Racism, Colonialism and the Emergence of Third World

Parietal Lobes Function and Brain Anatomy

Parietal Lobes Function and Brain Anatomy The parietal lobes are one of the four main lobes or regions of the cerebral cortex. The parietal lobes are positioned behind the frontal lobes and above the temporal lobes. These lobes are important to the function and processing of sensory information, understanding spatial orientation and body awareness. Location Directionally, the parietal lobes are superior to the occipital lobes and posterior to the central sulcus and frontal lobes. The central sulcus is the large deep groove or indentation that separates the parietal and frontal lobes. Function The parietal lobes are involved in a number of important functions in the body. One of the main functions is to receive and process sensory information from all over the body. The somatosensory cortex is found within the parietal lobes and is essential for processing touch sensations. For instance, the somatosensory cortex helps us to identify the location of a touch sensation and to discriminate between sensations such as temperature and pain. Neurons in the parietal lobes receive touch, visual and other sensory information from a part of the brain called the thalamus. The thalamus relays nerve signals and sensory information between the peripheral nervous system and the cerebral cortex. The parietal lobes process the information and help us to identify objects by touch. The parietal lobes work in concert with other areas of the brain,  such as the motor cortex and visual cortex, to perform certain tasks. Opening a door, combing your hair, and placing your lips and tongue in the proper position to speak all involve the parietal lobes. These lobes are also important for understanding spatial orientation and for proper navigation. Being able to identify the position, location and movement of the body and its parts is an important function of the parietal lobes. Parietal lobe functions include: CognitionInformation ProcessingTouch Sensation (Pain, Temperature, etc.)Understanding Spatial OrientationMovement CoordinationSpeechVisual PerceptionReading and WritingMathematical Computation Damage Damage or injury to the parietal lobe can cause a number of difficulties. Some of the difficulties as it relates to language include the inability to recall the correct names of everyday items, inability to write or spell, impaired reading, and the inability to position the lips or tongue properly in order to speak. Other problems that may result from damage to the parietal lobes include difficulty in performing goal-directed tasks, difficulty in drawing and performing math calculations, difficulty in identifying objects by touch or distinguishing between different types of touch, inability to distinguish left from right, lack of hand-eye coordination, difficulty in understanding direction, lack of body awareness, difficulty in making exact movements, inability to perform complex tasks in the proper order, difficulty in localizing touch and deficits in attention.​ Certain types of problems are associated with damage caused to either the left or right hemispheres of the cerebral cortex. Damage to the left parietal lobe typically results in difficulties in understanding language and writing. Damage to the right parietal lobe results in difficulties with understanding spatial orientation and navigation. Cerebral Cortex Lobes The cerebral cortex is the thin layer of tissue that covers the cerebrum. The cerebrum is the largest component of the brain and is divided into two hemispheres with each hemisphere being divided into four lobes. Each brain lobe has a specific function. Functions of the cerebral cortex lobes involve everything from interpreting and processing sensory information to decision-making and problem-solving capabilities. In addition to the parietal lobes, the lobes of the brain consist of the frontal lobes, temporal lobes, and occipital lobes. The frontal lobes are involved in reasoning and the expression of personality. The temporal lobes assist in organizing sensory input and memory formation. The occipital lobes are involved in visual processing.

Environmental Risk of Genetically Modified Food Essay

Environmental Risk of Genetically Modified Food - Essay Example GM foods have been hailed for being the sure approach to meeting the global demand for food especially within the developing world. Scientists affirm that it remains the only viable option for the attainment of the second green revolution to ensure adequate food supplies within the global domain. Critics however affirm that GM foods poses significant environmental risk to the natural society hence they note that the planet has the capacity to produce adequate food for everyone with the lack of food resulting from respective political systems’ inability to properly plan and distribute food, (Schneider & Schneider, 2002:4). Analyzing the economic, environmental and health concerns of the issue, activists argue that environmental impacts of the GM food types should be of more concern comparative to the other related issues. On health, studies indicate that the consumption of genetically modified foods may have unforeseen long-term adverse effects on not only human but the natural ecosystem as well, (Huebner, Studer, & Luethy, 1999: 1137). A 1998 research by the Rowett Research Institute affirmed that genetically modified potatoes contained Lancet, a substance that showed adverse effects on rats. Gene transfer and allergies are two key health risks that have been quoted as resulting from GM foods, (WHO. 2001:1). Based on several studies ingestion of GM foods may result into significant gene transfer from the respective GM foods to bacteria within their gut, (Hallman, Aquino, Cuite, Lang, 2006:12). There are also concerns that GM foods results into allergies which impose significant environmental risk to humans and other living organisms on the planet. The genetic modification of plants may results into unwanted crops or weeds that are genetically resistant to herbicides and other chemicals, an aspect that may result into a wild outgrow of destructive plants.

Unit 2 class activity Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Unit 2 class activity - Assignment Example Recognizing the way that the Islamic traders that came to China and bought and sold goods along the Silk Road had expertise with astronomy, the Chinese commissioned some of these Islamic craftsmen and scholars to help build the first Chinese clocks. Just as the Islamic groups before them had done, the Chinese used these first clocks primarily for astrological and astronomical purposes instead of telling time. Europe was introduced to the clock during the Muslim conquest of Southern Europe during the early part of the early Dark Ages. As with most forms of cultural interaction, Europe sought t improve upon the idea of the clock and soon thereafter began using it to tell time of day. Previously the time of day was told not by clocks but by the position of the sun and or celestial bodies. Such a form of time telling was adequate at times but made increasingly difficult in case of poor weather or visibility. By means of using a clock to tell time, the Europeans were able to industrialize their societies and have a solid base for arrangements and organization of the nations and peoples One of the biggest ways that the mechanical clock affected the United States was by way of navigation and discovery. Early navigation, like time telling, took place through visual confirmation of the sun moon and stars. However, such a method was not practical and led to many errors in judgment. Soon other forms of navigation were produced to include the sextant. However, one of the most useful was the use of navigation equipment that also utilized the time. The way that early mariners would do this was by having two clocks and a sextant. The first clock would tell them what time of day it was back home (in London or elsewhere) and the second they would use and set based upon their latitude. In this way, they could practically pin-point their location on the map as they navigated; helping them in finding their way back

Applied Econometrics Statistics Project Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Applied Econometrics - Statistics Project Example Q.3. (10) What does the sign of the estimate on ln area in model (2) tell you about the sign of the correlation between slave exports and the size of the country? Hint: think about omitted variable bias. Due to omitted variable bias, there will be a bias as the coefficient of In exports picks up the part of the influence of ln area that was correlated with In exports. The sign of the estimate on ln area in model (2) is positive telling us that the expected sign of the correlation between slave exports and the size of the country is also positive. In model 1, the value of R2 is given as 0.25 similarly in model 3, the value of R2 is given as 0.25 this shows no change in the value of R2 implying that the included variable (population) has no effect on the model; the variable is irrelevant. Q.6. (10) Note that the standard error on ln exports in model (2) is higher than the standard error on ln exports in model (1). Comment (in detail) on what information this provides you regarding the specification of Model (2). Q.7. (15) While the idea of Nunn is interesting, it is unlikely that slave exports alone can explain why economic output is so low amongst African countries. Consider population density in 1400 AD as an additional explanatory variable. Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson (2002) have shown that population density has a positive impact on economic prosperity. Comment (in detail) on the impact of the omission of this variable from Nunn’s empirical model. Â  Each observation (variable) affects the fitted regression equation differently and has a different influence on each variable; this may result to what we term as omitted variable bias (OVB). OVB occurs when a model is created which incorrectly leaves out one or more important causal factors. The "bias" is created when the model compensates for the missing factor by over- or underestimating the effect

The Marketing Of Movies Film Studies Essay

The Marketing Of Movies Film Studies Essay In 1910s, the era commonly known as the birth of movie marketing, the big focus was on the movie stars. As motion picture audiences grew, so too did the importance of the actors. It was producer Carl Laemmle who originated the publicity stunt, an orchestrated media event where something dangerous or spectacular related to the movie is performed in order to draw further attention to its opening. After asking Florence Lawrence, a famous movie star, to join his IMP production company, he announced to the press that Lawrence had died in the car accident. After news of her death had created a sufficient stir, he placed a full-page advertisement in papers to deny the story. That was one of the first deliberate marketing strategies in the industry and it changed the movie marketing system dramatically. (Block and Wilson, 2010:19). As the stars of movies became more and more identifiable, the publics curiosity about them grew to be insatiable. This then started an era of using movie stars to promote movies and ultimately, it opened a whole new field of movie marketing. From 1920s, film distributors had started to employ marketing teams to create and produce publicity materials like press books, which were intended to encourage cinema managers in the exploitation of the film product. Film historians tend to look at early press books in order to study the history of movie marketing itself. Each press book would carry information about the film and its production, such as the plot synopses, the cast, background information and all the details of the availability of posters or other promotional aids such as lobby cards or standees life-size cardboard cut-outs of characters from the film (Moat, 2003-2010) to be put in cinema foyers. Press books were also used to promote ideas like recipes, competitions, quizzes and tie-ins with the local shops, as well as suggested text for local newspapers. The peak of the press books popularity lasted from the 1920s until the beginning of 1950s, when film distributors started to have more money to spend on promotiona l strategies, and film going was at its height. By the mid 1950s, theatre attendance had dropped to only 50 percent of what it had been in 1946. (Lees and Berkovitz, 1981) To make things worse, the U.S Department of Justice had launched an antitrust suit against the Big Five film companies Paramount, RKO, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Bros. and MGM. After eight years of negotiations, these studios and three minor studios of that time Columbia, Universal, and United Artists agreed to what became known as the Paramount Consent Descree. (Pomerance, 2005:12) From now on, studios could no longer marshal under their own vertical structures the entire movie-making process, from acquisition of script material through pre-production, filming, editing, marketing, distributing, and exhibiting and therefore could no longer predict in advance what the profit range would be for the films they systematically produced. As the audience were less likely to visit the theatre, films had to have a more profound contact through the plot or use of vi sual effects. As a result, exhibition practises were modified in many ways after 1950 to lure the audience back: widescreen processes like CinemaScope and Cinerama, advance reservation road show bookings for major features, more intensive use of cinematic colour, the use of more exotic locations and lushly scored, quasi-symphonic or jazzy music. (Pomerance, 2005) However, what makes a hit? is the big question that has been on the minds of everyone involved in the movie business since its early days. (Lees, 1981:142) The uncertainty engendered by this shaky state of affairs causes, quite naturally, a parallel state of anxiety about decision making. There are no guidelines to consult that will indicate anything other than approximate probability. Film marketing has therefore two definitions. One is giving the public what they want. The other is making the public want what you have got. In the eyes of many movie marketers, this amounts to a very clear distinction between bad and good. (E.Squire, 2006:67) The problem is that there is usually no sure way to tell what the public wants. In late 1960s, film makers had started to use marketing research as a method of predicting the audience acceptance. Its goals were clear: determine a statistical picture of the kinds of people who go to movies, find out if certain projects will meet with public favour and learn how to market films that have already been made. (Marich, 2009:29) However, producers could watch the results of market research, trade paper reports of grosses, but the numbers for one film could never predict how the next one would do. In the 1970s, for example, there were three kinds of films one did not make: science fiction, sports and Vietnam. The films in those subject categories had all bombed, so it was assumed the public was turned off by the subject matter. (Stringer, 2003) Vietnam was depressing, science fiction was for buffs, and who wanted to see movies about boxing when they could see real sports at home, for free? Star Wars (Lucas, 1977), Coming Home (Ashby, 1978) and Rocky (Avildsen, 1976) buried these arguments forever, although the same thinking persists. For example, the presence of stars in the cast was said to be insurance that a film would be successful, but in Star Wars, for example, there were no famous names. Interestingly, the American film industry changed more between 1969 and 1980 than at any other period in its history, except perhaps for the introduction of sound. During that time, profits for the most successful motion pictures rose from the hundreds of thousands to the hundreds of millions of dollars. (Curran, 1998) The sixties were also highly marked by the rise of television. Although still too expensive, it opened a new window for film marketers. The film that is often credited with changing how movies are distributed and marketed was Jaws (Spielberg,1975), the first film to open at a thousand theatres and to use network television to support it. Made by Universal Pictures, the studio liked the complete film so much that it began a TV advertising campaign that cost an unprecedented $700,000 (Block, 2010:506) The film opened on 490 screens, setting the standard for subsequent wide openings for Hollywood films. Universal was looking to ramp up the marketing for Jaws to levels never seen before. Three nights before the film was scheduled to open nationwide, the studio saturated the networks during peak prime time hours with a barrage of thirty-second trailers. When it opened on June 20, Jaws become a national sensation. After the Jaws experience in 1975, multi-disciplined marketing departments were created, which included specific divisions for publicity, creating advertising, media buying, and promotion. (Cook, 2000). The follo wing chart depicts Jaws franchise films all-release worldwide box office revenues versus their production costs. (Block, 2010:507) Equivalent 2005 $s Against the rule of films one should not make in 1970s, George Lucas began developing his concept of a mythical science-fiction action adventure film named The Star Wars, set in the distant future and featuring a cast of characters. Universal and United Artists passed on it, but 20th Century Foxs Alan Ladd Jr. offered Lucas $10.000 to develop the screenplay. (Bakker, 2008:101) The head of Foxs advertising department, David Weitzner, began working on the film in February of 1977 and hired the successful advertising agency of Smolen, Smith and Connoly, which had previously created campaigns for such movies as Carrie (De Palma,1976) and The Omen (Donner, 1976). Donald Smolen began his task by examining the initial marketing research that had been conducted. The reports from the early screenings were not very encouraging said Smolen. We were told not to spend too much money, because the research showed it was just another science-fiction movie. (French, 1997:32) They certainly were not too excited about it, with the exception of Ashley Boone, the vice president of distribution at Fox, who kept touting the film, saying it is going to be a hit. When Fox screened the film for Smolen and his partners, they were not impressed. At this point, there were so much missing from the film it was not fair to judge it, although we did. However, my job was to make sure the f ilm was sold. In that regard it did not make any difference what the research showed or what anybody thought about the film. We were just trying to sell the film in the best possible way. (French,1997:32) To pump up pre-release interest, Lucas inventively tapped science fiction conventions, released a comic book and a novelization. The film opened to long lines at 10.00 am on May 25,1977 in a mere 43 locations across the United States. (Lucasfilm Ltd, 2004) No one knew it was going to be a big hit remembers David Prowse, actor playing Lord Vader. Nowadays, we take for granted that a big blockbuster will go out with thousands of prints and open in May. But back then the summer special effects blockbuster did not exist. (Prowse,2010) Although there were certainly fewer movie theatres in operation during the 1970s compared with today, a wide release of a mainstream, non-specialised film at that time typically meant a few hundreds engagements. Lippincott, former Lucasfilm Ltd. Vice President for Advertising admits that if the film was redone today, on the basis of the way movies are released with a couple of thousands prints, it probably would have been unsuccessful. Theatres did not want the movie. We were lucky to get forty theatres to open it (Gross, 1999:55) What is more, until the mid 1970s, movies were poor cousins of television when it came to merchandising. Sound tracks and books had always brought income to producers and studios, but the manufacturers who bought licenses to make other kinds of products such as toys or t-shirts figured that regular weekly exposure on television was the key to selling their goods. In comparison, movies seemed to be quick, one-shot affairs, not around long enough to sustain a product in the marketplace. (Curran, 1998) All that changed with Star Wars. The phenomenal success of most of the scores of Star Wars items showed that all sorts of products could ride on the coattails of a hit film. It also showed that through shrewd merchandising, a studio could make millions of dollars above and beyond income from movie theatres. The studios tend to define merchandising as any instance of an outside company using a film title or an image from a film on a product or as part of an advertising campaign. (Smith, 20 02:34) The latter case is called a tie-in, and as its name suggests, it is a partnership of two different companies in a unified advertising strategy. George Lucas agreed to reduce his salary as a film maker, reportedly $100.000, in exchange for Fox agreeing to let him have the films merchandising rights and other, lesser non-cash considerations. At the time Star Wars hit theatres, it had just ten licensees, but that mushroomed when the science fiction movie exploded in the box office. According to The Licensing Letter, the original merchandisers were Kenner for toys, games and crafts, Factors and Image Factory for t-shirts and posters, Ben Cooper for childrens costumes, Twentieth Century Records for soundtracks, Ballantine for paperbacks, Marvel for comics, Don Post Studios for various masks, Ken Films for edited home movies, and George Fenmore Associates for souvenir programs. (Marich, 2009:144) Star Wars was the real birth of the modern movie licensing business and it caught a lot of people by surprise. Six months after the release of Star Wars the much anticipated range of toys still was not ready. Puzzles, jigsaws and other items that could be produced with relatively short lead times begin to dominate toy shops across America, but Kenner had simply not had enough time to create its product. It became apparent to everyone at the company that they were going to miss the all-important Christmas toy purchasing period. Worried that by the time its products were available, the Star Wars obsession of Americas children would be over, the company devised the Star Wars Early Bird Certificate Package. (Lucasfilm Ltd, 2004) This was a large envelope available in toy stores. It included a certificate which the recipient would have to post to Kenner, remembering to include his or her name and address. The recipients would then, as soon as the toys were produced and before they were av ailable in shops, receive the first four of Kenners Star Wars action figures: Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, R2-D2 and Chewbacca. Kenner, which is now owned by Hasbro, still to this day has a Star Wars license for different merchandise. To compare, in 1997, by adding just four-and-a-half minutes of new footage to the original film, at a cost of $10m, roughly the cost of the entire original movie, George Lucas has managed to recycle Star Wars back to the top of the box office and make it the most successful picture of all time in the US. When it opened on May 25, 1977, Star Wars took $2.6 million in six days from a timid 32-screen release. On January 31, 1997, the re-release exceeded all expectations with $35.9m from 2,104 screens. (Duncan, 1997: 16) When George Lucas decided to digitally revamp the Star Wars trilogy for re-issue, Lucasfilm and 20th century Fox were left with a marketing conundrum. How do you build awareness for a film that is possibly the best known picture ever made? We went into re-release without a marketing template explains Gordon Radley, president of Lucasfilm. (Lucasfilm Ltd, 2004) Star Wars is more than a cultural phenomenon, it has such an impact on the hearts and minds of cinema-goers and no trilogy has ever been re-released on such a large scale. Lucas himself had strict guidelines for the worldwide re-release: it was to emphasise the in-theatre experience- the big screen as the best possible way to see Star Wars as well as stressing the unique chance to see all three films in a relatively short scape of time. Less than a year before the Star Wars relaunch, the new trio was titled The Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition and given the tag line Join the Celebration! Back on The Big Screen! (Lucasfilm Ltd , 2004). Although the average American has seen the film many times, US posters used the phrase See It For The First Time. (Duncan, 1997:16) Working with Lucasfilm, Fox marketers have approached Star Wars in terms of raising the consciousness of an existing, long-lasting brand name. The important thing was that we were not bringing a new film out says Jim Gianopulos, president of 20th Century Fox International. We didnt have to raise awareness. In 1996, before the release, Star Wars merchandising held the number two sales spot. (Smith, 2002:35) Star Wars action figures were the biggest selling toy after Barbie and has made more than $3 billion since the release of the film in 1977 twice the amount the franchise itself has earned. The unprecedented $2 billion tie-in with PepsiCo that was struck in May 1996, became the cornerstone to promoting Star Wars as a brand name again. (Duncan, 1997:16) During the latter part of the decade, intoxicated by the success of Jaws and Star Wars, Hollywood developed a blockbuster complex. The following table depicts franchise films originating in the 1970s. (Block and Wilson, 2010:533) Equivalent 2005 $s in Millions of $s Rank Franchise Number of Films in Franchise All-Release Worldwide Box Office 1 Star Wars 6 $6,872.9 2 Jaws 4 $2,238.9 3 Rocky 6 $2,060.6 4 Superman 5 $1,797.0 5 The Godfather 5 $1,139.2 The event movies, franchise films, and instant blockbusters that drove the box office of the 1980s became more expensive, more high-tech, and more international in the 1990s, although the profits became even harder to realise. By the early 1990s, sophisticated marketing techniques such as advertising testing, the use of the internet and product placement in films, became firmly rooted in the business. As production and marketing costs soared, more and more movies opened with huge grosses only to fade after the first weekend, replaced by another movie the following weekend. Nobody could predict that in a summer packed with big-budget mainstream studio fare like Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (Lucas, 1999) and Wild Wild West (Sonnenfeld, 1999), Artisan studio would score the most stunning coup in recent times by propelling Blair Witch Project, a grainy, low-tech documentary, to $250 million at the box office worldwide. (Marich,2009:96) Interestingly, the writers of the film spent less than $100,000 to make and present it in documentary style. As a result, with sequels, videos and licensed merchandise, it became the most profitable low-budget films in cinema history, as depicted in the following table. (Block, 2010:520) Top 5 Blockbuster Movies Lowest Production Cost versus Highest Revenue All-Release Domestic Box Office, 1960-2009 Equivalent 2005 $s in Millions of $s Rank Film Initial Release Domestic Box Office Production Cost 1 The Blair Witch Project 1999 $177.3 $.04 2 Easy Rider 1969 $191.7 $1.9 3 American Graffiti 1973 $402.0 $3.30 4 Psycho 1960 $209.9 $5.3 5 My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2002 $266.4 $5.4 Thanks to a revolutionary use of the internet and word-of-mouth, the movie stood out amongst the onslaught of $200 million movies with corporate tie-in partners and $50 million advertising budgets. Bound by a small marketing budget, the internet proved to be the one outlet where the money spent paid off in spades. The Web completely levels the playing field; you cant out-spend somebody on the Web the Artisans studio marketing head, John Hegeman said. Its against the grain of every other media; you create a message and give it time to breathe. If the environment is interesting, you can hold onto the fan base longer, as opposed to a 30-second ad thats here and gone. For us, it was the most important and impactful delivery mechanism (Hegeman, cited in Stanley, 1999) Co-director of the movie, Eduardo Sanchez, created the Blair Witch Project website to outline the story of the Blair Witch and lure potential investors- before the screenplay had even been written. He also planted a false information that the murders shown on-screen were real, not staged by film makers. Of course the events depicted in the movies were not real, but the controversy they caused helped boost interest and ticket sales. Rather than posting a typical promotional movie site with Shockwave presentations, cute screen savers, a few trailers, and an opening date, Sanchez created a Web site that is an extension of the movie rather than just an online advertisement. In addition, just before the general release of the film, The Science-Fiction Channel aired a mockumentary, Curse of the Blair Witch (Sanchez, 1999b), which, supposedly, investigated the legend behind the movie. The program contains actual interviews of relatives and friends of the three main characters. (Sanchez, 1999b) Since the whole legend was fictional, including the myth of the missing students, the program can be treated as another marketing mechanism for the film. Despite this, it gives more background information on the legend that is hinted at in the film. Then, at the Cannes Film Festival, the producers distribute flyers containing information about the cast. The missing posters of the actors of the film were also put up. These marketing strategies and also the authentic feel of the movie made many viewers believe that the whole documentary was real, even though the film was listed in the fiction category. This decade also saw industry consolidation accelerate. By the end of the 1990s, bigger companies dominated the entertainment industry and companies such as News Corporation (20th Century-Fox and Fox Broadcasting), Time Warner (Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema), and Viacom (Paramount, Blockbuster Video, and CBS) were changing the dynamics of ownership. (Bakker, 2008:122) Studios were no longer part of companies focused primarily on movies and TV shows. These companies ushered in an era of more intense research, which was conducted at a higher cost. Everything was tested, from story concepts to TV commercials. These companies were also able to raise vast pools of funds from investors both in United States and around the world. Movies were still shown on film, but there were signs that the end of the celluloid era was upon us as movies entered the electronic age. Digital technology was used first to store information, then to edit movies and TV shows, and later as a tool in special effects, leading ultimately to the beginning of digital cinema, which would transform production, distribution, and exhibition. At the same time the internet gave easy access to an abundance of information and fast communication. When in 1993 only 1.3 million people used the Internet, by the year 2000, over 300 million people had access. (Bordwell, 2003:274) Soon after, the DVD was introduced as a digital consumer entertainment format and seemed likely to replace videotape. However, mainly due to evolving technology, the U.S film industry faced many new difficulties as a new century dawned. Film piracy exploded, thanks to digital copying and internet access. Also box-office revenues swelled due to increased ticket prices as supposed to larger audiences. In real terms, theatres were earning less from tickets sales that they had in the 1980s. (Stringer, 2003) In the meantime, the costs of film making and marketing were rising faster than the income. Nonetheless, theatrical motion pictures remained central ingredients in the media mix. Films spawned television series, video games, comic books and other merchandise material. The press tracked top-grossing films as if they were a sports team. The industry might have been riddled with economic problems, but film was securely at the centre of Americas and the worlds popular culture. Bibliography draft: Bakker, George (2008) Entertainment Industrialised. The Emergence of the International Film Industry, 1890-1940, University Press, Cambridge. Bassom, David (1999) Star Maker, StarBust, May 1999, pp. 40-45. Bhuvaneshwari (2005) Star Wars: A Star Brand, IBSCDC, May 2005, pp. 1-8. Block, Alex Ben and Lucy Autrey Wilson (2010) Blockbusting, HarperCollins Publishers Inc., New York. Cook, David (2000) History of the American Cinema. 9 Lost Illusions: American Cinema in the Shadow of Watergate and Vietnam, 1970-1979, MacMillan, New York. Curran, David (1998) Guide to American Cinema 1965-1995, Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport. Dale, Martin (1997) The Movie Game. The Film Business in Britain, Europe and America, Cassell, London. Duncan, Celia (1997) Marketing Focus: Star Wars Trilogy, Screen International, March 1997, p. 16. Endicott, Robert (2000) Studios Soar to New Box-Office Nirvana Advertising Age, July 2000, p. 10 E.Squire, Jason (2006) The Movie Business Book, McGraw-Hill Education, England. French, Lawrence (1997) Selling the Force, Cinefantastique, February 1997, pp. 32-37. Hayward, Susan (1996) Key concepts in Cinema Studies, Routledge, New York. Izod, John (1988) Hollywood and the box office, 1985-1986, MacMillan Press, Hampshire. Kempster, Grant (2005) Star Wars, Film Review, August 2005, pp. 12-16. Lehu, Jean-Marc (2007) Branded Entertainment: Product placement and brand strategy in the entertainment business, Kogan Page, London. Lees, David and Stan Berkowitz (1981) The Movie Business, Random House, New York. Marich, Robert (2009) Marketing to Moviegoers: A Handbook of Strategies and Tactics, second edition, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale. Pham,Andrew and Neil Watson (1993) The Film Marketing Handbook, BAS Printers Limited, Hampshire. Pomerance, Murray (2005) American Cinema of the 1950s. Themes and Variations, Oxford International Publishers Ltd, Oxford. Prowse, David, actor playing Lord Vader in Star Wars trilogy. Face-to-face interview (notes), 20 September, 2009, Glasgow. Smith, Jim (2002) The Star Wars Story- Part One, StarBust, May 2002a, pp. 34-41. Smith, Jim (2002) The Star Wars Story- Part Two, StarBust, June 2002b, pp. 26-33. Smith, Jim (2002) The Star Wars Story- Part Three, StarBust, July 2002c, pp. 28-34. Stringer, Julian (2003) Movie Blockbuster, Routledge, New York. Wasko, Janet (2003) How Hollywood Works, SAGE Publications, London. Miller, Neil The Ultimate Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Photo Gallery, http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/the-ultimate-harry-potter-and-the-half-blood-prince-photo-HYPERLINK http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/the-ultimate-harry-potter-and-the-half-blood-prince-photo-gallery.phpgallery.php (accessed 22.02.2010) Royal Albert Hall Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix http://www.royalalberthall.com/about/history-and-archives/timeline-detail.aspx?search=20030626 (accessed 18.02.2010) Granville, Williams Bestriding the World http://www.mediachannel.org/ownership/granville.shtml (accessed 22.03.2010) Entertainment Marketing Letter Product Placement On The Rise In Broadcast Network Primetime Shows, http://www.epmcom.com/products/entertainment/eml (accessed 10.03.2010) Koster, Olinka Harry Potter and the not-so-wizard Coca-Cola wheeze http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-79086/Harry-Potter-wizard-Coca-Cola-wheeze.html (accessed 23.03.2010) Moat, Janet Selling the Movies, http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tours/marketing/marketingtour1.html (accessed 24.10.2009) Grover, Ronald Twilight, the Movie: This Seasons Harry Potter? http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2008/tc20081114_235548.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_companies (accessed 22.03.2010) MPAA Marketing budget 2007, http://www.mpaa.org/researchStatistics.asp (accessed 10.01.2010) Box Office Mojo Proud American, http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=proudamerican.htm (accessed 21.01.2010) Thilk, Chris Harry Potter series http://www.moviemarketingmadness.com/blog/2004/06/03/7005/ (accessed 5.09.2009) Filmprofit, Producers Marketing Package http://www.filmprofit.com/samples/ProdMarkSample.pdf (accessed 01.01.2010) Stanley, Tim, High-Tech Throwback marketing of Blair Witch Project, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BDW/is_36_40/ai_56023086/ (accessed 10.11.2009) Star Wars:Bonus Material, prod: Lucasfilm Ltd., USA, 2004. Curse of the Blair Witch, dir: Eduardo Sanchez, USA, 1999b. Unknown, Twilight word of mouth and buzz marketing http://www.socialmediamarketinguk.com/twilight-word-of-mouth-marketing-and-buzz-marketing (accessed 2.04.2010)

Critique of Robert Frost Essay examples -- essays research papers

Marion Montgomery, â€Å"Robert Frost and His Use of Barriers: Man vs. Nature Toward God,† Englewood Cliffs, NJ; Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1962. Reprinted by permission of The South Atlantic Quarterly.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Robert Frost is considered by the casual reader to be a poet of nature like that of a Wordsworth. In a sense, his poetry is about nature, yet with strong underlying tones of the drama of man in nature. Frost himself stated, â€Å"I guess I’m not a nature poet,† â€Å" I have only written two without a human being in them (138).† Marion Montgomery’s critical essay plays with the epitaph that Frost proposes for himself in The Lesson for Today: â€Å"I have a lovers quarrel with the world.† Montgomery says, that the lovers quarrel is Frost’s poetic subject, and states, â€Å"throughout his poetry there is evidence of this view of mans’ existence in the natural world (138). The essay examines how Frost’s attitude toward nature is one with armed and amicable truce and mutual respect interwoven with boundaries of the two principles, individual man and the forces of the world. But the boundaries are insisted upon. The critical essay examines how Frost’s direct addresses of nature are often how man is essentially different from objects and features of nature. Montgomery insists, â€Å"†¦his trees and animals, though he speaks to them, do no take on grave countenances (140).† The jest of Montgomery’s ideal is when Frost speaks directly to or directly of natural objects or creatures, â€Å"that ...

Kidney Function

It is said that we are what we eat. Because the food we eat is assimilated into our blood. And the nutrients circulating in our bloodstream replenish every cell of our body. On the other side of the coin, this blood needs to be constantly cleaned and maintained at an equilibrium. This is where the kidneys come in. It is the function of the kidneys to continually filter out the impurities and toxins from the blood.   After the body tissues have taken what is needed from the nutrient-laden blood, waste is sent back to the blood. If our kidneys did not remove these waste substances, they would build up in the blood to the point of death. Kidneys excrete the unwanted stuff from the blood and retain only the essential ingredients. In this sense, it can be said that we are indeed what our kidneys keep. Kidneys are such vital organs of the body that we can only keep going as long as the kidneys keep functioning.The kidneys regulate the composition of the blood by 1) removing waste chemica ls from metabolism of body’s tissue cells and various chemicals that have been detoxified by the liver (such as drugs, toxins and hemoglobin breakdown products) – i.e. excretion 2) maintaining the concentrations of various ions (including sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, magnesium, sulfate, phosphate) and other important substances at optimum levels   – i.e., osmoregulation. 3) keeping the volume of water and in the body at the right levels and 4) keeping   the acid/base concentration of the blood constant.Besides regulating the blood composition, kidneys also help maintain the body’s blood pressure through the action of an enzyme called renin. Further, they actually help new blood cells to generate from the bone marrow. This they do by acting in the capacity of endocrine glands by releasing a hormone called erythropoietin. The kidneys also release a hormone called calcitrol which helps the body sythesize calcium.Blood is pumped down from the hea rt, and the kidneys receive this blood through a branch of aorta called the renal artery. Although the kidneys are relatively small in size and constitute less than 1% of the total body weight, they can take in up to 20% of the body’s total blood volume at a time. Blood flows from the renal artery into progressively smaller arteries, the smallest being the arterioles. From the arterioles, blood flows into tufts of microscopic capillaries called glomeruli. Blood exits each glomerulus through another arteriole, which connects to a small vein. The small veins join to form a single large renal vein, which carries blood away from each kidney. After the processing of the blood, the purified blood is returned to the body through the renal vein and the filtered-out waste products and other unwanted substances move out through the ureter. Urine flows from the kidneys through the ureters to the bladder.The kidneys filter and return to the bloodstream about 200 quarts of fluid every day . of which about two quarts are removed from the body in the form of urine.Excretion in the kidneys removes water, inorganic ions, products of detoxification of blood, and nitrogenous waste products that result from the metabolism of protein taken into the body in food. Protein is broken down by the process of digestion into amino acids which are carried to the liver by the blood and get converted into body protein. But the surplus amino acids which cannot be stored by the body undergo a process of deamination, i.e. are broken down. Ammonia is formed as a by-product. Ammonia is an extremely toxi substance. Inside the liver it combines with carbon dioxide in a series of reactions known as the ornithine cycle. Urea is formed as a result, which then passes into the circulation and is carried to the kidney, is processed by nephrons and then excreted in the urine. With waste products thus expelled from the body, the purity of the blood is restored – an this is a continuous process inside our bodies.The NephronThe key functional unit of the kidney is called the nephron. Each kidney contains about a million nephrons. It is these nephrons that contain glomureli. Each nephron consists of a glomerulus surrounded by a thin-walled, bowl-shaped structure (Bowman's capsule), a tiny tube (tubule) that drains fluid from a space in Bowman's capsule, and a collecting duct that drains the freshly-formed urine from the tubule. Each of these tubules has three parts: the proximal convoluted tubule, the loop of Henle, and the distal convoluted tubule. It is in this closely packed intricate network of glomeruli and tubules that the basic process of blood filtering takes place.Nephrons regulate water and electrolytes in the body by filtering the blood, after which necessary fluid and molecules are reabsorbed and unneedes substances are secreted. Reabsorption and secretion are accomplished with both cotransport and countertransport mechanisms established in the nephrons and asso ciated collecting ducts.Blood enters the glomeruli at high pressure. Much of the fluid part of blood is filtered through small pores in the glomeruli, leaving behind blood cells and most large molecules, such as proteins. Thus filtered fluid then enters Bowman's space and passes into the tubule leading from Bowman's capsule. In the first part of the tubule, most of the sodium, water, glucose, and other substances are reabsorbed and returned to the blood. In the next part of the tubule, the remaining sodium,   and potassium, and chloride are pumped out, and the resulting fluid becomes increasingly dilute. The dilute fluid then passes through the next part of the tubule, where more sodium is pumped out in exchange for potassium and acid, which are pumped in. A complex series of chemical exchanges constantly take place inside the glomeruli and tubules of nephrons.The Kidneys and the Liver  There is also another major organ responsible for filtering out toxins from the blood, and th at is the liver. The liver performs several roles in carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. Further, the liver breaks down toxin substances, and it also breaks down hemoglobin.  Food nutrients entering the liver from the intestine are changed into forms usable by the body cells or are stored for future use. Fats are converted into fatty acids and then into carbohydrates or ketone bodies and transported by the blood to the tissues. Sugars are converted into glycogen, which remains stored in the liver until it is needed for energy production, when it is reconverted into glucose and released into the bloodstream. In its role as a blood purifier, the liver metabolizes nitrogenous waste products from body processes and detoxifies poisonous substances, preparing them for elimination in the urine or feces.The human liver secretes about one litre of bile each day to aid the digestion of fats in the food. Bile is also the medium of excretion for certain metabolic waste products, drug compounds , and toxins. Bile secreted into the common bile duct enters the gallbladder, where it is concentrated and stored. When needed,   this bile flows out of the gallbladder and into the intestine. Worn-out red blood cells are destroyed in the liver, spleen, and bone marrow.   A pigment, bilirubin, formed in the process of hemoglobin breakdown, is released into the bile, creating its characteristic greenish-orange colour.The red blood cells are degraded at end of their lives in liver and spleen, with hemoglobin breaking down to heme and globin. Erythrocytes of red blood cells carry oxygen and carbon dioxide by binding them with iron in hemoglobin. Erythrocyte production in the body is stimulated by a hormone called erythropoietin, secreted mainly by kidneys. The fixed phagocytic cells of the spleen and bone marrow destroy old blood cells and convert the heme groups of hemoglobin into the pigment bilirubin. The bilirubin is secreted into the blood and carried to the liver where it is conjugated with glucuronic acid, a derivative of glucose. Some of the conjugated bilirubin is secreted into the blood, and the rest is excreted in the bile as bile pigment that passes into the small intestine. This â€Å"conjugated† bilirubin is called direct bilirubin, while the â€Å"unconjugated† bilirubin is called indirect bilirubin.The conjugated bilirubin that is excreted into the bile by the liver is stored in the gall bladder or transferred directly to the small intestines. Urobilinogens are colorless compounds formed by bacteria in the intestine from bilirubin after the conjugated glucuronic acid has been removed. The urobilinogen remaining in the intestine is oxidized to brown stercobilin which gives the feces their characteristic color. A small portion of the urobilinogen is reabsorbed, extracted from the circulation by the hepatocytes and excreted by the kidney. This constitutes the normal â€Å"intrahepatic urobilinogen cycle†.If a liver disease su ch as hepatitis interferes with the normal intrahepatic urobilinogen cycle, increased amounts of urobilinogen may appear in the urine where it is converted to yellow urobilin.Whearas in a typical case of biliary obstruction, decreased amounts of direct bilirubin reach the intestine for conversion to urobilinogen. With little urobilinogen available for reabsorption and excretion, the amount of urobilinogen in the urine is low, which would be detected in a urinalysis.UrinalysisUrinalysis is a physical and/or chemical examination of the urine. It consists of a series of chemical and microscopic tests to identify urinary tract infections, kidney disease, liver disease, and diseases of other organs that may result in the appearance of abnormal metabolites (break-down products) in the urine.In urinalysis, a small, randomly collected urine sample is examined physically for things like color, appearance, and concentration (specific gravity); chemically for substances such as proteins, gluco se, and acidity vs. alkalinity (pH value). Further on, tests can be conducted for the presence of cellular elements (red blood cells, white blood cells, and epithelial cells) mircroscopic organisms, crystals, and casts (structures formed by the deposit of protein, cells, and other substances in the kidneys' tubules).Normal Values and DeviationsNormal urine may vary in color from nearly transparent colorlessness to dark yellow. If the urine is of an unusual color that cannot be accounted for by food intake or medication, it is an indication of some abnormality. The urine specific gravity ranges between 1.006 and 1.030. The specific gravity varies depending on various factors such as food and the time of the day. If the specific gravity is above or below the normal range, or if it does not vary, it may indicate a kidney problem.The urine pH value is also influenced by a number of factors. Generally the normal pH range is from 4.6 to 8.0. If the pH is very acidic or alkaline, beyond wh at could be attributed to normal levels of variation, then there could be a problem. There is usually no detectable urine glucose, urine ketones, or urine protein. Significant amounts of glucose and ketones point to uncontrolled diabetes. There should be no red blood cells present in urine. If blood is found in the urine, it is a sure sign of trouble, possibly of a serious nature. It may indicate a urinary tract disease, or the dreaded cancer.Bilirubin is normally not found in the urine, as it would only be present in such tiny quanties as is undetectable by a routine test. There may be a trace of urobilinogen in the urine, but bilirubin in discernable amounts in the urine is a sign of a liver or bile duct disease. Nitrites and white blood cells (leukocytes) too should not be normally present in the urine. And if they are, a strong possibility of an urinary tract infection rises.Creatinine Clearance Test for GFRCreatinine is a metabolite of the compound creatine that is found in mus cles. Creatine is a by-product of muscle energy metabolism. It is filtered from the blood by the kidneys and excreted into the urine, in the same general manner as urea. Creatinine clearance is the process of removal of creatinine from the body, and technically signifies the volume of blood plasma that is cleared of creatinine per unit time (typically, milliliters per minute).Creatinine clearance is used for estimating the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) of the kidneys, which is the volume of fluid filtered from the renal glomerular capillaries into Bowman's capsule per unit time. GFR measurement is often considered to be the best avilable determinant of renal function. The normal range of GFR for males is 97 to 137 ml/min, and for females is 88 to 128 ml/min. The average for men is 120 ml/min and for women 95 ml/min. The GFR may reach 200 ml/min during pregnancy.A clearance of less than 80 ml/min is significant except in people over 80 years. A decreased creatinine clearance rate is an indication of increased blood creatinine level, and happens due to the diminished capability of kidneys to carry out their function, under conditions of abnormality and disease. A creatinine clearance of 50 ml/min or less indicates serious renal insufficiency.The GFR can predict the signs and symptoms of uraemia, especially when it falls to below 10-15 ml/min. It must be noted that the GFR varies according to renal mass and correspondingly to body mass. In a lab report, GFR is corrected for body surface area (which equates with renal mass), which in normal humans is approximately 1.73m2 and represents an average value for normal young men and women.   Impaired renal function is indicated by a GFR of 30-80 ml/min/1.73m2 and in cases of less than 30 ml/min/1.73m2 – there is a strong possibility of renal failure.References:Freudenrich C C (n.d) How Your Kidneys Work. Retrieved May 08, 2006 fromhttp://science.howstuffworks.com/kidney.htmNIH Publication No. 06–4241 (November 2005) Your Kidneys and How They Work. Retrieved May 09, 2006 from http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/yourkidneysStone C.(Nov 2005) Bilirubin. Retrieved May 09, 2006 from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003479.htmMerck Manual. (February 2003) Kidneys. Retrieved May 09, 2006 fromhttp://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec11/ch141/ch141b.htmlFord-Martin, P.A. (n.d.) Kidney function tests, Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine. Retrieved May 09, 2006 from http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g2601/is_0007/ai_2601000790/pg_1National Kidney Foundation. (n.d.) How Your Kidneys Work. Retrieved May 09, 2006 from http://www.kidney.org/kidneydisease/howkidneyswrk.cfmLAb Tests Online. (n.d.) Creatine Clearance. Retrieved May 09, 2006 from http://www.labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/creatinine_clearance/test.htmlFadem S.Z. (n.d.) How the kidney works, The Nephron Information Center. Retrieved May 09, 2006 from http://links.nephron.com/nephsites/htkw/r2_htmlWikipedia. ( April 2006) Renal Function. Retrieved May 09, 2006 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renal_function

TalibanStripping the Indentities of Afghanistan Women Essays

TalibanStripping the Indentities of Afghanistan Women Essays TalibanStripping the Indentities of Afghanistan Women Essay TalibanStripping the Indentities of Afghanistan Women Essay Imagine if you will a group of taking over our country and banning the female population from having any place or participation in society. By this I mean as a woman you are no longer to be seen, you are no longer to be heard,you are no longer to work outside the home, you are no longer to be educated, and you are no longer to have access to health care. This idea to most women is an unthinkable nightmare. For the women in Afghanistan it has become their sad reality. The women of Afghanistan are not only being denied the bare necessities of life, but have also been striped of any identity they once had. The group of men that has taken over the nation of Afghanistan is known as the Taliban. The Taliban is a fundamentalist Islamic regime, and in the name of Islam has place ungodly restriction on the lives of Afghan women. The Taliban came from a background of systematic deprivation and manipulation without recource to cultural and family norms of human development(Peshawar 5). According to Physicians For Human Rights, no other regime in the world has methodically and violently forced half of its population into virtual house arrest, prohibiting them on pain of physical punishment from showing their faces, seeking medical care with out an escort, or attending school(PHR 2). As women they are not respected nor appreciated for their contribution in society, but rather abused and tortured for being the gender they are. In order to fully understand the harsh extent of the situation it is important to know the restrictions imposed by the Taliban on Afghan women. According to the R. A. W. A. (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan), Taliban treat women worse than they treat animals. They have declared keeping of caged animals and birds illegal while they have imprisoned women inside the four walls of their own homes. Except for producing children or satifying their sexual needs or drudgery or everyday housework there is no importance for women in their eyes(R. A. W. A/ homepage). The list of retrictions listed by the R. A. W. A. includes a complete ban on womens work outside their houses. Complete ban on womens movement outside their houses without a father, brother, or husband. Ban on dealing with male shopkeepers. Ban on being treated by male doctors. Ban on studying at schools. Compulsory wearing or a long veil which covers a woman from head to toe. Whipping, beating and verbal abuse of women are the penalties for not following the rules. Whipping women in public for having non-covered ankles. A public stoning of women for talking or shaking hands with non-related males. The list given is long, but not inclusive. It is obvious that there are many implications that come with each of the restrictions. The restriction of health care by the Tabiban is the most shocking. According to the P. H. R. , More recent United Nations surveys estimate that only ten percent of Afghan women recieve any type of formal parental or maternal care and less than six percent of deliveries are attended by trained birth attendents(P. H. R. 70). The future of healthcare for Afghan women is an even sadder state. Under the current system of which no women are being ecucated, there will be no health care for the next generation. Despite the obvious physical danger the women in Afghanistan are in, there is also the sad reality that all of these women have been stripped of their identities. These men have taken from them everything that was once theirs including their sense of self. These women are tragically taking their own lives in fear and desperation, or just simply losing their minds from the trauma they witness on a daily basis. It is shocking that this tragedy has been allowed to continue for the past three years. It is shocking that the rest of the world has not seen this brutality and stepped in. It is even more shocking that we live in a world of mass communication and most people I know are unaware that this situation is even taking place. Bibliography: Belquis, R. A. The Words of Afghan Women. Brussels, Belgium. March 1998. R. A. W. A. Revolution Association of the Women of Afghanistan. University of Iowa. March 26 1999 rawa. org/. The Country that has Declared All-Out War on Women. Glamour 1999 United States. Physicians for Human Rights. The Talibans War on Women; A Health and Human Rights Crisis in Afghanistan. Washington, 1998.

Ebonics - A Language essays

Ebonics - A Language essays Since the advent of man, he has tried to communicate with each other to get their thoughts and ideas across to the other. The earliest man used some form of communication and it was much later that scripting was invented. Today the earliest writing that has been discovered are those of the Sumerians and the Indus Valley Civilization. With increasing time and age languages became an important part of communication and many were recognized for the languages they spoke. Today there is a diversity of languages all across the globe. Arabic, Chinese, Persian, English and French are the most commonly spoken languages. In schools the national language of a country is taught and other languages are not really given any importance. However people do learn different languages and make them able to communicate with a person who speaks a different language. Native Americans had their own form of communication and when people from Europe started moving in and became dominant in America, the offici al language was chosen to be English. Blacks were brought in America in the great trans-Atlantic shift and were used as slaves. Their oppression was relieved later on and the black culture came into existence. Although they distorted English, and gave rise to new terminologies, Ebonics today are widely used all across the United States by the youth. IS EBONICS OR BLACK ENGLISH A LANGUAGE? Ebonics was a term formulated by a team of Black scholars and defined the way the descendants of the slaves talk. It is thus according to them a language spoken by the slave descendants. Language expresses identity and with Ebonics the Blacks aimed to identify themselves, their culture and heritage. Language variations are also absolutely necessary in the struggle for liberation. Ebonics forms a link between the Africans in the United States and the Africans all across the world. Many mistake Ebonics to be broken English or slang that is spoken by Black kid...

Mr. Empanada Strategy recommendations Research Paper

Mr. Empanada Strategy recommendations - Research Paper Example At the same time, the firm avoids its weaknesses by utilizing its opportunities. According to the National Restaurant Association Study, casual dining represents 31.59% of the total food service sales. To possess a significant proportion of that percentage, therefore requires unique strategies to be competitively advantageous. Figure 1. casual dining percentage of total foodservice sales For Mr. Empanada to exceed franchises and bring in new investors to exceed his business, I recommend that his company adopt a strategy that gives his firm a competitive advantage. A competitive advantage refers to the advantage a firm has over its rival firms. Competitive advantage allows the company to increase sales, profits and retain more customers than the competitors. Competitive advantage also allows the company to generate more value for its sustenance and for the shareholders. Competitive advantage is derived through the firm’s strengths that include the firms cost structure, products , distribution network and customers support. There are two main routes to options development for competitive advantage. Those that are market based and those that are resource e based. Within the market-based approach, three main routes include the generic strategies, market options and expansion methods. The three fundamental strategic options available to an organization are referred as the generic strategies and include; Cost leadership This strategy aims at placing the organization amongst the lowest cost producers in the market. Empanada, can achieve overall cost leadership through various means. To start with, his firm can take advantage of economies of scale through franchising. By doing that, the purchases for his restaurants can be affordable in low prices given by the distributors as compared to the competitors. Due to large volume of purchases, the firm ought to attract cash discounts. Secondly, this objective can be achieved through globalization of operations. Franchi sing can be done in international level to increase the market share in many countries. This is advantageous due to wide awareness created. Strategic alliances can also be fruitful in this endeavor. The firm can decide to relocate to low cost parts of the world where labor is cheap and sources of supplies are many and cheap. This strategy is beneficial in outperforming rivals and erecting barriers to entry. Differentiation This option aims at developing and targeting a product that is different in some significant way from its competitors in the market place. Uniqueness in products through emphasis upon one or more elements of marketing mix as perceived by the target market is important as it offers a scope for distancing the company from its competitors expecting competitive advantages. This objective can be achieved through creating of strong brand identities. The firm can enhance its uniqueness through product engineering and creative flare generated from strong research (Nilsson , Fredrik & Birger 412). The firm can also employ the corporate reputation for quality service through strong cooperation from all channels of distribution. Having long tradition in the field of food and beverage in the food industry can give the firm a competitive advantage. Focus Focus strategy is also known as the niche strategy and involves targeting a small market segment where

HR Training and Development #4 deadline Nov 8 Essay

HR Training and Development #4 deadline Nov 8 - Essay Example Many of the experts are unable to say with any degree of certainty what percentage of training actually gets transferred. There are certain factors that inhibit transfer of training. The unsupportive organizational climate with its everyday demands and pressures could inhibit the application of what the employees learnt in the training. Though Abbott has done its best to provide all the resources and technology necessary for application of training, it is still debatable that training has been translated into performance. The low motivation levels of the employees could be the other factors that inhibit positive transfer of training. The theoretical nature of training in some areas also makes it more challenging to implement. Self management strategies such as goal-setting, living the values, keeping up the promises, help learners think about how they will use their knowledge and skills in the work setting. The personal SWOT analysis will also help employees to clearly know about themselves and to effectively implement what they have learnt during the training. There is strong point in knowing whether the training programs are actually delivering what they have been promising.