The role of channel marketing in the B2B global marketing challenge Research Paper

The role of channel marketing in the B2B global marketing challenge - Research Paper Example The technological advancement in Europe is believed to be the core reason for massive outsourcing in oil and gas sector of the world. Nevertheless, the outsourcers and channel marketers have more brand value than the mere producers of crude oil. The importance of channel marketers are significantly growing because consumers on the street know the companies that deal in oil and gas products locally. The actual producers of oil and gas do not have sufficient resources that are needed to purify, market and distribute products at an international level. The channel marketers therefore, come into the play. But, in the era of the 21st century, the role of channel marketers is not limited to promotion. They have to purify the crude oil and gas in order to make them consumable (Silvestrea & Dalcol, 2009). Additionally, channel marketers rely on companies like Lumin-Ultra to acquire technologies that are necessary for purification of crude oil based products (Valentini, Montagut, Neslin, & Frey, 2011). Recently, the company has developed a method of on the spot measurement of microorganisms in crude oil and after measurement, the company assists in devising the treatment that will neutralize the impurities and thus more pure crude products can be obtained in this fashion. The featured technology made it easy for producers to find biological agents and get rid of them more effectively and efficiently. The abovementioned process helped the operators in minimizing the time needed to purify the products. The Lumin-Ultra’s major operations are sponsored by channel marketers that are responsible for commercializing the final oil products in the international market. The channel marketers are also found to have more brand reach and recognition in the global consumer market. The actual producers of crude oil do not have necessary technological and financial power required to reach and establish a brand name in global market

A Comparative Essay Of The Poems ‘Salome’ (C.A.Duffy) and ‘The Arrival Of The Bee Box’ (S.Plath) Essay Example for Free

A Comparative Essay Of The Poems ‘Salome’ (C.A.Duffy) and ‘The Arrival Of The Bee Box’ (S.Plath) Essay ‘Salome’ by Carol Ann Duffy and ‘The Arrival Of The Bee Box’ by Sylvia Plath have many similarities and differences. ‘Salome’ is ostensibly a poem about an individual, most likely a woman, who wakes up and finds ‘a head on the pillow’ beside them. The poem continues to detail their immediate actions and finally reveals that this head is in fact ‘on a platter’. ‘The Arrival Of The Bee Box’ appears on the surface to describe the empowerment felt by an individual as they explore their control over a box of bees. An interesting similarity is both poets are female. C. A. Duffy was born in Glasgow in 1995 and is the eldest of five children. Plath was born in 1932 and was born in Boston. If you read the poems from a biographical perspective it is possible to identify certain factors which the poet has included due to their personal circumstances. Personally, I believe that both C. A. Duffy and S. Plath have points to make. For example, Duffy’s poem could be seen to have many links to the role of woman in society and the power they possess over their male counterparts. This mental attitude, which has filtered through into her poetry, could stem from the fact she is the first women and the first openly gay person to hold the position of Britain’s poet laureate. Similarly, ‘The Arrival Of The Bee Box’ contains subversive ideas of power and possibly connotations to women taking an untraditional role in society. In ‘Salome’ the pace, tone, rhythm and structure are all fractured. This is very effective as it reflects the psychological standing of the voice in the poem. The effect is created through the techniques of enjambment and rhetorical questions and these can be observed in the fifth line â€Å"what did it matter? . The line is isolated and this draws the reader’s attention to it. Alongside this the rhetorical question then compels the reader to think â€Å"what did it matter? †. This emphasises the point to the reader that it does matter and is very important in the given context of the poem. By contrast, ‘The Arrival Of The Bee Box’ is made from six uniform stanzas of five lines. There is little by way of caesura and it therefore differs greatly, in terms of structure at least, from ‘Salome’. Personally, I believe this is because the speaker is portrayed as being more collected and comfortable with the received power, relative to the voice in ‘Salome’. The second line is an excellent example; â€Å"Square as a chair and almost too heavy to lift. † The rhyme of ‘square’ and ‘chair’ gives a positive sound and in turn this can be seen to signify control and enjoyment of power. The above evidence suggests that C. A. Duffy and S. Plath both have different ideas on which way structurally is best to communicate their ideas. However, I believe the free structure of ‘Salome’ adds more than the rigid structure of ‘The Arrival of The Bee Box’ as it generates an extra dimension in which readers can have more freedom to interpret the desired meaning of the poem themselves. Integral to both poems is the theme of power and the relation it has with the owner, especially women. The similarity and hegemony is this attack on the stereotypical views that if allowed to stand could drive woman to the periphery of society. In ‘Salome’ the voice is somewhat of a ‘player’ and it is this scopophilic attitude which generates Duffy’s point. In a modern society it is often seen as ‘cool’ or ‘macho’ for a male to sleep with many women. By contrast, if females replicate these actions then they stand a high chance of being bombarded with derogatory terms. It would appear that S. Plath would chose to focus more on the interest of power. She refers to different times in history (Greek, Slave Trade, Roman). This sets quite a theatrical atmosphere because referring to these superpowers through the ages helps the reader to appreciate the importance of power in our society both in the past, present and future. It highlights the fact that in Duffy’s opinion (and I agree) that it is embedded in humans to seek out power and control others. Overall, both poets have similar themes in their poems but chose to express them in different ways. A similarity between both poems is that they make allusions to either religious names or different parts of the Bible. C. A. Duffy in ‘Salome’ chooses to use iconic Christian names such as John and Peter. Whereas S. Plath uses the concept of a heaven; â€Å"There is the laburnum, its blond colonnades, And the petticoats of the cherry. † The description of this utopian setting could be linked to the feelings felt by the voice in ‘Salome’ when she/it says ‘I saw my eyes glitter†¦and ain’t life a bitch’. The voice sounds as though it is satisfied, justice has been done and it has reached a metaphorical destination. This destination, in my opinion, is that the voice feels like they have somehow reached equality by committing this grotesque act. A large influence in terms of language in both poems is the personal pronoun ‘I’. This similarity is most likely due to the recurring them of power in each poem. The narrators are trying to express that they are the ones in charge. The language in both poems is very simplistic but the words can be used in quite complex ways. Both poets have chosen not to overcomplicate their language and I think they have made their poems very accessible to all people. Colours are used in both poems for different effects. In ‘Salome’ the ‘red sheets’ could signify the anger felt by the voice for the injustices that have driven them to undertake the atrocity. In ‘The Arrival Of The Bee Box’ ‘the petticoats of the cherry’ and the ‘blond colonnades’ are used as the colours of the heaven. The use of colours is different in each poem but both work well. In conclusion, I feel that Carol Ann Duffy and Sylvia Plath are both very successful in presenting their ideas in the two poems. The poems are left open to interpretation and depending on the type of reading you undertake (colonial, biographical, etc) they can mean different things to different people. However, I personally feel that ‘Salome’ is more interesting and mesmerising to the reader. This is most likely due to the fact I found ‘The Arrival Of The Bee Box’ too abstract for me and I found it difficult to grasp. I think the poems have opened my eyes not only to the inequalities felt by certain groups of society but also to the disparities across the globe in general.

Cameron Crowes Film Jerry Maguire Essay examples -- Crowe Movie Film

Cameron Crowe's Film Jerry Maguire In his movie Jerry Maguire, director Cameron Crowe illustrates how failures and successes are all part of life and if you have love and are happy with your life then you will surely succeed. It is part of life to experience failure which propels one forward to take risks and make changes to find the answers on how to succeed in lives little games. Jerry Maguire is an inspiring movie based on this theme, demonstrating success and failure with business endeavors, love relationships, friendships and self realization. Relationships between characters in this movie were numerous and were very intense. The relationship between Jerry and Rod Tidwell was initially one of strong control exhibited by Tidwell when he asks Jerry to yell â€Å"show me the money!† and when he refuses to complete the camel car commercial. This in turn adds to Tidwells failure with company endorsements and extra cash. Jerry also tries to exhibit control over Tidwell because he expects him to act in a certain way which he doesn’t always do. Jerry proves this when he tells Tidwell the truth about his arrogant actions towards society and the team. Jerry knows it is in Tidwells best interest to tone down his arrogance in order to succeed which he does. In the end both men come to realize their faults and change their behavior which results in the success of Tidwells career. The other relationship that drive...

Customer Management: Nefab Company

Introduction Customer management has been an integral part of business processes since the early days of business, even before money was introduced. Development of products and services aimed at meeting the needs of the customer is what determines the effectiveness of the customer retention and loyalty strategies (Rao & Perry, 2002). This paper analyses the operational methods and strategies adopted by Nefab Packaging Company- UK in providing products and services and their effectiveness in terms of customer satisfaction Background informationThe main business area for Nefab Company is packaging. It is an international company with global coverage. Its headquarters is in Sweden, but it has numerous subsidiaries in Europe and America including the UK (Nefab Group, 2013) where I happen to be one of the employees. Most of its operations involve working closely with other businesses around the globe with the intent of providing them with the best quality packaging solution for their products. Nefab C ompany has close to 20 major customers around the world with numerous other small customers distributed all over Europe. The company handles its customers using two approaches; its large global customers are all handled by the central management of the organisation while the other small to medium sized customers are handled at the company’s local offices in the respective countries (Nefab Group, 2013). To enhance its competitiveness and sustainability as a global packaging company, it has recently introduced customer relationship management department (Nefab program Manager, 2012). This department operates under the human resource department and is responsible for development and implementation of systems aimed at ensuring the levels of customer satisfaction are high in the company. Some of the main functions of this department are (Nefab program Manager, 2012): Developing and focusing sight on the customers Pay attention to customer lifetime value Develop management support for a customer focussed strategies Developing effective value for data collected from the customer Developing an understanding of the levels of management involvement in customer management Developing flexible business processes to support a wide range of customer needs Advising the IT department on what to develop as an approach of enhancing customer satisfaction The current customer relationship management system operates based on Microsoft’s CRM system. It is currently implemented in most divisions of the company (Nefab program Manager, 2012). Currently, the company is working towards increasing the levels of integration of those services into the business function and ensuring that all the guidelines and strategies are used efficiently to realize maximum benefit from the new department in the organisation (Nefab Group, 2013). The Company’s Customers This company works in the business to business sector and therefore all its customers are businesses seeking for packaging services. The main struggle for the company is to develop long-term relationships with other businesses globally. The fact that the company has very small customers, it is very important for the company to maximise on customer satisfaction as it cannot afford to lose any customer and must struggle to attract more in the global market. The major customers for this company are companies in six global industrial segments: Vehicles, Aerospace, Healthcare equipment Industry, Energy, and Telecom among many other industries. The things that our customers are seeking are packaging products that are reusable and at the same time easily expendable. The packaging should also be designed in such a way that the quality of the products is not affected during transport. Moreover, the current levels of environmental sensitivity by many companies have resulted to companies seeking packaging that are as green as possible and have minimal harm to the environment. Furthermore, the customers require packaging that is optimal in terms of weight to minimize the cost of transportation of the product. These are the main areas that customer relationship management department is focussed on in this organisation. This company has developed an approach that ensures all its customers are well known. The system is based on customer segmentation in terms of products they buy from the company. The segmentation is also done based on regions. This is important since the company has subsidiaries distributed all over the world. The process of product development is done through consideration of the specifications of each customer. This is mainly achieved by developing products based on customers’ instructions and directions. The application of customer segmentation allows this company to meet the needs of almost all its customers.Customer ObjectivesThe development of this department will be central in promoting a sense of security, a feeling of being in control and trust among customers. The main reasons behind the development of the customer relationship management department in this organisation were to (Nefab program Manager, 2012): Enhance customer lifetime value; Develop the best strategic information and communication; Develop customer retention strategies; Enhance the levels of customer satisfaction . This company developed this department as a central participant in the process of expanding and maintaining market share successfully. Particularly, retention of customers can be achieved through learning relevant information, such as expectations, preferences, habits, and names about customers (Nefab program Manager, 2012). This department is expected to develop a one-on-one relationship with customers as an approach of ensuring that they come back frequently developing close association between the company and its customers. Furthermore, the department is also expected to increase the level of IT integration into customer management, resulting in high levels of intimacy between customers and the company. The high levels of using IT allow the organisation to a variety of employees in managing customer relationship removing the barrier associated with personalised attention of the customer (Nefab program Manager, 2012). This will result to sustained organisational performance and hence profitability even if certain employees are no longer working with the organisation. Therefore, there are three main customer-related objectives in this initiative; customer retention, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty (Nefab program Manager, 2012). The introduction of customer relations management department is expected to enhance the level of customer loyalty. By making this company more knowledgeable about its current customers as well as prospective customers will ensure the services offered to them are offered in the best manner available to satisfy the customer positively impacting on the levels of customer loyalty. A similar case is expected in customer satisfaction. Developing a positive experience between this company and the customer has been seen as the main approach towards ensuring the customer is highly satisfied. This department is also focused on ensuring the job done by the company is the best. This will ultimately result to high level of customer retention. For instance, this company has been suffering from numerous instances of confusion and misconceptions especially when employees are unable to tell what has been delivered to a specific customer and what needs to be delivered and when. This has portrayed the company as unresponsive to its customers. This has dealt the company a major blow in the process as it negatively affected customer satisfaction levels. These three objectives are related to one another. For instance, a customer who has a constant repeat purchase is said to be loyal while at the same time, a customer can only be loyal if the products and services are satisfactory. Business Related Objectives This department is focused on not only fulfilling customer related objectives, but also business objectives. In terms of business, objectives are collection and analysis of data to increase the understanding levels of customer. This is important in ensuring the organisation meets the needs of the customer and is in a position to provide current and future customer needs. This is also essential in developing future forecasts for production and sales prospects. The development of process automation is also another important objective of this department. It is necessary for the enhancement of efficiency and ultimately profitability of this organisation. Most investigations agree that the most important objective of customer relation management at organisational level is to gather information. Xu & Walton (2005) clearly explain the main reason for collection of information by an organisation as being to enable the organisation understand its customers, to meet the needs of the customers and also develop effective strategies to meet the company’s future prospects. Customer Relationship Management Strategies There various theories that try to explain the strategies used on customer relationship management. The most common ones analyse customer touch points, front office, back office, and warehousing. To be able to analyse the approach adopted by this company in managing its customers, it is necessary to review this parts. WarehousingThis is the area in organisational processes that has numerous literatures regarding the implementation of customer relation management (CRM). Specifically, Bose has developed a very complex model that analyses all the necessary steps in the process of implementing CRM. This model is simplified by a list developed by David (1999). Thus, David’s list is comprehensive enough to provide guidance of the process of implementing CRM. Another implementation plan that is not as complex as Bose’s was developed by Chase (2004). The most important aspect of this plan is the detailed explanation of the integration levels. Back OfficeThese are functions in a n organisation that the customer cannot view directly (Chen & Popovich, 2003). Many authors put more emphasis on the importance of an organisation using the CRM in determining the value of its individual customers. When analysing customer value, Zikmund provides a detailed review of various theories that analyse this issue. Moreover, Xu and Walton (2005) have developed a very distinct approach to classification of customers based on profit cost matrix. Another important tool that is essential in analysing customer classification is the Identify Differentiate Interact Customize (IDIC) tool (Zikmund et al., 2003). This tool is known to provide detailed information on approaches of customer differentiation and product customisation. According to Zikmund and his colleagues (2003), customisation of the various stages in product development is essential in ensuring the products meet the specific requirements of the customers. Nefab achieves product customisation through the selection of materials and concepts for product development based on the specific customer requirements. This results to production of products that are customised for an individual customer. This is driven by Nefab’s objective that aims to replace its customers packaging departments which requires complete customisation (Nefab program Manager, 2012) Another important tool that is effective on providing insights into the process to customers in terms of areas that data can be gathered from is the analytical model by Xu and Walton (2005). It is essential in developing background on the information that should be looked for. This allows a company to develop usable data from the customers especially for development of the customer based strategies. Nefab has an effective tool for data collection that is based on direct interaction with its customers on a regular basis (Nefab program Manager, 2012). Information is collected on their products on issues, such as the level of customer satisfaction and production requirement of the customer. The company also gathers information on their competitors especially on their prices and the approach to business of their competitors. More so, a better explanation on the uses of customer knowledge is provided by Zineldin (2006). A combination of theories by Xu & Walton and Zineldin is used in the process of seeking information and developing effective use of the information. In a study by Wilson (2006), it was evident that it is very important to analyse the value of a customer in the process of developing long term relationship with the customer. Zikmund et al. (2003) identifies the important values of customer lifetime as the period the customer is expected to last, cost of capital, retention rate, and profit margin. This is the area that Nefab is still struggling with. Its approach is focussed on determining the profitability of each customer based on the contribution margin. However, the company has completely separated loyalty and retention from the approach adopted for determining the profitability of its customers (Nefab program Manager, 2012). According to this company, it is hard to develop a measure for profitability that is not based on income per product is uncertain and hence not realistic (Nefab program Manager, 2012). Thus, according to this company, the process of predicting future customer loyalty is impossible. The company depends on its employees to manage its customers in that the salesperson handles any conflicts or complaints from customers to ensure that they are preserved as customers of the company. In terms of relationships, Peppers & Rogers (2001) suggested that the main objective of CRM is to allow an organisation to manage its customers on an individual basis. This is the area that Nefab is more focussed on. It has established its CRM strategies to ensure that customers are handled at a personal level. This is also coupled with development of personalised relations with its customers. The company strives to ensure that the customer comes back for more products and services. Nefab has established measures that increase the levels of openness between it and its customers. They allow their customers to be partners in the business (Nefab program Manager, 2012). The company has also established a variety of departments involved in management of sales including technicians, design teams and accounts manager. This is necessary to ensure each of its major customers is handled differently by the company. This is sometimes challenging to the organisation in terms of coordinating the numerous departments in the organisation. Front officeThese are firm’s functions that directly interact with the customer (Chen & Popovich, 2003). The IDIC model is also an effective tool for providing a description of the functions of the front office as per CRM (Peppers & Rogers, 2001). The primary role of the front office is to collect information from the customer in an easy was as possible (Peppers & Rogers, 2001). Nefab has tried to develop an effective front office by minimising the number of departments at the front office level (Nefab program Manager, 2012). The company has a centralised workloads and information for its large customers with global coverage. The local branches handle the other smaller customers. This allows the company to store information about all its major customers in a centralised place (Nefab program Manager, 2012). Rao and Perry (2002) explain the importance of digitizing employee knowledge. Another important contribution to this part is the Greenberg (2004), analysis of culture and its importance in the process of implementing CRM as a strategy within an organisation. His analysis is comprehensive and very central in the development of CRM strategies that meet the requirements of a specific organisation. A study by Curry and Kkolou (2004) found out that customer life cycle is very important for an organisation. They further assert that it should be handled while providing detailed information about each and every stage that the company’s customers go through. The common stages identified were targeting, translation, delivery, dissatisfaction management, and winning back lost customers (Curry & Kkolou, 2004). These are the areas that this Nefab Company is struggling with. Its customer’s life cycle is initiated when they visit a customer’s firm as most of my colleagues described. This is then followed by sending of samples of packaging until the final solution is arrived at (Nefab program Manager, 2012). Once the customer has approved the design of packaging, the company delivers that packaging to the customer until when the production of a specific product comes to a stop. During this time, the company expects the customer to approach them again for a new packaging plan. The company completely lacks customer win-back and dissatisfaction management stages in the customer lifecycle. Another important area in the front office, organisational culture is analysed by Greenberg (2004). He asserts that the culture of the organisation must be changed such that it aligns with the objectives of the organisation’s CRM initiative. Thus, the success of an organisation’s CRM depends on the levels to which its objectives align with the firm’s culture. This is the area that Nefab has tried to deal with. The company has implemented an intensive training program for the sales persons with specific reference to behaviour and conduct (Nefab program Manager, 2012). The company has also equipped its workforce with computer skills. The company has endowed its employee’s a heavy responsibility especially in decision making. The company also promotes the development of independent culture at its subsidiaries. However, the cultural independence of its subsidiaries is limited as they operate based on a general cultural framework of the company. This has positively impacted the performance of the company as the decision making paths has been shortened. The negative impact of this approach is on development of a centralised decision by the firm since its subsidiaries work very independently. Customer Touch PointsThese are the interactions that exist between an organisation and its customers (Chen & Popovich, 2003). The touch points are well illustrated in the ‘interact’ phase of the IDIC model (Peppers & Rogers, 2001). This model has a detailed overview of all the necessary areas in the touch points that exist at an organisational level. According to Peppers & Rogers, touch points are essential in the process of organising and streamlining the face of an organisation. Nefab Company has in the recent past involved the touch points in the process of organisational streamlining. This has been enhanced by the introduction of the CRM department as an approach to refining its front end with the endeavour to ensure its customers are well served (Nefab program Manager, 2012). The company has also increased the level of using the web as a customer interaction tool. It currently accounts for the most of the company’s customer leads. A theory by Davids (1999) is comprehensive enough in developing approaches for examining how customers interact with an organisation. Furthermore, Peelen (2005) presents possible interaction points in an organisation that is similar to the work by Davids (1999) as well as Peppers & Rogers (2001). These points identified by Peelen are personal sales, telephone, e-mail, websites, and public media. Nefab Company has tried to develop effectiveness of these channels of interaction. However, the company has limited use of media such as radio and television as it assumes that their customers are less likely to be there for interaction between the company and them (Nefab program Manager, 2012). The major forms through which this company interacts with its customers is through phone calls, email and direct communication. Conclusion and Implications From the analysis, it is evident that the theories analysed by various investigators are applicable at organisational level. It is evident that using CRM in business benefits a business since it offers effective objectives for management of businesses as well as its customers. The most important objectives in this case are customer retention and satisfaction, data organisation, and in-depth understanding of the customer. From analysis of the company, it has been evident that the most important aspect of CRM is the organisation of customer information. The ultimate results of this organisation are high levels of customer satisfaction and retention as witnessed in the organisation. The ability of an organisation to meet customer requests and respond to them in time depends on how organised is the approach to the collection and analysis of customer data. This evidently results to high levels of customer satisfaction. This result because of high levels of efficiency in customer managemen t strategies. From these results, it can be concluded that for an organisation to effectively gather and organise customer information, it requires to develop a customer relation management approaches. This allows an organisation to develop a comprehensive analysis of the customer on an individual basis. This is central to capturing relevant information in an approach that allows availability of the information from all departments in an organisation. Furthermore, the main benefit of CRM is to allow organisations to own and control information about its customers and not specific individuals or departments in an organisation. This is important in limiting the implications of employees exiting from an organisation where customer information is readily available for the replacement recruits as compared to the case where there was no CRM. Moreover, CRM is important in the sense that customer information can readily be pulled and reviewed. This is an essential ingredient in organisational efficiency. In fact, new employees can use the stored information to develop an effective background about the customer. More so, CRM allows an organisation to develop approaches of handling objectives such as customer retention, satisfaction, and loyalty at once as they are assessed in terms of their impact on the organisational efficiency of the firm. Implications of the studyThis investigation analysed how customer relationship management is used in Nefab Company. The analysis focussed on the application of CRM in the organisation with relation to available theories that focus on the consumer market. The analysis reveals that it is important for an organisation to focus on developing strong relations with its customers other than focusing on the consumer market loyalty. Development of customer relation automatically results to high levels of customer loyalty. However, this investigation is limited to information gathered by other investigators in reference to one organisation. Further studies need to be done using more than one organisation. The investigations should collect data using quantitative as well as qualitative methodologies to further enhance the available information on the research issue. Other areas that need to be analysed in future investigations are: Analysis of the effect of company culture on customer relations; Investigate on the approaches to evaluating customer loyalty; Examine how price and customer loyalty interact. References Chase, P., 2004. A success model for CRM integration, and how to avoid the most common mistakes, New Hampshire, USA: Scribe Software Corporation. Chen, I., & Popovich, K., 2003. Understanding Customer Relationship Management: People Process and technology. Bradford, UK: MCB Up Limited. Curry, A. & Kkolou, E., 2004. â€Å"Evaluating CRM Contribution to TQM improvement- across-case comparison† The TQM Magazine, 16(5), 314-324 Davids, M., 1999. â€Å"How to avoid the 10 Biggest Mistakes in CRM† Journal of Business Strategy, 20(6):22-26 Greenberg, P., 2004. CRM at the speed of light, essential CRM strategies for the 21st century. New York, NY: MCGraw Hill/Osborne. Nefab Group, (2013). Nefab’s History. Retrieved from http://www.nefab.com/History.aspx Nefab program Manager, (2012). Nefab Business Plan 2013-2017. Retrieved from http://www.nefab.eu/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/NEFAB-BUSINESS-PLAN-2013-2017-v-11.pdf Peppers, E. & Rogers, S., 2001. â€Å"Maximising ROI from your customer based strategy† Insights report 2001. Rao, S., & Perry, C., 2002. â€Å"Thinking about relationship marketing: where are we now†, Journal of business and industrial marketing, 17(7), 598-614 Wilson, R., 2006. â€Å"Developing new Business strategies in B2B markets by combining CRM concepts and online databases†. Customer Relations,16(1), 38 – 43 Xu, M. Walton, J., 2005. â€Å"Gaining Customer Knowledge through Analytical CRM†. Department of Strategy & Business System, Portsmouth Business School. Portsmouth, UK: University of Portsmouth. Zikmund, W., McLeod R., & Fayge, G., (2003). Customer Relationship Management: Integrating marketing Strategy and Information Technology. New York, NY: Wiley. Zineldin, M., 2006. â€Å"The royalty of loyalty: CRM, Quality and retention† Journal of consumer marketing, 23(7), 430-437.

English Settlement/Religious Tolerance Essay

The early English settlers in the United States were driven to establish a new society in the New World mainly for freedom of religion. During the 17th century, many European separatists seek for a new land to establish a colony. They settled into the New World where they can practice their worships freely. The Pilgrims are the first settlers arrived in the Plymouth Colony (Plymouth, Massachusetts). Since the political cloud of forbidding the kind of religion the pilgrims practice in the East Midlands of England (Netherlands), the religious worshippers was forced to settle outside their home (New World). The pilgrims arranged a voyage from the English investors to travel in the New World, establishing a new colony in North America. During their settlement in Plymouth, the early pilgrims experienced starvation, disasters and diseases. The pilgrims also experienced internal conflicts with the indigenous people. In 1607 and 1620, the English settlers were successful in establishing new colonies in United States, Jamestown, Virginia. It was through the Pilgrim Fathers which most of the United States culture has been derived. The Thanksgiving occasion, started from the early festivity of the pilgrims to give thanks for the things that one has at the conclusion of the harvest season (English Settlements 2007). The State Church During the (series of) settlements in the New World, England permitted only one church. Everyone was required to attend that church – if the English ruler is a protestant, then its citizens must be all protestant. The state church describes the government directs dictation of the kingdom’s religion (Cline 1). There was no freedom of religion in England in which, the ruler and the archbishop direct orders to every church in the kingdom. In return, any objections, questions and protests against the ruler and the state church, they were arrested, imprisoned and in extreme cases, killed. In those days, many people were tortured to give-up their religion, many died. Two major groups of believers (Puritan and Separatist) protested with the beliefs and practices of the state church. Puritan wanted reside in the church but wanted to reform its structure. Separatist wanted a total change in the state church. When James I (a Protestant and a Separatist) in the 1600s became the English ruler, opposed religious views was not permitted under the new king. Religious Tolerance In the United States (historically), religious toleration is permitted. Pilgrims settled in Plymouth, Quakers in Pennsylvania, and Roman Catholic settling in Maryland. In the New World, religious groups accept other forms of worship even they do not believed in it. The country does not persecute people from worshipping other beliefs aside from the state religion. Separatist Unlike in the Anglican Church (Church of England), separatist/pilgrims wanted to worship in a simple manner without any rituals. They believed there are so many things that must be changed in the Anglican Church. Therefore, the only possible way they can satisfy their beliefs is to separate from the Church of England. They consider other points of view, decide through the majority and believe in equal rights and responsibilities of each separatist. Their religion reflects the present democratic system of government practice in the United States. During their arrival in North America, the pilgrims were warmhearted, munificent, considerate and kind to the American Indians. In establishing their colony in Plymouth, they encourage the American Indians to settle in their colony. In return, the Indians help the early English (pilgrims) settlers on how to strive in the changing environment in that (Plymouth) place. The Indians taught the settlers how to hunt food, live in the cold environment of Plymouth and treat some of the illness present in the place. The pilgrims in return taught the Indians how to read, write, taught the English literatures, art, science and their religion (The Pilgrims 2007). Puritans Like the Pilgrims, puritans settled in Americas. They established a colony with schools, hospitals, government and churches. Puritans considered religion as complex and cerebral. Their form of government reflects authoritarianism. Unlike the pilgrims where they equally treat each individual, the puritans have a hierarchical perspective. They encourage the importance of education among children. Quakers The religious Society of Friends was a sect branching from Christianity. Like the other sects of Roman Catholic, Quakers disagreed to some of the practices in the religion. They separate from the old traditional religion and arrived in the Americas seeking for freedom of religion. Quakers believed in religious tolerance (Religious Society of Friends (QUAKERS): Quaker history 2007). Roman Catholics Roman Catholics believed in religious tolerance. Like the pilgrims, early Roman Catholics settling in England was force to establish a colony in the New World. Aside from gaining religious freedom in the New World the early Roman Catholics interests for economic opportunity and expansion of Christianity in Americas. The settlers were Spaniard colonists seeking for wealth, in vision of conquering vast lands in Americas as well as introducing Christian religion among the natives.

Dark Horse Candidate Definition

Dark Horse Candidate Definition A dark horse candidate was a term coined in the 19th century to refer to a candidate nominated after multiple ballots at a political partys nominating convention. The first dark horse candidate in American politics was James K. Polk, who became the nominee of the Democratic Partys convention in 1844 after delegates voted numerous times and the anticipated favorites, including former president Martin Van Buren, could not prevail. The Origin of the Term Dark Horse The phrase dark horse actually derives from horse racing. The most reliable explanation of the term is that trainers and jockeys would sometimes endeavor to keep a very fast horse from public view. By training the horse in the dark they could enter it in a race and place bets at very favorable odds. If the horse won, the betting payoff would thus be maximized. The British novelist Benjamin Disraeli, who would eventually turn to politics and become prime minister, used the term in its original horse-racing usage in the novel The Young Duke: The first favorite was never heard of, the second favorite was never seen after the distance post, all the ten-to-oners were in the race, and a dark horse which had never been thought of rushed past the grandstand in sweeping triumph. James K. Polk, The First Dark Horse Candidate The first dark horse candidate to receive a party nomination was James K. Polk, who emerged from relative obscurity to become the nominee of the Democratic Party at its convention in 1844. Polk, who had served 14 years as a congressman from Tennessee, including a two-year term as speaker of the house, was not even supposed to be nominated at the convention held in Baltimore in late May 1844. The Democrats were expected to nominate Martin Van Buren, who had served one term as president in the late 1830s before losing the 1840 election to the Whig candidate, William Henry Harrison. During the first few ballots at the 1844 convention a stalemate developed between Van Buren and Lewis Cass, an experienced politician from Michigan. Neither man could get the required two-thirds majority necessary to win the nomination. On the eighth ballot taken at the convention, on May 28, 1844, Polk was suggested as a compromise candidate. Polk received 44 votes, Van Buren 104, and Cass 114. Finally, on the ninth ballot there was a stampede for Polk when the New York delegation abandoned hopes for another term for Van Buren, a New Yorker, and voted for Polk. Other state delegations followed, and Polk won the nomination. Polk, who was home in Tennessee, would not know for certain that he had been nominated until a week later. The Dark Horse Polk Caused Outrage The day after Polk was nominated, the convention nominated Silas Wright, a senator from New York, as the vice presidential candidate. In a test of a new invention, the telegraph, Samuel F.B. Morse, had strung wire from the convention hall in Baltimore to the Capitol in Washington, 40 miles away. When Silas Wright was nominated, the news was flashed to the Capitol. Wright, upon hearing it, was outraged. A close ally of Van Buren, he considered the nomination of Polk to be a grave insult and betrayal, and he instructed the telegraph operator in the Capitol to send back a message refusing the nomination. The convention received Wrights message and did not believe it. After a request for confirmation was sent, Wright and the convention passed four messages back and forth. Wright finally sent two congressmen in a wagon to Baltimore to tell the convention emphatically that he would not accept the nomination as vice president. Polks running mate wound up being George M. Dallas of Pennsylvania. The Dark Horse Candidate Was Mocked, But Won the Election Reaction to Polks nomination tended to be surprise. Henry Clay, who had already been nominated as the candidate of the Whig Party, asked, Are our Democratic friends serious in the nominations they have made at Baltimore? Whig Party newspapers mocked Polk, printing headlines asking who he was. But despite the mockery, Polk won the election of 1844. The dark horse had triumphed.

Civil engineering construction

Civil engineering construction Ambrose notes that the railway was constructed after the American Civil War where the union had won it. Furthermore, there was no slavery meaning that workers had to volunteer in constructing the railway. The writer notes that the construction of transcontinental railroad from Omaha, Nebraska to Sacramento, California was the greatest achievement of the American people (Ambrose 17).Advertising We will write a custom book review sample on Civil engineering construction specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The writer attributes the success to good governance of Lincoln regime and skilled engineers who had graduated from American colleges. The war played an important role because people had learned to obey orders and work in a team. Ambrose comments that the railway benefited from a large workforce of immigrants who had escaped from China and other places seeking for good fortunes. The writer compares the construction of transcontinental rai lway with Russian trans-Siberian railway, which benefited from slaves. Great men such as Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses Grant and William Sherman supervised railway construction. The leaders played an important role because they held the union together. They had a huge following from both the south and the north. One funny thing was that the first man was the president, the second became the president later and the third turned down the offer of presidency. Strongmen such as Jack and Casement, who had served as army generals during the civil war, supported the leaders. Financiers trusted the activities of the leaders and they could not delay funds, which promoted the railway. The Union Pacific and the Central Pacific funded the railway. They were the two largest corporations at the time. The author observes that it took imagination, intelligence, fortitude, hard work and enthusiasm to complete construction of the railway. The railway construction encountered several problems including hos tility from the natives and unavailability of building materials. The writer asserts in page 19 that the Indians, who never wanted their lives to be interfered with by the presence of the railway, attacked surveyors. It is also observed that wild animals such as buffalos attacked builders. The same problem could be encountered in modern America although with a different form. It is difficult to convince the locals and politicians that a particular infrastructural facility would benefit them. Currently, there is no space for building a railway. Private investors who would demand too much to dispose land to the state are in control of resources. During the construction of transcontinental railway, it took the effort of intelligent men to convince politicians to support the project. The same problem would resurface today in case the same project is proposed. Politicians are reluctant to support projects that do not benefit them directly.Advertising Looking for book review on hi story? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Ambrose posits that leaders had to import building materials from east through Panama, around South America. This was costly and time consuming, something that could be faced in modern America. The state is not endowed with building materials meaning that they must be imported from elsewhere. In the modern world, it would even be more costly to import building materials because of high demand of materials. It is a complex process to inquire about building materials, leave alone acquiring them. In this regard, the state prefers other means of transportation to using railway transport. In fact, the writer observes that the railway was the last great railroad project to be erected in the United States. It is impossible to come up with a project that can match transcontinental railway. Ambrose, Stephen. Nothing like it in the world: the men who built the transcontinental. New York, NY: Sim on and Schuster, 2000.

Ashley Pondâ€Biography of a Murder Victim

Ashley Pond- Biography of a Murder Victim Ashley Marie Pond was born on March 1, 1989. Her mother, Lori Davis, was barely 16 at the time, almost a child herself. For the first few years of Ashleys life, she lived with her mother and her mothers high school sweetheart, David Pond. Eventually, the two married, and Ashley viewed David as her father. Childhood Ashley was described as an easy child who could entertain herself and one who adored being hugged. Basically, well-behaved Ashley seemed to live a fairly normal life for a child of parents so young. But then at about the age of nine or ten, Lori Pond divorced David Pond, and Ashleys world changed forever. The Truth About Her Biological Father During the divorce, the couple fought about child-support payments and a  paternity test was administered to determine if Ashley was indeed David Ponds biological daughter. To Ashley’s devastation, it was determined that he was not, but instead, a man named Wesley Roettger was her real father. She Admits to Being Sexually Abused She began to visit her biological father, staying with him on the weekends. It was during this time that friends and family noticed she was growing increasingly sullen and confrontational. She began to resist visiting her father until she finally admitted to her mother that Wesley Roettger had been sexually abusing her. In January 2001, Roettger was indicted on 40 counts of raping and sexually abusing Ashley. He pled no contest to one count and was released. Ward Weaver Enters Her World During the following months, the police were called out to the Pond apartment for various reasons including an allegation that Pond was drunk and neglecting the children. By April 2001, Ashley Pond was spending a lot of time over at the house of a friend, who was the daughter of Ward Weaver. In early spring, a report was made by Linda Virden, Ashleys reading teacher, to Gaffney Lane Elementary principal Chris Mills, that she saw Ward Weaver kiss Ashley on the lips. She Finds Comfort at the Weaver Home According to the Portland Tribune, Ashley spent almost the first half of 2001 with the Weaver family even joining Ward Weaver, his girlfriend, and Weavers daughter on a two-week vacation to California  in late June, early July. The calls to the police about disturbances at the Ponds home continued over the next few months and Ashley spent more and more time with the Weavers. Weaver Is Accused of Sexually Abusing Her In early August, Ashley confided in her reading teacher, Linda Virden, that Ward Weaver was molesting her and threatened to testify against her in her fathers rape trial. Earlier in April she also accused two other men of molesting her  but recanted her statements. Possibly the fear of no one believing her kept her from pursuing charges against Weaver. Paperwork Slips Through the Cracks Once the accusations were made, she stopped going to Weavers house and felt ostracized by Weaver, Weavers daughter, and friends of Weavers daughter. Due to the sloppy handling of the paperwork by county officials regarding Ashleys accusation, Weaver was never investigated or charged with sexually abusing Ashley at that time. Life Begins to Settle Down Throughout the following fall, Ashleys life seemed to settle down. Her grades were improving and she was fighting less with her mother. Some of her bubbly personality seemed to return. As Christmas approached it has been suggested that Ashley and the Weaves had partially renewed their friendship. Ashley Pond is Murdered According to the Portland Tribune, on Jan 9, 2002, Lori Pond heard Ashley say goodbye around 8:15 a.m. as she headed out to catch her school bus at a stop near Weaver’s home. What happened to Ashley after that time is unknown. What is known is that at some point before she died, she consumed possibly as much as five shots of whiskey. On the weekend of August 24-25, the body of Ashley Pond was found inside a barrel buried in a hole in the backyard of Ward Weavers rental home. A concrete slab had been poured over the hole. According to Weavers son, Francis Weaver, his father confessed to him that he killed Ashley Pond, although the exact details of the confession have changed from time to time. On October 4, 2002, Ward Weaver was indicted for the murder of Ashley Pond and of 16 other counts including sex abuse, attempted rape, aggravated murder and abuse of a corpse all of which he pled not guilty. On September 22, 2004, Ward Weaver plead guilty to killing two of his daughters friends then hiding their bodies on his property. He received two life sentences for the deaths of Ashley Pond and ​Miranda Gaddis.

World Geography Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

World Geography - Essay Example It is undeniable that human beings derived numerous benefits from the study of earth’s geography through ages. Jerry and Martin (2000) agreed that geographic knowledge was instrumental or rather paramount during construction of the first world map. This first map commonly referred to as the Babylonian world map dates back to 600BC. According to Talbert and Richard (2009), invention of geography as a definite field of study would later be credited to Pythagoras, renowned for his approved claim that the earth is spherical. Subsequently, Pythagoras claim would open doors to advanced arithmetic perception of the spherical earth. From 2nd Century AD, Roman scholars employed the use of latitudes and longitudes in determining geographical difference in time. Harrison, Massey and Richards (2004) said that by the 10th Century, skilled geographers from the west could calculate with high precision the distance between various points on earth. This was the time when researchers started do cumenting detailed knowledge about the planet’s habitability. Eventually, medieval studies of the earth’s phenomena would soon pave way for western explorer like Christopher Columbus, accredited with discovery of new lands, especially America. In the early 18th Century, geography scholars struggled with the problem of longitudinal relations with time. According to James and Trapasso (2006), conflicts surrounding this problem came to a halt in 1760s when John Harrison used a chronometer and accurately acknowledged the Greenwich meridian as the reference longitude.

Evidence Based Practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Evidence Based Practice - Essay Example The society expects the public to provide the highest quality of health care for individuals with smallest costs. Nurses need to have clinical information and use their expertise in analyzing it. Analysis of the information is crucial because of its application to the clinical practice. Evidence-based Method involves the practice where nurses use their knowledge to make the decision based on research facts (Jeffs et al., 2013). The nurses use clinical experience to manage and take care of patients. Evidence-based Method works best because there is sufficient evidence of the publication on nursing topics. Nurses should have the ability to access and scrutinize the research of a particular topic (Jeffs et al., 2013). There is anticipation from the society for hospitals to have access to printed health journals. Evidence-based Method is crucial in the modern health care because it creates the atmosphere for nurses to provide care for patients. It is important for the incorporation of the best research with clinical knowledge. The approach also provides the nurses with quality health outcomes. The evidence-based approach gives nurses confidence to use their knowledge of basic principles for the provision of appropriate health care to patients. The nurses should offer suitable health care and manage their patients. All the nurses should have full-time access to up to date evidence to sustain the best practices. Nurses have to stick to their morals and ethics when applying evidence-based Method in their day-to-day activities. Nurses have a strong culture of providing excellent health care to the patients, and they should maintain the culture. Incorporation of evidence-based practices into the education system is important to the nursing sector. It leads to the development of a system that will help nurses manage their patients. The

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Free Trade Essay

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Free Trade - Essay Example It is also because of free trade that multilateral organizations such as the World Trade Organization, North American Free Trade Agreement, and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation were formed. Generally, the aim of these formations is to reduce tariffs and to abolish these ultimately in order to remove barriers to free trade. Globalization itself is an offspring of the free trade concept. The objective of globalization is to remove national borders and to have a world economy that is governed not by states but by the abstract laws of the market. However, free trade has been found to have serious flaws too. It may have advantages but its disadvantages are also just as significant. Because of this, the debate on whether it is really good or bad to the economy of a country has been brought to the fore. One camp insists that free trade brings about economic development that would benefit society while the other asserts that it leads to more serious social inequalities and unfair trading pr actices. In order to determine whether it is really beneficial or not, it would be necessary to discuss the advantages and the disadvantages of free trade. By doing so, one can weigh the pros and cons and come up with a conclusion as to whether free trade is generally positive or negative. The Advantages of Free Trade One of the very first points that are often raised regarding the advantage of free trade is related to increased production. In order for a country to trade with others, it is compelled to heighten its production of commodities in which it is specialising in. The premise here is that every country has a comparative advantage. David Ricardo explains that â€Å"a nation was said to possess comparative advantage in those products for which its labour was relatively productive† (Yoffie 1993: 4). If a country has to exchange goods with another it would be compelled to increase its production to equalize the trade. It is through the increase of production that other b enefits and advantages of free trade would follow. Whatever comparative advantage a country may have would be lost though if production is inefficient. One that does not engage in international trade would naturally be less inspired to improve the efficiency of its production. In a world with a free market system though, competition among the traders inevitably becomes intense. Consequently, such competition would prompt the manufacturers or producers not just to enhance the quality of their products but also raise the efficiency of their production. Through better efficiency, more could be produced and less wastage is achieved. If the commodities produced by a particular country are of better quality than those of its competitors, these would gain the advantage in the market. This is obviously good for the economy of the said nation. Improving production efficiency would also prompt technological advances. Apparently, it is only through automation that many types of commodities can be produced in large quantities while raising the level of its quality. With the manufacture of more machines and devices in support of automation, production or the creation of value by a society consequently increases. The two aforementioned advantages of free trade lay the basis for the following other benefits. Free trade is beneficial to the consumers or the buying public in a country that is engaged in it.

Natural resource -Solar Resource Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Natural resource -Solar Resource - Essay Example In their analysis of economics of pollution however, the authors note that pollution is a side effect of practices that provide the human race with good things. The profound consequences of industrial production result in air pollution and discharge of pollutants into rivers through the manufacture of fertilizers. Therefore, this essay examines and discusses the social costs and benefits of externalities especially pollution and explains how solar energy can give solution to harmful activities associated with extraction of natural resources. The question of how much pollution that should be allowed takes everyone back to the evaluation of marginal social cost of pollution and also the marginal social benefit of pollution. Krugman and Wells (2012), define marginal social cost of pollution as the extra cost placed on the society as a whole by each extra unit of pollution whereas the marginal social benefit is the additional advantage to the society as a result of pollution. Conventionally, pollution carries along an external cost and yields both marginal benefits and cost to the society and these benefits are influenced by the decisions of the owners of the companies who determine how much pollution should occur in absence of government intervention (Krugman & Wells, 2012). As noted in this chapter, environmental costs of pollution are the most popular and essential example of external costs, which are usually uncompensated costs imposed on other people by individuals or firms. In the process of extracting natural resourc es, industries emit and also discharge harmful substances into the environment whose implications jeopardize human welfare. In order to minimize the effects of production, alternative sources of energy such as solar energy resource that are eco-friendly and sustainable can be opted. Since the sunshine is usually in abundance and free, solar energy can be the best alternative source of

Looking back over this quarter, what have you learned about one Essay

Looking back over this quarter, what have you learned about one particular adventist belief that is new to you, or is a significant addition to what you have thought previously - Essay Example Because of that, this class has certainly made me think about things in different ways, even if it did not really make me believe the same things that the Seventh Day Adventists do. One of the biggest and most obvious differences is the fact that those in the Adventist religion believe in the idea that Jesus Christ is the savior of humanity. Obviously, this is not a belief in Islam. Much like other Christian denominations, the Seventh Day Adventists believe that if you accept Christ as your savior, then you will be free from sin and able to go into heaven. By contrast, Islamic people believe that only Allah can free you from sin, and that you must genuinely repent and atone for your sins first. That means that in Islam each person is in charge of clearing himself from sin, and that it cannot be done by simply accepting a particular prophet as your I think there are some interesting things to say about both the Islamic and the Seventh Day Adventist beliefs about sin. For one thing, as a Muslim I am not sure that it is a very good idea to tell every single human being that they can be cleaned of sin simply by believing that the son of God has been punished for the sins that you commit. I think that it is much more helpful to society and to the world if, instead, every individual person has to properly and fully repent for the sins that they have committed before Allah (or God). That way, each person really thinks about what they have done thats wrong, and will truly feel sorry about it, so they are less likely to sin again. In Seventh Day Adventism, I would worry that people might not really repent from the sins they have committed, and this might mean that they would do the same thing again. On the other hand, the Seventh Day Adventist belief in Christ is like that of other Christian churches. They believe that while he is the son of God, he is also God himself. In this case, then, there is not much difference in having Christ

Technology and Organizational Structure Paper Assignment

Technology and Organizational Structure Paper - Assignment Example A compare and contrast strategy reveals the exact advantages and disadvantages and how it affects the use of technology and technology decisions in the company. General Motors is among the oldest companies of the US. It is the pioneer in the automotive industry and has been primarily associated with the decentralized organizational structure. Most of the companies do not stick with only one organizational structure throughout their lifetimes. According to marketing trends they shift and adapt to the model that serves their interests the best. Sometimes the model that later comes to identify them emerges over time as a business faces different challenges (Cameron and Quinn, 2011). General Motors is believed to have a decentralized organizational structure, but it is not strictly true. They have gone through many transitional phases. But for the sake of argument, this paper will holistically consider General Motors to be a decentralized company. The organizational structure of General Motors is a common topic of discussion for businesses. It has been copied by most large corporations. When the company started its operations, it was a novelty. In very few words, the structure was a complete breakdown of cost per unit (Bell, 1999). The goal was to exercise control of operating divisions through strict budgets. The decentralized structure of General Motors is centered in the marketing system. Because revolutionizing the centralized structure was due to a lack of production efficiency, it forced them to reconsider their structural choice. A centralized approach promises the scale and scope, and the economies for a company. When a business needs to become more efficient centralization might not be the suitable approach. The centralized organizational structure makes the company slower in its response to diverse global markets. The structure also demands better coordination and information sharing, and if these tasks are not done well, these can significantly

Looking back over this quarter, what have you learned about one Essay

Looking back over this quarter, what have you learned about one particular adventist belief that is new to you, or is a significant addition to what you have thought previously - Essay Example Because of that, this class has certainly made me think about things in different ways, even if it did not really make me believe the same things that the Seventh Day Adventists do. One of the biggest and most obvious differences is the fact that those in the Adventist religion believe in the idea that Jesus Christ is the savior of humanity. Obviously, this is not a belief in Islam. Much like other Christian denominations, the Seventh Day Adventists believe that if you accept Christ as your savior, then you will be free from sin and able to go into heaven. By contrast, Islamic people believe that only Allah can free you from sin, and that you must genuinely repent and atone for your sins first. That means that in Islam each person is in charge of clearing himself from sin, and that it cannot be done by simply accepting a particular prophet as your I think there are some interesting things to say about both the Islamic and the Seventh Day Adventist beliefs about sin. For one thing, as a Muslim I am not sure that it is a very good idea to tell every single human being that they can be cleaned of sin simply by believing that the son of God has been punished for the sins that you commit. I think that it is much more helpful to society and to the world if, instead, every individual person has to properly and fully repent for the sins that they have committed before Allah (or God). That way, each person really thinks about what they have done thats wrong, and will truly feel sorry about it, so they are less likely to sin again. In Seventh Day Adventism, I would worry that people might not really repent from the sins they have committed, and this might mean that they would do the same thing again. On the other hand, the Seventh Day Adventist belief in Christ is like that of other Christian churches. They believe that while he is the son of God, he is also God himself. In this case, then, there is not much difference in having Christ

Inefficiency Within a Stock Market Create Barrier to Fulfilment of its Assignment

Inefficiency Within a Stock Market Create Barrier to Fulfilment of its Main Function - Assignment Example As the paper stresses the main functions of the stock market includes evaluation of the securities those are listed in the stock market which in turn help the companies to get more capital for production, thus the chances of industrial growth increase. The functions of the stock market also includes the marketing of the government securities, also provide safety in the dealings as the companies have to abide by the rules. The stock market is also the index of the economy; the banks also provide loans against the stock market securities. From the above discussion the importance of the stock market can be understood. But when the stock market which is the economical indicator is not performing as it should be then it would be a problem for the community associated with that stock market. This discussion declares that the common people who are the investors of the securities they would face problem as the stock market is not reflecting the right information, they may invest in the wrong place. The foreign investors and the government would not get the right information as the stock market is not efficient, not the actual information is available in the market. The managers of the firms also get it tough to take the right decision in the current situation. May be they are thinking that their firm is performing well but their firm is valued less in the stock market. So it will be tough for them to take the decision as they find it confusing as two different valuations of the firm are in front of them. The paper is an attempt to analyze the effect of the inefficient stock market, how it creates barrier to fulfil the main functions of the stock market and cause difficulties for the managers of the firms for taking a suitable decision. The researcher has taken the help of some theories like efficient market hypothesis and uses some articles for conducting the research. Stock Market Efficiency As per Professor Eugene F. Fama an efficient market fully reflect the information available to the investors. The research of Fama was divided in 3 parts on the basis of the information available. In the weak form of efficiency in the EHM claims that the past prices of the security are reflected in the price of the security today. No one can beat the market by doing the fundamental analysis. The semi strong form of tests implies that all the public information available reflects in the current market price of the stock, no one can beat the market by doing the fundamental analysis or the technical analysis. The other degree of efficiency is the strong form of efficiency which implies that even using the insider information the investor can’t have the advantage (Fama, 1970, p.399-412). The accepted view about the efficient market hypothesis is that when the information is available about a specific company then the information spread fast among the investors of the company

Ecological Anthropology Essay Example for Free

Ecological Anthropology Essay In 1992, the largest-ever meeting of world leaders took place at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Convention on Biological Diversity was one of two major treaties opened for signature at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992. It was the first global agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. The biodiversity treaty gained rapid and widespread acceptance. The Convention has three main goals: the conservation of biodiversity, sustainable use of the components of biodiversity, and sharing the benefits arising from the commercial and other utilization of genetic resources in a fair and equitable way. The Convention is comprehensive in its goals, and deals with an issue so vital to humanity’s future, that it stands as a landmark in international law. It links traditional conservation efforts to the economic goal of using biological resources sustainably. It sets principles for the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources, notably those destined for commercial use. But eleven years passed since the Convention entered into force. That is why some of its provisions are in the greatest need of revision, namely provision 1 in Article 17. It is connected with exchange of information: â€Å"the Contracting Parties shall facilitate the exchange of information, from all publicly available sources, relevant to the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, taking into account the special needs of developing countries.† Today we live in informational society. Information is one of the most valuable things that we can get. By means of information we can avoid great danger. It is very important to be well – informed, especially in ecological sphere. That is why the word â€Å"facilitate† is too weak to stress all the value of the provision concerning the exchange of information. It should be replaced by such words as â€Å"ensure† or   â€Å"provide†. In that event this provision will get modern strict sense and the importance of informational exchange will be stressed.

Social Segregation in the Developing World

Social Segregation in the Developing World Third world countries or developing countries, as result of globalisation confronting widening economic disparities in established urban socio-economic groups is now become much deeper and polarized rich and poor group. This paper aims to particular focus on Indian city Mumbai as example of developing world and its social segregation. India is recognized to be at its peak of economic development. A rapidly developing country placed at 5th position in world as economic giant. Mumbai acts as driving engine of this economic growth. However, this paper is an attempt to do close study to revels ugly truth of economic growth and social structure of Indian city Mumbai. Mumbai as mega city performs as magnet for employment, industrial and trading hub, education centres tends to attracts migrants from varying region or backgrounds, eventually leading to overpopulation in city. Overpopulation has various repercussions on city and its life style. This paper tries to assess this trend of migration in Mumbai city. Degeneration in Mumbai city life is profoundly visible in proliferations of slums or as they popularly referred as ghettos in western world. Dharavi is one of the famous and unique slums in Mumbai. Dharavi routinely called as embarrassing eyesore in the middle of Indian financial capital (Mumbai). But question is evolved, why Dharavi area developed as slums? Major reason behind these phenomena is incompatibility between demand and supply subsequently gives birth to generation of urban underclasses with totally different standards and values. Social polarization leads as major reason to spatial segregation as result unrealistic housing prizes. Eventually in last decade government introduced many policies and redevelopments plans for Dharvi but every occasion it fails to give desire results. This paper aim to do critical analysis on role of urban planning in redeveloping Dharavi slums, why government fails to redevelop Dharavi since last decades? Could physical land control have ability to reverse social polarization? Could socio- economic integration really achieved in Indian tradition which deeply rooted in class system? Who will be real benefiters of development in current capitalism world? Could good urban design solution provide opportunities to poor social class in new globalized market economy? This paper structure divided into four segments as follows:- Social polarization in developing countries India. Conflicted urbanism in Dharavi. Dharavi redevelopment project proposal. Socio economic integration possible or it is mission impossible. Social Polarization and Segregation in developing country India:- India as developing country recognized to be at its peak of economic development since independence 60 years ago. However critical analysis of the social and economic structure revels the ugly truth which bizarrely contradictory nature of the predicted economic giant or superpower ( see Garewal 2005). India experiences concentration of high economic development around major centers while majority of the country shows very slow rate of development. Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai are metropolitan regions acting as driving engine for country. They have historically been known as employments magnets, industrial hubs, education centers and trade cores making them as most developed cities in nation and at same time the most diverse economies. Extreme polarities between rural and urban areas in nation caused the rural-urban migration phenomena. It always triggers rural people to migrate into most developed cities, in search for better standard of living and employment opportunities. This trend of migration eventually leads to the overpopulation in city; it also contributes to elevated level of poverty, illiteracy and crime in city. Eventually an underlying phenomena experienced by city is the evolution of dichotomy economies, where informal economic sector is created by low- income groups. Even though employment generating capacity of Mumbai attracts migrants, huge amount of jobs created in recent years have mostly been the informal service sectors. Due to nature of informal service sector employment results in abysmal living condition. Workers those who are migrating from rural to urban areas forced to take up the informal service sector jobs because of lack of skill and education which leads into lower wages, poor standard of living and contributed to proliferations of slums. Thus economy of city flourishes but social and physical aspects of city suffers degeneration. In analysing segregation there is an urgent need to study and create for the implication of development tools such as zoning, urban renewal etc; and how they define socio economic and spatial pattering of society. Most of time built environment practitioners give significance to spatial integration without considering the structural aspects of segregations. A major reason behind failure in integrative efforts is lack of appreciation of the underlying socio economic structures of the segregated society. Gist and Fana observed that city dwellers are independent in their struggle for social position and convenient location in city. Villaca (2001) considers social segregation as a process through which the upper class control the process of urban land production. Urban land considered as resource produced, yet which cannot be reproduced by human labour. (Castells, 1978), Treanor (1998) Claims that segregation is beyond planning and zoning. Although urban unity, multifunctional cities, open interaction and classless societies are desirable. He believes that trying to mix different classes together is futile. Surely, this is the only true for society organized along classes. Conflicted Urbanization in Dharavi:- In recent years Dharavi became iconic symbol of slums in Asia which is located at heart of Mumbai India. Covering 239 hectares and estimated population between 700,000 and 1 million people (BBC,2006; Sharma 2000). Historically Dharavi evolved from small fishing village that lived on swampy inlet which was fed by the Arabian Sea. Much changed for the kolis throughout Mumbais urbanization process. As they began to face occupational displacement during the development of the city (Vora Palishikar, 2003:173). Dharavi gradually constructed by its citizen through growing collection of waste and debris that effectively operated as in fill on top of the swamp (Urbanoligy 2008:12). As per current scenario Dharavi itself is made up of 85 nagars, all of which distinct character (Patel Arputhan 2007).Dharavi popularly known as a dirty accompanied by hazardous living condition without basic services. It is partly this but it much more. Dharvi is characterized by its intrinsic permanence, multiplicity, dynamism, density, scale and thus find itself at the heart of the challenging and highly contested debate over the present and future of the city. International developers, bureaucrats, state agencies, civil society and social movements are involved in various confrontations over land, density, typology and right to live a decent life while market pressure and significant government towards becoming world class city as expressed through vision futuristic Dubai and Shanghai like mega scale projects and thus wiping out slums. Mukesh Mehta (Chairman, MM projects consultants) stated that, If Mumbai was going to achieve its stated destiny of becoming a world-class metropolis, a rival to Chinas soaring Shanghai, how could that happen when every bit of open space was covered with these eyesores, these human dumps where no one paid taxes? If India were to become the ideal consumer society, it would have to develop a true middle class-and housing would be the engine. The slums would have to be reclaimed. Such circumstances enlarges window of opportunities for Lefebvrian Right to the city demand. Which is not about inclusion in structurally unequal, exploitative and insecure system but about democratising cities and their decision making process (Meyer 2009) Dharavi Redevelopment project proposal:- Due to strategic location and the demographic pressure on island city, Dharavi appeared as eyesore for government and thus global transformative goals were set up for Dharvi. Eventually Dharavi redevelopment project (DRP) was introduced as integrated special planning area in 2004. State government hired Architect Mr.Mukesh Mehta. He proposed several physical alterations for Dharvi with a vision substantiated by its artificial and instrumental division of Dharavi into 5 sectors and all these 5 sectors to be allotted to the five different private developers with no reference to existing communities in Dharavi. At initial satge 57,000 families will be rehabilitated into high rise housing blocks. Each family entitled to 225 sqft of housing close to their current residences with indoor sanitation services. In return, for erecting the free buildings private developers will be awarded with handsome incentives to build for profit housing to be sold out at high market price. Proposal increase the floor space index for region which contributed to higher urban densities; and adaptation of a spatial transformation from horizontal low rise slums to high rise podium style typology. Basically replacing informal settlements with high rise developments irrespective of the vibrant economy and society. Announcement from DRP was issued by Maharastra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) in June 2007 and received with mixed emotions. The times of India reported, the initial site purchase bidding was to attract international interest from developers of the highest calibre, with an expression of interest from (EoI) costing 1 lakh, a minimum opening bid of Rs 1000 crore and over 4000 crore to be expected in profits (TNN, 2007). Initial document submitted by Architect Mukesh Mehta was hired by state government in which five developers plan was taken unanimously without any significant call citizens input (Patel Arputham, 2007). This massive mega project seems to be homogenous in its aims and modernistic in its vision, thus a grassroots movement has emerged. Socio economic integration possible or it is mission impossible:- As megacity and flourishing economy Mumbai population continue to grow it always accompanied problem providing housing to people with good living conditions. So it is argued that high land cost dictate high density developments that cannot support communal service and open spaces for family living. But Charles Correa Belapur project has proven the opposite. Most great cities were terrible places, but their inhabitants were sustained by the myth, the overall image with which a citys identity is inextricably fused. The key to handling urban expansion, was not decentralization and dispersal to rural hinterlands, but increasing the absorptive capacity of the metropolitan conglomeration (Charles Correa,2001) The major reason behind vast growth of Mumbai lay in sheer success of its mass transit system, the parallel local railway lines running across the north and south tip of the Mumbai which subsidized fares provides opportunities to grow beautifully. Migrants into Mumbai quickly identify sites adjacent to railway lines on which to establish new squatter settlements, allowing them to easy access to their job. Most of the migrants coming to Mumbai for job 40 per cent of them from village population was landless labour therefore giving them housing unconnected to their job is futile. By subsidizing fares in effect you subsidise housing but another vital way of generating jobs is by designing small scale, high density housing that can build by using fairly traditional construction skills of ordinary mason and electrician. Doubling the height doesnt double the density, while the open spaces around high rises are wasted. We must know how big the number are in terms of dwelling required becaus e it sends adrenalin through our system (Charles Correa, 2001) Artist village design by Architect Charles Correa is one of the projects of urban housing design solution as open field project which help to make good feet in social interaction in different urban classes; it generates sense of belonging at the same time preserve traditional values and character of the place consequently crate identity of its own in urban era. Designers vision and innovative urban solution of low rise architecture and high density planning gives stimuli to concept of low rise architecture with amenities and social integration through housing projects in urban era. The 55 hectors Artist Village project of interesting mix of Goan atmosphere and Belapure city culture. Project was built for middle and lower income groups. Traditional building style which had been served from built environment in urban cities. Designers bring back the courtyard style traditional buildings which inherently have communal spaces built within their layout. Designers deep understanding of the nature of cities reflected in residential cluster modules which are simple in design but relate with each other in complex way. This housing project introduces the quality of life like village but sophistication of the city. Each cluster permits appearance of hyper local community feeling while at the same time each house integrated to the whole settlement at different levels. The hierarchy of entire project is organic. Artist village aimed to accommodate densities closed to achieve by high rise still providing the environment and life style more closely associated with rural areas in India. Artist Village project have small site despite of that architect manage to provide every house with their own private open to sky terrace and shared courtyard. Project was designed by taking consideration of its occupants, such that resident going to alter it many ways, making it truly their own, therefore homes were designed to be free standing so resident can add on to them as their families grow. Another major attribute is houses were priced differently so it can appeal to wide variety of income group. Mumbai and Dharavi are under microscopic observation and analysis since 1990. An accumulative effort of institution, organization and professionals amplify opportunities for Dharavi redevelopment. Dharvi as an example of urban mixite as ground field project, on one hand we can say it is informal settlement in Mumbai but on the other hand it is just not informal settlement but it is living, breeding and feeding organism. Urban form such as Dharavi not only provides shelter to its inhabitants but also fulfilled massive amount of economic opportunities to informal sector of Mumbai. Urban pattern and spatial organization of Dharavi is interrelation of activities of its inhabitants. Considering Dharvi inhabitant being involved in day long economic activities and the need of storage of raw material, organization and distribution of goods, climate change are translated in architectural language of buildings in Dharavi. The integration of these grey economic activities makes Dharavi more attractive for even world-wide famous designers. Most certainly Dharvai is not perfect place to live where lack of sanitation facilities, overcrowded streets, small houses, shelter hardly protect from sun, wind and rain, can be no mean to call it as liveable environment, despite of that Dharavi successfully revels mixite in urban social and economic environment is possible. Environment created by people for themselves where no superior planning strategies take place. Urban fabric of Dharavi shows that shops, workshops, small industries and senior citizens spaces, nurseries, schools, religious places can exist adjacent to each other. Unfortunately Mumbai city urban planners adopt Shanghai as development model where traffic congestion, migration and increasing population, global economy used as excuses. Architect Mukesh Mehta claims that his redevelopment or makeover proposal for Dharavi integrate slum dwellers into main stream. If we give them surroundings that are dignified they will live more dignified life.(AR.Mukesh Mehta Chairman, MM projects consultants) but on the other side slum dwellers thrown out of their homes with one day notice to find alternative housing, rendering close to million people homeless. The government authorities claim that housing in the form of council flats will be provided to residents, who can produce their documents of tenure in the city, hence question evolved for undocumented families. Most of the workers or occupants are landless and serving in informal service sector and undocumented although resident of the city from decades and contributing to success of city economy. Municip al authorities, policemen and politician have connived over the years to build slums and settle migrants to do vote bank politics. Such slums demolition and redevelopment project expanding the monopoly of the rich and excluding the low income groups who lack in political and social status. For better understanding of urban mixite in different geography, we need to get back to vernacular architecture and grass root settlement; we should preserve soul, character and local culture of the city. Urban planner and designers need to understand hidden dynamics behind un-aesthetic faà §ade. We need to study how they tightly packed still efficient to serve and living and working place at same time. New cityscape appears similar with each other and it is difficult to distinguish one from another resulting lacking of input of their localities. One could argue that Dharavi is in itself becoming a conceptual resource model, representing contested urbanism and slums rehabilitations. Just as Los Angeles and Las Vegas have become urban ideologies, through Mike Daniss City of Quartz and Venturis Learning from Las Vegas; so too has Mumbai (Dharavi) become an international prolific ground for debates and research (Dr.Camillo Boano) Conclusion:- A vision without plan is a dream A plan without vision is sheer drudgery A vision with plan can change world. Adapted from the Mt.Abu Declaration If we consider city as a fabric then that fabric should interwoven with thread as equity,dignity,infrastructure(transportation,communication,water,sanitaion)quality food, affordable housing, clean air, employments, open spaces, recreational spaces. If we missed out to interwoven any one of thread consequently the quality of fabric will be poor. Through the discussion in this paper its evident that, any solution offered for attainment of integration should not be overlook social and economic realities. In recent years we see emerging patterns in society towards traditional planning that is inherently inclusive in nature. More pragmatic approach is essential to change planning theories to create societies that are socially healthy and balanced and whose inhabitants mutually benefits from proximity to each other. Space planners need to carry out space planning meticulously that caters all social class; more and more spaces should keep accessible in planning which promote social integration and assist for sustainable growth. Neighbourhood need to addressed appropriate socio-economic mix of residents, mix of races, ethnicity and income level contributes to reduce criminality. As urban designers we need to understand that neighbourhoods it just not physical space occupied by the people but its multidimensional spatial and temporal experience produces by communities, individual history and productive activities. Based on discussion in this paper following are few recommendation to initiates and further integration as it relates to housing:- Policies should be made to provide more subsidised low and moderate rental units to counter market. Policies should be made for private developers to ensure that they add low income group units with high income group. Planning focus should be set in such manner where urban district resident should involve in socio-economic and cultural activities. Fundamental changes are required to make neighbourhoods more functional by infusion of new building types, new life style, and developments of distinguishable neighbourhoods, integration of living and work places, replacement of problematic buildings with unique buildings.

Uniforms In Public School :: Teaching Education

In the past few decades school has shifted its focus from education to fashion. Students are judged upon their shoes or jeans rather than their knowledge. Uniforms in the public education system is a great idea, not only is it cost effective, but also it gives the students a chance to concentrate on their studies and not have to worry about what to wear tomorrow. Plus the crime or violence rate drops in schools that have a uniform policy, and those that do not belong on campus are spotted quicker and easier. Private schools have already adopted this idea as well as some schools in England and Australia. Early morning or late evening fights over what is allowed to be worn to school could come to an end if uniforms are issued in the public school system.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The cost of uniforms as compared to the latest fashion statement is ridiculous. For the price of a household appliance, two or three outfits can be bought. The way the kids are dressed is more important than the grades they make. The students who don’t have the money to buy all the newest clothes tend to not go to school as much because they feel that they don’t fit in. The kids that come from lower class level backgrounds are the kids out there selling drugs and committing the crimes, but the money made goes to buy the latest designer jeans, just so they are â€Å" cool† at school. Uniforms can be bought at almost any clothing store. Prices range from $5-$7 for shirts, $10 for shorts and $7 for jumpers. Of course used clothes are cheaper. Majority of parents only buy two or three outfits for a school year. (Shrieves,3). Hand-me-down uniforms are used more than street clothes would be.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Should public schools in the U.S.A. have their children dressed in uniforms? Yes, as long as there are positive reactions involved. Uniforms not only look better and make fitting in easier but decisions on what to wear in the morning, a thing of the past. It used to be that the kids that wore the K-Mart or Wal-Mart brand of clothes were thought of as uncool. These are the students with lower test scores and poorer school attendance. Uniforms don’t only bring down the cost of clothes for the parents, but the school spirit is higher and the students feel a sense of unity.

Computer Networks Essay

I. Internet and layered protocol architecture: Q1. (5 points) In the layered protocol architecture the transport layer functionality includes congestion control and error recovery (e.g., retransmission). One suggested that this functionality should be done strictly at the end points (i.e., at the hosts) without aid from the network. Do you agree? Why? Elaborate showing the design trade-offs. Answer: (5 points) In general, error recovery (e.g., re-transmission) is specific to application needs. Some applications require 100% packet recovery, even with delays and jitters (such as TCP-based applications, http, ftp and telnet traffic). Other applications may be tolerant to loss but less tolerant to delays and jitter, such as voice applications. Re-transmissions and packet recovery add to the jitters and the delays and hence may not be desirable for realtime or voice applications. Hence it is not a good idea, in general, to include error recovery at the network layer (that is not aware of application needs) and it is better to implement such functionality at the transport layer end-to-end. In cases of lossy channels in the network (such as X.25 in the early networking days, or wireless links) it may be desirable to reduce the bit error rates on those links by including error recovery at the end points of those links. [In general, most links nowadays have very low BER, and for wireless links the MAC (such as IEEE 802.11) layer provides Ack’ed delivery]. For congestion control, a similar argument may be given. That is, congestion reaction may be application specific and is better implemented end-to-end. Congestion notification, on the other hand, may provide useful information to the end points to react appropriately. Since losses in the network may be due to congestion or other factors, a signal from the network to the end point may help distinguish congestion errors from other errors. Only congestion errors should trigger ‘back off’ or rate cut at the end points. So, network assistance in congestion notification may help in some scenarios. [extra: In other scenarios network assistance may prevent synchronization effects of congestion control, e.g., RED, or may prevent/isolate misbehavior, e.g., WFQ.]. Q2. (5 points) What advantage does a circuit-switched network have over a packetswitched network? How can it establish such advantage? Answer: A circuit-switched network can guarantee a certain amount of end-to-end bandwidth for the duration of a call. Most packet-switched networks today (including the Internet) cannot make any end-to-end guarantees for bandwidth. Circuit-switched networks use admission control, and reserve a circuit (in TDM it is done in the form of an assigned time slot per source that no other source can use). The allocated resources are never exceeded. Q3. (10 points) What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a layered protocol architecture for the Internet? (mention at least 3 advantages and 2 disadvantages) Answer: Is it true that the change in any of the layers does not affect the other layers? (support your answer/arguments with examples) Advantages: Allows an explicit structure to identify relationships between various pieces of the complex Internet structure, by providing a reference model for discussion. Provides a modular design that facilitates maintenance, updating/upgrading of protocols and implementations (by various vendors) at the various layers of the stack. Supports a flexible framework for future advances and inventions (such as mobile or sensor networks). Disadvantages: overhead of headers, redundancy of functions (sometimes not needed) [such as reliability as the transport layer and the link layer, or routing at the network layer and some link layer protocols (such as ATM)] It is true in many cases that the change in one layer does not affect the change in the other layers, but not always. Examples of change that did not affect the other layers: change from FDDI to token ring, to Ethernet at the MAC layer. Examples of change that affected other layers: wireless vs. wired (performance of TCP and routing degraded drastically). Introduction of 802.11 for wireless and ad hoc networks (a change in the physical and MAC layers), does affect in a major way routing at the network layer and the transport layers. In that case, many of the protocols needed re-design. Q4. (10 total points) Design parameters: In order to be able to analyze performance of the Internet protocols a researcher needs to model some parameters, such as number of nodes in the network, in addition to many other parameters. a. Discuss 4 different main parameters one would need to model in order to evaluate the performance of Internet protocols. [Elaborate on the definition of these parameters and their dynamics] b. Discuss 2 more parameters for mobile wireless networks [these two parameters are not needed for the wired Internet] Answer: a. Traffic model temporal and spatial (packet arrival processes, session/flow arrival processes, spatial distribution of traffic (src-dst) pair distribution across the topology), topology/connectivity model, node failure model, membership dynamics (for multicast) spatio-temporal models. [Any reasonable 4 parameters are ok, with 1.5 points per parameter] b. For mobile wireless networks there is a need to model ‘mobility’ (spatio-temporal), and wireless channel dynamics/loss/bandwidth since it changes with time much more drastically than the wired Internet (in which virtually the max bandwidth of a channel/link is static) [Any 2 reasonable parameters are ok, with 2 points per parameter] II. Statistical multiplexing and queuing theory Note: You may want to make use of the following equations: M/D/1: queuing delay ; Ts is service time & Ï  is link utilization M/D/1: average queue length or buffer occupancy M/M/1: queuing delay , buffer occupancy: Q5. (8 points) Consider two queuing systems, serving packets with lengths that have exponential distribution, and the packet arrival process is Poisson. The first queuing system (system I) has a single queue and a single server, and hence the packet arrival rate is X, and the server speed is Y. The second queuing system (system II) has two queues and two servers, and hence the packet arrival rate is X/2, and the server speed is Y/2. Derive a relation between the delays in each of these systems. What conclusion can you make? Answer: (8 points) We use the M/M/1 queue (because the question states Poisson arrival and exponentially distributed service time). For the first system (I): Tq=Ts/(1-Ï )=1/M(1-ÃŽ »/M)=1/Y(1-X/Y), For the second system (II): Tq=2/Y(1-X/Y)=2Tq (of system I) That is, using ‘1’ queuing system performs better than using ‘2’ queues with half of the arrival rate and half of the output link capacity. Q6. (5 points) In an Internet experiment it was noted that the queuing performance of the switches/routers was worse than expected. One designer suggested increasing the buffer size in the routers drastically to withstand any possible burst of data. Argue for or against this suggestion, and justify your position. A6. Increasing the buffer size allows switches to store more packets (which may reduce loss). However, it does not alleviate the congestion. If this was the only cure proposed, then we expect the queues to build up, increasing the buffer occupancy, and increasing the delays. If the build up persists (due to lack of congestion control for example) the queues shall incur losses and extended delays. Delays may lead re-transmission timers to expire (for reliable protocols, such as TCP) leading to re-transmissions. Also, the TTL value in the header of each packet is reduced based on time (and hop count). So, many of the TTLs may expire leading to the discard of packets. So, in ge neral, only increasing the buffer sizes does not help improve the queuing performance. Q7. (7 points) Describe the network design trade-off introduced by using statistical multiplexing and define and describe a metric that captures this trade-off. A7. (7 points: 3.5 for the link between stat muxing and congestion and 3.5 for the trade off metric (network power) and its description). Statistical multiplexing allows the network to admit flows with aggregate capacity exceeding the network capacity (even if momentarily). This leads to the need for buffering and the ‘store and forward’ model. Subsequently, queuing delays and build up may be experienced as the load on the network is increased. Two major design goals of the network is to provide maximum throughput (or goodput) with least (or min) delay. However, these two goals are conflicting. In order to increase the throughput, the congestion increases and so does the delay. In order to reduce the queuing delays then we need to reduce the load on the network and hence the goodput of the flows would decrease. This is the throughput-delay trade off in network design. One metric that captures both measures is the network power=Tput/Delay, as the Tput increases, so does the network power, and when the delay decreases the network power increases. Q8. (8 points) Flows in the Internet vary widely in their characteristics. Someone suggested that in order to be fair to the various heterogeneous flows then we need the different flows to experience the same delay at the different queues. Argue for or against this suggestion. A8. (8 points: 4 points for the constant ratio and the link to the fluid flow model, 4 points for the unfairnes/greed description) In order to provide the same delay for the various flows we need to maintain the rate/capacity ratio constant (this is based on the fluid flow model we introduced in class). Hence, if the different flows arrive at various rates, then the capacity allocation should reflect such variation. The allocation leading to same delays would favor (i.e., allocate more capacity to) flows with higher rates at the expense of flows with low rates. This strategy encourages greed in the network and cannot achieve fairness, where the existence of high rate (large) flows in the network would adversely affect low rate (small) flows in the network by increasing the overall delay experienced by all the flows. Q9. (12 total points) Consider a network that uses statistical multiplexing. The network has ‘N’ number of ON/OFF sources, each sending at a rate of R packets per second when ON. All the sources are multiplexed through a single output link. The capacity of the output link is ‘M’. – A. (3 points) What is the condition on N, R and M in order to stabilize this network? – When the number of sources to be supported is increased from R to 10R, there were two suggestions to modify the network: Suggestion I is to replicate the above system 10 times. That is, create 10 links, each with capacity of ‘M’ handling R sources. – Suggestion II is to replace the link with another link of capacity ’10 M’ B. (9 points) Which suggestion do you support and why? [Argue giving expressions for the delay/buffer performance of each system. Give both the advantages and disadvantages of each case] Answer: ÃŽ ±=ÃŽ »Ã  A. (3 points) The conditions for a stable network are N.R. ÃŽ ± < M, N.R > M, where ÃŽ ± is the fraction of the time the sources are ON (on average) If ‘N.R. ÃŽ ± > M’, then this leads to constant build up of the queue with no change of recovering from congestion (and draining the queue), which would lead to unstable system. B. (9 points) Write down the equations, M/D/1: queuing delay ; Ts is service time & Ï  is link utilization M/D/1: average queue length or buffer occupancy M/M/1: queuing delay , buffer occupancy: The buffer occupancy depends on Ï  only. If Ï  is the same (i.e., the load on the queue server is the same) then the buffer occupancy is the same, Ï  = ÃŽ ». Ts = ÃŽ ±. N. R / M Increasing the bandwidth of the link to 10M means that we can get the same average buffer occupancy in the two systems. In system I we would need 10 times the buffer size as in system II, so system II is advantageous in that sense. (more sharing and statistical multiplexing) In addition, the queuing delay will be decreased drastically (by a factor of 10) where Tq=Ts. f(Ï ) (6 points for the above argument) (3 points) On the other hand the std deviation/fluctuation around the average in the queue size will be higher since it is shared by more number of flows, and hence the jitter will be relatively higher. III. Application layer and related issues Q10. (5 points) (Stateful vs. Stateless) Discuss one advantage and one disadvantage of having a ‘stateful’ protocol for applications. Advantage: The protocol can now maintain state about (i.e., remembers) users preferences (e.g., shopping preferences as in browser cookies), Disadvantage: when failure occurs the state needs to be reconciled (more complexity and overhead than stateless) [other correct and reasonable answers are accepted] Q11. (5 point) (Web Caching) Describe how Web caching can reduce the delay in receiving a requested object. Will Web caching reduce the delay for all objects requested by a user or for only some of the objects? Why? Ans. Web caching can bring the desired content â€Å"closer† to the user, perhaps to the same LAN to which the user’s host is connected. Web caching can reduce the delay for all objects, even objects that are not cached, since caching reduces the traffic on links. Q12. (1 0 points) Discuss three different architectures of the peer-to-peer applications. Give examples of real applications for each architecture and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each architecture. Ans. 1. Centralized directory of resources/files, as in Napster. Advantage is that search for resources is simple with min overhead (just ask the centralized server). The disadvantages are: single point of failure, performance bottleneck and target of lawsuit. 2. Fully distributed, non-centralized architecture, as in Gnutella, where all peers and edges form a ‘flat’ overlay (without hierarchy). Advantages: robustness to failure, no performance bottleneck and no target for lawsuit. Disadvantages is that search is more involved and incurs high overhead with query flooding. 3. Hierarchical overlay, with some nodes acting as super nodes (or cluster heads), or nodes forming loose neighborhoods (sometimes referred to as loose hierarchy, as in BitTorrent). Advantages, robust (no single point of failure), avoids flooding to search for resources during queries. Disadvantages, needs to keep track of at least some nodes using the ‘Tracker’ server. In general, this architecture attempts to combine the best of the 2 other architectures. Q13. (7.5 points) Push vs. Pull: A. Give examples of a push protocol and a pull protocol B. Mention three factors one should consider when designing pull/push protocols, discuss how these factors would affect your decision as a protocol designer (give example scenarios to illustrate). Answer: A. An example of a push protocol is: http. An example of a pull protocol: SMTP B. The factors affecting the performance of a pull/push protocol include (but are not limited to): 1. access pattern: how often is this object cached and how often is it accessed (example: a push mechanism for a very popular video that is pushed closer to a large population that is going to frequently watch it, would be better than a pull mechanism), 2. delay: what is the delay to obtain the object, and 3. object dynamics: how often/soon does the information in the object expires (example: in a sensor network where the information sensed is constantly changing, but is queried once in a while would be better ‘not’ to push it, but to pull it when needed only). Q14. (7.5 points) We refer to the problem of getting users to know about each other, whether it is peers in a p2p network or senders and receivers in a multicast group, as the â€Å"rendezvous problem†. What are possible solutions to solve the rendezvous problem in p2p networks (discuss three different alternatives and compare/contrast them. Answer: The possible solutions for the rendezvous problem include: 1. Using a centralized server: advantages: simple to search, little communication overhead. Disadvantages: single-point-of-failure (not robust), bottleneck, doesn’t scale well 2. Using a search technique for discovery, perhaps using a variant of a flood (or scoped-flood) or expanding-ring search mechanism. Advantages: avoids single-point-of-failure and bottlenecks. Disadvantages: may be complex, incurs high communication overhead and may incur delays during the search. 3. hybrid (or hierarchy): where some information (e.g., pointers to potential bootstrap neighbors, or pointers to some resources) are kept at a centralized (or replicated) server or super-nodes, then the actual communication is peer-topeer. Advantage: if designed carefully can avoid single-point-of-failure, bottlenecks, and achieve reasonable overhead and delay. Disadvantage: need to build and maintain the hierarchy (can trigger costly re-configuration control overhead in case of highly dynamic networks and unstable super-nodes).