Coke & Pepsi Learn to Compete in India

The political environment in India has proven to be critical to company performance for both PepsiCo and Coca-Cola. There were specific aspects of the political environment in India that played key roles in both companies’ difficulties. India is a nation with a strong belief in loyalty and devotion to their culture and Indian products. The government promoted the consumption of local products rather than that of foreign products. The Indian government also has very strict trade policies which created many entry barriers for both PepsiCo and Coca-Cola.The stern rules and regulations of their government did not allow either company to freely promote their products. Typically, foreign investment denotes that foreigners take a somewhat active role in management as part of their investment and typically works both ways. India practices a more controlled foreign investment environment. Both companies should have done extensive research on India’s political environment before attempting to enter their market.Due to the trade barriers established by the Indian government Coca-Cola’s first entry into India’s market was not successful. Coca-Cola’s first entry into India was in 1958 but they existed in 1978 after the Indian government asked them to reveal their formula. Coca-Cola refused and decided to shut down. PepsiCo entered the market during Coca-Cola’s 16 years of exile, in 1989. Both companies face major controversy when the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), an environmental policy-orientated non-governmental organization (NGO) announced the results of a study.The study found that soft drinks sold in India, including those made by both companies, contained a cocktail of pesticides at concentrations far higher than considered permissible by national authorities and the World Health Organization (WHO). CSE had established a formidable reputation for accurate data-gathering and sharp analysis. They tested numerous bran ded aerated drinks sampled from different parts of India, which included 28 Coke brands and 29 more from Pepsi. During the crisis with contaminated water in India, Pepsi and Coca-Cola were both under fire with the consumers and government.Politicians made it exceptionally difficult for both companies to redeem themselves with the facts they had, but Coca-Cola seemed to have a more difficult come-back than Pepsi. India’s market is enormous in terms of population and geography. Both PepsiCo and Coca-Cola were able to reposition themselves in India’s market and gain some success. In response to the sheer scale of operations in India both companies produced promotional activities that aligned with sporting events and festivals in India.This gave customers the opportunity to take advantage of special sales and contests that encouraged the purchase and continued consumption of both products. Coca-Cola also changed their pricing policy by reducing their prices by up to 25 per cent. Coca-Cola offers a wide range of products to the customers and is always looking to innovate and come up with innovations. PepsiCo also offers different varieties of products ranging from carbonated to noncarbonated soft drinks, offered in a variety of different sizes.PepsiCo also, like Coca-Cola, had to adapt to the pricing barriers in India in order to survive, by making their products pricing more sensitive to India’s economy. Both companies participated in TV campaigns to promote brand awareness and PepsiCo strategy was using celebrities in the introduction of any new product. Coca-Cola had a different approach by dividing the Indian market into two different youth categories; they were able to focus on an all-encompassing theme. Global localization is a policy that both companies have implemented successfully.It includes the ability to provide shoppers with information in their native language and currency. PepsiCo gained success in this area by forming joint ventu res with two local partners of India upon initial entry to their market. To continue the adaption of Pepsi they renamed the product in India to conform to foreign collaboration rules. And the strongest global localization strategy that PepsiCo implemented was sponsoring world famous Indian athletes. PepsiCo growth has been guided by PepsiCo’s global vision of â€Å"Performance with Purpose†.This means that while businesses maximize shareholder value, they have a responsibility to all the stakeholders, including the communities in which they operate, the consumers they serve and the environment whose resources they use. PepsiCo achieved a significant milestone, by becoming the first business in the PepsiCo system to achieve ‘Positive Water Balance’ (PWB) – it replenishes more water than it consumes in its manufacturing operations. Coca-Cola, on their second go round, joined forces with local snack vendors and participated in special promotions of Ind ia’s cultural events.There are many lessons to be taken away from bot PepsiCo and Coca-Cola’s experience with India. PepsiCo should have learned that it is beneficial to keep with local tastes and to pay attention to market trends. Also, they should take into account that celebrity advertising has a favorable appeal. Coca-Cola should have learned that it is imperative to pay attention and proceed with caution when it comes to deals made with the government. They should also have realized the importance of maintaining a good relationship with foreign governments.Coca-Cola should recognize the significance of investing in quality products as well as the crucial effects of advertisement to the entry of a new market. Although, both companies has their share of success within India it is my belief that Pepsi has the ability to withstand longevity in their success. The reason I think PepsiCo over Coca-Cola is that Pepsi entered the Indian market on a much better foot. Also i n was genius of PepsiCo to enter a joint venture in launching into the bottled water industry. Coca-Cola as well had to branch out into other products to stay current to the market needs in India.Most recently Coca-Cola has decided to enter the growing Indian market for energy drinks, forecasted to grow to $370 billion in 2013 from less than half that in 2003. The competition in this market is fierce with established firms including Red Bull and Sobe. With its new brand Burn, Coke initially targeted alternative distribution channels such as pubs, bars, and gyms rather than large retail outlets such as supermarkets. I understand the target market concept but I believe this strategy approach limits the new product exposure to the public. These distribution limitations could result in the potential loss of market share.

Stop and Press

Now 20 years later I discovered a new life form on this planet. This news could be either scary or remarkable for some. Planet Neo is 200 miles away from earth and 300 miles away further from the sun than the earth. Neo evolved over the past twenty years and conditions became much more favorable to support life. A water system underground was discovered and it is here in this underground system life has been discovered. The condition beneath the surface of Planet Neo proved very favorable for life subjected to some harsh climate change.The underground water system has similar conditions to a hydrothermal vent on earth. The discovery of hydrothermal vents on earth has presented us with a possible explanation for the origin of life. On Planet Neo the conditions were the new life form was found was similar to the hydrothermal vent conditions on earth. The life form that was discovered was called Octillion looks somewhat like a squid. Octopus has a very hard diverse outer skeleton on its entire body. It has eight fat tentacles also layered with this skeleton.This creature has all the characteristics of living things. The seven characteristics of living things are: 1 . Movement 2. Reproduction 3. Sensitivity 4. Nutrition 5. Excretion 6. Respiration 7. Growth Octillion has each of the above characteristics that I will further explain in depth Movement- Octillion was recognized by its movement in the underground water system. Scientists created a camera that was able to withstand harsh temperatures, pressures and atmospheric changes; this camera was able to enter the underground water system, the scientists controls were the camera goes.I remember the first time he saw Octillion it was between two Jagged rocks, remembered vividly the camera scaring the creature from video footage and Octillion stimulus was to swim away very quickly and spew out purple slime from pores, on its back. Sensitivity – Octopus has very hard outer Skeleton that Is completely resistance to heat, there are little pore openings In Its back that open and close allowing It to moderate Its environment.This purple slime is not dangerous, sample shows it is a mixture of the same chemical found in a moss like looking substance on the wall of the rocks and seafloor which I called it purple because it is purple in color. Nutrition – Octillion as I said before spew out a purple slime whose chemical components is similar to that of a moss looking substance found on the stones and seafloor called purple. It as concluded that Octillion feeds on the purple from video footage again that gives it nutrition which causes it to respire allowing it to survive in the harsh underground water system.Excretion – the form in which Octillion got rid of waste was; it settles in a corner goes into the hard skeleton structure and little bubbles fill with a transparent liquid comes out the pores, I believe that Octillion excretes build up food from purple and it is transparent bec ause it uses the chemicals from the purple to spew the colorful purple slime for stimulus and it then excrete the cytoplasm looking bubble. Reproduction – the bubbles that are seen during the excretion process accounts for reproduction.It is this cytoplasm looking bubbles that carry a form of DNA from the Octillion allowing it to reproduce. All these data can be accounted for because test and experiments where perform and from these experiments it was concluded that the bubbles is somewhat of a single cell organism, but not all survive due to the harsh conditions. Reproduction process will be able to occur under the same Temperature and pressure in which Octillion was born and discovered. Respiration – obviously in order for Octillion to stay alive it respires, cause it feed on the purple.Growth – I have been tracking Octillion for the past six months and it has grown approximately twelve centimeters longer from the first time it was discovered. So this is evide nces that Octillion grows. On Earth these seven characteristics is use to tell if something is alive. Octillion exhibits all characteristics which is so amazing. Charles Darwin if alive today would have been so involved in these findings. Charles Darwin, the British naturalist, came up with the theory of evolution in 1859; he changed our idea of how life on earth developed.Darwin argued that all organisms evolve, or change, very slowly over time. These changes are adaptations that allow a species to survive in its environment. These adaptations happen by chance. If a species doesn't adapt, it may become extinct. He called this process natural selection but it is often called the survival of the fittest. It can be seen that Octillion has adapted to the conditions on Planet Neo, and with that adaptation there is room for evolution. If Octillion could survive on the harsh conditions of Planet Neo, who are we to say that there isn't any other forms of life on lane Neo.I am on the quest to discover more living entities on Planet Neo thanks to the advances of technology in today's world. The fabric of the universe is waiting on scientist like me to extract the underlying knowledge. This discovery has made history in the life of humans; Just imagine life forms on other planets! This gives rise to a lot of speculation be it conflict or amazement. Some people are accepting of this discovery, stating this means that there are more avenues to explore the great beyond, others on the other hand are fearful of this discovery.

Discussion Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 30

Discussion - Coursework Example Through this technique, our company are able to identify costs which are not necessary or not justifiable and enables our company to do something about this thereby improving our financial by reducing unwanted cost. For example, one department cost a lot to operate so our company decided just to outsource the operation because it is cheaper to do so. Our company’s financial statements are able to identify profit centers and helps our top managers to direct the company’s resources to maintain and bolster our revenue. Thus, in developing cash budgets and capital expenditures, the resources that the company I work for allocates is justifiable with the value and revenue it generates for the organization. In sum, the techniques in managerial accounting enables the decision makers in my company to reduce cost by identifying operations and activities whose cost are unjustifiable thereby making our operations more efficient. It also helps our decision makers where to allocate our resources where it could generate the utmost value and revenue for the

Federal Contracting Activitities and Contract Types Assignment

Federal Contracting Activitities and Contract Types - Assignment Example age of time it seems that VectorCal has been thrown out of track due to the penetration of different firm and its disability (as a result of using feeble forecasting method) to break even with the consumers increasing demand. As the sayings go ‘the customer is always right’, it seems VectorCal had nowhere to go. Mycompany initially aims to serve the consumers locally and then in foreseeable future, will fare on international horizon. As aforementioned, the market for drones had expanded at a high pace as a result of insecurities arising at an alarming rate, Mycomapny was determined and decided to create more demonstrative and uncontaminated drones, which they did and successfully too. However, establishing a sense of success simply on the basis of making more friendly drones was incompatible, as no one can dispatch the fact that there were several successful firms operating in drone making business, way before we joined the market. On the other hand, ignoring the gaps these old firms were providing would have been a fool’s act; hence, the launching of Mycompany that had been as successful as any other established firm. Lastly on of the most appreciating aspect of the company’s technology advancement was launched in the market recently and the response they received was spectac ular, which also earned them one of the government contracts; this advanced technology is a drone in a size of bug and is more effective and efficient than the large Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). In 2011 VectorCal won the government contract as a result of uproar for drone use in Northeast Florida, which in turn was a result of producing more jobs. Even before getting the contract, this company had hired extra pair of hands to overcome their one of the most lacking point – loe production of drones. Their one of the successful drone by the name of TechPri was launched in the market in 2003. This drone was initially fabricated for the use of US army, but had been exported on

Macro and Micro Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Macro and Micro Economics - Essay Example Unemployment is mostly involuntary that is the person was employed before but is now out of work without his or her wish of being out of work (Walters, 2000;12). This perspective implies that the person though out of job is actually looking for one but the job is currently unavailable. According to Gupta’s (2004; 31) definition of unemployment, unemployment cannot be defined as every person who is not engaged in productive activity. According to him there are people who are sick and children who are too young to work but this does not mean that they want to engage in any worthwhile activity because either they cannot find one or they do not want to engage in one; this means they cannot be classified as being unemployed therefore the correct perspective of unemployment would be the number of productive workforce that are involuntary out of work. Most of the common unemployment forms are brought by the lack of demand of labour in most of the companies in any given economy. Unemp loyment can be divided into many categories with the first group being Voluntary while the second type of unemployment will be involuntary (Lindbeck, 1993; 77). The said group can also be divided further into smaller groups depending on the cause of unemployment. When it comes to voluntary unemployment one of the major causes is frustrations; when a person fails to get the coveted job for a long period of time the individual might opt out of the work force, this is done in order for the person to avoid embarrassment and also the stress associated with the process of looking for a job. Therefore the person can be classified to have left the work force and employment through frustration thus unemployment through frustration. Another cause of voluntary unemployment is when the person has been working at a particular firm and due to structural change the company chooses to pay some employees in order to leave the job on a good will basis (Asimakopulos, 1991; 123). In terms of involuntar y unemployment there exist different categories with the most common types being classical, structural or mismatch, frictional also known as turnover and cyclical types of unemployment (Anderson, 1977; 29). In cases where the wage rates are not flexible there will be a further cause of unemployment called the wait. Cyclical or demand deficient type of unemployment refers to a situation where the rate of employment is entirely dependent on employment rates. According to Gillespie (2007; 31), a slow demand throughout the economy leads to deficiency. Case in point is where there is a recession or there is a negative GDP growth. Whenever there is a negative demand or a low demand for goods and services then the demand for labour will be low therefore less employees will be needed thus more unemployment. Keynesian Theory falls under the cyclical type of unemployment; Keynes (1930) explains that in the short run, productivity activities are influenced by the total spending in the economy which is the summative demand (Hein, 2011;189). This does not mean that the total spending of an economy is equal to the total productive capacity of the economy which is the summative supply. In its place it is subjected by a multitude of aspects and every now and then performs unsteadily, touching production, employment and inflation. In the structural unemployment, it transpires when the structure of economy is altered (Snower, 1997; 64). Case in point can be where an industry loses its international competitiveness with the arrival of new global competitors. The industry will

Manage recruitment, selection & induction Assignment - 2

Manage recruitment, selection & induction - Assignment Example For quick productivity, new staff induction will be dual directed with HR involvement and orientation to work area for job requirements and workplace relationship development (Compton, et al., 2007). Owing to competition, the new staff will be trained on how to create high quality products design to beat competition as well as position the STAR products within Australian market (Seward & Dein, 2005). For smooth induction, each new staff will have detailed checklist and an induction book along which they will follow up the induction process. The checklist will ensure that any questions or clarifications on new staff expectations are clearly answered on time (Compton, et al., 2007). Additionally, the induction booklet will ensure that there is no information overload as it will consist of relevant information about the expectation of each role and the inputs needed for successful attainment of STAR five-year plan goals. After a successful induction program where new STAR employees and line managers have given feedback, new employees will be evaluated against their intended outcomes. First, a questionnaire on life work balance is used to evaluate whether or not new employee needs have been met by the implemented programs and the results used to prepare a usage report (Seward & Dein, 2005). Additionally, new STAR employees will be subjected to induction follow-up interviews or sessions with employees to ensure that any answered questions are clarified and any assistance needed to settle into their new roles is provided. Further, new employees are expected to be complete an evaluation of STAR’s HR processes in place either in practice and custom or written form (Hughes & Jowitt, 2003). The new employees will also survey stakeholders to evaluate their current perceptions of life within the organization in terms of climate, satisfaction, morale, and culture amongst others. As a way of improving the HR tools and

Some important innovative practices in recruitment Essay

Some important innovative practices in recruitment - Essay Example According to the research findings the hiring scenario has gone through dramatic changes in the past decade with organizations, consequent increasing talent crunch. The use of internet is an innovative approach in this hiring scenario. While sources such as campus recruiting, head hunters, and lot of executive search processes plays their own role, organizations develop strong internet recruiting capabilities to enable recruitment processes efficiently. â€Å"There is no doubt that the use of the Internet and social networking sites to recruit candidates and screen applicants is on the rise†. Internet Helps in Three Areas of the Recruitment Process: †¢ Identifying large number of candidates which is not possible through other sources †¢ Screening process automation †¢ Advertisement to potential targets Internet provides considerable appeal to college graduates, young talents, workers and executives. The acceleration resumes capture, and processing are done by the web, and it helps to remove most of the steps in the old processes. It also gives faster information review and standardized applicant data, and ultimately provides productivity and effectiveness. The trend however is towards reaping the benefits of online social networking. To this trend, there are websites like Linkedlin, and job portals such as www.naukari.com. Technology based training method is one of the best practices used to train staff, which include computer based training, electronic performance support system, distance and internet based training and audiovisual based training. â€Å"The growing adoption of technology based training in organizations has been fueled largely by the potential practical benefits offered by these systems† (Bell & Kozlowski 31). Computer based training usually involves teaching the trainees to do the job using a system, computerized simulations and multimedia including videotapes. The computer screen shows the applicants employment application and information of the job. In other training methods the trainees have to go or manage time for training, but in this case trainee can do it at their own pace. â€Å"Within a self-paced instructional program, an employee may review specific topics on which he/she needs clarification† (Chappell). People normally cannot recollect all the things they learnt, and it is the same in the case of training too, so computer based support systems provide the employee with the knowledge and information about the organization regarding systems, workprocesses, culture etc. Electronic perf ormance supportive systems can be referred to as a job aiding mechanism these days. It is a set of displays and computerized tools that executes training, phone support, documentation, and integrates all applications, which are faster, cheaper and more effective than any other traditional methods. Now firms are using various methods of distance learning tools for training, which includes teletraining, video conferencing, and internet based classes. The benefits in tele training are that the trainer in a central location can teaches groups of employees in a remote area. If the employees are geographically separated they use videoconferencing. Some organizations facilitate internal intranet training to their employees, or they can take online training

Human trafficking in Turkey Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Human trafficking in Turkey - Term Paper Example They are usually brought by force or allure to the land of opportunities, that is, USA, European nations and Canada. In current times, human trafficking is considered to be an organizational and administrative concern. It has become precedence for those working in many other strategic areas such as human rights, health, gender, law enforcement, and community services. The organization formed by European Union conference on â€Å"Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Human Beings,† held in Brussels from 18-20 September 2002, is an instance of the increasing political concern for combating human trafficking (BRUSSELS DECLARATION ON PREVENTING AND COMBATINGTRAFFICKING IN HUMAN BEINGS, n.d.). Over the recent past, Turkey has been witnessing a significant problem of human trafficking, which in fact is an international concern. This issue is related with irregular ad illegal migration. The neighboring regions of Turkey have been affected by political turmoil and conflicts due to w hich the people have been flooding in Turkey from these lands to ensure a better living, protection from harassment and safety. Instances of civil wars and conflicts taking place in the Middle East, Balkan and Caucasus lands have urged such mobility. The nation has therefore become a final dumping ground of trafficked women and children for sexual exploitation and workforce. ... The first section focuses on the context of the problem providing some statistical evidence on the incidence of trafficking along with cases and evidence involving women and children. In a nutshell this section provides an impression of the persistent problem in the nation with an insight into the severity of the issue. This part will logically analyze why human trafficking has become a problem for the society, especially in Turkey. The second part brings out what policies and measures have already been adopted by Turkey and an assessment of the existing policies with respect to their ability to address the problem. This reveals the actions undertaken by the NGO’s. It covers the scope of the issue both within and outside the Criminal Justice System. The section will also highlight the actions being adopted in the international scenario towards resolving the problem. The third section will discuss what the nation of Turkey and the other countries across the world are doing in o rder to combat the problem. This reveals some policies undertaken at micro level and in the operational departments. This section highlights the policies with respect to employment, economy, education and best practices of other nations, which could be applicable in Turkey to resolve the problem of human trafficking. The section also projects some recommendations to suggest Turkey’s next best steps those can be adopted for a better future with respect to the problem of human trafficking. Social Relevance and severity of the problem Turkey connects Asia and Europe and hence plays as a transit and also a target for human trafficking victims. The cities of Istanbul, Izmir and Trabzon are the most popular destinations for victims of

Literature Survey on Advanced Aircraft Materials Essay

Literature Survey on Advanced Aircraft Materials - Essay Example The latter showed that the causes of the accident were metal fatigue. Experts detected multiple fatigue cracks in aircraft structure /Fildey, 1990/. Numerous site fatigue damage, which resulted in structural failure, were detected in the process of investigation. The investigation, conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board explained the accident by the inability of the operators maintenance program to detect corrosion damage /Miller, 1990 /. One of the possible interpretations of the problem was the function of lap joints to bond large panels of skin to one another. These lap points used to run longitudinally along the fuselage. It was supposed that there should be no problem of fatigue cracking due to the strong connection among the overlapping panels. Similar aircraft, which underwent thorough inspection, also showed disbonding, corrosion and cracking problems in the lap joints /Miller, 1990 /. Faying surfaces were torn separately in the course of the â€Å"pillowing†, which happened in the result of corrosion processes combined with the subsequent build-up of voluminous corrosion products inside the lap joints / Komorowski, 1996/. So, the main cause of the Boeing 737 air crush was defined structural failure: fatigue. This type pf failure is sometimes called â€Å"metal fatigue†, however, this is not precise as even plastic parts can undergo cyclic loading. Cyclic loading of a piece of metal or plastic first of all results in cracks, which further grow and expand. This in its turn leads to fracture /Pizzo, 1995 /. The next problem of main aircraft materials is corrosion, which happens in steel, aluminum and titanium. Except of the gross corrosion, which is particularly common to steel equipment, there also exists another type of corrosion, which is more subtle but not less dangerous /Pizzo, 1995 /. One of the most dangerous parts of corrosion is the one occurring in mated, moving parts. This results in

Mississipi Burning Essay Example for Free

Mississipi Burning Essay The film, Mississippi Burning (1989) can be classified as a very useful source for a historian studying the Civil Rights Movement, however, there are a few noticeable limitations that could prevent the historian from gaining a full understanding of the true culture in the Southern States of America. The film thoroughly examines the role of the Klu Klux Klan and touches upon the role of the media. Despite the useful information that is provided throughout the film, there are certain flaws that limit the historian from gaining knowledge on the true nature of Southern Americans. In the 1950s the emergence of the Civil Rights Movement triggered the Klu Klux Klan organisations to ramp up their terrorisation of the African Americans. The most significant of these was the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan led by Robert Shelton. In the Deep South considerable amounts of pressure were put on blacks by the Klan not to vote. An example of this was in the state of Mississippi. By 1960, 42% of the population was black but only 2% were registered to vote. Lynching was still employed as a method of terrorising the local black population. (Klu Klux Klan, http://www. spartacus. schoolnet. co. uk/USAkkk. htm) The film ‘Mississippi Burning’ supports this information and displays some of the methods the Klu Klux Klan used to attack and threaten African Americans as well as those who supported integration between blacks and whites. The media played a significant role in the Civil Rights Movement. People throughout the world were able to view significant events such as riots, marches and certain court cases. This meant that people became more aware of the extent of violence and injustice that was bestowed on African Americans, particularly in the small country towns in the Southern States. Actually viewing all this violence sparked even more rage amongst those who believed in the Civil Rights Movement. While the majority of White Americans still harbored racist views, many were horrified with the beatings, murders and other brutalities exposed by the media. Many northern whites did not understand what was happening in the South. The new surfacing of television delivered powerful images to the nations living room. Print media was important, but it was television coverage that played a major role in the changing of attitude towards the Civil Rights Movement. The film ‘Mississippi Burning’ subtly but effectively touches upon the role of the media. Throughout the film, there are shots of cameramen filming significant events such as the search for the missing activists and the court case for their murder. This allowed viewers to get a sense of how much the media was used to in this era to help people around the world become aware of atrocities occurring in Southern America. Despite the valuable information, that supported other sources, in the film Mississippi Burning, there were various inaccuracies that could potentially mislead a historian studying the Civil Rights Movement. To make the film more entertaining, it was clear that the producers of the movie were fairly biased towards the Southern Americans and portrayed them all as ‘redneck’ racists. In actual fact there were a number of residents in Mississippi who did accept the Civil Rights Movement and participated in marches and riots against those who refused to do so. Another inaccuracy in the film was the way the detectives discovered Deputy Pell was guilty of participating in the murders of the Civil Rights Activists. In the film, Agent Anderson becomes relatively close with Mrs. Pell, Deputy Pell’s wife. He eventually manages to milk information out of her. In reality, Klu Klux Klan member, James Jordon, confessed to the FBI agents that he witnessed the murders and agreed to co-operate with the investigation. Mississippi Burning is in many ways a useful secondary source for a historian studying the Civil Rights movement. The Klu Klux Klan were heavily acknowledged in the film and their methods of terrorising African Americans were exceptionally realistic, supporting other sources about Southern American culture. The media was also touched upon throughout the film, providing evidence that the media played a large role in the acceptance of the Civil Rights Movement. Despite the small inaccuracies in the film to create a more entertaining storyline for viewers, the benefits of the information provided, outweigh the flaws.

Network Simulation With OPNET Modeler

Network Simulation With OPNET Modeler M.KAMRAN USMANI ABSTRACT Routing protocol is the key for the quality of modern communication network. EIGRP, OSPF and RIP are the dynamic routing protocols being used in the practical networks to propagate network topology information to the neighboring routers. There have been a large number of static and dynamic routing protocols available but choice of the right protocol for routing is dependent on many parameters critical being network convergence time, scalability, memory and CPU requirements, security and bandwidth requirement etc. This Assignment uses OPNET simulation tool to analyze the performance of RIP and EIGRP commonly used in IP network. Initially We have Following Network. By Examining the Network we figure out that Red line indicating the Data Rate of 44.736 Mbps between network components and only Network connection between London Office and Portsmouth office has Data Rate of 64 Kbps. The Traffic Flow between London Office and Bristol_corporate is IP_Traffic Flow having following chracteristics      RIP Protocol Over Netwrok: Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is a distance vector dynamic routing protocol that employs the hop count as a routing metric. RIP is implemented on top of the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) as its transport protocol. It is assigned the reserved port number 520. RIP prevents routing loops by implementing a limit on the number of hops allowed in a path from the source to a destination. The maximum number of permitted hops is 15. Hence a hop count of 16 is considered an infinite distance. This hop number limits the size of networks that RIP may support. RIP selects paths that have the smallest hop counts. However, the path may be the slowest in the network. RIP is simple and efficient in small networks. First we have to run RIP routing protocol in the network for a simulation period of 600 seconds with selecting following criteria Path Selection Time Taken for routing convergence Protocol Overhead Path Selection For path selection we get following result with RIP protocol The IP traffic Flow is from London to Bristol Corporate and due to Low Data rate between London to Portsmouth path as compare to London to Oxford path the RIP protocol follows maximum the low Data rate path which is London Office to Portsmouth, and graph displays data throughput for the links London to Portsmouth and Portsmouth to Bristol. Time Taken for routing convergence RIP is distance vector routing protocols, announces its routes in an unsynchronized and unacknowledged manner. This can lead to convergence problems. The graph is showing the time taken for routing convergence of RIP. The convergence time is high 6.975 sec that’s mean routers are finding it difficult to exchange state information. Protocol Overhead RIP is a â€Å"distance vector† based protocol selects the best routing path based on a distance metric (the distance) and an interface (the vector) , RIP protocols evaluate the best path based on distance, which can be measured in terms of hops or a combination of metrics calculated to represent a distance value. In this exercise RIP selects London to Portsmouth link and maximum utilization occurs . The utilisation and convergence data suggests there is some queuing and blocking on the link. For example, the utilisation for the London to Portsmouth link is high i.e 84.629 therefore suggesting the link is suffering from over-utilisation. Queuing/Delay In the point to point queuing graph , the London to Portsmouth Link contains queuing delay on average 3.6032 sec , therefore suggesting there is traffic blocking or queuing on the link. The link between London to Portsmouth uses a DS0 (Blue) cable with a data rate of 64Kbps compared to the other links in the network that use a DS3 cable (Red) with a data rate of 44.736Mbps; therefore the combination of the over-utilisation of the London to Portsmouth link with the low data rate cable (DS0) has caused traffic queuing or blocking to occur. -Excersise -2 - EIGRP Protocol Over Netwrok: Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP) is a Cisco proprietary routing protocol. It is based on a new route calculation algorithm called the Diffusing Update Algorithm (DUAL). It has features of both distance vector and link state protocols. EIGRP metrics are based on reliability, MTU, delay, load, and bandwidth. Delay and bandwidth are the basic parameters for calculating metrics First we have to run EIGRP routing protocol in the network for a simulation period of 600 seconds with selecting following criteria Path Selection Time Taken for routing convergence Protocol Overhead Path Selection For path selection we get following result with EIGRP protocol The IP traffic Flow is from London to Bristol Corporate but as contrast with RIP which selected low data rate path, EIGRP select the path from London to Oxford , Oxford to Birmingham , and Birmingham to Bristol path to achieve the traffic Flow. Time Taken for routing convergence EIGRP is more efficient as compared to RIP , Graphs are showing the convergence duration very fast 0.0074427 Sec as Compared to RIP which was 6.975 Sec with same scenario. Protocol Overhead As Compared to RIP , No over utilisation occurs in EIGRP , Utilisation graphs shown above clearly that the utilisation distributed evenly over path with value for the London to Oxford is 5.5606 , Oxford to Birmingham is 5.5783 and Birmingham to Bristol is 5.5662 EIGRP performs better in terms of network convergence, routing traffic, and Ethernet delay. EIGRP has the characteristics of both distance vector and link state protocols, has improved network convergence, reduced routing protocol traffic, and less CPU and RAM utilization compared to RIP protocol. EIGRP has very low usage of network resources during normal operation since only hello packets are transmitted. When a routing table changes, its convergence time is short and it reduces bandwidth utilization -Excersise -3 - FAILURE SCENARIO We introduced a link Failure Scenario between Bristol corporate and Porstmouth Office after 100 Seconds and its recovery at 200 Seconds and run the RIP and EIGRP protocol over network. Following are our Observations with side by side comparison of RIP and EIGRP Utilization In the RIP protocol the link failure after 100 sec prevented the traffic to flow; therefore when the link recovered after 200 sec a huge amount of traffic was bottlenecked on the link causing the utilisation of the London to Portsmouth to suddenly increase. Also it can be observed that during the time of the failure the RIP protocol began to reroute the traffic over the London to Oxford, Oxford to Birmingham, and Birmingham to Bristol links before the link recovered the graph is showing this small utilization on the links. In the EIGRP Protocol, link failure event did not affect the utilisation of the EIGRP protocol because the link was not used in the routing path; The EIGRP did not use the link Portsmouth to Bristol in its path selection, so the performance of the network will be barely affected by the failure ; hence the utilisation values doesn’t change Convergence In RIP The Convergence Duration becomes much higher as compare to old scenario before Failure , it was 6.975 before and 19.409 now , this is because routers updates their routing tables when failure occurred and recovered it takes more time period , In Contrast with EIGRP protocol the Convergence Duration becomes 0.012273 , much less than RIP this is because EIGRP only update the link failure routing table not the whole network , So EIGRP provides much efficient and faster way to achieve convergence. Time Delay of Protocol More IP packets drops in RIP as compared to EIGRP because of the failure in link of the path which RIP follows , and as contrast less IP packets drops in EIGRP because it does not follow the path of failure link. -Excersise -4 - Consider the given Network merging with another network, Picture shown below the merging Network The IP Traffic flows sending traffic from London Office to three destination North-wales Plant, Birmingham Plant and Oxford Office. We defined IP Traffic according to given table. A New Link DS_1 ( Black Line in Picture ) introduced which connects North-wales Plant to London Office via The New Manchester Office. We runs RIP as routing Protocol which gives us Following observations: Utilization From Graph it is clearly showing that utilisation is high for London office to Manchester office and Manchester Office to North Wales Both are approximately 97 % utilisation which is overutilization and cause serious problems to the network. For London to oxford office and Oxford to Birmingham Plant the utilisation is nearly 13% and 6% this is because of link using high data rate cable DS3 where we get the low utilisation and low data rate comparatively where we get lower data rate cable. DS1 cable has data rate of 1.5Mbps which DS3 has 44.736 Mbps With this Observation , we come to know that one possible solution is using EIGRP protocol , as EIGRP protocol solve the over utilisation problem from our network. Lets see by running the EIGRP protocols and compare the result of it with RIP The EIGRP protocol solves the Over utilization problem we have faced in RIP protocol and the resultant graph and comparison is showing this clearly with evenly distributed utilization over selected path by EIGRP. CONCLUSIONS : It can be seen that EIGRP compared to RIP performs better in terms of network convergence activity and Routing protocol traffic. EIGRP has the characteristics of both distance vector and link state protocols, has improved network convergence, reduced routing protocol traffic, and less CPU and RAM utilization compared to RIP References: Performance Analysis of RIP, EIGRP, and OSPF using OPNET By Don Xu and Ljiljana TrajkoviĆ¡ Dynamic Routing Protocol Implementation Decision between EIGRP, OSPF and RIP Based on Technical Background Using OPNET Modeller By Thornier, S.G.

Discrimination and Racism in Country Lovers and The Welcome Table Essay

Discrimination and Racism in â€Å"Country Lovers† by Nadine Gordimer and â€Å"The Welcome Table† by Alice Walker Discrimination and racism is always an issue, but the hardship these women had to face and suffer is something that is still being discussed. Understanding the fear, struggle and hardship that women of color went through during this time period is very important. Both â€Å"Country Lovers† by Nadine Gordimer and â€Å"The Welcome Table† by Alice Walker discuss race and the struggle with trying to be accepted in society. The short story â€Å"Country Lovers† written by Nadine Gordimer, who in 1991 received the Nobel Prize for Literature, writes about forbidden love and racial politics between a black girl and a white boy on a South Africa farm. This story takes place during the time South Africa was dealing with racial segregation and is filled with irony and a theme that is clear from the start and that is deeper than racism, but the love between the two of opposite race. Thebedi and Paulus have grown up playing together is childhood. He is the son of the farm owner and she was the daughter of a farm worker for the farm. As they grew older, Paulus went off to boarding school and Thebedi would eventually drop out of school and help on the farm. It was known that â€Å"once the white children go away to school they soon don’t play together anymore.† (Clugston, 2010). When Paulus went off to school, they were entering adolescence and body changes were uncommon to all. Paulus was a popular boy at school and with the â€Å"sister† school that the girls went too. When Paulus would return from school on break he would bring Thebedi gifs and she would give him a handmade bracelet in return, and this is where they grew closer and th... ...oing on in this day in age, and it will always be an issue. With so much negativity, that we see and deal with on a regular basis is a consent battle, which influences us and the way we handle things. However, we have come a long ways as to what it used to be as if people have learned to accept each other. References Chopin, K. (1894). The story of an hour. Vogue. Clugston, R. W. (2010). Country lovers (p. 3.1). San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Retrieved from http://content.ashford.edu/books Clugston, R. W. (2010). Journey into literature. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Retrieved from http://content.ashford.edu/books Racism. (n.d.). Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. Retrieved June 13, 2011, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/racism

Sex Education: Determining Teenage Lives Essay -- Educational Issues

A parent’s main concern has always been --and always will be--what is best for their child. Parents attempt to raise their children so that they can learn to make the best possible decisions in any given situation. However, is blatantly avoiding the topic of sex, simply because it may be awkward, the best choice that parents’ make for their children? The controversial issue of sex education in public schools has been a main concern in communities throughout the United States. There has been increasingly more discussion about sexual education programs and whether or not they should be included in the school’s curriculum. The truth is, if sex education is avoided in schools, teenagers—many of whom already lack expertise in the sexual education field—are being denied the knowledge of possible diseases, outcomes, and opportunities that sexual education has to offer. Without sex education, teenagers would be unaware of the harmful consequences of their a ctions, thus it should be implemented in every educational curriculum. Without proper sexual education, many teenage girls are at a high risk of pregnancy. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 409,840 infants were born to teenagers that were between the ages of 15 and 19 (About Teen Pregnancy). These unknowledgeable teens must be plunged from their youths in order to take responsibility for their children, which not only affects their families, but also their newborn children. This epidemic has grown so much that statistics show that every three out of ten teenage girls will be pregnant before they reach the age of 20 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). In order to decrease the rate of teen pregnancy, schools need to proactively promote sex education, such... ...ld Give Kids Free Contraceptives.† Bloomsberg Business week: n. pag. www.businessweek.com. Web. 16 Apr. 2012. . â€Å"Sex education for five-year-olds to be made compulsory in schools.† http://m.guardian.co.uk/. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2012. . â€Å"Sex Education That Works.† www.avert.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2012. . â€Å"U.S. Campaign to Promote Abstinence Begins.† Washinton Post: n. pag. /www.washingtonpost.com. Web. 16 Apr. 2012. . www.medindia.net. Sex Education For Teens, n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2012. .

Marketing Project Essay

Q: Conduct a household or market survey and report on the buying motive of consumers as regards price and quality, consumers being classified by age, sex and income given certain selected products. * Choose any five consumer durable products/services of high demand. (i.e., products with life span greater than 3 years.) FORMAT: * Main page (Name, Class, Year, Marketing Project) * Title (question) * Table of Contents * Explain buying motive and its types. * Introduction and information about each of the products chosen (only consumer durable objects; types are – medium expensive and very expensive). * Target group of customers for each product in brief. (Age; sex; income group etc.) * Must: Mention gender and age if product is bought a certain gender or age group only, along with reasoning for the same. * Form questionnaires with (10-15 questions) and do a survey with 10 customers. Make sure that the questions can be answered in sentences or provide statements with options. DO NOT use Yes/No questions. * Eg: What is the primary reason for which you buy this product? What other benefits do you derive from the product? Is the product convenient to use? Is the product safe? Is the product worth the value paid for realization? * Following the questionnaires, make a report for each and every product separately explaining the buying motive and reasons they buy it for. (1 page per product.) * Draw conclusions from the results of your questionnaires, graphs, reports, etc. * Depict graph (depending on any 5 criteria you have mentioned in your questionnaire in a bar diagram) for the number of consumers surveyed. * Add pictures and symbols throughout your presentation to add colour and life. * The project can be made using either MS PowerPoint or MS Word. Format of a Questionnaire: QUESTIONNAIRE TITLE ( Eg: Survey conducted to estimate buying motive of a product) (This survey is conducted by students of OOEHS for a marketing project. Kindly fill in the required details) Name: Location: (Start with your own questions.)

Killer Joe and Gender Representations

Critical observations of unbalanced representations of gender In William Friedkin’s â€Å"Totally twisted deep-fried Texas redneck trailer park murder story† Killer Joe Freeman 1 British film theorist Laura Mulvey has spent her career using psychoanalysis to uncover pre-set molds and social expectations about gender and sexuality, to interpret classic Hollywood films. Mulvey has argued that there are three ways in which gender is represented within Hollywood cinema. First, she argues that women lack control and meaning, thus fueling their desire for the penis and power of a man.She also states that women exist as a silent opposition to the dominant man (a child-bearing subject merely in relation to). Last, this essay will argue that women are meant to carry no significance of their own but acting as merely a threatening obstacle for the male to â€Å"overcome† or re-work (Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, 1975). Laura Mulvey and her views on female representa tions and gender roles within Hollywood films still prevail with fundamental relevance in modern Hollywood cinema.This essay will underline the truths of Mulvey’s observations by using William Friedkin’s violently obscene farce Killer Joe (2011) to argue that Mulvey’s article, no matter how outdated, can still be used to address prominent and modern examples of unbalanced sexual representations within Hollywood cinema. On the surface it may seem very obvious that the men have the power in this film due to how the women are represented and treated.But, as Killer Joe unfolds the question is whether it is the women with the power, or just an obvious desire for power fueled by their lack of meaning, control, and a phallus, as Mulvey has mentioned in previous years. The first man we see in the film is young and weak, wet, vulnerable, locked out of the trailer and getting violent. He is verbally demeaning towards his younger sister Dottie as if it were her fault that he is locked out, and her purpose to wake up and let him in.Dottie Smith is the first female we see, and becomes a central subject for the ruthless male – she Freeman 2 lacks authority, lacks independence, and her fetal position is an obvious symbol for needing nurturing from a stronger being. Dottie is made to appear lonesome, without companionship or passion. As she lies there, Friedkin intends to focus on Dottie’s innocent aspects, such as her belongings: dollhouses, stuffed animals, pink curtains, teen-pop heartthrobs taped to the walls, although the young woman in the bed appears to be too old for such childish decor.The second woman we see is placed directly in front of the camera by her unruly crotch. Her face appears after we become acquainted with her lower half, with makeup smeared down her cheekbones and her nipples exposed from under a thin sweat-stained shirt. The first two women in this film are polar opposites (one a fragile blonde virgin who sleeps with stuffed animals, and Sharla, an older brunette women a little too comfortable with her sexuality).This difference expresses to us that this story will focus hugely upon the different aspects of woman as a representation, and highlight that Laura Mulvey’s views on women are still incredibly relevant throughout Friedkin’s film. Mulvey also mentions that the act of looking is a source of pleasure for the male scotophil. The explicit placement of the camera exhibits these women and their features to the audience as sexual spectacles while it solicits our attention, shapes our opinions about women to make â€Å"erotic lookers† out of us, and creates an unevenly distributed â€Å"power to look† (Mulvey, 1975).The young male, Chris Smith, is hardly phased by his step mothers exposed vagina in his face because it is insinuated that he has either seen it before, seen many others like it before, or that she is so disgusting to him that her crotch means nothing to him sexually or even in regards as a human being. Chris is allowed to expose himself while urinating while Sharla yells for him to close the door. Chris’ penis is allowed to be exposed to women as a sign of power Freeman 3 and manipulation, while a woman’s exposed vagina is a sign of weakness, objectiveness, and sleaziness.After all of this, she grabs a beer from the fridge before putting any clothes on. She is an over sexualized woman, a sexual spectical, while also appearing to be very masculine in her actions, which is to assume that certain actions and characteristics of both male and female are set in stone to shape our expectations of gender in Hollywood cinema. The beer before pants, the over exposure of her body, and the way Sharla speaks to her step-son are all actions that a man might follow through with, and she does this in a way that expresses her desire for authority, for a penis like the men she obviously idolizes.Sharla and Chris physically fight as if they were both men – she desperately wants to fit into their world, but she is cast away like an unusable piece of meat once her duty to grab them beers has been filled. At thirteen minutes we see Dottie practicing Kung-Fu to a Jet Li movie on the television, which is an example of her wishing she were stronger, wishing she had the ability and the â€Å"balls† to fight against evil when in reality she is more like a play-thing for her Father, Ansel Smith, Chris and for Joe Cooper.Women lack control, yet they desire it, desire the power of the dominant male gender, and Killer Joe establishes the female characters in the same way that Laura Mulvey had expressed this view in 1975 as being an underlying representation of women throughout Hollywood cinema. Mulvey also argues that women exist as a mere childbearing relation to the male, as a silent opposition that is not a gender of it’s own, but a male-like figure lacking in its significant source of superiority: the phallus.Essentially, social constructions would argue that women are born more naturally gentle and nurturing because of their ability to breed, while men are naturally born with more acceptable aggression, enabling them to Freeman 4 â€Å"protect† their gentle mate (Media and Society 5th ed. , 350-351). Thirty-four seconds into the film we have heard a zippo lighter, purposeful footsteps, and a shotgun cocked and blast before we are shown anything, visually. From those sounds alone, the film carries a grunge-country, plaid-wearing, sweaty-man undertone that never ceases to leave the screen.An angry storm, angry pit-bull and a sloppy trailer park establish the setting of the film, forewarning us that this is a â€Å"mans† film, and is anything but clean. Ansel and Chris, father and son, are talking about Dottie’s virginity as if she has not lived out her purpose to society yet until she finally gives it up. The inheritance of Dottie’s mother Adele went t o her scumbag boyfriend Rex before her daughter, (whom we find out she tired to kill as a baby). This expresses that women will always fall to the feet of the male superior, as Mulvey has mentioned.Ansel and Sharla talk about Dottie sleeping with cowboy-in-black Joe Cooper for the first time as if satisfying him sexually will benefit the family. They force her to get a dress, look pretty, because â€Å"If she don’t know what’s expected of her, she might disappoint him! † (Sharla, Killer Joe). Mulvey’s idea that women are merely objects for childbearing is hugely represented when Dottie finally stands up for herself at the end of Killer Joe, kills her family in an act that could only come from the confidence of carrying a child and a loaded phallus.Sharla loses all invisible phallic confidence that she once had, when Joe kicks the shit out of her. Sharla never wanted kids – she was never a woman with the maternal instinct, therefore she carried no s ignificance or necessary female attributes that satisfied the man. Sharla tries to overcome the obligations of her gender by cheating on her husband with a younger man, but the photo proof of their sex life backfires on her when Joe uses her bold promiscuity against her as if it were her duty as a woman to be gentle, easily Freeman 5 anipulated, and loyal – only the men are allowed variety. Like this essay has stated, Friedkin’s Killer Joe is an obvious expression of Laura Mulvey views on the male-authoritative being objective towards women and their abilities as human beings outside of their ability to reproduce. Which brings this essay to the third statement, which emphasizes that women are meant to carry no significance of their own as a lone-standing gender, but as Laura Mulvey indicates, act as a threatening obstacle for the male to â€Å"overcome† or re-work into something acceptable, and useable.Regine-Mihal Friedman, author of educational article Invisib le Metamorphosis (2012), proves in her modern film analysis that the on-screen representation of sexual violence against women has always been a customary theme of cinematic narration, not only in Hollywood as Mulvey mentions, but within international cinema as well. Ansel Smith of Killer Joe is constantly in the â€Å"dog-house† because of Sharla. She wears the pants, carries the symbolic penis in the relationship and she likes it that way. It is her relationship with Corvette Rex that makes her feel dominated, and she appreciates both aspects of her relationships.When Sharla is with Ansel she can have the power and the penis, and while she is with Rex she is able to figuratively and literally lay back and be taken and overcome by the penis. Chris comes to live with Ansel and Sharla because of his relationship with his mother, Adele, and her empowerment over him, causing the reoccurring question throughout the film â€Å"did you hit her, again? † (Ansel, Sharla, Kille r Joe). For some reason, Chris and Ansel feel entitled to a cut of what Dottie is inherited, again, taking the power away from the phallus-longing female.Chris feels like he is getting back at his mother for everything she did to him and his sister Dottie. Instead of taking the blame for his own mistakes, every one of Freeman 6 his problems falls on Adele, and she must die because of it: active male, female problem solved. Dottie appears nude in a dream that Chris has about her where she slips her robe off to reveal her naked body, but instead of giving him sexual favors, she holds her fists up and stands in a fighter position as if to say â€Å"I am woman, hear me roar! He wakes up terrified, either because of his incestuous dream, or because a supposedly passive female is attempting to overpower his role as the active male – could be both. Again, this proves that a male audience needs to look voyeuristically to maintain power, anonymity, creating an erotic mystery to havin g seen without being seen (Mulvey, 1975). When Dottie officially becomes Joe’s retainer for the lack of payment by the Smith family, she is officially in Joe’s hands, whatever he says goes, whatever he needs and craves (including her virginity) he claims, and takes.Her body is his to construct, his to mold into something acceptable, something that fits into his life, and fits over his dominance, his penis, forever like a piece of clay. Dottie is easily pressured into sleeping with him and becomes â€Å"comfortable† in the black dress when Joe offers her flowers and a â€Å"heartfelt† story about his youth. She is no longer the feisty Jet Li wannabe that Joe once saw her as; Dottie has allowed Joe to â€Å"fix† her, to impregnate her, and to make her existence purposeful.Sharla, the overly confident manipulative whore who believes that she can do, say, get away with anything is put in her place when she makes Joe Cooper ejaculate in his pants while sucking on a KFC chicken wing held to his crotch. To overpower the women you must make her bow down to you, suck you off (suggestively), while waving a piece of chicken (your dominance) in her face. The film concludes with Clarence Carter’s Strokin’, a song that could tell you a lot about Laura Mulvey’s views on themesFreeman 7 of sexually dominated women throughout Hollywood cinema as a whole, and precisely, Freidkin’s Killer Joe. Killer Joe has taught us many things: If the women want the penis so bad, we should give it to them, that a pregnant women is a powerful women but only if she is literally holding a big deadly penis in her hands (cocked and ready to blow bullets at you), and that if you take that penis away, she is nothing but an annoying piece of KFC being waved in your face, begging for significance.Film theorist Laura Mulvey’s three views regarding a woman’s need for the male phallus, their obligation to reproduce, and that wom en are never exceptional creatures until the man makes them so, has been proven to appear in both classic and modern Hollywood cinema. William Friedkin’s obscene murder-story Killer Joe is an undeniable example of how Laura Mulvey’s ideas are still very apparent when observing unbalanced representations of gender throughout Hollywood Cinema. Freeman 8 Works CitedKiller Joe. Dir. William Friedkin. Perf. Matthew McConaughey. Voltage Pictures, 2011. Film. Mulvey, Laura. Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. Screen (Society for Education in Film and Television), 16:3 (Autumn 1975): 6-18. O’Shaughnessy, M. , & Stadler. (2012). Media and Society Fifth Edition. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1999) Friedman, R. -M. (2012). Invisible Metamorphoses, Studies in Documentary Film, 6:3, pp. 273–290, doi: 10. 1386/sdf. 6. 3. 273_1

Business risk and risk assessment: Apple Essay

I. The Company’s Core Business Processes and Strategic Objectives The Company’s products can be divided into two main categories, personal computers and related products and portable digital music players and related products. Based on the annual report, the â€Å"Company designs, manufactures and markets† (Annual Report 2005 1) many variations of the products mentioned above. The more popular products of the Company include the â€Å"Macintosh line of desktop and notebook computers, the iPod digital music player, the Xserve G5 server and Xserve RAID storage products, a portfolio of consumer and professional software applications, the Mac OS X operating system, the iTunes Music Store, a portfolio of peripherals that support and enhance the Macintosh and iPod product lines, and a variety of other service and support offerings† (1). Design is mainly a concern of the Company’s research and development. Because the Company is in the technology industry, research and development is a crucial component of its operations. It is the manner by which the Company keeps its competitive advantage. In its annual report, the Company admitted that â€Å"the Company’s ability to compete successfully is heavily dependent upon its ability to ensure a continuing and timely flow of competitive products and technology to the marketplace† (14). As a corollary issue to research and development, creation, protection and acquisition of intellectual property rights are also a major concern for the Company. The Company is in possession of several patents and copyrights. On one hand, the Company is concerned with the protection of its patent, copyrights, trademarks and service marks worldwide. In the other, it must protect itself from infringing on others intellectual property rights. The Company does not only rely on its ability to create intellectual property, it also relies on those owned by third parties which are acquired through licensing agreements. Because the Company is engaged in producing technology year after year, the manufacture of the Company’s products may create complications. The Company manufactures personal computers and accessories, iPod digital music players and accessories and a variety of consumer and business software applications. The raw materials for these products are sourced elsewhere. There are certain key components that are sourced from one or limited outside source (Annual Report 2005 14). In 2005 and 2004, the Company experienced delays in relation to one of its products, the PowerPC G5 processors (14). This led to the non-availability of certain Apple products from the market (14). After this incident, the Company announced its intention to shift its Macintosh personal computers from PowerPC G5 and G4 processors to Intel Microprocessors (Apple to use Intel para. 1). This transition is expected to be fully implemented in 2007. The Company’s development of new products requires custom made raw materials that are initially single-sourced until the Company determines the need to develop new sources (Annual Report 2005 14). The manufacture of raw materials and the assembly of some of the Company’s products are made in several foreign countries by third party vendors. The Company’s marketing is done through the Company’s website, company-owned retail stores, direct selling by the Company’s sale force and third party wholesalers, resellers, and value added resellers. The Company’s main markets are usually in the following fields: education, business, creative and consumer market (Annual Report 2005 12). In 2005, the US education industry accounted for more than 12% of the Company’s net sales (12). The Company is not dependent on any single customer for its income. In fact, no single customer of the Company accounted for more than 10% of its sales for three succeeding fiscal years, 2003 to 2005 (12). The Company is divided into four reportable operating segments, America, Europe, Japan, and Retail. It also has an operating segment in Asia-Pacific. The three geographical segments mentioned above do not include retail. The Retail segment operates in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Japan. (3) The Company intends to continue its substantial investment in research and development. The Company’s strategic plan includes the improvement of the Company’s existing products, as well as the development of new ones (7). The Company also believes in the capitalizing in the convergence of digital consumer products (7). This is in keeping with industry trend. For example, both the Company and Microsoft have patents that would improve or create wifi-sharing ability (wireless connectivity) in iPod, iPhone and Zune (Cheng para. 1). Zune, Micosoft’s digital music player, already has a wireless sharing capability which the iPod hopes to emulate. The new patent of the Company may also make it possible for the consumer to directly purchase media from a server through the iPod or iPhone (para 5 and 6). The Company also plans to continue to exploit the perceived advantages of the Company’s products. These advantages are â€Å"innovative industrial design, intuitive ease-of-use, and built-in networking, graphics and multimedia capabilities† (Annual Report 2005 2). Another shift in the Company’s product development is the shift to â€Å"a greener apple.† The Company announced its intention to continue to remove toxic waste from new products and aggressively recycle old products (Jobs). The Company claims that it is leading the industry’s efforts to create more environmentally responsible company and products. The Company plans to create more energy efficient products in the future (para. 29). The Company is not alone in this. Other companies also exerted efforts to show social and environmental awareness. Sometime in 2007, Google released a more energy saving â€Å"black screen† after a study showing that a blacks screen uses less electricity than a white one. As far as its marketing is concerned, the Company plans to expand the distribution of its products. In the past year it has focused on adding on to its direct selling capabilities and the improvement of its sales staff. The Company will continue this style by building more Company-owned store in high traffic locations (Annual Report 2005 8). It also aims to widen its consumer base by targeting first-time computer owners and those people who do not own a Macintosh computer (8). The Company also plans to continue building brand awareness by increasing investment in marketing and advertising as shown by the increase in selling expenses over the years. II. Business Risks Research and development is a major component of the Company’s business risk. It involve a significant amount of the Company’s resources, with research and development expenditures amounting to $534  million, $489  million, and $471  million in 2005, 2004, and 2003, respectively (Annual report 2005 13). The benefits are also contingent on several factors, including the ability of the Company to determine which products or innovations can be successfully developed, manufactured and marketed. There is always the risk of choosing the wrong innovation to focus resources on. The failure to produce marketable products regularly means loss of resources and market standing. Research and development also has a legal risks involved. The Company has admitted that because of the rapid change in technology and the pace by which new patents are being issued, â€Å"it is possible certain components of the Company’s products and business methods may unknowingly infringe existing patents of others† (15). Aside from suits relating to infringement of intellectual property rights, the Company is also facing various suits in relation to its products and a derivative suit filed by its shareholders involving unfair competition and false and misleading proxy statements. In 2006, the Company was placed under scrutiny due to stock option grants, some of which are issued to the Company’s CEO, Steve Jobs, in 1997 and 2001 (Iwata). There were allegations of stockholders that the grant was part of a â€Å"backdating scheme†, a scheme were it is made to appear that the options are transacted at a later date when the shares are valued lower (Apple comes under scrutiny). The investigation showed thousands of backdating grants including two made to CEO Jobs, the second of which did not observe the requirements for validity (Iwata). CEO Jobs was not held accountable for the irregularity of the grant. However, because of the irregularity in the stock options grants issued, the Company restated prior years’ financial statements. Because of these events, the Company admitted in its annual report (2006) the there is further risk of â€Å"litigation, regulatory proceedings and government enforcement actions† (21). The manufacturing of the Company’s products raises some special concerns. As stated above certain key components can only be obtained from a single or limited source (Annual Report 2005 13). Even key components that are not from a single or limited source are sometimes subject to â€Å"availability constraints and pricing pressures† (13). In facts, sometime in 2005 and 2004, the company already experienced delays in acquiring key components which led the Company to change one of the major components of one of its products. The Company admits that the loss of certain suppliers would have an adverse effect on the Company (14). Because of this, there is a risk that the Company will not be able to meet demands for the Company’s products or that the Company will incur delay in the delivery the products ordered by customers. The Company also relies on third parties to supply digital content in its iTunes stores and to develop certain software applications. The failure of third parties to supply digital content does not only affect the performance of iTune stores but also the dominant position of the Company’s digital music player. In the same manner, the failure of software developers to develop programs compatible with the Company’s computer platform due to bigger market for Windows and Linux will adversely affect the demand for the Company’s personal computers. The use of foreign third party vendors in the final assembly of the Company’s portable products and as suppliers of raw materials increases the Company’s risk of being adversely affected by political and economic conditions in these foreign countries. Political upheaval and economic crisis in foreign countries can affect suppliers’ ability to meet the Company’s demand. The Company faces cut throat competition on many of its products. In the advent of personal computers, the Company owns a significant chunk of the market. Over the years, the Company’s market share grew smaller and smaller. In July 2006, the Company’s market share is around 2.2% (Apple market share myth), a significant drop from its original market share. However, percentage figures do not account for the growth in the PC market since its birth in the 1980’s. The decline in the Company’s market share can also be attributed to the growth of numerous generic brands that are much cheaper than the Company’s Mac computers. The proliferation of â€Å"clones† led many companies to lower their prices and profit margin to gain a bigger market share. There is an on going price competition in the PC market, and the Company is striving to be competitive in this area. However, the Company’s business strategy seems to focus less in making cheaper PCs but more on developing products that appeal to its niche market, such as the creative market (Annual Report 2005 2). This strategy of the Company is a business risk because the limited market base makes it more vulnerable to economic factors. Decline in spending ability of one of its niche market can have a greater impact on the company than if it has diverse market. On the other hand, it removes the Company from the competition in market segments that are already saturated with other players. Some analysts believe that part of the upside of the Company’s strategy is that it has refused to compete in a market over which Microsoft already has a monopoly (Apple market share myth). Microsoft has acquired a monopoly in the industry by selling cheap PCs with expensive software or a system called â€Å"exclusive software bundling.† This makes it difficult for other companies to develop operating system’s that are competitive with Microsoft’s. The Company’s strategy in focusing on the improvement of what the consumers perceived as the functional and design advantages of the Macintosh platform opens the Company to the risk mentioned above but it also removes it from the competing in saturated markets. The digital music player market is expected to grow up to 286 million units in 2010 (Guza para.1). The Company’s own product, iPod, continues to dominate the market; however, many competitors are cropping up, challenging the Company’s dominant position. Analyst believes that the Company should not be complacent regarding its dominant position in the business since the digital music player market is young and has only penetrated a small portion of the market in the United States (Siklos). Although many competitors have tried to challenge the Companies and failed, the competition is not giving up. Competitor, Microsoft, came up with Zune, its own brand of digital music player that is compatible with Microsoft’s own on-line music store. Samsung, Sandisk and Creative have came out with products of their own. Software, hardware and on-line companies are working together to address technical difficulties in the initial launch of their own digital music players, and imp roving their services (Wingfield para. 4). There is a risk that the Company’s music related products may follow the road of its personal computers. III. Three Most Significant Financial Statement Accounts The three most significant financial statement accounts for the Company are research and development, inventory, and common stock. Research and development is significant because the Company is engaged in the production and marketing of technology. Not only is research and development expense significantly higher compared to other industry, it is also the cost which enables the Company to continue its existence. In the industry where the Company belongs, obsolescence happens very fast. If the Company fails to innovate, there will come a time that the Company itself will be obsolete since the consumers have switched to the more recently developed products. Many of the Company’s strategic plans are tied up with research and development, such as the plans to improve existing products and the move towards convergence of digital products. The plans of the company to improve and to add innovations to existing products will involve a significant amount of the Company’s resources. The amount of the company’s resources spent in research and development are expensed outright, except for the costs which are incurred after the innovation has been determined to be technologically feasible (Annual Report 2005 68). The failure of the Company to produce technologically feasible products may increase research and development expense, in the same manner that the success of developing technologically feasible products does not necessarily decrease research and development expense. If all the cost for development of the product was incurred before it was determined to be technologically feasible, all cost are expensed outright regardless of feasibility. Based on the Company’s financial statements, capitalization of research and development expense is minimal (77). Inventory is significant for the Company since its operations involved both manufacturing and retail. The Company’s inventory is subject to several business risks already discussed above. In relation to the supplies issue, the Company entered into long-term supply agreements with several companies which bound the Company to these suppliers until 2010. As part of the agreement, the Company is required to make prepayment amounting to $1.25 billion in the second quarter of 2006. (Annual Report 2005 91) Part of the Company’s objectives is to ensure a continuing and timely flow of competitive products and technology to the marketplace. The achievement of this objectives means that the Company’s inventory levels are always sufficient to meet demands for the Company’s products. This would also mean that the Company has successfully managed it inventory during the year. Proper management of inventory would result in a year end inventory level is not too high or to low. The Company’s common stock is significant for the year 2006 because of the discovered irregularities in the issuance of stock option grants issued in 1997 and 2001. These resulted in allegations of fraud and falsification of documents (Wearden para.4). The Company has already investigated the matter, and the result of such investigation has exonerated CEO Steve Jobs of any misconduct. However, restatements of prior years’ financial statements were made, including the common stock and other related accounts (para. 3). This account is not necessarily affected by the Company’s strategic objectives. The stock option grant issue itself affected the performance of the Company’s stock in the market and even raised the issue of possibly delisting from NASDAQ, but which turned out be without bases. IV. Management Assertions The management assertions relevant to research and development expense are completeness, accuracy, cut-off and classification. Completeness is a relevant management assertion because research and development is an expense account, and so, there is a risk that the Company will not include all research and development cost incurred in order to increase the net income for the year. Accuracy is relevant because there is a risk that transactions relating to this account are not recorded properly, resulting in under or over statement of the expense account and, in effect, of net income for the fiscal year. Cut-off is relevant for research and development so that there is proper matching of the expense with the revenue earned during the fiscal year. Failure to record expense in the correct accounting period can also result to over or under statement of the net income for the year. Classification is also a relevant for research and development because there is a risk that the Company will capitalize research and development improperly resulting in the over statement of net income for the year and inflating the Company’s asset even if there are no expected future benefits. Failure to record the amount in the proper account can also mean that there is no matching of income and expense. The management assertions relevant to inventory are existence, valuation and rights. Existence is a relevant management assertion because there is a risk that the Company will record assets that are not there in order to make the financial conditions of the Company look better to investors. The recording of assets that do not exist can also mean failure to record expenses which, in effect, results to overstatement of net income. Valuation is also a relevant because there is a risk that the Company may overstate the value of the asset to improve the financial statement of the Company. In either management assertions, there is a risk of management inflating the asset of the Company usually to improve the stockholders’ equity of the Company. Management assertions as to rights over inventory is also relevant because there is a risk that the Company included in its assets, inventories whose ownership has already passed to another, to improve the financial statements of the Company. The management assertions relevant to common stock are existence and valuation. Existence is a relevant management assertion because there is a risk that the Company records stocks which are not actually subscribed and issued or issues stock for which no consideration was actually received by the Company, also called watered stocks. Valuation is also relevant because there is a risk that the Company will over value the property received in consideration for the stocks issued, particularly if the stock is issued for consideration other than cash, making it appear that the Company is better off than it actually is. Both management assertions can be used by the Company to lure investors to invest in the Company under false pretenses. Although wrong management assertions can be a result of other causes that are not deliberate on the part of management, such as mistakes. The assertions mentioned above are relevant to those accounts because there is the additional risk of deliberate misstatement on the part of management. V. Environmental Risks There is a low inherent, control and detection risk in management assertions of completeness and accuracy of the research and development expense based on the Company’s conservative approach in recording research and development, as well as, the relative simplicity of identifying and recording research and development expense. On the other hand, the management assertion relating to the cut-off of research and development expense is assessed as having high inherent, control and detection risk because of the lack of sufficient data regarding the Companies processes and controls relating to this account. Because the risks mentioned above are assessed at maximum, more substantial test shall be performed to decrease audit risk. There is a high inherent risk in the classification of research and development expense because of the difficulty of determining technological feasibility. The determination of Technological feasibility can be extremely subjective. On the other hand, there is low control and detection risk in the classification of research and development expense because based on the Company’s past practices, the Company is very conservative in capitalizing research and development expenses. The percentage of research and development expense capitalized by the Company is very small compared to the research and development expense incurred every year. It is the Company’s policy to record all development cost incurred before determination of technological feasibility as expense, and the determination of technological feasibility is usually done after a large portion of the cost of development has been incurred so that only a small portion of the cost is actually capitalized and amortized. The inherent, control and detection risk is high for all assertions related to inventory because the operations of the Company is complex and international. The final assemblies of some of the Company’s products which are performed by the Company itself are in different locations outside the United States. There are also final assemblies of the Company products that are performed by third parties in different countries in Asia. The Company also takes advantage of several ways of marketing its products. It uses company-owned stores, direct selling, third party sellers and on-line selling. These make it extremely difficult to keep track of the movement of the inventory and to determine when ownership over the inventory change hands. The inherent risk is assessed as high for the management assertion of existence and valuation of common stock. This is because of the investigation which the Company itself initiated in relation to its stock options grant. The investigation caused the Company to adjust its income from prior years amounting to $84 million. The Company also has stock-based compensation plans consisting of stock options grants and stock purchase plans (Annual Report 2005 88) which calls for complicated computations. The control and detection risk is assessed as low for the management assertion of existence and valuation of common stock because of the Company’s efforts to investigate the matter as soon as the problem arose. It was the Company itself that announced the existence of irregularities in the issuance of its stock options grant. The Company has put in placed control mechanisms to address the matter. Moreover, records of the investigation conducted can help the auditor minimize detection risk.

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner

A Reflection on â€Å"The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner† Rebeca Espirito Santo The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner â€Å"From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze Six miles from the earth, loosed from its dream of life I woke to black flack and the nightmare fighters When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose. † Randall Jarrell â€Å"The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner†, by Randall Jarrell, is a surprisingly simple and brief poem; nevertheless it is extensive in content.Due to carefully chosen words, with great descriptive power and an appeal to symbolism, Jarrell skillfully accomplishes the task of providing readers with detailed images and feelings of the turret gunner’s situation, yet leaves plenty of space for the reader’s imagination, interpretation and critique. While reading this poem, one can be encouraged to question the image we have of our soldiers – those w ho have no fear – while not questioning their bravery. War can produce gruesome situations that can cause even the bravest men to face their fears.The poem’s incisiveness is demonstrated by the fact that if the reader doesn’t see the title, or if one isn’t familiar with what a ball turret is, it becomes very challenging to even know what the poem is about. Once the reader forms a clear image of a B-17 â€Å"Flying Fortress† or a B-24 â€Å"Liberator†, with it’s small Plexiglas ball turrets located in the bottom fuselage, it becomes extremely easy to visualize the soldier’s situation. From the first half of the second line – â€Å"And I hunched in its belly† – of the poem it is possible to picture how uncomfortable, lonely and vulnerable the gunner was in the bottom of the airplane.Then, in the second half of the same line – â€Å"till my wet fur froze† – one is able to envision the sold ier’s distress due to his nervous sweat and the cold, thin air. The gunner was in an extremely vulnerable position. Even if he was spared another gunner’s bullet at the end of the mission, he knew he was still not safe. In the case of a forced landing, he knew he would be sacrificed. On the third line – â€Å"Six miles from the earth, loosed from its dream of life† – one can observe his acknowledgment of this surreal reality.This leads the character to the understanding of not only his physical distance from earth, but also from earthly life and the odds against him going back to that life. He was already preparing himself for the worst and suppressing his hopes of survival. Through the distress of a single man, Jarrell is able to depict the fears of a lonely soldier in an extremely vulnerable position, and invites us into the heinous reality of war which forces us to question our impressions of soldiers having no fear yet not questioning their bra very.War can produce gruesome situations that can cause even the bravest men to face their fears, but it is how they deal with this fear that is the important part. Ball turret gunners were courageous warriors. They were fully aware of how susceptible to death they were, nevertheless, they would continue to fight time after time. WWII was a dreadful episode in human history that killed millions of people, and its bloodshed is described by the UN Charter as a scourge that â€Å"has brought untold sorrow to mankind†.Jarrell had served in the military himself, thus he knew – at least to some extent – what he was trying to address. The most fascinating aspect of this poem is the paradoxical relationship between its physical briefness and its vast evocative power. His words are so carefully chosen and descriptive that it grants the reader with greatly detailed images and feelings of the turret gunner’s situation and the broader issue that he represents. The us e of more words becomes unnecessary; hence, Jarrell masterfully proves that length isn’t as important as depth and power.This piece’s paradox and theme struck me. As already discussed, Jarrell’s capability to evoke so much with so little is quite amazing. It depicts an issue of my personal and academic interest. As a Political Science major with a background in International Relations, war and its causes, consequences and issues intrigues me. The grievance caused by war is something that affects me quite deeply. This poem shows a very personal, crucial moment in a soldier’s life.They truly believe they are going to war to fight for their nation with an ideology that has been forced into their head that they are willing to give up their lives for. At the end of the day, unfortunately, the gravity of these soldier’s personal sacrifices are often lost – converted to a statistic – among the many thousands of sacrifices that occur during w ar. This poem seemingly parallels this situation in that it is a small and relatively simple poem – lost in a sea of countless other poems – yet upon further investigation reveals something much more meaningful.

How to Study and Discuss Cases

The case study is a powerful learning tool for a business major student. We may find interpreting and writing about cases mystifying, challenging, or downright frustrating. First of all, we should have good attitude, such as personal initiative, self-reliance, curiosity, taking risk and patience.. We should be initiative to study, and to have confidence in ourselves, but also to think independently and find the solutions. Curiosity is necessary to mobilize us to observe and discover all stuff that related to the cases. Dare to take risks, because failure is the mother of success. To have enough patience to think about the case solution. Second, good infrastructure is also important to our case study. The infrastructure includes study environment, tool, other relative context for business case study. Studying in the right place is necessary to us to ensure the quality of learning and thinking because noisy environment diverse out attention from the cases. We also need enough time to read and analyze a case, and spend at least 90 minutes there for each case study. Business dictionary is an important tool for us to analysis cases because many people are not English speaker, and business dictionary helps those people understand all the terms in cases; it is a prerequisite for understanding the case. Expanding the amount of reading is another tool to understand and solve cases, especially business newspaper, magazine, and business-news Web site on the Internet. Those business reading materials not only help us build a context for the case study you are trying to solve at the moment and make connections between the case study and current events, but also helps us know recent market dynamics. Learning to use software such as Microsoft Excel to analyze the data in the case. We should form a study group and meets frequently because we will learn more and perform better in class participation by discussing the cases together in a learning team. We also need to know out professor because the professor is part of the learning infrastructure. Finally, we should keep good execution as well. Read the cases really quickly in the first reading, but do not take notes on the first reading, and read the first few paragraphs that usually say a well-constructed about the problem. Then, go through the exhibits and the data to analysis them. Focus on some basis questions, such as † Who are the protagonists in the case? â€Å", â€Å"Who must take action on the problem? † and so on. Getting answers for those basis questions is the first step of understand entire cases. Finally, we should define the problem based on the concepts, principal and theorem. After defining, we need to think about the solution of the case. When we make solution decision, we keep self-confidence and trust ourselves. In conclusion, analysis business case study is a comprehensive progress. Because there is no right answer to these cases. When we are in the class, we participate actively in support of our conclusions, but still be open to new insights since there is no an exact solution to such cases. Business case studying is a good way of thinking about business situation that we can carry from one job to the future. It is also to lead us to win in the future.

Answer Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Answer Questions - Essay Example The East outdid the Romans of the West. The art produced in this era lacked religious connotations. Animal style that was characterized by animal ornamentations, Carolingian art was characterized by sophisticated design, and Romanesque art had leaf embellishments, vaults and curves (Cavendish, 2006).  Next was the Gothic art  that was more developed with detailed paintings and sculptures (Cavendish, 2006). Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is one that epitomizes the renaissance period while Chris Ofili’s No Woman, No Cry is of the new era.  Mona Lisa Foundation (2012) argues that Mona Lisa covered renaissance art characteristics such as sculptures and paintings while No Woman, No Cry is a tribute to Stephen Lawrence (Ofili, 1998). What primarily distinguishes Renaissance art from the Medieval art is Renaissance art encompassed sculptures, drawings and paintings that demonstrated the worth of nature and people. Early Renaissance transited to High Renaissance through finer developments in the techniques of art (Sider, 2007). Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is an unforgettable art while Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam seems to have taken a struggle. Italian Renaissance was rich is culture while Northern Renaissance focused on Protestant Reformation (Sider, 2007). The Vitruvian Man plays the role of reflecting the principle that the human body is symmetrical to the universe (Da Vinci, 1492). The drawing is done symmetrically with the figure in a square. Montanes’ (1603) The Merciful Christ explains the nature of Christ. The drawing shows Christ on the cross. Bernin’s (1623-34) St. Peters Baldachin is characterized by detailed design and sophistication. Veneziano’s (1324) The Coronation of the Virgin is governed by medieval aspects such as painting styles. The cultural and political saw the differences in the works as the artists were moving with the times. Iwan was used to mark entry to a royal reception passage while Ijele is a mask used in