Cognitive component Essay

The cognitive component of SWB involves making judgments of one’s life: either satisfaction with life as a whole, or satisfaction with life domains such as work, family, leisure, health, and finances (Prince, & Prince 2001; Diener et al. , 1999). It can be viewed as how you think about your life (in contrast to the affective component: how you feel about your life). In this study, the cognitive component means the way the elderly perceive, think and assess their life and their beliefs and attitude toward life, world and God. Campbell (1976) suggested that individuals judge their objective situation in each of various life domains according to standards of comparison based on aspiration, expectations, feelings of what would be just, reference group comparisons, personal needs, and personal values. Domain-satisfaction provides useful information about with which aspects of life an individual may be happy or unhappy, but cannot be summed to give an overall impression of life satisfaction. This would mean that it is necessary to assess overall satisfaction with life, as well as life domains (Susan Hird, 2003). An idea that has long captivated writers is that how we perceive and think about the world determines our SWB. In the area of SWB, researchers find that one can dampen or amplify one’s emotions by what one thinks, and thereby experience more or less intense emotions (Larsen, Diener, & Croponzano, 1987). This approach relies on the standards of the individual to determine what is the good life and the personal choices the person make at the moment (Diener, 1984). People might increase their SWB by control of their thoughts. For example, perhaps SWB can be increased by believing in a larger meaning or force in the universe. Support for this proposition comes from findings showing that on average religious people are happier than nonreligious people (e. g. , Ellison, 1983; Myers, 1992, cited in Diener et al. , 1997). The study explored how the elderly think about their life or what thought processes, beliefs and attitudes predominantly helped the elderly to experience a sense of well-being at this point of their lives. Affective Components (Affect Balance) It is the second component or construct of SWB, which corresponds to what we generally understand as happiness. According to (Prince, & Prince 2001) affect is thought of as how happy or unhappy you are. It results from a balance between positive affect and negative affect (Christopher, 1999). As it has been already indicated, when we appraise how much we appreciate the life we live, we estimate our typical affective experience to assess how well we feel generally, which is referred to here in the study as affective component. In summary, the affective component can be thought of as how you feel about your life (Susan Hird, 2003). Suh & Diener (1997) observed that feeling pleasant emotions most of the time and infrequently experiencing unpleasant emotions, even if the pleasant emotions are only mild, is sufficient for high reports of happiness. Although people report being above neutral in mood the majority of the time (Diener & Diener, 1995), intense positive moments are rare even among the happiest individuals. Instead happy people report mild-to-moderate pleasant emotions most of the time when alone or with others and when working or at leisure. One thing is clear, that people need to understand that intense experiences are not the corer stone of a happy life (Diener, 2000). Mood and emotions are called ‘affect’, and there is contradictory evidence as to whether ‘pleasant affect’ and ‘unpleasant affect’ form two independent factors and should be measured separately, or whether they are interdependent (Diener et al. , 1999). The amount of difference between momentary pleasant and unpleasant affect is still debated, but the separability of long-term affective dimensions is less controversial. Diener and Emmons (1984) found that unpleasant and pleasant affect become increasingly separate as the time frame is increased (Diener et al. , 1999). In the case of the institutionalized elderly, the study examined the affective component in general, mainly how they felt generally about their lives that helped them experiencing a sense of well-being in their lives. As indicated by Christopher (1999), it is this second aspect of SWB that corresponds to what we generally understand as happiness and it results from a balance between positive affect and negative affect.

Ntt Docomo

NTT DoCoMo i-mode:value innovation at DoCoMo. (2003). Recuperado de la base de datos de UESAN (031397) 16088 INSEADBlue Ocean Strategy lnstitute The Business School for the World18 BOS005 NTT DoCoMo i-mode TM: Value lnnovation at DoCoMo 08/2009-5079 This is a modified version of the original case ‘NTI' DoCoMo i-mode'l'M: Creating a Solution for the Masses' (number 05/2002-5036), written by Yasushi Shiina, INSEAD MBA 2000. Jason Hunter preparad this freely adapted version, under the supervision of Professors W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne and Ben M. Bensaou.It is intended to be used as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrativa situation. Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC i-modeTM is a registered trademark of NT1†² DoCoMo, Inc. in Japan. TO ORDER COPIES OF INSEAD CASES, 5EE DETA! Ul ON ‘! ‘HE BACK COVER. COPIES MAY NOT BE MADE WITHOUT PERMISSION. Every ten years, Japanese companies come up with a new mobile device that shakes the world. Sony's Walkman was launched in 1979 and Nintendo launched Gameboy in 1989. And in 1999, we invented i-mode.I Mari Matsunaga Kouji Ohboshi is a worried man. It's early 1999, and NTT DoCoMo's Chairman is anxiously waiting to hear how the press conference for i-mode- bis company's new mobile Internet system – has fared. He has every reason to be nervous. Although DoCoMo is a leader in the Japanese mobile industry, the market is showing signs of saturation and Ohboshi has gambled a large stake of bis company's future on the development of the new system. The report arrives and bis worst fears are realized: the press conference was a debacle.The launch of i-mode couldn't have gone worse. With only seven reporters attending, i ­ mode's extravagant debut had fallen on deaf ears. Those journalists present were among Japan's least charitable. With the Internet boom waning, reporters were more skeptical than ever. Mobile Internet services ha d failed elsewhere so why should they work in Japan? Why not wait, like everyone else, for the third generation (30) global wireless Internet protocol? Ohboshi knew that unfavorable or- worse – weak press coverage in Japan's trend-driven mobile phone market could spell disaster.Had he made the wrong decision to shift the company's strategic focus? Were bis skeptical colleagues at DoCoMo right? What Ohboshi didn't know at the time was that in the weeks to come, i-mode would become an explosive success. Like the Walkman and Gameboy that preceded it, i-mode was to be more than simply a commercial success – it became a phenomenon. What explains this amazing success in Japan? How did DoCoMo turn a highly competitive industry with declining growth potential into an attractive business opportunity? NTT DoCoMo's Trouhled BirthNTT DoCoMo was formed in 1992 as part of a partial govemment break-up of the powerful Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT) telecom monopoly. Formerly NTT 's mobile phone unit, it was cast from the nest to take over wireless communications sales and operations as an independent enterprise. Kouji Ohboshi, an energetic 60-year-old, was the first CEO of a company whose name DoCoMo is both a play on the Japanese word for â€Å"anywhere† and an abbreviation of ‘Do Communications over the Mobile network. ‘ Interview: Ms. Mari Matsunaga, formerly Manager, Gateway Business Dept. NTT DoCoMo (20 Aug. 2001). Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC 08/2009-5079 Blue Ocean Strategy Institute From the start, Ohboshi realized that DoCoMo had a tough road ahead. The mobile phone market was over-regulated, transmission quality was poor, subscription fees were costly and mobiles were heavy. 2 Moreover, there was a palpable sense that the market had reached a plateau (Exhibit 1). 3 Japan's economic bubble had burst and businesses had cut back mobile phone purchases.To add insult to injury, tough new govemment rules forbade the fledgling DoCoMo to ask NTT for financial assistance. By the end of its frrst year DoCoMo was saddled with a â€Å"1O billion yen loss †¦ and bankruptcy was a serious threat. â€Å"4 Paced with a looming crisis, Ohboshi went for broke, setting out to expand the market by bringing cellular phones to the masses. And he did so with a vengeance. During the next two years, Ohboshi invested 50 billion – a large sum for a company making a loss – to bring DoCoMo's mobile network services to everyday users. 5 His first move was to improve DoCoMo's network.In 1993 the company 1aunched its new revo1utionary PDC (Personal Digital Cellular) standard, bringing crystal clear calls, fewer interruptions and less background noise. Moreover, PDC helped DoCoMo use its limited allocation of radio spectrum more efficiently. Within a few months DoCoMo's PDC standard was adopted by competitor carriers across Japan. By December 1998, it would account for 98. 7% of the Japanese market. (Exhibit 4)6 Next DoCoMo slashed prices. lts high deposit was abolished in October 1993 and subscription fees were cut in 1996.By March 1999 monthly basic charges had dropped 73%, the average charge for a three-minute call on DoCoMo falling 57. 6% in the same period. Once again, the rest ofthe industry quickly followed suit by cutting fees (Exhibit 3). The lust for market share in the mid-90s drove carriers to continue slashing prices to rock bottom levels, even as monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) continued to sink (while monthly average minutes use remained relatively stable). (Exhibit 5) Ohboshi also attracted new customers by reducing the size of the phones.NTT had one of the largest R;D teams in the telecom industry and DoCoMo maintained close relationships with 2 Matsunaga (2000}, i-mode jiken (i-mode: The Birth of i-mode), Kadokawa Shoten. 3The frrst Japanese cellular phone service was launched in December 1979. It was a disaster. The high service fees made the telephones unaffordable t o all but the wealthiest of businessmen (sa/arimen). After putting down 200,000 deposit and a 72,000 subscription fee, users would hand over another 26,000 in monthly fees anda call charge of 280 for every three minutes.Moreover, the service area was limited, the sound quality was inferior to pay phones, and you had to be physically fit: first generation cellular phones weighed 3kg and were carried over the shoulder. With the stimulation of government deregulation and subsequent technological innovations it took a full 1O years before cell phones became increasingly attractive to mass consumers. Carriers and telecom equipment manufacturers worked closely to improve both the usability of the phones and the quality of transrnission. Rightly, they believed that reducing the size of handsets and extending their battery life were crucial improvements.By the end of 1998, the weight and the battery life of a standard phone reached 68g and 330 hours respectively (Exhibits 2 and 3). 4 Interv iew: Mr. Kouji Ohboshi, Chairman, NTT DoCoMo 5 Ohboshi (2000): DoCoMo kyuseicho no keiei (DoCoMo: Management ofrapid growth), Diamond Sha 6 Tadashi Aoyagi (2000): Daisansedai keitai business: nichibeiou no nerai (The third generation cellular phone business: Aims of Japan, US and Europe}, Ric Telecom (exhibit 19) Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC 2 08/2009-5079 elecom equipment manufacturers. 7 Ohboshi leaned heavily on DoCoMo's engineers and its suppliers to reduce the size of phones and extend their battery life. Although DoCoMo was feeling the effects of deregulation, it made the best of the gains offered by the new competitive environment. Within ayear of Ohboshi's drastic measures, DoCoMo was still Japan's largest mobile telephone carrier, and its revenues and net income had soared. 8 By March 1999, DoCoMo's sales revenue ballooned to ;v;3,118 billion with a net income of;v;205 billion, and market capitalization topping out at ;v;11. trillion- about 60% of the size ofits parent co mpany, NTT. (Exhibit 8) The Wud, Wb'eless East NTT DoCoMo's emergence, together with deregulation, technological innovation, price reduction and the launch of new services all contributed to the rapid expansion of the mobile phone market to mass users in Japan. In a 10-month period during 1998, the market grew by an estimated 8 million users, bringing the total number of subscribers to 39. 8 million in January 1999- fulfilling 87. 2% of Japan's total wireless market. (Exhibit 1)9 Competition for market share in the late 1990s was cut-throat.Deregulation continued apace and by 1998 a flood of large foreign carriers and equipment manufacturers had entered the fast-growing market as the government lifted the last remaining limitations on foreign investment (Exhibit 4). 10 Competition was equally fierce in the drive to offer new services. J ­ Phone shrewdly targeted younger users, launching the first SMS (short message service) and information services via the J-Sky Web package. Using a similar approach, DoCoMo introduced the wildly successful ‘Pocket Board,' a well-designed yet inexpensive mobile with email and game functions. 1 By January 1999, the wireless market in Japan had experienced seven years of rapid expansion (Exhibit 1), with every third person owning a mobile phone. Although the size of the market was still small compared to that of fixed lines, its annua1 average growth rate of 7 DoCoMo inherited from NTI c1ose re1ationships with four 1arge Japanese suppliers (NEC, Fujitsu, Matsushita Communications Panasonic and Mitsubishi Electronics), who worked closely with NTI DoCoMo to break through technological barriers.This network soon became known as the ‘DoCoMo Family', since its products were sold under the NIT DoCoMo brand, and the only way to identify the manufacturer of a cellular phone was to look at the first letter of the product number (e. g. , ‘N' for NEC). These relationships gave NTI DoCoMo considerable advantage especially once its PDC standard was accepted as the only one in Japan. 8 It rernained the nation's leading carrier; however, at times DoCoMo's market share dropped below 50% due to fierce competition. The growth in subscribers was attributed to the increase in personal users. However, churn rates (subscriber termination rates) were also increasing, showing that customer loyalty was vulnerable in the new environment. 10 Airtouch acquired a 10-15% stake in the J-Phone Group of companies and offered its technical expertise; Motorola, a US electronic products manufacturer invested in the Tuka Group of companies. 11 For their part, DDI Cellular and IDO improved the quality of transmission substantially by adopting the US-based cdmaOne digital protocol.Although these services attracted new customers, these numbers were not significant enough to boost growth or change the structure of the market. Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC 3 08/2009-5079 —–y- Blue Ocean Strategy Institute 68% was a stounding compared to the anemic growth (1. 5%) of the ftxed line market. Yet despite general optimism in the market, Ohboshi was once again getting nervous. .A. fter Victory, Tighten your Helmet StrapHis marketing background had taught him that, â€Å"fast growth means fast maturity, and faster speed for the market to move from maturity to saturation and then to decline†. 12 The market was once again moving to saturation both in the number of potential new users and in capacity as available radio bandwidth increasingly limited market expansion. lt was time for action. To survive, Ohboshi believed that DoCoMo needed â€Å"to create a new market, not by adapting to changes but by creating the changes through positively transforming their corporate strategy†. 3 Ohboshi told his employees that DoCoMo had to shift from simply increasing the size of the voice-based wireless market, to creating new value for customers. Shortly afterwards, in July 1996, the company formerly a nnounced its new strategic focus: ‘from volume to value. ‘ Volume to Value At the heart of Ohboshi's â€Å"Volume to Value† focus was non-voice-based wireless data transmission. With the explosion of Internet use during the late 1990s (Exhibit 6), DoCoMo realized that the use of e-mail and the web was quickly becoming a cornerstone of everyday life.From new market and social psychology research, Ohboshi was convinced that, â€Å"the daily needs and wants of the people in a mature society like Japan would shift from physical goods to communication, information, knowledge and entertainment†. 14 Not only did the Internet offer new opportunities for ftlling customer demand, it also solved one of Ohboshi's greatest concerns: an increasingly congested radio spectrum. In contrast to traditional voice conversations that are sent via dedicated spectrum airwaves, Internet traffic is dispersed in small packets across the network to be eassembled at their destination ( e. g. , a user's telephone). IfDoCoMo created an alternative mobile Internet network based on packet ­ switching technologies, it would completely circumvent the burdened voice network. Within a year, DoCoMo was building one of Japan's ftrst nationwide packet-switching networks. 15 The mobile computing team was strengthened and soon new products and 12 Ohboshi (2000) 13 lbid. 14 Interview: Mr. Kouji Ohboshi, Chairman, NTT DoCoMo 15 This system wou1d not on1y ease the use of congested radio spectrum capacity, but a1so serve as the basis for 3G services.Despite the optimistic market expectation and technological developments, the prospects for the 3G technologies were not necessarily bright. Although similar new data communication services attracted customers (e. g. , WAP services in Europe), they had not proved to be adequate enough to boost the market, and it was feared that the same might be true of 3G cellular services. The introduction of new 3G technologies would also create h uge additional costs for carriers, which had already incurred more than l trillion yen capital expenditure over the past few years (Exhibit 7).Furthermore, competition would increase as other intemational carriers competed in a single global market. Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC 4 08/2009-5079 services were introduced- albeit not very successfully- culminating in 1997 with the  · 10 e ­ mail service' (customers could send and receive 2 kilobytes of data for a mere 10). 16 Although these early Internet initiatives were not big profit-makers for NTT DoCoMo, they created a new market by attracting customers who had never used cellular phones or e-mail before.As one of the team members involved in developing mobile computing services pointed out, â€Å"Our intention was not to develop and introduce new products into the market, but to create and introduce new ways ofusing our traditional wireless services. â€Å"17 The New Wireless World In January 1997, Ohboshi asked Keiichi Eno ki, a former electrical engineer and DoCoMo's new Director of Corporate Sales, to plan and launch a new mobile data communication service for the mass market embodying his †volume to value† strategy. 8 He later reflected: About ayear after we started launching new mobile data communication services, revenues from such new services increased to constitute 5o/'o-6% of our total revenues. With detailed marketing research and advice from externa/ consultants, 1 felt a need to further boost these new services and asked Enoki, whom 1trusted, to head a project speciflcally targeting the mass market. 1 assured him that he would have full discretion in choosing his staff and in using funds worth 5 billion yen, which is a lot of money. 9 Enoki would have his work cut out for him. DoCoMo had a new strategic focus, but after two long years Ohboshi's team had yet to match vision with performance. Enoki had to create a winner. He was tasked to develop a mobile phone service that would advance the Internet in the same way the Sony Walkman had advanced the stereo. But how? â€Å"I got the first hints from my family,† recalls Enoki. â€Å"At that time, the pager was at the peak ofits popularity. My daughter used the number pad as a form of data communication.My son could play a new computer game without reading the instructions. Their ability to adapt to 16 In addition to these measures, Ohboshi and his successor Keiji Tachikawa, (then Vice-President}, set up a small project team within the Corporate Strategy Planning Department, and very soon the first proposal for NTT DoCoMo's ‘Vision 2010' was drafted. The year 2010 was deliberately chosen as ‘it will be the time when wireless telecom technologies will make nnovations from 30 to 40 and also the period of 10 years is the longest possible for reasonable predictions to be rnade in a fast-changing environment' ‘Vision 2010' forecast huge opportunities for mobile telecom services in enrichin g personal lives and in supporting global corporate activities. In particular, it saw a greater role for mobile data services in fulfilling the needs of women, senior citizens and medica! systems, important to a society characterized by a lower birth rate and an aging population.In addition to these market projections, it also emphasized the need for DoCoMo to cooperate with other companies to expand the wireless telecom market, and summarized DoCoMo's operations towards the year 2010 in five key concepts or ‘MAGIC' for short (Exhibit 9). 17 Interview: Mr. lrukayama, Mobile Multimedia Business Department, NTT DoCoMo. 18 Ohboshi (2000). 19 Interview: Mr. Kouji Ohboshi, Chairman, NTT DoCoMo. Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC 5 08/2009-5079 ew information technology and its ease of use convinced me that young people would accept a new data service that would give them the same kind of enjoyment. â€Å"20 Now a believer, Enoki set out to tackle the new initiative by doing the unthink able: recruiting new blood from the outside to lead the project. He first called Mari Matsunaga, a senior executive at Recruit Co. , a job placement fmn. Matsunaga was known for her marketing prowess and dramatic turnaround of Recruit's job placement magazine for women into one of Japan's hottest titles. She would head the content development team for DoCoMo's new service.Enoki then sought out a manager to devise a business model for the new mobile data communication service. He chose Takeshi Natsuno, a Wharton MBA and former head of Hypernet, one of Japan's frrst (and most hyped) net startups. 21 Developing the Electronic Concierge service Mastunaga set out to understand how the Internet works. What were the killer applications that provided web users with superior value? In studying the winners – such as AOL (America Online)- she found a positive correlation between the number oflnternet users and the volume of content. As content increased, so did the number of users and v ice versa. 2 Hence her conclusion: ‘Content would have to be king on the new DoCoMo system. ‘ She also recognized that simply putting ‘information' on the network would not differentiate the new service from the existing PC-based Internet, nor would it add value to users who were often lost in the sea of information on the web. Matsunaga thus envisioned a service that would function like a ‘hotel concierge', where users would be ‘serviced' by content providers. If DoCoMo could make it possible for users to access pre-selected websites on the screen of their handset, then they would capture Mastunaga's concept of an E/ectronic Concierge.The team set out to create such a user-friendly portal (Exhibit 10) to serve both asan accreditation of quality for those pre-selected â€Å"official† sites, as well as an easy way to navigate the whole wireless web – similar to the service AOL provides its customers (Exhibit 11). Users could access other â €Å"non-official† sites simply by typing in the URL address. Meanwhile, Natsuno devised a business model for the new mobile data communication service based on what he saw as the â€Å"Internet worldview† rather than the â€Å"telecom worldview†. 3 The telecom worldview, according to Natsuno, is a zero-sum approach: carriers determine the standards and the services that can ride on their network, and are not interested in adapting to others' technology or in sharing profits with other players in the value chain. Users must accept the infrastructure and services carriers offer them. Conversely, the â€Å"Internet worldview† is a positive-sum approach. As the Internet is an open network that can be accessed with various devices (e. g. , computers, PDAs) whose 0 ‘A discussion with Keiichi Enoki, Senior Vice President, General Manager of Gateway Business Department, Mobile Multimedia Division' in NTT DoCoMo Annua1 Report 2000. 21 By the time he joined D oCoMo, Natsuno had already left Hypemet before the free ISP fell from glory in a multi-billion yen crash in 1997. 22 Interview: Mr. Kazuhiro Takagi, Director, Gateway Business Department, NTT DoCoMo. 23 Takeshi Natsuno (2000), i-modeâ„ ¢ strategy (i-modeâ„ ¢ strategy), Nikkei BP. Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC 6 08/2009-5079 pecifications are not necessarily determined by either content providers or carriers – all parties are obliged to accept one another's technologies and services. In the Internet world, consumers choose the infrastructure they prefer. Specifications are thereby de jacto standards determined not by their technological superiority but by the fact that they are so frequently used. In the Internet worldview, Natsuno believed, carriers have to work closely with other players, including information providers, to increase the number ofusers.This ‘win-win' relationship arnong players within the network becarne the foundation of Natsuno's business model . Accordingly, DoCoMo would not purchase content from providers or equipment from manufacturers but would rather accredit â€Å"official† websites and mobile phones to be used with the new service. Interested partners would share both the risks and the rewards. Although this model restricted DoCoMo's role to simply that of a â€Å"gateway† to the Internet, as the service attracted more users, the idea went, the network would attract more content.More content would beget more users; more users would beget more content, and so on,24 thereby creating a virtuous circle where all parties benefit. Natsuno's ‘win-win' business model would also be applied to the new service's billing system. A number of the â€Å"official† sites would be subscription-only sites requiring customers to pay fees ranging from ;y;? oo to ;y;300 per month. Under Natsuno's plan, DoCoMo would collect all these fees as part ofits monthly phone bill, take a 9% commission, and then pass on t he rest to the content providers.This service would be attractive not only to content providers who could reduce their interna! cost structure, but also to users who would appreciate not having to pay several separate bills. And by giving content providers a means to charge users, i-mode would ensure that there was plenty of high quality content available. Lastly, Natsuno recommended that the new service adopt existing widely-used technologies. For exarnple, although there were better texts languages such as WML (Wireless Markup Language), DoCoMo adopted c-HTML for its new service.With this compact version of HTML, the language widely used to create websites for the PC environment, content providers could quickly, easily and at low cost modify their PC-based websites into a new version to be displayed on the new DoCoMo service. New handsets were also developed that closely resembled existing cellular phones used exclusively for voice communication. Manufacturers were asked to reduce the size and weight of the new handsets while increasing screen size, data capacity and battery power. The Launch of i-modeAlmost a year had passed since Ohboshi had taken the decision to develop the new mobile data communication service, and pressure was mounting on him to perform. Although NTT DoCoMo had managed to maintain its position as the largest mobile telecom carrier in Japan, the cost of developing the new data service was taking its toll on Ohboshi's credibility and threatening the financia! stability of the company. Colleagues peering in from outside Enoki's group were confounded by the project. â€Å"Why were we wasting our time and resources on unproven Internet phones, instead of concentrating on the still-growing, regular voice- 4Similarly, content providers were inspired to continuously update their sites in order to keep their official status. And as content providers improved their websites, users were able to receive more ‘useful' information from accessi ng the network and thus, al! three players on the network benefited. Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC 7 08/2009-5079 based communication services? † they wondered.By late 1998, opposition to ‘Volume to Value' was growing and Ohboshi was once again under frre. Enoki and his team finally launched the new service as ‘i-mode' on 22 February 1999- the ‘i' representing ‘interactive', ‘Internet' and the pronoun ‘I'. 25 Looking at the phones, a user would notice little difference from the latest models, except for a slightly larger liquid crystal display and the central feature: the i-mode button (Exhibit 12). This connected users to the Internet, where they could send and receive e-mail, access sport scores and weather, read the news, and download pages from the web.The new i-mode handsets were priced from ;v;35,900 to Y42,800, about 25% more than regular phones (see Exhibit 15 for comparison with other goods/services). Users were charged ;v;300 per month to access the i-mode network, and another ,y;? oo to ,y;300 to access any of the subscription-only sites. Unlike regular mobile services, users were charged by the volume of data transmitted to their mobile phones rather than the length of time on the network. For instance, it would cost ,y;Q. 3 per packet transmitted, and . 2 to send (,y;2. 1 to receive) an e ­ mail of up to 250 characters. Exhibit 13) Data transmission over mobile phones would become increasingly important for DoCoMo's bottom line: as revenue from voice calls continued to fall – from an average of $100/subscriber per month in 1997 to $65 in 2001 -data revenue amounting toan average of $17 per subscriber/month would increasingly fill the gap. 26 Initially 67 content providers participated in the new service, with sites ranging from banking to Karaoke. 27 In the days that followed, dozens of â€Å"unofficial† sites sprang up, even though they were excluded from DoCoMo's official portal.Aventure company developed a search engine for unofficial sites just 11 days after the launch of the new service as their number reached 190 (twice as many as i-mode official sites) within two months. (Exhibit 14)28 i-mode was aggressively promoted through DoCoMo's nationwide network of shops. A how ­ to book on i-mode was also published, followed by over 100 books and magazines within a year. 29 The number of subscribers exploded reaching Natsuno's â€Å"critica! mass† of 1 million users by August 1999 (Exhibit 16). 0 By March 2001, i-mode subscribers reached 21. 7 million (Exhibit 17), and revenues from packet transmission services increased from ,y;295 million to ;v;38. 5 billion within ayear after launch (Exhibit 18). 31 i-mode also contributed to an increase in revenue from regular voice services, even as price competition drove down 25 Natsuno (2000). 26 ‘Peering around the comer', The Economist, 11 October 2001. 27 ‘Mobile intemet saizensen (Frontiers of mobile i ntemet)' in Shukan Diamond, 18 March 2000. 28 Natsuno (2000). 29 lbid. 30 lbid. 1 According to one senior official at NTI DoCoMo, ‘i-mode surprisingly attracted not only young customers who were generally fond of new technologies, but also old customers who used it as a tool to communicate more often with their grandchildren. In March 2001, 27% ofthe total i-mode users were above the age of 40, compared to 20. 3% for PC-based Internet (Exhibit 21). Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC 8 08/2009-5079 average monthly revenue per subscriber to V! ,770 in March 2001. 32 In addition, the important customer churn rate began to drop from 1. 97 in FY1998 to 1. 39 in FY2001, while DoCoMo's market share in the cellular market climbed to 59. 1% in March 200l. (Exhibits 5 and 18) Playing Catch-up Two months after i-mode's extraordinary launch, two competitors, DDI Cellular and IDO, announced their own mobile data communication services, called ‘EZ Web' and ‘EZ Access' respectively. Similar to i-mode, customers could subscribe to their services to access the Internet via their mobile phones. 3 However, with an eye towards future markets abroad, DDI and IDO asked their content providers to code their pages in HDML (Handheld Device Markup Language) used for the Wireless Access Protocol (WAP)34. Unsurprisingly, due to the costs and difficulties in transforming existing HTML-based Internet websites to EZ Web sites based on HDML, only a handful of content providers were willing to participate in the new service, driving DDI Cellular and IDO to purchase content until the number of subscribers was high enough for content providers to bear such costs voluntarily.In 2000, the two carriers merged to create ‘AU (access to you)'. Although the number of DDI and IDO subscribers was much smaller than DoCoMo's i-mode subscribers, they still remained competitive with 6. 7 million subscribers in 2001. (Exhibit 17) DoCoMo's other main rival, J-Phone responded to i-mode's su ccess by concentrating on improving transmission quality and adding content to its existing service (J-Sky Web), and upgrading its J-Sky service so that users could send and receive large e-mail messages (3,000 characters each) and view Internet content. 5 As with i-mode and EZ Web, all official J ­ Phone sites were accessible via the J-Phone portal and classified into nine categories. 36 By 32 This increase in revenue was due to the fact that ‘subscribers were using i-mode and voice-based communication services together, as they made phone calls after they searched restaurants and hotels on i ­ mode (‘lnterview: Keiji Tachikawa' in Shukan Diamond, 18 March 2000). 33 In addition to Internet access, the new EZ Web service offered subscribers e-mail services. They cou1d now send e-mails ofup to 250 characters and receive e-mails ofup to 2,000 characters on their cellu1ar phones.Furthermore, DDI Cellular and IDO offered PIM (Personal Information Management) services tha t were not offered by their competitors. By paying a 100 premium for address, schedule and task list functions, EZ Web subscribers were able to use their cellular phones more like PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants). DDI Cellu1ar and IDO initially offered these new EZ Web services by using circuit 1ine switching technology that was also used for their voice-based telecom services. None of them had yet a packet ­ switching network.Thus, unlike i-mode, they charged EZ Web subscribers for the connecting time rather than for the volume of data transrnitted to cellular phones (Exhibit 19). 34 DDI and IDO also asked a number oftheir content providers to connect directly to DDI Cellular and IDO's EZ Web servers, in order to secure confidentia1ity and stable transrnissions. 35 The amount of viewable content was also increased by allowing access not only to its own ‘official sites,' but also to HTML-based Internet sites and even to c-HTML-based i-mode sites by introducing MML (Mobile Markup Language) as the 1anguage for content.MML was another simplified version of HTML developed for simple mobile computing devices by J-Phone and Keio University in Tokyo. Although it was not accepted intemationally like c-HTML or HDML, it was very similar to HTML and made it easy for content providers to adapt their existing Internet websites, or even their i-mode sites, into MML-based J ­ Sky websites. 36 In a strategy to attract younger customers, J-Phone's content focuses on entertainment. ‘Keitai Denwa, PHS Kanzen Test (Cellular phones, PHS: Perfect test)', Nikkei Trendy, September 2000.Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC 9 08/2009-5079 INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute 2001, the new J-Sky service continued to attract many new – particularly adolescent – customers, totaling 6. 2 million subscribers in March 2001. {Exhibit 17) Without a Net As its competitors played catch-up, DoCoMo continued to power ahead in its quest for i ­ mode dominance in Japan. I n March 1999, a month after the launch of i-mode, it formed a strategic alliance with Sun Microsystems.Through the partnership, Sun and DoCoMo developed i-appli, a new i-mode application platform that allowed users to run a wider variety of programs, from video games to online fmancial services on their mobile phones. 37 A similar strategic partnership with Symbian, a UK-based wireless operating system company, led to the development of a new operating system adaptable to both PCs and mobile phones. On the content side, in the two years after launching i-mode, DoCoMo struck a number of partnerships with new content providers, ranging from Japan Net Bank (the frrst Internet bank in Japan) and Playstation. om, to AOL and Walt Disney. Furthermore, i-mode pioneered so ­ called machine-to-machine or M2M communications that allow i-mode users to purchase soft drinks and other sundries from Japan's huge network of vending machines. A joint venture with Dentsu, the largest advertising age ncy in Japan, led to the introduction of advertisements on i-mode, thereby providing a new source of revenue and attracting new content providers to the network. Through these and other partnerships the i-mode network swelled to 42,720 sites (1,620 official and 41,100 unofficial) by March 2001.Looking into the near future, DoCoMo had great hopes for entering the European and American markets and establishing i-mode as a global standard. In recent years, the Japanese mobile giant had been building its equity stakes in various foreign carriers (Exhibit 20), as well as applying for 3G licenses in markets inside and outside of Japan. In January 2001, while NTT DoCoMo was announcing plans to introduce i-mode in Europe38 a number of crucial questions needed answers. Were i-mode and its success easily transferable outside of Japan? Could DoCoMo make it work outside of Japan and should it use the same strategy?Despite i-mode's runaway success, DoCoMo faced a number ofkey domestic challenges . Its capital expenditures continued to soar as it built its new 3G services. Network congestion and interoperability between newer mobiles and the i-mode system continued to plague the company. In March 2001, under intense political pressure, DoCoMo was forced to reduce interconnection fees to other mobile phone operators. And with Vodafone's acquisition of a controlling stake in J-Phone, DoCoMo's guaranteed preeminence in the Japanese market carne under an increasingly dark cloud.How sustainable was NTT DoCoMo's advantage and what should its future moves be? Keiji Tachikawa, Ohboshi's successor, believed that NTT DoCoMo's future was bright. In the three years since the launch of i-mode, DoCoMo had become the only company to make money out of the mobile Internet. Its net income continued to rise to an all-time high of :Y:365. 5 billion in March 2001, and its market capitalization far exceeded its parent company, 37i-appli is based on Sun's popular, highly compatible Java prograrnmi ng language. Java allows application sharing across operating systems (e. . , between Microsoft Windows and Macintosh). 38 These initiatives are in partnership with KPN Mobile and Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM). Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC 10 08/2009-5079 NTT. In the fall of 2001, DoCoMo launched FOMA (â€Å"freedom of multimedia access†), the world's first 3G mobile network capable of video-telephony and the use of data and voice services simultaneously) while other promised 3G initiatives around the world languished.As Tachikawa said, â€Å"Anything mobile in society is a business opportunity for NTT DoCoMo†. 39 Maybe Mr. Ohboshi can finally get a good night's sleep. 39 ‘Interview: Keiji Tachikawa' in Shukan Diamond, 21 April2001. Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC 11 08/2009-5079 Exhihit 1 Number of Regular Mobile Phone/PHS Subscribers in ]apan (in million) Mar- Mar- Mar- Mar-Mar-Mar- Mar-Mar-Mar-Jan-99 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 Mobile phones0. 49 0. 87 1. 38 1 . 172. 13 4. 33 10. 20 20. 88 31. 53 39. 9 PHS 1. 51 6. 03 6. 73 5. 86 Total 0. 49 0. 87 1. 38 1. 712. 134. 33 11. 71 26. 9138. 25 45. 64 (Reference) Pagers4. 25 5. 08 5. 916. 69 8. 06 9. 35 10. 6110. 07 7. 12 4. 27 Fixed-line-54. 48 56. 2157. 60 58. 7859. 8861. 04 61. 46 60. 38 NIA Source: Ministry ofPublic Management, Home Affairs, Post and Telecommunications (MPHPT), Telecommunication Carriers Association (TCA), Statistics Bureau and Statistics Centre. Exhihit 2 Development of Regular Mobile Phones in ]apan Year Height Width Thickness Weight Battery Life 1979| 140| 50| 210| 2,400| NIA| 1985| 190| 55| 220| 3,000| 8| 987| 120| 42| 180| 900| 6| 1989| 175| 42| 77| 640| 9| 1991| 140| 47| 26| 220| 13| 1994| 143| 49| 29| 185| 20| 1995| 140| 42| 26| 155| 150| 1996| 130| 41| 23| 94| 170| 1997| 127| 40| 18| 79| 220| 1979| 140| 50| 210| 2,400| NIA| 1985| 190| 55| 220| 3,000| 8| 1987| 120| 42| 180| 900| 6| 1989| 175| 42| 77| 640| 9| 1991| 140| 47| 26| 220| 13| 1994| 143| 49| 29| 185| 20| 199 5| 140| 42| 26| 155| 150| 1996| 130| 41| 23| 94| 170| 1997| 127| 40| 18| 79| 220| {mm} {mm} {mm} {g} (hours} 1998 123 39 17 68 330 Source:NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic. Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC12 08/2009-5079 Mobile Phone Rates en 200,000 180,000 160,000 140,000 120,000 100,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 20,000 †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. .. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. _ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. -Deposit — Subscription fee – – – – – –  · Monthly basic charge (analogue) –Monthly basic charge (digital) r—â€Å"‘ ;;::-g, â€Å"‘ r—â€Å"‘ ;;::-g, â€Å"‘ o. _†¦.. O oN †¦. â€Å"Mo. Copyright © 2003lNSEAD-EAC Digital MOVA N503i HYPER (i-appli) (March 2001) Price: Open Weight: 98g Size: N/A Battery life: 460 hours -mode Packet Transmission Charges 18 Digital MOVA D503iS HYPER (i-appli) (September 2001) Price: Open Weight: 105g Size: N/A Battery life: 450 hours 08/2009-5079 Mymenu MenuList Mobile banking (balance information) Mobile banking (funds transfer) News Airline seat availability Restaurant guide TOWNPAGE (NTT telephone directory) Share prices (searching by issue code) Image download (downloading one still image the size ofthe display) i-melody (downloading one 3-chord melody approx. 15 seconds in length) Char es 2-3 3-4 20-21 59-60 17-18 24-25 37-38 35-36 26-27 7-8 2-3 -anime (downloading one moving image the size ofthe display) 10-11 i-mode mail transrnission charges| Sending| Receiving| 20 Full-size characters| 0. 9| 0. 9| 50 Full-size characters| 1. 5| 0. 9| 100 Full-size characters| 2. 1| 1. 2| 150 Full-size characters| 3. 0| 1. 5| 250 Full-size characters 4. 2 2. 1 Source:NTT DoCoMo. Exhihit 14 The Number of i-mode Compatible Sites 30000 c:::JNumber ofi-mode Wlofficial sites 60% 25 000 20000 15 000 10000 5 000 —+-% oftota l access 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% mars-99sept-99mars-00 Note: Number of sites in March 1999 is the number on 5 April 1999.Source: Natsuno (2000), p. 187. 0% sept-00 Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC19 08/2009-5079 —-.. –Blue Ocean Strategy Institute Exhihit 15 Retail Price per Unit and Market Size for Various Goods/Services (in FY 1999) ItemsAverage retail price (Yen) Weekly magazine300 Monthly magazine550-540 Newspapers (monthly)3,925-4,384 TV set97,130 Radio tape recorder19,680 Mobile computer games (Gameboy)8,900 Computer game software (Gameboy)3,000-4,900 Home PC207,000-227,000 Telephone (fixed-Jine)21,270 i-mode handsets35,900-42,800 Mobile phones (voice only)28,200-42,800 PHS handsets16,700-30,100Market size (thousands) 138,480 214,630 72,218 434,171 24,233 23,970 NIA 14,311 58,470 _R gJ 9_Q-_l ,? 9_Q _? ?_6_ . TV Jicense fees (month1y)1,345 Internet connection charges (month1y: fixed)8,050 2. 7 Yen per 1 min. Telephone bill (fixed line: monthly) Telephone bill (mobile: m onthly) Telephone bill (PHS: monthly) 8,198 10 Yen per 3 min. 9,270 45-120 yen per 3 min. 5,550 30-130 Yen per 3 min. Pager bill (monthly) 2,697 Note: – Telephone bilis are estimated from ARPU or Operating revenues. – Market size ofTV, Radio tape recorder and Home PC are estimated from their penetration rates. Market size of Gameboy is estimated from its outstanding units sold. Source: MPHPT, NTT DoCoMo, NTT, TCA, Dentsu Institute for Human Studies. Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC20 08/2009-5079 i-mode Monthly Subscriber Trend 25,000 70% Number of i-mode 20,000 15,000 10,000 5,000 subscribers (thousands) % of total subscribers 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% oilDllilhUWWllil WWWUUhllllilUL0% 0'1 0'1 0'1 0'1 0'1 0'1 o o o o o o †¦.. 1 1 1 1 1  § 1 1 1 1 1 1 1  § 1 1 0'1 0'1 0'1 0'1 0'1 0'1 o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o 13 †¦.. ()..!. () 13Source: NTT DoCoMo, TCA. ()Q) ()Q) †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. Exhihit 17 Number of Subscribers for Mobile Data Services on Cellular Phones t housands 35,000 30,000 25,000 20,000 –i-mode – — EZWeb –J-Sky 15,000 10,000 5,000 0+–+—4–+–+—4–4–+- 910, 910, 910, 910, 910, r;::,r::::. r;::,r::::. r;::,r::::. r;::,r::::. r;::,r::::. r;::,r::::. r;::,'. r;::,'. r;::,'. r;::,'. r;::,'. #;#;#; Source: TCA. Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC21 08/2009-5079 Blue Ocean Strategy lnstitute Exhihit 18 NTl' DoCoMo's Financia} Performance since the Launch ofi-mode million yen} Sales revenues| Mar-99| Mar-00| Mar-01| Mar-02E| | 3,118,398| 3,718,694| 4,686,004| 5,297,000| Revenues from packet data communication| 295| 38,500| NIA| NIA| Netincome| 204,815| 252,140| 365,505| 390,000| Operating margin| 16. 3%| 14. 7%| 16. 6%| 17. 4%| Net income margin| 6. 6%| 6. 8%| 7. 8%| 7. 4%| Market capitalization——————————————————————â €”———————–| 11,203,920| 40,314,960| 20,977,333| NIA———–| Capital expenditures| 845,900| 876,058| 1,012,795| 1,070,000| R&D Expenses| 41,100| 89,100| 95,400| NIA|Average monthly churn rate| 1. 75%| 1. 61%| 1. 39%| 1. 32%| Average month1y revenue per user (ARPU: yen)| 9,270| 8,740| 8,650| 8,580| ARPU from cellular phone service (yen)| NIA| 8,620| 7,770| 7,160| ARPU from i-mode (yen)| NIA| 120| 880| 1,420| Average monthly minutes ofuse per subscriber| 164| 177| 189| 195| Number of subscribers (thousands)| 23,897| 29,356| 36,026| 40,300| Number ofi-mode subscribers (thousands)| 140| 5,603| 21,695| 29,800| Market share| 57. 5%| 57. 4%| 59. 1%| NIA| Source:NTT DoCoMo. Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC2208/2009-5079Mobile Data Communication Services on Mobile Phones (as of Sept. 2000) | NTT DoCoMo| DDI Cellular(au)| IDO (au)| Tu-Ka| J-Phone| Service| i-mode| EZWeb| EZAccess| EZWeb| J-Sky| Functions|  œ Internet access- Internet mail transmission| – Internet access- Internet mail transmission- PIM services| – Internet access- Internet mail transmission- PIM services| – Internet access- Internet mail transmission- PIM services| – Internet access(J-Sky Web)- Internet mail transmission (J- Sky Walker)| NetworkPlatforms| PDC (800MHz)| cdmaOne(800 MHz)| cdmaOne(800MHz)| PDC (1. GHz)| PDC (1. 5 GHz)| CommunicationMethod(Speed)| Packet switching technology (9600 bps)| Circuit switching technology (14. 4 kbps)| Circuit switching technology (14. 4 kbps)| Circuit switching technology (9600 bps)| Circuit switching technology (9600 bps)| | | Packet switching technology (14. 4 kbps)| Packet switching technology (14. kbps)| | | Content| c-HTML| HDML (WAPbased)| HDML (WAPbased)| HDML (WAP based)| MML| Content Providers| Official: 1,000Unofficial: 24,032| Official: 368Unofficial: 1,600| Official: 258Unofficial: 2,700| E-mail size| Sendlreceive: 250 full characters| Se nd: 250 full charactersReceive: 2,000 full characters| Sendlreceive:3,000 characters| Fee CollectionServices| February 1999| March2000| July 2000| June 2000| April2000| Monthly Basic Charge (yen)| 300| Standard: 300Premium: 400| Standard: 200Premium: 400| Standard: 200Premium: 300| J-Sky Web: No chargeJ-Sky Walker:250| AccessFees| 0. 3 yenper 1 packet (= 128 bytes)| First 15 seconds free and 1O yen per 30 seconds thereafter| 1O yen per minute| First minute 3 yen and 10 yen per minute thereafter| J-Sky Web: 2 yen per single request1 replyJ-Sky Walker: 8 yen per message transmission| | | Packet comm. :0. 27 yen per 1 packet (= 128 bytes)| Packet comm. :0. 7 yen per 1 packet (= 128 bytes)| | | Handset (Nominal 1 Real retail prices: yen)| NECN502i(39,0001 18,800)Mitsubishi D209i(34,600 1 16,800)| Panasonic C308P (44,300 1 1,800)Sony C305S (45,8001 1,800)| Sharp J-SH03 (42,000 1 9,800)Toshiba J-T04 (42,000 1 7,800)| Panasonic TPOl(Open 1 4,800)Toshiba TI02 (Open 1 4,800)| Subscribers {_% ofmarket)| 12. 6 million(64. 2%)| 3. 9 million(16. 5%)| 0. 7 million(3. 3%)| 3. 1 million(16. 0%)| Service start| February 1999| Aprill999| November 1999| December 1999| Source: NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, MSDW, CSFB, TC. A, ‘Nikkei Trendy'Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC23 08/2009-5079 Blue Ocean Strategy Institute Exhibit 20 NTI' DoCoMo's Major Overseas Operations since 1999 2 March 1999 Joint test of 30 mobile communications system with Telephone Organization of Thailand and NEC 17 March 1999 Establishment of local corporation in Brazil 30 September 1999 Establishment ofUS subsidiaries 8 October 1999 Establishment of Joint Initiative toward Mobile Multimedia (JIMM) with 8 forei calliers 2 December 1999 Capital investment in Hutchison Whampoa (Hong Kong) 27 January 2000 W-CDMA field trials in South Korea with SK Telecom May2000Equity participation in KPN Mobile (the Netherlands) 27 June 2000 Establishment ofrepresentative office in Bemng, China 12 July 2000 Announcement of 30 mobile mul timedia strategic cooperation with Hutchison Whampoa and KPN Mobile 2 August 2000 Launch of Japan-South Korea roaming service with SK Telecom 29 S tember 2000 Establishment ofUK subsidiary and research lab in Oermany 30 November 2000 Capital investment in KG Telecomj_Taiwall}_ 30 November 2000 Capital investment in AT;T Wireless (US) 7 December 2000 Establishment ofadvisory board in US 8 January 2001 Announcement ofPan-European mobile Internet alliance with KPN Mobile and TIM Jltalyl 22 January 2001 Launch ofinternational roaming service in Europe, Asia Africa and Oceania 7 Novernber 2001 Agreernent with KPN Mobile to transfer and license technologies for i-mode-like services in Europe 18 February 2002 Agreement with E-Plus (Oermany) to transfer and license technologies for i-mode- like services in Europe (service launched on 16 March 2002) 1 March2002Listing ofstocks on London and New York Stock ExchangesNote: The dates shown above are the dates ofPress Releases from NTT DoCoMo (as ofMarch 2002). Source:NTT DoCoMo. (Other major partnerships to promote mobile multimedia servtces) 15 March 1999| Increased leve! ofrelationshiPs, S! mbian (UK)| 16 March 1999| Technological partnership, Sun Microsystems (US)| 17 March 1999| Fusion oftechnologies, increased leve! ofcooperation, Microsoft (US)| 14 June 2000| Increased level of relationships, 3Com {US)| 27 September 2000| Joint development of new Internet services, American Online (US)|Note: The dates shown above are the dates ofPress Releases from NTT DoCoMo (as ofSept. 2000). Source:NTT DoCoMo. Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC2408/2009-5079 Exhibit 21 Comparison between i-mode and the Internet | i-mode| Internet| Sex ofusers(Male: Female)| 57:43| 58:42| Age ofusers| Under 19:7%20-24:24%25-29:20%30-34: 12%35-39:8% Above 40: 27% Unknown:2%| Under 19: 2. 6%20-29:38. 1%30-39:38. 1%40-49: 15. 6% Above 50:4. 7% Unknown: 0. 9%| Price| Monthly basic charge of 300 yen+0. yen per 1 packet| Monthly basic charge of 1,480 yen + 8 yen per 3 minutes| Number ofusers(March 2001)| 21. 70 million| 17. 25 million| Note: – Prices exclude monthly basic charges for cellular phone and fixed line telecom services. Price for the Internet is based on KDDI's IP service rates. – Number of users for the Internet is the number of contracts with Internet providers excluding mobile telecom carriers. Source:MPT, NTT DoCoMo, KDDI. Copyright © 2003 INSEAD-EAC2508/2009-5079

Accounting Analysis of the 2011 Annual Report for Bank of Queensland Limited Essay Example for Free (#2011)

Accounting Analysis of the 2011 Annual Report for Bank of Queensland Limited Essay ? The aim of this report is to provide an accounting analysis of the 2011 annual report for Bank of Queensland Limited (BOQ), and a critique of the reporting of their performance. The report discusses the choice of accounting policies and the flexibility of these policies. The main objective of this report is to evaluate and recognise the possibility of using creative accounting within the company, recognise and questionable accounting numbers within items listed previously. A number of items have been selected from Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement. Bank of Queensland Limited (BOQ), has history of 137 years with network of over 280 branches operating in Queensland. It offers core banking (commercial/retail), equipment finance, wealth management and insuranceservices. BOQ is listed on the ASX and uses its unique concept of the Owner-Managed Branch (OMB),a partnership between the Bank of Queensland (franchisor) and experienced bank managers (franchisees) to provide banking services. 3. Description of key accounting policies and standards 3.1 Loans and advances at amortised cost (Asset) As shown on BOQ’s Balance sheet in FY11, loans and advances at amortised cost are big-ticket itemsin its assets accounting for approximately 98 per cent. According to the significant accounting policies explored by BOQ annual report 2011, loans and advances are originated by the bank and are recognised upon cash being advanced to the borrower. Based on AASB13, loans and advances are initially recognised at fair value plus incremental direct transaction cost using the effective interest method. 3.2 Deposits and borrowing (Liability) Deposits, as the one of the most important cash inflows of the bank, follow ruleAASB13 as well. They are initially recognised at fair value plus transaction costs and thenby using the effective interest method, they are measured at amortised cost. It is classified in two concentrations: retail deposits and wholesale deposits. This item follows AASB119Employee Benefits which has been amended in its accounting rules affecting the measurement of its obligations and the timing of recognition of termination benefits. Employee benefits can be classified to four categories: wages, salaries and annual leave; long service leave; superannuation plan and share based payments. 4. Flexibility of Management in Selecting the Key Accounting Policies It is undeniable that having flexiblemanagement can exert positive effects on the presentation of company’s annual financial report. Specifically, from the Bank of Queensland ´s perspective, if mangers have considerable adaptability in selecting the key accounting policies, the financial performance of Bank of Queensland Ltd can be improved; therefore more investors and customers would give priority to cooperating with them in the future. 4.1 Loan and Advances at Amortized Cost 4.1.1 Flexibility Analysis The measurement of loans and advances at amortized cost is extremelyfavourable to commercial banks. From BOQ’s consolidated financial annual report, the loan and advances at amortized cost accounted for around 83.3% of total assets in 2011, it had increased from 31,736,5 million to 33,276,1 million during 2010 to 2011. This change in $1539, 6 million was caused by impairment charges made by managers of the bank. The increase of loans and advances at amortized cost could enhance the customers trust in the bank. Sincefinancial funds, credit business and debts are the core business transaction of the banking industry, this itemappears to increase receivable accounts. Also, as banks could charge a reasonable rate of interest on such future loans/advances, they are able utilizethis income to pay current liabilities, wage and salaries of employees, and also the tax liability of business. Consequently, the BOQ’s managers have selected a flexible accounting policy in this item. Being dominant in the assets, loans and advances at amortized cost carries the burden of generating cash. The way that Bank of Queensland recognizes loans and advances at amortized cost can be separated to two phases. Initially, loans are recognized at fair value plus incremental direct transaction costs. Secondly, BOQ uses effective interest method to measure the amortized cost at each reporting date. The advantage of this accounting policy is that including direct transaction cost in the loan price can offset the actual transaction cost occurred and maximize the profit for the bank. Additionally, the effective interest method is considered as one of the prior methods for amortizing a bond discount. Theoretically, investors require a discount on bonds because the market interest rate at the time of issue is higher than the coupon payments on the bond. Therefore, by amortizing the discount at the market interest rate, accounting statement of Bank of Queensland will exactly reveal the economic reality of the bond issue and its true cost of debt. 4.2.1 Flexibility Analysis Due to the characteristics of banking industry, there is a high flexibility for management in these two liabilities. It is noticeable that deposits and borrowing accounted for about 97% of total liabilities on the balance sheet. Occupying 69% of total deposits, managers pay more attention to Retail Banking Services because of itsattractiveness to customers compared to other types of deposits. This policy states that securitization set-up costs relating to on-balance sheet assets are included with securitization borrowings, and amortization is recorded as interest expense. Initially, excluding off-balance sheet costs makes the liability much smaller and enlarges their net assets. Likewise, interest on debt is a tax-deductible expense and creates a tax shield benefiting Bank of Queensland. The major function for this policy is to save cash flows for BOQ. 4.3.1 Flexibility Analysis Employee expenses mainly consist of share based payments and employee benefits. All of these kinds of financial activities are beneficialto BOQ.The result from increasing incentives to employees applies as it encourages them to performenthusiasticallywhicheventuallyleads to higher profits for the firm. Among Employee Benefits, shared based payments are distinguished. The accounting policy demonstrates that Bank of Queensland allows employees to acquire its shares, options and rights sold recognized in the Employee Benefits Reserve. This expense could be reversed if the loss is not due to a market condition. This is highly beneficial as it encourages employees to purchase shares of their own company but, on the other hand, as more shares are sold, the higher price rises in the stock exchange. 5. Quality of Disclosure Made in BOQ Accounts The quality of disclosure in the BOQ ´s policies, strategy, performance and financial statements and reports is satisfactory as it provides accessible, transparent and fairly justified information. As the BOQ is a listed company, it has to comply with all ASX disclosure policies and reporting but in addition it also complies with the ASX Corporate Governance Recommendations as well as the Australian Prudential Standards (APS) (Profit Announcement 2011). In the profit announcement report for 2011, BOQ discloses a number of disclosure principles which include management, board structure, ethical and responsible decision making, financial reporting, timely and balanced disclosure, respect rights of shareholders, recognize and manage risk, remuneration. 5.1 Business Strategy and Economic Consequences The business strategy and economic consequences are disclosed in the notes to the annual report in terms of the risk management of the company. As it explains in these notes the bank approach is to manage its risk in terms of credit risk, market risk, liquidity, operational risk, compliance policies and capital management. As it states in the annual report there is a high level of assessment and monitoring of these risks in order to follow the company ´s strategy. 5.2 Notes to the Financial Statements – Explanation of Policies The notes to the financial statements and reports do provide an explanation to the bank ´s management policies. According to the 2011 Annual Report these policies provide effectiveness and efficiency in terms of managing the risks described above as well as creating controls to support growth and competitive advantage. An example of these policies in 2011 was a strong expense management which lead them to reduce their cost-to-income ratio from 45.8% to 44.5%. Moreover, these policies provide regulatory compliance as well as performance management. 5.3 Explanation of Current Performance BOQ through its yearly Profit Announcement Report clearly explains its current performance in terms of its principal activities. It states its current level of profitability and the main reasons for any losses. As well as these profit or losses explanations the report shows explanations for changes in expenses, asset growth, retail deposit growth, branch network expansion and capital management. In terms of financial conventions that restrict the firm as a banking institution, the main one is the Basel II Accord in which the bank is obligated to maintain capital adequacy requirements. In the 2011 Annual report is mentioned that Tier 1 capital made up of equity capital and disclosed reserves was higher than required by Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). Moreover, AASB 124 Related Party Disclosures is additionally disclosed in order to understand the impact on the firm. Moreover it discloses all its consolidated statements for all subsidiaries of the group following all consolidation standards. The quality of the segment disclosure for BOQ is sufficient as it discloses its two operating segments, and since the bank operates only in Queensland, it does not need geographical segmentation. It discloses the high level metrics for both of the banking and insurance segments as well as consolidated totals (Annual Report 2011 pg. 89). Also, following consolidation requirements it eliminates inter-company transactions (Annual Report 2011 pg. 89). The most important and questionable numbers can be seen in the yearly Profit Announcement where BOQ announced a net loss after tax of 90.6 million AUD. The explanation for this loss was attributed to significant impairment charges. As the income analysis shows that the company made a reasonable operating income loss, but the large part of the loss was due to a revision of their commercial loans and provisioning approach. They decided to increase these specific commercial loan provisions more than close to 90 million due to the continuous decline in commercial property in Queensland. Along with loan impairments, the bank also impaired a substantial amount of assets, also because of the decline if commercial property. Furthermore in the Directors Report in 2011 there were some potential red flags regarding remuneration. As the bank went through a restructure last year there were a number of high level managerial positions that changed in this period. During this transition there were a number of payments classified as  ´others` that did not have a clear explanation. An example of this includes a payment of half a million dollars to the previous CEO to  ´ensure a smooth transition` between him and the newly appointed CEO. While taking into account the Director ´s report is audited by KPMG, this payment seemed excessive. Based on previous parts, the conclusion has arrived that BOQ suffered net loss of $90.6 million because of the tremendous growth in impairment loss. The footnote disclosures in the Profit Announcement provide the composition of the impairment loss. According to note 11, loan impairment expenses totalled $327.7 million. $165.7 million of this amount is specific provision impairment and the rest $162 million relates to collective provision. Moreover, impairment loss for assets also amounts to $578.7 million. Note 4suggests that BOQ ´s management increase its impairment loss based on their estimates of dropping commercial property market. However, this estimate comes from historical experience and professional judgment. In contrast, the estimate might be different from actual results. Therefore, distortions may arise resulting from overstated impairment loss. In order to undo the distortion, the impairment loss should have been adjusted to a lower level with fewer provisions. Even before the Profit Announcement of BOQ came out, many financial reporters foresaw the net loss of BOQ resulting from increasing impairment loss. The downturns in tourism and recent natural disasters impacted Queensland’s economy negatively, and the conditions in Queensland were expected to remain challenging in the future because of strong Australian dollar. As a result, for BOQ— a company that is highly exposed to Queensland housing market, the current poor performance of might not change in short term.Following by the poor performance, BOQ isnow struggling to keep regulators happy and keep its capital at acceptable level. On 26 March 2012, BOQ announced aequity rising of $450 million. However, by doing this, the existing shareholders of BOQ will be heavily diluted and it will cause its share price to drop significantly. Accounting Analysis of the 2011 Annual Report for Bank of Queensland Limited. (2017, Feb 07).

Healthcare Consultancy description. Formal Report Essay

Healthcare Consultancy description. Formal Report - Essay Example After a thorough exercise, the consultant pinpoints the grey areas and suggests remedial measures to the management for improvement. The educational requirement for choosing this profession is a bachelor’s degree or a master's degree from a certified pharmacy school or college. The health care institution hires qualified consultants either on a full time basis or a part time basis as the case may be to seek their assistance to address the problematic areas to improve organizational efficiency and to re-organize existing structure in the light of the consultant’s recommendations. Corporate entities usually acquire the services of healthcare consultant to identify the loopholes in their system and its rectifications. However, companies that are small in size hire them when they feel it necessary or when they feel that one of the segment of the business is not performing to the desirable level. In order to streamline the things at their end, the health care business entity, hire the services of consultant to identify grey areas in their business and its possible solutions. The whole exercise requires initial research and to examine the data relating to the specific problem. The exercise in question comprised head counts, revenue generation capacity besides interviewing the existing employees of low and high profile to understand the on going problem. After completion of research, consultant has to submit his/her comprehensive report in black and white. In addition to that, an oral meeting between the client and the healthcare consultant could be fruitful provided that the findings are openly discussed in an appropriate forum. Requirements What sort of education is needed by the healthcare consultant? In general, aspirant applicant for the employment should be a bachelor or a master degree holder in his/her profession. However, the academic requirement may vary in accordance with the need of the employer. The employer prefers those degree holders (bachelor or master) who have majors like economics, marketing, human resource and business. Specialization in healthcare would be an added qualification (Education-portal.com, 2013). It is interesting to note that certification is not a mandatory requirement for the chosen career. The apex Institute offers designation to healthcare consultants who have good references and the required education. In order to keep the designation intact, healthcare consultant re-validates the certificate after every three years (Education-portal.com, 2013). There are number of educational institutions in the United States of America, which are providing online quality education. One such example is

Check Your Understanding Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Check Your Understanding - Assignment Example Destructive conduct in made by a person and endorsed by the community, members. Natural morality revolves around human evolution than what has been acquired from the environment. Moral behavior is outgrown from the animals. The human beings are social being and therefore they derive moral out of interactions and are passed to the next generation in life. Empathy is the nature of animals and human beings are not excluded. They walk together in groups and also hunt in groups out of these interaction they inherit morality. On the contrary transcendent morality is the morality that goes beyond the world and the visible things that can be seen. It goes beyond the physical world and tries to explain what bring people together in marriage sports and pledging their allegiance to the state. Moral judgment is the process in which character traits, belief systems motives and opinions are measured against the standard good. There are standard set that are used for judgment failure to meet these standards will lead to automatic disqualification. These standards are based on the individual’s knowledge, integration and experience. As moral judgment primarily focuses on discussion, aesthetic judgment focuses the beauty and ugliness which are part of life. Beauty and ugliness lack the standards of measurement but depends on how they are perceived by different people. Perception determines how an object is beautiful or ugly. The completeness and proportionality of a beautiful object is difficult to arrive at. Behavior can be considered in one context as beautiful while in a different context as ugly it depends on the perception and interpretation in the mind. Moral objectivists are those people that believe that reality is independent of consciousness. Human beings have direct contact with the reality though the sense of perception and

Consumer behavior theory to develop a sound marketing plan for a Essay

Consumer behavior theory to develop a sound marketing plan for a hypothetical product or service - Essay Example This maximum capacity of plant production especially if the demand is high cannot completely compete with other paint producing company. This remains one of the big challenges of the company that it takes into consideration at present time. Aside from continuing innovation of its products, Paint X Corporation continuous to aim for strong market penetration. Although situated in London, Paint X Corporation is providing quality paints in the international market. It is in this regard that the market segmentation variables are needed to be analysed based on the international level. Paint X Corporation is supplying paints across Europe, Asia and through out the entire world. Based on this consideration, it cannot be denied that the company’s consideration of its segmentation variables is a bit complicated. Everything needs to be designed based on a universal approach on geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioralistic consideration. On geographic consideration, various competing paint manufacturers in Europe are good reasons to create more innovative quality paints. This is clear when cost of raw materials was considered in order to compete with multinational companies (Renart and Pares, 1991). The world is such a huge market. Around 6 billion people today are living in the world (Sheffield, 1998). This is a potential mark et considering that these people need shelter and quality way of life. Paints are part of visual effects. Visual effects are said to influence people’s perceived usability, satisfaction and pleasure (Moshagen and Thielsch, 2010). Colors from paints bring decorative appeal (Smith et al., 2003). Paints are used everywhere and this only implies higher significant acceptance of these products. Maslow believed that humans have five hierarchies of needs and these are physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualization (Robins and Timothy, 2010). In the event that the first need is substantially satisfied,

Research Paper on a Terrorist Group Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

On a Terrorist Group - Research Paper Example The â€Å"Al Qaeda† was formed in Afghanistan in 1989 to fight the members of the Soviet Union in that country. During that time, the Soviet Union wanted to suppress a budding Islamic Revolution. Thus, the founders of Al Qaeda wished to counter this oppression under the common banner of Islam. A huge number of Arab Afghans travelled from all parts of the Arab world to participate in this â€Å"jihad† and enrolled at the recruitment camp of the organization at Peshawar, situated at the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden and Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri arrived at Peshawar and took over the leadership of the group. During the beginning the organization functioned as a hierarchical structure to facilitate its participation in the war against the Soviets. This arrangement helped the group to send military troops and war aids to Afghanistan and gradually prepared the organization to launch a concerted attack on the countries of the Western world. Thus, during the e arly years of its formation, the Al Qaeda was a highly structured and systematically arranged organization. After the Soviet troops were defeated in Afghanistan, the group changed its structure into a network organization. (Mishal, Rosenthal, 2005, p 3) The Al Qaeda can be classified as an international political terrorist organization. In the opinion of Mishal and Rosenthal (2005), the organization followed a hierarchical order in the beginning and later changed into a network organization. After the attack on Afghanistan in 2001, it assumed the form of a Dune organization. During the time, when the Al Qaeda was engaged in a war with the Soviets in Afghanistan, the group was a hierarchical organization. It was divided into small units which were arranged like pyramids under the group’s common leadership. After its transformation into a network-based organization, the structures within the group were redefined. Al Qaeda became more of a transnational organization which was willing to direct its activities towards multiple causes. During the period 1998 – September 2001, the terrorist group operated as a network organization. (Mishal, Rosenthal, 2005, p 2) Objectives The Al Qaeda was initially formed to counter the Sovi et Union’s attack on the growing Islamic revolution in Afghanistan. After the defeat of the Soviet troops, the group became a transnational organization which was engaged in pursuing a number of causes as its objectives. In February 1998, Osama bin Laden brought together a group of state-level Muslim leaders and organizations to form the â€Å"World Islamic Front for Jihad against the Jews and Crusaders (IIF)†. The IIF formulated its objectives in accordance with the World Islamic Front Statement of 1998: to free the al-Aqsa mosque and the Holy Mosque of Mecca from the hold of America and it allied nations, it was the duty of every Muslim to extricate civil and military citizens of USA and its allies. They were free to carry out their mission in any country which they

Financial Reporting and Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Financial Reporting and Analysis - Essay Example n laid down by the IASB and the FASB together with the intension of providing a sound future for the accounting standards which have moved to becoming more principals based, internally consistent and internationally converged. This paper has also dealt with the pros and cons of this framework and the agreements are based around the ‘international’ conceptual framework. The IASB is a board which aims at developing and helping to improve the general purpose financial statements, to make sure that it meets to the public interest (Mill, et.al., 2003). The IASB is one of the single high qualities, simple to understand and also one of the only global accounting standards which needs complete information of the general purpose financial statements. The International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) has made various proposals to improve the conceptual framework for financial reporting. The International Accounting Standard Board has proposed to improvise the objectives of the General Purpose Financial Reports (Kitabjian, 2008). The International Accounting Standard Board has focused on improving the General Purpose Financial Reports for potential investors and lenders. They suggest that the report aims at these groups of individuals to help them make informed decisions regarding their capital investments (IASB, 2008). The IASB also works in cooperation wi th the national accounting standard setters which provides for a meeting point for all the accounting standards from across the world. The use of fair value as opposed to the historical cost accounting has always been quite a controversial choice. In this case the use of fair value would prove to be more beneficial when compared to the historical cost accounting as this would have reduced the impact of the credit crunch. In the time of a credit problem and a troubled economy, the use of fair value is one which is most beneficial. The use of fair value is beneficial majorly because the use of the fair value provides

Education Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Education - Assignment Example Education helps discover the hidden talent and potential of an individual and then work on it to improvise it. Education does not only mean studying in schools and earning good grades. The true essence of education lies in discovering the inner being and transforming it into a cultured, intellectual figure. In this research, we shall analyze the evolution of education into one of the most important needs for mankind. We shall study the effects of education on our societies. We shall also discuss the power that an educated person has in the society, to make a change. Education has made man come out of the caves and transform his world into a place full of opportunities and convenience. In the ancient times when education was not very common, it was basically perceived orally and by observing things. A standard form of education had not developed in the societies. Due to this, knowledge about things in the environment and life was transferred informally from the elders to their young. This transferred knowledge was different for all adults since every human perceives and observes their surroundings in a different manner. As humans became more aware about their surroundings, they realized the need of a standard form of education. This evolved into a concept of formal education which was not given by their household members, in the context of religion, customs (Hughes, More). This was the step towards a formal learning process for mankind. After some time, societies and civilizations started becoming more complex and people started working on acquiring skills to earn their livelihoods. This created an eagerness to learn more from skillful people and a realization that they should learn useful things from experienced people on the job side for example; agriculture, fishing, preservation of food, stone work, metal work, construction, boat building etc. Literacy was more related to administration of the

Conflict Between Research and Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Conflict Between Research and Ethics - Essay Example These are countered though by the Nuremberg Code, the Declaration of Helsinki and the acts of the American and other medical associations. The world has been beset and besieged by various viruses and ailments that up to now remedies and cures are not yet available despite medical interventions and researches. While scientists have yet to find a cure for cancer and AIDS, mutated and virulent strains of viruses have cropped up to claim numerous lives while helpless governments watch in desperation as their citizens fall prey to these esoteric diseases. In 1918, Swine Flu made its ghastly entrance in Fort Riley, USA and immediately worked to wipe out half a million people. It reappeared in Russia in 1933 and in 1976 went back to USA to annihilate more people. Medical researchers frenetically worked to find an immunization remedy for this and vaccinated by government edict, some 40 million Americans. But to their horror, a new strain of disease was generated as a side effect which caused serious neurological disorders. This was named Guillain-Barre Syndrome and victimized 1098 people, 25 of whom died (Orr,2007,pp.21,23). R esulting to manifold lawsuits, this was one case where medical research floundered. Meantime, the swine flu made its presence felt again in Mexico in April 2009 and in a new mutated form which is called A(H1N1) and quickly spread to 30 countries infecting 12,515 people, 91 of which succumbed to death (Reuters, http://http://h1n1virus.us). In most of these cases, governments, in their desire to contain the disease, forcibly vaccinate those afflicted with the antiviral drug Tamiflu or Relenza which medical researchers had come up with to fight the mutated swine flu disease (Reuters, http://h1n1virus.us). Other virulent viruses that made medical researchers work against time to halt them before they bring down more people were the Asian Flu which originated in China in 1957 and killed some 70,000 Americans and 2 million people globally (Orr,2007,p.21); the Ebola Virus which internal and external hemorrhagic symptoms were truly frightening but which was contained only within Zaire and Sudan where it wiped out 400 people (Williams & Wilkins,2008,p.1010); the Avian flu in 1997; SARS in 2003(Friedlander,2009,pp.111-7) and HIV/AIDS virus, first identified in 1981 but which up to now continues to rage and has already killed 2.1 million people while infecting 33.2 million people worldwide (UNAIDS,WHO,2007). The Role of Modern Medical Research Hereinabove, it is clear that medical research has to be maximized in order to save lives from all these virulent strains of viruses that threaten to wipe out humanity from the face of the earth. Only the efforts of medical researchers can save humanity from a life-threatening devastation of the magnitude of bubonic plague which once wiped out of existence 1/3 of Europe or 25 million people from 1346-50 alone. The pioneering efforts of medical researchers to discover drugs such as streptomycin, gentamicin, tetracyclines and chloramphenicol in order to put to stoppage the havoc of devastation inflicted by The Black Death all over the world from 542 to 1950, was

Tomboy Essay Example for Free

Tomboy Essay The elder sister, Laure, is a little â€Å"different†. Not much attention is given to her at first until her â€Å"differences† start to cause problems in the neighborhood, and for the family. Laure is a tomboy, which by definition is: â€Å"an energetic, sometimes boisterous girl whose behavior and pursuits are considered more typical of a boy than a girl†. Laure is not only like this with her behavior, but also with her appearance! If the information of her being female was not splayed to the viewer in the film, it wouldn’t be apparent she was a girl. At first, it seems as though she sees herself as a female, but dresses and acts like a boy. But, once the neighborhood kids mistake her for a boy, she fills the role and does everything in her power to make sure it stays that way, whether it be by lying, hiding, changing her name, altering her body, or mimicking the behavioral or realational values of a male. A main point in the film is that Laure made a friend, a female friend named Lisa, and nobody thought, not even Laure, that she’d ever have a female companion besides her little sister. Laure walked, talked, and dressed like a boy, and told everybody she had a boy’s name. It was pretty obvious that everybody took a liking to â€Å"him†. Childhood love soon bloomed, but, let’s not forget the fact that Laure is actually a girl. Laure has a loving family. At the age of six, Jeanne, Laure’s younger sister is dragged into the situation. She is wildly confused by her sister’s behavior, it seems at one out, but unusually accepting of it at the same time. When the odds of her deceiving behavior stack against her, Laure finds herself having to face her peers, and a bewildered mom who asks her, â€Å"Why did you tell everyone in the neighborhood you were a boy? †, and a frazzled and upset Laure just looks up at her mom and says, â€Å"I don’t know†. In a child’s mind, what could they be thinking? She is only ten, in yet, has spun herself into something so complicated that even adults, cultures, and societies still cannot grasp it. My inquiry is: What compels Laure to do this? Why would she pretend to be a boy? The world today has many contemporary issues. Many times in the movie the issue of sexuality is breached. In â€Å"Tomboy†, it is highly implied that the main character, Laure, may be a closeted transgender boy; She, of course ,does not understand this. In the film, when the way she thinks and feels is challenged by her peers and family, Laure becomes very upset. My point being that something so complex to understand, and then be able to put it on a big screen, had to take some amazing actors. The majority of the cast were children, and I could honestly say the thespians of the screenplay were so superb with their acting, that this movie could be mistaken for a visual documentary instead of a fiction film. The setting is summertime in modern day France right outside of Paris in a small neighborhood. This setting is so fitting for this type of heart-warming drama. Summer in France is fun and festive, and it enjoys pleasantly hot temperatures, and experiences occasional rain showers in the night. Expect to see beautiful flowers blooming and exquisite gardens. In the film, the child would roam about the woods near the home, giving the viewer multiple chances to see the beautiful trees, and weather of France! When watching this display of gorgeous visuals and the seemingly relaxed atmosphere, it gives you the illusion that the small area of complexes holds no secrets, and the summer is lazy, serene and full of fun! Like the children in the movie, after seeing the scenery, all I wanted to do was go down to the creek, and bask in the warm afternoon sun. Like the director’s debut film, â€Å"Water Lilies†, â€Å"this film deals with early formative concepts of gender in a truly beautiful, emotive, captivating and accurate way†. Both films were also primarily about females. Although the films were similar on the storyline concept, they were also very different. In the film â€Å"Tomboy†, it was implied that the main character, Laure, had done some similar behavior as such before, as her little sister, Jeanne, threatened to tell their mom that Laure was â€Å"acting like a boy†. The main female character in the film â€Å"Water Lilies†, was friends with her companions in the film for years, it was portrayed as it was because they’d been on a competing swim team together. Her exploration of this concept seemed to be totally new, and very much unintended. Overall, I liked â€Å"Tomboy† better as a movie, because it was just so tender and warming, whereas â€Å"Water Lilies† was, in a way, awkward. The movie definitely puts an interesting aspect on a troublesome issue in society, international film critic, John Frosch, states, â€Å"Brisk, Precisely observed, and bracingly non-preachy in its examination of a very tricky subject. I couldn’t have agreed more with his statement, simply because this is a very slippery subject. New York Times critic, Manohla Dargis, disagrees on the films superb approach, â€Å"The story that emerges in programmatic and largely unsurprising, but these children give it messiness, joy, and life. I can’t say I agree with her whole statement, but at least she acknowledges that the children did a phenomenal job with acting. The film to me is beautifully and daringly crafted because it implies that sometimes these things are judged in ways they shouldn’t be when it is not fully understood. Laure cannot comprehend the â€Å"troubles† society and her culture may give her, she doesn’t even understand why she acted this way. So, how can anyone judge her actions? Furthermore, I want to say again that the story, acting, and setting of this film was marvelous, and the film is an absolute must see for anyone who understands the value of the simplicity of childhood.

History of Camarines Norte Essay Example for Free

History of Camarines Norte Essay From 1573 to 1829, Camarines Sur and Camarines Norte formed only one political unit known as Ambos Camarines. In 1829, they were separated but reunited again in 1854. They again separated in 1857 to be reunited again in 1893. This union continued until 1919. On March 3, 1919, Camarines Norte was reestablished by the Philippine Legislature in Act 2809. When Camarines Norte was separated from Ambos Camarines in 1829, it was assigned the towns of Daet, as capital, Talisay, Indan (now Vinzons), Labo, Paracale, Mambulao (now Jose Panganiban), Capalonga, Ragay, Lupi and Sipocot. Seventeen years later, it lost Sipocot, Lupi and Ragay to Camarines Sur in exchange for the town of Siruma. Juan de Salcedo, dispatched by Legazpi to explore the island in 1571, influenced the existence of Camarines Norte. After subduing Taytay and Cainta, he marched further across Laguna and Tayabas. He visited the rich gold-laden town of Mambulao and Paracale, obsessed by them about which he heard from natives there of existing gold mines. When Francisco de Sande took over from Legazpi as Governor General, Spanish influence started to be felt in the region. He established a permanent Spanish garrison in Naga to control the region and defend it from Chinese and Muslim pirates. Capt. Pedro de Chavez was assigned to head this force. There were already native settlements here when the Spaniards arrived. The flourishing towns of Mambulao and Paracale were two of them. Indan and Daet were the other settlements besides Capalonga and others. But Paracale remained the most sought after because of its gold mines. ** The national hero Jose P. Rizal and other Filipino expatriates who lived in Madrid and other cities of Spain, called ‘Los Indios Bravos,’ established â€Å"La Solidaridad,† their publication advocating for reforms in the Philippines from the Spanish governm ent. One of the editors of ‘La Solidaridad’ was Jose Maria Panganiban, born in Mambulao (now Jose Panganiban) on February 1, 1863. Lovingly dubbed by his compatriots the â€Å"Avenger of Filipino Honor† or â€Å"El Vengador del Honor Filipino,† this genius, nationalist, scientist and writer died on August 19, 1890 at age 27 of pulmonary tuberculosis in Barcelona, Spain. His remains were brought back to the Philippines by Dr. Domingo Abella in 1958 and to Jose Panganiban in 1985 – 122 years to the day since his birth – â€Å"to rest in eternal repose in the bosom of his beloved native town (Mambulao) on February 1† by MP Roy B. Padilla, Sr., Batasang Pambansa. The entire country and province respectively bestowed upon him a belated but rousing honors. The towns were chiefly inhabited by Tagalogs; the rests were of Visayan strain. However, most of the immigrants were from Mauban, Quezon. The Spanish missionaries did not falter in their mission to Christianize the natives. ** Daet Revolt : APRIL 14-17, 1898 Local members of the Katipunan led by Ildefonso Moreno and other illustrious patriots staged an uprising against the Spanish authorities here who have fortified themselves in the house of one Florencio Arana, a Spanish merchant and a long time resident of Daet. Sporadic encounters started on April 14 until April 16 when the rebels occupied Daet and surrounded the Spaniards in the house of Arana. But the Katipuneros failed to repulse the reinforcements which arrived in Barra (now Mercedes) from Nueva Caceres on April 17. Said reinforcements broke the siege of Daet. This resulted in the death and/or execution of many patriots, including Ildefonso Moreno, Tomas Zaldua and his two sons, Jose Abaà ±o, Domingo Lozada and Aniceto Gregorio, among others. While the Daet revolt collapsed, it signaled the start of a series of rebellion throughout the Bicol region. ** Another illustrious son of Camarines Norte, Gen. Vicente R. Lukban of Labo wrote a golden page in the history of the province in particular and the country in general. On September 28, 1901, Sunday, he led Filipino rebels, armed only with bolos and sharpened bamboo poles, in an attack against the contingent of American forces in Balangiga, Samar. Only 36 troopers of Company C, 9th Infantry Regiment of the US Forces survived the attack against 16 casualties among the Filipino rebels, giving the encounter its famous label â€Å"Balangiga Massacre† in Philippine history. This feat of arms is celebrated annually in Balangiga, Samar, and in Camarines Norte, with appropriate activities. By virtue of Act 2809 of March 3, 1919, Governor General F. B. Harrison separated Camarines Norte from Camarines Sur with the installation of Don Miguel R. Lukban as its first governor. â€Å"In functional sense, April 15, 1920, was the date of the organization of Camarines Norte, as directed by Executive Order No. 22 dated March 20, 1920, in conformity with the provisions of Act No. 2809,† according to Serafin D. Quiason, former chairman of the National Historical Institute (NHI). Presently, Camarines Norte consisted of 12 towns: Basud, Capalonga, Daet, Jose Panganiban, Labo, Mercedes, Paracale, San Lorenzo Ruiz, San Vicente, Sta. Elena, Talisay and Vinzons. Daet remained as its capital town. ** Wenceslao Q. Vinzons, Sr. Lawyer, orator, labor leader, writer, youngest delegate to the 1935 Constitutional Convention and youngest signatory of the Charter at the age of 25, governor in 1940 and congressman-elect in 1941, this provincial hero, refusing to surrender, evacuated the provincial government during the Japanese occupation to the hinterlands of Labo and led a guerrilla force against the Japanese forces here, capturing one town after another in Camarines Norte; organized an all-out attack on Daet, the capital town, and captured it on May 3, 1942; ***together with his father Gavino Vinzons and then Gov. Basilio Bautista, he was captured on July 8, 1942, but he refused vehemently to collaborate with the Japanese; ***few days later his wife Liwayway and children Aurora and Alexander were likewise abducted; he and his father mysteriously disappeared on August 7, 1942; â€Å"the remains of Vinzons, his father, his wife and two children had never been found;† the town of Indan where he was born on September 28, 1910, was re-named Vinzons in his honor and became the venue of the province-wide annual celebration of his birth anniversary. ** First Guerilla Encounter The first guerilla encounter in the Philippines during the second world war in the Pacific, occurred on December 18, 1941 11 days after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941 and 10 days after the attack on Clark Airbase in Pampanga on Dec. 8, 1941 at Laniton, Basud, Camarines Norte when the Vinzons guerrilla group with some elements of USAFFE units engaged the vanguard of the Japanese Imperial Army advancing towards Daet, the capital town; a shrine was put up in Laniton to mark this historic feat of arms while surviving veterans and the sons and daughters of veterans who fell commemorate this event every Dec. 18 with fitting programs and activities in Basud and Daet under the auspices of the Veterans Federation of the Philippines – Camarines Norte Chapter (VFP-CN), Basud Municipal Government and the Provincial Government.

Analysis of One-step Self-etch Adhesive Systems

Analysis of One-step Self-etch Adhesive Systems Abstract: Purpose: To evaluate the performance of two types of one-step self-etch adhesive systems and one type of two-step etch-and-rinse (as a control) by examining the resin-dentin interface and assessing the nano-leakage. Materials and Methods: Cervical class V cavities were prepared in 30 sound human premolars. Two types of one-step self-etch adhesive, G-Bond (GB) and Adper Prompt L-Pop(APL), and one type of two-step etch-and-rinse adhesive, Excite (Ex), were used to bond the composite restorations. The restored teeth were incubated in water at 37ÂÂ ±1 oC for 24 h. Fifteen were subjected to further immersion in 50% ammoniacal silver nitrate solution for 24 h and soaked in photo-developing solution for 8 h. All teeth were sectioned across the bonding surface in bucco-lingual direction. The cut surfaces were polished, followed by 6N HCL application for 45s. All surfaces were metal coated before conducting the ultra-morphological observation, using the Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FE-SEM), to characterize the hybrid layer and evaluate the nanoleakage. Results: A significant difference in the thickness of the hybrid layer was evident between all adhesive systems (ANOVA, p Conclusion: GB provides a nano-interaction layer at the dentin/adhesive interface that seems to play an important role in minimizing the degree of associated nanoleakage. Keywords:Â  Dentin adhesive, interface characterization, nano-leakag, one-step adhesives Introduction Although gap-free margins at the dentin/restoration interface could be achieved with some adhesive systems utilizing the total-etch technique, Sano et al., have described another pattern of leakage, by observing the penetration of silver nitrate along gap-free margins by the aid of either scanning (SEM) or transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Since leakage was found to occur within the nanometer-sized spaces around the collagen fibrils within the hybrid layer, it has been termed nano-leakage[1-5]. The nano-leakage usually represents permeation laterally through the hybrid layer and could be the result of the incomplete infiltration of adhesive resin into the demineralized dentin[3]. This kind of leakage may also allow the penetration of bacterial products or oral fluids along the interface, which may result in hydrolytic breakdown of either the adhesive resin or collagen within the hybrid layer, thereby compromising the stability of the resin-dentin bond[5]. In spite of the technique-associated difficulties, previous studies indicated the efficiency of 50% silver nitrate solution in detecting nano-leakage within the hybrid layer[3,6,7]. However, the acidity of that solution (pH = 3.4-4.5), during long time immersion could induce demineralization around the edges of the restorations, particularly into the partially-demineralized dentin, leading to false positive results[7-9]. The modified silver-staining technique was recently suggested to overcome the drawback of silver nitrate solution. It utilizes 50 wt% ammoniacal silver nitrate having pH measured at 9.5 aiming to eliminate the possibility of dentin dissolution at the hybrid layer[10]. Although the nano-leakage for various adhesive systems and its influence on bond strength have been evaluated in previous studies[11,12]. As well as the effect of different parameters as thermo-cycling and etching time on nano-leakage, this in vitro study aimed to evaluate the thickness of the interaction layer and nano-leakage of 2 types of one-step adhesive systems and one type of two-step etch-and-rinse (as a control)[8,13]. The null hypothesis tested was that the one-step adhesive system (G-Bond) might offer better adhesion to cavity walls via formation of a nano-interaction zone instead of the traditional hybrid layer. Materials and Methods Thirty sound freshly extracted premolars of patients indicated for orthodontic treatment were collected. The collected teeth were cleaned using the Pro-sonic 300 MTH (Sultan Chemists, Englewood, NJ, USA), and examined to ensure the absence of cracks using a binocular microscope at 20x magnification (Olympus Co., Tokyo, Japan). The selected teeth were stored in deionized water that contained antibacterial agent (0.2% sodium azide) for a maximum of 1 month[14]. Using No. 330 bur (Brasseler USA, Savannah, GA, USA) at high speed with copious air/water spray, standardized 2 mm deep class V cavities were prepared at the buccal surfaces 0.5 mm coronal to the cement-enamel junction of all teeth. The prepared margins were all placed in enamel. A metal, buccal-fitted, index was used to guide the external cavity outlines and a rubber stopper hanged to the burs shank has aided in determining the accurate cavity depth. All the prepared cavities were thoroughly rinsed with water and air-dried before receiving the composite restorations. Table1.shows the description and manufacturers of materials used in this study. Two one-step, self-etch (G-Bond); and (Adper Prompt L-Pop) adhesive systems were used to retain the Tetric Ceram hybrid composite restorations. In addition, 1 two-step, etch-and-rinse (Excite) adhesive system was also selected to serve as control (n= 10 cavities for each). The self-etch adhesive systems were applied to the prepared cavities and left for 10s before air thinning. Curing of both self-etching adhesives was performed by the use of a light-curing device (Hawe-Neos, Gentilino, Switzerland) for 10s. The dentin surfaces of control cavities were etched with 37% phosphoric acid (Ivoclar-Vivadent) for 15s, washed under copious air-water spray, then the excess water was removed by blotting with a tissue paper leaving the dentin visibly moist. The Excite adhesive was then applied using a brush for 10s and light-cured for 20s after air-drying of the excess material. The cavities were then filled with composite, and cured for 40s before finishing using 1000-grit abrasive paper (SAIT AC Abrasive, Torino, Italy) in presence of water-cooling. The restored teeth were incubated in distilled water at 37ÂÂ ±1ÂÂ °C for 24 h before sectioning and testing have taken place. Assessing the dentin/adhesive interface Five premolars from each group were half-sectioned bucco-lingually across the bonding surface with a low-speed diamond saw (model 650, South Bay Technology Inc., CA, USA). The cut surfaces were then lightly finished using a sequence of 600, 800, and 1000-grit abrasive papers (SAITAC Abrasive) in presence of water-cooling followed with light polishing with diamond paste. The samples were then immersed in 6N (mol/L) HCL for 45 seconds then rinsed with distilled water and dried for 24 h at 37ÂÂ °C (Binder Incubator, Type B28, Tuttlingen, Germany). The dried samples were sputter coated with gold-palladium (JEOL, JFC, 1100e, Tokyo, Japan.) The dentin/adhesive interface of each sample was then examined using a field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) at 30 KV (JEOL, JSM, 5600LV, Tokyo, Japan)[14]. The thickness of interaction layer was measured in micrometer using a standard microscale calibrated FE-SEM Evaluating the nano-leakage The root apices of the remaining five teeth of each group were covered with sticky wax (Dentsply DeTrey, Bois Colombes, France), while their entire surfaces were coated with two layers of nail varnish except for the cervical margin of the restored cavity and 1 mm around. A modified silver staining technique, was used with basic 50wt% ammoniacal silver nitrate (pH=9.5)[15]. The chemical reagents from which the staining solution was prepared are listed in (table 1). The solution was freshly prepared by dissolving 25 g of silver nitrate crystals in 25 ml of distilled water. Concentrated (28%) ammonium hydroxide was used to titrate the black solution until it became clear as ammonium ions complexed the silver into diamine silver ([Ag(NH3)2]+) ions. This solution was diluted to 50 ml with distilled water to achieve a 50wt% solution. The teeth were immediately immersed into the freshly-prepared ammoniacal silver nitrate solution in total darkness for 24 h, followed by thorough rinsing with running distilled water for 5 min. The stained teeth were then placed in a photo developing solution for 8 h under fluorescent light to reduce the diamine silver ions into metallic silver grains within the voids along the bonded interfaces[2,3]. After removal from the developing solution, the teeth were placed under running distilled water for 5 more minutes. The stained teeth were then sectioned and their cut surfaces were finished, polished and acid-treated foll owing the previously mentioned conditions. The measurements of silver penetration were calculated directly on the SEM monitor, using a multi-point measuring device, observing all the internal cavity margin lengths, in steps of approximately 100 ÂÂ µm[6]. The leakage values were expressed as the sum of the cavity margin lengths showing silver deposition. A comparison between these lengths among the three adhesive systems was possible since the dimensions of all cavities were standardized as mentioned before. Statistical analysis The data were statistically analyzed using SPSS statistical package version 10. The data were examined for normal distribution using Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. One way analysis of variance ANOVA was used to compare the values of the three groups. The Tukeys post hoc analysis was used to confirm the significance of differences detected between the test groups and the control. The test was considered significant when p Results SEM images representing the adhesive/dentin (A/D) interfaces (Fig 1-3) revealed a variation in the thickness of the detected interaction layers between the tested adhesive systems. ANOVA indicated significant differences between thickness of interaction layers of tested adhesives (p These differences were confirmed among the mean values of Ex and GB (Tukeys comparison, p Penetration of silver along the cavity walls was observed in all samples. (Fig.4-6). Table 3 summarizes the results of nanoleakage testing. ANOVA indicated significant differences between the mean values of the sum of the cavity margin lengths showing silver deposition in the tested adhesive systems (p Discussion Fear of bacterial ingress at the restoration/tooth interface and the subsequent caries recurrence has pushed the interest of researchers to assess the adaptation and adhesion of restorative materials against tooth cavity walls. Several studies, had the concern to evaluate the source of adhesive-dentin bond through assessing the interface characterization[2,16,17]. In vitro study, it is evident that the G-Bond created a thinner interaction zone in comparison to those formed with other adhesives (Figs1-3). Both the Ex and APL formed traditional hybrid layers as a result of resin infiltration within the demineralized dentin through the collagen fibrils. However, the demineralization in case of Ex seems to be more deep as a result of longer time of acid contact (30s). This assumption could explain the formation of the thicker hybrid layer[17] [17]. The interface formed by GB looks different as the surface of dentin is decalcified only slightly and there is almost no exposure of collagen fibrils. This suggest that functional monomers contained in the bonding material react with hydroxyapatite to form insoluble calcium, forming a thin transitional zone that could be measured in nanometers, so it could be termed a nano-interaction zone with the ability to reduce the risk of bond deterioration[18,19]. Moreover, evaluating the microleakage and recently the nanoleakage represent important means of assessing the defective adaptation of materials[20]. Although the use of silver nitrate dye was effective in detecting the nanoleakage, this in vitro study used the ammoniacal silver nitrate dye because of its efficiency doing the same job and to eliminate the drawback of the regular silver nitrate deminerlizing the dentin[3,4,10,15]. SEM images (Figures 4-6) indicated the presence of nanoleakage in all samples bonded with different systems as manifested by the infiltration of silver ions at the adhesive/dentine interface and in some instances around the collagen fibrils. These findings could be attributed to the effect of resin contraction at the time of its polymerization[21]. In addition, the improper wetting of the resin to dentin and collagen surfaces could exist as a result of the wet nature of dentin tissues and bonding resin viscosity[22]. The previously nominated factors could create nanogaps between the bonding resin and dentin surfaces. Confirming the same assumption, other researchers have related the occurrence of nanolekage to the presence of areas of imperfect resin infiltration, retained water or other solvent, poor polymerization, or phase separation[22,23]. On the other hand, various degrees of silver penetration and brightness were evident between samples of different groups indicating different degrees of nanoleakage. This result could be related to the chemical nature of the adhesive systems themselves that is reflected on the expected degree of polymerization shrinkage and the degree of water sorption (dye solution). The recently-marketed adhesive system, G-Bond, includes water and organic solvents in its chemical formula to improve resin infiltration within the wet dentin substrate, as well as nanofiller particles to reduce the extent of polymerization contraction[24]. A study by Pashley EL et al., stated that when HEMA is included as a polymerizable solvent for resin monomers, residual water may persist during evaporation as a result of lowering the vapor pressure of water by HEMA[25]. In previously published TEM observations, pure polymerized HEMA permitted extensive silver impregnation. The authors stated that when HEMA is copolymerized with other resin monomers in the presence of water, it could form hydrogel in the hybrid layer, resulting in additional silver filled patterns in the interfacial layer. In the present study, both APL and Ex. contain HEMA and water which could be the reason of the higher degree of nanoleakage. However the presence of alcohol solvent in the Ex formulation could improve the resin infiltration and accordingly reduces the degree of nanoleakage in comparison to the solvent-free adhesive APL[22,26]. Conclusion Within the limitation of this study, the hypothesis that G-Bond adhesive system can offer better adhesion to cavity walls is acceptable. The formation of a nano-interaction layer seems to play an important role in minimizing the degree of nanoleakage at the bonding interface Clinical relevance: Using the G-Bond adhesive system for bonding composite restorations can minimize the expected degree of nanoleakage and accordingly could reduce the possibility of the future caries recurrence. Figures: Fig (1): SEM image of the interface bonded with G-Bond. The area shown by arrows, between the cured adhesive layer (A) and the dentin (D), is the very thin interaction (hybrid) layer. The electron density in this area is higher than that found with other adhesives. C= composite resin, A= adhesive; D= dentin Fig (2): SEM image of the interface bonded with Adper Prompt L-Pop. The area shown by arrows, between the cured adhesive layer (A) and the dentin (D), is distinct (hybrid) layer with a uniform thickness than that with G-Bond. The funnel shaped configuration of the resin tags is visible, which is resulted by removal of the highly mineralized peri-tubular dentin. C= composite resin, A= adhesive; D= dentin Fig (3) SEM image of the interface bonded with Excite. The area shown by arrows, between the cured adhesive layer (A) and the dentin (D), is distinct (hybrid) layer with a uniform thickness than that with G-Bond. The funnel shaped configuration of the resin tags is visible, which is resulted by removal of the highly mineralized peri-tubular dentin. C= composite resin, A= adhesive; D= dentin Fig (4): SEM image of the interface bonded with G-Bond showing minimal silver deposition in the form of a small distinct localized area (arrows) C= composite resin, A= adhesive; D= dentin Fig (5): SEM image of the interface bonded with Adper Prompt L-Pop showing greater and more intense silver deposition in the form of a small distinct localized area (arrows) when compared to G-Bond ( Fig 4) and Excite (Fig 6) C= composite resin, A= adhesive; D= dentin Fig (6) SEM image of the interface bonded with Excite. The silver deposition presented a less intense pattern when compared to Adper Prompt L-Pop (Fig 5). It was less continuing in the form of a dashed line(arrows) . The silver deposits were mostly located at the base of hybrid layer, but were sometimes also observed at the top. C= composite resin, A= adhesive; D= dentin Tables: Table (1): Materials used in the study:- Categories Materials Description Composition Manufacturer I- Adhesive systems 1. G-Bond (GB) Self-etch one step no mix adhesive Phosphoric acid ester monomer, UDMA, 4-MET, TEGDMA, Acetone, Water, initiators. GC America, St.Alxip. IL, USA. 2. Adper Prompt L-Pop (APL) Self-etch one step no mix adhesive Compartment 1: Methacrylated phosphoric acid esters, photo-initiator, Stabilizers Compartment 2: Water, HEMA, Polyalkenoic acid, Stabilizers 3M ESPE Dental Products, St. Paul, MN, USA. 3. Excite (Ex) Etch and rinse adhesive HEMA,DMA,Phosphoric acid acrylate, highly dispersed silicon dioxide,initiators and Stabilizers in alcohol solution. Ivoclar Vivadent Schaan, Liechtenstien. II- Restorative Materials 1. Tetric Ceram Light curing, fine particle hybrid resin composite BisGMA, UDMA, TEGDMA, Ytterbium trifluoride, Barium glass pigments and initiators. Ivoclar Vivadent III- Chemical reagents 1. Silver nitrate crystals Sigma Chemical Co.St. Louis. MO. USA 28% Ammonium hydroxide solution Table 2: Means and standard deviations of thickness of the interaction layer (ÂÂ µm) in tested adhesive systems Adhesive system Means SD 95% confidence intervals ANOVA P-Value Turkeys P-Value G-Bond (GB) 0.75 ÂÂ ± 0.16 0.49 1.00 Ë‚ 0.000 P1 Ë‚ 0.001 APL 1.65 ÂÂ ± 0.23 1.56 1.95 Ë‚ 0.000 P2 Ë‚ 0.05 Ex (control) 2.22 ÂÂ ± 0.23 1.53 2.50 Ë‚ 0.000 P1 Ë‚ 0.000 P1 : Turkeys comparison among the means of GB and APL. P2 : Turkeys comparison among the means of APL and Ex. P3 : Turkeys comparison among the means of GB and Ex. Table 3: Means and standard deviations of the sum of cavity margin lengths (ÂÂ µm) showing silver deposition in tested adhesive systems Adhesive system Means SD 95% confidence intervals ANOVA P-Value Turkeys P-Value G-Bond (GB) 12.70 ÂÂ ± 3.27 8.76 16.64 Ë‚ 0.001 P1 Ë‚ 0.002 APL 37.34 ÂÂ ± 6.56 28.83 45.85 Ë‚ 0.001 P2 Ë‚ 0.05 Ex (control) 20.74 ÂÂ ± 5.09 14.49 26.99 Ë‚ 0.001 P1 ˃ 0.05 P1 : Turkeys comparison among the means of GB and APL. P2 : Turkeys comparison among the means of APL and Ex. P3 : Turkeys comparison among the means of GB and Ex.