Vegetation Recovery Using Remote Sensing Image In Yellowstone National Park after the Fires in 1988

Vegetation Recovery Using Remote Sensing Image In Yellowstone National Park after the Fires in 1988 Literature Review The Connection between Vegetation Recovery and Burning Severity of Fires Before analyzing the images produced by means of remote sensing, it is necessary to analyze the aspects and criteria according to which the images can detect various patterns of vegetation recovery after the fire. Specifically, much research has been done on the analysis of connection between biodiversity and remote sensing techniques as well as other methods for types of recovery vegetation.Advertising We will write a custom term paper sample on Vegetation Recovery Using Remote Sensing Image In Yellowstone National Park after the Fires in 1988 specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More According to Kennedy, remote sensing contributes greatly to the analysis of vegetation cover and provides sufficient information about atmospheric chemistry (133). In particular, satellite remote sensing techniques can provide exhaustive data on the patterns and criteria n ecessary for analyzing sophisticated interactions and mechanisms connecting fire density, vegetation cover, atmospheric chemistry, and climate. The researcher has found that gas emitted into atmosphere as well as shifts occurred to the atmospheric ratio is possible to effectively detect with the help of remote sensing. However, the examination of such dependencies does not provide viable solutions to the analysis of vegetation recovery in relation to temporal scales. Still, there is a possibility to identify the nature of gasses emitted. More detailed information on this issue is provided by Turner et al. who have managed to provide sufficient justification to remote sensing images and how they can be used to identify various types of forests and vegetation (306). According to the researcher, â€Å"†¦recording numerous densities at different heights throughout the canopy and enables three-dimensional profiles of vegetation structure to be made† (Turner et al. 307). With the help of this data, it is possible to detect the potential for such techniques as mapping of sub-canopy layers and emergent tree species. A great contribution to the analysis of distribution patterns and habitat categorizations carried with the help of remote sensing techniques. This examination has been provided by Debinsky, Kindsher, and Jakubauskas (3281). The researchers have also applied to Landsat TM data analysis in order to evaluate various forest and meadow types in Yellowstone Park. Importantly, the studies also seek to define the relation between vegetations areas and animal species distribution which is quite essential because the foci of birds and animals can be the indicators of dense vegetation.Advertising Looking for term paper on geography? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Particular species can be affiliated to a particular vegetation pattern. Interestingly, the research conducted by Debinski et a l, reveals â€Å"large differences in species distribution patterns among remotely sensed meadow types† in different temporal dimensions (3283). The same concerns are considered by Gould (1861). White et al have also been more consistent and pertinent to our research considerations (125). In their studies, they emphasize that aside from vegetations patterns, there are also burning severity patterns resulted in different topographic vegetation. The patterns are received with the help of satellite data that show significant changes in physical characteristics of burnt areas. The researchers have discovered that it is necessary to be knowledgeable about electromagnetic energy. In this respect, they have also defined that â€Å"†¦more severely burned areas have less vegetation cover and different radiation budgets in post-fire years† (White et al.124). Such important deductions will be of great relevance to our research because different patterns of burning severity w ill assist in analyzing the patterns presented in Yellowstone National Park. With regard to the consideration presented above, it should be emphasized that the vegetation recovery change patterns largely depend on the burning severity of fire. This linkage is revealed through carbon dioxide density, biophysical characteristics of burnt areas, radiation and spectral analysis, and electromagnetic energy. Spectral Analysis with Regard to Vegetation Recovery Patterns A possibility to distinguish the changing patterns of vegetation recovery and burning severity cannot be solely relied because such factors as the process of spectral analysis and carbon dioxide density are crucial in providing an accurate and consistent examination of temporal characteristics of vegetation recovery. In this respect, it is necessary to analyze the connection between carbon dioxide emission, and how they relate to fires and vegetation patterns. It is also imperative to prove why remote sensing, spectral anal ysis and Landsat TM techniques are crucial in identifying the influences of fire on vegetation recovery.Advertising We will write a custom term paper sample on Vegetation Recovery Using Remote Sensing Image In Yellowstone National Park after the Fires in 1988 specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The research provided by Jakubauskas and Price offer a clear picture of the relations between biotic factors and spectral analysis of forests in the Park (1375). With the help of multiple regression models, the researchers have provided the correlation of digital spectral analysis and biotical factors. The results have revealed that â€Å"tree height and diameter combined to form an index of crown volume, which in turn combined with density for an index of canopy volume† (Jakubauskas and Price 1379). The scholars have also detected other crucial, though less significant, factors and dimensions of spectral analysis such as leaf area index a nd vegetation index. Although the research provided by Jakubauskas and Price is of great value for further examination, it can be supported by the studies analyzing vegetation dynamics with regard to temporal scales (1378). In particular, Shannon and Lawrence are more close to the analysis of vegetation recovery patterns in relation to temporal scale (551). The value of their research consists in presenting change vector analysis with help of 1985 and 1999 images. This analysis is â€Å"a rule-based change detection method that examines the angle and magnitude of change between dates in spectra space† (Shannon and Lawrence 551). The process of change detection has succeed in presenting the changes within herbaceous and shrub land vegetation. The spectral and change vector analyses have detected that â€Å"there was a decrease in grass lands and a relative increase in srublands† (Shannon and Lawrence 554). The presented research can greatly assist in the exploration of vegetation recovery patters of change in Yellowstone National Park. The above-presented research provides consistent information about pattern distributions, but it lacks information about fire factor and its impact on vegetation recovery and accuracy of the research. This gap can be complemented with the explorations provided by Turner, Hargrove, Gardiner, and Romme (731). In general, spectral analysis plays an important role in identifying the changing patterns of vegetation recovery. It is also significant in defining various species of vegetation and describing pattern distributions on a particular geographic area.Advertising Looking for term paper on geography? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Technical possibilities and Limitations of Remote Sensing Techniques Remote sensing approaches can differ with regard to various resolutions of remotely sensed images. In order to succeed in researching our objectives, the analysis of advantages and limitations of these techniques is crucial. The studies presented by Wright and Gallant (582), Asner (2), Cohen and Goward (535), and Murtaugh and Philips (99). All scholars provide a comprehensive evaluation of all limitations to using remote sensing tools. In order to critically assess the technical possibility of remote sensing techniques, Wright and Gallant have provided a historical background of previous researches dedicated to the efficiency assessment (582). The results show that â€Å"remote sensing is the moderate spatial and spectral resolution of multispectral instruments like TM sensor† (Wright and Gallant 584) Therefore, it will be difficult to distinguish forested upland and forested wetland in spectral terms. The a pplication of remote sensing techniques cannot be solely applied, but in combination with ancillary data. Due to the fact that carbon dioxide is considered to be the indicator of vegetation recovery and burning severity of fire, ancillary technique should also involve carbon mapping as well which will back up the date collected form remotely sensed images (Asner 2). Such devices are quite relevant and applicable to the temporal analysis of vegetation because carbon spectral patterns of change can also be the signifiers of vegetation recovery stage. In particular, carbon densities can be easily correlated with burning severities, and vegetation recovery, and species analysis. More importantly, the carbon analysis includes the acquisition of maps depicting types of forest, disturbance, and deforestation. Remote sensing techniques are also applicable to temporal analysis of vegetation patterns. In this regard, Murtaugh and Philips provide a bivariate binary model for evaluating the shi fts in land cover with the help of satellite images received at different times (99). Such classification is aimed at correlating random variables that are dependent on the pixel resolution. Importantly, the researchers have applied to Landsat imaging for pixel classification and its correlation with land cover changes. Cohen and Goward also emphasize the importance of using remote sensing to assess temporal and spatial characteristics of ecological environment (535). In the particular, they used date obtained from Landsat sensors for constructing biogeochemical cycles and for characterizing vegetation biophysical attributes with regard to biodiversity. The research find remote sensing valid and reliable for analyzing vegetation and land cover change. In contrast, Ravan and Roy consider it necessary to introduce Geographic information systems for the analysis of various vegetation patterns and obtaining relevant information (129). The combined approach is much more efficient in dete cting such characteristics as vegetation shape, size, patch density and porosity. The research results has revealed significant different between different zones of Madhav National Part of India (Ravan and Roy 130). The structural analysis has provided vegetation recovery also largely dependent of biomass distribution and species diversity. Arising from this research, remote sensing and GIS can be successfully applicable to the temporal analysis of vegetation providing more accurate information. Innes and Koch state that remote sensing is considered the most efficient tool in assessing vegetation, and other biophysical characteristics such as structural criteria of forest stands, the canopy type and the present of coarse woody debris (397). The researchers emphasize that it is possibly to rely solely on remote sensing when investigating the spatial and temporal characteristics of vegetations. Interesting discoveries are offered by Turner, Ollinger, and Kimball who also approve remot e sensing techniques for evaluating spatial characteristics of vegetation (574). In particular, the researchers resort to remote sensing tools and ecosystem modeling to study the terrestrial carbon cycling. Pursuant to remote sensing limitation, explain that this device is constantly upgrading and it is possible to select the appropriate resolution of images to analyze the reflectance properties of vegetation and assess biogeochemical processes controlling carbon transformation. In general, the majority of the above-described researchers prove that remote sensing is one of the most efficient instruments in conducting the assessment of vegetation recovery with regard to its temporal and spatial characteristics. Nevertheless, the analysis will be much more successful if to apply this technique together with GIS approach. Overall Recommendations and Conclusion The analysis of image obtained by remote sensing allows to detect various patterns of vegetation recovery with regard to tempor al characteristics. The Yellowstone National Park has been analyzed in three various time – 1989, 1999, and 2010. The image obtained from Landsat TM, ISODATA being an ancillary mechanism revealed that there significant changes in vegetation recovery patterns in relation to temporal characteristics. In addition, classification scheme of vegetation used to shrub land, herbaceous vegetation, sparse vegetation, and bare land has turned out to be flexible and relevant for the research. The presented research proves conducted by Jakubauska and Price (1375) The results have also show that vegetation recovery patterns are closely connected with burning severity of fire. Importantly, the spectral analysis and Landsat TM show biophysical characteristics of burnt areas. The evaluation has also succeeded in defining the changes of species allocation on the territory of Yellowstone National Park. The technical approach used for the data analysis still had some limitations. In particular, it was difficult information without geographic information system because some characteristics were impossible to detect, such carbon dioxide cycle. Nevertheless, the classification of species was successfully identified and carefully analyzed with regard to temporal characteristics. In future, we plan to investigate this area and other territories, but with another combination of techniques either to justify or disapprove the effectiveness of those as compared with the above presented ones. This area is quite wide and, therefore, there is much store for investigation. Asner, Gregory P. Tropical Forest Carbon Assessment: Integrating Satellite and Airborne Mapping Approaches. Environmental Research Letters 4 (2009):1-11 Cohen, Warren D., and Samuel N. Goward. Landsat’s Role in Ecological Applications of Remote Sensing. BioScience. 54.6 (2004): 535-545. Debinski, D. M. and Kindscher, K., and Mark Jakubauskas. A Remote Sensing and GIS-based model of habitats and biodiversity i n the Greater Yellowstone Ecosysyem. Journal of Remote Sensing. 20.17 (1999): 3281-3291. Gould, William. Remote Sensing of Vegetation, Plant Species Richness, and Regional Biodiversity Hotspots. Ecological Applications. 10.6 (2000): 1861-1870. Innes John L., and Barbara Koch. Forest Biodiversity and Its Assessment by Remote Sensing. Global Ecology and Biogeography Letters. 7.6 (1998): 397-419. Jakubauskas, Mark, and Kevin P. Price. Empirical Relationships between Structural and Spectral Factors of Yellowstone Lodgepole Pine Forests. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing. 63.12 (1997, December): 1375-1381 Kennedy, Pam. Biomass Burning Studies: The Use of Remote Sensing. Ecological Bulletins. 15 (1992): 133-148. Murtaugh, Paul A. and Donald L. Philips. Temporal Correlation of Classification in Remote Sensing. Journal of Agricultural, Biological, and Environmental Statistics. 3.1. (1999, March): 99-110 Ravan, Shirish, A., and P. S. Roy. Satellite Remote Sensing for Ecological Analysis of Forested Landscape. Plant Ecology. 131.2 (1997): 129-141; Savage, Shannon L., and Rick L. Lawrence. Vegetation Dynamics in Yellostone’s Northern Range: 1985 to 1999. Photogrammetric Engineering Remote Sensing. 76.5 (2010): 547-556. Turner, David P., Ollinger Scott V., and John S. Kimball. Integrating Remote Sensing and Ecosystem Process Models for Landscape- to Regional-Scale Analysis of the Carbon Cycle. BioScience. 54.6 (2004, June): 573-584. Turner, Monica G., Hargrove Willia W., Gardiner Robert H., and William H. Romme. Effects of fire on landscape heterogeneity in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Journal of Vegetation Science. 5 (1994): 731-742. Turner, Woody, Spector Sasha, Gardiner Ned, Fladeland Matthew, Sterling Eleanor, and Mark Steininger. Remote Sensing for Biodiversity Science and Conservation. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 18.6. (2003, June): 306-314 White, Joseph D., Ryan, Kevin C., Key, Carl C., and Steven W. Running. Remote Sensing of Fores t Fire Severity and Vegetation Recovery. International Journal of Wildland Fire. 6.1 (1996): 125-136. Wright, Christ and Alisa Gallant. Improved Wetland Remote Sensing in Yellowstone National Park Using Classification Trees to Combine TM imagery and Ancillary Environmental Data. Remote Sensing of Environment. 107 (2007): 582-605.

Simple Conjugations for the French Verb Réussir

Simple Conjugations for the French Verb Rà ©ussir T​he  French verb conjugation  of  rà ©ussir. Present Future Imperfect Present participle je russis russirai russissais russissant tu russis russiras russissais il russit russira russissait nous russissons russirons russissions vous russissez russirez russissiez ils russissent russiront russissaient Pass compos Auxiliary verb avoir Past participle russi Subjunctive Conditional Pass simple Imperfect subjunctive je russisse russirais russis russisse tu russisses russirais russis russisses il russisse russirait russit russt nous russissions russirions russmes russissions vous russissiez russiriez russtes russissiez ils russissent russiraient russirent russissent Imperative tu russis nous russissons vous russissez Verb conjugation patternRà ©ussir  is a  regular -IR verb

Equity and Debt Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Equity and Debt - Essay Example However, this is balanced by the requirements of the debt covenant to regularly service that debt; that is, the company regularly needs to make payments to the issuer of the debt to cover the principle they borrowed and the interest required by the debt covenant. This detriment is offset in some regard through the reduction in tax liability (Seidman, 2005) – in short, the payment of debt reduces the amount of income that the company is taxed upon. Equity financing carries with it its own distinct set of advantages and disadvantages. Chief among the advantages of equity financing is the existence of no repayment period of the capital used to expand the business (Seidman, 2005). Since the capital is raised through individuals or businesses buying a share of both the company and its future earnings, the rewards for providing the capital come through an expected increase in the value of their investment. This, however, translates into a disadvantage of equity financing. Namely, wh ile profits are expected to increase, the â€Å"pie† is now being divided into more pieces, thus reducing the value of the existing stakes. Further, with the issuance (or release) of additional stock into the market to support an equity financing endeavor, the company becomes more susceptible to outside influences, whether through potential takeovers or through some loss of control of the decision-making process (Seidman, 2005). I neither fully agree nor fully disagree with management’s decision to proceed with equity financing instead of the intended debt financing in the expansion of their manufacturing capabilities. Equity financing makes sense, especially in light of the 305% rise in the company’s stock price over the past year (American Superconductor, 2003). Management is able to take advantage of the ability to raise capital with less dilution of current stockholders’ shares than would otherwise be expected in an environment of stable share price. Debt financing, too, makes sense in regard to the fact that with the government project becoming profitable a quarter ahead of expectations and with the massive savings in operating expenses, debt financing would have been rather easy to service (American Superconductor, 2003). Using that approach, no dilution of stockholder value would be necessary and there would be no potential for a loss of corporate autonomy. Further, with an eye again to lower future operating costs and an unexpectedly profitable revenue stream, debt financing would have lowered the potential future tax burden that the company will soon be faced with. Instead of management undertaking either approach, I believe that a third option would be best. With the company’s results that lent themselves to support debt financing as well as a nearly doubling of revenue company-wide over the past year, management could have funded the entire endeavor through retained earnings had the expansion decision been put off for a short period of time (American Superconductor, 2003). This approach would prevent any dilution of share value, any potential loss of autonomy, and would avoid the seemingly unnecessary burden of additional indebtiture at a time when the company is flush with cash. Having made the decision to raise the capital through equity financing, management needs to determine what the cost of equity truly would

Researching a decay (1990's movies) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Researching a decay (1990's movies) - Essay Example As pointed out, the popular culture during 1990s was entirely different from the past decade because the unexpected end of Cold War, the collapse of Soviet Union and the collapse of Berlin wall deeply influence the political/cultural scenario of the world. To be specific, the wartime sentiment and nationalistic mood transformed into cultural amalgamation and acceptance. But Chris states that â€Å"The accelerating integration of information and entertainment media meant that movies and television shows had become news themselves† (139). The popular culture reflects the aspirations and feelings of the mass and acts as a safety valve which reflects the cultural characteristics of a society. Within this context, the popular culture during 1990s set itself free from political stance and transformed into multiculturalism. In short, popular culture during 1990s reflected the change in international politics and reflected the same within culture. The most important characteristic of movies during 1990s was hyperrealism. Within this context, the main characteristics of hyperrealism can be broadly classified into three: intervention, identity, and space and time. Hyperrealism in 1990s can be simply defined as the dilemma which leads to virtual real illusion. To be specific, the films in 1990s are interconnected with hyperrealism. Martin opines that â€Å"The use of terms such as ‘simulation’, virtual reality’ and ‘hyperrealism’ in the criticism of news media is often confused and imprecise† (141). The individual (say, the hero) who is able to experience hyperrealism can act the role of a channel between virtual and real worlds. This is the most important characteristic of hyperrealism, which influenced the scenario of cinema in 1990s. The other characteristics of hyperrealism in 1990s include: Within this context, the film The Matrix (1999) is one of the best examples of hyperrealism

Western philosophy Essay Example for Free

Western philosophy Essay Philosophy is the discipline concerned with questions of how one should live (ethics); what sorts of things exist and what are their essential natures (metaphysics); what counts as genuine knowledge (epistemology); and what are the correct principles of reasoning (logic). The word is of Ancient Greek origin (philosophia), meaning love of wisdom. Definition of philosophy: Every definition of philosophy is controversial. The field has historically expanded and changed depending upon what kinds of questions were interesting or relevant in a given era. It is generally agreed that philosophy is a method, rather than a set of claims, propositions, or theories. Its investigations are based upon rational thinking, striving to make no unexamined assumptions and no leaps based on faith or pure analogy. Different philosophers have had varied ideas about the nature of reason. There is also disagreement about the subject matter of philosophy. Some think that philosophy examines the process of inquiry itself. Others, that there are essentially philosophical propositions which it is the task of philosophy to answer. Although the word philosophy originates in Ancient Greece, many figures in the history of other cultures have addressed similar topics in similar ways. The philosophers of East and South Asia are discussed in Eastern philosophy, while the philosophers of North Africa and the Middle East, because of their strong interactions with Europe, are usually considered part of Western philosophy. Branches of philosophy: The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as to seem not worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it. To give an exhaustive list of the main divisions of philosophy is difficult, because various topics have been studied by philosophers at various times. Ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, and logic are usually included. Other topics include politics, aesthetics, and religion. In addition, most academic subjects have a philosophy, for example the philosophy of science, the philosophy of mathematics, and the philosophy of history. Metaphysics was first studied systematically by Aristotle. He did not use that term; the term emerged because in later editions of Aristotles works the book on what is now called metaphysics came after Aristotles study of physics. He calls the subject first philosophy (or sometimes just wisdom), and says it is the subject that deals with first causes and the principles of things. The modern meaning of the term is any inquiry dealing with the ultimate nature of what exists. Epistemology is concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge, and whether knowledge is possible. Ethics, or moral philosophy, is concerned with questions of how agents ought to act. Platos early dialogues constitute a search for definitions of virtue. Metaethics is the study of whether ethical value judgments can be objective at all. Ethics can also be conducted within a religious context. Logic has two broad divisions: mathematical logic (formal symbolic logic) and what is now called philosophical logic, the logic of language. Greek philosophy and Hellenistic philosophy: Ancient Greek philosophy may be divided into the pre-Socratic period, the Socratic period, and the post-Aristotelian period (or Hellenistic period). The pre-Socratic period was characterized by metaphysical speculation, often preserved in the form of grand, sweeping statements, such as All is fire or All changes. Important pre-Socratic philosophers include Pythagoras, Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Democritus, Parmenides, Heraclitus, and Empedocles. The Socratic period is named in honor of Socrates, who, along with his pupil Plato, revolutionized philosophy through the use of the Socratic method, which developed the very general philosophical methods of definition, analysis, and synthesis. While no writings of Socrates survive, his influence as a skeptic is transmitted through Platos works. Platos writings are often considered basic texts in philosophy as they defined the fundamental issues of philosophy for future generations. These issues and others were taken up by Aristotle, who studied at Platos school, the Academy, and who often disagreed with what Plato had written. The subsequent period ushered in such philosophers as Euclid, Epicurus, Chrysippus, Hipparchia the Cynic, Pyrrho, and Sextus Empiricus. Though many of these philosophers may seem irrelevant given current scientific knowledge, their systems of thought continue to influence both philosophy and science today. Medieval philosophy History: Medieval philosophy is the philosophy of Western Europe and the Middle East during what is now known as the medieval era or the Middle Ages, roughly extending from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance period. Medieval philosophy is defined partly by the rediscovery and further development of classical Greek philosophy and Hellenistic philosophy, and partly by the need to address theological problems and to integrate sacred doctrine (in Islam, Judaism and Christianity) and secular learning. Some problems discussed throughout this period are the relation of faith to reason, the existence and unity of God, the object of theology and metaphysics, the problems of knowledge, of universals, and of individuation. Philosophers from the Middle Ages include the Muslim philosophers Alkindus, Alfarabi, Alhacen, Avicenna, Algazel, Avempace, Abubacer and Averroes; the Jewish philosophers Maimonides and Gersonides; and the Christian philosophers Anselm, Peter Abelard, Roger Bacon, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, William of Ockham and Jean Buridan. Early modern philosophy History(c. 1600 c. 1800): Modern philosophy is usually considered to begin with the revival of skepticism and the genesis of modern physical science. Canonical figures include Montaigne, Descartes, Locke, Spinoza, Leibniz, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. Chronologically, this era spans the 17th and 18th centuries, and is generally considered to end with Kants systematic attempt to reconcile Newtonian physics with traditional metaphysical topics. Later modern philosophy History(c. 1800 c. 1960): Later modern philosophy is usually considered to begin after the philosophy of Immanuel Kant at the beginning of the 19th-century. German idealists, Fichte, Hegel, Hoelderlin, Schelling, expanded on the work of Kant by maintaining that the world is rational and it is knowable as rational. Rejecting idealism, other philosophers, many working from outside the university, initiated lines of thought that would occupy academic philosophy in the early and mid-20th century: Contemporary philosophy History(c. 1960 present): In the last hundred years, philosophy has increasingly become an activity practiced within the modern research university, and accordingly it has grown more specialized and more distinct from the natural sciences. Much of philosophy in this period concerns itself with explaining the relation between the theories of the natural sciences and the ideas of the humanities or common sense. It is arguable that later modern philosophy ended with contemporary philosophys shift of focus from 19th century philosophers to 20th century philosophers. Realism and nominalism in Philosophy: Realism sometimes means the position opposed to the 18th-century Idealism, namely that some things have real existence outside the mind. Classically, however, realism is the doctrine that abstract entities corresponding to universal terms like man have a real existence. It is opposed to nominalism, the view that abstract or universal terms are words only, or denote mental states such as ideas, beliefs, or intentions. The latter position, famously held by William of Ockham, is conceptualism. Rationalism and empiricism in Philosophy: Rationalism is any view emphasizing the role or importance of human reason. Extreme rationalism tries to base all knowledge on reason alone. Rationalism typically starts from premises that cannot coherently be denied, then attempts by logical steps to deduce every possible object of knowledge. The first rationalist, in this broad sense, is often held to be Parmenides (fl. 480 BCE), who argued that it is impossible to doubt that thinking actually occurs. But thinking must have an object, therefore something beyond thinking really exists. Parmenides deduced that what really exists must have certain properties for example, that it cannot come into existence or cease to exist, that it is a coherent whole, that it remains the same eternally (in fact, exists altogether outside time). Zeno of Elea (born c. 489 BCE) was a disciple of Parmenides, and argued that motion is impossible, since the assertion that it exists implies a contradiction. Plato (427-347 BCE) was also influenced by Parmenides, but combined rationalism with a form of realism. The philosophers work is to consider being, and the essence of things. But the characteristic of essences is that they are universal. The nature of a man, a triangle, a tree, applies to all men, all triangles, all trees. Plato argued that these essences are mind-independent forms, that humans (but particularly philosophers) can come to know by reason, and by ignoring the distractions of sense-perception. Modern rationalism begins with Descartes. Reflection on the nature of perceptual experience, as well as scientific discoveries in physiology and optics, led Descartes (and also Locke) to the view that we are directly aware of ideas, rather than objects. This view gave rise to three questions: Is an idea a true copy of the real thing that it represents? Sensation is not a direct interaction between bodily objects and our sense, but is a physiological process involving representation (for example, an image on the retina). Locke thought that a secondary quality such as a sensation of green could in no way resemble the arrangement of particles in matter that go to produce this sensation, although he thought that primary qualities such as shape, size, number, were really in objects. How can physical objects such as chairs and tables, or even physiological processes in the brain, give rise to mental items such as ideas? This is part of what became known as the mind-body problem. If all the contents of awareness are ideas, how can we know that anything exists apart from ideas? Descartes tried to address the last problem by reason. He began, echoing Parmenides, with a principle that he thought could not coherently be denied: I think, therefore I am (often given in his original Latin: Cogito ergo sum). From this principle, Descartes went on to construct a complete system of knowledge (which involves proving the existence of God, using, among other means, a version of the ontological argument). His view that reason alone could yield substantial truths about reality strongly influenced those philosophers usually considered modern rationalists (such as Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz, and Christian Wolff), while provoking criticism from other philosophers who have retrospectively come to be grouped together as empiricists. Empiricism, in contrast to rationalism, downplays or dismisses the ability of reason alone to yield knowledge of the world, preferring to base any knowledge we have on our senses. John Locke propounded the classic empiricist view in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding in 1689, developing a form of naturalism and empiricism on roughly scientific (and Newtonian) principles. During this era, religious ideas played a mixed role in the struggles that preoccupied secular philosophy. Bishop Berkeleys famous idealist refutation of key tenets of Isaac Newton is a case of an Enlightenment philosopher who drew substantially from religious ideas. Other influential religious thinkers of the time include Blaise Pascal, Joseph Butler, and Jonathan Edwards. Other major writers, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Edmund Burke, took a rather different path. The restricted interests of many of the philosophers of the time foreshadow the separation and specialization of different areas of philosophy that would occur in the 20th century. Skepticism in Philosophy: Skepticism is a philosophical attitude that questions the possibility of obtaining any sort of knowledge. It was first articulated by Pyrrho, who believed that everything could be doubted except appearances. Sextus Empiricus (2nd century CE) describes skepticism as an ability to place in antithesis, in any manner whatever, appearances and judgments, and thus to come first of all to a suspension of judgment and then to mental tranquility. Skepticism so conceived is not merely the use of doubt, but is the use of doubt for a particular end: a calmness of the soul, or ataraxia. Skepticism poses itself as a challenge to dogmatism, whose adherents think they have found the truth. Sextus noted that the reliability of perception may be questioned, because it is idiosyncratic to the perceiver. The appearance of individual things changes depending on whether they are in a group: for example, the shavings of a goats horn are white when taken alone, yet the intact horn is black. A pencil, when viewed lengthwise, looks like a stick; but when examined at the tip, it looks merely like a circle. Skepticism was revived in the early modern period by Michel de Montaigne and Blaise Pascal. Its most extreme exponent, however, was David Hume. Hume argued that there are only two kinds of reasoning: what he called probable and demonstrative (cf Humes fork). Neither of these two forms of reasoning can lead us to a reasonable belief in the continued existence of an external world. Demonstrative reasoning cannot do this, because demonstration (that is, deductive reasoning from well-founded premises) alone cannot establish the uniformity of nature (as captured by scientific laws and principles, for example). Such reason alone cannot establish that the future will resemble the past. We have certain beliefs about the world (that the sun will rise tomorrow, for example), but these beliefs are the product of habit and custom, and do not depend on any sort of logical inferences from what is already given certain. But probable reasoning (inductive reasoning), which aims to take us from the observed to the unobserved, cannot do this either: it also depends on the uniformity of nature, and this supposed uniformity cannot be proved, without circularity, by any appeal to uniformity. The best that either sort of reasoning can accomplish is conditional truth: if certain assumptions are true, then certain conclusions follow. So nothing about the world can be established with certainty. Hume concludes that there is no solution to the skeptical argument except, in effect, to ignore it. Even if these matters were resolved in every case, we would have in turn to justify our standard of justification, leading to an infinite regress (hence the term regress skepticism). Many philosophers have questioned the value of such skeptical arguments. The question of whether we can achieve knowledge of the external world is based on how high a standard we set for the justification of such knowledge. If our standard is absolute certainty, then we cannot progress beyond the existence of mental sensations. We cannot even deduce the existence of a coherent or continuing I that experiences these sensations, much less the existence of an external world. On the other hand, if our standard is too low, then we admit follies and illusions into our body of knowledge. This argument against absolute skepticism asserts that the practical philosopher must move beyond solipsism, and accept a standard for knowledge that is high but not absolute. Idealism in Philosophy: Idealism is the epistemological doctrine that nothing can be directly known outside of the minds of thinking beings. Or in an alternative stronger form, it is the metaphysical doctrine that nothing exists apart from minds and the contents of minds. In modern Western philosophy, the epistemological doctrine begins as a core tenet of Descartes that what is in the mind is known more reliably than what is known through the senses. The first prominent modern Western idealist in the metaphysical sense was George Berkeley. Berkeley argued that there is no deep distinction between mental states, such as feeling pain, and the ideas about so-called external things, that appear to us through the senses. There is no real distinction, in this view, between certain sensations of heat and light that we experience, which lead us to believe in the external existence of a fire, and the fire itself. Those sensations are all there is to fire. Berkeley expressed this with the Latin formula esse est percipi: to be is to be perceived. In this view the opinion, strangely prevailing upon men, that houses, mountains, and rivers have an existence independent of their perception by a thinking being is false. Forms of idealism were prevalent in philosophy from the 18th century to the early 20th century. Transcendental idealism, advocated by Immanuel Kant, is the view that there are limits on what can be understood, since there is much that cannot be brought under the conditions of objective judgment. Kant wrote his Critique of Pure Reason (1781-1787) in an attempt to reconcile the conflicting approaches of rationalism and empiricism, and to establish a new groundwork for studying metaphysics. Kants intention with this work was to look at what we know and then consider what must be true about it, as a logical consequence of, the way we know it. One major theme was that there are fundamental features of reality that escape our direct knowledge because of the natural limits of the human faculties. Although Kant held that objective knowledge of the world required the mind to impose a conceptual or categorical framework on the stream of pure sensory data a framework including space and time themselves he maintained that things-in-themselves existed independently of  our perceptions and judgments; he was therefore not an idealist in any simple sense. Indeed, Kants account of things-in-themselves is both controversial and highly complex. Continuing his work, Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Friedrich Schelling dispensed with belief in the independent existence of the world, and created a thoroughgoing idealist philosophy. The most notable work of this German idealism was G. W. F. Hegels Phenomenology of Spirit, of 1807. Hegel admitted his ideas werent new, but that all the previous philosophies had been incomplete. His goal was to correctly finish their job. Hegel asserts that the twin aims of philosophy are to account for the contradictions apparent in human experience (which arise, for instance, out of the supposed contradictions between being and not being ), and also simultaneously to resolve and preserve these contradictions by showing their compatibility at a higher level of examination (being and not being are resolved with becoming) . This program of acceptance and reconciliation of contradictions is known as the Hegelian dialectic. Philosophers in the Hegelian tradition include Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach, who coined the term projection as pertaining to our inability to recognize anything in the external world without projecting qualities of ourselves upon those things, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and the British idealists, notably T. H. Green, J. M. E. McTaggart, and F. H. Bradley. Few 20th century philosophers have embraced idealism. However, quite a few have embraced Hegelian dialectic. Immanuel Kants Copernican Turn also remains an important philosophical concept today. Pragmatism in Philosophy: Pragmatism was founded in the spirit of finding a scientific concept of truth, which is not dependent on either personal insight (or revelation) or reference to some metaphysical realm. The truth of a statement should be judged by the effect it has on our actions and truth should be seen as that which the whole of scientific enquiry will ultimately agree on. This should probably be seen as a guiding principle more than a definition of what it means for something to be true, though the details of how this principle should be interpreted have been subject to discussion since Peirce first conceived it. Like Rorty many seem convinced that Pragmatism holds that the truth of beliefs does not consist in their correspondence with reality, but in their usefulness and efficacy. The late 19th-century American philosophers Charles Peirce and William James were its co-founders, and it was later developed by John Dewey as instrumentalism. Since the usefulness of any belief at any time might be contingent on circumstance, Peirce and James conceptualised final truth as that which would be established only by the future, final settlement of all opinion. Critics have accused pragmatism of falling victim to a simple fallacy: because something that is true proves useful, that usefulness is the basis for its truth. Thinkers in the pragmatist tradition have included John Dewey, George Santayana,W. V. O. Quine and C. I. Lewis. Phenomenology in Philosophy: Edmund Husserls phenomenology was an ambitious attempt to lay the foundations for an account of the structure of conscious experience in general. An important part of Husserls phenomenological project was to show that all conscious acts are directed at or about objective content, a feature that Husserl called intentionality. In the first part of his two-volume work, the Logical Investigations (1901), he launched an extended attack on psychologism. In the second part, he began to develop the technique of descriptive phenomenology, with the aim of showing how objective judgments are indeed grounded in conscious experience not, however, in the first-person experience of particular individuals, but in the properties essential to any experiences of the kind in question. He also attempted to identify the essential properties of any act of meaning. He developed the method further in Ideas (1913) as transcendental phenomenology, proposing to ground actual experience, and thus all fields of human knowledge, in the structure of consciousness of an ideal, or transcendental, ego. Later, he attempted to reconcile his transcendental standpoint with an acknowledgement of the intersubjective life-world in which real individual subjects interact. Husserl published only a few works in his lifetime, which treat phenomenology mainly in abstract methodological terms; but he left an enormous quantity of unpublished concrete analyses. Husserls work was immediately influential in Germany, with the foundation of phenomenological schools in Munich and Gottingen. Phenomenology later achieved international fame through the work of such philosophers as Martin Heidegger (formerly Husserls research assistant), Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Jean-Paul Sartre. Indeed, through the work of Heidegger and Sartre, Husserls focus on subjective experience influenced aspects of existentialism. Existentialism in Philosophy: Although they didnt use the term, the nineteenth century philosophers Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche are widely regarded as the fathers of existentialism. Their influence, however, has extended beyond existentialist thought. The main target of Kierkegaards writings was the idealist philosophical system of Hegel which, he thought, ignored or excluded the inner subjective life of living human beings. Kierkegaard, conversely, held that truth is subjectivity, arguing that what is most important to an actual human being are questions dealing with an individuals inner relationship to existence. In particular, Kierkegaard, a Christian, believed that the truth of religious faith was a subjective question, and one to be wrestled with passionately. Although Kierkegaard and Nietzsche were among his influences, the extent to which the German philosopher Martin Heidegger should be considered an existentialist is debatable. In Being and Time he presented a method of rooting philosophical explanations in human existence (Dasein) to be analysed in terms of existential categories (existentiale); and this has led many commentators to treat him as an important figure in the existentialist movement. However, in The Letter on Humanism, Heidegger explicitly rejected the existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre. Sartre became the best-known proponent of existentialism, exploring it not only in theoretical works such as Being and Nothingness , but also in plays and novels. Sartre, along with Albert Camus and Simone de Beauvoir, all represented an avowedly atheistic branch of existentialism, which is now more closely associated with their ideas of nausea, contingency, bad faith, and the absurd than with Kierkegaards spiritual angst. Nevertheless, the focus on the individual human being, responsible before the universe for the authenticity of his or her existence, is common to all these thinkers. Structuralism and post-structuralism in Philosophy: Inaugurated by the linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, structuralism sought to ferret out the underlying systems through analysing the discourses they both limit and make possible. Saussure conceived of the sign as being delimited by all the other signs in the system, and ideas as being incapable of existence prior to linguistic structure, which articulates thought. This led continental thought away from humanism, and toward what was termed the decentering of man: language is no longer spoken by man to express a true inner self, but language speaks man. Structuralism sought the province of a hard science, but its positivism soon came under fire by poststructuralism, a wide field of thinkers, some of whom were once themselves structuralists, but later came to criticize it. Structuralists believed they could analyse systems from an external, objective standing, for example, but the poststructuralists argued that this is incorrect, that one cannot transcend structures and thus analysis is itself determined by what it examines, that systems are ultimately self-referential. Furthermore, while the distinction between the signifier and signified was treated as crystalline by structuralists, poststructuralists asserted that every attempt to grasp the signified would simply result in the proliferation of more signifiers, so meaning is always in a state of being deferred, making an ultimate interpretation impossible. Structuralism came to dominate continental philosophy from the 1960s onward, encompassing thinkers as diverse as Michel Foucault and Jacques Lacan. The analytic tradition in Philosophy: The term analytic philosophy roughly designates a group of philosophical methods that stress clarity of meaning above all other criteria. The philosophy developed as a critique of Hegel and his followers in particular, and of speculative philosophy in general. Some schools in the group include 20th-century realism, logical atomism, logical positivism, and ordinary language. The motivation is to have philosophical studies go beyond personal opinion and begin to have the cogency of mathematical proofs. In 1921, Ludwig Wittgenstein published his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, which gave a rigidly logical account of linguistic and philosophical issues. At the time, he understood most of the problems of philosophy as mere puzzles of language, which could be solved by clear thought. Years later he would reverse a number of the positions he had set out in the Tractatus, in for example his second major work, Philosophical Investigations (1953). Investigations encouraged the development of ordinary language philosophy, which was promoted by Gilbert Ryle, J.L. Austin, and a few others. The ordinary language philosophy thinkers shared a common outlook with many older philosophers (Jeremy Bentham, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and John Stuart Mill), and it was this style of philosophical inquiry that characterized English-language philosophy for the second half of the 20th century. Ethics and political in Philosophy: From ancient times, and well beyond them, the roots of justification for political authority were inescapably tied to outlooks on human nature. In The Republic, Plato declared that the ideal society would be run by a council of philosopher-kings, since those best at philosophy are best able to realize the good. Even Plato, however, required philosophers to make their way in the world for many years before beginning their rule at the age of fifty. For Aristotle, humans are political animals (i. e. social animals), and governments are set up in order to pursue good for the community. Aristotle reasoned that, since the state (polis) was the highest form of community, it has the purpose of pursuing the highest good. Aristotle viewed political power as the result of natural inequalities in skill and virtue. Because of these differences, he favored an aristocracy of the able and virtuous. For Aristotle, the person cannot be complete unless he or she lives in a community. His The Nicomachean Ethics and The Politics are meant to be read in that order. The first book addresses virtues (or excellences) in the person as a citizen; the second addresses the proper form of government to ensure that citizens will be virtuous, and therefore complete. Both books deal with the essential role of justice in civic life. Nicolas of Cusa rekindled Platonic thought in the early 15th century. He promoted democracy in Medieval Europe, both in his writings and in his organization of the Council of Florence. Unlike Aristotle and the Hobbesian tradition to follow, Cusa saw human beings as equal and divine (that is, made in Gods image), so democracy would be the only just form of government. Cusas views are credited by some as sparking the Italian Renaissance, which gave rise to the notion of Nation-States. Later, Niccolo Machiavelli rejected the views of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas as unrealistic. The ideal sovereign is not the embodiment of the moral virtues; rather the sovereign does whatever is successful and necessary, rather than what is morally praiseworthy. Thomas Hobbes also contested many elements of Aristotles views. For Hobbes, human nature is essentially anti-social: people are essentially egoistic, and this egoism makes life difficult in the natural state of things. Moreover, Hobbes argued, though people may have natural inequalities, these are trivial, since no particular talents or virtues that people may have will make them safe from harm inflicted by others. For these reasons, Hobbes concluded that the state arises from a common agreement to raise the community out of the state of nature. This can only be done by the establishment of a sovereign, in which (or whom) is vested complete control over the community, and which is able to inspire awe and terror in its subjects. Many in the Enlightenment were unsatisfied with existing doctrines in political philosophy, which seemed to marginalize or neglect the possibility of a democratic state. David Hume was among the first philosophers to question the existence of God, circa 1700. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was among those who attempted to overturn these doctrines: he responded to Hobbes by claiming that a human is by nature a kind of noble savage, and that society and social contracts corrupt this nature. Another critic was John Locke. In Second Treatise on Government he agreed with Hobbes that the nation-state was an efficient tool for raising humanity out of a deplorable state, but he argued that the sovereign might become an abominable institution compared to the relatively benign unmodulated state of nature. Following the doctrine of the fact-value distinction, due in part to the influence of David Hume and his student Adam Smith, appeals to human nature for political justification were weakened. Nevertheless, many political philosophers, especially moral realists, still make use of some essential human nature as a basis for their arguments. Consequentialism, Deontological ethics, and Virtue ethics in Philosophy: One debate that has commanded the attention of ethicists in the modern era has been between consequentialism (actions are to be morally evaluated solely by their consequences) and deontology (actions are to be morally evaluated solely by consideration of agents duties, the rights of those whom the action concerns, or both).

The Human Condition: Message Lost in the Capitalist Machine :: Hannah Arendt Human Condition Essays

The Human Condition: Message Lost in the Capitalist Machine In The Human Condition, by Hannah Arendt, the fundamental qualities of human behavior are described and analyzed. These qualities are first described by discussing the different entities present in the lives of Athenian Greeks. This partition of human life into separate units is supposed to be applied to modern American society as well, however, the structure of today's social order differs from that of ancient Greek. These disparities cause the analysis and ideas projected on the human condition to be contrasting as well. Arendt refers to the three elements of the human condition as vita activa: labor, work, and action, which correspond to the reason which humans have been granted life. According to Arendt, labor is the biological functions which define life itself, work is the artificial function of human existence and so defined as "worldliness," and action is activity that goes on between man and matter and leads to the permanence of a particular human's existence. These divisions are important in viewing the human life as a whole, seeing how Arendt divides it into two realms: the private and public. The private realm is where work is executed and labor is present, and a hierarchical family is the basis of activity with the male at the top. Since work and labor are when humans are at their most natural state and in touch with their biological functions, this is the simplest sphere of life. The public realm, which only exists for the dominant figure in the family, is most closely related with action and is where man gains a sense of freedom. This freedom comes from the fact that when humans meet in public, they discuss ideas and exchange views. Through this exchange, thoughts are developed free from the constraints of private life and primordial necessities. In this respect, freedom in the ancient Greek world was defined as the ability to contemplate thoughts and discuss socially. This is where the morals and ideals of society are formed and a common good is derived which creates a social standard. These social standards and their methods of development were valid during the days of ancient Greece, but are not contemporaneous with modern American society. The society of modern America, which coincides closely with the society of the rest of Western Civilization, cannot be analyzed on the same levels that Arendt evaluates ancient Greek culture in respect to her proposed human conditions.

Marketing Smoke Out Essay

Many products have been sold in the market offering to stop a smoker from smoking. However, many of these products have failed. The main reason is that the body has been addicted to nicotine. Thus, the body craves for a stick and a stick and a stick and a stick and so on and so forth of cigarette to quench the body’s desire for the deadly nicotine. The following paragraphs explains how the new product Smoke out will finally fill the smokers’ desire to stop their smoking habit dead in its tracks. a. What is the product name? Describe the product. 2 pts. The new product is   smoke out. The product looks like a real cigarette stick. At one end of the cigarette has drawn to look like it has been lighted. And, at the other is a cigarette butt that feels like the real cigarette but. The cigarette butt which enters the smokers’ mouth has been filled with medicine. This medicine tastes and smells like a real cigarette smoke. However, The best advantage about this cigarette is that the smoker does not cut his habit of smoking entirely. For, he continues to smoke the smoke out in order to comply with his habit of smoking. Only, this time, a non smoking medicine is swallowed by the cigarette and cigar smokes that smells and tastes like smoke but the medicine actually mixes with the smoker’s blood and neutralizes the nicotine that is already in the smokers’ body. For, nicotine is an addictive chemical that sparks the human body’s craving to smoke another cigar or cigarette. For, many people have developed this smo king habit many years back. And they feel that stopping the smoking habit is a gargantuan task (Michman, Mazze & Greco, 2003, p. 1). B1. Explain how you are segmenting the market. 5 pts. The market segment is the smoking public. This segment includes people who smoke from the earliest possible age to the oldest possible age. Also, this segment includes all the male and female genders. Likewise, this segment includes all smokers in the all economic classes. Meaning the poor, the rich, the averagely rich and the extremely rich and buy this new product out in the market called Smoke out. In addition, this product will be sold to people of all religions. This product will zoom in to the African American customers, the White Americans, the Americans of European descent, the Americans of East Asian descent, the Americans of East. Likewise, the market segment will include the Mexicans, the Canadians, the South American descent. The above segment will be implemented in order not be branded as a discriminator of customers. This segment will first be test piloted in the Los Angeles, California area in January of 2008. This will continue until March of 2008. Next, the second phase of the product launch of Smoke out the product will be launched in June of 2008 if the test here will produce enough profits to merit continuing to the next phase. However, if the results of the first phase in Los Angeles California will not be successful because the sales generated will not exceed the total amount of marketing expenses, the administration expenses and the cost of raw materials, direct labor and factory overhead in producing the Smoke out product (Michman, Mazze & Greco, 2003, p. 1). B2. Why did you choose this method of customer segmentation? Be specific. 2 pts. This market segmentation give the best results at lesser expenses. For, the company’s selling only in the Los Angeles market is similar to injecting a new drug into rats as guinea pigs to determine if the drug will cure cancer or eliminate diabetes. This is the first phase of the market segmentation in the drug manufacturing and selling business. And, this phase one will now move on to phase two of the experimentation if the drug test shows that the drugs will be cure the cancer   or diabetes in the rats. However, the drug testing will not continue to phase two of the medical experimentation if the drug does not cure the cancer or diabetes. Obviously, phase two will continue if the drug shows that the drug can cure cancer and diabetes in rats. The phase of this drug experiment is injecting the cancer and or diabetes   -curing drug on humans who have cancers and diabetes (Michman, Mazze & Greco, 2003, p. 24). Thus, the phase two will no push through if the Los Angeles, California test pilot segment will show that people abhor the product and the costs and expenses to produce the Smoke out will be higher than the revenues generated from selling the smoking habit buster product. For, there is a very high probability that this smoke busting product will not generate net profits if the Smoke out product will not generate net profits in the Los Angeles test pilot area within the three month test period (Michman, Mazze & Greco, 2003, p. 53). c. Who is the target market? The target market, which is phase 1 (Los Angeles, California) has been chosen because it mimics many states within the United States. Thus, whatever will be the financial findings in this test pilot area will give a high probability of what will happen when the product is finally launch all over the United States and all countries around the world. Meaning, California has people in the fire hazardous forests. Los Angeles is the home to the rich where Rodeo Drive located and the Beverly Hills area where the rich take up their residences. It also has its share of poor people living in †¦..  Ã‚  Ã‚   It also has its share of the lesbians and gays. Los Angeles has its share of Asians, African Americans, Europeans, South Americans and other races. It has also different religions inside its boundary. It has also both males and females resembling the gender population of other states. It has its own share of smokers just like the smoking population of the other states within the Unit ed States (Moschis, 1994, p. 6). For Los Angeles   represents the very best of America which includes Beverly Hills and Malibu and the Worst of America. The worst of Los Angeles includes the gang wars and day to day violence in the streets. Also, the Los Angeles population is most populated by African Americans, Latinos and native Americans since 1781. Los Angeles is well known for its beautiful weather most of the year. The cost of living here is also high but not too high for the average wage American (Collier, 2002). Thus, the success of Smoke out in Los Angeles will have a high probability of being a success when it is marketed to the entire United States segment (Moschis, 1994, p. 10). d. What are your products’ benefits to the target market? 4 pts. The product will give the smoker the feeling that he is smoking. Thus the does not literally cut his smoking habit. What happens is that the medicine fused into the Smoke out will slowly neutralize the nicotine that has been piled up for many years in the smokers’ blood and lungs. The smokers will lose their crave for smoking without even a sweat because it is the medicine that neutralizes the body’s craving for addiction for nicotine (Moschis, 1994, p. 90). e. At what price will your product be introduced? Why? 4 pts. The price will be $100. This price is based on the simple reason that a person’s health cannot be equated to cash. For a person’s life is priceless. Also, the cost of the Smoke Out Is surely lesser than if the smoker will be operated in the hospital for lung cancer and high blood which is one of the side effects of smoking for many years (Moschis, 1994, p. 123). f. What pricing strategy are you using? Why? 4 pts. The pricing strategy used is the cost plus profit pricing. For, a business has to generate revenues that will exceed the total amount of costs and daily operating expenses of marketing the Smoke out product (Abdallah, 2004, p. 48). g. What objectives will be accomplished by using this strategy? Be specific. 5 pts. The objectives that will be accomplished by this strategy are: – To know if the people will buy the product. – To know if enough people will buy the product so that the revenues from sales will  be more than the total costs and expenses of producing and marketing the Smoke out  product launch. – To generate findings from a test pilot launch so that results will be known at a earlier  stage of the product life cycle (Moschis, 1994, p. 93). h. Why is the product worth this price? 2 pts. As discussed above, a person’s life cannot be equated to money for it is priceless. Thus, the $100 selling price of the product will not be noticed when the product is marketed as best   product to stop smoking without even trying. i. Identify and explain what prices you should charge at each stage of the PLC? 12 pts. I will use the same $100 selling price at each stage of the product life cycle. The reason is plain and simple. A person’s life is worth more than $1,000,000 and $100 is just   a trickle from a person’s monthly salary. Thus, if the product will be bought with price of $100 which is very very very low and affordable.

Static Ram and Dynamic Ram

What is the difference between static RAM and dynamic RAM in my computer? Your computer probably uses both static RAM and dynamic RAM at the same time, but it uses them for different reasons because of the cost difference between the two types. If you understand how dynamic RAM and static RAM chips work inside, it is easy to see why the cost difference is there, and you can also understand the names. Dynamic RAM is the most common type of memory in use today. Inside a dynamic RAM chip, each memory cell holds one bit of information and is made up of two parts: a transistor and a capacitor.These are, of course, extremely small transistors and capacitors so that millions of them can fit on a single memory chip. The capacitor holds the bit of information — a 0 or a 1 (see How Bits and Bytes Work for information on bits). The transistor acts as a switch that lets the control circuitry on the memory chip read the capacitor or change its state. A capacitor is like a small bucket that is able to store electrons. To store a 1 in the memory cell, the bucket is filled with electrons. To store a 0, it is emptied. The problem with the capacitor's bucket is that it has a leak.In a matter of a few milliseconds a full bucket becomes empty. Therefore, for dynamic memory to work, either the CPU or the memory controller has to come along and recharge all of the capacitors holding a 1 before they discharge. To do this, the memory controller reads the memory and then writes it right back. This refresh operation happens automatically thousands of times per second. This refresh operation is where dynamic RAM gets its name. Dynamic RAM has to be dynamically refreshed all of the time or it forgets what it is holding.The downside of all of this refreshing is that it takes time and slows down the memory. Static RAM uses a completely different technology. In static RAM, a form of flip-flop holds each bit of memory (see How Boolean Gates Work for detail on flip-flops). A flip-flop f or a memory cell takes 4 or 6 transistors along with some wiring, but never has to be refreshed. This makes static RAM significantly faster than dynamic RAM. However, because it has more parts, a static memory cell takes a lot more space on a chip than a dynamic memory cell.Therefore you get less memory per chip, and that makes static RAM a lot more expensive. So static RAM is fast and expensive, and dynamic RAM is less expensive and slower. Therefore static RAM is used to create the CPU's speed-sensitive cache, while dynamic RAM forms the larger system RAM space Inside This Article 1. Introduction to How Caching Works 2. A Simple Example: Before Cache 3. A Simple Example: After Cache 4. Computer Caches 5. Caching Subsystems 6. Cache Technology 7. Locality of Reference 8. Lots More Information |[pic] |If you have been shopping for a computer, then you have heard the word â€Å"cache. † Modern computers have both L1 and L2 caches, and many now also have L3 cache. You may also have gotten advice on the topic from well-meaning friends, perhaps something like â€Å"Don't buy that Celeron chip, it doesn't have any cache in it! † It turns out that caching is an important computer-science process that appears on every computer in a variety of forms. There are memory caches, hardware and software disk caches, page caches and more. Virtual memory is even a form of caching.In this article, we will explore caching so you can understand why it is so important. A Simple Example: Before Cache Caching is a technology based on the memory subsystem of your computer. The main purpose of a cache is to accelerate your computer while keeping the price of the computer low. Caching allows you to do your computer tasks more rapidly. To understand the basic idea behind a cache system, let's start with a super-simple example that uses a librarian to demonstrate caching concepts. Let's imagine a librarian behind his desk. He is there to give you the books you ask for.For t he sake of simplicity, let's say you can't get the books yourself — you have to ask the librarian for any book you want to read, and he fetches it for you from a set of stacks in a storeroom (the library of congress in Washington, D. C. , is set up this way). First, let's start with a librarian without cache. The first customer arrives. He asks for the book Moby Dick. The librarian goes into the storeroom, gets the book, returns to the counter and gives the book to the customer. Later, the client comes back to return the book. The librarian takes the book and returns it to the storeroom.He then returns to his counter waiting for another customer. Let's say the next customer asks for Moby Dick (you saw it coming†¦ ). The librarian then has to return to the storeroom to get the book he recently handled and give it to the client. Under this model, the librarian has to make a complete round trip to fetch every book — even very popular ones that are requested frequentl y. Is there a way to improve the performance of the librarian? Yes, there's a way — we can put a cache on the librarian. In the next section, we'll look at this same example but this time, the librarian will use a caching system.A Simple Example: After Cache Let's give the librarian a backpack into which he will be able to store 10 books (in computer terms, the librarian now has a 10-book cache). In this backpack, he will put the books the clients return to him, up to a maximum of 10. Let's use the prior example, but now with our new-and-improved caching librarian. The day starts. The backpack of the librarian is empty. Our first client arrives and asks for Moby Dick. No magic here — the librarian has to go to the storeroom to get the book. He gives it to the client. Later, the client returns and gives the book back to the librarian.Instead of returning to the storeroom to return the book, the librarian puts the book in his backpack and stands there (he checks first to see if the bag is full — more on that later). Another client arrives and asks for Moby Dick. Before going to the storeroom, the librarian checks to see if this title is in his backpack. He finds it! All he has to do is take the book from the backpack and give it to the client. There's no journey into the storeroom, so the client is served more efficiently. What if the client asked for a title not in the cache (the backpack)?In this case, the librarian is less efficient with a cache than without one, because the librarian takes the time to look for the book in his backpack first. One of the challenges of cache design is to minimize the impact of cache searches, and modern hardware has reduced this time delay to practically zero. Even in our simple librarian example, the latency time (the waiting time) of searching the cache is so small compared to the time to walk back to the storeroom that it is irrelevant. The cache is small (10 books), and the time it takes to notice a mis s is only a tiny fraction of the time that a journey to the storeroom takes.From this example you can see several important facts about caching: †¢ Cache technology is the use of a faster but smaller memory type to accelerate a slower but larger memory type. †¢ When using a cache, you must check the cache to see if an item is in there. If it is there, it's called a cache hit. If not, it is called a cache miss and the computer must wait for a round trip from the larger, slower memory area. †¢ A cache has some maximum size that is much Computer Caches A computer is a machine in which we measure time in very small increments.When the microprocessor accesses the main memory (RAM), it does it in about 60 nanoseconds (60 billionths of a second). That's pretty fast, but it is much slower than the typical microprocessor. Microprocessors can have cycle times as short as 2 nanoseconds, so to a microprocessor 60 nanoseconds seems like an eternity. What if we build a special memo ry bank in the motherboard, small but very fast (around 30 nanoseconds)? That's already two times faster than the main memory access. That's called a level 2 cache or an L2 cache. What if we build an even smaller but faster memory system directly into the microprocessor's chip?That way, this memory will be accessed at the speed of the microprocessor and not the speed of the memory bus. That's an L1 cache, which on a 233-megahertz (MHz) Pentium is 3. 5 times faster than the L2 cache, which is two times faster than the access to main memory. Some microprocessors have two levels of cache built right into the chip. In this case, the motherboard cache — the cache that exists between the microprocessor and main system memory — becomes level 3, or L3 cache. There are a lot of subsystems in a computer; you can put cache between many f them to improve performance. Here's an example. We have the microprocessor (the fastest thing in the computer). Then there's the L1 cache that c aches the L2 cache that caches the main memory which can be used (and is often used) as a cache for even slower peripherals like hard disks and CD-ROMs. The hard disks are also used to cache an even slower medium — your Internet connection The computer you are using to read this page uses a microprocessor to do its work. The microprocessor is the heart of any normal computer, whether it is a desktop machine, a server or a laptop.The microprocessor you are using might be a Pentium, a K6, a PowerPC, a Sparc or any of the many other brands and types of microprocessors, but they all do approximately the same thing in approximately the same way. If you have ever wondered what the microprocessor in your computer is doing, or if you have ever wondered about the differences between types of microprocessors, then read on. In this article, you will learn how fairly simple digital logic techniques allow a computer to do its job, whether its playing a game or spell checking a document!A microprocessor — also known as a CPU or central processing unit — is a complete computation engine that is fabricated on a single chip. The first microprocessor was the Intel 4004, introduced in 1971. The 4004 was not very powerful — all it could do was add and subtract, and it could only do that 4 bits at a time. But it was amazing that everything was on one chip. Prior to the 4004, engineers built computers either from collections of chips or from discrete components (transistors wired one at a time). The 4004 powered one of the first portable electronic calculators. [pic] | |Intel 8080 | The first microprocessor to make it into a home computer was the Intel 8080, a complete 8-bit computer on one chip, introduced in 1974. The first microprocessor to make a real splash in the market was the Intel 8088, introduced in 1979 and incorporated into the IBM PC (which first appeared around 1982). If you are familiar with the PC market and its history, you know that the PC market moved from the 8088 to the 80286 to the 80386 to the 80486 to the Pentium to the Pentium II to the Pentium III to the Pentium 4.All of these microprocessors are made by Intel and all of them are improvements on the basic design of the 8088. The Pentium 4 can execute any piece of code that ran on the original 8088, but it does it about 5,000 times faster! Microprocessor Progression: Intel The following table helps you to understand the differences between the different processors that Intel has introduced over the years. Name |Date |Transistors |Microns |Clock speed |Data | |Microprocessor Progression: Intel The following table helps you to understand the differences between the different processors that Intel has introduced over the years.Name |Date |Transistors |Microns |Clock speed |Data width |MIPS | |8080 |1974 |6,000 |6 |2 MHz |8 bits |0. 64 | |8088 |1979 |29,000 |3 |5 MHz |16 bits 8-bit bus |0. 33 | |80286 |1982 |134,000 |1. 5 |6 MHz |16 bits |1 | |80386 |1985 |275, 000 |1. 5 |16 MHz |32 bits |5 | |80486 |1989 |1,200,000 |1 |25 MHz |32 bits |20 | |Pentium |1993 |3,100,000 |0. 8 |60 MHz |32 bits 64-bit bus |100 | |Pentium II |1997 |7,500,000 |0. 35 |233 MHz |32 bits 64-bit bus |~300 | |Pentium III |1999 |9,500,000 |0. 25 |450 MHz |32 bits 64-bit bus |~510 | |Pentium 4 |2000 |42,000,000 |0. 8 |1. 5 GHz |32 bits 64-bit bus |~1,700 | |Pentium 4 â€Å"Prescott† |2004 |125,000,000 |0. 09 |3. 6 GHz |32 bits 64-bit bus |~7,000 | | Compiled from The Intel Microprocessor Quick Reference Guide and TSCP Benchmark Scores Information about this table: †¢ . †¢ rises. †¢ Clock speed is the maximum rate that the chip can be clocked at. Clock speed will make more sense in the next section. †¢ Data Width is the width of the ALU. An 8-bit ALU can add/subtract/multiply/etc. two 8-bit numbers, while a 32-bit ALU can manipulate 32-bit numbers.An 8-bit ALU would have to execute four instructions to add two 32-bit numbers, while a 32-bit ALU can do it in one instruction. In many cases, the external data bus is the same width as the ALU, but not always. The 8088 had a 16-bit ALU and an 8-bit bus, while the modern Pentiums fetch data 64 bits at a time for their 32-bit ALUs. †¢ MIPS stands for â€Å"millions of instructions per second† and is a rough measure of the performance of a CPU. Modern CPUs can do so many different things that MIPS ratings lose a lot of their meaning, but you can get a general sense of the relative power of the CPUs from this column.From this table you can see that, in general, there is a relationship between clock speed and MIPS. The maximum clock speed is a function of the manufacturing process and delays within the chip. There is also a relationship between the number of transistors and MIPS. For example, the 8088 clocked at 5 MHz but only executed at 0. 33 MIPS (about one instruction per 15 clock cycles). Modern processors can often execute at a rate of two instructions per clock cy cle. That improvement is directly related to the number of transistors on the chip and will make more sense in the next section.

Absolute Beginner English Telling Time

Absolute Beginner English Telling Time Telling the time is a basic skill that most students will eagerly acquire. You will need to take some sort of clock into the room. The best clock is one that has been designed for teaching purposes, however, you can also just draw a clock face on the board and add various times as you go through the lesson. Many students might be used to a 24-hour clock in their native culture. To begin telling time, its a good idea to just go through the hours and make students aware of the fact that we use a twelve-hour clock in English. Write the numbers 1 - 24 on the board and the equivalent time in English, i.e. 1 - 12, 1 - 12. It is also best to leave out. a.m. and p.m. at this point. Teacher: (Take the clock and set it to a time on the hour, i.e. seven oclock) What time is it? Its seven oclock. (Model what time and oclock by emphasizing what time and oclock in the question and response. This use of accenting differing words with your intonation helps students learn that what time is used in the question form and oclock in the answer.) Teacher: What time is it? Its eight oclock. (Go through a number of different hours. Make sure to demonstrate that we use a 12-hour clock by pointing to a number above 12 such as 18 and saying Its six oclock.) Teacher: (Change the hour on the clock) Paolo, what time is it? Student(s): Its three oclock. Teacher: (Change the hour on the clock) Paolo, ask Susan a question. Student(s): What time is it? Student(s): Its four oclock. Continue this exercise around the room with each of the students. If a student makes a mistake, touch your ear to signal that the student should listen and then repeat his/her answer accenting what the student should have said. Part II: Learning a Quarter to, Quarter Past and Half Past Teacher: (Set the clock to a quarter to an hour, i.e. quarter to three) What time is it? Its a quarter to three. (Model to by accenting to in the response. This use of accenting differing words with your intonation helps students learn that to is used to express time before the hour.) Teacher: (Repeat setting the clock to a number of different quarters to an hour, i.e. quarter to four, five, etc.) Teacher: (Set the clock to a quarter past an hour, i.e. a quarter past three) What time is it? Its a quarter past three. (Model past by accenting past in the response. This use of accenting differing words with your intonation helps students learn that past is used to express time past the hour.) Teacher: (Repeat setting the clock to a number of different quarters past an hour, i.e. quarter past four, five, etc.) Teacher: (Set the clock to half past an hour, i.e. half past three) What time is it? Its half past three. (Model past by accenting past in the response. This use of accenting differing words with your intonation helps students learn that past is used to express time past the hour, specifically that we say half past an hour rather than half to an hour as in some other languages.) Teacher: (Repeat setting the clock to a number of different halves past an hour, i.e. half past four, five, etc.) Teacher: (Change the hour on the clock) Paolo, what time is it? Student(s): Its half past three. Teacher: (Change the hour on the clock) Paolo, ask Susan a question. Student(s): What time is it? Student(s): Its a quarter to five. Continue this exercise around the room with each of the students. Watch out for students using oclock improperly. If a student makes a mistake, touch your ear to signal that the student should listen and then repeat his/her answer accenting what the student should have said. Part III: Including the Minutes Teacher: (Set the clock to a minutes to or minutes past the hour) What time is it? Its seventeen (minutes) past three. Teacher: (Change the hour on the clock) Paolo, ask Susan a question. Student(s): What time is it? Student(s): Its ten (minutes) to five. Continue this exercise around the room with each of the students. Watch out for students using oclock improperly. If a student makes a mistake, touch your ear to signal that the student should listen and then repeat his/her answer emphasizing what the student should have said.

Spelling and Word Origin

Spelling and Word Origin Spelling and Word Origin Spelling and Word Origin By Maeve Maddox A reader wonders how knowing a word’s origin helps spelling bee contestants arrive at the correct spelling: Recently, I was watching [a spelling bee] competition and students were asking about the origin of a spelling like Latin, French, Greek, Dutch, Italian etc. and were guessing correct spellings. How is it possible to get correct spelling from the origin of a word? One of the greatest strengths of English is its huge vocabulary, much of it borrowed from other languages. Because different languages have different spelling conventions, knowing an English word’s foreign origin can sometimes–not always–provide assistance in spelling it. English is spoken with about 46 speech sounds. Some of the sounds, like /b/ and /p/ are always represented by the same letter. Other sounds, like /f/ and /s/, may be represented by different letters or combinations of letters. For example, the sound /f/ may be spelled with the letter f as in reflex, or with the combination ph as in gramophone. The sound /s/ may be represented by the letter s, the letter c, or the combination sc, as in instant, cigar, and abscess. The sound /k/ may be spelled with the letters k, c or the combinations ck and ch: kitten, cat, luck, archetype. A spelling bee contestant’s first encounter with a word is its pronunciation. Knowing how sounds are spelled in the parent language can lead a speller to the correct combination of letters used to spell it in English. Take for example, the words candidate and chronology. Both begin with the /k/ sound. Knowing that candidate entered the language from Latin tells the speller to spell the sound with the letter c; knowing that chronology comes from Greek is a clue that the /k/ sound is spelled with the combination ch. Here are a few of the spelling clues offered by etymology with words of Latin and Greek origin: Latin canine, lactate, abduct The /k/ sound is usually represented by the letter c in a word of Latin origin. abscess, ascend, eviscerate The internal /s/ sound is often spelled sc in a word of Latin origin. NOTE: one speech sound used to speak English is called the schwa. The schwa is an indeterminate vowel sound that may be represented by any of the vowel letters a, e, i/y, o, or u. For example, the schwa sound is represented in the following words by the letters in boldface: America, synthesis, decimal, syringe, offend, circus, supply. When a schwa sound follows the /s/ sound in a word of Latin origin, the /s/ sound is often represented by the letter c, as in necessary. However, if the schwa sound connects two Latin elements, it is often spelled with the letter i, as in carnivore. Greek amygdala, dyslogia, symbiosis The short i sound is often represented by the letter y in a word of Greek origin. anthropomorphic, philander, graphology The /f/ sound is often represented by ph in a word of Greek origin. rhinovirus, hemorrhage, rheumatism The /r/ sound is often represented by rh in a word of Greek origin. anarchy, bacchanal, chronometry The /k/ sound is often represented by ch in a word of Greek origin. xylophone, Xena, xenophopia The /z/ sound is often represented by x in a word of Greek origin. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Fly, Flew, (has) FlownFlied?50 Nautical Terms in General Use8 Great Podcasts for Writers and Book Authors

Integrated Marketing Communication Plan For Prada Essay

Integrated Marketing Communication Plan For Prada - Essay Example Prada’s daughter took over the leadership of the company in 1978 and with the help of Patrizio Bertelli, they transformed the image of Prada. Prada began to design classic handbags and by the 1980’s, the Prada’s designed outstanding fabrics that revolutionised the runway. This enhanced the company’s image in the market and in the 1990s, Prada became a force in the fashion industry (Prada Group, 2012). Prada invested in innovations for her designs throughout the 1990s and experimented with different fabrics to reach more customers. Prada has been expanding the range of products and expanding to different countries across world. Prada runs many boutiques across the globe and has expanded its products to include perfumes and the LG Prada mobile phone. Prada’s shoes and handbags have gained much popularity across the globe. Prada holds regular runway shows as well. One of Prada’s expansion strategies has been taking over other companies such as H elmut Lang, Fendi, Church Shoes and Jil Sander (Prada Group, 2012). Target market An organisation’s target market determines the most appropriates medium of communicating its marketing messages. Segmenting this target market enables an organisation to identify the most profitable category of potential and existing consumers (Smith & Taylor, 2004, p. 37). Each segment of the target market has its own unique consumption patterns and needs. An effective marketing plan integrates these needs and consumptions. Segmenting the target market helps an organisation to allocate its resources efficiently and derive maximum benefits from each segment (Smith & Zook, 2011, p. 229). Prada designs high fashion clothes, handbags and accessories. The company’s designs are displayed in major fashion shows and runways across the globe. Thus, the target market for Prada’s designs includes professionals, business men and women, and celebrities. This target market can afford to buy Pra da’s products. Demographic segmentation Demographic segmentation involves categorising the target market based on the demographic characteristics of consumers such as their social status, age, family size, occupation, level of income, education, nationality, religion and gender among others (Botha, Strydom, & Brink, 2005, p.66). Prada can segment its target market on gender and develop different marketing messages for men and women. Most of its designs are for women and thus, most of Prada’s marketing resources should be geared towards women. Prada’s customers can also be categorised based on their social status. Marketing messages should target individuals with high social status because they can afford Prada’s fashion designs. The company’s marketing communication plan targets customers from all nationalities. This is because the company has stores in different cities and countries and part of the communication will be online. Prada will target i ndividuals between 20-50 years. Psychographic segmentation Psychographic segmentation involves dividing customers based on the lifestyles habits, interests, activities, opinions towards an organisation and its products and daily activities among others (Lamb, Hair, McDaniel, 2008, p. 242). Prada will focus its marketing messages to impulse buyers, celebrities, and successful individuals. These categories of consumers are likely to purchase Prada’s designs for their elegance and social status associated with the designs. Behavioural Segmentation Behavioural segmentation invo

How German Conservative helped the Nazi Party to come to power Essay

How German Conservative helped the Nazi Party to come to power - Essay Example Hitler encouraged militarism, national pride and working wholeheartedly towards a racially â€Å"Pure† German. Initially, through conservatism approach, Hitler meant what he was for a racially pure German. The pure breed conservatism approach seemingly changed the general view of German Conservatives to the social-cultural existence of the German communities. Hitler, through the pure breed notion of the German race, condemned the Jews fiercely exploiting their anti-Semitic feelings than had in the time immemorial prevailed over Europe for centuries. He changed the name of the German Worker’s Party to the National Socialist German Worker’s Party and finally to the Nazi Party (NSPDAP). Towards the end of 1920, Nazi Party had registered 3000 memberships. By 1921, Hitler fully took control of Nazi Party as their conservative leader (Fuhrer). How did Nazi Germany treat disabled people? The Nazi launched a hugely innate propaganda campaign against mental and physically incapacitated Germans. The Nazi German, through all these propaganda, killed, persecuted and isolated that individual whose genes were incompatible with the ideal German populace genes. The disabled individuals in German culture did not fit into the Nazi typecast of the pure Aryan, which is a physically fit populace with an adversely loyal mind to oblige the Reich. Overly, the Nazi Party viewed the disabled part of a social system as a burden since were unproductive and unable to work thus, in most cases, drained the state resources.