Escape from marriage in Thurber's and Chopin's short stories
This paper compares and contrasts the theme, style, structure, and other literary elements of James Thurber's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour." Both stories have the same theme--escape from one's spouse--but address it in very different ways using very different characters.
How cloud computing and open source software are making ERP accessible to SMEs
Agility, time-to-market and insights into market dynamics are a few of the many benefits of standardizing the operations of an organization on an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. Up until about a decade ago, the economics of enterprise software relegated these systems to larger, more diverse and well-capitalized enterprises, with the majority of ERP systems being installed and customized in Fortune 1,000 corporations (Velcu, 2010). These ERP implementations began to be pervasively supported by Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) during the later 1990s and continue throughout today. As SOA architectures have permeated organizations, the lessons learned from a business process re-engineering (BPR), distributed order management and software engineering gains have contributed to the success of Cloud computing in general and Software-as-a-Service specifically (Moore, 2002). In addition, Open Source Software (OSS), Cloud- and SaaS-based ERP systems (Passion for Research, 2012b) and a complete redefining of the economics of enterprise software have taken place. All of these many determinants of enterprise software economics have in turn changed the ERP landscape significantly over the last decade. Today, Small & Medium Enterprises (SME) can afford, via the economics of Cloud computing, to have the same level of functionality enterprise had in the past. SMEs can now can gain the same benefits that Fortune 1,000 companies could only afford in the past. The intent of this analysis is to evaluate these underlying economics of cloud computing, specifically looking at how Open Source Software (OSS) and Cloud computing are re-ordering the economics of enterprise software in addition to discussing the limitations, advantages and disadvantages for SMEs interested in gaining the benefits of ERP systems. Finally, strategies for implementing ERP in SMEs is analyzed and presented including an assessment of a successful Cloud implementation.
McDonald's financial recovery and performance from 2007 to 2011
McDonald's like many other companies was affected by the recent global financial crisis, and its revenue and profitability was affected. However, presently, the company has recovered in the last two years. This is very clear when you examine McDonald's from 2007 to 2011. The net income of McDonald's has steadily risen from 2007 to 2011. As shown in its financial report, (see 2011 annual report), in 2007, its net income was $2,395 millions. The following year, its net income increased to $4,313 million, this was followed by a net income of $4,551 in 2009, and then $4,946 million in 2010. In 2011, McDonald's was again on a positive trend posting a net income of $5,503 million. This steady increase in net income shows that the strategies that McDonald's applied following the global crisis were effective and it has been able to maintain if not increasing its market share.
Mary Shelley's feminist critique of male Romantic heroism
Having long been viewed as peripheral to the study of Romanticism, Frankenstein has been moved to the center. Critics originally tried to assimilate Mary Shelley's novel to patterns already familiar from Romantic poetry. But more recent studies of Frankenstein have led critics to rethink Romanticism in light of Mary Shelley's contribution. Gradually emerging from the shadow of her husband, she is increasingly being recognized as a distinct voice within Romanticism, a distinctly feminine voice within what seems to be a male-dominated movement. The trend of recent studies of Frankenstein has been to view it as a critique of Romanticism, particularly as developed in Percy Shelley's poetry. Critics have argued that Frankenstein is a protest against Romantic titanism, against the masculine aggressiveness that lies concealed beneath the dreams of Romantic idealism.