Can Social Bonding Theory Explain Why The US Has Higher Crime Rates Essay

Can Social Bonding Theory Explain Why The US Has Higher Crime Rates Than Other Nations - Essay Example In the said research, the author studied 200 employees to determine how the elements of the social bonding theory can be used to determine the likelihood of the employees committing ethical misconduct. The results from the study conducted indicated that two of the four elements, namely attachment and involvement, may be utilized to provide a better understanding of how likely it is for employees to commit ethical rule breaking. (Sims, 2002) The results obtained from the study merely highlight the importance of the elements of the social bonding theory in explaining deviant behavior and in this case, ethical misconduct of employees. Another study conducted focused on the effect of one's religiosity on his likelihood to be lead to delinquency. As earlier mentioned, belief is one of the four elements of Hirschi's social bonding theory. Subsequently, a central element in an individual's belief system is his religious affinity or belief. In a study conducted by Baier and Wright (2001), the ability of religious beliefs and behaviors to deter criminal behavior was analyzed. The authors of the said study conducted a meta-analysis of 60 previously conducted studies basing primarily on the following questions: (I) What is the direction and magnitude of the effect of religion on crime (II) Why have previous studies varied in their estimation of this effect The rationale behind the research was since previous studies provided inconclusive evidence regarding the relationship of crime and religious belief, it was highly significant to determine why such discrepancy exists and if indeed such a relationship between the two el ements does exist. The results of the study indicated that religious beliefs and behaviors exert a moderate deterrent effect on individuals' criminal behavior. This means that even in the littlest of ways, an individual's religiosity helps in preventing him from committing criminal acts. Likewise, the study found that previous studies have systematically varied in their estimation of the religion- on-crime effect due to differences in both their conceptual and methodological approaches. The results of the study merely indicate that belief, as one of the elements of social control, indeed helps in preventing deviant behavior. Although religious beliefs may not be a strong deterrent as other elements, the results of the study only help explain how the elements of social bonding materialize. Teenage Pregnancy Although not considered as a criminal act, teenage pregnancy may be seen as a deviant behavior in that it does not conform to the norms of society. In a study conducted by Sandra Hofferth (1987), the various factors that influence sexual behavior among adolescents was analyzed. Both biological and psychosocial factors were studied to determine which factors helped contribute to sexual activity among adolescents. Basically, the researcher found that among the social factors that influenced such behavior were cultural and subcultural differences. For instance, the author indicated that black females from the ages of 15 to 19 living in a poverty area of Chicago has a significantly higher rate of initial sexual intercourse than their peers

Sammuri Argumentative Essay Essay Example for Free

Sammuri Argumentative Essay Essay Whether it is through the martial arts, the peaceful arts, or their beliefs, the samurai continue to influence life to this day. The Samurai’s ethics are major in Japanese society as well as business; the idea of Bushido exists in society today as the Japanese business ethics illustrate honor and duty to Japan. To be a Samurai was a huge honor and it took an abundance of training and extensive hours of practice. Samurais had to be completely dedicated to their lifestyle; they repeated their schedule day after day: wake up in the Samurai village, meditation, hours of training, dinner, and sleep. Their routine was very rigorous however; it was compensated when they went into battle. Samurais were an elite group of warriors who were very skilled in battle and killing. Many may say that the Samurais were very violent and provocative group, however, the Samurais were always on the defensive. Though the entire movie, the Samurais never picked the fight, it was always the Americans- or in any case, it was never the Samurais who were picking the fights. The Samurais’ code of honor, Bushido, was much like a knights’ code of honor, chivalry; the only difference was â€Å"seppuku†. Seppuku was the traditional suicide after a battle was lost. The leader of the losing team was to commit suicide by carving a figure 8 into his abdomen because he shouldn’t live with the shame of losing a battle. If the man could not complete the figure 8, the leader of the opposing side would cut off the loser’s head. This was all part of honor; however, many people saw it as barbaric and couldn’t understand this ritual. The Samurai were trained warriors and their job was to kill predators so any way they are viewed; they were still violent peoples so in a way it was a good thing that the tradition was discontinued. The weapons the Samurais used were swords, bow and arrows, and a spear; no fire arms. In the movie, The Last Samurai, it was said that the â€Å"sword is part of the soul†. The Japanese took this very seriously; training took up most of a warriors’ day. The samurai rose to power out of the constant fight for land in feudal Japan. They became experts at fighting from horseback and on the ground. They trained in armed and unarmed combat. They wore many layers of armor and used only the sword passed down from previous generations. As mentioned previously, the Samurai were trained warriors and their job was to kill predators so in a way it was a good thing that the tradition was discontinued. However, much like the Samurai, soldiers fighting the war today are much more aggressive than the Samurai and they are armed with much more lethal weapons than a sword. Others may view this as hypocritical that the centuries long tradition was put to an end yet we continue to fight and kill to get what we need; we aren’t even fighting to protect our people like the Samurais were, we are fighting for something that we want.

Concepts of health promotion

Concepts of health promotion Before we discuss how different concepts and theories can be used to promote health, nurses need to know what the term health promotion means. An authoritative definition of health promotion comes from the W.H.O which defines it as the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve their health. (W.H.O 1986). Health education is considered the core component of health promotion. Until the mid 1980s the term health education was most widely used to describe the work of practitioners such as nurses and doctors in promoting health. Health promotion is putting education into action. With evidence based information, the patient is more likely to comply with a treatment regime if she understands the regime, the reasoning behind it and is given the tools to achieve it. (McDonald et al 1999). Models are useful tools in Health promotion because it helps to visualize and to test theories. It helps to lend support for or against theories, explaining phenomena and plan possibilities for interventions. Beattie 1991 is a model that offers a structural analysis of the health promotion repertoire of approaches and this model will be the framework of this essay bringing in psychosocial models. His typology argues that there are 4 strategies for health promotion. Health persuasion by health care professionals, legislative action, personal counselling and community development. The Legislative Action part of Beatties model are interventions led by professionals but intended to protect communities such as lobbying for a ban on tobacco advertising. The nurse is in the role of custodian knowing what will improve the peoples health and to protect the population by making healthier choices more available. Staying in the legislative perspective, the nurse as a health educator or promoter must also always adhere to the NMC code of conduct. This code dictates accountability and advocacy for vulnerable clients and in this essay it is emphasised that a person with health behaviour is a vulnerable. Other aspects of legislation that we are duty bound to is the European policy framework, the Health 21 targets. This was introduced to achieve full health potential for all people in the region and this world health document emphasises the date and time when damaging health behaviour have to be eradicated. Another legislation is the Patient Charter which involves the patien t in their health education/promotion plan. It is vital for the nurse to work out where the patient is with regards to changing the behaviour and therefore work at the patients pace. In order to demonstrate a clear knowledge of health education and promotion, a scenario will be applied. Mrs Smith (pseudonym name) in compliance with the NMC (2008) on confidentiality, a 55 year old housewife who has been admitted in the casualty department after an episode of severe chest pain and a degree of dyspnoea which has already lasted for 2 hours. She has been otherwise well, but at 110kg and 54 she is clearly overweight. She has been a smoker for 30 year. Her initial assessment shows that the pain is not cardiac and a working diagnosis of acute reflux oesophagitis is made. Routine screening has shown that she has a random blood sugar of 18mmol/L.Although there are several health issues highlighted in this case, this essay will focus on Mrs Smiths predisposition to Type 2 diabetes mellitus due to her obesity. Factors including weight loss and how much she is in control over her blood sugar levels in the long term (Stratton et al 2000) can determine the eventual outcome. The refore, the main health promotion activity relating to her is giving her advice on weight reduction to improve her diabetic control (Terry et al 2003). In order to work out the stage of change Mrs Smith is in, the nurse has to carry out personal counselling with the patient. This is another strategy of Beatties model. Here Beattie focuses on the patients personal development and to encourage the patient to have the skills and confidence to take more control over their health. Personal counselling focuses on the clients specific needs and normally works on one to one basis and the nurse acts as a counsellor to discuss and negotiate client needs. Decisions are made based on the clients wishes. The client needs to be assessed by Maslows hierarchy of needs. Abraham Maslows model indicates that basic, low-level needs such as safety must be satisfied before higher-level needs such as self-fulfilment are achieved. While a person is motivated to fulfil these basal desires, they continue to move toward growth, and eventually self-actualization. An interview is done at this stage of Beattie using a client centred approach. The patient needs t o be physically and psychologically comfortable in order to assess how motivated they are and what stage of change they are at. It is the nurses role to persuade or encourage people to adopt healthier lifestyles here, educating the patient with evidence based information to give them full understanding of their unhealthy behaviour and the results of it. Therefore advice and information from the nurse is the main features in Beatties health persuasion strategy. A relevant model to this part of Beattie is the work of Prochaska and DiClemente (1984, 1986) in developing the stage of change model. This framework can be used to describe the different phases that individuals progress through during health related behaviour change. It focuses on the individuals readiness to change or attempt to change towards healthy behaviours and encourages change in addictive behaviours. Although the model can be used in addictive behaviours, it can be used to show that most people go through a number of stages when trying to change behaviours. The model is important in showing that any transition we make is not final but part of an ongoing cycle. The model shows 5 stages the patient goes through. They can start from the pre-contemplation stage where the patient has not yet considered changing their lifestyle, possibly from the lack of awareness of any risks in their health behaviour. Identifying this stage is important because it allows the nurse to realise th at the patient may not be ready to undergo any change. This may mean the healthcare worker should focus on other issues. Once the patient is aware of the problems, she can then proceed to the contemplation stage. At this stage the patient is aware of the benefits of changing but is not ready to do so and needs information and support to help make that decision. It is the nurses role to provide the patient with evidence based information to encourage them to change. For some, this stage may last only a short period whilst some may never progress beyond this stage. A nurse must work at the patients pace and only move on when the patient is ready to proceed to the next stage. When the change seems possible and worthwhile to the patient, they may be ready to change, perhaps seeking for some extra support. At this stage, the patient should be motivated and ready for the stage of making the change. The patient should be given a clear goal along with a realistic plan and support at this st age. The early days of change needs the patient to have positive decisions to do things differently. If the patient manages to make the change of her lifestyle with the nurses support then the patient falls into the final stage of the model Maintenance. At this stage the patient is to have moved into a healthier lifestyle and sustained her new behaviour. In order to analyse how effective this strategy is for the patient, the progress needs to be reviewed and assessed. This stages of change model is different to other concepts in that it is about how peoples behaviour change and not why people do not change. The advantage of this model is that if any patient relapses back to previous stages, it is not considered to be a failure because she can go backwards and forwards through the cycles of change. The patient would still be aware of the benefits of changing and nurses only have to focus on small things to encourage them to proceed to the next stage once again. This can be rewarding to the patient as there is identifiable progress. Most health behaviour models are related to self-efficacy where it involves how one person believes they are capable to attain certain goals by possibly having the feeling of self worth and being optimistic, resulting in motivation to change. Not only does self efficacy influence the challenges the patient chooses but it also affects how high standard they set their goals. Individuals with a strong self-efficacy select more challenging goals (DeVellis DeVellis, 2000 xClose DeVellis, B. M., DeVellis, R. F. (2000). Self-efficacy and health. In: A. Baum, T. A. Revenson, J. E. Singer (Eds.), Handbook of Health Psychology (pp. 235-247). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. ) than people with a weaker self efficacy. In relation to the case study, if Mrs Smith had a strong sense of self efficacy then she may result in adherence to a particular diet whereas if she had a weaker sense of self efficacy she will become discouraged and give up. Self efficacy is therefore directly related to the future behaviour and must be taken into account when assessing the patient. Continuing on to the next strategy of Beatties model, Community development is similar to personal counselling. The nurse tries to emancipate groups and communities so they recognize what they have in common and how social factors can influence their lives. Here patients should be given statutory support as well as voluntary support. In Mrs Smiths case, her health would more than likely be improved if she lost weight. Ideally she could aim for a BMI in the region of 24-25, but this is seldom achieved in practice, but it is none the less a goal. (NICE 2000). Staff in primary care or the integrated diabetic clinic will probably be responsible for producing a full evaluation and implementation of Mrs Smiths condition. A smoking cessation nurse could also be useful in helping Mrs Smith quit smoking improving her overall health. Offering the patient statutory support means she will further understand the whole regime and feel more comfortable, resulting in compliance. Voluntary support ca n also be offered to the patient. An example would be Weight Watchers for Mrs Smith to assist her with weight loss and maintenance, offering her various dieting products and services. The four paradigms for health promotion by Beattie is useful for health promoters because it identifies a clear framework for choosing a strategy, and it reminds them that the choice of these is influenced by social and political perspectives. However, as this model deals with information, education, legislation, psychological and social factors as strategies in achieving help, it has been criticised. Some argue that health has other dimensions not considered including physical, mental, spiritual and environmental that is essential for total health and well-being. Health behaviour models are there for nurses to use to motivate patients to change and make nurses aware of the barriers present. However, the nurse must always accept the work with the patient at their stage. By building a therapeutic relationship and working in partnership with the patient, it allows nurses to give the support the patient needs whilst enabling the client to make choices for themselves. The nurse needs to be aware of their communication skills such as using open questions, listening and encouraging, clarifying and summarizing and showing reflective listening. The goals set for the patient must be realistic, desirable and the nurse must help the patient to believe that they can achieve goals, praise and reinforce positive behaviour and provide emotional support. The nurse must continue to be accountable and continue using evidence based practice.

The Talloires Motivation :: University Improvement Essays

The Talloires Motivation Stewardship: â€Å"development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.† Sustainability: â€Å"life that uses nature without bringing harm to it.† The concept of using resources without endangering their future availability is an ideal that only within the past couple decades has gained support within the collegiate world. The severe need for this principle caused twenty-two university presidents and chancellors to convene in 1990 and sign a declaration pledging to support it and advocate its propagation. Recently this document known as the Talloires Declaration was signed locally by President Warren J. Baker representing California Polytechnic State University, an action which he explained in a speech made on his college’s campus. The purpose of this speech was to reinforce the ideals of stewardship and sustainability in our area and indirectly support the Cal Poly Master Plan as an advocate of them in the community. These goals are in his best interest because if achieved they would rally support for Master Plan projects without resistance from parties uneducated to the ultimately beneficial aims of these plans. One way President Baker pointed out signing the Talloires Declaration makes the Master Plan indispensable is that many of the goals of the declaration parallel goals found in the Master Plan. He quoted the Master Plan as â€Å"striving to strike a balance among several principles that we believe are all essential elements of a comprehensive vision of sustainability,† and listed those values as academic excellence, social justice, economic growth and efficiency and environmental protection. Past successful projects he noted are offering degree programs that promote responsible actions when dealing with the environment, the construction of learning centers and institutions that advise and interact with the government on conservation projects, and promoting sustainability and stewardship through founding EARTH university in Costa Rica to alert the world to stewardship and sustainability. These are good examples of the Master Plan and Talloires Declaration working together as t hey show the width and breadth of projects the Master Plan has tackled, and present achievements with visible and positive outcome. These achievements are also well chosen because they are projects that paralleled the ten goals of the Taillores Declaration. Offering degree programs which concentrate on conservation and sustainability is an excellent way to â€Å"Increase Awareness of Environmentally Sustainable Development,† â€Å"Educate for Environmentally Responsible Citizenship,† and â€Å"Foster Environmental Literacy For All† which are goals one, three and four.

Directing A New Production Of An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestly :: English Literature

Directing A New Production Of An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestly, With Special Reference To Act Two, Page 33 (in Heinemann Plays An Inspector Calls), And The Characters Of The Inspector And Mrs. Birling The two characters that I have chosen - the in The two characters that I have chosen from the play, 'An Inspector Calls', are the Inspector and Mrs. Birling. I chose these characters because they have very contrasting personalities. The Inspector is called 'Goole', which symbolises a ghoul and reflects on his personality. He is very probing when he asks the family questions and obviously has experience with 'interrogating' people. He is very direct and quite blunt when he is questioning the Birling family. In the BBC video version of the play, it was quite obvious that the Inspector was not a normal man as soon as he entered the room. This may have been helped by dramatic music, but it was also evident in the play. "The Inspector enters, and Edna goes, closing the door after her. The Inspector need not be a big man but he creates at once an impression of massiveness, solidity and purposefullyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ He speaks carefully, weightily, and has a disconcerting habit of looking hard at the person he addresses before actually speaking." As soon as the Inspector enters the room, the other characters are immediately aware of this "impression of massiveness". In the BBC video the Inspector was quite an old man and he looked feeble in a way, but he still created this effect when he spoke to the other characters. He seems to have a gift to be able to make people feel uncomfortable and guilty when he wants. "INSPECTOR: 'That's more or less what I was thinking earlier tonight, when I was in the infirmary looking at what was left of Eva Smith. A nice little promising life there, I thought, and a nasty mess somebody's made of it.' BIRLING looks as if he is about to make some retort, then thinks better of it, and goes out, closing the door sharply behind him. GERALD and ERIC exchange uneasy glances. The INSPECTOR ignores them." This is a particularly good quote because it shows the Inspector's way of speaking and the character's reactions to him. It seems that Mr Birling cannot even confront the Inspector and has to leave the room, even though Mr Birling was Lord Mayor which gives him authority over a Police Inspector, and is of a higher class than the Inspector, which should give him confidence. Mrs Birling is the quiet wife of the successful owner of Birling and Co. She is a very high-class lady who could be described as 'posh'.

Stonehenge :: essays research papers

In the hill country of northern England, many sites of Stonehenge exist. Approximately 150 to 200 enormous stones lie stacked on top of each other forming somewhat of an altar. Tall stones stand upright surrounding the center stone which is bluestone. This is unlike the sandstone columns which surround it. This may not seem unusual at first; however, there are three main factors that make Stonehenge extremely odd. Each of these stones weigh close to 4 tons. There are also no other stones in a radius of 15 miles. With today’s sophisticated equipment the moving of these large stones would not be difficult, but one must remember, Stonehenge was built approximately 4800 B.C. Radiocarbon dating shows that these stone structures are older than the great pyramids of Egypt, and the large cities of Rome. Of course Stonehenge is not as advanced as the great pyramids but it was built in an area which wasn’t as advanced as the Egyptians or Romans.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The outside stones are made completely of sandstone, this is at least 18 miles from the site where the sandstone was quarried from. Each stone stands upright and are expertly balanced. Stones of the same composition and size, rest on top forming a circular structure. In the middle of these stones, giant pieces of bluestone lay on the ground in â€Å"horse shoe† like shapes. These stones are also called spotted dolorite, and are not found within a 225 mile radius. In the very center, a piece of Welsh sandstone lay as a monument.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One of the most interesting facts about Stonehenge is that it is perfectly lined up with the winter (December 21) and summer (June 21) solstices. This is when the beginning of summer and winter when the Earth’s axis changes. As the sun rises over the horizon on those two days, its rays go through a small hole in one of the rocks. The alignment is perfect. The other significant characteristic of these prehistoric masterpieces, is that absolutely no mortar or cement exists throughout the entire structure. These huge stones lay balanced on top of each other with no glue or substance to hold them together. The only thing that stops these gargantuan stones from falling is a simple system of joints. Originally these structures were thought to be circles. In fact, many people still think they are circular; however, they are not. Some have flattened sides, some are hexagonal and some are elliptical. This is not easy to see with the naked eye which is why so

Telecity Group Plc Financal Statement Analysis

Submitted in fulfillment of assignment 1 of Financial and Management Accounting course Telecity Group plc Background Founded in 1998 with the establishing of the first data centre in Manchester, Telecity Group plc is operating a carrier-neutral data centre in Europe to support digital economy. It is a combination of TeleCity Limited, Redbus Interhouse Limited and Globix Holdings (UK) Limited. As a leading provider of data centre services, Telecity Group plc is listed in London Stock Exchange.In the meanwhile, it is is a constituent of the FTSE 250, FTSE techMARK 100 and FTSE4 Good indices. Driven by the rapidly increasing of digital economy, Telecity Group has been targeting to build secure, resilient and highly-connected colocation environments for the IT and telecoms equipment, to which customers can outsource their telecoms, web and IT infrastructures. For this purpose, Telecity Goup has launched the demand-driven data expansion programme, which is expanding its data center capaci ty through Europe.This European-based programme is expected to increase customer power capacity, which will in turn bust company economic of scale. Furthermore, as an Information Technology Company, Telecity Group has been highly relying on high and new technology to attract new customers and increase profits. Thus, much effort has been put into company’s ability to innovate new products and services in terms of data accessibility, security and specialty. Focusing on evaluating the implementation of its growth strategy, this paper will analyse it is financial statement base on the basic financial ratios.Ratios Analysis Introduction This section will evaluate Telecity Group plc’s financial ratios in detail. Other than looking at the past and present performance trends of the Group, this essay will also discover the company’s financial performance in comparison to Datacenter industry overall. Consequently, company management team will be able to determine the shor t term forecast of future performance. Furthermore, the analysis in this section can give guidance to investors by providing data and giving realistic view of Telecity Group’s inancial position and comparison to the industry. Profitability Ratios Given the important role profit plays as financing both dividends to shareholders and retained earnings, it is the main measure of financial performance. Figure 1 Profitability Ratios (GPM- Gross profit margin, OPM- Operational profit margin) As can be seen from figure 2, the gross profit was dramatically increased from 52% to 56 % through year 2010, and there was impressively improvement for year 2011.This can be explained by company’s successfully implementation of its growth strategy. On one side, driven by the high demanding of digital economy, the company has been focusing on increasing earnings by expanding data centre capacity and adopting new technology. On the other hand, along with the growth there is high cost. Howe ver, the even higher revenue growth still made the growth of gross profit margin. Operation profit was slightly decrease in year 2011, which implies high administrative costs in 2011. This is mainly because of a total amount of ? ,510,000 provisions respect of certain leases and the acquisition with Data Electronics and UK Grid, the costs of which were accounted in operational exceptional items in consolidated income statement. Figure 2 Profitability Ratios (PreTPM- Pre-tax profit margin, PostTPM- Post-tax profit margin) The pre-tax profit margin has also significantly improved from near 23. 5 % to about 25 % in 2011. One of reasons of this improvement is the gains on foreign exchange. The most important reason should be the write off of costs incurred on refinancing, which was an ? 00m five-year financing agreement with Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group and RBS from last year. Unlike PreTMP, post-tax profit margin has dropped impressively to about 17. 6 %. This may be mainly bec ause of the dramatically increment in both current tax and deferred tax. Figure 3 Profitability Ratios (ROCE- Returns on capital employed, ROE- Returns on equity) Figure 3 shows that The Telecity Group’s average ROE is comparable to industry ratio which is 7. 1% up to year 2010. However, in terms of growth, the trend is dramatically going down from 2009, which is despite the fact that both total equity and profit after tax have been improved.However, the growth of profit was not in pace with the equity. In fact, this makes sense when take into account the company’s expansion strategy, which has been being successfully implemented by setting up new data centres across Europe. A big money has been invested in this expansion program, which in turn provided the company high potential turn-over. In general, financial analysts consider return on equity ratios in the 15-20% range as representing attractive levels of investment quality. In this sense, the company’s perf ormance is healthy with regards to efficiency of profitability.ROCE is one of Telecity Group key performance indicator, which is added to evaluate company’s strategy of focusing earnings return from investment. ROCE was decreased during year 2011, which was due to the company’s capacity expansion programme and acquisitions’ effect. Even though, the company’s performance in terms of generating returns is healthy in comparison with industry average rate at about 8%. Liquidity Rations Liquidity ratios are to measure a company's ability to pay off its short-term financial obligations (Atrill and McLaney, 2011).Figure 4 Liquidity Ratios In theory, the higher current ratio is better as it clearly identifies the company’s ability to pay off short debts fund its on-going operations. (Investpedia, 2009) In the case of Telecity Group, its average current ratio shows that the current assets are not able to cover its current liabilities. This is mainly because the company has invested a big money into company’s capacity expansion program and acquisition, which are holding most of company’s capital. However, the average rate is comparable to the industry as a whole at 0. 8. Trade receivable days are healthy between 25 and 40 days over the year from 2009 to 2011, there is even a decrease from 40 days to 35 days in year 2011. This is due to the demanding digital economy market. Financial Gearing Financial gearing happens when business is financed in a way of borrowing (Atrill and McLaney, 2011). The analysis of gearing ratios is to evaluate the business’s level of gearing, which is the key factor of assessing risk. Figure 5 Gearing Rations (D/E- Debts to equity, ND/E- Net debt to equity)Figure 5 shows that gross debt to equity has increased from about 30% to over 60% in year 2011 after a slightly decreasing in year 2010, which indicates Telecity Group is highly geared in 2011. This is because the significantly increase of non-current borrowing for company’s capacity expansion program and the two acquisitions. Net debt to equity is concerned with company cash to repay the borrowings. It has impressively increased to more than 60% as well demonstrating that risk exists at Telecity Group’s failure. Figure 6 Gearing Ratios (IC- Interest covre, NIC- Net interest cover) Interest cover ratio measures the amount of operating profit available to cover interest payable(Atrill and McLaney, 2011)†. As can be seen from figure 6, gross interest cover has fallen from 11 % to 10. 4 % in 2011. In terms of net interest cover which takes into account finance income, the cover ratios were slightly increased. Overall, the figures are showing that Telecity Group has the strong ability to service its debt. Cash flow analysis CFPS is concerned with the company ability of generating cash. Therefore, it is commonly referred by analysts for more accurate measure of a company's financial situation.Figure 7 Cash flow ratios (EPS- Earnings per share) The CFPS has increased from 37 pence in 2009 to 60 pence in 2011. The EPS is averagely higher then CFPS as we would commonly expected. Both EPS and CFPS have increased over the two years. The main reasons for the increase and the difference between CFPS and EP as follows: 1. Movement in foreigner exchange 2. Movement in trade receivables and trade payables 3. Depreciation charge 4. Cost of exceptional items To sum up, the net cash flow from operating activities has significantly improved by 25 % to over ? 120million. Over ? 00 million was spent on investment activities, which include capacity expansion program and acquisition activities. Investment analysis â€Å"Investment ratios are designed to help shareholder to assess the returns on their investment† (Atrill and McLaney, 2011). Earnings per share have risen from 19p to 21p in 2011, which is basically because of the increasing profit margin over the year. Conclusion As can be s een from above, the Telecity Group plc has gone through a stable healthy financial year with regards the implementation of its growth strategy. Telecity Group’s profitability stayed stable and healthy in the near two years.The low profit increment was due to the company’s expansion and acquisition strategy. Given the fact that data centre services is demanding in digital economy, Teleicty Group’s successfully expansion and acquisition will in turn make big returns. Liquidity is poor in terms of ability to cover its current liabilities. However, given the industry ratio being 0. 58, it is comparable healthy in the market. Furthermore, the short trade receivable days imply the high market demands in the data centre industry. Company’s gearing has risen to extremely high level due to its growth strategy.From investor’s perspective, there would be risk of investing in the case of company’s failure. However, take into the consideration of the cha racters of data centre industry, which are demanding the high capacity, connectivity and flexible services, Telecity group are in no way to failure as it has achieved successful implementation of its business across Europe and gained the potential of attracting new contract with exiting as well as new customers. Overall, the Telecity has been seeking the best practise within the data centre industry as a leading provider of premium carrier-neutral data centres.As the result of its successful capacity expansion and acquisitions, the further high turnover is inevitably. Appendix 1 Profitability| Gross Profit Margin| =| Gross Profit/Revenue%| ? | ? | 2009| =| 88,727| /| 169,383| %| =| 52. 4%| 2010| =| 109,773| /| 196,397| %| =| 55. 9%| 2011| =| 134,701| /| 239,818| %| =| 56. 2%| ?| Operating Profit Margin| =| Operating profit/Revenue%| | ? | 2009| ? | 39,102| /| 169,383| %| =| 23. 1%| 2010| =| 55,173| /| 196,397| %| =| 28. 1%| 2011| =| 65,359| /| 239,818| %| =| 27. 3%| ?| Pre-tax profi t Margin| =| Profit before tax/Revenue%| ? | ? | 2009| =| 38120| /| 169,383| %| =| 22. %| 2010| =| 45,941| /| 196,397| %| =| 23. 4%| 2011| =| 59,438| /| 239,818| %| =| 24. 8%| ?| ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Post-tax profit Margin| =| Profit after tax/Revenue%? | ? | 2009| =| 34722| /| 169,383| %| =| 20. 5%| 2010| =| 38,031| /| 196,397| %| =| 19. 4%| 2011| =| 42,641| /| 239,818| %| =| 17. 8%| | Return on Capital Employed| =| Operating Profit/Total Capital employed| ? | ? | 2009| =| 39,102| /| (80,467+218,931)| %| =| 13. 1%| 2010| =| 55,173| /| (80654+257,545)| %| =| 16. 3%| 2011| =| 65,359| /| (183,451+298,027)| %| =| 13. 6%| | Return on Equity| =| Profit after Tax| /| Equity| %| ? ? | 2009| =| 34722| /| 218,931| %| =| 15. 9%| 2010| =| 38,031| /| 257,545| %| =| 14. 8%| 2011| =| 42,641| /| 298,027| %| =| 14. 3%| Liquidity| Current Ratio| =| current Assets/Current Liabilities | 2009| =| 51,623| /| 82,961| =| 0. 6 | ? | ? | 2010| =| 46,501| /| 82,474| =| 0. 6 | ? | ? | 2011| =| 48,398| /| 103,283| =| 0. 5 | ? | ? | ?| Trade payable days| =| Trade payables/Cost of Revenue*365| 2009| =| 47,089| /| 80,656| *| 365| =| 213days| 2010| =| 47,085| /| 86,624| *| 365| =| 198days | 2011| =| 57,935| /| 105,117| *| 365| =| 201days | ?| Trade receivable days| =| Trade receivable /Revenue? | 009| =| (19,483-6,975)| /| 169,383| *| 365| =| 27days| 2010| =| (22,139-746)| /| 196,397| *| 365| =| 40days| 2011| =| (26,365-3,560)| /| 239,818| *| 365| =| 35days| Gearing| Debt to equity| =| Non-current borrowings/Equity%| 2009| =| 80,467| /| 218,931| %| =| 36. 8%| 2010| =| 80,654| /| 257,545| %| =| 31. 3%| 2011| =| 183,451| /| 298,027| %| =| 61. 6%| ?| Net debt to equity| =| Borrowings less cash/Total Equity%? | 2009| =| (80,467-32,140)| /| 218,931| %| =| 22. 1%| 2010| =| (80,654-24,362)| /| 257,545| %| =| 21. 9%| 2011| =| (183,451-22,033)| /| 298,027| %| =| 54. 2%| | Interest Cover| =| Operating profit/Interest expense ? 2009| =| 39,102| /| 3788| =| 10. 3| ? | 2010| =| 55,173| /| 5,017| =| 11| ? | 2011| =| 65,359| /| 6,300| =| 10. 4| ? | ?| ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Net Interest cover| =| Operating profit/Net Interest expense| *Net interest expense=Finance expense-interest? | 2009| =| 39,102| /| (3788-117)| =| 10. 7| ? | 2010| =| 55,173| /| (5017-11)| =| 11. 0 | ? | 2011| ? | 65,359| /| (6300-103)| =| 10. 5 | ? | Cash Flow| Cash flow per share| =| Net cash flow from operating activities/Number of equity share issued| 2009| =| 74,017| /| 198,092| =| 0. 37365| =| 37. 4p| 2010| =| 96,380| /| 198,092| =| 0. 86542| =| 48. 7p| 2011| =| 120,554| /| 198,892| =| 0. 606128| =| 60. 6p| Investment| Earnings Per Share| ? | ? | 2010| =| 19. 0p| 2011| =| 21. 1p| References Atrill, P. and McLaney,P. (2011) Accounting and Finance for Non-Specialists. 7th. ed. Essex: Pearson Education Limited. Telecity Group plc Annual report and accounts 2011 Data centres at the heart of the digital economy, 2011 TelecityGroup. Telecity Group plc Annual report and accounts 2010 Data centres at t he heart of the digital economy, 2010 TelecityGroup. http://www. investopedia. com/terms/c/currentratio. asp, Investopedia.