Friday, September 13, 2019
History and Implications including Functionality Essay
History and Implications including Functionality - Essay Example Pascal, whose name was subsequently bequeathed to it though Chinese mathematician Yangsui generated it almost 500 years earlier than that. In China it became known as Yangsui's triangle while Persian astronomer-poet Omar Khayyam also studied it in some details.(Mathworld, Pascal's Triangle, 2006) Indian mathematicians like Pingalacharya also knew of it even earlier than the Chinese and all these shall be discussed subsequently together with some of this number triangle's unique properties. Though not much is known about how Pascal exactly came upon this number triangle it is obvious that since he was well-known as a mathematician, philosopher and religious figure in the France of that time he made it famous. This is one of his lesser-known achievements. He is much better known for his discovery of the constant pressure within a static fluid (Pascal's Principle). (Scienceworld, 2006) The first known description of a binary numeral system, that ultimately generates the triangle, is to be found in the works of Pingalacharya, the famous circa 5th century B.C. Indian scholar on prosody. He is supposed to be the younger brother of the more famous Sanskrit Grammarian Panini, whose grammar is still considered to provide the basic guidelines for that language. Actually, Pingala was exploring the listing of Vedic meters in short and long syllables when he came upon the system of binary numerals. His discussions of the combinations possible for the meters describes the binomial theorem. His works were later taken up by the 10th century Indian mathematician Halayudha whose commentary presents a form of the Pascal's triangle. It is described as the 'Meru-prastaara', as the rudimentary form of the Pascal's triangle was known then in Sanskrit. Pingala was also the first person to make mention of the Fibonacci Numbers, as they are known now. The paper shall touch upon the Fibo nacci numbers later on. In Sanskrit, as Pingala would have it, these numbers were known as 'maatraameru'. (Wikipedia, Pingala, 2006) It is noted here that Indian astronomers and mathematicians were quite advanced in those days and quite a few important concepts such as that of zero, attributed to
Thursday, September 12, 2019
Research in Motion Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words
Research in Motion - Case Study Example These devices revolutionized mobile telecommunications in the world due to their touted initial addictive nature. RIMââ¬â¢s success is cited to have ushered in the in the era of the smartphone industry in the world. A key factor to RIMââ¬â¢s success with their BlackBerry brand was the enhanced emailing capabilities that came with the mobile device. This aspect combined with its long battery life and significant security features made the device a must have mobile devise for business executives, government personnel and other professionals. RIMââ¬â¢s success is attributed to several key factors including its long standing commitment to security and reliability of the service. BlackBerryââ¬â¢s operating system, server system and its carrier infrastructure also add to the deviceââ¬â¢s superiority in the market. The device is also recommended for its smart features that are characterized by its ruggedness, simple graphical user interface and long battery life. Issues Succe ss for RIM has not been without challenges posed by competitors like Nokia and Motorola, which the company has been able to outmaneuver through innovation and competent leadership. The primary issue or challenge facing RIM and its brand, BlackBerry is change. This is an aspect that been embodied by BlackBerryââ¬â¢s competitors most notably Appleââ¬â¢s iPhone and Samsung. The entrance if these two brands into the telecommunications industry led to the emergence of new platforms and devices. This has resulted in a drastic fall and decline for both of RIMââ¬â¢s share price and market share, an aspect that has been seen as an indicator of RIMââ¬â¢s declining relevance in the telecommunications sector. 1. A critical issue that needs addressing at RIM in order to get back on track to its former solid footing is transitioning to a new operating system. This is the only way that BlackBerry will be able to offer any substantial and significant competition to the current market le aders Google and Apple. BlackBerry needs to develop a new operating system to match the capabilities and features that are being provided by its competitors. 2. The second most important issue that needs to be addressed by Blackberry in order to get back into the ââ¬Ëgameââ¬â¢ is to review it top management strategies. In the final stages, RIMââ¬â¢s decline in the telecommunications industry was characterized by drastic erosion of management protocols. This led to massive resignations and loss of morale and direction for the company, which negatively impacted its attempts of delivering innovations to the market to counter their competitorsââ¬â¢ advances. Issue 1 According to Watson (4), BlackBerryââ¬â¢s top leadership and management failed to address a potentially disruptive new trend. This is because they did not recognize the threat posed by the new smartphone revolution introduced by Apple and Google products. BlackBerry believed that these new introductions could not have a meaningful impact on their core business customers. This was because they lacked some key features that were considered essential in a smartphone like the QWERTY keyboard, which can be concluded to mean that BlackBerry dismissed these products as mere other consumer products. The emergence of these new products in the market eroded RIMââ¬â¢s market share to significant low levels. BlackBerryââ¬â¢s repeated failures to honor its pledges to deliver new products to the market that would match the new entrantsââ¬â¢ capabilities spoiled BlackBerryââ¬â¢s reputation and credibility to their customers and clients (Watson 11). Blackberryââ¬â¢s operating system became redundant with the introduction of Appleââ¬â¢s iSO and Googleââ¬â¢s Android operating systems, which provided broader functional and
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
'If a business wants to maximise profit, it cannot be concerned with Essay
'If a business wants to maximise profit, it cannot be concerned with corporate social responsibility'. Critically discuss th - Essay Example When a business focuses on maximizing profit, they are ignoring their responsibility towards society. Should a business worry about the importance of CSR or that of maximizing profit (Davis 1960)? The paper discusses the fact that it is a businessââ¬â¢ social responsibility to maximize profit by ignoring corporate social responsibility. Argument 1 It is the responsibility of the corporate executive to generate as much profit for the business while complying with the fundamental societal rules. CSR has the policies that ensure a business conforms to these rules. Throughout the decades, the theory of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) continues to develop in significance and importance. It has been the subject of considerable debate, commentary, theory building and research. Regardless of the continuing discussions as to what it means and what it entails, it has enhanced and evolved in both practitioner communities and academic globally (Smith 2003). The notion that the responsib ilities of business enterprises to society go past that of profit making for the shareholders has been here for many years. The phenomenon developed after the WW II and failed to take any direction in terms of significance until the 1960s and afterwards (Friedman 1970). So long as the government keeps the laws, corporations will continue to carry out their practices as the law permits them to maximize profit, so in other words, CSR is not the complete responsibility of corporations, but that of the governments. Edwards Freeman created the theory of theà stakeholder, which deals with a personââ¬â¢s values and morals in organization management (Friedman 1970). Theà theory of the stockholder states that stockholders increase resources to corporate managers who operate as agents in developing their interests. The main purpose of any organization is to maximize profit. The problem is whether these organizations should have any responsibilities towards society. The function of a co rporation is vital when attempting to comprehend what builds a ââ¬Ëgoodââ¬â¢ corporation (Smith 2003). Since the beginning of debates over CSR, critics and supporters have been expressive about the arguments for and against the notion of CSR. There has been expansive discussion about these arguments. Embedded in the discussions for and against the theory of CSR are points made previously, possibly on a gradual basis, supporting the concept. The argument against CSR concept classicallyà begins with the economic case expressed by the late Friedman (1970). According to Milton Friedman, the only duty of a business is to ensure maximum profit, and not worry about social responsibility. As a libertarian, he believes there is no need to get in the way of another personââ¬â¢s liberty. Milton supports free market and claims most developed capitalists states are, to some degree, welfares. According to him, the main social responsibility of a business is to ensure maximum profit, as long as it follows the rules of society. In short, a corporation should carry out its operations and take part in free and open competition exclusive of any fraud or deception. It is not right for businesses to have any form of social responsibility because most business owners become so in order to make profits. The issue of CSR also asks the question, who is responsible in ensuring the corporation follows CSR policies? Is it any person with power or the owner? Does an individual, as opposed to workers combined have moral duties (Smith 2003)? These are the type of
Tuesday, September 10, 2019
To What Extent does New Queer Cinema Restage Dominant Themes of Essay
To What Extent does New Queer Cinema Restage Dominant Themes of Classical Hollywood - Essay Example Classical Hollywood films refer to those films that were produced between 1910s through 1950s (Michele, 12). As opposed to New Queer Cinema films, these classical films did not openly dramatise homosexual issues because of the dominant and conventional heterosexual lifestyle. It was the New Queer Cinema that came with the sexual revolution and opted to go against the status quo, challenging the heterosexist minds by explicitly dramatising homosexuality. However, restaging the dominant themes in the classical Hollywood cinema brought about this shift. This paper evaluates the extent at which the New Queer Cinema has restaged dominant themes of the classical Hollywood cinema. In order to understand dominant themes that the New Queer Cinema has restaged, we should understand some identifying genre styles. First in order to identify and designate a group of films into a certain class, like the New Queer Cinema, principle characteristics are to be isolated (Braudy, 34). One such isolating approach is referred to as structuralism that lists genreââ¬â¢s iconography, stock characters, typical themes and central narratives (Gever, Greyson & Pratibha, 92). Another approach would situate genres within the historical context in order to assess how films achieve public popularity and how these impacted the production studios. In this case feedback is highly essential in determining whether some class of the film will succeed in the market or not. Gever, Greyson & Pratibha, 93) analyse that, this success is highly depended on the ability of the film to capture key and popular cultural anxieties that are prevalent at the time. The last approach, which is closely intertwined with the gist of this paper, is the way we have classified films over time. This is the origin of the classification of classical Hollywood films and the New Queer Cinema (Gever, Greyson & Pratibha, 93). What has been the concern of most classification is the shift from the most relevant and prevalent t hemes of the time. In most cases, New Queer Cinema revises classical cinema themes and makes them more relevant to the target audience at a time or generation. As we saw earlier, in their exact nature, classical Hollywood films did not dramatise homosexual lives and issues because such issues were not openly acceptable. The content of the Hollywood narrative was largely heterosexual, and that was reflected by male-female romance; a theme dramatisation which was common in all film genres (Mann, 2). Where homosexuality issues featured in a film, before the sexual revolution, the new queer film; insignificant and supporting roles were allotted to the characters. For instance, in the film A Florida Enchantment (1914), a pre-code film, homosexuality was so extreme at that time in featuring female characters who fed on magical sex-changing seeds that turned them into women pursuing Lotharios (White, 11). This lack of direct and explicit dramatisation of homosexual themes emanated from the Hollywood production code that was made effective in 1934, which forbade explicit depiction of what is called "sex perversion" (Mann, 12). At that time, however, the classical Hollywood cinema, under the code, kept on suggesting queerness by the use of effeminate men and mannish women; although the characters never came in the open as real homosexual or lesbians proper. There are classic actors like Horton (1886ââ¬â
Monday, September 9, 2019
Ethical leadership in the modern business market Essay
Ethical leadership in the modern business market - Essay Example Although seeking to understand each and every aspect of the way that ethics have shifted and changed in the years that make up the XXI century would require a thesis length response, this brief analysis will seek to understanding and briefly enumerate upon the key differentials that have come to exist within ethics of the XXI century as opposed to those that existed earlier. Furthermore, the analysis will give a particular level of discussion with regards to the means by which the recent global financial collapse was ultimately precipitated and aided by the complete disregard for ethical standards. Perhaps the most salient and important aspect of ethics that have changed within the XXI century is the level to which ethics have come to be differentiated upon the terms of both personal and systemic. If one briefly considers the way that a large company handled business back before the turn of the XXI century they would come to note that the company placed a high degree of emphasis on honesty of the employees and/or shareholders as a fundamental requirement that might be espoused (Brenkert, 2010). However, namely missing from such an ethical interpretation of company needs would be the reciprocal understanding that it was the sworn duty of the form to exhibit such a level of ethical responsibility with regards to both the employees as well as the end consumer. In this way, ethical considerations of the previous era were more focused on profitability and how the company may wish to safeguard its assets, inclusive of employees, while completely disregarding the ethical responsibilit ies that management/leadership espoused with relation to the rest of the system (Cuillla, 2011). This should of course not be understood to mean that all firms during this time were disrespectful to the ethical considerations that they must necessarily espouse to the customer or to the shareholder/employee. Rather, the level of emphasis, as it exists today was not to such a highly evolved, regulated, and legislated mandate that it has subsequently reached within the past several decades. Says the textbook that was used for this class, ââ¬Å"An organization is concerned with regulating the behavior and performance of its employees to ensure safe, uniform, and effective conduct in the performance of dutiesâ⬠(McLachlan, 2009). This level of ethical understanding of as a function of profitability is perhaps the single most important reality that must be considered with regards to the global economic collapse 2007/2008. Rather than the shareholders of the situation paying particul ar attention to the ethical ramifications of their actions, profitability was ultimately championed as the greater good in each and every situation. Although it is oftentimes been convenient for individuals to point to the upper management of firms such as Lehman Brothers, the reality of the situation is that middle management as well as the line employees of such institutions bore as much ethical culpability as those at the top. Due to the fact that they were fully aware of the situation was taken place and did absolutely nothing to bring these concerns to light, these individuals are ethically and morally culpable as well. Although it is not the determination of this particular analysis to shed blame with regards to global financial collapse of 2007/2008, it must be understood that an ethical interpretation of the event demands that all parties be analyzed in an unbiased manner. This shared form of responsibility has become a fundamental hallmark of the ethics of the
Sunday, September 8, 2019
Issues in Purchasing and Supply Management Essay
Issues in Purchasing and Supply Management - Essay Example The supply chain ranges from raw material extraction or raw ideas origination through a variety of stages to the final sale or delivery to the final client, whether products or services. It is argued that it can also involve the discarding of the waste related to consumer goods. It has been demonstrated that it incorporates a good number of main success aspects that involve a clear procurement scheme, operative control systems, as well as the establishment of proficiency. Thus, supply chain management characterizes and reflects a holistic method to the functioning of an organization. This calls for careful evaluation of all aspects of supply, as they directly affect the operations of an organization. This is clearly demonstrated through the analysis of the case study on Deere& Company. An efficiently operating supply chain can deteriorate over time as the organization adds more goods, suppliers, introduces new clients, or enacts new replenishment schemes or mainly scales in quantity. To demonstrate this issue of stock chain management, Deere & Company, a manufacturer and a dealer of a complete line of agriculture tools, and a wide range of building and forestry equipment and commercial and consumer gear, had yearly sales of over ten million dollars with operations in more than one hundred and fifty nations. The organization had to create a wide-ranging structure for evaluating supply chain procedures and performance to determine issues and ascertain improvement chances. This proven structure permits the company`s customers to get an extremely wealthy and actionable assessment of the prospects for restructuring their supply chain and bring it into line with their business goals in a short time set. In order for the company to achieve its goals or objectives, it was vital that it captures the interests of the stakeholders in order to reduce or avoidà losing out its performance. It was noted that the company`s margin had reduced significantly. For instance, the sales income and margin for the past three consecutive years had reduced gradually. Therefore, the budgeted selling cost for the present year was founded on the requirement to match the amount fixed by a key rival.
Saturday, September 7, 2019
Epictetus Philosophy and Marion Jones Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words
Epictetus Philosophy and Marion Jones - Essay Example It is impossible to change destiny or even environment according to one's wishes. By trying to fight against the tide of predestined conditions, one creates misery for himself. To be able to accept situations as they are, it is essential to be devoid of emotions. To be attached to sentiments is to be attached to worldly things that are temporary. If we do not involve ourselves emotionally with anything, and accept what nature has to offer us, we can live in accordance and harmony with nature. Two steps become important to keep ourselves in harmony with nature. The first step is to focus on our actions. Once we understand our actions, it becomes easier to respond appropriately. The second step is to understand the context in which the action occurred. The context helps us to comprehend why the actions happened. For both these factors to be useful, it is imperative that one detached from the situation and action and is able to clinically examine it. He implies this in his statement, "When you are about to undertake some action, remind yourself what sort of action it is." (Handbook 4, trans. Hard). A human has no control over anything except himself. Epictetus believes that people need to maintain their prohairesis. This is known as a person's moral character. It essential to be self satisfied in order to maintain morality. Every problem that one faces in life should be seen as an opportunity to strengthen the prohairesis. Only then can humans achieve eudaimonia. His theory and Jones If we were to imagine a hypothetical situation of Epictetus meeting Jones before she took the performance enhancing drugs, we can safely assume that he would have been against the idea. Epictetus is very clear about his concept of Stoicism. Stoicism requires a pursuit of moral glorification. And it requires being true to one's nature. By using enhancers, Jones has strayed from the dictum of 'following nature'. One cannot act antagonistically to legal laws and remain true to herself. Epictetus would have advised Jones to understand and accept her shortcomings and not attempt to be 'contrary to nature.' He would have warned her that fame and success are material goals and she should not compromise her integrity and prohairesis for something so tangible. His reasoning might have compelled him to think that it was unacceptable on her part to try and outdo her capability. However, Jones realizes this only much later, when she states in an interview that "I think that I absolutely should have to accept responsibility for breaking the law." But she does adhere to Epictetus eventually. She admits to drug abuse and pleads guilty. She accepts that she had been in the wrong and that to make mistakes is human. Jones does accept to her limitations, but only after she has been discovered and not before. If she were in sync with her integrity earlier, she would not have had to face the public humiliation. This proves that the pursuit of happiness through moral means is the best possible achievement in life and everything else is transitory. Even then, she manages to come to terms with her failure as an athlete and an influential figure. She tries to figure out how she can help others by her own experience. In this way, she has in someway, adhered to Epictetus' theory of reviewing one's actions. Prison and realizations It is imperative
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