Tobacco Illegality

Making Tobacco Illegal: The Fight That Should be Over I. Tobacco is ever present in this modern society. It is a daily encounter, and little is thought of it. This encounter may be passing through a cloud of smoke on the way to work, or stepping outside to smoke a cigarette, if a person so chooses. Tobacco cannot be ignored with people inhaling smoke by choice or not. In â€Å"Smoke alarm,† the article illustrates the dangers of inhaling secondhand smoke that is not directly inhaled, saying,† Nonsmokers have to breathe sidestream smoke continually.This smoke, which does not pass through a filter, is burdened with twice the tar and nicotine, 50 times the ammonia and substantially more cancer-causing substances, like nitrosamines, than mainstream smoke,† (Cousins). Smoking strongly affects the health of an individual in a negative way, and it affects the health of people around a smoker as well. As the health effects of smoking are becoming increasingly well known, i t is difficult to not acknowledge them and take action accordingly. Why then, do people continue to smoke? The addictiveness of cigarettes is one reason why. The nicotine in cigarettes is highly addictive. Medical experts say that it is as addictive as heroin or cocaine,† (Kennedy). Once a person starts smoking, they become hooked on it and it becomes more difficult to stop and quit with each cigarette they have. In turn, being physically and mentally reliant to a product that so negatively impacts one’s health leads to the deaths of well over 400,000 people every year in the United States alone. That number is higher than the deaths of automobile accidents, alcohol abuse, illegal drugs, AIDS, murder, and suicide combined (Kennedy).Our society has not lived without tobacco though, as it may seem obvious to do knowing the harmful effects coupled with that staggering number in mind. The tobacco companies show why all in their numbers. â€Å"Tobacco is the country's fifth -largest cash crop. The industry's revenues compare with those of the aerospace and electrical-equipment fields; consumers spend about the same amount of money on cigarettes that they invest in radios, televisions, records and musical instruments combined.Excise taxes alone on tobacco add about $6 billion annually to state and federal coffers,† (Cousins). With that significant of an effect on the economy of the United States, living without tobacco would cause an enormous impact on the people of America. The tobacco companies have a stronghold in the economy of the United States and with certainty they do not want tobacco gone. But many people make a strong push for tobacco to be outlawed as it has been in other countries. A regulation of tobacco is the least they push for and that voice has not been quiet. II.Edward Kennedy defines the fight against tobacco in his article â€Å"The Food and Drug Administration Should Have the Authority to Regulate Tobacco Products. † S enator Kennedy understands that the complete illegalization of tobacco products is out of hand currently, and the best option he has is to allow for the regulation through the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This article utilizes the overwhelming impact that tobacco products and smoking have on the health of Americans and the dishonesty and the ignorant practices of the tobacco companies to prove why a regulation at the least is needed.Kennedy details in this article the marketing techniques that tobacco companies use in their advertising to attract new smokers, the bent claims the the companies make and the concealment of information. Annually, the tobacco industry will promote its products using thirteen billion dollars. A large majority of that money is going for the crooked process to get children to try smoking and get hooked on it before they are even legally allowed to (Kennedy). With the seemingly infinite number of deaths from tobacco stated above, it is cruel that the companies would want this for children as well.Without anymore advertisement than there currently is, four thousand children smoke for the first time this day which hooks twenty five percent of them (Kennedy). Tobacco companies have been proven to place claims on their products that hold false information, and they naturally conceal the true dangers of their products from the consumers. All of these wrongdoings show that there is a need for actions to be taken, and that action is a regulation. Kennedy also proves the need for an FDA regulation by showing the horrible health effects smoking has on people. Six million of the youth today will die from diseases tobacco has caused, and that is over four hundred thousand every year†. This number may be caused by â€Å"the nicotine in cigarettes being as addictive as hard drugs† (Kennedy). The levels are still on the rise and that is another reason why so many of the 40 million Americans hooked on cigarettes die (Kennedy). Peo ple against the regulation, Kennedy says, say that the â€Å"FDA should not regulate a product as dangerous as tobacco† (Kennedy). It is just the opposite, however, because such a dangerous product needs more regulation to make it less dangerous.Something must be done, because â€Å"four hundred thousand deaths a year† and â€Å"four thousand new child smokers a day† is too high (Kennedy). Overall, this article did an excellent job of showing just why a regulation on tobacco is needed. The fight to regulate and ban smoking in the United States should be much easier than what it is. The youth of America are being educated on the dangers of smoking so often that they should never think to take a single puff of a cigarette, but still so many do.As with countless other actions, the first step is the most important one, and the decision to try a tobacco product could hurt them for the remainder of their life. From that first step into the world of tobacco, the qualit y of the user’s life drops with each day. The tobacco companies will gladly accept this new victim into their deceitful world and clamp down on their life until it’s end. The terrible effects tobacco has on the human body, the highly addictive nature of cigarettes along with the harm from other chemicals, and the danger that cigarettes pose show reason that tobacco should be banned in the United States.III. Ultimately, smoking and tobacco products have a devastating effect on the well-being of a human body no matter if an individual inhales one breath, or thousands of breaths from thousands of cigarettes. The short term effects are bad enough, but the long term effects rival those. The tobacco companies themselves do not even want to acknowledge these effects as they have shown in the past, and they are the creators of these problems. â€Å"Smoking cigarettes is linked to lung cancer and other types of cancer, heart attacks, cardiovascular disease, a decreased power o f prescription rugs, and birth defects in infants† (Cousins). Smoking increases the user’s chances of having a heart attack and getting lung cancer. It is the top cause of lung cancer in the United States (Cousins). The lungs are not the only organ smoking affects, either. Links to cancer of the mouth, cancer of the larynx or cancer of the bladder have been found connected to smoking (Cousins. ) There is no winning with tobacco. Putting the extremely high numbers of chemicals into one’s body numerous times per day for many years cannot end happily. One-third of the deaths from cardiovascular disease, †¦, are caused by smoking,† writes Cousins about the other health problems of smoking (Cousins). If a smoker is fortunate and does not get cancer from smoking, they still have a much higher chance of having a heart attack in their future. While these ravaging events may not be fatal all of the time, they continually weigh down on the quality of a life a pe rson is able to live. Smoking may affect the body’s ability to become healthy again from other health conditions or illnesses.In â€Å"Smoke alarm,† the author demonstrates this by pointing out, â€Å"Some smokers require twice the quantity of certain drugs before they benefit from those drugs† (Cousins). Talking about presription drugs, it shows that the body takes more medicine to reach the healthy benefits of the drug. This means more quantities of the drug need to be used to obtain the same effects as in a non-smoker. Prescription drugs have side-effects, as all drugs do, so taking more of them increase the risk of having the side effects.Tobacco enters all aspects of a smoker’s life and it should be banned because of the horrible health problems it causes the smoker. Furthermore, smoking has additional effects on women that prove its danger even more, and show reason for the necessity of a ban. The author shows this increased risk for women when he s tates, â€Å"†¦ women smokers who use birth-control pills increase their chances of heart attack exponentially,† (Cousins). A ban on birth-control pills is highly unlikely, showing the solution for the problem being a ban on tobacco and smoking in order to protect women from these harmful effects from smoking.Additionally, smoking during pregnancy has some adverse effects on the child as well as the effects it causes the smoker. The author illustrates the effects on the child when he says, â€Å"Pregnant smokers substantially increase the chances that they will miscarry, induce fetal birth defects, bear their infants prematurely and have babies of low birth weight. They increase the likelihood their newborns will die in the first month,† (Cousins). This means that a woman should not smoke on birth-control, which could lead to more preganancies.If she smokes during her pregnancy, she raises her chances of having a miscarriage, have a child with birth defects, have her child too early and that are too small, or having her child die in the first month. Something needs to be done to stop smoking from harming more than just the individual who makes the decision to smoke, and the solution is making such a horrible product outlawed. The harmful chemicals in cigarettes and tobacco products are another reason why tobacco should be illegal. The staggering number of chemicals, some with no purpose other than harm, in cigarettes is disgusting.A smoker inhales thousands of these chemicals with every puff, and many stay in the body as the author reveals, â€Å"about 1,200 chemicals–chemicals also contained in chimney smoke and auto exhausts–would remain,† (Cousins). The same chemicals found in cigarettes could be attained by inhaling the exhaust from a car, or from a chimney. A person might find that behavior odd, but it is the same as smoking a cigarette, and they continue that practice for years. One of these powerful chemicals is c arbon monoxide.This chemical is extremely bad for the human body as the author writes, â€Å"One dangerous compound found in smoke from all cigarettes, whatever the level of tar or nicotine, is carbon monoxide. This gas tends to â€Å"bump† oxygen from red blood cells and depletes the body of this vital element,† (Cousins). The vital element is oxygen, and humans need it to survive. There is no advantage to putting chemicals into a body that do the reverse the gains of one of the necessities of life. Perhaps the worst chemical in cigarettes and tobacco products, however, is nicotine.Nicotine is the chemical in tobacco products that makes the user addicted to it both mentally and physically as Cousins notes, â€Å"Nicotine has been classified as an addictive or compulsive substance by growing numbers of scientists and institutions, including the National Institute on Drug Abuse,† (Cousins). With this chemical in cigarettes, the smoker finds it more and more diffi cult to quit smoking and that is a reason that such high numbers of Americans are reliant on cigarettes as Senator Kennedy writes, â€Å"Over forty million Americans are currently addicted to cigarettes,† (Kennedy).With numbers this high, a ban must be put on tobacco. People are trying cigarettes when they are young, and nicotine works its black magic to keep them as lifelong customers as asserted in â€Å"TOBACCO WARS†, â€Å"‘Because of the addictive nature of nicotine, very few of those kids who became smokers in middle school and high school quit’ by college, said Henry Wechsler of Harvard University, the author of the study,† (â€Å"TOBACCO WARS†). Tobacco will not go away anytime soon as long as the tobacco companies want money, so serious and immediate action is needed.The dangers that tobacco and smoking causes people does not stop with health effects. Cigarettes pose a great danger of fires and damage. Cigarettes burn very easily, an d a simple misplacement of a burning cigarette butt can lead to unrelenting fires and astronomical numbers in property damage as Cousins describes when he adds, â€Å"Cigarettes cause 74,000 fires a year, in which 2,000 people die and 6,000 are burned. Aside from the midical costs incurred, the fires add $210 million to property damages alone† (Cousins).This shows once again the tremendous financial cost of tobacco as well as humanly cost in lives and medical care. There is nothing safe about tobacco, and a ban must be put into place to give some safety back to citizens. Tobacco is the most deadly product legal in America today. Anyone can smoke cigarettes, and anyone over 18 can purchase them. The law does little to stop the spread of tobacco all around the nation, so the ultimate step must be taken. Tobacco must be illegalized because it causes too much harm to the user, the people around the user, unborn babies and to people from fires.Without looking ahead to the future, the overwhelming high number of deaths is reason enough for taking action as mentioned in an article stating, â€Å"The deaths of more than 400,000 Americans each year, 160,000 of them from lung cancer, make a strong case for the prohibition of tobacco, and particularly of cigarettes,† (â€Å"An evil weed; Tobacco†). The education of this epidemic is not enough, it must be banned to save the lives of Americans and their children. IV. The largest opposition of a ban on tobacco and smoking is how it is such a great factor in the economy. Tobacco is a huge part of the agricultural industry in America.It is heavily relied upon by many people as Cousins conveys as he states, â€Å"Tobacco is the country's fifth-largest cash crop†¦. About 500,000 farm families are dependent on the continued success of this industry,† (Cousins). With half a million people dependent on the crop as well as the economy of a nation, it is impossible to deny the enormous impact the rem oval of this would have on the nation. Nonetheless, tobacco does far more harm than it does good. For the half a million families dependent on it, there are another half a million each year who lose a loved one due to tobacco and smoking.There are other jobs out there that are not related to the deaths of so many, and those can be found easily. The help the tobacco companies do for the economy and the government is overshadowed by the spending in health care that the government must do to combat the detrimental effects that tobacco causes. So much money was needed to help the nation with their smoking-related health costs, that the government went back to the tobacco companies for help. An agreement in 1998 shows this as the article writes, â€Å"†¦ the attorneys general of 46 states signed a historic agreement with tobacco companies. †¦ he nation’s four largest tobacco companies will: pay $206 billion of 25 years to states to help pay for smoking-related health co sts;† (â€Å"TOBACCO WARS†). Cousins shows the yearly cost of tobacco on health care in 1984 when he emphasizes, â€Å"The cigarette industry costs the nation about $27 billion for medical care (estimated by the American Cancer Society);†¦ † (Cousins). This shows that the health related cost and cost in human lives far outweighs the good that tobacco does for the economy of the nation. An additional argument against the fight for the illegalization of tobacco is that it is the choice of the user.In the free country of the United States, the people should have the freedom of choice to do as they please with smoking. This free choice affects the safety of others who do not want to exercise this choice. Sidestream smoke is just as, if not more dangerous as inhaling directly from a cigarette. and people who have care for their health choose not to be exposed to this. The right to a safe environment is more important than a person’s right to smoke and Cous ins compares this right to others as he notes, â€Å"†¦ our freedom to do as we please has always been limited by our freedom to live in a safe society.Because spitting can spread tuberculosis, we are encouraged not to spit in public places. We are not free to start gunfights† (Cousins). Tobacco should be made illegal because the freedom of choice to smoke puts others at risk, and the unalienable right of the pursuit of happiness is compromised when this safe environment for men, women, and children who choose not to smoke is ruined. Moreover, an argument against the fight on tobacco is that a ban on tobacco will increase the number of fatal alcohol-related car accidents.The reasoning is justified by research that shows that counties that introduce a ban on smoking in public places, have an increase in fatal alcohol-related car accidents. An article shows this claim in numbers when it states, â€Å"The researchers analysed data from 120 American counties, 20 of which ha d banned smoking. They found a smoking ban increased fatal alcohol-related car accidents by 13% in a typical county†¦ † (â€Å"Unlucky strikes; Smoking and drinking†). This increase in accidents shows the strength of the nicotine in cigarettes because the smoker’s go anywhere where they are permitted to have a cigarette.While this number of deaths can not be ignored, it is still miniscule compared to the nearly half a million deaths that smoking causes nationwide in a year. The way to stop this accident increase is a complete ban on cigarettes, which will save them the trouble of driving far away to smoke, because it will not be permissible to do this action anywhere, as well as the trouble of future health problems that are nearly inevitable with smoking. The tobacco companies may claim countless items in the attempt to keep their product prospering in the nation, but they have not faced the facts.The facts show that cigarettes create many other health prob lems, and no amount of economic help, free choice, or car accidents will stop these health problems from being an undeniable part of life for smokers and non-smokers. Tobacco and cigarettes must be made illegal to stop this terrible epidemic. V. Conclusively, the utter destruction tobacco and cigarettes cause on the bodies of millions of humans across America the world show beyond any doubt that this product must be outlawed. Cigarettes cause severe health problems like lung cancer, other cancers, heart disease and a much higher risk of heart attacks.These effects account for almost half a million deaths in the United States each year. Cigarettes can increase the amount of medicine it will take to achieve the same effects in a non-smoker and in women it can significantly increase the risk of heart attacks when coupled with birth control pills. Smoking while pregnant can lead to birth defects, miscarriages, a premature birth or a low birth weight. Cigarettes contain deadly chemicals such as carbon monoxide which is found in car exhausts and nicotine which keeps a person addicted and coming back to smoke more and more cigarettes.This means they are inhaling more and more of the other thousands of chemicals found in cigarettes. Outside the body, cigarettes are a fire hazard. Thousands of fires are started every year due to cigarettes and this leads to even more deaths and health care costs. Still people argue that cigarettes should remain legal. They claim that because tobacco’s status as the fifth largest cash crop in the United States and the fact that it supports thousands of families that it should remain legal. A product, however, that kills as many or more people as it helps is not beneficial for anyone.Another argument they throw out is that it is the smoker’s choice whether or not they want to smoke. They are correct because people can choose to harm their own bodies if they want. Smoking interferes with more than just the user’s body though. People die from secondhand smoke as well as from the fires cigarettes cause, so the harm is not limited to only the user and compromises the safe environment of others. Finally, people who are against tobacco illegalization say that banning tobacco will increase fatal alcohol-related car accidents.While the research shows that is true in the low number of places they sampled, it also reveals the power of nicotine and the need people have for smoking when they are introduced to this substance. The only way to stop this problem, and all of the monstrous health effects that smoking causes is to make it against the law. It is a simple fix for such a colossal problem that affects so many millions of people, and must be done immediately to save the men, women, and children held by the grasp of the devilish tobacco companies.

Analysis and findings Essay

As clear from the response of the respondent’s organization do have specific department and people working for the packaging. They work within the guidelines of corporate regulations and findings of consumer surveys conducted time to time. The packaging is changed according to the product categories like male, female or any else. The Colour and shape choices depend on the target consumer group. During special occasions the packaging changes to attract the consumers. The respondent agrees to the fact that Colour and graphics have impact on the consumer decision making. Validity and reliability The interview was based on the conversation between the researcher and respondent. The researcher tried to keep the interview within the parameters of the research objectives and according to the questionnaire. However researcher was open to any interesting fact regarding packaging and consumer behaviour. Recommendations It is evident from the findings and analysis of data that any organization to get hold on the market during special occasion needs to have appropriate strategies for its target market. The input of these appropriate comes from the understanding of the market and consumer behaviour. All the aspects of marketing mix become equally important during this particular time of special occasion. Consumer looks for products to meet his existing requirement. As revealed in the study people like to give or receive good and attractive packaging while receiving any gift or giving any gift. Various attributes of packaging are deeply rooted in the cultural aspects of our society. †¢ Organizations need to focus on specific behaviour on the packaging based on their demographic profile and cultural set ups. †¢ Organizations should consistently work with its design team and marketing department to change or upgrade the packaging system within the organization. †¢ There should be clear cut understanding among the employees regarding gifts packaging and organizations’ strategy. †¢ Along with Colours, company needs to focus on the other variables in order to develop attractive packaging. †¢ Ethnic Background: As it is evident from the research that different ethnic group responds differently to the components of packaging. Hence it is important for the marketer to take care of the aspects of ethnic background. For instance if the marketer is operating in the area with more number of people from Black Others community, marketer can focus on the â€Å"Shape† of packaging and provide packaging services in different shapes as for this community â€Å"shape’ is the most important aspect of the packaging. On the other hand Black African community focuses on graphics, size and material, Asian and White community feels Colour to be most important aspect. Hence marketer depending upon the demographic profile need to have difference in packaging strategies for its products during special occasions. Conclusion and implications From the analysis of qualitative and quantitative research it can be concluded that the factors of packaging are important for the customer in their decision making process in the normal situation as well as the special occasions. The age group of the respondent dominating this research was 22-30 years old, followed by people within the age group of 41-50 years who are 20% of the total respondents. There is representation of various ethnic group however the majority of respondents were white and females followed by Asians. Majority of the respondent buy gifts for some one at least once in a month. Majority of respondents agreed to the good feeling attached to the gifts presented in Colourful packaging during festivals. Majority of respondents also feel that during special occasions the packaging of the products are more bright and Colourful than normal. 58% of the respondent felt that people are attracted by different shapes and sizes of gift items. Respondents believe that packaging style varies according to the occasions. Respondents perceive that they are attracted to different shapes and Colours of the products (40%) when they buy something for special occasion. Colourful and attracting packaging makes good impression about the sender to the receiver (93% agreed). The preferred component of the packaging is Colour irrespective of gender of the respondent and least preferred is text on it. The difference in the ranking of other attributes indicates the difference created by gender in order for the packaging decisions. The preference ranking of the components of packaging was compared by adding all the responses. The qualitative data analysis provided organization perspective of the gift packaging on special occasion. It revealed that organizations not only pay attention to the packaging, graphics, designing and Colouring of it but also conduct research time to time to understand the changing needs of consumers and his preferences. The packaging decisions for male and female consumer products differ from each other. This is with respect to the fact that different Colours have been associated with specific genders within our society. The difference in the preference and choices for various components of packaging is evident from the primary research. It is clear that people from different ethnic background respond differently to different aspects of packaging. For people from the Asian and White community Colour is most important aspect. For Black others it is shape which is most preferred. For Black African graphics, size and material are equally important. The findings are within the conceptual framework of the paper that components of the packaging have impact on consumer during special occasion. From quantitative and qualitative both the research importance of different packaging during special occasion has revealed. Any marketer to server its consumer needs to understand the consumer behaviour of his target group. The marketing mix has different important aspects to it and one of these aspects is packaging. Packaging itself is influenced by various factors from individual customer, his age, gender, ethnic background to culture society, socio-legal structure and many others. Competition is increasing day by day and margins are shrinking. Perfection is required in each sphere of business operations. People have less time and overall social and cultural set up is changing. Organization needs to understand these changes as frequently as they take place and utilize this information in formulating business and marketing strategies. Putting emphasis on the packaging aspects of the product companies will be able to attract more consumers to make buying decisions. Limitations of study One of the areas of concerns while developing this paper was minimisation of the errors and work with least number of limitations. However there have been various studies conducted in the past regarding packaging and different aspects related to it among various section of society. There have been another set of studies regarding the attitude among respondents towards packaging, environmental concerns and green packaging which is one of the burning issues today. Within the limited time period and availability and reach to the resources it was not possible to incorporate all of them. Other limitation is related to number of respondent and sample size. However with the changes in demographic and geographic factors responses of the respondents varies. The larger sample would have provided more accurate results. Limitations to the research would in fact include many different considerations. Background information in regard to how the respondents learn and decide about various kind of packaging is limited. Certainly, another limitation includes the ready acceptance to answer the questionnaires provided in regard to this research project. The numbers of respondents willing to participate in this information even with assured anonymity provided several limitations toward tabulation and calculation accuracy in regard to percentages.

Development Human Potential

The evaluation procedure in today’s times requires a lot of attention from the organizations as people usually have neglected this area. The companies are seen spending huge amounts on the training interventions but do not pay attention towards their evaluations and usually an informal committee is set up in order to take the feedback on the random basis. The organizations cannot ignore the evaluation phase as it is the most integral factor in assessing the resources that have been spent in the training and development of the human resources.A lot of organizations refrain from going through a proper evaluation because they feel that the process is faced with a lot of challenges and is relatively difficult to incorporate in the routine training procedures (Huque & Vyas, 2004). Answer # 3: Evaluating the training and development interventions have become equally important as the procedure itself as the evaluations provide the organization with a better understanding of the train ers and the trainees.The organization cannot assess the success or failure of the training interventions until there has been an evaluation for that (Pont, 2003). The evaluation itself is a complete procedure for the organization to follow and has to go through a lot of challenges in order to get the procedure done. The organizations today are spending a lot of their resources in evaluating the intervention procedures in order to make sure that their training and intervention procedures are effective and result oriented (Phillips & Phillips, 2004).The foremost challenge that is in front of the management is the criteria for measurement. The evaluation is basically a way to measure the success of the training and development interventions. Thus it has become a huge challenge for the organizations as it is very difficult to set the criteria for the measurement. The organization has to be very prudent when identifying the variables that would be required in gauging the efficiency of th e training interventions.The importance for this factor can be assessed from the fact that if these measurement criteria have been set incorrect the organization would have to pay in the short run and even in the long run. The organizations base their future training programs and the future training objectives on the results of the evaluation which is considered a valuable asset by various organizations (Gatewood, Feild, & Murray, 2007). Thus if the criteria selected is incorrect the organization may come up with the future program which may contain factors which are incorrect and based on erroneous results.The organization therefore has to pay a lot of attention while identifying the measurement criteria for the evaluation of the training and development interventions to make sure that they are on the right path and the resources are not wasted but channelized in the right direction (Ivancevich, n. d. ). Measurement remains the first issue but one of the other most integral issue w hich the organizations are facing today is in regard with the proper resources and trained staff that could do an in depth evaluation of the program (Brostek, 2000).In the days of recession the organizations have to face a lot of criticism by the stake holders in spending huge amount on the employee development. A lot of critiques consider it to be a waste of resources to invest labor and capital in the training of the employees. Today companies have become pretty weak in terms of their financial position due to which they are not in the position right now to spend ample amount in the training of the employees.Thus, there is a huge challenge in front of the management to get an approval for spending resources in training their human capital by the other stakeholders of the organization (Brostek, 2000). Companies today are faced with a major challenge in terms of their spending patterns with respect to the employee training. Companies do realize the importance of the training of the employees and want to spend more for it but are restricted immensely by their financial conditions and the slowing economy. Organizations have a set budget for the development of their human resources beyond which they are not allowed to spend.Thus this has become a huge challenge as they have to channelize the limited resources that they have very efficiently in order to get the maximum out of the evaluation (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2006). Other than that the organizations today are facing problems in acquiring highly skilled employees who would be able to do an in depth evaluation of the training interventions. As already mentioned above the evaluation itself is a complete procedure, thus organizations need to hire highly skilled employees who should be well trained in the evaluation procedures and may get accurate and correct results for the organization (Bramley & an, 2003).The evaluation phase does not only end once the data has been gathered properly by the skilled professi onals but a thorough understanding is also required in order to assess and evaluate the data properly. The correct result depends upon the correct understanding of the data that has been gathered. It is a huge challenge for the managers to make sure that the data that has been gathered is not misunderstood or misinterpreted in any way because this may make the whole evaluation procedure a failure (Armstrong, 2003).Evaluation refers to the feedback from the trainers and the trainees. Getting a feedback at times is not easy and the organization has to go through a lot of difficulties in order to get the correct feedback. A lot of participation and co operation is required form all levels of employees in the organization. Any sort of rigidness form any one in the organization may make it difficult for the firm to get the feedback (Training and development evaluation in Jordanian banking organisations, 2009).The managers face a huge challenge in terms of getting co operation form the tr ainers and the trainees as the people may not be very comfortable sharing their response or may not want to tell others due to any reason. At times people may even manipulate the results of the evaluation by providing biased data to the managers which may pollute the whole study. The managers have to make sure that the purpose of the evaluation has been communicated properly within the whole organization and every one in the company understands how important the evaluation is for the training procedures.This would help the managers in getting the support from all over the organization without which the managers may not be able to accomplish their mission (Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains – Cognitive, Affective, Psychomotor Domains – design and evaluation toolkit for training and learning, n. d. ). Proper evaluation is only possible in the case when both the trainer and the trainees are ready to co operate and give the correct feedback. At times either of t hem may be biased in their response due to any personal factor which may contaminate the complete evaluation and mislead the management.The management before going for the evaluation has to make sure that the evaluation is unbiased and no personal factors are included in the results. This is practically impossible thus the organization has to make sure that it minimizes the biasness to the maximum level (Rae, 2002). The managers have to make sure that the data they gather from the evaluation is sufficient to provide correct finding and is able to achieve the objective of the evaluation. Otherwise the whole process may become nullified and would be a waste of resources and time.The managers have to ensure that whatever tools are required to gather the evaluation data have provided enough data which to validate the study (Donovan & Townsend, 2004). Selecting the right tools to gather the data is another challenge in front of the managers. Today managers have various different tools to gather data for the evaluation of the training programs. It is very difficult for the organization to decide on which tools are the best in the given conditions for the organizations to gather data.The managers have to be very prudent while deciding on how to get the data for the evaluation (Evaluation Tools, n. d. ). The organizations have various tools like focus groups, questionnaires and one on one interview and observations. All these tools have their specific characteristics which may be advantageous for the organization at various times. The criteria for choosing the tool may differ from organization to organization and may even depend on the personalities of the respondents for the evaluation.Where the managers may feel that their respondents would not be able to communicate their ideas properly they would go for observation and try to gather data via either their own observations or the expert’s observation (Knox, 2002). The tool itself has a lot of impact on the re sult of the study as the level of biasness may vary in each tool. For example observation may be very biased as the observer may be paying selective attention and ignoring things that he may not want to. Focus group may also be biased as it has a moderator who may play a major role in manipulating the discussions in the focus groups (Clarkson, 2001).Thus the managers today have a lot of pressures in terms of selecting the right tools for gathering the data as the tool has to be the most appropriate one and has to match the conditions and the type of respondents. Evaluation is a complete procedure which the company has to follow. It is not easy for the managers to formulate the evaluation process and a complete and thorough insight is required by the managers to formulate the evaluation procedures for the training and development interventions.The managers today are facing a lot of difficulties in deciding on the various steps that are required to initialize the procedure at the begi nning and then come up with a step by step procedure. Other than that the managers also have to ensure that the steps that they follow are in the right order so that the evaluation procedure is correct. The formulation of the procedure also requires the managers to have a thorough insight of the training and development interventions so that they may make sure that the process is not leaving any loop holes during the evaluation phase. (Training Evaluation, n. d. )Answer # 4: Training and development interventions have become very important for any organization. Training allows the employees to be at pace with the changing employing conditions in the world. The training though remains incomplete without the evaluation phase where the organization can benefit by taking feedback from the trainers and the trainees. The evaluation completes the training and development intervention procedure as it enables the organization to get an insight on the objectives, the loop holes and other aspe cts of the training and development intervention procedure (George & Snell, 2007).By evaluating the training and development interventions the company is able to exactly know hoe successful it has been in implementing the interventions. Since all these interventions requires a lot of time and money to be spent by the company, thus it is of very importance to the company to analyze how beneficial the strategies have been for the company and what are the points where there were certain loop holes that can be taken care of (Evaluating Training, n. d. ). The training and development interventions are required to modify the ongoing training within an organization.Though the implementation alone is not enough, the organization may not want to only spend their resources without any sort of evaluations. The evaluation is a tool that does not only provide ample data to assess the company’s training interventions on the short term basis but is also a tool that can be used to formulate the strategies or the roadmap for the long term (Cummings & Worley, 2008). Evaluation not only identifies the results obtained by the current techniques applied but at the same time gets a feedback from the internal and external audiences.The feedback can serve as the most important opportunity for the organization as it can use it for the further trainings. The feedback itself would prove to be the biggest opportunity for the organization as because of the feedback the organization would be able to identify all sorts of loop holes that may exist in the current intervention systems of the organization. The company may be able to spot what are the places where the company is lagging behind and needs to cover up (Nilson, 2003).This would bring the company in a better position to formulate the future learning and development interventions for the employees. Thus the company would then be able to make better strategies that would be the improved version of the intervention strategies ad opted by the organization. Evaluation is the best way to measure the success of the organization. By evaluating the development and training intervention strategies the organization may be in the best position to see any mistakes that have been done in the current training sessions.The human development is a very integral part of the organization where a lot of organizations spend huge amounts just to make sure that their employees are trained in the best manner. Companies can set their goals before the training and development interventions which would then be used in formulating the training program. Later the evaluation would be the best way by which the organization can assess the extent to which the goals have been achieved. This would help the organizations in setting its future objectives and missions based on the past results of the evaluation (Trainee's Feedback, n.d. ). Evaluation would give the organization an insight for reviewing, adjusting and revising goals. By evalua tion, the organization is in a better state to review its goals and incorporate any required changes. The organization would be able to come up with a revised and an improved training and development interventions which would benefit the organizations and the employees individually. The training process is required to be with minimal errors and maximum results.The upper management of the organization is very keen regarding the whole training process and any interventions that are done in the organization. Thus evaluation proves to be the best way by which the organization can reduce the amount of mistakes that can be done in the training and development interventions. By evaluation the organization may be able to get the response from the trainers and the trainees and then avoid any mistakes that have been done in the previous sessions (Why Training Evaluation? , 2006 ).This would help in reducing the organization cost as it would not then waste its resources on committing mistakes but instead would be able to properly channelize the resource without committing any fallacies. The organization by doing constant evaluations can avoid any mistakes and can come up with the training and development interventions with zero error, that is, that would get maximum results which would justify the huge amount that is spend on training the human resources in the organization (Evaluation of Recruitment and Training, n.d. ). Avoiding mistakes in the training procedure does not only reduce cost but at the same time gets maximum results for the organization. Evaluation identifies the loop holes in the current procedures which can then be rectified in the future. This would help the organization in making the trainings more effective and result oriented. The employees of the organization may be able to increase their productivity which would be very beneficial for the organization. Evaluation is a way of taking response from the trainees.This is a way of decentralizing the org anization by which the employee’s response would be incorporated in the training and development procedures of the organization. This would act as the motivator for the employees as they would know that their response would be considered as very important for the training interventions. The employees would be able to increase their productivity and the whole organization would work together to come up with a better intervention procedures (Employee Satisfaction Survey, n. d. ).Evaluations provide an organization to prepare a relevant and appropriate training program for the organization which can prove to be the success factor for the organization. Human resource is considered as one of the most important factors in any organization that can become the competitive advantage for the firm. The evaluation might lead to enhance the competitive advantage by providing a correct framework for the training and development interventions. The evaluation may enable to firm to come up wi th the best training methods for the employees by which the company can train their employees in the best manner.Evaluation is thus the only way by which the organizations in the modern world can train their employees and make themselves differentiated via that. The evaluation can help in making the work environment better as the employees may feel respected and consider themselves as the most important asset of the organization. Thus a proper evaluation system can lead to a better working environment, improved training interventions which would all lead to an increase in the productivity of the employees and ultimately affect the earnings of the organization which is the key objective of any firm (Becker, 2009).Conclusion: Evaluating the training and development interventions is not an easy task as it requires a very prudent approach by the managers who are facing a lot of challenges today. The organizations have to be more serious while evaluating the interventions and have to uti lize the maximum from the evaluation procedures as they have a lot of opportunities for the organization.

Creative intelligence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Creative intelligence - Essay Example It accentuates accomplishment, struggle, rationalism, past experience, and present mindedness. Experiences play important role in intuitive style because individuals make decisions by comparing the present situation with a past one. This style is commonly preferable for managers and politicians (Lewis, 1995). Innovative style focuses on questioning the traditional customs, they believe in determination, and experimentation. They make complete analysis of the data and they prefer willingness to work rather than hard work. Mostly people who like to experiment and believe anything to be true after experimenting possess this style of intelligence such as engineers and scientists. Mostly, peoples’ virtues are persistence in the face of complications and people can find these virtues in their method of handling any complex situation with ease. Though work place plays a huge role in deciding how people perform but people with innovative style somehow convert their discomfort into opp ortunities and still manage to make out the best from them (Rowe, 2007). These kinds of people can contribute largely in the success of any organization because they possess the talent of molding the situation in their own favor however, they lack experience like intuitive ones. Combination of intuitive and innovative people can brighten the name of any organization. People possessing third style that is imaginative are able to envisage and make out opportunities, they are artistic, open-minded, and they are not afraid of taking risks and always think in a unique manner. This style describes astuteness and it belongs particularly to musicians, leaders, artists, writers and the ones who make their imagination and creativity their professions. These kinds of people are very elementary for an organization as they like to take risks and organizations mostly lack these kinds of people. They give huge importance to their creativity and always make decision creatively rather than unexcitingly (Proctor, 2010). The last style is inspirational intelligence, which has influences of change in community. They are willing to accept change and bring change, which is for the good of others. This style is mainly for individuals who have some visions and missions in their minds such as teachers, leaders, and writers. If one compares four styles one finds that the intuitive people have insight in solving functional problems, Innovative individuals mostly take a long time to reach to a solution of problem because they analyze every aspect. Imaginative individuals use value judgments to make their decisions and the inspirational ones totally take into account the welfare of other people to make the decisions. When an organization has to make a decision urgently then it should approach intuitive individuals, however, when they have to identify the effects of certain problems in long term, they should contact imaginative individuals. Although each of these styles describes a definite creative intelligence style, a mainstream of people have more than one creative intelligence style (Rowe, 2007). The level of strength for each style results in a conduct for each individual. This approach to creativity expands the possible number of creative intelligence styles. No one denies that it is beneficial to have more than one creative intelligence style be cause it would help to treat different types of problems at different

Marketing Research-Write an essay of research proposal of ALDi - 1

Marketing Research-Write an of research proposal of ALDi company, Australia - Essay Example The term ‘all’ is highly ambiguous and it is a known fact that retailers succeed only as long as they are able to attract the purchasing decision-makers or those which highly influences them. ALDI can therefore be seen as facing the problem of determining the proper avenues for continuously attracting these decision-makers. This is compounded by the fact that Australia’s socio-demographic composition is increasingly becoming diverse due to migration of Asian nationalities to study and to work in this highly developed nation. The purpose of this research is to determine the effective marketing methods that ALDI can adapt to target its main and most important consumers. This is not to say that ALDI is not doing a good job of marketing within the Australian market of the southern area in which it operates. Rather, the proposal seeks to identify and provide opportunities for improvement in addressing its core customers based on the analysis of data gathered from secondary literature in expansion, marketing management and financial controls. Although differentiation is important in this market, it is also important to be very clear in a specific target market. The objective of the current proposal is to get ALDI to pay better attention in providing better measures for particular customer segments in Australia such as that of busy mothers with children. In terms of busy mothers, this target market may want different things from the product when compared to other customers for any number of reasons. For example, single, non-family buyers are buying the ALDI products directly for themselves while busy mothers are buying the products for their offspring. This should lessen the product side of the marketing mix of the grocery chain in terms of the customers’ individuality and slant it more towards the mothers’ good sense. Nutrition and value should be highlighted

Organizational Behaviour Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Organizational Behaviour - Essay Example A leader influences others by his qualities, viz. confidence, communicative ability, awareness of his impact on others as well as perceptions about the situation and his subordinates. The effect of a leader's background experiences, his communication ability, self-awareness, confidence, his perceptions of subordinates, the situation and the self are shown below. (Prasad, 2006 264) Almost every aspect of work is influenced by, if not dependent on, leadership. The leader is the chief communicator to people outside the group as well as within the group. The leader's attitude and behaviour affects the motivation of the group. The leader is responsible for seeing that the group's objectives are clearly understood and are accomplished. The planning and control mechanisms are designed or modified by the leader. How the leader behaves influences employees' satisfaction and affects the quality and quantity of output. All leaders have three limiting factors to contend with. Firstly, they are limited by their own ability, by their knowledge, skills, attitudes, weaknesses and inadequacies. Secondly, they are limited by the level of experience, skills, proficiencies and attitudes of their subordinates. Finally, they are limited by their environment. This includes the resources and conditions, which are available to them in their effort to achieve their objectives. All these factors are constantly changing. Leadership is a vital and dynamic function in organizations. The quality of leadership is a key factor in the accomplishment of the organization's objectives. It is generally recognized that certain types of leaders suit certain situations better than others. For example, some leaders perform better in a prosperous, or growth, period, others in an austere or contracting period. LEADERSHIP STYLES Leadership styles are the patterns of behaviour, which a leader adopts in influencing the behaviour of his followers (subordinates) in the organisational context. These patterns emerge in the leader as he begins to respond in the same fashion under similar conditions; he develops habits of actions that become somewhat predictable to those who work with him. There are many dimensions of leadership styles: power dimension where superior uses varying degree of authority; orientation -employee or task-oriented; motivational-where superior affects the behaviour of his subordinates either by giving a reward or by imposing a penalty. All these styles are leader of oriented. Leadership style is the result of leader's philosophy, personality, experience and value system. It also depends upon the types of followers and the organisational atmosphere prevailing in the enterprise. There may be situations and follower-oriented styles. However, such a classification may not be strict because

Finance Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 1

Finance - Assignment Example Tax Solutions Inc. is targeting to offer solutions so as to help businesses reduce tax exposures, capitalize on available tax incentives and hence increase their cash flows for growth. It targets small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the USA to grow and create value with them. Among the tax incentives that Tax Solutions Inc. guide businesses on are industry specific and include Domestic Production Activities Deduction for manufacturers through its tax specialists in manufacturing industries irrespective of the nature of manufacturing. In addition, Tax Solutions Inc. team of experts will help them assess how a given tax credit fits with your overall tax strategy and timing. 31/12/20X4 - There are 7 employees working at Tax Solutions Inc., and they received their salaries at the weekend. The work week has 5 days and starts on Sunday and ends on Thursday. Weekly salary is $170,000, and it is paid every Thursday. December 31 fell on a Tuesday. This is a list of all closing balances of ledger accounts pertaining to a particular period. It is in this list that ledger balances are grouped either into debit balances and credit balances.1 In this regard, assets and expenses are debited while capital, revenues and liabilities are credited. At the end of the day, the debit and credit entries must be equal, and financial statements are then prepared using these balances. First, since its preparation id based on the principle of double entry, it is used to check the arithmetic accuracy because the debit and credit entries must be equal2. Second, it is used, to summarize, financial transactions that have taken place over a certain period. Third, it is used to trace accounting errors back to the journals and ledgers. Fourth, it is used by accountants as a working paper and the initial step towards the financial statements preparation. Despite the uses described above, trial balance suffers from serious

Briefly explicate the overall thesis's of Robert Kuttner's, Everything Essay

Briefly explicate the overall thesis's of Robert Kuttner's, Everything for Sale, and Daniel Bell's, The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism, AND DO SO WITH EQUAL FOCUS - Essay Example In summary, Kuttner demonstrates that there are notable differences between how markets operate in any business set up viewed theoretically and the real performance in practice. The writer notes that there are means that there are a number of unforeseen occurrences that take place in the market (Seligman 87). Most of the economists apply many theories in planning businesses, but as the author writes, there are other factors. Perfect markets are hard to realize and efforts to realize them may cause other problems to the society, for example, interfere with democratic rights of people. Everything for Sale focuses on a number of flawed markets such as labor, health care and finance. The objective of the book is to notify the community on the need for a democratic government control in matters of the economy. Daniel Bell was an American sociologist renowned for his editorial work and promotion of industrialism in USA (Lizardo 222). Bell incorporates his skills in combining his social skills and political ideas in his writings. Bell wrote the book, â€Å"The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism†, in 1976 (Lizardo 223). It demonstrates how the customs brought about by capitalism harms personal satisfaction and the factors that led to capitalism in business. Bell’s thesis makes use of sociology, psychological and theoretical skills in economics. Author’s focus is the cooperation of people in applying Rawl’s maximin idea in satisfaction of minimum lifestyle rather than maximum lifestyle, which is capital consuming (Lizardo 233). At the time of writing of this book, there was minimal technological advancement hence less capital advancement in business. Despite low technological advancement, Bell seems to have an eye on improvements in technology and its impact on capitalism in business. The rising diversity in cultural practices of different people affects the progress in business. In the first thesis, Kuttner looks at the

How stakeholder theory linked with Corporate social resoponisiblty IN Essay - 1

How stakeholder theory linked with Corporate social resoponisiblty IN TESCO - Essay Example Tesco is an organization that is the marketing agent and forms part of the stakeholders’ theory. It is related with CSR in that it is included in the annual reports given to CEOs and it defines the terms and policies of the firm for the purpose of integrity of the firm (Louche, Idowu and Leal Filho, 2010) Investors on the other hand give the capital to the company and also get ready market for the products and services. Each of these groups has a big role to play in the business cooperate. Hence there is need for a health co existence with these groups with the business. Blattberg who is a philosopher argues that stakeholder theory assumes the interests of stakeholders but a compromise can be made on these groups upon close considerations (Simpson & Taylor, 2013). Louche, C., Idowu, S. O., & Leal Filho, W. (2010).  Innovative CSR from risk management to value creation. Sheffield, UK, Greenleaf.

Analysis of Ethics and Values Essay Example for Free

Analysis of Ethics and Values Essay Values are defined as things that are important and of some value for others. Values are of utmost importance while formulating vision. Importance of value is not just for individuals but organizations also emphasize greatly on its core values and even their vision is consistent with the values of the organization. All the decisions about right and wrong are based on the values that an individual or organization has. Thus it is said that values are the rules that one follows both in personal and professional life. Value shows what is right and what is wrong whereas doing what is right or wrong is determined by ethics. When one says that behave ethically, they mean behave in the right way. (Portman, 2010). By ethics we mean certain standards of conduct that shows how one should behave and fulfill the duties and responsibilities Professional Values and Ethics: Professional values and ethics refer to set of standards of conduct that supports the prestige of various professions that exist in the society. These set of principles indicate that how a particular professional group should behave in the society and what personal qualities they need to develop and in what way they are supposed to communicate at the workplace as well as with others in the society. For example for scientists moral principles involve integrity and patriotism. Justice and sincerity are the ethics for judiciary. Professional ethics become an important part of an organization because it increases the productivity of the organization as it indicates the way people should communicate with each other and the way they should carry out their responsibilities. Ethics for Military Organization Everyone agrees to the fact that integrity, honesty and moral conduct are important elements in a good human being but what people don’t agree is that these standards are applied equally for both personal and professional lives. An employee thinks that as long as his task are fulfilled, his employer should not care about his private conduct and he has all the rights to drinks, cheat take drugs or whatever he wants to do in his personal life. This may be true for the civilian sector but in the military there is different view. They do not tolerate drugs or alcohol. They do not allow sexual involvement with others in the workplace and severe punishments are given for dishonesty. Senior leaders say that for them private and public line are erased they cannot do what they want to do even in private as they answerable for the entire act that they do in private life as well. Military Ethics and Ethical Concepts: Military ethics refers to the code of conduct of military personnel while performing military activities. This concept of military ethics revolves around three sub concepts. The first concept refers to suitable behavior of individual for their profession, proper understanding of their standard mission and the assignments given to them and the right manner through which they can achieve their missions. The second concept underlines the suitable conduct of the military which is based on the fact that military members belong to a specific profession. The third concept specifies proper conduct of military members as a citizen of a free society where people are expected to respect the dignity of humans and adhering to the values of the democratic society. Professionalism Concept: Military ethics is based on complete professionalism which identifies the military members as professionals. Just as all other professionals are expected to perform their duties in a certain manner; the same military members are also required to adhere to the values and principles of the society. Conception of Owing: There are three Os on which the military ethics rely. These include; owing, ordering and to ought. Military officers are indebted to a lot of people such as country people, their families and comrades therefore they should realize that it is a selfless service. Conception of Ordering: Concept of ordering is also very important in military ethics. It is about priorities and moral structures. For example a top ranking officer knows that there is certain defect in a weapon that military requires badly, should the military officer reveal this information to the committee which is analyzing the weapon or he should withhold this information and go ahead in getting the weapon for his men. Here the question of ethics and priority comes. Conception of Obligations: This means what military members ought to do. According to military ethics, soldiers are expected to obey all the orders of the seniors promptly. But sometimes this happen that these orders raise ethical question therefore the military men are usually stuck between obeying the command or doing what is right and needs to be done.

Climate Change Impact On Agriculture In Pakistan

Climate Change Impact On Agriculture In Pakistan Climate change is a phenomenon that arises due to emissions of greenhouse gases from fuel combustion, deforestation, urbanization and industrialization, resulting variations in solar energy, temperature and precipitation. (Upreti, 1999). It is a real threat to life which largely affects water resources, agriculture, coastal regions, freshwater habitats, vegetation, forests, snow cover, and geological processes such as melting, land sliding, desertification and floods all of which have long-term affects on food security and human health. (G.Malla.2008). Climate change is a global issue; debated on at all fronts whether its political, economic or scientific. Climate must be prevented from further damage. Before the end arrives, there is a need on all levels of society to understand climate, the factors behind change and its impact on our agriculture and economy. It is a well known fact that agriculture is the backbone of Pakistan. Agriculture and agri-related activities form 80% of the countrys economy. Agriculture is comparatively more sensitive to changes in climate, and can be impacted severely due to events such as untimely rainfalls, extreme temperatures and carbondioxide concentrations. A need arises to closely observe the environment and take up necessary measures for tackling these challenges. This research work is an attempt to address the issues and problems faced by Pakistans agricultural sector and find the necessary solutions. 2. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM: Pakistans economy and prosperity is closely linked to its agriculture. Pakistans economic activities relate directly or indirectly to agricultural sector. Agricultural sector is dependent on nature. The uncertain changes in nature i.e. changing in precipitation pattern, extremely high and low temperatures, cyclones, thunderstorms, variation in water level, impurification of air, water and soil, have made agriculture and agri-production a challenging issue. Unusual heavy rain storms in 2010, which resulted in floods and distortion of agriculture and property, are an example of climate change. The loss to the economy and the people sufferings are still remembered and unforgettable. It is the need of the day to carefully observe climate change, the causes of extreme weather events and find the necessary solutions to the problems. Issues regarding susceptibility to extreme climate conditions should be addressed with seriousness to save Pakistans agricultural sector and consequently the national economy. This research study is an attempt in addressing and ultimately solving the problems faced by Pakistans agriculture sector due to uncertain climate revolutionization. 3. OBJECTIVES: Considering the importance of agricultural sector for the economy and food requirements of Pakistan, there is a need for reliable estimates of major crop production under varied climate change provisions and circumstances. Although climate is an immeasurable fact that is affected by various factors i.e. Carbon dioxide concentration in atmosphere, temperature variations, precipitation rates, water level, soil erosion, salinity etc. The factors that are directly effecting crop production are temperature and precipitation rates. This research study will analyze crop production with temperature and precipitation rates. The core purposes of this research study will be as under; 1. To observe the trend of climate change from the last three decades i.e. from 1980 to 2010; 2. To analyze temperature and rainfall, as the key factors effecting agricultural production, with the major cash crops and food crops in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa; 3. To investigate the probable impacts of recent and predicted future climate change on different crops production; 4. To scrutinize different adaptive strategies in coping with the catastrophic conditions of environment and improving the total crops yield; 4. SIGNIFICANCE: Pakistan is an agricultural country; climate change impact on agricultural sector is a serious issue that demands immediate attention. This research study mainly focuses on the impact of climate change on agricultural sector of Pakistan such as untimely rainfalls and temperature variations that ultimately results in either prolonged droughts, unalarmed floods, increase in soil erosions and decrease in land productivity, which ultimately results in the migrations and desertification. The countrys socio-economic setup suffers the most that leads to a weak nation. The most recent impact of climate change was seen in July 2010, when floods destroyed thousands of villages all over Pakistan. The greatest hit among them was Khyber Pakhtunkhawa (KPK). The core purpose of this research study is to analyze the temperature and precipitation effects on agricultural produce in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa. Major crops will be taken up in this regard, to analyze them in relation with temperature and precipitation from 1980 to 2010. Predictions of temperature and precipitation will help us adapt in the future with extreme cropping and harvesting seasons. Prevention can be done before disaster strikes to safeguard the interest of a poor farmer. 5. RESEARCH QUESTIONS: This research study will strive towards finding answers to the following questions; 1. Is there any potential damage caused by climate change to Pakistans economy as a whole and agriculture sector in particular? 2. What are the impacts of 2010 floods on the production of major crops in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa? 3. Are there any adaptative strategies to climate change that can help rural communities strengthen their capacity to cope with disasters? 4. What should be the future land-management skills of farmers to climate change? 5. What measures should be taken in the future to diversify the livelihood of the poor farmers? 6. METHODOLOGY: The methodology to be adopted for this study will be as under; Major factors effecting climate change on agricultural sector are temperature and precipitation rates. According to the plant physiology literature, plant development is a linear positive function of temperature, within a range of temperature between minimum and maximum thresholds (Ritchie and Smith, 1991). Keeping this in mind, the econometric model used for analyzing the climate impact on agricultural sector will employ both maximum and minimum temperatures, which are positively related to crops yield. Moreover, precipitation rates effecting crops yields will be captured by the relevant econometric and mathematical equations. The data regarding the temperature and precipitation variables will be obtained from Pakistan Metrological Department. The data for the total yield of various crops in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) will be attained from the Pakistan Federal Bureau of Statistics. Climate change trend will also be observed by engaging different econometric and statistical techniques and procedures. The econometric model used in the research study will be analyzed with the help of econometric software; SPSS or SAS. The detailed analysis of the econometric models will be explained and conclusions will be drawn from it. The socioeconomic impacts on people as well as on the development of country will also be addressed. Future recommendations as well as the adaptive strategies for copping with extreme environment conditions will also be given. 7. PROVISIONAL CHAPTER STRUCTURE: The proposed chapter structure of the study will be as under; CHAPTER I; Agriculture sector and its importance to the economy of Pakistan. CHAPTER II; Climate change and its impact on Pakistan agricultural sector. CHAPTER III; Agricultural production in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa as affected by the change in climatic conditions; Review of the major crops over the last three decades. CHAPTER IV; Analysis and investigation of the major crops of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa with climate change factors, using Econometric techniques. CHAPTER V; Concluding the study; various adaptability and compatibility strategies in relation to climate change will be discussed. 8. LITERATURE REVIEW: Agriculture is extremely vulnerable to climate change. Higher temperatures ultimately reduce yields of desirable crops while encouraging weed and pest production. Changes in precipitation patterns elevate the short-run crop malfunction and declines long-run productions . Although there will be an increase in some crops production in some regions of the world, the overall impacts of climate change on agriculture are expected to be negative, intimidating global food security. International Food Policy Research Institute (2009) conducted a study that concentrates on various agricultural sector issues in Asia and the Pacific. It presents indicators of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity of agriculture sector in the region. Those indicators underline the vulnerability of the agriculture sector as a source of livelihood and food security for many people. This study also represents vast heterogeneity in farming systems across Central, East, Southeast, and South Asia and the Pacific Islands. It also highlights many other aspects of vulnerability to climate change across the region that includes undernourishment, poverty and slow productivity., all of which are aggravated by the effects of climate change. Neil Leary and Jyoti Kulkarni, (2007), work is based on a combination of case studies from different regions of the world. These studies have debated climate vulnerability to impacts from climate variation and change. The potential outcomes from exposure to climate hazards and climate change are identified as high-level concern in these studies.. It includes water scarcity that retards progress towards development goals, losses of entire ecosystems and their species, more frequent and greater loss of life in coastal zones, land degradation, food insecurity and famine, loss of livelihoods and increase in infectious disease epidemics. All of these are possible outcomes of exposure to climate hazards. It is a source of greater information as it has addressed climate change impacts on all fronts of life whether it is social, economic or political. Santiago Olmos (2001) provides an outline of adaptation issues, subject to climate vulnerability literature and climate discussions. This paper covers assessments of climate vulnerability in various regions of the world and developing countries in particular. The paper also discusses some of the existing resources that can be used to conduct climate vulnerability assessments and adaptation work. The current research work is unique in the sense that it will point out the impacts of climate change on the agricultural sector of Pakistan. More specifically, major areas of concern will be the climate impact on crops yields in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa over the last three decades. The direct and indirect social and economic impacts of climate change will also be analyzed in this study. Adaptive and preventive measures in copping with extreme climate conditions will also be given in this research study.

Sport Injury Prevention Strategies Health And Social Care Essay

Sport Injury Prevention Strategies Health And Social Care Essay Groin pain occurs frequently in sporting activities such as running, kicking, soccer, rugby, and ice hockey which involve quick accelerations, decelerations and sudden rapid directional changes (Cowan et al., 2004 and Verrall et al., 2005). Hormon (2007) suggested that, groin pain may be caused by a sports hernia, osteitis pubis, nerve entrapment, adductor and Iliopsoas muscle strain or any combination of these entities. The most common location (>50%) of groin pain reported in athletes is the adductor muscle tendon region (Holmich. 2007). The assessment and treatment of groin pain in athletes is difficult as the anatomy of the groin region is complex and the ability to imagine the anatomy of the groin area is important for both physical examination and the differential diagnosis (Vincent and Victoria, 2001). Holmich (2007) reports that the cause of chronic groin pain left in debate and systematic clinical assessments using reliable examination methods were not carried out in studies and well-defined diagnostic entities are not reported. Please find the appendix i (a) for some of the terms used frequently. Janda (1992), reports that in any sport the first part of injury management is injury prevention. Emery (2003) describes that, to develop and evaluate the sport injury prevention strategies, a good understanding of injury rates, the participant population at risk and the risk factors associated with injury for the population need to be first identified. In athletic population; groin strain injury incidence definition may be obtained by using a standardised exposure of actual player hours separated between training time and game time. The risk of injury is different for different sports (Junge et al, 2006). When taking the severity of the injury into account in a English Football Association team that the overall risk to professional athletes is profoundly high approximately 1000 times higher among professional football players than for high-risk industrial occupations (Drawer and Fuller2002). The high rate of injury incidence among different sports may have lead researchers to attemp t to identify risk factors and preventive methods for different sport injuries. Meeuwisse and Bahr (2009), defines risk factors are the ones which causes the athletic injury or sufficient enough to cause injury. The risk factors for groin injury in sport are considered as intrinsic risk factors like age, gender and physical fitness, level of play, anatomical alignment of structures, previous injury and body composition. The extrinsic risk factors such as protective equipment, sports equipment, environment factors like weather, surface of play, and human factors like opponent behavior, playing situation and also biomechanical description make the athlete susceptible to injury. These risk factors were further classified by Meeuwisse and Bahr (2009), as modifiable or non modifiable. Endurance, strength, balance and decreased levels of sport-specific training are some of the modifiable risk factors. These risk factors can be altered to reduce the groin injury rates through the implementation of injury prevention strategies. Age, gender, previous groin injury are considered as non modifiable risk factors for groin injury. These factors cannot be altered to reduce injury rates through the implementation of injury prevention strategies but facilitate the identification of the sport population at risk. See Appendix ii for injury causation model by Meeuwisse (2006) The groin region is a highly mobile area consists of where abdomen meets the legs and contains the structures of the perineum (Timothy and Steven, 2008).Therefore, it includes the lower rectus abdominal muscles, the inguinal region, the symphysis pubis, the upper portions of the adductor muscles of the thigh, and the genitalia, also the scrotum in males. Falvey et al, (2008) described the groin region by setting out borders which comprises of groin, gluteal and greater trochanter of femur called 3G triangle, for sports medicine professionals to help understand the diagnosis of groin pain easier by the origin of symptoms. (Adapted from Falvey et al, 2009. The groin pain: patho- anatomical approach to the diagnosis of chronic groin pain in athletes). The anterior superior iliac spine (ASIS) and pubic tubercle forms the apex of groin triangle, as this point refers to the 3G point. The land marks of the superior border of the triangle forms by the line between the pubic tubercle and ASIS, whereas line from the pubic tubercle inferiorly forms the medial border and line from ASIS superiorly forms the lateral border. See appendix i (b) for diagram for muscles of the groin region. The bodys center of gravity is located within the pelvis, anterior to the second sacral vertebra; thus, the loads that are generated or transferred through this area are important in virtually every athletic effort (Anderson, et al 2001).Loads of up to eight times body weight has been demonstrated in the hip joint during jogging, with potentially greater loads may present during vigorous athletic competition (Crowninshield, et al 1978), the structures around the hip are uniquely adapted to transfer such forces. The most common fracture is to the femur may caused by the force transmitted from the hip joint, when subject to a combination of axial compression, torsion, shear and bending loads which can cause fracture at various sites. Imbalance between the loads applied to the pelvis and the integrity of the pelvic structures, resulting into overuse problems. Pubic symphysis displays its greatest mobility when it is exposed to shear forces. Pizzari et al (2008) reports that the imbalanc es may be occurring from inadequate pelvic integrity which is intrinsic risk factor and alterations in the loads as extrinsic risk factor or sometimes combination of these two can cause osteitis pubis, which in turn contributes to groin pathology. Therefore, in prevention of osteitis pubis sometimes involves early recognition of risk factors at the beginning of the season may be appropriate. Having known the complexity of anatomy and biomechanics groin region, it may be useful to develop comprehensive understanding of risk factors causing the groin pain to develop effective preventive measures among different sports. Research Question The first step in the process of any research study is to form a research question. Four components should be considered when forming a research question (Meade and Richardson 1997). These include the client group being investigated, interventions, comparative interventions and the outcomes used to measure the effect. Is identifying risk factors and causes help athletes in preventing groin pain? a literature review. Objective of the study This review examines the studies on identifying the risk factors and causes of the groin pain and does this helped in preventing groin pain, and aims to develop new insights based on current knowledge on the topic by reviewing the literature. Aims of the study The aim of this study is to review the evidence to see if there are positive benefits (decreasing the incidence of injuries) of identifying risk factors for causing groin pain. These positive outcomes may help health care professionals involved to prevent athletes groin pain. Chapter 1 Preliminary Literature Review In this review there will be a broad preliminary literature review on groin pain, where incidence, epidemiology, risk factors and causes in relation to groin pain will be discussed. Importance and principles of injury prevention are discussed in detail. Epidemiology of groin injuries in athletes Injury was defined as any event that kept a player out of a practice or a game or required the attention of the team physician (Molsa, et al 1997). In professional soccer, groin injuries comprises of up to 10% of all the injuries (Hawkins et al, 2001), but are responsible for a much larger proportion of time lost from training and play (Muckle, 1982). Brooks et al (2005) have reported on match injuries associated with 546 rugby union players at 12 English Premiership clubs in two seasons. They found that incidence, severity of groin, hip and buttock injuries as per every 1000 player hours and severity in number of days absence. In elite level soccer, groin strain injuries have been reported to account for 20% of all muscle strain injuries and more than 40% in ice hockey and they also account for >10% of all injuries in elite levels of ice hockey, soccer, and athletics. In Australian Rules football (AFL), the number of games lost was more at all levels of the game due to hip and groin injuries. AFL statistics for seasons 2001-2006 saw groin pathologies accounting for an average of 13.0 missed games per club per season involving an average of 3.25 players per team. Over this same period these groin injuries had a 23% recurrence rate. Walden et al (2007) studied in professional sports, and have found groin injury to be the fourth most common injury affecting soccer players. Orchard and Seward (2002) consider groin injury the third most common injury in Australian Rules football and it also has a high prevalence in ice hockey and rugby. But in considering time lost from injury, groin pain plays only next to fracture and joint reconstruction (Brooks et al, 2005). Groin injury is among the top one to sixth most common cited injury in the Olympic sports of ice hockey, speed skating, soccer, and athletics. Groin injuries account for 3-11% of all injuries i n some Olympic sports including ice hockey, speed skating, soccer, swimming, and athletics. Causes of groin injuries Groin pain in athletes can be classified into athletic and non athletic causes. (Please find a table in appendix iii for causes of groin pain). Adductor muscle strains and osteitis pubis are the most common musculoskeletal causes of groin pain in athletes, which are often difficult to distinguish (Morelli and Smith, 2001). Hip injuries associated with sports participation often refer pain to the groin. Exclusion of rare differential diagnoses is often the focus of clinical testing and imaging. Awareness of overlapping pain referral patterns from the hip joint, the lumbar spine, lumbar facet joints, and sacroiliac joint and abdominal structures is important for accurate diagnosis of the cause of groin pain (Katherine, 2008). Katherine also reports, the common condition that may be associated with acute or chronic groin pain due to Iliopsoas myofascial pain which can be persists as primary problem or secondary problem and suggests Iliopsoas muscle should be included in the assessment of groin pain. Ekberg et al. (1988), found the difficulty in diagnosing the groin pain as it presented with more than one diagnosis in 19 of 21 athletes with longstanding groin pain. Holmich et al. (1999) noticed signs for osteitis pubis in over 60% of their athletes who were primarily diagnosed as suffering with adductor complaints. Please find the table for differential diagnosis for groin pain in appendix iv 1.3 Principles of Injury prevention Bahr et al, (2006) described the sports injury prevention program into primary, secondary and tertiary (Bahr, 2006 for Clinical sports medicine). They defined primary prevention as health promotion and injury prevention by means of application of external supports for body parts to protect from injury, even for those without any previous injury. Secondary prevention included early diagnosis and intervention to limit the development of disability or reduce the risk of re- injury and this is considered as treatment for any acute injury. Lastly, the tertiary prevention is the focus on rehabilitation to reduce and to correct an existing disability in relation to an underlying disease. This may refer to the process of rehabilitation following any sports injury and bringing back to the level of normal sport. The successful injury prevention strategies consist of a model developed by Van Mechelen et al (1997). The first step is to determine the incidence and severity of the sport injury problem, needs to be established prior to identifying risk for injury. Van Mechelen (1992) developed a model that follows sequence of prevention which is widely used from past decade. Four steps of Van mechelen strategies are: (a) identify the incidence of specific sports Injury (b) secondly, identifying the risk factors and mechanism of injury considered (c) finally, develop the interventions likely to reduce the risk of injury should be introduced and their efficacy monitored and (d) by repeating the step (a) monitor the efficacy of preventive measures. Further to Van Mechelen model, Finch (2006) came up with six staged approach to Translating Research into Injury Prevention Practice framework which is widely known as Finch TRIPP prevention framework. This approach suggests, those research studies that include sports participants, bodies and coaches can prevent injuries, but this may be only possible in broad research studies that may lead to real world injury prevention benefits. 1.4 Importance of injury prevention Bahr et al (2002) reports that in Scandinavia, sports injuries are the main cause for hospitalization among children in every one third and injuries seen by a physician, every sixth is caused due to sports participation. During 1997 and 1998, in the United States, annually an estimated 3.7 million (approximately 11%) sports and recreation-related injuries visited emergency department. In these, 2.6 million visits were persons aged 5-24 years and the medical charges for these visits were 500 million US$ annually (Bahr et al., 2002). Injury prevention in sport has several benefits; some of them may include greater health of the individual, long-term in the activity and reduced costs to the individual, the sport, the health care system, and the society. The ultimate benefit would be the potential for better performance. The treatment of sports-related injuries can be time consuming, difficult and expensive, thus making preventive strategies justified, not just from a medical perspective but also economically (Scanlan and MacKay 2001). The significance in knowing about risk factors and preventive strategies may help athletes in decresing the chances of any fresh injuries, reduces training absences, financial burden on sports clubs, authorities, and society and most importantly avoids re-injury (Chalmers, 2002). Chapter 2 Methodology This chapter discusses literature reviews as a research methodology in relation to research paradigms and the rationale for conducting a literature review. Also discussed are different types of literature reviews, advantages and disadvantages of performing a literature review and the process of conducting a literature review including ethical considerations. 2.1 Research Methodology: Hart (1998) defined research methodology as a system of methods and rules to facilitate the collection and analysis of data. A literature review that is performed in a systematic way is a research methodology (Aveyard 2007). 2.2 Research Paradigm The first consideration when addressing any research question is the research paradigm. Paradigms can be defined as the framework that has unwritten rules but directs actions. The term paradigm describes a system of ideas or world view used by the community of researchers to generate knowledge. It is a set of assumptions, research strategies and criteria for rigour that are even taken for granted by the community (Guba and Lincoln 1994). So paradigms are the ways of understanding reality and they contain some assumptions about the reality and find the ways to know the reality. Guba (1990) suggested that paradigms can be characterized by the way their proponents respond to three basic question, they are ontological, epistemological, and the methodological questions. There are many paradigms, but positivism and constructivism are considered as main paradigms. 2.3 Rationale for conducting a literature review The electronic databases with healthcare literature were easily accessible for the author from University of Central Lancashire. These databases consisted of all up- to- date studies on Groin pain and prevention. A literature review is a suitable methodology for identifying, evaluating, and interpreting the existing body of recorded work produced by researchers, scholars, and practitioners (Cormack 1991). Steward and Kamnis (1993) recommended that literature review is a useful tool to compare already existing data to analyse and generate new ideas on topic of interest and also not expensive and time consuming. As a research tool, the literature review has few disadvantages, because it uses previous research developed in different conditions and different backgrounds, and there is a possibility of unintended bias when collecting data (Stewart and Kamnis 1993). Accuracy of the synthesis of findings depends on the person who is critiquing and drawing up the synthesis of the literature (Burns and Grove 1995). Ethical consideration for a literature review Literature review is a secondary research (Aveyard 2007), during which participants do not come in direct contact with the researcher. Hence literature reviews do not require an ethical approval. But some ethical aspects have to be considered during literature review. One should treat peoples research with respect and ensure that the studies included are represented accurately in the review. 2.5 Literature review The literature review is defined as the selection of available documents (both published and unpublished) on the topic, which contain information, ideas, data and evidence written from a particular standpoint to fulfill certain aims or express certain views on the nature of the topic and how it is to be investigated, and the effective evaluation of these documents in relation to the research being proposed (Hart 1998, p27). Rees (1997) defined literature review, as the critical examination of a representative selection of published literature on a particular topic or issue. The literature review might identify gaps in the previous literature that new research can address, or might suggest research to be replicated (Aveyard 2007). A comprehensive and competently carried out review enables a health care practitioner to apply a body of research evidence to practice rather than to rely on individual studies (Aveyard 2007). This emphasizes the place of a literature review in building the evidence based practice. 2.6Types of literature review Gill (2000) suggests that there are three types of literature review. They are: a general survey of the literature, a focused survey of the literature and a systematic review. In a general survey the researcher is aimed at comprehensive search of literature within certain clear parameters (Gill 2000). A focused survey is a comprehensive search of literature with emphasis on the selectivity of the literature in terms of its appropriateness to the authors approach to their research study (Gill 2000). A systematic review follows a strict protocol which includes precisely defining the research question, an exhaustive literature search of all the studies that address the question, assessing the quality of those studies using predefined criteria, exclusion of studies that fail to meet the criteria and provide an overview of the results of the included studies (Gill 2000). The type of literature review used in the current review is focused survey. Chapter 3- Methods This chapter explains how data was searched for this project, how the inclusion and exclusion criteria were selected and what key words were used to search the articles. The research question for this current review is: Is identifying risk factors and causes help athletes in preventing groin pain? 3.1 Search strategy A comprehensive search strategy was developed to identify and locate the key literature on published material on groin pain. As much as possible literature relevant to the topic was identified. Search terms Groin pain in athletes, risk factors, causes and prevention were used to help select articles for the review. 3.2 Inclusion criteria The following inclusion criteria were used, Risk factors and causes of groin pain Prevention of groin pain Articles published up to till date from 2000 Age of participants between18-65 years Articles written in English 3.3 Exclusion criteria Not relevant to groin pain and prevention Articles published before 2000 Excluded were non-English publications Articles on non athletic population 3.4 Search results Literature search was performed using the key words with inclusion and exclusion criteria in mind. A literature search was carried out electronically in SPORTdiscus, MEDLINE with full text (Medical Literature Online), OVID () healthcare databases using the University online library. A manual search was also performed to identify articles related to risk factors, causes and prevention of groin pain. The number of studies included and excluded from the literature search for the review is summarized in the table below. Database Total Included Excluded SPORTdiscus full text 145 6 139 MEDLINE with full text 24 2 22 OVID 23 2 20 Chapter 4 Results This chapter focuses on the findings of the articles in database. The electronic literature search initially identified 191 suitable articles. After reading the abstracts and applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, 10 studies were identified as suitable for the current literature review. The articles included for the review are: Tyler, T.F., Nicholas, S.J., Campbell, R.J., Donellan, S., and McHugh, M.P., 2002. The Effectiveness of a Preseason Exercise Program to Prevent Adductor Muscle Strains in professional ice hockey players, American journal of sports medicine, 30, 5, 680-683. Holmich, P., 2007. Long-standing groin pain in sportspeople falls into three primary patterns, a clinical entity approach: a prospective study of 207 patients, British journal of sports medicine, 41, 247-252. Knowles, S.B., Marshall, S.W., Guskiewicz, K.M., 2006. Issues in Estimating Risks and Rates in Sports Injury Research, Journal of athletic training, 41, 2, 207-215. Engebretsen, A.H., Myklebust, G., Holme, I., Engebretsen, L., and Bahr, R., 2008. Prevention of Injuries Among Male Soccer Players : A Prospective, Randomized Intervention Study Targeting Players With Previous Injuries or Reduced Function, American journal of sports medicine, 36, 6, 1052-1060. Emery, C.A., Meeuwisse, W.H., 2001. Risk factors for groin injuries in hockey. Medicine and Science in Sports Exercise, 33, 9, 1423-1433. Harmon,K.G., 2007. Evaluation of groin pain in athletes, Current sports medicine reports, 6, 354-361. Macintyre, J., Johson, C., Schroeder, E.L.,2006. Groin pain in athletes, Current Sports Medicine Reports, 5,293-299. Ibrahim, A., Murrell, G.A.C., Knapman, P., 2007. Adductor strain and hip range of movement in male professional soccer players, Journal of orthopaedic surgery, 15, 1, 46-9. Biedert, R.M., Warnke, K., Meyer, S., 2003. Symphysis Syndrome in Athletes Surgical Treatment for Chronic Lower Abdominal, Groin, and Adductor Pain in Athletes, Clinical journal of sport medicine, 13, 5, 278-284. Maffey, L., Emery, C., 2007. What are the Risk Factors for Groin Strain Injury in Sport? A Systematic Review of the Literature, Sport medicine, 37, 10, 881-894. Chapter 5 -Analysis Holmich et al (2009), classified risk factors of the groin injury as intrinsic or extrinsic to the athlete, and also suggested that groin injury prevention strategies may be developed and evaluated if there is a good understanding of the athlete population at risk of groin injury. Similary, Parkkari et al (2001) informed that there has not been thorough identification of the risk factors or adequate surveillance of groin injury, such that injury prevention strategies can be scientifically implemented and evaluated. Due to high incidence of groin pain in hockey, a prospective cohort study by Emery and Meeuwisse (2001) surveyed 1292 National Hockey League players and found that abduction flexibility, peak adductor torque was not predicted as injury, but low levels of offseason training, sport specific training and previous injury were predicted as risk factors for groin injury. But the above risk factors are potentially modifiable intrinsic risk factors. Emery and Meeuwisse (2001) also found that the in-season sport specific training may not act as strong risk factor for groin injury. Tyler et al (2002) suggested that, adductor muscle weakness was identified as a strong risk factor compared to flexibility in Professional Ice Hockey players. The authors of the study identified that, if the adductor to abductor muscle strength ratio is less than 80%, it is predicted as a strong risk factor for adductor muscle strain. In addition to the above statement Tyler et al (2001) also identified similar findings. The player with adductor to abductor muscle strength ratio less than 80% is 17 times more likely to have an adductor muscle strain and authors recognised adduction strength was 95% of abduction strength in non injured players, but only 78% of abduction strength was found in injured players. The authors in their (Tyler et al 2001) prospective study, apart from above findings, the preseason strength of hip adduction was 18% less in players with adductor muscle strains when compared with that of uninjured players. Engebretsen et al (2008) have performed a randomized controlled trial in soccer players, identified the players and divided into high risk and low risk group. The inclusion criteria for the study were previous injury or reduced function identified through questionnaire. However, the introduction of individual specific preventive training programs to the divided groups such as ankle, knee, hamstring and groin has been resulted poor compliance with the prescribed training programs. So, the authors believe that the study did not affect the injury risk in this intervention group. Although the intervention followed in the above study was ineffective in affecting risk of injury, but players who may be able to gain from preventive exercises could be identified and reports that risk of injury was approximately twice as high in athletes with a history of previous injury or in reduced function. Chapter 6 -Discussion In this current review, the author describes that evidence shows, to develop an effective strategy for injury prevention only possible by first determining the incidence of injuries and identifying the risk factors to the athlete. Engebretsen and Bahr (2009) reports, Injury prevention in sports is a complex process, by supporting Van mechelen sequence of prevention. Researchers first try to identify one or several risk factors that causes the injury, the mechanisms of injury and develop an effective intervention to modify it, implement the intervention with sufficient compliance, and study the outcome of the intervention to detect reductions in the injury rate which are clinically applicable to make it an effective strategy. However, sometimes eliminating the risk factor may not necessarily prevent injury if there is no cause present. Evidence shows that a few well designed prospective studies exist on reviewing the literature regarding the prevention strategies in sport. Caroline Finch (2000) argued at 5th world conference on injury prevention and controls saying that sports injuries should be given considerable recognition as a public health issue. Finch also argued for the need for origin of sports injury epidemiology as a sub discipline and has seen considerable effort targeting surveillance activities. In supporting the above, Engebretsen and Bahr (2009) reported a PubMed search on athletic injury in May 2000 and showed that out of 10,691 papers, only six randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were found on sports injury prevention. In last 7 year period the number of studies on athletic injuries has gradually increased by 43% but sports injury prevention has seen a gradual improvement on number of studies and RCTs by 200-300%. There is a gap in the literature examining groin injury specifically in female sport; gender has not been identified as a risk factor for groin strain injury. But in contradiction to the above, Leetun et al (2004) identified that female athletes have significantly reduced hip abduction and external rotation strength than their male counterparts. The authors suggest that hip and trunk weakness reduces the ability of females to stabilize the hip and trunk. Therefore females may be more vulnerable to large external forces experienced by these segments during athletics, particularly forces during the transverse and frontal planes. Holmich (2007) prospective study describes on 206 athletes about the importance of the adductor related groin pain, the most common primary cause of groin pain in foot ball, but in runners the most common was iliopsoas related one, which was found in 58% of the athletes which may be of important to consider in developing and implementation of prevention strateg ies. In the area of injury prevention in sport, there are very few studies with a strong prospective research design addressing risk factors, there need to 6.1 What are the Implications for injury prevention? Injury prevention should be the ultimate goal of the sports medicine professionals. Karlsson (2009) believes, prevention should be the starting place for sports injuries unlike treatment, but prevention is not always easy to implement in the daily routine practice. Coaches, trainers involve in the games may not be interested on taking time off from the ordinary team and individual training for prevention, because coaches sometimes may have short term goals, due to various reasons and often aim players to the next match, not to the next season. Therefore, it may be mostly up to the team doctors, physiotherapists and others working with players health over the season to give long-term prevention a thought (Karlsson, 2009). McHugh (2004) suggests, in many sports the period of preseason training may be a good opportunity for sports medicine professionals to implement injury prevention strategies. However, the sports medicine professional may have only limited ability to implement strategies without the involvement of other team successfully, to reduce injuries. The pre-season period also offers an excellent opportunity to identify potential players at risk for particular injuries through pre-season screening and testing which can provide the baseline measures for sports medicine professionals to develop individual injury prevention strategies. Chapter 7 Conclusion It has been well documented that randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) are the best and most useful, appropriate and reliable studies aiming to evaluate the effectiveness of healthcare intervention. Studies identifying risk factors for injury are essential before assessing potential prevention strategies for injury in sport. References Anderson, K., Strickland, S.M., Warren, R. 2001. Hip and groin injuries in athletes. American Journal of Sports Medicine, 29, 521-533. Aveyard, H., 2007. Doing a Literature Review in Health and Social Care. A practical gu