore wind farms to be economically realistic in the future. Offshore wind f arms are important in energy providence. I support the construction of these farms basing on several factors. The resource, which is wind energy indirectly from the sun is extremely large, the costs of energy, though originally higher than those of onshore are affordable than most renewable technologies, and the associated risks are low. Constructing wind turbines at sea will limit the restraints that can be

The affects of football Essay Example for Free

The affects of football Essay From the early ages in history to present day, sports have had a major impact on society. Football is a very popular sport played in America and many other countries. Some may say that football is a violent sport and its not beneficial in any way, but in reality it gives a person all the basic tools needed not only for playing the game, but also how you interact with people in society. Also it is very simple to get involved in most cites and towns. Football is a great game that is both fun and instructive. Football is game played by twenty-two players on a field at once, with eleven players on the defensive and offensive side of the ball. The goal of the game is to get a leather cone shaped ball, called a football, into the opposing teams end zone. On offense you have four tries to gain ten yards and gain a first down, which mean you have another four tries to go another ten yards. The defense in return has four tries to stop the offense or they get the football. A great football team is one that works very well together, and is disciplined enough that they can win without falling apart. Football is such a great sport because it takes eleven players on each side of the ball to do their assignment to become a great team. Each player has a different job, and if every player does their job than they can accomplish their task. There is no other game like football, it is a game where you can tackle and throw your rival as hard as you can without getting in trouble. It is a violent sport but a teams violence has to be controlled. Sports in society today are often a big deal. Teens go to high school and can get very competitive in any sport. Football is one of the best sports to get involved with because it teaches so many things children and teens need to be active in society. It teaches: discipline, teamwork, interaction, self-restraint, and perseverance. It is one of the only team sports that you actually need all the players on the field to work together and knows what theyre doing to become a good team. Practice makes prefect, and to become a better player you need to be disciplined and learn from your mistakes. Football also teaches players to control their anger on and off the field, and to keep working harder. It keeps teens out of trouble and gives them something to do, rather than cause trouble. Living in Amsterdam has a major effect on why I and many other teens play football. Amsterdam is, and has always been, and great football tradition. It all starts out with the children and the great Pee Wee football program we call Little Giants. This program teaches little kids from age seven through twelve the art of the game of football. When players get too old for this program they move on to the junior high school team which has always been another great program that teaches kids the fundamentals of life. Then the players move on to the junior varsity team where they get trained to play on the top school level. Varsity is the top of line for school football. This is where every little giants player wants to play. These players are envied by all, for the decades of great football they have played. There is no other greater feeling than to play a home game on a Friday night under the lights on the Amsterdam turf, while being watches by thousands of screaming fans, the steam that can be seen on the top of every players head, and the joy that runs through your body as you see the time run out and your are a champion again. The greatest accomplishment these players have is winning the state title and raising their helmets in the dome of Syracuse and yelling champions for the last time of their football career. As a player walks off that field there is no better feeling of pride in the fact that you are an Amsterdam football player. Sports have had a major impact on society. Football is a very popular sport played in America and many other countries. Some may say that football is a violent sport and its not beneficial in any way, but in reality it gives a person all the basic tools needed not only for playing the game, but also how you interact with people in society. Also it is very simple to get involved in most cites and towns. It can be the one thing that matters the most in a students high school career. The accomplishments that can be earned from football are like no other. Football takes time and effort to become a better player. To know that your whole team has worked the hardest and plays the best together is an incredible feeling. Football is a great game that is both fun and instructive. After winning a state title and walking off the field I thought to myself, there is not one other thing I would have dedicated myself to for so many years than the hot turf of a football field.

How and why do women and men speak differently?

How and why do women and men speak differently? Task: How and why do women and men speak differently? What explanations do different approaches in Sociolinguistics provide for the differences in language use by them? Which of these approaches do you agree with and why? In recent years, the assertion that women and men typically employ different speech style is pursued in a wide range of studies. Also, different sociolinguistics approaches such as variationist sociolinguistic, interactional sociolinguistic and ethnography of communication have put forward different explanations regarding this issue. Following by that, three approaches of language and gender have been also proposed by Jennifer Coates in her book â€Å"Women, Men and Language† (1986), which are the deficit approach, the dominance approach and the cultural difference approach to clarify this issue. Firstly,variationist sociolinguistics explains that different social conditions, for example different ages, genders, social classes and identities of interlocutors may discover different patterns of speech style. In this manner, it is suggested that the deficit approach which is proposed by Coates (1986) has followed the variationist sociolinguistic approach as deficit approach explains that the social status and identities of women have affected their speech style. According to Coates (1986), deficit is an approach established by Lakoff (1975). Robin Lakoffs (1975) influential exploratory essay, Language and Womans Place, about the ways womens speech differs from mens suggests that women are disadvantaged relative to men by a commonly inferior, less forceful â€Å"womens language† which they learn through socialisation. Also, she emphasises various female forms and styles conveying weakness, uncertainty, and unimportance. For instance, Lakoff argues that tag questions (1975: 16) and hedges (1975:54) are always used by women where they were unwilling to state a proposition directly. Indeed, her claims have been proven through a research carried out by Michael et. al. (2010) which determines the differences in conversational styles of men and women in Malaysia. The research points up that Malaysian women used more questions and hedges in their speech than men in order to keep the conversation going (Fishman, 1980; cited in Michael et. al., 2010). In this way, a psychological explanation given by Lakoff (1975) to womens usage of questions and hedges is due to the nature of womens secondary status, which is their sense of inferiority. She states that women feel unsecure of themselves because they have been taught to express themselves in â€Å"womens language†, which abounds in markers of uncertainty. Correspondingly, in Penelope Browns study of mens and womens speech patterns in a Mayan community in Mexico (1980), she found that a frequent correlation between higher status and the male sex affects the speech of men from that of women. She established that women in the Mayan community used the extremes of politeness, while men spoke more ‘matter-of-factly (Brown, 1980). Therefore, Brown (1980) relates these findings to the powerlessness social position of women in Mayan community as well, such as their vulnerability in relation to men and their need to protect their reputations. Hence, it seems reasonable to predict that women in general will speak more formally and more politely, since women are culturally referred to a secondary status relative to men and a higher level of politeness is expected from inferiors to superiors. Regarding to the same issue, other variationist explanations are given through Trudgills and Labovs researches. Trudgill claims that women typically hypercorrect where they speak more formally, using a higher proportion of prestige forms than men do in order to strive for social advancements. Likewise, Labov (1966; 312-495) found that at each socioeconomic level, except the very lowest, employ the same pattern. For example, in the description of Labovs investigations in New York City (1966), English speakers in New York sometimes pronounce the /r/ sound in words like ‘car, ‘floor and ‘fourth, and at other times they omit it. Beyond the finding that all speakers fluctuate between the inclusion and omission of /r/, Labov shows that speakers from a high socioeconomic level tend to pronounce /r/ relatively often. However, /r/ inclusion is more frequent in the speech of lower middle class women where they pay much careful attention in their speech. They use the upper mid dle class or the upper class as their reference as their accent has higher prestige and their own vernacular forms do not appear as often in casual speech (Labov, 1966). Besides, Labov (1966) suggests that the more formal a context of speech becomes, the more will the lower middle class women adopt the features of the higher class and will even overtake the rate of the upper class in the most formal style. Furthermore, Fischer (1958; cited in Angle Hesse-Biber, 1981) also found that women were more probable than men to prefer the standard gerundive suffix -ing to the more informal -in. In relation to Labov (1966), hypercorrection of the middle class women is associated with a relatively high level of linguistic insecurity as their extreme attention to external standards can be coupled with the weaker economic base of women, their relative powerlessness, and the oppressive nature of social stratification. In contrast, the tendency of men to actually lower the status level of their s peech is seen as evidence that men have a covert norm of prestige that runs contrary to that assigning prestige to the standard forms. Secondly, ethnography of communication approach which is used as a mean to study the interactions among members of a particular speech community which has a specific culture could be used to explain the differences in speech style of men and women as well. This is because speech communities create and establish their own speaking codes or norms (Philipsen, 1975). Essentially, the dominance approach with is suggested by Coates (1986) could be associated with ethnography of communication as well, as male dominance is always one of the factors or cultures of some speech communities that affects mens and womens speech style. One of the examples from which dominance approach is applied is in Korea, which the country social structure consists of a royal monarch, a patriarchically dominated family system that emphasises the maintenance of family lines (Cho, 2006). Also, this structure has tended to separate roles of women from those of men. Therefore, Cho claims that Korean women are seen a s the powerless and subordinate group whose difference speech style is resulted from male supremacy. An example of male dominance in Korean society illustrated by Cho (2006) is, a married Korean woman will rarely introduce herself to others with her own name, but habitually calls herself someones mother or wife, even though she has a profession. One might also explain this in terms of the dominance model, where female uses a term that identifies her relationship to husband, either as a mother or a wife, to show her subordination to her husband. Conversely, male uses his own name to offer himself with an individual identity. Next, interactionist sociolinguistics approach is mainly interested in what language use can tell about social processes. Besides, it asserts that environmental factors are more dominant in language acquisition. In other words, interactionist approach places the importance on home and cultural environment in language learning. Thus, this approach is followed by Deborah Tannens (1990, 1992) cultural differences approach when she describes communication between men and women as â€Å"cross-cultural communication†. She (1992:109) asserts that cultural differences between men and women including diverse expectations about the gender role of talk in relationships and how they have to achieve that role. Tannen (1990) outlines, speech styles begin to established in childhood and continue through adulthood. She believes that women and men have dissimilar pass experiences. Boys and girls grow up in different cultural environment. They travel in different worlds and adapt to different c ultures, reinforcing patterns established in childhood. In order to elaborate on speech styles, Tannen (1990:77) depicts that most men are very quiet at home, but will freely talk up in public and participate in discussion groups. Basically, they use a reporting communication style, to preserve independence as well as negotiate and maintain status in a hierarchical social order. Also, men avoid small talk. Conversely, women have a rapport communications establishing connections, negotiating relationships and enjoying private conversations (Tannen, 1990). They do most of the talking in private conversations such as when they are at home. However, when in a public occasions, women are not as comfortable in voicing their views. In this manner, Tannen (1990) asserts that men are more concerned with status and independence whereas women prefer connection and intimacy. She considers that these cultural differences can give women and men a different perception at the same situation and the refore they employ different speech styles. In my viewpoint, I believe that there is a truth in the claim of interactionist approach, and I think that this approach has best described the language and gender issues. As what has been claimed by Tannen (1990), I agree that men and women come from different sociolinguistic subcultures would have different conceptions of friendly conversation, different rules for engaging in it, and different rules for interpreting it. Hence, cultural differences approach which follows interactionist approach has evidently described that cultural differences will truly impose a number of differences in speech style between men and women. Nevertheless, my point here is that cultural differences alone cannot sufficiently clarify the whole pattern of language difference. In fact, deficit approach and dominance approach may make some contribution even though there would be some biasness or stereotypes included in these approaches. This is because there is a clear pattern for language style shown by di fferent linguists over the years, which correlated with men to be that of power and dominance, and that associated with women to be that of powerlessness and submissiveness (e.g. Lakoff, 1975). To summarise, gender different in patterns and styles of communication should be viewed as a complex issue where there are many approaches and factors involved in it. Individuals would not use one form of speech style in all occasions and with all people. They would consider various factors and decide on different communicative strategies to transmit meaning correctly and effectively. Effect of Mineral Deficiency on Plants | Experiment Effect of Mineral Deficiency on Plants | Experiment This will affect both germinating seedlings and growing plants. Different concentrations of CO2 can cause plants to grow at different rates. Plants need CO2 in the air in to respire in the same way, as we need oxygen. Without it they would not be able to create energy so they couldnt grow. The problem with trying to monitor the affects that different amounts of CO2 would have on the cress seed is that it is hard to control the level of CO2. In school we do not have the equipment. Amount of water in the soil (assuming that it is grown in soil): This will affect both germinating seedlings growing plants. Plants need water for the transportation of different molecules such as glucose. It is essential for growth. They do this by osmosis. With out water they would dry out die. Water also makes germination easier because it softens the shell. Amount of light (Intensity, wavelength): Only growing plants need light in order to grow. Seeds dont need light because they are usually under ground when they germinate. Plants need light because this is how they get food. The sunlight gets trapped in the plants leaves by chloroplast cells and turned into energy. The reaction by which this takes place is called photosynthesis. The equation for this reaction is 6CO2 +6 H2O = 6O2 + C6H12O6 Sunlight is not only vital for the plants growth but also vital for us because without light all plants would die meaning no oxygen in the air. Different wavelengths reflect off the leaves, only certain wavelengths get absorbed. Competition: Competition can affect germinating seedlings and growing plants. Competition is caused by a dense population of animals or plants in the same area competing for the same resources. The more competition there is then the less the plants will grow. This is because the minerals, nutrients and sunlight (in plants case) have to be spread out more thinly or shared out amongst a higher number of plants. In some cases plants will die due to a lack of nutrition. PH: Can also affect both germinating seedlings and growing plants. Cress needs a neutral PH level to grow at their best. Some plants like camellia can grow in acidic soil because they have adapted to the soil over many years. Some plants like herbs benefit from alkaline soil. Different plants grow best in different soils. Minerals/nutrients: Minerals and nutrients are essential because they are needed as energy. They are absorbed with water through the roots by osmosis. They are then transported by the xylem up around the plant. Different nutrients are needed for different uses e.g. Iron for strengthening the stem. The factor that I wish to investigate is how different minerals affect the germination and growth of plants. The aim The aim of my experiment is to see how 3 different solutions lacking 3 different minerals affect the growth and the germination of a plant. The different solutions I am going to use are: Lacking Nitrogen Lacking Sulphur Lacking Magnesium I am also going to have a control test, which has all the nutrients a plant would have in normal soil. This is so I can compare the experiments to it allowing me to see what changes the absence of the minerals has. The Method To do this I am going to have 4 different petri dishes, 1 for each solution. In each dish there will be 4 different sections each containing 5 seedlings. The reason I am doing this is to make it a fair test. By having 4 different sections I am essentially I am repeating the experiment 4 times. Every day I will water the cress seeds using their own solutions. To create the appropriate solutions I did a pre-test using a replicate of my actual experiment and to I watered the 20 cress seeds over a week. I used a normal Sachs solution to water them. Form the experiment I found that 1.5 ml cubed for each section was to little because although the seedlings germinated the plants did not grow very quickly. I decided to use 2ml cubed for each section. The solutions I made were 1/3 Sachs and 2/3s water. This is a diagram of my experiment. It shows the 4 different petri dishes. In order to be able to monitor the cress I will draw up a table. For each day that I water the cress I will observe: How many seeds have germinated, The height of the seedlings, No. Of leaves on seedling, And any other observations. All this will do is make it easier to analyse my results. Prediction I predict that nitrogen is going to have the most devastating effect on the germination and growth of a plant. The reason I think this is because it converts sugars made by photosynthesis into protein. Protein is needed for growth. I think that they will be short and have yellowing leaves due to facts from my research. Research Mineral Used in Deficiency Magnesium Chloroplast Yellow leaves Nitrogen Chlorophyll cells and Amino acids Reduction in growth and yellow leaves Sulphur Amino acids and proteins Reduction in growth and yellowing leaves Fair test To get my results I watered my plants over a period of 2 weeks. An important aspect of my test was getting reliable results. This will help me to me evaluate my experiment fairly. To make my test as fair as possible I made sure all of my petri dishes were in the same conditions as each other. This meant that any effects could only be caused by the factor that I am experimenting with. We watered them all as regularly as each other, placed tem all in the same spot, made sure that they were all in the same temperature, light etc. I must also take into consideration the fact that anomalies could occur in my results or some of the effects could be caused by natural causes. For example the heaters in school could stop running, some seeds may be infertile or there could be an abnormally cold or hot day. Conclusion/evaluation Overall I think that the lack of nitrogen in the solution has not caused much difference to the growth and germination to the seedlings. I expected them not to grow as tall as the any of the others, to have yellow leaves and only a few of them to have germinated. The first thing that I noticed about my results was that they contradicted my prediction. The seedlings lacking Nitrogen were the fastest to germinate (this includes the control). I found this strange because Nitrogen is the most vital nutrient of the three we experimented with. Judging by the results I have collected it seems that plants do not need Nitrogen to germinate but it is needed for growth because the seedlings in the Nitrogen solution are described as yellow leaved and short. I can see this because the seeds that lack nitrogen germinate more quickly than the seeds in the control test. I also noticed that the seedlings in the solution that lacked magnesium ended up with the darkest leaves. My research shows that a sign of a plant with a magnesium deficiency has yellow leaves. The cress seeds in my experiment that are in a solution that lacks magnesium have the darkest leaves. This could be caused because the plants found that the Sulphur in the solution counter acted the effects of the lack of magnesium. Also it seems that the solutions did not effect the growth of the plants, they all seemed to grow to the same height at the same rate. This is proven by the control test also growing to this height. Sulphur had the greatest effect on the plants overall. By the 4th day into the experiment, the solution lacking sulphur was the only solution in which few seeds had germinated and had yellow leaves and short seedlings. I think that it is because sulphur is used in both germination and growth. It is used in proteins and Amino acids (the building blocks of protein). These are both vital nutrients as they are used as energy in the plant. Overall I think that if I had carried out my experiment for longer, the effects would have been greater. I could have also chosen more diverse nutrient/minerals. This would have caused fewer problems with which mineral caused which effect and I would have seen greater effects. I did find out that magnesium causes a decrease in energy due to fewer chloroplast cells. Sulphur causes short term and long term effects in growth and causes yellowing of leaves and Nitrogen does not cause short term effects but I predict will slow growth and cause yellowing of leaves in the long run.

Teacher Education Students at the State University of New York Cortland :: Essays Papers

Teacher Education Students at the State University of New York Cortland A multicultural education incorporates not only culture, but race, social class, gender and disability. "Through guided classroom interaction students’ interracial attitudes may become more positive and accepting" (Chesler, 1971, p.613). Multicultural education has many goals (Kendall, 1996, p. 10). By providing this type of classroom experience children will learn to respect other cultures and to work with others of difference. By using resources that are in the community (parents, library, field trips..) teachers can incorporate this type of education into all subject areas. For example, a science teacher could combine multiculturalism by teaching about achievements made by people of different cultures and also of achievements by women. A multicultural education helps children develop a positive self-concept. By providing a multicultural curriculum students will learn to value other cultures as well as their own. A multicultural education means acceptance and the willingness to learn about others, which will help to make students’ successful members of society. Positive early experiences of multiculturalism in the classroom should be integrated in all aspects of a childs schooling, especially in science. Science is where hands on learning should occur. Teachers must take the time to understand that all children bring their prior experiences with them into the classroom. Children may have misconceptions about science based on their experiences or lack of experiences outside the class. For example, children who live in the city may have less knowledge about farm animals and their environment other than the concrete. Teachers must realize that children in different cultures may have different learning styles. "Culture and ethnicity have deep impact on our learning styles" (Kendall, 1996, p. 33). For example some Navajo children learn better through demonstration. A teacher must be careful not to stereotype children. Just because they are from a cer tain culture does not mean that they must be taught a certain way. Teachers must be aware that a child from a certain culture may learn in a certain way and it is up to the teacher to observe the child to find out what teaching approach is best. Exposing children at an early age to a learning environment with a rich variety of cultural and ethnic materials is essential for them to respect and appreciate others of a different race, gender, or cultural background. By incorporating multiculturalism into science, this gives children an opportunity to learn about people who may be unique from them.

The Bluest Eye :: essays research papers

	Misdirection of Anger "Anger is better [than shame]. There is a sense of being in anger. A reality of presence. An awareness of worth."(50) This is how many of the blacks in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye felt. They faked love when they felt powerless to hate, and destroyed what love they did have with anger. The Bluest Eye shows the way that the blacks were compelled to place their anger on their own families and on their own blackness instead of on the white people who were the cause of their misery. In this manner, they kept their anger circulating among themselves, in effect oppressing themselves, at the same time they were being oppressed by the white people. Pecola Breedlove was a young black girl, growing up in Lorain, Ohio in the early 1940's. Her life was one of the most difficult in the novel, for she was almost totally alone. She suffered the most because she had to withstand having others' anger dumped on her, internalized this hate, and was unable to get angry herself. Over the course of the novel, this anger destroys her from the inside. When Geraldine yells at her to get out of her house, Pecola's eyes were fixed on the "pretty" lady and her "pretty" house. Pecola does not stand up to Maureen Peal when she made fun of her for seeing her dad naked but instead lets Freida and Claudia fight for her. Instead of getting mad at Mr. Yacobowski for looking down on her, she directed her anger toward the dandelions that she once thought were beautiful. The dandelions also represent her view of her blackness, once she may have thought that she was beautiful, but like the dandelions, she now follows the majorities' view. However, "the anger will not hold"(50), and the feelings soon gave way to shame. Pecola was the sad product of having others' anger placed on her: "All of our waste we dumped on her and she absorbed. And all of our beauty, which was hers first and which she gave to us"(205). The other black people felt beautiful next to her ugliness, wholesome next to her uncleanness, her poverty made them generous, her weakness made them strong, and her pain made them happier. In effect, they were oppressing her the same way the whites were oppressing them. When Pecola's father, Cholly Breedlove, was caught as a teenager in a field with Darlene by two white men, "never did he once consider directing his hatred toward the hunters"(150), rather her directed his hatred towards the girl because hating the white men would "consume" him.

Reitman’s Financial Analysis Essay

Reitmans – Financial Analysis From an analysis of the Company’s ratios over the last three years since 2009, as found in the Appendix: Exhibit _, the quantitative data reveals an unfavourable trend in performance. Liquidity Reitmans has the strongest current ratio when compared to its competitors—The Gap and Le Chateau—at almost double their value. However, the Company’s ratio has been in decline since 2009; at that time, it was at 4. , then fell to 4. 3, and finally, to 4. 1 in 2011. This trend reveals a slight decline in Reitmans’ short-term liquidity; however, even with the decline, the Company has more than enough liquidity to meet their short-term cash requirements. It could even be argued that they are not utilizing their assets to their full potential, as the usual acceptable current ratio is 2:1. Even when inventory is not considered, as with the quick ratio and cash ratio, Reitmans’ ratios are unusually high when compared to their competitors—which adds strength to the argument that they are not utilizing their assets as effectively as they could be if they were to invest their funds instead of leaving them sitting idle within an account. Asset Management As revealed by their inventory turnover of 1. 2, Reitmans sells its inventory more slowly than its competitor, the Gap, does with their ratio of 5. 7 in 2011. However, the Gap may have a higher than normal turnover, as Reitmans is favourable when compared to their other competitor, Le Chateau. The Company’s accounts receivable turnover has remained relatively stable over the past three years, fluctuating slightly but still taking just one day on average to collect from customers. In contrast, Reitmans’ accounts payable turnover has been experiencing an unfavourable decline since 2009; it used to take just 106 days to make payments to suppliers, but now it takes 257 days, over twice the time. Long-term Debt Paying Ability Reitmans’ debt ratio measures the extent of creditor financing and leverage. Their percentage of debt, 22%, is much smaller than their competitors at 63% and 39% and a result, Reitmans’ is much more solvent and more able to maintain their long-run financial viability. Further, when looking at the Company’s times interest earned, we see that Reitmans is considered to be less-risky for lenders as they are able to earn their fixed interest charges ver 3 times per year; this exceeds the general guideline that says creditors are reasonably safe if the company has a times interest earned ratio of two or more times. Profitability Most merchandising companies need sufficient gross profit in order to cover their operating expenses or else they will likely fail. Reitmans, as similar to their competitors, maintains a higher profit ratio of 64% in 2011 and 67% in 2010. Even though the Company’s other measures of profitability are still fa vourable compared with their competitors, Reitmans’ profitability ratios have declined by almost half from 2010 to 2011.