B2B and B2C: Their ethical, legal, and regulatory environments Essay

The marketplace of internet commerce is rapidly expanding. Although there are wide variations within each category, internet-related businesses are usually classified as being either B2B (business-to-business), or B2C (business-to-consumer) enterprises. The economic landscape in which these companies operate is always changing. For that reason, it is all the more necessary for there to be a firm concept of the ethical, legal and regulatory responsibilities within this emerging marketplace. B2Bs and B2Cs share many of these responsibilities in common. In some cases, however, there are particular nuances of operating a B2B that may call for a different framework than is necessary for operating a B2C and vice versa. The variations between these businesses are continually widening, meaning that the particulars of the ethical, legal and regulatory frameworks will differ. The overall goal of these frameworks is the same-establishing the concept of trust. Trust is the key to establishing any reputable, successful and long lasting business. Overview B2Bs (business-to-business) are business that interconnect using the internet. In other words, they are businesses that buy and sell to each other. B2Cs are businesses that use the internet to sell to the end consumer. It may be the internet site of a well-established department store, or it may be a business that uses the internet as its only point of contact with consumers. The world of internet business is still relatively new. As it continues to grow, it will have to adapt to regulatory and legal changes. The continued emergence of variations within the E-marketplace is a challenge to those concerned with ethical and regulatory issues. Far from being on the wane, these issues are more common than ever. According to market forecasters â€Å"Security and privacy issues along with e-business regulatory issues will become more prevalent† (Warholic, 2007). Ethical environment Conduct of B2B transactions is reliant on the two-way sharing of information. As a result businesses on both ends of the transaction must make sure that information platforms are secure, and accessible only to authorized personnel. Since trust is a critical element in E-business as well as more traditional forms of business, professional codes already in existence are applicable in both areas. Unfortunately, industry-wide adherence to these codes is lacking. Companies are struggling with the wide array of issues raised by internet commerce. A recent report on the publications industry highlighted one of the many potential ethical problems of conducting business in an advertising-driven media. â€Å"†¦several respondents indicated that there was too much of a blur between editorial and advertising departments† (ASBPE, 2006). Another likely area of ethical focus for the B2B industry is highlighted by Laura Spense: â€Å"What about the facilitating of fraudulent activity? (Spense, 2002). In an environment with a multitude of partners, platforms and subsidiaries how much responsibility does a B2B company bear for the actions of its partners? In Spense’s example, a B2B bank was knowingly enabling one of its partners to conduct illegal activities overseas. Again, examples similar to this could arise in any number of industries. Ethical responsibilities for B2C companies often revolve around the protection of customers’ information. Some companies have developed software limiting customer information to only a few responsible parties. Others have not been able to resist the financial lure of information sharing or selling. This division is likely to continue until it is addressed more completely by legal and regulatory efforts. In the mean time, there is an opportunity for ethical businesses to develop strong reputations that will benefit them far into the future. Legal environment Legal concerns in E-business span a wide array of areas. There are the obvious concerns such as customer security and privacy, internet fraud and identity theft that relate most often to B2C businesses. Most case law that has been developed addresses these issues. Because these crimes are the most high profile, they are the predominant focus of the legal system. As criminals adjust to these legal efforts in any number of ways it will require a sophisticated and ongoing effort to prevent their actions. There are also possible legal issues below the surface that can be just as important. For example, the difficulty of determining the legality of electronic documents can pose issues, particularly for multinational B2B companies. What appears to be a legal document may not be admissible in court as evidence. Time differences can also result in an agreed upon document bearing one date in one country but having another effective date in another country. Because B2Bs can employ many networks and partners, it can be difficult to determine legally who bears responsibility on a particular issue. These are examples of small details, in the B2B context, that can have large legal consequences if not properly attained to. Regulatory environment The internet is still relatively unregulated. That is beginning to change in a few areas, however. Most regulation is targeted toward B2C companies, coming in the form of consumer protection measures. The government is becoming more assertive in prosecuting internet fraud, gambling, child pornography and spamming violations. It is likely that additional laws in these areas will be enacted in the coming years. The issue of taxation is also currently under debate. This is of particular concern to B2Cs, which in years past have been able to lure customers by selling their product without any sales tax. That practice has already been ended in some states. As more states become cash-strapped, this process is likely to continue. B2C firms will have to innovate in order to continue the growth of their customer base. The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) applies to both B2B and B2C enterprises. The UCC outlines warranty, ownership and expert status issues, making some delineation between the responsibilities of B2Bs and B2Cs. For example, under the UCC, a business client is assumed to have a greater level of expertise about the transaction at hand. Therefore, statements or claims made to that client do not necessarily have to meet the same standards of reliability as statements made to an end user in a B2C transaction. The main regulatory concern in regards to B2Bs involves the prevention of monopolistic practices, including price fixing. The formation of some large B2B firms such as Covisint, a firm formed by Ford, DaimlerChrysler, and General Motors, has raised concerns about the potential domination of market share. Critics fear the emergence of monospony – a shift of pricing power from buyers to sellers (IGE, 2001). Conclusion The only thing that is certain about the internet business environment is that it will continue to change and evolve. The government will likely become a bigger factor in terms of laws and regulations, particularly within the B2C market. The B2B market, in contrast, is better able to self-regulate. Ethically both markets would be best served by anticipating potential regulatory and legal action. This has a dual purpose. It helps to establish the company as a trustworthy entity. Also it can help to head off future government interference in the market. The consequences of a lack of trust are particularly high for a B2B company, but the issue is important for any company hoping to operate profitably over the long-term.

Nike Market Analysis Essay

There are many companies offering similar but not identical products, this is called Monopolistic competition market, and there are also many buyers that perceive differences between these products like service, features, design and quality, so they are willing to pay different prices for them. Therefore, each firm influences each other on the extent of the product prices or has some control over some. For instance, exists different marketing tools that firms use for competition, such as branding and personal selling to differentiate their offerings and advertising. Nike is located at Bearverton, Oregon. The company was founded in 1978by Bill Bowerman and Philip Knight, named Nike and become the number one sports manufactures in the world design by Nolan Breitbarth in the 1970’s.This company sells sports products worldwide. Nike sells a huge range of products, including shoes and apparel for sports activities like volleyball, cycling, golf, athletics, American football, tennis , combat sports, basketball and football. Nike is a company that has attained success in the market thanks to the excellence of its products and the passion for everyone to use its brand products that create the Nike Just Do It feeling for the competition. The proven strategy of the company is to create a consumer’s perception of brand influences their buying decision in sports industry by athletic expectation that is endorsed by real athletes, technique that has revolutionized the sports marketing. Nike recently teamed up with Apple Inc. to produce the Nike + product which monitors a runner’s performance via radio device in the shoe that communicates with the iPod nano. American brand Nike is number two in terms of name recognition among foreign consumers and is a sponsor of different players, events and sports teams, among others, and is the number one sports brand in the world. The direct competition of Nike has always been the sports brand Adidas. Adidas is a German worldwide firm that also produces different sporting goods, founded in 1949 in Herzogenaurach, Germany. Adidas’ market capitalization is 18.09  billion, well below the capitalization of Nike. Adidas is considered the second sports brand in the wor ld, competing with Nike since this American company was founded. Adidas has never been able to pass or improve the figures of Nike. Adidas recently began to make very similar decisions to Nike; this allows the competition to grow. Adidas decide to use marketing strategies similar to those of Nike in the moment that they decide to invest a large portion of their capital in advertising and celebrity sponsorships, the strategy used by Nike since its inception. Adidas, after ups and downs in the market against Nike, recently decided to acquire the Reebok firm, a sustitute brand of sporting goods, this decision was made in order to topple the market leader Sports, Nike, based on a â€Å"partnership†. Adidas competes strongly with Nike, but Nike still has this kind of monopoly because it makes better things with much less production factors than Adidas. Another example of substitute brand in the sports market is the signature Puma, with a market capitalization of 3.46 Billion dollars. Puma does not compete strongly with brands like Nike or Adidas, their products are also substitutes but it does not has a wide range and variety. Similarly, Reebok products, before the firm was acquired by Adidas, were competing in the sports market with these two giant. Although often substitute products could be better than those of the two big firms, people prefer the big firm’s products for the fact that marketing and advertising is way much better and people get carried away by the image that firms are selling them, beyond quality. Similar examples are for companies like Converse, New Balance and Under Armour, among others. Nike’s market capitalization is 57.58 Billion dollars and the company spends millions of dollars annually in promoting events, celebrities and numerous flashy ads that catch the attention of consumers and promote the culture of sport as a benefit to the world. Nike has managed to remain world leader in sports products since the 90’s and even when there are many other sports brands in the world, Nike is kind of a monopoly in this market thanks to the market strategies used that have allowed this firm to place and especially, remain, well above their competitors, that is why this firm falls into the category of monopolistic competition. Nike has many strengths and weaknesses as a consolidated company in a market that is competitive by nature, as are the sports. One of its strengths is that it is a world class company that has the facility to  sell their products anywhere in the world. Nike has more than 700 production factories around the world. Other two major strengths of the company, as already mentioned, is their slogan and symbol, which have allowed, through their marketing that this brand can become increasingly known. Nike is a well established company that has managed to get out of economic crises and demands, which also represents a threat to the assets of the company. Nike risk much as any brand with celebrities sponsoring by the fact that they may be involved in scandals, but it still retains its credibility as a firm around the world. Moreover, Nike is a company that is dedicated to their customers; it does not neglect any part of the business and react properly to any changes in the consumer behavior by taking steps that allow them to maintain a leading position in the market. This company is a leading innovator, they are alw ays looking to offer the best and satisfy consumer tastes even when the population is different. In conclusion, consumers are always going to prefer products from companies like Nike or Adidas because they have sold them the idea that their products are at the top of the market, and indeed, they are. Nike has an inelastic demand since the variation in the prices of their products does not affect the number of consumers that the brand has, again thanks to their marketing and advertising techniques. The countless ads that Nike publishes around the world are not specifically to view them, Nike have managed to create images that consumers hardly forget, innovative images. Consumers are always changing by the products they promote the more. Nike dominates and will continue to dominate the global sports market as its products are accessible and because they offer many promotions and discounts to their customers around the world, if Nike dominates this market nowadays is all thanks to its marketing beyond the quality or accessibility of its products. Source: http://nikesports.wikispaces.com/Finance â€Å"This chart demonstrates just how much of the market share for shoes Nike currently owns.† http://www.socialbakers.com//storage/www/daily-fan-growth-nike-vs.-adidas-originals-from-apr-01-2012-to-apr-30-2012.png This graph shows the ups and downs in demand for different brands of competition in the sports market from April 02 to April 30 that are not very different from nowadays. References: 1. Nike Inc. (NKE) -NYSE. [ONLINE] Available at: http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=NKE. [Last Accessed 5/15/13]. 2. Dmitriy Kha. Monopolistic Competition.   Available at: http://mail.beaconhill.org/~dkha/data/Micro%20Lectures/Lecture%2011.pdf. [Last Accessed 5/14/13]. 3. Paige Adams, Haley Smith, Laura Freeman, Dan Lawson, Hayley Jacobs, Gage Mitchell. NIKE Industry and Company Analysis. Available at: http://kimboal.ba.ttu.edu/MGT%204380%20Fall%202012/001/NIKE%20Industry%20and%20Company%20Analysis.pptx. [Last Accessed 5/13/13] 4. John B. Taylor, Akila Weerapana, (2009). Principles of Microeconomics. 6th ed. Boston, MA, U.S.A.: Houghton Mifflin. 5. Avinash K. Dixit, Joseph E. Stiglitz. Monopolistic Competition and Optimum Product Diversity. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1831401. [Last Accessed 5/14/13].

Food for Thought Essay

The well known expression, you are what you eat, is even more true as we get on in years. If we had eaten the food that was good for us in our younger years, the chances of staying healthy longer will improve as we get older. Also, the likelihood of maintaining a high quality of life throughout our senior years increases. Reading nutrition columns in newspapers and magazines or from other media sources is a good way to keep updated of current food and health related discoveries. How can we be able to estimate and gauge the truthfulness of scientific studies about food? Linda Kulman gives us good advice about how to do just that in her article, Food News Can Get You Dizzy, So Know What to Swallow. I believe that for a person to be able to make healthy dietary choices a person needs to be educated as to the credibility of healthy dietary options. Primarily, to achieve and maintain good health, food from all the major food groups should be eaten in proper proportion and regularly. Therefore, no one food is able to maintain good health when eaten alone. For instance, â€Å"No foods are so good that if you ate them to the exclusion of all else, you would be healthy,† says M. R. C. Greenwood, a biologist and chancellor of the University of California-Santa Cruz (Kulman, 2012, p. 141). Making the correct dietary choices was, and continues to be a difficult one. Confusion can turn to frustration when many reports and studies contradict each others findings. Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating will give us the basics on what constitutes a healthy diet. The food guide basically recommends to eat in moderation and to eat a large variety of foods. The flip-flops of nutritional recommendations by the scientific community are causing bewilderment with many people who are trying to achieve and maintain a good healthy diet. Furthermore, the tale of fiber and its claimed shielding effect against colon cancer show how uncertain science can lead to confusion. Fiber helps food go through the digestive track faster, reducing the time carcinogens make contact with your intestinal walls. Studies of high fiber eating population and experiments with mice and rats resulted in giving the fiber hypothesis some credibility. Even though the evidence for higher fiber consumption reducing cancer risk remained uncertain, in 1984 the American Cancer Society made its first specific recommendation to eat fiber to help prevent colon cancer. Researchers with the Nurses Health Study in Boston tracked the diets and health of more than 88,000 American female nurses since 1980 and found that nurses who ate about 30 grams of fiber a day got colorectal cancer just as often as the average American, who consumes just 13 grams (Kulman, 2012, p. 143). Two additional study results showed that eating more fiber does not reduce the risk of getting colon cancer. These studies show that there was no significant difference of colon cancer risk between man and women. Researchers continue to suspect that whole fruits and vegetables as well as whole grains are protective against colon cancer. In conclusion, the fiber story is an example of how reporting results of scientific food studies while the studies are incomplete, can lead to many people becoming discouraged from believing future reported food study findings. Usually the cause of such distortions is the incompatibility between the needs of science and those of the News Media. â€Å"The way a lab finding makes its way to the headlines is like a conveyor belt,† explains the Statistical Assessment Service’s Murray. â€Å"At each step there is a potential distortion. Where science is contingent and unfinished, journalists want something definitive (Kulman, 2012, p. 143). The most frequent complaints about news reports is that they tend to leave out information that would help readers decide how seriously to take a new finding. The News Media should not be the only one to take the blame for the reporting of incorrect information about study findings. Scientist can get very enthusiastic when reporting their findings to the News Media and can easily be misinterpreted as to the significance of their findings. Scientists are often motivated to embellish their claims to get greater attention and more research funding. This is an unfortunately situation for those of us attempting to make an informed choice for a healthy diet.

United States women's wages and the wage gap as compared to their male Essay

United States women's wages and the wage gap as compared to their male counterpart - Essay Example The term ‘equality’ seems to be deterring from women even in the 21st century. The period when women are taking giant strides towards successful career and achieving global heights, the demon of equal pay rights and equality at workplace still haunts.Federal government confirmed the earning gap persistent between men and women despite various laws and amendments made by the government (Longley, ‘Why Women Still Make Less than Men’). Despite some dramatic reductions in the male-female pay gap since the 1950’s gender differentials persist in all industrialized nations (Blau and Kahn, 533). Both gender specific factors like gender differences in qualifications and discrimination, and overall wage structure, the rewards for skills and employment in particular sectors, importantly influence the gender pay gap. The large gender pay gap in the United States compared to other advanced countries seems primarily attributable to the very high level of U.S. wage inequality (Blau and Kahn). According to Goldin, the ratio of female to male earnings among full time workers was roughly constant from the 1950s to the early 1980s and the segregation of occupation of sex is substantial and has declined only slightly across the last century (Burstein, 17). According to the American Women, a report prepared by Commission on the Status of Women; the role for women ‘most generally approved by counselors, parents and friends is the making of a home, the rearing of children and the transmission of them in their earliest years of the values of the American heritage. It should be noted that during that period only 10 percent of families were headed by unmarried women and most of the women’s job were in ‘low paid categories’ such as clerical work which is still existent even today as shown in Table 1. However the time is changing rapidly as Shiver reported that in 2009, half of the U.S. workers are female and mothers have become t he primary breadwinners in 4 out of 10 families (A Women’s Nation). However the fact remains that there is large gap in wages between men and women as the gap had widened during 2007 and 2008 as women’s weekly earning on an average was $657 as compared to $819 for men (It’s time for working women to earn equal pay’). Basing on the facts and figures mentioned above, this paper attempts to present analytical discussion on United States’ women wages and wage gap differences as compared to men at workplace. 2. U.S. Women Employment and Wages Figart, Mutari and Power (3) stated that women have been always working which was essential in providing food, clothing and shelter throughout history and across cultures. It took decades before the women first occupied place among the men. Today, women represent nearly half of the U.S. workforce wherein the United States total workforce consisted of 72% men and 58% women in 2010. The labor force participation for women increased from about 33 percent in 1950 to 61 percent in 1999 but has remained less active and spent fewer weeks in the labor force as compared to men (US Dept. of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, 28). According to report ‘Worlds Women 2010’, 90% of the women’s workforce was employed in service sector while only 9% in industry sector and 1% in agricultural sector. The data (Table 1) reveals that there is demand of women in service sector as only 68% men are employed within the sector. Table 1: Distribution of Employment in Developed Countries Source: World’s Women 2010, United Nations (COR) The domination of women in service sector was the result of increasing representation of women among the ranks of managers in organizations in the U.S. which was considered as a dramatic shift in the sex composition of an occupation since clerical work became a female dominated field in the late nineteenth century (Jacobs, 282). It is evident fro m the above data that women are equally contributing to nations GDP as

Prisoners with Substance Abuse and Mental Health Problems Research Paper

Prisoners with Substance Abuse and Mental Health Problems - Research Paper Example This article written by Diamond, Harzke, Magaletta and Baxter (2009) seeks to determine who seeks psychological services when entering prisons. Few studies have sought to explain the common characteristics among inmates seeking for mental illnesses. This study seeks to determine the characteristics of the inmate’s requesting psychological services upon their admission to prison. The researchers utilized a quantitative research including a sample population of 2,600 offenders that were newly admitted to a federal incarceration facility. During this exploratory study participants were assessed using the self-reporting assessment the Psychological Services Inmate Questionnaire (PSIQ). Participants came from 14 prisons throughout different locations in medium risk facilities. The research sample consisted of 2068 men (n=2068) and 606 women (n=606). The race composition of the study was 41% African American, 26% White, 32% Hispanic and 2% other. One-fifth of the participants were n on-United States citizens. All statistical analysis was done using SPSS. The study concluded that 79% of all participants had children. In addition, male participants were younger than female participants. Females were more likely to report previous mental health treatment including medication usage, suicidal ideation, and general mental health illnesses with the exclusion of hallucinations. The most commonly reported symptoms of mental illnesses corresponded with symptoms of depression and anxiety in both men and women sampled. Of the participants sampled only 11% requested psychological services/treatment while incarcerated. Based upon the results of the study researchers further hypothesize that many individuals entering prison facilities suffered from mental health illnesses prior to their incarceration. Further research is needed to confirm this hypothesis. This performed by Morgan and Patrick (2008) seeks to determine the effects of telemental health services on inmates.     Ã‚  

Discuss the main components that you need to write a wireless LAN Essay

Discuss the main components that you need to write a wireless LAN security policy. How such a policy would be different from a - Essay Example A sample Wireless information security policy can be found in this link http://www.sans.org/security-resources/policies/Wireless_Communication_Policy.pdf . II. Essential Components of a Wireless Security Policy Essential components of the Wireless Security Policy are the mandatory change of password for the Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA). The Wireless Security Policy also includes a list of standard devices allowed to connect to the wireless local area network. Since it would be easier to diagnose a problem including the implementation of solutions when there are less variables to consider. Wired local area network IP addresses in some instances can be dynamic for each of the devices connected to the local area network. However, in the wireless local area network static IP are assigned to MAC address to ensure that only authorized devices connects to the local area network. Since the possibility of security breaches or infiltration are higher using the wireless local area network the s ecurity policy normally do not allow devices intending to connect to the wireless local area network to access beyond a finite area. Most often this area is not accessible to normal human traffic from outside the perimeter of the organization’s property. ... This is to ensure that no rider or malicious codes accompany the authentication process of the wireless device as it connects to the wireless local area network. In some instances the organization’s wireless security policy only allows the devices supplied by the organization to connect to its wireless local area network. The security policy also mandates that the local virus protection system of the wireless devices is up to date. III. The Difference of Wireless and Wired LAN Security Policy The policy governing wireless communication in a local area network is different in the sense that. Wireless devices that can attach to a network are mobile or can be taken out of the premises of the organization while devices that are wired to the Local Area Network of the organization cannot be taken out of the office without arousing any suspicion. Wired connection can easily be inventoried and accounted for using network management software. Devices that are connected to the wireless devices of the local area network are dynamic connections that can move around and be at certain locations that are within the range of the wireless router. The possibility of infiltration and data theft is not only probable but very likely since the shortest effective range of a wireless router can include areas that are beyond the visual range of security forces of the organization. While the devices connected to the wired local area network are secure and static within the company premises. The manners in which devices connect to the wired local area network are managed and administered are entirely different with the way devices connect to the wireless

Nucleic acid hybridisation and Nucleic acid probes Essay

Nucleic acid hybridisation and Nucleic acid probes - Essay Example For instance, if a DNA strand with a desired nucleotide sequence is to be detected from a mixture of many other strands, an oligonucleotide containing a few complementary bases to the desired sequence can be prepared and attached to an anchor such as a membrane or a paper. When soaked in a solution having a mixture of many strands, the one, which is complementary to the oligonucleotide, will bind to it through complementary base pairing, also known as â€Å"zippering† (Lodish et al, 2004, p. 11). When double stranded DNA is heated in a dilute salt solution, its two strands separate because of the breakdown of complementary base pairing (melting). This strand separation is called denaturation. The temperature at which the two complementary strands separate is called the melting temperature ‘Tm’, and is affected by the percentage of G.C base pairs, ion concentration of the solution, presence of destabilising compounds like urea, and the pH of the solution (Lodish et al, 2004, p. 105). A particular fragment of DNA or RNA whose nucleotide sequence is complementary to a gene or nucleotide of interest is called a nucleic acid probe. A nucleic acid probe has to be designed in such a way that it hybridises through complementary base pairing to the target DNA or RNA that has to be detected. It should be long enough (about 20 nucleotide long) to pair exclusively to the target nucleotide sequence. Probes are labeled with radioactive tracers, histochemical compounds or fluorescent dyes to enable their detection from a heterogeneous mixture of nucleic acids (Nussbaum et al, 2004, p.41). For instance, 32P labeled probes are developed using polynucleotide kinase that transfers a

Photography - Photojournalism to Fine Art PowerPoint Presentation

Photography - Photojournalism to Fine Art - PowerPoint Presentation Example For example, even though the food taken by the people of China may differentiate them from the people of Britain, even within China, there are different cultures that can be identified that use different staples of food. What is displayed above by Snellac is therefore a very significant photograph that speaks volumes about food and the place it has in culture. Another important characteristic of food as a component of culture is the place of its acquisition and from whom it can be acquire. In this photograph, the photojournalist is sending a message across about the significant role that markets and women play in getting food to the ordinary person in China. Unlike other parts of the world such as Europe and America where there is massive dependence on grocery stores as the source of food (quote), the open market plays a significant role in the acquisition of food in China and therefore makes the food culture of the people of China very unique and different from what prevails in other cultures. A picture taken at the time of the Louisville Flood, Margaret Bourke-Smith used this picture to display a contrasting situation between the true state of America as a nation at the time and what the country touted of itself in theory. This is because whereas the billboard right behind the people who had lined up contained the words, â€Å"â€Å"World’s Highest Standard of Living: There’s no way like the American Way!†, the real picture on the ground was that people were actually displayed and waiting for help to come. There was no way this was going to be the situation of a place with the world’s highest standard of living. What is perhaps culturally significant about this piece of photojournalistic work is that most of the people seen to be waiting for help were Blacks. This is very synonymous with the time of the Great Depression when Blacks were

Annotated Bibliography-Terence Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 2

Annotated Bibliography-Terence - Coursework Example It is important on how the use of technology can restore the elderly memory. Rajarshi C., Claire V., H., & Raghav R. (2013). Privacy preserving actions of older adults in social media: Exploring the behavior of opting out of information sharing, Decision Support Systems, ISSN 0167-9236, 10.1016/j.dss.2013.01.004. The Elsevier science publishers publish the information. It provides that there is an increase in the use of the social media by the elderly individuals. These persons, however, do find themselves sharing their private information unknowingly that should be avoided. It does provide for other studies as to how the young generation and the old differ in sharing information. The literature review is extensive and provide explanations for the use of other studies that enables understanding of the research easier. The methods of analysis were limited to observations as to how the elderly shared information that was common to other studies explained by the review. Though, it is unfortunate that elderly persons have to share private issues accidentally. Regec, M. (2011). Opening information technology to the senior population. Retrieved from http://www.lillonline.net/online/documents/publications/elill_publ/bratislava_opening_information_technology_to_senior_population.pdf This is an article published from the Pew research center. It observes that senior members have slow integration of technology compared to younger generation. Hence, the senior members who interact with the young embraces technology with ease. It offers further studies onto how the government can assist the older generation to benefit from the technology such socialization in the society. The literature review analyzed different age groups of the senior members to give an extensive view on how they operate the technology. As a result, it provided in-depth analysis of the study. The method of research was by

Aviation Safety Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Aviation Safety - Essay Example Success in this endeavor is defined by the extent to which aviation security personnel remain one step ahead of terrorists. When the "Shoe Bomber," Richard Reed, was able to board a transatlantic commercial airliner following 9/11, it marked a monumental failure of aviation security. Since then the sight of airline passengers in security checkpoints removing their footwear has become commonplace. Obviously, adjusting security to account for methods of terror that have already been attempted is essential. However, the real success of security happens when those threats are predicted and guarded against before anyone actually carries them out. Among all such threats that have been contemplated, there is one that stands out as a glaring risk about which shockingly little has been done. That is the potential for checked luggage and cargo loaded into the hold of an airplane to be rigged with explosives. To date, no airline or airport routinely screens checked bags and cargo for explosives. Some small scale pilot projects are in the works to test methods of doing this. Nevertheless, it is quite surprising that five years after 9/11, a terrorist could go to an airport and check through a bomb-laden suitcase that very likely would make it aboard a commercial airliner. ... ee's antitrust subcommittee, faulted airlines for not ensuring that a person who checks luggage actually gets on the flight, already the practice in Europe. At the same time, he noted, checked bags are not routinely screened for explosives." The AP went on to quote Senator Kohl stating, "On a given day, a group of saboteurs could load up 12 different airplanes across the country with explosives, go home, and we would have a disaster." The airline industry responded that it would be impossible to match luggage to passengers given the structure of the U.S. air travel system; and even if it were possible, such an undertaking would not thwart a terrorist who was willing to die by boarding the flight on which his/her checked bags contained a bomb (Associated Press, 2001). Donald Carty, President and CEO of American Airlines, asserted that a bag to passenger matching system would ultimately lead to reduced flights and layoffs. Senator Kohl described a two-pronged problem with aviation security. The first, and arguably the key, issue is that checked luggage makes its way on board commercial airliners without being screened for explosives or other potential threats. Secondarily, the failure to ensure that those who check luggage actually board their flight makes it possible for someone to place a bomb aboard a flight with no risk to him/herself. Arguably, if the former problem were adequately addressed, then the latter one would not be nearly as great a concern. Many would consider it shocking that even before 9/11 checked luggage was not screened. The procedure of going through airport security checkpoints, scanning carry-on items and going through metal detectors fostered a false sense of security in many people. Surely, many would think, if such precautions were taken with

Easy to Learn Essay Example for Free

Easy to Learn Essay Here are some interesting stories for all the god’s fan†¦. 1.Sachin was given a pair of pads by his cricket hero Sunil Gavaskar when he was a schoolboy – and he made his Test debut for India against Pakistan aged just 16-years old in 1989 wearing those very pads†¦.. 2.Like loads of other cricketers, Sachin is pretty superstitious – he’ll always put on his left pad before his right whenever he’s getting padded up†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 3.â€Å"He hasn’t spent Diwali at home since we got married. But it really doesn’t matter that it’s Diwali†¦ any time he spends at home is great!† – Anjali, his wife, told once†¦ Once in a BBC interview when asked about his dream women, Sachin answered ‘my wife’ without batting an eyelid. 4.†He scored a fantastic 148 in Shane Warne’s debut Test in Sydney and then followed it up with another century at Perth, one of the toughest pitches in the world, where Indians have traditionally struggled. The value of his hundred increased because all the other Indian batsmen struggled. His weakness is the fact that he is so talented. His adrenaline pumps strongly when he walks out to bat with the noise of the crowds. You can’t hear yourself think with that noise. I would pay $1000 to watch Sachin bat. To score a 148 at Sydney – and that too when you are 18 — was out of the ordinary though the wicket was a lot like the ones you encounter in India, flat with lots of runs for the taking†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.† The above facts are told by Allan Border. 5.The entire cricket world is convinced of one thing : Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is the world’s best batsman. Not just for his extraordinary skill, not just for his ability to tear even the most formidable of bowling attacks to shreds; but also for a rare never-say-die spirit, an insatiable hunger for runs and victory, a desire to dominate the opponent ; commitment, dedication †¦ These are what the little champion has built his reputation on. .. 6.Tendulkar was a person who would never show any disrespect to the national flag..He respects the national flag most and had even sought permission to use the tricolour on his helmet†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ It’s not the riches or the records but the love for the game that keeps the world’s richest cricketer going day after day. It is his hard work, determination, temperament dedication for the country that keeps him charged†¦. 7.Tendulkar, now in his eighteenth year in international cricket says, †I still play†¦ because I still love the game.† †I would like to clarify this. It’s not about records. It’s all about loving the game and enjoying being out there in the middle. That is extremely special to me and far bigger than breaking records or creating new ones.† †Creating records happens after you’ve gone on the cricket field, but you’ve got to find a reason to go on the cricket field, and for me the reason is very clear.† †From the age of three I’ve loved this sport and I’ve never thought about scoring the most number of centuries or runs in international cricket. Everyone enjoys breaking records, I’m enjoying it too, but that is not the reason for playing cricket.† â€Å"Whatever level you reach, getting better never stops†-Sachin. Tendulkar said †When I started playing, I always wanted to be regarded as one of the best and the idea was that when I stopped playing, people would remember my name. Being regarded as one of the best players is always a good feeling, and that drives you, it refuels you completely. You want to be on top of your game all the time and push yourself harder and harder. There’s a huge responsibility and it is a great challenge. I love that,† he added†¦.. 8.Some quotes by GOD himself†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ My big sister gave it to me after returning from a trip to Kashmir, which is known for its high-quality willows. It wasn’t the best bat, but it was like a piece of gold to me. I used to imagine myself batting for India, hitting fours and sixes, the people cheering. I used that bat until it broke .. I was the only one supporting John McEnroe — everyone used to call me â€Å"Mac† because I styled myself on him. I made my father buy me the same headbands and sweatbands and even grew my hair long. You wouldn’t believe the pictures of me from that time. I was also extremely naughty. Very, very difficult to handle. †¦I had a nanny who used to run after me virtually 24 hours a day, because I never wanted to go home My father, who died in 1999, was never a cricket fan, not at all. He was a writer and a poet: he taught Marathi, my mother tongue, at the local university. But he understood exactly how to get the best out of me. He always encouraged me and told my mother that he had full faith in me. It was probably reverse psychology, but as I got older I felt like I could not misuse that trust. He warned me against taking short cuts and told me to just keep playing, despite the ups and downs. My parents taught me that it is important to live every day of your life with grace and honour.When it came to choosing between cricket and going to university, he said: â€Å"You can play cricket, I know that is your first love, so go for it.† Of course, my parents were extremely happy when I became the youngest player to play for India, at 16. .. Cricket is something very, very special to me. It has never been about owning this or that car and the other things that come with this life.. An obsession with money or worldly matters was always thumbed down. My only dream was to wear the Indian cap and the Indian colours. In that respect, my childhood dreams have come true†¦.. Having children brings back all my old childhood memories, wonderful years. Now, every minute is measured and calculated. I still dream — without dreams, life is flat, you stagnate. I don’t go to the temple every morning, but I do pray. I thank God for everything he has given me, because life has been very good to me. 9.Chappell should remember how Tendulkar has achieved his greatness and carried the weight of expectations of a billion people since the age of 16, Jadeja said. He added â€Å"When tendulkar enters the field, the crowd says-SACHIN! SACHIN! This is something what every cricketer wants†.. Sachin Tendulkar, the brightest star in the world of cricket has achieved his greatest prices with his intellectual and skilful cricketing brains.. SACHIN dreamt a world of superstars and great triumph and he achieved it.. At the age of 10 he walked to the field at 6 am with a cricket bag bigger than him for the practice. At the age of 11 he moved with his paternal uncle to get trained in cricket by the most renowned coach Ramakanth Achrekar. .. 10.Billions of hearts weep†¦..on the day when Sachin (GOD) retire. Indians wish that day never comes. It would be one of the most disappointing days of our life. Ever since Indians started watching cricket, it was Sachin, Sachin only Sachin who made them feel cricket so special. Sachin is only responsible for making cricket a religion in India. They haven’t experienced watching cricket without Sachin. Whether he was injured/rested, there was always a ray of hope that he comes back to team soon. But after retirement, he will never be backing†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..If anyone wants to achieve anything in life, Sachin is the best example for them. I feel most people find it hard to digest that Sachin will no more be a part of Indian cricket†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.on that day, isn’t it? JUST imagine that day, when Sachin plays his last game. He comes to bat for the last time, and everybody in the stadium claps the chants of SACHIN!!! came for the last time after he gets out, while walking back to the pavilion, the entire crowd gives him a stand awaition. Many of them will be in tears, millions of eyes wet watching their hero play for the last time. An era ends. The end of a legend came†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..The bond between every generation breaks. Would you miss Sachin a lot? I think most of people would say â€Å"YES†. The saddest day of Indian cricket- when genius retires†¦LOVE YOU SACHIN!!! 11.From the early 90s to the early years of the new millennium represented the decade of Brian Lara, Richardson, Martin Crowe, Steve and Mark Waugh, Mathew Hayden, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Gary Kirsten and Rahul Dravid. But there can be any doubt that the No.1 batsman in the world for a decade now has been Master Blaster, Sachin Tendulkar. . But figures, however important they may be, are something that Tendulkar’s achievement should not be measured by. He should be judged by the manner of his batting that is what Bradman did. Symbolized by Sir Bradman naming him in his dream team of all time. The team in which Tendulkar is the only Indian player. He has scored runs on slow pitches of the subcontinent, fast tracks of West Indies, bouncy wickets in Australia and South Africa and in whirling conditions in New Zealand and England. The thought of having Tendulkar as an opponent gives bowlers bad dreams. No batsman has inflicted such psychological damage to bowlers at any time in the world like Tendulkar did to Shane Warne!!!(Warne said Tendulkar is my nightmare). His technique is so well organized that he is able to encounter any delivery with ease and comfort, giving the impression of having all the time in the world to play the stroke, the hallmark of the greatest of batsmen.

Spinal Stenosis Essay Example for Free

Spinal Stenosis Essay False teachers were saying that self-control was not needed because deeds do not help the believers anyway. Peter continued to encourage believers to remain strong in their faith, by condemning the false teachers and defending the Parousia doctrine and difficulties of the last days. quickstudy. com) John also wrote a letter to the believers to get them back on track, to show the difference between light and darkness, and to encourage the church to grow in genuine love for God and for one another. This letter was to also assure the believers of eternal life and genuine faith so they could enjoy the full benefit of their position of children of god. A second letter was written to warn believers against supporting false teachers. John also addressed the importance of Christian responsibility to support preachers and missionaries. Later John wrote a third letter addressed to Galius, the importance of hospitality, in which Galius was later commended for. Diotrephes was condemned for his lack of hospitality and wanting to take control of the church. (3 John 9:10) The sins of the church such as pride, jealousy, and slander are still present in the church. This problem had to be confronted, so that it will not continue to grow in the church. A short letter was written by Jude, who is the brother of James and half brother of Jesus†, denouncing an unidentified group of heretics and defending Christian’s traditions. (quickstudy. com) Jude illustrates attitudes from typical false teachers, which are pride, jealousy, greed, lust for power, and disregard of God’s will. Jude gives examples: 1) Cain, who murdered his brother out of vengeful jealousy (Genesis 4:1-16) 2) Balaam, who prophesied out of gre ed, not out of obedience to God’s command (Numbers 22-24). The Revelations was written by John to assure Christians the return of Christ and unveiling of hidden realities. (quickstudy. com) He denounces evil and exhorts people to high Christian standards. He offers hope rather than gloom, John was not attempting to predict the future; he was only describing what God had shown. In conclusion the letters written by Paul, Peter, John and Jude were to make the believers aware of the problems in the church. Those letters were also intended to assure Christians of triumph of Christ through the apostles and symbols. Near the end of John’s life he received a vision from God, John then recorded and wrote the book of Revelation. The Revelation was probably the last works by the church in the first century. References: Life application study bible- NIV. (2005). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Publishers. Niswonger, R. (1992). New Testament history. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Smith

The Equivalents In The Little Man Computer Information Technology Essay

The Equivalents In The Little Man Computer Information Technology Essay There are two different registers .MAR keeps address and MDR takes the content and read from the memory which was indicated by the MAR. These each memory location has an address. These address are identifiers them and the data which is stored there, only as each mailbox in the LMC has both an address. Slip of paper including the data stuffed into the slot. 9.19) Describe the steps that occur when a system receives multiple interrupts? -If we encounter with multiple interrupts, first interrupt makes a suspension of the program executing at the time, memory of programs critical parameters and transfer of control to the program which are handles the determined interrupt. After first interrupt, the second interrupt occurs. Second interrupts priority is compared to that of the original interrupt. When its priority is bigger, it gets precedence and the original interrupt program is itself suspended. In the contrary, processing of the real (original) interrupt keeps going and the new interrupt is caught on till the original interrupt program is complete. If the higher priority interrupt process is completed, the lower interrupt is processed. When any interrupts do not occur and when any interrupts result do not occur in the suspension of all CPU processing, control eventually turn back to original program which then resumes processing. Generally, multiple interrupts cause in a queue of interrupt handler programs. These p rograms are executed by priorities associated with each interrupt. 11.19)Carefully explain the differences between a client-server network and a peer-to-peer network. Compare the Networks in terms of capability and performance. -There are many big diffarence between a client-server and a peer-to-peer network. Firstly a peer-to-peer network do not has a central server. Each workstation on the network shares its files equally with the others. There is no central storage or authentication of users. On the other hand, there are allocate dedicated servers and clients in a client/server network. Via the client workstations, users can find lots of files that generally stored on the server. The server will determine that users can reach the files on the network. Peer-to-peer network is very usable because it can be installed in your homes or in a very small businesses. Employees can interact regularly there. On the other hand they are very expensive to set up and they gives almost no security. However, client-servers networks can become big to you need them. Millions of user support it and offer elaborate security measures but it is very expensive. When we compare two networks we can see that Peer-to-peer networks has: any PC is an equal participant on the network, PCs are not reliant on one PC for resources like printer, access to the network is not centrally controlled, operate on a basic PC OS, generally simpler and cheaper. Client-servers: A PC acts as the network controller, A PC controls access to network resources, network reach and security are centrally controlled, Need a special OS, generally more complicated but give the user more control. 11.21)Clearly and carefully discuss each of the advantages of clustering. -Clustering is two computers are in interconnecting and can create a solution when a problem occurred. One of the most important advantage of clustering is that if one of the computer has a fail, another computer can see the problem and automaticly recovery this problem. The users see no interrupt of access. Clustering computers for scalability include increased application performance and it has support of a greater number of users. It can cause ability to perform maintenance and upgrades with limited downtime and easily scale up your cluster to a maximum of seven active Exchange Virtual Server. 8.8)Carefully discuss what happens when a cache miss occurs.Does this result in a major slowdown in execution of the instruction? If so, Why? Cache miss means that cache controller can not do true fill the cache via the data processor acculy needs next .Cache misses slow down programs because the program can not going on its executing till the requested page is fetched from the main memory. In other words, The first cache miss will recompute the data, another request will get a cache miss and also recompute. As a result, this situation added calculation might slow down the whole system leading you to a loop. 7.14)As computer words get larger and larger,there is a law of diminishing returns:the speed of execution of real application programs does not increase and may,infact,decrease.Why do you suppose that this is so? Firstly we have to know marginal utility for understand to deminishing returns. The law of diminishing marginal utility helps people to understand the law of demand and the negative sloping demand curve. If you have something less, the more satisfaction you gain from each additional unit you consume. For instance; when you eat a chocolate bar, it taste is sweet and you were satisfied. However, when you continue to eat chocolate ,its taste started to disgusting for you and your pleasure will go decreasing. Another example can be classical System processors (CPUs). They are generally priced in an exponential manner: the fastest CPU available at any given time is so expensive, and then prices decrease quickly as you go down in speed yet, the increase in performance by getting a CPU thats a little bit faster is very slight. 7.16)Create the fetch-execute cycle for an instruction that moves a value from general purpose register1 to general purpose register2.Compare this cycle to the cycle for a LOAD instruction. What is the major advantage of the move over the LOAD? For moves: REG1 -> MAR MDR -> IR IR -> MAR MDR -> REG2 PC + 1 -> PC For load: PC -> MAR MDR -> IR IR -> MAR MDR -> A PC +1 -> PC The move fetch-execute cycle is beter because it is faster than LOAD because it occures between two registers. Registers are always faster than main memory. 8.11) a) Suppose we are trying to determine the speed op a computer that executes the Little Man instruction set. The load and store instructions each make up about 25% of the instructions in a typical program. Add, subtruct, in, and out take 10% each. The various branches each take about 5%. the halt instruction is almost never used (a maximum of once each program, of course!). Determine the average number of instructions executed each second if the clock ticks at 100 MHz. The  load  and  Store  Ã‚  take  five steps .The Add  and Subtrack also require five steps, IN and out  require four , SKIPs require four, and JUMPs require three. Then atypical  program  mix requires S = 0.25 (5  +  5) + 0.10 (5  +  5  + 4 + 4) + 0.05 (4 + 3) = 4.65 steps per  instruction  on average. If the clock ticks at  10  MHz., the number of  instructions  executed in a second, N = 10,000,000 / 4.65 = approximately 2.17  instructions  per second. b)Now suppose that the CPU is pipelined, so that each instruction is fetched while another instruction is executing. What is the avarage number of instructions that can be executed each second with the same clock in this case? With pipelining,  each  instruction  is reduced by the two steps required for the fetch. Then, N = 10,000,000 / ( 0.25 (2 + 2) + 0.10 (2 + 2 + 1 +1) + 0.05 (2 + 1) ) = approx. 5.7 million IPS 8.18) Some systems use a branch prediction method known as static branch prediction, so called because the prediction is made on the basis of the instructer, without regard to history. One possible scenario would have the system predict that all conditional backward branches are taken and all forward conditional branches are not taken. Recall your experience with this programing in the little man computer language. Would this algorithm be affective? Why or why not? What aspects of normal programming, in any programming language, support your conclusion. Little man algorithm can be affective for branch prediction method, because it is suitable for pipeling. Witout branch prediction,users have to wait till the conditional jump instruction has passed the execute stage before the next instruction can enter the fetch stage in the pipeline.You can avoid this waste of time via the branch predictor attempts. 7.6) Most of the registers in the machine have two-way copy capability; that is, you can copy to them from another register, and you can copy from them to another register. The MAR, on other hand, is always used as a destination register; you only copy to the MAR. Explain clearly why this is so. -Addresses are always moved to the MAR; there would never be a reason for an address transfer from the MAR to another register within the CPU, since the CPU controls memory transfers and is obviously aware of the memory address being used.

Conflicts, Climax and Resolution of Hawthorne’s The Ministers Black Ve

     Ã‚  Ã‚   What is the conflict(s) in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil†? Does it resolve after a climax? This essay intends to address these questions. Hugo McPherson in â€Å"Hawthorne’s Use of Mythology† makes a statement regarding the nature of the conflict in the works of Hawthorne: Everything he has to say is related, finally, to ‘that inward sphere.’ For the heart is the meeting-place of all the forces – spiritual and physical, light and dark, that compete for dominance in man’s nature. †¦Those who read him as a Christian moralist recognize instantly an opposition between Head and Heart, reason and passion which is related not only to Puritan theology but to the Neo-Classical view of man†¦.(68-69)    The conflict involving pride and humility, sin and evil, is the direction that Clarice Swisher in â€Å"Nathaniel Hawthorne: a Biography† tends: â€Å"Hawthorne himself was preoccupied with the problems of evil, the nature of sin, the conflict between pride and humility† (13).    In the opinion of this reader, the central conflicts – the relation between the protagonist and antagonist (Abrams 225) - in the tale are an internal one, a spiritual-moral conflict within the minister, the Reverend Mr. Hooper, and an external one with the world at large represented by the congregation. This evaluation seems to reflect Swisher’s first two considerations of evil and sin, and implicitly reflect the â€Å"conflict between pride and humility.† Wilson Sullivan in â€Å"Nathaniel Hawthorne† tells where the author got the idea of a conflict between good and evil:    He looked back, deeply back into America’s Puritan past, the era of the New England theocracy, when the conflict of good and evil, freedom and tyranny, love and hatr... ... Library. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=HawMini.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=1&division=div1    Kazin, Alfred. Introduction. Selected Short Stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne. New York: Fawcett Premier, 1966.    McPherson, Hugo. â€Å"Hawthorne’s Use of Mythology.† In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.    Sullivan, Wilson. â€Å"Nathaniel Hawthorne.† In New England Men of Letters. New York: Macmillan Co., 1972.    Swisher, Clarice. â€Å"Nathaniel Hawthorne: a Biography.† In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.    Williams, Stanley T. â€Å"Hawthorne’s Puritan Mind.† In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.

Mass Extinctions On The Earth :: essays research papers

Intro: Sixty-five million years ago, some phenomenon triggered mass extinctions on the lands and in the oceans so profound that they define the geological boundary between the older Mesozoic Era, often called the "Age of Reptiles," and the modern Cenozoic Era, the "Age of Mammals." On a finer scale, the extinctions define the boundary between the Cretaceous (geological symbol, "K"), and Tertiary ("T") periods. This mass extinction is usually referred to as the K-T extinctions. The dinosaurs became extinct during the K-T mass extinction. To examine how the K-T extinctions fit into a broader perspective, please see the The cause of the K-T extinctions is one of the great mysteries in science, and many scientists have proposed theories to account for it. Theories span a vast spectrum of causes including: sea level change, supernova explosions, climate change, and on and on. Beginning in the 1980s, two new theories became the topic of an intense scientific debate. They are the K-T impact extinction theory originated by the Nobelist physicist, Luis Alvarez, and his team, and the K-T Deccan Traps extinction theory, which, for short, is called volcano-greenhouse theory. Details of the Impact Theory In the mid-late 1970s, Luis Alvarez and his impact team began searching for the cause of the K-T extinctions. His evidence of impact was enrichment of the chemical, iridium, in a thin layer of clay a few centimenters thick at the K-T boundary. His original theory held that a giant asteroid struck earth 65 million years ago, blasting so much dust into the atmosphere that it blocked out sunlight, and plunged earth into the blackness and cold of a sudden, short-duration, "impact winter." According to Alvarez theory, the global blackout triggered extinctions among the plant kingdom, and then among herbivores that depended upon plants for food, and then among the carnivores that ate the herbivores. Those smaller animals that could hide and hibernate until the sun came out again must have sruvived and formed the animals that there are today. There is other evidence for this theory : there is a layer of iridium found on top of the fossils which can be found all over the world. this is important becouse there is a lot of iridium on asteroids while on earth it is only deep down inside the crater. Details of the Volcano Theory: Another less popular theory to explain the disappearance of the dinosaurs suggests that a drop in the oxygen levels in the lower atmosphere led to the gradual death of all kinds of species.

Essay --

Eight people are invited to Indian Island, a piece of land that a famous movie star millionaire is said to have purchased. The one thing all these people have in common is that they were all somehow involved in someone’s death. Soon they all learn that they were tricked into coming to the island which will result in their certain deaths. In every persons’ bedroom there was a poem that hinted at how each was going to die, and ten porcelain figures on the dining room table that mysteriously disappear with each death. One of them was the murderer because there was no one else on the island, leading to suspicion, accusations, and chaos. In the end it was learned that two of the characters on the island did in fact plan all the deaths, but one threatens to tell people. In turn, Lawrence Wargrave kills him off. He was punishing these people for crimes they had committed then he himself committed suicide. In And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie develops the theme â€Å"o ne must atone for their sins† through the use of symbolism, setting, and internal conflict. In the novel, Christie utilizes symbolism to develop to the theme. Both the violent storm and the china figure represent many different things ranging from death to the character’s backgrounds. The fierce weather symbolizes the violent acts that took place on Indian Island and previous faults the characters had committed. General Macarthur for example was pinned with the death of one of his soldiers. He sent the man to a brutal fight knowing that he would die. Also, the vicious storm is representative of the murders that were occurring on the island. The porcelain Indian figures embodied each of the ten people on the island. As a person dies, one of the men mysteriously disappears... ...money she lost not only Cyril, but her boyfriend. This event left her in an almost depressed position. The image of him drowning is constantly on her mind whilst on the island where she is very often left alone to just her thoughts. Near the end she had begun regretting what she did. The memory and guilt of her actions affect her so much, she committed suicide. This in turn was her punishment for plotting the death of an innocent boy. Furthermore her internal conflicts lead her to the retribution of her actions. As seen through the use of symbolism, setting, and internal conflict, Agatha Christie has created the theme â€Å"no wrongdoing goes unpunished† in And Then There Were None. Each of the characters paid for their sins through death on Indian Island. Each character either took their own life, due to the regret of their actions or by it was done by an outside force.

Are Character Traits Reliable?

Amanda Thomas Philosophy 103 November 19, 2012 Paper No. 2 In the book â€Å"Experiments in Ethics† by Kwame Anthony Appiah he states that â€Å"Individual moments of compassion and honesty makes our lives better, even if we are not compassionate through and through†. (Appiah 70) He also continues on to say that â€Å"[w]e can’t be content with knowing what kind of people we are; it matters, too, what kind of people we hope to be† (Appiah 72). He discusses the relationship between moral philosophy and  scientific research.He used some research experiments such as Milgrams and The Good Samaritan to further explain this quote. During these discussions he explains the difference between situationist and globalist/virtue ethics. Situationists are people who feel that what predicts behavior are situational factors instead of character traits. Globalists disagree with that statement and argue that character traits predict behavior. They also propose that good actions are defined as those done by people with the proper virtues and that virtues exist as part of individuals’ character makeup.A variety of psychological studies doubt these premises. The main issue is whether we have stable personality and character traits. Appiah uses modus tollens to give a logically from of the situationist argument. If the juice is made with sugar, then the juice is sweet. The juice is not sweet. Therefore, the juice is not made with sugar. One premises using modus tollens that a situationist could agree on is that if virtue ethics is true, then character traits predict behavior. Character traits don’t predict behavior; therefore virtue ethics is not true.Appiah takes the Milgram experiment to rule out certain strong forms of virtue ethics. He notes that virtue ethics can still serve as a guide to life, defining the ideals that should serve as our aims, even thought we rarely live up to them. Moral psychology imposes limits on the kind of peo ple we can become. Appiah uses a phrase that is, of course, necessary to consider in combination with the quote just mentioned, which is this â€Å"We imperfect creatures †¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Appiah 53). Darley and Batson’s ‘Good Samaritan’ study was conducted by viewing helping behavior in which students at the PrincetonTheological Seminary were asked to make individual presentations on the story of â€Å"The Good Samaritan†. The accomplice was slumped in a doorway in need of help. Unrushed seminarians helped the accomplice over 60% of the time. When seminarians were told beforehand that they were late for their presentation the helping rate dropped dramatically. Appiah accepts that if the situationist case is as right, then globalism needs to be rejected. However, he argues that virtue ethics can live on even with the end of globalism, or at least he argues that virtue still matters in a world in which situationist lessons are learned.We hope to develop cons istent character traits and to obtain a highly assimilated character, the efforts of attempting to behave in ways show that virtues is one that is worth making. It makes our lives better if we help others a bit more when we are in a hurry than we would if we were unconcerned about attempting to obtain the virtues. He also feels that one can take and embrace the truth in both virtue ethics and situationist by putting people in situations where their virtue is maximized. He feels that the premises aren’t necessarily all true.Appiah believes that experimental research has an even deeper connection to morality. To some extent, we have to trust our gut feelings when determining what is right and wrong. He states in Chapter 1 that â€Å"The conjunction of virtue ethics and situationism urges us to make it easier both to avoid doing what murderers do and to avoid being what murderersare. †I believe that Appiah’s view on virtue ethics and situationist is true. Character traits aren’t completely reliable and certain character traits can help determine how you act in a certain situation but, also certain situations can completely dismay your character traits.

Left in the Lurch Essay

Jim could give Sara a quick call before the presentation just to be sure it wasn’t her he saw at the gas station. Jim could go on with the presentation without Sara and hope that the sides he never received from her will not make a huge impact and do a great job presenting what he has. Jim could also call Sara before the presentation and ask if she can email him her PowerPoint slides. Jim doesn’t actually know whether or not Sara is in fact sick or not, nor does he know if that was her at the gas station, but he needs to know her well-being so that he can get her part of the presentation they are supposed to present to the CEO today. Jim can be persistent in taking control of the situation his partner put him in by not sending him the needed slides or show up to help present. Jim can show interest and enjoy presenting on his own. He can show his confidence in how successful of an outcome his presentation on his own. Jim should go on with his presentation with or without the slides Sara never sent and show how confident he is in the work he has done.

LEARNERS AND LEARNING ASSIGNMENT 4 Essay

INTRODUCTION Students learning English as a foreign language are often confronted with the challenge of learning and using English effectively. Some students seem to cope with the difficulties of language learning with great success and neither little effort, while for others the task is neither an enjoyable nor a successful one. What is it that makes learning a new language so easy for some and so difficult for others? One reason is that â€Å"each student has his/her own preferred way of learning that is determined by his/her cultural and educational background and personality† (Shoebottom, 2007). BRIEF LESSON OUTLINE In this assignment I evaluated differences in learners’ responses and considered ways in which the quality of their learning could be improved. The lesson was aimed to help the students understand and use the 2nd Conditional in the context of life survival. I designed a lesson of an escape survival plan at school which consisted in following rules of a fire exit plan in every room. It’s the kind of thing you always see on your hotel door, with a plan of all the exits, staircases, elevators and rooms. I gave them a fun and language rich way to use these plans in a zombie-infested building right here at school, of course, containing plenty of grammar-juice in it. STUDENT’S PROFILE There are 20 students in my class. The learners described are intermediate students whose ages varied from 16’s to 17’s.I have been teaching them for about 9 months. They show great interest in language learning and most of them like my teaching approaches and interact with me well in class. 2/3 of the students are of average level of the class. They like to communicate in class but are weak at the accuracy of language. DIFFERENCES IN LEARNERS’ RESPONSES AND ACHIEVEMENTS Having observed and taught the class, I can figure out that each student has his/her own way of following my teaching stages and activities during the lesson. These different ways seemed to influence how they responded to different teaching methods I applied in each activity and how successful they were in understanding and using the language focus. The differences discussed later include the learners’ age, motivation, personality, and social and cultural background. AGE Compared to motivation, personality, and social and cultural background, age seems to be easier to define and measure. Nevertheless, the relationship between learners’ age and their potential success in foreign or second language acquisition is still a subject of debate. â€Å"Linguists argue that many young learners are capable of communicating successfully in a foreign language, in terms of accent, word choice, or grammatical features because they begin learning a language when they are young† (Lightbown & Spada, 2003). I, therefore, planned and set up activities that helped them understand, practice, and produce the language form gradually in a relaxed atmosphere and a non-threatening way. My group stated that they preferred working in pairs to other options. They were shown to be well balanced in the primary senses; Visual, Auditory or Kinesthetic which people use principally in learning.  This information is in line with my observations of this group in class and I believe is also somewhat representative of their age. Being teenagers, they have still to fully develop their preferred learning styles and learners of this age group often feel self-conscious about being ‘criticized’ or corrected in front of others. Having said this, I found my group to be attentive and well-balanced learners. MOTIVATION My students were very motivated and excited planning their way out of a zombie-infested building. They started acting a little, and they could not wait to start the lesson. They did not mind following my instructions and were willing to do any activities set up in each teaching practice. In order to sustain the pupils’ motivation, I set up a variety of activities, i.e., guessing pictures, role play, listening tasks, team work, highlighting form and pronunciation, mingling speaking activity. By doing these various  activities, I could avoid boredom and increase their interest levels during the one hour lesson. Williams (1999) cites the work of Gardner (1985) and defines motivation as consisting of effort, plus desire to achieve the goal of learning, plus favorable attitudes towards learning the language. A distinction is made between integrative (or intrinsic) orientation, which occurs when the learner wishes to identify with the culture of the target language, and instrument al (extrinsic) orientation, which occurs when motivation arises from external goals, such as passing exams, financial rewards, or furthering a career. Lamb, M. (2012) adds a third category: success in the task, which is a combination of satisfaction and reward.  PERSONALITY One of the challenges I faced teaching this lesson (in the beginning) was the discipline. I made clear right from the start of the lesson what the rules of the classroom were and the consequences of not behaving well, this made the students’ behavior in my classroom much better The personality of the group as a whole was of outgoing teenagers. They were eager to participate and even the shy ones contributed willingly in this lesson. A few of them, the extroverts, were the ones who volunteered more. Usually, these are the most prominent students, and this helped in modeling correctly for their peers. They had no problem in following instructions and started work immediately. I was pleased to see they agreed to work without hesitation. They did prefer to work with a friend, as it often happens when they have been together for at least three years, but still they worked collaboratively. SOCIAL AND CULTURAL BACKGROUND The social background of the students in this Institution is of a well-off family with moral values. The majority of them go abroad for their holidays and own a house and one or two cars. Their parents either own a business or have an executive position in a company. They belong to a club and have lessons in the afternoon of martial arts or practice a sport. During this lesson I noticed an active participation, students also play active roles in developing the knowledge that was to be learned, this in my own way of seeing things is that a student that has a better social status tends to be more organized and more structured this also involves some shifting of roles and responsibilities; teachers become less directive and more facilitative, while students assume increasing responsibility. During this class my students took risks with the language in communicative tasks. They expressed their ideas orally without being afraid of making mistakes. They were more concerned with speaking fluently than speaking accurately. Altogether, I believe a good social and cultural background contributes for a better learning environment. (Shoebotton, 2007) âÅ"” IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF LEARNING FOR THE LEARNERS Having described my students above, I am determined to improve their learning quality through some teaching strategies I elaborate in the following paragraphs. The strategies will be in accordance with their age, motivation, personality, and social and cultural background. During the class I noticed that some students did their best to maintain communication with their peers, but their pronunciation and their structure was not very successful. I was very happy to see that the language was produced but I think it was not good enough for an activity of this magnitude. In the future I will conduct oral productive stages to cater the weak learners. Later, I will also monitor them and give feedback on their erroneous expressions so they will find the communicative activity more meaningful and almost at the same time they will pay more attention to form in a more interesting way. I will maintain highlighting form and pronunciation since they like to pay attention to details of language, es pecially grammar rules. I will set up activities related to language form so that they can be more motivated to show their grammar competence. Afterwards, I will ask them to practice the form in a guided speaking activity so that they will be more ready to enter a freer speaking activity. In relation to the students’ motivation, besides setting up activities that suit their learning characteristics, I will also keep setting up various activities ranging from initial to main activities and from receptive skill to productive skill stages. By doing so, I can avoid teaching patterns that potentially create boredom and gradually demotivate their learning spirit. Instead, I will conduct different activities in each stage that can optimally increase their motivation. CONCLUSION Having stated the learners and learning issues above, I believe that varying classroom activities, teachers will make sure to cater learners with different learning styles at least some of the time. If we balance the activities to suit the learning styles, it is quite probable that the outcome will be the result of a well-planned lesson. Timing also plays an important role in planning lessons. While some activities like completing a task in a limited time proves to set pressure upon the learners. This assignment makes me really reflect on my teaching experiences. I believe this assignment contributes a great deal towards my teaching skills and in turn potentially develop my understanding towards my students’ learning styles, responses, and achievements. References: Shoebottom, P. 2007. Language learning styles. Retrieved on November 23, 2007 from http://esl.fis.edu/parents/advice/styles.htm Lightbown, P.M. & Spada, N. 2003. How Languages Are Learned. UK: Oxford University Press Williams, M., & Burden, L. R. (1997). Psychology for language teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gardner, R. C. (2006). The socio-educational model of second language acquisition: A research paradigm. EUROSLA Yearbook, 6, 237-260. Lamb, M. (2012). A self-system perspective on young adolescents’ motivation to learn English in rural and urban settings. Language Learning, 62, 997-1023.

Agricultural Practices

Agriculture has been practiced by men since time immemorial. Â  Practically speaking it refers to the process of producing crops that will feed the people and make them survive. Agriculture does not pertain to a single method alone, but over the years, there are evolutionsand innovations that this method of food production has undergone.Organic farming makes use of the natural processes of food production – from planting to harvest stage. Organic farmers make do with natural fertilizers like manure, compost, and residues instead of purchasing commercial fertilizers.Some benefits of organic farming include the prevention of soil erosion which is usually caused by the lack of nutrients in the soils, and empowering farmers to come up with their own natural production methods. On the other hand, some drawbacks raised by critics involve food and water contamination, poor quality of food, and even depletion of natural resources.Another farming or agricultural practice deals with fo od production which primarily intends to feed the family working on that land. This is subsistence farming. The farmer’s capacity is to provide only enough food for him and his family’s regular activities, but in worse cases, they still experience famine.Some strategies are being evaluated and conducted to determine if this farming practice can offer the farmers to produce more than what they need for economic purposes.With the advent of technology through continuous research, there now exists the modern agriculture practice. This type of agriculture greatly relies on engineering and technology. This also gave birth to the popular and controversial genetically modified foods (GMF) like rice, corn, vegetables, and fruits to name some.Issues and debates have been raised in support and in opposition to this breakthrough. Proponents maintains the belief that genetic engineering is the answer to the increasing population by producing in greater volume without risking the qu ality of food, while critics argue that the negative effects of these GMF, though not yet observable, will be noticeable on a long-term basis.Agriculturist and scientists must exert their collaborative effort in improving the agricultural systems along with protecting the health and safety of the natural resources and the consumers.Reference:Open-Encyclopedia. Retrieved, April 30, 2007, from http://open-encyclopedia.com/

Behavioural Finance

The occurrence of stock market bubbles and crashes is often cited as evidence against the efficient market hypothesis. It is argued that new information is rarely, if ever, capable of explaining the sudden and dramatic share price movements observed during bubbles and crashes. Samuelson (1998) distinguished between micro efficiency and macro efficiency. Samuelson took the view that major stock markets are micro efficient in the sense that stocks are (nearly) correctly priced relative to each other, whereas the stock markets are macro inefficient. Macro inefficiency means that prices, at the aggregate level, can deviate from fair values over time. Jung and Shiller (2002) concurred with Samuelson’s view and suggested that waves of over- and undervaluation occur for the aggregate market over time. Stock markets are seen as having some predictability in the aggregate and over the long runBubbles and crashes have a history that goes back at least to the seventeenth century (MacKay 1852). Some writers have suggested that bubbles show common characteristics. Band (1989) said that market tops exhibited the following features: 1. Prices have risen dramatically. 2. Widespread rejection of the conventional methods of share valuation, and the emergence of new ‘theories’ to explain why share prices should be much higher than the conventional methods would indicate. 3. Proliferation of investment schemes offering very high returns very quickly. 4. Intense, and temporarily successful, speculation by uninformed investors. 5. Popular enthusiasm for leveraged (geared) investments. 6. Selling by corporate insiders, and other long-term investors. Extremely high trading volume in shares. Kindleberger (1989) and Kindleberger and Aliber (2005) argued that most bubbles and crashes have common characteristics. Bubbles feature large and rapid price increases, which result in share prices rising to unrealistically high levels. Bubbles typically begin with a justifiable rise in stock prices. The justification may be a technological advance, or a general rise in prosperity. Examples of technological advance stimulating share price rises might include the development of the automobile and radio in the 1920s and the emergence of the Internet in the late 1990s. Examples of increasing prosperity leading to price rises could be the United States,Western Europe, and Japan in the 1980s. Cassidy (2002) suggested that this initial stage is characterised by a new idea or product causing changes in expectations about the future. Early investors in companies involved with the innovation make very high returns, which attract the attention of others. The rise in share prices, if substantial and prolonged, leads to members of the public believing that prices will continue to rise. People who do not normally invest begin to buy shares in the belief that prices will continue to rise. More and more people, typically people who have no knowledge of financial markets, buy shares. This pushes up prices even further. There is euphoria and manic buying. This causes further price rises. There is a self-fulfilling prophecy wherein the belief that prices will rise brings about the rise, since it leads to buying. People with no knowledge of investment often believe that if share prices have risen recently, those prices will continue to rise in the future. Cassidy (2002) divides this process into a boom stage and a euphoria stage. In the boom stage share price rises generate media interest, which spreads the excitement across a wider audience. Even the professionals working for institutional investors become involved. In the euphoria stage investment principles, and even common sense, are discarded. Conventional wisdom is rejected in favour of the view that it is ‘all different this time’. Prices lose touch with reality. One assumption of the efficient market hypothesis is that investors are rational. This does not require all investors to be rational, but it does require that the rational investors outweigh the irrational ones. However there are times when irrational investors are dominant. A possible cause of market overreaction is the tendency of some investors (often small investors) to follow the market. Such investors believe that recent stock price movements are indicators of future price movements. In other words they extrapolate price movements. They buy when prices have been rising and thereby tend to push prices to unrealistically high levels. They sell when prices have been falling and thereby drive prices to excessively low levels. There are times when such naive investors outweigh those that invest on the basis of fundamental analysis of the intrinsic value of the shares. Such irrational investors help to generate bubbles and crashes in stock markets. Some professional investors may also participate on the basis of the greater fool theory. The greater fool theory states that it does not matter if the price paid is higher than the fundamental value, so long as someone (the greater fool) will be prepared to pay an even higher price. The theory of rational bubbles suggests that investors weigh the probability of further rises against the probability of falls. So it may be rational for an investor to buy shares, knowing that they are overvalued, if the probability-weighted expectation of gain exceeds the probability-weighted expectation of loss. Montier (2002) offers Keynes’s (1936) beauty contest as an explanation of stock market bubbles. The first level of the contest is to choose the stocks that you believe to offer the best prospects. The second level is to choose stocks that you believe others will see as offering the best prospects. A third level is to choose the stocks that you believe that others will expect the average investor to select. A fourth stage might involve choosing stocks that you believe that others will expect the average investor to see as most popular amongst investors. In other words, the beauty contest view sees investors as indulging in levels of second-guessing other investors. Even if every investor believes that a stock market crash is coming they may not sell stocks. They may even continue to buy. They may plan to sell just before others sell. In this way they expect to maximise their profits from the rising market. The result is that markets continue to rise beyond what the vast majority of investors would consider to be the values consistent with economic fundamentals. It is interesting to note that Shiller’s survey following the 1987 crash (Shiller 1987) found that 84% of institutional investors and 72% of private investors said that they had believed that the market was overpriced just before the crash. Shiller suggested that people did not realise how many others shared their views that the market was overpriced. As Hirshleifer (2001) points out, people have a tendency to conform to the judgements and behaviours of others. People may follow others without any apparent reason. Such behaviour results in a form of herding, which helps to explain the development of bubbles and crashes. If there is a uniformity of view concerning the direction of a market, the result is likely to be a movement of the market in that direction. Furthermore, the herd may stampede. Shiller (2000) said that the meaning of herd behaviour is that investors tend to do as other investors do. They imitate the behaviour of others and disregard their own information. Brown (1999) examined the effect of noise traders (non-professionals with no special information) on the volatility of the prices of closed-end funds (investment trusts). A shift in sentiment entailed these investors moving together and an increase in price volatility resulted. Walter and Weber (2006) found herding to be present among managers of mutual funds. Walter and Weber (2006) distinguished between intentional and unintentional herding. Intentional herding was seen as arising from attempts to copy others. Unintentional herding emerges as a result of investors analysing the same information in the same way. Intentional herding could develop as a consequence of poor availability of information. Investors might copy the behaviour of others in the belief that those others have traded on the basis of information. When copying others in the belief that they are acting on information becomes widespread, there is an informational cascade. Another possible cause of intentional herding arises as a consequence of career risk. If a fund manager loses money whilst others make money, that fund manager’s job may be in jeopardy. If a fund manager loses money whilst others lose money, there is more job security. So it can be in the fund manager’s interests to do as others do (this is sometimes referred to as the reputational reason for herding). Since fund managers are often evaluated in relation to benchmarks based on the average performance of fund managers, or based on stock indices, there could be an incentive to copy others since that would prevent substantial underperformance relative to the benchmark. Walter and Weber (2006) found positive feedback trading by mutual fund managers. In other words the managers bought stocks following price rises and sold following falls. If such momentum trading is common, it could be a cause of unintentional herding. Investors do the same thing because they are following the same strategy. It can be difficult to know whether observed herding is intentional or unintentional. Hwang and Salmon (2006) investigated herding in the sense that investors, following the performance of the market as a whole, buy or sell simultaneously. Investigating in the United States, the UK, and South Korea they found that herding increases with market sentiment. They found that herding occurs to a greater extent when investor expectations are relatively homogeneous. Herding is strongest when there is confidence about the direction in which the market is heading. Herding appeared to be persistent and slow moving. This is consistent with the observation that some bubbles have taken years to develop. Kirman (1991) suggests that investors may not necessarily base decisions on their own views about investments but upon what they see as the majority view. The majority being followed are not necessarily well-informed rational investors. The investors that are followed may be uninformed and subject to psychological biases that render their behaviour irrational (from the perspective of economists). Rational investors may even focus on predicting the behaviour of irrational investors rather than trying to ascertain fundamental value (this may explain the popularity of technical analysis among market professionals). There are theories of the diffusion of information based on models of epidemics. In such models there are ‘carriers’ who meet ‘susceptibles’ (Shiller 1989). Stock market (and property market) bubbles and crashes are likened to the spread of epidemics. There is evidence that ideas can remain dormant for long periods and then be triggered by an apparently trivial event. Face-to-face communication appears to be dominant, but the media also plays a role. Cassidy (2002) suggested that people want to become players in an ongoing drama in which ownership of stocks gives them a sense of being part of a social movement. People invest because they do not want to be left out of the exciting developments. The media are an integral part of market events because they want to attract viewers and readers. Generally, significant market events occur only if there is similar thinking among large groups of people, and the news media are vehicles for the spreading of ideas. The news media are attracted to financial markets because there is a persistent flow of news in the form of daily price changes and company reports. The media seek interesting news. The media can be fundamental propagators of speculative price movements through their efforts to make news interesting (Shiller 2000). They may try to enhance interest by attaching news stories to stock price movements, thereby focusing greater attention on the movements. The media are also prone to focus attention on particular stories for long periods. Shiller refers to this as an ‘attention cascade’. Attention cascades can contribute to stock market bubbles and crashes. Davis (2006) confirmed the role of the media in the development of extreme market movements. The media were found to exaggerate market responses to news, and to magnify irrational market expectations. At times of market crisis the media can push trading activity to extremes. The media can trigger and reinforce opinions. It has been suggested that memes may play a part in the process by which ideas spread (Lynch 2001). Memes are contagious ideas. It has been suggested that the success of a meme depends upon three critical factors: transmissivity, receptivity, and longevity. Transmissivity is the amount of dissemination from those with the idea. Receptivity concerns how believable, or acceptable, the idea is. Longevity relates to how long investors keep the idea in mind. Smith (1991) put forward the view that bubbles and crashes seem to have their origin in social influences. Social influence may mean following a leader, reacting simultaneously and identically with other investors in response to new information, or imitation of others who are either directly observed or observed indirectly through the media. Social influence appears to be strongest when an individual feels uncertain and finds no directly applicable earlier personal experience. Deutsch and Gerard (1955) distinguish between ‘normative social influence’ and ‘informational social influence’. Normative social influence does not involve a change in perceptions or beliefs, merely conformity for the benefits of conformity. An example of normative social influence would be that of professional investment managers who copy each other on the grounds that being wrong when everyone else is wrong does not jeopardise one’s career, but being wrong when the majority get it right can result in job loss. This is a form of regret avoidance. If a bad decision were made, a result would be the pain of regret. By following the decisions of others, the risk of regret is reduced. This is safety in numbers. There is less fear of regret when others are making the same decisions. Informational social influence entails acceptance of a group’s beliefs as providing information. For example share purchases by others delivers information that they believe that prices will rise in future. This is accepted as useful information about the stock market and leads others to buy also. This is an informational cascade; people see the actions of others as providing information and act on that information. Investors buy because they know that others are buying, and in buying provide information to other investors who buy in their turn. Informational cascades can cause large, and economically unjustified, swings in stock market levels. Investors cease to make their own judgements based on factual information, and use the apparent information conveyed by the actions of others instead. Investment decisions based on relevant information cease, and hence the process whereby stock prices come to reflect relevant information comes to an end. Share price movements come to be disconnected from relevant information. Both of the types of social influence identified by Deutsch and Gerard (1955) can lead to positive feedback trading. Positive feedback trading involves buying because prices have been rising and selling when prices have been falling, since price movements are seen as providing information about the views of other investors. Buying pushes prices yet higher (and thereby stimulates more buying) and selling pushes prices lower (and hence encourages more selling). Such trading behaviour contributes to stock market bubbles and crashes. People in a peer group tend to develop the same tastes, interests, and opinions (Ellison and Fudenberg 1993). Social norms emerge in relation to shared beliefs. These social norms include beliefs about investing. The social environment of an investor influences investment decisions. This applies not only to individual investors, but also to market professionals. Fund managers are a peer group; fundamental analysts are a peer group; technical analysts are a peer group. Indeed market professionals in aggregate form a peer group. It is likely that there are times when these peer groups develop common beliefs about the direction of the stock market. Common beliefs tend to engender stock market bubbles and crashes. Welch (2000) investigated herding among investment analysts. Herding was seen as occurring when analysts appeared to mimic the recommendations of other analysts. It was found that there was herding towards the prevailing consensus, and towards recent revisions of the forecasts of other analysts. A conclusion of the research was that in bull markets the rise in share prices would be reinforced by herding. Research on investor psychology has indicated certain features about the behaviour of uninformed investors, who are often referred to as noise traders in the academic literature. Tversky and Kahneman (1982) found that they have a tendency to overreact to news. DeBondt (1993) found that they extrapolate trends, in other words they tend to believe that the recent direction of movement of share prices will continue. Shleifer and Summers (1990) found evidence that they become overconfident in their forecasts. This latter point is consistent with the view that bubbles and crashes are characterised by some investors forgetting that financial markets are uncertain, and coming to believe that the direction of movement of share prices can be forecast with certainty. Barberis et al. (1998) suggested that noise traders, as a result of misinterpretation of information, see patterns where there are none. Lee (1998) mentioned that a sudden and drastic trend reversal may mean that earlier cues of a change in trend had been neglected. Clarke and Statman (1998) found that noise traders tend to follow newsletters, which in turn are prone to herding. It seems that many investors not only extrapolate price trends but also extrapolate streams of good or bad news, for example a succession of pieces of good news leads to the expectation that future news will also be good. Barberis et al. (1998) showed that shares that had experienced a succession of positive items of news tended to become overpriced. This indicates that stock prices overreact to consistent patterns of good or bad news. Lakonishok et al. (1994) concluded that investors appeared to extrapolate the past too far into the future. There is evidence that the flow of money into institutional investment funds (such as unit trusts) has an impact on stock market movements. Evidence for a positive relationship between fund flows and subsequent stock market returns comes from Edelen and Warner (2001), Neal and Wheatley (1998), Randall et al. (2003), and Warther (1995). It has been suggested by Indro (2004) that market sentiment (an aspect of crowd psychology) plays an important role. Indro found that poll-based measures of market sentiment were related to the size of net inflows into equity funds. It appears that improved sentiment (optimism) generates investment into institutional funds, which in turn brings about a rise in stock market prices (and vice versa for increased pessimism). If stock market rises render market sentiment more optimistic, a circular process occurs in which rising prices and improving sentiment reinforce each other. It has often been suggested that small investors have a tendency to buy when the market has risen and to sell when the market falls. Karceski (2002) reported that between 1984 and 1996 average monthly inflows into US equity mutual funds were about eight times higher in bull markets than in bear markets. The largest inflows were found to occur after the market had moved higher and the smallest inflows followed falls. Mosebach and Najand (1999) found interrelationships between stock market rises and flows of funds into the market. Rises in the market were related to its own previous rises, indicating a momentum effect, and to previous cash inflows to the market. Cash inflows also showed momentum, and were related to previous market rises. A high net inflow of funds increased stock market prices, and price rises increased the net inflow of funds. In other words, positive feedback trading was identified. This buy high/sell low investment strategy may be predicted by the ‘house money’ and ‘snake bite’ effects (Thaler and Johnson 1990). After making a gain people are willing to take risks with the winnings since they do not fully regard the money gained as their own (it is the ‘house money’). So people may be more willing to buy following a price rise. Conversely the ‘snake bite’ effect renders people more risk-averse following a loss. The pain of a loss (the snake bite) can cause people to avoid the risk of more loss by selling investments seen as risky. When many investors are affected by these biases, the market as a whole may be affected. The house money effect can contribute to the emergence of a stock market bubble. The snake bite effect can contribute to a crash. The tendency to buy following a stock market rise, and to sell following a fall, can also be explained in terms of changes in attitude towards risk. Clarke and Statman (1998) reported that risk tolerance fell dramatically just after the stock market crash of 1987. In consequence investors became less willing to invest in the stock market after the crash. MacKillop (2003) and Yao et al. (2004) found a relationship between market prices and risk tolerance. The findings were that investors became more tolerant of risk following market rises, and less risk tolerant following falls. The implication is that people are more inclined to buy shares when markets have been rising and more inclined to sell when they have been falling; behaviour which reinforces the direction of market movement. Shefrin (2000) found similar effects among financial advisers and institutional investors. Grable et al. 2004) found a positive relationship between stock market closing prices and risk tolerance. As the previous week’s closing price increased, risk tolerance increased. When the market dropped, the following week’s risk tolerance also dropped. Since risk tolerance affects the willingness of investors to buy risky assets such as shares, the relationshi p between market movements and risk tolerance tends to reinforce the direction of market movement. During market rises people become more inclined to buy shares, thus pushing share prices up further. After market falls investors are more likely to sell, thereby pushing the market down further. Projection bias is high sensitivity to momentary information and feelings such that current attitudes and preferences are expected to continue into the future (Loewenstein et al. 2003). Mehra and Sah (2002) found that risk tolerance varied over time and that people behaved as if their current risk preference would persist into the future. In other words the current level of risk tolerance was subject to a projection bias such that it was expected to continue into the future. Grable et al. (2006) pointed out that this interacts with the effects of market movements on risk tolerance. A rise in the market enhances risk tolerance, projection bias leads to a belief that current risk tolerance will persist, people buy more shares, share purchases cause price rises, price rises increase risk tolerance, and so forth. A virtuous circle of rising prices and rising risk tolerance could emerge. Conversely there could be a vicious circle entailing falling prices and rising risk-aversion. The Role of Social Mood People transmit moods to one another when interacting socially. People not only receive information and opinions in the process of social interaction, they also receive moods and emotions. Moods and emotions interact with cognitive processes when people make decisions. There are times when such feelings can be particularly important, such as in periods of uncertainty and when the decision is very complex. The moods and emotions may be unrelated to a decision, but nonetheless affect the decision. The general level of optimism or pessimism in society will influence individuals and their decisions, including their financial decisions There is a distinction between emotions and moods. Emotions are often short term and tend to be related to a particular person, object, or situation. Moods are free-floating and not attached to something specific. A mood is a general state of mind and can persist for long periods. Mood may have no particular causal stimulus and have no particular target. Positive mood is accompanied by emotions such as optimism, happiness, and hope. These feelings can become extreme and result in euphoria. Negative mood is associated with emotions such as fear, pessimism, and antagonism. Nofsinger (2005a) suggested that social mood is quickly reflected in the stock market, such that the stock market becomes an indicator of social mood. Prechter (1999, 2001), in proposing a socionomics hypothesis, argued that moods cause financial market trends and contribute to a tendency for investors to act in a concerted manner and to exhibit herding behaviour. Many psychologists would argue that actions are driven by what people think, which is heavily influenced by how they feel. How people feel is partly determined by their interactions with others. Prechter’s socionomic hypothesis suggests that human interactions spread moods and emotions. When moods and emotions become widely shared, the resulting feelings of optimism or pessimism cause uniformity in financial decision-making. This amounts to herding and has impacts on financial markets at the aggregate level. Slovic et al. (2002) proposed an affect heuristic. Affect refers to feelings, which are subtle and of which people may be unaware. Impressions and feelings based on affect are often easier bases for decision-making than an objective evaluation, particularly when the decision is complex. Since the use of affect in decision-making is a form of short cut, it could be regarded as a heuristic. Loewenstein et al. (2001) showed how emotions interact with cognitive thought processes and how at times the emotional process can dominate cognitive processes. Forgas (1995) took the view that the role of emotions increased as the complexity and uncertainty facing the decision-maker increased. Information can spread through society in a number of ways: books, magazines, newspapers, television, radio, the Internet, and personal contact. Nofsinger suggests that personal contact is particularly important since it readily conveys mood and emotion as well as information. Interpersonal contact is important to the propagation of social mood. Such contact results in shared mood as well as shared information. Prechter suggested that economic expansions and equity bull markets are associated with positive feelings such as optimism and enthusiasm whereas economic recessions and bear markets correspond to an increase in negative emotions like pessimism, fear, and anger. During a stock market uptrend society and investors are characterised by feelings of calmness and contentment, at the market top they are happy and enthusiastic, during the market downturn the feelings are ones of sadness and insecurity, whilst the market bottom is associated with feelings of anger, hostility, and tension. Dreman (2001) suggested that at the peaks and troughs of social mood, characterised by manias and panics, psychological influences play the biggest role in the decisions of investment analysts and fund managers. Forecasts will be the most positive at the peak of social mood and most negative at the troughs. Psychological influences can contaminate rational decision-making, and may be dominant at the extreme highs and lows of social mood. At the extremes of social mood the traditional techniques of investment analysis might be rejected by many as being no longer applicable in the new era. Shiller (1984) took the view that stock prices are likely to be particularly vulnerable to social mood because there is no generally accepted approach to stock pricing; different analysts use different models in different ways. The potential influence of social mood is even greater among non-professionals who have little, or no, understanding of pricing models and financial analysis. Nofsinger (2005a) saw the link to be so strong that stock market prices could be used as a measure of social mood. Peaks and troughs of social mood are characterised by emotional decision-making rather than rational evaluation. Cognitive evaluations indicating that stocks are overpriced are dominated by a mood of optimism. Support for one’s downplaying of rational evaluation receives support from the fact that others downplay rational evaluation. The optimism of others validates one’s own optimism. It is often argued that the normal methods of evaluation are no longer applicable in the new era. Fisher and Statman (2002) surveyed investors during the high-tech bubble of the late 1990s and found that although many investors believed stocks to be overpriced, they expected prices to continue rising. Eventually social mood passes its peak and cognitive rationality comes to dominate social mood. Investors sell and prices fall. If social mood continues to fall, the result could be a crash in which stock prices fall too far. The situation is then characterised by an unjustified level of pessimism, and investors sell shares even when they are already underpriced. Investors’ sales drive prices down further and increase the degree of underpricing. Fisher and Statman (2000) provided evidence that stock market movements affect sentiment. A vicious circle could develop in which falling sentiment causes prices to fall and declining prices lower sentiment. Taffler and Tuckett (2002) provided a psychoanalytic perspective on the technology stock bubble and crash of the late 1990s and early 2000s, and in so doing gave a description of investor behaviour totally at odds with the efficient markets view of rational decision-making based on all relevant information. They made it clear that people do not share a common perception of reality; instead everyone has their own psychic reality.