Management The Interactive Business World â€Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Management The Interactive Business World? Answer: Introduction Marketing strategies used by all the manufacturing, wholesale, retail and even all the industry. Business owners in USA are trying to establish business strategies in order to improve on marketing their product. Successful business plan and strategies helps to increase the profit from the business. The scope of the report is to analyze how the brand Ford has made a largest position in the automobile industry as manufacturer, distributor and marketers of the brand (Czinkota and Ronkainen, 2013). It was founded byHenry Fordand incorporated on June 16, 1903. The five pillars of business marketing is price, product, place, promotion and the people. Marketing strategies formulated depend on those above points. The essential elements of business strategic or tactical planning is the product itself, the price of the product, the placement or the position of the product in the market and at last is the advertisement and promotion of the product. The pricing of this brand is done according to market and to the country it is sold, price is based on competitor pricing. In order to promote, the brand advertises its product and increases the demand by organizing advertisement campaign depending on the life style and behaviors of the people in the market. This strategy can be enables selling the product at a reasonable price to attract the consumers towards their brand (Eilert et al, 2107). Description for target group for the brand Thecompanieshavelearntand understood that the customer is the king of the market which has changed from the earlier perception that customer will accept whatever he is given, this change in mindset has led to the opening up of one of the significant and very important P in the marketing mix called promotion. Their promotional strategies help them in doing that efficiently. Promotion being a vast topic encompasses many terms and the most important of them being advertising. The target market for Ford is business man. Ford introduced methods for large-scale manufacturing of cars and large-scale management of an industrial workforce using elaborately engineered manufacturing sequences typified by movinglines. Men and women need and consume in a different manner, they purchase differently and in general, have different attitudes about consumption of caffeine (Epstein and Buhovac, 2014). Many advertisements direct at one sex or the other. It operates in more than 320 countries, because of the local nature of their business; they were able to have a unique position, which contribute to the economic vitality of even the most remote communities around the world. Type of segmentation While for the demographic variables Companies focus on factors such as income, education, and marital status , and the gender, age, and stages of life thereby the company is able to analyze how the consumers influence purchase decisions. In order to determine psychographic segmentation, Ford targets people based on general brand consciousness (Firat, 2014). Positioning of the Product Positioning refers to the position where the product stands with respect to competitors in the market and even to the consumers mind. In the past, it has also produced tractors and automotive components and now a big brand company (Ford, Mattsson and Snehota, 2017). Factors involved in positioning the product Price: Shares of Ford sells in the market at high price. The products are manufacturing goods having high sales and low profit volume. In order to achieve a dominant position and penetrate in the market, the company sets low prices than the higher prices. The price strategy is to lower the price in order to attract customers. The greatest disadvantage of low price strategy is that the competitors also reduce their prices so thereby the advantage of price reduction falls. Packaging: It is a important business strategy the famous logo of Ford differentiate the brand with the rest of the competitors. Promotion: In order to promote the brand the company arranges advertisement campaign which advertises campaigns have been launched in order to achieve specific objectives (Ford, Trott and Simms,2016). Differentiating: The symbol of Ford is luxury and elegance in its line of product. Analysis of Life Cycle Stage Product life cycle is the stage through which a product goes through product goes through three stages Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline. At the introduction stage, the cost of the product is very high, the demand created and there are no sales. At growth stage cost is reduces and sales are increased and the consumers are aware of the product. At maturity, cost gets low and sales reach to saturation, brand differentiation done at this point. At Decline stage, this point the sales volume decline as a result the profit decreases SWOT Analysis SWOT Analysis means to analyze the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats potent to the company. The Strengths of the organization is as follows: Market leader of all the automobile company Ford has enormous world appeal. The product's image is displayed. This recognizable branding is one of the greatest strengths (Lasserre, 2012). Additionally, Ford logo is one of their greatest strengths. It allows the company to conduct business globally at the same time maintaining a local approach. Social Corporate Responsibility The Company does sponsorship at UK Football Leagues. They continue sponsorship at the Olympics. Seasonal advertising awareness e.g. TV Christmas advert and summer advert. The Weaknesses is as follows: Ford cannot out beat the rest of the luxury brand, which is an issue. Being costly car therefore everyone cannot afford it (Zavattaro and Adams, 2016). Brand market share makes the direct competition for competitors and new competitors emerging in the market. Previous failed marketing strategies The Opportunities is as follows: Opportunity to introduce new product into market, marketing pull (Laudon and Laudon, 2016) Brand recognition is the significant factor affecting the competitive position. The brand name is well known throughout the world today The primary concern over the past few years has been to get this name brand to be even better known. Packaging changes have also affected sales and industry positioning, but in general, new products do not affect the public. Need for green businesses and sustainability in packaging business Opportunities to develop social responsibility in lesser demographics The threats are as follows: Currently, the threat of new viable competitors in the industry is not very substantial. The threat of substitutes, however, is a very real threat. Possible substitutes that continuously put pressure on the brand Consumer buying power also represents a key threat in the industry. The management must continuously respond to the changing attitudes and demands of their consumers or face losing market share to the competition. Consumers can easily switch to other brands with little cost or consequence Corporate and Strategic Planning Cash cow: Ford is a automobile company that has been operating as a cash cow for, as the brand is sold across 200 countries in a mature beverage industry. A larger segment of the operations based on finished products. It is available to the market in their respective regions, enabling the organization to earn significant amount of revenues from its finished products categories. Since the industry is mature, the company needs to invest little effort to keep the sales high as the business unit has captured a large market to generate cash (McDonald and Wilson, 2016.). Stars: The product in the category is a star for the organization. The rising number of people increases the need to produce more innovative cars to fulfill the needs of the expanding population Question mark: The market has growth opportunities, but these products have not been able to take benefit of these opportunities in an effective manner. Dogs: The products that are included in the category of dogs are a part of mature industry, thus the chances of further growth are limited. Another issue that raises question about the feasibility of these business units or products for the company is that they do not offer significant revenues to the organization. The outlook of these products is also bleak, necessitating the evaluation of the viability of continuing business operations in this domain. Strategies for Growth The brand follows intensive growth strategy, which include strategy to penetrate into the market. The Company makes strategy to for market penetration, product innovation and for diversification of its business. In order to grow the brand focuses on revenue generation, the company invests in brand and business, thereby becoming much efficient. Among these brands are 20 that generate more than a billion dollars in annual distributor and retail sales (Nagle et al, 2016). Analysis of Porters Five Forces Porters five forces allow companies to see how competitive an industry is. It is able to use these five forces to determine where it stands in the industry.. The threats of entrants are low, that means that it is difficult for new companies to enter the market. The power of customer is medium to high because there are numerous alternatives, but because of brand loyalty, consumers chose to buy the brand they like the most. Product Differentiation Strategy: Through the differentiation strategy, the company tries to position its product in the manner that it stands out to be different from the products of the same category.The company spends about 20% of its budget on advertisement so that it could maintain a differentiation strategy. The company uses a unique blend of advertisement and marketing strategy, which helps it to be a leader among the different soft drinks companies. Cost Minimization: Through cost leadership strategy, the company tries to position its product cheaper than its competitor does and for this, the company tries to minimize the cost. To make this happen, the company manages its cost in an efficient manner. It administers its operating expenses and manages the flow of cash in the organization. The investments made in those areas, which seems profitable to the organization. The company also makes production on a large scale so that the operating cost is low, and the customers benefit from this. It becomes a win-win situation for both, customers, and the company (Savitz, 2013). Market Focus Strategy: The focus strategy based upon creating the cost, as well as differentiation focus. Focus strategy based on serving niche marketing, where it serves a particular segment of customers and cater to their needs and preference. By focusing on the development of its design, size, and taste so that it could match the requirements of the customers, is the differentiation focus of the company (Shank. and Lyberger,2014). Focus on the marketing problem and the solution Firstly, there have been many issues faced by the company and the biggest example is that the organization has once been broken and now it had a successful turnaround for Ford Motor Company under the leadership of CEO Alan Mulally. When CEO Alan was elected the strategies including the marketing and the branding and the franchising issues were all broken and their stock price also fell and its debt status was all bad and it was the worst year for the company Ford with a $12.7 billion loss (Tannady, 2016). It was thought that the company would run into bankruptcy and become insolvent, however with time there was a turnaround and the company regained its position and came out of the bad times (Ward and Sobek , 2014). At the time when the CEO retired the company became and achieved the most eminent history-making revitalization. Secondly Ford faced a huge crisis when their sales decreased during that time the company started to follow a new strategy which includes the The way Forward. This helped the company to reduced their cost at the same time was able to maintain the customers. They focused on the cars and the car based crossover vehicles (West, Ford and Ibrahim, 2015). Ford has a huge loss during that time and there was a problem with the distributor and the supplier, but Ford focused on the business model on the customer which lead to stronger brands and thereby targeted the specific market segments. Ford them aimed at a new promotional campaign, the Fusion Studio. The Fusion Studio is a pop up store. Another problem faced in the re branding its car therefore it followed its global strategy which was introduced as Ford Fiesta being a global brand, which was meant to be of the standard quality and comfort. It was one of the strategic plans for Ford which created car models for the brand. Its strategies for rebranding and new product launch included that it shifted its focus from luxury Europe to the Asian market. It had their strategic move and therefore it offer smaller fuel and efficient cars to this market. Ford with times has increased its sales and manufacturing capacities and also increased the dealer and the distributors and the suppliers all over the Asian Countries. This increased the rapid demand of the consumers. The problem faced by the brand is the pricing and promotional campaign during the recession period which caused the slowdown of the vehicle sale. Even though the company faced a huge crisis during this period and many of the company ceased and did not continue with the business but it has been able to improve its plant and it has made the plant one of the productive automotive plants. Conclusion To conclude we can say that a marketing plan is not a simple document. It takes loads of information, researchers, skills, time and efforts. Marketing plan covers all necessary information including, business and market research, analyzing target market, product development, price setting, promotional efforts, and distribution matters. Injecting efforts in developing a marketing plan will give you a fruitful reward at the end. Marketing plan covers. The more efforts given in the marketing plan, the more growth in business happens. References Armstrong, G., Adam, S., Denize, S. and Kotler, P., 2014. Principles of marketing. Pearson Australia. Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015. Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education. Czinkota, M.R. and Ronkainen, I.A., 2013. International marketing. Cengage Learning Eilert, M., Jayachandran, S., Kalaignanam, K. and Swartz, T.A., 2017. Does It Pay to Recall Your Product Early? An Empirical Investigation in the Automobile Industry. Journal of Marketing, 81(3), pp.111-129. Epstein, M.J. and Buhovac, A.R., 2014. Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and measuring corporate social, environmental, and economic impacts. Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Firat, A.F., 2014. Marketing challenges: A personal history. Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, 6(3), pp.414-429. Ford, D., Mattsson, L.G. and Snehota, I., 2017. Management in the Interactive Business World. In No Business is an Island: Making Sense of the Interactive Business World (pp. 27-45). Emerald Publishing Limited. Ford, N., Trott, P. and Simms, C., 2016. Exploring the impact of packaging interactions on quality of life among older consumers. Journal of Marketing Management, 32(3-4), pp.275-312. Lasserre, P., 2012. Global strategic management. Palgrave Macmillan. Laudon, K.C. and Laudon, J.P., 2016. Management information system. Pearson Education India. McDonald, M. and Wilson, H., 2016. Marketing Plans: How to prepare them, how to profit from them. John Wiley Sons. Nagle, T.T., Hogan, J. and Zale, J., 2016. The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing: New International Edition. Routledge. Savitz, A., 2013. The triple bottom line: how today's best-run companies are achieving economic, social and environmental success-and how you can too. John Wiley Sons. Shank, M.D. and Lyberger, M.R., 2014. Sports marketing: A strategic perspective. Routledge. Tannady, H., 2016. AN ANALYSIS OF BOTTLED GREEN TEA PRODUCT COMPETITION (A CASE STUDY OF JOY TEA). Teknik dan Ilmu Komputer, 5(17) Ward, A.C. and Sobek II, D.K., 2014. Lean product and process development. Lean Enterprise Institute. West, D.C., Ford, J. and Ibrahim, E., 2015. Strategic marketing: creating competitive advantage. Oxford University Press, USA. Zavattaro, S.M. and Adams, F.G., 2016. Bridging the gap: An exploration of how DMO managers use education to overcome challenges. Urban Studies, 53(4), pp.669-688.

Same Sex Marriage free essay sample

Position Paper: Same-sex Marriage Adam and Steve Chorva. Tarush. Anetch. Imbey. Sounds familiar? Well, if you have Filipino gay friends you would be. The Filipino gay lingo or the swardspeak is made up of English, Tagalog, Japanese, Spanish, and even celebrity names that were tweaked to create a new word with a new meaning. In the country, there are two types of gays, the effeminate and the straight acting gays. The effeminate are those who cross-dress, wears make-up and are feminine in their ways thus the name effeminate. The other one is the straight acting gays, these are those choose to look manly even with their sexual preference. This type of gays even goes to the gym to have muscular bodies. On the other hand, for the lesbians, they are called â€Å"butch† and pink lesbians. The butch are those manly lesbians, they sport men’s haircut and they are also cross-dressers. We will write a custom essay sample on Same Sex Marriage or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page While the pink lesbians are like the straight gays, they choose and prefer to look feminine despite their sexual preference. In addition to the gays and lesbians, there are also the transgender and transsexual. In the Filipino language, there is what we call â€Å"paglaladlad ng kapa† or unfurling of the cape in English. This is the phase wherein a person displays and publicly shows his sexual preference. Biblically speaking, God made Adam and Eve to be together to multiply and create children. Today, what if it is no longer just Adam and Eve only anymore? Same sex union has been a source of debate all over the world for the past years. Sadly there is a growing stigma in this debate against gay marriage here in the Philippines, the country as being the only Catholic country in Asia and a third world country at that. Clearly this topic has been one of the most complicated and sensitive topic in the country without a hope of a clear end in sight. Same-sex union borders the line of religion, law, and social ethics. There are several reasons as to why this marriage could not be legalized yet. Top reasons are as follow: * Immorality â€Å"For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate. – Mathew 19:5 6 (NKJV) The above passage was from the Bible clearly states that marriage is for a man and a woman only. Whenever the Bible mentions marriage, it is between a male and a female. The first mention of marriage,  Genesis 2:24, describes it as a man leaving his parents and being united to his wife. In passages that contain instructions regarding marriage, such as  1 Corinthians 7:2-16  and  Ephesians 5:23-33, the B ible clearly identifies marriage as being between a man and a woman. Biblically speaking, marriage is the lifetime union of a man n nand a woman, primarily for the purpose of building a family and providing a stable environment for that family. * Procreation and family Gay marriage causes the whole concept of family values to be undermined by defeating the essence of marriage, which is between a man and a woman with the purpose of procreation. The rationale of marriage, in its greater sense is to procreate. With this, extending marriage to same sex union not only defeats its purpose but also shifts further the objective of marriage from producing children to legal gratification. Legalizing gay marriage further demoralizes the family values, which hold society together, and it encourages a gay lifestyle, which has been shown to be detrimental to people. Additionally, gay marriages confuse gender roles for children. It has always been the standard structure of a â€Å"normal† family to have a mother, who is biologically female, and a father, who is biologically male. Having parents of the same-sex causes confusion even if they were married. However, if marriage were about reproduction, then infertile couples should not be allowed to marry. Ability or desire to create offspring has never been a qualification for marriage. And it should never be. If we are going to narrow the definition of marriage to being intended for this purpose, we should apply the principal to our population as a whole, not single out one group of people. * Being gay is a disease that can be cured Can anybody call in sick because he is still queer? No. Simply because queerness is not a disease nor is it just a phase. Being homosexual or gay is not a choice as much as being a heterosexual or straight is not a choice. Sexual preference is not a conscious decision people make, it just evolved. People are born differently from each other, and being different is not synonymous to being wrong. There is perfectly nothing wrong with being gay. One is born with this. Just like being blonde, tall, or cross-eyed. We do not hold being gay against them, and more importantly it is not a disease that one can be cured of. Homosexuality is a normal part of nature and may well occur through biological factors, rather than any sort of lifestyle choice. Allowing gay marriage would not cause harm to either individuals, or society generally. Second-Class Citizens Gays around the world were treated like second-class citizens, without the same rights, without belongingness to neither of the two sexes. They were mistreated, trash-talked, and discriminated in ways more than one. Through the legalization of same-sex marriage, they won’t feel like second-class citizens anymore. They would enjoy the same legal rights as with the heterosexual couples. Why legalize this union, let me ask you, why not? Below are my top three reasons why we should legalize this union: * Marriage is a civil right We are all well aware of the voice of the Church in the issues in the Philippine society. And let’s admit it, their voice is pretty loud. The Church strongly condemns same-sex relationships and its union. However, let us not forget that marriage is not a religious right, it is also a civil right. Gay people should have the same rights as anyone else and that includes the right to get married. Gay couples should be allowed to have the same financial and legal benefits that any other couples get. If two people love each other, they should be allowed to marry, whatever their genders. Matters such as tax filling, joint ownership of property, insurance benefits, critical medical decisions were privileges gay couples could not enjoy. It is clearly unfair and unjust for gay couples to not have these rights only because their country doesn’t honor their union. Nothing is asked by the LGBT community but equality when it comes to legal rights. * Equality Equality in this issue taps two major points. First is that gay couples has the same equal competency to rear children as their own. Being gay is not a handicap to raise a family. There is no scientific basis for the assertion that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons are not fit to marry or to become parents of healthy and well-adjusted children (Herek, 2006; Kurdek, 2004; Peplau Fingerhut, 2007). Homosexual discrimination has been a vicious pattern. Legalizing same-sex marriage is giving the right of marriage to both heterosexual and homosexual unions and having them treated as equals in the eyes of the law. Majority rules, but the minority should be protected. Love Why could Britney Spears get married and get divorced after two days, yet a gay couple could not get married after being together for 10 years?

Language and Composition Essay Student Samples

Language and Composition Essay Student SamplesThere are a number of good sources for AP Language and Composition essay student samples, and with the addition of such different types of samples to your arsenal, you can create excellent essay materials without having to pay to do so. A good writing sample, however, is not always what you think it is. It can be short, like a short story or a blog post, or it can be long, like a report, a research paper, a dissertation, or even a full-length novel. Let's take a look at some of the samples that you can use as well as a few tips for getting more out of them.If you are looking for language and composition student samples that include writing samples, then you will have many options in front of you. One of the most common is going to be the AP English Literature essay course. This is not a requirement, but it is very often a requirement for some college courses that require written essays. Another option would be the AP English composition c ourse. Though it is not required, the work will still be taken as an individual reflection on your own work and will offer students an excellent opportunity to hone their skills.However, you should know that there are many other good resources available to you as well. Online courses are another excellent way to begin to fill out your course schedule. Many people will find that online coursework can be less expensive than their local college would have you believe. Plus, it gives you the ability to choose your own pace, giving you the freedom to study at your own speed. Some online courses even offer a chance to get the same excellent feedback as you would in the classroom, giving you the option of giving feedback directly to a teacher through e-mail, phone, or webcam.For language and composition essay student samples, you can find a lot of great online writing courses as well. The writing courses available are always fairly new, so you can usually find one that is more than a year old. Usually the older the course, the more up-to-date it is, and you should definitely consider going with a course that is over three years old.With this said, you should also make sure that you are taking your time to investigate every online course you find. You can usually find a listing of the best students to follow, but even if the course offers writing samples and you cannot find any information about those on the website, you should ask to see the writing samples. They are an important part of the evaluation process, so it is imperative that you see them in person.In terms of student essay samples, you can also find resources from other sources. For example, many colleges now offer the AP level high school English tests, so you can see what writing sample your school would have you write. The best news is that you do not need to do the testing yourself, but you can usually get free test copies. Furthermore, many colleges offer to write programs that the students take befor e the tests to help hone their skills.If you are doing your writing based on a college course, then you should be able to take an English course that was assigned by the college that you are applying to. Such courses are available almost everywhere and you should look around until you find the one that fits you best. Of course, if you need assistance in completing your research paper, then you should look for free student writing samples that can be found in many publications and online.Although there are many resources available to you, there are just as many that are not, and while some may be free, others may not be. To ensure that you are using the resources that are the best, make sure that you look around at the best resources and that you use those that are available to you.

Hometown Essay Essay Example

Hometown Essay Paper Every town across America presents unique and various qualities. Lass Vegas, which is located in the state of Nevada has many great things to offer. The weather In Lass Vegas stays preferably warm and sunny for most of the year. While in other towns you may have to deal with more rapid weather change or severe conditions. Summers maintain dry heat most days, but sometime during August an occasional rain storms will occur. Winters are mostly short, so youre only dressing warm for a short amount of time. Most people enjoy Vegas because of the warmer weather, which makes it a great town to visit or reside in. Consistent warm weather is convenient to have to do various activities throughout the year. There are plenty of activities to offer With the lasting warm weather in Lass Vegas. Its always a nice day to go swimming or hit the water park to cool down. Most tourists tend to enjoy the weather to walk up and down the strip. Most hotel pools located on the strip include entertainment and bars for guests to enjoy, which is another great way to enjoy the warm weather. We will write a custom essay sample on Hometown Essay specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Hometown Essay specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Hometown Essay specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Outdoor mall shopping is also more enjoyable with the nice weather in Vegas. With all the activities Vegas has to offer there are certain things that appeal more to tourists. Along with the nice warm weather are the extraordinary tourist sights located on the strip in Lass Vegas. The strip has many beautiful casinos with their own theme. Every casino you walk into is unique in its on way. There are dozens of restaurants, shows and all kinds of entertainment in every casino up and down the strip. For example the casino Planet Hollywood has a Hollywood hip theme. Located in that casino youll find a large shopping mall with hundreds of stores, bars, and restaurants. A sight to see for most tourists is typically the Bellagio fountains. Located at the front of the resort are beautiful fountains that produce a breath taking show every half hour. Those are just a few of the spectacular sights to be seen in Vegas. As you can see, this town can accommodate to anyone. Lass Vegas has much to offer other than the weather and tourist sights.

Hypothesis, Model, Theory, and Law

Hypothesis, Model, Theory, and Law In common usage, the words hypothesis, model, theory, and law have different interpretations and are at times used without precision, but in science they have very exact meanings. Hypothesis Perhaps the most difficult and intriguing step is the development of a specific, testable hypothesis. A useful hypothesis enables predictions by applying deductive reasoning, often in the form of mathematical analysis. It is a limited statement regarding the cause and effect in a specific situation, which can be tested by experimentation and observation or by statistical analysis of the probabilities from the data obtained. The outcome of the test hypothesis should be currently unknown, so that the results can provide useful data regarding the validity of the hypothesis. Sometimes a hypothesis is developed that must wait for new knowledge or technology to be testable. The concept of atoms was proposed by the ancient Greeks, who had no means of testing it. Centuries later, when more knowledge became available, the hypothesis gained support and was eventually accepted by the scientific community, though it has had to be amended many times over the year. Atoms are not indivisible, as the Greeks supposed. Model A model is used for situations when it is known that the hypothesis has a limitation on its validity. The Bohr model of the atom, for example, depicts electrons circling the atomic nucleus in a fashion similar to planets in the solar system. This model is useful in determining the energies of the quantum states of the electron in the simple hydrogen atom, but it is by no means represents the true nature of the atom. Scientists (and science students) often use such idealized models  to get an initial grasp on analyzing complex situations. Theory and Law A scientific theory or law represents a hypothesis (or group of related hypotheses) which has been confirmed through repeated testing, almost always conducted over a span of many years. Generally, a theory is an explanation for a set of related phenomena, like the theory of evolution or the big bang theory.   The word law is often invoked in reference to a specific mathematical equation that relates the different elements within a theory. Pascals Law  refers an equation that describes differences in pressure based on height. In the overall theory of universal gravitation developed by Sir Isaac Newton, the key equation that describes the gravitational attraction between two objects is called the law of gravity. These days, physicists rarely apply the word law to their ideas. In part, this is because so many of the previous laws of nature were found to be not so much laws as guidelines, that work well within certain parameters but not within others. Scientific Paradigms Once a scientific theory is established, it is very hard to get the scientific community to discard it. In physics, the concept of ether as a medium for light wave transmission ran into serious opposition in the late 1800s, but it was not disregarded until the early 1900s, when Albert Einstein proposed alternate explanations for the wave nature of light that did not rely upon a medium for transmission. The science philosopher Thomas Kuhn developed the term scientific paradigm to explain the working set of theories under which science operates. He did extensive work on the scientific revolutions that take place when one paradigm is overturned in favor of a new set of theories. His work suggests that the very nature of science changes when these paradigms are significantly different. The nature of physics prior to relativity and quantum mechanics is fundamentally different from that after their discovery, just as biology prior to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is fundamentally different from the biology that followed it. The very nature of the inquiry changes. One consequence of the scientific method is to try to maintain consistency in the inquiry when these revolutions occur and to avoid attempts to overthrow existing paradigms on ideological grounds. Occam’s Razor One principle of note in regards to the scientific method is Occam’s Razor (alternately spelled Ockhams Razor), which is named after the 14th century English logician and Franciscan friar William of Ockham. Occam did not create the concept- the work of Thomas Aquinas and even Aristotle referred to some form of it. The name was first attributed to him (to our knowledge) in the 1800s, indicating that he must have espoused the philosophy enough that his name became associated with it. The Razor is often stated in Latin as: entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem or, translated to English: entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity Occams Razor indicates that the most simple explanation that fits the available data is the one which is preferable. Assuming that two hypotheses presented have equal predictive power, the one which makes the fewest assumptions and hypothetical entities takes precedence. This appeal to simplicity has been adopted by most of science, and is invoked in this popular quote by Albert Einstein: Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. It is significant to note that Occams Razor does not prove that the simpler hypothesis is, indeed, the true explanation of how nature behaves. Scientific principles should be as simple as possible, but thats no proof that nature itself is simple. However, it is generally the case that when a more complex system is at work there is some element of the evidence which doesnt fit the simpler hypothesis, so Occams Razor is rarely wrong as it deals only with hypotheses of purely equal predictive power. The predictive power is more important than the simplicity. Edited by Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D.

The use, abuse and misuse of performance enhancing drugs including Research Paper

The use, abuse and misuse of performance enhancing drugs including painkillers in sports - Research Paper Example This normally involves a series of workouts and hard training programs, which may make some of these athletes to turn to performance enhancing drugs (Barr, n.d). Traditional training methods involved by any sports athletes includes keeping on a strict diet of healthy foods and drinks that trainers prescribes, daily and routing work outs on their skills and training sessions to help keep their bodies fit. Some of these athletes turn to performance enhancing drugs to help them improve their performance in the field, or to get faster results in sports without lots of training. In addition, these drugs may be prescribed for medicinal use to athletes, but contain some chemicals that enhance the performance of the athlete unknowingly. The athlete acquires others for the sole purpose of enhancing their performance in the field (Orchard et al., 2006). The need to use drugs by athletes has been researched by Coleman and in an article by Prince (2007), whereby he states that an athlete’ s choice to use drugs is based on some of the following factors. First the athlete may use performance enhancing drugs due to cultural, social policy or attitudes and policing. This implies that the athlete’s cultures and norms may prompt him/her to use the drugs in order to fulfill gain acceptance in their culture. Secondly, environmental factors that includes conditioning, learning and life events, in which the athlete grows in and tries to emulate in sports. Thirdly, athlete’s interpersonal relationship with peers and family members may influence their use of performance enhancing drugs. Therefore, being from a family of athletes or working under the shadow of high performing athletes in the family or society may make them use these drugs to enhance their own performance. Another factor is at an intrapersonal, where the athlete develops cognitively feeling inferior, hence may use performance enhancing drugs to achieve high levels of performance. In addition, with al l these factors in place, the choice of use, abuse or misuse of performance enhancing drugs by any athlete comes to a matter of choice. Athletes use performance-enhancing drugs because in many cases they seek an easy way to achieve maximum performance, with minimum effort. Moreover, they feel that if they use these drugs they shall get a winning edge over their competition. As Coleman relates drive in profit, gaining techniques is the main driving force for any athlete to use performance-enhancing drugs. He clarifies that the athlete has a choice to choose between hard training and work or use performance enhancing drugs. Since benefits of using the drugs outweigh the bad, they turn to these drugs for an extra edge. In addition, athletes have the urge to get socially recognized and approved, and are mainly driven by the rational choice and force to succeed and break records in the fields influence their use of these drugs (Prince, 2007). Increase of use and misuse of performance enh ancing drugs has led to the formation of the World Anti- Doping Agency (WADA) to combat this in sports world wide. This agency later gave the criteria in which a drug is considered as illegal for use in any sports (Gerrard, 2005). The first criteria is that any drugs that performance enhancing to any athletes or gives them extra help over the other violates this rule. Secondly, it is stated that any drug that is deemed to cause health

Comparative Soteriologies Lutheran and Reformed Judaism Research Paper

Comparative Soteriologies Lutheran and Reformed Judaism - Research Paper Example These three religions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam, appear to be enthused by one and the same light, and share several similarities in their religious system including basic concept of God, angels, Satan, heaven, hellfire, creation, life and death, Day of Resurrection, reward and punishment, holy personalities and myth about them, need of preaching and observing of moral values in individual and collective life etc. Additionally, the notion salvation also maintains imperative place in Abrahamic religious beliefs, which is actually the by-product of the inspiration they seek from the heavenly revelation sent from the Lord for the spiritual and moral uplift of humans in this world as well as in the life Hereinafter. â€Å"Soteriological comes from the Greek soter, savior, and salvation from the Latin salus, and both have become linked historically with the specifically Christian notion of being saved by the atoning death of Christ from God’s righteous judgment upo n the sinners.† (Hick 1989, 10) Salvation is a more specific form of the more general idea of being brought from an evil situation into a radically better one. Since salvation is the central concept of Christian mythology, almost all the religious activities and performances of the Christianity revolve around this very notion, though the scholars have interpreted it in quite different ways. Brief Overview of Anselm's view of Salvation: The Christians strongly believe in the concept of Original Sin, according to which every human commits sins and gets involved into deviant behavior and perversion from the noble path to be followed according to the commands made by the Deity, because of his natural tendencies towards sins. Moreover, it is the same tendency that is responsible for the expulsion of the first parents of humankind from the Eden Garden. Since Almighty God is the Creator and Sustainer of the world, and has created humans out of his own image to rule over all other cre atures of the universe, the Lord does not want to humiliate and punish the humans. Consequently, He decided to bestow salvation upon humans in order to protect them from extreme agony and sufferings. â€Å"And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.† (Peter in Acts 4:12, retrieved from usbible.com) However, the interpretation of the concept salvation is made in quite divergent manners among the Christian theologians and scholars, and hence, they appear to be at daggers drawn in the basic notion of this religious belief. Some of the Christians are of the opinion that since Jesus has sacrificed his life for their redemption, so they are not bound to do good only. Hence, the sacrifice made by Jesus has exempted them from observing virtuous deeds to please their Lord. Rather, they would surely enter the heavens whether they practice virtue or not at all. On the contrary, the Lutheran school of thought c onsiders the very reality that the great sacrifice has bound the Christians to imitate the footprints of the Holy Christ by strictly observing the commands of the Lord by performing the obligations towards Him and the fellow humans. This notion is often inter-mixed with the Jewish traditions, though the Jewish scholars, refute the very idea of original sin altogether, and lay stress upon virtuous