Saturday, December 28, 2019

Pricing and Revenue Management in the Supply Chain

Pricing and Revenue Management in the Supply Chain The Council of Community Colleges of Jamaica Turks and Caicos Community College Supply Chain Management MGMT 4801 Lecturer: Ms. M. Hosten Due Date: October 9th, 2012 Name: Donnell Lightbourne Table of Content What is Revenue Management? †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. pg. 3 Foundations for Strategic Management †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. pg. 3 Impact and Conditions of RM †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. pg. 4 Segments of Revenue Management †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. pg. 5-8 Practicing Revenue Management †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. pg. 9 User of Revenue Management †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦... pg. 10 Bibliography †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ pg.†¦show more content†¦For the firm to take advantage of revenue management, the supplier must bound the amount of capacity committed to lower price segment even if sufficient demand exist from the lower price segment to use the entire capacity. The basic trade-off here is between committing to an order from a lower price or waiting for a high price to arrive later on. The risks in such situation are spoilage and spill. Spoilage occurs when capacity is wasted because demand from high price doesn’t materialize. Spill occurs if higher price segments have to be refused because capacity has already been committed to lower price segment. u If a supplier serves numerous customer segments with a fixed benefit, the provider can improve revenues by setting different prices for eac h segment u Prices must be set with barriers such that the segment willing to pay more is not able to pay the lower price u The amount of the asset set aside for the higher price segment is such that the expected marginal revenue from the higher priced segment equals the price of the lower price segment Perishable Assets There are two revenue management tactics used for perishable assets: ⇠¨ Vary price over time to maximize expected revenue ⇠¨ Overbook sales of the assets to account for cancellations The first tactic is appropriate for assets such as fashion wear that have clear date beyond which they lose a lot of their value; clothing designed for a particular season loses its value whenShow MoreRelatedWalmart, The Largest Public Service Company1342 Words   |  6 Pagesoperations, the company garnered revenues of $700,000 in sales. In the next 12 years, it made a drastic rise to $ 5.4 million in sales and subsequently crossed $ 1Billion mark in 1980. By the year 2002, the company’s revenues equaled to 2.3% of the GDP of USA, making it the biggest Retailer in the United States, having already overtaken K-mart in 1992 and in 2000. Walmart had a continuous exponential rise since its inception. This year the company reported revenues of $ 478 Billion with gross profitRead MoreEssay o n Supply Chain Partners: Virginia Mason and Owens 1458 Words   |  6 PagesSynopsis: Michael Stefanic, director of cost management at Owens Minor (OM), a medical and surgical supplies distributor and Daniel Borunda, material systems manager at Virginia Mason (VM) Medical Center came together to try to battle healthcare costs and improve the healthcare supply chain. Virginia Mason, a private non-profit healthcare organization based out of Seattle, offered both primary and specialized care and developed the Virginia Mason Production System (VMPS). The VMPS was a modifiedRead MoreSWOT of Canadian Operations of Wal-Mart: Supply Chain Innovations to Fight Competition in Canada1202 Words   |  5 PagesSWOT of Canadian Operations of Wal-Mart –Supply chain innovations to fight competition in Canada Supply chain innovations should ensure on-shelf availability at retail outlets, improving collaboration between vendors and retailers, translating supply chain costs to product pricing, lean inventory and real time replenishment. Wal-Mart should ensure that process differentiation to determine the right method of moving products with varying demand characteristics (Akehurst, C., Alexander, N. (1995)Read MoreWalmart: A Strategic Management Case study Financial Perspective959 Words   |  4 PagesPricing Strategy Wal-Mart’s primary competition in US includes department stores of the likes of Target and Kmart. Costco offers competition to Sam Club format of Wal-Mart. In niche small markets, dollar stores are offering strong competition to Wal-Mart. Kroger competes with Neighbor market and supercenters of Wal-Mart especially on the grocery product line. Target competes with Discount stores and supercenter shopping formats of Wal-Mart with Target commanding a small premium on prices as itRead MoreHaier Essay1589 Words   |  7 Pagesgoods and white goods. Nowadays, Haier is the 4th largest white goods manufacturer in the world. The business scope of Haier is technology research, product development and manufacturing, trade and financial services (Haier, 2015). 2.0 Company Pricing Strategy Haier’s generic product strategy is differentiation and focused differentiation. For example, some products of Haier are designed and manufactured for specific customers. Meanwhile, comparing with sales volume, Haier insists that the customerRead MoreDecision Phases in Supply Chain1111 Words   |  5 PagesDecision phases in supply chain Successful supply chain management requires much decision to the flow of information, product and funds. Each decision should be made to rise to supply chain surplus. These decision fall in to 3 phases depending on the frequency of the each decision and time frame during which a decision phase has an impact. As a result, each category of decision must consider uncertainty over the decision horizon. * Supply chain strategy or decision During this phase, givenRead MoreJoint Juice Case Study Essay1085 Words   |  5 Pagesnation’s second largest grocery chain, and Safeway, the second largest grocery chain to sell Joint Juice’s products through their nationwide chain stores posed a challenging decision to the company. To sell its products throughout the nation is no doubt a great opportunity for Joint Juice, particularly as a start-up business. However, this offer challenged the company’s original strategy of staying regional for several more years and learning while growing. The management of Joint Juice was faced withRead MoreStrategic Vision And Operations Planning1210 Words   |  5 Pagessuccessful supply chain management. However as 2016, Walmart closed 269 stores, this means that not all the stores are successful and there is a problem that is affecting its operations planning. Walmart by 32nd St. has operation planning problems during winter time when the population increases in the are a. This report was written to understand the importance of developing a strategic vision and operations planning in order to help the store current seasonal problems. I find out that Supply Chain ManagementRead MoreE-Commerce Strategies for Grocery Stores845 Words   |  3 Pagesfailure as operations management systems have failed to translate the many accuracy and speed advantages of e-commerce into a value-chain encompassing operations management performance advantage (Ruch, Sackmann, 2012). The intent of this analysis is to evaluate how food and grocery stores can be made more efficient through e-commerce-based operations management. Making Grocery Retailing More Efficient with Operations Management The traditional approach to operations management is based on solvingRead MoreElectronic Discovery : Employee Activity972 Words   |  4 Pagescompanies that sell extensive products, represent manufacturers and sell items at both physical locations and online have more complex inventory-management and ordering needs. Core back-office features usually update availability data but seldom manage complexities such as keeping the showroom stocked, answering customer questions about the supply chain and collating materials used in manufacturing or assembling products to take advantage of bulk ordering discounts and customizing or building products

Friday, December 20, 2019

How At Risk Students Make It For College - 940 Words

In the June 8th, 2011 article How At-Risk Students Make It to College, published in the Hispanic Times Magazine, the un-named author is explaining how there are several factors that can have a positive influence on any student, and most importantly, on an at risk students, to make the decision about going to a four-year college. The author is showing us the most important influencing factors such as family and peers. The author also tells us what an at risk-student is. The author is also telling us that within the key factors, there are some underlining factors that can influence us in ways we don’t think about. For example, the one step that we don’t really think about is the college application process, which is one of the factors we don’t think about until we have to go through the process ourself, when we decide to go to a four-year college. The thought of college can be very intimidating, especially to an at-risk students. At-risk students are the ones who are most likely to be loners, and ones that don’t care for school, because they lack the motivation and support they need. The author refers to the at-risk students as â€Å"latch-key†, which implies that they don’t have the needed parental guidance or companionship at home. These at-risk students are most likely to be between the ages of 16-18 yeas of age. I also believe along with the author that the reason why they are at risk students are, their family situation, their peers and the lack of interest they have inShow MoreRelatedCollege Dropout Rate And Evidence1332 Words   |  6 PagesCollege Dropout Rate Evidence To Support You re done, you have dropped out of college and there s nothing you can do. Congratulations, you are now in the 1.3 million that also contributed to this statistic. The college dropout rate varies based upon a wide variety of problems college students encounter. Now your reasons for dropping out? There could be many, some of which you couldn t control. However, there are some that directly contribute to the dropout rate; that you could have. We’ll beRead MoreCollege Should Offer Learners Not Only A Strong Academic Awareness Essay1448 Words   |  6 Pages College should offer learners not only a strong academic awareness, but it should be friendly, helping and nurturing place for students. Concern of scholar’s personal and academic well-being should always be in a center of Institution’s mission. The student service program I would like to offer would be called â€Å"Arizona Hope and Help† or â€Å"AHH†, and it would be focused on providing non-academic support for all â€Å"at-risk† students. The services, of course, would be provided free of charge to meet theRead MoreShould Guns Be Allowed On College Campuses?948 Words   |  4 PagesComparison and Contrast Paper: Should Guns Be Allowed on College Campuses? Hi I am a college student at Palm Beach State College in Florida West Palm Beach. One time I went to a guns store in which you can also practice how to use a gun. I was fourteen years the first time that I used a gun. I went to the place with my sister, three cousins and my father. The truth is that it was fun to use a gun, although we all knew it was dangerous to use one if we had not have any experience with it beforehandRead More College Students and Alcohol Essays1138 Words   |  5 Pages College Students and Alcohol College student drunkenness is far from new and neither are college and university efforts to control it. What is new, however, is the potential to make real progress on this age-old problem based on scientific research results. New research-based information about the consequences of high-risk college drinking and how to reduce it can empower colleges and universities, communities, and other interested organizations to take effective action. Hazardous drinking amongRead MoreThe Effects Of Binge Drinking On College Students Essay1697 Words   |  7 Pagesproblem for society, and college students are no exception to this problem, especially when it comes to binge drinking. Binge drinking is classified at 5 or more drinks for men or 4 or more drinks for women within 2 hours. According to a study by Ikes, â€Å"more than 40% of college students have engaged in heavy episodic drinking (HED)† or binge drinking (find pg number) and â€Å"19% engage in frequent binge drinking† (Iconis 243). There are very large implications for college students drinking this much alcoholRead MoreCollege Students Are At Risk For Hunger1405 Words   |  6 PagesMany college students are at risk for hunger. Low-income students do not prioritize eating because of their other financial responsibilities, including rent, textbooks, and transportation. Students who tend to buy their own food, do not buy the most nutritious meals which includes the infamous ramen for lunch or dinner. Two articles that discuss students experiencing food insecurity are â€Å"Students Shouldn’t Have to Choose Between Books and Food† by Clare Cady explains how low-income students cannotRead MoreThe Legal Requirements And Regulations1475 Words   |  6 PagesKingston College Health and Safety Legislations/Regulations Explanation of the Legislation Applying it to Kingston College The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 The fundamental point of the regulation is to diminish risk by requiring the evaluation of all potential dangers and the establishing plans in the case of emergencies. The regulation forces an obligation on employers to review all likely dangers for all their employees. Employers must complete and review all risk assessmentsRead MoreCollege Drinking A Major Problem That Affects The Lives Of Many People1138 Words   |  5 Pages Josh Roy Essay 3 Final College drinking a major problem that affects the lives of many College drinking is a major problem and it affects the lives of students their families and the community. As the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism website notes: â€Å"About four out of five college students drink alcohol. . .† (â€Å"College Drinking†). The Affects of alcohol have impacted the lives of many people. I believe drinking is a problem, and believe that it is a problemRead MorePopping The Bubble : The True Cost Of Student Loans1699 Words   |  7 PagesTrue Cost of Student Loans Kyle Laffin is seen as an typical mid 20’s American. He attended college to pursue a degree in accounting and financial freedom, but this came at a cost which he didn’t imagine. He took out a loan with his father as an cosigner for a little over $100,000. Even though he got an accounting job directly out of college, he is now stuck paying back a monthly loan payment of $1,200, when he only makes $3,333 a month before taxes. This has forced his father to make payment sinceRead MoreEffects Of On Campus Housing On College Students Drinking Behavior1565 Words   |  7 PagesEffects of on-campus housing on college students’ drinking behavior: A Literature Review Educational scholars have widely researched the effects of on-campus housing on the behavior of college students and one of the behavioral effects is on drinking behavior. Researchers from both the United States and New Zealand have found that students living in residential halls on campus demonstrate the greatest rates for drinking and peer pressure for drinking (Rickwood, et al., 2011.). Leontini, et al.

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Music history Argumentative Essay Example For Students

Music history Argumentative Essay Looked down on the use of music for mere pleasure iii. Hymns: prayers to gods b. Greek thought described the nature of music, its effects and its proper uses c. Plato believed that education should stress gymnastics (to discipline the body) and music (to discipline the mind) I. Urges balance between gymnastics and music it. Only certain types of music are suitable iii. Music should not have complex scales or mixed genres, rhythms, or instruments v. Changes in musical conventions could lead to lawlessness in art and anarchy in society 8. The Church Fathers on Psalmist and on the Dangers of Unholy Music a. Early church leaders were known as the church fathers b. Encouraged music for sacred purposes only c. Prohibited instrumental music ) Instrumental music lacked words and could not convey Christian teachings b) They feared evoking pagan practices, such as spectacles involving dancing c) Playing instruments is idle and unproductive and can lead to licentious behavior d. Psalm implies serenity of soul; it is the author of peace, which calms bewildering and seething thoughts Psalm is the work of angels, a heavenly institution, the spiritual incense. SST. Basic 9. SST. Augustine: The Testimony of SST. Augustine a. SST. Augustine: leading Church Father a) Feared musics ability to arouse strong feelings ) In his Confessions, he describes shedding tears at the psalms c) He believed that feeling strongly about the musical performance of psalms was a good thing d) When he was moved more by the song than by what was sung he b elieved it was SINFUL e) I am inclined to approve of the custom of singing in church Yet when I find the singing itself more moving than the truth which it conveys, I confess that this is a Shakespeare The Transmission of the Classical Legacy a. Bioethics: most revered authority on music in the Middle Ages a) Wrote De institution musical (Fundamentals of Music) . Defines 3 types of music: a. Musical mundane Music of the universe: numerical relations governing the movement of stars, planets, seasons, and the elements b. Musical human Human music: unification of body, soul and their parts c. Musical instrumentalist Instrumental music: audible music produced by voices or instruments 2. Musics power to influence character made it important in educating the young 3. The study of music through reason was a higher pursuit than the performance of music; therefore a philosopher of music was the true musician, not a singer or composer a. Three types of people in musical art: those who perform instruments, those who compose songs and those who Judge the instrumental performances and composed songs. Third type is considered a musician) b. The mere physical skill serves as a slave, while the reason governs all as sovereign How much nobler is the study of music as a rational science than as a laborious skill of manufacturing sounds? c. That person is a musician who through careful rational contemplation ass gained the knowledge of making music, not through the slavery of labor, but through the sovereignty of reason He type which buries itself in instruments is separated from the un derstanding of musical knowledge Hey act as slaves, for they use no reason but are totally lacking in thought. 11 . Music as a Liberal Art (Schools incendiaries) a. The tritium of the verbal arts: grammar, dialectic, rhetoric b. The quadric of the mathematical disciplines: geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and harmonics (music) 12. Before Notation (Isadora of Seville) a. Isadora of Seville: Unless sounds are remembered by man, they perish, for they cannot be written down. b. Simple melodies may have been memorized and ample melodies may have been improvised within strict conventions c. .u7bd53554943d1192fceb0c6abc7e7fe7 , .u7bd53554943d1192fceb0c6abc7e7fe7 .postImageUrl , .u7bd53554943d1192fceb0c6abc7e7fe7 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u7bd53554943d1192fceb0c6abc7e7fe7 , .u7bd53554943d1192fceb0c6abc7e7fe7:hover , .u7bd53554943d1192fceb0c6abc7e7fe7:visited , .u7bd53554943d1192fceb0c6abc7e7fe7:active { border:0!important; } .u7bd53554943d1192fceb0c6abc7e7fe7 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u7bd53554943d1192fceb0c6abc7e7fe7 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u7bd53554943d1192fceb0c6abc7e7fe7:active , .u7bd53554943d1192fceb0c6abc7e7fe7:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u7bd53554943d1192fceb0c6abc7e7fe7 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u7bd53554943d1192fceb0c6abc7e7fe7 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u7bd53554943d1192fceb0c6abc7e7fe7 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u7bd53554943d1192fceb0c6abc7e7fe7 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u7bd53554943d1192fceb0c6abc7e7fe7:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u7bd53554943d1192fceb0c6abc7e7fe7 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u7bd53554943d1192fceb0c6abc7e7fe7 .u7bd53554943d1192fceb0c6abc7e7fe7-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u7bd53554943d1192fceb0c6abc7e7fe7:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Music Medium History EssayWhen melodies were written down, formulaic structures remained intact 13. Notre Babuls, Othello: Embellishing the Liturgy a. Babuls: most famous early writer of sequence texts 14. Guide of Orzo, DOD of Clung, Chaucer: Musical Notation and its consequences a. Monk in 11th century b. Developed a system with additional lines; staff notation, evolved to a four line staff c. Wrote a practical guide for singers d. Colonization 15. Music in Courtly Life a. Poetry and music of the noble troubadour were sober and reflective b. Idealization of love c. Songs of knighthood are found in manuscripts known as chandeliers 16. Emergence of Polyphony 17. The Forms and Practices of Music 18. The First Musical Avian-Garden 20. Letter from Gallinule De Mach (14th century) a. Leading composer of the French Ears Nova c. Resided in Reins to write poetry and music d. First composer to compile his complete works and to discuss his working method I. Paid for the preparation of several illuminated manuscripts of his works it. Wrote poems first, then music iii. Happiest when the music was sweet and pleasing

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Human Resource for Megamines International - myassignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about theHuman Resource Management for Megamines International. Answer: Introduction Megamines International is a mining company that is facing a tough situation in the market. Due to the changing market conditions, the company is losing its competitive edge in the market and wants to bring about some serious changes in its Kookaburra mines but is facing a lot of internal issues in executing its change strategies. Therefore, this strategy is aimed at gaining a deeper insight into the case of the company and making suggestions to deal with the situation. SWOT Analysis A SWOT analysis is a framework that allows business organisations in analysing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a business project and understand the feasibility of a project for taking better business decisions (MT Team, n.d.). A SWOT analysis of the companys present situation is given below: Strengths: First of all, the company has a great team of senior managers. The president of the company, Jake Andrews, is a tough no-nonsense guy who is an exceptional leader. He is a democratic leader who takes decisions only after consulting his subordinates (Raza, 2017). Secondly, the company has a talented pool of employees who have a lot of market information. The employees are aware about the conditions that are prevailing in the market and in the company itself. They also have certain solutions in mind that will help the company in dealing with its problems. Weaknesses: First of all, a major weakness of the company is that its Kookaburra subsidiary is under a great influence of the labour unions. Labour unions are playing a dominating role in the subsidiary and making it difficult for the management to operate properly and achieve better profitability, productivity and efficiency. Secondly, the company has a huge redundant workforce working in its Kookaburra subsidiary. The Kookaburra subsidiary currently employs 2,000 employees who are adding up to the operational costs, which is making the company less profitable and efficient. Opportunities: First of all, a great opportunity that lies in front of the company is to implement technological solutions to solve most of its problems. Implementing technological solutions will allow the company to cut down its operational costs, become more profitable and ultimately to outperform its competitors. Secondly, the present situation is an opportunity for the company to deal with redundant workforce using various measures and overcome the negative conditions to become more profitable and productive in the future. Threats: First of all, the mine at Kookaburra is highly dominated by the labour unions and the management of the company has a lower hand in the decision making process. Further, even the political scenario is not in favour of the company as the politicians are more inclined towards the workforces welfare, which makes it impossible for the company to reduce the size of its workforce so that it could survive in the market. Secondly, the market scenario of the business is changing drastically. The prices of the companys core products have hit a 10-year low and the pressure is mounting. China, a major customer of the business, has stopped buying products from the business, which is posing a great threat to the existence of the business. Human Resource Management Problems The mining company is definitely facing a number of human resource management problems, which is having a toll on its competitiveness and profitability. The human resource management problems being faced by the company are discussed below: First of all, the company lacks a system of workforce planning. If the company had a system of workforce planning, it would not be having such a large redundant workforce as it would have allowed the company to forecast the human resource needs and ensure optimum number of employees in the workplace (Vorhauser-Smith, 2015). Secondly, the company is has failed to maintain strong relation with the employees because of which, there are multiple trade unions in the workplace and they have a upper hand in the negotiation process. As a result, the company is failing in implementing any change strategy and reduce the size of the workforce to become more profitable and efficient (O'Brien, 2014). The labour unions are tough and act like militants who can go to any extent to get their demands fulfilled (Lombardo, 2015). Thirdly, the company is also facing an issues related with its compensation and benefit management. The company has a workforce that is more in number than required and paying them high wages is making the company less profitable. Megamines Business Strategy Megamines is facing a tough market situation. The industrial scenario is changing rapidly and is making it tougher for the company to stay profitable. The workforce of the company is more in number than required and high wage rates are making the company less profitable. The strategy that the business management is looking to implement in the workplace is corporate downsizing. Corporate downsizing is a strategy that business organisations often use in adverse economic conditions. Corporate downsizing involves cutting jobs in order to decrease the operational costs in order to remain competitive and profitable. Downsizing can result in a large number of employees being laid off from their jobs (Snyder Welch, 2015). In a downsizing strategy, a human resource manager can implement different strategies to deal with the adverse economic conditions. In some cases, the managers can permanently lay off the employees whereas in some conditions, the managers might rehire the laid off employees after a predefined period of time. Corporate downsizing strategy is one of the toughest organisational decisions as it can create a number of social and legal issues for a company. Laying off the employees is considered to be unethical and against the corporate social responsibility of a firm. As a result, business organisations try to achieve a reduction in their workforce using other methods, such as job sharing, sending the employees on holidays, temporary leaves, etc. rather than laying them off permanently (Doyle, 2016). Recommendations for Solving Human Resource Issues Human resource management issues can have a great deal of impact on a companys work operations, efficiency, productivity and profitability. The condition of Megamines can, to some extent, be attributed to the human resource issues that the company is facing. To become more effective and to deal with the human resource issues, the company can look into the following recommendations: The management of the company needs to address the issue of redundant workforce and high compensations. It is not always beneficial to stick to organisational downsizing as a strategy to deal with adverse economic conditions because it can involve a lot of social and legal controversies. Therefore, the management of the company needs to look out for alternatives that will help them in avoiding permanent layoffs. To address this issues, the management can inform the workforce about the alarming condition of the industry and how every employees job is at a risk, which is creating an urgency to bring about a decrease in the compensations and benefits that the employees are getting. This way, the employees will get a clarity that if they do not except some cuts in their wages, the entire workforce will lose their job because of the company being shut down (Gandolfi, 2008). Once the employees have peacefully excepted a cut in their wages and benefits, the next and an immediate step should be to implement a performance management system in the workplace. A performance management system will help the company in fostering a performance oriented environment in the workplace and increase the competition amongst the employees. On the basis of a performance management system, it would become easier for the management to take actions against those employees who are failing in meeting their performance objectives and slowly and steadily, the company will be able to deal with its redundant workforce. Further, to deal with the redundant workforce, the company can also offer early retirements to certain employees who are about to get retired in the near future and can make its strategy more appealing by offering them a special retirement plan (Sozo Firm, 2017). The company can also freeze all its recruitment and selection programs in the future until it has dealt with its redundant workforce so that the issues do not pile up with new workers joining the mining company regularly. Another way to deal with the redundant workforce can be to transfer some of the employees to different facilities where the operational costs are less and the employees are paid less wages (Thebalance, n.d.). Such strategies will allow the company to avoid laying off its employees permanently and avoid the legal and social issues related with it. The company will also be able to hire these employees back in case the economic conditions start to improve in the future. Thus, such a strategy will help the company in dealing with most of the human resource issues that it is experiencing at the present. Bibliography MT Team, n.d. SWOT Analysis. [Online] Available at: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm[Accessed 22 May 2017]. Raza, A., 2017. 12 Different Types of Leadership Styles. [Online] Available at: https://wisetoast.com/12-different-types-of-leadership-styles/[Accessed 22 May 2017]. Doyle, A., 2016. What Happens When a Company Downsizes?. [Online] Available at: https://www.thebalance.com/what-happens-when-a-company-downsizes-2061972[Accessed 23 May 2017]. O'Brien, P., 2014. Why Strong Employee/Employer Relationship is Important and How to Achieve This? Read more at https://www.business2community.com/strategy/strong-employeeemployer-relationship-important-achieve-0876781#j8WHH4o2fHk5ZRkC.99. [Online] Available at: https://www.business2community.com/strategy/strong-employeeemployer-relationship-important-achieve-0876781#9TQ5mPkuSxqhDxTT.97[Accessed 23 May 2017]. Lombardo, C., 2015. 9 Disadvantages and Advantages of Labor Unions. [Online] Available at: https://thenextgalaxy.com/9-disadvantages-and-advantages-of-labor-unions/[Accessed 23 May 2017]. Snyder, J. Welch, I., 2015. Do Powerful Politicians Really Cause Corporate Downsizing?. 20 October, 2017(May), p. 23. Vorhauser-Smith, S., 2015. Workforce Planning: The War Room Of HR. [Online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/sylviavorhausersmith/2015/05/25/workforce-planning-the-war-room-of-hr/#386234777b18[Accessed 23 May 2017]. Sozo Firm, 2017. 10 Ways to Prevent Layoffs. [Online] Available at: https://www.sozofirm.com/10-ways-to-prevent-layoffs/[Accessed 23 May 2017]. Thebalance, n.d. Before You Do a Workforce Reduction. [Online] Available at: https://www.thebalance.com/before-you-do-a-workforce-reduction-1918589[Accessed 23 May 2017]. Gandolfi, F., 2008. HR STRATEGIES THAT CAN TAKE THE STING OUT OF DOWNSIZING-RELATED LAYOFFS. [Online] Available at: https://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/hr-strategies-that-can-take-the-sting-out-of-downsizing-related-layoffs/[Accessed 23 May 2017].

Thursday, November 28, 2019

Human Cogntive Architecture Pattern Recognition Essay Example

Human Cogntive Architecture Pattern Recognition Essay One may be tempted to suppose that we, who experience the world through vision, experience a very different world from the worlds expereinced by bats or dolphins, who rely more on hearing, dogs or rats who make greater use of smell †¦ or spiders or scorpoins who are attuned to mechanical variations. But at sufficiently abstract level, our worlds are all the same three dimensional Euclidean world Roger Shepard (Solso 1994) (73) Visual pattern recognition influences several areas -computer vision, machine learning, robotics, neuroscience, psychology, biological vision, AI, cognitive science, biological perception, visual arts and all aspects of or daily life (object recognition). This paper focuses on visual cognition and pattern recognition; as these influences the human cognitive architecture more than tactile and auditory pattern recognition. Pattern recognition is the key phenomenon in visual cognition it distinguishes human cognitive architecture and bridges top-down and bottom up information processing approach. It also connects inside with outside. Thus connecting human wetware (mind brain complex) to wide-ware of the world. I have used visual arts and illusion to explain pattern recognition because in spite of being abstract and illusive they present interesting good case for schema construction using top-down and bottom up processing. I claim that in pattern recognition top-down processing plays a critical role. This paper is divided into following section: Brain Visual System Complex, Visual Arts, Pattern Recogntion in Non Humans and Instructional implication has been explained using the theories of visual literacy. Brain Visual System Complex We will write a custom essay sample on Human Cogntive Architecture Pattern Recognition specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Human Cogntive Architecture Pattern Recognition specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Human Cogntive Architecture Pattern Recognition specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Evolutionary story Soslo has depicted 248 million years of organic evolution using 31 day January month of 2000. Insects, dinosaurs, reptiles evolved a well-developed eyes during this period. On January 31 at 11. 59 am human like form appeared and within last 10 minutes falls the entire history if visual arts (Solso 1994) (24). Human eyes are not the most complex visual system the eyes of simple insects are more complex they have many lenses and receptors, while we have just one lens with receptors. Evolutionary biology emphasises that brain and visual system have evolved together as a visual cognitive complex in human. While simple brained animals have complex optical system; it seems complex brain offsets the need of a complex visual system in humans (Solso 1994) (14). Based on Darwinian Evolutionary Theory- human capability to identify, recognise and differential patterns (like dark, from light, blues, from greens, straight lines from curved and moving objects from stationary) has significantly increased the chances of survival. Cognitive psychology elucidates that raw data of sensory signals is meaningless and random. But when these signals fall on a decoding visual system and brain complex they weave a rich pattern of meaningful relation. Most intriguing part is the corresponding, concurrent and complimentary evolution of sensory system, brain and the central nervous system (Solso 1994) (47) Search for meaningful pattern recognition involves at least three parameters: ? What is an object? ? Where is it? ? What is it doing? Pylyshyn elucidates that behind the â€Å"smart† functionality of the visual system is messy yet sophisticated hardware: As the light sensitive surface of the eye are two dimensional, so the sense of depth in visual system comes from the source of information. After ecades of research we now know that part of information of depth comes from the difference between the patterns the two eyes receive. With all our understanding of stereo vision we are still far removed from understanding how does this difference in 2d vision translates to 3d experience? A very small part fovea has sufficient acuity to recognise pattern. Moreover eyes focal length differs for different colours. There is a blind sp ot 10-13 degrees away from fovea. To add the mess the eyes are in constant motion jumping around in rapid saccades several times in each second. Retina our primary contact with the world is not uniform nor it is flat and has uneven distribution of cones rods. Lastly it is continuously smeared with the moving information. However brain builds a uniform, detailed, gapless, 3d-video patterns from the sketchy inputs in the face of such dynamic and impoverished information processing system. Pyhshyn claims strategies like focal attention play a critical role in connecting vision and cognition (Pylyshyn 2003) (5). Evolutionary biology favours the case that top-down processing in pattern recognition is the key distinguishing factor of human architecture. True believers in real patterns Looking at history from twelfth century till date we find philosophers and thinkers instinctively find patterns in chaos right. Plato, Pythogorus, Euclid, Ptolemy, Coprinicus, Newton, Einstein etc all the thinkers have been searching ways to establish order in chaos. It seems that we love to accept linearity, smoothness and stability in the face of the world that is largely unsmooth and random. But are we looking for real patterns and are these patterns inside or they are out side and how do we assign meaning to these patterns. As per Dennett We use folk psychology interpretation of each other as believers, intenders and the like – to predict what people will do next. .. Folk psychology helps us understand and empathise with the others, organise our memories, interpret our emotions and flavour our vision in thousand ways, but the heart of all these is enormous power that predictive folk psychology. Without the predictive power we could not have any interpersonal relations at all; human activity would be just so much like â€Å"Brownian motion† (Dennet 1991) Dennett presents a interesting story which aims to answer the above questions. He claims objective pattern â€Å"pops out† when we view the world through appropriate lenses. Like in the consequence of 2, 4, 6, 8,†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. are different yet when seen through arithmetic lens the exhibit a common pattern add 2 pops out. Similarly intentional stance is the only lens that can help recognise real patterns (Clark 2001) (52-53). Dennett uses an John Conways game of life to highlight real patterns make available potent generalisations and predictions further claims that to miss a pattern is to miss some thing real and explanatory useful, even though every thing that occurs depends on the underlying simple rules (Clark 2001). 52-53) This elaborates the point the intentional stance is crucial for us to believe and attach meaning to pattens. True believers will always believe in real patterns. Intelligence of the human information processing system lies on our capability to recognise, predict and generalise real patterns. Visual Arts: Symbol manipulation Kose in paper summarises the views of these three thinkers. For all symbols gets meaning from convention. Goodman thinks denotation is the primary vehicle for representing. Gardener stresses on specific set of skills in rder to produce or read meaning with a particular symbols system. Cassier emphasis art objects derive meaning from the process of creation for him action and psychology of the artist is the key to understand. I feel representation is the core of cognitive architecture and symbolism is at the core of representation but it is difficult to take reductionist view. It does not seem relevant to elaborate this debate here. However the discussion brings three key concepts to focus: conventionality, specific skill set and artistic/aesthetic experience. All the three points are relevant to process of pattern recognition. Illusion: Limits of Pattern Recognition Solso surmises critical role of experience and top-down approach in view art. The viewing of art causes an immediate conscious experience in people. We see colours, shapes, contours, objects, distances, and interactions (among other things) and, when all of these impressions are sensed, the brain brings meaning and comprehension to the art object. †¦Our mind supplies reasonable inferences to our consciousness about a visual scene, which may be, in fact, absent in the object. We ‘see’ behind occluded objects, feel motion, and react emotionally to provocative themes even though these things may not literally exist. In the cognition of art, our past knowledge supplies consciousness with context. Experience colours art. We understand Picasso’s Guernica, Michelangelo’s, Sistine Chapel, and Rembrandt’s Self-portrait (1658) better because we can feel the intensity of women and children being victimized in the embittered Spanish Civil War, know the Biblical story of creation and man’s fall from grace, and comprehend the weathered features of an old man’s face (Solso 2000). A viewer’s intention in viewing art and personal history strongly influences what he or she looks at in an object. This, in turn, determines which patterns of neural activity are aroused. In addition to situational demands, each person views art with a unique personal history which biases his or her attentional focus — a Nebraska farmer might attend to different features in Grant Wood’s American Gothic than would a New York fashion designer (Solso 2000). E H Gombrich illustrates core of top-down approach and important element of cognitive architecture the guided projection: It is without the support from any structure that the beholder must mobilise his memory of the visible world and project it into the mosaic of strokes and the dabs on the canvas before him. It is here, therefore principle of guided projection reaches its climax. The image, it might be said had no firm anchorage left on the canvas it is only conjured up in our minds. The willing beholder responds to the artist’s suggestions because he enjoys the transformation that occurs in front of his eyes (Gombrich 1986). Artists use various cues to fool the system to activate the relevant schema in viewers mind using top-down processing. When the pattern recognition (perception) departs from the external world, to disagree with the physical reality, it means one is experiencing an illusion. However illusion differs from the truth (Gregory 1997). Pylyshyn starts his book Seeing and Visualising with a honest statement by Galeolio: â€Å"†¦. if the man had been born blind, philosophy would be more perfect, because it would be more perfect, because it would lack many false assumption that have been taken from the sense of sight. † (Pylyshyn 2003) ( Preface) Illusion expose limits or the leaky architecture of two complex structures brain and the visual system. Top-down processing: Pattern recognition of the objects involves knowledge of the world as the sensory data is impoverished and hardly relevant (Gregory 1997). Bottom up Processing: Pattern recognition of the objects uses information from the optic array, which contains sufficient information to guide behaviour. Evolution has produced organisms that are sensitive to the invariants in the optic array and does not require prior knowledge (Gregory 1997). These two approaches cause different type of illusions. Cognitive Illusion due top-down processing resulting in misrepresenting of knowledge. Physical Illusion due to the disturbance of light, between objects and the eyes, are different from illusions due to the disturbance of sensory signals of eye, though both might be classified as ‘physical’. Physical causes: In human vision ‘top-down’ seems to be more important than ‘bottom-up’. This might be because there are more downwards fibres from the cortex to the lateral geniculate bodies LGN ‘relay stations’ than bottom-up from the eyes (Gregory 1997). Classification Visual illusions can provide evidence of object knowledge and working rules for vision, but only when the phenomena are explained and classified (Gregory 1997). A tentative classification is presented, in terms of appearances and kinds of causes in Appendix B (Gregory 1997). Types of illusions: Gregory divides appearances of illusions into classes based on errors of language ambiguities, distortion, paradoxes and fictions. There seems to deeper connection in language and visual system. It kind of connects Chomkys deep structure and surface structures theory. Ambiguities Perception changes while the input from the eyes remain same. A retinal image is infinitely ambiguus which could respond to infinitely possibilities but we see only one (Gregory 1997). Paradox False assumptions creates paradox. Distortions Illusion due to distortion of retinal signals, perspective, brightness, colour. Fictions Suggests fictional forms Opt- Art The pictures are extremely distrubing, Jazzing, moving and generating ghostly shapes (Gregory 1997). Model to understand top-down and bottom-up processing To the ‘bottom-up’ signals and ‘top-down’ knowledge, Gregory adds ‘sideways’ rules. Both top-down and sideways are knowledge. These can be considered as ‘ins-and-outs’ of [pic] Tentative ‘flat box’ of’ vision. As usual, signals from the eyes and the other senses are ‘bottom-up’. Conceptual and perceptual object knowledge are shown in separate ‘top-down’ boxes. Knowledge as embodied in the general rules. is introduced ‘sideways’. Perceptual learning seems to work largely by feedback from behaviour (Gregory 1997). The historical study of systematic misperceptions (illusions), combined with a recent explosion of techniques to measure and stimulate neural activity, has provided a rich source for guiding neurobiological frameworks and experiments to better understand the cognitive architecture (Eagleman 2001). Arts Brain: Search for essentials E. H. Gomrich highlights Plato from Sohpists and makes strong point on the very basis of representation â€Å"that we make a house by the art of building, and by art of painting we make another house, a sort of man-made dreams (pin-ups and comics) produced for those who are awake? † (Gombrich 1986) Zeki claims that like brain visual arts is search for essential. The pre-eminent function of the brain is the acquisition of knowledge about the world around us. Just as brain searches for constancies and essentials, so does art (Zeki 2002) (Preface). .. the artist can find the models that he depicts in his mind, his inner vision, not the external world. When artists try to fool the brain and its record, they can only do so with respect to its stored memory. Even when they don’t know much about the brain, artists were and are aware of the reality of perception and the appearance of the painting (Zeki 2002). V. S. Ramachandran and William Hirstein while explaining Peak Shift Affect take different view, art is a process of selection and amplification of the essentials. The purpose of art, surely, is not merely to depict or represent reality (western art) —for that can be accomplished very easily with a camera—but to enhance, transcend, or indeed even to distort reality. The word ‘rasa’ (might be similar Platonic ideal form) appears repeatedly in Indian art manuals and has no literal translation, but roughly it means ‘the very essence of. ’ So a sculptor in India, for example, might try to portray the rasa of childhood (Plate 2), or the rasa of romantic love, or sexual ecstasy (Plate 3), or feminine grace and perfection (Plate 4). †¦the peak shift effect: If a rat is rewarded for discriminating a rectangle from a square, it will respond even more vigorously to a rectangle that is longer and skinnier that the prototype. An evocative sketch of a female nude may be one which selectively accentuates those feminine form-attributes that allow one to discriminate it from a male figure; Finally, given constraints on allocation of attentional resources, art is most appealing if it produces heightened activity in a single dimension (e. g. through the peak shift principle or through grouping) rather than redundant activation of multiple modules. Consider the way in which a skilled cartoonist produces a caricature of a famous face, say Nixon’s. What he does (unconsciously) is to take the average of all faces, subtract the average from Nixon’s face (to get the difference between Nixon’s face and all others) and then amplify the differences to produce a caricature. The final result, of course, is a drawing that is even more Nixon-like than the original (Hirstein 1999). ADD DIAGRAM 3 A circle represent the loaf of bread (they are round in Viena), a curve added on top will turn into a shopping bag, two little squiggles on its handle will shrink into a purse, now by adding a tail here was a cat (Gombrich 1986). Gombridge uses the simple drawing game to emphasize the power of metamorphosis. Once the tail is added the purse gets destroyed and cat is created; you cannot see the one without obliterating the other. This is simply highlights our capacity to recognise, amplify and generalise a pattern (Gombrich 1986). The way the language of art refers to the visible world is so obvious (due to bottom up processing) and so mysterious (top down processing) that is still largely unknown except to the artists (high-stung on visual schema) themselves who can use it as we use languages – without needing to know its rammar and syntax (Gombrich 1986). So we see Zeki’s focus on Inner Vision, Plato’s emphasis on dream, Ramchandran principle of peak shift affect and Gombridge drawing experiment. All point to the same core function of the brain, using top-down approach to recognise, predict, amplify and generalise the pattern. Schema Development Gombrich in his book Arts and Illusion att empts to address the issue of art universals (schema) and peculiarities (creativity) in artists using science, psychology, and philosophy. Core of his version his is the theory of schemata development and correction. This is derived from the idea that the artist begins not with his visual impression but with his idea or concept and that the artist uses adjusts this idea to fit, as well as it can, the object, landscape, or person before him or her. Gombrich calls this theory making and matching. E H Gombrich while highlighting F. C. Ayers point claims that no artist can imitate reality without schema: The trained drawer acquires a mass of schemata by which he can produce schema of an animal, flower or a house quickly upon the paper. This serves as a support for the representation of his memory images and he gradually modifies the schema until it corresponds to that with which he would express. Many drawers who are deficient in schemata and can draw well from another drawing cannot draw from the object. The dry psychological phenomenon formula correction can tell us a good deal, not only about the essential unit between medieval and post medieval but also of their vital difference. To Middle Ages schema is the image; to post medieval artists, it is the starting point of corrections, adaptation, the means to probe reality and to wrestle with the particular (Gombrich 1986). .. For it is not only the scientists of the stamp of Camper who can examine the schema and test its validity. Since the time Leonardo, at least, every great artist has done the same, consciously, unconsciously. Upto 19th century artist where more like trained drawers and focus was on universal features ideal pattern (schema). However in late 18t h and early 19th Century artists turned against the traditional methods. Gombrige classifies this period as struggle against schema (Gombrich 1986). Gmobridge mentions a statement by Constable who is the centre of the struggle for schemata. Constbale explains elegantly his position in the history of visual arts: I have endeavoured to draw a line between genuine arts (peculiarities or uniqueness) and the mannerism (traditional schemata), but even the greatest painters have never been wholly untainted by manner. Painting is science and should be pursued as the inquiry into the laws of nature. Why, then, may not landscape painting be considered a branch of natural philosophy, of which pictures are but experiments? (Gombrich 1986) Gombridge – To a see patch on a close canvas as a distant mountain is to transform it in according to its meaning. These transformation explain the paradox that world cannot look like a picture, but a picture can look like a world. †¦ it is not the ‘innocent eye’ but the inquiring mind that knows how to probe the ambiguities of vision. Gombrich brings an interesting point to notice- Art is a story of schema creation by trial error and testing. A search for consistencies through anticipation and testing. Bruman and Postman- All cognitive process are represent making a hypothesis (pattern) and matching (pattern) (Gombrich 1986). Nuerological basis for schema in Artist in brain The eye (and other sensory organs) and brain are now thought to be onceptually related. Many theorists suggest that the eye is an extension of the primary visual cortex. Most visual signals follow a well known neurological route (from the retina, to the lateral geniculate bodies, to the primary visual cortex in the occipital lobe) (Solso 2000). The study was conducted on distinguished portrait artists and a novice. The artist selected for this task, HO, is one of Britain’s most. The non-artist used in this study who served as a control subject (AH) was a graduate student in psychology at Stanford University; 32 years old, right handed male with no formal training in art (Solso 2000). Findings: Study suggest two main findings. First they confirm that an area of the brain frequently associated with facial identification was specifically activated. Second, the lower level of activation of the artist indicates that he may be more efficient in the processing of facial features than the novice (Solso 2000). Thus, these two main findings considered together suggest that an expert portrait artist, who frequently sees and draws faces, dedicates relatively less energy to the processing of faces and more to the processing of these features in terms of their associated correlates. In a phrase, the artist thinks portraits more than he ‘sees’ them. Thus we see pattern recognition is more case of schema construction using top-down processing. Aesthetics: Celebration of Pattern recognition: Geyer makes an interesting argument substantiating the point that aesthetic celebration of celebration of our capability of pattern recognition. Geyer highlights Gombrich to state a point that the act of pattern construction is what makes us perceivers rather than mere responders to the stimuli. Lettvin has done close examination of the frogs visual system in his paper â€Å"What the frogs eye tells the frogs brain† Geyers refers to this paper to summarise Frogs visual system: Frogs have four types of visual receptors in the retinas of their eyes. On type responds to large contrast differences, another to changes in contrast, the third to changes in light intensity, and the fourth responds to small, dark, circular objects which are moving toward the frog. This last receptor is called the â€Å"bug detector†, and when it is triggered the automatic response is for the frog’s tongue to shoot out and catch the triggering object (Geyer 1988). The frog does not decide whether it is hungry or even whether the object is a bug, but just shoots out its tongue. All of the frog’s visual processing is â€Å"peripheral, in the retina of the eye. This peripheral sensory apparatus is a rudimentary stimulus/response mechanism, as opposed to our complex, central interpreting system (Geyer 1988). This discussion re-inforces that Frog’s visual system far more complicated than humans while humans brain is far more complicated than Frogs. Concept of focal attention or instinct to search for order/structure and this seems to be unique feature of human eye-brain complex. Geyer claims that while perceiving an aesthetics experience one assumes, predicts and attempts to realize (invent or discover) a existing pattern, when the pattern is actually found the aesthetic inquiry and the experience ends. However, perception in general is a necessary function for human beings, and perception is a process of editing and ordering information from the senses. Thus seeking order is a biologically necessary operation, as essential to our survival as eating and reproducing. Aesthetic experience, as seeking order just for the sake of seeking order, is a celebration of perception. The pleasure in this experience is primal, as it is in eating when hungry and copulating. It is there to encourage a basic need. No wonder evolution has favored perception in the aesthetic phenomenon (Geyer 1988). Neurological basis for aesthetic being a function perceivers processing Using interesting experimental settings Rolf Reber, Nobert Schwarz and Piotr Winkielman propose that aesthetic pleasure is a function of the perceiver’s processing dynamics. They review variables known to influence aesthetic judgments, such as figural goodness, figure–ground contrast, stimulus repetition, symmetry, and prototypicality, and trace their effects to changes in processing fluency. The mail claim is against theories that trace aesthetic pleasure to objective stimulus features per se, they propose that beauty is grounded in the processing experiences of the perceiver, which are in part a function of stimulus properties (Processing Fluency and Aesthetic Pleasure: Is Beauty in the Perceiver’s Processing Experience? (Rolf Reber 2004) Pattern recognition might be the key phenomenon to understand aesthetic phenomenon for what it is. Pattern recognition in Non-human Pattern recognition and object parsing experiments in human the experiments were conducted on humans by XU Carey Welch 1999; Needham Baillergeon 1998 and Spelk in 1993. This experiment conducted on humans was taken as the base to comapre object parsing in adult Rheshus Monkey and human infants. Four experiments are investigating how semi-free-ranging rhesus monkeys form representation of and inferences about visible object presented under natural conditions. Experiments use methods in previous training is required by monkeys. †¢ Preferential looking experiments which are common in human infants were used to allows direct comparisons. Experiment displays testing infant’s sensitivity spatiotemporal temporal or featural information (Yuko Munakata 2001). Findings Sensitivity to hands: Humans infants take account of the human hands in analyzing t he motion and objects. However monkeys show no sensitivity to the moving hands. Because human infants are endowed with the capability to attend to the ways inanimate objects are manipulated by other humans. Object boundaries: Adult monkey and human infant above 11 months of age use featural Information processing model to perceive object boundaries. Experiment suggests that monkeys categories food such that they are likely to have â€Å"food kind† (color and shape perception) representations (Yuko Munakata 2001). Successful use of featural information model by monkeys casts doubt on the thesis representation of objects is uniquely human capability. It further seems that even animals do top-down conceptual based processing. Diagrams: logic of pattern recognition The are irregular presentation that artists have been using to create meaningful spatial representation. Now lets see what is the case with the regular patterns so called diagrams. This section looks at issue why do we sue diagrams. Proving theorem is geometry is efficient and easy using diagrams as they provide spatial representation to abstract problems. David Hilbert makes a claim that digram based Euclidean geometry makes hidden assumptions hence it is an effective device for geometrical problems. However the question the whether diagrams are merely heuristic or can provide rigorous means of proving theorem is still a debatable topic. Though claim from (Allewein and Barwise 1996) has revived the argument in favour of diagram as rigorous means of problem solving (Pylyshyn 2003). The Venn diagram representation of sets, illustrates that certain properties of the visual system (the ease with which we locate an element in particular region) can be exploited to facilitate reasoning. Such externalisation exploit the perceptual system to help us recognise patterns (Pylyshyn 2003). Gardener (1982) provides a fascinating discussion of diagrammatic inventions of Leonhard Euler, Sir William Hamilton, Allan Marquand, Johann Lambert, Charles Peirce Lewis Carrol (Charles Dodgson), and Gerrit Marie Mes. There is something obvious about the vision that provides functions that are not as readily available in other forms of reasoning. Vision provides primitive operation for a number of functions (shape recognition, detection of relational properties) The usefullness if diagrams, graphs, charts, and other visual devices relies on the fact that people are good at visually detecting certain geometrical relations. Diagrams enable visual system to keep track of where the information is located in the real world rather than encoding it all in memory argued strongly by O’ Regan (1992). While examing diagrams we don’t look for general properties but also at what properties hold the resulting construction (Pylyshyn 2003) (445) Involvement of visual system is more than goes beyond merely recognising that a certain pattern is present in a particular drawing (Pylyshyn 2003) (446). Spatial metaphors facilitate communication of complex idea and working through bastract problems as diagrams use external memory to represent spatial patterns . (Talmy 2000) (Pylyshyn 2003) (445) In a nutshell, drawing a diagram enables in principle to see the relationships that are entailed by what you recalled, however sparse the set of explicitly noticed relationships might be. In prevision sections I have explained that top down processing in pattern recognition involved in representing meaning in visual arts and also responsible for the break down of patterns in illusion. Even in the abstract process like aesthetic experience key phenomenon is top down processing in pattern recognition. Finally in logical or regular use of visuals is also governed by top-down processing and the key phenomenon is pattern recognition. Right stated by Descartes in 17th Century â€Å" †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬  Instructional Implication: Visuals Literacy â€Å"Visually literacy is training for visual thinking†. This concept has many interpretations and is influenced by various areas like visual language, perceptual and cultural coding, creativity, visual and verbal relationships, deconstructionism, social, theoretical foundations and research. This concept has significantly from 1960 onwards (Dwyer 1994). Visualisation as Rehearsal Rehearsal may be considered to be any activity which causes the learner to hold the information longer in the short term memory. Weinstin and Mayer 1986: Rehearsal strategies are desigined to repeat information while it is in short term memory (Dwyer 1994). Murray and Mosberg 1982 indicated that longer and individual can be involved in rehearsal activities (taking notes, inspecting and interacting with visuals etc) in which he/she is actively processing information, the greater is the possibility that this information will be moved to the long term memory and thus resulting in schema development (Dwyer 1994). Information processing approach focuses on how the human memory system acquires, transforms, compacts, elaborates, encodes, retrieves, and uses information (Dwyer 1994). Gregory in model to explain top- down processing role of side ways role and qualia while misses out on memory structures while Klatzky 1980 focuses on the process of patter recognition in context to memory structures but it misses out top-down and qualia. Hence I present an adapted model that best explains the process of pattern recognition. Adapted from Klatzky Model 1980 and Gregory model of Top-down and bottom up processing. Challenges in the use of visuals as instructional The objective of the instructional strategy should be to develop guidelines for effective use of different kinds of visualisations. To meet educational objectives, guidelines would possess high degree of predictability for the design and visualisation, to ensure that majority of learners receive the intended message in effective manner. This goal is not easy to achieve as due to different kind of illustrations (line drawings, detailed, shaded line drawings, drawings of models, realistic photographs) are not equally effective in achieving different educational objectives for students with different background studying in different cultural/learning settings (Dwyer 1994). Hence there need for effective visual testing. Visual testing Instructional environment purposely designed to facilitate student acquisition, storage and retrieval of designated information. Even though visualization is commonly used to facilitate student information acquisition, most of evaluation strategies currently used are of verbal pencil and paper type (Dwyer 1994). Dwyer and DeMel: â€Å" probably the oldest learning is that any change in the retrieval (evaluation) environment from that which occurred in the original learning environment produces marked decrements in learner performance. Thus most important steps in the research focusing on cognitive information acquisition is the development of instruction unit which contains several different levels of learning (facts, concepts, rule/procedures, problem solving strategies) and appropriate type of tests must be designed to measure the problem solving at each level. Instructional Consistency/ Congruency Canelos presents a useful conceptual rationale for the development o f instructional module for research purpose. The paradigm assumes a hierarchy of learning objectives. Students will not achieve the rules/principle level if they do not posses pre-requisite conceptual base. However if the students possess the conceptual base and the instructional environment does not bring does not bring together relevant concepts in a manner which facilitates rule / principle level integration, learning will not occur. The process of working with objectives, interaction and testing provides instructional congruency while instructional consistency aims to verify that the prerequisite kinds of learning are present; it also requires that the objectives for each category be stated specifically. This Unit development is critical as it alerts the researcher to the fact that the learner are going to be processing information at a different intellectual levels and that different type of instructional experiences need to developed to facilitate the different levels of learning. Visual literacy is becoming less complex as the basic notion of learning with the visuals is becomes more universally accepted. However the field is becoming complicated because of new theories, and new technologies but has a significant implication instruction (Dwyer 1994). Phases in learning Hierarchy and Instructional Consistency/ Congruency Matrix Conclusion I have explained three points first intentionality in pattern recognition makes us unlike the dust particles in Brownian motion. Second- Illusion are good example to understand the leaky architecture of the visual system and brain complex. I have explained that illusion might be caused due to physical causes that bottom up processing dominating or they can be due to cognitive factors that is top-down processing dominates. History of illusion gives insight into the neural basis of visual system. Third- I have explained aesthetic experience, as is the most evolved feature of human beings.

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Embryonic Stem Cells Are the Key to Cures essays

Embryonic Stem Cells Are the Key to Cures essays Thousands of Americans face trouble doing regular work around the house. Most of them have difficulties using scissors, can no longer do extracurricular activities, and have to take several expensive prescription medications just to ease the uncontrollable tremors in their muscles. These people have Parkinson's disease. This incurable disease causes the degenerate of the central nervous system and is characterized by impaired muscular coordination. If embryonic stem cell research were federally funded then scientist could find a cure for Parkinson's disease. The only alternative for thousands of Americans is to take expensive prescriptions, which have more side effects than benefits, and usually have problems paying for the drugs (Devitt). Another case would be the several millions of people who need a certain organ to survive. For example, there are several kidney transplants needed, but not enough donors to provide them with a kidney that matches those in need of a transplant. This results in many of them being placed on a long waiting list with little hope in ever getting a transplant. Unfortunately, embryonic stem cells are the center of controversy for several religious, medical, ethical, and moral reasons. If these issues are not put aside then millions of people will die from Parkinson's disease and several will not get the organ(s) needed to survive in the future. Scientists should be able to research embryonic stem cells for finding cures without having a backlash against the scientists (Devitt). A stem cell is a cell that can replicate itself and function as a particular a cell in the body. There are several different kinds of stem cells, but the most controversial is the embryonic stem cell. The embryonic stem cell is created by fertilization in a Petri dish. Then, some of the embryonic stem cells are placed back into the woman and the rest are thr...

Thursday, November 21, 2019

What requirements Texas Courts impose for someone to be an expert in Research Paper - 1

What requirements Texas Courts impose for someone to be an expert in medical malpractice - Research Paper Example Legal statutes, and laws in America, and to be more precise, in the state of Texas, have continued to change, as some parts of this statutes, have exhibited signs and mannerisms that are not entirely right, as of today. Other parts on the other hand have suffered judicial refining, that has sorted them either demolished, and some being re-structured to come out in a very different approach. As mentioned above, one statute often cited in court rulings meant to deal with the issue of medical malpractice in Texas is that of a two-year statute of limitations. When narrowed down, this is translated that, no medical malpractice issue in the state of Texas, may be brought fourth, after a period exceeding two years from the date of completion of treatment (Austin, 2012). For one to rightfully assume the title of an expert in medical malpractice, and in this case, in the state of Texas, it is of utmost importance that the individual follows the basic rules, as per the constitution of America. Many may ask the question, why is this? Primarily, such level of expertise has to be legal, and in accordance with the law. Any act that done contrary to the law, is consequently punishable in a court of law, and with this, there would not be any consideration of one being an expert, while behind bars. The Texas legislature in the year 1977 passed a well-debated and conclusively deliberated act that provided for victims medical liability as well as insurance. This statute put up with the main intention to offer subsequent response in occasion of a needy situation, to a particular case perceived with crisis in medical malpractice, was just what the public needed. The article of law that ruled over such scenarios brought with it pre-suit notification to the particular parties involved, professional reports that came by early, in the litigation process, as well as what would be

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Near and Middle East ( Martyrdom is nothing without remembrance and Essay

Near and Middle East ( Martyrdom is nothing without remembrance and without the cultural industry that keeps the martyr alive after death. Discuss.) - Essay Example The custom is that martyrdom carries with it the diverse cultural diligence as this keeps the martyr alive even after his demise. Unlike the other cultures around the globe, the history of the Middle East goes back to the ancient times (Verkaaik, 2004, P. 138). All along, the Near East has rocked the world affairs through its unprecedented political and religious affiliations. Discussion of its ancient history puts the name ‘Near East’ at the center stage. This is the reason as to why there is the historical origin of major world religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The first and the latter have famed for the rite of the martyrdom and they see to it that reminisce is part of their culture (Varzi & Roxann, 2006, P.70). In this modern times, the Middle region/East or the Near East, remains a strategically, politically, culturally, economically and the religiously sensitive zone. First, martyrdom was a transition. A look back to history states that the transition from revolutionary zeal to war fanaticism came as a smooth phase. For example, a telecast broadcast in 1981 at Tehran University served to put this ideology of martyrdom a great stance (Moallem, 2005, P. 108). The speaker whom by history goes down as the martyr of the said creed, Hashemi Rafsanjani, publicly asserted that the public begged to become a shahids. As per his words, he said that the public cries, it sheds tears and implore their commanders to, at least, take them along on the nightly operations in order to become a shahid (Talebi, 2012, P.134). This creed on a nation broadcast, with millions of people listening came an awakening call as to how sacrificing for the name of religion, Islamic in particular, could measure as an incitement to the other religions with different affiliations. In the view of this nation, this religious understanding of Hashemi, theirs was not a radicalization cal l; it was simply a cry to sacrifice for their remembrance of holy Allah. To them, this

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Visions of the future Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Visions of the future - Essay Example It is not known how the virus got spread so quickly and why it appeared. At the point the director draws attention to the possibilities of chemical weapon and inability of people to control it. More precisely, he emphasizes the necessity of people to be responsible for scientific advances. In â€Å"Twelve monkeys† the number of victims of the deadly virus is estimated as 5 billion so the major part of the planet population simply disappeared. The life of those who have survived differs greatly from normal. People are forced to live in little bunkers which remind tin boxes deep under the ground without any fresh air and sun shine. They travel with the help of some flying cars in almost complete darkness and smog. They do not see sun, they are unable to grow plants and their life does not promise any improvements in future. Artistic people are usually more sensitive and fatalistic because they often examine such topics as life and death. Terry Gilliam with his apocalyptic vision is not an exception. In his â€Å"Twelve Monkeys† people are deprived of normal and sometimes perceived as habitual things such as ability to move freely and to enjoy nature. Their life reminds survival in jungles with no place for entertainment and simple pleasures. Gilliam probably wanted to show that thoughtless science can be deadly. Scientists now deal with many dangerous chemicals, make and create powerful viruses, experiment with nuclear weapon. One careless decision and the whole humanity may find itself doomed. Probably Gilliam wanted to show the situation similar to Chernobyl Catastrophe, one of the tragedies of that kind, when people are not able to live on the land which was contaminated. And it does not matter whether the reason is radiation or a virus, it is all connected to the scientific experiments. Not accidentally there is another plot line I the movie showing fight

Friday, November 15, 2019

Imperialism Fueled By A Dubious Sense Of Capitalism Politics Essay

Imperialism Fueled By A Dubious Sense Of Capitalism Politics Essay Imperialism is a developing world concept taken on by the strongest powers on the globe. The idea of colonizing or occupying another nation or territory for economic or territorial purposes is an overarching idea that resonates with occidental powers. Intellectuals such as Karl Marx, Nicolai Lenin, Joseph Schumpeter, and John Hobson each have their own views on imperialism that all mange to be intertwined and unequivocally potent to the modern day understanding of imperialism. Despite a specified piece designated on imperialism, Marxs contributions were attributed during points in his writings on India and in the Communist Manifesto. His views on imperialism are understood as the expansion of capitalist relations throughout the globe. Lenin and Hobson despite some diverging ideas both spear headed the concept that imperialism was a product of capitalism. Schumpeter, on the other hand, believed that imperialism is a pre-capitalist phenomena and it is based on the simple desire for con quest. Because of his tangential view on imperialism, this paper will highlight the divergence and congruence of Schumpeters ideology, once studied against Marx, Lenin, and Hobson. Additionally, the political realm continuously seeks the theory most adherent to Marxs original intentions; the paper will continue to elaborate on how Lenins ideas are more on target with orthodox Marxism than that Hobson. Karl Marx, one of the greatest thinkers and philosophers in modern time, impacted and continues to impact millions of people around the globe in combating the oppression set forth by an overpowering bourgeoisie on a suffering proletariat. In identifying that capitalism leads to more surplus labor than value, he took matters upon himself to empower the working class and abolish all means of class separation. Marx believed that the power of capital rests on the ideological and organizational degree of unity among workers (Prof. Stephen Bronner, personal communication). In the Communist Manifesto, Marx stated that, The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country. (Tucker 477) Marx is ensuing that the developed world has taken complete control over the world market and in doing so they can over produce their products at a cheap prices and force their consumption upon the underdeveloped world. T his means of exploitation batters down all Chinese walls because all nations seeking to improve upon their economic problems are willing to compel any nation to abide by its own mode of production, thus taking on the bourgeois stance (Tucker 477). Marx believed this bourgeois nation creates a world after its own image. (Tucker 477) The underdeveloped world sees in the developed world the image of its own future. Hence, the bourgeois becomes an international class, in contradiction with the current view of globalization. Under the Marxist view, imperialism is embedded within capitalism having an omnivorous character that is engaged in an assault on traditional society. Hence, Marx suggested a non political position in which a society would take on basic structures of productions or die. (Prof. Stephen Bronner, personal communication) Any anti-imperialistic revolts that emerged were seen as anti-capitalistic, once more resulting that each are essential for the other and are not establ ished separately. Schumpeter, an Austro-Marxist, dealt with universal nationalism and was embraced by the main stream. Schumpeter argues that the conquest for expansion is pre-capitalistic yet it no way is it subordinate. Imperialism, under Schumpeter is viewed as the objectless disposition on the part of a state to unlimited forcible expansion. (Schumpeter 7) Thus meaning that it is human nature for a state to seek expansion while capitalism in an indigenous phenomena of the West. Capitalism will inevitably eliminate imperialism and result in the diminishing of ideological concerns. Unaddressed under Schumpeter, capitalism may be a post-imperialistic thought but it does not ensure stability. Additionally, a dominant economic power is an essential base for an imperial power thus proving that most economically advanced nations are those who are engaged in capitalism. (Prof. Stephen Bronner, personal communication) Schumpeter believed that as capitalism develops the quest for imperialism slowly disinteg rates. In a style of dichotomy, the differences between Schumpeter and Marx showed a clear divide in the theory of class domination, oppression, and struggle as the mainspring of history. Schumpeter believed that the ambitions of many people are minimal because they compromise a larger majority of the world populace but those in the upper class sect of society are thrust with greatness because they are the minority. This, Schumpeter emphasized, is natural and has nothing to do with the Marxian idea of class struggles. Yet the main thing he did share with Marx was the economic interpretation of history, without the Marxian supplements of class struggles. The economic interpretation of history included the ideas that the countries would attain wealth based on productivity and profit. One of Marxs fundamental mistakes to Schumpeters, was to take that power and will to power of the captains and generals of industry of the early and middle nineteenth century to be outstanding in the character of the entire, much larger class, the bourgeois as a whole and sure to continue to characterize it in undiminished degree as long as the class should exist.  [1]  For Schumpeter on the contrary, the forceful or potent character was always confined to the group of leading entrepreneurs.  [2]   Schumpeter had a more unorthodox view on imperialism then other thinkers. Lenin and Hobson both shaped the framework for the clarification on how imperialism has made an imprint on the world and its people. Hobson defines imperialism as the endeavor of the great controller of industry to broaden the channel for the flow of surplus wealth by seeking foreign markets and foreign investments to take off the goods and capital they cannot sell or use at home. (1) This denotation projected by Hobson illustrates a strictly productive and profit seeking state. Hobson, a classical Fabian, focused his criticism of imperialism on the industrial aspects and neglected the older quests for imperialism based on expansion. While Marx stated that capitalism does generate imperialism, Hobson believed they were connected but one must take into account the parasitic sectors involved in imperialism. Hobson had a strong belief that capitalism can be reformed but there must be the existence of both capitali sm and imperialism or the country allows the two to run rampant. Hobson viewed imperialism as an economic taproot and it served as the parasitical sector of capitalism. In order for capital to move the conquest of territories are essential and all great powers engaged in the imperial enterprise are colonial. Imperialism, Hobson writes, is the natural product of economic pressures of a sudden advance of capitalism which cannot find occupation at home and needs foreign markets for goods and investments. (65) As the nations become more industrialized, the growth of productions exceeds the growth in consumption; more goods are produced than can be sold at a profit; more capital exists that can find remunerative investment.  [3]  Since it becomes more difficult for manufacturers, merchants, and financiers to dispose of their economic resources, they bring pressure to bear on the government to secure for their particular use some distant, underdeveloped country by annexation and protection. It is these economic conditions which form the taproot of Imperialism (85-86). Thus being, Hobsons view projects that the next and final stage in the imperialism process is capitalism. According to Hobson, the causes of imperialism would be eliminated if there were better distribution of wealth. (91-92) If the surplus wealth, that is over savings, were distributed either to the workers in the form of higher wages or to the community in the form of taxes, so that it were spent instead of being saved, serving in either of these ways to increase consumption, there would be no need to fight for foreign markets or foreign areas of investment. If incomes were distributed so as to enable all groups in the economy to increase their consumption, there could be no overproduction, no underemployment of capital and labor, and no necessity for the state to pursue a policy of imperialism. Lenin on the other hand had a three-fold objective: to save revolutionary Marxism; to annihilate the opportunists, namely, Kautsky, who is painted as the villain for his defilement of Marxism; and to provide a truly Russian or Eastern version of socialism which would be applicable to backward, agricultural, semi-colonial and colonial countries.  [4]  Stalin defined Leninism as, Marxism in the epoch of imperialism and proletarian revolution.  [5]  Imbedded in his goals and policies Lenin does not let go of the Marxist foundation that are essential to formulate a successful revolution. Lenin believed that the only way to combat the colonially imperialistic powers is through war and in doing so Marx should lie at the base. Lenin goes on to say that imperialism is the stage of development in which the domination of monopolies and finance capital has taken shape; in which the export of capital is important, in which the division of the world by the international trusts has begun, and in which the partition of all the territory of the earth by the greatest capitalist countries has been completed. (Lenin 88-89) The view illuminated here by Lenin does not address imperialism as an ends for a means but an essential stage of development that is undergone once capitalistic countries take control of the sphere. According to Lenin, the economic persona of imperialism is monopoly capitalism. Monopolies grow out of the concentration of production into a conglomerate of businesses and trusts which play a very important role in modern economic life. These monopolies have captured the most important sources of raw materials, which fact in turn has enormously increased the power of big capitalists and have sharpened the antagonism between cartelized and noncartelized industry. (Lenin 123-127) In his discussion of cartelized and industries not cartelized, Lenin shows that because there is a cluster of business dominating the price margin of products the tension between them and uncartelized industries increase leading to an imperialistic nature. The growth of these powerful monopolies and oligarchies, with their striving for domination, annexation, and ruinous exploitation of backward area, has given rise to imperialism, which, as Lenin puts it, is parasitic or decaying capitalism. Thus capitalism has grown into a world system of colonial oppression and of financial control of the overwhelming majority of the people of the world, by a handful of large capitalist countries, which involves the whole world in their war over the sharing of their booty. (Lenin 10) Because imperialism is placed by Lenin as one in the same, the establishment of a powerful capitalist country inevitably leads to an imperialistic nature. Under capitalism, Lenin wrote, the only way to remove or set an end to the problems caused by highly productive and capitalistic forces leading to the division of colonies and spheres of influences for finance capital on the other, is through war.  [6]  In terms of imperialism, Lenins theory does not contradict Marxs analysis of capitalism. Both men believed in and witnessed the formation of monopolies. Yet Lenins theory contradicts Marxs doctrine of the lumpen proletariat because he believes that capitalism will not generate the adequate amount of money needed to employ all those not working. (Marx Communist Manifesto) Lenin fails to acknowledge to Hobson approach that entails that excess capital causes capitalistic countries to invest overseas and in doing so sustained full employment is not a factor. In comparison to Marx they both addressed that in adherence to capitalism state will search for new markets that can increase profit. Since the bottom line for monopolies is to increase profit, Lenin was right insofar as imperialism is caused by the search for new markets.  [7]   While Hobson and Lenin looked to the basic causes of imperialism in the market place, Schumpeter disputed their views greatly and felt that imperialism was built on a negative connotation. Schumpeter presents a theory which exonerates capitalism from the charge of being inherently imperialistic. He discards the attempts of Hobson and Lenin to ascribe a purely economic interpretation to the phenomenon of imperialism. Such an interpretation is incomplete, as non-economic factors must also be considered. Wars, conquests, annexations are not necessarily a result of imperialism. The desire for power for its own sake, the actions of rulers, the desire to subject a people to a specific though, the fight for freedom, all have been causes of war. Furthermore, in analyzing the writings of Lenin, Hobson, and Schumpeter the congruence in thought are stronger between Hobson and Schumpeter than that with Lenin. Even though Hobson still traces the causes of imperialism to economic problems causing a capitalistic country to seek foreign markets, he believes that in tackling this issue the bond between imperialism and capitalism is broken. This would ensue that capitalism is apart from imperialism rather than a reason to be imperialistic. In Lenins philosophy capitalism is in the same cesspool as imperialism and an attack on imperialism is an attack on capitalism. For this reason Lenins model proved to be crucial for anti-imperialistic movements. Schumpeters ideas, though abstract, are based stronger on sociological and psychological paths, two details that Lenin and Hobson did not mention in either of their writings. Moreover, imperialism is a complex topic that is understood differently by different scholars and in contradiction Sc humpeter, without capitalism a state would not seek to expand and alter the lives of underdeveloped states seeking their own sustainable lives.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Essay on the Evils of Capitalism Exposed in Catch-22 -- Catch-22

Evils of Capitalism Exposed in Catch-22  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚      "That's some catch, that Catch-22" (47). Some catch indeed, for Catch-22 "is the best there is" (47). A strange paradox preventing men from being grounded under any circumstances, Catch-22 eventually evolves into a justification for doing virtually anything. After all, it "says [anyone] can do anything [that] we can't stop them from doing" (416). A less obviously stated, but equally powerful, validation for one's actions is the guarantee of profit. "It [is] odd how many wrongs leaving money [seems] to right" (418), for the promise or presence of some form of profit, rights even the wrongs warranted by Catch-22. Milo Minderbinder takes full advantage of this powerful reasoning and uses it extremely well. Yet, rather than using it to right wrongs, Milo uses it to justify his own dastardly deeds. Therefore, throughout Catch-22, Milo's capitalistic greed leads him to be an emblem evil. Milo spends most of his time in the army traveling Europe, the Middle East, and Africa in search of the best deal. With the use of "donated army equipment" (239) he buys and sells various items in order to make the highest profit. Rather than fly missions, Milo seeks to make money, capitalizing on his time abroad. After all, Milo "didn't start this war...[he's] just trying to put it on a businesslike basis" (262). This attitude leads Milo to begin a syndicate, one in which "everybody has a share" (238-239). This proposed arrangement keeps everyone at ease, so much so it leads to general sloth. Because "everybody [has] a share, ...men [get] fat and [move] about tamely with toothpicks in their greasy lips" (259). One by one, the men succumb to the charms of plenty as well as to their internal greed... ...avoids and resists many things that bring him closer to death or to violating his morals. Be it Aarfy, Colonel Cathcart, or war itself, Yossarian distances himself from the evil in question. Ironically, defiant as he is, Yossarian fails to break through the limitations of the syndicate and actually befriends its proprietor. Yossarian doesn't even attempt to do otherwise, for even he "sagged back in a contented stupor, his mouth filmy with a succulent residue" (22); Yossarian had become one of the men who "got fat and moved about with toothpicks in their greasy lips" (259). Therefore, even he who refuses to conform to other standards is corrupted by the sweet blandishments and innocent appearance of capitalism. The novel thus ends on the note that no one remains free from so powerful a force. Works Cited Heller, Joseph. Catch-22. New York: Knopf, Inc., 1995.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Are Customer loyalty and online grocery shopping linked in anyway

How client trueness and on-line food market shopping in anyway are linked or affected by one another? The wide job country or publish that this pupil wanted to turn to was to happen a correlativity between client trueness from the early phases when food market shops where traveling to the online market topographic point, and how, if any manner they are linked. They will besides supply research into the country that is on-line food market shopping and client trueness, to set up a nexus between the two and to analyze the grounds as to why people choose to shop online instead than in shop.Keywordso Customer Loyalty o Grocery Shopping o Online Grocery Shopping o Attitude to shopping online o Links between client trueness and on-line food market shopping o Customer trueness strategies o Shoping Rewards strategies o Internet shopping o E-loyaltyLiterature SearchRE Anderson, SS Srinivasan – Psychology and Selling, ( 2003 ) Eaˆ?satisfaction and eaˆ?loyalty: A eventuality model. Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ Cited by 331 ] SS Srinivasan, R Anderson, K Ponnavolu – Journal of Retailing, ( 2002 ) Customer trueness in e-commerce: an geographic expedition of its ancestors and effects. Elsevier Science Inc. [ Cited by 467 ] MA Morganosky, BJ Cude – International Journal of Retail & A ; aˆÂ ¦ , ( 2000 ) Consumer response to online food market shopping. MCB UP Ltd – [ Cited by 116 ] Lisa O'Malley – Selling Intelligence & A ; Planning ( 1998 ) â€Å" Can trueness strategies truly construct trueness? . MCB UP Ltd [ Cited by 91 ]Literature ReviewCompare your mentions to the 1s chosen by the pupil In comparing with the mentions that I found through my literature hunt, there is a wider spread between my beginnings and that of the subjects discussed by the writer of my chosen undertaking. The chief distinguishing country was the keywords that were used to execute my literature hunt. I personally believe that the spread between both our consequences, was that my mentions where really generic given information about that peculiar subject. Whereas the pupils mentions where highly narrow and really near to the issues being discussed, the bulk of the mentions were in line with their point of position. Are any the same? What is different? The mentions that I found where really different to that of the pupil, the bulk of my mentions were surveies into the cardinal subject countries for illustration ‘e-loyalty ‘ and ‘customer satisfaction ‘ . Unsurprisingly none of our mentions matched, the bulk of my consequences were for that specific subject as I saw tantrum. Look up some of their mentions†¦ How good are they? The mentions chosen by the pupil were really good chosen I believe as they were relevant to their research country. However in my sentiment the quality of the mentions could hold been better. Having found some of their diaries through Google ‘s Scholar, they were non extremely rated in this subject country. That leads me to oppugn some of the points raised in the study. The bulk of mentions I believe were chiefly in support of their position. This is what I would anticipate from this type of subject. However I believe it would hold been a much more compelling study if we were given an opposing position every bit good, hence doing their statements interesting. During the chapter where the pupil was explicating the history of the Internet, wholly there mentions in that paragraph were in support of the points being raised which is what would be expected when a subject is being explained. Can you judge the quality of their mentions? I personally believe that the quality of the mentions obtained by the pupil was of exceeding quality, they were relevant to the point that was being made. I personally followed up a few of their mentions and the three that I followed were of highly high credibleness. For illustration the diary Lewin, C ( Editor ) . ( 2004 ) . Research Methods in the Social Sciences. Harmonizing to Google Scholar, had been cited by other readers and authors 89 times, since it was published in 2005, this is a really good indicant that the beginning and writers positions are extremely respected on this field of subject besides lending to the credibleness of the beginnings used in this article.For Comments Please Refer To Original Post on VictoryCapable: WK 4 – Research Ethics Topic: Learning Journals Group 5 Writer: DERICK AGYEPONG BOATENG Date: 08 January 2011 13:13 How the research was carried out? ( E.g. study, questioning ) In my chosen undertaking, Primary research was used both in the signifier of a study to mensurate public sentiment of on-line food market shopping and besides of a personal rating of Tesco ‘s web based food market shopping site. This questionnaire was sent out to an estimated 300 respondent ‘s via an e-mail nexus who attend the University of Portsmouth Computing and Maths section. Some questionnaires were besides sent to friends and household members of the research workers – but the exact sum is non disclosed. Did it affect human topics? ( Did people get involved? ) Yes the study included human topics, the study contained a sum of 12 inquiries, in which respondents gave background inside informations foremost ( sex and age group ) in order for the research worker to construct up a profile of the respondent ‘s. They so proceeded to reply inquiries based on on-line food market shopping experience and wonts. This was a quantitative survey incorporating structured inquiries with a choice of pre-set replies. This type of research allowed for a standardized set of informations to be collected from the respondents which could be easy analysed to look for possible forms and tendencies in the replies given. Do you believe that all the ethical issues were covered? Were there any ethical quandary that you think were non adequately addressed? I believe that the pupil covered all the ethical countries in the study ; they besides completed an ethical scrutiny which was mentioned in the study but non included. I presume that the electronic mail provided the topic with adequate inside informations about the study and besides what their information would be used for. I am assured that no ethical boundaries where crossed in the executing of this survey. From the study no bush leagues where sampled in the study as their sentiments would non be relevant to the subject being investigated. In your sentiment, do you believe that failure to turn to any ethical issues reduced the credibleness of the consequences from this Undertaking? ( Gave readers an alibi to dismiss those findings? ) . I personally do non believe that credibleness of this undertaking was any affected by any ethical issues that may hold arose. The mode in which the pupil created the questionnaire for illustration, one time a respondent had entered their age the system would find whether they were of legal age to take part in the questionnaire before continuing. This was critical in guaranting that bush leagues did non by chance take part in the survey without parental consent. There was no ground from the undertaking study that would bespeak to readers to oppugn the findings. However there are issues that I believe should be raised about the dependability of the consequences obtained. To me personally the targeted group does non look to be the typical food market shopper. I think it would hold been a much more bewitching if the questionnaire was made available to supermarkets to let their clients to supply their sentiments as good giving a much wider range of participants and guaranting that the con sequences are justified.For Comments Please Refer To Original Post on VictoryCapable: WK 5 – Research Design Topic: Learning Journals Group 5 Writer: DERICK AGYEPONG BOATENG Date: 13 December 2010 12:27 The intent of this research is to look into why e-waste is a turning concern. Suggest ONE research attack ( methodological analysis ) , a research inquiry, a research method and a sampling scheme which would let you to research this inquiry successfully. To get down, I started by making a really general hunt as to what e-waste is and to familiarize myself with the job being investigated. I rapidly came across statistical grounds that this issue is much bigger than what I ab initio thought. Below is a speedy snipping of the issues that I came across. â€Å" Thirty million computing machines are thrown out every twelvemonth in the US entirely, and many are dumped in India and China. Some 70 % of the heavy metals in landfills come from electrical equipment waste. † Beginning: hypertext transfer protocol: //news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3307815.stm From this initial hunt I was able to rapidly make up one's mind that a questionnaire would be the most suited method of transporting out the research. These questionnaires can be given to both consumers to derive an apprehension of their position points and how this issue affects them. The 2nd group that the questionnaire could be given to, would be those in industry, including a sample from fabrication, providers and besides retail merchants, this would supply a suited apprehension on how this issue affects all those concerned. Some illustration inquiries that could be posed in the questionnaire could include: 1. How do you dispose of defective points? a. Throw in general waste B. Shit at land fill c. Find suited recycling strategy d. Donate to charity 2. Would you be more likely to utilize recycling strategies if they were free or small cost to you? a. Yes B. No c. Maybe ( Please give ground ) These inquiries would be aimed at consumers, it would be ideal to hold different types of inquiries for those other sectors that are besides being investigated to truly understand the impact this issue is holding on the environment and besides a suited solution that could be implemented to cut down the impact. See your ain Study Project Report: In the undertaking that I ‘m reviewing, the research worker used a fixed Research Design. The research worker specified in advanced what methods were traveling to be used to roll up qualitative informations. These included a questionnaire to prove both facets of the primary research and besides a personal rating of the Tesco.com web site. Unfortunately in my chosen undertaking, there was no reference of any variables, but from my consideration I can place two dependent variables. The first 1 would be age this would be dependent on the respondent ‘s gender, from the consequences included in the study, it fair to state that the bulk of the respondents were males, which were dependent on the topic ‘s age, which was between 18 and 30. There was no sample inquiries attached to my chosen undertaking ; nevertheless from what was discussed and besides the consequences, I can construct a image of the type of inquiries asked in order to have those consequences. There does look to be usage of both nominal and numeral informations types to have the replies that was gained from the study. Capable: WK 6 – Research Design 2 Subject: Learning Journals Group 5 Writer: DERICK AGYEPONG BOATENG Date: 04 January 2011 02:24 How much consideration did the writer give to taking a Research Design at all? I believe that the writer of my chosen research did n't take that much clip in order to take their research design, as I presume that one time the aims were determined, it would hold been directly frontward to reason that a study would be the most efficient method of roll uping qualitative informations that can be easy analysed at a ulterior phase. However I do believe it was a good thought for the research worker to besides include a personal rating of an bing on-line food market shop which at the clip appeared to be making good. I presume that there must had been some thought nevertheless no grounds or treatment took topographic point in the concluding study, as to what countries to look into and what the primary end to be achieved from this private survey. Do you hold any grounds that the writer considered any pick of design? From what I have read in this undertaking there is no treatment from the writer, sing a suited research design. However in the Methodology portion, the research worker did discourse really briefly what methods were traveling to be used to bring forth concrete consequences, from which they could establish the study upon. Did the writer usage a Flexible Research Design and, if non, do you believe that there were possibilities for qualitative research that were missed? Give grounds for your reply. The research worker of my chosen undertaking used a flexible research design, this is apparent in the type of research used, they utilised both questionnaires and besides personal rating into research inquiry. However I do believe that an chance to capture qualitative informations was missed by the research worker, I believe that this would hold given the undertaking a much more compelling grounds to back up their concluding decision, for illustration the research shows that 72 % of respondents would see utilizing on-line supermarkets in the close hereafter – it would hold provided the reader with a much more in deepness analysis if we were provided the chance to happen out what the respondents sentiments on what might alter in the close hereafter for them to see utilizing on-line supermarkets. Remarks Forward Remarks 1 Writer: THOMAS ELLIOTT Date: 09 November 2010 21:51 I see you have undertaken an indepth literature hunt and compared it with your allocated undertaking successfully. I feel the key words you highlighted are of a high criterion and after sing some of the links you posted, they look really relevant to the capable country and besides really dependable and if I were composing an essay on â€Å" on-line shoping and client trueness † and I got the same hunt consequences, I would non waver to utilize the links you have highlighted. Out of interset what search engine did you utilize? CiteULike? Google Scholar? 2 Writer: DERICK AGYEPONG BOATENG Date: 10 November 2010 11:44 Thank you. I used both to be honest, picking the most relevant from both beginnings. But I believe Google Scholar was the most comprenshive with its broad catelog the biggest job was delving through them all to happen the ‘golden nugget ‘ 3 Writer: THEO POWELL Date: 17 November 2010 15:50 Seems like an interesting survey undertaking to cover, with a batch of information out at that place to cover. With this being said how hard did you happen it to happen the right type information, to assist back up your farther research and analysis on the undertaking? 4 Writer: THOMAS ELLIOTT Date: 29 November 2010 23:03 Yes, one agree with you, out of the two Google bookman is, in my sentiment, the most good but I do experience the consequences brought up in both sites are either be excessively specific to certain topics countries or on the other manus excessively wide and non concentrate down plenty, hence doing both sites reasonably boring and slippery to utilize when seeking for stuff when researching a specific subject country. 5 Writer: DERICK AGYEPONG BOATENG Date: 08 January 2011 12:16 Thank you for your remarks – @ Theo – It was quiet hard at first if I was to be honest. I had to maintain in head the research aim and what was to be achieved, from that point I considered any information that would be necessary to carry through this. @ Thomas – Yes that is an interesting point to raise, but I believe that if you combine both together you will have a much more relevant consequences that can be of usage. Capable: WK 7 – Data Collection Methods Topic: Learning Journals Group 5 Writer: DERICK AGYEPONG BOATENG Date: 04 January 2011 02:55 7.1 â€Å" Assorted Method is the usage of both qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze phenomena. These two sets of methods can be used at the same time or at different phases of the same survey. † Beginning: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.uwex.edu/ces/tobaccoeval/glossary.html The difference between Single Approach Design is that merely one research scheme is used, such as sampling, informations aggregation, or informations analysis where as in Mixed Approach Design utilizing a combination of two or more methods in sampling, informations aggregation or information analysis. Beginning: hypertext transfer protocol: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimethodology 7.2 Locate the subdivision in your chosen Study Project for the Part 1: Appraisal, where the writer has chosen to get down the information aggregation. For my chosen undertaking, the research worker used a assorted attack design, this is apparent in their research design, their primary research was a questionnaire, this was used for it efficiency in obtaining relevant and precise information from the respondents. And a secondary research was a personal rating of Tesco ‘s on-line food market shopping service. The rating examined characteristics of the web site and how this could play a portion in client trueness and keeping. I believe that this was an appropriate method for the research inquiry that was posed. It allowed relevant information to be extracted from participants and was less clip devouring than an interview. In my observation of this undertaking, I believe that the application of the study would hold been more relevant if it was to be given to those in the class that would purchase food market shopping, those in the age of 30 – 50, who presently shop at traditional food market shops to happen out their sentiment on how on-line food market shopping will impact them, and if they will demo trueness to a specific trade name. I believe this would hold besides supported the research worker ‘s bing study which was taken by chiefly male pupils at the University of Portsmouth. I would see the consequences obtained by the research worker as believable, because the right inquiries were asked to participants, from the typical age group that would be most likely to shop online. However with that being said, I still believe that this would hold been a much more compelling undertaking had the reader given both sides of the statement. From the research undertaking that I was reviewing, I believe the user chiefly utilised quantitative research method. I personally do n't believe utilizing merely a Quantative method produced the most concrete consequences, for the specified subject country, had the research worker utilized triangulation in their research as to utilize multiple signifiers of research in the research design it would hold allowed the consequences to be much more enlightening into the shopping wonts and trueness of participants. I think that the research worker took the necessary safeguards to guarantee that all facets of the study was ethical, they mentioned finishing an ethical studies, and assured readers that no bush leagues would be involved in the study, there is besides grounds that they planned the most effectual manner to transport out the research before supplying to participants to finish. There are presently no concerns that I would raise in respect to how ethical the research was, all expected undertakings and treatments that took topographic point instantly extinguished any uncertainties that were raised. I believe that the research scheme was appropriate for the purposes specified in the debut of the papers ; they were able to supply a house relationship between the usage of on-line food market shops and client trueness ; which showed a positive correlativity between high client satisfaction when utilizing an on-line food market shop and high client trueness. The usage of interviews would hold given this research topic a more in-depth apprehension to attitudes of those who complete food market shopping online and besides those who do n't and what their ideas are for the hereafter of on-line food market shopping.