Brand and Indian Medical Association

Dettol Introduction Dettol is a brand which has been protecting India for more than 75 years. DETTOL is a brand of Reckitt Benckiser and has stood for â€Å"trusted protection† in India since 1933. The brand is endorsed by the Indian Medical Association and has consistently been voted as one of India’s Most Trusted Brands (ORG Marg Brand Equity Survey). Introduced in 1933, initially used for cuts and wounds, Dettol soon took a life of its own in every Indian home. Families used it in myriad ways of – wherever they felt the need for disinfection.Interestingly this multi-usage of Dettol Antiseptic Liquid paved the way for the next generation of Dettol Dettol Soaps was born in 1984, giving consumers the same trusted protection for a â€Å"100% bath†. Soon followed Dettol Shaving Cream for protection during shaving and Dettol Plasters. Dettol Liquid hand wash came in 1994 for protection in every hand wash and recently in 2007 Dettol Body Wash was introduced â €“ offering the protection of bathing in a modern, convenient format. Sources of information Methods of production a.Raw material With a soft nature, each soap contains healthy ingredient, help killing the bacteria and removing dirty and other harmful material while bathing. Adopt international advanced anti-bacteria technology, the high-effective agent not only can kill the bacteria when washing, but also can form a protection in the surface, resisting the bacteria during the next 24 hours. Add natural fruit essence and nourishing ingredient, which penetrates into the skin from outside to inside. b. Machine Competitor Savlon, Suthol Soap industry:Lifebuoy, Lux, Santoor, Savlon, & Gogrej No. 1 Advertisement Dettol advertising starting in 1960s has centered on educating consumers on the need for protection from germs, while offering solutions to manage the problem of germs wherever and whenever they may occur. Starting then and till now Dettol advertising has celebrated the role of a mother in protecting her family Dettol launched Dettol Surakshit Parivar, a nationwide campaign, in association with Indian Medical Association (IMA) Problems Solutions Our suggestions Conclusions

The Five C’s Worksheet

The Five C’s Worksheet Directions: Identify the following factor descriptions to their corresponding C of credit. The five C’s are listed below: †¢Capacity means the ability or intent to repay your debts, basing it upon your household cash flow; lenders typically follow different methods to consider my expenses relative to the person’s income. †¢Capital is the household’s net worth, by combining all assets, and making sure that the debts is smaller than the total assets, the lender can verify that the loan will be paid by liquidating all assets should you need to pay your debts, sort of risking all you got in order to get their trust. Collateral can be either your car, home, boat, anything that you can pledge to make the loan safer, and the lender feel that you are not being a high-risk loan, because you can lose your own assets.†¢Character is the history behind your credit, employment, and education, as well as how well you handle your obli gations, such as accrued debts in the past that were taken care of. They measure your trustworthiness. Conditions are the considerations a lender makes after viewing the broad spectrum of your situation, being that every loan is unique in its situations, the lender can take into considerations your economic status, the employment opportunities in your area, or anything that will make you either less of a risk or more. ConditionWhich C? Your household cash flow helps to determine this C:Capacity Under these __________, you may still be approved with a cosignerConditions This demonstrates how much your assets are worth. CapitalUsing your car or house as a promise to payCollateral This makes you a better credit risk to the lender – this could be any of the C’s. For example, assets that are offered as security against default. Collateral and Capital Lenders will evaluate your debt-payment ratio. Capacity The lender is taking your unique situation under consideration. Condi tions Previous credit history This shows how long you have worked for your employer and if you have obtained an education. Character Having more at stake may make you less likely to default on a loan. Capital

The Ho-Chunk Nation

Ho-Chunk Nation The Ho-Chunk Nation’s culture and beliefs have sustained them for centuries which make their tribe one of the strongest Native American Tribes in the United States today. Their tribe is made up of 7,071 members, due to the devotion of the tribe elders passing along traditions to the younger generations. Today, the Ho-Chunk Nation is a non-reservation tribe with 3,407 acres of trust land and 5,310 acres of taxable land. The Tribe had to repurchase this land that they once owned from the U. S. Government.The Ho-Chunk Native Trust Lands are located in: Adams, Clark, Crawford, Dane, Eau Claire, Jackson, Juneau, La Crosse, Marathon, Monroe, Sauk, Shawano, Vernon and Wood Counties in Wisconsin and also in the State of Illinois. There are also large numbers of tribal members that live in Minneapolis, Madison, Milwaukee, and Chicago. In 1836, the Ho Chunk was removed from the choice land of southern Wisconsin to make room for the miners that were taking over the land. The area was also in demand for the lush farmland of the various river valleys.This land was taken from the Ho Chunk for nickels and dimes, and the people were forcibly removed on to Indian reservations in northeastern Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota and Nebraska. Ho-Chunk elders recall terrifying scenes of tribal members being rounded up at gunpoint and loaded into boxcars against their will. They were shipped to reservations far from the place they called home. Eventually, many Ho-Chunk refused to live on the poor reservations and returned to their homeland in Wisconsin. The native people with an ancestral lineage dating back to pre-history were first known as the Wisconsin Winnebago Tribe.This name was given to them by early European explorers. In 1994, when the tribe adopted its present constitution, the Nation reclaimed their original name: Ho-Chunk or â€Å"People of the Big Voice. † The Ho-Chunk were avid hunters, gatherers and farmers. They created and became known for their raised garden beds where they grew specialized plants for food. The men hunted while the women gathered. The food consisted of corn, squash, green plants, roots, berries, making maple syrup and maple candy, venison, fresh fish, and small game.After harvest, the food storage process consisted of drying foods naturally for the long winters. As Caretakers of the land, they moved as the food source did, and during seasons providing the plant life abundant to this region. Villages moved to conserve the area's resources. Their history of living off the land helped the Ho-Chunk develop a unique relationship with Wisconsin’s terrain. Women tanned hides, wove mats from the strong grasses near the waters' edge, made clothing, and taught their daughters.The grandmothers and grandfathers played an important part in the instruction and rearing of children. The Dagas, or Uncles, were the disciplinarians within a family unit. There was no need for a mother or father to raise their voi ces, for the practice was to train the children to have such respect for a Daga. The children lived in fear of punishment from their Daga that they were well-mannered and productive children. The Ho-Chunk government provides many services to their tribe. The housing program helps with home ownership and property management.The education program has four primary school districts in Tomah, Black River Falls, Baraboo, and Wisconsin Dells. The labor program which is a certification of Indian preference for contracting and subcontracting; safety, and they provide supportive services; which helps youth employment. Health services which provide Food Distribution Program, Community Health Representatives, Community Health Nurses, At-Large Health Care, Alcohol/Drug Program, Environmental Health, Benefit Coordinators, Special Diabetes Programs for Indians and a Mental Health Program.They Also provide services for veterans and social services. Bibliography 1. Wisconsin State Tribal Relations I nitiative, Ho-Chunk Nation http://witribes. wi. gov/docview. asp? docid=5638&locid=57 2. Ho-Chunk Nation http://www. ho-chunknation. com/UserFiles/File/OOP/04HCN_mediakit_rtpages_ACT. pdf 3. http://www. mpm. edu/wirp/icw-52. html 4. http://www. wisconsinhistory. org/whspress/pdf/247. pdf

Responsibility of International Organisations , Outline

Responsibility of International Organisations , - Outline Example f it is possible for the organization to claim reparations for harms to its interests, harm inflicted by the UN on other parties is also liable for claims, particularly in activities that are well established like peacekeeping operations. This involves the conduct of UN administrators and peacekeepers. However, the limitations, scope, and practical applications of international responsibility principles are as of yet to be determined, especially in such areas as accountability mechanisms for non-judicial and judicial establishment2, as well as the responsibility for other projects in areas like science, education, or culture. The UN Security Council is given primary responsibility by the UN Charter to maintain international security and peace and, in fulfilling their responsibility; the UN Security Council can constitute a peacekeeping mission3. The UN Charter is the foundation for all work undertaken by the UN. Although not stated explicitly in the Charter, peacekeeping has ended up as one of the main instruments of the UN in maintaining international security and peace. The UN Security Council may adopt several measures to fulfill this responsibility. Chapter VI of the Charter involves the pacific settlement of disputes and most peacekeeping operations are associated with this chapter, although it has never been invoked. Chapter VII entails actions in terms of; respect to peace, peace breaches, and aggressive acts, which has been invoked to authorize peacekeeper deployment in post-conflict situations where states are unable to maintain public order and security4. Finally, Chapter VIII provides regional agencies and arrangements to maintain international security and peace as long as they are consistent with Chapter 1 of the Charter. Depending on the challenges that various conflicts bring, peacekeepers are normally mandated to act as catalysts in several activities. These are mine action, disarmament and reintegration of combatants, human rights promotion and

World Regional Georgraphy Unit 6 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

World Regional Georgraphy Unit 6 - Research Paper Example When the British colonizers came in 1795, the laws became more powerful thus, further racial segregation. During this time, Africans were separated from the white settlers and were forced to live in different areas that were later referred to as reserves. Land Act of 1913 facilitated this separation further (Beinart & Dubow, 1995). The economic woes brought about by the World War II increased the racial segregation in South Africa. When National Party gained power in 1948, the new government enacted the apartheid law that ensured that the white race dominated. This law also ensured that the white lived in different areas from the Africans. South Africans were also divided along the tribal lines and their powers decreased. The Population Registration Act was enacted in 1950 and it required all South African races to be classified as black (Africans), whites or colored. Those who failed to adhere to this law were punished harshly. The Department of Home Affairs was responsible for this act. Another core of the apartheid policy was the Group Areas Act which was formed in 1950. This act marked the areas of land based on the race that occupy the areas. The other laws that placed more restrictions on the black South Africans were the Natives Urban Areas Act and the Natives Labor Act from in 1952 and 1953 respectively (Berridge, 1992). Some political parties were against this apartheid policy and they formed a movement to resist the policy. These parties included ANC (African National Congress) of 1912 and PAC (Pan Africanist Congress) of 1958. These two movements managed to ban the South African government through violent campaigns (Berridge, 1992). SASO (South African Students Association) which was formed in 1960 also joined the other parties in resisting the policy. Apartheid policy ended in 1994 when all adults were allowed to vote during that election. The late Nelson Mandela was voted as the

W6 Disc IT Strategy in Difficult Economic Situations Essay

W6 Disc IT Strategy in Difficult Economic Situations - Essay Example Likewise, the number of participants or organizations applying IT-related applications are greater during economic prosperity. As such, its governance within an economically prosperous status would be more challenging. On the contrary, in times of economic decline, IT governance still faces difficulties in areas such as the need to be cognizant of costs associated with support and sustenance of IT systems, updates, and adherence to policies and regulations that abide by privacy and confidentialty; as well as security of information. In economic decline, the number of participants or organizations are perceived to decline due to tendencies for bankruptcies or financial losses. Thus IT governance issues are lesser, as compared to periods of economic prosperity. The strategies that could be suggested to cope with economic decline include: (1) establishing a core competence or competitive advantage through â€Å"operating at a lower cost, by commanding a premium price, or by doing both† (Galliers & Leidner, 2013, p. 388); (2) enhancing operational effectiveness through the online medium; (3) establishing an effective strategic positioning stance; (4) designing strategies that complement and balance traditional marketing strategies with that of digital or online medium. It was emphasized by Galliers & Leidner (2013) that â€Å"only by integrating the Internet into overall strategy will this powerful new technology become an equally powerful force for competitive advantage† (p. 402). Atkinson, R., & McKay, A. (2007, March). Digital Prosperity: Understanding the Economic Benefits of the Information Technology Revolution. Retrieved from The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation:

To what extent are cuts to the public sector likely to affect employee Essay

To what extent are cuts to the public sector likely to affect employee motivation Restrict your answer to an analysis by Kehr's - Essay Example 479). Prior to Kehr’s model (2004a), conceptions of work motivation largely ignore the role of implicit motives and how these are distinguished from explicit motives (2004a, p. 479). In this work, Kehr’s model of compensatory work motivation and volition is reviewed for its possible relevance given budget cuts in government. A key concept of Kehr’s compensatory model is that implicit/explicit motive discrepancy gives rise to decreases in volitional strength (Kehr 2004b, p. 315). In discussing the future of motivation theory, Steer et al. (2004, p. 385) acknowledged that Kehr’s model synthesized several lines of research on motivation covering implicit and explicit motive as well as helped answer several intriguing as well as previously unanswered problem s concerning goal attainment. This is significant as the International Research Centre on Organizations has emphasized that motivating people is not an easy task (2007, p. 1). Kehr’s model is highly relevant given the a CATO Liberty news report by Mitchell (2010) indicated that United Kingdom Prime Minister Cameron is poised to implement savage government budget cuts in the United Kingdom. II. Kehr’s compensatory model of work motivation and volition As described by Kehr (2004a, p. ... 482). In Kehr’s example (2004a, p. 482), a manager high in affiliation implicit motive may enjoy a companionship with his unproductive subordinate but will still defer to the demands of his or her supervisor to increase productivity by dismissing the subordinate (Kehr 2004a, p. 482). The supervisor demands constitute an extrinsic factor. In Kehr’s (2004, p. 482) analogy, implicit motives â€Å"push† while explicit motives â€Å"pull† the individual. This means that implicit motives come from within the individual while explicit motives reinforce, moderate, or even suppress the â€Å"push† coming from the implicit motives. In Kehr’s analogy of a senior personnel and an unproductive subordinate, Kehr suggested that extrinsic factors and explicit motives could override intrinsic factors and intrinsic motives. Citing the work of McClelland (1995), Kehr (2004a, p. 480) identified that the three major implicit motives are power, achievement, and af filiation. Implicit motive are not consciously accessible but â€Å"they are assessed by operant, fantasy arousing, picture-story tests, such as the Thematic Apperceptation Test or TAT (Kehr 2004a, p. 480). The implicit motive for power pertains to the need to dominate, control, or influence (Kehr 2004a, p. 480). The implicit motive for achievement refers to the need to meet or exceed personal standards (Kehr 2004a, p. 480). Finally, the implicit motive for affiliation revolves on the need to establish and deepen social relationships (Kehr 2004a, p. 480). Implicit motives determine long-term behavioural trends while explicit motives or values produced by extrinsic factors result to cognitive choices or goals (Kehr 2004a, p. 482). In Kehr’s example (2004a, p. 482), people with explicit power motive may aim for positions of

National Drug Control Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

National Drug Control Strategy - Essay Example Asides from the issue of drug abuse in its entirety and the prevention strategies, the     President's National Drug Control Strategy has the treatment and recovery vision for the recuperating drug addicts (Whitehouse.gov, 2014). International partnerships, law enforcement, grants and the role of the media are also part of the President’s National Drug Control Strategy.Asides from the issue of drug abuse in its entirety and the prevention strategies, the     President's National Drug Control Strategy has the treatment and recovery vision for the recuperating drug addicts (Whitehouse.gov, 2014). International partnerships, law enforcement, grants and the role of the media are also part of the President’s National Drug Control Strategy. The National Drug Control Policy wrote the foreword to the office of the president of the Obama Administration. The National Drug Control Policy was trying to put the detrimental effects of drug abuse in the American Society (White house.gov, 2014). Moreover, the forward also intends to put it into clarity that the office of the president is trying all it can do to tackle the issue if drug abuse. The goal, which I think deserves the most attention in the fight against drugs in the American society, is a community participation in the fight. Community involvement is essential because it is in the numerous communities that the drugs circulate. Should the community work hand in hand with the law enforcement agencies, then society would eventually be a drug-free society (Whitehouse.gov, 2014). Resultantly, the people would help in developing their respective societies because drugs tend to derail the society’s workforce.

How religios and cultural values influence polio immunization uptake Literature review

How religios and cultural values influence polio immunization uptake in Northern Nigeria - Literature review Example However, it is noteworthy in this context that immunization has already been able to eliminate various regions throughout the globe, except in three particular countries, i.e. Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria, which perhaps, might have been owing to the issues associated with religious as well as cultural values (Plotkin, 2011). Owing to its success and efficiency in mitigating risks of various controllable diseases, the importance of immunization has emerged as quite prominent in the recent phenomenon. Notably, it is often credited by medical practitioners to be directly related with the promotion of health and wellbeing of the people, which has in turn enhanced its efficiency and importance to a vast magnitude (Onyebuchi, 2013). Importance and positive effects of immunization is very much apparent in the region of Northern Nigeria. However, recent reports have revealed about the reluctance of people in Northern Nigeria to immunize their children with polio vaccination, principally owing to their religious and cultural orthodoxy (Otieno, 2013; Oshinsky, 2005). Contextually, as per the study of Otieno (2013), there is a degree of religious fear persisting amid the people in Nigeria to immunize their children and protect them from polio. Though the people belonging to the region of Northern Nigeria have made several deliberate efforts towards combating the disease, little positive results have been obtained. Consequently, conducting the process of polio immunization at an extensive rate in Northern Nigeria has been quite challenging for the concerned authorities owing to the fact that most of the people in this part of the world are gypsies and are thus, used to move from one place to other without having any fixed address. This makes it even more challenging for the practitioners to continually monitor the developments of these people and ensure that the immunization process is undertaken

Kant & Hume, Comparative Study Essay Example for Free

Kant Hume, Comparative Study Essay Two of the modern world’s most followed and known, yet opposing philosophers. Immanuel Kant and David Hume both assert that all knowledge comes from experience, yet disagree on whether or not experience determines all knowledge, disagree on the causality of the universe as organized or unorganized, and disagree on God’s existence (or non-existence) within the world. Despite these vast differences, however, both philosophies have managed to co-exist in the modern world. Kant proclaims that all knowledge comes from experience, and that people are intelligent and rational enough to synthesize previous experiences into predictions (or fore-knowledge) of the future. On the other hand, Hume proclaims that all knowledge comes from experience and that just because something has occurred in the past does not mean that it will occur in the future. In regard to causality of the universe, Kant puts forth the notion that the universe was created in a way so that the nature of all things lays uniform and perfect despite the passing of time. Hume, however, puts forth the notion that the universe was created in a way so that all things change over time. In Kant’s eyes God’s existence or non-existence could never be proven or disproven, and because of this doubt God therefore exists. For Hume, the idea of God can exist, but the being most know as God cannot because the idea of god is specific and unique to every individual and therefore there cannot be one God for all—rather everyone has a unique and personal God. Kant and Hume pit each other down in philosophical battle after philosophical only to realize that they never agree on compromises to their ideas, and stay forever at opposite ends of the ideological spectrum. Kant and Hume both asserted that all knowledge comes from experience. Kant states that there â€Å"can be no doubt that all our knowledge begins with experience† (Pure). By this Kant asserts that all knowledge initiates from experience. However, Kant goes further by also stating that â€Å"we have no knowledge antecedent to experience† (Pure), which means that in order to understand something, one has to have experienced the happening/ occurrence at one point in time. Hume states that â€Å"causes and effects are discoverable, not by reason but by experience† (Enquiry). By this Hume asserts that all knowledge and any knowledge must come from experience and nothing else. Hume also states that real existence can come only from â€Å"either from the causes which produced it, or the effectswhich will arise from it† (Enquiry), which means that experience provides not only knowledge but the justification for existence that experiences define the essence/ being of an individual. Kant and Hume agree that all knowledge stems from experiences attained in the material world. By asserting that to have knowledge of something one has to experience that thing only once Kant sparks the disagreement between himself and Hume on whether or not the future can be known based on past experiences. Kant theorizes that although â€Å"knowledge begins with experience† it does not mean that all which follows â€Å"arises out of experience† (Pure). By this Kant states that experiences are building blocks the house of knowledge but not the house itself. Kant claims that people can know what happens in the future because reason allows for them to extend their experiences beyond what has happened to events that have not occurred yet. Kant justifies this by saying that people’s â€Å"conclusions from experience† stand enough to justify that the future will resemble the past (Pure). Hume theorizes that past experience â€Å"can be allowed to give direct and certain information† but only in relation to the â€Å"precise objects † to which past experience refers, and that â€Å"precise period of time, which fell under its cognizance† (Enquiry). Hume clearly states that the only pure knowledge people can have is knowledge of the past, which means that there can be no real knowledge of the future because it has not been experienced yet. Furthermore, Hume articulates that it is impossible to show that the â€Å"ultimate cause of any natural operation† can be found in â€Å"any single effect in the universe† (Enquiry). In this statement Hume tries to elucidate his point that just because something has existed before does not mean that it will exist again in the same form, that there is no â€Å"ultimate cause† but rather many causes that go into the producing of different effects. To capstone his point Hume says that one cannot have a golden rule that what â€Å"happens sometimes†¦ happens always†¦ with regard to some objects† for all things in existence because there is no †logic† or â€Å"process of argument† that â€Å"secures oneâ€Å" into this assumption (Enquiry). Hume explains that it stands impossible to predict the future because the future has not yet been experienced and therefore has no security of knowledge. For Kant, by a rational extension of logic, it can be determined that what has happened in the past and what will happen in the future are one in the same— yet or Hume, knowledge can come only from experience because If the future cannot be experienced then people have no bounds to determine what will happen in it. These suppositions then lead to the question of causality of the universe, to which Kant puts forth the notion that the universe was created in a way so that the nature of all things lays uniform and perfect— despite the passing of time— whereas Hume puts forth the notion that the universe was created in a way so that all things change over time. Kant presents that â€Å"nature is a being acting according to purpose† and creates a â€Å"natural purpose† that everything in the universe must adhere to (Judgment), which supports the notion that the universe was created in a way so that the nature of all things lays uniform and perfect because everything has its natural place in the universe and therefore maintains a natural purpose and a static order. Kant additionally expounds that â€Å"causality involves that of laws† and that these laws create a cause that has a specific effect that â€Å"must be produced† (Fundamentals). Due to this â€Å"law† that Kant references he insinuates that, despite time passing, what has happened will have to happen again based on the consistency of the laws of nature. To counter this, Hume presents his reasoning that â€Å"effect is totally different from the cause, and consequently can never be discovered in it† (Enquiry), which supports the notion that things change and no consistency stays in the universe because there is never a direct link between a cause, and the effect which results from it. Additionally, Hume goes on to dictate that effects fail to â€Å"be discovered in the cause† and that they â€Å"must be entirely arbitrary† (Enquiry). By this, Hume means that if an effect could be paired up with any old cause, that it would be completely random and therefore have no value in appraising cause and effect. By both these sentiments Hume conveys that a cause and effect have no solidified connection unless they are proven to be tied together, which leads to the assumption that the world shifts and changes over time because if the universe were static then everything would be the same and a golden rule for causality would exist but for Hume, it doesn’t. Kant and Hume stand at odds on whether the universe stays organized or frays at the ends because of their assertions that the universe was created perfectly, and in opposition the assertion that the universe was created imperfectly. After determining the organization of the universe, one question remains forthe philosophers: who or what, if anything, created the universe? To this Kant responds that God is unknowable and that this thought doesn’t disprove his existence or perfection while Hume responds everyone has their own unique God, and therefore one perfect and whole God cannot exist. Kant expounds that the â€Å"unavoidable problems set by pure reason itself are God, freedom, and immortality† and that for knowledge of God there is no â€Å"capacity or incapacity of reason for so great an undertaking† (Pure). Here Kant proclaims that because of reason’s inability to appraise the idea of God, that it is an unknowable topic and that everything stated about it can be marked as true because it cannot be disproven. Hume expounds that he â€Å"believe[s] [God] to be existent† and that Hume’s idea of â€Å"conception of the existence† dictates that the idea of God â€Å"lies not in the parts† or composition of the idea but in the â€Å"the manner in which we conceive it† (Treatise). Hume makes the point that he has his own idea of God, that his idea is unique to himself and the way in which he develops his idea. Hume also states that â€Å"God is existent† but only in the form in which â€Å"as he is represented to us† (Treatise). This statement definitively encompasses the idea that not everyone cannot know the same God because people can only conceive their notion of God from what they have experienced, and each person’s experience stays unique and separate. For Kant God exists by the pure reason that God can never be proven non-existent whereas for Hume, the idea of God can exist, but the being God that most people think of cannot because the idea of god is specific and unique to every individual. Kant and Hume pit each other down in philosophical battle after philosophical only to realize that they never agree on compromises to their ideas, and stay forever at opposite ends of the ideological spectrum, which in a twisted way allows them to co-exist in the modern world. On philosophy itself, Kant states that one â€Å"cannot say how far the inferences from perception may extend†, which means that for as much as people can imagine, something can be real and by extension this means that there is security in being able to make up the reality that one wants (Pure). In adversion Hume states that philosophy may â€Å"prove useful† by â€Å"destroying implicit faith and security† and allowing only one answer to be proven correct and logical through skepticism (Enquiry). Kant and Hume can have no recourse from the dilemma that they face because at every turn Kant states that anything imaginable is possible and that skepticism, Hume’s philosophy, can never be reconciled with the idea that everything could be possible because they intrinsically contradict each other. Kant and Hume: two men divided by differing philosophies on the source of knowledge, the causality of the universe, and the definite existence of God who battled over answers to these question of life throughout their careers. While Kant asserted that by rational extension experience could unlock the key to all knowledge Hume countered that only experience could grant knowledge, and that anything beyond that bent the rules of the world and made all knowledge inconsequential. While Kant asserted that the universe was created in a perfect natural order that would exist forever Hume countered that the universe was created in an imperfect, unorganized fashion that would be ever changing. While Kant asserted that the existence of God could never be disproven and therefore had to exist Hume countered that it is inadequate to say that God has to exist as a result of doubt because every conception of God from every individual is different and people must therefore err on the side of skepticism and accept that God cannot exist as everyone wishes him to. While Kant and Hume tried to reconcile their differences on philosophy they never came to an agreement, and therefore co-existed in the denial that the others thoughts could possible hold any truth. Works Cited Hume, David. An enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Chapter on Cause and Effect. -. A Treatise of Human Nature. Source found @ http://www. gutenberg. org/files/4705/4705-h/4705-h. htm#2H_4_0027 Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Judgment, Source material found @ http://www. marxists. org/reference/subject/ethics/kant/judgment/teleology. htm -. Critique of Pure Reason. -. Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals. Book provided by http://www. gutenberg. org/cache/epub/5682/pg5682. html.

Delivery Methods for Treatment of Tuberculosis

Delivery Methods for Treatment of Tuberculosis INTRODUCTION The Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a rod-shaped bacillus bacterium which is responsible for an infectious disease tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is chronic bacterial, air borne, contagious disease, which commonly affects lungs and spreads from person to person when active TB patient expels bacteria by coughing or sneezing.(Villemagne et al., 2012). After HIV, Tuberculosis claims world’s second deadliest disease caused by single infectious agent.(Moualeu et al., 2015). In worlds population, one third of individuals are infected with dormant infection, but only 10% of infected people will be symptomatic.(Villemagne et al., 2012). As mentioned in WHO data, yearly global tuberculosis report 2014, it is estimated that 9 million people were symptomatic and develop active TB and out of them, 1.5 million people were died in 2013. Probability of occurrence of TB in HIV patients is high because 360000 out of the 1.5 million deaths were HIV positive. Most of TB cases occur in poorest countrie s like South-East Asia and West Pacific and African regions. It also affects countries like India and China to some extent. Tuberculosis is a preventable and curable disease with effective diagnosis and treatment because 37 million lives were saved between 2000 and 2013.(WHO,2014). The effective treatment of tuberculosis follows multi drug regimens, in which first-line therapy includes four drugs (isoniazid, rifampicin, ethambutol, pyrazinamide) administered during initial intensive stage for two months and followed by continuous phase with rifampicin and isoniazid for four months.(Sosnik et al., 2010). When first-line drugs are mismanaged, therapeutic failure occurs, which leads to multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) which is difficult to treat. Then second line agents such as flouroquinolones and aminoglycosides are given, which are more expensive, more toxicity and less potent. Next stage follows extensively drug resistant TB(XDR-TB) which occurs when second line agents are misused, and disease becomes severe.(Kaur and Singh, 2014). Rifampicin is one of the potent and effective antibiotic and is first drug of choice for long term continuous therapy (six months) and it is having severe side effects as acute renal failure, hepatotoxicity.(Son and McConville, 2011). Chemical name of rifampicin is 3-[[(4-methyl-1-piperazynl)imino]-methyl]-rifamycin.(Argekar et al., 1996). It shows bactericidal activity by binding to ÃŽ ²-subunit of the DNA dependent RNA polymerase and inhibits the bacterial RNA synthesis. Rifampicin facing severe toxicity problems can be solved by reducing the frequency of administration and maintaining a controlled release which is possible by lipid based nanoparticles.(Labuschagne et al., 2014). It is classified as BCS class Ó Ãƒâ€œÃ‚  drug (low solubility and high permeability) and due to poor aqueous solubility and poor bioavailability, this drug is best suitable for lipid based nanocarriers which shows good lipid solubility.(Moretton et al., 2010). Cubosomes are lipid based sub-micron, discrete nanoparticles of liquid crystalline phase with cubic crystallographic symmetry.(Achouri et al., 2014). When amphiphilic lipid is made contact with excess water then it forms a self-assembled liquid crystalline structure of bicontinuous cubic phase and inverse hexagonal phases.(Nguyen et al., 2011). Cubosomes are composed of a lipid and surfactant, first lipid (monoolein) due to its amphiphilic nature it has an ability to solubilize both hydrophilic, hydrophobic and amphiphilic molecules. It is non-toxic, biodegradable and biocompatible material, which is approved by FDA inactive ingredients. Second hydrophilic non-ionic surfactant (poloxamer 407), it is triblock copolymer two hydrophilic blocks of polyethylene oxide (PEO) and hydrophobic block of polypropylene oxide (PPO) that is (PEO-PPO-PEO).(Achouri et al., 2014). Cubosomes are best suitable for poorly water soluble drugs, and they increase solubilisation of drug and m aintain controlled release.(Boyd, 2003) Rifampicin is the only lipophilic drug in all anti-TB first-line drugs. This drug delivery system enhances drug solubility and bioavailability and reduces toxicity and maintains controlled release at the target site. In this study, we prepared rifampicin loaded cubosomes by hot melt method. The main objective of the study to reduce the dose and maintain controlled release, and it is also capable of increasing solubility and bioavailability of the drug. The optimized formulation ratio was fixed by the results obtained by varying dependent and independent variables using response surface methodology (RSM) with a 3 ² full factorial design. Materials Methods Rifampicin was obtained as a free sample from Lupin (Lupin pharmaceuticals, Pune), Peceol was purchased from and poloxamer 407 was purchased from and millipore water was used for all experiments. Preparation of rifampicin loaded cubosomes Rifampicin loaded cubosomes are prepared by using hot melt method.(Boyd, 2003). In this method, Peceol, poloxamer 407 and drug were taken as organic phase and mixed until the drug is completely entrapped in the dispersed phase. And then organic phase and aqueous phase (water) were heated at 70 ºC and aqueous phase was added slowly to organic phase under stirring. Then bulk cubic gel was fragmented by high speed homogenisation (Ultraturrax, 12000rpm) for 10 minutes and ultrasonication for 5minutes. The final dispersion was stored at room temperature. Experimental design References Achouri, D., Sergent, M., Tonetto, A., Piccerelle, P., Andrieu, V., Hornebecq, V., 2014. Self-assembled liquid crystalline nanoparticles as an ophthalmic drug delivery system. Part II: optimization of formulation variables using experimental design. Drug Dev. Ind. Pharm. 9045, 1–9. doi:10.3109/03639045.2014.884113 Argekar, A.P., Kunjir, S.S., Purandare, K.S., 1996. Simultaneous determination of rifampicin , isoniazid and pyrazinamid by high performance thin layer chromatography 14, 1645–1650. Boyd, B., 2003. Characterisation of drug release from cubosomes using the pressure ultrafiltration method. Int. J. Pharm. 260, 239–247. doi:10.1016/S0378-5173(03)00262-X Kaur, I.P., Singh, H., 2014. Nanostructured drug delivery for better management of tuberculosis. J. Control. Release 184, 36–50. doi:10.1016/j.jconrel.2014.04.009 Labuschagne, P.W., Adami, R., Liparoti, S., Naidoo, S., Swai, H., Reverchon, E., 2014. Preparation of rifampicin/poly(d,l-lactice) nanoparticles for sustained release by supercritical assisted atomization technique. J. Supercrit. Fluids 95, 106–117. doi:10.1016/j.supflu.2014.08.004 Moretton, M. a, Glisoni, R.J., Chiappetta, D. a, Sosnik, A., 2010. Molecular implications in the nanoencapsulation of the anti-tuberculosis drug rifampicin within flower-like polymeric micelles. Colloids Surf. B. Biointerfaces 79, 467–79. doi:10.1016/j.colsurfb.2010.05.016 Moualeu, D.P., Weiser, M., Ehrig, R., Deuflhard, P., 2015. Optimal control for a tuberculosis model with undetected cases in Cameroon. Commun. Nonlinear Sci. Numer. Simul. 20, 986–1003. doi:10.1016/j.cnsns.2014.06.037 Nguyen, T.-H., Hanley, T., Porter, C.J.H., Boyd, B.J., 2011. Nanostructured liquid crystalline particles provide long duration sustained-release effect for a poorly water soluble drug after oral administration. J. Control. Release 153, 180–6. doi:10.1016/j.jconrel.2011.03.033 Son, Y.-J., McConville, J.T., 2011. A new respirable form of rifampicin. Eur. J. Pharm. Biopharm. 78, 366–76. doi:10.1016/j.ejpb.2011.02.004 Sosnik, A., Carcaboso, A.M., Glisoni, R.J., Moretton, M. a, Chiappetta, D. a, 2010. New old challenges in tuberculosis: potentially effective nanotechnologies in drug delivery. Adv. Drug Deliv. Rev. 62, 547–59. doi:10.1016/j.addr.2009.11.023 Villemagne, B., Crauste, C., Flipo, M., Baulard, A.R., Dà ©prez, B., Willand, N., 2012. Tuberculosis: the drug development pipeline at a glance. Eur. J. Med. Chem. 51, 1–16. doi:10.1016/j.ejmech.2012.02.033 WHO 2014, n.d.

Changes in brand image of Toyota

Changes in brand image of Toyota Toyota is one of the top car brands from Japan. They have been one of the biggest automakers in the world. They have been producing automobile for the past 60 years. They have put their brand in the spotlight and they have achieved the consumers trust on their products and brand. Toyota has been profitable from their first creation. Their brand has been well known and used by consumers worldwide. Their quality of product has never disappointed their customers. Their brand image has been built on the safety and reliability of their cars. 2.0 Brakes Malfunction and Sticky Pedal Accelerators In the previous years, Toyota has encountered issues that are similar to year 2009 but in year 2009 they have to announce to their stakeholders that they are calling a major call back on their new hybrid cars Toyota Prius. It is a fully hybrid electric medium build car that has good qualities as it is environmental friendly but it has a big problem. The problems are that the car brakes failed to work the accelerator pedals got stuck. Toyotas taking a huge hit at the moment in terms of their brand image, Mr. Champion said. In January, the problems of sticky accelerator pedals reached almost to 4.5 million vehicles and in November, as many as 5.5 million vehicles with accelerator pedals that could become trapped by the floor mat were called back. Toyota Prius have started been sold in the year 2004 throughout year 2009. These model years are affected by these problems of brake malfunction and the sticky accelerator issue. Toyota has also made a mistake to their stakeholders by not responding to the issue soon enough before the news spreads out to the public. Their Board of Directors should have take action before more complaints are filed. 2.1 Employees The employees that are affected by this issue are the one responsible for assembling and installing the brakes to the vehicle. Their quality check department employees are to be blamed in this matter due to their careless checking. The repairing works begin as soon as the shipments of the parts reached the dealerships. Employees will take at least 25 minutes to completing each repair work. One of the service managers Dave Davis says that Its going to be chaotic, but were doing the best we can. If I have customers until 9 oclock at night, thats how late Ill stay open. This statement proves that employees have to work long hours to finish up the repair works. For the employees that are working in the assembly line, they are under pressured by having to come up with a more dependable fix as soon as possible because the longer they take to find a dependable fix, the longer the assembly line will be idle, the higher the cost of Toyota will be. When the assembly line is idle means that other processes are put on hold, there will be no new car sales probably until Toyota fixes the damaged they have caused to their own company. 2.2 Customers The customers are the people that affected the most due to this mishap. They are at risk of losing their lives when the breaks of their vehicle fail to function as they should. Toyota was aware of the complaints in Japan about the braking problems on their Prius. In the United States, the complaints on the Prius brakes are building up as well. An accident was reported in Japan, suspected to be linked to the brakes not functioning. According to the Japanese Transport Ministry, the accident injured two people as the Prius they were driving crashed into another car head on. (CBSNews Business) 2.4 Shareholders Their shareholders are affected by this issue because they have invested in Toyota for the project of the Prius. When this problem arises their stock prices will fall. Their dividends are automatically affected by this issue. Toyota stocks falls drastically in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, falling 5 percent to 3,230 yen ($35) after dropping 5.7 percent the previous day. When the U.S. call backs were announced in the media, 22 percent of their stocks are lost. 3.0 Importance of Dilemmas After this issue is out in the public, Toyota has admitted to the press that their hybrid car has problems. They have made a major call back of the vehicle globally. As many as 4.5 million units were called back. Toyota is making a decision what any other auto manufacturer would do in this kind of situation. They send out letters to the affected car owners that need to send their vehicle for the call backs. The Toyotas technicians are working hard and working long hours to deal with the high volume repair jobs that are occurring. If the Toyota does not realize how important this issue will affect their company, they will have to suspend the sales of the new car of the affected models that are still at their dealers lots and the new car production will also be temporarily stopped. They must know that this issue is big. 3.1 Employees The production plant in Alabama is shutting down for three months in order to cut the inventory levels but no full time workers were let go. Instead, the part time workers were let go and their overtime were cut. During the three months shut down, Toyota came up with a training, cost cutting and improvement plan for their employees. Jim Bolte the President of a plant in Alabama, United States says that When we made our initial announcement about our non-production time and told our team members that they would not lose their jobs, we could see that many of them maybe didnt believe usà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. He also added Now they know that when we say things we really mean them. (Reuters) 3.2 Customers After the occurrence issue, Toyota provides free transportation for their customers in the United States to the dealers for repairs that involved in the call backs. They provide this free transportation to those who refuse to drive their call back vehicle to the dealership and also reimbursement for the Toyota owners. At the dealer, they provide a rental car or a pickup and return car at the dealership. They provide a fast service on the repair works and they also give reimbursement to their dealers for the cost of compliance. (Bloomberg Business Week) 3.3 Shareholders The Toyota Motor Corporation President Akio Toyoda bowed and apologized to Toyotas shareholders for causing the biggest global call backs of their vehicles. It was the first time the president of Toyota faces the shareholders since the companys reputation was damaged due to the call backs issue. He says that the company is doing their best to improve their quality control and he is thankful to the shareholders for their support. He adds We believe our most important task is to regain customers trust. (Autos on msnbc.com) 3.4 Theory Toyota should know look into the utilitarianism theory. This theory has been used since the eighteenth and nineteenth century philosophy but the idea of this theory is still applicable in the twenty-first century. This theory explains that we should make a decision by considering the consequences of our actions. It means that we should act in ways that produce better out come than the alternative we are considering. In principle it is also known as maximizing the overall good or the greatest good for the greatest number (Hartman P. L. and DesJardins J. 2008). A decision that fulfils all these terms is the right decision to be made ethically. Therefore, Toyota has to figure out what is the best thing to do for the sake of their stakeholders. Thus, by making the right decision they are able to regain their stakeholders trust towards their company. Toyota can use this theory not just to make decision for their current issues but also they can refer it if there is any issue occurred in t he future because it balanced the good over bad for those who are affected (Shaw H. W. and Barry V. 1998). 4.0 Our Principe Toyota believe that theres no best only better. They will keep on getting better for the future. That is why they put their brand message Moving Forward. This message proves how passionate they are for innovation and discovering new ideas and technology. They know that no matter how successful they may get, there will always be new challenges that awaits them in the future. They are focused on the future of the company and their brand. They will not stop pursuing for excellence as they are dedicated to Kaizen which means continuous improvement. By implementing this in their hearts, they are able to give what their customer values the most out of them which are their quality, durability and reliability of the vehicle that they have produced. Even though, currently Toyota is facing some issues on their quality and reliability, they still hold strong on what they believe in which is Kaizen. They are trying their best to regain what they have almost lost from their stakeholders. (Toyota Corporate info) 5.0 Recommendation

Animal Testing for Humanity Essay -- Animal Testing Research Essays Ar

Animal Testing for Humanity   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Animal research is vital to human existence. This testing enables doctors to find treatments and cures for various diseases and aliments. The people, who object and think that 'mad' scientists preform all animal research, merely do not understand the importance. There are many regulatory acts protecting the animals in experiments, therefore proving that ending animal research all together would be a harsh blow to society.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The regulations, such as the Animal Welfare Act, which ensures that animal, care for research is a main priority. The AWA requires appropriate veterinary care, housing, feeding, handling, sanitation, ventilation, and sheltering. Also, in that act the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is required to make at least one unannounced inspection a year to each facility.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another regulatory requirement is that the United States Department of Agriculture requires institutions to report the number of animals used in research and the number of animals that experience pain or distress. In a 1996 report to Congress, the USDA showed that eighty-nine percent of experiments reported did not involve pain or distress.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Animal research has proven to be a very controversial issue to many. Many myths surround it. Activists say that doctors to torture the animals, which is not true. These myths have been created by animal rights groups who want to fill other?s minds with distorted images of experiments.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  ...

Huck and finn :: essays research papers

Jim’s Perspective   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  All of a sudden I woke up to someone saying hello and I jumped up and turned around to see who was on the island with me. To my surprise I saw Huckleberry Finn, thinking that he was dead i dropped to my knees and said â€Å"doan’ hurt me dont’t! I hain’t ever done no harm to a ghos’. I alwuz liked dead people, en done all i could for ‘em. You go en git in de river ag’in, whah you b’longs, en doan’ do nuffin to Ole Jim, ‘at ‘uz alwuz yo’ fren’.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Then Huck explained to me what had happened to him and amde me understand he was alive and not a ghost. After expalining Huck says â€Å"It’s good daylight. Le’s get breakfast. Make up your campfire good.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"What’s de use er makin up de camp-fire to cook strawbriesen sich truck? but you got a gun, hain’t you? Den we kin git sumfn better then strawbries.† I said.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Strawberries and such truck,† he said. â€Å"is that what you live on? â€Å"I could’nt get nuffin else,† â€Å"Why how long you been on the island Jim?† â€Å"I came heah de night after you’s killed.† â€Å"What, all that time† â€Å"Yes indeedy† â€Å"And you ain’t had nothing but that kind of rubbage to eat?† â€Å" No sah nuffin else† â€Å"Well you must be starved ain’t you?† â€Å"I reck;n i could eat a hoss. I think I could. How long you ben on de islan’?† â€Å"Since the night I got killed.† â€Å"No W’y, what has you lived on? But you got a gun. Oh, yes. you got a gun. Dat’s good. Now you kill sumfn en I’ll make up de fire.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  So we went over to where the canoe was, and whuile I built the fire in a grassy open place amongst the trees, Huck went off and feched a meal and bacon and coffee, and a coffee-pot and frying pan and sugar and tin cups, and I was set back considerable because I reckoned it was all done with witchcraft. He caught a good big catfish and I cleaned him with my knife and fried him. When breakfast was ready weolled on the grass and eat it smoking hot. I laid it in all my might , because i was most starved. Then we had got pretty well stuffed, we laid off and lazied.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  By and by I said: â€Å" But looky here, Huck who wuz it dat ‘us killed in dat shanty ef it warnt you?† Then he explained to me th whole thing and I told him it was smart.

How does Angela Carter reinterpret Gothic Conventions Essay

Angela Carter reinterprets Gothic Conventions in both ‘The Tigers Bride’, and ‘The Courtship of Mr Lyon. ’ These reinterpreted gothic conventions are not merely used by Angela Carter to shock the reader, (typical of the Gothic), but additionally to add a sub-genre. This is clearly the case in both ‘The Tigers Bride’ and ‘Courtship of Mr Lyon’ as the feminist and Marxist message is provided by the subversion of the genre. For instance, in a conventional gothic novel the female is stereotypically either the â€Å"trembling victim† or â€Å"predator. † In other cases, women remain absent from the Gothic novel all together. However, in both of these short stories from Angela Carters collection ‘The Bloody Chamber,’ this gender role is subverted so the male becomes the victim. This is particularly evident in ‘The Courtship of Mr Lyon’ where Mr Lyon takes the role of the desperate women locked away, needing to be saved. Mr Lyon claims to be â€Å"dying† because Beauty left â€Å"because you left me. † The state of the lion is covered in the description with imagery of death and decay; â€Å"dead† flowers, â€Å"groaning† hinges, and â€Å"drifting cobwebs. † Beauty therefore takes the role of the male protagonist. There is a mention of otherness as Beauty found My Lyons â€Å"bewildering difference intolerable,† whereas, conventionally, the male was the norm and the female the other. Furthermore, in ‘The Tigers Bride’ conventional gothic gender stereotypes are also played with as Beauty breaks out of patriarchal society by rejecting her â€Å"clockwork twin† and taking the form of an animal â€Å"beautiful fur. † Carter uses the gothic conventional symbol of animals but in an alternate way. In both stories she puts animals on a higher level than man for their more moral qualities. The beast for instance is juxtaposed against her farther in ‘The Tigers Bride’ as he is the poor protector who â€Å"bartered,† and lost his â€Å"treasure† (again, objectifying women. ) The use of animals again explores a feminist message, as Carter believed that like animals, females were regarded as soulless. However, in both texts Carter also holds onto many of the stereotypical gender gothic conventions. For example the reference to Beauty as â€Å"Miss Lamb† in ‘The Courtship of Mr Lyon’ and also the mention of the lamb in ‘The Tigers Bride’ â€Å"Lion lies down with the lamb. ’ Furthermore, in both stories Beauty is objectified and the property of her farther, this is introduced immediately in ‘The Tigers Bride’, â€Å"my farther lost me to the Beast at cards. † The female here is clearly still a victim. In regard to setting, Carter does comply with many of the conventional gothic associations. In both ‘The Courtship of Mr Lyon’ and ‘The Tigers Bride’ the home of the Beast is regarded as the ‘isolated castle. ’ However, there is a difference in the habitats of Mr Lyon and Beauty in ‘The courtship of Mr Lyon’ as conventionally the male protagonist is associated with the city with unmoral behaviour, and the female is associated with the pastoral country. This enables Carter to add a message that both man and women need to combine both feminine and masculine qualities to be happy. Another example where Carter subverts the genre using the setting is in the stereotypical class of gothic. Conventionally, the gothic was focused mainly on aristocracy. Whereas, in both short stories Beauty is poor, for instance in ‘The Courtship of Mr Lyon’ her farther refers to his lost riches â€Å"how rich again I may once again be. † This conveys a Marxist reference, which is hinted at again â€Å"all of the world he knew need not necessarily apply. † Gothic symbolism is also reinterpreted in both novels. The reference to the â€Å"white rose† is a widely recognised gothic symbol and is featured in both short storied. However, besides symbolising the innocence of women and their purity, it could also symbolise freedom and salvation, much like a ‘white flag’ as both Beauty’s try to escape patriarchal society. Carter additionally subverts the supernatural. For instance in ‘The Tigers Bride,† despite inter-textuality with ‘Beauty and the Beast’ it is beauty who must transform into the Beast, as he licks her skin off revealing a nascent patina of shining hairs. The sole purpose of this, however, in not purely to shock the reader. Beauty is removing any human elements from herself, giving her, allowing her to break away from society and its limitations on women.

Pleasant ville essay Essay

A new idea can throw off a whole community. Don’t believe me? Watch Pleasantville, a movie on how a pair of twins, brother and sister, completely change a city. They are transported from the modern world, to a quaint town in a T.V. show called Pleasantville. As quick as the pair of twins spread their ideas they try even harder to stop them, not wanting to change how the whole community functions. But it proved to be impossible and soon everything was changing, for the better and for the worse. Sociologists can view this movie in three different perspectives: the functionalist, conflict, and interactionist perspective. The Conflict Perspective is shown throughout the movie. This perspective focuses on those forces in society that promote change and competition. In this movie, an example would be the colored vs. the black and white folks. Violence aroused between the colored vs. the black and white’s. Soon the black and white folks began to vandalize the colored people’s shops, homes, and even went as far as to racism laws; they viewed the colored people as different individuals because they were accepting change. The colored vs. the black and white’s is viewed as a conflict perspective because of the change that is accruing from the black and white’s racism toward the colored people; like only gray and white paint, the Lovers Lane and the library being closed up, colored and the black and white’s sit separated at court, and no umbrellas on sale. Another example would be the moms’ inner conflict within her; she accepts the change but is too afraid to show it. She is in love with Mr. Johnson but she has to choose to either stay true to her husband or too follow her heart. This is an example of conflict perspective because the wife is beginning to change because of the conflict within her; like not going to sleep at the same time as her husband, not wanting to be a house wife anymore, not having food ready for her husband when he gets home, and last but not least becoming colored. The functionalist perspective is employed by those who view society as a set of interrelated parts that work together to create a stable social system. Since not everything in society is positive, a dysfunction is the negative consequence an element has for the stability of the social system. This is shown in the movie when the  roles of daughter and mother have changed. Instead of the mom giving her daughter â€Å"the talk† it’s the other way around. This is an example of functional perspective because the mother is no longer doing her job. Another example would be the firemen. They are not exactly doing their job either; instead of stopping fires they rescue cats from trees because fire does not really exist in Pleasantville. They don’t really start doing their job until the twins show up and the first fire occurs and even then bud has to show them how to do their job and stop the fire! The last type is interactionist perspective, which is how individuals interact with each other’s in society. Sociologists would focus on how soon after Mary Sue’s relations with her brother improved, and soon after she would ask him for advice and confide in him. The fact that they were stranded in a 1950’s T.V. show makes them stick together. Another example is how the kids were acting more provocative and became sexually active. This was a huge change from their previous, obedient character. Also after a few days, Mary Sue’s friends were speaking in the same ’90s dialect. This is shown when her friend remarks â€Å"Cool!† Mary Sue changed the way they communicated with her ideas. All these examples fall under interactionist perspective because the characters began to change the way they talk and how they interact with one another. The key theme in this movie is change. It shows that change can be both positive and negative, with the Functionalist, conflict, and interactionist perspectives. As the plot progresses, Pleasantville changes increasingly and colors begin to appear, symbolizing the spread of new ideas. Without change, a society truly cannot function.

The musical strategies of some exemplary ‘titles’ sequences in a way that illuminates the function of music in entertainment cinema

In order to view a variety of techniques used, the title sequences of four films will be analysed: from classic Hollywood cinema Casablanca and Psycho, a modern Hollywood film, Edward Scissorhands, and a recent Russian film, Prisoner of the Mountains (Kavkazky Plennik). In non-musical terms Casablanca, Psycho and Edward Scissorhands all present different versions of the classic Hollywood technique of using a closed, self-contained titles sequence. Meanwhile in Prisoner of the Mountains there is an extended sequence before the titles begin, and this sequence includes music. The following points need to be addressed with regard to each film: how the music in the title sequence coincides with the visuals (i. e. how the sequence works on its own); what kind of role the music plays; how this can be interpreted in terms of its effects on audience expectation and manipulation; and finally how the music of the title sequence relates to that which is used later on, and in what context the title music itself is used. In Casablanca the normal Warner Bros fanfare accompanies the studio's logo at the very opening, and drum music links the picture to the visually static title sequence which uses a map of Africa as its background. This develops into ‘oriental' music for the full orchestra, using several clichis developed from the western perception of the ‘orient', such as the persistent use of the melodic progression tonic/leading note/flattened-submediant/dominant (i. e. C, B, A-flat, G) played predominantly by brass and reed instruments. When the credit for the composer Max Steiner appears, the music shifts and plays La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, but this concludes with an interrupted cadence rather than its normal perfect version. We must also examine the next sequence as it forms a unit with the title sequence, using both music and partly-animated visuals. We see another globe, this time used for the mapping of the physical and causal route to Casablanca, from France and other places. Clips of paradigm journeys are superimposed onto the map as the refugees flee Paris and Marseilles. The music accompanying this follows on from the pessimistic nature of the interrupted cadence of La Marseillaise, building down to low, dissonant and lugubrious chords on brass which begins to be accompanied by a romantic high, intense and chromatic melody for strings in octaves. Finally, as the first scene of the film begins in a market square in Casablanca, the music returns to oriental music, this time, supposedly, diegetically. The role of this sequence is manifold: firstly it establishes Casablanca as the physical and spiritual setting for the film, corresponding to the geographically blatant use of maps. It also adds interest to an otherwise static title sequence, and indeed, is a montage of the musical themes that are to be presented in the film. The first two themes (‘Oriental' and Marseillaise) are so explicit that they do not take on much contextual meaning in this original setting, but rather set up purely musical expectation, which can be utilised by transformation or by various possibilities of juxtaposition with visuals. The third ‘suffering, yearning' theme is less familiar and therefore takes meaning from its context and becomes associated with the desire for freedom and liberty. In this sense the themes sum up the plot: as captivity in a wild land (oriental), fettered liberty (La Marseillaise and its cadence), and romantic human yearning for freedom. Generically, the nationalistic music also helps establish the film as a ‘serious' war film as well as a melodrama. The main strategies of the musical sequence, then, are clear: to introduce the main musical themes in a way that makes the introduction understandable and establishes its genre. By its nature the music also manipulates the audience into feeling the setting to be removed from their own settings by the fact that the oriental music is exotic in an Romantic orientalist sense rather than in a Moroccan sense, establishing the film as a western work. The manner in which the title music influences the rest of the film is generally easy to detail. Unlike the manner in which As Time Goes By is used in a proliferating way, the occurrences of the title themes are used to remind us of their original or implied contexts and meanings. The Marseillaise theme is used as a symbol of France (for the flashback sequence) but more generally as a marker of the success or failure of idealism and the Allies in its battle against cynicism and Fascism: its overall movement is from the interruption of the titles to the only full cadence in the final scene as Louis finally gives in to patriotism by throwing away the Vichy water. Oriental music is used more scarcely as the setting has been established, but it is used diegetically in the Blue Parrot scenes to distinguish it from the more homely and American Rick's (‘Cafi Americain'). Thus some of the title music was truly introductory and other parts were to be used for future reference. The fact that As Time Goes By was not used indicates that it did not attempt a full musical accumulation of themes but concentrated on those necessary to understand the first scene. The title sequence of Psycho is more closed and self-contained than that of Casablanca due to the manner in which the music of the titles is separated – both by silence and by change of mood – from the opening scene. The sequence is also far more visually captivating due to the thrusting horizontal lines that shoot across the screen and distort the titles themselves, culminating in a vertical meeting of upwards and downwards-moving lines and a release. Unlike Casablanca there is no aspect of narrative or historical context, but rather the establishing of a mood, as the lines suggest frenetic activity, violence, splitting and then final dying union, as the lines meet and fall away. The music, meanwhile, uses three primary textures in succession, all of which are linked by the modernist language and string scoring of Herrmann's score. The first is a driving ‘motor' rhythm of double-stopped dissonances in the tradition of The Rite of Spring, which develops by superimposing variants of a basic cell onto itself and thus expanding in volume and texture. The second is this rhythmic idea as an accompaniment to a soaring violin theme which is still not entirely Romantic in character due its persistent crotchet motion. Ostinati are thus the key to the sequence. The third texture is the ‘sharp' rhythmic idea used by smaller sections of strings in upwards sequences, dying away with the visual lines, and reaching an extremely high tessitura. The music stops and pauses before the opening scene begins with slow weakly-discordant descending chords in the style of Debussy. ‘The real function of a main title, of course, should be to set the pulse of what is to follow†¦ I am convinced, and so is Hitchcock, that after the main titles you know that something terrible must happen. The main title sequence tells you so, and that is its function: to set the drama. You don't need cymbal crashes or records that never sell'. 1 Thus Bernard Herrmann both states the specific strategy of the musical cue that accompanies the title sequence in Psycho and proposes a general theory of the function of titles sequences. He also justifies his choice of a string orchestra for such dramatic music, and in other places likens the string sound to Hitchcock's anachronistic monochrome. The strategy, then, is to sum up the essence of the film. That essence is surely the surprising ‘primitive' (in the primitivist sense of Stravinsky) violence that describes the title word, and in no way sets the scene for that which immediately follows. The music is fiercely modernist for a cinema audience but still within their understanding so that, along with the visuals and the word ‘psycho', the main element of the titles establishes itself as distinctly inhuman and violent. Just as the straight lines penetrating the screen and the titles can be interpreted as predicting the motion of stabbing and also the split character of Bates, the music is ‘stabbing' in its chords and ends ‘screaming' as Marion will do. The horror genre is thereby indicated, but the music's insistent intensity hints at the obsessively psychological nature of Hitchcock's art. The influence of this titles music on the rest of the film is subtle. The first scene is entirely removed from it by mood, if not completely by musical language, a feature that unifies the entire score and film. The first time the titles music is reused is when Marion realises that her boss has seen her driving her car after she had told him that she was going straight home to bed. The fright she suffers, and the effort with which she suppresses it in order to force a smile at her boss, seem to initiate the return of the violent double-stopped ostinati of the titles. Here there is a meaning attached to a mood which we understand to be the essence of the film: the music is in some way linked to the Marion's subjectivity and also the insistent technology of the car. Marion is shown to be a transgressive woman, and this raises the expectation that Marion herself may be the psycho: she has a headache; she hears voices in her head; she has stolen money; she drives – a masculine pastime in most films; and accordingly her fright is expressed not through Romantic scherzo music but by this horror music. This expectation is, of course, entirely false. Meanwhile the explicit violin theme of the titles is used to fill the screen just as Marion's face does as we watch her watching the road, amounting to a nullification of any reluctance we might have towards voyeurism. The most powerful influence the titles music has over the film is its various ways of presenting ostinati. We learn to decode this new musical language in stages, so that the deep ostinati heard as the dying Marion falls to the floor in the shower is distinguished from the niggling four-note repeated figure associated with Marion's decision to run away with the money. They mean different things but are united by technique and by the world they draw for the audience. Edward Scissorhands toys with genre: it is a both a genuine horror film and a parody of one (of the Frankenstein and Beauty and the Beast traditions); it is also a fantasy, a comedy and a melodrama. This is recognised in the titles sequence and the music that accompanies it. The studio logo is accompanied by snow and then there follows a title sequence that is ambiguous as to whether it is animated or real. In fact, it turns out that much of the sequence is real and is taken from later scenes involving Vincent Price that are vital to the plot, such as the brief view we have of him dead and the hands that could have been Edward's. However, this is all crafted with elements of Gothic fantasy, using discrete images from the house/castle, beginning with dark shadows and an old door opening, moving to what we later realise was the inventor's laboratory, and this culminates in the purely fantastic animation of hearts and other ‘shapes' falling like snow, with which the title sequence concludes. Danny Elfman's music for this sequence is remarkable mainly for its orchestration: it begins with solo celesta, then strings are added, accompanying a plaintive cor anglais, and then a full (and massive) orchestra plays the main theme, to which is added a celestial and voiceless choir, which sings to ‘oooh'. The chord sequence that is most prominent is a major tonic triad moving to a minor triad of the submediant. In effect, the sequence is akin to an amalgamation of Casablanca and Psycho, for it uses the technique of joining the titles to a ‘false' first scene, whilst dissociating it from the first ‘real' flashback scene, which begins in prosaic silence. Elfman's music is fairly uniform here but multivalent. The magical nature of the film is set by the celesta and the harp/flute-oriented nature of the full orchestration and finally by the angelic voices. The magical interpretation of this combination of instruments is accepted by way of Chaikovsky, Debussy and John Williams, from whom the harmonic progressions are also borrowed. The element of horror is marginalized but represented by low strings and the melancholy of the cor. The voices add a layer of naive wonder that is rather over the top, something that is a major part of the film. The audience is led to expect a fairy tale with an element of horror to it, but also the clues to the somewhat tongue-in-cheek nature of the film are also present in the music. Importantly, from the very beginning this affective music is associated with the house and Edward. The element of falling in this film is highly significant: many of the moments of greatest significance revolve around the falling of snow, which is finally associated by the old woman of the present with Edward's very existence, and thus the existence of the film and of magical naivety and goodness, with the falling of snow; in the studio's very logo before the titles there had been no fanfare but silence accompanying the falling of snow; in the titles the ‘shapes' are shown to fall like snow: these shapes include hearts, which provide a link to humans and human emotions: the inventor falls when he dies and his fall is emphasised by the way in which we view his face as he realises he is to die. The sequence leading up to the inventor's death is the key to the explanation for Edward's condition, which is half the mystery of the film (the other half is how it will end), and it is drawn out by its progression being interrupted and alternated with scenes of the ‘present' (wi thin the entire flashback of the film). During this we realise the significance of what we had seen in the titles, and to emphasise this the titles music is brought back, and the tragic nature of the story is shown by the fact that we were ignorant of its intended significance until now. The other scenes in which the titles music features prominently are when Edward sees the picture of Peggy's daughter for the first time (choir ‘ooohs') and when snow is falling and Edward magically (for it would not be possible) creates beautiful ice sculptures with the girl as his enraptured audience (full statement of the main theme). Thus the titles music is used to indicate the presence of the picturesque, the naive will to do good and the tragic nature of fate. Those things not privileged by this music are, by implication, marginalized. However, the titles theme also proliferates the film as Elfman develops it by distortion (quarter-tone glissandi in the main theme) during moments of anguish. This is similar to Steiner's use of La Marseillaise in Casablanca. Finally, by way of contrast, we will look at Prisoner of the Mountains, a strong piece of anti-war propaganda made during, and based on, the ongoing Russo-Chechen conflict. The film begins with a long sequence before the titles, showing the recruitment process of a young man drafted in as a reserve soldier into the Russian army. We see him given a medical examination naked, which has an element of humour to it. Then we see an older soldier go to play pool outdoors with a friend and they drink in a relaxed, late-evening atmosphere. The contrast between the young and innocent and the hardened cynic is reinforced as the soldier, Sasha, responds to other soldiers being rowdy by firing off rounds of his machine gun in mock attack. As he shoots we see his tensed, macho face, there is a freeze frame and a song begins, the first music of the film. The song is an old one and is obviously recognisable as a popular song of the type popularised during the Second World War, a period that is a subject of great nostalgia for Russians. We then see a military manoeuvre operated by the Russians with both the old and the young soldier aboard a Russian tank. The song ends and we are brought out of nostalgia for the army to the harsh reality as we hear a solo plucked string instrument play an ‘oriental' snippet of melody. This alerts the audience to the possibility of danger from Russia's ethnic ‘others' and to the placement of the scene in the Caucasus mountain range. Suddenly the tank is ambushed and our two soldiers are severely wounded and left unconscious and seemingly dead by their comrades and are captured by the Chechens. Finally the titles begin with an endless panorama of the mountains and dramatic orchestral music in an orientalist style. Here it is difficult to determine what constitutes the essential title sequence if one accepts Herrmann's definition. The music that accompanies the titles certainly does more to emphasise the setting and the drama of the film, but we cannot forget what has already happened. The freeze-frame on Sasha's face as he fires in connection with the ultra-popular song is so strong a device so difficult to interpret on first viewing that it dominates the opening. Moreover, whilst the opening music is hardly reused before the end of the film, there is another sequence which is crucial to the film's anti-war message: the two Russians are kept hostage, chained together, for a long period and it becomes increasingly likely that they will be killed. As they sit together, back to back, Sasha begins to sing another old WWII song in a triumphant, brave voice, something that is obviously escapist. Suddenly his voice is multiplied and the song is taken over by a huge chorus and the shot moves from the two men to the vast expanse of the mountains, so that he can be seen to become the might of the Russian army. As the song is still being bellowed out, the shot changes back to the men, and Sasha is crying frantically. The false expectation of escape in patriotism that had been set up by the song is revealed, and this makes sense of the opening song in addition. In a sense, then the titles sequence constructs a conventional colonialist Russian audience led to be wary of foreign subjects, whilst its other musical material works against this. It is possible to generalise our observations to note that for every film here the titles operate as a kind of first subject of a sonata-form movement: they establish certain information about the film's essence which can be developed in a linear way, as in the thematic references in Casablanca and the thematic distortions of Edward Scissorhands, or in a more accumulative way, as with the manner in which the music for the titles sequences in Psycho, Edward Scisssorhands and Prisoner of the Mountains gains in meaning as we acquire more information. As an audience we are led to believe that the titles have meaning and, like the subject of a sonata, will be recapitulated.

Country Factbook Between Seden and Denmark on Organic Food Industry Essay

1. Executive summary The organic food industry is suitable for business investments in both Sweden and Denmark due to several factors. First of all, efficient local intermediary firms and certain broader macro-level institutions facilitate business and provide location advantages. Moreover, studying the business/industry culture can be used to gain insights in the business environment of Sweden/Denmark in the field of organic food. However, the complex natures of harvesting organic goods make it impossible to indicate the best location for production, as this depends on the particular product being produced. As a result, demand and supply across Sweden and Denmark are met by means of a widespread retail sector, intra-industry trade and export. Only by making an estimation of sectorial breakdown and its counterparts an (somewhat) informed investment decision can be made. Either way, it is evident that organic food industry as a whole has gained popularity due to several reasons. One example is that CSR profiles of firms have become an customary element in the product purchasing decision in recent times. It can be said that recent developments in technological- (information technology revolution) and political nature (subsidies) have contributed to this trend, documents playing an important role in particular. Since culture consists of documents and culture is more available to document analysis today it has been our choice in our data collection method. In turn, for data analysis we have made use of coding, series of events and semiotics. It is these that have allowed us to assess macroeconomic performance of Sweden and Denmark as well as its historical developments, socio-cultural conditions and the nature of competitiveness in the organic industry field. Despite the fact that Sweden and Denmark share many similarities in each one of these areas there are some differences. However, these are considered to be subtle and highly context-dependent. Therefore, we would also not like to answer our research question, ‘’How and why do the organic industry conditions differ between Sweden and Denmark? ’’ in this section, but hope that you will find an answer what is best for you in the pages of the remainder of this report. Ultimately, we will provide major findings of comparisons and recommendations, based on our views and experience gained during our research. It might be possible to ‘’tweak’’ this information in such a way in making it applicable for your particular business scenario or business plan. 2. Introduction This section is meant to state the goal, relevance and purpose of our Factbook. Furthermore, it will give rise to our lead question, being ‘’How and why do the organic industry conditions differ between Sweden and Denmark? ’’ To boot, we hope to achieve appraisal and recognition for our deliverables from whom ultimately might use and/or buy our Factbook. Like the CIA Factbook, our focus is on the industry. However, it is important to note that we have tried to achieve more than the already existing Factbooks, as they are often too comprehensive or lacking in value. We have tried to overcome the first problem by linking theory to application and writing about it. In this, our main challenge has been to take into account all aspects that somehow matter for the bottom line, the profitability of an investment project. Yet, since profitability is a relative term it might be better to speak of opportunity costs. This terminology is crucial to understand for correct business decision making to take place and also forms the backbone for our final recommendations in our Factbook. Moreover, Pugel (2009) has showed that many industries incur rising, rather than constant, marginal opportunity costs. For instance, efforts to expand Denmark/Sweden organic wheat production would fairly quickly run into rising costs caused by limits on (1) how much more land could be drawn into wheat production and how suitable this additional land would be for wheat production, (2) the availability of additional workers willing and suitable to work on the farms, and/or (3) the availability of seeds, fertilizers, and other material inputs. As for the second problem, we focus mostly on institutionalism and culture as they are lacking in other country Factbooks. Examples of institutions that can facilitate business in Sweden and Denmark are efficient local intermediary firms and certain broader macro-level institutions, both being considered to be generally available location advantages (Verbeke 2010). Concerning culture, we are particularly interested in business/industry culture. This is based on logic that our analysis is mainly on the industry level. Furthermore, Hollensen (2008) has showed that business/industry culture of business behavior and ethics is similar across borders, i. e. expected to be the same for Sweden and Denmark. By learning about the industry culture the decision maker will be aware of important ‘rules of the game’ (Hollensen 2008). Concerning the purpose, this Factbook is meant to facilitate a document that will be considered important for decision makers, i. e. policy makers but especially business investors. From an investment perspective, several hierarchical modes (domestic-based sales representatives, mergers and acquisition, alliances, greenfield) are possible. However, retailer alliances and mergers and acquisition are most popular. To illustrate, in the case of Sweden retailer alliances control 90% of the food retail stores (http://www. snee. org/filer/papers/193. pdf). Furthermore, because the organic food market in Denmark and Sweden and Europe in general is rather fragmented, mergers provide benefits and interest to investors through economies of scale (http://www. nytimes. com/2011/05/24/business/global/24organic. html). Lastly, market growth, political support and complimentary resources in both Denmark and Sweden stimulate and attract business investors. These and other issues will be elaborated in the remainder of this report. All in all, we will provide the examiner with information of which we believe to be relevant for decision makers and can be used for deciding which company, or which industries of this company, to invest in. Hereby, we have tried to identify the major dimensions relevant to comparative country studies. These have been chosen carefully and matter for the organic food industry and a wide spectrum of business within this industry. In turn, these dimensions can be used to compare the countries Sweden and Denmark. Ultimately, the contents of this Factbook are meant to stay closely connected to the country set Sweden/Denmark and it’s organic food industry, yet still is general to the extent that it allows applying the information to a concrete business case. With the final product of our Factbook we hope to have provided the reader with a clear understanding of the conditional differences between Sweden and Denmark and as such an answer to our research question. Concerning the structure of the remainder of this paper, we will subsequently discuss: methods and frameworks, introduction to organic food sector, methods and frameworks, country comparison, major findings of comparison and recommendations and the bibliography. 3. Methods and frameworks 3. 1 Method for Factbook compilation As method for our Factbook compilation we have opted to first focus on the country and then on the region. It can be described as a region-based compilation (RBC) technique. For example, if you look at technology, technology is taking place in Eindhoven in The Netherlands and not in Delfzijl. If you are going to do something with energy then you end up in Delfzijl rather than in Eindhoven. However, making such a comparison for Sweden or Denmark in terms of organic food proves difficult. To explain, people that argue that organic food is simply being harvested on the most fertile agricultural land are likely to mix up terms. That is, fertility should be clearly set aside from productivity or even best land. Indeed, you can have a highly fertile area but deficient in its use do its limited crop sizes. Moreover, a certain area of agricultural land might be appropriate to harvest a particular organic product, but is less appropriate or least suitable for other organic products. Lastly, in general organic material levels go up as you go north. But productivity does not necessarily follow the same trend because the same shorter season and lower temperatures that helped build and maintain that organic material, limits growing seasons and crops growth. In order to prevent complexity we have decided to focus more on the retail sector of Sweden and Denmark than the production sector. The retail sector will include exports as over 70 percent of the exports of industrialized countries are shipped to other industrialized countries, and nearly half of total world trade is industrialized countries trading with each other (Pugel 2009). Sweden and Denmark are no exception, as they are known to have an established intra-industry trade relationship. Besides physical locations we also like to discuss official statistics as another compilation issue. The main issue is that official statistics often rely on incomplete information and therefore involve estimation. In our report we have made use of two types of estimation, sectorial breakdown and its counterparts. We have chosen to select these two types in order to facilitate the decision maker with a reflection opportunity of a wide variety of activities he/she might be interested in. Furthermore, in an attempt to ‘standardize’ statistics we will use figures of the Central Statistics Office (or a comparable source) as much as possible for both Denmark and Sweden. We believe it is advisable to use comparable or equal sources between the two countries as it strengthens the reliability of our research. Based on previous experience and narratives we believe the Central Statistics Office (also known as Central Statistics Bureau) is one of the most easily accessible and reliable sources to be found on the Internet. Furthermore, in order to prevent possible ambiguity we will use equal terminology for both countries as much as possible, including definitions of sectors and instrument categories. Moreover, we would like to briefly discuss the overall structure of the Factbook. First of all, the executive summary is meant to provide background information on the topic of organic food as an industry and can act as a quick-review guide of what the examiner is likely to expect in the report. In this, the executive summary contains several main ideas reflected in the report itself. Furthermore, the introduction discusses more distinct the Factbook and the underlying principles. Then, data collection and data analysis show arguments for the choices we have made in conducting our empirical research. As to the chapters that follow, these are simply a representation and a more in-depth analysis of what has been announced in the previous chapters and act as to share our findings in terms of describing legal, political, environmental, institutional and cultural dimensions. Lastly, we finalise our report by concluding with major findings of comparisons and recommendations. 3. 2 Prime theories and approaches There are different theories to be utilized for compiling this Factbook. One of the main drivers for organic farming is environmental reason, which are often associated with care for the environment. Moreover, it can be argued that the choice for buying ‘’organic’’ is also driven by social cultural reasoning, having this care for the environment being embedded as part of the culture. Indeed, this is mainly the case in the Western market where awareness towards environmental issues has risen in recent times. It is terms like corporate responsibility and sustainability that have become a part of the decision making process of Western consumers as to what to buy and to whom to buy it from. In this, environmental and socio-cultural values have become an important facet in the decision making process of the consumer in general, the organic food industry being no exemption. In an attempt to verify and examine these trends we will make use of theory of Schwartz (1999) combined with the theory of planned behaviour to determine if organic food consumption offers potential for business investment to take place. As we shall see later on, Schwartz his cultural values can be used to assess the main characteristics of the average Swedish and Danish inhabitant and how these assist in making inferences about core values, behaviour and its relation to the organic food industry. In order to find more specific similarities and differences we have made use of the framework as proposed by S. Ruiz de Maya et al. (2011), who offer us a theoretical approach to the organic food industry from the consumer side. It is this that provides us with socio-cultural factors and helping the investor to decide whether Sweden or Denmark is more ‘suitable’ to invest in, depending on a particular context. In addition, the PESTLE analysis will also be utilized in this report. It is important to note that we will not be focusing on the whole framework but on the political, social and legal factors provided. By examining the political factors we can determine how these influence the organic food industry. For instance, some administrations can be beneficial for the organic food industry. For instance, by stimulating farmers to dedicate more land for organic farming and usage of organic food in government institutions. However, in another term a different administration might not be so favourable to organic farming and food, which could lead to a different situation. For example, abolishing organic farming grants. As mentioned before, the social side of organic food consumption is important. Health and environmental issues have become more important for the general public. Furthermore, the investor should keep in mind that views concerning organic food can change. These factors can have an influence on the demand. Last aspect is the legal aspects. For example, determine the definition of organic food and who or how they uphold this standard. This factor is related to the political part of the PESTLE analysis. Legislation concerning organic food is important for the Factbook. There can be differences between Denmark and Sweden concerning organic food industry. 3. 3 Method for data collection and analysis. This section will discuss our chosen method for data collection and analysis. We will start by addressing the data collection technique, after which the data collection analysis approach will follow. First of all, it can be said that our study involves both qualitative research (a focus on text) and quantitative research (a focus on numbers). However, since institutionalism and culture are clearly more qualitative we have opted to focus on qualitative data collection techniques. In the end, we have made use of solely documents as a qualitative data collection technique. Although we would have liked to include interviews and fieldwork in our research, we experienced that it is difficult, if not impossible, for us to carry out these activities successfully. First, we could not find any suitable individuals or focus groups being knowledgeable about our subject. Second, we do not believe ourselves to be proficient enough in fieldwork as to ensure reliable and valid results. Moreover, the duration of the necessary fieldwork was also expected not to fit within the given timeframe set to create the Factbook. In either case, there are some advantages of using documents as opposed to interviews and fieldwork. For example, documents are relatively cheap and quick to access (Payne & Payne, 2004). It is usually much easier to obtain data from documents than from interviews or fieldwork. Also, if there are many documents on a subject, which we believe to hold true for our case, triangulation is possible to study developments over time. In terms of sources of data, our research is limited to secondary data only. Indeed, we did not make use of any unpublished data being gathered directly from people or organizations. Instead, we have made use of published books, webpages, newspaper articles and journal articles. Somewhat surprisingly, we found that these sources were able to provide us with sufficient empirical data for our research, especially with regard to culture related aspects. Concerning the latter, we would also like to refer to Altheide (1996), who said that documents are studied to understand culture. He has pointed out that a large part of culture consists of documents. Furthermore, he has showed that culture is more available to document analysis today because of the information technology revolution. (Altheide, 1996). Finally, in order to assess the quality of the documents used, we have made use of four criteria as proposed by Scott (1990): (1) authenticity, (2) credibility, (3) representativeness & (4) meaning. Concerning the method for data analysis, we have chosen to make use of several approaches for analyzing qualitative data. Probably the one being used the most is coding. We have chosen this approach primarily because it is one of the easiest ways to analyse qualitative data. In addition, it offers many advantages. For instance, it allows reducing the size of the data and is useful for retrieving, organizing, and speeding up the analysis (Miles & Humberman, 1994). Although this method has been used throughout the entire report, it has been particular helpful in our literature review on the organic food industry, as making use of buzzwords has helped in defining the scope of our research. Moreover, it was found helpful for the executive summary and the introduction, as these are more restricted in terms of length. Here coding has acted as an instrument to make distinctions between either ‘too detailed’ or ‘too general’ more easily. Another data analysis approach we have made use of is series of events. We have made use of this approach as we considered it to be helpful to compare relevant historical developments for our industry. Listing a series of events by chronological time periods and subsequently assigning events to categories has helped to identify similarities and differences over time. As such, it allows us to pinpoint more precisely when historical developments have been most evident and how it has changed the view of the industry. Due to its very nature this approach was utilized in the historical developments section of our report. Lastly, we have made use of semiotics, which is concerned with the meaning of signs and symbols. For business and management research, semiotics is most useful in marketing, management, consumer research and information systems. This is because in these segments, signs are very important. For example, form of brand names and logos are considered to be highly important. In our view semiotics also play an influential role in the organic food industry. Currently, there is some debate about the future growth of the organic food industry; it either being with brands or retailer private labels. It has been argued that large food retailers are taking advantage of the ‘organic’ brand without making any of the associated investment. While the industry has been built by certification agencies and pioneering brands, their presence in terms of logos and brands is diminishing in supermarkets and mainstream retailers (http://www. organicmonitor. com/r0811. htm). As such, investment scenario’s in the organic food industry are less clear-cut than in the past and require careful examination of conventions governing the use of signs and sign systems. In our report, semiotics has been found crucial to explain the socio-cultural and market/industry conditions more fully. 4. Introduction sector/industry In order to provide the examiner with an introduction of the organic food industry, general trends, definitions and boundaries will be discussed. To boot, the European organic food market has a total revenue of $24. 7 billion in 2010, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8. 9% between 2006 and 2010 based on research of DATAMONITOR (2010). The European organic food market grew by 6% in 2010 to reach a value of 24. 7 billion and it is predicted that in 2015 the European organic food market will be worth $36. 8 billion, an increase of 48. 8% since 2010. According to UNCTAD, organic agriculture is defined as a holistic production management whose primarily goal is to optimize the health and productivity of interdependent communities of soil, life, plants, animals and people. Moreover, According to Chen (2009) organic products are goods that respect the environment and that are manufactured without the use of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, growth hormones, antibiotics or gene manipulation. By viewing the production side, organic producers should combines best environmental practices, a high level of biodiversity, the preservation of natural resources and application of high-animal welfare standards, providing higher quality products to respond to a certain consumers’ demand. Nowadays, the concern of Western society on how products may be profoundly harmful to the environment has led to a higher demand for organic products, sustainable business activities and stricter regulations from national governments (Gurau and Ranchod, 2005). Due to this increasing concern and higher demand in European countries, it can be argued that the organic food industry is becoming a more interesting and challenging sector for investors to invest in. Furthermore, organic food industry generates revenue as the second largest market within Europe and is continuously growing. However, some boundaries as to this sector do exist. Three main boundaries we found to be of importance are price premiums, quality and availability and time factor. Of these three, price premium is expected to be the most important. This is due to the fact that organic food more often than not requires another form of processing and is more difficult to conserve. Moreover, the costs of quality control are also expected to be higher as no pesticides are used as to protect large crops. As such, it is rational that the price is more expensive than conventional food products. In effect, consumers with lack of knowledge will reconsider buying organic products because of this simple fact. Considering quality of the organic products, consumers believe that by charging a higher price this is equivalent to a higher quality. This view is based on the rationale of human beings, sometimes depicted in phrases such as ‘pay more, get more’. Whilst this ‘rule’ not always holds true, our (inner) convictions and background study has verified that this is in fact the case in the organic food industry. An example of the organic food retail sector is that high priced restaurants tend to favour organic (natural) ingredients. Based on the above, the organic products will meet consumers’ expectation by providing the products above the conventional product’s standards, with a price tag to match its difference in quality. The last constraint we would like to discuss is availability and time factor. The availability of organic products do not vary as much as that of conventional products. As organic products are often less well exposed, they are more difficult to find in stores. This is an important consideration and largely influences issues such as sales expectations, storage costs and risk of decay. Furthermore, in the following part we will discuss and analyse how the conditions of organic food provide the investor with a broader view of the organic food industry. In this, we will consider four conditions as factors being relevant for organic food: political-, cultural-, legal- and labor systems. 5. Country comparison 5. 1 Macro-economic indicators A country comparison on macro-economic indicators can be considered to be beneficial for decision makers as it gives them food for thought on the expected macroeconomic performance of that country, i. e. the behavior of a country’s output, jobs, and prices in the organic food industry in the face of changing world conditions. This judgment call about performance is basically what drives most macro-economic analysis. It can be used to assess issues such as how well a country’s economy is performing and how close it is to achieving broad desirable objectives, such as stability in average product prices (no inflation) and low unemployment (Pugel 2009). The most relevant macro-economic indicators for the organic food industry are considered to be economic indicators and financial indicators. Demographic indicators do not seem important to us as research has shown that gender or age does not have any significant effect on whether people decide to buy organic food or not (http://newhope360. com/organic-consumers-share-values-not-demographics). In order to ensure reliability we have chosen to attain all figures of these indicators from one source, namely De Grote Bosatlas (2002). Fig. 1 STATISTIEK EUROPA (part 1) Fig 2. STASTIEK EUROPA (PART 2) From figure 1 we can infer that Denmark had a higher agricultural contribution in terms of percentage towards the GDP. Moreover, Denmark has a substantial higher percentage of agricultural grounds (62. 4% versus 7. 9%) Furthermore, Denmark has a higher contribution to GDP per capita. Besides, inhabitants from Denmark are slightly wealthier than those in Sweden, when looking at GDP. Lastly, Denmarks development of the GDP in 1990-1999 has risen more than was the case for Sweden. Then, from figure 2, we can infer that Denmark has a stronger economy than Sweden, but only by a small margin. Furthermore, inflation rate for Denmark is lower, yet also again only by a small margin. Moreover, Denmark has more government spending in terms of percentage of GDP. Concerning education, Denmark spends more in terms of percentage of GDP. Besides, Denmark inhabitants generally enjoy a higher purchasing power than is the case for Swedish inhabitants. It also shows that more Danish people are working in both the agricultural and industrial sector than Sweden, these tend to work more in the service sector. Lastly, Denmark has a lower percentage of the work force being unemployed. From this preliminary analysis we can infer that in terms of economic indicators investments in Denmark are likely to require a higher yield on an investment than were the case of Sweden. This assumption is made based on the simple fact that as for many elements Denmark performs better than Sweden on compared elements. The same holds true in terms of financial indicators. Although the data may be easily said to be ‘outdated’, we believe this is not quite the case. That is, our analysis on historical development has not provide any conclusive evidence as to not believe that the relationship of these economical and financial figures to be that much different as they are today. Yet, since we do not know when the actual investment is to take place it is always advisable to check the results of a more recent research. Although we would have loved to use a more recent version of De Grote Bosatlas ourselves, we could not find ourselves in the position to get access to one during the course of this research. Luckily, we were able to find a recent figure for gross domestic expenditure on R&D as a percentage of GDP that verified our assumption. [pic] From the figure above it can be concluded that Denmark spends between 1. 01% and 2. 00% of its GDP on R&D activities. Sweden on the other hand spends a little more with 2. 01% and above. This corresponds with our financial records of the Grote Bosatlas, where government spending in Sweden was higher than that of Denmark in general. Furthermore, since the R&D expenditures on R&D as a percentage of GDP are larger than that of most other parts of the world, we expect no real problems for investors in this area. Background information as to why Sweden and Denmark support expenditures on the organic food industry is discussed extensively in both the chapters about socio-cultural conditions and market/industry conditions. 5. 2 Historical developments relevant for the industry. The issues with the environment have many different facets. These range; from deforestation, loss of biodiversity, pollution and many others (EBS 295, 2008). The attitude concerning these issues by the general public can change over time. Values change over time and this applies for the public perception of organic food as well. Likewise, one could say that the organic food industry is driven in a sense of improving and protecting the environment. In addition, consumers also attitude towards the environment also contribute in how they value organic food. Furthermore, not only concern for the environment but also growing awareness by the general public concerning their food and the production involved. These issues related to food production range from; health, food safety and animal welfare. (Sippo manual, 2011) The origins for organic farming in both countries are similar. In the same manner consumers started become more aware of the environment. Farmers also become more aware and began with organic farming. Both countries have had organic farming since early eighties in the general concept of the term organic farming. If we take into account the establishment of organizations concerning organic food then Denmark was a few years earlier with the founding of Danish Association of Organic Farmers in 1981. The Swedish counter part is called the Ecological Farmers Association, which was founded in 1985. Both organizations are private initiatives of organic farmers organizing themselves. (http://www. fao. org) Since the 1990’s the governments of both Denmark and Sweden have introduced various regulations concerning the organic food industry. These regulations include assigning certificates that label products as organic. In addition, the European Union also implemented regulations concerning the organic food industry. Likewise, the organizations that control and label organic foods also found their origins in late eighties early nineties. In Denmark the first organic food legislation was implemented in 1987. The government assigns the O logo to organic food. (www. fvm. dk). This state approved logo is only given to products that are conforming to the standards of â€Å"organic† as stated by Danish regulations. In addition, in Denmark only state approved farms may carry the â€Å"organic† label. In Sweden the organization that is tasked with the certification of organic food is called KRAV. Founded in 1985, this organization was formed from the Ecological Farmers Organization in order to standardize the various interpretations of the term â€Å"organic farming† and bring both farmers and food producers together. (Gunnar Rundgren, 2002) However, it should be noted that the KRAV organization is a non-governmental organization. While, it’s Danish counterpart is part of the Ministry of Agriculture. 5. 3 Socio-cultural conditions Cultural systems From the point of view of the investor, it is important to know the differences and similarities between the two countries Denmark and Sweden. In this section, we will focus on this in terms of cultural assessment. In order to describe the cultural systems of both Denmark and Sweden we have made use of five cultural dimensions as proposed by Schwartz (1999): harmony, egalitarianism, effective autonomy, mastery, and conservatism. It is these cultural dimensions that will help to describe each countries culture and detect any important similarities and differences. The cultural values focus in the article of Schwartz is on the national culture. The national culture being introduced for heterogeneous nations refers primarily to the value culture of the dominant, majority group. In this case, Schwartz tries to interpret the value priorities that characterize a society by aggregating the value priorities of individuals (e. g. Hofstede’s framework). It is depicted that individual value priorities are a product of both shared culture and unique personal experience. Moreover, Schwartz has placed his list of researched countries into different segments (clusters). Denmark and Sweden put in the first group (cluster), Finland and Italy in another, Spain as a third group and Germany, Greece and the United Kingdom in a fourth group.