Linguistics and Language Essay

What will be covered in this class? †¢ How do we produce and recognize speech? †¢ How do we perceive words, letters, and sentences? †¢ How do we learn and recall information from texts? †¢ How can we improve texts to make them easier to understand? †¢ How does the brain function to process language? †¢ What are the causes and effects of reading disabilities? †¢ Is there language in other species? Central themes in psycholinguistics 1) What knowledge of language is needed for us to use language? Tacit (implicit) knowledge vs. Explicit knowledge  Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ tacit: knowledge of how to perform something, but not aware of full rules †¢ explicit: knowledge of the processes of mechanisms in performing that thing 2) What cognitive processes are involved in the ordinary use of language? How do we understand a lecture, read a book, hold a conversation? Cognitive processes: perception, memory, thinking, learning Some definitions of basic components of language: Semantics: The meaning of words and sentences Syntax: The grammatical arrangement of words in a sentence or phrase Phonology: The sound pattern of language Pragmatics: How language is used in a social context  Examples from psycholinguistics Parsing garden path sentences The novice accepted the deal before he had a chance to check his finances, which put him in a state of conflict when he realized he had a straight flush. 1) The defendant examined by the lawyer turned out to be unreliable 2). The evidence examined by the lawyer turned out to be unreliable The process of parsing is the process of making decisions The effect of prior knowledge on comprehension The procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange things into different groups. Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities, that is the next step; otherwise you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo things. That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many. In the short run this may not seem important, but complications can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. At first the whole procedure will seem complicated. Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life. It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then one never can tell. After the procedure is completed, one arranges the materials into different groups again. Then they can be put into their appropriate places. Eventually they will be used once more, and the whole cycle will then have to be repeated. However, that is part of life. Bransford & Johnson, 1973 Recall: No context: 2. 8 idea units out of a maximum of 18 Context afterwards: 2. 7 idea units Context before: 5. 8 idea units Child language development How many words do you know? Hint: Dictionary has about: 450,000 entries Test high school graduates: How many words do they know? About 45,000 english words About 60,000 including names and foreign words. The average six year old knows about 13,000 words. Learning about 10 words per day since age 1. (One every 90 minutes) How much do we have to teach children to learn language? Do you have to teach a child to walk? Is it the same way of learning a language? My teacher holded the baby rabbits and we patted them I eated my dinner A brief history of psycholinguistics Wilhem Wundt (early 1900s) Interest in mental processes of language production †¢ Sentence as the primary unit of language †¢ Speech production is the transformation of complete thought processes into sequentially organized speech segments. Behaviorism (1920s-1950s) †¢ Rejected the focus on mental processes †¢ Measurement based on objective behavior (primarily in lab animals) †¢ How does experience (reward and punishment) shape behavior? B. F. Skinner: Children learn language through shaping (correction of speech errors) Associative chain theory: A sentence consists of a chain of associations between individual words in the sentence What’s wrong with the behaviorist approach? Noam Chomsky (1950s – present) 1) Colorless green ideas sleep furiously 2) Furiously sleep ideas green colorless. 3) George picked up the baby. 4) George picked the baby up. Almost every sentence uttered is a new combination of words The Poverty of stimulus argument: There is not enough information in the language samples given to children to account for the richnes and complexity of children’s language The pattern of development is not based on parental speech but on innate language knowledge Linguistic Diversity vs. Linguistic Universals Linguistic diversity There appears to be a lot of diversity among languages Even within languages there is diversity When are two languages different? We speak the same language if we can understand each other  Exceptions: Norwegian and Swedish Cantonese and Mandarin Dialects within languages: The myth of pure language How/why do languages change? Why does there seem to be a â€Å"correct† English? Members of the dominant (most powerful) sub-culture tend to speak one dialect and may punish those who do not Linguistic Chauvinism Belief that one’s own language/dialect is the best of all possible languages Black English Vernacular (BEV) Study by William Labov Interviewed African-American street youth You know, like some people say if you’re good an’ sh*t, your spirit goin’ t’heaven . . . ‘n if you bad, your spirit goin’ to hell. Well, bullsh*t! Your spirit goin’ to hell anyway, good or bad. [Why? ] Why? I’ll tell you why. ‘Cause, you see, doesn’ nobody really know that it’s a God, y’know, ‘cause I mean I have seen black gods, white gods, all color gods, and don’t nobody know it’s really a God. An’ when they be sayin’ if you good, you goin’ t’heaven, tha’s bullsh*t, ‘cause you ain’t goin’ to no heaven, ‘cause it ain’t no heaven for you to go to. †¢ Place holders: â€Å"There† vs. â€Å"It† in the copula †¢ Copula: â€Å"Is†, â€Å"Was† optional †¢ Negatives: â€Å"You ain’t goin’ to no heaven†. BEV just as linguistically complex as Standard American English We don’t see/understand the complexity in other languages Moral: All languages seem to permit as wide range of expressions as others Linguistic Universals What is in common with all languages? Sentences are built from words based on the same physiological processes †¢ All languages have words †¢ All humans have ways of making sounds. †¢ Languages tend to use a small set of phonemic sounds †¢ Phoneme: The minimal unit of sound that contributes to meaning How many phonemes in a language? †¢ English: 40 phonemes †¢ Range: Polynesian 11 to Khoisan 141. Discreteness Messages in human language (e. g. speech sounds) are made up of units of which there is a discrete (limited) number Arbitrariness The relationship between meaningful elements in language and their denotation is independent of any physical resemblance between the two. Words do not have to look or sound like what they describe Openness †¢ New linguistic messages are created freely and easily †¢ Languages are not constrained in a way so that there are a limited number of messages that can be created. †¢ Linguistic Productivity: The ability to understand and create an unlimited number of sentences. The question studied by psycholinguists is â€Å"how to characterize and account for the creativity to construct and create an infinite number of sentences given the limited capabilities of the human brain† Duality of Patterning Language involves relating two different kinds of patterns or forms of representation †¢ A phonological system †¢ A semantic system These two systems use very different types of codes, although there is a phonological representation for each item in the semantic system Phrase structure Information on how a sentence is grouped into phrases. The quiet boy ate the red apple A set of Phrase Structure rules: PS 1 S (sentence) ————-> NP + VP PS 2 NP (noun phrase)————-> det + (adj) + N PS 3 VP (verb phrase) ————-> V +NP PS 4 N (noun) ————-> boy, dog, man, book PS 5 V (verb) ————-> ate, broke, kissed PS 6 adj (adjective ————-> quiet, red, happy, wormy PS 7 det (determiner) ————-> a, the We use â€Å"lexical-insertion rules† to put words into the structure. Phrase-structure rules provide a good account of phrase-structure ambiguity. They are broiling hens Morphology Morphology is the component of grammar that builds words out of units of meaning (morphemes) A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of language How many morphemes? bird firetruck undereducated unmicrowaveability Insights from American Sign Language (ASL) Unlike speech, signs are expressed in visual or spatial form Do a lot of the same grammatical concepts hold? Arbitrariness ASL possesses iconicity signs can represent objects or actions to which they refer. However, the degree of iconicity has declined over the years Duality of Patterning signs are composed of smaller elements that are meaningless Example: 3 parameters †¢ 19 values of hand configuration. †¢ 12 values of place of articulation †¢ 24 values of movements Meaningless patterns can be combined in various ways to from ASL signs. What about â€Å"openness† and â€Å"discreteness† within ASL? Transformational Grammar (Chomsky 1950s) Language: an infinite set of well-formed sentences Grammar: A finite set of rules that generates sentences in the language How do we know that a grammar is a good theory of language? Three criteria: Observational Adequacy: A grammar is observationally adequate if it generates all acceptable sequences and no unacceptable sequences. Descriptive adequacy: A grammar must also explain how a sentence relates to other sentences that are similar & opposite in meaning. The ball was caught by John John caught the ball The ball was not caught by John Explanatory adequacy It is possible for multiple grammars to attain observational and descriptive adequacy. Which is the correct/best one? Children learning language are presented with many samples of language and must determine the grammar from these samples. There must be some innate language constraints that help children determine the correct grammar. There exist Linguistic Universals that are common to all languages. The fact that there are similarities in languages is based on the fact that languages are determined by the nature of the mental structures and processes which characterize human beings A Grammar must explain the role of linguistic universals in language acquisition Deep and Surface structure Deep structure: The structure of the sentence that conveys the meaning of the sentence. Surface Structure: The superficial arrangement of constituents Deep structure ambiguity: A single surface structure that is based on two different deep structures Flying planes can be dangerous. Phrase structure rules would not be able to account for the differences in meaning Sentences can have similar phrase structure, although their underlying structure is different: John is easy to please John is eager to please Sentences can different surface structure, but similar deep structure Arlene played the tuba The tuba was played by Arlene Transformational Grammar A two part process to derive a sentence 1) Use Phrase-structure rules to generate the underlying tree structure (deep structure) 2) Apply a sequence of transformational rules to the deep  structure to generate the surface structure of the sentence Transformations occur by adding, deleting or moving constituents John phoned up the woman John phoned the woman up Phrase structure approach: Two different rules VP –> V + (particle) + NP VP –> V + NP + (particle) Each sentence is derived separately, using different phrase structure rules. Transformational grammar approach: One rule V + particle + NP –> V + NP + particle John phoned up the interesting woman John phoned the interesting woman up John phoned up the woman with the curly hair John phoned the woman with the curly hair up. Restrictions on transformations The particle-movement transformation can not be applied to pronouns John called them up *John called up them Example 2: Passive transformation NP1 + V + NP2 –> NP2 + be + V + en + by + NP1 Arlene played the tuba The tuba was played by Arlene Psychological Reality of Transformational Grammar If using language is a process of converting the deep structure to the surface structure, then the number of transformation rules applied should affect how long it takes to process a sentence. However, experiments do not consistently show that this holds true Current theories of grammar Lexical-Function Grammar  Made up of three components: a constituent structure, a functional structure, and lexical entries Constituent Structure: Similar to phrase structure Functional Structure: All the information needed for semantic interpretation John told Mary to leave Bill Predicate tell (subj, obj, V-comp) Tense Past Subj John Obj Mary V-comp predicate leave subj Mary obj Bill Lexical Entries Lexical entries contain information about: †¢ the forms of the word †¢ the kinds of sentences into which they fit, †¢ arguments and semantic roles Mary kissed John John was kissed by Mary Entry for â€Å"kiss† includes underlying semantic structure  kiss: (agent, patient). Forms of the word kiss: agent = subject: patient = object (be) kiss: agent=object: patient = subject Major significance of LFG Most of the explanation of how we process language is based on the lexicon (where we store information about words) . Government-Binding Theory or Universal Grammar Chomsky’s view of innate grammatical mechanisms. In GB theory, grammar is modular. Grammar due to interaction of several independent subsystems, or modules. Each module is fairly simple and performs part of the task But all modules interact in order to constrain the rules made by the other modules in the grammar. Implications We all inherit a universal grammar that can be set to different parameter values. These parameter values correspond to different languages. As we get experience with a language, we acquire these parameter values, and thus the language upon which it is based. Research methods in Psycholinguistics How do we observe, collect information on phenomena related to psycholinguistics? Naturalistic Observation Observing information in a non-experimental setting Slips of the tongue Phonological switching: Crushing blow –> Blushing crow semantic replacements: blond eyes for blond hair. Language Acquisition The use of language over time Data from naturalistic observation Rich, but hard to analyze Controlled experiments Goal: test an empirical hypothesis Hypothesis: A chapter will be easier to understand if each section starts with a summary of what will be said. Independent Variable: Variable that is manipulated to test the hypothesis. Dependent Variable: Variable representing the behavior we want to measure Control Variables: Other variables we need to control in order to see the effect of the independent variable Subjects: Who is going to participate in the experiment? Analysis: How do we know if there are differences bewteen the two chapters? The Human Information Processing System What psychological mechanisms are involved in using language? The Sensory store Processes incoming information from the environment †¢ Individual sensory stores for each sense †¢ Information retained for a short duration The visual sensory store Experiments by Sperling (1960) X M R K C N J P V F L B The partial report technique Auditory sensory store Experiment by Darwin, Turvey & Crowder (1972) 3 digits or letters auditorally presented to each ear and center at the same time. What is the use of the sensory store? It maintains information long enough so that we can do additional processing to it. Working memory or short term memory (STM) STM used to describe the fact that it holds information for a short time, while working memory refers to the processing capacity. STM works as a temporary holding place for intermediate decisions. Limited in size. Chunking Working memory: there is a limited amount of processing capacity that you can use as you perform a problem Long term memory Knowledge of how to do things, things we have learned, grammar rules, personal memories. All knowledge that is not active. Information that becomes active is retrieved from LTM and put in STM. Anything we learn is first processed in STM and some of it is put into LTM Episodic vs. Semantic Memory distinction Semantic memory †¢ Organized knowledge of words, concepts, symbols and objects. motor skills, general knowledge, spatial knowledge , social skills. †¢ All information is organized semantically, but not tagged based on when it was learned. Episodic memory †¢ Holds traces of events specific time and place. †¢ Memory of personal experiences. Interaction between semantic and episodic memory. What does the organization of the information processing system have to do with language processing? Pattern Recognition Parsing/understanding sentences in working memory This is a long sentence and yet somehow you can keep it all in working memory The organization of Long Term Memory That cat plays really cool jazz Serial vs. Parallel Processing Serial processing: One process working at a time Parallel Processing: Multiple processes working at a time In a serial model of language processing, individual modules would work one at a time to process the information. A parallel model would say that the processes happen at the same time. Parallel models as neurally inspired models of cognitive processes Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up processing Cognitive processing occurs at levels Bottom-up processing is done in such a way that all processing occurs starting from the lowest level processes and proceeds onto the higher level processes Higher level processes do not influence any of the processing done at the lower levels Top down processing: Information at the higher levels influences processing at the lower levels. Advantages and disadvantages of Top-Down processing Automatic vs. Controlled processes We have a limited amount of processes that we can do at a time. Controlled processing: Processes that require a substantial amount of cognitive processing. Automatic processing: Processes that do not require a substantial amount of cognitive processing. The role of practice in automatic processing The Stroop effect Putting it all together: Cognitive processes in action The novice accepted the deal before he had a chance to check his finances, which put him in a state of conflict when he realized he had a straight flush. The Internal Lexicon How are words stored? What are they made up of? How are word related to each other? How do we use them? Internal lexicon The representation of words in long term memory Lexical Access: How do we activate the meanings of words? Aspects of Meaning Reference: The relationship between words and things in the world Things in the world are referents of a word My dog has fleas My dog is from Mars But not all reference can be mapped to concrete things Abstract words: Love, Justice, Equality Non existent objects: Unicorn, Martians Meaning is not restricted to the real world, but also imaginary worlds Sense: The relationship of a word with other words in the language Student at NMSU vs. Undergraduate at NMSU Synonymy (same meaning) Car Automobile Antonymy (opposite meaning) Happy Sad Incompatibility (do the words contradict each other? ) John is happy vs. John is sad Hyponymy (are they part of the same class? ) A dog is an animal, Bowser is a dog, Denotation vs. Connotation Denotation: The objective meaning of the word Connotation: The aspect of the meaning beyond its explicit meaning Bachelor Spinster Hungry Starving The Mental Representation of Meaning The representation of the meaning of a word is based on the semantic features of that word. We acquire the meaning of a word by learning its semantic features Children make semantic mistakes Verbs of possession. We understand more than the meaning, we have knowledge of the relations between these words sold vs. paid give vs. receive lose vs. find Prototypes: Some members of a category are better instances of the category than others Apple vs. pomegranate What makes a prototype? More central semantic features What type of dog is a prototypical dog What are the features of it? We are faster at retrieving prototypes of a category than other members of the category Semantic Networks. Words can be represented as an interconnected network of sense relations †¢ Each word is a particular node †¢ Connections among nodes represent semantic relationships Mental models: A model/understanding of how the world works and how pieces of textual information fits in with it. John is sitting in a chair. That chair is on a table. The table is blue and round. John has red hair. The structure of the Internal Lexicon How do these pieces of semantic information relate to each other? Semantic verification task An A is a B An apple is a fruit A robin is a bird A robin is an animal A dog has teeth  A fish has gills A fish has feathers An apple has teeth NMSU is in New Mexico Harvard is in California Use time on verification tasks to map out the structure of the lexicon. Models of the Lexicon Collins and Quillian Hierarchical Network model Lexical entries stored in a hierarchy, with features attached to the lexical entries Representation permits cognitive economy Testing the model Sentence Verification time Robins eat worms 1310 msecs Robins have feathers 1380 msecs Robins have skin 1470 msecs A category size effect: Subjects do an intersection search Problems with Collins and Quillian model . 1) Effect may be due to frequency of association 2) Assumption that all lexical entries at the same level are equal The Typicality Effect Which is a more typical bird? Ostrich or Robin. A whale is a fish vs. A horse is a fish Major conclusions of the model: 1) If a fact about a concept is frequently encountered, it will be stored with that concept even if it could be inferred from a more distant concept. 2) The more frequently encountered a fact about a concept is, the more strongly that fact will be associated with the concept. And the more strongly associated with a concept facts are, the more rapidly they are verified. 3) Verifying facts that are not directly stored with a concept but that must be inferred takes a relatively long time. Spreading Activation Models (Collins & Loftus) †¢ Words represented in lexicon as a network of relationships †¢ Organization is a web of interconnected nodes in which connections can represent: categorical relations degree of association typicality Retrieval of information †¢ Spreading activation †¢ Limited amount of activation to spread †¢ Verification times depend on closeness of two concepts in a network Context effect in spreading activation models Present either: Murder is a crime or Libel is a crime Then get verification time for Robbery is a crime Subjects faster when they see Murder than Libel. Why? Advantages of Collins and Loftus model †¢ Recognizes diversity of information in a semantic network †¢ Captures complexity of our semantic representation †¢ Consistent with results from priming studies Lexical Access What factors are involved in retrieving information from the lexicon? Semantic Priming Meyer & Schvaneveldt (1971) Lexical Decision Task Prime Target Time Nurse Butter 940 msecs Bread Butter 855 msecs Evidence for associative spreading activation. Ratcliff and McKoon (1981) Subjects study and memorize The doctor hated the book Task: â€Å"Was this word from the sentence you memorized? † Prime Target Time None Book 667 msecs Doctor Book 624 msecs Word Frequency Does word frequency play a role in lexical access? Lexical Decision Task: gambastya, revery, voitle, chard, wefe, cratily, decoy, puldow, raflot, oriole, vuluble, booble, chalt, awry, signet, trave, crock, cryptic, ewe, himpola mulvow, governor, bless, tuglety, gare, relief, ruftily, history, pindle, develop, gardot, norve, busy, effort, garvola, match,sard, pleasant, coin, maisle. Lexical Decision is dependent on word frequency Eyemovement studies: Subjects spend about 80 msecs longer fixating on low-frequency words than high-frequency words Morphological Structure So we strip off the prefixes and suffixes of a word for lexical access? Decision = Decide + ion Lexical Decision Tasks: Prime Target Time Nurse Butter 940 msecs Bread Butter 855 msecs Evidence for associative spreading activation Ratcliff and McKoon (1981) Subjects study and memorize The doctor hated the book Task: â€Å"Was this word from the sentence you memorized? † Prime Target Time None Book 667 msecs Doctor Book 624 msecs Word Frequency Does word frequency play a role in lexical access? Lexical Decision Task: gambastya, revery, voitle, chard, wefe, cratily, decoy, puldow, raflot, oriole, vuluble, booble, chalt, awry, signet, trave, crock, cryptic, ewe, himpola mulvow, governor, bless, tuglety, gare, relief, ruftily, history, pindle, develop, gardot, norve, busy, effort, garvola, match,sard, pleasant, coin, maisle. Lexical Decision is dependent on word frequency Eyemovement studies: Subjects spend about 80 msecs longer fixating on low-frequency words than high-frequency words Morphological Structure So we strip off the prefixes and suffixes of a word for lexical access? Decision = Decide + ion Lexical Decision Tasks: Presented subjects with a sequence of words to study Examined the probability of recognizing words over 14 days Performance systematically decays over time Negatively accelerated decay. Bahrick (1984) Student’s retention of spanish-english vocabulary items from 0 to 50 years Power law of decay Review on the internal lexicon Aspects of meaning: Reference and Sense Denotation and Connotation What is the mental representation of meaning? Models of the Lexicon Hierarchical Network Model Spreading Activation Model What factors are involved in retrieving information from the lexicon? Semantic Priming Word Frequency Morphological Structure Lexical Ambiguity Retention of lexical items.

Science Lab Report

Science Lab Report INTRODUCTION |NAME: LORRAINE |LAB PARTNER: KAREN HO | |LAB EXPERIMENT: TESTING OSMOSIS WITH A POTATO |LAB DATE: NOV. 23rd / 2012 | |CLASS: Y-11-C |PERIOD:C | OBJECTIVE The weight of the potato slices will increase, decrease, or remain the same? HYPOTHESIS There will be no net movement of water molecules into or out of the potato. MATERIALS LIST Large potato | |Cutters (in the shape of a fish) | |3 small beakers or clear dishes | |3 glass covers | |Sucrose solution | |Salt | |Distilled water | |Paper towel | pic] PROCEDURE 1. Add 200ml of distilled water, 40ml sucrose solution and 5g salt into three beakers respectively. Record the solutions concentrations, volumes, and weights. ?Use a cutter to cut the potato to the similar size. Record the weight of pieces potato. ?Put the three potatoes slice into each beaker. Cover the beakers with glass covers and leave them for 48 hours. ?Carefully remove the potato slices from the distilled water solution & pat it dry on a paper towel. Weight the potato slices immediately.Record the final weight of the pieces. ?Clean up the equipment & area and return materials to their proper place. DATA AND/OR OBSERVATIONS |Potato slices weight (Before)|Material | Distilled water |Potato slices weight (After) | | | |(Quantitative) | | |? 21g |Sucrose solution 40ml |200ml |21. 5g | |? 2g |X |200ml |23g | |? 21g |Salt 5g |200ml |20g | USE TIME: 48 hours RESULTS We can Observe that the slice placed in salt is very flexible, while the slice placed in sucrose solution is flexible, but less so. Since potatoes already have sugar, less water will diffuse out of the potato placed in sucrose solution water.The slice placed in water will be rigid, since it will absorb water. ANALYSIS ERROR ? The glass can not cover the beakers well, so the data value that we got was too close. ?We used a big size of cylinder (500ml) to measure the sucrose solution and distilled water. |150ml water ; potato weight (before/after) 20g /24g | | 150ml water ; potato weight (before/after) 20g/13. 5g | |(^ with 15g salt) |I compared with Evan’s group, our results roughly the same. CONCLUSION The water molecules move towards higher concentrations of the solution. That means that if the water outside the cell is saltier than the water inside, water will move from the inside of the cell to the outside. As the water left the cell it was much like letting the air out of a balloon. As more and more of the cells lost water, the slice of potato became soft and flexible. (the potato in water with sucrose solution just on the contrary. )

Canterbury Tales And Lady Bath Essay

Canterbury Tales And Lady Bath Essay Many characters in The Canterbury Tales are only described in the smallest detail. Only a handful are given a physical description and even fewer are actually given names to go by. A character that has a most descriptive detail and also one, whom has a name, is Alice, the Wife of Bath. This majestic lady is very proud of what she has accomplished in life. Also, to defend her ways she uses logic and reason, Chauncer also, never judges her like he does to many other characters, but lets her speak for herself. Although one would imagine the Lady of Bath to be ashamed of her way of life, she simply is not. With her four dead ex-husbands, she has received plenty of money and valuables. While married, Chauncer gives the impression that Alice also had many affairs. These affairs have almost definitely added to her personal wealth. Married now to her fifth husband, who is much younger, because of love and not just dependent on how much money he has. Throughout Alices storytelling, the characters tend to attack her. She simply comes back using simple logic and reasoning. Her basic method of thinking is that if god did not want one to have sex, he would not of given the human race the ability to do so. The ladies behaviour is also very up-front and she enjoys talking a great deal. Yet with having this sort of an attitude, it gives the reader a real look at one of the most described and interesting characters that Chauncer writes about. Most other characters from The Canterbury Tales are judged by Chauncers personal standards and the standards from that particular time period. Alice, the Wife of Bath however, is not judged like this. Chauncer lets the reader decide how to judge her and create her image. He also uses very little irony and sarcasm when he, and other characters talk about Alice. Chauncer simply lets the reader decide how to judge her from telling of her behaviour that was most unusual for that time period. The reader can easily create an accurate judgment of her, mainly because of her up-front attitude towards many aspects of life. As seen, the great Alice, Wife of Bath, is proud of her lifestyle and will go to great lengths to defend it. She is also the only character that the reader can judge for himself or herself with little input from Chauncer. Perhaps being the most described character from the novel gives one the impression that she could also be one of the most important. Her introduction in the prologue, which is one of the longest, also indicated this. All of these characteristics combined; let one visualize a grand picture of this lady.

Business Environment and Strategic Management Essay

Business Environment and Strategic Management - Essay Example After 1960, the company focused on production of cars and it hit the market with the Civic which was an eco-friendly and economic vehicle once again winning the hearts of American drivers, it went on to make the accord which became the most popular vehicle in the United States. Honda has since then diversified its products and today it is also involved in the manufacture of solar cells, Aircraft through its subsidiary company Honda Aircraft, power generators among other products. However its main business is the production of vehicles, it is the largest manufacturer of motorcycles in Japan and it ranked 3rd car company in the world after Toyota and ford motors. Today, Hondas leading market is in North America where their revenues were highest compered to its other global markets (Parker, 2001). It is the second most popular Asian car brand in the United States after Toyota and is set to grow even bigger being the only vehicle with a fuel cell engine certified for US where the standar ds are highest in the world (Trade.govermnets.com, 2010). Its main competitors both in America and globally are Toyota and ford which have larger supply and distributor networks. In the last fiscal year, the companies’ profits Quadrupled showing a strong recovery after the earthquakes in Japan; it is predicting an even bigger profit in the next fiscal years with projections of up to 7.7 billion USD. Analysis of the current business environment affecting the industry In the cause of the last few years, recession and the subsequent by economic uncertainty has resulted in a serious decline in the motor vehicle industry, the sales of motor vehicles fell to the lowest point since the 70s. While Japanese firms like Toyota and Honda are still major players in the market, in the last few years they have suffered severe setbacks, which American and Korean firms exploited to increase their competitive advantage in the industry. Toyota for instance lost much of its competitive advantage by yielding too much ground base on its bottom line and lost the confidence of many of its customers. Japan, which is the mother country of Toyota and Honda, was also hit by a double calamity in the Japan earth quake and the tsunami, the two firms suffered major losses and setbacks in production and distribution as a result (Newman, 2013). The shortage that ensued drove American customers away from the Japanese manufactures to other suppliers in America Europe and other parts of Asia such as Korea and India. Toyota’s earnings went down by 2.3 percent and Honda lost 1.6 percent in earnings for the year 2011. Unfortunately for European auto makers, they were not able to benefit much from Japans misfortune since Europe was also embroiled in a crisis of its own albeit it an economic one, European Union countries were in the worst recession ever and the financial crisis almost crippled the manufacturing industry.

How to shop online Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

How to shop online - Essay Example This often involves computer systems, mobile phones, among other devices that can connect to the internet. It also involves stores and sellers that operate online. Even though the online shopping process appears to be simple, potential online buyers must be careful to consider their environment while undertaking their shopping over the internet. This involves evaluation of, and high level of sensitivity to the online environment that involves risks. These consequently define appropriate practices to ensure a safe online shopping (Get, n.d.). Online shopping ventures are for instance full of fraudulent activities that aim at getting a customer’s money without the intended delivery. Hackers particularly exist who intercept communication and misguide consumers into making payments to wrong accounts, or establish websites through which the potential customers can unknowingly make payments to wrong destinations. The result is single way transaction in which the fraudster receives payments but the potential customer does not obtain the desired products. There also exist fake websites that do not actually offer products as they claim to. They however disseminate false information on their location, communication links and inventory that may not really exist. A buyer therefore looses advanced payments to such cheats. Another threat to online shopping is in delivery of products that do not match the expected descriptions. While a consumer can have the situation corrected if such deliveries are not intentional, intentional false delivery results into losses because the alleged seller will never make the right delivery after receiving the targeted money (Get, n.d.). Safe shopping is however defined by a number of characteristics. A potential buyer should conduct a thorough search on alleged online sellers before initiating a transaction. Such a search should determine existence and validity the seller’s address and phone contacts for

Compare with crime control theory vs due process Essay

Compare with crime control theory vs due process - Essay Example In contrast to this the crime control model has been designed to make sure that the criminal cases are dealt fast and disposed off as early as possible. Both these models are important to the system of criminal justice and they play a key role in identifying offences and also in the interpretation of the criminal justice system. During 1964, Herbert Packer who is a Law professor wrote an article which provided a good philosophy on criminal justice. â€Å"In particular, the work of Packer provoked civil libertarian concerns over the police deviation from due process protections in pursuit of the objectives embodied in the crime control model† (William, 2002, p.11). In the said article, the author has further proposed the criminal justice model and the due process model. His article is said to have influenced every person who works on the criminal justice system. While crime control deals with the suppression of crime, the due process is concerned with the safeguarding the rights of the innocent. However, both have the same goal of punishing the guilty and protecting the innocent. The major difference lies in the fact that models use different means and approaches. â€Å"The question therefore arises for every society as to where on the continuum between crime control and due process it wishes to anchor its criminal justice values, subject to the observation that the two models in reality represent different means to a broadly common goal –the detection and effective punishment of crime† (Bryett & Osbome, 2000, p. 14). When comparing the crime control and the due process, it can be seen that the proponents of both approaches uphold constitutional values. However, some people view the crime control model in a negative light because of the fact that it assumes the criminal who has been alleged of an offence, guilty even before he is brought

Special Qualitites of Japanese Woodblock Prints Essay

Special Qualitites of Japanese Woodblock Prints - Essay Example Not only were the woodblock prints a source of entertainment and enchantment, they were also vital to the propagation of Buddhist philosophy and art. (Priest, 1959) As a consequence, the evolution of Zen Buddhism in Japan is neatly documented in this medium of art. The rest of this essay will analyze two Japanese woodblock prints – taken one each from The Seattle Museum of Asian Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art respectively – and study their similarities and differences in the backdrop of the evolution of the technique. The two woodblock prints chosen for this essay are – Crow and Heron (Young Lovers Walking Under an Umbrella in a Snowstorm, ca. 1769) and Two Ladies Looking Through a Telescope (Hokusai, 19th century) - from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Seattle Museum of Asian Art respectively. The Crow and Heron was created by Suzuki Harunobu and is made of woodcut print on paper. This print carries many typical characteristics of the art and cultural sensibilities of the period. Firstly, chivalry being a cherished virtue in high Japanese society, the man is shown to hold the umbrella for his lover. The demureness and shyness of the lady is complemented by the glitter and passion in the eyes of her beloved. The robes worn by the lovers further accentuate this complementariness. The dark brown shades of the man’s robes align and merge with the soft white robe of the lady. The tresses and folding of their robes form a unified pattern. (Meech, 1982) Japanese woodblock prints reveal much information about the social structures and cultural norms of corresponding eras. They also show the signature styles of various artists. The Crow and Heron print shows the â€Å"rise of the wealthy chonin and their interest in elegant clothes, pleasurable pastimes, and the arts, especially woodblock prints. Harunobu depicted beautiful women being slender and graceful. He did not individualize his figures, but presented them as idealized ima ges without unique features†. (http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/JP2453, 2006) It is interesting to note that the flourishing of woodprint art during the Edo period is largely due to the patronage of the aristocratic class. Indeed, the â€Å"pleasure quarters and the sophisticated entertainments they offered exerted an enormous impact on the culture of the Edo period.† (http://www.metmuseum.org, 2003) In this light, it is a paradox that the Buddhist message of austerity and detachment was propagated in equal measure through the art form. For instance, one prominent feature of this Buddhist ethos is that of ukiyo, which stands for the transitory nature of life. Both the works in discussion exhibit this quality in terms of their impressions. Hence, the revelry of Japanese high society went hand in hand with the simplicity of Buddhist philosophy in shaping the rules and aesthetics of woodprint art. This contra-direction is exemplified in the upturning of the meani ng of ukiyo from ‘transitory’ to that of ‘joie de vivre’. This â€Å"hedonistic culture that glorified life in the ‘floating world’ was particularly well expressed in the production of woodblock prints, which made available to anyone with a bit of extra cash captivating images of seductive courtesans, exciting kabuki actors, and famous romantic vistas. For the first time, artists were inspired by and responded

Marketing Plan of Wallmart entering Germany (Product being the store) Term Paper

Marketing Plan of Wallmart entering Germany (Product being the store) - Term Paper Example In the previous fiscal 2010, with sales of $405billion, the company employed 2.1 million associates worldwide. The Fortune Magazine 2010 has ranked Wal-Mart among the top 10 retailers in the world. Wal-Mart goal is to save the money of its customers and help them live better (Wal-Mart, n.d). Wal-mart has its retail stores across the country, thus this paper deals with the expansion strategy of Wal-Mart in Germany. The retail market in Germany has reported to fall unexpectedly by 2.33% in September 2010; but the German retail market has experienced a recovery from the crises in 2010 and generating revenue of 400billion EUR (PRLog, 2011). Thus Wal-Mart can take this opportunity as its competitive advantage lies in low cost pricing and thus expand itself in Germany. Internationalization Wal-Mart draws its competitive advantage from the aspect of its unique supply chain management strategy using advanced technological tools like Enterprise Resource Planning. The supply chain management s trategy of the company such as cross docking and real time information sharing between suppliers is used to forecast demand on the basis of real time data that is further used to manage the inventory carrying costs. Use of real time information sharing enables the company to eliminate instances of overstocking or stock outs that helps in managing inventory carrying costs. The cross docking system initiated by the company also ensures that inventory is not stored and there is no standing time. The cost savings incurred due to inventory management is passed on to the customers in the form of an EDLP (Every Day Low Price) strategy where the company provides services at low prices that helps in attracting and retaining customers (Dess, Lumpkin & Eisner, 2009, p.180). The role of the external environment is also another aspect that determines the success of the international expansion program of a company. In case of Wal-Mart the level of technological expertise in a market is also impor tant as suppliers need to be linked to its supply chain management. Germany being a technologically developed nation would easily help Wal-Mart to supplement its core competence in supply chain management so as to replicate its successful EDLP program in the German market. Wal-Mart would essentially use a push-pull strategy to gain a formidable presence in the German market. A push-pull strategy is essentially used by firms when they have a system of forecasting demand on the basis of real time information sharing. In the German market the technology driven supply chain management would of Wal-Mart and its EDLP program would help in pushing the products to the consumers (push strategy) while the external market demand of the service of the company among the members of the target market audience would act as a pulling factor of bringing in the consumers (pull strategy). Traditionally, retail firms have been relying on push based strategies as a pull strategy involves considerable

The Importance of Researching High School Dropout Trends Essay

The Importance of Researching High School Dropout Trends - Essay Example However, the number of high school drop-outs is still high: The U.S. High school dropout rate is higher than Germany and Japan (Wooldridge, 1993). Drop-outs represent an economic cost to the country as a whole. According to the Alliance for Excellent Education, only about two-thirds of children entering high school will eventually graduate. In 2004, more than 2.1 million kids in the United States dropped out of high school in 2004, at a cost of "more than $325 billion in lost wages, taxes, and productivity over their lifetimes," (Holt 2006). That cost is just for the dropouts of 2004; it doesn't include the ongoing cost of dropouts from prior years, and doesn't begin to calculate the cost to the competitive advantage of the U.S. A closer look at the numbers reveals other trends. The U.S. Census shows that overall, Hispanic adults over 25 hold the fewest degrees, with just 58.4 percent reporting a high school diploma or higher degree. That trails the nearest minority group by far: 80.6% of African Americans over 25 have at least a high school diplomas, compared with 86.8% of Asians and 80% of Non-Hispanic whites (Education Attainment in the United States, 2005).

Dynamics of Secondary class Teaching Essay Example for Free

Dynamics of Secondary class Teaching Essay Imagine in your first year of teaching, your Department Chair imparts the following piece of advice, Good control depends on finding the right gimmick. How do you feel about that statement? Some scholars have defined teaching to be more of a calling than just a profession. Teaching therefore being a way of life requires teaches to have a mix of techniques for the transfer of knowledge to the student to be successful. According to Khan, (2007) apart from being resourceful, learning continuously and being adaptable, a teacher is required to know how to balance between competing needs and be good-humored since fun is a recipe for effective learning, Murray, (2009). Classroom control is of paramount importance for learning objectives to be achieved, notwithstanding the show of mischievous behavior by students. The statement that Good control depends on finding the right gimmick. is however limited in scope since it presumes that all student misbehavior is a planned, without putting due regard that at times, student misbehavior is spontaneous. Controlling student behavior is a product of several factors, as argued by Ronning and Glover (1987), such as the degree of motivation, how the student/teacher relationship is, how well the teacher has been consistent on their behavior and how the teachers expectations are understood by the students, this factors take time to be internalized and be exhibited by the students, and instant perception is hard to be achieved – even by use of instant right gimmick, it is therefore void to argue that good control is a product of a single constraint- finding the right gimmick. To achieve good control, a teacher should do thorough analysis to understand the root causes of the unintended behavior and the disparity between the existing behavior and the teachers expectations. The teacher should therefore respond and use appropriate means depending on the cause on the identified misbehavior, dealing with control is therefore a process not an instantaneous activity, which can be solved be some simple gimmicks. This is in agreement with Fritz, (1972) who argued that managing discipline is more protracted than retreating castigatory tricks, this was also highlighted by Kindsvatter and Levine, (1980). However, for good behavior to be instilled on the students, teachers are expected to take quick remedial actions when indiscipline occurs. To maintain good standards however, hence achieving control in classrooms, preventive measures are very important and this is a process which requires the participation of the teacher and the student, therefore the departmental chairs advice is constrained as it attempts to suggests that control in instantaneous and can be achieved by gimmicks. References Fritz, Redl. (1972). When We Deal with Children . Michigan :Free Press. Khan,Badrul. (2007). Flexible learning in an information society. Houston: Idea Group Inc. Kindsvatter, Richard and Levine, Mary. (1980). The Myths of Discipline. Delta: Phi Delta Kappa International. Murray, W. (2009). Learning Is Fun. New York: Ladybird Books. Ronning, Royce, and Glover, John. (1987). Historical foundations of educational psychology, Perspectives on individual differences. London: Springer Books.

Thanks For Not Killing My Son English Literature Essay

Thanks For Not Killing My Son English Literature Essay With hundreds of newspaper publications printed everyday, television, and Internet, you might ask yourself why do you need to read a short essay published in a college English book. Well, I decided to tell you the true story about this short essay. More importantly, I will tell you why you should read it. The essay Thanks for Not Killing My Son by Rita Schindler stands out from the crowd because it is emotionally intense, abundant in visual sentences, and very thought provoking. First, Rita Schindler combines attention-getter with persuasion technique in just 38 lines, each of them delivering full-impact feelings, making this essay intense and effective. The title is written in a way that immediately catches your attention. Thanks for Not Killing My Son its not a form to express gratitude to someone, but is instead used as irony. The constant repetition of the thank you will make you wonder at the mothers non-violent response to her sons beating, and also builds emotion in the end. However, by the end of the essay, when the mothers thanking becomes a pattern you begin to understand the patience and compassion of a loving parent. Using implied fright through the entire essay, Schindler creates another kind of emotion for the reader. When she says à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦thank you for this eyesight, his hearing and his hands which you could have easily crushed. (Schindler 8), you may think that a similar attack can really affect you or someone you care about. The whole argument raises to a climax in the final point, which suggests the ultimate loss to parents, the death of a child. When the author says, You could have kicked him to death, but you only left him to die. Thank you. (Schindler 11) she alludes to what might well have resulted from the actions of the attackers. However, by the time you finish reading this essay, itll reveal to you a final emotion; she leaves death to the end, since its a thought she would not like to ever contemplate or experience (Schindler 11, 12). Secondly, you will find this essay abundant in visual sentences, making this another effective way to grab your attention. As soon as you start reading this essay, I can assure you that youll realize how powerful those visual sentences are, and you dont have to read too much. He was left lying in a pool of blood from an open head wound (Schindler 3) is the beginning of the third paragraph and reflects immediately the ferocity of the attack. Moreover, its not just the brutality of the attack itself, but the cruelty of leaving someone unconscious lying on a park alley in the middle of December. Reading more, you realize that this idea of using visual sentences becomes more frightening because the author has used specific examples of actual events instead of talking in general about the nature of violence (Schindler 5, 6, 7, 9). Finally, the essay is very thought-provoking and it raises many questions for you to think about. Since the attack against his authors son happened à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦sometime between 1.30 p.m., Dec. 8, and 1 a.m., Dec. 9,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦in the Victoria Park-Terraview area, the first thought that will cross your mind will be about the sense of security and law enforcement on the streets of Toronto. You can think about this when you read this sentence: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦when his friends were talking about revenge, I heard him say, No, I dont want someone elses mother to go through mine has (Schindler 10). Our society needs to change the way we enforce the law, so revenge should not be our concern. The essay is also relevant to our times because it makes you think about todays parental guidance related to street violence. Apparently, you may say that is no connection between those two, but when Five guys and two girls à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦beat one person definitely shows that parental guidance was n ot effective in this case. Any parent must exercise constant guidance and attention to their kids, and you can found this idea in the last sentence of the essay: I hope that someday youll have children and love them as much as I love mine- but I wouldnt wish on your child what you did to mine. (Schindler 13). In conclusion, reading Thanks for Not Killing My Son you will discover an emotionally intense, full of visual sentences, and thought-provoking essay. Giving you those reasons to read Rita Schindlers essay, lets make an effort and prove that the following rhymes from a well known song are wrong, and we can change our amazing world that we are live in. Theres somethin wrong with the world today. I dont know what it is. Somethings wrong with our eyes. / Were seeing things in a different way, and God knows it aint His. It sure aint no surprise. Were livin on the edge.  [1]  

Environmentally Friendly Golf Courses Essay -- Environment Golf Enviro

Golf Courses Made More Environmentally Friendly Through the Advancement of Technology The human race has inhabited this planet for only a small window in the geological time scale, however, the advances and changes in lifestyle that humans have made throughout the course of history are amazing. The field of technology is by the far the most interesting aspect of human societal growth because it is our ability to build these products that separates from the other species we share this planet with. It is hard to believe that at one point there was no electricity, no telephone, no internet or even no cars, but humans have developed all of these technological innovations which improve and facilitate our way of life. With all these new inventions and magical miracle products it is possible to loose track of what really makes this planet so special and that is the environment which surrounds us each day. Are these new technological ideas harmful to the environment? Is the rapid growth and development of such technologies so quick that we have no idea how the products w ill affect the environment 5 years from now, let alone 25 years from now? The preeminent and most beneficial technologies are those which are environmentally safe and consider the consequences of their usage. By developing technologies that have a positive effect on the environment we are ensuring the existence of the human race and other species long after we have died. One of the world’s oldest and most prestigious sports is known as the gentleman’s game or golf, as it is more commonly referred to, and there is no doubt that with the addition of Tiger Woods to the PGA Tour that golf in America is on the rise and is a booming industry. America has over 180... ...aping Application.† http://www.epa.gov/GreenScapes/pubs/compost.pdf. Accessed 5/1/04. [7] U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. â€Å"North Shore Country Club A Greener Green.† http://www.epa.gov/GreenScapes/projects/nscclub.htm. Accessed 5/1/04. [8] Paskvan, Craig. â€Å"Fertilizers for the upcoming year.† http://www.golfprohelp.com/Articles/Fertilizers_For_The_Upcoming_Year.asp. Accessed 5/13/04. [9] Hunter Golf Vista Central Control System. http://www.huntergolf.com/downloads/pdfs/glit020w.pdf. Accessed 5/1/04. [10] The American Society of Golf Course Architects. â€Å"The Links at Spanish Bay.† http://www.golfdesign.org/public/connect/home.html?c=73622156&pageid=11689. Accessed 5/1/04. [11] The American Society of Golf Course Architects. â€Å"Santa Clara Golf & Tennis Club.† http://www.golfdesign.org/public/connect/home.html?c=73622156&pageid=11677. Accessed 5/1/04.

senior project :: essays research papers fc

Senior Project Senior Project Outline Introduction: Let the reader know what this Essay is about.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   I.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What I already know A.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  You will always have a job 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  People always want to buy a new house 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  People always want to sell their old house B.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Becoming your own boss 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Setting your own commission rates 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  You will always be in charge II.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What I learned A.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  How much you would make 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The beginning rate 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  How much you could make up to B.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What you need to become a Real Estate Agent 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A Salesman License 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Real Estate Broker’s License III.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Advantages and Disadvantages of being in Real Estate A.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What you would like most about your job 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Being your own boss 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  You will always have a job B.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What you would like least about your job 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The long hours 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  And having to have a great deal of patience Conclusion: Describe why I would this job.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Mike Smith MR. Smith EXPOS. COMP. 12b 17 March 2005 BECOMING A REAL ESTATE AGENT Hello my name is Mike Smith. I am here today to  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   talk   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  to you about becoming a Real Estate Agent. I will let   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   you know everything you need to know about how to become a   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Real Estate Agent. Such as needing a license, the time and   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   energy you need to become the best Broker possible. The   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   guaranty of always having a job, within a matter of years   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   becoming your own boos by starting your own company,and   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   what  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  you will earn in return for making peoples lives a   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   whole lot better.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The things I already know about Real Estate are as   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   follows. I know that you will never lose your job. The  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   reason why you will never lose your job is because people   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   are always trying to buy a house or sell a house,or a piece   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   of their property etc.. You might not have a new client   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   everyday but you will have at least one new job/client to   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   deal with every week. Then after making enough sales you   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   came become your own boss. Which means once you become your   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   own boss you can make your own commission rates, the time   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   start working and how long you work, plus you get make your   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   own decisions about who to hire or fire, and who to have   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   business with. But there is just one little thing about   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   being your own boss that might take its toll on you which   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   will be that when some thing goes wrong you will be the   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   person to blame nobody else but yourself because you will be   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   the owner. The things I learned about becoming a Real Estate  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Agent. One of the things I learned about being a Real Estate   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Agent is how money you would make. So normally when you   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   begin in a Real Estate office you get 3% to 6% commission.

Case Study : From Saga to Proton Essay

From a financial analyst perspective, has the proton management done a good job? Based on the financial performance of PROTON from 2005 till 2009, our observation from a financial analysis perspective showed that Proton management has not done a good job as far as financial performance is concern. The Key Financial Indicators (KFIs) covers measurements such as basic earnings per share, net assets per share; dividend paid as well as retained earnings carried forward. At a glimpse, almost all the KPI of Proton shows decrement throughout the years. Basic earnings per share (EPS) fluctuated vastly from 2005 to 2009. Proton recorded highest basic earnings per share of 80.6 in 2005. However, it can be observed that Proton faced severe problems by making loss in the shares, EPS of -107.3 in 2007 and EPS of -54.9 in 2009. Besides that, there is also a report with regards the net assets per share (NAPS). This net asset indicates the price at which shares are bought and sold, and represents co mpany’s value per share. Based on the information given, we can see that the NAPS of Proton had deteriorated from 2008 to 2009. The decreasing rate of dividend paid to the shareholders simply means company did not do very well. Dividend was not paid in 2008 as Proton needs to recover from the huge loss they held in 2007. Furthermore, the Balance Sheet displayed that the total assets owned by company decreased gradually from 2005 (RM 8, 830.9) to 2009 (RM 7,098.9). Other than that, increment in inventories indicates that sales order because higher inventory indicates poor sales resulting in higher cost to be incurred thus leads to the reduction in sales volume. In conclusion, we hold the believe that  Proton management had performed badly as portrayed by its deteriorating overall performance graph between the period in low basic earnings per share, low net assets per share, lower dividend paid to shareholders, low retained earnings carried forward, low total assets and high inventories count for the year 2009. Question 2 What characteristics should a foreign partner have that will enable maximum synergies? Synergy by definition means the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects. To enable synergy, the foreign partner should be able to tackle Proton’s existing weakness. For instance, PROTON’s major problem would be quality control. The public usually complaint about the overall poor quality vehicles by PROTON over the years which indirectly affecting the financial result of the company, when its sales dwindled tremendously and continuously losing market share and which subsequently eroded the profit margin of the company. Therefore, a foreign partner that is known for its excellent quality of products would be a leap to induce a positive perception of Proton among the consumers which can help boost its revenues. Next, a foreign partnership with expertise and economies of scale is necessary which can encourage the sustainability of Proton. Since it has registered net loss for 2007 and 2009 indicating high cost that could not be covered with sufficient revenue generation, it’s very much clear that Proton lacks the efficiency in managing the cost, which leads to overall loss. To overcome this problem PROTON will need a partner that can help shoulder the exorbitant costs. Also, a foreign partner well known for its good reputation would be critical in order to elevate the already weak reputation of Proton among consumers. PROTON lacks an engine or platform to expand into the SUV and MPV markets, or the 2.0-litre and above segments. PROTON may need to collaborate with a foreign partner much in the wa y BMW and PSA Peugeot-Citroen are working together to develop new engines and technologies. Hence, the foreign partner should have the technological advances which Proton lacks. Furthermore, many of the green engine technologies that are emerging as a result of rising fuel prices and global warming would dictate the direction  of automotive development, and these are beyond PROTON capabilities. On its own, PROTON has limited funds for research and development. Therefore collaborating with bigger automotive players lend research and development (R&D) capabilities would be very beneficial, particularly in production of hybrid and electrical vehicles. Question 3 What broad consideration should determine the part of proton that are worth keeping and developing and matter of operation needs to be relocated or closed down? Proton needs to reconstruct its business structure by forgoing some part of business which are not worth keeping and expand those activities which generates ample profit. After analyzing Protons overall condition, firstly, the partnership with Lotus has helped Proton in strengthening the engineering, providing Proton an edge in Europe. Since Lotus is a British company that builds sports car, they have very well developed motor engineering technology which might be a gold opportunity for Proton to move forward and create more elegant and high-performance car models. In, Lotus even appeared in the Paris Auto Show 2010 with five slick looking sport cars. In order to move forward, Proton should seriously invest in R&D with its strategic partner Lotus, to strengthen quality which they are unable to do themselves. In order to draw sales, you have to know how to attract customers. PROTON’s investment in technology; seemed insufficient as now consumer expects better performance as per value of money. Proton should concentrate its energy on overall product improvements most importantly the engine. Perodua offered DVVT engine which is fuel efficient, but for decades PROTON continued using CAMPRO engine for all the cars. The idea is that they should try creating a car with a different engine as the perception build about Proton is that it has bad engine system to begin with. Possible solutions to mitigate the problems identified are by introducing additional value improvised features which focuses on fuel efficiency, convenience and safety. Next, Proton should also focus on providing excellent after sales service at its service centre Proton Edar. It is best to expand Proton by gaining their trust and loyalty. By proving security, reliance and great servicing skills, Proton will become an attractive deal because maintenance costs of transportation with is secured by warranty is one of the most crucial point of comparison between local and foreign cars as foreign cars  provide high security and assurance over their cars. Lastly, the management of Proton need to undergo total reconstruction. PROTON owns not one, but two factories that can output a combined maximum of 1.2 million cars a year, yet it builds only 156,845 units. If proton is not going to fully utilize its plant, it is better and more cost efficient for them to lease out the space to other car manufacturers so that it can generate profit from the unutilized space rather than living it unproductive. Question 4 From a review of the 2009 National Automotive Policy, are there areas of possible collaboration with Proton in the event of short of a full merger/takeover? There are areas found that will enable possible collaboration with Proton in the event of short merger or takeover based on reviewing the 2009 National Automotive Policy(NAP). The main objective of NAP is to ensure the development as well as long term competitiveness and capability of Proton. NAP also intends to create a conducive environment to attract possible new investment to enhance the sustainability of Proton. Firstly, the government offered tax incentive for high value-added part components. Through this, the high value-automotive-part manufacturers would enjoy 10-year 100% fiscal deduction on pioneer status or 5-year 100% tax exempted Investment Tax Allowance. This particular policy gives an opportunity to the company to make an investment in Malaysia and set up an alliance with Proton. Furthermore, it can benefit both parties because the investors can enjoy an incentive while Proton can improve the quality of their products with cost reduction due to the tax incentive thereby eliminating their reputation on low quality products. Meanwhile, tax incentive on training and R&D also gives huge opportunity to the investors particularly in the hybrid vehicle market. The trend of hybrid car is potentially expanding rapidly in Malaysia and research on the hybrid technology could produce higher return of investment and collaboration with Proton will give a cost saving to the companies and support Proton to pursue on producing hybrid cars. Besides, it can be cost-competitive for them if strategic alliance is set up with Proton since its plant in Tanjung Malim can be used for assembly hub for both the collaborating companies. Next, the full liberalization of local assembled luxury passenger cars can enable other foreign or local automotive firms to freely obtain manufacturing license and hold up to 100% stake in Proton pertaining to certain conditions. This could lead to possible alliances with Proton that can improvise the company’s under-utilized plant capacity. The full liberalization on assemble of luxury car also can give an opportunity to Proton to continue operating in low cost vehicle without any stiff competition and acquire more proportion of the market. So, strategic alliance with Proton in low cost vehicle segment will give strong position in the market which will help to boost the profits of the company. The policy on excise duty structure for imported vehicles CBU and locally assembled vehicles CKD’s would encourage foreign carmakers to consider possible collaboration with Proton in order to prevent the excise duty which will elevate their cost of production and continue producing cars in Malaysian market. Question 5 What other information not included in the case could help consultant Saiful Alawi make a more meaningful recommendation? Why? In order to come out with recommendation whether an investment and/or collaboration should be considered, Saiful Alawi has several things to be considered such as automotive market outlook and the national automotive policy. Apart from those, there are few other things that might also take into consideration for the recommendation in which one of them could be financial leverage for the company. Financial leverage refers to the degree to which an investor or business is utilizing borrowed money. High leverage indicating the company or an organization could be at risk of bankruptcy if they are unable to pay their debts as well as unable to find new lenders in future. However, financial leverage is not always bad as it can increase the shareholders’ return on investment and often there are tax advantages associated with the borrowed money. Proton should be disclosed the information about the debts of the company in its financial report or in its financial indicators. This is because, it would make it easier for the users to interpret the performance of the company in terms of the total debt to assets ratio, long  term debt to assets ratio, total debt to equity ratio as well as equity multiplier and other measurements related to the financial leverage ratio of the company. Besides that, Proton should also include the measurement related to the return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) of the company to know the level of profitable the company in which related to its total assets as well as the shareholders’ equity. Another thing that Saiful Alawi could take into consideration for the recommendation could be regarding the information of the opportunity of investment in other country. Other Asean countries also offered advantages and benefits of the investments in automotive industry. In Thailand, it has several hub of assembly of vehicle which very crucial for reduce transportation and distribution cost. Furthermore, Indonesia provided low labor cost and huge market capacity since the country among the highest population in Southeast Asia. Moreover, other countries also has a full pace of liberalisation and flexible in their automotive policies which the prices of the vehicle will be competitive. Finally, the other information that could help him is the environment and safety of Asean country. Malaysia is among the peaceful countries compared to others although the citizens were multiracitional. So, safety and harmonious environment is also important for the investors to make sure the stability of the operation and consistency in long-term run.

Fiber Optic Technology Used in US Airforce

The optic fiber owed its origin to the development of optical voice transmission system known a photophone by Alexander Graham Bell during the year 1880. The photophone applying free space light could carry the human voice 200 meters. The fiber optical technology has a significant progress during the second half of the twentieth century. The initial success in this regard occurs during the 1950s with the development of fiberscope, an image transmitting device. This used first practical all-glass fiber and concurrently devised by Brian O' Brien at the American Optical Company and Narinder Kapany, who first devised the terminology ‘fiber optics' in 1956 and colleagues at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London. The fiberscope soon applied in the inspecting welds inside reactor vessels and combustion chambers of jet aircraft engines as well as in the medical field. The Fiberscope technology has evolved over the period of time to facilitate laparoscopic surgery considered as one of the great medical advance of the twentieth century. The development of laser technology was considered as the next significant application of fiber optics. The laser diode — LD or the light-emitting diode — LED, had the prospective to evolve large amounts of light in a spot tiny enough to be applied for fiber optics. (A brief history of Fiber Optic Technology) Gordon Gould fostered the idea of applying lasers, describing it as an intense light source. Soon after, Charles Townes and Arthus Schawlow at Bell Laboratories worked on use of the laser in scientific circles. The laser evolved through many generations in terms of ruby laser and the helium-neon laser in 1960 until the realization of semiconductor lasers in 1962. The higher modulation frequency capability of the lasers attracted the scientists to apply this in the filed of communication engineering. Light is realized to have an information carrying capacity of 10,000 times that of the highest radio frequencies being applied. The US military responded rapidly to apply fiber optics for improved communications and tactical systems. The US navy in the early 1970s established a fiber optic telephone link aboard the USS Little Rock. The Air Force developed its Airborne Light Optical Fiber Technology — ALOFT program in the year 1976. Such initial successes encouraged military R & D funding for development of stronger fiber, tactical cables, ruggedized, high performance components and several demonstrations starting from aircraft to undersea applications. After the installation of fiber optic telephone system in Chicago and Boston by both AT & T and GTE marked the beginning of commercial application of Fiber optics. (A brief history of Fiber Optic Technology) Presently, the application of fiber optic technology including wave division multiplexing fiber optics is increasingly prevalent in commercial aircraft and satellite systems with the growth of many commercial suppliers. Now the 10 gigabit fiber optic Ethernet in the sphere of many systems and also in aircraft avionic systems is more prevalent. Moreover, the Fiber Channel and Firewire systems also widely applied in aircraft systems presently. However, such systems are not sufficiently strong and do not quickly respond to deterministic real time necessities like 1553B and ARINC 429 and do not deal with multiple level of security. To cater to such needs, system architectures particularly are a combination of copper and fiber with redundancies for robustness or replication for various security levels/enclaves. (Multi-Level Secure High-Speed Fiber-Optic Data Bus) A single optical fiber spread through out an aircraft in terms of ring architecture topology is seen have the prospective of meeting all the present and future bandwidth requirements, entailing solutions to different security level requirements, decline redundancies; accommodate all essential legacy and future protocol and timing necessities; being capable of maintenance over the life of the host platform, and significantly decrease weight power, cooling, electromagnetic interference/electromagnetic compatibility shielding and other confinements of prevailing remedies. This anticipates more efforts in applying the prevailing technology and constructing the integration elements for example, protocol adapters to generate a fiber-optic system backbone appropriate for present and future aircraft systems with low-cost, open and commercially available technology. (Multi-Level Secure High-Speed Fiber-Optic Data Bus) The next generation digital flight data recording system created by Raytheon Company, the Distributed Flight Data Acquisition Unit — DFDAU system depends primarily on fiber optic technology and remote sensors to gather and record quite considerable amounts of critical flight data on passenger aircraft. The application of technology will permit airliners to cater to the new Federal Aviation Administration regulations that necessitate digital flight data recorders to gather substantially more information than was earlier necessitated. The new regulations necessitate new aircrafts to have flight data recorders capable to monitoring up to 57 flight testing, Raytheon anticipates the system to be FAA certified and it will start installing the DFDAU in its Beech 1900D, 19 passenger regional airliner. (Fiber optic networks for flight data recorders) The DFDAU has been designed to entail detailed and accurate recording of pilot actions and aircraft responses during a flight by accumulation of information from multiple channel sensing and regulation modules that are integrated by optical fiber instead of traditional shielded, twisted pair wiring. Since intelligence can be collected from multiple sources distributed across the aircraft and shared through a single fiber optic cable, application of the system minimizes the cumbersome wiring and provides improved signal fidelity that is immune to electromagnetic interferences and failures in transmission. Additionally, the system can more easily safeguard one flight data recorder without the process of redundant wiring. Such advantage will entail considerable savings for airlines when additional flight data recorders are mandated for other destinations on passenger aircraft. The DFDAU system is expected to apply distributed processing to translate and route data received from over 160 sources and interfaces located across the aircraft. The system is devised to translate the data into an industry standard open protocol -SAE AS-5370- and then thereafter route the data to the 1900D's digital flight data recorder by applying a fault tolerant fiber optic network. The DFDAU system involves seven identical DFDAUs linked by fiber on the 1900D. Each DFDAU is able to capture physical parameters up to 32 sources like engine sensors, navigation, traffic collision avoidance system, gyros, position and force sensors along with the warning, deicing and other important systems, cockpit controls, autopilot, flight instruments, altitude and the Global positioning system, flight control surface position sensors. (Fiber optic networks for flight data recorders) Practically, the aerospace platforms universally have the capacity to take advantage of the distributed fiber optic sensors that could be applied in varied range of parameters. The military and commercial aircrafts presents bewildering maintenance costs presently soaring to tens of billions dollars in annual terms. The diagnostic system necessitates the system that can make way for the performance and the maintenance to be performed when required. This would permit improved levels of safety by insuring that essential tasks are being performed while reducing the amount of costs by eliminating the expensive and unnecessary amounts of procedures. Additional enhancement in safety and performance can be generated by integrating such systems into control systems to improve over that of flight control and assessment of in-flight damage. The applications of test beds to demonstrate the usage of distributed fiber sensor systems are seen in terms of reusable launch vehicle development programs which are advanced. (Fiber Optic Distributed Sensing Systems for Harsh Aerospace Environments) Delta Clipper is one such application that had a system of fiber gathering based strain sensors integrated into its hydrogen fuel tank. This system at the beginning operated as backup to a set of electrical strain gages to represent new technology. Practically, some of the program managers were very doubtful regarding its usage. By the end of the program the intention had varied from the ‘why to apply optic grating based strain sensors while we are having electrical ones on board' to the ‘lets scrap the electrical strain gages that perform poorly and only use the fiber optic grating strain gages'. (Fiber Optic Distributed Sensing Systems for Harsh Aerospace Environments) The advantages of this is seen in the possibility that the Fiber optic grating strain sensors can conveniently be grouped directly into a composite hydrogen tank becoming an important aspect of the structure, they do not fall when vibration and shock attacks; the fiber optic grating strain gages do not perform as an electrical hazard, they are light weight, superior in terms of environmental aspects, easy to install and can be multiplied in numbers through a single fiber line. Since fiber sensors persistently applied and proven in such advanced systems, the persistent decline in cost as a result of advances in the telecommunication and optoelectronic industries will continue to provide more cost effective types of applications for the purpose of military transports, military fighters, and commercial aviation. (Fiber Optic Distributed Sensing Systems for Harsh Aerospace Environments) The in-Flight Entertainment has attained a high level of sophistication with the inception of a high bandwidth system by Rockwell Collins, Cedar Rapids, IA known as Passport. The system facilitates varied passenger amenities and also the Internet access. The system involves a fiber optic structure, associated with expanded-beam fiber-optic interconnects, an ATM switch and a downstream copper distribution system. The system servers originate optical digital signals and travel on the fiber structure. In its path downstream it converts to a Fire Wire distribution network that provides the signals to electronics boxes at individual passenger seats. The system incorporates the fiber-optic expanded beam interconnection technology from Tyco Electronics, Harrisburg, PA. Such connectors provide high dependability in extreme circumstances entailing thermal, vibration and mechanical stability for reliable transition of the light beams from one fiber to another. Other developments over a copper based system incorporate freedom from electromagnetic interference and crosstalk. (Fiber Optics Lift Aircraft Video-on-Demand Systems) The fiber system also declines considerably the weight and provides non-sparking contacts. The expanded beam technology safeguards and seals each fiber faces and ferrule behind a spherical lens instead of butting two fiber ends together. Such interconnection entails a precision coupling of fiber-optic signals without having physical contact at the fiber-to-fiber interfaces. The connectors modular format simplifies manufacturing, making it to be competitive in economic terms with traditional interconnect technologies. The blind-mating is facilitated by the precision alignment pins; those which are quite integral to the connector. The Passport has already functioned successfully without flaws for a year in commercial aircraft and the technology has surpassed to military aircraft for in-flight networks. Tyco also works towards the expansion of beam fiber optic connector technology to discover its wide application in the rugged industrial usages. Such new fiber optic connectors also cater to the avionics standard ARINC 628 for IFE systems. (Fiber Optics Lift Aircraft Video-on-Demand Systems) The fiber optic technology being developed by NASA Dryden Flight Research Center — DFRC, Edwards, California appears to be an integral element of future aircraft system in the development programs for fighter aircraft, and new large transport aircraft, and have considered fiber optic technology as an important part of future aircraft systems. The traditional fly-by-wire system configurations sometimes necessitate unique interfaces for each fight control surface actuator that results in a large amount of wiring. The Fiber optics has been regarded as aerospace vehicle application due to its high bandwidth capability, immunity to electromagnetic interference — EMI, and considerable weight savings. This technology has been applied in a new smart actuator as the primary communication interface. The application of fiber optics makes easier system integration and considerably decreased the wire count. The flight test outcomes revealed that fiber optics could be conveniently being applied in aircraft systems and identified critical areas of development of fly-by-light technology. The smart actuator flight test program has demonstrated the possibility of fault monitoring, in-flight local control and redundancy management of surface actuator. (Zavala, Eddie. Fiber Optic Experience with the Smart Actuation System on the F-18 Systems Research Aircraft Eddie Zavala Dryden Flight Research Center Edwards, California) As the flight test reveals the presentation of the smart actuator was exceptional and compared very well to that of the standard F-18 aileron actuator. Irrespective of the fact that the serial interface of the smart actuator could have been traditional forms of electrical interface, valuable fiber optic experience was being attained via the means of application of 1773 communication links. The system integration becomes more effective and simple in terms of bringing about a reduction of both installation time and cable harness weight considerably. The fiber optic interface, however, complicated the system of integration tests. The smart actuator program brought out the significant areas of development for the general application of fiber optics in aerospace vehicle systems. Such critical areas apply to a broad range of fiber optic applications and will thereby influence the system of operation and reliability unless specific attention and considerable progress is being made. (Zavala, Eddie. Fiber Optic Experience with the Smart Actuation System on the F-18 Systems Research Aircraft Eddie Zavala Dryden Flight Research Center Edwards, California)

Change Agents. Oticon Case

The design of the spaghetti company Is an example of a matrix organizational design, which focused the workers orientations to varying, proved projects In which they approve of. This allowed workers to focus more on the production side, which In the end cut project development time In half. 2. While operating within an industry in which products are complex and technically advanced which would require innovated thinking, Diction a disorganized, free- flowing organizational structure.By doing so, they were able to adapt to changes, which were occurring in the market to better figure out solutions to the problems they would experience. This complex system allowed them to operate more efficiently to better serve their customers. Their strategy was viable as it allowed for quicker lines of communication, increased innovation and a more efficient production process, as in the end their profits eventually doubled from their old strategy. 3.The leadership style at Diction was based on a tas k oriented bureaucratic structure, until they introduced the spaghetti style structure, which turned their strategy into a more employee-oriented style. Kaolin was an example of a discretionary management role as he helped shape the organization in order to change of the company to better suit that to the environmental relationship. The strategy ended up being very successful as it was out of the norm in comparison to other competitors and it also had the full support from the employees of Diction.Although mostly successful, the strategy did fail at their other international factories. This was due to the fact that these factories were accustomed to their own unique traditions In which they refused to let go. Diction should have modified their strategy for these factories to allow them to hold onto their traditions, while at the same time still implementing the overall style they had originally vision. Change Agents. Diction Case By judiciary Diction Case 1 .The spaghetti organizati on is the title given to the transition from a mechanical management structure to a more non-organized style, which allowed for a more style of the company by getting rid of all titles and departments in order to get out of ranks to number 3 in the market. The design of the spaghetti company is an example approved projects in which they approve of. This allowed workers to focus more on the production side, which in the end cut project development time in half. 2. While the fact that these factories were accustomed to their own unique traditions in which

Personal Branding Plan Paper Essay

I have over ten years of cleaning experience from starting out as a dishwasher to cleaning in hospitals, hotels, and residential buildings. From those experiences I have found I enjoy interacting with people and making their stay, where ever that might be, more enjoyable. Yes, it can make finding new jobs, outside the cleaning industry, more difficult; however, I’m always up for a new challenge. I do not intend to stay in the cleaning industry forever. I would rather work in an industry that specializes in helping make memories for people and their families. Working in hospitals, hotels, and restaurants I have developed an understanding of what people expect out of their stays. Especially when they are usually spending a large amount of money, people want to feel special, important, and recognized. I want to be a part of all of that. To be honest, I have never thought about the companies I would like to work for until this week. Knowing that I want to be able to interact with people the three companies I would enjoy working for would be Xanterra Parks & Resorts, the Carnival Cruise line or InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG). Each of these companies is about making an enjoyable experience for people that stay with them and for employees to making memories along the way. If you want to make a living working in the ten largest National Parks in North America, Xanterra Parks & Resorts is the place to do it. This is one of the ultimate ways to help people make memories. When it comes to working for this company, there are two destinations I would like to work Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park. Although most of the positions provided by this company are seasonal the benefits provided are amazing. Employees can receive â€Å"full health care, dental, eye, disability and life insurance as well as vacation pay and a 401K program† the only requirement is to work two consecutive seasons at any park operated by Xanterra Parks & Resort (Glacier Jobs, 2014). This company is in the hospitality industry just as Carnival Cruise line and InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG). Carnival provides jobs either  on land or at sea. According to â€Å"Carnival† (2014), For over 40 years, Carnival has strived to provide a comfortable, â€Å"Fun† working environment for its employees and has created a number of forward-thinking programs that offer unique opportunities for professional and personal growth† (para. 1). Working on a cruise ship, I would have the opportunity to work behind the scenes of how the guests enjoy their experience; whether it is in guest services or housekeeping. Each job is just as important when creating guest satisfaction. InterContinental Hotels Group– If you have ever stayed at the Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express & Suites, or Candlewood Suites, then you have stayed under the IHG brands. I have had the opportunity to work for one of the IHG brands and have learned the inside and outsides of how a hotel should be operated. The time and effort put into creating guest satisfaction is endless, and it takes the entire group of employees to make it successful. A guest’s ultimate experience depends entirely on the hotel staff. IHG is all about making that experience the best one. It is also about allowing its employees to grow. At IHG no matter what brand you are under the â€Å"manager will work with you to create a personal development plan that helps you develop your capabilities and build the skills and experiences you need for the future† (IHG, 2014). Unless you have experience managing in hospitality the best way to go up the ladder is to start at the bottom. The best method to contact any of these companies is to apply either in person or online. Another method would be to call where you want to work and get to know the people in human resource. By asking as many questions as you can about the company and inserting yourself as much as possible will allow those who influence the hiring decision get to know you and how interested you are about their company. These three companies provide experience in interacting with people, helping make memories, and the opportunity to grow as a person. It just comes down to deciding which one would be a better fit. References Glacier Jobs. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.glacierjobs.com/get-benefits-8876.html Xanterra. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.xanterra.com/who-we-are/careers/ Carnival. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.carnival.com/careers.aspx IHG. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.ihgplc.com/index.asp?pageid=572