Liberal Arts vs Science Essay

Liberal arts deal with the sections of education that specialize in imparting general knowledge to learners. This is usually meant to build a strong intellectual capacity on general subjects that would not require technical or even professional skills. The sections of arts that are basically seen as to be in this category include languages, philosophy, music, basic arithmetic and history. In as much as humanities are considered to be part of liberal arts, they my lean towards scientific processes like those in geography and research sciences. On the other hand, sciences are based on technical subjects like physics and chemistry. Scientific knowledge is specific and can be based on a plethora of scientific specialties. Some examples may include biology, physics, engineering and medicine. Other areas in sciences that are specific can include actuarial science and applied mathematics. Developments in the current world of education indicate that more and more students are being encouraged to specialize on sciences than liberal arts. Does this signal that liberal arts are dead and everything is now about science and technology? Specialists in many quarters have advanced arguments that point to the fact that liberal arts are dying fast. Reasons include the fact that more professionals in sciences receive better compensation packages than their counterparts in liberal arts. The idea that liberal arts are a dying section of education is supported by facts. This is due to the fact that more and more people are embracing education in sciences that seem to be generally more appealing. The Industrial Revolution experienced in the world over seemed to emphasize the fact that the world would lean more towards technical aspects of education than on the arts. During the onset of this revolution in the late nineteenth century, inventions in sciences drove many to pursue technical subjects as they seemed to be leading to the most lucrative jobs. Examples lay in the engineering and other technological fields that had strong foundations in sciences. As such, many institutions that were recruiting prospective employees developed pay packages that were tailored to be better than those for employees in the liberal art field. Other factors that point to this being true include the declining budgetary allocation in universities that specialize in liberal arts. This was aggravated by the recession experienced during the period 2008-2009. A study showed that most students who had degrees in the fields and disciplines in liberal arts suffered job cuts and lay-offs during this period (Cook 1) (The Death of Liberal Arts: How the Recession and Unemployment are making Schools and Students Rethink the Value of an Education in The Humanities 1). The numbers of tertiary institutions that offer courses in these fields have declined by nearly a hundred since the early nineties to date. Despite this trend in developments, there are facts that point towards this being the truth and there are some others that seem to dispute this idea. Current job markets indicate that every employee has to have at least some basic technical knowledge. This may mostly lie in the knowledge of Information Technology (IT). It is prudent to observe that in the modern world, nearly all organizations insist on recruiting employees who have basic knowledge on how to process data using computers. This may be in writing documents or even manipulating data to obtain a desired result. Therefore, most organizations recruit prospective employees with basic computer proficiency skills. These skills are deemed to be mandatory in communication and other day-to-day activities in the office. On the other hand, most companies that are recruiting prospective employees are insistent upon the ability of employees to integrate with the community. This would include the immediate community living within the precincts of the location of such companies or even the prospective customers. To have such abilities, one needs to have studied some form of psychology or even sociology. These form part of the liberal arts. Consequently, these companies recruit employees who have studied in these fields and hence have the abilities to mingle with the said people. This knowledge might be important in marketing or even companies that deal in communications and customer care. Therefore, there are job market patterns that may seem to suggest that liberal arts may not be totally dead. Kathleen Haney, a professor of Philosophy of Education in the University of Houston-Downtown, opines that in the view of a layman, liberal arts are dead. She observes that liberal arts are mainly important in the formative years of education such as the elementary and secondary education. Later on, when a student needs to become more skilled in specific subjects, he may need the knowledge acquired in the elementary and secondary that dealt more on liberal arts. Such skills might include languages so as to communicate with others well. However, in â€Å"The Liberal Arts and the End of Education†, she explains the need for everyone to view liberal arts as losing its shine due to the influence of development. Development, she insists, impresses upon scholars the need to embrace more technical subjects. This she attributes to the need by more organizations to employ people who have knowledge in practical-oriented subjects like sciences. In as much as her works seem to approve of this as the trend, she however goes ahead to implore us to change our mind-frame so that we can see liberal arts as pivotal in enabling us to be able to be proficient in these practical subjects. She insists that the more technical subjects would need the services of liberal arts to survive. This she subtly alludes to when she says that languages are the essence of understanding and communication. Therefore, she agrees to the fact that liberal arts are losing their shine due to the current patterns in job markets. She however does not encourage this as it might be of detriment to ignore important sections of liberal arts like languages. The trend that she observes goes way back in time and is founded from the early times. The enthusiasm with which liberal arts were embraced before the Industrial Revolution has considerably gone down due to the mentioned facts. There seems to be a number of reasons that have been fronted for this kind of happening. It is only natural that for this, there has to be some form of consequences. The future generations face a more challenging task of trying to ignore or even do without an important part of education. As a matter of fact, the consequences might have very heavy repercussions on education in general. The main factor that will contribute to this is the need for people who can efficiently communicate in certain settings. For instance, when languages are abolished in the curriculum, students will need extra efforts to learn foreign languages so that they can earn whole-some multi-cultural competency. An example is when a company needs to venture into a foreign market and it requires one of the staff members to be able to communicate to the natives in their language. This would mean that the staff will be required to learn the native language of the people residing in the area. This might be expensive to undertake as the only other option is to employ a native. Many people have come up with arguments in support of the notion that liberal arts are dead. However, there are some writers who have come up with opposing arguments that seem to be water-tight. The American Council of Learned Societies has come up with issues that seem to show that the liberal arts are still popular in colleges. It discusses the importance of liberal arts in communication and the full understanding of human nature (American Council of Learned Societies 1) (Liberal Arts in American Higher Education: Challenges and Opportunities 1). It is subjects like philosophy and psychology that enable scientists like doctors and psychiatrists to understand how to deal with illnesses of the human mind. Coupled with this, the languages help in comprehension of several issues. Their argument is based on the fact that liberal arts build a comprehensive understanding of the human being. This seems to be a very convincing argument since most of sciences deal in the physical part of a human being but not on the moral, spiritual and social part. In the international arena, the science vs. art debacle has taken various forms depending on situations. For instance, many parents still insist on their children taking more professional courses as opposed to them having to take courses in liberal arts. It is of interest to note that many writers attribute this to the different priorities that people in the different social classes have. For instance, many students in the upper middle class will not feel pressured to earn degrees in the professional courses that are not seen as art-based. On the other hand, students who have to work to earn money for their fees have always chosen professional courses over the liberal arts. This has been attributed to the fact that the students from affluent families have no worries about fees and which college they feel they want to attend. Their schooling is a matter of choice as opposed to students with limited financial abilities who will be restricted to their budgets due to financial constraints. In conclusion, it has been shown that liberal arts are losing attention as an important part of education. Many factors have pointed to this. It is important to note that the need to study other technical subjects important in scientific development have led this. It is also important to note that the foundations of basic education are laid through the use of liberal arts like languages. Therefore, it is pragmatic to stop this trend before it leads to harm. The fact that more and more institutions are beginning to lower the budgetary allocations on liberal arts is worrying. It is worth noting that the recession exposed the weakness in the humanities sector of education as professionals in this field suffered more job cuts. This would actually lead to anyone conclusively saying that the liberal arts are actually dead. However, many a writer has sufficiently come up with arguments that signify the importance of liberal arts in the current and future settings. Therefore, while it is important to note that liberal arts are dying, it is a task set upon us to develop curricula that will ensure that the sections that liberal arts cover in education are taken over by an equally fulfilling branch of education. References Cook, N. The Death of Liberal Arts: How the Recession and Unemployment are making Schools and Students Rethink the Value of an Education in The Humanities. (5th April, 2010). Newsweek Web Exclusive. Web. America Council of Learned Societies. Liberal Arts in American Higher Education: Challenges and Opportunities. 2005. American Council of Learned Societies. Print.

Dialectic Journal for Catcher in the Rye Essay

Entry One Quote: â€Å"†¦ and all that David Copperfield kind of crap but I don’t feel like going through it if you want to know the truth†¦ my parents would have about two hemorrhages a piece it I tell anything pretty personal about them.† (Page 1) Response: This excerpt makes me very curious about his family members. The tone makes me believe that Holden probably is ashamed by them or he doesn’t like them when he describes them as â€Å"crap†. His parents’ attitude toward telling others personal stories is also confusing. It is not clear whether they are the ones inhibiting Holden from telling or not. I predict that Holden is reluctant when it comes to uncovering truths about his life. This quote is important because it gives me background information into Holden’s family life, as well as revealing a variety of characteristics of his personality. From this quote, I could tell that Holden does not have motivation to excel in school and he does not seem to care about getting kicked out. Being the teenager that he is, Holden does not realize the importance of education in his life, thus not caring about the severe consequences. Entry Two Quote: â€Å"He said he talked to Jesus all the time, even when he was driving his car. That killed me. I can just see the big phony bastard shifting into first gear and asking Jesus to send him more shifts.† (Page 17) Response: The quote made me really confused because I do not understand what Holden meant by shifting gear in this passage. However, now I understand that he does not like braggers and fakers. Also, Holden finds it irrational that these people dare to say they follow Jesus. I agree with him. If standing in a parking lot does not make you a car, then going to a church does not mean you are incredibly religious. This also seems to be one sign of Holden’s immaturity. It is very clear that when Holden starts to horse around, he puts an effort into annoying those surrounding him. Entry Three Quote: â€Å"I didn’t care about not seeing the movie anyway†¦ Besides, I’d been to the movies before with Auckly and Brossard.† (Page 37) Response: This quote seems ironic to me in ways more than one. Holden normally hates watching movies because he thinks that actors are fake and phony. He also does not like Auckly that much. In this section of the book, Holden does not seem glum and miserable as usual because he is acting like a regular teenager would. Holden’s invitation to Auckly proves that he is caring and sensitive to Auckly’s emotions. He also knows that loneliness is the worst situation so he helps Auckly out of it at least for one night. I also feel as if Holden really did care about seeing the movie because of the tone evolved in his voice. Entry Four Quote: â€Å"He got leukemia and died when we were up in Maine, on July 18, 1946. You’d have liked him. He was two years younger than I was, but he was about fifty times as intelligent. He was terrifically intelligent.† (Page 49) Response: This quote seemed very significant to me. It informed me that Holden had a younger brother named Allie who died from Leukemia. It is extremely clear that when Holden thinks about Allie, all he thinks about is how amazing of a person Allie was. I get the feeling that Holden is very fond of his siblings and has developed a fantastic relationship with them over time, making the death of Allie a major impact on his life. Also, the way Holden seems to be acting in this scene in the book tells me that he has strong feelings for Jane. The way he is talking about Stradlater has a connotation of evilness and mystery as to why he is afraid about Jane. Holden used to be close friends with Jane and he knows things about her that is worrying him about the intimate relationship she might form with Stradlater. Entry Five Quote: â€Å"I was right away sorry I’d said it, but it was too late.† (Page 75) Response: In my perspective, Holden tells these lies because he is used to it, but every time in the end he feels guilty. I think the fact that Holden feels bad about what he has done makes him a mature young man. He recognizes his mistakes and recognizes the horrid feeling of telling a lie. Many people in life have had moments where they have said something and regretted it immediately. This is the exact situation in which Holden was in. Holden had just had one of those relatable moments involving the guilt from saying something harsh and how it immediately affects him. However, he soon realizes that it is unfortunately too late to take back the words he had said. Entry Six Quote: â€Å"The fish-that’s different. The fish is different. I’m talking about the ducks.† (Page 82) Response: In this passage of the book, Holden is thinking scientifically. This supports the fact that he is smart after all, even though he his failing most of his classes. Often times, a teenager wants something so bad, they come up with crazy and somewhat stupid ideas and plans to help them obtain that something. Maybe this is because he does not want to try or maybe he wants to fit in with others who would not accept him if he was smart. In this metaphor, he is comparing himself the ducks in Central Park when the lagoon freezes over. What Holden is really saying is the fact that he would not know where to go if he stays living in a place full of phonies and rude people. The ducks cannot swim in ice and he will not stay in a school full of fakes. Entry Seven Quote: â€Å"She hasn’t felt too healthy since my brother Allie dies. She’s very nervous. That’s another reason why I hated like hell for her to know I got the ax again.† (Page 140) Response: This quote clearly explains how Holden is definitely not the only one who is affected by his brother, Allie’s, death. Holdens mother has gained severe health problems ever since Allie passed away. His mother is also very nervous, and I have come to conclusion that this is probably because she is afraid to lose another child of her own. However, not matter what her reason, Holden is concerned about his mother, and he feels saddened and guilty that his problems will affect her. This seems to be one of the real reasons as to why he does not want his parents, especially his mother, to know about him getting kicked out of school once again. I can relate to Holden in this situation in the fact that there is much pain and struggle that goes on within a family when a tragedy happens. Entry Eight Quote: â€Å"I kept putting my hand over my stomach and all to keep the blood from dripping all over. I didn’t want anybody to know I was wounded. I was concealing the fact that I was a wounded sunuvabitch.† (Page 150) Response: Back in the hotel when Holden caught himself into a fight and became the punching bag for the elevator guy, he pretended to be shot in the stomach. It is worth noting that Holden does the same thing now. I will infer that Holden may have seen this played out in a movie and such a scene became imprinted in his head. Also, this passage is extremely symbolic as to how Holden is feeling. It is very clean that Holden has a ton of issues that are depressing him but he is not showing that among others. I feel as though if Holden received help from a therapist or even a loved one he could excel in life and not have to live in such a tremendous lie anymore. In this depressed state, Holden is looking for much comfort. In some ways Holden proves he has much strength, but in other ways he proves he is a weak liar. Entry Nine Quote: â€Å"Then I took my hunting hat from my coat pocket and gave it to her.† (Page 180) Response: In this quote it is clear that Holden feels attached to it because he is able to recognize the connection he has with it. When he puts on the hat, he feels almost outside of himself and feels like there is someone that understands him. He understands himself even if no one else does. He feels safe when he wears it. The hunting hat is very symbolic to Holden. He wears it whenever he wants to feel protected and loved. It is probably the only object he cherishes. Giving that hat to Phoebe is a terrific example of being the catcher in the rye because he was to protect the children from the severity of life. Among those children, his favorite person is Phoebe, and this is why he chose the hand off the hunting hat to her. Entry Ten Quote: â€Å"but this damn article I started reading made me almost worst. It was all about hormones. It describes how you should look, your face and eyes and all, if your hormones were in good shape, and I didn’t look that way at all.† (Page 195) Response: Holden appears to be sad, lonely, and in desperate need of comforting. Unfortunately he decides to turn to alcohol for comfort. This clearly demonstrates how Holden behaves when dealing with certain issues as well as showing another immature side of him. Holden is originally skinny. He was supposed to be on a certain diet to help him gain weight, but he never eats enough. In fact, he rarely mentions food in his whole novel. His body is not receiving the essential nutrition in order for his body to function correctly, and consequently his hormones are not going to form completely. Many organs in his body will not work correctly, this includes his brain. This is scientifically why Holden will wind up in a mental hospital to seek help with his personal issues.

Natural Health Through Natural Medicine Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Natural Health Through Natural Medicine - Essay Example Within minutes her ankle swelled up to the size of a basketball and she was in great pain. There was no hospital within miles , but their local guide brought a healer from the village nearby. The healer messaged Jessica's foot with some juniper oil for ten minutes, all the while mumbling a chant. At the end of ten minutes, when the healer asked her to get up and walk, Jessica was more astonished than everybody else to find that she could walk comfortably without pain. Within a day her foot was perfectly normal, and she could continue her trek to the Kedar ranges. The same injury would have cost Jessica much more time and money, besides causing her possible reaction to drugs if she had had recourse to Modern medicine. Natural medicine or Alternate medicine is the need of the hour rather than the impersonal, expensive, technology- dependant Modern medicine with its side effects.. Natural medicine is general term used for a range of unconventional medicines using natural substances and energy fields such as Reiki, Yoga, Homeopathy , Ayurveda, Chinese medicine and many others which assist the body to heal itself. Throughout history the art of healing has been practiced by all cultures. Plants and plant products have been used by the native American healers with great success. The Indian medicine system of Ayurveda, the traditional Chinese system of medicine, the Druids of Europe, all used plants and plant products effectively. Unlike the modern Western medicine or Allopathy which only treats the body, natural medicine systems treat the whole body, mind and the spirit .Natural medicine tries to restore the harmony in body, mind and spirit. The proponents of modern Western medicine say that modern medicine uses the latest in technology for the diagnosis and treatment of the disorder. They say that X-rays, MRI, CT scan and other procedures are followed by the practitioners of modern medicine makes it more scientific. But it is a well known fact that even a simple headache is diagnosed only after a number of tests have been done. Even after that, the patient only experiences temporary relief as lot of pain killers and anti- inflammatory drugs are pumped into her. While it is a good thing for the hospitals and the pharmaceutical companies, the patient will be losing valuable time and money. The conventional doctor treats the condition, not the patient. All patients with headache are the same to him. Since he does not have enough time, he follows a set pattern and suggests the same set of tests whether they are required or not. He uses drugs which suppress the body's natural immune responses .Painkillers can be addictive a nd all modern medicines have side effects. The same condition is treated quite differently by a healer or a shaman. An acupuncturist would be using the body itself to heal itself, which would take a fraction of the time and money conventional medicine does. Modern medicine is all about evidence- based medicine. It does not accept anything without so called scientific evidence. But there is no real evidence to show that eye drops prevent loss of vision in patients of glaucoma, nor is there any evidence that cholesterol can be controlled by certain drugs. On the other hand, the Silva Mind Control method has shown that vision can be improved

Business plan Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Business plan - Term Paper Example It will be located inside the Park Meadows Shopping Center, South Denver. This will provide an exciting experience to consume high-quality food while window shopping and walking inside the shopping mall. 303 Deliche Steak will offer a tantalizing experience of hand cut (daily) and 21 days aged steak to maximize the flavour. Its menu encompasses the best steak, several chicken dishes as well burgers in the saloon. It will also serve desserts and distinctive salad.For special occasions, it will also offer private dining areas with a decor that beckons music and laughter to make it more relaxing and memorable. The grill will be in open air to cook to the proper degree as per the guest’s requirement. There will be no waiting for the steak since the grill will be stocked already to the degree of doneness. This business plan will launch the initial concept to create more concrete goals and obtain financing. Financing is required to start the business activities such as kitchen desig ning, architectural plan of the restaurant, menu and receipt books, purchases equipment and other related expenses of the first year. The capital contributions of the owners along with the finances will contribute in successful opening of the restaurant. This is essential to create a value-driven atmosphere that will entice people from all ages to bring their friends and family to enjoy the creativity of the founders with excellent food. The dazzling 303 Deliche Steak will be embraced by people who love dining out with fantastic meal and benchmark customer service at a convenient location. Business Description: 303 Deliche Steak is an ultimate steakhouse destination with great food, lively atmosphere and extraordinary value. While the original variation of American favourites is supreme, an array of flavourful dishes such as seasoned steaks, chops, prime rib, roasted caramel chicken, generous salads and side orders will also be offered. This outlet will provide the upscale ambience of an energetic lifestyle with the ongoing celebration of exceptional food. Fresh and entertaining surroundings: The restaurant will feature display cooking of our featured steak from cutting to cooking to ensure that they are very tender. The hearty salads and hot food stations will also visible to enable our guests to choose their favourite dish/salad from a variety of items. We will also offer theme nights to add a twist to the customer’s experience. Fresh flowers, great music and amazing artwork will appeal the customers. Quality Food: At 303 Deliche Steak, the passion of grilling will be reflected in the legendary steaks. It will serve nothing but fresh and tender steaks, crispy salads, all white meat chicken and scrumptious desserts. Variety: We are committed to offer a little extra by adding value in terms of everyday menu to spice up the things and add more twist. The menu will change after every 5 to 6 months but the specialty will be there. For instance, during summ er months we will offer special menu such as exotic drinks to refresh our customers in a hot sunny day. Prices will be varying according to the competitive upscale restaurants. Hours of Operation: The restaurant will be open seven days a week. The timings will be 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. Industry and Market Analysis: Denver is a pioneer in the restaurant industry with many popular chains based in the region. It has a population of more than 3 million and the growth rate of the food industry is increasing with the establishment of

Music assignments Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Music assignments - Assignment Example The introductory part of the prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun has prominent parts of the harp and wind instruments. A unique feeling is created by the chromatic note sequence of the wind instrument heard in the initial stages of the Prelude. Derived harmonies and derived chords of namely 7ths, 9ths, augmented and diminished are heard creating a spectacular feeling of peace and anticipation at the same time. The feeling of the time of the day i.e., Afternoon is uniquely and clearly brought out. The song through unusual note sequence and mood changing notes introduced at the demarcation point of the stanzas of the musical piece creates a journey on its own. The undulating tone and progression and regression of notes introduce the feeling of being close to nature and natural cycles. The Afternoon of a Faun represents many feelings, peace, satisfaction, relief, fear, quest, confusion and relaxation. Quite unique and characteristic to Claude Debussy, his work is in this piece is characterised by unconventional rise and fall of tempo, intensity and notes. It involves the waxing and waning of the overall mood that the composition tries to convey. A rhythmic variation is also noticed towards the middle for the composition where stringed instruments dominant for most of the part. Claude Debussy’s unexpected harmony of strings and thought provoking combination of notes are seen in the background sequences that fill up the musical piece. The signature line of the musical piece shows Debussy’s ability to skilfully blend discordant notes into a mystical harmony and give it a life like affect. The signature line has the alternating major and minor chords playing. Debussy’s sight variation of the opening material is revealed toward the end with sharp clarinet sequences, differing in tempo, rhythm, timbre and overall texture. It is

Relationships Among Organizational Culture, Human, Resource Practices Essay

Relationships Among Organizational Culture, Human, Resource Practices and its CEOs Leadership Style - Essay Example However, it should be a representative of the views of the employee’s beliefs to encourage innovativeness and free will. The organizational culture is likely to be shaped by the Human Resources practices, the CEO and the leadership styles applied. For example if stern action is taken by the management due to specific behavior ,then everyone in the organization will follow a certain pattern either to adopt or avoid the occurrence depending on the outcome. The most influential person in the organization to set the organizational culture is the company’s CEO. Although a CEO may come into a company long before its culture has been established, he/she has an upper hand in changing the way things are done in the organization. When mergers and acquisitions are formed, the organizational culture of the organizations involved in the merger is likely to be affected .In turn, this change will affect he effectiveness of the organization (Heller, 2007). Normalcy can be resumed after successful merger of not only the business side but the human resources which is directly related to the organizational culture of the new acquired business. ... nducted during the transition, Joe Moeller stated that he had worked in the Petroleum and Koch industries for the last 39 years .Although GP presented him with a total new playing ground, he was ready to take on the new roles to greater success encompassed on Koch’s culture â€Å"we will develop and leverage what we believe are the core capabilities of Koch companies and build a culture of principled entrepreneurship† (DeGross, 2006). During his leadership position in Koch, Moeller promoted an entrepreneurial culture that awards and develops superior performers in the organization. He believed in people rather than in systems. In Koch, every single employee right from the top to the bottom enjoyed the right to share their opinion under his leadership. From this one can tell that Moeller was a people oriented and democratic leader. He believes in the capacity of every employee in helping the company achieve its goals. He practiced democracy because all employees were at liberty of questioning the status quo. Furthermore, he would easily interact with employees in the lower cadre a characteristic that a servant leader would exhibit. Most of these leadership characteristic that he had were absent in the old G.P. To successfully change the old G.P’s culture to suit the Koch’s one, Moeller introduced entrepreneurial spirit that promoted a people oriented leadership. He did away with the bureaucratic ways of making decision and brought in a democratic and participative culture. He also promoted the free interaction among all levels of employees to exhibit a servant leadership style where junior employees would not fell intimidated by their seniors (DeGross, 2006). GP’s HR policies worked along bureaucratic systems. The employees were accustomed to going through

Religione Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Religione - Essay Example According to Jews, God created world in one day and later all the different species originated from it. They believe that before the creation of world everything was in darkness and void ness. 2) The Great Flood (2349 BCE): The great flood was a key event in Jewish history which wiped out sin from the face of earth. The God created flood in order to eradicate the lawlessness prevailed among people during that time. 3) 10 Commandments Received (1491 BCE: According to Jews the 10 commandments are the essence of the religion. The Jews are supposed to commit themselves to these commandments in order to lead a sin free life. Commandments describe the duties of a person to God and other fellow beings. 4) Israel became monarchy (1095 - 1020BCE): The kingdom of Israel was formed as they conquer the Philistine and form unity with all tribes of the Israel. The monarchy was ruled by great kings like Saul, David and Solo man. 1) Faith and belief in one God and also in Messenger Prophet Mohammed: This is the most important pillar of Islam and only if a person believes and practices it he becomes a true Muslim. The aim of this principle is to convey the essence of life that is to obey and serve God. 2) Praying five times a day: Praying five times a day is a very obligatory rule of Islam. This creates a direct connection between God and worshipper. Prayers are performed during dawn, mid-day, afternoon, sunset and at night, 3) Giving alms to the poor and needy: According to Islam everything in this world belongs to God and money also is held by human as a trustee. Every Muslim therefore has to give in charity a portion of his income or wealth fort the betterment of the society. 4) Fasting and proving one’s faith to God: Every year the Muslim population performs fasting during the month of Ramadan. They abstain from food and water from sunrise to sunset. This is a purification process for body and soul and deepens their faith .in God. a)

Magnet Beauty Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Magnet Beauty - Case Study Example The proprietor behind Magnet Beauty Products Inc. is an entrepreneur called by the name Janette Clark. Her plans for the company collide with the new leasing laws. With a shift in the laws regarding leasing, changes in the lease contracts will have an implication to the income statement, balance sheet and the cash flow statement of the company. The two lease options that are available include a long term lease which will decrease the net income of the company but will reduce expenditure and improve the companies leverage level in case it wanted to sell out. However ,a short term lease will increase the net income of the company but costs will increase annually and the leverage of the company will stagnate. The leasing options provided by the recently reviewed FASB and IASB will ensure that a lease is considered an as an asset in the company’s balance sheet(Epstein et al., p.866) .According to Brigham, Eugene and Joel (p. 630),the capitalization of leases will mean that the benefits of the lease and the rights to use are transferred to the lease holder. This, according to Delaney, Patrick and Ray (p. 442) is capital expensive in the first year, but the expense of the lease declines gradually annually as the lease term expires due to amortization.. As an asset, the valuation of the company will include the leased property. This creates a higher valuation for the company which translates negatively on the profitability and efficiency of the company because the returns on assets will be much less. According to Epstein(p.826) ,for the short term leases under the current proposed leasing laws, the renewable clauses and the leasebacks normally attract an increased percentage in interest for the property value. After five years, with the current interest of property rates at 5%,the cost of property will be 25% more expensive. For Magnet Beauty Products Inc., I would advice that they go

Historical Development of Britain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Historical Development of Britain - Essay Example Raymond Williams, quoted in Society and Economy in Modern Britain, used to say that "culture is one of the most difficult words in the English language, partly because it has a history of shifting meanings, and partly because the word is now used to cover important concepts, in several distinct disciplines." (Brown, 430) According to the same source, two types of cultures are identifiable - the high or minority taste culture represented by certain kinds of music, literature, language and art (this type of culture is associated with the elite) and the popular or mass culture. Talking about the history of English popular culture, Richard Brown asserts the fact that it was neither traditional nor the culture of peasant societies. (Brown, 433) It depended on the region where it was developed and on religious influences. And the main feature was that the English popular culture was noticeably different from that of Europe. It was "more commercial, more individualistic, less corporate and more secular." (434) The 18th century brought about a gradual change in point of culture, a change that was manifest in two directions, affecting both popular and high culture. And it was under the religious influence that this happened. ... In Scotland, this was an age where culture developed in all its fields: literature, architecture, philosophy and science. The universities became more innovative in point of curriculum and teaching and all these contributed to the revival. "The identity of the English nation during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries fits neatly into neither of the main categories of classification identified by political scientists, being neither indisputably ethnic nor exclusively civic-territorial." (Kidd, 75) The English nation was characterized by a rich ethnic diversity. Although the central identity was Anglo-Saxonism, Celtic, Gothic and even Norman identity gathered in composing Britain's national identity. The eighteenth century Britain doesn't appear, yet, as having the sense of a multicultural nation. It's what Collin Kidd proves in his book by presenting the attitude of the radical Saxonist John Hare, who supported the idea of ethnic purity. The diversity in point of ethnicity became even the source of questions connected to the history of the English Constitution. During the eighteenth century the Saxon identity became more prominent as the ethnic core. It was also considered that English principles of liberty were of Anglo-Saxon provenance. Historians and researchers have studied this problem but opinions remained divided. The Anglo-Saxon is also usually one of the terms of the antitheses "Celt-Saxon". In Kidd's opinion "the opposition of the pragmatic, freedom loving Teuton and the mystical, sentimental, but improvident Celt" was connected to a conception of the Celt that "took shape gradually, beginning with the Ossianic vogue of the late

Define and discuss the relationship between language variation, Essay

Define and discuss the relationship between language variation, language attitudes and linguistic discrimination, drawing on specific examples from past research - Essay Example To this end the paper will examine the relationship between language variation, language attitudes and linguistic discrimination. In order to attain this end, the following objectives will be explored: Language variation is the â€Å"differences in systems of a language that result from historical, geographic, social and fundamental changes. This affects a dialect and divides up a language to sub-groups†1. Language variation therefore signifies the ways and systems through which people who speak the same language vary the way they speak and convey ideas and communication through a peculiar or specific approach to conveying their messages. Language variation therefore hinges on the fact that different people have different approaches and different processes of presenting their information and message and this varies from person to person. In throwing more light on the essence of language variation, Thomson identifies that â€Å"language is a historical entity. It is intended to communication ideas and concepts. Variations are persuasive and change with time†2. Thomson’s view of language variation has to do with the fact that language is meant to present ideas and concepts. And within time and space, these concepts and ideas might vary and change as per the changes and modifications in the society. Hence, there are different variations and different approaches and processes through which this communication is carried out and through which different people have and build different views on presenting their ideas and concepts. To add more explanations to this, it can be said that homogeneity in society and in perceptions in the human race is fiction3. This implies that language, which is a product of the wider society within which people lives is bound to be as heterogeneous as the society within which it is used. Therefore, linguistic variation allows linguistics to study about the different versions and different processes that influences and

Executive Summary Essay Example for Free

Executive Summary Essay Patient education is crucial to improve quality of patient care, increase healthy behaviors and improve health status. Nursing and patient interaction plays a very important role, and part of a nurses’ job is to educate the patient (Ferguson et al., 2013). Educational programs such as nursing groups would be of great benefit to implement at Aurora Behavioral Health facility. The following content will provide the purpose, target audience, benefits and more details on why implementing this programming will benefit this facility and improve quality of care. Purpose of Programming The main purpose of this programming is to improve patient health and slow down disease deterioration. This also gives the patients a chance to express some of their worries or concerns regarding the treatment or medication they are getting. This type of population already has a challenging time understanding their own condition and or state of mind, not all of them but most of them since they are mentally challenges due to their psychotic disorder. This programming also serves the purpose of nurses developing a therapeutic relationship with their patients, often times nurses will be able to pick up if there is a change in behavior, which can become a very important hint when related to a patient that is severely depressed. Overall increased customer satisfaction is the end goal. Target Audience The target audiences are psychotic, depressed, and detoxing patients. With psychotic patients that are on multiple psychotropic medications it is important to constantly be educating on the side effects of the medication such as lithium and the importance of hydration. Behavioral health technicians would also benefit from this as well as they themselves can  encourage patients to abide by these helpful hints reducing complications that can occur. Benefits of Programming An educated patient can participate in improvement of their own treatment helping improve outcomes or being capable of identifying errors before they occur ending in a shorter length of stay and a speedy recovery (Hà ¤tà ¶nen et al., 2010). For example a patient who has a good knowledge and understands what medications they are on and the times they are taken, will be able to catch a medication error perhaps by recognizing the pill itself and might realize and say â€Å" I take that medication at night, not in the morning† unfortunately we are humans and make mistakes. Individuals with poor mental health conditions often feel inferior, this nursing program will help them build more confidence and also allow one on one time with their nurse resulting in therapeutic relationship. Nurses will also have the benefit of becoming more familiar with his or her patients and recognize any changes in attitude or behavior. Cost, Budget Justification . The only cost in this programming would be the time put into by the nurses. There has to be adequate staffing so the nurse is able to take the time to accomplish this daily task. There are only a few requirements perhaps having the nurse with the lower patient acuity do the nursing group. The cost would be minimal such as providing the patient with printed material for them to read as some of them learn better by reading. Evaluation Basis A nursing group would consist of thirty minutes to an hour dedicated to educate patients to touch base on important topics. Some important topics consist of safety, medications and its side effects, warning signs of complications or basic topics such as hydration and nutrition. The nursing group will be done once a day preferably during the daytime shift when patients are alert and awake. There are two nurses per unit which consists of 20 beds, one nurse can do nursing group while the other remains at the nurses station attending to the rest of the patients that decided not to attend or couldn’t for various reasons. The nursing supervisor is  responsible to making a file with numerous health related topics that would be targeted to this type of population. If there is a chaotic busy day with more important priorities to where nurses don’t have the time to teach nursing group, it can be cancelled and held until the next day. Conclusion Patient education needs continuing emphasis in the healthcare systems and educational programs such as nursing group. This is crucial to patients in the experience of their illness and in the community. According to a study patients perceive structured and systematically conducted patient education programs very useful (Koivunen, et al., 2012). Informed patients can lessen changes of malpractice claims and improve and increase overall patient satisfaction. This is a low cost effective program that will help achieve and meet patient satisfaction as it improves quality of patient care. . References Ferguson, Linda, M., Heather Ward, Sharon Card, Suzanne Sheppard, and Jane McMurtry. 2013. Putting the patient back into patient-centred care: An education perspective. Nurse Education In Practice 13, no. 4: 283-287. CINAHL Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed September 29, 2014) Hà ¤tà ¶nen, H., Suhonen, R., Warro, H., Pitkà ¤nen, A., Và ¤limà ¤ki, M. (2010). Patients perceptions of patient education on psychiatric inpatient wards: a qualitative study. Journal Of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing, 17(4), 335-341. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2850.2009.01530.x Koivunen, M. M., Huhtasalo, J. J., Makkonen, P. P., VÄLimÄKi, M. M., HÄTÃâ€"Nen, H. H. (2012). Nurses roles in systematic patient education sessions in psychiatric nursing. Journal Of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing, 19(6), 546-554. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2850.2011.01833.x

Motivation And Problem Statement Information Technology Essay

Motivation And Problem Statement Information Technology Essay A corridor indoor navigation system is proposed for any kind of visual impaired persons: blind, partially sighted, and people with progressive loss of vision. This system can help the visually impaired individuals to travel through familiar or unfamiliar corridor by using the Kinect sensor that mounted on the head or holding into hand. This chapter consists of five parts. The five parts can be divided into problem statements, project scopes, project objectives, contributions, and background information. 1.1 Motivation and Problem Statement Visually impaired individuals will face many difficulties and one of the common difficulties is when they involve in self-navigating at an environment which is strange for them. In fact, physical movement is one of the biggest challenges for them. Besides that, while they travel around or walking at a crowded corridor, it may pose great difficulty. One of the existing problems for visually impaired individuals to travel in a corridor is that they cannot detect either they need to turn left or turn right when reached to the end of the corridor by using only the walking stick. According to Saaid M.F [7], to walk at the corridor, the visually impaired individuals must find the border of the sidewalk at the corridor and then use their walking stick to define their current location. The reason why the visually impaired individuals do that is because they cannot forecast the obstacle which is far from them while they only can use the walking stick to detect the area around them. 1.2 Project Scope The scope of this project is to develop a system which can help visually impaired individuals to navigate in the corridor and calculate the distance of obstacles. This system used the sensor of the Kinect to detect the obstacles. Kinect is a low-cost 3D sensor developed by Microsoft for the XBOX 360 console which allows the player to use his own body as the game controller. Besides that, it consists of an RGB camera associated with an infrared transmitter and receiver, which permits to estimate the distance of the elements taken from the environment. This system using sensor of the Kinect to building the depth map, which can provides the distance of the obstacles detected in front of the visually impaired individuals. 1.3 Project Objectives In this project, the main objective is to develop a cheaper in price but will still maintain with a good functional system for the visually impaired individuals. This system able to help visually impaired individuals to avoid the obstacles such as people and animal on the corridor same with them; and it also can provides the distance of the obstacles in front of them. The aim of this project is to improve the visually impaired individuals ability in finding the direction at the corridor while they are walking rather than just rely on the walking stick to detect all the obstacles manually and waste their time in finding the exactly direction that they want to heading to. 1.4 Impact, significance and Contribution This system is designed especially for any kind of visual impaired persons: blind, partially sighted, and people with progressive loss of vision. This system will give a lot of benefits to the visually impaired individuals especially for those who have financial problem. According to the researcher Choo, Malaysia has around 60,000 visually impaired individuals and 28,000 of them had registered as a blind and applied to get the help from the welfare provided in Malaysia. This mean that the number of visually impaired individuals that have financial problem had covered more than half in the total number of impaired visually individuals and this is reason why the system provide is cheaper and affordable by most of the impaired visually individuals. More than that, this system able to provide the distance of the obstacles in front of visually impaired individuals by using sensor of the Kinect. It also able delivers the visually impaired individuals the existing direction to help them headed to the right direction. With the system provided, the visually impaired individual able walk at the corridor safety since the system developed is able to guide them along the corridor by providing the information of the surrounding along the corridor. With the system developed the visually impaired individuals also able to improve their own ability or less dependent to the help of other people while walking along the corridor. The reason why the visually impaired individuals can improve themselves into a more independent individual is because the system able to help them in finding the direction while they are walking at the corridor. Hence, the visually impaired person able to more likes a normal person in their daily lifestyle. 1.5 Background Information Nowadays, the tools to assist the visually impaired individuals are become very important because the tools are used to help them to navigate the surrounding in the corridor. According to Casey Helmick [3], those people who are visually impaired individuals often will rely on different tools to help them in travelling around. Dog guide and walking stick are the most common tools to assist visually impaired individuals in daily life. However, not all of them afford to purchase a guide dog, since the guide dog is at a quite expensive price level and will require consuming their time in training with the guide dog and getting the license and only able travelling around with the guide dog. The training cost and the license cost will also become one of the concern which they cannot afford all the cost plus the guide dog cannot available to enter some places such as hotel, apartment and hospital and this restrict them to walk smoother at indoor environment with just an assist from the walk ing stick. Besides that, some of the visually impaired individuals cant be around dogs. [3] Furthermore, the visually impaired individuals only can use the walking sticks to estimate and determine the obstacle on the floor along the corridor and the obstacle must be close with their current location since the length of their walking stick is limited. A walking stick may be harder to carry, since its longer than the actual walking stick and because the blind people use walking stick while walking, so they only have one hand free [6]. Hence, this cause the visually impaired individuals become inconvenience especially when their hands need carry a lot of items and since one of their hand need carry walking stick, so they may not able to carry all of the items. Besides that, the existing walking stick for visually impaired individuals has the range detection problem. The walking stick cannot detect the distance that much more far away from the individual or the moving objects that moving around the corridor. Unlike normal person they cannot sense the all of the objects and movi ng objects since they cannot see, so, this causes them a problem when they walk at the corridor. The existing walking stick also cannot assist and help the visually impaired individuals to detect the possible way whether to turn either left or right when they reached to the end of the corridor. To improve the limitation that do exist on the current visually impaired individuals walking stick, the corridor indoor navigation system has been proposed. Chapter 2 Literature Review Due to the inconvenience of walking stick in the corridor, there are many researchers that have been researching to discover a new way to solve the problem. In this chapter, there are some systems that are reviewed. Some of them are taken from journal or internet. 2.1 Ultrasonic Ranging System A mobile ultrasonic ranging system is the system that used to expand the environmental detection range for visually impaired individuals by using the Sona SwitchTM 1700 (Electronic Design and packing, Livonia, Michigan). This sensor uses a pulse of ultrasonic waves to determine the distance to obstacles. There are several hardware are used to set up the system such as AD654 Monolithic Voltage-to-Frequency Converter, 2 small headphone speakers, helmet, 15 volt power source, 2 plastic experimenter boxes, breadboard, resistors, capacitors, and minor circuitry. This project contains two modes of detections which is analog and digital mode. The analog mode will give the blind a mental picture about the environment based on the different frequencies and patterns of chirps elicited. The digital mode functions for detection a basically served to alert the blind of nearby obstacles [1]. The Ultrasonic Ranging System has less transmission attenuation, strong reflectivity, insensitive to light and electromagnetic. Especially with the appearance of intelligent ranging machines which take micro controller as the core, the ultrasonic detection device has been greatly improved in its detection accuracy, method and application range, and it has become an important part in the intelligent detection field [1]. Ultrasonic wave angular misalignment is one of the weaknesses of the system. In order for ultrasonic waves to propagate correctly during the echo respond phase, they must have a perpendicular surface to reflect from. Angular misalignment between the normal of the transmitting and receiving surfaces may cause the measured distance to differ from the actual distance [1]. Besides that, the hardware use by the system is expensive because mostly the hardware is manufacture and imported from other foreign countries. Other than that, to reduce the problem of ultrasonic angular misalignment, the suggested solution is by using different transmit and receiving ultrasonic transducer pairs. Reducing the size and weight of the ultrasonic sensor would greatly improve the ergonomic capabilities of the system [1]. 2.2 Point Locus Wearable GPS PathFinder system   Point Locus Wearable GPS PathFinder system  is designed specialized as away finding aid for the visually impaired individuals as they travel outdoor. The system communicates in a language of vibrations to the user, so that will be able to guide them. The vibration comes from two vibrating pager motors located on the users triceps. Whenever they need to turn, whichever vibrator is closest to the turn angle will vibrate. Then, the user stops and rotates in that direction, until they feel the vibration from both vibrators. This indicates the user is facing the right direction and should move forward. This signal is repeated every 20 seconds as a reassurance to the user that they are going in the right direction and should continue forward. When a destination is reached, a sustained vibration from both vibrators of 5 seconds indicates this. Point Locus Wearable GPS PathFinder system  will record GPS location data and use the current location of the user, and the desired destination to form a path from one point to the other. This information will be used by a microcontroller to control the vibrator circuits, so they will vibrate at the proper time. [4] This system will serve as important tools as one of the most important senses for  visually impaired  users that are the sense of touch. The purpose of the system is to design a product that will be able to aid visually impaired people in a meaningful way. It needs to be something practical that compliments their natural adaptations to their disability and extends their limitations. It will be a cost effective solution that improves their way finding ability, making them much more independent when travelling. By using the sense of touching, rather than audio, the system does not overload one vital sense that is needed as an adapted way to orient oneself. It also does not require vision to put on and adjust to the right size, because Velcro allows a person to feel out the proper place to attach the straps. This system is to record the GPS location in order to determine the path. The weakness of GPS is ineffective for accurate positioning in indoor environment such as underground, under water, tunnels and so on, because the walls can significantly interfere with GPS transmissions. The lost of signals will make the users feel unsafe because for a visually impaired person they will panic. Furthermore, the visually impaired has lacked the freedom to walk without friend or family member accompany, especially through the unfamiliar environments. 2.3 Corridor Navigation and Obstacle Avoidance using Visual Potential This system is developing a navigation algorithms that using visual potential for corridor navigation and obstacle avoidance. The visual potential is computed from an image sequence and optical flow computed from successive images captured by the camera mounted on the robot. The robot selects a local pathway using the visual potential observed through its vision system. This algorithm enables mobile robots to avoid obstacles without any knowledge of a robot workspace. Using the visual potential field and optical flow, Naoya Ohnishi defines a control flow for corridor navigation and obstacles avoidance of the mobile robot. The path-planning problem of a mobile robot is to determine the trajectory. The trajectory is determined as the path from the start point to the destination point without collision with obstacles in the configuration space. The potential field method [10] yields a path from a start point to a destination point using the gradient field computed from the potential field derived from the map of the configuration of the robot workspace. On the other hand, the navigation problem of a mobile robot is to determine the robot motion at an arbitrary time [9]. In a real environment, the payload of mobile robots is restricted, for example, power supply, capacity of input devices and computing power. Therefore, mobile robots are required to have simple mechanisms and devices [8]. Chapter 3 Methodology, Implementation Issues and Challenge, Timeline 3.1 Methodology The methodology that we will use in this project is Prototyping methodology. The reasons why we use this methodology are because the method is easier to understand, more user friendly and the steps are better structured. The developer will be able to modify the system continuously until meet the objectives. There are five steps in Prototyping methodology; they are planning, analysis, design, implementation, and final system [15]. Planning is the process of understanding of the reason the system will be built and the requirement. Analysis includes the problem identifying, analysis, predicting potential problems, and how the system will be built. System analysis leads to design decision, determines how the system operates in the term of process, data, hardware and other factor. Implementation includes the time when we want to build, tested and also installed. It includes the training and also system maintenance. sdlc_prototype.gif Figure 3.1 Prototyping Methodology: Source: http://www.slepi.net/blog/system-development/system-development-life-cycle-sdlc-methodologies.html, Wiras Adi( February,2008) 3.1.1 Planning Planning is the first stage of the prototyping methodology. A good project planning will increases the success rate of the project. Project planning is about what activity we needed in this project, and how much time allocate to every single activity. The purpose of this project planning is to show us a big picture how the whole programs flow and the total time needed to complete the project. Grantt chart is one of the tools that we used for schedule the activity. It also helps us track back how much we are delayed. 3.1.2 Analysis In this stage, developer need to analyse the application looks like, how it functions, how much it cost to makes a better system. In order to makes a better system, developer need to analyse other existing system to cover their limitation and weaknesses. Developer also needs to analyse the technology involved to make sure the hardware and software are supported. 3.1.3 Design System requirement specifications need to be studied before go to system design. There are many software that can be used for develop the system. This system is developed by using C++ programming languages and Kinect Xbox. 3.1.4 Implementation This is coding stage. After the design stage, this stage make all feature become functional. First of all, start with preparing all the hardware and software requirement. Install the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 software, and connect with Kinect Xbox. After that start coding and test the result. Several algorithms and software will be used to implements the system. All functions will be tested until it reached the project objectives. There are several way of testing can be conduct such as black-box testing, white-box testing, unit testing, system integration testing, and user acceptance testing. 3.1.5 Final System After all the stage has done, this stage will be the delivery stage and maintenance stage. To ensure the visually impaired individuals know how to use it, lesson training will be provided. Whenever the visually impaired individuals find any error, the maintenance service is provided to ensure the system work perfectly. 3.2 Implementation Issues and Challenges In every project, risks will always exist because of the issues and challenges that arise in the process of the project. Without any exception, this project also arise some issues and challenges such as: Time constrain Time is the main problem. We still need to manage our time with other subjects. To handle this problem, there is the reason to have the project planning. Code and software complexity Code complexity is another main problem due to our limited knowledge on the C++ language. Software that used to apply in this system also is the problem for us due to we dont have any knowledge about this area. To handle this problem, we need to make a research and study to increase my knowledge in this program. We have faced other difficulty when get the image pixel. The Kinect depth sensors convert the color to black, grey, and white. Black color is unknown area which mean too far or too near. White and grey is detected area. The difficulty we faced is we unable to let the laptop know which is object, which is wall, and which pixel we want get for calculate the distance. (Figure 3.3) 3.3 Timeline / Project Planning Project planning is very important to limit the time that we will use. So, it is a kind of time management for our project. Below, we will describe our project planning for Project 1. Project I Timeline Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Topic Assigned Identify problem statement, scope, objective, and background information Literature review Methodology and planning Project finalization and proposal submission Proposal Presentation Figure 3.4 Project I Timeline Explanation: Topic assigned The title is assigned by the faculty. Identify problem statement, scope, objectives, and background information Found the reason why we want to do this project, the scope, and found the information that was useful for us to understand more about this project. Literature Review In this step, we make a research to something that is related to this project and this research more to the journal and other official material. Methodology and planning In this step, we planned how we want to do our project; we determined our steps and followed them. Project finalization and proposal submission Make a hardcopy of the things that we have understand and read. Then, pass it up to the supervisor. Proposal presentation Make a presentation to our supervisor and also moderator. And prepare a Microsoft power point slide to them. Project II Timeline Current Week Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Study the C++ language and software Code edition Testing Thesis documentation Figure 3.5 Project II Timeline Chapter 4 Requirement Specification 4.1 User Requirement 4.1.1 Functional Requirement i) Obstacles Avoidance This system able to help user detect the obstacles position. ii) Distance calculation This system will count the distance from user to object detected. iii) Information This system will tell user the objects distance through the earphone. 4.1.2 Non-Functional Requirement i) Reliability Recover from failure. A testing plan shall be developed for this purpose. ii) Usability This system shall be easy to understand, easy to learn, and easy to use. It shall simplify tasks to set up and run it. iii) Portability This system shall be portable between computers. Additionally, the software shall be easy to install and remove. 4.2 System Performance Definition 4.2.1 Hardware Requirements Microsoft Kinect Xbox Laptop 32-bit(x86) or 64-bit(x64) processor Dual-core 2.66 GHz or faster processor Dedicated USB 2.0 bus 2 GB RAM 4.2.2 Software Requirements Windows 7 Operating System Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 .Net Framework 4.0 Microsoft-speech platform SDO v11 Kinect for Windows SDK v1.6 4.2.3 Programming Languages used: C++ 4.3 Design, Analysis, and Verification Plan 4.3.1 Design of Navigation system This navigation system is using Kinect Xbox for developed. Kinect itself contain of 2 3D depth sensors, RGB camera, multi-array microphone, and motorized tilt. Kinects sensor can measure the objects distances from 0.6cm to 4cm. Figure 4.3.1 is Kinect Xbox 360, Figure 4.3.2 is the overall outlook of the system. Figure 4.3.1 Kinect Xbox 360 Figure 4.3.2 Navigation System Outlook 4.3.2 Analysis If the system able to assist the blind people successfully navigates in the corridor, we can consider that our project is successful. Besides the main objectives, there are some sub-objectives we need to focus are: Move freely without collision with human Able to avoid collision with the object while travelling along the corridor Provide information to blind people such as the distance of the object 4.3.3 Verification Plan To verify whether the navigation system is met the objectives or not, we put it into real environment for testing. First, we put some object in the corridor, and covered the users eyes, and then ask the user walk along the corridor for testing the system. When the object is detected, the system will start counting the distance of the object, and tell user the objects distance. Besides that, we also test for human avoidance. Example: when a human suddenly stand in front of the user, is it the system successful to detect the human and tell the user? 4.4 System Overview Chapter 6 Conclusion 6.1 Project Review 5.0 Conclusion In this paper, we proposed a system which is indoor navigation corridor system to improve the limitation of the walking stick. The majority of chapter one is about the problem of the walking stick and its weaknesses. Chapter one also covers the project scope, project objectives, contribution, and also background information. The chapter 2 consists of review of researches that have been done in order to improve the limitation of the walking stick (to extend the range of detection). The chapter 3 consists of methodology, tools and timeline. The methodology used in the proposed system has main level, which is low level stage, intermediate stage, and high level stage. The functionality of each stage will be discussed in chapter 3. The tools we using has 2 parts, which is hardware and software. The objective we implements this system is to help the visually impaired individuals avoid the obstacles such as people and animal on the corridor same with them. The aim of this project is to improve the visually impaired individuals ability in finding the direction at the corridor while they are walking rather than just rely on the walking stick to detect all the obstacles manually and waste their time in finding the exactly direction that they want to heading to.

Marketing planning

Marketing planning Introduction : This assignment is submitted in partial fulfilment of the marketing planning unit. I have been asked to conduct macro-environmental and micro environmental marketing audit to identify the current and key issues facing the organization I propose to launch a Fabindia store in Milan, Italy. The report outlines reasons for undertaking the audit and appraises the processes, models and techniques used for the audit. It also assesses the external and internal marketing environment for the organisation and summarises the impact of this analysis for the organisations marketing plan and marketing mix. Finally have proposed a marketing plan details about how it can be executed. 1.About Fabindia: 1.1 History: The first Fabindia outlet was set up in 1961 by John Bissell to provide a platform for traditional artisans and printers to market their produce to showcase diverse craft traditions of India. 1.2 Current Philosophy: Eco-friendly, ethical hand crafted Indian products. Mission: Traditional, ethnic products creating sustainable employment for craftsmen and artisans in rural India. 1.3 Current Target Audience: Retail- Age Group: Not specific Sex: Male Female Economic Class: Upper and higher middle class. Geographical Places: Metros, tier 2 tier 3 cities. Institutional Buyers: Heritage hotels, resorts corporate houses. 1.4 Current Product Range: Garments for men and women, Accessories, Home Linen and Furnishings, Home Products, Floor Coverings, Body Care Products and more recently, Organic Food Products and ethnic jewellery. 1.5 Timeline of its stores: 1976 1st retail outlet, New Delhi. By 2001 6 stores concentrated in the metro cities. By the end of 2004 20 stores. By the end of 2007 75 retail stores across India and in addition, stores in Dubai, Rome and Guangzhou in China. By 2008 99 stores. By 2009 108 stores. By 2011 Target of having 250 stores. Fabindia: Retail Snapshot 108 stores across 40 cities 6 stores abroad. Dubai, UAE, Bahrain (three stores), Doha, Qatar and in Rome, Italy. Online Shopping Exports to 34 countries 1.6 Sales Revenue: 2000-01 : Turnover of 36 crore rupees 2005-06 : Turnover of Rs 130 crore. 2007-08 : Revenue of Rs 257 crore 2008-2009 : Revenue of Rs 300 crore. but growth more than halved to 17% from 40% in 2007-08. By 2011: Target turnover Rs 1000 crore. 1.7 Future Plans: Leveraging the Organic Products section, childrens market. Expand nationally internationally. 100,000 shareholders and five-fold increase in skilled jobs in the rural sector. Reduce the number of defects in the products to a minimal which include bleeding of colours, shrinkage etc. 2. Internal Audit: 2.1 SWOT Analysis: S T R E N G T H S Differentiable products, Diverse product mix, International appeal, Eco-friendly, ethical, natural stylish, Showcases diverse Indian craft traditions contemporary styles, Creates employment for craftsmen in rural India, Different categories of stores, Products all age groups variety of economic strata, Constant development innovations product line, Partnering suppliers sourcing from 21 states across India, Big distribution network, In-house manufacturing, Customer Loyalty, Manifold growth of most artisan suppliers linked exclusively to Fabindia. No awareness about the brand, Limited channels of business, Sourcing strategy skewed towards suppliers, Competition from brands having similar product range, Inconsistent quality of products. W E A K N E S S E S T H R E A T S Time-lines and Delivery schedules dependent on too many variables, Monitoring and Supervision contemporarising and bench marking of traditional skills based products, Building Capacity time and resource intensive, Not in touch with Fashion Trends, Competition from leading Italian brands stores. In store merchandising, Promoting e-business channel, Interactive website for customized designing Organic foods market, Customer acquisition Strategies, Growth in demand : eco-friendly products, Growing interest Indian culture, handicrafts textiles, Milan host for 1 of worlds most prestigious furniture and design fairs. Milan one of worlds major financial business centres, Worlds 26th richest city by purchasing power. O P P O R T U N I T I E S 3. External Audit: 3.1 PESTEL Analysis: Political: Change in implementation of rules regulations with introduction of new government. Eg No foreign collaborations, no foreign goods and products coming in the Italian market. Changes in policies by existing Indian government. Refer RESEARCH final.doc5.1.1 Economical: Changes due to economical descend. Eg. Reduction in employment rate purchasing power of people, resulting in low sales. Social: Social acceptance towards certain colors might vary according to different cultures and stratas of society. Eg: Products in bright colors which are popular in India is not socially accepted in Milan. Refer RESEARCH final.doc5.1.3 Technological: Utilizing technology infrastructure of international standards. Eg. CRM software implemented in stores will help in maintaining centralized database. This will help Fabindia in retaining customers by building lasting relationships improving Loyalty. Environmental: Material used for making products not approved allowed by Italian Government. Eg. If products are found to be made of materials hazardous to the environment the Italian government can take strict actions against the company under the Environmental Protection Law. Refer Legal: Difference in manufacturing standards , process , trading etc. Eg. Conformity to European standards and CE marking. Taxes for businesses in Italy. Refer RESEARCH final.doc5.1.6 3.2 Impact of Porters 5 Forces : Threat of Subsitutes: There should not be threat of substitute to the products of Fabindia since they are eco-friendly organic products which have replaced the ordinary conventional products are in huge demand. Market Segmentation: 4. Market Segmentation : Age Group: All age groups. Sex: Male Female Economic Class: Not specific Geographical Place: Milan, Italy. Fabindia intends to continue expanding internationally currently 6 stores abroad. Milan very important city in Italy one of worlds major financial business centres. Main goal of Fabindia to promote vast diverse craft traditions of India. Since there is a growing interest among Europeans about Indian handcrafted products, Indian textiles, art cultures, Fabindia holds lot of potential in European market. Fabindia very ethical eco-friendly company which supports many causes Europeans like being part of such endeavours. Fabindia does not target any specific age group or any specific economic strata, has something for every one. Fiera Milano citys ExhibitionCenter and Trade Fair complex is one of most important in the world Milan is one of fashion capitals of the world. Fabindia wants to increase its global reach, since lot of international buyers visit Milan, it can prove to be great opportunity for it. The employment rate in Milanis 95-96% therefore the spending power of people is very high. Thus opening a store at Milan should prove to be beneficial. 5. Proposed Marketing Mix: Execution: They should carry out extensive market research, study kind of products established stores are selling. Meetings with designers artisans can be conducted designers give inputs on current market trends and emerging designs to weavers brainstorm innovative techniques. They can design stylish products emphasizing on Indian craftsmanship explore rich Indian fabrics with numerous surface ornamentation techniques. Range will be exclusively designed for the Milan market. They can take customer feedback through their online website know preferences of their customers design accordingly. Product range fine combinations of Indian aesthetics and western design sensibility. Farmers will supply Fabindia with organic varieties from places like Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Coorg, Tamil Nadu. They believe giving farmers fair price for their produce, and supplying very highest quality food to their customers. 5.2 Price: Products different price ranges. Products will be affordable, will give ‘value for money. It hasexpanded its range- to provide something for all its customers. Execution: Type of Products PriceRange ( Euros) Textile-based product range 5-15 Home Products range 20-300 Fabindia Organics 3 onwards Fabindia Sana 3-30 5.3 Place : Fabindia should be strategically located at Sesto San Giovanni full of commerce, restaurants, hotels, malls, rail station, red line of Metro. Brand Zara home is located there Habitat is near by. 2 eco hotels Hotel la Residenza Via Scialoia or Hotel Ariston, Galeria del Corso near Sesto San Giovanni can be considered. Piazza del Duomo is also very good location which attracts lot of people boutiques, bookstores big stores to indulge in elegant and cultural shopping. They can haveconcept stores or premium stores located in famous historical landmarks and renowned big heritage for convenience of potential buyer and creation of overall awareness. Execution: With help of Search Office Space (SOS), can find appropriate place. FREE Service They are paid by advertisers. Impartial Advice Their mission is to find space that meets YOUR requirements. They provide with tailor made options that match your specifications. They take care of entire search show options, help create a shortlist, arrange for you to view space, compare prices, make your final selection and arrange your move-in date. 5.4 Promotion: Promoting its products, mostly through posters, word of mouth and events. Placing ads in local newspapers about ongoing events organized in store to increase awareness about store locations, usinglot of in-store posters to create consumer awareness about products and rural suppliers etc., putting up hoardings, creating awareness social causes which they represent associate with, promote through website. Execution: GlobalCom PR-Network is worldwide group of full service PR and Marketing Communications agencies. It more than 40 partners and affiliated agencies cover all member states of European Union. Their strength is their local expertise in all European market. Portfolio includes: Public Analyst Relations Marketing Communications Online Marketing Market Research Media Training By engaging professional PR agency conversant with Italian Market environment, different strategies can be devised to promote store. 5.5 Process : It believes: â€Å"Delighted Customer is our Best BrandAmbassador†. It should focus on customer retention build loyal customer base. Execution: It should implement CRM software aims to help maintain centralized database to keep records of customers, details about past purchases, preferences or by having Value Customer Card gives history customer details each time, card is swiped. They should have interactive events for customers with design team, customers can get style tips, Feedback sessions between Fabindia designers customers loyal customers can be given certain privileges get special invites to events organized by Fabindia like exhibitions, concerts. will help it in retaining customers improving loyalty. 5.6 Physical Evidence: By endorsing and sponsoring events- creative communication tools innovative activities attract customers gaining maximum publicity possible. Execution: Having in store posters to create consumer awareness about dyes used in products, products and where they come from, i.e. rural suppliers Having dà ©cor and layouts highlight traditional and natural focus, having catalogues giving details current merchandise, LCD screens playing how artisans work manufacture, brochures informing Fabindia events lined up, Indianised eco-friendly stylish carry bags with personalized thank you cards, leaflets informing causes Fabindia supports eco-friendly practices it follows. 5.7 People: People working with and for Fabindia representatives of Fabindia. They should be aware of all its products, be knowledgable, friendly, helpful, attentive, speak lot of languages and develop good customer relations. Store personnel encouraged to wear clothes that reflect Fabindia ethos of traditional and natural look. Execution: Fabindia should register on website of recruiting agency help it to find its potential employees. Fabindia should train people with required knowledge and customer service. People working in store can attend regular training programmes. 6. Ansoffs Grrowth Strategy: 6.1 MARKETING STRATEGY FOR FABINDIA MILAN USING ANSOFFS GRID Milan potential market with growing interest among Europeans about Indian handcrafted products, Indian textiles cultures Fiera Milano citys Exhibition Center one of most important in world visited by manyinternational buyers, great opportunity for Fabindia help increase global reach. Fabindia very ethical eco-friendly company, supports many causes Europeans like being part of such endeavours. Currently Fabindia store in Rome, Italy has been doing well. Fabindia expand internationally to create brand awareness in new place, to launch itself in different parts it should use Market Development Strategy . Fabindia very popular for its fashion apparels mostly made of homespun cotton. But one cannot wear cotton due to climatic conditions in Milan. The colors of Fabindia products mostly very colourful, but due to gloomy weather in Milan larger population prefer pastels mid tones of all colors summers and winters black n brown rules. Milan fashion capital houses leading brands, famous for their innovative designs. It is important for Fabindia to have its merchandise designed their range planned as per market in Milan I strongly suggest Product Development Strategy. EXECUTION Core values of Fabindia to provide quality natural products, reflect the unique Indian culture hence Isuggeststore can be located infamous historical landmark have layouts highlight traditional and natural focus. Store showcases rich legacy of Indias traditional weavers, offering wide array of styles contemporary and sophisticated, must create distinct image location must be chosen with utmost care. Fabindia very ethical eco-friendly brand Ariston hotel first ecological hotel of Italy- perfect place for exclusive Fabindia store. Ariston hotel situated in heart of Milan, 500 metres from the Duomo, monuments ,few steps from Via Torino shopping area. With privileged position compared to other 3-star, near Piazza del Duomo andsubwaystops(to New Fair). Very well serviced bytram, bus. Very strategic location connected to all important places renowned museums, monuments famous shopping streets, restaurants, pizzerias movie theaters near the Duomo awareness could be created through advertising physical evidences. Since new market no awareness, needs to carry out lot of promotional activities. Can organize events like authentic Indian food festivals, , interactive workshops with Indian designers, showcasing the rich Indian culture. Fabindia associated with social causes, create awareness about involvement and brand.  · Can organize social events , sponsorships, advertise in magazines, hoardings, posters to create consumer awareness,Know what you wear Workshop. Makes customers more aware of work put in for their fabric and helps them with association with brand FabIndia. Lot of competition leading established brands in Milan selling similar products.They need to create distinct image come up product range exclusively for Milan after doing a detailed market research, products with innovative ecofriendly stylish designs with Indianised touch. Lot of importance laid on aesthetic appeal good quality. Should focus on customer retention work on strategies to build a loyal customer base. These are my recommendations for launching Fabindia in Milan. Feedback Mechanism: Mystery Shopper Program: In mystery shopper program, person hired by management goes to every store and shops there and then give feedback according to customer perspective. Store people never come to know or suspect anyone whether he is a mystery shopper or not. Detailed feedback is given to every individual shop. It consists of minute details signages outside, restrooms, behavior of staff. So it serves as a tool to provide better customer satisfaction. Feedback registers Feedback questionnaire to be filled on the website: Customer feedback by maintaining visitors register to record customer views or through questionnaires filled online. Store managers can prepare report, periodically reviewed by Product Selection Committee to know about buying pattern among consumers. CRM software Value Customer Card: CRM software can be implemented to maintain centralized database to keep customer record details or by having the Value Customer Card history details of customer each time, card is swiped. Can get to know fast slow moving products, popular styles can accordingly do range planning. Can have meeting every month to review performance discuss measures to be taken to improve sales increase consumer satisfaction.

Essay --

In Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre both examine the thematic element of the role of women in society. In the Victorian Era, women were held to very narrow gender roles. While the era was in midst of a drastic change regarding gender equality, towards a 'modern' concept of equality, the process was not achieved (Marsh). A women's place during the Victorian Era was meant to be in the home as a wife and a mother (Abrams). Like today, a women could either be considered pure or impure. A pure women would be considered quiet, passive and loyal whereas an impure woman would be considered a disgrace and expendable (Appell). Both Jane Eyre and Dracula have many of these elements in the characters. In Bronte's novel Jane Eyre, Jane is considered the ultimate image of a Victorian Era women where Bertha is the impure woman. In Dracula, Mina is the image of a Victorian Era women, much like Jane. Lucy, on the other hand, is considered an impure character. Thr ough the main characters in Jane Eyre and Dracula, the ideas of what a Victorian women should be, and the idea of what a women should not be are shown. With the lead character in Bronte's novel Jane Eyre, there is the ultimate image of a Victorian Era women. Jane is considered to be a plain, quiet, passive, and simple minded woman; yet she is intelligent and sophisticated. "if she were a nice, pretty child, one might compassionate her forlornness; but one really cannot care for such a little toad as that" (Bronte 22). The novel begins with Jane as a rebellious young girl reading a book, and being punished. "You have no business to take our books; you are a dependant, mama says; you have no money; your father left you none; you ought to beg, and not to live here ... ...torian Era. Bram Stoker uses Mina and Lucy, like Charlotte Bronte uses Jane and Bertha, to show the Victorian Era belief about the roles of women in society. The social construct of the time involved women to be inferior to men in all areas of life, with the exception of being a mother. Through Mina and Jane, Bram Stoker and Charlotte Bronte show the ideal Victorian woman. Whereas Lucy and Bertha are shown as the opposite of ideal, and in the end die to show the restore of order. Both, Jane Eyre and Dracula, have the same aspects of what defines a Victorian Era woman. It is shown, through Dracula, women can fall from their place in society and unless there is a man to put them back there is no hope for return. Through the main characters in Jane Eyre and Dracula, the ideas of what a Victorian women should be, and the idea of what a women should not be are shown. Essay -- In Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre both examine the thematic element of the role of women in society. In the Victorian Era, women were held to very narrow gender roles. While the era was in midst of a drastic change regarding gender equality, towards a 'modern' concept of equality, the process was not achieved (Marsh). A women's place during the Victorian Era was meant to be in the home as a wife and a mother (Abrams). Like today, a women could either be considered pure or impure. A pure women would be considered quiet, passive and loyal whereas an impure woman would be considered a disgrace and expendable (Appell). Both Jane Eyre and Dracula have many of these elements in the characters. In Bronte's novel Jane Eyre, Jane is considered the ultimate image of a Victorian Era women where Bertha is the impure woman. In Dracula, Mina is the image of a Victorian Era women, much like Jane. Lucy, on the other hand, is considered an impure character. Thr ough the main characters in Jane Eyre and Dracula, the ideas of what a Victorian women should be, and the idea of what a women should not be are shown. With the lead character in Bronte's novel Jane Eyre, there is the ultimate image of a Victorian Era women. Jane is considered to be a plain, quiet, passive, and simple minded woman; yet she is intelligent and sophisticated. "if she were a nice, pretty child, one might compassionate her forlornness; but one really cannot care for such a little toad as that" (Bronte 22). The novel begins with Jane as a rebellious young girl reading a book, and being punished. "You have no business to take our books; you are a dependant, mama says; you have no money; your father left you none; you ought to beg, and not to live here ... ...torian Era. Bram Stoker uses Mina and Lucy, like Charlotte Bronte uses Jane and Bertha, to show the Victorian Era belief about the roles of women in society. The social construct of the time involved women to be inferior to men in all areas of life, with the exception of being a mother. Through Mina and Jane, Bram Stoker and Charlotte Bronte show the ideal Victorian woman. Whereas Lucy and Bertha are shown as the opposite of ideal, and in the end die to show the restore of order. Both, Jane Eyre and Dracula, have the same aspects of what defines a Victorian Era woman. It is shown, through Dracula, women can fall from their place in society and unless there is a man to put them back there is no hope for return. Through the main characters in Jane Eyre and Dracula, the ideas of what a Victorian women should be, and the idea of what a women should not be are shown.

Gang Violence and Biker Gangs :: essays research papers

Gang violence is a major problem in our society today. Gang violence could take place in our neighborhoods and corrupt the young children easily influenced by the violent behavior as well. In the two poems, ?Leather-Jackets, Bikes and Birds? by Robert Davies and ?Street Gang? by H. Webster, the two poets write about gang related issues discussing the ill-mannered bikers who cause these problems to other around them. These poems discuss the violence, death and illegal activity in which a number of people participated in, which like reality is the problematic truth. Both poems are similar because their main intention is gang related violence issues in society today and the distinctive character of the darker side in human nature which causes the harmful consequences of a corrupt humanity. The communication strategies used by both poets are able to grasp the reader?s interest due to the fact that both poems have similar methods of word selection which is diction and are able to describe the psychological minds of aggressive behavior. The poem ?Leather-Jackets, Bikes and Birds? has sentences that describe the type of characteristics gang members have and illustrate their overall presence around others. For example when the poet writes, ?pretending they are looking for trouble demonstrates that the individuals of a gang gather not to enjoy themselves but to cause excitement among themselves for the wrong reasons. Another quote from the poem that describes the psychological mind of gang members is ?because you?ve got to be hard to be a leather-jacket this quote shows that gang members have a mind set that they must be tough, strong and overall powerful to gain their respect. Similarly, the poem ?Street Gang? the description of violence used and the defeat against law is well detailed by the actions caused by aggressive behavior. For example when the poet writes ?the law overthrown describes that the street gang members do not consider the law at hand and make a choic e based on their psychological mind structure and use forceful actions upon their victims. Furthermore, literary devices such as imaginary, alliteration, repetition, oxymoron, onomatopoeia, simile and parallel structure used in both poems displayed a greater understanding towards poetry and defined both as comparable poems. The poems ?Leather-Jackets, Bikes and Birds? and ?Street Gang? are not in rhyme and I believe both poets have formed the poems without rhyme because the tone of seriousness towards this issue was to be brought out to the reader?

A Midsummer Night?s Dream Essay -- essays research papers

Loves Misfortunes A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is a romantic comedy written by William Shakespeare. It deals with the feelings of love and marriage as well as the laws and social order of the time. The story contains fairies and other mystical creatures who take it upon themselves to guide the mortals in the directions they think necessary. This leads to many hilarious situations and misfortunes for the humans. There are many characters in the play and, for the most part, each one is in love with one of the other characters. The play starts with Theseus, the Duke of Athens, proposing to Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons. This is the only couple throughout the play who seem to never waver in their love for each other. These two seem to have a perfect love for each other, much like the love Hermia and Lysander have for each other before the fairies intervene. The other couple in the story that are of royal blood are Oberon, the king of the fairies, and Titania, the queen of the fairies. These two are having a lovers quarrel which has sent the seasons out of order and caused great disorder. Oberon is in love with Hoppolyta and Titania is in love with Theseus. Their lovers quarrels provide much of the comedy in the play. The other four characters caught in love triangles are Lysander and Hermia, who are in love with each other, Demetrius who loves Hermia, and Helena who loves Demetrius. Lysander and Hermia wish to marry each other but Hermia’s father, Egeu...

Advanced Microeconomics Essay

Question 1: Consumer Theory 1.1: In both the Marshallian and Hicksian consumer optimisation problems, it is assumed that consumers are supposed to be rational. The main focus of these problems are cost minimisation and utility maximisation, which play a huge part in consumer demand, but in real life, these are not the only problems that are considered. Also, it is assumed that every consumer’s indifference curve for two goods would be the same – they are very generalised models, and do not take into account other factors. For example, not many consumers would spend their entire budget on said goods – one thing to consider would be a consumer’s marginal propensity to consume and save. Though both of the problems provide a framework and model of consumer decisions, they are not plausible when applying them to real-life terms, because we have imperfect knowledge. 1.2: The expression given in the question, is the rearranged derivative of the Hicksian demand being equal to the Marshallian demand, when income from the budget constraint is equal to minimised expenditure, whereby m=ep, ÃŽ ¼. This is given by: dDdp= dHdp- dDdm . dedp using m = e. Shephard’s Lemma provides us an alternative way of deriving Hicksian demand functions, using e. It is given by: dedp= x* It is important to note that e is strictly increasing in p, due to Shephard’s Lemma, and x* >0,by assumption. Substituting this into the above expression gives: dDdp= dHdp- dDdm x*  This expression now represents a complete law of demand, as it has combined both Marshallian and Hicksian demand, whereby income from the budget constraint of Marshallian demand, is equal to minimised expenditure of Hicksian demand. Therefore, it has maximised utility and minimised cost simultaneously, to create an optimal quantity of demand in x*. The first term, dDdp, means that Marshallian demand (maximising utility) increases, relative to the price of the good. dHdp represents the Hicksian part of the expression, whereby expenditure is minimised, relative to the price of the good. Question 3: Adverse Selection, Moral Hazard and Insurance 3.1: Insurance markets are needed when risk is present. Risk occurs when there is uncertainty about the state of the world. For example, car drivers do not know if they will crash their car in future, and suffer a loss of wealth – so they would purchase insurance to eliminate this risk of loss, and protect them if they were to ever crash their car. Agents (buyers of insurance) will use insurance markets to transfer their income between different states of the world. This allows insurance markets to trade risk between high-risk and low-risk agents/states. These can be described as Pareto movements. A Pareto improvement is the allocation, or reallocation of resources to make one individual better off, without making another individual worse off. Another term for this is multi-criteria optimisation, where variables and parameters are manipulated to result in an optimal situation, where no further improvements can be made. When the situation occurs that no more improvements can be made , it is Pareto efficient. A condition for efficiency is the least risk-averse agent bears all the risk in an insurance market. If a risk-averse agent bears risk, they would be willing to pay to remove it. A risk-averse agent has a diminishing marginal utility of income; whereby his marginal utility is different across states, if his income is different across states. The agent would give up income in high-income states, in which his marginal utility is low, to have more income in low-income states (e.g. bad state of the world causing a loss of wealth), where his marginal utility would be high. If the insurance market is risk neutral, they will sell insurance to the customer, as long as the payment received is higher than the expected value of pay-outs that the insurer is contracted to give to the customer in different states of the world. Whenever the agent bears some risk, unexploited gains from trade exist. Absence of unexploited gains from trade is a requirement in an efficient insurance market, therefore the situation must arise, whereby the agent’s income is equalised across the states of the world. A risk neutral insurance company can charge a premium to equalise the agent’s income across states of the world, in the best interests of the risk-averse agent. Also, for an insurance market to be  efficient, a tangency condition is implied. The tangency of the indifference curves of a risk-averse agent, and a risk-neutral agent, is where efficiency occurs. At this point, one cannot be made better off, without the other being made worse off (Pareto efficiency). However, an insurance company will never be completely efficient in real life, as information asymmetry exists. The first type of information asymmetry to arise in an insurance market is moral hazard, whereby the actions that an agent may take after signing the contract cannot be observed. This gives the company a trade-off decision between giving full insurance or offering incentives for the agent. Full insurance is first-best in the absence of asymmetric information, when the insurance company is risk-neutral and the agent is risk-averse. However, if the agent is fully insured by the company, they have no reason to prevent a bad state of the world from happening. To solve this problem, the insurance company will not offer full insurance, in order to provide the agent with an incentive to avoid losses. The second type of information asymmetry to occur in an insurance market, is adverse selection. This is when the agent has private information about his risk type and characteristics, and agents in the market are heterogenous. As the insurer doesn’t know which agents are high-risk or low risk, the company will not offer different types of full insurance to match risk-types, as high-risk agents will prefer contracts that are designed for low-risk agents. To solve this, the insurer will offer low-risk agents less insurance – this ensures that high-risk types do not have the incentive to choose a contract for low-risk customers, as they will want more insurance, because they know they will need to claim more. This ensures that the insurance company maintains non-negative profit, as high-risk individuals cost more to insure. However, these solutions carry agency costs, because the result is less efficient than if symmetric information was present. I believe that risk neutrality of an insurance company is a sufficient condition for insurance to take place. Insurance companies are risk-neutral to maximise expected profits, therefore as the principal, will design contracts to achieve this, as well as making certain that the agent picks the desired effort (i.e to prevent a bad state of the world) for that contract, and to make sure that the agent even picks the  contract in the first place. Making sure incentives are compatible, and ensuring participation by the correct risk types, are constraints on maximising expected profits. If an insurance company was risk-averse, without the availability of symmetric information, they cannot differentiate between different risk-types, and therefore would not want to take on the risk of possible high-risk agents buying low-risk contracts. They would charge a higher premium to offset this, which would discourage low-risk customers to sign a contract with the company, as it would not be maximising their own utility. This would lead to a missing market, where trade would be prevented, because other risk-neutral companies would offer better contracts, and they would be able to steal all the low-risk customers. The magnitude of this would depend on the number of low- and high-risk people in the population. This leads me to believe that risk neutrality is also a necessary condition for insurance to take place. 3.2: An insurance company will sell a policy, c, r, if it makes non-negative profits, then:  Ã¢â€ â€™ r-pic ≠¥0,  where c = payout, pi = probability of the loss state, r = premium. Competition in the market drives profit down to zero, therefore r-pic = 0 in equilibrium. For the contract to be at equilibrium, it must satisfy two conditions: the break-even condition, whereby no contract makes negative profits; and absence of unexploited opportunities for profit, because if there was a contract outside of the offered set, with non-negative profit, would mean the offered set is not in equilibrium. If all agents are homogenous, if all agents face the same probability of loss, pi=p, insurance companies would know each buyer’s pi. The firm must maximise each agent’s utility subject to the firm breaking even. This would be at the point of tangency of the agent’s indifference curve and zero-profit constraint. This would be in equilibrium as another profit-making polic y could not be offered. Therefore, as they can observe agent’s risk types, they can offer different policies, to different types: ÃŽ ¸i= ri, ci. It follows that each is offered full and fair insurance. In real life, heterogeneity is usually the case. This is when pi varies with all individuals. Assuming that there are two types: high-risk types, H, and low-risk types, L, where the probability  of loss for H is higher than for L. Individuals know their own probability of loss i=H, L, but insurance companies are unable to observe this. In this case, there are two different kinds of equilibria that insurance companies could opt with: the candidate pooling equilibrium and the candidate separating equilibrium. The pooling equilibrium is where all risk types buy the same policy. In contrary, the separating equilibrium is based on each risk type buying a different policy. In the pooling equilibrium, if both H and L risk-types choose the same policy, the probability of loss is p and the probability of no l oss is 1- p. Therefore, the slope of the ‘aggregate fair-odds line is -1-pp. The pooling contract must lie on this line to be in equilibrium, to ensure the firm breaks even exactly. The contract must also ensure both types want to buy it – it must take both L and H to higher indifference curve than the indifference curve they would be on if they stayed uninsured. Agent L ends up below his fair odds line, and H above his, which means L pays more than expected costs, and H pays less – both pay the fair pooled premium, but H claims on the policy more. So if L prefers to buy the contract, so will H. This leads me to believe both L and H will be able to get full insurance, though it’s not completely fair, as the firm does not need H to choose a different policy to remain breaking even. However, this brings to mind the notion that if full insurance is offered, the agent will not have the incentive to prevent a loss state. Therefore, less insurance will probably be offered, and as both risk types are paying the same premium of the same policy, neither will receive full insurance, as it impossible to differentiate between the two – they will both choose the same policy offered. In the separating equilibrium, one contract would be offered to L, and another to H. Each risk type must prefer the contract designed for that type (i.e. the incentives must be compatible). The contracts offered should give each type the highest possible utility, subject to the firm breaking even. If full insurance contracts were offered to both L and H, where their respective indifference curves are tangent with their respective zero-profit constraints/fair-odds lines, low risk customers would prefer the policy designed for them, but high-risk customers would also prefer the same policy, not the policy designed for them. So they would not both be offered full insurance, as this gives rise to the problem of preventing H from imitating L – low-risk agents are cheaper to insure for the firm (claim less  often) so they get a better rate. Therefore, instead of offering L full insurance, they are offered C, which is still on their fair odds line, but on a lower indifference curve, still ensuring the zero-profit constraint. Now, if the high-risk agents were to choose between the policy designed for them, and C, they will choose the policy designed for them, because they prefer to have more insurance for less money. So, in conclusion, in the separating equilibrium, high-risk (H) customers receive full insurance, and low-risk (L) customers only receive partial insurance – they pay the price to prevent H from imitating them. L is worse off than if there was symmetric information in the market, but no difference to H.