Process Mapping Speech or Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Process Mapping - Speech or Presentation Example The output to this process might be patient is referred to any specialist doctor or diagnosed or treated. The services or care for time, diagnosis, treatments have to be managed by the individual doctor (health care provider) for converting input into output. In the large care facility or hospital, the processes are quite different and integrated. The health care delivery process can be explicitly shown as model developed by Roth (1993) (fig1 Appendix). Process mapping developed by an engineer, Frank Gilbert in early 20th century has been frequently used in the field of engineering and other industries for the last five or six decades, it is only during the 1980s health care providers in the USA began to develop the process mapping/pathway tool in ‘Managed Care’. Scope and Objective of Process Mapping It is one of the most effective ways to understand the real issues from the patient’s perspective, and to recognize opportunities for improvement. Finally, the only person who experiences the whole journey is the patient. Process mapping helps perceive accurately in making decisions and understanding based on ground reality rather than the preconceived ideas of how the service works. The field of vision of the management in a medical condition or treatment is divided into a series of sequential events, for instance, activities, interventions, or personnel involvement. The series of these events between two stages (from admission to the critical care facility to release from the hospital room) can be viewed as a patient pathway or process of care. Changing and correcting measures of the process mapping/patient pathway involve immaculate coordinated application of multidisciplinary practices to boost medical efficacy and efficiency by excluding ineffective and unnecessary steps. The resulting data by process mapping can be used to redesign the patient pathway, improving the quality and efficiency of patient management. Reviewing the care process, patient pathway is highly recommended and beneficial that should include measures to improve patients’ satisfaction or quality or cost of a particular medical service. It is imperative to emphasize that process mapping is all about doing something better than previous attempts to really understand the patient’s experience at various steps of their journey, and there is no way to find fault with. Organizing a Process Mapping Activity A process mapping operation should be a gratifying and creative experience for involved personnel. It requires a planned and coordinated approach, as even the simple and straightforward patient journeys can be tortuous, with many entangled events. Elements in developing patient/process pathways can be depicted as follow: Choosing a clinical area to be considered for the exercise of care mapping: Selecting any important area of practice/activity should be the first stage to start with. Then every possible step should be structured by drafti ng the whole process pathway by having written record, drawing and diagram. Senior management and clinical staff must share and agree on the objective and scope. The strategic decision is imperative, which ensures that the whole team works towards a defined goal. To begin the process, it is desirable to have a team of four or five key persons, preferably, including someone with exposure or experience of lean thinking transformation with a plan for the project and its scope in place as envisaged in a flow diagram (fig2 Appendix). The required criteria in the selection of the personnel who would take part in the process mappin

Eating Style Essay Example for Free

Eating Style Essay Since the time people lived on earth, most of them had the wildest dream of having a good life in a wonderful world close to utopia. What is utopia? Why do people like it? Utopia, which means a perfect world, community or society, is a book which describes a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The island is said to be without war, law, poverty, and misery, and the people of the island have equality among themselves, pacifism, and happiness. In The Ohlone Way, a book written by Malcolm Margolin in 1978, he described the appearance of San Francisco Bay Area about 6000 years ago. Ohlone, who is the first human who migrated from Asia many centuries ago, settled and inhabited the richest natural wildlife refuge in North America. There were only over 10, 000 people who were said to be muscular and vigorous; they divided themselves into 40 different tribelets. Each tribelet has its own chief, language and rules. These 10,000 people were called Indians, whose lives were peaceful and happy, like those people who lived in Utopia. During the Stone Age, peoples eating style was very simple. Their source of food all came from the natural world such as acorns, insects, beers, rabbit, fish, and most animals. In comparison with the modern societys eating style, their eating style was better for the ecosystem in many ways. Ohlone described that during the Stone Age, wildlife and forests were extremely rich and consisted of countless natural resources that provided ample and regular food for the Indians. Beside the other food sources, acorns were the most important and basic meal for the Indians the whole year round. â€Å"Boy climbed the trees to shake the branches, men knocked the acorns down with long sticks, and everywhere there were people stooping and picking over the acorns on the ground† (Margolin, 1978, p. 42). An incalculable amount of oak trees stood and spread around the hills and valleys. In the bay area, trees such as black oaks and tanbark oaks grew. Trees grew many sweet and big acorns because of the rich soil and great weather. When all the acorns mellowed from the trees, the Indians would get together to pick up the acorns as much as they could. When picking the acorns, an Indian family would gather 1000 to 2000 pounds of acorns to produce sufficient supply of food for the whole year. They used acorns to make many kinds of food such as a soup, porridge, bread that were delicious and healthy. The acorn harvest, which was the biggest event of the year, was highly anticipated of by Indians. They did not adopt agriculture as their food source because of the richness of other resources. Moreover, under their ancient eating culture, the Indians accepted most animals as their food except those animals related to their religion. â€Å"They ate insects, lizards, snakes, moles, mice, gophers, ground squirrels, wood rats, quail, doves. Song birds, rabbits, raccoons, foxes, deer, elk, antelopes-indeed, the wildest conceivable variety of both small and large game† (Margolin, 1978, p. 24). Their ingestion of insects was surprising since it is a digusting thing among modern people. However, Indians enjoyed eating insects which consisted of the richest proteins. Insects such as grasshoppers were described as their common food and the yellow jacket grub was their favorite food. They were not fussy eaters for they eat whatever they catch. Their eating habit did not harm the ecosystem and it preserved the natural world. In addition, during the Stone Age, animals were easy to see and hunt because a lot of different animals lived in the Bay Area. They did not hide in hiding places. â€Å"It is impossible to estimate how many thousands of bears might have lived in the Bay Area at the time of the Ohlones† (Margolin, 1978, p. 7). Besides the bears, there were many other animals, both large and small, who lived in the Bay Area. In hunting different kinds of large animals, Indians used a variety of hunting skills bears, deers, elks, or antelopes. Indian hunters were very proud of themselves whenever they succeeded in hunting a large animal, which they brought back to their tribelet to be shared within their group. The animals skin was given to the hunters wife for her to make a beautiful cloth. When everybody got their share of meat, some of the meat left were hung to dry for later use. Then, bones were used as tools such as awls, wedges, or tule saws. No part of the animal was wasted. Furthermore, rabbits were also countless in the Bay Area, so they were commonly hunted by Indians. â€Å"Rabbits (jackrabbits, cottontails, and brush rabbits) were an Ohlone mainstay, and were caught in great numbers† (Margolin, 1978, p. 25). In hunting rabbits, Indians used their sticks, snares, slings, and bows and arrows . They greatly enjoyed the tastiness of rabbit meat. Rabbits spread around and were not scared of humans, so at times, Indians caught rabbits using their bare hands. After catching rabbits, they used the rabbits skin to make blankets or clothes and they used rabbits meat for food. The sea was also an important source of food for the Indians. In the Bay Area, water was abundant and contained a variety of seafoods. â€Å"From so much water the Ohlones gathered an immense harvest of fish and waterfowl† (Margolin, 1978, p. 36). During the summer, they would use nets, harpoons, weirs and so on to fish salmon, sturgeon, and mussels. During the fall and spring, they would use nets or decoys to collect ducks and geese. And during the winter, they would go to beaches to collect shellfish, clams, oysters, abalones. The shellfish was available the whole year. Living in the Bay Area, Ohlone had rich natural resources, which were good enough for their life. They did not need to grow plants or domestic animals for use in their family. What they only needed was to collect food from nature. On the other hand, one should look upon the modern society. Due to the expanding production of industrial agriculture today, people eat a lot of toxic foods containing chemical substances from pesticides, insecticides, and herbicides. Subsequently, the nutrients needed by plants were absorbed by wild grass. Farmers growing various kinds of plants use methods to shorten the growth period of vegetables and crops. This process reduces the food prices but it harms the body and environment. Also, during crop plantation, farmers clear the land through burning. A large amount of carbon dioxide goes into the air, causing pollution. This process contributes to global warming that can drastically change the worlds climate. The environment is being damaged more and more as time passes by. Another matter to consider is the farm industry. People who are involved in this industry keep animals such as pigs, cows and chickens confined. There is not enough space for animals to move. Animals live, eat, defecate and sleep in that tiny space for life. At times, these animal were not taken care of properly. There are some instances when these animals bring diseases to humans due to their waste products being drained in bodies of water and their breeding places which are not properly cleaned. Though animal foods were developed to make them more healthy, its sole purpose is for food processing. When comparison is made between the two mentioned period of society, it can be said that people from the Stone Age illustrate a more environment-friendly way of living and eating, while modern people should be more concern in the environment and their eating styles. People have to utilize natural resources more such as solar power, wind power, biomass energy, and geothermal energy. If this is not done, many lives might be destroyed when nature strikes back, for example, many cities nearby oceans would be flooded because of the melting of the poles. The next generations would suffer the consequences of the modern worlds actions and they would have less space to use. References Margolin,M. (1978) The Ohlone Way: Indian Life in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area. Berkeley, Ca: Heyday Books.

Why Teachers Should Understand ADHD Essay -- Education ADD ADHD Essays

Why Teachers Should Understand Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder What is Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder [ADD/ADHD]? Some feel it is a neurobiological disorder while others say it is a learning disorder. Ever since 1980 when the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders officially recognized ADD/ADHD as a behavior disorder, the definition has kept evolving and changing. But ADD/ADHD has been around a lot longer than twenty-three years. Some in the medical professions believe â€Å"ADHD is a common mental disorder and has been recognized in one form or another for over a century† (Conners and Jett, 1999, p. 3). Teacher oriented literature leans toward classifying ADD/ADHD as a learning disorder of the ‘other health impaired’ type. It was not until the year 2000 that ADD/ADHD could even qualify as an impairment in the eyes of educational law (United States Department of Education, 2000). At present, there is no cut and dry definition of ADD/ADHD. There is also â€Å"no valid neurological or physiological test that can be used to diagnose ADHD† (Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, 1999). What we do have is a list of common symptoms of the disorder. According to Phelan, (1996) there are eight major characteristics that one can look for in a child: 1. Inattention/Distractibility 2. Impulsivity 3. Difficulty delaying gratification/Impatience 4. Hyperactivity 5. Emotional over arousal 6. Non – compliance 7. Social problems 8. Disorganization Inattention/Distractibility is the most important ... ...ns for students with ADD. Intervention in School & Clinic, 38 (5), 280 – 289. Snider, V. E., Busch, T. & Arrowood, L. (2003). Teacher knowledge of stimulant medication and ADHD. Remedial & Special Education, 24 (1), 46 – 57. Stevens, S. (1996). The LD Child and the ADHD Child: Ways Parents and Professionals Can Help. Winston – Salem, NC: John F. Blair, Publisher. Sturomski, N. (1997) Teaching students with learning disabilities to use learning strategies. NICHCY News Digest, 25, 2 – 12. U.S. Department of Education. (2000). The 22nd annual report to congress on the implementation of the individuals with disabilities education act. Washington, D.C.: U. S. Office of Special Education. Zentall, S. S., Moon, S. M., & Grskovic, J. A. (2001). Learning and motivational characteristics of boys with AD/HD and/or giftedness. Exceptional Children, 67, 499 – 519.

The Comparative Advantage of Sexual Divisions of Labor Essay -- Econom

Historical Perspectives on the Comparative Advantage of Sexual Divisions of Labor In modern microeconomic models of the household, one commonly sees a division of labor between the husband and wife predicated on a comparative advantage in the market or the household respectively. The idea is that women are somehow less fit for work in the marketplace while they are innately superior at the domestic tasks of cooking, cleaning, and childrearing. There are two prevailing perspectives on the mechanics of this comparative advantage. The first argues that women are somehow biologically fitted to domestic tasks. This was true for Adam Smith who saw the social structures of society arising out of a biological necessity. Malthus, on the other hand, saw the same biological necessity as operating in opposition to the social structures that arose to keep the pressures of population in check. The second perspective argues that a comparative advantage is a socially constructed idea and not rooted in the biological history of the race. Martineau in her story â€Å"Cousi n Marshall† delineated the life of what she saw as a virtuous and noble woman. Virginia Woolf, however, decried what she saw as the deplorable poverty of women in A Room of One’s Own. Her solution, however, only served to further separate the spheres of men and women. Finally, Charlotte Perkins Gilman similarly objected to the state of women in Women and Economics and ultimately proposed a society that abolished any division of labor along sexual lines. None of these authors seem to contest the presence of a comparative advantage in the division of labor as their societies stand. However this does not imply that all the authors agreed on the exact features of this... ...here there were no gendered distinctions in defense of women. One could argue that our modern society is a point along the way to attaining Gilman’s utopian solution. More likely, however, we have made little progress and Gilman’s solutions still feel innovative and strange. References Gilman, C (1998). Women and Economics: A Study of the Economic Relation Between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution. Berkeley: University of California Press. Malthus, Thomas R (1798). Essay on the Principle of Population [Electronic Version]. Retrieved September 19, 2003, from http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/ public/MalPopu.html Martineau, H (1832). Illustrations of Political Economy No. VIII. London: Charles Fox. Smith, A (1766). Lectures on Jurisprudence. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Woolf, V (1929). A Room of One’s Own. London: Harcourt.

Comparing coverage in two different Newspapers Essay

The incident covered in the two articles I have studied was a train fire in the Austrian ski resort of Kaprun on Saturday 11th November 2000. The first article I looked at was in the tabloid paper the Sunday Express. The second article I looked at was in the broadsheet paper the Observer. The two articles were very similar but had some differences. Both the articles emphasised that British people were among those that had died. The Sunday Express said â€Å"Britons among 170 victims† and The Observer said â€Å"Britons among 170 dead† The Observer also stated that children died â€Å"Children among victims†. Although both articles covered the same subject and seemed to emphasise the greatness of the tragedy, they had different approaches, The Sunday Express’ article was sensationalist and over emotive â€Å"†¦ inferno as it tore through carriages† The Observers article was a calmer and more concise report â€Å"†¦ and, within a few minutes, almost everyone on board was dead. † The articles both contained similar factual information. In the Article in the Sunday Express, facts were intertwined with opinions and emotive language. â€Å"†¦ engulfing tourists in temperatures of up to 1,000 degrees Centigrade. † The Observer had some emotive language but seemed to keep the facts separate â€Å"†¦ which reached temperatures of more than 1,000 C† The only discrepancy between the two articles was over the initial cause of the fire. The Sunday Express interviewed a cable car technical expert Klaus Einsenkolb. â€Å"He said†¦ that either a short circuit in the batteries or the possibility that someone had started it with a naked flame was more likely,† This was their only reference to the cause of the fire. The Observer had many different statements about the cause of the fire. â€Å"Yesterday’s fire is believed to have started†¦after one of the cables that pull the train up the mountain snapped, apparently starting the blaze† They also had a statement from the local company Gletscherbahn Kaprun who owned the train. â€Å"†Due to a fire in the tunnel there was a shorting in the electrical circuit, consequently causing the train†¦ to catch fire. â€Å"† They also interviewed Klaus Einsenkolb, but stated nothing about his opinions of what caused the fire as in The Sunday Express. Both articles used similar language, but The Sunday Express used more emotive variations of language to put across the same point. The Sunday Express said â€Å"†¦ the harrowing task today of identifying 170 young skiers burned alive† The Observer stuck to the facts, however, some sensationalist language was used. â€Å"†¦ 170 people were killed yesterday when a fire†¦ engulfed an Austrian funicular train† The Sunday Express sensationalised the incident by using words like â€Å"inferno† and â€Å"disaster† repeatedly throughout their report. This created a mood in the article, expressing how terrible this tragedy was. Despite The Observer being a broadsheet paper, their article also used this type of language, such as â€Å"inferno† and â€Å"tragedy†. I think this also was used to create the mood. The underlying feeling in The Observers report was that this incident could have been prevented or its consequences reduced, had their been adequate safety measures and better maintenance. â€Å"†¦ Manfred Muller, security director for the railway, admitted that there had been no emergency fire fighting equipment in the tunnel, or on the train† The journalist’s use of â€Å"admitted† in this sentence supports his views that safety precautions were inadequate. After reading this article the reader was left with the impression it was just a terrible accident. â€Å"Yesterdays disaster was the second tragedy to hit Kitzsteinhorn this year. † â€Å"†¦ announced a criminal investigation into the tragedy. † No blame seemed to be pointed at anyone in this article. The Sunday Express’ article contained many interviews and comments from people involved with the incident. Most of the people interviewed were officials linked with the accident, like Norbert Karlsboeck, the town mayor of Kaprun, and Franz Schausberger the Salzburg governor. â€Å"Mr Karlsboeck said: â€Å"I did not realise the full extent of the catastrophe†Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Salzburg governor Franz Schausberger said: â€Å"I have declared a day of mourning. We can presume that everyone still on board the train is dead. â€Å"† They were commenting on their feelings about the incident. Klaus Eisenkolb, a cable car technician who worked on the planning of the line was also interviewed and spoke of what he thought about the occurrence of this incident and what could have possibly caused it. One witness and one survivor were also quoted. The Observer had fewer people interviewed, but had interviews with relatives and witnesses. They also had a statement from the company who owned the train, Gletscherbahn Kaprun, who commented on their feelings about this incident. â€Å"In a statement, the company said: ‘We and the whole town of Kaprun are in mourning. ‘† An unidentified man whose son had gone skiing that day, and a deacon were also interviewed. This gave the article a more personal feel, as the reader felt that they could relate to the people who’s lives had been affected by this and so understand the tragedy better. The layout of these reports was very different. Article I had a large bold headline on the front cover saying â€Å"INFERNO† in capital letters, to draw people’s attention. There was also a large illustration of one of the survivors with a caption. There was then a double page spread. On the first side of the double spread was a pull quote in large bold letters â€Å"There’s no hope left, the fumes were just terrible† next to another illustration of a survivor with a caption. This would also get peoples attention; the reader may look at the pictures and then want to read on. Under the title was a diagram of the mountainside with text pointing out where the events took place. This was quite easy to understand and gave the basic information. Inside that diagram was another diagram showing where Kaprun was in context to Austria and then to the rest of Europe. The text was in columns around these illustrations. The double page was split into three blocks of text, an individual report started on the second page written by Greg Swift, a continuance of the first article by David Dillon, and then an additional report: â€Å"Rising tide of Alpine tragedies†. The Observer had a medium sized headline â€Å"Inferno in the Alps† in bold letters. Underneath was a large illustration of a survivor (the same as in article 1) with a caption. The article was started with two large bullet points, which would grab the reader’s attention. There was then a tiny diagram of where in Austria the incident took place, and where it was in relation to Europe. The article was again written in columns. It then too went to a double page. The headline on this double page â€Å"A couple of breaths and they were lost† was also a pull quote, keeping the readers attention. There was a block of pictures with quotes in the top centre of the pages showing the rescue team, survivors and their families, and the train. This was really effective. The block of pictures would really attract the reader’s attention, urging them to read the article. There was a large diagram showing a picture of the mountainside and where the tunnel was, and then a diagram of the actual train, showing in steps what happened and when. This diagram was very clear, showing exactly what happened in an easily understandable way. The double page was again split into sections of text. There was the main report by Denis Staunton, and then two smaller reports. One was by Jason Burke telling how former British Olympic skier Martin Bell feared that some of his friends could have been on the train. This linked the incident back to this country and how it affected people here. The other was by Anthony Browne, talking of worries over how many recent tragic accidents have occurred in the Alps. I think that the article that explained what happened and suggested the full horror of this incident more effectively was the article from The Observer. I felt that the way in which it was written managed to create a balance between putting across the facts but still expressing the horror of the tragedy. I think because the facts were not clouded with opinions, they were easier to understand. I thought that the double page spread was particularly effective. The pictures were clearer and attracted the reader’s attention. The diagram on the double page was very clear and easy to understand. It showed exactly what happened in stages, with information about the mountain and the tunnel. I also thought that the headline â€Å"Inferno in the Alps† on the front page was really effective. It gave enough information for you to know what had happened but was short enough for the reader to read at a glance. I felt that The Sunday Express’ article was more difficult to understand as there were fewer facts and the writing was very opinionated. Also because there were fewer interviews with people who were directly affected by the incident, such as survivors, and relatives of victims, it wasn’t as easy to relate to that article. There was less text in general, as much of the space was taken up by large illustrations and headlines. Although the articles seemed to be similar they had differences which although may not be drastically apparent I felt they made a big difference to the effectiveness and success of the articles.

Strenghts and weaknesses of qualitative research method. Essays

Strenghts and weaknesses of qualitative research method. Essays Strenghts and weaknesses of qualitative research method. Essay Strenghts and weaknesses of qualitative research method. Essay Soma S? ¤gi Strengths and weaknesses of different research methods This semester my group was tasked with the conduction of a research about how the University of Baths great employability rates affected their University choice. We used qualitative research methods, every member of the group interviewed a first year Social Science student. We then later summarised the data, and looked for common points. All the interviews were semi-constructed, we asked questions which let the interviewee make his/her own points about the subject, thus the answers were not arrowed to the generic ones one could receive when conducting a survey. The interviews were recorded and transcribed for easier summarisation and can be accessed online ( see bibliography ). We found that the interviewees had mainly altruistic motives, they wanted to influence disadvantaged peoples lives, and one interviewee stated that his main motive was to make a world a better place ( see the interview with Adeel ). About the influence of employability rates, the results were mixed, less than half of the participants stated that such rates were a highly influential, for the others the ourse and academical structure was the bigger influence. When the interviewees were asked more specifically about the impact of their course choice on their employability, most stated that the reputation of the Universitys Social Sciences Department will give them an edge on the Job market. The great placement options and excellent quality of teaching will have a positive influence on their employability. It is unsurprising that none of the interviewees mentioned that their University choice would give them any disadvantages. On the topic of employability itself, the subjects agreed on that it is the skills that one acquires that will later being successful on ones field of employment. Extra languages, good communication skills and the ability to function as a member of a team were the most common examples given. I myself found the qualitative method much more enjoyable than the quantitative. Even though both methods have their own advantages and disadvantages, and both can be used with equal success in most cases, the fact that due to the interviews one an actually meet those who are the subjects of the research. Through survey questionnaire one can not do but narrow down the possible answers. The interview format can lead to much nuanced results, the interviewer can ask specific questions related to the answers, thus can clear up any misunderstandings or can acquire new information which later on can prove to be critical for the research. The personal The problem is common in natural scientific experiments as well, and is called The Observer Effect. Just by being there, one can influence the outcome of the xperiment, this even more true when conducting experiments which rely on human honesty. For my research this did not prove to be a problem but it is easily imaginable that for more personal questions, which can cause shame or other strong emotions in the subject ( for example those which involve traumatic events ) this could cause serious issues and could hinder the research until necessary trust is developed, which may cost substantial time and energy and may even not develop fully. All in all, I am satisfied how I conducted my interview. I do not know the subject ery well, thus I was a bit nervous about the trust issues mentioned above, but it turned out there were not any. I chose an environment where the subject could feel at ease, and tried to make it as unofficial as possible, turning the serious questionnaire to a light chat. I conducted my interview in the University Canteen over a cup of coffee and used Just pen and paper to write down the subjects answers, thus making it possible to maintain contact and not barricading myself behind a computer. I do not feel like I made any mistakes during the interview session, but due o its rather light questions and short duration there were no real mistakes to be made. I would prefer using the qualitative research method in the future when needing to acquire data. The quantitative methods, the survey questionnaire feels like it is narrowing down the possible answers too much and Just by the wording of the question one can influence the subjects answers. There are some ethical issues with the qualitative method that need to be addressed. First of all, one always needs the permission of the subject to use the data acquired through the interviews in ones research. Anonymity is often sought after subjects affected by trauma or when answering other personal questions, including but not limited to those about intimacy, physical and mental health. Qualitative research could require the researcher to participate in the subjects everyday life to a great degree, especially in those cases when the subject of the research is a closed group, for example a tribe, rather than a single person. Researchers need to know their boundaries and when not to push these, because that can lead to the subject group shutting out the researcher and to a loss of trust, hus making the research impossible to conduct. Another issue is the question of interception. Does one try to help a child suffering from domestic violence? Does one get involved in issues out of their authority? By doing so they destroy their own research subject. Is that such a great price for actually making an another human beings life better? What if, due to the research, a hundred lives would become better? Those conducting qualitative research in serious issues face these dilemmas every day. In the end, let me express my feeling about such matters. I believe that the main oal of every social scientist should be to somehow, through their own research, may whole but we can bring small changes, even if it is to slightly alter and improve an academic topic, or even a smaller, yet equally important change: bring happiness. Bibliography: All interviews of Qualitative Group 7: httpwwww. scribd. com/doc/190612665/Qu-Alres-Group-7-Data [10. 12. 2013] orb, A. , Eisenhauer, L. , Wynaden, D. , 2000. Ethics in Qualitative Research. Journal of nursing scholarship, 33(1), pp 93-96. Accessed from: columbia. edu/†mvp19/RMC/ M5/QualEthtcs. pdf [9. 12. 2013]

Marketing strategies of BMW and Mercedes-Benz Essays

Marketing strategies of BMW and Mercedes-Benz Essays Marketing strategies of BMW and Mercedes-Benz Paper Marketing strategies of BMW and Mercedes-Benz Paper These people have high incomes, and have usually completed higher education. The family life cycle that the brands market themselves to differs, depending on the particular model of the car. (See above. ) 3- Psychographic Segmentation: BMW markets itself to the upper middle, as well as both the lower and upper upper class. Mercedes-Benz markets itself mostly to the upper class. 4- Behavioural Segmentation: People usually buy cars on special, as opposed to regular, occasions. The buyers of BMWs and Mercedes expect extremely high quality and service. MARKET POSITIONING. BMW and Mercedes both put much effort into making sure that their respective products leave enthusiastic impressions in the hearts and minds of their customers. They both developed slogans that they hoped would stick in customers minds; Mercedes-Benz is known for its quality engineering, while BMW markets itself as the ultimate driving machine. BMW and Mercedes-Benz also have to differentiate themselves from each other in order to draw customers to their respective brands. One example of how Mercedes tried to do this was when it developed the CLS model. 1This model was positioned against the BMW 645Ci,2 while at the same time being positioned between the E- and S-Class sedans. The CLS was close enough in price to the BMW 645Ci so as to appeal to the same group of consumers, so in this way, Mercedes-Benz was directly challenging one of their major competitors. When tested by drivers, some concluded that the 645Ci was a better drive, but the CLS was more comfortable. From this, it is clear that Mercedes-Benz succeeded in positioning itself in customers minds as separate from BMW. MARKETING MIX Product Both BMW and Mercedes-Benz offer customers a wide range of products. Mercedes-Benz has twelve separate classes 3 of automobiles just within the passenger car sector. BMW, meanwhile, has nine series. 4 The way in which both brands try to differentiate themselves from each other is evident even in the dissimilar names they have given their line of products. Price Mercedes-Benz does not place much emphasis on keeping prices down. Indeed consumers expect both Mercedes-Benz and BMW, being in the luxury automobile market, to be priced higher than the average car. Therefore, Mercedes has to concentrate more on how its prices compare with its competitors rather than on how high its prices are in absolute terms. BMW, as part of its premium brand strategy, (see Promotion) wants to maximize its revenues per vehicle; they think that their strong brand recognition and the excellent quality of their products will help them achieve this goal. This means that they do not focus their efforts on keeping prices down; instead they want to sell exactly the right number of well-produced cars so as to attain a targeted profit. 5 Both Mercedes-Benz and BMW have relatively low price elasticity. This is because the consumer who can afford to buy the car in the first place will most likely not be deterred from making the purchase simply because the price went up by a few thousand dollars. However, since BMW markets itself to the upper-middle class, which is more price conscious than the upper class that Mercedes-Benz focuses on, it has higher price elasticity. People in the upper-middle class might change their minds about the purchase of a car if the price went up by a few thousand dollars. Promotion BMW promotes itself using a highly selective strategy. It has chosen certain segments in the automobile market, and it does not involve itself in the mass market, otherwise known as the volume segments of the automobile market. BMW calls this selectivity premium brand strategy. This means that BMW does not promote itself to all segments of car buyers; instead, it concentrates on targeting those consumers who it thinks will be interested in automobiles from their specifically chosen markets. Mercedes-Benz promotes itself as the worlds leading luxury brand. Within its target market of upper class middle-aged people, it is not as selective about who exactly to promote itself to as BMW is. It wants to attract and keep as many customers as it can. It promotes itself as innovating products rather than simply designing new versions of the same old product. For example, in promoting the Compact Sports Tourer, Mercedes-Benz said it: is the astounding response to a new zest for life: athletic, distinctive and versatile. For people who wish to live out their individuality. 6 It is promoting itself as a company that makes cars for people who are not afraid to stand out from the crowd; in much the same way, Mercedes- Benz Brand wants to stand out among its competitors. Place Most sales for both BMW and Mercedes-Benz take place at car dealerships. However, oftentimes consumers research the vehicles on the Internet before coming to the dealership, so the companies websites are also an important place where they can connect with consumers. It is therefore in the best interests of both brands to foster a strong presence online. To this end, Mercedes-Benz worked with iProspect, a search engine marketing firm, in order to increase its websites visibility within the major search engines. 7 Recommendations for futures strategies Both BMW and Mercedes-Benz want to build up a good relationship with female buyers, car buyers especially, and then the overall objective is to keep these buyers buying their products. Female buyers may feel nervous or even scared when going to look far a new car, especially if they are alone and do not have much knowledge or any confidence in their knowledge about cars, and with this nervousness they probably will be approached by an aggressive salesman, who may feel has got an easy target to sell a car to that they may not necessarily want or need, the salesman would just be trying to get a sale and get their commission. This may mean that many potential female customers to these two companys may feel overwhelmed and put off going to the dealer, which may result in a loss of a customer. Female buyers may feel a lot more comfortable when approached by a female sales representative at the dealership. BMW and Mercedes-Benz may want to look into employing more female sales representatives, especially in areas where they feel or know there are numerous prospective female buyers of their products. After sales customer service is a major area in which a customer will buy or re-buy their products. If for whatever reason, the customer, is not completely satisfied with the service they have received or they feel or have heard by word of mouth that they can get better service from another company, they may buy from that company, even if they feel the car is not as good as one from BMW or Mercedes-Benz. In a survey carried out by the BBC television show Topgear, where the general public with cars no older than three years where asked to write in or vote for how satisfied they where with the after sales service from the dealer and overall reliability of their car. In this vote there were a total of a hundred and forty two different cars included written in about or voted for. From these 142 cars the Mercedes-Benz M-Class was voted one of the most unreliable cars, and was also one of the cars that would be least recommended to someone else, or bought again. Also, from this list of 142 cars there were a total of six Mercedes-Benz models in the bottom third of the list, showing a general dissatisfaction of the service received after the initial sale of the car, and more worryingly for Mercedes-Benz none of their models made the top ten of the list. Even though none of BMWs models made the top ten list for the overall after sales service, BMW did have two cars in the buy again top ten with the BMW Z3 and 5-Series. The rest of BMWs models may not have made any other of the top ten lists; none of their models made the bottom ten lists, therefore according to the survey, the general public prefer the service offered by BMW than Mercedes-Benz. Although both companies may provide a friendly, professional looking service, they may want to look at the structure of their service, as the consumer that have purchased their products clearly are not greatly satisfied with the service they have received, according to the survey carried out by Topgear, shown on the next page. One reason why the Mercedes-Benz range of cars and especially the M-Class may have done so badly in the Topgear survey is because the consumers who purchased these cars are likely to have had experiences with other companies and there dealers and may have thought that Mercedes being classed as a luxury brand expected more than the other brands offer, which may have not been the case and therefore, the customers may feel that even though they spent more money on the car, they did not receive a better service, and may have been disappointed by this. 2004 Top Gear Survey the Last 10 (Ranking: Model Score out of 100) 133: Fiat Stilo 73. 7 134: Renault Megane 73. 6 135: Citroen Xsara 73. 5 136: Peugeot 206 73. 5 137: Citroen Saxo 73. 4 138: Fiat Bravo 70. 7 139: Renault Espace 70. 6 140: Renault Laguna 70. 3 141: Peugeot 307 69. 8 142: Mercedes M-Class 69. 8 The 10 most unreliable cars There were 142 cars listed in the final survey, of which the following 10 were ranked as the most unreliable. Citroen C3 (133rd) VW Polo (New) (134th) Citroen Xsara (135th) Citroen C5 (136th) Fiat Stilo (137th) Renault Megane (New) (138th) Mercedes M-Class (139th) Peugeot 307 (140th) Renault Laguna (141st) Renault Espace (142nd) Would you buy this car again? Top 10 who said Yes, Id buy this car again! Jaguar XJ (100%) Honda S2000 (99%) Subaru Forester (99%) Honda Jazz (98%) Skoda Fabia (98%) Skoda Octavia (97%) Seat Toledo (97%) Honda CR-V (96%) BMW 5-Series (96%) BMW Z3 (96%) Taken from www. bbc. co. uk/topgear website under the car survey link Another area which both companies may want to look is the cost of maintaining their cars. Many customers that can afford to buy a BMW or Mercedes-Benz, be it brand new or second hand, may not necessarily be able to afford to maintain the car. The labour charge that is incurred by both these companies is around the i 90 per hour, which is about three times more than if you were to go to a private mechanic. The labour charge does not include parts which are added on top. Some parts have to be specially ordered from Germany as authorised dealers do not carry all the parts, this means that the customer will have to wait until the part is shipped over to have their vehicle repaired. Therefore both companies may want to look at maybe reducing their labour charges, as this may attract less wealthy customers to the range. In the Topgear survey (shown above), the Mercedes-Benz M-class may have done so poorly in the reliability section because it did not have a proper target audience, it was not targeted at the wealthy customers nor the poorer customers, and therefore the wealthier customer may have expected more from the car than it delivered, and the poorer customers may not have been able to afford to maintain the car as Mercedes-Benz cars ought to be maintained. The two companies should also look into carrying all the parts, even if its one or two of the less popular parts that are required, this would mean that customers would have their vehicles repaired back to them sooner. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1- onemotoring. com 23/11/04 2- autointell. net 22/11/04 3- mbusa. com 19/11/04 4- bmwusa. com 18/11/04 5- irishtrucker. com 23/11/04 6- criticalmass. com 23/11/04 7- bmw. com 18/11/04 8- unb. ca 17/11/04 9- johnkay. com 19/11/04 10- bmw. com 17/11/04 11- iprospect. com 22/11/04 12- mercedes-benz. com 18/11/04 13- mercedes-benz. com 18/11/04 14- bmw. com 22/11/04 15- bbc. co. uk/topgear 22/11/04 16- whatcar. com 22/11/04 1 onemotoring. com 2 bmw. com 3 mercedes-benz. com 4 bmw. com 5 unb. ca 6 mercedes-benz. com 7 iprospect. com.

French Possessives Adjectives Come in Many, Many Forms

French Possessives Adjectives Come in Many, Many Forms Possessive adjectives are the words used in place of articles to indicate to whom or to what something belongs. French possessive adjectives are used in similar ways to English possessive adjectives, but there are some differences in form. Using French Possessive Adjectives French grammar touts many more possessives than English  because there are different forms not only for the person and number but sometimes also the gender and the first letter of that which is possessed. All of the different forms are summarized in the table below and are explained in detail later in this lesson. 1.  When describing two or more nouns in French, a possessive adjective must be used in front of each one:      son frà ¨re et sa sÅ“ur  Ã‚  Ã‚  his brother and sister   Ã‚  Ã‚  ma tante et mon oncle  Ã‚  Ã‚  my aunt and uncle 2.  The possessive adjective is almost never used with body parts in French. You cant say my hand or my hair. Instead, the French use pronominal verbs to show possession with body parts:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Je me suis cassà © la jambe.  Ã‚  Ã‚  I broke my leg (literally, I broke the leg of myself).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Il se lave les cheveux.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hes washing his hair (literally, Hes washing the hair of himself). Singular Plural English Masculine Feminine Before Vowel my mon ma mon mes your (tu form) ton ta ton tes his, her, its son sa son ses our notre notre notre nos your (vous form) votre votre votre vos their leur leur leur leurs Singular Possessive French Adjectives In French grammar, there are three forms of the possessive for each singular person (I, you, he/she/it). The gender, number, and first letter of the noun possessed determine which form to use. MY      mon  (masculine singular)  mon stylo   my pen  Ã‚  Ã‚  ma  (feminine singular)  ma montre  Ã‚  my watch  Ã‚  Ã‚  mes  (plural)  mes  livres   my books When a  feminine noun  begins with a vowel, the masculine possessive adjective is used, to avoid saying  ma  amie,  which would break the  flow of speech. In this case, the possessives final consonant is pronounced (the n in the example below) to achieve fluid pronunciation.      mon  amie  - my (female) friend YOUR (tu  form)   Ã‚  Ã‚  ton  (masculine singular)  Ã‚  ton stylo  Ã‚  your pen  Ã‚  Ã‚  ta  (feminine singular)  Ã‚  ta montre   your watch  Ã‚  Ã‚  tes  (plural)  Ã‚  tes livres   your books When a feminine noun begins with a vowel, the masculine  possessive adjective  is used:      ton  amie  - your (female) friend HIS / HER / ITS   Ã‚  Ã‚  son  (masculine singular)  Ã‚  son stylo  Ã‚  his, her, its pen  Ã‚  Ã‚  sa  (feminine singular)  Ã‚  sa  montre   his, her, its watch  Ã‚  Ã‚  ses  (plural)  Ã‚  ses  livres   his, her, its books When a feminine noun begins with a vowel, the masculine possessive adjective is used:   Ã‚  Ã‚  son  amie  - his, her,  its  (female) friend Note:  An important difference between French and English is that  French utilizes the gender of the noun to determine which form to use, not the gender of the subject. A man would say  mon livre  when talking about a book, and a woman would also say  mon livre.  The book is masculine, and therefore so is the possessive adjective, no matter who the book belongs to. Likewise, both men and women would say  ma  maison, because house is feminine in French. It doesnt matter whether the owner of the house is male or female. This difference between English and French possessive adjectives can be particularly confusing when using him/her/it.  Son,  sa, and  ses  can each mean his, her, or  its  depending on the context. For example,  son lit  can mean his bed, her bed, or its bed (for example, the dogs). If you need to stress the gender of the person the item belongs to, you can use  Ã‚  lui  (belonging to him) or  Ã‚  elle  (belonging to her):   Ã‚  Ã‚  Cest son livre,   elle.  Its her book.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Voici sa monnaie, lui.  Ã‚  Heres his change. Plural Possessive French Adjectives For plural subjects (we, you, and they), French possessive adjectives are far simpler. There are only two forms  for  each grammatical person: singular and plural. OUR   Ã‚  Ã‚  notre  (singular)  Ã‚  notre stylo  Ã‚  our pen  Ã‚  Ã‚  nos  (plural)  Ã‚  nos montres   our watches YOUR (vous  form)   Ã‚  votre  (singular)  Ã‚  votre stylo  Ã‚  your pen  Ã‚  vos  (plural)  Ã‚  vos montres   your watches THEIR   Ã‚  Ã‚  leur  (singular)  Ã‚  leur stylo  Ã‚  their pen  Ã‚  Ã‚  leurs  (plural)  Ã‚  leurs montres   their watches

Floodgates of litigation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Floodgates of litigation - Essay Example Thus, there is some eminent fear that giving certain ruling in some cases has the likelihood of opening floodgates of litigation, which may overwhelm the courts and thus affects their efficiency, owing to the fact that there are still many cases and issues pending in courts, which have not been resolved yet1. However, this issue is controversial, since there is a feeling that; considering the aspect of opening floodgates of litigation while making legal determinations is unjustifiable. This is because, such a consideration is not part of the interpretation of the law, which is the prime function of the courts that separates them from the other arms of the government, so that they can act independently in interpreting the law2. Therefore, this discussion seeks to investigate why courts are concerned about floodgates of litigation, with a view to assessing where within the tort of Negligence, an evidence of this concern can be identified. The advocates of the concept of the floodgates of litigation argues that if a court takes certain course of action, it is likely to lead to a dramatic increase in legal litigations, which may affect the courts ability to discharge its duties. This is because; the court may not even be able to address other cases effectively due to the unmanageable number of litigations3. On the other hand, the critics of the concept of floodgates of litigation observes that making such a consideration while giving a legal determination is against the mandate of the courts, since there is no evident principle that provides for the courts to consider workload as a factor, while making a legal determination2. ... There are certain clauses of the law that seem to be so much ambiguous, so that their truthful interpretation becomes impossible4. Such clauses are vivid in their definition of terms, or provision of remedies, that the judges cannot apply them with certainty while determining cases. In the cases of such confusing rules, there are chances that giving a certain interpretation of such clauses would pave a way for further parallel interpretations, which would see many cases introduced to the courts, based on the same or the parallel interpretations made5. In this respect, it becomes necessary to invoke the concept of floodgates of litigation by the judges, so that they can prevent the occurrence of parallel interpretations and the consequent dramatic increase in the number of cases filed with the courts, based on such interpretations. It is upon this observation that a judge can look into the effect of giving a certain legal determination, and thus decide to forfeit it, based on the fact that it may lead to the introduction of an overwhelming number of cases to the courts. The second circumstance, under which the courts may be compelled to invoke the concept of floodgates of litigation, is under situation s where the provisions of the law are overly broad6. There are certain clauses of the law that can be interpreted so widely, that the interpretation will encompass some elements that contrasts previous interpretations, or gives new interpretations of the law that had not been applied previously. In case of an overly broad clause which leads to a contrasted interpretation with preceding legal interpretations, chances are high that the parties involved in such

PROBATION PRACTICE IN ENGLAND Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

PROBATION PRACTICE IN ENGLAND - Essay Example Institutionalized racism produces discriminatory effects on health through public policy, the physical environment, social and medical services and preventive health policy. The studies conducted by various organizations and individuals shows that the practice of racism is prevails in the criminal justice system also. There is recent evidence (from the 2000 British Crime Survey) that black and particularly Asian people are more likely than whites to say that the criminal justice system is effective in bringing offenders to justice, dealing with cases promptly and efficiently, and meeting the needs of crime victims. But at the same time Minority ethnic people were less confident that the system respected the rights of suspects and treated them fairly, and black respondents especially were less likely than whites to believe that the police treated witnesses well (Mirrlees-Black, 2001)(1). Whatever it is, it is important to explore the field of probation practice and the treatment of minority ethnic groups in the criminal justice system, to identify the criminogenic needs of black and Asian offenders, and to explore their views about probation supervision, and to inform decisions about appropriate service provision. Thereby we can have a deep look into the p... 1. Mirrlees-Black, C. (2001) Confidence in the Criminal Justice System: Findings from the 2000 British Crime Survey. Research Findings No. 137, London: Home Office. 2 Thereby we can have a deep look into the probation practice to diversity in working with these Black and Asians .Moreover we can corroborate the possibility that people from minority ethnic groups may be subject to disadvantageous treatment at all stages of the criminal justice process, even if this does not result from overt racist discrimination (Phillips and B rown, 1998).(2) Before going to explore the areas of diversities in the probation practice regarding the black and Asian offenders, it will be helpful to have look on the scope of probation practices and criminal justice system. Probation service and Criminal Justice System The National Probation Service is a law enforcement agency delivering community punishment, supervising offenders within terms set by courts & the parole board and working with offenders to reduce their re-offending & to protect the public. It is an integral part of the criminal justice system. The criminal justice system is defined by government as:(3) (1)Home Office - police, prison and the probation service, 2) Lord Chancellor's Department - crown and magistrates' courts and court of appeal 3) Law Officers' department - crown prosecution and serious fraud office.This informal supervision was given a statutory basis by the Probation of Offenders Act 1907, which allowed courts to appoint and employ probation officers. They were required to advise, assist and befriend

Teaching Project Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Teaching Project Paper - Essay Example Engaging in violent behaviors increases the risk of death among drug addicts. Another cause of death is deterioration of the users’ health. Continued usage of the substances leads to addiction, which is one of the causes of morbidity among the substance abusing people. Morbidity caused by substance abuse can be categorized into social, psychological and physical. Long-term usage of substances leads to poor social health such as isolation. It makes it difficult for the users to interact with other people in the society by making it difficult for them to create relationships with others. This may result into other health complications such as depression (Nora 1). In addition, it may lead to poor psychological health. Substance abuse has also been associated with other chronic illnesses. For instance, long-term usage of tobacco may cause serious illnesses such as lung cancers. Other illnesses associated with drug addiction are diabetes and cardiovascular illnesses. The poor healt h among the people addicted to substances includes poor eating habits. Since substance addiction changes priority, food become less important compared to the substance. The situation may cause other illnesses associated with poor eating habits. The multiple disorders caused by substance abuse are referred to as co-morbidity (Nora 1). The risk factors associated with substance abuse include availability of the substance and peer influence. Many people start using alcohol because it is readily available. Young adults are also likely to start abusing drugs in order fit in their peer groups. Economic problems also increase the chances of abusing alcohol. Other risk factors include poor management of problems in families. Studies also show that ADHD also increases the risks using drugs among children and adults. It is important to note that mental health disparities are also recorded among the substance users. Individuals who lack

Effectiveness of Strategy at Subsidiary Level Essay

Effectiveness of Strategy at Subsidiary Level - Essay Example It is the method of aligning all the activities being undertaken in the organisation such as management, marketing, research and development and Computer information system in a prescribed way to achieve the goals of the organisation. The first step namely the strategy formulation involves the development of the business mission, evaluation of the opportunities and threats faced by the business organisation in the business, by using tools such as SWOT analysis, examining the strengths and weaknesses of the business, determining the long term objectives of the business and designing the new strategies to eke in the process of achieving the new targets. It also include the processes to determine the investment direction, the business markets to be addressed, extension of the operations of the business, limitations faced by the business in order to undertake the business activities. Strategy formulation also helps the business in deciding about the matters to be addressed on priority basis. There is not any organisation in the world which has unlimited resources. Therefore the business organisations need to evaluate which projects are important and need investment. The future of a business organisation is very much effected by the strategic decision of the management of the organisation. With the globalisation of the economy the concept of Multinational Enterprises is prevailing all over the world. An MNE is a differentiated network of internationally dispersed units, which are simultaneously embedded in two business contexts: the internal MNE and the external (host country) environment. Thus, the roles and/or strategies of subsidiaries are both shaped by and affecting these two contexts. A subsidiary has a dual role to play: it interacts with the rest of the MNE internally and with local partners externally. Firstly, while subsidiaries can benefit from knowledge flows from the rest of the MNE, they can also do so from the local partners in the host country, to enhance their level of competence and hence contribute to the overall competitive advantage of the MNE. Secondly, subsidiaries may also help or hurt their local partners during their external interactions in the host country business environment. It has been argued that the state of the economy of the host country has significant implications for the operation of the subsidiaries, and consequently for its strategy (Hunt and Morgan, 1995). Because of this the main macroeconomic concepts relating to the determination of economic activity, and related issues such as the inflation rate and the exchange rate, have been discussed in some detail. The various factors affecting the company should

Good Communications in architectural practice and management Essay

Good Communications in architectural practice and management - Essay Example So what is an architect Dispensing with the usual academic recourse to etymology, an architect is simply "someone qualified to design buildings and supervise their construction." (Collins, 1991). Adding dryness and formality to this raw definition, we can further say that: "An architect produces detailed workings and drawings so that buildings are designed effectively, manages the building project according to tight specifications, negotiates and coordinates with other professionals involved in the project, prepares planning applications, ensures that damages to the landscape and environment are limited, and appraises and consents listed buildings and conservation areas according to the needs of the client" (Hobsons, 2006). To put it simply, an architect is a planner, draughtsman, technical designer, a building supervisor, contracts negotiator, bureaucrat, manager, environmentalist, and conservationist all in one. But even then, considering the number of roles that an architect needs to fulfil to high standards, there is one trait that runs through all these and that determines whether the architect will forever be dabbling in mediocrity and penury or living decently and in comfort whilst being good, or be a successful virtuoso with pen, manual or digital, designing buildings at the cutting edge of genius. That singular trait is the ability to communicate. Yes, a good to great architect must be a good communicator, for the simple reason that architecture is a form of communication, and how the architect handles this important component of the job determines to a large extent how successful the practice would be. Why do we say that architecture is communication And what do we communicate Our answers to these questions lead us to the creative answers to our first two questions. What is Communication Architecture as Communication Communication is the process of transmitting information from an individual or group to another (McCloskey, 1993). Ants do it; even the birds and the bees do it. Any creature with information finds the need to communicate it to another, and this is how things get moving in our world. The whole animal kingdom (let's not go into genetics, please) depends on communication for their existence, growth, and survival; great civilizations have come and gone because of it. So important is communications to life that a successful architectural career depends on it. The architectural profession lives and thrives on communication, because architecture in itself is an expression of ideas, a manner of transmitting information, using a combination of technical and artistic languages, a mode where the message and the medium blend into one material structure that often lives long after clients, architects, and builders have gone. An architect is not merely a designer of buildings but an interpreter of dreams, a professional artist who in a design captures visions both simple and complex. Architects are masters of technology, and by their work they transform our imaginations, making them visible for the whole world to see, admire, live in, and use. Like messages trapped in the mind that goad listeners to action, architecture traps minds and allow

Effectiveness of Strategy at Subsidiary Level Essay

Effectiveness of Strategy at Subsidiary Level - Essay Example It is the method of aligning all the activities being undertaken in the organisation such as management, marketing, research and development and Computer information system in a prescribed way to achieve the goals of the organisation. The first step namely the strategy formulation involves the development of the business mission, evaluation of the opportunities and threats faced by the business organisation in the business, by using tools such as SWOT analysis, examining the strengths and weaknesses of the business, determining the long term objectives of the business and designing the new strategies to eke in the process of achieving the new targets. It also include the processes to determine the investment direction, the business markets to be addressed, extension of the operations of the business, limitations faced by the business in order to undertake the business activities. Strategy formulation also helps the business in deciding about the matters to be addressed on priority basis. There is not any organisation in the world which has unlimited resources. Therefore the business organisations need to evaluate which projects are important and need investment. The future of a business organisation is very much effected by the strategic decision of the management of the organisation. With the globalisation of the economy the concept of Multinational Enterprises is prevailing all over the world. An MNE is a differentiated network of internationally dispersed units, which are simultaneously embedded in two business contexts: the internal MNE and the external (host country) environment. Thus, the roles and/or strategies of subsidiaries are both shaped by and affecting these two contexts. A subsidiary has a dual role to play: it interacts with the rest of the MNE internally and with local partners externally. Firstly, while subsidiaries can benefit from knowledge flows from the rest of the MNE, they can also do so from the local partners in the host country, to enhance their level of competence and hence contribute to the overall competitive advantage of the MNE. Secondly, subsidiaries may also help or hurt their local partners during their external interactions in the host country business environment. It has been argued that the state of the economy of the host country has significant implications for the operation of the subsidiaries, and consequently for its strategy (Hunt and Morgan, 1995). Because of this the main macroeconomic concepts relating to the determination of economic activity, and related issues such as the inflation rate and the exchange rate, have been discussed in some detail. The various factors affecting the company should

Ancient India Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Ancient India - Essay Example In this section, the chapter looks at the distinctive features of the class system, which Aryans people introduced. It also examines the effects of the class system on the Indian civilization. In addition, the chapter discusses various religions found in India and their assumption regarding life. Specifically, the chapter looks at Brahmanism and Buddhism by highlighting their differences. The section also discusses how these religions influenced the Indian civilization. Additionally, the chapter discusses India after the Mauryas by looking at the rule of fishes. In this section, it tries to answer and examine why India was unable to maintain a unified empire in the first millennium BCE. Similarly, the section highlights reasons making Mauryan Empire to overcome temporary tendencies towards disunity of India. Lastly, the chapter discusses the exuberant world of Indian culture. It achieves this through outlining ways in which ancient India culture is similar and different from the cultural experience of ancient Egypt and

Memoirs of C K Janu Against the Hegemony of the Ruling Class Essay Example for Free

Memoirs of C K Janu Against the Hegemony of the Ruling Class Essay C K Janu’s unfinished autobiography â€Å"Mother Foster: The Unfinished Story of C K Janu† which is translated by N Ravi Shankar is an eloquent testimony to her courage and her convictions. It is the recounting of her experience in her past. C K Janu is the prominent organic woman leader who managed to gain land for the tribals who were stamped under foot by the elites and the government. She is the leader of the Adivasi tribes who dedicated her youth for the betterment of the tribes. In the beginning she became a member of the communist party. Later she realised that the party cheated the tribal people and she left the party in1982. Later she organised a tribal meeting in South India in 1992 as a part of the reclamation of the land of the tribe. She incited and led the agitation by the tribal people. For this she was physically and mentally assaulted nine times by the Kerala police. In 1994 she was awarded as the best tribal social worker by the Government of Kerala. But she returned the award. She became the only Indian ambassador of India in the UN tribal conference. Even though illiterate she gave speeches in 120 countries. Later in 2001 the Government of Kerala signed an agreement with the tribal people, but did not keep it. The tribals protested against this in the land at Muthanga . This ended with a massive violence. Till now the cases are going on against her. She cooperated with national and international organisations for some time and now she spends time serving the tribes.

Factor Language Model Programming

Factor Language Model Programming Language Model Language model helps a speech recognizer figure out how likely a word sequence is, independent of acoustics. There is a linguistic and statistical approach to calculate the probability. The linguistic technique tries to understand the syntactic and semantic structure of a language and derive the probabilities of word sequences using this knowledge. The challenge here is to have proper co occurrence statistics of the unit of recognition. The approach in use evaluates a huge text corpus in a statistical way and word transitions. Current language models make no use of the syntactic properties of natural language but rather use very simple statistics such as word co-occurrences. Recent results show that incorporating syntactic constraints in a statistical language model reduces the word error rate on a conventional dictation task by 10% [M.S.Salam, 2009]. Proposed Language Model The approach proposed here uses factored language model which incorporates the morphological knowledge. Factored language models have recently been proposed for incorporating morphological knowledge in the modeling lexicon. As suffix and compound words are the cause of the growth of the vocabulary, a logical idea is to split the words into shorter units. The language model proposed in this research is based on morphology. A morphological analyser obtains and verifies the internal structure of a given complete word form [Rosenfield, 2000]. Building a morphological analyser for highly inflecting, agglutinative languages is a challenging task. It is very difficult to build a high performance analyser for such languages. The main idea here is to divide a given word form into a stem and single suffix. Morphology plays a much greater role in Telugu. An inflected Telugu word starts with a stem and may have suffix(s) added to the right according to complex rules of saMdhi. This research proposes a new data structure based on Inverted Index and an efficient algorithm for accessing its elements. Few researchers have used tries for efficient retrieval from dictionary, earlier. This research work is different from earlier work in two ways: a) variation to the structure of trie b) the method of identifying and combining inflections. Modified Trie Structure A trie is a tree based data structure for storing strings in order to support fast pattern matching. A trie T represents the strings of set S of n strings with paths from root to the external node of T. Fig 5.1: Original Trie Structure The trie considered here is different from standard trie in two ways: 1) A standard trie does not allow a word to be prefix of another, but the proposed trie structure allows a word to be prefix of another word. The node structure and search algorithm also is given according to this new property. 2) Each word in a standard trie ends at an external node, where as in the modified trie a word may end at either an external node, or the internal node. Irrespective of whether the word ends at internal node or external node, the node stores the index of the associated word in the occurrence list. The node structure is changed such that, each node of the trie is represented by a triplet C,R,Ind>. C represents character stored at that node. R represents whether the concatenation of characters from root till that node forms a meaningful stem word. Its value is 1, if characters from root node to that node form a stem, 0 otherwise. Ind represents index of the occurrence list. Its value depends on the value of R. Its value is -1 (negative 1), if R=0, indicating it is not a valid stem. So no index of occurrence list matches with it. If R=1, its value is index of occurrence list of associated stem. Fig 5.2: Modified Trie Structure Advantages relative to binary search tree: The following are the main advantages of tries overbinary search trees(BSTs): Looking up keys is faster. Looking up a key of lengthmtakes worst caseO(m) time. A BST performs O(log(n)) comparisons of keys, wherenis the number of elements in the tree, because lookups depend on the depth of the tree, which is logarithmic in the number of keys if the tree is balanced. Hence in the worst case, a BST takes O(mlogn) time. Moreover, in the worst case log(n) will approachm. Also, the simple operations tries use during lookup, such as array indexing using a character, are fast on real machines. Tries can require less space when they contain a large number of short strings, because the keys are not stored explicitly and nodes are shared between keys with common initial subsequences. Tries facilitatinglongest-prefix matching, helping to find the key sharing the longest possible prefix of characters all unique. Corpus structure of proposed Language Model The corpus consists of the following modules: Stem word dictionary This accommodates all the stems of the language. Stem word dictionary is implemented as an Inverted Index for better efficiency. The Inverted index will have the following two data structures in it: 1) Occurrence list: It is an array of pairs, 2) Stem trie: consisting of stem words Occurrence list is constructed based on the grammar of the language, where each entry of the list contains the pair (ii) Inflection Dictionary This dictionary contains the list of all possible inflections of the Telugu language. Each entry of Stem word dictionary lists the indexes of this dictionary to indicate which all inflections are possible with that stem. The proposed corpus structure helps in reducing the corpus size drastically. Every stem word may have number of inflections possible. If the inflected words are stored as it is, then corpus size would be m*n, where m is number of stem words and n is number of inflections. Instead of storing all the inflected words, the proposed corpus structure stores stem words and inflections separately, and handles the inflected words through morphology. Hence the corpus size required is for m stem words and n inflections i.e., m+n. Thus there is a great reduction in the corpus size. For a corpus of 1000 stem words and 10 inflections, the required corpus size is 1000+10=1010, which otherwise would have required 1000*10=10000. Fig 5.3 : Corpus structure of proposed Language Model Textual Word Segmentation using Proposed Language Model The proposed language model is used to develop a textual word segmenter. A word segmenter is used to divide the given inflected word into a stem and single inflection. This is required as the corpus stores stems and inflections separately. Input the word segmenter is an Inflected word. Syllabifier takes this word and divides the word into syllables and identifies if the letter is a vowel or a consonant. After applying the rules syllabified form of the input will be obtained. Once the process of syllabification is done, this will be taken up by the analyzer. Analyzer separates the stem and inflection part of the given word. This stem word will be validated by comparing it with the stem words present in stem dictionary. If the stem word is present, then the inflection of the input word will be compared with the inflections present in inflection dictionary of the given stem word. If both the inflections get matched then it will directly displays the output otherwise it takes the appropriate inflection(s) through comparison and then displays. Syllabification is the separation of the words into syllables, where syllables are considered as phonological building blocks of words. It is dividing the word in the way of our pronunciation. The separation is marked by hyphen. In the morphological analyzer, the main objective is to divide the given word into root word and the inflection. For this, we divide the given input word into syllables and we compare the syllables with the root words and inflections to get the root word and appropriate inflection. Fig 5.4: Block diagram of Word Segmentr for text Steps for word segmentation Receiving the inflected word as an input from the user. Syllabify the input Analyze the input and validating the stem word. Identify the appropriate inflection for the given stem word by comparing the inflection of given word with the inflections present in inflection dictionary of the stem word. Displaying the appropriate inflected word. For example, considering the word â€Å"nAnnagariki† (à  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¨Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¾Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¨Ãƒ  Ã‚ ±Ã‚ Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¨Ãƒ  Ã‚ °-à  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¾Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ °Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¿Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¿) meaning â€Å"to father†, the input is given the user in Roman transliteration format. This input is basically divided into lexemes as: Now, the array is processed which gives the type of lexeme by applying the rules of syllabification one by one. Applying Rule 1: â€Å" No two vowels come together in Telugu literature.† The given user input does not have two vowels together. Hence this rule is satisfied by the given user input. The output after applying this rule is same as above. If the rule is not satisfied, an error message is displayed that the given input is incorrect. Now the array is: c – v – c – c – v – c – v – c – v – c – v Applying Rule 2: â€Å" Initial and final consonants in a word go with the first and last vowel respectively.† Telugu literature rarely has the words which end up with a consonant. Mostly all the Telugu words end with a vowel. So this rule does not mean the consonant that ends up with the string, but it means the last consonant in string. The application of this rule2 changes the array as following: c – v – c – c– v – c – v – c – v – c – v cv – c – c – v – c – v – c – v – cv This generated output is further processed by applying the other rules. Applying Rule 3: â€Å" VCV: The C goes with the right vowel.† The string wherever has the form of VCV, then this rule is applied by dividing it as V – CV. In the above rule the consonant is combined with the vowel, but here in this rule the consonant is combined with the right vowel and separated from the left vowel. To the output generated by the application of rule2, this rule is applied and the output will be as: cv – c – c – v – c – v – c – v – cv cv – c – c – v – cv – cv – cv This output is not yet completely syllabified, one more rule is to be applied which finishes the syllabification of the given user input word. Applying Rule 4: â€Å" Two or more Cs between Vs First C goes to the left and the rest to right.† It is the string which is in the form of VCCC*V, then according to this rule it is split as VC – CC*V. In the above output VCCV in the string can be syllabified as VC – CV. Then the output becomes: cv – c – c – v – cv – cv – cv cvc– cv – cv – cv – cv Now this output is converted to the respective consonants and vowels. Thus giving the complete syllabified form of the given user input. nAn – na –cA – ri – ku cvc – cv – cv – cv – cv Hence, for the given user input, â€Å"nAnnagAriki†, the generated syllabified form is, â€Å"nAn – na – gA – ri – ki†. Fig 5.5: Word Segmenter showing an inflected word without change in stem form Fig 5.6: Word Segmenter showing an inflected word with a change in stem form SCIL Speech Corrector for Indian Languages In inflectional language every word consists of one or several morphemes into which the word can be segmented. The approach used here aims at reducing the above mentioned problem of having a very huge corpus for good recognition accuracy. It exploits the characteristic of Telugu language that every word consists of one or several morphemes into which the word can be segmented. SCIL is a procedure To deal with complex word forms applied after recognition Using which misrecognized words are corrected Architecture of SCIL The design of Speech Corrector for Indian Languages, consists of the Syllable Identifier, Phone Sequence Generator, Word Segmenter, and Morpho- Syntactic Analyzer modules. Input speech is decoded by a normal ASR system which gives the identified word as a string. The sequence of phones would be the input to the Word Segmenter module which matches the phonetized input with the root words stored in dictionary module, and generates a possible set of root words. Morpho-Syntactic Analyzer compares the inflection part of the signal with the possible inflections list from the database and gives correct inflection. This will be given to Morph Analyzer to apply morpho-syntactic rules of the language and gives the correct inflected word. Fig 5.7: Block diagram of SCIL i) Syllable Identifier Syllable identifier marks the rough boundaries of the syllables and labels them. At this stage , we get list of syllables separated with hyphen. The user input is syllabified and this would be the input to the next module. E.g. dE-vA-la-yA-ku ii) Phone Sequence Generator As the words in the dictionary are stored at phone level transcription, this module generates the phone sequences from the syllables. E.g. d-E-v-A-l-a-y-A-k-u iii) Word Segmentor This module compares the phonetized input from starting with the root words stored in dictionary module and lists the possible set of root words. The possible root word is dEvAlayamu. iv) Dictionary Dictionary contains stems and inflections separately. It does not store inflected words as it is very difficult, if not impossible, to cover all inflected words of the language. The database consists of 2 dictionaries: Stem Dictionary Inflection Dictionary Stem dictionary contains the stem words of the language, signal information for that stem which includes the duration and location of that utterance and list of indices of inflection dictionary which are possible with that stem word. Inflection Dictionary contains the inflections of the language, signal information for that inflection which includes the duration and location of that utterance. Both the dictionaries are implemented using trie structure in order to reduce the search space. v) Morpho Syntactic Analyzer This module compares the inflection part of the signal with the possible inflections list from the database and gives correct inflection. This will be given to Morph Analyzer to apply morpho-syntactic rules of the language and gives the correct inflected word. Post Recognition Procedure Capture the utterance, an isolated inflected word. Get its syllabified form. Generate phone sequence from the syllabified word. Compare the phone sequences with stem words in the dictionary and identify the stem. Segment the word into stem and inflection. Get the list of possible inflections. Compare the inflection signals possible with that stem one by one and apply morpho-syntactic rules of the language to combine stem and inflection. Display the inflected word. Using the rules the possible set of root words are combined with possible set of inflections and the obtained results are compared with the given user input and the nearest possible root word and inflection are displayed if the given input is correct. If the given input is not correct then the inflection part of the given input word is compared with the inflections of that particular root word and identifies the nearest possible inflection and combines the root word with those identified inflections, applies sandhi rules and displays the output. When there is more than one root word or more than one inflection has minimum edit distance then the model will display all the possible options. User can choose the correct one from that. For example, when the given word is pustakaMdO (à  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ªÃƒ  Ã‚ ±Ã‚ Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¸Ãƒ  Ã‚ ±Ã‚ Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¤Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ  Ã‚ ±Ã¢â‚¬ ¹), the inflections tO making it pustakaMtO (à  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ªÃƒ  Ã‚ ±Ã‚ Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¸Ãƒ  Ã‚ ±Ã‚  à  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¤Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¤Ãƒ  Ã‚ ±Ã¢â‚¬ ¹) meaning ‘with the book’ and lO making it pustakaMlO (à  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ªÃƒ  Ã‚ ±Ã‚ Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¸Ãƒ  Ã‚ ±Ã‚ Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¤Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ²Ãƒ  Ã‚ ±Ã¢â‚¬ ¹) meaning ‘in the book’) mis are possible. Present work will list both the words and user is given the option. We are working on improving this by selecting the appropriate word based on the context. SCIL Algorithm W=Utterance.wav Syl[]=SyllableIdentifier(W) Phone[]=phonetizer(Syl[]) Stem=getStem(Syl[]) Infl[]=getInflections(Stem) While (not exactMatch) word=MorphAnalyzer(stem,inflMatch) display word Stop Working of SCIL Once possible root words identified the given word is segmented into two parts, first being the root word and second part inflection. Now the inflection part is compared in the reverse direction for a match in the inflection dictionary. It will consider only the inflections that are mentioned against the possible root words, thus reducing the search space and making the algorithm faster. For example consider â€Å"nAnnagariki† (à  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¨Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¾Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¨Ãƒ  Ã‚ ±Ã‚ Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¨Ãƒ  Ã‚ °-à  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¾Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ °Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¿Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¿) meaning â€Å"to father†, is misrecognized as nAn-na-cA-ri-ku (à  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¨Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¾Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¨Ãƒ  Ã‚ ±Ã‚ Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¨Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã… ¡Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¾Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ °Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã‚ ¿Ãƒ  Ã‚ °Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Ãƒ  Ã‚ ±Ã‚ ) then SCIL is applied and will correct the recognition error as follows: The output from ASR is nAn-na-cA-ri-ku. The phone sequence generator will generate the phone sequence as n-A-n-n-a-c-A-r-i-k-u. Now, match it with the set of root words stored in dictionary module. This process will identify the possible set of root words from the Stem dictionary as follows: Once possible root words identified the given word is segmented into two parts, first being the root word and second part inflection. Now the inflection part is compared for a match in the inflection dictionary. It will consider only the inflections that are mentioned against the possible root words, thus reducing the search space and making the algorithm faster. Possible set of inflections in inflections dictionary After getting the possible set of root words and possible set of inflections they are combined with the help of SaMdhi formation rules. Here in this example cA-ri-ku is compared with the inflections of the root word nAnna After comparing it identifies gAriki as the nearest possible inflection and combines the root word with the inflection and displays the output as â€Å"nAnnagAriki†. Conclusions Language model proposed in this work results in reduction in corpus size by using factored approach. The search process is fastened by use of trie based structure. A change to standard trie is proposed. A post recognition procedure SCIL, is designed which uses the proposed language model and corrects the words misrecognized at inflections. The approach is tested using 1500 speech samples. These samples consist of 100 distinct words , each word repeated 3 times and recorded by 5 speakers in the age group 18-50. It is implemented as a speaker dependent system. An average model is built from the three utterances of each word for each speaker. Each speaker is given a unique ID, using which average model of that speaker is used for testing.

My Pitiful Father Essay examples -- Personal Narrative

My Pitiful Father I always thought that family was supposed to stick by family through all of the tough circumstances. So why did my father just walk out on my family when we needed him the most? How could he make us suffer and blame it all on me? Every family has its problems and arguments once in a while. My father was our family’s problem. His presence made us all feel uneasy. I do not know what it was, but when I was a little girl, I feared my father. I feared being alone with him; I feared going out with him; I feared him. Around him I felt like I was imperfect because I thought he was perfection. He seemed to have gotten along with my older and younger brother better than me. I was the one to take his orders and follow them. The more I grew up, the more distant I became from my father. When my father was mad at any one of us, it seemed like the end of the world. Nothing was worse than my father completely ignoring me. When I was little, I went with my father and brother to the toy store. My dad bought my brother a toy, and for the first time ever, I got mad and jealous at him. My dad saw how I reacted towards my brother and when we all got to the car, he told me not to get inside. This happened more than ten years ago, and I still can feel that tightening feeling in my stomach. I still feel the tears that came down as I watched my dad cold-heartedly drive off and leave me in the parking lot. My father had no remorse when he saw me crying. It seemed to me that he was more satisfied with himself when he saw anyone of us crying. My dad was far from perfect. But it was fear that held my brothers and me from telling anyone anything he did, especially my mom. My mom worked during the evening, ... ...om seeing us (particularly me) unhappy. Why? It is hard to say. Events like this never made any sense to me. While I was in my brother’s room, I called my mother and told her what was going on. I did not realize that I had left the door open, and my father was standing there and overheard me. He started screaming and yelling at me and told me I was the reason why he and my mother did not get along anymore. He told me I was the reason why the family was breaking apart—it was all my fault. Was it really my fault? Or was it just a â€Å"cover story,† because he knew it was his fault. I did not understand how a person who brought me into this world, who was supposed to love me unconditionally, could take all his love away. My father helps me to realize that hate is a â€Å"cover story† for love. I know my father loves me regardless of what has happened in the past.

The Politics of Humor :: essays research papers fc

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   THE POLITICS OF COMEDY   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Is this thing on?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In efforts to promote voter education, laughter is perhaps the best strategery.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Comedy and tragedy prove one in the same, as the saying goes. The variability of the twosome, however, substantiates rather inconsistently in politics, an arena overflowing with participants who take themselves too seriously. And where a potential candidate attempts to utilize comic relief, one often discovers the result to be rather tragic.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In lieu of the consequences politicians may endure with the mere utterance of a poor joke, most tend to stray from the possibility of Meet the Press turned comedy hour. Especially when their reputations are at stake; politicians are well aware, according to Mark Katz, humorist and speechwriter for Bill Clinton, that â€Å"a good joke will last about a week†, whereas a â€Å"bad joke will be reprinted in you obituary.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Perhaps responsibility lies within the confines of a narrow-minded media, exhibited as a threat to be avoided rather than a tool to be implemented. But certainly with just cause; â€Å"the news media are poorly suited to their role as the principal intermediary between candidates and voters,† rooted in the conception of politics as â€Å"game† and a â€Å"business† rather than a â€Å"struggle† over national policy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The aforementioned incidents occur frequently, but not absolutely, should candidates appropriately utilize humor. The war on terror provides unavoidable roadblocks on an already-tumultuous campaign trail, and even primitive technology such as television suffices in establishing the general 9/11 ‘fear climate’. The presumption of a candidate’s entrepreneurial priorities over his public relationship undermines the use of humor as the candidate’s ultimate weapon.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The primarily noticeable aspect of political campaign humor pertains to its absence. Undoubtedly humor â€Å"is used more sparingly than songs in political commercials† ; the commodity appears even more so in the early campaign efforts of the mid-nineteenth century than recent endeavors. Humor’s effectiveness originates from its multilevel success in the campaigning process. Involuntarily proliferated by an ever-expanding press, the ideal candidate would employ comedy because of its effervescent facility of concurrent humanization and advertisement. Moreover humorous politicians formulate an equally comical and less aggressive response within the entertainment realm, successfully intertwining the sphere of pop culture with the relatively unscathed territory of political science. The general consensus regarding the benefits of humor relates to its malleability; it can â€Å"be employed to attack the opposition, or it can serve to enhance a campaign.à ¢â‚¬    Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  While it can be argued that humor refers to a conscious campaign maneuver on the part of its source, as a tool it only succeeds with regard to the respective candidate.

Citizenship and diversity Essay

A citizen is a native or naturalized member of a city, country, or nation who owes allegiance to its government and is entitled to its protection also citizenship is the state of being vested with the rights and duties of a citizen and is also the character of an individual viewed as a member of society. Citizens who help the local community like running clubs for youths and getting them involved in productive stuff helps keep them off the street and also help to decrease the crime rate. The Public service view citizenship as very helpful as the citizens who help tackle crime by being witnesses, reporting crime, and actively doing something helps the Police convict and get justice for crimes done. A legal view on citizenship is a person with rights of residence; views of citizenship by different organisations in society, e.g. public services, religious groups, pressure groups including â€Å"Amnesty International† and â€Å"Greenpeace†. Qualities of a good Citizen -Responsible -Dedicated -A positive attitude towards other people -Participation in community activities -Awareness of the needs of others Responsible -A good citizen takes personal responsibility to improve the community in which they live. They do not complain about picking up litter they will not complain that it is the council’s job, they will get up and pick up the litter themselves. A good citizen see themselves as responsible for improving the neighbourhood and do not wait for others to do it. Dedicated -Good citizens do not give up on tasks; they persevere until change is achieved. They are dedicated to see through until the end a task which they have set themselves. Positive Attitude -Good citizens are positive to all people. They are non-judgemental. They are not racist or homophobic; they welcome diversity as enriching a society and do not judge people on the colour of their skin, age religion or sexual orientation. Participation in the community -Getting involved in neighbourhood watch, community fund raising and environmental campaigns Awareness of the needs of fellow people in your community -Good citizens have awareness that we are not all the same and that some people need more support due to poverty, disability or language issues. A good citizen is aware and sensitive to these issues and help to provide a supportive inclusive community which values all of its members. Diversity The definition of diversity is to allow others to be who they are, i.e. black white Muslim Hindu etc. without expecting them to conform to your ideas of either working or morally, for example, if your working partner is a strict catholic, then not making lewd comments about women would respect his diversity, if you are going to be arresting a Muslim woman, then getting a female police officer to do it would be respecting her diversity, the same would be if you were to respect someone’s diversity in your community, you could not single someone out or treat someone different to other because of their race, religion or social status and so on.

Business information system Essay

1. What might have happened to Apple if its top executives had not supported investment in iPads? If the top executives had not supported investment in pads, the new product will be known by less people. Without investment in iPad, people will not receive the information of new technology. 2. Why would it be unethical for Apple to sell its iTunes customer information to other businesses? The customer’s information is about personal privacy, any company can’t sell customer’s information without their permit. 3. Evaluate the effects on Apple’s business if it failed to secure its customer information and all of it was accidentally posted to an anonymous website. The customers will not trust apple again, and they will not leave personal information on iTunes. This will influence Apple that people will not use apple store for purchasing. If the security problem let customer’s credit card information been stolen, Apple will response for that. 1 Do you agree or disagree that Apple’s iTunes, iPhone applications and iPad applications give the company a competitive advantage? Be sure to justify your answer. Yes, I agree with that. One of the main factors that brought Apple back from near oblivion was its ability to produce, market, and sell IT products such as the iPod, iPhone, and customer developed applications. If Apple’s top executives did not have the foresight to view the MP3 players as a competitive advantage, then chances are the company would not have made a strong comeback in the highly competitive electronics market. People who got iPhone, iPad, they will go to Apple’s store to download and buy the application. Other company can only develop application to Apple; they can’t sell or provide their application to customer directly. This is a big advantage for Apple. 2 Why are data, information, business intelligence and knowledge important to Apple? Give an example of each type in relation to the iPad. Data are raw facts that describe the characteristics of an event or object. Before the information age, managers manually collected and analysed data, a time-consuming and complicated task without which they would have little insight into how to run their business. Lacking data, managers often found themselves making business decisions about how many products to make, how much material to order, or how many employees to hire based on intuition or gut feelings. In the information age, successful managers compile, analyse, and comprehend massive amounts of data daily, which helps them make more successful business decisions. Examples include: Sales date, Quantity sold, Cost, Sales price, Total profit, Shipping address, Customer address, Wireless type, Memory amount, Colour. Information is data converted into a meaningful and useful context. Having the right information at the right moment in time can be worth a fortune. Having the wrong information at the right moment; or the right information at the wrong moment can be disastrous. The truth about information is that its value is only as good as the people who use it. People using the same information can make different decisions depending on how they interpret or analyse the information. Thus information has value only insofar as the people using it do as well. Business intelligence (BI) is information collected from multiple sources such as suppliers, customers, competitors, partners, and industries that analyses patterns, trends, and relationships for strategic decision making. BI manipulates multiple variables and in some cases even hundreds of variables including suc h items as interest rates, weather conditions, and even gas prices. For instance, BI can predict inventory requirements for a business for the week before the Super Bowl if, say, the home team is playing, average temperature is above 80 degrees, and the stock market is performing well. This is BI at its finest, incorporating all types of internal and external variables to anticipate business performance. Knowledge includes the skills, experience, and expertise, coupled with information and intelligence that creates a person’s intellectual resources. Knowledge workers are individuals valued for their ability to interpret and  analyse information. Today’s workers are commonly referred to as knowledge workers and they use BI along with personal experience to make decisions based on both information and intuition, a valuable resource for any company. 3 Analyze Apple using Porter’s Five Force model. Apple’s buyer power was low when it first introduced the iPod since it was first to market with the product. Now, there are many competitors to Apple’s iPod and its buyer power is increasing since customers can choose from many different manufacturers of MP3 players. Apple’s supplier power was high and now it is decreasing since buyers have many choices of whom to buy from. Apple can use environmental scanning, or the acquisition and analysis of events and trends in the environment external to an organization, to analyse rivalry. Apple can use environmental scanning to analyse everything from competitor strategies to understanding new and shifting market trends to determining the strategic placement of Apple stores. Without watching its environment and understanding what its competitors are doing and where the market is headed, Apple will have a difficult time setting its strategic direction, as Steve Jobs determined when he thought he had missed the MP3 bandwago n. 4 Which of the three generic strategies is Apple following? Apple follows a focused strategy. 5 Which of Porter’s Five Forces did Apple address through its introduction of the iPhone? Apple decreased the power of its buyers and increased its own supplier power by introducing the iPhone. Since the iPhone was the first to market with an internet access, data storage, MP3 player, etc., its buyers had no power and no choice but to purchase the product from Apple. Unfortunately, Apple could not create an entry barrier and soon many other companies began offering integrated cell phones, which increased buyer power and reduced supplier power. 6 Which of Porter’s Five Forces did Apple address through its customer-developed applications? Apple decreased the power of its buyers and increased its own supplier power by introducing customer developed applications. Since the iPhone was the first to market with an internet access, data storage, MP3 player, which could all accept customer developed applications, its buyers had no power and no choice but to purchase the product and the applications from Apple. Unfortunately, Apple could not create an entry barrier and there are more and more companies offering customer developed applications such as Google and its Android operating system.