ASDA expansion to KSA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

ASDA expansion to KSA - Essay Example The report includes the findings and challenges faced in compilation of the report. Table of Contents Executive Summary 1 Table of Contents 2 1.0.Introduction: 3 1.1.What Should Be Considered and How 4 1.2.Saudi Arabia Overview and PESTLE Analysis: 4 1.2.1.KSA PESTLE Analysis 5 1.2.2.Political analysis 5 1.2.4.Social and Cultural Analysis 6 1.2.5.Technological Analysis 6 1.2.6.Legal Analysis 6 1.2.7.KSA Business Environment Analysis 7 4.0.Market Entry Strategy 9 5.0.Marketing Mix and Product Adaptation and Development 11 6.0.Conclusion 12 Appendix: Clients Preference for Different Supermarkets. 13 Works Cited 14 ASDA Expansion Plan to KSA 1.0. Introduction: Companies are increasingly becoming globalized. The main reasons why companies opt to expand their operations to a global level include increasing their sales due to availability of new markets, acquisition of new resources which could be domestically unavailable or expensive, opportunity to diversify business operations, minimiza tion of competition, and a possible opportunity to minimize tax deductions. Expanding business to a global level results in growth of operation and thus requires coming up with a different plan to facilitate the transformation of the business premise from local dealings to global ones. The plan should be dependent on the kind on business in question since different business has different ways of operating (Alpen Capital, 2011). While seeking to expand business operations globally, it is vital to develop an expansion plan, which should include market research to ensure that your company has a proper understanding of the market conditions in the new nation thus develop ways to adopt to the different government policies, technologies, laws and competition (Luo, 1999). In the past, globalization mainly involves large companies. However, retail businesses are continually becoming interested in globalization. A good example is the supermarket retails such as Tesco and ASDA found in UK and have currently expanded their operations to other regions, which have resulted in increased sales and profits. KSA is one of the nations that many companies are eyeing due to the readily available market (Business Monitor International, 2012). This study focuses on a plan that ASDA, a UK based retail supermarket, could adopt to expand its market and venture into KSA. ASDA Stores Ltd.  is a supermarket chain with headquarters in UK, which sells food, general merchandise, clothing, toys in addition to offering financial services. Additionally, ASDA owns a mobile telephone network called ASDA mobile. This study aims at analyzing the market conditions in KSA by exploring the following aspects: A market plan that ASDA can use to expand its market into KSA ASDA background The appropriate mode of entry into the market Marketing mix and Product adaptation and development 1.1. What Should Be Considered and How Before deciding to expand the market into KSA, it is important that ASDA carry vigorous research on the market situation in since global expansion process is often a risky choice faced by challenges. However, carrying out a prior research helps in coming up with ways to counteract the challenges. For ASDA to be in a position to triumph in KSA, it is import

Introduction To Opportunity Cost Commerce Essay

Introduction To Opportunity Cost Commerce Essay It is a very powerful concept when someone has to make a decision to select a particular product or making a choice. In simple words, opportunity cost means choosing or making a best decision from different option. When one has to make a decision in between various actions to select only one particular work at a time is called opportunity cost. Example: From a economist point of view when a kid has to make a decision to choose between ice cream and chocolate at a time. When the kid has got a limited pocket money of $10 only and ice cream cost is $8 whereas chocolate cost is $15. So, the kid will have to select ice cream only as the kid has only limited cash in hand. It is also an example of scarcity too. In this example, there is scarcity of money. NEEDS AND WANTS According to Macpherson (1977, p.27) defines needs and wants as The problem of needs and wants is both an ontological and a historical problem. NEEDS The basic requirement to satisfy human beings desire is included in needs. Needs are a basic necessity which are used in daily life like food, water, clothing, medicine, shelter etc. A mans survival is dependent on these needs only on the primary stage. In a modern society the basic needs keeps on changing according to the society standards. In case of modern society the basic needs of a man may differ from clothing to electricity, food to running water, shelter to furniture, medicine to electronic items etc. After talking about primary needs, secondary needs is the another topic which are needed to be explained. In case of secondary needs the necessity can be regarded as luxury. Like an automobile is a necessity in The United States. As the country grows to progress and development, the luxury too gets into necessity item for the people. At earlier stage cars could be only affordable by rich people. But at present, many of the middle level income people are also willing to afford it. Growth in a countries economy helps one to go beyond his or her limits. WANTS Wants include needs but it goes beyond that. Before we get deep into wants, we should understand the gap between needs and wants. According to Heibroner (1962, p.135) makes the statement that Consumer demand is no longer driven to essentials but hesitates before a whole range of possible luxuries and semi-luxuries. It means that now a days, consumer demand are unlimited and its no longer situated in a stage where consumer use to select between luxury and semi-luxury products. Due to the growth in economy, now most of the middle class people are also willing to afford luxury products. In a few years back was just a dream for them to afford the price for a luxury product. SCARCITY It is a stage when the wants are not satisfied up to the satisfaction of people. When the production is not enough or sufficient, to satisfy the demand for a particular commodity, the problem of scarcity arises. The scarcity keeps on changing from one society to various countries. As the society keeps on developing, the standard of living also gets higher. The demand also keeps on increasing according to the economy of a country and the satisfactory level of the society. So, the resources get scarcer to produce goods and services for the satisfaction of wants. OPPORTUNITY COST According to (Pearce, 1983, p.322) opportunity cost can be defined as opportunity cost can only arise in a world where the resources available to meet wants are limited so that all wants cannot be satisfied. In simple words, we could say that the wants and needs of human being are unlimited. But the resources available in the market are limited. And so, it is not possible to satisfy each and every wants and desires of human being. And thus, the topic opportunity cost arises in a world. Choosing the best alternative when there is scarcity for a particular product, it can be measured in opportunity cost for the satisfaction of the needs and wants. The value of the next best alternative which is available in the market is termed in as opportunity cost. ADVANTAGES OF OPPORTUNITY COST Opportunity cost provides a benefit of choosing one option over another. It may be personal or business related, opportunity cost arises when we select one option over another taking into consideration that the selected option has better advantage comparing with the another option. It helps one to study each and every facilities and satisfactory level of various products similar in nature, when the resources are limited. Opportunity cost provides us awareness towards choosing the best alternative product, which helps one to make fully informed and to make appropriate planning and decision making, which helps to maximize ones resources. Price of a product plays an important role in considering opportunity cost, as it allows us to consider and compare prices between each alternative product and to select the most effective and satisfactory product from the option. DISADVANTAGES OF OPPORTUNITY COST Opportunity cost consumes a lot of time to calculate the features, price, budget, success ratio, satisfactory level etc of a product and many times we do not have time to evaluate the benefits of every product to choose the best alternatives. The biggest disadvantage of opportunity cost from a economist point of view is that the opportunity cost is not considered in accounting process of any company accounts. And so, the cost of opportunity involved in a selection of a particular product and the alternative product which was not selected, cannot be taken into accounts for future studies at all from a financial point of view. PRACTICE OF OPPORTUNITY COST IN REALITY Opportunity cost is calculated everyday by a human being who has the desire to purchase any product available in the market. Whether it may be implicit or explicit cost, it is considered into opportunity cost itself. An example of opportunity cost in case of financial sector is as given below:- A decision maker must study the impact of opportunity costs deeply before making the decision. If we consider a situation of an investor, whether to make investment in stock market or mutual fund investment. If a person makes an investment of $20,000 in Mutual Fund Investment of any company for one year, then he thinks what if he had put the same $20,000 in stock market rather than mutual fund investment. Perhaps he may expect a return of 20% on stock, and then the investor has an opportunity cost of $4000.Mutual fund may only provide a return of 10% ($2000). Then the investor has to consider the risk taking capacity, if he goes directly with stock market. As stock market value keeps on changing from time to time and there is always a risk of losing the money. In case of mutual fund investment, investor finds it more safe and secure for his money. There is very less chance of losing the money as compared with stock market. Hence, the investor may take the decision on the best alternative to invest in after considering the opportunity cost. PRACTICES ADOPTED BY ORGANIZATION IN RELATION TO OPPORTUNITY COST Opportunity cost is very important concept in financial sector. Especially in business progress related strategies. Opportunity cost helps one to examine the details and to make a profitable deal in a business purchase and selling process. The opportunity cost is the value mentioned to the next best choice. When an organization makes a decision to purchase an asset over another, there the organization is transferring the opportunity cost offered by another asset which was not selected. From my personal investigation on use of opportunity cost in business world, opportunity cost helps the organization to manage time with fully efficiency. Opportunity cost helps the organization to manage time with full efficiency. Even the business organization has to analysis which productive material should be purchased or not. Evento study the profitability level of various materials before purchasing it. It helps in a better decision making. Examples of opportunity cost in Business organization: A company has $2 million to spend on a project. The company can decide to invest the money for advertisement purpose of the particular product at the time of launch in the market. If they decide to invest the money in production and to buy machinery and all then the opportunity cost gets lost for advertisement purpose. And if they decide to spend the money on advertisement purpose, then the opportunity cost will be the organizations ability to produce commodity with more efficiently. Another example for business organization is that an organization owns a building in which it operates its function and so, it does not have to pay any rent for the office room space and all. But from economist point of view the business owner might have kept the office space for current use itself or the office space might have given for rent for money. So, that the owner could have earned from the rent but if the owner will not consider or provide the office space for rent then there is a loss in business expenses according to economist view point. But in real life accountant of a business organization cannot provide any loss expenses due to opportunity cost in any accounts. Even though opportunity cost is not considered by the accountants in case of financial accounts and all. But it is very much important for a manager of the business organization to consider opportunity cost in relation to business strategies. A business manager must consider opportunity cost in calculating the opportunity expenses in the organization for analyzing the profitable deals available in the market. It also helps in utilizing limited resources efficiently. CONCLUSION The value of the next best alternative which is available in the market is termed in as opportunity cost. It means choosing or making a decision from different options. From a economist point of view when a kid has to make a decision to choose between ice cream and chocolate at a time. When the kid has got a limited pocket money of $10 only and ice cream cost is $8 and chocolate cost is $15. So, the kid will have to select ice cream only as the kid has limited cash in hand. It is also a better example for scarcity too. When we talk about opportunity cost, we must take scarcity, needs and wants also into consideration. As, the basic needs to satisfy human beings desire is included in needs. Needs are a basic requirements which are used in daily life like food, water, clothing, medicine, shelter etc. A mans survival is dependent on theseneeds only on the primary level. Saying about wants it includes needs but it goes beyond that. Now a days consumer demands are unlimited but the resources are limited. It makes the demand margin to get higher, comparing with supply or resources. Scarcity is a stage when the wants are not satisfied up to the mark. When the production is insufficient to satisfy the demand for a particular commodity the problem of scarcity arises. Opportunity cost provides a benefit of choosing the best option available in the market after concluding the advantages and disadvantages. It also provides awareness towards choosing a product. From a business concern opportunity cost helps to maintain time management to make business decisions. Even opportunity cost involves limitations like consumption of a lot of time and opportunity cost is not considered by accountants.

The Christâ€like Prospero of Shakespeare’s The Tempest Essay -- Tempest

The Christ–like Prospero of Shakespeare’s The Tempest It is not only the goodness of man which, according to traditional Christian concepts ,is not germane to himself. His very being, and his ultimate destiny stems alike from a principle that is infinitely beyond him (Morris 143). What was Prospero attempting to accomplish through the creation of the storm? Why would he go to that length of natural disaster, if the events would only end in an unharmed manner? Prospero. But are they, Ariel, safe? Ariel. Not a hair perished. On their sustaining garments not a blemish but fresher than before; (1.2.218-221). It was Prospero’s innate goodness that created a merciful storm, temporarily displacing his brother, the Duke, and the ship’s crew. Prospero use of magic allowed him to realize that his power surpassed the Duke’s. What might create empathy in the readers and viewers of this play is that Prospero had double the power of Antonio, the Duke and it showed through his merciful treatment of the storm’s creation. Prospero used intellect and did not operate on emotions solely, which could make the interpretation of the storm more philosophical, than vengeful. Because Prospero was a scholar, his plan became well thought out and the consequences were considered before hand, instead of acting on impulse, worrying about the outcome of those actions when it's too late. The power of nature was apparent to Prospero. His treatment of that power showed that he just wanted to return the rightful position of Duke to himself. "A man’s will, in order to be good, must be conformed to the Divine will†¦.a will must be referred to the common good as an end, and formally will the Divine and universal good in addition to a particular good"... ...peare's Plays. New York: Haskell House Publishers, 1964. Clark, Cumberland. Shakespeare and the Supernatural. New York: Haskell House Publishing, 1972. Encarta Online , Jan. 2001. Encarta> 16 March 2001. Greenblatt, Stephen. gen. ed. The Norton Shakespeare. New York: Norton Company, 1997. Knight, G. Wilson. Shakespeare and Religion: Essays of Forty Years. New York: Simon and Schuster Publishing, 1968. Knox , Bernard . The Tempest. New York: Penguin Group, 1987. "Magic". The Encyclopedia Britannica. 1971. ed. Morris, Ivor. Shakespeare's God. London: Rustin House, 1972. Smith, Hallet. Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Tempest. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1969. The New Oxford Annotated Bible. Bruce M. Metzger and Roland E. Murphy, ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Gender Social Conditioning

The Influence Of Education On Gender Socialization The common misconception about gender nowadays is that it has the same meaning as sex, something innate and natural. However, since 1970s, increasingly more anthropologists like Margaret Mead agree that gender is something that can be conditioned and is prone to socialization. Since a young age, possibly around two to three years old when an infant begins to develop higher cognitive functions, society bombards them with different signals that slowly condition them into a specific gender role: male or female.By gender role, I am referring to a set of attitudes or behaviors that is encouraged or at least expected of a person based on his or her gender. This also means that gender is malleable and a product of socio-cultural and historical contingencies – a social construct. Normal traits that we associate with a specific gender like aggressiveness with men and gentility with women are not as natural as they seem. In fact, these seemingly normative behaviors have been slowly fortifying our own perspectives about gender roles but also help shape people into a gendered being.Therefore, boys are raised to conform to male gender role and girls are brought up to fit the female gender role. In a ‘Western Society’ for example the US or Europe, education becomes an integral part of a child’s livelihood from a very young age. The influences from education that condition children into specific gendered beings cannot be ignored as school time accounts for most of a child or teenager’s life.I am highlighting that this is common in ‘the West’ because family expectations or religious traditions might be the bigger factor or influence for gender socialization in communitarian or other types of societies. I would like to start with an observation I made about this particular issue while looking through an English language textbook for beginners. In a chapter about occupations, I note d that most jobs associated with the public sphere usually carry male connotations with them, for example, fireman or policeman.Furthermore, the pictures depicting people in these public sphere jobs usually have male models. On the other hand, jobs related to servitude or obedience such as waitresses or nurses usually has female models portraying the jobs. This is where I first encountered an example of the issue of gender socialization in the education field. This particular example shows us that children from a young age have been conditioned to relate male with the public realm and also as dominant providers; whereas females are linked to obedience and serving others.This fits in with Sack’s argument that women are discouraged to work in the public realm where their work could be properly evaluated and valued. These subliminal signals from school along with their family’s structure and parents’ roles or occupations could reinforce the children’s expect ations for genders. This in turn would affect the children’s preference of jobs where they choose something that conforms to their genders’ characteristics and thus, the cycle of gender conditioning begins again.Another very important gender socialization process that occurs during a child’s educational years is self-socialization. I first noted this phenomenon when I saw a teenage girl being ridiculed for wanting to play basketball with the boys and thought of another situation when my male friend was mocked for participating in a drama production. The common trend I have noticed is that when an individual does not behave or conform to his or her own gender’s expectations, society often reacts in a disapproving or negative manner.Thus the ‘deviant’ individual through external pressure or other mechanisms like shame or punishment would hope to correct his or her own behavior so that it is more in tune with their gender expectations. From an e arly age, boys and girls would have started self-correcting their own behaviors so that they received less negative feedback from the external reality. This, however, reinforces the differences seen by children between male and female and ultimately leading to the conclusion that you can only behave like one or the other.The duality of gender actually limits opportunities and potential an individual can have because if that specific skill or quality is not within a gender’s characteristics, it might be self-corrected and discarded through self-socialization. We can even see an example or offshoot of this issue in the homosexuality debate occurring right now, men who are acting in a supposingly ‘devious manner’ are being discriminated against not because of any biological reasons but because of socio-cultural pressure to conform to normative gender expectations.This process of self-socialization starts from a relatively early age to shape us into what our society constitutes as male or female genders. Lastly, another aspect of education that has long-lasting effect on forming gendered beings is the way a classroom is ran and methods of teaching. There seems to be an emerging trend of a new style of teaching which uses a more open and interactive system, we see this in new schools such as ‘School Without Walls’. However, the majority of public or private schools in the US, or even around the world in this case, still follows a strict guideline on how students should behave in a classroom.Desired qualities in an ideal student from a teacher’s perspective would be obedience, quietness, maturity, passiveness and patience. In a system where examinations and tests account for the majority of the grading criteria, a student behaving according to these qualities would do better than a student who is more active, ‘rebellious’ or passionate. One might notice that the characteristics that would allow a student to succee d in school are relatively feminine.Especially considering that girls are thought to develop at a faster pace than boys and reach full cognitive maturity sooner. The female gender might have an intrinsic advantage at doing better in our education system over male students who are often described as more energetic, easily distracted and physical. The ways the education system functions and evaluates allow more matured female students to focus and excel in studies while more physical male students would start to lose interest in education all together.This is a trend we have started to notice in the US where the dropout rate for male students is 50% higher than female students in a specific state; the significant gap shows that the education system clearly has different effects on male and female. To sum up how our way of teaching in classrooms can form gendered beings, one can say that boys are ‘discouraged’ from education or demotivated due to the education systemâ€⠄¢s inadaptability with intrinsic characteristics usually associated with male children such as aggressiveness and spirited.This in turn would lead male children to focus more on their own physical aspect while female children who have better chances at completing school, would have less external pressure and could focus on their own mental capabilities and schoolwork. Thus, this social process successfully highlighted the gender differences and strengthens notions about how genders are formed socially. This particular process could later on lead to selecting careers that are clearly relegated to a specific gender.The reinforcement of ideas about the duality of gender into our children’s minds would help them form their own concepts about gender roles and potential. From a children’s textbook to how a class is ran, it seems that our society is crammed with subliminal or direct signals that slowly shape us into our gender roles or to become a ‘gendered beingâ€⠄¢. According to Margaret Mead, gender is something that varies from culture to culture and the gender roles we have established here might not be the norm for another society.Her work shows that gender roles or expectations are complex products of socio-cultural, economical and historical contingencies and not just something innate in our biological differences between male and female. Following her idea, I realized that in our society, a lot of these gender socialization processes have been institutionalized and even the smallest things could help form us into the gendered beings we are today. Hence, I started at an early stage of cognitive development where the mind is the most ‘absorbent’ so to speak.In conclusion, I’ve found out that not only is the education system itself very much reinforcing these gendered ideas but as the children progress in this system, they also increasingly bolster these ideas in their peers through self-socialization, somewhat simil ar to a mutual exchange of ideas. Therefore, one can understand that the influence and effect of the educational system cannot be overlooked on how gendered ideas and eventually gendered beings are formed as these ideas carry themselves into the ‘real’ and ‘adult’ society where these gender expectations are then passed on again to the next generation like a cycle.Bibliography: Abu-Lughod, Lila. Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society. Berkeley: University of California, 1986. Print. Mack, Julie. â€Å"A Closer Look At The Gender Gap In High School Dropout. † The Kalamazoo Gazette. N. p. , Apr. 2012. Web. 20 Feb. 2013. Mead, Margaret. Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies. New York: HarperCollins, 2001. Print. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. Mack, Julie. â€Å"A Closer Look At The Gender Gap In High School Dropout. † The K alamazoo Gazette. N. p. , Apr. 2012. Web. 20 Feb. 2013.

Relationship of Neanderthals to Modern Humans

Relationship of Neanderthals to Modern Humans After extracting ancient DNA from the 40,000-year-old bones of Neanderthals, scientists have obtained a draft sequence of the Neanderthal genome, yielding important new insights into the evolution of modern humans. No other ancient people have aroused more controversy and confusion over the last century and a half than have the Neanderthals (3,4). There is an on-going debate as to whether they should be considered Homo sapiens.While the idea that modern humans originated in Africa and spread out to other parts of the world is widely accepted, several scenarios have been proposed to account for the replacement of neanderthal populations. The multi regional hypothesis holds that neanderthal populations in Eurasia and Africa were held together by gene flow. Fossil and genetic evidence supports an African origin for Modern Humans (1,3,5,9,10).A decade after scientists first cracked the human genome, researchers announced that they have done t he same for Neanderthals, the species of hominid that existed from roughly 400,000 to 30,000 years ago, when their closest relatives, early modern humans, may have driven them to extinction (1,3,5,9,10). Led by ancient-DNA expert Svante Paabo of Germany's Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, scientists reconstructed about 60% of the Neanderthal genome by analyzing tiny chains of ancient DNA extracted from bone fragments of three female Neanderthals excavated in the late 1970s and early '80s from a cave in Croatia (6,8).The bones are 38,000 to 44,000 years old. The genetic information turned up some intriguing findings, indicating, for instance, that at some point after early modern humans migrated out of Africa, they mingled and mated with Neanderthals, possibly in the Middle East or North Africa as much as 80,000 years ago (5,7,10). If that is the case, it occurred significantly earlier than scientists who support the interbreeding hypothesis would have expected. Com parisons with DNA from modern humans show that some Neanderthal DNA has survived to the present (3,4,7).Moreover, by analyzing ancient DNA alongside modern samples, scientists were able to identify a handful of genetic changes that evolved in modern humans sometime after their ancestors and Neanderthals diverged, 440,000 to 270,000 years ago (2,4). Researchers compared the Neanderthal genome with the genomes of five living people: one San from southern Africa, one Yoruba from West Africa, one Papua New Guinean, one Han Chinese and one French person (2,4,6).Scientists discovered that 1% to 4% of the latter three DNA samples is shared with Neanderthals — proof that Neanderthals and early modern humans interbred. The absence of Neanderthal DNA in the genomes of the two present-day Africans indicates that interbreeding occurred after some root population of early modern humans left Africa but before the species evolved into distinct groups in Europe and Asia (1,3,5,9,10). All stu dies of Neanderthal genomic DNA use material obtained from fossilized Neanderthal bones that are tens of thousands of years old.As one might expect, the quality of the material that can be recovered from such specimens is very poor, as DNA degrades over time. Consequently, there is wide variability in DNA preservation among available Neanderthal specimens, and most Neanderthal bones yield no usable DNA (2,3,4). When present, Neanderthal genomic DNA is recovered in short (50- to 100-bp) fragments (2,3,4) The information content of Neanderthal DNA is also degraded: Individual nucleotides are subject to chemical modification, with deamination of cytosine to uracil the most common lesion (2,4).Moreover, the fragments of Neanderthal genomic DNA are mixed with microbial contaminants that constitute >90% of the recovered DNA. The amount of DNA damage and microbial contamination are dependent on ambient environmental conditions: The ancient specimens that have provided the most intact DNA a re mammoth remains recovered from permafrost. These specimens often include preserved hair shafts and soft tissues from which relatively high-quality DNA can be recovered (2,4,5).None of the Neanderthal specimens providing the DNA for whole-genome sequencing approach this level of preservation (2,4,5,6). In addition to these challenges, ancient specimens frequently become contaminated with modern human DNA during handling and DNA extraction (2). This poses obvious problems for distinguishing modern human from Neanderthal DNA, since the frequency of single-base mismatches between the two genomes is estimated to be

These famous people failed at first, then found success

These famous people failed at first, then found success Ever get discouraged because you feel like nothing’s going your way? Or maybe you’ve been at it for a few years and just feel that you aren’t where you should- or want to- be. Chances are, you’re being too hard on yourself and not allowing for the normal ebb and flow of failure that leads to most success. Don’t believe it? We have proof. Here are 10 people who totally failed at first and then went on to achieve great success, fame, and fortune! Use them for inspiration when next you’re getting down on yourself.1. R.H. MacyYou probably don’t know this guy by name alone, but chances are you’ve shopped at one of his stores. That’s right, the founder of Macy’s department stores managed to fail at seven early business attempts before landing on the perfect breakthrough with his first NYC store.2. Bill GatesFirst, he dropped out of Harvard. Then, his first business was a failed company you’ve likely never heard of called Traf-o-Data. But his next company, Microsoft, did much better. Much,  much better.3. Albert EinsteinAs a kid, Einstein didn’t speak until he was four years old. In fact, he couldn’t read until the age of seven- his parents and teachers thought he might not be very bright at all. He was expelled from school and denied admission to Zurich Polytechnic. But then he went on to become such a success in his field that his name is now used as a synonym for â€Å"genius† all over the world.4. Steven SpielbergSpielberg was rejected from USC’s School of Theater, Film, Television three times, then dropped out of Cal State, Long Beach. He eventually went back and finished school in 2002, but only after becoming the big-budget award-winning smash success he is today.  5. J.K. RowlingThe billion dollar empress of the Harry Potter franchise? She was a divorced, depressed, and penniless single mother attending school while on welfare. Now she’s one of the richest women in the world.6. Tyler PerryFrom a rough abusive childhood, high school expulsion, and two attempted suicides, Tyler Perry went on to work several jobs and try to build his career. At one point, he sunk everything he had into his first film, which flopped spectacularly. He kept at it, though (even sleeping in his car) and now he’s one of entertainment’s most respected and highest paid men.7. Emily BluntThe award-winning acclaimed actress had a terrible stutter until the age of 14. But Blunt was encouraged to do theatre, which changed everything. Through hard work and gigs that asked her to play different characters and use different accents, she was able to overcome her stutter and become an international film star of the first degree.8. Vera WangFashion designer Vera Wang failed first at figure skating when she didn’t make the 1968 Olympic team. She then became a Vogue editor, but was passed over for a coveted promotion. At the age of 40, she s tarted designing wedding gowns and, well, the rest is history. She’s now worth over a billion dollars. She’s even come full circle by designing costumes for Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan.  9. Lucille BallEveryone loves â€Å"Lucy,† but before this sitcom star was tearing it up with husband Desi Arnaz on cable, she was considered the â€Å"Queen of B Movies† because the only work she could get was on second-tier films people found silly. She’s now remembered as one of the funniest and most accomplished comediennes of all time.

Its all in the family essays

Its all in the family essays A part of family structure is family dynamics, which together create a family unit. Family, by dictionary definition, means the parents and children alone; the children as distinguished from the parents. This reveals how the relationships within the family are important. It is the Parents and Children alone and how they interact that can exhibit a family tie. When a parent and child connect, it starts a thread in the bracelet of that certain family, and, depending on how many bonds there are in the family, shows how tightly woven that bracelet is. The bonds hold the family together. The novel, Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, illustrates a family in which the members tend to have small bonds with those that are similar to them. My family, on the other hand, demonstrates the opposite, where the differences bring members together to form more secured bonds. A weakness in a family is the difference between parents and it is the most tremendous feebleness when it comes to the point where everything that is being said has a second meaning. When the reader first opens the novel, he/she reads a dialogue between Mrs. Bennet and Mr. Bennet. It is a typical dialogue for the Bennets. There is so much confutation that the reader knows from that point on that the Bennet's relationship is no "great" relationship. Since Mrs. Bennet is a phony, claustrophobic, sheltered woman, and Mr. Bennet is a funny, sarcastic, realistic man, the two tend to disagree a lot. Mrs. Bennet believes she is perfectly sane and that the most important thing is to have her children married off well. Although, Mr. Bennet sees it as a huge joke and believes the girls should marry whom they want and should spend their time doing what they please. Even on the first page of the entire novel Mrs. Bennet is over excited about Bingley's arrival; "OH! Single, my dear, to be sur e! A single man of good fortune; four ...

5 Bad Ways to Demonstrate Your Interest in a College

5 Bad Ways to Demonstrate Your Interest in a College Demonstrated interest is an important and often overlooked piece of the college admissions puzzle (read more: What Is Demonstrated Interest?). Colleges want to admit students who are eager to attend: such students help the college get a high yield from their pool of admitted students, and students with strong demonstrated interest are less likely to transfer and more likely to become loyal alums. For some good ways to succeed on this dimension of your college application, check out these eight ways to demonstrate your interest. Unfortunately, many applicants (and sometimes their parents) who are over-eager to demonstrate interest make some bad decisions. Below are five approaches you should not use to demonstrate your interest. These methods could hurt your chances of getting an acceptance letter rather than help. Sending Material the College Did Not Request Many colleges invite you to send in whatever supplemental materials you want to share so that the school can get to know you better. This is especially true for liberal arts colleges with holistic admissions. If a college opens the door for extra materials, dont hesitate to send along that poem, performance recording, or short athletic highlights video. That said, many colleges and universities specifically state in their admissions guidelines that they will not consider supplemental materials. When this is the case, the admissions folks can get annoyed when they receive that package with a draft of your novel, that letter of recommendation when the school doesnt consider letters, or that album of photos of you traveling through Central America. The school is likely to discard these items or waste valuable time and resources mailing them back to you. What You Think Youre Saying: Look at me and how interesting I am! Im so eager to attend your school that I sent you a giant envelope full of extra stuff! What You Are Actually Saying: Look at me! I dont know how to follow directions! Also, I dont respect your time. Im sure you can spend an extra 45 minutes on my application! Trust me, when schools say they wont consider supplemental materials, they are telling the truth and you should follow their admissions guidelines. Calling to Ask Questions Whose Answers are Readily Available Some students are so desperate to make a personal contact in the admissions office that they come up with weak reasons for calling. If you have a legitimate and important question that is not answered anywhere on the schools website or admissions materials, then you can certainly pick up the phone. But do not call to ask if the school has a football team or honors program. Dont call to ask how big the school is and whether or not students live on campus. This type of information is readily available online if you take a few minutes to look. What You Think Youre Saying: Look how interested I am in your college! Im taking the time to call and ask questions! What Youre Actually Saying: Look at me! I dont know how to research and read! The admissions folks are remarkably busy people in the fall and winter, so a rather pointless phone call is likely to be an annoyance, especially at selective schools. Harassing Your Admissions Representative No applicants deliberately harass the person who holds the key to their admission, but some students inadvertently behave in ways that are unwelcome if not uncomfortable from the perspective of the admissions staff. Do not email the office daily with well wishes or fun facts about yourself. Do not send gifts to your admissions representative. Do not show up at the admissions office frequently and unannounced. Do not call unless you have a truly important question. Do not sit outside the admissions building with a protest sign that says Admit Me! What You Think Youre Saying: Look how persistent and clever I am! I really, really, really, really want to attend your college! What Youre Actually Saying: Look at me! I enjoy disrupting your day, and Im also a bit creepy with stalker-like tendencies. Having a Parent Call for You This one is common. Many parents have the admirable quality of wanting to do all they can to help their kids succeed. Many parents also discover that their kids are either too shy, too disinterested, or too busy playing Grand Theft Auto to advocate for themselves in the college admissions process. The obvious solution is to advocate for them. College admissions offices often get more calls from parents than students, just as college tour guides often get grilled more by the parents. If this type of parent sounds like you, just keep in mind the obvious: the college is admitting your child, not you; the college wants to get to know the applicant, not the parent. What You Think Youre Saying: Let me ask questions to demonstrate how interested my child is in your college. What Youre Actually Saying: My kid is so disinterested in college that Im doing all the work of choosing a school and applying. My child lacks initiative. A parents role in the admission process is a challenging balancing act. You need to be there to motivate, support, and inspire. The application and questions about the school, however, should be coming from the applicant. (Financial issues can be an exception to this rule since paying for school is often more of a parents burden than the students.) Applying Early Decision When a College Isnt Your First Choice Early Decision (as opposed to Early Action) is a binding agreement. If you apply through an Early Decision program, you are telling the college that it is your absolute first choice school, and that you will withdraw all other applications should you be admitted. Because of this, Early Decision is one of the best indicators of demonstrated interest. You have made a contractual and financial agreement indicating your unquestionable desire to attend. Some students, however, apply Early Decision in an effort to improve their chances even when they arent sure if they want to attend the school. Such an approach often leads to broken promises, lost deposits, and frustration in the admissions office. What You Think Youre Saying: Look, youre my first choice school! What Youre Actually Saying (if you break your ED contract): Im dishonest and selfish, and you might want to contact competitor colleges to inform them of my breech of contract. A Final Word Everything Ive discussed herecalling the admissions office, applying Early Decision, sending supplemental materialscan be a helpful and appropriate part of your application process. Whatever you do, however, make sure you are following the colleges stated guidelines, and always put yourself in the shoes of an admissions officer. Ask yourself, do your actions make you look like a thoughtful and interested candidate, or do they make you appear inconsiderate, thoughtless, or grasping?

Haven't decide it yet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Haven't decide it yet - Essay Example Convergence in the world of media is about having a collusion between two or more businesses that uses the Internet as a medium in order to attract more consumers to patronize their products and services. By increasing the scope of the services a telecommunication is offering its target consumers, the company is creating competitive advantages against its competetitors. relationship into the practice of franchising within the same company. In the book of Henry Jenkins entitled â€Å"Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide†, the author discussed convergence as a cultural process that integrates the use of images, sounds, brands, and business relationship among the different media system. Considering the fact that the business relationship among the different types of media system is being integrated, this study will conduct a primary and secondary research to examine and determine how it is possible to franchise media in a telecommunication company. The total number of Internet users in the United States has reached 427,569,939 or 46.1% of America’s total population as of 2009 (Internet World Stats). Because of the continuously increasing number of Internet users all over the world, the existence of the Internet has been classified by Jenkins as an â€Å"active medium† (Jenkins, Confessions of an Aca-Fan). In the absence of integrating the telecommunication services with the access to the Internet, the presence of the mobile phones are considered a â€Å"passive medium† (ibid). Based on the recent Internet World Stats report, the total number of Internet mobile broadband subscribers in the U.S. market has reached a total of 69,902,289 as of the end of second quarter of 2009 (Internet World Stats). In line with this, the 0.92% increase in the total number of mobile broadband users signifies the need for telecommunication companies to keep on improving the mobile services they render to the public. Convergence in media is referring to the

Maksim Litvinov And Soviet Foreign Policy During The 1930s Essay

Maksim Litvinov And Soviet Foreign Policy During The 1930s - Essay Example When the party separated into two factions, he joined the Bolsheviks faction and formed a strong bond with several party members; one of these was Joseph Stalin (Roberts, 1953). Subsequently, Litvinov spent the next fifteen years journeyed west Europe on varying tasks to instill and strengthen the Bolshevik ideology. He adopted many guises and aliases to help him steer clear of the police. Among his errands were smuggling guns to aid revolutionaries in Russia. He was arrested in Paris in 1907 after a bank heist masterminded by Stalin. Though many of his attempts to help the cause were unsuccessful, hid unwavering and constant labors made him a hero in the eyes of his comrades (Roberts, 1953). After the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution concluded, Litvinov campaigned the cause in Britain but was expulsed because of the British discontent over the treatment of compatriot Bruce Lockhart in Moscow. In addition, he was also evicted from Britain because of his pacifist beliefs. After returning to Moscow, he was given the position of Commissariat of Foreign Affairs. He handled many significant and high-profile assignments for his government, notably bringing the Soviet-Estonian clashes to a standstill and initiating talks with the President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson (Roberts, 1953). Four years after his assignation, he was promoted to deputy commissar of foreign affairs in 1921, under the eye of Georgi ChicherinLitvinov's relationship with Chicherin were turbulent, as they both held opposing views on policies, as well as having contrasting and strong personalities. In spite of this, Litvinov's career as a diplomat flourished under Chicherin, whom he served for almost a decade. In 1928, he initiated proposals focusing on total disarmament, instead of following standard formulas or ratios favored by the USSR. He later became the commissar when his superior, Chicherin, was forced to retire due to ill health (Roberts, 1953). CAREER HIGHLIGHTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS In many standards and principles, Litvinov deserved his place in Soviet history because of the degree of successes he garnered in the name of his country which also played and have a huge impact on other nations. When Hitler ascended to power through the powerhouse generated by his Nazi Party, Litvinov immediately recognized the significance of this event (Dunn, 1988). In 1933, he spoke of a need to change the direction of Soviet foreign policy to counteract the influence of Nazi Germany under Hitler. He managed these changes through the establishment of diplomatic contact with the United States and other Western powers. He was also instrumental in the institutionalization of the League of Nations, the predecessor of the United Nations. His conviction in resisting and containing fascism was well-known. In addition, his name was etched in the global spheres when he became the proponent of collective security (Dunn, 1988). TRADE AGREEMENTS FOR SOVIET FOREIGN POLICY AND GOVERNMENT RECOGNITION When Stalin came into power, he restructured USSR's policies towards foreign trade in order to abolish and curtail free and private trade practices. In anticipation of the irregular and what he deemed disruptive market forces that come with foreign trade, Stalin placed all activity and policies on foreign trade under state control. In addition, Stalin created monopolies on particular goods, with

Internet-Based Company and IT Systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Internet-Based Company and IT Systems - Essay Example For instance, Google recently introduced "Google My Business," a platform that gives companies the opportunity to interact with customers. The company uses this application to interact with customers. The "Google My Business" integrates a variety of tools, such as Google Maps, Search, Hangouts, Insights and Google +. These tools allow business to manage their online presence at once (Nassivera, 2014). Through My Business, companies can manage information and respond faster to customer reviews. Additionally, the service enables businesses to have easy access to data about customers and their engagements. This implies that businesses using the IT tool are able to engage easily with their customers and respond faster to their queries, thereby helping build better customer relations. My Business tool also enables companies to add photos and videos about their businesses and respond to customer reviews with a lot of ease. Moreover, companies using the My Business are able to connect to customers through Google Hangout and Google+, thereby helping companies interact better with their customers (Nassivera, 2014). In the end, the companies are able to maintain close contact with customers thereby helping build a better customer relation and loyalty. Nassivera, J. (2014, June 12). Google introduces My Business service to improve company and customer relationship. HNGN, p. 1

Human computer interaction Annotated Bibliography

Human computer interaction - Annotated Bibliography Example Selection scheme tests showed the amount of buttons and kind of pointing device to select text. Icon tests showed the optimal shapes for recognition. Graphics tests showed that the line drawings interface needed revision. The focus was on basic users of computers who relied on recognition largely. The system was to be kept as simple as possible so that learning did not pose much of a problem. The studies conducted were largely qualitative in design except for the selection schemes that were tabulated statistically in terms of errors during usage. Even the statistical portions of the study were not well documented enough to warrant sturdy critique. The study is largely irrelevant in terms of HCI today as the study represents basic and early developments in HCI. The paper can however be considered to be watershed as it addresses major questions for development of user interfaces. The results of the paper are also significant as modern trends in user interface creation are similar to th e findings of the paper. Moreover the paper displays some bias as it only investigates a limited number of human cognition areas. The total study spanned six years and multiple tests which indicates that more issues could have been addressed. The paper is highly relevant to HCI as it represents the trends in the early development of HCI in general and the early development of graphical user interfaces in particular. The paper represents a shift from qualitative investigation methods to quantities methods. In itself this paper is symbolic of the transformation from qualitative investigation to quantitative investigation in the field of HCI. The paper is also reflective of how small segregated development has helped to make HCI and user interface design what they are today. Bush The author of this paper is a respected scientist in the scientific community of the Allies. The paper is set in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War and the author concentrates on the large amounts of learning and research produced during the war effort and the inaccessibility posed by the large volumes of information available. Towards the middle the author begins to envision the kind of devices required to access the large banks of information with the greatest convenience. The idea is further developed to envision a device resembling a modern computer in principle but differing largely in terms of design and operability. The author is confined to the use of hardware based techniques to achieve large advances in user interfaces. The chief methodology utilised by the author is speculation based on advances in user interfaces and HCI as far as the Second World War. The excessive utilisation of speculation as the chief method discounts the credibility of the paper to a large degree. The author’s findings are nothing more than mere ideas with little practical ground to bank on. The paper cannot be declared to be a watershed as there is little evidence that the advances i magined by the author were put to practical use immediately. Instead the evolution of HCI and user interfaces went through multiple other stages before it got to its current state. The paper can be related in its speculation to modern technology especially for indexing although the author’s methods for indexing are irrelevant today. Moreover the compression of data speculated by the author is highly relevant to ground realities today although again the author fails to provide any real solutions for it. The study is biased towards qualitative speculation rather than taking facts and building on them. There is not quantitative data or research anywhere in the paper at all. The paper can be seen as very early attempts at envisioning modern user interfaces

A reflection paper on a book chapter Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

A reflection on a book chapter - Research Paper Example The traditional approach of making comparison in relation to politics employed speculative and normative tools, with Aristotle leading in that pursuit. This comparison made up the pre-modern comparative politics. While the specific start of modernity remains a diverse debate, comparative politics in the modern times dates back to the emergence of various social science disciplines like sociology and political science (Caramani, 2008; Ch.1). Following this, political science is regarded as a young professional practice due to the fact that modernity is associated with the 21st Century. On the other hand, post-modernism is seemingly an upgrade of classical modernity. In this case, political comparisons are systematic and clearly organized, thus the argument that post-modernism is a stage within the process of modernity. This whole pursuit cannot fail to importantly account for political influence across the identified three periods prior to modernity. Contributions towards comparative politics are diverse and dynamic. History has it that many historians and modernists have the shaped comparative politics over time. The highlighted individuals in Chapter One; The Evolution of Comparative Politics are just but a few who have significantly contributed towards the evaluation and assessment of comparative politics throughout pre-modern, modern and post-modern times (Caramani, 2008; Ch.1). Although political undertakings are one of the most volatile practices in the contemporary world, the ideas, concepts and theories aired in the chapter are still relevant. The contemporary times in political context can be said to be modern in nature and paving way to post-modernism. Systematic comparisons of political aspects are evident today, with key players in the political field drawing relevant political concepts from political experts of the past. Therefore, the applicability of political comparisons in current times remains a significant

Immanuel Kant Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Immanuel Kant - Essay Example The memo has obviously been overlooked by the secretary. It is also obvious that the information will be broadcast later to all of us. My friends, ignorant of this, plan a weekend road trip, and set out early on Friday evening. I find myself excusing myself from the trip on the pretext of a bad cold. The next day, I put in my time at the office. On Monday, the Manager offers me the promotion. My silence is definitely an ethical decision. My motive of securing the promotion makes me hide the information in the memo from Tom. I am aware that this action is in conflict with my duty as a friend. However, I justify my action on the basis that I am not responsible for the road trip: in fact the idea is Tom’s. Tom voluntarily goes on the trip. I am not using Tom as a tool to achieve my aims. My duty to myself overrides my obligation to help a friend, which is an imperfect duty. While my action may not be morally right on the basis of Kant’s categorical imperative, it can be partially justified according to Kant’ s second formulation. However, I must confess that my action makes me uncomfortable and I feel rather guilty about

A reflection paper on a book chapter Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

A reflection on a book chapter - Research Paper Example The traditional approach of making comparison in relation to politics employed speculative and normative tools, with Aristotle leading in that pursuit. This comparison made up the pre-modern comparative politics. While the specific start of modernity remains a diverse debate, comparative politics in the modern times dates back to the emergence of various social science disciplines like sociology and political science (Caramani, 2008; Ch.1). Following this, political science is regarded as a young professional practice due to the fact that modernity is associated with the 21st Century. On the other hand, post-modernism is seemingly an upgrade of classical modernity. In this case, political comparisons are systematic and clearly organized, thus the argument that post-modernism is a stage within the process of modernity. This whole pursuit cannot fail to importantly account for political influence across the identified three periods prior to modernity. Contributions towards comparative politics are diverse and dynamic. History has it that many historians and modernists have the shaped comparative politics over time. The highlighted individuals in Chapter One; The Evolution of Comparative Politics are just but a few who have significantly contributed towards the evaluation and assessment of comparative politics throughout pre-modern, modern and post-modern times (Caramani, 2008; Ch.1). Although political undertakings are one of the most volatile practices in the contemporary world, the ideas, concepts and theories aired in the chapter are still relevant. The contemporary times in political context can be said to be modern in nature and paving way to post-modernism. Systematic comparisons of political aspects are evident today, with key players in the political field drawing relevant political concepts from political experts of the past. Therefore, the applicability of political comparisons in current times remains a significant

Cytochrome b6f complex Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Cytochrome b6f complex - Essay Example As one of the major photosynthetic protein that is widely been explored in the study of biochemistry, the cytochrome b6f complex is commonly found not only in green algae but also in cyanobacteria (Baniulis et al., 2009; Whitelegge et al., 2002). Each time the plants undergo photosynthesis, the cytochrome b6f complex plays a significant role in the process of transferring the electro-chemical proton 11 across the thylakoid membrane (Laisk, Nedbal and Govindjee, 2009, p. 159). In other words, the thylakoid membrane in plants is responsible in introducing some protons within the close surroundings of the thylakoid. As part of analyzing the biochemistry and role of cytochrome b6f complex in the photosynthesis of plants, this study will purposely gather and make use of several scientific-based literature in discussing not only the relationship between the Cytochrome b6f complex and its biochemical structure but also the basic modes of enzyme catalysis in relation to some specific example s. Relationship between Functions of Cytochrome b6f Complex to their Structures To be able to clearly explain the relationship betwen the functions of cytochrome b6f complex and its biochemical structure, it is necessary to first explore the biochemical structure of cytochrome b6f complex followed by discussing the main function of cytochrome b6f complex. ... According to Whitelegge et al. (2002), the structure of cytochrome b6f complex is complex due to the fact that cytochrome b6f complex is composed of as much as eight (8) different polypeptide subunits (Baniulis et al., 2009; Dashdorj et al., 2005; Genji et al., 2004). In line with this, several studies strongly suggest that cytochrome b6f complex is complex since it is composed of a total of seven (7) prosthetic groups (Baniulis et al., 2008; Cramer et al., 2004). Several studies explained that the structure of cytochrome b6f complex is composed of four large subunits between 17 to 32 kDa such as the membrane bound c-type cytochrome f (PetA), cytochrome b6 (PetB), the Rieske iron-sulfur protein which is also known as the Rieske ISP (PetC), and the subunit IV (PetD) (Baniulus et al., 2011; Cramer, Hasan and Yamashita, 2011; Yan and Cramer, 2003; Schneider et al., 2002; Whitelegge et al., 2002). According to Baniulus et al. (2011), petA, petB, petC, and petD are classified as large sub units that can interact well with the redox-active prosthetic groups. Serving as the â€Å"picket fence† type of structure that surrounds the core of cytochrome b6f complex’s four (4) larger subunits, the structure of cytochrome b6f complex is also composed of four (4) other hydrophobic subunits (3.2 to 4.2 kDa) which include the PetG, PetL, PetM, and PetN (Baniulus et al., 2011; Whitelegge et al., 2002). For example, Kugler et al. (1998) mentioned that the chloroplast cytochrome b6f complex is composed of seven (7) different subunits including very small proteins such as PetG, PetL, and PetM proteins. After conducting an ex-ray structure analysis, Genji et al. (2004) found out that the biochemical structure of cytochrome b6f complex in blue-green algae is crystal in form. Because of

Alternative Methods of Lactic Acid Production

Alternative Methods of Lactic Acid Production Lactic acid is a hydroxycarboxylic acid, which is widely used in food, pharmaceutical, leather, cosmetic and textile industries. It can be polymerized to biodegradable and biocompatible plastic, i.e. polylactic acid, which has environment-friendly and great potential for replacing petrochemical plastic. Industrially, it can be produced by either chemical synthesis or microbial fermentation. Presently, approximately 90% of lactic acid was produced by lactic acid bacteria fermentation. Fermentative production has the advantage that by choosing a strain of LA bacteria producing only one of the isomer and optically pure product. The widely used substrates for lactic acid production are pure sugar, which are expensive. It is also possible to use lignocellulosic biomass, especially by product or waste materials from agriculture and industrial waste as substrates for fermentation. Therefore, the use of alternative substrates, low-cost and raw materials become thus of special interest for la ctic acid production. The present study the utilization of industrial wastes and lignocellulosic as an alternative substrate for lactic acid production. Lactic acid Lactic acid (2-hydroxy propionic acid) is a chemical compound that a role in several biochemical processes. It is a carboxylic acid with a chemical formula of C3H6O3. Lactic acid is chiral and has two optical isomers as shown in figure 1. Lactic acid is organic solvent that can dissolve in water but insoluble in other organic solvents. Other properties of lactic acid are presented in Table 1. Table 1. Physical properties of lactic acid. Parameter Chemical formula C3H6O3 Molecular weight 90.08 Acidity (pKa) 3.85 Melting point L : 53  °C D : 53  °C D/L : 16.8  °C Boiling point 82  °C at 0.5 mm Hg 122  °C at 14 mm Hg Dissociation constant, Ka at 25  ° C 1.37 x 10-4 Heat of combustion, Hc 1361 KJ/mole Specific Heat, Cp at 20  ° C 190 J/mole/  °C Source: Vickroy (1985) Lactic acid can be produced by chemical synthesis or microbial fermentation. The chemical synthesis produced a racemic mixture of D, L lactic acid. Presently, about 90% of lactic acid made by LAB fermentation and the remainder is produced synthetically by the hydrolysis of lactonitrile. The advantage of fermentation technologies is possible to use renewable resources as substrates, such as starch and cellulose in fermentative production. In figure 2 described the diagram of commercial uses and applications of lactic acid. Food applications reported for approximately 85% of the total lactic acid, while the nonfood industrial applications reported for only 15% of the demand. Alternative substrate for lactic acid production In fermentation process, lactic acid bacteria (LAB) need carbon source, essentially simple sugars and nitrogen source, as vital nutrients for their growths. The widely used substrates for lactic acid production are refined sugar, which are expensive. Therefore, attention has turned towards lignocellulosic biomass and industrial wastes to provide a source of carbohydrate for lactic acid production. Lignocellulosic Lignocellulosic resources are generally considered to represent an interesting and inexpensive raw material for microbial fermentation of lactic acid production, as they are renewable and cheap. A schematic diagram of the procedures for the preparation of lignocellulosic hydrolyzates is provided in figure 3. Wee and Ryu (2009) reported the production of lactic acid from lignocellulosic, glucose and lignocellulosic hydrolyzates were used as the carbon source. The concentration of lactic acid decreases with increases in the dilution rate. Generally, the cell concentration obtained from lignocellulosic hydrolyzates media was approximately 10-15% lower than observed with glucose media. The lactic acid yields were provided at more than 0.90 gg-1 the result are shown in table 2. The lignocellulosic hydrolyzates have to be detoxified in order to reduce these inhibitory effects prior to fermentation, as some of the by-products released during the pretreatment (Mussatto and Roberto, 2004). Ruengruglikit and Hang (2003), reported the lactic acid production from lignocellulosic materials by R. oryzae. After an enzymatic hydrolysis and 48-h fermentation, lactic acid yields of 0.3 gg-1. Food wastes Food wastes, which are supplied at lower costs, high in moisture and rich in carbohydrates. They could be suitable alternative substrate for lactic acid production. The food wastes contain polysaccharides as well as various oligosaccharides. Ohkouchi and Inoue (2005) reported the production of lactic acid from food wastes. The composition of food wastes is shown in Table 3. The optimum pH for L (+)-lactic acid production by L. manihotivorans LMG 18011 was 5.0 and under these condition the L (+)-lactic acid was 19.5 g produced from 200 g food wastes Kim et al. (2003) determined lactic acid production from food wastes by simultaneous saccharification fermentation technical. The effect of food wastes concentration on lactic acid production as shown in figure 4. In figure 4, the highest yield was obtained from 65 g/L of food waste with a final lactic acid concentration of 44.3 g/L, while the highest lactic acid concentration of 79.7 g/L was obtained from 145 g/L of food waste. Pineapple waste Most of the work using starch, beet molasses and sugar cane as the fermentation media for lactic acid production. Recently, Uno (2003) used grape invertase to attractive the production of lactic acid utilizing pineapple syrup as substrate. The efficiency of lactic acid production has been an affect from various aspect and ability to use fruit waste. Idris and Suzana (2005) reported the liquid pineapple waste, it is feasible to use produce lactic acid by immobilized L. delbrueckii. The maximum lactic acid can be obtained when parameters initial pH of 6.5, temperature of 37  ° C and sodium alginate concentration at 2% with a bead diameter of 1 mm in diameter. The highest values of kinetic parameters are obtained at 37  ° C and initial pH 6.5 (Table 4 and Table 5). Recycled paper sludge Recycled paper sludge is an industrial waste has high polysaccharides (mainly cellulose) content. The conversion of polysaccharides on sludge to be broken down into the monomers and released sugars to be fermented to lactic acid. The methods for conversion of a polysaccharide into the monomer consist of enzymatic and acid hydrolysis. Marques et al. (2008) studied the utilization of recycled paper sludge as an alternative substrate for lactic acid product. The maximum production of lactic acid was produced 73 g/L of lactic acid, maximum productivity of 2.9 g/L/h, with 0.97 g LA per g of carbohydrates on initial substrate. The fermentative parameters concerned the lactic acid production of all the cultivations in this work are presented in table 6. Conclusions The widely used substrates for lactic acid production are refined sugar, which are expensive. It is also possible to use lignocellulosic biomass, especially by product or waste materials from agriculture and industrial waste as substrates for fermentation. Therefore, the use of alternative, low-cost and raw materials become thus of special interest for lactic acid production. The ability to utilize this industrial wastes and lignocellulosic as alternative carbon sources for lactic acid production will help reduce of environmental pollution problem and also reduce production costs. LITERATURE CITED Idris, A. and W. Suzana. 2006. Effect of sodium alginate concentration, bead diameter, initial pH and temperature on lactic acid production from pineapple waste using immobilized Lactobacillus delbrueckii. Process Biochem. 41: 1117-1123. Kim, K.I. , W.K. Kim, D.K. Seo, I.S. Yoo, E.K. Kim and H.H. Yoon. Production of lactic acid from food wastes Appl. Biochem. Biothnol. 101-108: 637-647. Marques, S. , J.A.L. Santos, F.M. Gà rio and J.C. Roseiro. 2008. Lactic acid production from recycled paper sludge by simultaneous saccharification and fermentation. Biochem. Eng. 41: 210-216. Mussatto, S.I. and I.C. Roberto. 2004. Alternatives for detoxification of diluted-acid lignocellulosic hydrolyzates for use in fermentative processes. Bioresour. Technol. 1-10. Nexant. 2008. Biotech Route to Lactic Acid/ Polylactic Acid. Available Source:  http://nexant.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0255-130_ITM Ohkouchi, Y. and Y. Inoue. 2006. Direct production of L(+)-lactic acid from starch and food wastes using Lactobacillus manihotivorans LMG18011. Bioresour. Technol. 97: 1554-1562. Ruengruglikit, C. and Y.D. Hang. 2003. L(+) lactic acid production from corncobs by Rhizopus oryzae NRRL-395. Lebensm. Wiss. Technol. 36: 573-575. Uno, T., Y. Ozawa, M. Ishikawa, K. Nakanishi and T. Kimura. 2003. Lactic acid production using two food processing wastes, canned pineapple syrup and grape invertase as substrate and enzyme. Biotechnol. Lett. 25: 573-577. VickRoy, T.B. 1985. Lactic acid, pp. 761-776. In: Blanch, H.W., S. Drew and D.I.C. Wang eds. Comprehensive Biotechnol. Vol. 3. Pergamon Press, Oxford. Wee, Y.J., J.N. Kim and H.W. Ryu. 2006. Biotechnological production of lactic acid  and its recent applications. Food Technol. Biotechnol. 44(2): 163-172. Wee, Y.J. and H.W. Ryu. 2009. Lactic acid production by Lactobacillus sp. RKY2 in a cell-recycle continuous fermentation using lignocellulosic hydrolyzates as inexpensive raw materials. Bioresource Technol. 100: 4262-4270.

Why Parents Should Home School Essay example -- Essays Papers

Why Parents Should Home School When Americans think of education, they almost automatically think of public education. However, education in our public schools has been on a down slope for over twenty years now. This is because many parents today are deciding to home school their children. Although most people think that a public education is better, statistics and facts tend to show that home schooling is beneficial in more ways. Since the beginning of civilization, children have been learning in and with their families. Children learned how to survive and make a living through life with their families and in the community. Parent’s taught their children everything they needed to know or established them in private school or apprenticeships. Until about 150 years ago, this was considered the norm of society (Lahrson-Fisher 49). The term â€Å"home schooling† began to flourish in the 1970’s when it found a place in the dictionary. For many people, this was the only option because public schools were too far away to attend. There is over a fifteen percent rise in home schooled students each year. A majority of home schooled students are white middle-class families, but minorities are finding that this option is also better for their children (School Choice). It is estimated that there are currently two million children home schooled in the United States (School Choice). The number of children being home schooled increased from 32,804 in 2000 to 53,216 in 2003 (Brown 1). There are three basic reasons parents keeps their children out of public schools. First, they think that raising their children is their business and not the governments. Second, they enjoy being with their children and watching and helpin... ... admissions policies for children that are taught at home (School Choice). What was once looked down upon has become a popular alternative to public schooling. There various reasons why children should be home schooled. Children will have time for sporting activities, musical groups, church and youth organizations, field trips, volunteer opportunities, arts and crafts workshops, neighborhood activities and more. Home schooling provides time for family support of critical areas of social development: love, self-discipline, security, independence, and responsible use of freedoms (Lahrson-Fisher 24). Current statistics and facts show that home schooling is highly beneficial. Parents simply want is the best for their child. Through home schooling, this want can be met. In closing, home schooling offers numerous advantages and opportunities over public schools.

Essay on Number Theory -- Mathematics Math

Research Paper Throughout math, there are many patterns of numbers that have special and distinct properties. There are even numbers, primes, odd numbers, multiples of four, eight, seven, ten, etc. One important and strange pattern of numbers is the set of Fibonacci numbers. This is the sequence of numbers that follow in this pattern: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, etc. The idea is that each number is the sum of its previous two numbers (n=[n-1]+[n-2]) (Kreith). The Fibonacci numbers appear in various topics of math, such as Pascal?s Triangle and the Golden Ratio/Section. It falls under number theory, which is the study of whole or rational numbers. Number Theory develops theories, simple equations, and uses special tools to find specific numbers. Some topic examples from number theory are the Euclidean Algorithm, Fermat?s Little Theorem, and Prime Numbers. Strangely, the Fibonacci numbers appear in nature too. One familiar way in which the Fibonacci numbers appear in nature is the rabbit family line (and bee family line as well). Another strange way in which the Fibonacci numbers relate to nature is the plant kingdom. Because of these strange relationships, I ask the question: How and why do the Fibonacci numbers appear in nature? In this paper, I will attempt to answer this question. Pascal?s Triangle - Golden Rectangle 2 The man behind the Fibonacci numbers, Leonardo Fibonacci, was born in Pisa in 1175 A.D. During his life, he was a customs officer in Africa and businessman who traveled to various places. During these trips he gained knowledge and skills which enabled him to be recognized by Emperor Fredrick II. Fredrick II noticed Fibonacci and ordered him to take part in a mathematical tournament. This place would eventuall... ...its relation to the Golden Angle, which appears in the primordia of plants in order to give the maximum number of primordia for plants. I like to think of an idea in the book, ?Life?s Other Secret,? which says that it?s not just Fibonacci Numbers that matter; it?s also the matter in which they arise (Stewart). 9 Works Cited Adam, John. Mathematics in Nature. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2003. Knott, Ron. ?Fibonacci Numbers in Nature? 18, July 2005. 03, Aug 2005. Kreith, Kurt. COSMOS Professor. Davis, California. Muldrew, Lola. COSMOS Teacher Fellow. Davis, California. Stewart, Ian. Life?s Other Secret. Canada: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. University of Cambridge. ?The Life and Numbers of Fibonacci? Sep 1997. 03, Aug 2005. Essay on Number Theory -- Mathematics Math Research Paper Throughout math, there are many patterns of numbers that have special and distinct properties. There are even numbers, primes, odd numbers, multiples of four, eight, seven, ten, etc. One important and strange pattern of numbers is the set of Fibonacci numbers. This is the sequence of numbers that follow in this pattern: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, etc. The idea is that each number is the sum of its previous two numbers (n=[n-1]+[n-2]) (Kreith). The Fibonacci numbers appear in various topics of math, such as Pascal?s Triangle and the Golden Ratio/Section. It falls under number theory, which is the study of whole or rational numbers. Number Theory develops theories, simple equations, and uses special tools to find specific numbers. Some topic examples from number theory are the Euclidean Algorithm, Fermat?s Little Theorem, and Prime Numbers. Strangely, the Fibonacci numbers appear in nature too. One familiar way in which the Fibonacci numbers appear in nature is the rabbit family line (and bee family line as well). Another strange way in which the Fibonacci numbers relate to nature is the plant kingdom. Because of these strange relationships, I ask the question: How and why do the Fibonacci numbers appear in nature? In this paper, I will attempt to answer this question. Pascal?s Triangle - Golden Rectangle 2 The man behind the Fibonacci numbers, Leonardo Fibonacci, was born in Pisa in 1175 A.D. During his life, he was a customs officer in Africa and businessman who traveled to various places. During these trips he gained knowledge and skills which enabled him to be recognized by Emperor Fredrick II. Fredrick II noticed Fibonacci and ordered him to take part in a mathematical tournament. This place would eventuall... ...its relation to the Golden Angle, which appears in the primordia of plants in order to give the maximum number of primordia for plants. I like to think of an idea in the book, ?Life?s Other Secret,? which says that it?s not just Fibonacci Numbers that matter; it?s also the matter in which they arise (Stewart). 9 Works Cited Adam, John. Mathematics in Nature. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2003. Knott, Ron. ?Fibonacci Numbers in Nature? 18, July 2005. 03, Aug 2005. Kreith, Kurt. COSMOS Professor. Davis, California. Muldrew, Lola. COSMOS Teacher Fellow. Davis, California. Stewart, Ian. Life?s Other Secret. Canada: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. University of Cambridge. ?The Life and Numbers of Fibonacci? Sep 1997. 03, Aug 2005.

Philosophy of a Child Care Center Essay

Mission Our mission at â€Å" name of center† is to create a safe learning environment that implements the individual child’s developmental needs and interests with the help and collaboration of parents and community. Philosophy Statement Each activity at â€Å"name of center† is carefully coordinated to coincide with universal stages in all areas of children’s development: physical, cognitive, social/emotional, and creative. When children master a new level of ability, there are always experiences they can choose in order to gain new mastery. There are many opportunities provided for the children to practice physical skills, learn problem solving, gain knowledge of their environment, and practice interacting more effectively with others. We also believe that parents are a vital part of children’s learning experiences and are partners in the education and care of the children. This Philosophy, vision and mission are correlated with the Vygotsky belief that cognitive abilities develop from the interaction with more mature members of society. The social environment provides the intellectual support system that guides children in their development. Adults should structure learning experiences so that children gradually move from assisted performance to individual learning. This process is successful only when adults are sensitive to each child’s level of competence (Click & Karkos, 2008). It is also connected with the approach associated with Piaget, which authors, Click and Karkos say, believes that children should construct their own knowledge through repeated interactions with people and objects. They experiment, consider their errors or misconceptions, and arrive at new conclusions (2008). References Click, Phyllis. , Karkos, Kimberly. (2008) Administration of Programs for Young Children. Seventh Ed. Clinton Park, NY: Delmar Learning

Therapeutic Hypothermia for Cardiac Arrest Patients

Therapeutic Hypothermia for Cardiac Arrest Jaime Bromley Jefferson College of Health Sciences Hypothermia is a decrease in the core temperature below 35 degrees Celsius or 95 degrees Fahrenheit. There are various medical uses for hypothermia. Therapeutic hypothermia is the only proven effective treatment for post cardiac arrest patients. Hypothermia decreases the amount of cerebral oxygen needed and also lessens the inflammatory response post cardiac arrest. This prevents brain damage and death in patients.There were two major studies done on this topic. One in Europe and one in Australia; they showed very positive outcomes for the patients who were treated with therapeutic hypothermia. More of the patients who received the hypothermic treatment survived compared to those who did not; also patients treated with hypothermia had less brain damage upon hospital discharge. Sudden cardiac arrest is a major health concern in the United States; there are more than 400,000 incidents annually (AHA, 2011).Only five to thirty percent of patients survive hospitalization and make it to hospital discharge (AHA, 2011). Doctors are now discovering the highly effective treatment of doctor induced hypothermia for cardiac arrest patients. Hypothermia is defined as a decrease in the core body temperature below 35 degrees Celsius or 95 degrees Fahrenheit (Ward, 2011). It is then characterized by whether it occurred accidentally or if it was induced purposefully. There are multiple uses for medically induced hypothermia.Doctor induced hypothermia is the most effective therapeutic treatment for out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest. Cardiac arrest patients suffer from ischemic brain injury leading to poor neurologic outcomes and death. Doctors will begin to cool patients as soon as recirculation begins. Therapeutic hypothermia works by decreasing the cerebral oxygen consumption. During cardiac arrest circulation does not occur, therefor the vital organs are not adequately perfused. W hen resuscitation happens circulation resumes and reperfusion occurs.Reperfusion is associates with free radical formation (AHA, 2011). Mild hypothermia blocks intracellular effects from high calcium concentrations and lessens the inflammatory response after cardiac arrest (Ward, 2011). In 2002 the results of two randomized trials were published that compared mild hypothermia with normothermia in comatose survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. One study was done in five European countries; the other was conducted in four hospitals in Australia (University of Chicago, 2008).In the European study the patients were cooled to the target range of 32 to 34 degrees Celsius (University of Chicago, 2008). They were kept at that temperature for 24 hours, and then passive warming would begin (University of Chicago, 2008). Six months after cardiac arrest 75 of the 137 hypothermic patients had positive results; and were able to live independently and able to work (University of Chicago, 20 08). Whereas with the normothermia patients only 54 of the 137 patients survived six months after their cardiac arrest (University of Chicago, 2008).With the Australian study the patients were cooled to 33 degrees Celsius, kept at that temperature for 18 then active rewarming would begin (University of Chicago, 2008). The results of the Australian study, 21 of the 43 patients treated with hypothermia had good neurological function at discharge compared to nine of 34 patients who were normothermic post cardiac arrest (University of Chicago, 2008). There are various techniques used to cool patients; currently there is not one technique that stands out over the rest in ease of use and high efficiency.Before the cooling procedure can begin the patient is given a sedative and a neuromuscular blocker to prevent shivering. There are multiple external techniques such as cooling blankets, ice packs, wet towels, and a cooling helmet; however all of these are slow to cool core temperature (Uni versity of Chicago, 2008). An intravascular heat exchange device has recently become available; this machine enables rapid cooling and precise temperature control (University of Chicago, 2008).During the whole cooling and rewarming process the patient is closely monitored and their temperature is taken regularly. Not every person who has sudden cardiac arrest is able to receive hypothermic therapy. There are multiple restrictions, and each hospital has its own protocol to follow. Some of the common exclusions are pregnancy, core temperature of less than 30 degrees Celsius post arrest, and known clotting disorders (AHA, 2011).In order to receive hypothermic treatment the patient must be at least 18 years of age, female patients must have a documented negative pregnancy test, cardiac arrest with return of spontaneous circulation, and the blood pressure can be maintained at 90mmHg (AHA, 2011). With the use of therapeutic hypothermia treatment many people have been given a second chance at life. Doctors and scientists are making great strides in refining the technique needed to successfully treat patients with hypothermic therapy. Ward, J. 2011). Therapeutic hypothermia for victims of cardiopulmonary arrest. AARC Times. 35 (10), 36-46. American Heart Association. (2011). Therapeutic hypothermia after cardiac arrest. Retrieved April 15, 2011 from http://circ. ahajournals. org/content/108/1/118. full#sec-9 University of Chicago CPR committee. (2008). Therapeutic hypothermia after cardiac arrest. Retrieved April 14, 2011 from http://www. med. upenn. edu/resuscitation/hypothermia/documents/Hypothermia%20Protocol%20Univ%20of%20Chicago%202008. pdf

Marketing Best Buy Case Essay

Dual branding – the association of two or more already well recognized trademarks in a synergistic retail setting designed to benefit each – is one of the fastest growing areas in franchising. Dual Branding has become a rage in the marketing arena, with companies realizing that isolation is not after all the best policy. Dual Branding is quite beneficial such that: Many line extensions capitalize on a partner’s brand equity. Brand extension success rates are maximized in the new market when co-branded with the reputed brand that has established in that market. Co-branding may help usage extension. Image reinforcement may take place due to co-branding. Loyalty programs increasingly include co-branding arrangements. The corporations are sharing the cost of loyalty programs; hence, the promotional costs to the companies are coming down. Co-branding signals a trade marketing operation. Capitalizing on the synergies among a number of brands is yet another advantage of co-branding. (blog, 2007) There are some disadvantages such as: -Brand Cannibalization -Difficult to manage two different brands, due to splitting in Ad spend. -Possibility of blurring brand identity in the eyes of the consumer. -Duplication of roles of the corporates. (Kumar, 2012) Some examples of dual branding are: Toyota and Lexus. The Toyota brand will introduce Safety Connect on select Toyota models, helping to bring its drivers an added peace of mind. Lexus will introduce Lexus Enform with Safety Connect, a service built on the foundation of valuable safety and security services with the added layer of more convenience-oriented features and specialized advanced technologies. (Group, 2010) Best Buy and Future Shop. Best Buy Co. is the largest consumer electronics retailer in Canada. It just happens that most of its sales are coming from its Future Shop business. A couple of years back, when it acquired Future Shop for $377 million, it was assumed the parent company would re-brand the 91 stores it purchased under the Best Buy banner, reports the Pioneer Press. Instead, Best Buy decided to forego conventional wisdom and operate the two competing divisions separately and in at least one case, putting stores directly across the street from one another. (Anderson, 2003) What did Best Buy learn from its experience with dual brand strategy in Canada? Even though it was a new experience for the Best Buy International team to implement a dual- brand strategy it was the perfect opportunity to implement such strategy due to the situation in the Canadian market. In Canada, there was only one big player which was Future shop with only had 15% share; therefore they knew there was a space for a second major player. The most important thing they learned is to be aware that markets often have different ways of being approached. In this case, they learned it from the dual-brand strategy they used because both stores; Best Buy and Future Shop offered different consumer experiences. Best Buy is characterized by â€Å"higher propensity towards self- service; non-commissioned sales staff; greater assortment of ready- made electronics packages; wider aisles and more interactive displays; higher ratio of female customers, seeking to integrate products into their lifestyles; customers with higher incomes and higher levels of education†. Meanwhile Future shop wants to show â€Å"commissioned sales staff guiding the customer by providing customized, trusted and personalized approach; tech savvy, early adopters looking for the best deal; customer base more diverse†. What they learned is that consumers behave differently, therefore implementing dual- brand strategy in Canada is a good way to increase profit (almost double profit in only a year) but it is also important to keep in mind that not all markets behave the same way, so it is best to study them first before implementing any strategy. How does the Best Buy situation in China differ from its situation in Canada? The costumers and the market were totally different, for example in Canada they had one big competitor which end up being part of the best buy family even though they keep the name of â€Å"future shop†, at the end in Canada both companies handle very good the market because both were profitable. In china the costumers were not easy to convince to buy stuff in general and also when they buy the profit margins were too low, and if this wasn’t difficult enough, best but had to deal with a competence of 4 more companies that in total just shore 20% of the market, being the only foreign company making them lose some market segment. One of the main information that Best Buy found was that the Chinese consumers care more about the characteristics of the product rather than the brand, so in order to deal with this new preferences they decide to distributed different their first local in Shanghai, the products were assorted by categories, not by brands. (Miller) Does a dual-brand strategy provide Best Buy with a core competitive advantage as it expands into new global markets? We believe it does, because when they buy an existing company, they start learning from another approach, an inner vision about the local market they are about to invest in, then they end up being a more profitable alliance because when Best Buy enters in the market it start stealing costumers for all the companies, even the one who has an alliance with, and it end up with a bigger market share, the proportion depends of how successful is the entrance strategy. It also helps the image of the local brand in order to support the other in the early days, later when both are profitable they can manage the prices easier in order to avoid cannibalization. (Miller) Product analysis. IPHONE 5. ATTRIBUTES. â€Å"A remarkably slim design that still makes room for a larger display and a faster chip. Ultrafast wireless that doesn’t sacrifice battery life. And all-new headphones designed to sound great and fit comfortably. So much went into this iPhone.† â€Å"Thin, sleek, and very capable. It’s hard to believe a phone so thin could offer so many features: a larger display, a faster chip, the latest wireless technology, an 8MP iSight camera, and more. All in a beautiful aluminum body designed and made with an unprecedented level of precision. iPhone 5 measures a mere 7.6 millimeters thin and weighs just 112 grams.1That’s 18 percent thinner and 20 percent lighter than iPhone 4S. The only way to achieve a design like this is by relentlessly considering (and reconsidering) every single detail — including the details you don’t see.† More beautiful maps. Elements in Maps are vector based, so graphics and text are incredibly detailed and panning is smooth. Use the tilt and rotate gestures to view an area, and Maps keeps the names of streets and places where they belong. Turn-by-turn navigation. When approaching a turn, Maps speaks the directions, so you can watch the road. Follow along with 3D views: Signs and arrows make it easy to see where you’re headed. And if traffic’s bad, Maps offers alternative routes. Traffic info. Maps uses real-time traffic conditions to calculate your ETA. It is easy to get details about incidents that are causing traffic jams, so people can tell if there’s a major accident ahead or just a temporary slowdown. Flyover. See the world from a whole new perspective with photo-realistic and interactive 3D views of select major metro areas. Explore like never before as you zoom, pan, and rotate around a city and its landmarks. Video calls on tap. FaceTime works right out of the box — no need to set up a special account or screen name. And using it is as easy as it gets. Better call clarity. Built-in microphones work together to provide clearer sound and reduce background noise. (group A. ) BRANDING STRATEGY â€Å"It may be apple season (with a small â€Å"a†) in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, but globally it’s Apple season (with a capital â€Å"A†). That’s because today Apple will announce the new iPhone 5 in advance of its launch. And like every other Apple launch in recent memory there will be a flood of pre-orders and lines of eager consumers outside Apple stores as soon as it goes on sale. Why is that? Because unlike most companies, Apple actually launches its products.† We’re experiencing this right now with the launch of the new iPhone 5, as we have with the launch of most Apple products over the last decade. It’s not just the product or the price or place or the promotion that is causing the sensation. But it the skillful way in which all four of these elements are orchestrated in the launch strategy that makes the offer seamless and irresistible. By investing in building brand equity before the launch Apple doesn’t start from a position of consumer inertia. They do the heavy lifting in advance of launch date which makes take off seem so effortless. In fact, they make it look so easy we forget it’s marketing and simply accept it as a law of nature: Apple products sell. But this phenomenon is not unique to Apple. It’s available to any marketer whether you are selling pharmaceuticals or farm equipment. The key is early planning especially when online networking (a.k.a. social media) is part of your launch strategy.† (Duffy, 2012) The huge promise of the Apple brand, of course presents Apple with an enormous challenge to live up to. The innovative, beautifully-designed, highly ergonomic, and technology-leading products which Apple delivers are not only designed to match the brand promise, but are fundamental to keeping it. The recent emphasis on the iPhone 5’s manufacturing build quality and design standards reflect this importance. Apple fully understands that all aspects of the customer experience are important and that all brand touch-points must reinforce the Apple brand. Apple has expanded and improved its distribution capabilities by opening its own retail stores in key cities around the world in up-market, quality shopping venues. Apple provides Apple Mac-expert retail floor staff to selected resellers’ stores (such as Australian department store David Jones); it has entered into strategic alliances with other companies to co-brand or distribute Apple’s products and services (for example, HP who was selling a co-branded form of iPod and pre-loading iTunes onto consumer PCs and laptops in the mid-2000s – though in retrospect this may now just have been a stepping-stone). Apple has also increased the accessibility of iPods through various resellers that do not currently carry Apple Macintosh systems, and has increased the reach of its online stores. From a brand architecture viewpoint, the company maintains a â€Å"monolithic† brand identity – everything being associated with the Apple name, even when investing strongly in the Apple iPod and Apple iTunes products. Apple’s current line-up of product families includes not just the iPod and iTunes, but iMac, iBook, iLife, iWork, iPhone, iPad, and now iCloud. However, even though marketing investments around iPod are substantial, Apple has not established an â€Å"i† brand. While the â€Å"i† prefix is used only for consumer products, it is not used for a large number of Apple’s consumer products (eg Mac mini, MacBook, Apple TV, Airport Extreme, Safari, QuickTime, and Mighty Mouse). (group, 2013) When we see the packaging we already know what the content is going to be and what company produces it, it has a picture and the name of the phone at the very front and on the side respectively and also the apple that represents the company on another side of it. The first impression when we look at the packaging of the iphone 5 is how practical, modern, cute and easy to carry is. This small box comes in black or white, it is covered with a thin, see-through plastic bag. It is very small; it can almost fit in our pockets. The secondary packaging, the one inside the cardboard box is made of plastic, to protect the contents inside: the charger, the usb cable and the headphones. The labels are also inside the box; it brings a manual with all the instructions, very reliable and easy to understand. The labeling presents all the information of the product, from where it was made, assembled and it shows how to use the product and the steps to follow before turning it on. (Group B. i., 2013) Since Apple has become such important and recognized brand, known for its reliable and good quality products, we can not only say apple has standardized their products to clients but we can also say the client has standardized to apple, in this case to the iphone 5. Clients in many countries have adopted the iphone 5 and it is due to the many functions it offers, one basic function in order to be adopted by consumers is changing the language of the phone. But one thing that makes apple very special is its apps. From the phone you can download applications that are very useful wherever you are. For example ‘Maps’, if you are here in Colombia, it will be useful but it will also be useful if you are in China. Anyone can download any app they want, and apple offers a lot of apps that are useful, some more than others, depending on the country.