Potter Five Forces Analysis Of NYC Chauffeurs VIP Assignment

Potter Five Forces Analysis Of NYC Chauffeurs VIP - Assignment Example In spite of the strategic management process developed by the organization management policy and goals, the success of the company was limited because of the existing competition especially from new companies investing in the chauffer industry. The introduction of new services by competitors and new business ventures in the next years will affect the revenue of the company. The perception that the company will be able to wade the storm because of its past expansion record is unfounded because of the increasing competition and the inflation affecting the consumers. There are several competitors who will affect the revenue collection of the company. The main competitors in the market include the iDriveYourCar.com and the chauffernewyork services. The iDriveyourcar.com offers rental services for vehicles without offering drivers if the consumer only needs the car. The offering of flexibility in car hire increases the competition for the company because of variety and diversity. Threats from substitutes There are several substitutes to the product range provided by the company. The products are from competitors such as city taxi services and buses which offer cheaper services to the consumer. Latest changes in the transport sector and existence of other market share leaders such as MTA Company and other companies introduce substitute to the transport system offer by the VIP limo service. The company is faced with a serious challenge from cost effective service delivery companies which do not offer high end products such as the limo but have focused on cheaper alternatives such as bus transport. These companies offer substitute services that pose a serious challenge for the NYC Chauffeurs VIP company. The substitute services are cost effective and readily accessible thus a threat to the growth and expansion of the NYC Chauffeurs VIP company. Competition The chauffeur industry has several companies especially in New York. These companies include New York Chauffeur, Chauffeured Service s and Chauffeur New York. These are the main source of competition. Stiff competition is from Chauffeured Service and iDriveyour Car.com. Chauffeured services have been in the market for over one decade making it have loyal customers and brand presence and strong brand image. Other companies are also venturing on Limousine industry have developed strategic plans to increase the market share of their respective companies. Competition for the companies is stiff and any delay or drop in the level of service delivery will lead to serious loss of revenue. The competition has been moved into the social media marketing. The use of social media platform has encouraged feedback collection and service improvement. However, social media has also led to serious competition between the companies. Buyer power This is an external factor. The number of customers willing to buy the product or service is dependent on their income, which is affected by inflation and other economic factors. These facto rs affect the level and quality of service that the customer will require from the company. During the financial meltdown, the service volume requested by the customers changed significantly resulting in the drop in revenue collection. Price differences and change can force the company revenue to decline

Logic of the Sea Essay Example for Free

Logic of the Sea Essay The article The Duty of Inquiry comes from the book The Ethics of Belief by William Kingdon Clifford. The author, William Clifford is a notable English philosopher and mathematician of the 19th century. This article talks about belief and how it necessitates responsible inquiry. It asserts that belief should be accompanied by reasonable investigation rather than baseless assertions. Also, we are the ones responsible for our belief regardless of the consequences (Clifford). These arguments were delivered using hypothetical situations pertaining to belief and the importance of inquiry. The author’s main argument is that our beliefs precede our actions and even the result of these actions, which is why we have to take full responsibility of these beliefs through appropriate means of inquiry. The author starts by presenting a hypothetical situation of a ship owner and his vessel. The ship owner’s vessel is about to set sail across the ocean with a lot of emigrants aboard. However, the owner thinks that the ship may have some problems, and perhaps it is not fit to set sail at all, however, he thinks that it is all too expensive to repair. He gives it some more thought, clearing his mind of the doubts, establishing a firm idea that his ship is still capable of sailing. He has convinced himself and he clearly disregarded his prior suspicions, and he finally permits he ship to set sail. The inevitable happens, the ship sank, and all those aboard died or were lost at sea. The ship owner collects the insurance, but deep inside him he is guilty of what happened to the passengers. The ship owner may be sincere with his admission of guilt; however, this is already irrelevant in this situation. It’s because the belief that he conjured were not made from careful investigation, rather it was from stifling his doubts, from disproving by himself whatever thought of uncertainty he had in the first place. In this situation, the ship owner’s guilt is from the fact that he was the one who knowingly and willingly created the frame of mind that made him to believe that his ship can still sail. He had doubts in the beginning but he was able to convince himself, though his decision is made out of preference rather than what is real. He didn’t do anything to check up on the ship, to see whether his doubts may hold true or not, instead he just thought about it, thought that it was alright, and made up his mind that it was indeed all right. He is guilty because he didn’t do the appropriate inquiry to verify or disprove his thoughts. Rather than acting upon it, he just thought about it, which if we look at it carefully, it’s a bit careless since a lot of lives are at stake. The author then asserts that the ship owner’s guild is actually determined regardless of its effects, so whatever the consequences of his beliefs, he is still responsible for it. After giving it some thought, even though the ship may have successfully sailed at that time or even for many more times, the mere fact that he has somehow believed that the ship was unworthy of sailing, he is still responsible for it. His guilt is already determined whether or not the ship survives. It is not about the consequences of the action, but about the belief he had already conjured. From the moment he thought about it, he is already responsible for his belief, so it is his task that to know about his thoughts, to take appropriate means of inquiry in order verify or confirm it. The author then presents another hypothetical situation, this time regarding religious teaching. It is about a prominent personality who is constantly attacked in an organized way, only to find out after further investigations that the accusations made about him were all false. Because of this, the accusations were immediately discredited. This situation is important because it proves that any reasonable effort to know the truth or reality of situation given could indeed disconfirm or disprove any of the accusations initially made. This means that because of the effort exerted to know what’s real, the accusations made in the first place are already disconfirmed. Even though the charges directed towards the person were sincere, they are still irrelevant to this situation. The basis of this is that the beliefs presented initially were just based on preference; the accusations made towards that person were the result of their prejudice or perhaps their passion without really giving any attention to factual evidence. So based on this, they really had no right to believe on whatever is presented before them. So when effort is made to verify any of this, it could be regarded as an act to disprove the accusations, and supports the author’s argument that the morality of the question is already settled even though the consequences are known. The author employed the steps in this order so that the reader could build up on the assumption that indeed beliefs should correspond to the appropriate inquiry. Without inquiry, these beliefs were just worthless, and it wouldn’t be justified by whatever consequences. By carefully analyzing the hypothetical situations posed by William Clifford, we can see that indeed, belief should be accompanied by reasonable investigation rather than baseless assertions, and that we re responsible for these beliefs. We can achieve this by through appropriate means of inquiry. Work Cited: Clifford, William Kingdon. The Ethics of Belief. 1877. December 12 2009. http://ajburger. homestead. com/files/book. htm#ethics.

Malaysian Economic Policy and FDI :: History Economics Malasya Essays

Malaysian Economic Policy and FDI BACKGROUND AND COUNTRY ATTRACTIVENESS. Malaysia is the second fastest growing economy in the South East Asian region with an average Gross National Product (GNP) growth of eight-plus percent per year in the last seven years. Since independence in 1957, Malaysia has moved from an agriculturally based economy to a more diversified and export oriented one. The Malaysian market is fairly openly oriented, with tariffs only averaging approximately fifteen percent and almost non-existent non-tariff barriers and foreign exchange controls. The open trade based economy is supported by the fact that the total two way trade almost amounts to 120 percent of the GNP (1994). Together with a stable political environment, increasing per capita income, and the potential for regional integration throughout the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Malaysia is an attractive prospect for FDI (refer to Tables 1, 2, 3 and Graph 1 for relevant economic indicators). Until 1993, foreign investment contributed 60% of all investment in Malaysia. FDI grew strongly in the late 1980s to reach a peak of RM17.7 billion in 1992. This was followed by a sharp drop to RM6 billion in 1993 due to the world rececession, but rose again to RM15.2 billion in 1994. Malaysia is among the top five recipients of foreign direct investment in the world and while in recent years it has come mainly from other Asian countries, 1993 saw the US as the biggest inward investor with RM1.7 billion. Japan and Taiwan are clearly the largest overall investors with the US third, followed by France, Singapore and the UK (McLeman 1994, 19). The rationale of this report is not to promote Malaysia as an attractive destination for multinational entities, but rather to analyze how Malaysia's economic policy impacts upon FDI. Malaysia, perhaps, represents one of the most successful developing nations that has been able to effectively incorporate economic policy objectives with foreign funds, knowledge and networking throughout FDI (refer appendix 5). FDI in Malaysia is an important catalytic factor, increasing exports, knowledge and provides an economic vehicle towards the Malaysian 2020 vision. THE MALAYSIA PLAN AND THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY FRAMEWORK The Malaysian government uses economic planning to achieve economic and socio-economic goals in close coherence with the New Economic Policy (NEP) and the National Development Policy (NDP). The Fifth Malaysia plan and the Long-term Industrial Master Plan Malaysia, in particular, indicate specific future objectives and economic trends. Malaysian Economic Policy and FDI :: History Economics Malasya Essays Malaysian Economic Policy and FDI BACKGROUND AND COUNTRY ATTRACTIVENESS. Malaysia is the second fastest growing economy in the South East Asian region with an average Gross National Product (GNP) growth of eight-plus percent per year in the last seven years. Since independence in 1957, Malaysia has moved from an agriculturally based economy to a more diversified and export oriented one. The Malaysian market is fairly openly oriented, with tariffs only averaging approximately fifteen percent and almost non-existent non-tariff barriers and foreign exchange controls. The open trade based economy is supported by the fact that the total two way trade almost amounts to 120 percent of the GNP (1994). Together with a stable political environment, increasing per capita income, and the potential for regional integration throughout the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Malaysia is an attractive prospect for FDI (refer to Tables 1, 2, 3 and Graph 1 for relevant economic indicators). Until 1993, foreign investment contributed 60% of all investment in Malaysia. FDI grew strongly in the late 1980s to reach a peak of RM17.7 billion in 1992. This was followed by a sharp drop to RM6 billion in 1993 due to the world rececession, but rose again to RM15.2 billion in 1994. Malaysia is among the top five recipients of foreign direct investment in the world and while in recent years it has come mainly from other Asian countries, 1993 saw the US as the biggest inward investor with RM1.7 billion. Japan and Taiwan are clearly the largest overall investors with the US third, followed by France, Singapore and the UK (McLeman 1994, 19). The rationale of this report is not to promote Malaysia as an attractive destination for multinational entities, but rather to analyze how Malaysia's economic policy impacts upon FDI. Malaysia, perhaps, represents one of the most successful developing nations that has been able to effectively incorporate economic policy objectives with foreign funds, knowledge and networking throughout FDI (refer appendix 5). FDI in Malaysia is an important catalytic factor, increasing exports, knowledge and provides an economic vehicle towards the Malaysian 2020 vision. THE MALAYSIA PLAN AND THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY FRAMEWORK The Malaysian government uses economic planning to achieve economic and socio-economic goals in close coherence with the New Economic Policy (NEP) and the National Development Policy (NDP). The Fifth Malaysia plan and the Long-term Industrial Master Plan Malaysia, in particular, indicate specific future objectives and economic trends.

Negative Effects of Globalization Essay

Globalization is not a new phenomena. It was primarily formed long time ago, when Greeks, Romans conquered other countries and spread their power to them. However, the nature of globalization has been changed over time and reached to the stage of modern globalization. In the article â€Å"Spiritual perspective on globalization†, Ira Rifkin (2003) says that the modern globalization could be identified from a meeting on 1944 in Bretton Woods where forty five nations agreed to establish the IMF and the World Bank. The renovation of information technology, especially the spread of Internet has pushed the globalization process to happen faster than ever before and changed the whole world dramatically. Many countries are taking advantage of globalization to stimulate their economic growth, create more jobs and improve social benefits. However, they are also suffering several negative effects of globalization: the disappearance of some traditional culture, the destruction of environm ent, and the disparities between rich and poor. The first negative effect of globalization is that it is reducing the diversity of traditional culture of some small nations. Each country has its own identical culture. However, with the development of advance technology as well as international trade, a lot of multinational corporations are established; result in an interconnected world and the removal of national borders. Some countries are unable to resist the cultural interaction with other countries as well as the cultural imperialism of developed countries. Their traditional culture is losing and replaced by Americans and Western styles. Rifkin writes that the Americans and Western culture have affected or even obliterated the traditional culture of some countries. People in these countries are more and more prefer McDonald’s fast food, Hollywood films or Disney entertainments. In â€Å"The deadly noodle†, Hasting, Thiel and Thomas also mention that the American processed food may be one kind of American cultural sovereign. It has changed the food habits of many countries. In addition, in some extend, globalization also impacts on the way people consider knowledge. In this Information Age, it is easy to get all necessary information on the Internet and they are often formal modern knowledge. Thus, traditional knowledge is disappearing. In â€Å"Exiled to Cyberia†, Kunda Dixit says that we have paid too much attention on formal  modern knowledge, and overlooked the traditional knowledge. These cultural changes also happen in Vietnam. Young people now like to listen to the songs of the world famous singers like Celine Dion, Micheal Jackson or Lady Gaga and keep away most of Vietnamese traditional music. A lot of traditional games are no longer their favorite things. They like to spend their free time playing games online or chatting with friends on the Internet. At cinemas, Hollywood films are advertised everywhere but it is difficult to find a Vietnam film. Gradually, many countries are losing their cultural diversity and identity. And there wi ll be no big differences between countries’ culture because of the powerful spread of America and Western culture. Perhaps the next generations will not be aware that they used to have an unique traditional culture in their society. Another problem which countries are facing with under the effects of globalization is the degradation of environment. Human can be considered the owner of natural environment and have power to change it. However, the impacts of human on environment are more and more aggressive because of the explosion of population and economic growth. Global environment has been destroying in many different ways. In â€Å"Poverty and Environmental Degradation†, Mabogunje writes that the world’s population has increased rapidly, especially in developing countries and urban areas due to medical achievements. This population explosion has put many people in the poor standards of living. As a result, to make a living, they have cut trees in forests and over cultivated their farmlands. Therefore, a lot of species have no place to survive and then be extinct, a wide range of lands become desertification, and losses of topsoil are happening in many countries. The global ecosystem is becoming imbalanced and the environment is seriously degraded. Also, globalization has brought serious pollution for many countries in the world. Air pollution, water pollution and climate changes are now a big issue which requires all countries to cooperate to resolve. There are several factors causing pollution. One cause of air pollution and global warming is the increase in numbers of vehicles in cities, especially in developing countries. In â€Å"If poor get richer, does world see progress†, Knickerbocker tells us that Chinese economy has been quickly developing. In Shanghai, numbers of cars have been increasing significantly every week while the bicycles may be not permitted on some big roads. This change is making  global atmosphere polluted. The situation of Vietnam is as same as other developing countries. Recently, numbers of vehicles have been growing faster in big cities and they are a main cause of air pollution in Vietnamese urban areas. The consumption of the poor people also results in pollution. According to Maboguje, the biomass fuels and other products consumed by the poor are causing serious air pollution. The broad uses of chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides are another cause of pollution. Maboguje says that in order to produce more agricultural products, farmers in many countries have broadly used fertilizers and pesticides which pollute water sources and are harmful to environment as well as people’s health. Lastly, globalization is widening the gap between the rich and the poor. It has affected all the participants who involved in globalization process in many ways. Although some countries have already got out of poverty and developed their economy, wealth countries are those who have taken most benefits from globalization and become richer and more powerful. Multinational corporations in developed countries make huge profits from outsourcing their productions to developing countries where labor costs are very cheap and other production conditions are more favorable. As results, the gap between rich countries and poor countries are increasing. According to Rifkin, the unequal difference between the rich and the poor are widening. More than one billion people in the world are ling in very poor conditions. The rapidly economic growth in developing countries also results in the inequality in income and living standards of people living in cities and those living in rural areas. In fact, the economic growth often happens first in industrial areas and in cities, so people who have good education or working skills can get higher income and improve their lives. In rural areas, on the other hand, people’s lives basically depend on agriculture which is slowly developed so their incomes do not change very much or even decrease because of the impact of environment changes on their agricultural production. Moreover, when economy is growing, the goods price and standards of living are also higher. These things affect seriously to the poor people and make their lives become harder. In conclusion, globalization is  unavoidable trend in this advanced technology era. Most countries in the world were involved in this spiral of globalization. Although globalization has created a lot of significant benefits to these countries, helped them increase the economic growth, improve people’s living standards, it also has brought many challenges and disadvantages for these countries, in which the dismissal of traditional culture, environmental degradation, and disparities between rich and poor are notable issues. Each country suffers the negative effects of globalization on different levels. Thus, many countries may have different solutions to their problems. However, in order to reach to the sustainable development, every country needs to coordinate together to solve the issues and minimize the disadvantage effects. References Dixit, K. Exiled to Cyberia. Global Envision.org. Hastings, M and Thiel, S and Thomas, D. (2003, January 20). The deadly noodle. Newsweek, 141, 3. Knickerboker, B. (2004, January). If poor get richer, does world see progress. Christian Science Monitor. Mabogunje, A. L. (2002, January/February). Poverty and environmental degradation.Environment, 44, 1. Rifkin, I. (2003). Spiritual perspectives on globalization. Woodstock: Skylight Paths Publishers.

A Visual Art Observation Essay

Starry Night of Vincent Van Gogh is one interesting work of art to analyse. It is very striking due to its heavy brush strokes and luminous colours. The seemingly endless curves and swirls can entice you into exploring the piece more intently. Visually, it is a mystical amalgamation of black and blue. Hence, conveying an apparent picture of a town at night time. A brightly lit quarter moon settles at the top right corner of the canvas. The yellowness of it somewhat literally borrows the sun’s colour. Its luminescence, together with eleven stars draped at the upper half of the canvas, is rather too gleaming. The moon and stars appeared strangely luminous with bright colours encircling them. The lower right quadrant of the painting comprises the landscape of a silent town where the dark coloured roofs and trees are visible. Furthermore, on the lower left quadrant shows a huge cypress bush which seemed too vertically stiff against the horizontal waves of the night sky. Apparently, the artist used horizontal contours in the majority of the piece. The dotted lines formed the swirls and circles in the painting. The artist strokes are remarkable because the appeared to be made up of short lines of various colours filed together to create a vibrant and magnificent imagery of a quiet town. Every object in the paintings has consistent shapes and colour composition. The stars have a tiny red orange dot on the middle to prove its size despite its flaring surround. The mountains have black outlines to present its edges and blue-coloured soil. Likewise, the houses are also outlined in black but in their case, the surfaces vary in colours like brown, green, light blue, violet, orange and other dark shades. The trees are presented in curves in dark tones of green, blue and black. The dark bushes, however, is coloured too darkly with brown, green and black. Van Gogh has truly revealed a part of his personality and emotional status in Starry Night. The extreme use of curves and swirls indicated his uncommon vision of the world. It depicts his mental state of schizophrenia and his desire to end his life. The heavy strokes denote the depression that he was currently encountering. The bushes which appeared out of place in the painting pointed directly towards the heavens show his dark thoughts on ending his life. It gives the impression of death as it is formed with dark shades and rigorously designed to separate it from the world—same with the feelings of Van Gogh. It is also noticeable in his work that it is full opposites; starting from the straight lines to curved lines; the brightness of the stars to the darkness of the colours used; the peaceful town to the raging night sky. Who could have thought that such opposite elements could create a magnificent work of art? The painting is more than just a symbolic image of the artist’s thoughts. It is his reality which is conjured by his passion with art. The numerous curves and swirls portray his desperation to be free considering that he painted the Starry Night while he was inside a mental asylum. Vincent Van Gogh is indeed a â€Å"mad genius† as admirers would often label him (Boime, 2008, p. 1). The Starry Night contains symbolisms that are meticulously encrypted by an art genius like Van Gogh. No wonder it is one of the most attention-grabbing paintings today. Its vibrant elements and the unmistakable passion expressed through it by the artist seduce its audience in an exaggerated world of a man who only sold one painting in his lifetime. References Boime, A. (2008). Revelation of Modernism: Responses to Cultural Crises in Fin-de-Siecle Painting. Missouri: University of Missouri Press

Plastic bags environment Essays

Plastic bags environment Essays Plastic bags environment Paper Plastic bags environment Paper Plastic is extremely bad for the environment. It is one of mans worst inventions. Plastic is non-biodegradable. This means that waste plastic cannot be turned into any other substance that is echo friendly. Although tones and tones of plastic are burned in the most advanced incinerators, all that remains in plastic. It doses t change into anything else, as many other materials do. Hence plastic waste is dangerous to the environment. Plastic carry bags reach the drainage system and this causes clogging especially during the rains. If too much plastic ends up in a lake or a pond, it creates a layer that denies oxygen to everything below so that no plant or animal life can survive in that water body. If animals eat plastic bags thrown in rubbish dumps, it knots up their intestines and they die painful deaths. If plastic lies on land, it can choke it to the extent that nothing will grow there again. Hence, plastics must be done away with completely. There are many alternatives to plastic and we should use them. For shopping we can use cloth or paper carry-bags. We can get milk in bottles or cardboard cartons. We can use metal containers to store things that are now stored in plastic containers. Many things now made of plastic can have better and echo-friendly alternatives. So the earlier we say good bye to the plastic the safer be the future of the planet Earth. Evaluate the main problems associated with using plastic bags. Critically assess possible solutions to reduce these problems. The serious pollution caused by plastic bags has become an urgent environmental issue, it has attracted more and more concern. Today,plastic bags are widely seed in retail I Environmental issues have within the recent years become a frequently debated matter and corporate social responsibility (CARS) has become a new determinant for consumers purchase decisions. As a consequence of this, ever more companies have begun to implement different CARS initiatives in order to TA Many solutions exist to reduce the negative externalities of plastic bags. The three main solutions available are taxation on plastic bags, bans on plastic bags and subsidies to improve methane capture technologies. The following provides a discussion on each f the solutions, including the advantage Plastic bags are not biodegradable, so they get littered onto a wasteland which causes soil erosion causing damage and harm to the trees. If plastic bags are burnt, they emit hazardous gases causing air pollution which causes damage on the ozone layer. The Plastic can be reduced by u not using 10 The environmental problems in India are growing rapidly. The increasing economic development and a rapidly growing population that has taken the country from 300 million people in 1947 to more than one billion people today is putting a strain on the environment, infrastructure, and the countrys n The Harm of Plastic bags Intro to Environmental Science Eric Trembler Granting University The Harm of plastic Bags The slide presentation on plastic bags was alarming. For years I have heard that plastic was such a bad thing for the environment. Figured with that with the technology avail Environmental Pollution Research Paper In Natural Science 1 (Foundation of Physical Science) Submitted to: Tatty. Vaccine T. Penn Submitted by: Raffles, Aledo Neil B. L. Environmental Pollution Environmental pollution is contamination of air, water and land from man- environmental Pollution Research Paper In Natural Science 1 (Foundation of Physical Science) Submitted to: Tatty. Vaccine T. Penn Submitted by: Raffles, Aledo Neil B. L. Environmental Pollution Environmental pollution is contamination of air, water and land from man-unreduced Usage of plastic bag Plastic! Plastic! Plastic!. This materials is use by people all over the world. Plastic uses for many activity,mainly for carry things. We can see plastic every day and every where in our life. At shop even at stall. Usage of plastic has advantage and disadvantage.

5 Cases of Awkward Appositives

5 Cases of Awkward Appositives 5 Cases of Awkward Appositives 5 Cases of Awkward Appositives By Mark Nichol In each of the sentences below, a writer has referenced a person, place, or thing with an appositive, a word or phrase equivalent to another word or phrase, but erroneous punctuation or syntax introduces a flaw in sentence construction. The discussion following each example explains the problem, and a revision illustrates its resolution. 1. A dome-shaped structure made of ice or snow, or igloo, is a form of temporary shelter. When a term is defined, the definition should follow the term- the focus of the sentence- rather than serve as an introduction to the concept followed by the term: â€Å"An igloo, or dome-shaped structure made of ice or snow, is a form of temporary shelter.† 2. The first of two main strategies when building application security is the top-down or proactive approach. The strategy is not called â€Å"the top-down or proactive approach†; it is called â€Å"the top-down approach† or â€Å"the proactive approach.† To clarify that these names are alternatives to each other, rather than elements of a compound name, the second adjective should be treated as a parenthetical: â€Å"The first of two main strategies when building application security is the proactive, or top-down, approach.† 3. FBI Criminal Investigation Division Deputy Assistant Director John Smith discussed the report.   Technically, this sentence begins with a job title- a cumbersome one, at that- rather than an appositive, which is similar in function but not in form. With some reconstruction of elements, the title is easily converted to an appositive, but note that when a title is treated this way, it is no longer capitalized (though the associated proper nouns are): â€Å"John Smith, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigation Division, discussed the report.†Ã‚   4. The group, OurMine, took responsibility for the hacks after the tweets were deleted. Assuming that no previous reference has been made to the organization in question (whether identified by the word group or a synonym), its name is an essential component of the sentence and should not be set off as a discretionary parenthetical: â€Å"The group OurMine took responsibility for the hacks after the tweets were deleted.† (If it had been previously mentioned, then group would be an appositive of â€Å"OurMine,† and the original sentence would be correct.) 5. The outcome depends on the quality of the plans developed during the previous, inspection phase. Here, two aspects are being ascribed to the phase- it is previous to another phase, and it involves inspection. However, the two aspects are not equivalent, so they should not be treated as coordinate adjectives: â€Å"The outcome depends on the quality of the plans developed during the previous phase, inspection.† (Or â€Å"The outcome depends on the quality of the plans developed during inspection, the previous phase.†) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Style category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:36 Adjectives Describing Light30 Baseball IdiomsRunning Errands and Doing Chores

It Isnt Easy, No Matter How Easy It Looks

It Isnt Easy, No Matter How Easy It Looks â€Å"Just because I made it here doesn’t mean it was easy. And just because I don’t seem overwhelmed doesn’t mean I’m not.† - Jen Wilde, Queens of Geek Writing is damn hard work. Nobody is a natural. When you see an author who makes it look easy, understand that that author worked their butt off learning grammar, plot, characterization, and flow then how to weave it all together to work. They might not have looked up the word SYNTAX and studied it, but they read enough good books until they could identify and emulate it. Most of writing block is bunk, and most of writing is a struggle. The writing that flows is the oddity, not the norm. Thats why you edit at least once or twice more after you think the story is perfect. The more difficult the writing task, the stronger you build your writing muscle. Your first book should take way longer than your sixth. Yes, youll edit less the more books you write, but you cannot edit No two writers are alike in how they write, how they structure their writing time, or how they come up with ideas. No two writers write with the same pace. Neither is right or wrong. When Im asked how I come up with ideas, how long does it take me to write a book, or when does writing become easier, I am at a loss for words. My answer is: I sit in a chair and write until the writing is done. When you leave the chair before youve accomplished a good days work, youve shortchanged yourself. Youve shirked your responsibility. You write until the writing is done. Until someone asks you how you made it look so easy.

Writing for Professional Practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Writing for Professional Practice - Essay Example This has resulted in the development of media and scientific literacies. While in the globalized world technologies spread at rapid pace, there are still over 860 million adults that are illiterate. Additionally, nearly 100 million lack access to school. The importance of literacy within contemporary society has not gone unnoticed. The United Nations has declared 2003-2012 the decade of Literacy as Freedom. The notion of literacy is witnessed in a variety of ways. This essay considers the various freedoms literacy offers in a globalized society. Analysis Considered from an overarching perspective literacy has been recognized as contributing to freedom in a variety of ways. An examination of literature on the subject of literacy freedom demonstrates thematic nodes. Many theorists have focused on literacy in terms of empowerment, including women’s right freedoms or emerging nations (Freire 2000; Freire 2005; Dighe 1994). Still, it’s clear that literacy extends to freedoms that relate to all elements of society. One freedom literacy affords individuals and populations is security. Indeed, insecurity has been prominently linked to illiteracy. This term is extended to insecurity in a variety of avenues. Not being able to read and write is a tremendously anxiety producing experience, as individuals fear social stigmatization, ridicule, or a variety of other conditions. While there is the potential that something awful may happen to an individual that is illiterate, Knobel (1999, p. 20) indicates that the very state of being illiterate is indicative of something terrible having happened. In many ways this perspective on literacy as granting the individual the freedom of mental and emotional help is not restricted to populations in Western societies, but can be extended globally, particularly in the emerging world. Bhasin (1984, p. 37) examined literacy in India. Specifically, she examined the construction and development of an educational institute named the Pratichi Trust. The study revealed that over time the girl’s that were admitted to the institute quickly gained the literacy skills of their male counterparts; in this way literacy afforded the freedom of gender equality. Gender equality, however, wasn’t the only freedom gained through this literacy. The study notes that soon the parents became involved and it encouraged a greater degree of community involvement and harmony. In Development As Freedom, Amartya Sen advances a framework that considers the relation between literacy and freedom (Sen 2000). The consideration of this framework reveals a number of prominent ways that literacy offers freedom in a globalized society. One of the central thorough-puts of Sen’s framework is the recognition that literacy often contributes to opportunities and options. The consideration in this way is that literacy must be considered in terms of development. This development extends to personal and professional modes and comprehensively influences the individual’s existence. Rather than specifically considering the way that literacy contributes to freedoms or the avoidance of unfreedoms, there is an emphasis on the social structures that the individual must navigate. The argument then is that development in literacy allows the individual the skills necessary for this navigation. Sen (2000, p. 284) writesn, â€Å"A child who is denied the opportunity of elementary schooling is not only deprived as a youngster, but also handicapped all through life (as a person unable to do certain basic things that rely on reading, writ- ing and arithmetic).† While Sen recognizes there are considerable freedoms that are achieved through literacy, perhaps even more important is the recognitio

Gender In The Media Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Gender In The Media - Movie Review Example The main focus of the paper rests on presentation of female characters relative to male characters. The analysis demonstrates how the female characters adapt the lead roles within Television series, as well as male characters. Television shows adopts several perceptions on society and can be employed as a reflection of reality, depicting the world as external to the text meaning. Introduction Sociologists assert that gender is more of a social performance rather than a biological fact. The sitcom Big Bang Theory relies on individual choice as the possible explanation of the shortage of women within science rather than highlighting institutionalized sexism among scientists. The show largely draws from general stereotypes found in the Sci-fi/fantasy genre in which men are perceived as heroes and women depicted as skimpily dressed and depicted as helpless (Gauntlett, 2008). The show projects the assumption that women do not subscribe to nerd culture and that the cultural stereotypes of the desperate, antisocial, Sci-Fi obsessed video game addicted hacker is unappealing to women’s feminine sensitivities. Role of the Media in Socially Constructing Gender The media mirror and construct the social world. The media that people consume including movies, news stories, music, videogames, and TV shows deliver subtle (and no-so-subtle) messages that largely shape and inform people’s attitudes on race, gender, and class. Comprehension on the impact of the messages on the audience is essential to developing supportive media and industry practices (Gauntlett, 2008). Past studies have demonstrated that representation of women within media tends to reinforce the patriarchal hegemony with the portrayal of women as subordinate to men. Being born a man or a woman within any society is bigger than a simple biological fact bearing social implications. Women can be considered as a creation of the masculine gaze, whereby masculine conception of woman gave rise to idealiza tions and norms, which strongly impacted on the behaviors of women lacking power to challenge the male views of their sex. The social construction framework highlights that there is no essential, universally distinct character which is feminine or masculine behaviors impacted by a broad range of factors such as ability, religion, class, body shape, and sexual preference (Ross, 2012). Gender theory argues that both men and women actively engage in constructing their gendered identities. The construction of gender identities can be perceived as dynamic, changeable, and ongoing rather than fixed or static (Campbell & Carilli, 2005. How Television Shows Construct Gender The concept of gender identity is diverse from gender stereotypes influencing perceptions of personality traits frequently tied to one’s gender, such as expressiveness in women and instrumentality, in men. In most cases, the products of narration of popular culture emanate from the collective and inscribed in it, whereby their deconstruction and analysis uncover the ideological background of gender and social hierarchies overriding the period of creation. Gender norms have been undergoing changes within the last three decades with an unprecedented reach and speed. The boundaries of gender as a social structure may be shaped by taboos that define social power relationships via prohibition on transgressions and violations of the binary gender code, or heterosexist gender discourse. Patriarchal gaze is at the

Should the US Taxpayer Bail Out the US Automobile Industry Term Paper

Should the US Taxpayer Bail Out the US Automobile Industry - Term Paper Example Besides there exist questionable approaches and elements within the framework of most of the top US automakers, which if supported by a bailout, stand to persist. The fact is that the American automakers seek money from the US taxpayers to retain their status quo, rather then for embarking upon an ambitious program to weed out the inefficiencies and lacunas existing within their setup (Gattuso and Loris 1). The politicians prefer to justify such emergency measures by citing the massive losses incurred by the US automakers. Off course their exists ample truth in such claims. In October, the sales of GM fell by 45 percent (Gattuso and Loris 1). The Chrysler and Ford also reported respective plummeting of sales by 34.9 and 30.2 percent (Gattuso and Loris 1). The automakers ascribe this drastic drop in sales to the existing credit crunch. Still, one can not deny the reality that the US automakers did take many shoddy decisions before the credit crunch that unleashed the current crisis (Gattuso and Loris).

Career Plan Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Career Plan - Research Paper Example Therefore, I have decided to become an instructor of computer science. As far as qualification requirements are concerned, I possess the 4 years degree in computer science all what is required to get a job as an instructor of computer science in a post-secondary school. I have researched a lot about this profession and have come to know that teaching computer science to post-secondary level students can be a good choice for me from all aspects. I have studied all those factors that a person evaluates when deciding whether to adopt a profession or not. Let us discuss some of the most important factors that play a valuable role in ensuring success in an individual’s professional career as an instructor of computer science. Job Hours Job hours mean the total number of hours an employee spends on job per week. I have researched this factor and have come to know that a computer science instructor spends 12 to 16 hours per week on job. As Locsin states, â€Å"most have flexible sch edules such as 12 to 16 hours of classes a week, three to six hours of student consultation, and then planning and research time†. Such amount of time can help a person get enough time for getting more knowledge related to his/her professional field. Moreover, I would have plenty of time for student consultation. There is also a 2-month break every summer adding to the charm of this job. Looking at this aspect of this job, I would say that I have made a right decision to become a commuter science instructor, as I would get the time to spend with my friends and family while earning a god amount of money per year. Therefore, considering the factor of job hours, I would say that I have made a right decision because I would get some time for my personal interests while fulfilling my job responsibilities. Salary Salary is one of the most important factors that play their role when deciding whether to adopt a profession or not. I have researched this factor and have come to know tha t post-secondary computer science instructors earn $75,000 to $95,000 per year on average. It also depends on experience. For example, a fresh instructor earns 45,000 to 55,000 per year. On the other hand, an instructor having a 3 to 4 years teaching experience earns a big amount of money per year. I believe that such pay scales are fair enough for a person to live a high standard life in the United States. I have also contacted a few of my relatives and friends who re already in the profession of teaching. According to them, computer science instructors have a good choice of jobs for them, as computer science is a rapidly growing field of study. They also told me that the annual salaries of computer science instructors get more increment as compared to the salaries of other instructors. Therefore, looking at the salary factor I would say that instructor of computer science can live a high standard life because of high salary and flexible job hours. Job Satisfaction Job Satisfaction is another important factor to study when deciding whether to adopt a profession or not. I have researched this factor and have come to know that post-secondary computer science instructors are generally satisfied with their jobs. The reason is again the combination of flexible job hours and salary structure. Every person likes to have a good salary package along with reduced job hours. My friends

Case Study 1 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

1 - Case Study Example 2. In order to fulfil the above mentioned mission for Kaiser, its operational strategy to reach a sustainable competitive advantage should be based on the notion of quick response (flexible or responsive). As noted, this is not-for-profit health maintenance organization serving 8.1 million people. The number is just high so it is imperative for the organization to adopt a flexible operational strategy which can allow it to quickly respond to the needs of different people it serves. This will help to show its total commitment to the cause of providing health care services to the people with special needs in the communities it operates in. The goal of the organization is to uplift the welfare of different people in the communities in which it operates. Therefore, it is imperative for the organization to implement strategies that are meant to ensure that the targeted people get the services they may require as when they may require them. This will help to create trust between the organization and the targeted people such that they will look no further than it for any service related to health care they may require. What is only important in this case is to offer satisfactory services to the targeted people so that they can come back again for the same services. When an organization is not operating for profit like Kaiser, then it should appeal to the interests of the targeted people so that they can develop positive identity with it. Goods and service design: Kaiser ought to define the goods and services it offers to the targeted people in different areas it operates. For instance, it should make it clear that it is not for profit organization and it offers freely health care related services to different people who belong to less privileged groups. It also ought to make it clear that it is committed to train other people so that they can also play a part in uplifting the welfare of the people in different communities. Quality: quality is a virtue in as far as

Career Plan Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Career Plan - Research Paper Example Therefore, I have decided to become an instructor of computer science. As far as qualification requirements are concerned, I possess the 4 years degree in computer science all what is required to get a job as an instructor of computer science in a post-secondary school. I have researched a lot about this profession and have come to know that teaching computer science to post-secondary level students can be a good choice for me from all aspects. I have studied all those factors that a person evaluates when deciding whether to adopt a profession or not. Let us discuss some of the most important factors that play a valuable role in ensuring success in an individual’s professional career as an instructor of computer science. Job Hours Job hours mean the total number of hours an employee spends on job per week. I have researched this factor and have come to know that a computer science instructor spends 12 to 16 hours per week on job. As Locsin states, â€Å"most have flexible sch edules such as 12 to 16 hours of classes a week, three to six hours of student consultation, and then planning and research time†. Such amount of time can help a person get enough time for getting more knowledge related to his/her professional field. Moreover, I would have plenty of time for student consultation. There is also a 2-month break every summer adding to the charm of this job. Looking at this aspect of this job, I would say that I have made a right decision to become a commuter science instructor, as I would get the time to spend with my friends and family while earning a god amount of money per year. Therefore, considering the factor of job hours, I would say that I have made a right decision because I would get some time for my personal interests while fulfilling my job responsibilities. Salary Salary is one of the most important factors that play their role when deciding whether to adopt a profession or not. I have researched this factor and have come to know tha t post-secondary computer science instructors earn $75,000 to $95,000 per year on average. It also depends on experience. For example, a fresh instructor earns 45,000 to 55,000 per year. On the other hand, an instructor having a 3 to 4 years teaching experience earns a big amount of money per year. I believe that such pay scales are fair enough for a person to live a high standard life in the United States. I have also contacted a few of my relatives and friends who re already in the profession of teaching. According to them, computer science instructors have a good choice of jobs for them, as computer science is a rapidly growing field of study. They also told me that the annual salaries of computer science instructors get more increment as compared to the salaries of other instructors. Therefore, looking at the salary factor I would say that instructor of computer science can live a high standard life because of high salary and flexible job hours. Job Satisfaction Job Satisfaction is another important factor to study when deciding whether to adopt a profession or not. I have researched this factor and have come to know that post-secondary computer science instructors are generally satisfied with their jobs. The reason is again the combination of flexible job hours and salary structure. Every person likes to have a good salary package along with reduced job hours. My friends

International Trade - Exporting and Importing Essay

International Trade - Exporting and Importing - Essay Example Some of the popular tractors manufactured and exported by the USA are, John Deere, Ford Son and Kubota. The companies engaging in international trade have to face various barriers before they can market their produce to oversee countries. The export of tractors from the USA to Chile or Thailand is affected by the following factors; The demand for the product is the principle factor in the determining the viability of the country to export the product to. An example is the tractor which is used for tilling to produce crops for local and foreign consumption. Chile produces lumber, fruits and vegetable, grapes, pears, onion, wheat, corn, oats, peaches, garlic, asparagus and beans. Its major agricultural exports are fresh fruits, canned vegetables and wines. The government of Chile is encouraging more export from Chile to boost the country economy. Thailand on the other hand is a main exporter of rice. Due to this, tractors, which are used for tilling in large scale farms, are usually in high demand. Before considering whether to export the tractors to another country. Careful evaluation must be done to ensure that the country does not have the technology or enough facilities to manufacture the product being exported. If the country has the means to produce the same product, then the exporter will be faced by stiff competition by the local manufacturers who may offer the same product at a cheaper price. The existing trade blocks can p... , Ecuador and Peru; if these countries have the ability to produce tractors then Chile would be obliged to purchase the tractors from the other member countries. This in turn would limit the exportation of tractors to Chile. Chile has signed bilateral trade agreement with the USA, Singapore and Jordan, this trade agreement encourages trade between USA and Chile, tractors can hence be exported to Chile with ease and the manufacturer can succeed in exporting tractors to this country. Thailand on the other hand belongs to the ASEAN trading blocks. The countries in this trading block are Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. The free trade agreement between the USA and Thailand have not yet materialized hence the tractor exporter may have difficulties exporting to this country. Internet According to Rajib (166), the internet and E-commerce has led to the globalization. Customers from all over the world can search the internet and find products of their choice. Upon identification of the product to purchase they can pay online and also carry out other transactions through the internet. The firm seeking to export tractors to Chile and Thailand can use the internet to advertise the tractors. Bilateral trade agreements These are trade agreement between two countries, the agreement dictates what a country will export and import from its partner. These trade blocks can either promote or hinder trade between two countries. If two countries sign bilateral trade agreement then exporting and importing goods becomes relatively easy due to reduction of barriers and excessive import tax. However, these agreements may hinder other countries from exporting products to those with bilateral trade agreements. Exporting tractors from USA to Thailand may be hindered by lack

Why Time Travel is not Paradoxical according to David Lewis Essay Example for Free

Why Time Travel is not Paradoxical according to David Lewis Essay The grandfather paradox is one of the most well known examples of a paradox associated with time travel. Supposing that a person, say Henry, wants to kill his grandfather, and Henry wants to travel back in time to do so. If Henry does succeed in killing his grandfather at a time when the grandfather has not yet fathered the offspring that would eventually become Henry’s parent, then Henry would never have been born in the first place, so how could he have traveled back in time? David Lewis argues that time travel is not paradoxical. His answer to the grandfather paradox is that, in the first place, Henry would not have been able to kill the grandfather. In other words, a time traveler who goes back to the past cannot change the past. According to Lewis, Henry—or any time traveler—would simply be part of the reality of the past. Henry would be part of the past as a time traveler—in other words, there is only one past in the first place, and that past has always included the time traveler Henry. Thus, there are no changes that can be done to the past, because the fact that he time-traveled would have been true even before he decided to do it, and even before he existed. Every point in time is equally real, and nothing can change it. Another paradox is the causal loop, to which Lewis’ solution applies as well. An example of a causal loop is when a person receives the plans for a time machine from a mysterious stranger. This person creates the time machine, travels back in time, and gives his younger self the plans. The problem here is the origin of the time machine plans. Where did they come from? According to Lewis, the plans would simply have had no cause, in the same way that the universe, or God, exists uncaused.

Biomedical and Social Models of Health

Biomedical and Social Models of Health The bio-medical and social models of health offer different views of health and disease. Outline the main characteristics of each model and assess their strengths and weakness in explaining health and disease. Health can be viewed as the state of being fit and well, as well as a state of mental sanity (WHO 2005). According to Blaxter (2004), if a person can perform daily functions such as going to work, taking care of the household, etc he/she is healthy. Many studies have found that lay people define health as the absence of illness (Williams 1983, Calnan 1987, Hughner Kleine 2004). However being healthy means different things to different people as much have been said and written about peoples varying concepts of health. Some lay perceptions are based on pragmatism where health is regarded as a relative phenomenon, experienced and evaluated according to what an individual finds reasonable to expect, given their age, medical condition and social status. For them being healthy, may just mean not having a health problem, which interferes with their everyday lives (Bury 2005). Some taxonomies have evolved in attempt to define health. In this work, health has been considered from the perspective of biomedical and social models. According to Baggott (2004) the biomedical model of health looks at individual physical functioning and describes bad health as the presence of disease and illness symptoms as a result of physical cause such as injury or infections and attempts to ignore social and psychological factors. Baggott (2004) states that the features of biomedical model rest mainly on biomedical changes, which can be defined, measured and isolated. In effect this is directed towards the dysfunction of the organs and tissues of the body rather than the overall condition of the patient. Biomedical treatments often involve the removal of the cause, for instance the virus or bacteria. The biomedical model is based on the belief that there is always a cure and the idea that illness is temporary, episodic and a physical condition. The basic values of the biomedical model of health consist of the theory called doctrine of specific aetiology, which is the idea that all disease is caused by theoretically identifiable agents such as germs, bacteria or parasites (Naidoo Wills 2004). The advantage of biomedical model shows disease as representing a major public health problem facing our society. This model sees disease state as an issue that needs to be treated, and that disease can be readily diagnosed and quantified (Ewles Simnett 2003 2010). This approach appears narrow, negative and reductionist. In an extreme case, it implies that people with disabilities are unhealthy and that health is only about the absence of morbidity. Further, this model is limited in its approach by its omission of a time dimension. Modern biomedicine rests upon two major developments, both of which remain influential to this day. It is first important to consider the Cartesian revolution after the seventh century French philosophy Rene Descarts. The Cartesian revolution encouraged the idea that the body and mind are independent or not closely related (NRC 1985). In this mechanistic view, the body is perceived to function like a machine with its various parts individually treatable, and those that treat them considered engineers (Naidoo Wills 2004). Biomedical also concentrates on the individual unlike the social model. Biological model adopts a negative perspective on health as it views health more in terms of the absence of disease than the possession of healthy attributes (Baggott 2004). This model stresses the importance of advancing technology both in the diagnosis and treatment of disease, an approach that has undoubtedly improved both the knowledge and understanding of numerous diseases. Biomedical model has led to the improvements in the treatment of patients, which has favoured gains both in the length and quality of life of people. Despite the aforementioned feats, the biomedical model has received considerable criticism, as many writers have argued that it was inappropriate to modern, complex health problems (Inglis 1981). The medical model, in terms of specific health risks, does not encompass all of what health means to an individual. For instance, a physician speculating on what, based on current knowledge at the time, would be the composite picture of an individual with a low risk of developing coronary artery disease. Further criticisms of this theory focused principally on the suggestion that it over simplified biological processes now known to be very intricate. For many diseases there are multiple and interacting causes. Moreover, such a theory looks only to the agent of disease, and ignores the host, and the possibilities of biological adaptation. The theory is much more easily applicable to acute conditions than to chronic ill-health and is difficult to apply to mental disorders. The second theory of the biomedical model is called the assumption of generic disease. This is when each disease has its own distinguishing features that are universal, at least within the human species. These will be the same in different cultures and at different times, unless the disease-producing agent itself changes. Criticisms of this focus on the rather obvious point that diseases are differently defined in different cultures and that medical definitions of disease have clearly changed over time. Each new advance in knowledge of physiology and each new wave of technology have added new definitions of ill health to the accepted canon. Despite the doctrine of specific aetiology many conditions, which are still only symptoms or syndromes, are recognized within medicine as diseases. Generally, it can be seen that what is viewed as illness in any particular society and at any historical time depends on cultural norms and social values (Naidoo Wills 2004). Thus new diagnoses such as alcohol, post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic fatigue syndromes are born through an interaction of new knowledge about both their possible causes and how they might possibly be helped. As a definition of disease what doctors treat has obvious problems, however, it implies that no one can be ill until recognised as such and leaves the concept at the mercy of idiosyncratic individual medical decisions. The third theory is the scientific biomedicine, which accepts the model of all ill-health as deviation from the normal especially the normal range of measurable biological variables. There is an association with the definition of health as equilibrium and disease as a disturbance of the bodys function, with the purpose of medical technology the restoration to equilibrium. The immune or endocrine, or neuropsychological systems attempt to restore the normal and the purpose of medicine is to instigate or assist this process. But medical science now realizes that the human organism has no set pattern for structure and function, and it is often unclear where normal variation ends and abnormality begins. The fourth theory of medical model is based on the principles of scientific neutrality. Medicine adopts not only the rational method of science but also its values objectivity and neutrality on the part of the observer, and the view of the human organism as simply the product of biological processes over which the individuals themselves have little control. The reply to this is that the practice of medicine, whatever its theory, is always deeply embedded in the larger society. It cannot be neutral, for there are wider social, political and cultural forces dictating how it does its work and how the unhealthy are dealt with. Biomedicine now admits multiple and interactive causes, and that the whole may be more than simply the sum of the parts. Social and psychological causes of ill health- stress, unhappiness, life events- are admitted as agents of disease or contributing factors, but they are not themselves defined as ill health. Modern medicine has moved on, to incorporate elaborate ideas about the various and interrelated causes of ill health. Studies of the way in which doctors make diagnoses demonstrate this, while at the same time lip service is paid to the importance of the social. Moreover, even when social and psychological influences are admitted this is still a very negatively oriented approach to health. The social model came about in mid twentieth century when there was increasing dissatisfaction with the dominant model of health offered by biomedicine. The preoccupation with disease and illness made it less able to deal with any positive concept of health. The ideology, which viewed the individual in mechanistic ways justified ever-increasing use of medical technologies, precluding the exercise of other therapies and diminishing the importance attached to positive health or preventive medicine. Since the last decade medical professional practice has become a major threat to health. Depression, infection, disability and other specific estrogenic disease now cause more suffering than all accidents from traffic or industry by transforming pain, illness and death from a personal challenge into a technical problem, medical practice expropriates the potential of people to deal with their human condition in an autonomous way and becomes the sources of a new kind of un-health. The emphasis on health as simply the absence of disease encouraged thinking about only two categories the health and the disease. As we are meant to believe that science can produce a utopia of disease free and lengthy life meaning scientists only look for their magic bullet. There is a feeling that the most angry critiques of the biomedical model was wilfully ignoring the contributions of modern science to human welfare. But claims to the unique truth of biomedicine were weakened by some loss of faith in sci entific objectivity and a distrust of a Frankenstein technology that could run out of control, and this was part of the modern movement towards a new model usually called social health. Social model of health imbibes social constructs and relativity in its approach to health. It tends to define and redefine health in a continuous manner, and views health differently between individuals, groups, times and cultures. Some supporters of Social model have written extensively about sickness having a role to play in various societies (Parsons 1951) as this helps to determine the structure of and functionality of the society. The concept of social health incorporates many differences of emphasis though it has to be noted that it is more than simply the recognition that social factors such as poverty have to be included in a model of the causes of ill health. The social model is a different construction, locating biological processes within their social contexts and considering the person as a whole rather than a series of distinct bodily systems. The social model is organic and holistic rather than reductionist mechanical method. A mechanical system acts according to its programming, its instructions, or natural laws. The social model allows for mental as well as physical health and wider sphere of taking part in active life. This model also allows for more subtle discrimination of individuals who succeed in leading productive lives in spite of a physical impairment. Another disadvantage of this model is that the conception runs the risk of excessive breadth and of incorporating all of life. Thus they do not distinguish clearly between the state of being healthy the consequences of being healthy nor do they distinguish between health and the determinants of health (Ewles Simnett 2010). The medical profession is a social institution, which cannot be separated from the values, pressures and influences of the society in which it practices. As health has been defined in various ways, most part rests on the ideas of the normal and of seeing health as opposed to disease or illness. In practice, the definition of health has always been the territory of those who define its opposite: healers, or practitioners of medicine as a science or a body of practical knowledge. Since medicine is one of societys major systems, it is obvious that it is these definitions which will be institutionalised and embodied in law and administration, though the extent to which lay models adds to or diverge from this body of ideas is significant to the individual in respect of their perception of health. Whilst the medical model built on the Cartesian theory of the body as a machine disorders can be corrected by repairing or replacing parts of the organism, holism describes the view that the whole cannot be explained simply by the sum of the parts, just as healthiness cannot be explained by a list of risk factors. Every disturbance in a system involves the whole system. Human beings are living networks formed by cognitive processes, values, and purposive intentions, not simply interacting components (Blaxter 2004). The development of this social model has been accompanied among the public, by a growing enthusiasm for alternative therapies, which tend to rest on holistic theories. Gradually, these too have been integrated to some extent into the mainstream model. In order to have a comprehensive understanding of health, one has to look at the phenomenon from various premise of health definition, as just one aspect may not provide complete answer to the enquiry about our health at a particular given time. It is therefore important to consider the various aspects of health when making judgement and decision about the health status of an individual. In summary, the biomedical model of health is obviously most easily defined by the absence of disease, though the model is also compatible with more positive definitions in terms of equilibrium of normal functioning. In the social model health is a positive state of wholeness and well being associated with but not entirely explained by the absence of disease, illness or physical and mental impairment. The concepts of health and ill-health are unbalanced. The absence of disease may be part of health but health is more than the absence of disease.

Womans Struggle For Independence Essay -- essays research papers fc

Woman's Struggle for Independence Women have had to fight for there independence. They have been repressed for a long period of history. Only recently have women started to gain respect as equals and individuals. Even today women are still looked down upon for there sex. From the begging of history women have been viewed as a lesser sex. In the time Mesopotamia women we in charge of the children and the home. In Ancient Egypt women had no power or authority. Women were viewed as property. The Hebrews, alto respecting women, did not allow them to own any property or to have an active place in government. In Rome women were not allowed to voice there opinions. They were viewed as lesser beings, who's role in society was to give birth and to take care of children. They were property of there husbands and not viewed as individuals. There husband was there master and women we practically slaves and was often mistreated by there husband. A servant to the male sex. During the middle ages women still has almost no rights. They still didn't have the right to voice there opinion and were still viewed as property. If they disobeyed there male role model they were punished. The art of the Renaissance gave women some freedom to voice there opinion about the arts and social issues as long as there opinions weren't very radical. However women were only the objects in the arts. They were the models and not the creators. They were not allowed to express themselves but only to be expressed by others. This lead into the period of the Reformation, women were still viewed as property and the homemakers. They did not really get there place in society. The 17th century was the first real growth of the women's movement. Up until this time women had been in the same category as property or slaves. But as the French society moved toward revolution women began to speak of the injustice against them. "The Vindication of Rights of Women (1792) called for the extension of the principle of the liberty to women and urging that equal public education be made available for men and women" (Perry, 289). This list of the right that women were lacking was one of the first attempts at creating a legislation that included women in its laws. During the scientific revolution men were making discoveries and coming up with new ideas all over the world. This was not possible for women beca... ...tes presidents wife for example. Women such as these have a great deal of power and influation, but they wouldn't have this if it wasn't for there husbands. The idea that a woman can work and be just as productive as a man a receive the same rewards happens to a point. The majority of the heads of corporations are men, women make a lesser salary and aren't promoted as much as men. As a woman rises in power in a company she usually gets to a point and then the promotions stop. This event of a sudden stop in promotion has been called "The Glass Ceiling effect" (Lunt). This can only be explained as women are still being treated as a lesser being to men. The reason why women are inferior to men is still unknown. It has been around for as long as men and women have walked the earth. Hopefully soon it will disappear completely and we can all be viewed as equals. Works Cited and Works Consulted Golden, Richard and Thomas Kuehn. Western Societies. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993. Lowenthal, David. The Past and Foreign Country. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. Lunt, Richard. Lectures. Perry, Marvin. Western Civilizations. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993.

Bluetooth based smart sensor network Essay

Currently, huge electronic data repositories are being maintained by banks and other financial institutions. Valuable bits of information are embedded in these data repositories. The huge size of these data sources make it impossible for a human analyst to come up with interesting information (or patterns) that will help in the decision making process. A number of commercial enterprises have been quick to recognize the value of this concept, as a consequence of which the software market itself for data mining is expected to be in excess of 10 billion USD. This paper is intended for those who would like to get aware of the possible applications of data mining to enhance the performance of some of their core business processes. In this paper discussion is about the broad areas of application, like risk management, portfolio management, trading, customer profiling and customer care, where data mining techniques can be used in banks and other financial institutions to enhance their busin ess performance. INTRODUCTION: As knowledge is becoming more and more synonymous to wealth creation and as a strategy plan for competing in the market place can be no better than the information on which it is based, the importance of knowledge and information in today’s business can never be seen as an exogenous factor to the business. Organizations and individuals having access to the right information at the right moment, have greater chances of being successful in the epoch of globalization and cut-throat competition. Business Intelligence focuses on discovering knowledge from various electronic data repositories, both internal and external, to support better decision making.  Data mining techniques become important for this knowledge discovery from databases. In recent years, business intelligence  systems have played pivotal roles in helping organizations to fine tune the business goals such as improving customer retention, market penetration, profitability and efficiency. In most cases, these ins ights are driven by analyses of historical data. Global competitions, dynamic markets, and rapidly decreasing cycles of technological innovation provide important challenges for the banking and finance industry. Worldwide just-in-time availability of information allows enterprises to improve their flexibility. In financial institutions considerable developments in information technology have led to huge demand for continuous analysis of resulting data. Data mining can contribute to solving business problems in banking and finance by finding patterns, causalities, and correlations in business information and market prices that are not immediately apparent to managers because the volume data is too large or is generated too quickly to screen by experts. The managers of the banks may go a step further to find the sequences, episodes and periodicity of the transaction behaviour of their customers which may help them in actually better segmenting, targeting, acquiring, retaining and maintaining a profitable customer base. Business Intelligence and data mining techniques can also help them in identifying various classes of customers and come up with a class based product and/or pricing approach that may garner better revenue management as well. The broad categories of application of Data Mining and Business Intelligence techniques in the banking and financial industry vertical may be viewed as follows: Risk Management Managing and measurement of risk is at the core of every financial institution. Today’s major challenge in the banking and insurance world is therefore the implementation of risk management systems in order to identify, measure, and control business exposure. Here credit and market risk present the central challenge, one can observe a major change in the area of how to measure and deal with them, based on the advent of advanced database and data mining technology.( Other types of risk is also available  in the banking and finance i.e., liquidity risk, operational risk, or concentration risk. ) Today, integrated measurement of different kinds of risk (i.e., market and credit risk) is moving into focus. These all are based on models representing single financial instruments or risk factors, their behaviour, and their interaction with overall market, making this field highly important topic of research. Financial Market Risk For single financial instruments, that is, stock indices, interest rates, or currencies, market risk measurement is based on models depending on a set of underlying risk factor, such as interest rates, stock indices, or economic development. One is interested in a functional form between instrument price or risk and underlying risk factors as well as in functional dependency of the risk factors itself. Today different market risk measurement approaches exist. All of them rely on models representing single instrument, their behaviour and interaction with overall market. Many of this can only be built by using various data mining techniques on the proprietary portfolio data, since data is not publicly available and needs consistent supervision. Credit Risk Credit risk assessment is key component in the process of commercial lending. Without it the lender would be unable to make an objective judgement of weather to lend to the prospective borrower, or if how much charge for the loan. Credit risk management can be classified into two basic groups: Credit scoring/credit rating: Assignment of a customer or a product to risk level. (i.e., credit approval) Behaviour scoring/credit rating migration analysis. Valuation of a customer‘s or product’s probability of a change in risk level within a given time. (i.e., default rate volatility) In commercial lending, risk assessment is usually an attempt to quantify the risk of loss to the lender when making a particular lending decision. Here credit risk can quantify by the changes of value of a credit product or of a whole credit customer portfolio, which is based on change in the instrument’s ranting, the default probability, and recovery rate of the instrument in case of default. Further diversification effects influence the result on a portfolio level. Thus a major part of implementation and care of credit risk management system will be a typical data mining problem: the modelling of the credit instrument’s value through the default probabilities, rating migrations, and recovery rates. Three major approaches exist to model credit risk on the transaction level: accounting analytic approaches, statistical prediction and option theoretic approaches. Since large amount of information about client exist in financial business, an adequate way to build such models is to use their own database and data mining techniques, fitting models to the business needs and the business current credit portfolio. Portfolio Management Risk measurement approaches on an aggregated portfolio level quantify the risk of a set of instrument or customer including diversification effects. On the other hand, forecasting models give an induction of the expected return or price of a financial instrument. Both make it possible to manage firm wide portfolio actively in a risk/return efficient manner. The application of modern risk theory is therefore within portfolio theory, an important part of portfolio management. With the data mining and optimization techniques investors are able to allocate capital across trading activities to maximise profit or minimise risk. This feature supports the ability to generate trade recommendations and portfolio structuring from user supplied profit and risk requirement. With data mining techniques it is possible to provide extensive scenario analysis capabilities concerning expected asset prices or returns and the risk involved. With this functionality, what if simulations of varying market c onditions e.g. interest rate and exchange rate changes) cab be run to assess impact on the value and/or risk associated with portfolio, business unit counterparty, or trading desk. Various scenario results can be regarded by considering actual market conditions. Profit and loss analyses allow users to access an asset class, region, counterparty, or custom sub portfolio can be benchmarked against common international benchmarks. Trading For the last few years a major topic of research has been the building of quantitative trading tools using data mining methods based on past data as  input to predict short-term movements of important currencies, interest rates, or equities. The goal of this technique is to spot times when markets are cheap or expensive by identifying the factor that are important in determining market returns. The trading system examines the relationship between relevant information and piece of financial assets, and gives you buy or sell recommendations when they suspect an under or overvaluation. Thus, even if some traders find the data mining approach too mechanical or too risky to be used systematically, they may want to use it selectively as further opinion. Trading is based on the idea of predicting short term movements in the price/value of a product (currency/equity/interest rate etc.). With a reasonable guesstimate in place one may trade the product if he/she thinks it is going to be over valued or undervalued in the coming future. Trading traditionally is done based on the instinct of the trader. If he/she thinks the product is not priced properly he/she may sell/buy it. This instinct is usually based on past experience and some analysis based on market conditions. However, the number of factors that even the most expert of traders can account for are limited. Hence, quite often these predictions fail. The price of a financial asset is influenced by a variety of factors which can be broadly classified as economic, political and market factors. Participants in a market observe the relation between these factors and the price of an asset, account for the current value of these factors and predict the future values to finally arrive at the future value of the asset and trade accordingly. Quite often by the time a trained eye detects these favourable factors, many others may have discovered the opportunity, decreasing the possible revenues otherwise. Also these factors in turn may be related to several other factors making prediction difficult. Data mining techniques are used to discover hidden knowledge, unknown patterns and new rules from large data sets, which may be useful for a variety of decision making activity. With the increasing economic globalization and improvements in information technology, large amounts of financial data are being generated and stored. subjected to data mining techniques to discover hidden patterns and obtain predictions for trends in the future and the behaviour of the financial markets. With the immediacy offered by data mining, latest data can be mined to obtain crucial information at the earliest. This in turn would result in an improved market place  responsiveness and awareness leading to reduced costs and increased revenue. Advancements made in technology have enabled to create faster and better prediction systems. These systems are based on a combination of data mining techniques and artificial intelligence methods like Case Based Reasoning (CBR) and Neural Networks (NN). A combination of such a forecasting system together with a good trading strategy offers tremendous opportunities for massive returns. The value of a financial asset is dependent on both ma croeconomic and microeconomic variables and this data is available in a variety of disparate formats. NN and CBR techniques can be applied extensively for predicting these financial variables. NN are characterized by learning capabilities and the ability to improve performance over time. Also NN can generalize i.e. recognize new objects which may be similar but not exactly identical to previous objects. NN with their ability to derive meaning from imprecise data can be used to detect patterns which are otherwise too complex to be detected by humans. NN act as experts in the area that they have been trained to work in. these can be used to provide predictions for new situations and work in real time. Thus, historic data available about financial markets and the various variables can be used to train NN to simulate the market. CBR methodology is based on reasoning from past performances. It uses a large repository of data stored as cases which would include all the market variables in this case. When a new case is fed in (in the form of a case containing the concerned variables), the CBR algorithm predicts the performance/result of this case based on the cases it has in its repository. Data mining techniques can be used to detect hidden patterns in these cases which may then be used for further decision making. CBR methods can be used in real time which makes analysis really quick and helps in real time decision making resulting in immediate profits. Thus data mining and business intelligence (CBR and NN) techniques may be used in conjunction in financial markets to predict market behaviour and obtain patterned behaviour to influence decision making. †¢ Customer Profiling and Customer Relationship Management Banks have many and huge databases containing transactional and other details of its customers. Valuable business information can be extracted from these data stores. But it is unfeasible to support analysis and decision making using traditional query languages; because human analysis breaks down with volume and dimensionality. Traditional statistical methods do not have the capacity and scale to analyse these data, and hence modern data mining methodologies and tools are increasingly being used for decision making process not only in banking and financial institutions, but across the industries. Customer profiling is a data mining process that builds customer profiles of different groups from the company’s existing customer database. The information obtained from this process can be used for different purposes, such as understanding business performance, making new marketing initiatives, market segmentation, risk analysis and revising company customer policies. The advantage of data mining is that it can handle large amounts of data and learn inherent structures and patterns in data. It can generate rules and models that are useful in enabling decisions that can be applied to future cases. Customer Behaviour Modeling (CBM) or customer profiling is a tool to predict the future value of an individual and the risk category to which he belongs to based on his demographic characteristics, life-style and previous behaviour. This helps to focus on customer retention. The two important facts that have important implication in selecting customer profiling methods are: – Profiling information can consist of many variables (or dozens of them). – Majority of them are categorical variables (or non-numeric variables or nominal variables). Customer profiling is to characterize features of special customer groups. Many data mining techniques search profiles of special customer groups systematically using Artificial Intelligence techniques. They generate accurate profiles based on beam search and incremental learning techniques. Customer profiling also uses many predictive modeling methods. Predictive modelling techniques applicable can be categorized into two broad approaches. They depend on the type of predicted information or variables, also called target variables. If the type of predicted values is categorical, classification techniques is preferred to be used. Classification Methods: In this approach, risk levels are organized into two categories based on past default history. For example, customers with past default history can be  classified into â€Å"risky† group, whereas the rest are placed as â€Å"safe† group. Using this categorization information as target of prediction, Decision Tree and Rule Induction techniques can be used to build models that can predict default risk levels of new loan applications. Value Prediction Methods: In this method, for example, instead of classifying new loan applications, it attempts to predict expected default amounts for new loan applications. The predicted values are numeric and thus it requires modelling techniques that can take numerical data as target (or predicted) variables. Neural Network and regression are used for this purpose. The most common data mining methods used for customer profiling are: – Clustering (descriptive) – Classification (predictive) and regression (predictive) – Association rule discovery (descriptive) and sequential pattern discovery (predictive) In CRM, data mining is frequently used to assign a score to a particular customer or prospect indicating the likelihood that the individual will behave in a particular way. For example, a score could measure the propensity to respond to a particular insurance or credit card offer or to switch to a competitor’s product. Data mining can be useful in all the three phases of a customer relationship-cycle: customer acquisition, increasing value of the customer and customer retention. For example, a typical banking firm let say sends 1 million direct mails for credit card customer acquisition. Past researches have shown that typically 6% of such target customers respond to these direct mails. Banks use their credit risk models to classify these respondents in good credit risk and bad credit risk classes. The proportion of good credit risk respondents is only 16% out of the total respondents. So, as net result, roughly only 1% of the total targeted customers are converted into the cr edit card customers through direct mailing. Seeing the huge cost and effort involved in such marketing process, data mining techniques can significantly improve the customer conversion rate by more focused marketing. Using a predictive test model using decision tree techniques like CHAID (Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detection), CART (Classification And Regression Trees), Quest and C5.0; it can be analyzed which customers are more probable to respond. And using this with the risk model using techniques like neural network can help build a test model. The way data mining can actually be built into the CRM application is determined by the nature of customer interaction. The customer interaction could be inbound (when the customer contacts the firm) or outbound (when the firm contacts customers). The deployment requirements are quite different. Outbound interactions such as direct â€Å"Building Profitable Customer Relations with Data Mining†, Herb Edelstein mail campaign involve the firm selecting the people whom to be mailed by applying the test model to the customer database. In other outbound campaigns like advertising, the profile of good prospects shown by the test model needs to be matched to the profile of the people the advertisement would reach. For inbound transactions such as telephone or internet order, the application must respond in real time. Therefore the data mining model is embedded in the application and actively recommends an action. In either case, one of the key issues in applying a model to new data set is the transformations that are made in building the model. The ease with which these changes are embedded in the model determines the productivity of deploying these tools. †¢ Marketing and customer care Because high competitions in the finance industry, intelligent business decisions in marketing are more important than ever for better customer targeting, acquisition, retention and customer relationship. There is a need for customer care and marketing strategies to be in place for the success and survival of the business. It is possible with the help of data mining and predictive analytics to make such strategies. Financial institutions are finding it more difficult to locate new previously unsolicited buyers, and as a result they are implementing aggressive marketing program to acquire new customer from their competitors. The uncertainties of the buyer make planning of new services and media usage almost impossible. The classical solution is to apply subjective human expert knowledge as rules of thumb. Until recently, replacing the human expert by computer technology has been difficult. An interesting tool available in marketing and financial institution is analysis of client’s data. This allows analysis and calculation of key indicators that help bank to identify factors that affected customer’s demand in the past and customer’ need in the future. Information about the customer’s personal data can also give indications that affect future demand. In case of analysis of retail debtors and small corporations, marketing tasks will typically include factors about the customer himself, his credit record and rating made by external rating agencies. With the advent of data mining and business intelligence tools it has become possible for banks to strengthen their customer acquisition by direct marketing and establish multi- channel contacts, to improve customer development by cross selling and up selling of products, and to increase customer retention by behaviour management. It is possible for the banks to use the data available to retain its best customers and to identify opportunities to sell them additional services. The profiling of all the valuable accounts can be done and the top most say 5-10 % can be assigned to Relationship Managers, whose job will be to identify new selling opportunities with these customers. It is also possible to bundle various offers to meet the need of the valued customers. Data mining can also help the banks in customizing the various promotional offers. For example the direct mails can be customized as per the segment of the account holders in the bank. It is also possible for the banks to find out thepr oblem customers who can be defaulters in the future, from their past payment records and the profile and the data patterns that are available. This can also help the banks in adjusting the relationship with these customers so that the loss in future is kept to its minimum. Data mining can improve the response rates in the direct mail campaigns as the time required to classify the customers will be reduced, this in turn will increase the revenues, improve the sales force efficiency from the target group. Data mining helps the banks to optimize their portfolio of services, delivery channels. A record of past transactions can give useful insight to the bank and different locations /branches of same branch can also follow some patterns that when noticed can be used as past records to learn from and base the future actions upon. Data Mining techniques can be of immense help to the banks and financial institutions in this arena for better targeting and acquiring new customers, fraud detection in real time, providing segment based products for better targeting the customers, analysis of the customers’ purchase patterns over time for better retention and relationship, detection of emerging trends to take proactive stance in a highly competitive market adding a lot more value to existing products and services and launching of new product and service bundles. Reference: