Master Degree in Accounting Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Master Degree in Accounting - Personal Statement Example However, my quest for knowledge and development instills me with the passion to learn more beyond what I already know. I believe that I should not stop but strive to achieve my full potential My decision to pursue a master's degree in accountancy is part of my quest in furthering my growth and development as a person and an employee. This program will certainly boost my knowledge through the new concepts which will be presented by my professors. Considering that I am from Egypt, I believe that I will surely learn a lot of new things in this country. The acquisition of knowledge will be more efficient as I will be dealing with the nest teachers and other students from around the globe. Aside from this, I know that my interaction with my classmates will also enable me to enhance my social skills, make me more open-minded, and improve my knowledge on world culture. This university is the best venue for me to gain all these. I believe that a master's degree will be my ticket in fulfilling my life's purpose-to contribute in the success of business organizations. I am born with an innate desire contribute what I have to the business world. With my knowledge and experience, this will be in my field of interest-accountancy.

Xenobiotics Metabolizing Enzymes Very Important Exogenous Endogenous Compounds Biology Essay

Xenobiotics Metabolizing Enzymes Very Important Exogenous Endogenous Compounds Biology Essay Xenobiotics metabolizing enzymes (XMES) are very important for metabolizing of exogenous and endogenous compounds [23]. They are involved in the biotransformation of exogenous compounds like procarcinogen, drugs, solvents. They are categorized into parts: phase I and phase II enzymes. Cytochrome 450 family comes under phase I enzyme. Cytochrome P450 family of enzymes is mainly involved in synthesis and metabolism processes of exogenous and endogenous compounds. CYP genes are located mainly in the liver and within the cell are present in the endoplasmic reticulum and also in the mitochondria. CYP family is divided into four main families: CYP 1, CYP 2, CYP 3 and CYP4. CYP has two main roles in the human body [24]. First, CYP is used by the body to metabolize and transform a range of hydrophobic xenobiotics (exogenous, foreign compounds such as pesticides, carcinogens, and pollutants) to more polar metabolites so that they can be readily excreted in the urine. By biotransforming potentially toxic compounds to less potent forms, CYP works as a natural detoxifying agent of the body. Large populations of CYP are found bound to the endoplasmic reticulum in mammalian liver cells, the primary site of metabolism. The gene families most commonly found in humans and involved in metabolism include cytochrome P-450 1, 2, and 3 (known as CYP 1, CYP 2, and CYP 3). Second, CYP enzymes are used in the synthesis of important signaling molecules, such as steroid hormones in the endocrine glands, fat-soluble vitamins and Metabolism of fats (cholesterol and fatty acids). CYP metabolisms have adverse effects as well as beneficial effects. CYP plays an important role in activating carcinogens, such as polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), by an oxidation mechanism. They are also involved in the metabolism of certain medication that are ingested (endoplasmic reticulum) and also certain toxin/internal substances formed within the cells (mitochondria). These functions mainly depend upon iron present in it as a prosthetic group. Hence, they are called hemoproteins. Iron contains two 4s electrons and six 3d shell electrons in its valence shell. The function of this gene depends on the shifting oxidation state of iron between ferrous Fe2+ (loss of the 4s electrons) and ferric Fe3+ (loss of an additional 3d electron). As the ferric state results in a half-filled 3d shell, it is the more stable form of the two states. As a result, CYP can be readily reduced with the addition of an electron. It is a group of heme-thiolate monooxygenases and involved in an independent NADPH dependent electron transport pathway [24]. Fig1. Metal complex structure of CYP 450 5. MECHANISM 5.1. CARCINOGEN IDENTIFICATION The carcinogen from tobacco smoking is genotoxic carcinogens that are capable on inducing DNA lesion. This carcinogen is divided into two parts, first is direct carcinogens and second is procarcinogens. Direct carcinogens are highly reactive and having an electrophilic groups with surplus positive charge. They interact directly with DNA and form DNA adducts. The example of this carcinogens are N-nitrosoalkylurea, ethyl- and methylmethanesulfonate, N-methyl-N-nitronitrosoguanidine, sulfur mustard, diepoxybutane, beta-propiolactone, ethyleneimine, etc. Initially, procarcinogens are chemically in inactive form. When procarcinogens go inside the body, they interact with different types of enzyme that metabolise in the cell in two steps. In the first step, procarcinogen are activated and converted into electrophilic derivatives. In the second step, the metabolic products are neutralized by conjugation. The first step process is mainly done by CYTOCHROME 450 family and second step process is done by conjugating enzymes include acyltransferase, epoxidases, sulfotransferases, glutathione-S-transferases, UDP-glucuronyl transferases, and transaminases [6]. They are activated by oxidation process that is mainly done by CYP gene. The main procarcinogen in smoking that create negative effect on CYP1A1 genes are mainly polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon group (Benzo(a)pyrene, Benz(a)anthracene, Benzo(b) fluoranthene, Benzo(c)phenanthrene) and N-nitrosamines (NNK) [8]. CYP1A1 does not form directly tumour, it only makes procarcinogen to carcinogen that forms tumour formation. Cytochrome p450 enzyme comes under the phase1 enzymes which convertes the mutagens to epoxides in the K-region as well as the Bay region of Benzo (a) pyrene [1]. CYP gene carry out oxidation and reduction of the hydrophobic ligands converting them into epoxides usually in the K-region which is then taken up by phase2 enzyme (GST) and metabolized into water soluble compounds (later excreted through urine). But if the epoxide is formed near the bay region then phase2 enzymes become idle without carrying out any metabolic process. The CYP gene metabolises the carcinogens to epoxides, which are highly reactive and binds to DNA and further activate d to diol epoxides. They covert the carcinogen B[a] P into B[a]P-7,8-diol-9,10-epoxides which has got high DNA binding capacity. These mutagens are termed as Bay epoxides as they have tumourogenic effects on DNA. The presence of motif reason of CYP 450 oxidizes the PAH. The motif reason of CYP450 is Phe-X(6-9)-Cys-X-Gly, where X is a specific amino acid. Cysteine binds to heme iron and takes part in the transfer of one atmospheric oxygen atom to the substrate that contained in the pocket of the substrate-binding site in the enzyme active center. In few cases, the life span of metabolites is very short (several milliseconds) due to their high reactivity and fast conversion into stable hydroxylated derivatives. In other cases, due to slow decomposition of metabolites they easily enter into the nucleus, mitochondria, and other cell organelles. The reaction catalyzed by cytochromes P450 is a monooxygenase reaction, e.g., insertion of one atom of oxygen into an organic substrate (RH) whi le the other oxygen atom is reduced to water: RH + O2 + 2H+ + 2e- → ROH + H2O Fig2. Substrate oxidation in the cytochrome P450 system Fig3. Bay and K region of Benzo(a)pyrene and epoxide formation of Bay region Fig4. Epoxide formation of B(a)P 5.2. INDUCTION OF CYP GENE The amount of CYP1A1 is responsible for tumour formation in organs. Basal expression of CYP1A1 is negligible. High amount of CYP1A1 increases the risk of tumour formation or cancer. It can create an imbalance condition between detoxification and activation that leads to adverse effects. It converts the procarcinogen to carcinogen by oxidation process. At high substrate concentrations detoxification becomes saturated and induction can increase the production of reactive metabolites compare to the capacity of cellular defenses, thereby producing toxicity or neoplasia [9]. Procarcinogen increases the amount of CYP1A1. CYP1A1 is induced by two pathways namely canonical and non-canonical signaling pathway of AhR. Canonical signaling pathway enhances the synthesis of CYP1A1 that causes tumour formation. There is no evidence to prove that Non-Canonical signaling pathway is the reason of tumour promoter. Our study show that the research is going on about non canonical signaling pathway. CYP1A1 is also called as AHH (Aryl Hydrocarbon hydroxylase). It is involved in the metabolic activation of aromatic hydrocarbon (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons). The studies on the mechanism revealed that ligand like B[a]P binds to the receptor AhR (aryl hydrocarbon receptor) (an intracellular protein that starts the induction process by biding inducer) in the cytosol. When B(a)P goes inside the body, it will pass through lipid membrane before reaching the cytosol. It is a hydrophobic as well as lipophilic compound that accumulates in the membrane of lipid bilayer, So that the membrane loses its reliability and an increase in permeability to protons and ions. Therefore, it creates imbalance the proton motive force and intracellular pH. In addition to the effects of lipophilic compounds on the lipid part of the membrane, proteins surrounded in the membrane are affected. The effects on the membrane-embedded proteins result to a large extent from changes in the lipid environment [7, 9]. So that PAH is able to go inside the cytosol and makes complex with Ahr receptor. Usually the AhR receptor is present as a part of the cytosolic protein complex which includes 2 hsp90, p23 and XAP2 or AIP (also known as co-chaperons). Once the ligand is bound to the receptor, the co-chaperons dissociate and the receptor is translolcated into the nucleus. This complex along with the ligand molecule heterodimerizes, with another molecule ARNT (AhR nuclear translocator). This heterodimer binds to the consensus regulatory sequences such as AhREs (Ah responsive elements), XRE s (Xenobiotics responsive elements) or DREs (dioxin responsive elements) to be found in the promoter region of AhR target genes such as CYP1A1, thereby initiating the transcription by RNA-polyII [1]. The transcription of CYP1A1 gene is inhibited by AhRR protein .The AhRR/ARNT heterodimer stops the transcription process initiated by XREs and also inhibits the heterodimer formation of AhR-ARNT [2,1]. Fig.5. Canonical signaling pathway of AhR 5.3. ALTERATION IN CYP1A1 Mainly four types of polymorphism happen in CYP1A1 that enhances the tumour formation in organs by increasing the oxidation process that makes procarcinogen to carcinogen. These four polymorphisms [19] are as follows: M1 (Msp1), T→C substitution at nucleotide 3801 in the 3-non-coding region. M2 (Msp2), A→G substitution at nucleotide 2455 leading to an amino acid change of isoleucine to valine at codon 462. M3, T→C substitution at nucleotide 3205 in the 3-non-coding region. M4, C→A substitution at nucleotide 2453 leading to an amino acid change of threonine to asparagine at codon 461. These mutations do not happen due to smoking; it can lead to enhance the more AHH (aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase) activity. Each mutation has different function and plays an important role in the tumour formation. For example, CYP1A1 Msp1 (M1) increases the catalytic activity and CYP1A1 Msp2 (M2) is directly related to other functional polymorphism and creates more PAH-DNA adducts in white blood cells [30]. This mutations happen mainly in lung, larynx, pharynx, oral, breast, ovary, liver, colorectal and esophagus. The mechanism of CYP1A1 is same for all organisms and the formation of tumour in these organs depends upon geographical factor, demographic factor and number of cigarettes. Lung cancer In lung cancer generally Msp1 (T→C) mutations occur, but in Brazil Msp2 (A→G) mutation associates with lung cancer [17, 19]. B(a)P and NNK carcinogen mainly involve with liver cancer. Oral cancer, larynx and pharynx Msp2 and Msp1 mutation also associates with oral cancer, larynx and pharynx [15, 16, 18]. And PAH and NNN are associated with these cancer. Benzo[a]pyrene, NNN and NNK are carcinogens that enhance the oral cancer [29]. The studies of various articles show that CYP1A1 Msp1 (M1) mutation maximum associates with increasing the risk of oral squamous cell carcinoma. Breast Cancer CYPIAI (M1) and CYP1A1 (M2) increase the risk of breast cancer [20, 21].PAH forms PAH-DNA adduct in breast tissue that associates with increased breast cancer. Generally PAH is used for the study of tumor formation in breast cancer because of three reasons, first it is a good model for understanding the chemical mechanism of tumour formation by chemicals. Second the geometric resemblance of PAH and endogenous estrogen is same. Third estrogens and PAH have aromatic ring. PAH are activated by two pathways, first by electron oxidation and second by CYP1A1. DNA adducts are formed by metabolically activated PAH binding with the nucleophilic groups of the two purine bases, adenine (A) and guanine (G). Both adducts may be either stable or depurinating (It is the loss of purine (adenine or guanine) from DNA backbone). The stable adducts is formed by covalently bonding to DNA unless removed during repair, where the depurinating adducts are those that are released from DNA by deterioration of the glycosidic bond .Stable DNA adducts are created when PAH binds with the exocyclic amino group of A or G, where depurinating adducts are formed by covalently bonding of PAH at the N-3 or N-7 position of Adenine or the N-7 or, sometimes, the C-8 position of Guanine [26, 27].

No Solutions Offered in There Are No Children Here :: There are No Children Here Essays

No Solutions Offered in There Are No Children Here  Ã‚  Ã‚      Does your home have a lock on your door, a telephone and working appliances and plumbing? Do you dodge bullets in your sleep, have 13 people living in one apartment or wash your dishes in the bathtub because the kitchen sink hasn’t worked for months? Do you wash your clothes in the bathtub because the laundry room is too dangerous to do your washing? Do you live in an environment with no role models, where the gangs control everything and you can’t trust anyone? You may think these are strange questions for people who live in America in the late 20th century, but some people’s answers to these questions may be very different from yours. Those people are the one’s living in the â€Å"other America†. Alex Kotlowitz tells us â€Å"the story of two boys growing up in the other America† in his book There Are No Children Here. The â€Å"other America† Kotlowitz describes in his book is the public housing complex at Henry Horner Homes in Chicago. By following the lives of two boys, Lafeyette and Pharoah Rivers, we are exposed to the misfortunes, turmoil and death that their lives are filled with. Lafeyette and Pharoah are faced with many hardships in their day to day activities. Their apartment, the once beautiful complex, now has broken appliances, poor plumbing, horrible security and from the basement come smells that one housing manager described as â€Å"foul odors† that â€Å"no equipment presently in use by staff could be used to withstand the odor beyond a minute† (p. 240). The boys wake up every morning in this horrible public housing that would most likely be condemned if it was located in any decent neighborhood. Lafeyette and Pharoah get ready for school, usually putting on clothes which have been washed the night before in the bath tub, and then leave for school. Pharoah, who loves school, is always in a hurry to get there, leaving the apartment before anyone else. School is the one place for Pharoah to stand out and get away from the neighborhood for a while. He even attended a summer school program that was supported by the University of Illinois. Lafeyette, on the other hand, isn’t into school very much; which explains why he has such a large number of tardies. Both boys are always careful as they walk through the streets to school to be alert for gunfire, they don’t want to die young like so many friends of theirs.

Corporate Responsibility and Marketing Strategies Essay

I believe Apple Inc. [mostly referred as â€Å"Apple† in this document] has met the ethical and social responsibility towards general public, employees, customers and shareholders/investors. Apple positions itself to be very environment conscious and continuously working to reduce the foot print of the company and its products on the planet (Apple Inc.). Apple has a recycling program for its used products; it sends gift cards to customers in return for the used products, if the products do not have any monetary value they recycle them responsibly. Apple reports the environmental foot-print of each of its product on their website to show how much energy efficient they are and how Apple is choosing more biodegradable elements in its products, packaging and facilities. Apple has multiple offices and datacenters in United States and as of March 2013 seventy five percent of them are fully powered through renewable energy sources (Kastrenakes, 2013). Apple is continuously trying to improve the situation and aiming to rely entirely on renewable energy sources in future. To improve ethical awareness within its employees, Apple has a business code of conduct published and easily available via intranet website within the company and to its investors via shareholder website (Business code, 2012) which explains in detail on various topics including its well known secretive way of releasing its products. Apple also has a Business conduct helpline available for its employees to resolve ethical dilemmas, report conflicts of interest and seek direction in making ethical decision. Recently Tim Cook, Apple CEO has reminded all employees to review Apple’s business conduct policy via corporate email (Marie, 2013) which shows the  importance Apple gives to Ethics within the company. Apple treats its employees very well; pays pretty good salaries to employees and rates to contractors, Apple’s has a very good benefit program for its employees, even the part-time employees are entitled to benefits at apple (Fiegerman, 2012), it provides shuttle servi ce to many locations from many places in Bay area to campus. Apple products are very safe compared to many other competitor products, Apple pays attention to details, e.g.: To avoid tripping over a charging cable, Mac book charger has a magnet instead of a hard stick in plug as we observe in many Windows PCs. All of its products are well thought and provide lot of convenience and consider customer health and safety, as we see in the case of latest ear phones from Apple, they have the speakers going sideways instead of directly in to ears as most of the conventional ear plugs do, this restricts music directly hitting the ear drum and long term exposure may have adverse impact on the ears. Apple products are well sealed and static resistant, the materials used in production are not cheap and low quality parts, which improves the durability of its products. Apple provides lot of variations in products to choose, to a customer which attracts customers at all levels. There are about ten to twelve flavors of latest iPhone based on color, size of memory and external material. Apple has a very good refund policy, items can be returned online or returned in store, there is about 14-30 days to return items, Apple provides full refund instead of charging for re-stocking fee. If there is a part malfunction, apple product can be exchanged for a new one within one year of purchase for nominal or zero price. Apple considers customer’s complaints and response rapidly by multiple means and aims to delight the customers (Denning, 2011). Apple listens to customers at the stores, online and also via telephone and improvises on its services, customer support and also their products. It is very obvious that Apple takes good care of its shareholders; we can clearly observe that from Apple’s revenues and profits from past several quarters, Apple’s share has gone up five times within past five years. Apple provides all of its quarterly, annual reports along with financial statements and exhibits with SEC and complies with SEC policies. Question 2: Publications of ethics and social responsibility violations of its suppliers, mainly at Hon Hoi Precision, also known as FoxConn had impact on Apple’s reputation and mainly no impact on sales and share value. In 2011 there were fourteen suicides at FoxConn and later on there were many riots, suicide protests by workers against the very long working hours, lack of insurance, workplace safety, horrible facility maintenance , incidents of using Child labor, lack of injured workers compensation, army camp style management and others (McGrath, 2012). Apple has handled things very carefully and assigned right people and started remediation methods, published supplier code of conduct, increased audits in its supplier firms, provided training, to improve situation and reputation; Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple talked about Foxconn and how his company is trying to improve the working conditions for employees and workers in its suppliers’ factories and how seriously Apple is taking t he allegations (Knibbs). Apple’s reputation had an impact during the time of events, created a buzz in media world; Apple got a bad name within its investors and stake holders. Later on, Apple was able to manage out of the situation very well. Overall there is no impact to sales or revenue or Apple’s share value. Apple shares might have taken a small hit for few days when there were publications by media, but overall share value was growing in 2010 and 2011 when all of reports were being published. Apple is still considered the most admired company in the whole world as per Fortunes World’s most Admired companies for 2008-2013; six years in row (Shaughnessy, 2013). Apple products are very well received in the market; there are no aversions or hatred towards Apple’s products based on the allegations. We usually see the drop in sales when there are negative allegations on companies, we have seen this in case of Paula Deen based on her racial comments and also with Duck Dynasty and i ts products when Phil Robertson has made anti-gay comments and cause big dent in their reputation, we have not seen this with Apple. When iPhone 5s was released in September of 2013, stores reported people standing in long lines at Apple and its partner stores to get the first piece. Today there are hardcore fans to Apple products than for any other company. Apple products are growing popularity even in China where the allegations of horrible working conditions have been  reported. Based on my personal observation, Apple stores are among the most crowded stores at local malls. Even with heavy competition for Samsung, LG, Nokia (now Microsoft) and Motorola, Apple iPhones are still most commonly used smart phones in United States. Apple’s App store has more than a Billion applications available to end users. By observing the Apple’s growth pattern, it is safe to say that the impact of supplier violations is minor. Question 3: To improve the working conditions and abide to Fair Law Association (FLA) policies Apple has come up with and published â€Å"supplier code of conduct† (â€Å"Apple supplier,† 2012) for all its suppliers to adhere who provide parts to its products. To ensure that its suppliers adhere to wage and benefits standards going forward, Apple has to strictly enforce the â€Å"supplier code of conduct† and also increase the supervision and auditing of the supplier factories, HR and pay roll systems up to allowed by the local and international laws. Many of the rules and regulations which are illegal in US are acceptable in other countries. As Apple’s suppliers are mainly in other countries than US, Apple can set up strict rules and guidelines more close to US laws in addition to local government policies and Fair Law Association (FLA) laws, as most of its products are used by consumers in US. Apple can also open up complaint/suggestion boxes (online, in factory and via phone) from workers in supplier factories to understand and closely monitor the working conditions and get feedback on wages and benefits. Apple can restrict the number of hours a worker can work in its supplier factories. Apple can create guidelines in its code to have onsite help to talk with workers and understand their problems and work with supplier factories to solve them. Apple can guide its suppliers to setup onsite and close to campus medical facilities for workers working in its supplier factories. Apple can work with local media and government to do surveys from general public about their supplier practices at factory facilities. Apple should request the ethics code of conduct as one of the primary pre-requisite from their suppliers as part of the initial RFP – Request for proposal. Apple should get feedback suppliers’ employees to understand how well the code is  followed by its upper management in the company and should enforce supplier to improve it before renewal of contracts. Apple should stop buying parts from suppliers with tainted reputation, or suppliers with weak or no ethical code of conduct. Apple should compare the working conditions and wages of workers in its supplier factories to competitor factories in the area and pass regulations to improve the wages to meet market standards. Question 4: Apple customers would be willing to pay more for its products to provider better wages and benefits to suppliers’ workers. Apple can make this happen by showing the reasons behind increase in prices, and how additional money will be utilized for worker compensation and benefits. Apple should advertize in TV, publish articles on its website and provide information to Media on how the additional money will be utilized. This is much similar to Ms. Lee Rhodes and her Glassybaby in the case study, Glassybaby gives 10% of its revenues for cancer treatment. Another suggestion that I can make is that, some percentage of increase in salaries for workers should also come from Apple’s profits to show consumers that Apple is not only charging more for products but also taking a cut in their profits to provide better working conditions for workers. Apple and its main founder Steve Jobs do not have very good name as Philanthropist, there is no public record that Steve Jobs has donate d any money (Sorkin, 2011). After Tim Cook took over Apple’s CEO position, he has made some donations but compared with other companies with high revenues and profits; the donations made by Apple are very negligible compared to its revenues and profits (Emerson, 2012). Apple can improve its image and reputation in the world by giving some percentage of profits to suppliers’ workers through multiple programs and incentives. Today Apple’s products are most popular in the market; iPhone is the best selling smart phone out there in market. Apple and its products have huge fan base and many of the competitor smart phones from Samsung or Microsoft are not comparable to iPhone. With such a popularity, increasing a minor percentage E.g.: 3-5% of price will not have any impact on product sales. Most of the Apple products are sold with network connection also known as data plan, the minimum data plan is very expensive and costs up to $40 per month for many carriers. Some of Apple’s iPhone customers take data plan because they are intrigued with iPhone and Apple products. When customers  are willing to pay additional money for seldom used data plan as they stay home mostly where there is Wi-Fi connection as an alternative to data plan. Customers should be willing to spend a bit more money to improve working conditions and salaries for suppliers’ workers. Question 5: Apple has excellent market strategy for its products; Everyone remembers those PC and Mac comparison commercials, which used to portray Apple’ Mac computers as cool and trendy for Generations X and Y and for everyone at home where as Microsoft PC was shown as business computer with bugs. In reality, Microsoft operating system is more flexible and customers can customize and make modifications and create applications relatively easy, where as you need to go to App Store for installing/upgrading any iOS applications. Microsoft or Samsung devices allow users to copy MP3 files, and play them without any intermediary software such as iTunes, a mandatory application for Apple to copy songs in to iOS applications. Even with less flexibility Apple’s products are highly sold in market today due to its design and performance of its products and mainly it’s Marketing strategy. Apple does not really advertize new versions of iPhone releases, rather it keeps it secret, there are no beta releases, and there are no pictures or commercials in the market before a new version iPhone is released. It creates buzz in the market which generates mystery about its product. In addition to its own marketing, Apple’s iPhones are also advertized by other companies such as network providers such as AT&T, Verizon and other companies which make protective cases and other accessories for iPhones. Apple maintains such secrecy before releasing its iPhone products; it has worked greatly for them. Another way Apple products are advertized is by word of mouth. Today many of smart phones in the market from Samsung, LG and Microsoft have similar functions as iPhone, but in my view the secrecy/mystery and word of mouth advertizing for iPhone has helped to maintain its leadership in the market. To improve competitive advantage over global market place, Apple should sell its products more in other countries; expand its base out of US. The usage  of smart phones is at verge of getting saturation in United States, consumers in US are tied to data and voice plans from network providers in US. Until latest generations of iPhones, iphones were sold at a later release dates in Europe, India and China than in United States. There is a lot of fan base for Apple in China and India, Apple should en cash that by making products affordable in those countries. Customers in US do not replace their phones until their contract ends with he network provider, which is usually two years from the contract start date. Most of the countries outside of US are not bound to network/data plans for the phones as they use GSM technology; this provides flexibility to consumers to buy more than one phone in two years. Smart phones are getting more popular in India and china where the population is very high. Population of India and China combined is more than six times the population of United States (CIA World Factbook); if Apple can capture a small percentage of the market in those countries it will have more customer base than it does in whole US which bring higher revenues. Apple should start customizing their products and make them consumer friendly in other countries, such as make menus in native languages, create local custom applications etc. As word of mouth advertizing has proven working for Apple, they should start giving some samples of their products to celebrities in India where the common public trend is to follow the celebrities and mimic their product usage. It has worked for other companies and products; it should also work for Apple. Apple should start thinking about making their products more flexible and easy to customize, Apple is very popular among brand, but more savvy users with computer background started to lean more towards Google Android based phones from Samsung and LG as they have more flexibility and customization options. With computer skills and techniques being very common to kids in Generation Y and Z, Apple should think about concentrating on them and their tastes and Apple products more flexible. Apple should innovate more, there have been some improvements and modifications to its products in past 3 years but there has not been a â€Å"WOW†Ã‚  product release. They should enter new markets, start coming up with new products such as long awaited Apple TV or they should get in to wearable gadgets such as wrist watches, glasses, motion controlled devices, devices with flexible screens and devices which look cool but monitor human body’s current health such as temperature, sugar levels, blood pressure etc. Last but not least, Apple should improve its philanthropist image; they should start donating more to needy and charitable foundations. That usually helps in both ways; it improves the reputation and also works as advertisement. References Apple Inc. (n.d.). Apple and the environment. Retrieved from http://www.apple.com/environment/ Apple supplier code of conduct. (2012, JANUARY). Retrieved from http://www.apple.com/supplierresponsibility/pdf/Apple_Supplier_Code_of_Conduct.pdf Business code. (2012, DECEMBER). Business conduct the way we do business worldwide . Retrieved from http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/AAPL/2916593555x0x443008/5f38b1e6-2f9c-4518-b691-13a29ac90501/business_conduct_policy.pdf CIA World Factbook. (n.d.). Country comparison :: Population. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2119rank.html Denning, S. (2011, AUGUST 26). Another myth bites the dust: How apple listens to its customers. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/08/26/another-myth-bites-the-dust-how-apple-listens-to-its-customers/ Emerson, R. (2012, FEBRUARY 3). Apple’s donations to charity surpassed $50 million: Report. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost .com/2012/02/03/apple-charity-donation_n_1253185.html Fiegerman, S. (2012, JUNE 18). Why working at apple is a dream job. BusinessInsider. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-what-employees-really-love-about-working-for-apple-2012-6?op=1 Kastrenakes, J. (2013, MARCH 21). Renewable energy now powers 75 percent of apple’s facilities. Retrieved from http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/21/4132402/apple-now-using-75-percent-renewabl e-energy-across-operations Knibbs, K. (n.d.). Apple ceo talks foxconn, tries to mend reputation. Retrieved from http://www.mobiledia.com/news/128273.html Marie. (2013, NOVEMBER 21). Tim cook reminds apple employees to review apple’s business conduct policy. Retrieved from http://mobileorchard.com/tim-cook-reminds-apple-employees-to-review-apples-business-conduct-policy/ McGrath, B. (2012, FEBRUARY 7). Apple’s sweatshop supply chain. Retrieved from https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/02/appl-f07.html Sorkin, A. (2011, AUGUST 29). The mystery of steve jobs’s public giving. Retrieved from http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/the-mystery-of-steve-jobss-public-giving/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0 Shaughnessy, H. (2013, FEBRUARY 28). Apple remains world’s most admired company, followed by google and amazon. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/haydnshaughnessy/2013/02/28/apple-remains-worlds-most-admired-followed-by-google-and-amazon/

E Fraud Essay

An e- fraud is considered to be an electronic crime that affects not only individuals businesses and governments but also allows for very negatively intelligent people and hackers to use their intelligence to log into other’s accounts use their credit card numbers and banking password and transact huge amounts of trade and money . it has been seen that e fraud is on the increase and this is because of the low levels of awareness, the inappropriate counter measures that are ineffective to handle this kind of fraud has led to e frauds being on the increase . The only area that has been actively involved in reducing the impact of fraud is the technical side leaving the other so many variables out of the purview of the e fraud scenario. This has made e fraud even more easier because there have been no mechanisms to reduce these occurrences and even if there are there has been limited penalties issued to the frauds that happen on the cyber space. Introduction: The complexity of modern enterprises, their reliance on technology, and the heightened Interconnectivity among organizations that is both a result and a driver of e-business these are rapidly evolving developments that create widespread opportunities for theft, fraud, and other forms of exploitation by offenders both outside and inside an organization â€Å" (KPMG 2000) The paper tries to assimilate and analyze the strategies that can be adopted by everyone who deals on the cyber space to protect their information and finances securely. This paper also tries to analyze why such frauds occurs and what can be done by stakeholders to minimize the occurrences and is it worthwhile an attempt to bring in a global governance ordinance which could help businesses and agencies nab the criminals . It is recorded that global e commerce sales are steadily growing and with this the e commerce fraud too. The eco system which has promoted the concept of ecommerce streams from the millions of shoppers and customers who use their debit and credit cards . Though online shopping is projected to be a very safe way of shopping and bank transactions through secured payment modes, frauds have been continually on the increase . It has been objectively researched that e commerce transactions have to be highly secured . Every transaction has to be screened for the following inputs . 1. Risk based authentication should be enabled for every transaction and to prove the integrity of the user. 2. Card holders‘s data has to be tokenized so that consumers identity can be authorized and protected. . Reputed brands should shut down phishing and Trojan attacks that make easy e commerce frauds. Some practical applications for reducing e commerce brands: Fraud detection and prevention by addressing the critical needs of the entire credit card eco system. Evaluating transactions for the risk and balancing risk activities in cards . High transaction abandonment rates that results from poor user experience . Reducing the compliance costs so that we e commerce frauds commitment costs become high . The following diagrammatic representation shows how the personal data ecosystem is subject to hacking by very professional hackers. (source:Google. com) Credit card fraud The credit card industry reports huge frauds conducted over the internet in the US alone, in the year 2010, $8. 6 billion card frauds occurred (Aite Group study). With worldwide electronic information sourcing and data storage and the thousands on online purchasing that is going on, the frequency of card usage has increased and this has resulted in financial institutions and cardholders becoming victims of e fraud . Countries worldwide have set up agencies to monitor e fraud and have their own agencies to take care of such crimes especially those related to the cyber space and those which happen on cyberspace and in ecommerce space . E commerce sales is expected to total almost $1 trillion by 2013. Ecommerce fraud is also growing along with this. Fraudulent transactions rose from 2. 7 billion in 2010 to $3. 4 billion in 2011 and are expected to grow exponentially. The use of internet has made these frauds possible. There are many reasons why these frauds occur. . The increasing complex software that is now being used to relay ecommerce has made the systems vulnerable to attacks . 2. There are thousands of malicious codes and other tools that help hackers and attackers . 3. The increasing use of high speed internet at homes with very little security makes attack much easy . 4. The rate at which technology is changing and the ease of adaptation to the new technology and the users rather slow pace in adopting to good computer security practices is another compelling reason for fraud . . the hidden costs that are involved in an ecommerce portal goes unnoticed because the security systems that have to take care of this and when systems are set up, there is always the likelihood that ambitious technology experts give least preference to securing the information site and privacy conditions People and business which conduct business online do not inform people of the expected frauds that could occur due to ecommerce transactions, because of this frauds happen . The lack of proper governance and regulation regarding type of penalties and punishments that would be given to fraud committers is rather slack . There are no world wide global laws to tackle such frauds and hence frauds that are committed online find no jurisdictional limits and so governments do not know how to pin point the responsibility . This loop hole has been used by fraudsters . The online world is full of pseudonyms and pseudo identities . Hence tracking such frauds also becomes very difficult. There are no experts who could be given the responsibility of tracking and strategizing how such frauds occur . Though technology now is slowly trying to understand the macro environment of the fraud related scenarios, the risk and costs associated with bringing in security is very high and hence the adaptability of such scenarios cannot be done by all firms who have e commerce portals . Stakeholders involvement in the vulnerability that exists across the value chain is seen as the most critical issue in a fraud . Crime congress global: This is an imitative taken by the agency to help stakeholders and victims of e commerce fraud to find effective solutions. This proves information security in all countries of the world to meet the challenges arising from e commerce. This agency prominently uses technology and provides technology solutions in partnership with the business community to prevent frauds through information security technology and information risk management, forensics, investigations, audit, risk, compliance and fraud. This agency has been conducting global awareness programs for reaching out to institutes, businesses and government to partner in helping reduce ccurrences of e fraud to strategic and technological challenges. This is a strategic initiative involving al stakeholders to proactively reduce the risks of ecommerce frauds and to defend IT systems from those threats which are emerging and to comply with relevant legal and regulatory laws . this initiative is a step towards combating the threat of the increasing cases of fraud. This partnership brings out very important initiatives to protect not only customers but a lso business houses from succumbing to the increasing menace of hackers. Technology solutions and other security solutions are placed in a consultative approach towards tackling this . If an international business committed copyright infringements then legal action under Criminal Jurisprudence legal action can be resorted to under Article 61 Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) where the loser has got legal recourse to his stolen property by means of criminal sanctions and which will thereby allow for legal and criminal punishment of the infringement and the infringer . t has been felt that all types of infringement should be punished with criminal sanctions. People can appeal under this act for legal action or they can hotlist an organization under cyber space if there are cases of patent stealing and web site hacking. The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 also known as the CDPA can be used in cases where infringement has taken place. If an international business committed copyright infringements or steals a pa tent then as a victims we can take recourse under the above mentioned acts which give protection to IRP which are stolen and pirated and copied.. Early referral is said to be the best away to ensure that the evidence is properly secured and that all the investigative revenues are fully explored with the possible undercover law enforcement activities. Perhaps, communication with the law enforcement activities allows the victim to coordinate civil proceedings with the possible criminal enforcement. Though legally recourse is available it is easy to settle out of court because protection of copyright is a prelude to production of the material or product. People who invent need to protect their patents. Once the patent is protected then it cannot be copied or pirated as punishments are very severe in such cases. With so many innovations taking place in the US especially with cyber technology there has been very serious issue of pirating software and the Beijing convention has called for all member countries to come out with anti pirating laws which could effectively punish those who are caught. USA will have to worry about the number of infringements that are taking place. It has admitted legal course in serious cases but USA is neither able to gun down the culprit nor is it able to find means of putting an end to it because of the geographical distance which makes it impossible to monitor the use of technology. USA is very careful in dealing with countries where incidences of Infringement are very high and tries to bring in severe legal clauses to protect their interests. Computer forensics investigator and other laws A computer forensics investigator works with a pre determined notion of computer crimes. But that is not a sufficient coverage that should be catered. A computer forensics investigator looks upon other law system too such as data protection, data integrity, data control, audit of data components, investigation around the computer and etc. A forensics investigator moves with an initial priority of computer crime. But he should be well governed with other laws. This helps him to establish himself more concretely on the crime scene. He is prepared with the notion of covering up the areas totally in order to fully satisfy himself on the grounds that nothing is left behind. He checks into the data system, recovers the data, checks the integrity of the data, protects the data, looks for evidences around the computer, checks the network system of the accused person, goes more deeply with the computing system to enable him searching beyond the computers to narrow down his investigation procedure. Some other laws such as, human rights, digital rights, information system laws, computer laws are of special interest to him. This gives him the power to deal with any case that involves ethical computer crime. He is much more developed investigator if he is well adverse with the above law system. E – Discovery E Discovery or Electronic Discovery refers to discovery in civil litigation. This discovery process deals with the exchange of information in the electronic format. Electronic Discovery is pretty useful for the forensics analysis. We know that Forensics analysis deals with the investigation of crime scene involving computer and cyber crimes and evidence is the prime source of investigation that leads to a successful procedure. Hence the investigator is pretty much confident about the E Discovery System. The investigator with the help of E Discovery processes such as Electronic messages, voicemail; smart phones etc recover every bit of information that is required in the gathering of evidence required for the forensics investigation. The whole process of collection data through E discovery and jotting it down to the report makes it much easier for the investigator. The E discovery has led to new developments and changes in the investigation system of the cyber crimes. With latest e discovery modes as mentioned above, an investigator is much more confident about its movement into the IT system of the accused criminal, and supporting the cause with rather strong and reliable evidences gathered. E discovery is a radical change in the process of investigation and has led to much more focused and integrated system of computer investigation. Conclusion The whole conclusion is based on the cyber crimes and the enacting system of law prevailing. The cyber crimes have increased in geometric progression over the years which have led to many disasters and crimes. With the increased number of crimes taking place day in day out, the laws have been made much stricter in order to ensure that the numbers of crime taking place gets minimized and there is a fear of messing up the computer system. The laws have addressed the message of intent of distorting computer systems which will constitute a crime. Many forensics investigators have been seen in the picture off late which governs the system of computer crime. These investigators are well adverse with the system laws and crime scenes. They effectively handle the situation and get to the desired results enabling quick and accurate reply to crime involved. Thus the laws have been successful over the years in minimizing computer threats and crimes. Ecommerce has revolutionized trade in many ways and consumers have also been cheated in ways that were unknown in traditional sales. In order to protect the consumers, traders on the internet and operators in the cyber space have got together to form associations and laws that would protect the consumers in the text of ecommerce. Though every country has passed consumer protection acts which are rules and regulations to protect the consumers from fraudulent trade practices in the market. There laws were enacted to protect the consumers and give them rights to ensure that they obtain truthful information and right products as so designed by the seller. The laws have been designed to protect consumers from businesses indulging in unlawful and unfair practices . The governments of all countries have passed regulations to protect the rights of consumers especially in those products where health and safety are chief ingredients. Consumer protection is also in the form of consumer rights which consumers can exercise through redressal grievance and consumer courts. This is the history behind the concept of consumer protection. In direct contrast to the traditional business where the buyer and seller are in direct contact with each other and the buyer can inspect the goods before buying, in ecommerce the communication is only through an electronic form and business is conducted in a paperless environment. More importantly the internet or e transactions play a very important role in helping buyers and in assisting in choice comparisons and locating a product on the internet. (http://www. apec. rg/apec/apec_groups/som_special_task_groups/electroniccommerce. html. Accessed on 13/2/04) Consumer concerns in e commerce starts form the point of instance as the buyer is not known to the seller and vice versa and hence the privacy and confidentiality aspect of a trade which has to be concluded needs authenticity. Consumers are worried about 1. The unfair marketing practices that sellers resort to on the web. 2. The terms of sale, refunds, cancellation of orders, warranty conditions 3. Enforceability of the contract, performance and non performance. . Delivery time, late deliveries and no delivery verification. 5. The most illegal use of information available on credit cards payment made for online purchases. 6. Fraud and cheating because transactions are not authenticated by any physical source. 7. unsafe products not confirming to safety standards. 8. Misuse of personal information for other purposes. Since majority of e commerce transactions lead to the buyer being put to a disadvantage the Issues relating to consumer disputed have to be minimized and arbitrated. t is all the more difficult because the sellers are beyond national jurisdiction as it happens on cyberspace and SO the risks that arise out of such trade has to be taken care of and the consumers have to be suitably protected. a landmark development n the form of the E -Commerce group otherwise known as The Electronic Commerce and Consumer Protection Group is constitute d by leading companies on the net like America Online, AT&T, Dell, IBM, Microsoft, Network Solutions and Time Warner. These companies predominately deal in online sales of their products and so recognize the growing need of consumer protection and have addressed issues regarding consumer protection as best practices of industry and have created an environment which would allow consumers to resolve disputes arising on cyber space. The American Bar Association Task Force on E-commerce and Alternative Dispute Resolution is one of the best reference guide to consumer protection on the cyber space. This organization was asked to suggest workable guidelines that parties dealing in online transactions can use for ODR’s (online dispute redressal) . the complexity further arose from the fact that there was multijurisdictional disputes arising from B2B and B2c businesses. (THIS IS THE LAW ENFORCEMENT AND IS REFREED TO IN EXACT TEXT) To quote the words of the task force of the Ecommerce group â€Å"that there are many ways to help prevent as well as to help resolve disputes or complaints that arise from e-commerce transactions, the Task Force makes the following recommendations and observations: 1. E-commerce businesses should place an enhanced emphasis on all stages of dispute prevention, complaints handling, and effective methods of redress through ADR and ODR. 2. Internet merchants, governmental and nonprofit entities should place a greater emphasis on consumer education and the prevention of e-commerce disputes. 3. Protecting consumers requires adequate standards and codes of conduct for ecommerce businesses. 4. Internet merchants should be encouraged to participate in and subscribe to relevant e-commerce codes of conduct and trust mark programs. 5. Internet merchants should develop or continue to improve on their in-house complaints handling mechanisms, and educate consumers as to how to use these in-house procedures effectively. 6. For consumers, recourse to in-house complaints mechanisms is normally the first and best means to obtain redress from reputable merchants. Accordingly, consumers should be encouraged to utilize the in-house complaints handling mechanisms offered by reputable Internet merchants before resorting to third party dispute resolution mechanisms. 7. at present, the lack of ODR does not appear to be a material impediment to the growth of B2C e-commerce. . At present, ODR is subsidiary to other higher priority consumer protection activities, including consumer education and use of measures that help prevent or decrease the incidence of fraud in Internet transactions. 9. Recognizing that enforcement of outcomes and decisions reached through ODR may be difficult, consumers should be encouraged to consider using other dispute prevention mechanisms such as escrow services and credit card charge back mechanisms when transacting online. 10. Rather than create a code of conduct for ODR Service Providers, the Task Force has drafted Recommended Best Practices by ODR Service Providers. 1. The Task Force recommends the creation of a new informational entity (referred to as the ADRCenter) that would provide information about ODR in an effort to educate and familiarize consumers, businesses, lawyers and other professionals with this new type of service. 12. For the advancement of ODR as an effective and efficient means of cross-border dispute resolution for both B2B and B2C transactions, there needs to be an appropriate emphasis on the development of interoperable communication and data-sharing platforms. 3. The Task Force believes that much of the education that will be useful for consumers will also be useful for businesses – especially small to medium sized enterprises and those who are ne w to the Internet marketplace and to cross-border transactions. ( Task force quoted verbatim) among all of ecommerce frauds the greatest of consumer complaints arose from identity thefts. The Federal trade commission has released statistics stating that out of 2004,000 complaints received from consumers 42% elated to fraud and identity of the seller, followed by internet auctions which constituted 10%,followed by other non performances like non delivery of goods, inferior quality goods, trial offers from the net, shop at home offers and so on. This only reiterates that consumers have to be protected and laws of cyber space have to be strictly regulated to afford consumer protection. Consumer protection measures were seen very importantly in the light of an interactive poll which shows the increased awareness of consumers against online frauds . They were dissuaded by online shopping and cited some of the reasons why they had not shopped recently. 57% said that they were worried about their credit card number being stolen,57% were worried about confidentiality measures being violated,38% doubted the integrity on the seleers,26% wanted some personal attention to be given while they shopped,37% doubted the reliability of the sellers,47% said that wanted to physically inspect the product and 25% cited many unknown reasons. source: Harris interactive)It was increasingly felt that consumer education will be able to help protect consumers better. It also shows increased concerns about consumers not knowing how to transact online. It is suggested that traders using the electronic media need to given all information that is required for consumers to feel safe about shopping online . Quoting Internet merchants association ,† Merchants need to have greater and enhanced disclosure on their websites as well as heightened compliance with relevant consumer protection law. † Another pertinent consumer protection data and study conducted by a New Zealand organization on 700 web sites explicitly brought out the consumers heightened awareness of ecommerce frauds and consumers came out with their reasons of the need for protecting their rights against fraudulent organizations. They said that 50% of the vendors had not installed security measures on the payment options, 62% did not speak of refund policies, 78% said that the vendors did not advice customers of how to lodge complaints,90% said that they did not know about laws pertaining to consumer redresses and 25% said that the vendors did not show physical address. Despite all this majority of consumers preferred to shop online so laws pertaining to consumer protection need to be implemented in its fullest sense. Consumers International released its Privacy@ net study in which it concluded: that though almost all the traders online collected data regarding the personal information of the buyers very few of them institutionalized a privacy policy regarding the use of the information that the buyer gave. Though these were correct measures to provide security, majority of these proved meaningless to the buyers. it was very common in the US and Europe to find traders giving scant respect to global standards on data privacy. Even the basic principles of informing the customers of how the data will be used, how the firm will access the data , how the consumer can use the data and how the security of the data is sought and maintained is not disclosed. A comparative study of the sites of USA and UK are no different with regard to privacy policy as both played on the information made available to them. The US online trading sites set decent privacy policies which looked good enough to follow. In The European trading sites the consumers had the law backing them up and the presence of an ombudsman and a government representative in the form of a data protection officer took care of the consumer rights and protection if breached. He also intervened to speak on behalf of the consumers if the law was tampered with . in fact it is sad to know that both the countries have left little choice to consumers in terms of data protection.. † This was a comparative study of the European merchants and the USA merchants. But both of them accepted the fact that consumer protection was a must if their sales and revenues had to increase. As a step towards greater protection measures to consumers the task force on ecommerce and protection said that various disputes redressal mechanisms have to be introduced in the form of dispute prevention like education of consumers, feedback collection from consumers, ombudsman appointments, negotiations, mediation, arbitrators, and assessment of valid consumer grievances.

CRM

CRM Customer Relationship Marketing is an organization wide approach to learning about its customers in order to provide a better product or service. By combining the abilities to respond directly to customer concerns and to provide a highly customized experience, companies have a better opportunity of establishing and sustaining long-term customer relationships. The primary goal is to transform these relationships into greater profitability increasing repeat purchases and finding a way to retain customer in order to reduce the acquisition costs.Customer interactions are one of the most important parts of any CRM strategy. These can occur at numerous places such as brick and mortar stores, online sites, catalogues, and service and sales calls. During these interactions, it is very important that the company gather relevant information about each customer. The first basic information that should be collected is demographic information. Find out the age, race, income, etc of your customer. Companies should then look for data about the channel in which that person chose to interact with the company.Customers are Ignoring YouData can be collected on the stores frequently visited, the salesperson they interacted with and how they chose to interact with the company whether it be over the phone, computer, or in person. Next, information can be collected on the actual transaction. This would include things such as the frequency of the product usage, their product preferences, life stage, and their future profitability. The last place to look for information would be on how the actual use of the product or service. The can be found by looking at service calls, redeeming warranties, and even expressing satisfaction.Now even if a company can gather this massive amount of information, it is virtually useless if it can not be stored and organized if an appropriate fashion. In order to accomplish this, a data...

Leisure And Entertainment Essays - Free Essays, Term Papers

Leisure And Entertainment Essays - Free Essays, Term Papers Leisure And Entertainment Leisure and Entertainment In meiner Freizeit spiele ich FuBball , Kricket und Tennis. Ich hore Musik wenn Eminem singt.Am wochenende treffe ich mich mit meiner freunden und wir spielen FuBball und wir fahren rad. Ich bin sehr sportlich. Ich spiele FuBball, Tennis, Kricket, Tischtennis, Basketball und Hockey. Fruher habe ich fur die Schulmannschaft gespielt aber ich spiele nicht jetzt. Ich spiele nicht in einem Klub. Ich bin nicht so musikalisch aber ich hore Musik. Ich hore Dr DRE und Eminem gern. Ich gehe ins kino einmal pro woche um film zu sehen. Ich habe Scary Movie gern gesehen. Der letzte film, den ich gesehen habe war Any Given Sunday mit Cameron Diaz und LL.Cool.J. Ich gehe in schwimmbad einmal pro woche um zu schwimmen. Ich sehe jeden tag zwischen 5 bis 7 fern. Ich sehe Neighbours und Eastenders weil sie sehr interessant sind. Am wochenende gehe ich mit meinen freunden aus. Wir treffen uns bei mir zu Hause. Dann wir gehen zum Park um FuBball zu spielen. Letztes wochenende bin ich nach Springfield Park gegangen. Wir haben FuBball gespielt und chips gegessen. In den Sommer machen wir Familienausfluge nach Birminghham und Manchester. In Hackney kann man in Park FuBball spielen, schwimmen gehen, ins Kino gehen und Radfahren. Freizeit ist wichtig weil man viel Stress hat in der schule. Ich wurde nach Amerika flieigen, wenn ich die ganze woche frei hatte. Ich will meine Kousin besuchen. Das letzte Buch, das ich gelesen habe war Harry Potter von JK Rowling und es war langweilig. Bibliography my own

Allomorph Word Forms and Sounds

Allomorph Word Forms and Sounds In phonology, an allomorph is a variant form of a morpheme. (A morpheme is the smallest unit of a language.) For example, the plural in English has three different morphs, making plural an allomorph, because there are alternatives. Not all plurals are formed in the same way; theyre made in English with three different morphs: /s/, /z/, and  [É™z], as in kicks, cats, and sizes, respectively.   For example, when we find a group of different  morphs, all versions of one morpheme, we can use the prefix  allo-  ( one of a closely related set) and describe them as allomorphs of that morpheme. Take the morpheme plural. Note that it can be attached to a number of lexical morphemes to produce structures like cat   plural, bus   plural, sheep   plural, and man   plural. In each of these examples, the actual forms of the morphs that result from the morpheme plural are different. Yet they are all allomorphs of the one morpheme. So, in addition to /s/ and /É™z/, another allomorph of plural in English seems to be a zero-morph because the plural form of  sheep  is actually sheep   ∅. When we look at man   plural, we have a vowel change in the word...as the morph that produces the irregular plural form  men. (George Yule, The Study of Language, 4th ed. Cambridge University Press, 2010) Past Tense Allomorphs Past tense is another morpheme that has multiple morphs and is thus an allomorph. When you form the past tense, you add the sounds /t/, /d/, and /É™d/ to words to put them in past tense, such as in talked, grabbed, and wanted, respectively. Completely arbitrary allomorphs, such as English  went  (go  Ã‚  past tense), are relatively rare in the  lexicon, and occur almost exclusively with a few very frequent words. This unpredictable kind of allomorphy is called  suppletion. (Paul Georg Meyer, Synchronic English Linguistics: An Introduction, 3rd ed. Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005) Pronunciation Can Change Depending on the context, allomorphs can vary in shape and pronunciation without changing meaning, and the formal relation between phonological allomorphs is called an  alternation.  [A]n underlying morpheme can have multiple surface level allomorphs (recall that the prefix allo means other). That is, what we think of as a single unit (a single morpheme) can actually have more than one  pronunciation  (multiple allomorphs)...We can use the following analogy:  phoneme:  allophone   morpheme: allomorph. (Paul W. Justice, Relevant Linguistics: An Introduction to the Structure and Use of English for Teachers, 2nd ed. CSLI, 2004) For example, [t]he  indefinite article  is a good example of a morpheme with more than one allomorph. It is  realized  by the two forms  a  and  an. The sound at the beginning of the following word determines the allomorph that is selected. If the word following the indefinite article begins with a  consonant, the allomorph  a  is selected, but if it begins with a  vowel  the allomorph  an  is used instead... [A]llomorphs of a morpheme are in  complementary distribution. This means that they cannot substitute for each other. Hence, we cannot replace one allomorph of a morpheme by another allomorph of that morpheme and change meaning. (Francis Katamba, English Words: Structure, History, Usage, 2nd ed. Routledge, 2004) More on the Term Itself   The terms adjectival use is  allomorphic. Its etymology derives from the Greek,  Ã‚  other form.

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Video response paper (writer's choice) - Essay Example It also forms part of the growing films on border-crossing as much as the Mexican migration became a dominant cinematic theme for both the US and Mexico. (Maciel and Garcia-Acevedo, p. 148) To say this, however, is tantamount to merely scratching the surface. The Syrian Bride is more than its obvious storyline. It is peppered with important themes and social issues that permeate in Israel today as well as its relations with its neighboring Arab countries. Plot The film depicted the story of Mona (Clara Khoury), a Druze woman living in Golan Heights, who in an arranged marriage, must travel to meet his groom, Tallel (Derar Sliman), in Syria. Everything was pretty straightforward, starting from the wedding festivities unto the wedding itself, which would take place at the border. Mona had to bid her family farewell and cross the border. It is at this point, however, wherein the story took an interesting turn. Israel and Syria do not maintain any diplomatic relations. In addition, both countries are claiming Golan Heights. Ebert (2006), in his review, expressed the dilemma in word best as he stated that Mona’s problem â€Å"is that Syria considers her to be already in Syria, and Israel considers her to be in Israel† and â€Å"how can she cross from a place one side says does not exist to a place the other side says does not exist?† The bureaucratic tangle was further complicated by the fact that Syria does not recognize Israeli passport, effectively barring Mona from entering the country. The entire caper was already comedic as the protagonist and the Salman family untangle their way to their destination. Symbolism Writing for the New York Times, Stephen Holden (2005) remarked that The Syrian Bride and its depiction of the impenetrable border symbolized all that’s wrong in the Middle East. This wrongness in bordered the ridiculous as complex norms and procedures applied at either side of the border defy logic, understanding and implemen tation. As has been shown by the film, everything was in fact insane. There are vague and conflicting security and political considerations resulting in a solid deadlock to which an Israeli border patrol officer could merely shrug in sympathy and perhaps in his own confusion as well. The entire caper disputed the opening claim of sadness for the whole film, making the film, in itself, hilarious with ridiculousness of Mona’s situation. The politics and the bureaucracy involved in the border defy reason and can actually victimize even the most fundamental and innocent needs and desires of people affected. In most respects, this situation is the same with the way relations between Israel and its neighboring countries are conducted – enforcing ridiculous legal norms and violating human rights in the process, just so security and political considerations could be satisfied. Apolitical More than anything, the film does not have a political agenda. It did not talk about which side of the fence – Israel or Syria – is correct, much less attack policymaking that would pit the two countries or their positions on several issues against each other. There was no suggestion of peace and/or some outright diplomatic resolution to the strained bi-partisan relationship or something to this effect. If there was some politics involved, it was, in the words of Ebert, just nibbling around the edges, â€Å"

Caterpillars Resilience for Strategic Change Management Process Essay

Caterpillars Resilience for Strategic Change Management Process - Essay Example 1) These above mentioned lines are not only mere scholarly jargon or illusion used by some well known academic scholars but the lines are truly reflecting the core essence of change management. In such context, Zajac, Kraatz & Bresser (2000) pointed out that the question is not about whether an organization is able to change or not rather the focus should be whether the mentioned organization is able to successfully implement the change management mechanism in competitive environment or not. Palaniswamy and Sushil (2003) argued that going for change for organizations is always directed by external factors because no organizations would want to change the existing system equilibrium without any bankable reason. Well, the argument has point because historical analysis of data shows that without the presence of certain reasons or the objective of achieving certain benefits, none of the organizations have invested its financial and non-financial resources to achieve change management (Za jac, Kraatz & Bresser, 2000). ... Caterpillar Inc- Business Dimension Caterpillar Inc or Cat is an American corporation which is global leader in manufacturing, construction and mining equipment, diesel-electric locomotive, industrial gas turbines and diesel and natural gas engines. The company was established in 1925 and at present, headquarter of the company is located in Peoria, Illinois, United States (Caterpillar, 2013a). The engineering giant offers wide range of products ranging from construction and mining equipment (the yellow equipment of the company has become symbolic icon for both industrial and retail consumers), customized industrial gas turbines which can lift heavy loads, natural gas engines which can work in low carbon emission state, remanufacturing services, end to end logistic services and even financial services (Gillett, Fink & Bevington, 2010). As of 2012, Caterpillar Inc has earned revenue of more than US $65 billion from its global business operation while the company has reported asset wort h around US$89 billion (Caterpillar, 2013a). As of 2008, the company has established presence in every continent while total employee base of the company exceeds 0.1 million (Gillett, Fink & Bevington, 2010). Now, the fact is that Caterpillar Inc never targeted retail customers or sell items to end users because from the starting days, the engineering targeted construction and mining companies or the dealers who sell construction equipment to both industrial and retail customers. In such business ideology, Caterpillar Inc has established global dealer distribution network crossing 185 partnerships across countries in Europe, South America, Africa, North

The Jewish museum by Daniel Libeskind Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Jewish museum by Daniel Libeskind - Essay Example Architecture has developed and grown throughout history and in the last few decades some very exciting things have been happening. One of the most renowned architects in the 20th and 21st centuries is Daniel Libeskind. Many of his projects have been the reason for Libeskind to be accepted as one of the most creative architects of our generation. His buildings will exemplify distinctive characteristics for someone who admires them. A person sees these works and realises that only a master architect is behind all these attractive buildings. Daniel Libeskind was born in 12th of May, 1946, in Lodz, Poland. He was born at a difficult historic period for his country but also for the entire world, because he was born in a post-war period. Daniel was the second child of Nacham and Dora Libeskind. Both of his parents were Polish Jews who had survived the Holocaust. From a very early age, Libeskind showed that he was inclined towards Arts. At the age of eleven, he and his family immigrated to Tel Aviv, Israel. In Israel he began learning piano, on the America – Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship. Due to his musical studies he learned how to perform on a stage without making mistakes. This was a significant influence for him for his later way of working. In 1959, Daniel won an America – Israel Cultural Foundation scholarship, after which he and his family, decided to move on to the United States. That was the beginning of his engagement with architecture.

Chinese-English code-switching in Fashion Magazines Essay

Chinese-English code-switching in Fashion Magazines - Essay Example The essay "Chinese-English code-switching in Fashion Magazines" concerns the Fashion Magazines and Chinese-English code-switching in them. Editors of fashion magazines pay close attention to the contexts of linguistics and how they relate to the reader. Catalogues of genre and cultural meaning play important roles in determining and feeding into target audiences so that the magazines make a profit. Both utilizations of code-switching describe how readers view text and absorb it from various geographical areas. The term code-switching derives from the linguistic term denoting the concurrent utilization of more than a single language in conversation. John Gibbons made the first major attempt to study it at Hong Kong University where the students spoke ‘university talk’. It is especially used in context of sociocultural linguistics, which is the study of how linguistic structure clarifies how a speaker’s selectivity of a specific language is influenced by social cont exts in which it is given. In the middle of the English sentence, the Chinese symbol for â€Å"a† and â€Å"whose† is inserted rather than the English word. The hypothesized reason to why this occurs is due to the fact that bilinguals are not completely efficient in the second language. The variety of contexts may be race, gender, ethnicity, age, and sexuality. These factors are acknowledged when implementing code-switching into media forms like magazines. Magazines are a main media source used because of how broad of an audience it reaches. The age group can vary from teens to the elderly and has the capability to reach its audience members via stores, mail, street stands, etc. Fashion in particular has dominated the market since the eighteenth century when the first Gentleman’s magazine came out in London (Ashish, 2009). This is why code-switching has been incorporated into this form of media outlet in an effort to get the target audience to respond in the des ired manner. In Japan, the implication of foreign language into magazines of fashion is not subsidiary to any subject restrictions (Haarmann, 2000). With such a limitless palette in which to work with, the editors as well as advertisers were able to target their audience better. The four context motivators to utilizing code-switching first came to light in the late 1970s when Cantonese-English code-switching arose in Hong Kong (David and Li, 2003). Euphemism was a sociolinguistic phenomenon that illustrated relation connections with the community with its focus being to relay the intended message of the speaker (Wenzhao, 2001). It is the act of replacing a potentially rude or offensive word with a lesser one, not only to appease the listener but to protect the speaker from trouble. Although, it can be amusing, it can be misleading. Bilingual punning derived from the intent to assign double meaning (David and Li, 2003). The way it is done is by taking two different words in two diffe rent languages and combining them into a sentence to form a joke or amusing sentence, hence the term pun. In this context, the meaning of specificity is not far from what it implies in that English is used in place of Chinese/Cantonese words for either the reason that the English word is more specific or general (David and Li, 2003). Therefore, the sentence is issued the way it was initially intended. Lastly, the

Elsa Schiaparelli Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Elsa Schiaparelli - Essay Example The essay "Elsa Schiaparelli" states the surrealism and Elsa Schiaparelli. Elsa Schiaparelli drew deep inspiration from surrealism. She worked in collaboration with several similar minded artists such as Salvador Dali, Jean Cocteau, and Alberto Giacometti, between 1889 and 1966. Surrealism is most significant in those designs of Elsa Schiaparelli which she produced in cooperation with Dali. Examples of the most surrealistic dresses are the skeleton dress which carried the image of bones on black cloth, as well as the tear dress which carried pictures of wounds on broken skin. Most important in this regard is the spine dress which highlighted the shape of a woman’s figure most emphatically. An important innovation made by Elsa Schiaparelli was that she added the charm of formal dress to common wear. She introduced the use of animal prints. She also introduced the use of zippers which were identical in color to the fabric itself. She possessed an excellent sense of humor, which she skillfully applied in designing. The aspect of surrealism is most visible in the hats designed by Elsa Schiaparelli. A very popular hat designed by her looked essentially like a lamb chop. Other significant innovations made by Schiaparelli include humorous patterns on sober clothing, which included quotes having been printed on the cloth. She is also credited for introducing other surrealist fashions which included hats having erotic shapes, food-looking accessories, clothes having prints of body parts, bones and organs.

Chinese-English code-switching in Fashion Magazines Essay

Chinese-English code-switching in Fashion Magazines - Essay Example The essay "Chinese-English code-switching in Fashion Magazines" concerns the Fashion Magazines and Chinese-English code-switching in them. Editors of fashion magazines pay close attention to the contexts of linguistics and how they relate to the reader. Catalogues of genre and cultural meaning play important roles in determining and feeding into target audiences so that the magazines make a profit. Both utilizations of code-switching describe how readers view text and absorb it from various geographical areas. The term code-switching derives from the linguistic term denoting the concurrent utilization of more than a single language in conversation. John Gibbons made the first major attempt to study it at Hong Kong University where the students spoke ‘university talk’. It is especially used in context of sociocultural linguistics, which is the study of how linguistic structure clarifies how a speaker’s selectivity of a specific language is influenced by social cont exts in which it is given. In the middle of the English sentence, the Chinese symbol for â€Å"a† and â€Å"whose† is inserted rather than the English word. The hypothesized reason to why this occurs is due to the fact that bilinguals are not completely efficient in the second language. The variety of contexts may be race, gender, ethnicity, age, and sexuality. These factors are acknowledged when implementing code-switching into media forms like magazines. Magazines are a main media source used because of how broad of an audience it reaches. The age group can vary from teens to the elderly and has the capability to reach its audience members via stores, mail, street stands, etc. Fashion in particular has dominated the market since the eighteenth century when the first Gentleman’s magazine came out in London (Ashish, 2009). This is why code-switching has been incorporated into this form of media outlet in an effort to get the target audience to respond in the des ired manner. In Japan, the implication of foreign language into magazines of fashion is not subsidiary to any subject restrictions (Haarmann, 2000). With such a limitless palette in which to work with, the editors as well as advertisers were able to target their audience better. The four context motivators to utilizing code-switching first came to light in the late 1970s when Cantonese-English code-switching arose in Hong Kong (David and Li, 2003). Euphemism was a sociolinguistic phenomenon that illustrated relation connections with the community with its focus being to relay the intended message of the speaker (Wenzhao, 2001). It is the act of replacing a potentially rude or offensive word with a lesser one, not only to appease the listener but to protect the speaker from trouble. Although, it can be amusing, it can be misleading. Bilingual punning derived from the intent to assign double meaning (David and Li, 2003). The way it is done is by taking two different words in two diffe rent languages and combining them into a sentence to form a joke or amusing sentence, hence the term pun. In this context, the meaning of specificity is not far from what it implies in that English is used in place of Chinese/Cantonese words for either the reason that the English word is more specific or general (David and Li, 2003). Therefore, the sentence is issued the way it was initially intended. Lastly, the

Research ENG Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

ENG - Research Paper Example The sociopolitical setting of the movie is eerily current and accompanied by an equally bleak portrayal of environmental decay. This imagery may spark in the viewers’ minds the emerging scientific truths of climate change and the associated ecological ruin that will accompany it more and more. The decaying natural surroundings in the movie add to the post-apocalyptic atmosphere, evoking anxieties felt after 9/11. Cuaron uses images that recall online pictures of America’s occupation of Iraq and possibly illegal detention of enemy combatants of Guantanamo Bay and other detention camps (Bruce, n.d.). This depiction creates a vital part of the movie’s ethical stance. Three key parallels between scenes in Children Of Men and recent news footage function in Cuaron’s critique of domestic and foreign policy after 9/11. The parallels show the nature and impact of terror, the violence committed by governments in the name of national security, and love and goodwill as a suitable solution. In figure 1, lead character Theo Faron escapes a terrorist bomb detonation supposedly set off by â€Å"The Fishes.† â€Å"The Fishes† were a clandestine group that fights the inhumane treatment of refugees in Britain. Later in the film, this group of radicals claims that it was not responsible for the incident and diverts blame to the government (Bruce, n.d.). In figure 2, threats-consulting organization Maplecroft  released statistics of the increasing risks of terror in select countries around the world. The countries, Iran, Pakistan, and Somalia, are riddled with extremist groups that orchestrate attacks similar to the one depicted in this photo. Children of Men, is full of images that tread an equally weighted line dividing the seeker and the sought, which are the victor and protector. The movie suits key pictures from contemporary art in its story of radicalism and infertility in one of the most poetically achieved futures. Extremists

Evaluating use of PowerPoint for teaching in schools

Evaluating use of PowerPoint for teaching in schools Microsoft PowerPoint Program is a presentation software programme that can be used effectively in academic sector (Bartsch and Cobern, 2003). PowerPoint was developed as a business software tool, but its inherent capabilities led to its adoption in education, and this has been the subject of ongoing research. PowerPoint is an easy-to-use software application (Holzl, 1997) and can be used to give dynamic and engaging presentations in the visual mode. Some of the features of the PowerPoint are helpful for lecturers, for example, to highlight key points, and to show assignment information. Additional features such as clipart and cartoons can add interest to presentations (Sammons, 1997). Several researchers have analysed the effects of PowerPoint on student performance and student preferences towards Power Point. These studies have used different methodologies and there are a range of empirical results. These are described in the following sections, where each studys merits and demerits of using Power Point are presented, followed by analysis and conclusions. It is one of the most useful things to know about the secondary school perspective on styles of teaching, and how this impact on the students future. In olden days, it was very difficult for the school teachers to make use of technology in classroom teaching. One of the main reasons is lack of training and equipment. The use of electronic media in school laboratories, classrooms are being increased and are being used in science and technology lessons by teachers who are confident in the usage of modern technology in the classroom (Ofested, 2002). Nowadays, it is also common for the school teachers to give lectures through modern packages and PowerPoint, particular during practical classes. In spite of availability of technologies, still delivery the lecture through chalk and talk approach is dominant one (Dudley and Timothy 2006). Nowadays, in developed countries, the use of PowerPoint in education has become widespread. However in some schools in Saudi Arabia, its usage is not ubiquitous but restricted to some important lessons and topics. This may in part be due to teachers limited knowledge of how to use PowerPoint, so broadening their knowledge might give benefits and make it easier for students to learn. However, in most schools, the classrooms are simply not equipped for PowerPoint presentations a single classroom in the whole school may be the only one equipped for PowerPoint. In addition to that, there may be resistance by some teachers to alter, while others are still hesitant, given the debate over the extent of any positive influence of PowerPoint on the educational performance of students. Past studies are inconclusive about PowerPoint, with contradictory views. However in Saudi Arabia, some studies supported the usage of such technology in Saudi schools for the benefit of learners (Al-Sharhan, 20 06). In general, the discussion about the use of PowerPoint in teaching practice has two important problematic issues: How effective is the technology at improving the quality of teaching received by learners. How consistent is PowerPoints use have teachers the required skills and enthusiasm for its use The first issue can be manifested in the level of satisfaction that may be inspired by the technology. For some researchers, the simplicity of the technology removes more of the teaching professional load and leads to a non-stimulating delivery of content (Pauw, 2002). The second issue tells about the inconsistency within the educational setting due to absence of suitable training and opposition in implementing the technology by someone. This may have negative effects on learners, who were given the different modes of approach in delivering the PowerPoint presentations within the same discipline. Therefore, it is more important in selecting the technology to ensure that it is compatible with the aims of training in order to bring the successful implementation. Purpose of the Study This present study evaluates the use of PowerPoint for teaching in schools. The factors involved in implementing PowerPoint in schools are also explored. Based on this study, it has been found that computer technology and multimedia presentations have no guaranteed effect on quality of learning. On the other hand, It has also been found that the use of such technology motivate the students for positive learning. Moreover, it has been proposed that use of technology is in harmony with the adoption and familiarity of learners of such technology, and so connects prevailing learner and educational cultures. The present study also addressed the factors to implement the way of effective adoption of technology, proper deployment of PowerPoint, training and development, models of teaching practice in mixed formats. At the same time, it is also important for the teachers to keep update the technology and technological changes. Then only, the content delivery and driving force for learning will be maintained. Though, PowerPoint is in greater use among teachers and researchers, but the best format to deliver materials based on learner assimilation needs to be found (Heines, 2000). Research Questions How does the use of PowerPoint presentations in educational institutions compared to traditional presentation, including the use of overhead projectors and handwritten blackboard notes? Does the use of PowerPoint increase the student performance? What are the advantage and disadvantage of use of PowerPoint in teaching? What are the factors affecting the use of PowerPoint presentations effectively? What are the benefits of existing debate on the use of PowerPoint presentations in the classroom setting? What are the opinions of the students in PowerPoint presentations regarding lighting, use of colours, backgrounds, images, and sound, and the way of delivering the lecturers through of slides? Literature review INTRODUCTION Several researchers have made an attempt to analyse the student performance and preferences based on the effects of PowerPoint. In their attempts, different methodologies were used and based on that a range of empirical results have also been proposed. These were discussed based on the use of PowerPoint and its merits and demerits were also presented in the following sections. There has been a lot more discussion over different methods to deliver lecture to the students. In particular, many lecturers use written material delivered on a chalkboard, whiteboard, or by transparent sheet on an overhead projector, and, in last fifteen years or so, the method of presenting the visual information directly from a computer onto a screen. These types of computers and projection technology devices can be seen in the classrooms. This gives the facility to engage the learners through graphics and multimedia presentations. Many faculty members and administrators felt that PowerPoint was initially considered as a cutting edge technology for use in the classroom. Later students felt that the PowerPoint should not be used more often because it is too passive. For example, Creed (1997) argues that the use of computer-based presentations makes the teacher to be too focused. Kask (n.d.) and Parks (1999) suggested that the computer-based presentations make the students to take a nap in larger auditoriums, where the some of the lights in the auditorium have to be dimmed. Prior to lecture, if the lecture notes are provided to the students, students may show less interest in attending the class. Others feel that the PowerPoint offers the ability to provide more concentration to the students. For example, Stone (1999) argues that the discussion in the classroom is improved by the use of computer-based presentations. In the part of the presentation, the discussed questions can be displayed on the screen. Based on the students interaction and response, the students names and comments can also be projected in the presentation. Finally, these interactions and responses can then be printed or given to all students. He also discusses how the exercise and experiments given to the students can be facilitated by incorporating them in the presentations. It can also be argued that the students take less time for taking their notes, whereas the PowerPoint allows more time for interactive activities. Based on the controversy about PowerPoint and its usage, some studies have attempted to measure the impact of computer generated presentations on student performance. Overall, the results have been mixed. A Very few said that the PowerPoint presentations did not have an effect on the student performance, while others said that PowerPoint presentations enhances the student performance. Educational Technology The one of the oldest and most common forms of educational technology is chalkboard. Through chalkboard a current topic of discussion, points to be discussed, points to be noted, end result of the discussion, important issues to be remembered up to certain period of time, summaries of discussion and lines of reasoning. In olden days, the major medium of communication followed by professor to take lecture was chalk and blackboard (Frost Fukami, 1997). The use of pictures, tables, and charts on the chalkboard will add an advantage to the information publicly communicated. This way of delivering lecture is suppressed by the more expensive and sophiscated technologies such as the overhead projector, the video-tape player, the more interactive video-disc player, PowerPoint, computer for computer assisted learning and most interactive whiteboard (Ghrist et al, 2003). In colleges, nowadays several studies have emerged on the use of multimedia in classrooms. Professors are using these techn ologies in mixed and creative way to promote the most learning techniques for the students to satisfy their aims and needs (Thomas, 2009). Nowaczyk et al. (1988) observed that the student interest and awareness of relevancy of topics were enhanced by videos. The static media such as overhead projector contributed to better understanding of the material presented in that instance. Video (VHS or DVD) presentations were made the students to engage in business activities, news, stories, integrate theory, R D activities and new challenges in the workplace and all these activities provide higher value of entertainment than other technologies (Caudron, 1997; Salomon, 1984). In some cases, video presentations and watching videos on particular issue is interesting than other technologies (Fulk et al., 1995). Astleitner (2002) reported the studies concerned with critical thinking of teaching via web lectures. The informations in the audio recording lectures were greatly influenced than video recordings. Though, the difference between the two modalities in terms of retention was nil. During subjective evaluation, students showed better evaluations for audio recordings. Interactive whiteboard is the present educational technology makes the things easier for the teacher to include the presentation content in wider range such as images from the internet, graphs from the excel sheet, text from MS word. Apart from that, student and teacher annotations could be done on the objects. The one of the drawbacks of the Interactive whiteboards is cost. It is more expensive than conventional whiteboards, projector, and screen combination. Their surfaces can be damaged and quite often replacement is required. The negative perceptions of PowerPoint compared to other interactive presentation tool were reported by Wolfs (2007). In his comparison, the use of PowerPoint and electronic presentation tool were compared. Wolfs (2007) studied and compared the students interests in content and perception of pace over the course for 2nd years student. This was done by splitting the participants into two groups. The first group consists of 36 students and the duration was about 50 minutes lectures for each class. The instructor used PowerPoint to project the course content. The second group consists of same number of students and the classroom presenter was used. The classroom presenter is like PowerPoint slide presentation with more interactive features such as write on the digital screen with digital pen, connection can be performed between student and instructor, information can be shared between instructor and student system. Instructor has a laptop computer, whose monitor swivels, lays flat and a llows the user to write on the digital screen using digital pen (notepad). The PowerPoint in the laptop could able to utilize linking features. However, PowerPoint alone doesnt have these features. Hence the classroom presenter had greater impact on the survey results. To predict the difference between two methods, optional web-based post-class survey provided to the group. The advantage of classroom presenter is that it allows the instructor to interact with the device by digitally highlighting information and also have the features to write on the digital slide. Though, the difference in the result is not significant. However, out of 17%, 3% perceived attending lectures using classroom presenter to be more interesting. One of the speculations is that most of the students preferred the added interaction of classroom presenter. This may be cause for speculation of students interaction and instructor presence compared to effectiveness of any presentation tool (Cited in Kevin, 2008). Thomas, (2009), compared five teaching technologies approaches like Projector, PowerPoint, Video, the Internet, and Lecture. And the results are overlapping and merging together. Such as, video can be shown in PowerPoint and internet and PowerPoint slides through web. They also used projector screen as blackboard using black films. Hence, in natural teaching environment, it is difficult to segregate Lecture, Projector, PowerPoint, Video, or the Internet. However, it is believed that the cognitive abilities of the students can be used to focus these five teaching technologies individually. The separate general perceptions about use of each technology can also be provided (Thomas, 2009). In his study, integrated computer workstation used for lecture in all classrooms and the teaching materials were presented on the same large screen using projector, PowerPoint, Video (VHS or DVD), and the Internet. The PowerPoint slides were replaced with traditional overhead color transparencies for l ecture outlines and information. Students use internet effectively for business organization, to refer the links cited in the books, research journals, reports, papers, case studies etc. Apart from this, the current events, news and many other types of information are also accessed in the internet. Internet acts as a largest digital library tool for the instruction. The specific type of classroom presentation will not serve the students needs. Different technologies can be used for different learning objectives. Among all the education technologies, the Lecture and PowerPoint are less active and interesting and also boring than other different approaches. Still these the Lecture and PowerPoint technologies contribute to student performance. All technologies have their own characteristic strength and weakness. There is an urge to develop the practical impacts of these new available technologies on education and students (Thomas, 2009). USING TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM In some studies, it was mentioned that the PowerPoint presentation increases the students motivation and achievements in their lessons (Mantei 2000). In addition to that, most of the students mentioned that it helped them in taking notes and study for exam if instruction is provided in PowerPoint presentations (Noppe, 2007), and they prefer PowerPoint lectures to traditional lecture (Frey and Birnbaum, 2002). Researchers explored that the end-result of preparing PowerPoint presentations by the students are very limited. Gunel et al. (2006) compared the effectiveness of the students in writing summary report and preparing PowerPoint presentation about two units in physics lesson. In this particular case,It was observed that the students prepared the PowerPoint presentation scored significantly better than the students prepared summary report format. In another study, Marmienà © (2006) investigated the ability of the students in choosing the material and the content of PowerPoint pres entations on professional topics via the internet and also he investigated the students ability to prepare and deliver the presentation in front of the audience. As a result, it was mentioned and reported that preparing and delivering the material through PowerPoint presentation improved the students gaining skills in addition to listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. That is the use of such technologies is more time-efficient compared to traditional way of delivering the presentation i.e. using whiteboard or overhead transparency projector. Hence, more time can be given on interaction and instruction rather than using the traditional way (Mantei, 2000). Susskind (2005) taught two courses on Introduction to Psychology. In these courses, half of the courses, he taught with the help of PowerPoint and other half without PowerPoint presentations in a counterbalanced order across classes. Gradewise, there was no significant difference in student performance. However, the students performance has not increased in many courses that used multimedia presentations (Susskind Gurien, 1999; Szaba Hastings, 2000). In one of the studies, it was demonstrated that there was a decrease in student performance when the instructor switched from transparencies to PowerPoint (Bartlett, Cheng, Strough, 2000). Ahmed (1998) compared the two methods (overhead projector and PowerPoint) of information presentation. He observed very little difference in the performance on exams resulting from the use of these two methods. It was also indicated that that the difficulty of the lectures had a greater impact on the performance of the student than the use of PowerPoint itself. Szabo and Hastings (2000) presented three different lectures; first lecture with overhead transparencies; second lecture with PowerPoint; and third lecture with power point and handouts of the Power Point slides. All these lectures were tested for the same group of students in a physical education course. One week later, mock tests were conducted to the students. While there was no significant difference in grades between two tests on lectures delivered with PowerPoint, the grades from the two PowerPoint lectures were higher than the grades scored with the lecture provided with overhead transparencies. In 1995, Lowery (1999) taught Environment Science course through overhead transparencies. In 1996-1997, the same lecture was provided to the students with the help of Power Point. He found statistically significant differences on comparing the average test scores. The material taught in the year of 1996 and 1997 with the help of PowerPoint have higher average test scores than the course taught with overheads in the year of 1995. In the survey of Sazbo and Hasting (2000), 80% of the students felt that PowerPoint lectures were highly beneficial and that visual emphasis to recall the lecture material during the exam time. The presenters often highlight the main ideas and points with bullets. Based on this information, the audience members and students aware of the tips included in the presentation. In the latter stage, they may specially focus on the points presented in the slides and ignore the elaboration talk given by the speaker (Savoy, Proctor and Salvendy 2009). According to Savoy (2009), the use of PowerPoint, webcasts and podcasts have tremendously increased in university lectures to focus the students attendance and expose the student to the lecture material effectively. However, the easy way of preparation and distribution of information digitally does not always mapped to the enhanced student performance. In one of the interesting parallels with Susskind (2004), a traditional lecture format to a PowerPoint multimedia format has been compared. By doing this, they observed that students thought themselves to be equal and capable if they had learned from the format similar to the E-lectures in this study, as they were learned through traditional lectures. Paradoxically, these were not reflected their performance during exams. It also does not seem to be linked to the presence or absence of multimedia delivery. Using PowerPoint effectively Due to the presence of mixed results among the studies investigated relate to the beneficial effects of PowerPoint on performance, a new perspective fine-grained analysis is needed to assess the impact of delivery style on student performance (Susskind, 2005). All the above studies, did not investigate and concentrate the complexity of the presentations which is also one of the factor directly impacts the performance. For example, PowerPoint presentations can be written with simple text in single coloured screen. Presentations can also be made complex with tables, pictures, graphs, animation effects such as sound effects, visual effects, video clips. The effectiveness of PowerPoint and other multimedia presentations directly depends on the complexity of the presentation. However, several researchers have demonstrated that a few lectures include material which can reduce overall performance of PowerPoint presentations, such as irrelevant sounds (Moreno Mayer, 2000), clusters of text (Schraw, 1998), and irrelevant and unwanted pictures (Mayer, 2001, p. 113). According to Robert Kristi (2002), in the detailed PowerPoint presentations, the items which are relevant (e.g. most of the pictures), and not relevant (e.g. most of the sound effects) to the context were presented. The level of the performance is diminished because of the irrelevant items presented in the presentation. These irrelevant items detract the students concentration. It was also found that the graphics related to the context may be beneficial, and the graphics not related to the context not at all helpful in learning. Also, for a simple presentation, the graphics items are not necessary. But graphics items will be helpful for tedious, complex and difficult lectures. If the graphics items are desired, then the PowerPoint presentations should have the special features to accommodate them in an easy manner. It can be concluded, that the relevant items should only be given in the presentation. (Robert Kristi 2002) It is also worth to mention that some of the flexible features of PowerPoint such as colour, variation in font, image, dynamic model building, or multimedia capabilities bring the student attention close to the context. For digital lecturing, the student enthusiasm depends on the structured pattern of the PowerPoint presentation. Hence, the presenter or the instructor should follow a well-organised and structured pattern of the presentation. Susskind (2005) mentioned about the way of delivering the lecture styles that there is no difference on various styles of delivering the lecture. In his experiment; a mixed participant design and counterbalanced lecture format order were involved. This eliminated any confounding between delivery style and order. Apart from that, it reduced the potential cohort effects via within the subject comparisons. However, methodological issue regarding student assignment has not been carried out. Susskind observed that the students were not assigned random ly. The results of his experiments could be reflected the pre-existing conditions of academic ability, preparation and motivation. STUDENT PREFERANCE AND IMPACT IN COURES EVALUATION Besides evaluating the student performance based on the impact of computer-generated slides, several studies concentrated the perceptions of PowerPoint. For example, Daniels (1999) found that the three-quarters of the students in her analysis preferred PowerPoint presentation rather than chalkboard. Similarly Szabo and Hastings (2000) reported that 90% of the students thought that the PowerPoint lectures grabs more attention than the traditional lecture. Furthermore, 65% of the students in the study preferred PowerPoint and said that the PowerPoint lecture motivate the students to attend the class and 72 % of the students said that they prefer to see PowerPoint used in all courses. In the survey, there was an exception found in students of economics majors (612 students) at Radford University (Hashemzadeh and Wilson, 2007). In their study, students were asked to compare the course lecture provided with and without PowerPoint (not taught by the same professors). It was found that the majority of the students felt that they could able to understand lecture better because they felt more involvement and better interaction with the instructor in the sections taught with PowerPoint. The majority of students preferred courses taught with PowerPoint rather than courses taught without PowerPoint. Frey and Birnbaun (2002) found that the students preferred lectures using PowerPoint than those using chalkboard or whiteboard. They also perceived that the lecture is to be more structured and organized. In their study Students appreciated the advantages of PowerPoint, such as easy to read the slides, keeping the lecture on-track, enlivening the lecture by providing the combinations of pictures and more concise text. They also often criticised badly-prepared and poorly-presented lectures. In common, too much information provided on the single slide and slide was fully composed of similar words leading to boring rather than interesting. Students were less engaged for chalkboard or overhead transparencies techniques were used in delivering the lecture. (Frey and Birnbaun, 2002) Advantages The advantages of presenting lecture through PowerPoint presentations can be generalized as follows: Using the PowerPoint, the course content and the way of delivering the lecture could be framed properly (Nouri Shahid 2005). According to students, observing the lecture through PowerPoint presentations is quite interesting. Thus, giving lecture through PowerPoint presentations affect the students in positive way (Parks, 1999; Nouri Shahid, 2005; James, 2006; Atkins-Sayre et al 2006). In PowerPoint presentations, poor handwriting issues, decrease in visibility due to chalk, perennial issue of dirty blackboards (if blackboard were used for long time) were avoided. (Carlos, 2008) PowerPoint presentation enhances the students interest for attending the classes (James, 2006; Sugahara Boland, 2006 ). Through PowerPoint presentations, the learning capacity of the students is increased. (Harrison, 2006) According to Lowry (1999), after introducing the PowerPoint lecturer classes to first year environmental science course a remarkable improvement was observed in student performance and cognition. Because of PowerPoint presentations, time taken for the students in taking notes was reduced. Most of the students brought their PowerPoint slides printout to the classroom and annotate to them as required. (Carlos, 2008) Providing PowerPoint presentation classnotes to the students indicates a organised set of notes that allows students to transform into a detailed form without putting much effort on it. (Carlos, 2008) In some of the studies, it was found that supply of PowerPoint presentations along with student notes lead to achieve better performance and retention (Kiewra, 1985). It was also found that some studies show that segregating the notes from notes what students taken while observing can also lead to better retention (Aiken, 1975). Another big advantage of PowerPoint presentations is that the instructor can present a lot of material in single lecture such as giving concepts in problem solving, discussion, or review of articles in terms of class materials. Because of this students need not to dedicate more time in taking the elaborate class notes. (Carlos, 2008) Photos, videoclips and hyperlink for elaboarate discussion can be added in the PowerPoint presentation only.(Carlos, 2008) According to Young, 2004, it was proclaimed in one of the most public endorsements of PowerPoint that the students performance and learning experiences are enhanced by the use of multimedia. Students also mirrored this thought. Because the PowerPoint presentation enlighten a lecture with images, pictures that provide additional support to the key points and improved clarity to the texts compared to chalkboards (Young, 2004). And also, it is possible in PowerPoint presentation that the instructor can cover the previous class notes in a single slide to make the students to remember. (Carlos, 2008) Instructors indicated that PowerPoint can be used to update their lectures from time to time and believe that PowerPoint presentation is a valuable tool that help to organize the class notes. (Schwartz, 2005) Disadvantages The disadvantages of presenting lecture through PowerPoint presentations can be generalized as follows: One of the major disadvantages is that instructor has to spend more time in preparing the notes and relevant pictures from the World Wide Web and place the pictures, graphs or tables in the appropriate place. .(Kristi,2003) Most of the lecture presentation will be reused subsequently for next batch students with less time effort. This initial time taken for preparing the presentation by the faculty member is reasonably considered as major disadvantage.(Kristi,2003) From the study by Dudley (2006), it was observed that the electronic presentations were disliked. The main reasons were given; hard copies of the class notes were not given, through presentation lot of material could be covered, complicated pictures and diagram were provided, lectures were delivered very quickly. The additional material had to be added in the PowerPoint presentation notes to reinforce it. (Carlos, 2008) Using chalkboard or a whiteboard in the classroom allows more time in spending a single topic. This gives natural pauses and provides delays in the presentation and discussion before moving to next topic. (Carlos, 2008) Opposition of PowerPoint notes is that the structure of PowerPoint lecture commands a degree of linearity that may creates artificial misguiding hierarchies of informations provided in the lecture (Tuft, 2003), hierarchical organization of content is to be removed (Doumont, 2005), and discourages the chances to redirect or expand upon the delivered points (Schwartz, 2005). Besides adherence usage of pre-designed template, PowerPoint urge to use bullets, which convey the message in detrimental or effective way (Boehle, 2006, Tufte, 2003 Mayer, 2004).Edward Tufte (2003), claimed that the bullets lead to gross generalization, inaccurate logical and superficial reasoning and more often leads to indifferent conclusions. Hanft (2003) also supported that the PowerPoint presentation depress the discussion. Most of the students have positive opinions about the instructors in terms of PowerPoint presentation. Some of the students were complained that instructors used too much text and pictures and information in the slides and makes the slides to be clumsy manner, because of this the material in the slides were difficult to see (Doumont, 2005; Young, 2004). One student at Connecticut College said that her professor would write too long sentences or complete sentence in the PowerPoint slides, rather which she would then read. Because of that the information presented in the slides were become complicated and convoluted (Young, 2004). Further, some of the instructors