Focus On The Learner

Gabby has approximately six years of formal education, where he learnt most of the English he uses to communicate with; and a further two weeks of lessons he received whilst at a BBC centre. Gabby currently has no formal work experience; however, he is knowledgeable in the field of electrical engineering and has had some informal experience in this sector. He is highly motivated to learn the English language and his primary goal for this is that so he may one day attend University; perhaps to further his appreciation and love for music or to continue and learn more in the field of electrical engineering.This goal motivates Gabby and is highly evident in the way he endeavourers to be an astute student. Learning Styles and Preferences Whilst observing Gabby in the classroom and through speaking to him one-on- one it is apparent that his preferred style of learning is more centered on visual/spatial and kinesthesia modes of receipt. His completion of the sensory styles quiz compounds th ese assumptions and show that Gabby is able to receive and process information more efficiently if it is visually presented to him either by flashcards, pictures or realize.During classroom observation it was evident that Gabby is highly interpersonal; during pair-work activities he discussed the task enthusiastically with his partner and also listened attentively to their views. When nominated to answer a question Gabby would usually answer correctly, this shows his understanding of and propensity for communicative language. Gabby excels in group based activities and prefers these to individual tasks where he must work alone. The survey also reflected Gabby more developed kinesthesia sensory style, in the classroom he would be observed taking part in physical activities very enthusiastically.He enjoys movement and exercise, and learns better in this way; he also mentioned his love for the game of football which he played regularly in the DRP. Linguistic Ability – Strengths G affs command of spoken English language is average, he often pauses to think of a word and his pronunciation and grammar are weak at times, however, given the time frame that Gabby has been actually speaking the language it is quite impressive. He is more than able to express his opinion or needs within the classroom environment.Gabby is quite able to read a graded ice of text, although he may take some time and get blocked on certain unfamiliar words, he has shown the ability to perform gist reading tasks quite capably. He also admitted his preference for reading romance novels which he uses to enhance his reading skills. The strength in Cabby's writing skill is shown in his remarkably accurate spelling. Although he makes some grammatical errors his writing is generally legible and comprehensible. His formation of written words is sensible and corresponds to their respective phonemic sounds.Although listening is not one of Cabby's strengths he is tie able to understand English spea kers or instructions that are given to him verbally, both the meaning and context Of what he is required to do are clear to him. Gabby performs well in gist listening based tasks. Gabby vocabulary is quite extended, he has the ability to learn new words rapidly and use them in the correct context. He often pauses when speaking, to think of a word, but he eventually remembers it and uses it correctly. His level of functional vocabulary will enable him to navigate most everyday situations with ease.At times Gabby does make some grammatical mistakes but he often endeavors to correct himself. He is aware of most basic grammatical rules, for example, ‘y' changing to ‘ices' for certain countable nouns. He can often be observed writing down new grammatical rules and examples during lessons, thus showing his keenness to improve in this area. Cabby's pronunciation of most words is clear and understandable, for new vocabulary he often responds well to drilling and repeats the word until he feels it is correct.He works very hard to improve his pronunciation and can be observed self- correcting at times. Linguistic Ability -? Weaknesses Completed table attached. Activities: Skill – Listening for specific information (â€Å"New Cutting Edge Elementary Students' Book† – pig. 10) This task requires the student to work on his own, as individual work is something Gabby struggles with, this activity will be challenging and requires him to work on his own and strengthen his ability to listen for specific information.The teacher Will hand out copies of the ‘General Knowledge Quiz' and ask the learner to look through the questions and answer as many as he can. This is a Test-Teach-Test based adaptation that will allow the student to error correct himself after listening o the audio. The teacher then plays the recording and asks the student to listen out for the various pieces of information that are required to answer the questions. After hea ring and answering the student can compare and correct his errors, thereby â€Å"learning from his mistakes†.Gabby is an Elementary level learner and this activity is graded as such. Although it does not tie in with his personal interest in music it is general knowledge and touches on various areas that Gabby may be interested in (brands, currency, Jennifer Lopez etc. ). Activities: System – Grammar – Present Simple (â€Å"New Cutting Edge Elementary Workbook – pig. 22/23). The various activities over the two pages deal with grammar related activities, specifically with the present simple.This is an area Gabby has some difficulty with, and he often confuses tenses which leads to grammatical errors. The activities consist of a mixture of gap fill and answering activities that will improve fluency in present simple. The teacher will hand out copies of the activities and ask the learner to work individually. A high level of monitoring and prompting with the aid of examples will be necessary as Gabby is an Elementary level learner. Focus on the Learner French student from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the intermediate class. Sidekick was born in Albumin's. He got his Matrix in 2008 and attended university for 2 years before and he's learning English so that he can continue his studies in South Africa. â€Å"The reason I'm learning English is that I am a French speaker and I wand to study in a English country,† he writes. Learner style: Sidekick response positively towards practical sessions.During an interview with Sidekick, he also reinforced this statement by saying that he prefers doing something and/or seeing something rather than just listening. This would suggest that he is mostly kinetic and visual with an emphasis on kinetic. These examples can be seen when asked to physically apply what he's learned. Learners four skills: Observing Sidekick, I've noticed that he struggles a little in each form, but that his weakest area is reading. He also struggles with speaking and writing, but both are connected in the sense that he translates directly from French.In English this would change something that he series Into a thin, straight, hand-held stick. There's also certain problems that occur with tenses, as I will mention In language systems. Sidekick also makes use of a speaking rhythm that is unnatural in English. In English phonetics and phonology: a practical course By Peter Roach, Rough explains that there's a difference between the rhythm of English and French. French makes use of a syllable timed rhythm and that all syllables whether stressed or unstressed occur at regular intervals.Listening: Sidekick follows natural speech rather easily. Reading: The main concern I've found is that while Sidekick can continue with listening,writing and speaking with mistakes, he stops when encounters a word that he is unfamiliar with. Writing: Along with his speaking the problem is tense usage. Other problems are spelling mistakes. He'll write words exactly as they sound. Language systems: After view ing 3 letters that I received from Sidekick, I observed several common mistakes. Continuous and simple forms: † My hobbles are: Sports, go to the cinema, Ana listening music. He would use â€Å"go to' (Instead AT going to) Ana â€Å"listening sic† (instead of listening to music. ) It shows logic in the forms that he use, but that there's some confusion of when to use continuous and simple tenses. Pronunciation: As mentioned before, Sidekick often replaces the It/ sound with the [d/ sound. Areas where the student needs help: So far Sidekick's greatest problems stem from the use of future tenses and question tenses. For questions he will at times confuse the subject and verb e. G. Muff are Tom? † and â€Å"Are you Tom? The emphasis on his words imply different meanings as we've learned during class. The former acknowledging that the speaker is vaguely familiar with the person and the latter purely asking. After reviewing his letters, I've decided that it's not Jus t his future tense that is the problem, but that he still struggles with most tenses. The activities I've selected and why: For the skill I've focused on reading. Continuous reading will help Sidekick see how to language is used, and if he stops reading Just because of one word, then he'll never progress any further.At the same time, the activity I've chosen for his reading, also applies to the other language area he requires help in: Vocabulary. The activity isn't focused on his learning style, but what he needs help in. It's been downloaded from www. Insidious. Net and has several tasks which will help him to improve. The gap fill will allow him to look at the entire sentence and then get him the gist of words. There is also a task which will improve his spelling and use of parts of speech, another area that he struggles with. For the language area, I've chosen tenses in general.Sidekick has claimed that it's only the future tense that confuses him, but Judging by his written work , there's also other tenses that he needs help on. The activity is Snakes and Ladders – Tenses from Cutting Edge: Upper Intermediate students' book by Sarah Cunningham and Peter Moor. The questions were all changed to apply to his level and weaknesses. This game focuses on his kinetic and visual needs, helping him learn in a particle and fun setting. References: www. London-translations. Co. UK www. Insidious. Net Moor. English phonetics and phonology: a practical course By Peter Roach Class notes

Vietnam Piracy History

II. The Prioriry actions requested in 2012: IIPA had hoped that the 2005 passage of the IP Code in Vietnam, revisions to the Criminal Code in 2009, an administrative enforcement Decree (No. 47) also in 2009, and a nationwide judicial reformprocess would lead to steady improvements in copyright protection, allowing a legitimate creative marketplace to emerge in Vietnam. Unfortunately, online and mobile piracy has gotten significantly worse in Vietnam, and end-user piracy of business software remains largely unchecked, among other piracy problems.Increased Internet and mobile penetration and more widely available broadband capacity have led to a severe increase in the trade of illegal copyright files online. Technological advances in Vietnam have outpaced the government’s response to copyright issues, notwithstanding that the Vietnamese have long recognized that piracy in the country is increasingly â€Å"sophisticated† and involves violations of â€Å"most of the object s of the rights†.The Vietnamese Government has taken very few enforcement actions over the years, and no criminal case has ever been brought to address copyright piracy. Because of that, IIPA has launched the priority actions requested in 2012 to reduce the piracy situation in Vietnam: Enforcement: * Devote greater resources and Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) Inspectorate and Economic Police manpower to running raids and bringing cases under the Criminal Code through targeted criminal actions,e. . , against online piracy, retail and source piracy,.. * Take effective enforcement measures against notorious infringing sites whose business models are based on providing access to infringing content, including in particular those sites such as Socbay. com, Bamboo. com,†¦ * Enforce Ordinance No. 4 and Decree No. 47 on administrative remedies for copyright infringement, imposing maximum penalties. * Reduce pirated imports from China. Reduce signal theft by removin g illegal content from local cable operators and stopping retransmission of signals from neighboring countries without license. Legislation and Market Access * Issue implementing guidance for the revised Criminal Code so that prosecutions can commence, in line with Vietnam’s BTA obligation, including by confirming that the Code applies to online distributions, and providing detailed interpretations of â€Å"commercial scale† infringements that include those undertaken without a profit motive. Make necessary changes to IP Code and implementing decrees to ensure Vietnam is in full compliance with its BTA and other international obligations, and otherwise facilitate the free exercise of rights by copyright owners. * Expedite the drafting process for, and provide public consultation as to, amendments to the Internet Decree (or circular) on ISP liability that clarifies the secondary liability of ISPs and requires ISPs to take responsibility and cooperate with right holders to combat online infringements both in the hosted and the non-hosted environment. Afford U. S. right holders greater access to the Vietnamese market, by eliminating foreign investment restrictions and other entry barriers with respect to production, importation and distribution of copyright materials whether in the physical or online/mobile marketplaces. * Extend the term of protection for sound recordings to the BTA-compatible term (75 years or more) and otherwise extend copyright term in line with the international trend (life of the author plus 70 years). * Pass optical disc licensing regulation. III.The actual out come of the 2011 decisions (the result in 2012 after applying priority actions requested in 2012) IIPA hopes the issuance and entry into force in 2012 of the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) and Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism (MCST) Joint Circular on Stipulations on the Responsibilities for Intermediary Service Providers in the Protection of C opyright and Related Rights on the Internet and Telecommunications Networks will lead to significant reductions in online and mobile piracy in the country, including closures of notorious websites and services built on copyright infringement.The IP Code, Criminal Code, administrative enforcement Ordinances and Decrees, and judicial reform, must all be brought to bear to significantly reduce all forms of piracy, including online and mobile piracy, enterprise end-user piracy of software, physical piracy, and book piracy which remain largely unchecked in Vietnam. And the results after applying priority actions requested in 2012, Piracy Situation and enforcement challenges in Viet Nam are summarized as follows: 1.Internet and Mobile Piracy Causing Severe Damage to Copyright Owners: Increased Internet and mobile penetration and more widely available broadband capacity have led to a severe increase in the trade of illegal copyright files online. Internet penetration continued on an upward path, with reportedly 31. 1 million Internet users according to the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) of Vietnam, with 3G mobile Internet users reaching 16 million (18% of the country’s population).Vietnam ranks 18th in the world, 8th in Asia, and 3rd in Southeast Asia in the total number of Internet users. According to MIC, there are 19 Internet service providers, some 1,064 licensed websites, and 335 social networks operating in Vietnam. Unfortunately, the vast majority of websites dealing in copyright content remain unlicensed, although there are now a few operators of online services providing licensed music (representing, however, only 1% of online music services).The rest are streaming and download sites (50%), forums (21%), video websites (17%), search engines (8%), deeplinking, cyberlocker, and social network sites all being employed to deliver unlicensed copyright content, including music, movies, entertainment and software, and published materials. N ot only the repertoire of VietNam but international and other Asian repertoire such as Chinese, Japanese and Korean music can also be found on these sites. And University networks are increasingly being used for dissemination of infringing content.Specific example for this case is Zing. vn. Zing. vn is one notorious website which was identified by IIPA in its annual notorious markets filing with the U. S. Trade Representative, and USTR placed Zing. vn on its â€Å"Notorious Markets† list. Zing. vn is an online portal service operated by VNG Corporation (previously called VinaGame) in Vietnam. Zing. vn provides various services including an online music portal, social networking, a search engine, instant messaging, movies, karaoke, video and photos. Zing. n, well documented in last year’s IIPA Special 301 report, was proposed by IIPA as a â€Å"notoriousmarket† in its Special 301 out-of-cycle review submission in September 2012, and USTR agreed in its December 20 12 announcement. USTR noted in its announcement, â€Å"In addition to being a social media site, Vietnam-based Zing. vn also includes an infringing deeplinking music portal, which reportedly attracts large numbers of users to the site. † They also indicated, â€Å"We understand that VNG, Zing’s parent company is currently in talks with rights holders to obtain the necessary licenses to transitionZing into an authorized digital music platform. † With rapid increases in mobile phone subscribers in Vietnam, there has also been an increase in mobile piracy over the year. Right holders now face two major challenges in the mobile space: 1) the loading by mobile device vendors of illegal copyright content onto devices at the point of sale; and 2) illegal music channels or â€Å"apps† set up to be accessed on mobile platforms, without any intervention from the authorities to cease such activities.As an example of this phenomenon, sites like Socbay. com offer ille gal downloads of ringtones to mobile phones, but Socbay has now developed a mobile â€Å"app† called Socbay iMedia which provides a variety of unauthorized entertainment content, including, inter alia, music files. This second phenomenon will, if allowed unchecked, threaten the entire online/mobile market for music and other copyright materials into the future and must be addressed. 2.Enterprise End-User Piracy of Software Harms the Software Industry and Stunts the Growth of the IT Sector: The software industry reports a continued high level of software piracy in Vietnam. In 2011, the software piracy rate in Vietnam was 81% (among the highest in the world), representing a commercial value of unlicensed software of US$395 million. 13 This includes widespread unlicensed software use by enterprises in Vietnam, retail piracy, and hard disk loading of unlicensed software. Most leading cities, such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da N? ng, and H? Phong are still key software piracy hot spots. The industry also notes the desperate need for legalization of software usage within the Vietnamese government. It has been recognized by some within the Vietnamese government that use of unlicensed commercial software is occurring within government ministries. Some initial discussions on government legalization have commenced between BSA and the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), with a focus on legalization procedures and the government avoiding any mandates orpreferences for the purchase of specific types of software. . Physical Piracy Remains Rampant, Including Pirate Imports, Pirate Burned Content, Factory Production, and â€Å"Media Box† Piracy: Evidence of physical piracy, including virtually 100% piracy of home video entertainment, can still be found everywhere in Vietnam, especially in urban areas like Ha Noi, HCM City,†¦ It remains very easy to buy almost imported discs (from China mainly),burned discs or factory discs of any kind of conte nt, and pirated software is readily available at shops on the socalled â€Å"PC streets† or other â€Å"CD-DVD† shops.Vietnamese-sourced pirate products flood the domestic markets and have been found in other markets in recent years in Asia, North America, and even Eastern Europe. For the music industry, with piracy levels still extremely high, financial returns for recorded music sales have dropped so deeply that the companies involved are unable to invest in new albums and artists, choosing to recoup investment through ring tones, ring-back tones, ancillary revenues for personality rights, and music channel licensing. 4. Book and Journal Piracy Severely Harms Publishers:Book and journal publishers continue to suffer from rampant piracy in Vietnam, in the form of illegal reprints and unauthorized photocopies. Bookshops, roadside vendors and copy shops all sell unauthorized copies of bestselling trade books, travel books and academic textbooks, and unlicensed print ove rruns continue to harm foreign publishers. Unauthorized translations produced by university lecturers or professors have been detected, in which the lecturers or professors append their name to the translated textbook.State-sector publishers also have an interest in making sure their licenses (such as those of the Ministry of Youth and the General Publishing House of Ho Chi Minh City) are not misused. 5. Signal Piracy/Pay TV Piracy: Vietnam's Pay-TV sector is one of the fastest developing markets in the Asia Pacific, and is set to rank fourth in the region in growth over the next four years. With 4. 2 million overall connections, and digital systems taking hold (including through Vietnamese Government infusion of capital), signal piracy in Vietnam still holds back the legitimate Pay-TV market, and causes major damages to right holders. Overspill† is also a problem in Vietnam as cable operators capture signals from neighboring countries’ satellite systems. These are ende mic problems which the government should address. A relatively new and dangerous problem in Vietnam involves the operation of websites which steal pay-TV signals and stream them onto the Internet. Several sites have been identified as streaming premium content channels without authorization, mainly focusing on motion pictures or sports content.In general, after applying the above policy, the piracy situation in Vietnam has not improved. One of the reasons for this situation is enforcement challenges. Enforcement updates in Vi? t Nam: Failure to Address Internet and Mobile Device Piracy: Despite notifying the Vietnamese government ofsites involved in piracy of music, movies, software, games, and published works (with reports of growing electronic piracy of textbooks and dictionaries, among other published products), the government has been mainly inactive and disinterested. Notorious piracy site zing. n has been brought to the attention of administrative authorities in Vietnam, but t here has been no response. The problem is further compounded by existing administrative enforcement remedies being rendered ineffective by: * The lack of an effective procedure to deal with online piracy administrative complaints. * A heavy burden on right holders for production of evidence and proof of actual damages. * Continued rudimentary issues related to ability to identify and effectively deal with online infringement cases. * Lack of compliance with administrative ordersCourt Reform Efforts Lacking: The inactivity of the courts in dealing with copyright infringement issues is a major disappointment. There have to date been relatively few civil court actions involving copyright infringement in Vietnam. The main reasons for this are complicated procedures, delays, and a lack of certainty as to the expected outcome. Building IP expertise must be a part of the overall judicial reform effort. Training should be provided to police and prosecutors as they play a very important role in bringing a criminal offense case to the courts.End-User Piracy Enforcement: One relatively bright spot in enforcement seems to be in the area of addressing software piracy. In 2012, more raids were taken with participation of both MCST and the MPS Anti-High Tech Crime Police. Administrative fines remain relatively low, generally, VND50 million (around US$2,400), never reaching the maximum applicable rate of VND500 million (US$24,000). The industry also reports stronger support given to both enforcement and educational campaigns to sensitize the public to the need to use legal software.The presence of the High Tech Police is now seen as essential for the success of raids as they possess technical knowledge which is helpful to achieving effective raids. In addition, there are training courts covered the overview of copyright laws and the value of IP and innovation. There remain no implementing guidelines for the revised Criminal Code, so no software piracy cases have ever been bro ught to Criminal Court. Very Little Enforcement Against Hard Goods Piracy:Though MCST has indicated its recognition of the hard goods piracy problem, it has devoted very few resources to deal with physical piracy across Vietnam. Only a ‘zero tolerance’ campaign, including actions against open and blatant piracy activities of all kinds, with deterrent administrative fines meted out to their maximums, license revocations, shop closures, seizures of pirate imports and pirated product destined for export by Customs, and criminal penalties can result in a significant reduction in piracy in Vietnam.

I remember Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

I remember - Essay Example They seem to be telling me that I am not alone and I can almost hear them calling out and extending their arms to me whenever I feel no one is there for me. On this particular afternoon, I walked for just a few minutes before I finally stopped and simply looked at the sea before me. I watched and appreciated for the first time the sight of a vast and seemingly endless body of water. I reckoned that I was there for the first time because it was only then that I stopped to look around what the place has in store for me. I breathed in deeply the salty breeze and realized what I have been missing during my previous visits. Somehow, a person comes to a point in his life when he finally stops in the midst of the demands of this fast-paced world and just appreciates the often unnoticed treasures. As I left the shore, I felt like I had the best, most fulfilling and sating experience. It was like gobbling a chocolate cake, smothered with the smoothest ice cream and topped with

Film An Inconvenient Truth Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Film An Inconvenient Truth - Movie Review Example In the film, Gore also jokes that he "used to be the next president of the United States of America." (An Inconvenient Truth) This writer believes that the film has the intention to raise awareness on global warming, and the inclusion of a politician in controversial circumstances (due to the 2000 presidential election) provides the platform to draw in audiences. The artistic flow of the film is intentionally written to document Al Gore's personal encounters as well as the evidence behind the scientific findings. The film also attempts to explain climate change using a number of major claims. For the purpose of this paper the writer will look into two of these claims: (1) the doubling in numbers of category four and five hurricanes in the last thirty years; (2) as temperatures rise, heat waves will be more frequent and intense. While science can be refuted, as can the claims made in the film, this writer believes that the way the claims are presented is able to convince anyone without any scientific background that the idea of global warming does indeed exist.

Final Exam Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 15

Final Exam - Essay Example Moreover, the organisms that are best suited to live in their underlying specific conditions possess relatively greater chance of passing their desirable traits to the corresponding next generation. Nevertheless, organisms that poorly adapt die and extinct in the environment. The reproduction and the survival is massive numbers than other kind of animals mainly ensures perpetuation of the favorable traits in regard to succeeding generations. Natural selection demands heritable variation within a particular trait and corresponding differential survival and reproduction related with the possession of the desired traits. Both domestic selection and natural selection entails choosing of desirable traits and passing them to the next generations. An undesirable trait which cannot survive competition is eliminated from the environment thus becoming extinct. Conversely, natural selection results from corresponding natural factors that mainly favor particular variations whilst domestic selection mainly entails the probability of particular naturalistic mechanisms that pertains to the evolutionary alterations (Darwin & Charles, 112-279). Moreover, domestic selection purely utilized as an analogy for the underlying natural systems that concern untargeted changes. Natural selection and domestic selection does not link into similar theory that normally cause need to contribute intensely new to science. Struggle for existence is mainly due competition of scarce resources and over production that results to the ecological pressure. Members of every species contest repeatedly in order to obtain food, living space and other supplementary requirements of life. It mainly emanates from the overproduction by the organisms thus making the available resources to be insufficient to sustain the larger population. This subsequently results to emergence of competition of limited resources to keep themselves alive (Darwin & Charles,

Risk Management and asset allocation Research Proposal

Risk Management and asset allocation - Research Proposal Example According to The New York Times (2011), â€Å"Asset allocation† describes dividing one's investments among the various types of asset classes. This is like saying putting one’s eggs in different baskets. Pietersz (2005) observes that asset allocation â€Å"helps ensure that investments are spread out across a wide range of markets and securities.† They do so because asset allocation does not have a one-off surety for success – it may either succeed or backfire, depending on who is handling the asset. Grange (2010) relates exposure management to the nature of product being invested in. He recognizes two major products, which are those â€Å"made up of those products that start with a balance equal to their limit and where, over time, the balance decreases away from the limit† and those which â€Å"start with a zero balance and some higher limit and where, over time, the balance increases towards the limit†. Generally, in the first instance, ex posure created is classified as productive whereas in the second instance, all exposure created is classified as unproductive. ... some who believe that much of a success in asset allocation should be looked at in terms of who handles which venture rather than the type of equity or portfolio it is. Such an argument gives operators of private equity some hope of competition in asset allocation. 1.2 Hypothesis The type of equity; be is private or public does not have significant influence on the rate of success in asset allocation. Private equity can perform as creditably well as a public equity. Public equity is not a guaranteed choice for asset allocation. Success in asset allocation is influenced by several managerial factors including exposure management. 1.3 Research Questions 1. Which factors inform the choice of a particular venture for asset allocation? 2. Why has private equity investment become so popular? 3. What is the most favorable private equity share in a general asset allocation? 4. To what extent does private equity expose investors? 5. How can a private equity exposure be derived? 6. What are th e risks in overrunning a specific allocation and how can it be reduced? 7. Which model can be used to appraise the future of asset allocated in private equity? 1.4 Objectives 1.4.1 Main Objective To find the relationship between private equity, their exposure management practice and the degree of success in investing in private equity as an option for asset allocation 1.4.2 Specific Objectives 1. Identify the basis upon which private equities operate. 2. Explore the exposure management practices of private equities. 3. Find out from investors, why they choose and prefer private equities for asset allocation. 4. Find authentication or otherwise to claims that asset allocation in private equity is risky due to poor exposure management. 5. Prescribe models that can best be used to appraise

Contemporary isssues in Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Contemporary isssues in Marketing - Essay Example etitive business environment, it is evident that global marketing strategies and tactics have significantly evolved and are used intensively within the operations of the business. This is because of the increasing power of the consumers along with their ever-changing demands. This also signifies the evolution of the customers’ oriented business process. This particular approach is adopted with the intention to gain competitive advantages over rivals. In this regard, it is also evident that the technological developments such as the Internet have a major role in the evolution of the business process, thereby attaining competitive advantages (Hackley, 2013). In order to gain competitive advantages, it is notable that the corporate organisations execute several activities that are required for getting the desired level of performances. These activities are considered as ethically and morally valuable for the overall business operations in any sector. Eventually, it leads to social benefit, which indirectly benefits a corporate organisation (Tadajewski, 2004). In this context, the objective of this particular research essay is to consider all these aspects in a comprehensive or illustrative manner. The outcome of the research will subsequently aid the young marketers and others to attain professional developments and organisational growth at the same time. In the modern era of competitive business environment, marketing strategies and tactics of companies has changed significantly. This has considerably led to the evolution of marketing through the involvement of technologies. In this regard, one of the major technological developments in the modern era is evident from the onset of internet technology. Internet technology has led to the improvement of communication among people residing in different parts of the world. This has considerably supported and benefitted the corporate enterprises in gaining a better position for themselves within the marketplace. Through

Problems with treating humans as resources in contemporary Essay

Problems with treating humans as resources in contemporary organisations - Essay Example Humans need to be motivated. In this reason there is a big deal to consider on understanding what exactly will motivate them. Employees are concerned with their needs. In line with this, it is always important for them to meet their expectations and demands. Humans have to meet their needs. There are different needs and their hierarchy. Achieving the right needs means great motivation for them to do their respective tasks. However, it is not just important to know their needs. It should be a great concern on how to approach them in order to find what exactly will motivate them. In cases when there is a need to evaluate employees, it should be clear with them what the company expects them to perform. In short, the company must be able to clearly explain their stand on what standard of performance it wants its employees to perform. Thus, the first problem with treating humans as resources is the complexity of motivating them. Motivation Motivation has something to do with allowing the employees to perform at their best (Bruce 10). ... However, the right interaction needs to be in timing. There are different ways on how to interact with the human resource. The right communication process is important. However, communications have important barriers. There are different barriers to communication which have important place in an organisation (Singla 125). Physically communication process can be hindered. Humans have significant disabilities such as dysfunctional senses which lead to inappropriate perceptions of things. The right communication can be hindered through this factor. Another contributing factor that may hinder the right communication process is the social aspect. Every human has different beliefs about things in life. People may be the same in their cultural background or may differ at some point. This variation may contribute as important barrier because everyone has the chance to keep his or her own belief. People from different walks of life have different culture. Emotional aspect is another important barrier to effective communication with manpower. Everyone has specific response to everything. A person may be emotionally stable or the other way around. It takes the right emotion to respond to the right communication process. Unstable communication usually leads to failure due to lack of the required understanding between the speaker and the receiver. In the case of employees and the management, the former usually are the ones who have the problem with receiving the right message. The right message is the right indicator of achieving Psychological factor may be another aspect that may hinder the right communication process. Psychological aspects are fundamentals of receiving the right communication process. Employees with sound mind for instance are able to achieve the

Time Travel Essay Example for Free

Time Travel Essay The urge to hug a departed loved one again or prevent atrocities are among the compelling reasons that keep the notion of time travel alive in the minds of many. While the idea makes for great fiction, some scientists now say traveling to the past is impossible. There are a handful of scenarios that theorists have suggested for how one might travel to the past, said Brian Greene, author of the bestseller, â€Å"The Elegant Universe† and a physicist at Columbia University. â€Å"And almost all of them, if you look at them closely, brush up right at the edge of physics as we understand it. Most of us think that almost all of them can be ruled out. † The fourth dimension In physics, time is described as a dimension much like length, width, and height. When you travel from your house to the grocery store, you’re traveling through a direction in space, making headway in all the spatial dimensions—length, width and height. But you’re also traveling forward in time, the fourth dimension. â€Å"Space and time are tangled together in a sort of a four-dimensional fabric called space-time,† said Charles Liu, an astrophysicist with the City University of New York, College of Staten Island and co-author of the book â€Å"One Universe: At Home In The Cosmos. † Space-time, Liu explains, can be thought of as a piece of spandex with four dimensions. â€Å"When something that has mass—you and I, an object, a planet, or any star—sits in that piece of four-dimensional spandex, it causes it to create a dimple,† he said. â€Å"That dimple is a manifestation of space-time bending to accommodate this mass. † The bending of space-time causes objects to move on a curved path and that curvature of space is what we know as gravity. Mathematically one can go backwards or forwards in the three spatial dimensions. But time doesn’t share this multi-directional freedom. â€Å"In this four-dimensional space-time, you’re only able to move forward in time,† Liu told LiveScience. * Video: Can You Time Travel? Tunneling to the past A handful of proposals exist for time travel. The most developed of these approaches involves a wormhole—a hypothetical tunnel connecting two regions of space-time. The regions bridged could be two completely different universes or two parts of one universe. Matter can travel through either mouth of the wormhole to reach a destination on the other side. â€Å"Wormholes are the future, wormholes are the past,† said Michio Kaku, author of â€Å"Hyperspace† and â€Å"Parallel Worlds† and a physicist at the City University of New York. â€Å"But we have to be very careful. The gasoline necessary to energize a time machine is far beyond anything that we can assemble with today’s technology. † To punch a hole into the fabric of space-time, Kaku explained, would require the energy of a star or negative energy, an exotic entity with an energy of less than nothing. Greene, an expert on string theory—which views matter in a minimum of 10 dimensions and tries to bridge the gap between particle physics and natures fundamental forces, questioned this scenario. â€Å"Many people who study the subject doubt that that approach has any chance of working,† Greene said in an interview . â€Å"But the basic idea if you’re very, very optimistic is that if you fiddle with the wormhole openings, you can make it not only a shortcut from a point in space to another point in space, but a shortcut from one moment in time to another moment in time. † Cosmic strings Another popular theory for potential time travelers involves something called cosmic strings—narrow tubes of energy stretched across the entire length of the ever-expanding universe. These skinny regions, leftover from the early cosmos, are predicted to contain huge amounts of mass and therefore could warp the space-time around them. Cosmic strings are either infinite or they’re in loops, with no ends, said J. Richard Gott, author of â€Å"Time Travel in Einsteins Universe† and an astrophysicist at Princeton University. â€Å"So they are either like spaghetti or SpaghettiO’s. † The approach of two such strings parallel to each other, said Gott, will bend space-time so vigorously and in such a particular configuration that might make time travel possible, in theory. â€Å"This is a project that a super civilization might attempt,† Gott told LiveScience. â€Å"It’s far beyond what we can do. We’re a civilization that’s not even controlling the energy resources of our planet. † Impossible, for now Mathematically, you can certainly say something is traveling to the past, Liu said. â€Å"But it is not possible for you and me to travel backward in time,† he said. | However, some scientists believe that traveling to the past is, in fact, theoretically possible, though impractical. Maybe if there were a theory of everything, one could solve all of Einstein’s equations through a wormhole, and see whether time travel is really possible, Kaku said. â€Å"But that would require a technology far more advanced than anything we can muster, he said. Don’t expect any young inventor to announce tomorrow in a press release that he or she has invented a time machine in their basement. † For now, the only definitive part of travel in the fourth dimension is that we’re stepping further into the future with each passing moment. So for those hoping to see Earth a million years from now, scientists have good news. â€Å"If you want to know what the Earth is like one million years from now, I’ll tell you how to do that,† said Greene, a consultant for â€Å"Deja Vu,† a recent movie that dealt with time travel. â€Å"Build a spaceship. Go near the speed of light for a length of time—that I could calculate. Come back to Earth, and when you step out of your ship you will have aged perhaps one year while the Earth would have aged one million years. You would have traveled to Earth’s future. † Source 2 Time Slips / Time Travel 0digg 1 comment A time slip is an alleged paranormal phenomenon in which a person, or group of people, travel through time through supernatural (rather than technological) means. As with all paranormal phenomena, the objective reality of such experiences is disputed. One of the best-known, and earliest, examples of a time slip was reported by two English women, Charlotte Anne Moberly (16 September 1846 – 7 May 1937) and Eleanor Jourdain (1863–1924), the principal and vice-principal of St Hugh’s College, Oxford, who believed they slipped back in time in the gardens of the Petit Trianon at Versailles from the summer of 1901 to the period of the French Revolution. On August 10, 1901 Moberly and Jourdain were visiting the Palace of Versailles. They decided to go in search of the Petit Trianon. While walking through the grounds they both were impressed by a feeling of oppressive gloom. They claimed to have encountered, and interacted with, a number of people in old fashioned attire whom they later assumed to have been members of the court of Marie Antoinette and to have seen a figure that may have been Marie Antoinette herself on the day in 1792 when she learned that the mob had stormed the Tuileries Palace. Source 3, 4, 5 . http://www. youtube. com/watch? feature=player_embeddedv=FdWXMD4rOGQ#! http://www. youtube. com/watch? feature=player_embeddedv=rqQV_UzVQks http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=X02WMNoHSm8 Source 6 The Big Question: Is time travel possible, and is there any chance that it will ever take place? By Steve Connor, Science Editor Friday 08 February 2008 Why are we asking this now? Two Russian mathematicians have suggested that the giant atom-smasher being built at the European centre for nuclear research, Cern, near Geneva, could create the conditions where it might be possible to travel backwards or forwards in time. In essence, Irina Arefeva and Igor Volovich believe that the Large Hadron Collider at Cern, which is due to be switched on this year for the first time, might create tiny wormholes in space which could allow some form of limited time travel. If true, this would mark the first time in human history that a time machine has been created. If travelling back in time is possible at all, it should in theory be only possible to travel back to the point when the first time machine was created and so this would mean that time travellers from the future would be able to visit us. As an article in this weeks New Scientist suggests, this year – 2008 – could become year zero for time travel. Is this really a serious proposition? The New Scientist article points out that there are many practical problems and theoretical paradoxes to time travel. Nevertheless, the slim possibility remains that we will see visitors from the future in the next year, says the magazine says, rather provocatively. It has to be said that few scientists accept the idea that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will create the conditions thought to be necessary for time travel. The LHC is designed to probe the mysterious forces that exist at the level of sub-atomic particles, and as such will answer many important questions, such as the true nature of gravity. It is not designed as a time machine. In any case, if the LHC became a time machine by accident, the device would exist only at the sub-atomic level so we are not talking about a machine like Dr Whos Tardis, which is able to carry people forwards and backwards from the future. What do the experts say about the idea of time travel? The theoretical possibility is widely debated, but everyone agrees that the practical problems are so immense that it is, in all likelihood, never going to happen. Brian Cox, a Cern researcher at the University of Manchester, points out that even if the laws of physics do not prohibit time travel, that doesnt mean to say its going to happen, certainly in terms of travelling back in time. Saying that the laws of physics as we know them permit travel into the past is the same as saying that, to paraphrase Bertrand Russell, they permit a teapot to be in orbit around Venus, Dr Cox says. Its possible, but not likely. Time travel into the future is absolutely possible, in fact time passes at a different rate in orbit than it does on the ground, and this has to be taken into consideration in order for satellite navigation systems to work. But time travel into the past, although technically allowed in Einsteins theory, will in the opinion of most physicists be ruled out when, and if, we develop a better understanding of the fundamental laws of physics – and thats what the LHC is all about. Why is the possibility of time travel even considered? It comes down to the general theory of relativity devised by Albert Einstein in 1905. It is the best theory we have so far on the nature of space and time and it was Einstein who first formulated the mathematical equations that related both time and space in the form of an entity called space-time. Those equations and the theory itself do not prohibit the idea of time travel, although there have been many attempts since Einstein to prove that travelling back in time is impossible. Is there anything to support the theory? Lots of science fiction writers have had fun with time travel, going back to H. G. Wells, whose book The Time Machine was published in 1895 – 10 years before Einsteins general theory of relativity. Interestingly, it was another attempt at science fiction that revived the modern interest in time travel. When Carl Sagan, the American astronomer, was writing his 1986 novel Contact, he wanted a semi-plausible way of getting round the problem of not being able to travel faster than the speed of light – which would break a fundamental rule of physics. He needed his characters to travel through vast distances in space, so he asked his cosmologist friend Kip Thorne to come up with a possible way of doing it without travelling faster than light. Thorne suggested that by manipulating black holes it might be possible to create a wormhole through space-time that would allow someone to travel from one part of the Universe to another in an instant. He later realised that this could also in theory be used to travel back in time. It was just a theory of course, and no one has come close to solving the practical problem of manipulating black holes and creating wormholes, but the idea seemed to be sound. It spawned a lot of subsequent interest in wormholes and time travel, hence the latest idea by the two Russian mathematicians. Apart from the practicalities, whats to stop time travel? The biggest theoretical problem is known as the time-travel paradox. If someone travels back in time and does something to prevent their own existence, then how can time travel be possible? The classic example is the time traveller who kills his grandfather before his own father is conceived. Cosmologists, renowned for their imaginative ingenuity, have come up with a way round this paradox. They have suggested that there is not one universe but many – so many that every possible outcome of any event actually takes place. In this multiple universe, or multiverse model, a woman who goes back in time to murder her own granny can get way with it because in the universe next door the granny lives to have the daughter who becomes the murderers mother. Where does this leave the time machine in Geneva? The science writer and physicist John Gribbin, who explains these things better than most, points to a saying in physics: anything that is not forbidden is compulsory. So they expect time machines to exist. The snag is that the kind of accidental time tunnel that could be produced by the LHC in Geneva would be a tiny wormhole far smaller than an atom, so nothing would be able to go through it. So there wont be any visitors from the future turning up in Geneva just yet. Id take it all with a pinch of salt, but it certainly isnt completely crazy. So, not completely crazy, just a bit crazy. So will we one day be able to travel into the future? Yes * There is nothing in the laws of physics to prohibit it, and events in Geneva are pointing the way and could be a first step * In physics, so the saying goes, if nothing is prohibited, it must happen at some point * All we need to do is to work out how to manipulate black holes and wormholes, and away we go No * The practical problems with time travel are too immense to solve, and even if you could, who would want to? * You might travel back in time and kill one of your grandparents by accident. Then where would you be? * If time travel is possible, why are we still waiting to welcome our first visitors from the future? Source 7 Time Travelers By Stephen Wagner, About. com Guide Where and to what date would you go if you could travel through time? Its a question people have long enjoyed contemplating the possibilities are so fraught with wonder and excitement. Would you watch the pyramids of Egypt being build? Join the spectacle of a gladiatorial battle at the Roman Coliseum? Catch a glimpse of real dinosaurs? Or would you prefer to see what the future holds for humankind? Such fantasies have fueled the success of such stories as H. G. Welles The Time Machine, the Back to the Future movies, favorite episodes of Star Trek and countless science fiction novels. And although some scientists think that it might be at least theoretically possible to travel through time, no one (as far as we know) has devised a sure-fire way to make it happen. But thats not to say that people havent reported traveling through time. There are many fascinating anecdotes from those who say they seem to have quite unexpectedly visited if only briefly another time and, sometimes, another place. These events, often called time slippages, seem to occur randomly and spontaneously. Those who experience these events are often bewildered and confused by what they see and hear, and afterward are at a complete loss to explain them. Here are some interesting cases that will keep you wondering: FLIGHT INTO THE FUTURE In 1935, Air Marshal Sir Victor Goddard of the British Royal Air Force had a harrowing experience in his Hawker Hart biplane. Goddard was a Wing Commander at the time and while on a flight from Edinburgh, Scotland to his home base in Andover, England, he decided to fly over an abandoned airfield at Drem, not far from Edinburgh. The useless airfield was overgrown with foliage, the hangars were falling apart and cows grazed where planes were once parked. Goddard then continued his flight to Andover, but encountered a bizarre storm. In the high winds of the storms strange brown-yellow clouds, he lost control of his plane, which began to spiral toward the ground. Narrowly averting a crash, Goddard found that his plane was heading back toward Drem. As he approached the old airfield, the storm suddenly vanished and Goddards plane was now flying in brilliant sunshine. This time, as he flew over the Drem airfield, it looked completely different. The hangars looked like new. There were four airplanes on the ground: three were familiar biplanes, but painted in an unfamiliar yellow; the fourth was a monoplane, which the RAF had none of in 1935. The mechanics were dressed in blue overalls, which Goddard thought odd since all RAF mechanics dressed in brown overalls. Strange, too, that none of the mechanics seemed to notice him fly over. Leaving the area, he again encountered the storm, but managed to make his way back to Andover. It wasnt until 1939 that that the RAF began to paint their planes yellow, enlisted a monoplane of the type that Goddard saw, and the mechanics uniforms were switched to blue. Had Goddard somehow flown four years into the future, then returned to his own time? CAUGHT IN A TEMPORAL VORTEX Dr. Raul Rios Centeno, a medical doctor and an investigator of the paranormal, recounted to author Scott Corrales a story told to him by one of his patients, a 30-year-old woman, who came to him with a serious case of hemiplegia the total paralysis of one side of her body. I was at a campground in the vicinity of Markahuasi, she told him. Markahuasi is the famous stone forest located about 35 miles east of Lima, Peru. I went out exploring late at night with some friends. Oddly enough, we heard the strains of music and noticed a small torch-lit stone cabin. I was able to see people dancing inside, but upon getting closer I felt a sudden sensation of cold which I paid little attention to, and I stuck my head through an open door. It was then that I saw the occupants were clad in 17th century fashion. I tried to enter the room, but one of my girlfriends pulled me out. It was at that moment that half of the womans body became paralyzed. Was it because the womans friend pulled her out of the stone cabin when she was half entered into it? Was half her body caught in some temporal vortex or dimensional doorway? Dr. Centeno reported that an EEG was able to show that the left hemisphere of the brain did not show signs of normal functioning, as well as an abnormal amount of electric waves. (See Dimensions Beyond Our Own for more details on this story. ) Source 8 How Time Travel Works by Kevin Bonsor and Robert Lamb Stuff You Should Know From millennium-skipping Victorians to phone booth-hopping teenagers, the term time travel often summons our most fantastic visions of what it means to move through the fourth dimension. But of course you dont need a time machine or a fancy wormhole to jaunt through the years. As youve probably noticed, were all constantly engaged in the act of time travel. At its most basic level, time is the rate of change in the universe and like it or not, we are constantly undergoing change. We age, the planets move around the sun, and things fall apart. We measure the passage of time in seconds, minutes, hours and years, but this doesnt mean time flows at a constant rate. Just as the water in a river rushes or slows depending on the size of the channel, time flows at different rates in different places. In other words, time is relative. But what causes this fluctuation along our one-way trek from the cradle to the grave? It all comes down to the relationship between time and space. Human beings frolic about in the three spatial dimensions of length, width and depth. Time joins the party as that most crucial fourth dimension. Time cant exist without space, and space cant exist without time. The two exist as one: the space-time continuum. Any event that occurs in the universe has to involve both space and time. In this article, well look at the real-life, everyday methods of time travel in our universe, as well as some of the more far-fetched methods of dancing through the fourth dimension. Source 9 Is Time Travel Possible? Analysis by Robert Lamb Thu Apr 22, 2010 06:14 PM ET Its not glamorous, but its time travel. (Michael Dunning/Photographers Choice/Getty Images) From summer blockbusters to sensational science headlines, modern culture is constantly inundated with tales of time travel. But when you boil down the physics involved, is it possible to travel through time? To answer this question, I tracked down theoretical physicist and cosmologist Paul Davies, author of How to Build a Time Machine. SLIDE SHOW: What are the favored time travel methods as used in science fiction? We are all time travelers The short answer is that time travel into the future is not only possible, its been done, and weve known about it for over a century, says Davies. The reason that the public doesn’t seem to know about it is because the amount of time travel involved is so pitifully small that it doesnt make for a Doctor Who style adventure. A phenomenon called time dilation is the key here. Time passes more slowly the closer you approach the speed of light an unbreakable cosmic speed limit. As such, the hands of a clock in a speeding train would move more slowly than those in a stationary clock. The difference would not be humanly noticeable, but when the train pulled back into the station, the two clocks would be off by billionths of a second. If such a train could attain 99. 999 percent light speed, only 1 year would pass onboard for every 223 years back at the train station. But speed isnt the only factor that affects time. On a much smaller scale, mass also influences time. Time slows down the closer you are to the center of a massive object. Time runs a little bit faster in space than it does down on Earth, Davies says. It runs a little faster on the roof than it does in the basement, and thats a measurable effect. A clock aboard an orbiting satellite experiences time dilation due to both the speed of its orbit and its greater distance from the center of Earths gravity. Both gravity and speed can give you a means of jumping ahead, Davies says. So in principle, if you had enough money, you could get to the year 3000 in as short a time as you like one year, one month, whatever it takes. It is only a question of money and engineering. Forward, not back? Time travel into the future is an established and fundamental aspect of Albert Einsteins theory of relativity. Scientists have tested and retested this in both experimental and practical settings. But what about time travel in the opposite direction? Going back in to the past is a whole different kettle of fish. Davies says. Theres nothing in Einsteins theory, which is the best theory that we have about the nature of time, which precludes it. Theres nothing in even his general theory of relativity, published in 1915, which precludes travel back into the past, but many scientists are deeply uneasy about it because of all the well-known paradoxes that it unleashes. For instance, imagine going back in time and killing your own mother. Then shed never give birth to you, and just how would you have been able to travel back in time to commit matricide in the first place? Wormholes as spacetime shortcuts Davies surmises that, given our current understanding of the nature of time and physics, time travel into the past simply isnt possible. But the universe is full of mysteries, and one of them the hypothetical wormhole might just permit such a journey. This is a little bit like a tunnel or shortcut between two distant points, Davies says, So for example, if I had a wormhole here in my hotel room and I jumped through it I wouldnt come out on Pennsylvania Avenue, Id maybe come out near the other side of the galaxy. Source 10 Scientists have theorized that such a shortcut through time and space could be turned into a time machine. If a worm hole could exist and could be traversable, then it would provide a means of going back in time, Davies says. So it all hinges on whether stable wormholes are a reality or if theres some aspect of physics not relativity, because theres nothing wrong from that point of view but some other aspect of physics might intercede and prevent the wormhole from forming. Thats an open question. World-famous theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking has proposed that wormholes occurring at a quantum level could theoretically provide a foothold for time travel, but University of California at Santa Barbara physicist Andrew Cleland urges caution on that front. Im an experimentalist, and physics is ultimately an experimental science, Cleland says. Any predictions that are made based on mathematics or on philosophical or intellectual speculation have to pass the test of experiment, and I am certainly not aware of any experiment that demonstrated the possibility of traveling backward in time. Cause and effect Cleland also points out that the fundamental principle of causality stands in the way of travel into the past. The entire universe, as we understand it, is beholden to this rule. Something occurs first and the outcome of that occurrence happens afterward, Cleland says, and there has never to my knowledge been an experiment that came out different from that. I am not aware of any experimental tests of quantum mechanics that have shown any violation of causality, in spite of the fact that many experiments could reveal such a violation. Still, in the same way that time dilation isnt flashy enough to seem like time travel into the future, the public often overlooks a very common means of traveling into the past. In a sense, astronomers are always traveling backward in time, but it is in a way that most people are not so excited about, Cleland says. When we measure the cosmic microwave background, were looking back more than 10 billion years in time. Thats how long it took for the light to reach us. A number of questions about time travel remain unanswered. Will time tourists from the future ever show up to help us out? Well just have to wait and see. But if they come here using a wormhole time machine, well have to build one first. After all, you couldnt cross a bridge if only one side had been completed, right? Theoretically, it would take more than 100 years to create a 100-years time difference between the two ends of a wormhole, Davies says, so theres no way that our descendants could come back and tell us were wrong about this.

Black people in the USA in 1945 Essay Example for Free

Black people in the USA in 1945 Essay Blacks in the USA in 1945 were not considered as equal; the treatment of people was based on their skin colour, a practice that had been going on for many years before, even after the Reconstruction of society after the Civil War in which the blacks were liberated from slavery. In theory, blacks were free to work and live where they wanted, but the figures at the time told a different story: by 1960, around 17% of the workforce of white-collar workers, i.e. professional, technical, administration, etc., were blacks, while the whites remained the majority at 47%. The blue-collar work, such as craftsmen, manual labourers, etc. jobs that are renowned for needing less skill and education had 40% of the workforce as blacks, and 36% were whites. Blacks just werent provided the education and qualifications to do the professional types of work due to separation of black and white facilities. Not only were they held back at getting the higher-class jobs, they were paid less for the same wor k that whites did; in 1950, blacks earned about 53% of a whites wage. This figure remained the same over the next 20 years, with it rising 11% to blacks earning 64% of a whites wage. All over the USA, blacks were discriminated against in almost all areas of life, whether it is the law of the state, or just by the custom of the local society. After the abolishment of slavery, slaves had the choice of moving away from their former homes and having their own lives; unfortunately, many blacks didnt have any money to move halfway across the USA to the northern states that had fought to free them. Those who did have the finance to travel rarely had enough money afterwards to sustain a good quality of life after they had moved. The custom of de facto came into play in some of the Northern states; ghettos and places where the majority of the population were black sprung up in towns and cities. Segregation by custom in the North was contrasted with segregation by law, or de jure, in the South- Jim Crow laws forbade blacks, for example, to enter white facilities, or sit on buses with whites, etc. Places where de facto was in force came up with other ways to separate blacks from whites to keep the Southern order of things; red lining was when banks were not allowed to give money for mortgages if they suspected it would be a risky investment- if a black family moved into a certain area, it would lower the prices of the surrounding houses. This  meant that places such as ghettos were built up, when the majority of the population were black. This type of segregation wasnt by law, but by custom, blacks werent forced to live in black areas, but they felt pressured to live in certain places because of the practises such as red lining in effect. Although it is in the Constitution that everyone is equal and has the same civil rights, it is beliefs like red lining that push a wedge between races; it may not seem constitutional, but it is up to the Supreme Court in the USA to decide what is constitutional. They decided that slavery was lawful mainly due the fact that the Southern states economy was based on slavery; they were needed to produce cotton, the main export in the 19th century. Without them, the economy would have fallen apart. After the 13th amendment to the Constitution, slavery was no longer legal, but the Supreme Court still remained to overlook state laws that continued discrimination and practices that could be seen as worse then slavery- for example, the Ku Klux Klan were allowed to terrorise and lynch blacks, yet lynching was not made illegal. The Supreme Court declared that the 14th amendment forbids states, but not citizens, from discriminating (1) Separate facilities for blacks and whites were considered as the solution to the discrimination problem; the Supreme Court believed that the blacks were separate but equal when they were forced to use different buildings, transport, schools and hospitals then the whites. Since the Supreme Court approved laws and could declare them unconstitutional if they wanted to, they were the ones who the blacks has to convince if they wanted to change anything; in legal cases, the trial had to be taken to the Supreme Court to have any impact, since the State Courts were always going to be in favour of the Jim Crow laws. The Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896) case was when Homer Plessy refused to sit in the coloured car of a train and sat in the white section instead. The case went to Supreme Court, and they ruled that Plessy was guilty and sentenced him to pay a fine or go to jail. This was considered the most shameful ruling of the Supreme Court in history; it shows the extent of the discrimination against blacks, even after slavery was abolished- even though Plessy was 1/8 black and 7/8 white, he was still considered as black in the eyes of the Louisiana law. Although many people thought that this ruling was  shocking, there wasnt much that could be done, since they did not have a definite leader to show them what the do; everything that the movement did was relatively unorganised, with maybe one person leading the others. People such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Booker T. Washington tried to unite blacks under one leadership, but it did not work, because everyone has different opinion on what should be done about the discrimination problem. Dr Martin King Jr. was a black leader that advocated peaceful resistance; because of this, many whites accepted him because they knew that he would not cause violence, but blacks did not like this as peaceful protest could only take them so far- they felt that King was weaker then some of the other extremist black leaders, such as Malcolm X. Kings approach to fighting against their oppression wasnt enough to keep the blacks following him; they preferred people who were willing to do more for the benefit of all blacks. Another leader who was thought as weak by fellow blacks was Booker T. Washington; he was accused of being an accommodationist to the whites, as he wasnt campaigning for equal civil rights, he was concentrating on equal job opportunities- this wasnt what the blacks were fighting for; they wanted to be free to do what the whites could do, not only in jobs but in other aspects of life too. The leaders of the movement were not united, therefore they were not strong- many leaders were critical of others, for example, W.E.B DuBois criticised Washington, saying that blacks cannot get social equality if they do not get political equality first. The New Deal is a phrase used to explain the actions taken after Black Tuesday when the US Stock market crashed to stop the effects of the Depression disturbing the lives of the public. Laws were passed to help stop the consequences of the Depression becoming a long-term problem; within the first hundred days, President Roosevelt passed a law that lowered workers salaries and pensions by up to 15%- a move that people did not like, yet it saved a lot of money for the government. Another act was passed that stated that the government could inspect banks before letting them open again so they could see if the bank was eligible to lend and hold money. This prevented banks lending out money that they did not have, therefore they did not losing money for their customers and wouldnt have to close, as they  would have to have done if they did lend out money they didnt have. The New Deal was produced so the government could help all of those that were affected by the Depression; this helped the blacks because they were some of the poorest people in the USA at the time, and as many as 8% of blacks were unemployed in 1955. For the blacks, the New Deal slightly improved their way of living as it was designed to help everyone without discrimination. Soon after New Deal was set up, the situation for blacks was improved socially by the outbreak of the Second World War. When the Americans were brought into the war, they needed as many men as they could to fight; blacks had regiments where they could join and be equal to whites, but they still were not allowed to belong to the same regiment as the whites- there were some who did, but they were rare, they normally belonged to an all-black regiment. At the end of the war, the blacks got more ambitious; they were allowed to fight for their country, but America wasnt even grateful enough of them to let them be equal. This would have enraged African Americans since they had fought so hard to be a part of America, so the Civil Rights movement activity increased, which put pressure on the government to do something. The Nazi ideology also pushed the government into action, because what the Americans were doing to the blacks could be compared to the Germans discriminating against the Jews in Germany; the blacks realised this, so demanded equality, as they didnt want the same to happen to them. In conclusion, the position of blacks in 1945 was not equal to whites: even after a century of supposed freedom from slavery, blacks were still treated as inferiors to whites. Laws and acts were in effect that encouraged the discrimination of blacks. Amendments such as the rights for blacks to vote and the rights for them to be equal were passed, but there were so many other laws that cancelled them out. Jim Crow laws in the South and practises such as red lining in the North made it impossible for blacks to be seen as equal politically, whilst rebellions by extremist whites and groups such as the Ku Klux Klan stopped blacks gaining any social standing or equality. Blacks were supposed to be equal, but by 1945, some may comment that the position of them was worse then slavery, as the blacks were on their own in  there poverty and discrimination; before, they had their slave owners who would clothe and feed them to keep productive workers- they would never be out on the streets as slaves, but as free people, they received basically no help. Things that whites took for granted, such as clean and good-quality facilities, and jobs that are fair and just are things that blacks counted themselves lucky if they managed to get any equality. People like Martin Luther King Jr. and W.E.B. DuBois tried to get equality, both through violence and peaceful means, but it didnt have much effect to the political and social standing of blacks. The discrimination of blacks continued right into the 20th century, even up into the 21st century. It was slow going for the blacks right to equality, but actions by both blacks and whites changed things for the better. H owever, in 1945, blacks were not considered as equal, but as 3/5s of a human being. Bibliography: (1) http://www.alternativeinsight.com/Reparations-Slavery.html Field, Ron; Civil Rights in America 1865-1980; Cambridge University Press http://www.lawbuzz.com/can_you/plessy/plessy.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal

Inception, 2010 Film Analysis

Inception, 2010 Film Analysis Released in 2010, Inception in an American science fiction movie. Written, directed and produced by Christopher Nolan, the movie is a block buster. Star cast of the movie includes Leonardo Di Caprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy, Michael Caine, Tom Hardy, Tom Berenger, Ken Watanabe and Ellen Page. DiCaprio plays the major role of Dom Cobb, a con having the ability to get inside the dreams of the victims mind and extract information from their subconscious mind. Although after the death of his wife Mal Cobb had decided to no longer perform the acts of inception but when he is offered with the opportunity to go back to his old life in exchange of one last job he decides to go for it as if he is successful he will be able to see his children (Eisenberg, 2010). Analysis of Inceptions Media Content: Character and Their Roles: Leonardo DiCaprio plays Dom Cobb, a con who carries the ability of extracting secrets from peoples minds while they are dreaming. Cobb hires Arthur, Ariadne, Eames, Saito, and Yusuf to implant an idea in Fischer Jr.s mind (Kit, 2009). Ken Watanabe plays Mr. Saito, a Japanese businessman who employees Cobb to implant an idea on Fischers mind. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Arthur, basically Cobs partner (Kit, 2009). Marion Cotillard plays Mal Cobb, Cobbs deceased wife and keeps on visiting his dreams persuading him to stay with her in the dreamland forever (Kit, Three circle Nolans Inception, 2009). Ellen Page as Ariadne, she is a architect and is given the responsibility to construct the location of the dreams. Tom Hardy as Eames, he acts as a shape shifter and takes form of Browning and Fischer Sr. during the mission. Dileep Rao as Yusuf, he is a doctor who formulates sedatives needed to keep somebody in a dream state Cillian Murphy as Robert Michael Fischer, he plays the role of heirloom of Fischer Sr Entire Corporation. Saito hires Cobb to enter Fischer Jr. mind (Rosson, 2010) The Plot: Dom Cobb played by Di Caprio is a highly skilled thief who has the power of entering into peoples subconscious mind while they are dreaming and then steal valuable secrets from them. This ability of Cobb has converted him into a coveted player who is mostly hired by multinationals to steal ideas from their rivals mind. However, due to his ability he lost his wife Mal. He got stuck in her in a limbo for around 50 years and when he finally woke her up from the dream by planting the idea in her minds that your world is not real she has a hard time accepting the reality. She loses value of her children for her it was only her and Cobb she could not find any emotional attachment with her children moreover she believing the dream life was far much better she decides to go back into it by killing herself in a suicide and portraying it like Cobb killed her. She committed suicide believing once she would die she would go back in the dream land and Cobb would eventually follow her. Since Cobb was blamed for the murder he leaving his children behind fled the country (Outlaw, 2010). Taking advantage of his weakness Japanese businessman Mr. Saito hires him but his job is different rather than stealing an idea he wants to place an idea into his rival Robert Fischer Jr.. Fischer Jr. is about to inherent his father empire which is a competitive to Saitos business. Saito wants Cobb to enter Fischers mind and plant the idea in his head that he should break his fathers empire and sell the pieces in the market. Like this Saito will keep on dominating the market while in return he will make arrangements with the U.S. government to wind up Cobbs case letting him enter U.S. and be with his children (Warner Bros Pictures, 2010). The Basic Elements of Inception: Firstly to understand the plot better we need to understand the basic terms of inception which in different phases have been defined by the team selected by Cobbs to help him with this mission. To plant an idea in to the victims head also known as mark the Cobb and others need to go into the a third-level dream i.e. a dream within a dream within a dream. In the initial phases the dreamers can be awaken if they feel they falling also known as the kick. However, in the third level dream defined as the limbo in the movie it is almost impossible to wake up because the dreamer starts believing this is the real world and can live for centuries in it just like Cobb and his wife did. Also, the dreamers have control on the time during inception. (Outlaw, 2010). The Five Levels of the Movie: There are mainly five levels of the movie. In the first level the entire team travels with Fischer Jr. in the plane that takes off from Sydney for L.A. In the plan they sedate Fischer and take his subconscious in to the dream. The level two starts when Yusuf the chemist starts dreaming and Cobb, Arthur, Fischer, Ariadne, Saito and Eames become participants in his dream. Here Eams takes form of Fischers right hand man Browing. He visits Fischer Jr and tells him that he is being tortured by the Inception group to tell them the combination of his fathers safe and they will not stop till they do not see the company dissolving. Like this successfully the first seed is implanted in Fischer Jrs mind that it is dangerous to inherent his fathers business. Fischer Jr however, does not become fully scared he decides to go after the thieves and the entire team is chased in a busy street in a van. During the chase, Satio gets shot in this level, starts bleeding to death and goes into a Limbo. Whi le Arthur starts to dream again and takes everybody to level three in a hotel room where Cobb convinces Fischer Jr. that the inception team is not the enemy in fact it is Browning and other members of his fathers empire who are his enemy and Browning made up the story of being tortured so Fischer Jr. can give it to him easily. To make him believe more Cobb offers to take him into Browning mind where he can see the truth himself. As Fischer Jr. agrees they all fall into sleep and enter Eams dream which is the level four. Since Eams is imposing as Browning Fischer Jr. believes he is visiting Browning mind. The team takes him to the fort to show that his rallies are the real enemy however before they reach it Eams with his army of soldiers bring the fortress down thus proving to Fischer Jr that the Inception team was right. However, this is when Mal appears she is a creation of Cobbs guilt and shoots Fischer Jr who goes into a Limbo (Rosson, 2010). The fifth stage is basically the limbo which is a shared state by everybody. Cobb and Ariadne go into it to find Mal as she is holding both Fischer Jr. and Saito. Mal gives up Fischer Jr. after making Cobb promise that he will stay with her in Limbo forever. Cobb tells Ariadne that she can get out of limbo by killing herself he knows this because him and Mal were also able to leave Limbo by coming in front of a train so Ariadne grabs Fischer and jumps off the building while Cobb convinces Mal that he cannot stay with her because the kids back home need him. He finds Saito who like Mal had started believing that Limbo was the real world for some time Cobb also believed the same but then eventually got out of it and shoots Saito before shooting himself. Once they are shot they wake up in the plane (Rosson, 2010). On the other hand Ariadne and Fischer Jr. go back in to the fourth level Eams dream where Eams takes the shape of Fischer Sr. telling Fisher Jr. that he should sell off the empire to save himself from the same fate as his father. Fischer Jr agrees to do so which brings a successful end to the mission. Arthur who had stayed back in his dream of level three separates the elevator from the shaft and it starts to fall which takes Eams, Ariadne, and Fischer back to Yusufs dream who throws the van in the water which brings Arthur and Yusuf back into reality. Ariadne and Fischer Jr. wake up after the sedation wears off them. Since the mission is successful Saito calls the U.S. authorities and once the plane lands Cobb is able to meet with his children at the airport. However, the end is quite interesting because just before Cobb sees his children he swindles the top. When in a dream the top does not stop spinning but when in reality the top stops but this is where it gets interesting because before he could see if the top stops or not his kids arrives and he rushes to them. This gives viewers the perception that he might still be in a limbo and is getting to see his children in a dream (Outlaw, 2010). Strengths and Weaknesses: The strengths of the movie are numerous almost uncountable. It is good enough to be compared with Matrix. However, when analyzed it is quite different from matrix. Matrix is about learning the truth while this is about creating a lie. The world that Nolan has created is original, sophisticated, entertaining and simply brilliant to look at. I must say it is the best feature of the summer a must watch (Movies Online). Whereas, the weaknesses are concerned there are loopholes in the plot such as no proper distinction between reality and a dream. Every character in the dream is given a totem which will make them identify if they are in reality or a dreamlike for Cobb it his wife spinning top but audience is not given with any totem. The plot is so confusing that audience is often left wondering whether the scene was a reality or a dream. Critical Suggestions to the Director: Nolans past experience shows that he is not so good with female characters. He has handled the women both in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight rather poorly the same typical trend is seen in this movie. The role of Adriane at many places appears to be uncompelling and underdeveloped. She is not as rounded as other male characters of the movie (Movies Online). Also there are places where the movie becomes boring especially in the beginning where Cobb visits Saitos dream and in the last level where Saito and Cobb are talking trying to remember real life it gets really boring if maybe the director could cut the shot a bit it would be much better. Apart from these factors the rest is all good. Although the last scene of the movie has received a lot of criticism because it creates a doubt in the mind of the viewer whether the entire movie is a fantasy or there were certain pieces of reality in it. But what the audience doesnt realize that this is the best part of the movie the end has bas ically added spice to the movie and has given us a reason to discuss it after we leave the theatre or to watch it again to solve the mystery.

Pornographys Effects on Relationships Essay -- Porn Porno Dating Marr

Pornography's Effects on Relationships When it comes to relationships there are many things that need to be present in order for it to work out. You must have support from both sides and honesty is also a big factor. When pornography enters a relationship it can be destroyed and could possible ruin that relationship forever. This essay will be able to inform you of all the ways that pornography can and does ruin relationships. Support for this argument will be drawn from the following sources: Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy, Love, Sex, and Health, and The Question of Pornography. First of all trust is one of the biggest factors when it comes to being in a relationship. It there is no trust it could all easily fall apart. This is why so many women loose their husbands trust when they first discover that they have been cheating on them with pornography magazines, books, and more often internet sites. Pamela Paul states that â€Å"most men do not admit to engaging in pornography but try to hide it from their spouse in order to keep it a secret. When their spouses end up finding out about it, all trust has been lost in the relationship and this is when it usually ends† (100). Most women become devastated when they find out that their husbands have a â€Å"second life†. They really feel that they have been cheated on and have lost that special connection between their significant other and them. When women find out about this it usually leads to short term separation which in the end leads to divorce and their relationship simply becomes another statistics of how many relationships pornography has ruined. Most relationships rely on trust and when that trust bond is broken it is very hard to get it back. Along with trust comes honesty and if some women believe that their husbands may be using pornography they may confront them and ask. Pamela Paul says â€Å"a typical males response is ‘of course not’. Then they go on to say ‘I can’t believe that you don’t trust me’ when men say this is makes their wives really think about what they just asked and so they end up believing them† (99). It is sad to think that some women can be easily controlled like the above situation but also most women like to hope for the best so they just decide that their husband is telling the truth. The men on the other hand continue to go on, as life is normal and still engage in porno... ...tually enhances relationships have several strong claims, it is still evident that pornography is, overall, damaging to relationships. There is more evidence to support the argument than the counterargument. Most of the argument sources are recent journals that have all updated statistics and information while the counterargument sources are mostly books and at least a few years old. In conclusion, it has been shown that pornography does indeed ruin relationships and is shown by the argument, which is much stronger, then the counterargument. There may be some good benefits to using pornography but more often than not it always seems to ruin more relationships. Pornography may be every where and available to almost everyone and it may never go away and relationships will continue to be ruined. In the future people should learn to accept life the way it should be without all of the superficial parts of it. In the end it will be able to help them, to have a much healthier relationships that last much longer. The government should make a law to ban all types of pornography in order to try and save more relationships. As a result of this the divorce when then be lowered.

Privacy Rights :: essays research papers

Privacy Rights   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The privacy of the individual is the most important right. Without privacy, the democratic system that we know would not exist. Privacy is one of the fundamental values on which our country was founded. There are exceptions to privacy rights that are created by the need for defense and security.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When our country was founded, privacy was not an issue. The villages then were small and close. Most people knew their neighbors and what was going on in the community. They did not have drunk drivers, terrorist, or any other threat of changing the way they lived. The transportation that most people had access to were horses. Today there are autos that can be fatal if not controlled. Speed limits and licenses are two examples. The government we have in place maintains and organizes our society.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The elements of control are often viewed as violations of privacy. These elements are meant to protect us from irresponsible people and from hurting themselves. The laws that are in place still give privacy without invading personal lives. Privacy is only violated when people feel they are being violated. Jonathan Franzen writes this example of his feelings about privacy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"One of my neighbors in the apartment building across the street spends a lot of time at her mirror examining her pores, and I can see her doing it, just as she can undoubtedly see me sometimes. But our respective privacies remain intact as long as neither of us feels seen.† If people feel comfortable in their surroundings then privacy is not a concern. At other times, people feel violated when they are subject to random searches; this random factor is what other people consider wrong. People feel intruded on when they see a roadblock ahead or a request to see their driver’s license when writing checks. Others are interrupted at dinner by the phone ringing from telemarketers. This selling of information is what the Europeans call data protection. If the data is not kept private, things such as credit card numbers could be stolen over the phone.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The privacy in America will forever be changing as technology changes. Cell phones have been a factor in the way people communicates. Automobiles are equipped with TVs and mobile Internet. Privacy is increased, as people communicate less in person. People can spend an entire day in the car and have complete communication with others. Franzen also has this view about transportation.

The Management of US Homeland Security

The US employs a federal state of governance to manage and secure the totality of the individual states as mandated by the Constitution. The federal government’s headquarters is centered in the White House in Washington, D.C. The government is divided into three separate sectors, each with a well-defined role: (1) executive branch, defines the role of the president and his body and the limit to their powers; (2) legislative branch, is a bicameral form consisting of the House of Representatives/Congress and the House of the Senate and is generally concerned with passing of laws and amendments; (3) legislative branch, acts as the forecourt in judging state matters and decision-making on any matters, whether executive or legislative regarding US Constitution.The US Constitution dictum includes freer reign in each individual states meaning that in the federal government, the powers are limited because they are heavily limited and separated in each individual state. Each branch is separated into agencies and smaller branches with a definitive role.US being an industrial and a political giant would be an important target for those who aim to undermine its power. External conflicts, counterterrorism attacks, and mitigation of related disasters are major fora for homeland security. The Executive Office of the President houses 17 councils and since the power vested in the president, aside from being the â€Å"head of the state†, is the military chief –command, then it is concluded that the â€Å"decision-making† regarding national security befalls upon him.There are three offices of import to his role as the military chief-in-command: (1) Homeland Security Council (2) National Security Council and (3) Whitehouse Military Office. Understand that in the insidious role of protecting the homeland security, the council enacted for this task is the Homeland Security Council but this does not mean it is responsible for the safety alone since it harm oniously relates with the National Security Council and the Intelligence and the military to produce and ensure maximum homeland security.The HSC was established by the Homeland Security Act of 2002 under Executive Order 13228 last October 8, 2001 as a protective and legal response to the attack on the twin towers. The main quota of the act is to guarantee synchronization among executive departments and federal agencies regarding combating terrorism and ensuring homeland security.   Ã‚  Ã‚  It is spearheaded by the President with attendees like the Secretary of Defense, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, Director of National Intelligence, and other â€Å"heads† of agencies are invited to attend the meetings.Currently the homeland security and counterterrorism advisor is Miss Frances Townsend; she facilitates the HSC meetings and the thirty-five member-staff and accepts the and organizes the reports from staff pertaining to (1) peripheral security,   (2) biochemical defense,   (3) continuity of operations between agencies, (4) emergency preparedness (5) anticipation of ‘events’, and (6) nuclear defense. She works hand in hand with the Assistant for the National Security Affairs in combating terrorism.Naturally, homeland security would involve that of the United States Intelligence Community (production and dissemination of intelligence) and the Military of the US (civilian protection). The Intelligence is subdivided into three, namely, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and National Security Agency (NSA); and the Military Unit, into four, Army, Marines, Navy, and Coast Guard. Their executive heads work hand in hand with HSC and the transfer of information and job relation of the various agencies all assist in the rendering of the task of bringing about homeland security.Bush’s National Strategy for Homeland Security, which was amended in Oc tober 2007, aims to target security at two levels: (1) terrorist and non-terrorist attacks which may have implications for the security and (2) offense and defense on the face of terrorism.   The conceptual framework on the Strategy is based on the following goals: (1) avert terrorist attacks; (2) protect state members, assets, properties, resources; (3) counteract incidents; and (4) strengthening the foundation to for long-term success.With so many levels or branches of government, would it still be possible for an effective management and delivery of homeland security system? Bush’s strategy and to achieve that of the fourth goal, proposed for a comprehensive Homeland Security Management System at the national, state and tribal level using the scheme guide-plan-assess-execute-evaluate. All complementary processes and practices must be implicated at all levels, employ multidisciplinary education opportunities, use s & t and governmental influences, and working hand-in hand with the Congress.There are problems regarding this area although this is highly resolvable by an ingenius shift of high-performance information technology between sectors. The e-government, as we may call it can facilitate, a more clear connection between the hundreds of agencies whose roles are rather overlapping and who must maintain thousands of information across the different bureaus. This may also facilitate not only more efficient communication between government agency channels but as well as mediated response between the members of the state and the government.The E-government strategy as an agenda for improving efficiency across homeland security channels may facilitate for a good protective homeland security measures in addition to the branching, structure of the Homeland Security.ReferencesForman, M.(2002). E-Government Strategy. Retrieved Dec 17, 2008 from http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg/egovstrategy.pdf.Homeland Security Council. (2007). Retrieved Dec 17, 2008 from http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/

Starion Entrepreneurship Case Analysis

M3786 NEW VENTURE PLANNING SAMPLE CASE ANALYSIS REPORT STARION ENTREPRENEURSHIP SAMPLE CASE ANALYSIS REPORT Starion Instruments, headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA is a private company with core IP assets based on the exclusive license of groundbreaking medical research in the field of laser tissue welding. Starion hopes to revolutionize the electrosurgical field with the introduction of products like its cautery forceps used for cutting and sealing (cauterizing) tissue. The overall annual market for these types of medical devices is in excess of $1 billion.Furthermore, Starion’s promising IP and continued research goals will enable it to gain a significant foothold in the worldwide medical technology industry with sales reaching $150 billion annually. The foundation of Starion’s IP lies in the hands of Dr. Michael Treat’s research. In the 1980s Dr. Treat and Dr. Larry Bass, a plastic surgeon resident at Columbia Presbyterian, started experimenting with lasers in sur gery. With a humble beginning the two surgeons worked from Columbia Presbyterian’s 17th floor lab on their innovative research.Together, these two pioneers invented the field of laser tissue welding – using thermal energy to rejoin tissue severed in surgery. However, this technology remained uncommercialized for several years after its initial discovery. Shelly Monfort, a Stanford-trained engineer, began her entrepreneurial career in 1986. With a background in R&D on medical devices as well as start-up experience, commercializing those devices, Ms. Monfort and two engineers, Ken Mollenaur and George Hermann, were involved in the creation, funding, and exit of at least 6 surgical device companies from 1990-1996.Ken Mollenaur maintains experience designing and building medical prototypes. George Hermann possesses extensive experience navigating the medical device approval process; working with the major regulatory bodies in the industries. By June 1988, Ms. Monfort had s igned a license with Columbia; Starion Instruments could now begin building a staff and a product to bring to market. With their exclusive licensing deal in place, Dr. Treat left Columbia for Starion’s California headquarters and began developing the product.In October 1999 Starion instruments, represented by Dr. Treat, made its debut at the American College of Surgeons Conference, the single most important industry event for people who would buy and use the product. At the time, the company’s goal was to raise $750,000 in capital. Ms. Monfort assembled $2 million from private investors along with a pair of venture capital firms. At the time Starion’s valuation was $7 million. This was a crucial point for the company. Success or failure is often based on an initial market foray.The direction chosen by management in this situation had an irrevocable effect on the company’s overall performance. A capital infusion of only $750,000 severely limited the compan y’s marketing and development capabilities and was a gross underestimation of the company’s capital needs; a clear representation of Ms. Monfort’s inexperience. Furthermore, the company’s additional capital requirements were highlighted by the investors’ willingness to infuse a $2,000,000 round when only solicited for $750,000. To Ms. Monfort’s credit it was her colleague and mentor, Dr.Thomas Fogarty, a legend in the surgical world, who insisted on the additional capital. The company planned to go to market with a package consisting of single use disposable forceps and a disposable battery pack. The forceps would carry a price tag of $410 and the battery pack would list for $39. The effort was directed toward an open surgery application. Open surgeries accounted for approximately 80% of procedures performed at the time. Starion planned to eventually expand to laparoscopic devices once it gained additional market share.An important aspect of Starion’s strategy was to market its product as not only a superior tool as far as results, but also to highlight the simplicity and cost effectiveness of its offering. Surgeons, the principal buyer in this space, are known to be fairly innovative, willing to try new things. However, it is only with repeated use that they gain skill with a given device. Therefore, it is critical that they see not only a cost advantage, but a significant increase in product performance in order for considerable adoption to take place.Starion’s choice to focus on the core buyer requirements magnifies their intimate knowledge of the space and contributed greatly to the company’s overall success. The decision was made to concentrate on an open surgery strategy. Early adoption, particularly for a small fish in a big pond, is critical to any start up. This direction, spearheaded by management, was a deft decision for several reasons. The customer base in this field consists of an end user with a complex hierarchy and buyer process. However, it is ultimately the end user’s decision which makes or breaks a product in this ield. Therefore, the decision to launch the product for use in open surgeries as opposed to laparoscopic procedures vastly increased the attractiveness to the early adopter base. The open surgery tool strategy enabled doctors to rely on backwards compatibility (the ability to simply fall back on the tried and true cut and suture method), another key point with â€Å"experimental† tools and methods. Prior to Starion’s laser tissue welding breakthrough, the most common electrosurgical tool was the monopolar device, also known as the Bovie device.With this technology, the patient is wired to a grounding pad that provides a path for the electrical current to flow. The surgeon uses an electrode to pass a high-frequency electrical current through a patient to cut and cauterize tissue in a selected area. The Bovie requires a genera tor that costs between $7,500 and $10,500 a year. In addition, each operation requires disposable (one time use) grounding pads and electrodes, whose combined cost is 5 to 6 dollars per procedure. The disadvantages include (relatively rare) situations in which the device causes burns to the patient at the side of the grounding pad.Additionally, the Bovie’s high energy output can interfere with the ever growing mass of electronic equipment in modern operating rooms. An alternative to the Bovie device is the UltraCision, also known as the harmonic scalpel. This device uses ultrasound to generate the heat needed to cut and seal tissues. Ethicon Endo-Surgery Inc. a Jonson & Johnson subsidiary owns UltraCision. Starion estimates that the ultrasound based product has annual sales of approximately $100 million. Like the Bovie device, the UltraCision system requires a reusable power supply, which costs approximately $15,000.The system also uses an electrical cable that costs $630 and must be replaced after approximately 100 surgeries. In addition, single-use tips that cost approximately $325 are also required. Given the relatively high degree of cost associated with marketing medical technologies, Starion pursued a strategy in which it would segment a large market and avoid going head to head with its competitors. Due to its small size and relative weaknesses, Starion was forced to parse the market even further deciding to promote its technology specifically for use in a single procedure which would greatly reduce the overall cost of their product launch.The variable costs, excluding sales commissions, for both the battery and forceps were projected to equal about 40% of the sales price. Fixed costs, excluding R&D, were expected to total $1. 1 million in the first year of operation and $1. 65 million in the second year. R&D for the first year was projected at $1. 25 million and $1. 45 million for the second year. Given the industry standard, this team had the n ecessary components for a successful start-up. The initial engineering and development of a product like Dr.Treat’s is best done in a small workshop by passionate and dedicated serial entrepreneurs. However, the team’s inability to surrender the reigns of the company inexorably inhibited the firm’s future growth. Conversely, the small, dedicated team was able to react dynamically to the market positioning their product with care in a segment which allowed a gain in market share. This short-term success may well translate to continued development; however, the degree of future shareholder value is limited by an order of magnitude equal to the founder’s shortsightedness.In the medical device field, there are some significant barriers to entry; the combination of patents, expensive/extensive clinical trials and research in conjunction with strict federal government oversight can overwhelm smaller companies, and help protect established players against compet ition. The FDA is the primary regulator of medical devices, and its mandate is to insure that the devices that reach the market are safe and effective. The medical device industry is populated by a small number of major device manufacturers and diversified medical companies in addition to the large number of small companies.Dominant players in the industry include: Johnson & Johnson, Baxter International, Becton Dickinson, Medtronic, Guidant, Boston Scientific, and U. S. Surgical (a unit of Tyco). The combined market capitalization of the industry leaders mentioned is approximately $300 billion with the smallest just over $9 billion (Source: Bloomberg). Medical products and services companies invest around 8% of annual revenues in R&D, this compares to 3 to 4% invested by U. S. manufacturers (Standard & Poors). However, the true path to innovation in this industry is through mergers and acquisitions.Due to overwhelming development and production costs coupled with a large upfront ma rketing outlay, partnership and acquisitions are the industry norm, not the exception. Even well capitalized companies will often choose the route above, rather than face the huge barriers that exist in this market. The Four P’s: Product, Promotion, Protection and Price. Product – Revolutionary technology. Promotion – Combination of in-house and franchised channels. Protection – Strong IP backed not only by the company but by Columbia. Price – 91. 45% savings†¦Speaks for itself.Further data was not supplied however the following is an example of some of the continued financial analysis we would conduct. Financial analysis: Profit ratios: Gross Profit Margin = (Sales revenue – COGS) / Sales Revenue Net Profit Margin = Net Income / Sales Revenue Return on total Assets = Net income available to common stock holders / Total Assets Return on stock holders equity = net income available to common stock holders / stockholders equity Liquidity R atios: Current Ratios = Current Assets / Current liabilities Quick Ratio = (Current assets – Inventory) / Current liabilities Inventory Turnover = COGS / InventoryLeverage Ratios: Debt-to-Assets Ratio = Total Debt / Total Assets Debt-To-Equity Ratio = Total Debt / Total Equity Cash Flow Analysis: Determine appropriate debt levels, payout periods and additional analysis to confirm liquidity. Net Profit Margin = Net Income / Sales Revenue First Year: -4,639,464/4,000,000= -1. 16 Second Year: -689,333/8,000,000 = -. 086 Gross Profit Margin = (Sales revenue – COGS) / Sales Revenue (4,000,000 – 1600000) / 4,000,000 = 0. 6 Pricing strategy: Pricing is currently very aggressive and sales strategy prudent.Initial management was executed properly, however it is likely that changes will need to be made in the near term to achieve significant market share. Partners: Strategic alignments are mainstays in this industry and should be aggressively pursued. Strategic investment ; merger; acquisition. Intellectual Property: IP is an essential aspect of any medical device company given the simplicity of the concept; the device may come up against some protection issues. Early indications seem to support the strength of the company’s IP, however it is certainly a concern which warrants further investigation.Note: Both Starion and Columbia would be behind any major IP issue. Given the state of the industry and the unique positioning of the company’s IP prospects a partnership/acquisition would be our main point of recommendation in the near term. During this transition it may be prudent to rethink the current organizational structure, with a specific focal point on senior management (when moving to a new phase often times senior management, who were suited for the initial stage or better succeeded by a new team).RECOMMENDATIONS: Our recommendation consists of three key elements that will drive profitability, continued growth, and increase market share – adding shareholder value. Breakeven and ultimately profitability can be achieved (1) by instituting aggressive pricing to both vendors and sales force, (2) the merger of Starion Instruments with a bigger firm and/or (3) the acquisition of another firm that will allow them to manufacture, distribute, market and sell the product at a cheaper and more efficient manner.Current State: Currently, Starion is the one of the world leaders on surgical device development. It has expanded worldwide distribution of its proprietary tissue welding technology to physicians in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Last year the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons named Starion Instruments the 2007 Innovator of the Year for the development of its next-generation Tissue Ligating Shears which use its innovative cut and cauterizing technology.Since the launch of their original Cautery Forceps, Starion has created an entire line of Forceps and Ligating Shears which can all be viewed on their website http://www. starioninstruments. com/products. html. They are still a privately held company which is astounding given their tremendous success. This is not surprising given the fact that the first time they were offered to be bought out they declined. This has kept the leadership at the mercy of the owners and founders and will provide a unique company such as Starion the ability to continue providing innovative, cost efficient, and quality