Final reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Final reflection - Essay Example Through the various lessons that we have undertaken in class, especially those focusing on the images and viewer meaning, have all contributed to my ability to visually communicate successfully. Not only have I had the opportunity to improve my visual communication skills, I have also learnt the various factors that lead to poor visual communication, perception and meaning of what we see are the major factors. Visually, I can analyse anything that I see from different perspectives and later make a conclusion. Earlier, I used to make conclusions without going through the analysing process. Subsequently, I made numerous mistakes in most of my decisions. However, being a visually literate person, I make decisions without any fear or worry of making mistakes. Thus, I am more confident, surer and more decisive when am making my decisions from visual communication. Art is emotional and sentimental, as I have come to realize from the various classes that we have taken. The purpose of art is diverse and has a broad meaning. Not only is art a form of entertainment, it is also a form of communication that artists use to convey different messages to the audience. Artists use art to communicate on different social issues and problems generally affecting the society. Art influences our thinking and reasoning about life. Personally, I perceive art as a method in which artists use to educate people on important issues affecting the society. Moreover, I have come to realize that art takes many forms, not just the cultural art or art by a certain group of people. Media is a form of art in the post modernism era. However, there is a rift in the reasoning behind the modern and post modernism forms of art. While postmodern art holds that all stances are unstable and insincere, and therefore irony, parody, and humour, by critique or revision prevails, the modern art thinks otherwise. As such, many events happening around us incorporate the use of art, especially in advertising and explaining consumer behaviour and character. For an advert to be captivating, it should be creative and attractive. Beauty is attractive and captures the attention of the people. Through this understanding, businesses provide beautiful commodities to people especially those that capture their attention for the purpose of ma king a sale. Thus, even in the modern world, the art is still alive, only that this time, its application falls in different categories than in the past. Throughout the class, I came to realize several things that I was not aware about in the past. Although initially they appeared obvious, the reality in them did not occur to me until after taking the class. It was during the topic on â€Å"the experience of looking† that I experienced a break-through moment in my artistic abilities as well as visual communication. The different concepts learned in the class were a form of revelation that I did not have in the past. Positivism as I realized assumes that me aning exists out in the world, independent of our feelings, attitudes, or beliefs about them. Positivism holds that only the scientific knowledge is genuine knowledge, while other views are simply some forms of suspicion. Moreover, the empirical truths of experience of loo

Nclex ; Hesi Practice Tests Essay Example for Free

Nclex ; Hesi Practice Tests Essay Denial B. Anger C. Bargaining D. Rejection 2. Which of the following matches the definition: covering up a weakness by stressing a desirable or stronger trait? A. Compensation B. Projection C. Rationalization D. Dysphoria 3. Which of the following waveforms is most commonly found with light sleepers? A. Theta B. Alpha C. Beta D. Zeta 4. Which of the following months matches with an infant first having the ability to sit-up independently? A. 4 months B. 6 months C. 8 months D. 10 months 5. Object permanence for toddlers develops in this age range? A. 5-10 months B. 10-14 months C. 12-24 months D. 15-24 months 6. Which of the following matches the definition: attributing of our own unwanted trait onto another person? A. Compensation B. Projection C. Rationalization D. Dysphoria 7. Which of the following matches the definition: the justification of behaviors using reason other than the real reason? A. Compensation B. Projection C. Rationalization D. Dysphoria 8. Which of the following matches the definition: response to severe emotion stress resulting in involuntary disturbance of physical functions? A. Conversion disorder B. Depressive reaction C. Bipolar disorder D. Alzheimers disease 9. Which of the following waveforms is most commonly found when you are awake? A. Theta B. Alpha C. Beta D. Zeta 10. The REM sleep cycle occur approximately every ____ minutes? A. 45 B. 60 C. 75 D. 90 11. Which of the following reflexes is not found at birth? A. Babinski B. Palmar C. Moro D. Flexion 12. Parallel play for toddlers develops in this age range? A. 5-10 months B. 10-14 months C. 12-24 months D. 24-48 months 13. Which of the following is not a sign of anxiety? A. Dyspnea B. Hyperventilation C. Moist mouth D. GI symptoms 14. Which of the following best describes a person that is completely awake falling asleep spontaneously? A. Cataplexy B. Narcolepsy C. Transitional sleep D. REM absence 15. Which of the following best describes a person that is unable to tell you were there hand or foot is? A. Autotopagnosia B. Cataplexy C. Ergophobia D. Anosognosia 16. Which of the following is not a characteristic of a panic disorder? A. Nausea B. Excessive perspiration C. Urination D. Chest pain 17. Which of the following categories would a 70 year old adult be placed in? A. Intimacy vs. Isolation B. Generativitiy vs. Stagnation C. Integrity vs. Despair D. Longevity vs. Guilt 18. Which of the following categories would a 60 year old adult be placed in? A. Intimacy vs. Isolation B. Generativitiy vs. Stagnation C. Integrity vs. Despair D. Longevity vs. Guilt 19. Which of the following categories would a 20 year old adult be placed in? A. Intimacy vs. Isolation B. Generativitiy vs. Stagnation C. Integrity vs. Despair D. Longevity

The car industry: Dilemmas

The car industry: Dilemmas 1. Introduction The car industry faces a crucial weight problem resulting from increasing customer demands in terms of safety and performance. This trend leads to fully equipped cars in all classes getting more luxurious and comfortable. To escape from this vicious circle car manufacturers are forced to take action in the form of lightweight concepts. Light metals are seen as a promising opportunity to decrease the weight of a car. An increasing use of metals such as aluminium in the automotive industry shows that there is still large scope for improvements. Using aluminium car body panel is just a representative example of weight-saving effort did by car manufacturers. Aluminium has some properties that make it ideal for car bodies. The strength of aluminium frame and extruded sections is approximately the same as that of steel. However, the rigidity of aluminium is lower than that of steel. That is partly due to the modulus of elasticity of aluminium that is just one-third that of steel. (1) The effect is that aluminium has a higher elastic distortion when exposed to the same force as steel. Therefore the simple replacement of steel by aluminium engine is not an optimal solution as it does not exploit the whole scope of the advantages of aluminium. New ways need to be pursued to make full use of aluminiums advantages as a light weight material, which means it can be supplied in various aluminium alloys. Although the requirement for improved corrosion resistance and light-weighting are significant factors for use low-carbon steels in the manufacture of cars, (1) this traditional material still has some advantage such as higher strength and lower price. Many kinds of steel and aluminium alloys can be found commercially using in producing car body panels. Each material has its own characteristic. 1.1 Steel Steel is known as an alloy consisting mostly of iron, with carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight. (3) One of the main factors contributing to the utility of steels is the broad range of mechanical properties which can be obtained by heat treatment. For example, easy formability and good ductility may be necessary during fabrication of a part. Once formed very high strength part may be needed in service. Both of these material properties are achievable from the same material. All steels can be softened to some degree by annealing. The degree of softening depends on the chemical composition of the particular steel. (4) Annealing is achieved by heating to and holding at a suitable temperature followed by cooling at a suitable rate. Similarly, steels can be hardened or strengthened. This can be accomplished by cold working, heat treating, or an appropriate combination of these. Cold working is the technique used to strengthen both low carbon low alloyed steels and highly alloyed austenitic stainless steels. Only reasonably high strength levels can be attained in the carbon low alloyed steels, but the highly alloyed austenitic stainless steels can be cold worked to rather high strength levels. (5) Most steels are commonly supplied to specified minimum strength levels. Heat treating is the primary technique for strengthening the remainder of the steels. Some common heat treatment of steels is listed below: Martensitic hardening Pearlitic transformation Austempering Age hardening The recyclability of steel is brilliant and it is economically advantageous to do so. It is cheaper to recycle steel than to mine iron ore and manipulate it through the production process to form new steel. (6) 1.2 Aluminium-based alloys In the Earths crust, aluminium is the most abundant (8.3% by weight) metallic element and the third most abundant of all elements (after oxygen and silicon). Because of its strong affinity to oxygen, however, it is almost never found in the elemental state; instead it is found in oxides or silicates. Aluminium was isolated in small quantities early in the 19th century and it remained an expensive curiosity until 1886 when discovery of an economic method for its electrolyric extraction. Since then, the emergence of aluminium as a practical, commercial metal has relied primarily on the availability of electricity at economic prices. Aluminium is obtained from bauxite which is the name given to ores containing 40-60% hydrated alumina together with impurities such as iron oxides, silica and titania. Two steps are needed in the production of aluminium. First, alumina is extracted from bauxite. Second, use electrolysis to dissolve the alumina in molten cryolite and a typical electrolyte contains 80-90% of this compound and 2-8 % alumina together with additives such as aluminium and calcium fluorides. (7) Because the cryolite has a melting point as high as 1010?, the electrolysis of it needs a temperature of about 960? which wastes lots of energy and makes the cost of producing aluminium relatively higher. However, a new methodCambridge FFC which comes from the production of titanium, was introduced to China. This method use a NaCl-CaCl2 electrolyte which has a lower melting point of 520?, even lower than the melting point 660? of aluminium. By using alumina and liquid aluminium as negative electrode, the expanded reacting area on negative electrode allows the electrolysis of alumina to happen, which can theoretically reduce the electrolysis temperature to the melting point 660?. This research opens a new chapter of production of aluminium and will dramatically reduce the cost of producing aluminium some day. Generally speaking, about 85% of aluminium is used for wrought products which are produced from cast ingots. (8) The structures of alloys are greatly changed by the various working operations and thermal treatments. Each individual class of alloys behaves differently, with composition and structure dictation the working characteristics and subsequent properties that are developed. Casting aluminium alloys are also important parts of Al. Apart from light weight, the special advantages of aluminium alloys for castings are the relatively low melting temperatures, negligible solubility for all gases except hydrogen, and the good surface finish that is usually achieved with final products. Most of the cast alloys also show good fluidity and composition can be selected with solidification range appropriate to particular applications. (1) Casting alloys normally have mechanical properties that are inferior to wrought products and these properties also tend to be much more variable throughout a given component. 2 Study of possible alloy using for producing car body 2.1 Steel At present, low carbon steel sheet is most commonly used in car body production. Low-carbon steel has good machinability. Its strength and rigidity can fully meet the car body strength requirements, as well to meet the body welding requirements. 2.1.1 Low carbon steel Steel with low carbon content has properties similar to iron. Low carbon steel is the steel containing approximately 0.05-0.15% carbon. Content influences the yield strength of steel because it is a BCC structure and carbon atoms fit into the interstitial crystal lattice sites. (3) These carbon atoms reduce the mobility of dislocations. But it has a hardening effect. Because the interstitial carbon atoms cause some of the iron BCC lattice cells to distort, a high enough stress level must be applied in order for the dislocations to move. Low carbon is one of the most common steel and it is relatively cheap than most other steels. However, the strength is relatively lower, which can be seen in appendix. 2.1.2 Higher strength steel In order to reduce the weight of an automobile, it is absolutely essential to reduce the thickness of the sheet steel and compensate for loss of strength by using higher strength steel sheets. For inner panels, though a rather substantial amount of high strength steel is used, the percentage use is a little lower than in the outer panel due to stiffness limitation and insufficient formability. (9) However, the overall use of high strength steel is estimated to increase further more. The problems in press performance of high strength steel are wrinkles, surface deflection and springback, fracture especially in stretch flanging and galling on the forming tool. Until now, the average level of strength used widely is at most 400 MPa but in the near future the high strength steel with over 400 MPa may be used for the reduction of weight and in this case the forming difficulty will increase further more. (5) The thickness of a panel sheet decreases as a result of application of higher stre ngth steel. Many kinds of microstructural hardened high strength steel sheet are applied by automobile producers. Ø Dual phase steel Dual phase steel show lower yield strength compared with other types of steel having the same tensile strength because of mobile dislocations existing in the vicinity of the boundary of ferritic and martensitic phases. So presents low yield ratios. And thats why its elastic recovery after forming work is small and shape fixability is good. As it also shows larger elongation than precipitation hardened steel sheets and fatigue resistance. (3) Ø Trip steel sheet Transformation induced plasticity steel is also becoming an ideal material for car body panels. It has meta-stable austenite transformable into martensite contained up to 30% in bainite or ferrite and bainite matrix. Commercial Trip sheets have simple C-Si-Mn series chemical compositions. The simpler chemical compositions are made viable by stabilizing the austenite phase through distribution of alloy elements in the two phase region and concentration of carbon into austenite during bainite transformation. (4) 2.2 Aluminium-based alloy Pure aluminium cannot be applied to normal passenger car due to softness. Moreover, surface damages during stamping and handling are often subjected to subsequent surface hand finishing. This additional operation on the panel is usually inevitable. In contrast to pure aluminium, aluminium alloys contain solute additions which can markedly affect grain structures and particularly the microstructures within the grains. This in turn strongly influences the responses of alloys to working and heat treatment. Both crystal structure and microstructure influence mechanical properties. Slip is inhibited by grain boundaries, which are disordered regions, (and so small grains improve strength). Slip can also be made difficult by dispersing particles of another phase throughout the matrix. This indicates the typical hardening mechanism of aluminium. (9) There are some kinds of wrought aluminium alloys typically used for car body. 2.2.1 Aluminium Manganese Alloys 3xxx This series of alloys is non heat-treatable. The addition of approximately 1% manganese increases the strength by approximately 10 15% compared with 1200, without any major loss in ductility. This non-heat treatable alloy generally finds a wide application where greater strength is required without any major loss in corrosion. The addition of manganese to the chemical composition creates phases like (Mn,Fe)Al6 or (Mn,Fe)3SiAl12 that can be revealed by a solution of 10% of phosphoric acid. The grain structure obtained by work hardening or by annealing is usually revealed by anodisation. (8) 3103 is typically used for car body in the automobile industry. The composition of 3103 alluminium is 0.7% Fe, 1.5% Mn and some others. 2.2.2 Aluminium Magnesium Alloys 5xxx This series of alloys is non heat-treatable and exhibits the best combination of high strength with resistance to corrosion. This series also exhibits good weldability but when the Mg level exceed 3% there is a tendency for stress corrosion resistance to be reduced, dependent on the temper used and temperature of operation. (1) Magnesium is largely soluble in aluminum compared to the other elements, but the content in excess can appear as eutectic Mg2Al3. After cold rolling and annealing they can be found at the grain boundaries or after cold working they can precipitate on deformation bands. In both cases the structure can be revealed by an etching of 10% H3PO4. At the same time as Cr is a frequent additive in this series, Cr2Mg3Al18 may appear as a fine dispersoid. (8) 5182 can be used as car body panel. The composition of 5182 alluminium is 4.1% Mg, 0.4% Mn and some others. 2.2.3 Aluminium Magnesium Silicon Alloys 6xxx This group of heat-treatable alloys uses a combination of magnesium and silicon (magnesium Silicide) to render it heat-treatable. These alloys find their greatest strength, combined with good corrosion resistance, ease of formability and excellent ability to be anodised. This family takes the main advantages from the strengthening due to the precipitation of Mg2Si. So the etching will reveal the iron rich phases like Fe3SiAl12, Fe2Si2Al9 that are insoluble and the coarse precipitates or the excess soluble precipitates (0.5%HF). (8) Typical alloys 6009 in this group are used for car bodies. The composition of 6009 aluminium is Si 1.1%, Mg 0.6 %, Mn 0.4% and some others. 3 Study of competition between steel and Al Automobiles today are over 63% iron and steel by weight. (10) With rising energy and environmental concerns, as well as increases the performance of the car, vehicle light-weighting continues to be a prominent concern for vehicle manufacturers. At the present, more and more aluminium alloys are introduced to automobile industry because the aluminium alloys can normally meet the requirement but is only half weight of steel. However, both the traditional steel car and aluminium have their advantages or disadvantages on aspects of manufacturing, safety, repairability, cost, recyclability, and environmental protection. 3.1 Manufacturing Aluminium parts can be more complicated in their design because the high number of design solutions likes the castings available in nearly any shape. One casting can replace a complex part consisting of several steel panels. Consequently a reduction of parts up to 50% is feasible. (1) This again makes design, construction and production easier as fewer parts need to be dealt with in any stage of the design and manufacturing process. Aluminium car body has fewer parts lead to fewer tools and fixtures, which makes manufacturing easily and therefore saving working spaces and expenses. Because the sheets can tear easily, low elongation and yield limits of aluminium alloys make it difficult for stamping. This has to be taken into account when designing and building car bodies. Also a higher resilience of the sheets causes difficulties in keeping the tolerances during stamping for individual parts and therefore for the whole car body. (11) Furthermore, it is difficult to keep the body tolerances after welding processes since aluminium extrusions and cast sections behave unpredictably when subjected to uneven heat influence. The heat expansion of aluminium is higher than steel, so all fixtures need to be built more solidly and stable to cope with the higher forces. Extensive pickle treatment is necessary to create a weldable surface for aluminium car body. Also the finish of the surface for the paint shop is costly and requires a lot of time and knowledge since the sheets tend to get scratched more easily than equivalent steel panels and the surface of the sheets is liable to form waves. (12) The 6xxx series of aluminium alloys which has been used a lot for the car body requires heat treatment to achieve the demanded strength. The drying process in the paint shop is not sufficient as the conventional temperatures are not high enough. Hence, an additional heat treatment line needs to be installed to heat the car bodies up to 210Â °C for 30 min to harden the aluminium alloys. (13) This cannot be done in advance of manufacturing as it would influence the welding processes negatively. When using aluminium alloy as car body material, contact corrosion plays a much more crucial role as steel accelerates the corrosion of aluminium than using steel body. So that screws or other parts made of steel need to be coated. Otherwise holes in the car body are unavoidable when exposed to moisture. (7) 3.2 Repairability and safety aspects Nowadays, Crash tests have aroused the publics attention since occupant safety is a feature that is receiving considerable public attention. Automobile companies even promote car safety as a leading aspect in their advertising campaigns. Additionally, insurance companies set great store by repairability of cars as they cause a significant part of their costs. In some countries the expenditure per car for repairing certain types of damage is assessed and taken into account when the car is being classified for insurance. (15) In approximately 5% of all accidents the frame structure of a car is damaged. (2) This can be crucial if casting parts or extrusions are concerned as they cannot be reformed properly. They need to be replaced in sections or as a whole dependent on the severity of the accident. Cast aluminium sections especially are liable to develop cracks and consequently need to be examined carefully. Additionally, a completely different approach to repairing damage forces dealers to train their mechanics in the appropriate techniques. In particular aluminium shielded arc welding requires accuracy, practice and the appropriate equipment but not steel. This becomes a problem especially for small dealers as they cannot afford the necessary equipment or staff. (12) Also, tools must not be mixed up with steel tools to avoid corrosion caused by steel particles in the aluminium panels. A separate set of tools for aluminium is mandatory to fully avoid these effects. (14) However, the properties of aluminium offer several advantages to steel. Tubular aluminium sections crumple in the ideal way when subjected to impacts. They develop a crumple pattern that can absorb more energy than equivalent steel elements. Consequently with half the weight of steel an aluminium structural member provides the same safety. (15) 3.3 Cost It is obvious that aluminium is more expensive to manufacture than steel. The costs of a sophisticated aluminium car body are many times larger than of an ordinary steel body. This can be especially crucial when being applied to small cars as the margin there is lower than at luxury cars. Higher material costs, a more sophisticated handling of aluminium parts in comparison to steel and some alloys need heat treatment to achieve the required strength, are the main drawbacks. (9) However, the use of aluminium causes lower investments for tooling due to the fact that stamped steel parts are replaced by extrusions which cause costs only a fraction of the costs required to manufacture stamping tools. This is especially interesting for low volume series as the tooling costs here have a relatively high influence on the unit costs. Additionally, punch riveting and clinching consume less energy than spot welding and will cause lower energy costs. But the development of high volume technology for welding, riveting and bonding is a crucial issue that has kept car manufacturers from producing all-aluminium car bodies as it is accompanied by high initial investment for research, development and design. (15) 3.4 Recyclability Recycling is likely to become more important in the future as governments force industry to design fully recyclable products just as is an increasing customer awareness in terms of environmental protection and hence a growing demand for eco-friendly products. To preserve the quality of the recycled material the different alloys must not be mixed up. This is especially crucial for the production of extrusions and sheets out of recycling aluminium alloys as they have lower tolerance levels of impurities than steel. Additionally, they can only be recovered if they are not mixed with cast parts. (6) Therefore, joined aluminium alloys panels with different alloys cause problems. Also panels that are joined with steel parts like rivets make recycling problematic since steel parts need to be removed to keep the number of foreign substances low. (6) This becomes more difficult as aluminium cannot be magnetically separated from other wastes. In order to recycle aluminium only a fraction of the original energy consumption is needed, even less than for recycling steel. 3.5 Environmental protection The environmental issues of different materials can be assessed by a comparison of the energy household of an aluminium and steel-made car during production and over their whole lives. Only having regard to all processes that cause energy consumption during production and operating life can an accurate result be given of the eco-friendliness of a car. It includes material cycles and the amounts of energy needed to produce and maintain a car during operating life time, including fuel. (15) If primary material is used, aluminium starts with a drawback of an additional energy consumption during production. Compared with steel, far higher amounts of energy are needed to produce lightweight metals like aluminium. For illustration, a car could achieve a weight reduction of 20 kg by the intensive use of aluminium alloys body other than the steel one. The additional energy consumed could be compensated after 3500 miles. After having covered this distance, the energy comparison works in favour of aluminium. A further comparison can be made in terms of carbon dioxide emissions. If primary aluminium is used it takes 60000 miles until the lighter aluminium auto has compensated the higher CO2 emission during production. However, when the proportion of recycled, secondary aluminium exceeds 75% the CO2 emission household is positive for aluminium from the first instance. (1) 4 Summary Considering the energy and environmental issues, using light weight metal for car bodies will be the trends in the near future. However, the traditional steel products still have the advantage of price and easy for manufacturing. Apart from luxuries cars already using light metal bodies, steel car bodies still take a large part of auto body market for it cheaper price and relatively better mechanical properties.

Dogmatism Character of Religion Essay -- Religion

â€Å"Plato’s Dream† is a short story written in 1756 by the French philosopher and satirist Franà §ois-Marie Arouet who published under the name of Voltaire. In this story, He explained the doctrine taught by Plato to his disciples. The scene is about Demiurgos, the creator of the infinite space, who wanted to test the geniuses of his supreme creatures. He gave each one a planet to organize. One of his creatures, Demogorgon, received the earth. He worked on it and arranged it as well as we have it today. Because of the magnificent job he did, he believed he would receive the utmost praise from his brothers; instead, he was ridiculed and criticized because of his imperfections that they noted supposedly. The brothers not only criticized Demogorgons’ work, but also seem to have a critique towards each other’s work. Since they were not able to agree with each other’s work, they kept going back and forth in their disputes. To put an end to it, the cre ator Demiurgos called for peace amongst his supreme creatures and decided to be the ultimate judge. Through his examination of their work he found both great discoveries as well as flaws, which was not a surprise to him since his creatures had a lot of knowledge and imperfections as well. Demiurgos concluded and stated that he is the only one who could create perfection and had the power to give immortality. This fable written by Voltaire is a sharp philosophical criticism of religious doctrine. He is known as a deist, which is a belief or doctrine that declares the existence of a god and its influence in the creation of the universe without relying on sacred scripts or being a member of a formal religion. â€Å"Plato’s Dream† portrays the dogmatic character of religion, and argues for principles ba... ...not sponsor a blind belief in God in the darkness of its mysteries. Works Cited Englander, Alex. â€Å"Kant’s Aesthetic Theology: Revelation as Symbolisation in the Critical Philosophy.† NeueZeitschriftfà ¼rSystematischeTheologie und Religionsphilosophie.53.3 (2011). 304. Academic Search Complete. Web. 25 April 2012. Rist, John.† Morality and Religion: Some Questions about First Principles.† Philosophical Investigations.34.2. (2011). 215. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 April 2012. Voltaire. â€Å"Plato’s Dream.† Trans. Literature a World of Writing: Stories, Poems, Plays, and Essays. Ed. David L. Pike and Ana M. Acosta. Boston: Pearson 2011. 429-430. Print. Wittgenstein, Ludwig Josef Johann. â€Å"Wittgenstein and religiousdogma.†International Journal for Philosophy of Religion. Ed. Hoyt, Christopher.61.1 (2007). 42. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 April 2012.

Financial Analysis Apple Inc.

————————————————- To: ————————————————- ————————————————- By: ————————————————- ————————————————- FINANCIAL REVIEW TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Company Background 3 2. Stock Price Analysis 6 3. Risk Return Analysis 9 5. References11 PART I A. Company Background Apple Inc. long with its wholly-owned subsidiaries designs and manufactures and markets mobile communication, media devices, personal computers and portable digital music players along with a variety of related software’s, services, peripherals and networking solutions. The Company offers a range of mobile communication and media devices, personal computing products, and portable digital music players, as well as a variety of related software, services, peripherals, networking solutions and third-party hardware and software products. The most important of which are enumerated below: 1. Phone – iPhone combines a mobile phone and an iPod, Internet communication device in a single handheld product. 2. iPad – is a multi-purpose mobile device, for browsing web, sending and reading email, viewing photos & watching videos, listening music, playing games and reading e-books etc. 3. Mac Hardware Products – includes likes of iMac, Mac-Pro and Mac mini. The iMac desktop has design that incorporates display, processor, graphics, storage, and other components in a single enclosure 4. iPod – line of portable digital media players includes lik es of iPod touch, iPod shuffle and iPod classic. Pod is a flash-memory-based device with a widescreen display, a Multi-Touch user interface. 5. iTunes – is an application, which supports the sale, purchase, download, organization and playback of digital video and audio files and is also available for both the Mac and the Windows based computers. The Company not only sells to retail and bulk consumers, but also to small and mid-sized businesses, and to educational institutions, enterprises and government customers. The Company’s fiscal year ends on the last Saturday of September and is of 52 or 53-week period.The company has almost 60400 permanent employees and has the second largest market cap after IBM with about 563. 79 Billion dollars and an equal enterprise value, with revenues in excess of 142. 36 Billion dollars and with and EBITDA of 53. 27 billion dollars. B. Business Strategy & Organization The Company’s business strategy is to uniquely leverage its abi lity to design, develop its own operating system, hardware, applications software’s, to its customers, and new products and new solutions with superior usage ease and seamless integration and innovative design.The Company’s strategy, also includes and basically rests on, expanding its distribution network so in order to effectively reach more customers. The Company manages business primarily on geographical basis and has segregated the business locations of its customers into the following 1. The Americas consisting of both North and South America, 2. Europe, Middles East and Africa, 3. Japan, 4. Asia-Pacific, Australia and Asian countries and 5. Retail. It is to be noted that all the above four segments do not include the retail segment figures and strategy.The retail segment consists of stores directly opened by the company and managed by it. C. Competition The products and services offered by the company are a part of highly competitive markets segment it faces stif f and aggressive competition in almost all areas of its business. The market is characterized by very frequent new product introductions and a rapid technological advancement that has substantial capabilities of use of mobile and related communications devices.There is a cut throat competition in the market where the company’s operates, as the competitors are continuously innovating and selling products at extremely low rates. However still the company has been able to maintain its market brand values and sees a good and extremely high level of operating cash flows generation. The Company’s major services i. e. digital content services is facing significant competition from other companies who are promoting their own digital music, services and content products, including free peer to peer video and music services.Some of Apple’s competitors have enough substantial resources and may provide such products and services in market at virtually little or no even prof it to compete with the Apple’s offerings. The most important and major company’s competitors can be classified in various ways as below: However for our study later on, we shall consider HPQ or Hewitt Packard as a close competitor. PART II A. Stock Price Analysis For our stock price analysis, we consider the time period from 16 Mar – 2012 to 6 April – 2012.However it is to be noted that the time frame provided here is not ample for a detailed study and an accurate one for future predictions. We first study the movement of the Apple Inc. stock price movements’ vis-a-vis the S&P 500. From the above figure it is clear that the movement of Apple is less volatile than that of the Index. It is also to be noted that the pattern of movement of Apple’s price show that it is lagging behind or trailing the trend movement of the index. Furthermore in the period under consideration above there seems to be an immediate uptrend developing and sustaining.Al so the major point of astonishment here is during the period post 3 April 2012, the S&P 500 and Apple’s stock prices are moving in opposite direction thereby indicating of some news based movement. This move was probably preempting the Q2 filing by the company which was due later in the next week. However no serious trend or movement is visible in either of the charts above. We do the same comparison of Apple with its peer HPQ for the same period. From the graph above it is quite clear that where Apple’s price movement is positively trending upwards, that of HOQ is a sideways movement without any perfect present trend or direction.The reason being the expectations from the forthcoming Q2 results of Apple, which was an event based movement for Apple, which was absent for HPQ. Now we study the movement of the stock prices on a standalone basis. From the above diagram it is clear that there is no significant or sudden movement in prices or volume of the stock. However the y both show a good trend, and there is not much pressure on the prices of the stock at higher levels which is shown by the build of white candles and an uptrend, which indicates of further upside room present in the stock.However this seems to be news based event and should be properly traded. In all there are five black and ten white candles, which show an imminent uptrend in the stock price, which is also supported by sustenance in the daily volumes. PART III A. Risk Return Analysis We now perform a risk return analysis on the stock. We use the concepts of CAPM model and data for the period as specified in the above segment and calculate different measures as shown below and abridged in the accompanying excel file.From the above calculations we see that the Beta of Apple is lesser than that of HPQ and more close to 1 which resembles that Apple is less volatile than HPQ and more in tandem with the normal or broad market movement. On the other hand HPQ has a high beta indicating tha t the movement in prices of HPQ is more volatile and would yield a higher return, either positive or negative, as compared to Apple. This is also visible in the fact that the Expected return of HPQ is less than that of Apple, which is at least a percentage point or a 100 bps better than HPQ.It is also seen that Apple has been able to give positive returns as compared to HPQ and even the market. This means that Apple has been able to outperform the market. The reason behind the same is the fact that it is expected that the results of Apple for Q2 are going to be better due to the fact that they have recently launched new products and expanded on existing sales and product line, which would result in better revenue e, margins and sales and net profits, which would ultimately react in the EPS.Hence the returns of Apple are positive and more than that of HPQ. This indicates the fact that Apple seems to be an underpriced stock and should be bought as it seems to be giving more returns th an the expected returns and compared to HPA and the index is an outperformer due to more fundamental reasons likes above expectation performance rather than purely and only technical reasons. All this is pretty evident in the Beta and the Expected returns of the stock.PART IV REFERENCES: 1. Thirty Year US T-Bill rate; Available at http://www. bloomberg. com/markets/rates-bonds/government-bonds/us/ 2. Apple Inc. Annual Report and About Company; Available at http://secfilings. nasdaq. com/edgar_conv_html%2f2011%2f10%2f26%2f0001193125-11-282113. html#FIS_BUSINESS 3. Stock Prices Data, Apple, S&P, HPQ; Available at http://finance. yahoo. com 4. Apple Competitors; Available at http://www. nasdaq. com/symbol/aapl/competitors

Brave New World vs. Gattaca

Brave New World vs.. Cataract BY Killing We all expect the near future to have advance technology and flying cars. Well, genetic engineering Is Indeed advance technology but there are negative effects that come along with it. In both â€Å"Brave New World† by Allots Huxley (1932) and Cataract (1997) is based on how genetic engineering is taken over the world. Everyone was created by science instead of being born and having both parents' genes. Intelligence an personality are very minor In these societies, but the Important thing that matters is where you belong in life.However, the film Cataract is in the future but has a dated style to it. From the clothing and hairstyles to the cars and buildings, it all reminds you of the style in the ass's or ass's. The director intended it to be that way just to view how our style could go back to how It used to be In the past. The setting of the movie sets the mood to be somewhat serious and thriller like. The mood of professional busine ss would be a good example of this film. The theme of the novel is generally saying are we all headed to where our genetic code defines what we do and owe we live.Although the film does not have a futuristic feel to It, the plot still shows you that the future is not that distance. The mall character, Vincent Freeman, wanted to fulfill his dreams and travel into space. The initial problem that occurred was that his gene was not genetic superior to accomplish his goal. Vincent had a heart problem that prevented him from doing big Jobs. He came up with an idea to become a valid person. He decided to use someone else's Identity and DNA to be able to travel in the stars. Vincent uses an athlete, Jerome Marrow, who was paraplegic from a car crash.Freeman changed his looks, style, and even had surgery to become the same height as Jerome. He made sure that people would discover whom he really Is. Later on In the movie, Vincent brother tries to find the murderer of an Important person but w as really trying to find Vincent. They didn't know they were brother because a while back when they were younger, Vincent brother was lost at sea and he haven't seen him ever since. They reunite and realize on how different they were from each other. In a way, this film has a genre of mystery and thriller that is served.On the other hand, the book â€Å"Brave New World† also does not really have that futuristic feel, but you can tell it is based on the future when you read it. The book is older, so when it was written, it did not have the modern day style that we use. The year is actually in 802540, which is way past the year future. The mood of this book Is satirical and bitter. At some points. It was funny but had a serious meaning to It as well. As you read the book, you could notice that there would be more than one thing owing at once where the point of view turns from first person to third person omniscient.The theme of this book Isn't anything compared to Cataract, but it's saying that the community Is sterilized and we are headed for the end if the community we live in continue. In addition to, the movie Cataract is similar to â€Å"Brave New World†. Humans predict other humans lifestyle by making tests and observations to determine where they are placed. This world seeks stability in each society but it most likely doesn't work on everyone. Having a family Is not allowed to be applied In he future.Therefore, the people are separated on what defines them Like being a Delta or an upsilon. In which why the character Bernard is not happy with the order 1 OFF such as having a family. Bernard tries to find the meaning of life but everyone thinks he is crazy from exploring his curiosity. I believe that the both the writers of the film and the book intended on including such an intense view of the future. These views of the future are actually believable and actually could be where we are all headed at to the near future.All though we all imagin e the future being a new and high tech setting, in Cataract we can actually see the style of the ass's and unlike â€Å"Brave New World† we can only read what it could be and visualize it. All in all, both of the Cataract and â€Å"Brave New World† are engaging and interesting. I would recommend reading â€Å"Brave New World† first and then watching Cataract because you can get an older point of view of the future and a more modern point of view. Genetic engineering could be our future if technology becomes bigger than it already is.

Mussolini and the intervention crisis essays

Mussolini and the intervention crisis essays Mussolini and the intervention crisis Benito Mussolini was born in Predappio, near Forli, in Romagna, on July 29, 1883. Like his father, Benito became a fervent socialist. He qualified as an elementary schoolmaster in 1901. In 1902 he emigrated to Switzerland. Unable to find a permanent job there and arrested for vagrancy, he was expelled and returned to Italy to do his military service. After further trouble with the police, he joined the staff of a newspaper in the Austrian town of Trento in 1908. Expelled by the Austrians, he became the editor at Forli of a socialist newspaper, La Lotta di Classe (The Class Struggle). His early enthusiasm for Karl Marx was modified by a mixture of ideas from the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, the revolutionary doctrines of Auguste Blanqui, and the syndicalism of Georges Sorel. In 1910, Mussolini became secretary of the local Socialist party at Forli.When Italy declared war on Turkey in 1911, he was imprisoned for his anti-war propaganda . Appointed editor of the official Socialis t newspaper Avanti, he moved to Milan, where he established himself as the most forceful of all the leaders of Italian socialism. At this stage in his life, his political views were anti-militarist and anti-war however throughout the intervention crisis his views altered dramatically and became opposite of what they were before. On June 28 the Archduke of Austria Franze Ferdinand, Hapsburg heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, was assassinated in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. The death of the heir was greeted with relief and joy because he once stated publicly that he wanted to declare war on Italy, but also because Italys relations with Austria had became increasingly tensed since the war in Tripoli. As the war began to take shape on the horizon, Italy found itself in an undesirable position. Under the leadership of Antonio di San Giuliano, the Foreign Minister, the nation had become increasingly tied to ...