British Airways Essay

In 1987, British Airways was privatised, and over the next decade turned from a loss-making nationalised company into â€Å"The World’s Favourite Airline† – a market-leading and very profitable plc. The strategy that transformed the company into a marketing-led and efficient operation was conceived and implemented by Lord King as Chairman, aided by Sir Colin (subsequently Lord) Marshall: two tough businessmen who confronted staff inefficiencies and so improved service effectiveness that BA was rated international business travellers’ favourite airline for several years in the 1990’s. Lord King having retired, Lord Marshall became Chairman and was succeeded as Chief Executive by Bob Ayling, a long-time BA manager. Ayling set in train a strategy to turn BA into a â€Å"global† airline – transcending the â€Å"flag-carrier† status (the role of a nation’s leading airline) it shared with Air France, Lufthansa, Swissair, Alitalia, Iberia – into an airline with no â€Å"national home† operating throughout the world. The dropping of the overtly â€Å"British† heritage and associations was reflected in a changed brand strategy. Away went aeroplane liveries featuring the Union flag, to be replaced by tailfins bearing themed designs from around the world. This was to address the â€Å"global traveller† a savvy (mainly business) customer whose criteria for purchase were service levels, range of destinations, promptness – not price. But the re-branding became a debacle. Customers, staff, alliance partners, shareholders and retailers (travel agents) all liked the British heritage and imagery and rebelled against the turn to an anonymous, characterless new style. Ayling also focused on cost-reduction programmes which antagonised and demotivated BA’s staff – and customers noticed the deterioration in behaviour of staff whose commitment to customer service suddenly plummeted. The upshot was that Ayling was ousted in a boardroom coup in March 2000. During his reign, a loss of 244m in the year to March 31 2000 – the first since privatisation – was recorded and the group’s market value had fallen  by half. A New Face. In May 2000, Rod Eddington joined BA as Chief Executive. He was previously Managing Directory of Cathay Pacific and Executive Chairman of Ansett, an Australian airline. Eddington’s immediate actions were designed to restore profitability to BA’s operations – and to restore the Union Flag to BA’s planes! He set about reducing the fleet, moving to smaller aircraft, cutting clearly unprofitable routes. He also targeted â€Å"high-yield† customers, the traditional mainstay segment for BA. Matching supply with demand was the overall concern, to restore positive cash flow. Strategically, BA’s longtime search for a merger partner was resumed. A link with American Airlines, the first choice partner, was out of the question after US regulatory authorities squashed the idea. A proposed merger with KLM, the Dutch flag carrier, was discussed in some depth, but that foundered on doubts over the long-term financial benefits, and arguments over the relative shares each airline would have in the merged company. Low-Cost Airlines. Meanwhile, the airline industry was undergoing a seismic shift with the rise of low-cost â€Å"no frills† airlines. Ryanair and easyJet had, at first, demonstrated the existence of a new market for cheap airline travel which had not been tapped by traditional airlines. But then they began to expand and to compete for passengers that normally would have gone to BA – even business class customers couldn’t see the reason â€Å"to pay  £100 for breakfast† (the difference in price between BA and easyJet between London and Edinburgh.) BA’s response (under Bob Ayling) was to form GO as a direct response to the no-frills competitor. Operating out of Stansted airport, GO was operated entirely separately from BA, so none of the high-cost culture was inherited. Launched in the face of vociferous opposition from easyJet, GO nevertheless established itself in the market – though at what cost, no-one could guess. Rod Eddington soon decided that his focus on premium customers made GO’s operations inconsistent with that of BA as a whole. GO was sold in May 2001 for  £100m to 3i, a UK venture capital and private equity group. GO was subsequently sold on to easy Jet for 375m. However, the driving of aggressive strategies from budget airlines is still forcing flag-carriers to re-assess their business models. The Outcome. For the year ended March 2001, Eddington’s steps had yielded a quadrupling of operating profits. Market share on key routes had been lost as cuts in fleet and routes bit, but BA believed it had lost customers who paid deeply-discounted fares. BA continued its vigorous pursuit of high-yield passengers. September 11th. So, all seemed to be going well. The brand was being restored, financial performance was improving and the only real problem was lack of progress on forming a partnership with a US carrier, prevented by the regulators. Then came September 11th, and the airline market fell apart. The consequences were swift – passenger numbers fell 28%, US airports were closed for a week, Swissair, Sabena, US Airlines and nearly, Aer Lingus, went bust. Alitalia lost 570m, Lufthansa 400m. Altogether the industry lost 7bn and shed 120,000 jobs – 13,000 at BA – and passenger numbers are still running at 13% below normal on transatlantic routes. In contrast, passenger numbers and financial results at low-cost carriers – easyJet and Ryanair – were rising impressively. Then came Sars, the Iraq war and the continuing sluggishness of the world economy, all deeply damaging to passenger numbers. Strategy at BA was thrown into disarray. Current Strategy. With the travel market is still subject to â€Å"global economic and political uncertainty†, BA has repeated its forecasts for lower revenues. However, the â€Å"fundamentals of this business are stronger than they have been for four or five years† John Rishton, Finance Director, says BA is generating cash, and is conserving that cash. (FT and D.Tel. 6.11.02). The operational imperatives to cope with the turbulent environment are expressed in BA’s â€Å"Future Size and Shape† initiative which is intended to: – Achieve significant cost reductions. Originally targeted at 650m, the cost savings are now expected to save an annualised  £1.1bn over 3 years (FT 19.3.03). Simplified operations and minimal overheads is the aim. – Cut capacity, to match supply of aircraft and flights to the reduced demand. – Cut staffing levels. A further 3,000 job cuts planned for March 2004 have been brought forward to September 2003. – Change BA’s business model. Aware that no-frills competition is not going to go away, but that BA possesses a positive service heritage, BA wants to create an offering that combines the best bits of BA and the no-frills model. Martin George, BA’s director of marketing and commercial development, explains â€Å"our customers like the BA product – convenient airports, high frequency, good level of service – but want it at the right price, and that’s what we’ll give them. It’s about changing our business model to allow us to compete profitably† (Management Today, September 2000). – Rationalise BA’s internal UK and short-haul business – CitiExpress has been formed from the activities of subsidiaries Brymon, BRAL, Manx and BA Regional. To stem heavy losses on this short-haul network, some rationalisation has been done – it has pulled out of Cardiff and Leeds-Bradford airports, and will cut its current fleet from 82 to 50 all-jet planes by end-2005. However, it is expanding operations from Manchester, and from London City airport to Paris and Frankfurt. (FT 18.12.02). It is recognised that BA started to take the bitter medicine of cost cuts and restructuring earlier and in bigger doses than rivals in Europe and North America, and that Rod Eddington has pushed through changes that were long overdue. But is this enough? – can BA wrest back the short haul market from easyJet and Ryanair, while maintaining its position in the longhaul market†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Strike! In July 2003, just at the start of the busy holiday season, BA was hit by an unofficial strike by Heathrow check-in and sales staff who were objecting to a hasty introduction of a swipe-card automatic clocking system. 500 flights were cancelled, affecting 100,000 passengers. The damage to BA’s service reputation was enormous. Both management and union leaders were taken by surprise, and it brought to a head the existence of restrictive practices going back 40 or 50 years which both sides have to confront. Performance. Results for the year ending 31st March 2003 showed a pretax profit of 135 on turnover down 7.8% to  £7.69bn, up from a loss of 335 in the year to March 2002. The results included a charge of 84m for the planned ending of Concorde flights in October, and a fourth-quarter loss (January to March) of 200m. These positive results were entirely down to cost reduction. No  dividend was paid – a consequence of the need to conserve cash. Operating margin at 3.8% is way below Eddington’s target of 10%. (D.Tel, 20.5.03, FT, 21.5.03). In the first quarter of the 2003-04 year, a pretax loss of  £45m was incurred – the effect of the Heathrow strike was put at 30-40m. The business environment. However, Rod Eddington sees the furure business environment as very hard to read, but expects it to get tougher. 2003-04 was meant, according to analysts, to be BA’s year of recovery, but it is not now expected to happen. (DTel, 11.2.03) A critical development is the start of talks between the EU and the USA to dismantle the web of regulations that have controlled the development of international aviation since the mid-1940’s. Eddington, as chairman of the Association of European Airlines, insists that truly global airlines are impossible in the current regulatory environment. â€Å"If it were left to the market, international airlines would undoubtedly follow in the footsteps of other industries and would seek the benefits of scale and scope that are currently denied them. A truly global airline†¦..would be free to operate wherever its customers demanded, free to grow organically or through acquisition and free to charge whatever the market would bear.† These talks are likely to be very long. However, it potentially offers the opportunity for an opening of the two biggest airline markets and lead to substantial consolidation of participants. (FT, 29.9.03). The takeover of KLM, the Dutch flag carrier, by Air France, may be the precursor to the consolidation expected. BA sees no threat from what is now Europe’s largest airline. D.Tel, 1.01.03).

Belonging Relative Text

HSC English Area of Study: Belonging Suggestions for related texts: Items held by Hawkesbury Library †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Fiction Non-fiction Picture books Plays Poetry Film & television Documentary film & television Fiction Author Abdel-Fattah, Randa Abdel-Fattah, Randa Achebe, Chinua Alcott, Louisa May Anderson, Laurie Halse Atwood, Margaret Auel, Jean Barrie, J. M. Binchy, Maeve Boyne, John Brashares, Ann Brooks, Geraldine Burgess, Anthony Camus, Albert Carroll, Lewis Chabon, Michael Conrad, Joseph Cormier, Robert Courtenay, Bryce Dahl, Roald Dickens, Charles Dickens, CharlesTitle Does My Head Look Big In This? Ten Things I Hate About Me Things Fall Apart Little Women Twisted The Handmaid’s Tale The Clan Of The Cave Bear Peter Pan Circle Of Friends The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants March A Clockwork Orange The Plague Alice in Wonderland The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier And Clay Heart Of Darkness The Chocol ate War The Power Of One Matilda Oliver Twist A Tale Of Two CitiesDostoevsky, Fyodor Doyle, Roddy Dudus, Andre Duff, Alan Dumas, Alexandre Evans, Alwyn Flanagan, Richard Frank, Anne Franklin Miles Gallico, Paul Galloway, Steven Galsworthy, John Golden, Arthur Greene, Graham Grenville, Kate Gwynne, Phillip Hardy, Thomas Hawthorne, Nathaniel Herbert, Xavier Hinton, S. E.Hoseini, Khaled Irving, John Jones, Lloyd Joyce, James Kafka, Franz Kazuo, Ishiguro Keneally, Thomas King, Stephen Lee, Harper Leonie, Norrington Lette, Kathy Lomer, Kathryn London, Jack Malouf, David Marchetta, Melina Marsden, John Martel, Yann McBride, James McCaffrey, Kate McCullers, Carson Meyer, Stephenie Mitchell, Margaret Monica, Hughes Montgomery, L. M.Morrison, Toni Morton, Kate Niffenegger, Audrey Niland, D'Arcy Nunn, Cameron Oates, Joyce Carol Crime And Punishment Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha House Of Sand And Fog Once Were Warriors The Count of Monte Cristo Walk In My Shoes The Sound Of One Hand Clapping The Diary of Anne Frank My Brilliant Career The Snow Goose The Cellist Of Sarajevo The Forsyte Saga Memoirs Of A Geisha Brighton Rock The Secret River Deadly, Unna?Tess Of The D'Urbervilles The Scarlet Letter Capricornia The Outsiders A Thousand Splendid Suns The Cider House Rules Mister Pip Ulysses Metamorphosis Never Let Me Go The Chant Of Jimmie Blacksmith Carrie To Kill A Mockingbird The Last Muster Puberty Blues The Spare Room White Fang Remembering Babylon Looking For Alibrandi Tomorrow When The War Began The Life Of Pi The Colour Of Water Destroying Avalon The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter Twilight (Series) Gone With The Wind The Keeper Of The Isis Light Anne Of Green Gables Sula Forgotten Garden The Time Traveller's Wife The Shiralee Shadows In The Mirror Black Girl / White GirlO'Brien, Robert C. Orwell, George Picoult, Jodie Prichard, Katherine Rhys, Jean Rosoff, Meg Salinger, J. D Satre, Jean Paul Shields, Carol Shriver, Lionel Steinbeck, John Stoker, Bram Stowe, Harriet Beecher Swift, J onathan Tan, Amy Tan, Amy Thomas, Hardy Tolkien, J. R. R. Tolkien, J. R. R. Twain, Mark Uris, Leon Voigt, Cynthia Walker, Alice Walker, Alice Waten, Judah White, E. B. Winton, Tim Winton, Tim Zusak, MarkusZ for Zachariah Nineteen Eighty-Four My Sister’s Keeper Coonardoo Wide Sargasso Sea What I Was The Catcher in the Rye Nausea Unless We Need To Talk About Kevin The Grapes Of Wrath Dracula Uncle Tom’s Cabin Gulliver’s Travels The Joy Luck Club The Bonesetter's Daughter Jude, The Obscure The Hobbit Lord of the Rings; Fellowship of the Ring The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn Exodus Homecoming The Color Purple Everyday Use (short story in â€Å"Complete Stories†) Alien Son Charlotte's Web Breath Dirt Music The Book ThiefNon-fiction Author Ali, Ayaan Hirsi Burroughs, Augusten Capote, Truman Crawford, Evelyn Cunxin, Li Davis, Donna Deveson, Anne Facey, Albert Filipovic, Zlata Frank, Anne Gardner, Chris Hamlin, Catherine Keller, Helen Latifa Lowenstein, W Mah, Adeline Yen Mandela, Nelson McBride, James McCourt, Frank McCourt, Frank Mellor, Doreen Morgan, Sally Nannup, Alice Nazer, Mende Pelzer, Dave Pilkington, Doris Plath, Sylvia Rasool, Kay Read, Peter Skrzynecki, Peter Sykes, Roberta Thompson, L Turnbull, Sarah Williams, Donna TitleInfidel Running with scissors In cold blood Over my tracks Mao’s last dancer Sins of the mothers Tell me I’m here A fortunate life Zlata’s diary: A child’s life in Sarajevo The diary of Anne Frank The pursuit of happyness The hospital by the river The story of my life My forbidden face The Immigrants Falling leaves A long walk to freedom The color of water: A black man’s tribute to his white mother Angela’s ashes ‘Tis Many voices: Reflections on experiences of indigenous child separation My place When the pelican laughed Slave: The true story of a girl’s lost childhood and her fight for survival A child named â€Å"It† Home to mother The bell jar My journey behind the veil Belonging: Australians, place & Aboriginal ownership Sparrow garden Snake cradle From somewhere else: People from other countries who have made Australia home Almost French Nobody nowhere Picture books AuthorAdams, Jeanie Allen, Pamela Baille, Alan Baille, Alan Baker, Jeannie Baker, Jeannie Bell, Helen Crew, Gary Cunxin, Li Dumbleton, Mike Gleeson, Libby Graham, Bob Graham, Bob Greder, Armin Grimm, Brothers Grimm, Brothers Jeffers, Oliver Killeen, Gretel King, Stephen Michael King, Stephen Michael King, Stephen Michael Le Guin, Ursula Le Guin, Ursula Lester, Helen Loh, Morag Marin, Gabiann Marsden, John Marsden, John Mattingley, Christobel Mattingley, Christobel McLean, Janet Miller, David Millman, Isaac Morimoto, Junko Morimoto, Junko Nilan, Kilmeny Norrington, Leonie Ottley, Matt Patterson, A. B. & Digby, Desmond Perrault, Charles Riddle, Tohby Stohner, Anu Tan, Shaun Tan, Shaun Tan, Shaun Title Pigs and honey Black dog Old magic Rebel! Belonging Millice nt Idjhil Memorial The peasant prince Downsized An ordinary day Greetings from Sandy Beach Spirit of hope The Island Hansel and Gretel Snow White Lost and found Cherry pie Henry & Amy Milli, Jack and the dancing cat Mutt dog! Tales of the Catwings Jane on her own Tacky the penguin The kinder hat A true person Home and away The rabbits The big swim The race Oh, Kipper Refugees Hidden childMy Hiroshima The night hawk star Two tough teddies You and me: Our place Requiem for a beast Waltzing Matilda Cinderella (and other tales from Perrault) The singing hat Brave Charlotte The lost thing Tales from outer suburbia The red tree Utemorrah, Daisy Vander Zee, Ruth Wheatley, Nadia Wild, Margaret Wild, Margaret Zamorano, Ana Do not go around the edges Erika’s story Luke’s way of looking The very best of friends Woolvs in the sitee Let’s eat Plays Author Davis, Jack Ibsen, Henrik Kafka, Franz Maris, Hyllus & Borg, Sonia Miller, Arthur Pinter, Harold Shakespeare, William Wil liams, Tennessee Title Barungin: Smell the wind Hedda Gabler The trial Women of the sun Death of a salesman The caretaker Othello The glass menagerie Poetry AuthorFrost, Robert Murray, Les Anonymous Wright, Judith Wright, Wright , Judith Dawe, Bruce Wright, Judith Tennyson, Alfred Kendall, Henry Eliot, T. S. Frost, Robert Mackellar, Dorothea Wright, Judith Plath, Sylvia Auden, W. H. Wright, Judith Title Acquainted with the night An absolutely ordinary rainbow Beowulf Bora ring Eli, Eli The dark ones Enter without so much as knocking Half caste girls The lady of Shallot The last of his tribe The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock Mending wall My country Nigger’s leap Paralytic Refugee blues River bend Film & television Amistad Beauty and the beast Bend it like Beckham Charlie and the chocolate factory Crocodile Dundee Dead poet’s society Easy rider Edward Scissorhands E. T. the extra-terrestrial Finding Forrester Finding Nemo Fried green tomatoes Gandhi Grease Hairspray Ha ppy feet High noon Hotel Rwanda How to make an American quilt Life is beautiful Little Miss Sunshine Lord of the flies Man from Snowy River Mean girls Memoirs of a geisha Muriel’s wedding My big fat Greek wedding My brilliant career Neverending story Oliver Twist Once were warriors Piano, The Priscilla, queen of the desert Rebecca Scales of justice Schindler’s list Sound of music Storm boy Sum of us Sweeney Todd Titanic To kill a mockingbird To sir with love Trainspotting Transamerica Tristan & Isolde Twilight V for vendetta Waterfront Watership down Whale rider What’s eating Gilbert Grape Wizard of Oz Documentary Film & Television Bowling for Columbine Darwin’s nightmare First Australians – SBS series

School Legal Issue Plan

The safety and security of the students are a major concern for our schools; especially elementary campuses. The dismissal routine at Cook elementary school is in need of revamping to a higher level of security. Each campus principal makes the decision on the dismissal procedure. Across the nation, there are numerous students who are mistakenly handed over to the wrong parent or adult or just simply come up missing from their school campus. In recent years, there have been several incidents in which the students were either handed over to the wrong person, or left the school without the staff knowing how they left.The safety of the students during dismissal should be a concerned just like it is during the instructional time of the school day. The current dismissal is the bus riders are dismissed and are expected to meet the assigned staff member at the end of the hall. Shortly after the bus riders depart, the walkers are to lineup and report to the multi-purpose room to be released. Finally, the car riders are escorted by their homeroom teacher to north side of the building where parents are able to drive-up to pick up their child(ren). Some parents have car rider numbers and some just ask for the students by name. Often times this routine is quite chaotic; especially when there is inclement weather.There have been a couple of times in which parents inquire as to how their child was released from school. Either the parent forgot to send a note or the student forgot to give it to teacher or front office. When a parent/guardian calls to check on how their child left for the day, there should be a better way to inform the parent/guardian that the child either rode a bus, walked, or was picked up via car. In 2010, at a Dallas elementary school, a kindergarten student was handed over to the wrong adult, but the incident ended well because the person returned to the school with the child. This current school year, a little girl left with one of her classmate’s mother without permission from the parents.These events cause panic among the families as well as cost the  cities and counties money because of police involvement. Although I would rather have a false alarm, than to not contact authority and have a bigger issue on hand. In light of these events, extra security measures should be implemented in an effort to avoid such incidents. This requires the involvement of all administrators, teachers, and staff to do their part to ensure safe return of all students to their homes at the end of the school day. This unit will explain in detail procedures that can be implemented to avoid handing a student to the wrong person. Suggested dismissal procedure implementation plan:Notification of dismissal routineColor code each grade levelEach student is assigned a dismissal ticket number.Exit ticket and bagsCar rider numbersTeacher creates a spreadsheet identifying students dismissal routineStages of dismissalExit tickets2nd and 3rd notification t o parents, students, and staff of the new dismissal procedure. ïÆ'ËœPTOEffective dateAccountabilityNotification of change in dismissal routineA week before the change in the dismissal routine, parents/guardians will receive notice of the upcoming change as well as a form to complete stating how their child(ren) are to be dismissed from school. The notice will clearly state that although the child(ren) may be designated as a bus rider or walker, he or she will still receive an assigned number for dismissal. The notice will also state that whenever there is a change in how the student is to leave school, a written note signed by parent/guardian must be sent to the school.Color code each grade levelEach grade level will be assigned a specific color in an effort to quickly identify the grade level of students at the end of the day. There are times when dismissal is chaotic and if the students have their dismissal tickets in hand, staff members can easily identify where the student belo ngs if he or she becomes separated from the class. In addition, the dismissal areas will be color coded for the assigned grade levels to wait for their dismissal.Dismissal ticket numbersEach student will be assigned a dismissal number which will be tied to that student’s name. Regardless of the number of siblings attending the same school, each will have his or her own number. The reasoning to avoid assigning one dismissal number for each family is because there could be a family member absent that day and it would be hard to track if there is one or two or more members per family as well as which student is absent. It is much safer for each student to have his or her own number because it is easier to account for that student.These assigned numbers, which will be color coded based on grade level along with the student’s assigned homeroom teacher’s first initial and last name becomes that student’s exit ticket. Placing the teacher’s name on the stu dent’s assigned number makes it quicker to track the student’s movement. As the student leaves school for the day, he or she will place their exit ticket in the appropriate exit bag.Car rider numbersThere will be two sets of numbers, one index card size for the students as an exit ticket and one letter paper size to be given to parents to identify which student he or she is picking up by placing the number in the front window. The color code will identify the grade level and the number identifies the student. The parents must display this number in their window when picking up their child(ren).Exit tickets and bagsThe color coded assigned numbers will serve as the student’s exit from school. These tickets are laminated to withstand long-term usage. There will be an exit bag for each method of dismissal; early departure, bus dismissal, walkers, and car riders. A designated staff member will collect the exit tickets as the students depart. The next school day, the tickets are separated by designated staff and returned to the teachers.SpreadsheetThe teacher for each class room will create a spreadsheet identifying how each student goes home at the end of the day. The spreadsheet should include: bus riders, walkers, and car riders. In the event the teacher is absent, the spreadsheet is visibly posted for a substitute to know how the students are dismissed.Stages of dismissalThe bell will continue to be the signal for the end of the school day. The students will be dismissed by the way they go home. The bus riders, which include district, private, and day care buses, will be dismissed first. These students will be escorted and supervised by designated staff members. As each student departs, each will drop his or her exit ticket into the exit bag. After about 5 minutes, the walkers will be escorted by assigned staff and released at the appointed doors(s). After giving the walkers about 5 minutes to depart, the car riders will be escorted to the designated pick-up zone to release students to parents. The teachers will carry their spreadsheet with them which indicates the students’ dismissal numbers. As the teachers and other staff members escort the students to their vehicles he/she will collect the students’ exit tickets to be placed in the exit bag for car riders.Notification of new dismissal routineUpon the onset of working on the new dismissal routine, the parents will receive a newsletter from the school notifying them of the upcoming change. A week before the implementation of the new routine another newsletter is sent home stating the date the change will take effect. The final notice of the change will be issued on a Friday before the Monday the new routine becomes official. The parents will receive notification of the upcoming change at least 3 times in an effort to prepare them for the change. In addition, the teachers will prepare the students for the change in the dismissal routine to help them tra nsition as smoothly as possible.PTOThe members of the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) will play a very important role of getting the word out to parents/guardians of the new dismissal routine. The PTO will help to address any concerns or questions related to the new dismissal routine. In addition, whenever possible, the PTO will help in separating and returning the exit tickets to the designated teachers.Effective dateThe effective date for the new dismissal routine should take place on a Monday. This will allow parents/guardians to make the necessary adjustments in their routines. In addition, with proper notification the parents/guardians will have time to pose any questions or concerns they may have with the administration.AccountabilityThe implementation of the new dismissal routine should prove to be a less stressful way to monitor and know how each student leaves the campus. The teacher for each homeroom is responsible for ensuring his/her students are dismissed as requested by the parents. In addition, the teachers should ensure there is a form returned for each student in their homeroom.ConclusionIn conclusion, whereas this may not be a perfect plan, it will provide some extra security measures in helping the students to depart the school as the parents/guardians desire as well as provide a checkpoint to quickly determine how a student left campus during dismissal. There may be some confusion the first couple of days, but that is to be expected. However, if the plan is followed as set, the kinks will work themselves out. What is most important is the security and protection of our students.

Microeconomics Discussion Questions Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Microeconomics Discussion Questions - Coursework Example The dispersed sponsorship of many interested parties also expands the costs of the advertising and revenues over a larger pool of potential recipients. In the end, the provision of these seemingly enormous salaries is craftily calculated to ensure that the highest bidder gets to retain Jordon’s talents for maximum return. Economic rent is â€Å"any excess payment for a service, good or property above and beyond the minimum amount at which the person receiving payment would still have agreed to the deal.† It refers to the money above and beyond the minimum amount to employ a given resource or employee in this case. There is certainly what some would refer to as inflated salaries in professional sports where about 60% of the revenue goes to a few employees in the company. At the other end of the spectrum, one can visit any number of fast food restaurants and discover that all the employees are making more than minimum wage because the rents are required to attract service staff. Whether a college student, entrepreneur or salaried employee, companies and entities have to offer salaries above and beyond what will satisfy simply keeping the lights on.

Saloon management Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Saloon management - Case Study Example Marketing has also been defined as the process of "planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create relationships which satisfy consumer and business objectives" (Boone, 2008, p.7). This recognises marketing as a rather complex series of activities which ultimately decide the entire direction which an organisation takes in order to become profitable or ensure high sales volumes of their products. For example, the saloon will need to consider how best to price the musical events in a way that is competitive with other companies offering nightly musical acts as well as satisfying what consumers would actually be willing to pay for these events. Creating relationships is another key factor of marketing which should be explored, especially for a saloon owner/manager because the business will rely on a great deal of return customers in order to be successful. Therefore, as part of marketing, the business leaders should consider the attitude of staff who tend bar or serve clients as part of the wait staff, as this is part of quality customer service which will determine whether many customers feel that the saloon gives them a good experience. With all of the above having been said, marketing is a complicated process which involves budgeting, people management, having a focus toward satisfying both the business goals and the consumer goals, and also ensuring that a quality product or service is delivered to the best of the business' ability. Marketing considers how best to get the product to the right customer markets and what type of message should be associated with product in order to build awareness and interest; and perhaps even long-term product loyalty if successful. Marketing and the Organisation Marketing within the saloon consists of first understanding what customers in the local region would actually be looking for when deciding on entertainment locations. Murphy's Saloon will provide regular live musical group entertainment, a small-scale restaurant environment with a limited menu, alcoholic beverages, and certain tournaments such as billiards. However, in relation to organisation, the saloon must consider certain budget issues and determine how much money the owner really maintains (capital) prior to laying out a marketing strategy. Costs, from the organisational perspective, are significant considerations as they will decide how much of the business' profit should be applied to promotion and advertisement and how much the saloon owner can actually afford. This is why having a solid marketing strategy is so vital because it recognises projected costs of marketing as well as the actual costs of historical marketing in order to give a better picture of financial capabili ties and how to use different mediums in order to get messages across to potential customers about the saloon and its activities. Two marketing professionals flatly offer that product is "the single

Using Buddhism in Todays Modern World Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Using Buddhism in Todays Modern World - Essay Example Many people associate Buddhism with all sorts of things, i.e. incense, bald monks, temples, the figure of Buddha sitting with a benign smile on his face, chanting, vegetarianism, etc. I know this to be the case because these are words and images I get whenever I ask people to free-associate on the word Buddhism. One person even associated Buddhism with liquor because he had just gone the night before to a place called Buddha bar! What all these shows are instances of an average person on the street having all sorts of preconceptions about Buddhism. Even those who have read little about it have all sorts of misconceptions about it, thinking that Buddhism is pessimistic for emphasizing on suffering, or that Buddhism is a religion that regards the Buddha as a god. What I want to do in this paper is to go beyond the rituals and external trappings of Buddhism in order to touch the deeper core of the teachings. This will help me understand how Buddhism could help us cope with life’s struggles in today’s modern world. At the heart of Buddhism is The Four Noble Truths (Hanh 9). This is the very foundation of Buddhist teachings, which differentiate it from other religions. These teachings say that (1) human existence is characterized by suffering, (2) that there is a cause for suffering, (3) that there is a way out of suffering through the elimination of its cause, and (4) that there is a path leading to the cessation of suffering (Hanh 9-11). In most Buddhist texts, it is said that the cause of suffering is trishna or craving (Bercholz and Kohn 64). We suffer because we have too many wants and needs. We own a cell phone but soon grow dissatisfied with it as soon as a new model comes along; we own a car but soon get dissatisfied with it because we desire a better, faster or more luxurious model; we have a perfectly good relationship with someone but then look for someone else because we want something new and more exciting. All these desires inevitably lea d to suffering because we cannot possibly fulfill them all. In the end, we get utterly frustrated. Actually, if we think about it hard enough, there are many causes of suffering, since there are many types of suffering. The suffering that results from viral infection that makes you sick is not due to desire but to the presence of a virus that has infected you. Some other forms of suffering that do not have desire as their root cause would be a headache, a toothache, a broken limb, and various other physical pains. These forms of suffering, which are all physical, are to be distinguished from other forms of suffering which are mental. Examples of mental suffering would be depression, worry, jealousy, regret, anxiety, etc. Between the two general forms of suffering, it is the mental type of suffering that the Buddhism tries to address because they believe that this is the more serious type of suffering. When you are sick with a fever, you can make yourself feel better by changing your attitude about your sickness to a rather positive light. However, if you are suffering from some sort of mental anguish, it does not quite help if you work on the body. In fact, people do not commit suicide because of a toothache, but there are those who would commit suicide because of a heartache. The Role of The Mind What we need to understand at this point is that the mind plays a very big role in human suffering. We need to understand this very clearly if we want to get a glimpse of the heart of Buddhist teachings. Here, we emphasize on the importance of one’s attitude or state of mind with regards to the experience of happiness and suffering (Smith 245). If we think about it close enough, we should also come to the conclusion that our state of mind also affects other people’s happiness or suffering. Here is an example to illustrate this point. Suppose you have just received word that the backpack which you lost in school was finally found with everything intact.

Appeal letter suspension Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Appeal letter suspension - Essay Example However, while I was placing significant amount of time in my English, my performance in other units went down the gutter. My advisor further advised me to drop the other units that were giving me challenges and pick PE and GEC classes, but then I would not have sufficient credits to fill the required 12 credits that I needed for the semester. This meant that my only way out of the problem was to deal with the tough courses. I attempted my best and got through with the semester. Further problems emanated from the fact that I lived far and travelling cost me a great time that I would have spent studying or visiting my family. Attempts to correct this problem were futile, at least in the timeline that I intended. Nevertheless, I made every effort possible to produce good results, and I managed to raise my GPA from 0.91 to 1.583. My current efforts are geared towards raising my GPA above 2.0, and I hope to get the opportunity to do so next Fall semester. Please understand that the performance that I have presented over the recent semester does not reflect my academic capabilities, but is coupled with other problems that I was going through. I am currently working hard to improve my situation and promise that I will record a GPA of more than 2.0 next Fall semester. Thank you for your consideration and for accepting my

Factors affecting Key Skills Achievements in Further Education Essay

Factors affecting Key Skills Achievements in Further Education - Essay Example During the last years the attention is paid to the key skills development though they are not considered to be popular. Indeed, it was pressure from employers that resulted in the Key Skills standards being revised in QCA’s Phase 1 Report, and recommendations were made in September 2001. The research showed that sometimes the Key Skills are even more effective than the professional ones. That is the reason for Key Skills to be an integral part of the educational programmes. There are some different views as to â€Å"key† skills, but The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) has stated some number of skills which are considered to be â€Å"key†. These are such skills as: problem solving (defining the problems, choosing the alternative solutions to the problem, planning the actions to be taken). The most important of them are: communication, application of number, and information technology. Nowadays a great attention is paid to such a notion as â€Å"functional illiteracy†. But this notion should not be confused with the notion of ignorance. In today’s changing environment employers are demanding different skills from their employees. The Moser Report: A Fresh Start, improving Literacy and Numeracy (1999), opened with the statement: ‘Something like one in five adults in this country is not functionally literate and far more have problems with numeracy and one of the reasons for relatively low productivity in our economy’. This suggests that individuals do not have the functional skills and may be the reason why QCA’s current project may result in a name change from Key Skills to ‘Functional Skills’ According to Alexander Alexander’s (1999 p117) the statistics of the U.N.O. shows that 99 per cent of citizens of the USA, Germany, Great Britain and other European countries are literate people. The problem of functional

Bioaccummulution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Bioaccummulution - Essay Example One of the foci in the issue of bioaccumulation is the lack of intensive research and accumulated knowledge specifically in terms of the bioaccumulation of hazardous chemicals and their long-term effects in humans. One of the main reasons for the said lack of knowledge and efforts for research is the fact that the understanding of the concept is â€Å"superficial† which means humans are detaching themselves to what is happening in the aquatic ecosystem though there is a great probability that the effects of accumulated toxic materials would be more potent for terrestrial organisms. The superficial view on bioaccumulation lessens the impact and the urgency for in depth study. In addition, as explored by the study conducted by Kim and Kim, the concept is at a certain degree lost in translation specifically in non-English speaking nations. This is also related to the issue that the lack of in depth exploration on the subject causes educational institutions to disseminate misconce ptions that can cause escalation of more misconceptions to students as well as the other members of the general population (Kim and Kim, 2013). Gobas, F.A.P.C., Mackintosh, C.E., Webster, M.I., Parkerton, T.F. and Robillard, K. (2003). Bioaccumulation of Phthalate Esters in aquatic food-webs. The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry, 3 (Q): 201-225. Doi:

Cooking oil And Fuel for car use Essay Example for Free

Cooking oil And Fuel for car use Essay It is now commonly reported in the media news and conferences on climate, environmental degradation and global warming and many of these terms are pointing to the compounded nature of the environmental problems and the need for individuals and government to arise, proffer solution and rapidly intervene. The fossil fuels are the most polluting types of fuel to the environment. This is because it is widely used and produced . F is the reaction in the combustion gas that involves carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide (CO, CO2), both of which contribute a large share to the phenomenon of global warming. This phenomenon has the potential to increase the level of water in the seas, oceans and poles due to the melting of ice and thus the sinking of large areas of the continents. There are many alternatives to fossil fuels that can provide the energy necessary for human life such as solar energy and hydrogen cells. However, all of these alternatives are either still under testing or expensive and this hinders their use in the present time. Another alternative that can be used at the present time due to the fact that it is accessible to all is the biodiesel. The biodiesel is derived from edible oils used in household cooking and it is formerly regarded as unfit for human use. In restaurants where the owners spend a lot of money to individuals who help them to get rid of these oil can now heave a sigh of relieve in that they can now turn them into fuel suitable for the operation of motor vehicles, generators, motorcycles and any machine that utilizes internal combustion . The biodiesel (Biodiesel) is twice as clean as fossil diesel chemical composition has a smaller number of carbon atoms. Therefore, they produce less carbon exhaust, which is also the highest for the regular diesel, and by this, the lifespan of the machine is maintained and the biodiesel is conserved. Biodiesel is therefore safer than the regular diesel. It burns at 167  ° while the regular diesel on the other hand burns at 70  ° Celsius. The modus operandi of biodiesel Introduction The basic idea in the production of biodiesel is from used oil preferably from soybean oil. However, in the absence of soyabeans, any other type of vegetable oils can be used depending on the chemical composition. In the oil molecules, a break in the interaction is initiated by addition of alcohol in the form of methanol or ethanol with the presence of a catalytic sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide from glycerol (as output or product of interaction) along with ethyl esters (biodiesel). Methods Purification The action of this interaction in several stages and they are: 1)initial purification: Since the oil used has already been used in cooking, then it contains a residue that must be disposed of before the beginning of interaction and here a of silk oil passes through a large piece of primary filter Furthermore, it is heated by placing it on fire to refine the oil at a temperature between 60  ° -70  ° Celsius. 2) calculating the amount of the incentive: The catalytic factor is usually used in calculating the quantity of sodium hydroxide and this is one of the most important steps of the process This is because any increase or decrease in the quantity of sodium hydroxide would increase the proportion of outside interaction (Glycerol) at the expense of the required product (biodiesel). Variables/materials needed to calculate/obtain the amount of the incentive are -Methanol (these are at the centre of racing cars and can be found in stores that sell chemicals) Standard Boboli alcohol (Isopropyl Alcohol 99% IPA). -A scale is needed. -A measure of the acidity of the paper known as the PH obtained in some major pharmacies. -A standard pan. -Gloves and a protective cover to the body. Calibration factor is the amount of catalytic heating oil during the fire where it is in interaction with a separate calibration of the oil as highlighted below: Storage Mix 1 gram of sodium hydroxide with 100 million litre of water to obtain a solution of sodium hydroxide. Mix 1 billion litre of oil with 10 billion litre of alcohol Boboli. Qatar and the use of sodium hydroxide solution to fall on the oil and alcohol solution, and measure the acidity of the oil solution using paper (PH) . After the addition of every billion litre of sodium hydroxide solution, we will find that acidity has increased. This process continues until it reaches pH between 9-10, then count the number of litre of Millilitres of the signed dropper, and not litre. For example, 6 million litre and grams will be converted to 0. 006 grams of sodium hydroxide per 1 million litre of oil or 6 grams per 1000 billion litres of oil. Adding this to the 6 grams with 3. 5 grams taken as constant, a total of 9. 5 grams of sodium hydroxide per litre of oil is obtained. Add the calculated amount of sodium hydroxide in methanol to that of the whole interaction, away from oil, and half the quantity of methanol quantity of oil used the result of the interaction of sodium oxide and methanol (sodium methoxide). However, be careful as this is a highly toxic chemical compound, and must be kept away from direct skin contact. It has the potential to destroy the nervous system and therefore one must take all feasible precautions in the conduct of this interaction. Confused: Sodium oxide is added to methanol (sodium methoxide) and then to the oil through the suppression of stirring and then, heating continued for an hour. Sedimentation and Sedimentation After the completion of heating, the composite is placed in the settling tank for 24 hours in which there is separation of glycerol from biodiesel based on the principle of density difference. In order words, the more the dense glycerol deposit at the bottom and the remaining part settles at the top of the diesel. After the liquidation of reservoir sediments, there is separation to glycerol and diesel, and the difference can be seen easily through the density and viscosity, and if the difference is not obvious, the use of diesel is recommended in this case. To ensure that the use of diesel favoured, the density can be measured using hydrometer which is in stores that sell chemicals . Where reading between 0. 85 -0. 90 densities were not even, then Valdes is not fit for use. It can also be mixed with biodiesel fossil diesel by 40% to 60% which is vital if the fossil machine contains many parts of rubber. In conclusion, we have thus made a lot of benefits from the use of biodiesel. For instance, we have oil we use, and also we have the price of fuel reduced, and then we are able to maintain the machine, and diminish the emission of the environment. â€Å"A diesel motor can also run on a fuel made from used and new vegetable oil called biodiesel (Microsoft Encarta, 2008) Reference El-Messidi, K (2007). Automobile Industry. Microsoft Student 2008 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2007.

Concurrent Execution of Database

Concurrent Execution of Database Question 1: a) What is meant by concurrent execution of database in a multi-user system? Discuss why concurrency control is needed giving a suitable example. How the concept of Time stamp based and validation is based Protocols used in concurrency control. Ans:- Multiple transactions are allowed to run concurrently in the system. Concurrent execution of database is meant by execution of database in parallel. I.e. each transaction must behave in isolation. This means that the concurrent execution does not result an inconsistent state. Ensuring consistency in spite of concurrent execution of transactions requires is very complex Advantages are: increased processor and disk utilization, leading to better transaction throughput 4 E.g. one transaction can be using the CPU while another is reading from or writing to the disk reduced average response time for transactions: short transactions need not wait behind long ones. Timestamp Protocol: Timestamp is a unique identifier to identify a transaction. Timestamp can be considered to be as the transaction start time. It determines the concurrent execution such that the timestamp determines the serializability order. Time stamp holds two timestamp values: W-timestamp() is the largest time-stamp of any transaction that executed write() successfully. R-timestamp () is the largest time-stamp of any transaction that executed read() successfully. Suppose that transaction Ti issues write (Q). If TS (Ti) < R-timestamp (Q), then the value of Q that Ti is producing was needed previously, and the system assumed that that value would never be produced. Hence, the write operation is rejected, and Ti is rolled back. If TS (Ti) < W-timestamp (Q), then Ti is attempting to write an obsolete value of Q. Hence, this write operation is rejected, and Ti is rolled back. Otherwise, the write operation is executed, and W-timestamp(Q) is set to TS(Ti).The timestamp-ordering protocol guarantees serializability since all the arcs in the precedence graph are of the form. Timestamp protocol ensures freedom from deadlock as no transaction ever waits. Validation Protocol: The optimistic concurrency control techniques also known as validation or certification techniques, no checking is done while the transaction is executing. Several methods use the validation technique. Execution of transaction Ti is done in three phases. Read and execution phase: Transaction Ti writes only to temporary local variables Validation phase: Transaction Ti performs a validation test to determine if local variables can be written without violating serializability. Write phase: If Ti is validated, the updates are applied to the database; otherwise, Ti is rolled back. The three phases of concurrently executing transactions can be interleaved, but each transaction must go through the three phases in that order. Each transaction Ti has 3 timestamps Start(Ti) : the time when Ti started its execution Validation(Ti): the time when Ti entered its validation phase Finish(Ti) : the time when Ti finished its write phase This protocol is useful and gives greater degree of concurrency if probability of conflicts is low. That is because the serializability order is not pre-decided and relatively less transactions will have to be rolled back. Question 2: Why does deadlock occur in concurrent execution of transaction where locking scheme is followed? How can you detect deadlock in database system? How is the problem of deadlock resolved? Explain with the help of an example. Ans: Although locks prevent serious data inconsistencies but their use may lead to a major problem. The schedule may create deadlocks. A database deadlock is caused when two transactions wait for each other to unlock data. Deadlocks can be managed by using deadlock detection and prevention techniques. A deadlock is a condition that occurs when two transactions wait for each other to unlock data. Deadlocks occur when two transactions T1 and T2 exist in the following mode: T1 locks data item X and it needs to access Y while Y is locked by T2 T2 locks data item Y and it needs to access X while X is locked by T1 If T1 has not found unlocked data item Y and T2 needs Y, T2 cannot begin, if T2 has not unlocked data item X and T1 needs X, T1 cannot continue. Consequently T1 and T2 wait indefinitely, each waiting for the other to unlock the required data item. Three basic techniques exist to control deadlocks:- Deadlock prevention Deadlock detection Deadlock avoidance Deadlock prevention:- A transaction requesting a new lock is aborted if there is a possibility that a deadlock can occur. If the transaction is aborted, all the changes made by this transaction are rolled back, and all locks obtained by the transaction are released. The transaction is then rescheduled for execution. Deadlocks prevention works because it avoids the condition that leads to deadlock. In deadlock prevention, timed out schemes are used. Deadlock detection:- The DBMS periodically test the database for deadlocks. If a deadlock is found one of the transactions is aborted and the other transaction continues. The aborted transaction will be rescheduled for execution later on. The system uses wait- for graph. The system is in deadlock state if and only if the wait-for graph has a cycle. Deadlock avoidance:- The transaction must obtain all the locks it needs before it can be executed. This technique avoids rollback of conflicting transaction by requiring that locks be obtained in succession. The serial lock assignment required in deadlock avoidance increases transaction response. Example:- Deadlock checking occurs when a transaction has waited 30 seconds; no lock wait timeouts occur. Question 3: What is two phase locking? Describe with help of an example. Will two phase locking result in serialisable schedule? Will two phase locking result in deadlock? Justify your answer with the help of an example Ans: Two phase locking defines how transactions acquire and relinquish locks. Two phase locking gurantees serializability but it does not prevent deadlocks. The two phases are: Growing phase in which a transaction acquires all the required locks without unlocking any data. Shrinking phase in which a transaction releases all locks and cannot obtain any new lock. The two-phase locking protocol is governed by the following rules: Two transactions cannot have conflicting locks. No unlock operation can precede a lock operation in the same transaction. No data are affected until all locks are obtained that is until the transaction is in its locked point. Yes, two phase locking will result in deadlock because when mutual blocking between transactions occurs then it results deadlock. When deadlock occur, the execution of these transaction cannot be completed. So deadlock need to be resolved for completion of these transactions. Example:- In this example, the transaction acquires all the locks it needs until it reaches its locked point. When the locked point is reached is reached, the data are modified to confirm to the transaction requirements. Finally, the transaction is completed as it releases all of the lock it acquired in the first phase. Question 4: When do we use Log based recovery technique? Explain the write ahead log strategy for recovery in a centralized DBMS, with the help of an example. Ans: It is mostly used to structure for recoding database modifications. In a log based recovery a a log file is maintained for recovery purpose. Log file is a sequence of log records. There are two techniques for log based recovery. Deferred database modification: it ensures transaction atomicity by recording all database modifications in the log, but deferring the execution of all write operations of transactions until it is partially committed. Immediate database modification: it allows database modification to be output to the database while the transaction is still in the active state. The Write Ahead log is the basic rule that ensures that a record of every change to the database is available while attempting to recover from a crash. That is if a transaction makes a change and is committed, then the no force approach means that some of the changes may have not been written to the disk at the time of crash. Without any record of changes there is no way to ensure that the changes of a committed transaction survive crashes. For this before writing a page to the disk every update log record that describes a change to the page must be in a stable storage Question 5: Assume that the Railway reservation system is implemented using an RDBMS. What are the concurrency control measures one has to take, in order to avoid concurrency related problems in the above system? How can the deadlock be avoided in this system? How can we implement recovery techniques in such a system? Ans: When several transactions execute concurrently in the database, however there is a chance, the isolation property may no longer be preserved. To ensure that it is, the system must control the interaction among the concurrent transactions; this control is achieved through one of a variety of mechanisms called concurrency-control schemes. TYPES OF CONCURRENCY CONTROL SCHEME Lock-Based Protocols Timestamp-Based Protocols Validation-Based Protocols TO AVOID DEADLOCK: To ensure that no cyclic waits can occur by ordering the requests for locks. Deadlock recovery, and performs transaction rollback instead of waiting for a lock, whenever the wait could potentially result in a deadlock. DEADLOCK RECOVERY TECHNIQUE- To maintain information about the current allocation of data items to transactions, as well as any outstanding data item requests. Provide an algorithm that uses this information to determine whether the system has entered a deadlock state. Recover from the deadlock when the detection algorithm determines that deadlock exists. Question 6: How can we use the concept of shadow paging in database recovery of a real time application? Ans: It is an alternative to log-based recovery techniques. It may require fewer disk accesses but it is hard to extend paging to allow multiple concurrent transactions. The idea is to maintain two page tables during the life of a transaction: the current page table and the shadow page table. When the transaction starts current and page tables are identical. The shadow page is never changed during the life of the transaction. The current page is updated with each write operation. Each table entry points to a page on the disk. When the transaction is committed the shadow page entry becomes a copy of the current page table entry and the disk block with the old data is released. If the shadow is stored in nonvolatile memory and a system crash occurs, then the shadow page table is copied to the current page table. This guarantees that the shadow page table will point to the database pages corresponding to the state of the database prior to any transaction that was active at the time of the crash, making aborts automatic. It is used as an improvement to the shadow copy technique. The key idea of shadow paging is to maintain two page tables during the life of a transaction. Shadow paging helps in better recovery from crashes and also it does not require any undo/redo technique. The disadvantage of shadow paging is that it changes the disk address of the current page table and also copies the actual data block from the RAM to the hard disk output operation. There are drawbacks to the shadow-page technique: Commit overhead. The commit of a single transaction using shadow paging requires multiple blocks to be output the current page table, the actual data and the disk address of the current page table. Log-based schemes need to output only the log records. Data fragmentation. Shadow paging causes database pages to change locations. Garbage collection Each time that a transaction commits, the database pages containing the old version of data changed by the transactions must become inaccessible. Such pages are considered to be garbage since they are not part of the free space and do not contain any usable information. Periodically it is necessary to find all of the garbage pages and add them to the list of free pages. This process is called garbage collection and imposes additional overhead and complexity on the system.

Risk Analysis of German Banks

Risk Analysis of German Banks During this assignment, the German banks data were compared to that of France and Italy banks. A simple regression analysis was performed. The data suggests that there are great variations in the basic principles when are applied in finding out the exact risks. In general, it is noted that that the France and Italy banks are more riskier than the German banks. In the financial institutions, the risks are assessed in a very particular manner. The purpose of discussing risks is to encourage the investors in the banking sectors. Therefore the managements and high level authorities in the banking system apply the various tools in addressing the risks. It is very eminent that the with out the support of the banking systems by and large the businesses can not grow, as these should be. Therefore there must be some ways of addressing the risks in the very first place. Including to satisfy the share holders and stakeholders, and other stakeholders, (Watson and Head, 2005). There are eminent differences in between the emerging market financial systems and the banking systems of developed countries. However the reasons for this significantly. It is noted that the various researchers, scholars, and academicians have shown divided ideas. As we can that some of them had a firm view about the unstable macroeconomic environment, and rest of the scholars have come forward with the point about weaker risk management practices, (Beck et al. 2003). Keeping the importance of risks assessment and its management, the followings are highlighted, so that this issue can understood in an acceptable way. Literature of Review: The banks invest their money in the different projects, such as buying of shares, construction projects, and other financial intuitions. There is also a fact that the management s in the banks monitor, evaluate and judge the performance of their projects during and after the completion of projects. Similarly, Ma, and Eli (2005) indicated that the implementers in the banking sectors must get the lessons for the previous years, failing to this would be failure of the whole project. Basically they (Ma and Eli) did support the theory of application, which suggests that investing directly to the system do not justify the action. There must be a some kind of rational in addressing the risks in the financial and highly competitive environment. In addition, to above, according to Bank for International Settlements, (2002) and Topping (2005) while highlighting the importance of risks evaluation and its management indicated that the some of the factors which contribute the risks are such as, the changing nature of macroeconomic risks, new forms of risks to the banks, and whether or the abilities, skills and other measures have really improved in addressing the issues of risks. In very simple words, it is found that the risks increase when the banks do not imply certain methods. These methods are related to see and judge the results of previous years when there were projects in the pipe lines. Some of the high rated researchers, scholars and professionals such as Chris (2008) and Topping (2005) basically indicated the following levels are addressed and if done, then there are less chances of increasing risks, such as: Risk identification: This is very basic stage where the banks can identify the risks. In simple meaning in the inputs are discussed broadly, and its implications are noted before, during and after the completion. In broader sense, this is done at the sites, where projects will be launched. Particularly, the following points can help in identifying the risks, such as: †¢ Who will take responsibility for risk identification? †¢ Process for risk identification, including existing and new products, and †¢ Regularity in reviews. Risk measurement: The followings nine factors can be measured during risk measurement such as: Capital, Assets, Market risks, Earnings, Liabilities, Business, Internal Controls, Organisation, Management. Whereas while talking about frequency of risk measurement, the followings should be noted very carefully, such as: Sources of data, it includes market prices and position information Risk measurement tools, given the complexity and level of risk assumed, Ability to measure risk at both transactional and portfolio levels. Methodology to ensure all identified risks are monitored, Accuracy, and clarity of monitoring reports, Involvement of management and staff in having the reports, Comparability of output against predetermined limits. http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/policy/p10.pdf The benefits of risk assessment: There are multi-layered assessment benefits to the banks and financial institutions. It include such as to make profits and distribute among the shareholders. It helps the clients for the banks others (employees) satisfied. This brings more jobs to the public and indirectly helps in boosting GDP. The risk assessment keeps busy the staff in doing their professional work. It can be seen that the supervisors need to spend time on-site discussing the issues with senior bank management. The time taken to perform this work will vary from bank to bank depending on the size and complexity of the institution. However, following a risk assessment, the supervisor will be better placed to decide on the intensity of the future supervision having obtained a better understanding of a banks risk profile. The intensity of supervision and the amount and focus of supervisory action will increase in line with the perceived risk profile of a bank. One advantage this has for banks is that the cost of supervision, in terms of management time or through direct costs. WE have to agree that the banks pay high costs for initial assessments, and in turn if their projects are completed, the banks then take benefit of having high wages and other facilities. The bank official especially in the third world are highly paid. Table 1 shows the three pillars in the banking sector Pillar 1 Minimum Capital Requirements Pillar 2 Supervisory Review Pillar 3 Market Discipline Market risk _ No changes from Basel I Credit risk _ Significant change from Basel I _ Three different approaches to the calculation of minimum capital requirements _ Capital incentives for banks to move to more sophisticated credit risk management approaches based on internal ratings _ Sophisticated approaches have systems/controls and data collection requirements as well as qualitative requirements for risk management Operational risk _ Not explicitly covered in Basel I _ Three different approaches to the calculation of minimum capital requirements _ Adoption of each approach subject to compliance with defined ‘qualifying criteria Banks should have a process for assessing their overall capital adequacy and strategy for maintaining capital levels _ Supervisors should review and evaluate banks internal capital adequacy assessment and strategies _ Supervisors should expect banks to operate above the minimum capital ratios and should have the ability to require banks to hold capital in excess of the minimum (i.e., trigger/target ratios in the United Kingdom; prompt corrective action in the United States) _ Supervisors should seek to intervene at an early stage to prevent capital from falling below minimum levels Market discipline reinforces efforts to promote safety and soundness in banks _ Core disclosures (basic information) and supplementary disclosures to make market discipline more effective Source: KPMG, 2003. The Table 1 above shows the details of three pillars. These guidelines are apparently seems to be quite added information for the banking managements. But again there is an inverse argument, who accepts the challenges, threats and then commits to carry out the assessments, so that the future risks could be minimised at least. Methodology and Data: The data for the banks regarding Germany, France and Italy was analysed by the Excel programme. During this analysis, a simple linear regression was carried out. There were altogether 8 parameters which were used. However in case Germany banks were compared to that of France and Italy. The parameters were such as, index, loans, equity, LA, NIM, ROAA, ROAE, and CIR. As a matter of fact these parameters are the base lines for the banks to work/operate in the competitive financial markets. Results and Discussions: The results of the analysis are presented below. It has already been indicated that the German data is compared to that of France and Italy. The Figure 1 below shows that the relationship between the German banks and France banks seems to be very poor. It means that the ways the German banks are applying are entirely different to that of France and vice versa. Figure 2 discusses the regression analysis of German banks versus Italy banks on the basis of index. It can be seen that again the relationship still very week. The data regarding loans is presented in the following Figure 3, in this case German banks were compared to that of France banks. The results show that the way the German banks are obtaining or lending loans are not comparable to that of France. It can also be seen from that Figure 3 that R2 value is too weak. Figure 4 shows the data comparison between the German banks and Italian banks. Again the regression analysis indicates that there is not good relationship between the two. Even when we look at the equation, it suggests that Italian banks approach is entirely negative to that of German banks regarding extending loan facilities to the businesses. In reality equity is the very important parameters, banks work against equity either way. It means if banks are getting loans from other financial institutions, it works on the basis of equity. It also argued here that the poor relationship between the German banks and France clearly demonstrates that there are more risks for the France banks when compared to German banks (Figure 5). Figure 6 highlights the comparison between German banks and Italy banks. The relationship between the two still very poor. It can also be seen that this relationship is negative. The data regarding LA is presented in Figure 7 and the relationship between German banks and France is indeed very poor. The results of LA regarding German banks and Italy banks suggest that there is negative relationship between the two. The same can be seen from Figure 8. Figure 9 suggests that the relationship regarding NIM for German and Italy banks negative, it means no relationship at all. The data concerning NIM is presented in the Figure 10. It can be seen that the relationship between the German banks and Italy very poor. As this relationship shows negative relationship. The analysis of ROAA regarding German and France banks is given in Figure 11. The negative relationship shows there is no strength in particularly applying the same approach. Again this ratio is highly important to note the differences in the banks. The results of analysis are given in Figure 12. It can be seen that there exists negative relationship between the German banks and Italy banks. Data regarding ROAE ratios is compared between the German and France banks. The same can be seen in Figure 13. The negative R2 value indicated the weakness of the relationship. Figure 14 suggests that the relationship between the German and Italy banks is negative. It means that the way the German banks are calculating ROAE is not same in case of Italy. The data in reference to CIR is shown in Figure 15. The comparison between the German and France banks shows that there is a negative relationship. The comparison about CIR between Germany and Italy clearly shows that there exists negative relationship. The same data is shown in Figure 16. When we look at the Figures above, in most of the analysis conducted for the various parameters show that there is a negative relationship. It means that the strength of the approach differs. As a matter of fact, it is argued that the methods of calculating risks are nearly similar in the German, France and Italy banks. So a question arises, why it is so? There could be many reasons behind the explanations. But very viable and quite acceptable refers to the non availability of the data during the months and years. The data shows big gaps, and further suggests the approaches in calculating risks in the banks are not same as in regarding Germany. Conclusions and recommendations: When we look above, it can be seen that there are different ways and means are being used by the three countrys banks in calculating the various ratios, including loans and debts. It is also very clear that there is no relationship when the data were tested through regression analysis. There is likely possibility that the German banks are not using those principles, where are used by the France and Italy banks, or vice versa. Concerning recommendations, it is suggested that the German banks if use the similar way of in disbursing loans especially; there is high probability that the risks could be deep down compared among the three countrys banks.

Social Responsibilities :: essays research papers fc

Social Responsibilities: 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Health Aspect a.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Find better ways to cut down on fat and calories Is Starbucks adding to the growing weight problem with American society? You be the judge. I personally was shocked at the nutritional facts on their products (Figure 1). Some fast food places offer healthier products than some of the Starbucks products (Figure 2). The nutritional facts circled in red in figure 1 and figure 2 shows that one cup of Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Crà ¨me with whip is less nutritional than an entire meal at McDonalds. Imagine what the nutritional facts would look like if you included a Classic Coffee Cake with your coffee beverage! (Figure 1.2)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Starbucks nutritional values listed below are not completely accurate as shown in the following statement: â€Å"The nutrition information for beverages is based on Starbucks ® standardized beverage recipes. Because each of our beverages is handcrafted and may be customized, some variation can be expected. The data is calculated using ESHA Research’s Genesis ® R&D software. All data is rounded to meet current United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) packaged foods labeling regulations.† Works cited: (http://www.starbucks.com/retail/nutrition_info.asp) This means that depending on your taste, the fat content and calories could be more than what is shown in the chart. Figure 1 – Starbucks Nutritional Facts (Beverages) (http://www.starbucks.com/retail/nutrition_info.asp) Figure 1.2 – Starbucks Nutritional Facts (Food Items) (http://www.starbucks.com/retail/nutrition_freshfood_detail.asp) Figure 2 – McDonalds Nutritional Facts (http://app.mcdonalds.com/bagamcmeal) What is Starbucks planning to do to lower fat and calories in their products? Starbucks is offering non-fat milk and soy to help trim down the fat and calories. The alternative ingredients do alter the flavor a bit, so it may not be the choice of most customers. b.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Advertise to public about fat content of their products It seems like Starbucks doesn’t want the general public to really know how bad the nutritional facts are right up front in their stores. If you walk into a Starbucks store you see mostly pictures of some of their least nutritional coffee beverages because they look the most appetizing. I think if more people knew how bad Starbucks products were they would see a significant reduction in revenue. This would be especially true with today’s low carb, low fat health trends. Starbucks does however provide a nice nutritional facts chart on their website, but who is looking at the website while ordering anyway? So as far as I can tell Starbucks plans on feeding America’s sweet tooth and will continue to fatten them up.

The Elusiveness of War and the Tenuousness of Morality in Tim O?Brien?s

The Elusiveness of War and the Tenuousness of Morality in Tim O’Brien’s â€Å"The Things They Carried,† â€Å"How to Tell a True War Story,† and â€Å"Style†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien demonstrates how exposure to the atrocities of nations at war leads to the soldiers having skewed perspectives on what is right and wrong, predominantly at times when the purpose of the war itself appears elusive. The ambiguity that consumes the stories of â€Å"The Things They Carried† and â€Å"How to Tell a True War Story† is displayed with irony, for the ‘moral’ of such war stories is that there is no moral at all. O’Brien portrays the character Mitchell Sanders as an observer who seeks the morals to be found through the war fatalities; however, he depicts these morals in a manner that actually stresses the impiety of the situations above all else. The characters in this novel are at the forefront of the Vietnam War, thus blinded by carnage that soon begins to obscure any prior notions held about what is moralistic and what is not. The death of Ted Lavender in â€Å"The Things They Carried† leads to Lieutenant Jimmy Cross’ moral blunder which is brought about by his guilt over the horror of the incident: Lieutenant Cross felt the pain. He blamed himself [†¦] He pictured Martha’s smooth young face [†¦] and now Ted Lavender was dead because he loved her so much and could not stop thinking about her. When the dustoff arrived, they carried Lavender aboard. Afterward they...

Globalization and Culture Change Essay

From a sociocultural anthropological perspective, by investigating how globalization affects different parts of the world we can build a better understanding of how global structures affect social and cultural practices. Globalization is the worldwide interdependence of economic and cultural activities through the interchange of worldviews, goods, beliefs, and other aspects of culture (Lalonde slide 22/01/13). To facilitate interdependence, globalization uses new technology, innovation, tourism, international trade, and the media to build and maintain a dominant global culture (Lalonde slide 22/01/13). In recent years, the process of globalization has hastened the destruction of small egalitarian cultures (Larkin and Robbins 2007). Using information conducted from three ethnographies, this paper discusses how globalization has impacted the culture of traditional societies. To narrow the focus, it will examine how globalization and the related process of modernization has contributed to culture change and will discuss each ethnography’s involvement within the World Systems Theory. The progress of society is introduced by the idea that â€Å"human history is the story of a steady advance from life dependent on whims of nature to a life of control and domination over natural forces† (Larkin and Robbins 2007:43). This notion of culture change assumes that technological advancement is the driving force of progress, and that traditional societies should become modernized because it is in their best interest to align with technological, economic, and sociocultural systems of western industrial nations (Lalonde slide 15/01/13). Modernization is characterized by â€Å"industrialization, consolidation of the nation-state, bureaucratization, market economy, technological innovation, literacy, consumerism, vertical mobility, and an open class system† (Lalonde slide 15/01/13). These processes help amplify globalization and support the assumption that â€Å"economic trade is the source of all well being† (Larkin and Robbins 2007:60). Traditional societies are pressured to become modern under the presumption that economic growth and integration will help solve national and global ecological/social problems, and foreign assistance to underdeveloped countries will create a better standard of living by helping them participate in global trade (Larkin and Robbins 2007). The belief that the social, political, and cultural, systems of western society should dictate how traditional societies should develop is a very egocentric view. What supporters of globalization fail to  recognize is that by supporting the modernization of small-scale civilizations â€Å"we may be eliminating societies whose systems of meaning hold solutions to compelling current world problems, such as environmental destruction, inter-group and intra-group conflict, poverty, and sickness† (Robbins and Larkin 2007:72). The World Systems Theory, developed by Immanuel Wallerstein, addresses culture change in relation to power (Lalonde slide 15/01/13). Unequal distribution of wealth and resources along with the capitalist mode of production contribute to the functionality of this theory. The world system divides the world into core, semi-periphery, and periphery countries. The core countries are highly developed and use technology to increase capital development. In contrast, the periphery countries are least developed and are exploited by the core for their cheap labor and material. Semi-periphery countries lie between the core and periphery and are both exploited and engage in exploitation. The World Systems Theory relies on the commodification of goods, labor, nature, and human relations in the market for exchange value (Lalonde slide 15/01/13). Current neo-liberal economic policies that promote individualism, competition, and consumerism within a free-market have highly contributed to the acceptance of inequality and disparity globally enhancing the effects of the World Systems. The application of this theory will be discussed further later in the paper. In an ethnography of the Beng people, who reside in the village of Asagbe, in Cà ´te d’Ivoire, West Africa, American anthropologists Alma Gottlieb and Philip Graham recount their cultural engagement and reflect that their â€Å"presence [in the village] might actually be triggering a young man’s return to mental illness† (2011:38). Alma and Philip use an ethnographic approach to study the Beng culture, which includes participant observation, interviews, and the use of a key cultural consultant, Amenan. The ethnography written by Alma and Philip illustrates how modernization has had a negative impact on the Beng culture causing some men to refuse their cultural identity. Matatu, identifies himself in French as the â€Å"prime minister of Cà ´te d’Ivoire†, and refuses to speak the Beng language (Gottlieb and Graham 2011:38). Although unintentionally, the anthropologists contribute to the perception that the Beng lifestyle is less desirable than a modern lifestyle by arriving in Asagbe with cameras, typewriters, audio recorders and a vehicle. The goods show their â€Å"family’s privilege† and  Ã¢â‚¬Å"pushed in [Matatu’s] face how poor he is and will always be† (Gottlieb and Graham 2011:38). Contrasting the modernization of America with the underdevelopment of Asagbe, introduction of technology lead to a rejection of cultural identity, negatively altering the Beng perception of daily life. World systems theory can be applied to describe the culture change of the Beng men in relation to power. The anthropologist’s describe that the change of behavior Matatu and other Beng men displayed was a way to create â€Å"imagined power rather than face the near certainty of life long poverty†(Gottlieb and Graham 2011:51). When Matatu hypothetically â€Å"condemns people to death† he is symbolically representing and compensating for the domination of the core countries over the periphery in the World Systems (Gottlieb and Graham 2011:48). Matatu recognizes that exploitation of his country will continue to enable the core countries to remain in dominant power. The Beng society’s placement in the World System makes it is clear that systematic inequality and injustice due to unequal distribution of wealth and resources have negatively affected their daily lives by enabling them from achieving all basic human rights and needs. The ethnography conducted by anthropologist Liza Dalby, takes place on a rural island community in Japans Inland Sea. The ethnographic method’s used include: participant observation, interviews using a tape recorder, and questionnaires. Through Liza’s ethnography, globalization and the related process of modernization negatively affect the Japanese island community by causing the erosion of historical family member roles forever changing traditional family dynamics. Liza explains â€Å"eldest sons in small Japanese rural communities like this one are historically the inheritors of the family fields.†(2011:182). Because modernization implies urbanization, to younger Japanese citizens â€Å"the option of going to vocational school, or even college, and getting a white-collar job in a city was looking more attractive than staying on the farm† (Dalby 2011:182). The view that modernity is preferable to traditional culture is emphasized in the quote, â€Å"the modern young island girls who where bored to tears by it all couldn’t wait to hop on a boat to the nearby cities on Shikoku† (Dalby 2011:183). Modernization of Japan’s urban centers, including access to new technology such a s boats, dominant education systems, and white-collar jobs negatively affected the rural island community by causing the loss of group identity,  cultural heritage and diversity, and provides a system for further colonization and promotion a western model of the self. The world systems theory can be applied to explain the power relations between Japan and America. As a member of the core category in the world System, Japan is perceived as having advanced technology and complex products (Lalonde lecture 22/01/13). What is not always considered is that underdeveloped societies can exist within developed societies, and when governments assume that all markets in the country value the dominant economic view it monopolizes the production and sale of goods so smaller markets cannot function. On the Japanese Island, farmers were angry that the government was forcing them to import fruit in the open local markets (Dalby 2011). For Mr. H, a Japanese island resident and farmer, â€Å"California oranges were his adversary† (Dalby 2011:184). Mr. T’s opinion resembles the disadvantage of being associated with the core membership. Because globalization values economic trade as the source of well being, smaller markets like the one on Japan’ s rural island are often sacrificed to make room for more lucrative economic agreements. In the ethnography written by anthropologist Chris Boehm, he describes his encounter with the upper Moracha Tribe, in Montenegro, a country in Southeastern Europe. The ethnographic methods he uses to study the isolated tribe consist of participant observation and interviews. The ethnography about the upper Moracha Tribe discusses how globalization and Modernization are shown to negatively impact the village by creating unequal social relations between the tribe and their government. Once an unrestricted society, the ethnography reports that a small government police station was previously stationed in Moracha (Boehm 2011:101). In Montenegrin their â€Å"militantly socialist† government uses force to gain control (Boehm 2011:100). In opposition of government dominance, the Moracha Tribe became â€Å"tantamount to pirates† and engaged in violence, many local people saw â€Å"victims found at the bottom of cliffs†(Boehm 2011:100). Modernization via the introduction of a militant government sparked violence among Montenegrins and changed the way they interacted with their environment. In the capitalist World System Theory, Montenegrins are members of the periphery group causing them to be inherently exploited and oppressed. Historically, the introduction of capitalism can be linked to colonialism. Through imperialism, European colonization meant that foreign  power had cultural, social, and political control over the nations they conquered (Lalonde lecture 22/01/13). The colonizers used their power to exploit the land, resources, and labor, of their colonies to build economic wealth. To maintain this unequal distribution the capitalist mode of production and the world systems theory maintains the oppressive effects of colonialism. Therefore, the violence the Montenegrins display in regards to the actions of their government is also an indirect way of opposing the entire world system of inequality. Because no society can be isolated from the world system, globalization has made the actions of the Montenegrins not only a local individual message, but also a global political one. In conclusion, globalization discussed within the Beng community, the rural Japanese village, and Moracha tribe has caused irreversible damage to their traditional societies. Modernization has contributed to the rejection of cultural identity, heritage, and diversity, contributed to the erosion of traditional family dynamics and customs, and introduced modern political systems to egalitarian societies causing civil conflict changing the way citizens interact with their environment. Looking at cultural change in relation to distribution of power, the world systems theory made it clear that globalization enhances systematic disparity and the unequal distribution of wealth and resources, eliminates small market economies, and drives â€Å"small-scale societies to the edge of extinction [by] forcing them to enter civilization through the dark side of poverty, disease, and forced labor †(Robbins and Larkin 2007:72). Extinction of culture is black and white. To minimize the effects of globalization society must begin to value connection, cooperation, and equality, and continually reflect on how our individual actions affect others. References: Bohem, Chris 2011 Insult and Danger. In Being There: Learning to Live Cross-Culturally. Sarah H. Davis and Melvin Knonner, eds. Pp. 93-111. United States of America: Harvard University Press. Dalby, Liza 2011 Japanese Ghosts Don’t Have Feet. In Being There: Learning to Live Cross-Culturally. Sarah H. Davis and Melvin Knonner, eds. Pp. 35-52. United States of America: Harvard University Press. Gottlieb, Alma and Philip Graham 2011 Mad to Be Modern. In Being There: Learning to Live Cross-Culturally. Sarah H. Davis and Melvin Knonner, eds. Pp. 35-52. United States of America: Harvard University Press. Larkin, Sherrie, and Richard Robbins 2007 Cultural Anthropology: A Problem-Based Approach. Toronto: Nelson Education Ltd.

Critical Analysis of Marketing Mix

Marketing mix for evaluating business situationsAnalytical frameworks are the models designed by the experts who might have faced an problem earlier in either establishing or running a business unit. Fortunately, we can use these analytical frameworks to our advantage in order to identify the skills, organization techniques, examples and expertise of others (Lieberman, 2007).The most prominent business tool which was first expressed by McCarthy (1960) is 4 Ps of marketing mix. Marketing mix gives a basic conceptual framework for the managers, these tools can be used to develop both long term strategies and short term tactical programs (Palmer, 2004). Product (To be designed as per the need of the customer)Place (Place at which, product should be made available) Price (cost at which the audience is ready to pay) Promotion (Advertise to attract the audience)Though, the 4Ps remain a staple of marketing mix. The paradigm shift with the emergence of E-commerce rose for critical analysis o f marketing mix. Many management sub-disciplines like, consumer marketing, relationship marketing, services marketing and E-commerce does not implement the marketing mix in equal proportions (Moller, 2006). E-commerce or online marketing concentrates more on the price as, the product is well-known.It also promotes intensively to push the consumer to buy the product so, Price & promotion are prioritized in E-commerce. Moller (2006) further criticized the 4Ps that it â€Å"does not consider customer behavior† (p. 4), is not suitable for service industry, â€Å"does not focus on relationship building† (p. 4), does not emphasize on the â€Å"customer-focused management† (Fakeideas, 2008, p. 4) and Product is stated in a singular sense but, most companies sell inter-dependent products (Fakeideas, 2008).Lets evaluate if the Marketing mix can be implemented in developing a marketing plan for executive MBA program of University of Greenwich. Before launching the program , a primary plan of assessing the SWOT and PEST frameworks helps to identify various dimensions (Ergen, 2011). For instance, Legal and political environment affects the educational sector in its administration for an extended period which might create opportunities or threats (For instance, the UKBA rules of issuing student visa without the work permit effected the revenue of  education sector).Whereas, economic crisis and external forces may create opportunities for entering a new market otherwise, a threat for present market opportunities. Marketing mix misses out on the above mentioned external factors which are vital for a product or a service. Furthermore, the Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning of â€Å"MBA program† should probe certain questions like, Which segment of audience are more willing to pursue MBA? How effectively can we communicate about our Program to the target audience?How does the audience perceive about our program? (Ergen, 2011). In service indus try customer satisfaction & experience while availing a service is of paramount importance since, it creates brand equity and loyalty (Grove et al, 2000). Similarly, for an educational product building on brand equity and student loyalty creates a word-of-mouth publicity. Hence, a traditional marketing mix should be replaced by price, brand, packaging and relationships for an service industry (Beckwith, 2001).To conclude, marketing mix is not a scientific theory, but merely a conceptual framework which aids decision makers in configuring their offerings to suit consumers needs (Palmer, 2004). Marketing mix misses out on many external factors and it is a typical model for manufacturing units who does not focus on service marketing. On a whole, any analytical framework gives an outline of business situation; the managers have to dig in more factors to understand the scenario thoroughly for better approach of solving a problem.

Sociology of Mass Media

Sociology of mass media – Advertising and democracy are connected. People are required by their political system to hold individual opinions. In addition, people look at the mass media for information on political matters. Therefore, they looked for information from the news, political debates, and political advertising so that they could evaluate their leaders and vote on public policy. – In covering a political campaign, the media choose which issues or topics to emphasize, thereby setting the campaign’s agenda.Therefore, the media create an agenda setting; the ability to affect cognitive change among individuals by telling people what to think about, not what to think. This would then influence Quebec voters’ decisions. – Political Advertising and campaign coverage would have an impact on Quebec voters in influencing their decisions by including these into their campaigns: †¢Patriotism: The ad stresses the candidate’s love of and serv ice to his/her country. †¢Gender: The ad presents the candidate as appropriately â€Å"manly† (or feminine) to make viewers trust him/her. Facts and Figures: The ad uses facts and statistics to support the candidate’s policies. †¢Issues: Reporters need to push for details on positions and ask tough questions on major issues, not accepting generalities. They need to bounce one candidate’s position off other candidates to create an intelligent discussion forum from which voters can make informed choices †¢Depth: On talk-show appearances, reporters need to offer something more than what voters can see and hear for themselves.Analysis and depth add a fresh dimension that is not redundant to what the audience already knows. †¢Inside coverage: reporters need to cover the machinery of the campaigns: who runs things and how, what history do they bring to a campaign. – Voters would be influenced by these presented campaign coverage and would us e these to make a decisive vote.

Critique of Pure Reason Essay

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) is the central figure in modern philosophy. He synthesized early modern rationalism and empiricism, set the terms for much of nineteenth and twentieth century philosophy, and continues to exercise a significant influence today in metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, aesthetics, and other fields. The fundamental idea of Kant’s â€Å"critical philosophy† — especially in his three Critiques: the Critique of Pure Reason (1781, 1787), the Critique of Practical Reason (1788), and the Critique of the Power of Judgment (1790) — is human autonomy. He argues that the human understanding is the source of the general laws of nature that structure all our experience; and that human reason gives itself the moral law, which is our basis for belief in God, freedom, and immortality. Therefore, scientific knowledge, morality, and religious belief are mutually consistent and secure because they all rest on the same foundation of human autonomy, which is also the final end of nature according to the teleological worldview of reflecting judgment that Kant introduces to unify the theoretical and practical parts of his philosophical system. 1. Life and works Immanuel Kant was born April 22, 1724 in Konigsberg, near the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Today Konigsberg has been renamed Kaliningrad and is part of Russia. But during Kant’s lifetime Konigsberg was the capitol of East Prussia, and its dominant language was German. Though geographically remote from the rest of Prussia and other German cities, Konigsberg was then a major commercial center, an important military port, and a relatively cosmopolitan university town. [1] Kant was born into an artisan family of modest means. His father was a master harness maker, and his mother was the daughter of a harness maker, though she was better educated than most women of her social class. Kant’s family was never destitute, but his father’s trade was in decline during Kant’s youth and his parents at times had to rely on extended family for financial support. Kant’s parents were Pietist and he attended a Pietist school, the Collegium Fridericianum, from ages eight through fifteen. Pietism was an evangelical Lutheran movement that emphasized conversion, reliance on divine grace, the experience of religious emotions, and personal devotion involving regular Bible study, prayer, and introspection. Kant reacted strongly against the forced soul-searching to which he was subjected at the Collegium Fridericianum, in response to which he sought refuge in the Latin classics, which were central to the school’s curriculum. Later the mature Kant’s emphasis on reason and autonomy, rather than emotion and dependence on either authority or grace, may in part reflect his youthful reaction against Pietism. But although the young Kant loathed his Pietist schooling, he had deep respect and admiration for his parents, especially his mother, whose â€Å"genuine religiosity† he described as â€Å"not at all enthusiastic. † According to his biographer, Manfred Kuehn, Kant’s parents probably influenced him much less through their Pietism than through their artisan values of â€Å"hard work, honesty, cleanliness, and independence,† which they taught him by example. [2] Kant attended college at the University of Konigsberg, known as the Albertina, where his early interest in classics was quickly superseded by philosophy, which all first year students studied and which encompassed mathematics and physics as well as logic, metaphysics, ethics, and natural law. Kant’s philosophy professors exposed him to the approach of Christian Wolff (1679–1750), whose critical synthesis of the philosophy of G. W. Leibniz (1646–1716) was then very influential in German universities. But Kant was also exposed to a range of German and British critics of Wolff, and there were strong doses of Aristotelianism and Pietism represented in the philosophy faculty as well. Kant’s favorite teacher was Martin Knutzen (1713–1751), a Pietist who was heavily influenced by both Wolff and the English philosopher John Locke (1632–1704). Knutzen introduced Kant to the work of Isaac Newton (1642–1727), and his influence is visible in Kant’s first published work, Thoughts on the True Estimation of Living Forces (1747), which was a critical attempt to mediate a dispute in natural philosophy between Leibnizians and Newtonians over the proper measurement of force. After college Kant spent six years as a private tutor to young children outside Konigsberg. By this time both of his parents had died and Kant’s finances were not yet secure enough for him to pursue an academic career. He finally returned to Konigsberg in 1754 and began teaching at the Albertina the following year. For the next four decades Kant taught philosophy there, until his retirement from teaching in 1796 at the age of seventy-two. Kant had a burst of publishing activity in the years after he returned from working as a private tutor. In 1754 and 1755 he published three scientific works — one of which, Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens (1755), was a major book in which, among other things, he developed what later became known as the nebular hypothesis about the formation of the solar system. Unfortunately, the printer went bankrupt and the book had little immediate impact. To secure qualifications for teaching at the university, Kant also wrote two Latin dissertations: the first, entitled Concise Outline of Some Reflections on Fire (1755), earned him the Magister degree; and the second, New Elucidation of the First Principles of Metaphysical Cognition (1755), entitled him to teach as an unsalaried lecturer. The following year he published another Latin work, The Employment in Natural Philosophy of Metaphysics Combined with Geometry, of Which Sample I Contains the Physical Monadology (1756), in hopes of succeeding Knutzen as associate professor of logic and metaphysics, though Kant failed to secure this position. Both the New Elucidation, which was Kant’s first work concerned mainly with metaphysics, and the Physical Monadology further develop the position on the interaction of finite substances that he first outlined in Living Forces. Both works depart from Leibniz-Wolffian views, though not radically. The New Elucidation in particular shows the influence of Christian August Crusius (1715–1775), a German critic of Wolff. [3] As an unsalaried lecturer at the Albertina Kant was paid directly by the students who attended his lectures, so he needed to teach an enormous amount and to attract many students in order to earn a living. Kant held this position from 1755 to 1770, during which period he would lecture an average of twenty hours per week on logic, metaphysics, and ethics, as well as mathematics, physics, and physical geography. In his lectures Kant used textbooks by Wolffian authors such as Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (1714–1762) and Georg Friedrich Meier (1718–1777), but he followed them loosely and used them to structure his own reflections, which drew on a wide range of ideas of contemporary interest. These ideas often stemmed from British sentimentalist philosophers such as David Hume (1711–1776) and Francis Hutcheson (1694–1747), some of whose texts were translated into German in the mid-1750’s; and from the Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), who published a flurry of works in the early 1760’s. From early in his career Kant was a popular and successful lecturer. He also quickly developed a local reputation as a promising young intellectual and cut a dashing figure in Konigsberg society. After several years of relative quiet, Kant unleashed another burst of publications in 1762–1764, including five philosophical works. The False Subtlety of the Four Syllogistic Figures (1762) rehearses criticisms of Aristotelian logic that were developed by other German philosophers. The Only Possible Argument in Support of a Demonstration of the Existence of God (1762–3) is a major book in which Kant drew on his earlier work in Universal History and New Elucidation to develop an original argument for God’s existence as a condition of the internal possibility of all things, while criticizing other arguments for God’s existence. The book attracted several positive and some negative reviews. In 1762 Kant also submitted an essay entitled Inquiry Concerning the Distinctness of the Principles of Natural Theology and Morality to a prize competition by the Prussian Royal Academy, though Kant’s submission took second prize to Moses Mendelssohn’s winning essay (and was published with it in 1764). Kant’s Prize Essay, as it is known, departs more significantly from Leibniz-Wolffian views than his earlier work and also contains his first extended discussion of moral philosophy in print. The Prize Essay draws on British sources to criticize German rationalism in two respects: first, drawing on Newton, Kant distinguishes between the methods of mathematics and philosophy; and second, drawing on Hutcheson, he claims that â€Å"an unanalysable feeling of the good† supplies the material content of our moral obligations, which cannot be demonstrated in a purely intellectual way from the formal principle of perfection alone (2:299). [4] These themes reappear in the Attempt to Introduce the Concept of Negative Magnitudes into Philosophy (1763), whose main thesis, however, is that the real opposition of conflicting forces, as in causal relations, is not reducible to the logical relation of contradiction, as Leibnizians held. In Negative Magnitudes Kant also argues that the morality of an action is a function of the internal forces that motivate one to act, rather than of the external (physical) actions or their consequences. Finally, Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and the Sublime (1764) deals mainly with alleged differences in the tastes of men and women and of people from different cultures. After it was published, Kant filled his own interleaved copy of this book with (often unrelated) handwritten remarks, many of which reflect the deep influence of Rousseau on his thinking about moral philosophy in the mid-1760’s. These works helped to secure Kant a broader reputation in Germany, but for the most part they were not strikingly original. Like other German philosophers at the time, Kant’s early works are generally concerned with using insights from British empiricist authors to reform or broaden the German rationalist tradition without radically undermining its foundations. While some of his early works tend to emphasize rationalist ideas, others have a more empiricist emphasis. During this time Kant was striving to work out an independent position, but before the 1770’s his views remained fluid. In 1766 Kant published his first work concerned with the possibility of metaphysics, which later became a central topic of his mature philosophy. Dreams of a Spirit-Seer Elucidated by Dreams of Metaphysics, which he wrote soon after publishing a short Essay on Maladies of the Mind (1764), was occasioned by Kant’s fascination with the Swedish visionary Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772), who claimed to have insight into a spirit world that enabled him to make a series of apparently miraculous predictions. In this curious work Kant satirically compares Swedenborg’s spirit-visions to the belief of rationalist metaphysicians in an immaterial soul that survives death, and he concludes that philosophical knowledge of either is impossible because human reason is limited to experience. The skeptical tone of Dreams is tempered, however, by Kant’s suggestion that â€Å"moral faith† nevertheless supports belief in an immaterial and immortal soul, even if it is not possible to attain metaphysical knowledge in this domain (2:373). In 1770, at the age of forty-six, Kant was appointed to the chair in logic and metaphysics at the Albertina, after teaching for fifteen years as an unsalaried lecturer and working since 1766 as a sublibrarian to supplement his income. Kant was turned down for the same position in 1758. But later, as his reputation grew, he declined chairs in philosophy at Erlangen (1769) and Jena (1770) in hopes of obtaining one in Konigsberg. After Kant was finally promoted, he gradually extended his repertoire of lectures to include anthropology (Kant’s was the first such course in Germany and became very popular), rational theology, pedagogy, natural right, and even mineralogy and military fortifications. In order to inaugurate his new position, Kant also wrote one more Latin dissertation: Concerning the Form and Principles of the Sensible and Intelligible World (1770), which is known as the Inaugural Dissertation. The Inaugural Dissertation departs more radically from both Wolffian rationalism and British sentimentalism than Kant’s earlier work. Inspired by Crusius and the Swiss natural philosopher Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728–1777), Kant distinguishes between two fundamental powers of cognition, sensibility and understanding (intelligence), where the Leibniz-Wolffians regarded understanding (intellect) as the only fundamental power. Kant therefore rejects the rationalist view that sensibility is only a confused species of intellectual cognition, and he replaces this with his own view that sensibility is distinct from understanding and brings to perception its own subjective forms of space and time — a view that developed out of Kant’s earlier criticism of Leibniz’s relational view of space in Concerning the Ultimate Ground of the Differentiation of Directions in Space (1768). Moreover, as the title of the Inaugural Dissertation indicates, Kant argues that sensibility and understanding are directed at two different worlds: sensibility gives us access to the sensible world, while understanding enables us to grasp a distinct intelligible world. These two worlds are related in that what the understanding grasps in the intelligible world is the â€Å"paradigm† of â€Å"NOUMENAL PERFECTION,† which is â€Å"a common measure for all other things in so far as they are realities. † Considered theoretically, this intelligible paradigm of perfection is God; considered practically, it is â€Å"MORAL PERFECTION† (2:396). The Inaugural Dissertation thus develops a form of Platonism; and it rejects the view of British sentimentalists that moral judgments are based on feelings of pleasure or pain, since Kant now holds that moral judgments are based on pure understanding alone. After 1770 Kant never surrendered the views that sensibility and understanding are distinct powers of cognition, that space and time are subjective forms of human sensibility, and that moral judgments are based on pure understanding (or reason) alone. But his embrace of Platonism in the Inaugural Dissertation was short-lived. He soon denied that our understanding is capable of insight into an intelligible world, which cleared the path toward his mature position in the Critique of Pure Reason (1781), according to which the understanding (like sensibility) supplies forms that structure our experience of the sensible world, to which human knowledge is limited, while the intelligible (or noumenal) world is strictly unknowable to us. Kant spent a decade working on the Critique of Pure Reason and published nothing else of significance between 1770 and 1781. But its publication marked the beginning of another burst of activity that produced Kant’s most important and enduring works. Because early reviews of the Critique of Pure Reason were few and (in Kant’s judgment) uncomprehending, he tried to clarify its main points in the much shorter Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics That Will Be Able to Come Forward as a Science (1783). Among the major books that rapidly followed are the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785), Kant’s main work on the fundamental principle of morality; the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science (1786), his main work on natural philosophy in what scholars call his critical period (1781–1798); the second and substantially revised edition of the Critique of Pure Reason (1787); the Critique of Practical Reason (1788), a fuller discussion of topics in moral philosophy that builds on (and in some ways revises) the Groundwork; and the Critique of the Power of Judgment (1790), which deals with aesthetics and teleology. Kant also published a number of important essays in this period, including Idea for a Universal History With a Cosmopolitan Aim (1784) and Conjectural Beginning of Human History (1786), his main contributions to the philosophy of history; An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment? (1784), which broaches some of the key ideas of his later political essays; and What Does it Mean to Orient Oneself in Thinking? (1786), Kant’s intervention in the pantheism controversy that raged in German intellectual circles after F. H. Jacobi (1743–1819) accused the recently deceased G. E. Lessing (1729–1781) of Spinozism. With these works Kant secured international fame and came to dominate German philosophy in the late 1780’s. But in 1790 he announced that the Critique of the Power of Judgment brought his critical enterprise to an end (5:170). By then K. L. Reinhold (1758–1823), whose Letters on the Kantian Philosophy (1786) popularized Kant’s moral and religious ideas, had been installed (in 1787) in a chair devoted to Kantian philosophy at Jena, which was more centrally located than Konigsberg and rapidly developing into the focal point of the next phase in German intellectual history. Reinhold soon began to criticize and move away from Kant’s views. In 1794 his chair at Jena passed to J. G. Fichte, who had visited the master in Konigsberg and whose first book, Attempt at a Critique of All Revelation (1792), was published anonymously and initially mistaken for a work by Kant himself. This catapulted Fichte to fame, but he too soon moved away from Kant and developed an original position quite at odds with Kant’s, which Kant finally repudiated publicly in 1799 (12:370–371). Yet while German philosophy moved on to assess and respond to Kant’s legacy, Kant himself continued publishing important works in the 1790’s. Among these are Religion Within the Boundaries of Mere Reason (1793), which drew a censure from the Prussian King when Kant published the book after its second essay was rejected by the censor; The Conflict of the Faculties (1798), a collection of essays inspired by Kant’s troubles with the censor and dealing with the relationship between the philosophical and theological faculties of the university; On the Common Saying: That May be Correct in Theory, But it is of No Use in Practice (1793), Toward Perpetual Peace (1795), and the Doctrine of Right, the first part of the Metaphysics of Morals (1797), Kant’s main works in political philosophy; the Doctrine of Virtue, the second part of the Metaphysics of Morals (1797), a catalogue of duties that Kant had been planning for more than thirty years; and Anthropology From a Pragmatic Point of View (1798), based on Kant’s anthropology lectures. Several other compilations of Kant’s lecture notes from other courses were published later, but these were not prepared by Kant himself. Kant retired from teaching in 1796. For nearly two decades he had lived a highly disciplined life focused primarily on completing his philosophical system, which began to take definite shape in his mind only in middle age. After retiring he came to believe that there was a gap in this system separating the metaphysical foundations of natural science from physics itself, and he set out to close this gap in a series of notes that postulate the existence of an ether or caloric matter. These notes, known as the Opus Postumum, remained unfinished and unpublished in Kant’s lifetime, and scholars disagree on their significance and relation to his earlier work. It is clear, however, that these late notes show unmistakable signs of Kant’s mental decline, which became tragically precipitous around 1800. Kant died February 12, 1804, just short of his eightieth birthday. 2. Kant’s project in the Critique of Pure Reason. The main topic of the Critique of Pure Reason is the possibility of metaphysics, understood in a specific way. Kant defines metaphysics in terms of â€Å"the cognitions after which reason might strive independently of all experience,† and his goal in the book is to reach a â€Å"decision about the possibility or impossibility of a metaphysics in general, and the determination of its sources, as well as its extent and boundaries, all, however, from principles† (Axii. See also Bxiv; and 4:255–257). Thus metaphysics for Kant concerns a priori knowledge, or knowledge whose justification does not depend on experience; and he associates a priori knowledge with reason. The project of the Critique is to examine whether, how, and to what extent human reason is capable of a priori knowledge. 2. 1 The crisis of the Enlightenment To understand the project of the Critique better, let us consider the historical and intellectual context in which it was written. [5] Kant wrote the Critique toward the end of the Enlightenment, which was then in a state of crisis. Hindsight enables us to see that the 1780’s was a transitional decade in which the cultural balance shifted decisively away from the Enlightenment toward Romanticism, but of course Kant did not have the benefit of such hindsight. The Enlightenment was a reaction to the rise and successes of modern science in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The spectacular achievement of Newton in particular engendered widespread confidence and optimism about the power of human reason to control nature and to improve human life. One effect of this new confidence in reason was that traditional authorities were increasingly questioned. For why should we need political or religious authorities to tell us how to live or what to believe, if each of us has the capacity to figure these things out for ourselves? Kant expresses this Enlightenment commitment to the sovereignty of reason in the Critique: Our age is the age of criticism, to which everything must submit. Religion through its holiness and legislation through its majesty commonly seek to exempt themselves from it. But in this way they excite a just suspicion against themselves, and cannot lay claim to that unfeigned respect that reason grants only to that which has been able to withstand its free and public examination (Axi). Enlightenment is about thinking for oneself rather than letting others think for you, according to What is Enlightenment? (8:35). In this essay, Kant also expresses the Enlightenment faith in the inevitability of progress. A few independent thinkers will gradually inspire a broader cultural movement, which ultimately will lead to greater freedom of action and governmental reform. A culture of enlightenment is â€Å"almost inevitable† if only there is â€Å"freedom to make public use of one’s reason in all matters† (8:36). The problem is that to some it seemed unclear whether progress would in fact ensue if reason enjoyed full sovereignty over traditional authorities; or whether unaided reasoning would instead lead straight to materialism, fatalism, atheism, skepticism (Bxxxiv), or even libertinism and authoritarianism (8:146). The Enlightenment commitment to the sovereignty of reason was tied to the expectation that it would not lead to any of these consequences but instead would support certain key beliefs that tradition had always sanctioned. Crucially, these included belief in God, the soul, freedom, and the compatibility of science with morality and religion. Although a few intellectuals rejected some or all of these beliefs, the general spirit of the Enlightenment was not so radical. The Enlightenment was about replacing traditional authorities with the authority of individual human reason, but it was not about overturning traditional moral and religious beliefs. Yet the original inspiration for the Enlightenment was the new physics, which was mechanistic. If nature is entirely governed by mechanistic, causal laws, then it may seem that there is no room for freedom, a soul, or anything but matter in motion. This threatened the traditional view that morality requires freedom. We must be free in order to choose what is right over what is wrong, because otherwise we cannot be held responsible. It also threatened the traditional religious belief in a soul that can survive death or be resurrected in an afterlife. So modern science, the pride of the Enlightenment, the source of its optimism about the powers of human reason, threatened to undermine traditional moral and religious beliefs that free rational thought was expected to support. This was the main intellectual crisis of the Enlightenment. The Critique of Pure Reason is Kant’s response to this crisis. Its main topic is metaphysics because, for Kant, metaphysics is the domain of reason – it is â€Å"the inventory of all we possess through pure reason, ordered systematically† (Axx) — and the authority of reason was in question. Kant’s main goal is to show that a critique of reason by reason itself, unaided and unrestrained by traditional authorities, establishes a secure and consistent basis for both Newtonian science and traditional morality and religion. In other words, free rational inquiry adequately supports all of these essential human interests and shows them to be mutually consistent. So reason deserves the sovereignty attributed to it by the Enlightenment. 2. 2 Kant’s Copernican revolution in philosophy To see how Kant attempts to achieve this goal in the Critique, it helps to reflect on his grounds for rejecting the Platonism of the Inaugural Dissertation. In a way the Inaugural Dissertation also tries to reconcile Newtonian science with traditional morality and religion, but its strategy is different from that of the Critique. According to the Inaugural Dissertation, Newtonian science is true of the sensible world, to which sensibility gives us access; and the understanding grasps principles of divine and moral perfection in a distinct intelligible world, which are paradigms for measuring everything in the sensible world. So on this view our knowledge of the intelligible world is a priori because it does not depend on sensibility, and this a priori knowledge furnishes principles for judging the sensible world because in some way the sensible world itself conforms to or imitates the intelligible world. Soon after writing the Inaugural Dissertation, however, Kant expressed doubts about this view. As he explained in a February 21, 1772 letter to his friend and former student, Marcus Herz: In my dissertation I was content to explain the nature of intellectual representations in a merely negative way, namely, to state that they were not modifications of the soul brought about by the object. However, I silently passed over the further question of how a representation that refers to an object without being in any way affected by it can be possible†¦. [B]y what means are these [intellectual representations] given to us, if not by the way in which they affect us? And if such intellectual representations depend on our inner activity, whence comes the agreement that they are supposed to have with objects — objects that are nevertheless not possibly produced thereby? †¦[A]s to how my understanding may form for itself concepts of things completely a priori, with which concepts the things must necessarily agree, and as to how my understanding may formulate real principles concerning the possibility of such concepts, with which principles experience must be in exact agreement and which nevertheless are independent of experience — this question, of how the faculty of understanding achieves this conformity with the things themselves, is still left in a state of obscurity. (10:130–131) Here Kant entertains doubts about how a priori knowledge of an intelligible world would be possible. The position of the Inaugural Dissertation is that the intelligible world is independent of the human understanding and of the sensible world, both of which (in different ways) conform to the intelligible world. But, leaving aside questions about what it means for the sensible world to conform to an intelligible world, how is it possible for the human understanding to conform to or grasp an intelligible world? If the intelligible world is independent of our understanding, then it seems that we could grasp it only if we are passively affected by it in some way. But for Kant sensibility is our passive or receptive capacity to be affected by objects that are independent of us (2:392, A51/B75). So the only way we could grasp an intelligible world that is independent of us is through sensibility, which means that our knowledge of it could not be a priori. The pure understanding alone could at best enable us to form representations of an intelligible world. But since these intellectual representations would entirely â€Å"depend on our inner activity,† as Kant says to Herz, we have no good reason to believe that they conform to an independent intelligible world. Such a priori intellectual representations could well be figments of the brain that do not correspond to anything independent of the human mind. In any case, it is completely mysterious how there might come to be a correspondence between purely intellectual representations and an independent intelligible world. Kant’s strategy in the Critique is similar to that of the Inaugural Dissertation in that both works attempt to reconcile modern science with traditional morality and religion by relegating them to distinct sensible and intelligible worlds, respectively. But the Critique gives a far more modest and yet revolutionary account of a priori knowledge. As Kant’s letter to Herz suggests, the main problem with his view in the Inaugural Dissertation is that it tries to explain the possibility of a priori knowledge about a world that is entirely independent of the human mind. This turned out to be a dead end, and Kant never again maintained that we can have a priori knowledge about an intelligible world precisely because such a world would be entirely independent of us. However, Kant’s revolutionary position in the Critique is that we can have a priori knowledge about the general structure of the sensible world because it is not entirely independent of the human mind. The sensible world, or the world of appearances, is constructed by the human mind from a combination of sensory matter that we receive passively and a priori forms that are supplied by our cognitive faculties. We can have a priori knowledge only about aspects of the sensible world that reflect the a priori forms supplied by our cognitive faculties. In Kant’s words, â€Å"we can cognize of things a priori only what we ourselves have put into them† (Bxviii). So according to the Critique, a priori knowledge is possible only if and to the extent that the sensible world itself depends on the way the human mind structures its experience. Kant characterizes this new constructivist view of experience in the Critique through an analogy with the revolution wrought by Copernicus in astronomy: Up to now it has been assumed that all our cognition must conform to the objects; but all attempts to find out something about them a priori through concepts that would extend our cognition have, on this presupposition, come to nothing. Hence let us once try whether we do not get farther with the problems of metaphysics by assuming that the objects must conform to our cognition, which would agree better with the requested possibility of an a priori cognition of them, which is to establish something about objects before they are given to us. This would be just like the first thoughts of Copernicus, who, when he did not make good progress in the explanation of the celestial motions if he assumed that the entire celestial host revolves around the observer, tried to see if he might not have greater success if he made the observer revolve and left the stars at rest. Now in metaphysics we can try in a similar way regarding the intuition of objects. If intuition has to conform to the constitution of the objects, then I do not see how we can know anything of them a priori; but if the object (as an object of the senses) conforms to the constitution of our faculty of intuition, then I can very well represent this possibility to myself. Yet because I cannot stop with these intuitions, if they are to become cognitions, but must refer them as representations to something as their object and determine this object through them, I can assume either that the concepts through which I bring about this determination also con.