Thursday, August 27, 2020

Jury Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Jury - Research Paper Example Legitimization of the changes to a state assembly There have been different changes started with the target of advancing racial decent variety in the piece of juries, so compelling choices and appropriate, fair-minded decisions can be made in the court. Be that as it may, the development of the ward is likewise not without the analysis of racial assorted variety. In the American culture, the minority class individuals are frequently purportedly determined to be treated in a predisposition way, which further limit equity based on their privileges and benefits as a US resident. In this regard, the supposed segregation in the midst of minority and larger part individuals has raised different moral issues which incorporate ambushes and developments against the State (Minow, 1992). There are cases where the agents of the juries have been seen to develop their judgment with slippery objectives. This raises critical worry as to the soundness of the judgment offered in the court, where atten dants having a place with a similar race as that of the respondent have been asserted to act with compassion; while then again, members of the jury having a place with different races will in general actualize unforgiving medicines for rebuffing the convicts. Thus, it very well may be contended that the disappointments of suitable purview forms are caused for the most part because of absence of assorted variety in the setup of members of the jury. In this manner, keeping up a further extent of racial decent variety in the midst of juries is well on the way to contribute towards making viable and racially fair-minded judgment in the court. In this manner, with the inclusion of minorities and ladies as attendants, the judgment procedure may likewise get an improved effectiveness in managing equity of rights and moderating biasness to a significant degree (SAGE Publications, 2013). An opponent’s reaction to the change There is requirement for racial assorted variety in the jury framework so compelling choices can be made with uniformity and in a fair-minded way. Be that as it may, from an opponent’s perspective, with dominant parts and minorities, as delegates of the jury, the litigants must not to be offered with the chance of choosing just as creating juries as per their races and collective foundations. As on account of Swain v. Alabama - 380 U.S. 202 (1965) (Justia, 1965) and Batson v. Kentucky (No. 84-6263) (LII, 1985), the legal executive made in the preliminaries out of these cases included greater part of hearers having a place from the candidates separate racial foundations and networks, which prompted biasness in the process dynamic. The respondents, with this office of forming juries based on their decisions, will unquestionably prompt improper lawful choices and methodology. In this worry, the arrangements specified by the Supreme Court of the US ought to immovably restrict litigants from allotting privileges of choosing jury individuals for the execution of judgment with uniformity and fittingness. Besides, it focuses on that the juries ought to be chosen based on merit framework in the midst of dominant part and minority gathering of people, with the goal that the choices or judgment are

Saturday, August 22, 2020

The United States Athletic Footwear Market

The United States Athletic Footwear Market College of Bradford - BSc (Hons) Business and Management Studies Foundations of Marketing MAN0105M - Level 1 Intakes 52-55Page 0 of 23Table of ContentsExecutive Summary ....................................................................................................... 11. The US Athletic Footwear Market ............................................................................. 22. Market Segmentation ................................................................................................. 43. Fragment Targeting ..................................................................................................... 84. Market Positioning (4Ps) ......................................................................................... 114.1 Product ........................................................................................................... 114.2 Promotion....................................................................................................... 134. 3 Price ............................................................................................................... 154.4 Place ............................................................................................................... 175. End ............................................................................................................... 186. Reference list............................................................................................................ 19Textbook............................................................................................................... 19Website ................................................................................................................. 197. Bibliography............................................................................................................. 22University of Bradford - BSc (Hons) Business and Management Studies Foundations of Marketing MAN0105M - Level 1 Intakes 52-55Page 1 of 23Executive SummaryThis bit of promoting research is authorized to assess and look at the athleticfootwear advertise why this market is rewarding and conceivably gainful and making a productthat would appear to be fitting and productive in the organization's future as the point of convergence of our nextmarketing campaign.The inquire about causes to notice the way that the United States athletic footwear showcase hasshown sensible development in deals in the previous scarcely any years (NPD Group, Inc., 2013) with thespecific of the youngsters footwear advertise growing twelve percent between 2011 to 2012 (NPDGroup, Inc., 2013). Further examination uncovers that the kids footwear showcase that wehave focused on is the perfect fragment to focus because of the gigantic increment in US net domesticproducts since 1950 (US Government Spending, 2013), guardians can bear the cost of better needs, desireand extravagance for their youngsters. Also, offspring of age Y and Z are very syn chronisedwithin their group of friends by the methods for informal communication and media. The dynamic client ofsuch internet based life, Facebook, has increased a 400 percent expansion in the past decade(Kissmetrics, 2013).Our research assess and presumed that it is important...Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority

Friday, August 21, 2020

A Battle Scene to Remember

A Battle Scene to Remember This semester has definitely been a rough one, especially around this time of the year.  Flags for classes are being handed out for those of us who are struggling extraordinarily well, and some of us (at least I hope its not just me) are staying up way too late to finish projects and do work at the loss of self-care and health.  However, amidst the chaos of classes and ridiculous amount of stress bestowed among the students here at MIT, some of the students decided that they felt particularly passionate about an event that occured on Friday. This past Friday, the First of November, was the release of the movie associated with the  Enders Game series by Orson Scott Card.  Unlike many of the MIT students that I know, I have not read the series, but I am aware that this movie is supposed to be really great and that it was going to be out in theaters sometime soon.  Therefore, on my way to get Frozen Yogurt on Saturday, I was super excited and impressed to find Killian Court decorated with beautiful banners, showcasing the different armies of Enders Game Griffin, Dragon, and Tiger. Photos taken by Hairuo G. 17 As my friend Lauren S. 16 and I continued on our way to get Frozen Yogurt, we came across the actual battle scene in Lobby 7, and it was incredible. Photos taken by Hairuo G. 17 As you can see, the area in Lobby 7 that was normally cut off due to the construction being done on the skylight of the Lobby 7 dome was cautioned off from the public due to a battle scene between the different armies, with soldiers all over Lobby 7.  They were hung from the ceiling, suspended over the construction zone and spread out over the floor and on the pedestals.  It was beautifully organized and very well put together! I love waking up in the morning after a terribly stressful week to a new hack by MIT students.  Sometimes MIT can seem like a really terrible place, but taking a look at this remarkable piece of artwork strategically placed around campus reminds me that this is where I belong, among the crazy people who come up with these awesome ideas, and that I really do look forward to staying here through the next three years. Also, MIT lets us have stress-relieving mice-catching cats!

Monday, May 25, 2020

Is The Lack Of Non Renewable Resources A Threat - 2454 Words

Is the lack of non-renewable resources a threat to global security? The sufficient and unhindered access to cheap energy resources is a security concern for governments. Non-renewable energy sources such as fossil fuels often guide a nation’s economic wealth and military strength. The access, production, and delivery of this strategic resource drive a government’s policy development and often contains influences that may cause internal conflicts and strain relationships with other external entities. Tensions arise when economic concerns, the relaxation of environmental restraints, foreign policy, or the threat of use of force to protect its vital interests is presented. Although there is always the possibility that a global crisis†¦show more content†¦This concept was guided by a multitude of elements encompassing personal beliefs, ethnic preferences, neo-patrimonial relationships, and self-identity. For some of the African regimes, security meant protecting the resources and interests from other African states that may try to encroach upon them. These states did not perceive foreign powers as the immediate aggressor; rather it was the threat next door that they had to keep a watch on. Protection of the regime was above the importance given to the norms that protect the populace and promote effective governance. These regimes would align themselves politically with other governments to protect their sovereignty and â€Å"share† their resources or allow other private businesses the opportunities to buy rights for exploration to secure economic growth. Investment in the African continent has thrived recently and it is believed that China is now Africa’s largest trading partner. However, these investment by the Chinese government comes with certain stipulations. For one, some loan packages offered to African states in exchange for access to certain resources could only be utilized if and when Chinese companies are able to perform the work. This practice not only hinders the progress but effectively gives control to the Chinese government for the infrastructure in Africa and highlightsShow MoreRelatedIs Energy Consumption A Major Challenge For Most Countries All Over The World? Essay1502 Words   |  7 Pagespollution, destruction of landform, disturbance of ecological balance and climate change, could be attributed to massive use of fossil fuel. At the same time, fossil fuel resource, which accumulated for billions years on earth, would be running out in a short term under such unlimited consumption. â€Å"The Stone Age did n’t end for lack of stone, and the oil age will end long before the world runs out of oil.† (Sheikh Zaki Yamani, 1970s) Despite facing the same challenge as other countries, Australia keepsRead MoreThe Pros And Cons Of Reusable And Non Reusable Energy Sources1727 Words   |  7 PagesThe Pros and Cons of Reusable Non Reusable Energy Sources There are many things that we rely on that are naturally provided by nature from the water that is used to replenish our systems to prevent dehydration, to the air that we breath down to some portions of food that we eat. One of those natural elements are used daily but are often not thought about outside of the scientific or political fields is energy. Energy is all around us there is nothing that is done in the day to day life thatRead MoreFracking, The Splitting Decision : An Analysis1726 Words   |  7 Pagesthe process of drilling into the Earth and subsequently directly a high-pressure water, sand, and chemical mixture at shale rock to release the gas inside, out through the head of the well. Fracking allows firms to access previously inaccessible resources of oil and gas buried underneath the earth and hidden in the rocks. In the U.S., fracking has boosted oil production and has caused a drop in gas prices. The gas that generates electricity produces only half the carbon dioxide emissions coal producesRead MoreThe Long Term Effects Of Increasing Demand For Renewable Energy1690 Words   |  7 Pages Renewable Energy Wind, Water, Sun: Energy for the long run Prepared by Mashfik Shamir Midterm Proposal BUS 160W – An Introduction to Business Writing Queens College August 1, 2013 Professor Denise L. Miller Mashfik Shamir 8531 129 Street Richmond Hill, NY 11418 August 1, 2013 Prof. Denise Miller CUNY Queens College 65-30 Kissena Blvd. Flushing, NY 11367 Dear Prof. Miller: I am submitting this proposal to provide some information on the long term effects of increasing demand forRead MoreOur Impact On The Environment Essay689 Words   |  3 Pagesmaintain resources by a community controlled basis seem to care much more about who else uses them. The people are worried about how much of the resource they will be able to benefit from and how much they can have which makes them more concerned about the possibility of someone else overusing the limited resource (diamond, et al, 2007). One person won’t want another person to have open and uncontrolled access to the same resource that they want. A major cause of the â€Å"Tragedy† is due to a lack of informationRead MoreModern Day Growth And Development1055 Words   |  5 PagesThe most imminent threat to our planet is our ignorance. Every time we choose to disregard, the problems we face continue to cultivate. The Sustainable Development Goals are one of the most recent initiatives to realize the danger the planet faces. Of the numerous environmental issues included in its schema, one is energy. More specifically, the need to warrant accessibility and affordability of modern energy to everyone across the globe. The agenda under this division of clean energy segments intoRead MoreNon Renewable Resources : A Contributing Factor Climate Change, Extinction, And Pollution990 Words   |  4 PagesNon-renewable resources are a contributing factor climate change, extinction, and pollution. Fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, and oil are considered non-natural resources that can’t be replaced upon consumption (â€Å"Nonrenewable Energy Explained†). Coal, natural gas, and fuel are heated up to create energy to provide electricity, run cars, and heats and cools buildings. The heated resources release large amounts of carbon dioxide. Then the carbon dioxide becomes trapped in the atmosphere. CarbonRead MoreEnergy Conservation Essay1345 Words   |  6 Pagessupply of natural resources and may also be harmful to the environment. They encourage the use of renewable sources of power, such as wind turbines or hydroelectric plants. While some debate humans being the cause of climate chang e, others believe mankind has barely made a mark on what our planet has to offer us. Conserving energy has nearly become as important an issue as producing it. This essay will explore the issues of traditional resources, the benefits of using new, renewable sources of powerRead MoreWater Is Essential For Meeting Human Needs1022 Words   |  5 Pagescrucial factors affecting development, is the management of water resources. Water is the essential for sustainability. Day to day there is an increase in demand for water resource due to population growth and it is essential to tackle the problem of water resource management. The great civilisations flourished and took place near to abundant water supply facilities to their peoples. Each and every society depends on water resources, it is our necessity rather than desirability to manage and utilizationRead MoreA Brief Note On Western Virginia And The Appalachian Plateau1165 Words   |  5 Pages(EIA.gov, n.d.). The average household in Northern VA spends nearly $1,584 on energy consumption. This is higher than the national average but similar to our neighboring states (EIA.gov, n.d.). This is due highly to a lack of energy conservation education provided by the state and lack of government backed refunds and tax breaks for using energy efficient appliances. States like California and Maryland have started these governments funded programs and experienced great strides in lowering energy consumption

Thursday, May 14, 2020

Homosexuality Inborn Trait or a Choice - 991 Words

How does one define hate? Webster defines hate as feeling hostility or animosity toward someone. Much like love, hatred is often blind, making people prone to believe things that aren’t true. Many fall victim to this reality, resulting in feelings of animosity and prejudice with little or nothing to back it up. This hatred often has to do with race, religion, gender, politics or sexual orientation. As you know one can’t just go and change his or her skin tone or gender. It isn’t as if one was asked to be white, black, Hispanic, Native American exc., nor female or male. This is just the way the person was born. Seeing it from this point of view I wonder why a person will choose to be a homosexual. It isn’t that the person was born this way,†¦show more content†¦Other researchers had previously reported that INAH3 was larger (on average) in men than in women. What he reported, based on a study of about forty brains obtained at autopsy, was that INAH 3 was also larger in straight men than in gay men. William Byne, a neuroscientist and psychiatrist who is now on the faculty at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York. Initially, Byne suggested that INAH3 might not even exist. If it did exist, he said, it was probably the same size in men and women. And any difference that he had found between gay and straight men was most likely due to differences in the men s cause of death, rather than their sexual orientation. (All the gay men in my study had died of complications of AIDS) Simon LeVay and Nevrve.com. This study gave some â€Å"proof† that being gay isn’t a choice but biological. That isn’t why this study was conducted. This study offers the hope that we will eventually be able to understand the origins of sexual orientation at a cellular level Simon LeVay. It is still unclear to tell if one is genetically prone to becoming a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or straight. Some researchers say it is a choice and other say it isn’t. Some homosexuals say it is a choice and others say it isn’t. Despite what they think researchers haven’t stopped their search to find out if the truth behind thisShow MoreRelatedWhat Causes Homosexuality996 Words   |  4 PagesWhat Causes Homosexuality? What causes homosexuality? There has been much debate about what causes homosexuality. Is there a gay gene? Is homosexuality caused by environmental factors, such as upbringing, child molestation, an absent mother or affectionate father? Or is it something we’re born with, an inherited trait, like skin or hair color? Although there have been few studies on the cause of homosexuality, the debate seems to be divided, with scientists in one corner and religious fundamentalistsRead MoreThe Gay Of Being A Gay1321 Words   |  6 Pagesonce. There was a time at one point where homosexuality in the US was treated as taboo as many other social subjects such as criminality. However, times, beliefs, and perspectives have changed in the general populous. In 1996, only 27% of Americans polled by Gallop showed a positive stance on gay marriage, and homosexuality in general. By May of 2015, this percentage was nearly reverse, with only 37% of the population showing a negative stance on homosexuality. Despite the recent support for homosexualsRead MoreLady Gaga Released Her Lead Single1700 Words   |  7 Pagesfemale, population identify themselves as gay, lesbian, or bisexual (Sprigg and Dailey Ch.2). Homosexuality is the desire for sexual attraction to people of one’s own gender. Throughout the years, research has been done to â€Å"prove† that people are born homosexuals, but there is no evidence as of now. Many individuals might use being a homosexual as an excuse in their daily lives. Becoming a homosexual is a choice. If an individual was born with a gay gene, that means that the parent would have to haveRead MoreThe Effects Of Prenatal Hormones On The Developing Fetus1510 Words   |  7 Pagesthe X chromosome. Though genetic tendencies for homosexuality may be passed from mothers to their children (Rahman Wilson, 2003). During human evolution, homosexuality was developed to minimize competition between males for a limited number of potential female mates (Schulling, 2004). A different possibility is that prenatal hormone levels influence the developing fetus (Levay, 2011). According to the prenatal hormonal theory of homosexuality, some male fetuses are exposed to too little testosteroneRead MoreEssay on We Need Same-sex Marriage Now1352 Words   |  6 Pageslifetime commitment of devotion, to others a promise to reside with a stranger, and even to some people as a union arranged by their parents, marriage is a widely varying ritual practiced all over the world. In the United States, marriage is a freedom of choice and an act of love, supported with benefits and privileges from the government. It has traditionally been the union of a woman and a man, made with the expectation of permanence and the aim of producing and raising offspring. Tradition, however, isRead MoreIs Treating Homosexuality Ethical and Effective1940 Words   |  8 PagesHomosexuality reorientation therapy is a controversial topic. Its effectiveness as well as the ethics invol ved stir up much debate. Since homosexuality is not an illness, The American Psychological Association reiterated the ‘long-standing official position that homosexuality and bisexuality are not mental disorders, (APA, 1998) (Slife, 2004), can it be treated? If it can, how, and under what circumstances it should be used, are important questions. Before discussing treatment, original orientationRead MoreHomosexuality - Nature or Nurture Essay2535 Words   |  11 PagesHomosexuality Nature or Nurture Have you ever wondered what creates a persons sexual preference? Is it possible that their social influences and environment can lead them to certain sexual practices and same sex relationships or could it be that some people have a genetic makeup that makes it completely natural to be attracted to members of the same sex? These questions lead us to the long-lived debate of nature or nurture. Some scientists believe that people behave as they do accordingRead MoreSexual Orientation And Identity Of An Individual2117 Words   |  9 Pagescontroversial topics in the political world. Negative stereotypes, prejudices, and discrimination are eminent in the pattern behavior and value system. Sexual orientation is a type of diversity that refers to non-observable behavior and traits of people as it is opposed to visible traits which may include race and gender. The extent of the revelation of the sexual orientation in the public depends on the individuals involved. Development of human sexual orientation The development of an individual on the basisRead More The Battle Over Same-Sex Marriage Essay2181 Words   |  9 PagesLoving v. Virginia court case, in which Mildred maintains that all American’s â€Å"no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation should have the same freedom to marry† (par 14). In contrast, Barber feels that homosexuality is not an inborn trait; therefore, civil rights laws created to legalize interracial marriages are not applicable to same-sex marriage. Like Barber, many from the opposition camp feel that marriage is not an innate civil right. According to the Los AngelesRead MoreRace And Culture Within Clinical Psychology2369 Words   |  10 Pagesmaterialistic form and they strive to conform to cultural norms while showing indifference to social realities like oppression and racism (Kwate, 2005). The inborn qualities, values, goals, and desires of the African person have been replaced with those of Western cul ture, though a person will likely deny this. It can be thought of a rejection of one’s true traits and nature in an effort to remain in a mental world that is in direct conflict with reality. An excellent summary of this disorder is provided by

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Military Marriages After 9 / 11 - 976 Words

Military Marriages After 9/11 The military lifestyle is simply one of a kind. Our military places enormous stress not only on each of its members, but on each of their families as well. Long periods of separation, lengthy training, and combat deployments affect those in the battlefield and their loved ones at home. Our military has changed forever after the infamous terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. With continuous, hateful threats from our enemies, the demands placed upon our service members have become even more pronounced. Tours have become longer and more frequent. Marriages to military members are constantly burdened with these conflicts. Despite these increased hardships with recent conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq, military marriages are becoming more resilient and are more likely to prevail. The general belief in regards to military marriages assumes that they are doomed to fail. Prior research in regards to military marriages during previous wars has shown that the additional stress has negatively impacted satisfaction in marriages and increased the likelihood of separation. However, many of these studies did not accurately reflect the entire population because of techniques such as one time sampling, voluntary respondents, and lack of comparison against a control group (Karney 24-26). Military marriages have proven to last despite deployments after the onset of military action in Afghanistan and Iraq. In a recent study examining the effectsShow MoreRelatedMilitary Death and the Families’ Reaction to Losing Their Loved Ones1103 Words   |  5 Pagesthis devastating time. For this paper I will discuss the effects of Military Death and the families’ reaction to losing their loved ones. Serving your country is one of the best things an individual can achieve. It gives a sense of security to know that you are able to fight for the rights of others and maintain this great level of freedom that our fathers, uncles and brothers fought for in the war. Since 2001, thousands of military soldiers have been shipped to Iraq and Afghanistan, where they haveRead MoreA Thousand Splendid Suns : Handout1018 Words   |  5 Pagesfourteen-year-old Laila after her parents have been killed by a rocket fire in Kabul. At the end of the storyline, each woman is forced to accept paths that they will never truly be happy with. Mariam sacrifices her life to the Taliban to save Laila after they both murder Rasheed. Laila then marries her childhood love becomes a school teacher and continues to live her life happily. The treatment of women in Afghanistan: Afghan women overcome many difficulties in their lives such as: †¢ Child marriage: â€Å"Trust inRead MoreDigging Deep: Homosexuality Revealed Essay1647 Words   |  7 Pagesextent. Now, not all people are homophobic. There are actually many people whom are not gay that support and advocate gay rights. Not to mention the many influential figures and leaders we have in our country who are openly homosexual. Even though gay marriage is not legal everywhere yet doesn’t mean homosexuals don’t live together happily, they can live and love just as if they were united by law. Scientists and psychologists are still baffled at what makes someone a homosexual. Is it a genetic phenomenonRead MoreThe Effects Of Duty Station On The Workplace944 Words   |  4 Pagesthe military then pays for spouse and family relocation, therefore when a permanent change of duty station is imminent tying the knot can seem prudent to a couple that is unwilling to separate. According to Lundquist and Xu, both warzone deployments and permanent changes of d uty station can heavily impact a couple’s decision to marry (Lundquist). Both of these situations are common and frequent in the military, unlike in the civilian sector, and likely have a significant impact on marriage ratesRead MoreThe September / 11 Attacks1202 Words   |  5 PagesThe war in Afghanistan started was a direct response to the 9/11 attacks. This deadly terrorist acts killed thousands of American citizens. After the attack president bush made it clear that whoever is responsible for this horrendous act of violence will pay and will be brought to justice. After the American intelligence agencies found that Al- Qaeda was responsible for the 9/11 attacks president bush gave the Taliban leaders in Afghanistan an ultimatum for harboring al-Qaeda and their leader whichRead MoreVeterans Adapting to Civilian Life1226 Words   |  5 PagesThere has been a lot of recent attention in the media concerning veterans adapting to their new lives after military service. The e ssay probes three articles of various scholars in the field of media writing, nutrition, and psychology, using an analytical method, this essay examines the rhetorical appeals of scholarly reports that identify issues that affect veterans as they transit from military life to civilian life. For the purpose of this paper, three stories are considered: â€Å"War s Aftermath:Read MoreEssay on The Divorce Rate and Women in the Workplace1723 Words   |  7 PagesThe Divorce Rate and Women in the Workplace Marriage Most ancient societies needed a source environment for the upholding of the species and a system of rules to handle the granting of property rights. The institution of marriage handled both of these needs. Some varieties of marriage are Polygamy- one man, several wives or one woman, several husbands. Polygyny- one man, several wives. Polyandry- one woman, several husbands. Endogamy- requirement to marry someone who belongs to his or herRead MoreCanadian Attitudes Towards the Afghanistan War976 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"Over the past century, Canadian attitudes towards the use of force and the exercise of military power in support of national aims have fundamentally shifted†. This is a quote written by Major Todd Strickland in his article, titled, â€Å"From the Boers to the Taliban: How Canadians Attitudes towards War Have Changed†. This article reviews Canada’s history within the wars and also Canadian’s thoughts on war. The Afghan war began in 2001 and is still ongoing today. The war began due to the terrorist attacksRead MoreA Report On Lili Elbe946 Words   |  4 Pagesintroduced as Einar s sister. After transitioning, however, she made a legal name change and stopped painting. Elbe s year of birth is sometimes stated as 1886. This appears to be from the book about her, which has some facts changed to protect the identities of the persons involved. Factual references to Gerda Gottlieb s life indicate that the 1882 date is correct as they clearly married while at college in 1904.[3][4] CONTENTS 1 Marriage and modelling 2 Surgeries and marriage dissolution 3 Gender identityRead MoreThe Conquests and Legacy of Alexander the Great Essay860 Words   |  4 Pagesthe world’s history and is worthy of the title ‘The Great’ because of his military prowess, his idealism and his legacy. During the course of his life and reign, Alexander had fought and won many battles and wars, defeating many kings and warlords throughout the ancient world. Perhaps his most recognized conquest was of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia and its ‘King of Kings’ Darius III during the Battle of Issus 1. After defeating the Persians at the Battle of Granicus, Darius gathered an enormous

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Configuring Sales Support Structure †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Configuring Sales Support Structure. Answer: Introduction: According to Arndt and Harkins (2013), sales support refers to activities carried out by the management to enable sales representatives make sales and close deals. These functions may differ per sales team, industry, and company. Sales support services can be offered by productivity tools, outsourcing teams, hired associates, and in extreme circumstances by sales representatives. It provides mechanisms through which sales representatives use to close deals. For Khalifa Gift Collection, there will be two types of sales support, tools, and helpers. There will be people, documents, and tools that the company will avail for the sales team to use. For example, sales support helpers will perform the following functions; active market communication, customer services, product training, and lead generation. Active market communications will entail public outreach strategies like press releases, paid advertising, and online promotions. The market awareness campaign will enable the sales team to make significant sales for the company since the market shall have been aware of the brand. Additionally, customer services and product training will help sales representatives have adequate knowledge to sell the gift collection. Moreover, informed customers about the brand will easily make a buying decision for the product when they are aware of its benefits. This is only viable through product training. Customer service will also help answer questions about the brand to enhance customer satisfaction. On the other hand, sales support tools include software and documents that will help sales representatives make sales. Sales documents will include brochures, presentations, or videos that explains the benefit of the product. For example, developing frequently asked questions on our website will help customers meet their needs even without getting into contact with sales representatives. Other software will include computer-aided designs and pre-programmed calculators to smoothen sales activities for Khalifa Gift Collection. Territory Allocation Territory allocation is the process of assigning a geographical area or a group of consumers to a particular salesperson (Adusei, Tenkorang, Tweneboah-Koduah, 2016). For example, the main territory for Khalifa Gift Collection will be Abu Dhabi City where the headquarters will be based. For the company to realize its sales objectives, the management will open shops in different territories and will be managed by territory managers. These areas have potential and present consumers of our gift collection. The main objective for allocating territories to managers is to save time and expenses of doing business, compete easily in this growing and competitive market, supervise and control over the sales force, and to hold territory managers responsible for sales and services they offer to our esteemed customers. Moreover, allocating territories to the manager will benefit Khalifa Gift Collection in the following ways; Avoiding duplication of sales effort as well as ensuring adequate market coverage. The demarcated territories will enable the company carry out a quicker market survey if there is a need. Territory allocation will help nurture a better relationship between the business and customers as managers will only sell in their respective geographical area. Khalifa Gift Collection management will easily identify underperforming areas as well as identify inefficient managers. Allocation of territories will increase competition among the sales representatives to achieve the set target to outdo other areas for bonuses. As such, the rate of stock turnover of the company will increase hence sustainable revenue. It will enable quick coverage of the entire target market for Khalifa Gift Collection and thus reach more customers. Khalifa Gift Collection will easily compare the performance of different managers, identify weaknesses and strengths of the various markets, and adjust at the right time. Targets are expectations that business take into consideration before engaging in business (Yakovleva, 2017). Khalifa Gift Collection shop and retail distribution targets middle to upper class in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). For instance, targets include; target market and sales target. In an open market, consumers are constantly looking for independent retailers who can offer them the home feeling by offering personalized shopping experiences. Moreover, most consumers often get deprived of the luxury to shop for their preferred items and thus looking for stores that offer services and products that match their value and quality. In this regard, the company is seeking to meet the requirements of this market segment. For example, Khalifa Gift Collection is targeting both male and female customers who are between 20 50 years, family oriented, value-conscious, quality conscious, homeowners, and educated individuals. The business shall attract these customers by offering uncommon and unique product selection Sales of gift items are usually seasonal. They sell most during special giving occasions or holidays. For example, items like collectible dolls and accessories, cards have more demand when children and students are graduating from one level of education to the other. Moreover, during festive seasons, sales go up. As such, Khalifa Gift Collection expects sales to reach $70,300 in the first year, $80,000 in the second year, and $90,500 in the third year for gifts and $68,750, $77,345, and $89,790 respectively for dolls and accessories for our main shop in Abu Dhabi City. Furthermore, each and every distributor will have his or her target depending on the market dynamics of those geographical locations. Intrinsically, targets will be different in every location. In addition, targets will be set and Khalifa Gift Collection will expect the distributors to increase sales revenue in subsequent years as projected by management. Strategies and tactics are techniques for pushing sales volume for the businesses (Yakovleva, 2017). Khalifa Gift Collection will use different unique marketing strategies and sales tactics. The business shall focus its marketing efforts on advertising on televisions, print media, online platforms, and billboards. We shall endeavor to increase consumer awareness by retaining the existing customers by promoting sales through newsletter mailings and seasonal postcard. The intention of mailing will be to announce holiday specials or special events during the year where the business shall pitch discounted products. Moreover, these events will help the company sell slow-moving products and vendor special promotions. This strategy means that Khalifa Gift Collection will center its marketing resources around personal sales in a friendly atmosphere to maximize customer service and sales promotion through displays in the events. Besides, Khalifa Gift Collection will offer coupons to customers during these events, which will encourage them to shop at our outlets later on.Khalifa Gift Collection will approach sales on a salesperson-customer relationship basis. Besides, the company will qualify leads before sales representatives which will help cut costs as well as enable better collaboration and communication. The company will endeavor to help customers using a personal approach. For example, the business will gather key information from the customer and seek performance feedback on the services and products offered. These feedbacks will help Khalifa Gift Collection in the following ways; Increasing awareness of the company's products within the retail consumer marketplace. Develop products and services to enhance shopping experiences for our customers. Develop merchandising formats and product offers that will the business increase sales. Target the company's marketing efforts more effectively. Developing future sales opportunities that will encourage business growth and expansion to other territories. Calendar and measurement According to Hudson (2018), a calendar is a tool that shows merchandising efforts, media campaigns, and marketing events efforts are happening where and when. The marketing calendar has the power and ability to coordinate, communicate, and measure performance. An example is at the appendix section. As such, it is a tool for planning for the whole team, sale representatives, and distributors to align and plan for the best results. Lack of adequate planning and inventory often derail execution of marketing strategies and sales tactics by the management. Therefore, a calendar will help Khalifa Gift Collection in the following ways; Effective communication is key to success for any organization. When the management drafts a calendar at the beginning of the year, then all the stakeholders will be aware what is expected of them and thus have a basis for measuring their performance. Moreover, posting the calendar to everyone is a great idea of getting them focused on the organizational goals. A calendar enables easier coordination between the operations and the sales team. It shows the specific items which are supposed to be used in carrying out specific tasks. As such, it minimizes misunderstanding when carrying out marketing for the products of the company. It forms a basis for measuring the plans against what has been achieved by both distributors and sales team. Growth in sales over the years is achievable when Khalifa Gift Collection will plan its activities early enough. For example, planning adequately for peak seasons, holidays and festive seasons shall help compare performance between the current and the previous year. As such, having a marketing calendar makes sure that the company maximizes its revenue during these occasions. Intrinsically, a marketing calendar helps measure and compare the performance of different outlets and years. References Arndt, A. D., Harkins, J. (2013). A framework for configuring sales support structure.Journal of Business Industrial Marketing,28(5), 432-443. Adusei, C., Tenkorang, C., Tweneboah-Koduah, I. (2016). Sales Territory Management and Distributor Performance in the Telecommunications Industry in Ghana.Expert Journal of Marketing,4(2). Hudson, M. (2018). Learn How a Marketing Calendar Increases Retail Sales. The balance. Retrieved on April 13, 2018 from: https://www.thebalance.com/marketing-calendar- 2890201 Yakovleva, Y. (2017). Effective Business Planning: Case Study: Company X.

Monday, April 6, 2020

So Deeply To Be Reverenced, So Fair, Essays - Divine Comedy

So deeply to be reverenced, so fair, My lady is when her smile bestows, All sound of speaking falters to a close And eyes which would behold her do not dare Of praises sung of her she is aware, Yet clad in sweet humility she goes A miracle in which the world may share. Dante Alighieri Sonet XXVI Lavita Nueva At age nine, Dante was graced by the beauty of Beatrice Portinari, and for the rest of his life, many of his writings portrayed his intense love for merely the thought of her which seemed to haunt him. Although his relationship with her was only from afar, within his mind, Beatrice captivated him as he believed she was a miracle sent from heaven. Women have been portrayed in every way throughout time. More often, women have portrayed as a model of Eve, the misguided seductress of Adam in the Bible. The lure of a woman is ambiguous, a mystery of the sensual persona that has captivated many medieval writers. Dante does not portray women as the weakness of all man, instead in his Comedia, Beatrice is the divine beauty and guide of his journey into heaven. Undoubtedly, Beatrice captivated Dante enough for him to dedicate his Comedia to, and through his vivid imagination, he recreates her as a heavenly spirit who protects his ultimate fate as she is the most influencial character. Dante wrote La Comedia in the age of religious devotion and fear of sin, which signifies La Comedia as an ultimate portrayal of medieval thought. A sure anxiety of the afterlife was cultivated by the rise of Christianity. What is the ultimate sin? How does one repent sin? What is the journey of the afterlife? Endless questions surely haunted the medieval mind, and Dante was surely fascinated by the possibilities. Within his curiosities was beatrice, who enchanted Dante and possibly encouraged his medieval mind, and Dante was surely fascinated by the possibilities. Within his curiosities was Beatrice, who enchanted Dante and possibly encouraged his writing of La Comedia after her death. My Soul- Such years had passed since last it saw that lady and stood trembling in her presence, stupefied by the power of holy awe- now, by some power that shone from her above the reach and witness of my mortal eyes, felt the full mastery of enduring love. Dante Alighieri La Comedia Canto XXX Purgatorio This is Dante's first sight of Beatrice in La Comedia. He has not seen her in ten years since her death, but at this first sight, he immediately feels his deep love for her. He dresses her in the colors of hope, faith and caritas, three divine qualities that he saw in her earthly presence and also here, on his way to Paradiso. Beatrice as a woman was Dante's inspiration, and even after her death, he portrays her as his most divine persona of perfection. In the medieval Christian mind, all divine beings (such as Beatrice) could read into the true soul of a mortal man. It is difficult to analyze Dante's motivation to write La Comedia, but his portrayal of Beatrice may have been a personal prayer to her. If Dante revealed his enchantment of her soul, his belief that she was a miracle sent from God, and his absolute love that consumed his every thought, possibly she would allow him into her heart when he died and made his own journey into heaven. Oh lady in whom my hope shall ever soar and who my salvation suffered even to set your feet upon Hell's broken floor Through your power and your excellence alone have I recognized the goodness and the grace inherent in the things I have been shown. Dante Aligheri La Comedia Canto XXXI Paradiso Throughout his life, Dante's most profound writings have been inspired by his utmost love for Beatrice. Dante graciously thanks Beatrice for his understanding of the divine virtues in his Comedia. Throughout his life, Dante had been inspired by the mere presence of her beauty and grace on earth, and as he portrayed her angelic persona in La Comedia. La Vita Nueva was a poetry book devoted solely to her, as La Comedia was his ultimate vision and appreciation of her

Monday, March 9, 2020

Effective Teaching and Learning Essays

Effective Teaching and Learning Essays Effective Teaching and Learning Essay Effective Teaching and Learning Essay EFFECTIVE TEACHING LEARNING Total word count : 1829 PGCE MFL French Assignment 1 Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. Benjamin Franklin Written Summary Activity 1 During my first week of induction, I had the opportunity to observe and sometimes take part in a wide range of language lessons in no less than the 4 different languages my placement school offers to its pupils. Being in a classroom with experimented MFL teachers not only inspired me even more to start delivering lessons myself but it also enabled me to reflect on a great number of issues discussed previously during the university course. Notwithstanding the importance of this experience, the pupil shadowing session was an even more revealing activity to some extent as I could , for the first time since I was myself a secondary school student, experience a full school day from a pupils point of view. Beyond the curricular aspect, what struck me the most was the great variety of teaching styles a Year 9 pupil can encounter in only a days time. Indeed, the level of involvement and autonomy of the pupils, the pace, the amount of cultural references or the behavior management were completely different from one lesson to another. This led me to the conclusion that the teacher is the utmost important element for the transmission of knowledge in the classroom and that radically different teaching styles lead themselves to completely different expectations, targets, and very different results in terms of behaviour, concentration, interest in the subjects and thus, overall achievement. Exploring subject Pedagogy Activity 2 Most educators agree that children need to be in supportive, friendly environments. (Hitz Driscoll, 1989) When observing a lesson, the most obvious thing one can observe a teacher doing to achieve such a goal is using praise. Praise in the classroom is a vast concept, and it can come in many forms, aim at different goals depending on the size of the class, the pupils age, their ability, their behaviour, their motivation or precisely their very attitude in response to praise and positive feedback. The two main types of praise are ability feedback and effort feedback. According to some research on the subject (Marsh, 1990) ability feedback is the generally the most valued kind of praise by the students, but effort feedback is the most efficient in actually improving their performances. (Dweck, 1999) Most MFL teachers in my placement school , a specialist language college, share their forms with another colleague from the department and thus end up teaching to a lot of different classes. To ensure continuity, they implemented a common feedback system for KS3 pupils which consists of giving stamp marks on their copybooks for good answers, and rewards after a certain number of stamps. I observed however that, as Meyer (1979) points out, certain kinds of praise [such as this one] may set up even the most capable students for failure. No student can always be good or nice or smart. In order to avoid negative evaluations, students may tend not to take chances and attempt difficult tasks. Hence the necessity of adding collective praise in order to instill a sense of togetherness as well as a collaborative atmosphere in the classroom and make sure that no pupils feel left behind. One of the teacher I observed often ends up her language lessons by praising collectively her class just before doing the plenary using expressions such as were all making progress or everybody did their best so that everyone is complimented. The idea behind this is that, regardless of their actual success in achieving the goals, all the learners should be given the same opportunity to improve themselves. Planning, delivery and evaluation of a learning episode Activity 3 The first learning episode I had the opportunity to teach was a plenary for a french year 11 top set class. There are 13 pupils, theyve already passed their GCSE and most of them with an A or above grade. Many of them have ,thus, high level speaking skills and can cope with high level listening activities. I took these facts into account while planning my plenary, which was aimed at introducing the topic they were about to start to work on the week after :La publicite. I wanted them to engage them from the start so I asked them to form pairs and to guess the nature of the topic only with the clues I gave them, one at a time to build up suspense. The aim was to get them interested and create a collaborative atmosphere, in teaching and MFL teaching specifically, activities have to be seen as useful and challenging, and what is more useful in the short term to actually know what the next topic youve got to prepare to work on will be. Although, even if I had planned that most o f the plenary would be in the target language, the hardest part was to actually stick to this and not be tempted to switch back too rapidly to English whenever a sentence or a concept wasnt understood well. Challenging the learners and having high expectation of them is one of the most important aspect of language teaching indeed. 1 Written reflection and synthesis Collaboration and contextualisation in the classroom Thorp et al. (1994) cited research indicating that students spend approximately 15,000 hours in the classroom environment during primary and secondary schooling. It is therefore important for students to have good experiences at school(Burnett, 2002) In comparison to academic success and attainment of targets, what actually is a good classroom environment is really hard to define as it can hardly be compared with figures and data. It is, though, an essential part of the teachers job to create an environment where pupils are at ease so it can become, as a result, a motivating and effective place to learn. Indeed, research suggests that a positive student-teacher relationship is an important aspect of a positive classroom environment (Birch Ladd, 1997) Collaboration in the classroom is multidimensional. Teachers collaborate with pupils by being supportive, encouraging and listening to their questions and problems; while pupils can collaborate with each other in group activities and with the teacher by making suggestions showing what are their own personal needs. Collective praise (cf. Activity 2) is one of the important aspects for a good classroom climate based on mutual understanding. By including the pupils by talking and giving feedback using the pronoun we instead of you , teachers can create a sense of shared endeavour; and , as I was able to observe during my induction, it seems to have a positive impact on the learners involvement in many cases, especially with KS3 pupils. The informal use of the target language itself during an MFL lesson can also be considered as a way of collaborating with pupils when greeting them or motivating so that they can do the same. On several occasions, I observed lessons where the teacher engaged themselves in an intellectual reflection with the pupils, fully involved themselves in the process and opened their lesson to pupils contributions and suggestions. In a top-set Year 9 German lesson, the teacher planned it with the goal of enabling the pupils to work on a new grammatical notion, the ultimate goal by the end of the lesson being to come to the conclusion of the existence of a clear pattern. During the whole lesson, the teacher wasnt in the role of the adult delivering its superior and wider knowledge to its classroom but more on the pupils side trying to team up with the whole class even if she obviously knew what was the outcome and had the knowledge of the notion. By doing this, she succeeded in creating a positive atmosphere and a certain sense of togetherness In a science lesson on genetics and cloning I attended during my pupil shadowing day, the teacher first introduced the topic and covered the subject from a scientific point of view during the first half hour and then involved the whole class in a debate over the ethical implications of cloning, while introducing new elements from the curriculum. The pupils really enjoyed exchanging their different point of view on this controversial topic and the teacher managed to challenge the pupils preconceptions by asking them why they came to such and such conclusion, how, and if it could be otherwise. (cf. Activity 1) She managed to fully engage the pupils while bringing a real-life context to her subject. Again, in MFL lessons, the use of the target language is a good way to bring a context to what is taught. Whether the learners are in the position of having to understand and respond to instructions in the target language, or when theyre involved in role-plays, they are implicitly putting their skills and knowledge in use and into context. The very presence of the target language in its written form in the classroom through displays, maps or revision posters is also very beneficial in immersing even more the learners in a language oriented environment. Some language lessons in my placement school are fully oriented towards cultural or historical topic. The promotion of and the understanding of other culture is indeed one of the most important aims of modern language studies. As an example, I observed a Chinese geography lesson aimed at revising some words and characters already learnt as well as learning more about Chinas cities and geographical features. Language assistants are especially helpful as well in that matter. Their very presence represents an amazing opportunity for pupils to practice the language and learn more about a foreign culture with a native speaker. There are 3 language assistants in my school and theyre indeed playing a very important role in adding meaning to learning. Exchanges and partnerships with foreign schools can also very beneficial as they enable even more pupils to have contacts with native speakers of their age and intercultural dialogue to take place. In my induction school, some Year 10 students hosted German pupils during and exchange weeks during which several activities were organised including a trip to York. This was a great opportunity for the German pupils to discover an historical city where they had never been before but also for the schools pupils to get an insight into their own culture and be able to make cross-cultural comparisons. The whole experience ,in fact, enabled them to develop a more objective view of their own local history but also their own customs and way of thinking. Beyond that, schools exchange whether its through correspondence or through actual travel to another country is a formidable way to get an insight in another countrys culture and way of life and , in many cases, the utmost source of motivation fo r learning a language which eventually is to be able to communicate and share with others. Whether it is through collaboration with the learners or proposing learning activities with the aim of developing cultural awareness, involvement in secondary education, and more specifically in language education, is a key to motivate learners to set themselves goals to attain. One of the role of a language teacher is to make sure that they seize any such occasion to challenge, fully engage their learners in the context of a relevant environment to eventually guide them toward success. Bibliography Meyer, W. Informational Value of Evaluative Behavior: Influences of Social Reinforcement on Achievement. JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 71(2) (1979): 259-268. Hitz, Randy Driscoll, Amy ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education Urbana IL. (1989) Marsh, H.W. (1990). The influences of internal and external factors of reference on the formation of English and math self-concepts. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82, 107â€Å"116. Dweck, C.S. (1999). Self-theories: Their role in motivation, personality, and development. Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press. Meyer, W. Informational Value of Evaluative Behavior: Influences of Social Reinforcement on Achievement. JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 71(2) (1979): 259-268. Paul C. Burnett, Centre for Research and Graduate Training, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, Australia Educational Psychology, Vol. 22, No. 1, 2002 Teacher Praise and Feedback and Studentsâ„ ¢ Perceptions of the Classroom Environment Thorp, H.S., Burden, R.L., Fraser, B.J. (1994). Assessing and improving classroom environment. School Science Review, 75, 107â€Å"113 Birch, S.H., Ladd, G.W. (1997). The teacher-child relationship and childrenâ„ ¢s early school adjustment. Journal of School Psychology, 35, 61â€Å"79. My key features for teaching School Larger than average size secondary school. The proportion of students known to be eligible for free school meals is well below average. The proportion of minority ethnic students is below average. The proportion of students with special educational needs and/or disabilities is well below average The proportion with a statement of special educational needs is broadly average. The school has a languages specialism. (OfSTED, 2010) Modern Foreign Languages : 13 teachers 3 language assistants 4 Modern foreign languages taught , + Latin Emphasis on and importance of grammar in the schemes of work A lot of resources available Language lab Exchanges with foreign schools French Available as a first or a second language First language in the school in terms of pupils learning it (Induction Block A school language classroom 03.10.2011) (Induction Block A school language classroom 03.10.2011) (Induction Block A school language classroom 03.10.2011)

Friday, February 21, 2020

To be Determined Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

To be Determined - Essay Example ’s grand architecture, the roads that traversed forty thousand kilometers of rugged terrain, thousands of provincial installations†¦or the government designed to manage the whole affair† (D’Atroy 3). However, such a large civilization could not be completely wiped out, and in modern day Peru there are still remnants of the old Inca culture and customs. While the empire does not exist in the ways it did from the thirteenth till sixteenth centuries, the influence of the Inca empire is undeniable. It is often times difficult to discern between myth and legends while researching the history of the Incas as their oral tradition often wove these together with facts: â€Å"None of Peru’s ancient cultures used the written word. They depended upon oral tradition, ceramics, painting† (Starn 15). While it is not certain exactly how much truth there is surrounding, it is generally believed that Manco Capac helped found the city of Cuzco after 1200 CE. Cuzco would grow to be the center of the entire Inca empire, but it grew rather slowly for several centuries. As far as the myth behind the origins of the Incas, Tici Viracocha is the creator god. Inti is the sun god, the son of Tici Viracocha. The sun was worshipped above everything else in Inca culture, and Inti was their highest god. The other gods included Mamaquilla, the moon goddess, Pachmama, the Earth goddess, Mamasera, corn goddess, Mamaqocha, and the ocean goddess. Tici Viracocha was supposed to have emerged from Lake Titicaca and destroyed the inhabitants of the surrounding regions of the lake after angering him. Tici Viracocha then populated the region with his own descendants. Nature was also worshipped in general, and more specifically animals such as jaguars and locations such as mountains were also worshipped. Sacrifices of food and animals were made to the gods, and human sacrifices were rather seldom in Inca culture, especially when compared to other empires such as the Aztecs. Inti, the

Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Financial Analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Financial Analysis - Assignment Example The move have been associated with the recent change plan in the company that has forced customers to pay monthly installments of over twenty months other than offering subsidized phones (Zachariadis, 2014). The installment and the contract plan both present an effect of binding the customers to the carriers. Having a huge number of customers floating without an obligation to the company presents a financial risk since the number of sales will go down. Apart from the customers issues the company is also facing financial risks from competitors such as T-mobile US inc., Sprint corp. and Verizon communication Inc. The three competitors present a financial risk to the company as they compete with AT &T for the available market (Summary for AT&T Inc.- Yahoo! Finance, 2014). The graph below is an income statement of the AT & T Inc. the total revenue of the company has registered improvement as per the information of the last three years. Operating income has also declined with 2013 registering the period when the company utilized a lot of capital as operating capital. Diluted EPS indicate the profit per each share. The company recorded high profit per share in the year 2013 as compared to the two different years (Summary for AT&T Inc.- Yahoo! Finance, 2014). The total revenue of the company increased from $127, 434 to $ 132,447 showing a great improvement that was the highest in the past five years. However, the gross profit recorded a decline from $77,288 to $71,836. The company was able to register the highest gross profit in 2013. However, it is the within the same year that the company utilized the highest amount of money $30,447 as operating income. Additionally, in 2013, the company was able to register a high income amount of around $18,249 with a decrease of up to $ 6,224 in the year 2014. The company also recorded a profit per share

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Zaha Hadid Is The Future Architecture Cultural Studies Essay

Zaha Hadid Is The Future Architecture Cultural Studies Essay Currently there are a lot of new buildings that have strong futuristic appearance and inspiring features, represent tomorrows skyline. The rapid development of technology like hybrid cars, slim size computers and advance communication gadgets has certainly shown us new heights of transformation. The influenced of architecture has come to its light. Imaginary arts and craft based on fictional space movies and illustrations have come a long way to introduced and to be recognized for its rare platonic solids and geometry constructions. The society is getting more positive and acceptance with the growth of new technology and high development futures. The world is evolving to a new era and by tomorrow there will be more of these buildings appearing as part of the city infrastructure. The architect Zaha Hadid or Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid who is well known for her intense de-constructivist designs and neo-modernist designs in the architecture industry. Her designs are similar to Sci-Fi movies that create forms of morph, shape change geometries and breaking the rules of space. She emphasized her work based upon the concept of de-constructivist designs on a prism shape that in-cooperates between interior and exterior influences. The overall form is based on cutting away or reshaping the surface to look like a deform prism or crystal debris. It is therefore resurrecting a historical element that had become largely absent from the square. This is how she would choose her earlier designs to look like. The rapid developments from big cities in England, America and China may have some strong appraisal for Zaha Hadids creations and attracted many to her concepts of a new city infrastructure should have and in-cooperated for the future. Previously, huge events like the Beijings Olympics and the Shanghai Expo has proven her design is necessary for a new horizon. Her works is the result of that imagination, her structures can be empathized only as a fragment of a new continuous pattern and that is finally getting paid worthy of her effort. She had introduced some alternatives and new concepts in architecture to the world and may be accepted by many who like her works but there are some may find it rather less institutional, lavishly expensive to the cost and the commissions she is getting. She only interested in the onetime wow factor as a signature creation than thinking about the effectiveness and the long run purpose of the building. Her critics mentioned her work as a design blunder for the London Aquatic Center and her success with the Cardiff Bay Opera House competition was unpleasantly re-evaluated immediately after an outrage to the idea of building it. She may be a good designer with sense of creativity for a specific culture but this culture is limited to certain things. Her works were compared with Michael Hopkins Velodrome versus the London Aquatics Centre that has drawn some attention about her design flaws. The Velodrome was developed through a near hostile approach; it synchronized slowly with the peoples input by various members in a multi level integrated design team which combined the inputs of others. Perhaps though a point where the despite disparities of architecture developments and lack of fairness for those may have some differences. Thus without claiming the full universality in design culture, I am inclined to see patterns that insist on comparison, and hence on explorations of the linkages between futuristic designs, society experience and normative mores across boundaries between their struggles and success. At least in the early modernity of this new architecture era, the connections seem to me compelling. (History) Here is a little history about her background as she would mature and be one of the many architects in the deconstructivist movement. Architect Zaha Hadid is not only the first female and a foreign Muslim woman, and also a winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize which is equivalent the Nobel Prize in architecture, an award can only takes a life time to archive for architects. She ranked 69th in the Forbes magazine and enlisted as one of The worlds 100 most powerful women. After winning the Pritzker prize she still has a lot to struggle with her own hands when it comes to some projects.   In her last 15 years, there has been some tremendous change and now it seems as normal to have women in this profession but still very difficult for women to operate in this profession because there are some worlds are limited for them to access.  She experienced resistance but she kept on her own path, her direction and her focus on her long run ambition as an architect. Zaha Hadid from Baghdad, born in the year 1950, she grew together in a very peaceful and developing Iraq, not from the one we known of today. The Iraq of her childhood days was a wonderful place, western-oriented country with a growing economy that flourished until the year 1963, Baath politics took over the government and her father was a wealthy politician, economist and industrialist and at that time, a co-founder for the National Democratic Party of Iraq. Her father taught her cultures of the world while always reminding the significance of her traditions and her heritage. He used and learned this through at the London School of Economics and joined forces with the resistant party against foreign occupation. His political views on the industrialization economy of Iraq, property issues and the nationalization of the countrys oil have influenced her thoughts of the world. Her childhood experiences brought her to belief in open communication between people, but also a conviction in Iraqis freedom. She was proud of her fathers achievements and there is no reason why she would not be equally ambitious just like her father. In the past, female role models were plenty in Iraq, but in architecture, in the Middle East, there were none in the 1950s to the 1960s. She was educated in Baghdad in a school run by French Roman Catholics, and continued part of her secondary education years in Switzerland and The Great Britain. During her elementary education, she mixed with different cultures. She attended a nun school with Christian, Jewish, and Islamic girls but this is the first indication of a cultural exchange for her. She felt separated from her traditions because of her Christianity education. She never had proper religious schooling as a Muslim. Education in Arab countries, Islam or Arab culture is the same, it is only a cultural differences. Zaha Hadid became interested in architecture at the age of eleven, although she would pursue her other academic education. A family friend was working on a housing project for her relatives and would bring models to show her. Her parents thought she would like to see more arts and craft by taking her to architecture exhibitions in her childhood days. The mixed between Arab and Western influences, she developed her personal interest towards architecture. She returned to the Middle East to continue her education at the American University in Beirut from 1968 to 1971 and studied related subjects of physics, modern mathematics, math, and philosophy, shortly before she studied architecture. She returned back to Britain and in 1977 she then received a diploma from the Architectural Association (AA) in London. The Architectural Association (AA) in London in the 70s was a good environment for young, ambitious and independent architects. This particular area becomes a very solid foundation for architects to grow and to achieve their success; this is where famous architects got their education and the place in which her academic refinement began developing from 1972 and to the next 5 years. During her years at AA she had more time to expand her ideas and creating her own architectural methods. People like Bernard Tschumi and Daniel Libeskind are big names of todays award winning architect designers. While there, she studied with Rem Koolhaas, Elia Zenghelis, Daniel Libe-skind, and Bernard Tschumi and among others. In the early 1968, optimistic modernism was abandoned and was caused by the economic uncertainty and cultural issues. The architecture industry was affected too. Rem Koolhaas founded OMA in 1975 together with others, like Elia Zenghelis, Zoe Zenghelis and (Koolhaass wife) Madelon Vriesendorp in London. After that, Koolhaas recruited his student as a partner was Zaha Hadid who would eventually achieved her own success later in life. Koolhaas offered her a job working with them in his new firm, the Office for Metropolitan Architecture or OMA. But she didnt last very long working for them. The relation Zaha Hadid with OMA was more of a fundamental level than working as a team with them. There was almost a kind of no dialogue basis between them. They did support her when she needed guidance. Koolhaas did serve as a mentor and a friend. As her former tutor, he could appreciate her style of work and the thoughts she had when she was still in AA. She obviously respects his opinions, comments and values his friendship when she was still his student. Koolhaas reviewed her as a planet orbiting in her own way. She had her thoughts about architecture and waiting for the right time to ripe. This relationship soon became too restrictive for her, although she and Koolhaas remained close friends. Soon after that, she taught at AA and until 1987 she led her own studio. She started teaching while developing her own visions of neo-modernist architecture, which referred back to modernisms times in the constructivism and suprematism from the early 20th century of architecture. Her final graduation hotel project at Londons Hungerford Bridge was motivated by Malevichs Tectonik. Written in the year 1928 after the suprematist, Kasimir Malevich wrote we only recognized space when we are separated from the ground, to a state of mind, where there is no more constraints to retain. her works were inspired by these words and from then onwards her creations become landscapes which metaphorically transformed her way of thinking design, literally this would be todays reality. She formed and founded Zaha Hadid Architects ZHA in 1980. She has gone to produce internationally acclaimed award winning designs for structure buildings and interiors around the world. Zaha Hadid was hired to teach in a number of institutions. The year 1994 she was teaching in 3 different institutions in the United States: the Kenzo Tange Chair at Harvard Universitys School of Design, University of Illinoiss School of Architecture, the Sullivan Chair, and the Master Studio at Columbia University. Since then, the prominent University for Applied Arts has appointed her as professor in Vienna, Austria in the year 2001. (Theoritical) Zaha Hadid obsession with shadows and light rooted from the Islam architecture, while its flows openly, charging forward like an ocean bed and crash to impact, deforming a metaphor tsunami, together with an unbalance of modern urban landscapes. All of this would have been impossible without the support through computer technology, architects given the endless possibility creating any shapes they want to have. Such extreme rhythm of shapes required significant investment and time, financially and engineering capabilities. Her style has been described as todays De-constructivist and Neo-modernist. In the Britains Design Museum discussed her work referring to baroque modernism. Like Francesco Borrominis Baroque classicists demolished ideas of Renaissance, using a single perception that desire for an unstable nature. Zaha Hadid against both the classically rules, modernism references from Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and the rules of architecture space. She would reconstruct the idea to what she said as a new fluid, kind of spatiality of design of multiple perspective points and fragmented mesh geometries, designed to attach the chaotic forms of modern living quarters. Perhaps her style was partially inspired by her tutors work, when Zaha Hadid graduated in 1977, Rem Koolhaas offered her a job but she didnt last long. If she got attracted to any of the tutors in her past, it was Rem Koolhaas, he was writing his books for the 1977s Delirious New York and working his neo-modernity ideas. This has set Rem Koolhaass career and he described the a desire for a change in city living: The environment is an obsessive high-tech city which is inescapable in his book. He explained the city was a group of red hot spots. He acknowledged that this method had already been proven in the Japanese Metabolist Movement from the 1960s to the 1970s. (Contextual / Asia Design Movement) The scheme for The Peak in Hong Kong 1983 marked a shift in her ability to sense certainties from her past, the resistance between the complexity of order and chaos. Her passion remains in her work, creating abstract architectures. Her works were recognized and accepted in Asia, this all started from her first encounter of a project that signaled her breakthrough in the year 1983. The Hong Kong competition project was The Peak, a sports club and she won first place for the competition entry in The Peak project. Her contest scheme was discarded by some technical reasons, but a late judge pulled it back from the disqualified submissions. The scheme was to feature a sports center with multiple floors; however it was never build because the developer went bankrupted after the incident. The building from Weil-am-Rhein in Germany, or known as the The Vitra fire station completed in the year 1993 was Zaha Hadids first project, which later converted in to a museum. In the year 2002, she designed the Hoenheim-North Terminus and Car Park at Strasbourg, France and the Bergisel Ski Jump overlooking Innsbruck in Austria. Since then, in the 2003 she was getting closer to worldwide recognition. The Expo 2010 in Shanghai China was a major World Expo in the convention of international fairs and expositions, the first since 1992. The theme for the trade fair Better City   Better Life an indication to the world, the coming of next great world city, will eventually influence the 21st century. It had the largest number of countries participating and was the priciest in record for worlds Expo trade events. In the year 2002, China will host the World Expo events and their given assignment is to rearrange Shanghai city. The Germany pavilion is one of the popular European pavilions in the expo. The theme, entitled Balancity contributes the devotion from the word, balance. The outlook of the structure is more of an asymmetrical balance, maintaining the heavy giant roof and the awkward arrangements that seem almost impossible to build. The architect Lennart Wiechell from Schmidhuber +Kaindl Gmbh Germany was the designer for this project. At first glance, every angle of the building is different, like shattered geometries stacked together in one structure. The building seems to have an awkward position of gravity; the top is heavier than the bottom, observing in different parts of the building, the whole structure given the impression of an unstable nature. As a cluster of geometries hold each other perfectly and expressing the name balancity through architecture. The building had similar resemblance of Zaha Hadids work which refers to deconstructivist appeal and defying the rules of gravity with bizarre geometries. Architects from all around the world like Zaha Hadid had set foot in to Chinas development projects and winning architectural success. Case Study (1) (Public Critic) One of her worst un-built projects that she had during the year1996 when she won the design for Cardiff Bay Opera House which was discard, it was assumed as a crucial component for the Cardiff Bay redevelopment projects in the1990s. The development was thought to be a new opera house in Cardiff but in turn out The Wales Millennium Centre was built, replacing the original plan and in the year 2004, it was completed. The Cardiff Bay Opera House Trust established an international design competition to decide on the architect project. The competition would be finalized in two rounds. In round one, the competition started with 268 international competitors and Zaha Hadid won the first round. Her avant-garde design for the main theatre was covered by a radical design glass structure. Nevertheless, her work and design was interesting enough and unique that the Cardiff Bay Opera Houses Trust, Lord Crickhowell as the chairman, requested Zaha Hadid to re-submit her work again, together with Norman Foster and Partners and Manfredi Nicoletti, who were asked to re-submit their work and revised for amendments, in round two, she won again in the second round competition. The conclusion to refuse the bid was announced on 22nd of December 1995, the lottery money is to fund the project by the Millennium Commission. The Royal Opera House in London was backup by the Millennium Commission has affected the bid to turn sour, which was seen exclusively for that. The development did not gain sufficient supports from South Glamorgan County Council or possibly the media affected Cardiff City Councils decision. The Millennium Commission and the UK National Lottery which supposedly to provide funds for the development, decline to support for the project as it measured to be a financially issue. This was not relieved by the successful submission funding for the Millennium Stadium. In due course, the project collapsed and was rumored about the provincialism and the conservatism had damaged the outcome in associate to the modern architecture and partly because the Millennium Stadium was supported by the Cardiff Council. In the event of the news conference, Virginia Bottomley, Secretary of State for National Heritage announced that the project was imperfect by some questionable issues related to its financial and development troubles that would caused reservations for the project and the building. Lord Crickhowell interrupted the news conference to condemn the refusal. He said the result was dreadful and making no sense at all, If this project was from London it would have gathered enough supports. The important projects from London will allow this to go on; however we cant get hold of this sort of effectiveness. The developers of the competition made a standpoint towards to those who they consider unconventional has affected and scared Zaha Hadids career. After she won the 1994 competition entry for the Cardiff Bay Opera House was taken off and re-evaluated, resentment at the idea of building it. They sustain creativity output up to a certain limit of production and then the project will be eliminated because the development did not win enough supports financially from the Millennium Commission, the UK National Lottery, the organization which distributes funds to the project. The Cardiff Bay Development Corporation presented the plan was to construct a long term residency for the Welsh National Opera on a location near the Inner Harbor at Cardiff Bay. The design was nicknamed the Crystal Necklace by media, considering the estimation price of this building was far fetching from their expectation. The theater was valued at  £86 million quoted by Zaha Hadid at the time and it was a tragic moment for the people of Wales and a victory for petty-mindedness. The Sun newspaper published a hate campaign and First Secretary of the Welsh Assembly Rhodri Morgan mocked the design project was disrespectful version to the Kabah in Mecca, believing that a punishment from god would fall upon Cardiff. The Cardiff Bay Opera House was neglected from the project organizer; Millennium Commission after a heated argument opposed from the local campaigner, particularly Cardiff politicians worried of such radical architecture was being forced on to Welsh city by Londons decision. The authorities were knee in the conservative political traditions and the architectural culture had emerged since the 1970s. The acceptance has come slowly for her. After the competition for the opera house for Cardiff Bay in Wales in the year 1994, her post modernism design was put down by the locals and those who criticized her work and in the end; her request to build the stadium was rejected. As the replacement for this project, the Wales Millennium Centre was built, which included a wider range of artistic offerings, keeping with the Welsh heritage and the opera traditions. The Centre opened in November 2004, on location originally planned for the Opera House. The popular design movement was slowly becoming more daring, but her ideas were far beyond their kind. It was an unexcited moment, for several years which set her back in her office, but one thing she learnt from the competition, the politics that involves her. Later, she became more philosophical, seeing it as a turning point in her career. She slowly learnt to have faith and walk again. After she won the Pritzker Prize that followed with her wild competitive attitude towards her avant-garde aesthetic nature has softened. She responded much of her current behaviors in to two undecided conclusions, living in anger over her failed Cardiff project or strained herself to insomnia. Of course it was unpleasant, she said, she mentioned her lost was an important experience after Cardiff Bay. The year 1999 was like the dark ages for her. She did not stop working and continued producing some of my best work. She said defying the rules in that early period changed the way people identify architecture. She got upset that she wasnt able to achieve her breakthrough success along with Cardiff Bay. She described her experience was traumatic and It became a cause celebrity. Everyone was getting on to something, which was never allowed outsiders to win projects that were unknown and not part of their union. They did not accept the truth I was only a woman and to consider the winner was a foreigner as well. I do not have a label or a typecast being stereotype, as a woman they would let you get off, but others will never escape that, she said. She trusted her status being a foreigner, a non- British national and working as a female architect in London, has everything to do with good fortune. In contrast, you are not their type, not a male, not a European origin, there are certain priorities that regardless for all the things you can do for them, you are still forbidden to enter. Im not close to be a member of their brotherhood. I will never be golfing with men or riding on a boat trip with them, it will not occur in any time, She complained. In America, its different, the co-existence between men and women are professionally equal and justifiedbut not so much in Britains culture. We were shamed by them who remembered the problem but they dont seem to know what happened. She mentioned the aftermath of Cardiff would have finalized her decision to resign. There isnt any purpose for me to go on like this, but I had no choice, she said. She made an awakening resolution in 1996, I made a choice, I will not let them escape with this, and I will survive. She and her 20 staff members in the office knew there was no work, distracted and yet they carried on. After several years, she felt herself and her team mates were slightly more relaxed and now driven more by trouble-free wishes to create better things. She said that she could have done things better in general. I have ideas and plenty of it and certainly, just like all things, you need to amend them first, but being an architect you only wish to accomplish better projects and spaces. Case Study (2) (Public Debate) An exhibition held at the Galerie of Gmurzynska at Zurich, a debate entitled Zaha Hadid and Suprematism. The 1920s Soviet avant-garde, as her style and method, displayed works from Kasimir Malevich and others. Zaha Hadids partner and assistant, architect Patrik Schumacher, he is also a theorist, presented his talk, A Glimpse Back into the Future. Patrik Schumacher, Zaha Hadids architectural partner (ZHA) he is also an abstract speaker for 16 years and a content writer, producing theoretical texts to go alongside in every museum and opera house. He disagreed by the next century of art and architecture will be so popular up to this frustrated decade that nothing has been done; it wasnt planned by the Soviet avant-garde, the time, the amount and value of that creative work of art, knowledge and creation was truly amazing. It was only one blink of an eye and it took 50 years spreading it to the world. He stressed the respect for this abstraction, referring to the extreme of non-referable concepts, Non-Objective World of Kasimir Malevich and Suprematist painters and architects that followed him, creating space where earthly rules were challenged.Malevich was a founder for abstraction and the first who found abstract art with architecture applying his shaping tectonics. It is exciting, however, to observe these tectonic sculptures, which were visualized as a form of a prototype architecture, where geometries being restricted like his composition paintings, too cubic and almost mathematical, leaping into this independence of oblivion. There is one person, who will never follow accordingly to the same direction. Since the early Russian avant-garde Zaha Hadid was inspired and took the first inspiration, absorbed with the works of Kasimir Malevich, reflecting this insight in to her first major project. The Project Malevichs Tektonik was a proposal for Suprematist style in replacement for Londons Hungerford Bridge The Russian avant-garde could not be completely combined with architecture, not without people like Zaha Hadid building it, into a completely non-objective space, Even now Malevich persisted to free the last ruins from this spatial of reality. From a different point of view, These projects, Schumacher wrote, in their entire radical experiments hidden a social message and a political agenda. But the social experiment from the Russian context has weakened in comparison with their artistic ingenuity and innovation. Since the early 20th century the Russian Futurist and Constructivist movements were inspirations for the deconstructivist architects using their creative architectures and graphics. Architects, deconstructivist, Zaha Hadid and many others were influenced by this idea of using graphics and geometrical forms from artist and creators like Kazimir Malevich, El Lissitzky, and those who were part of this movement. Deconstructivism and Constructivism has been associated creating abstract art sculptures with tectonic structures. As the fundamental artistic element, both were linked with this radical plainness of using geometrical objects, articulated in all related forms of graphics, architecture and sculptures. The concentration of Constructivist towards purism is because when the missing element of Deconstructivism, the situation of an object or figure is usually disfigured when construction buildings is deconstructed. *The general graphic patterns of constructivism were usually drafted and share the similar nature with technical and engineering drawings. Zaha Hadid is not theorist. In the early 1980s, people like Bernard Tschumi, Peter Eisenman, Daniel Libeskind are passionate architects, graduated from architecture schools and they are the contemporaries of deconstructivism. She has no intention to justify her forms, although she always referred the similarities of Marxian Soviet avant-garde. Daniel Libeskind gave a talk at the TED conference 2009 in America; his talk was entitled 17 words of architecture inspirations.Buildings are an important form of expression in society, and we should attempt to make them as exceptional as we can, whenever we can. Through his speech, he was stressing the words optimism, political, expression, inexplicable, emotional, hand, real, raw, communicative and democratic is about human beings. He believed architecture should be like people on an intense human level, rather than ideological or contextual level. Whether his architecture achieves that goal is another debate. Likewise, the use of words like radical, risky, complex, unexpected and space, explaining the possibilities to explore deep space rather than explaining what we have here on earth. This idea to assume architecture has similar forms like human beings or a living creature. Daniel Libeskind works as an architect, architectural theorist, a professor and a deconstructivist for many years; when he was 52 year old, his very first building was completed; the Felix Nussbaum Haus opened in the year1998. As a result, critics had rejected his impractical creations as impossible to build or excessively bold. His first design competition that he won was a typical housing project in West Berlin, the year1987, but the housing project was immediately canceled right after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the early 1990s, he entered several design competitions and winning projects of the first four. The Jewish Museum Berlin, completed in 1999, was Daniel Libeskinds first foreign achievement and it was the first designers building constructed since after the reunification. Most critics labeled his crafts are forms of deconstructivism. Like many great buildings in our time, his designs puzzle the expectations about the city and the characteristic of its furnishings. He is an abstract architect and from his talk as a supernatural-being trying to persuade the public about his ideas. Thus, the more tortured and alienating it is, the better the building. As city after city bends over for these actions, the architect takes on his ego. Daniel Libeskind defying all logic, in one incident he persuaded museum of Palestine to waste hundreds of millions of American dollars on buildings that hardly function, that leaks continuously and hated by the public. It is sad that, he was using the philistine reaction of people who doesnt know as much as he does. His undercut and belittle attitude comes across in every single part of his talk. This could be his confidence and his inner self believing that this rule of deconstructivism which is also the core concept, against every single rule of todays architecture. Since the late 1980s deconstructivism developments were part of this post-modern architecture. The concepts were referring to fragmentations, an interest of influence ideas using structures surface or skin, shapes which use the purpose to deform and disrupt various building blocks of architecture, for instance constructions and bends. The complete visual of buildings that exhibit has that development styles of deconstructivist, depicting the inspiration of controlled disorder within its unpredictability nature. The history of the deconstructivist movement started in the year 1982, from the architectural design competition of Parc de la Villette, the winning entry goes to Peter Eisenman, Bernard Tschumi and Jacques Derrida at that time. In the year of 1988 Deconstructivist Architecture made its first appearance, held an exhibition in New York at the Museum of Modern Arts and the following year of 1989, the Wexner Center building for the Arts was opened in Columbus and the building was originally designed by architect Peter Eisenman. The exhibition in New York displayed works from Frank Gehry, Daniel Libeskind, Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid and others. Ever since the exhibition was held, some of the known architects who were involved with this Deconstructivism avoided themselves from this union. Some of the architects known as Deconstructivists were greatly influenced by Jacques Derridas ideas, the philosopher from Franc

Monday, January 20, 2020

European Society During The Time of The Communist Manifesto :: History Historical Essays Communism

European Society During The Time of The Communist Manifesto At the time the Communist Manifesto was written, European life had become far more urbanized than the previous years. During this period, society in Europe was undergoing great change. This great change arose from many influential factors. Among these factors, modern education, social structure of the bourgeoisie and laborers, and Marxism had immense effects on the everyday life of European citizens. During the 1800’s, an integral step towards building a more modern society in Europe was the change in education. Formal learning and obligatory attendance began to take place in schools. The demand for children to attend school kept them out of the work place that they had inhabited for so many years. Another important aspect of schooling was the enforcement of teaching both sexes. The education of boys had been increasing for years, but at this point girls now had the opportunity to learn. As this change in education became more popular, literacy increased among young students. The ability to read and write became commonplace. The change in the way education was formatted increased the number of students willing to learn. The increase in the number of students caused even more change in the structure of education in Europe. Older schools were forced to offer new curriculum to keep up with the times. New schools had to keep bringing in new classes for students to choose from. It became hard for old universities to adapt to this societal change. As the schools began to change, they eventually became more expensive and necessary. Those who attended or worked for a university became more respected and honored in society. Professors were among those of the elite class and were thought of as extremely well educated. Their place in society was far ahead of that of pre-university teachers. They had a high salary, educational assistants, and good vacation time. Before this change in education, some teachers were not much farther ahead of their students and did not have the allowances of the professors in the late 19th century. The educational system change in Europe in the 19th century greatly improved the life of children. There were more agencies to help families and widows with children. The middle class became more considerate of their children and these children began to populate a large portion of the world.