Evaluating Decision Alternatives and Assessing Risk Essay

Evaluating Decision Alternatives and Assessing Risk - Essay Example The chairman to the bank Kenneth Lewis admitted that the information he gave out was not accurate. The executive of the bank, therefore, made mistakes that were against the ethics required in corporations (Cohen, 2009). There are many decisions that the executive of the bank of America took that render them unethical. Among them includes the disguise by Merrill lynch on the risk involved. It was done by changing the â€Å"investment grade† to other investments referred to as the CDOs. The problem was further increased by the credit derivatives. It was because a person could trade the investments many times. It could only get understood by the professionals due to payments on mortgages being done in several years. The activities in the bank continued deteriorating in the prevailing days that loans begun defaulting (James et al., 2002). Merrill lynch as indicated was not able to trade billions of the CDOs as if it had traded them, the players in the market had a chance of discounting the CDOs. The workers in the Merrill had the intentions of earning high bonuses continuously; as a result, they did not trade the CDOs. The employees did not indicate losses and later escaped with the lies. The accountants in the Merrill lynch failed to perform their duties and obligations. The problem raised alarms to the non professionals, however, the management allowed Merrill to escape with the funds. The bank of America acquired the Merrill lynch in the year 2008. A month later it was known that Merrill had losses that summed up to $15 billion. It was in the fourth quarter of the year and BofA made claims that the losses got incurred in December (Cohen, 2009). The bank did not give information to the shareholders and moved on to putting $20 billion in TARP funds. SEC (Slumbering Esquires Club) filed another complaint against the Merrill failure to disclose information about the losses in the month of

Development of Heat Resistant Chocolate

Development of Heat Resistant Chocolate PRALINE The term ‘cocoa’ comes from the word ‘cacao’ that is taken directly from Mayan and  Aztec languages. Chocolate has been derived from cocoa beans, present in the centre to the fruit of cocoa tree, Theobroma cacao, which originated from the South American region.(Afoakwa 2010) Chocolate is one of the most popular products throughout the world. The fact that it is solid at room temperature but melts in the mouth, giving a smooth delicate taste, makes it one of the most yearned product. From a more technical point of view, chocolate is a complex food made of solid particles of cocoa powder, sugar and milk powder in a continuous fat phase. The production of chocolate consists of multiple steps among which tempering are one of the most important step. During this the temperature of the chocolate will be varied to get the right crystalline form of the fat. Chocolate pralines are a lot more complex product since they also contain a soft  filling which will interact with the chocolate shell. Migration can happen from the filling to the shell which can result in structural damages like cracking. Another effect can be fat bloom which is a grayish haze on the praline surface. This occurs due to the migration of the liquid fat through the shell to the surface and crystallizing. Cracking and fat bloom are two major issues that lead to reduced shelf life in chocolate  pralines. The main suggestions for crack formation are that cracks form due to moisture or  ethanol migration through the chocolate shell, or due to an unbalanced distribution of  moisture in the filling that causes some parts to shrink and other to expand. (SLETTENGREN 2010) Most of the fat inside chocolate must be cocoa butter. Cocoa butter consists of different triacylglycerols (triglycerides), each of which will solidify at a different temperature and at a different speed in correlation with time. To make it more complicated there are six different ways the crystals can pack together. If the fat is present is not right or if the chocolate has not been crystallized properly, then fat bloom occurs. All fats are made of mixtures of triglycerides i.e. they have three fatty acids attached to a glycerol backbone. In cocoa butter there are three main acids which account for over 95% of those present. Almost 35% is oleic acid (C18:0) and almost 26% is palmitic acid (C16:0). Since the cocoa butter has few main components that it melts rapidly over such a small range of temperature range i.e. between room and mouth temperatures. POSt molecules are palmitic acid (P) in position 1, oleic acid (O) in position 2 and stearic acid in position 3. If the stearic and oleic acids are inverted then this would become PStO, which is quite atypical even though the constituents are similar. The stearic and palmitic acids are saturated acids i.e. the hydrocarbon chain which makes up the fat does not have any double bonds. In unsaturated fats this chain has one or more double bonds, as is the case for oleic acid. About 80% of the cocoa butter has oleic acid as the middle acid. 1% to 2% of cocoa butter has saturated long chain trisaturatedtriglycerides (SSS) where the saturated fat is mainly palmitic or stearic and the melting point is high. From 5% to 20% on the other hand consists of two oleic acids and is mostly fluid at room temperature. When the above two have been combined then fat of the cocoa butter will be partially fluid at room temperature. If the temperature is raised fat will melt according to the proportions of the different types of fat present. The property of to crystallize every time differently is known as polymorphism. As the structure becomes denser and gets lowered in energy, it becomes more stable and harder to melt. Polymorphic forms are solid phases of the same chemical composition that differ among themselves in crystalline structure but yield identical liquid phases. Because of their shape the fat molecules fit together with other molecules like stacking chairs which can be done in two ways i.e. via double chain packing and triple chain packing. There are basically 3 polymorphs (ÃŽ ±,ÃŽ ²,ÃŽ ²Ã¢â‚¬â„¢) each with their own specific properties. The melting range and stability of the polymorphs are in the following range: ÃŽ ±Ã¢â‚¬â„¢. The least stable polymorph will crystallize first and transform to a stable polymorph as a function of time. Cocoa butter has six polymorphs. However the chocolate industry numbered them as I to VI. Forms V and VI are the most stable and are triple chain packing whereas the other forms are double. Form V is good for confectionary products as it is responsible for the hardness with a good snap, glossy appearance and the resistance to bloom. (SLETTENGREN 2010) Mixing different fats (Fat eutectics) It is important that after mixing two or more fats the final product should sets at a suitable rate and has the correct texture and melting properties in the mouth. An unstable structure can form when other fats have been mixed with cocoa butter. Even though the fats are triglycerides it will be like fitting another size of chairs within the stacks. Disruption would be less if only a less amount of other fat is present. The actual hardness can be near to the expected one. When cocoa butter is mixed with vegetable or other fat in equal proportions then the softening effect is largest. The original vegetable fat made by Unilever and many other that are now in the market are known as cocoa butter equivalents. These are like cocoa butters and can be put in any proportion without causing any major softening or hardening effect. Other fats can be used only if almost all the cocoa butter is replaced and these are known as cocoa butter replacers. The vegetable fat should crystallise in the same way as cocoa butter (i.e. using the chair analogy, have the same size and shape chair) so that it can be added to the cocoa butter without causing eutectic effect. Cocoa butter contains palmitic (P), stearic (S) and oleic (O) on a glycerol backbone, with the majority of the molecules being POP, POSt, and StOSt. From nuts or seeds of fruits generally two types of fractionation are used to obtain the easy melting and the hardest melting fraction. In dry fractionation the fat is kept at a more predefined temperature and then by pressing and filtering the liquid part is separated from solid. In solvent fractionation the fat is dissolved in acetone or hexane. After this the higher melting triglycerides are crystallized and filtered out. The StOSt and the increased amounts of POSt are hard to obtain. By altering the proportions of StOSt it is possible to make the chocolate so that it will not melt until the temperature is several degrees higher than the normal cocoa butter, but cannot put behind the feeling of stickiness in the mouth. (SLETTENGREN 2010) Legislation: In June 2000, the European parliament agreed to permit the use of vegetable fat other than cocoa butter in chocolate. This directive came into force on August 2003 and for the first time, harmonised chocolate legislation across all the member states of Europe. A number of restrictions were placed on use of vegetable fat by the EU in terms of where oils should be sourced from, and what processing methods have to apply. To maintain miscibility and compatibility with cocoa butter (as is required by the EU Directive) it is necessary to use vegetable fats which contain a similarly high levels of these triglycerides. This means that a) these triglycerides would often need to be concentrated by fractionating the permitted base oils and b) the resulting fats would be needed to blend together to get an optimum mix of the three triglycerides. Even though the CBEs show equivalence with the cocoa butter at all compositions but they have been restricted to a maximum level of 5% of the total compo sition in EU chocolate.(Geoff Talbot 2008) Development of Heat Resistant Chocolate using high melting fat Chocolate generally melts at 33.8 °C when solid cocoa butter transitions to liquid and the crystals of cocoa butter are in stable form V. The development of heat resistant chocolate would allow it to be enjoyed in tropical and humid climates. Three main methods have been developed to make heat resistant chocolates: enhancement of the microstructure of the materials, addition of a polymer and increasing the melting point of the fat phase. The approach that is used for the development of heat resistant chocolates for this thesis is to incorporate fats with higher melting points. (Stortz and Marangoni 2011) (Stortz and Marangoni 2011) One specific example of this was done by Jeyarani and Reddy (1999) and focused on using mahua (Mahua Latifolia) and kokum (Garcinia indica) fats to increase the melting point of cocoa butter blend. The kernels found in the fruits of mahua trees consist of semi-solid fat. Conversely, kokum kernels contain a hard, brittle fat with a melting point 39-43 C. The oils are fractionated and then blended. After that these fats were evaluated for their ability to increase the melting temperature of and replace the fat phase in chocolate products. Fractionation were used to separate the stearin fraction from kokum and mahua fats because it was reported that addition of fats rich in 2-oleodistearins to cocoa butter can increase the solid fat content (SFC) , increase the melting point and decrease the tempering time of chocolate. The meted successfully produced a fat phase that achieved higher SFCs at elevated temperature than conventional chocolate. However, once the temperature reached 37.5 C the SFC of most of the blended fats was less than 20% indicating that the heat resistance of the chocolate would be lost at temperatures higher than this. Another attempt was done to improve the heat resistance via replacement of some cocoa butter with kokum fat. Kokum fat was refined but not fractionated. It was blended with cocoa butter at different levels. The chocolate had good sensorial properties. However, the heat resistance of the chocolate was not as desired considering the melting temperature is only 34.8C with 5% inclusion of kokum fat. Finally , the chocolate formulas exceeded some countries’ legal limits for inclusion of NCVF.(Stortz and Marangoni 2011) Gel Filling: Hydrocolloids: Hydrocolloids are a heterogeneous group of long chain polymers (polysaccharides and proteins) which are characterised by their property of forming viscous dispersions and/or gels when dispersed in water. Presence of large number of hydroxyl (-OH) groups increases their affinity for binding water molecules which results in hydrophilic compounds. Further, a dispersion is produced which is intermediate between a true solution and a suspension, and the properties exhibited are that of a colloid. Considering these two properties, they are aptly termed as hydrophilic colloids or hydrocolloids. The important reason behind the ample use of hydrocolloids in foods is their ability to modify the rheology of food system. This includes the two basic properties of food system namely, flow behaviour (viscosity) and mechanical solid property (texture). The modification of texture and/or viscosity of food system modify its sensory properties, and thus, hydrocolloids are used as important food additives to perform specific purposes. Hydrocolloids have a wide range of function. These include thickening, gelling, emulsifying, stabilisation, and controlling the crystal growth of ice and sugar through the basic properties for which hydrocolloids find extensive use as thickening and gelling. Hydrocolloids disperse in water to give a thickening or viscosity producing effect. This water thickening property is general for all hydrocolloids and is the primary reason for their overall use. Gel formation is the phenomenon that involves the association or cross linking of the polymer chains to form a three dimensional network that traps or immobilises the water within to form a rigid structure that is resistant to flow. In other words, it becomes visco-elastic showing both the characteristics of a liquid and a solid. The textural properties (e.g. elastic or brittle, long or spreadable, chewy or creamy) of a gel vary widely with the type of hydrocolloid used. The other sensory properties such as opacity, mouth feel and taste also depend on the hydrocolloid employed. (Saha and Bhattacharya 2010) Gels: Gels may be defined as a form of matter intermediate between solid and liquid and show mechanical rigidity. They consist of polymer molecules cross linked to form tangled and interconnected molecular network immersed in a liquid medium, which in food system is water. Food technologists use the word ‘gel’ for high moisture foods that are more or less retain their shape when released from their container. A gel is a visco elastic system with a storage modulus (G) larger than the loss modulus G†. Hydrocolloids form gels by physical association of their polymer chains through hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic association and cat ion mediated cross-linking and differ from synthetic polymer gels, which normally consisted of covalently cross-linked polymer chains. Hence hydrocolloid gels are often referred as â€Å"physical gel† The knowledge of the conditions required for gelling of particular hydrocolloid dispersion, the characteristics of the gel produced and the texture it confers are very important aspects to design a specific food formulation. The formation of gel involves the association of randomly dispersed polymer segments in dispersion in such a way so as to form a three-dimensional network that contains solvent in the interstices. The associated regions known as junction zones are formed by two or more polymer chains. The gelation process is mainly the formation of these junction zones. Hydrocolloid gelation can engage the hierarchy of structures, the most common of which is the aggregations of primary inter chain linkages into â€Å"junction zones†, which forms the basis for the three-dimensional network characteristics of a gel. The physical arrangement of these junction zones within the network can be affected by various parameters like temperature, presence of ions and inherent structure of hydrocolloid. For the gelation of hydrocolloids, the three main mechanisms proposed are ionotropic gelation, cold-set gelation and heat-set gelation. Ionotropic gelation occurs via cross-linking of hydrocolloid chain with ions, typically a cation mediated gelation process of negatively charged polysaccharides. Ionotropic gelation is carried out either by diffusion setting or internal gelation. In cold set gelation, hydrocolloid powders are dissolved in warm/boiling water to form a dispersion which on cooling results in enthalpically-stabilised inter-chain helix to form segments of individual chains leading to a three-dimensional network. Gelatine gel is formed by this mechanism. Gelatin: Gelatin is substantially pure protein food ingredient, obtained by the thermal denaturation of collagen, which are the structural mainstay and most common protein in the animal kingdom. Today gelatine is usually available in granular powder form. Ref: website Gelatin forms a thermo-reversible gels with water, and the gel melting temperature ( Various factors affect the gel formation by hydrocolloids which include concentration of the gelling agent, pH of the medium, molar mass/ degree of polymerisation, temperature, ionic composition and solvent quality. Rheological characteristics of gel involves characterizing a gel n the basis of various parameters like modulus of elasticity, yield stress, shear modulus, storage and loss modulus, complex viscosity , gel strength and compliance. These parameters are usually determined by conducting tests like compression test, dynamic oscillatory rheometry, creep and texture profile analysis, etc by employing instruments like universal texture measuring system, controlled shear rheometer. Addition of sucrose results in an increase of true rupture stress in all these gals. The gel sweetness is related with mechanical properties of gel like gel strength, rupture stress, rupture strain and particularly with the amount of deformation required to break the network and its resistance to deformation. Besides co-solutes like sucrose, concentration of hydrocolloid, shear rate and temperature are also important variables that influence the rheological status of hydrocolloid gels. The blending of different polysaccharides offers an alternative route to the development of new textures. The major interest lies in the development of synergistic mixtures with improved or induced gelation.(Saha and Bhattacharya 2010) References: . Afoakwa, E. (2010). chocolate science technology. Geoff Talbot, H. S. (2008). Cocoa butter equivalents and improvers Their use in chocolate and chocolate-coated confectionery. Focus on Chocolate vol 19 n 3(May/June 2008): 28,29. Saha, D. and S. Bhattacharya (2010). Hydrocolloids as thickening and gelling agents in food: a critical review. Journal of Food Science and Technology-Mysore 47(6): 587-597. SLETTENGREN, K. S. (2010). Crack formation in chocolate pralines. Stortz, T. A. and A. G. Marangoni (2011). Heat resistant chocolate. Trends in Food Science Technology 22(5): 201-214.

Affirmative Action: Giving Preferential Admissions to Minority Students

Should universities eliminate affirmative action polices that give preferential treatment in admissions to minority status? â€Å"Anyone interested in higher education should want to contemplate, on behalf of colleges and universities, students and faculty, alumni and paying parents, the fate of affirmative action(Chace, M William 20). The Oxford Dictionary states Affirmative Action is â€Å"an action or policy favoring those who tend to suffer from discrimination, especially in relation to employment or education; positive discrimination.† In 1961, John F. Kennedy signed an Executive Order calling for â€Å"affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.† This is now known today as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission(EEOC). Affirmative action policies would later be forced upon businesses and have also been instituted at many universities where minorities are given preferred admissions over non-minorities. An Example of this would be at the University of Mic higan where applicants who represented racial or ethnic minorities were given 20 points towards admission out of a 150 point system where only 100 points were needed to gain admission. Trying to put the 20 points in perspective, applicants with perfect SAT scores only received 12 points toward admission. This system was later struck down by the Supreme Court, but another similar policy was upheld at the University of Michigan Law School. With how diverse our society is currently compared to years ago, it seems to compliment that the policies have indeed worked. But now, the policies are questioned by many as whether or not they moral, constitutional, and/or... ...s Cited Charles, Camille Z., et al. "Affirmative-Action Programs for Minority Students: Right in Theory, Wrong in Practice." The Chronicle of Higher Education 55.29 (2009). Academic OneFile. Web. 9 Aug. 2011. Selingo, Jeffrey. "New Study Questions Educational Benefits of Diversity." The Chronicle of Higher Education 49.29 (2003). Academic OneFile. Web. 9 Aug. 2011. Connerly, Ward. "My Fight Against Race Preferences: A Quest Toward `Creating Equal'." Chronicle of Higher Education 46.27 (2000): B6. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 17 Aug. 2011. Chace, William M. "Affirmative Inaction: Opposition to affirmative action has drastically reduced minority enrollment at public universities; private institutions have the power and the responsibility to reverse the trend." American Scholar 80.1 (2011): 20-31. History Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 18 Aug. 2011.

10 Cloud Computing Companies To Watch. CA Technologies Essay

CA Technologies formerly known as CA, Inc is one of the largest and leading software enterprises in the world and it is headquartered at New York, USA. It is responsible for the creation of software that gives many companies an upper hand in the current application economy. CA software is designed to help companies and industries acquire productivity and growth through extensive and top notch CA software and solutions. History of the company The company was founded in 1976 by Charles Wang. Charles had been born in Shanghai but moved to the United States at the age of eight years old. He studied math and physics at Queens College. After graduating, he took up a trainee job as a computer programmer for a small computer service agency in New York. The agency was responsible for marketing software for the Swiss firm Computer Associates. The Swiss company wanted to expand its market in the USA and Wang saw an opportunity for a business enterprise with the Swiss company. Wang along with his friend and partner Russ Artzt created their own company. With only two partners, Wang opened up an office that marketed the Swiss products. The company did not do so well until when they developed CA-SORT. The program was designed to help computers sort through data quickly and economically. The program gave a similar IBM program stiff competition and majority of IBM clients later shifted to CA’s program. This was a great leap of success for the CA Company. The company expanded and started to recruit and hire more people. In 1980, Wang and partners bought out the Swiss parent company and then they made the company public in 1981. As from the moment the company went public it began to program and focus on expansion through acquisitions. It bought Capex Corporation, Stewart P. Orr Associates, Information Unlimited Software, Sorcim, Viking Data Systems, Uccel, Cullinet, On-Line Software International, Inc., CSMI (Computer Management Sciences, Inc.), Platinum Technology International, Layer 7 Technologies, Applied Data Research, Cheyenne Software, Johnson Systems, Arkay Computer, and many more. It also bought Top Secret, from CGA Computer, a program designed as a computer security system. It later on purchased Integrated System Software Corp. and Software International, both being application software. The later being responsible for financial application and the former for graphics softw are. Wang resigned as the CEO of the company on 2000 and his position was taken up by Sanjay Kumar. John Swainson was the next CEO in the company but retired at the end of the year 2009. CA technologies announced William E. McCracken as the chairman of the board and the chief executive officer on January 28, 2010. He was replaced by Michael P. Gregoire on January 7, 2013 who is the current chairman of the board and the chief executive officer at CA Technologies and Russell M. Artzt as the current Vice Chairman. Products and services CA Technologies have a number of products and services, mostly software, which is designed to transform businesses and enables customers to seize the opportunities of the application economy. Their main area of expertise lies on three major areas, Cloud, Mainframe, and Mobile. They have four main portfolios, the ca Securecenter. Ca Opscenter, ca Devcenter, and the ca Intellicenter. Its main services include project and portfolio management, application performance management, infrastructure management, security management, cloud services, data center automation and virtualization, and service management. These services are distinctively placed and categorized in the four main portfolios named above. The ca Securecenter portfolio enables and secures the open enterprise by authenticating and securing access for the right users on any device, anywhere while providing a superior customer experience. It has a number of featured products such as the CA Identity Manager SaaS, CA Single Sign-On, CA Sign-On SaaS, CA Advanced Authentication, CA API Gateway, CA API Developer Portal, CA Mobile API Gateway, CA Identity Manager, CA Identity Governance, and the CA Privileged Identity Manager. All these products are optimally designed to offer maximum security conveniently to their customers. CITATION CAI15 l 1033 (CA Securecenter) CA Opscenter portfolio provides tools that manage and monitor performance and availability, giving you the keys to ensuring your customers are up and running. Some of their products include CA Unified Infrastructure Management, CA 1 Tape Management, CA Allocate DASD Space and Placement, CA App Synthetic Monitor, CA Application Delivery Analysis, CA Capacity Managemen t, CA Bind Analyzer for DB2 for z/OS, CA Big Data Infrastructure Management, CA Automation Point, and the CA Application Performance, etc. CITATION CAO15 l 1033 (CA Opscenter) The ca Devcenter portfolio is designed to develop high quality applications faster by leveraging tools that create virtual integrations, enable parallel development and continuous testing. The ca Devcenter portfolio is designed deploy applications from development through production with automated orchestration. Some of the products it features are the CA Service Virtualization, CA 2E, CA Application Lifestyle Conductor, CA Application Test, CA Automation Suite for Clouds, CA Cloud Manager Powered by ServiceMesh, CA Test, CA Configuration Automation, CA Continuous Application Insight, CA Data Finder, and many more. These products are intended to deliver innovation to market faster with higher quality. CITATION CAD15 l 1033 (CA DevCenter) The ca Intellicenter portfolio has the software needed to make the right portfolio decisions and gain a holistic view of IT services and assets, enabling your business to manage the business of IT. Their featured products include; CA Cloud Service Management, CA Executive Playbook, CA Agile Planning, CA PPM, CA Service Desk Manager, CA Service Catalog, CA IT Assets Manager, CA Business Service Insight, CA On Demand Portal, and the Xtraction for CA Service Management. These products seek to drive productivity and provide a superior IT Serve Management experiences in the businesses that invest on them. CITATION CAI151 l 1033 (CA Intellicenter)Competition facing the company’s products A lot of software related companies have invested in cloud computing services including CA technologies. Their cloud computing, CA Cloud manager, faces competition from other platforms, such as Microsoft that offers Azure, Amazon that is offering the Amazon Web Services, AT&T that is offering Synaptic Hosting, Enomaly that is currently offering Enomaly’s Elastic Computing Platform (ECP) and Rackspace that offers Rackspace Cloud also referred to as â€Å"Mosso†. These services are mostly used by Web developers and software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers. CITATION Jon09 l 1033 (Brodkin, 2009) There are numerous suppliers of project and portfolio management (PPM) software. Companies like 4c Systems, Antura, Artemis, IBM, Oracle, BMC Software, Cambridge Systematics, Davies Consulting, etc offer different PPM software. The 4c System offers 4c Portfolio Intelligence, Antura offers Antura Projects, IBM offers Rational Focal Point, Oracle offers Crystal Ball, BMC offers IT Servi ce Management, Cambridge Systematics offers Prioritas and Davies Consulting offers AIS. All these companies offer this PPM software designs that are designed to assist companies in efficiently identifying and managing projects. CA technologies offers Clarity PPM which is successfully used by many corporations but also faces too much completion from other PPM providers. Infrastructure Management software (IM) is a system designed to manage essential operation components, such as policies, processes, equipment, data, human resource and external contacts for overall effectiveness. It has a number of vendors such as IBM, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and CA technologies. Some of the competing systems include SAP IT IM, Data Center IM, which offer major competition to CA Infrastructure Management. CITATION Mar07 l 1033 (Rouse, 2007) Application Performance Management (APM) is a system designed to monitor real time customer experience and goes ahead to compare the performance deprivation back to the system measures. CA technologies are responsible for CA PPM. There are various APM systems that offer stiff competition to the CA APM. Some of these APM systems vendors include; INETCO, AppNeta, Riverbed, Oracle, HP, Compuware and also CA. the various CA systems in the market that are currently competing with CA APM system are; New Relic, Foglight, Magic Quadran t, and SpyglassTools that is a Java Application Monitoring APM Competitors in the market Every company experiences competition, in one way or the other. The competition can be from within or from outside. Majority of the competition that most corporations face is from other rival organizations. CA Inc. like any normal corporation has its own competition in the existing market. Some of the top competitors include BMC Software, Inc., Compuware Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Company, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) and VMware, Inc. Corporations in competition BMC Software, Inc. provides IT management solutions and services. It has a wide array of products and services that it offers on its portfolio. These services include remedy IT service management suite, big data management, Cloud computing software, data center automation services, IT operations services, ITSM consulting services, workload automation, and the process alignment service among others. BMC is headquartered in Houston, Texas, in the US. It caters to a wide range of customers such as banks, institutions of learning, government agencies, system integrators, hospitals, retailers, distributors, manufacturers, financial service providers, telecommunication companies, and resellers. Oracle Corporation is one of the leading corporations that provide enterprise software, computer hardware, products and services. The company offers various services such as Oracle database, middleware software, cloud infrastructure, application software, and hardware systems. The company provides its services to a wide variety of customers such as the healthcare industry, oil and gas professional services, life sciences, financial services industry, aerospace and defense industry, natural resources and chemicals industry. The company is headquartered in Redwood City in the U.S. the company mainly focuses on expanding through acquisition of companies, products, services and technologies. This way it would strengthen and widen its customer base and create and generate more innovations. Compuware Corporation provides services, software and practices for IT corporations globally. It also provides professional technical services in areas such as performance engineering, mobile application development and system modernization. Its headquarters are in Detroit, Michigan in the US. The company provides its services and products through segment. These segments include Application Performance Management, Mainframe, Uniface, Changepoint, Professional Service and Covisint Application Services. VMware, Inc. is a supplier of cloud infrastructure and virtualization. The group operates on three main and major product groups; Software-Defined Data Center, Hybrid Cloud computing and End-User Computing. The Software-Defined Data Center is a virtualization platform designed to enable the aggregation of e devices, multiple servers, storage devices and networks. The Hybrid Cloud enables clients to extend tools, skills, networking and security models across all grounds. The End-User Computing product is designed to fully secure access to applications and data from any given devices at any given locations. Its main headquarters are in Palo Alto, California in the US. The company also focuses on extending its margins through acquisition of other similar technology oriented companies. Case study on CA technologies The CA Technologies has provided its services extensively to different industries and corporations. Its services are used by banks, insurance companies, financial service providers, health care institutions, technology companies, and telecommunication providers. These different sectors use and maximize the CA resources and services to compete against other rival industries. Banks and other financial institutions and service providers are equipped with the security management applications designed by the company. This ensures safety of their clients’ information and valuables. If their data are hacked or accessed without authority and permission they may face the risk of losing their customers and will incur major losses in the long run. So as to avoid such majority of the banks and financial service providers such as insurance companies, utilize these security applications. The more advanced the security systems, the more clients and customers it attracts. For an organization to attract more clients and be able to provide extensive services, it ought to have a clear ad defined strategy. This is achieved through the use of a project portfolio management (PPM) system. This system assists companies in effectively planning and investing in the right projects. If the companies use an excellent and superior PPM system, it would have an upper hand advantage against rival and competing companies. With all the software and applications that CA technologies offer, it is easy to see why it is one of the leading technology industries in the world. References 1033 Brodkin, J. (2009, May 18). 10 Cloud Computing Companies To Watch. Retrieved March 05, 2015, from NETWORKWORLD: http://www.networkworld.com/article/2268033/virtualization/10-cloud-computing-companies-to-watch.html CA DevCenter. (n.d.). Retrieved MArch 05, 2015, from CA Technologies: http://www.ca.com/gb/devcenter.aspx CA Intellicenter. (n.d.). Retrieved March 05, 2015, from CA Technologies: http://www.ca.com/gb/intellicenter.aspx CA Opscenter. (n.d.). Retrieved March 04, 2015, from CA Technologies: http://www.ca.com/gb/opscenter.aspx CA Securecenter. (n.d.). Retrieved March 05, 2015, from CA Technologies: http://www.ca.com/gb/securecenter.aspx Rouse, M. (2007, June). Infrastructure Management (IM). Retrieved March 05, 2015, from TechTarget: http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/infrastructure-management Source document

Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity Essay

Education and experience in the secular set-up or the what we call here as Athens wisdom believes differently from the biblical standpoint in whatever aspect of life. Psychology in general, though embraces somewhat a neutral position according to some proponents, is not able to do justice to a balanced view of human behavior and most if not all of the individual’s activities. Indeed, Author Dr. Entwistle (2004) argues about the general tendency to dichotomize or what he said as â€Å"to buy into the dichotomy between the ‘sacred’ and the ‘secular’ which is what seeing Jerusalem and Athens as â€Å"mutually exclusive categories. † From the outset I would like to say my piece regarding the point where Dr. Entwistle is coming from without sounding arrogant in the same vein. He has mentioned a lot about presupposition while at the same time sounds like he doesn’t anything about presuppositions. When he separated â€Å"Jerusalem† and the â€Å"Church† in his book, I immediately detected his lack of background in the realm of biblical theology. At the heart of Christianity or the Church that Dr. Entwistle is referring to, there is no such dichotomy. The Church in every dimension of it (or Christianity as we aptly put it) does not do any separation unless what Christ has separated. Meaning, our premise or presupposition starts with the fact that the Church and Christian spirituality or faith if one would put it simply, stands on the Judaeo-Christian context not a choice between â€Å"Jerusalem† or â€Å"Church. † The fundamental difference lies in the great divide between Christianity and Athens or secular wisdom. It is only between the secular wisdom and biblical knowledge does the Bible place a dichotomy. Let me state what led me to this view: it is because, theologically speaking, biblical authors explicitly wrote in their letters from the Old to the New Testament Scriptures that God has His own laws and statutes through which life in general must be regulated. The same knowledge explicitly and implicitly runs through the fabric of the whole Scripture (Old & New), which means that the presuppositions of all of the Biblical authors, all fall into one primary presupposition: that there is one God, and that this One God has revealed Himself through His laws and statutes. Without the laws of God, man alone, with all of his learning, if they are all apart from the revelation of God, is mere natural or secular. This is the reason that every man ought to know these laws or statutes or biblical principles and only then can he apply these into all aspects of his secular life. This could have been what Dr. Entwistle intended to mean. One cannot come from the opposite side as what Dr. Entwistle had done instead as he hinged the argument from secular to the theological; though he tried to get his ideas from the likes of great men like Dr. A. W. Tozer and others. All those people’s arguments come from biblical presupposition: they have thorough knowledge of the Scriptures that they applied to various realms of life which in turn caused them to spur their readers to do the same. Trying to oppose the standpoint of apologist Tertullian, Dr. Entwistle seemingly misunderstands all of their positions, thus complicating what could have been an uncomplicated and unified stream of thought. The main contributing factors that led me to this viewpoint are my personal study of the Bible, and some works (massive) of Biblical scholars. The following discussion of renewing the mind then is a by-product of my own presupposition derived from the influence of these Biblical Scholars which include contemporary theologians like Dr. Vincent Cheung, Dr. Philip Johnson, and the father of Presuppositional apologetics Cornelius Van Til, to name a few. This thorough discussion of counsel of the wicked (representing secular or Athens wisdom) and the discriminative counsel which embraces all of Judaeo- Christian principles (as all contained in the Bible) captures best the essence of faith-spirituality molded from this basic presupposition. The dichotomy is between what the Bible says all throughout as the Wicked or ungodly counsel versus that of Godly wisdom. Dr. Entwistle unintentionally pursued a trichotomous delineation of Judeao-Christian theological thinking from secular. This is not proper. Discussion Christians know that a big portion of God’s work in their lives is concentrated on renewal of the mind. Our born again experience signaled the beginning of a new life for us rather than, as have been used by many figuratively, the end of our life’s quest for truth. It is the start of an individual’s real life in that it is the time when a person experiences the quickening work of God through His Spirit (Ephesians 2:1-7). Let’s think for a while our past life as portrayed to us in the Bible: 1. ) We were once dead spiritually – in trespasses and sins; 2. ) We once walked (lived our lives) according to the course of this world; 3. ) We once lived our lives (knowingly or unknowingly) controlled by Satan; 4. ) We once behaved in a way that in everything we do, we only fulfill our desires and what – in our minds – looked good and pleasant. Now, knowing that we are naturally (without the saving power of God) unresponsive to God and fully responsive to the things that are not of God, we recognize our great need to be renewed or our minds oriented to the things of God – things that really matter to Him and in this life (Romans 12:1-2). I. Discriminative Counsel. 1. ) Biblical/Godly Counsel – Its Necessity. There is a trend being proliferated in the area of guidance or direction in one’s life. The premise, if looked at the surface, seems to be sound and Biblical. It is somehow taken from the Bible. They are from the book of Proverbs. â€Å"Where there is no counsel, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety. † – Proverbs 11:14. â€Å"Without counsel, plans go awry, but in the multitude of counselors they are established. †Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Proverbs 15:22. These verses, however, when balanced with other portions of the Scripture, do not say that believers should heed suggestions from others without discrimination. Let’s take for example Psalms 1:1-6. â€Å"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, But are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, or sin- ners in the congregation of the righteous. For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. † – It says here that the â€Å"blessed man† is he whose delight is in â€Å"the law of the Lord. † – He meditates on it â€Å"day and night† (v. 2). What the Bible calls as â€Å"blessed† are not those who just swallow every information or trends who happen to be around. The blessed man’s â€Å"delight† is in the law of the Lord, and his pleasure to God’s law/word is made evident in his â€Å"meditating† on it â€Å"day and night. † â€Å"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. † – Psalms 1:1-2. On the other hand, this is also a warning. A warning to those who are not careful and would let down their guard with regards to their upholding the habit of meditating or checking everything with the teachings of the Scriptures. When someone starts to entertain the seemingly harmless conventional â€Å"advices† of the world without allowing the Bible (God’s Word) to filter those opinions/suggestions, the lurking danger sets in and the undiscerning is on his way to the wrong direction for he has already given thought to â€Å"ungodly counsel. † He entertained and has given a benefit of the doubt to counsel other than God’s counsel. This is a classic case of God’s word versus Satan’s lies. The enemy succeeded in tempting the first couple – Adam and Eve. â€Å"Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, â€Å"Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. † – Genesis 2:15-17. Going back to our immediate text in Psalms 1:1, let’s try to divide its wordings in three divisions and see what does it say? It says: â€Å"Blessed is the man who does not (1) walk in the counsel of the wicked (2) stand in the way of sinners (3) sit in the seat of mockers. These three expressions are actually three stages of wickedness, or three steps towards spiritual deterioration. They illustrate the progressive stages of wickedness into which one who strays from God enters. According to the Word of God, this is what will happen to people who stray from the sound teachings of the Scriptures – they will go from bad to worse. And note that, with each stage, the ungodly (anybody who ventures on this path is called â€Å"ungodly†) becomes more resolute and his hostility against the counsel of the inspired scriptures and righteousness intensifies (Cheung, 2007).