The Current Debate Of Puberty - 857 Words

This paper will provide information on the current debate of puberty and also the fact that the average age of puberty is decreasing. It will also review the social effects the media has on body image. Granted the term adolescent development is used vaguely when describing it in girls, Attie and Brooks-Gunn (2000) define development as, fat increasing and changes in breast development. Puberty is normally used to describe girls in their teenage years who are characterized as moody, stubborn, or irrational. But teens are not only going through emotional changes, they are also going through physical changes. Puberty can be defined as an increase in adrenal and gondola hormones in the brain (Finlay, Jones, Colemn, 2001). It can also be defined as an increase in body fat (Attie Brooks-Gunn 2000). Over the last forty years the age of puberty in both boys and girls has been getting younger. Most say this change could be associated with the increase in chemicals that are now found in t he foods we eat, although there is not enough research in this field. While some people believe that, â€Å"Today’s children may be less active, and consume fewer fruits and vegetables than those born in the previous decades†(Gholipour, Bahar 2013). Another cause of puberty coming earlier could be the increased sexual activities in the media. The normal age of puberty in girls is 12 to 13, but in some cases as early as nine or ten. Steinberger states, â€Å"Girls get their first periods, on average, aShow MoreRelatedAre Obese Children Doomed to be Obese Adults? Essay1414 Words   |  6 Pagesthe subject of debates, a debate is an argument of a current event or other controversial topic that provides both sides of an argument. These could be negative and positive things or pros and cons of a topic. You can debate about almost anything as long as it is debatable and worth debating over. Some popular topics to debate about are school uniforms, playing music during class, abortion, obesity, health care reform, politics, and many more. The topic I have chosen for this debate paper is obesityRead MoreA Research Study Of Age Related Development1543 Words   |  7 PagesPsychodynamic, Humanistic, Behaviourist, Cognitive and Biological. My essay will explore the developmental theories relating to adolescence and the advantages and disadvantages of using these theories within Social Work. Girls usually experience puberty before boys with the start of menstruation which can begin as early as eight or nine. Physical difference becomes more obvious due to hormone development. The appearance of more bodily hair and skin changes along with growth spurts and bodily changesRead MoreEssay on Human Development: Nature vs. Nurture1393 Words   |  6 Pagesnurture debate is an old issue within the field of psychology. â€Å"The nature-nurture issue is a perennial one that has resurfaced in current psychiatry as a series of debates on the role that genes (DNA) and environments play in the etiology and pathophysiology of mental disorders† (Schaffner) The debate is essentially about what is inherited (nature) and what is experienced by environmental factors (nurture) and how they affect human development. Naturally, the nature versus nurture debate relatesRead MoreEssay on Male Circumcision: A Social And Medical Misconception1614 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction Male circumcision is defined as a surgical procedure in which the prepuce of the penis is separated from the glands and excised. (Mosby, 1986) Dating as far back as 2800 BC, circumcision has been performed as a part of religious ceremony, as a puberty or premarital rite, as a disciplinary measure, as a reprieve against the toxic effects of vaginal blood, and as a mark of slavery. (Milos amp; Macris, 1992) In the United States, advocacy of circumcision was perpetuated amid the Victorian beliefRead MoreIs Homosexuality Biologically Based Pro / Con Essay1441 Words   |  6 Pageshas always been able to cope with having two opinions about a situation. For example as we continue to debate over the issue of homosexuality, many sub-debates have come forward from this topic. For instance, debates of marriage, gay rights within the spectrum of laws and regulations all construct an ensuing point of debates amongst people (Slife, 2013, p. 160). In fact, the more powerful debate about homosexuality is the claim that homosexuals were born that way. Essentially, both sides of the spectrumRead MoreFacade Of Normality : Puppy Love, Possibilities, And Puberty1378 Words   |  6 PagesFaà §ade of Normality Puppy love, possibilities, and puberty it is all pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that is called growing up. For some reason nothing seems to turn out correctly and there is always a piece missing. As we grow up we learn what makes us an individual, and that individuality can cause insecurities. Being a teenage girl is hard enough; your hormones skyrocket, your body begins changing, you will get your first true crush, and you have begun questioning who you are. But what if you wereRead MorePsychology : Psychology And Psychology1018 Words   |  5 Pagesgroups of psychologists who shared a theoretical view and focused psychological problems with a common orientation; these have evolved over time. Psychology was first established as a separate science of biology and philosophy, that s when the real debate over how to describe and explain the human mind and behavior began start, different psychological schools represent the major theories of psychology. The first stream of well-founded thought this was structuralism was defended by Wilhelm Wundt. ImmediatelyRead MoreAdolescence Cognitive Development Essay1669 Words   |  7 Pagesabstract, systematic, logical, and scientific thinking and reasoning, the processes described by both authors differ in comparison. For example, according to Berk (2010), Piagets formal operational stage theory claims that when a child reaches puberty their cognitive development begins to change from thinking and reasoning using real objects to using more abstract, scientific, and systematic thinking as well as hypothetical-deduction reasoning and propositional thoughts. Berk (2010) also addressesRead MoreLowering The Minimum Drinking Age1429 Words   |  6 Pagesa minimum drinking age over 18† (Griggs, 1). When Ronald Reagan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act in 1984, its goal was to reduce less-mature adults from consuming alcohol and performing reckless acts (Cary, 1). However, despi te the current drinking age, 17.5 percent of consumer spending for alcohol in 2013 was under the age of 21. It is estimated that â€Å"90 percent of underage drinking is consumed via binge drinking†¦with alcohol abuse becoming more prevalent among the country’s youth†Read MoreLiving with Attention Deficit Disorder1012 Words   |  4 Pagesminimal brain dysfunction and was only diagnosed in children below puberty age. In 1968, the DSM-II first attempted a more specific definition, highlighting hyperactivity being labeled a â€Å"hyperkinetic reaction of childhood.† In 1980, the DSM-III labeled the condition attention deficit disorder, or ADD, shifting the definition from hyperactivity to problems in focusing attention, likely affecting more people. In 1994, in DSM-IV, the current definition appeared, labeling the illness as attention deficit

Corporations Law Preliminary Issues

Question: Discuss about theCorporations Lawfor Preliminary Issues. Answer: Introduction Dr Dawes, Mr Foster, Mr Huckenfusser and Mrs Duck after having dealt with certain shares of MMM later on sold them off upon receiving some vital information of the same from the internal sources of GML and also earned profits in the dealing. They would not have been entitled to these profits had they not received the information from GML. Thereafter, some of them have become liable under the civil penalties as enshrined in the Corporation Act. Preliminary Issues There are several breaches of laws in the given situation. There are some people who have misused the information that they received from GML. Yet there are others who have traded in the shares of MMM to derive personal gains and benefits out of the information that they received. Though there might be some because of whom no detriment was caused to the company on the whole but it should be noted that if the minutes of the meetings of GML would not have been available to them, they would not have gained these benefits[1]. Thus, the issues that arise in this matter may be outlined as follows: Whether Dr Dawes has incurred a liability under the Corporations Act for the benefits that he has drawn because of the investments made by his wife in the stocks of MMM? Whether Mr Foster has incurred any liability for having dealt in insider trading and making his new company QECG buy shares of MMM and thus become liable for prosecution? Whether any misappropriation of position has been made by Mr Huckenfusser and whether the personal gains that he has derived have made him liable for prosecution against him? Whether there is any liability of Mrs Duck and if anything wrong has been done by her in investing in the shares of MMM on getting information about the upcoming profits from Mr Huckenfusser? The facts in the matter are clearly indicative of the fact that some of the people as identified above are directors while others are pseudo directors and some are even simple employees of the company. Thus, all cannot be dealt with under the provisions of director cannot be done here. Thus all the issues have to be discussed independently in this matter. There might be some people who are liable for civil penalties while there might be others who have been an accomplice in the matter and have in fact not contravened any law[2]. Each of these issues shall be conclusively determined after making an analysis of the provisions of Corporations Law and making a note of the breached provisions of the law. Possible Breaches of the Corporations Law In order to successfully bring about a suit against a director or officer of a company, certain essential things needs to be proved under Section 183 of the Corporations Act. These are: That at the relevant time, the person against whom the suit is being instituted was an officer of the company under absolute authority[3]; That the alleged person directly acquired the information himself; That he could obtain the information because of his position as a director or officer of the company and had he not been in that position, he would not have obtained the information; That the person alleged made an improper use of the information that he received[4]; That the improper use in question was made directly by him so that he could gain something for himself in the matter; The same information that he has used could also have been used by him to cause some harm or detriment to the company[5]. Dr Dawes in the given instance got the information about the possible benefits of investing the stocks of MMM because he was enjoying the position of a director of the company and was also a member of the directorial meeting. He had given a clear indication to the company that he was declared insolvent and was not left with any assets. Thus, it can be said that no material facts were concealed from the company by Dr Dawes. Upon acquiring information about the shares of MMM, he advised his wife to make an investment in the shares. He also came to know about the possible fall in the prices of the shares because of his position and subsequently asked his wife to sell off the shares that she had bought. A good amount of returns were obtained by her by way of this transaction. It should be noted that though benefits were derived by Dr Dawes in the matter, no detriment was caused to the company because of his actions. All that Dr Dawes did was he invested his money in the stocks of the com pany and his wife derived benefits out of it. It should also be noted that Section 183 becomes applicable only in those conditions when benefits are derived by a director or an officer[6]. However, because of his insolvency, Dr Dawes was not eligible to become a director and to hold on to his directorship, no permission was taken from ASIC as well[7]. Thus, it can be said in this matter that Dr Dawes is not liable to get any civil penalties in the matter. Mr Foster was a former director of the company and he acquired the information of the stocks of MMM because of his position. He thereafter left GML and joined QECG as a director and used the information he gained in GML for the advantage of QECG. He advised the Board in QECG to invest in the shares of MMM and when he did this, he was not associated with GML in any way. However, it cannot be denied that the information that was received by him was only because of his advantageous position and had he not been present in the meeting, he would have not known about it[8]. Thus, there is no doubt over the fact that he made an advantageous use of his position and misused the gathered information there[9]. There was no option in the hands of QECG to know about the stock priced had Mr Foster not told them about it. There is indication of misuse of information and though detriment was not caused to GML in the matter, yet the actions of Mr Foster have made him liable for insider trading. Hence, civil liabilities have been incurred by him in this situation. Mr Huckenfusser is in the position of an employee in GML and is neither an officer nor a director there. Because of his work profile, he gathered the information about the stock prices of MMM and passed on this piece of information to an outsider Mrs Duck. This information was let out only with intent to gain personal advantage and to set off his debts in the matter. Mrs Duck has got no action or liability in this because that entire she did was she sought from some independent financial advice from her brother-in-law[10]. However, it is worth noting here that Mr Huckenfusser succeeded in giving this information because of his position and this is a breach of fiduciary duties that have been given to him. Thus, it can be said that though Mrs Duck is not liable in the matter, Mr Huckenfusser is. Defenses Dr Dawes acted honestly in the matter and though he gained monetary advantage his bankruptcy was known to GML. Though certain provisions of law have been contravened by him, he is not guilty under law and can claim immunity under Section 1317S[11]. Mr Foster in the matter has no available remedies and he can only state that GML did not incur any losses because of his actions. However, this is not a valid defense and there needs to be an independent procedural investigation taken up by ASIC in the matter[12]. Mrs Duck has total immunity in the matter because she is not in association with GML[13]. She only took financial investment advice in the matter in absolute good faith. Based on the advice she obtained, she acted and hence she has not breached any law or provisions of the Corporations Act[14]. Remedies There are certain civil remedies in the matter. As and when a breach of duty is proved, the Courts can choose on any of the following remedies: For contravention of the law, a pecuniary penalty amounting to $200,000 may be imposed; The accused may be asked to pay compensation for damages under Section 1317E of the Corporations Act as a civil penalty; The directors might also face disqualification in the matter from the management of other companies[15]. Conclusion Thus, in this matter, it can be concluded saying that there are certain people who have beached the provisions in the matter but there are also some who have not made a breach under Section 183 of the Corporations Act. Hence, civil penalties can be imposed in the matter. But, it should be noted that procedural process has to be independently taken up in the matter by ASIC before any breach is declared in the matter. References Australian Securities Investments Commission v DB Management Pty Ltd[2000] HCA p.7. Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Lanepoint Enterprises Pty Ltd (Receivers and Managers Appointed)[2011] HCA p.18. Boral Besser Masonry Ltd v Australian Competition and Consumer Commission [2003] HCA p.5. Braun, D., Oehmichen, J., Wolff, M. and Yoshikawa, T. (2014). When Elites Forget Their Duties: The Double-Edged Sword of Star Directors on Boards.Academy of Management Proceedings, 2014(1), pp.10613-10613. Chapman, G. (2005).Report on Australian Accounting Standards tabled in compliance with the Corporations Act 2001 on 30 August and 16 November 2004. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia. Google Inc. v Australian Competition and Consumer Commission[2013] HCA p.1. Hackner, D. (2010). Going on Rounds: May's ICU Director Contributions.ICU Director, 1(3), pp.135-136. Keay, A. (2014). The Public Enforcement of Directors' Duties: A Normative Inquiry. Common Law World Review, 43(2), pp.89-119. Lichtenberg, J. (2010). Negative Duties, Positive Duties, and the New Harms.Ethics, 120(3), pp.557-578. Lim, E. (2013). Directors' duties: improper purposes or implied terms?.Leg Stud (Soc Leg Scholars), 34(3), pp.395-418. Lumbers v W Cook Builders Pty Ltd (in liquidation)[2008] HCA p.27. Mamutse, B. (2014). Directors Duties.The Law Teacher, 48(3), pp.376-378. Symon, H. (2006).Corporations Act 2001. Melbourne: Leo Cussen Institute. Wong, S. (2014).Combating Phoenix Activities: Law Reform Proposals. SaarbruÃÅ'ˆcken: Scholars' Press. Wright, F. (2010). Fiduciary Duties: Directors and Employees20102Andrew Stafford QC and Stuart Ritchie. Fiduciary Duties: Directors and Employees. Bristol: Jordan Publishing Ltd 2008. 155.International Journal of Law and Management, 52(5), pp.405-406.

Building a Networked Organization free essay sample

MWH is a global engineering services firm considered to be a leader in water, hydropower and environmental remediation. It was trying to turn the geographically organized department into one organized by function and the reorganization will depend on effective collaboration. The existing relationships are providing through ONA analysis, a method for mapping relationships among people in a group. This case looks into the old structure under which departments are fragmented by geography and constrained by hierarchy and other gaps in connectivity. Challenges are listed for discussion and recommendations are provided for steps to be taken to align the department’s network with MWH’s business objectives. An IT department organized by geography instead of functionality had been acceptable when MWH was smaller, which is now impossible for the IT department to deliver sophisticated, standardized solutions. The information-seeking relationships that existed at the birth of iNet were based on shared geography, not on shared functional areas. We will write a custom essay sample on Building a Networked Organization or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page . There was only limited collaboration across the IT business centers and this fragmentation results in internal customers experiencing varying levels of service, functionality and costs for technical solutions and applications. Even more crucial was service to external customers. 3. The lack of standardization. Employees had no strong process base to guide them and they got work done by turning to other people for help.The leaders of the various IT groups met two or three times a year in an effort to drive standard approaches for the company, but the groups continued to operate independently, each serving its own master and employing its own measures and processes. 4. There was limited collaboration between some locations for MWH, this imposed a big challenge for the iNet project because some are planned to be built into important serve locations globally. Some groups were not providing optimal solutions to customers because they did not leverage each other’s expertise, therefore higher than industry average IT cost lead to lower competiveness of service quality and cost. 6. There was hierarchy exist. Overall, there was a relatively high level of collaboration among the most senior iNet employees, but less connectivity was evident among those at lower levels. 7. The network size varied a lot from 1~2 to more than 25 overloaded by some people which reveals a serious asymmetry of the relationship distribution. 8.A lot of relationships existed within immediate team only; few had any ties outside of MWH. 9. The serendipitous interactions could preclude effective information-seeking. RECOMMENDATION All the issues addressed above occurred from inefficient organization structure and lack of collaboration, which can be solved by carefully designing and building a networked organization. Following are the reconditions for successfully carrying out iNet project to: 1) Increase responsiveness and adaptiveness through real time operation. 2) Maximize the knowledge potential of the enterprise by leveraging expertise companywide and share information. ) Minimize disruption and duplication, which promises delivering optimal solution and with lower cost. Recommendations are from two aspects: restructure company departments and better managing networked relationships throughout the whole organization. Organization Restructure 1. Fluid boundaries MWH need to breakdown the geography base departments and carry out a function integration to increase its capacity to respond quickly and effectively to market forces, therefore improve the quality of conformance to customer requirements and reduce costs.Centralization of like tasks or functions and management of geographically separated units will enhance a more network-oriented improvement. From exhibit we can see that the new organization structure has fewer departments and levels, all the new departments are no longer designed according to geography but functions. However, having a revised organization structure graph is far from enough. To make it work, the manager needs to make sure there is no longer geography boundaries exit. New operational structure need to push functions out or pull them back in different departments as they suit company’s strategy.Large-scale integration of functions and systems required to fully manage the operation and service p rocess. 2. Information infrastructure Executives must use powerful technology to allow information to flow seamlessly across, out of, and into the company. Well-planned technical architecture need to be set up to allow information to move freely. MWH need to build up an integrated and overarching architecture for the entire company, not just a patchwork of current system linking to individual’s solutions. A through analyze of existing technology support will be needed to balance with the infrastructure requirements of the iNet project. . New management structure Advance IT systems will help to remove some mid-level management positions and creates a flatter structure, therefore, old control and planning style will be revised. Senior managers should be able to see into a larger group of employees with technology, while push down information simultaneously. Senior management should be linked with each other, therefore be able to draw on the entire management team for input when it comes to important decision process. The entire control and planning process will then become an on-line, real-time, team-based, coordinated process.This change will create deeper understanding of issue facing each senior manager and activities need to be adopted, thus more proper coordination at the senior management level. It also provides opportunities to move decisions either up or down in the organization. Team decisions making will be easier and faster, as geographically separated departments can concurrently access and assess data and communicate at the very first time. 4. Expertise group To better utilize the knowledge of experts in the organization, expertise group need to be carefully designed and make sure they can provide help and share information easily.Every knowledge worker should belong to at least two separate teams, which helps the organization achieve cross functional co-operation as well as helping individuals gain a broader perspective. Social relationship Management 1. Management of interdependence Under iNet, there is going to be considerable interdependence among all management actives. Instead of taking full control over the immediate lower level employees in the department, managers need to cope with unclear lines of authority and decision makings which rely more on interactions from other teams and departments. The managers need to share resources more freely and perate in a more diffuse responsibility and accountability environment. 2. Management of role complexity In old MWH organization structure, ONA analysis revealed the existence of highly hierarchy: senior and highly relied people had full control over the resources while lower level and highly peripheral employees with limited access to resources and authority. Within the networked organization, as the complexity of shared work, decision making, expertise and accountability increase, employees need to be involved in more complex network recourses to gain stronger skill to adapt the new responsibilities.The manager’s challenge here is to give employees confidence and resources to gain these skills including tools/techniques necessary, conceptualization, experience and interpersonal skills necessary to work efficiently with other. This can be achieved from assigning expertise groups to help and trainings. 3. Management of information seeking In the old structure, many employees seek information from their immediate teams and many others tend obtain inf ormation mainly from serendipitous interactions.The social capital was tight, informal relationships was unseen among employees, while the new networked form company functions efficiently with its flexible relationships. On one hand, managers need to improve the information seeking process for more efficient result. Formal relationships are best cemented by having agreed written process and common members in all teams. Higher trust and openness rather than higher formality environment need to be created for critical linkages. Frequent communication throughout the network must be encouraged; small groups developing its own communication dose not foster the net work spirit.On the other hand, besides of formal relationships, employees should be encouraged to maintain their personal and professional networks, even beyond the identifiable needs of the current team. 4. Management of culture Another big challenge the manger need to work on to foster iNet is creating trust culture in the organization. Transforming from the traditional structure, trust is one of the most important forces. Employees must have a clear understanding of task intent, information, and trust in the people, resources and technologies available.As a global company, establishing a trust-based culture is more difficult for MWH because of the diversified locations and mixed nationalities, there is no control over individual’s location, training, and experience. The relationship between people is fluid. Moving information in the networked organization and more complex roles demands a higher level of trust and dependence between managers and employees. This trust-based culture can be grown from joint training, team work and other continued integrations and reinforcements.

Free Essays on Tim Obrien

Tim O’Brien â€Å"†¦The literal truth is ultimately, to me, irrelevant. What matters to me is the heart-truth. I’m going to die, you’re all going to die; the earth is going to flame out when the sun goes. We all know the facts. The truth – I mean, does it matter what the real Hamlet was like, or the real Ulysses – does it matter? Well, I don’t think so. In the fundamental human way, the ways we think about in our dream-lives, and our moral lives, and our spiritual lives, what matters is what happens in our hearts. A good lie, if nobly told, for good reason, seems to me preferable to a very boring and pedestrian truth, which can lie, too.† -Tim O’Brien 1999 Tim O’Brien manipulates the reader’s customary understanding Tim by giving the narrator of â€Å"The Things They Carried† his own name and many of his own biographical details (date of birth, military record, and so on) while simultaneously stressing, throughout the narrative, that all the characters (including the narrator) are fictional and all the stories (including those in which the narrator takes part) are invented. It could be said that, in â€Å"The Things They Carried†, everything is true but nothing is authentic (Wharton). O’Brien’s readers have experienced immense difficulty when trying to get to grips with the slippery nature of the so called â€Å"authenticity† (or in fact the inauthenticity†) of O’Brien’s writing. Of all the devices used to blur the boundaries between truth and fiction, the books narrator seems to present the most difficulties for the reader. To understand O’Brien’s writing, it seems to be essential to make a clear distinction between Tim O’Brien the fictitious narrator (â€Å"The I-narrator) and Tim O’Brien the real, living author (â€Å"Tim O’Brien† or â€Å"O’Brien†). Tim O’Brien is an author still living and writing. He was born in 1946, in a small town in Minnesota (Gale Group, 1999). After graduating... Free Essays on Tim Obrien Free Essays on Tim Obrien Tim O’Brien â€Å"†¦The literal truth is ultimately, to me, irrelevant. What matters to me is the heart-truth. I’m going to die, you’re all going to die; the earth is going to flame out when the sun goes. We all know the facts. The truth – I mean, does it matter what the real Hamlet was like, or the real Ulysses – does it matter? Well, I don’t think so. In the fundamental human way, the ways we think about in our dream-lives, and our moral lives, and our spiritual lives, what matters is what happens in our hearts. A good lie, if nobly told, for good reason, seems to me preferable to a very boring and pedestrian truth, which can lie, too.† -Tim O’Brien 1999 Tim O’Brien manipulates the reader’s customary understanding Tim by giving the narrator of â€Å"The Things They Carried† his own name and many of his own biographical details (date of birth, military record, and so on) while simultaneously stressing, throughout the narrative, that all the characters (including the narrator) are fictional and all the stories (including those in which the narrator takes part) are invented. It could be said that, in â€Å"The Things They Carried†, everything is true but nothing is authentic (Wharton). O’Brien’s readers have experienced immense difficulty when trying to get to grips with the slippery nature of the so called â€Å"authenticity† (or in fact the inauthenticity†) of O’Brien’s writing. Of all the devices used to blur the boundaries between truth and fiction, the books narrator seems to present the most difficulties for the reader. To understand O’Brien’s writing, it seems to be essential to make a clear distinction between Tim O’Brien the fictitious narrator (â€Å"The I-narrator) and Tim O’Brien the real, living author (â€Å"Tim O’Brien† or â€Å"O’Brien†). Tim O’Brien is an author still living and writing. He was born in 1946, in a small town in Minnesota (Gale Group, 1999). After graduating...

Religious Service Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Religious Service - Term Paper Example A case of observation is the name. For Christians, the place of worship is called a church, for Islam a mosque, while for the Buddhist, a temple. It is also evident that the religions have unique symbolic cultures that differentiate them from one another as I observed with Islam when I once attended a religious service. This paper will describe the material and non- material culture of the mosque, a place of a warship by Muslims. Mosque A mosque is a place of worship for the Muslim faithful. It is evident from my observation of Muslim congregation and the mosque building that the design and building materials used in the construction of the place of worship mostly depends on heritage, culture and the resources in the community that hosts the mosque. However, it is noticeable that there are certain architectural features common to all mosques. For instance, the mosque’s parts are practical and show a sense of tradition and continuity among all the Muslims across the globe (Penn ey 10). Common architectural features include a minaret which is a slender tower rising at the top of a mosque (Penney 12). The minaret usually varies in height, number, and style. It may be square, octagonal, or round in shape and are in most cases covered with a pointed roof as noted by Penney (12). In the case of the mosque I attended, I was able to observe that it had a tall, slender and round-shaped minaret (Penney 14). On the minaret, there is a loudspeaker used to sermon people to prayers commonly called adhan (Hephaestus Books 14). The mosque is divided into two sections in which, men and women attend the service in different rooms. However, the services are conducted with the leadership of an Imam who is stationed on men’s side. The dress code is usually a veil gown mostly white in color for men and black for women. Every member of the congregation is required to remove the shoes before entering the mosque and put on the shoe shelf. This is mainly to preserve the cle anliness of the mosque and a sign of humility to God. The shelf is placed near the door to prevent pilling of shoes at the door.

Reading Music and Eroticism in Late Ming Texts Assignment

Reading Music and Eroticism in Late Ming Texts - Assignment Example The late Ming texts have played an important role in preserving the erotic-music notations of the Ming cultural society, owing to the fact the Ming music has long vanished and the only way through which it is preserved is through the textual notations. The factors that account for the vanishing of the Ming music is the secrecy with which the late Ming society would treat erotic emotions, impulses, and practices. In this respect, the erotic impulses, emotions, and impulses in the late Ming society were treated as private matters, only reserved for specific reasons and targeted for specific audiences, thus making their understanding highly complex. The carnal longings and desires of the Ming society were expressed through music, where music and sex were intertwined through dynamic and creative negotiations, allowing music to express and characterize the erotic desire of the time. The sexual desires were expressed through Ming music in a series of manipulated musical aspects such as pro cesses, objects, and sites, where the musical components such as instruments, sounds, and sonic components strategically aired the erotic agenda of the musical performers. The specific times and places where such manipulated music would be played then created the musical sites, while the projection of the sonic and the non-sonic sounds at the specific times and places constituted the music negotiations and processes, which would, in turn, work together towards the formation of erotic musical expressions. The discursive negotiations, processes and musical objects applications allowed the music performers to assert their erotic and sexual desires, thus serving not only as a means of expression but also as a catalyst for interactive bargaining the desires with the audience.

the business model of Apples itunes

the business model of Apples itunes Evaluate the business model of Apples itunes. In particular you should address:- 1. To what extent can the itunes business model be described as an ecosystem and what is the role of IT in enabling the collaboration between Apple, its economic partners and consumers? 2. How does itunes compare with competitors? 3. What new technologies could disrupt the current market by enabling a new form of business model? Introduction Business model in a basic sense deals with the method of doing business in order to generate revenues by which a company sustains itself in the competitive market place ( (Rappa, 2009).According to (Amberg Manuela) analysis on music industries, there are lots of media websites and companies following different business models fallen prey to file sharing tools and peer-peer networks which allow consumers to illegally copy and share the content for free. As a consequence , companies like Apple iTunes and Sony Connect have come up with internet based business models based on pay-per-download and dependent on the technology of the supplier for whom long-term customer relations are very crucial and customers are allowed to use the digital media content particularly with regard to technology of the supplier thus getting advantage and benefitting from selling hardware components because the offer of digital media content advances it. These business models replace the traditional business m odels which are generally based on selling physical media.This paper shows the fair understanding of Apple iTunes business model for its dominance over the current music market and tries to describe the business model with respect to ecosystem and compares iTunes with its key competitors in the market. The biological term ecosystem in this paper refers to the IT ecosystem. (Iansiti Richards, 2005) describes IT ecosystem as network of organizations that drives the creation, innovation and delivery of Information Technology products and services. According to (Cusumano, 2008) the term ‘Platform, is defined as â€Å" Foundation product or key technology in a system like the PC or a web enabled cell phone and should have relatively open technical interfaces and easily licensing terms in order to encourage other firms to contribute complementary product and services. So this can be accounted to an ecosystem around the platform and the platform becomes more valuable when the exter nal entities creative more innovations around it. This should cause more users to adopt the platform and more complementors to join the network. iTunes as an ecosystem Online music hit a new milestone after Apple computer,Inc.(Apple) launched the iTunes application in January 2001 follwed by launch of 1st generation iPod and 2 years later online music store in April of 2003.The two businesses, the production of MP3 players and the online music shops were initially considered as different units and after the invention of new hardware iPod these two businesses were merged. iTunes is a software designed with an intuitive and user friendly interface and iPod is an hardware designed with an eye on fashion. These two together helped Apple to enter and succeed in the music player market infact actually cross promoting the iPod hardware device. Because of their service and innovation Apple retained to grow in the online music field in a better way when compared to its key competitors like Dell, Sony and Samsung( (Li Chang). According to (Schonfeld, 2009) statistics, iTunes have now sold 6 billion songs and 10 million different tracks are now available on iTunes. iTunes is software and iPod is hardware as said by (Li Chang) are two different business units and Apple conjucts these two different products into one new business model. Using ecology to analyze this model(iPod and iTunes) it has set a nice example for ecotone between two species to drive the music industry into new ecosystem. A strong platform is apparent from the combination of both the software and the hardware. The below shows the evolution of new ecosystem with combination of two stand-alone ecosystems. ‘Most companies today inhabit ecosystemsloose networks of suppliers, distributors, and outsourcers; makers of related products or services; providers of relevant technology; and other organizations that affect, and are affected by, the creation and delivery of a companys own offering†¦.. as said by (Iansiti Levien, 2004) shows how business industry can be closely compared to biological ecosystem. Like every individual in the biological ecosystem every organization in the business ecosystem shares the fate of the network as a whole regardless of that members apparent strengths. Comparing this with the Apple business, iPod is not really an innovative technology by itself but the company creates a new ecotone for digital music where all the hardware(iPods) and software(iTunes) are related to it enhances its platform. According to (Koster, 2007) There is a continuous decline in the traditional sale of music sources like retail music stores and the on-going music industries ar e restructuring themselves by merging with other partners to face the loss of revenues and to adopt with the new business strategies and models in the music industry to compete with the counterparts. Even in the digital music world today, legitimate music downloading is continuously changing. Initial music sites have very strong limitations on access catalogs of music, on what could be done with the downloaded music, number of copies, time limits, where to copy. Though Apple iTunes works on this model, it is successful in negotiating a very large music catalog from the four labels from its music site. He says that one large advantage and success for Apple is because of its hardware device iPod where normally music is stored and playback. The revenues from iPods sales continue to grow after the introduction of iTunes. Though Apple had gotten permission from four majors to store their music on its website for consumers to download by promising the copyright protection authority DRM, i t is now planning to get away with DRM because they make the downloaded or recorded music very cumbersome for the consumer. This is evident from (Johnson, 2009) article on web which says By the end of the quarter all 10 million songs will be DRM free in iTunes and iTunes plus, said Phil Schiller, Apples senior vice president of worldwide product marketing. The blog witten by (Vitalari, 2009) clearly examines at the 21st century business model adopted by Apple to become successful in the market. He believes that business platforms are the root cause for cumulative business performance. Apples competitive business platforms is the main drive for innovations like community formation, mass collaboration, social networking, ecosystems, real time analytics, transparency etc. The iPhone App store was launched in July 2008 and today iTunes store is a total set of all forms of the digital media including music, games, software application, podcasts and video assets . As his explanation, the driving factors for Apple success and points out that the effective business platforms have few key ingredients:  · iPods, iphones are not just products instead they represent individual business platforms and they create an ecosystem surrounding the product which means they create a common understanding for business transactions, technical specifications, interface standards and requirements. With the iPhone this includes all of the sub-contracted manufacturers, but more importantly it includes iTunes, the app store and app developers.This results in creating a transparency which enables and facilitates hundreds of participants to collaborate asynchronously and independently.  · This leads directly to the second point, which is that the business platform then helps to generate untold business analytics for the platforms owner.This is because of the elements of the business platform are networked and generates valuable information about the product, ecosystem and participants. Apple used this analytics to fix, improve and enhance the product and finally delighting the customers.  · This in turn creates a community of practice surrounding the business platform, as the collaborators learn how to make better things. IT in enabling collaboration with partners and consumers As a cofounder of Apple, Steve Jobss vision was to create new and different products to consumers and his notion of â€Å"one person-one computer became visionary responsible for Apples reputation for innovation and mission became changing the world by bringing the computers to masses (Richard D Vohr, 1998).Apple came back with reinvention of personal computer with Macintosh in 1980 after igniting the computer industry revolution with inventing Apple II and it is commited to bring the best computing experience to all the fields starting from students, educators, professionals and consumers all around the globe with its innovative software hardware and internet offerings. This Apples mission statements indicates it focuses on innovation and personal computing experience( (Pearlson Saunders, 2009). Apple From 1987-1997 the company suffered due to some major internal problems which affected the strategic leadership and its operations but after Steve Jobss second turn as CEO, company fixed operational problems and regains its innovative leadership dramatically. Few changes like manufacturing outsourcing and improving inventory became straight forward matching Dell, the industry leader.It moved to open industry standards rather than proprietary hardware interfaces that it had maintained for 15 years and thus in a minor way Apples product strategy became more open( (West Mace, 2007).As per ( (Apple Computer, 2006) Apple derives its competitive advantage again by its innovation giving iPod as an example. Apple entered the market with iPod in 2001and by end of fourth quarter of fiscal year 2005, iPods sales gained 33% of the total revenues. The factors which are accountable to their success and uniqueness are its computers based on its own operating system, which enabled further area of innovation.Its Mac OS operating system focuses on more simplicity and seen as graphically sophisticated. (West Mace, 2007)Recent trends have seen increasing strategy convergence be tween Apple and Microsoft .For its video game business, similar to its rivals Sony and Nintendo Microsoft buys the processor but designs its own hardware and software without licensing them to others.Meanwhile ‘Zune, Microsofts music players try to compete successfully to attain equality with Apples iPod. This shows Apple pursued a vertically integrated strategy in its music business. Vertical strategy is single firms controlling the entire platform. Apple leveraging its Macintosh installed base to establish iTunes music store and building iPod business on top of that and now iPhone business shows its expansion into adjacent markets and this loyal installed base makes any company easier to branch into a related market and this becomes a lesson for the other companies and Apple aims at satisfying the costumer not just upgrading the costumers what they have today like the other companies do. When ATT decided to make offer to iTunes many other mobile industries criticized it for making too many concessions to Apple. Due to this offer ATT gets benefit from Apple in two ways , one is Apple increases the average monthly bills for the customers who switch from ATT to iPhone and the second one is it causes existing people to switch from existing carriers to ATT as its the exclusive carrier for iPhone( (The Apple iPhone:Successes and Challenges for the Mobile Industry, 2008). Digital Record Management systems are uses to encrypt the data does not allow illegal or non authorization download of music and currently there are two main formats used for protect downloading of music. One is fairplay and the other is WMA. Fairplay is Apples proprietary technology where it secure the data encrypted in AAC( Advanced Audi Coding) format. WMA is Microsofts Windows media audio video encoding platform. iPods can play only those stuff which are secured through fairplay format and Apple has refuse to lincense this fairplay to other retailers and so it is difficult for iPod users to download music from other retailers other than iTunes music store. But recently Realnetworks in US came up with a package which allows iPod users resident in US to play secures music from Realnetworkss music store Rhapsody. Apple got furious with this and accused Realnetworks of ‘Hacker tactics and Ethics and reported to investigating on that for violating the intellectual rights. If apple is capable of putting an end to such violations then the indispensability of fairplay could be established( (The iTunes music store: does competition law hold the key to closed shop?, 2004) According to insights into IDCs lifesciences by (Swenson Golden, 2005) Apple products are getting attracted by the life science researchers who actually migrated from linux and unix platforms because of the dual nature of Mac OS and its estimated historically that the life scientists have been twice or thrice more likely than the average computer user to Apples Mac platform as client computer thus representing attractive market for Apple. It has announced about its collaboration with airlines which includes Air France, Continental, Delta, United and KLM to integrate the in flight entertainment systems with iPod and taking the current entertainment provided in these airlines to a next level for better travel experience( (Apple_Partners_with_Airlines_for_iPod_Integration, 2006). Sets Apple as an interesting example for not being an open source model in its business strategies but is thought b of being a highly proprietary company from its earlier years. Now it has jumped into open sou rce and have started projects both inside and outside its corporate firewalls. Apples OS X was a open source because it was based on Darwin. Its developer website said that Apples open source projects let key developers to customize and enhance Apple software and through this open source models it allows Apple engineers to collaborate with open source community to come up with better and more reliable products (Goldman Gabriel, 2005). On September 2007, Apple and Starbucks announced their collaboration on Apple letting costumers at Starbucks wirelessly browsing, previewing, buying and downloading music from iTunes music stores at Starbucks on their iPods enhancing Starbucks retail coffee experience by helping customers with discovering new music instantly (Rothman, 2007). These examples shows how Apple is spreading the digital media revolution with its technologically profound products. Apple believes in fully integrated and completely digital learning environment which makes conte nts to move from from application to another and easy to collaborate and share ideas. Integration even reduces the burden of technology challenge. So Apples IT team rather than spending time and money on how to get things working feels it worthwhile to dedicate the same on providing capabilities, innovations and resources for its institution (Everything Apple means everything just works). iTunes and Competitors: The majors competitors for Apple are Google and Microsoft Corporation and other competitors include Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Fujitsu, Samsung Electronics, Sony and Toshiba. Apple is designing software and hardware systems that delivers a greater user experience. Google is giving away operating systems to companies that license windows mobile today. Microsoft needs to think about their business models to compete in such a race where it probably has to decide whether it wants to compete in devices or operating systems and doing both is again at a risk which requires business models that are outside its core competencies( (The Apple iPhone:Successes and Challenges for the Mobile Industry, 2008). There is a partial collision between Apple and RIM in smartphone business in which Apples device is a entertainment centric whereas RIMs product is a communication centric.Though each company is growing into each others space Apple is got the advantage because infrastructure establishment would be too large for RIM and beside that RIMs image is all wrong for that instead it is much better to defend and grow its market by adding more features and types of business communications to Blackberry. Comparing it with Nokia, Nokias challenges are more about challenges. They sell hundred of millions handsets every year at low costs. But without it, Nokia will be really hard pressed to match with the iPhones user experiences. Competitors such as Diamond multimedia, with its Rio brand portable media players were successful in the market until Apple displaced them and all the credits for such a domination goes to the business model of the company by offerings users a seamless music experience by combining its iPod devices with iTunes and online iTunes store. Users were taken away by its value proposition and Apple had to negotiate deals with the major record companies to establish the worlds largest online music library, there giving the twist for the company to earn most of its revenue s by selling iPods while using the integration with the on online music store to protect itself from the competitors( (Osterwalder Yves, 2009).Smartphone users are going to increase in number in the next few years increasing in the PC functionalities supporting data services and voice and this is going to drive smartphone markets and Apple launching the iPhone which meets most of the required functionalities made it to third position in the global smartphone market in the third quarter of 2008. As there is rapid change in the technology there is introduction of new products with competitive prices, features and performance characteristics by all the competitors and out of all, mobile communication industry highly competitive with well funded and experienced competitors. For example in 2009, Nokia launched a new online media store in competition to Apple and this has resulted in price erosion which is now threatening to lessen the market share of the company( (DATAMONITOR, 2009). What new technologies could disrupt the current market by enabling a new form of business model. Apple has become the leader in the music world revolution and it justifies for its closed source system, keeping its digital music platform proprietary making it incompatible by other system by saying that it was the main reason in convincing its music labels and artists allowing them to sell their songs through iTunes assuring that those would not be pirated. But many analysts claim that that closed system was the reason for its previous failure in the computer business and Microsoft gained the masses with their open systems and now that is being seen as a gamble in this highly cometetive technology world (Williard, 2005). According to survey done by Rubicon Consulting Inc on the Apple iPhone users shows that about 43 percent of the iPhone users feels that the device would be more elegant if there is a physical change to the iPhone by adding adding a keyboard or a keypad either by making the device smaller or larger and about 40 percent of the users complain about the browser proble ms and the notably with those using Adobe flash and this shows that mobile data devices has always been segmented and its impossible for any single hardware design to please everyone. This could be an opportunity to Apple to increase its share by serving those customers by giving more importance to value propositions for their products which is again a part of business model and at the same time its an opportunity for its competitors to steal that share by addressing segments Apple failed in( (The Apple iPhone:Successes and Challenges for the Mobile Industry, 2008). Apple corporation itself has many problems but loss of competitive differentiation due to its Enterprise sytem is not counted in that because of its strong brand and its distinct operating system. For many of the other computer manufacturers cost and service are more vital for their differentiation than their products but for Apple this seems to be a unusual case says (Davenport, 1998). ‘Disruptive Business Models are emblematic of our generation. Yet they remain poorly understood, even as they transform competitive landscapes across industries (Osterwalder Yves, 2009). 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