Production and Cost Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Production and Cost - Term Paper Example The article "Production and Cost" talks about the cost minimization and why it enhances the smooth operation of the organization and reduces raw materials wastage. Production should always be based on the best optimal way that emphasizes on customer value maximization. More importantly, proper controls on the production process and insistent of manufacturing only what is deemed necessary significantly reduces the cost of production. Natural resources and labor costs are the major expenses incurred in creating the final product. The optimum ordering levels should be maintained including the Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) to enable smooth flow of production process. The natural resources, work in progress, and final goods must be honestly accounted for. Integration of organizational departments plays a pivotal role in minimizing the cost of production. Arguably, there is great need to reduce costs by considering both variable and fixed costs. Variable expenses can always be regulated to minimize the resulting cost of production. These are costs that increase as the output goes up and decreases when output reduces. Variable costs may comprise of natural resources and direct labor costs. They include costs such as electricity and overtime wages paid to workers involved in the direct production of goods. A company may, therefore, regulate its variable cost to minimize the cost of production. Fixed costs are exogenous hence unconnected with the output. The total fixed cost always remains independent for a long time.

Cooperation Between Government and Adults From the Age of 18 to 25 Term Paper

Cooperation Between Government and Adults From the Age of 18 to 25 - Term Paper Example It can be either in form of words- written or spoken, gestures and body language, tone, pitch and timing of voice, symbols and listening (Phillips 3). Communication can also be done through the way we dress, the things we wear like wedding rings, the tattoos we make on our bodies, the types of cars we drive and so on (Karen 3). There are various practical points which if adapted can make an interpersonal communication better. According to Black (1), these can include speaking for one’s self, discussing ones feelings, revealing ones intentions, explaining what you mean, speaking specifically, getting straight to the point, asking one’s self whether what you want to communicate is relevant and listening carefully to others when communicating. Communication is a two way process-involving sharing of information and it is very important in enabling someone to get along well with others and getting this done (Phillips 3). It depends with size and nature of the audience so wha t can be good for one individual can be very inappropriate for a crowd or a group of people (Vanita 6). According to Boone and Kurtz (297), every communication takes place in some sort of situation or cultural context, which can influence on how well the process will work. For example the way two people might speak to each other in an office is different from how the same two people will be expected to speak to each other on a party gathering. Good communication is very important either to a normal person, a leader, a family, an organization or even to a nation. According to Phillips (3), ability to communicate well results to relationship growth, personal growth and even personal happiness in general. The process by which communication skills are developed is not that much understandable. It is believed that communication skills grow throughout someone’s life form learning how to express one’s self by an infant to the ability to write, speak, listen, read, understandi ng symbols etc. of a well educated adult (Caputo et al 115). Background (community chosen) Aberdeen Township is a town in Monmouth County of the state of New Jersey with a population of 17454 persons per the 2000 USA census. It has a total area of 7.8 sq. miles of which 5.5 sq. miles is land and the remaining is water. It is believed that water makes up around 28.61% of the total area of this town. This township has got 6421 households and 4770 families as per the 2000 USA census and a population density of 3152 people per sq. mile (Aberdeen 1). This community uses the Council Manager form of governance in which a policy making power is concentrated on the council with the mayor presiding its meetings and a municipal chief executive and administration officer appointed to manage it. It adopted this name about 35 years ago and has grown to become a suburban Township with a mixture of residence, light industry, and shopping centers. This community has several boards, which assists the management in making and implementing policies. Some of these boards include Aberdeen Green Team, Community Development Board, Environmental & Shade Tree Advisory Board, Planning Board, Recreation Advisory Board, Senior Citizens Advisory Board and Zoning Board of Adjustments (Aberdeen 1). The Township has two volunteer fire companies that

O. Henrys Surprise Endings

O. Henrys Surprise Endings A theme would have to be his surprise endings of O.Henry. He uses this in a large amount of his stories. Many adults who read O.Henrys works are eagerly waiting for a surprise ending. (Rollins 155) O.Henrys works basically all contain a surprise ending. They lead you on it the beginning with a thought that everything is going according to plan. He lets the reader think that they have it figured out by we dont. He has something waiting for us at the end of the book. Something that would seem like it came out of no where. Hyder E. Rollins said â€Å"The conclusion is an enigma.†(155) He has the reader under suspense until the last sentence. This is shown in O.Henrys story The Gift of the Magi. Where a husband sells his watch to buy his wife some combs she worshiped, and the wife cut and sold her hair to buy her husband a chain for his watch. This was such a surprise because you never expected this in the beginning. Also O.Henry had an idea that life is a surprise that the unexpe cted continually happens. (157) Rollins spoke about O.Henry saying that â€Å"He is then, a pure romanticist who strives earnestly for realistic effects.† (157) A romanticist is a person who acts on impulse. They hate conformity they dislike following the rules. They prefer to make there own rules, and they are also in touch with nature. They love the outdoors. Rollins is saying that O.Henry is a romanticist because of his idea. His idea about how life happens unexpectedly. Its spontaneous so therefore you never know what kind of turn your life will take one for the better or worse. Eugene Current-Garcia said that â€Å"the most obvious technical manifestation of O.Henrys delight in the unexpected is in his famous surprise endings.†(Current-Garcia 137) O.Henrys way of using these surprise ending really played a big part in most of his stories. Another theme would of O.Henrys his most commonly used theme when he reverses everything on you. This means when he gives you a story and as soon as you think you have it figured out he changes it completely. He lets you think you know what kind of person the main character is while he has a plan to complete make that person plan a completely different role. Its not like surprise ending, but more like a reversal of the character completely from the way they act to the way they dress, talk, and walk. O.Henry liked to leave the reader guessing not only on the ending, but on what the characters would do next. For example in â€Å"The Princess and the Puma† the princess is portrayed in the beginning of the book as a princess one who lives highly. While she is really a pistol wearing, roping, riding cowgirl who has to fight off a mountain lion when she is suppose to be rescued. Technique was something that O.Henry was good at using. He used many different techniques and different styles in his writing one of the techniques his like using was local color. O.Henrys writings take the speech patterns and rhythms of the common folk and adds â€Å"vivacity, variety, and interest of his stories† said Eugene Current-Garcia. (Current-Garcia 142) He came directly from a southern background being born in North Carolina. The cultural tradition he inherited brought out a deep influence on his literary career. About thirty of his stories were placed in the old south setting or had to do with activities and attitudes of southern characters. When he writes he puts out a realistic dialogue from his childhood, his own history, and first hand observations of the various classes of people he knew and lived with.(Current-Garcia 12) O.Henry was born in the south so most of his stories talk about the lifestyles of the people in the south. His characters models are people w ho were around O.Henry. His narrative methods came from him dealing with Texas outlaws also from his childhood in the south. (Current-Garcia 4) There is a story where he talks about life with the outlaws in Texas. That is because he was there and witnessed it first hand. So he takes them and puts them into his story so that they can become major characters based on the way they were around him. O.Henry moved from the south to Texas and was later in jail all of these things were reason that were put into his stories. Since he was in jail some of his characters are based on people he met in jail or some of them are based on how the jail life was. In 1894 cash was found to have gone missing from the First National Bank in Austin, where Porter had worked as a bank teller. When he was called back to Austin to stand trial, Porter fled to Honduras to avoid trial. Little is known about Porters stay in Central America. It is said, that he met one Al Jennings, and rambled in South America and Mexico on the proceeds of Jenningss robbery. After hearing news that his wife was dying, he returned in 1897 to Austin. In 1897 he was convicted of embezzling money, although there has been much debate over his actual guilt. Porter entered in 1898 a penitentiary at Columbus, Ohio. All of this things helped O.Henry by being in his local color. They each played a significant part in his life and in his stories. O.Henry either wrote like a humorist like A.B. Longstreet and J.J. Hooper or he wrote with local color. Both ways you can tell that the characters had southern attitudes, manners, and speech. (Current-Garcia 4) Another technique would be O.Henrys ability to use allusions. An example of O.Henrys artistry with words can be seen in his many literary allusions, especially toward Shakespearean plays and the ancient classics. (Current-Garcia 146) O.Henrys â€Å"The Poet and the Peasant,† puts together a lot of literary devices. The story starts off first person narrative and follows a detailed description. At each turn of the story the irony gets further complicating. (Current-Garcia 152-153) This is just one example of how O.Henry uses many different literary devices. A writer said that in the many allusions to Shakespeare found in O.Henrys stories â€Å"how shows a tendency to word-play or to an unexpected turn similar to that manifest of the plots of his stories.†(Current-Garcia 146) The light touch of O.Henry â€Å"his mastery of the vernacular, his insight into the life of the disinherited, makes it needless for him to resort to such inventions.†(Forman 152) When O.Henry writes he has a touch that is unbelievable the way he makes everything fall together. Each line is unique in a way because he writes like he talks, but in some cases he is able to use academic terms in his writings. He just builds up a picture for us. Forman said â€Å"The piquant and picturesque phrasing, the dash of the slang. The genial and winning fancy seems to carry the most fantastic situations.†(Forman 152) This quote describes exactly what I mean he is able to paint a picture for us. His stories have the â€Å"harmony of tone so essential to the short story writer,† said Rollins. (Rollins 158) Even though O.Henrys ridiculous use of modern slang, he still is a master of felicitous expressions and strange verbal flavors. (Current-Garcia 136) O.Henry had a â€Å"malt reatment of words.† O.Henrys stories were either based in Texas or in New York City. Both of these places he spent a significant amount of time in during his life. He was in Texas working in a drug story. Then he was put into jail and some how found his way to New York City. These places made the setting of his stories simple and easy because every one has heard of New York City. While in prison O. Henry started to write short stories to earn money to support his daughter Margaret. His first work, Whistling Dicks Christmas Stocking (1899), appeared in McClures Magazine. After doing three years of the five years sentence, Porter emerged from the prison in 1901 and changed his name to O. Henry. He moved to New York City in 1902 and from December 1903 to January 1906 he wrote a story a week for the New York World, also publishing in other magazines. Henrys first collection, Cabbages and Kings appeared in 1904. The second, The Four Million, was published two years later and included his well-known stories T he Gift of the Magi and The Furnished Room. The Trimmed Lamp (1907) included The Last Leaf. After his death in 1920s his rep dwindled and critics wonder how he was ever taken seriously new fiction gained much more respect in 20s and 30s went against moral standards, taboos and conventions of older generation nd reliance on plot structure. Critics consider all of O.Henry work jokes because he was humorous and he used slang he didnt take it seriously. While other said it is fair to compare him woth anybody. He was just amazing like Henry James Forman said â€Å"No talent could be more original or more delightful. The combination of technical excellence with whimsical,sparkling wit, abundant humor and fertile invention is so rae that the reader is content without comparisons.† This is true on many levels about O.Henry the way in which he wrote so many stories was amazing. Towards the end of his life things started to fall out. O. Henrys last years were shadowed by alcoholism, ill health, and financial problems. He married Sara Lindsay Coleman in 1907, but the marriage w as not happy, and they separated a year later. O. Henry died of cirrhosis of the liver on June 5, 1910, in New York.

Portraits Of Ingres And Reynolds :: essays research papers fc

The portrait. A single person immortalized forever on canvas. At first glance, you only see the subject. With a more analytical eye, though, you not only see the image but you begin to hear the voice of the painter and of his time. This is what I hope to do, to feel and understand the mind of the painter Ingres when he painted Louis-Francois Bertin and Reynolds when he painted General John Burgoyne.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the portrait of Bertin, Ingres has captured on canvas a man who has never been pampered in his life. You feel by looking at him that this is a man who has worked for everything that he has ever received in his life. Why do you feel this, though? Let’s begin with the colors chosen for this piece.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The colors revolve around brown, giving you the impression of something very down to earth. The background of the painting is basically one solid brown. Bertin occupies the whole bottom section of the painting, with nothing of his body going above three-fourths of the canvas. He is the ground, below even the earth tones of the background. He has on a black suit, brown vest, and white shirt, as well. These colors working together allow you to make certain assumptions about him. He looks like a working man, which he was. â€Å"Louis-Francois Bertin (1766-1841), was one of the great leaders of the French upper middle class, a businessman and a journalist† (Rosenblum, 134). This would explain the one striking color in the piece, the red.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Bertin is sitting on a red cushion, red being a color classically associated with royalty. This could be a commentary on Bertin’s life on a whole. His journal, the Journal des Debats was a strong supporter of liberal journalism in a time when France, the monarchs from the self proclaimed Napoleon Bonaparte to King Charles X, wanted the return of an absolute monarch in France. The people were not happy with this and Bertin’s newspaper spread this displeasure. Bertin was even exiled for a period of time by Napoleon Bonaparte for his royalist views. He wanted a constitutional monarch set up. But, after the fall of Bonaparte, Bertin returned and continued his life, prospering. Monet even called this portrait â€Å"the Buddha of bourgeoisie† (Rosenblum, 134). This portrait should be looked upon as the pinnacle image of the bourgeoisie of the time.

Economics of Preventive Health care Essay

In order to fully appreciate the magnitude of determining cost effectiveness in healthcare outcomes management and planning, a short primer on healthcare economics is required (Block, 2006). According to Block, many professional programs do not teach the basic concepts and theories of healthcare economics as part of the medical school curriculum in the applied medical science; often both clinicians and administrators realize the importance that healthcare economics plays in the delivery of healthcare goods and services during the practical experience. The quest for better and more affordable healthcare is prompted an increasing number of businesses to contract with Health Maintenance Organizations to provide insurance coverage to employees and their families (Graber, 1998). Based on Garber, HMO’s typically try to promote the maintenance of proper health by encouraging a comprehensive approach to healthcare as a means of preventing more serious problems in the future; as a result of this trend, healthcare providers everywhere now place additional emphasis on preventive healthcare. This type of healthcare focuses on patient instruction in areas such as proper eating habits, weight control, stress management, exercise, cholesterol reduction, and eliminating smoking (Askew et. al, 2001). According to Garber, the goal of this approach is to help the patient avoid complications that can result from a destructive lifestyle. Public spending on human development increased with rising GDP per capita, and was generally concentrated on programs that benefited the poor, such as primary and secondary education and basic curative and preventive healthcare (Haggard, 2000). According to Block, when beginning to explore the basic concepts and theories of healthcare economics, one question arises: â€Å"Why do individual patients and the community-at-large demand healthcare goods and services? Several factors have been identified to answer this question; first, the United States has been experiencing changes in the age structure of the general population for several decades – people are generally living longer, but not necessarily healthier, with adequate functionality and an excellent quality of life. Second, as real and disposable income has increased, consumers of healthcare delivery goods and services have deployed higher expectations with respect to healthcare outcomes. Finally, improvements in healthcare technology and the growth of medical informatics as a separate discipline within the applied medical sciences have lead to an increased range of healthcare interventions; as the demand for healthcare goods and services continues to change and evolve within the next few decades, the need for professional healthcare administrators and clinicians to better understand the basic concepts and theories of healthcare economics becomes more critical. Health economics may be broadly defined as the application of theories, concepts and techniques of economics to the healthcare delivery system (qtd. n Block, 2006). As Block stated, several key areas of interest within the discipline of applied medicals sciences include: the allocation of resources (i. e. , land, labor, and capital) between various health promoting activities; the quantity of resources used in healthcare delivery; the administrative organization and funding of healthcare institutions; the efficiency with which healthcare resources are allocated and used for clinical and administrative healthcare delivery; and, the effects of preventive, curative, and rehabilitative healthcare services on individual utility and societal welfare. The overall aim of healthcare economics is to inform the healthcare constituencies so that the choices for allocating and using healthcare goods and services maximize the benefits and outcomes to the applicable population and individuals (Block, 2006). According to Block, healthcare economics may be examined at both a macro and micro level of attention. A closer look into the macroeconomics of healthcare delivery in the United States is required; there are some basic U.  S. healthcare economic indicators that must be explained including the annual health expenditure, the rate of healthcare inflation, the per capita healthcare expenditure, and the distribution of healthcare expenditures (Block, 2006). Based on the article â€Å"Does Preventive Care save Money? Health Economics and the Presidential Candidates† that I have read, I can say that as of now there is a little variation on the effect of preventive healthcare on its effectiveness. I agree with Cohen, that definitely, a number of proofs do imply that there are ‘opportunities’ to advance health and save money by ‘prevention’ but ‘far-reaching statements’ about ‘cost-saving potential’ of prevention conversely, are ‘overreaching’. I think that it is correct that avoiding illness may in a few scenarios save cash however in other scenarios may add to the cost of healthcare. I also agree that ‘preventive measures’ which don’t save money might or might not correspond to ‘cost-effective’ because of many factors. As what Cohen investigated, it has been reported that the dispersal of ‘cost effectiveness ratios’ of ‘preventive treatments and measures’ are comparable, which means that efficient investment opportunities on programs in healthcare are approximately very similar for the treatment and prevention. Based on the study, it can be concluded that a number of ‘preventive measures’ can save money, whereas the others don’t, though they could also be sensible because they present ‘health benefits’ in relation to their cost; on the contrary, a number of ‘preventive measures’ are costly (Cohen et. al. , 2008). I agree with Cohen that, in general, whether a particular preventive measure represent a good value or poor value depends on factors such as the population targeted, with measures targeting higher risk populations typically the most efficient.

Reflective cycle Essay

I will reflect on an incident that occurred during my shift to develop positive attitude towards nursing informatics. In this reflection, I am going to use Gibbs (1988) Reflective cycle. This model is a recognized framework for my reflection. Gibbs (1988) consist of six stages to complete one cycle which is able to improve my nursing informatics and learning from the experience for better practice in future. The cycle starts with description of the situation, analysis of the feelings, evaluation of experience, analysis to make sense of experience, and conclusion of what else I could have done and also action plan to prepare if the situation arose again. However, Siviter (2004) explains that reflection is about gaining self confidence ,identify when to improve, learning from own mistakes and behavior, looking at other people perspectives, being self aware and improving the future by learning from the past. In my context with the patients, it is important that the nurse incorporates nursing informatics to improve health care delivery. However Hebda and Czar (2009) defines nursing informatics as the use of information and computer technology to support all aspects of nursing practice, including direct delivery of care ,administration, education and research. Nursing informatics involves the use of computer based information system which according to Stair and Reynolds (2008,pg 4) is defined as a set of interrelated components that collect ,manipulate, store and disseminate data and information and provide a feedback mechanism to meet an objective. Description I had just reported from the four months maternity leave and during the shift changeover, I was informed by my colleagues of the new method of requesting for investigations online and that I was to see the team leader to take me through the process. I heard my colleagues discuss a lot on how the new system was consuming their time and since it had been made a hospital policy they had no choice than to adhere to it. This did not sound interesting to me as I did not even have computer literacy and wondered why the institution had changed the system. I shied off from seeking help from my team leader since I did not want to be embarrassed for not being a computer literate. I decided that I am going to use the old method and when I am asked,I will defend myself and say that I did not know about it. Unfortunately, the team leader did not realize that I had just reported from long leave and needed updates or maybe she waited for me to take an initiative to seek for updates from her as it always happens when one comes back from long leave which did not happen. During the doctor’s rounds, one of my patients had some request for investigations and because the phlebotomy rounds had already taken place, one of the doctors obtained the blood from the patient and left for me to charge and send it to the laboratory. I decided to give the health care assistant the specimen to take to the laboratory hoping that the laboratory technicians would charge it as they had always done before the introduction of the new system. During the exit round, the doctor inquired on the report and when I called the lab they said that I was supposed to check from the computer. Since I did not have any computer literacy, I pretended that I was checking but the doctor got impatient and decided to check by himself. On checking, the doctor found that the specimen was never charged and so could not access the report. On calling the laboratory technician, it was reported to the doctor that the specimen was discarded because it was assumed to be a reject since they had not found the details online. The doctor got so upset with me and insisted that I should explain to the patient what happened so that he could obtain more specimen. I got so confused because I didn’t have the exact words to tell to the patient. I then gathered courage and told the patient that the specimen obtained earlier was not enough for the investigations requested and that we needed to obtain more specimen.at first, the patient could not understand but after a second thought, she gave the consent and the specimen was obtained. This time round the doctor lost trust in me and decided to charge by himself and gave a health care assistant to take the specimen to the laboratory. Feelings On reflection of the incident, I felt so embarrassed because such things are not supposed to happen to a senior nurse who is supposed to be giving guidance to the junior nurses. I also felt irresponsible for not seeking help from my colleques on charging the patient’s specimen and that I had not taken the initiative to see the team leader to give me the updates that occurred while I was away. I felt empathetic for the patient and blamed myself for not taking the proper action. I also felt at my level I needed to have computer literacy because that is what hindered me from seeking help. The American Nurses Association (2007) states that the experienced nurse builds up on the competencies required for practitioners using basic computer skills to information regarding the patient and has to be proficient in her/his area of specialization. The doctors, and other nurses felt upset for my action. Evaluation Good points. After the incident, it made me think of how I would have handled the situation and how important computer & information literacy is to me and other healthcare practitioners. Selvasekaran (2008) defines computer literate health care provider as that who has basic understanding of the computer hardware, common types of software and different ways in which software application can be used in patient care environment. Association of college and research libraries (2002) defines information literacy as the ability to recognize when information is needed as well as the skills to find, evaluate and use needed information effectively. Bad points. It was a shame that my negligence of seeking information led to the waste of patient’s specimen leading to waste of time in obtaining the results. It also caused more pain to the patient since the patient needed to be pricked again and this added extra stressors to the patient who was already stressed by her illness. The other bad point is that the laboratory technician discarded patient’s specimen instead of calling the ward for it to be charged. Analysis I wondered why the institution had changed from the old system of requesting for investigations, I then remembered that earlier I had read from a book on the importance/benefits of nursing informatics in a healthcare setup which included: †¢Improved access to information. †¢Error reduction & improved communication. †¢Decreased redundancy on data entry. †¢Convenience. †¢Decreased time spent in medication administration & documentation †¢Increased time for client care †¢Facilitation of data collection for research †¢Improved record security †¢Improved quality of care and patient satisfaction (Hebda and Czar 2009 pg 37). I then realized that the old method did not have the above qualities and so the institution opted for the new system. In this case there was ignorance of seeking information due to lack of computer and information literacy. Maybe I would have given the sample to my colleagues who were well informed to charge. I also could have called the laboratory technician and inform that the specimen had not been charged. It is good that I finally learnt from my my mistake and that the second sample drawn was charged and results acquired. However, having no computer literacy & information literacy does not make my action acceptable. Conclusion. My reflection of this event explores how important nursing informatics is in a healthcare set up and that all the healthcare providers should have knowledge on nursing informatics. The whole issue was embarrassing and I felt that instead of just sending the specimen and assuming that the lab technicians will charge, I would have given it to my colleagues to charge or inform the laboratory technician that I was not able to charge the specimen & hence helping them to take an appropriate decision instead of discarding it. Also instead of shying off from seeking the information on the new system from the team leader, I would have gained a little knowledge from my colleagues on how to operate the computer and then boldly proceed to the team leader for more information. This showed that I was not wise enough. According to American Nurses Association (2007) wisdom occurs when knowledge is used appropriately to manage and solve problems. Results from understanding and requires human effort. However, If I had availed myself for the information, this mess would not have happened. Action plan. In order to prevent the incident from happening again, it is important that when I come back from a long leave, I should take the initiative to seek for updates from my colleagues and also the team leader taking in account the sensitive issues like this one.I should also seek help from my colleagues of things that am not certain of so as to prevent unpleasant incidences from happening. The action I took after the incidence was to write an incident form so that others could learn from my mistake. I also sought the information on online investigation request from my colleagues and team leader and also enrolled in computer classes so that I could have enough knowledge on computer literacy since the information I got from my colleagues and team leader was so particular and only concerned requesting of investigations and obtaining reports.i also called laboratory technicians and informed them to always call the ward before discarding patients specimens. I have learnt that there can be many positive learning opportunities from the mistakes we make. Reflection can sometimes show your shortcomings and this can be an excuse not to reflect, but by taking negative incidences positively you can turn around & change yourself for the better. I am now computer and information literate. References: American Nurses Association. (2007). Scope and standards of nursing informatics practice.Washington: American Nurses. Association of College and Research Libraries. (2002). Information literacy competencestandards for higher education. Retrieved in November 18, 2002, fromhttp://www.ala.org/acrl/ilintro.html#ildef. Gibbs (1998). Learning by doing. A guide to teaching and learning methods. Further educatingunit. Oxford: Oxford polytechnic. Hebda, T., Czar, P. (2009). Handbook on informatics for nurses and healthcare professionals.(4th ed.) . Pearson: New Jersey. Selvasekaran, J. (2008). Essentials of computer for nurses. (2nd ed.). Mumbai: Jaypee brothers. Siviter, B. (2004). The student nurse handbook. Philadelphia: Baillere Tindall. Stair, R., Reynolds. (2008). Principles of information systems. (8th ed.).Boston: Thompsoncourse technology.

Connected Love John 14 15 25 Religion Essays

Connected Love John 14 15 25 Religion Essays Connected Love John 14 15 25 Religion Essay Connected Love John 14 15 25 Religion Essay and you can non order person to experience emotional love. Jesus makes these promises to those who love him yieldingly, who are doing love, who understand love is action, non simply words or feelings. Think about the difference in these two domestic scenes: The hubby pess up in the life room after eating a superb repast prepared by his married woman, shouts to her in the kitchen as she s making the dishes, Excellent repast Hun . In the other scene the hubby softly appears at her side, dishrag in manus, to assist. We have all sorts of expressions that express that we do understand this, one being, actions speak louder than words. The nazarene offers these confidences of life to those who love him with actions of obeisance, by maintaining his commandments. But merely as we need to be careful non to accept a limited definition of love as being simply emotional, we besides need to be careful non to settle for a limited definition of what Jesus means by maintaining his commandments. There are people who take Jesus words to love him by maintaining his commandments really, really earnestly, but unluckily halt at merely 10 commandments, losing the all important eleventh commandment of Jesus when he said I give you another, that you love God with all your being, and that you love one another as I have loved you . These people are so busy loving Jesus by obeying righteous regulations that they appear to everyone else like they are the church thought constabularies or the Christian Gestapo. Clanging cymbals and small love. The 11th commandment is based on our love for and relation with God in Christ, we love each other as Jesus has loved us. Jesus gave this as a new commandment non to replace the old Big Ten, but to supplement them and set them into a new context. To reply the inquiry of how we are commanded to love calls for us to understand how Jesus loved us, and several words to depict his love for us come instantly to mind: compassion, credence and forfeit. He had Compassion for the sick, the square, the hungry, the imprisoned, the castawaies, the unloved and unlovely. His glowing love was apparent in every measure he took from his baptism in the Jordan to his declaration to the stealer on the cross. He had Acceptance because he accepted adult females, kids, work forces, Gentile and Jew likewise, unsmooth and ready fishermen. He accepted them all as saints and feeding and imbibing with evildoers caused Jesus to be challenged by the unloving righteous. But here two thousand old ages after he rose once more we know that Christ was the victor of that challenge. At the extremum of his ministry of proclaiming God s love with compassion and credence, surrounded by crowds heartening his entry into the holy metropolis, Jesus set out on the last stairss of the ultimate manner of loving us ; stairss taking to this 3rd point of love ; his Forfeit on the cross. A Sacrifice in and of love, that brought from the Father new life, non merely for Jesus but for all who live out their love for him as the risen Christ. It seems pretty clear so that Jesus makes his offers of both the Holy Spirit and of his ain staying presence to those who live out their love for him in actions of compassion, credence and forfeit. Jesus promised to be with those who love Him, and Christ is present with us, right here, right now. That is why we are here, to run into with him, to pull upon His promise of being with us, to hear what He has to state to us, to hear what He continues to name us to make in populating out our love for Him in service. We are called to be adherents of Jesus, but we are non expected to be adherents in our ain strength. We are besides powered to be His adherents, energized and given life through the promised Advocate, Helper, Holy Spirit. We are sustained and comforted by the really presence of Christ with us, and in us, and us in Him. We do nt cognize to the full, ca nt cognize wholly where this journey with Christ will take us, but we can be certain that it will be interesting, and carry throughing. On top of this we can besides be certain that He will carry through His promise of support, strength, and even life ageless as He accompanies us. We can take comfort from this. If we are His, He is of all time willing to take us by His Spirit unto all truth. We can come with our questions, demands, jobs and at times, despairing state of affairss. His forbearance is infinite. We can number on his changeless working onward to the ultimate fulfilling of His intent for each one of us. He has called us to be His adherents, and He has powered us to be His adherents, so be filled with the Holy Spirit in a connected love to Jesus.

Harsh Punishment Backfires in Prison, Researcher Says

Harsh Punishment Backfires in Prison, Researcher Says Currently, the U.S. leads the world in the rate of incarceration. The current numbers show that 612 people per 100,000 residents age 18 or older are imprisoned.   According to some criminal justice experts, the current prison system puts too much emphasis on harsh punishment and not enough on rehabilitation and it simply does not work. The current system only provides a breeding ground for more aggressive and violent behavior, according to Joel Dvoskin, PhD of the University of Arizona and author of Applying Social Science to Reduce Violent Offending. Aggression Breeds Aggression Prison environments are replete with aggressive behaviors, and people learn from watching others acting aggressively to get what they want, Dvoskin said. It is his belief that behavior modification and social learning principles can work inside prison just as they do outside. Certainty vs. Severity of Punishment In criminological research performed by Valerie Wright, Ph.D., Research Analyst at The Sentencing Project, it was determined that certainty of punishment, rather than the severity of punishment is more likely to deter criminal behavior. For example, if a city announces that police will be out in force looking for drunk drivers during a holiday weekend, it would likely increase the number of people who decide not to risk drinking and driving. Severity of punishment attempts to scare potential criminals because the punishment that they could receive is not worth the risk. This is the bases behind why states have adopted the tough policies such as Three Strikes.   The concept behind severe punishments assumes that the criminal is rational enough to weigh out the consequences before committing the crime.   However, as Wright points out, since half of the criminals that are locked up in U.S. prisons were drunk or high on drugs at the time of the offense, it is unlikely that they had the mental capacity to logically asses the consequences of their actions. Unfortunately, because of a shortage of police per capita and prison overcrowding, most crimes do not result in arrest or criminal incarceration. Clearly, enhancing the severity of punishment will have little impact on people who do not believe they will be apprehended for their actions. says Wright. Do Longer Sentences Improve Public Safety? Studies have shown that longer sentences result in higher rates of recidivism. According to Wright, accumulated data of 50 studies going back as far as 1958 on a total of 336,052 offenders with various criminal offenses and background showed the following: Offenders who averaged 30 months in prison had a recidivism rate of 29 percent. Offenders who averaged 12.9 months in prison had a recidivism rate of 26 percent. The Bureau of Justice Statistics did a study tracking 404,638 prisoners in 30 states after their release from prison in 2005. The researchers found that: Within three years of release, about two-thirds (67.8 percent) of released prisoners were rearrested.Within five years of release, about three-quarters (76.6 percent) of released prisoners were rearrested.Of those prisoners who were rearrested, more than half (56.7 percent) were arrested by the end of the first year. The research team theorizes that although offender services and programs may have a direct effect on desistance, individuals must decide independently to transform themselves into ex-offenders. However, the numbers do support Wrights argument that longer sentences result in higher rates of recidivism. Reaccessing the Economics of Current Crime Policies Both Wright and Dvoskin agree that the current money spent on incarceration has drained valuable resources and has not been effective in making communities safer. Wright points to a study done in 2006 that compared the cost of community drug treatment programs vs. the cost of incarcerating drug offenders. According to the study, a dollar spent on treatment in prison yields about six dollars of savings, whereas a dollar spent in community-based treatment yields nearly $20 in costs savings. Wright estimates that a savings $16.9 billion annually could be saved by a 50 percent reduction in the number of incarcerated non-violent offenders. Dvoskin feels that the rising prison population with the corresponding lack of increase in prison staff has reduced the ability of prison systems to supervise work programs that allow prisoners to build skills.   This makes it very hard to re-enter into the civilian world and increases the likelihood of going back to prison, Dvoskin said. Therefore, the priority should be placed on decreasing prison populations, he said: This can be done by paying more attention to those with the highest risk of violent behavior rather than focusing on lesser crimes, such as minor drug offenses. Conclusion By reducing the number of non-violent prisoners, it would free up the necessary money to invest in detecting criminal behavior which would increase the certainty of punishment and also allow for more effective programs that could help in reducing recidivism. Source: Workshop: Using Social Science to Prevent Violent Crime, Joel A. Dvoskin, PhD, University of Arizona College of Medicine Saturday, Aug. 8, Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Deterrence in Criminal Justice, Valerie Wright, Ph.D., The Sentencing Project.

How to Add Leading Zeroes to a Number (Delphi Format)

How to Add Leading Zeroes to a Number (Delphi Format) Different applications require specific values to conform to structural paradigms. For example, Social Security numbers are always nine digits long. Some reports require that numbers be displayed with a fixed amount of characters. Sequence numbers, for example, usually start with 1 and increment without end, so theyre displayed with leading zeroes to present a visual appeal. As a Delphi programmer, your approach to adding a number with leading zeroes depends on the specific use case for that value. You can simply opt to pad a display value, or you can convert a number to a string for storage in a database. Display Padding Method Use a straightforward function to change how your number displays. Use  format to make the  conversion by supplying a value for  length (the total length of the final output) and the number you want to pad: str : Format(%.*d,[length, number]) To pad the number 7 with two leading zeroes, plug those values into the code: str : Format(%.*d,[3, 7]); The result is  007  with the value returned as a string.   Convert to String Method Use a padding function to append leading zeroes (or any other character) any time you need it within your script. To convert values that are already integers, use: function LeftPad(value:integer; length:integer8; pad:char0): string; overload;  begin     result : RightStr(StringOfChar(pad,length) IntToStr(value), length );  end; If the value to be converted is already a string, use: function LeftPad(value: string; length:integer8; pad:char0): string; overload;begin  Ã‚  Ã‚  result : RightStr(StringOfChar(pad,length) value, length );end; This approach works with Delphi 6 and later editions. Both of these code blocks default to a padding character of 0  with a length of seven  returned characters; those values may be modified to meet your needs. When  LeftPad  is called, it returns values according to the specified paradigm. For example, if you set an integer value to 1234, calling LeftPad: i: 1234;r : LeftPad(i); will return a string value of 0001234.

Data Fusion and Data Mining Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Data Fusion and Data Mining - Research Paper Example Every day millions of data are being transmitted by the use of local area networks and the Internet. Aware of the voluminous demand for data storage, computer manufacturing firms regularly innovate file storage devices. They introduce new and more "intelligent" devices and gadgets to cope with this ever-escalating demand for storing and retrieving data.  Despite their success in solving the data storage problem, companies are still hoping to use technologies that will provide them clear information on what really is going on in their businesses. Storing and retrieving myriad chunks of data are not enough to solve pressing business problems. Businessmen need useful information out of these.  Owning data warehouses have partially solved this problem. A data warehouse is used to consolidate data found in different databases. This makes millions of data easily retrieved, interpreted, sorted and accessible by analysts. Though this device largely helps analysts, sorting and storing dat a are not enough to make most out of these data. They still cannot provide us with a clear picture of what is really going on in the firm and in the market (Alexander, n.d.).  Turning numerous data into significant information is the aim of one of the latest technological breakthroughs in computers known as data fusion and data mining. These technologies enable firms to automatically search millions of data that they receive every day "for patterns using tools such as classification, association rule mining, clustering, etc. (Data Mining, 2007)." Data fusion is the method of integrating "diverse data into a single, coherent representation of the tactical, operational or strategic situation (Cyr, 2006)." We can say that data fusion is the first step in data mining. To find patterns, one should consolidate huge chunks of data to find out their similarities. This is exactly what data fusion is doing. Data mining divulges strategically hidden patterns found in huge amounts of data usi ng high-end data analysis methods. It discovers new knowledge instead of testing assumptions that are suggested by users, which are being used by other business intelligence technologies (Sentient Information Systems, n.d.). It is an automated technology that allows exploration, analysis, and visualization of data of very large databases. Having the power to extract novel, implicit and actionable knowledge from large datasets, data mining is used for the discovery of non-obvious and finding out information and knowledge that can develop business processes. Having powerful capabilities makes data mining a very useful tool in business. It is used in sales/marketing, customer retention, buyer behavior, costing, quality control, inventory, and fraud (Williams, Hegland, and Roberts 1998).

Computer Sciences and Information Technology. User Experience Essay

Computer Sciences and Information Technology. User Experience - Essay Example In this regards, the paper contains description and purpose of website development, the intended audience of the website along with weaknesses and strengths of the website in respect of their usage by diverse users. Some users may not agree that this website is easy to use and users have difficult experiences with its interface, this study looks at every element of interaction and usability factors (Cornell University Library, 2012). In order to get information regarding their experiences of using the website, the users are given a website usability form to be filled so that the website of the Phone4u can be evaluated. The paper presents the recommendations to the company for improving several aspects of the website to reach the targeted audience, trust development on the visitors and customers, moreover, guidance to increase the web traffic (Dumas, 2008, p37). The usability test is one of the essential steps in the evaluation of the user’s likeness and dislike-ness while usin g the Phone4u’s website. This will require acquisition of user opinions and to present analysis of the information to guide the decision on the areas of improvement. Since most of the features are observable qualitative attributes, this study will have to convert them into quantitative variables for ease of data analysis. 1.2. Background In the evaluation of the website, the focus is how to improve the usability by adding features that are more relevant and functional keeping in view the targeted audience of the website. This can be done by evaluating the website and improving the weaknesses indicating by the analysis. The amendments to the website of the Phone4u should be made as per the recommendations of the users (Valacich, Joey & Hoffer, 2009, p67). At the same time, it is important to consider the fact that some users do not welcome changes so easily and may prefer to remain in the previous version of the website rather than the new one with improved features (Kendall & Kendall 2011, p58). The evaluation will lead to the decision making for the new version of the website based on the information from user response. The statistics will be gathered as comments from various participants. The participants’ views reflect the present trend and the actual real world events that are of interest to this website. The study uses the structure of information flow as shown in the figure below, with the system the user and the feedback mechanism. Figure 1: Information Flow between System, Users and Feedback mechanism 1.3. Study Problem/Question This study seeks to answer one (1) major question having various sub parts. The first question is â€Å"Whether the website of the Phones4u is easy to use for the targeted audience of the website?† In order to have the answer of the first question of this study, the users have to answer the various questions as described by the Jokab Neilsen. The sub questions (parts) include: â€Å"the visibility of the s ystem, Match between system and the real world, User control and freedom, Consistency and standards, Error prevention, Recognition rather than recall, Flexibility and efficiency of use, Aesthetic and minimalist design, Help users recognize, Help and documentation, diagnose and recover from errors. Basically, these are the guidelines provided by the Jakob Neilson for evaluating the usability of the website† (Selvaraj, 2011). All these questions will be answered by the selected participants. 2. Aims The aim of this study is to explore the usability issues in the

Katrinia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Katrinia - Essay Example It is evident that lacked effective management and leadership skills among the organizations involved in the development of the system. On August 2005, more than fifty failures of the floodwalls and levees were protecting New Orleans, Louisiana and its environs from the passage of Hurricane Katrina and landfall in Mississippi. The floodwall and levee failures resulted in flooding in approximately eighty percent of New Orleans and the entire area of St. Bernard Parish. Billions of gallons of water flooded into the vast region of New Orleans, destroying more than ten thousand businesses and home. The US Army Corps of Engineers were given the responsibility of designing and constructing the levee system while the local levee boards were charged with the responsibility of maintaining the levee. The engineering corps handed over the components of the levee system to the local boards on completion. When Hurricane Katrina approached in 2005, the project was between sixty and ninety percent complete. Civil engineers and other specialists, trying to identify the underlying causes of the failures of the flooding protection sy stem, carried out five investigations. From the research report, the primary reason for the flooding was out of inadequate design and construction by the Corps of Engineers. The storm surge and waves broke into twenty places in the Mississippi River Gulf and the entire region of St. Bernard Parish (Bea, 2000). On August 29, 2005, levees, and floodwalls catastrophically failed throughout the urban area of New Orleans. For a period of eight months after the failure of New Orleans Flood Defense System (NOFDS), ILIT (Independent Levee Investigation Team scrutinized over 2800 documents. They also carried out over 220 interviews and evaluated more than 370 contributions from the public. For eight months, many investigations were conducted to find out the reasons

Cisco Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Cisco - Case Study Example Secondly, he reallocated the IT budget distribution system with the intention that each functional department can control their budget according to their needs instead of gathering all the IT expenses under one head, that is, G&A expenses. Each department could fund their projects according to its priority. He dispersed a central IT leading committee and changed it with a structure which gave the line organization authority to take IT investment decisions on application projects. At network level, the customer advocacy group wanted to establish a customer interaction network which could use Cisco’s technology to route calls. Pete Solvik also established an intranet network for the employees. A web based online resource at Cisco.com was also developed for the customers. ERP system was introduced in Cisco by Pete Solvik to manage Cisco’s manufacturing process and inventories. Further up gradation to the ERP was done by Boston for integrating all the functional units of the organization. By the end of 2001, CISCO faced a turning point. CISCO’s had a decline in its sales growth. People started spending less on technological products due to the internet bubbles burst and also due to the terrorist attack of 11th September. Pete Solvik also left the company and a new CIO, Boston was appointed. The need for change in the company’s IT strategy was felt due to the dynamic business environment (The Pennsylvania State University, â€Å"Personal PSU†). The intention behind the implementation of ERP system was to standardize the information which was being used in the company. Nevertheless, as a result of the IT liberty given to the different functional areas of the business, they programmed their own non-standard functional applications to interact with the ERP system. With the amalgamation of these new modified applications onto the ERP system, it was no longer possible to

The Immigrant Experience Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Immigrant Experience - Essay Example ead it deals in a matured manner, and analyses the complex relationship between a mother and daughter, while exploring family relationships, female intuitions, and various other interrelated subjects, against the backdrop of sexual and political violence. At the end, the novel speaks of a possibility of emotional healing, even within the realms of death and destruction. The message that this book sends out, is that, for complete emotional healing one must go beyond all political reasoning, and allow the inner self to grow and metamorphose, while coming to terms with one’s traumatic past. Dandicat dedicates her first novel to all the â€Å"brave women of Haiti, grandmothers, mothers, aunts, sisters, cousins, daughters, and friends, on this and other shores† (Dandicat, 5). This novel that portrays the travails of the lead protagonist Sophie, forges a link between the four generations of women within a family, by finding a common thread of suffering and abuse. This story with its strong political and emotional dimensions, delves into the mother-daughter relationship, and seeks to find solace at the end through various processes of self examination and self expression. There is also the complex correlation of an individual with his mother land. This is evident in the story, when we learn that Sophie was conceived when her mother was raped by a member of the Tonton Macoute (political goons in Haiti) in a cane field, which allegorically also refers to the exploitation and abuse of Haiti, the motherland. The story also portrays a community that cherishes its heritage, which speaks of courage and survival, and a strong will to fight back oppression. This heritage is transmitted through their story telling, and we see this when Sophie’s grandma tells her â€Å"if you see a lot of trouble in your life, it is because you were chosen to carry a part of the sky on your head† (ibid, 25). This tradition of storytelling to pass on the heritage is also evident in mythical

Ultrasonography in Breast Cancer Research Paper - 1

Ultrasonography in Breast Cancer - Research Paper Example ult, the clinically breast lesions suspected in women who are 30 years of age or younger than that, and evaluation of the abnormalities that are seen on mammograms1. This shows that the ultrasonography is a step taken later than the mammography as it evaluates the results on the mammograms and images them. In fact, the imagers of breast cancers also believe that ultrasonography is used as the primary modality to evaluate the palpable masses seen in women older than 30 years of age and mammography, also, is an adjunctive technique. Since ultrasonography is primarily used as the evaluating step, it also helps in the guidance of biopsies, surgeries and other therapeutic procedures. The evaluating role of ultrasonography has started being used in the treatment and guidelines of breast cancer, but the research on its role in cancer screening is still not confirmed, but studies have shown several aspects to the issue. The role of ultrasonography has developed and matured over time, otherwise initially it was considered as a method which was comparatively cheaper and effective in identifying the cystic breast masses and differentiating them from the solid masses. As the research study advanced, it was established that ultrasonography is not only a method to differentiate, rather it also was useful in providing valuable information and evaluation of the nature of the solid masses and other breast lesions along with the extent to which they are present. This meant that it was an effective and an important technique in evaluating, analyzing and treating the breast cancer2. The technique of ultrasonography does not involve exposing the cancer patient to the ionizing radiation, which, according to the studies, is a factor which is more important for pregnant and young patients. For ultrasonography, the medical studies say that the patients cannot be exposed to radiation because their breasts are sensitive for radiation. This means that comparing mammography with

The Immigrant Experience Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Immigrant Experience - Essay Example ead it deals in a matured manner, and analyses the complex relationship between a mother and daughter, while exploring family relationships, female intuitions, and various other interrelated subjects, against the backdrop of sexual and political violence. At the end, the novel speaks of a possibility of emotional healing, even within the realms of death and destruction. The message that this book sends out, is that, for complete emotional healing one must go beyond all political reasoning, and allow the inner self to grow and metamorphose, while coming to terms with one’s traumatic past. Dandicat dedicates her first novel to all the â€Å"brave women of Haiti, grandmothers, mothers, aunts, sisters, cousins, daughters, and friends, on this and other shores† (Dandicat, 5). This novel that portrays the travails of the lead protagonist Sophie, forges a link between the four generations of women within a family, by finding a common thread of suffering and abuse. This story with its strong political and emotional dimensions, delves into the mother-daughter relationship, and seeks to find solace at the end through various processes of self examination and self expression. There is also the complex correlation of an individual with his mother land. This is evident in the story, when we learn that Sophie was conceived when her mother was raped by a member of the Tonton Macoute (political goons in Haiti) in a cane field, which allegorically also refers to the exploitation and abuse of Haiti, the motherland. The story also portrays a community that cherishes its heritage, which speaks of courage and survival, and a strong will to fight back oppression. This heritage is transmitted through their story telling, and we see this when Sophie’s grandma tells her â€Å"if you see a lot of trouble in your life, it is because you were chosen to carry a part of the sky on your head† (ibid, 25). This tradition of storytelling to pass on the heritage is also evident in mythical

Psychological tests Essay Example for Free

Psychological tests Essay Aptitude test is defined as the test of suitability to determine whether an individual is likely to develop the skills required for a particular kind of work (Encarta dictionary, 2008). Aptitude tests are used to calculate abilities over a long period of time, as well as to envisage future learning performance. Example of aptitude tests are the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) and the American College Testing (ACT)). These tests are both college admission tests explored in the prediction of college success. Special aptitude tests The purpose of special aptitude test raises the concept of fidelity and bandwith. Bandwith determines the breath of the traits that is being evaluated while fidelity refers to the extent to which a particular measure focuses on a particular attribute or quality. These tests are explored to prognosticate on the future performance in a subject that the person in question is not currently trained. Goverment parastatals,institutions and business organization often will apply specific aptitude tests when handing over specific privileges to certain individuals. .Furthermore, vocational guidance counseling may involve aptitude testing to help clarify individual career goals (Microsoft Encarta, 2008). If a person has a similar score in comparison to that of individuals already functioning in a particular profession, the probability of success in that occupation can be predicted by the use of aptitude tests. Certain aptitude tests have a wide coverage that includes skills germane to many different professions. The General aptitude test, for instance aside measuring the general reasoning ability also covers the areas of form perception, motor coordination, clerical perception as well as manual and finger dexterity. Other tests may concentrate on a single area such as the Art, Engineering and modern languages (Microsoft Encarta. 2008). One of the examples of special aptitude tests is the sensory or perceptual test and this concentrates on the discrimination of color and visual acuity. It also involves the auditory senses. Another example of special aptitude test is the mechanical test which includes the test of spatial relations and this demands manual dexterity as well as space visualization. There is also the paper and pencil test which includes the Bennet Mechanical comprehension Test and the Minnesota Paper Formboard. Other special aptitude tests are listed below. The clerical test This includes the Minnesota clerical test that consists of 200 pairs of numbers and 200 pairs of names. It also includes the clerical abilities which is an embodiment of 7 other tests like test of proofreading and copying etc. The art and musical test. The Art ability test includes the Art judgment test in which the participant judges between two pictures and chooses the one that is better. In aesthetic perception test, the participant gives an orderly ranking of 4 versions of the same project. The grave design judgment test also allows the participant to adjudicate the best among a group of abstract pictures. Musical ability test The musical ability test gives an analytical assessment of musical ability and it makes use of tones as well as notes to evaluate 6 components of auditory discrimination. The wing standardized test of musical intelligence explores recorded pianoic songs to assess about 8 areas which include the memory, chord analysis and rhythm.

Perceptions Towards Islamic Banking and Insurance

Perceptions Towards Islamic Banking and Insurance Introduction In the first chapter of this research study, an introduction on insurance will be presented. While, on the other hand, there will be a highlight on the differences between conventional and Islamic insurance. Following this, will be the problem discussion and the objectives of this study. Finally, there will be the justification and significance, following by organization of the study. What Exactly Is Insurance Means Buying insurance has become a trend in this twentieth century. According to The Star daily(2007), in the first half of year 2007, the combined premium income for insurance industry increase 9.8 percent compared to the same period for year 2006. The industry is further expanded in line with the favorable economics performance. People bought the insurance for their car, family, and business. People spend a lot of money on paying the insurance premium annually. While, do they actually clear on what kind of plan they had bought and what had they insured for their life, property and so on? Do they really distinct on the concept of the insurance that they had disbursed so much? According to Bank Negara Malaysia, insurance is the transfer of risk by an individual, such as yourself or an organization, such as your business to an insurance company. You or your organization will then be known as policy holder or insured while the insurance company is the insurer. The insurance company receives the payment in the form of premium. Then the insurance company utilized the premium collect from their policy holder to make some investment for their company. They will compensate their policy holder in the event of losses or damages which is sustained by the premium paid. In other word, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent loss by paying an amount of premium. It is an effective risk transfer mechanism for insured to exchange their uncertainty financial loss with the certain amount of premium (Ahmad Ali Khan, 2003). This kind of insurance we titled as conventional insurance which is the ordinary type of insurance that accepted by the society in general. While, other than the conventional insurance which we normally approached to, there are another type of insurance which we called as Islamic insurance. The Islamic insurance was step into Malaysia insurance market since November of year 1984 (Renat Bekkin, 2008). The first Islamic insurance company established in Malaysia was Takaful Malaysia Berhad. Early than that, Islamic insurance has stepping into the market of Sudan and Arab. What is Islamic insurance Islamic insurance is a mode of financial management which compliance to Shariah law. Islamic insurance is provided under a principle called Takaful. According to Islamic Banking, the term Takaful is derived from the Arabic word Kafaala meaning guaranteeing. Takaful means guaranteeing each other and refer to the concept of permissible Islamic insurance or Halal insurance. While by referring to Takaful Act 1984, Article 2, Takaful means a scheme based on brotherhood, solidarity and mutual assistance which provides for mutual financial aid and assistance to the participants in case of need whereby the participants mutually agree to contribute for that purpose. Literally, Takaful defines responsibility, shared guarantee, collective assurance and mutual undertakings. (Masum Billah, 2007) Some Muslims believe insurance is unnecessary, as society should helps its victims. Muslims can no longer ignore the fact that they live, they trade and communicate with open global systems, and they can no longer ignore the need for banking and insurance (Dr Aly Khorshid, 2004). In the eyes of Muslims, the concepts used by conventional insurance are against the law of Shariah. This is because conventional insurance is based on a contract of exchange (sale) between the insurance company and the covered person. This contract is void because it has the elements which are not permissible from Shariahs perspective. The elements are Gharar which means uncertainty. Conventional insurance has an element of Gharar due to the promise to pay a sum of money upon the occurrence of unsuspected events. The other elements are Maysir which refer to gambling. Existence of Gharar (uncertainties) leads to Maysir (gambling) in conventional insurance. The insured may either lose the entire premium he has paid or be compensated for the losses he incurs for the insured event. Riba was also one of the not permissible elements in the law of Shariah. Riba means interest. The investment of insurance funds in interest bearing securities such bonds and stocks, which do not comply with the Shariah principles, pose a major Muslims who purchase the conventional insurance (Alburn Mountain, 2008). In conventional insurance, vendors, the insurance company, sells their insurance plans to their clients, which we called as policy holder in the other way and invest the premium paid for the profit of its shareholder. Then, the policy holders do enjoy the risk transference that they are receiving the compensation if they face the financial loss on the events they insured. According to Islamic Banking, Takaful was grant as Islamic insurance because of the apparent similarity between the contract of kafaala and insurance. Takaful is an Islamic concept which grounded in Islamic Mualamat which define as banking transaction (SP Media, 2009). This concept already practices in diverse form over 1400 years long (Salam, 2008). Generally, Takaful is an insurance plan which based on Shariah principles. The members are to contribute a certain amount of money to a common pool which is Takaful fund in the form of participative contribution that also called as Tabarru. Tabarru means a donation, charity or gift which cannot be taken back (Dr Qaradawi, 2002). In general Takaful, a percentage of the participants contribution is considered as Tabarru, thus it cannot be taken back by the participants as it is the joint guarantee principle to help other participants. A portion of a participants contribution will be allocate through Tabarru principle to help participants from a sudden but defined risks. After contributing the money into Takaful mutual fund, they will undertake a contract which called as Aqad in Islam, to become one of the participants by agreeing to mutually help each other, should any of the participants suffer a defined loss (Arshad Shaikh, 2007). In Islamic insurance, participants (policyholders) are co-operating among themselves for their common goods. Every participants are to pay a part of the contribution (premium) as a donation to help those need assistance. Other than that, in Takaful system, losses are divided and liabilities spread according to the community pooling system. In order to eliminate the element of uncertainty in Takaful contract, the concept of Tabarru is incorporated. This is to enable the participant to fulfill his obligation of mutual help and joint guarantee should any of his fellow participants suffer a defined loss. In conventional insurance, policy holder can buy more than one policy or plan to hedge the particular risk in the event of loss or damage. By this, the policy holders are lessening the claims of the insurance company because the same amount of compensation has now burden by two companies. This is called reinsurance which an insurance company can transfer to another insurer, the reinsurer all or part of its liabilities in respect of claims arising under the contracts of insurance. This is to protect itself against the risk that its total claims costs in any year may wiping out of its profits and cause it to insolvent. As same in Islamic insurance, participants can buy more than one plan from other licensed Takaful operator. This is called as Retakaful in Islamic insurance (Bahrain, 2005). Why Takaful Insurance instead of Conventional Insurance In Islamic view, the concept used in conventional insurance is in conflict with the injunction of Islam (Ahmad Ali Khan, 2003). The conflicts were not against the concepts used by conventional insurance that trades and contracts were appeared in the concept. While the struggling are the weaknesses and the imperfect phrase which existed in the insurance contract. The objections are actually against the phrase of Gharar which means uncertainty, Maisir refers to gambling and the word Riba which point to the interest. The criticism was the word of Gharar is happened in the contract of insurance. Other than that, the phrase of gambling is presenting in its extreme form. Whats more is the element of interest is existed in the contract. These three phrases were the points appeared in the contract of conventional insurance that prohibited in Islamic view. Thus, they lead to the contradiction between conventional insurance and Islamic view (Ahmad Ali Khan, 2003). While, there are the person who does not agree the above matters. According to Dr Yusof al-Qaradawi (2002), he does not think that the concept used in conventional insurance is conflict with Islamic law, but he agrees that the conventional insurance is in need of some improvement to move in line with Islamic teachings. Problem Statement People are following the track of buying insurance nowadays. People buy insurance when there is a new born baby. They buy insurance during their travelling. Insurance also bought when people purchase a residential property. People also buy insurance for the sake of retiring. People buy insurance whenever they think there was an unseen risk hidden, but do they really know what is about insurance and what type of insurance is available in the market? Throughout a number of searching by using the Google search engine and the library in campus, which was found that there are the surveys doing on Islamic Banking which may mentioned in various perspectives for instances the growth of Islamic banking in the world. Like what mentioning by Radio Australia, Islamic banking was one of the fastest growing sectors in the finance world which reveals by the value of the industry which worth of USD 1 Trillion in the year 2008. An addition, according to the bankers Top 500 Islamic Financial Institution survey, assets held by Islamic bank in year 2009 rose by 28.6 percent to 822 billion dollar from 639 billion dollar in year 2008. It posted a double-digit growth in the year 2009 despite of the economic slowdown occurred in the earlier year (Soren Billing, 2009). Other than that, what was found is there are quite a number of researches which study on the topic related to insurance. There are talked about the insurance expansion in the industry, growth of the insurance industry, the rate of market penetration. According to KCLAU (2007), the market penetration of life insurance as measured in terms of the total number of policies in force to total population, grew to 39.3 percent as at end of June 2007. While, besides the conventional which is generally accepted by the society, there are another type of risk transfer mechanism which is Islamic insurance was emerged in the other part of the globe. Islamic insurance was first widely spread over the Islamic country like Sudan, Arabic, India, South East Asia, and some other place in the world. The Islamic insurance also practiced in the region which is non Islamic country like European country and United of State. Since the growing of Islamic insurance throughout the world is in such a fast track, while, the doubt appeared was, it was hard to find the study on Islamic insurance rather than the conventional insurance. Another doubt was appeared that what is the reason to separate insurance into Islamic and conventional? What is the different perspective between Islamic insurance and conventional insurance? While, the most is, do people aware of the existence of Islamic insurance in the insurance industry which they approached ordinarily? Following by this, is the discussion on conventional and Islamic insurance. Research Objectives The general objective of this study is to clarify the different perspectives between conventional and Islamic insurance. While the other specific objectives as stated below which I am to study in this research. The specific objectives: To investigate the different perception of Muslim and Non Muslim towards conventional and Islamic insurance To investigate the determinants of demand for insurance in Malaysians To determine the level of awareness on Islamic insurance in the region of Malaysia Significance of Study This study may help the Malaysian Islamic Finance market to move a step up due to the hike up of the level of awareness on the conventional and Islamic insurance. Other than that, the study also provides the Muslim and Non Muslim within Malaysia to walk out of the religious teachings and some other factors in order to know more about the issues of insurance. Therefrom, Malaysias Islamic finance market may improve follow by the fast track in other country like what happened to the Top 500 Islamic Financial Institution, that assets held by Islamic bank in year 2009 rose by 28.6 percent to 822 billion dollar from 639 billion dollar in year 2008. It posted a double-digit growth in the year 2009 despite of the economic slowdown occurred in the earlier year (Soren Billing, 2009). Other than impacts on the country income and economic condition, this study also might helpful to the family or person who thinks of purchase insurance. By gone through this study, they are able to better analyze the product available in the market whether from the conventional insurance company or the Takaful operator which offer the Shariah compliance products and services. Then they are able to choose the best product which suit to them in terms of their needs, budget and also the religious teachings. Other than this, the study also may help the insurance company or the operators to determine the consumers intention of buying on their product. They may use the useful information to improve their products in order to enhance or even develop a better market position for their company. The growing in the insurance market plays an important role in the economic growth of the country. The growing may bring the country to a higher position in the world financial sector. Thus, Malaysia will stand still on the top of the world in the financial sector which playing the role of developing the conventional and Islamic insurance to the various country on the globe. Organization of Study This research report comprises of five chapters. The first chapter serves the introduction on insurance. It consists of the detail for conventional insurance and Islamic insurance. Problem statement and research objective is also discussed. Following the significance of study is presented. Lastly, the chapter one will end by the organization of study which show the flow out of the whole research project. Basically, chapter two will present the literature review which forms the foundation of this study. It consists of the related empirical study which done by other researchers previously. There are few factors which impact on the demand of insurance and influential to customers perception are included in this chapter. In chapter three, the research methodology of the study will be discussed. The research framework will be shown together with the hypothesis developed link together the variables in the study. Other than that, the sample planning, sources of data and data collection will also be carried out. Questionnaire design will also be laid out in this chapter following by the data analysis method which is the last part of this chapter. Following by this is chapter four which describe the results and discussion. Hence, the graph and table will be widely used to better interpret the findings and result of the study. Finally, chapter five will be the conclusion and the recommendation of this research. The level of awareness among Malaysian towards Islamic insurance will finally be presented and end this study. Chapter Two Literature Review INTRODUCTION Continue with the first chapter presented previously, this study is to observe the perception of Malaysia towards conventional insurance and Islamic insurance. For the sake of gaining a clearer view on this, exploring to the related literature is a must. Following, the overview of insurance and takaful will be presented. In 2.2, the discussion about the determinants impact on demand for insurance will be presented. Then, the study will indicate the perception of consumers towards conventional and Islamic methods of finance in few factors like the service quality, accessibility, convenience and status of the organizations. Lastly in 2.4, the awareness among Malaysian towards Islamic insurance will be discussed. Overview of Insurance and Islamic Insurance Insurance is a form of risk-management which transfer the possible risks like accident, theft, natural disaster and illness of ones or a group to the more financially sound entity, insurers in exchange with a small amount of payment which we called as premium. The meaning of insurance is essentially to understand for everybody who is considering of purchase an insurance policy or to understand the basics of what if finance. This instrument is used in hedging risk precautionary against the future contingent losses (Stanley St Labs, n.d). While, according to Insurance Info, insurance is being categorized two main categories which are life insurance and general insurance. The risks that covered by life insurance including premature death, income during retirement and illness. While the main products in life insurance are Whole life, Endowment, Term, Investment-linked, Life annuity plan, Medical and health. For general insurance, it is basically a policy that protects you from losses and damages which other than those covered by life insurance, for instance, property loss like stolen car and burnt house. Other than that, liability arising from damage caused by oneself to a third party, accidental death or injury also covered by the general insurance. The products offered under general insurance are Motor insurance, Fire/House owner/Householder insurance, Personal accident insurance, Medical and health insurance and Travel insurance. While for Islamic insurance, takaful, is a protection plan based on Shariah principles compliance. By contributing a sum of money to a common takaful fund in the form of participative contribution (tabarru), the person is undertaking a contract (aqad) to become one of the participants which agree to mutually help each other if any of the participants suffer a defined loss. Both takaul and insurance have similar basic principles where the insured must have a legitimate financial interest in the risk you are insuring, which means the insured must suffer a financial loss when the insured event occurred. In takaful, the life insurance is granted as family takaful. The products offered under family takaful are Family Takaful, Investment linked takaful, Child education takaful, Medical and health takaful. While for general takaful, there are Home takaful, Motor takaful and Personal accidents takaful. Perception towards Conventional and Islamic Insurance Perception, as defined by Stephen P. Robbins (2005) is a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment. Perception is important in decision making process. An individual must fully understand the decision must make along with all of the facts and information involved. If an individual has a bad perception of the situation and do not consider all of the facts that are involved like the external factors which anyone else have no control over the individual may lead to a wrong decision. In turn, this will cause negative consequences for the organization and the individual. In order to have a good perception on any given situation, an individual must analyze all of the significant information involved in a timely manner, without making a hasty decision (Wally Sparks, 2007). Service Quality According to Shahril Bin Shafie (2003), quality is sought by all organizations, especially in the service sector. Service quality is commonly noted as a critical prerequisite for establishing and sustaining satisfying relationships between organization and the customers (Lassar et al., 2000). According to Yap, S.F., and Kew, M.L., there are many researchers who have defined service quality in different ways. Among them, Bitner, Booms and Mohr (1994) define service quality as the consumers overall impression of the relative inferiority or superiority of the organization and its services. While, other researchers like Cronin and Taylor (1994), view service quality as a form of attitude representing a long run overall evaluation. Service quality has determining the repeated purchase and customer loyalty to an organization. When a customer choose a provider that provides service quality that meets or exceeds his or her expectations, then the customer is more likely to choose the same pro vider again. According to Erol and El-Bdour (1989), Erol, Kaynak, and El-Bdour (1990) and Haron, Ahmad and Planisek (1994) observed that Islamic bank consumers rated the speed and efficiency of services near their top selection criterion on finance service provider. By referring to a study conduct by Erdener Kaynak and Talha D. Harcar (2005) is found that, the service quality provide by conventional banking system is excellent than the others. The study indicated that the customer maintain a higher level of confidence in conventional bank rather than Islamic bank. In this study, the service being tested including the swiftness in correcting errors, fast and efficient service, and consumer complains handling and the courtesy personnel. While according to Hendrik, L., Hirun, A., Razli, C.R., Halim, M.L., Khairul, A. A., and Darwina, A.A. (n.d), indicate that customer satisfaction on Islamic banking products and services is different across the cities. The service quality is satisfied within Johor Bahru, Kuala Lumpur and Penang because these cities are bigger which also contains more populations, and are more economically developed. Due to these reasons, the service provided is more satisfactory because of the customers characteristics which different from income level, gender and also educational level.Erol and El-Bdour (1989), Erol, Kaynak, and El-Bdour (1990) and Haron, Ahmad and Planisek (1994) observed that Islamic bank consumers rated the speed and efficiency of services near their top selection criterion on finance service provider. The emergence of the Internet provides an opportunity for organizations to conduct business in cyberspace. Steven et al (2002), Soliman (2003), Wirtz (2001), Coltman (2001) had studied that Internet adoption and factors influencing the propensity and pattern of adoption among different sectors and sizes of organizations worldwide and in Malaysia, empirical data on online insurance has been limited (Fatimah et al, 2000; Yusserie at el, 2002). One of the reasons may be because the insurance industry has been slow to respond to the usage of Internet for business,, as compared to the other financial service (Esters, 1997). In 1999, recognizing the potential of the Internet, Bank Negara Malaysia allowed a group of insurers to establish the industry first interactive insurance website, which enabled policy owners to transact on the line for renewal of policy and also premium payment(BNM 2000). Internet via individual companys website allows customers to gain more information about the product and services offered by the companies (Ruquet, 2001). While, not all the business organizations are adopting Internet in their business due to various reasons like customer readiness, cost and the risks involved. Zinkewicz (2000) said that business do not use the Internet for business because customers do not trust the process involved, instead, they prefer human interactions (Ainin and Jaafar, 2003). Accessibility Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product or service is accessible by as many people as possible. It also viewed as the ability to access the functionality and possible benefits of some system or entity like information of the particular products and services (Wikipedia, 2009). In Malaysia, there are total up 1,752 numbers of registered insurance agencies distributed throughout the thirteen states and two federal territories. Among of all, there are agencies which offer both life insurance and also general insurance business like American International Assurance Bhd, Etiqa Insurance Berhad, Hong Leong Assurance Berhad and so on (BNM, 2008). Other than that, there are only eight licensed Takaful operator in Malaysia which are CIMB Aviva Takaful Berhad, Etiqa Takaful Berhad, Hong Leong Tokio Marine Takaful Berhad, HSBC Amanah Takaful (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, MAA Takaful Berhad, Prudential BSN Takaful Berhad,Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Berhad and also Takaful Ikhlas Sdn Bhd (BNM, 2008). Convenience Convenience is composed of number factors including the availability of parking space, location of branches, long operation hours. (Jasmi Al-Ajmi, Hameeda Abo Hussain and Nadhem Al-Saleh, 2009). Customers will always prefer the products and services are available near to their working place or house area for the convenience of visiting. The sufficient parking space and long operation hours is for the convenience when visiting to the branch. Internet adoption is a type of convenience which offered by the insurance companies to their consumers, where consumers can get the products and services information through the website (Ainin and Jaafar, 2003). Other than that, interior comfort and external design also included affect the consumers perception on the convenience of selecting financial products. Status Status of an organization show measured through the strength of financial position, reputation and also the risk. As Islamic finance continue to expand. Islamic principles strong emphasis on the economic, ethical, moral and social dimensions, to enhance equality and fairness for the good of society as a whole should also have appeal for the ethnically minded (Jasmi Al-Ajmi, Hameeda Abo Hussain and Nadhem Al-Saleh, 2009). Study which conducted by Ahasanul Haque, Jamil Osman and Ahmad Zaki (2009) also revealed that banks name and reputation is a strong effect on selecting a bank. In order to penetrate the youth market, Takaful Malaysia announced on 11th November, that RM 15 million has been pumped into the companys rebranding exercise. After twenty-five years of leading in Islamic insurance company in the country, Takaful Malaysia is setting on conquering the insurance industry by transforming itself into a more youthful outfit. Reflective of its tagline of modern, young and energetic, the company will unveils its new fresh-looking logo, a color fusion of apple green and olive green, described by Takaful Malaysia group director Datuk Hassan Kamil as vibrant and energetic. Takaful Malaysia believes that its latest approach will enhance its image and make it more appealing to the younger age-group which Hassan deems as a highly potential market segment (Joseph Kaos JR, 2009). Others Other than the above criteria, according to a study conducted in Jordan indicated that profit motivated criteria was an important factor to choose a bank service. However, other findings are that peer group influence plays an important role in selecting Islamic banks as depository institution. Other than that, politeness and friendliness of the personnel will also impact on the customers perception towards the financial institutions (Ahasanul Haque, Jamil Osman and Ahmad Zaki, 2009). Determinants of demand for insurance Insurance has become an important part of a financial sector over the past forty years. It provides a range of investments product for consumers. It also becomes the major source of investment in the capital market. Yet, the reasons for consumption of insurance are various across the countries. Demographic factors were amongst (Thorsten Beck, 2003; Ian Webb, 2003, Yvette Reisinger, 2009). While according to the study conducted by Truett et al. (1990), the consumption of insurance is depend on the price of insurance, income level of individual, and also the demographic factors such as age of individual insured and also the educational level. Gender The majority women of American have health insurance through either employer or through a public program. There are 66.67 percents of all women aged from 18 to 64 owned insurance through their employer, while another 16 percents through public program in year 2007. In contrast, there is 7 percents of nonelderly women in year 2007 purchase health coverage directly from insurance companies which we known as the individual market. Yet, the National Womens Law Centre (NWLC) investigated two phenomena, the gender gap which refers to the difference in premium charged to female and male applicants of the same age and health status. Another phenomenon is the availability and affordability of coverage for maternity care across the country. Based on the research, NWLC (2008) found that the individual market is a place which is very hard for women to purchase the health coverage. This is because insurance companies can refuse to sell women coverage due to the historic data that women have a higher percentage compared to men in suffering from a chronic condition which requiring ongoing treatment for instances asthma or arthritis. In addition, if the insurers discovered that an applicant underwent a Caesarean Section (C-Section) during the medical underwriting process, the company may charge a higher premium, or impose an exclusionary period which it refuses to cover another C-Section or pregnancy. New reports also revealed that women are more likely than men in taking prescription medication on a regular basis. In these conditions, the insurance company may reject the applications. On the other hand, it is difficult and costly for women to find health insurance that cover maternity care. A limited number of insurers offered this in separately for an additional fees which known as rider. Yet, this supplemental coverage is often far higher than ordinary plan. So typically, women have no other choice to select more or less comprehensive rider policy (NWLC, 2008). Educational Level According to Tienyu Hwang (2003) and Simon Gao (2003), the level of education plays a very important role in affecting the demand of insurance. It has been shown that the increasing of the educated population in a country, the recognition of the availability of insurance products will also be increased. Thus, the demand for insurance will also be growing in the country. Despite the education level in China is relatively low (Truett and monitor, 1996; World Bank, 1998), the increase in the education level will lead to a large number of people being realizing and able to recognize the essentiality of insurance. Therefore, it is likely to create a demand to purchase insurance. On the other hand, although the level of education in China remains low, china has made a great progress in improving the education system since the economic reform. This has increase the education level which leads to a greater awareness and understanding on the role of insurance. Hence, the level of education and demand for insurance is positively correlated. However, Szpiro and Outreville (198) proved that higher education leads to lower risk aversion, and that, in turn, leads to more risk taking by skilled and well educated people. While accor Perceptions Towards Islamic Banking and Insurance Perceptions Towards Islamic Banking and Insurance Introduction In the first chapter of this research study, an introduction on insurance will be presented. While, on the other hand, there will be a highlight on the differences between conventional and Islamic insurance. Following this, will be the problem discussion and the objectives of this study. Finally, there will be the justification and significance, following by organization of the study. What Exactly Is Insurance Means Buying insurance has become a trend in this twentieth century. According to The Star daily(2007), in the first half of year 2007, the combined premium income for insurance industry increase 9.8 percent compared to the same period for year 2006. The industry is further expanded in line with the favorable economics performance. People bought the insurance for their car, family, and business. People spend a lot of money on paying the insurance premium annually. While, do they actually clear on what kind of plan they had bought and what had they insured for their life, property and so on? Do they really distinct on the concept of the insurance that they had disbursed so much? According to Bank Negara Malaysia, insurance is the transfer of risk by an individual, such as yourself or an organization, such as your business to an insurance company. You or your organization will then be known as policy holder or insured while the insurance company is the insurer. The insurance company receives the payment in the form of premium. Then the insurance company utilized the premium collect from their policy holder to make some investment for their company. They will compensate their policy holder in the event of losses or damages which is sustained by the premium paid. In other word, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent loss by paying an amount of premium. It is an effective risk transfer mechanism for insured to exchange their uncertainty financial loss with the certain amount of premium (Ahmad Ali Khan, 2003). This kind of insurance we titled as conventional insurance which is the ordinary type of insurance that accepted by the society in general. While, other than the conventional insurance which we normally approached to, there are another type of insurance which we called as Islamic insurance. The Islamic insurance was step into Malaysia insurance market since November of year 1984 (Renat Bekkin, 2008). The first Islamic insurance company established in Malaysia was Takaful Malaysia Berhad. Early than that, Islamic insurance has stepping into the market of Sudan and Arab. What is Islamic insurance Islamic insurance is a mode of financial management which compliance to Shariah law. Islamic insurance is provided under a principle called Takaful. According to Islamic Banking, the term Takaful is derived from the Arabic word Kafaala meaning guaranteeing. Takaful means guaranteeing each other and refer to the concept of permissible Islamic insurance or Halal insurance. While by referring to Takaful Act 1984, Article 2, Takaful means a scheme based on brotherhood, solidarity and mutual assistance which provides for mutual financial aid and assistance to the participants in case of need whereby the participants mutually agree to contribute for that purpose. Literally, Takaful defines responsibility, shared guarantee, collective assurance and mutual undertakings. (Masum Billah, 2007) Some Muslims believe insurance is unnecessary, as society should helps its victims. Muslims can no longer ignore the fact that they live, they trade and communicate with open global systems, and they can no longer ignore the need for banking and insurance (Dr Aly Khorshid, 2004). In the eyes of Muslims, the concepts used by conventional insurance are against the law of Shariah. This is because conventional insurance is based on a contract of exchange (sale) between the insurance company and the covered person. This contract is void because it has the elements which are not permissible from Shariahs perspective. The elements are Gharar which means uncertainty. Conventional insurance has an element of Gharar due to the promise to pay a sum of money upon the occurrence of unsuspected events. The other elements are Maysir which refer to gambling. Existence of Gharar (uncertainties) leads to Maysir (gambling) in conventional insurance. The insured may either lose the entire premium he has paid or be compensated for the losses he incurs for the insured event. Riba was also one of the not permissible elements in the law of Shariah. Riba means interest. The investment of insurance funds in interest bearing securities such bonds and stocks, which do not comply with the Shariah principles, pose a major Muslims who purchase the conventional insurance (Alburn Mountain, 2008). In conventional insurance, vendors, the insurance company, sells their insurance plans to their clients, which we called as policy holder in the other way and invest the premium paid for the profit of its shareholder. Then, the policy holders do enjoy the risk transference that they are receiving the compensation if they face the financial loss on the events they insured. According to Islamic Banking, Takaful was grant as Islamic insurance because of the apparent similarity between the contract of kafaala and insurance. Takaful is an Islamic concept which grounded in Islamic Mualamat which define as banking transaction (SP Media, 2009). This concept already practices in diverse form over 1400 years long (Salam, 2008). Generally, Takaful is an insurance plan which based on Shariah principles. The members are to contribute a certain amount of money to a common pool which is Takaful fund in the form of participative contribution that also called as Tabarru. Tabarru means a donation, charity or gift which cannot be taken back (Dr Qaradawi, 2002). In general Takaful, a percentage of the participants contribution is considered as Tabarru, thus it cannot be taken back by the participants as it is the joint guarantee principle to help other participants. A portion of a participants contribution will be allocate through Tabarru principle to help participants from a sudden but defined risks. After contributing the money into Takaful mutual fund, they will undertake a contract which called as Aqad in Islam, to become one of the participants by agreeing to mutually help each other, should any of the participants suffer a defined loss (Arshad Shaikh, 2007). In Islamic insurance, participants (policyholders) are co-operating among themselves for their common goods. Every participants are to pay a part of the contribution (premium) as a donation to help those need assistance. Other than that, in Takaful system, losses are divided and liabilities spread according to the community pooling system. In order to eliminate the element of uncertainty in Takaful contract, the concept of Tabarru is incorporated. This is to enable the participant to fulfill his obligation of mutual help and joint guarantee should any of his fellow participants suffer a defined loss. In conventional insurance, policy holder can buy more than one policy or plan to hedge the particular risk in the event of loss or damage. By this, the policy holders are lessening the claims of the insurance company because the same amount of compensation has now burden by two companies. This is called reinsurance which an insurance company can transfer to another insurer, the reinsurer all or part of its liabilities in respect of claims arising under the contracts of insurance. This is to protect itself against the risk that its total claims costs in any year may wiping out of its profits and cause it to insolvent. As same in Islamic insurance, participants can buy more than one plan from other licensed Takaful operator. This is called as Retakaful in Islamic insurance (Bahrain, 2005). Why Takaful Insurance instead of Conventional Insurance In Islamic view, the concept used in conventional insurance is in conflict with the injunction of Islam (Ahmad Ali Khan, 2003). The conflicts were not against the concepts used by conventional insurance that trades and contracts were appeared in the concept. While the struggling are the weaknesses and the imperfect phrase which existed in the insurance contract. The objections are actually against the phrase of Gharar which means uncertainty, Maisir refers to gambling and the word Riba which point to the interest. The criticism was the word of Gharar is happened in the contract of insurance. Other than that, the phrase of gambling is presenting in its extreme form. Whats more is the element of interest is existed in the contract. These three phrases were the points appeared in the contract of conventional insurance that prohibited in Islamic view. Thus, they lead to the contradiction between conventional insurance and Islamic view (Ahmad Ali Khan, 2003). While, there are the person who does not agree the above matters. According to Dr Yusof al-Qaradawi (2002), he does not think that the concept used in conventional insurance is conflict with Islamic law, but he agrees that the conventional insurance is in need of some improvement to move in line with Islamic teachings. Problem Statement People are following the track of buying insurance nowadays. People buy insurance when there is a new born baby. They buy insurance during their travelling. Insurance also bought when people purchase a residential property. People also buy insurance for the sake of retiring. People buy insurance whenever they think there was an unseen risk hidden, but do they really know what is about insurance and what type of insurance is available in the market? Throughout a number of searching by using the Google search engine and the library in campus, which was found that there are the surveys doing on Islamic Banking which may mentioned in various perspectives for instances the growth of Islamic banking in the world. Like what mentioning by Radio Australia, Islamic banking was one of the fastest growing sectors in the finance world which reveals by the value of the industry which worth of USD 1 Trillion in the year 2008. An addition, according to the bankers Top 500 Islamic Financial Institution survey, assets held by Islamic bank in year 2009 rose by 28.6 percent to 822 billion dollar from 639 billion dollar in year 2008. It posted a double-digit growth in the year 2009 despite of the economic slowdown occurred in the earlier year (Soren Billing, 2009). Other than that, what was found is there are quite a number of researches which study on the topic related to insurance. There are talked about the insurance expansion in the industry, growth of the insurance industry, the rate of market penetration. According to KCLAU (2007), the market penetration of life insurance as measured in terms of the total number of policies in force to total population, grew to 39.3 percent as at end of June 2007. While, besides the conventional which is generally accepted by the society, there are another type of risk transfer mechanism which is Islamic insurance was emerged in the other part of the globe. Islamic insurance was first widely spread over the Islamic country like Sudan, Arabic, India, South East Asia, and some other place in the world. The Islamic insurance also practiced in the region which is non Islamic country like European country and United of State. Since the growing of Islamic insurance throughout the world is in such a fast track, while, the doubt appeared was, it was hard to find the study on Islamic insurance rather than the conventional insurance. Another doubt was appeared that what is the reason to separate insurance into Islamic and conventional? What is the different perspective between Islamic insurance and conventional insurance? While, the most is, do people aware of the existence of Islamic insurance in the insurance industry which they approached ordinarily? Following by this, is the discussion on conventional and Islamic insurance. Research Objectives The general objective of this study is to clarify the different perspectives between conventional and Islamic insurance. While the other specific objectives as stated below which I am to study in this research. The specific objectives: To investigate the different perception of Muslim and Non Muslim towards conventional and Islamic insurance To investigate the determinants of demand for insurance in Malaysians To determine the level of awareness on Islamic insurance in the region of Malaysia Significance of Study This study may help the Malaysian Islamic Finance market to move a step up due to the hike up of the level of awareness on the conventional and Islamic insurance. Other than that, the study also provides the Muslim and Non Muslim within Malaysia to walk out of the religious teachings and some other factors in order to know more about the issues of insurance. Therefrom, Malaysias Islamic finance market may improve follow by the fast track in other country like what happened to the Top 500 Islamic Financial Institution, that assets held by Islamic bank in year 2009 rose by 28.6 percent to 822 billion dollar from 639 billion dollar in year 2008. It posted a double-digit growth in the year 2009 despite of the economic slowdown occurred in the earlier year (Soren Billing, 2009). Other than impacts on the country income and economic condition, this study also might helpful to the family or person who thinks of purchase insurance. By gone through this study, they are able to better analyze the product available in the market whether from the conventional insurance company or the Takaful operator which offer the Shariah compliance products and services. Then they are able to choose the best product which suit to them in terms of their needs, budget and also the religious teachings. Other than this, the study also may help the insurance company or the operators to determine the consumers intention of buying on their product. They may use the useful information to improve their products in order to enhance or even develop a better market position for their company. The growing in the insurance market plays an important role in the economic growth of the country. The growing may bring the country to a higher position in the world financial sector. Thus, Malaysia will stand still on the top of the world in the financial sector which playing the role of developing the conventional and Islamic insurance to the various country on the globe. Organization of Study This research report comprises of five chapters. The first chapter serves the introduction on insurance. It consists of the detail for conventional insurance and Islamic insurance. Problem statement and research objective is also discussed. Following the significance of study is presented. Lastly, the chapter one will end by the organization of study which show the flow out of the whole research project. Basically, chapter two will present the literature review which forms the foundation of this study. It consists of the related empirical study which done by other researchers previously. There are few factors which impact on the demand of insurance and influential to customers perception are included in this chapter. In chapter three, the research methodology of the study will be discussed. The research framework will be shown together with the hypothesis developed link together the variables in the study. Other than that, the sample planning, sources of data and data collection will also be carried out. Questionnaire design will also be laid out in this chapter following by the data analysis method which is the last part of this chapter. Following by this is chapter four which describe the results and discussion. Hence, the graph and table will be widely used to better interpret the findings and result of the study. Finally, chapter five will be the conclusion and the recommendation of this research. The level of awareness among Malaysian towards Islamic insurance will finally be presented and end this study. Chapter Two Literature Review INTRODUCTION Continue with the first chapter presented previously, this study is to observe the perception of Malaysia towards conventional insurance and Islamic insurance. For the sake of gaining a clearer view on this, exploring to the related literature is a must. Following, the overview of insurance and takaful will be presented. In 2.2, the discussion about the determinants impact on demand for insurance will be presented. Then, the study will indicate the perception of consumers towards conventional and Islamic methods of finance in few factors like the service quality, accessibility, convenience and status of the organizations. Lastly in 2.4, the awareness among Malaysian towards Islamic insurance will be discussed. Overview of Insurance and Islamic Insurance Insurance is a form of risk-management which transfer the possible risks like accident, theft, natural disaster and illness of ones or a group to the more financially sound entity, insurers in exchange with a small amount of payment which we called as premium. The meaning of insurance is essentially to understand for everybody who is considering of purchase an insurance policy or to understand the basics of what if finance. This instrument is used in hedging risk precautionary against the future contingent losses (Stanley St Labs, n.d). While, according to Insurance Info, insurance is being categorized two main categories which are life insurance and general insurance. The risks that covered by life insurance including premature death, income during retirement and illness. While the main products in life insurance are Whole life, Endowment, Term, Investment-linked, Life annuity plan, Medical and health. For general insurance, it is basically a policy that protects you from losses and damages which other than those covered by life insurance, for instance, property loss like stolen car and burnt house. Other than that, liability arising from damage caused by oneself to a third party, accidental death or injury also covered by the general insurance. The products offered under general insurance are Motor insurance, Fire/House owner/Householder insurance, Personal accident insurance, Medical and health insurance and Travel insurance. While for Islamic insurance, takaful, is a protection plan based on Shariah principles compliance. By contributing a sum of money to a common takaful fund in the form of participative contribution (tabarru), the person is undertaking a contract (aqad) to become one of the participants which agree to mutually help each other if any of the participants suffer a defined loss. Both takaul and insurance have similar basic principles where the insured must have a legitimate financial interest in the risk you are insuring, which means the insured must suffer a financial loss when the insured event occurred. In takaful, the life insurance is granted as family takaful. The products offered under family takaful are Family Takaful, Investment linked takaful, Child education takaful, Medical and health takaful. While for general takaful, there are Home takaful, Motor takaful and Personal accidents takaful. Perception towards Conventional and Islamic Insurance Perception, as defined by Stephen P. Robbins (2005) is a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment. Perception is important in decision making process. An individual must fully understand the decision must make along with all of the facts and information involved. If an individual has a bad perception of the situation and do not consider all of the facts that are involved like the external factors which anyone else have no control over the individual may lead to a wrong decision. In turn, this will cause negative consequences for the organization and the individual. In order to have a good perception on any given situation, an individual must analyze all of the significant information involved in a timely manner, without making a hasty decision (Wally Sparks, 2007). Service Quality According to Shahril Bin Shafie (2003), quality is sought by all organizations, especially in the service sector. Service quality is commonly noted as a critical prerequisite for establishing and sustaining satisfying relationships between organization and the customers (Lassar et al., 2000). According to Yap, S.F., and Kew, M.L., there are many researchers who have defined service quality in different ways. Among them, Bitner, Booms and Mohr (1994) define service quality as the consumers overall impression of the relative inferiority or superiority of the organization and its services. While, other researchers like Cronin and Taylor (1994), view service quality as a form of attitude representing a long run overall evaluation. Service quality has determining the repeated purchase and customer loyalty to an organization. When a customer choose a provider that provides service quality that meets or exceeds his or her expectations, then the customer is more likely to choose the same pro vider again. According to Erol and El-Bdour (1989), Erol, Kaynak, and El-Bdour (1990) and Haron, Ahmad and Planisek (1994) observed that Islamic bank consumers rated the speed and efficiency of services near their top selection criterion on finance service provider. By referring to a study conduct by Erdener Kaynak and Talha D. Harcar (2005) is found that, the service quality provide by conventional banking system is excellent than the others. The study indicated that the customer maintain a higher level of confidence in conventional bank rather than Islamic bank. In this study, the service being tested including the swiftness in correcting errors, fast and efficient service, and consumer complains handling and the courtesy personnel. While according to Hendrik, L., Hirun, A., Razli, C.R., Halim, M.L., Khairul, A. A., and Darwina, A.A. (n.d), indicate that customer satisfaction on Islamic banking products and services is different across the cities. The service quality is satisfied within Johor Bahru, Kuala Lumpur and Penang because these cities are bigger which also contains more populations, and are more economically developed. Due to these reasons, the service provided is more satisfactory because of the customers characteristics which different from income level, gender and also educational level.Erol and El-Bdour (1989), Erol, Kaynak, and El-Bdour (1990) and Haron, Ahmad and Planisek (1994) observed that Islamic bank consumers rated the speed and efficiency of services near their top selection criterion on finance service provider. The emergence of the Internet provides an opportunity for organizations to conduct business in cyberspace. Steven et al (2002), Soliman (2003), Wirtz (2001), Coltman (2001) had studied that Internet adoption and factors influencing the propensity and pattern of adoption among different sectors and sizes of organizations worldwide and in Malaysia, empirical data on online insurance has been limited (Fatimah et al, 2000; Yusserie at el, 2002). One of the reasons may be because the insurance industry has been slow to respond to the usage of Internet for business,, as compared to the other financial service (Esters, 1997). In 1999, recognizing the potential of the Internet, Bank Negara Malaysia allowed a group of insurers to establish the industry first interactive insurance website, which enabled policy owners to transact on the line for renewal of policy and also premium payment(BNM 2000). Internet via individual companys website allows customers to gain more information about the product and services offered by the companies (Ruquet, 2001). While, not all the business organizations are adopting Internet in their business due to various reasons like customer readiness, cost and the risks involved. Zinkewicz (2000) said that business do not use the Internet for business because customers do not trust the process involved, instead, they prefer human interactions (Ainin and Jaafar, 2003). Accessibility Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product or service is accessible by as many people as possible. It also viewed as the ability to access the functionality and possible benefits of some system or entity like information of the particular products and services (Wikipedia, 2009). In Malaysia, there are total up 1,752 numbers of registered insurance agencies distributed throughout the thirteen states and two federal territories. Among of all, there are agencies which offer both life insurance and also general insurance business like American International Assurance Bhd, Etiqa Insurance Berhad, Hong Leong Assurance Berhad and so on (BNM, 2008). Other than that, there are only eight licensed Takaful operator in Malaysia which are CIMB Aviva Takaful Berhad, Etiqa Takaful Berhad, Hong Leong Tokio Marine Takaful Berhad, HSBC Amanah Takaful (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, MAA Takaful Berhad, Prudential BSN Takaful Berhad,Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Berhad and also Takaful Ikhlas Sdn Bhd (BNM, 2008). Convenience Convenience is composed of number factors including the availability of parking space, location of branches, long operation hours. (Jasmi Al-Ajmi, Hameeda Abo Hussain and Nadhem Al-Saleh, 2009). Customers will always prefer the products and services are available near to their working place or house area for the convenience of visiting. The sufficient parking space and long operation hours is for the convenience when visiting to the branch. Internet adoption is a type of convenience which offered by the insurance companies to their consumers, where consumers can get the products and services information through the website (Ainin and Jaafar, 2003). Other than that, interior comfort and external design also included affect the consumers perception on the convenience of selecting financial products. Status Status of an organization show measured through the strength of financial position, reputation and also the risk. As Islamic finance continue to expand. Islamic principles strong emphasis on the economic, ethical, moral and social dimensions, to enhance equality and fairness for the good of society as a whole should also have appeal for the ethnically minded (Jasmi Al-Ajmi, Hameeda Abo Hussain and Nadhem Al-Saleh, 2009). Study which conducted by Ahasanul Haque, Jamil Osman and Ahmad Zaki (2009) also revealed that banks name and reputation is a strong effect on selecting a bank. In order to penetrate the youth market, Takaful Malaysia announced on 11th November, that RM 15 million has been pumped into the companys rebranding exercise. After twenty-five years of leading in Islamic insurance company in the country, Takaful Malaysia is setting on conquering the insurance industry by transforming itself into a more youthful outfit. Reflective of its tagline of modern, young and energetic, the company will unveils its new fresh-looking logo, a color fusion of apple green and olive green, described by Takaful Malaysia group director Datuk Hassan Kamil as vibrant and energetic. Takaful Malaysia believes that its latest approach will enhance its image and make it more appealing to the younger age-group which Hassan deems as a highly potential market segment (Joseph Kaos JR, 2009). Others Other than the above criteria, according to a study conducted in Jordan indicated that profit motivated criteria was an important factor to choose a bank service. However, other findings are that peer group influence plays an important role in selecting Islamic banks as depository institution. Other than that, politeness and friendliness of the personnel will also impact on the customers perception towards the financial institutions (Ahasanul Haque, Jamil Osman and Ahmad Zaki, 2009). Determinants of demand for insurance Insurance has become an important part of a financial sector over the past forty years. It provides a range of investments product for consumers. It also becomes the major source of investment in the capital market. Yet, the reasons for consumption of insurance are various across the countries. Demographic factors were amongst (Thorsten Beck, 2003; Ian Webb, 2003, Yvette Reisinger, 2009). While according to the study conducted by Truett et al. (1990), the consumption of insurance is depend on the price of insurance, income level of individual, and also the demographic factors such as age of individual insured and also the educational level. Gender The majority women of American have health insurance through either employer or through a public program. There are 66.67 percents of all women aged from 18 to 64 owned insurance through their employer, while another 16 percents through public program in year 2007. In contrast, there is 7 percents of nonelderly women in year 2007 purchase health coverage directly from insurance companies which we known as the individual market. Yet, the National Womens Law Centre (NWLC) investigated two phenomena, the gender gap which refers to the difference in premium charged to female and male applicants of the same age and health status. Another phenomenon is the availability and affordability of coverage for maternity care across the country. Based on the research, NWLC (2008) found that the individual market is a place which is very hard for women to purchase the health coverage. This is because insurance companies can refuse to sell women coverage due to the historic data that women have a higher percentage compared to men in suffering from a chronic condition which requiring ongoing treatment for instances asthma or arthritis. In addition, if the insurers discovered that an applicant underwent a Caesarean Section (C-Section) during the medical underwriting process, the company may charge a higher premium, or impose an exclusionary period which it refuses to cover another C-Section or pregnancy. New reports also revealed that women are more likely than men in taking prescription medication on a regular basis. In these conditions, the insurance company may reject the applications. On the other hand, it is difficult and costly for women to find health insurance that cover maternity care. A limited number of insurers offered this in separately for an additional fees which known as rider. Yet, this supplemental coverage is often far higher than ordinary plan. So typically, women have no other choice to select more or less comprehensive rider policy (NWLC, 2008). Educational Level According to Tienyu Hwang (2003) and Simon Gao (2003), the level of education plays a very important role in affecting the demand of insurance. It has been shown that the increasing of the educated population in a country, the recognition of the availability of insurance products will also be increased. Thus, the demand for insurance will also be growing in the country. Despite the education level in China is relatively low (Truett and monitor, 1996; World Bank, 1998), the increase in the education level will lead to a large number of people being realizing and able to recognize the essentiality of insurance. Therefore, it is likely to create a demand to purchase insurance. On the other hand, although the level of education in China remains low, china has made a great progress in improving the education system since the economic reform. This has increase the education level which leads to a greater awareness and understanding on the role of insurance. Hence, the level of education and demand for insurance is positively correlated. However, Szpiro and Outreville (198) proved that higher education leads to lower risk aversion, and that, in turn, leads to more risk taking by skilled and well educated people. While accor