Consolidating the Directv Acquisition

Case 7: News Corp. in 2005, Consolidating the DirecTV acquisition The case focuses on the acquisition and consolidation of DirecTV by media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. After the acquisition, Murdoch’s content-and-distribution empire spanned four continents, with more than 26 million subscribers. Murdoch, News Corp. ’s chairman, had ambitions to build one of the most powerful media companies in the world. He aspired to have a balance between subscription and advertising revenue, the best mix of content and distribution and the widest geographic spread in the world.There are a various aspects of the general environment firstly; the political/legal aspect of the general environment was initially most significant in the purchase of DirecTV by News Corp. FTC concerns of potential market concentration issues if EchoStar purchased DirecTV forced the two to drop discussion, paving the way for News Corp. ’s purchase of DirecTV. Technology is probably the most important current aspect of the general environment.Secondly, Demographic segment Growing markets worldwide for various communication and entertainment media content. Thirdly, Socio-cultural segment largely due to rapid changes in technology, as well as increased overall globalization efforts, consumers are becoming increasingly sophisticated in the quality and type of communication and entertainment that they expect. Communication, news and entertainment provided by DirecTV and similar services have become viewed as nearly a necessity in a modern world.Fourthly, Economic segment while general economic conditions and level of economic development in a particular country or region may hinder some feasibility of these types of services, in general, they are needed and used by markets worldwide regardless of overall economic conditions. Fifthly, Political/legal segment The FTC, the government’s watchdog arm that oversees competition policy, is responsible for ensuring that cons umers’ interests are protected. If an industry is getting increasingly concentrated, the FTC can use antitrust laws to prevent further consolidation of the industry or break up previous consolidation.The FCC, the government’s watchdog arm that oversees the communications industry, is responsible for overseeing companies that sell communications products and services. Finally, Technological/global segment The 1980s and 1990s saw a worldwide race to deliver television programs to global markets. Cable operators invested in laying cables and beamed programming content through these cables into subscribers’ homes. Satellite television had a much wider reach, because satellites orbiting the earth sent the programming content directly into the home without the need for a cable connection.By 2000, cable had an important advantage over satellite in that it offered high-speed, two-way access, including phone capability. Satellite was still mostly one-way. However, it wou ld take cable companies years of multi-million dollar investments to upgrade to digital technology. DirecTV competes in a broadly defined media industry. Several sectors of this industry might include communications (e. g. telephone, internet, cable, satellite TV), news services, entertainment (e. g. , cable and network programming, movies, pay per view, gaming). There are various characteristics of the dominant industry.Market size is the most providers are regional or national competitors, depending on the facet of media in which they compete. Life cycle stage is growth. Growth rate is rapid. Scope of rivalry is fragmented in some respects, but rivalry is fierce among those that go head to head in specific sectors. Rivalry concentration is the media industry is dominated by large and powerful companies, but most of these are regional, national or multi-national players. Pace of industry change is the technology change is rapid in telecommunications and related fields, which drives significant rapid change in all aspects of media.Product/service differentiation is the consumers often have changing options for substitute products. Porter's five forces model of competition to the industry. Generally media is a very attractive industry with substantial growth opportunities, both domestically and internationally. Extensive economies of scope and scale are becoming increasingly influential in this industry and its related sectors. Threat of entry: new technologies fuel the constant threat of new entrants into some facet of content and/or delivery in the media industry. Bargaining power of suppliers: Bargaining power of suppliers is not significant here.Content suppliers must deal with DirecTV due to its massive size and market share. Bargaining power of buyers: Customers’ bargaining power is very significant, as consumers increasingly have choices of how and when they take delivery of content. Threat of substitute products: many potential substitutes exist, along with many ways to access content. Rivalry amongst existing competitors: Rivalry is fierce, as News Corp. had substantial content that cable providers needed for product scope, permitting premium pricing. Cable and satellite are constantly battling for new or switching customers.Critical success factors DirecTV must continue to be aggressive in its acquisition and implementation of new technology. They must also be keenly aware of customer tastes and preferences for content and delivery options. There are two types of resources Tangible and intangible. News Corp. ’s tangible resources are its global satellite platform and its strength in both content and distribution, as well as an impressive set of fast-growing networks such as Fox News, Fox Sports, National Geographic and Speed Channel and satellite distribution in Europe, Asia and Australia. Before its acquisition of DirecTV, News Corp. as a global company, but had no direct broadcast satellite presence in the United States. DirecTV had three primary components at the time it was acquired by News Corp. , all of which appear useful for expanding News Corp’s scale and scope of offerings: it was the largest US provider of direct broadcast satellite, giving customers access to hundreds of channels of digital-quality video and audio programming; PanAmSat owned and operated 25 satellites that covered 98% of the world’s population; and broadband satellite networks and services were provided to both consumers and enterprises.Intangible resources an aggressive corporate culture used to dealing in the high-pressure, ever-changing media industry, which fuels significant interest in developing scope and scale of product content and delivery. There are unique internal resources and capabilities of DirecTV that played a prominent role in Murdoch’s decision to acquire DirecTV. DirecTV was the first entertainment service in the US to deliver all digital-quality multi-channels TV programmin g through an 18-inch satellite dish. In 2003 DirecTV had 12. million subscribers, 10. 7 million of which were DirecTV subscribers, and the remaining receiving DirecTV service from members and affiliates of the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative. This unique capability potentially provided Murdoch with a vast American market and the ability to shake his programming from the seeming stranglehold of American cable companies. The rivalry like between News Corp. and its competitor(s) during the acquisition of DirecTV. In September 2000, Murdoch offered $22 billion for a 35% stake in DirecTV.In Feb 2001 Hughes stock declined, and Murdoch reduced his bid for a 30% stake. As News Corp. negotiated with Hughes Electronics for the sale of DirecTV, the progress was very slow. In 2001, EchoStar surprised many by making an unsolicited bid to buy Hughes for $30. 4 billion in stock and $1. 9 billion in assumed debt. EchoStar was in the US satellite pay-tv market and a combined DirecTV an d EchoStar would control as much as 92% of that market. Murdoch used this knowledge to lobby intensely to block the merger on antitrust grounds, and DirecTV and EchoStar dropped their deal.In April 2003, News Corp. acquired GM’s 19. 9% stake in Hughes and a further 14. 1% from public stakeholders. The feature of the external environment does News Corp. use to fend off its rivals. Murdoch used a US government regulatory body, the FTC, to make sure that his rival EchoStar did not get a chance to buy DirecTV. He forced the issue to the FTC that combination of DirecTV and EchoStar would create a monster that would control 92% of the market. Once the sale to EchoStar was blocked, News Corp. went forward and made a successful bid for the purchase of DirecTV.The News Corp. integrates the newly acquired DirecTV into its global strategy. DirecTV was immediately re-structured. Labor disputes were settled and half the employees were retrenched. DirecTV became increasingly focused on cor e business, selling its 80% stake in the satellite launch business for $2. 5 billion, and its set-top-box manufacturing and XM Satellite Radio. The proceeds of these sales were used to pay about $1. 4 billion for rural satellite companies that had 1. 5 million subscribers, dramatically increasing market share.The factors inhibit News Corp’s strategy from delivering its full potential. In order to close the DirecTV deal, News Corp. had to make some concessions: (1) Since the FCC had already banned large cable operators from discriminating against rival programmers, DirecTV could not use its muscle power to its full advantage (2) News Corp. had to submit to arbitration if cable operators accused it of using its popular channels as bargaining tools. These restrictions were temporary, as they expired within six years.

Homeostasis and how the body responds to exercise Essay

This report will interpret the results of the practical activities that was done in order to monitor the changes in heart rate, temperature and blood pressure before and after exercise. Blood pressure is the measure of how much pressure is put on the walls of the blood vessels when the blood is pumped through them. This is measured in two parts, the larger number on top is known as the systolic pressure, this measures the pressure as the blood is pumped away from the heart whereas the lower number (The diastolic pressure) measures the pressure as the blood returns to the heart. The normal range for a healthy blood pressure is around 120/80 at rest. When I was at rest I recorded my blood pressure which was 118/57. This blood pressure can be considered normal for my age range and fitness level. However it is possible that the reading may not have been completely accurate due to having eaten recently before, the machine may not have worked properly or because of emotional state at the t ime. The pulse is the measure of how many times the heart beats in one minute. This can be measured in either the artery in the neck (Called the carotid artery) or in the wrist. Though the beat is stronger in the neck it is sometimes more difficult to locate and so most people tend to measure it from the wrist. For a healthy person of my age a pulse rate between 60 and 100 is considered to be normal. When I was at rest my heart rate was 82 bpm (Beats per minute). This could be inaccurate due to being nervous though I took my pulse reading both manually and on a machine and it came back the same both times, which may increase the reliability of the results. I recorded my temperature by placing a thermometer in my mouth, this is because under the tongue is one of the more accurate places to get a reading on the body temperature. The normal body temperature of a person is around 37  °C. At rest my temperature was 36.3  °C. This is a normal temperature. When I did the activities I recorded my heart rate, blood pressure and temperature after 1 minute, 3 minutes and then after 5 minutes of exercise. After one minute my heart rate had increased to 94 Bpm, my temperature was 36.8  °C and my blood pressure was 120/68. This is an increase in when I was at rest due to the body’s need for a higher amount of oxygen to go through the blood to the muscles that needed it; this caused an increase in heart and breathing rate so that there was an increase in the amount of oxygen supply to the  body. There was an increase in temperature because there is an increase in physical activity, which creates an increase in the heat that is given off by the muscles, increasing the overall temperature of the body. I then did the activity again for three minutes before I recorded my heart rate, blood pressure and temperature again. After three minutes there was a further increase in all three results. My heart rate was 112 Bpm, my temperature increased to 37.5 °C and my blood pressure was 120/78. I then repeated the exercise for a further 5 minutes, however there was an interval of where I had to wait to be able to record what the results were. Due to this my heart rate was 102 Bpm, my temperature was 37.3 °C and my blood pressure was 120/75. When an individual exercises there are internal changes that the body must respond to in order to keep the body functioning as it should. As you exercise your pulse and respiration rate increases to compensate for the higher demand of oxygen in the muscles. While your heart and respiration rate increases the muscles also produce heat as a waste product which heats up the body, in order to control the body temperature, the body produces sweat, when an individual sweats the body is trying to cool itself down. This is known as a negative feedback loop, in a negative feedback, the body responds to change by trying to bring it back to the normal range. In a negative feedback there is a stimulus, a sensor, a regulator (Or control) and a effector. In the case of an increase in temperature the stimuli, which would be the skin, sends a signal to the sensor, this is the nerves. Once this happens a signal is then sent to the regulator (Or control), this is the hypothalamus, When this happens another signal is then sent to the effector, which is the sweat glands which respond to the rise in temperature by producing sweat. In conclusion I found that the longer that I exercised the more my readings increased, however these may not be acute due to the equipment was not readily available and so I had to wait to record the readings allowing the results to decrease. Another way this may not be true is because my reading that was taken after 5 minutes was lower than both of the other results, this could be because I had to wait a longer period of time to take the results.

Strategic thinking Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Strategic thinking - Assignment Example 13-14). Strategy formulation depends on the management’s ability & organizations resources. These are the predictable issues which can be answered by forming brilliant strategies. But we should also keep a provision for the uncertainties of the environment. These uncertainties can destroy any good enterprise if the provision to face them is not properly & timely created. Thus strategic thinking and general management offers a framework to the organization towards planning its course of action and it involves a great amount of risk. For making the appropriate plan and to eliminate the possible uncertainties from the organization’s operations a manager often takes up the role of a leader who guides, instructs and motivates his followers and work together towards achieving the firm’s objectives. Introduction and Overview The present topic deals with a great leader who managed to influenced many and is known as a successful leader throughout the world. Counted among the great names like Gautama Buddha, Prophet Mohammad, and Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi is considered to be a legend, one of the greatest spiritual and political leaders of all times. Hailed as the ‘father of the nation’, he was the pioneer of the non violent movement also called the ‘Satyagraha’ against the British tyranny in India in order to bring about a social change. The policy of non violence was not just a political strategy, but it was based in spirituality because of which Mahatma Gandhi became a name to be reckoned with not only in his own country but throughout the world (Hatt, 2002). His legacy includes a brilliantly organized struggle against racism in South Africa, active contribution in the freedom struggle of his own country and using his policy of non violence in order to bring about a positive change in the society. The word â€Å"Mahatma† means great soul and great leaders of the world like Nelson Mandela and Marin Luther King Jr have called Mahatma Gandhi an inspiration, a motivation in their struggle for fighting for the rights and equality for the people. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr had said about him â€Å"Christ gave us the goals and Mahatma Gandhi the tactics†. Background and Personal life Mohandas Karam chand Gandhi was born to a Hindu family in a small town called Porbandar in the state of Gujarat on October 2nd 1896.He was the youngest son of Karamchand Gandhi and Putli bai. His father was the advisor to the local ruler of the three native states of Kathiawar. He was always known for his loyalty and steadfastness. From his early childhood he was deeply influenced by his mother who was the embodiment of a traditional Indian woman. She was a devoted wife and mother along with being austere and pious. Her qualities had made a deep impression in the young Gandhi. He was also influenced by the life Kind Harish chandra, his sufferings, his loyalty, his devotion towards truth. As a boy he had aspired to become like the great King. In his later stage of life he was also impressed by visionaries like Ruskin and Tolstoy. Gandhi had completed his schooling from Albert high school located in the nearby town of Rajkot. His school he was average and showed no brilliance. He was not into games and also a loner. He however showed deep respect for his teachers. From his early childhood Gandhi was bent on the spiritual side of existence. Little incidents like

Home work 2 (envi 423) Read the attachment carefully Essay

Home work 2 (envi 423) Read the attachment carefully - Essay Example Germany ($3.383 trillion), Japan ($5.88 trillion), and the United States ($16.02 trillion), it is safe to say that the Arab League members are not as rich as these â€Å"super power† countries (Central Intelligence Agency). A lot of the recent commotion in the Middle East is about Israel’s opposition of letting Occupied Palestine (referred to as West Bank or Gaza Strip) become an independent state because the territory that Palestine wants to occupy would pose a great loss to the resources of Israel and its citizens. According to the CIA World Fact Book, Israel’s 2012 GDP is $254 billion while Palestine’s GDP is merely 2.6% of Israel’s ($ 6.641 billion). 2.6% of a country’s GDP is not such a big loss if it will result to peace and finally ending the bloodshed between Israel, Palestine and their allies (Central Intelligence Agency). Ethnocentric mentality and greed are the culprits behind these twisted assumptions that many people from Western countries have. But in the end, it is neither the individual citizens of the Middle East countries nor that of the West benefit from all these politics and turmoil surrounding Middle East Oil. The ordinary citizens carry the costs while corrupt government officials and top company executives get insanely rich. The issue with Middle East Oil extends beyond politics and power, the real deal is in the equal distribution of resources on all levels of society across the different countries, whether oil exporting or not (Central Intelligence Agency). Central Inteligence Agency. The World Fact Book: Field Listing: GDP (Official Exchange Rate). 2012. Web. 27 January 2014.

Approaches to Teaching and Learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Approaches to Teaching and Learning - Essay Example My approach would be to first form the theoretical foundation of every concept in the learners’ minds and then demonstrate practical work or supervise them as they engage in practical work in which they apply the theoretical concepts learned before. I shall use direct instruction, informal instruction, inquiry-based learning, and cooperative learning randomly while teaching different techniques and topics so that students are never bored of the same teaching strategy and have something new to find in every session they attend. Besides, different learners have different preferred ways of learning (peterhoney.com, n.d.), so this way everybody’s needs would be addressed. Occasionally, I shall also invite experienced health and beauty experts and professionals to share their experiences with the learners and provide them with an insight into the health and beauty treatments and techniques. The strategies I shall use to enhance the learning of my students will include group discussions, demonstrations through tutorials on Youtube, group assignments, question and answer sessions, and circulation of journals. I shall foster a range of learning styles to achieve best results that would primarily include visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic learning style during the sessions of the first week. I shall design my sessions on different days in a week with strategies fostering different learning styles to accommodate the needs of all learners. Use of all these strategies would help me develop a holistic understanding of the techniques in the learners. I shall use the VAK model to provide the learners with an opportunity to see which teaching strategy works best for them. The visual learning style involves the use of vision e.g. seeing and reading, auditory learning style involves the use of speaking and listening, while kinaesthetic learning style involves the use of touching and doing. â€Å"The VAK learning

Creating A New Nigeria. What Ignored Sectors Must Be Reformed To Research Proposal

Creating A New Nigeria. What Ignored Sectors Must Be Reformed To Re-Brand The Giant Of Africa. Lessons From Other Emerging Economies - Research Proposal Example relation to the current competitive environment, these sectors are often recognised to play pivotal role for the countries to stimulate continuous growth and economic development. Therefore, rebranding of these particular areas has become a major concern for the Nigeria to improve its economic and socio-cultural development. In relation to the rebranding of the sectors, Aibueku (2011) has critically explored that education is one of the major sectors facing major challenges in Nigeria. According to the study, it has been perceived that the educational system of the nation is undergoing challenges due to the lack of effective mechanism and policy development measures (Aibueku, 2011). In addition, the sports and tourism development sector of the nation has also been recognised to face major hurdles during the past few decades. In this regard, rapid decline of the sports and tourism sector in the country has significantly lowered the opportunity for Nigeria to stabilise its economic development. Lack of policy measures along with support from governmental agencies and continuous instability of the political system have substantially influenced the current sports and tourism sector of Nigeria (Elendu, 2013). In addition, the media and entertainment sector in Nigeria is also considered to be ignored from its further development. Ineffective measures of using advanced technological aspects along with lack of policy developmental efforts of the nation are identified to reduce the scope of the current media and entertainment business sector of Nigeria (Obono & Madu, 2010). The study of Nigeria always provides adequate information relating to the sectors, which are major contributor to its economic growth from the research work of other researchers. However, there is a lack of research study of the ignored sectors of Nigeria, which are affecting the economic as well as social growth of the country as a whole. In this regard, the proposed research study focused on

JCPenney Research and Analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

JCPenney Research and Analysis - Assignment Example are operating under this Company (J.CPenny)Mostly its stores are located in big shopping malls and some in power stores. Due to this strategy J.C Penny became very popular shopping Company among the people. J.C Penney is also trying to contribute in opening the stores like standalone stores, to follow the consumer desires, keeping in mind what its competitors are providing to the public. The success of J.C. Penney grew over time because of its strong logo name, advertisement; pricing strategy which grabbed the public’s attention towards it. J.C. Penney suddenly fell down and faced the serious issues regarding its income. Due to swift drop in income, J.C. Penney pulled itself back into its earlier form and also brought the changes in its stores. Issue faced by J.C. Penney was the lack of communication with its consumers. The consumers didn’t have the clarity about the schemes and the down quality of the products, and left confused.It was effective to the middle class people earlier, all this new ideas, good deals& information on products, reasonable pricing. But J.C. Penney failed to fulfill its strategy of ‘everyday low price ‘approach in comparison to ‘Wal-Mart’, which turned in the interest of customer’s disappointments. J.C. Penney has put its whole effort to satisfy its customers against ‘Wal-Mart’ pricing strategy, but it couldn’t keep it up (Its Over For J.C. Penney). When Ron Johnson became the new CEO of J.C. Penney he faced a number of problems regardi ng J.C. Penney. During the recession period 2009 to 2011, J.C. Penney’s net income fell from 18billion dollars to 17billion dollars, and sales went to 150 dollars per square foot. Among the department stores criteria this figure of sales lies at the rank of lower third. Suddenly this Company lost its identity. J.C. Penney’s target was the middle class families, who can’t

French Mousse Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

French Mousse - Research Paper Example The target market for French Mousse is the people in urban area who prefer to spend on food. The main strength of French mousse is its cost. It is moderately cheap to purchase and thus affordable by many consumers. The other strengths are its rich taste and easy availability. The French Mousse is delicate, fresh and wonderful dessert which is prepared with traditional French ingredients and it can be available at any gourmet restaurants and corner cafes. Customer will never be disappointed in finding French Mousse. The main weakness of French Mousse is its calorie. It is avoided by many young and aged people who are quite health conscious and don’t prefer food having calories. However, there are opportunities for French Mousse in the sense that, if the people of France accept it and the product becomes success in food market, then it can expand in other areas besides France. The biggest threat of French Mousse is the consumer spending on food. People of France had shown less i nterest in spending money on food and beverages, besides there is a probability that certain retailer can sell fake French Mousse in market. This can negatively affect the willingness to purchase French Mousse. Sales Promotion Advertising The advertising through television in France had shown good record. According to statistics of 2005, France spent total 1208.23 Euros for food advertising through television. Thus, advertising through television will be beneficial for French Mousse to promote their products because it is the most preferable advertising technique for food promotion. Advertising Media Television Newspaper Magazine Outdoor Radio Cinema Expenditure (Million Euros) 1208.23 12.37 113.5 21.68 61.83 2.58 Source: (EACA, â€Å"EU Advertising Spend Statistics†). Source: (EACA, â€Å"EU Advertising Spend Statistics†). The advertising for French Mousse will be shown on one popular channels of France which is â€Å"TF1†. TF1 possess the largest audience shar e in France which was accounted as 23.1% in 2011 (Mediametrie, â€Å"Mediamat Weekly†). For television advertising 30 second’s time will be purchased at 8 PM in TF1 at Sunday. The cost of one advertisement in TF1 is 550000 FFR. The advertisement of French Mousse will be shown once in a week for three weeks. Therefore, the budget for advertisement in TF1 channel will be 550000 ? 3 = 1650000 FFR = 369383 USD (approximately) (SBG Companies Limited, â€Å"Tf1 Had 52 Mln FFR Ad Receipts for World Cup Final†). Magazine & Newspaper The magazine contributes second highest portion for advertising in France. The French Mousse product will be shown on the monthly magazine of France for example in ‘France Magazine’. It can increase the awareness of the French Mousse. The reason for choosing this magazine is that it has good audience of about 75,000 readers. The cost for one advertisement in the â€Å"France Magazine† is 4500 USD. French Mousse will be sh own in this magazine for about 3 times in a year which will cost 4500 ? 3 = 13500 USD (Gaebler Ventures, â€Å"France Magazine - Magazine Advertising Costs†). Newspaper is another popular advertising media of France which can contribute to significant brand awareness. For advertising of French Mousse the â€Å"France-Amerique - NY – Newspaper† is chosen. The ad for French Mousse will be shown once in a week for four weeks. The cost for advertising is 23 USD per advertisement. So the budget for newspaper advertisement for French Mousse is calculated as 23 ? 4 = 92 USD (Gaebler Ventures, â€Å"France-Amerique - NY - Newspaper Advertising Costs†) Radio Advertising For advertising French Mousse radio will be used as third medium. The reason for choosing radio as promotional media is that it offers the opportunity to make big splash around an area. Since French Mousse will enter in France, thus the most cost effective method to promote French Mousse will be th rough radio. One radio station had been chosen for advertising in France which is France Inter. The estimated cost of radio advertising is estimated

Susan Power's Scared Wilderness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Susan Power's Scared Wilderness - Essay Example Different backgrounds and eras gave them an idea to restore foundation to fulfill the dream of American women. The novel is taking us through the time, when the Mohawk were living on the territory of present-day Minnesota. The fourth novel by Susan Power is taking up to the centre cultural and spiritual traditions. We are getting cognizance with four women: Gladys Swan is enjoying the mansions on St. Paul’s Avenue. She is a housekeeper in the house of Candace Jenssen, who is well-to-do lady. She has all necessary material goods, she does not suffers from poverty, in spite of this she has a lack of spirit, being in disconnection with her husband and the sources and heritage of her Mohawk culture. Gladys, being as the elder of an Ojibwe, is thinking about putting Candace in touch with her ancestors as her private mission. However, Candace does not know about this idea. Beautiful Maryam is her co-conspirator in this unusual task. Candace dismisses appeals of Maryam, thinking about her as a hallucination caused by a brain tumor. Maryam changes the strategy, appealing to Gladys, who is very glad to meet â€Å"a sister†, who would join to her work and share her desire to help Candace. The author is trying to show is the images of the prehistoric biblical times, giving the readers an interesting re-imagining of first meetings of Native Americans with the missionaries of the Christian religion. She makes the reader to look from another fresh point of view to the lives Mary, Joseph and Jesus. Al this is happening in addition to the Power`s contemporary line of story, returning to the traditions of ancient cultures, which the imaginative time-traveler would be able to found in the early 17th century on the territory belonging to the Mohawk people, when man were hunting the food and female Mohawks looked after the gardens and collected vegetables to feed the tribes. â€Å"Do you really want to be reduced to some kind of throwback stereotype from the Dark Ages?

Goup Communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Goup Communication - Essay Example e individual communication as well as group communication include greeting, having one’s stance on the subject of discussion, respecting others’ views and expressing one’s own without offending others, avoiding unnecessary argumentation and dysfunctional conflicts, and maintaining a balance between listening and speaking. Disagreement over a matter during discussion may lead to conflict. The main way to resolve such conflicts is to conduct a dialogue without using indecent or offensive language. The dialogue may not necessarily lead to a conclusion. In case there is a judge, the matter should be referred to him/her for decision. If there is no third party acting as a judge, it is better to change the topic of discussion. The aforesaid strategies of group communication can best be used with practicing more. For a manager to use these strategies while addressing a group, his/her communication style should be tailored towards the group’s needs (Mitchell, 2012). Effective communication in a group requires use of emotional intelligence. One also has to be a bit articulate to conduct group

Coping Skill and Lazarus Stress Theory Essay Example for Free

Coping Skill and Lazarus Stress Theory Essay Each individual experiences stress and problem in life. These will serve as measurement to know how emotionally stable individuals are and how they will handle everything that come their way. The ways of coping from stress, anxiety, and problems are the basis of how well-adjusted an individual is. Coping with difficulties of life is hard especially when the situation is complicated. It is a natural reaction that everyone will be experiences at one time or the other. As cited by Luthans (2005), Ivancevich and Matteson see stress as â€Å"the interaction of the individual with the environment†- an adaptive response mediated by individual differences and or psychological process, that is consequences by any eternal (environmental) action, situation or even that places excessive psychological and or physical demand on a person. Stress in college will comes in many forms. You will become essentially responsible for yourself: doing laundry, preparing your own meals, cleaning your own rooms. This will of course in addition to studying hard to achieve good grades. You will also have to deal with peer pressure, dating predicaments and drinking situations. Coping with stress will prove to be a daunting task. Every trying moment that you will encounter in college is only temporary. Coping with stress in college will be part of life, if you can hurdle over your stress, you will surely become as stronger and tougher person. Such that when you will absorb by the workforce, your will be better equipped to face the challenges of your job. Students will deal with stress differently. If you are one of these students who will have a hard time coping with stress, you should not be ashamed to seek the help of others, especially your counsellors who will be there for you for a reason. Stress will seem to be an especially common feature of college student life, particularly at highly competitive colleges and universities. Stress-coping mechanisms are behaviors and thoughts people employ to calm themselves when they will feel upset, angry, overworked, or otherwise overwhelmed by tension. Being under stress will affects your heart rate, blood pressure, mood, and contributes many diseases such as obesity and asthma. Coping mechanisms can be described as the sum total of ways in which we deal with minor to major stress and trauma. Some of these processes are unconscious ones, others are learned behaviour, and still others are skills we consciously master in order to reduce stress, or other intense emotions like depression. Not all coping mechanisms are equally beneficial, and some can actually be very detrimental. One may have various ways of coping with stress, anxiety and problems. Acceptance may be one by which individual wholeheartedly accepts the situation, the persons will learn to understand the things on the way it should. Others, on the other hand, may still look on the good side, putting more attention and emphasis on the things that could be better and would bring better to them. This study will determine what the most prevalent sources of stressors among our students are, and to evaluate the coping mechanisms adopted by them. Background of the Study Stress (2000) is generally defined as the body’s nonspecific response or reaction to demands made on it, or to disturbing events in the environment. It is a process by which we perceive and cope with environmental threats and challenges. Personal environmental events that will cause stress are known as stressors. Therefore, stress is simply defined as emotional disturbances or changes caused by stressors. Stress which promotes and facilities learning is called good stress. An optimal level of stress can enhance learning ability on the other hand; stress which inhibits and suppresses learning is call bad stress. The bad stress must be prevented and avoided. It is noteworthy that the same stressors may be perceived differently by different students, depending on their cultural background, personality traits, experience and coping skills. The purpose of this study is to gather data on the stress prevalence, stressors and coping strategies among second year students of Bachelor of Science in Entrepreneurial Management, hence it will provides valuable information for future study in such students and teachers to understand better about this common problem. The second year students of BSEM are prone to pressure for the reason that they are the last batch of this said degree and because of that they are threatened to study hard, to give a good image and expected to build a better name for their degree. Though college may put you under a lot of stress, most students accept this as a given something one should just learned to deal with. And although work overload is a constant in all schools, many students notice discrepancies among different universities and colleges. Theoretical Framework The study will focus on the stress and coping mechanism among the Second year students of BSEM in regarding to their demographic profile. Coping with stress in college just like any other stress coping mechanism is seeing past the negativity of the moment and embracing the potential for good in it. Numerous theoretical provides sufficient background on the nature of stress individuals encounter and a multiple functions of coping for the optimum development and adjustment. The foremost theories represented in the study are enumerated, (a. ) Systematic Stress: Selye’s Theory, states that stress is a state manifested by a syndrome which consists of all the non-specifically induced changes in a biologic system. (b. Psychological Stress: The Lazarus Theory, states that two concepts are central to any psychological stress theory: appraisal, individual’s evaluation of the significance of what is happening for their well-being, and coping, individual’s efforts in thought and action to manage specific demands. Since its first presentation as a comprehensive theory the Lazarus stress theory has undergone sev eral essential revisions. In the latest version, stress is regarded as a relational concept; stress is not defined as a specific kind of external stimulation or a specific pattern of physiological, behavioral, or subjective reactions. Instead, stress is viewed as a relationship between individuals and their environment. Psychological stress refers to a relationship with the environment that the person appraises as significant for his or her well-being and in which the demands tax or exceed available coping resources. (c. ) Resource Theories of Stress: A Bridge between Systemic and Cognitive Viewpoints. Unlike approaches discussed so far, this theory of stress is not primarily concernedwith factors that create stress, but with resources that preserve well-being in the face of stressful encounters.

Esterification of 4-methyl-2-pentanol and Acetic Acid

Esterification of 4-methyl-2-pentanol and Acetic Acid Joseph Nuernberg Esterification of 4-methyl-2-pentanol and Acetic Acid by Reflux and Distillation and Characterized by Infrared Spectroscopy Abstract: The objective of this lab was to successfully synthesize an ester from an alcohol and acetic acid. This experiment used 4-methyl-2-pentanol with excess acetic acid to produce (1,3-dimethylbutyl) acetate as seen in Figure 1. The mixture of acetic acid with 4-methyl-2-pentanol and sulfuric acid was refluxed, extracted, distilled and identified using IR spectroscopy. The ester had a fruity smell when obtained. The mass of the final product was 0.582g which gave a 34.6% yield. The results obtained indicated that the final product attained was the ester (1,3-dimethylbutyl) acetate due to the similar bond groups of C=O and sp3 C-H. The reason why the percent yield was low was because the nature of the reaction itself formed ether and ester and some product was lost through extraction. For future experiments, the process must be done a lot quicker in order to ensure the least amount of product evaporates. Introduction: Often in chemical labs, esters are artificially synthesized in order to produce an imitation of a flavor. An ester can be synthesized by the reaction of an alcohol with a carboxylic acid. In this experiment, (1, 3,-dimethylbutyl) acetate was formed through excess acetic acid and 4-methyl-2-pentanol as seen in Figure 1. The limiting reagent in this reaction is 4-methyl-2-pentanol so the theoretical yield of the ester product is dependent on 4-methyl-2-pentanol. Figure 1: Reaction of 4-methyl-2-pentanol with excess acetic acid For this reaction, the reflux will be utilized. Heat is applied with a boiling chip, to allow the reaction to occur. The vapor rises and escapes from the round bottom flask and is then cooled by the water condenser. The vapor turns back into a liquid and drips back into the bottom flask. In order to remove certain compounds, the synthesis involved extraction to isolate compounds. The denser layer or the aqueous layer will be at the bottom and can be removed with a pipette. The product of ether and ester was distilled to isolate the ester because esters have lower boiling points than the ether. In distillation, the substance with the lower boiling point evaporates and reaches the water condenser. The cool temperature allows the vapor to change states from gas to liquid which forces the liquid to drip back down the into the Hickman head due to gravity. In this reaction, the (1, 3,-dimethylbutyl) acetate was isolated from an unknown ether by distilling into the Hickman head. An IR spect rum of the final product is conducted to determine the desired product by comparing the bond groups of the given values. If the IR peaks and bonds are the same as the given, then the purified product would be the ester. A percent yield will be calculated to assess the amount of ester produced. Procedure: First, obtain an empty round bottom flask and find the mass. Add about 1.5mL of 4-methyl-2-pentanol in the flask and reweigh. With the 3mL of glacial acetic acid added, add sulfuric acid with a boiling chip. Conduct reflux with the apparatus conducted in previous labs with a water condenser attached to cool the reaction. Heat the apparatus for 60 to 70 minutes. Cool the reaction mixture and while stirring, add 2-3 mL of 5% aqueous sodium bicarbonate until carbon dioxide formation ceases. Transfer mixture and shake hard. Remove the aqueous layer and repeat the separation technique two more times. Remove as much water from the organic layer by adding small amounts of sodium sulfate and let the reaction stand for 10-15 minutes. After a week, transfer the reaction with the ether and ester into a vial and conduct distillation. Conduct distillation for 15 minutes at around 180 to 200 oC. Obtain and mass the final product. Conduct IR of starting reactants and products. Clean up stations and calculate the percent yield. Results and calculations: Table 1: Table of masses during experiment Theoretical yield for (1,3-dimethylbutyl) acetate = 1.68g of Percent yield: x 100% x 100%= 34.6% IR: Figure 2: IR before distillation Figure 3: IR after distillation Table 2: Values of IR for ester (1,3-dimethylbutly) acetate after distillation Discussion and Conclusion: For this experiment, the ester (1, 3-dimethylbutyl) acetate was synthesized from acetic acid and 4-methyl-2-pentanol. However, this is not a one reaction pathway because of the tetrahedral intermediate prevalent in esterification. The addition of the acetic acid leads to a more reactive electrophile. This causes a tetrahedral intermediate in which there are two equivalent hydroxyl groups. Then one of the hydroxyl groups is eliminated, a process known as tautomerism. This then gives water and ester as the final products. The reaction was successful produced from reflux but problems arose during the second component of this experiment, distillation. The ester also had a very distinct fruity smell. This reaction is refluxed because heat acts as a catalyst for the reaction. In the reaction pathway, the temperature is increased, allowing more geometrical collisions with the products and requires lower activation energy. This can be seen as an example of the Maxwell-Boltzmann curve. This was done uniformly by using the aluminum block at around 110 oC. After reflux occurred, a distillation apparatus was used in order to purify the ester from the ether. The boiling chip was added in reflux and distillation in order to ensure that the reaction did not overheat and burn the reaction. Boiling chips are often made from carborundum (carbon and silicon) which are chemically inert and allows sharp edges for bubbles to form which will not overheat the system. The substances in the reaction are allowed to boil more calmly rather than rapid boiling causing splatter and ruining the experiment. The water condenser was used for both in order to cool down the reaction in order to prevent burning of the reaction and ensuring that the product in the vapor state turned back into liquid state. The reason why anhydrous sodium bicarbonate was added was to ensure that any leftover water was absorbed and the remaining layer contained only the organic compounds. This was done a total of three times to ensure that minimal water was left, but some of the product leaked when shaken. The purpose of distillation is to separate compounds based on their boiling points. The reaction mixture that contained ester and ether was to be distilled in order to obtain the ester in the Hickman head. However, after letting the reaction stand for a week, most of the ether evaporated and the mixture was mostly ester. This explains why during distillation, the mixture in the conical vial disappeared as most or all went into the Hickman head. This can be seen in Figures 2 and 3. The IR of before and after distillation have similar values, peaks, and the exact functional groups which indicates that the mixture contained only the ester. The IR spectroscopy of after distillation shows that there is a C=O bond around 1735.27 cm-1, and a sp3 C-H bond around 2959.19 cm-1 which indicates that the compound shown is indeed an ester and that the objective was met since ester do have C=O bonds around 1750 cm-1 and sp3 C-H bonds around 2900 cm-1 . Ideally, the distillation process should be us eful in isolating the pure product, by allowing the ester molecules to be in a gaseous phase. Equilibrium will be established and allows the molecules to form back into a liquid phase in the Hickman head, but in this experiment distillation was not necessary. This just caused more chances of losing the ester by not fully attaining all the liquid from the Hickman head or by evaporating. The results yielded a 34.6% yield which suggested that there were errors within the reaction. One major reason as to why the yield was low was because of the nature of the reaction itself. The ether and ester in the conical vial was left to stand for a week. Because the ether had a lower boiling point than ester, most or all of the ether evaporated due to high volatility at room temperature. In addition, the ester also has a high volatility but lower than the ether because of the structure and the strength of the intermolecular forces. The ester has two oxygen atoms whereas the ether has one oxygen resulting in lower van der Waal forces. The ether was created as a byproduct which affected the maximum amount of yield of ester produced. Therefore, not all the reaction occurred to form an ester because during that time there were compounds that hindered the maximum amount of yield formed by forming a pathway for the ether. This was from the sulfuric acid reaction mechanism to produce an ether. The sulfuric acid dissociates into a proton and a bisulfate ion which forms with the OH group of the alcohol. The alcohol’s oxygen is protonated which forms an oxonium ion. The ion decomposes to carbocation and water and the carbocation reacts with another alcohol group to form another oxonium ion. The ion loses a proton to stabilize and forms an ether. If a stronger alcohol, perhaps 1-hexanol was used, a higher yield would be attained because the stronger intermolecular forces allows the reaction to have lower volatility and the ester and ether formed would also evaporate less. Because there are weaker van der Waal forces in the (1, 3-dimethylbutyl) acetate because of the lower carbon chains, more of the product was evaporated and lost. In order to ensure that a higher yield is attained, the reflux and distillation process must be done back to back or a lot quicker before the ester and ether evaporates at room temperature. Also an alcohol with a longer carbon chain s hould be used as stronger intermolecular forces allow more ester to form. While transporting the organic layers and further extraction, some of the product was lost. Even though this source of error is minimal, there were some product lost along the way by transporting through vials which affected the yield of the final product. Reflux is an effective technique that allowed Fischer esterification to occur. Distillation is a very useful technique, but should not be relevant when one of the substances evaporates due to high volatility. For future experiments, the reaction must be done much quicker in order to ensure that the least amount of ether and ester evaporates and is lost throughout the process and more precise instruments can be used to extract the organic layer. IR should still be used to discern the identity of the product. Because of the nature of the reaction itself, a yield close to the theoretical is very difficult to attain, a realistic approach would be around 60% yield. Work Cited: MSDS of (1,3-dimethyl butyl) acetate. http://www.chemicalbook.com/ChemicalProductProperty_EN_CB8373308.htm (accessed November 7, 2014). MSDS of 4-methyl-2-pentanol. http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9926088 (accessed November 7, 2014). Padias, Anne.Making the Connections. Hayden McNeil, 2011.

Very Large Telescope and NACO Instrumentation

Very Large Telescope and NACO Instrumentation This report describes the Very Large Telescope array in Chile, the VLT consists of four Unit Telescopes with main mirrors of 8.2m diameter and four movable Auxiliary Telescopes with main mirrors of 1.8m diameter. One of the Unit Telescopes, UT 4, is discussed in more detail, specifically its location, mounting, optics, the range and focus locations and the available instruments. The last part of the report is an example of an observation planning to image the Becklin-Neugebauer (BN) object with the NACO S13 camera and K band filter. Introduction The Very Large Telescope array (VLT) is at this moment the worlds most advanced optical instrument (1), the VLT is located on the Paranal Observatory, see Figure 1, in the Atacama desert Northern Chile (70 ° 24 11 West; 24 °3731 South). The Paranal mountain is probably the best site for astronomical observations in the southern hemisphere, with e.g a humidity of 5-20% and a maximum rainfall of about 100 mm per year. The observatory is divided into two areas, a telescope platform at the top of the mountain at an altitude of 2635 meters. and a base camp at the foot at an altitude of 2360 m. The observations take place at the telescope platform, the base camp contains staff quarters, maintenance facilities, including a visitorscentre for the public. Overview of the VLT The VLT consists of four identical Unit Telescopes (UT) with main mirrors of 8.2m diameter and four movable 1.8m diameter Auxiliary Telescopes, located on the telescope platform, see Figure 2 . The Unit Telescopes are Ritchey-Chrà ©tien telescopes, they can operate in Cassegrain, Nasmyth or Coudà © focus. The four Unit Telescope have an altitude-azimuth (alt-az) mounting (2). The Unit Telescopes have fixed locations, the Auxiliary Telescopes can be repositioned on 30 different stations, the UT and AT telescopes can be used in several different modes: independent telescope mode combined coherent mode or VLT interferometer (VLTI) combined incoherent mode In the independent telescope mode each UT is used separately, in the combined coherent mode the UT and AT telescopes work together, in groups of two or three, to form a giant interferometer giving an angular resolution equivalent to a telescope with a diameter of 200 meters and in the combined incoherent mode the four UTs are combined providing the total light collecting power of a 16-metre single telescope. For the four Unit Telescopes, names of objects in the sky in the Mapuche language were chosen and they are now known as Antu (UT1, The Sun ), Kuyen (UT2, The Moon ), Melipal (UT3, The Southern Cross ), and Yepun (UT4, Venus as evening star). Unit Telescope 4 (Yepun), see Figure 3 is discussed in more detail in the next section The VLT instruments includes large-field imagers, adaptive optics corrected cameras and spectrographs, high-resolution and multi-object spectrographs operating at wavelengths ranging from deep ultraviolet (0.3 nm) to mid-infrared (24  µm). With these instruments important data can be collected for a large range of research topics such as: formation and evolution of galaxies search for extra-solar planetary systems distances to galactic Cepheids circumstellar disks around young stellar objects active galactic nuclei stellar evolution fundamental parameters of the Universe Unit Telescope 4 Optical set-up Unit Telescope 4 can operate in four foci two Nasmyth, one Cassegrain and one Coudà © focus (2), for the optical lay-out, including the eight mirrors (M1 to M8) and the main dimensions see Figure 4. Light is collected by the primary mirror M1 and concentrated by the secondary mirror M2 either to the Cassegrain focus below the primary mirror or to one of the two Nasmyth foci, at the side of the telescope. In the Nasmyth configuration the optical layout is of the Ritchey-Chrà ©tien type, the Cassegrain focus however is not of the Ritchey-Chrà ©tien type, changing between the two foci means repositioning of the secondary mirror and changing the curvature of the primary mirror. By transferring one Nasmyth focus to another location in the telescope basement the Coudà © focus is obtained (mirror M4 to M8), from the Coudà © focus the light can be sent to the combination mode focus or to the interferometric focus. The Coudà © focus is located below the main telescope structure. The primary mirror (M1) The 8.2 m primary mirror of UT4 is made of Zerodur and is 175 mm thick the shape is actively controlled by means of 150 axial forces actuators, the mirror has a central hole of about 1.0 m. .Zerodur is a glass-ceramic made by Schott Glaswerke AG (Mainz, Germany). The secondary mirror (M2) The secondary mirror is a convex hyperbolic mirror made of Beryllium with an external diameter of 1.12 metres and a thickness of 50 mm. By changing the position and orientation of the mirror it is possible to correct some optical aberration of the telescope (defocus and decentring coma) and to change the pointing . The secondary mirror is supported by the M2 Unit at the top of the telescope and reflects the light from the M1 mirror towards the M3 plane mirror The optical quality depends on the mode of the mirror, if the mirror is in the active mode (active optics correction in operation) , the Central Intensity Ratio is larger than or equal to 0.98, with an atmospheric coherence length of 250 mm at a wavelength 500 nm. In the passive mode, active optics correction not in operation, the root mean square (RMS) slope error of the surface of the mirror is less than 0.7 arcsec. The tertiary mirror (M3) The tertiary mirror is flat and elliptically shaped (890x1260mm2), the mirror is made of Zerodur and produced by Schott Glaswerke AG. In Nasmyth configuration, see Figure 5, the M3 mirror deflects the light beams towards the scientific instruments located at one or the other Nasmyth focus. In Cassegrain configuration, Figure 5, the M3 mirror assembly is remotely flipped in towed position, parallel to the axis of M3 Tower. Mirror M4 to M8 ( the Coudà © train) The Coudà © Train is based on a combination of cylindrical and spherical mirrors, the light is sent to the Coudà © Train by mirror 4 (M4) a concave cylindrical mirror in front of the Nasmyth adapter. Relay optics provide an image of the sky at the Coudà © focus, the relay optics consists of the following mirrors: M5 a concave spherical mirror (R = 8975 mm) M6 a concave cylindrical mirror (R = 290,000 mm) , the cylinder direction is rotated by 90 ° with respect to M4 M7 a concave spherical mirror ( R = 5176.2mm) M8 a flat mirror. Technical description The telescope mounting of Unit Telescope 4 (3) is altitude-azimuth (alt-az), the telescope tube moves around a horizontal axis (the altitude axis ), the two bearings which support the telescope tube are mounted on a fork rotating around a vertical axis (the azimuth axis) The telescope tube is a steel structure, supporting at the bottom the primary mirror (M1) , and at the top the M2 Unit, with the secondary mirror, by metallic beams (spiders). Unit Telescope 4 is protected by an enclosure, this enclosure also provides access for operation and maintenance to certain areas of the telescope and a protection against the wind during observations. The telescope is mounted on a concrete foundation, the telescope pier. The geographical coordinates of UT4 are: latitude 24 ° 37 31.000 South and longitude 70  ° 24 08.000 West The structure of Unit Telescope 4 consists of a large number subassemblies and parts see Figure 6 , some of the main assemblies are: the tube structure with the M2 spiders which hold the M2 unit . the fork structure with two Nasmyth platforms that support the Nasmyth instyruments. the Coudà © tube that provides the interface to the Coudà © mirror units. azimuth tracks which support the fork structure. an azimuth platform which provides access for the Cassegrain instrument. Specifications Adaptive and active optics UT4 has adaptive optics (AO) correction both at Nasmyth and at Cassegrain foci, UT4 is also equipped with a sodium laser guide star facility for active optics. For the non-AO telescope operation the Central Intensity Ratio (CIR) quantifies the image quality. A high CIR implies high signal throughput, high contrast and small image size. The peak signal in the long-exposure point spread function is given by (4): Equation where is ta the transmissivity of the atmosphere, r0 the coherent wave-front size, tt the transmissivity of the telescope optics, D the diameter of the telescope and CIR the Central Intensity Ratio. The Central Intensity Ratio defined by : Equation where y0 is the Strehl ratio of the telescope. (Strehl ratio is the ratio of peak diffraction intensities of an aberrated wavefront versus a perfect wavefront). The optical quality specification is that the Central Intensity Ratio CIR = 0.82 with a coherent wave-front of size r0 = 500 mm (seeing angle 0.2 arcsec) at = 500 nm. Field of view The total field of view (FOV) for UT4 in the Cassegrain focus is 15 arcmin, in the Nasmyth focus 30 arcmin and in the Coudà © focus 1 arcmin. Atmospheric dispersion The atmospheric dispersion is corrected up to zenith angles of 50 ° for instruments requiring high image and spectrophotometric quality. Pointing and tracking UT4 is able to get any target to within 70 ° zenith distance in less than 3 minutes. Offset pointing of 45 ° and 60 ° in altitude and azimuth respectively is possible within 35 seconds, to within 0.1 arcsec accuracy. UT4 tracks better than 0.05 arcsec RMS over a period of 15 seconds without using guide-star position information, and over a one hour period when using guide-star tracking. Zenith distance The UT4 can operate at zenith distances ranging from 0.5 ° to 70 °, obstruction by adjacent enclosures is limited to zenith angles larger than 60 °. Instrumentation The instruments that are mounted on Unit Telescope 4 are shown in table 1. HAWK-I HAWK-I is a near-infrared (0,85 2.5 µm) wide-field imager installed at the Nasmyth A focus of UT4 , the operating temperature of the instrument is 120 K, operating temperature of the detectors is of 80 K (3). HAWK-I has 10 observing filters placed in two filter wheels: Y, J, H, Ks , 6 narrow-band filters Brg, CH4, H2 and three cosmological filters at 1.061, 1.187, and 2.090  µm. SINFONI SINFONI is a near-infrared (1-2.5  µm) integral field spectrograph installed at the Cassegrain focus of UT4. The spectrograph works with 4 gratings J, H, K, H+K with spectral resolutions of R is 2000, 3000 and 4000, corresponding to the J, H and K gratings respectively, and R is1500 with the H+K grating. The resolution power R of a spectrograph is given by : Equation where c is the velocity of light and dv the radial velocity . NACO (NAOS + CONICA) The Nasmyth Adaptive Optics System (NAOS) and the High Resolution Near IR Camera (CONICA) are installed at the Nasmyth B focus of UT4. NACO provides adaptive-optics corrected imaging, polarimetry, spectroscopy, and coronagraphy in the 1-5 ÃŽÂ ¼m range. The NACO instrumentation will be discussed in more detail in the next section. Laser Guide Star The Laser Guide Star is an artificial source, a 4W CW Sodium Laser (589 nm) will be used for this. The laser beam is focussed at an altitude of 90 km, at that height an atomic sodium layer is present which backscatters the spot image, producing an artificial star with a magnitude range from 11 mag. to 14 mag. NACO instrumentation Instrument characteristics NAOS NAOS is an adaptive optics (AO) system that has been designed to work with natural guide stars (NGS) and moderately extended sources , NAOS can also use the laser guide star facility (LGSF) and a natural tip-tilt source (TTS) to provide adaptive optics correction (3). NAOS gives a turbulence corrected f/15 beam and a 2 arcmin field of view to CONICA. Two off-axis parabolas re-image the telescope pupil on the deformable mirror and the Nasmyth focal plane on the entrance focal plane of CONICA. A dichroic-filter splits the light between CONICA and the wave front sensor, a field selector is placed after the wave front sensor input focus to select the reference object for wave front sensing, see Figure 7. NAOS has two wavefront sensors one visible light and one near-IR sensor , the two sensors are of the Shack-Hartmann type. It is possible to select an off-axis natural guide star within a 110 arcsec diameter field of view (FOV). NAOS allows wave front sensing with faint natural guide stars and extended objects, observations of very bright objects are possible with the visible wave front sensor using neutral density filters. CONICA CONICA is an infra-red (IR) (1 5 ÃŽÂ ¼m) imager and spectrograph which is fed by NAOS. CONICA is capable of imaging, long slit spectroscopy, simultaneous differential imaging (SDI), coronagraphy, polarimetry , with a large range of plate scales, filters and masks. The CONICA detector is a InSb Aladdin 3 array, the parameters of the array are: format 1026 ´1024 pixels pixel size 27 µm dark current 0.05-0.15 ADUs-1 pixel-1 wavelength range 0.8-5.5  µm Quantum efficiency 80-90 % The detector has three readout modes and four detector modes .The readout modes refer to the way the array is read out, the read our modes are : Uncorr The array is reset and then read once, used for situations when the background is high. The minimum detector integration time (DIT) is 0.1750 seconds. Double_RdRstRd The array is read, reset and read again, used for situations when the background is intermediate between high and low. The minimum DIT is 0.3454 seconds. FowlerNsamp The array is reset, read four times at the beginning of the integration ramp and four times again at the end of the integration ramp. Each time a pixel is addressed, it is read four times. This is used for situations when the background is low. The minimum DIT is 1.7927 seconds. The detector mode refers to the setting of the array bias voltage, four modes have been defined: HighSensitivity, HighDynamic, HighWellDepth and HighBackground. HighSensitivity has the fewest hot pixels, but it has the smallest well depth, this mode is used for long integrations in low background situations. HighBackground has the largest well depth but has many more hot pixels, this mode is used in high background situations . S13 camera CONICA is equipped with several cameras such as S13, S27, S54, the characteristics of camera S13 are; scale 13.221 ± 0.017 mas/pixel, field of view (FoV)14 ´14 arcsec and spectral range 1.0-2.5  µm. Available filters for the S13 camera are broad- and narrowband filters in the 1-2.5  µm region, Information on the broadband filters can be found in table 1. Unit Telescope 4 parameters Example observation planning The observation planning contains the next subjects (5): target scientific goal visibility period of target required observing conditions seeing atmospheric transparency lunar illumination required observing time list of required instruments, modes and configurations Target The chosen observation target is the Becklin-Neugebauer (BN) object located in the Orion Nebula Cluster, coordinates; right ascension (RA) 05h 35 m 14s.117 and declination (D) -05 ° 2222.90, epoch 2000.0, Scientific goal The Becklin-Neugebauer object was discovered as a bright 2 ÃŽÂ ¼m infra-red source (10) by Becklin and Neugebauer in 1967 (11), about 45 in projection from the Trapezium stars of the Orion Nebula Cluster, at a distance of ~ 450 pc. The Becklin-Neugebauer object together with the Kleinmann-Low nebula (KL) is part of the Orion Molecular Cloud 1 (OMC-1) region, a high-mass star formation region in the Orion constellation. In 2004 Shuping, Morris and Bally (8) discovered, at 12.5 µm, an arc of emission associated with the BN object, the so-called BN SW arc. The nature of this SW arc is still unknown, it may be externally heated gas or dust by UV radiation or is possibly a compressed shell created by an outflow or jet from BN. The BN SW arc is an interesting feature that needs further investigations both imaging and spectroscopy at other wavelengths to determine its true nature. Required observing conditions Seeing/airmass Seeing is defined as the image full width half maximum (FWHM )in arcsec ,the seeing values are 0.8and 1.2 at Zenith. Airmass quantifies the effects of all atmospheric processes, these atmospheric effects will be minimum when radiation travels vertically through the atmosphere, in this case z = 1. During the observation period the airmass ranges between z = 1.0 and z = 1.5 see table A, appendix 1, average airmass z = ~1,2. Atmospheric transparency During the observation period there should be no visible clouds and the transparency variations should be less than 2%. Lunar illumination Lunar illumination (FLI) is defined as the fraction of the lunar disk that is illuminated at local (Chile) civil midnight, where 1.0 is fully illuminated. Dark time corresponds to moon illumination less than 0.4, so the best time to observe the target is when the moon is new, see subsection 7.4. Visibility period of target To calculate the visibility of the target I have used the local sidereal time equation: Equation where LST = local sidereal, HA = hour angle and RA = right ascension. RA of BN-object = 05h 35 m 14s.117 = 5.587 hr. , on 21 March RA = 12hr is on the meridian at local midnight. RA = 5.587 hr will be on the meridian at local midnight about (5.587-12.0)ÃÆ'-30/2 = ~ 96 days =~ 3 months earlier . Thus the target will be well placed in November 2011 and December 2011. New Moon is on 25 November 2011 and 24 December 2011, so the best dates to observe the BN- object will be 22-27 November and 22-26 December 2011, see table B, appendix 2. The chosen observation period is the night of 24/25 December 2011, between 22hr and 2hr local time. Required observing time Angular resolution The theoretical angular limit of resolution is given by: Equation where l = wavelength, D = aperature diameter The wavelength of the K-filter is l = 2.18  µm, so the resolution is The resolution however is limited by atmospheric turbulence to where r0 is the Fried parameter. The Fried parameter is directly linked to the strength of the turbulence and it depends on the wavelength as: Equation for average observing conditions, r0 is about 0.6 m at 2.2 ÃŽÂ ¼m. Seeing disk The angular diameter of the seeing disk is Equation so for l = 2.18  µm and r0 = 0.6 m Area of seeing disk: Exposure time Exposure time Equation where: t = integration time r = signal to noise ratio f = flux transmitted by atmosphere fsky = sky background flux a = area of seeing disc A = effective area of telescope UT4 Q = quantum efficiency l = flux of the BN object l = wavelength = 5.510-7 m h = Plancks constant = 6.6310-34 J c = velocity of light = 3.0108 ms-1 The adopted signal to noise ratio S/N = r = 5. The flux transmitted by the atmosphere f = 1.0, see figure 3.2 NACO User Manual (3) The liming sky background magnitude is 13.0 mag (3), the sky background flux Equation Area of seeing disk a = 0.442 arcsec Effective area of UT4 Quantum efficiency Q = 0.85 The magnitude of the BN object corrected for extinction mv = 5.2 mag (11), the extinction in the V passband Av = ~18 mag. (8) so the apparent magnitude of the BN object m = 23.2 mag. Flux /magnitude conversion Equation The flux of the BN object is The exposure time for the BN object is: t = 639 sec. The exposure time calculated with ETC is 122,320 seconds !? , see appendix 4 table D. List of required instruments, modes and configurations The required telescope to observe the BN object is UT4 with the NACOS instrumentation. The NAOS with natural guide star, the CONICA imager with camera S13 and broadband filter K (2.18 mm). The chosen detector readout mode is FowlerNsamp and not Double_RdRstRd because the intergration time is larger than 60 seconds. Guide star id. 0477400932, RA 05hr 35m 16s.41, Dec -05 ° 23 23.0 magnitude 5.00 see table C, appendix 3, Conclusion The Very Large Telescope array is at this moment the most advanced optical instrument and the most productive individual ground-based observatory in the world. The instrumentation programme is the most ambitious programme for a single observatory and because of to the outstanding angular resolution and the use of adaptive optics VLT opens a new era of discoveries. Bibliography/References ESO http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/paranal Giacconi R. The VLT White Book ESO http://www.eso.org/public/products/books/vlt_whitebook/ Girard J. et al. Very Large Telescope NACO Users Manual Do. No.: VLT-MAN-ESO-14200-2761 Date 12-02-2010 http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/paranal/instruments/naco/doc/VLT-MAN-ESO-14200-2761_v86.0.pdf Dierickx P., et al The VLT primary mirrors: mirror production and measured performance http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/paranal/telescopes/ut/m1unit.html de Zeeuw T. Call for Proposals ESO Period 87 30 August 2010 http://www.eso.org/sci/observing/proposals/CfP87.pdf Moorwood A. Astronomical News Report on the Conference Science with the VLT in the ELT Era Held in Garching, Germany 8-12 October 2007 Minchin N.R. et al Near-infrared imaging polarimetry of bipolar Nebulae-I. The BN-KL region of OMC-1 Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc.(1991) 248,715-729 Shuping R. Y., Morris M. and Bally J. A new mid-infra red map of the BN/KL  Region using the Keck telscope  The Astronomical Journal, 128:363-374, 2004 July Sansom A. UVOIR Astronomy AA2053  University of Central Lancashire , 2010 Tan J. The Becklin-Neugebauer Object as runaway B star  ejected 4000 years ago from the q1C system. The Astrophysical Journal Letters  11-12-2001  http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0401552v2 Robberto M. et al The Orion Nebula in the mid-infrared  The Astronomical Journal, 129:000-000  2005 March Becklin E.E., Neugebauer G. Observations of an infrared star in the Orion  Nebula  California Institute of Technology  Pasadena, California  September 12,1966 http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1967ApJ147..799B Testor G. et al VLT/NACO near-infrared imaging and  spectroscopy of N159-5 in the LMC HII complex N159  Astronomy Astrophysics  469, 459-469 (2007) Appendices Appendix 1 Hourly airmasses for 05 35 14.12 -05 22 22.90 Paranal Observatory (VLT) Sat, December 24, 2011 *** Hourly airmass for Target *** Epoch 2000.00: RA 5 35 14.1, dec -5 22 23 Epoch 2011.98: RA 5 35 49.5, dec -5 21 57 At midnight: UT date 2011 Dec 25, Moon 0.00 illum, 151 degr from obj Local UT LMST HA secz par.angl. SunAlt MoonAlt HelCorr 22 00 1 00 2 31 -3 05 1.502 -118.5 -4.27 22 30 1 30 3 01 -2 35 1.341 -121.5 -4.32 23 00 2 00 3 31 -2 04 1.229 -126.1 -4.38 23 30 2 30 4 01 -1 34 1.152 -132.8 -4.43 0 00 3 00 4 32 -1 04 1.101 -142.9 -4.50 0 30 3 30 5 02 -0 34 1.071 -157.8 -4.56 1 00 4 00 5 32 -0 04 1.059 -177.2 -4.62 1 30 4 30 6 02 0 26 1.066 162.7 -4.69 2 00 5 00 6 32 0 56 1.090 146.5 -4.75 Table A: Hourly airmasss during observation period. SkyCalc provided by courtesy of John Thorstensen, Dartmouth College. [emailprotected] http://www.eso.org/sci/observing/tools/calendar/observability.html Appendix 2 Observability for 05 35 14.117 -05 22 22.90 Paranal Observatory (VLT) RA dec: 5 35 14.1, -5 22 23, epoch 2000.0 Site longlat: +4 41 36.8 (h.m.s) West, -24 37 30 North. Shown: local eve. date, moon phase, hr ang and sec.z at (1) eve. twilight, (2) natural center of night, and (3) morning twilight; then comes number of nighttime hours during which object is at sec.z less than 3, 2, and 1.5. Night (and twilight) is defined by sun altitude Date (eve) moon eve cent morn night [emailprotected]: HA sec.z HA sec.z HA sec.z 2011 Oct 11 F -8 54 down -4 28 2.5 -0 02 1.1 4.7 3.9 3.0 2011 Oct 26 N -7 45 down -3 31 1.7 +0 42 1.1 5.4 4.6 3.8 2011 Nov 10 F -6 33 down -2 32 1.3 +1 29 1.1 6.2 5.4 4.5 2011 Nov 24 N -5 25 5.7 -1 34 1.2 +2 17 1.3 7.0 6.2 5.3 2011 Dec 9 F -4 13 2.2 -0 29 1.1 +3 15 1.6 7.4 7.2 6.1 2011 Dec 24 N -3 05 1.5 +0 37 1.1 +4 19 2.4 7.4 7.0 6.1 2012 Jan 8 F -2 02 1.2 +1 44 1.2 +5 30 6.3 6.8 6.0 5.1 Table B: Observability of Becklin-Neugebauer object SkyCalc provided by courtesy of John Thorstensen, Dartmouth College. [emailprotected] http://www.eso.org/sci/observing/tools/calendar/observability.html Appendix 3 ESO GSC Online Server Query Result Center: RA: 05:35:14.117 DEC: -05:22:22.90 Search radius: 20 arcminutes nr gsc_id ra (2000) dec mag mu d pa 1 0477400932 05 35 16.41 -05 23 23.0 5.00 F; 1.15 150 2 0477400931 05 35 16.47 -05 23 22.8 5.09 F; 1.16 150 3 0477400933 05 35 22.83 -05 24 57.8 5.09 F; 3.37 140 4 0477400871 05 35 17.10 -05 23 40.6 5.51 F; 1.49 150 5 0477400934 05 35 26.27 -05 24 58.2 6.40 F; 3.98 131 6 0477400930 05 35 17.16 -05 23 12.7 6.69 F; 1.12 138 7 0477801369 05 35 54.09 -05 37 43.2 7.09 T; 18.28 147 8 0477400906 05 35 31.37 -05 16 02.7 7.19 T; 7.65 34 9 0477400906 05 35 31.26 -05 16 02.0 7.58 T; 7.65 34 10 0477801369 05 35 53.99 -05 37 42.1 7.74 T; 18.25 147 11 0477400935 05 35 31.33 -05 25 14.1 8.18 F; 5.15 124 12 0477400915 05 35 06.10 -05 12 15.5 8.28 F; 10.32 349 13 0477400809 05 34 46.89 -05 34 14.3 8.30 F; 13.66 210 14 0477400849 05 35 09.73 -05 27 52.6 8.53 F; 5.60 191 15 0477400823 05 34 55.20 -05 30 21.7 9.04 F; 9.27 211 16 0477400867 05 35 58.44 -05 22 31.0 9.11 F; 11.03 91 17 0477400855 05 36 27.09 -05 24 31.0 9.28 F; 18.29 97 18 0477400792 05 34 42.19 -05 07 14.2 9.39 T; 17.10 332 19 0477400894 05 35 34.18 -05 06 20.9 9.45 F; 16.79 17 20 0477400830 05 35 18.12 -05 03 54.5 9.48 F; 18.50 3 21 0477400792 05 34 42.19 -05 07 14.3 9.55 T; 17.10 332 22 0477400890 05 35 31.28 -05 33 08.5 9.74 F; 11.58 158 23 0477400829 05 35 35.71 -05 12 20.5 9.78 F; 11.39 28 24 0477400877 05 35 21.17 -05 09 15.7 9.79 F; 13.24 8 25 0477400812 05 35 00.05 -05 25 15.7 9.85 F; 4.53 231 26 0477400878 05 34 52.14 -05 33 08.1 9.96 F; 12.06 207 27 0477400810 05 34 49.89 -05 18 44.4 9.96 F; 7.04 301 gsc 1.0 25/Sep/1995. ESO/ST-ECF Archive| ESO| ST-ECF| Help| Search Send comments to HYPERLINK http://archive.eso.org/comments/[emailprotected]/Page:/cgi-bin/gsc. Table C: Guide stars Becklin-Neugebauer object

To Kill A Mockingbird - Scouts Maturity :: To Kill a Mockingbird Essays

As people grow in life, they mature and change. In the novel , To Kill a Mockingbird ,by Harper Lee, Scout, the main character, matures as the book continues. Slowly but surely, Scout learns to control her explosive temper, to refrain from fistfights, and to respect Calpurnia, their maid, and to really learn her value to the family. Scout simply changes because she matures, and she also changes because Atticus, her father, asks her to. In the early chapters of the book, Scout picks fights at the slightest provocation. One example of this is when Scout beats up Walter Cunningham, one of her classmates, for â€Å"not having his lunch†, which isn’t a very good reason at all. â€Å"Catching Walter Cunningham in the schoolyard gave me some pleasure, but when I was rubbing his nose in the dirt Jem came by and told me to stop. ‘You’re bigger’n he is,’ he said †¦ ‘He made me start off on the wrong foot.’ †¦ ‘Let him go Scout. Why?’ ‘He didn’t have any lunch,’ I said, and explained my involvement in Walter’s dietary affairs† (27). Scout is also very mischievous and has a devious mentality towards Calpurnia. She describes Calpurnia as a tyrannical presence, and she does everything she can to get her out of the house. One time Scout does this is when Walter comes over to her house to eat dinner. Scout criticizes Walt er for drowning his food in molasses, and Calpurnia scolds Scout. After Walter leaves, Scout asks Atticus to fire Calpurnia, which of course he doesn’t do. â€Å"Jem said suddenly grinned at him. ‘Come on home to dinner with us, Walter,’ he said. †¦ Walter stood where he was, biting his lip. Jem and I gave up, and we were nearly to the Radley Place when Walter called, ‘Hey, I’m comin’!’ While Walter piled food on his plate, he and Atticus talked together like to men, to the wonderment of Jem and me. Atticus was expounding on farm problems when Walter interrupted to ask if there was any molasses in the house†¦ Walter poured syrup on his vegetables and meat with a generous hand. He would probably have poured it into his milk glass had I not asked what the sam hill he was doing†¦ It was then that Calpurnia quested my presence in the kitchen†¦ She was furious, and when she was furious Calpurnia’s grammar became erratic†¦ â€Å"There’s some folks who don’t eat like us,† she whispered fiercely†¦ Jem and Walter returned to school ahead of me: staying behind to advise Atticus of Calpurnia’s iniquities was worth a solitary sprint past the Radley Place.

Essay --

â€Å"It was not without justification that the OECD 1979 report on the impact of the newly industrialized countries referred to Japan as the forerunner of the NICs† (Dore, 1986). Over the ages, Japan has developed from a powerful economy in Asia, to the third biggest economy in the world after the United States at number one, and the People’s Republic of China at number two, Japan in fact was the second biggest economy in the world until the year 2010 when China’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) got higher at $1.337 trillion, more than Japan’s $1.288 trillion GDP. Japan has over the years struggled to fight deflation, which has been a major problem to their economic growth. The growth of Japan’s economy will be looked at from four basic perspectives, the historical miracle of the bubble economy, the current deflationary and debt crises Japan is facing, the direction of the economy right from the economic miracle of the 1950s, and an insight to the fut ure of Japan. Japanese economic growth can be sectioned into three different historic eras namely, the Tokugawa (EDO) period, the Meiji period, and the post-war span. The Tokugawa period also recognized as the Edo period, lasted from 1603 - 1867, during this period, Japan under the rule of Emperor Iyesu Tokugawa became isolated from the rest of the world, as a result of that they enjoyed internal tranquility, political and economic stability, Japan enjoyed a stable economy because of the embargo the emperor embossed banning farmers from involving in other economic activities apart from the agricultural sector, this policy helped boost Japan’s national economy rapidly from the 1680s to the earliest parts of the 1700s. In 1867 the last Tokugawa shogunate was over thrown, less than a year later... ...lumber of stagnation currently hunting them, the persistent escalation in devaluation combined with high administration debt and low cash spending from the people will make it harder for Japan to recover their economic attitude. The Japanese Prime Minister’s policy are basically aimed at restoring the economy of the country, pessimist economists believe a deflation as great as that of Japan will be difficult to reverse, from the look of new spending power policies from BOJ, the Japanese are expected to increase spending power, thereby increasing PPP which will give rise to inflation in the country. The future of Japan’s economy may yet still be regained as a powerful global economy. The future of the Japanese economy depends on the success of Shinzo Abe’s economic strategies, the rate of deflationary cut-down, and good economic policies.

Factors Contributing to Willys Death in Death of a Salesman :: Literary Analysis, Analytical Essay

Willy Loman a self-doubting, delusional salesman enters his house with two empty suitcases; he failed to sell anything that day. He was greeted by his loving wife Linda and asked where he was all day. Willy replied by saying that he went as far as a little above Yonkers. Willy explains to Linda that he suddenly couldn’t drive anymore. In page 13 Willy explains â€Å"suddenly I realize I’m going’ sixty miles an hour and I don’t remember the last five minutes. Linda tries to comfort him by saying it’s your glasses and also by saying that you haven’t gotten enough rest. Willy responded by saying he can see perfectly fine. Linda then said to Willy that you should ask Howard to see if you can work in New York again. At first Willy said that they don’t need them there but gave into the suggestion Linda asked. Willy then suddenly asked if there was anything to eat. Linda willfully answered yes and that she would make him a sandwich. Willy r efuses it and says to Linda to go to sleep and asks if the boys are in. Linda says that the boys are sleeping; Happy took biff on a date tonight. Willy seemed interested and Linda continued talking, it was so nice to see them shaving together. She couldn’t get over that the whole house smelling like shaving cream. During this conversation Willy says an important quote â€Å"Work a lifetime to pay a house you finally own it, and there’s nobody to live in it. I find this to be ironic because it’s true you buy a house to raise a family and when you finally own it there’s nobody to live in it, because everybody is all grownup and going on with there own lives. Willy then goes downstairs and starts to talk to himself, as he’s doing this Biff and his younger brother happy start to talk about there teenage years, and talked bout their fathers babbling. They then talk about how they don’t like there lives at the moment. They later talked about buying ranch out west and thinking about other ideas to be successful. We return to Willy he gets flash backs about talking to his brother and that sho uld gone with him to Alaska and Africa to make money. This eventually leads to Willy’s death when Biff Confronts Willy of trying to commit suicide, and telling his dad to burn the fake dream that it’s never going to happen.

Many films are a bad influence on young people Essay

The film industries of the world are developing day by day. Today there are so many films being produced that you can barely keep count. Some of them are for the benefit of the community but most of the films have a bad influence on the young people as well as on the community. These films are responsible for increase in violence, crime, illegitimacy in the society. And I completely agree with the statement that many films are a bad influence on young people because of the following reasons. It has been noticed that boys and girls are crazy of watching movies. And they spent averagely three to four hours in watching movies daily. This fast growing bad habit is expensive because of increasing electricity bill and the waste of precious time which can certainly be devoted to healthier, less wasteful and more gainful pursuits. The extreme setting in front of TV is harmful for education and health also. The studies are affected because youth like to watch television when parents are not there in home, and having no self-discipline. Many teens have shortsighted because of this. And it caused the problem like fat. Staying at home will let you become lazier. Our body needs to do sports, exercise etc The youth also try the actions done by heroes in the films. In the Indian films there is extreme level of violence, crime and other deviations from normal human behavior. The re-enactment shows shown on different channels of about robbery, murder etc, and are extremely dangerous for the country in future because youth learn about the new methods of criminal activities. Education and other experts have repeatedly found that the main source of eve teasing and assaults on girls in our towns and cities, in the market place and elsewhere, is the cinema. Young people see on the screen a hero running after a heroine, approaching and tempting her in subtle ways. Such talk and gestures naturally catch the attention of the immature cinema fans and affect their thinking and conduct. Thus, the social fabric and the morals of the young people are adversely affected. Another notable aspect of the situation is that whenever some enterprising producer presents a simple, true-to-life story, based on the works of famous short story or fiction writers as Prem Chand or Sarat Chandra, such films, and also art films free of glamour, seldom prove successful and prove to be flops at the box office. The modern audiences want songs and dances, spectacle and gorgeous costumes, love scenes and fights. What sort of citizens can the country hope to produce when the films the young see are totally misleading, lack aesthetical values. However, there are some positive effects of the films like movie â€Å"Tara Zameen Par† in which a child which is been weak in one subject can be good in other subject and the strictness of the parents on the weak subject can make the child mentally disabled. In the last movies and films are bad for the youth because positive effects are lesser than negative effects.

Language is a system of differences without positive terms Essay

Ferdinand Saussure was the first structural linguist to reorient the study of linguistics and to take as an object of study the analysis of an arbitrary order of signs and their correlation with language. The arbitrariness of the sign is pervasive and is visible in the sense that there is no intrinsic connection between the signifier and the signified and a sign can be analyzed without its semantic context. This placed the sign within a system of differential relationships between signs and language. Thereby it became possible to study the basic elements of a language system as arrangements of contrasts and oppositions and arrive at â€Å"differences with no positive terms†. Saussure says a â€Å"linguistic sign exists only by virtue of its opposition to other signs; just as coins have values only within a particular system of coinage, and the identity of trains is only in terms of a particular railway system, so the links established between ‘significants’ and ‘signifies’ exist only through the system of oppositions by which, literally, that particular language is formed.   The conclusion is stark and radical.†Ã‚   Hence, in a â€Å"language system there are only differences with no positive terms† (Saussure 972). In order to arrive at an understanding of the â€Å"differences with no positive terms† Saussure divides language into two components. The first component is Langue which is an abstract system of language that has been internalized by a speech community. The second component is parole or the act of speaking or practice of language. While Parole is composed of heterogeneous, unrelated and differing elements, language is homogeneous union of concept and â€Å"sound image† or the signified and the signifier (both psychological). This notion of Lang has challenged translators of the text in English. There have also been a number of debates on the status of this term. There have been questions as to whether this refers to a mental entity—â€Å"a sort of platonic idea or merely designates a methodological concept, an abstraction that is a part of a heuristic strategy. The issue has been, and remains, the articulation of the twin notions of langue and parole, the latter being no less difficult to translate into English than the former. Some have opted for an ontological distinction on the model of the philosophical tradition that opposes essence and existence or â€Å"accidents†; others have reduced the difference to the pragmatic necessity of evaluating instances of â€Å"languaging† with respect to the opposite poles of a continuum going from the normative, idealized representation of a language to the open-ended actual utterances that are usually observed in verbal interactions. That Saussure himself was not entirely satisfied with these correlate notions of langue and parole seems obvious from his numerous attempts to specify the distinction† (Bouissac 6). Saussure contended that language is systematic and it is possible to investigate it using methodology that is used in investigating pure science. Hence, he calls the â€Å"life of the sign†, a science.   He names this science semiotics or the science that â€Å"studies the life of signs within society† (Saussure 962). The task of the linguist, in investigating this science is to â€Å"find out what makes language a special system within the mass of semiological data† (Saussure 962) and if we must â€Å"discover the true nature of language we must learn what it has in common with all other semiological systems† (Saussure 962).   Therefore, Saussure feels a need to begin with an understanding of the sign. Saussure offers a dyadic model of a sign in which the signifier and the signified are two parts of a whole.   This is a mental model in which a sign must have a signifier and a signified and the relationship between the two–a signification. Thus the sign itself is â€Å"immaterial† (not abstract), as it does not fix the signification of the signified. â€Å"The linguistic sign unites, not a thing and a name, but a concept and a sound image. The latter is not the material sound, a purely physical thing, but the psychological imprint of the sound, the impression that it makes on our senses† (Saussure 963). He further elucidates the point: â€Å"without moving our lips we can talk to ourselves or recite mentally a selection of verse† (Saussure 963).   Thus the definition of the linguistic sign is â€Å"a combination of a concept and a sign image† and consequently, Saussure proposes to â€Å"retain the sign [signe] to designate the whole and to replace concept and sound image respectively by signified [signifie] and signifier [significant]† (Saussure 963). It logically follows, that the sign has two primordial principles: a) The sign is arbitrary by nature and b) The signifier is linear by nature.  The arbitrary nature of the sign: The linguistic sign is arbitrary and the consequences of this arbitrariness are infinite. The discovery of the arbitrariness is also not easy and requires many â€Å"detours† before they can be discovered. However, the discovery uncovers the primordial importance of this principle of linguistic signs. This very arbitrariness of the sign makes it ideal for semiological study and it is this principle that makes language the model for all other branches of semiology (Saussure 965). Moving on to examining the arbitrary nature of the linguistic sign, Saussure realized that reducing a sign to a symbol makes it less arbitrary because it creates a bond between the signifier and the signified.   The linguistic sign is not arbitrary because there is no natural connection between the two. (Saussure 965).   The argument that Onomatopoeia proves that a sign is not always arbitrary is dismissed as onomatopoeic â€Å"formations are never organic elements of the linguistic system† (Saussure 965). Interjections too show that there is no â€Å"fixed bond between the signified and signifier† (Saussure 966) and â€Å"Onomatopoeic formations and interjections are of secondary importance and their symbolic origin is in part open to dispute† (Saussure 965). The linear nature of the Signifier The auditory nature of the signifier implies that it has a span and the â€Å"span is measurable in a single dimension; it is a line† (Saussure 966).   This principle, according to Saussure is very important because â€Å"the whole mechanism of language depends on it† (Saussure 966). Auditory signifiers â€Å"command the dimension of time† and â€Å"their elements are presented in succession; they form a chain† (Saussure 966). This linearity is visible in writing where â€Å"the spatial line of graphic marks is substituted for succession in time† (Saussure 966). Having said this, Saussure moves on to consider language in terms of an organized system of pure values consisting of ideas and sound in order to arrive at the â€Å"differences without positive terms†. Linguistic Value: Language as organized thought coupled with sound In examining language as organized thought and sound, Saussure finds that â€Å"there are no pre-existing ideas, and nothing is distinct before the appearance of language† (Saussure 967).   Moreover â€Å"phonic substance is neither more fixed nor more rigid than thought; it is not a mold into which thought must of necessity fit but a plastic substance divided in turn into distinct parts   to furnish the signifiers needed by thought† (Saussure 967). Therefore, language forms a â€Å"link between thought and sound under conditions that bring about the reciprocal delimitations of units† (Saussure 967) and becomes an â€Å"articulus in which an idea is fixed in a sound and a sound becomes the sign of an idea† (Saussure 967). It follows that the signifier and the signified are intimately connected. The two cannot be separated just as two side of a paper cannot be separated. â€Å"Thought is one side of the sheet and sound the reverse side.   Just as it is impossible to take a pair of scissors and cut one side of paper without at the same time cutting the other, so it is impossible in the language to isolate the sound from thought, or thought up from sound.† (Saussure 967). Nevertheless, the â€Å"combination produces a form, not a substance† (Saussure 967) because it remains completely arbitrary. It is this arbitrariness that makes it possible to create a linguistic system. However, Saussure warns that it must not be assumed that it is possible to construct the system from the parts but the parts can be obtained from the whole by a process of analysis (Saussure 968). Linguistic Value: Conceptual View point The next logical question that occurs to Saussure is â€Å"How does value differ from signification?† He concludes that, while conceptually signification is an element of value, it is not the same as value. It is in fact distinct from it.   This is because â€Å"language is a system of interdependent terms in which the value of each term results solely from the simultaneous presence of others† (Saussure 969). â€Å"Initially a concept is nothing †¦ is only a value determined by its relations with other similar values, that without them the signification would not exist† (Saussure 971). To better appreciate the significance of his finding he compares the concepts of value and signification as they exist outside of language.   He finds that the same paradoxical principle governs values outside language. Values are composed of a) â€Å"dissimilar things that can be exchanged for the thing of which the value is to be determined† (Saussure 969) like a coin can be exchanged for a fixed value of another thing; b) â€Å"similar things that can be compared with the thing of which the value is to be determined† (Saussure 969) such as a two penny coin can be compared to another two penny coin. The value of a word, therefore, â€Å"is not fixed so long as one simply states that it can be â€Å"exchanged† for a given concept, i.e. that it has this or that signification: one must also compare it with similar values, with other words that stand in opposition to it. Its content is really fixed only by the concurrence of everything that exists outside it. Being part of a system, it is endowed not only with signification but also and specially with a value, and this is something quite different† (Saussure 969). Linguistic Value from a Material Viewpoint Do these relations and differences between the terms of language and their value stand up to the test of linguistic value from the material viewpoint?   Saussure thinks so. In his view the most important fact is that â€Å"the word is not the sound alone but the phonic differences that make it possible to distinguish it from all others, for differences carry signification† (Saussure 971). He does not find this surprising because â€Å"one vocal image is no better suited than the next for what is commissioned to express† (Saussure 971). Hence any analysis of a segment of language must be based on the â€Å"noncoincidence with the rest† (Saussure 971) and the â€Å"arbitrary and differential† are two correlative qualities of language. The arbitrary and differential qualities of language are validated by the fact that the terms in a language are free â€Å"to change according to the laws that are unrelated to its signifying function† (Saussure 971). For instance no positive sign characterizes the genitive plural in Zen. Still Zena and Zenb function very well even if they replace the earlier forms of the word. It has value because it is different. This quality of language is also validated by the fact that â€Å"signs function†¦not through their intrinsic value but through their relative position† (Saussure 971). This reveals the â€Å"systematic role of phonic functions†. For instance there is similarity in the formation of the words ephen and esten.   However, the former is an imperfect and the latter is an aorist. In this context Saussure notes that the sound is a secondary thing to language—a substance that must be put to use in language. The â€Å"conventional values† must not be confused with the â€Å"tangible elements† that support them. The linguistic signifier is â€Å"incorporeal† and â€Å"is constituted not by its material substance but by the differences that separate its sound image from all others†. This basic principle then applies to all material elements of language. He therefore, concludes that â€Å"every language forms its words on the basis of a system of sonorous elements, each element being a clearly delimited unit and one of a fixed number of units† (Saussure 971) Finally, considering the sign in its totality, Saussure quickly sums up his findings as â€Å"in language there are only differences† (Saussure 972). What are these differences? First language has â€Å"neither ideas nor sounds that existed before the linguistic system, but only conceptual and phonic differences that have issued from the system† (Saussure 972).   In fact the idea or the phonic substance contained in the sign is of secondary importance as a change in the value of the term does not affect its meaning or its sound â€Å"solely because a neighboring term has been modified† (Saussure 973). Second when we consider a sign in its totality (Signifier / Signified) there are no negative terms. Therefore â€Å"a linguistic system is a series of differences of sound combined with a series of differences of ideas† and the â€Å"the pairing of a certain number of acoustical signs with as many cuts made from the mass of thought engenders a system of values† (Saussure 973). This system, then serves to â€Å"link the phonic and psychological elements within each sign† (Saussure 973). The combination is a positive fact that language uses to maintain classes of differences.   The â€Å"entire mechanism of language† then â€Å"is based on oppositions of this kind and on the phonic and conceptual differences that they imply† (Saussure 973). This can also be applied to units and the characteristics of units can be seen to blend into the units themselves. So â€Å"difference makes character just as it makes value and the unit† (Saussure 973). Syntagmatic and Associative Relations Since Saussure views language as a something that is based on relationships, he divides relations and differences between linguistic terms into two distinct groups. These groups are associated with two types of mental activity that are essential to the life of language. Within the discourse â€Å"words acquire relations based on ..linear nature of language because they are chained together† (Saussure 974).   These are syntagnms. These syntagnms â€Å"acquire value because they stand in opposition to everything that precedes and follows them† (Saussure 974). Outside the discourse words can acquire a different relation. The syntagnms relations are in praesentia in which two or more terms occur in an effective series.   Language belongs to syntagnmatic relationships built on regular forms.   Associative relations are created by memory of the forms by comparing terms.