Marketing Concept

In the article â€Å"Pow! Romance! Comics Court Girls† by Matthew Phillips, it features the comic company’s new market. Male readers have always been the comics company’s target market for the past several years. Commonly, the main character portrays the strength of male gender. In the launching of the new comic series, â€Å"The Plain Janes†, â€Å"Re-Gifters†, â€Å"Clubbing,† DC Comics set a new target market, which are the female readers. It is a big opportunity to expand the possible customers for their market. Their market strategy is that they made the titles more appealing to the women. They based it on fantasy and romantic storylines to get girls’ attention. They emphasized female strength and their interests. By this strategic move, comic-book industry had their most significant growth. The Diamond Comics rose their sales to a 15% increase while Marvel Entertainment's publishing-segment revenue — which includes sales to booksellers and comic shops — rose 17% to $108.5 million. This market strategy is very advantageous for both parties. It provides materials for the female readers and also an additional market implying additional income for the company. The benefit of the market expansions is advantageous not only to the customers but more importantly to the company itself. The â€Å"Nolan Ryanx Pitches Virtues of U.S. Beef To Dubious Japanese† written by Amy Chozick, was all about the campaign on how to win back the Japanese customers on buying U.S. beef products. It has been very evident that the demand for beef had decreased since it was banned in Japan at 2003 due to the outbreak of mad-cow disease. It was a big challenge since there is a huge decrease in market and also competition was intensified. Japanese ordered more than 50% of their beef from Australia. By using a promotional strategy on the declining market, their market sales had been saved. Baseball legend Nolan Ryan was made as a campaign model. The slogan â€Å"Beef makes you strong!† was thrown during a ceremonial first pitch during a baseball game at   A concession stand called the â€Å"American Meat Booth† sold boxes filled with American beef and featuring Mr. Ryan's photo in the meat aisles at major grocery stores under in Chiba, a Tokyo suburb, last month. The campaign starring Mr. Ryan was featured in more than 2,000 different beef-related promotions over a three-month period. Once the problem was identified, promotional strategies (advertising campaign) are useful in uplifting the image of the product (U.S. beef) to the customers (Japanese consumers). Using Nolan Ryan, a well-known pitcher, as the endorser has a big impact on the Japanese since Japan is fond of baseball. He is also a credible person in line with meat knowledge since he also has his own cattle farm. In effect of this campaign, the American beef monthly sales had been doubled according to Philip Seng, president of the Denver-based federation. The cost of the promotion has not been stated but the ideal is that it should be relatively lower than the revenue. He admitted that there is a lot more to do to regain the past demand, after the sudden decline in sales due to the negative connotation of the mad-cow outbreak, but as their sales imply, the promotional campaign can be said successful.    Marketing Concept Marketing philosophy has experienced three major shifts during the history of commerce in the United States. First it was production oriented, then sales oriented, and currently it is consumer oriented. Till the late 1920s, companies had limited production capacity, and there was continuous demand for their products. The belief at that time was that, one can sell as much as one can produce. The entire company used to focus on production and Marketing was limited to taking order and supplying products on time. With the introduction of mass-production, production capacity caught up with and, in many areas, exceeded demand. Now, the businesses were sales oriented. Their philosophy became selling as much as one can, by using advertisements and other promotional activitiesThe end of World War II bought a world of choices to the consumers and a lot of competition to the existing players. There started a heavy competition for the consumer dollar. Businesses quickly came to realize that if t hey were going to get their share of those dollars, they were going to have to become more consumer oriented. This change in philosophy became known as the marketing concept.The Marketing concept relies on marketing research to define market segments their size and their needs. It is the philosophy that the companies should analyze the needs of their customers and then make decision to satisfy those needs better than their competition. (www.NetMBA.com)Thus, the marketing concept is essentially establishing a tangible relation between a company’s capabilities with customer needs. However, this is not the only factor that is taken into account. The marketing environment has other competitors who are planning the very same strategies to lure consumers. Herb Kelleher, CEO of Southwest Airlines says†We don’t have a Marketing Department; we have a customer department† And in the words of a fords executive â€Å"If we are not customer driven, our cars won’ t be either† (Kotler, Armstrong. 2006). Companies that have embraced the marketing concept have found that it has had a strong impact on sales. They have also found that, in many respects, it has changed the way they operate.In addition the volatility of the marketing environment like and changes in the political, economic, social and technological environment, should also be taken into account, while developing a strategy. Any organization that applies the marketing concept essentially puts its present and potential customer’s needs as a guideline for its marketing and organizational operations.For e.g. – Consumers need to eat when they are hungry. What they want to eat and in what kind of environment will vary enormously. For some, eating at McDonalds satisfies the need to meet hunger. For others a microwaved ready-meal meets the need. Some consumers are never satisfied unless their food comes served with a bottle of fine Chardonnay. (http://www.tutor2u.net/bus iness/marketing/marketing_concept.asp)However, after creating a desire in the consumers, the pricing should also be sufficiently affordable, make them actually purchase the product.The Marketing concept first analyzes the needs of the consumer and then decides the appropriate product to fulfill those needs. Being customer driven, the marketing concept starts with a target market and customers. The company then focuses on the needs of these consumers and integrates all its marketing activities towards building an effective relation with these customers.For e.g. – The shift in buying behavior from marketplace to â€Å"marketspace â€Å"made Microsoft enter into online automobile retailing with CarPoint.com. While CarPoint could not â€Å"sell† or deliver any cars, it could shift much of consumer search, comparison, and decision-making, including pricing, from the physical platform of the traditional car dealer to the virtual world of the Web (Boyd, Walker, Mullins, 200 6).As is clearly seen above, such customer-driven approaches succeed, when the consumers know what they want. There is a clear need which is fulfilled by a combination of product and promotional mix. In many cases however, the customers do not know what they want or need. For e.g. – 25 years back, the concept of e-books or for that matter cell phones for a regular usage was something an average customer could not foresee.Such cases call for customer driver marketing, where the company understands the customers even better than the customers themselves. As Sony’s Akio Morita says â€Å"Out plan is to lead the public with new products, rather than as them what kind of products they want.† (Kotler, et al, 2006) SONY Corporation was the first to come up with the idea of a â€Å"walkman†, when they observed that consumers like music to be with them always. It is just as if they well â€Å"humming the music†. The idea, which was initially fiercely oppose d, became a milestone in the company’s history.Marketing CommunicationAccording to Philip Kotler – Any Company’s marketing strategy requires more than just developing a good product, attractively pricing it and ensuring its ready availability to its consumers. The strategy must include communicating with its current and prospective customers, and what they communicate should not be left to chance. (Kotler et al 2006)Companies use a wide range of marketing communications to promote the company, their products and their services. A company’s total marketing communication mix consists of a combination of tools like advertising, sales promotion, public relations, personnel selling and direct marketing tools (Kotler et al. 2006).Each of these categories involves specific tools. Advertising includes brochures, flyers TV/radio broadcasts etc.   Sales promotion includes free demos, discount coupons, Sale etc. Public relations includes sponsorships, press releas es etc. Personnel selling includes trade shows, sales presentations etc. Direct marketing includes telemarketing, direct selling etc.Before any company decides to go in for a specific blend of the above mentioned tools, it should first decide the message to be passed across, the recipients or audience for the message, way and means of presentation and its timing. In addition the follow-up actions after the message is passed across should also be decided, in order to avoid confusion when the orders or product information requests do start coming in.Owing to the advancements in Information technology, the consumers are now becoming increasingly aware of various choices available to them. The markets hence are seen to becoming more fragmented. Targeting these different fragmented groups becomes a challenge for the company, especially when they wish to portray different images of the company to the consumers, without affecting the overall company’s brand image. This calls in for Integrated marketing communications,IMC , the integration of the company’s entire communications channel to deliver a clear and consistent message to the consumers, regarding the organization and various products. (Fill, 2004)The first step of any marketing communication strategy is awareness. Awareness in turn starts from curiosity.   A motion-control company launched its products in the Nuremberg market fair for the first time, by placing big boxes of candies in their stall. Needless to say, this attracted the curiosity of many people, who would later become its customers, to the stall just to ‘have a look at what is going on’.There is another thing which goes hand-in-hand with awareness, the target market or audience. This factor sets the tone of the promotion in question, and the kind of message to be passed on. There are two extreme end of the tone – humor and emotional. Companies use emotional appeal concepts like patriotism, family closeness, anim al welfare, sharing and giving etc. to promote their products.For e.g. – Salvation army uses moral appeal as a pull toward its goal of seeking attention. At the other end of the spectrum are the humorous ads, which are gaining more and more acceptance amongst American audience. According to various studies, light natured ads catch the attention of consumers. In one of its popular ads Budwieser and Bud light featured a wannabe donkey that wears fur hoof extensions and brays in effort to becoming a part of the Budweiser Clydesdales team (Kotler et al 2006).Message structure and format is very important, especially when print media is the desired mode of communication between the company and its consumers. Even the tele-ads are very much concerned about the overall logo and messages displayed on-screen to its consumers. The most popular example of this is the Statuary warning written on cigarette packs.They are always there, always mentioned and always displayed and yet the bala nce of injurious-yet fashionable is clearly visible in all of these ads. Yesmail sends clients’ promotional e-mail messages to targeted consumers who said â€Å"yes† when asked whether they wished to receive promotional offers in certain categories of interest (Winer, 2006).Choosing the media of communication is the next step. The is chosen based on getting the maximum amount of visibility and the media that creates lasting impression on the minds of consumers There are many channels that can be used in this case. For e.g. – the success of Harry Potter, collapsible scooters, the Chrysler PT Cruiser, and The Blair Witch Project is all due to word-of-mouth publicity (Kotler, Keller, 2005).The print media includes advertisements in magazine, newspapers, pamphlets etc. The most popular media still remain as the television and radio, though internet marketing is fast gaining over them.After the entire process of communication is done, one of the steps that should alw ays be done is collecting the feedback from the consumers. This is done so as to know the effectiveness of the communication on the minds of the consumer.This total marketing communications program used while promoting a company or business is called the promotional mix. Success is all about integrating separate approaches such as PR, internal and direct marketing into one complete marketing strategy. All the promotional elements which are used to gain customers must be planned and then implemented in a coordinated way. (Smith, Taylor, 2004).ReferencesBooksFill, C., â€Å"Marketing Communications: engagement, strategies and practice†, 2nd ed.,2004, FT Prentice HallKotler, P. Armstrong G., â€Å"Principles of Marketing†, 11th ed, 2006, PearsonKotler, P., Keller, K., â€Å"Marketing Management†, 12th ed., 1 March 2005, Prentice HallMullins, J., Walker, O., Boyd, H., â€Å"Marketing Management: A Strategic Decision-Making Approach†, 6th ed, 17 Oct 2006, McGr aw-Hill/IrwinSmith, R., Taylor, J., â€Å"Marketing Communications: An Integrated Approach†, 4th ed, 1  July 2004, Kogan PageWiner, R., â€Å"Marketing Management†, 3rd ed, 31 May 2006, Prentice HallWebsitesâ€Å"Marketing concept and orientation†,http://www.tutor2u.net/business/reference/marketing-orientationâ€Å"The Marketing Concept†, Oct. 2003, One Vision Ltd.â€Å"10 minutes Guide – Marketing Communication†, 2004, The Chartered Institute ofMarketinghttp://www.cim.co.uk/mediastore/10_minute_guides/10minguide_marketingcommunication.pdf

The Empire Company Limited

In the Empire Company Limited Case, James Vaux, the associate director at Scotia Capital is the main decision maker. It is his job in September of 1998 to decide on a price at which The Oshawa Group Limited will sell their company/accept a takeover offer at. The Oshawa Group Limited (Oshawa) is a food retail, wholesale, and distribution firm. The Empire Company wants to expand beyond their Atlantic Canada roots; however, there are a few catches. The Wolfe family owns 100% of the voting shares of the company, and not only know the value of their company and expect to receive at least that much, but also a premium on top of that.Greg Rudka is the Managing Director at Scotia Capital; he has extensive background in the history of the grocery industry and was the one who noticed this opportunity as well as the person who assigned James Vaux to his assignment of the value of Oshawa. ISSUES There are two main issues at hand. First, Vaux needs to determine a value for both classes of shares that Empire would be willing to pay to the Wolfe family and Oshawa equity holders to acquire a position in the Oshawa Company without starting a bidding war.The second issue is that Vaux needs to find a way to finance the deal. There are a few minor issues in this case, starting with competition. The grocery industry is very competitive. There are only a few large firms involved in the industry. Of course, there are mom and pop stores all over North America, but they only make enough to live themselves and they are not bringing in the same profits as the major chains, so they are not legitimate threats to Empire. Next, the Oshawa Company’s entire voting shares are owned by the Wolfe family as mentioned above.This will add to the level of difficulty in the purchase or acquisition of Oshawa. Finally, the last issue is that in the grocery industry, it is cheaper to acquire a competitor’s company and chains than it is to open a new store. In other words, horizontal acquisi tions were the primary source of growth on the revenue side for the grocery business. People don’t like change and because of this, creating or changing the name of their â€Å"local grocery store† may upset or disrupt their previous shopping experiences.

Towards the Quality of Higher Education

TOWARDS THE QUALITY OF HIGHER EDUCATION Brief review of the quality of Higher Education in Ancient India: The system of higher educaton is started from the ancient times in India. During the ancient times, Education was closely linked with religon. It was taken up by Teachers as a labour of love and by the students as part of their training for culture and citizenshp. It was not universal education. In regard to higher instituton of learning – Tols (Higher Education) was developed among the Hindus and Madrassah (Higher Education) was existed among the Muslim.Although the Hindu and Muslims had separate learning institution, many features were common to both the types of institution. Under the Buddhist rulers in India, Learning was fostered by the numerous monasteries under the guidance of monks and nuns. The Brahmanical system of education mainly centered at home of Individual Teacher was superseded by monasteries system of Buddhist education. For the first time in India, and p erhaps in the whole world, a great famous Buddhist seat of higher learning like Taxila, Nalanda, Vikramshila and Vallabhi Universities were flourished in India which can be compared with modern Universties.These Universities were better well organised than the Brahmanical higher education because they recieved state endowment for many centuries from the successive kings from the time of Buddha. The Universities introduced regular course of studies in different subjects and admission test for all students. There was no discrimination in admission and Technical Education and Women Education were also introduced as it recieved encouragement from the ruler and the rich people. Amongst these Universities of ancient India, Nalanda Universities was take its specialities.Students from China, Nepal, Tibet, Korea etc came to study and obtain valuable knowledge. Entrance examination was very strict and only 20 percent of the candidates succeeded in getting admission during this period. Brief r eview of Indian Education Commission in Modern India: The system of higher education, which we find today in our country, started after the advent of the British in India. When the Brtish established their authority in India, they did not willing to take responsibility of educating the Indian people. In order to trained some Indians for minor jobs in the company’s office, they started schools and colleges.By the charter act of 1813, only one lakh of rupees for the improvement of the quality of education was left. The British rulers only established many government and private colleges and the higher education was in a very disorganise at the time. Within a period of time, The British rulers realised that the necessity to organise and improved the quality of education and appointed Wood’s Despatched of 1854. As a result of the recommendations made by Wood’s Despatched of 1854, the Universities of Culcutta, Bombay and Madras were established n 1857 on the model of London University.On the model of the formers, Allahabad University was also established in 1882. But all universities performed the functioned of only conducting examinations and affiliating bodies and undertook no teaching and research. In order to enquired the standard of Indian education and prepared recommendations, the Government of India appointed various Indian Education Commissions and selected eminent educationist as a members. Within a period of hunhred years, sixth Education Commissions were appointed.The recommendations of sixth Indian Education Commissions can be conveniently studied under the following:- i) Indian Education Commission or Hunter Commisson, 1882:By accepting the recommendation of Hunter Commission 1882, the college education recieved a great impetus and a number of colleges were established during 1901-1902. ii) Indian Universities Commission in 1902:During the period of Lord Curzon, University Education made a great progress. In order to improve the q uality of University Education in all branches, Lord curzon adopted the policy of control and improvement.He appointed Indian Universities Commission in 1902 in order to enquired the conditions and working of the Indian Universities and made necessary suggestions. Two years later, Indian University Act 1904 was passed. This act brought many important change in the organisation, jurisdiction, powers and administration etc of the universties. The expansion of the university education was checked for sometime, due to lack of revolutionary change in the system of universities. But it was admitted later on which improved and reforms the conditions and standards of the contemporary universities and colleges. ii) Culcutta Univesity Commission or Sadler Commission, 1917:After the establishment of Allahabad Universities 1882, no new universitiy was established till 1917. However, a number of colleges were increased. In order to cope with the increased work, the Culcutta Univesity Commission or Sadler Commission was appointed by The British Government. Although, the commission was mainly interfere in the problems of Culcutta University, it gave out reforms and change which were great value into higher education in India as a whole. Now, the Universities were not only examining body, but became a centre of teaching and learning.By accepting recommendation of the Commission 1917, more than 16 universities were established in different places of India till 1947. iv) Indian University Education Commission or Radhakrishnan Commission, 1948:The expansion of higher education has recieved a great impetus after Independence. Number of institution in the field of higher education and enrollement of students in the centers of higher studies were increased year by year. The university education was imparted through arts, science and commerce and professional colleges, researched institution.The institutions deemed to be universities under the University Grants commission Act, 1956. In adition to Central universities, state universties and their affiliated colleges, Indira Gandhi Open Universty and other Open Universities are doing commendable job in the field of higher education. In order to meet the present and future requirements of the country, the Government of India appointed Indian Education Commission or Radhakrishnan Commission in 1948 to suggest improvements and extentions of th Indian Universities. The terms of reference of the commission were very wide and vast.It suggested that various aspects of the university Education in India and means for the improvement and reorganisation of the university education. Research and other standard of university educaton, problems of teachers, curriculum, medium of instructon, religious education, problem of discipline, health and residence of the students an such allied problems in the perspective of the natonal and international conditions. In fact, The report of this Commissions is the most comprehensive repo rt on education, but its recommendations is very important and far reaching consequences. ) Secondary Education Commission or Mudaliar Commission, 1952 vi) National Education Commission or Kothari Commission (1964-66): Since Independence, there has been a good deal of quantitative development of education but qualitative has lagged behind. Unimplementing of the policy of the directive principles of the constitution to make free and copulsory education below 14 years, problem of literacy, low standard of primary and secondary edcation, diversification of curriculum and problem of educated unemployment were the the main problems since Independence.In order to evaluate the different stages of education and to evolved a National system of Education, the Government of India appointed the Kothari Commission in July 14, 1964. The Commission submitted its report and recommendation in June, 1966. People expressed high hopes when the Reports of the Education commission was first published in 1966. Already, several years have passed, nothing has practically been done to achieved the targets as recommended by the commission. The commission give any useful suggestion an the source of finance, on which the implementation of the recommendations entirely depends.If it si of course a fact that it was not the bussiness of the commission to deal with the financial side, but we cannot ignore reality. The suggestion made by the Kothari Commission in respect of different organs of education were very important. The Government have already implemented some of the suuggestions and the effort are still being made to make important the rest of the suggestion. Taking all things into consideration, we may say that the report of the education Commission is a sincere attempt to improve the existing system of education in all aspects and in all stages.If it can be implemented, it will remove some of the glaring defects of our educational system. Problems Higher Education: It is clear from t he above discussion that the expansion of higher education has recieved a great impetus since independence. The policy of the government still has been to increase the number of the institutions of higher education rather than the aim at the qualitative progress of higher education. Besides this, the government did not pay proper attention to the multi-lateral problems of higher education and not made special effort to remove the defects of higher education.Since recommendation made by the Kothari Commission, the government declared National Educational Policy of 1986. It is good that is being given to the specializaton in higher education. The problems of the higher and University education in india is nothing but the problems of Indian society in general. If we want to established a society based on the principles of democratic socialism, we must have reoriented the entire educational structure. Without a hgh standard of general, vocatonal and professional education, democracy can not survived. But there is a still a lag between our Ideal and reality.Our Universities have not been able to shake off the heavy load of bookish knowledge. The main problems for the falling of the standard and quality of higher and universities education in India are under the following:- 1. No definite aims among students of higher education:One of the problem which checked the standard of higher education is its aimlessness. Most of the student are recieved higher education without having any definite aim. the student must have definite aim before starting hgher education. In order to raise the standard of higher education, the university should change the aims and objectives.Newmen remarks the aims of university education in 1952, â€Å"If a practical and must be assign to a university course, the i say it is training of good members of the society. † 2. Increase of Wastage and Stagnation:The problem of wastage and stagnaton exist in a greater degree at the stage of highe r and university education. Most of the important causes of wastage and stagnation are Ineffective methods of teaching, unhealthy environment of institution and society, defective system of curriculum and examination and lack of finance among the students etc.In order to solve this problem, it suggest that to make healthy environment of institutions and society, revised and reforms of curriculum and examination system, raise the standard of teaching and given grants and loans to effort the study of students. 3. Lack of interesting subjects in Curriculum:Most of the the curriculum of college are old and out of date and failed to fulfil the interest of the student which checked the intellectual developmentof the student. Radhakrishnan Commission remarks, â€Å"A curriculum which had validity in the vedic period or the renaissance cannot continue unaltered in the 20th century. To solve this problem, the curriculum should revised and reforms for the interest of young advanced students. 4. Specialisation in Education:University emphasized spacialization in different subjects. After completed University education, students acquired special knowledge and skills in some particular subjects. Their outlook remains narrow and unbalanced to became completely educated in real sense. This narrow specializaton can be remove by establishing harmony between general education and specialization which developed the personality of the students and will became dutiful citizens. Absence of proper Guidance and Councelling for student:The absence of proper guidande and councelling, the students select their course according to their own choice or with thw advice of some inexperience persons. Consequently, most of the students make a wrong choice in their subjects and lost interest in their study. In order to solve this problem, the educational institution should make provision of experience and trained persons to provide proper guidandance and councelling of students from the beginn ing till the end. 6. Low standard of Teaching:The standard of teaching in our colleges and university is very low.Many suggestions has made to raise the standard of teaching in education. The more prominents are – increase the salary of the teachers, balanced workload of teachers, improvement of service condition of teacher, provision of tutorial classes, well-organised libraries and laboratories, encouragement of debates and discussion, Professional training for Junior Lecturers and Re-orientation Course for new Lecturers. 7. Defective Examination System:The present examination system of our universities has many defects and severely criticized by ndian and foreign educatonist.The university education commission of 1949 points out that, â€Å"If we are any single reforms in universty, it should be that of examinaton. † It can be reforms through scientific method. In order to reforms Examination system, it suggest that adoption of continous comprehensive internal evalu ation, semester system and grading system. It also suggest to developed question banks, demarcation of syllabus, setting and moderations of question, Evaluation of answer script and conduct of examinations. 8. Indiscipline among the Student:The problem of indiscipline among students is very serious and complicated in educatonal institution.Financial irregularity, minor and disorderly misconduct, theft and burglary, sex misconduct, misuse of privledge and cheating n examination were the main problems of institutions. Professor Siddhant remarks, â€Å"the best way to solve is to divert the activities into healthy channels including sports, games, cooperative, living in hostels, self-management of masses, organise debates and symposia, councelling of indiscipline students etc. 9. Too much Interference of Student Societies in College Affairs:The student societies in educational institutions of higher education also make a serious problem.They were too much interfered in the affairs of the institutons which prove to be a scourge. In order to reduce this problem, the uiversity ntroduced legislaton for keeping control of student societies. In order to developed the intellectual powers of student and homely atmosphere of instituton, the student societies should also organised programme like leadership training, Life skills training, seminars, workshop etc. 10. Rapid increase of the number of Student:The development of higher education in India is taking place rapidly since Independence. The numbr of students in higher institution is constantly increasing.University Grants Commission remarks that, â€Å"If increasing number admtted in our universites without corresponding expansion of facilities, there is a great risk of the academic standard being imparted further. † In order to checked the ncreasng number of students in university, It has been suggested that the new and modern method of selective system of admission should be adopted. 11. Non-availability of Educatioal Facilities and Lack of Funds :The main reason for the low standard of education in universities is non-availability of educational facilities and lack of funds.The student face shortage of books, libraries are not well-equiped. In many degree college, no proper building and classroom and do not possess even playgrounds. To solve this problem, a high level committee should be appointed for providing necessary funds to the institution. The Government of India, the State Government and non-governmental organisations and the rich people should provide necessary funds and donations to raise the standard of higher education. 12. Poor conditions of the salary Teachers:The teachers of colleges and universties are getting less salaries and allownces in order to meet their expense.Consequently, they are not able to devote themvelves with heart and soul into the teaching works. The Commission has made important provisions to increase the salaries and allownces of the teachers at dif ferent stage should be implemented by the Government. 13. Too much burden of the works and service of the Teachers: The teachers also have been burdened with too much work. and not able to performed th teaching work properly. The prominence teacher of university were given research work.The Kothari Commission has remarked, â€Å"There is much serous concern that in many places there is too much teaching but relatively too little of good teaching. † The Education commission has made important provisions to improvement the works and service of the teachers should be implemented by the Government. 14. Wide gulf between the Teachers and Students:The increasing number of students in higher education making a wide gulf between the students and the teachers. The teachers not able to recognise each students of the class and no interaction between them.While in western countries the students and teachers work together like family and build good relationship between them, there is no r elatinship between the students and teachers and separated their interest in India. In order to build relationship between the students and the teachers, it is necessary to adopt tutorial system. Beside this, the educational institution should also organise more interaction programme like debate and discussion, seminar, workshop etc which help the students to increase their knowledge with the help of the teachers.Almost all the above problems have attracted the attention of the University Education Commission, which has made many suggestions to solve these problems. Most of these suggestions have been accepted by the government and many of them have already been implemented. It may, therefore, be hope that after solving all our present problems, the higher education will make the complete development of the personality of the youth and by developing their intellectual and physical powers will make them able citizens of the country.

Suitable alternative that addresses crime Term Paper

Suitable alternative that addresses crime - Term Paper Example Consequently, the mayor has commissioned the renovation of the correctional facilities in the city. He has sought the assistance of professionals in improving the conditions within the facilities. It is noticeable that the facilities in the city are ill equipped to serve the populace. Consequently, it is urgent to improve the conditions within the facilities. The authorities are expecting a surge in cases of crime in megacity due to the stagnation in economic growth. The mayor states that authorities will find it hard to deal with the situation because they are ill equipped to serve the needs of the population. Moreover, the rigidity of the jurisdictions in the city complicates the situation further. The facilities are undermanned, making it difficult for them to serve their purposes. Authorities need to tackle the circumstances prior to them becoming dire to accommodate the rise in the number of incarnates. The objective is to invent a suitable alternative that addresses crime in th e city. Consequently, the paper discusses the challenges that authorities face when dealing with cases of crime. Furthermore, the paper focuses on the functions of the correctional facility in addressing cases of crimes in the society. Lastly, the paper intends to discuss the relationship amid the rise in crime and the economic stability of the region. Under the stewardship of the mayor, the authorities are planning for the renovations at the facility. The mayor is collaborating with the commissioner of the facility in commissioning for the renovations of the facility.

Al Ain Distribution Company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Al Ain Distribution Company - Essay Example This is under the Law 2 of 1998 on 1 January 1999 with its Head Office at Al Ain. This company is a completely owned subordinate of Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority with a fully paid investment of AED Billion 1,530,000,000 (Al-Ain Distribution Company, 2012). It is the sole distributor of Water and electricity in the Eastern Area of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi (Al Ain City and adjacent countryside areas). This includes the ownership, maintenance, and operation of the electricity and water  distribution, network properties, meter reading, and facilities for the supply of water and electricity. The number AADC employees at the end of 2008 financial year were around more than 1900. The Company provides services the population in the East Region of Abu Dhabi (Al Ain Region), which is currently approaching half a million people. The company has established a documented Integrated Management System, which includes an IMS Policy statement, IMS procedures, IMS Management Manual, IMS Objectives, Operating Procedures, Flow Charts, Process Maps, and IMS Records. ADDC operates in the Eastern Region only, whereas Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Company (ADWEC) provide water and power distribution services in Abu Dhabi and its suburbs to approximately 216,000 customers (Abu Dhabi Water and Distribution Company, 2012). ... The company’s responsibility is to consistent, steady, and safely distribute water, electricity from Transco’s termination points to residential, commercial, agricultural, and government consumers in the Al Ain Region. The company executes the following to meet their responsibilities: Maintenance and distribution of the network of distribution assets. Secondly, the company carries out testing of water quality through its laboratory services. Lastly, the customer interfaces including billing, call center operation and revenue collection. The company uses a low cost strategy. The reason being it provides social very important social needs and, therefore all people in the region should be able to access their services. The evidence of their low cost strategy is through the low cost payments that the inhabitants make of only AED 50 (Dirham) for meter checkup fees (Abu Dhabi Water and Distribution Company, 2012). There are no addition fees the required to be paid. There are no clear employee productivity and measurement mechanisms in this company apart from the career development program. This program is offered to fresh graduates for training so that they can work in that company. Employee productivity is a very crucial aspect in terms of the achievement of company goals and objectives. One of the ways of employee productivity measurement is through the establishment of a baseline. A baseline is a standard used for measuring performance of an entity according to set goals and objectives (PM Hut, 2008). 3. FORECASTING According to the Al Ain Distribution Company, the procedures are outlined as follows. The Users connected to the Water Distribution System

Module 6 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Module 6 - Essay Example ther hand, commercialization of music also saw many companies becoming less concerned with servicing existing demand but with creating new tastes in order to manipulate demand. In the contemporary times, commercialization has affected my favorite rock band; the Californian based Linkin Park, through increased piracy which in turn has resulted in decreasing the band’s album sales. The Beatles and Rolling Stones took completely different paths in that the Beatles saw themselves as a pop group while the Rolling stones largely practiced rhythm and blues music. The two paths have remained important genres of rock music with rhythm and blues having its largest fan base among African Americans while pop is still more popular with white Americans. However, both the pop and RnBs music have made a significant impact on the global music industry and have many audiences in various parts of the world. Frith,  Simon  (1988).  The industrialization of music. in Andy Bennet, Barry Shank, Jason Toynbee. â€Å"Contemporary Dance Music and Club Culture,†Ã‚  in  Andy Bennett,  Cultures of Popular Music.  Buckingham/: Routlege,

Business ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Business ethics - Essay Example However, if there were no formal binding of legislation, it would be difficult to make employees comply with the rules and execute CSR practices effectively. In order to face this challenge, businesses need to align their framework based on certain principles that balances the financial and social performances of the company responding to stakeholders concerns at the same time (Schwartz, 2011). However, the framework and practices of Corporate Social Responsibilities varies with the culture and economy in which business operates. Mainly the communities in which the company operates are the major factors that drive ethical decisions of the corporation. The economic, cultural, environment and social issues are spontaneous. The pace of change in these factors is rapid and unpredictable. However, the core values of ethical conduct of the business are based on the effectiveness of the business to understand these changes and implement CSR policies that correspond with these issues. Hence, some of the CSR activities of the organization are based on legal contracts, and some are not based on formal binding. In the both  cases, Corporate Social Responsibilities that are not based on formal binding legislation enforcement are less  meaningful. Business ethics is code of conduct of the business it involves moral or ethical issues that may rise within a business with respect to its conduct with individuals or the entire organization. There are two dimensions of business ethics, normative and descriptive dimension. The Normative dimensions are the core corporate practice and specialization, and descriptive dimensions are experts and academics to understand the behaviour of business. In other words, Business ethics tells about the relation between the interactions of the organization with profit maximizing behaviour with non-economic concerns. However, there are several debates at international platform that citizen practices and framework of Corporate

Executive Compensation Plan Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Executive Compensation Plan - Term Paper Example According to the principal-agent theory, there is a difference of interest between shareholders as principals and senior managers as agents. The best way to optimize performance of senior managers is to link their pay to the performance of the firm (McKnight & Tomkins, 1999). At McDonald's, the members of the top management are paid according to a reasonable salary, performance-based annual bonus, cash incentives, stock options and other perquisites or fringe benefits. Annual base salary takes into account the competitive market of managerial talents, individual performance, tenure in position and internal equity. The annual bonus is designed to reward growth in operating income as well as individual performance, which is measured against qualitative performance goals. The cash incentives focus on the company's performance measures that are important for success. Stock options and restricted stock units (RSUs) are given either at initial employment, during promotion, renewal or fully vested. (McDonald's Corporation, 2010) The table below summarizes the executive compensation program at McDonald's as well as the corresponding financial performance measure where such compensations were based. ... Growth in operating income Determined primarily on annual growth in operating income that focuses on revenue growth, recurring strong profit margins and high level of cash flow Annual Bonus Cash Incentives Return on total assets Operating income divided by average assets. Designed to measure the overall health of the business and measures the success of strategic decisions Cash Incentives Earnings per Share Compound annual growth indicates the effectiveness of strategic growth RSUs Share price Aligns the incentives of executives with the interest of the shareholder in increasing their investment value Stock Options RSUs Total Shareholder Return Ties the payouts to the overall shareholder return an investor would have received from investing in the company's stock. It rewards above-market performance and holds top executives accountable for below-market performance Cash Incentives Recommendations for Effective Strategy Implementation On business growth The success of implementing the strategy depends on the company's ability to anticipate and respond effectively to the global trends in the fast-food industry such as consumer spending patterns, demographic changes, consumer tastes and preferences. It is recommended that McDonald's regularly evaluate their menu choices, physical restaurant atmosphere and activity, and nutritional awareness programs in order to effectively communicate the values that the company promotes as well as inspire trust and confidence from the consumers. It is also recommended that the company improve its existing products and to promote new product lines in order to attain sustainable growth and system-wide sales. On operational excellence The strategies are designed and developed in order to make McDonald's

Parental Substance Misuse the effects on Children Essay

Parental Substance Misuse the effects on Children - Essay Example Pregnancy and parenthood are important events to all people. They can serve as the spur for substance abusers to seek treatment, to continue treatment, and/or to seek assistance for their children. Parenthood may present a major opportunity for assisting clients in their treatment and assessing the needs of their children. This review has been prepared with the intention of encouraging efforts to respond to this opportunity in the United Kingdom. The proportion of women in drug abuse treatment programs or in need of drug abuse treatment has been increasing. During 2004, 30% of all admissions to drug treatment were female. (Rosenbaum, 2005) Much less is known and documented about the risks of child maltreatment associated with parental cocaine use. This is true despite the prevalence of cocaine use and evidence that cocaine dependency can substantially incapacitate the user (Robins, 2000). A May 2000 United Kingdom study yielded an â€Å"extremely conservative† estimate that some 2.2 million English are â€Å"hard core† cocaine addicts. Such users are reportedly over represented among the homeless and persons arrested for crimes. (Saunders, 2002) According to a study ‘The addicts who break into our homes, turn our neighbourhoods into war zones, and spread disease by selling their bodies are not casual, once-a-month users of illicit drugs-they are UK’s hard core addicts. The children of the hard core addict suffer even more severely, often from physical abuse, and always from neglect’. (Babbie, 2001) Generational continuity in the use of alcohol and drugs is documented in a number of recent studies (Coombs & Dickson, 2001). Adolescents are more likely to drink and use other drugs if their parents do. For example, Kandel and associates (2002) found that 82% of drinking families rise youth who also drink, while 72% of abstaining families produce

Death Represenataion in Sylvia Plaths Selected Poems Essay Example for Free

Death Represenataion in Sylvia Plaths Selected Poems Essay Death Representation in Sylvia Plaths Selected Poems Mohamed Fleih Hassan Instructor English Dept. / Abstract Death is one of the significant and recurrent themes in the poetry of Sylvia Plath. This paper aims at showing the poets attitudes towards death. Certain poems are selected to show the poets different attitudes to death: death as a rebirth or renewal, and death as an end. Most obvious factors shaped her attitudes towards death were the early death of her father that left her unsecured, and the unfaithfulness of her husband, Ted Hughes, who left her dejected and melancholic. Plaths Two views of a Cadaver Room, Sheep in Fog, A Birthday Present, Edge, and I Am Vertical are selected to outline her various perspectives towards death. Death Representation in Sylvia Plaths Selected Poems Generally speaking, death is represented in literature in various ways shifting from being an ominous terrifying force to a means of fulfillment and new beginnings. Death came to be a recurrent theme in Sylvia Plaths poetry due to the sudden death of her father. His death left the daughter with powerful feelings of defeat, resentment, grief and remorse. So the absence of the father had influenced her emotional life negatively to the extent that it is reflected clearly in her poems. Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) passed in periods of depression and there were precursors of suicidal act through fits of breakdown. Among the reasons for her early depression are the early death of her father that left her unsecured and her failure to attend a writing class at Harvard. Though she got a chair as a college guest-editor of the Mademoiselle, but she got monotonous with nothing to fall back on in New York. She broke down with the unfulfillment of her dream of being a successful writer. Therefore, she took an over-dose of sleeping-pills to end her misery, but she was saved. 1 After successful psychiatric sessions of recovery, Plath met Ted Hughes at Cambridge and they got married in 1956. She found in him a motive and substitute for the absence of the father. Hughes believed in her exceptional gift. In that period, the couple got success and fame with their poetic development, especially when they got children. Her poems had been published in Britain and America like, The Colossus 1960, which dealt with Plaths preoccupation with ideas of death and rebirth. Hughes love affair with another woman broke the heart of Plath, who suffered the devastation of the broken marriage. Shifting into a new flat in London, she started writing poems of rage, despair, love and vengeance but her poems were slowly accepted for publication. She suffered the traumatic breakdown and melancholia that she put her head in the oven in 11 April, 1963. 2 Death came to be a recurrent theme in the poetry of Sylvia Plath, and this theme has been represented in different ways in her poems. She did engage the reader either in a personal or an impersonal way to view death either as a liberating force or troubling depressing experience. Her depiction of death is reflected by the use of such techniques as imagery, language, structure, and tone. Her negative attitude towards death is caused by the early death of her father that left her dejected. In her poem Two views of a Cadaver Room (1959), she presents a pessimistic point of view towards death. This poem recounts an experience she had while dating a young Harvard medical student. She followed her boyfriend and some other medical students into an operating room where the students were busily dissecting a preserved corpse. The speaker and her boyfriend are horrified by the experience, the narrator offers two views of the cadaver room as alternate possibilities of depicting death in art; the physical view of death and the romantic view of death. One view is epitomized by the cadaver room contrasting the romantic one of death, which is represented by a detail from a Brueghel painting depicting two lovers, who are spell bounded by one another and careless to the destruction and devastation around them. The poem is written in two parts. The first part creates a futile setting in which things are described in a dissecting room, which suggests a mood of despondency. She did so by the use of wastelandish simile through comparing cadaver with burnt turkey: The day she visited the dissecting room They had four men laid out, black as burnt turkey, Already half unstrung. (II. 1-3) The place dissecting room suggests mercilessness and dehumanization. The dead bodies are anatomized and bones are removed which suggest a horrible image. The poetess compares death with the dissector, in which it takes off the spirit out of the body as did the doctor in dissecting the major constituents of bodies. Death here represents a terrifying force that annihilates mans life. The dissecting room serves as the epitome of scientific space, which is to say death’s space. And this is the space not only of female witnessing and female passivity, ‘she could scarcely make out anything/ In that rubble of skull plates and old leather’, but also of a bestowal from male to female, from male scientist to female poet. The process of dissecting the dead body indicates the savageness and carelessness of the surgeon, who cuts out the heart; the symbol of mans life and feelings. The surgeon is associated with death in the sense that he extracts the heart of the body, He hands her the cut-out heart like a cracked heirloom. The simile presents a very useless pessimistic image for the heart. The heart is not only reduced to a non-functioning machine, but a man hands death to a woman. The heart is the dearest to man and is compared to the heirloom which contains the memory of the dead, but it is uprooted maliciously. Death came to be an unavoidable inheritance. 4 In many of her poems, what Plath perceives is a death-figure which threatens to swallow her up unless she can reassert her living identity by fixing and thus immobilizing her enemy in a structured poetic image. Plath transforms death by assuming the role of a photo-journalist who observes the details in a way as to control the scene with the transforming power of language. She follows the technique of fusing various visual images in a meaningful way. Therefore, she transcends the literal immediacy of what she sees and creates order out of chaos. The second part paradoxes the first in showing a couple who are ignorant of the horrors of death. Their ignorance of the shadow of death around them intensifies their tragic catastrophic end: Two people only are blind to the carrion army: He, afloat in the sea of her blue satin Skirts, sings in the direction Of her bare shoulder, while she bends, Fingering a leaflet of music, over him, Both of th em deaf to the fiddle in the hands Of the death’s-head shadowing their song. (II. 13-19) Plath thinks that the second view was untenable. Confronting the literal physicality of death (as the narrator does in the first stanza), and ignoring that reality (as the lovers do in the Brueghel painting) seem hopelessly romantic and naive. The only way to relinquish the painful awareness of impending death is by relinquishing life itself. Plath committed suicide in her flat moving herself and her work into the domain of myth and psycho-mystical speculation. The second view of death is the bestowal of death that is interrupted by art. Paradoxically, this interruption of death by art is itself a kind of death, a freezing of life. The poem surveys with an eye which is blind and an ear which is deaf. If the lovers’ blindness and deafness to death’s music permits them to ‘flourish’, then this flourishing is ‘not for long’. Paradoxically, the work of art saves from death by paralyzing or fixing the living in an absolute present, which is to say a perfected present, but without future: This stalling of death’s triumph by art, this resistance of art to death, is itself a kind of death, since it reminds us that those lovers captured in art’s absolute present can do nothing at all. Just as there are two kinds of music here – the death’s-head’s and the lovers’ – so art is not placed in any simple opposition to death. 6 There are two kinds of death: on the one hand, death as process, as rebirth or renewal, as imaginary; and, on the other hand, death as end, as factuality. Plath rides into death in Sheep in Fog (1963) but death is no longer conceived as renewal. The objective in ‘Sheep in Fog’ becomes the ‘dark water’: They threaten To let me through to a heaven Starless and fatherless, a dark water. (II. 13-15) The sense of dissolution is overpowering in this poem through thee description of the background of the poem. Each line and each stanza of the poem concerns the disappearance of something. hills step off into whiteness, Morning has been blackening and the starless heaven leave her dejected and wretched. 7 Sheep in Fog suggests that there is a radical sundering of poet and poetry, a death of the poet that is the life of the poetry, if only as that which is in mourning for the poet. The impersonality of Plath’s later poetry is not arrived at through an ethical self-sacrifice of the poet’s empirical, autobiographical self in the interests of a universal validity, a kind of immortality or proof against death. Rather, it is an impersonality in which there is a highly paradoxical and unstable relation between poet and poetry. 8 A Birthday Present (1962) is another dramatic monologue in which terror and death predominate. The persona longs to know the gift presented by his friend. The speaker, her friend, and the object talk to each other in the kitchen. She imagines that the present may be bones, a pearl button, and an ivory tusk. Each of these things has white colour and suggests the nature of the birthday present that she wants. The three white objects—bones, pearl, and ivory tusk—all suggest death because they were once part of living organisms. The persona speaks of the veils around the present. In order to remove the concealing veil, which causes her anxiety and fear, the speaker demands an end to the screening off of death from view. She compares her life at the end of the poem to the arrival by mail of parts of her own corpse. At the end, the speaker demands as her birthday present not the previously mentioned symbols of death or the figure representing death, but death itself: 9 If it were death I would admire the deep gravity of it, its timeless eyes. I would know you were serious. There would be a nobility then, there would be a birthday. And the knife not carve, but enter Pure and clean as the cry of a baby, And the universe slide from my side. (II. 52-58) The poem dramatizes her birthday to be her death. The drama of A Birthday Present is frightening in its transformation of a domestic and happy occasion into a celebration of suicide. It captures the movement of the speakers mind as she throws herself into the sequence of steps that might lead her to kill herself. Plaths second perspective towards death is that it may be chosen by the individual himself as a means of self-destruction, rather than acting as a horrible exterminating force. The poetess aims to show the suffering and agony of the persona in selecting death as a means of liberation of the antagonistic world of the person. This perspective is reflected in Plaths Edge, which was written on 5 February 1963 and is thought to be Plath’s last poem. According to Seamus Heaney, one of the biographers of Plath, the poem was a suicide note, which is to say an entirely personal, autobiographical communication from a distressed melancholic woman. For this reason, the poem is limited by the literal death of the poet, a death that cannot help but be read back into the poem. 10 This death is a negativity that renews, and works within an economy of life. This is not just an imaginary death, but death as a figure for the imagination itself, as a negativity that may be harnessed in the interests of life. This poem carries the reader not only to the very limit of life, but also to the limit of poetry. And yet, if in this poem the woman is ‘perfected’, it is through a death that takes the form of an aesthetic object, but in which the emphasis none the less falls very much on illusion. The speaker in this poem doesn’t endure the anguish of his life and feels that his misery is over: The illusion of a Greek necessity Flows in the scrolls of her toga Her bare Feet seem to be saying: We have come so far, it is over. (II. 4-8) The bare feet symbolize the lack of protection and immunity. The tone looks submissive but it indicates the willingness to accept death as an outlet and escape of the aggressive world. The persona feels alienated in the world around him. No one cares for the personas death even the moon, The moon has nothing to be sad about/ Staring from her hood of bone. Therefore, she starts looking for something beyond death, which is the longing for perfection. Usually roses symbolize purity, so she compares her folding of the dead bodies of children as petals of a rose close. Therefore she thinks that through death, she will have a new beginning. 11 Death as a means of rebirth is reflected in Plaths I Am Vertical. She sets images taken from nature as a background of her poem. This use of nature as a setting for her poem shows death not as a horrible monstrous thing. She presented two fruitful lively images of nature and then she negates her alikeness to them: I am not a tree with my root in the spoil Sucking up minerals and motherly love So that each March I may gleam into leaf, Nor am I the beauty of a garden bed Attracting my share of Ahs and spectacularly painted, Unknowing I must soon unpetal. (II. 2-7) The persona feels rejection of the surroundings when the trees and flowers have been strewing their cool odours. I walk among them, but none of them are noticing. This represents the negligence of society and the social restraints that the individual feels. each March I may gleam into leaf suggests the continuity of life and regeneration. She is longing to be united with nature via death; the nature that symbolizes serenity and tranquility, Then the sky and I are in open conversation. The word sky gives death the sense of spirituality and elevation. The speaker is not satisfied in her life and she accepts death as a means for recognition: And I shall be useful when I lie down finally: Then the trees may touch me for once, and the flowers have time for me. (II. 19-20) Plaths life is ended in a world of death and despondency from which there is no rebirth or transformation.

Alternate Energy Sources: An Analysis

Alternate Energy Sources: An Analysis Due to the predicted shortage of fossil fuels and other non-renewable energy sources, research is now looking at alternatives. These alternatives are known as renewable energy. Renewable energy effectively uses natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides and geothermal heat, which can be naturally replenished. If the use of renewable energy isnt explored for future use, we may be living without appliances we take for granted today. For example, imagine a winter without a heater and a summer without air-conditioning, and day-to-day life without televisions, cars, washing machines, even lights. The earth could get to a stage where it was so severely scarred from people trying to find more energy sources, that the damage is irreversible. With the current consumption rate of non-renewable energy, this scenario may very well be the state of the planet in future years. Hence, this paper will explore the use of the alternate energy source, solar power for present and future use. The advantages and disadvantages of the energy source will be discussed, in relation to its technological, economical, viability factors. In doing so, the paper will attempt to prove that not only is solar energy as an alternate energy source better for the environment, but also verify that it is better for our economy in the long run. Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction 4 1.1 Overview of Solar Energy 4 1.2 Everyday Usage 6 2.0 Technological Viability 6 2.1 Efficiency 8 3.0 Environmental Sustainability 8 4.0 Economical 9 5.0 Conclusion 10 References 11 1.0 Introduction In todays climate of growing energy needs and increasing environmental concern, alternatives to the use of non-renewable and polluting fossil fuels have to be investigated. We have only really been looking at the possibility of solar power seriously for the past fifty years, and fossil run machines and power plants have been researched for the past century. In the journal article, Photovoltaics A Path to Sustainable Futures, Joshua M. Pierce states that since 1957, electricity demand in the US has increased by over 450% while the US population has increased by only 50%, which illustrates how the demand for electricity has grown.It has been estimated that we only have 50 to 70 years left of all fossil fuels at the current consumption rate. This is a scary figure, considering that as soon as 2050 there could be no more food to feed the industrialized machine. Something will have to change, its obvious, and renewable energy is the most logical answer . Green Peace India defines Renewable Energy as a sustainable energy source that comes from the natural environment that is perennial. Clean Renewable Energy are those, which do not contribute to any sort of emission harmful to lives such as radiation, carbon, or involve extractive processes, or which would cause large scale displacement of people or destruction of land and forest covers. (Green Peace India, 2009). In other words, renewable energy can be taken continuously from the natural environment and does not affect the normal activities in the biosphere. One such renewable energy source being considered for future use is solar energy. Photovoltaics, photo meaning light and voltaic meaning electricity, is one of the fastest growing solar energy technologies. Photovoltaic devices, or solar cells, use semiconductor material to directly convert sunlight into electricity. Overview Solar Energy Solar cells, primarily made of silicon, absorb sunlight which contains photons, the energy by-products of the nuclear reaction in the sun. The photons release electrons that are captured in the form of an electric current which is used as electricity. This is also known as the photoelectric effect. Solar energy is the oldest type of energy found on earth, as it is as old as the sun. Every second the world receives 95.8 trillion watts of power, (Pearce, 2002). That is well beyond the amount of power used in one day. It is unknown when humans began using solar energy to improve their lifestyles. As far as we know, people have always used the sun for growth, vision and warmth. Some of the first ancient cultures to use solar energy as heating were those from the deserts, and dry areas. (Goswami, 1997) It was however recorded that countries such as Egypt, Libya and Algeria would build thick walls of mud to protect them from their harsh climate. For example, during the hot days the wall would absorb the suns energy, leaving the huts cool, and during the night when temperature were much colder, the walls when emit the days heat inside. (Goswami, 1997) Throughout history people have experimented with the many uses of the suns power. In the 17th century, scientists in Europe began rediscovering the sun. When a French scientist proved that the suns rays could melt copper and fuse pieces of iron if concentrated and focused through a glass prism, people began to see the usable power of the sun. In the 1690s an Italian scientist invented a solar furnace that was so hot it could shatter a diamond, one of the hardest substances on earth (Goswami, 1997) Using the sun to produce energy was explore in greater lengths in the 19th century. During this time, an engineer named Frank Shuman, made a breakthrough. He built a plant that used black troughs covered in glass with a few inches of water. This was exposed to the sun, the water would become very hot, causing it to circulate and power an electric generator. He was able to find financial backers and built the worlds first solar electric power plant in Egypt. However, the Eastern Sun Power Company went out of business even though it was using free fuel. It didnt produce enough electricity for the area that it used, 14,000 sq. ft of sun-collecting land. (Pearce, 2002) In 1954 Bell Laboratories invented the first photovoltaic (or solar) cell, made from the semi-conductor silicon, and other elements. It was the first way to convert sunlight directly into electricity. These solar cells were chosen as the power source for the satellites in the 1960s, because they can be small and light, and dont need heavy batteries or other types of generating electricity. After NASA and other major researchers backed solar energy, the technology greatly improved. The first major use of solar cells, other than in satellite, were various emergency units and in remote areas where power lines couldnt be reached. (Energy Matters Pty Ltd). In these situations, it was more expensive to run power lines than to purchase the costly solar equipment. For example, in the high mountains of Papua New Guinea, where there is too much jungle for easy access, there are necessary telephone lines run by solar power and only visited for routine check-ups. 1.2 Everyday Usage Numerous devices for collecting solar energy and converting it into electricity have been developed throughout the years, and solar energy is now being used in a variety of ways. As well as supplying energy to residential homes and companies, they are popularly used in agriculture where they supply the power to pump water, prevent ice from forming on ponds where livestock drink, heating barns to keep animals from freezing, and temporary lighting. They are also used to operate electric dams in areas that cannot be supplied by power lines. Solar powered objects have started to appear quite commonly in many consumer items such as watches, radios, calculators, rechargeable batteries, flashlights, etc. The main attraction in these items is that you dont have to replace the batteries, which saves money in the long run. (International Solar Energy, 2006) 2.0 Technological Viability The time in which solar energy is available, is also the time we least need it least daytime. One disadvantage of solar power, according to International Solar Energy is its consistency and reliability. Solar-powered devices rely on the steady delivery photon to keep the electricity generating process going, as discussed previously. When the sun falls below the horizon at night, photons stop striking the solar panels and the power drops instantly. However, the improvement in technological advancement over the last few years, have seen the construction of a solution. As the suns energy cannot be stored for use another time, we need to convert the suns energy into an energy that can be stored. Due to this nature of solar energy, two components are required to have a functional solar energy generator. These two components are a collector and a storage unit. The collector collects the radiation that falls on it and converts a fraction of it to other forms of energy (either electricity and heat or heat alone). Solar collectors use reflective materials such as mirrors or lenses to concentrate the suns energy to provide heat energy which is then converted into electricity. This can be done in three ways. The first method is a trough systems which use curved mirrors to concentrate the suns heat onto a tube which contains a fluid, usually oil. The hot oil then boils water to produce steam which is used to generate electricity. Alternatively, mirrors in the shape of a dish can be also used to concentrate the suns heat onto a receiver. The latter transfers the solar energy to a heat engine, converting the heat into mechanical energy which drives a generator to produce electricity. This method is called the dish/engine system. A third method of concentrating the suns energy is through the use of power towers which provide a centralized power supply with the ability to store energy. These systems use a large array of mirrors, called heliostats. These heliostats concentrate the heat onto a receiver on top of the towers. The receiver contains a fluid that once heated can be used to produce steam which then turns a turbine to produce electricity.(Markvart Castaà ±er, 2003) The storage unit is required because of the non-constant nature of solar energy; at certain times only a very small amount of radiation will be received. At night or during heavy cloud cover, for example, the amount of energy produced by the collector will be quite small. The storage unit can hold the excess energy produced during the periods of maximum productivity, and release it when the productivity drops. One possible method of storing solar energy is by heating water that can be insulated. The water is heated by passing it through hollow panels. Black-coated steel plates are used because dark colours absorb heat more efficiently. However this method only supplies enough energy for activities such as washing and bathing. The solar panels generate low grade heat, that is, they generate low temperatures for the amount of heat needed in a day. Apparently, according to International Solar Energy Pty Ltd, in order to generate high Grade heat, intense enough to convert water into high-pressure steam which can then be used to turn electric generators there must be another method. The concentrated beams of sunlight are Collected in a device called a solar furnace, which acts on the same principles as a large magnifying glass. The solar furnace takes the sunlight from a large area and by the use of lenses and mirrors can focus the light into a very small area It was found that, a backup power supply is usually normally added, too, for the situations when the amount of energy required is greater than both what is being produced and what is stored in the container. An issue raised by International Solar Energy Pty Ltd, was that only regions with lots of sunlight are suitable for solar power generation. But this concern is currently being worked on as scientists have just recently invented a plastic solar cell that can convert solar energy to electrical energy even on a cloudy day. This plastic device, containing the first solar cells able to harness the suns invisible rays. Also, the researchers are holding this futuristic view that plastic solar panels could be laid across deserts to provide the entire planet with enough clean energy. Another solution to the issue of the inconsistent light is being researched right now by Arthur D. Little Inc. The suns rays are not constant on earth due to weather, location, and season. To avoid this scientists have envisioned huge solar powered space stations that would orbit the earth, capable of sustaining themselves for decades. (Committee on Aeronautical and Space Science, 2005). They would generate electricity by a vast array of mirrors on solar cells, and then the energy would be converted to micro-waves that could be beamed to earth and then distributed. These stations are estimated to be about 10 miles long, and some 23,000 miles above the earth. As far fetched as this seems, its actually theoretically possible, and may one day be our source of power. One flaw in the plan however, is that there is actually quite a lot of space debris floating around at high velocities. If this debris collided with the solar panels, as it invariably would, they would be damaged. How much, and at what price is still to be figured (Goswami, 1997) Another idea is the solar farm. It would be ideally located in desert regions where it is sunny almost every day. The farms would actually harvest sunshine, using flat plate collectors to absorb immense amounts of heat, which would in turn heat water. The heated water would turn giant turbines, and produce electricity. 3.0 Efficiency Solar cells, contain no moving parts, and have a working life of 20 30 years. According to Convincing the Home Builder to Build Solar Homes-Evaluation of the Passive Solar Workshop for Builders by S. Klein, they are reliable because they operate for a long time with practically no maintenance . Most of the photovoltaic cells on the market today operate at an efficiency of less than 15% ;that is, of all the radiation that falls upon them, less than 15% of it is converted to electricity. The maximum theoretical efficiency for a photovoltaic cell is only 32.3%, but at this efficiency, solar electricity is very economical. Most of our other forms of electricity generation are at a lower efficiency than this. Unfortunately, reality still lags behind theory and a 15% efficiency is not usually considered economical by most power companies, even if it is fine for toys and pocket calculators. Hope for bulk solar electricity should not be abandoned, however, for recent scientific advances have created a solar cell with an efficiency of 28.2% efficiency in the laboratory. This type of cell has not been field tested. If it maintains its efficiency in the uncontrolled environment of the outside world, and if it does not have a tendency to break down, it will be economical for power comp anies to build solar power facilities after all. 4.0 Environmental Sustainability It is estimated that the sunlight that falls on the surface of the earth in the time period of two weeks is equivalent in energy to all the energy stored in all the oil and natural gas and coal and other fuels that exist on, or under the earth (Markvart Castaà ±er, 2003) Solar power has two big advantages over fossil fuels. The first is in the fact that it is renewable; it is never going to run out. The second is its effect on the environment. According to Solar Heating Systems: Analysis and Design with the Sun-Pulse Method by Gordon F. Tully, solar cell systems do not harm the environment, as do conventional methods of power generation. The sun is an infinite source of energy and since its use for powering homes causes no damage to the environment. We should use the clean and silent energy source it to its maximum potential. As the primary element of construction of solar panels, silicon, is the second most common element on the planet. Therefore, there is very little environmental disturbance caused by the creation of solar panels. (Markvart Castaà ±er, 2003) While the burning of fossil fuels introduces many harmful pollutants into the atmosphere and contributes to environmental problems like global warming and acid rain, solar energy is completely non-polluting. While many acres of land must be destroyed to feed a fossil fuel energy plant its required fuel, the only land that must be destroyed for a solar energy plant is the land that it stands on. However, solar energy only causes environmental disruption if it is centralized and produced on a gigantic scale. At this scale, the production of solar energy would have some unpredictable negative environmental effects. If all the solar collectors were placed in one or just a few areas, they would probably have large effects on the local environment, and possibly have large effects on the world environment. Everything from changes in local rain conditions to another ice age has been predicted as a result of producing solar energy on this scale. The problem lies in the change of temperature and humidity near a solar panel; if the energy producing panels are kept non-centralized, they should not create the same local, mass temperature change that could have such bad effects on the environment. (Tully, 1981) In due course, solar power will reduce the emissions associated with power generation. Consistent with, Solar Heating Systems: Analysis and Design with the Sun-Pulse Method by Gordon F. Tully, with 1 million solar energy roofs are in place, could reduce carbon emissions equal to the annual emission from 850,000 cars. 5.0 Economical For many. fossil fuels are too available and cheap for the investment in solar energy to be worthwhile. Ironically, although the suns energy is free, the curse of solar power is that the techniques are always too expensive. (Green Peace, 2006) One major concern with solar power is cost-effectiveness. The silicone used for production , is one of the most readily available elements on earth. Nevertheless, the kind of grade silicon needed for solar cells is very expensive. It is grown in tall cylinders, and then cut in thin segments. The cutting process is wasteful and expensive (Pearce, 2002). A new product is polycrystalline silicon, which is grown in thin sheets and cut in squares. In Peter Lorenz, Dickon Pinner, and Thomas Seitz article The economics of solar power it states that Although polycrystalline is not as efficient as natural silicon, its significantly cheaper, and lowering the cost is one of the most important things in making solar energy practical. The initial cost of installing a solar power system is preventing current installation for these devices . The Australian Governments, and many others across the world had recognize this and are offering annual rebates and tax incentives to customers who install the systems in their homes. Consumers with solar power systems in their homes will save about 50-60% on their utility bills, (Energy Matters Pty Ltd). These savings will exceed the original cost of a system in about 10-12 years. After the initial cost is covered, the customer is still saving thousands of dollars in utilities compared to electricity and gas usage. As we burn more fossil fuels, the costs of electricity and gas would be subject to increase over the years. With solar powered home, monthly bills would stay about the same no matter how expensive electricity and gas become. The financial savings of solar-powered homes is an extra benefit for consumers who know that their homes are helping to preserve our environment. The great thing about solar power is that once youve paid for the system you dont have to worry about rising utility costs. Youre basically buying all your electricity at once. However, the cost is still a main factor to be considered. Arrays of rooftop solar panels capable of generating one kilowatt of electricity cost at least $7,500 even with the solar panels now costing about one-third of what they did a decade ago. (Lorenz, Pinner, Seitz, 2008) Still, the average household requires two to four times that much power, meaning that it would take about a $30,000 system to save about $15 per month for each kilowatt of power generated. It would take about 20 years until enough electricity would be generated to make up for the investment. (Energy Matters Pty Ltd). Despite the great cost of solar energy systems, people are still investing in them because of their obvious benefit to the environment and because once you have it installed, the energy is free. As technology improves, solar energy will become more economically feasible because the price of solar panels will go down. 6.0 Conclusion The number of advantages associated with using solar power for the future, greatly out way the disadvantages. Many of the issues explored throughout this paper are currently being research or have already solved, some of which show great promise for the future. Despite being currently still quite expensive, and showing negative effects to the environment if implemented in a large centralised scale, there is no doubt that solar energy will continue to grow and slowly replace the fossil-fuelled world around it .Besides the upcoming scarcity of fossil fuels, their highly pollutive nature makes solar energy a much healthier and wiser decision. The fear of exhausting all our resources has also spurred further development of alternative fuels, and created a greater interest in overcoming those disadvantages of solar power that remain. Technology changes rapidly, and the number of disadvantages of solar power that seemed virtually impossible only a few years ago are now relatively minor inconveniences. Hopefully, with continued this research, we will be in a place one day where we can directly rely on the sun for all our energy needs, and never have to use pollutant non renewable resources again. With an energy source like solar power, thats environmentally safe, capable of producing the raw power to satisfy the entire planets energy needs, we would be incredibly foolish not to use it.

The Representation Of Gender In Disneys Films Film Studies Essay

The Representation Of Gender In Disneys Films Film Studies Essay In the golden age of animation, 1928 1960s, Walt Disney was one of the famous animators in the industry who founded The Walt Disney Corporation. He was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, entertainer and entrepreneur. The book, From Mouse to Mermaid, described that Disney ethos both reflects and promotes particular elements of the dominant ideology of United State culture (Murphy, p.127). Most of Disneys work represents characters that embody racial, ethnic, and gender stereotypes. As well as middle-class perspective and royalist ideology while focusing on themes like innocence, friendship, magic and fairytale. The old Disney works such as Bambi (1942), Snow White (1937), Cinderella (1950), and Sleeping Beauty (1959) are misleading in the image that they portray to young children whose mind is still impressionable. Disney also created subtle messages of stereotypical of social construct of men and women. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs released in 1937, it was well-known as the first to use Technicolor cel animation, about 250,000 celluloid frames for each animated film. Each frame is repeated from frame to frame, as layers upon layers of retelling, and in particular, a retelling of womans body. They also used live-action models for the characters and cinematic conventions of representing women. Each individual cel of film was hand-painted by women who created indelible images of the feminine. Elizabeth Bells said in her essay the women in these films are not bifurcated into good and bad, but represent a continuum of cultural representations of womens power and performance (Bell, p. 121). Eventhough I agree with her that Disneys work represents steriotypical role of female in our society, but I do not agree with her at this point because in Snow White and Cinderrella, we can see a clear distinction between a good characters and a bad characters that womens. A good characters fullfill a typical role of the ideal woman. The ideological woman is supposed to be skinny, beautiful, acquiescent, and perform duties of a housewife. She will not disobey direct orders and does not hold a job on her own. Whereas the bad woman is independent, strong willed and does not perform duties of a house care taker. During that time, the standards of contemporary beauty in Hollywood were young, pretty, white, graceful and slender. Disneys heroine character moved along with these standards except for the old Femmes Fatales. According to Middle-aged women represented as femme fatales are dark, independent, and treacherous; they are dressed on extravagant costumes. The example of this can be seen in Snow White, with the Evil Stepmother. As Bell rightly point out Disney transforms the vain, active and wicked woman of folktales into the Femme Fatale, the deadly woman od silent film and of Hollywood classic film. They usually played the roles of an evil stepmother who envied the younger heroine for her looks and ended up being defeated or killed. The old crone from Snow White represents the old female character which is depicted as gray and wrinkled, clumsy, and frumpily dressed. Disneys representation of women is the treatments of the feminine life-cycle in hegemonic social disclose and stereotypes a bout womens bodies. Another notable film technique is use by Disney film Bambi. Released during World War II, the film still used Technicolor cel animation but the goal was to obtain a highly realistic look than the previous productions. Bambi is a story about the birth and maturation of a young male; the son of the stag who rules the forest and his mother who was killed by man. Walt Disney attempted to achieve realistic detail by lecture the animators, so they could study movement of animals. Los Angeles Zoo was shipped a pair of fawns to showed animators, therefore the artist could draw nature look and realistic movement of Bambi and Faline. Each individual shows detail of nature; for instance, in the open scene we saw the shadow of sunlight which represents the morning hours. But because of the realism that they tried to created, multiples of cel made color of the film faded. Bambi used Anthropomorphism to represent gender of male and female stereotypes by using non-human characteristics to display an object or abstract concepts. Even though the film does not ascribe to the typical view of physical appearance but it still portray ideological of gender through Anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphism ascribes human motivation, characteristics or behavior to things not human, such as inanimate objects, animals or natural phenomena. Bambi also represent royalist ideology because the title character is a son of the Great Prince of the Forest and he became the Prince of the forest. The male stereotypes are represented through Bambi, Ronno and Bambis father, while female stereotypes are represented through Bambis mother and Faline. Beginning with male stereotypes, the father is labeled as the Great Prince of the Forest during the film, which represents his authority amongst the forest community which shows that only a male can lead the society and be a protector of f amily or community because males are perceived to be smarter that females. In the scene, Bambis father told everyone in the forest to escape from the hunter it shows how he tried to protect everyone in the forest because he would stay back to ensure that everyone is safe. The mother is represented as the natural stereotype of typical mom who always loves and cares about the children. One of the scenes that showed the way that mothers would do everything for their children is when they ran away from hunter, she preferred to give up her life in order to save her childs life. Another stereotype of young men represent in Bambi and Ronno, when they fight for Faline because young males always fight for a women. We also see the stereotype of young female Disney character in Faline which describe as young, pretty and slender stereotype that depends on a male. She was falling in love with the prince and ended up with the happy ending. The ideology of fairy tales is showed in a female character in Disneys film  which is the inherent expectation to falling in love and getting married to the prince so they can have happiness in life.  An example of this is in Snow White character that allows girls to have fairy-tales to dream of and hope for. As Murphy point out in his essay the Disney ethos both reflects and promotes particular elements of the dominant ideology of United States culture (p. 127), where the young girls are waiting for prince charming and dreaming of being princesses. They set the standards and ideology for girls on how to grow up. Contemporary society believes that women need to be more independent through the film because it has a huge impact on young audience on how they see the world. They want Disney to show that women can take care of themselves, more independent, be leaders, have jobs and do not rely on men. They also want Disney to transform into equality of gender because most of their films show a male dominated outlook. Feminists concerned about perception of the world and values about the point of view on young children especially girls to watch for unhealthy look of the physical attributes along with the values supporting male dominance. Disney production films showed the ideals of nature conflict through their female protagonists where women are fully dependent on men and female characters are often shown as happy housewives. This is due to the personal belief and attitude Walt Disney has towards how the family life is shaped and wha t roles women should play in society. The narratives of media associated between genders offer patterns of proper and improper behavior, messages, and ideological conditioning with pleasurable of popular entertainment being show on television. Even though there have been changes over years, we can see appropriate societal roles for men and women. By analyzing and interpreting animation films through history, one is able to understand the representation of gender which entails the inequalities that rest amongst sex, gender, nature, and ethnicity.

The Black Death Essay -- essays research papers

A plague is a bacterial infection that can take on more than one form. One of the greatest plagues that have stricken mankind throughout history was the Black Death. The Black Death was the outbreak of the bubonic plague that struck Europe and the Mediterranean area between 1347 and 1351. This plague was the most severe plague that hit the earth because of its origin (the spread), the symptoms, and the effects of the plague.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Scientists and historians are still unsure about the origins of the bubonic plague. Medieval European writers believed that it began in China, which they considered to be a land of almost magical happenings. Chroniclers wrote that it began with earthquakes, fire falling from the sky, and plagues of vermin. Like medieval travel literature, these accounts are based on a number of myths about life in areas outside of Europe. It now seems most probable that infected rodents migrated from the Middle East into southern Russia, the region between the Black and Caspian seas. The plague was then spread west along trade routes. Plague moved quickly along the major trade routes. From Pisa, where it had arrived early in 1348, it traveled to Florence and then on to Rome and Bologna; from Venice it moved into southern Germany and Austria; and from Genoa it crossed the Tyrrhenian Sea to Barcelona in Spain and Marseilles in France. It continued through the towns of southern Franc e, reaching Paris. From there the contagion spread to England and the Low Countries. Parts of Europe were initially spared the epidemic. Milan was almost unique among the major Italian towns. The lord of the city closed the gates to travelers coming from plague areas, and few people died. Many parts of Germany and Eastern Europe also escaped the epidemic in 1348 through 1351. Probably because of their relative isolation, Bohemia, Poland, and central Germany experienced no plague before the 1360s and 1370s. The people from these vast countries did not know this was carried by vermin, so they were scared of what they could do and could not have done to acquire the plague. This made the disease spread easily.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In bubonic plague, the first symptoms are headache, nausea, vomiting, aching joints, and a general feeling of ill health. The lymph nodes of the groin or, less commonly, of the armpit or neck, suddenly become painf... ... destroyed people and not possessions, the drop in population was accompanied by a corresponding rise in per capita wealth. Large increases in spending in the towns at this time are well documented. Profits, however, for landlords and merchants declined as they found themselves having to pay higher wages and getting less when they sold their products. Governments were forced to adjust to the social disruption caused by plague. First local governments, and then in the case of England, the monarchy, attempted to regulate the movement and price of foodstuffs as well as wages paid to laborers. The English Statute of Laborers of 1351 tried to hold wages at preplague levels. Similar statutes were passed in various parts of France, Germany, and Italy. Landlords tried to collect higher fees from tenant farmers as a way to increase declining incomes. Unrest among the peasants was one of the major causes of the English Peasants' Revolt of 1381. The English rebels objected to high payments to landowners and legal limitations on the rights of some peasants. Economic and political unrest occurred in most parts of Europe during the second half of the 14th century.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

Yersinia pestis †Infection, Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Treatment Essay

Yersinia pestis – Gerneal Infection, Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Treatment Yersinia pestis, the culprit behind the infamous Black Death, spread by rat fleas, has cast a shadow over human civilization, taken the lives of countless peasants and nobles alike like a violent brute who murders invariably. There are three major forms of infection stages, the bubonic plague, the septicemic plague, and the pneumonic plague (primary and secondary), all are lethal if not treated with proper antibiotics. Due to similar symptoms, clinical diagnosis, the distinction between a common cold and a lethal infection is made difficult. However, though a potent murderer, Yersinia pestis can be easily eliminated by antibiotic treatment; survivors of the disease may be scarred. The plague has always been a shadow overcastting the dawn of mankind; it had hid in the darkness, where the rodents roam and the poor dwell; it had unleashed its terror upon, claiming the souls of nobles and peasants alike. There are a total of five major plague outbreaks, including the infamous Black Death of medieval Europe, which wiped away half of its population. Yersinia pestis, the culprit behind the Black Death, are Gram-negative bacteria that are septicemic and extremely infectious. Though humans are highly susceptible to the microorganism, its main hosts are rodent species such as rats and squirrels, and are only transmitted onto humans when infectious fleas regurgitates animal blood while feeding on us. Yersinia pestis infection comes in three forms: bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic; the pneumonic plague is the deadliest. The rodent epidemic is transmitted unto humans when Y. pestis â€Å"are transmitted by fleabite, enters the lymphatic [system] 2 and migrate to the re... ...6. Microorganisms and Bioterrorism. Ed. Anderson, Burt, Friedman, Herman, and Maaro Bendinelli. Springer: 2006. Kopp, Elizabeth, and Medzhitov, Ruslan. â€Å"A Plague on Host Defense.† The Journal of Experimental Medicine. . â€Å"Plague Fact Sheet.† Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Department of Health and Human Services. 30 March, 2005. 26 July, 2006. . â€Å"Plague Prevention and Control.† Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Department of Health and Human Services. 30 March, 2005. 26 July, 2006. . VeriMed Healthcare Network. â€Å"Plague.† Medline Plus. 17 June, 2005. 26 July, 2006. .