Hepatitis C Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Hepatitis C - Essay Example However, the disease still prevails, and is among the leading causes of chronic liver disease. Hepatitis C is a disease that seriously damages the liver. Transmission of the HCV is commonly through virus-laden blood that enters a person’s circulation through blood transfusion, and breaks in the skin, mouth, and genitals. Those at high risk of getting hepatitis C are persons who inject drugs using shared needles, routinely have blood transfusions (dialysis patients and hemophiliacs) and healthcare workers who can be infected by their patients’ blood. HCV is an RNA virus; its core is made up of ribonucleic acid that serves as the template for reproduction. HCV RNA is protected by a protein layer and encased in a lipid or fatty envelope. HCV has proteins in its lipid coat have receptors on the cell surface of liver cells. The virus attaches to the receptors, is engulfed by the liver cells and released into the cell cytoplasm. Inside the cell, the viral RNA is released and takes over the cell’s ribosomes to begin the translation of protein products coded by the viral RNA. The main product is RNA transcriptase which is the main enzyme responsible for producing the complementary strand (or antisense) of the original HCV RNA. This antisense strand serves as template for producing more HCV. The virus also directs the production of capsomeres that comprise the protein coat of the virus. Several capsomeres assemble and enclose the viral RNA, which then attach to the inner plasma membrane of the liver cell. In a process called budding, the membrane engulfs the assembly and provides it with its lipid coat before releasing the new virus molecules. This is repeatedly done resulting in an endless cycle of virus reproduction leading to liver cell exhaustion, damage (cirrhosis, liver cancer) (Hepatitis C: An Epidemic for Everyone, 2008). HCV has high mutation rates, which means

Ebay Case Analysis 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ebay Case Analysis 2 - Essay Example In the event that a sale materializes, the customers pack, insure, and ship the sold items to the buyer. The buyer, on the other hand, handles the payment and verification of the sold items. Collectively, the outlined measures make eBay’s model scalable† (expandable devoid of a proportional rise in cost). #2. eBay’s possible rationale for expanding internationally The speedy development of internet technologies has yielded to the emergence of e-business companies (Dutta 684). eBay offers a broad range of products, globally expanding and generating a community for all clients to join eBay. The potential rationale for eBay international expansion hinges on the desire to increase its: number of registered users, user activity, PayPal transactions, user gross merchandise volume, and number of listings. eBay’s global presence seeks to take advantage of the growing online shopping usage (Hitt, Ireland, and Robert 235). # 3. International arenas for eBay: France a nd Japan The CAGE Distance framework highlights cultural, administrative, geographic, and economic differentials or distances between countries that ought to be addresses when coming up with international strategies. CAGE framework can also be employed to dissect patterns of trade, information, capital, and people flows. In terms of cultural distance, there is â€Å"wide† cultural distance owing to different languages, diverse ethnicities (absence of connective ethnic and social networks), diverse values, norms, and dispositions (Hitt, Ireland, and Hoskisson 236). With regard to geographic distance, both France and Japan are far-off the parent company’s location; nevertheless, the rise of globalization and the advancement of ICT has facilitated trounced over geographical distance. Hence, Japan and France can still remain desirable markets for eBay. # 4. Alternative vehicles that eBay has used to pursue international expansion There are several components that can be ci ted as contributing to eBay’s strategic plan for growth. In its expansion efforts, eBay employs investment and acquisition strategy. eBay is a very diverse entity and services that the company avail is appealing to individual customers, as well as large corporate customers (Hitt, Ireland, and Hoskisson 235). eBay’s corporate strategy centers on diversifying business to products offered, as well as customer base and global reach. eBay keeps on changing, adapting, and highlighting fresh ways to master its environment. # 5.Issues and problems that eBay is facing In the case, eBay is attempting to address one prominent problem: Competitions, as other players such as Yahoo! push for a slice of the market. eBay pursues to have the largest user base to attempt to fend off the growing competition, which means that it has to try to lure customers from its competitors. With regard to entering the Japanese market, eBay was hoping to take advantage of the giant market given that J apan had evolved to become the second largest market for person-to-person auctions. However, Yahoo, in a joint venture with Softbank, had already made successful inroads into the Japanese market to the level of commanding a sizeable market share. As a result, eBay faces the problem on whether it should cut its losses and exit the Japanese market. With regard to the acquisition of iBazar, eBay was counting on