English Essay – Indian Camp

English Essay – Indian Camp The transition from child to adult can be a rough process. At times a radical experience has to occur for the change to happen. A meeting with the basic conditions of life, and with that the circle of life, can in many cases be a trigger for the transition from boy to man. In this short story the transition is linked to the dichotomy between civilisation and nature, civilisation dominating nature. In the short story â€Å"Indian Camp† by Ernest Hemingway, there is a case where a boy meets a natural environment.The result is that a feeling of superiority towards nature is created. The author of the text focuses on what impact seeing life and death can have on a child’s mind. The meeting with life and death is seen as a contributor to gaining adulthood. The author portrays a boy’s development as resulting from a strong experience. The short story is structured as a fairy tale with a home-out-home structure. With that is meant that he starts in a comfortable place and then goes on a journey and then returns. In the text the comfortable place is the boat and the journey is to the island were the Indians live.In that way Nick starts out as one person, and after the journey learns something that makes him a different person. In a way the structure underlines the theme, because it helps you focusing on the change. The boy named Nick starts his development toward adulthood in the text. He begins as a fragile boy who depends on his father and ends up as an independent and confident young man. The transition can be seen in many differences in Nick in the start and the ending of the text. In the beginning he relies on the support of his father where in the end he is fine by himself. â€Å"Nick lay back with his father’s arm around him. †¦. â€Å"They were seated in the boat. Nick in the stern, his father rowing† In the short story Nick comes to terms with the circle of life. He experiences both li fe and death, which makes him grow up. To understand life you need to have seen death. In addition to that, Nick also gets the picture of civilisation dominating nature. That is shown through the father who actually changes the course of two persons’ lives. The Indian woman and the unborn child would have died if it had not been for his father. Therefore his father acquires a godlike status, which leads to the ambiguous ending: He felt quite sure that he would never die† It is not clear whether â€Å"he† refers to Nick or to the father. It might be both of them, assuming that Nick has understood how you can dominate nature. As previously mentioned, the ending reveals some changes between before and after the experience. The ending shows that Nick develops an understanding of life and death. A difference in the environment is that they arrive in the evening and return in the morning. It can be interpreted as if the evening represents the ending of his childhood an d the morning the start of his adulthood.Also, the night is related to nature, and with that the events in the Indian camp. When the sun rises and the light breaks through they return to civilisation. In that way civilisation is linked to light. The night and day theme underlines the change from a naive boy’s lack of understanding to a young man coming to terms with the basics of life and civilisation. In addition, we see a change in the environment. It starts off as gloomy and finishes as something harmonious. â€Å"The two boats started off in the dark. Nick heard the oarlocks of the other boat quite a way ahead of them in the mist. †¦. â€Å" The sun was coming up over the hills. A bass jumped, making a circle in the water. † The change in the environment is an indicator of what lies ahead. The evening environment symbolises death and the unknown. The morning represents an entrance to adulthood. The bass making a circle in the water is a symbol of the circle o f life. Nick sees the circle in the end of the text, and that is sign of him now having seen and possibly understood life and death. â€Å"A bass jumped, making a circle in the water. † The circle of life is depicted in two ways.On the one hand, the baby’s birth and the dad’s death form parts of the circle of life. When someone is born somebody else dies. On the other hand we see that when the baby enters the world, and with that the early stages of life, Nick leaves the early stages of life. This means that the circle also says that when somebody enters a new stage of life somebody else leaves it, exemplified by the new-born baby and Nick. The short story is set among the â€Å"savages†, which is a perfect place to understand the natural order of life. It takes place in an Indian village and in that way shows nature as pure as it is.The transition from boy to man, and with that the understanding of life, has to be seen in an environment that underlines t he basic conditions of life. With that the author actually says that to understand how nature functions you have to leave the normal civilised life. To sum up, the author manages to describe the transition from boy to man as a result of meeting the circle of life. Furthermore, he problematizes civilised society and thus shows that you cannot understand the true nature of civilisation without seeing its opposite; nature. English Essay – Indian Camp English Essay – Indian Camp The transition from child to adult can be a rough process. At times a radical experience has to occur for the change to happen. A meeting with the basic conditions of life, and with that the circle of life, can in many cases be a trigger for the transition from boy to man. In this short story the transition is linked to the dichotomy between civilisation and nature, civilisation dominating nature. In the short story â€Å"Indian Camp† by Ernest Hemingway, there is a case where a boy meets a natural environment.The result is that a feeling of superiority towards nature is created. The author of the text focuses on what impact seeing life and death can have on a child’s mind. The meeting with life and death is seen as a contributor to gaining adulthood. The author portrays a boy’s development as resulting from a strong experience. The short story is structured as a fairy tale with a home-out-home structure. With that is meant that he starts in a comfortable place and then goes on a journey and then returns. In the text the comfortable place is the boat and the journey is to the island were the Indians live.In that way Nick starts out as one person, and after the journey learns something that makes him a different person. In a way the structure underlines the theme, because it helps you focusing on the change. The boy named Nick starts his development toward adulthood in the text. He begins as a fragile boy who depends on his father and ends up as an independent and confident young man. The transition can be seen in many differences in Nick in the start and the ending of the text. In the beginning he relies on the support of his father where in the end he is fine by himself. â€Å"Nick lay back with his father’s arm around him. †¦. â€Å"They were seated in the boat. Nick in the stern, his father rowing† In the short story Nick comes to terms with the circle of life. He experiences both li fe and death, which makes him grow up. To understand life you need to have seen death. In addition to that, Nick also gets the picture of civilisation dominating nature. That is shown through the father who actually changes the course of two persons’ lives. The Indian woman and the unborn child would have died if it had not been for his father. Therefore his father acquires a godlike status, which leads to the ambiguous ending: He felt quite sure that he would never die† It is not clear whether â€Å"he† refers to Nick or to the father. It might be both of them, assuming that Nick has understood how you can dominate nature. As previously mentioned, the ending reveals some changes between before and after the experience. The ending shows that Nick develops an understanding of life and death. A difference in the environment is that they arrive in the evening and return in the morning. It can be interpreted as if the evening represents the ending of his childhood an d the morning the start of his adulthood.Also, the night is related to nature, and with that the events in the Indian camp. When the sun rises and the light breaks through they return to civilisation. In that way civilisation is linked to light. The night and day theme underlines the change from a naive boy’s lack of understanding to a young man coming to terms with the basics of life and civilisation. In addition, we see a change in the environment. It starts off as gloomy and finishes as something harmonious. â€Å"The two boats started off in the dark. Nick heard the oarlocks of the other boat quite a way ahead of them in the mist. †¦. â€Å" The sun was coming up over the hills. A bass jumped, making a circle in the water. † The change in the environment is an indicator of what lies ahead. The evening environment symbolises death and the unknown. The morning represents an entrance to adulthood. The bass making a circle in the water is a symbol of the circle o f life. Nick sees the circle in the end of the text, and that is sign of him now having seen and possibly understood life and death. â€Å"A bass jumped, making a circle in the water. † The circle of life is depicted in two ways.On the one hand, the baby’s birth and the dad’s death form parts of the circle of life. When someone is born somebody else dies. On the other hand we see that when the baby enters the world, and with that the early stages of life, Nick leaves the early stages of life. This means that the circle also says that when somebody enters a new stage of life somebody else leaves it, exemplified by the new-born baby and Nick. The short story is set among the â€Å"savages†, which is a perfect place to understand the natural order of life. It takes place in an Indian village and in that way shows nature as pure as it is.The transition from boy to man, and with that the understanding of life, has to be seen in an environment that underlines t he basic conditions of life. With that the author actually says that to understand how nature functions you have to leave the normal civilised life. To sum up, the author manages to describe the transition from boy to man as a result of meeting the circle of life. Furthermore, he problematizes civilised society and thus shows that you cannot understand the true nature of civilisation without seeing its opposite; nature.

Metabolic Race Essay

GREAT METABOLIC CHALLENGE Metabolism is a series of vital biochemical processes that take place in order to sustain life. During a marathon run, the individual relies on the breakdown of carbohydrates and lipids, in order to provide energy release in the form of Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP). This essay will focus on the role of mobilization and structures of both carbohydrates and lipids in the production of ATP. Mobilization of Carbohydrates When carbohydrates are consumed during a meal, catabolism originates in the mouth. The salivary enzyme ÃŽ ±-amylase breaks down the carbohydrates through the hydrolysis of the ÃŽ ±1->4 glycosidic bonds. This is followed by the further breakdown of the complex polysaccharides in the small intestine down to monosaccharides units in order for the glucose to be absorbed directly into the bloodstream. Mobilization of Lipids Lipids in the form of triaglycerols are a major source of energy storage. Initially, the lipids are absorbed in the small intestine through emulsification into small droplets by bile salts; thus forming mixed micelles. During low blood sugar levels, the secretion of glucagon and adrenalin hormones activates the release of the enzyme triacylglycerol lipase, which subsequently stimulates the release of fatty acids in adipocytes. The blood protein serum albumin then transports the fatty acid through the bloodstream to tissue such as the renal cortex, heart and skeletal muscle in order to provide energy through ÃŽ ²-oxidation. Provision of energy during race On your mark At the beginning of the race, internal energy laws determine in which direction and to what extent each metabolic reaction will proceed. According to this system, when the Gibbs Free Energy (ΔG) is negative, a spontaneous forward reaction is proceeding towards equilibrium thus resulting in the formation of products from reactants. During this marathon, ATP is the energy currency during the breakdown of macromolecules, more specifically  the breakdown carbohydrates and lipids in this case. Furthermore ATP will be necessary for muscular movement and the transport of solutes across biological membranes. 5 minutes After 5 minutes into the marathon, majority of the energy is being supplied by carbohydrates (85%) specifically glycogen that is stored in skeletal muscle and liver; in comparison to a mere 15% of lipid utilization. At this early stage of the race, the ten-step process of glycolysis is starting to take place; in which pyruvate is being formed from glucose. In the first half of this process known as the preparatory phase, there is a debt of two ATP molecules. However this is recovered in the payoff phase in which 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate is oxidized and phosphorylated to form 3-phosphoglycerate, with the production of four ATP molecules; thus providing a net yield of 2 ATP molecules. 30 minutes Half way through the race, the citric acid cycle predominates in the oxidation of carbohydrates and lipids in order to supply energy. At this stage, half of the runner’s energy needs are being supplied by carbohydrates while the other half is being met by lipids. Within the mitochondria of the cell, 45 minutes As the race is nearing the end, most of the energy is being supplied through the catabolism of fats from storages in adipose tissue.

Buddha Essays - Gautama Buddha, Arahants, Ascetics, Buddhas

Buddha Chris This report will be about the life of Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, and his influences on the people around him. It will explain how the religion of Buddhism came about and how the Buddha created it. It will also include not only what influenced Buddha to start preaching, but what influenced the people to listen. Prince Siddhartha Gautama, who would later be known as Buddha, was born in Lumbini, Nepal around the year 563 BC. He was the son of two important great people. Siddhartha?s father?s name was Shuddhodana, the King of the Sakyas. His mother, Queen Maya, was a lady ?of perfect form and bee-black tresses, fearless in heart and full of grace and virtue.? Siddhartha got his name from one of his mother?s dreams. Her dream was that an elephant with 6 tusks, carrying a lotus flower in its trunk, touched the right side of Queen Maya?s body. That was when Siddhartha was miraculously conceived. When she told her husband about her dream, he called Brahmins, or learned men to interpret it. They predicted that the child one-day would be the greatest king in the world or the greatest ascetic in the world. So that?s why they called him Siddhartha, meaning ?he whose aim is accomplished.? When Siddhartha was about 20 years old he married Yasodhara, who was the daughter of one of the King?s ministers. S iddhartha and his new wife had a child a year after they got married. They called their son Rahula, which means ?impediment.? Nine years later Siddhartha asked his charioteer to take him for a ride throughout the city. While riding he saw three things he had never seen before. One was an elder man, another was a man suffering from illness, and finally he saw a dead body surrounded by mourners. Since he had never seen anything like that before he asked his charioteer, Channa, what was wrong. He responded and told the Prince that these things were natural and unavoidable, that happen to all kinds of people. ?Everything is transient; nothing in permanent in this world?.Knowing that, I can find delight in nothing?How can a man, who knows that death is quite inevitable, still feel greed in his heart, enjoy the world of senses and not weep in this great danger Once again Siddhartha asked Channa to take him out into the city again and this time he was to see the last of four images that would change his life forever. The last sight he saw was a wandering old holy man with no possessions. His head was completely sh aved and he was wearing a yellow robe. The Prince stopped and talked to him. The holy man said some inspiring words to the Prince. When Siddhartha got home that night he kissed his family goodbye and ordered his charioteer to take him out of the city. When he came to the edge of a forest he got rid of his prized possessions, shaved his head and beard, put on the yellow robe of the old man, and gave his clothes and jewelry to Channa and told him to bring it back to his father. According to legend he left his family and wealth to find the cause of human misery. Next Siddhathra traveled throughout the northeastern portion of India, seeking out holy men, who taught him ancient Indian techniques of meditation. Even though meditation was important to him, his main quest was to find the answer to the problem of suffering. He wanted to know why they were suffering and how this suffering could stop. So Siddhartha studied the teachings of Hinduism. He was very fascinated by the belief of reincarnation or Samsara. This was the belief of the soul, after death, would travel to a new body-being born again. Depending on the person?s previous life, its soul could enter a body of higher or lower state of existence. The determining factor of a soul?s new existence is how the person lived his last life. This is called Karma. Siddhartha found this very interesting, so he adopted a life of self-denial and penance?s, meditating constantly. After many other complications, like fasting for several years, Siddhartha was enlightened. The experience of enlightenment was really the

Analysis of the Theme for English B Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Analysis of the Theme for English B - Essay Example In similar situation where blacks were discriminated to a great extent, Hughes kept his spirit high for studying in good academic institutes, and moving on, and presently is studying in a college where all his fellows are white, and he is the only black in his class. The poet describes a day where the instructor asked the class to write a page on what the inner feel of the students is, as stated in the stanza as below: This is a clear depiction of how open ended the question was from the instructor, trying to understand what the students felt, and thought and to see their insight on things. The writer always had strong feelings about the issues related to racism, and therefore, had no option but to write on the same topic; the discriminatory feeling and the thoughts, all came out on that single paper, where by the writer illustrated the ideas associated with discrimination, feelings, experience, grudges, and finally, realizing the fact of equality. In clear terms, the writer stated that America is about equality to all, and no matter how much is disliked by black and/or the white, they are a part of each other since they are part of America. Towards the end, in a sorrow tone, the writer states that yesno matter how harsh it is but the fact remains that whites do have an edge over the blacks as he states: I guess you learn from me--- although you're older---and white--- and somewhat more free. 3. Research Question The underlying research questions for this analysis are as follows: i. What tone has been used in the poem and how is it justified ii. What role does the persona's sense of his race play in what he has to say about his paper iii. How does this persona seem to feel about education in general 4. Methodology The methodology adapted for this research includes primary and secondary research. Primary research constitutes reading the original poem and coming up with analysis of what I feel the writer is stating. Secondary research, on the contrary, implies that the existing research about the subject matter is studied, like books and articles. 5. Analysis & Discussion This section presents in-depth analysis and discussion about the poem. 5.1 A Generic Analysis of the Poem In Hughes' poem under consideration for this research, i.e. Theme for English B. there is heavy weight-age assigned to elements of literature such as the characters, the plot, the tone, symbolic representations, themes, view points, and the scenario set-up. The plot seems highly structured as it provides in depth background details, and is seamlessly associated to the scenario described as stated by the poet: "I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem. I went to school there, then Durham, then here to this college on the hill above Harlem." This is a clear indication of the time period and the growing mode as the time moves on. The scenario setting initiates similar to the scenario whereby a student is direct to go

An analysis of the movie Somewhere between Essay

An analysis of the movie Somewhere between - Essay Example An analysis of the movie "Somewhere between" Jenni is 14 years old and she lives in Berkeley California. She was adopted at age five she speaks mandarin she knows she’s a stranger to either country. Jenna cook is 15 years old lives in Massachusetts, Newburyport. She is an over achiever and a top student at an academy in New Hampshire. Butler is 13 years old, she lives in Tennessee Nashville and she has the ambition to be the first Chinese person to play in the grand ‘ole opry’. Ann Boccuti is 14 years of age and she lives in Pennsylvania, Lansdale. The girls are highly articulate, personable and self-aware as they know they belong to two adversely different cultures. The young women allow the viewers to grasp the experience of coming of age in America as trans-racial adoptees. Through these young women experiences and their exploration the viewers are able to consider themselves as individuals and as a nation of immigrant. The films structure weaves back and forth between the girls individual threads making it hard for the viewers to distinct and separate their narratives. The characters also had confusing names, Jenni and Jenna this gives the audience a hard time to follow and distinguish the two characters. It would have helped if the director had established the individual girls more firmly before moving back and forth in their threads.The directors should ensure that the lighting is sufficient to reveal the characters’ faces. This makes the movie more real and revealing.

Strategic Management Pharmaceutical Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Strategic Management Pharmaceutical - Essay Example Pfizer Inc. pays a special attention to the product mix and geographical location (Johnson, Scholes 1998). Pfizer Inc. follows two pathways: growth with the same products in the same markets and development of new products for the same markets. Pfizer Inc follows vertical-integration which allows the company to integrate upwards. Also, growth strategy involves HRM and resource location aimed to meet the highest industry requirements and customers' demands. It was stated above that marketing departments work more closely with R&D departments to ensure that the products which are developed are those which cater for the changing needs of target customers and different needs of varying customer segments. In recent years, high failure rates in the introduction of new products have led departments to be very risk averse, with most 'new' products emerging being merely extensions of existing product lines and not truly new and innovative offerings. Its best selling and innovative products in clude Lipitor, Diflucan, Zithromax, Viagra, Celebrex etc.

Intel in early 1990s Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Intel in early 1990s - Essay Example In this essay, let us examine some of these policies in early the 1990s that have made Intel the industry leader it is today and the organizational consequences they brought about. 1. Diversification: Due to intense invasion of the Japanese in the memory market, Intel decided to cut its losses and phase out its DRAM product. It shifted its focus to manufacturing of CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computer) processors with renewed vigor and this became Intel's largest source of revenue. It had also lined up secondary products like Flash memory and RISC(Reduced Instruction set Computer) processors. Intel began calling itself "The Microprocessor Company" .By pushing both its CISC and RISC technology, Intel hoped to maintain its dominance in processor market.(Dakota Hatch(October 2004). 2. Innovation: Innovation has always been Intel's ace in the sleeve .By its passionate pursuit of the latest and greatest in technology and futuristic vision, it has carved itself an undeniable place in the history of evolution of technology. The emergence of multimedia in the early 1990s signaled a new era of personal computing. Intel was up for the challenge. The Intel Pentium processor served as the engine of this multimedia revolution by making it easy for users to incorporate speech, sound, handwriting and photographic images. The Internet era of personal computing, debuted roughly halfway through the 1990s, marked by the mainstream deployment of Web browsers. The Intel Pentium II and Pentium III processors powered PCs through this pivotal stage of high tech evolution. (Intel Press Release).The Japanese tended to be the process technology leaders into each new smaller line width process generation. By the early 1990s, however, Intel found itself in the position of needing new p rocesses in advance of the DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) industry's needs or its willingness to invest in such processes. Intel had to learn to be a process technology leader and to develop systems whereby it could continue to improve process technology while accelerating its pace of product development. Intel crafted a brilliant 3DCE strategy that used product/process modularity to reduce significantly the complexity of the company's technical challenge: Throughout the 1990s, the company launched each new microprocessor generation on the "platform" of an old (linewidth) process. Alternately, each new process generation was launched with an "old" product technology. In no time, Intel's process technology was second to none .( Sean Osborne,1993). 3. Creation Of Intel Architecture lab in 1991: During the early 1990s, PC demand was poor because of the obsolescence of PC architecture and the non-willingness of PC industry leaders to advance system hardware along with the software. This lack of platform leadership in the industry had limited the scope of innovation at the system level. This was a serious issue for Intel because the microprocessor was a big growth industry and the fact that many companies had a say in PC design indicated that no single supplier could change the system by itself. To tackle the PC platform obsolescence problem and also

McDonald's Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

McDonald's - Assignment Example This led to the development of the current marketing strategy that addresses the 5 core areas. They changed the McDonald’s restaurants to accomplish updated, branded and more natural dining environment. They added more natural foods such as salads, carrot sticks, fruits and healthier drinks with real ingredients. In as much as the Company has taken up this marketing strategy, there is a more serious challenge. First, the baby boomer trend that propelled the company to success is nonexistent. This is because they now watch their calories more than they are concerned about convenience and speed. The brand of the company is also not associated with a healthy diet. The company can change the images used in advertisements from sodas and hamburgers to salads and other healthy items. In addition to that, they can acquire a company that is already branded with the new trends. Change in consumer preferences has seen McDonald’s face stiff competition from other corporations such as Panera Bread and Chipotle Mexican Grill that offer foods with fewer calories (Love, 2012). Customers are even willing to pay more in these places. However, McDonald’s still has a lot to offer especially in emerging new

Violence in the Media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Violence in the Media - Essay Example "Parental Choice in Television Programming" enumerates well-documented findings on the impact television exerts on a child's impressionable and partial experience, points out the underlying influence that the media exerts on daily family life, and observes that most children absorb up to twenty-five hours of television in a week or even as much as eleven hours a day. The law affirms that comprehensive research has found that children exposed to explicit violence reveal more tendencies to aggressive attitudes as they mature than youngsters not exposed. The legislation notes that rightly-concerned parents ought to have firmer control over harmful material being channeled into their home, while the government has an equal interest in legislation discreetly regulating the accessibility of programs that can be detrimental to its youngest citizens. The legislation enacts measures for the creation of a Television Rating Code, (Sections (b) and (e)(1); and approves the policy that new televi sion sets be required to have content filters known as V-Chips to block violent material (Parental Choice in Television Programming). b) Court Decisions Related to the Topic: In its 1978 decision on the FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U.S. 726, the Supreme Court ruled that the media admittedly has taken on an intrusive pervasiveness in American life. Explicit and indecent matter reaches citizens over the airwaves in the very seclusion of the home where family privacy should reasonably prevail over the First Amendment civil liberties of outsiders. Through the incursion of the media into the home, adult material is abnormally available to children too young to grasp its full meaning. The facility with which the home has unhealthy exposure to television broadcasts fully warrants specific legislation on the handling of indecent programming with regard to children (FCC v. Pacifica Foundation). In keeping with this line of thought, the Federal Communications Commission has been actively supporting legislation to restrict explicitly violent (as well as indecent) material to the late evening hours, when the majority of children are likely not to be viewing the set (Labaton 2). Even though lower courts have rejected the suggestion that violence is equivalent to obscenity, the question has never been addressed by the Supreme Court (Greiner 1). If effective political action can move the Supreme Court to concur with the argument that violence merits an assessment equivalent to obscenity, legislation may meet the Supreme Court's standard of strict scrutiny and ensure that limits of the sale of graphic video games to children can be upheld as constitutional (Schatz 1). c) The Constitution relates to the topic in that The First Amendment, besides protecting artistic freedom of expression, basically reaffirms equal rights for society, parents and children in the matter. The First Amendment states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." What is at issue here is primarily the right of responsible citizens to petition the government for legislation to protect at-risk and immature young minds from callous exposure

Touching The Heart of Buddhas Teachings Term Paper

Touching The Heart of Buddhas Teachings - Term Paper Example Perhaps the best way to approach the core of Buddhism is to ask, first of all, what the word Buddhism means. Buddhism comes from the word Buddha, whose root word, budh simply means awake. The Buddha, whose root word, budh simply means awake. The Buddha, therefore, is simply one who is awake. In the Anguttara Nikaya, one of the major collections of Buddhist texts, we are told that a Brahmin (a Hindu priest) once encountered the Buddha and asked him a series of questions: â€Å"The Brahmin Dona saw the Buddha sitting under a tree and was impressed by his peaceful air of alertness and his good looks. He asked the Buddha: Are you a God? No, Brahmin, I am not a God. Then an angel? No, indeed, Brahmin. A spirit, then? No, I am not a spirit. Then what are you? I am awake.† (Bancroft 8). When the Buddha said that he was awake, what he implied was that he was once, like most of us, asleep. To be asleep is to be ignorant of our true nature. It means that there is so much about ourselves and the world that we do not understand. If we could only open our eyes and be awake, then we, too, can be Buddhas. This, in fact, is one of the central teachings of Buddhism: that each of us is a potential Buddha, that each of us has the seed of enlightenment. All we need to do is to work at it. All we need to do is to nurture the seed of enlightenment. This brings us to the life story of Buddha. What are the key elements of Buddha’s life story? Why are they so important? What do these teachings tell us? These are among the questions that I shall address in this paper. The Buddha was born around 560 B.C. in what is now Southern Nepal (Zukeran 1). He was Indian, and was born a prince. His name was Siddhartha. The story of his life starts right after he was born, when an astrologer came to the kingdom and predicted that Siddhartha would either become a great king or a great spiritual leader. When Siddhartha’s father heard this, the king made sure that Siddhartha would not be exposed to the difficulties of life. So the king surrounded Prince Siddhartha with all the possible pleasures one could possibly imagine, and he was not exposed to any difficulties or suffering whatsoever. However, the prince developed a great curiosity about the world outside the palace walls. When Siddhartha left the palace walls with this charioteer named Chandaka, he first noticed a bent, wrinkled old man. This was something he had never seen before. On another trip outside the palace walls, Siddhartha saw a man suffering from some kind of disease. On a third occasion , Siddhartha encountered a funeral procession and saw a dead body inside a box followed by crying relatives. He was horrified. On a fourth occasion, Siddhartha encountered a wandering mock who seemed very happy, serene, and contented. When he asked Chandaka who this person was, Chandaka said: â€Å"this is a holy man who has renounced worldly life and entered upon a life of homelessness† (Kohn 11). These key events are what led Siddhartha to a deep realization: that everything is ravaged by time; that we don’t live forever; and that life, at its very root, is filled with suffering. These facts motivated Siddhartha to look for a cure for suffering. In doing so, he vowed to continue sitting in meditation until he found the solution to the problem of suffering. One day, Siddhartha attained enlightenment. During this enlightenment, he was finally able to discover the cure that he was seeking. At first, he thought that he could not teach what he had discovered, since what h e had discovered seemed so profound. But he got up from under the tree, and met a few friends who had deserted him. It is to these friends that he gave his first sermon – the four noble truths. This is where Buddha’s life story becomes significant. The four noble truths are the foundational teachings of Buddhism. These teachings tell us that first, human existence is characterized by suffering. Second, that there

Political Realism Essay Example for Free

Political Realism Essay According to realists, the conduct of international leaders differs very little from the conduct of a leader of a criminal organization. Realists’ underlying assumption, i. e. that the international system is in the condition of perpetual anarchy, is close to how crime bosses perceive the neverending competition between different gangs, clans or â€Å"crime families†, like the one Tony Soprano heads. Just like in relations between competing crews or between criminals and the government, no progress towards lasting peace is possible in international relations. International relations are by definition conflictual, unlike domestic matters of a state, since there is no supreme authority over sovereign subject which would possess monopoly on force similar to the one a state has on its territory. Conflicts in international relations, according to realists, are always resolved by the use of force. Here the analogy of Tony Soprano is particularly applicable, since he has killed at least eight people. Similarly, power in international relations, according to realists, is associated with military superiority and ability to defeat enemies. Crime families pursue their own interests using resources they command, but they are well aware of resources and capabilities of their competitors. The same way states in international relations make calculations of their power and interests vs. power and interests of their rivals. Therefore, intelligence information (everything that can be used against competitors) is equally valuable in international relations and criminal activity. Peace and stability is only possible when a durable balance of power exists that reflects actual standing of great powers on the international arena. The same happens in the criminal world. Although gangs and crime families have no moral obligations towards each other, they can sometimes cooperate against a common enemy (states on their part form international alliances). Balance of power among criminal organizations is of a paramount importance for peace and quiet in a city or neighborhood. As Sullivan (2000) informs, criminal groups sustain â€Å"spatial or economic spheres of influence – ‘turf’ or ‘markets’† (p. 86). The states act the same way when they perceive certain regions of the world as their spheres of influence. For the U. S. , the Middle East is a region of strategic importance, as its enduring military presence there clearly indicates. Similarly, Russia â€Å"is treating the former Soviet republics as a priority†¦in an effort both to obtain lucrative assets and to enhance its political influence† (Trenin 2006, p. 91). Realists also believe that there is a difference between private and political morality: for the public and private spheres, there should be different codes of ethical conduct, and some actions inacceptable in private morality terms can be indispensable in politics. This argument can be perhaps extended further to state that different ethical codes are applied to domestic matters and international relations: some actions that would be deemed inacceptable by domestic publics are carried out in or against foreign states, sometimes with the approval of the population at home. Here, an interesting example is the involvement of Henry Kissinger in the uprooting of Allende’s democratic regime in Chile. While it would be a plausible to assume Kissinger believed that democracy served the interests of American people (since he hasn’t made attempts to subvert the public order), he has been reported to comment on the Chilean election of socialist Alllende in the following way: â€Å"The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves† (cited in Zarembka 2006, p. ix). He has in fact denied that Chileans had a right to elect their own leaders, while Americans could teach other countries about right and wrong. In everyday life, this would be referred to as hypocrisy; however, according to political realists, this is how politics is made on the daily basis. In a similar fashion, many crime bosses are good at maintaining two distinct sets of values, one to be applied to intra-organizational matters and another one for the rest of the world. Inside their â€Å"crime family†, gangsters exhibit such qualities as loyalty, honesty, and nobility. All criminal organizations have a code of conduct that is strictly enforced, although such codes have little to do with morality and ethics in the conventional sense. That is why to the outside world, they appear as cruel, self-interested beasts. Similarly, political leaders have to maintain two sets of values: in their private affairs, they have to be an example of integrity and righteousness, as the scandal with Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky shows. Also, they have to be good to their electorates and even political rivals. However, in international relations, they are expected to defend vital interests of their country with determination and firmness. The Road to War This section will look into strange and unusual circumstances and events that lead to wars. The extent to which types of government and domestic publics have an impact on war proneness of states will be discussed. At a first glance, the recent U. S. attack of Iraq is an example of a war between a democracy and undemocratic country, so it is not particularly applicable for testing the democratic peace theory. In fact, the official reason for going to Iraq, as Scowcroft (2002) reports, was regime change: Saddam Hussein oppressed his own people and posed a threat to international security. It was exactly the undemocratic nature of Iraq that made it a tangible threat to the U. S. ; it was deemed that its democratization would automatically provide for peace. Saddam was portrayed as a leader that was impossible to deter by diplomatic means, sanctions, or the threat of force, therefore the invasion was deemed the only viable option for preventing Iraq from acquiring and deploying WMD (Mearsheimer Walt 2003). However, even before the actual deployment, there were forces in the foreign policy establishment calling for a more careful balancing of various U. S. interests at home and abroad. The war on Iraq, as Scowcroft (2002) then argued, would divert U. S. resources from other important pursuits such as the war on terror or resolution of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As the difficulties in Iraq have powerfully brought home, realism for the U. S. nowadays does not mean the use of force but rather refraining from it. The Bush doctrine implied going to war and falling out with allies for the sake of furthering American ideals (Rose 2005), on the aforementioned assumption that democratization is a necessary prerequisite for peace. This neoconservative line is sometimes referred to as â€Å"democratic transformationalism†, which is essentially liberal interventionism (Goldberg 2005). In his second term, however, Bush has been increasingly more inclined towards realism and looking out for actual American interests. To that end, he mended relations with Europe and returned to negotiating with rogue states (Rose 2005). This is in line with the need to balance one’s power and interests against those of other great powers. Such a change in orientation once again suggests that changes in leadership have a significant bearing on the war-proneness of a democratic state, a conclusion Elman (1997) has reached after analyzing the 1982 war between Israel and Lebanon. While no change of leadership has taken place in the U. S. , a change in President’s orientation and some reshuffle in the foreign policy establishment were responsible for the shift. While people like Henry Kissinger are vilified as amoral hypocrites, moralism in foreign policy has never led to anything good for the U. S. : Harry Truman was responsible for the Korean War, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson have initiated the Vietnam War, and Bill Clinton has presided over the Balkan conflict and a deterioration of relations with China. However, right- or left-wing moralists have almost always been succeeded by realists and foreign policy pragmatists who helped to clear the mess (Rose 2005). This mirrors the discussion by Postel (2004) of how democracy-spreading ambitions of George W. Bush worry American realists (together with libertarians and traditionalists). Realism’s main assumption is the primacy of state sovereignty, therefore an interference into the affairs of another state is only justified if an existential threat exists to one’s own country. Before that point is reached, â€Å"the internal organization of another country is [not] any of our business† (Goldberg 2005, para. 25). A far more important reason to worry about the spread of â€Å"democratic transformationalism† is the human and economic cost of it. As Johnson (2000) clearly shows, the U. S. is an overextended empire struggling to sustain its military commitments abroad, and â€Å"the people of the United States are neither militaristic enough nor rich enough to engage in the perpetual police actions, wars, and bailouts their government’s hegemonic policies will require† (p. 221). This argument suggests that populations at home ultimately have some say over foreign policy or at least over the economic cots of overseas military exercises. This point will be explored in greater detail further in this section. The supporters of â€Å"democratic transformationalism† think that the threat posed by Saddam at the turn of the century was the natural consequence of the limited nature of the U. S. intervention during the first Gulf War. Then the U. S. , in accordance with the U. N. mandate, focused on removal of Iraq from Kuwait and not the removal of Saddam from Iraq. Neoconservatives called it â€Å"an unfinished job†: the focus on stability instead of democratization has lead to the current mess, in their opinion (Goldberg 2005). Some commentators believe that the sole reason why the U. S. did not go to Iraq then was the â€Å"Vietnam syndrome† (Ferguson 2004). While historical evidence is mixed wit regard to the democratic peace theory (and therefore the feasibility of â€Å"democratic transformationalism†), it is too early to dismiss it as trivial. This theory might as well be applicable in the 21st century, even if it has failed for most of the 19th and 20th centuries, for two major reasons. First of all, with the advent of new technologies, the level of interconnectedness between peoples of the world has increased dramatically. Citizens of democratic states enjoy unrestricted access to the Internet and the ability to travel to other democratic countries, usually without a visa. Therefore, public opinion in a democratic country is unlikely to support a military action against another democratic country, since there are personal ties between citizens of both, or the consumption of cultural products from another country (e. g. French cinema or Danish design) has created an emotional attachment to a foreign land. The EU can be held up as a prime example. The European continent has been at war for most of its existence. However, nowadays no one can imagine a war between two EU members. Perhaps it was not the participation in common decision-making institutions (which are still weak and contested) but the strength of people-to-people contacts (encouraged by student mobility programs, the rise of an international professional class, cross-border marriages, and even the proposed mobility program for military staff) that has delivered the change. A valid objection to this reasoning would be that professionalization of armies has diminished the level of control publics have over armed forces. As Johnson (2000) explains, for most of the 20th century, national armies were formed by universal conscription, by volunteers, or by a combination of both. It was of paramount importance to sustain patriotic spirit among troops and persuade them by means of propaganda that an enemy poses an existential threat to their nation. If states failed to maintain a firmness of purpose among soldiers, insubordination, desertion and sabotage render an army effectively non-battleworthy. However, professional soldiers perceive their mission merely as a special kind of employment. Although states still initiate massive campaigns to convince their publics of necessity of a war, like it was in the case of Iraq, professional soldiers would be ready to battle any enemy their state commanded them to. Moreover, a state can hire private security providers to wage wars for them. Although there was no case when a war was waged by using such providers only, the involvement of private military companies (PMC) and private security companies (PSC) in Iraq has received a lot of attention (Singer 2004). Thus, a government can still wage a war against another country in opposition to domestic public opinion by relying on a professional armies or private security provides.

Microsoft Word Essay Example for Free

Microsoft Word Essay i »? For M2, the evidence can be taken from anywhere. Learners are not required to learn standard proofing symbols, but are expected to make notes or marks on the original document which indicate what has to be done. Evidence will require the initial documents, the final documents and some indication of authenticity of work. Indications of what would be appropriate are included in the relevant section of the PSA. As part of my continued training in my post I am required to maintain and improve my communication skills. I will communicate review draft documents to produce final versions. Spell checker was one tool that I used to review draft documents. I clicked on the Spelling Grammar option. I then looked to see the options for the misspelt word and then pressed add. I then got a pop up showing that the spelling and grammar were all correct. Spelling and Grammar options are very important to ensure that everything is making sense and everything is spelt correctly. It’s very important that when you hand work in its perfect as if it’s not it will look unprofessional. Sometimes the Spelling and Grammar option may pick out words and spell them the American way. This option should be used with caution. Next I made use of the thesaurus and synonyms options. I right clicked a word that I wanted to change and clicked Synonyms which gave me a list of words I could change it to. Another option is to press Thesaurus on the review section. It does the same as Synonyms. The Thesaurus and synonyms option is very useful if you want to up level words or find other suitable options for specific words. When changing to more complex words it makes your work sound more professional and high level. Lastly, I made use of document tracking options. This is a very important factor when reviewing documentations and can help compare new documents to prior old ones. I chose the Track changed option and changed my document according to how I wanted it to be. I then pressed accept and it showed and highlighted where I had made changed in my document. The Document Tracking Option allows you to track where you have change the document. It also allows you to compare with the previous one so you can decide what you think is better which is very useful. Making use of the reviewing tools that Microsoft word has to offer is very important. Each tool can help greatly when reviewing documents in order to make sure they are at a high level standard that do not include any grammatical or spelling errors that may make the individual look unprofessional. There are many more tools and techniques then the ones listed in this report that can help greatly in the review process. It’s always very important to make sure that there are no errors in the work as the individual needs to show that they are checking their work and are motivated and care about the quality of the work in helping aid and contribute to the company or business. Using all these tools can help aid the review process and can help improve the quality of the work thus helping the quality in which it contributes to the business or company. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Software section.

Surface Antigen of Apicomplexan Parasite, Eimeria Tenella

Surface Antigen of Apicomplexan Parasite, Eimeria Tenella INTRODUCTION Intestinal coccidiosis is caused by the intracellular growth and replication of coccidian (Shirley Schnitzler, 1999; Belli et al., 2006; Lim et al., 2012). Chicken has become the host to seven species Eimeria which are E. tenella, E. maxima, E. acervulina, E. brunette, E. necatrix, E. praecox, E. mitis and each species is responsible for a different form of coccidiosis. The three most pathogenic Eimeria species which cause the most economically significant are E. tenella, E. acervulina and E. maxima. Each parasite is responsible for a different form of coccidiosis (Shirley et al., 2004). Eimeria tenellacause coccidiosis in chickens which is a serious intestinal disease leading to impaired nutrient absorption, weight loss, diarrhea and severe cases of death (Belli et al., 2004). Ceacum is the part of intestinal tract location that will infected by E. tenella (Barta, 1997). On the other hand, three different phases of the life cycle of Eimeria are sporogony (the unsporulated oocysts s hed in the faeces of the host undergo sporulation in the environment to become infective), schizogony (an expansive form of asexual reproduction) and gametogony, a sexual phase (which leads to the formation of female and male gametes, and end with the formation of oocysts) (Shirley Schnitzler, 1999). The control of coccidiosis depends on prophylactic chemotherapy and also vaccination (Shirley et al., 2004). Whereas Mcpherson-K. J. L (2008) state that the current strategies to control coccidiosis in commercial poultry include anticoccidial medication, vaccination and also the use of probiotics. For a long-term control of coccidiosis, the identification of new targets within Eimerian parasite is required and this imperative underpins the need for the genome sequencing (Shirley et al., 2004). 1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT Coccidiosis is one of the most important and common diseases that affect poultry, it results in a great economic loss all over the world (S. Al-Quraishy, A.S. Abdel-Baki,  M.A. Dkhil, 2009). It is caused by the genus Eimeria of an apicomplixa protozoan parasite (Shirley, 1995). This parasitic infection occurs in the epithelial cells of the intestine, despite the advances in nutrition, chemotherapy, management and genetics (Jamal Gharekhani, Zivar Sadeghi-Dehkordi, and Mohammadali Bahrami,2014). Most Eimeria species affect birds between 3 and 18 weeks of age and can cause high mortality in young chicks(McDougald and Reid, 1997). Eimeria typically infect defined regions of the gastrointestinal tract leading to impaired nutrient absorption, weight loss, diarrhea and in severe cases mortality (Belli et al., 2004). The poultry industry incurs major economic losses since chemoprophylaxis, the preferred method of preventing and controlling the disease, is ineffective because the resilient parasites do not respond to therapy. Infections of chickens begin after the uptake of oocysts when sporozoites penetrate the epithelium of the villi. They enter crypt epithelial cells after passing through the lamina propria, where they will undergo several rounds of asexual and sexual proliferation, resulting in formation of merozoites and later, gametocytes (Jeurissen SH, Janse EM,  Vermeulen AN,Vervelde L, 1996). When macrogametes are fertilized by microgametes, forming zygote that will develop into oocysts and eventually shed in the faeces. In contrast to the malaria parasites, Eimeria spp. has not been proved pathogenic for man. The organism has never been found in intestinal tissue and no specific lesion has been demonstrated. Many therapeutic agents have been used, including bismuth, iodide, quinine, gentian violet, emetine, anthelmintics and others without conclusive evidence of results (R. M. Kiskaddon, M.D.; R. J. F. Renshaw, M.D.,1945). Nowadays, coccidiosis is prevented by anticoccidial drugs that are added to food, but continuously usage of these drugs will leads to unavoidably emergence of resistant Eimeria strains (Jeurissen SH,  Janse EM,  Vermeulen AN,  Vervelde L, 1996). This prolonged use of drugs have many side effects such as decrease fertility (Joyner, 1964) and encourage to the development of drug-resistant strains (McLoughlin and Gardiner, 1963). It will also interfere with immunity (Davies and Kendall, 1955; Reid, 1960), Moreover, the present drugs that available do not offer effective protection against all Eimeria parasitic species in chickens and most of the current coccidiostats are not suitable to use for prolonged periods intended for human consumption. In spite of the high efficacy of modern coccidiostats, upsurge of coccidiosis may occur due to high levels of contamination in the environment, the development of drug-resistance strains as well as reduced the usage of the drug and a high de gree of susceptibility (Joyner, 1970). 1.2 OBJECTIVES To amplify and sequence the surface antigen from apicomplexan parasite, Eimeria Tenella. To clone the surface antigen of apicomplexan parasite, Eimeria Tenella. 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 APICOMPLEXAN PARASITES The Apicomplexa are a phylum from the group of diverse obligate intracellular parasites containing Toxoplasma gondii and Cryptosporidium parvum which are the opportunistic pathogens of immunocompromised individuals, Plasmodium spp., the parasites that cause malaria and also Eimeria spp. and the Theileria spp., the parasites that consider as agricultural importance(Naomi S. Morrissette and  L. David Sibley, 2002). Parasitic protozoans of the apicomplexa are the most frequentt and successful pathogens known to the world. Infection by this parasites causes incalculable morbidity and mortality to humans and agricultural animals(Aikawa, M, 1988). Presently, more than 50 billion livestock for food production especially for the poultry, suffer from debilitating intestinal diseases that caused by many species of apicomplexan parasites such as Eimeria, Theileria, and Babesia (Tomley and Shirley, 2009). Besides, half of the world’s population is at risk of getting malaria that caused by Plasmodium species (Guerra et al., 2006). Eimeria is the cause of of coccidiosis in chickens while Theileria, the cattle parasite is characterized by anemia and high death rate especially in pregnant cows. Plasmodium infects red blood cells in bird species and cause malaria as well as in several other vertebrate including human. In Africa, almost one million human died because of malaria each year, which mean that a child dies every 30 seconds of this disease (Coombs and Muller, 2002; Shirley et al., 2005). All of those apicomplexan parasites share distinguishing morphological features, cytoskeleton organization and the way of motility, invasion and also replication(Naomi S. Morrissette and  L. David Sibley, 2002). These parasites have an elongated shape and a clearly visible specialization of the apical region (Aikawa,M., 1998). Many of the distinct characteristics compose of a collection of unique organelles termed the apical complex(Naomi S. Morrissette and  L. David Sibley, 2002). Theapical complexis the flag trait required for classification asApicomplexa (Lee et al., 2000, Levine, 1973). It is a components found at the anterior end of certain stages, most notably at the infective stages, replacing the nucleus and mitochondria towards the posterior end (Aikawa et al., 1978). Upon contact with a suitable host cell, apicomplexans can invade within seconds, with minimal apparent disturbance of the infected cell (Boris Striepenmail, Carly N Jordan, Sarah Reiff, Giel G van Dooren, 2 007). Figure 2.1 : The morphology of apicomplexan parasites Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology 2.2 THE ROLE OF GLIDING MOTILITY OF THE APICOMPLEXA IN CELL INVASION The members of Apicomplexa invade host cell by substrate-dependent forward locomotion known as gliding motility(Pinder et al., 2000; Opitz Soldati, 2002). Apicomplexa does not possess cilic, flagella, type IV pili or other locomotory organelles (Russell Sinden,1981), nor do they crawl like amoeba (Mitchison Cramer, 1996) or deform their membrane. The gliding movement is actin–myosin motor dependent (Hakansson et al.,1998; Pinder et al., 2000)which coupled with the substratum, presumably by transmembrane proteins such as circumsporozoite-and-TRAP related protein (CTRP) and thrombospondin-related adhesive protein (TRAP) which have cytoplasmic sequences (Menard, 2000). Motility can be visualized in real time with video microscopy (Russell Sinden, 1981; Morisaki et al., 1995) or by the formation of surface membrane traits that can be labelled with immunofluorescence assays (Arrowood et al., Stewart Vanderberg, 1988; Hakansson et al., 1999). Circular gliding occurs when a paras ite lies on its right side(where the apex is defined as the top of the parasite and dorsal is defined as the convex surface of the parasite) and moves around in a counter clockwise circle. Upright twirling takes place when a parasitic stands on its posterior and spins in a clockwise circle. Furthermore, helical gliding occurs when the parasite begins on its left side and initiates a clockwise revolution around its long axis while moving forward one body length. The parasite then flips onto its left side while undergoing little forward motility. Helical gliding allows a curved parasite to propel itself straight across substrate (Hakansson et al., 1999). Host-cell invasion by apicomplexan parasites involves the successive exocytosis of three different secretory organelles which are micronemes, rhoptries and dense granules. Rhoptries, dense granule and micronemes are unique secretory organelles containing the products that need for motility, adhesion to host cells, invasion of host cells, and formation of the parasitophorous vacuole (N. S. Morrissette, A. Mitra, D. Sept and L. D. Sibley, 2004). Micronemes are used for host-cell recognition, binding, and possibly motility. Rhoptries are used for parasitophorous vacuole formation whilst dense granules used for remodeling the vacuole into a metabolically active compartment (Dubremetz JF et al., 1998). Attachment to the host cell is started via interaction of the surface protein of the parasites with the plasma membrane of the host cell(Grimwood and Smith, 1996). The apical region of the infecting parasite which is called zoite connects to the host cell, creating a depression in the cell plasma membrane and taking the shape of the zoite while forming a condensed, electron-dense area at the point of attachment (Aikawa et al., 1978). Rhoptry ducts extend from the apical complex and through the junction formed between the two cells (Aikawa et al., 1978). This step is proceed by the microneme and rhoptry that release vast array proteins which have the capacity to encourage formation of the protective parasitophorous vacuole that surrounds the parasite once inside the host cell (Bannister and Mitchell, 1989). As conclusion, the actual invasion of the parasite is intervene by the formation of a moving junction around the infecting parasite which is so named because it moves along the len gth of the parasite resulting in the engulfment of the parasite within the host cell (Besteiro et al., 2009). Figure 2.2 : Current model of the motor protein complex driving gliding motility. (Adapted from Soldati et al (2004) Current Opinion in Cell Biology 16, 32-40.) 2.3 EIMERIA TENELLA Eimeria Tenellais one of seven species that cause coccidiosis in chickens (Shirley MW, Smith AL, Tomley FM, 2005). It is one of the most pathogenicEimeriaspp. that inflicts economic losses on the poultry industry all over the world (Dalloul RA, Lillehoj HS, 2006). Eimeria tenella can be found in the feces of the infected chicken (Michael G. Wallach mail, Udi Ashash, Amnon Michael, Nicholas C. Smith, 2008) and they have complex developmental life cycles with an exogenous phase in the environment during which oocysts excreted from the chicken undergo sporulation and become infective while the endogenous phase in the intestine during which there are two or more rounds of discrete depending on the species, expansive asexual reproduction (schizogony) followed by sexual differentiation, fertilization and shedding of unsporulated oocysts (Kalpana Lal, Elizabeth Bromley, Richard Oakes, Judith Helena Prieto, Sanya J Sanderson, Dominic Kurian, Lawrence Hunt, John R Yates, III, Jonathan M Wastl ing, Robert E Sinden, Fiona M Tomley, 2009). The unsporulated oocyst will develops by the deposition of proteinsfrom two visible wall forming bodies becoming a multi-layered oocyst cell wall (Ferguson DJ, Belli SI, Smith NC, Wallach MG, 2003). After shedding, the unsporulated oocysts will make contact with moisture and air then rapidly undergo meiosis and mitosis to produce 8 haploid sporozoites (Ryan R, Shirley M, Tomley F, 2000). In the case of Emeria tenella, sporozoites will migrate to the caecum where they invade villus enterocytes and undergo their entire endogenous development within enterocytes of the crypts (Rose ME, Lawn AM, Millard BJ, 1984). Eimeria tenellaundergoes two distinct and massive waves of schizogony in the crypts, which produce large numbers of first and second generation merozoites. A third round of schizogony, begin by invasion of second generation merozoites and characterized by much smaller schizonts, is known to occur and may be mandatory although it is possible that invasion of second generation mer ozoites can also initiate gametogony (McDonald V, Rose ME, 1987). Sporozoites and merozoites ofEimeria tenellahave many features related to their invasive natures including micronemes that release protein, which are very important for host binding and invasion (Periz J, Gill AC, Hunt L,Brown P,Tomley FM, 2007) , the use of actin based ‘glideosome’ to power up the host invasion(Bumstead J, Tomley F,2000) and the secretion of rhoptry proteins to form the parasitophorous vacuole within which the parasite resides during the invasion (Greif G, Entzeroth R,1996). As a conclusion, the life cycle can be divided into three distinct phases which include sporogony (the unsporulated oocysts shed in the faeces of the host undergo sporulation in the environment to become infective), schizogony (an expansive form of asexual reproduction) and a sexual phase, gametogony (which leads to the formation of female and male gametes and terminates with the formation of oocysts) (Shirley Schnitzler, 1999). Figure 2.3 : The life cycle of Eimeria (United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) 2.4 SURFACE ANTIGEN Surface antigens are those expressed on the surface of infected cells that can induce a cytotoxic phenomenon leading to a destruction of host cells or to activation of the killing mechanism in the host cell itself. However, little is known about their role in parasite development (Tabarà ©s et al., 2004). Some of these surface antigens have been associated with a variety of functions in host cell invasion, pathogenicity as well as the immune avoidance and also known to draw out strong immune responses (Jung C, Lee CYF, Grigg M, 2004). Many research has been carried out to study the role of surface antigens in the growth, development, and also the survival of the parasites. Glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored surface antigens (SAGs) of Eimeria Tenellaare among the major surface molecules of the parasite and many of the SAGs are expressed during the development of second generation merozoitesmaking them good targets for host innate and adaptive immune responses. Other apicompl exan parasites such as Plasmodium falciparum,  Sarcocystis neuronaand Toxoplasma gondii also have the GPI-linked antigens expressed on their surfaces (Gilson PR, Nebl T, Vukcevic D, Moritz RL, Sargean T, 2006). Besides, SAG proteins may be used by Eimeria tenellato confuse the host immune system and improve the survival of the parasites. The chicken immune response might be misdirect towards the antibody production because of the simultaneous expression of multiple SAG proteins rather than the cellular mediated immune responses required to eliminateEimeria Tenella, therefore, allowing the parasites to avoid the first line defense mechanisms of the host and multiply more easily (Yock-Ping Chow, Kiew-Lian Wan, Damer P. Blake, Fiona Tomley, Sheila Nathan, 2011).

Civilization Cure Or Disease :: essays research papers

Upon flipping to the business section of the New York Times an Ohio University student saw a startling headline glaring back at her â€Å"American Corporations Suspected In Millions of Third World Deaths.† As she read the article it became apparent that international corporations many of which were based in the United States exploit the poorest of the poor. These companies paid workers extremely low wages and exposed them to hazardous materials with out any protection. Working conditions were unsafe and often lead to health problems. It appeared that slavery was alive and well in the name of â€Å"Global Industrialization.† Even more shocking was the fact that this new form of slavery was also present within our own borders. Migrant workers and illegal aliens were becoming an increasing percentage of America’s labor force. These workers were paid well below minimum wage for jobs, which often put their health if not their life in jeopardy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It appeared that America’s industrial empire was built upon the exploitation of the poor throughout the world. Often women and children were the victims of the â€Å"Global Market Economy.† The article stated that millions of goods were produced by children as young as 6 in third world and developing nations. Companies producing these goods claimed that it was not â€Å"slave labor† they claimed it was the â€Å"efficient use of human resources for production.† It seemed that companies in their desire of â€Å"progress† and profit were oppressing the world’s poorest nations and their citizens. This is not a new phenomenon it has gone on through history; the strong oppress the weak. What is amazing though is the fact that industrialized nations all consider themselves to be the most civilized societies in the world. Industrial powers view less developed nations as backwards which is a synonym for barbarous. But are the societies of industrially advanced nations truly the most civil? This is the question Montaigne raised over 400 years ago in his paper entitled â€Å"Of Cannibals.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Throughout history it seems that the most technologically advanced societies are the most powerful. And the most powerful nations view themselves as the most civilized people in the world. But what exactly are the defining attributes of a civilized society? According to Webster’s Third International Dictionary a civilization is: an ideal state of human culture, characterized by complete absence of barbarism and non-rational behavior, optimum utilization of physical, cultural, spiritual, and human resources, and perfect adjustment of the individual within the social framework.

The Individual Experience in a World of Categories :: Sociology Sociological Essays

The Individual Experience in a World of Categories Lakoff and Johnson argue for an embodied mind, saying that our categories are based on how we experience the world through our bodies. According to this theory, as a result of their different anatomies, men and women would experience the world differently and their categories would be inherently different. Also, it would be expected that all women would share the same categories. Our class and our discussions have demonstrated a diversity of opinions and methods of categorization that refute this part of Lakoff and Johnson's argument. I think that Lakoff and Johnson were correct in saying that "the categories we form are part of our experience" (Lakoff and Johnson 19). However, what they neglected to factor into their analysis of the way human beings categorize is the differences of each individual experience. Categories and their meanings are based on an individual's personal knowledge of the world, and that is why no category means exactly the same thing for more than one individual. I want to examine the categories of race and sexuality in Moraga and Delany to demonstrate the significance of the individual experience and its direct connection to categories. Also, I want to suggest that race as "other" is more problematic than sexuality to one's personal identity. Delany's "Aversion/Perversion/Diversion" presents us with a series of troubling tales. They all originate within Delany's life, but his reason for choosing these particular tales is "precisely because they are uncharacteristic" (Delany 125). Even within one's own individual experience, there is an uniqueness to events. The category "gay" doesn't mean that the individuals who identify themselves as part of it will share an understanding of all that it has meant for one person to claim this label for himself/herself. Delany acknowledges that the identification with others that categories create is in a way false, "even the similarities are finally, to the extent they are living ones, a play of differences" (Delany 131). He emphasizes that much of the sexual experience remains outside of language. No everything will be shared, not everything can be. An individual's journey to claiming his/her own identity is entrenched in the personal journey, in occurrences both characteristic and unch aracteristic. However, maybe these "uncharacteristic" tales are not as uncharacteristic to his experience as Delany believes. It is fact that they are indeed a part of Delany's experience as a gay man, and he says himself that there is no universal "gay experience.

The Inflexibility and Hubris of Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall

The Inflexibility and Hubris of Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart This novel is the definitive tragic model about the dissolution of the African Ibo culture by Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe. Okonkwo, a great and heroic leader, is doomed by his inflexibility and hubris. He is driven by fear of failure. He had no patience with unsuccessful men. He had no patience with his father. Unoka, for that was his father's name, had died ten years ago. In his day he was lazy and improvident, and was quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow. (Achebe,4). The reader gets a rare and exotic understanding of a totally foreign and ancient culture experiencing the growing pains of colonial expansion during the British domination of Nigeria in the late 1800's. Okonkwo's ferocity is demonstrated in the carrying out of his personal "dread" to the letter within his family, his community, and the invaders. His ferocity, born of fear, is his evil. During the Week of Peace, one of Okonkwo's wives, Ojiugo, has left the compound, ignoring her children and domestic duties, to "plait her hair." And when she returned, he beat her very heavily. In his anger he had forgotten that it was the Week of Peace. His first two wives ran out in great alarm pleading with him that it was the sacred week. (Achebe, 29) But Okonkwo was not a man to stop beating somebody half-way through, not even for fear of a goddess. (Achebe, 30) Being unable to bend, he loses self-control and eventually all he has once stood for. The novel examples rites, initiations, and tribal customs whose images can be disturbing to western mentality, but also stresses the parallels and need in all cultures to have such ceremonies acknowledging important events in... ... make interesting reading. One could almost write a whole chapter on him. Perhaps not a whole chapter but a reasonable paragraph, at any rate ... He had already chosen the title of the book, after much thought: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes On The Lower Niger. (Achebe, 208-209) Achebe suggests that colonialism has led to this entire tragedy, but the seeds of dread and self-will are obvious in Okonkwo. He is not a survivor. Our goal is to survive. In our journey through this life of good and evil influences, we purposefully choose our own end by the choices we make along the way. Success can be defined as the acceptance of all of our experience that has led us where we are today. Acceptance of ourselves is the key to acceptance and tolerance of others. Works Cited Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Oxford, Eng.: Heinemann Educational Pub., 1996.

Amazon.com †a case study Essay

Amazon’s Mission â€Å"Our vision is to be earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.† Amazon.com’s quest to become earth’s most customer centric company is largely driven by its use of technology. In fact, its continuous innovations are all driven by huge investments in information systems (Laudon and Laudon 2005). Information systems not only support their mission, but in fact drive their business strategy. In this paper , Amazon’s use of information at each stage of Porter’s value chain will be considered. Their innovative and forward looking use of information systems to generate competitive advantage will be analysed in the context of Porter’s five forces and we will also have a look at how they have formed Amazon have formed strategic alliances to overcome certain competitive forces. Future plans to sustain competitive edge will be examined; Amazon not only continue to use technology to improve their customer centric operations, but are now in fact opening up this technology and providing technical and logistics solutions to other firms. The Value Chain The concept of ‘Value Chain Anaylsis’ is described at length by Michael Porter (1985). He notes that every firm is a collection of activities that  are performed to design, produce, market, deliver and support its products or services. He identifies specific, critical-leverage points where a firm can use information technology most effectively to enhance it’s competitive position (Laudon and Laudon , 2005). In his value chain model, ‘Primary Activities’ such as inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, sales and marketing and service, are seen as basic activities that add a margin of value to a firm’s products and service. Since Amazon’s inception in 1995, they have used information technology to manage each stage of the value chain. Inbound logistics – including receiving, storing, inventory control – are managed by sophisticated technology such Transportation Optimization and Management Systems (TOMS). They, us e a set of applications for accepting and validating customer orders, placing and tracking orders with suppliers and managing and assigning inventory to customer orders. In fact in 2007, Amazon’s systems have become so efficient in managing inventory that they generally collect from customers before their payments to suppliers come due (SEC1 2007). Amazon’s marketing strategy is designed to increase customer traffic to their websites, drive awareness of products and services, promote repeat purchases, develop incremental product and service revenue opportunities, and strengthen and broaden the Amazon.com brand name. (Amazon Annual Report 2007). Technology, again, is the conduit for their marketing strategy. Amazon were the first to deliver personalized Web pages and services. For instance, their technology keeps track of user preferences for books and CD purchases etc, and can recommend titles purchased by other customers. Their advertising consists primarily of online advertising, including through their Associates program –Amazon.com’s affiliate marketing program, where web developers, by linking to Amazon products and services to their sites, can receive up to 10% in referral fees, – sponsored search, portal advertising, e-mail campaigns, and other initiatives. Customer service is another key area where technology adds value to Amazon’s offer. From the outset, in line with their customer-centred mission, Amazon  tried to provide superior customer service through email and telephone customer support, online tracking and shipping information, and the ability to pay for purchases with a single click of the mouse using credit card and personal information provided during a previous purchase. This was called â€Å"1-click† express shopping, and was considered so attractive that Barnes and Noble, Amazon’s direct competitor in the online book retailing markets attempted to ape it with its â€Å"Express Lane† system (McAfee 2005). Amazon later obtained an injunction on Barnes and Noble and sparked a huge debate around the question of which software, and even business processes can or cannot, be patented. (http://www.oreilly.com/news/patent_archive.html) The Extended Value Chain in e-Business In their book, Strategic Planning for Information Systems, Ward, J and Peppard, J (2002), discuss how the value chain information flow is now being challenged by e-Business They refer to Rayport, J.F and Sviokla (1995), who have identified two crucial new areas in this information flow, namely ‘promotional’ information flow and ‘intelligence gathering’ information flow. These two areas seems to be paramount in Amazon’s value chain management.. According to Ward and Peppard, the implications of the promotional flow of information which informs customers further down the chain of the products and services available have to be understood. David Chaffey (2007) speaks of Amazon’s automated email measurement and optimization system. As users of Amazon will know, once we’ve bought something on Amazon, we are regularly sent emails with information on books or product recommendations. In order for this promotional system not to descend into what one might call Spam, and for it to remain relevant and customer centred, Amazon have put IS systems into place to control this activity. A new system: automatically optimizes content to improve customer experience; avoids sending an e-mail campaign that has low clickthrough or high unsubscribe rate; includes inbox management (avoid sending multiple emails/week); has growing library of automated email programs covering new  releases and recommendations. In this way, Amazon add value to the promotional flow of information through their value chain, and intelligently use and disseminate the information provided to them by their technology. Ward and Peppard conclude that E-business offers huge potential to gather information and intelligence about consumer and customer preference and attitudes online, rather than through traditional market research. When customers shop on Amazon, their choices are stored in the information systems which can then use this intelligence to forecast future demands. Industry Value Chain – Supply Chain Management The Value Chain of the business unit is only one part of a larger set of value-adding activities in an industry – the â€Å"Industry Value Chain† (Ward & Peppard 2003). A firm’s value chain is linked to the value chains of its suppliers, distributors and customers, and each of these players can add, or indeed take away from advantage which has been earned along the way. (Laudon & Laudon 2006). Amazon has one of the most-sophisticated supply chain systems in the world. Proprietary applications handle nearly every aspect of its supply chain: warehouse management, transportation management, inbound and outbound shipping, demand forecasts, inventory planning, and more. (Information Week) Amazon’s supply chain is so tightly integrated that when an online customer buys a book, for example, the order-management system communicates with inventory- and warehouse-management systems to find the optimal distribution centre or centres for fulfilling the order. The customer knows in less than a minute how long it will take to ship the items and whether they will come in one package or separately. Effective supply chain management, has been identified in a survey by The Economist, as being an essential contribution to gaining competitive advantage. It says that all market leaders have supply chains that are more responsive to customer demand. And effectively managing the informati on flow throughout the supply chain is key to gaining competitive advantage. Porter’s Five Forces As we have seen, competitive advantage can be gained through effective use of information systems at each stage of the internal and the external value chain. The other value creation dimension, as defined by Porter is the â€Å"Market/Industry Attractiveness†. He has identified five forces affecting the latter, namely, the bargaining power of suppliers, the bargaining power of customers, the threat of new entrants, the threat of substitute products and competitive rivalry within an industry. E-commerce and the internet provide customers with the ability to search the whole chain for information directly or via intermediaries (Ward and Peppard 2003). The internet provides consumers with near perfect product and price visibility. Customers are free to use any internet portal they choose to search for goods, and can use price comparison portals such as www.kelkoo.com to compare prices between suppliers. Changing suppliers will cost the buyer nothing – switching costs are l ow – and alternative suppliers are plentiful. Consequently, Amazon are forced to keep their prices down and accept lower margins. In the context of Porter’s five forces, the facility for customers in changing suppliers can be classified as high customer bargaining power. Mr Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, saw this threat coming and prepared for it – in 2000 he invited other retailers to sell their goods on his website (The Economist). No traditional seller had ever done this before – to allow others to sell second-hand books on their own door step, was indeed a revolutionary move by Mr Bezos, and many people, even some within the company, thought this would cannibalise Amazon’s own sales. Yet it eventually helped to lift overall sales. Amazon says sales of third-party items, from which it takes a commission, have increased from 6% of all items sold in 2000 to 28% in 2005. Over that time, the company says its own retail revenues were up three-fold (BusinessWeek). Bezos claims that by keeping custome rs on the Amazon site buying other retailers products, Amazon’s direct revenues also increased. This is because with the help of some sophisticated technology driven marketing techniques, customers having already chosen something from Amazon’s partners, are at the same time tempted by Amazon’s own offerings. Today, hundreds of thousands of retail brands and individual sellers reach new customers by leveraging the power of the Amazon.com e-commerce platform. In 2006 Amazon went further with this concept and launched their â€Å"Fulfilment† program, which allows businesses to  use Amazon’s own order fulfilment and post-order customer service infrastructure, and enables Amazon.com customers to receive the benefit of Amazon.com shipping offers when buying from third-party sellers. In this way Amazon, seem to be effectively combating a number of competitive forces, including the threat of substitute products and the threat of new entrants to the market. Due to the low cost for new-entrants to e-Commerce – it requires relatively little capital investment to set up an e-Business- the threat of competing websites is omni-present for Amazon. Amazon’s challengers come from two directions. First, other online retailers are growing rapidly. As people become more accustomed to shopping on the internet, they are ordering a greater variety of goods and services from a wider range of websites. From auctioning people’s second-hand goods, eBay now also hosts fixed-priced virtual shops offering new goods for sale. (The Economist). Google, for one, has replaced retail sites such as Amazon as the place where many people start their shopping. And more personalized and social upstarts such as News Corp.’s, MySpace and YouTube, which Google has bought, have become the prime places for many people to gather online – and eventually shop. Microsoft’s taking of a 5% stake in Facebook, the online networking website, last Friday, which now values the two year old networking website at a whopping 15b$ -, could also be perceived as a potential threat to Amazon. People may choose to start their shopping from their social networking sites, rather than from the mor e traditional retail or portal site. Says consultant Andreas Weigend, Amazon’s chief scientist until 2004: â€Å"The world has shifted from e-business to me-business.† (Businessweek and The Economist). Secondly, traditional retailers are rapidly moving part of their trading online. This pits Amazon against giant retailers with huge purchasing power, like America’s Wal-Mart and Britain’s Tesco. These â€Å"multichannel† retailers make a virtue of their ability to offer both â€Å"bricks and clicks†. Many provide online customers with the option of picking up goods from the shop down the road. This is proving popular with web buyers who want things immediately or are keen to avoid shipping costs and staying in to accept a delivery. Amazon may be attempting to fight off this threat with their AmazonPrime program, which allows customers unlimited shipping for $79 per year. As we have seen, the relatively low costs of setting up business on the Internet, means that the  threat of substitute product/ services and the threat of new entrants also become more apparent. Internet technology is based on universal standards that any company can use, making it easy for rivals to compete on price alone and for new competitors to enter the market (Laudon and Laudon 2006). Clarke (2001) says that consequently, if we are competing in an industry where all our competitors have access to the same technology, it follows that competitive advantage comes from the use of information, as opposed to technology, and sustainability of advantage lies in an organisation always being better at this than its competition. Amazon would appear to be doing a fairly good job in keeping up – for instance with the technology enables personalization of the customer – but as Jeff Bezos reiterated in the reprinting of his 1997 letter to shareholders for the Amazon 2006 Annu al Report, â€Å"It’s all about the long-term†. Sustainability of Competitive Advantage – The Future for Amazon In the long-term, Amazon are aiming to re-invent themselves. An article in the Economist claims the e-commerce giant wants to be more than just a retailer. Having established the internet as somewhere to buy things, Amazon is again spending heavily on development in anticipation of consumers wanting to download music, video and books instead of having them delivered in the post. In September, the company introduced the Amazon MP3 digital music store to sell tracks without the anti-piracy technology known as digital rights management, or DMR. The music companies EMI and Universal are participating in Amazon’s store, making the service a significant competitor to Apple’s iTunes service. Unless the Amazon, the pioneer of online retailing can provide downloadable media it risks being â€Å"disintermediated†2 —just as only a decade ago high-street bookshops, music and video stores were disintermediated by Amazon itself. Amazon, in fact have a history of strateg ic alliances with various firms – Borders and SmugMug, to mention just a few. A strategic alliance is a partnership of two of more corporations or business units to achieve strategically significant objectives that are mutually beneficial, Wheelan and Hunger (2005). These alliances have allowed Amazon to use their established technological lead in the e-Commerce platform to generate revenues as well as their other strategic objectives. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is another example of a  strategic move to maintain advantage. With AWS, Amazon say they are building a new business focused on a new customer set †¦ software developers. They currently offer ten different web services and have built a community of over 240,000 registered developers. In order to cope with the Christmas rush, Amazon has far more computing capacity than it needs for most of the year. As much as 90% of it is idle at times. Renting out pieces of that network to other businesses, such as SmugMug, an online photo site that uses the S33 service, is a way to get extra return on Amazonâ⠂¬â„¢s $2 billion investment in technology (The Economist). Conclusion In this paper, a number of ways in which Amazon add value to their internal and external value chain have been identified. We have looked at how they optimize their utilisation of information in forging closer relations with their customers; operate a lean supply-chain management strategy and fight off numerous threats posed by competing in the e-Business environment with strategies such as offering new services to smaller retailers, digital downloads, and opening up their technologies to developers. However in a fast moving global economy, no future is certain. Amazon are conscious of the threats posed by failed alliances (Border’s will pull out of their agreement to use Amazon’s e-commerce platform in 2008, www.bloomberg.com) and the constant threat posed by Google, even Facebook and other technology driven Web2.0 companies. Jeff Bezos will be hoping to overcome these threats by, as he says, by â€Å"opening up the guts of his organisation† to developers (Busin essWeek). Information systems are at the core of Amazon’s business, and going forward, as Jeff Bezos said in his 2007 SEC filing, their biggest challenge â€Å"will be to continue to build and deploy innovative and efficient software that will best take advantage of continued advances in technology†. Amazon have made massive investments in technology – $186 million in the last quarter alone – (The Economist), and with 2007 3rd quarter sales up 41% and a quadrupling of profit, it looks like these technology investments may finally be paying off! References â€Å"Amazon.com – Click to download†, The Economist, Aug 17th 2006 Amzn Investor Relations http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?p=irol-irhome&c=97664 Accessed 28th October 2007 â€Å"Borders to Introduce New Internet Site in Early 2008 (Update3)† www.bloomberg.com Accessed on 28th October 2007 Clarke, Stephen (2001) Information Systems Strategic Management –an integrated approach, Routledge, London David Chaffey: â€Å"Amazon Case Study 9.1 Learning From Amazon’s Culture of Metrics† www.davidchaffey.com Accessed on 13th October 2007. â€Å"Friend Accepted†, The Economist, Friday 26th October 2007 â€Å"From scratch: Amazon keeps supply chain close to home†, Beth Bacheldor, InformationWeek, March 5, 2004 â€Å"Jeff Bezos’ Risky Bet† Business Week, Cover story, November 13, 2006 www.businessweek.com â€Å"Jeff Bezos’ Risky Bet† www.businessweek.com November 13, 2006. Accessed 27th October 2007 â€Å"Lifting the bonnet† The Economist Oct 5th 2006 Porter, Michael E. (1985) Competitive advantage: creating and sustaining superior performance pg 33 The Free Press Laudon, J and Laudon K (2006), Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm (10th Edition) Prentice Hall R. Preston McAfee (2005) Competitive Solutions: The Strategist’s Toolkit, Princeton University Press Rayport, J.F and Sviokla (1995) ‘Exploiting the virtual value chain’, Harvard Business Review, November – December, 1995 SEC (2007) United States Securities And Exchange Commission submission Form 10-K from Amazon. For the quarterly period ended September 30, 2007 Ward, J and Peppard, J (2002) Strategic Planning for Information Systems, 3rd Edition John Wiley & Sons, Bedfordshire. Wheelen, T and Hunger J, (2004) Strategic Management and Business Policy, 9th Edition, Pearson/Prentice Hall, New Jersey.

Brand Architecture

BMW is one of the just about recognized aid automobile manufacturers in the world. Brand associated with quality, class, prodigious design, outstanding performance and innovation. BMW has a well-structured mark off hierarchy where at the corporate injury level BMW pioneered the luxury sports car family line by combining distinct mood and performance consideration. BMW has a smart billet with corporate markings and offers a large hap of models that vary in price, quality and performance.Below is a brief brand- product matrix w be ModelsEntry level weeny vehiclesEntry level sm exclusively sedanLuxury medium SedanSport Coupe & convertiblesTop of the line Luxury4WD & SUV Recreation open-air(prenominal) 1 & Mini Series 3 Series 5 Series Z4& 6 Series 7 Series X Series Points of parity be that they are luxury vehicles and points of difference are BMWs performance features. Clear brand put and well- variediated grinder- brands shows in 1, 3, 5, 7 serial publication. These brands cover different segments of the market in relation to price, sizing of it and quality.New models introduced later to expand the brand portfolio manage X3, X5, Z4, M3, and 6 series. The 1 & 3 series models brought new customers into the companys brand franchise, with the expectation that later these customers will be switching to full(prenominal)er priced models like 5 and 7 series (design to attracts rich and squiffy transmission line people). BMWs branding greet helps the company to expand coverage throughout different segments and markets, provide brand justification and minimize overlapping.Each of the sub brand names has a well-defined role and positioning, which does non overlay with the former(a) sub brands. one by one each car model offers alone(p) benefits to its client segment. BMWs brand hierarchy is characterized well in the firms strategy by displaying the mutual characteristics of all BMW cars throughout its portfolio, which are linked with luxury, pe rformance, triumph of private road and quality. At the same term there are rattling all the way distinctive features and uncommon characteristics of each of these sub rands revealing their uniqueness and differentiation. For example, the 3series mid size luxury sedan targets drivers that are olden betwixt 25-34 years of age with erstwhile(a) body but younger in spirit. These people see driving as an escape from their normal routine, and they are looking for a sedan that has or so performance qualities. On the other hatful the 7 series models targets the high-end sophisticated business consumers who desire to demonstrate success.I would like to expose an example of brand hierarchy for BMW (from exceed to bottom) corporate (or company brand) is the brand BMW, comprehensive brand would be Mini series, the idiosyncratic brand would be Mini Cooper, and in the end the modifier will be the Clubman model. pellucidness and brand awareness is strongly apply in BMWs brand. Thi s helps to improve consumers understanding about the product thread and also communicate clearly the similarities and differences between the different models. BMW have a high level of awareness on credit and recall.This maximizes the transfer of equity from the brand to the psyche models, which improves trials, and leads to repeat purchases. The image is favorable, strong and relevant. The most common association with BMW brand is performance, vogue and luxury. BMWs principle in conniving their brand portfolio is to maximize market coverage so that no potential customers are being ignored, but on the other hand minimize brand overlap, so that different models from the portfolio are not competing among themselves to substantiate the same customers support.Each sub-brand has its knowledge distinctive target market and positioning. As a result of BMWs exceeding brand architecture in the experience Global 500 brands for 2012 survey, BMW scores very high. From all car manufactur ers worldwide they be as the second best car manufacturer brand after Toyota (Brandirectory, 2012). References Bibliography Brandirectory. (2012). Global-500-2012. Retrieved from brandirectory. com http//brandirectory. com/league_ tabularises/table/global-500-2012/