Mining group gold: How to cash in on the collaborative brain power of a team for innovation and results Essay

Mining Group Gold Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   To be a collaborative leader, there are crucial behaviors that one needs to understand. It requires one to be good at building collaborative partnerships. Additionally, this demands facilitation of team work within individual group and across work groups, committees, problem solving teams and in task forces. Studying group gold mining enables one to learn to be more accomplished in the field of facilitative leadership, whereby one leads from the center of the team rather than from the top of individual pyramid (kayser, 2011). This assists in acquiring important facilitation strategies and skills necessary in carrying an individual team to new heights in the pursuit of innovative thinking. This essay will discuss the five basic steps for mining group gold for the team meeting management while outlining the steps for dealing with emotions. In addition, the paper will explain and describe how mining group gold process will improve teamwork em powerment and effective communication.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The group session foundation is a clear understanding of its purpose, and the desired outcome. The purpose of the session is the reason why the group has been called and it should be clearly written. On the other hand, desired outcomes which may also be called goals are specific statement identifying what is to be in the time of the session during the time spent in the session. Therefore, when people leave a session, they will know specifically what was completed, and what wasn’t .The desired outcome gives a description of the session being conducted, provide focus during the session and create common expectations for all the participants. In addition, they provide a benchmark against which the outcomes can be compared to gain a sense of the session’s productivity. A team without a desired outcome will definitely fail. Confused and frustrated group members may be tangled in endless arguments over every purpose of the meeting. Furthermore, a group’s purpose and the desired outcome helps a group gets back on track when necessary.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A facilitator helps a group free from internal obstacles or difficulties so that it may effectively pursue the achievement of the desired outcomes of the group. Facilitation occurs any time a group member behaves in a manner that makes the group advance towards developing or refining a structure, making certain information and data are shared and getting rid of any internal blockages hindering the accomplishment of the desired outcome of the session. Although only one person is appointed to be the facilitator, all the other team members are designated to be secondary facilitators. The scribe and the time keeper also act as support for the facilitator as well. The time keeper does this by accurately taking into account the time taken for each agenda and alerting the facilitator when the group is using more or less that he allotted time the scriber helps the group, not only by making precise notes of the group session, but also by listing wh atever action items may have been identified.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   For the manager or the team leader, acting as the primary facilitator, being able to deal with feelings is the single most critical facilitation skill to be honed. Feeling is information that need to be processed and a primary facilitator should guide that process using the following sequence: feelings, facts and emotions. (Kayser, 2011) To begin with, when a group is in the feelings stage, it is pointless to ignore them.to handle this stage, feelings must be acknowledged as real and accepted. At any time in this stage, the primary facilitator encourages individuals to express their emotions in an organized way. Secondly, the primary facilitator is in a position to help the group generate and use fact and to identify and analyze the problem. The group should the facts in a less emotional way. Once the facts have been identified, the group is now ready to generate the potential solutions.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The mining gold group will help improve teamwork by inviting everyone to participate in the meeting and during regular work assignments. For instance anyone can facilitate the meeting and everyone has their own responsibilities. The process can help empower members since the leader addresses the group in a circle rather than in a pyramid where it is hard to reach him. The scribe and the time keeper are also empowered in a group. Employees work together hence it strengthens their relationship with each other and with the leader.in a gold mine group, anyone can voice their opinion and what they feel about a situation like new hires, layoff and deadlines. This helps improve communication.in addition, they have a policy where member are to each communicating to each other and not at each other talking to each other and not at each other. This enables people to listen to each other.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   To sum up, groups are the life blood of organizations. Sitting down with group of people is often the right way to process the information and achieve goals. Groups are better because they can think in more verity and they can process more knowledge. Unfortunately sometimes the objectives are not realized (kayser, 2011). On the other hand, the group may realize its full potential and produce a superior output which encourages people to be committed to it and they feel satisfied with it. Therefore mining group gold is a very powerful technique. References Kayser, T. A. (2011). Building team power: How to unleash the collaborative genius of teams for increased engagement, productivity, and results. New York: McGraw-Hill. Kayser, T. A. (2011). Mining group gold: How to cash in on the collaborative brain power of a team for innovation and results. New York: McGraw-Hill Source document

Sexual abuse

Sexual abuse is a term used to describe one individual forcing another to commit a sexual act. Around the globe sexual abuse is much more common than people would like to think. In most cases, when we hear of sexual abuse we think about women or children. However, there are some instances where men are also sexual abused. For instance, there is a significant percentage of men incarcerated that experience sexual abuse at one point or another in their adult lives.Many factors play into these abuse cases such as; gang relations, sexual desires and/or the desire to control and take away the manhood of another. Women on the other hand, experience rape, in most cases, by someone they know; someone whom they would call a friend or maybe even a family member. Women by nature are physically weaker than men and some men take full advantage of this fact. Some men feel hatred toward women which fuels their desire to cause them pain. Others feel that women want to be rape.A simple gesture of invi ting them in for a drink can be misconstrued as an invitation for a sexual assault. On the contrary, children, in my opinion, are the most vulnerable. They can be misled by their parents, parents of friends, and/or relatives. They are the most vulnerable due to their age and lack of experience. Most children after experiencing sexual abuse find it hard to cope with their abuse and commit suicide. Others tend to have an extremely hard time trusting others, and use sex as a way to deal with their pain.In addition, when they have children of their own they tend to be over protective. The mental abuser is someone that beats another’s conscious mind into submission in order to control their situation. The controller is trying to discourage the other from saying what they think by giving them all kind of negativity. The abuser is making the controlled person low-self esteemed. People like to get certain things into people’s heads by either making them believe whatever it is that they want the other person to believe.The mental abuser will brainwash whomever they feel can trust them the most and will not give them any doubt. Mental abuse can cause progressive, long-term harm. All the person has to be told is that they are stupid, ugly, fat or worthless and it will go further than what it is supposed to. Physical abuse is act of another person intending to cause physical harm on another person. Physical abuse is common in relationships and child abuse. Abuse in a relationship an be he or she hitting, slapping, throwing, punching, and kicking. Any of those can be consider physical abuse. Physical abuse is very dangerous in relationships because it could lead to having someone in the hospital or worst death. Physical abuse with a child is when a parent or role model is physical hurting a little girl or boy. There is some case where parents have burn the child with an iron or a cigarette. In either situation physical abuse can cause symptom such as depressi on, emotional problems, and suicide.

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

Vancouver Aquarium - Essay Example The about 9,000 square meters aquarium has different galleries for its (Vancouver Aquarium, 2014). Officially referred to as the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre, this public aquarium is renowned for marine animal rehabilitation, conservation and research. It is credited for being among the first facilities that incorporated professionalism in its galleries for the interpretation of animal behaviors. Vancouver Aquarium is open to visitors all year round. Tourists from around the world tour the facility to see the aquatic life. Other than tourists, the aquarium has been a key attraction site for environmentalists seeking to study the aquatic life. In 2009, the US Environmental Protection Agency designated Vancouver Aquarium as its coastal learning center, aimed at strengthening the US/Canadian partnership in restoring and also protecting the shared ocean resources. According to the Vancouver Aquarium (2014), since the inception of the aquarium in 1956, over 35 million visitors have been to the aquarium. The City of Vancouver, which owns Vancouver Aquarium, rents it out for $40,000 per year. This public aquarium is self-supporting and non-profit making as indicated in its mission statement (Vancouver Aquarium, 2014). Retail operations, food services, membership, admissions and various community programs contribute to about 81% of Vancouver Aquarium’s operating budget. The facility draws the remainder of its financing from donations, charitable contributions, and restricted grants. For instance, in 2010, Premier Gordon Campbell and Prime Minister Stephen Harper together donated $15 million for the expansion of the facility and upgrade of its infrastructure. In 2012, its lead community partner, Teck, donated $12 million to the facility.

Spanish new paper article. Selling Mansion. 1 page or less Essay

Spanish new paper article. Selling Mansion. 1 page or less - Essay Example Las habitaciones està ¡n equipadas con muebles antiguos. Todas tienen chimeneas, armarios, cama, burà ³ con su silla, gaveteros, dos mesitas de noche, una silla de noche, là ¡mparas, espejos, televisià ³n, radio, cuadros, y plantas. Los tres servicios sanitarios està ¡n ubicados en cada piso de las habitaciones, son dos habitaciones por piso y el medio servicio sanitario ubicado en el sà ³tano. Los tres servicios sanitarios tienen su ducha, baà ±eras con jacuzzi, lavamanos, bacineta, espejos de pared, y armario. La cocina es amplia, tiene una amplia mesa en el centro de la cocina, tiene estufa, nevera de dos puertas verticales y una de ellas es el congelador, està ¡ equipada con platos, vasos, copas, utensilios, sartenes, cacerolas, tostadora, micro-ondas, batidora y plantas. La sala tiene su sofà ¡, sillas, mesa en el centro de forma rectangular, mesitas a los extremos del sofà ¡ y al lado de las sillas, là ¡mparas en cada mesa, là ¡mpara cristal colgada del techo, una chimenea, cuadros y plantas. El comedor tiene su mesa para sentar doce personas, un chinero, cuadros y plantas. El salà ³n de juegos tiene un billar, mesa para juegos de mesa para seis personas, una computadora y sus accesorios, sofà ¡ y sillas. El à ¡tico se usa para guardar artà ­culos. El sà ³tano lo ocupa la lavanderà ­a con una mà ¡quina de lavar, una secadora, un lavadero, y un colgadero. El cuarto de servicio de la servidumbre està ¡ en el sà ³tano y tiene su cama, mesitas de noche, gavetero, là ¡mparas, televisià ³n, radio, cuadros y

Warren .P. Fraleigh's Relationships Between Purpose and Other Essay

Warren .P. Fraleigh's Relationships Between Purpose and Other Purpose-related Terms - Essay Example The first term related to purpose, is motive and the difficulty of equating the two terms. Motivation is explained on the backdrop of an individual making the decision to participate in a sporting activity against other forms of recreation. This suggestion indicates the examination of sports and purpose as a smaller category found in a larger concept, which is that of recreation (Fraleigh, 1975). The purpose of engaging in sporting activities is not always explicit, as it cannot be delinked from self-actualization. Self-actualization might not form the actual purpose of engaging in sporting activities, but it is attained subconsciously. Purpose gives sporting activities some sense of direction going against the proposed concept of natural law regarding sports that delineates sporting activities from purpose. The example cited in the article on Olympic games introduces the second term related to purpose and that is intention. The intention of conducting Olympic games supersedes actual sporting activities and differs from one individual to the next and amongst participating nations. Sports in this case can be viewed as a medium of actualization of individual and group goals, for example, engagement in sporting activities with the aim of gaining recognition and fame (Fraleigh, 1975). Other individuals engage in sporting activities at the Olympics with the purpose of ensuring their countries are brought to the spotlight. This interrogation of sporting activities reveals that sport in itself does not have a purpose, but social groups or individuals assign the purpose to the sport and as such, the sporting activity cannot achieve additional purpose than that assigned to it by participants. This is true owing to the nature of sporting activities across the globe in which people engage for varied reasons. A sporting activity might have similar characteristics but achieves different purposes

The Themes and Purposes of Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Themes and Purposes of Art - Essay Example However, as to the purpose of a work of art, I have often been confused whether art is for art’s sake or art is for man’s sake. Now, the online visit to the National Gallery of Art (NGA) helped me a lot to resolve much of the conundrum of the purpose of art. I found that whereas Benton’s visionary appeals value a human being’s sake or art’s aesthetic purpose, its static dynamism is for art’s sake, which is for eyes that are more skilled. After reviewing Thomas Hart Benton’s Trail Riders, I realized that his iconography is too simple that its naturalistic majesty can be exaggerated in no way. Amid the three-dimensional landscape of heartland America, the iconographic presence of the horse riders who are seen from a remote panorama conveys the static dynamism of his theme. The vantage point of the artist is such that it turns the remote objects and horse-riders almost into abstraction with the use of contours in implied lines. Though the use of light and shadow clearly contributes to the realism of Benton’s work, the glow of the light surpasses the reality of its atmosphere and adds to its surrealism to a great extent. It is the surrealism that evokes motion of spirit in the minds of the viewers. Remoteness is also a prevailing theme and perspective of this piece of Benton’s artwork. It has thoroughly been maintained through the manipulation of shapes of the contents within the works. Even the nea rest objects such as the flowers, the bush, and the stones do not have the individual clarity. Remoteness as well as the zenith of the mountain contributes to the silence of the artwork in which the motion of the riders refers to the fourth dimension, Time. Also Benton’s work can be interpreted from atmospheric perspective. From this perspective, human being’s kinetic smallness has been contrasted with the vastness of the universe. Though the overlapping of the

Radiation safety Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Radiation safety - Essay Example For this reason, the Australian government has developed, implemented and enforced certain laws and regulations that guide behavior during the performance of duties. The medical field has particularly been given preference because procedural implications have a direct influence on the life of the patient. This paper evaluates the ‘RADIATION SAFETY ACT OF 1975-1999’. Specifically, it details the aspect of patient safety and measures that have been undertaken to ensure that this is upheld at all times. Undoubtedly, the Act has a very strong relationship with the medical imaging field and therefore influences related mannerisms and decisions. RADIATION SAFETY ACT 1975-1999 The Act addresses different issues related to the field of radiology in general concepts without placing particular emphasis on a specific field. It has five different parts that are further subdivided into various sections. Perhaps the most interesting faction pertains to part III named ‘RADIATION SAFETY GENERAL REGULATIONS’. In particular, section 19A addresses issues pertaining to abnormal or unplanned radiation exposure. In this respect, the Act acknowledges that patients, medical practitioners and visitors are all vulnerable to the exposure of radioactivity (UN 2000, p. 68). Besides detailing various forms through which the unplanned exposure occurs, the Act underscores that measures that need to be undertaken to protect the patients from the effects of the dangerous radiation. In their comprehensive review, Strom and Watson (2002, P. 375) indicate that during the radio therapeutic procedure, the lowest dose should be given to the patient. In this respect, it should be acknowledged that there are different doses that are received by the patient during the procedure. In particular, there are doses directed at the affected organ and there are other doses that reach the organs adjacent to this particular organ. Arguably, the organ that requires medical attention needs to receive the sufficient dose for optimal outcomes (Radiation protection in Nuclear Medicare, 2008). Thus if the radiation to that particular tissue is insufficient, the level of effectiveness of the procedure would be reduced significantly. On the other hand, measures need to be undertaken to ensure that doses reaching other issues are minimal. Also worth acknowledging for their contribution to patient safety during the procedure are the operational and design consideration. In his informative research, Bossuyt (2003, p. 8) asserts that the entire system and equipment need to be well positioned to ensure that the doses produced are sufficient, relevant and effective. For this reason, it is imperatively important to ensure that the equipment is in good condition to prevent incidences of leakages as well as accidental overdoses. In essence, the design as well as usage of the relative equipment needs to aim at preventing maladministration of the particular radiation doses because th e cases have serious consequences (European Commission, 1998, p. 71). Another measure that has contributed significantly to the protection of patients entails the calibration of the particular radiotherapy equipment employed during the procedure (Radiation Protection in Radiotherapy, 2008). In this regard, calibration as well as testing of the performance of the equipment needs

Should college athletes get paid Research Paper

Should college athletes get paid - Research Paper Example We must mention that not every learner gets a scholarship and more so, it does not cover everything. Firstly, we must mention that the scholarships granted to student athletes cover tuition, fees, room, board and textbooks as put across by the National Collegiate Athletic association (NCAA ). Nature of the scholarship varies with the learners as some receive cover for only some of these expenses while many still receive exceedingly more aid than the average student. The scholarship is extended to outstanding students who are exemplary talented and work very hard to earn money extended to them. Additionally, colleges provide a lot to these athletes giving them a distinctive advantage over others. For that, we can argue for and against paying them as we demonstrate below. Most importantly, we must agree that colleges are making a lot of money off these students, who commit their energy and will power to engage in sports. Apparently, social media are so popular and making money out of sports is a ridiculous pursuit. The broadcasted college sports are generating a lot of profits for schools especially from basketball and football. The activity is out rightly tiresome and subject the students to negative effects to their physicality. With all these money, we can agree that the schools can afford it and should share with the athletes. Secondly, the money granted to these individuals is not enough to meet all the expenses. It’s tailored towards the basics that are a must for everyone. They don’t obtain more than the scholarship grant. It’s not enough to cover all expenses like tuition, board, travel, books and many others. They never find time to recompense these needs as sports exercises and practices take all time after academic responsibilities. They don’t have time to commit to odd jobs to support themselves. Paying them would help them meet these needs and appreciate their talents at the

Iraq Today Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Iraq Today - Essay Example The need for a strong leadership has never been greater. Internal strife only adds confusion and destruction to the rehabilitation process in Iraq. Questions often rise if the removal of Saddam Hussein is the rightful thing to do. No one in this part of the Middle East is influential enough to subdue the conflict that is inhibiting Iraq. The plan for a complete reconstruction of Iraq lies in shambles. "As US troops have learned in the months since the statues fell in Baghdad, rebuilding Iraq is no easy task--but neither is it beyond the realm of possibility" (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0IBR/is_3_33/ai_109580224/pg_2). There are just too many players who want to get a piece of the action. Intervening agencies and organizations have motives of their own. The American contingent promises a swift and effective way of turning the Iraqi instability around. But years after, things are back to where it all started. Destruction continues to exist. For many, the campaign to remove Saddam Hussein never left. Its presence is very much visible today in a repressed Iraq. There are numerous works to be done to get things going for the Iraqi people. But if the current situation doesn't subside soon, growth and development will take longer than expected. Without a true leader, the Iraqis have no one to turn to. All they have is a government without a clout, several sectarian groups and an intervening superpower country. The main problem in this divided nation is an influential figure. At present, it is ironic to say that everyone sees himself as the savior. Party heads set their sights on the highest position of the land. In a society on transition, it is difficult to find a rightful ruler who can unite the... The researcher states that the United States and the United Nations wanted a balance of power in the Middle East since the 1980s. There is chaos across the Arab land today. Islamic countries are busy jockeying for position to wield their influence. Iran further complicates the situation when it engages Iraq in a conflict along the border area. The war is of extreme significance since it strengthens Saddam Hussein’s place in Iraqi politics. The country regains its territories which are formerly occupied by neighboring Iran. Hussein’s regime has been a formidable presence in keeping the country intact amidst some minor skirmishes within its government. Saddam Hussein is gone now. But the situation in Iraq is far from being stable. The world watches the Iraqi reconstruction with a mixed feeling of apprehension and excitement. It has been initially predicted that Iraq in particular and the Middle East in general will be a safer place without Saddam. But years after the UN-s upported coalition remove the dictator from power, the situation remains grim and unpromising. The plan for a complete reconstruction of Iraq lies in shambles. â€Å"As US troops have learned in the months since the statues fell in Baghdad, rebuilding Iraq is no easy task, but neither is it beyond the possibility†. The researcher then concluds that Iraq is in a crisis all its own. The internal crisis on hand is further being drawn by different groups into a state of upheaval. It is sad, because the people have been waiting to live in peace and harmony.

Why should anyone study philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Why should anyone study philosophy - Essay Example The meaning of this is that as long as an individual has his ideological persuasions guiding his life’s decisions and principles, that person may be said to be having his own philosophy. This means that philosophy can be defined broadly or even narrowly, depending on a person’s preference (Proffitt & Webster). The broad aspect of philosophy and its definition are underscored by the fact that during the classical era, even linguistics was considered part of philosophy. In itself, the phrase philosophy is a Greek compound philo and Sophia, meaning loving and knowledge, respectively. Although one may compound philo and Sophia and conclude that philosophy is the love or quest for knowledge, yet this definition barely suffices. Philosophy is indeed a love and a quest for knowledge but not all love and quest for knowledge are philosophical or philosophy. One can agree with Wallenmaier’s attempt at a more tenable definition of philosophy as the attempt to acquire knowle dge by rational means, concerning topics which are not amenable to empirical investigation (Wallenmaier, 340). The foregoing does not only reveal the difficulty which man has encountered in his attempt to define philosophy, but the simple-yet-so-complex nature which graces and characterizes philosophy. For instance, although Wallenmaier’s attempt seems the most plausible so far, yet it has its deficiencies. The plausibility of Wallenmaier’s definition is seen in the facts that: seeing philosophy as an attempt to acquire knowledge separates philosophy from creative disciplines such as music and literature; the rational aspect of philosophy which Wallenmaier mentions disassociates philosophy from religion and mysticism; and topics that are not amenable to empirical investigation as the focus of philosophy distinguish philosophy from empirical sciences such as biology and physics. Nonetheless, the difficulty in defining philosophy is underpinned by the broad nature of phi losophy which suffuses even into all other disciplines such as law, medicine, mathematics, art, linguistics and anthropology. In a separate wavelength, the reasons for studying philosophy may not be as difficult as the definition of the same may be. This is because taking an interest and having a passion in philosophy is inherent to philosophers or those who aspire to become philosophers. One may see the importance of studying in light of its three branches- epistemology, metaphysics and ethics, though these are not the only sub-disciplines of philosophy. Metaphysics examines or studies the nature of reality, especially in light of the relationship between the mind and substance, matter and attribute and fact and value. Conversely, metaphysics may be defined as the study of the essence of things and of the fundamental principles which pattern or organize the universe. In a conventional systems philosophy, the organization of the universe is construed as the fundamental principle of existence (rather than the laws of nature, matter or God). Because of this nature of metaphysics for instance, philosophy may help one investigate where the organization and complex patterning of the universe comes from. Herein, it is fit to posit that studying metaphysics will help the student have a more comprehensive understanding of ontology. This is because, in the study of metaphysics, the learner will also encounter evolutionary-systematic philosophy where essence is qualified as a process by which organization is created. In this light, ontology proceeds from elementary actions, in lieu of static objects,

A view from the Bridge Essay Example for Free

A view from the Bridge Essay In these two works the authors invite us to look closely at a womans place in society. In this essay I am going to look at and discuss the ways in which they present the views of women and the expectations of the society in which they live. The reason why I have chosen to compare these two pieces of work is that they both have a similar message to put across. The message is about a womans place and where it should be. Both of the books put women in a lower social standing to men. The pieces of work are not written in the same form but what ever form the writing takes we will be able to find similarities in the message the writers want to express. The writers have a very similar theme but they chose different ways to express it. In A view from a bridge Arthur Miller shows Beatrices struggle with Eddie to let Catherine, their niece, become independent. In The Sons Veto Thomas Hardy shows the control of a son over his mother, Sophy and her inability to do anything to pursue her feelings towards Sam, a man of lower social standing. The two main female characters in Arthur Millers A view from a bridge are Beatrice and Catherine. At the start of the book Catherine and Beatrice both have a deep respect and love for Eddie. The only way that their relationships are different is in the nature of their dependence. Beatrice is Eddies wife and is dependent on him for her living, whereas Catherine is Eddies niece and is only being looked after since both of her parents died when she was young. Eddie is looking after her and paying for her whilst she is growing up and going through education until she is independent. At this point Eddie has control over Beatrice and Catherine but as the story progresses, and with the introduction of Rodolfo, Catherine begins to loose her respect for Eddie and consequently Eddie begins to loose his control over her. Catherine and Beatrice have a large enough age gap to have slightly different social standings. Beatrice is of an era when women were only given basic education, and then were expected to do manual work or raise a family and become a housewife whilst the husband provided for all of the needs of the family. Catherines generation was slightly different in that they were more likely to go on to further education and then work. This may not have included the highly skilled jobs, such as doctors, but at least they were not so completely dependant on a husband. Beatrice seems a little wiser than Catherine in the way that she can see through Eddie and can guess what he is thinking. She can see what is going to happen but she is so naà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ve as to believe she can change the outcome. Catherine believes that Beatrice is bitter in the way that she is trying to get Catherine to see Eddies true intentions. Catherine cannot understand why Beatrice is disrespectful towards Eddie, the man of the house. Sophy, in the story The Sons Veto, has a very different living status. She is dependant on her dead husbands will, but in a similar way to Beatrice who answers to and obeys Eddie, Sophy obeys her son. However, Sophy cant see that the only reason why her son wants her to stay with their family and not to remarry because, if she did leave to marry another man it, would ruin his reputation and his social standing. The other way in which I think that Sophy, Beatrice and Catherine are similar is that all three come from a working class background. Sophy worked in a vicarage as a maid and Catherine and Beatrices livelihood came from Eddie working on the docks. The nineteenth century woman is Sophy in Thomas Hardys The Sons Veto. In this time there were a lot of things that women werent aloud to do. Some of them were written laws and some social laws, there were things that the lady just wasnt seen to do, wasnt befitting to a lady. This is displayed in the story after Sophy has been widowed and is talking about remarrying. She is thinking of remarrying to a grocery store owner called Sam. This was unacceptable, as she would be marrying down a class. This was not normal to that time, where there were very clear barriers between social classes. Her son hoped his step father would be a gentleman. This is what he believed and it meant a lot to him. He made his feelings very clear when he said I am ashamed of you! It will ruin me! A miserable bore! A churl! A clown! It will degrade me in the eyes of all the gentleman of England! Because Sophy didnt have her sons blessing she could not leave. He had control of all the finances that her late husband left to them to live on. It is a different situation for the woman in A view from the bridge, Catherine and Beatrice. At that time there was an organisation called NOW. This movement was oppressed by the male dominated social structure as a whole, which they saw as pervaded by sexism, despite legal concession towards equality of the sexes. In this period the womens movement had been critical of the use of women as sex objects in advertising, and had also opposed their indoctrination into passive and accommodating roles within the family and society in general. I believe that Beatrice is too old and set in her ways to get deeply involved in womens rights. She understands that women should have equal rights but takes the easy option and accepts where she is and what she is. This is why Beatrice and Sophy are similar because they both only had little or no education and now rely completely on their husband funds. All they have to do in return is to keep a clean house, cook and raise the children. Eddie and Beatrice dont have any children of their own but they have raised their niece Catherine as their own. Catherine is different to Sophy in that she has had a full education and will become financially independent. Sophy was expected to present herself as a lady whenever she was to be in the public eye. Sophy was also expected to do chores and raise children whilst they were home from boarding school. This was all that was expected of a woman of her time. Beatrice was also expected to dress smartly and conservatively. Catherine was a modern girl and dressed to impress. She was well educated and so was less dependant on getting a husband before her good looks left her. But there was still the male dominance that had some control over her. Catherine, I dont want to be a pest, but Im telling you youre walking wavy. Listen, you been giving me the willies the way you walk down the street, I mean it. This shows the male dominance over protecting his woman.

The Sound Systems Of Language English Language Essay

The Sound Systems Of Language English Language Essay Phonology is one of the core fields that compose the discipline of linguistics, which is defined as the scientific study of language structure. One way to understand what the subject matter of phonology is, to contrast it with other fields within linguistics. A very brief explanation is that phonology is the study of sound structure in language, which is different from the study of sentence structure (syntax) or word structure (morphology), or how languages change over time (historical linguistics). A common characterization of the different between phonetics and phonology is that phonetics deals with actual physical sounds as they are manifested in human speech, and concentrates on acoustic waveforms, formant values, measurements of duration measured in milliseconds, of amplitude and frequency, or in the physical principles underlying the production of sounds. On the other hand, phonology is an abstract cognitive system dealing with rules in a mental grammar: principles of subconscious thought as they relate to language sound. CONCERNS OF PHONOLOGY: The most important to appreciate at this moment is that the sound which phonology is concerned with is symbolic sounds- there are cognitive abstractions which represent but are not the same as physical sounds THE SOUNDS OF A LANGUAGE: One expect of phonology considers what the sounds of a language are. We would want to take note in a description of the phonology of English that we lack a particular vowel that exists in German in words like schon beautiful, a vowel which is also found. In French (Spelled eu, as in jeune Young) or Norwegian (beer). Similarly, the consonant spelled the in English thing, path does exist in English as well as in Icelandic where it is spelled with the letter p, or Modern Greek where it is spelled with O, or Saami where it is spelled ) but his sound doesnt occur in German or French and it is not used in Latin American Spanish, although it does occur in continental Spanish in words such as cerveza beer, where by the spelling conventions of Spanish, the letters c and z represent the same sound as the one spelled the (in English) RULES FOR COMBINING SOUNDS: Another aspect of language sound which is phonological analysis would take account of is that in any given language, certain combinations of sounds are allowed, but other combinations are systematically impossible. The fact that English has the words brick, break, bridge, bread is a clear indication that there is no restriction against having words begin with the consonant sequence br; besides these words one can think of many more words beginning with br such as bribe, brow and so on. Similarly, there are many words which begin with bl, such as blue, blatant, blast, blend, blink, showing that there is no rule against words beginning with bl. It is also a fact that there is no words blink in English, even though the similar words blink, brick do exit. The nonexistence of blick is English is accidental, the exclusion from English of many other imaginable but nonexistent words is based on a principled restriction of the languages. VARATIONS IN PRONOUNCIAITON In addition to providing an account of possible versus impossible words in a language, a phonological analysis will explain other general patterns in the pronunciation of words. For example, there is a very general rule of English phonology which dictates that the plural suffix on nouns will be pronounced as (iz), represented in spelling as es, when the preceding consonant is one of the certain set of consonants including (S) spelled (sh) as in bushes, (c) (spelled as ch) as in churches, and (j) (spelled j, ge, dge) as in cages, bridge. This pattern of pronunciation is not limited to the plural, so despite the difference in spelling, the possessive suffix s2 is also subject to the same rules of pronunciation: thus, plural bushes is pronounced as same as the possessive bushs and plural churches is pronounced same as the possessive churchs. This is the sense in which phonology is about the sound of the language. From the phonological perspective, a sound is a specific unit which combin es with other such specific units and which represent physical sounds. PHONETICS Phonetics is about the concrete, instrumentally measurable physical properties and production of these cognitive speech sounds. The two basic aspects of speech sounds as there are studied in phonetics, namely acoustics which is the study of the properties of the physical sounds wave that we hear, and articulation, which is the study of how to modify the shape of vocal tract, thereby producing a certain acoustic output(sound) ACOUSTICS A sound is a complex pattern of rapid variation in air pressure, travelling from a sound source and striking the ear, which causes a series of neural signals to be received in the brain: this is true of speech, music and random noices. WAVEFORMS A concrete way to visually represent a sound is with an acoustic waveform. A number of computer programs allow one to record sounds into a file and display the results on the screen. This means one can visually inspect a representation of the physical pattern of the variation in air pressure since we are interested in the part which makes this two words sound different, we might get a clearer picture of the physical difference by expanding the scale and looking just at a part of the vowel. Vowels are periodic, which means that the pattern of their wave form repeats over time. A portion of the vowels from the middle of the words seed and Sid, involving around 30 milliseconds (ms) of each of the words. We can indeed see that there is a pattern which is repeated. Though there are visible differences between the waveforms, the basis for distinguishing these vowels remain unclear. SOUND SPECTRA: All sound waves are definably, namely in terms of three properties that characterize a sine wave familiar from trigonometry, namely frequency measure in cycles per second also known as Hertz (Hz), amplitude measure in decibels and phase measured in the angular measure radians. These characteristics suffice to define any sine wave, which is the analytic basis of sounds. The property phase, which describe how far into the infinite cycle of repetition a particular sine wave is, turns out to be unimportant for the study of speech sounds, so it can be ignored. Simple sine waves (termed pure tones when speaking of sounds) made up of a single frequency are not commonly encountered in the real worlds, but can be created by a tuning fork or by electronic equipment. Speech sounds (indeed all sounds) are complex wave forms which are virtually impossible to describe with intuitive description of what they look like. Fortunately, complex wave can be mathematically relate to a series of simple waves which have different amplitudes at different frequencies, so that we can say that complex wave from is build from asset of simple waves. Inaccuracy in spectral data has three main sources. Half of the information in the original signal, phase, has been discarded. Frequency information is only approximate and its related to how much speech is analyzed. Finally, a spectrum assumes that sound properties are constant during the period being analyzed. If too large a piece of speech is taking for analysis, a misrepresentative blending of a continuously changing signal results. SPECTROGRAM: The spectrogram shows both frequency and amplitude properties as they change over time, by adding a third dimension of information to the display. A spectrogram can be made by a mechanical spectrograph, which uses an adjustable filter to select different frequency ranges and display the changes in amplitude at each frequency ranges; or, it can be created by a computer program, which use fouler analysis to determine these component amplitudes. A spectrogram is a reasonably informative accurate display of properties of sound. It is less accurate than the spectrum at a single point. Spectrograms are created either by special machinery or specials computer programs, which are not always available. It is therefore quite impractical and also unnecessary to base the scientific study of languages sound systems exclusively on spectrograms. CONCLUSION: Phonetics and phonology both study language sounds. Phonology examines language sound as a mental unit, and encapsulated symbolically for example as (ae) or (g) and focus on how these unit function in grammars. Phonetics examines how symbolic sounds are manifested as a continuous physical object. The conversion from physically continues event to symbolic representation requires focusing on the information that is important, which is possible because not all physical properties of speech sounds are cognitively important. One of the goals of phonology is than to discover exactly what these cognately important properties are how they function in expressing Regularities about languages. CHAPTER TWO PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTIONS PREVIEW: This chapter gives an overview of phonetic transcriptions. It: Gives the important transcriptional symbols Introduces the two major schemes of phonetic transcriptions Present the main articulators classification of sounds Surveys the main variations in phonetic properties exploited by the languages Further develops the relevance of phonetics for the study of phonology INTRODUCTION: In phonetic transcription, speech is represented a small set of symbols with a standard interpretation. This chapter looks at the different systems for phonetic transcription. They are two major schemes, the informal American schemes used in especially North America, sometime known as APA (American Phonetic Alphabet), and the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) promulgated by the international Phonetics association. VOWELS: The first division in speech sound is made between vowels and consonants. Symbols for vowels will be considered first because they are fewer vowels than consonant. Some dialects English make no distinction in the pronunciation of the words cot and caught; even among speakers who distinguish the pronunciation of cot and caught, the precise pronunciation of the two vowels differs considerable. An important point is that the transcriptional symbols are approximations representing a range of similar values, and that symbols do not always have absolute universal phonetic values. CONSONANT: There are many more consonant than vowels, English only has a fraction of the full range of possible consonants, so illustration of many of these symbols involve more extensive consideration of languages other than English. Consonants symbols are treat as the place of articulation where the major constriction occurs as one axis, and treating properties such as voicing, being a continuant, or nasality as the other axis. Eleven places of articulation for consonants are usually recognized: bilabial, labiodentals, dental, alveolar, alveopalatal, retroflex, palatal, velar, uvular, pharyngeal and laryngeal, and arrangement which proceeds from the furthest forward to furthest back points of the vocal tract. MANNER OF ARTICULATION: largely independent of the place where a consonant constriction is formed, the manner in which the constriction is formed can be manipulated in various ways. If a constriction is formed which completely blocks the flow of air, the resulting sound, such as t, is called a stop? A consonant can be produced by forming a narrow constriction which still allows air to pass through the vocal tract, resulting in noise in at the constriction, and such consonants, for example s and v are called fricatives. A combination of complete constriction followed by a period of partial constriction is termed an affricate. SYLLABICITY A phonetic property of consonants that may be transcribed is whether the consonant is syllabic. There is a phonetic difference between the n of American English cotton and that of con: the n of cotton is syllabi, where as the n of con is no syllabic. A syllabic consonant is indicated by placing a vertical tick under the consonant, so cotton is transcript (Ka? n) and con is transcribed (Kan). The main phonetic correlate of the distinction between syllabic and no syllabic consonant is duration, where syllabic consonants are generally longer than their no syllabic counterparts. Especially in tone languages, syllabic consonants can have distinctive tone. SYMMENTRY IN CONSONANTS The symmetrical universal table consonants were we to list all the consonants found in human languages. In some instances, the gap reflects physiological impossibility, such as the fact that one cannot produce a nasal pharyngeal, analogous to velar nasal but at a pharyngeal place of articulation. A nasal involves making a complete obstruction at a given point of articulation and also requires air to flow through the velum. In order to make a pharyngeal nasal, it would be necessary to make a complete constriction at the pharynx. But since the pharynx lies below the velum, no air can flow through the nasal passages if the pharynx is totally constricted. However a nasalized pharyngeal continuant, i.e. the consonant produced with simultaneous nasal airflow, would not be a physical impossibility, since that consonant doesnt not require complete constriction of the pharynx. In other cases the gap indicates that no such sound has been found, but there is no immutable physical reason for suc h a sound not to exist. Thus bilabial affricated not seem to be attested, nor to plain no affricated alvepalatal stops, nor do nasalized pharyngeal fricatives. Similarly, while pharyngeal zed consonant exist and rounded consonants exist, there are apparently no cased of consonants which are both rounded and pharyngeal zed, though such segments are not logically impossible. These lacunae may be an indication of a deeper constraint on sound systems however; it is also possible that these segments do exist in some languages which have not been studied yet, since there are many languages in the world which remain uninvestigated. PLACE OF ARTICULATION The place of articulation of consonants is divided into primarily place of articulation something that every consonant has and secondary place of articulation-something some consonants may add to primary place of articulation. LINGUAL CONSONANTS: The tip or blade of the tongue is the active articulators in the production of many consonants, including dental, alveolar, alveopalatal, retroflex and palatal consonants. These consonants form constrictions involving the tongue and an appropriate place on the teeth, or hard or soft palates. The contract is with the teeth in the case of dentals, on the hard palate behind the teeth in the case of alveolar, behind the alveolar ridge in the case of alveopalatals and retroflex consonants, and with the blade of the tongue at the boundary between the hard and soft palate in the case of palatals. In many traditional organization in segments, retroflex consonants are classified as a separate place of articulation from alveolar and alveopalatals. This traditional concept of place of articulation combines properties with both active articulators and a passive articulator- the target towards which an active articulator moves. What unifies that various kinds of retroflex consonants across langua ges is not the specific location of the constriction on the hard palate, but rather the manner in which just the tongue tip approaches the palate. SECONDARY ARTICULATIONS: Consonants may have more than one point of constriction: generally, one of these constrictions is the major (most radical) constriction and other constrictions are less radical more vowels like in nature. CONCLUSION: Phonology views speech sounds symbolically, knowledge of the system of symbols for representing speech is a prerequisite to doing a phonological analysis. It is also vital to know the phonetic parameters for describing the sounds of human languages which have been presented here. The main characteristic of vowels involve fronting of the tongue (front, central and back), rounding, and vowel height (high, mid and low, with tense and lax variant of high and mid vowels. Other properties of vowels include stress, tone and the phonation types creaky and breathy voice. Primary consonantal places of articulation include bilabial, labiodentals, alveolar, alveopalatal, retroflex, palatal, velar, uvular, pharyngeal and laryngeal. These may be supplemented by vowel like secondary articulations including palatalization, valorization, and pharyngealization and rounding. Consonant may be produced with a number of constrictions and release types, and is stops. Fricatives or nasals and stop consonant s may be unreleased or released, the later type allowing plain versus affricate release. Differences in the laryngeal component for consonants include voicing and aspiration. And the distinction between ejectives and implosives. Vowels and consonant may also exploit differences in nasalization and length.

Managament Of Innovation And Technology Marketing Essay

Managament Of Innovation And Technology Marketing Essay Entering a market early has several advantages such as being capable to establish brand loyalty and technological leadership by learning effects and long-lived reputation; seizure of scarce assets by obtaining key locations; government permits; access to distribution channels and closer relationships with suppliers; taking advantage of buyer switching costs by using customers reluctance in switching to a more technologic product or service due to its complexity and unfamiliarity; reaping increasing returns advantages by utilizing self-reinforcing positive feedback mechanisms. (Schilling, 2010, p.93-95) However, there are some advantages to entering a market late such as benefitting from the ride-effect which enables late entrant to utilize first-mover firms research and development investments; capitalizing established-suppliers, existing distribution channels, and consumers familiarity to the technology; ability of ensuring the market to be more certain by more effectively estimatin g and determining customer expectations and demands; exploiting incumbent inertia by more easily adopting the new technologies and their required production processes. In terms of considering these advantages, late entrants can surpass first movers although there are a lot of advantages of entering a market early. (Schilling, 2010, p.95-96) Name a successful (a) first mover, (b) early follower, (c) late entrant. Identify unsuccessful examples of each? Successful example of first mover: Polaroid Instant camera Unsuccessful example of first mover: Kodak 8-mm Video Camera Successful example of early follower: Samsung Microwave Unsuccessful example of early follower: Intel Microprocessors Successful example of late entrant: Palm Computing PDA Unsuccessful example of late entrant: Dvorak Keyboard (Schilling, 2010, p.98) What factors might make some industries harder to pioneer than others? Are there industries in which there is no penalty for late entry? Limited existence of natural resources, suppliers, complementary goods, distribution channels, and installed base; requirement of the most advanced technologies; establishing consumer awareness and familiarity of the newest technology; uncertainty and ambiguity of customer preference and desirability; high threat of competitive entry into the market are some remarkable factors that might make some industries harder to pioneer than others. Exceptionally, when there are industries in which a unique firm has capability to produce an unduplicated product or service, this firm can enter the market whenever it wants. Namely, there is no penalty for later entry into such industries. Hydrogen-powered automobiles can be considered as a good example of such an industry. (Schilling, 2010, p.99-102) Chapter 5 Case Questions Why did most of the early PDA companies fail, even if they had innovative and sophisticated product designs? Despite of having innovative and sophisticated product designs, most of the early PDA companies fail because of some critical factors such as running out of money and funds; having insufficient complementary goods, suppliers and distribution channels; having a narrow installed base; due to lack of advanced and enabling technologies, facing difficulties in terms of developing memory capacity, process power, modem size, battery life and size, software products; lack of awareness of PDAs functions. (Schilling, 2010, p.90) Could early PDA companies have done anything differently to survive? Early PDA companies underestimated the sales volume as well as the cost of PDAs process and production that is why they encountered financial difficulties to afford and execute their projects as a result most of PDA companies ran out of money. However, some companies like Sharp and Casio were differently focused on more specialized devices and vertical markets. By doing so, these companies could survive and kept operating. (Schilling, 2010, p.90-91) From my point of view, the best and most logical thing that early and failed PDA companies could have done was to apply merger and acquisitions strategies in order to create more financial resources, more complementary goods, more distribution channels, and larger installed base so as to sustainably carry out their projects and accomplish their short-term and long-term goals. Why was Palm successful where so many others had failed? As a late entrant and observer, accurately assessing and estimating its target market; preventing to do the same mistakes the early PDA companies did; properly determining and defining the desirability of consumers from the product; producing a cost-efficient and straightforward product design were key elements ensured Palm to be successful.(Schilling, 2010, p.91) Was being late to the smart phone market a disadvantage for Apple? What factors enabled Apple to successfully enter when it did? As an overall evaluation, I do not think that being late to the smart phone market was a disadvantage for Apple because Apple benefitted from previous operations and advancements with regard to appropriately linking to complementary goods and enabling technologies in the smart phone market. Furthermore, producing a smart phone with an aerodynamic interface and elegant design, providing additional features like taking pictures and downloading music also contributed to Apples achievement. In conclusion, all these factors enabled Apple to successfully enter and operate in the smart phone market despite of being late. (Schilling, 2010, p.92) Are there increasing returns in the smart phone market? Is it likely to eventually pick a single operating system as the dominant design? According to me, it is obvious that there are increasing returns in the smart phone market because two principal sources of increasing returns; learning effects and network externalities are continuously being improved and advanced. If we look at today, there is a great competition between Apple and Samsung in the smart phone market. Almost all software products and mobile applications are predominantly designed and produced to be compatible to these companies smart phones. Additionally, there is a high local and global demand for both Apple and Samsung smart phones. Therefore, I believe that smart phone market is likely to pick Apple and Samsung together as the dominant designs. Chapter 6 What is the difference between strength, a competitive advantage, and a sustainable competitive advantage? Strength is considered as a firms resources and adequacies that provide a firm competitive advantage. However, competitive advantage is firms power and capability to beat and surpass its competitors by using its strengths. Eventually, sustainable competitive advantage refers a firms scarce, unduplicated, precious, constant, and long-standing resources enabling it to continuously outperform its competitor for a long period of time. (Schilling, 2010, p.119) What makes an ability (or set of abilities) a core competency? According to the model of Prahalad and Hamel, abilitys power to provide superiority in strategic differentiation; effective combination and coherence of numerous initial abilities; abilitys additive to increasing product value and perceived customer value; abilitys strength to foster a firms flexibility and configuration to changes and new improvements; abilitys sufficiency to contain series of different organizations; abilitys inimitable mechanism and structure are key factors that convert an ability into a core competency.(Schilling, 2010, p.122-123) Why is it necessary to perform an external and internal analysis before the firm can identify its true competencies? As Gallon and his research fellows suggest, building specific goal-oriented teams; establishing an elaborate and detailed set of capabilities; assigning the significance, power, and value of capabilities for a firm; analysis and evaluation of each competencies in respect to providing a competitive advantage and effective fulfillment of market needs; finding key competencies to be empowered and improved so as to provide a sustainable competitive advantage over competitors are critical steps in order a firm to accurately identify its competencies and accomplish its organizational goals. Hence, performing an external and internal analysis is essential and necessary. (Schilling, 2010, p.125) Pick a company you are familiar with. Can you identify some of its core competencies? I would like to evaluate and identify Apples core competencies as a familiar and popular company. Basically, Apples core competencies are highly focusing on innovation; considerably investing in research and development; creating elegant and aerodynamic designs; manufacturing various multifunctional products such as IMac, IPhone, IPAD, IPod; large installed base and availability of complementary goods; high brand recognition and loyalty; efficiently addressing its target market; successfully exhibiting its products and training its customers through Apple Stores. How is the idea of strategic intent different from models of strategy that emphasizes achieving a fit between the firms strategies and its current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT)? The main difference between strategic intent and SWOT is their time perspective in terms of executing objectives and accomplishing goals. In this context, strategic intent has a future and long-term perspective (approximately 10 to 20 years). In essence, strategic intents core consideration is to ensure overall organization to focus on estimating future market demand, enhancing and improving its existing core competencies in order to fulfill the future market demand. On the other hand, SWOT has a short-term perspective in carrying out objectives and achieving the organizational success. In the light of this, SWOT is fundamentally focuses on current data and information such as current competencies, current market demand and meeting this demand. (Schilling, 2010, p.125-127) Can a strategic intent be too ambitious? Although strategic intent focuses on achieving future goals, it should not overlook current condition of the firm in respect to determining and establishing future plans and goals. In this context, if a firm has inadequate capabilities and resources to allow a transition between its current position and aimed future position, strategic intent can be considered too ambitious. (Schilling, 2010, p.127) Chapter 6 Case Questions How does Genzymes focus on orphan drugs affect the degree of competition it faces? How does it affect the bargaining power of customers? Genzymes focus on orphan drugs positively affects the degree of competition it faces, namely taking this action ensured Genzyme to lead competition in the market. There were several factors that weaken the competition. Initially, Genzymes competitors were quite reluctant focusing on orphan drugs due to its low demand and small market. Subsequently, Genzyme benefited from FDAs regulation and law which indicates that if a firm gets a patent and approval for an orphan drug, its drug gets a market exclusivity and protection from competition for seven years. As a result, there was no threat of potential entrants or existing rivalry at least for seven years, thus Genzyme remained powerful in the market. In addition to this, manufacturing and supplying a scarce and limited drug to relieve the pain of a particular illness induced patients not to have another choice except purchasing this drug. Therefore, Genzyme enhanced its bargaining power as a supplier whereas customers stayed with less b argaining power. (Schilling, 2010, p.110) How does focusing on orphan drugs affect the types of resources and capabilities a biotech firm needs to be successful? Focusing on orphan drugs requires a biotech firm to use the existing resources and capabilities predominantly related to producing orphan drugs rather than generally providing benefit to the medical environment so as to be successful in its commitment. Therefore, such a biotech firm should highly invest in research and development. Furthermore, such a firm should independently operate with limited and adequate employees in its own production, sales, and testing facilities so as to have higher profits and lower costs, correspondingly to be successful. Overall, I think, in this particular case focusing on orphan drugs has a positive effect in respect to more productively using the existing resources and capabilities. (Schilling, 2010, p.111) Does Genzymes focus on orphan drugs make sense? Do you think Genzyme has a long-term strategic intent? Genzymes focus on orphan drugs makes sense in terms of struggling to provide a medical treatment to rare diseases and illnesses. Accordingly, aiming to be highly profitable in this lowly competitive market also makes sense for Genzymes focus on orphan drugs. In my opinion, Genzyme demonstrated that it has a long-term strategic intent by dividing its businesses in different areas of medicine, and spreading its power to be dominant and leader in the market. (Schilling, 2010, p.113) Why do you think Genzyme has diversified into other areas of medicine? What are the advantages and disadvantages of this? I think, Genzyme has diversified into other areas of medicine in order to develop and advance its solutions to more diseases; capture more market share; reinforce and enhance its competitive advantage; profitability and sustainability; dominate the biotech market with its effective approaches to the critical medical issues. Despite of these pluses, it is inevitable for Genzyme to face more research and development costs to estimate and assess future solutions to diseases. What recommendations would you offer Genzyme for the future? I would offer Genzyme to maintain and sustain its diversified organizational structure so as to come up with new drugs for various diseases. By doing so, it can also foster and raise its profitability. However, diversifying and spreading its power to different medicine areas requires Genzyme to put more effort into developing, manufacturing, marketing, and selling operations so as to achieve the success. In this context, I think, Genzyme should only use this effort in creating and developing new drugs, namely it should pay less attention to the manufacturing, marketing, and selling processes by considering strategically established collaborations. By doing so, Genzyme can advance its core competencies and operational effectiveness in each medicine area it performs correspondingly it can considerably increase its profits.

Body Image Portrayed by the Media Essay -- essays research papers

Through the use of imagery, the display of life-styles, and the reinforcement of values, advertisements are communicators of culturally defined concepts such as success, worth, love, sexuality, popularity, and normalcy. Of particular concern over the past two decades has been excessive use of sexual stereotypes, especially of women. Women are directly affected by this advertising, beyond the mere desire to purchase the product or service described. The influence of the media on people is tremendous, and the effect of advertisements that direct images of beauty, and the perfect slim figure have a harmful effect on a great deal of the world's population, especially women. The media has portrayed the â€Å"perfect body image† so successfully, that women’s self-image, self-esteem and even their health is affected. Looking at the media, it’s almost impossible to ignore the many images of thin, beautiful women. In many women’s magazines, nearly every other page is covered with an advertisement that displays a person with the â€Å"ideal body†, a slim figure, a happy face, and trendy or chic clothes. Most of the advertisements in magazines try to present models as realistic representations for consumers, particularly women, to compare themselves. Not only do magazines try to portray the â€Å"perfect image,† but also television advertisements try to achieve this representation of the perfect body. Television broadcasts events and shows like â€Å"Miss America,† and â€Å"Baywatch† that represent unrealistic body types for ordinary women. To accomplish the goal of looking like the models being displayed all over the media, women think they need to diet. If it was dieting just for the fact of making women feel better, it would be all right, but the purpose of most people is different. When women compare themselves to models and pictures of people in advertisements, they believe the only way they will get noticed i s if they also appear the in the same image of the models. To achieve this goal, they begin to starve themselves. They start to believe that by eating anything at all they will get fat and the most important thing to them is not to be fat. It becomes a compulsion to become thin and some women will do anything to get there. Women need to realize that what the media displays as the â€Å"perfect body† and what really is the healthy body are two different things. Even if a woman does get d... ...haracters in the show are the â€Å"fat ugly guy and fat ugly lady† who live across the street and are objects of constant ridicule. The same can be said for virtually all mainstream shows on television. It is a continual barrage of beautiful people that are exposed to viewers. Unfortunately, it is becoming accepted that society should indeed look like television actors. There is essentially no one in this medium saying that it is okay to be oneself, to look how women want to look and feel good at the same time. What society must do is tell the beauty industry, tell the magazines, and tell Hollywood that what they are doing is not acceptable. The image they portray is unrealistic, unhealthy, and irresponsible. However, it is unlikely that the beauty industry will loosen its grip on the minds of women and try so hard to make them think they are ugly. That would of course hurt sales and cause them to make only millions instead of billions of dollars. It is also improbable th at Hollywood will break perhaps its only rule, because that too would disrupt the bottom line. So, for the time being anyway, we are a society being told how to look, and trying to live up to an impossible standard.

Stress in College :: Education, Generation Me

Stress in College Every person will experience some degree of stress in his or her life. Stress can be healthy. Stress can make a person feel hopeless, helpless, and powerless. Constant worry about problems can cause a diversity of physical symptoms. Some people face stress more than others do. College students deal with stress each stage of courses. Gender, age, and finance is a major influence on how a person experience stress in college. Bettina (2001) conducted research on stress stating, ‘’coping strategies used by adolescents prove that boys use more problems oriented, and direct action approaches to stress. Bettina (2001) says, ‘’Girls use passive and seeking strategies to cope with stress’’. Women like to talk about their stress with others and try to find friends to be of assistance to them. Men will put unwanted energy into doing energetic things similar to sports, working or television. In the majority of households, girls are encouraged to converse feelings more than boys. Venting to someone can help keep away from the sensation that stress is overpowering. Aid-win, Sutton,and Lachman (1996) studied whether stressful episodes provide content to the development of coping resources and reported,’’ 81.9% of men reported solving recent problems by using prior coping strategies gained through encountering problems in their lives, work, and family’’. As a person gets older, he or she is capable to cope with stress better. An older person will find ways to minimize excitement and energy levels. A returning student, will tend to know exactly what he or she wants to do with his or her future. Having insight into your future makes a person more focus. Returning students do not have the need to quench any curiosity with doing anything that will stray from their vision. When a student is eighteen years old recently out of high school, your mentality is different. A younger student is not sure of what he or wants to do. A new student becomes very curious, with new a found freedom. New students tend to feel as if he or she were on top of the world and life will just get easier after high Stress in College :: Education, Generation Me Stress in College Every person will experience some degree of stress in his or her life. Stress can be healthy. Stress can make a person feel hopeless, helpless, and powerless. Constant worry about problems can cause a diversity of physical symptoms. Some people face stress more than others do. College students deal with stress each stage of courses. Gender, age, and finance is a major influence on how a person experience stress in college. Bettina (2001) conducted research on stress stating, ‘’coping strategies used by adolescents prove that boys use more problems oriented, and direct action approaches to stress. Bettina (2001) says, ‘’Girls use passive and seeking strategies to cope with stress’’. Women like to talk about their stress with others and try to find friends to be of assistance to them. Men will put unwanted energy into doing energetic things similar to sports, working or television. In the majority of households, girls are encouraged to converse feelings more than boys. Venting to someone can help keep away from the sensation that stress is overpowering. Aid-win, Sutton,and Lachman (1996) studied whether stressful episodes provide content to the development of coping resources and reported,’’ 81.9% of men reported solving recent problems by using prior coping strategies gained through encountering problems in their lives, work, and family’’. As a person gets older, he or she is capable to cope with stress better. An older person will find ways to minimize excitement and energy levels. A returning student, will tend to know exactly what he or she wants to do with his or her future. Having insight into your future makes a person more focus. Returning students do not have the need to quench any curiosity with doing anything that will stray from their vision. When a student is eighteen years old recently out of high school, your mentality is different. A younger student is not sure of what he or wants to do. A new student becomes very curious, with new a found freedom. New students tend to feel as if he or she were on top of the world and life will just get easier after high

united nations :: essays research papers

UN:United Nations The United Nations was established on October 29, 1945. The United Nations was formed right after World War 2. It was also formed for international assembly of Nations to bring world peace. The United Nations is the successor of the league of Nations, a kind of the same organizationformed after World War 1 that failed to stop another war. The United Nations was first outlined in the Dumbarton Oaks Proposal of 1944. In the Yalta confrence the biggest threes of those times ,United States,Soviet Union, and Great Britian. They all sat together trying to solve promblems concerning the UN.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The United Nations was formed in six parts, they were: General Assembly which the legislative body of the UN were all nations are equal.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Economic Social Council- handles economic and social projects.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Security Council- which is responsible for international peace and security issues ,it has five permanent members (United States, Great Britian , China , France ,and U.S.S.R).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Trusteeship Coucil- handles or supervises UN territories former colonies which have yet to become independent.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  International Court of Justice- settles international disputes.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Secretariat- the administrative branch of the UN.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   During the cold war the UN was the host to a bunch of conflicts between U.S.S.R and the United States . They used the General Assembly where all nations are equal. They used it by talking or arguing verbally attack on each other . At Dumbarton Oaks Confrence (Aug-Oct1944). These five countries drafted proposed to new organizations. At the Yalta confrence Feb. 1945 more stuff was agreed. The UN Charter was signed on June 26, and require number of states on Oct 24.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The General Assembly first met in London on Jan,10,1946. The UN decided to locate the headquarters in the United States. In Dec. 1946 John D. Rockefeller Jr. gave the General Assembly 8.5 million.With that pocket money they (UN) bought a piece of land along the East River of New York city for their headquarters.the principal buildings they were the Secretariat,the General Assembly, and the confrence building were completed in 1952.

Data mining

This is an accounting calculation, followed by the application of a threshold. However, predicting the profitability of a new customer would be data mining. Dividing the customers off company according to their profitability. Yes, this is a data mining task because it requires data analysis to determine who the costumers are that brings more business to the company. Computing the total sales of the company. No, this is not a data mining task because there Is not analysis involve, this information can be pull out of any booking program. Sorting a student database based on student ID numbers.No, this Is not a data milling activity because sorting by ID numbers doesn't Involved any data mining task. This is a simple database query Predicting the future stock price of a company using historical records. Yes. We would attempt to create a model that can predict the continuous value of the stock price. This is an example of the area of data mining known as predictive modeling. We could use regression for this modeling, although researchers in many fields have developed a wide variety of techniques for predicting time series. Monitoring the heart rate of a patient for abnormalities. Yes.We would build a model of the normal behavior of heart rate and raise an alarm when an unusual heart behavior occurred. This would involve the area of data mining known as anomaly detection. This could also be considered as a classification problem If we had examples of both normal and abnormal heart behavior. For each of the following, identify the relevant data mining task(s): The Boston Celtic would like to approximate how many points their next opponent will score against them. A military intelligence officer is interested in learning about the captives proportions of Sunnis and Shies in a particular strategic region. A NORA defense computer must decide immediately whether a blip on the radar is a flick of geese or an incoming nuclear missile. A political strategist is seeking the b est groups to canvass for donations in particular county. A homeland security official would like to determine whether a certain sequence of financial and residence moves implies a tendency to terrorist acts. A Wall Street analyst has been asked to find out the expected change in stock price for a set of companies with similar price/earnings ratios.Question 3 For each of the following meetings, explain which phase in the CRISP-DIM process is represented: Managers want to know by next week whether deployment will take place. Therefore, analysts meet to discuss how useful and accurate their model is. This is the Evaluation phase in the CRISP-DIM process. In the evaluation phase the data mining analysts determine if the model and technique used meets business objectives established in the first phase. The data mining project manager meets with data warehousing manager to discuss how the data will be collected. This is theData Understanding phase in the CRISP-DIM process. The data wareh ouse is identified as a resource during the Business Understanding phase; however the actual data collection takes place during the Data Understanding Phase. In this phase data is collected and accessed from the resources listed and identified in the Business Understanding phase. The data mining consultant meets with the vice president for marketing, who says that he would like to move forward with customer relationship management. The main objective of business is to review during the Business Understanding Phase.So, therefore after the meeting it seems the data mining consultant gained success in convincing UP of marketing to provide approval for performing data mining on the customer relationship management system. The data mining project manager meets with the production line supervisor to discuss implementation of changes and improvements. The discussion of implementation of changes and improvements in the project whether specific improvements or process changes are required to ensure that all important aspects of the business are accounted is performed under the Evaluation Phase.The meeting held with business objective to collect and cleanse the data to ensure the quality of data. The analysts meet to discuss whether the neural network or decision tree model should be applied Question 4 [10 points] Describe the possible negative effects of proceeding directly to mine data that has not been preprocessed. Before data mining algorithms can be used, a target data set must be assembled. As data mining can only uncover patterns actually present in the data, the target data set must be large enough to contain these patterns while imagining concise enough to be mined within an acceptable time limit.A common source for data is a data mart or data warehouse. Pre-processing is essential to analyze the multivariate data sets before data mining. The target set is then cleaned. Data. Question 5 [1 5 points] Which of the three methods for handling missing values do you prefer? Which method is the most conservative and probably the safest, meaning that it fabricates the least amount of data? What are some drawbacks to this method? Methods for replacing missing field values with: User defined constants Means or modesRandom draws from the distribution of the variable Question 6 Describe the differences between the training set, test set, and validation set. The training set is used to build the model. This contains a set of data that has fricasseed target and predictor variables. Typically a hold-out dataset or test set is used to evaluate how well the model does with data outside the training set. The test set contains the fricasseed results data but they are not used when the test set data is run through the model until the end, when the fricasseed data are compared against the model results.The model is adjusted to minimize error on the test set. Another hold-out dataset or validation set is used to evaluate the adjusted model in step #2 where, a gain, the validation set data is run against the adjusted model and results compared to the unused fricasseed data. The training set (seen data) to build the model (determine its parameters) and the test set (unseen data) to measure its performance (holding the parameters constant). Sometimes, we also need a validation set to tune the model (e. G. , for pruning a decision tree). The validation set can't be used for testing (as it's not unseen). Data mining This is an accounting calculation, followed by the application of a threshold. However, predicting the profitability of a new customer would be data mining. Dividing the customers off company according to their profitability. Yes, this is a data mining task because it requires data analysis to determine who the costumers are that brings more business to the company. Computing the total sales of the company. No, this is not a data mining task because there Is not analysis involve, this information can be pull out of any booking program. Sorting a student database based on student ID numbers.No, this Is not a data milling activity because sorting by ID numbers doesn't Involved any data mining task. This is a simple database query Predicting the future stock price of a company using historical records. Yes. We would attempt to create a model that can predict the continuous value of the stock price. This is an example of the area of data mining known as predictive modeling. We could use regression for this modeling, although researchers in many fields have developed a wide variety of techniques for predicting time series. Monitoring the heart rate of a patient for abnormalities. Yes.We would build a model of the normal behavior of heart rate and raise an alarm when an unusual heart behavior occurred. This would involve the area of data mining known as anomaly detection. This could also be considered as a classification problem If we had examples of both normal and abnormal heart behavior. For each of the following, identify the relevant data mining task(s): The Boston Celtic would like to approximate how many points their next opponent will score against them. A military intelligence officer is interested in learning about the captives proportions of Sunnis and Shies in a particular strategic region. A NORA defense computer must decide immediately whether a blip on the radar is a flick of geese or an incoming nuclear missile. A political strategist is seeking the b est groups to canvass for donations in particular county. A homeland security official would like to determine whether a certain sequence of financial and residence moves implies a tendency to terrorist acts. A Wall Street analyst has been asked to find out the expected change in stock price for a set of companies with similar price/earnings ratios.Question 3 For each of the following meetings, explain which phase in the CRISP-DIM process is represented: Managers want to know by next week whether deployment will take place. Therefore, analysts meet to discuss how useful and accurate their model is. This is the Evaluation phase in the CRISP-DIM process. In the evaluation phase the data mining analysts determine if the model and technique used meets business objectives established in the first phase. The data mining project manager meets with data warehousing manager to discuss how the data will be collected. This is theData Understanding phase in the CRISP-DIM process. The data wareh ouse is identified as a resource during the Business Understanding phase; however the actual data collection takes place during the Data Understanding Phase. In this phase data is collected and accessed from the resources listed and identified in the Business Understanding phase. The data mining consultant meets with the vice president for marketing, who says that he would like to move forward with customer relationship management. The main objective of business is to review during the Business Understanding Phase.So, therefore after the meeting it seems the data mining consultant gained success in convincing UP of marketing to provide approval for performing data mining on the customer relationship management system. The data mining project manager meets with the production line supervisor to discuss implementation of changes and improvements. The discussion of implementation of changes and improvements in the project whether specific improvements or process changes are required to ensure that all important aspects of the business are accounted is performed under the Evaluation Phase.The meeting held with business objective to collect and cleanse the data to ensure the quality of data. The analysts meet to discuss whether the neural network or decision tree model should be applied Question 4 [10 points] Describe the possible negative effects of proceeding directly to mine data that has not been preprocessed. Before data mining algorithms can be used, a target data set must be assembled. As data mining can only uncover patterns actually present in the data, the target data set must be large enough to contain these patterns while imagining concise enough to be mined within an acceptable time limit.A common source for data is a data mart or data warehouse. Pre-processing is essential to analyze the multivariate data sets before data mining. The target set is then cleaned. Data. Question 5 [1 5 points] Which of the three methods for handling missing values do you prefer? Which method is the most conservative and probably the safest, meaning that it fabricates the least amount of data? What are some drawbacks to this method? Methods for replacing missing field values with: User defined constants Means or modesRandom draws from the distribution of the variable Question 6 Describe the differences between the training set, test set, and validation set. The training set is used to build the model. This contains a set of data that has fricasseed target and predictor variables. Typically a hold-out dataset or test set is used to evaluate how well the model does with data outside the training set. The test set contains the fricasseed results data but they are not used when the test set data is run through the model until the end, when the fricasseed data are compared against the model results.The model is adjusted to minimize error on the test set. Another hold-out dataset or validation set is used to evaluate the adjusted model in step #2 where, a gain, the validation set data is run against the adjusted model and results compared to the unused fricasseed data. The training set (seen data) to build the model (determine its parameters) and the test set (unseen data) to measure its performance (holding the parameters constant). Sometimes, we also need a validation set to tune the model (e. G. , for pruning a decision tree). The validation set can't be used for testing (as it's not unseen). Data Mining Determine the benefits of data mining to the businesses when employing 1. Predictive analytics to understand the behavior of customers Predictive analytics is business intelligence technology that produces a predictive score for each customer or other organizational element. Assigning these predictive scores is the job of a predictive model, which has, in turn been trained over your data, learning from the experience of your organization. Predictive analytics optimizes marketing campaigns and website behavior to increase customer responses, conversions and clicks, and to decrease churn. Each customer's predictive score informs actions to be taken with that customer. 1. Associations discovery in products sold to customers The way in which companies interact with their customers has changed dramatically over the past few years. A customer's continuing business is no longer guaranteed. As a result, companies have found that they need to understand their customers better, and to quickly respond to their wants and needs. In addition, the time frame in which these responses need to be made has been shrinking. It is no longer possible to wait until the signs of customer dissatisfaction are obvious before action must be taken. To succeed, companies must be proactive and anticipate what a customer desires. For an example in the old days, the storekeepers would simply keep track of all of their customers in their heads, and would know what to do when a customer walked into the store. Today’ store associates face a much more complex situation, more customers, more products, more competitors, and less time to react means that understanding your customers is now much harder to do. A number of forces are working together to increase the complexity of customer relationships, such as compressed marketing cycles, increased marketing costs, and a stream of new product offers. There are many kinds of models, such as linear formulas and business rules. And, for each kind of model, there are all the weights or rules or other mechanics that determine precisely how the predictors are combined. In fact, there are so many choices, it is literally impossible for a person to try them all and find the best one. Predictive analytics is data mining technology that uses the company’s customer data to automatically build a predictive model specialized for the business. This process learns from the organization's collective experience by leveraging the existing logs of customer purchases, behavior and demographics. The wisdom gained is encoded as the predictive model itself. Predictive modeling software has computer science at its core, undertaking a mixture of number crunching, trial, and error. 2. Web mining to discover business intelligence from Web customers The fast business growth has made both business community and customers face a new situation. Due to intense competition on the one hand and the customer's option to prefer from a number of alternatives, the business community has realized the essential of intelligent marketing strategies and relationship management. Web servers record and accumulate data about user relations whenever requirements for resources are received. Analy zing the Web access logs can help understand the user behavior and the web structure. From the business and applications point of view, knowledge obtained from the web usage patterns could be directly applied to efficiently manage activities correlated to e-business, e-services and e-education. Accurate web usage information could help to attract new customers, retain current customers, improve cross marketing/sales, effectiveness of promotional campaigns, tracking leaving customers etc. The usage information can be exploited to improve the performance of Web servers by developing proper perfecting and caching strategies so as to decrease the server response time. User profiles could be built by combining users? navigation paths with other data features, such as page viewing time, hyperlink structure, and page content†, according to Sonal Tiwari. 3. Clustering to find related customer information Clustering is a typical unsupervised learning technique for grouping similar data points. A clustering algorithm assigns a large number of data points to a smaller number of groups such that data points in the same group share the same properties while, in different groups, they are dissimilar. Clustering has many applications, including part family formation for group technology, image segmentation, information retrieval, web pages grouping, market segmentation, and scientific and engineering analysis. Many clustering methods have been proposed and they can be broadly classified into four categories such as partitioning methods, hierarchical methods, density-based methods and grid-based methods. Customer clustering is the most important data mining methodologies used in marketing and customer relationship management (CRM). Customer clustering would use customer-purchase transaction data to track buying behavior and create strategic business initiatives. Companies want to keep high-profit, high-value, and low-risk customers. This cluster typically represents the 10 to 20 percent of customers who create 50 to 80 percent of a company's profits. A company would not want to lose these customers, and the strategic initiative for the segment is obviously retention. A low-profit, high-value, and low-risk customer segment is also an attractive one, and the obvious goal here would be to increase profitability for this segment. Cross-selling (selling new products) and up-selling (selling more of what customers currently buy) to this segment are the marketing initiatives of choice. Assess the reliability of the data mining algorithms. Decide if they can be trusted and predict the errors they are likely to produce. Most methods for validating a data-mining model do not answer business questions directly, but provide the metrics that can be used to guide a business or development decision. There is no comprehensive rule that can tell you when a model is good enough, or when you have enough data. Accuracy is a measure of how well the model correlates an outcome with the attributes in the data that has been provided. There are various measures of accuracy, but all measures of accuracy are dependent on the data that is used. In reality, values might be missing or approximate, or the data might have been changed by multiple processes. Particularly in the phase of exploration and development, you might decide to accept a certain amount of error in the data, especially if the data is fairly uniform in its characteristics. For example, a model that predicts sales for a particular store based on past sales can be strongly correlated and very accurate, even if that store consistently used the wrong accounting method. Therefore, measurements of accuracy must be balanced by assessments of reliability. Reliability assesses the way that a data-mining model performs on different data sets. A data-mining model is reliable if it generates the same type of predictions or finds the same general kinds of patterns egardless of the test data that is supplied. For example, the model that you would use to generate for the store that used the wrong accounting method would not generalize well to other stores, and therefore would not be reliable. Analyze privacy concerns raised by the collection of personal data for mining purposes. 1. Choose and describe three (3) concerns raised by consumers. Recent surveys on privacy show a great concern about the use of personal data for purposes other than the one for which data has been collected. The handling of misinformation can cause serious and long-term damage, so individuals should be able challenge the correctness of data about themselves, such as personal records. The last concern is granulated access to personal information, such as personal information about someone’s health when applying for a job. 2. Decide if each of these concerns is valid and explain your decision for each. These concerns are valid, the first concerned mentioned caused an extreme case to occurred in 1989, collecting over $16 million USD by selling the driver-license data from 19. million Californian residents, the Department of Motor Vehicles in California revised its data selling policy after Robert Brado used their services to obtain the address of actress Rebecca Schaeffer and later killed her in her apartment. While it is very unlikely that KDDM tools will reveal directly precise confidential data, the exploratory Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDDM), tools may correlate or dis close confidential, sensitive facts about individuals resulting in a significant reduction of possibilities. The second concern is valid due to incident happening in Washington; Cablevision fired an employee James Russell Wiggings, on the basis of information obtained from Equifax, Atlanta, about Wiggings' conviction for cocaine possession; the information was actually about James Ray Wiggings, and the case ended up in court. This illustrates a serious issue in defining property of the data containing personal records. The third issue is For example, employers are obliged to perform a background check when hiring a worker but it is widely accepted that information about diet and exercise habits should not affect hiring decisions. . Describe how each concern is being allayed. KDDM revitalizes some issues and possess new threats to privacy. Some of these can be directly attributed to the fact that this powerful technique may enable the correlation of separate data sets in other to significantly reduce the possible values of private information. Other can be more attributed to the interpretati on, application and actions taken from the inferences obtain with the tools. While this raises concerns, there is a body of knowledge in the field of statistical databases that could potentially be extended and adapted to develop new techniques to balance the rights to privacy and the needs for knowledge and analysis of large volumes of information. Some of these new privacy protection methods are emerging as the application of KDD tools moves to more controversial datasets. Provide at least three (3) examples where businesses have used predictive analysis to gain a competitive advantage and evaluate the effectiveness of each business’s strategy. The first advantage analysis helps when it comes to validity of a product by making a distinction between the positioning of a product and its ability to satisfy customer requirements. Another important attributes include ease of use, innovation, how well the product integrates with other technologies that customers need. The second advantage is the technology provides to customers. Even if a product is well designed, it must be able to help businesses achieve their business goals. Goals range from gaining insight about customers in order to be more competitive, to using the technology to increase revenue. A key attribute that is measured in this dimension is how well the product supports companies in meeting their objectives. The third advantage is the strength of the company’s strategy. It is not enough to simply have a good vision; a company must also have a well-designed road map that can support this vision. Vision attributes also include more tactical aspects of the company’s strategy such as a technology platform that can scale, well-articulated messaging, and positioning. A key component of this dimension is clarity: it must be clear what business problem the company is solving for which customer.ReferencesAlexander, D. (2012). Data Mining. Retrieved from: http://www.laits.utexas.edu/~anorman/BUS.FOR/course.mat/Alex/#8Josh, K. (2012). Analysis of Data Mining Algorithms. Retrieved from: http://www-users.cs.umn.edu/~desikan/research/dataminingoverview.html Exforsys. (2006). Execution for System: Connection between Data Mining and Customer Interaction. Retrieved from: http://www.exforsys.com/tutorials/data-mining/the-connection-between-data-mining-and-customer-interaction.html Frand, J. (1996). Data Mining: What is Data Mining? Retrieved from: http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty/jason.frand/teacher/technologies/palace/index.htm Pupo, E. (2010). HIMSS News: Privacy and Security Concerns in Data Mining. Retrieved from: http://www.himss.org/ASP/ContentRedirector.asp?type=HIMSSNewsItem&ContentId=73526 Stein, J. (2011). Data Mining: How Companies Now Know Everything About You. Retrieved from: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2058205,00.html#ixzz25MwYNhuh