Tuesday, December 31, 2019

The Trafficking Of Human Organs - 1564 Words

Trafficking Human Organs The trafficking of human organs is on the rise and black market operations are happening under everyone’s nose. Currently there are more than 120,000 people who are on the waiting list for a lifesaving organ. Among these people waiting for their transplant approximately twenty-five people will die each day waiting for their number to come up (Perry, 2016). According to the World Health Organization there is only about ten percent of organ transplants being met through the legal process (Bilefsky, 2012). In 2010 there was an estimated amount to 11,000 organs that were obtained through black market operations (Perry, 2016). The trafficking of the human kidney is the most popular organ that is being sold in the black market, due to the fact that a person can live a productive life with only one kidney even though a person is born with two (Living with One Kidney, 2015). It has been estimated that there are 10,000 different black market outfits that in volve the selling and purchasing of human organs that take place annually throughout the world. Through these traffickers a human kidney is being purchased on the astounding average of one every hour (World Health Organization, 2012). Many people who are in pursuit to purchase a kidney will go to China, India, or Pakistan to have the surgery done and has paid up to the amount of $200,000 for a kidney. While the person is paying so much the donor might receive $5,000 of that money from the blackShow MoreRelatedEssay on Human Organ Trafficking1283 Words   |  6 PagesHuman Organ Trafficking There are many problems with global crimes. What holds these crimes together isn’t because people around the world are committing the same crimes, it’s because these criminals have created global organizations that have ties in all the corners of the world. These groups work just like normal business do, exporting and importing goods to gain profit. However, unlike normal businesses their goods are illegal such as drugs and often inhumane such as trafficking humans. EvenRead MoreOrgan Trafficking Is The Illegal Trade Of Human Organs For Transplantation1198 Words   |  5 PagesOrgan Trafficking, also known as transplant tourism is the illegal trade of human organs for transplantation. (UNOFC,2016). On the other hand, organ donation is the act of transplanting healthy organs and tissues from one person to another (Medline Plus,2015). It is no secret that organ supply cannot meet the rising demand, and because of that a global organ transplant black market has grown and flourished(Glaser,2005). Although there has been some effort to establish a global organ transplant resolutionRead MoreBlack Market Organ Trafficking : The Illegal Act Of Exchanging Human Organs Or Tissues At An Agreed Price Essay1599 Words   |  7 PagesBlack market organ trafficking Organ trafficking deals with the illegal act of exchanging human organs or tissues at an agreed price. This practice involves mafia networks that collect organs from dead or living persons. A majority of people involved in this illicit business are poverty stricken and so, they see it as a promise of a brighter future. While the World Health Organization (WHO) has defined strict rules, imposed ethical standards along with the absence of any monetary compensation, theRead More Do People Who Are Trafficking Human Organs Help Other People?992 Words   |  4 Pages Do People Who Are Trafficking Human Organs Help Other People? (Campbell Davison, 2012), say that the unlawful business in human organs special kidneys has advanced quickly and unexpectedly. The reasons why selling kidneys has advanced quickly is that nowadays many countries have wars so there are many poor people who need money to live a good life. Also, after wars, there are many sick people that felt desperation because they lost their organs in the war and no one donated to them, so they neededRead MoreHuman Organ Trafficking Is What We Hear About All The Time Essay1952 Words   |  8 PagesHuman organ trafficking is what we hear about all the time. By hook or by crook, it appears we ve gone calloused and look at it as anything so detached from our reality. Nonetheless, somewhere in the market, real persons are suffering and are going through this designated difficulty. They re both forcibly or with consent taken and forced to donate their organs or killed and their organs are harvested. They are individuals whose freedom and rights are trampled on and taken away. Ways of GettingRead MoreOrgan Trafficking : A Large Problem1446 Words   |  6 PagesIllegal organ trafficking has become a large problem all over the world. The traffickers are commonly attacking the poor and promising them money but it never ends up being the correct amount. Commonly doctors and pharmaceutical companies overlook the illegal trade of the organs because they receiving money from the transplants. Organ trafficking takes place in three broad categories. The first one is organ traffickers will force or trick the individual into giving up an organ. Secondly the victimRead MoreThe Problem Of Human Trafficking1498 Words   |  6 Pagescontribute to the issue at hand. The issue I want to focus on is human trafficking. This type of criminalization is often one that is overlooked, most people believing that it is some sort of â€Å"myth,† or that this type of action happens to very few, and is only part of developing countries. However, the truth of the matter is tha t human trafficking occurs everywhere in the world, even the most successful countries. Human trafficking can occur in many different forms, however, there are very few lawsRead MoreHuman Trafficking Across the Globe Essay1118 Words   |  5 PagesHuman Trafficking Across the Globe Human trafficking is when a person is forced or tricked into working under terrible conditions. The victims of human trafficking may be kidnapped or are sometimes lured with false promises for a better future in a new country. Human trafficking is a high-profit and low-risk endeavor for the traffickers. Human trafficking can occur within a country or trans-nationally and is considered a crime against the victim being trafficked because of the violation of the victim’sRead MoreOrgan Trafficking1137 Words   |  5 PagesOrgan Trafficking Organ trafficking is one of the great issues that is faced by the society today. It is a practice of stealing people’s organ through surgery under the influence of drugs or from a dead person, and the organs are normally sold in black market such as China. South Africa, and Russia. WHO has estimated that one-fifth of the 70,000 kidneys that are transplanted every year come from the black market through a widespread organ-trafficking networks. In my opinion, organ trafficking hasRead MoreOrgan Trafficking1465 Words   |  6 PagesGAC015 Assessment Event 4: Academic Research Essay Organ Trafficking Students Name: Mary Jin Student ID #: JPCH21571 Teacher: John Due Date: 2013.2.25 Word Count: 1164 Question: In many countries organ trafficking is illegal, yet the incidence is on the increasing. Examine the legal, ethical and sociological issues involved in procuring human organs for transplant operations, comparing two countries with very different approaches.

Monday, December 23, 2019

Citizen Kane Mise En Scene Analysis - 983 Words

Citizen Kane is a movie starring Orson Welles that is loosely based on the life of William Randolph Hearst and the media empire that he built in the late 1800s and the early 1900s. Mise en Scene is possibly the most important chapter that we have covered that pertains to Citizen Kane and shows numerous examples of it throughout the film to reinforce loss as a recurring theme. Citizen Kane’s non verbal strength is made evident through the use of not only intrinsic interest but through the use of isolated figure versus clustered and off-screen information as well. Perhaps one of the most important segments not mentioned in our scene summary notes that encapsulates Mise en Scene is when Charles Foster Kane is giving his speech when he’s†¦show more content†¦The use of intrinsic interest was effective in this film due to the fact that Kane was a guarded and somewhat secretive man when it came to his personal life and the background information given through th ese shots was helpful when trying to understand the deeper meaning of his actions. It also helps to show the parallels between the fabricated narrative of Charles Foster Kane’s life and the real life of William Randolph Hearst. In the film the use of isolated figure versus clustered is very obvious. It is used throughout the film to show the social isolation of Kane as his success grows in moments when he decides to put aside personal relationships in favor of financial growth and notoriety. Kane tends to appear stronger and more in control in moments when he’s by himself then in moments when he is surrounded or affiliated with others who the film portrays as individuals or groups who â€Å"weaken† him; this results in the film often showing Kane in moments of anguish amidst being successful because he feels misunderstood, isolated and detached from those that were once closest to him. However eventually his isolation catches up with him as we see in the beg inning of the film when we are shown the no trespassing signs and fences before his death; subsequently showing that his isolation has eliminated everyone that would’ve mourned him. Other examples of this are how he periodically moved fromShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Film Citizen Kane By Orson Wells1303 Words   |  6 Pagesthe film ‘Citizen Kane’, directed by Orson Wells (1941) for this assignment. The technical aspects I have chosen to explore will be the use of both mise-en-scene and editing. Synopsis The clip I have selected from Citizen Kane is a montage scene that shows the protagonist Charles Foster Kane eating breakfast with his wife Emily. The scene is presented in the form of a narrative exposition from the mind of Jedediiah Leland, who is the ex business partner of Kane. The entirety of the scene is comprisedRead MoreOrson And Citizen Kane, Touch Of Evil, And Othello, Make Him A Great Auteur? Essay2317 Words   |  10 PagesElie Rahbani 201300566 History of film paper: Topic: Orson welles Question: How do the formalistic and ideological patterns found in Orson Welles’s movies; Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil, and Othello, make him a great auteur? Outline: †¢ 1. Orson Welles (Biography and 3 films) †¢ 2. Formalistic patterns: âž ¢ Mise en Scene in each film âž ¢ Editing in each film †¢ 3. Ideological patterns (in each film) †¢ 4. Orson Welles as an Auteur 1. Orson Welles: Biography: Orson Welles was born on the 6th of MayRead MoreHistorical Analysis of the Movie, Citizen Kane Essay1699 Words   |  7 Pages Historical Analysis, Citizen Kane: Camera Movement Citizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles, was an exemplary and ground-breaking work. In narrative structure and film style, Welles challenged classical Hollywood conventions and opened a path for experimentation in the later 1940s. Gregg Toland’s deep-focus cinematography and Welles’ use of low-key lighting are often discussed aspects of the movie. True, these were areas of innovation, but when watching the movie in class I was particularlyRead MoreCitizen Kane : Character Analysis : Citizen Kane1337 Words   |  6 PagesCharacter Analysis: Kane Citizen Kane one of the consistently top ranked films of all time, A film that would change the course and style of film from that point on Its ability to direct the audience’s attention with its many remarkable and breath-taking scenes. It employed many new cinematic and innovative techniques that apply to lighting, sound mixing and editing that been emulated ever since. The character that we see take the greatest advantages of these new techniques is Charles Foster Kane, utilizingRead MoreFilm Analysis : The Power Of Vertigo1774 Words   |  8 PagesFilm Analysis 1: The Power of Vertigo I remember watching Vertigo for the first time back when I was still very young, but at the time, I didn t really understand anything about the movie. As I watched it again as I grew older, I learned to appreciate how great this movie really is and the special narrative style that the movie presented. Vertigo, to me, was always known as Alfred Hitchcock s best film. Most of Hitchcock’s well-known films like Psycho or North by Northwest have unique title sequencesRead MoreEssay on Music in Scorsese films2910 Words   |  12 Pagessong so that certain points of the music or the vocals will be hitting between certain lines of dialogue. Those lyrics are also commenting on the dialogue† So here we see how Scorsese chooses to use Lyrics that suggest more about the action in the scene, on an almost subconscious level with the audience. This use of editing and fine tuning lyric placement goes to show that it’s far more than just choosing songs for Scorsese. An example of the use of lyrics to construct a feeling is noted later onRead MoreThe Independence Of Meta Cinema And Authorship4881 Words   |  20 Pagesfurther aims to cultivate cinematic literacy among the audience (Valck and Hagener, 1999). Thus, auteurist concerns can be summarised as appealing to the articulation and reception of filmmakers? self-reflexivity. David Bordwe ll has indicated in his analysis on European art cinema that the stress of authorship covers the distinct style of art cinema practices (Bordwell, 1979). In his essay, representative art films are introduced as models conveying authorial marks, among which are Day for Night (LaRead MoreMetz Film Language a Semiotics of the Cinema PDF100902 Words   |  316 PagesPhenomenology of the Narrative, 16 II Problems of Film Semiotics Chapter 3. Chapter 4. Chapter 5. The Cinema: Language or Language System? 31 Some Points in the Semiotics of the Cinema, 92 Problems of Denotation in the Fiction Film, 108 III Syntagmatic Analysis of the Image Track Chapter 6. Outline of the Autonomous Segments in Jacques Rozier s film Adieu Philippine, 149 Chapter 7. Syntagmatic Study of Jacques Rozier s Film Adieu Philippine, 177 vii viii CONTENTS IV The Modern Cinema: Some Theoretical

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Private statistical database Free Essays

string(119) " statistical noise in the database makes the input perturbation an important method in the enhancement of the privacy\." Abstract As the statistical databases consist of important and sensitive information, the preservation of the privacy in these databases is of extremely significance. Despite the complexity of the statistical databases’ protection, there are diverse sorts of mechanisms which can keep out the confidential data. This report discusses methods as data perturbations, query restriction methods and differential privacy which provide privacy in the statistical databases. We will write a custom essay sample on Private statistical database or any similar topic only for you Order Now Keywords: statistical databases, privacy, input perturbation, output perturbation, differential privacy. 1. Introduction Nowadays, there is a wide-spread access to data. Having a lot of advantages to omnipresent access of information, there is also the possibility to break the privacy of individuals. In the statistical databases, personal data with very large number of individuals is stored. The statistical databases contain multiple statistical information. They give to their users the ability to acquire this information and also to protect the privacy of individuals. However, supporting security in the statistical databases against the revealing of confidential data is complicated and ambitious task. This problem of privacy in the statistical databases has expanded in the recent years. This report will examine the main methods for providing privacy in the statistical databases. 2. Body 2.1. Definition of statistical databases A statistical database is a set of data units which has permissive access to the statistical information connected to these data parts. The statistical database could be described as a database system which allows to its users to obtain only aggregate statistics for a subset of items introduced in the database [1]. The statistical database posses limited querying interface which is restricted to operations such as sum, count, mean, etc. The statistical database also could be defined as query responsive algorithm which permits the users to access the content of the database through statistical queries [2]. The statistical database is concerned with the multidimensional datasets and is related to the statistical summarizations of the data sets’ dimensions. The statistical database is mainly oriented to socio-economic databases which are normally the field of statisticians. An example of statistical database is the census data which is linked to collection of information about the assessment of the population trends. Another example of statistical database is the economic database which includes statistics for the industries’ sales and income or statistics for the use and production of diverse products [3]. 2.2. Privacy in statistical databases The privacy can be described as the right to specify what type of information about individuals or items is allowed to be shared with others. The benefits from analyzing the statistical database are very significant but the release of the information from this database could cause a lot of problems, troubles and damages. Thus, one of the main aims of the statistical database is to ensure privacy of the information. To be an effective statistical database, it should protect all its records [4]. As the statistical database should provide statistical information, it should not disclose private information on the items or individuals it refers to. The releasing of a statistical data may offend the privacy rights of the individuals. Therefore, the statistical database should follow some ethical and legal behavior to defend the individuals’ records. For legal, ethical and professional grounds, the users of the statistical database are not authorized to receive special information on individual records. The statistical database should protect the sensitive information allowing its users to get aggregate information. The restricted access should be permitted either from the point of view of the groups of people to whom this information is available or from the point of view of the certain aspects of this information. However, it is possible sometimes when statistics are correlated, the sensitive information to be inferred. If a combination of aggregate queries is used to obtain information, we say that the information in the database is compromised and therefore the database is also compromised [5]. The main duty for the privacy of statistical database is to find appropriate methods which could ensure that no queries are sufficient to infer the values of the protected records. 2.3. Methods for providing private statistical databases The following methods and techniques are used to secure the privacy in statistical databases. 2.3.1 Perturbation methods There are two main perturbation methods for preserving privacy in statistical databases. The first one is the input perturbation where the primary data is randomly modified and the results are calculated based on this modified data. The second perturbation method is the output perturbation which computes the results from the queries exactly from the actual data [6]. In other words, the input perturbation is detected when the records are computed on the queries while the output perturbation is applied to the query result after computing it on the original data. The perturbation methods look for accomplishment of the masking of item or individual’s confidential information while trying to maintain the basic aggregate relationships of the statistical database. One of the main aims of these methods is to ‘conceal’ particular confidential record. It is also necessary to notice that the perturbation techniques are not encryption techniques which first modify the data, t hen usually send it, receive it and finally decrypt it to the original data. The primary difficulty of these methods is to assure that the introduced error is within the satisfactory limits. There is an exchange between the level of protection that could be attained and the variance of the presented perturbation. 2.3.1.1 Input perturbation The fundamental idea behind this method is that the result which is returned by the queries is based on a perturbed data. This means that the primary data in the statistical database is not used to create query results. One side that is necessary to be taken into account is the duplicated database. This database, which is used to turn back to results, must maintain the similar statistical characteristics as the original database. This technique introduces random noise to the confidential information and thus protects the data. Adding statistical noise in the database makes the input perturbation an important method in the enhancement of the privacy. You read "Private statistical database" in category "Essay examples" The original database is generally changed into modified or perturbed statistical database which is afterwards accessible to the users. The input perturbation permits the users to access the necessary aggregate statistical information from the whole database when it makes changes to the original data. Therefore this process helps to protect the records [7]. The records of the database contain values that are variations of their adequate values in the true database. As a whole this method tries to minimize the severe bias in the query results by allocating the corresponding bias in the data so that it could cancel out in the huge query sets. In the input perturbation, the data is perturbed for instance via swapping attributes or adding the random noise before this data releases the whole statistical database. There are two well-known subcategories in the input perturbation. The probability distribution interprets the statistical database as a sample from a given data that has a certain probability distribution [1]. The main purpose is to transform the primary statistical database with a different sample which is from the same probability distribution. This input perturbation creates a substitute database from the original one. This method is also called data swapping. The second subcategory is the fixed – data perturbation where the values of the records in the statistical database are perturbed only once and for all the records. Since the perturbation process is done only once, the repeated queries have consistent and logical values. This perturbation also constructs an alternative database as the probability distribution. This alternative database is created by changing the value of every record by a randomly produced perturbation value. The fixed – data perturbation could be applied to both numerical and categorical data. 2.3.1.2 Output perturbation The output perturbation differs notably from the input perturbation. In the input perturbation, the data is specified by all statistical features of the database. As longs as in the output perturbation, the perturbed results are directly introduced to the users [8]. Another difference is that in the output perturbation, the problem with the bias is not as harsh as in the input perturbation. This is because the queries are based on the original values but not on the perturbed ones. The output perturbation method is based on calculation of the queries’ responses on the statistical databases. This method adds the variance to the result. The result is produced on the original database however the noise is added to the result before to return it to the users. As the noise is not added to the database, this method generates results that include less bias that the input perturbation. It is necessary to note that if the noise is random then this noise could be reduced by performing th e same query over and over again. Some limitations exist. For example if there is very large number of queries to the statistical database, the amount of the noise added to the results should be also very large [9]. The output perturbation has pretty low storage and computational overhead [10]. This method is rather easy to carry out because it does not influence the query process. The output perturbation consists of different approaches as random sample queries, varying – output perturbation and rounding. The random sample queries technique shows a technique where a sample is created from the query set itself. The random sample queries method denies the intruder accurate control which covers the queries records [11]. One drawback of this method is that it could not ensure enough certainty for users to prevent the confidential data. However, the random sample queries may present precise statistics for number of records. The USA Census Bureau for example mainly works with this technique to restrict the inference in their statistics records. Every reported query is founded upon a gratuitously chosen subpopulation of the query set. The USA Census Bureau is satisfied with this method and applies it very successfully in its activity. The second approach of the output perturbation is the varying – output perturbation [1]. This method is suitable for the SUM, COUNT and PERCENTILE queries. The varying – output perturbation presents a varying perturbation to the data where random variables are used to calculate the answer to a variant of a given query. The last approach of output perturbation is the rounding where all queries are computed based on unbiased data. Afterwards the results are transformed before they are returned to the users. There are three types of rounding – systematic rounding, random rounding and controlled rounding [1]. It is advisable to combine the rounding method with methods to provide more privacy in the statistical database. 2.3.2 Query restriction method The main idea of this method is even if the user does not want to receive deterministically right answers, these answers should be exact, for example numbers. As these answers to queries give the users forceful information, it might be important to deny the answers of some queries at certain stage to prevent the disclosure of a confidential data from the statistical database. The type or the number of queries that a user puts to the statistical database is restricted. This method discards a query which can be compromised. Nevertheless, the answers in the query restrictions are always precise. It could be concluded that the restricted group of the accepted queries considerably reduces the real usefulness of the statistical database. This method provides a protection for the statistical database by limiting the size of the query set, by controlling the overlap among the consecutive queries, by maintaining audit of any answered queries for every user and by making the small-sized cells inaccessible to users of the statistical database. There are five subcategories of the query restriction method – query set size control, query set overlap control, auditing, partitioning and cell suppression [1]. 2.3.2.1 Query set size control method The query set size based method declines the answers to queries which have an influence on a small set of records. Fellegi [12] sets lower and upper limits for the size of the query answer which are based on the characteristics of the database. If the number of the returned records is not within these two limits, the request for the information could not be accepted and therefore the query answer may be denied. The query set size control method can be explained by the following equation [12]: K ? |C| ? L – K,(1) where K is a parameter set by the database administrator, |C| is the size of the query set and L is the number of the entities in the database. The parameter K must satisfy the condition [12]: 0 ? K ?(2) The main advantage of this method is its easy implementation. However, its robustness is low so it is advisable to use it in a combination with other methods. 2.3.2.2 Query set overlap method The query set overlap method permits only queries which have small overlap with formerly answered queries. Thus, the method controls the overlap over the queries. The lowest overlap control restrains the queries responses which have more than the predetermined number of records in common with every previous query [3]. This surveillance is valuable in the defense againstthe trackers as a compromise tool. In spite is all, this method has some drawbacks [13]. This query set overlap control is not enough effective when several users together try to compromise the statistical database. As well as the statistics for both a set and its subset are hard released which limits the efficiency of the database. 2.3.2.3 Auditing The third subcategory of the query restriction method is the auditing. It requires the maintenance of up-to-date logs of all queries which are made by every user. It also requires a continuous check-up for potential disclosure whenever a new query is published. One main advantage of this method is that it permits the statistical database to support the users with unperturbed data and ensure that the response will not be compromised. A disadvantage of the auditing method is its excessive CPU and the requirements for the storage and processing of the collected logs [1]. 2.3.2.4 Partitioning The partitioning method groups the individual entities of a population in a number of reciprocally excessive subsets, known as atomic populations. Therefore, the records are stored in groups which consist of predetermined number of records [4]. A query is permitted only to the entire groups, but not to a subset of a group. The statistical features of these atomic populations form the raw materials which are attainable to the database users. While the atomic populations include exactly one individual entity, a high level of protection can be achieved. A research, taken by Schlorer, found that there is an emergence of the large number of atomic populations with only one entity. The result of this will be a considerable information loss when these populations are clustered. One major drawback of this method is the retrieved value of the statistical information. When the database is partitioned, the statistical data is toughly obscured. This restricts the flow of potential wanted statist ical information by the users. In reality, the users may not have the chance to acquire the desired information. 2.3.2.5 Cell suppression The cell suppression method is frequently used by the census bureau for information which is published in tabular form. This technique protects the tabular data from a compromise. The main idea is to conceal the cells that can lead to a disclosure of a confidential data. In this way, the cell suppression minimizes the suppressed cells with private information. These cells are called primary suppressions. The other cells with non confidential data, which may be a threat and lead to a disclosure, should also be suppressed. These cells with non private information are called complementary suppressions. These complementary suppressions provide a pre-defined level of protection to the primary cells. 2.3.3 Differential privacy As Dalenims (1977) points out that an access to a statistical database should not be allowed to a user to acquire information about an individual’s record which cannot be found out without the access of the database. This form of privacy is difficult to be achieved because of the auxiliary information. The auxiliary information is information which is available to the adversary without an access to the statistical database [14]. For example, let presume that one’s exact weight is considered as highly sensitive information and revealing this information is regarded as a privacy break. Next, it is assumed that the database provides the average weights of people of different nationalities. An adversary of the statistical database who has an access to the auxiliary information, that a particular British person is 10 kilogram thinner than the average French person, can learn the British person’s weight, as long as anyone gaining only the auxiliary information without having an access to the average weights, learns not much [15]. This leads to the application of the concept of differential privacy. In spite of the fact that the differential privacy does not exclude a bad disclosure, it ensures the individual that his or her data will not be included in the database that produces it. The differential privacy is defined as one of the successful methods of providing privacy for the statistical databases. The basic description of the differential privacy is that it is focused on providing ways to increase the accuracy of the queries from the statistical database while trying to minimize the chances of recognizing its records. The differential privacy is a randomized algorithm which accepts the database as input and generates an output [15]. A more precise definition of this method is the following formulation: A randomized function K that gives ?-differential privacy if for the databases D1 and D2, which only differ on at most one element and all S? Range (K), Pr [K (D1) ? S] ? exp (?) x Pr [K (D2) ? S](3) When this function K satisfies the above definition, it can ensure an individual that though this individual removes his or her data from the database, the outputs cannot become indicatively more or less acceptable. The differential privacy strives to guarantee an adjustment to the statistical disclosure control’s problem. The differential privacy aims to publicly let out statistical information relating to a set of individuals without allowing a compromise for privacy. This method demands that there is an inherently the same probability distribution on the produced results. This probability distribution should be independent of whether each individual chooses or not the data set [16]. This process is done indirectly as at the same time it addresses all potential forms of harm and good by concentrating upon the probability of every given output of a privacy method and upon the ways for changes of the probability when any row is added or deleted from the database. The statistical database is usually developed to reach social goals and the expanded participation in the database allows more precise analysis. Therefore, the differential privacy assures the support for the social goals by guaranteeing every individual that there is a quite little risk by connecting to the statistical database. The differential privacy has some advantages. Firstly, this privacy preserving method is independent of any extra and auxiliary information including also other databases which are available to the adversaries. Secondly, the differential privacy is easily implemented through the using of rather sample and general techniques. The last advantage is that the differential privacy usually permits very accurate analysis. 3. Conclusion To conclude, the statistical database provides to users statistical information for values which are based on various criteria. The field of the statistical database is highly important because it encompasses a broad variety of application areas which in principle deal with great amount of data. This statistical database may consist of confidential data which should be protected from unauthorized user access. It is very important to provide a precise statistical database with professional, legal and ethical responsibilities for privacy protection of the individual records. Providing security in the statistical database proves to be a complicated task. There is no single solution to this problem. Therefore, numerous methods and techniques are suggested to be used to ensure privacy in the statistical database. The analysis presented in the report shows that the perturbation methods, the query restriction methods and the differential privacy are clearly among the most promising methods for the private statistical database. References 1. N. Adam and J. Wortmann, Security – control Methods for Statistical Databases: A comprehensive Study. ACM Computing Surveys. 21 (1989). 2. I. Dinur and K Nissim, Revealing Information while Preserving Privacy – In proceeding of twenty-second. ACM SIGMOD – SIGACT-SIGART Symposium on Principle of Database Systems. (2003) p. 202-210. 3. A. Shoshani, OLAP and Statistical Databases: Similarities and Differences. (1997) p. 187 4. C. Guynes, Protecting Statistical Databases: A matter of privacy. Computer and Society. 19 (1989). 5. Z. Michalewicz, J-J Li and K-W Chen, A Genetic Approach for Statistical Database Security.13 (1990) p. 19 6. C. Dwork, F. McSherry, Calibrating Noise to Sensitivity in Private Data Analysis. Springer. 3876 (2006). 7. R. Wilson and P. Rosen, Protecting Data through Perturbation Techniques: The impact on knowledge discovery in database. Journal of Management. 14 (2003) p.13. 8. T. Wang and L. Liu, Output Privacy in Data Mining. ACM Transactions Database Systems. 36 (2011) p.11 9. S. Chawla, C. Dwork et al, Toward Privacy in Public Databases. Theory of Cryptography Conference. (2005). 10. J. Schatz, Survey of Techniques for Securing Statistical Database. University of California at Davis 11. D. Denning, Secure Statistical Databases with Random Sample Queries. ACM Transactions on Database Systems. 5 (1980) p. 292 12. I. Fellegi, On the question of statistical confidentiality. Journal of American Statistical Association. 67 (1972), 7-18. 13. D. Dobkin, A. Jones and R. Lipton, Secure Databases: Protection Against User Influence. ACM Transactions on Database Systems. 4 (1979). 14. C. Dwork, Differential Privacy. 33rd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming, part II (ICALP). Springer Verlang. (2006). 15. C. Dwork, Ask a better question, get a better answer – a new approach to private data analysis. 11th International Conference on Database Theory (ICDT ). Springer Verlang (2007). 16. C. Dwork, Differential privacy in New Settings. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. (2010). How to cite Private statistical database, Essay examples

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Service Management - Service concept free essay sample

Service Management Introduction It is considered that the most critical thing for a company is to effectively and efficiently deliver the service to the customers. It does really matter which industry the organization is operating in, the features of services have be taken very seriously and in addition to that, customers have to be satisfied in order for the organization to grow. It has been argued by numerous scholars that the primary need of the customers in the modern business world is to have a good experience, along with added value to be served to them. It is important to note that regardless of the apabilities of a product, the organization is not likely to be successful in accordance with its full potential if the offered services are not effective and efficient enough. In addition to that, the management of the services includes the whole end- to- end process, in which the customer is facilitated by the provider of service in every way it could be. The approach of the service management urges the organizations to stop focusing on what we do or what we have and start focusing on what we deliver to the customers. It is important to note that most of the customers buy a product because f its excellent service. Need For Improvement Improvement in services provides the organizations with an opportunity of increasing profitability as well as revenues and improving the services overall would mean increased effectiveness and efficiency. This would mean an increase in the returns for a significantly less investment as compared to making improvement in the equipment, machineries as well as the products. Improvement in the services provides the organization with a competitive edge over the others and tends to drive the culture of service. It basically involves interacting with the customers. This could be done by talking to them, communicating with them regarding their likes as well as their dislikes and even encouraging some services according to their preferences. It is the understanding of the customer which is known to be critical for the success of an organization. Discussion It is considered that in case of unhappy customers with the customer support or the service provided to them, then there are a few steps which an organization should consider taking. These include: 1 . Looking for the worst metric and tightening up the response. The operations of an organization have to analyze. Things should be considered like the maximum time that the customer has had to wait for its call to be answered or the time the customer has waited in line. 2. Improvement in the service level reporting. The organizations should replace perception with the reality of whether its bad or good. After this the organization could portray an improvement with the passage of time. 3. Resetting the expectations. The level of service that the confirmed with the customers. This would allow the organization to keep up to the expectations of the customer. The service concept With the increasing changes in the tastes and fashion of the people and the services as well as the products become similar to one another, it is a high possibility that the other organizations are likely to copy the services as well as the products of other organizations. In order to avoid too much similarity and maintain some level of comparative advantage, the organizations are more than likely to compete through some other elements which rise above their offering of the services. This is generally known as the service concept. The service concept is known a little more emotional han the model of the business and much deeper than the brand. In addition to that, it is observed that the level of complexity is higher in a service concept as well as being a lot more solid as compared to a vision. This provides us with a clear idea regarding services management. The chief of service are known to be inability to inventory, intangibility, easy entries, and production of the service as well as external influences. The concept of the service is considered to be the mutual understanding between the received nature of the nature and the provided nature of the service by the organization. In addition to that, it should also be able to summarize the information regarding the idea of the organization, the experience of the service, the outcome of the service and the operation of the service as well as the value of the service which is given below. When a customer goes out and generally considers the things around while doing routine work, it is likely to be attracted by the experience that it receives with the service provided by the organization. This is a motivating factor for the customer and is likely to attract the customer if applied well. In addition to that, it is an important thing to note that under the xamples of a customer going for a walk in the park, its experience of the service would include services which are fun and lively for all the age groups, there is a variety of attractions, the queues for the major rides, entertaining and exhilarating, easiness and the time taken to buy the required ticket. Apart from that, the operation of the service would include a massive car parking area, good signage to the park, clear map sites, various kinds of queuing procedures, a variety of outlets containing food as well as the more the attractions and rides, the better the operations of the ervices. The experiences as well as the operations of service had been defined of a customer visiting a park. What the customer perceives as a result depends upon the offerings analyzed above. Good outcomes may include fun time, great day for outing, thrilling rides, no moment of dullness throughout the experience, great experiences with family and friends as well as total exhaustion of the customers. These outcomes are known to be ideal outcomes. However, if the services are provided efficiently and with extreme care, the values that are to be attained by the customers include free arking, the ticket being expensive but the money was worth the fun, reasonable pricing of the food items, all inclusive pricing as well as the total values of the money received by the customers. This is a well-defined service concept. There have been concept is known to be the approach that companies tend to have its services perceived by its shareholders, employees, customers as well as the lenders (Heskett 1986). It is also known as the customer benefit package (Collier, 1994). This means the things that aim at providing value as well as the benefit to the customers. This lement has also been applied in the marketing concept. An example could be making use of 8Ps of marketing which includes the features of place, process, physical evidence, productivity, people, promotion, pricing as well as Service product (Lovelock and Wright 1999). The service concept is also defined as a process of 4 steps which includes service operation, service experience, service outcome and the value of the service Oohnston and Clark 2001). The operation of the service is the way in which the delivery of the service is done, the experience of the service includes the irect experience of the customer, the outcome includes the results as well as the benefits of the service perceive by the customer and the value of the service includes the benefits that has been attained by the customers which are weighed against the service cost. A detailed service concept is highlighted below. Theory Service theory is meant by the knowledge of what is normal as well as permanent in the production of a service. It has been observed that most of the studies conducted on services have made use of 1 or 2 alternate approaches. This is defined as normative or descriptive purpose. The 2 basic resulting paradigms of theory have differed from one another when if when the study object has been the same. The descriptive theory is known to possess the information regarding the present as well as the past activities of production or utilizing a service. However, it does not tend to aid in its modification according to the demands of the latest requirements. Historic and academic studies have often been observed to be of the same kind. The normative theory of service is known to have attained the general information as well as the tools that could be made use of in the production of a service. This is specially done for its optimization as well as the improvements in planning. The research which is made use of in the creation of normative theory tends to be extensive as it requires a larger number of cases. Practices of Service Management The practices of the management of services would highlight numerous sources of the theory itself. This theory is portrayed in different ways by different scholars and researchers. The basic theory provides a seven step model of practices in to different domains of activity in which the organization has to provide the service. 1. Plan: How the organization tends to run its operations. In addition to that, what needs to be done in order to run this operation? 2. Solve: The needs of the customers have to be determined and accordingly the services have to be created. . Evolve: The way in which the things work in the organization in a disciplined and controlled way. 4. Provide: The services to the customers 5. Assure: The services are able to meet the objectives set by the organization. In safe and secure for the customers as well as the organization. 6. Respond: When things tend to take place. This especially includes situations when the customers require assistance or advice. 7. Govern: The entire procedure and system and make sure that the requirements are met according to the goals set. In addition to that, it has to be ensured that these stay under the bounds that have been set initially. SERVQUAL model The purpose of the model is to determine the average gap score between the expectations and the perceptions of the customers. The model itself is dependent on 3 basic dimensions which include solutions and causes to be the gaps, the gaps as well as the chief dimensions of service. The Gaps Gap 1: difference between the perception of the management and the expectations f the customers. Gap 2: difference between the perception of the management and the specifications of the service quality. Gap 3: difference between the specifications of the service quality and the delivery of the actual service. Gap 4: difference between the delivery of the service and what has been communicated externally. Gap 5: difference between the expectations of the customers regarding the service and what is actually received by them. Apart from these, there are known to be a few chief dimensions of the service. These include empathy, assurance, responsiveness, reliability and tangibles. Reliability: the organization should be reliable and able to keep up to its words. It should do what it has said to do and the promises should be fulfilled in any case. Customers depend on the reliability of their providers. This is most important thing that is valued by the customers. The providers of services are required to be reliable as well as advanced. Responsiveness: the organization should have the expertise to be able to respond to any queries immediately, quickly and promptly. Waiting would make the customer frustrated and doubtful of the services provided by the organization. Assurance: the customers perceive the providers of services as experts in their profession. This is the chief reason they do not expect any delays and mishaps. This has to be assured to the customers by the organization. Empathy: Services should in accordance with the provided specifications. The organization should ensure that it does deviate from initial instructions of the customer and that the service should have 100 percent compliance in accordance with the specifications provided by the customers. Tangible: another important factor is the appearance of the service providers. It is considered that the customer ill have a good initial perception of the organization if it appears to be attractive.

Friday, November 29, 2019

Quentin Tarantino Quentin Tarantino Essay Example

Quentin Tarantino Quentin Tarantino Essay This is no wonder that Quentin Tarantino forwarded the film by two definitions of pulp’: A soft, moist, shapeless mass of matter, and A magazine or book containing lurid subject matter and being characteristically printed on rough, unfinished [i. e. , pulp] paper (Gehring 1996, p. 151). Relying on these definitions, Gehring (1996, p. 151) defined the film itself as a rough mass of a comically skewed narrative on the life and hard times of a hit man. Writer/director of the film Tarantino characterised his artistic principle as, I like things unexplained (Biskind 1994, p. 100).To summarise, the movie definitely stands apart from the rest of the films on the list in regard to the plot structure. The other movies follow the most popular with the criminal films type of narrative – the chronicle or epic of a criminal career. Characters: From the general point of view, this is ridiculous to classify the characters of these films as positive’ and negative’. Whatever different motives they have for the criminal behaviour, all these fictional characters are not excused for violence, slaughters, treacheries, heists, and other amoral acts.Under this circumstances, the taxonomy suggested by Rafter (2000) and Leitch (2002) appeared to be useful. We will write a custom essay sample on Quentin Tarantino Quentin Tarantino specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Quentin Tarantino Quentin Tarantino specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Quentin Tarantino Quentin Tarantino specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer According to both, the characters could be classified into three major types regardless of the categories of the crime film according to the main theme: An epic gangster who creates the criminal empire and watches it crumbling; A man-on-the run/a man in disguise; An avenger/persecutor/law-abider. Three films – Public Enemy, Roaring Twenties, and The Long Good Friday – definitely fit the frame of the first category.Four films – White Heat, Brighton Rock, Hana-bi, and Sexy Beast – feature the second type of characters. Two films – Get Carter and Gangs of New York – seem to belong to the third category. Three films – Brother, Gangster No. 1, and Goodfellas – are synthetic in regard to the type of their characters. Pulp Fiction stands apart from the aforestated categories due to its postmodern non linear and complex nature. The suggested categorisation is flexible since some of the films are ambiguous in regard to their character’s type and, therefore, may enter several categories at once.The details are discussed below. An epic gangster Five films – Public Enemy, Roaring Twenties, Brighton Rock, The Long Good Friday, and Gangster No. 1– were classified as having the type of an epic gangster as a main hero. In regard to the earliest film on the list, Public Enemy, Shadoian (2003, p. 29) once stated that its main character, Tom Powers (James Cagney) is likely to succumb to a combination of hubris, social fate, and moral reckoning in plots resembling those of classical tragedy.Within a tradition of popular tragedy in film (Shadoian 2003, p. 29), the heroes like Tom Powers possess strong charisma but are cursed by their nature, their environment, their heritage, so far as their desires and goals [are] overwhelmed by an immutable and often unpredictable concatenation of forces. Tom Powers’ environment makes him the victim. Tom Powers, the youngest son in the lower middle-class family of a police officer and a housewife, grows up in a small industrial city. He learns his first lessons not at school desk but rather in a brewery, a local honky-tonk place under the guidance of Putty Nose, and on the streets.Starting with petty thefts, Tom is rising gradually on the criminal scale and finally establishes the criminal empire of his own. Tom Powers is abandoned by all social institutes: his family, his class, the society in general. It is made clear that the hero has positive inclinations in regard to his ambitious desires to become somebody’, to bust out of this deprived, depressing limbo of aimless loafing (Shadoian 2003, p. 54).But society plied Tom with insufficient knowledge and skills to become somebody else than a gangster. As Shadoian (2003, p. 50) emphasised, the appeal of Tim’s personality was preconditioned by the fact that his aspirations are located in his desire and his ability to be a certain way, to exist in a lively manner. The spectator is permitted no direct access to the overt signs of Tom’s prosperity. What matters, what is gripping, is Tom Powerss personal vitality in a context of inertia, stolidity, and hesitancy, and it can only have scope outside the boundaries of legitimate activity. (Shadoian 2003, p. 50) Tom knows how to live, and we admire him for that.We respond to his amoral enjoyment of a full array of lifes pleasures. We lose sight of the cost to others his living so high and free exacts. The gangsters defects become virtues, the surface manifestations of his success obscuring his more important failings. [†¦] We are so caught up in Toms urge to live that we do not take full advantage of several opportunities to back away from him. The values he carries are too attractive. Long after the film has made it clear that hes a lost cause not worth backing, the shock of his mortality registers. (Shadoian, 2003, pp. 54-55)

Monday, November 25, 2019

Gender discrimination in US Politics essays

Gender discrimination in US Politics essays The concept of "a sense of place" denotes more than physical space. In sociological terms, a sense of space refers to the meanings people attach to the place or environment. This thus includes the orientation of people towards that place, the understandings and feelings that people generally attach to that environment (Hummon 253). These meanings could take on different forms. In some contexts, the sense of place could be a cohesive force that pulls people together into a community. In other cases, the sense of place may involve alienation, resulting in people who do not identify with a certain space or who may be prevented from full participation (Hummon 278). This concept of a sense of place as alienation can be seen at work in the United States Congress. When Congress was initially convened in 1774, women could not vote, much less hold office. Both the Senate and the Lower House acquired a very strong masculine sense of space. It would not be until 1917 when a woman would break into this masculine space. Today, there 13 women in the Senate and 59 women in the Lower House (Elvin). This could be seen as a sign of improvement, since there are more women serving in the 108th United States Congress than at any other time in history. However, despite the record numbers, women constitute only 16 percent of the legislators in the country. Furthermore, the number of women holding office in the state level has dropped by 12 percent this year In fact, despite the record increase, the United States trails its European counterparts and many other developing nations in terms of women in Congress. Despite its global economic dominance, the United States trails five dozen other countries in the percentage of women serving in national legislatures. Furthermore, the United States has not had a female Thus, despite recent advancements, the Uni ...

Friday, November 22, 2019

Does Michael Kohlhaas present the view that power corrupts Essay

Does Michael Kohlhaas present the view that power corrupts - Essay Example Set in the time of Martin Luther, early to mid sixteenth century, Michael Kohlhaas concerns a horse trader by that name who is upset when he is charged with having improper papers while passing though the area controlled by Junker Wenzel von Tronka. Forced to leave two of his horses and a servant behind as collateral for being able to continue, Kohlhaas later learns that the charges are bogus and sues the Junker for reparations once he discovers the animals and the servant were mistreated. Despite the help of several friends, including Luther himself, the Junker prevails in court, mainly due to the corrupt influence of the Junker’s relations. Enraged, Kohlhaas takes matters into his own hands and forming an army, attacks and burns the castle of the Junker, who had already fled to another city. The band of outlaws attempts to take that city by force, although they are rebuked. Arrested and put into the dungeon in his hometown, the Junker’s influence eventually causes Koh lhaas to be executed. This is in spite of the fact that the suit finally prevailed and both the servant and horses were restored to health. How is that idea still relevant some three hundred years after von Kleis’ death? Who was the Junker? Furthermore, how does the novella present the view that power corrupts? Discussion The author had seen the illusions of power firsthand. First as a soldier and later as a writer and poet filled with wanderlust, von Kleis had visited and lived throughout a Europe ravaged by the excesses of Napoleon, even spending a time in Paris. Reading the story there is little doubt that the Junker, the main antagonist in Michael Kohlhaas, is a thinly veiled version of Napoleon, a non ruler who used brute force, along with influential friends and those loyal to him. Eventually the corrupt Junker is sentenced to two years of prison but unfortunately too late to save Kohlhaas’ life. This facet parallels von Kleis and Napoleon. Although the despot wa s not necessarily responsible for the author’s suicide, unlike Kohlhaas, von Kleis did not live long enough to see Napoleon’s utter defeat a mere four years later. The Junker had a very influential family who helped him secure retribution against Kohlhaas time and again. Even though the great Martin Luther (von Kleis was a great student of the Reformation) arranges an amnesty after Kohlhaas’ criminal acts, the Junker manages to have that overturned and Kohlhaas is imprisoned. It seems the two men had a personal vendetta against each other, for neither was content to relax until the other was totally destroyed. The Junker ultimately loses the lawsuit and his freedom for a short while and his opponent loses his very life. The rulers of a fractioned Germany that still existed in the author’s time likewise presented the evidence of power as a drug. The Governor of Brandenburg is shown as a weak and waffling individual who caves in to pressure and allows Kohlh aas to be rearrested, even though he had personally approved the man’s earlier release. His counterpart in Saxony was especially corrupt, for while he was almost forced to carry out the wishes of the Junker, Kohlhaas had some papers on his person which concerned Poland and their thoughts on invading Saxony. When Kohlhaas swallowed those papers just prior to his

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

The Change in Business Office Manager - Problem Solving Case Study

The Change in Business Office Manager - Problem Solving - Case Study Example There could be diverse reactions from the business office staff upon hearing of the change that ranges from anxiety, confusion, relief, and a lot of questioning. Changes are often met initially with resistance as new processes or, in this situation, a new business office manager, could be perceived as threatening to disrupt equilibrium and the status quo. 3. What do you believe would have been the level of stress among the department’s staff before the change was announced and immediately after the change was announced? Why the difference, if any? I believe that the level of stress among the department’s staff before the change was announced was significantly high because lack of information would cause anxiety and fear on their job security and status. However, immediately after the change was announced, the level of stress is potentially lowered, especially when it was noted that a new manager is ready to assume the position. 4. What can the two working supervisors do to help control the stress level in the group during the week spent waiting for the new manager? The two working supervisors could assure the group that a new manager would already meet them on Monday and so, in the meantime, they could advise the staff to prepare to complete all responsibilities and tasks, as expected. This is important so that when the new manager comes, their department is ready to address whatever issues or concerns that could possibly be asked by the new manager within their department. The problem with the situation is the increasing workload within the department. The facts that were noted are increasing workload causing stress within the current staff; one staff is currently on leave making them undermanned; and the present number of personnel trying to keep up with the expanding workload. This is the identified problem because the symptoms of stress, anxiety, and growing work demands all come from this root cause.  Ã‚  

Monday, November 18, 2019

Strategic role of information system in contemporary business Essay

Strategic role of information system in contemporary business - Essay Example It goes ahead to consider some marketing strategies that companies can adopt to gain competitive advantage over the other competing organizations, and how they can use information systems to achieve this. A practical look is given to how Microsoft has managed to beat competitors using information systems Strategic role of information system in contemporary business Introduction The knowledge of information systems and its applications in business is of important consideration for managers in the current business world owing to the increased use of technology ((Kotsoukis & Mitra, 2003, p.3). The staff in the organization as well as the other available human resource should have the basic knowledge necessary for the incorporation of these technologies, which is now a necessity, into their operations. There are several uses of information system in business organizations. They are used in organizing the business processes and its operations. It is also used to assist the organization du ring complex decision-making processes using the necessary application software. Information systems can also be used by the companies as strategies to compete and beat their competitors in the market. This can be achieved using information technology to advertise or market the products of a company. However, it is also important to consider that in as much as the use of such systems are of importance in businesses, there are associated challenges that it poses to the management of the organization, which may impede their adoption. Information systems in business- conceptual framework The use of information system is increasing in business and other organizations. Regardless of the type of organization considered, there are always many sets of data to be managed or manipulated (Kotsoukis & Mitra, 2003, p.3). The use of information system in business ranges from simple applications like the calculation of wages to the more complex techniques like the use of application of software th at can be used to aid operations or decision-making process of the organization. Its extensive use will enable the business organization to survive in a market with many competing firms. Michael Porter had suggested that there are five forces that influence the operations in a given business industry (Strategic Management, n.d). These forces are the supplier’s power, barrier to entry, threat of substitutes, the power of the buyer, and the degree of rivalry among the competing firms. The management should consider the possibility of other firms getting into the business as well as the reputation of existing alternative products. Every company then needs to have a competitive advantage over the rival firms. Identifying the power and opportunities that a form has for investment, as well as the needs of the customers is fundamental in ensuring organizational success. The firms should identify the competitors and strategize their operations to beat them. The use of information sys tem can help an organization to obtain this competitive advantage. How an organization keeps the data that pertains to its operations as well as its employees will determine the success in managing the organization. A proper and efficient means of data storage and retrieval will facilitate the achievement of an organization’s objective. Mutilated sources of data call for approximation or estimation that can result into wrong course of action being taken by the management. It can also lead to losses in the event that financial data like pay roll is poorly retrieved. Organizations will thus

Saturday, November 16, 2019

What Is Happening To Mother Earth Media Essay

What Is Happening To Mother Earth Media Essay In this paper, I would like to investigate the negative impacts of environmental damage through the media. Primarily through An Inconvenient Truth (2006), Cool it (2010), and Darwins Nightmare (2004), I aim to demonstrate how film makers critique environmental activities and the condition of Mother Earth today. Especially in todays society where sustainable development is emphasized, it is of paramount importance to shed light on why and whether our Earth is really deteriorating. With capitalism being the dominant ideology around, environmental damage can be perpetuated by developed nations at the expense of those less fortunate. More importantly, I aim to scrutinise the realities of the films and to what extent they are objective and accurate to viewers. The advantage of this strategy is that it holds on to the concept of the real (Williams, 1993).The presence of cinematic tricks and direction has allowed documentaries to be scripted and staged. However, I plan to determine if environmental films are merely being staged or exaggerated to evoke fear and to sustain an ideological agenda and economic model (which is capitalism) or whether they indeed reflect Mother Earths deteriorating condition through various cinematic depictions of reality. Preliminary research question(s), hypothesis(es): RQ1: Do these environmental films portray objective representations of environmental issues? Planned Methodology: I have chosen these 3 films for a few reasons. First of all, these 3 films are shot in different years. This enables a gradual and successive tracking of the environmental condition across a decade and also provides a nuanced analysis of cinematic direction towards Mother Nature. Also, these films cover a multitude of environmental issues, including issues concerning the air, water and land. Not only is this crucial to our analysis of the films, but is also needed to give a balanced approach towards the research questions. For example, Darwins Nightmare gives a thorough depiction of water pollution in Tanzania, while An Inconvenient Truth shows more of a reaction towards global environmental devastation and its repercussions on its inhabitants. Cool It on the other hand, depicts a response to inadequate institutions and governments when tackling environmental devastation. Timoner audaciously depicts Lomborg heading the Copenhagen Consensus who claims that this issue has been blown ou t of proportion by government officials and scientists. This movie stands in contrast to An Inconvenient Truth which depicts Al Gore the politician, educating and evoking fear in the public over environmental atrocities. Yet, it is precisely this stark contrast that allows us to juxtapose and compare analyses. First up, I would argue that An Inconvenient Truth on first impression seems like a very objective representation of the issues at hand. This is because Al Gore not only uses facts throughout his speeches, but peppers them with wit and farce. For example in the opening of the film, he greets the audience with a joke: I am Al Gore; I used to be the next President of the United States. Although he jokes frequently, he puts on a serious expression when relating to facts, figures and images. He also discusses the  scientific opinion on climate change, as well as the present and future  effects of global warming  and stresses that climate change is really not a political issue, so much as a moral one. With that, he is praised by Reason journalist, Ronald Bailey (2006) becasuse Gore gets [the science] more right than wrong. Although he shares his personal life anecdotes (with early climate expert Roger Revelle, sisters death from lung cancer, and sons near brush with death), he can b e mainly seen as reflecting, and not attempting to spark emotion. He is hence, seen as largely detached. Comedic farce is also seen when he stood on a contraption to point to the highest point of the graph depicting the release of carbon dioxide omissions. This does not undercut reality, but instead humours the viewers, and also shows a sharp throwback to the harsh realities of the situation. However, it may seem theatrical or staged to cynics like Bjorn Lomborg (2010) who view him as attempting to use fear to change circumstances. Documentaries are meant to both alert and convince in my opinion. Hence, if we look into what environmentalists say about the film, we will discover that the aforementioned facade of objectivity is exposed  when we realise that the film is laden with misguiding claims about environmental science and global warming. I will now attempt to discredit Al Gore and his film by exposing his misrepresentations (Robert, 2006): Misleading claims about effects of climate change:  Gore claims global warming caused the advent of new diseases, but most of the diseases named have minimal relationship to climate. Gore also neglects the strong influence of external factors, like wildfires or pest outbreaks to global warming. Even with malaria which is a climate-based disease, more important factors like management of human infrastructure and health systems are named instead. He also claims global warming is causing a huge number of polar bear drownings but other researchers think otherwise. Glacier-melting in the Glacier national park and in Africa on Mount Kilimanjaro are labelled as the aftermath such environmental neglect, but we see that these have been melting since the 19th Century. Exaggerations about sea level rise:  He claims that ice-sheet meeting in Greenland and West Antarctic will forcefully expatriate millions elsewhere so as to avoid the 6 meters sea level rise. Regretably, we discover that even worst-case scenarios are not that bad. Most research indicates that such melting would only take 1,000 to 5,000 years if it were to happen. Even the United Nations IPCC anticipate only sea level rise of less than a meter for the next 100 years. Reliance on worst-case scenarios:  An underlying problem is that Gore presents worst-case scenarios as fact and is hence characteristic of propaganda. He relies on models that he deems evermore accurate, but the accuracy of such models are still questionalble.Climate change here is described at an international scale instead of a regional or local level where impacts would swing both sides depending on how we choose to respond. However, his intonation suggests that positive change is near to impossible. For example he says that The most vulnerable part of the Earths ecological system is the atmosphere. Its vulnerable because its so thin. (Arnold, 2006). Yet, we can see thinner and more destructible parts like the hydrosphere. The usage of emotive and superlative adjectives are meant to spark off emotions to fulfil his personal agenda. Misleading claims about the responsibility of the United States:  Gore states America as the guilty party, but doesnt give a balance viewpoint. There are deceptive comparisons of the American fuel economy standards in the U.S. and also inaptly lambastes his country for failing to ratify the Kyoto Protocol without making it known the ways in which America was unfairly targeted in the terms. Furthermore, considering that in the beginning of the film as one who prides himself as someone who used to be the next president of the United States, he is furthermore seen as untrustable and even allows one to imagine what could potentially happen to America if he succeeded in being elected in. Misrepresentation of data:  Gore presents one temperature data to support that present temperatures are warmer than in the past millenium. The graph however, is derived from other proxies and tree rings. Scientists are skeptical because this is similar to temperatures in 1100-1300 AD . He also claims that 2005 was the hottest year ever, but in reality there is no accuracy from present data to differentiate the period of 1998 to 2005. What is even more appalling is this quote from Al Gore (Arnold, 2006): Moreover, since science thrives on uncertainty and politics is paralyzed by it, scientists have a difficult time sounding the alarm bells for politicians, because even when their findings make it clear that were in grave danger, their first impulse is to replicate the experiment to see if they get the same result. (Arnold, 2006). However, we see that this statement is merely stereotypical. Many scientists are actually quite willing to sound alarm bells to shed light and awareness (Robert, 2006). It is therefore unfair to suggest that scientists will tend not to call for attention to clear evidence of danger. Hence, this claim is largely a personal opinion and does not reflect objectivity. Because such representations are no longer accurate, we are now plunged into a permanent state of the self-reflexive crisis of representation and what was once a mirror with a memorycan only reflect another mirror (Trinh, 1990). In Timoners Cool It, she depicts Lomborg in a raw manner, including all his anxieties and concerns about the environment. With interviews with Lomborg interspersed throughout the film, Timoner follows Lomborg on his mission to bring the smartest solutions to climate change, environmental pollution, and other major problems in the world. In the opening of the film, Timoner depicts childrens voices and children-drawn pictures about the earth. This raises the success of his cinematic development up a level by allowing current viewers to reflect on their personal environmental usage and treatments. By alluding to children, it encourages reflexive methods towards environmental usage for scientists and raises awareness for common folklore and that if improvements continue to be slow, both mother earth and children of the world will suffer from the excesses of our hedonistic demands. Timoner is seen to be objective and realistic in her film because she depicts the lowdown nature of governme nts, including the biggest in the world. This can be seen when Lomborg remarks that The climate-industrial complex does not promote discussion on how to overcome this challenge in a way that will be best for everybody. We should not be surprised or impressed that those who stand to make a profit are among the loudest calling for politicians to act. Spending a fortune on global carbon regulations will benefit a few, but dearly cost everybody else. This reflects the tonality of the worlds greatest leaders on environmentalism (official website, 2010). However, while on one hand it may seem objective, upon scrutiny, we discover that there are loopholes in the film. These loopholes appear not solely because of Timoners artistic direction, but because of the featured Lomborg too, his networked connections and his fixated mentality on environmentalism. Amateurs who view this film may regard this film as objective because of the reasons above. However, I will now analyse and discern it from a critical point of view. I posit that this film may in fact do more harm than good and is in fact, an attempted reflexive mixed with expository mode of documentary (Nichols, 1983). However, we see that this does not succeed well with viewers as they may not reflector buy into the arguments posited by Timoner through images. This is because it is unrealistic to cast environmentalists as the primary establishment when they do not play a primary role in multinational corporations and international agencies like World Bank, United Nations and the Inter national Monetary Fund (IMF). Viewers are also given the chance to question the filmmakers ability to represent any reality fairly and adequately. This loss in faith in the objectivity of the image seems to point nihilistically, like the impossible memory of the meeting of the fictional Rambo and the real Roosevelt, to the brute and cynical disregard of ultimate truths (Williams, 1993) Furthermore, Lomborgs central stand in the film is that all the money dedicated by the European Union is a massive waste and that we should invest in green technologies instead. $250 billion is quoted. Whilst this may seem rational and practical, one will soon realise that it is no zero sum game. He also spends much time talking about emerging green technologies, like solar, wind and wave power, fuel cells, and algae biofuels. It may seem as though he is the only one who has thought of these, failing to mention that it is environmentalists who have been on the forefront of pushing these efforts for decades. This expository ethos soon fails and it starts to appear propagandistic. We see not only hidden messages, but also a film that compels people to attitude and action. Also, Bjorn is a credible and persuasive figure, uses contextualisation, cynicism and fast-pacing, traits that are similar to Black/real propaganda. He also picks a fight over more controversial technologies, like the next-generation nuclear power and so-called geo-engineering which purposefully changing the climate. In this Lomborg comes across as a technofixer, as someone who believes that humankind can innovate ourselves out of every problem. He also skips over how he is actually going to raise the $250 billion. Whether this is deliberately left out by Timoner or not mentioned by Lomborg, we do not know. However, we presume that this is not mentioned by Lomborg because it would be such a monumental step and feature-worthy point for Timoner. Also, judging from his numerous sweeping statements, it is likely that Lomborg does not address that issue. In all his complaints of how addressing climate change would cost so much money, Lomborg also never addresses the fact that spending money on green technologies will actually stimulate the global economy (Howard, 2010). To add on, also like a creationist film,  Cool It  is loaded with experts who arent specialists in the subject at hand. Because they arent climate scientists, interpreting the actual science of global warming that can be a problem. Also, the few critics like the Stanford professor are carefully edited and are shown to be hostile and edgy. All this points to the film being truthful only where it is possible and that much truth is hidden behind the issues that seem like the truth. One last important point is there have been numerous and extensive accounts of Lomborgs many factual errors. They appear in the highly respected science journal  Nature, by  Scientific American, magazines, newspapers, web logs and many others. While challenging the status quo is essential, getting the facts straight is also crucial for his credibility and as such, the films credibility. I would hence conclude that Cool It is far from objective, has many grey areas, and definitely worth exploring deeper before documenting and finalising it into a film. Moving on, Darwins Nightmare tells of environmental and social effects of the fishing industry around  Lake Victoria  in  Tanzania. It acutely alerts us to what economic exploitation can mean for inhabitants who fish for a living, hence showing the dichotomy of the rich-poor. Having environmental troubles is hence an extra burden to those already struggling to make a living. This film is objective because Hubert Sauper ranges widely to document this new fishing economy, hence taking us to many places. For example, he takes us to places like boats, around the country, with dying prostitutes, and to lakesides. We also see hunger-stricken kids, glue-sniffers, and stomach-bloated children fighting for food. The cinematic arts are often meant to inspire, instruct, and entertain, but this is a rarity of its own because the images here are are meant to produce a outrage beyond ones threshold. Darwins Nightmare, Saupers new documentary, is so punishing (and yet realistically scary) in its bleakness, and hence acts as a white flag for all further endeavors (Cale, 2006). Also, it is Saupers moving images that has the power to move audiences to a new appreciation of previously unknown truth (Williams, 1993). In surveying humanitys collision with the environment, Sauper examines matters often absent from the nature film genre. He gives us mother nature in devastation and a failing society with its dire repercussions. His gut-wrenching methods and audaciously visual images can be viewed by some as a ideological aim towards instilling fear, but yet on the same side of a coin, these images are plain revelations and tell of an inescapable flaw of capitalism.Although his methods seem extreme (just like the depiction of the Nile perch, having chewed through its prey, has now turned to cannibalism), this is sheer rawness of objective reality without lies or hidden facts. Just like An Inconvenient Truth, the questions it raises are some of the most pressing of our time. Both films uses black comedy intentionally (Cale, 2006), hence highlighting pessimism in the face of the corrosive effects of imperialism. One may speak of markets and invisible hands until theory is literally coursing through ones veins, but it is an inescapable flaw of capitalism that a nations goods are wholly exported while the citizens of that country waste away and die. The rich-poor dichotomy however is also present and it is often forgotten that only those with capital  benefit from such arrangements. The poor and the homeless continue to be lag behind in society and is poorly treated. Such images leave viewers with an objective and essential truth that guides ones world view through each and every waking moment. In the name of jobs and economic development, the white men has committed more unspeakable atrocities than ever before. We seem alright however, with Herbert Spencers (1851) perverse vision of survival of the fittest, where the lowest of the social hierarchy sinks to the bottom. What the West truly thinks of the African is often sugar-coated by benefit concerts and television appeals (ie: Live8 concerts), but at the end of the day, its gradual deterioration is little noticed. This film hence not only alerts us to the harsh realities, but gives us a shocking revelation like never before. So as the camera goes across the Tanzanian landscape, we are filled with ambivalence as we see not only hunger-stricken infants, but also scrawny and ashamed prostitutes and glue-sniffing kids, and bloated infants. Conclusion: As seen from the above three movies, it is evident that Darwins Nightmare remains as the only film out of the three with consistency and objectivity. Even though its visual images can be revulsive, it does not conjure up fake statements unfairly in order to increase sales or fulfil a personal agenda. Truth is not guaranteed. Interestingly, Gore claims to be presenting the scientific consensus on global warming but this is not always so. His dramatic theatrical stance gives way as the film progresses, hence rendering it not as objective as it might initially seem. Al Gore clearly used a number of tricks to make his case more persuasive to make the data better fit his explanation of whats going on in the world. Intentional or unintentional, when one is dealing with an issue that could have an economic impact measured in the trillions of dollars, Al Gore should have been more careful when making his case because inhabitants of the world deserve better knowledge. Cool It is no better. Its unreliability and lack of objectiveness is less personal, but more of a lack of in-depth analysis of the bigger global picture. Lomborg seems too engrossed in challenging the status quo and attempting to question environmental methods and hence failing to double check his facts. He uses whatever is needed to justify his personal agenda. It is hence of no surprise that both Cool It and An Inconvenient Truth have sparked off much controversy while the earlier 2004s Darwins Nightmare is one largely praised by many. The documentary era has arrived where manipulation of data is no longer tolerated to make their points more convincing. Especially in this society where elites (and hence shapers of the world situation) become more intelligent, people are easily more outraged when blatantly deceived. Because Nichols four documentary modes are historically and textually intertwined, we have to use a discerning eye when addressing any queries or issues.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

The Structure of Possibility :: Philosophy Logic Papers

The Structure of Possibility I call attention to the following theses concerning possibility. 1) Anything that has become actual must have been possible in the period of time immediately preceding its actualization. 2) The logically possible is a conception, and conceptions exist within the mind. 3) The possible is not a mere name. 4) The possible is not a mental entity and that alone. 5) Every possibility, whether mental entity or not must be, or image, an ontological entity, real although not (yet) actual. 6) For all we know logical possibility is the sufficient condition of ontological possibility. 7) Philosophers who lack the category of ontological possibility nonetheless refer to it as an implicit, if hidden, feature of their systems. 8) In some part of the period of time preceding its actualization, an ontological possibility becomes a nascent actuality, and external consistency a necessary condition for nascency. 9) The rise or fall of energy level through directed energy vectors, on human and nonhuman l evels, is the third condition for the actualizing of possibilities, or for their failure to actualize. I call your attention to ten theses concerning possibility which seem to me to be defensible: (1) Anything that has become actual must have been possible in the period of time immediately preceding its actualization. (2) The logically possible is a conception, and conceptions exist within the mind. (3) The possible is not a mere name. (4) The possible is not a mental entity and that alone. (5) Every possibility, whether mental entity or not must be, or image, an ontological entity, real although not (yet) actual. (6) For all we know logical possibility is the sufficient condition of ontological possibility. (7) Philosophers who lack the category of ontological possibility nonetheless refer to it as an implicit, if hidden, feature of their systems. (8) In some part of the period of time preceding its actualization, an ontological possibility becomes a nascent actuality, and external consistency a necessary condition for nascency. (9) The rise or fall of energy level through directed energy vectors, on human and non-human levels, is the third condition for the actualizing of possibilities, or for their failure to actualize. (10) Ontological possibilities have the form of the future. I shall now comment on (1) through (6), and (10). (1) Unable to think of any conditions which would falsify, or even qualify, I take it to be necessarily true. For simplicity’s sake alone, I insist on the necessity of its possibility in an immediately preceding time, while not denying that it may also have been possible in a longer stretch of time prior to its having become actual.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Marketing Influences Essay

Introduction Generally marketing deals with buying and selling a products or services. And consumer behavior is a branch of marketing deals with the process that the consumer purchase or do not purchase the products and services (Quester, Pettigrew, & Hawkins, 2006). For the retailers and all other businesses consumer behavior is analyzed for identifying key successful marketing strategy. Marketing strategy is the combination of product, price, promotion, channel of distribution and market segmentation (Quester, Pettigrew, & Hawkins, 2006). There are various factors that affect the consumer behavior for buying a product or services. And for making good strategic marketing decisions any firms or organizations need to understand those factors like cultural, individual, organizational etc (Quester, Pettigrew, & Hawkins, 2006). Analyzing consumer behavior become very important for this competitive world. For gaining competitive advantage it’s important to give more value to the customer than the competitors (Quester, Pettigrew, & Hawkins, 2006). According to Quester, Pettigrew and Hawkins (2006), customer value means the differences between the benefit they get from the products and the cost that they spend for acquiring those products. Quester, Pettigrew and Hawkins (2006) emphasize that giving best customer value mainly requires the firms to react immediate to consumer needs more quickly than rivals. This essay is based on a case study with three questions. And these three questions will be discussed simultaneously. First question is based on describing the situational influences that would affect the customer decisions for buying a products and services. Second question is based on the case that Kate wants to purchase a gift for her boyfriend’s birthday and identify the three situational influences that affect the Kate’s purchasing decisions. And the third question is describing the key marketing strategy by which a marketer might be able to utilize the situation to a market specific type of products or brands. Question 1: Answer As states before that this question is based on describing the situational influences that affects the customer decisions for purchasing products. Any  organizations or companies have to understand that which situations is affecting the customer buying decision of their products or services and how the marketers could serve the best when those situations arise (Quester, Pettigrew, & Hawkins, 2006). Marketers activities should be designed in the context of the situation the consumer faces which influence the customers for purchasing the product when MKT510: Consumer Behavior M. M. Tamim 2 ID: 11511633 they face such situation (Foxal & Yani-de-Soriano, 2005). A consumer’s choices are affected by various personal influences such as mood and if there is limitation of time for purchase etc. Now-a-days people are using electronic source for the initial information for purchasing the products (Solomon, Dann, & Russel-Bennett, 2007). Relating to consumer behavior a number of attempts have been made to classify the situations and the classification has been made by Russel Belk (Belk, 1975). According to Belk there are five types of situation that influence customers’ decisions. They are physical surroundings, social surroundings, temporal perspective, task definition and antecedent states (Quester, Pettigrew, & Hawkins, 2006). Physical surroundings include the location of the store, interior decoration, smell, sound system, lighting, visible surroundings of the materials to the stimulus object (Quester, Pettigrew, & Hawkins, 2006). Those surroundings can significantly influence consumption of the customer and can convince to coming the store repeatedly. (Solomon, Dann, & RusselBennett, 2007). Social environment also affects customer motives for purchasing products or usage of products. In a consumer environment if there are large number of people present then it could increase arousal levels. For example, in a store if there are huge number of people present then automatically arouses another consumer for buying products from that store (Solomon, Dann, & Russel-Bennett, 2007). Temporal factors is the time constraints for a customer. Sometimes consumer could situation for buying with limitation of time that also affects the consumer buying decision. Relative to past or future event for the situation time may also be measured (Quester, Pettigrew, & Hawkins, 2006). Task definition includes the intention regarding purchase the products or requirements to  select the store or products. For example, consumer behaves differently when they buy products for gift compared to purchasing for themselves (Solomon, Dann, & Russel-Bennett, 2007). For evaluating the purchase of products customer mood or physiological conditions at the time of purchase may have huge influence for making decisions (Solomon, Dann, & Russel-Bennett, 2007). Among those five influences let’s elaborate on two situational influences. They are temporal factors and task definition. Temporal factors are situational influences which deal with time that available for purchase. The availability of time for purchasing the product has a big impact to the customers (Quester, Pettigrew, & Hawkins, 2006). In that context, the information search will be short if the time is limited and the use of short information will be made some suboptimal purchase (Sim & Goh, 1998). As a situational influence time has a bug impact to the customer buying decision. MKT510: Consumer Behavior M. M. Tamim 3 ID: 11511633 For example, the consumers are less like to visit any departmental store if they have limited time but if they are not time pressured they would like to visit more (Kenhove & Wulf, 2000). The number of product alternatives would be smaller for the time constraints. For this the brand loyalty might be increased for many customers. (Quester, Pettigrew, & Hawkins, 2006). Some corners store and convenience store are the successful considering this time factors as a situational influences. Task definition means the reason for purchasing a product or influences the buying decision. The reason may vary to different buyers and user roles performed by the individual (Quester, Pettigrew, & Hawkins, 2006). For example, gift giving is general reason but gift giving in occasion is specific reason that influence the behavior of the purchasing a product (Ruth, Otnes, & Brunel, 1999). Generally people increase their purchase in specific occasions. Best marketers understand these patterns of situations in which people more tend to buy (Solomon, Dann, & Russel-Bennett, 2007). For example, in promotional activities bookstores invest heavily for the lead up to Christmas because many people are tend to buy books as Christmas present and to stock for reading them during summer holidays (Solomon, Dann, & RusselBennett, 2007). Question 2: Answer Kate is struggling to make a decision and wants to buy her boyfriend a smart phone to his birthday and she was running out of time. The three situational influences that affect Kate’s purchasing decision are task definition, temporal factors and social surroundings. Task definition as told before is the reasons that influence the customer to buy a product or services (Solomon, Dann, & Russel-Bennett, 2007). And the reason could be general and specific like gift giving in a occasion in which also influence the buying patterns (Ruth, Otnes, & Brunel, 1999). In this case the task is specific which the birthday of Kate’s boyfriend. However people feel their needs of products or services for reason whether it’s general or specific. In this case, Kate feel need for buying a product for giving gift to her boyfriend in his birthday. So according to Ruth, Otnes and Brunel (1999), the task was specific for Kate for purchasing the smart phone. Temporal factors as situational influences include the availability of time for purchasing any product (Quester, Pettigrew, & Hawkins, 2006). Here Kate had very limited time for making decision though the birthday of her boyfriend was very near. She had two options that MKT510: Consumer Behavior M. M. Tamim 4 ID: 11511633 whether to buy iPhone 5 or Samsung Galaxy SIII. As given before that less time gives less information for making decision (Belk, 1975). So Kate had to make a decision so she couldn’t consider the information very well and she had to choose smart phone randomly from the given two options. Last situational influences that affect the Kate’s decision is social surroundings which means the presence of other people who could have an influence on the individuals consumer’s behavior (Quester, Pettigrew, & Hawkins, 2006). Considering behavior social influence is very significant since the individuals behavior is visible and they tend integrate with group expectations (Quester, Pettigrew, & Hawkins, 2006). In this case Kate has limited time for making decision that she had two options that iPhone 5 which is recommended by her boyfriends’ childhood friend who knew John’s personality very well as well his character and another option  is Samsung Galaxy SIII which is recommended by the salesmen who is expert in smart phone. Shopping and consuming goods in public is highly visible activity which has several social influences others (Shim & Eastlick, 1998). Though the buying patterns of Kate was not so highly visible activity like shopping and consuming goods in public rather it was individual buying decision. Though Kate had limited time to decide whether what to buy then she asked for recommendation in two people one was sales person and another was friend of John which they have influences for buying smart phone. Question 3: Answer In modern competition marketers need to give more value to the customer compare to the competitors (Quester, Pettigrew, & Hawkins, 2006). Customer value is the difference between the advantage they get and the costs they spend for getting that advantage. So considering the situation marketers need to serve best to the consumer for purchasing product (Solomon, Dann, & Russel-Bennett, 2007). Marketing Strategy is the combination of product, price, distribution and promotion which emphasize a particular group of customers (Quester, Pettigrew, & Hawkins, 2006). So using these key marketing strategies a marketer can utilize the situation to market a specific brand and product type by understanding consumer behavior. Lets describe the three key marketing strategies that how a marketer might be able to utilize situation for a specific type of product. Product type and quality is very important for the marketer. However, thousands of new products are introduced in the marketplace annually. So marketer need to satisfied customer MKT510: Consumer Behavior M. M. Tamim 5 ID: 11511633 by their products for successful business (Quester, Pettigrew, & Hawkins, 2006). Also marketer needs to analyze and understand the needs and requirements of potential customer by which marketer can give the required product in such situation to the potential customer (Quester, Pettigrew, & Hawkins, 2006). Price is another important marketing strategy and marketing mix as well. A marketer needs to understand consumer behavior in order to structure it properly (Quester, Pettigrew, &  Hawkins, 2006). For example a company desiring high quality brand and for this the price should be high. So, if the target customer believes that price-quality relationship. So considering the target market situation price might be structured (Quester, Pettigrew, & Hawkins, 2006). Promotional activities are another important term for the product. By high quality campaign consumer might be convinced for buying that product. And also at any occasion or festival marketer could bring new promotions for the consumer that might influence the buying process (Foxal & Yani-de-Soriano, 2005). For example, any gift shops or bookshops spend more in promotional activities before Christmas that lead the people for purchasing products or books for gift as they intend to buy (Solomon, Dann, & Russel-Bennett, 2007). So considering task definition as a situational influences marketer could use these promotional activities. Conclusion Understanding of consumer behavior could make the long term success for the products (Quester, Pettigrew, & Hawkins, 2006). And to be successful it’s very important to understand the customer behavior considering the various situational influences (Belk, 1975). In this essay the theories of situational influences that affect their buying decision is discussed and after three of the situational influences is described in case of Kate who was struggling to make the best buy. And in last question how marketer might be able to utilize situation in aspects of using key marketing strategy is described. It is easy to understand that how situation could influence the buying decision process by this essay. MKT510: Consumer Behavior M. M. Tamim 6 ID: 11511633 Bibliography Belk, R. W. (1975). Situational Variables and Consumer Behavior. Journal of Consumer Research, 158. 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