Sex, Gender And Sexuality - 966 Words

The chapter includes definitions about sex, gender and sexuality. Additionally, it describes a process of gender socialization, gender stratification, and supports these processes by social theories. Each of the provided videos and the article relates to this chapter in many ways. According to the chapter, people learn their roles of males and females through the process of socialization. There are certain guidelines established by society that people follow in acceptable manner. Each person goes through the stages in life and at the each stage he or she learns behaviors that are appropriate for his or her gender (Ballantine 247). If people do not meet gender expectations, negative functions are imposed by other members of society. Society expects boys to be aggressive, independent, strong and competitive. Girls, on the other hand, are expected to be soft, nonaggressive and nurturing (Ballantine 254). â€Å"Boys are socialized into the boy code† (Ballantine 252). Expectations for them are more rigid than are those for girls and despite the fact that they experience the same feelings and emotions, boys supposed to repress them. Parents from the â€Å"Secret Life of Boys† admitted that they were treating their kids differently so that girls in their family share their feelings and emotions openly, and their son keeps feeling to himself. This way of dealing with stress affected his performance in school and resulted in misbehavior. It is recognized that hidden emotions can beShow MoreRelatedGender, Sex, And Sexuality1363 Words   |  6 PagesJones Mr.DiGulio Honor Freshman English-3 26 April 2016 Gender, Sex, and Sexuality Gender, sex, and sexuality are not new concepts in today’s society. These three terms have been around for a long time, but they have only just started to surface and be taught and understood by the nation. Slowly society is learning that sex does not determine one’s sexual orientation and gender and who you are is nothing to be ashamed about. A person’s sexuality has been with them ever since and before they were bornRead MoreSex, Gender, And Sexuality1490 Words   |  6 PagesSex, gender, and sexuality are words that are constantly are been not understood properly and also misused by societies. But scholars through research and history have come up with basic ways to distinguish what each term means. Starting with the term sex, sex is known as a biological structure of a person (Renzetti 2). There also is another way that sex defined, some believe that the definition of is the meaning the society and each individual gave it, â€Å"or the various ways we express our sexualRead MoreSex, Gender, And Sexuality1391 Words   |  6 PagesSEX, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY 1 Sex, Gender, and Sexuality Joel M. Queen Oklahoma State University Sex, Gender, and Sexuality When you go on with your daily lives and norms, you tend to not give much attention to what kind of roles certain genders play or how we perceive certain gender to perform said roles. Lorber mentions in the early part of her argument that we seem to treat sex, gender, and sexuality and the norms that come with them like fish and water (Lorber, 1994) . We have almostRead MoreBiological Sex, Gender, And Sexuality1192 Words   |  5 Pagesimportant differences between biological sex, gender, and sexuality? Biological sex is our anatomy; this relates to a humans anatomical and reproductive system. Determined by karyotype (chromosomes of a cell, 46 XY karyotype in typical males and 46 XX karyotype in typical females), internal genitalia (testes and ovaries), external genitalia (scrotum and penis in males; labia and clitoris in females), and secondary sex differentiation at puberty (Pasterski, 2008). Gender is the state of being female or male;Read MoreBox Building Process with Respect to Sex, Gender and Sexuality954 Words   |  4 Pagesbetween the various groups of individuals in the society based on their age, gender, race, nationality among other factors (Warde Martens 21). Social differentiation process, which is also referred to as box creating process is vital in the escalating cases of social inequality, more specifically, for the purpose of this article, gender and sexual inequality. The demarcations created on the basis of this factors (gender and sexual attributes of an indiv idual) tend to mould individuals to depictRead MoreAn Analysis Of Judith Butler s Exploration Of Gender, Sex, And Sexuality Essay1544 Words   |  7 Pagesattack those very expectations. The essence of what it means to be a girl is questioned within the short video. Judith Butler’s exploration of gender, sex, and sexuality’s fluidity, trapped within the â€Å"normal,† binary structure of society, questions the same notions. Butler attacks the comfort of the binary system, and exposes the insubstantial basis of gender. The â€Å"Like A Girl† campaign by Always details the connotations of what it means to be a girl. When asked to run like a girl, older women andRead MoreGender Issues and Sexuality in Marge Piercys Sex Wars Essay785 Words   |  4 PagesSex Wars; a title provocative enough to garner not only a second look when encountered on an overcrowded bookshelf, but undoubtedly a perfunctory lift from the shelf and a superficial perusal. If you do delve deeper into the novel by Marge Piercy you come to see that Sex alludes to gender and the relationship between men and women; not just the act. War denotes power, agency; a struggle to gain it, fought in our own cities not on some far off shores. It isnt peculiar that Marge Piercy would devoteRead MoreDismantling Binaries: Bisexuality947 Words   |  4 Pageswith respect to sex, gender and sexuality. In the society, these boxes and their limits rest on a multiplicity of assumptions. The first supposition is that there are two sex’ s genders, and sexualities. Everyone is male or a female, feminine or masculine, heterosexual or homosexual but no one can be both. This supposition of sex believes the truth of substantial difference in how persons actually do gender but yet people carry on to believe that there are just two equally elite gender groups into whichRead MoreThe Cultural Matrix And Gender Identity1506 Words   |  7 Pagesâ€Å"‘persons’ only become intelligible through becoming gendered in conformity with recognizable standards of gender intelligibility (p.22)† and describes â€Å"intelligible† genders [as] those which in some sense institute and maintain relations of coherence and continuity among sex, gender, sexual practice, and desire (p. 23).† That is, legitimate persons are those whose gender matches their sex within heterosexual engagements. However, all persons should be intelligible. It is through the cultural matrixRead More The Social Construction of Gender and Sexuality Essay1361 Words   |  6 Pageswhole new generation of people who aren’t defined by their race or their sex or who they like to sleep with.† This statement exemplifies the definition of gender as a concept; gender is the expectations of a sex according to the culture of society. Sexuality, within this definition of gender, reflects society’s expectations, which are created in relation to the opposite sex. The variances between cultures means that gender expectations change within different cultures. These expectations put pressure

Conflict Diamonds - 1086 Words

Attempt Any Two Of the following ( 60 Marks - 30 Marks each ) | | Case 1 | Conflict Diamonds | | | During the late 1990s South African diamond product De Beers and other companies on the diamond industry discovered that some of the diamonds they were buying or selling came from groups who used the proceeds to finance brutal civil wars. In Sierra Leone, rebels took control of diamond mines by systematically chopping off the arms and hands of as many as 20,000 children, women and men until the diamond operations were turned over to them. Similarly events took place at diamond mines in Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. About 4 million civilians have died in the civil wars financed by the diamonds. Anxious to avoid a†¦show more content†¦In Nogales, Mexico, Swingline found lots of cheap labor. | | | Between 1994 and 2004, 1.5 million Mexican farmers lost their US only source of income due to low case foods imported by Mexico by US businesses farmers under NAFTA. The unemployed farmers migrated to border cities like Nogales where they provided a large pool of cheap labor for companies like Swingline. But around 2000, jobs in Mexico began leaving the country and heading for China. Chinas workers were willing to work for even less than Mexican workers. In Nogales, the Swingline factory cut assembly jobs from 2600 in 1999 to less than 900 in 2004. The company is now thinking of moving its factory from Mexico to China. Since 2001, more than one-third of the jobs companies brought into Mexico have moved to China | | Q 3a) | What obligations do companies like Swingline have towards their workers when they think about moving their operations to countries with cheaper labor? | | Q 3b) | Contrast between ethics of layoffs vs. benefits of competitive labor markets ( i.e labor markets of US to Mexico to China)Show MoreRelatedConflict Diamonds1098 Words   |  5 Pages- 30 Marks each ) | | Case 1 | Conflict Diamonds | | | During the late 1990s South African diamond product De Beers and other companies on the diamond industry discovered that some of the diamonds they were buying or selling came from groups who used the proceeds to finance brutal civil wars. In Sierra Leone, rebels took control of diamond mines by systematically chopping off the arms and hands of as many as 20,000 children, women and men until the diamond operations were turned over to themRead MoreThe Diamond And Conflict Diamond1482 Words   |  6 Pages Introduction Blood Diamond or Conflict Diamond another term used to describe the illegal trade of diamond in Africa. The Blood Diamond is been used to finance conflicts, wars and humans rights violations. The Conflict exists for many years, profits have been made from the illegal trade of diamonds, Rebels and warlords use the diamonds to buy arms. There are many countries involved in the illicit trading the blood diamond, Sierra Leone, Republic of Congo, Liberia, and Angola. This assignment is aboutRead MoreEssay Conflict Diamonds782 Words   |  4 Pages1. What are conflict diamonds? What groups benefited from the trade in conflict diamonds? What groups were hurt by it? As defined in the case study, conflict diamonds are gemstones that are mined or stolen by rebels fighting internationally recognized governments. Any of the anti-government/rebel forces/guerrilla troops/or other nonconformist groups within the areas of question or which could fall into this category or situation. The case study points out two groups who benefited the most underRead MoreConflict Diamonds Essay2201 Words   |  9 Pagesit so desperately deserves. The purpose of blood diamonds is simple; they’re used as currency to buy warring factions and warlords armaments and fuel civil wars in unstable countries as well as continued guerrilla tyranny throughout countries like Angola and more famously Sierra Leone. When addressing the issue of blood diamonds mined from Sierra Leone, understanding the country’s geography, civil and political aspects are crucial. Blood diamonds often have a misconstrued meaning, and the definitionRead MoreThe War on Conflict Diamonds Ess ay1077 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"Diamonds are forever† it is often said. â€Å"But lives are not†, says Martin Chungong Ayafor, Chairman of the Sierra Leone Panel of Experts, â€Å"We must spare people the ordeal of war, mutilations and death for the sake of conflict diamonds.† (United Nations 2). This is a very powerful quote from someone who has and is experiencing (Gerund) firsthand the gruesome terror of the conflict over diamonds in Africa. This war has started because of the greed for money and power in the abundant diamond industryRead MoreConflicts Between Conflict Diamond Trade1531 Words   |  7 PagesSouthern Africa today. This issue deals with conflict diamond trade, which is the trade of diamonds in which the conditions for the miners had been extremely poor, and as well, the profit gathered is usually taken into the funding of illegal activities in the area, such as funding rebel movements. Being in the 21st century, this should not be allowed by the general public, and there were actions taken by different organisations to attempt to stop the conflict diamond trade. However, up until today, theyRead MoreThe Conflict Diamonds Of Sierra Leone1273 Words   |  6 PagesThe conflict diamonds started to be present and problematic in Sierra Leone as soon as DeBeers mining company took control of all diamond prospects throughout this region. Although DeBeers was keeping a moderate watch on the trading and actions being taken through it, traders from Lebanon (bordered by Syria and Israel to the south) were able to easily smuggle and mine diamonds out through the company. Later towards the 1950s, countries, such as Sierra Leone, had to give up the chance of regulatingRead More Preventing the export of conflict diamonds in the Democratic Republic of the Congo4642 Words   |  19 PagesPreventing the export of conflict diamonds in the Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has large reserves of cobalt, gold, gems, copper, timber, and uranium. However, the most valuable resource that the DRC possess is its large reserve of diamonds. Diamonds essentially serve as a pillar to the DRC’s struggling economy. Plagued by civil unrest, the DRC is desperately trying to stabilize its economy. Their efforts have been met with stiff resistance due toRead More Blood Diamonds: The Conflict in Sierra Leone Essay3259 Words   |  14 PagesBlood Diamonds: The Conflict in Sierra Leone History of Diamonds: The name diamond comes from the Greek word, adamas meaning unconquerable. Fittingly diamonds are made of pure carbon, and diamonds are the hardest natural substance known to man.[1] Diamonds have long been a sign of wealth and fortune. Kings and queens have worn these forms of concentrated carbon and even more countless millions people over time have lusted after them. These gems can be transparent, truculentRead MoreDiamonds, The Embodiment Of Esteem And Romance1601 Words   |  7 PagesDiamonds, the embodiment of esteem and romance. Millions of years ago, high temperatures and pressure in earth s mantle gave birth to a dazzling gem, a gem that would be loved and adored by many people. It would be put on ornaments and crowns, become the center piece of many jewelry, become the highest symbol of esteem, and even be compared to the stars. People would spend entire paychecks, even a month s, or a year s worth of salary, on trying to acquire it. And in today s world, it s e ven

How I Became an Independent Woman Essay Example For Students

How I Became an Independent Woman Essay Everyone has great stories; stories that are funny, sad and beautiful all at the same time. My story is probably the most difficult I have ever written in my life. Nobody can ever tell my story other than myself. Reminiscing about my childhood and also going through family photo albums has helped me write my story I’m about to tell. Need I mention, I also had my parents think back to my first couple years in life to find out what kind of a baby I was. All of these thoughts got me to ask myself, â€Å"What is my story? Briefly I can say, my family of origin, my culture, my gender, my older brother, my friends, and also my health has helped me shape into a mature woman. I definitely did not have the â€Å"perfect† childhood but, all the experiences I went through have made me become who I am today. During infancy, my mother did mention I had a hard time developing the difference between trust vs. mistrust. Ever since I was born, I was not only raised by my mother but, also with a caregiver. Being born to career minded parents was a tough toll on me and also on my older brother. We were always with multiple caregivers which was confusing to us because we didn’t recognize at first who our real mother was. Especially to me because I was just a baby and I were still trying to understand my surroundings. From what I was told, I never really interacted well with any of my caregivers. I was scared almost all the time and was crying almost every minute. I was uncomfortable and was unfamiliar with all the faces that were introduced because it wasn’t my mothers. This was very bad for my development because I started to not eat a lot and whenever I did eat I was throwing it up right after. My parents concern about my health was very important to them so fortunately they found a solution. For some reason, the only person that gave me comfort and made sure I was okay when my parents weren’t around was my older brother. His face and voice was the only one I was familiar with which helped me feel more comfortable. Whenever a caregiver had a hard time with feeding me; they had to call upon my brother to make sure it happened. Knowing that I trusted him at such a young age just shows me how early interactions can make a big difference later on. My brother and I might be just 4 years apart but, I never knew how much of his presence meant so much to me that young. As I started my years as a toddler, the one person that took the blame for my troublesome actions was my older brother. If I was ever caught doing something bad, he took the blame. I wish my brother never did this because I started to think maybe everything I was doing was his fault. I started blaming him and I never learned my lesson; what I thought was wrong wasn’t my problem anymore. Eventually my caregiver and my parents figured out the problem and made sure no errors were made again. During this time I also figured out the whole meaning of potty training. I was developing the feeling of shame and didn’t want to grow up fast because of the change from diapers to underwear. There were definitely other changes like the difference between female and male toys and also understanding the difference between both genders. I remember from couple pictures of me when I was 3, I never wanted to stop playing with my brother’s toys because we always shared most of our toys so young but, eventually he was getting older and realizing his independence and I always wanted to do the same. Eventually I started understanding that cars and trains were played by boys and dolls and dresses were played by girls. I can definitely say gender roles are still the same as it was back then. The locomotive stage I would say was the last years of my life being normal. I started to be more independent of my own interests. I still had my brother watching over me but, I made sure I was opening myself up to new activities. This is the time when I found some talents like singing, drawing, dancing, and also swimming. I was great in all of them and I had great support from my family too. The only negative that came out of it was that I was super busy with different schedules and I never really had the time to do other things like learning to ride a bicycle or hanging out more with my neighborhood friends. This was also the time when I moved from North India to Dubai. A new surrounding meant new home, new friends, new life and I wasn’t very happy with that decision. And as always the only person that was there that felt the same as me was my older brother. english is primery langugang in america EssayThat was a big change in life because I didn’t have the role model I needed to keep myself from getting in trouble. Once I hit 16 and started to drive, I also got myself involved into a serious relationship with someone older than me. Some people call it just â€Å"young love† but, to me it felt like a real commitment I had with someone else. The only reason why this relationship got serious was because I finally had someone who could understand my feelings and didn’t judge me after. He was the only person who kept me sane and made sure I was doing right in school and after school. Let’s just say we fell in â€Å"love†! It meant more to me than anything else and I wouldn’t let myself out of that relationship. In time, I started to realize what I thought was love was not really what I expected it to be. Getting myself involved with an 18 year old was not smart first of all, which resulted in an abusive relationship and also me being pregnant. I know I hit the peek for my parents when I had to tell them. Being pregnant at age 16 was just a normal case in my high school but, to my parents it was just devastating especially to my culture. I knew I just put myself in a situation that I know I won’t be able to handle without any support and the support I was getting just came from one person and it was him. I knew it was time for me to let go of my childish behavior and start growing up because my life is going to turn 360 in 9 months. What was unexpected was that I had a miscarriage two months into my pregnancy. I believe this was just the most devastating moment in my life! Losing my old habits was okay with me but, this incident just hit rock bottom. I was hit with depression medications and counselors so quick that I pretty much gave up hope on my life. Everyone had the fear that I probably wanted to commit suicide or hurt myself really bad but, I knew I was not going to take it that far. Everything was bottled up inside me and eventually I decided to start using other methods to cope with it. I started heavy drinking at age 18 and using substances that didn’t keep me sober most of the day. I was pretty much forcing myself out of reality which was not good for my health at all. With all the excessive drinking, I gained about 35 pounds and I became more insecure about myself. There were times when my own family used to point out my weight problem and I was not happy about it. Even through all of this, I never put myself into rehab or other institutions because I didn’t want to accept my mistakes. Luckily, I was introduced to faith and this was the only thing that helped me heal myself internally and externally. I devoted my time to God and erase the negative aspects of my life and started fixing myself day by day. It took me 4 years to clear out everything I went through and trust me when I say this; it was the best feeling ever at the end. I never knew what happiness was until I found my faith. Yes, I was lucky enough to make it into dental school and also survive a car accident but, I knew all of these experiences just made me a better person today. My childhood was clearly not the best but, I am blessed to be alive today. Every step of my life has shaped me into the person I am today and I can definitely say, I do not regret anything that has happened in my life. This class itself has definitely taught me a lot about myself and how to deal with my emotions. Being able to write my life story was probably the most challenging to me! I took the risk to write down tough moments in my life which I never bought up to anybody else other than my best friend. I have learned to accept my mistakes and to correct them in a manner which can be a positive outcome in my life rather than a negative. Overall, I really enjoyed writing this paper and I know it took me a long time to find out who I am but, I can happily stand here and say I am an independent woman.

Managing Operations free essay sample

The whole production and delivery process, challenges with the existence of trade-off, supply chain activities, ERP, and human tacit and implicit knowledge to deal with the processes are discussed in this part with reference to the Gate gourmet Company. Managing Operations, Information, and Knowledge of Gate Gourmet 1. Introduction Each company wants to sustain in the highly competitive market. For this, the companies are involved in the management of operations, information and knowledge throughout the organisation, which has now days become of utmost importance. The company go for integration with other firms to improve their processes and for the application of software, which are used uniformly by the different departments of the organisation and their suppliers as well as customers. In the business of catering, providing right quantities at right time at the right place is of greatest importance. For the achievement of the goal, the company that enable efficient use of input resources to generate the effective output uses those systems. We will write a custom essay sample on Managing Operations or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The company in integration with the other companies to provide the quality meals uses new production techniques. Also the supplier selection plays a critical role in supply chain management process. The company to improve their processes uses the ERP system and human tacit and implicit knowledge. In this part of study, all these activities are discussed with the case of Gate Gourmet. 2. About Gate Gourmet The Gate Group brand was introduced in early 2008 after several acquisitions after being founded in the year 1992. The company offers catering and last mile provisioning for airlines and railroads, lounges and business aviation. The company’s main force of secondary revenue is onboard retail operations (Gate gourmet). . Systems that enable efficient use of input resources and their impact on output of goods and services supplied by Gate Gourmet 1. Transformation Process It includes the processes, which converts the input to the output by adding value to the product. There are two categories of input resources i. e. transformed resources which are converted from input to the output and i nclude materials and information, and transforming resources which helps to convert input to the output and include facilities like buildings, equipments, process technology and the staff (NSW Government). 2. The new production techniques are used by Gate Gourmet to provide the meals of restaurant quality and also manageable in terms of cost, quality, service and safety. These production techniques help in efficient use of input resources. 1. Cuisine Sous-Vides The company to achieve amazing flavour and texture uses this technique. This technique relies on temperature-controlled circulator in which the food is vacuum-sealed and cooked in a precisely controlled water bath. As the method is very easy to learn, it helps in better control and reasonable results every time (PolyScience). 2. Hot Filling This technology is very easy to handle even by unskilled workers. This high temperature helps in the sterilisation of bottles and other equipments to maintain the high quality standards. 3. Modified Atmosphere Packing The technology helps in expanding the shelf life of fresh food products. The modified atmosphere packing technology substitutes the atmospheric air inside the package with the protective gas mix which ensures that the product will stay fresh for long time. The company used this technology for packing of red meats, fruits and vegetables. This helped to achieve the minimal spoilage of the input resources and lowers the costs. The company has established sophisticated machineries for this purpose (Modified Atmosphere Packaging). 4. Food Safety Checks and Assurance Systems The company voluntarily follows HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) to ensure food safety. The company inspects every vehicle that delivers the raw materials, check by digital probe food temperatures during the production and delivery process, temperature checks on every batch food; every dish and surface is cleaned while food preparation, this helps in production and delivery of food that is clean and safe (Gate Gourmet). . Gate Serve Provisioning services Gate Serve, a subsidiary of Gate Gourmet, helps in assembling soda drawers, packing silverware, provisioning packaged food items, and aircraft watering. This helps in efficiently responding to changes of new procedures in the marketplace (Gate Serve). The provisioning of items helped in making the trip safe and comfortable for the passengers. For these services, the company has installed cooling systems, onboard cameras and state-of-the-art engines. 6. Post Flight Aircraft Stripping In the catering process, the carts are removed and taken to the flight kitchen and unloading and sanitisation. Using the recycling system, the trash is separated from the general waste stream and sterilised before disposal. Crockery and other reusable items are sent for dishwashing and sterilisation line (Gate Gourmet Aircraft Provisioning). 3. Existence of Trade-offs within Gate Gourmet and challenges faced by following this approach The tradeoffs between economising and flexibility were noticed within the organisation. The reduction in expenditures helped the company to gain the competitive advantage whereas; the flexibility needs to be applied to meet the last minute demand of the clients, sometimes, which may cause wastage of food products. With the conflicting demands of the organisation, trade-offs were considered within the organisation. The trade-offs are considered for balancing the transformation process. Main challenge in front of managers is to maximise the cost reduction with flexibility and the dilemma cannot be completely eliminated. The stabilisation mechanism needs to be established within the organisation to meet the uncertain demands and to maintain stability in the production and delivery process. Also, the company had dilemma of trade-offs between making and buying of certain products. Buying of food products included outsourcing to the other company. But the challenge was that the making led to increase in costs and buying which will lead to outsourcing has hidden costs that will diminish its advantages with time. And, at the time when Texas Pacific bought the company, it was under enormous stress to cut down its costs (The Guardian, 2005). . Supply Chain Management issues and supplier selection 1. Supply Chain Supply chain includes procurement of raw materials from the suppliers, conversion of raw materials to intermediate goods, and then finally to finished products. It also includes the distribution of it to the customers. Three kinds of flows exist in supply chain i. e. material, information and financ e (Ganeshan R Harrison T, 1995). Upstream refers to the activities that take place before the supply phase. And, downstream refers to the activities that take place after the supply phase. IFx system was used to integrate the whole supply chain (AirlineHubBuzz, 2012). 2. Supply Chain Management Effective supply chain management is the coordination between the various players in the chain and each channel member operates independently (Ganeshan R Harrison T, 1995). 3. Impact of integrated system in the management of suppliers and supplier selection The company goes on maintaining the relationship with those suppliers who can meet quick and flexible supply in respect to the demand changes, deliver consistently and on time with high degree of mutual understanding and trust (Acorn live: 22). . Alpha Flight Group Alpha provided full catering and provisioning services in Amsterdam. Gate Gourmet intended maximum growth and operational flexibility with Alpha through its integrated system. The company aimed to serve 80 peak season flights a day with Alpha (aircraftinteriorsinternational. com). 2. Pourshins Pourshins, a fully integrated partner provides the tools required for s upply chain model including sourcing and procurement, asset management and food and beverage logistics (Pourshins. com). The challenge in front of the company was to reduce the LEAN’s supply chain management cost, which was rising. The integration challenge was to merge the two teams of employees in the United States and understanding the Gate Gourmet’s existing warehousing, distribution and software functions (Andersen, 2008: 29). But at the same time, the integrated system helped to aggregate purchase volumes, which resulted in lowering of costs, optimisation of products and services for the total value (Pourshins. com). 3. Supplair The company designed food including fresh food preparation and packaged food to keep them safe, appealing, and requires minimum handling. The challenge in front of company with the integrated system was to review the food offered for the crew consumption and introduce the same within four weeks for Easy Jet. The elements for the key success with the integrated system were the proven web-based ordering system, which was easy to use and the excellent distribution supply chain (Supplair. com). 4. deSter Gate Gourmet selected deSter as its supplier, deSter being leading supplier in service solutions across all aircraft cabins. To win the competitive advantage over the other bidders, the tender was in the favour of Gate Gourmet with Etihad Airways. This was because of technical know-how and production capacities of deSter (deSter. com). 5. Potmstudios The company offers design for packaging, cutlery, food and beverage service ware and passenger facilities for the in-flight services. The positive implication was the best computer aided design software, which was used by the company for the fast and accurate designs (Potmstudios. com). 6. Harmony The company is totally integrated airline service provider and involved in the designing of amenity kits. Harmony provides tailor-made solutions for enhancing the passengers’ comfort on board. The operational excellence of the company helped in managing the quality of the service (Harmonyonboard. com). 4. Recommendations for less advanced suppliers to establish consistent standard of operations with the supply chain activities First of all, for implementing integrated system, the less advanced organisations analyse their business processes. It helps in the modernisation of processes during the time of changes. It is quite easier for the centralised organisations to implement the integrated system. Secondly, balancing of work designed according to the requirements of the customers is of prime importance. The software should be configured before use. Lastly, the company needs to establish a system to convert the existing data into the integrated one. For this, the company may have to move for data migration planning like identification of data, data templates generation, and deciding migration interrelated set-ups and reporting policies. This will help the less advanced suppliers to gain the competitive advantage and will also help in modernisation. The genuine trick for the integration is the free flow of information, cooperation and respecting each business’s independence (Andersen, 2008: 30). 5. ERP System ERP system is the organisation wide network for harmonising the resources, information and functions of a business. It is the modern extension of MRP1 (Materials Requirement Planning), MRP11 (Manufacturing Resource Planning), and CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing). It helps in communicating with the customers and the suppliers to improve the quality of supply chain management (Acorn live: 19). 1. Scala system Scala is the ERP software and support ERP processes. This system was exercised by the company to cover the maximum business processes of catering operations. 1. E-Gatematrix The real-time data was fed into the Scala system through ‘e-gatematrix’ system, which is the web-interface system for capturing data. 2. Challenges faced by the company in implementing ERP System 1. The company has to face the challenges due to demand fluctuations- As food has to be prepared just before 12 to 24 hours before departure, the demand keep on fluctuating till the last moment. The ‘just-in-time’ delivery after the preparation and supply of food with the last minute fluctuations become difficult and challenging (Fidanza). All the last minute changes using ERP systems become difficult sometimes. 2. The company has to re fix the schedules with flight delays- The whole process of delivery becomes cumbersome with flight delays. All the data communication through ERP in rush becomes complex. 3. ERP implementation problems and solutions 1. Galley Planning Problem-With the technological support, galley planning becomes time consuming process. Solution-Galley Planning System (GP4) of the e-gate solutions can be easily incorporated into other material planning systems to increase the precision of the data. It leads to the fuel-cost impact analysis, automatic publishing of packing instructions and the online communication of changes to the supply chain (e-Gate Solutions). 2. Complications of Data Problem- There was complications of data and their application using the e-marketplace application. Solution- The company replaced it with ePix application to improve the order search capabilities and for the simplification of the data (e-Gate Solutions). 3. Business Intelligence and Reporting Problem-The reporting of real-time sales and analysis was difficult with ERP implementation. Solution-Onboard Retail Technology (TS4) was selected for reporting functions, as TS4 was able to reconcile the real-time sales to inventory. It was also used to identify the passengers’ buying trends (e-Gate Solutions). 4. Selection of menus according to the passenger mix Problem- The main challenge in front of the company was to reduce the inventory using ERP, when the menus were fixed but the types of passengers’ keeps on changing even six hours before take-off. Solution-The Pourshins’ trademark forecaster system for food helped to build new menus and reduce the inventory and costs (e-Gate Solutions). 6. Huge information used by Gate Gourmet to deliver their service 1. Human tacit and implicit knowledge is essential to make sense of hard statistical information and the same is used for enhancing performance Inventory management includes the processes involved in maintenance of optimal number of goods and services to avoid over and under inventory. The company focuses on inventory management through state-of-the-art software. Gate Gourmet collects the necessary data from state-of-the-art software with the help of Pourshins for inventory management (Gate Gourmet). The experienced personnel are hired by the company for the use of different software’s through their tacit and implicit knowledge. The main difference between tacit knowledge and implicit knowledge is that the implicit knowledge can be codified but it is impossible to codify tacit knowledge (Toolbox. com, 2008). Suppose a flight from Taiwan to New York, may stop at Los Angeles for 2-3 hours, the company will be required to unload the trash items in this time and have to load the 5 tons of new food with cutlery and other equipments. But the challenge now appears when the last minute passengers come up and like to have the menu according to the menu of the airlines. Also, the special meals like low fat meals are required by certain group of passengers. Through the use of software, it is easy to get the statistics but the right quantities are decided by experts so as to keep the wastage and costing minimum. Here comes the use of human tacit knowledge used by experts for the inventory management, Through the use of tacit knowledge the over-catering and under-catering is avoided. As the production and delivery of more meals than actual required is both the loss for airlines as well as for the Gate Gourmet. The software covers almost all the business processes involved in inventory management. The delays in flight arrivals upset the work schedules. It becomes crucial for the company to provide right quantities at the right place to the right person. The dedicated team members take action with flexibility and quickly to achieve the goal. The costs have reduced to the great extent with the management of inventories through the tacit knowledge of the staff (Donna, 2009). Hands do the majority of food preparation, which is also a time consuming process. The inventory of finished stock of goods needs to be kept ready with the demand fluctuations. They to reduce the wastage at the bottom level use the culinary expertise and implicit knowledge. The culinary trends and expertise is used to design the menus as per the trends. This has helped the company in gaining the competitive advantage and food and journey becomes enjoyable by the customers. Inventory forecast is a mix of statistical data with the use of human tacit and implicit knowledge. The company has been using the vast information and statistics, which finally gets evaluated by the experts to decide the optimal level of inventory. As a result, it helps in improving the function of the processes; reduce inventory wastage, optimal quantity ordering to the suppliers. 7. Conclusion Concluding the whole discussion, it is very imperative for the company to go for managing operations, information and knowledge to survive in the market cutthroat competition. The company has to face various challenges for the achievement of aspirations. Besides tough times faced by Gate Gourmet, the company has been successful in the administration of operations, information and knowledge. For this, the company has deployed experienced staff all over the organisation.

Nectar In A Sieve Essays - Plant Physiology, Pollination

Nectar In A Sieve [emailprotected] Nectar In A Sieve In the novel, Nectar In A Sieve, by Kamala Markandaya the protagonist Rukmani and her family lived in a remote rural village in India, which is largely poverty-stricken at that time. They live each day in fear of not having a meal on the table and a roof over their head, which is induced abject poverty caused by nature and economics. Even though Eastern culture is not as modern as Western culture, they both still have a lot of similarities and differences too. The differences between the two cultures are assistance and change. However both cultures had one thing in common, Celebrations. In modern day America people at least try to ask for help if needed, but in the place described in Nectar In A Sieve they dont even try. They suffer and die, but never asked for help. When Rukmani and her family had a terrible time with the bad season for farming and lack of food, they didnt tried to do anything to solve their problem. Instead they just thought times will be better soon even though they cant be, Times will not be better for many months. Meanwhile you will suffer and die, you meek suffering fools. Why cant you people cry out for help (Markandaya, Nectar In A Sieve, pg. 48) No matter how many times Kenny told them to beg for help but still they never listened. Most people in India starved and died, while people in modern America tried to solve their problem with out giving up. Like making strikes and so many other things. In Nectar In A Sieve, they dont want change to took place in their society, but in modern day America most people do want changes to take place. People described in Nectar In A Sieve dont want their place to be developed. In the book when they knew about establishment of tannery, they didnt like the idea at all, Now it is all noise and crowds everywhere, and rude young hooligans idling in the streets and dirty bazaars and uncouth behavior(Markandaya, Nectar In A Sieve, pg. 50) They dont like because it brought rude people, noise, dirt etc. They just wanted the peace and calm society they always had. While people in modern day America people always want changes to take place. They want more and more advanced technologies like Computers, Televisions, CD Players etc. They want more developed places. So some people dont like change and some people do because of their own different points. The most common thing between these two societies is celebration. They both have their own festivals to celebrate to have fun and more importantly to be thankful for that special day. People like in Nectar In A Sieve celebrate a festival called Deepavali, a festival they celebrate on the day when their god, Lord Krishna, defeated evil Naracasudu in one of the longest battle. Thats why they celebrate it with fireworks to show that they were free from evil. In the book Rukmani and her family celebrated it for the first time and she wanted her children to have a great time when she said, Deepavali comes once a year and this is the first time we have bought fireworks. Do not lose the opportunity. She knew how important Deepavali really is, so she wanted her children to have a great time on the day that comes only once a year. Also in modern day America people celebrate 4th of July. They were thankful because of the freedom they got from British on that special with fireworks. So both fe stivals are slightly different, but same in the main theme which is freedom. They both have differences and similarities, but they are happy with where they are due to their own reasons. Place described In Nectar In A Sieve dont have as many factories and more developed places like we have over here. But they do have peace and calm places that we rarely Jagarlamudi 3 have in here.

Free Essays on Panama Canal

On February 1, 1881, driven by patriotic fervor and capitalized by over 100,000 mostly small investors, the French Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocà ©anique began work on a canal that would cross the Colombian isthmus of Panama and unite the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Ferdinand de Lesseps,builder of the Suez Canal, led the project. His plan called for a sea-level canal to be dug along the path of the Panama Railroad. Some fifty miles in length, the canal would be less than half as long as the Suez. De Lesseps estimated that the job would cost about $132 million, and take twelve years to complete. Europeans had dreamed of a Central American canal as early as the 16th century; President Ulysses S. Grant sent seven expeditions to study the feasibility of such a work. As travel and trade in the Western hemisphere increased, the need for a canal grew increasingly more obvious. To sail from Atlantic to Pacific, ships navigated around Cape Horn, the treacherous southern extremity of South America. A New York to San Francisco journey measured some 13,000 miles and took months. A canal across Panama would save incalculable miles and man-hours. It would also, Ferdinand de Lesseps believed, make its stockholders rich, just as the Suez had done for its investors. Ample evidence supported de Lesseps' claims; the tiny cross-Panama railway had made in excess of $7,000,000 in the first six years of operation. That construction of the railroad had cost upwards of 6,000 lives failed to dampen de Lesseps' enthusiasm. The French hacked a broad pathway through the jungle from coast to coast, and on January 20, 1882, commenced digging. They commanded an impressive array of modern equipment, from steam shovels and locomotives to tugboats and dredges. Their work crew consisted mostly of local black and Indian laborers. In the first months, the digging progressed slowly but steadily. Then the rains began. De Lesseps, who visited Panama once-du... Free Essays on Panama Canal Free Essays on Panama Canal On February 1, 1881, driven by patriotic fervor and capitalized by over 100,000 mostly small investors, the French Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocà ©anique began work on a canal that would cross the Colombian isthmus of Panama and unite the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Ferdinand de Lesseps,builder of the Suez Canal, led the project. His plan called for a sea-level canal to be dug along the path of the Panama Railroad. Some fifty miles in length, the canal would be less than half as long as the Suez. De Lesseps estimated that the job would cost about $132 million, and take twelve years to complete. Europeans had dreamed of a Central American canal as early as the 16th century; President Ulysses S. Grant sent seven expeditions to study the feasibility of such a work. As travel and trade in the Western hemisphere increased, the need for a canal grew increasingly more obvious. To sail from Atlantic to Pacific, ships navigated around Cape Horn, the treacherous southern extremity of South America. A New York to San Francisco journey measured some 13,000 miles and took months. A canal across Panama would save incalculable miles and man-hours. It would also, Ferdinand de Lesseps believed, make its stockholders rich, just as the Suez had done for its investors. Ample evidence supported de Lesseps' claims; the tiny cross-Panama railway had made in excess of $7,000,000 in the first six years of operation. That construction of the railroad had cost upwards of 6,000 lives failed to dampen de Lesseps' enthusiasm. The French hacked a broad pathway through the jungle from coast to coast, and on January 20, 1882, commenced digging. They commanded an impressive array of modern equipment, from steam shovels and locomotives to tugboats and dredges. Their work crew consisted mostly of local black and Indian laborers. In the first months, the digging progressed slowly but steadily. Then the rains began. De Lesseps, who visited Panama once-du...

Cetuximab for treating Colorectal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Cetuximab for treating Colorectal - Essay Example and Wheeler (2011) â€Å"many human epithelial cancers including head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), colorectal cancer (CRC), breast, pancreatic and brain cancer† (p.778) are the main sites for the expression for EGFR. The EGFR belongs to EGF receptor family, which also belongs to the family of tyrosine kinase. The receptor is ubiquitously expressed in many cells with epithelial, neuronal and mesenchymal origin (Harding and Burtness 2005). During homeostatic condition the regulation of these receptors are activated when ligand molecules like TGFÃŽ ± (transforming growth factor alpha), EGF and AR (amphiregulin) are available. These ligands have specificity for EGFR. Therefore, the target of the drug is usually expressed in many parts of the body with epithelial, neuronal and mesenchymal cells if there is a ligand molecule to initiate the expression process. When the ligand binds to the EGFR receptors, activation takes effect, which is manifested by downstream activation of pathways like PLCy/PKC, RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK and P13K/AKT. In the absence of this process the net effect would lead to the activation of cells to proliferate, metastatic and survival of potential cancer cells (Oliveras-Ferraros et al 2008; Chen et al 2012). The drug has high affinity for EGFR. Therefore, its affinity out-competes both the EGF and TGFÃŽ ±, whose binding would have initiated proliferation, metastatic and survival of cancerous and tumours cells. The drug binds to the extracellular domain of EGFR to cause lockage of ligand induced EGFR phosphorylation or ligand binding. By hindering HER and EGFR members from binding to the receptor, the drug promoted degradation and internalisation of EGFR, thereby abrogating the downstream cascades of signal pathways (Brand et al 2011). Cells are arrested and prevented from existing the G1 phase of the cycle. Besides, interaction of the drug with the receptor decreases the expression of factors like

Book Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 5

Book Review - Essay Example Huff then explicates how the reader can see through the smoke and to get to what really lies behind the mirror. "There is terror in numbers," writes Darrell Huff. His book aims to decipher the terror that lies beneath the world of averages, trends, graphs, and correlations. Huff sought to break through "the daze that follows the collision of statistics with the human mind.† The book remains relevant as an awakening for people unacquainted to delve deeper into the nonstop flow of numbers pouring from Madison Avenue, Wall Street, and everywhere else; where someone has a point to prove, a product to sell or an axe to grind. Darrell Huff investigates the breadth of every popularly used type of statistic, explores such things as the tabulation method, the interview technique, the sample study, or the way the outcomes are derived from the figures, and points up the infinite number of dodges which are used to deceive rather than inform. "The secret language of statistics, so appealing in a fact-minded culture, is employed to sensationalize, inflate, confuse, and oversimplify," warns Huff. On t he other hand, he said that we should not be terrorized by numbers. "The fact is that, despite its mathematical base, statistics is as much an art as it is a science." Synonymous to a lecturing father, he expects you to learn and ponder on something valuable from the book, and start applying it every day. Never be a sucker again, he cries! Seeing graphs illustrating numbers if properly done are very helpful in interpreting and analyzing data. And yet, truly deceiving if completed in a fishy fashion If you want to show statistical data, clearly and quickly. Draw a picture of it. When a graph is constructed with a y-axis that is numbered from 1 to 100 without skipping a unit, Huff explained, "Your ten percent looks like ten percent—an upward trend that is substantial but perhaps not overwhelming. That is very

Contemporary Issues in Finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Contemporary Issues in Finance - Essay Example According to financial reports the latest changes in financial markets and prices would be predict greater volatility in the market for the future years. There are also predictable oscillations and changes in credits and investments by companies suggesting a general trend towards major changes in financial markets, and fluctuations in currencies and investment flows as also fluctuations in bonds and prices. Regulation of financial institutions (Allen, 2001) and markets is a necessity along with formulation of proper monetary policies so that there is some stability in the market. This website suggests several issues - the changes in the financial markets in the last few years and the necessary measures that are required to bring in financial stability in the world markets. The focus is on the housing sector and sub prime mortgage issues that have recently crumbled many major banking institutions. The structural changes in financial markets have produced changes in the value of securities and investments and with changes in credit demands, business and households will go through economic expansions and certain financial institutions seem to be pressurized in meeting up those demands. Recent changes in financial nature of markets suggest volatility and fluctuations possibly due to rapid globalization a

Speech Enhancement And De Nosing By Wavelet Thresholding And Transform Ii Computer Science Essay

Speech Enhancement And De Nosing By Wavelet Thresholding And Transform Ii Computer Science Essay In this project the experimenter will seek to design and implement techniques in order to denoise a noisy audio signal using the MATLAB software and its functions, a literature review will be done and summarized to give details of the contribution to the area of study. Different techniques that have been used in the audio and speech processing procedure will be analyzed and studied. The implementation will be done using MATLAB version 7.0. Introduction The Fourier analysis of a signal can be used as a very powerful tool; it can perform the functions of obtaining the frequency component and the amplitude component of signals. The Fourier analysis can be used to analyze components of stationary signals, these are signals that repeat, signals that are composed of sine and cosine components, but in terms of analyzing non stationary signals, these are signals that have no repetition in the region that is sampled, the Fourier transform is not very efficient. Wavelet transform on the other hand allows for these signals to be analyzed. The basic concept behind wavelets is that a signal can be analyzed by splicing it into different components and then these components are studied individually. In terms of their frequency and time, in terms of Fourier analysis the signal is analyzed in terms of its sine and cosine components but when a wavelet approach is adapted then the analysis is different, the wavelet algorithm employes a process and an alyzed the data on different scales and resolution as compared to Fourier analysis. In using the wavelet analysis, a type of wavelet, referred to as being the mother wavelet is used as the main wavelet type for analysis; analysis is then performed from the mother wavelet that is of higher frequency. From the Fourier analysis the frequency analysis of the signal is done with a simplified form of the mother wavelet, from the wavelet components that are achieved via this process further analysis can be done on these coefficients. Haar wavelet types are very compact and this is one of their defining features, its compact ability, as the interval gets so large it then starts to vanish, but the Haar wavelets have a major limiting factor they are not continuously differentiable. In the analysis of a given signal the time domain component can be used in the analysis of the frequency component of that signal, this concept is the Fourier transform, where a signal component is translated to th e frequency domain from a time domain function, the analysis of the signal for its frequency component can now be done, and based of Fourier analysis this is possible because this analysis incorporates the cosine and sine of the frequency. Based on the Fourier transform a finite set of sampled points are analyzed this results in the discrete Fourier transforms, these sample points are typical to what the original signal looks like, to gather the approximate function of a sample, and the gathering of the integral, by the implementation of the discrete Fourier transforms. This is realized by the use of a matrix, the matrix contains an order of the total amount of points of sample,  the problem encountered worsens as the number of samples are increased. If there is uniform spacing between the samples then it is possible to factor in the Fourier matrix into the, multiplication of a few matrices, the results of this can be subjected to a vector of an order of the form m log m operation s, the result of this know as the Fast Fourier Transform. Both Fourier transforms mentioned above are linear transforms. The transpose of the FFT and the DWT is what is referred to as the inverse transform matrix and they can be cosine and sine, but in the wavelet domain more complex mother wavelet functions are formed. The domain of analysis in the Fourier transforms are the sine and cosine, but as it regards to wavelets there exist a more complex domain function called wavelets, mother wavelets are formed. The functions are localized functions, and are set in the frequency domain, can be seen in the power spectra. This proves useful in finding the frequency and power distribution. Based on the fact that wavelet transforms are transforms that are localized as compared to Fourier functions that are not, the Fourier function being mentioned are the sine and cosine, this feature of wavelet makes it a useful candidate in the purpose of this research, this feature of wavelets makes oper ations using wavelets transform sparse and this is useful when used for noise removal. A major advantage of using wavelets is that the windows vary. A major application of this is to realize the portions and signals that are not continuous having short wavelet functions is a good practice to overcome this, but to obtain more in depth analysis having longer functions are best. A practice that is utilized is having basis functions that are of short high frequency and basis functions that are of long low frequency (A. Graps, 1995-2004), point to note Is that unlike Fourier analysis that have a limited basis function sine and cosine wavelets have unlimited set of basis functions . This is a very important feature as it allows wavelet to identify information from a signal that can be hidden by other time frequency methods, namely Fourier analysis. Wavelets consist of different families within each family of wavelet there exist different subclasses that are differentiated based on the coefficients that are decomposed and their levels of iteration, wavelets are mostly classified based on their number of coefficients, that is also referred to as their vanishing moments, a mathematical relationship relates both. Fig above showing examples of wavelets (N. Rao 2001) One of the most helpful and defining features of using wavelets is that the experimenter has control over the wavelet coefficients for a wavelet type. Families of wavelets were developed that proved to be very efficient in the representation of polynomial behavior the simplest of these is the Haar wavelet. The coefficients can be thought of as being filters; these are then placed in a transformation matrix and applied to a raw data vector. The different coefficients are ordered with patterns that work as a smoothing filter and another pattern whose function is to realize the detail information of the data (D. Aerts and I. Daubechies 1979). The coefficient matrix for the wavelet analysis is then applied in a hierarchical algorithm, based on its arrangement odd rows contain the different coefficients, the coefficients will be acting as filters that perform smoothing and the rows that are even will have the coefficients of the wavelets that contains the details from the analysis, it is to the full length data the matrix is first applied, it is then smoothed and disseminated by half after this process the step is repeated with the matrix., where more smoothing takes place and the different coefficients are halved, this process is repeated several times until the data that remains is smoothed, what this process actually does is to bring out the highest resolutions from that data source and data smoothing is also performed. In the removal of noise from data wavelet applications have proved very efficient and successful, as can be seen in work done by David Donoho, the process of noise removal is called wavelet shrinkage and thresholding. When data is decomposed using wavelets, actually filters are used as averaging filters while the other produce details, some of the coefficients will relate to some details of the data set and if a given detailed is small, it can then be removed from the data set without affecting any major feature as it relates to the data. The basi c idea of thresholding is setting coefficients that are at a particular threshold or less than a particular threshold to zero, these coefficients are then later used in an inverse wavelet transform to reconstruct the data set (S. Cai and K. Li, 2010) Literature Review The work done by Student Nikhil Rao (2001) was reviewed, according to the work that was done a completely new algorithm was developed that focused on the compression of speech signals, based on techniques for discrete wavelet transforms. The MATLAB software version 6 was used in order to simulate and implement the codes. The steps that were taken to achieve the compression are listed below; Choose wavelet function Select decomposition level Input speech signal Divide speech signal into frames Decompose each frame Calculate thresholds Truncate coefficients Encode zero-valued coefficients Quantize and bit encode Transmit data frame Parts of extract above taken from said work by Nikhil Rao (2001). Based on the experiment that was conducted the Haar and Daubechies wavelets were utilized in the speech coding and synthesis the functions that were used that are a function of the MATLAB suite are as follows; dwt, wavedec, waverec, and idwt, they were used in computing the wavelet transforms Nikhil Rao (2001). The wavedec function performs the task of signal decomposition, and the waverec function reconstructs the signal from its coefficients. The idwt function functions in the capacity of the inverse transform on the signal of interest and all these functions can be found in the MATLAB software. The speech file that was analyzed was divided up into frames of 20 ms, which is 160 samples per frame and then each frame was decomposed and compressed, the file format utilized was .OD files, because of the length of the files there were able to be decomposed without being divided up into frames. The global and by-level thre sholding was used in the experiment, the main aim of the global thresholding is the maintenance of the coefficients that are the largest, this not being dependent on the size of the decomposition tree for the wavelet transform. Using the level thresholding the approximate coefficients are kept at the decomposition level, during the process two bytes are used to encode the zero values. The function of the very first byte is the specification of the starting points of zeros and the other byte tracks successive zeros. The work done by Qiang Fu and Eric A. Wan (2003) was also reviewed; there work was the enhancement of speech based on wavelet de-nosing framework. In their approach to their objective, the noisy speech signal was first processed using a spectral subtraction method; the aim of this involves the removal of noise from the signal of study before the application of the wavelet transform. The traditional approach was then done where the wavelet transforms are utilized in the decomposition of the speech into different levels, thresholding estimation is then on the different levels , however in this project a modified version on the Ephraim/Malah suppression rule was utilized for the thresholdign estimates. To finally enhance the speech signal the inverse wavelet transform was utilized. It was shown the pre processing of the speech signal removed small levels of noise but at the same time the distortion of the original speech signal was minimized, a generalized spectral subtraction algorithm was used to accomplish the task above this algorithm was proposed by Bai and Wan. The wavelets transform for this approach utilized using wavelet packet decomposition, for this process a six stage tree structure decomposition approach was taken this was done using a 16-tap FIR filter, this is derived from the Daubechies wavelet, for a speech signal of 8khz the decomposition that was achieved resulted in 18 levels. The estimation method that was used to calculate the threshold levels were of a new type, the experiments took into account the noise deviation for the different levels, and each different time frame . An altered version of the Ephraim/Malah rule for suppression was used to achieve soft thresholdeing. The re-synthesis of the signal was done using the inverse perceptual wavelet transform and this is the very last stage. Work done by S.Manikandan, entitled (2006) focused on the reduction of noise that is present in a wireless signal that is received using special adaptive techniques. The signal of interest in the study was corrupted by white noise. The time frequency dependent threshold approach was taken to estimate the threshold level, in this project both the hard and soft thresholding techniques were utilized in the de-noising process. As with the hard thresholding coefficient below a certain values are scaled, in the project a universal threshold was used for the Gaussian noise that was added the error criterion that was used was under 3 mean squared, based on the experiments that were done it was found out that this approximation is not very efficient when it comes to speech, this is mainly because of poor relations amongst the quality and the existence to the correlated noise. A new thresholding technique was implemented in this technique the standard deviation of the noise was first estimated of the different levels and time frames. For a signal the threshold is calculated and is also calculated for the different sub-band and their related time frame. The soft thresholding was also implemented, with a modified Ephraim/Malah suppression rule, as seen before in the other works that were done in this are. Based on their results obtained, there was an unnatural voice pattern and to overcome this, a new technique based on modification from Ephraim and Mala is implemented. Procedure The procedure that undertaken involved doing several voice recording and reading the file using the wavread function because the file was done in a .wav format The length to be analyzed was decided, for the my project the entire length of the signal was analyzed The uncorrupted signal power and signal to noise ratio (SNR) was calculated using different MATLAB functions Additive White Gausian Noise (AWGN) was then added to the original recorded, making the uncorrupted signal now corrupted The average power of the signal corrupted by noise and also the signal to noise ratio (SNR) was then calculated Signal analysis then followed, the procedure involved in the signal analysis included: The wavedec function in MATLAB was used in the decomposition of the signal. The detail coefficients and approximated coefficients were then extracted and plots made to show the different levels of decomposition The different levels of coefficient were then analyzed and compared, making detailed analysis that the decomposition resulted in After decomposition of the different levels de-nosing took place this was done with the ddencmp function in MATLAB, The actual de-nosing process was then undertaken using wdencmp function in MATLAB, plot comparison was made to compare the noise corrupted signal and the de-noised signal The average power and SNR of the de-noised signal was done and comparison made between it and the original and the de-noised signal. Implementation/Discussion The first part of the project consisted of doing a recording in MATLAB, a recording was done of my own voice and the default sample rate was used were Fs = 11025, codes were used to do recordings in MATLAB and different variables were altered and specified based on the codes used, the m file that is submitted with this project gives all the codes that were utilized for the project, the recordings were done for 9 seconds the wavplay function was then used to replay the recording that was done until a desired recording was obtained after the recording was done a wavwrite function was then used to store the data that was previously recorded into a wav file. The data that was written into a wav file was originally stored in variable y and then given the name recording1. A plot was then made to show the wave format of the speech file recorded. Fig 1 Fig1 Plot above showing original recording without any noise corruption According to fig1 the maximum amplitude of the signal is +0.5 and the minimum amplitude being -0.3 from observation with the naked eye it can be seen that most of the information in the speech signal is confined between the amplitude +0.15 -0.15. The power of the speech signal was then calculated in MATLAB using a periodogram spectrum this produces an estimate of the spectral density of the signal and is computed from the finite length digital sequence using the Fast Fourier Transform (The MathWorks 1984-2010) the window parameter that was used was the Hamming window, the window function is some function that is zero outside some chosen interval. The hamming window is a typical window function and is applied typically by a point by point multiplication to the input of the fast fourier transform, this controls the adjacent levels of spectral artifacts which would appear in the magnitude of the fast fourier transform results, for a case where the input frequencies do not correspond with the bin center. Convolution that occurs within the frequency domain can be considered as windowing this is basically the same as performing multiplication within the time domain, the result of this multiplication is that any samples outside a fr equency will affect the overall amplitude of that frequency. Fig2 Fig2 plot showing periodogram spectral analysis of original recording From the spectral analysis it was calculated that the power of the signal is 0.0011 watt After the signal was analyzed noise was added to the signal, the noise that was added was additive gaussian white noise (AWGN), and this is a random signal that contains a flat power spectral density (Wikipedia, 2010). At a given center frequency additional white noise will contain equal power at a fixed bandwidth; the term white is used to mean that the frequency spectrum is continuous and is also uniform for the entire frequency band. In the project additive is used to simply mean that this impairment to the original signal is corrupting the speech; The MATLAB code that was used to add the noise to the recording can be seen in the m file. For the very first recording the power in the signal was set to 1 watt and the SNR set to 80, the applied code was set to signal z, which is a copy of the original recording y, below is the plot showing the analysis of the noise corrupted recording. Fig3 Fig3 plot showing the original recording corrupted by noise Based on observation of the plot above it can be estimated that information in the original recording is masked by the additive white noise to the signal, this would have a negative effect as the clean information would be masked out by the noise, a process known as aliasing. Because the amplitude of the additive noise is greater than the amplitude of the recording it causes distortion observation of the graph shows the amplitude of the corrupted signal is greater than the original recording. The noise power of the corrupted signal was calculated buy the division of the signal power and the signal to noise ratio, the noise power calculated from the first recording is 1.37e-005. The noise power of the corrupted signal is 1.37e-005; the spectrum peridodogram was then used to calculate the average power of the corrupted signal , based on the MATLAB calculations the power was calculated to be 0.0033 watt Fig4 Fig4 plot showing periodogram spectral analysis of corrupted signal From analysis of the plot above it can be seen that the frequency of the corrupted signal spans a wider band, the original recording spectral frequency analysis showed a value of -20Hz as compared to the corrupted signal showed a value of 30Hz this increase in the corrupted signal is attributed to the noise added and this masked out the original recording again as before the process of aliasing. It was seen that the average power of the corrupted was greater than the original signal, the increase in power can be attributed to the additive noise added to the signal this caused the increase in power of the signal. The signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the corrupted signal was calculate from the formula corrupted power/noise power , and the corrupted SNR was found to be 240 as compared to 472.72 of the de-noised, the decrease in signal to noise ratio can be attributed to the additive noise this resulted in the level of noise to the level of clean recording to be greater this is the basis for the decreased SNR in the corrupted signal, the increase in the SNR in the clean signal will be discussed further in the discussion. The reason there was a reduce in the SNR in the corrupted signal is because the level of noise to clean signal is greater and this is basis of signal to noise comparison, it is used to measure how much a signal is corrupted by noise and the lower this ratio is, the more corrupted a signal will be. The calculation method that was used to calculate this ratio is Where the different signal and noise power were calculated from MATLAB as seen above The analysis of the signal then commenced a .wav file was then created for the corrupted signal using the MATLAB command wavwrite, with Fs being the sample frequency, N being the corrupted file and the name being noise recording, a file x1 that was going to be analysed was created using the MATLAB command wavread. Wavelet multilevel decomposition was then performed on the signal x1 using the MATLAB command wavedec, this function performs the wavelet decomposition of the signal, the decomposition is a multilevel one dimensional decomposition, and discrete wavelet transform (DWT) is using pyramid algorithms, during the decomposition the signal is passed through a high pass and a low pass filter. The output of the low pass is further passed through a high pass and a low pass filter and this process continues (The MathWorks 1994-2010) based on the specification of the programmer, a linear time invariant filter, this being a filter that passes high frequencies and attenuates frequency that are below a threshold called the cut off frequency, the rate of attenuation is specified by the designer. While on the other hand the opposite to the high pass filter, is the low pass filter this filter will only pass low frequency signals but attenuates signal that contain a higher frequency than the cut off. Ba sed on the decomposition procedure above the process was done 8 times, and at each level of decomposition the actual signal is down sampled by a factor of 2. The high pass output at each stage represents the actual wavelet transformed data; these are called the detailed coefficients (The MathWorks 1994-2010). Fig 5 Fig 5 above levels decomposition (The MathWorks 1994-2010) Block C above contains the decomposition vectors and Block L contains the bookkeeping vector, based on the representation above a signal X of a specific length is decomposed into coefficients, the first part of the decomposition produces 2 sets of coefficients the approximate coefficient cA1 and the detailed coefficient cD1, to get the approximate coefficient the signal x is convolved with low pass filter and to get the detailed coefficient signal x is convolved with a high pass filer. The second stage is similar only this time the signal that will be sampled is cA1 as compared to x before with the signal further being sampled through high and low pass filter again to produce approximate and detailed coefficients respectively hence the signal is down sampled and the factor of down sampling is two The algorithm above (The MathWorks 1994-2010) represents the first level decomposition that was done in MATLAB, the original signal x(t) is decomposed into approximate and detailed coefficient, the algorithm above represents the signal being passed through a low pass filter where the detail coefficients are extracted to give D2(t)+D1(t) this analysis is passed through a single stage filter bank further analysis through the filter bank will produce greater stages of detailed coefficients as can be seen with the algorithm below (The MathWorks 1994-2010). The coefficients,  cAm(k)  and  cDm(k)  form  m = 1,2,3  can be calculated by iterating or cascading the single stage filter bank to obtain a multiple stage filter bank(The MathWorks 1994-2010). Fig6 Fig6 showing graphical representation of multilevel decomposition (The MathWorks 1994-2010) At each level it is observed the signal is down sampled and the sampling factor is 2. At d8 obeservation shows that the signal is down sampled by 2^8 i.e. 60,000/2^8. All this is done for better frequency resolution. Lower frequencies are  present  at all time; I am mostly concerned with higher frequencies which contains the actual data. I have used daubechies wavelet type 4 (db4), the daubechies wavelet are defined by computing the running averages and differences via scalar products with scaling signals and wavelets(M.I. Mahmoud, M. I. M. Dessouky, S. Deyab, and F. H. Elfouly, 2007) For this type of wavelet there exist a balance frequency response but the phase response is non linear. The Daubechies wavelet types uses windows that overlap in order to ensure that the coefficients of higher frequencies will show any changes in their high frequency, based on these properties the Daubechies wavelet types proves to be an efficient tool in the de-nosing and compression of audio signals.  For the Daubechies D4 transform, this transform has 4 wavelet types and scaling coefficient functions, these coefficient functions are shown below The different steps that are involved in the wavelet transforms, will utilize different scaling functions, to the signal of interest if the data being analyzed contains a value of N, the scaling function that will be applied will be applied to calculate N/2 smoothed values. The smoothed values are stored in the lower half of the N element input vector for the ordered wavelet transform. The wavelet function coefficient values are g0  = h3 g1  = -h2 g2  = h1 g3  = -h0 The different scaling function and wavelet function are calculated using the inner product of the coefficients and the four different data values. The equations are shown below (Ian Kaplan, July 2001); The repetition of the of the steps of the wavelet transforms was then used in the calculation of the function value of the wavelet and the scaling function value, for each repetition there is an increase by two in the index and when this occurs a different wavelet and scaling function is produced. Fig 7 Diagram above showing the steps involved in forward transform (The MathWorks 1994-2010) The diagram above illustrates steps in the forward transform, based on observation of the diagram it can be seen that the data is divided up into different elements, these separate elements are even and the first elements are stored to the even array and the second half of the elements are stored in the odd array. In reality this is folded into a single function even though the diagram above goes against this, the diagrams shows two normalized steps. The input signal in the algorithm above (Ian Kaplan, July 2001) is then broken down into what are called wavelets. One of the most significant benefits of use of wavelet transforms is the fact that it contains a window that varies, to identify signal not continuous having base functions that are short is most desirable. But in order to obtain detailed frequency analysis it is better to have long basis function. A good way to achieve this compromise is having a short high frequency functions and also long low frequency ones(Swathi Nibhanupudi, 2003) Wavelet analysis contains an infinite basis functions, this allows wavelet transforms and analyisis with the ability realize cases that can not be easily realized by other time frequency methods, namely Fourier transforms. MATLAB codes are then used to extract the detailed coefficients, the m file shows these codes, the detailed coefficients that are Daubechies orthogonal type wavelets D2-D20are often used. The numbers of coefficients are represented by the index number, for the different wavelets they contain vanishing moments that are identical to the halve of the coefficients. This can be seen using the orthogonal types where D2 contain only one moment and D4 two moments and so on, the vanishing moment of the wavelets refers to its ability to represent the information in a signal or the polynomial behavior. The D2 type that contains only one moment will encode polynomial of one coefficient easily that are of constant signal component. The D4 type will encode polynomial of two coefficients, the D6 will encode coefficient of three polynomial and so on. The scaling and wavelet function have to be normalized and this normalization factor is a factor  Ã‚  . The coefficients for the wavelet are derived by the reverse of the order of the scaling function coefficients and then by reversing the sign of the second one (D4 wavelet = {-0.1830125, -0.3169874, 1.1830128, -0.6830128}) mathematically, this looks like   where  k  is the coefficient index,  b  is a wavelet coefficient and  c  a scaling function coefficient.  N  is the wavelet index, ie 4 for D4 (M. Bahoura, J. Bouat. 2009) Fig 7 Plot of fig 7 showing approximated coefficient of the level 8 decomposition Fig 8 Plot of fig 8 showing detailed coefficient of the level 1 decomposition Fig 9 Plot of fig 9 showing approximated coefficient of the level 3 decomposition Fig 10 Plot of fig 10 showing approximated coefficient of the level 5 decomposition Fig 11 Plot of fig 11, showing comparison of the different levels of decomposition Fig12 Plot fig12 showing the details of all the levels of the coefficients; The next step in the de-nosing process is the actual removal of the noise after the coefficients have been realized and calculated the MATLAB functions that are used in the de-noising functions are the ddencmp and the wdencmp function This process actually removes noise by a process called thresholding, De-noising, the task of removing or suppressing uninformative noise from signals is an important part of many signal or image processing applications. Wavelets are common tools in the field of signal processing. The popularity of wavelets in de-nosingis largely due to the computationally efficient algorithms as well as to the sparsity of the wavelet representation of data. By sparsity I mean that majority of the wavelet coefficients have very small magnitudes whereas only a small subset of coefficients have large magnitudes. I may informally state that this small subset contains the interesting informative part of the signal, whereas the rest of the coefficients describe noise and can be discarded to give a noise-free reconstruction. The best known wavelet de-noising methods are thresholding approaches, see e.g. In hard thresholding all the coefficients with greater magnitudes as compared to the threshold are retained unmodified this is because they comprise the informative part of data, while the rest of the coefficients are considered to represent noise and set to zero. However, it is reasonable to assume that coefficients are not purely either noise or informative but mixtures of those. To cope with this soft thresholding approaches have been proposed, in the process of soft thresholding coefficients that are smaller than the threshold are made zero, however the coefficients that are kept are made smaller towards zero by an amount of the threshold value in order to decrease the effect of noise assumed to corrupt all the wavelet coefficients. In my project I have chosen to do a eight level decomposition before applying the de-nosing algorithm, the decomposition levels of the different eight levels are obtained, because the signal of in

The Poets and Writers of the Harlem Renaissance :: Authors

The Poets and Writers of the Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was a great time of achievement for the black poets and writers of the 1920s and early '30s. Many had a hard life living in the Harlem district of New York city. The foundations of this movement were laid in the social and political thought of the early 20th century. One of the most famous of these black political leaders was W.E.B. DuBois. DuBois was the editor of the influential magazine "The Crisis." In this magazine he repeatedly rejected the notion that blacks could achieve social equality by following white ideals and standards. He strongly strove for the renewal of black racial pride through increased emphasis on their African culture and heritage. Langston Hughes, another writer of the Harlem Renaissance, is known and remembered for writing during the movement, but not being guided by a common literary purpose. The only issue that greatly influenced his writings was his own experiences with being an African American. Langston Jughes poems and writings realistically depicted the life of black Americans. These were lives and situations many people outside their race knew nothing about. His work was of high quality and won a favorable reception from the major publishing houses, who were willing to promote his writings only for commercial reasons. Many of these publishing houses stressed their notion of Harlem as an alien, but also as an exotic and unknown place of strange new wonders. During the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes had four major writings that promoted the African Negritude Movement. The first was a critical essay entitled "The Negro Artist and the Racial Movement," which discussed the excitement of this time period. Later, he would write "The Big Sea," an autobiography stating the hardships in his life due to his race. The other two influentioal writings of Hughes, was his two poems, "The Weary Blues" and "Fine Clothes to the Jew." Both were experimental in content and form, which made Jughes leary of their acceptance. Fortunately, they both were accepted and provided a much needed strength to the movement. Langston Hughes is greatly remembered for his genius for merging the comic and the pathetic. His works also influenced many humorists and satirists. But of all his gifts to society, his most enduring was his belief in the commonality of all cultures and the universality of human suffering.

Disney & Lucas Film

Table of Contents Executive Summary| i| Introduction | 1| Marvel Industry Analysis| 1| Disney Industry Analysis| 3| Marvel Company Analysis| 4| SWOT Analysis| 6| Valuation| 6| Disney Company Analysis | 7| Share Price Analysis| 10| Examination of the Premium| 12| Takeover Overview, Methods and Tactics| 14| Analyst, Media and Legal Reaction| 16| Recommendation and Conclusion| 17| References| 19| Appendices| 22| , increased pressure from eBook innovation and internet piracy. As such, this industry grew an estimated 2. 50% from 2008 to 2009 and maintained a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 5. 4% from 2000-2009 (Jackson, 2011). Licensing Marvel’s second major unit of operation consist of its large licensing business. Marvel licenses the use of its various characters to gaming, movie, toy and television show producers alike. This market is primarily driven by trademark and character licensing. As of 2007, Intellectual Property (IP) licensing represented a $USD 30 Billion mark et in the United States (U. S. ) alone (IBISWorld Licensing, 2012). IP licensing exhibited constant growth. However, in 2008 it incurred a slight contraction of 3. 4% due to the global financial crisis.As well, from 2000-2008 it had a CAGR of 5. 09%. Further, character and trademark licensing represented more than 40. 0% of the total licensing market for 2012. The IP Licensing market is considered to be moderately aggregated with Disney acting as the industry leader (after its acquisition of Marvel) with just over 10. 50% of market share (IBISWorld Licensing, 2012). However, the industry did exhibit lacklustre performance in 2009, (down almost 10. 00%) from its 2007 high. Film Production Marvel’s final major operational segment consists of its film production operations.Generally, the industry has consistently outperformed the market (CAGR 5. 80% from 2000-2009) and as of 2009 represented a $USD 118 Billion dollar market in the U. S. (Thomson ONE, 2012). The industry is highl y consolidated with the top 10 studios (Disney being in second place), representing over 70. 00% of the market. (Nash, 2012). The changing nature of consumer entertainment consumption is gradually eroding various industry segments such as DVD sales and DVD rentals. However, this has been compensated for by the adoption of other viewing alternatives like: pay per view and direct broadcast television (Thomson ONE, 2012).Moreover, have managed to impose price increases on consumers. Thus, allowing them to earn $USD 2. 5 Billion more in 2009 than in 2001 despite lower ticket sale volume for the same comparable period. (Nash, 2012). The film industry has also proven to be resistant to the economic downturns with moderate growth during the recessionary slumps of: 2001, 2008 and 2009 (Thomson ONE, 2012). ————————————————- Disney Industry Analysis Disney operates in two major segm ents: licensing and entertainment. These segments are similar to the ones Marvel operates in.However, Disney also incorporates theme parks into its operations, thus differing from Marvel (Disney Financial Report, 2008). It should also be noted that Disney media services go well beyond simply producing children’s shows and films. They own several studios and until 2009 owned ABC (Thomson ONE, 2012). It can be stated that, the two corporations with regards to their fictional character businesses, target distinct customer bases with respect to gender, but target similar customer bases with respect to age. Disney primarily targets oung children and teenage girls, whereas Marvel targets young adult males and teenage boys. Theme Parks Disney is the leader in the theme-park market; with all of the top 5 theme parks in the world belonging to this company. In 2009, although most theme parks experienced significant decreases in customer presence, Disney managed to actually increase att endance through appealing to local market and offering loyalty programs (AECOM, 2009). Over 185 Million people attended one of the top 25 theme parks in the world in 2009 (119 Million in the U. S).Attendance showed remarkable resilience in America with the top 20 parks in the U. S only losing a fraction of their attendance from their 2007 high, despite the financial crisis. (AECOM, 2009). The $USD 10. 70 Billion change significantly over the 3 year period. Net income quadrupled from 2006 to 2008 reaching an all time high of $USD 205 Million in 2008. Further, diluted earnings per share (EPS) growth exhibited similar performance, indicating no extraordinary abnormalities in executive compensation or share issuance (Marvel Annual Report, 2008).The company managed to decrease its total liabilities by over $90 Million from 2007 to 2008. As well, Marvel significantly bolstered its cash reserves from $USD 30 Million to $USD 105 Million. There was also a large increase in accounts receivabl e (A/R) from $USD 28. 70 Million in 2007 to over $USD 144 Million in 2008. However, given the fast growth of A/R and consistent inventory levels, this large increase warrants little concern. As well goodwill, comprises over 30% of the corporation’s assets.It must be noted that this goodwill was not accumulated via a â€Å"momentum† acquiring strategy which was adopted by Tyco (Bruner, 2005). Thus, the goodwill was accumulated in a proper manner and not for the sole purpose of continually bolstering EPS and Price-to-Earnings ratios (Marvel Annual Report, 2008). Although the debt to equity (D/E) ratio is still moderately high (1. 36), the firm did manage to significantly decrease this ratio throughout the 2007-2008 period; this was achieved by decreasing its liabilities and doubling its retained earnings.Moreover, an exorbitant $USD 251 Million cash disbursement for film inventory in 2007 contributed to the company’s significant negative cash flow for the year. if the premium paid is too high as Disney does not expect any cost-reduction or revenue-enhancement synergies from the merger (Business Insider, 2009). Moreover, analysts see the acquisition as a valuable opportunity for Disney to secure future profitable movies and contemplate the possible outcomes of movies based on Marvel’s characters combined with the animation resources of espoused by Disney and Pixar.Finally, Disney’s previous acquisition of Pixar Animation Studio was incredibly successful, both in terms of revenue generation (each Pixar movie made post merger yielded large profits) and in terms of the integration of Pixar management into the Disney family (CNBC, 2009). By incorporating over 5,000 of Marvel’s characters into Disney’s library, the media expects this merger to follow the same path and prove to be another successful acquisition story for Disney. Two days after the merger announcement, an independent blog speculated that security law had been infringed upon as a result of the deal.The report suggested that Marvel’s chief executive; Mr. Perlmutter engaged in suspicious behaviour prior to the merger. The blog stated that in February 2009, a meeting took place between the chairman of Marvel’s film division and Disney’s CEO, where they â€Å"discuss[ed] ways in which the relationship between the two companies could be extended. † Two weeks following said meeting, Mr. Perlmutter was granted 514,354 options for Marvel shares with a strike price of $USD 25. 86 per share. Three weeks later, he was granted another 750,000 options at an exercise price of $USD 23. 5 per share. The representatives of the firms met again in the beginning of June and disclosed afterwards the possibility of a merger to the other managers (Wall Street Journal, September 2009). In essence, the proximity of the dates in which Mr. Perlmutter’s was granted options renders the transaction suspicious . Although it is no t unusual for Marvel’s employees to receive options as annual com APPENDIX A – VALUATION MODEL APPENDIX B – MARVEL 2008 ANNUAL REPORT (FINANCIALS) APPENDIX C – DISNEY 2008 ANNUAL REPORT (FINANCIALS) APPENDIX D – DISNEY 2010 ANNUAL REPORT (FINANCIALS)

General Aviation Marketing and Management

General Aviation Marketing and Management Summary of Chapter 7General Aviation Marketing and Management Second Edition by Alexander T Wells and Bruce D. ChadbourneChapter 7 SummaryCAV 650Toni R. BurgosMarketing ResearchThrough research, management can reduce uncertainty in decision making. It is an integral part of any management information system that provides a flow of inputs useful in marketing decision. Marketing research is the systematic process of gathering, recording, analyzing, and utilizing relevant information to aid in marketing decision making. -Marketing research has a broad scope including various types of studies, these studies can be grouped into four major categories. (1) market measurement studies, (2) marketing mix studies, (3) studies of the competitive situation, and (4) studies of the uncontrollables. Market Measurement Studies: are designed to obtain quantitative data on potential demand. Concerning marketing mix studies, elements of the marketing mix are product, place, price, and promotion. Compani es study the competitive position of their own products and services.English: This is an example Likert Scale using fiv...The studies of uncontrolables are the studies of business trends, economic data, and industry statistics through the process of environmental scanning are the most widely used type of study in this category.The Marketing Research Processconsists of a series of activities: defining the problem and research objectives, designing the research, collecting the data, preparing and analyzing the data, and presenting the findings. Collecting information is too costly to allow the problem to be defined vaguely or incorrectly. At this point management needs to set the research objectives. At the end of this first step, the researcher should know (1) the current situation. (2) the nature of the problem; and (3) the specific question or questions the research will be designed to answer. Secondary Data consists of information that already exists, having been collected for ano ther purpose. Internal Secondary Data is available within the company.

Pharmacogenomics essays

Pharmacogenomics essays Pharmacogenomics in the Future of Health Care Practice Abstract: Pharmacogenomics is an up and coming technology that encompasses the areas of health care, science, drug therapy and genetics. Pharmacogenomics research examines gene expression, and how drugs can be best suited to work with an individuals DNA sequence. Some drug therapies have already been developed by means of this research, but the effect of the use of pharmacogenomics in health care is slow to be seen. All health care professionals will be affected when the advancements of pharmacogenomics are in widespread use, and need to be prepared for its introduction. There are distinct sides to the controversial issue of pharmacogenomics in our society, and all individuals involved should be aware of the aspects of this new technology. Pharmacogenomics in the Future of Health Care The study of genetics has brought about a new way of thinking to the world of science. But the field of science is not the only area affected by the advancements in genetics; it affects every aspect of humanity. The use of genetics lies in a gray area, where right and wrong is not easily decided. Separate communities of thinkers debate whether the use of genetics in science and technology are beneficial or harmful to society. The introduction of genetics into the health care field forces society to decide what is ethical in the use of these findings. The field of pharmacology is no exception to this. The fusion of pharmacology and genomics, pharmacogenomics (Human Genome Program, n.d.), pioneers scientific advancements in drug therapy and also presents society with considerations to make regarding the ethicality of their use. Pharmacogenomics studies behavioral aspects of genetic information. According to the International Society of Pharmacogenomics (ISP) website, pharmacogenomics involves a larger area of genetics, searching for genetic variations, including DNA polymorphisms or gene...