The process of digestion

Wart also learned from his experiences as a snake that snakes weren't deaf at all, they can still hear using one/ two ear(s). Wart then met a serpent named T. Natural, a patient and gentle serpent who taught Wart about snakes, history, and legends. T first told Wart about his education being neglected as a snake and how he can't distinguish a T. Natural. Wart was then told about the reptile's history, including the two families Totalitarians manias and the Curator's incisors.The Atlanta family had very huge descendants, while the Cerate family was about 17 feet long, but razor sharp teeth that were giant. The serpent T told Wart about these two families and how they constantly battled and flee from each other. T then told Wart about how the python lost its venom. The python released his venom in fury after he saw that he transported humans to the 7th heaven. The poison then fell onto trees, water snakes, frogs, and cobras. In order to prevent chaos, the leader Aunt E told the venomou s animals to use their poison in self defense.The frog and water snake did not agree, so they lost their poison due to water. Wart learned many things from his experience as a snake talking to other snakes. Annotations: 1. In chapter 15, why was Sir Sector so upset that the King sent hunters to kill boars in the forest? Sir Sector argued that he wanted to instead hunt down the boars with his own team and hounds and supply the king. This is unreasonable because the hounds or hunters can be killed in a boar hunt, so Sir Sector should be grateful that he King is sending his own men and dogs to hunt.I think the only reason Sir Sector is angry is because he has to supply and nourish the hunters and their dogs until the goal Is achieved. 2. On the bottom of page 194, what Is the song that is being sung? I don't know how to Interpret this as a song except for the rhyming such as puddle and fuddle. There are many slash marks and weird words such as, â€Å"E could ‘rent alp It,' e AD to. This is too confusing and I have no idea to what it may be. 3. On page 185,

Perception and Decision-Making: Dave Armstrong

Throne, ND develop a rail terminal and use it to ship truck trailers into and out of Texas. This will connect Dallas and Houston and potentially draw business from both cities. This business requires $1 million. Armstrong would put $200-KICK and Throne would put the rest of the money. Armstrong would be paid a salary and bonuses of SYS-ASK and share profits with Throne. This option is the most exciting for Armstrong as is has the potential to be the most rewarding but also has the highest risk.Although Armstrong is sighting the fact that the business might not work at all and he can loss the money invested, he would show overconfidence choosing this job option, and a selective perception, by not considering his past relationship with Throne to asses the outcome of this future business. Armstrong worked for Throne in the past and the company they worked in turned to be unsuccessful. This would also be an impulsive decision by Armstrong, as he would be spending all of his savings witho ut having a backup if the business fails.At the same mime, this might be the best choice for Armstrong, as it is the position he is the most excited about, and might turn out to self fulfill itself as Armstrong shows his belief and enthusiasm. The second job option is to work with Robert Irwin, a person Armstrong had the chance to work with in his current job. Irwin and Armstrong would set up a company that would seek out producing oil leases that might be for sale. Armstrong will put KICK for the investment. He will get a yearly compensation of $ASK or one third of the profits.

International Business Strategy Master Case Study

International Business Strategy Master - Case Study Example How should Starbucks manage the paradox of profitability and responsibility Andrews (1997: p. 52) defines corporate strategy as "the pattern of decisions in a company that determines and reveals its objectives, purposes, or goals, produces the principal policies and plans for achieving those goals, and defines the range of business the company is to pursue, the kind of economic and human organisation it is or intends to be and the nature of the economic and non-economic contribution it intends to make to its shareholders, employees, customers, and communities". Corporate strategy in effect maps out the businesses in which an organisation intends to compete in a way that focuses resources to convert distinctive capabilities into competitive advantage. (Andrews, 1997). Economists are not in agreement as to a common definition of multinational or transnational enterprises (MNE/TNC). Multinational corporations have many dimensions and can be viewed from several perspectives (ownership, management, strategy and structural, etc. (Root 1994, Hill 2007). According to Ghoshal. et al (2002), A multinational Entreprise (or transnational corporation) is a corporation or enterprise that manages production establishments or delivers services in at least two countries. Most multinationals have budgets that exceed those of many countries (Ghoshal et al. 2002). This paper addresses some of the pertinent issues that affected Starbucks in 2006. The paper further discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the different models of entry used often adopted by Multinationals. The last section of the paper looks at Stakeholder mapping of Starbucks and how each of its Stakeholders affected its strategies 2.0Identify and assess the strategic challenges confronting Starbucks Corporation in 2006. Use your findings to critically evaluate the firm's decision not to compromise on its "basic principles" (Case Page 303) as its expands internationally. Today's business environment is increasingly becoming more turbulent, chaotic and challenging than ever before and to survive, it is vital that a firm understands the strategies underpinning the success of rival firms and try to emulate, or do something better than the rivals. This study is initiated to investigate the core features underpinning H&M success when compared to it competitors. Within the context of today's global competition, businesses and firms no-longer compete as individual companies but try to corporate with other businesses in their activities (Wu & Chien 2007:2). These researchers went further to argue that, this strategy has become quite common in many businesses including the retail clothing chain stores. The conventional vertical integrated company based business model is gradually being replaced by collaborative relationship between many fragmented, but complementary and specialized value stars and constellation (Wu & Chien:1). The problems and challenges that Starbucks faced in 2006 can be explain inline Porters five forces. Porter (1985:4) contends that the Five Forces define the rules of competition in any industry and at the same time marks the bases for understanding a company's success. Porter (1985) went further and argues that, competitive

Summary the aticle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Summary the aticle - Essay Example Jean Gregoine disagreed with this view. He believed that the technique on which the utilization of material depends should be progressive and hence beauty would change too. Aesthetic qualities are expendable and liable to wastage of effect. For instance, the part to be repaired in Bugatti is hidden for the sake of beauty, which makes repairs difficult to be conducted in contrast to Buick where the stress is not on the beauty but practical performance and repairs. In Buick the technical and aesthetic qualities have been given equal importance whereas Bugatti is a monument of abstract art. The criticism of popular art depends upon the analysis of content which lends appreciation to superficial qualities. The industrial designer should have the ability to design a product that is good, desirable, and exciting. This trend becomes more pronounced as culture becomes mechanized when the middle-class people become educated. The designer has to be in touch with the masses and determine to what extent fine arts can be integrated with popular art and what will sell. This alone can bring out innovative, aesthetically appealing, and functionally good product. During the Second Industrial Age there was a connection between design practice and the theoretical self-awareness. With the development of design management, changes took place in the management of machinery design. Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company, brought about innovation in design management. They were market leaders in machine tool manufacturing in 1900. They brought changes with non-mechanical decoration in 1911. All designs had to conform to a style manual issued by the Chief Draughtsman and the purpose was to create artistic machines with analytical engineering. This means the process by which the machines were designed and manufactured were transformed. This involved book learning and shop

Business Ethics Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Business Ethics - Assignment Example At will employment can be defined as one in which the employee is free to quit from the job at any given point of time and the employer as well is free to terminate an employee for any reason at any given point of time except that the reason for termination cannot be an illegal one such as retaliation, discrimination and violation of public policy. Thus an employer does have any legal obligation as such to an employee prior to termination. At will employee may get terminated even for the most whimsical reasons, also an employer is free to change the employment terms such as compensation and job responsibility at his will. At will employee’s employment is held as a voluntary action and under such an employment, the employee cannot be forced to work and an employer cannot employ them for an indefinite time (DelPo & Guerin, p. 34). However, there is a difference between legal and ethical obligations. Although legally an employer might not have an obligation towards his at will em ployee but ethically he might have as it is related to the morality of that person. However, since every person has his or her own sense of ethics therefore, it is hard to define what set of ethical obligation does an employer will have for his employee under at will employment. Set forth a policy concerning romance in the workplace It is necessary for an organization to issue policies for couples in work place. In order to protect against claims of nepotism, favoritism and sexual harassment, organization must adopt policies on workplace dating. These policies stipulate the types of intimate relationships which are acceptable in the workplace and also mention those which are not and violate the office decorum. Some organizations provide clear code of conduct guidelines to its employees which are expected to be followed at work place. The guidelines pertain to display of affection in public and also disclosure of relationship to the management. The violation of the guidelines of work place dating policy by couples can pose a serious threat to the employee involved. Organization can go for informal counseling to formal interventions such as transfers, written warnings and also termination. According to Karl and Sutton employers favor a stricter policy when performance of couples suffers or the romance becomes noticeable to all the members. Also management should not take any action when a couple’s performance does not suffer due to the relationship or rather shows improvement. In absence of formal work place romance policy, it is the duty of the manager to keep his eyes open so that the relationship or the romance does not hamper the general workflow. The dating policies vary from one organization to another thus it is necessary for employees to familiarize with both informal and written policies (Waldron & Kassing, p.120). Define insider trading. Discuss whether insider trading is ethical. Insider trading is defined as a term that is used when a person is involved in insider trading if he purchases or sells the stocks in public company which is based on non public information about a particular company. The information that is gained by means of unfair advantage makes the trading unethical. But not all kinds of insider trading are illegal (Emanuel & Emanuel, p.253). A huge amount of quantitative and qualitative information exists in the markets which are an important part of free market system and thus it can be said that insider trading i

Policemen of the World Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Policemen of the World - Essay Example The following discussion shows how the U.S has been the Policemen of the World in the past. The U.S created a foreign policy after the Civil War. This policy dictates its relations with other foreign nations. America’s defense and security lies in foreign policy by furthering certain goals. The national policy puts the nation’s interest first (War and International Law, n.d., para. 2). The U.S invasion of Iraq after the 9/11 attacks on America is an example of the foreign policy in play. President Bush believed that by invading Iraq, the U.S would cripple Al-Qaeda and would lead to the capture of Osama Bin Laden. This move was criticised by many, citing America’s invasion as a neo-colonialism effort of the West in the East. However, back at home, the U.S key intention was to curb the imminent threat of terrorism on U.S soil posed by Al-Qaeda. Although this action took time, it culminated by the killing of Bin Laden, weakening the Al-Qaeda movement. Another example is the sanctions imposed on Russia and President Putin over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The U.S believes that the invasion violates the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. The beliefs are in line with the foreign policy that identifies all nations as equals. A secure Ukraine and its good relations with its neighbours are in the best of interests of the U.S (Ukraine and Russia Sanctions, n.d., para. 5). The United States has risen to the position of world’s Super Policeman due to three aspects. Firstly, the strength of the U.S military and the economic stability of the nation have favoured this position. The U.S has the strength in terms of the war power and money necessary to fight wars and emerge victoriously in the end. The resources devoted to the U.S military goes to the strengthening its involvement in international incidents. The economic stability ensures that in any war fought; the U.S will emerge financially

Analyse the strengths and weaknesses of using faith as a basis for Essay

Analyse the strengths and weaknesses of using faith as a basis for knowledge in religion and in one area of knowledge from the ToK diagram - Essay Example Such beliefs have been challenged by logical positivism and upheld by fideism (Moser, 2002, p.128). The truth and validity of such beliefs therefore depends on the strength of the argument whether for or against and evidence presented therein. Individual motives, attitudes and preferences have had significant impacts on both faith and religion. It is important to note that there exist different religions in the world that are based on the different understanding of faith across these religions. Faith in world religions is therefore a critical issue to consider in assessing and evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of using faith as a basis for knowledge in religion (Steup, 2001, p.47). Faith is defined as a conclusive belief that is not necessarily backed up by adequate evidence (Conee, 2004, p. 133). Provision of efficient evidence to a given scenario or phenomenon constitutes an explaining reason, and therefore faith is ruled out at that instance. Inadequate reason is the principle defining factor of faith. The strengths of faith in constituting knowledge in religion are discussed below: Faith is defined by individual preferences and attitudes, thereby building a specific religion in that process. Faith as aforementioned is not backed up by evidence but it is fundamentally a determinant of the many religions in the world. In the view of using faith as a basis for knowledge, decisions can be made on what constitutes knowledge in the context of faith. Since faith is already a conclusive belief, proof of faith is not a requirement in defining the resultant knowledge. Faith makes truth assertions without prior proof. In fact there are closely related sources of knowledge like mathematics and theology that makes similar assertions backed up by no proof. Reliance on leaps of faith therefore provides a strong basis for knowledge especially in religion, because religion is directly linked to faith

Make a report of the study case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Make a report of the study case - Essay Example To evaluate and analyse this aspect of the company’s position, certain financial ratios have also been used in the report. The greatest internal risk faced by the company is the declining of profit over the last financial year, if this trends continue to take place, the company will be generating no more funds for investment and even there would be left nothing in the company to be transferred to the shareholders in the form of dividends or earnings per share. The company also confronts with the risk of losing all its business because of the costs incurred during the production and distribution of goods, and also the other operating expenses incurred during the year. According to Wells and Nieuwenhuis (2001), the automotive industry in UK has been highly saturated and the companies need to face great competition from other companies in the same industry. Hence, there is a high risk of increasing competition. Wells and Nieuwenhuis (2001) further specify that the competition is not the only risk a company has to confront with, there are certain other factors that increase the risk of doing business in UK automotive industry. These factors are globalisation, consolidation, and continuous innovations in the technology. Bordenave and Lung (1996) says that the most important risk a company faces in the automotive industry in UK is due to the increasing outsourcing activities on the part of the manufacturers. Therefore, a geographical risk arises in such a situation where supplier and manufacturer are from geographically distant and different places. Analysing the profitability of Buzzard Ltd lies in assessing the company’s profit with respect to various other items from income statement and balance sheet. This can be done with the help of the following ratios: The Gross Profit ratio analyses the company’s profit margin before accounting for various operating costs (Mcmenamin Jim,

Answering the question Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Answering the question - Essay Example Zrich zum Beispiel ist 2000 Jahre alt. Die Berner Altstadt ist im UNESCO-Verzeichnis der Weltkulturgter. Es gibt noch viele Jahrhunderte alte, relativ intakte, kompakte Kleinstdte. Die dominanten Bauten in den Stdten (vorwiegend Regierungsgebude, Banken oder groe Hotels) errichtete man zum grten Teil im 19. Jahrhundert. Please mark or fill in the correct answer clearly. There is only ONE correct answer to each question or statement. TASK 1 Wie viel verstehen Sie Write your answers in ENGLISH (unless otherwise indicated) in the space provided. /2 1. Why do most of the Swiss people rent apartments or houses List two reasons. (2 pts.) a: There is little land for building, which makes houses and flats expensive. Many people can not afford purchasing ones. b: The rules for building are very strict. /1 2. If you made 3,000 CHF (Swiss Francs) per month, how much rent would you most likely pay per month (1 pt.) a. 650 CHF. b. 550 CHF. c. 500 CHF. /1 3. Most Swiss households consisted of how many people in 1990 (1 pt.) 1 or 2. /1 4. Why can't you easily change a building to have it look the way you want it (Explain the reason for the strict rules.) (1 pt.) The Swiss try to preserve their initial architecture style as many of their buildings are centuries old and considered significant part of the world culture. /3 5. Which three areas in villages are affected by building bylaws (3 pts.) a. The area for houses b. The area for industry c. The area for agriculture /1 6. Why is stability important for construction (1 pt.)It makes the constructions durable. /1 7. Where do most people live-in cities or in the countryside (1 pt.) About 1/3 of the population lives in the five biggest cities of Switzerland, however there...Das bedaeutet, dass man selbst ohne Erlaubniss nichts veraendern kann. Building in Switzerland is restricted by law, and there are several reasons for it. First of all, there is little land, so before building one has to make an accurate plan taking to account all the little details. Another important thing is to protect beautiful old architecture of Switzerland. This means that nobody can change anything without permission. So, there are very strict rules for building in Switzerland, which, on the one hand, makes houses and flats expensive, on the other hand, it guarantees the high quality of building works and the protection of the old architecture style.

Woman Hollering Creek - Short story Essay Example for Free

Woman Hollering Creek Short story Essay Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories is a book of short stories published in 1991 by San Antonio-based Mexican-American writer Sandra Cisneros. The collection reflects Cisneross experience of being surrounded by American influences while still being familially bound to her Mexican heritage as she grew-up north of the Mexico-US border. Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories These tales focus on the social role of women, and their relationships with the men and other women in their lives. The majority of the characters are stereotypes: men embody machismo while women are naà ¯ve and generally weak. Cisneros focuses on three feminine clichà ©s: the passive virgin, sinful seductress, and traitorous mother.[1] Not properly belonging to either Mexico or America, the Chicana protagonists earnestly search for their identity, only to discover abuse and shattered dreams. Apart from focusing on these issues of struggling females, Cisneros simultaneously develops the readers sensitivity towards the lives of immigrants. First edition cover Author The vignettes are quite short on average; the longest is 29 pages, while the shortest is fewer than five paragraphs. Despite such limited space, Cisneros experiments with daring poetic prose in her storytelling; for example, each story presents a new character with a distinct literary voice and style. Such writing has earned her the title of an accomplished Chicana poet, with the added credentials of her published books of poetry My Wicked Wicked Ways (1987) and Loose Woman (1994).[2]

Cognitive psychology, retention and learning transfer

Cognitive psychology, retention and learning transfer The way information has been retained and transferred into meaningful output has baffled the minds of Cognitive Psychologists for decades. It is in an effort to discover how this becomes possible that various Cognitive Psychologists have developed hypotheses and presented models. Estes, (1975) posited that some learning theories support hypotheses that are based on instruction that leads to learning outcomes that he regard as a two element paradigm. He however, supports a three element paradigm which involves instructions, memory structure, and learning outcome. If there is not a three structure paradigm how might one account for the retention and the processing that must take place if there is no memory structure? But the structure of the memory system is still a source of controversy. According to the modal model there is not only a memory structure but there are different kinds of memory. But most contemporary researchers assume that there are three types of memory; a sensory memory structure or register, a short term store, and a long term store. There is also support for a two structure model. This is regarded as a two storage system and this is where the emphasis lies. Support for a storage system was highlighted from (Mulner, 1959) research. Her research supports the hypothesis that if the hippocampus was removed it would be difficult for new learning to take place. Eichenbaum, (2000) states that the Hippocampus is seen as critically involved in the rapid encoding of events as associations among stimulus elements and context, in the encoding of episodes as events, and in linking episodes by common features into relational networks that support flexible inferential memory expression. Mulner, (1959) further posited that although items of learning could be held in short term memory, there is no evidence that they were transferred to Long term memory. Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) supported (Mulner 1959) findings. Zechmeister and Nyberg (1982) posited that information enters the memory system through a sensory register that records information impinging on the sense organs. The concept of working memory has been introduced as a part of the short term memory (Bradderly and Hitch, 1974; Hastie and Carlston ( 1980). Short term memory takes information as concepts from the sensory register and maintains activated knowledge drawn from long term memory. Long term memory is comprised of semantic long term memory and episodic long term memory. Semantic long term memory stores structural information. This is information that is not dependent upon a particular time or place. Episodic long term memory stores contextually dependent information. That is information about specific events or episodes. Klatzsky (1980) purports that Episodic Long term memory is constantly changing. This is so because as (Conway, Cohen, and Stanhope, 1991; Semb, Ellis, and Aroujo, 1993) stated, although some of what is learned is lost, the amount is not significantly great. Bahrick, (1984); Bahrick, Bahrick, and Wittingler (1975), Bahrick and Hall (1991); Conway, Cohen, and Stanhope (199 1) reported retention intervals as long as fifty years. From their research they discovered that persons retained a substantial amount of the Spanish, Algebra, and psychology that they were taught in school. Research carried out by Cane and Willey (1939) and Hovland (1940) supported the hypothesis that persons who are given multiple opportunities for learning had better retention. But if one is merely interested in assessing what students have learned over a period of time, the focus will be merely on assessing remembering. However, meaningful learning supersedes mere remembering. Bransford, Brown and Cocking (1999); Lambert and Mc Combs (1998) stated that meaningful learning is recognized as an important educational goal. For meaningful learning to take place instruction must go beyond the simple presentation of factual knowledge and that assessment task should require students not just to recall or recognize but they should be able to construct meaning from what is learned. Hence, students should be able to understand what is learned, apply knowledge, analyze, evaluate and use knowledge to create. If the objective of the teacher is to assess the degree to which students have learned some subject matter content and retained it over some period of time, the focus would be on just one class of cognitive process, namely, those associated with remembering. Mayer (2001) posited that two of the most important educational goals are to promote retention and to promote transfer (which, when it occurs, indicates meaningful learning). Retention is the ability to remember material at some later date in much the same way it was presented during the instruction. Transfer is the ability to use what is learned to solve new problems, answer new questions, or facilitate learning new subject matter (Mayer and Wittrock 1996). In other words retention requires students to remember what is learned, where as transfer requires not only retention but also the application of knowledge to old and new situations (Bradford, Brown, and Cockling, 1999; Detterman and Sternberg, 1993; Heskell, 2001; Mayer, 1995; McKeogh, Lambert, and Marini, 1995; Phye, 1997). Remembering is therefore the sole ingredient of retention. On the other hand transfer involves remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. If the retention of information is the focus then the main focus of the cognitive process is remembering. However, if the focus is transfer it shifts to the other five cognitive processes; understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. Mayer, (2001) stated that students understand when they can associate old knowledge with new ones. In other words if students are able to make connections as they formulate new concepts ideas, and create new schematic formulations, they have demonstrated that they have learned. At the application stage (Mayer, 2001) students are able to use what is learned to execute procedures. In other words they are able to carry out tasks based on that knowledge. For example if instruction is based on how to bake a cake, the student should be able to bake the cake. Therefore the bass for application are remembering and understanding. As (Mayer, 2001) continues to review Blooms Taxonomy, he states that to analyze involves breaking ideas, concepts, and schemas into their component parts and demonstrate how the parts are related to each other and to the whole structure. The bases for analysis are; remembering, understanding and applying. In order to evaluate students must be able to remember, understand, apply, and analyze. Evaluation is the ability to make judgment that is based on a given criteria. Mayer (2001) states that the standards may either be quantitative of qualitative. Evaluation is further described as judgment about internal consistency and critique which is external consistency. At this level of transfer students should be able to detect inconsistencies between an operation and some external criteria. The final stage is that at which students are able to synthesize aspects of what is learned to produce a whole, a concept or a schema or something that is tangible such as a machine or a work of art. It is that which enables one to develop hypotheses with a view to solving problems. Therefore in order to create, one must be able to remember, understand, apply, analyze, and evaluate. Chandler and Sewell (1991); Mayer (2001, 2005); Mayer and Moreno (2003); Sweller (1999, 2005) posited that meaningful learning requires learners to engage in appropriate cognitive processing during learning. These cognitive processes include attending to relevant information, mentally organizing the selected information into a coherent structure, and integrating the incoming information with existing knowledge. This is regarded as the triarchic theory of cognitive load and it postulates three kinds of cognitive processing during learning. The first is extraneous processing in which the learner engages in cognitive processing that is not related to the instructional goal or in some instances there are no instructional goals. It is just learning for learning sake. The other is essential or intrinsic processing in which the learner mentally represents the material and which is determined by the inherent complexity of the material. The third is the generative or germaine processing of material such as organizing and integrating the selected material with the desire to understand the lesson. Generative processing is similar to transfer of learning that produces the ability to create. According to (Mayer ,2005; Mayer and Moreso, 2003; Sweller, 2005) line texts can be converted into a graphic organizer through selected relevant text and organized into a coherent structure. When the scaffolding of graphic organizers is provided, learners are less likely to waste precious cognitive capacity on extraneous processing which thereby reduces cognitive load and frees up capacity for essential and generative processing. De Jong (2005); Kirsner, Sweller, and Clark (2006); Klahr and Nigane, (2004); Lillard, 2005); Mayer, (2003, 2004) forwarded that activity theory is based on the idea that deep learning occurs when students are encouraged to engage in productive learning activities. Constructing a graphic organizer can be considered a productive learning activity because the learner must engage in an activity that is related to the instructional objective selecting relevant ideas from the text and organizing them in a coherent structure. Activity theory purports that learner generated graphic organizers do. However three experimental researches carried out by Stull and Mayer (2007) proved the opposite. Below is the full text of experiment 1. The summaries of the other two experiments along with the summary of experiment 1 are included in the appendix. Experiment 1 (Highest Complexity) The purpose of Experiment 1 was to test whether students better understand a scientific passage when they are asked to generate graphic organizers (following pretraining in how to generate hierarchies, lists, flowcharts, and matrices) in spaces in the margin or when the passage contains author-provided graphic organizers. In Experiment 1, participants read a 1,133-word passage about a topic in biology that was augmented by 27 author-provided graphic organizers (author-provided group), participants constructed their own graphic organizers from scratch (learner-generated group), or participants did not receive or construct graphic organizers (control group). Our primary focus is on comparing the author-provided group and the learner-generated group on measures of understanding. Method Participants and design. The participants were 156 college students recruited from the psychology participant pool at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The study was based on a between-subjects design, with three levels of graphic organizer use (author provided, learner generated, and control) as the single factor. Fifty-one students served in the author-provided group, 51 students served in the learner-generated group, and 54 students served in the control group. The mean age was 19.4 years (SD =1.5), the percentage of men was 29.5%, and the mean SAT score was 1184.5 (SD =161.4). Materials. The paper materials consisted of a participant questionnaire, two pretraining documents (author-provided and learner generated versions), three reading passages (i.e., author-provided, learner-generated, and control versions), six short-answer test sheets (one retention and five transfer questions), and eight sentence-completion (all retention questions) test sheets, each printed on an 8.5 x 11 in. (21.25 x 27.5 cm) sheet of paper. The participant questionnaire solicited basic demographic information, including the participants age, sex, and SAT scores. The full version of the pretraining document was developed for the author-provided and learner-generated group, and the control version of the pretraining document was developed for the control group. The full version of the pretraining document consisted of a two-page document printed on facing pages. The left page described and illustrated four types of graphic organizer (concept list, concept hierarchy, concept flowchart, and compare-and-contrast matrix). The right page contained a four-paragraph reading passage laid out in a two-column design. The left column contained the biology text, and the right column contained each of the four types of graphic organizer, horizontally aligned with the matching type description on the left page. The reading material was extracted from a popular college-level general biology textbook, then edited slightly to meet the desired page format as well as to remove external references, but without altering the book like style or the authors voice in the source material. The passage described three biologically important polysaccharide molecules-starch, glycogen, and cellulose. The control version of the pretraining document contained the identical biology text from the left column of the right page but not the left page describing and illustrating the graphic organizers or the integrated graphic organizers from the right column of th e right page. These modifications were made without alteration to the text layout, so the right column was empty. The control version of the reading passage consisted of six pages containing 1,133 words organized into 12 paragraphs, with three figures containing four black-and-white photographs. The three figures with four photographs were required to augment the written descriptions and to maintain the book like character of the material. The page layout matched the two-column design used in the pretraining document. The material was extracted from the same textbook used for the pretraining to maintain a consistent voice and character between the readings. The material described eight reproductive barriers between species (temporal, habitat, gametic, behavioral, mechanical, hybrid inviability, hybrid sterility, and hybrid breakdown) and was divided into two barrier groups (prezygotic and postzygotic). The author-provided version used the identical text, figures, and illustrations but included 27 graphic organizers, each placed in the margin near the corresponding text. One concept hierarchy graphic organizer augmented the introductory paragraph. Each of the eight reproductive barriers was described by a single paragraph and augmented with three graphic organizers (one hierarchy, one list, and one flowchart). A hierarchy graphic organizer and a matrix augmented the conclusion. The learner-generated version was identical to the author-provided version except that all graphic organizers were removed, which left space for learners to construct their own graphic organizers. The version used by the control group was identical to that used by the learner-generated group. Example pages of the three versions are shown in Figure 1. The six short-answer test sheets and the eight sentence -completion sheets each had a question printed at the top of the page, and at the bottom of each sheet were printed the following instructions: Please keep working until you are asked to stop. Do not go back to any previous questions. The eight sentence completion questions (eight retention questions) are presented at the top of the Appendix, and the six short-answer test questions (one retention and five transfer questions) are presented at the bottom of the Appendix. Procedure. Participants were tested in groups of 1 to 5 and randomly assigned to one of the three graphic organizer treatment groups. Each participant was seated in an individual cubicle. First, participants were asked to read and sign an informed consent form, followed by a participant questionnaire to be completed at their own rate. Then they were given oral instructions to carefully read the pretraining document (with control participants receiving the control version and all other participants receiving the full version). In the author-provided group, participants were instructed to compare the descriptions and illustrations of the four types of graphic organizer with the illustrated example on the facing page. In the learner-generated group, participants were instructed to compare the descriptions and illustrations of the four types of graphic organizers with the illustrated example but also told that they would be asked to construct their own graphic organizers. The training la sted approximately 5 min and was intended to familiarize learners with each of four types of graphic organizers-list, hierarchy, flowchart, and matrix-by providing definitions and examples. In the control group, participants were only asked to read the passage but were not provided with or informed about graphic organizers. Participants were asked to stop reading at the end of 5 min, which proved to be more than adequate for the task. Next, participants were given further oral instructions that described the reading assignment, which they could complete at their own pace. These instructions asked the participants to read the material carefully and to be aware that questions about the reading would follow. In the learner-generated group, participants were told that they could construct their own graphic organizers in the margins of the page as they read the material and were informed that this might help them understand the material. Participants in the author-provided group and the control group were not instructed to generate graphic organizers during reading and did not generate any graphic organizers. The time to complete the reading was recorded for each individual. When all participants were finished reading the material, the stack of six short-answer test sheets was passed out. Participants were given oral instructions to work only on the top sheet, to keep working until they were asked to stop, and not to turn to the next sheet until asked to do so. Participants were carefully monitored for compliance. At the end of 3 min, participants were asked to immediately stop working on the current question, turn that sheet face down onto a finished stack, and begin the next sheet. After the last short-answer question, participants were given oral instructions that described the sentence-completion questions, which followed the same procedure as the short-answer questions except that participants were given 1 min to answer each question. The short-answer and sent ence-completion questions were presented in the order listed in the Appendix. After the last sentence-completion question, all material was collected, and the participants were debriefed and excused. Results and Discussion Scoring. We computed the retention score for each participant by tallying the score for the first short-answer question (worth a maximum of 4 points) and the score for each of the eight sentence completion questions (worth a maximum of 16 points). On the short-answer retention question, participants received 1 point for mentioning each of four concepts: (a) prezygotic barrier with (b) before fertilization and (c) postzygotic barrier with (d) after fertilization. On each sentence-completion question (worth a maximum of 2 points each), the participant received 1 point for writing the correctly spelled term for the appropriate reproductive barrier and 1 point for the correct prefix for the barrier subgroup- prezygotic or postzygotic. The correct answers to the eight sentence-completion questions listed in the Appendix are (a) temporal and pre, (b) habitat and pre, (c) gametic and pre, (d) behavioral and pre, (e) mechanical and pre, (f) hybrid viability and post, (g) hybrid sterility and post, and (h) hybrid breakdown and post. Partial terms (e.g., hybrid or sterility instead of hybrid sterility), parallel concepts (e.g., time instead of temporal or geographic instead of habitat), and incorrect spellings (e.g., pro instead of pre) were not acceptable answers. Partial credit was awarded if participants provided only one of the two correct terms. Each participant could earn a maximum of 16 points on the eight sentence-completion questions and 4 points on the short-answer retention question, for a total possible of 20 points on the retention score. We computed the transfer score for each participant by tallying the individual scores on each of the five short-answer transfer questions-short-answer questions 2 through 6 are listed in the Appendix. We scored each question by counting the unique concepts presented in the reading that were used appropriately by the participant to address each question. Acceptable concepts included the 10 specific reproductive barrier concepts: (a) prezygotic, (b) postzygotic, (c) temporal, (d) habitat, (e) gametic, (f) behavioral,(g) mechanical, (h) hybrid inviability, (i) hybrid sterility, and (j)hybrid breakdown. In addition, two general concepts were also counted: (a) crossing organisms to test whether reproduction was possible or recognizing that two species might have crossed to form a hybrid, and (b) mentioning that reproductive barriers maybe relevant to the explanation. Participants were allowed to describe the concepts with partial terms and parallel concepts, and misspelled terms were not counted as wrong. One point was awarded for each of the 12 concepts, for a maximum of 12 points per question. A second person scored all material. The interrater reliability measure was significantly correlated between these two scores (r =.826, p < .001). Discrepancies in the scores between these two scorers were individually evaluated in a blind, third review, which was used to determine the final score. Data analysis. Data were analyzed with one-way analyses of variance comparing the performance of the three treatment groups on each of the dependent measures-transfer score, retention score, and study time. Our major focus was on comparing the author-provided and learner-generated groups, so for each dependent measure we conducted planned contrasts on the mean scores of these groups and computed the corresponding effect size on the basis of Cohens d (Cohen, 1988).2 Table 2 lists the mean and standard deviation of each of the three treatment groups on each of the three dependent measures. Do readers who generate their own graphic organizers while reading a scientific passage learn better than readers who are given author-provided graphic organizers? The top left portion of Table 2 summarizes the mean transfer scores of the three groups in Experiment 1. There was not a significant effect of treatment on transfer scores, F(2, 153) = 1.32, MSE = 10.15, and the author- provided group did not differ significantly from the learner -generated group, t(153) = 1.30, d = 0.24. There is no evidence that constructing graphic organizers or even studying author- provided graphic organizers results in deeper learning. The top middle portion of Table 2 summarizes the mean retention scores of the three groups in Experiment 1. There was not a significant effect of treatment on retention scores, F(2, 153) = 0.210, MSE = 21.38, and the author-provided group did not differ significantly from the learner-generated group, t(153) =0.56, d = 0.11. There is no evidence that constructing graphic organizers or even studying author-provided graphic organizers results in better memory for the presented material. The top right portion of Table 2 summarizes the mean study times of the three groups in Experiment 1. There was a significant difference among the groups in mean study time, F(2, 153) = 82.86, MSE = 9.99, p < .001, and the author-provided group required significantly less study time than did the learner- generated group, t(153) =8.97, p < .001, d = 1.51. Although constructing graphic organizers did not result in better retention or transfer performance, it did require considerably more study time. Although the main focus of this research was on comparing the test performance of the author-provided and learner-generated groups, the types and number of graphic organizers produced by the learner-generated group were also examined. The author-provided group received 27 graphic organizers containing 506 words, whereas the learner-generate group produced a mean of 5.1 graphic organizers containing a mean of 84.2 words. The mean number of graphic organizers produced fell from 2.0 on page 1 to 0.5 on page 5; the mean number of words produced fell from 34.8 on page 1 to 10.0 on page 5. Although the number of graphic organizers produced in the learner-generated group was lower than that given to the author-provided group, all but 2 of the 51 participants in the learner-generated group attempted to construct graphic organizers. Exclusion of these 2 participants from the analysis did not alter the statistical results. These results are contrary to the prediction that graphic organizers facilitate learning. Furthermore, there is no evidence that generating graphic organizers resulted in better learning than simply viewing them on the page, although there is evidence that more study time was required when students generated their own graphic organizers. The open-ended nature of the learner-generated treatment might have been too demanding and confusing for the learners. Although a majority of participants in the learner-generated group attempted to construct graphic organizers, these graphic organizers varied greatly in form and quality. Participants might have been overwhelmed by the requirement to both select and implement appropriate graphic organizers, both of which might have contributed to extraneous cognitive load. For participants in the author-provided group, the margins of the pages were densely crowded with graphic organizers, which were potentially confusing to interpret as participants attempted to compare the concepts in the text with the appropriate graphic organizer. This might also have contributed to additional extraneous cognitive load. To address these issues, we reduced the complexity of the treatment in Experiments 2 and 3 by offering fewer graphic organizers to both groups and partially completed graphic organizer templates to the learner-generated group. Knowledge of how memory works is important to teachers and Cognitive Psychologists as they seek to discover ways and means to enhance learning. But it is possible that the brain can become so inundated with ideas that much of what comes to it simply decay. Bahrick, (1979) stated that much of what is learned in classrooms is lost soon after final examination. Higbee (1977) posited that people forget what they learned in school (usually within a short time after an examination). Never-Benjamin (1990) forwarded that if this is the case it is very serious. Neisser (1982) expressed that there is a difficulty in finding studies that support retention of academic instruction. But Nesser (1982) might not have been searching wide enough. In fact the literature that is available is replete with the suggestion that much work has been carried out. Wert, (19370 suggested that studies in the area of zoology, biology, and psychology, found retention from a few months to three years. It has also been put forward that (keller, 1968) personalized system of instruction and (Blooms, 1968)learning for mastery often include a measure of retention. Studies by (Gaskey and Gates, 1985; kulik, Kulik, and Bangert- Drowns, 1990) posited that students in all conditions retained much of what was taught. Conway, Cohen, and Stanhope, (1991); Semb, Ellis, and Aranjo (1993) stated that although forgetting does occur, the amount loss is not as great as expected by popular belief. Farrs ( 1987) opinion is that the most important variable in long term memory retention is the degree of original learning. Evidence from laboratory studies shows that increasing the number of learning trials enhances retention. Research has also proven that retention often depends on the instructional strategy that is used. A comparison of studies by ( Austin and gilbert, 1973 ; Breland and Smith 1974, Cooper and Greiner, 1971; Corey and Mc Michael, 1974; Glasnapp et al. 1978, Lu, M., 1976; Lu, P. 1976; Schwartz, 1981; Semb et al., 1993; Sharples et al., 1976) advanced that course objectives, content , length, and tests were the same for all the groups in the stu dies. The only difference was the instructional delivery strategy and mastery criteria. All the studies show that mastery conditions produce superior academic performance at the end of the course. Mckenzie and White (1982) observed high levels of retention for students actively involved in learning. In their study three groups of students learned geographical facts and skills. One group was given a learning program which includes pictures, slides, worded examples, sample test items, indications of relevance of information to subsequent application, and transfer of verbal proportions to maps, diagrams and slides. The remaining two groups were given learning program and field excursion. Treatment groups were formed from eight and ninth grade classes from two different schools. The classes were not ability tracked, and class assignments to treatment groups were random. Students in the excursion classes were assigned to either a traditional excursion or a processing excursion. For the traditional excursion students were given an explanatory field guide designed to reinforce the learning program content. The teacher pointed out the geographic areas of interest, and the student veri fied the information by referring to the guide. Students did not do any recording neither di

How Poets Describe the Ending of Childhood Innocence :: Childhood Poetry Poems Essays

How Poets Describe the Ending of Childhood Innocence Firstly Seamus Heaney is a poet I have studied. He was from a rural catholic background in Castledawson, County Derry, however he did live in a mainly protestant area. He addresses issues such as childhood, familial relationships, particularly his relationship with his father and also the identity crisis of becoming a poet. For example in his poem, â€Å"Death of a Naturalist† he draws largely on his experience and the experience of his community in an attempt to represent the troubles in a new and analytical manner. In contrast to this, another poet I focused on, Carol Ann Duffy, grew up in an urban environment. She was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1955, however grew up in Staffordshire, England and attended university in Liverpool before moving to London. She also addresses issues involving childhood memories in such poems as Litany and In Mrs Tilscher’s class. Another poet studied was Ronald Stuart Thomas. He was born in Cardiff but moved from place to place after his father got a job in the Navy. He finally settled in Holyhead in 1918. He began to seriously learn the Welsh language, as he wanted a sense of Welsh identity. It showed importance of being Welsh. Many years later R. S. Thomas was alienated from much of Welsh country life by his status as a priest in the Church of Wales. He felt the exclusion keenly, saying once that an anglicised upbringing like his prevents one from ever feeling one hundred percent at home in Welsh Wales’. He is similar to Heaney due to his rural and religious backgrounds and is also a nationalist. All three of these poets frequently write about a personal experience they had when growing up and how it affected them, or about the experience of the child or children and how they think it affected them. Seamus Heaney wrote Mid-term break, which describes a personal experience for him when his brother died in a car accident when he was young. He is recalling a childhood memory. Carol Ann Duffy also recalls a childhood memory in her poem Litany. She remembered the day when she thought her mother and her mother’s friends were excluding her. Also R. S. Thomas wrote the poem Children’s song, which speaks about how children live in a world of their own in which no adult can never be a part of. When writing about childhood the poems are retrospective and look into the past, which concern memories of the child. Some poems by these three poets present a child’s perspective of the world, while others show how an adult views their past.

Enginnering Ethics Paper -- Engineering

In order for an engineering concept to be considered innovative it must be a new method or product; but it can also be a modification to an existing method or product. Generally the function of innovation is to overcome a new obstacle or to improve upon a current solution to any design. For the purpose of this paper innovation will not be defined only as an improvement. However, the innovation may cause new problems to arise. Given this situation the engineer may not have taken all the necessary steps to ensure the success of the application of the new design. In this paper one such engineer (William LeMessurier) and design concept will be discussed. The definition of innovation in the engineering field will be developed and the question of whether or not there are additional obligations imposed on the engineer as a result of innovation will be addressed. It was previously stated that innovation produces new problems which still holds true, but the statement may cause confusion given the definition of innovation as compared to the definition of invention. Invention is the generation of an idea while innovation is the attempted implementation of that idea. Having established general definitions an expansion on the definition of innovation is needed. An idea cannot be considered innovative if the application is unsuccessful. In order for a concept to be considered innovative it has to meet the design criteria. An innovative design must possess or more of the following characteristics: unusual, ground breaking, novel or a significant transformation from the previous design. In the field of engineering the distinction between innovative and non-innovative designs is based mostly on pioneering. The purpose of an engineer is to improv... ...tated that the night welding was the result of â€Å"an upgrade to reflect a recent change in the NYC building codes†2. This statement was deceitful but not irresponsible. The public health, safety and welfare were not ignored in association with the Citicorp design. Precautions were taken and information was shared among those in a position to make an impact. Informing the public of a design flaw would most likely cause panic and great economic loss. The engineer LeMessurier acted responsibly on his part. As the lead engineer public relations and press releases are not his responsibility. References 1. "Innovation.†. Britannica Family Encyclopedia. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. 2. E. HARRIS and R. JAMES, ENGR 482 Class Notes, Texas A&M University (Fall 2009). 3. HARRIS,PRITCHARD, RABINS, â€Å"Engineering Ethics†, Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, Belmont (2009)

Essay --

Children were made to work without pay and without their willingness; they were raped, beat, and sometimes killed if they did not work. The definition of child labor is the misuse of children in industries or businesses when it is consider illegal or inhumane. In the late 1900’s 18% of the American workers were under the age of 16. It didn’t matter their age the adults pushed them to their very limits. They had children at the age of 4 working long hard hours. They had the children working so young because they had really small hands and bodies unlike the adults with full grown bodies. Women and children were the ones to support their families because they were way tinier and able to do more than a man was able to in a factory. The ages ranged anywhere from 4 years to 21 and over. The starting age percentage back then was 49.9% and it is now 3.9%. Children 10-13 was 27.9% and is now 25.3%, 14-17 was 10.3% and is now 22.1%, 18-20 was 4.1% and is now 11.8%. These children would work up to 12 hours a day and had little to no breaks. They believed that they didn’t need breaks or that they weren’t doing as good as they were supposed to be doing so they gave those that got them minimal breaks. Some of the jobs they had to do were in dangerous places in the factories. They were in areas where there were toxic fumes and the machinery they had to run all of it was very dangerous and caused many injuries and deaths. The machinery ran so quickly that fingers, legs, and arms could have very easily gotten caught in them. The machines could have caused way more serious injuries if not treated could have infections set in or it could have caused deaths from serious blood loss. The environments that these children were in had fumes and toxins e... ...ent during this period. But the gaps that remained, particularly in the southern states, led to the decision to work for a federal child labor law. Congress passed such laws in 1916 and 1918, but the Supreme Court ended up declaring them unconstitutional. Congress did eventually pass such an amendment in 1924, but the conservative political climate of the 1920s, together with opposition from some church groups and farming organizations that feared the possible increase of federal power in areas related to children, prevented many states from ratifying it. They passed an act called the National Industrial Recovery Act to reduce the use of child labor. They also passed the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which in turn for the first time set national minimum wage and maximum hour standards for workers in interstate commerce, also placed limitations on child labor.

Famous graphic designers and illustrators

The most recognized and famous graphic designers and Illustrators are from the US and different countries from Europe, but what about the graphic designers from the Philippines. Kate Morose a famous British artist, and Wham Abaca a Philippine artist who Is not so famous. Two artists that are very good designers and both use pop art and contemporary. Also both work with an explosion of colors. Just looking at their work, you can see the free mind that both have. But Just because Kate Is fromEngland and Wham Is from the Philippines, do not have the same popularity. All around the world you can find people who have an Incredible talent, you do not have to go to England to find good graphic designers. The two illustrators, we just mention, their style is like pop art, with a lot of color and a lot of shapes. Kate Morose use words, with funny letters that make a massage. Wham Abaca, also give us a massage like every artist do, but he just work with images and some time a couple of words. The big difference between this to great artist, are that Skate's work is softer and Wham is most grotesque.Even with this big different, both are good designers that make their ideas flow in their works and looks garish. Skate's and Wham's designs blow up with colors. Kate uses more colors that Wham, she almost use the entire color palette in Just one design and it not looks heavy. But even if Wham is working Just with specific color, all their work is colorful and looks bright. Both make the people turn to see their work, because the bright colors attract their attention. It is difficult to make a good design with a lot of colors, because you have to choose the right tone and make a good contrast when you put them together.Kate and Wham have made a very good Job with that. As you can see in the pictures, both artists try to give massages using their own style and giving life to whatever they want to transmit. Kate gave us very clear what she wants to said, because she uses words, and the words are easy to read. Wham's works Is more like â€Å"one picture tells us more than a thousand words†, because he do not use a lot of words, sometime non. But some of Skate's designs the words are difficult to read and the Wham's pictures are difficult to make a clear message.Even o both reflect their free mind and creatively very well, but not all the people can make a clear message from their creations. As we could saw, designs from a Philippine It Is as well from designs from someone of England. Wham has a unique style, kind pop art, but he put his own touch. He knows how to combine the colors and make them look very attractive, making his wants to give a message, which reflects his thinking. Even if it is look a little bit strange and scary. The world is a place full of persons with great talents that can be found even in places that are not so common like the Philippines.

Micromax Mobile : How to Increase Market Share

Consumer buying behaviour report Micromax mobile phones By Mansi Choksey Roll no. 19 PGDM Marketing Product chosen: Micromax Mobile phones Issue to be addressed: How to increase Market share: Background on the company: Micromax Mobile needs no introduction today. Just two years back people were not aware of  the brand  at all but today it’s India’s third largest mobile selling company by volume after Nokia and Samsung (IDC Report). Brand’s success can be attributed to it’s ability to understand the need of the market ,aggressive marketing with a budget of Rs. 00 crore and smart  distribution channel  management. Its one of the leading Indian Telecom Companies with 23 domestic offices across the country and international offices in Hong Kong, USA, Dubai and now in Nepal. With a futuristic vision and an exhaustive R&D at its helm, Micromax has successfully generated innovative technologies that have revolutionised the telecom consumerspace. As pe r IDC report Micromax displaced LG to become third largest selling  mobile handset company  in india with a market share of 6%.Nokia is market leader with 62% share and Samsung is on second place with 8% market share. The company today sells more than a million handsets a month and is now a Rs. 1600 cr worth brand. The company has presence in more than 500 districts and 90,000  retail outlets. The company started its Mobile handset business in 2008 and the challenge was to establish an identity in a market dominated by big MNCs Like Nokia,Samsung,LG and Motorola. Today Micromax has become a brand which people relate and look up to for realizing their individual device preferences and other out-of-the-box solutions.Micromax, is now churning out 1 million phones a month. Micromax is on a mission to successfully overcome the technological barriers and constantly engender â€Å"life enhancing solutions†. The company's vision is to develop path-breaking technologies and effi cient processes that incubate newer markets, enliven customer aspirations and continue to make Micromax a trusted market leader amongst people. Micromax founders : Rajesh Agarwal: handles company finances Sumeet Arora: chief technology officer Vikas jain: handles alliances with other companiesRahul Sharma: risk taker with the big ideas 4 P’s of marketing for Micromax mobiles: 1. Product Micromax has been quite effective in the marking a difference with almost every product that it launched. The range that they have covered varies quite a large variety. Right from the handsets with 30 days battery backup, dual SIM, handsets switching networks (GSM -CDMA) using gravity sensors, aspirational QWERTY keypad handsets to operator branded 3G handsets to the most exciting OMH CDMA Handsets, etc. Every product of Micromax had the potential to grab the attention of media as ell as the consumers in a market which is already flooded with mobile phone handsets and a launch is there in ever y day or two. 2. Price Micromax specialized in entry-level and mid-segment handsets priced between Rs1,800 and Rs2,400 when it started selling the devices in 2008, confining itself to small towns and rural areas in the first 12-18 months. Encouraged by its success, the firm expanded to larger cities and now has a distribution network of 55,000 retailers, which it plans to scale up to 70,000 by the end of March as part of its strategy to raise sales to 1. million handsets a month. 3. Place Micromax is one of the leading Indian Telecom Companies with 23 domestic offices across the country and international offices in Hong Kong, USA, Dubai and now in Nepal. Micromax has invested Rs100 crore to set up a plant in Baddi in Himachal Pradesh as it feels outsourcing manufacturing completely leaves the door open for supply-side uncertainties. Production will be scaled up from an initial 50,000 per month. â€Å"If everything goes right, by the third phase in March 2011, the Baddi plant will b e making about 500,000 handsets,† Jain said.If the plant isn’t able to cope with the numbers, the fallback plan is to acquire a facility in South Korea, Taiwan or China, he added. 4. Promotion Having gained traction, Micromax is also working on a strategy to create awareness in the metros, which includes tying up with MTV for co-branded phones. Micromax has also tied up with a Bollywood celebrity â€Å"AKSHAY KUMAR† as brand ambassador. Micromax has also tied up some pretty big brands like Yamaha for enhancing their audio experiences and the X360 comes with an MTV branding and exclusive content.It is utilizing the integrated market communication tools like sponsoring events (cricket match and film awards), advertising through hoardings, TV, radio etc very effectively. With a 360 degree advertising and marketing strategy sketched out, the company has an optimistic outlook for the telecom consumer space. Currently present in more than 40,000 stores across the count ry, the company plans to have an aggressive market incursion to reach out to its customers through 70,000 operational stores in the coming year The following tools of IMC are being used by Micromax:Events and experiences For marketing of its products the company is riding on two enduring Indian obsessions–sports and films–to build its brand. Following up on its association with the popular Twenty20 cricket Indian Premier League (IPL), Micromax, a brand that is less than three years old, has become the title sponsor of almost all tournaments and series of which India is a part, including the recently concluded Asia Cup, the forthcoming India-Sri Lanka Test series and the India-New Zealand-Sri Lanka tri-series in August.The objective behind the cricket â€Å"roadblock†, as such behavior is termed in advertising, is to drive brand awareness and recall. The company believes that while cricket may boost a brand instantly, viewers may still not remember the brand afte r the match or the tournament. Even if consumers remember a series, they may not remember the advertisers. That's when they thought of a roadblock and decided to sponsor all cricketing properties post IPL. Bollywood is also a major platform for the brand, which is targeting consumers between 18 and 27 years.Bollywood's most bankable star Akshay Kumar was signed on as the brand ambassador six months ago. More recently, his wife Twinkle Khanna was engaged to promote Micromax's bling phone that comes with Swarovski crystals and a vanity mirror. To push its association with films, the firm also sponsored the IIFA (International Indian Film Academy) Awards held in Sri Lanka, where Micromax recently launched its phones. The brand is now ready to enter Bangladesh and West Asia. Advertising Broadcast media micromax use television to broadcast their advertisements. Apart from using cricket, films, celebrity micromax also advertise through news papers.They also utilize hoarding and bill board s to advertise their products. Prime site recently kicked off a month-long campaign for Micromax mobile phones in Delhi, executed mostly through hoardings. Going further, this promotion will be extended to the other regions of northern India as well. All the Medias used by micromax are very carefully selected as to reach its target audience and through each medium the innovative aspect of the product is portrayed. The three advertising objectives of micromax mobile are * To create awareness * To increase recall of their brand * To create brand equity.Company’s current marketing strategy: 1. Tapping the Indian consumers by knowing what they need specifically: a. Indian context: When Nokia or Samsung roll out a new model they do so from its global portfolio rather than launching something specifically for India. Micromax realized the fact that there are certain unmet needs still there in the market which is not being addressed by big brands. Micromax’s strategy ,since th eir inception has been to identify the unmet latent needs of people and come up with a product which no one else has and thus fits well with the consumer need. b. Rural context:Micromax initially targeted rural market and once it established its presence went on to lure urban youth. Micromax’s first innovation – a handset with 30 days of standby battery life — crucial in a country like India where power failures are common. Also in rural areas its not easy to charge one’s mobile phones because not only are there power failures but also they don’t have money to pay for electricity every month and hence such a phone was introduced. Also One of the major aspects that contribute towards the substantial monthly growth of Micromax is its 80% sales in the rural areas.After building a strong presence in the rural market, where the prominence of both subscribers and operators is rapidly increasing, Micromax is now progressively moving towards establishing i ts foothold in the competitive urban towns as well. 2. Value for money & Cost effective: The company didn’t bank on price competition only rather it catered to the needs of people unaddressed by MNC brands. Big brand like Nokia, Samsung had not introduced Dual sim phones earlier. But with the onset of such phones launched by Micromax, Nokia , Samsung etc. ave tough competition and their phones are just a case of â€Å"me-too† products. Also Micromax has made sure that all their mobile phones are value for money and serve the purpose and the need of the customer. 3. R&D and Innovation : Versatile Product Portfolio: It was the first to introduce: a) Handsets with 30 days battery backup b) Handsets with Dual SIM / Dual Standby c) Handsets Switching Networks (GSM – CDMA) using gravity sensors d) Aspirational Qwerty Keypad Handsets e) Operator Branded 3G Handsets f) OMH CDMA Handsets, etc. . First mover advantage: They have introduced phones specially targeti ng the Indian people which were never even thought of remotely by the top players in the mobile phone industry like Nokia & Samsung. So they clearly have a first mover advantage. 5. Outsourcing the manufacturing: Instead of manufacturing itself, Micromax sourced its handsets from 12 factories in China, South Korea and Taiwan. It was model-based sourcing: Micromax would come up with an idea and give it to the factory best placed to deliver it.This is different from, say, Nokia, which would be compelled to stay in-house or go to a vendor-partner, even if another vendor had better capabilities to execute a particular model. 6. Smart distribution channel management: Micromax also looked at distribution in a new way, standing by its cash-only model. While rivals offered a 60-day credit line, Micromax refused to give credit. â€Å"If the distributor does not buy your handsets, there is no pressure on him to sell them,† explains Mr Agarwal. At the same time, Micromax offered to supply distributors regularly to keep inventories down.So, distributors didn’t have to shell out large amounts upfront or have a lot of money locked in. â€Å"If we give a distributor 1,000 handsets and ask him to sell them over a month, he will worry about his daily sales,† says Mr Agarwal. â€Å"But if we supply less, demand will be close to equal or more than supply. †Micromax has 34 super-distributors across India. Unlike a Nokia or a Samsung, it doesn’t interact with the 500-plus sub-distributors. Neither does it intervene in how the super-distributors sell or place the products. â€Å"We offer our super-distributors a 15% margin, which is higher than the ndustry average of 6-10%,† claims Mr Jain. 7. Unmet needs of consumer 30-DAY BATTERY PHONES April 2008: Rs 2,249; Now: Rs 1,999 The X1i, Micromax’s first phone, had a battery that could give 17 hours of talk time and go 30 days on a single charge. DUAL-SIM PHONES July 2008: Rs 1,999-12 ,999 For those who want two numbers but one handset PHONE-CUM-REMOTE May 2010: Rs 2,999 A mobile that can switch TV channels and even change the AC Temperature PHONE-CUM-STEREO Feb 2010: Rs 4,999 With 3D surround sound, fed by Yamaha and Wolfson BLING Feb 2010: Rs 5,500 A big hit with women, comes with Swarovski embellishmentsIN THE WORKS A mosquito-repellent phone. A phone that can be used as a computer mouse Micromax focuses on being different 8. Production related moves: Micromax is investing Rs 100 crore to set up a manufacturing plant in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh, to ensure its outsourcing model does not cause supply-side uncertainties. Production is being scaled up from 50,000 units per month to 500,000 units a month by March 2011. How to increase the market share with respect to the consumer buying behaviour: Steps of consumer buying behaviour: 1) Need awareness:The beginning point of most purchasing is your potential buyer recognition of a need in their life. This need can be established by encountering a problem or prompted by a company's marketing. Already Micromax is into a lot of marketing through promotions, Ads, sponsorships of events, etc. But few suggestions on that front to make sure that their potential consumer hears them rightly is – * Now they are at the 3rd position in the mobile handset industry and they have achieved a good market share in a very short span of time, so their advertisements should focus on brand building. They don`t develop very creative advertisements, sometimes their advertisements are mere noises like the advertisement featuring Akshay kumar. They must add creativity to their advertisements. (Micromax Bling Ad featuring Twinkle Khanna is an exception to this point). * Break the resistance of no need by aligning their marketing with the current needs and wants of your market. * It’s a general norm that whatever is expensive is good to use, of high quality, has more life and is definitely something which wil l increase one’s status.So it would be a good strategy to increase the prices which will work for the image of Micromax because there is a risk of the brand being perceived not as an aspirational brand but a ordinary price warrior if it does not focus on the quality of the communication. * The needs of not even two consumers are the same. Therefore, they buy only those products and services, which satisfy their wants and desires.To survive in the market, a firm has to be constantly innovating and understand the latest consumer needs and tastes it will be extremely useful in exploiting marketing opportunities and in meeting the challenges that the Indian market offers. This reality can be turned into an opportunity by introducing â€Å"Customization of mobile phones†. a) People can goto Micromax mobile stores, and fill a form listing their options of the type of phone they want, color of the phone, screen size of the phone, features like audio player, radio, one  œtouch applications, etc. ;amp; all other specifications of the phone. ) Once that form is filled the Micromax staff can show a picture of the newly designed phone to the consumer on a computer and if necessary can make any changes and then finally place the order for such a phone. c) Payment terms and conditions can be advance payment – half the price of the phone at the time of placing and half at the time of delivery. This makes the consumer feel that the mobile phone company is not only generally consumer centric but it believes in the fact that every person is different and unique in his/ her own way and would have different needs and wants.Also this gives a chance to the consumers to become innovative and its definite that a consumer will definitely want to buy such a phone again from Micromax. 2) Information search: Its important to make sure consumers know about all the new variants and products that the company introduces. With the rise of the Internet, it has never been easier for buyers to research their purchase. It needs to make sure that all information is readily available on the website.They can break the resistance of lack of education by adding an educational seminar to their marketing mix to provide maximum information about their company, phones, promotions, variants, prices, etc. to not just the tech-savvy urban population but also the rural people. Their goal at this point in the buying process is to get their product or service in front of the consumer. They need to make them aware of their solution. 3) Check options: Once the consumer understands his or her situation and has gathered research on possible solutions, the mobile handset buying process enters an evaluation period.The consumer now starts to take a close look at specifics, such as the company providing the solution, the brand name of the product, and the features and benefits of each solution. Branding  and product differentiation are extremely important tools of per suasion during the evaluation stage. This is where the strategies listed above would help Micromax gain an edge over its competitors and increase the market share when a potential consumer would sit and evaluate his options while buying a cell phone. 4) Purchase: After a comprehensive review of solutions and specific products and services, the consumer makes a purchase decision.At this point in the buying process, supporting information needs to be provided to reinforce the decision to buy. Help the buyer by telling them what and why the company/ staff in the store would recommend a certain handset as they are the experts in that. Also Depending on urban / rural population, the company can provide different payment options or billing terms. 5) Evaluation of the purchase: The buyer will look for reinforcement from media, friends, and other sources confirming they made the right decision. Cognitive dissonance or â€Å"buyer's remorse† happens when the buyer begins to feel the p urchase wasn't right for them.To make sure such dissonance doesn’t occur they should offer warranties, there must be after purchase follow-up calls to make sure that the consumer is happy with the handset he/she has purchased, excellent after sales service by opening as many service centers as possible in all parts of India. It is crucial to building strong relationships with customers and encouraging repeat purchases that you not only provide a positive purchase experience and after sale support, but that you strengthen the buyer’s perception that they made the right purchase decision.

The Importance of Cleanliness and Tidiness of a Classroom

It is important to keep and maintain clean environment in our classroom at any time. If we don’t then we will need to face number of possible problems. First of all, the purposes of keeping clean and tidy include health, beauty absence of disgusting smells and to avoid the spread of dirt from one to another. In the classroom where nearly forty students learning and sitting together in such small area, the environment will need to be clean enough.It is because the air inside is breathing continuously by all of us and the bacteria and virus in the rubbish like tissues used by classmates, packing of the food will stay in the air if we just put rubbish everywhere inside the classroom. Smell of the food would further attract pests which have potential danger giving us health problems as pests are usually dirty. Therefore it is necessary for us to put the rubbish or any other used materials inside the dust bin. In addition, we will use the air-conditioner more frequently in the comi ng months because of the raising temperature.Thus, windows will be closed during most of the time. The circulation of air may not be as good as before. If we still keep on throwing rubbish on the floor, we will have a higher chance to get sick because of breathing in the air which contains bacteria. Besides the negative impact on our health, having a fifty classroom will give others a bad impression on us. Others will just think it is impossible and unreasonable for a secondary four student accept to have such dirty and uncomfortable learning environment.And in my opinion, it is unacceptable for us to have lessons in such environment. Last but certainly not the least; it is also our own responsibility to keep the place around us neat and clean. As we are already a form four student, therefore we should able to self-discipline ourselves at any time not to throw or keep rubbish on the floor without our attention. There is with a doubt for us keeping our surroundings without rubbish or any other used materials. And I don’t think we will accept this if it happens at our home, so why we can accept such kind of things happening in the classroom?The only problem is that we don’t care about it and just ignore it although we know that it will worsen the environment and bring negative impact to us. Lastly, let’s imagine a learning environment which is neat and tidy, will it be comfortable and peace? There is again no doubt to say yes, both the teachers and students will feel good and excellent teaching and studying in a clean classroom. In summary, it is always good and necessary to maintain cleanliness and tidiness around us and our surroundings. It will not merely prevent you from so many diseases and illnesses but also keep the environment in a hygienic condition.

Lifeguarding: Swimming Pool and Associates Professional Lifeguard

Cortny Handorf Professor Richey English 1301 December 4, 2012 Life Savers Growing up, the job title â€Å"lifeguarding† said it all to me. Swimming pools and aquatic attractions were always the most fun places to go with the family. I always looked up to lifeguards as if they were some sort of a hero. They made me feel secure and safe although I've always been an excellent swimmer. It seemed as if they had the ideal job, so when I got older I took the first opportunity to become my own hero. I started out being just a lifeguard and then soon advanced quickly to a lifeguard instructor.I even was promoted to becoming the facilities Aquatics Director. Through this journey, I had the chance to experience how rewarding being a lifeguard truly is and was able to be many of others hero. There are several specific techniques on how to be an Ellis and Associates professional lifeguard. The first step in how to be an Ellis and Associates professional lifeguard is to pass all the prerequ isites. This includes being able to swim 200 yards and to tread water for two minutes. After passing those, people must take the international lifeguard training course through Ellis (ILTP).This program prepares them for what it takes to be professional. This course also teaches how to anticipate, recognize and manage aquatic emergencies. It is a requirement that Ellis lifeguards be accountable and responsible. After all, they are the crucial, front line components of water safety at an aquatic facility. Being prepared, pleasant, vigilant, knowledgeable, and always in proper uniform reflect upon the professional image of a lifeguard. When a lifeguard looks and acts professional the facility will reflect upon their actions, and the guest will respond to their request more efficiently.Lifeguards should also speak with authority to insure rule enforcement. The second step in how to be an Ellis and Associates lifeguard is to learn the variety of rescues. Each lifeguard is assigned a spe cific zone of protection. This is commonly referred to as their station or position they are responsible for. Within the zone of protection, each Ellis lifeguard is required to keep a vigilant 10/20 protection standard. This means they have 10 seconds to spot a guest in distress, and 20 seconds to reach the guest to administer aid.There are several different ways to scan a zone of protection, and everyone’s technique will be different. Practicing these techniques will assure vigilance, and help the guard stay focused. During an emergency, lifeguards have to be able to keep calm, speak loud and clear to be able to control a surrounding crowd. All Ellis lifeguards will also have to be CPR certified through Ellis. The lifeguards preform CPR until EMS shows up to take over. The third step in how to be an Ellis and Associates lifeguard is to know each facilities emergency action plan (EAP).Every aquatic facility has an EAP and should be practiced daily. It is important for all emp loyees to know their role in the state of an emergency. Communication becomes very crucial when an EAP has been activated. Most lifeguards use their whistles to communicate in this process. For example, the waterpark I was at used two long whistle blasts to activate an emergency. However, EMS is not always going to be called for a tiny scratch or slight sunburn. That means all lifeguards also have to know how to render first aid. By the end of the course, some people learn they are not cut out for this type of job.Therefore, after they have completed the 24 hour course and have passed the written exam at least by 80 percent, then they will be certified lifeguards. After they complete this, they now have to attend weekly in-services to keep their skills sharp. In conclusion, these are brief techniques on how to be an Ellis and Associates professional lifeguard. Being a lifeguard is harder than what some people may think. At the end of each day, lifeguards must be able to prioritize t heir actions in order to save lives when needed. They may not be doctors or nurses; however, they are life preservers.

Strategic Management Analysis Case Study, EFAS & IFAS Essay

Strategic Management Analysis Case Study, EFAS & IFAS - Essay Example External factors affected the Vermont Teddy Bear will be accessed using PEST analysis. Political-legal forces acting upon the Vermont Teddy Bear allocate power and provide constraining and protect ­ing laws and regulations. The company does not influenced greatly by political changes. Legal changes had a greater impact on the company caused by changing international situation and increased competition, high taxes and corporate expenses the main changes took place at the end of the 1990s when European market altered parameters of international competition and enforced a period of reassessment. In spite of the fact that the Vermont Teddy Bear is a national company, these changes affected its sales and profitability. Environmental changes suggest that the opening up of the market and the resultant increased competition has widened the perspective of the planning framework with profound implications. The threat was that the removal of physical barriers and the new-found freedom of move ment around the European market have increased international expansion and in so doing raise the degree of European trade. According to the case study, in 2000 the Vermont Teddy Bear had a decline in its operations. Failure in investment activities at the end of 1990s led to declining of financial situa ­tion and crisis (Stacey 1996). The social environment includes general forces that do not directly touch on the short-run activities of the organization but that can, and often do, influence its long-run decisions. For instance, â€Å"in 1998, the company changed this philosophy by exploring the offshore sourcing of materials, outfits, and manufacturing in an effort to lower costs† (Vincelette et al). Economic forces regulate the exchange of materials, money, energy, and information (Chaffy et al 2000). This environment proposes great challenges for the Vermont Teddy Bear influenced by customers’ loyalty and trust. Speaking about the nature competition it

Hospatility and Tourism Strategic Managment Essay

Hospatility and Tourism Strategic Managment - Essay Example This "Hospitality and tourism strategic management" essay describes an importance of strategic management, its key elements and also writes about role of Information technology in the hospitality industry. Strategic planning has seen a vast improvement and has evolved in recent times, more so with the volatile economy and intense market competition. However, there is still a tendency of the senior management to keep the formal strategic planning in their purview rather than making it transparent and developing a clear communication with the middle managers and other employees. This approach will not only prove to be detrimental for the future of organizational objectives, but also will not allow a complete harmony between the various levels of employees. The middle management will not be equipped to handle and execute the strategic planning of the senior management until and unless they have a clear understanding of the future vision of the organization. The hospitality and tourism i ndustry has evolved from late eighties and has seen tremendous growth, making the competition stringent with most of the developing countries focusing and formulating friendly policies due to the industry’s immense potential. With advanced tools being introduced to make the services as pleasing for the customer as possible, the focus has more or less now shifted on the unit and the departmental levels of industry players. Hence, the senior management needs to realize the importance involving all the employees in strategic decision making. as they are the ones, who deal one on one with the existing and prospective customers, which eventually decides the company’s reputation and future market base (Scott and Laws 2006). Business Environment The external environment that any company in the hospitality industry needs to do a thorough analysis on can be divided into the operating environment and the organisational environment. Many developed and primarily developing countri es have come up with hospitality industry friendly policies and procedures due to the immense potential of the hospitality and tourism industry to generate huge amounts of economic benefits for any country, benefits like, employment, foreign exchange, tax revenues etc. (Kotler 2008). Managers must give a detailed consideration to the macro-environment factors. Firstly, political factors - governments enforce rules and regulations within which the company must operate, such as subsidies or lenient tax laws for new businesses. Governments can shut companies for not complying with the enforced laws. Therefore, being compliant with the laws

The Analgesic Effects of Acupuncture Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Analgesic Effects of Acupuncture - Assignment Example The paragraph shows an aspect of the medical field that has been rarely studied and is never properly understood. However, as mentioned in the paragraph, Acupuncture has started the to evolve from its roots in Asia to other developed parts of the world. The paragraph is well- written and is focused on the main topic at hand. It does not dwell on other irrelevant facts and figures. The feature of the paragraph that is to be greatly appreciated is the citation of two articles which shows the effects of acupuncture on both animal and humans alike. The studies cited in the paragraph have been explained in the detailed description. The main problem that the researcher noticed in the paragraph is the lack of justification to the main topic. The two articles that are mentioned in the paragraph although selected very well are little less to justify the analgesic effects. The author can add a few more of the relevant articles to prove his point. Furthermore, the author can select such article s which are backed by numbers and figures but the two articles that are already mentioned do not mention the amount or extent of decrease in analgesic pain. Another problem that the researcher found is that the paragraph has a number of problems which include grammatical errors and punctuation errors. These errors should be reviewed before submission. The author can also change some words and find more suitable alternatives for certain words. For e.g. in L3 of the paragraph the word â€Å"part† can be replaced with â€Å"component† or any other suitable word. The third problem that the researcher thinks may cause difficulties among the audience is the use of certain terminologies that are quite difficult to decipher for the general public. The author should add explanations for certain terminologies like Yanglinquan, Yinlinquan, Zhusanli, Dubi, Kunlun, Xuanzhong, Sanyinjiao and Taixi. The fourth problem is that the two articles that are mentioned in the paragraph are n ot well written or descriptive, the methodology should be more well-defined and the results should be based on a certain number and figure rather than the subject’s word of mouth. The mechanism of pain reduction should be elaborately explained as well.

Financial Crisis about Fannie Mae Research Paper

Financial Crisis about Fannie Mae - Research Paper Example The Congress and President Roosevelt then passed a bill allowing for the establishment of Fannie Mae in order to freeze up capital by buying mortgages from lenders (Birger 38). The company was therefore chartered by the Federal Housing Act of 1934 to relieve the housing problem and increase homeownership among Americans. The primary purpose of Fannie Mae was to develop a secondary mortgage aimed at rejuvenating the financially strapped lenders such as loans and saving associations, mortgage banks, and commercial banks. Being a charted financial institution which is regulated by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Fannie Mae was not affected by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 (Birger 44). Before the 2008 housing bubble burst, Fannie Mae was very successful. However, the fall in home prices and mortgage securitization changed the mortgage and housing sectors, which culminated in plummeting property values and foreclosures. The subprime events are partially blamed for unethical considerations by the lending institutions. However, the weight of the crisis can be explained by the global financial contagion, which was inevitable and hence characterized as bad luck. Following the global financial crisis, all the financial and credit institutions either were either culprits or victims. The financial hardship period was met by a higher degree of defaults in the loans and credits advanced to potential borrowers. On their part, Fannie Mae was blamed for their inability to regulate and control internal affairs which included poor accounting and credit policies (Birger 45). After the real estate cratered, it was criticized for being unable to safeguard their investment portfolio s. Having heavily invested in the subprime-backed securities, a higher rate of default in the mortgage industry adversely affected the company.

Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness - Essay Example But there are various degrees of madness that lead to this total madness, as this essay will show. The first example of madness is in fact within history, more than 1800 years ago, as the Romans invaded Britain. Marlow reflects on those distant times when England "was one of the dark places on earth." Dark and savage Britain was a dangerous but fascinating terrain that they sought to take from the British but at the same time often went mad in the process. Part of the reason for this madness, and through allusion it is what was happening in Africa at the time the novel was written, is that conquest of a land means "taking it away from those who had a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves . . . is not a pretty thing." (Conrad, ) The reaction of Europeans to Africa seems to revolve around different types and degrees of madness. Thus there is the futile action of the gunboat as it fires constant, random shots into the jungle. It is not aiming at anyone in particular, or indeed, at any thing in particular. The people in control of it are essentially mad because they feel that they are actually achieving something through the very action. Doing something, however pointless, is always better than doing nothing within this type of madness. This ship and its occupants however remain reasonably remote from the reality of Africa, they are after all firing into it rather than going into it. A different kind of madness occurs for those who actually take on African through going into it. Kurtz remains at one extreme of madness - total, partly because he has lived in the very interior, at "the very bottom of there" (Conrad, ). Marlow, who is only a little mad as he makes his way into the heart of Africa, recognizes that Kurtz is totally mad, and recognizes why he has ended up in that state. One moment where Marlow sees the strange fascination of being seduced by madness in Africa is when he hears a native screaming, "the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness of that noise" (Conrad, ). Part of Kurtz's madness stems from the fact that he regards himself as "extraordinary" (Conrad, ) and thus is not subject to the rules that the others must adhere to. The Russian excuses him by saying "you can't judge Mr. Kurtz as you would an ordinary man" (Conrad, ). Kurtz wanted to educate and civilize the natives of Africa, which within the terms of reference of the book, is essentially a type of madness because it is such a futile attempt. He is breaking the rules through trying to do something good for the natives, but continues to do so as the darkness wins and he essentially becomes savage. His madness is savage, and his savagery is mad: they are linked together within a kind of mutually parasitic relationship that takes Kurtz further and further into insanity. Essentially the whole book deals with a voyage into the "heart of darkness" which is essentially madness. Marlow realizes that he is discovering the "wild and passionate uproar" at the heart of all human beings. Heart of Darkness suggests that it is savagery of Africa that most perfectly encapsulates this "uproar" and that the European should avoid too much contact with it if he is to avoid madness. In conclusion, nearly all the characters in Heart of Darkness are mad in one way or another. Kurtz is mad, the natives are