Compare/Contrast Emily Rose Roderick Usher Essay

Edgar Allan Poe’s â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher† and William Faulkner’s â€Å"A Rose for Emily† are two examples of Gothic literature. There are many characteristics of Gothic literature ghostly settings, glumness, and evil predominant over good. All of these traits exist in both stories. Gothic literature was more often than not set in an old building, house, or castle that depicted human decomposition, which formed a feeling of unknown and apprehension. William Faulkner’s â€Å"A Rose for Emily†, and Edgar Allen Poe’s â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher†, both use gothic elements of technique in relating the exterior in order to reflect the grimness these characters feel. The main characters of both stories, Emily, and Roderick both attribute similar characteristics since both stories are of similar Gothic literature. Although both main character deal with Gothic storyline and death there is a lot that the two do not have in common. The title â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher† not only pertains to the collapse of the mansion but also to the lingering family members living within the building, and in this case mirrors the characteristics of Roderick. â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher,† starts off on a â€Å"†¦ dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year†¦. † The reader right off the bat is attentive of the grim sense of fester and death. Roderick’s childhood friend (the narrator) explains, â€Å"a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded spirit† as he came closer to the house. Many similarities link the character to the physical attributes of the gothic house throughout the story. On the other hand Emily, in â€Å"A Rose for Emily† had a â€Å"big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street. † Throughout her seventy-five years Miss Emily’s house went from a beauty to â€Å"an eyesore among eyesores. † She along with Roderick by the end of their lives were living in old, dark, decaying mansion with spider webs and dust everywhere. Although both of these characters have very similar environments they had different views when it came to death. Roderick’s character is accepting the death of his sister, repenting and not mad, while Emily is not regretful and not in her right mind. ? Lady Madeline, Roderick’s sister by incest, becomes very ill and dies leaving Roderick as the last of the family. Roderick puts her into a tomb in his house and he later comes to find out that she is not dead. On the contrary, Emily, finds out that Homer, her lover was either homosexual or â€Å"not the marrying type† she uses arsenic, rat poison, to kill him so she wasn’t being abandoned by him. Therefore Roderick lost his lover due to illness, so he thinks, and Emily murders hers so she doesn’t have to be alone. Both characters have a skewed perception on love and relationships, which makes them similar. Roderick has unnatural relationships with his family. Him and his twin sister and the only two left of the Usher family and he is in love with her. Roderick doesn’t have a relationship to society he has no friends. He also does not have much of a relationship with nature; nature ceases to exist around his home. Black water, and decaying tree trucks surround it. He also has an unnatural relationship with his own mind. His mind and body are at war with each other. He is very sensitive to light, he can’t take noise and he only can eat very bland food. When a human being has no support system at all they go crazy. Emily had very unnatural relationships. She was controlled by her father, and was not allowed to go out with anyone. She didn’t know what love was so she clung to her father and held on to what she knew. When her father passed she searched for love and found Homer, she wanted him there all the time. This relationship was very twisted because when she found out he did not want her she killed him and slept with his corpse every night so she didn’t feel abandoned. After she passed many people came to her funeral â€Å"the men through a sort of respectful affliction†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The difference between Roderick and Emily was she had known by people in her town but had not seen them or spoken to them â€Å"in at least ten years. † Even with some similarities, there are many differences between the Roderick and Emily. One case in point is their madness level. It is apparent that neither Roderick nor Emily is in their right minds but it also very apparent that Emily is absolutely delusional. Roderick is alone since his sister â€Å"died† and has no one, like I stated before when you have no support system whatsoever it is only a matter of time before you loose your mind. Roderick does grieve over his sisters â€Å"death† and takes care of her body respectfully by putting her inside of the tomb. When Roderick finds out his sister is still alive he ends up dying with her in his arms from pure shock. †¦then with a low moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon the person of her brother, and in a violent and now final death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors he had anticipated. † Emily on the other hand lives in a state of denial. She doesn’t pay bills or taxes, she doesn’t realize that colonel is dead, she refuses to number her house, her house is very old and doesn’t fit in the town, and she still has china paintings. She murders her â€Å"lover† and continues to sleep with his corpse and see’s nothing wrong with anything she is doing. She is down right insane. She was not seen as a monster because she had never seen love and she was just trying to hold on to what she perceived as love. Both of these characters were in extreme psychological states but in the â€Å"Fall of the House of Usher† Roderick states, â€Å"I have no abhorrence of dangers, except in its absolute effect—in terror. † By this he tries to explain himself as a frightened and misconstrued man, not a crazed lunatic. This confirms the conclusion of repentance. Emily shows no shame by keeping the man she murdered and continuously sleeping with his corpse. She believes she has done no wrong and that he was wrong for wanting to leave her. Roderick nonetheless feels saddened when he believes that his sister passed away and when he finds out that she was still alive he feels shocked, guilty, and shameful. His sister was all he had and he did not want her to leave him just like Emily did not want Homer to leave her but Roderick was not a murderer unlike Emily. Wrapping up, there are many comparisons between Roderick and Emily, as well as many, discrepancies between the two characters. They both had no sense of time, they both were in extreme psychological states, they both had skewed ideas of love, they both had very unnatural relationships, and they both lived in old Gothic mansions. The underlying meaning of both of these stories had to do with death and both of these characters ending up dying at the end of the story. In conclusion there were more similarities than differences but when you read more into the stories the characters were very different in many ways.

Insights provided by behavioural finance for personal finance strategy creation

Abstract Behavioural finance’s potential to impact personal finance planning has long been a topic of substantial debate.This essay examines the correlation of the field of behavioural finance to the formation of personal strategy with the goal of illustrating the strengths and weaknesses of the approach. The results of this study illustrate the close bond that lies between the psychological state and the investment patterns undertaken by active investors. This research will be of interest to any person studying the impact of behavioural finance on personal strategy. Introduction The field of behavioural finance is argued to have a considerable impact on personal financial planning, personal finance and strategy formation (Banerjee, 2011). This area is cited by many to have the capacity to dictate the plan that a person might choose to employ during the course of forming a personal investment strategy. Effective planning is central to the identification and subsequent illustration of systemic and habitual manners that can be both positive and detrimental in the course of creating the best price and return on investment (Baker et al, 2010). Beginning with a clear examination of impact, this essay sets out to define and provide a demonstration of the impact that behavioural finance can have on the entirety of a personal financial strategy with the intent of providing the means to avoid future mistakes. Behavioural Finance Benartzi (2010) defines the area of behavioural finance as the use of psychological based insights to create economic strategy. This approach demonstrates the potential impact that day to day emotions and basic intuition can have on a personal financial situation. In many cases, the use of emotion to operate investment strategy has resulted in a significant failure or systematic issues that continuously plague the investor (Benartzi, 2010). This suggests that some emotion-based investing is either ill-timed or ill-conceived and therefore faulty and liable to lead to significant losses in the short- to mid-term. Conversely, many argue that intuition, based on effective knowledge, has the capacity to lift an investor above the majority and provide a method of obtaining great investment gains (Benartzi, 2010). In contrast to emotional investing, basing a strategy on an inherent skill or talent is suggested here to have the innate capability to achieve the end goal of base profit. Howev er, the line between emotional or biased investment and undiluted intuition seems to be slight and extraordinarily slippery, leading directly to poor financial planning. Meier (2010) illustrates the position that many mainstream investors can be identified as the classical or standard variant. This form of investor commonly assumes that they know what is in the best interest of their portfolio and it is well within their power to implement (Meier, 2010). This method of investment operates on the notion that rivalry between firms will maintain competition and therefore require minimal oversight, enhancing trust in the endeavour. However, this view is offset by the behavioural financial argument that contends that investors are often confused or misled, and despite the best intentions of many investors there is often significant lack of follow through during the strategy process (Meier, 2010). This suggests that psychology has direct and compelling impact on any formation of a personal investment plan and that often less than optimal decisions are made. Further expanding on this point is the practical issue of the need for regulation in a world often described as corrupt and morally bankrupt (Paramasivan et al, 2009). Taken together, the separation of mainstream theory from behavioural reality seems to lead many investors to incomplete assumptions and poor patterns of investment behaviour and financial planning. McAuley (2009) illustrates the view that common decision making is based a concept referred to as heuristics or common sense rules of thumb. These approaches utilise the same capacity that humankind has employed to make day to day decisions for centuries (McAuley, 2009). However, many investors commonly use poor or mistaken data in their efforts to make a profitable investment in often volatile markets (Forbes, 2009). This concept supports that notion that there is the opportunity for investors to utilise an incorrect data model in order to create strategies, which in turn can lead to substantial losses and an eventual fundamental failure of strategy. Further expanding on this point is the creation of bias during the assessment process (McAuley, 2009). Bias is commonly defined as randomised departures from the rational process, although there is often a link to the rational base (Subrahmanyam, 2008). This suggests that some decision making is based on inherently poor material, which in turn is credited with leading the entire strategy to decline. With each loss there is a continual perpetuation of the bias cycle, with negative actions resulting in consistently negative consequences (Baker et al, 2011). Alongside this link to emotional investment patterns, there have been several forms of bias recognised and addressed during the process of personal fjnance formation and financial planning. Insufficient adjustment is the inherent bias on the part of the investor to overlook the larger market picture and remain too conservative in their investment approach (McAuley, 2009).With this lack of confidence in the building strategy on the part of the investor, there is a very dim prospect for the personal financial planning efforts to make a significant gain. Further, this bias could in fact hold back an investor from reaching out to an emerging opportunity, which in turn can become a fatal habit. Conversely, the bias of overconfidence is credited with much of the investor losses over the course of the past recession and decade (McAuley, 2009). This bias has the inherent capacity to compel an investor to disregard sound advice or patterns in favour of other highly questionable actions (McAuley, 2009). This suggests overconfidence can easily overextend or compromise a working strategy. Modern financial theory has been developed in order to explain and develop the area of behavioural finance (Debondt et al, 2010). Redhead (2008) points to the Prospect Theory as a key method of determining the context of an investor’s behaviour. This approach argues that there are three separate components that must be considered in regards to an investor’s behaviour (Redhead, 2008): a) The perceived elements that are subject to bias. This identifies and illuminates the personal components that are tied to an investment decision. b) Investors are far more concerned with immediate losses and gains as opposed to overall level of wealth. c) Investors feel losses much more dearly than they do gains. Each of these elements ties into the state of the investor’s emotional and psychological balance preceding their investment strategy, which in turn provides the means to assess and adapt a developing investment plan (Redhead, 2008). Deaves et al (2005) contends that loss aversion is among the most powerful of the behavioural patterns expressed by anxious investors. In order to offset the concerns many potential market participants follow eight recommendations that have been found to have a direct impact on the formation and execution of a personal financial plan (Deaves et al, 2005): 1) Take a holistic view of the available assets and associated liabilities. There is and must always be room to adapt and adjust. 2) As much as possible allow for the maximum amount of affordable pay to be automatically invested within the client portfolio. This often takes the decision point away and offers a long term yield benefit. 3) Disregard the past actions and base investment decisions on future estimates of costs and benefits. 4) Take a long-term, as opposed to a short- to mid-term view of the investment portfolio. 5) Avoid any passing fad or quick trend promising a quick turnaround. 6) Past performance is no guarantee of future earnings. 7) Save as much as possible, as often as possible. 8) Stay the course. This approach to behavioural finance suggests that utilising elements of theory to assist in the creation of proper strategy is actively engaging the psychological tendencies of the investors in order to capitalise on their inherent strengths as well as avoid their innate detriments. Yet, despite the efforts of some financial planners many common investment mistakes continue to take place no matter the system in place (Montier, 2007). A very common loss aversion tendency that is credited with the loss of many investors’ assets is the tendency to hold on to a losing stock for too long based on past performance or associated issues (Benartzi, 2010). This is based on the very real emotional base of pleasure seeking and pain aversion. If person sells a successful stock and gains a profit, pleasure is felt, thereby encouraging the investor (Benartizi, 2010). Conversely, letting a failing stock linger, and losing money is credited with very physical manifestations of pain, which in turn lead to poor decisions the state of personal finances and personal finance planning (Benartizi, 2010). Risk aversion in behavioural finance has the potential to manifest in several different identities in the course of determining a personal financial strategy (Montier, 2007). This is a suggestion that the method that an investment is packaged and presented, or framed, has a direct bearing on the application or implementation of the proposal. Using tools including cash back incentives, or gifts, is a common method for inducing investors to overlook other data in favour of investing in the underlying company (McAuley, 2010). This suggests that a favourable set of circumstances to the investor have an impact on the manner and method of investment, prompting many advertisers and financial planners to readily target specific behaviour elements during their efforts to spur . Hens et al (2008) argue that in many cases an investor has an expected utility of the associated investment that is unrealistic. Many leading financial strategists state unequivocally that no one human can be fully informed on any single investment (Pompian, 2006). This leads to the investor believing that they have more control than is present in the endeavour, which in turn leads to a diminished or detrimental return. Baker et al (2010) credits many of the investment decisions made by investors as based on the discounting of the future potential in favour of the quick and present, albeit smaller, rewards. This need for immediate satisfaction has a direct impact on the ability for a portfolio to make the most of the assets available.This suggests that successful personal planning will focus on the mid to long term investments with a clear determination to avoid any quick or offhand investment decisions. Baker et al (2010) extend the point of the need to avoid physical distraction by illustrating studies that connect the gastronomically centred portion of the brain to the segments related to the investment areas. This is an indication that habits that are common in the population, including over eating and poor diet, can be extended to the investment portfolio. Emerging methods including surveys, interviews and focus groups are allowing for the concept of behavioural finance to be incorporated into mainstream investing (Muradoglu et al, 2012). With clear success in defining and removing behavioural impediments, many investors are looking to this field of research for potential edges in determining future strategy. Conclusion Behavioural finance is argued to provide substantial impact on personal finance and personal planning and the results of this essay support that contention. Despite the desire for a black and white investment environment, there is no escaping the impact that inherent bias, shortcoming and basic human error play on the implementation of an effective investment scheme. The material presented illustrates the potential for personal bias based on such base elements as the food consumed prior to making decisions, yet, the process of identification has the potential to offset the negative and enhance the positive. Further, intuition has been credited with propelling many investors to success, yet, this is separate from the decision making process that allows for the creation of bias and the inclusion of errant material. A clear benefit to the implementation of a personal financial strategy is knowledge of the elements that make up the field of behavioural finance, allowing the creation of an effective process to offset any negative pattern of investment behaviour. In the end, as with all manner of investments, it comes to discipline, skill, patience and the determination of the investor to not be swayed in the face of adversity but hold to the reality of any situation. References Baker, H. and Nofsinger, J. (2010). Behavioural finance. 1st ed. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley. Baker, M. and Wurgler, J. (2011). Behavioural corporate finance: Wiley. Banerjee, A. (2011). Application of Behavioural Finance in Investment Decisions: An Overview. The Management Accountant, 46(10). Benartzi, S. (2010). Behavioural Finance in Action. Allianz 1(1) p. 3-6. Brigham, E. and Ehrhardt, M. (2005). Financial management. 1st ed. Mason, Ohio: Thomson/South-Western. Deaves, R. and Charupat, N (2005). Behavioural Finance. Journal of Personal Finance 1(1). P. 48-53. DeBondt, W., Forbes, W., Hamalainen, P. and Muradoglu, Y. (2010). What can behavioural finance teach us about finance?. Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, 2(1), pp.29–36. Forbes, W. (2009). Behavioural finance. 1st ed. New York: Wiley. Hens, T. and Bachmann, K. (2008). Behavioural finance for private banking. 1st ed. Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons. McAuley, I (2009). Understanding human behaviour in financial decision making. Centre for Policy Development 1(1). p. 1-5. Meier, S. (2010). Insights from Behavioural Economics for Personal Finance. Behavioural Economics and Personal Finance 1(1). p. 1-3 Montier, J. (2007). Behavioural investing. 1st ed. Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons. Muradoglu, G. and Harvey, N. (2012). Behavioural finance: the role of psychological factors in financial decisions. Review of Behavioral Finance, 4(2), pp.68-80. Paramasivan, C. and Subramanian, T. (2009). Financial management. 1st ed. New Delhi: New Age International (P) Ltd., Publishers. Pompian, M. (2006). Behavioural finance and wealth management. 1st ed. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley. Redhead, K. (2008). Personal finance and investments. 1st ed. London [u.a.]: Routledge. Sewell, M. (2007). Behavioural finance. University of Cambridge. UK Subrahmanyam, A. (2008). Behavioural finance: A review and synthesis. European Financial Management, 14(1), pp.12–29.

Revolutionary War-Kings Mountain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Revolutionary War-Kings Mountain - Essay Example The results for Britain had grown through the efforts of its forces that enabled them to control Carolina and Georgia.1 The next step was to create forts in the captured places to attract the attention of the Loyalists. With the developments in the campaigns in the southern part of America, more efforts were placed in that portion. The troops of Britain were slowly getting few in numbers so the British leaders had seen the South as the good place for implementing a strategy. They had thought it as a good idea since a lot of immigrants were lived there and many slaves were captured. In short, they thought that many Loyalists reside in the southern portion. Their expectations did not meet the reality because it turned out that their supporters were fewer than the figures they had estimated. The failed plan had led them to continue the campaign towards Carolina with a weak army. That is not all because British forces had also encountered guerilla wars in the places that they had already held. Militia had attacked those bases that had weakened the colonizer even more.2 The occurrence did not stop the rebels to pursue the war and gain the freedom that they wanted to get. In response, they attacked the supply deliveries and stocks of the British forces. An attempt was made to attack the British forces when General Horatio Gates had created a force composed of untrained people. The force met the British in Camden where the untrained American force was chased away by the British force. The encounters happened many times until the Americans won against Britain in Cowpens, South Carolina. The Battle of Kings Mountain occurred when the British forces tried to take control of the Southern part of America. They had done so because they thought there were a lot of Loyalists there. The sad fact is that the estimate was wrong and British forces faced hardships in gaining full control of the south. One of the battles that happened there wherein Britain lost was the Kings

Constitutional law of the european union Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 2

Constitutional law of the european union - Essay Example This effect is obtainable only to the extent of divergence between national law and Community law2. A vertical direct effect enables a party to invoke a Directive against a state for non implementation of a Directive. Horizontal direct effect, involves the invocation of a non implemented Directive against a private entity3. The jurisdiction of the ECJ extends over the actions brought by the ECB and the Court of Auditors, if conditions similar to those stipulated above, are in existence. Moreover, a legal or individual entity, placed in a similar situation, can initiate action to oppose a decision that affects that entity directly and individually4. As such, a Member State commits a serious breach by not implementing a Directive. In Dillenkofer v. Germany, the ECJ ruled that a Member State that failed to adopt measures, which would have realized the aims of a Directive, was guilty of deliberate and serious disregard of EC Law. The victim of such non implementation of a Directive was to be recompensed for the damage sustained by him, provided such loss could be directly attributed to the non implementation5. Plaumann v. Commission related to a decision, which disallowed Germany to reduce import duty on clementines. This decision was challenged by Plaumann, who contended that he was put to considerable loss due to this decision. The ECJ interpreted the test of individual concern to connote, whether Plaumann was harmed by the decision, due to his membership of a group that was affected by this decision or in his individual capacity. This Court opined that Plaumann was merely a member of the class of clementine importers, and that any person could acquire that status. Therefore, his contention was not accepted by the ECJ6. The UK government failed to implement the fictitious Directive 2006/2001, which related to chemical ABC. Fattenem took advantage of this situation and produced this chemical to such an

Schoolhouse Lane Estates - Development and Industry Maturation of Wine Term Paper

Schoolhouse Lane Estates - Development and Industry Maturation of Winery - Term Paper Example The demand eventually grew and so Jan decided to operate her own winery. Eventually, Jan became a proud winery owner as what she dreamed about. The business continued to operate and since then Jan was able to encounter expansion of her business at the local wine markets such as wholesalers, retailers, restaurants and caterers. Schoolhouse Lane’s products resulted in net growing revenues. Along with its growth comes the increase on expenses such as on sales and marketing and eventually the spiralling growth of inventories considering that red wines and red wine blends would need a long period of time for ageing in oak barrels. Eventually, Schoolhouse Lane Estates winery is a growing company and is considering rapid expansion as far as there is continued support for its products in the local markets. The case starts with the company history. There is substantial evidence presented about the winery and its evolution which was primarily dated back to Long Island’s Wine Industry in the 1970s. There are also substantial data on Schoolhouse Lane Estates in line with its income statements, balance sheets, and statement of cash flow from 1999 to 2003. The case also cited the information on recent development and industry maturation of winery, the wine production in the United States, the changing dynamics of the US wine market, the competition involved and specific courses of actions made by Jan in order to continue to operate and expand its business. It is clear that the level of analyses that must be involved in the case are combined Level 1 (Industry Issues) and Level 2 (Organization Issues) considering that the demand for wines decreases across California while selling high and eventually more acres of land were converted into fruit trees. This resulted in several wineries gone bankrupt. On the other hand, Jan planned to purchase a new acre of land for her winery  expansion yet considering the Industry’s current trend; it would be a problem on her part to look for sources of working capital as far as her financial options are concerned.  

Foreign Exchange Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Foreign Exchange - Essay Example Looking at Table ll.1(Foreign Exchange Quotations, p.5) I see that the Monday 1-month forward for the Japanese yen, using the Direct Quote, is $0.009048 compared to the spot rate of .009035. The 3-month forward is .009074 and the 6-month forward is .009124. This means that the Japanese currency is expected to progressively appreciate during this period. The indirect quote column (Japanese currency calculated in US dollar terms) confirms the expected trend, showing that gradually it will require more dollars to pay for a fixed amount of Japanese yen. I use the spot rate when I need the currency immediately. I go to a lending institution or a bank to arrange for a forward exchange contract when I need to protect the value of the US dollar against the possibility that the Japanese yen will rise in value (appreciate), and it would require me to spend more money to purchase a product priced or denominated in that currency. In this particular case, if I have to purchase Y100,000 now, at the rate of $0.009035 per yen, the amount I have to pay will be $903.50, which is obtained by multiplying these two numbers. Since the 1-month forward rate is $0.009048, the amount of our contract with the bank will be $904.80, which is higher by $1.30. A month from now, I will obtain from the bank Y100,000 at this price. I can either buy Y100,000 now at the spot market price at the rate of 1 Yen = $0.009035 and hold the currency until a month from now when I need to use it for payment, or I can arrange a forward contract which, at $0.009048, is $1.30 higher. The forward contract will protect me in case the Japanese yen appreciates. For example, if the Japanese yen, contrary to market expectations, rises to $0.009200 (or, conversely, $1 = 108.70, obtained by computing its reciprocal - i.e., 1/.009200), I will need to pay $920.00 a month from now – or $16.50 higher - because I did not hedge my position by using the forward contract. This is also

Interest Rates Swa[s Require Markets to be Inefficient Essay

Interest Rates Swa[s Require Markets to be Inefficient - Essay Example Currency exchange tailors international exchange transactions. Interest rates are characteristic of risks that result from the various key constituents of the foreign exchange market. One of these constituents is the interest rate swaps. Foreign exchange and interest rate operations provide opportunities for hedging in the foreign exchange market. Interest rate swaps in this context can be considered to be unique financing arrangements that allow corporations to significantly cut on their credit costs while improving their control on risks that accrue from interest rates and exposure to foreign exchange transactions. Market for currencies has considerably grown across the entire globe, and so has the interest rate swaps total outstanding amounts in the world (Lowenstein, 2000, pg. 148). The contributing currencies to this fast growth include but not limited to the US dollar, Euro, Japanese Yen and British Pound. Cash flow exchanges in an interest rate swap are undertaken by two parti es, who are bound to the interest rate swap agreement. Both parties have high expectations of benefiting from the interest rate swap. Where only one currency is involved, the resultant swap is called an interest rate swap. On the other hand, where multiple currencies are involved, a currency swap prevails. Corporations engage interest rate swaps in their operations for the purpose of achieving well defined goals. Interest rate swaps are said to be fully operational and beneficial in inefficient markets. There are certain components of the markets without which realization of swaps is rendered void. First, there must be two parties bound to the interest rate swap agreement. Second, the transactions are undertaken in the context of foreign exchange, where interest rates play a fundamental role in unifying the various currencies. Argument of whether or not interest rate swaps require markets to be inefficient can be evaluated based on the aiding tools of this foreign market constituent . Credit and debt evaluations in the interest rate swaps market can be used to define effectiveness of markets based on interest rate swaps. Quality Spread Differential is an integral component of foreign exchange markets, which is specifically designed for interest rate swaps. Efficient markets consider that debt instruments carry default risk premiums (De Jong, 2008, pg. 168). In these markets, risk premiums associated with interest rate swaps are mispriced, which is an implication of Quality Spread Differential. In an efficient market, it is expected that swap markets would be alleviated in the long run. However, this is not the case observed around the world. Now and then explosions have characterized the interest rate swap markets. Over time, instead of the markets disappearing, they have increased their operations and the effect there in have taken a maximum notion. In this regard, the entire market cannot be considered to be efficient. Inefficiency in these markets has increa sing interest rate swaps more and more. An efficient market considers facing out swap markets through arbitraging activities. This has not been realized, and it is still far from it because arbitraging has taken centre stage in the foreign market. Interest rates are not stable over time due to the disturbances caused by cyclic business movements to the economy. As a result, arbitrage opportunities emerge from interest rate discrepancies, and all economic components seek to exploit these

Scientific study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Scientific study - Essay Example This is one of the major reasons for which the ratio of Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere does not match with high or overestimation growth of atmospheric CO2 predicted by Earth System models. This paper will help in better understanding and modeling of carbon climate feedbacks [1]. 1. The author use different models to illustrate the carbon-climate response. They used Community Land Model 4.5 (CLM4.5), LeafWeb and FvCB model for the evaluation of this scientific study or to answer the question [1]. One of the evidence that has been put forward by the author claims that empirical global gm model for C3 plant species are developed. These are completely based on a synthesis of data in the literature. It should be noted that the author has presented all the data concerning the subject of matter with careful placement of statistics and formulas. Also, the implementation of the C3 plant species is allowed contrasting simulations that either consider or omit the mesophyll diffusion limitation. Herein, it is important to note that there are two types of simulations (gm-including and gm-lacking simulations). The author has clearly present the following inclination in the research method section , â€Å"A parameter conversion function that was developed from leaf gas e xchange dataset collected by LeafWeb to enable a correct comparison between the gm-including and gm-lacking simulations and it was based on CLM4.5 formulation of FvBC model† [1]. Furthermore, strict actions were undertaken in order to promulgate any difference in the trend of GPP between simulations can be attributed unambiguously to the mesophyll diffusion treatments [1]. 4. Finally, the readers can make use of the article for reference as it is conclusive of the fact that total ΔCFE between the gm-including and gm lacking simulations for global GPP increased. The increase was marked from the year 1901 to 2010. Slight pre-1950 increase in ΔCFE is followed after 1950 and this pattern shows that

Adoption by lesbian couple Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Adoption by lesbian couple - Essay Example Consequently, this has prompted the state to intervene via devising measures whose core purpose is to ease quick placement of the adoptees and reduce augmenting numbers in the adoption agencies. This essay via utilizing Jacqui and Anne’s case, seeks to highlight various aspects and obstacles that have rendered adoption process to be complex despite some measures imposed by the agencies not emphasized by the law. The first obstacle encompasses cultural differences amid the child on one side and would-be adopters. Since, both the parties emanate from varied cultures whereby the child may not be able to integrate well with the couple as necessitated and feel secured while under their care. Unaccompanied asylum seekers before arriving in UK, most of them have experienced untold sufferings to the extent of some traumatized (Coghill, 2009). Hence, the relevant authorities (adoption agencies) insist on presenting them to the individuals whom they deem beyond doubt will avail them the necessary care, comfort and love. Since, these children have to learn the state’s language besides embracing the new culture different from theirs, which is entirely diverse and may pose a challenge to them (Manchester City Council, 2013). Therefore, the social worker’s showing of displeasure was due to the pair’s plea to adopt despite their economic instability (Coghill, 2009). Cultural difference may pose a great challenge to the adopting parents because besides helping the child to embrace that of UK, they will not be able to understand the child’s former traditions. For instance, suppose the child emanates from Africa where child’s nurturing is exclusively diverse from the western states (Manchester City Council, 2013). Most African cultures regardless of a one’s sex usually deem the mother has more responsibilities in nurturing the child until the males reach the initiation age where the fathers take over. This is divergent to the UK w here the couple assumes all the roles jointly and it may have significant adverse impact especially if the adoptee is a teen (Coghill, 2009. Besides, the child may doubt the relationship of the adopting parents, (adoption) which conflicts what he or she has all through deemed to be right (Coghill, 2009). Since, in African or other regions like Asian, same sex union aspect is a taboo that may affect the child (Coghill, 2009, p. 54). This is especially when one is aware of what their culture dictates regarding marriage. Hence, prompting the social agency to reject Jacqui and Anne’s plea. Besides, according to their narration, there is no prove they will be together until the child attains his or her independence stage (Coghill, 2009). This is because they argue to be living together but no documents to prove their union (Coghill, 2009). Another obstacle regards the preference of race, which by extension they offered to have, whereby the adoption agency will be reluctant in lett ing the pair get the adoptee of their choice (Allen, 2005). Since, this may add up to worsening the child’s state besides the distress or severe experiences, he or she might have experienced (Allen, 2005). Probably, this was the reason that displeased social worker to the extent of not hearkening to their plea and declined to offer them any apparent reason (Allen, 2005). Because the adopters may perceive the agency operates on racial bases, which is not tolerable in UK. The UK statutes have mandated agencies to act in any case in the favor of the child irrespective of who may be intending to act as adopters (Allen, 2005). This implies the child’

This house support mandatory vaccinations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

This house support mandatory vaccinations - Essay Example t only important to us but also very crucial to the citizens since they will greatly benefit from the activities as it is seen that by mandatory vaccinating we are at a good position to deal with future diseases that are greatly brought up by poor vaccination method at the moment. Refutation: Mostly from the research conducted by the government parastatals it has been proven that some diseases are because of UN vaccination .This disease once un vaccinated against they tend to spread from one individual to other. For that reason it is a high time we conduct the mandatory vaccinations to greatly reduce the spread rate. Claim: By vaccinating generally leads to a very health y future generation which is directly related to strong and healthy working force that will greatly stimulate the country’s economy as healthy bodies always are fully of innovations and great working potential. 2) From the motion, it is very formal that for this to be attained the government and its official should always be involved in attaining its missions and visions, thus a strong campaign needs to be done in order to educate the citizens and must always limit the rate of immigration or always be involved in screening the

Real Reason People Wont Change Essay Example for Free

Real Reason People Wont Change Essay The real reason people wont change is an article by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey. The article was first published in November 2001 in Harvard Business Review. The article describes and summarize about the personal immunity of people that resist them from being changed. The real reason people wont change is not due to lack of skill and deep commitment within them but it is due to hidden competing commitment followed by big assumptions. For some, the need is confidence-building, for others its behavior change or skill development. But sometimes, no matter how hard a person tries, their progress remains inexplicably stalled. The situation can be as frustrating to bosses, colleagues, and family members as it is to the individual. Organizational psychologists Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey developed the theory of a competing commitment to explain what they term personal immunity to change. Competing commitments are long held belief that has become an integral part of their make up so that it is difficult to change. When these beliefs are uncovered, change is possible. And it is still true that some people opt not to disrupt their immunity to change, choosing instead to continue their fruitless struggle against their competing commitments. The competing commitments cause even the valued employee to behave in inexplicably and irremediable way. It is a subconscious hidden goal of the people that conflicts with their stated commitments. Many of these competing commitments are based on long-held beliefs that are an integral part of their make-up so they can be difficult to change. Some examples of competing commitments are: Dragging ones feet on an assignment because one wants to avoid a next tougher assignment or future lack of work. * Avoiding teamwork or meetings because one wants to avoid the conflict that is associated with it. * Using sarcastic disruptive humor to keep oneself at a distance from a work group you may not want to be associated with. The article is a psychological analysis and research about the reason that resist people from being changed. The research of the article is mainly concern about uncovering the hidden competing commitment and unearthing big ssumptions. It is not an easy task to uncover the hidden commitment but author has suggested to go through the set of questions. They have developed 3 stage processes to help organizations to figure out what’s getting on way to change? 1. Manager guides employees to uncover competing commitments through the set of questions. 2. Employees examine these commitments to determine underlying assumptions. 3. Start the process of changing behavior. The author presents the example of John who is a talented manager at a software company. Though he is an open communicative type and values close relationship with others, because of his racial group he could not well integrated with the team even if he wanted. He believed that if he became well integrated with the team, it would threaten his sense of loyalty to his own racial group betraying his family and friends. John was genuinely committed to working with team but he had a powerful hidden competing commitment keeping him distance. Another example cited in the article is that of Helen, a manager at manufacturing company. Though she was committed to increase the production of the product she could not succeed. She had an unrecognized commitment of maintaining subordinate relationship with her boss Andrew. She thought that she would me more a peer than a subordinate so wouldn’t be up to the task. The article also describes about the big assumptions. Every employee who just does not change had a hidden commitment because of the assumptions resulting from the competing commitment. Some leaders assume that they would be incompetent if they couldn’t solve all the problems that come up. Even if they have a commitment to hearing from subordinates and maximize the flow of information, they had a competing commitment to not learning about things that he cant do. Competing commitment and big assumptions are the real reason that causes people resist to change. Kegan and Laheys recommended solution for diagnosing this resistance to change is based on guiding individuals through a set of questions to uncover competing commitments. For example 1. What would you like to see changed at work, so that you could be more effective or so that work would be more satisfying? 2. What beliefs or commitments are implied by this recommended change? 3. What are you doing or not doing, that is keeping your beliefs or commitments to change from being fully realized? 4. What if you were to imagine doing the opposite of what you are currently doing, would that cause discomfort, worry or vague fear? 5. What if you were to actually carry out this opposite behaviour, what outcomes are you trying to prevent? The first question responses the complaint which we mostly talk about. Tom, a manager grumbled, â€Å"my subordinates keep me out of the loop. The responses are the complaint which the most managers bemoan because of its negative and unproductive tone. The second question responses complaint what people care about most. Tom said I believed in open and candid communication. It’s a commitment of the Tom to shared decision making. Once the commitments of people are found, third question is identifying the undermining behavior that prevented them from being fulfilled. Tom admitted â€Å"When people bring bad news, I tend to shoot the messenger. † Next question is about going in the opposition of the undermining behavior. Tom concluded Im afraid Ill hear about a problem that I cant fix, something that I cant do anything about. After all, the final step is to transform that passive fear into a statement that reflects an active commitment to preventing certain outcomes. The resulting answer to this final question is the competing commitment which lies at the very heart of a persons immunity to change. These commitments usually involve protecting yourself from things like, not being in control, having to follow someone elses decisions, having to go along with decisions you dont like, not having to deal with problems you cant fix and so on. Once people uncover their competing commitments, big assumption can be easily found out. If people inverted the beginning of the sentences of competing commitment, and then filled out the sentence then assumption can be identified. For e. g. the assumption of Tom is I assume that if I did hear about problems I can’t fix, people would discover I’m not qualified to do my job. This is a difficult process, and it doesn’t happen all at once, because admitting to big assumptions makes people uncomfortable. After identifying competing commitment and big assumptions, Kegan and Lahey had recommended five steps on how to take action to overcome immunity to change. Notice and record current behavior It is about making a note of what does and doesnt happen as a result of holding assumptions to be true. This gives people the opportunity to develop a better appreciation for how and in what contexts big assumptions influence their lives. Look for contrary evidence Employees must look actively for experiences that might cast doubt on the validity of their big assumptions. When John looked around him, he considered for the first time that an African-American manager in another department had strong working relationships with her mostly white colleagues, yet seemed not to have compromised her personal identity. Explore the history It is exploring how and when assumptions took hold, and how long the self-protective stance has been employed Test the assumption It considers making changes in ones behaviour and test out if assumptions are validated; practice in safe environments or where one can extricate oneself fairly quickly if it becomes too uncomfortable. This is the first time people consider making changes in their behavior. Evaluate the results The final step is to check out the result and look for more effective ways to operate in future. This is worth nothing that revealing a big assumption does not necessarily mean it will be exposed as false. But even if big assumption contains the elements of truth, an individual can often find more effective way to operate once he or she has had a chance to challenge the big assumption. The process of challenging and uncovering the competing commitment and unfolding personal immunity to change takes a period of time. Competing commitments should not be seen as a weakness but some form of self-protection which is a normal form of human instinct. The reasons people are protecting themselves usually lie in some deeply-rooted beliefs about themselves and the world around them. These competing commitments usually arise from some big assumptions we have made about the world. People rarely realize they hold assumptions because they accept them as reality. So its necessary to uncover our hidden commitment and big assumptions that has been distance us away from change.

Crowdsourcing As An Effective E Commerce Strategy Business Essay

Crowdsourcing As An Effective E Commerce Strategy Business Essay ABSTRACT With the growing trend of social websites and their usage for e-commerce activities, crowdsourcing has become an innovative strategy to conduct e-commerce. The paper aims to explore on its effectiveness as an e-commerce strategy, firstly by trying to understand the history of crowdsourcing. Secondly the paper will look at the methodology and definitions of various types of crowdsourcing. Thirdly, the paper will define how crowdsourcing is used in e-commerce. Next, some case studies of business that uses crowdsourcing are discussed, with analysis on its success and failures. Finally, the paper will provide suggestion on how crowdsourcing can be an effective strategy. 1. INTRODUCTION Introduced by Jeff Howe and Mark Robinson in the June 2006 issue of Wired magazine, the term crowdsourcing describes a process of how new web-based businesses organize labor, by outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by contractors or employees, to a community (usually online) through what amounts to an open call for proposals. Howe offers the following definition: Simply defined, crowdsourcing represents the act of a company or institution taking a function once performed by employees and outsourcing it to an undefined (and generally large) network of people in the form of an open call. This can take the form of peer-production (when the job is performed collaboratively), but is also often undertaken by sole individuals. The crucial prerequisite is the use of the open call format and the large network of potential laborers. (Howe, 2006) Howe further explained that true crowdsourcing involves a company accepting the idea received, processing it and producing for sale; and the idea provider being rewarded, in most cases, monetarily. This is to differentiate crowdsourcing from open sourcing, which is a cooperative activity initiated and voluntarily undertaken by members of public. In other words, crowdsourcing happens when a company posts a problem online, individuals in the community offer solutions to the problem, the winning ideas are awarded some form of a monetary reward, and the company mass produces the idea for its own gain. In another article, titled Power of Crowdsourcing, by Matt H. Evans, he states that Crowdsourcing taps into the global world of ideas, helping companies work through a rapid design process. From both definitions, it can be understood that crowdsourcing needs a channel that is able to reach out to the masses to be effective, and the most obvious choice is the internet. This is further complimented by the rise of Web 2.0 technologies, whereby individuals are able to interact and define the web rather than being passive browsers of the web. This makes crowdsourcing even more attractive as it allows companies to tap into the potential vast collective intelligence of the masses to achieve their business strategy. As such, e-commerce businesses (businesses that uses the internet to handle the buying and selling of products or services) are the most likely adopter of crowdsourcing technique for their e-commerce strategy. E-commerce strategy is the plan and courses of action that a company undertakes to offer its products and services on the internet to achieve its business goal. For companies that have existing offline operations, e-commerce strategy will most likely be focused on integrating its offline operations into an online presence. This will include how to best represent the company online, the infrastructure and framework required to do so and the range of activities needed to promote the companys core activities on the World Wide Web. Another reason that crowdsourcing is gaining popularity is because in todays globalised market, competition in innovation is very fierce and in-house research and development is getting more costly. As mentioned in The Global Brain, by Nambisan Sawhney, 2008, These forces rapidly decreasing product life cycles, decreasing internal innovation productivity, and global competition together are creating a Red Queen effect  [1]  in innovation: Companies have to invest more and more just to maintain their market position. This make crowdsourcing a viable option, as it allows the tapping into the vast intelligence of the masses, like what former Sun Chief Scientist, Bill Joy says, Most of the smart people in the world dont work for your company. More importantly, this intelligence can be obtained at relatively low cost. 2. POPULUARITY OF CROWDSOURCING To understand the current popularity of crowdsourcing, this paper has referred to PBworks ( http://crowdsourcingexamples.pbworks.com/ ), one of the worlds largest provider of hosted collaboration solutions for business and education, which has a wiki that provides a comprehensive list of companies that uses crowdsourcing. In addition to the wiki, as the list provided by PBworks is purely textual, this paper has also referred to Grant Silverstones article, Friday Fact Box Crowdsourcing ( http://www.gottaquirk.com/2010/01/29/friday-fact-box-crowdsourcing/ ), for graphical representation of the list. Extracted are two graphical breakdowns of industries that use crowdsourcing, one group using purely crowdsourcing as their business strategy, and the other using crowdsourcing as an add-on initiative to their current business, without disrupting their own core business strategy. In the chart (Fig 1.1), it shows the current industry breakdown of companies using Crowdsourcing as their main business strategy. According to PBworks, out of the listed 141 companies, the majority, or 43% belongs to general business, such as marketing, sales, advertising and finance. This is followed by Design (15%) and then Media (13%), while Tourism makes up the least at 1%. Fig 1.1 (Source: Grant Silverstone, Friday Fact Box Crowdsourcing) In addition to that, in Fig 1.2, it shows that of these 141 companies, a huge majority comes from USA (65%), Europe (13%) and UK (6%), while Brazil, Africa and Russia only make up 1% each. Fig 1.2 (Source: Grant Silverstone, Friday Fact Box Crowdsourcing) From these two charts, it can be derived that majority of companies using crowdsourcing efforts are those in industries that traditionally requires large community networks (such as sales, news and marketing) and creativity capacity (such as design, advertisement, media). While industries that requires specific skills (such as Education) and are more systematic (such as Science and IT) are less popular with companies to consider using crowsourcing as a business strategy. Moreover, crowdsourcing is mainly engaged in western countries, which the economy and infrastructure are much more developed. This is an important factor as mentioned earlier that a good networking channel is needed for the success of crowdsourcing. Next in Fig 1.3, it shows the industry breakdown of companies that initiated crowdsourcing efforts to complement their current business strategy, with the majority from IT at 33%. It is also interesting to note too that nearly all these companies in the list are big players in the industry, such as Adobe, BMW, Nokia and so on. Fig 1.3 (Source: Grant Silverstone, Friday Fact Box Crowdsourcing) From the chart and the list, it can be seen that currently, crowdsourcing is still a new idea and not attractive enough to draw companies to venture into it as a complement process to their existing business strategy. However, big companies, with huge resources, do see the potential of crowdsourcing and are able to invest into it. This is also the reason why IT industry is the major contributor to crowdsourcing initiatives, as they have the knowledge and expertise to tap on the internet to maximize crowdsourcing potential. 3. Examples of Business using Crowdsourcing To understand how crowdsourcing is currently being used in businesses and its effectiveness, it is necessary to look at real cases. The paper will look into 3 companies, each with distinctive methods of engaging crowdsourcing, namely Threadless, Amazon Mechanical Turk and Cambrian House. Threadless Threadless is a community-centered online apparel store launched in 2000 by Jake Nickell and Jacob DeHart, with $1,000 in seed money after entering and meeting in an Internet t-shirt design contest. They wanted to start their own design competition, but instead of hiring a jury, they decided to let the designers themselves pick the winner. Source: Threadless: http://www.threadless.com How it works In the beginning, members of the Threadless community will submit their t-shirt designs online, where the designs are then put to a member vote. The winner would get free T-shirts bearing the winning design, while everyone else would get to buy the shirt. Currently, Threadlesss receives on average, one thousand designs in any given week, of which, only ten designs from the voted top hundred to print and sell through an online store. DeHart and Nickell also increased the bounty paid to these winners to $2,000 in cash, a $500 gift certificate ($200 in cash if they trade in the certificate), as well as an additional $500 for every reprint. This is because limited batches are printed and sold out shirts will only be re-printed if there is enough demand from customers requesting for a re-print. On occasion, special contests will run in association with various sponsors. These contests set a theme for designs, with a selection of additional prizes, often related to the sponsor, being awarded to the chosen winner. How Successful was Threadless The Threadless community is currently six hundred thousand strong, producing about one thousand designs for voting each week. In 2006, Threadless had managed to generate $17 million in revenues and it is still growing rapidly. Threadless boasts, according to Jeffrey Kamikoff (Threadless Chief Creative Officer), incredible profit margins. Each shirt that sells for between $12 to $25 is produced at a cost of just $5. Moreover, Threadless need not do any advertising or marketing, as the community itself will self-perform such functions. The designers will persuade friends and community members to view and vote for their work. Threadless will also rewards the community for those who submit photos of themselves wearing a Threadless shirt or refers a friend who buys a shirt with store credits (worth $1.50 and $3.00 respectively). This crowdsourcing strategy helps Threadless to sell an average of ninety thousand T-shirts a month. However, Threadless had also suffered by their own success. Their spring sale in March 2008 resulted in serious server downtime, resulting in the offer of $50 vouchers to inconvenienced customers and the promise to never ever let this happen again forever ever. Eighteen months later, a special one day sale to tie into the 09/09/09 date saw Threadless pummeled again by insane amounts of traffic, with users reporting inability to access the site for extended periods some never getting through. The customer experience was impacted by such a lack of planning of traffic which was to be expected from a company dealing with such huge social community. It was only from these experiences that Threadless had begun to look into better managing their wildly fluctuating levels of traffic in their infrastructure. Amazon Mechanical Turk Amazon Mechanical Turk is a service launched on November 2, 2005 by Amazon.com, which was initially invented for in-house use by Peter Cohen as a service to find duplicates among its web pages describing products. As of 2010, though still in beta, Mechanical Turk has grown to be a crowdsourcing internet marketplace for work where businesses (known as Requesters) publish tasks (known as Human Intelligence Tasks or HITS), and workers (known as Providers) complete them for a monetary payment that was set by the Requesters. Amazon Mechanical Turk gives businesses immediate access to a diverse, global, on-demand, scalable workforce and gives Workers a selection of thousands of tasks to complete whenever and wherever its convenient. Source: Amazon Mechanical Turk: https://www.mturk.com How it works Amazon Mechanical Turk, as mentioned is a market place for tasks that computer and machines cannot do, or cannot do it precise enough. These tasks can only be done by human intelligence, such as writing reviews or detecting specific objects in images. The process of Mechanical Turk is firstly, companies will post jobs (HITS) at MTurk (Amazon Mechanical Turk Market Place), then deposit the HITS payout amount into their MTurk account. Next, workers, who are registered members of MTurks, will look for tasks that they feel that they can perform. Once they take up the task, they will be assigned to it, but there will not be any contract. These HITS are tasks that are fairly easy and quick to execute, with most of them being able to be completed under 20 to 30 seconds or less and payout at about 10 to 50 cents. After the HIT is completed and submitted, Amazon Mechanical Turk will automatically transfer the money from the Requesters prepaid HIT balance to the workers Amazon gift certificate account. With the payout, workers can choose to either transfer the money to their bank account or to their amazon.com gift certificate balance. For every task performed, Amazon will take a cut. In addition, Requesters can also give bonus to workers w hom they like the task done. Besides the Official MTurk website, there is another website, Turker Nation (http://www.turkernation.com ), a forum for workers and requestors to meet and discuss the work at hand. Issues with Hits are discussed here. The site is independent from Amazon, and is not related to Amazon in any way. How Successful was Mechanical Turk Since its launch in 2005, the number of worker members in Amazon Mechanical Turk had grown in numbers. By March 2007, there were reportedly more than 100,000 workers in over 100 countries. MTurk is popular with companies as they find that HITS are a very affordable way to outsource large groups of similar tasks that are very simple to complete. Companies find the MT task auction model attractive because it reduces payroll costs of having to employ normal workers to perform such tasks. However, while Companies or Requesters find the cost of engaging MTurk to complete HITS attractive, there are many criticisms. As HITS are typically simple, repetitive tasks and users are paid often only a few cents to complete them, many have criticized Mechanical Turk as a market place for slaves. Moreover, workers are paid as contractors rather than employees, requesters enjoy tax advantages and low cost, and they also avoid laws regarding minimum wage, overtime, and workers compensation. Workers, on the other hand, must report their income as self-employment income. In addition, some requesters have taken advantage of workers by having them do the tasks, then rejecting their submission in order to avoid paying. Amazon.com does not monitor the service and refers all complaints to the poster of the HIT. Nevertheless, in view of such criticism, MTurk is still attracting workers, especially those living in second and third-world economies, because the impact of earning those few extra dollars will be magnified many times over. Cambrian House Launched in 2006, Cambrian House started as a crowdsourcing community that pioneered the idea of harnessing the power of the crowd to create ideas for websites and software products. Its mantra is You think it; crowds test it; crowds build it; you sell it; you profit. Source: Cambrian House: http://www.cambrianhouse.com How it works Cambrian House calls itself a community of people with broad talents and interests to create web-based products that the world wants, markets those products, and shares in the profits. They cater to people with no time to pursue new ideas or anyone with a vision and motivated to submit ideas. The way Cambrian House works is, firstly, Individuals register and create a profile of their capabilities in its website. They can then participate within the community by initiating ideas. The community will then test these ideas and give the approval on those that are feasible. Next, Cambrian House staff will create a brochure site to test the winners popularity and usability within the community. If the idea survives, the contributor will then seek people with passion and skills in the community to construct or co-develop the commercial version of the idea, by awarding them with Royalty Points (the amount you receive for coming up with an original idea) or Cambro (Cambrian Houses currency, 1 Cambro = $1 USD). Cambrian House will fund the project and if needed, they can also seek additional funding from the community. Once the product is created, the project champions can then seek marketers, business development professionals, and or SEO (Search Engine Optimization) experts in the Cambrian House community to deal with the promoting, selling and delivery of the product. Finally, once the product starts to sell, every member that contributed will earn Royalty Points or Cambro that had been negotiated with the business champion. In short, every member in the Cambrian House community can participate by not just giving ideas but also in bringing members ideas to life. There are no limits to number of projects members can join. During every development stage, everyone involved will also participate as peer-reviewers at select decision gates along the way to measure the individuals contribution. Although Cambrian House crowdsources the conception and creation of its products, ideas are subject to editorial review by a core team and actual production is subject to a set of quality guidelines. In the case of conflicting code or design contributions, the community decides which the best is. An example of how Cambrian House involves in every project is its first product (a video game) which was emerged from the community forums and seemed popular, so it risked $8,000CAD on a preliminary website to promote the game. It sailed through the market test selling hundreds of pre-orders at half-price ($9.95CAD) in a single weekend. That response encouraged Cambrian House to invest more for the next development stage. Cambrian Houses eventual goal is to turn each project into a separate, independently funded firm, but only after it has been market-validated. How Successful was Cambrian House The original Cambrian House community was deemed successful as it managed to achieve the most important component of crowdscourcing by attracting 50,000 plus members and more than 7000 ideas from the crowd. However, Cambrian House did not realized that although the crowd was great at thinking and testing, it was less interested when it came to the building element of Cambrian Houses model. Moreover, there are weaknesses in the idea-community model which include the challenge of convincing users to study and vote a rapidly growing pool of ideas, of which some are of relatively low quality, the management difficulty of distributed development, and the large number of duplicate submissions. After unsuccessfully trying to raise a new round of capital, in May 2008, Cambrian House announced the sale of much its assets to the New York-based venture capital company Spencer Trask. While Cambrian House will carry on as a vendor of Crowdsourcing software, its existence as a crowdsourcing community had come to a close. In reflection, Cambrian House CEO Michael Sikorsky states in a letter (excerpt): Indeed, our model failed. In short: we became a destination people loved to bookmark more than they loved to actively visit. The limiting reagent in the startup equation is not ideas, but amazing founding teams. A key assumption for us, which proved out NOT true: given a great idea with great community support and great market test data, we would be able to find (crowdsource) a team willing to execute it OR we could execute it ourselves. We needed amazing founding teams for each of the ideas this is where our model fell short. What we learned: it would have been better to back great teams with horrible ideas because most of the heavy lifting kept falling back on us, or a few select community members. A vicious cycle was created leading all of us to get more and more diffuse. Hence: the wisdom of crowds worked well in the model, but it was our participation of crowds aspect which broke down. Trying to find people willing or capable to take on the offspring (our outputs) of the Cambrian House model was hard and/or incredibly time consuming. (Michael Sikorsky, 2008) The lesson from Cambrian House is that the crowd only is not enough as it needs to be managed and needs an inspiring leader to guide it. 6. How can Crowdsourcing be an Effective E-Commerce Strategy? After looking at the definition and cases of crowdsourcing, it is understood that crowdsourcing has the potential to help e-commerce businesses gain competitive advantage, but like all business strategies, it is does not guarantee success. Nevertheless, crowdsourcing can be effective as an e-commerce strategy by helping companies in 5 ways. Crowdsourcing, firstly, can help companies to do market prediction by using the crowd to understand market desires. Companies can use the crowd to test the appeal of any new business ideas. Besides that, companies can derive from the crowd, emerging market desires and trends. Secondly, in addition to the knowledge of market desire, companies can draw information from crowdsourcing for product and business innovation. Based on information drawn from the crowd, companies can prioritize new business ideas, conduct product tests, rank next best enhancements with existing products and uncover methods to reduce costs and improve service. Thirdly, as mentioned, the knowledge of the crowd is very powerful. As such, crowdsourcing is a good option to solve problems that are difficult to solve internally with the companies current resources, by inviting answers or solutions from the crowd. Companies can also collaborate with the crowd to find new scientific discovery. Fourthly, besides solving internal problems, crowdsourcing can also help to tackle external issues, such as marketing. Companies can invite crowd to help in the creation of campaigns. Lastly, crowdsourcing is relatively much cheaper than hiring workforce for doing similar jobs. As companies only need to reward those who had contributed in the crowd, and it is usually not of huge amount, crowdsourcing is able to help companies to cut cost. With the above it mind, crowdsourcing effectiveness depends on how and under what environment it is used. Based on all the information gathered, the paper has come up with a few key points to effective crowdsourcing. Firstly, the crowd that crowdsourcing wants to tap into must be of substantial size. For example, if Threadless has only a member base of 100, and maintains its process of choosing ten winning designs every week, it will come a time whereby members might lose interest or doubt the integrity of these winning designs. Moreover, one of the characteristic of crowdsourcing is that the crowd is to represent the market, as such, the larger the community or crowd, the better the representation it will be. Secondly, companies must understand the crowd. When companies use crowdsourcing, they are usually targeting a specific community, which is formed by a common interest. Therefore, if companies want to crowdsource, they will need to know the community strengths and weaknesses. For example, if Threadless decides to request its community to submit computer programming works, it might not get anything or the works might be of inferior qualities. Thirdly, companies need to know what they want and need from the crowd. This is one important factor that determines the effectiveness of crowdsourcing. For example, in Amazon Mechanic Turk, if requesters post HITs with ambiguous requirements, the workers might have difficulty understanding what is needed of them and provide works that are irrelevant or not to the intended requirements. This will cause many rejected tasks, which is a waste of time of the companies and crowd, thus causing inefficiency. Next, companies need to recognize the contributions of crowd. Monetary reward is a way to acknowledge the crowds contribution, but usually crowd works mainly not for monetary reason. Participants of crowdsourcing are often leisure users, whose main motivation to participate is to be recognized and feel they are part of the community. The more affiliated they feel towards the community, the more willing they will be in providing help in tasks presented. Lastly, companies need to have adequate resources to manage the crowd and support the output from the crowd. This is one mistake that many companies make when they do crowdsourcing, as they thought the crowd will be able to contribute in every part of their business plan. This is generally not the case, as experienced by Cambrian House. As mentioned in the previous point, the crowd is usually made up of leisure participants, as such, they will be more willing to engage in task that requires less effort like providing ideas and suggestions, as compared to more tedious task like building the actual product which will be avoided. 7. Conclusion The above discussion has shown that crowdsourcing, when used correctly can be highly effective as an ecommerce strategy. It is able to tap into the power of the crowd for knowledge which is virtually unlimited at very low cost. Just like Threadless, by keeping the crowd motivated, business will grow as knowledge from crowd grows. However, it is important to note that there are situations where crowdsourcing is not possible or impractical. First of all, jobs that are confidential in nature, such as lawyers and accountants, and high level jobs, like business process planning, are not possible to be crowdsourced. As shown by Cambrian House, the crowd needs to be monitored by the company and provide resources when needed for successful manifestation of ideas. As such, it is not possible to fully crowsource a business process to the crowd. Internal workforce is still needed as the crowd might not fully understand the companies business models and goals and these internal employees are able to monitor and ensure the crowds contributions are within the companies guidelines and process. Moreover, too much reliance on the crowd could be construed as unethical and open the company up to criticism about the true nature of its social mission. By using Amazon Mechanical Turk, many companies have been seen as operating virtual sweat shops. As such, physical workforce is needed to balance the image of the company.

Argos Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (STP)

Argos Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (STP) Introduction The objective of this assignment is to understand Argos segmentation, targeting and positioning in strategic marketing and how Argos uses STP to gain competitive advantage. In strategic marketing STP plays a vital role in the organization or company because it is a marketing strategy for dividing market in segments, targeting customers and making a position for products. (Whaley, A.2010, P12) Competitive Advantage is important for a company because it gives a company advantage over its competitors and gained by offering consumers greater value, either by means of lower prices or by providing greater benefits and services. Argos is a unique retail company in the UK. Its slogan is choice, value and convenience (Argos i, 2010). Argos was founded in 1973 and it owned by GUS PLC. Argos sells general merchandise and other products for the home from 750 stores throughout the UK, republic of Ireland, North Ireland, Wales and Scotland. (HRG PLC Annual i 2010A). Moreover, there are 33,000 employees are working in Argoss stores. Argos serves over 130m customers through stores and takes 26% of sales through the internet. (Argos i, 2010). In 2010, there are 19,300 products registered in Argos latest spring and summer catalogued. (HRG PLC Annual i 2010).Argos majors products are toys, jewellery, sports, electrical goods and leisure equipment and these goods making up50% of its sales mix(scribd i:2010). As the leader in UK for general merchandise retailing, Argos latest revenue is  £1,812.8M in 2010 which is less from 2009 and it sales down 3%. Multi-channel sales grew to 44% of Argos sales in the first half of the year. The internet represented 32% of Argos sales (HRG PLCi: 2010B). Argos is unique amongst its major competitors. Its main competitors are Tesco, Asda, PC World, Homebase and Currys, and online retailer Amazon.co.uk. All competitors have internet presence. However, Tesco recently has been trying to imitate Argos retailing style with its Tesco direct catalogue and in-store shops. (Scribd i, 2010) What is STP? STP stands for Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning. In strategic marketing STP is the second level. In STP; segmentation(S) the market segment deciding which customer to target (T) deciding what messages you want the targets to associate with you; what is called positioning(P).The whole process of dividing the market in different segments, targeting customers and product positioning is known as STP. (Whalley, A. 2010,P12).STP is one of the most important processes in strategic marketing which management should take on both at the start of a new offer creation as well as part of a periodic revision of the collection of offers and strategies by the organization. Taken from Whalley, A. 2010, and P72. 2.1 Segmentation Segmentation is the first step in STP process. In strategic marketing Segmentation can be defined as a process of dividing the total market in different segments for product or service into distinct sub-groups. (Whalley, A. 2010, P72). In segmentation each segment represents a separate target market to be reached with a distinctive marketing mix. Market segment means dividing the market into different subsets of customers with different needs. Segmentation can also be summarized as dividing the market by set of Pre- determined criteria. (Taken from Whalley, A. 2010, P72) Different variables can play a role in purchasing decision of the customers. In segmentation it is important to focus on the customer needs rather than other variables such as geography, demographics, occasion, behaviours etc. Effective segmentation is not easy to achieve, because in the society different groups of people have different choices and needs about products. It can only be achieved when customers share similar of demands. 2.2 Targeting In the STP process, the second step is targeting the market. After the completion of segmentation companies decide which segment they need to target and it depends on the size, area, profit and growth of each segments. Thus, Targeting of market is defined as the identification of market segments that are identified as being the most likely purchasers of a companys product. (Whalley, A 2010:P76) In targeting, a company should target segments in which it has a differential advantage over its competitors. In targeting companies decide to target one or more segments. For that purpose choice about targeted segments should generally depend on the several factors. The first factor in targeting is checking the existing level of the competition and how good it is serving the customers need. The organisation should know about segment, how large it is and how we can expect it to grow and have company strengths as company that will helps customers demand particularly to one group of customers. Companys actual ability of communication with the segment is also an important factor for companies in targeting. (Whalley, A.2010:P76) 2.3 Positioning After segmentation and targeting the next step is positioning in STP process. It refers to the way in which an organization sets itself apart in the market and how its products are perceived by the target market as a whole. (Whalley, A 2010:P77) Product positioning is the process of designing product features. These features are product, place, promotion and distribution. Positioning is about the communication of the overall value of proposition such as that it creates and maintains it clearly to customers. A product position is the place where product occupies in consumers minds. Market position gives a product a clear, unique and desirable place in the minds of target consumers. It is very important for the firm to define market segments, determine the target segments and understand customer needs, expectation and priorities .The study of competitors positioning about services and products are very important for a company, because its essential for a company to make good position f or its customers and communication about products for customer needs. Customers need should be a main priority of an organization. (Whalley, A.2010:P77) Discuss Argoss segmentation, targeting and positioning 3.1 Argoss segmentation As discussed previously, market segmentation means dividing a market into different subsets of customers with different needs. Different variables can play a role in purchasing decision of customers. In Argos demographic approach is used because demography is the study of population and it refers to personal statistics like income, age, gender, nationality, religion, and occupations etc. Argos adopts demographic approach because this approach represent the every member of the society i.e. there are many high and low income people in society, they have different needs about products. Furthermore, people of different ages and choice for men and women also important for a company before dividing the market in different segments. Argoss strategy about market segmentation is to fulfil the need of every customer. It does not matter customer is rich or poor, male or female, educational or uneducated etc. Argos creates well balanced market segment for its target and product. (The Times i, 20 10) 3.2 Argoss Targeting Customers buying habits change with the passage of time. Advancement of the technology changes customer shopping habits because technology makes its access simple for people. Many people nowadays like to use modern technology for shopping and purchasing different products, for that purpose they like to use internet, telephone. Many people like to come into stores to buy goods but the proportions of online buyers are increasing. This behaviour of customers changes companies approach of targeting. Argos thus uses a variety of modern channels to communicate with customers and to provide them with facilities for inquiring about availability of stock, and for making purchases. Argos recognizes that its many customers have different needs and prefer to shop in different ways. Argos targeting approach is getting to success because Argoss customers have already decided what they want to buy before visiting stores. Argos targeting approach make its value reliable for its customers because its targeting strategy aims to target more and more customers and make easy access for its products. Hence, Argos is using modern technology to target its customers because in this busy world ,where people are using advanced technology for communication make essential for Argos to use it for targeting customers. (The Times i, 2010) 3.3 Argos Positioning As discussed previously, product positioning is the process of designing product features. These features are product, place, promotion and distribution. Positioning is the final step in STP process. A strong positioning strategy is very important for company. Argos product positioning is using a differentiated market strategy. Argos low prices create value for its customers and its branded products lines are able to meet the demands of customers. Argos uses low price strategy because it is able to achieve cutting cost through retailing channels and it does not require a large shop space and big staff. Argos positioning strategy about place divides in three formats. These formats are store format, online format and catalogues. In distribution feature, Argos distributes products through Royal mail and its own delivery services. Argos uses advertising tools like internet, TV and indirect advertising through shopping catalogues for the promotion of its products. (Scribd i, 2010) Argos as a truly multi-channel, value orientated general merchandise Retail Company. Its strategy about product positioning is differentiated and formatted. Argos offers highly competitive customers through its positioning features like product, place, distribution and promotion. Infrastructure advantages strategy is to gain infrastructure advantage to increase revenue for this purpose Argos spends capital to improve its stores because strong infrastructure also helpful to create product position in market for customers. Argos positioning about reductions or increased flexibility cost has been achieved while Argos is still maintaining or improving its operational standards. (HRG PLCi: 2010B). Conclusion In conclusion, the STP process always plays a vital role in strategic marketing, because of the division of market into segments, targeting segments and positioning of products. Argos is a unique retailer company in the UK. It has a unique STP strategy policy as a company for dividing market into segments; demographic strategy is used for market dividing because its more suitable than other variables such as geography, occasion, behaviours etc. Argos strategy for targeting customers is flexible because Argos uses a variety of modern channels to communicate with customers and to provide them with facilities for inquiring about availability of stock, and for making purchases. Argos strong product positioning is totally for the benefit of its customers. As a UK retailer company Argos is unique, popular and successful because it is focused around meeting customer needs. Argos has gained competitive advantage on the basis of providing the best value of money for its customers through the best products branding, low prices, place, distribution and promotion. In this assignment, my main objective was to discuss Argos as retailing company and its STP strategy in strategic marketing. Furthermore, its aim was to show how Argos uses STP to gain competitive advantage from rivals by differentiating itself on the basis of providing the best value for money for customers through the most convenient shopping experience.

Essay --

Taylor Heisler A Soldier’s Life A soldier’s journey throughout the Civil War began with them entering the war. At the start of the war, both sides had many men who volunteered to fight for their side. Many volunteered to fight because of patriotism, state pride, to be paid, for their religion, or even for the thrill of an adventure. Although towards the middle and end of the Civil War, volunteers were no longer as common. Both sides began to have a problem with the lack of soldiers. The Confederacy ending up creating a draft that first began drafting men ages eighteen to thirty-five, but by the end of the war the age was men forty-five to fifty. Although the Union wasn’t as in a short supply of men as the Confederacy, they also started a draft but it only made up about 6 percent of their army. While having the draft, both sides allowed the wealthy to pay $300.00 to buy their way out of serving in the Civil War. This meant most of the men who were drafted tended to be poor. This angered civilian s from both sides and riots broke out which were quieted by the armies. The Union also began accepting escaped Confederate slaves and African Americans to fight as soldiers. Becoming desperate, the Confederacy also began drafting slaves to fight in their army. After soldier’s joined the army they experienced training for the war. At the beginning of the war, neither side had a great amount of trained soldiers considering most soldiers had been farmers. A majority of officers and trainers also lacked fighting skills. Neither side had much time to train their armies but they trained the best they could. Drills were conducted to train the soldiers. The drills became a daily routine and taught their soldiers discipline and battle... ... limbs, because of the poor sanitation of the medical equipment used to remove their limbs. One of the least dangerous struggles soldiers faced was boredom. Soldiers waited at camps for action. While waiting for orders, soldiers passed time with varies methods. Soldiers would cook food, write letters to their loved ones, clean their clothes and even play games. Common games played were: baseball, dominoes, cards, chess, and checkers. A soldier experienced many hard ships beginning with being brought into the war, training, and surviving the war. Soldiers fought for their side whether they wanted to be in the war or not. They endured many long days of training and struggled to become better soldiers. A soldier not only struggled to survive a battle but also a normal day at camp. Although the armies faced the same struggles, the soldiers continued to fight.

Serial Killer :: Serial Killer Essays

Serial killer is a person who kills three or more people with a cooling off period between murders and these murders may go on for a period of months or years. The murders that this person commits may have similar fashion or the victims may have something in common, for example, occupation, race, appearance, sex, or age group. Psychology is the science and study of human behavior and mental processes. Moreover, it is the study of human minds and its function. Krafft-Ebing (1886) found that the serial killer had been through cruelty of animal; enjoy the torture and the pain of their victim during his or her childhood period. Moreover, the mothers of these serial killers were most of time working or doing other things and usually the father were absent. These children experience rejection and lack of attention, therefore, this child grows up having low self-esteem. Research show that adults that gone through abuse and violent behavior during their childhood were three times more likely to become violent as adult more than the non abused adults (Dutton & Hart, 1992). Freud (1940) was the first to do the link between sexual abuses during the childhood and adult abnormal behavior. As a result of that serial killer uses sex as a way to let out his or her anger and aggression. The sexually acts of the serial killer is not only about sex, but it is about revenge, power, and control. â€Å"Serial killers are unconsciously trying to kill off their repressed sexual pain and powerlessness. Every stab into the victim’s flesh is a stab against their own childhood sexual terror and pain, and the rage that accompanies it is a rage against those who tormented and terrorized† (Knight, 2006, p. 1199-1200). To take off the aggression and need to compensate the horrible memories of the childhood explain the reason why serial killers abuse animals during their childhood. When they were children they control pets and they can harm them knowing that the animals can fight back. Therefore, they feel themselves as if they were in absolute power. This animal torture later will turn in to human victim torture. Charister Clause and Lars Lidberg (1999) used five characteristics from Shahriar disorder that are common among serial killers.

Media and Its Effects on Gender Stereotypes Essay -- Media Stereotypin

In addressing the question it is first necessary to understand what is meant by 'mass media'. The Collins English Dictionary defines mass media as "the means of communication that reach large numbers of people in a short time, such as television, newspapers, magazines, and radio" (Collins English Dictionary 5th edition, 2000, pp 957). This therefore suggests that any medium that conveys information to the people is categorised as mass media. By looking at two forms of media, this essay will examine how much the media can be charged with causing and further exaggerating gender-based stereotypes in society. The forms of the media in which this essay will examine will be advertising, in particular the way masculinity is portrayed within television and magazines. The second form of media to be examined will be soap operas and will examine representation and audience reception within the soap genre. When starting an advertising campaign the writer in general follows the premise that sex sells and automatically asserts themselves into a manipulative model, a Marxist perspective which views of society as being divided by class and being ruled by those in control (i.e. bourgeois) who have the financial ability behind them. Because these people have become so financially powerful they are able to force their beliefs and opinion on others therefore legitimising their control. With this control of what is portrayed in their media takes away free thought of the viewer (i.e. proletariat). the images or texts that are portrayed to a passive audience, is that of a sexual or gender biased content. In her work Forever Feminine: Women's ... ... Although it is still unclear as to whether the media perpetuates gender stereotyping it is clear however that it is responsible for creating its own sets of stereotypes. Bibliography Giddens, A. Sociology, 4th Edition, 2001, Polity Press, UK Haralambos, M. Holborn, M. 4th Edition, 1995, Collins Educational, London Kirkby, M. Kidd,W et al, 1st Edition, 1997, Heinemann Educational Publishers, Oxford. References ----------------------------------------------------------------- Collins English Dictionary 5th Edition, 2000, HarperCollins Publishers, Glasgow. Hall, S. Representation Cultural Representation and Signifying Practices, 1st Edition, 1997, The Open University & Sage Publications, UK. Trowler, P. Investigating Mass Media, 2nd Edition, 1996, HarperCollins Publishers, London.

Personal Finance

Thesis statement: why revitalization taking so long and the Impact that this revitalization process affect the resident In Clinton hill. (Topic sentence and main idea)2nd reasons: the government policy Hirsch process 2nd evidence: â€Å"It is ironic that after fighting disinvestment and seeking to encourage reinvestment for more than 20 years the revitalization value that PACK was trying to protect – is seriously threatened. 1 â€Å"Plans for a pedestrian plaza on Myrtle Avenue have been pushed back until summer due to glitches in the bidding process. This isn't the first hold up, which was championed by the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership. † â€Å"The public art component of the plaza was held up by Public Design Commission approval, according to Brownstones. â€Å"2 â€Å"has long been delayed even before 2013, from above said will be done by august 2013 and push again till next year 2015 summer. â€Å"Myrtle Minutes reported that construction will begin this summer and will last for more than a year. 3 (which they have mention will be finished only 2015) â€Å"Alex Barrett, a real-estate developer, unveiled his company's first construction -fence aural, at 4 and 8 Downing Street in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn. ( server and a documentary â€Å"Dave Chapel's Block Party,† from 2005. ) a mural that related the building history. â€Å"eh did get approved and he feel suck a good thing why should go thru such Inconvenient process. 3rd reason: bad news 3rd evidence: â€Å"It is important to note that a substantial minority -23 percent -of Clinton Hill's population in 1950 was black, having increased 37 percent over 1940.Although the black population as a whole appeared to have a lower socioeconomic status than all Clinton Hill residents, the proportion of black was not substantially less than that for Brooklyn as a whole. More important, black households were more likely than white Clinton Hill residents to won their dw elling in 1950. â€Å"5 † A final factor that may have limited the speed of revitalization was the Image of the neighborhood. The New York magazine article quoted earlier refers to Fort Greene as a † rough† area. 6 1 OFF police protection and everything, as expected. â€Å"7 Form the physical observe tracing, in front of Bamboo gill and bar there were two black men talks to a black girl. I listened to their conversation while walking across is kind of intimidate you and gross. With one of the guy persistently putting his hand in his pant. 5th reason:barn raising 5th evidence: † A unique aspects of the revitalization in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill is that the proportion of nonwhite residents increased through the last decade. Clearly, one of the major underpinnings of the revitalization of these two neighborhoods is the continuing attraction of these areas to black middle-class households, many of whom undoubtedly are young professionals. â€Å"8 â€Å"Th rough her (Mr.. James) activism she had been able to witness the varying ways that people try to affect change in the neighborhood. â€Å"9 â€Å"As I described in chapter 2, local community based organizations have also played an integral role in revitalization these neighborhoods. 10 â€Å"These social aspects include the myriad ways that neighbors influence one's behavior. Most common in the popular imagination is the notion of peer effects. Peer effects suggest that like follows like and individuals will be influenced by the behavior of their peers†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. The perspectives Just described examine how an individual's behavior is shaped by the socioeconomic composition of his or her neighbors. The collective community, however, also has a voice in shaping the neighborhood milieu through collective action.A neighborhood is more than the sum of individuals but is an entity itself and can be thought of as more or less effective in achieving its objectives†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Final ly, more affluent neighbors might also be a benefit because of their indirect influence on institutions that serve the neighborhood. I refer to this as institutional resources and consider the role of the gentry in shaping this important component of neighborhood life as well. 11 6th reason: difference or conflict with†¦ Some enjoy with current and some want change (interactions between the gentry and old residents. 6th evidence: â€Å"In addition, a greater proportion of the work force in Clinton Hill (27 percent) than in the entire borough (20 percent) was employed in white-collar occupations. â€Å"12 the sudden improvement, even if beneficial, was also insulting. â€Å"13 â€Å"But there were still people who looked with reverence on the old structure and wished to see it survive the depredations of what was know in those days as â€Å"urban renew. â€Å"14 7th reason: old house n relax 7th evidence: Many brownstones along the streets ringing the park are abandoned, t heir front yards littered with burned mattresses and glass; the rooming houses nearby are crowded.On sunny summer and fall afternoons the prostitutes and winos overflow their stoops at night the blare of music is never far off†¦. â€Å"1 5 â€Å"According to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, the area retains its original character today, The area was designated a New York City Historic District in 1978 and a National Historic District in 1983. â€Å"16 â€Å"By 1880, the area within the historic district was almost entirely built-up. â€Å"17