Chilhood Obesity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Chilhood Obesity - Essay Example Many doctors today refer to obesity as the â€Å"new American epidemic.† an estimated 60 million Americans living within the US are obese. It is further estimated that slightly over 70% of people over the age of 25 have an overweight problem. Obesity is a fast-growing health concern in the USA, with about 13% of all the American children suffering from the disease. The statistics seem to rise every year for chilren By trying to understand the rise in childhood obesity, one gets to know more about obesity itself. According to the American Academy of Pediatricians, children with a BMI of over 30 are the most prone to obesity. There are other institutions which suggest that any child whose body weight exceeds the normal body weight for their age and height by at least 20% is obese. Whatever the exact definition of the condition is, obesity implies excess body fat. Why exactly has obesity become such a serious concern in the United States? You thought an extra pound or two can’t really harm a child, didn’t you? Yes, an extra pound can cause a child serious health problems. Obesity can affect a child both psychologically and physiologically. Some of the psychological risks involved include anxiety problems, depression and anxiety problems. The physiological risks, on the other hand, include diabetes type 2, hypertension and heart ailments. About 45% of the latest cases of juvenile type-2 diabetes are associated with obesity at childhood.

Project Strategy and the Leadership Culture for a large construction Assignment

Project Strategy and the Leadership Culture for a large construction project - Assignment Example When developing a strategy for procurement, it is essential to consider all the factors that are vital to the project such as the project objectives, resources that are available, the total budget and the project duration. The assessment of these factors will ensure that the team has a tailor made procurement plan that contributes towards the project’s objectives. Before any purchase is made, the procuring officer must be able to answer the question as to why that item is being purchased, and if it is the most cost-effective option. All options must be considered, and, since there are some items that can be prepared on site, it is important to consider all available options. An example is concrete. Some companies sell concrete that is ready for use and is delivered to the site in trucks. However, the project managers can decide to buy cement separately and mix it at the site for use (Ward, 2009). All these options have to be considered so that the supervisors find one that is not only cost effective but also saves on labor cost, time and use of mechanical equipment. Sustainability is also a factor that determines the duration for which we keep up with certain purchases. Considering the budget allocated, we should be able to determine whether our procurement decision can be supported in the long run. An important factor in the procurement process is finding suppliers. Suppliers are weighed based on various standards such as reliability and the cost. The procurement process should be done in a cost-effective manner that saves on the estimated figures. This can be done by identifying suppliers who are inexpensive. However, this is not the only measure of a good supplier.Reliability is equally important when it comes to choosing a supplier of choice. A good supplier must be able to supply high quality products within the required time and at an affordable cost; it does not have to be the cheapest option. It is acceptable to pay slightly more

Legislation to Safeguard Child Rights in the UK

Legislation to Safeguard Child Rights in the UK Steven Howells CYP Core 3:3 1.1 Because the well – being of all children and young adults is so important, organizations in the United Kingdom and around the world have created policies and legislation’s to ensure a structure of security. This structure ensures that everyone in an educational environment is safeguarded. Some of the main policies include: The Children’s Act 1989 – This policy was designed to make all the laws that relating to children and young adults less complicated. It also brings many organizations and authorities together to ensure that children receive the assistance they require. The Children’s Act 2004 – This Act is an update that was put into place after the death of Victoria Climbie. The information was reviewed by multiple services and yet they failed to work together which resulted in this child’s suffering, and eventually her death. Rules and regulations were put into place to allow services to share the information accordingly to ensure that anyone under the age of 19 years old who may be at risk could be helped and not overlooked. Children and Young Persons Act 2008 – This Act changes the structure of the care system. It pushes services to provide the best care as quickly as possible to children and young people. It also enables children and young adults to be capable of achieving the same as a child who is not in care. Sexual Offences Act 2003 – This policy covers a large scale of offences, but is designed to cover against, sexual offences or rape in the United Kingdom or in some circumstances abroad. Adoption and Children Act 2002 – This act was put into place to ensure that children were going to homes that hold the best intentions for them. It also gives a more reasonable approach to single people and unmarried couples who would like to adopt and provides more assessments to ensure the child is going to the best home for them, but to also ensure that a family is adopting a child best suited to their current environment (i.e. if a family already has children, they will not be put at risk by putting a child with history of severe mental illness in the same home). United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 – â€Å"Protecting children from violence, exploitation and abuse is an integral component of protecting their rights to survival, growth and development† UNICEF, (2011) The Education Act 2002 – The policy was designed to create a structure for anyone in educational services to help with safeguarding. The helps protecting children and young people by ensuring a safe place to study. It also helps protect children and young people by identifying anyone who could be / already at risk in a school environment or at home. Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 – The act covers many areas of protecting victims of crimes. It also covers new rules and regulations to give bailiffs the power to use forcible entry to property if a child or vulnerable person is at risk of death. Vetting and barring scheme – After the conviction of Ian Huntley in 2003, further examination into Huntley’s past showed that he had been had been investigated and charged for other offences. But because of the structure of the original checks, he passed and was allowed to work in a school environment. Afterwards, the structure of the checking system was changed in order to ensure this would never happen again. The new checking system now covers every offence, investigation and charges to ensure that individuals with any form of criminal record and/ or any possibility of committing an offence can no longer work in an environment where there is a risk to children, young adults or adults who are vulnerable. 1.2 Child protection is only one piece of a larger concept of safeguarding. The health and safety of children and young people is paramount. It protects those who are young and vulnerable nearly every form of mistreatment like being neglected raped or abused mentally or physically. It helps to prevent those who could later suffer results of impairment of any form from the hands of mistreatment. Risk assessments to ensure a safe home and place of study are part of this. Making sure that schools are governed correctly and a structure of policies, rules and regulations are put in place and kept up to date. Ensuring any safeguard issues are dealt with properly, ensuring all staff are up to date with all aspects of training and also promoting the best development for all its students.The development of the children can include tests like the CAF to ensure that children receive any additional learning required, or other tests that ensure health and well – being of its students. 1.3 Every School and local authority has their own policies concerning child protection. All of them put the same ideals into action which are: â€Å" Be healthy Stay safe Enjoy and achieve Make a positive contribution Achieve economic well-being. â€Å" In order to make the community aware of child protection issues, campaigns and other similar methods are used. All communities have to be monitored to ensure that all targets and policies are met, also to ensure that all issues are being dealt with appropriately. It keeps a healthy communication with local services to ensure the best methods are used to benefit students. Also to report any signs of cruelty, neglect or abuse. This creates a better success rate of child development. If everybody knows what methods work best for a single / group of student(s), there I more chance for students to progress rather than regress in development. External health and safety management teams are put into place as another form of monitoring. This time they monitor the buildings and the possibilities of risks. Also health services visit to make children aware of what is healthy and unhealthy. To summarise, every student is protected by a large structure formed from all the acts that are implemented by the government. They all follow these acts to achieve this structure. When this structure is followed correctly there is less chance for a student to be at risk of many outcomes ( i.e. risk of harm, risk of being neglected or risk of failing to progress in development). 1.4 If a child is being neglected, abused or worst case scenario has died as a result of either, the child welfare officer should be notified in order in order to find out what happened to prevent this from happening again. They will access every aspect in order to achieve the most accurate of reports. When the report is finished, it will be reviewed and from this the government will decide what went wrong, why it went wrong, how they will improve their service in order to make it better. This in my opinion is the wrong approach to take because to me it seems like the government want to wait for it to happen and then study why it happened. I believe there is many forms of serious child abuse that are not considered as neglect or abuse due to the current status of the country. The government believe that just because a child lives in a home with a water supply, fridge – freezer and oven they have what they need. But this does not include food or clothing which should be included wh en raising a child. 1.5 All personnel must keep confidentiality in accordance of the Data Protection act 1998 (See TDA Section 4). This keeps all information private and helps to safeguard everyone who attends or work’s at the school. In order to keep full confidentiality, all staff are only permitted to discuss personal details, circumstances, or school work connected to their own child(ren). A parent will be able to discuss their children’s work and grades but will not have access to them. The only information that is shared is when a child has reached the age to attend secondary school. The secondary school will require information that is relevant in order to help the student maintain progression through this phase.

Judas :: essays research papers

Ever since you told me what your YL leader said, I have been studying it. Once I got into the word, I realized that I had dealt with this topic before, when our leader was â€Å"testing† our response to â€Å"questions of contradiction.† This is what I have concluded. First of all, notice that the text does not say that Judas died as a result of hanging. All it says is that he "went and hanged himself." Luke however, in Acts, tells us that "and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his entrails gushed out." This is a pretty clear indication (along with the other details given in Acts - Peter's speech, the need to pick a new apostle, etc.) that at least after Judas' fall, he was dead. So the whole concept that Matthew and Luke both recount Judas' death is highly probable, but not clear cut. Notice verse 5..."Then he...went and hanged himself." Matthew does not state death as being a result. The Greek word used is APAGCHO. Matthew 27:5 is it's only occurrence in the New Testament. In the LXX (the Greek translation of the OT used at the time of Jesus), it's only used in 2 Samuel 17:23 : â€Å"Now when Ahithophel saw that his advice was not followed, he saddled a donkey, and arose and went home to his hou se, to his city. Then he put his household in order, and hanged himself, and died; and he was buried in his father's tomb.† Notice that not only is it stated that Ahithophel "hanged himself" [APAGCHO], but it explicitly adds, "and died". Here we have no doubt of the result. In Matthew, we are not explicitly told Judas died. Also, there is nothing in the Greek to suggest success or failure. It simply means 'hang oneself'". So, my line of reasoning to dispel the contradiction myth is that the "two" accounts of Judas' death is this...Matthew doesn't necessarily explain how Judas died; he does say Judas "hanged himself", but he didn't specifically say Judas died in the hanging incident. However, Acts seems to show us his graphic demise. Therefore, there is no contradiction between Matthew and Acts, more specifically the death of Judas. So what happened to Judas? Well my opinion is that only God knows, but this is what I personally believe (there are many other theories of how Judas died, but it is such an unimportant topic when placed to the gospel as a whole, but know that the Bible is ERROR-FREE and any conclusion must be biblically based).

Building a 21st Century Organization

The power and versatility of the human visual system derive in large part from its remarkable ability to find structure and organization in the images encoded by the retinas. To discover and describe structure, the visual system uses a wide array of perceptual organization mechanisms ranging from the relatively low-level mechanisms that underlie the simplest principles of grouping and segregation, to relatively high-level mechanisms in which complex learned associations guide the discovery of structure.The Gestalt psychologists were the first to fully appreciate the fundamental importance of perceptual organization (e. g. , see Kohler, 1947; Pomerantz & Kubovy, 1986). Objects often appear in different contexts and are almost never imaged from the same viewpoint; thus, the retinal images associated with physical objects are generally complex and varied. To have any hope of obtaining a useful interpretation of the retinal images, such as recognizing objects that have been encountered p reviously, there must be initial processes that organize the image data into those groups most likely to form meaningful objects.Perceptual organization is also important because it generally results in highly compact representations of the images, facilitating later processing, storage, and retrieval. (See Witkin & Tenenbaum, 1983, for a discussion of the importance of perceptual organization from the viewpoint of computational vision. ) Although much has been learned about the mechanisms of perceptual organization (see, e. g. , Beck, 1982; Bergen, 1991; Palmer & Rock, 1994; Pomerantz & Kubovy, 1986), progress in developing testable quantitative theories has been slow.One area where substantial progress has been made is in models of texture grouping and segregation. These models have begun to put the study of perceptual organization on a firm theoretical footing that is consistent with the psychophysics and physiology of low-level vision. Two general types of model for texture segr egation have been proposed. In the feature-based models, retinal images are initially processed by mechanisms that find specific features, such as edge segments, line segments, blobs, and terminators.Grouping and segregation are then accomplished by finding the image regions that contain the same feature or cluster of features (see, e. g. , Julesz, 1984, 1986; Marr, 1982; Treisman, 1985). These models are relatively simple, are consistent with some aspects of low-level vision, and have been able to account for a range of experimental results. In the filter-based models, retinal images are initially processed by tuned channels, for example, â€Å"contrast-energy† channels selective for size and orientation.Grouping and segregation are then accomplished by finding those image regions with approximately constant output from one or more channels (Beck, Sutter, & Ivry, 1987; Bergen & Landy, 1991; Bovik, Clark, & Geisler, 1990; Caelli, 1988; Chubb & Sperling, 1988; Clark, Bovik, & Geisler, 1987; Fogel & Sagi, 1989; Graham, Sutter, & Venkatesan, 1993; Victor, 1988; Victor & Conte, 1991; Wilson & Richards, 1992).These models have some advantages over the existing feature-based models: They can be applied to arbitrary images, they are generally more consistent with known low-level mechanisms in the visual system, and they have proven capable of accounting for a wider range of experimental results. However, the current models do not make accurate predictions for certain important classes of stimuli. One class of stimuli are those that contain regions of texture that can be segregated only on the basis of local structure (i. e. , shape).Another broad class of stimuli for which most current perceptual organization models do not make adequate predictions are those containing nonstationary structures; specifically, structures that change smoothly and systematically across space. Nonstationary structures are the general rule in natural images because of perspective pr ojection, and because many natural objects are the result of some irregular growth or erosion process. A simple example of a nonstationary structure would be a contour formed by a sequence of line segments (a dashed contour) embedded in a background of randomly oriented line segments.Such contours are usually easily picked out by human observers. However, the elements of the contours cannot be grouped by the mechanisms contained in current filter-based or feature-based models, because no single orientation channel or feature is activated across the whole contour. Grouping the elements of such contours requires some kind of contour integration process that binds the successive contour elements together on the basis of local similarity. A more complex example of a nonstationary structure would be an image of wood grain.Such a texture contains many contours whose spacing, orientation, and curvature vary smoothly across the image. Again, such textures are easily grouped by human observe rs but cannot be grouped by the mechanisms contained in the current models. Grouping the contour elements of such textures requires some form of texture integration (the two-dimensional analogue of contour integration). The heart of the problem for existing quantitative models of grouping and segregation is that they do not represent the structure of the image data with the richness achieved by the human visual system.The human visual system apparently represents image information in an elaborate hierarchical fashion that captures many of the spatial, temporal, and chromatic relationships among the entities grouped at each level of the hierarchy. Grouping and segregation based on simple feature distinctions or channel responses may well be an important initial component of perceptual organization, but the final organization that emerges must depend on more sophisticated processes.The major theoretical aim of this study was to develop a framework for constructing and testing models o f perceptual organization that capture some of the richness and complexity of the representations extracted by the human visual system, and yet are computationally well defined and biologically possible. Within this framework, we have developed a model of perceptual organization for two-dimensional (2D) line images and evaluated it on a number of â€Å"textbook† perceptual organization demonstrations.In this article we refer to this model as the extended model when it is necessary to distinguish it from a simplified version, the restricted model, described later. Perceptual organization must depend in some way on detected similarities and differences between image elements. Furthermore, it is obvious that similarities and differences along many different stimulus dimensions can contribute to the organization that is perceived. Although there have been many studies of individual stimulus dimensions, there have been few systematic attempts to study how multiple dimensions inter act (Beck et al., 1987; Fahle & Abele, 1996; Li & Lennie, 1996). The major experimental aim of this study was to measure how multiple stimulus dimensions are combined to determine grouping strength between image elements. To this end, we conducted a series of three-pattern grouping experiments to directly measure the tradeoffs among two, three, or four stimulus dimensions at a time. Predictions for these experiments were generated by a restricted version of the model appropriate for the experimental task. The experimental results provided both a test for the restricted model and a means of estimating the model's parameters.The estimated parameter values were used to generate the predictions of the extended model for complex patterns. The next four sections describe, respectively, the theoretical framework, the restricted model, the experiments and results, and the extended model and demonstrations. Theoretical Framework for Perceptual Organization In this section we discuss four imp ortant components of perceptual organization: hierarchical representation, detection of primitives, detection of similarities and differences among image parts, and mechanisms for grouping image parts.These components taken together form the theoretical framework on which the restricted and extended quantitative models are based. Hierarchical Representation It is evident that the mechanisms of perceptual organization yield a rich hierarchical representation that describes the relationship of â€Å"parts† to â€Å"wholes† at a number of levels; that is, the wholes at one level often become the parts at the next level. However, there is evidence that the process by which the hierarchical representation is constructed does not proceed strictly either from local to global or from global to local.The global structure of a large letter composed of small letters can be discovered before the structure of the individual small letters is discovered (Navon, 1977), and there exist ambiguous figures, such as R. C. James's classic Dalmatian dog, that can be solved locally only after at least some of the global structure is discovered. On the other hand, the discovery of structure must sometimes proceed from local to global; for example, it would be hard to extract the symmetry of a complex object without first extracting some of the structure of its subobjects.Any well-specified theory of perceptual organization must define what is meant by parts, wholes, and relationships between parts and wholes. Given the current state of knowledge, all definitions, including the ones we have adopted, must be tentative. Nonetheless, some basic definitions must be made in order to form working models. In our framework, the most primitive objects are defined on the basis of the current understanding of image encoding in the primary visual cortex of the primate visual system.Higher order objects are defined to be collections of lower order objects (which may include primitive objects), together with information about the relationships between the lower order objects. The range of relationships that the visual system can discover, the order and speed with which they are discovered, and the mechanisms used to find them are unsettled issues. As a starting point the relationships we consider are quantitative similarities and differences in size, position, orientation, color, and shape.These dimensions were picked for historical and intuitive reasons: They are major categories in human language and therefore are likely to correspond to perceptually important categories. The precise definitions of these dimensions of similarity between objects are given later. Detection of Primitives: Receptive-Field Matching One of the simplest mechanisms for detecting structure within an image is receptive-field matching, in which relatively hard-wired circuits are used to detect the different spatial patterns of interest.For example, simple cells in the primary visual corte x of monkeys behave approximately like hard-wired templates: A strong response from a simple cell indicates the presence of a local image pattern with a position, orientation, size (spatial frequency), and phase (e. g. , even or odd symmetry) similar to that of the receptive-field profile (Hubel & Wiesel, 1968; for a review, see DeValois & DeValois, 1988). The complex cells in the primary visual cortex are another example.A strong response from a typical complex cell indicates a particular position, orientation, and spatial frequency independent of the spatial phase (Hubel & Wiesel, 1968; DeValois & DeValois, 1988). Receptive field matching may occur in areas other than the primary visual cortex, and may involve detection of image structures other than local luminance or chromatic contours, for example, structures such as phase discontinuities (von der Heydt & Peterhans, 1989) and simple radially symmetric patterns (Gallant, Braun, & Van Essen, 1993).An important aspect of receptive -field matching in the visual cortex is that the information at each spatial location is encoded by a large number of neurons, each selective to a particular size or scale. The population as a whole spans a wide range of scales and hence provides a â€Å"multiresolution† or â€Å"multiscale† representation of the retinal images (see, e. g. , DeValois & DeValois, 1988). This multiresolution representation may play an important role in perceptual organization.For example, grouping of low-resolution information may be used to constrain grouping of high-resolution information, and vice versa. The quantitative models described here assume that receptive-field matching provides the primitives for the subsequent perceptual organization mechanisms. However, to hold down the complexity of the models, the receptive-field matching stage is restricted to include only units similar to those of cortical simple cells with small receptive fields. These units proved sufficient for the line pattern stimuli used in the experiments and demonstrations.Receptive-field matching is practical only for a few classes of simple image structure, such as contour segments; it is unreasonable to suppose that there are hard-wired receptive fields for every image structure that the visual system is able to detect, because of the combinatorial explosion in the number of receptive-field shapes that would be required. Thus, there must be additional, more flexible, mechanisms for detecting similarities and differences among image regions. These are discussed next. Similarity/Difference Detection MechanismsStructure exists within an image if and only if some systematic similarities and differences exist between regions in the image. Thus, at the heart of any perceptual organization system there must be mechanisms that match or compare image regions to detect similarities and differences. (For this discussion, the reader may think of image regions as either parts of an image or as grou ps of detected primitives. ) Transformational matching A well-known general method of comparing image regions is to find out how well the regions can be mapped onto each other, given certain allowable transformations (see, e.g. , Neisser, 1967; Pitts & McCulloch, 1947; Rosenfeld & Kak, 1982; Shepard & Cooper, 1982; Ullman, 1996). The idea is, in effect, to use one image region as a transformable template for comparison with another image region. If the regions closely match, following application of one of the allowable transformations, then a certain similarity between the image regions has been detected. Furthermore, the specific transformation that produces the closest match provides information about the differences between the image regions.For example, consider an image that contains two groups of small line segment primitives detected by receptive-field matching, such that each group of primitives forms a triangle. If some particular translation, rotation, and scaling of one of the groups brings it into perfect alignment with the other group then we would know that the two groups are identical in shape, and from the aligning transformation itself we would know how much the two groups differ in position, orientation, and size. There are many possible versions of transformational matching, and thus it represents a broad class of similarity-detection mechanisms.Transformational matching is also very powerful—there is no relationship between two image regions that cannot be described given an appropriately general set of allowable transformations. Thus, although there are other plausible mechanisms for detecting similarities and differences between image regions (see section on attribute matching), transformational matching is general enough to serve as a useful starting point for developing and evaluating quantitative models of perceptual organization. Use of both spatial position and colorThe most obvious form of transformational matching is based on standard template matching; that is, maximizing the correlation between the two image regions under the family of allowable transformations. However, template matching has a well-known limitation that often produces undesirable results. To understand the problem, note that each point in the two image regions is described by a position and a color. The most general form of matching would consist of comparing both the positions and colors of the points. However, standard template matching compares only the colors (e. g. , gray levels 2 ) at like positions.If the points cannot be lined up in space then large match errors may occur even though the positional errors may be small. A more useful and plausible form of matching mechanism would treat spatial and color information more equivalently by comparing both the spatial positions and the colors of the points or parts making up the objects. For such mechanisms, if the colors of the objects are identical then similarity is determined solely by how well the spatial coordinates of the points or parts making up the objects can be aligned and on the values of the spatial transformations that bring them into the best possible alignment.In other words, when the colors are the same, then the matching error is described by differences in spatial position. For such mechanisms, B matches A better than B matches C, in agreement with intuition. Later we describe a simple matching mechanism that simultaneously compares both the spatial positions and the colors of object points. We show that this mechanism produces matching results that are generally more perceptually sensible than those of template matching. Attribute matchingAnother well-known method of comparing groups is to measure various attributes or properties of the groups, and then represent the differences in the groups by differences in the measured attributes (see, e. g. , Neisser, 1967; Rosenfeld & Kak, 1982; Selfridge, 1956; Sutherland, 1957). These attributes might be simple measures, such as the mean and variance of the color, position, orientation, or size of the primitives in a group, or they might be more complex measures, such as the invariant shape moments. It is likely that perceptual organization in the human visual system involves both transformational matching and attribute matching.However, the specific models considered here involve transformational matching exclusively. The primary reason is that perceptual organization models based on transformational matching have relatively few free parameters, yet they are sensitive to differences in image structure—an essential requirement for moving beyond existing filter- and feature-based models. For example, a simple transformational matching mechanism (described later) can detect small differences in arbitrary 2D shapes without requiring an explicit description of the shapes.On the other hand, specifying an attribute-matching model that can detect small differences in arbitr ary shapes requires specifying a set of attributes that can describe all the relevant details of arbitrary shapes. This type of model would require many assumptions and/or free parameters. Our current view is that transformational matching (or something like it) may be the central mechanism for similarity/difference detection and that it is supplemented by certain forms of attribute matching. Matching groups to categoriesThe discussion so far has assumed implicitly that transformational and attribute matching occur between different groups extracted from the image. However, it is obvious that the brain is also able to compare groups with stored information because this is essential for memory. Thus, the visual system may also measure similarities and differences between groups and stored categories, and perform subsequent grouping using these similarities and differences. These stored categories might be represented by prototypes or sets of attributes.Rather than use stored categori es, the visual system could also measure similarities and differences to categories that emerge during the perceptual processing of the image. For example, the visual system could extract categories corresponding to prevalent colors within the image, and then perform subsequent grouping on the basis of similarities between the colors of image primitives and these emergent color categories. Grouping Mechanisms Once similarities and differences among image parts are discovered, then the parts may be grouped into wholes.These wholes may then be grouped to form larger wholes, resegregated into a different collection of parts, or both. However, it is important to keep in mind that some grouping can occur before all of the relevant relationships between the parts have been discovered. For example, it is possible to group together all image regions that have a similar color, before discovering the geometrical relationships among the regions. As further relationships are discovered, the rep resentations of wholes may be enriched, new wholes may be formed, or wholes may be broken into new parts and reformed.Thus, the discovery of structure is likely to be an asynchronous process that operates simultaneously at multiple levels, often involving an elaborate interleaving of similarity/difference detection and grouping. Within the theoretical framework proposed here we consider one grouping constraint—the generalized uniqueness principle—and three grouping mechanisms: transitive grouping, nontransitive grouping, and multilevel grouping. The uniqueness principle and the grouping mechanisms can be applied at multiple levels and can be interleaved with similarity/difference detection.Generalized uniqueness principle The uniqueness principle proposed here is more general: it enforces the constraint that at any time, and at any level in the hierarchy, a given object (part) can be assigned to only one superordinate object (whole). An object at the lowest level (a pr imitive) in the hierarchy can be assigned to only one object at the next level, which in turn can be assigned to only one object at the next level, and so on. The sequence of nested objects in the hierarchy containing a given object is called the part–whole path of the object.The generalized uniqueness principle, if valid, constrains the possible perceptual organizations that can be found by the visual system. Nontransitive grouping Our working hypothesis is that similarity in spatial position (proximity) contributes weakly to nontransitive grouping. If proximity were making a dominant contribution, then separated objects could not bind together separately from the background objects. Proximity contributes powerfully to a different grouping mechanism, transitive grouping, which is described next.We propose that transitive and nontransitive grouping are in some competition with each other and that the visual system uses both mechanisms in the search for image structure. Refere nces Beck, J. (Ed. ). (1982). Organization and representation in perception. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Beck, J. , Sutter, A. , & Ivry, R. (1987). Spatial frequency channels and perceptual grouping in texture segregation. Computer Vision, Graphics and Image Processing, 37, 299–325. Bergen, J. R. (1991). Theories of visual texture perception. In D. Regan (Ed. ), Spatial vision (pp. 114–134). New York: Macmillan. Bergen, J. R., & Landy, M. S. (1991). Computational modeling of visual texture segregation. In M. S. Landy & J. A. Movshon (Eds. ), Computational models of visual processing (pp. 253–271). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Bovik, A. C. , Clark, M. , & Geisler, W. S. (1990). Multichannel texture analysis using localized spatial filters. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 12, 55–73. Caelli, T. M. (1988). An adaptive computational model for texture segmentation. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, 18, 9–17. Chub b, C. , & Sperling, G. (1988). Processing stages in non-Fourier motion perception.Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 29Suppl. 266. Clark, M. , Bovik, A. C. , & Geisler, W. S. (1987). Texture segmentation using a class of narrowband filters. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (pp. 571–574). New York: IEEE. Fahle, M. , & Abele, M. (1996). Sub-threshold summation of orientation, color, and luminance cues in figure–ground discrimination. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 37Suppl. S1147. Fogel, I. , & Sagi, D. (1989). Gabor filters as texture discriminator. Biological Cybernetics, 61, 103–113.Gallant, J. L. , Braun, J. , & Van Essen, D. C. (1993, January). Selectivity for polar, hyperbolic, and Cartesian gratings in macaque visual cortex. Science, 259, 100–103. Geisler, W. S. , & Albrecht, D. G. (1995). Bayesian analysis of identification in monkey visual cortex: Nonlinear m echanisms and stimulus certainty. Vision Research, 35, 2723–2730. Geisler, W. S. , & Albrecht, D. G. (1997). Visual cortex neurons in monkeys and cats: Detection, discrimination and identification. Visual Neuroscience, 14, 897–919. Geisler, W. S. , & Chou, K. (1995). Separation of low-level and high-level fac

Creating A Constructivist Classroom Education Essay

Abstractions:Constructionism claims that scholars are able to build cognition most of course and wholly while they are building some artefacts. This paper explains that cognition acquisition is a procedure of design that is facilitated when scholars are actively engaged in planing cognition instead than simply construing or encoding it i.e. Learners benefit the most from the larning procedure when they are the interior decorators of the instructional experiences. Constructivist instructors encourage pupils to measure how the activity is assisting them derive understanding. By oppugning themselves and their schemes, pupils become adept scholars as they learn how to larn. The pupils so have the tools necessary to go life-long scholars. Educational Technology can help pedagogues in making a constructivist larning environment. It offers a enormous sum of information, tools for creativeness and development, and assorted environments and forums for communicating. Through engineering, pupil s can show themselves and their creative activities and they can reply inquiries that they are presenting for themselves. Hence, this paper tries to set forward the fact that Constructivist pattern is made easier with engineering because it promotes collaborative, synergistic and student-centered acquisition. Cardinal words: Constructionism, instructional experiences, life-long scholars, collaborative, student-centered acquisition.Introduction:Education is at the meeting of powerful and quickly switching educational, technological and political forces that will determine the construction of educational systems across the Earth for the balance of this century. The handiness of engineering may take instructors to integrate constructivist patterns in their schoolroom. Rakes, et.al. ( 1999 ) found that the sum of engineering available, the degree of engineering accomplishments of the instructors, and the usage of engineering were straight related to utilize of constructivist methods in the schoolroom. They province, â€Å" engineering can supply the vehicle for carry throughing constructivist instruction patterns † . Technology complements constructivism by supplying on-going information and tools for pupil creativeness and development, which contributes significantly to an addition in pupil larning results. It serves as a powerful tool for constructivism ‘s cardinal rule that pupils learn by making. Constructivist pattern is made easier with engineering because it promotes collaborative, synergistic and student-centered acquisition. The usage of engineering in the schoolroom besides has a positive consequence on pupil attitudes because they feel more successful, are motivated to larn and hold better assurance ( Dwyer, et Al, 1991 ) . In today ‘s digital economic system, the ability to entree, adapt, and make cognition utilizing engineering is critical to a pupil ‘s success.Significance OF CONSTRUCTIVIST VIEWS OF LEARNING:Merely late has it become executable to see constructivism rules within the context of technology-mediated higher instruction ( Gunawardena, Lowe & A ; Anderson, 1997 ; Blanchette & A ; Kanuka, 1999 ) . This is due chiefly to progresss in communicating engineerings ensuing in an effectual agencies to implement constructivism ru les, which would be hard to carry through with other media ( Driscoll, 1994 ) . Specifically, communicating engineerings have the capacity to supply an synergistic environment that can back up instructional methods required to ease constructivist rules. For these grounds, constructivism has become a popular epistemic place for many pedagogues who are utilizing technology-mediated acquisition. Unfortunately, pedagogues who take on the challenge of seeking to do sense of the literature on constructivism frequently find it to be an overpowering escapade. There are a assortment of epistemic places that coexist in the literature on how we construct knowledge – many utilizing the same constructivist label. Conversely, there are many different labels used to depict the same cardinal thoughts built-in in many constructivist places. Adding to the labeling confusion is another job: some of the instruction literature describes constructivism as a set of instructional schemes, some descr ibe constructivism as a acquisition theory, and others describe constructivism philosophically – or as a manner we come to understand ourselves and our environment. The undermentioned literature reappraisal identifies the Hagiographas on constructivism that are notable. Hagiographas were identified as notable when they made of import theoretical points about the usage of constructivism for technology-mediated acquisition. Constructivism positions larning as a personal, brooding, and transformative procedure where thoughts, experiences, and points of position are processed into something new. In this doctrine, instructors are the facilitators for the pupils ‘ acquisition ( Sandholtz et al. , 1997 ) instead than the provokers. In the knowledge-constructed schoolroom, the pupils work together, sharing the procedure of larning non merely with their equals but with parents and others ( Sandholtz et al. , 1997 ) . The literature is rich with illustrations and grounds back uping the claim that cognition is constructed and non transferred. This attack to acquisition has become known as constructivism ( Jonassen, 1999 ; Riel & A ; Fulton ; Schank, Berman, & A ; Macpherson, 1999 ) . Learning takes topographic point in every schoolroom. The job is that it is frequently non what we expected would be learned ( Smith, 1998 ) . The constructivist larning environment contains a job that is cardinal to the sphere of survey, theoretical accounts of the acquisition procedure by an expert, and is scaffolded by a manager or more adept scholar that extends the ability of the scholar ( Jonassen, 1999 ) . Balakrishnan ( 2001 ) investigated the usage of constructivism and engineering in project-based acquisition in simple schoolrooms and found that instructors ‘ planning and pattern of project-based acquisition activities are focused more on multiple instructional activities and less on integrating of constructivism and engineering. Julius ( 2001 ) investigated how constructivism was evidenced in the beliefs, perceptual experiences, and patterns of in-between degree instructors who were considered to be effectual instructors. The consequences revealed that constructivists held consciousness of the function of both pupil and instructor in impacting the cognitive development in pupils. Classrooms using a constructivist attack to pedagogy would be pupil centered ( Bransford, 2003 ) .PRIORITIES OF EDUCATIONAL TECNOLOGY IN CONSTRUCTIVIST PRACTICE:The four precedences are:Thatch for Intellectual Development1. Critical and originative thought accomplishments development 2. Demonstrated competences in nucleus course of study 3. Effective usage of engineering in the schoolroom in support of larning 4. Application of larning accomplishments to relevant, real-life state of affairssMake Learning Meaningful1. Appreciation of diverseness of larning manners and personalities 2. Appreciation and application of appropriate instruction manners 3. Giving pupils the chance to have their acquisition experiences 4. Developing a passion for life-long acquisitionUse Authentic Assessment1. Set high criterions for ego and pupils 2. Developing a dynamic attack to a changing universe 3. Demonstrate competences through public presentation 4. Promote active engagement in our democratic societyFocus on Students Becoming Manufacturers and Subscribers1. Lend to others in category in and community 2. Foster value as an person and as a conducive member of society 3. Use larning accomplishments in real-life state of affairss and for existent wagess 4. Interact/team with other instructors and community members.ROLE PLAYED BY EDUCATIONAL TECNOLOGY IN CONSTRUCTIVIST CLASSROOM:a-? Paradigm displacement in position of the learning procedure:Paradigm displacement in position of the acquisition procedure coupled with applications of the new information engineerings, may play an of import function in conveying educational systems into alignment with the knowledge-based, information-rich society. The general impression sing the usage of computing machines in instruction is that it may best be used as a tool for drill and pattern plans supplementing the instructional procedure. In such instructional procedures, the scholar receives information already programmed inside the computing machine following an algorithm. Although some sum of interactivity is ensured, the general feeling is that in such instructional procedures, computing machines control the acquisition construction giving the scholar really small room for creativeness, doing h im a inactive receiver of information. There is a demand to research the potencies of this device beyond these traditional impressions i.e. the meaningful designing of computing machine based instructional procedures with increased pupil engagement. Besides, it is non the drawn-out use on the device that would guarantee the coveted acquisition instead the nature of these larning undertakings, which would transform and enrich the instructional procedures. Computer application plans can be used to plan larning experiences to develop originative and critical thought and be used as ‘mind tools ‘ that can be used by pupils to stand for what they know and to prosecute in critical thought about the content.a-? Use of ICT in altering the function of the instructor from ‘prescriptor ‘ to that of ‘orchestor ‘ of acquisition:In schoolrooms today, the function of the instructor needs to alter from the traditional function of prescriptor to that of orchestrato r of larning – which necessitates the designing of ICT integrated schoolrooms advancing higher order cognitive accomplishments. The focal point ought to be more on enquiry-based attacks frequently traveling beyond the prescribed course of study to dig and seek replies to the job under concern but now from different positions. This methodological analysis is disputing both for the instructor every bit good as for the scholar but finally the procedure of self-learning ensures a more strict attack and deeper apprehension of facts. The focal point is more on the procedure of information acquisition, the critical and analytical thought involved in geting information from multiple beginnings, analysing any information and so planing the acquisition results in aesthetic presentations. Such a theoretical account of larning focal points more on the procedure over the merchandise, geting information from multiple beginnings, analytical and critical thought and eventually a comprehensiv e rating measuring different countries of pupil academic growing.a-? Development of educational portfolio through the usage of ICT:An educational portfolio is one such typical invention that can advance constructivist acquisition in the otherwise traditional schoolroom. It is a combination of a figure of larning undertakings and a digest of the results achieved as a consequence of the procedures undergone therein. A critical constituent is the accent on ‘process ‘ over ‘product ‘ and the changeless contemplation of the scholar as he moves from one phase to another in the realisation of the aims. The other important characteristic is the acquisition of information from multiple beginnings and the necessary constituent of changeless informations analysis before continuing to the undermentioned phases in the development of the educational portfolio. Appraisal of larning results besides is a comprehensive one taking into history different countries of scholar aca demic growing as a consequence of the procedures being carried out from designation of ends to acquisition of relevant information and eventually its processing and airing.a-? Promoting portfolio appraisal through ICT:Portfolio appraisal is a comprehensive mode of pupil rating integrating a assortment of larning undertakings with appropriate and timely proviso of the necessary guidelines to finish the same within accorded standards and allotted clip bounds. Portfolio Assessment, with a focal point on growing and development over clip, implemented through choice, contemplation and review of category work, along with end puting and self-evaluation. These are public presentation enablers that define the acceptable criterions expected from the scholar and therefore specify the way that he needs to follow to accomplish excellence. What differentiates the educational portfolio from the traditional signifiers of appraisal is the designing of the portfolio around a set of criterions and lar ning ends which are non the direct results of the schoolroom instructional procedures, instead an enterprise to guarantee pupil higher order acquisition as a consequence of these instructional procedures. Function Direction Construction Classroom Activity Teacher-centered ; didactic Learner-centered ; synergistic Teacher Role Fact Teller ; expert Confederate ; scholar Student Role Listener ; ever the scholar Confederate ; sometimes the expert Instructional Emphasis Facts ; memorisation Relationships ; enquiry and innovation Concept of Knowledge Accretion of facts Transformation of facts Presentation of Success Measure Quality of understanding Appraisal Norm-referenced ; multiple-choice points Criterion-referenced ; portfolios and public presentations Technology Use Drill and pattern Communication, collabor- ation, information entree and retrieval, looka-? Educational engineering advancing multiple positions of acquisition:With the aid of educational engineering the accent is on cognition building, non reproduction ; the composing of information instead than the infliction of cognition ; multiple outlooks instead than multiple workbooks. The instructor must fix with inventive foresight, and imperative penetration in order to excite and imitate effectual brushs that resemble existent life instruction. Wyld, S. and Eklund, J. ( 1997 ) .A province that: â€Å" facing scholars with jobs from multiple positions can advance the pertinence of their cognition across changing state of affairss. Learners have to work with the same construct in different environments at different and with different ends. So they are expected to develop cognitive flexibleness and to bring forth multiple positions of their cognition. † a-? Educational engineering making constructivist schoolroom through active acquisition: Learners can non build cognition merely by passively having, geting, or accepting it ; A nor by inertly listening nor heeding.A Knowledge is non formed during the transmittal of it.A Therefore the accent for direction must be on the creative activity of significance and understanding while meeting new information or new contexts.A Active scholars need to be involved bypartaking, take parting, building and cooperating.A Jonassen ( 1996 ) states that scholars must be given chances to be active in ways that will advance autonomy, creativeness and critical analysis of jobs necessitating a solution.A Wilson ( 1997 ) , created a list of chances for the scholars to develop more active buildings of meaning.A They included simulations, scheme and role-playing games, toolkits and phenomenaria, multimedia larning environments, knowing acquisition environments, storytelling constructions, instance surveies, Socratic duologues, training and scaffolding, larning by design, acquisition by learning, group cooperation, collaborative acquisition and holistic psychotechnologies.a-? Educational engineering advancing collaborative acquisition chances:Collaborative work allows for schoolrooms to be more concerted than competitive.A Students begin to see one another as resources instead than beginnings of ridicule.A The societal context within which a scholar resides is important to their accomplishment. Strommen & A ; Lincoln ( 1992 ) A found that: â€Å" Constructivism has led to the extra find that powerful additions are made when kids work together†¦ ..children are able to reflect on and luxuriant notA merely their ain thoughts but those of their equals as good. Children come to see their equals non as rivals but as resources. † To understand a construct to the point of being able to explicate it to others, is when existent acquisition has occurred and personal cognition has been acquired.A Lunenberg ( 1998 ) believes the value of collaborative acquisition is in the chance for scholars to lucubrate on their ain thoughts every bit good as those of their peers.A Worldwide coaction is besides actuating for both pupils and instructors as it provides an appealing manner for pupils to derive internet accomplishments while go toing to regular schoolroom activities. The worldview of the pupil can be expanded because of the nothing cost of pass oning with other people around the Earth.Decision:Educational Technology provide an array of powerful tools that may assist in transforming the present stray, teacher-centered and text-bound schoolrooms into rich, student-focused, synergistic cognition environments. To run into these challenges, schools must encompass the new engineerings and allow the new ICT tools for larning. They must besides travel towards the end of transforming the traditional paradigm of larning. To carry through this end requires both a alteration in the traditional position of the acquisition procedure and an apprehension of how the new digital engineerings can make new larning environments in which pupils are engaged scholars, able to take greater duty for their ain acquisition and building their ain cognition. Constructivism modifies the function of the instructor so that instructors help pupils to build cognition instead than reproduce a series of facts. The constructivist instructor provides tools such as problem-solving and inquiry-based acquisition activities so that pupils can explicate and prove their thoughts, draw decisions and illations, and convey their cognition in a collaborative acquisition environment.

Victim-Blaming Rape Myths

Victim-Blaming Rape Myths Question: What are Rape Myths - Why Do Myths About Rape Often Blame the Victim? Answer: Rape myths are assumptions about the act of rape and the victims of rape that frequently reduce empathy for and even shift blame to the victim. Often unproven or downright wrong, rape myths are nonetheless widely accepted. A concept first introduced by sociologist Martha R. Burt in 1980, rape myths are defined as prejudicial, stereotyped, or false beliefs about rape, rape victims and rapists. Rape myths can lead us to justify acts of sexual violence by rationalizing that the victim did something wrong and therefore is at fault. When women believe rape myths, they frequently separate and/or distance themselves from the victim by saying, That would never happen to me because.... The following are common rape myths: Its not rape if theyre datingthere was no force/violence involvedshe didnt fight itshe went home with himshe wasnt aware of what was happeningshe said no but really meant yesshes a prostitute She wouldnt have been raped if she wasnt drinking alcoholwearing tight/sexy clothingleading him onslutty/a bad girl/sleeping aroundasking for ityoung and attractivein the wrong place at the wrong time the LA Weekly blog described her The tendency to take a judgmental view of rape victims is s direct result of viewing this violent crime through the lens of rape myths. Sources:Beere, Carole A. Sex and gender issues: a handbook of tests and measures. Pages 400-401. Greenwood Publishing Group. 1990.Raja, Sheela. Rape Myths Persist - Reactions to the Assault on Lara Logan. WomensMediaCenter.org. 17 February 2011.Wilson, Simone. Lara Logan, CBS Reporter and Warzone It Girl, Raped Repeatedly Amid Egypt Celebration. Blogs.LAWeekly.com. 16 February 2011.

Free Essays on Dune

Frank Herbert ¡Ã‚ ¦s Dune is the story of an empire in chaos, a royal family in the mist of treachery, of corruption and loyalty. This story takes place in a richly detailed universe with complex economic, social and religious histories and is set in a time where they are important for survival. Corruption within a royal family can bring destruction to the throne Arrakis is the sole source of Melange, the "spice of spices." Melange is necessary for interstellar travel and grants psychic powers and longevity, Fighting over each other for control of Melange is the main cause of corruption. Melange turned loyal servants against their own masters and peaceful tribe people into savages. "Melange was merely his instrument for telling that story of corruption" ( McNelly 3 ) Loyalty and treachery both relate to corruption. In a world that is harsh and cruel, corruption alone can bring destruction to even the greatest of powers... Free Essays on Dune Free Essays on Dune Frank Herbert ¡Ã‚ ¦s Dune is the story of an empire in chaos, a royal family in the mist of treachery, of corruption and loyalty. This story takes place in a richly detailed universe with complex economic, social and religious histories and is set in a time where they are important for survival. Corruption within a royal family can bring destruction to the throne Arrakis is the sole source of Melange, the "spice of spices." Melange is necessary for interstellar travel and grants psychic powers and longevity, Fighting over each other for control of Melange is the main cause of corruption. Melange turned loyal servants against their own masters and peaceful tribe people into savages. "Melange was merely his instrument for telling that story of corruption" ( McNelly 3 ) Loyalty and treachery both relate to corruption. In a world that is harsh and cruel, corruption alone can bring destruction to even the greatest of powers... Free Essays on Dune Frank Herbert ¡Ã‚ ¦s Dune is the story of an empire in chaos, a royal family in the mist of treachery, of corruption and loyalty. This story takes place in a richly detailed universe with complex economic, social and religious histories and is set in a time where they are important for survival. Corruption within a royal family can bring destruction to the throne Arrakis is the sole source of Melange, the "spice of spices." Melange is necessary for interstellar travel and grants psychic powers and longevity, Fighting over each other for control of Melange is the main cause of corruption. Melange turned loyal servants against their own masters and peaceful tribe people into savages. "Melange was merely his instrument for telling that story of corruption" ( McNelly 3 ) Loyalty and treachery both relate to corruption. In a world that is harsh and cruel, corruption alone can bring destruction to even the greatest of powers...

Advantages of Discovery Learning

Advantages of Discovery Learning Jump to: Advantages of Discovery Learning Discovery learning was first put into writing by Jerome Bruner in the 1970’s. In part II of his book titled â€Å"The Quest for Clarity†, Bruner discusses his views on â€Å"the Act of Discovery†. Bruner states his belief that to successfully educate, the educator must first assess what is already known. In this essay Bruner summarizes the basic principles of discovery learning, their benefits, its process, and a set of experiments that Bruner used which according to him, proved his theory. This essay will use research that supports Bruner’s theory in an attempt to prove that discovery learning is more effective than direct instruction and explain how educators should teach in result of the research. What is discovery learning? Discovery learning is an approach to learning that can be facilitated by specific teaching methods and guided learning strategies. For this essay the term discovery learning will refer to learning that takes place within in the individual, the teaching and instructional strategies designed by the teacher, and the environment created when these strategies are used. Direct or traditional instruction are strategies used in teacher led classrooms, including lectures, drill and practice, and expository learning. Bicknell, Holmes, and Hoffman (2000) describe the three main attributes of discovery learning as 1) exploring and problem solving to create, integrate, and generalize knowledge, 2) student driven, interest based activities in which student determines the sequence and frequency, and 3) activities to encourage integration of new knowledge into the learner’s existing knowledge base. The first attribute to discovery learning is a very important one. By exploring problems, and coming up with their own solutions, student’s are taking an active role in creating integrating, and generalizing knowledge. Student’s are not passively taking in information , as they would during a lecture, but are coming up with broad applications for skills by taking risks, solving problems, and examining unique, but useful experiences (Bicknell-Holmes & Hoffman, 2000). This attribute of discovery learning dramatically changes the role of students and teachers, which some traditional teachers find hard to accept. The second attribute of discovery learning is that it encourages students to learn at their own pace (Bicknell-Holmes & Hoffman, 2000). This attribute allow students learning to progress freely as the student is ready to learn new material. Students must obtain a high level of motivation and take ownership in their learning for this attribute to be met. The third major attribute of discovery learning is that it is based on the principle of using existing knowledge as a basis to build new knowledge (Bicknell-Holmes & Hoffman, 2000). Students must be encouraged and provided with knowledge they already know to extend this knowledge and build ne w ideas. A good example of this is when students discover how to multiply a three digit number by a three digit number, by using their knowledge of multiplying a two digit number by a two digit number. The student would build on what they know about multiplication to come up with a new way of multiplying three digits by three digits.

Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 19

Case Study Example Carnival Cruise Lines had established an office in Boston that concentrated on advertising the fun aspects of the company’s cruise ships. However, the new advertisements will focus mainly on showcasing the safety precautions that the company has installed in its cruise ships for example, the fire safety technologies and a vacation program that grants one hundred and ten percent refund for disgruntled customers (Levere). This reassures the passengers that they are safe. The advertisement will also showcase the fun aspect of cruise by airing videos and photographs taken by former passengers and employees to display the experience on the cruise ships. They will also invite a number of celebrities who will discuss food and other family related topics (Levere). The new marketing strategy will attract new customer after considering the safety measures provided, hence assuring passengers a safe cruise. The segment focusing on the fun part of the cruise ship will help attract passengers as they will want to experience some of the moments that other passengers have experienced aboard the cruise ships (Levere). Levere, Jane. "Spot Shares Moments of Better Cruise Memories." The New York Times. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.

What are the major ethical issues associated with conflict in the Research Paper

What are the major ethical issues associated with conflict in the contemporary workplace - Research Paper Example Drug testing is one of the areas that can lead to ethical issues in the workplace. The use of drug testing in the workplace can create an environment where employees are in constant conflicts with the management (Sterba, 2009). For instance, the management of a firm can insist that workers undergo drug testing even when they do not want. This practice can be forced without mutual agreement with employees being threatened by their employers. All these instances present ethical scenarios that undermine relations in the workplace. Falsification of information is also another area that depicts the extent of ethics within a business organization (Chonko, 2000). Conflict can arise between workers and their employees because of falsified information. For instance, an employee can falsify information to receive a promotion or to portray others on the wrong thus leading to conflicts. Sexual harassment represents another area of ethical concern in a work place. According to Allhoff and Vaidya (2008), sexual harassment entails the harassment of people in a sexual manner. This practice is of ethical concern given that it moral permissibility in a workplace is debatable. With sexual harassment, the relationship between perpetrators of this act and their victims can suffer and translate to reduced interactions at work. It can also lead to limited commitment at work. In the workplace, sexual harassment can occur when workers touch their colleagues with approval in a sexual manner. It may also mean compromising with other workers by forcing them into sexual acts for them to receive favors. Lack of fairness can be considered as another area that presents ethical issues. In a business environment, workers expect to be treated fairly like others workers. Unfair treatment can affect the morale of workers and leads to high turnover of workers. As an example, the

Information Managment Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Information Managment - Case Study Example However, these retailing powerhouses have weaker market presence in areas where Pamida is located thus creating a competitive, first entrant and first mover advantage for the company. (Porter, 1985) ShopKo has implemented a systems application called Markdown Optimizer in order to deal with pricing of a product according to season, store location, local tastes and past demand. The software analyzes historical pricing plus sales data in order to control and price product leftovers of individual stores. Pamida overhauled its inventory management systems in order to address product shortage from its different stores. It has implemented a full service distribution system in three warehouse locations. Initially, the company experienced setbacks and low earnings caused by the implementation of the new distribution system. This was due to a inappropriate allocation of resources where Pamida focused on new technology infrastructures and new merchandising software without modernizing their back-door operations. The warehouse management system was old, inflexible and outdated. The functionalities and features of the software were not anymore aligned to the new business strategy and it cannot cope up with the growth of the company's demand. The company normalized its distribution operations when it has utilized and employed a better and flexible distribution system software. Results and Business Benefits The ShopKo operations have benefited a lot from the new application. The Markdown Optimizer increased the gross margin and decreased its payroll costs from the previous year. Importantly, it has dramatically decreased the percentage of unsold goods at the end of each season. With these benefits, the net profit of ShopKo has increased. On the other hand, Pamida performed well by maintaining a high in-stock availability of merchandise through effective warehousing, efficient distribution and modernized information systems. At the end of 2001, Pamida has turned around its operational setbacks and implemented a functional full service distribution system.. They had become successful such that the company has decided to consolidate its distribution at two centers instead of three to further save on costs. Key Learnings Information systems strategies should be aligned with the business strategy of a company. It must not focus on modernization of infrastructures alone. It is important for IS to give value to the company and compliment the business goals. As part of strategic management, information system's role in the decision making process has become very important in the organization. It functions both as support and driver of corporate strategies.(Pearlson, 2001) An effective information system needs a valuable and useful symbiosis with the rest of the management structures in an organization.(Turban et al, 1999) Case 2: What Happened to Kmart Background Kmart was the largest discount chain in the retail industry. It was established in 1962 and has expanded to 63 stores at the end of 1963 through their introduction of discount stores.

What Does the Term Postmodernism Mean Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

What Does the Term Postmodernism Mean - Essay Example The essay "What Does the Term Postmodernism Mean" states the term of postmodernism. The type of art in the postmodernism era is marked by a general lack of trust for ideologies hence the reason why it deals with combination of ideas. The shift from modernism to postmodernism (which was basically movement from emotional expression which is what modernism art was based on to a combination of several ideologies) was necessitated by the fact that critics started evaluating the artists on the intrinsic value of their work which meant that there was to be an elimination of emotions from the canvas and an increase in self-awareness. Postmodernism is characterized by several factors which also explain the shift from modernism. One of these factors is the fact that education priorities shifted from the previous pursuit of knowledge to skills. This made art students lose interest in learning and concentrate more on mastering the skills of art rather than learning about its history and a lot of seemingly irrelevant information. The change created more room for creativity now that students had a lot of time to really concentrate on their skills. Creative art therefore became more important in this movement than it was previously. In the wake of 1970s and 1980s, technology had started evolving widely and faster hence forcing the artists to do away with draughtsmanship and embracing the technology to create new forms of art. This embrace of new technology to create art contributed to a change in era.

Current Event Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Current Event - Essay Example But to characterize this crisis as a tribal conflict would be simplistic in the extreme. To the contrary, the Darfur crisis is caused by political, economic and social marginalization that, unless properly addressed by both national policies, will wreak havoc upon the region for some time into the future. To fully understand the root causes of the present crisis, it is necessary to gain a complete appreciation of the Darfur region in its proper geographic and historical contexts. Geographically speaking, the western portion of Sudan known as Darfur is in area about 493,180 square kilometers, about 20% of the nation's total territory of 2,505, 813 square kilometers and is subdivided into three wilayats or states known as Gharb (West) Darfur, Janub (South) Darfur, and Shamal (North) Darfur. These states suffer from the lack of perennial watercourses and as a result, their population is scarce and tends to cluster around permanent wells. Western Darfur is a plain that has the greatest water supply. The drainage from the volcanic massif, the Jabal Marrah, washes onto the plain, allowing for a somewhat larger settled population. This area also has a significant portion of the so-called qoz sands. Here, although livestock raising is the major economic activity, significant crop cultivation also takes place. In contrast, North and South Darfur are semi-deserts that have little water from the wadis or the wells that dry up in the winter. The soils in these areas support vegetation for grazing (Geography). The entire region has few natural resources. About six million people inhabit Darfur, drawn from about eighty different tribes and ethnic groups. From a subsistence perspective, these ethnic groups fit into two categories. First, there are the livestock herders who are for the most part, Arabic speakers. The second group is composed of the farmers, who are bilingual and are considered Africans. The ethnic groups in Darfur include the Fur, Bani Halba, Tanhor, Borty, Habaniya, Zaghawa, Zayadia, Rizaigat, Masaleet, Taaishya, Maidoub, Bargo, Dajs, Bani Hussain, Tama, Mahria, Mohameed, Salamat, Messairia, Eraighat, Etafab, Fallata, Ghimir, Bani Mansour, Ab-Darag, Selaihab, Mima, Turgom, Marareet and other African and Arabian tribes. The language spoken is Arabic and the religion for both Arabs and Africans is Sunni Muslims (Darfur Conflict). Historically, the inception of modern day Darfur came with the Fur dominated Keira dynasty that arose in the seventeenth century. This sultanate, which was established by Sulayman Solongdungo (1650- 1680), managed its expansion throughout the region through a combination of peaceful and coercive incorporation of territorial and tribal groups (Young). In 1787, Sultan Mohammed Tayrab extended the sultanate to the Nile when he conquered the Funj province of Korodofan (Young, 2). The rulers of the Keira dynasty then continued to encourage a pattern of immigration into the region to provide for increased manpower needs. Whole groups were brought into the area through means such as land grants and high sultanate positions (Young, 2). Eventually, this process of assimilation and incorporation settled the basic pattern of ethnic grouping into specific regions that still stand to the present day. The tribal distribution that emerged can be categorized by livelihood and ecology. The sedentary farmers, which include

Fadiamn book, The spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Essay

Fadiamn book, The spirit Catches You and You Fall Down - Essay Example Their different approaches and beliefs to Lia Lee’s condition, the miscommunication between the parents and the doctors, partly because of the language barrier, and her parents’ refusal to administer the medication leads to worsening of the condition that leaves Lia Lee brain dead. Since the Hmong culture believed that illness was practically a matter of spirituality and sacrifices, they did not take their daughter to the hospital for diagnosis. It was only after several seizures that they decided to take her to the hospital. The American doctors diagnosed Lia with epilepsy and gave her medication to manage the condition. The parents reluctantly agree to administer the medication but over the next four years, the anticonvulsants do not take effect as the doctors keep changing her prescriptions. This causes Lia Lees parents to doubt the effectiveness of the medication and consequently refuse to administer the drugs to Lia. This decision makes the American doctors take ac tion against Lia’s parents and place Lia in foster care where she could be given the drugs and hopefully get better. However a few months after returning home, Lai has a massive seizure that leaves her brain dead. With death imminent, the doctors allow her to be taken home by her parents, who were still hopeful that they would be able to unite Lia’s soul with her body and hence were organizing a pig sacrifice that was part of the Hmong’s rituals for uniting souls to their bodies. There is an evident cultural dissonance in regards to the Hmong’s view of sicknesses as tied to their culture and the American medical culture. The Hmong tie sicknesses to spirituality and believe that sicknesses are a result of an individual’s soul leaving its body and keep wondering after being possessed by spirits. In order to unite the wondering spirit with its body, the spirit has to be appeased by offering pig

Current Event Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Current Event - Essay Example But to characterize this crisis as a tribal conflict would be simplistic in the extreme. To the contrary, the Darfur crisis is caused by political, economic and social marginalization that, unless properly addressed by both national policies, will wreak havoc upon the region for some time into the future. To fully understand the root causes of the present crisis, it is necessary to gain a complete appreciation of the Darfur region in its proper geographic and historical contexts. Geographically speaking, the western portion of Sudan known as Darfur is in area about 493,180 square kilometers, about 20% of the nation's total territory of 2,505, 813 square kilometers and is subdivided into three wilayats or states known as Gharb (West) Darfur, Janub (South) Darfur, and Shamal (North) Darfur. These states suffer from the lack of perennial watercourses and as a result, their population is scarce and tends to cluster around permanent wells. Western Darfur is a plain that has the greatest water supply. The drainage from the volcanic massif, the Jabal Marrah, washes onto the plain, allowing for a somewhat larger settled population. This area also has a significant portion of the so-called qoz sands. Here, although livestock raising is the major economic activity, significant crop cultivation also takes place. In contrast, North and South Darfur are semi-deserts that have little water from the wadis or the wells that dry up in the winter. The soils in these areas support vegetation for grazing (Geography). The entire region has few natural resources. About six million people inhabit Darfur, drawn from about eighty different tribes and ethnic groups. From a subsistence perspective, these ethnic groups fit into two categories. First, there are the livestock herders who are for the most part, Arabic speakers. The second group is composed of the farmers, who are bilingual and are considered Africans. The ethnic groups in Darfur include the Fur, Bani Halba, Tanhor, Borty, Habaniya, Zaghawa, Zayadia, Rizaigat, Masaleet, Taaishya, Maidoub, Bargo, Dajs, Bani Hussain, Tama, Mahria, Mohameed, Salamat, Messairia, Eraighat, Etafab, Fallata, Ghimir, Bani Mansour, Ab-Darag, Selaihab, Mima, Turgom, Marareet and other African and Arabian tribes. The language spoken is Arabic and the religion for both Arabs and Africans is Sunni Muslims (Darfur Conflict). Historically, the inception of modern day Darfur came with the Fur dominated Keira dynasty that arose in the seventeenth century. This sultanate, which was established by Sulayman Solongdungo (1650- 1680), managed its expansion throughout the region through a combination of peaceful and coercive incorporation of territorial and tribal groups (Young). In 1787, Sultan Mohammed Tayrab extended the sultanate to the Nile when he conquered the Funj province of Korodofan (Young, 2). The rulers of the Keira dynasty then continued to encourage a pattern of immigration into the region to provide for increased manpower needs. Whole groups were brought into the area through means such as land grants and high sultanate positions (Young, 2). Eventually, this process of assimilation and incorporation settled the basic pattern of ethnic grouping into specific regions that still stand to the present day. The tribal distribution that emerged can be categorized by livelihood and ecology. The sedentary farmers, which include

How to fix Run On Sentences Essay Example for Free

How to fix Run On Sentences Essay Obligation to make the Correct Assessment Change is a petrifying subject to encounter when in dire situations. The feelings we contract, and the ambient emotions we experience, all intertwine with our day-to-day lives. In the event of an immediate decision, your decision, yourself is then and there obligated to make a verdict that could change the rest of your life. Throughout my lifetime I will have to make many decisions that could possibly change the rest of my life. In the near future I would like to work for a fortune 500 Business as a Chief Financial Officer (CFO). As a CFO I am going to have to make certain financial decisions for the company, that could either put us in the hole, or up in the air on a economic scale. For example the DOW indicator for businesses has a lot to do with the CFO’s job. I will have to make minute-to minute obligations some more important than others. For the corporation I will be morally and legally bound to them and obligated to make the business prosper. If sales and profit are up, along with those buying the stock the company will prosper, and so will my position in the company. So by grasping these few concepts about obligations as workers, we can contribute better to our place of work and therefore we can also sustain a better life-style. As a people if we are not legally and morally bound to our obligations, we have no purpose in the work force. Whether you’re a Chief Financial Officer or an employee that works at McDonalds; you will have to make decisions that are obligated to you if it’s for better or worse. Obligations are decisions are the legal and moral commitments made in order to sustain the value of existence. These choices must be made from time- to –time that will ensure the sustainability of the task or problem at hand.

IKEA: The Worlds Largest Furniture Retailer

IKEA: The Worlds Largest Furniture Retailer Introduction According to KeyNote, 2008, IKEA is the worlds largest furniture retailer. IKEA sells a lifestyle to its middle-class global consumers through cheap contemporary flat-packed designs. The Swedish based company has 237 stores around the world and it is the world leader in home furnishings (Mintel, 2006). IKEA is responsible for a global strategy that concentrates on cost management, efficiency and quality. However, there is much more to IKEA than just its cheap stylish furniture. As Eberhard-Harribey (2006) states, regardless of its openly aggressive focus on cutting costs, IKEA is a leading company when it comes to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) matters (see more on Appendix 1). IKEA has managed to combine a cost focus strategy with CSR issues as opposed to companies such as Starbucks and The Body Shop, which is considered to be high CSR-oriented but that charge a premium-price for its sustainable products. IKEA has respectable policies on child labour and has strong partnerships with UNICEF, and the WWF. Moreover, IKEA has a transnational strategy. The business maximise its global strategy of product standardisation whilst responding to, consumer local needs. Globalisation, factors like economic growth, deregulation, more disposable income and rising housing market have created many opportunities for growth in which IKEA have continuously taken advantage of in many countries. In spite of its global presence, it is worthy to point out two facts. First fact is that Europe accounts for 82% of IKEAs total revenues and North America accounts for 15% (Datamonitor, 2009). Second fact is that in both Europe and North America regions, as a result of the economic downturn the furniture retail industry is under a lot of competition. In order to reduce the political-economical and social-demographical risks inherent with such regions, IKEA needs to concentrate on diversifying its operations into other markets promptly and efficiently. Moreover, by expanding into other markets, IKEA can also take advantages of opportunities that these new markets offer that current markets no longer do. For example, in the past when China opened-up its policy to FDI, it eventually led to the Chinese economic improvement, the rise in the housing market and subsequently the demand for home furnishings in China. These events have unmistakable allowed IKEA to successfully enter this market. The current strategy mode that IKEA undertakes when entering a new market is International Franchising whereby products, limited rights, operating systems and the use of IKEAs brand name are sold to the foreign franchisee for a sum fee and share in the profits. It seems sensible therefore that IKEA continue on expanding into new markets. Nevertheless, before IKEA chooses another market to enter, IKEA needs to follow some steps: (1) Assess potential markets, (20 Evaluate the respective risks and benefits, (3) Choose the most appropriate market that not only match the Furniture Industry but ultimately complement IKEAs vision and Corporate Social Responsibility. In this work IKEAs plan will be to further its global expansion into the South American Market, having Brazil as a target. Brazil is the largest country in South America and according to Datamonitor (2009), it is characterises the most attractive country for the Furnishing Industry. The following analyses have as an aim to critically determine whether or not IKEA can successfully enter the Brazilian Market and how it should best endeavour such move Industry Overview: Global Home Furnishing Retail The home furnishings retail sector includes furniture, floor coverings and household textiles. Furniture sales dominate the global home furnishing retail sector, with 63.9% of the sectors value. IKEA has the largest share in the global home furnishing market. Its share accounts for 2.3% (MarketLine, 2009). Europe accounts for 43.1% of the retail sectors value and the compound annual growth rate of the sector in the period 2004-2008 was 2.6%. Moreover, according to Datamonitor, 2009, sectors value reached a value of $663.4 billion in 2008 and it is forecasted to grow by 24.9% in 2013 (MarketLine, 2009). Moreover, according to Mintel (2008) the UK is IKEAs most successful market. However is being held back by the difficulty of getting new stores, low consumer confidence due to the economic slowdown. The UK housing market has slowed dramatically and with house prices and the number of transactions forecast to fall this year, this must be bad news for furniture retailers. Already in 2008 there have been a number of casualties, including Sleep Depot and New Heights, and most recently Ilva and ScS. At the same time furniture retailers are facing unprecedented levels of competition from outside of the specialist market from the likes of Tesco, Asda, Woolworths, Argos, Homebase, BQ, and even Next and MS. Is it all doom and gloom for the furniture specialist? more  » The UK housing market has slowed dramatically and with house prices and the number of transactions forecast to fall, furniture retailers are facing exceptional amount of competition from outside of the specialist market from the likes of Asda, Argos, not to mention MS and Next. Five Forces Analysis Retailers of furniture, floor coverings and household textiles are the players of the home furnishing retail sector and the main buyers are taken as end-users, and manufacturers of furniture, floor coverings and household textiles as the key suppliers. (Table bellow adapted from Datamonitor, 2009) IKEA Swot Analysis IKEAs Corporate Social Responsibility According to Maon, Swaen and Lindgreen (2007) IKEA receives pressure from various external stakeholders. This pressure mainly exists because IKEAs business is modeled on cost leadership the majority of its raw materials are originated from developing countries. Since the end of the 1980s, IKEAs policies have been under constant scrutiny, particularly from NGOs. For example, IKEA was under the public eye over child labour in Asia, working conditions in Eastern Europe and Asia, and wood from questionable forests in Indonesia and Russia. Some critics argue that IKEAs sustainable practices took too long to be implemented and others question why the company do not place social and environmental labels on its products, even though the products meet criteria for products made of tropical wood materials. However, for IKEA, the brand itself should be a guarantee of environmental consideration and social responsibility Moreover, as a result of such pressures, the company is more actively involved in its CSR than ever. See next for examples of IKEAs current practices: (Source: IKEA Group, Panda.org, UNICEF and SaveTheChildren.com, 2009). Identification of a New Market Whereas the North American furniture and floor coverings market is currently going through difficult times, South American has kept strong growth in value, a trend that according to Marketline, 2009 is meant to carry on rising. As for 2010 IKEA will enter the South American market. The first IKEA store will be allocated in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (Reference?). However, as it is shown bellow there are other countries within South America in which IKEA could be successful. Furniture Floor Coverings in South America Industry Profile The South American furniture floor coverings market generated total revenues of $19,801.3 million in 2008, representing a compound annual growth rate (Datamonitor, 2009) of 7.5% for the period 2004-2008. Market Segmentation Living room furniture sales has proved the most lucrative for the South American furniture floor coverings market in 2008, generating total revenues of $7,420.1 million, equivalent to 37.5% of the markets overall value. Brazil (Marketline, 2009) however, Brazil leads the South American furniture and floor coverings market, accounting for 63.3% of the markets value. Factors Influencing the Likelihood of New Entrants and New Entrants in the Furniture Market in South America As shown above, there is a lack of brand strength in the Latin American furnishing market. This is turn shows that somewhat easy for new businesses to enter the market. Examples of such business however, are those well established diversified retailers, such as supermarkets and department stores entering the market. Advantages for retailers occur within the market on a small scale with either one or several outlets, for which fixed costs and entrance barriers are fairly low. However, the impact of the current global economic recession on the retail environment can discourage the entrance of new furniture businesses into the high-street in the medium term. There is however little government regulation which only concentrates on health and safety of the products. Overall, Datamonitor (2009) sees that the threat of new entrants to the furniture market in South America is considered to be strong. It is therefore important that establishes its presence in the region before other multinational companies decide to enter the South American. By being a entering such region, IKEA can be as successful as Telefonica has been since 1990 (Griffin and Pustay, 2009). It can generate more sources of revenue as well as establishing new customer base before competitors. There are a large number of different retailers of different sizes from small independent retailers to large chain-stores operating within the furniture and floor coverings retail market. Many players within the market are diversified retailers, such as department stores, supermarkets and DIY stores, which are not critically reliant upon furniture sales, which in turn ease rivalry. However, there are many small specialist stores, where the sale of furniture and floor coverings products is critical to success. These companies need to compete intensely with the supermarkets, which is becoming increasingly difficult in terms of price without compromising product quality; as the supermarkets can afford to make smaller margins over a wide range of products. The current economic downturn is adversely affecting retail sales, reducing growth potential and increasing exit barriers, which enhances rivalry. Overall, rivalry with respect to the furniture and floor coverings retail market is moderate. (Please refer to Appendix 2 for further analyses). Brazil The Brazilian economy was not affected by the global financial crisis as the countrys economy is tightly regulated with orthodox macroeconomic policies. The countrys growth rate increased in 2008 to reach 5.9%. Moreover, Brazil is the founder member of Mercosul regional integration which for instance, are responsible for 75% of South Americas GDP and it is the worlds fourth-biggest integrated market. The economic reforms, liberalized foreign investment to most sectors have been considered to be responsible for the current economic. The market of furniture in Brazil has three main segments: home (60%), office (25%) and institutional organisations (15%). Analyses show that (reference) this last segment is on the growth and imports should increase. This change in demand for foreign designs can certainly benefit IKEA in Brazil. The market is also restrained by high interest rates (18.3% per year in 2001) which prevent people from demanding bank loans, and thus maintain their purchasing power at lower levels than if they could borrow money easier. It then has a bad impact on house purchasing and in series, lowers the buying of house furnishings too. However, despite its high profile, Brazil still suffers from corruption. According to Transparency Internationals Corruption Perceptions Index for 2008, Brazil is ranked in the 80th place out of 179 countries. Because corruption is perceived to be very strong in Brazil, the majority of businesses are expected to encounter corruption when proposing contracts to governments. Moreover, deforestation caused by multi-nationals is making serious harms to the Brazilian rainforests. As the demand for environmentally friendly companies in Brazil and around the world continues to rise, companies such as IKEA can certainly expect to have its CSR scrutinised before receiving any license for operation. PESTLE Analysis of IKEA in Brazil Brazil has come out to be of the best market to invest (Griffin and Pustay, 2009) the economic reforms implemented after 2003 led to increases in real per capita income, and an improved income distribution. Real per capita income increased 14% from 2004 to 2007 and the inequality in the distribution of income, measured by the Gini coefficient (which ranges from 0, which reflects equality, to 1, which indicates inequality), diminished from 0.6 in 2000 to 0.5 in 2007. Although the political stability in Brazil does not have the same standard of security as other OECDs, the political stability in Brazil is improving steadily. Brazils president is considered to be more sensible than other South American leftist leaders. And Although Lula obviously seeks to protect national companies, He is also aware that many Brazilian businesses are not very efficient. After being re-elected, Lula has welcomed FDI in Brazil with open arms (Reference) Additionally, as the poverty situation in Brazil is still high, the Brazilian government and its population are in turn very active when it comes to social programs. There are major government programs that aim to tackle the problems of income inequality and access to credit. Programmes such as Zero Hunger (Projeto Fome Zero) provides low-income families conditional cash transfer bases reach nearly one quarter of Brazils population (MDS). Such programs can be seen as an opportunity for IKEA. Since IKEA has such renounced CSR programs in place, it can certainly work with partnership with the Brazilian government. Also, as more people are acquiring houses, the demand for furniture will eventually increase. With emerging markets capturing investors attention, many are turning their focus towards South American markets. Strong exports, high commodity prices and increased investments have been contributing factors to growth within many of the Latin American markets (Fleming, 2007). Amongst its neighbours, Brazil is the country that provides its population the highest average purchasing power (IMF, 2006) Thus, Brazil seem a very attractive market for IKEA, especially since the its furniture imports have experienced a growth of 16.27% during the third quarter of 2006. The imports of furniture in Brazil are controlled by the United States with 39% of the share, followed by Germany with 36% and Italy with 10% (ABIMOVEL, 2008). Because Brazils income gap between the rich people and the poor people is very high, The 10% richest people earn 50% of the totally income and the 10% poorest people only get less than 1% (source?) social status are very meaningful, especial for the middle-classes. As IKEA has been very proficient in selling lifestyles to its customers (KeyNote, 2008) the status importance amongst Brazilians could turn out to be advantageous for IKEA. Nevertheless, credit option is extremely limited among most consumers who are expected to pay for their goods in instalments. Very ofte, consumers opt for a certain product not because if its quality, but because of the payment facilities. Consumers can pay for a TV of the equivalent of  £300 in 10 instalments and without any added interest. IKEA should certainly be aware of consumers buying behaviour in order of to have problems with its liquidity ratios. As the telecommunication penetration rate in Brazil remains low, IKEA would not be able to rely in online sales in Brazil in the middle future and its online advertising should be very efficient . Laws requiring pre-sale disclosure by a franchisor are in place in Brazil Brazil shelters dense forests in northern regions including Amazon Basin that can be use for wooden furniture: half of the country is covered by forests. However, over the past couple of years, the government has been very cautious about global warming caused by MNCs deforestation. So IKEA would need to ensure the Brazilian government that its practices are very sustainable to be able to use Brazils endowments. IKEA in Brazil From the analysed above, it can be deducted that there are several attractive aspects for IKEA to invest in the area of furniture industry in the Brazilian market. First of all, the furniture market in Brazil is attractive due to a big value of imported furniture. Additionally, the labour cost is cheaper compared to Europe and America. Mode of Entry All IKEAs stores in foreign countries are managed under international franchising (IKEA, 2009). Franchising is a special form of licensing where the licensor authorises the licensee to utilize its operating systems, logos, brand names and trademarks in return for a loyalty payment (Griffin and Pustay, 2009). The franchisee needs also to supply capital, personnel, personal involvement and local market knowledge (Jeannet Hennessy, 2004, pp.296). As IKEA has so much experience in setting up franchise contracts, it seems sensible to apply the same when coming to Brazil for the following reasons: However, International Franchising has its drawbacks as well: Although the drawbacks of setting up Franchising in Brazil are not too high and IKEA could still be very successful in such a market. Based on the information gathered in this work, a relatively more complex but even more successful mode of entry can be recommended. Due to Brazils endowment factors and government economic stimulus package to attract new investments, IKEA can greater benefit from entering the market through Foreign Direct Investment via than from International Franchising. Moreover, by using FDI as a Strategy, IKEA can acquire national resources and access other South American markets. According to Dunnings Ecletic Theory (Griffin and Pustay, 2009), FDI will occur when three conditions Ownership, Location and Internalisation are satisfied. By matching IKEAs Swot analysis and all the other information gathered in this work, it is possible to observe that IKEA enjoys all three advantages in competing in Brazil against local firms. 1. Ownership: Whereas most of Brazilian furniture retails hold low brand image and average technology systems, IKEA has unique competitive advantages such as strong brand name globally, advanced technology and the benefits of economies of scale in other markets. 2. Location Advantage: IKEA can enjoy lower labour costs, avoid tariff walls on goods exported from Brazil to other South American countries and save money on product transportation instead of importing products from China, Russia and India, the majority of products can be manufactured in Brazil due to its vast resource endowments. 3. Internalisation Advantage: Because of growing concerns related to management of intellectual property rights, deforestation and corruption in Brazil, IKEA will benefit more from controlling its operations in Brazil than from hiring independent local companies to provide such services. FDI via Greenfield Strategy and Strategic Alliance As Brazilian Furniture Retailers are relatively small, the possibility to acquire an existing company with the intention of obtaining control over employees, technology and stores is very low. Therefore, IKEA would have to start its operations from scratch. According to Griffin and Pustay, 2010, when companies buy or build new facilities, hires in managers and employees to launch its brand new operations, they do so through Greenfield Strategy. Given all the facts that influence FDI in Brazil, the Greenfield Strategy can certainly benefit IKEAs entry to the Brazilian Market for the following reasons: IKEA can the location that best meets its needs It can build up-to-date facilities Brazils local and national government gives economic development incentives to attract companies facilities IKEA would not have to adapt its production systems to any Joint-ventures IKEA would not have to deal with problems associates with Property Rights that could arise from potential Franchisees/Licensees/ or Joint Venture partners. However, the Greenfield Strategy also has its disadvantages: The process of building a new site, hiring new staff and negotiating with government is relatively long and expensive In order to promote certain regions development, Brazilian government might require IKEA to build its site in a determined place that is not IKEAs desired location. Grant to use natural resources might be given under very restrict regulations due to global and national demand for sustainable products Furthermore, by using Brazils endowment resources, particularly in the Forestry sector, IKEAs CSR would be put under further scrutiny. However, as IKEA has so many projects that have been benefiting the forestry and the cotton sector (refer to IKEAs CSR) in so many countries IKEA can combine its current CSR practice and form a strategic alliance with the Brazilian government involving the production aspect of the business. According to Griffin and Pustay 2010, a strategic alliance involving public and private partners can benefit a company if negotiation is handled properly and if the government is relatively stable, by easing market entry, reducing risks, enhancing knowledge and expertise and giving competitive advantage. Appendix 1 Detailed Five Forces Analysis for the Global Retail Furniture Market (Adapted from Datamonitor, 2009). Appendix 2 Continuation of Five Forces Analysis on the South American Retail Furniture (Source: Datamonitor, 2009) Appendix 3