The Lost Symbol Chapter 113-116

CHAPTER 113 Wrapped in wool blankets, Langdon stood on wobbly legs and stared down at the open tank of liquid. His body had returned to him, although he wished it had not. His throat and lungs burned. This world felt hard and cruel. Sato had just explained the sensory-deprivation tank . . . adding that if she had not pulled him out, he would have died of starvation, or worse. Langdon had little doubt that Peter had endured a similar experience. Peter is in the in-between, the tattooed man had told him earlier tonight. He is in purgatory . . . Hamistagan. If Peter had endured more than one of those birthing processes, Langdon would not have been surprised if Peter had told his captor anything he had wanted to know. Sato motioned for Langdon to follow her, and he did, trudging slowly down a narrow hall, deeper into this bizarre lair that he was now seeing for the first time. They entered a square room with a stone table and eerie-colored lighting. Katherine was here, and Langdon heaved a sigh of relief. Even so, the scene was worrisome. Katherine was lying on her back on a stone table. Blood-soaked towels lay on the floor. A CIA agent was holding an IV bag above her, the tube connected to her arm. She was sobbing quietly. â€Å"Katherine?† Langdon croaked, barely able to speak. She turned her head, looking disorientated and confused. â€Å"Robert?!† Her eyes widened with disbelief and then joy. â€Å"But I . . . saw you drown!† He moved toward the stone table. Katherine pulled herself to a seated position, ignoring her IV tube and the medical objections of the agent. Langdon reached the table, and Katherine reached out, wrapping her arms around his blanket-clad body, holding him close. â€Å"Thank God,† she whispered, kissing his cheek. Then she kissed him again, squeezing him as though she didn't believe he was real. â€Å"I don't understand . . . how . . .† Sato began saying something about sensory-deprivation tanks and oxygenated perfluorocarbons, but Katherine clearly wasn't listening. She just held Langdon close. â€Å"Robert,† she said, â€Å"Peter's alive.† Her voice wavered as she recounted her horrifying reunion with Peter. She described his physical condition–the wheelchair, the strange knife, the allusions to some kind of â€Å"sacrifice,† and how she had been left bleeding as a human hourglass to persuade Peter to cooperate quickly. Langdon could barely speak. â€Å"Do you . . . have any idea where . . . they went?!† â€Å"He said he was taking Peter to the sacred mountain.† Langdon pulled away and stared at her. Katherine had tears in her eyes. â€Å"He said he had deciphered the grid on the bottom of the pyramid, and that the pyramid told him to go to the sacred mountain.† â€Å"Professor,† Sato pressed, â€Å"does that mean anything to you?† Langdon shook his head. â€Å"Not at all.† Still, he felt a surge of hope. â€Å"But if he got the information off the bottom of the pyramid, we can get it, too.† I told him how to solve it. Sato shook her head. â€Å"The pyramid's gone. We've looked. He took it with him.† Langdon remained silent a moment, closing his eyes and trying to recall what he had seen on the base of the pyramid. The grid of symbols had been one of the last images he had seen before drowning, and trauma had a way of burning memories deeper into the mind. He could recall some of the grid, definitely not all of it, but maybe enough? He turned to Sato and said hurriedly, â€Å"I may be able to remember enough, but I need you to look up something on the Internet.† She pulled out her BlackBerry. â€Å"Run a search for `The Order Eight Franklin Square.' â€Å" Sato gave him a startled look but began typing without questions. Langdon's vision was still blurry, and he was only now starting to process his strange surroundings. He realized that the stone table on which they were leaning was covered with old bloodstains, and the wall to his right was entirely plastered with pages of text, photos, drawings, maps, and a giant web of strings interconnecting them. My God. Langdon moved toward the strange collage, still clutching the blankets around his body. Tacked on the wall was an utterly bizarre collection of information–pages from ancient texts ranging from black magic to Christian Scripture, drawings of symbols and sigils, pages of conspiracy- theory Web sites, and satellite photos of Washington, D.C., scrawled with notes and question marks. One of the sheets was a long list of words in many languages. He recognized some of them as sacred Masonic words, others as ancient magic words, and others from ceremonial incantations. Is that what he's looking for? A word? Is it that simple? Langdon's long-standing skepticism about the Masonic Pyramid was based largely on what it allegedly revealed–the location of the Ancient Mysteries. This discovery would have to involve an enormous vault filled with thousands upon thousands of volumes that had somehow survived the long-lost ancient libraries in which they had once been stored. It all seemed impossible. A vault that big? Beneath D.C.? Now, however, his recollection of Peter's lecture at Phillips Exeter, combined with these lists of magic words, had opened another startling possibility. Langdon most definitely did not believe in the power of magic words . . . and yet it seemed pretty clear that the tattooed man did. His pulse quickened as he again scanned the scrawled notes, the maps, the texts, the printouts, and all the interconnected strings and sticky notes. Sure enough, there was one recurring theme. My God, he's looking for the verbum significatium . . . the Lost Word. Langdon let the thought take shape, recalling fragments of Peter's lecture. The Lost Word is what he's looking for! That's what he believes is buried here in Washington. Sato arrived beside him. â€Å"Is this what you asked for?† She handed him her BlackBerry. Langdon looked at the eight-by-eight grid of numbers on the screen. â€Å"Exactly.† He grabbed a piece of scrap paper. â€Å"I'll need a pen.† Sato handed him one from her pocket. â€Å"Please hurry.† Inside the basement office of the Directorate of Science and Technology, Nola Kaye was once again studying the redacted document brought to her by sys-sec Rick Parrish. What the hell is the CIA director doing with a file about ancient pyramids and secret underground locations? She grabbed the phone and dialed. Sato answered instantly, sounding tense. â€Å"Nola, I was just about to call you.† â€Å"I have new information,† Nola said. â€Å"I'm not sure how this fits, but I've discovered there's a redacted–â€Å" â€Å"Forget it, whatever it is,† Sato interrupted. â€Å"We're out of time. We failed to apprehend the target, and I have every reason to believe he's about to carry out his threat.† Nola felt a chill. â€Å"The good news is we know exactly where he's going.† Sato took a deep breath. â€Å"The bad news is that he's carrying a laptop with him.† CHAPTER 114 Less than ten miles away, Mal'akh tucked the blanket around Peter Solomon and wheeled him across a moonlit parking lot into the shadow of an enormous building. The structure had exactly thirty-three outer columns . . . each precisely thirty-three feet tall. The mountainous structure was deserted at this hour, and nobody would ever see them back here. Not that it mattered. From a distance, no one would think twice about a tall, kindly-looking man in a long black coat taking a bald invalid for an evening stroll. When they reached the rear entrance, Mal'akh wheeled Peter up close to the security keypad. Peter stared at it defiantly, clearly having no intention of entering the code. Mal'akh laughed. â€Å"You think you're here to let me in? Have you forgotten so soon that I am one of your brethren?† He reached out and typed the access code that he had been given after his initiation to the thirty-third degree. The heavy door clicked open. Peter groaned and began struggling in the wheelchair. â€Å"Peter, Peter,† Mal'akh cooed. â€Å"Picture Katherine. Be cooperative, and she will live. You can save her. I give you my word.† Mal'akh wheeled his captive inside and relocked the door behind them, his heart racing now with anticipation. He pushed Peter through some hallways to an elevator and pressed the call button. The doors opened, and Mal'akh backed in, pulling the wheelchair along with him. Then, making sure Peter could see what he was doing, he reached out and pressed the uppermost button. A look of deepening dread crossed Peter's tortured face. â€Å"Shh . . .† Mal'akh whispered, gently stroking Peter's shaved head as the elevator doors closed. â€Å"As you well know . . . the secret is how to die.† I can't remember all the symbols! Langdon closed his eyes, doing his best to recall the precise locations of the symbols on the bottom of the stone pyramid, but even his eidetic memory did not have that degree of recall. He wrote down the few symbols he could remember, placing each one in the location indicated by Franklin's magic square. So far, however, he saw nothing that made any sense. â€Å"Look!† Katherine urged. â€Å"You must be on the right track. The first row is all Greek letters–the same kinds of symbols are being arranged together!† Langdon had noticed this, too, but he could not think of any Greek word that fit that configuration of letters and spaces. I need the first letter. He glanced again at the magic square, trying to recall the letter that had been in the number one spot near the lower left corner. Think! He closed his eyes, trying to picture the base of the pyramid. The bottom row . . . next to the left- hand corner . . . what letter was there? For an instant, Langdon was back in the tank, racked with terror, staring up through the Plexiglas at the bottom of the pyramid. Now, suddenly, he saw it. He opened his eyes, breathing heavily. â€Å"The first letter is H!† Langdon turned back to the grid and wrote in the first letter. The word was still incomplete, but he had seen enough. Suddenly he realized what the word might be. ! Pulse pounding, Langdon typed a new search into the BlackBerry. He entered the English equivalent of this well-known Greek word. The first hit that appeared was an encyclopedia entry. He read it and knew it had to be right. HEREDOM n. a significant word in â€Å"high degree† Freemasonry, from French Rose Croix rituals, where it refers to a mythical mountain in Scotland, the legendary site of the first such Chapter. From the Greek originating from Hieros-domos, Greek for Holy House. â€Å"That's it!† Langdon exclaimed, incredulous. â€Å"That's where they went!† Sato had been reading over his shoulder and looked lost. â€Å"To a mythical mountain in Scotland?!† Langdon shook his head. â€Å"No, to a building in Washington whose code name is Heredom.† CHAPTER 115 The House of the Temple–known among its brethren as Heredom–had always been the crown jewel of the Masonic Scottish Rite in America. With its steeply sloped, pyramidical roof, the building was named for an imaginary Scottish mountain. Mal'akh knew, however, there was nothing imaginary about the treasure hidden here. This is the place, he knew. The Masonic Pyramid has shown the way. As the old elevator slowly made its way to the third floor, Mal'akh took out the piece of paper on which he had reorganized the grid of symbols using the Franklin Square. All the Greek letters had now shifted to the first row . . . along with one simple symbol. The message could not have been more clear. Beneath the House of the Temple. Heredom The Lost Word is here . . . somewhere. Although Mal'akh did not know precisely how to locate it, he was confident that the answer lay in the remaining symbols on the grid. Conveniently, when it came to unlocking the secrets of the Masonic Pyramid and of this building, no one was more qualified to help than Peter Solomon. The Worshipful Master himself. Peter continued to struggle in the wheelchair, making muffled sounds through his gag. â€Å"I know you're worried about Katherine,† Mal'akh said. â€Å"But it's almost over.† For Mal'akh, the end felt like it had arrived very suddenly. After all the years of pain and planning, waiting and searching . . . the moment had now arrived. The elevator began to slow, and he felt a rush of excitement. The carriage jolted to a stop. The bronze doors slid open, and Mal'akh gazed out at the glorious chamber before them. The massive square room was adorned with symbols and bathed in moonlight, which shone down through the oculus at the pinnacle of the ceiling high above. I have come full circle, Mal'akh thought. The Temple Room was the same place in which Peter Solomon and his brethren had so foolishly initiated Mal'akh as one of their own. Now the Masons' most sublime secret–something that most of the brethren did not even believe existed–was about to be unearthed. â€Å"He won't find anything,† Langdon said, still feeling groggy and disorientated as he followed Sato and the others up the wooden ramp out of the basement. â€Å"There is no actual Word. It's all a metaphor–a symbol of the Ancient Mysteries.† Katherine followed, with two agents assisting her weakened body up the ramp. As the group moved gingerly through the wreckage of the steel door, through the rotating painting, and into the living room, Langdon explained to Sato that the Lost Word was one of Freemasonry's most enduring symbols–a single word, written in an arcane language that man could no longer decipher. The Word, like the Mysteries themselves, promised to unveil its hidden power only to those enlightened enough to decrypt it. â€Å"It is said,† Langdon concluded, â€Å"that if you can possess and understand the Lost Word . . . then the Ancient Mysteries will become clear to you.† Sato glanced over. â€Å"So you believe this man is looking for a word?† Langdon had to admit it sounded absurd at face value, and yet it answered a lot of questions. â€Å"Look, I'm no specialist in ceremonial magic,† he said, â€Å"but from the documents on his basement walls . . . and from Katherine's description of the untattooed flesh on his head . . . I'd say he's hoping to find the Lost Word and inscribe it on his body.† Sato moved the group toward the dining room. Outside, the helicopter was warming up, its blades thundering louder and louder. Langdon kept talking, thinking aloud. â€Å"If this guy truly believes he is about to unlock the power of the Ancient Mysteries, no symbol would be more potent in his mind than the Lost Word. If he could find it and inscribe it on the top of his head–a sacred location in itself–then he would no doubt consider himself perfectly adorned and ritualistically prepared to . . .† He paused, seeing Katherine blanch at the thought of Peter's impending fate. â€Å"But, Robert,† she said weakly, her voice barely audible over the helicopter blades. â€Å"This is good news, right? If he wants to inscribe the Lost Word on the top of his head before he sacrifices Peter, then we have time. He won't kill Peter until he finds the Word. And, if there is no Word . . .† Langdon tried to look hopeful as the agents helped Katherine into a chair. â€Å"Unfortunately, Peter still thinks you're bleeding to death. He thinks the only way to save you is to cooperate with this lunatic . . .probably to help him find the Lost Word.† â€Å"So what?† she insisted. â€Å"If the Word doesn't exist–â€Å" â€Å"Katherine,† Langdon said, staring deeply into her eyes. â€Å"If I believed you were dying, and if someone promised me I could save you by finding the Lost Word, then I would find this man a word–any word–and then I'd pray to God he kept his promise.† â€Å"Director Sato!† an agent shouted from the next room. â€Å"You'd better see this!† Sato hurried out of the dining room and saw one of her agents coming down the stairs from the bedroom. He was carrying a blond wig. What the hell? â€Å"Man's hairpiece,† he said, handing it to her. â€Å"Found it in the dressing room. Have a close look.† The blond wig was much heavier than Sato expected. The skullcap seemed to be molded of a thick gel. Strangely, the underside of the wig had a wire protruding from it. â€Å"Gel-pack battery that molds to your scalp,† the agent said. â€Å"Powers a fiber-optic pinpoint camera hidden in the hair.† â€Å"What?† Sato felt around with her fingers until she found the tiny camera lens nestled invisibly within the blond bangs. â€Å"This thing's a hidden camera?† â€Å"Video camera,† the agent said. â€Å"Stores footage on this tiny solid-state card.† He pointed to a stamp-size square of silicon embedded in the skullcap. â€Å"Probably motion activated.† Jesus, she thought. So that's how he did it. This sleek version of the â€Å"flower in the lapel† secret camera had played a key role in the crisis the OS director was facing tonight. She glared at it a moment longer and then handed it back to the agent. â€Å"Keep searching the house,† she said. â€Å"I want every bit of information you can find on this guy. We know his laptop is missing, and I want to know exactly how he plans to connect it to the outside world while he's on the move. Search his study for manuals, cables, anything at all that might give us a clue about his hardware.† â€Å"Yes, ma'am.† The agent hurried off. Time to move out. Sato could hear the whine of the helicopter blades at full pitch. She hurried back to the dining room, where Simkins had now ushered Warren Bellamy in from the helicopter and was gathering intel from him about the building to which they believed their target had gone. House of the Temple. â€Å"The front doors are sealed from within,† Bellamy was saying, still wrapped in a foil blanket and shivering visibly from his time outside in Franklin Square. â€Å"The building's rear entrance is your only way in. It's got a keypad with an access PIN known only to the brothers.† â€Å"What's the PIN?† Simkins demanded, taking notes. Bellamy sat down, looking too feeble to stand. Through chattering teeth, he recited his access code and then added, â€Å"The address is 1733 Sixteenth, but you'll want the access drive and parking area, behind the building. Kind of tricky to find, but–â€Å" â€Å"I know exactly where it is,† Langdon said. â€Å"I'll show you when we get there.† Simkins shook his head. â€Å"You're not coming, Professor. This is a military–â€Å" â€Å"The hell I'm not!† Langdon fired back. â€Å"Peter's in there! And that building's a labyrinth! Without someone to lead you in, you'll take ten minutes to find your way up to the Temple Room!† â€Å"He's right,† Bellamy said. â€Å"It's a maze. There is an elevator, but it's old and loud and opens in full view of the Temple Room. If you hope to move in quietly, you'll need to ascend on foot.† â€Å"You'll never find your way,† Langdon warned. â€Å"From that rear entrance, you're navigating through the Hall of Regalia, the Hall of Honor, the middle landing, the Atrium, the Grand Stair– â€Å" â€Å"Enough,† Sato said. â€Å"Langdon's coming.† CHAPTER 116 The energy was growing. Mal'akh could feel it pulsing within him, moving up and down his body as he wheeled Peter Solomon toward the altar. I will exit this building infinitely more powerful than when I entered. All that remained now was to locate the final ingredient. â€Å"Verbum significatium,† he whispered to himself. â€Å"Verbum omnificum.† Mal'akh parked Peter's wheelchair beside the altar and then circled around and unzipped the heavy daybag that sat on Peter's lap. Reaching inside, he lifted out the stone pyramid and held it up in the moonlight, directly in front of Peter's eyes, showing him the grid of symbols engraved on the bottom. â€Å"All these years,† he taunted, â€Å"and you never knew how the pyramid kept her secrets.† Mal'akh set the pyramid carefully on the corner of the altar and returned to the bag. â€Å"And this talisman,† he continued, extracting the golden capstone, â€Å"did indeed bring order from chaos, exactly as promised.† He placed the metal capstone carefully atop the stone pyramid, and then stepped back to give Peter a clear view. â€Å"Behold, your symbolon is complete.† Peter's face contorted, and he tried in vain to speak. â€Å"Good. I can see you have something you'd like to tell me.† Mal'akh roughly yanked out the gag. Peter Solomon coughed and gasped for several seconds before he finally managed to speak. â€Å"Katherine . . .† â€Å"Katherine's time is short. If you want to save her, I suggest you do exactly as I say.† Mal'akh suspected she was probably already dead, or if not, very close. It made no difference. She was lucky to have lived long enough to say good-bye to her brother. â€Å"Please,† Peter begged, his voice ragged. â€Å"Send an ambulance for her . . .† â€Å"I will do exactly that. But first you must tell me how to access the secret staircase.† Peter's expression turned to one of disbelief. â€Å"What?!† â€Å"The staircase. Masonic legend speaks of stairs that descend hundreds of feet to the secret location where the Lost Word is buried.† Peter now looked panicked. â€Å"You know the legend,† Mal'akh baited. â€Å"A secret staircase hidden beneath a stone.† He pointed to the central altar–a huge block of granite with a gilded inscription in Hebrew: GOD SAID, â€Å"LET THERE BE LIGHT† AND THERE WAS LIGHT. â€Å"Obviously, this is the right place. The entrance to the staircase must be hidden on one of the floors beneath us.† â€Å"There is no secret staircase in this building!† Peter shouted. Mal'akh smiled patiently and motioned upward. â€Å"This building is shaped like a pyramid.† He pointed to the four-sided vaulted ceiling that angled up to the square oculus in the center. â€Å"Yes, the House of the Temple is a pyramid, but what does–â€Å" â€Å"Peter, I have all night.† Mal'akh smoothed his white silk robe over his perfect body. â€Å"Katherine, however, does not. If you want her to live, you will tell me how to access the staircase.† â€Å"I already told you,† he declared, â€Å"there is no secret staircase in this building!† â€Å"No?† Mal'akh calmly produced the sheet of paper on which he had reorganized the grid of symbols from the base of the pyramid. â€Å"This is the Masonic Pyramid's final message. Your friend Robert Langdon helped me decipher it.† Mal'akh raised the paper and held it in front of Peter's eyes. The Worshipful Master inhaled sharply when he saw it. Not only had the sixty-four symbols been organized into clearly meaningful groups . . . but an actual image had materialized out of the chaos. An image of a staircase . . . beneath a pyramid. Peter Solomon stared in disbelief at the grid of symbols before him. The Masonic Pyramid had kept its secret for generations. Now, suddenly, it was being unveiled, and he felt a cold sense of foreboding in the pit of his stomach. The pyramid's final code. At a glance, the true meaning of these symbols remained a mystery to Peter, and yet he could immediately understand why the tattooed man believed what he believed. He thinks there is a hidden staircase beneath the pyramid called Heredom. He misunderstands these symbols. â€Å"Where is it?† the tattooed man demanded. â€Å"Tell me how to find the staircase, and I will save Katherine.† I wish I could do that, Peter thought. But the staircase is not real. The myth of the staircase was purely symbolic . . . part of the great allegories of Masonry. The Winding Staircase, as it was known, appeared on the second-degree tracing boards. It represented man's intellectual climb toward the Divine Truth. Like Jacob's ladder, the Winding Staircase was a symbol of the pathway to heaven . . . the journey of man toward God . . . the connection between the earthly and spiritual realms. Its steps represented the many virtues of the mind. He should know that, Peter thought. He endured all the initiations. Every Masonic initiate learned of the symbolic staircase that he could ascend, enabling him â€Å"to participate in the mysteries of human science.† Freemasonry, like Noetic Science and the Ancient Mysteries, revered the untapped potential of the human mind, and many of Masonry's symbols related to human physiology. The mind sits like a golden capstone atop the physical body. The Philosopher's Stone. Through the staircase of the spine, energy ascends and descends, circulating, connecting the heavenly mind to the physical body. Peter knew it was no coincidence that the spine was made up of exactly thirty-three vertebrae. Thirty-three are the degrees of Masonry. The base of the spine, or sacrum, literally meant â€Å"sacred bone.† The body is indeed a temple. The human science that Masons revered was the ancient understanding of how to use that temple for its most potent and noble purpose. Unfortunately, explaining the truth to this man was not going to help Katherine at all. Peter gazed down at the grid of symbols and gave a defeated sigh. â€Å"You're right,† he lied. â€Å"There is indeed a secret staircase beneath this building. And as soon as you send help to Katherine, I'll take you to it.† The man with the tattoos simply stared at him. Solomon glared back, eyes defiant. â€Å"Either save my sister and learn the truth . . . or kill us both and remain ignorant forever!† The man quietly lowered the paper and shook his head. â€Å"I'm not happy with you, Peter. You failed your test. You still take me for a fool. Do you truly believe I don't understand what it is I seek? Do you think I have not yet grasped my true potential?† With that, the man turned his back and slipped off his robe. As the white silk fluttered to the floor, Peter saw for the first time the long tattoo running up the man's spine. Dear God . . . Winding up from the man's white loincloth, an elegant spiral staircase ascended the middle of his muscular back. Each stair was positioned on a different vertebra. Speechless, Peter let his eyes ascend the staircase, all the way up to the base of the man's skull. Peter could only stare. The tattooed man now tipped his shaved head backward, revealing the circle of bare flesh on the pinnacle of his skull. The virgin skin was bordered by a single snake, looped in a circle, consuming itself. At-one-ment. Slowly now, the man lowered his head and turned to face Peter. The massive double-headed phoenix on his chest stared out through dead eyes. â€Å"I am looking for the Lost Word,† the man said. â€Å"Are you going to help me . . . or are you and your sister going to die?† You know how to find it, Mal'akh thought. You know something you're not telling me. Peter Solomon had revealed things under interrogation that he probably didn't even recall now. The repeated sessions in and out of the deprivation tank had left him delirious and compliant. Incredibly, when he spilled his guts, everything he told Mal'akh had been consistent with the legend of the Lost Word. The Lost Word is not a metaphor . . . it is real. The Word is written in an ancient language . . . and has been hidden for ages. The Word is capable of bringing unfathomable power to anyone who grasps its true meaning. The Word remains hidden to this day . . . and the Masonic Pyramid has the power to unveil it. â€Å"Peter,† Mal'akh now said, staring into his captive's eyes, â€Å"when you looked at that grid of symbols . . . you saw something. You had a revelation. This grid means something to you. Tell me.† â€Å"I will tell you nothing until you send help to Katherine!† Mal'akh smiled at him. â€Å"Believe me, the prospect of losing your sister is the least of your worries right now.† Without another word, he turned to Langdon's daybag and started removing the items he had packed in his basement. Then he began meticulously arranging them on the sacrificial altar. A folded silk cloth. Pure white. A silver censer. Egyptian myrrh. A vial of Peter's blood. Mixed with ash. A black crow's feather. His sacred stylus. The sacrificial knife. Forged of iron from a meteorite in the desert of Canaan. â€Å"You think I am afraid to die?† Peter shouted, his voice racked with anguish. â€Å"If Katherine is gone, I have nothing left! You've murdered my entire family! You've taken everything from me!† â€Å"Not everything,† Mal'akh replied. â€Å"Not yet.† He reached into the day-bag and pulled out the laptop from his study. He turned it on and looked over at his captive. â€Å"I'm afraid you have not yet grasped the true nature of your predicament.†

Life of Pi Analysis Essay

Having just experienced the sinking of his family’s ship, and being put onto a life boat with only a hyena, Pi felt completely lost and alone. Then he met a familiar face from his family’s zoo, Pi saw the Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker onboard. His first reaction was to save the life of Richard Parker so that he may have a companion, and a protector aboard the lifeboat. Suddenly Pi realizes just what he is doing. He is saving the life of Richard Parker, by welcoming him, a 450 pound Bengal tiger, onto the small lifeboat. He experiences a change of heart when helping the tiger onto the boat. Pi realizes that he is now posing a threat on his own life. With Richard Parker on the boat, Pi is faced with not only the fight to survive stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but the fight to survive living with a meat eating tiger. The change of heart that Pi experiences might possibly mean that he is an impulsive thinker. It may mean that he often does something on impulse without thinking it through, and then later regrets his actions. Though he was having bad experiences onboard, Pi maintains his religious beliefs while on the life boat through his daily prayers. He takes time aside each day to say the prayers that he always would say. In one instance, he turns where he believes Mecca is located, and prays his traditional prayers towards Mecca. Pi also often states that he will include specific animals in his prayers, such as the zebra aboard his lifeboat, and the first fish that he ever killed. With Pi keeping his ritual prayers going, it helped him to survive. He made comparisons between that of Orange Juice, the orangutan, and the Virgin Mary, and would also often bring up Jesus on the cross. Truly, Pi’s religious faith remained strong throughout his journey on the Pacific Ocean.

Consumer Behavior Comparison Essay

1. Using the tricomponent attitude model, compare the differences in attitude of consumers towards Kraft Foods versus their attitude towards Vegemite. The tricomponent attitude model is made up of Cognitive, Affective and Conative component. The three components are interrelated and integrate to form an attitude of a person toward any product or service in consumer scenario. Here we are studying how the consumers react to Kraft Food and Vegemite. Cognitive Component Cognition is basically making decisions going through a thinking process. So this thinking process can occur on the basis of knowledge and perceptions that already existed in the consumers’ minds. The Cognitive Component of attitude is developing a belief based on past experience or perception and whenever the consumers are exposed to attitude object (about which we are to form certain attitude) and those belief will form a typical behavior towards that attitude object. The consumers can be seen in the case study to be protective over Vegemite as they perceive it to be a national symbolic food with the long history. The brand itself had lasted centuries with its unique salty base as breakfast spread as compared to traditional sweet base spreads. Kraft Foods being the brand owner did not do anything to the brand until the later years where they did a rebranding of the product to suit modern culture and needs. The consumers clearly triggered heavy resentment over the undesired new name as they had perceive â€Å"Vegemite† to be worthy of a name to more relevant. Here Kraft Food suffered a marketing backlash whereas consumers’ support for Vegemite rally strong. Affective Component This Component of Attitude formation is all about emotional feelings of a consumer about the particular product or brand. Consumers have certain emotions regarding the attitude objects either favorable or unfavorable; good or bad, it may be regardless of any quality, specification, features, utility or brand name. Vegemite lasted centuries of success without any interference from Kraft Food in terms of product modification or receipe changes. Kraft Food knew that Australians held Vegemite with high regards and deeply rooted in the history and culture. Despite a dip in sales after foreigners infux, the strong support of the old brand can be seen as Kraft Food carelessly picked an odd name for their re-branding. In their â€Å"Name me†¦Ã¢â‚¬  campaign, strong sentiments of the brands were reveal as hate groups emerge to hate the new Vegemite name. The consumers feel strongly violated as the name did not resonate with the hearts of the supporter. Kraft Food succumb to pressure an d rename the product. Conative Component This final component is concerned with the likelihood or tendency that a specific action will be undertaken by an individual regarding attitude object. It is treated as an expression of consumer’s intention to buy. It may include action itself. Consumers usually make purchases for positively evaluated brands. Their intentions towards those brands are positive, so their attitude towards those brand would be positive. Although the new â€Å"iSnack 2.0† was much disliked, the success of the receipe is shown with the improvement in sales figures. Consumers in this case, reacted to the over hyped publicity generated by negative marketing, resulting in curious new consumers trying out the new product. Vegemite in this case, was successful. On the other hand, Kraft Food was said to be making use of the clever marketing strategy by inducing resentments from the consumers with the â€Å"iSnack2.0† name. Compared with vegemite, Kraft Food is perceived to be crafty and had to resort to underhand means to achieve desirable results. 2. Thinking about the different methods Kraft used to encourage consumer input for their new Vegemite product, what kind of consumer learning took place during the entire process? Consumer learning is the process by which individuals acquire the purchase and consumption knowledge and experience they apply to future related behaviour. Most of the learning is incidental and some of it is intentional. Elements of Consumer learning The basic elements that contribute to an understanding of learning are motivation, cues, response and reinforcement. Consumers will be motivated to learn if the information is relevant to their needs and goals while cues serve to direct consumer drives when they are consistent with consumer expectations. Response is how consumers react or behave to a drive or a cue while reinforcement increases the likelihood a response will occur in the future as a result of a cue. Kraft encouraged consumer input for their new Vegemite product through the â€Å"How do you like your Vegemite† and the â€Å"Name me..† campaign. By getting the consumers to be involved, the Australians will feel that they ‘own’ the brand which created the sense of belonging. Kraft asked consumers to log on to the website and post their ideas on the different ways they ate the product. Instrumental Conditioning Instrumental Learning theorists believe that learning occurs through a trial and error process in which the positive outcomes in the form of results or desired outcomes lead to repeat behaviour like Repeat Purchase or Repeat Positive Word of Mouth. Both positive and negative reinforcement can be used to encourage the desired behaviour. The timing of repetitions influences how long the learned material is retained. Learning usually persists longer with distributed re-inforcement schedule, while mass repetitions produce more initial learnings. In view of how Kraft Food did was the â€Å"Name me†¦Ã¢â‚¬  campaign. They failed to select a proper name for the first time, but they acknowledge the mistake and repeat the campaign a second time. Meanwhile, they took four months to replace the â€Å"iSnack2.0† labelled jars off the shelves before replacing with â€Å"Cheesybites†. The consumers are conditioned by this instrumental method. 3. Vegemite is a food product sugge sting customers would have lower levels of involvement with the brand. However, the fall-out from ‘iSnack 2.0’ imply otherwise. What aspects of involvement theory were presented in their response? Involvement theory recognizes that consumers become attached to products, services or brands to differing levels and they engage in a range of information-processing activities, depending on the significance of the purchase (Sciffman et al. 2008). The involvement level shown by the consumers in ‘iSnack2.0’ is high is because Vegemite is considered to be a national brand and a part of Australia’s heritage (Superbrands Australia, 2012). Beside this, the ‘How do you like your Vegemite’ and the ‘Name Me’ campaign further increase the involvement level of the consumers as they felt a sense of ownership in the creation phrase of the product (Sciffman et al. 2008). From the case of ‘iSnack 2.0’, the hemispheral lateralization theory can be used to explain the responses of the consumers. The hemispheral lateralization theory, also known as split-brain theory, is the learning theory around the basic principle that the left and right side of the brain specialize in the kind of information they process. The left side of the brain, which specializes in cognitive activities, can be put as rational and logical, while the right side of the brain, which specializes in pictorial and holistic information, can be put as emotional and instinctive (Sciffman et al. 2008). When Kraft chose the name ‘iSnack 2.0’, the left hemispheral of the consumers processed the decision-making and they responded negatively because the logical thinking is that the selected name is more related to technology products such as iPod and iPhone by Apple. This made the decision looks ‘wierd’ and ‘irrevelant’ to the public and will also results in consumers thinking that Kraft is trying to ride on the success of Apple’s products (Miller, 2009). On the other side, the right hemispheral of the consumers also contributed to the consumers responding negatively because Australians have high loyalty and feelings for Vegemite (Foley, 2009) and the fact that Kraft did not let the consumers have a say in the winning name intensifies the negative feeling that Kraft, an American company, is not allowing the Australia public to have a say in the brand they felt they have ownership in. And by choosing a name that is perceived to be unsuitable and outrageous, it further fuels the feeling that the company is showing disrespect to the brand Australians love (Sciffman et al. 2008). 4. Do you think Kraft can change perception of ‘iSnack 2.0’ by changing the name to ‘Cheesybite’? Explain your answer. Perception is the process by which people select, organize and interpret stimuli to form a meaningful and logical picture of the world and it is important in marketing strategies for marketers because consumers make decisions based on what they perceive, rather than on the basis of objective reality. (Sciffman et al. 2008). When ‘iSnack 2.0’ was chosen, it triggered negative responses and outrage from consumers across a number of social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter, online forums, newspaper and magazines. ‘iSnack 2.0’ was perceived to be ‘weird’ and ‘irrelevant’ and make no sens e to consumers as to why a food product was given a technological name that is normally related to technology products such as iPhone and iPod (Miller, 2009). The name was also perceived to be a marketing stunt by the company as the negativity generated increased the exposure of the product. This led to the sales rising 47 percent in the first two weeks and the product being available in 15% of Australian households (Foley, 2009). However, ‘iSnack 2.0’ also led to hatred and anger as there are consumers who suggested boycotting the product (Collerton, 2009). By deciding to change the name of ‘iSnack 2.0’ to ‘Cheesybite’, Kraft can change the perception of the product. The product is a combination of ‘Vegemite’ spread and cream cheese (Kraft Foods Australia, 2011), which is as what ‘Cheesybite’ suggested and made more sense to consumers. Another reason is that ‘Cheesybite’ is chosen in a popularity vote by more than 30,000 Australian and New Zealanders, instead of by the company, therefore will relate better to consumers (AAP, 2009). Once the more popular and logi cal choice of ‘Cheesybite’ replace ‘iSnack 2.0’, sentiment will soften due to the Australia loyalty to the brand and the incident will slowly fade away. 5. If ‘Vegemite’ could be given a brand personality, what do you think it would be like? Compare this to how the ‘Cheesybite’ personality might be. Brand personality is an act or a process of the personality traits that a brand possesses. It is the viewing of a brand as a person and defining the traits that a brand has. A brand personality is something consumers can relate to and it develops over time (Parameswaran, 2006). An effective brand will increase its brand equity by having a consistent set of traits. There are five main types of brand personalities and they are Excitement, Sincerity, Ruggedness, Competence and Sophistication (Friend, 2010). ‘Vegemite’ is best described as having the personality of Sincerity which is interpreted as down-to-earth, honest, wholesome, and cheerful (Friend, 2010). Vegemite is an Australian brand that reaches to the hearts of its consumers and therefore brand loyalty is high. Kraft has retained the down-to-earth nature of ‘Vegemite’ by not changing the content, with the only updates applying to external factor such as packaging and the occasional consumer promotion. ‘Cheesybite’ is best seen as having the personality of Excitement under the 5 dimensions of brand personality. The name ‘Cheesybite’ gives consumers an exciting, daring and spirited feeling (Friend, 2010). This will attracts consumers with high innovativeness as they are risk takers and are more likely to adopt new products (Tellis et al, 2009) The different personalities of ‘Vegemite’ and ‘Cheesybite’ give consumers totally different perception and feeling and this is important for Kraft to position itself in the different market segment to establish a good name. Bibliography AAP, 2009, Vegemite Cheesybite replaces iSnack2.0, The Sidney Morning Herald. http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/vegemite-cheesybite-replaces-isnack20-20091007-gm5u.html Collerton, S. 2009. iSuck 2.0: Unhappy little Vegemites. ABC News. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-09-28/isuck-20-unhappy-little-vegemites/1445034 Foley, Meraiah. 2009. Vegemite Contest Draws Protests. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/business/global/03vegemite.html?pagewanted=all Friend, Camille. 2010. The 5 Dimensions of Brand Personality. Fuel Your Branding. http://www.fuelyourbranding.com/the-5-dimensions-of-brand-personality/ Kraft Foods Australia. 2011. http://www.kraftbrands.com/kraftvegemite/Pages/product-information-cheesybite.aspx Kraft Foods Australia. 2011. http://www.kraft.com.au/products/media_release_vegemite_vote.aspx Miller, K E. 2009. Title fight. The Drum Opinion. http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/26916.html Parameswaran, M.G. 2006. Building Brand Value: Five Steps To Building Powerful Brands. Tta McGraw-Hill Education. Schiffman, Leon, David Bednall, Aron O’Cass, Angela Paladino, Steve Ward, and Leslie Kanuk. 2008. Consumer Behavior. 4th ed. Pearson Education Australia Superbrands Australia. 2012. http://www.superbrands.com/au/content/view/300/1/ Tellis, Gerard J, Eden Yin and Simon Bell. 2009. Global Consumer Innovativeness: Cross-Country Differences and Demographic Commonalities. Journal of International Marketing, American Marketing Association. Vol. 17, No 2, 2009, pp 1-22.

Review Questions for Business Management Essay

1) What is resource overallocation? Resource leveling is the project management function of resolving project resource over-allocation. By definition over-allocation means that a resource has been assigned more work than can be accomplished in the available time as dictated by the resource’s calendar definition. In most scenarios, over-allocations can be remedied manually by extending tasks or moving them to accommodate the resource’s availability 2) What is resource leveling? When performing project planning activities, the manager will attempt to schedule certain tasks simultaneously. When more resources such as machines or people are needed than are available, or perhaps a specific person is needed in both tasks, the tasks will have to be rescheduled concurrently or even sequentially to manage the constraint. Project planning resource leveling is the process of resolving these conflicts. It can also be used to balance the workload of primary resources over the course of the project[s], usually at the expense of one of the traditional triple constraints (time, cost, scope). 3) Under what circumstances would you want to manually resolve conflicts? You can resolve resource conflicts or overallocations by using the resource-leveling feature in Microsoft Office Project. Leveling works by splitting tasks or by adding delay to tasks until the resources that are assigned to those tasks are no longer overloaded. Because of these changes to the tasks, leveling can delay the finish date of some tasks and consequently also the project’s finish date. When it is leveling, Project does not change who is assigned to each task 4) What would be the caution of adding more resources to a task to resolve resource conflicts? As you assign resources to tasks, Project checks the resource’s calendar to make sure that the resource is working. However, Project doesn’t assess whether the resource is already obligated when you assign the resource to a new task; Project enables you to make the assignment. Be aware, though, that the additional assignment may lead to overallocating the resource. Overallocation occurs when you assign more work to a resource than the resource can accomplish in the time that you’ve allotted for the work to be completed. 5) What would be the caution of rescheduling a task to resolve a resource conflict? To get the best performance and results from resources (resources: The people, equipment, and material that are used to complete tasks in a project.), you must manage resource workloads to avoid overallocations (overallocation: The result of assigning more tasks to a resource than the resource can accomplish in the working time available.) and underallocations (underallocation: Assigning a resource to work fewer hours than the resource has available.). If you change resource assignments (assignment: A specific resource that is assigned to a particular task.), check the effects of your changes on the overall schedule (schedule: The timing and sequence of tasks within a project. A schedule consists mainly of tasks, task dependencies, durations, constraints, and time-oriented project information.) to make sure that the results meet your project goals.

How does media affect society politically, socially, and economically Essay

Throughout history technology has evolved to provide easier forms of communication, and furthermore make people more informed. But the question is, has the evolution of media had a more positive or negative effect on society. Media affects everyone around the world and has the power to do many things to either send a good or bad message. Which is one of the main problems of media, its power. The power of media at most times is too powerful and is why media can have such a negative affect on society. But the positive view on the power of media is that is that it contributes awareness on problems that occur around the world. Media affects society politically, socially, and economically through the power people give media. Read more:  Media Influences on Society Different types of Media Media comes in different forms, some we aren’t even aware is media. Examples of of different types of media are the news, social media, and even text messaging can be considered media. The news is the most dependable source of media and many believe is well trusted but many do not know that the news is very bias and sometimes even changes their stories or the â€Å"news† to make them interesting. Which is why media has the power to deceive people and not always present the truth. This is an example of how media’s power can affect society in a negative way, by filling people’s minds with false information. Social media is the most common form of media. Different forms of social media are Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and publicity websites. These are not reliable sources, but have a big influence on society because many people believe that everything that is on the internet is true which is definitely not the case. Why social media has such a big effect on people it’s because of its great impressive power everyone seems to believe. If people are not interested in what they read, they will stop focusing on social media and powerful companies that have to do with publicity sites will stop making money. This is why They create false stories that attract and keep people interested. The more viewers they get the more money they will earn which is exactly what this want.

Implementation of Enterprise Architecture Research Paper

Implementation of Enterprise Architecture - Research Paper Example In addition, business architecture acts as a foundation for the organization in aspects relating to missions and vision of the organization. Furthermore, business architecture allows the top-level management to make future decisions about the organization and allow them to communicate changes that follow those decisions across the organization. In order to achieve its purpose, the business architecture has significant aspects, which include information, processes, functionality, and organizational roles. According to Murer, Bonai & Furrer (2010), information involves the core details and systems, which provide store and process critical business information. All this information is arranged in a model that allows all this details to be implemented easily. Business functions are provided through the use of applications. The business functions are normally linked to the information model to be able to analyze any gaps or misalignments that may be present in the application. In addition , by linking the business functionality to the information architecture, a clear description of what information are used for particular purposes are known. The business process involves clear and flexible workflows that allow frequent process to be identified in multiple processes. Well-designed operational processes will allow efficient capturing and processing of data. To ensure that operation of processes is efficient, different roles are assigned to various organizational structures, which result to critical decisions being put in to action. Enterprise Application Architecture According to Murer, Bonai and Furrer (2010), use of various functionalities in application architecture forms an application landscape, which can be used to provide definite business purposes. In addition, for the application architecture to accomplish its purpose certain software parts need to be combined to sustain the business process. The software component will include data structures, programs, conf igurations and related documentation. The application landscape will have domains, which contain information related to the business. That is business functions and entities. A large application landscape may necessitate the use of several domains and sub-domains to allow efficient management. Murer et.al (2010) note that application domains should be chosen in such a way that applications in the same domain could be linked to one another than when in different domains. This endures that quality is not compromised. In addition, the choice of a domain model needs to be carefully selected taking into account the processes and products being incorporated into the domain. Furthermore, closely linked applications in the same domain will have a crucial influence on the use of the application landscape. The domain will assist in breaking down the data used in the application landscape in to minor easily manageable components. Modeling approach will entail preparation of a catalog of functi ons and data both on an appropriate level (Murer et.al, 2010). This will be followed by assigning each function and data to the suited sub domain. In addition, certain regulations will be used to assign data to the sub domains. These include cohesion, which is the measure of how the functionality and data are related, and how the components inside the sub domain work. Further, low coupling will ensure less dependency between the sub domains, whereas a

Misinterpretation of James Mill Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Misinterpretation of James Mill - Research Paper Example Understanding Mill's advocacy of commerce as a response to the specific conditions of nineteenth-century Britain underscores important aspects of his work that are often overlooked. Mill's assessment of the social benefits of the market is considerably more cautious and skeptical than is often understood in "economic" interpretations of his utilitarianism. He is often mistaken for a theorist who thought that social sentiments were irrelevant to human happiness. Mill negatively assessed social sentiments because in this context the predominant social sentiments were aimed at maintaining deference to ascribed social status. He also believed that if social sentiments were egalitarian, they contributed positively to human happiness. Indeed, what is most often overlooked is that Mill was critical of an excessive preoccupation with interests. He believed that the esteem of others was a critical part of human happiness and that it was undesirable to pursue interests to the exception of cult ivating affective ties. From a contemporary perspective, it is important to understand that Mill's theory in favor of the market had a specific historical reference to the conditions of nineteenth-century Europe. For that reason, his theory does not provide a normative basis for economic liberalization today in any straightforward way. We ought to understand the early history of capitalism as a specific ideological response to the shortcomings of traditional societies-not just in economics but in basic social and political values.

Description of Child Activities Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3

Description of Child Activities - Assignment Example During the ‘Grocery Store’ activity, he comes up to me, waves his hand and says, â€Å"Hi†. I immediately respond with a â€Å"Hi,† and say, â€Å"Finn, would you like to be a shopper for your grocery, or manage the cash register today?† He replies, â€Å"Yes, I want to be a shopper,† and goes on to be actively involved in the activity from beginning till end. Finn’s involvement was a treat to watch! While shopping at the ‘Grocery Store,’ Leyanna drops her shopping basket on the floor. She repeatedly exclaims, â€Å"Oh no, it’s broken!† Hearing this, I ask her â€Å"What happened, Leyanna?† She replies, â€Å"I dropped my basket and it’s broken.† I ask her, â€Å"Do you need my help, Leyanna?† She says, â€Å"Yes!† I notice that the handle is not broken, merely detached. I prompt her gently with questions: â€Å"Would you show me where it is broken?† â€Å"Let’s fix it together.† â€Å"I wonder whether there is a hole for us to put the handles into?† She indicates the hole and exclaims, â€Å"Here, I found it!† Leyanna inserts the handles in place and resumes her shopping! It is a treat to see Dawson, who is usually content to be a silent observer of classroom happenings, enthusiastically take on the role of the cashier and shopper at the ‘Grocery Store.’ Following up on this interest, I encourage Dawson to interchange the roles of shopper and cashier in the subsequent ‘Revisit the Grocery Store’ Activity: which he does with great exuberance! I move the â€Å"Aluminum Climbing-Monkey Bar† from its usual position to the left in order to provide access to the Pulling Rope. I first see that the area under the equipment, and the corner of the stairway, are covered with sufficient soft mats to ensure the children’s safety.

Cost of Quality SLP Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Cost of Quality SLP - Assignment Example By so doing he attracted many competitors, where some of them try to capitalize direct using the Coke name. This case tries to consider the strategic way in which the company continues to record its growth all across the global beverage markets, successfully becoming the position of the largest maker of beverages, frequently being recognized for the consumer marketing and the distribution strategies that created the long-standing advantages through competitiveness. The scale of distribution was propelled by strategy made by chairman and CEO Robert W. Woodruff to guarantee the global supply in U.S. servicemen in times of Second World War (chronicles of Coca-Cola 2011). The company strategies starts with manifesto, for growth that the former chairman and CEO Neville Isdell continue to initiate on as the current chairman and the CEO Muhtar Kent make advancement on his own strategy:(2020 Vision Press Release ,2009). This new strategy worked on to mould the predecessor, specifically for the god use of new innovation to reach their vision of (2020.) The Coca-Cola Company has owned minority shares in some of their largest franchises, in 2007; the company brought back their campaigns after, according to the company coca-cola company (89 years) under the new contract bottling business has experienced about 60 percent of coca-cola syrup, Coca-Colas quality. In other words the problem was primarily technical, even though, the problem was through quality control and quality assurances, where not only Coca-cola executives were solving the wrong problems precisely, but still violating the cardinal rules of crisis management: never try to insult you customers or stakeholders, especially the parents and the children’s. Without the knowhow, the Coca-cola executives were tricked by numerous forces, many of them being their own make: where strong corporate culture makes the group reinforcement mentally (groupthink), the narrowest and the

Bans on Texting While Driving Dont Work Assignment

Bans on Texting While Driving Dont Work - Assignment Example Since only four states out of the many states that have already imposed texting-while-driving banning laws have been subjected to the survey, the statement that such laws are ineffective is not really conclusive. However, it is not too far-fetched to presume that texting-while-driving banning laws are really hard to implement. The offensive act takes place inside a vehicle in these cases and chances are law enforcement authorities would actually have a difficult time spying who is and who is not using his or her cell phone while driving. Nonetheless, it has been established that texting while driving is a road hazard that can jeopardize the health and safety of people on the road. Thus, despite the difficulty of implementing such a law, the government should continue with zealously enforcing it. At the same time, a more effective and relentless campaign against the dangerous habit must be conducted in all media. AdelaVoice, a venture-funded company located in Massachusetts, is announcing the launching of StartTalking, a software solution that promises to solve the hazard of texting while driving. Once installed on an Android mobile phone, StartTalking can be made useful when a person needs to use his phones but has to keep his hands and eyes on other things – like when he or she is driving. StartTalking runs quietly in the background ready to execute the voice commands of the user which can be initiated by uttering certain â€Å"prompts† like the words ‘computer’ and ‘operator.’

Cover letter Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Cover letter - Assignment Example I am one of the core group members that handle the media enquiries and assist the fresher seeking admission to the college. I was also a member of the negotiating committee that visited the Mayor to discuss and upgrade the communication strategies in the educational institutions. I was actively associated with the job up updating the website of my institution and expand its reach in tune with the latest developments and improvements. Communicating with the social medial platforms is also my responsibility. By pursuing the policy of ‘earn while you learn’ I have designed websites and also wrote their contents for the benefit of a number of organizations. These experiences have been quite challenging as the companies often sought my suggestions in proactive campaign-driven releases and responsive communications. I have tendered appropriate solutions to their crisis situations promptly and this has enhanced the reputation of those organizations. I have developed good grasp of their competing priorities. I am fairly conversant with the environment legislation and have read hundreds of articles on environmental protection and the role of the common man, organizations and the government in this regard. I know the type of messages to be given to different types of audiences and possess good oral and written communications skills. I can draft questionnaires on the relevant subjects and can conduct radio interview. I have also appeared in question-and-answer sessions in television programs. I have intense interest in environmental issues and about protecting flora and fauna of Mother Earth. I regularly participate in the conservation programs held in the city of Houston. I therefore seek the golden opportunity to work for a sterling organization like Clean Environment! America, to contribute to the propagation of green message and involve in the related practices. I am quite enthusiastic to leverage my

Writing to Share Experiences Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Writing to Share Experiences - Essay Example This was not exactly a bad thing, as I could grow up without the expectations that some of my older siblings had placed upon their shoulders. Anyone who did not know my family may suspect that I was spoiled when I was a child, but I do not see it this way. In my view, I was lucky enough to be given special attention that perhaps my siblings did not receive. As I grew to be an adult, I was allowed to develop into someone who was able to choose a path in life for himself. The journey that I have taken may not have always been smooth, but I have become a better person because of it. After I got married, I was fortunate enough to be the proud father of two gorgeous daughters. They meant the world to me. I would perhaps spoil them in the fashion that I was when I was a young child. After some time, I grew apart from my wife and we decided to get divorced. Looking back on it now, I can see it was the best thing for me at the time. I may not have realized it then, but I needed to move on wi th my life. I could no longer just go through the motions and pretend to have found fulfillment in life when it was simply not true. It was only in doing this that I was able to be free to explore the possibilities that life had in store for me. The greatest and most challenging experience of my life occurred when I had the privilege of being sent to the United States of America to study.

Identity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Identity - Essay Example Therefore, our identity is then defined by how we think we fit in to the world around us, and how we feel we stand out (positively/ negatively). Our culture, beliefs and they way our parents have provided us upbringing shapes our thoughts and perception of the situation and hence the world around us. We are a part of the culture that is followed in a country to which we belong, the language we speak the religion we follow the beliefs we acquire through ancestry. This together culminates to a civilization, our ethnicity and no culture can influence it. The way we are presented in the society ascertain and formulate our identity. Our behavior, our communication skills become our tools that enable us to survive and prosper. Our customs and traditions which we follow define our integrity and values we have in our lives. They are the aids of social interaction and do provide an individual a distinctive identity. Therefore identity is personal, social and ethnic and the personality that is shaped out of this is an amalgamation of all these convictions. Thus, establishing one's identity can be both a liberating and an oppressive occurrence as separation from any one of these parameters directly influences the identity and personality of the individual. For e.g. 1. Children who have been separated from their family or country of origin due to migration may become perplexed about their personal and social identities. They experience a number of moves, been cared for by different people in different places, lost important contacts and relationships from their past, been separated from family, friends and their ethnic and cultural networks. 2. Adopted child has some different personality especially those who are from diverse cultural backgrounds or have some kind of disability. Feeling or being made to feel different is a major issue for children who have been adopted. For the adopted child, the stigma of not living with their birth family, living as a cultural or ethnic minority and becoming accustomed to what it means to be adopted are lifelong adjustments. 3. Similar kind of stigma is felt by the children of the prisoners and those who commit punishable offence. Parent's deed affects the individuality of the child and provides a social aloofness, this make the child unique and shapes the personality of a child in a different perspective. The child may start hating the family/ society or parents or cultivate some kind of criminal psyche within the premature mind. 4. Children of the broken marriage also face identity crisis and are confused. They feel ashamed to talk about the disputes their parents have undergone resulting in unsuccessful marriage. It inculcates the seeds of insecurity in the child's mind and changes the psychology of the child. The child does not gain trust on any one and any kind of relationship throughout the life. This is the way personality is changed and shaped. 5. Parents undergoing the phase of mourning after divorce establishes a new sense of self and hence a new sense of identity. It is established that in a long-term marriage, each individual's sense of self-identity becomes tied to the other person and indeed to the marriage itself. Following a broken marriage, each person must reach back into his or her early experience and find other images and

Modern methods of teaching English Language Essay

Modern methods of teaching English Language - Essay Example Moreover, English is one of the most widespread languages of the planet serving as the means of politics, business, and economics communication for world leaders. With the help of the technological innovation and Internet English vocabulary enriches with new words every day. However, there are also degrading process in the language, some grammar rules get redundant and there appear new on their place. Therefore, teaching English demands close attention to all the changes. Every teacher knows that despite general requirements he/she must elaborate personal approach to the teaching and choose among the numerous methods. It is possible to base the choice on the experience received at school or University, or follow already existing methods. There exist numerous techniques of teaching English Language. Some of them become outdated with the development of new technologies, and some get substituted with more efficient. It is hardly possible to choose one method that could be applied for ev ery situation as each technique has its own purpose. It is necessary to know advantages and disadvantages of each method and be able to utilize them according to the situation. There are numerous innovations in English language teaching which appeared in the past century. Many schools, teachers, and applied linguists strived to find the optimal and the most efficient methods of language teaching basing on their understanding of the learning mechanisms. Traditional methods were mostly concentrated on teacher`s explanation of the material, practicing of lexical and grammatical material, and skills development. Modern methods of English language teaching are more student-oriented comparing to the old methods, they encourage students to learn rather than make them learning. A student becomes involved in a half-natural process of interaction with a techer.

Tort scenario Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Tort scenario - Case Study Example According to the Police Act of 1996, an off-duty police officer can exercise their powers if the situation dictates it, and thus places himself back on duty. This was the case when PC Yaro say Bully commit the crime and subsequently chased after him. So it is clear that PC Yaro did have the right to arrest bully under #1, so we can now move to number #2. If Bully had not resisted arrest in any way, then PC Yaro would not have been within his legal rights to simply punch Bully. However, as PC Yaro attempted to arrest Bully (having gone through the normal procedure), he was then kicked on the shin by the suspect. Even if Yaro were not a police officer attempting to complete a justified arrest, he would have the right to defend himself. He has just witnessed Bully committing a violent act against an old lady, and thus has the expectation of further violence from Bully. What tort might Bully accuse PC Yaro of The basic tort would be that of assault, which includes deliberate violence against another person (Van Gerven, 2001). What defenses would Yaro have First of all, police officers have a general power to use force for the purpose of effecting a lawful arrest, Second, there is the concept of self-defense. In this case, Yaro would need to prove that the use of force was necessary and that the degree of force was reasonable. It is clear that the defenses to this tort would outweig... It is clear that the defenses to this tort would outweigh any arguments that Bully might have. Indeed, it seems clear that Bully would probably be convicted of the criminal offense of assault on a police officer (see Forbes, 1865). There is no tortuous liability for PC Yaro in this situation. The Case of Jim and Elsie/Mother - Nervous Shock and Economic Loss Most tort law depends upon the consideration and finding of the duty of care owed by one person towards another. Nervous shock tends to involve a serious psychological effect upon the injured party (see Alcock, 1992) As a heavy goods vehicle driver, Jim owes a duty of care to other road users to perform his job in a responsible and careful manner. He is a professional driver and needs to act as such. If Jim had been talking on his mobile phone with his girlfriend and crashed into the sports car, then it would be clear that he would not have shown a sufficient duty of care, and might be regarded as either negligent or perhaps reckless. But this is not the case. In fact Jim was performing his duties as a professional driver admirably through trying to avoid the drunken pedestrian. Everything that occurred from that point on:- from the crash with the car, the nervous shock supposedly suffered by Elsie and her mother and the failure to buy the winning lottery ticket - came about because of this initial perfectly justifiable act upon the part of Jim. However, Elsie and her mother might have a case if it could be shown that the manner in which Jim avoided the pedestrian was negligent/reckless by the standards of a reasonable HGV driver. The facts that are given within the case do not show this was the case at all. For the sake of argument, let us assume that Jim did show

The philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke Assignment

The philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke - Assignment Example As a result, formation of a government with total power is necessary for men to coexist peacefully. Such a government is formed by people who transfer their liberty for safety. People obey the laws formed by the government, which stands between them and their state of chaos, and they do not have the right to overthrow the government (Ladenburg, 2007). On the contrary, Locke believes that people are born free with rights to dispose their properties. According to Locke, people form a government to protect their possessions, and they can regain their liberty if the government breaches the law of society. However, following the events that happened in Libya, Locke’s opinion is misguided. After Gaddafi’s fall in Libya, democracy has not yielded much. The country is controlled by armed militias, and the economy is deteriorating. Libya’s state under Gaddafi’s ‘authoritarian’ rule was better than the current ‘democratic’ rule. In conclusion, absolute democracy is unattainable in the presence of many people. Different people pursue different goals, which are likely to be conflicting, and this throws the society into a state of disorder. Human liberty needs to be controlled for a peaceful and progressive

Individual and Organizational Approaches to Manage Stress in the Essay - 1

Individual and Organizational Approaches to Manage Stress in the Workplace - Essay Example This paper illustrates that stress is a standard term which is used in the society to describe the feelings of a person who is under pressure, depression, or any kind of tension. Stress is not an injury or disease, so employees cannot claim compensation for the same unless and until stress results in physical injury. The mental injury that occurs due to work-related stress is known as psychological damage. The symptoms that are usually seen in such circumstances are anxiety, adjustment disorder, depression, and trauma. These injuries are compensable under the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act of 1988. In order to better explain the stress at a workplace and its effect on the well-being of an individual, the stress models would be scrutinized to comprehend the complex association between the stress at a workplace and its negative effects on the physical and psychological health of the employees. The Demand-control-support theory or model projected by Karasek suggests that th e increasing and decreasing demand may result in a negative outcome. This means the employees who have high demands at the workplace have less control over their work; therefore exposure to stress is high. Similarly, the employee whose demand is low is also stressed because he/she feels inferior to others. The revised theories in this model also state that in both the cases the probability or risk of illness is high due to social pressure. Similarly, Siegrist’s effort-reward imbalance model discloses the imbalance that lies between the effort of the employees and the rewards at the workplace. So the failure of an employee to receive reward or recognition at workplace also results in depression and anxiety. The Demand-control-support theory or model projected by Karasek and the Effort-reward imbalance model focus on the relationship between the work and health.

Identify and define and explain the different aspects to interpersonal Essay

Identify and define and explain the different aspects to interpersonal communication based on a Twilight Zone episode - Essay Example However, this is made clear in the end, as Marilyn, a girl who has her own mind, and who does not want the transformation, is nonetheless forced to transform, and her personality becomes exactly the same as her friend, Val, who had made the transformation earlier. The goal is to make everybody exactly the same. Why is this the reality in this universe? Professor Sig explains it. He states that the world suffered from a great deal of inequality, so the leaders of the world decided to do something about this. What they decided upon doing was that they would make everybody the same, and they would eliminate ugliness. The theory was that ugliness makes men hate, so, if nobody was ugly, then nobody would hate one another anymore. The unfortunate side effect is that the world becomes the same, and there is therefore not a place to dissent. As Marilyn pointed out, Dostoyevsky was an ugly man, yet he wrote about beautiful things. The implication is that Dostoyevsky could not exist in the pre sent world, because he wrote about things that would be abhorrent to the people in this sanitized world. The irony is that Marilyn, herself, appeared to be a girl who might have great ideas – she was intelligent and strong-willed. ... Marilyn had good feelings about her father, and she looked up to him. She told her uncle that she and her father used to talk about things that mattered in life. They used to talk about things that did not have to do with superficiality, which is what everybody is literally interested in after transformation. Their ideas transcended this, and the implication was that this kind of communication was only possible between people who had not transformed. So, this is what Marilyn feared, most of all - that she would lose the ability to coherently communicate after her transformation, because she understood that, after transformation, she would no longer have the ideas that she currently had. Her head would be filled with nothing but positivity and â€Å"liquid smiles,† and she apparently found this abhorrent. Not only was the ability to communicate important to Marilyn, the communication itself was important to her. She felt close to her father because she communicated with him. Sh e wanted to feel the same closeness with her mother, Lana, and her best friend, Val. She tried to communicate, in vain, with them about how she was feeling and why she was feeling the way that she was. However, it was clear that her communication with them, and all the others, including Dr. Rex, Dr. Sig, and Uncle Rick, that her communication with them was falling on deaf ears. None of them heard her – they were only hearing what they wanted to hear, and that was that transformation was good. Therefore, when she tried to communicate the idea that, for her, transformation was bad, they couldn't understand this, and they didn't hear her reasoning. While her need to communicate fulfilled her

Fast-Food Gone Bad Essay Example for Free

Fast-Food Gone Bad Essay An argument is an implicit dialogue that has importance to appeals. This is done by using different elements of an argument, in which the different parts are the claim (or thesis), the support, the evidence, the warrant, the appeals to the audience, and the counter argument that is being used in the scenario. In this essay that Michele Simon has wrote she examines the unhealthy choices of the some restaurants and explains on how they’re misleading the healthy people in the World. In Michele Simon’s â€Å"Even the ‘Healthy’ Choices at Fast Food Restaurants Are Unhealthy†, uses all of the parts and the elements of an argument in her essay. The first statement that Simon makes is â€Å"In response to sharpening criticism from nutrition advocates, fast-food franchises have added supposedly ‘healthy’ options to their menus† (Simon 473). This would be Simon’s claim, which would be the thesis statement of her argument. This is what the author or the person who wrote the situation is trying to tell you what they’re trying to answer or trying to prove in their argument. Arguments typically have three types of claims; claim of fact, claim of value, and claim of policy. In Simon’s argument her thesis is a claim of policy because she is trying to make a solution to figure out there problem and make it better so there can be something done about this or try to make better. We know there are many problems with fast food and Simon proves her argument by going on and saying different reasons for why this is true in her essay. The warrant is a belief or principle that can be assumed based on the argument. The warrant is never stated in great detail, and it must be drawn from statements made by the arguer. While it is not said by Simon her warrant is still clear and well understood. In Simon’s argument as implies that fast-food restaurants are not committed to the well being of their patrons (Simon). Also it is said that Simon thinks that fast-food restaurants are misleading to consumers who are trying to eat healthy. This also warrants that menu items are misleading and sometimes confusing for the consumer that is buying the product. The consumer could think that they were getting something healthier then a cheeseburger, but in all truth it’s actually worse than that cheeseburger. She must appeal to her audience in order to win the argument, by saying that a majority of fast-food restaurants are not telling the truth about their menu items and that there not healthy. The evidence is used to give strength to the argument and to prove the support for the claim. Many forms of evidence are found in examples, statistics, and expert is brought in to give valuable feedback on the argument. Simon provides many forms of evidence to back up her claim that she has possessed. In her first form of evidence she implies â€Å"The new Happy Meal option, which includes a sugar-loaded caramel dipping sauce† (Simon 473). She is implying that this idea is not much better then French fries because the caramel dipping sauce is full of sugar. Simon’s next problem was that she mentions â€Å"instead of a coke, kids can now have apple juice or milk† (Simon 475). This evidence Simon is trying to say that the apple juice and milk is still full of sugars and it’s still not good for your children. The next support of evidence for her claim is that she implies that â€Å"calling the chicken ‘crispy’ instead of fried is misleading† (Simon 474). She mentions that because if a person hears this that would automatically think that this is healthy salad. She is implying that is should just be called fried because so many people could get this confused. The logos support and evidence has support from multiple studies with facts and stats, given as evidence. Ethos supports from appeals to individuals in dealing with menu items and the choices on it. Pathos is used throughout her essay by giving thought to how unhealthy fast-food is. She mentions that â€Å"For a toddler who needs 1,000 calories per day, a Happy Meal consisting of four Chicken McNuggets, small French fries, and a low-fat chocolate milk totals 580 calories, or more than half of a child’s daily recommended calorie intake† (Simon 475). Simon is saying that no matter what you’re getting at a fast-food restaurant it’s going to be unhealthy for you, and your children. The counter argument Simon takes into consideration the argument opposing her claim, Simon doesn’t spend much time about a counter argument, but it is addressed in her essay. Simon grants â€Å"Go Active! Adult Happy Meal† (Simon 476). Which fell through and done away with because it didn’t work. Simon points out â€Å"In 2004 Ruby Tuesday reduced some portion sizes and added healthier items† (Simon 476). Another thing that Simon points out that was that â€Å"Wendy’s garnered great press in February 2005 for its ‘bold’ decision to add fresh fruit to its menu† (Simon 476). Simon has all of these examples for the counter argument that the fast-food industry is getting somewhat better. In conclusion there are many parts of an argument, and Simon uses all of these parts to successfully get her argument across effectively. She makes her claim, and then backs it up with the right support and to make his claim even stronger. Then she successfully gets the warrant across which has great appeal to the audience and is needed to make the claim that much stronger. Then finally Simon uses her counter argument to address to her audience what has been happening in the years past to try and fix the problem. Works Cited Simon, Michele. Even the Healthy Choices at Fast-Food Restaurants Are Unhealthy. . 473-75. Print. Excerpt from The Purposeful Argument: A Practical Guide. Boston: Patricia Bostian, 2006. N. pag.

Psychological Basis Of Behavior Essay Example for Free

Psychological Basis Of Behavior Essay Until recently the causes of psychological disorders were not so clearly defined. Then advanced imaging techniques made it possible to see various areas of the brain and pinpoint areas that control behavior. It has been long known that the brain uses chemical messengers called neurotransmitters for signaling during its various processes. Advances in neuromedicine revealed that a lot of neurological and psychological disorders have a basis in imbalances between various neurotransmitters in the brain. Diseases like Parkinson’s, Schizophrenia and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder are only a few where administering drugs that controlled levels of various neurotransmitters in the brain could control the disease symptoms and in some cases even provide a cure. Indeed, it was the discovery of these pharmacological agents that led to the discovery of newer agents that could control various neurological disorders by manipulating levels of neurotransmitters. Development of various drugs for schizophrenia was done on the basis of the fact that they had the ability to block dopamine receptors. In addition it was noticed that there was also an increased number of dopamine receptors present in these patients1. Similarly, in patients who suffered form Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) an abnormality in the neurotransmitter serotonin was implicated and it was shown that drug therapy that did not affect 5-HT receptors was ineffective in the treatment of OCD6. Parkinson’s disease like schizophrenia also is due to an abnormality in dopamine levels but in Parkinson’s dopamine levels become depleted4. Parkinson’s disease is a movement disorder caused by the depletion of dopamine produced in the substantia nigra, a part of the brain that is responsible for voluntary movements of the body11. Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease that affects 1% of the population. Its pathophysiology involves degeneration of substantia nigra. This portion is responsible for movements in the body. Various hypotheses have been proposed concerning the causes of the disease and include genetic factors, environmental factors and viruses. Amongst these genetic factors are considered the most important and mutations in various genes have been identified that are linked to Parkinson’s disease. Genes that have been implicated are PINK-1, DJ-1, and LRRK2 and it is thought that in addition to hereditary viruses and toxins are thought to cause theses mutations4. Parkinson’s disease is characterized by a fine pin-rolling tremor of the hands, rigidity, bradykinesia, an expressionless face called a mask like face and a parkinsonian gait characterized by small steps and reduced swing of the arms. Additional symptoms may be present and include difficulty in chewing and swallowing, depression, fatigue, dementia, speech problems, constipation, urinary problems and orthostatic hypotension7. Symptoms vary from patient to patient and can also have drastic emotional consequences for the patient. Diagnosis is often difficult as there are no tests available and is usually made on history and examination of the nervous system. Various treatment options are available and are mainly aimed at increasing the levels of dopamine in the brain. These include Levodopa, which is a precursor of dopamine and the nerve cells use synthesize dopamine. Other drugs like bromocriptine, apomorphine and pramipexole act by imitating the activity of dopamine4. There is no definitive cure for this disease and the treatment is only symptomatic. Adjuvant therapy may be given to relieve symptoms such as depression. Schizophrenia is another disorder that is caused by an imbalance between dopamine levels. The difference is that high levels of dopamine are found and the disease has mainly psychiatric manifestations. The cause of schizophrenia still remains unknown and this has been hampered largely by the different subtypes of the disease presenting a large variety of symptoms and involving different areas of the brain. It is also a feature of diseases like Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s disease9. Schizophrenia is characterized by auditory and visual hallucinations, delusions in which the patient thinks that his thoughts are being controlled externally and paranoid behavior believing someone is poisoning him, disorders of movement, cognitive dysfunction and emotional symptoms such as lack of interest in surroundings and social withdrawal2. Newer research has suggested that people with schizophrenia may experience an inability to smell certain items suggesting a disorder in the orbitofrontal region of the brain and surprisingly this sensory deficit has also been found in patients with Parkinson’s disease10. Other studies indicate that abnormalities in the amygdalia a region of the brain dealing with psychological processes may cause schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders8. Though the cause is still doubtful it has been seen that schizophrenia runs in families thus suggesting a genetic factor. Environmental factors and trauma during birth have also been suggested as causative factors. In the past agents used to treat schizophrenia like chlorpromazine and haloperidol blocked both D1 and D2 receptors and caused extra pyramidal side effects2. But the newer agents like clozapine have a high affinity for D1 receptors and thus do not cause unwanted extrapyramidal side effects. Other agents that have fewer side effects are risperidone and olanzepine and are very effective in controlling symptoms. All of these agents act by reducing levels of dopamine in the brain thus enabling the control of symptoms. The genetic predisposition to schizophrenia is now widely known. Family history of mental ailments such as schizoaffective disorders, bipolar disorders and depression, are a very strong indication and predisposition to developing schizophrenia. However, complex researches in the pattern of schizophrenic disorders among monozygotic twins have not been able to establish the full authenticity of the claim. The scientists claim that schizophrenia has been associated with the â€Å"shy gene† or 5-HTT gene. Currently, having a schizophrenic geneticity is only the first link; further development is dependant on other factors as well. (Schizophrenia. com, 2007)12 Many claim that there exists a link between schizophrenia and the environment. This is based on the fact that increased risk of schizophrenia within families cannot be singly attributed to the cause of it alone. The environmental factors that are thought to play an important role in causing schizophrenia include psychosocial, biological and physical factors, which are in effect from birth till maturity. It is now claimed that the interaction of the genetic and the social or environmental factors are very important in the development of disease in schizophrenic patients. (Tsuang, 2001) Many of the environmental effects that come into play do so in preterm and in early childhood. The highest contribution seems to be the state of labor, for example, hypoxia, CNS damage RH incompatibility of the mother and child etc. Also, other prenatal factors may include maternal depression, bereavement and flood and famine. Rubella infections and infections of the CNS are also thought to play a very important role in the development of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia. com, 2007)12 Obsessive-compulsive disorder is another psychiatric disorder that has at its cause an imbalance between neurotransmitters. In this case the neurotransmitter is serotonin. The areas of the brain thought to be involved in this disorder are the basal ganglia and the frontal lobe6. People with OCD have obsessional thoughts and t he compulsion to carry out those thoughts repeatedly3. Patients often have an awareness of their abnormal thought patterns and are distressed by them but are unable to control them. Common symptoms are patients exhibiting rituals and having unwanted thoughts and behavior patterns. Patients may have unwanted thoughts of a fear of germs or hurting someone called an obsession and compulsions are the acts of carrying out those obsessional thoughts like repeatedly washing and cleaning or repeatedly counting or checking things over and over again3. Sometimes it manifests in conjunction with other psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia and depression. It often resolves when these disorders are treated. It has also been seen with diseases like Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s chorea6. This disorder usually starts in adolescence and the patient is usually aware that he has some psychiatric ailment. The etiology is uncertain but Obsessive-compulsive disorder also has a genetic component. Though environmental factors are also a major cause, head trauma has also been implicated in certain cases6. Various treatment options are available including behavioral therapy. Drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors act by delaying the uptake of serotonin into the neuron and thus prolonging it’s action. This controls the deficiency of serotonin thought to be involved in causing obsessional symptoms. Drugs that are being used include fluoxetine, sertraline, fluvoxamine, paroxetine and clomipramine. Drug therapy used to treat other anxiety disorders is not effective in obsessive-compulsive disorder since it may not target the 5-HT receptors that are used by serotonin. Adams et al (2005)14 reported an up-regulation of serotonin receptors in caudate nuclei of OCD patients. Administration of SSRI drugs was tested in OCD patients. When untreated patients were compared with healthy normal individuals, it was found that cerebral 5-HT (2A) receptors binding were high in these patients. However, this difference was diminished when SSRI drug was administered to the patients. Different studies have reported that 5-HT reuptake inhibitors (SRIs) are most successful in treatment of OCD (Mansari Blier, 2006). This suggests serotonin depletion may be a vital cause of this disease. Normally, serotonin is actively involved in moderating flow of messages from orbital frontal cortex to thalamus via caudate nucleus. Various pharmacological studies have suggested 5-HT concentration in OFC is regulated by 5HT2 like receptors. SRI drugs modify 5-HT receptors regulation of serotonin and hence mostly used in treatment of OCD (Mansari Blier, 2006)15. Delgado and Moreno (1998)16 also reported that these drugs binding potency is related to hallucinogens. Pitterger et al (2006) reported that drugs that reduce elevated glutamate levels in brain might be effective in treatment of OCD. Pitterger et al (2006)17 suggested antiglutamatergic agent riluzole (Rilutek) play vital role in reducing glutamate hyperactivity in the cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical circuitry. Conclusion Overall a link has been found among various mental illnesses. This is evident by the fact that obsessive-compulsive disorder may be present in people who already have Schizophrenia or Parkinson’s disease. This overlap suggests that similar areas of the brain are involved in the etiology of these diseases and also that similar neurotransmitters may also be involved. Also interesting is the similarity in the deficiency in the sense of smell in both Parkinson’s and schizophrenia. As research progresses and advanced neuroimaging techniques become available it will become possible to interlink these diseases to one another. Special areas of interest may be the basal ganglia and the amygdalia as they are seen involved in a variety of neurological disorders. Parkinsons disease is a neurological disease, having a progressive nature. There are certain peculiar signs and symptoms that a Parkinson patient presents with; these include tremor, rigidity, akinesia or bradykinesia. Etiologically, Parkinsons disease is found in 1% of the population above 60 years of age. The ratio increases in people above 70 years of age. Although, also found in women, predominantly affects male gender. The role of environment in causing Parkinsonism is worth mentioning. Carbon mono-oxide and manganese, apart from certain pesticides play the major role in causing the disease. Parkinsonism among old aged people is idiopathic, but familial inheritance can be possible. A lot is not known about the role of genetics and inheritance of this disease, but occurrence in younger ages carries a higher probability of familial inheritance. It has been found that schizophrenia and Parkinson disease may share similarity by showing dysfunction of the prefrontal cortical areas of the brain. Also, both these conditions are the result or excess of deficiency of the levels of dopamine, which in turn dictates the treatment plan for such conditions. Similarly, patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease may show the presence of obsessive compulsive disorders, and the severity depends upon the length of the disease progression. The relation between these three conditions presenting in close relation with each other raise many questions about the progress of each disease, and whether treatments of each condition contain treatments for others as well. (Maia, 2003)13

Strategic Analysis of Tesco for UK and US Markets

Strategic Analysis of Tesco for UK and US Markets Brief background As the Tesco used the corporate strategy like diversification, it has begun its Tesco bank and Tesco hope its bank could offer mortgages for its customers, also Tesco has buy a restaurant in UK. Although Tescos supermarket has taken the biggest market share in the UK market, but it is decrease in 2012-2013. So this means the Tescos business met problem in the UK market. One of the major challenge for Tesco was that the discovery of equine DNA in beef and other meat products throughout the UK industry. So the Tesco should do some change on its business strategy in the UK market. As the biggest retailer in the world, these years Tesco met some problem as its expanded market, such as the Japan market and the U.S market. In the US market, Tesco named their store a new name fresh easy. As the Tesco makes wrong strategy in US market, its entry mode is FDI, this makes Tesco pay a lot of money on the distribution build and on the store design. Also Tesco do not localization on the US market, thus it failed in the US market. Tesco should learn something new about how to expand its foreign market, such as localization and choose a right entry model to entry foreign market. As Tescos annual report(2012) has said that Tesco is one of the worlds largest retailers with operations in 14 countries. But its business met some problems in recently years. As it has entry the US market for several years, US market does not make any profit. Also in the UK market, Tescos supermarket face the problem of the reducing market share. Aim and objectives The aim of study is to assess the Tesco strategic choosing and if they using right or wrong strategic. The objectives are to: Provide a general overview of the Tesco business running in the US and UK. Analyze the business environment in the US and UK Analyze the retail market environment in the US market Identify and assess the Tesco value chain in the US retail market Identify what problems Tesco has meet on its business in recent years. Identify if Tesco face finance problem when its entry the US retail market and after entry the US market, if the Tesco has problem with cash flow or something else in finance. Research questions What is the Tesco advantage in the UK? It is can be keep in other countries market? What kind of strategy that Tesco using recent years, how it’s working? Did Tesco choose right strategy in the US market? After entry US market, when Tesco has nonprofits in the first year, what kind of decision that Tesco has made and how it influence its business. MNEs how to avoid failed or reduce its lost in the new market. Likely source of literature The conduct this research there are three types of literature sources will be used to discussion of the topic. Including primary literature sources, secondary literature sources and reference guides (Naoum,2013) Primary literature sources: the first-hand testimony or direct evidence. Includes academic research journal, refereed conferences, and reports. Secondary literature sources are cite from the primary sources, for example textbooks, newspaper articles, and magazine and construction news. Reference guides are useful for find out the basic questions quickly, such as dictionaries and handbooks. Literature sources Research methodology Research strategy Source of Data The source of data will be collected mainly from Tesco annual report, newspaper, academic journal article and academic report which based relevant with Tesco Plc. Also some finance detail will get from e-databases of uclan library website. Data collection Data will be collection from the literature directly. Methods of Data analysis Wolcott (1994) stated that methods of data analysis are used to describe facts, highlight useful information, detect patters, develop explanations and test hypotheses. Among several of data analysis methods, content analysis, typology and taxonomy as well as descriptive statistics will be used. Typology and taxonomy method is used to analyze the qualitative data. It can identify different kinds of data, thus forming sub-groups with the general construction project risk category. It can also clarify the relationship between the concepts. Descriptive statistics is a summary to describe the basic features of the data in a study. It helps ones to simply large amounts of data in a sensible way. Content analysis is a method for summarizing any form of content by counting various aspects of the content. It is useful to analyze and understand the collections of text(Strauss and Corbin,1990). references