Piaget Stage Theory Essays - Child Development, Cognitive Psychology

Piaget Stage Theory The project is based on Piaget`s stage theory of cognitive development Prediction Based on Piaget`s theory, children during the pre - operational stage have acquired the ability to stand apart and view themselves from another person`s perspective. They are able to describe themselves as different from other children by listing their unique characteristics, especially the fact that their names are different. They develop a more complex understanding of themselves, such as age, name, family etc.. During the same stage children become aware of and use gender as a dimension by which to classify people. Once children become aware of their own sex, they learn to label themselves as boy or girl. Early childhood is the time when children start to learn family values, and become a cooperative part of the family with their own responsibilities. They spend countless hours of play and other activities with their siblings. Although young children may use words reflecting an understanding of time, such as minute, hour, day, or week, they still confuse the concept of time and space. Based on Piaget`s theory, I believe that the interviewed children will know their age, name, gender, and their siblings. I do not expect to know their exact birthday and address because it is still too abstract for them. Furthermore, I do not expect that the background/culture is influencing the children`s answers to my questions. I believe that all four tested children do understand and are able to answer my questions. Methods Interviewing four children from different backgrounds was the method use to assess the children`s cognitive development. The four-year-old identical twin girls were interviewed in the living room of their parents` house. Each girl was interviewed separately. The five-year-old German boy was interviewed by phone, and the six year old Asian - American boy was interviewed at the neighborhood playground. Each interview took approximately 10 minutes. Hanna: 4 years old, female, white, American, has an identically twin sister and a younger sister. Emma: 4 years old, female, white, American, Hanna`s twin. Hanna and Emma are not going to school yet. They are staying with a nanny and their younger sister at home, while both parents are working. Max - Raphael: 5 years old, male, white, German, youngest of three children, parents are divorced, living with mother and older sisters, no contact with father, staying home with mother. Timothy: 6 years old, Asian - American, oldest of two boys, bilingual, living with both parents, going to a private Christian school. Questionnaire: 1. Name: Tell me your name. If child gave only the first name: What is the rest of it? 2. Age: How old are you? If fingers shown: How many does that make? If still no answer, let the child count fingers. 3. Sex/Gender: Are you a boy or a girl? 4. Siblings: Do you have any brothers and / or sisters? What are their names? How old are they? 5. Birthday: When is your birthday? 6. Address: Where are you living? What is your address? Results Hanna and Emma were both able to give me their names immediately. They also knew their age, gender, and they were able to name and give me the age of their sister. However, they did not know their address or birthday. I did not have to tease the answer out bit by bit. They were ready to give me a concrete answer. The answers I got from both were short and specific. Max - Raphael knew his name, age, sex, and was able to name and give the age of his sisters. He, like Hanna and Emma, did not know his address and birthday. Max - Raphael gave me his age, gender, and his sisters' name and age immediately, but I had to ask him about his surname. Timothy could answer every question. His answers were concrete and given readily. I did not have to tease any question out of him. The results support my prediction in most points. All children were able to give me their age, gender, sex, and the name and age of their siblings. I was not too sure if Timothy would be able to give me his correct birthday and address, although he is already attending school. Discussion The study is only based on four pre - operational children but the results show that there are no major differences cross - culturally in the children`s knowledge and experience. The five-year-old German boy knew as much as the four-year-old American girls. The fact that the six year old Asian -

Accounting Essay Example

Accounting Essay Example Accounting Essay Accounting Essay Importance of IFRS Name: Course: Institution: Date: Accounting The Amazon site experienced an outage, which ended up affecting other websites and servers. The problem began when the services at Amazon’s elastic block store service were interrupted. The main problem was a memory leak in the system. The monitoring system also failed, leading to the outage. The technicians had replaced the data collection server. The failure of the monitoring system enhanced the memory leak, leading it to get out of control (Williams, 2012). The replaced server did not work with the system well because it failed to transmit its domain name system in the right way, and this meant that the message did not reach some servers. The elastic block store provides much needed services to the elastic compute cloud, because it provides it with storage space. The elastic block store is one of the components in elastic computer cloud. The elastic compute cloud is one of the most important services because it provides the computing and networking bandwidth for websites and web applications. Therefore, interruptions of this service caused major interruptions and outages on the websites relying on the cloud computing offered by elastic compute cloud. Some of the other websites that were affected because of this outage included Reddit, Heroku, Imgur, Minecraft, HipChat, and foursquare among others. Customers to these sites could not access them. The systems could not perform the customers’ request. Initially, the company’s technicians were able to solve the problem in some areas, and the outage lasted for a few hours in most areas. However, the technicians were not able to resolve the problem, and the outages lasted for several more hours in many areas (Hutchinson, 2012). The problem had caused a lot of customer dissatisfaction after the outage. The company was able to find the main cause of the problem and they were able to resolve it, but not before affecting many customers in the process. The company initiated some measures, which it hoped would prevent such problems from happening in future. Among the measures that the company took, include developing a monitoring system that will alert the system when there is such a problem. The new system will sound the alarm, whenever there is a memory leak in the system. The company had to find ways of solving the problem with the memory leak. This process took some time, and some servers were down for more than three days, before the technicians could resolve the problem (Williams, 2012) One has to know the root cause of the problem when dealing with web outages. Some technicians fail at identifying the main cause and they end up taking a longer time to deal with the problem. Websites offer many valuable functions for companies. Companies have to find ways of preventing web outages, detecting them when they are about to occur, and dealing with the outages whenever they occur. One way to prevent web outages is to use an online processing system that operates in real time. This will reduce the chances caused by improper transmission within the system, and the server will get all the information (Gelinas, et al., 2011). Companies can depend on the customers input to detect whether there are any problems with the system. They can provide the needed space where the customers report bad experiences with the server. Most of the problems that the customers complain about may seem minor, but reporting them and looking into them earlier will prevent a small problem from escala ting. Companies need to use flexible technologies, which will allow for any changes within the system, and this will solve any future problems if the company decides to increase the amount of input data or to increasing processing (Croll Power, 2009). Other measures include encouraging customers to use web caches and reducing the server load. Looking for the less obvious problems, such as the functioning of the domain name systems is a sure way of preventing possible outages (Safe Resolve, 2011) References Croll, A., Power, S. (2009). Complete web monitoring: Watching your visitors, performance, communities, and competitors. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media, Inc Gelinas, J. U., Dull, R. B., Wheeler, R. P. (2011). Accounting information systems. New York, NY: Cengage Learning Gibson, D. (2010). Managing risk in information systems. Sudbury, MD: Jones Bartlett Publishers Hutchinson, L. (2012). Amazon web services outage once again shows reality behind â€Å"the cloud†. Retrieved from http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/10/amazon-web-services-outage-once-again-shows-reality-behind-the-cloud/ Safe Resolve (2011). Prevent internet outages. Retrieved from http://help.saferesolve.com/index.html?internet_outages.htm Williams, A. (2012). Amazon web services outage caused by memory leak and failure in monitoring alarm. Retrieved from http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/27/amazon-web-services-outage-caused-by-memory-leak-and-failure-in-monitoring-alarm/

A Look into Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Poem

Vincent Millay could be justified by the fact that readers can easily relate to it because it talks about a universal theme, which is love. Although it reeks of regret and loneliness, the poet effectively successfully used palpable symbols and words to describe the past events that transpired in her life. In the poem, the speaker casts herself as a â€Å"lonely tree†. One writer, Epstein (2001) proclaims that this poem is â€Å"a summing up of [the author’s] love life to date, and an occasion to invoke the classic themes of elegy, the tempus fugit and the ubi sunt† (p. 139): What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why I have forgotten, and what arms have lain Under my head till morning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain For unremembered lads that not again Will turn to me at midnight with a cry. Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree, Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one, Yet knows its boughs more silent than before. It seems that the speaker in the poem is an aging lady signified by the songless tree. Indeed, she is an epitome of loneliness and regret, one that we might be tempted to read as a prototype of abandoned womanhood, pathetic and powerless. Male desire in the love sonnets where the woman as a speaker always masquerades feminine weakness and sentimentality; often beseeching, and consumed by desire. However, when a male lover speaks, it would imply â€Å"authority of suffering and, perhaps more importantly, with the authority of convention†. When Millay masquerades as a male poet masquerading as a lovesick woman, the â€Å"sense of where sincerity meets gesture and how authority aligns itself with gender is confused† (Freedman, 1995, p. 113). In its structure, the poem is classified as a sonnet that has a particular rhyming pattern: abbaabba cdedce. The poem uses alliteration and assonance. It is also rich in naturally-occurring symbols, which all readers can easily connect. The poem begins with a one-sentence octave that presents the situation in which the narrator finds herself–inside a house during the rain, reminiscing about her past and forgotten lovers. The inverted sentence structure of the first two lines almost suggests a question rather than a statement: How many lovers were there? The alliterations in the first line additionally emphasize the repetitiveness of the narrator’s sexual encounters. At the same time, the perfect tense mean that this phase of her life has been completed, and the body part symbolisms of lips, arms, and head imply her distance from the experience. In the third line, Millay moves to the present tense, where she describes the memories of her lovers (using a ghost metaphor) aroused by the rain, a symbol for gloom and melancholia. These are the lovers that â€Å"tap and sigh†. The narrator seems insinuating that the lovers themselves are irrelevant. For the same reason, â€Å"Millay picks a metaphor that hints at facelessness and lack of welcome and resonates with the specific time of the midnight hour†. The central phrase in this section is â€Å"quiet pain,† an â€Å"almost-oxymoron suggesting that the narrator’s grief is muted or accepted† (Schurer, 2005). As signified by the forward movement of tenses, Millay gives the readers a slight glimpse of things to come as well: However, undeniably, she   regrets everything and she expects no intimacy in the future. In the end, the female narrator seems not interested in the identity of her lovers as in the memory of the emotions they allowed her to experience.   Despite the sadness and regret, the narrator presented peace or redemption as a â€Å"faint echo of the emotion of love from her youth† (Schurer, 2005). Despite the lonely themes and symbols, we can sense of equality in love; to the demand by women that they be allowed to enter the world of adventure and experiment in love which men have long inhabited. However, Millay does not sound to be any feminist to argue for that equality. She just makes it subtle, exhibits it in this poem and turns it into beauty. Works Cited Epstein, Daniel Mark. What Lips My Lips Have Kissed: The Loves and Love Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay. New York: Holt, 2001. Freedman, Diane P., ed. Millay at 100: A Critical Reappraisal. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1995. Schurer, Norbert. â€Å"Millay’s what lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why†, The Explicator, 63.2 (Winter 2005): 94-97. A Look into Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Poem Vincent Millay could be justified by the fact that readers can easily relate to it because it talks about a universal theme, which is love. Although it reeks of regret and loneliness, the poet effectively successfully used palpable symbols and words to describe the past events that transpired in her life. In the poem, the speaker casts herself as a â€Å"lonely tree†. One writer, Epstein (2001) proclaims that this poem is â€Å"a summing up of [the author’s] love life to date, and an occasion to invoke the classic themes of elegy, the tempus fugit and the ubi sunt† (p. 139): What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why I have forgotten, and what arms have lain Under my head till morning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain For unremembered lads that not again Will turn to me at midnight with a cry. Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree, Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one, Yet knows its boughs more silent than before. It seems that the speaker in the poem is an aging lady signified by the songless tree. Indeed, she is an epitome of loneliness and regret, one that we might be tempted to read as a prototype of abandoned womanhood, pathetic and powerless. Male desire in the love sonnets where the woman as a speaker always masquerades feminine weakness and sentimentality; often beseeching, and consumed by desire. However, when a male lover speaks, it would imply â€Å"authority of suffering and, perhaps more importantly, with the authority of convention†. When Millay masquerades as a male poet masquerading as a lovesick woman, the â€Å"sense of where sincerity meets gesture and how authority aligns itself with gender is confused† (Freedman, 1995, p. 113). In its structure, the poem is classified as a sonnet that has a particular rhyming pattern: abbaabba cdedce. The poem uses alliteration and assonance. It is also rich in naturally-occurring symbols, which all readers can easily connect. The poem begins with a one-sentence octave that presents the situation in which the narrator finds herself–inside a house during the rain, reminiscing about her past and forgotten lovers. The inverted sentence structure of the first two lines almost suggests a question rather than a statement: How many lovers were there? The alliterations in the first line additionally emphasize the repetitiveness of the narrator’s sexual encounters. At the same time, the perfect tense mean that this phase of her life has been completed, and the body part symbolisms of lips, arms, and head imply her distance from the experience. In the third line, Millay moves to the present tense, where she describes the memories of her lovers (using a ghost metaphor) aroused by the rain, a symbol for gloom and melancholia. These are the lovers that â€Å"tap and sigh†. The narrator seems insinuating that the lovers themselves are irrelevant. For the same reason, â€Å"Millay picks a metaphor that hints at facelessness and lack of welcome and resonates with the specific time of the midnight hour†. The central phrase in this section is â€Å"quiet pain,† an â€Å"almost-oxymoron suggesting that the narrator’s grief is muted or accepted† (Schurer, 2005). As signified by the forward movement of tenses, Millay gives the readers a slight glimpse of things to come as well: However, undeniably, she   regrets everything and she expects no intimacy in the future. In the end, the female narrator seems not interested in the identity of her lovers as in the memory of the emotions they allowed her to experience.   Despite the sadness and regret, the narrator presented peace or redemption as a â€Å"faint echo of the emotion of love from her youth† (Schurer, 2005). Despite the lonely themes and symbols, we can sense of equality in love; to the demand by women that they be allowed to enter the world of adventure and experiment in love which men have long inhabited. However, Millay does not sound to be any feminist to argue for that equality. She just makes it subtle, exhibits it in this poem and turns it into beauty. Works Cited Epstein, Daniel Mark. What Lips My Lips Have Kissed: The Loves and Love Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay. New York: Holt, 2001. Freedman, Diane P., ed. Millay at 100: A Critical Reappraisal. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1995. Schurer, Norbert. â€Å"Millay’s what lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why†, The Explicator, 63.2 (Winter 2005): 94-97.

Lost Maples Winery Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Lost Maples Winery - Essay Example This report focuses on the arriving at the optimum production of the three wines produced by Lost Maples, namely Austin, St. Genevieve and Los Almos. The resources that are available for the coming week have been specified as 2,080 bushels of Variety A grapes, 2,040 bushels of Variety B grapes, 800 pounds of sugar and 1,060 man-hours of labour. It is very essential to ensure that these resources are carefully utilized by Lost Maples in order to attain maximum possible profits. It has been found that the optimum output comprises of 183 cases of Austin, 510 cases of St. Genevieve and no Los Almos wine to be produced. When this optimum amount of specific wine cases are produced by Lost Maples, the maximum contribution that will be attained is $ 18,680. It should also be noted that at this output, there is surplus (slack) of 2068 bushels of Variety A grapes and 617 pounds of sugar. It is evident from the results of the linear programming that there are 617 pounds of sugar left out after the optimum output is reached. The dual price or the shadow price indicates the effect of reducing the sugar available by 1 unit. In this case, reduction in sugar will not affect the maximum contribution, as there is surplus sugar available (Gal, 1986). Hence the sensitivity analysis indicates a shadow price of $0. The complimentary slackness condition indicates that the product of the slack/surplus and the dual price (shadow price) is equal to zero or in other words, either one of the slack or the dual price will be zero (Econ, 2008 and Alaouze, 1996). In this case this condition has been proved as the shadow price value is zero and hence the product is also zero.The allowable decrease in the labour has been computed as 549 man-hours. Hence the lower bound to labour in the ranging (sensitivity) analysis is (1060 – 549) 511 man-hours. When the man-hours falls reaches 510, the production of Austin has to be stopped and all the resources will be used only in the production of 5 10 cases St. Genevieve wine (Higle and Wallace, 2003). This indicates that when the available labour falls to 510 man-hours or below, only St. Genevieve wine has to be produced to attain maximum contribution.  

The economic crisis and the city of London Essay

The economic crisis and the city of London - Essay Example n just the financial market but it is also a hub of extraordinary financial innovation as well as the ability to evolve new ways of life in which society actually flourishes. The current financial crisis therefore has also hit hard the city of London- the first major financial hub of the world. City has remained an active participant in the overall financialization of the British economy and played major part as a market to fill the gap between demand and supply of funds. (Klimecki, 2011).  This rise to the fame however, took place gradually due to de-regulation of banking sector which many interest groups are now demanding to be regulated again. The current crisis therefore is not only resulting into loss of jobs but the overall prestige of world’s first financial hub. Banks as important segment of the economy Banks play important role in economy because they serve as the intermediary between savers and consumers. By playing the role of intermediaries, banks actually serve as a link between those who want to save and those who want to borrow. This role therefore has allowed banks to become one of the most important segments of any economy. It is critical to understand that the existence of banks often serve the economic purposes of channeling the savings of those who want to save to those who want to borrow. By doing so, banks actually help other sectors of the economy to access a large pool of funds which can be used for the expansion purpose. Banks therefore serve not only as the creators of money within an economy but also provide essential economic support to other sectors of the economy. (Rubinstein, 1993)   The history of banking in UK is more than 400 years old when first banks started to operate during 17th century. Over the period of time, the sector grew... This paper presents the comprehensive analysis of post-crisis role of the banking system in the UK economy. The essay also outlines the political connections of the London city’s financial district with the ruling Conservative party. What started as a simple subprime mortgage crisis slowly engulfed the whole economy and created the contagion effect on other sectors of economy also. The inter-linked nature of modern economy has created a chain reaction of events in which bad performance in one segment of the economy also affected other segments. The presence of almost all international financial institutions as well as other major financial institution. has given a unique significance to London as a major global financial hub. Banks play important role in economy because they serve as the intermediary between savers and consumers. By playing the role of intermediaries, banks actually serve as a link between those who want to save and those who want to borrow. The traditional organization of banks is based upon their links with the central banks and other regulatory organizations. In a highly de-regulated environment, banks therefore tend to focus on organizing themselves in a manner which can give them an opportunity to develop significant influence over the policy making issues. The current Conservative Government and Party are considered as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the link between the two as most of its funding comes from the financial institutions and private equity firms.

Jorge Eduardo Urrutia Schnyder Essay Example for Free

Jorge Eduardo Urrutia Schnyder Essay John Cinque was a son to a headman from Sierra Leone’s Mani Village known as Mende who was a renowned trader and rice. Available records show that Cinque was born in (c1813- 1879). Cinque is also known as Sengbe Pieh. and is popular for staging a mutiny against slavery in Cuba in 1839 in a Cuban Amistad Ship. Originally he was called Sengbe Pieh. but Spaniards renamed him as John Cinque. His move was a milestone to the slaves who were escaping from slavery as it was ruled that slaves freeing from shackles of slavery be treated as free men. Cinque like other blacks found his way into slavery due to rice debts he had not cleared and for that reason he was captured and sold to the slave masters who were looking for slaves to work in their plantations in the New World. This paper is going to conduct an in depth research on the life of Joseph Cinque as an enslaved man, his trials and achievements in his life. Joseph Cinque was originally known as Sengbe Pieh and the later name was given to him by the Spanish (Dalzell, Fred). He was a married and had three children when he was illegally captured and sold to slave masters who put him in their ship, Portuguese slave ship Tecors. Contrary to the international law prohibiting slavery, Cinque was captured in Sierra Leone and sold to a notorious Spanish slave dealer at Lomboko Island that is located at river Gallilas’ mouth. Later in 1839 he was resold by the Spanish to another slave dealer at Havana together with other 51 Mendians where they were destined to be taken to Cuban sugar plantations at Guanaja, Puerto Principe. According to 1814’s treaty that was signed between Spain and Great Britain, slavery was to become an illegal activity after 1820 and thus what the Spaniards were doing was a violation of the treaty. â€Å"The ship was bound for Cuba in contravention of laws agreed to by Spain that had outlawed the importation of salves into the New world† (Miller 158) In Havana, the captured persons were sold at night on auction and that was how Joseph Cinque among other fifty three Africans found themselves in the hands of Pedro Monte and his colleague Jose Ruiz. They bought one African man at four hundred and fifty dollars and were destined to be slaves for ever as they were now their property. The two slave dealers decided to relocate them to Puerto principle using their boat, the Amistad but fortunately or unfortunately this boat as it approached the Cuban Coast on 30th June, Cinque incited the other slaves to attack their captors, a mission they accomplished without much difficulties (Horton 258) What exactly happened was that enslaved persons led by Cinque freed themselves and broke the ships’ arsenal and armed themselves with weapons that were stored there and attacked the Spaniards. This incident was not very different from other slave rebellions that were occurring in the Americas such as the Southampton uprising of 1831 that was spearheaded by Nat Turner. In this case, Cinque killed the ship’s captain and the cook and then they took the two masters hostage commanding them to steer the ship back to Sierra Leone. Monte had no other option but to do as he was ordered but he was cunning enough to ride the boat slowly towards African coast during the daytime but at night he would reverse the direction and ride the boat fast heading northwest, a direction that landed him to the coast of the Long Island sometimes back in August, 1839 (Horton 259). The journey was long as it was not anticipated to last that long and to make the matter worse, they had already killed the cook. For this reason, ten of the captured slaves did not make it and were found dead by the American officers who were on patrol in the sea and the stable one were taken to the Port of New London on 27th August where slavery was not yet illegal. Later, they were taken to a court where Andrew T. Judson, the judge ordered an inquiry into the incident and ruled that the Africans be temporarily taken to New Haven before they would be taken to Hartford where they would meet the United States Circuit Court jury (Muller 158). According to Niemi (23), the judge was particularly very concerned with this case and wanted the African captives to be set free in fact, contrary to the expectations of many, he referred to these men as heroes for resisting slavery likening them to the African leaders who sold them off to the Spaniards. He tried to liaise with other influential people like Theodore Sedgwick and the son of one his best friends. The case was a complex one and had some serious issues that had to be deliberated for example the ‘Evening Post’ posed the question whether it was the jurisdiction of the American Circuit Court to deal with Spanish criminal affairs but the weight of the first question was added by the reference that was made by the same paper which termed Spanish acts as a threat to the family unit and a despicable barbarous action. As Bryant was very determined to see that the enslaved Africans were freed, using his technical expertise, he build a case against the Spaniards arguing that the Africans were taken to the Cuban island in contravention to the law and thus were neither to be returned to the hands of the executers of rebellious people or be doomed to be enslaved for the rest of their lives but the Spaniards were determined to have them returned to Cuba where they would be charged with murder of the cook and the captain. Anti slavery like James Pennington and Lewis Tappan came to add their voices to that of Bryant and others who were openly opposed to slavery claiming that though slavery was allowed in Cuba, the importation of Africans to Cuba was illegal (National Portrait Gallery Home). Cinque’s courage to stage an attack against his enslavers was deemed to be a heroic deed by abolitionists who maintained that it was in order to kill the captors who had illegally held them captive as it was the only way through which they could have preserved their freedom. In 1841, the federal government was charged by the then American president John Quincy Adams who went to visit the enslaved Africans of interfering with the court cases and obstructing justice by being partial in dealing with the issue of slavery and condemning Blacks who were fighting for their freedom. As a result of his strong advocacy for the release of the captives, the Supreme Court judge ruled in their favor in March 1841 by ordering the remaining thirty five Africans, Joseph Cinque among them to be taken back to their countries and in 1842 they were returned (National Portrait Gallery Home). When Cinque returned home, he found his wife was killed and thus had to start his life from the scratch again perhaps this is one of the reason why he lost hope in the abolitionist campaign and ended up turning into a slave trader just like his captors. The abolitionists using Joseph Clique’s case as an example, they embarked on an African mission and formed a Clique’s party which was to be used as a platform for fighting slavery but this did not materialize as they had anticipated as some so called independent African thinkers opposed their moves led by Cinque who is said to have deserted the party and turned to be a slave trader till his death (Niemi 25). In short it was not the wish of Joseph Cinque to be enslaved by the Spaniards but he just found himself captured and sold to the slave dealers for failing to clear somebody’s debt. To him this was dream that he was not ready to wait for it become a reality and that was why he did all that he could to ensure that he returned back to his country even if it meant staging a rebellion. Luckily enough, he managed to do this and headed back home but his journey was not as successful as he thought it would but at long last he ended up returning home after the Supreme Court of USA ruled that the enslaved persons be deported back to their countries and that was how Cinque found himself back in Sierra Leone. Works Cited: Dalzell, Fred. Cinque (Sengbe Pieh) Mende, captive, leader. Mystic Seaport Museum. 1997. Accessed at http://amistad. mysticseaport. org/discovery/people/bio. cinque. html Horton, Lois E. Slavery and the making of America. Oxford University Press US, 2004. National Portrait Gallery Home. The Amistad Case. Available at http://www. npg. si. edu/col/amistad/index. htm Niemi, Robert. History in the media: film and television. ABC-CLIO, 2006 Muller, Gilbert H. William Cullen Bryant: author of America. SUNY Press, 2008

Cloning - Ethics or Life? Essay examples -- Argumentative Persuasive

Cloning: Ethnics or Life? Â   Â   Walking into a small hospital room you notice two small boys. As you observe the diagnostic papers on the young boys' bedposts you suddenly become guilt stricken. The darker haired boy on the right has liver cancer, but thankfully there is hope for this young boy, since he is on a very efficient liver donor program. In two days, Sam, as we will call him, will be receiving a clean and pure liver that will grant him a life as normal and healthy as any other young man. On the other hand the boy in the adjacent small, white hospital bed is not so lucky. We'll call this boy William. William is suffering from a spinal cord injury that occurred in a motor vehicle accident a few days earlier. This injury left William paralyzed and slowly he will deteriorate and die, while his family and friends wait and watch helplessly. Life is not out of the question for young William though, but the technology and science that will save his life is illegal in the United States. The knowledge and abil ity to clone a new spinal cord for William and send him too on his way to a normal life is there, but the ability to access this new science is not. So you play god for a moment and tell this young kid's parents why their son must die while his new friend in the bed next to him will live. Â   Cloning is a process in which one or more individual plants or animals are produced that are genetically identical to another plant or animal (Robinson 2). Cloning has been used since the late 1970's, and was designed to take genetically "perfect" animals and clone them to produce better food for humans (Robinson 3). The idea and wonder always was there, though, of weather we should and could clone a human being. This issue of... ...and Re-Engineering. [online] available: http://cac.psu.edu/ ~gsg109 / qs/ em01003.html. February/29/1996 Brush, Dr. P. "Ethical Concerns" Human Cloning and Re-Engineering. [online] available: http://cac.psu.edu/ ~gsg109/qs/em 01005.html. February/26/1996 "Can and Should We Clone Humans", [online] available: http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~mchorost/e306/cloning.htm. ] December/3/2000 Contran, R. "Cancer Resource Center" Welcome to the American cancer Society's Cancer Resource Center [online] available: http://www.cancer.org/cancerinfo/load_cont.asp?ct=1&doc=3&language=english March/24/2000 "Excite Health Center" Cancer [online] available: http://adam.excite.com/ info/?id=001289. December/14/2000 Robinson, Bruce A. "What is cloning?" Ethical Aspects of Human Cloning. [online] available: http://www.religioustolerance.org/cloning.htm#what. October/12/1997

Collision Theory Essay

I have been asked to investigate the effects different factors such as concentration and temperature have on the rate of reaction The rate of reaction is the loss rate of a reactant or the rate of creation of a product during a chemical reaction and it can be measured by dividing one by the time taken for the reaction be completed. Collision Theory states that an increase in concentration, temperature, surface area and the use of a catalyst in a reaction will either increase the rate of reaction by increasing the rate of collision between reactant particles, increase the success rate of collisions between the reactants or both of these reactions, there is also another factor which effects the rate of reaction, but is only applicable in gasses, that factor being pressure. I have chosen to investigate the effects of Concentration on rate of reaction, as it is the most accurately achievable while still challenging factor to change. Method: Equipment- 1x conical flask 2x 50ml measuring cylinder 1x 10ml measuring cylinder 1x pipette Sodium Thiosulphate Hydrochloric acid Water Stop clock Safety goggles Plain paper with a black cross on it. Add 10ml of HCL to a conical flask, by All procedures will be undertaken with safety goggles on. After assembling all of the equipment I will pour as close to 10 ml of hydrochloric acid into the 10 ml measuring cylinder, using the pipette to get the amount as close as reasonably possible, I will when doing this take into account surface tension and hence fill so the actual amount in the measuring cylinder is at 10ml not a little under as it may appear. I will then add (starting with 50ml descending in steps of 5ml to 20ml) sodium thiosulphate to the 50ml measuring cylinder. Following this I will add (starting with 0ml rising to 30ml in steps of five, in such a manner that the total volume of water combined with sodium thiosulphate Is always at 50ml) water to the second 50ml measuring cylinder. I will then add the two 50ml measuring cylinders contents into the cylinder containing the sodium thiosulphate, leave the cylinder for 10 seconds for the liquids to mix together (after swirling gently 10 times) before emptying the hydrochloric acid into the conical flask, followed by the mixture of sodium thiosulphate and water. The conical flask will be left on top of the piece of paper for the addition of the latter and when the second liquid is poured into the conical flask the stop clock will be started, I will then proceed to watch the view the black cross on the piece of paper bellow the conical flask until the point I can no longer see the black cross, at which instance I will stop the stop clock and record the time taken on a table along with the volumes of liquids used, I will also take the temperature at the time to make sure if there is any major discrepancy caused by the temperature I will know that this is the case and will be able to identify and explain these results.

Many students expand their view of the world during

There was a time when the world we live in was in a somewhat peaceful mode. There was existing discord among countries and there were political and social misunderstandings being resolved but overall, there was a semblance of a fragile peace and tolerant understanding of each others problems, race, and gender. That all changed overnight after the events of September 11.Overnight, the tolerance and fragile peace existing between our country and those of the Middle East, Europe, and Asia was thrown into a dizzying tailspin. Everything that we thought we knew about our middle-eastern neighbors was thrown out the window and they suddenly became an almost persecuted race worldwide. This loss of tolerance and understand towards the Middle Eastern nationals saddens me no end. Perhaps it is because, even though I was born and raised as an American, my family's roots are deeply entrenched in the Middle East.I lived eleven years of my life as a citizen of the Middle East. Â  I am one of them. Therefore, I understand the culture and religion even though I am now more influenced by my westernized upbringing. Even though my parents tried hard to instill some of our Old World value into me, it was a struggle for me to identify with the traditions and ways they wanted me to follow.No one else in my social circle had to follow the same norms as set by their family that I did. Eventually, the western ways won out and I forgot what it was like to be a Mid Easterner. This is why I believe that the person or classmate who will have a tremendous impact on my life while in college will be someone who is an exchange student or foreign national enrollee from any part of the Middle East.The reason I believe this is because; I have slowly come to realize that the people from the Middle East have been suffering from prejudice since the events of 9/11. The race has been judged collectively and branded by the world as terrorists. All member countries of that eastern block have been judged by the decisions and acts of a few misguided people from their area of the world. It is time for us to stop the prejudice. It is time to stop the war. It is time for us, as the free leader of the world, to stop, analyze and think about what we are doing to those people. It could be an act of veiled of revenge already on our part. That understanding can start small and trickle down. It can start with me.I would expect that this potential classmate of mine to help me understand where the prejudice comes from. Why do we see them in such bad light? How do they view us as a nation? I believe that a fellow Middle Easterner student and I will be able to relate and have many things in common. Â  He may not be from the country my parents come from. But, he will at least share the same beliefs and traditions as my parents and maybe, just maybe, I can learn even more from him about my roots and traditional heritage. Those things and lessons will be fun for me to encounter because I missed ou t on those things when my family moved to the United States.Since he will be like a mentor to me, I also expect to learn other things from him. I expect to learn more about tolerance for others who may not understand from him. He can show me how to deal with the situations he faces everyday. I have been known to have a short attention span so dedication and effort are not really very strong points in me as a student and person. I am hoping that he will be able to teach me that since Middle Easterners are known for their tolerance and patience in the face of adversity.Aside from those specific things, I know that I will learn a lot in terms of life lessons from him or her simply by observing the person as his or her daily life unfolds. Everyday is a learning experience for everyone, he or she can be my out of class mentor, friend, and ally if need be.

Strategic Analysis (SWOT, PESTEL, Porter) of Premier Inn (Whitbread Plc) The WritePass Journal

Strategic Analysis (SWOT, PESTEL, Porter) of Premier Inn (Whitbread Plc) Introduction Strategic Analysis (SWOT, PESTEL, Porter) of Premier Inn (Whitbread Plc) Introduction1. Premier Inn1.1 Mission and Vision1.2 Premier Inn Standards1.3 Future Plans1.4 Management Board1.5 Customers Insight1.6 Corporate Responsibility2. PESTLE Analysis2.1 Political2.2 Social2.3 Technological2.4 Environmental2.5 Legal3. Porter’s Five Force Analysis3.1 Threat of New Entrants (Potential Entrants)3.2 Threat of Substitute (Substitutes)3.3 Bargaining Power of Customers (Buyers)3.4 Bargaining Power of Suppliers (Suppliers)3.5 Intensity of Competitive Rivalry (Competitors)4. SWOT Analysis4.1 Strengths4.2 Weaknesses4.3   Opportunities4.4 Threats5. Critical Success Factors6. Conclusion and Alternate Strategy for Premier Inn7. Recommendation and Suggestion7.1 Objectives and Expected Results of Market DevelopmentReferencesRelated Introduction 1. Premier Inn The Whitbread PLC story began in 1742 when Samuel Whitbread opened his first brewery. In 1750, Whitbread PLC moved to premises in Chiswell Street, London and was the first purpose-built mass-production brewery in Britain. Whitbread PLC became a well-known brand name in the brewery industry until 2001 when Whitbread PLC sold its breweries and left the pubs and bars business. Whitbread PLC had diversified in a variety of different industries including wines, spirits and nightclubs but decided to refocus its business on its leading growth areas, hotels and restaurants (Whitbread Co, 2011). Premier Inn is one of the major brands of Whitbread PLC (Other Brands Include: Costa Coffee, Taybarns, Brewers Fayre, Table Table and Beefeater Grill). Premier Inn is the UK’s largest hotel brand with occupancy rates of over 80% in more than 590 budget hotels with over 43,000. Premier Inns’ location is paramount to its success as most are found along major roads and in regional towns and cities. Premier Inns’ brand promise is to give you ‘a good sleep, night after night after night – consistently do the extra-ordinary’ (Premier Inn Website, 2011). Premier Inn is an award winning hotel chain and has geographical spread to facilitate 75% of the UK population in a radius of five miles. Premier Inn’s bedrooms all have an attached bathroom, TV with Free view, and Wi-Fi internet access. All hotels comprises of a bar and restaurant, either inside the building, or next to it, offering and serving a wide range of dishes. All these facilities and services are offered at a very cheap price starting from just  £29 per night (terms and conditions apply). They are also expanding their hotel chains internationally. In this regard Premier Inn have opened one hotel in Dubai and two in India. This is just the start of expanding geograp[hical spread around the world. 1.1 Mission and Vision â€Å"We want to make our hospitality brands the best they can be by focussing on our customers and giving them just what they want† 1.2 Premier Inn Standards Offer 100% money back guarantee of quality room to customers Comfortable surrounding Friendly servic They call it â€Å"Good Night Guarantee† 1.3 Future Plans Big expansion plan of adding another 55,000 rooms by 2014 to cement the current position as the UK’s biggest hotel chain Aiming and planning to be the biggest budget hotel chain in London by 2012 Planning to open more hotels in overseas 1.4 Management Board Premier Inn brand is management by an independent Management Board which consists of highly professional executives teams. 1.5 Customers Insight In 2009-10 Premier Inn initiated a program to understand the customer more effectively and vigilantly. They have evolved their strategy on customer feedback. The deep insight in customer’s feedback provides them to initiate their programs more efficiently which leads them to winning and retaining customers. They hold regular Focus Group meeting to explore thought and feelings of customers. Their customer feedback program mainly includes: Premier Inn Guest Satisfaction Survey: The biggest in Europe Premier Offers with rooms from  £29:   Inspired by our customers Brand standards: Maintain consistency across our Hotels and Restaurants Using YouGov Brand Index to compare performance with other leading brands (Premier Inn, 2011) 1.6 Corporate Responsibility Premier Inn is committed to Corporate Responsibility Programs â€Å"Good Together†. They are continuously building their values. They have long history of community development programs. The corporate responsibility is an integral part of their businesses. The corporate responsibility of Premier Inn is focused on six priority areas (i.e. Environment, People, Sourcing, Health, Community and Customers). They keep devising a more committed strategy across these areas. 2. PESTLE Analysis There are certain factors in macro-environment that could affect decision making and strategies of organizations. Sudden Changes in Tax, Imposition of Laws, Increasing or Reducing Trade Barriers, Cultural Demographic Changes and Changes in Political Environment Government Policy are some of the key examples of macro environment.   These changes could bring certain positives as well as negatives for every business. PESTEL (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal) Analysis is a tool which is widely used by business managers for analysis of these critical factors. It is very helpful for development of strategic decision making. The Premier Inn’s PESTLE Analysis below critically evaluates and identifies different strategic in a competitive and dynamic environment. 2.1 Political Positive and pragmatic collaboration with UK Government has brought Hospitality Industry into key success area of economic development in UK. Hospitality is the UK’s fifth largest industry, directly employing more than 2.4 m people and contributing over  £34bn in gross tax revenues. As the generator of eight per cent of total employment, the industry is ahead of the financial services, transport and communications, and constructions sectors. Prime Minister David Cameron has recognised that tourism is one of five ‘big-ticket’ industries of the future and one that the government ‘should get behind’ especially as for every 0.5% increase in the UK’s share of the global tourism can add  £2.7b to the economy and create 50,000 jobs. He set down two objectives for UK tourism: to recapture a position within the top five tourism destinations in the world measured in terms of inbound revenue (we have slipped to seventh place in recent years); and secondly, to increase to 50 per cent (from 36 per cent currently) the proportion of UK residents’ domestic tourism spend. The Prime Minister also stated that government support for businesses would be focussed on ‘high growth industries’ and ‘working strategically to strengthen them’ (06 January, 2011). Establishment of regional growth fund for hospitality industry is also a major sign of expected growth in the sector. Hospitality could generate 236,000 net additional jobs across the UK by 2015 bringing the total number employed by the British Hospitality Industry to 2.76 million (British Hospitality Association 2011). The budget hotel sector has been one of the greatest success stories in the UK hospitality industry over the last 10-15 years, and continues to be so; â€Å"The budget hotel sector is still the fastest growing hotel sector in the UK† (Deloitte Touche, 2000, p. 3). It is estimated that UK budget hotel sector is going to be more than double in size in next 20 years and will account for more than a quarter of the overall hotel market by 2027 (Kerstin Kà ¼hn, 12 December 2007). The UK budget hotel market has also broken the  £1b barrier for the first time in 2006, new research has revealed.  Analyst firm Mintel found the market grew 38% between 2002 and 2006, three times as much as the overall UK hotel market (worth  £11.2b) which increased by only 12% over the same period. The current growth in supply and market volume has increased considerably as leading operators are engaged in a frantic scramble for market dominance. World over tourism and hospitality sector is generating more and more profits. The current economic recession could be a major cause of concern for hospitality sector. The economic recession has hurt the people from all walks of life and forcing them to be more careful in spending. People have to make choices before spending each penny. However due to government’s substantial reduction in interest rates helped to minimise further rises in unemployment during 2009 (Euromonitor, 2010). As a result of these measures it is considered that spending power of consumers going to increase steadily. This is a very encouraging factor for Premier Inn for expansion of their budget hotel chains. With this growing demand of the sector they are making tremendous expansion of their businesses. Currently Premier Inn is the UK’s largest and fastest-growing budget hotel chain, with over 590 budget hotels and more than 43,000 rooms across the UK and Ireland. They have big expansion plans and aim to add another 55,000 rooms by 2014. They are also expanding their outreach across the globe by establishing their hotels in Dubai and India. They have established three hotels in Dubai and one in India at Whitefields, Bangalore, with another due to open in Delhi in 2011. 2.2 Social The social circles and changing life styles living standards has brought many social and cultural changes around the world. As the living costs are increasing, people prefer low cost products/services accompanied with highest standard of value for money. These social changes are bringing different thought patterns. These social changes also influencing the hospitality sector around the world. Following are certain key thinking patterns which are influencing consumer’s behaviour in decision makings. Preferences to strong branded products High value for money Easy accessibility Responsiveness to customer demands Extensive geographic coverage of the hotel network Online and centralized reservation systems Variables room rates Security Quality standards Discount and promotion offer for repeat business Customer feedback Premier Inn is focused on customer satisfactions and keeping revitalizing there business strategy with changing social values and customer preferences. They offer to their customers a 100% money-back guarantee of a good quality room, comfortable surroundings and friendly service (Whitbread Co). They are committed to understand their customers better than anyone else. 2.3 Technological Technology is one of the variables that could directly influence the business operations. The operations of hospitability does not involves high level of technology and the focus of technology is budget hotel sector is directly linked with availability of electrical appliances and availability of IT services for comfort of customers. The use of latest development in IT helps in maintain smooth functioning for hotel chains across the region. It also helps them to develop centralized supply chain management systems. Technology is largely influencing the marketing and promotion of the products. The way of communication is changing to web based techniques. Premier Inn is also maintaining a good look and interactive website in this regard. The online reservation facilitation services are available. They also maintain a database of customers and keep sending messages regarding new product offering and promotional campaign. Use of mobile is also providing a big platform for advertisement and awareness campaign. 2.4 Environmental The care of environment and social responsibility are considered as the centre stage of customer’s preferences and expectations. Now-a-day customer are more vigilant and normally favours the organization who cares about environment and give due diligence to adopt business operations which help’s in reducing pollution and proper waste disposals. The strong emphasis on Corporate Social Responsibility (CRS) is one of the major core competencies of Premier Inn. They have developed a strong CRS Strategy for â€Å"Good Together† and Whitbread way forward. In 2008 they have reviewed their corporate responsibility strategy and created â€Å"Good Together† programme. There objective of this strategy to reduce relative operational carbon emission 26% by 2020, get 80% of waste from hotels restaurants diverted from landfill by February 2012 and reduce hotel and restaurant water consumption by 20% by 2020. Premier Inn’s approach to the environment is guided by their environment policy and energy policy, which contain a number of principles which they are required to comply. They CSR mainly includes following six priority areas: Environment People Sourcing Health Community Customers 2.5 Legal The minimum wage rate has been increased 15.5% by UK Government (Low Pay Commission Report National Minimum Wage, 2009) that would costs an increase in operating cost of budget hotels. This would increase cost of production which hampers the policy to offer competitive prices to customers. To avoid legal issues and maintain high standard they have developed a Responsible Sourcing Policy, which defines the minimum standards and principles of cooperation that Premier Inn expect from suppliers, contractors and business partners.   It also sets out commitment to work with suppliers, as necessary, to support the implementation of the Policy. 3. Porter’s Five Force Analysis The study of forces which influences the decision making of organizations are always remain an integral part of strategic management. In this regard Porter’s Five Force Model is considered as the most potent and useful tool and is widely used by organizations. This model deals with external factors that influence the nature of completion and internal factors how firms compete effectively to be more profitable. Porter’s Five Force Model of Premier Inn is as follows: Figure 1: Porter’s Five Force Model 3.1 Threat of New Entrants (Potential Entrants) As the sector is growing rapidly and also Government is encouraging and facilitating the sector on priority basis so the threat of potential new entrants is very high Huge capital investment is required for setting up a geographically spread budget hotel chain Very difficult to be more competitive in hotel chain and hospitality business High entry barriers due to maintain and supplying quality food to customers of hotels Substitute products entry is high Maintain customer satisfaction and comfort creates low room for substitute As budget hotel sector falls in service sector, so customers bargaining power is very high If customer comfort is highly prioritized with service quality remain standardised and have strong differentiations, than there is very low switching cost for customers otherwise buyers keep changing brands Customers are attracted by low price with high quality standards Eatable are compulsory part of hotels supplies and they are directly linked to customer health so they do not compromise on quality of products thus gives an opportunity to capitalize on quality to minimize bargaining power of customers. Bargaining power of supplier are not so high Strong linkages and support is required to maintain a good bargaining power with suppliers Highly competitive industry Price margin are low due to high competition Switching cost of customers is low due to competition Maintain quality and service is a major threat and cause of concern due to high competition 3.2 Threat of Substitute (Substitutes) 3.3 Bargaining Power of Customers (Buyers) 3.4 Bargaining Power of Suppliers (Suppliers) 3.5 Intensity of Competitive Rivalry (Competitors) 4. SWOT Analysis The Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis of Premier Inn is as follows: 4.1 Strengths Strong business base as Whitbread Business Group is doing business from last to centuries (i.e. from 1742) Largest and fastest growing brand in UK, with 590 budget hotels and more than 43,000 rooms Award winning hotel chain More than 75% of the UK population lives within five miles of a Premier Inn Brand recognition High level of customer satisfaction and understanding Huge network of supply and distribution Dedicated and highly motivated team of professionals Highly advanced customer reservation systems Automated and technically advanced supply chain mechanism Focused Customer Care and Corporate Social Responsibility High values of money Strong networking with all stakeholders International expansion of business Limited international expansion of business More focused on UK market Low marketing and promotional campaign Limited value addition in product and services Expansion of business in emerging international markets e.g. Middle East and South Asia Exploring Franchising Opportunities for expansion of business at local as well as international horizons Introducing customized business products for professionals Entering into food catering and event management Continued economic recession and global crises High level of competition Maintaining quality of services and comfort of customers Maintain good relationship with suppliers Increasing operating costs 4.2 Weaknesses 4.3   Opportunities 4.4 Threats 5. Critical Success Factors Premier Inn should also focus on Critical Success Factors (CSFs) Model especially designed and developed for budget hotel operation’s in UK on the basis of customer research and survey’s. One of the model is as follows: Figure 2: Critical Success Factors Budget Hotel Operational Model BY: Bob Brotherton 6. Conclusion and Alternate Strategy for Premier Inn Premier Inn is the UK’s biggest hotel brand with occupancy rates of over 80%. Its locations are paramount to its success as most are found along major roads and in regional towns and cities. Premier Inns’ brand promise is to give you ‘a good sleep, night after night after night – consistently do the extra-ordinary’ (Whitbread Co, 2011). The company has progressed through a well defined market growth strategy with centre of focus towards customers’ understanding. On the basis of above PESTLE, Porters Model and SWOT Analysis, Premierr Inn may consider to adopting following Market Growth Strategy for further expanding their businesses and becoming the brand leader in hospitality industry. The alternatives with respect to Anfos Growth Matrix for Premier Inn are suggested below: Table 1: Alternate Strategy Rating Scales Sr. No Strategy Task/Actions Rating as per Criteria Suitability Acceptability Feasibility Total 1 Market Development Expanding business to South Asia,   Middle East and EU Local Market (especially Suburb of EU Countries) 5 5 5 15 2 Market Development Exploring Franchising Agreements 4 3 5 12 3 Market Penetration Special Price Package for Off Seasonal Products 4 4 4 12 4 Product Development Introducing Specific Products to Target Parts of the Leisure and Business Markets 4 3 3 10 5 Product Development Introducing Event Management Related Products and Services 3 4 2 9 Rating Scale: 1 for Minimum and 5 Maximum (Total Maximum Score 3X5=15) 7. Recommendation and Suggestion As budget hotel industry is growing fast around the world and UK is considered as the market. The recession era is continued and customers purchasing powers are further decreasing. Theier spending pattrens are changibg and they are always looking for cheaper products with high quality. This phenomnenon provides an ample opportunity to Premier Inn for further expansion of their chain hotels and achieve their vision of becoming the leading budget hotel retail chain. In this regard they should adopt the Market Development Strategy with a focus to expanding their hotel chains in South Asia, Middle Esta and in EU Countries. following reasons: It fits in mission and vision of Premier Inn as it is quite suitable, acceptable and feasible to initiate. It would help to get benefit from the growing hospitality industry The cost associated with this strategy would also not be high as they should have to explore franching offerings as well as investor’s are always interested to invest in growing sectors UK Government is also facilitating and encouraging for hopitality industry expansion In budget hotel segment South Asia market is un-tapped so there are ample opportunities for Market Development as a new entrant. Mojority of South Asian countries are under devloped countries with majority of customer having low purchasing powres so budget hotel could fit in well in their income spending Business expansion Way forward for becoming leading budget hotel chain Geographical spread for existing customers to obtain same services even when they are traveling outside UK Enhancing Premier Inn brand’s loyalty Will works as a word of mouth for attracting new customers 7.1 Objectives and Expected Results of Market Development References premierinn.com whitbread.co.uk/about_us.cfm?id=about_us whitbread.co.uk/whitbread/ourbrands/customerfocus/html Oxford University Press oup.com/uk/orc/bin/9780199296378/01student/additional/page_12.htm caterersearch.com/Articles/2007/12/12/317813/uk-budget-hotel-sector-to-double-in-size-in-two-decades.htm caterersearch.com/Articles/2007/11/02/317098/UK-budget-hotel-market-breaks-1631b-barrier.htm caterersearch.com/Articles/2008/01/23/317165/budget-hotels-welcome-bha-restructure-plans.htm British Hospitality Organization: bha.org.uk Critical success factors in UK budget hotel operations BY: Bob Brotherton School of Food, Consumer, Tourism and Hospitality Management, Manchester Metropolitan University, Hollings Faculty, Manchester, UK scribd.com/doc/22765821/Bob-Cristical-Success-Factors-in-Budget-Hotel Johnson, Schools and Whittington (2008), Exploring Corporate Strategy: Text and Cases, 8th Edition Prentice Hall, ISBN:1405887338 Coultry M. (2008) Strategic Management in Action, 4th Edition Prentice Hall, ISBN:0132277476 Marketing Management 12th Edition By: Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller RapidBI – Rapid Business Improvement, Business Organizational Tools, Trainings and Services http://rapidbi.com/created/the-PESTLE-analysis-tool/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_five_forces_analysis investopedia.com/terms/i/industrylifecycleanalysis.asp National Minimum Wage (2009), ‘Low Pay Commission Report 2009’ National Minimum Wage. Available at lowpay.gov.uk/lowpay/report/pdf/7997-BERR-Low%20Pay%20Commission-WEB.pdf [accessed 07/07/2010] Office for National Statistics (2009), ‘Internet Access Households and Individuals’, Office for National Statistics, August 29, 2009. Available at statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/iahi0809.pdf [accessed 07/07/2010] Porter, M. (1985), Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance, (Location: The Free Press) cengage.co.uk/colekelly7/students/Video%20Cases/Chapter%2030%20-%20Video%20Case%20Study%2029.pdf

Introduction to Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 3

Introduction to Psychology - Essay Example Solomon Asch: Group Pressure and Conformity Social psychologist Solomon Asch’s 1951 study of the impact of group pressure on decisions is noted as one of the most important and conclusive. The conduct of the study was fairly simple. Ache showed students in groups of eight to ten--all of whom except one in each group had been coached beforehand to pick the wrong answer on twelve of the eighteen cards. Each card had a group of three bar lines on the right, and one bar line. Students were asked to pick one bar from a series of three on the right that best matched the one bar on the left. Most subjects were told to deliberately give the wrong answer. Asch arranged the questioning so that most wrong answers would be given before the test subject in the group made his or her decision. The results were significant and according to Zimbardo and Gerrig (2010): â€Å"50 and 80 percent†¦conformed with the false majority estimate†¦a third†¦yielded to the majority’s wrong judgments on half or more of the critical trials† (p. 550). ... more complex psychological elements at work which according to Zimbardo and Gerrig (2010) may indicate impulses at play beyond our simple â€Å"desire â€Å"to be liked, accepted and approved† (p. 549). For instance, Asch noted that the fewer people who gave wrong answers the fewer test subjects did the same, indicating a strong mistrust element in the views of the few versus those of the majority. As might be concluded, a decided lack of independence and confidence was clear when it came to one’s rational judgment over that of the pack. Considering the often incomprehensible election habits of individuals, this becomes particularly relevant in terms of electorate behavior. The 25 percent who always conformed was roughly equal to the same percentage who never conformed (Zimbardo and Gerrig, 2010) indicating a possible polar aspect to the behavior. On the positive side, it should be noted that significant change in most aspects of life come from the minority generally c onsidered non-conformers. As Zimbardo and Gerrig (2010) found, â€Å"The conflict between entrenched majority view and the dissonant minority perspective is an essential precondition of innovation†¦Ã¢â‚¬  ( p. 551). As evidenced in the recent film, â€Å"The Social Network,† Facebook creator, Marc Zuckerman’s insistence on thinking independently ultimately produced a multi-billion dollar empire. For the others who conform even in the face of obvious evidence that they should not conform, there may very well be serious psychological disorders underpinning the behavior. The major disorders according to Zimbardo and Gerrig (2010) are categorized based their affect on the individual as follows: the individual experiences personal distress or dysfunction; behaves in ways that hinder goals and wellbeing or

Language and Lexicon Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Language and Lexicon - Essay Example Language and Lexicon As long as it meets the description, it is a language, even if other organisms do not understand it. Generally, it is the cognitive ability to learn and utilize complex communicative systems. Language relies on semiosis in order to relate signs with their meanings. It contains phonological systems, which govern the manner in which symbols combine to create sequences of words. Lexicon, on the other hand, is the vocabulary of the said language, also referred to as an individual’s lexical knowledge. It is taken along the lines of meaning in a language of written symbols and speech sounds. It is essential to know a language’s lexicon in order to understand the language. Every culture possesses its own lexicon and language. Lexicon includes bound morphemes, for example, majority of affixes, which cannot be used alone as words. Lexicon can also include various idiomatic classes of expression, as well as other collocations, and compound words. Dictionaries normally attempt to list a given language’s lexicon in alphabetical order, although they do not include bound morphemes. Lexicon, more formally, is the inventory of lexemes that is present in a particular language. Key Features of Language There are several key features of any language. Language is quite complex since it is the only full lexicon. One feature of language is a vocal-auditory channel. Majority of languages are spoken with hearing and the voice being medium for the majority of communication. Vocal communication acts as the basis for language communication (Trask, 2012). Directional reception and broadcast transmission is another feature of language. Human language is dispersed in every direction when it is spoken, although the ear pinpoints the sound’s direction. Another key feature is transitoriness or rapid fading, which refers to the fact that sound, fades quickly. This gives sufficient opportunity for people to hold discussions that would be lost in confusion if the sound s hang in the air. Interchangeability is another key feature of language, which allows for speech utterances in use by the two genders. This is not present in all organisms. The feature allows for empathy and thorough understanding among the sexes (Trask, 2012). Another key feature of language is total feedback that ensures all humans can hear what they say while checking the communicative effect and quality of their speech. Individual analysis of speech allows one to correct mistakes that lead to clearer communication in conversations held in the future, as well as for the avoidance of undesirable action (Trask, 2012). Specialization is yet another feature with the human body possessing parts that let them vocalize the phonemes. These are essential increased communication perception and depth of understanding, both non-verbal and verbal. Other features are semantics, which refer to the use of different words to express similar meanings in the same language. Moreover, arbitrariness that ensures sounds are given a meaning by the person hearing them, discreteness that refers to the ability of humans to put sounds in context even where the sounds are not clear, and duality of patterning that is referent to the switching of known sounds to come up with new meanings (Trask, 2012). Levels of Language There are four levels of language; text, sentences, words, and