Operation management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words - 1

Operation management - Essay Example The organisation implemented a philosophy and culture which they called The Corus Way in order to sustain competitiveness, productivity and profitability. Along with this philosophy is the practice of continuous improvement programmes across the company. Specifically, this paper explores the applicability of the Corus Way and Continuous Improvement Programmes in the Port Talbot Strip Products site. The site was experiencing lost, damaged and stolen equipments in their depot operations. The problem was investigated through a structured questionnaire where the results were collated, summarised and analysed. Using quality tools and techniques, this paper arrives at four recommendations for the improvement of the depot operations in accordance to the Corus Way. Corus Group is an international metals organization. The core competence of the company is providing steel and aluminium products and service to different market sectors. It is one of the top ten steel producers in the world. The customer base of Corus mostly comprises of businesses in the automotive, aerospace, packaging, engineering, building and construction markets. (Datamonitor, 2008) Corus Group has operations in thirty different countries reaching over Europe, Asia and other international markets. In Europe, UK is the major market of the organization. The company is headquartered in London and employs 21,300 people in UK. (Datamonitor, 2008) Corus was created in 1999 through a merger of British Steel and Koninklijle Hoogovens, a Netherlands-based company. In 2004, Philippe Varin, CEO, initiated and launched the Restoring Success programme which aimed at closing competitive gap between Corus and the European competitors. The program includes waste minimization and process simplification where waste is reduced and unnecessary copying of activities is eliminated.

Ubermensch, the Superman, and who he really is Essay

Ubermensch, the Superman, and who he really is - Essay Example he demonstrates in his work Thus Spake Zarathustra, Nietzsche’s idea of superman held that he was a man of ordinary means and stature with an extraordinary commitment to his own definition of the world. As is communicated through the many small individual sermons Zarathustra delivers to those people interested in learning, Nietzsche conceived of the overman as an individual who was capable of removing himself from the group mind by ignoring the common moralities and religious teachings to develop his own morals and values. As a result of his beliefs, he is always redefining himself, but taking joy and serenity in the knowledge that it is up to him how to define what is good and bad in each situation. While Nietzsche’s idea of the overman was an individual who held himself aloof from the activities and thought of normal men, Bernard Shaw felt the role of the superman was to also provide assistance to his fellow man as is shown in his play Man and Superman. He agreed with Nietzsche that the superman was an individual capable of removing themselves from the group-speak of the common world to attain higher thoughts and ideals but felt responsible for bringing the rest of humanity up to his own level. While the hero is strong in his own will, he is capable of recognizing the greater needs of the world around him and applies practical means of accomplishing the necessary goal. Another significant difference found in Shaw is in his inclusion of the woman as an important element in the development of the Superman. By pursuing the life force and stabilizing the home, Shaw indicated that women were essential if a man was to transcend to superman. Ayn Rand seems to conform more closely with the ideas of Nietzsche in her depiction of the superman in her novel Atlas Shrugged. Again portrayed as otherwise ordinary, Rand depicts the superman as an individual who is capable of higher forms of reasoning and logic. The goal of mankind to reach this height through

Looking At Port Scanning Techniques Information Technology Essay

Looking At Port Scanning Techniques Information Technology Essay This article gives you an in-depth knowledge on some of the commonly used TCP port scanning techniques along with the pros and cons associated with each of the port scanning technique. Apart from the TCP based port scanning, it also briefly explains the different port scanning techniques available to scan the non TCP ports. Index Terms three-way handshake, open port scanning, stealth scanning, half open port scanning, Ident scanning, FTP bounce scanning, Decoy scanning, UDP scanning. In this paper firstly we will see an overview of port scanning, which includes what it is, why it is used, how it can be used and what are its effects. The second section explains in details about the various port scanning methods. This section includes detailed description on each of the port scanning methods based on TCP and some of the other port scanning methods, including the advantages and disadvantages of each of the methods. This section also contains information on the TCP connection establishment, which would be helpful to have a better understanding on the various port scanning techniques. Overview on Port Scanning Before start discussing about the actual topic port scanning, first lets see what a port is, how it is used and what its functions are. The Transmission Control Protocol and User Datagram protocol are used for communication over the internet. Each of this protocol contains 65536 ports (from 0 to 65535). Each port has an associated service running. The first 1024 ports are the reserved/privilege ports which runs the dedicated service defined by IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) (for example port 80 is reserved for HTTP service, port 21 for FTP, port 23 for telnet access and etc.) and these ports are known as well-known ports. The remaining are called registered ports (from 1024 to 49151) and dynamic and/or private ports (from 49152 to 65535). So, the applications in the computer use its specific port for communication with the server or with another computer. Now lets discuss about port scanning. Port scanning is a technique used to uncover the port details in a computer. Details like whether the port is open/listening or not, if it is open/listening which service is running on that port, etc can be obtained by scanning the ports. Port scanning is mainly used to find if there is any security risk involved in the computer and also to check for its weaknesses. Port scanning is done by sending messages to all the ports of the computer, and based on the response from each of the ports we can check whether the computer is prone to attacks. This technique is used by the network administrators to check for vulnerabilities in the network, like if a port is unused and it is open, then it should be closed immediately, because open ports will listen to the incoming messages which could me malicious. This could be a useful technique for the network administrators to secure their network. Also it would be good to port scan our own computers periodical ly, so that we will be able to find out what are the unwanted process and some of the malwares running in our own computer systems. Having said this, we should also be aware of the fact that, the port scanning methods will be known to the hackers too, who will try to break into the network/computer to steal the vital information. Using this technique the hackers will try to get a list of unused open/available ports. The hackers will then try to probe these ports for additional information and weakness. Using these results the hacker will try to exploit and will gain access to the computer. The operating system in the target computer will have the knowledge of logging the request that is used for port scanning activities. So the hacker will use an effective method to perform port scanning else the hacker can be easily identified. Port Scanning Methods The port scanning technique can be classified into three main types, they are Open scanning This type of scan opens a full TCP connection with the targeted host. Half-open scanning In this type of scan the client terminates the connection on receiving a response from the targeted host. Stealth scanning This type of scan prevents the connection request to the targeted host to be logged. All the above mentioned scanning types are used by a hacker to get the list of open or closed ports in the server. Among the three the open scanning technique gives accurate information about the state of the port, but it is easily detectable. Stealth scan technique can fool some of the basic Intrusion detection systems and some of the basic firewall rule sets. Before explaining in detail about each of the port scanning technique lets look into the steps involved in establishing a full TCP connection and the usage of each of the flags in the TCP message [Marco, Eddy, Germinal, Gabriela, 1999]. This is because most of the port scanning methods are based on the TCP connection and the functionalities of each of the flags bits in the TCP message. Following are the list of flags used in the TCP message and its functionalities. SYN This flag is used to initiate a TCP connection. FIN This flag specifies that the sender has finished sending the entire data. RST This flag is set to reset the connection. ACK This flag is set to acknowledge for the request. URG This flag is set to indicate that the urgent pointer is valid. PSH This flag is set to indicate that all the data should be pushed to receiver immediately without waiting for the additional information. The TCP connection establishment consists of three steps hence it called as three-way handshake. First the client will send a TCP message with SYN flag set with an initial sequence number to the targeted host. The second step is that, if the respective port in the target host is open then the target host will acknowledge the clients SYN by incrementing the clients initial sequence number by 1 and sends back to the client along with its own initial sequence number with the SYN message. Third step, the client on receiving the target hosts TCP message with SYN flag set it will send an ACK message and the target hosts initial sequence number incremented by 1 to the target host. This is how the TCP connection will be established between two hosts. Shown below is the pictorial representation of three-way handshake TCP connection. SYN, Clients ISN (initial seq. num) Client Target host SYN, Target hosts ISN (initial seq. num) Clients ISN + 1Client Target host ACK, Target hosts ISN + 1 Client Target host Having the basic knowledge of TCP connection and the functionalities of each of the flags in TCP message we will discuss in detail in each of the port scanning techniques. Open Scanning Technique: The open scanning technique will try to establish a full TCP connection with the target host. Based on the response from the target the client will decide whether the port in the target host is open or closed. This technique is slower when compared to other two techniques, since it involves in establishing a three way connection with the target. Also this technique is easily detectable and can be filtered easily. Described below is one of the open scanning methods. TCP connect scan method: The TCP connect scan method uses the connect() method in the operating system to establish a three-way connection between the target host [Dethy, 2001]. Client will send Æ’Â   SYN Server will respond with Æ’Â   SYN, ACK Client will respond with Æ’Â   ACK In the above three-way handshake the server responds with the SYN message which means that the listening port in the targeted host is in the open state. Client will send Æ’Â   SYN Server will respond with Æ’Â   RST, ACK Client will respond with Æ’Â   RST In this case, the server responds with the RST message to the request. This shows that the listening port in the targeted host in the closed state. By this way a list of open or closed ports in the targeted host can be obtained. The advantages of this scanning method are that it is fast, accurate and does not require extra user privileges. The disadvantages are this method is easily detectable and could be logged. Half Open Scanning Technique: In the half open scanning technique the client will terminate the connection even before the three-way handshake is completed. Two types of scanning methods come under the half open scanning technique. They are 1) SYN scanning and 2) IP ID header or dumb scanning. SYN scan method: This method is similar to the full connection/TCP connect scan method. The difference is that when the client receives a SYN message from the target host it will close the connection by sending a RST message to the target machine. This is because the SYN message from the target host is enough to know that its listening port is in open state. If a RST message is received from the target host then it means that the listening port in the target host is in closed state. Thus a three-way handshake is restricted in this type of scan method. The pictorial representation of which is shown below [Dethy, 2001]. Pictorial representation if the port is in open state, Client will send Æ’Â   SYN Target will respond with Æ’Â   SYN, ACK Client will respond with Æ’Â   RST Pictorial representation if the port is in closed state, Client will send Æ’Â   SYN Target will respond with Æ’Â   RST, ACK The advantages of this method are it is fast, accurate and it is less frequently logged when compared to open scan method. The main disadvantage is that for this type of scanning the sender or client needs to customise the IP packet which requires special user privileges, and this is the case for almost all of the operating systems. IP ID header or dumb scanning method: The basis of this scan method is similar to the SYN scan method but the difference is that IP ID header or dumb scanning method uses a third host to scan the target host, and based on the id value in the IP header field this scan method will decide whether the listening port in the targeted host is in open or closed state. The third host should be identified in such a way that it should send very little amount of traffic or preferably no traffic, hence this type of host is said to be silent or dumb host. It requires lots of effort to identify this type of host. In this scenario, there will three different host. One is the attacker host (A), second is the silent host (S) and third is the target host (T). First A will send consecutive ping packets to S, this is to analyse the id value in the IP header field. Each time the silent host will increment the id value by 1 in its response. An example of which is shown below, 60 bytes from AAA.BBB.CCC.DDD: seq=1 ttl=64 id=+1 win=0 time=96 ms 60 bytes from AAA.BBB.CCC.DDD: seq=2 ttl=64 id=+1 win=0 time=88 ms 60 bytes from AAA.BBB.CCC.DDD: seq=2 ttl=64 id=+1 win=0 time=88 ms Now using the source address of host S, host A will send a spoofed SYN message to the host T. The host T will respond to host S with either SYN message or the RST message based on the listening ports state. Now the host A will examine the ping responses from the host S to check the id value in the IP header. If the id value is more than 1 then it shows that the respective port in the host T is open, because only when the host S will respond back to host T and increments the id value. That is the host T would have responded to the host S with the SYN message for the spoofed SYN message from the host A. If the value of id is 1 then it indicates that the respective listening port in the host T is in closed state. Stealth scanning technique: The stealth scanning technique is a technique used to avoid the logging of port scan performing in a host and to break into the basic filters and firewalls implemented. This technique slows the scan due to which the ports are scanned over a long time period. Thus it restricts the target host to trigger an alert. In this section we will discuss about four types of stealth scanning techniques. FIN scan method: As the name implies this method uses the FIN flag in the TCP message to identify the list of open or close ports in the target host. That is the attacker will send a TCP message with FIN flag set to target host. Based on the response from the target the attacker will determine whether the listening port in the target is open or closed. If the listening port in the target is closed then it will reply back with the RST message. The negotiation is shown below, Attacker will send Æ’Â   FIN Target will respond with Æ’Â   RST If the listening port is open then the target will not send any response back. The negotiation is shown below, Attacker will send Æ’Â   FIN Target response Æ’Â   none The advantages of this method are it can bypass many intrusion detection systems and these scans are not logged. The disadvantage is that at times it can produce false results. NULL scanning method: The null scanning method will send a TCP message to the target without setting any of the six flags in the TCP message. Based on the response from the target the attacker will generate a list of open ports. If the response from the target is RST then the listening port in the target host is said to be in closed state, else if a there is no response from the target then the port is open. The advantages of this method are it can bypass many intrusion detection systems and these scans are not logged. The disadvantage is that at times it can produce false results and it can be used only in UNIX systems. XMAS scanning method: The implementation of XMAS method is exactly opposite to the NULL scanning method. That is, the Xmas scanning method will send a TCP message with all the six flags set. If the response from the target is RST then the listening port in the target host is said to be in closed state, else if a there is no response from the target then the port is open. The advantages and disadvantages of this method are same as that of the NULL scanning method. TCP fragmenting method: The TCP fragmenting itself is not a port scanning method; instead it is used to improve the other stealth port scanning methods like FIN, NULL, and XMAS [Marco, Eddy, Germinal, Gabriela, 1999]. This method splits the TCP header into smaller fragments such that it is not easily detected by the firewalls and other intrusion detection systems implemented. All the above discussed port scanning techniques are specific to the TCP ports. There are other port scanning techniques available for scanning non TCP ports, some of which are explained below. UDP scanning technique: The UDP scanning technique is used to get a list of available/open DUP ports in a target host. The method sends a UDP message to the target, and based on the response from the target the attacker will determine whether the port is open or closed. If the response from the target host is a UDP message then the port is open. If the response from the target is an ICMP port unreachable [Dethy, 2001] message then the port is closed. If the response is some other ICMP unreachable message then the port is filtered. If there is no response from the target host then the listening port is either open or filtered. The advantages are, it is used to scan non TCP ports and it is not restricted by TCP Intrusion detection system. Its disadvantages are it is easily detectable and requires root access. Ident scanning technique: The scanning methods that we have discussed so far is used to get a list of open/available ports, but the Ident scanning technique is used to get the information about the owner of the process running in those available/open ports. This method uses the insecure issue in the Identification protocol to uncover the owner details of the process running in the listening ports. This technique can be employed only when the target host is running the identd service in port 113. FTP bounce scanning technique: This technique uses an option in the FTP protocol to perform port scanning. That is, this method uses proxy ftp servers to communicate with the target host and to perform port scanning in each of its ports. For this the proxy functionality in the ftp server should be enabled. In this method, first the attacker establishes ftp connection with the proxy FTP server. Then using the port and list commands it tries to scan each of the ports in the target host. If the listening port is open then the server will send 150 and 226 response codes to the attacker, else if the port is closed the server will respond with the 425 reply code to the attacker. Decoy scanning technique: The decoy scanning technique sends several packets to the same port in the target host. All of these IP packets contain spoofed IP address except one of the packet. That is, one in a several packets holds the actual attackers IP address. Thus this method makes sure that at least one response from the target host is sent to the attacker. The advantages of this method are that it is extremely hard for the administrator to identify the exact scanner/attacker and the result obtained from this method is accurate. The disadvantage of this technique is that, since it sends several packets to the same port the flow of traffic will be high. Conclusion The different types of port scanning techniques are explained in detail along with their advantages and disadvantages. We have seen that most of the port scanning techniques are based on the TCP protocol, but other port scanning techniques are available to scan the non TCP ports. At present numerous software tools are available to perform an effective port scanning in the local host or the remote host to check for the existing vulnerabilities and ways to fix them. Some of the popular tools are SATAN and N-Map. Port scanning techniques are not only used by the attackers to break into the computer/network, it can also be used to check our own computers for vulnerabilities and to take preventive actions for those vulnerabilities.

Comparing the Power of Love in Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Beloved :: Comparison Compare Contrast Essays

The Power of Love in Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Beloved There are several common themes in the film Beloved and the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin. They both deal with the effects of slavery on the white and black communities. They both address the brutal treatment of blacks within slavery, including the sexual mistreatment of black women by their masters. A prevalent theme out of both works is the power of a mother’s love for her children. The film Beloved paints a grim picture of what it was like to be a black woman in the 1860’s. Like the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin, it takes us through the story of an escaped slave in the South traveling to the North in order to gain freedom. The main characters, Sethe, in the movie Beloved, and Eliza, in the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin, are both mothers who want nothing more that to see their children delivered from the bonds of slavery. Although the film and the book were created using very different styles, their objectives are somewhat similar. In Stowe’s book Uncle Tom’s Cabin we follow Eliza through a dramatic escape from her plantation after she learns about the impending sale of her only son. Determined to take him out of slavery or die trying, she runs away in the night with him holding on to her neck. Stowe focuses much attention on the power of maternal love. She felt strongly against slavery because it often broke the bonds of maternal love by ripping children away from the mothers. Families were continually being torn apart by the auction block; Stowe wanted the reader to be aware of the effects of this horrible institution. Logic tells us that no mother would ever willingly put her children or herself in danger. However, through Eliza’s character in Uncle Tom’s Cabin we see the desperation that many women had to experience to save their children. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, though fictional, did more to change the hearts of Americans who were standing on the edge abolitionism than any other work at that time. In fact, near the conclusion of the Civil War she was invited to the White House in order that President Lincoln might meet the â€Å"little woman that started this big war.† Stowe felt that she had an obligation to inform the world of what really went on in the South, what life was really like for slaves.

How Global Trends Influence the Strategies Used by Samsung in the Communications Market Essay

As global trends shape the business landscape, they will certainly influence competition among companies; and just as companies frequently fail to examine global trends in details, they can also fall short in their analysis of the competitive factors those trends create. Czinkota, Ronkainen,and Kotabe, (2010) carried out a survey that showed that â€Å"competition is becoming more intense: 85% of them [executives] describe the business environment of their companies as more competitive. † As such organizations to include the owners and staff have to continually make changes to supplement the ever changing demands of their target market as well as the total market. Samsung has felt the negative effects associated with changes in global trends and as such have developed strategies to compliment those changes in the communication market. Overview of Samsung In the present unpredictable business trade, marketing plays a fundamental and considerable role and it is a course of action or means to create, deliver, exchange and communicate with customers and clients which is now more pronounce because of globalization. Globalization according to Hamilton (2009) is not a new phenomenon. Nonetheless, within the last few decades, the improvements in technology, international trade and communication have rocketed. However, before we move on to discuss this great phenomenon, it is imperative that we define the terms globalization and marketing. Bilton, Bonnett, and Jones, et al. (1996) argued that globalization can be defined as â€Å"the process whereby political, social, economic and cultural relations increasingly take on a global scale, and which has profound consequences for individuals’ local experiences and everyday lives. † Hamilton (2009), in view of some of these profound consequences of globalization aptly states, â€Å"International trade through globalization can have many benefits. Trade helps increase economic wealth and establishes good political relationships with trading partners. Globalization also promotes free trade and competition between corporations which in turn gives consumers throughout the world more options and cheaper products from which to choose. † Therefore, the increase in trade, as well as technological communication and transportation advancements have allowed societies to become more connected. The term globalization signifies the combination of the marketing process with global business requirements. The globalization of marketing has made marketing processes more intricate, unwieldy and costly to deal with. Ferrell (2011) postulates that marketing may be defined as â€Å"an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering values to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders. † Global sourcing and hostile global competition, pooled with growing customer demand, are drastically affecting the supply chain. To battle these new globalization challenges, many companies are moving away from a â€Å"push† supply chain model to a demand-driven, customer focus model. The desire to become demand-driven requires sophisticated, flexible responsiveness at every point along the supply chain, from sourcing and obtaining to use. One such company is Samsung; founded in 1938. From its foundation as a petite export company in Taegu, Korea, Samsung has developed into one of the world’s top electronics companies, specializing in digital appliances and media, semiconductors, memory, and system integration. For over three decades Samsung has defended developments in the business and played a fundamental part in the advancement of the mobile telecom sector. Their powerful past performance in invention and manufacturing is in line with a history of financial stability, and an extensive globally distributed, skilled employee base. This combination of factors has lead to Samsung being the favored partner of top-tier operators around the world. In 1980, Samsung joined the telecommunications hardware industry with the purchase of Hanguk Jenja Tongsin. Originally building telephone switchboards, Samsung expanded in to telephone and fax systems which ultimately moved to mobile phone manufacturing. The mobile phone business was grouped together with Samsung Electronics (Burris, 2013). Kumar (2004) opines that in the contemporary information age, mobile communications has enabled us to use laptop personal computers linked to the internet without a ‘wired’ local area network (LAN). Simply put, if the internet gave us the ability to access any web address on a desktop, mobiles have given us the access at any time and from anywhere. This capability, derived from modern telecommunication technology, is crucial in conducting international business operations. Samsung Telecommunications is one of five business units within Samsung Electronics. This unit has been influenced by global trends, causing the company to use marketing strategies in order to stay on top in the communications market. Samsung’s Marketing Strategy Developing a clear and profitable strategy relies on balancing the business’ competencies and abilities against the market opportunities into the future. The marketing strategy of a business includes a definition of the business, a description of the products or services, an outline of the target market, and defines the business’ role in relationship to the competition. In other words, marketing strategy is a synopsis of the business’ products and position in relation to the competition; the sales and marketing plans are the exact actions the business will assume to attain the goals of the marketing strategy. According to Materson and Pickton (2010), constructing and using a marketing strategy has a strong positive impact on profitability. This is because companies that utilize a marketing strategy tend to focus on their customers and markets, integrate their marketing responses and work out in advance where their profits will come from. Operating a flourishing business can be challenging; business operators can build a business but they might not materialize. Marketing is all about informing the public about the product or service the business offers, and influencing them to purchase or use it. Thus, Samsung zoomed in on strategies that will improve the company’s communication market. The company also used SWOT analysis in order to keep up with the global trends in the communication market. Like every other businesses, Samsung is very much aware that information is an important resource essential just like money, machinery and manpower. Information is considered one of the most fundamental necessities for the continued existence of the organization. In the past, before the computer era, it was not easy for the businesses to gather, store, maintain, organize and distribute enormous volumes of information and data. Nowadays, managers are competent in getting contemporary information at the required time in a precise manner. Consequently, as a powerful business leader, Samsung accepted the fact and had given precedence to the process of information throughout the organization at every stage. â€Å"To gain from its Managing Information System and Information Technology, Samsung addressed information needs not only in its environment but also in their relationships with customers, suppliers, trade partners, production systems, work processes, skills and labor requirement. These advancements of Samsung have created huge and complex processes and information systems, thereby creating a requirement to align them to have a universal overview of the complete information system setting it as a strategic tool† (Unknown). Ultimately, a manager evaluates the information gathered for accuracy. Evaluating this information enabled Samsung to identify potential threats and opportunities linked to environmental changes, which bring us to another market strategy, the market environment. Understanding the present state of the market environment and recognizing threats and opportunities that might arises from changes within it helped Samsung to assess the performance of their present marketing efforts and develop future marketing strategies (Pride & Ferrell, 2012). This is so because the global marketing environment is becoming increasingly competitive to an extent that requires companies to target their products and services at markets regardless of national boundaries (Hassan & Erdener, 1994). SWOT Analysis Samsung’s SWOT analysis was used to examine the strengths and weaknesses of the business, determining the long term objectives of the business and aid in the design of the new strategies to assist in the process of achieving targets set by the organization. The SWOT analysis also include the processes to determine the investment direction, the business markets to be addressed, extension of the operations of the business and limitations faced by the business in order to undertake the business activities. In essence, Samsung used SWOT to help identify possible strategies by building on strengths, resolving weaknesses, exploiting opportunities and avoiding threats. An opportunity is a major favorable situation in a firm’s environment. Key trends are one source of opportunities. An evaluation needs to be completed drawing conclusions about how the opportunities may affect the firm whether positive or negative. However, changes in competitive situations, technological changes and improve buyer or supplier relationships could symbolize positive opportunities for businesses. In this case, Samsung capitalized on their opportunities by designing new technology, sponsoring the 2012 Olympics, offered more models with stylish and individuality and giving the consumer real entertainment for their money; offering plenty opportunity to get more sales. Threat refers to challenges posed by an unfavorable trend or development that could lead to deterioration in profits or sales, in absence of a defensive marketing action. Threats are the main obstructions to the business’ existing or preferred position. Changes in technology, decrease in market growth, increase in bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, new or revised regulation could pose threats to the achievement of businesses. From the information gathered and evaluated, Samsung recognized that there is new and existing competition, price volatility, economic recession, and extremely huge competition for customers and resources. The internal analysis of strengths and weaknesses focuses on internal factors that give businesses certain advantages and disadvantages in meeting the requirements of its intended market. Strengths refer to core capabilities that give the business an advantage in meeting the requirements of its intended markets. Any analysis of company strengths should be market oriented and customer focused because strengths are only meaningful when they assist the business in meeting customer needs. Weaknesses refer to any limitations a company faces in developing or implementing a strategy. Weaknesses should also be examined from a customer perspective because customers often perceive weaknesses that a company cannot see. Being market focused when analyzing strengths and weaknesses does not mean that non-market oriented strengths and weaknesses should be forgotten. Rather, it suggests that all businesses should bind their strengths and weaknesses to customer requirements. Samsung’s strengths: 1. Strong international experiences 2. Strong global business network 3. Vast credibility of brand name 4. International documented accomplishments (awards received and nominated for) Samsung’s weaknesses: 1. Perception of high prices 2. Loss of customers’ interest in products 3. Buyer sophistication and knowledge 4. Substitute products or technologies and limited availability of 3D viewing Conclusion Marketing has changed in focus over the past twenty years. Nowadays, marketing stresses value and customer relationships (Ferrell, 2011). However, it is imperative to note that marketing is parallel to other business functions such as production, research, management, human resources, and accounting. The fundamental function of marketing is to connect the company to its customers. As such it shapes the objectives of companies to include Samsung, through which it is able to delivery top of the line communications while superbly satisfying the market. Reference Bilton T. , Bonnett, K. , Jones, P. , Skinner, D. Stanworth, M. & Webster, A. (1996). Introductory sociology. (MacMillan Press Ltd. , Ed. ). Great Britain: MacMillan Press Ltd. Burris M. (2013). The history of Samsung. About. com. Retrieved March 29, 2013 from http://components. about. com/od/Companies/p/The-History-Of-Samsung. htm Collins, J. , & Porras, J. (1996). Building your company’s vision. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved March 29, 2013 from http://www. tecker. com/wpcontent/uploads/2011/07/CollinsBuildingVisionSept96. pdf Czinkota M. , Ronkainen, I. , & Kotabe, M. (2010). Emerging trends, threats and opportunities in international marketing: What executives need to know. New York, NY:Business Expert Press, LLC. Ferrell, O. (2011). Marketing strategy (Hartline M. , Ed. ). Mason, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning. Hamilton S. (2009). Globalization. Edina, Minnesota: ABDO Publishing

Marriage Is a Private Affair Essay

Cultural, gender, religious and racial peculiarities can either impede or enhance effective human communication and understanding. According to Chinua Achebe, â€Å"Marriage is a Private Affair†. We may ask what is marriage? It may be defined in many ways Prof. Makoine in his guideline sheet defines it interactively as â€Å"wedlock/ relationship in which two people have pledged themselves to each other as husband and wife with or without legal sanction. † According to the same definition a private affair is â€Å"exclusive/ belonging to a particular person or group event or happening. Marriage is fundamental ,it’s a private affair, the author tries to show that marriage means different things in the different cultures also marriage and private are interchangeable it mean two or more people get into contract, whereas in some culture it also a unity establish between two or more people. Marriage is an exclusive event that happen between two people. According to the writer, he does not exclude the family out of the process of marriage but he concludes that whatever decision we make it is considered to be private affair which has to be between people that sign the contract. The two people involved take responsibility for the outcome of their decision. So as the saying goes, â€Å"marriage is for better for worse† What are other original and contemporary definitions of marriage? The original concept as religiously depicted both in Islam and Christianity is that marriage is a bond between a man and a woman, where both become one. There is an exchange of dowry for security and goodwill. The Webster’s New Pocket dictionary defines marriage as the â€Å"married life†, and marry as â€Å"join as husband and wife, 2. take as spouse and 3. nite†. The implications of such definitions is that there is a dichotomy in meanings culturally, racially and religiously. The concept of privacy of marriage can be read in many ways: it could mean private between two people irrespective of their family’s feelings. It could also be its my business whether I want to marry a male or a female, I don’t need anyone’s support or permission. I have the freedom to choose. In† â€Å"Chinua Achebe’s† drama the freedom to choose is still available to â€Å"Nnaemeka† but the choice he makes is painful to him and the family. The impending pain is envisaged by â€Å"Nnaemeka†and this makes him say, â€Å"It would not be wise to break the news to him by writing. A letter will bring it upon him with a shock, I am quite sure about that. † In this case â€Å"Chinua Achebe† portrays the privacy of marriage to a particular tribe and the difficulty when people have to break that privacy and go outside their tribes to choose a spouse. The reaction of â€Å"Nnaemeka†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s father to the situation is indeed dramatic, he could not imagine his son marrying someone whose family he did not know. This is vividly displayed in the following conversation in the story, â€Å" Whose daughter is she, anyway? â€Å"She is Nene Atang. † â€Å"What! † All the mildness was gone. â€Å" Neneataga, what does that mean? † The father felt this was beyond acceptance and his pain was palpable. In this case they are of the same religion even though â€Å"Nnaemeka†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s father may not accept this. He disparages the future wife’s religion by saying, â€Å"Teacher did you say? If you consider that a qualification for a good wife I should like to point out to you, â€Å"Emeka†, that no christian woman should teach. The privacy of the of culture and language was broken and the old man’s heart was broken too as he felt the loss of his son. He goes on to try to dissuade his son to no avail and the writer admits that, â€Å"his father eventually gave hm up as lost. † Emeka exercised his freedom but at the cost of loosing his community and family’s support and inclusion. The act itself was considered sacrilegious as an old man said weeks later, â€Å"It has never been heard,† people do not marry across language lines. Privacy was broken! However the issue of love transcends culture, religion and language barriers. Instead of Emeka to change his mind he hoped his father would heal. The story says, â€Å"Nnaemeka for his own part, was deeply affected by his father’s grief. But he kept hoping that it would pass away† (â€Å"marriage is private affair†, page †¦). He was adamant though about marrying the woman of his dreams despite the strong opposition. He goes on to say, â€Å"Nene Atang from Calabar. She is the only woman I can marry,† (page†¦ ). The reality though is in the end we weigh what is truly important as Nnaemeka’s father found out. The story brings us to the point of his awakening,â€Å"His mind immediately returned to the children. How could he shut his door against them? † He realizes that as a father his daughter- in – law had reached out to him with an arm he couldn’t resist, the arm of compassion to your own blood. The writer concludes by saying, â€Å"That night he hardly slept, from remorse – and a vague fear that he might die without making it up to them. † (page †¦) the father was stubborn and being xenophobic, he was gloomy and cut relationship off with his grandchildren since he was not dynamic in nature and could not accept changing times.

How to Manage Your Time for a Research Project on Real Estate Finance

How to Manage Your Time for a Research Project on Real Estate Finance Working on a research project involves two key aspects; writing your project, and time management. These two factors generally go hand-in-hand and must be considered for the success of your entire project. Therefore, this article will be dedicated to time management and the role it plays in ensuring a successful project both for the writing and delivery stage. Before delving into the meat of today’s article, it is important to understand the meaning of time management and its role in a research project. Time management is the act or process of planning and exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities thereby increasing one’s productivity and effectiveness. Most projects –such as one on real estate finance - consist of writing and presenting the content contained in the written assignment to an intended audience. And in both cases, the way you make use of the time allotted to your presentation is critical to the entire success of the project. So here are some tips on how to manage your time. Prepare a Project Timeline Research projects are usually extensive due to the amount of research needed to find facts and figures to make convincing arguments with. Therefore, it is important to create a timeline using the project submission date as your yardstick. The next step is allotting time for your research on real estate finance, the use of questionnaires or for the diagrams you intend to build for visualization purposes. This timeline must be divided to include, writing, building, completion and submission. Write, Write, Write Now that your research is done, the next step is writing the content that makes your argument, answers the questions raised or discusses your point of view. Here, it is quite important to spend as little time as possible in doing your writing task since you already have all the needed materials and knowledge to complete the task. Create Something Realistic For some topics, it is important to create a simulation or model that showcases your thought process. And for a subject or topic like real estate finance, you can simply create a 3D financial model that shows how finance from banks aid the sector. Note that the projected timeline for completing this should not be too close to the submission date for you may have to practice on presenting your entire project in class. Work on Your Presentation If a presenting process is included in your research project, then an allotted time for speaking would be provided to all candidates working on a project. Therefore it is important to stick to the allotted time and to do this, intense practice at home using a powerpoint presentation as your guideline must be done. Ensure you master the act of presentation in which sticking to the allotted time is a key feature for a good presentation. These four tips provide timely guidelines that you can use in breaking down your project into manageable sections guided by time to achieve the success you deserve. Take your time to also visit our 10 facts.

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buy custom The Rise of Fascism essay The Rise of Fascism by F.L Carsten is a compact but highly detailed book that explains much about fascism. The book explores the origins and political development of fascism throughout Europe. The author mainly deals with countries that experienced severe fascism like Germany, Italy, Spain and Austria. The small and insignificant fascist movements in Holland and Norway were omitted by the author since they were short-lived and bore little bearing in the course of the worlds history. Some of these omissions show that the author was not attempting to explain everything about fascism. Carstens main aim was to explain how it was possible for the fascist to be developed and become mass movements that seized power in nations that had strong culture, highly educated and practiced traditional civilized behavior. Fascism is a radical, authoritarian political attitude and mass movement that arose between the First and the Second World War. The expression Fascism is adapted from the Latin word fasces, which refers to an ax tightly wound with sticks. The policy advocates for creation of a totalitarian single-party rule in the country. Fascists seek to flush out forces, ideas, and systems considered being the source of moral corruption and relapse. Fascism seeks to produce the nation's rebirth based on dedication to the national community based on organic unity where individuals are bound together by links of lineage, customs, and blood. Fascists think that a nation needs tough leadership, singular communal identity, and the determination and ability to commit acts of aggression and wage war in order to keep the nation strong. Fascist governments prohibit and restrain disagreement with the state. Fascism entails giving full economic, social and judicial authority to a single dominant ruler. Such a ruler exercises power characterized by terrorism, police brutality and sheer infringement of fundamental human rights. One of the major building points of fascism is the belief that ones race or ethnic group is better than all others are. Fascist nations strongly believe in violence and war. For such states, war and aggression is seen as a means of maintaining national regeneration, spirit and vitality. Conflict is viewed as a fact of life that is dependable for all human progress. Fascists laud militarism as providing constructive renovation in society, in providing spiritual restoration, education, instilling of a will to govern people's character, and promote national solidarity through military service. F.L Carsten observes, There was nothing like fascism before the First World War (9). In fact, fascism as we know it was as a result of this great upheaval (first world war), the resulting destruction and the consequent financial crisis (9). Before the First World War, prosperity and economic progress were the order of the day. Western and central Europe was a haven of peace, and order was established. The security of the governing orders, the economic and social system, and the prosperity of the middle class seemed to be protected for all eternity (9). Most countries in Europe were more concerned in partition and acquisition of colonies in other continents than in changing the local politics. Some strong feelings of nationalism were exhibited in France after the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 and 1871. France lost the war to Germany and consequently, two of its richest coal mining areas; Alsace and Lorraine were taken by the victor. This bitter loss stirred up deep feelings of nationalism and calls for revenge. In the 1880s, a movement formed by General Boulanger marched across the Rhine and attempt to free the lost provinces. This movement was crushed by the government and peace and calm returned. Anti-Semitism then found its way to France. A journal was published to fight the international influence of Jewish financiers. Like in most parts of pre-war Europe, Jews were the strongest and most powerful group economically. Jews were more prosperous than the native tribes were. This lower class versus middle-class bigotry morphed in a murderous rage and animosity. After 1919, the Jews, who made up around one percent of the population, controlled almost half of the economy. More than half of the private banks were Jewish owned. Eighty percent of the countrys press was run by Semites and the stock exchange was dominated by Jewish stockbrokers. Feelings of anti-Semitism brewed deep within the locals blood. Jewish immigrants, such as the Rothschilds had amassed vast fortunes in France: their wealth caused all the evils from which France was suffering (11). Carsten traces the beginning of fascism in France to the formation of Comite dAction Francaise, a movement that sharply attacked parliamentarism and individualism. It elicited strong anti-Semitic emotions and maintained that France must be made as strong as it had once been. Long before 1914, the Action Francaise showed many of the characteristics which later distinguished Fascist movements. Its hatred of liberalism, democracy and the parliamentary system; its glorification of power and violence, which it did not hesitate to use against its enemies, its advocacy of strong leadership, its marked anti-Semitism and anti-freemasonism were features which we shall find time and again among the Fascist groups of the post-war period. The historical origins of the Italian republic are traced in The Rise of Fascism. Carsten reports that after its unification, Italy still remained a desperately poor country. However, there were high spirits and anticipation of better things among the Italians. After Cavours death in 1861, the Italian governments proved weak and inefficient (17). Italy lacked any significant mineral deposits, was mountainous and agriculturally unfit. The Industrial revolution was lagging due to lack of capital investment in the country. The citizens were very illiterate and hugely uninterested in politics. There were few voters and the government was based on poor practices. Still, somewhere in the middle of all this crap, there existed a few individuals who had dreams of great-power politics. Francesco Crispi was among one of the founding Fascists. As Prime minister, he waged war against Ethiopia but lost bitterly. Later, one of his ardent followers, Enrico Corradini, founded a nationalistic journal that ani-socialist, anti-democratic and anti-parliamentarian. The journal denounced the noble society as unheroic, cowardly and pacifist. Corradini lauded and spoke in volumes about the moral values of war and imperialist growth. The spirit of war and aggression would conjure new spirits and lead to rebirth of the nation. In an attempt to achieve such goals, Italy waged war against Libya. Benito Mussolini gained popularity due to his vocal and aggressive opposition of parliamentary procedures and socialist ideologies. Mussolini advocated for the use of force in the class struggle against powerful landowners and the church. The deep love for violence made Mussolini visible among his fellow socialists. Mussolinis glorification of war and strong emphasis on acquisition of colonies made him extremely popular in Italy. Mussolini set up the 'fascio di combattimento' (fascist movement) in 1919. The movement consisted mainly of ex soldiers who were disgruntled with the liberal regime and the result of the First World War. Mussolini began to make assurances that he would reinstate Italy to its past glory. He ran his own tabloid ' Il popolo d'Italia' that was the perfect tool with which to encourage his fascist principles and spread propaganda. The 'fascio di combattimento' movement also used brutality in their quest to convert the nation into the idea of Fascism rather than Socialism. The feeble Liberal government and the fast ascent of Socialism terrified many citizens, thus allowing the budding support for the Fascist movement. From the beginning of the 1920s Mussolini's reputation really began to grow. Furthermore, he was supported by the Roman Catholic Church, and the Italian police. As 1921drew to an end, the Fascists had increased to over 200,000 members. Liberal leaders attempted to make pacts with Mussolini to bring him into government. He refused saying that unless he was appointed as Prime minister of Italy, he would not think about the deal. Mussolini later declared that unless he was made Italys Prime minister, he would compulsorily grab authority. Since the 'fascio di combattimento' had gained such enormous recognition, Mussolini knew they would be able to grab authority. In 1922, they strategized on how to take over the local governments and the ultimate protest on Rome. However, the march was unnecessary as the King asked Mussolini to form a government, partly to prevent the threat of Civil war. Fascism sprouted in Italy as a result of peoples disgruntlement with the product of the First World War. Carsten clarifies that, unlike other countries in Europe, there was little anti-Semitism in Italy. Antisemitism developed in Italy from Germany during and after the Second World War. This weird observation is due to the fact that the Jews in Italy were less wealthy or intellectual than their counterparts in other Nordic countries. (22) In the Rise of Fascism, Carsten analytically compares Germany to her neighbors. Germany had vast coal and mineral deposits and was a country of great military strength. The Industrial revolution took place in Germany at a higher rate than in any other European nation. There was rapid economic progress, especially in the heavy industry, railway industry and in banking (22). Town populations skyrocketed, and industry workers began to unionize in order to fight for better working conditions. Anti-Semitism was discovered as an appealing weapon by radical German politicians like Adolf Stoecker. Emancipation of the German Jews had taken place in the early nineteenth century. The Jews were very active in trading and in the financial sectors of the economy. They had deep roots in the countrys political leadership and in elite professions such as medicine, law and journalism. Stoecker proclaimed that the Jews, through their irreligious power and massive wealth, were trying to convert Berlin to a Jewish town and form an aristocracy. Such statements made the lower class natives feel threatened by the immigrants. Stoecker gained massive popularity after demanding administrative measures from the government to limit the advance of Jews into the fields of education and law. He even requested social protection of the middle class and workers. Violent anti-Semitic demonstrations broke out in regions like Berlin and Dresden. The events that occurred during and after the First World War had a direct bearing on the development of Fascism. Carsten uses the example of Italy to show the origin and development of fascism. This is because Italy had the most clear and comprehensive model of Fascism led by Benito Mussolini. At the beginning of the First World War, Italy chose to remain neutral. The local politics were divided as to whether to support the allies or the entente. Italy continued to delay until they saw it favorable to back the western powers against Germany and Austria. Nationalistic insurgence and agitation grew in the country as many nationalists demanded that Italy should join the war on the side of the allies. This would enable Italy to win back its lost province of Alto Andige. From the beginning of 1922, Fascist rebels transformed their plan from one of attacking socialist agencies and residences of socialist leadership figures to one of aggressively occupying towns. The Fascists encountered diminutive serious struggle from authorities and went ahead to take over numerous cities, including Ferrara, Bologna, Trent, Bolzano, Fiume, and Cremona. Carsten attributes this success due to the fact that, The fascists were supported by the big landowners and industrialists who feared the seizure of their estates and factories. They also received aid from the army_ a factor which came to be of vital importance in bringing about their victory (55). The Fascists seized the command center of communist and Roman Catholic unions in Cremona and forced the German-speaking population of Bolzano and Trent to be taught and converted into Italians. This process was referred to as Italianization. After seizing these cities, the Fascists made plans to take Rome. Come October 24th 1922, the Fascists held their yearly assembly in Naples. Mussolini instructed Blackshirts to be in charge of public houses and trains and to congregate on three specific areas around Rome. A protest would be led by four well-known Fascist leaders representing its different factions: General Emilio De Bono, Italo Balbo, a Blackshirt leader; Cesare Maria De Vecchi, a monarchist Fascist and Michele Bianchi, an ex-syndicalist. Mussolini remainedd in Milan to wait for the results of the proceedings. The Fascists were able to seize power over numerous post offices and trains in northern Italy while the Italian government, led by a left-wing alliance, was internally estranged and not able to react to the Fascist confrontation. The Italian government had been in a constant state of chaos, with multiple governments being formed and then being overpowered. The Italian government initially tried to thwart the Fascists from going inside Rome. However, King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy realized that the peril of violence in Rome in an attempt to disband the Fascists was extremely high. Victor Emmanuel III decided to appoint Mussolini as Prime Minister of Italy. He went to Rome on 30th October to acknowledge the appointment. Fascist propaganda aggrandized this incident, known as "March on Rome", as seizure of authority because of the Fascists valiant missions. Carsten goes as far as to give the historical account of German anti-Semitism in the era of Adolf Hitler and the implications throughout Europe. The most significant factor that elevated the dislike of Semites by Hitler is the belief that they cost Germany victory against its enemies in world war one. "The core of his hatred lies at the defeat of Germany in WWI Hitler blamed the Jews for defeat of the country, the collapse of the monarchy and the ruination of millions" (Riecker 47). On an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Riecker reported that Hitler saw the state 'poisoned' from within. Hitler lived in Munich, where Jews played a leading role in the revolution against the monarchy on Nov. 9, 1918. So suddenly the delusion came to his mind, that the Jews where the reason for the 'inner poisoning' of Germany and that they had stolen the victory from Germany. Hitler accused the Jews for the Russian revolution and said that they were out to promote Marxist theories in Europe. He maintained that Jews were in an elaborate plan to take over the world together with the Marxists. Hitlers derogatory and incisive remarks were the foundation for discrimination and prosecution of nearly six million Jews worldwide. The growing tension and animosity sparked the Second World War. After his ascent to power in 1930s Hitler, turned on Jews and started a nationwide discriminatory campaign against Semites. Hitler aimed at making life for the Jews so unpleasant that they would be forced to emigrate. Jewish shops were boycotted, and Jews were banned from using social amenities such as public parks and swimming pools. On Crystal night, over eight thousand Jewish businesses were torched down, four hundred synagogues destroyed and over twenty thousand Jews placed in concentration camps. This and other subsequent events were the climax of Hitlers animosity against the Jews. More than six million people were killed during this period, in and around countries that surround German y. This came to be known as the Holocaust. The Rise of Fascism is a clear, articulate and comprehensive book. All the relevant facts about the origin and development of the fascist movements are well discussed. There is a smooth and clear flow of events in a chronological manner that further holds the attention of the reader. This is possibly because the book was written with the needs of students and budding historians in mind. The book is an in-depth guide through the fascist struggle. It allows the reader to understand why fascism became such a popular movement and political ideology in Europe after the First World War. The factors that contributed to its popularization are explained in all possible angles. Carsten goes on to show the formation of fascist governments all over Europe and its effects. The governments built on foundations of aggression are analyzed using various yardsticks such as development, law and order, social welfare and national unity. Carstens expertise and knowledge of facts are matched by very few historians. This could be attributed to his background and the extensive years of research, he has undertaken on the subject of fascism. Carsten was born in 1911 and had a first-hand experience of most events, which he talks about in the book. Carsten was a Jew born in the affluent and influential Borns family. They were part of Berlins Jewish aristocracy. Professor Carsten was a distinguished lawyer and economist, but he devoted most of his time to politics in Berlin within the communist fold. Carsten considered himself a Nazi refugee mainly as a result of his work and not his Jewish origin. Vast amounts of information mentioned in the book, especially in Germany, are his personal observations and recollections. He talks about the inter-student political discussion at the time, meetings where Otto Strasser, Adolf Hitler and other nationalists spoke and the general political atmosphere at the time. The writer was cautious not to bring his personal judgment and opinions in the book. The personal recollections are meant to color the readers imagination and present the political atmosphere during the period. The writer achieves these goals and succeeds in maintaining the objectivity and reliability of the book as a historical record. The Rise of Fascism by Professor F.L Carsten was excitedly received by the academic and literary world. The book has been lauded for producing in-depth and objective insights into the origin and development of Fascism. The reviews and critiques by most newspapers and other scholars were all positive as can be attested by the blurb. The review by The Historian says that, Professor Carsten surveys the major and minor European fascist groups which flourished during the world wars including such movements as were active in Romania, Austria, Hungary, Finland, Britain and Belgium. In doing so, he has produces a useful, brief, addition to the growing number of studies on this subject. Foreign Affairs talks about The Rise of Fascism as a short, responsible survey of how Fascism came to power in Italy and Germany, with some valuable comparative data on fascist movements in other European countries. The American Historical Review simply calls it the best scholarly description of European fasci sm available. These favorable reviews shoe that Rise to Fascism is an authority in the field of European fascism and a must-have student companion for any student of History. Buy custom The Rise of Fascism essay

How To Double Your Facebook Reach With Rebekah Radice [Podcast]

How To Double Your Facebook Reach With Rebekah Radice [Podcast] Organic reach: How do you boost yours? It’s one of those things that you might find to be a mystery, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Today we’re talking to Rebekah Radice, a social media strategist and the Chief Marketing Officer of Post Planner. With her help and expertise, Post Planner managed to double their Facebook organic reach. Rebekah has one of the top 10 social media blogs for 2015 and 2016, according to Social Media Examiner. She’s the author of the e-book, Shine Online, and she has been featured on NBC, Social Media Today, Steam Feed, Maximize Social Business, and others. She’s also a keynote speaker and is passionate about educating entrepreneurs and future business leaders. Some of the topics that you’ll hear discussed today include: Some information about Post Planner, as well as details on what Rebekah’s position as CMO entails. The biggest challenge with Facebook that marketers struggle to resolve. How Post Planner has achieved such great success with Facebook, and why organic growth is their main focus. How having big, crazy goals and a narrow focus contributed to Post Planner’s success. The importance of visual marketing and letting your personality shine through in your content. Rebekah’s advice for marketers who want to improve their Facebook organic reach.

Philosophy of life Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Philosophy of life - Essay Example Working with such famous philosophers as Aristotle, Immanuel Kant and Bernard Russell helps to investigate some interesting philosophical problems, make your own conclusions and answer your own questions. The main questions expressed in this work concern the existence of absolute criteria of good and evil, right and wrong. â€Å"Absolute† means that these criteria are universal and do not depend upon the point of view of the estimator and can be viewed from different angles. This work researches concrete examples and compares them with the standard way of judgment and sorting out the expression of human nature. The existence or absence of absolute criteria of good and evil depends upon the frame of philosophical system they are being searched in. They cannot be observed separately, taking out from a particular system. There are a lot of examples which are double-barreled. A rubber on the road stole a large bag of money from a man. On the one hand, from the robber’s point of view this action is considered as â€Å"good† because he can use the stolen money for his own needs and pleasures. On the other hand, from the victim’s point of view it is considered as â€Å"evil† definitely, because he was kept out of his honestly earned money. In this example the concept of â€Å"good† and â€Å"evil† is relative. There were very few philosophers in the history who created integral and logically finished systems. Here such names as Emmanuel Kant, Platon, Georg Hegel and Arthur Schopenhauer can be mentioned. Some of their arguments are disputable, some of them weren’t proved but in general their system is logically complete. While analyzing it we can notice one very interesting principle. If the philosophical system is complete, then one of its thesis is followed by another one and so forth. It is impossible to take one of its statements and reject another one. At the heart of any system there are always some axioms which do not come from other thesis

Pathway to RVCC Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Pathway to RVCC - Essay Example At the time I took that job, I had planned on enrolling in college to get a degree in Nursing. But working full-time and raising my son by myself proved to be very demanding, so I decided to put school on the back burner for a while and concentrate on paying my debts and spending quality time with my son. It was at this time that I met a lovely man, and we decided that since we liked each other so much, we might as well make a commitment to each other. We combined the money we were spending on rent and got a home for ourselves. We found a charming cape-cod-style house in Somerville with a yard big enough for my son and his two active golden retrievers. We thought we were the luckiest people alive! Fast forward to February 14, 2004-our lucky streak ended. The job I had just lost was a union job that required only a high school diploma, and it paid well. Now I realized that without a "proper" education, I could never make as much money as before. It was a difficult time, and I feared for the future of my family. But my lack of a college education trapped me where I was. One day, while waiting for the blue unemployment checks to arrive, I ventured out on Route 22 West searching for a Walmart, and saw a sign that said "Raritan Valley Community College: next right." Something took over me, and I made the right almost instinctively, which led me to the college campus. I found the perfect parking space and wandered into the building. At the student advisement center, I poured my heart out to the college counselor. She listened and guided me through the college enrollment process, which was easier than I had thought. I did some research on their Nursing program and knew right away it was the degree I wanted to pursue. It was one of the best decisions I ever made in my life! I later came to realize that I loved college, making new friends, and just being in a learning environment. I think I will be a student for life. Eventually, I found a great job working in the medical practice. I even turned down the union when they came calling with a job offer. I had decided to finish what I started in college, and I never looked back-a choice that sets a good example for my son as well. He's very proud of me-and one day his Mommy will be a Nurse and help others feel better. His sweet words made me feel lucky

Marketing Strategy for comfort cabs Business Essay

Marketing Strategy for comfort cabs Business - Essay Example In addition, Comfort cabs aims at capitalizing in planning for the travel as a way of the exploring unlimited business opportunities that are available in the northwest region of the Pacific. Information needs of target market It is important that our customers be informed of our locations, especially our head and branch offices where they make inquiries and launch appropriate complaints. The storefront of all our offices will face main streets with clearly visible entrances. We target to rent 1,550 square feet of fully serviced space for erecting our head office at a prevailing market rate of $27,099 per annum. To make the head office even more appealing to our visiting customers, additional $25,000 will be withdrawn from the business account for internal refurbishment. To cut on the costs, some of this work will be done by our staff with assistance of a few professionals. Because of our convenient location, a simple address will be detailed in our business card with a small map gui ding the customers to the main office. Our contacts will clearly be displayed on our cabs for any potential customers to contact us when they need our services. Based on the fact that modern communication is even more advanced (Kate 28), the displayed contacts will include our business website (confortcab.com) and the telephone address of the main office. Should the customer establish a closer relationship with a specific cab, such customers can be given the address of the specific cab driver to enhance more convenient contact when their services are needed. Personal selling Through the personal selling approach, the individuals make â€Å"cold† calls to the potential customers informing them of their products and services and requesting these customers to try these products (Gooderl 135). In Comfort Cab business, personal selling will be a very important approach through which we will influence the customers in Seattle area. As our cabs move within the town, the drivers will stop at the strategic bus passenger collection stages to carry the wiling customers. In addition, the follow-ups calls will be made to our previously served customers to inquire about their opinions to our services, inquire of their willingness to be served by our cabs and to request for their recommendation to other potential customers. Through follow-ups, the customers are given details about our whereabouts and contact in order to contact us any time they need of our services. Through personal selling approach, Comfort cabs will be able to tailor the information to potential customer in real time. Through this direct contact, our sales personnel will address the customers concerns. In addition to the personnel responding to the customer requests on phone, others will embark on a street promotion campaign that will be targeted at informing the public of the new business, the location covered, incentives, and the charges. This information will be detailed in small cards that will also contain the company name, physical address and phone contact. Training Increasing the number of staff will be an important move by Comfort cabs. This is based on the fact that at this stage, many promotions and marketing are to be undertaken in order to create awareness of our services to the public. After recruitment, these individuals will be taken through an all-encompassing training program to improve on service delivery. The current staffs are passionate about the adventure vacations offered by this business. This is an

Money Laundering and Corruption Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Money Laundering and Corruption - Essay Example The government and various financial institutions have made significant efforts of preventing and detecting and fraud issues. This is  when making transactions issues that involve dirty money. Corruption is a moral impunity that involves embezzlement of funds and bribery issues. The government employs operational issues such as use of the FATF for investing corruption and conducting money laundering as well as asset tracing investigations. The Risks Posed By Money Laundering and Corruption to the Global Financial System and International Business Money laundry and corruption pose varied risks towards global financial system and international business. Laundering of money and corruption are interrelated because they both pose risks to customers  and their  products or transaction made and also impose risk to geographical risk factors in varied ways. There are many highlighted cases that have posed risks to many economies across the globe. Therefore, FATF has made considerable ef forts of preventing money laundering and corruption. Therefore, their independent organization have implemented anti monetary laundry and combating terrorist financing activities in order to reduce the risks that may arise from these threats. Understanding risk posed by these threats is significant. This is because it enables the government to provide recommendation for a  reporting entity  to implement  the risk  management systems and assess the level of enhanced due diligence (EDD) in order to reduce risks. Customer Risk Factors Money laundry and corruption issues expose political people and other public official to risks. The measures employed in money laundry are intended to encourage entities to report risk sensitive issues existing in the entity or exposing politically persons to high-risk to customers. The politically exposed persons (PEPs) status does not reveal that a person is corrupt or incriminated for being corrupt, but it reveals the potential risks money laun dering contribute to customers and their transaction process. The risk that corrupt PEP poses to the financial system is seen as one way of putting customers under risk especially when they are making transactions (Karsten 2003, p.15). Business relationships with PEPs contribute to increased customer risks because of increased possibility that an individual is holding. For instance, politicians may misuse authority by influencing their personal gain with an aim of achieving their own advantage. Moreover, the nature of the position may lead to customer risk factors. Someone holding a position in a certain office may have a substantial opportunity and authority of assessing the funds or assets of the state. He or she can take control over the government resources including setting money for combating terrorism issues and other activities; thus exposing customers to greater risks. For instance, the court case of Nicolau Dos Santos Neto, the ex-president of Brazil is one of the incidenc es that reveal the corruption nature of PEPs (FATF Report 2012, p.14). The actual corruption vulnerability may vary depending  upon the extent to which they exercise authority in the hierarchy. It is significant to recognize that not all PEPs cause risks to customers.

Critically discuss why a clinical trial protocol is essential in Essay

Critically discuss why a clinical trial protocol is essential in clinical trials - Essay Example Therefore, clinical trial protocols are crucial tools that contribute to efficiency in clinical trials. One argument that supports clinical trial protocols is that it allows for quality of service within the area of clinical practice. Since clinical trial protocols are expertly prepared, they provide guidance on how tests should be conducted. Additionally, protocols provide safety precautions details that help professional from suffering from any damages (Chow & Liu, 2014). For instance, a person testing a dangerous gas is required to have a mask and safety goggles to ensure that they do not come to any harm. Therefore, such protocols eliminate negligence which could as much as life of patients or staff. Lack of standard protocols would lead to subjectivity as various staffs use different approaches to conduct trial (Wang & Bakhai, 2006). On this ground, protocols are quality and safety assurance tools that cannot be neglected within clinical professional practice. Secondly, a standard trial protocol simplifies the work of researchers especially when trial is long and requires a collaborative approach. Since the protocols are well arrange from one stage to the next, it is possible for different groups in a multi-center to pick various sections of the trial and implement them independently (Bradburn et al., 2010). This makes work easier without introducing errors within the trial. Since each group works on particular portions, it is clear that their results can be well combined with those of other centers to come up with a conclusive trial. This is something that would rather be difficult if there was not standard procedure for conducting clinical trials. However, the opponent of clinical trial protocols note that trials are subject to the opinions of the person conduction them, and hence protocols do not assure that there is quality. Reading the results is subject to a person’s view, which may vary

China increasing presence in sub-saharan africa Dissertation

China increasing presence in sub-saharan africa - Dissertation Example China despite having high population (over 1 billion people) compared to numerous states globally, the state continues to exhibit a remarkable economic improvement each year (Bloomberg 2010). This is due to its insistence on economic investment not only inside the state but also globally whereby China attains incomparable benefits in return. Some of these benefits/returns to the China embrace available market for their exports, raw materials, imports and even oil. The latter commodity (oil) is almost getting exhausted in the states which China used to rely on besides the US developing political interests in these regions with the intention of dominating the states (Middle East states), hence yielding to stiff competition. Relationship between China and Sub Saharan African region that has yielded to current strong involvement between the two sides is mutually beneficial. This implies the involved parties regardless of their varying economic grounds, maximally benefit from each though due to China’s high demand for raw materials it ended up initiating the move. This is evident from the China’s numerous economic activities evident in SSA region contrary to those of the western states that had initially and up to date invested in Africa (Kaplinsky, McCormick, and Morris 2007). Hence, exhibiting China is out to compete with its rivals (Europe and US) though the tactic is not political as witnessed with US seeming to dominate the other region. China in its quest to attain and ensure cordial relationship with SSA region, embarked on heavy investing that will not only guarantee present benefits but also the future (Kaplinsky, McCormick, and Morris 2007). Hence, being prudent in their actions especially in shunning the areas that have for long maintained a high reputation of rich oil reserves, though currently are undergoing depletion (Broadman 2007). This has prompted China to focus on developing SSA region via establishing and supporting varied key proje cts. Most of these projects encompass those, which for long superpower states (west and US) evaded or heightened their bids especially when negotiating about terms once they finance them. Hence, prompting China to use this opportunity to offer interest-free loans meant for varied states’ projects in this region to back and fund their projects. For instance, this is evident in Libreville where China gave $2 billion and an additional of $6 million loan in return for timber (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and PRC.2000). This is among numerous interventions and incidences regarding trade, which China has involved itself by concentrating on ensuring cordial relationship with SSA region besides constant flow of raw materials for their home industries. The inception of china’s interest in SSA region started with the tour of President Hu Jintao who ended up entering into various agreements with the key SSA states, for instance, Algerian and Gabon regimes. His core intention enco mpassed seeking constant suppliers of oil for his states. Consequently, this prompted china to finanncing oil exploration projects after signing an agreement with Omar Bongo in Lbreville (China Monitor 2006). In addition, Sinopec and Total-Gabon company made an agreement where the latter was to export 1Millions tons of oil to china (China Monitor 2006). This prompted China to give a loan of 420 Million euro meant to develop Zarzaitine oil field, which was after signing agreement in 2002 (China Monitor 20

Critically discuss why a clinical trial protocol is essential in Essay

Critically discuss why a clinical trial protocol is essential in clinical trials - Essay Example Therefore, clinical trial protocols are crucial tools that contribute to efficiency in clinical trials. One argument that supports clinical trial protocols is that it allows for quality of service within the area of clinical practice. Since clinical trial protocols are expertly prepared, they provide guidance on how tests should be conducted. Additionally, protocols provide safety precautions details that help professional from suffering from any damages (Chow & Liu, 2014). For instance, a person testing a dangerous gas is required to have a mask and safety goggles to ensure that they do not come to any harm. Therefore, such protocols eliminate negligence which could as much as life of patients or staff. Lack of standard protocols would lead to subjectivity as various staffs use different approaches to conduct trial (Wang & Bakhai, 2006). On this ground, protocols are quality and safety assurance tools that cannot be neglected within clinical professional practice. Secondly, a standard trial protocol simplifies the work of researchers especially when trial is long and requires a collaborative approach. Since the protocols are well arrange from one stage to the next, it is possible for different groups in a multi-center to pick various sections of the trial and implement them independently (Bradburn et al., 2010). This makes work easier without introducing errors within the trial. Since each group works on particular portions, it is clear that their results can be well combined with those of other centers to come up with a conclusive trial. This is something that would rather be difficult if there was not standard procedure for conducting clinical trials. However, the opponent of clinical trial protocols note that trials are subject to the opinions of the person conduction them, and hence protocols do not assure that there is quality. Reading the results is subject to a person’s view, which may vary

Live Theatre Evaluation Essay Example for Free

Live Theatre Evaluation Essay I went to see the production ‘Blood Brothers’ at Wycombe Swan Theatre on the 24th April 2013. Blood Brothers is a musical about twin brothers Mickey (Sean Jones) and Edward (Mark Hutchinson) separated at birth who both find each other again and become blood brothers, but find out they’re brothers right before they die. Before I saw the play, my expectations were it was going to be boring and just plain acting, which I do not like. I was quite surprised to find out it was a musical. I was quite looking forward to see how they used the script to make it happy, sad or funny at times. When I looked at part of the script in class, I didn’t really understand what was going on The type of stage used was a proscenium arch which is looking through the fourth wall, which made the production effective because we could see what they were doing but they didn’t know the audience was there, which made it more naturalistic. The stage was also set up as a quite worn down estate, there was a wall with graffiti on in the background which made it look like it wasn’t a very nice area to live in. The lighting also helped create the effect by making it quite dark, dim and dirty. In the second part of the play, they moved to the country (Ms Johnstone, Mickey, Linda, Sammy etc. ) Which was much cleaner and a nicer place to live. They showed this by making the lighting brighter and whiter, changing the backdrop to a field and when Ms Johnstone hung her sheets on the line, they were much whiter and cleaner which represents peace and happiness. Costume represented the actor’s characters a lot during the play for example, Mickey was from a rough and dirty background so his clothes were dirty, ripped and stretched throughout the play, whereas Edward’s clothing were very smart and well looked after. Another key moment to represent Mickey and Edward’s friendship was that when Edward and Mickey first met, Mickey could pull his sweatshirt all the way over knees, because he played around a lot, and Edward couldn’t because he was seen as a ‘Mummy’s boy’ and listened to his Mother a lot. The closer Edward and Mickey got, the more Edward was coming away from his Mother and listening less to what she said. For example, when Mrs Lyons shouted at Edward he pulled his jumper right over his knees and also said to his Mother â€Å"You’re a fuckoff† which is very rude and not something a posh 8 year old should say.

The role of government in an economy

The role of government in an economy 1. What do you understand by an economic system? Discuss the role of government in a market economy. Do you think that your government should play a more active role in the economy? Elaborate why and why not? An economic system deals with the structure of production, distribution of economic outputs, and consumption of goods and services in an economy The development of economic system is needed in the national community that address the problem of economics like allocating resources and scarcity of the resource. The economic system arranges the relationship among people, institutions and government in order to resolve the problem of economic. It confronted with the different basic economy questions that require answer such as what to produce, how to produce it and for whom to produce. The contemporary economic systems is classify into 4 type including capitalism economy, socialism economy, mixed economy and Islamic economic. In capital economic system, all main economic decision is determined by private owners in capital market with minimal government interference also know as free market economy or laissez faire. Transaction on the prices of goods and services are determined in a free price system by the buyer and suppliers in open markets. The socialism economy is an economic system in which the central government controls most of property resource and major economic decisions regarding the production and distribution of goods and services through a central planning boards. The central planning boards decide on the output between capital and consumers goods, and the capital goods are allocated among industries and enterprise according to government directives. A mixed economy reflects both capitalism and socialism to solve basic economic problem involve by both private and public sectors in allocation of good and service. Problem face by some of the public and private ownerships on the resource is based on supply and demand conditioned by price mechanism and economic growth of the country development. Therefore, government intervention in the economy for certain essential service such as illegal product categorized as unsafe goods like military items, and requirement such as schools, hospital, police force and army. And execute certain project or produce products that private sectors consider unbeneficial e.g conduction of low cost house in Malaysia. The role of government in a market economy deals with problem associated with market failure. Market failure has negative effect on the economy because allocation of goods and service by a free market is not efficient. One of the causes of market failure is the existence of monopoly of power by certain party such as the price of resources is higher than marginal costs can lead to allocation of inefficiency and pareto sub-optimal equilibrium in the market. Inequality may also cause market failure through the economy, as the income of different group of individual lead to wide gaps of living standard. Market failure can be corrected through government action or decision to reduce inequality by changes in tax and benefit system such as national minimum wage. Government has the authority to enforce property rights of ownership, protecting public property, encourages production and exchanges of goods and service [1]. Government has the roles to achieve economy stability and growth by attempting to maintain steady growth, provide high level of employment, and ensure price stability in the market. Through vital support in spending and tax rates it can slow down or speed out the economy growth [2]. Malaysia government play significant role in the economic growth of the country, by providing knowledge to the public on the current market and economic development through various tools such as through education and media. Malaysia government has the role to provide goods and service to public such as highway, education, national deference, security etc. Malaysia is the 29th world biggest economy in the world and based 16th largest in the world trading economy with a growth rate of 5% to 7 % since 2004. Malaysia government provides the basic necessities to the public such as clothing, rent, fuel, utilities and transport and communication, where Malaysia government help reduce poverty among the rural population. The effective involvement of government in service and implementation of development program give a huge transformation to the nation growth. . The involvement of Malaysia government in too many firm and industries could lose concentration and less focus on the development of several industries, this factor could lead to unhealthy competition among the private sector without control by the government. [1] Mike P. McKeever, The Mckeever Institute of Economic policy, San Francisco in 2003 [2] Governments Role in the  Economy U.S Department of State. Taken on 10 March 2011 http://economics.about.com/od/howtheuseconomyworks/a/government.htm. 2. What are the characteristics of the Malaysian economy. Discuss its weaknesses and suggest appropriate policy proposals to srengthen the economy in order to realise the objective of becoming a developed country by 2020. Malaysia economic system is based on mixed economy system that both free market and governments have significant effect on the economic development of the country [1]. By year 2009, Malaysia has reached per capital income (GDP/PoP) of RM 24,541(USD 6,812) and from 2004 to 2010, Malaysia economy growth performance at a sustained rapid growth averaging 5% to 7 % annually [2]. Malaysia economy is highly trade dependent of goods with several countries especially in the western market and Asian market such as China, Japan, Korean, and etc. Malaysia government also promote an open developing economy to private enterprises to take part in country development projects [3]. Malaysia is commonly known as a middle-income country, it functions by well distribution of wealth among the country population and equality among the public. Malaysia economy has been depend on export of product from raw material driven by manufacture exports such as electrical and electronic products, petroleum and gas (14th biggest world gas producer), palm oil products, rubber products and timber products. Malaysia economy also focuses on minor products to be export such as agriculture products, tourism, education, ICT, consultancy and etc. In the early economy of Malaysia in year 1957 till 1994, Malaysia economic resource of product tin and rubber is exploit by the British. And in late 1970s, the economic is export oriented industrialization stared with electronic industry at Free Trade Zone. The evolution and development of economy from year 1995-2009, based on knowledge-based economy (KBE) provide the platform where growth is focus on acquisition, utilization and dissemination of knowledge. These accelerate economy to a higher development of knowledge-based activities, innovation of product and intensification of Research and development activities. The changing of economy would strengthen Malaysia toward achieving the government vision 2020 to propel Malaysia to being as an advanced nation with sustainability of economy growth. Malaysia government depends highly on the trade and export system economic, which expose Malaysia to worldwide economy recession. During recession period, economic hardship remain in the country and high rate of unemployment among the workforce affect the living of people in the country. The introduction large scale of foreign labour cause shortage of skilled workers in certain sectors such as construction and manufacturing leading in Malaysia work force whereby a foreign exchange exits drain in Malaysia economic. The domestic private sector failed to deliver target set by the Malaysia plan, where the domestic investors feels that the government is not focusing on domestic investment [4]. The government development plan, called the Malaysian Plan given way to strengthen the growth of Malaysia economy to achieve the ultimate objective aim for Malaysia by the year 2020[5]. The plan was focus on accelerating the growth of economy structure, divided into three sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing and services. A unit of agency under the Prime Ministers Department called as Economic Planning Unit, is responsible for driven Malaysias through various measure such as policies and strategies for socio-economic development. [1] Shri V.Mahalingam, First Secretary HOC from University Grants Commission 2006-07 U.G.C [2] Economic of Malaysia, from Wikipedia the free encycolopedia taken on 10 March 2011 http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/Economy_of_Malaysia [3] Malaysia Information taken on 10 March 2011 http://www.asia-planet.net/malaysia/information.htm [4] Malaysia Information and Communication Technology taken on March 10 March 2011 http://www1.american.edu/initeb/ym6974a/nationalictpolicies.htm [5] Joseph Chin of the edge Malaysia article on Guan Eng wants allocation detail under Tenth Malaysia Plan on Monday,14 february 2011 16.44 mtbh 01032011 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Synaptic Transmitters Involved in LSD Administration :: Serotonin Psychology Essays

Synaptic Transmitters Involved in LSD Administration The nearly concurrent discovery of serotonin (5-HT) and LSD-25 in the 1950 's encouraged a lot of research to be done on the relationship between LSD and serotonin, which helped to develop a greater understanding of the role serotonin plays as a neurotransmitter in the brain (Nichols, 2004). Today it is believed that LSD (and other hallucinogens) stimulate 5-HT2A receptors (Kalat, 2004). Activation of these receptors causes cortical glutamate levels to increase. This is presumed to be a result of a "presynaptic receptor-mediated release" from neurons in the thalumus (Nichols, 2004). Early studies proposed that LSD antagonized the effects of serotonin on peripheral tissues. It was later proposed that the psychoactive properties of LSD may be a result of the blocking of serotonin receptors in the central nervous system (Nichols, 2004). This theory was short-lived however when it was discovered that a brominated derivative of LSD (BOL),a potent serotonin antagonist in peripheral tissues, was found to have essentially no LSD like effects. In 1961, Freedman found that systematic use of LSD elevated serotonin content in the brain (cited in Nichols, 2004). In a later study in 1967, Rosencrans, et al. reported that LSD also reduced brain levels of acetic acid (5-HIAA) (cited in Nichols, 2004). The combined findings of these two studies demonstrated that LSD decreased serotonin turnover in the brain. It is now widely accepted that hallucinogen action is primarily located on receptor 5-HT2A. In a study done in 1955, scientists found that daily administration of LSD resulted in an almost complete loss of sensitivity to the drug after 4 days. It is now believed that this is a result of 5-HT2A receptor down-regulation (cited in Nichols, 2004). In a later study published in 1985, it was found that daily LSD administration selectively decreased 5- HT2 receptor density in rat brains (Nichols, 2004). Studies have shown that activation of 5-HT2A receptors increase inhibitory post-synaptic potentials. However, when compared to serotonin, the maximum effect produced by LSD is 30-50% of that of serotonin. LSD is therefore a partial agonist, rather than an antagonist (Nichols, 2004). Antagonists block the action of a neurotransmitter, whereas agonists mimic or increase the effects of a neurotransmitter (Kalat, 2004). Conversely, LSD is a weak agonist when compared to less intoxicating compounds with stronger behavioral influences. Therefore it is thought that LSD must either activate another monoamine receptor that works with