B120

Market segment

Market segmentation is a definition which could stand alone as a business strategy which targets customers as subunits, this dividing technique is made upon a demographic, behavioral and geographic backgrounds of different customers. (Kotler, et .al,  2006, P 45).

The purpose of this strategy is to cover wide areas of Asia, the Gulf area and the Middle East so it set two main segmentations for this mission which are  the demographic and the psychographic ones.

Psychographic segmentation: This would present the chance of allowing the company to focus on attitudes of customers, their values doctrines , lifestyle and the type of their needs for the purpose of satisfying them and providing them with the best products they wish to purchase. The company is mainly a garment production company that produces garments according to the countries special values , Indian values for example are completely different than those of Kuwait. Psychographics are targeted by the company so as to understand methods of achieving success.

Demographic segmentation: This kind of segmentation is meant to focus on the demographic characteristics of different places as gender , age, income, literacy levels and family class. Products that are launched by the company would be varied according to the demographic characteristics of the people they are produced to.

Type of business

The company as being a garment producing company would concentrate its activities on producing different garments to be delivered and distributed in showrooms , retailers' shops and selling branches in the different places of spreading. The good thing is that the company would choose its retailers carefully so as to find the strong ones that customers trust, for example Carrefour. There would be a plan for studying the market and people's buying attitude in order to reach what they think of to buy most and to know what are needed in the market most in order to produce it and achieve high sales.

Operations extension

Operation extension is a main mission which needs to be applied , the company would extend its activity in all the possible places in the Gulf area, the Middle East and Asia. The Gulf market is a remarkable market when searching for one to target. Extending the business would enable the company to collect more profits out of the successful achieved bargains which are made all around the area.

Let's talk about the market of Kuwait as an example. This market is characterized with generous people who are buying lovers as they search for the good fine product and purchase it. Luxury items with good quality would attract those customers that would achieve the company's main target which is sales and earnings.

Type of assets

According to the specialization of the company which is producing different garments we can refer to two mains of assets in the company , they are the fixed assets and the current ones. Let's have a glance at each of them :

Fixed assets; Those assets which are not liable for consuming or liquidating by the company, their existence in the company is an essential for all the company's operations and processes. The company is not supposed to liquidate them before a year of real business. Lands of projects, machines for business work, buildings for offices and other utilities and equipments are considered fixed assets.

Four Season Company is privileged with fine fixed assets used by the company in all its operations and processes. Examples of these fixed assets are the lands on which the projects are established, cars used for the company transportation processes and the buildings of offices and other main operations.

Current assets; They are so-called as they are short term assets liable to liquidation at any time of need , they are transferred either to retailers or to distributors. The raw materials, finished products and cash assets are all examples of these current assets.

Promotion

If we are to discuss company promotion , there are four areas of discussion to be touched as follows:

Advertising: Media tools without exceptions should be depended on by the company in order to reach a good level of fame which leaves a good impression in customers' minds. TV, Radio, newspapers and the internet sites as facebook, twitter or using google Adwords program to reach all possible sections of society. Advertisements which are well planned brings more customers with more profits and fame to the company. 

 Discounts; The services of discounts to the company can not be counted as they can encourage customers of different natures to buy as there are low level persons who wait for discounts , buying lovers who has a buying mania and people who think they are cleverer than others in buying and many other kinds of customers who love discounts. A discount of 10-20 % is enough to attract a fine number of customers and their friends which raises sales and earnings.

Special offers; The company is in need for many factors to serve its success process and special offers is an effective one that encourages customers to buy at some special occasions which need studying from the company in order to present the special offer at its exact time. In Kuwait for example , the company should make good use of the National Day and the Liberty Day of Kuwait and other festivals on which the buying is important specially when there are good special offers.

Sponsorship: Why not to share in sports event or music concerts loved by people who could be possible faithful customer to the company that supports their beloved sports teams and singers. In fact this way is successful in having long run loyal loving customers who appreciate the company's sponsorship activities.

SWOT analysis

SWOT analysis is a good model which is well known and applied by most companies for the purpose of analyzing the company's environment internally and externally. As for the internal environment there are strengths and weakness yet the external one includes threats and good opportunities.
Strengths: This refers to gaining a strong name for the company's brands , being provided by loyal hard working human resources, having excellent training and development programs and of course being well equipped by the most advanced machinery and technologies.

Weaknesses: Costs in fact represent the weakness at the company as there are salaries high costs in the Gulf areas , big costs of lands and buildings, transportation costs and other expenses.

Opportunities: In Kuwait the chances and good opportunities are too many as there is high living level , continuous buying , varieties in demands and the government's facilities for businessmen and investors which low taxes are the best of them.

Threats: Competition levels are too high , they need continuous plans for beating the rivals in the market and presenting surprises for customers. High advanced technologies are also threats because every day there are new updates for technologies that never end.

Strengths Machines of good quality Loyal human resources Good training and development programs	Weaknesses Renting costs that are too much Labor high salaries and wages
Opportunities Customers not ended needs Facilities by government The demand for garments	Threats  Competition with famous brands Updated technologies

Forecasted Income statement

It is expected that the first year would not yield good profits to satisfy the company with them. This is mainly caused by the fixed assets expenses at the first year which are going to change in the following years due to not purchasing more expensive fixed assets. The forecasted expenses need to have all the expenses of the company for the first three years like this example:

	2013	2014	2015
Sales Cost of goods sold	165000 KD (55000)	185000 KD (60000)	215000 KD (65000)
Gross margin Expenses    Wages expenses    Fuel expenses    Equipment expenses    Maintenance expenses    Rent expenses	115000 (6000) (5000) (75000) (4000) (10000)	125000 (7000) (5000) (4000) (4000) (10000)	150000 (7000) (6000) (4000) (4000) (10000)
Net Income	15000	95000	119000

Conclusion

At the end , we have to confirm the importance of targeting customers according to the segmentations suitable for each area and to give interests to the company's activities in Kuwait and in the Gulf areas so that the company would be able to achieve its targets fast and to get the satisfying limits of profits. Promotion activities are needed to raise the people's awareness and perception to the company and to address the public by convincing ways. Good and planned promotion strategies brings success to the company with all its branches of profits, fame and future operations. Choosing the right strong retailers and distributors can make the products of the company are clearer and easy to be reachable by customers. The company should make good use of the opportunities found in Kuwait as a country for successful investments and it should study this market from all sides to reach strategies of reaching the top levels of success in it.

EL117

Brainstorming Ideas

-What is meant by excessive hunting and why I disagree with it.

-Excessive hunting leads to dangerous impacts.

-Effects of excessive hunting on animals.

-Regulation have to be strictly executed on excessive hunters.

-How to fight excessive hunting.

Outline

  Introduction

  Hook:. Why it is difficult to accept excessive hunting practices.

  Background information: This study discusses hunting as being excessive and its harmful effects.

Body1

Topic sentence: there are many aspects of harms resulting from excessive hunting.

 Steps in sequence:

 -How environment is affected by excessive hunting.

- Excessive hunting negative impacts.

Body2

Topic sentence: Disappearance of some creatures and natural life harms are of excessive hunting effects.

Steps in sequence:

-Naming some extinct animals out of excessive hunting.

-Naming some endangered animals to die out due to excessive hunting.

Body 3

Topic sentence:

-Limits of practicing hunting.

Steps in sequence:

-Finding safer places for rare species.

-There must be severe punishment over excessive hunting practices.

Conclusion

Restatement: It is important to fight excessive hunting by all means.

 Recommendation:

-Hunting can be limited according to some considerations and global activities.

Introduction

This assignment deals with a very important issue which is called excessive hunting and its effects on nature, the wild, environment and people. I disagree with excessive hunting although hunting could be a legal activity and my disagreement is of many reasons such as the damage happen due to practicing the excessive hunting which is in fact a cruel activity practiced by human hunters who have no reasonable explanations for killing wide range of a species numbers whether animals, birds or fish. Excessive hunting refers to killing great numbers of animals to make a species ends from earth and it may be just a brutal act or for beneficiary of the hunters as getting expensive things from the animals as feathers, oil, meat or leather or whatever. Excessive hunting effects on the nature can not be accepted at all. 

Body

Natural life suffers a lot as a result of human excessive practices over its creatures and one of them is the so-called excessive hunting. This kind of hunting exceeds all legal limits by its committing persons who may be crazy about killing act or running after wealth. Whatever, they destroy the balance of nature and its heavenly rules. Excessive hunting can exterminate species of animals, birds or fish by the continuous killing of one species and this makes the natural world disorder as creatures life cycle is defected and other animals die out because they depended on that extinct species in their living. Excessive hunting negative impact are too many of which is pollution of air or water as some hunters use harmful materials as gunpowder or dynamite in order to kill as many as possible of the creature they are after as some fish species for example, another one is causing panic for animals which live safely and then animals suffer psychologically. Excessive hunting is harmful even to human hunters because these cruelty on animals leads to a violent attitude in human life in general.  (PETA, 2014)

Among the effects left on earth by excessive hunting, disappearance of animals species for ever is considered the most harmful effect at all as there were some creature that lived one day on earth but excessive hunting lead them to be memories after their extinction. Examples of those animals that disappeared completely from earth natural life are as follows:

1-"wooly mammoths" as it died out when great numbers of them were killed due to greedy hunters desires of fur, meat and trunks.

2-Tiger rare species as " Tasmanian Tigers" as died out after being killed by hunters for fun.

3-"Dodo bird" which is a rare not flying bird with no wings and it died out of people's hunger.

4-"Great Auk" which were water birds looked like penguins and died out of hunting in 1850s.

5-"Quagga" which were extra beautiful zebra hunted to extinction.

6-" Carolina Parakeet" which was a beautiful parrot hunted for its colorful feather and extinct in the 190s.

There are other creatures which may extinct in future due to hunting if not saved soon as:

1-Polar bears of the pole.

2-White sharks.

3- Cheetah.

4-Hippopotamus.

5- Grizzly Bears. ( Mother Nature Network, retrieved, March, 2014)

Hunting that causes harms must be banned, stopped, found and punishment must be strict with those hunters who just enjoy killing or are greedy looking for fortunes from safe animals living on earth. There are in fact regulations and rules that limit hunting specially on the endangered species but hunters neglect them and go for killing even rare animals, this could be due to the kind of punishment put over hunters who use illegal ways and illegal techniques of hunting as they may be asked to pay a fee for example which can not be that strict that makes hunters really afraid of being punished. Governments try to solve the problem by building wide parks and natural reserves for rare species to breed new generations and hunting there whether banned or allowed according to limits, this could be a good way to solve the problem but still some excessive practices occur everyday and those practices must be considered to be punished severely in order to reduce or end that dilemma. (League against Cruel Sports, 2014)

Conclusion

To conclude, it is important to refer to the danger that excessive hunting bears over the earth, humanity, nature, wild life and rare species as excessive hunting is completely refused by all organization of animals' rights in the world. Excessive hunting must be fought through setting more serious laws regarding hunters, increasing people's knowledge about what excessive hunting really is, making international and national campaigns that held meetings and conferences to discuss the problem and make magazines and online sites for raising people's awareness towards protecting nature which helps to live in a stable clean balanced environment.

B203B 2ND

Management is a very complicated process specially when it is in a company like Marks & Spenser which is worldwide famous with many branches that are employing various human resources. In the current essay, there will be a discussion for roles and duties of managers in retailing operations such as the financial manager and the commercial manager as their roles will be identified in reference to the budget and the financial plan in retailing setting with a presentation for the skills and required features of a commercial manager in the company of H&M.

 Explain three of main duties of the financial manager in a retail setting.

Retail setting is a business field that requires a good financial manager whose duties include firstly to be a mentor and a controller of the retailing operation in the entity through watching its performance of costs that can be either direct ones or indirect. Marks & Spenser is a great company that its costs can be food waste, bags presented for customers, stationary, phones and electricity expenses in addition to staff and security settings. Making a regular examination for large to tiny costs provides a chance to control it which occurs in Marks & Spenser company retailing department. 

Secondly, a financial manager is the one who has to use applications of financial plans with its tasks such as the plans of implementations for new systems, profit statements plans and security matters plans. Among the missions that a financial manager has to perform is being a creative thinker and suggest new ideas and creative strategies to help the whole business be a good rival in the market and suggest methods and ways for having a more profitable store with the least loss or wastes by using perfect planning as well as data which is updated, timed and right. (Grimsley, 2013)

Thirdly, it is finding solutions for hard problems which is the third duty of any good financial manager who is able to learn everything about all variables that are related together which allows him to manage any sudden obstacle or problem or any matter that needs dealing as feasibility maters that a financial manager interferes to give advice regarding for example Sundays and how costs are reduced in them or how to make use of them, time matters also need advice of the financial manager as opening times in all stores and branches.

Explain the difference between a financial plan and a budget. Evaluate how a budget can contribute to a business achieving its aims.

A budget is not the same as a financial plan but they are different in many things. Although the budget is a financial plan but a financial plan is not only the budget as the budget is a short term future kind of financial plans as the business depends on it for a period that does not extend to a year but less. Long term planning for two, three, four or five years is within the financial plans. The concerns of a budget are business tactics but the financial plan concerns are the strategies the organization is based on. (Foley, 2014)

Aims of any business need many assistants to be achieved as budget is one main of which that needs to be well studied to control the organization performance, comparing actual results with budgeted items is a good idea to do this as this reveals the variance analysis different points. There are benefits for a budget for managers as it enables them to think forwardly and have progressed performance and initiate system controls well. The budget provides a space for forecasting loss and profits so as to avoid loss and increase profits depending on last year statistics and this budget studies all costs as staff costs, light, phone, gas, uniform and other costs. It is beneficial to use budgets so as to comparing activities and forecasting them to promote better decision making strategies as budgeting policy in Marks & Spenser. Practice can be learnt through comparing different branches budgets analysis as this occurs in Marks & Spenser company as this helps focusing on the best practice and studying it so as to learn how to avoid mistakes in planning for budgets. (A Marks & Spenser case study, 2014)

Imagine you have just taken a new job as the commercial manager at a retailer such as Marks & Spencer. Discuss in some detail five key qualities or skills that you should have in order to succeed in this position. Analyze why these qualities or skills are important for your job.

H&M is a great company to work in as a manager and I have to be an efficient manager to work there as a commercial manager with the full needed skills and qualities as being well experienced in sales managing and having an overall background of commercial items in the company. I have to be good at communication and correspondence to make strong communicative relations with members of the human resources of H&M branches. Work efficiency must be enhanced via my skills of persuasiveness with customers, purchasers and employees. The convincing task is not an easy one but there are methodologies I have to discover to support this point that raises work levels of sales, profits and having good reputation in the market. Leadership abilities are also required for me as a commercial manager that deals with sales assistants and there must be direct contact with them to understand all about the sales affairs to maximize sales size and suggesting new ideas to encourage sales movement. Strategic thinking is urgently needed for a commercial manager to promote the nature of work and initiate marketing strategies that develop the business. H&M is a company that must be supported by my planning ideas that tend to raise profits and reduce loss in addition to encouraging the company's human resources. H&M stores include many items that suit all customers of all ages and social levels to make them feel at home with parts and departments divided in a comfortable way to the customer as the company policies tend to provide the best services to customers so as to encourage them stay as long as they can in the store which provides more sales chances. As a commercial manager, I have to master analytical skills highly and effectively for making the right balance of loss and profits as loss can be reduced also via costs reduction. A commercial manager must be the good listener for all human elements to deal with whether they are employees, customers or others as complaints neglecting could make the company liable for more loss and customers satisfaction is a duty of the commercial manager specially in a great company as H&M. (Huiru, 2011)

In conclusion, it is vital and essential for a business like Marks & Spenser to have skilled financial manager with all the required duties done by him for purposes of elevation of the business and towards having better future results in the work. The commercial manager duties and responsibilities as mentioned in the essay above are very important to be exactly mastered to make more profits for the company. A business as H&M needs perfect commercial manager knowing all to do for the sake of work welfare. 

The effect of diabetes on the children education in the K.S.A

Introduction:

Diabetes mellitus can be referred to as some metabolic diseases that have some main features such as blood high glucose levels which is also known as:"hyperglycemia" which usually occurs due to malfunctioning in insulin action and or insulin secretion. The human blood circulation usually contains glucose defined amounts within and they usually come from the liver or from the gastrointestinal tract as a result of processing the food there. Diabetes is usually prevailing among people of KSA so it is considered a main health problem. This raised the importance of implementing a program on the national level for disease prevention which should be prepared to show its risk factors locally and how to avoid having the disease. In Western countries which are industrialized, Central America, South America, Africa and Asia, there are about 5% to 10% of their adult are affected with diabetes mellitus. According to (IDF) estimations, in 2000, the number of people having diabetes was 151 million people, and The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) estimates the current number of affected people is also about 147 million persons. People affected with diabetes in 2003 according to the IDF were estimated with 194 million persons and the IDF suggests the number to increase in 2025 to be 334 million persons. Community based surveys and hospitals were the main resources for providing diabetes population clinical features. (Alqurashi et al 2011)

One in 500 children is affected by diabetes Type 1. (Gaudieri et al ,2008)Cognitive difficulties are found to affect children who have diabetes type1 as being compared to a control sample but their pattern and magnitude are not to be clear through research results because the samples included heterogeneous ones and this is also because of the study designs, sampling procedures and the assessed cognitive abilities.      

Literature review:

In USA, there are about 215,000 kids in the school age estimated with a percentage of 1,8 in each one thousand kids having diabetes types 1 or2. About 500 to 700 students in a caseload recommended by the National Association of School Psychologists were found to need a psychologist to work at schools with one student or two to manage diabetes with them and their families. (NASP, 2010)

 Classification:

Diabetes could be basically classified to type1 and type2. There are different syndromes and conditions that associate diabetes mellitus and gestational diabetes. There are different causes for each type of diabetes and each type varies from the others in treatment and clinical course. This system of classifying types depends on two methods; there are differences in each category persons according to research findings and the patients are able to move from a category to the other one which is not applicable for type1 diabetes patients. Example for this is moving a patient that has gestational diabetes to the category of type 2 diabetes as she is a woman after delivery. Pre-diabetes can be either classified to be impaired fasting Glucose (IFG) or to be impaired glucose tolerance. (IGT). It represents a case of falling of the concentration of blood glucose between two levels; one of the diabetes and the normal ones.    

There are descriptions of two diabetes types; (DMT1) and(DMT2). Diabetes mellitus type 1 (DMT1) is a condition that makes the patient unable for producing the needed insulin amounts. This type can be referred to as (IDDM) which means insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus which is found to be more common among adolescents and children that's why it is referred to in literature as "juvenile diabetes".  (Burn, 2010; von Herrath, Sanda, & Herold, 2007; Ma & Chan, 2009); Diabetes mellitus type 2 is a condition in which some cases have insulin deficiencies and most cases resisting insulin. (Athanasakis et al., 2010; Gershell, 2005). In literature, it is also called adult-onset diabetes or (NIDDM) which means non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. If treatment was not properly provided for diabetes' patients, many complications may occur such as chronic renal failure, hypoglycemia, diabetic ketoacidosis, retinal damage and cardiovascular disease. Treatment for diabetes should include the proper clinical management of drugs and controlling blood pressure with having a healthy patient lifestyle with proper dietary program. Insulin replacement must be provided for DMT1 affected students due to their having complete insulin deficiency. Insulin secretion cannot be restored by agents of oral hypoglycemic. (Smeltzer et al 2010)

 Diabetes and children education

Insulin which is a hormone that gives sugar(glucose) the chance to get in the cells to be energy, is not well used in diabetes patients as their ability to use it is weak due to its shortage. Type1 diabetes is usually occurring to patients in their adolescence or childhood while type2 diabetes occurs as a result of less activity of the body and obesity and it occurs in older ages mostly over 40 years old people and it refers to a percentage of 90% to 95 % of cases of diabetes. Yet type 2 is also found too much in teenager and children with obesity. It has been found that type2 diabetes has been increasing among youth and type 1 diabetes has been increasing to occur among children without understanding reasons for such increases. There were findings of the past century in North America and Europe regarding the occurrence of diabetes type1 that showed 350 fold increasing. Researches published showed that there are relations between type1 diabetes occurring in children and their achievement academically, school attendance and children cognitive abilities. Some of these published articles show that there is a relation between being early affected with diabetes during first five years or having early episodes of hard hypoglycemic problems as decreased levels of the blood sugar and having poor cognitive functions. Studies are different in describing the psychoeducational deficit nature according to researches' used measures and the mentioned population's characteristics that differ from a study to another. The studies showed that many aspects are affected by diabetes as verbal IQ, memory of patients, nonverbal functioning and attention. This was asserted in a research since 1994. Data differs in researches but most or all researches assert that children affected by diabetes have academic problems. (Kent et al 2010)

Children who suffer diabetes academic problems are usually early affected and having great fluctuations in their metabolic controlling and this is more in a child who had unconsciousness, seizures or who had ketoacidosis due to having weak control. The greater risk of academic problems is in boys more than in girls. School practices can only affect one of these two risk factors which is the second : preventing the fluctuations in controlling glucose. Sever fluctuations prevention in children was made in the past 5 to 10 years by letting children access to modern technologies prepared for this purpose. Insulin pump is one of the most important of these technologies, it consists of a device with a computer, it uses a flexible tube for delivering insulin to the patient's body and there is a needle under the skin which is attached to the tube. These devices should be used at schools to provide good glucose control to students with diabetes to improve their academic functioning. Educational systems whether public ones or the private should give due care to the modern technologies of treating diabetes and the care provided for patients students because this increases students' academic functioning and educational systems should help their students overcome this disease. (Kucera and Sullivan 2011)

There is a study for Gaudieri et al (2008) prepared to measure the cognitive problems that diabetes type 1 causes and the results of having the disease in early ages and having hard hypoglycemia. It had a sample of 2144 child with 1393 subjects of study having diabetes type 1and 751 subjects of the sample as control subjects and this was from 19 studies.  There was a general cognition for diabetes 1 which is a little lower(ES_0,13) and if being compared to control subjects, it is found having small differences but the similar were memory and learning in the two groups. Children having early-onset diabetes(EOD) had more effects on the skills of memory and learning than those with late onset diabetes(LOD) as verbal and visual skills were(_0,28 and _0,25)also their function skills were affected whether attention or executive function skills to be (_0,27)Effects of EOD were more if being compared with the control subjects without diabetes as there was SD lower with more than a half specially for memory and learning(_0,49)There was an ES of _0,6 which is negligible in seizures associated with light cognitive effects express the existence of opposing effects of the metabolic control which is worse against better. This shows that pediatric diabetes was associated with less cognitive scores which are mild enough and that EOD was more having cognitive effects and the control subjects had slight better performance. Inconsistent performance differences were connected with seizures.

Erkolahti and Ilonen (2005) found out that when adolescents have good metabolic control, it is rare to find diabetes mellitus complications. Having skills of adaption was found not to lead to more learning problems and also this leads to having positive relations between the highest scores of the world and the students' school grades. Cognitive functioning of children was negatively affected by diabetes mellitus and this was clear in learning skills, memory, the speed of processing data, attention rates, spatial skills and the visual skills. In the recent years, researchers started to research about children having chronic illnesses regarding their cognitive functioning due to their understanding of the impact of metabolic abnormalities on children brains. There were many investigations regarding children having diabetes mellitus as metabolic control of diabetes mellitus was mostly discussed as well as its duration and onset. By comparing the control group to affected children with diabetes mellitus, the affected children were found to be normal at schools and learning functioning but with some problems in processing information and attention. Using the WISC-R on the late onset group, vocabulary lower performance was stated and also PAIT was used to measure lower performance which was found in reading comprehension. Verbal area deficiencies were found by researchers to be more prevailing in late onset diabetes mellitus children and they also had cognitive deficiencies but less efficiency in using information was found more in children with the disease in early onset. Poor attention problems and completing tasks problems were stated by parents of children who are affected with early onset diabetes mellitus.          

Akay (2010) conducted a study related to the present study as it discussed (IDDM) insulin dependent diabetes mellitus influence on 7 to 12 aged children's behavioral problems, learning difficulties and cognitive functioning. It used a sample of children at elementary schools in Turkey, Ankara. A form was used for gathering data and it was a demographic information one, some tests were used also to get data such as (CDI) Children Depression Inventory, (SDQ) Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire, Specific Learning Disability Scale and (WISC-R) and  Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Revised. Examining the differences in children's different levels of income, school achievement, parents education, learning difficulties, depression, behavioral problems and adherence of children to IDDM according to scores of WISC-R was done by using the one way ANOVAs. According to the results, it was found that depression and behavioral problems were found in children with IDDM adherence. Mean differences among control group and IDDM and also the variables in relation to depression, behavioral problems and learning difficulties were examined by using T-tests according to scores of WISC-R. Children having IDDM were found to have less WISC-R similarities, information, arithmetic and scores totally compared to the control group. IDDM having children had several low scores in their achievements such as in writing and reading tasks and many arithmetic points. Moreover, testing IDDM adherence impact, illness duration and age of onset upon learning, behaviors and cognitive functioning were done by using the analyses of the hierarchical multiple regression. According to the results, there were not any findings showing that IDDM variables left clear effects on the learning, behaviors or cognitive functioning of the children and it is to mention that these results were discussed with relation to the literature which is very relevant. 

Meo and others(2013) stated that diminished neuronal functioning is associated with diabetes and it usually is followed by cognitive dysfunction that affects learning memory, intelligence, attention, executive functioning, academic achievement and information processing. It was found that diabetes impairing understanding, memory, intelligence, attention and intelligence quotient both verbal and overall in adolescents and children. (Ni and Xin 2012). Cognitive problems in the period of adolescence and disease duration and metabolic control quality are associated with type1 diabetes. (Ohmann et al 2010). Children who have diabetes may also be affected in an adverse way in their academic knowledge and in their general performance academically. As being compared to control group, patients having diabetes were found to have deteriorated neurocognitive performance which is related to learning, memory and reasoning. (Hannonen et al 2010; Naguib et al 2009). The disease duration and also the hyperglycaemia were found to have relation to cognitive problems and the risk factors of having learning problems are high in early onset of diabetes. (Hannonen et al 2012). Present findings are associated with the mentioned data as low grades were found more in patient students with diabetes more than in control group which is healthy without diabetes. In spite of the present study findings, diabetes was stated not to impair children general academic performance and it was noticed that records of diabetes having students in reading and Mathematics were better than those of the control healthy group students. Explaining this can be by applying the methodology of grade assessment using examination on the class performance. In Sweden, there was a study on students having diabetes and results showed low scores in academic performance but slight ones in patient children versus control group students. (Dahlquist et al 2007). The sample size of the study of Moe and others (2013) is considered a limited one as the number of the sample is small and the study duration is also short. Students ethnic background was the same of all the students in addition to matching age, sex, school environment and social status of the group. There was a standardized measuring for the students' academic achievement according to the obtained overall scores via English, Physics, Chemistry, Humanities, Biology and Mathematics exams that are based to represent cognitive functions domains.  In conclusion, students with diabetes type1 had lower scores compared with students without diabetes. It is important to apply more studies with longer durations and wider cohorts.

It was stated by previous research that type1 diabetes complications are able to impairing academic and cognitive performance both (Gaudieri et al 2008; Kent et al 2010; Naguib et al 2009). Although achievement scores and average cognitive abilities were found to be with diabetes having students, a small amount of students with diabetes were found to have long term complications of the disease especially those with early onset diabetes and those with poor controlling of blood glucose. (Kucera and Sullivan 2011; Gaudieri et al 2008; Kent et al 2010; Naguib et al 2009). Gaudieri et al. (2008)made a study of a meta analysis on youth who had early diabetes at ages of 4 to 7 who recorded poor visual (ES = -.44)and verbal(ES = -.49)  memory and learning outcomes , executive functioning and attention(ES = -.39), academic achievement (ES = -.28) and (ES = -.29) for overall cognition and this is by being compared to students who do not have diabetes. As a result of this, classroom performance and results may be impaired by the mild effect sizes in the limited amount of the standard deviation half in the scores of the standardized assessments.(Gaudieri et al 2008). Yet, although some of the patients students will have impairments on the long run, transitive cognitive impairment will be found in students with diabetes because of the fluctuations in the levels of the blood glucose. (Gonder-Frederick et al 2009; Wodrich et al 2011).

It is very essential for the school psychologists to think of students' academic performance and the issues of behaviors that are resulting from being affected with diabetes. Poor glucose control can lead to poor classroom attention and low achieving academically. (Kucera and Sullivan 2011). Thus school psychologists are those who should call for giving due care to the students who have diabetes and are in need for care. (Kucera and Sullivan 2011; Schmitt et al 2010).

Vitamin D

Introduction

"Vitamin D, also known as calciferol" is important for the absorption of calcium to build strong bones of the body.

"Medical research shows that there are more tasks for this vitamin and it may play a role in multiple diseases such as asthma, cancer, depression, heart disease and diabetes and even weight gain". The current research is discussing this topic due to the great number of people today having deficiency in Vitamin D so it presents recent information about this topic as it became the talk of the day. Vitamin D is one of the most important vitamins in the body, which is soluble in fat and is stored in the fatty tissues of the body. As it is the primary regulator of the body to balance the level of calcium. Vitamin D helps to provide the bones with the needed mineral and skeletal development.

          The world today has millions of people whose blood level of vitamin D is abnormal. The past decade research results showed how far vitamin D is playing a vital role as a disease fighting factor which raised the importance to investigate about it. Chronic illnesses and infectious diseases are said to affect those people who are having deficiency in vitamin D more probably than normal people. Researches of today are investigating about the needed amount of vitamin D any one requires daily for keeping the bones and raise the person's level of prevention against having diseases.   Vitamin D is considered a kind of nutrients that got into our bodies through eating special foods in addition to the ability of the body to form it as a hormone. Foods rich in this vitamin are few so doctors always suggest their patients with deficiency in vitamin D to have supplements of the vitamin. Some fish have richness of the vitamin such as Tuna and Salmon.

Benefits of Vitamin D

Vitamin D helps in the formation of blood cells, and increasing the immunity, which reduces the risk of cancer. It helps maintaining the necessary levels of insulin. It regulates the immune system, and it is useful in the treatment of rheumatic diseases that most of which are confusing. It reduces losses of calcium in the urine when the patient to eat cortisone derivatives.

Vitamin D helps preserving the mass of muscles which helps the muscles of a person to work properly and do their required exercises, it also helps a person to control high blood pressure, get rid of obesity and be away from the dangers of heart disease and diabetes. It also helps elderly people to have sharp minds and good memory as it enhances the level of brain work and raises its functions' level as it works as an antioxidant which protects the human brain from damage. It also helps the brain to have high learning abilities. (Dowd and Stafford, 2008) The sun is very important for the releasing of vitamin D in the body as vitamin D is able to normalize the levels of cholesterol in the body which in turn prevents a person from having dangerous cardiovascular diseases or diabetes. Vitamin D is also useful for weight loss as people whose levels of vitamin D are low are more liable to obesity than others in addition to the role of the vitamin in helping having a better body composition. (Grimes, 2009) Vitamin D works as a defense line against damages, diseases and other health problems because it organizes the body's immune system and it decreases the person's risk of falling and helps reduces the chances of having cancer. (Chang, 2014)

 What are the causes of vitamin D deficiency?

The lack of eating foods that contain vitamin D and low exposure to the sun can lead to a decrease in amounts of this vitamin in the body. The people with brown skin color more susceptible to vitamin D deficiency as studies proved that the skin's ability to form vitamin D is reduced by the pigment melanin in such dark skins. It also affects people who suffer from obesity. Vitamin D deficiency is one of the common diseases, and its delayed diagnosis is often because of the slow progression of the disease, and because of the nature of civilian life in closed housing apartments and lack of exposure to sunlight. People whose diet is poor in foods rich in vitamin D are usually liable to vitamin D deficiency specially those vegetarians as the vitamin is mostly found in foods that strict vegetarian avoid such as egg yolks, fish meat, liver of beef and milk which is fortified.

Some medical conditions people may have can cause deficiency of vitamin D as inflammatory bowel disease, crohn's disease, cystic fibrosis or celiac disease. There are also medicines that may lead to having deficiency of vitamin D such as some anti-seizure medicines. Age is also a factor which increases the possibility of having deficiency of vitamin D because it was proved by studies that the elder we are, the weaker our bodies are to absorb vitamin D, children and infants are also more liable to the vitamin deficiency if their intake of the vitamin is not adequate.(Drezner, 2014) Kidney disease and liver disease also lead the person with them to have deficiency in vitamin D due to the lack of special enzymes in the affected kidney or liver as such enzymes are responsible for turning vitamin D to the required form the body needs. Intestine disability to absorb the vitamin can also lead to a deficiency in it in the body.  (Schrier, 2010)

Symptoms of vitamin D deficiency

There are many symptoms of vitamin D deficiency such as bones pain which could be a sign of having Osteomalacia which is a disease that affects bones leading to spin bending, legs bowing, weakness of a person's muscles and fragility of the bones which all lead to having high risks for fractions. Weakness of the muscles is another symptom that point to the possibility of having a deficiency in vitamin D as "According to Michael F. Holick, a leading vitamin D expert, muscle weakness is usually caused by vitamin D deficiency because for skeletal muscles to function properly, their vitamin D receptors must be sustained by vitamin D." (Geib, 2012)

Respiratory problems and having frequent flu infections may tell that a person, especially children, may have deficiency in vitamin D. Another symptom is having high blood pressure or hypertension and it is also associated with headache, stress, depression and anxiety which all could refer to a deficiency in vitamin D. General tiredness, pains, aches and lower back pains are also signs that can tell a person suffers a deficiency in vitamin D. Other symptoms can be falling easily as the high risks of falling is usually associated with a deficiency in vitamin D as "In a report in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society in February 2004, researchers at the University of Basel in Switzerland showed that elderly women who took a vitamin D supplement plus calcium for three months reduced their risk of falling by 49% compared with consuming calcium alone. Those women who had fallen repeatedly in the past seemed to gain the most benefit from vitamin D."(Chang, 2014) Having difficulties to rise up from sitting positions, difficulties during walking and going upstairs are also associated with the deficiency in vitamin D. (O'Connor, 2014)

Rickets is a disease which clearly tells that a child suffers deficiency in vitamin D and this disease occurs when a child food is not fortified with vitamin D or when the child is not feed with enough amounts of milk. Another symptom is changes of mood and personality as the person who suffers deficiency in vitamin D is usually have bad moods and may suffer depression. (O'Connor, 2014)

Conclusion

          To conclude, it is important to say that vitamin D has been proved by evidence based researches and studies to play a very serious role in helping bodies of both children and adults get many benefits as this vitamin works as a helping factor that leads the body to gain its health greatly. Vitamin D is found in foods we eat or the body can produce it as a hormone but the sun is a condition of absorbing the vitamin in the blood. Vitamin D is mainly found in fish like tuna or salmon, fortified milk, cereals of breakfast, cheeses and beef liver. It can also be taken as a supplement prescribed by the doctor when needed. It helps the body strengthen its bones, prevents many health problems as breathing problems, falls, bones fractions, headache in addition to its ability to strengthen the body immune. Vitamin D deficiency can cause many problems and it occurs when the body is not given the required amounts of vitamin D whether through a poor intake or by not having the enough sunlight needed for releasing vitamin D in the blood. There are also some diseases that weakness the level of vitamin D in the blood. Many symptoms can tell a person has a deficiency in vitamin D such as feeling always tired, weakness of the muscles, bones pain, headache and falling accidents. The current research discussed the previous idea due to the great importance given recently to vitamin D role to the body health.  

U214B

Introduction

Children learn writing and reading through different ways and techniques. They pay attention to many things around them while learning processes and there are many factors that participate in helping them acquire the writing and reading skills such as shape and size of objects around them as well as other factors. In this TMA the process of learning how to read and write in children will be discussed through analyzing the emergent literacy at children, issues related to how children acquire literacy, the way children learn the various systems of writing to write scripts out of symbols and embodied knowledge.  

Body

Emergent literacy is a process in which children acquire the basic principles of literacy, learn to understand the written and read world around them through many factors such as the environment of the community they are in, the degree of education of the people they live with or the degree of encouragement they get to read or write. Children participate in literacy practices but in their own way as they don't have to read and write properly in early ages as they may recognize things by their figures like restaurant names, signs in the street or labels but not with their letters forms. Literacy is related to many activities done by adults as reading books, writings e-mails, using notebooks, writing shopping lists and writing using computer keyboards and children at early age before they are taught how to read and write notice such activities and imitate them in a try to do as the adults do in order to prove that they have abilities just like those adults around them. They could use images, pictures or signs to express their literacy experience by pointing to them, drawing them or even talking with them. There are factors that affect the process of emergent literacy such as the way that the child sees the world as, the listened language that children get and the degree of communication in the environment the child is living in as this makes it differs from a child to another how emergent literacy is acquired and expressed. (Arab Open University, U214B Course Book 2 Communicating in English, Unit 3)

Literacy acquisition is a process that happens to the child in very early ages and happens due to many surrounding elements of life and there are many relevant issues to it. The environment the child is in decides the type and amount of gained literacy by the child. Children can find many different visual symbols that contain English words or letters during the day at home, in the street, in a supermarket, names of the street signs or shops, TV advertisements, snacks bags or letters that point to specific things or places such as M which stands for the famous restaurant loved by children "McDonald's" which is called logograms and this is the same thing as pictograms which means a child recognizes a place for example by a picture such as pictures figure schools, hospitals or WC for men and WC for women. Children do not deal with literacy as it is only written texts but there are many elements engaged in their comprehension for graphics, signs, codes and marks which could be found in computer games, movies, streets, maths signs and they could recognize things that contain letters of other languages. Children who are at the preschool age are affected with the literacy practices they face in the community they live in which reflects on how much they acquire and how far they are successful in doing emergent literacy practices as some communities do not give literacy matters great interest as other communities, then the child responds to literacy according to adults' value for it and the degree of attention they give to the child. There are different ways in directing children towards literacy as in some communities imaginative heard stories are appreciated more than other practices, some think that children must deal directly with printed papers and books, others prefer pictures to tell meanings and some communities give much interest to teach children how to write and read in the same way of schools which results in children with different emergent literacy practices. (Arab Open University, U214B Course Book 2 Communicating in English, Unit 3)

There are many writing systems that children can learn by different methods and techniques. Encoding differs from a writing system to another and this affects young children who learn different languages as each language has its own writing system, English, for example depends on alphabet and its encoding system depends on letters while Chinese is a language that depends on logographic system of encoding writing and Arabic in spite of having letters in its writing system, letters' images change according to where a letter lies whether in the middle of a word, in the front or at the end of a word. (Kenner, C. Al-Khatib, H., Kwok, G., Kam, R. and Tsai, K. 2004) Children who learn through alphabetic systems can understand words if they understand the way letters work to combine words and after that it becomes easy to them to read other different new words, this is not the case with learning through a logograph system as it is harder and could last more time than learning alphabetic languages. The relationship between alphabetic systems in languages depend on letters and between phonemes of such letters as some language could be read by a learner without being understood such as the Finish language for example. As to English, it seems that its writing system is difficult for children at early ages as its orthography has disadvantages as having advantages. Among its disadvantages is that English words include some words with origins from other languages and their pronunciation system is different to be expected as it is not following the English pronunciation system so written letters may not express the right pronunciation of these words. This makes it difficult for young children to understand how to read all English words. (Arab Open University, U214B Course Book 2 Communicating in English, Unit 3)

When children write English different scripts, they have to know many variant things related to symbols such as those different sounds expressed by one symbol as the letter "i" for example as it could be in /pin/, /tide/ or /pain/ and also those letters groups which could give specific pronunciation or be silent such as "th" in /the/ or in /teeth/ or "k" in /knife/ or /know/ or such as "gh" in /cough/ or in /though/. Children also should pay attention to some morphemes which could be read the same when found in any English word such as /ing/, /tion/, /ment/, /ly/ and / ness/ for example. Children who learn English should be taught how syllables are combined together to form words such as turning verbs to nouns by some adding syllables such as /ing/, /ment/ and so on in order to facilitate the process of reading and writing in English in young children. Onset and rime techniques are important when a child learn English written scripts in order to learn how to read syllables combined into words. Yet it is not just to decode a script in order to be literate and read and write a language as children may find more difficulty when they are dictating words they hear to transform them to written texts. Another difficulty is the children spelling trials as they may miss some silent letters or not know symbols combinations. (Kenner, C. Al-Khatib, H., Kwok, G., Kam, R. and Tsai, K. 2002)

Writing is a practice that young children consider as embodied knowledges as children give much interest to how symbols are set together and how they construct words and they have their understandings for the process of creating written texts and then understanding them which what is referred to by "embodied knowledges". This means that children's visual attitudes have a relation in interpreting written words as well as the degree of their attention paid to directionality, spatiality and other measurements when they write English scripts. When children write they have their own methods of producing symbols according to physical directions and effects of other adults' way in writing. As when teaching young Arab children to write in English for example, they will write it from right unless being told to change directions of writing. Symbols also have their own spatiality which means that there are specific stated places for letters of English for example, when teaching young children to write English symbols between two straight lines which is not preferable in Arabic and this is the same when teaching young children how to write capital letters of English to be up lines. In Arabic for example, dots positions can puzzle young children as number of dots can differ to make different symbols from one similar basic origin. Dots are often misused by young children writing Arabic letters which is a visual feature for children who are learning Arabic as a second language and teachers have to remind them with the dots and the proper size of them. Children who are taught English as a foreign language may do some practices like these as in forgetting dots of "i" or "j" for example. (Kenner, C. Al-Khatib, H., Kwok, G., Kam, R. and Tsai, K. 2002)

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is important to refer to the importance of the period of emergent literacy at young children and how it affects their future readiness for learning different languages and that the environment has a great effect on strengthening or weakening the children's ability to learn languages fast and properly. It is important when teaching young children a new language to take care of the way children respond to the language symbols, directionality and spatiality in order to guide them to the best practices in learning languages. It is important to learn about the way children learn writing systems and their understanding of symbols of one language.

U214A

Introduction

Current standard English has been through many stages of change throughout times and ages as it developed to be as it is today. Researchers, lexicographers, linguists and grammarians have shared a lot in this development movement. Till the fourteenth century, it was not preferred by the Great Empire to use English as an official language to use by upper classes.  French and Latin were better as high languages and lower classes used English. Yet this changed since the fifteenth century to reach top changes in the seventeenth century. English codification history is going to be discussed in this assignment including dictionaries' use, including words in dictionaries and prescriptive and descriptive dictionaries.  

 Body

Since centuries pasted, English was not in the same position as it is today as processes of standardizations and codifications of the language have left their effects on it in many linguistic aspects. Latin and French have left their effect on English to make it a hybrid one by taking some words and rules of the two languages. King Henry IV was the first English speaking king to rule England in 1399 but this did not make English as the official used language till there was a standard version of it after centuries as English importance became clear to authors and there was an urgent need for having a unique language for all people. Printing was presented by William Caxton in England which aroused the speech about the importance of having English standardized. Virgil's Aenoid English translated version by Caxton also aroused such speech in 1490. The London variant of the language was used by Caxton which limited the use of his book at that time. The London variant of English was used by the government as in official writings in the fourteenth century end in documents of the Chancery of Westminster by the clerks then which made its use to prevail all over England and became spreading for writing. (Arab Open University, English in the World, Unit2) Elaboration of function is a stage that followed this as northern dialects were not favored to be used by writers who used to encourage other writers to use English variant which is a standard one. English standardization encountered its first stages that were elaborated after deciding that Chancery was the variety of English which was best in the seventeenth century beginnings.  After this stage, it was time for language codification which was meant to process the language and limit variations of language by making a basis of rules and words of English which were acceptable as this occurred by writing the dictionaries and important books written in English between the seventeenth century and the nineteenth century period. (Hickey, 2012)

There was a great interest in writing dictionaries because they were important for many reasons. The urgent need for dictionaries was a social demand so as to have a language variety which is socially accepted and a political demand also for having one unique version of the English language to be used widely by limiting varieties use so as to produce a variety that is an only representative of England as the British Empire was widened a lot in the eighteenth century with a very energetic trade movement with different areas of the world. Having one standardized variant of English was a social demand due to the high classes of the London society and the ruling classes effects were clear in the lexicographers' attitudes in stating one version which was highly prestigious for being used by writers and educators. Thus, the need for having grammar books appeared so as for teaching purposes so as to let all people learn the standard English. According to what happened of setting rules of the English language, grammarians' role was minimized as this was the time of adopting such rules practically.  This was the time that witnessed political changes as for example, Great Britain included Scotland as a part of it in 1707 which made it important to have dictionaries with all English words recorded and to have all the language varieties within and this also meant to have one variant version of the language to express the nation as a whole to refer to its unity. Spelling and pronunciation were also detected to be recorded within dictionaries correctly.( Grobman, 2014) Samuel Johnson had his dictionary which was prepared according to the London variant as he chose words spelling according to it, he meant to make a safe record of the language so as not to be changed or affected with outer effects. He prescribed some specific words so as to be acceptable and other words to be barbarous which reflects the social effect on language standardization. This dictionary was very respectable and considered one of the basic references to the English language. . (Arab Open University, English in the World, Unit2) 

The first dictionary to be considered as monolingual was the Table Alphabetical dictionary for Cawdrey in 1604 but at the same time the dictionary of Samuel was preferable to it and better than it due to its being made carefully by Johnson and as he made it as a basis for inclusion of words that lasted for more than one hundred and fifty years as a linguistic reference. He was very keen on keeping the right spelling of words to fix language basics by keeping its lexicon besides his technique of noting about each word uses and its classification to be acceptable or not. Johnson was interested in including both hard words and simple words to have all used English words in his dictionary and this was a beginning for compiling dictionaries rules that lasted till our current times. Johnson was the first to set rules of inclusion for English words which was and still is a criteria for making good dictionaries. Users of a dictionary always look for words' meanings according to their researches' purposes as for example those who work in commerce look for terms related to commercial life and it is better for them to look up words in specialized dictionaries. Traditional criteria of complying words depends on printing and written work on adding new words but today's criteria differs as there are new words that join the language daily and are widely used by English speakers all over the world such as "blogging" which means to write in a blog, "buzzing" which means to alert someone or take interest by new things or "App" which means applications of software. Attestation is a new factor of the modern inclusion of words which means proving a word validity by evidences such as specifying a time for the word to be trusted as one year or more of being used. (Lynch, 2002)

There is a question which was usually asked by linguists which is:" Should dictionaries be prescriptive or descriptive?"  Some linguists see that the prescriptive approach is better as it enable them to prescribe the language main rules that keep the structure of a language, its lexicon and semantics. Others prefer the descriptive approach which provides a description of the language and how it could be used. Prescriptivism supports the validity of a unique language variety rather than all other varieties of the language. It also provides a chance of having a model that asserts accuracy and basics of the traditional language while descriptivism is more flexible in accepting the different acceptable language verities as long as they are preferred by the language users. The prescriptive approach which is a traditional one is well represented by the dictionary of Samuel Johnson as it provides its users with techniques of words usage correctly and to keep a record of the formal words of English which do not belong to slangs or language that is locally used. This supports students of the English language and the writers who seek formal use of the language. The descriptive approach can be applied by the descriptive dictionaries where words are defined and described through the ways they are used but they do not advise their users regarding how to use words. The current dictionaries of today differ in their approaches but most of them follow the descriptive approach giving their users the available descriptions and definitions of words but without a big emphasis or advice on usage. (Hitchings, 2005)

 Conclusion

Standardization and modification of the English language have encountered many stages and this was throughout times and over different ages which left their effects on the language variants to reach the current English we know today. Many linguists and grammarians added too much to the language processing and among them there was Samuel Johnson who was well recognized and still is one of the basic representatives of the formal English language that was preferred by the prestigious classes and by the ruling class then. His dictionary was a significant reference for English users, writers and educators with its classification of words and the criteria used in it by Johnson for words inclusion and techniques of compilation followed that saved the basics of the language and benefited many researchers and lexicographers.