Arnott's biscuit Australia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Arnott's biscuit Australia - Essay Example to a market analysis for South Africa and suggest a suitable expansion strategy for Arnott’s biscuits as it moves into the market, based on their operation al strategy and strengths. The proposed expansion should roll out in several stages; the first of these could be establishment of packaging and distribution facilities in the region with the original products exported to South Arica from company bakeries in Australia. This will allow them to continue with minimal risk of jeopardizing the quality or essence of their product while forming connections with the local industry and community and capturing a suitable market base before the product can be manufactured directly from sources in the region. Arnott’s is known for its strict policies on the standard of raw material they use and their efficient modern production facilities. For the first stage they will require physical assets in form of packaging and storage facilities; distribution and transport vehicles and a labor force which can be comprised mainly of unskilled workers. A well developed infrastructure would be one of their requirements to be provided by the governing and civil bodies. Otherwise Arnotts will not need any special resources (equipment or raw material) to start their expansion process in South Africa. In order to be fully aware of the any challenges or opportunities they will find during the implementation of the expansion strategy, organizations have to do in depth analysis of the region or country they are considering as a viable option. PESTL analysis is a macroeconomic tool which helps organizations in making strategic management decisions; these decisions should be made after considering the internal factors which are in play for the organization. A PESTL analysis and SWOT analysis of the organization are presented in the paper to show the feasibility of the expansion strategy for Arnott’s biscuits. South Africa is a multiparty parliamentary democracy in which constitutional

RESPOND TO CLASSMATES RESPONSES ON BUSINESS NEGOTIATIONS IN JAPAN Coursework

RESPOND TO CLASSMATES RESPONSES ON BUSINESS NEGOTIATIONS IN JAPAN - Coursework Example You so well outline that the Japanese are a high power distance society where pessimism seems to have no room amidst the harmony that they so much value. Japanese mixing business with social or rather personal life can greatly overwhelm foreigners who might find it to be disgusting merely due little acquaintance with the Japanese’s way of life. To avert complications common in cross-cultural negotiations, Americans must comprehend Japanese non-verbal cues, as this will also ease the negotiation process. However, rather than relying on translators, it is most appropriate that one masters fundamental aspects of the Japanese language prior to attending a meeting in Japan. Your response portrays a good amount of research. Your introduction of deductive and inductive reasoning propels the discussion and instigates further exploration of the world of communication and psychology. The Japanese build trusts and harmonious relationships in every activity that they participate in. While asking questions about a culture is effective in understanding other people’s culture, it is important to appropriately contemplate the questions that can be asked to avoid offending the Japanese whose are proud of and gratified with their unique culture. Researching about Japanese culture prior to the meeting is also quite vivacious but the research should focus on points or sections that can be necessary during the business negotiation. Japanese customers want to feel treasured under every circumstance. As you rightly point out, saving face and showing respect to hierarchy are important in international trading especially in Japan. Multi-cultural diversity requires that business personnel are familiar with their partners’ culture. Embarking on a programme of language training will not be a waste of resources since the output will eventually overshadow the input. The company will appear to

Topics In Cultural Studies Essay Example for Free

Topics In Cultural Studies Essay Trade relationship between Latin America and United States of America was believed to have improved in 1980’s. However, the progress that should have been reaped after the post cold war has not been applied. Though there are possibilities that the two countries will have a more productive engagement in trade, there was still a tension between the trade relationship between Latin America and United States (Shifter, 2007).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the past and up to these days, the United States of America had had been supporting the assets of economic reform. Trade liberalization and privatization are the most prioritized project in the economic reform of the United States. Economic reform was considered the basis for prosperity of the country. In the past, Latin American government had also been able to adapt to the economic reforms of the United States because they believe that this is the pattern of hemispheric policy when it comes to the engagement of trade towards United States (Shifter, 2007).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Latin America was considered to be a region wherein it is the fastest growing market for the United State’s export products. From the history of trade in the past, Latin America is expected to become the world’s primary market for the products and services that came from United States (Shifter, 2007).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The total exports of the United States to the Latin American region amounted to about 13 billion dollars in 1996, which had surpassed the export figures on 1990. US products were also exported in China but it only amounted to $10 B dollars in 1990 having Latin American region to have a larger amount of export form the United States (Shifter, 2007). Latin America is now engaging trade between China and United States need not to worry because they will not be displaced immediately by Chinese market. The trade relationship between China and Latin America had not been that significant not unlike the significance of the trade relationship between Latin America and United States (Frechette, 2006). Literature Cited: Frechette, M. (2006). Rethinking Latin America;A New Approach in US Foreign Policy. Academy and Policy, Vol. 28 (2). Harvard International Review. Shifter, M. (2007). United States-Latin American Relations: Shunted to the Slow Track. Retrieved September 18 2007 from http://www.currenthistory.com/archivefeb98/shifter.html

Airport Privatisation The Challenges Way Forward Economics Essay

Airport Privatisation The Challenges Way Forward Economics Essay Traditionally all the airports were owned by the public sector. The European airports in major cities such as Paris, London, Dublin, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Madrid, and Geneva were all owned by national governments. The airports outside Europe like Tokyo, Singapore, Bangkok, Sydney, and Johannesburg were similarly owned by their countrys government bodies. Elsewhere, the major airports like in the U.S. were controlled by local or regional governments. Regional airports in Europe too followed this rule. For example, Manchester airport was owned by Manchester City Council and a combination of 8 local authorities of nearby towns with 45% ownership resting with the latter and 55% with the former authority. In Germany, Dusseldorf airport was owned by the governments of North Rhine, Westphalia state and the city of Dusseldorf together, whereas, the Hanover airport was owned jointly by the governments of Lower Saxony and the city of Hanover. In the 1990s, private or partially privately owned airports became significant. Before this, the privately owned airports were limited only to the general aviation or to the aeroclub airports. The norm during that period was that the public ownership, i.e. the government handled the airport operations at least at a local or majorly at national level. This had a major impact on the operations of the airport and its degree of independence. The strictest form of control existed when the government had direct control over the airport, for example the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Ministry of Transport or, in few cases, the military. This was commonly practiced in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and South America. In Canada, 150 commercial Canadian airports were directly controlled by The State Department of Transport. Within Europe, Greece was a good example where CAA controlled all the airports effectively. In some cases, semi-autonomous bodies and companies, those were still under the public ownership owned the airports. Some organizations managed more than one airport, British Airports Authority (BAA) and Aer Rianta Irish Airports were good examples in Europe. Other airport authorities and companies also existed that operated just one major airport. This was the case at Amsterdam airport and many German airports. In the U.S., airport authorities also existed for some of the airports, such as the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Metropolitan Airports Commission. In some cases, multipurpose transport authorities which operated other modes of transport also operated airports, such as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey or Massport in Boston. There were also examples of airports where companies which were publicly owned managed the airports at concession for the central government. For example, the major Italian airports like Venice and Milan were controlled by public shareholdings and perhaps some private shareholdings at concession for long terms, such as 60 years. The concession could cover management of the total airport operations and handling services like Milan and Turin or just some of the operations like terminal management and handling services like Palermo. At French regional airports, the concessions were given to the local chambers of commerce, but national government holding some control over the airfield facilities. For example, at the Zurich airport, the planning and the overall operation of the airport and the airfield infrastructure is controlled by the Zurich Airport Authority, which is owned by the Canton of Zurich, while a mixed public private company, named FIG, managed and constructed the terminal i nfrastructure. Commercialization The publicly owned and strictly controlled airports were historically considered as a public utility for the public service obligations. As a result, the airport industry was not considered as a business dominant industry but a general public service transport system. However, in the 1970s and 1980s the perspective towards airport management changed as the industry grew towards airline privatization and deregulation. Many airports then were considered more of a commercial industry and businesslike management philosophy was adopted. Thus the airport industry around the world took steps towards commercialization with Europe as its leader. However, airports in areas like Africa and South America mostly stuck on to the traditional way and experienced less changes. The coming of commercialization was seen in many different steps. For instance, many independent airport authorities and airport companies with public shareholders were established resulting in less government control over airports. This gave airports more of operational and commercial freedom and also gave private sector investment and partnership more chances. In 1972, the International Airports Authority of India was established to manage Indias four international airports. In 1986, National Airports Authority took control of the domestic airports in the country. These two merged in 1995. In Canada, where the Transport Canada was in direct control of the countrys major airports, passed its airport management completely to individual non-profit-making authorities in a long-term lease in the 1990s. its main reason was to improve its efficiency and integrate it to the local economy. During the commercialization process, airport management was focused upon operational aspects like financial management, non-aeronautical revenue generation and airport marketing. Many airport directors and senior managers were operational specialists. This realization of commercialization resulted in expansion of staff members and operational resources. Also the typical departments for finance, administrations, operations, and so on was replaced with new department or business units like customer needs, passenger and airline services. One of the most significant changes during commercialization was an increased focus on the non-aeronautical revenues and commercial revenues. Aeronautical revenues such as landing and passenger fee from the airlines had been the most important source. In most of the airports, mainly European airports, non-aeronautical revenues overtook aeronautical revenues as the most important source. For example, Amsterdam airport first reported of its higher non-aeronautical revenue when compared to its aeronautical revenue. This was due to large space allocation to commercial retail shops and other non-aeronautical facilities. In the past, it was very difficult to obtain a true indication of an airports financial and economic performance. Often the government would undertake normal public accounting practices specific to its country and would use public sector rather than more standard commercial procedure. This resulted in difficulty in comparing it with the other organizations. In some cases, airports cost and revenues were considered as one item only within the government departments financial accounts. Therefore no specific profits from the airports could be determined. In the 1970s and 1980s, more commercial accounting practices were adopted in most of the airports. This was mainly due to less control in the hands of the government. For example, in 1987, all major airports in the U.K. became public limited companies (plc). This meant that these airports adopted commercial private sector accounting procedures. One example of this was when Geneva airport became an independent authority in 1994, it began to show balance sheets and asset values in its annual accounts, which previously was ignored. Privatization During the 1970s and the 1980s, commercialization took great strides in the growth of airports around the globe. But it was during 1990s when privatization became a reality. But what is actually meant by privatization? In its broadest sense, it usually means the transfer of airport management, and sometimes ownership as well, to the private sector. Privatization of publicly owned airports had many arguments both supporting and against it. Privatization reduces the need of public sector investment and provides access to commercial sectors. It reduces government control and interference enabling the organization to diversify. It may also increase the operational efficiency of the airport, induces competition and payment of incentives for management and employee staff to perform well. There were some developments that took place in the 1970s and 1980s which strengthened the reasons for airport privatization to occur in some countries. For example in North America and Europe, deregulation resulted in the growth of the airports which meant the existing airport capacity could not cope with this growth. Privatization of airports was considered as a means of injecting additional finance into the airport systems to pay for the future investments. In addition to this, public sector funding became very scarce in the modern-day global econ omic climate as government thought of reducing their spending and turned to non-revenue-earning activities like education and health. Privatization also has some adverse effects like it may create a private monopoly which charges extra for same or lesser standards of services, invests inadequately and gives less consideration to externalities like controlling environmental impacts and maintaining social justice. Less favorable employment condition may occur and redundancies may occur. From a point of view, airport privatization can be considered as just an evolutionary development of the aviation industry. Airports evolved from public sector utility to commercial enterprises and privatization can be considered as commercialization taken to its limits. Increased commercialization has brought about good profits and market oriented management. The increase in number of airport privatization around the world has shown us that this method has successfully achieved ways to tackle some problems that could be faced by the airports in the 21st century. However, this in some countries where publicly owned organizations are considered as national or regional assets being transferred to private companies could be a sensitive political issue. It brings fear that the focus would be then shifted to private shareholders and the customer needs will be neglected. Privatization of airports may have different views among different groups and even between the local and national government. As a result, it should not be thought that commercialization always leads to privatization. A good example for this is the Manchester airport, which runs on a very commercial basis, but has no desire to undergo privatization. Types of Privatization Airports are one of the most attractive organizations for investors, for many reasons. Firstly, the aviation industry has a unique growth rate. Many airports, mainly the major airports have less or no competition, from the airports and also from other modes of transports. It is difficult to enter into the airport industry as it requires heavy capital investment and also difficult to find an appropriate and convenient locations where airport development is allowed. However, there are risks also available such as the political interference in the form of airport regulation and control over airport development as there is deregulation and greater collaborations through alliances. According to the document prepared by Carney and Mew in 2003, the types of privatization can be broadly classified into 5 types: Share floatation Trade sale Concession Project finance privatization Management contract The selection of the most appropriate type of privatization for the airports is done by a series of complex decision-making process in which the reasons for privatizing is checked by fulfilling certain conditions. Share Floatation The first type, i.e., the share flotation or Initial Public Offering (IPO), where the airport share capital is issued, and traded on the stock market. The Management or the public owners are given options to acquire shares. In this type, the government or the public owners give up the total or partial ownership according to the shares open, transferring economic control and risks to the new shareholders. Generally this type of privatization has shown positive results with promising economic growth rate and limited competition as the capital investments are too high for the risk to be taken. Even when total privatization occurs, the government has a certain degree of influence by issuing a golden share so that the national interests can be secured in extreme cases. Trade Sale In this type of privatization, some parts of the airport or the total airport is sold to a trade partner or a consortium of investors, through a public tender. The trade sales which took place in the 1990s had strategic partners involved rather than just passive investors. As a result, the managerial and technological expertise was considered while agreeing on a sale. Concession With this type of arrangement, an airport management company or consortium will purchase a concession or lease to operate the privatized airport for a defined period of time, commonly between 20 and 30 years, again usually through a tendering process. Financial terms and the types of lease will vary but typically this option will involve an initial payment and a guaranteed level of investment and/or payment of an annual fee. Hence this tends to be a more complex approach, which has high transactions costs and needs to carefully designed and implemented to ensure that the private contracts achieve the government policy objectives. Project Finance Privatization With this option, a company will usually build or redevelop and then operate an airport or specific facility, such as a terminal, for a certain length of time, typically 20-30 years. This company may be totally private or may be a private-public partnership. At the end of this period, ownership will revert to the government owners. Thus this approach can be viewed as a particular type of concession agreement. Generally such an arrangement will not usually require a large upfront payment but the operating company will bear all the costs of building or re-developing the facility. When it is built, the company will have to cover the operating costs but will also retain most revenues (often after paying an annual fee to the government) until the facility is handed back. Thus, the airport company will take full economic risk for investment and operations. There are a number of project finance privatization methods with the most popular being build-operate-transfer (BOT) when, as the name suggests, the company will build the facility, operate it for a certain length of time and then transfer ownership back to the government. Other similar models include build-transfer (BT), build-rent-transfer (BRT) or design-construct-manage-finance (DCMF). Other options may actually involve the ownership of the facility such as build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) or rehabilitate-own-transfer (ROT) projects. All these methods, however, are often referred to by the generic term BOT. Management Contract The least radical privatization option is a management contract when ownership remains with the government and the contractors take responsibility for the day-to-day operation of the airport, usually for a period of 5-10 years. The government either pays an annual management fee to the contractor, usually related to the performance of the airport, or the contractor will pay the government a share of its revenues. Normally investment will remain the responsibility of the government owner and so the overall economic risk is shared between the owner and the management company. For the government owner this may be politically more acceptable, whereas for the contractor such an arrangement may be attractive in countries where greater financial exposure, through a trade sale, for example, may be seen as too great a risk. Overview The overall reason for this report is to analyze the effects of ownership change on the economic growth of the industry. The main success of privatization is not by attaining maximum airport profits but by providing quality service with continuously improvising efficiency and maintaining cost of charges. There are a number of lessons that can be learnt from this experience: The cost of capital is found to be too high in the plc privatization model. Efficiency is optimized when the business is outsourced. Performance can be improvised even without ownership change. It is difficult to reach objectives to provide quality, cheap, and safe service simultaneously. Privatization is not a successful option unless customer needs are not kept in priority for the growth and development. Customers have gained some from privatization, in terms of lower prices relative to the public ownership organizations, but not by a lot. Identifying Challenges Vienna International Airport (VIA), Austria Privatization resulted in inadequate investment and high charges for customers. Before privatization, VIE had high costs. The weak economic regulation did not help much to change this providing no incentive to improve efficiency, provide adequate investment, or hold back monopoly profits. This is due to the direct regulation of charges from the government. Due to the classic monopolist behavior, profit margins are restricted. As a result, insufficient incentives are being produced which cannot further pay for the cost-efficient investments for the future of the airport. Zurich Airport (ZRH), Switzerland The independent TRL Charges Index of the top-50 airports worldwide ranks Zurich Airport as the 10th costliest airport in the world. Due to the collapse of Swissair, capacity constraints have emerged at the Zurich Airport. As a result it is the least profitable airport among the top 50 airports. Absence of an independent economic regulation resulted in low incentives for higher efficiency. The airport has switched from single-till to dual-till which resulted in the aeronautical revenue to bear all the cost of aircraft and passenger service. Auckland International Airport (AIA), New Zealand Absence of an effective economic regulation, due to which they charge excessively on their customers for higher incentives. Asset base and operational cost valuation of the AIA is remarkably high due to its dominant market position. Moreover the cost of capital used by AIA also appears to be extremely high. These appear to be the reasons for high base for charges. Sydney International Airport (SYD), Australia Although the service quality is complimented by passengers, airlines are less satisfied and charges are high. The prices rose high in 2001, giving reasons that it would help SYD earn a commercial rate of return. SYD also switched to Dual-till; therefore the aeronautical revenue is only confined to cover the aircraft and passenger service charges. The ACCC, similar to the Competition Commission in the U.K., is not influential enough to encourage SYD to increase their efficiency as there is no incentive-based price cap. Perth Airport (PER), Australia Huge price rise in service charges with no improvement in services or any significant capital investment. Absence of economic regulation, asset evaluation and the use of dual-till; all this result in increase in charges for the customers. Ezeiza International Airport (EZE), Argentina Privatization meant very bad for the customers. High charges for the structure, under-investment and poor quality of service to the customers. Absence of an independent economic regulator has led to very high service charges. It also resulted to a very confrontational relationship between the government, airport operator and the customers. Capacity constraints have been dealt very poorly. Under-investments due to payment of high royalties. No competition between service providers led to high customer charges with low standards of service. Athens International Airport (AIA), Greece Service quality is good to the customers but comes at a very high price. It ranks the 3rd highest charges in the world. No consultation with the airline customers on building of the new airport, therefore high cost and inefficient investment. The rate-of-return economic regulation creates no incentives for improving efficiency and permits monopoly profits. If the profits are not met within one year, then the regulator allows charges to be raised in order to recoup. The AIA also uses the dual-till. This means the aeronautical revenue is confined only to the aircraft charges and passenger charges which should have been also used for the commercial charges. There has been over 20 years since privatization of infrastructure providers started in different industries. Although, considerable rise of amounts had been achieved by privatizing many publicly owned companies fully or partially, general public and customer interest had not been one of the major concerns. From the identified challenges brought into light due to privatization of airports all around the globe, some prominent issues like cost inefficiency, high charges due to no independent economic regulation in existence. The cost of capital is too high under the plc privatization model. There is no improvisation in the efficiency and quality of customer services to cope with low or minimal incentives. The privatization of airports has also brought the issue of capacity, financial and environmental constraints into light. This resulted in potential discrimination between incumbent and new airline companies. Expanding capacity at new major airports require huge amounts of capital, where public sector funding might not be sufficient, therefore private sector investment has to be considered. But for future investments, incentives and service charges have to be rightly considered and revised. Compacting Strategies An efficient economic regulation is necessary to regulate the cost of capital, the asset and resource valuation and to control the service charges according to the quality of service provided. It is also needed to improvise the quality of service provided to airlines and customers according to the incentives. It has to optimize the use of given space capacity, both for aircrafts and passengers. An efficient economic regulation system is appropriate for bringing a balance between the service provided and service charges by setting up a fair and efficient charging system for airports infrastructure. It may encourage private investors to invest and take control of commercial management. It is noticed through history that airports when operated with commercial outlook, the performance, efficiency and financial situation is improved, whether it may be publicly owned or privately owned. Airports governed by national or local governments should be allowed some degree of freedom to run more like a commercial type and unnecessary regulations should be lifted. British Airports Authority (BAA), U.K. Excellent example of how to privatize an airport successfully, by implementing effective economic regulation of assets. Since privatization, the company has diversified. It started managing airports overseas with equal stakes and concentrating on particularly the non-aeronautical revenue generation at the airports. Effective economic regulation has been critical for the success of privatization, which regulated the aeronautical revenue considerably low and maintaining good quality of services. The existence of a Competition Commission has resulted in effective regulation of charges by keeping the customers interest in mind. The price-caps are given a regular check in order to prevent the increase in airport profits in excess of the cost of capital. This avoids inefficient investment which would lead to excessive charging of customer services. Revision of incentives for better services keeps the quality of service good and also in improvisation. If neglected, it would lead to poor quality of service in order to increase airport profits. Single-till is the mode of airport accounts management. In this method, both the aeronautical and non-aeronautical revenues are taken into account during setting the airport charges. Copenhagen Airport (CPH), Denmark Relatively successful privatization with quality service and relatively low airport charges. Effective economic regulation has been critical for the success of this privatization. This controlled the aeronautical revenue relatively low and quality of service high. Improvisation in the efficiency of services was the key to its success since shareholders are also benefitting. The regulation put price-caps by negotiation with the airline customers, if this failed, then incentive based charges are assigned to improve efficiency of the services. Brussels Airport (BRU), Belgium The economic regulation brought customers into reassurance by setting appropriate charges. With respect to the rate-of-return policy, little incentives are produced for cost efficiency improvements to reduce airport charges. Conclusion Privatization brought drastic changes as the ownership changed from public owners like national or local government to private sector ownership. But commercialization is of greater asset than privatization. Increasing the airport profits, expansion of airport capacity and economic growth happens by undertaking commercial type of management. The public owners can increase the revenue generation by liberalization and allowing the airports more degree of freedom. Effective economic regulation is critical for successful privatization as capital investment is high therefore there is less competition for private sector investment. The economic regulation is highly necessary for creating incentives, which would help in improvisation of quality of service and increasing efficiency and would restrain monopolies created by privatization and allow sharing of airport profits with the customers by reducing customer service charges. A regulatory committee in association with the economic regulation could be considered highly beneficial as they would complement each others price-capping by keeping the customers and the airports cost of capital into consideration. For successful privatization, customers should be considered as key stakeholders in the development and expansion. The pricing infrastructure should be set by keeping the customers interest as one of the most important criteria in making capital investments for growth and future development.

Book Report On Dostoevskys The Brothers Karamazov Essay -- Book Review

CHARACTERIZATION The main characters of Dostoevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov are, as the title suggests, the members of the Karamazov "family," if it can indeed be called such. The only things that the members of this family share are a name and the "Karamazov curse," a legacy of base impulses and voluptuous lust. References to this tendency towards immorality are sprinkled heavily throughout the novel; phrases such as "a brazen brow and a Karamazov conscience," "voluptuary streak," and "Karamazovian baseness" abound. Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, the father of the brothers Karamazov, is the embodiment and the source of this immorality. In him Dostoevsky creates such perversity and depravity that one can feel no positive emotions for the man. His physical appearance--he is "flabby" with "small, suspicious eyes" and a "long, cavernous mouth with puffy lips, behind which could be glimpsed small fragments of black teeth"--accurately reflects his foul, disgusting character. He has no respect for himself; he enjoys playing the part of the shameless "buffoon" for attention, even though the attention he receives is negative. Because he has no respect for himself, he can have no respect for others, either. He has no respect for women, for example; he is a despicable "voluptuary," and he satisfies his lust at any cost. He drives his wife to madness by bringing "women of ill-repute" into their house right in front of her. Even more shockingly, he rapes a mentally retarded woman, who later dies giving birth to his illegitimate son, Smerdyakov, who grows up as his father's servant. Fyodor is even more blatantly disrespectful to his three legitimate children. After his wife's death, he abandons them, for they "would have been a hindrance to his debaucheries." He is never a true father to any of them. When his oldest son, Dmitry, becomes an adult, Fyodor is even so cruel as to deny Dmitry his inheritance and instead use the money to seduce Grushenka, with whom his son is in love. It is Alyosha, the youngest brother, that is most successful in escaping the curse of the Karamazovs. Miraculously, he is almost the complete opposite of his father; he is an easygoing "lover of mankind" whom everyone likes. When t... ...ativity of the atmosphere. STYLE Dostoevsky's style is very realistic and straightforward. He almost never uses flowery or poetic language or figures of speech; his language is simple and spare, as if he tried to eliminate all that wasn't absolutely necessary. Similarly, he is unpretentious in his choice of words. He generally states things in the simplest terms possible. Contrastingly, however, his sentences are often fairly complex; despite their complexity, though, they are easy to understand and thus do not detract from his simplicity and straightforwardness. Because the book consists largely of dialogue, Dostoevsky changes his style frequently, for each of his characters has a unique style of speaking that complements his character. Dostoevsky writes Ivan's dialogue, for example, in a very verbose, complex style that reinforces Ivan's characterization as an intellectual. He writes Dmitry's dialogue in a very random, disjointed style that underscores Dmitry's tendency to allow his passion and his emotions to cloud his logic. Finally, he writes Alyosha's dialogue in a simple style very similar to his own, as Alyosha is himself simple and unpretentious.à ¿Ãƒ ½Oà ¯

The Two-Point Threshold Essay

I. Introduction In the two-point threshold experiment it is obtained how close two distinct sharp point can be together for a person to feel two points instead of one. The value of the two-point threshold is the minimal distance at which the subject can feel two distinct points. The principle behind this experiment is the fact that mechanoreceptors are not distributed homogeneously in the skin of the human body. There are areas with a higher density and areas with a lower density of mechanoreceptors, making this certain area more or less sensitive. However, the smaller the distance is where the subject can feel two distinct points, the more mechanoreceptors must be present in this area, enabling a person to feel small details in that part of the body. In this experiment we will test the two-point threshold at five ares of the body: the back of the hand, the palm of the hand, fingertip, the back of the neck, and the calf of the leg. With these given areas, the fingertips will have a smaller two-point threshold than the back of the hand. II. Materials and Methods For this experiment a compass is used to apply two sharp points to the skin at the same time, and a ruler to measure the distance of these points. The independent variable for the experiment is the are where the two-point threshold is measured. The dependent variable is the two-point threshold, or in other words the smallest distance at which the subject can distinguish between one and two points at one of the five tested areas. At first the compass is set on the smallest value, 2mm, and applied to a certain area. If the subject does not feel two distinct points the distance between the points will be increased until the subject can feel two points. That way the smallest distance, the two-point threshold is obtained. III. Results The Two-Point Threshold Values For All Subjects Calculations/ T-Test First the average two-point threshold is calculated for both areas by summing up all values and dividing the sum by the number of values,7. For the back of the hand it is an average of 22.4mm, and for the fingertips 4.71mm. Then the difference of each value to the average value is calculated and inserted in to the formula to calculate the standard deviation, where n is the number of subjects/values. X-∅X (back of hand) ⇒ square X-∅X (fingertips) ⇒ square 4,4 19,36 2,71 7,34 4,4 19,36 0,71 0,5 7,4 54,76 5,3 28,1 16,6 275,56 0,3 0,1 7,6 57,76 1,7 2,89 6,4 40,96 1,7 2,89 1,4 1,96 1,3 1,69 The squares for both independent variables will now be summed up and divided by n-1= 6 before the square root is taken. Back of the hand: Fingertips: To calculate the T-value the difference of the average values is subtracted by the square root of the sum of the two SD square divided by the number of subjects, 7. The calculated T-value for this experiment is 9,46. The Average Two-Point Threshold and Standard Deviation for the Fingertips and the Back of the Hand The graph shows clearly that the fingertips have a much smaller two-point threshold with an average of 4.71mm, than the back of the hand with 22.4mm. It also shows that the standard deviation for the fingertips is much lower with  ±2.69mm than the standard deviation of the subjects at the back of the hand with  ±8.85mm. IV. Conclusion The results of the experiment support the hypothesis that the fingertips have a smaller two-point threshold than the back of the hand. It is supported by the average two-point threshold of both areas, while the fingertips have and average of 4.71mm and the back of the hand shows and average result of 22.4mm as two-point threshold which is almost five times greater compared to the average fingertip value. The T-test is a statistical hypothesis test to see if the hypothesis is supported. In this experiment a T-value of 9.46 was calculated to 6 degrees of freedom. According to the table there is a 0.0001% chance that the hypothesis is incorrect. So in  other words this T-value supports the hypothesis with over 99%. A source of error is certainly the number of subjects in the experiment. For a strongly supported hypothesis I would suggest a follow up experiment with many more subjects to make sure this hypothesis is still supported because only a few too high or low numbers can certainly change the results with only seven subjects. Also I would suggest to have only one tester in the follow up experiment because in this experiment there were seven testers, one for each subject and everybody measures slightly different. So instead of having human error involved from one tester, we have errors involved from seven. The last source of error is within the calculations. Rounding errors here and there can make a difference if the results are close together.

Be Sure You’re Right, Then Go Ahead Essay

The Davy Crockett Gun Craze by Sarah Nilsen is an article about the effects of gunplay in the Davy Crockett cartoon series in the 1950s. The cartoon series depicted Davy Crockett as a hero with a gun, and to the younger viewers, it portrayed to them that guns were acceptable to use in play. The author, Sarah Nilsen, is a professor at the University of Vermont, and she teaches the history of television and film and how they affected popular culture and their influence on the audience (UVM.edu). In the article, Nilsen believes that the media can control their audience by portraying something in a positive light, and she uses the Davy Crockett craze as an example of how cartoons can change the image of guns to the public. With the use of examples and quotes in the article, Nilsen’s article flows well and provides a sufficient amount of information about the Davy Crockett gun craze. Throughout the article, Nilsen provides many great examples to help prove her point. A strong examp le that helped strengthen the article when she pointed out that in 1942, Disney came out with the film Bambi that was â€Å"anti-hunting and anti-gun,† which was contradictory of Disney because about 10 years later, Disney produced the Davy Crockett cartoon series that promoted gun use where the gun was the â€Å"center of his image and message† (Nilsen 3). This example helped prove her point that Disney is very contradictory of itself and the messages that they are sending children. Nilsen used another example that was a report of what a child said to show that the Disney shows were influencing children using guns; â€Å"In Brooklyn, New York, a six-year-old son of a policeman asked his father for real bullets because his little sister ‘doesn’t die for real when I shoot her like they do when Hopalong Cassidy kills ’em'† (Nilsen 4). Nilsen is showing the reader that children are being influenced by what they watch and it’s causing them to be desensitized about guns. Guns are seen as normal and since they are portrayed as toys, people aren’t going to be safe with them as they should be. Along with strong examples to help prove her points, Nilsen also uses many quotes in the article to support her points and show the reader that her points are valid and has done sufficient research. For example, she takes a quote from what media theorist Daniel Dayan when he says â€Å"ideology is hidden  in our very eyes† (Nilsen 2). She uses his quote as a reference and in the next sentence she validates the quote by saying that the Davy Crockett series displays the ideology that contradicts the message (Nilsen 2). All in all, Sarah Nilsen’s article, â€Å"Be Sure You’re Right, Then Go Ahead†: The Davy Crockett Gun Craze, is an overall excellent article. Nilsen draws out many great points through examples and stories to support her points. Her knowledge of the subject is eminent through her control of writing and use of valid sources to help validate her points. The writing had substance and flowed well to keep the reader on track and focused on the writing.