Chinese Business Culture Essay

In accordance with our theories, it is necessary for Western exporters to learn about the Chinese business culture in order to be successful in marketing in China. There is an old Chinese proverb, â€Å"Enter village, follow customs†. The Chinese civilization has a long history and evidence shows that the way to get things done in China is to do it in the Chinese way. Chinese business culture is the key to the Chinese way of doing business and their style of negotiating (Fang 1998, p. 71). In this chapter, we aim to provide a framework to help those Western exporters get a better understanding of Chinese people’s business culture. 1. 0 Influence of Confucianism The Chinese culture encompasses diverse and competing philosophies, of which, Confucianism has been identified as the foundation of China’s great cultural tradition. Confucian values emphasis on interpersonal relationship and has provided Chinese business people with a relationship-based business approach (Bond & Wang 1983). An ordinary Chinese person would also agree that business and marketing in China is about relationships to a great extent. The principle of harmony and trust in Confucianism reflects an aspiration toward a conflict-free and group-based system of social relations, and also means that communication in a business negotiation should be harmonious. Further, the principle of hierarchy emphasizes that each individual should be conscious of her or his position in the society, which is also evident in a business negotiation in China, especially in a decision-making process. (Bond & Wang 1983) 2. 0 Guan Xi The Chinese term guan xi, rooted from Confucianism and translated into relationships or connections, is one of the most important traits of Chinese business culture, referring to the concept of drawing on connections or networks in order to secure favours in personal or business relations (Davies et al. 1995). It is a set of concentric circles of contacts, typically stretching from close family, to distant, to more distant relatives, to classmates, to friends, to friends’ friends, and so forth. In the Chinese business world, networking of guan xi is a peculiar advantage which can contribute a variety of commercial privileges and a great deal of business potentials for the marketer. This approach contrasts sharply with the deal-focused, task-oriented business cultures of North America and northern Europe (Gesteland & Seyk 2002). Therefore, to establish a great guan xi with the Chinese counterpart, partners, customers, even the Chinese authorities and government should be an extremely important marketing strategy of Western exporter that wants to be successful on the Chinese market. 3. 0 Establishing a relationship Being relationship-focused, Chinese prefer to deal with family, friends, and persons who they know well and who they can trust. They are uncomfortable talking business with strangers, especially strangers who also are foreigners (Gesteland & Seyk 2002). For this reason, the first step of business negotiation in China takes a lot of time outside of the office for socializing. The Chinese invite foreign guests for dinners, sightseeing, and other activities in order to facilitate the process of getting to know each other. The Chinese will want to know about this foreign company, its reputation and its management, and will be especially interested in the background, rank and personality of the individual foreign executives making the visit. A Western executive may become impatient with this step, both out of pressure to reach a deal quickly and out of the desire to separate business from the private aspect. However, what the Chinese are really doing at this stage is to test the sincerity, intelligence and deference of their prospective business partner before considering doing business with him or her. (Fang 1998) 4. 0 Attitudes to contracts Confucianism’s principles of interpersonal relationship and trust can even make many Chinese business people put relationships before contract (Alston & He 1996). Many Chinese believe that risk in the business can be minimized by developing a quality relationship of guan xi with their business partners. They are more likely to see a contract as a basis of relationship rather than a legal document. Most of the Chinese executives involved in international business realize that Western executives require formal documents in which delivery dates, responsibilities and procedures are explicitly stated and will respect the clauses which they have agreed to. While the Chinese tend to think that, once a relationship has been established, future problems can be solved without legal recourse. And the Chinese are inclined to prefer agreements that are less detailed than the Westerner. Because, for them, changes are anticipated and those detailed contracts can become relatively useless. (Alston & He 1996) Therefore, for a Western exporter, it would be wise to follow the Chinese model and only enter into business relationships with partners one knows and trusts. 5. 0 Face Another important Chinese cultural trait is the Chinese concept of face. In China, face is one’s good reputation in others’ eyes, one’s self-respect, dignity and prestige. If a Chinese is insulted, embarrassed, shamed or criticized in public, he or she will lose face. People can also give their counterpart face by making compliments and doing small favours. Giving face is an effective way to build a solid relationship (Gesteland & Seyk 2002). Face issue is also evident in a Chinese business negotiation context. In the business world, negotiations should be conducted to assure that the Chinese counterparts keep face. Because of face consciousness, a Chinese negotiator would refuse to make any concession. Some of the many delays that Western business negotiators encounter are caused by the Chinese counterpart’s unwillingness to risk losing face. A lot of evidence has shown that a great deal will be gained by helping the Chinese to win face and a great deal will be lost by any slight action which may cause the Chinese losing face. As a result, cognition of the Chinese concept of face plays a critical role in successfully doing business with the Chinese. (Fang 1998) 6. 0 Holistic thinking In general, the Chinese have a deductive cognition, which means reasoning based on theory and logic (Brake et al. 1995). The Chinese are highly deductive in their assessment of opportunities and problems. They usually want to be introduced to a new product, service or other business opportunity by way of a theory. This theory should provide them with a straightforward overview of the opportunity. The meaning and application of the principles of this theory should then be demonstrated with data and facts, although quantitative justification and analysis play a less important role in China than in many inductive Western business environments. Chinese people are likely to be resistant to business proposals which are not presented first in a logical form. (Brake et al. 1995) 7. 0 Speech acts As China has a high-context culture, hinting is an exceedingly common way of communication for the Chinese. Sometimes, Chinese speakers feel that they have been very frank with a clear hint, while the Western listeners still can’t catch the point at all. Elements of â€Å"atmosphere† surrounding the conversation, such as previous experience, hierarchy and many other cultural factors modify the literal meaning of a Chinese speaker’s sentences. For example, â€Å"I agree† might mean â€Å"I agree with 15 percent of what you say†. And â€Å"We might be able to† could mean â€Å"Not a chance†. What is said is often not what the listener is expected to understand. This is one of the biggest culture shocks in many business negotiations between the Westerner and the Chinese (Johnston 1991, p. 209).

Disaster Recovery

Disaster recovery is the planning and implementation of a process whereby a company can recover from a catastrophic information technology failure. The three main categories of disaster exposure include natural threads and hazards (including hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes and fire), technical and mechanical hazards (such as power outages, gas leaks, accidental or deliberate Halon discharges, or chemical spills) and human activities and threats (like computer error, loss of records, vandalism, sabotage or epidemic) (Rike, 2003).The goal of disaster recovery planning in information technology is to restore access to business data and system resources as quickly as possible, as well as to minimize data loss and physical resource loss. Disaster recovery must address each of the main categories of threat, assess the likely impact and the chance of occurrence of each one and plan reactions and facilities accordingly. Disaster recovery is not only important for the IT-based company, but for any company which is vulnerable to natural disaster or malicious attack.Proper planning of a disaster recovery framework will increase response time, minimize data loss and speed recovery and regained access to data and computing resources. Disaster recovery planning for information technology includes: data assurance with a proper backup and restore procedure; network continuity; intrusion detection and response; proper facilities planning including air conditioning, fire detection and control and environmental sensors; and personnel training in order to ensure proper response.A business's disaster recovery framework may extend beyond its information technology into facilities management, human resources and other operations. Disaster recovery is a relatively new facet of information technology planning which has rapidly become more important as businesses have become more dependent on technology resources. Many modern businesses come to a standstill without their technology ba se, and this can be devastating to the business. Rike (2003) noted that 93% of companies which suffer a major data loss go out of business within five years following that loss.However, according to Rike, many companies are unprotected from this danger – two surveys noted that only 35% of small and midsize businesses have a disaster recovery framework in place, while only 36% of all businesses and government offices have such a framework. Disaster Recovery Case Studies One of the first discussions of disaster recovery in information technology occurred after the 1995 Kobe earthquake in Japan. Garland and Morimoto (1996) provide an account of the outcome of the Kobe University disaster recovery framework on their IT infrastructure, as well as the effects of the earthquake itself.The Kobe earthquake, referred to as the â€Å"Great Hanshin Earthquake Disaster†, struck the Kobe area in the early morning hours of January 17, 1995. Aftershocks and fires worsened the damage c aused by the earthquake, cutting off communications and electricity to the region. Transportation routes were completely blocked due to collapsed roadways and damaged rail lines. The earthquake, which measured at 7. 2 on the Richter scale and left almost 5,400 dead as well as 400,000 homeless in its wake, was one of the worst disasters that have occurred in modern Japan.The university, where the authors were teaching at the time, lost two professors and thirty nine students, as well as all its laboratory animals. Data loss was extensive, and computing equipment loss was exacerbated by physical damage caused by falling furniture and books. The university's telephone and fax connections were completely cut off. However, despite the damage to the university's infrastructure and community, Internet connectivity was able to be restored within a few hours of the earthquake.The resulting email access (there were no extensive Web-based resources at the time) allowed students and staff outsi de communication, a means to reassure loved ones and provided a connection to government disaster recovery resources. University personnel also used cellular phones, a then-nascent technology, to connect to the outside world. Kobe University was using the best available technology at the time, which allowed for quick recovery of the lightweight machines.The IT personnel at the university noted specifically that the hardest-hit IT resources were the older-style, stationary, heavyweight servers and storage units, rather than the newer equipment which was designed to be moved and handled. Specific successes of the Kobe University disaster recovery included: use of alternate routes of communication, broadcast communication to all personnel involved (including students and staff), fast restoration of outside connectivity, setup of alternate email access points and gateways to continue to provide communication and the use of more robust, newer hardware resources.Some of the problems with the university's disaster recovery were lack of system-wide backup plan leading to widespread data loss, insecure physical premises leading to damage, including fall damage to computer equipment placed inappropriately close to other hazards and environmental system failure leading to the death of the lab animals. Because Kobe University is the first instance of formalized study of disaster recovery in information technology, there are a number of questions which arise from the planning and execution of the recovery.What are the priorities of the business or organization when planning? How do you put into place organization-wide policies, such as data backup, which reduce the risk of failure? How do you deal with facilities and functions (such as public utility infrastructure) that are out of your control? A more recent demonstration of the importance of disaster preparedness and recovery was Hurricane Katrina, in 2005.Chenoweth, Peters and Naremore (2006) analyzed the disaster prepa redness and recovery response of a New Orleans hospital during the hurricane and the flooding that followed. East Jefferson General Hospital, located in Jefferson parish, was one of three hospitals in New Orleans to remain open during and after the storm. The hospital planned for a two to three day emergency situation; staffers brought appropriate supplies for only a few days.There were over 3,000 people, including staff, patients and community members, as well as a handful of pets, sheltering at the hospital by the time the storm hit New Orleans on August 28. The hospital's IT staff worked quickly to move critical equipment out of harm's way – they moved data center equipment to upper floors and PCs and other equipment away from windows, printed out hard copies of patient records, contact information and other vital data, and set up a hospital command post with PCs, telephones and fax machines for outside connectivity.The hospital itself did not sustain a high degree of phys ical damage in the storm, in contrast with Kobe University. However, the infrastructure of the city itself was virtually destroyed, with electricity, telephone and water cut off, roads blocked and food and drinking water supplies tight. The hospital was isolated from the rest of the world for over a week as external recovery crews worked. East Jefferson Community Hospital did have a written disaster recovery framework in place prior to Hurricane Katrina.According to Chenoweth et al (2006), the IT department had a hot site arrangement with SunGard; weekly backups of the hospital's data were stored in a local tape vault, occasionally retrieved for safe storage in SunGard's offsite facility in New Jersey. Unfortunately, the evacuation of the vault's staff left the tapes inaccessible. During the storm, the hospital lost first grid power and then generator power; communications were lost as the Bell South CO, then the onsite CO, and finally the hospital's Cox internet cable connection we nt down.The rapidly changing situation, according to the authors, forced a reprioritization of IT resources and efforts from internal systems maintenance to restoring and maintaining communication with the outside world. The IT staff found a usable dialup line and set up email access using some of the PCs on-site; they also leveraged spotty cellular service and messaging services to maximize communications, which allowed them to coordinate with rescue teams and officials and arrange for food, water and generator deliveries. The internal telephone system was also utilized to maintain communication throughout the hospital.A secondary concern to the hospital, according to Chenoweth et al (2006), was its employees; particularly, circumventing the normal payroll system, which was inaccessible, in order to provide funds to employees who were suffering high expenses due to evacuation. This was accomplished by using the Internet to provide a funds transfer to each employee approximating the ir last paycheck. Similar workarounds were created for accounts receivable, with employees manually entering charges and emailing them to the system provider for processing.The hospital's outsourced IT provider also had its own issues to deal with; it had to locate missing employees (which was accomplished within three days by using a broadcast approach of Internet connections and message boards and contacting family and friends of the staffers; this is in contrast to many other companies, which were still struggling to locate employees by November) and prevent employee burnout by arranging for relief staffers. East Jefferson Community Hospital's IT infrastructure was back up and running only a week after the storm hit, and began providing patient services immediately.Its disaster recovery framework, as well as quick thinking in repositioning the framework when it became clear that it did not match the profile of the disaster it was supposed to counter, was a clear factor in the hos pital's fast recovery and return to service. Following the experience during Katrina, the hospital's IT staff investigated its disaster recovery framework and cited a number of changes which should be made, including increased emergency communications capacity, maintaining high-speed Internet access and implementing an automatic switching mechanism should one generator go down again.Disaster Recovery Framework Design The experiences of Kobe University and East Jefferson Community Hospital clearly indicate the need for robust disaster recovery planning. While disaster recovery is not always a matter of life and death as it was in these two cases, it can often mean the difference between a company that recovers successfully and one that is driven out of business by a critical failure. How can a company begin to develop a disaster recovery framework, and how extensive does this framework need to be?Benton (2007) suggested that the disaster recovery framework must begin with a formal bu siness impact assessment. This assessment draws on the knowledge and experience of the IT staff and the CIO to determine what the critical pieces of IT infrastructure are for a given company. A business impact analysis (BIA) is a way in which the contribution or importance of a given business resource can be analyzed and expressed in dollars and cents terms, in order to allow corporate officers to determine the correct emphasis during disaster recovery.The BIA also includes subjective observations of the resource's importance, giving an overall view of the organization to the decision makers. The second piece of the decision-making process is the risk analysis. What kinds of disasters are likely, Benton asked, and how much damage are they likely to cause should they occur? Exactly how likely is a disaster to happen? Benton urged caution on this question; as he pointed out, the risk of being unprepared is potentially far greater than the cost of preparedness.Rike (2003) discussed the risk analysis that should be performed before beginning a business inventory analysis and disaster recovery planning. Risks should be analyzed in three different dimensions: the type of risk, the likelihood of the risk and the magnitude of the risk. Rike divided risk types into three general categories: natural threats and hazards, technical and mechanical hazards and human activities and threats. Rike noted that it is not always possible to predict some types of disasters, such as human activities, while some activities, such as common weather phenomena, can be planned for in advance.The third dimension of risk analysis is the magnitude of the potential risk. Rike identified three categories of magnitude: community-wide disasters, such as the Kobe earthquake and Hurricane Katrina as discussed above; localized to a building or a group of buildings, such as water leak or electricity outage; or individual, or only affecting a single organization, department or worker. A disgruntled w orker sabotaging data exemplifies this situation. Rike (2003) outlined a proposed schedule and method for designing a disaster recovery framework.The first step, obtaining top management buy-in and support, is critical in order to fund and implement the disaster recovery framework. It is also necessary for top staff to be informed of disaster recovery procedures because they will be ultimately responsible for its implementation. The second step Rike suggested was to establish a planning committee staffed with personnel from facilities, information technology and other critical departments who will be responsible for planning and implementing the policy. The third step in Rike’s method is to perform a risk assessment and conduct a BIA.The risk assessment should include determining the type of risk the behavior is subject to and its likelihood, the consequences of each scenario, the estimated cost of each scenario, replacement cost of data, equipment and staff recovery versus d isaster framework implementation, and the potential risk of the worst-case scenario occurring. Rike’s fourth step is determination of critical business facilities – business equipment, connectivity through Internet and phone lines, internal phone system, fire and fumigant systems and other facilities required to continue to operate.This step also includes the determination of disaster recovery procedures and documentation, vital records and personnel. Step five is the procurement and preparation of disaster recovery facilities, including offsite storage facilities, inventory of critical documents, policy and procedure manuals, master lists of staff contact information, vendor information, account numbers and other vital information, and a review of security and environmental systems. Step six is preparation of a written framework, taking into account the information gathered in steps one through five.Rike recommended that a standard format and software package should b e used to write the framework, rather than a customized solution. The framework should then be reviewed on a frequent basis to ensure continued alignment with company business and goals as well as changes to potential risk. The final step in Rike’s methodology is to test the written framework in order to make sure it is feasible. In order to begin developing a disaster preparedness framework, Benton suggested a company-wide IT inventory, detailing application, storage and server assets.These assets could then be ranked into categories depending on the importance of the business application and replacement cost of the equipment. There are two main ranking criteria. Recovery time objective (RTO) is the optimal maximum amount of time between disaster and service resumption. Recovery point objective (RPO) is the maximum amount of allowable data loss. Benton recommended a multi-tier system; at the top level should be no data loss and minimal downtime, or an RTO and RPO of close to 0, reserved for mission-critical services and business units that provide immediate revenue for the company.Business units should then be ranked in descending order according to their revenue generating potential and criticality. At its lowest level, Benton suggested that the RTO could be extended out to 72-96 hours. Rike (2003) identified key questions to use when conducting the BIA, including â€Å"how would the department in question operate if online systems were not available? † and â€Å"what is the minimum space required for the department to operate? † Benton prioritized two critical preplanning steps for disaster recovery.The first was data consolidation, or optimizing the protection of data by assembling all critical data in a single location for ease of backup and recovery. This can be established by use of a centralized file server in a small organization or use of a SAN or NAS scheme in a larger one. The second prerequisite, which can be more complicated than storage consolidation, is server consolidation. This step can be complicated because the performance profile of servers can vary, and processing and network access can vary between them. Benton further discussed the complexities of disaster recovery of data.Among the problems he noted are difficulties with logical consistency and order of recovery. If standard file backup technologies are used, these backups may not be logically consistent when they are recovered because they will be recovered to a slightly different point in time. Newer snapshot technologies can alleviate this problem, however. Another inconsistency issue is data replication, which may be interrupted when the write heads lose power. Finally, order of recovery will be important because some applications and servers will be dependent on other servers being restored first in order to maintain logical consistency.Benton also noted that disaster recovery should be maintained separately from periodic backups and arc hival procedures, because data storage procedures for periodic backups and archival procedures may not be adequate or appropriate for disaster recovery. Finally, Benton remarked that hardware designated for disaster recovery should be exercised in a non-emergency situation in order to ensure that it is properly configured and connected. Rike (2003) recommended a course of action in the event that the disaster recovery framework needs to be put into action following a physical disaster.The first step in Rike’s method is to perform a damage assessment in order to determine the scope and type of damage, the size of the area affected and what assets have been damaged. Rike’s second step is damage control by environment stabilization. In the event of physical damage, the damage can become permanent very quickly. Rike suggested that the physical environment must be stabilized by drying the air, removing water and soot particles, restoring air conditioning and whatever other cleanup can be performed.She suggested that material such as power generators, sump pumps to remove standing water, high-powered fans, plastic sheeting, absorbent materials and other cleanup equipment should be kept on hand in order to speed environmental stabilization. Once the environment is stable, Rike prioritized activation of the emergency team as defined in the disaster recovery framework, and then restoration and cleanup; this cleanup can in some cases be performed by business staff, but in some cases, such as a toxic spill or mold contamination, should be handled by specially trained professionals.While Rike discussed physical disaster recovery resulting from primarily natural or mechanical threats, Patnaik and Panda (2003) discussed data recovery from a malicious attack, addressing the human threat perspective. Malicious attack on data and application resources can come either from within the business (most often from a disgruntled employee) or outside the business (hacker s or industrial spies). As Patnaik and Panda noted, it is not necessarily possible to distinguish a malicious attack from a legitimate data transaction.According to the authors, requirements for protecting data from malicious attack include protection from unauthorized users, detection of hostile activities and damage recovery. Unfortunately, as the authors noted, in the case of a database storage system it is not always possible, even with these precautions in place, to catch all potential malicious transactions. This is particularly problematic when the malicious actor is someone who has trusted access to a system. If a malicious transaction is committed to the database, it is then seen as legitimate and may be propagated to other areas of the database through normal interactions.In order to prevent this spread, a quick recovery is required. Unfortunately, the authors noted, the size of database logs often precludes a fast recovery, due to extended periods of time spent accessing and applying the logs. In order to remedy this, Patnaik and Panda proposed a partitioned or segmented log solution which allows recovery of a malicious transaction to access only one of the log segments in order to perform recovery, rather than the full logs. This increases recovery time by an order of magnitude over applying the full redo log, according to the authors.Disaster recovery is a relatively inexpensive method of assuring business continuity in the wake of a natural, physical or human event or attack. The costs of not having a disaster recovery framework is, as Rike (2003) noted, extremely high – 93% of businesses which suffer a major data loss go out of business within five years. The experiences of Kobe University and East Jefferson Community Hospital demonstrate the value of a disaster recovery framework, as well as the importance of examining priorities when deciding on the framework.While physical premises may be covered by insurance in some cases, the same is not typically true for data, institutional knowledge, continued business and personnel. In order to implement a data recovery framework, one can follow Rike’s (2003) methodology, beginning with gaining the support of senior staff and the appointment of a disaster recovery planning committee, performing risk analysis, a BIA, and determining and putting in writing a disaster recovery framework and finally testing the framework to ensure its viability.These steps will help to protect the business in the event of a disaster, whether it is natural, mechanical or human in origin, and whether it is localized or community-wide. Research Proposal In order for a business to determine whether a disaster recovery framework is appropriate for their business, as well as to analyze the relative risks and costs of implementing a disaster recovery framework and replacing lost business assets and personnel in the event of a disaster. Following steps three and four of Rike’s methodology will provide a determination of utility of a disaster preparedness framework for a given business.In order to perform this analysis, the assent of senior staff members should be obtained. This analysis can be conducted in the following manner. First, perform Rike’s third step, that of risk analysis and assessment. This assessment should evaluate the potential threat to the business and its effects in three dimensions: type of threat (natural, mechanical or human), magnitude of threat (individualized, localized, community-wide), and likelihood (certain, likely, unlikely, extremely unlikely). Questions that should be asked during this risk assessment include: What is the natural environmental pattern of the geographic area? Is the area subject to earthquakes, flooding, hurricanes or other natural phenomena?†¢ Are current environmental control provisions such as Halon systems and fire detection systems up to date? †¢ How likely is attack by a human threat? Does the co mpany tend to have disgruntled workers, or no? How much access does any individual worker have to the data and application servers? †¢ What is the replacement cost of data, equipment and staff versus the cost of disaster recovery framework implementation? What is the potential for the worst-case scenario to occur?After the risk analysis is complete, step four of Rike’s methodology, determination of critical business resources, should be implemented. This step includes asking the following questions: †¢ What is the minimum amount of servers, Internet connectivity, communications capacity, space, documentation, data and staff the company can continue to operate on? †¢ Who is the critical staff? What is the critical data? How many single points of failure are there?Step four of Rike’s methodology, the business impact analysis or BIA, is the final method of analysis in determining the benefit of the disaster recovery framework to an individual organization. The BIA examines each aspect of a business’s function and determines which functions are critical to the business’s continued operation, as well as which functions can be brought back online after the most critical operations are stabilized. This examination should include all facets of a business, including seemingly unimportant functions such as facilities management, janitorial access and human resources records access.Business functions should be ranked on a matrix of direct and immediate benefit to the business, determined by their immediate monetary value as well as subjective perceptions of importance. Using a combination of a risk and cost analysis to determine the likelihood of risk occurring and the cost of implementation versus non-implementation, a business needs analysis to determine critical business requirements, and a BIA to determine critical business functions, it will be possible to determine whether a disaster recovery framework makes sense for a gi ven business, as well as what type of disaster recovery framework should be implemented.It is the author’s contention that disaster recovery planning makes sense for every business, and should be implemented at a level that will ensure business continuity and hasten recovery should a disaster occur. Customization of disaster recovery planning should be done using the risk, cost and business needs analysis to create a framework that will allow the business to secure its own interests in the event of a small or large disaster.No disaster recovery framework is perfect, and there can always be situations that remain unconsidered, as East Jefferson Community Hospital’s experience showed. However, having an initial disaster recovery plan in place made it easier to reprioritize resource allocation when there were unexpected issues. As von Moltke remarked, â€Å"no plan survives contact with the enemy† – but that is no reason not to plan.

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Response to at least 3 student's postings with 2 references each Coursework

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Fallacies of the Anti-Federalists - Essay Example The same men who had thrown boxes of tea into Boston Harbor could hardly be expected to accept a new government that had many of the same confiscatory tendencies as the British government had. Even worse, while London was a boat ride of many months, the new American government would be able to back up its decrees with accessible military force. For a new government to be acceptable to the anti-Federalists, it would have to be far weaker than its British counterpart. One of the assertions of the anti-Federalists was that a "very extensive territory cannot be governed on the principles of freedom, otherwise than by a confederation of republics, possessing all the powers of internal government, but united in the management of their general, and foreign concerns" (Address and Reasons). While the British Empire covered much of the globe, it was in the initial stages of yielding its holdings to independence. Imagine how difficult it would be for a government in our own time to micromanage the affairs of such a large country - as the Soviet Union found out. In the late 1700's, there were not that many areas of life over which the government held sway. The provision of roads and public order were just about all that government could guarantee its citizens. In our own time, where government regulates such areas as public education, the insurance of bank accounts, the permitted forms of marriage, and other areas that the framers of the Constitution may n ever have imagined that their government would be asked to oversee. Imagine that, instead of fifty states, the United States were a looser confederation of fifty small republics, sort of like a European Union on a much larger scale. How would one separate the "internal" matters from those of "general concern" Richard Samuelson wrote an article wondering whether a return to the looser, states' rights-oriented philosophy of federalism would cure a lot of the cultural ills in the country. Because there are several polarizing issues of an ethical nature that are occupying the federal courts' dockets, it has been suggested that delegating more legal questions to the states to settle on their own, it has been argued, might well solve the problem for the federal government. An example he discusses is the issue of gay marriage. If states are permitted to set their own standards as to whether or not gay marriages will be legal, what happens if a couple moves from a gay-friendly state to a mo re conservative one If the gay couple adopts a child, and one of the members runs with the child to a state where their marriage is not recognized, how would the custody dispute be handled (Samuelson). In a looser confederation of republics, such legal situations would clearly overburden the court systems. A similarly polarizing issue that also was probably not something the framers would ever have considered something that would come under government purview is the question of abortion. If this were an issue that were left to the states, it would be

Microeconomics Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Microeconomics - Term Paper Example However, since the buying and selling is common to all participants of economy, therefore microeconomics plays an important role in determining the supply and demand of goods. As this factor is responsible for price fixation of goods and services, the change in supply vs. demand position can lead to change in price. As resources become limited, microeconomics tries to analyze the relationship between market conditions, product prices, as well as the market mechanism which establishes this relationship. Such mechanism has a great role to play in the allocation of resources, in such scenario. Therefore, microeconomics has a significant role in determining the conditions required for a perfect competition. It also studies the conditions which may have led to market failure, when results are not produced efficiently. However, microeconomics can only establish the theoretical conditions, while actually market behavior may be different, sometimes. Accordingly, studies in this field of econ omy would include decision making ability under uncertain market condition. It also includes the study of market, which may not follow any pattern. This term paper would discuss about the principles of microeconomics, along with its fundamentals, in the following pages. Principles of microeconomics As there is a great relationship between a household and economy; Greek ancestors have correctly named the manager of a household as ‘economy’. Looking at the wider scenario, the household is an economic entity within a larger society. The society must ensure the allocation of funds and jobs to different members, while managing the available limited resources. Therefore the decisions need to be taken, keeping in view certain fundamentals, which are considered as the principles of microeconomics, which help people in making their decisions. Supply and demand In economic terms, demand means willingness, need and ability to purchase certain goods or services. However, desire to purchase may meet the requirement of willingness, but same only cannot generate demand. The purchaser must be able to pay for the specific good or service. The payment method can vary, as sellers except cash, credit cards, deferred payment or lease payments, nowadays. The capacity to purchase the good determines the ability for generating the demand. Readiness to purchase the good, right now, comes after the above two requirements of demand have been met. Once the immediate purchase willingness is confirmed the demand gets generated. (beggs 1) Supply relates to the available quantity of a particular good or service at a point in time, in a particular location. Supply would primarily comprise of two elements. One is the quantity of goods produced by a firm, while other is the combined quantity of same goods produced and offered for sale by different firms, involved in manufacture and trading of that particular item. However, total availability of such goods in market refers to the su pply of the same. Supply would relate with the profit to be generated by offering such goods for sale. As companies prefer to sell their products at maximum profit level, this would determine the quantity and quality of goods that the firm can offer at any particular point. Maximum profit is calculated, based on the cost inputs, production costs, marketing costs and other variables. Therefore, all these factors would ultimately determine the supply position a

Response Scenario Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Response Scenario Paper - Essay Example It is in this regard that this paper aims to formulate and detail a response plan to immediately address a chemical spill. Given a scenario where a toxic chemical spill occurs in a manufacturing company at day time, exposing the day shift composed of more than 1,000 people, this essay would detail a response plan to address this incident and detail plans to prevent future occurrence. At day time when more than 1,000 personnel work at a manufacturing company, a toxic chemical spill suddenly occurs. According to Pollution Issues (2007), â€Å"one of the most common concerns over chemical accidents and hazardous materials spills is acute, or short-term, toxicity. Acutely toxic contaminants, such as cyanide and chlorine released from hazardous materials spills, pose an immediate threat to public health. For example, a chemical accident in which chlorine gas or cyanide gas is released would likely result in widespread deaths as the plume, or toxic cloud, moved through a populated area. Another class of toxicity is chronic, or long term. One of the most common types of chronic toxicity is exposure to carcinogens that may result in cancer twenty to thirty years after the time of the spill.† (par. 11) The immediate response to this scenario would determine the number of lives that would be saved. In this regard, the following should be the response plan: observe and assess the nature of the spill, stop or contain the spill (if it is safe to do so); call for assistance (if needed); and cleanup using appropriate means. As given in the scenario, it is a toxic chemical spill. By toxic, it means â€Å"a material containing hazardous contaminants above the maximum allowable safe concentration is toxic. Examples include used photo fixer (toxic for silver), some used dry cell batteries (toxic for mercury), sludges and sometimes liquid from water-based parts washers (toxic for lead, benzene, or both) and automotive

Marketing & Sales for Dreamworld theme park Assignment

Marketing & Sales for Dreamworld theme park - Assignment Example The Australia-based wildlife experience offers guests with an opportunity of cuddling the koalas, feeding kangaroos and drawing near to the crocodiles along with the Tiger Island being home to two cougars, eight Sumatran tigers and Bengal tigers charged with the duty to entertain guests alongside the trainers. Moreover, the company includes entertainment facilities like the Australia Animal Facility which takes place on a day-to-day routine therein (James Cook University of North Queensland & National Centre for Studies in Travel & Tourism, 1990). Furthermore, the company organizes for annual events like New Year’s Eve amp for adults and the ultimate single’s day often scheduled for February 13th every year. For a while, brand has proved to be a crucial tool in Dreamworld. For the past 5-8 years, the company has embraced strategies aimed at associating the company with brands with different appeals and capable of remaining relevant event in middle of varied demographic segments. To this end, the company has remained committed to improving its attractions and growing further whilst keeping up with the state of being a top-edge draws within the big Gold Coast. From 1981, the company has been able to develop individualized customer experiences by integrating products and customer initiatives in order to benefit both local and international guests (Australian Tourism and Hospitality Research Conference& Australia, 1990). Besides, the company offers support to local cultures and communities by sponsoring and taking part in charity organizations. The two cases present opportunities that Dreamworld could use to channel promotional messages to its target clients in order to increase its customer base along with the revenue stream (Parsons, 2002). Also, the Company has more opportunities to improve its target customers. More specifically, the company should diversify its customer base to encompass

Interventions for Maternal and Child Health in Nepal Essay Example for Free

Interventions for Maternal and Child Health in Nepal Essay Macro- and micro-nutrient malnutrition is a major public health problem and a key factor in determining morbidity and mortality. Its underlying determinants include poverty, education, sanitation, climate, food production, cultural norms, and accessibility and quality of health care. Pregnant women and young children are particularly at risk owing to the extra nutritional demands of rapid growth. Malnutrition is the direct cause of approximately 300,000 deaths per year (Muller Krawinkel, 2005), and a contributing factor in over a third— 3.5 million—of all child deaths annually (Horton, 2008). These deaths are largely preventable. For infants, there is a â€Å"golden interval† for intervention from pregnancy to 2 years, during which improvements in nutritional status can have long-lasting benefits (Horton, 2008). Strong associations exist between maternal and child undernutrition and reduced adult economic productivity and other negative outcomes (Victoria et al., 2008). While Nepal has recently demonstrated progress toward improving general maternal and child health (MCH), there are still opportunities to further improve nutritional status of mothers and children. This paper examines and makes recommendations about interventions that have the potential to improve maternal and child nutritional status in Nepal. The interventions discussed in this paper address the underlying causes of nutrition-related maternal and child mortality and morbidity, as outlined by the UNICEF Conceptual framework for maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity (UNICEF, 2008), and are organized based on the period of intervention, including antenatal care, delivery care, and post-partum and early childhood care. Antenatal care: Within the antenatal period of development, maternal supplementation has been one of the most studied interventions. Evidence is strongest in support of maternal supplementation of multiple micronutrients, calcium, and iron-folic acid. Given the staggering rates of micronutrient deficiencies among pregnant Nepali women and the low cost of supplementation, maternal supplementation of multiple micronutrients, calcium and iron-folic acid is highly recommended. These micronutrients have a range of benefits, including reduction of maternal anemia, maternal mortality, pre-eclampsia, hypertension, puerperal infection, and low birthweight (LBW). This paper also examines the evidence around maternal smoking cessation interventions because of the extraordinary potential for impact of such programs in a population where smoking rates among women are high and knowledge about negative outcomes associated with smoking is low and because maternal smoking cessation appears to have not been a focus of government and other programs in Nepal. However, there is a lack Executive Summary i of solid evidence to suggest that a particular intervention to reduce maternal smoking could be both effective and efficient in developing countries. Delivery care: This paper also examines interventions during delivery that can have an impact on nutritional status. Traditional birth attendants (TBAs) play a crucial role in decreasing nenonatal and maternal mortality during delivery. They also dispense advice regarding antenatal, perinatal, and postnatal care, including nutrition and diet, breastfeeding, and immunizations. One important aspect of training for TBAs, as well as other health professionals, is the promotion of delayed umbilical cord clamping. Due to the high rates of anemia and iron deficiency in children, delayed cord clamping is a critical intervention because it is a cost-effective way to improve hematologic status, increase blood volume, and decrease anemia in infancy. Post-partum and early childhood care: Finally, nutritional interventions in the post-partum and early childhood period can reduce childhood morbidity and mortality and ensure that children are developing in a healthy way. This section of the paper focuses on the promotion of breastfeeding, infant and child vitamin A supplementation and growth monitoring and promotion (GMP). There exists decades of research showing that breastfeeding is a highly effective strategy to reduce all-cause mortality, diarrheal morbidity and mortality, and the risk of gastrointestinal infections and respiratory infections. There is a wealth of empirical data supporting the promotion of breastfeeding in developed and developing countries alike. Vitamin A supplementation for infants and young children has already been successful in Nepal, and it should remain a priority there. Vitamin A supplementation is associated with reductions in night-blindness, Bitot’s spots, xerophthalmia, and severe morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases, and when given before certain immunizations, it can enhance the immune response to the immunizations, making them more effective. Also, the use of GMP, measuring and charting the growth of children and using this information to counsel parents to motivate behaviors that promote growth, provides a cost-effective opportunity to identify growth issues before severe malnutrition manifests. For summary information on recommended interventions, refer to the one-page briefs after this Executive Summary. The interventions examined in this paper collectively have an enormous potential for impact in Nepal. At the same time, it is important to consider some of the challenges and feasibility concerns that these interventions may face. These may Executive Summary include: access to and utilization of antenatal care and other health services; the status of the health system infrastructure; financial resource availability, and cultural considerations. Also, while these recommended interventions can be successful in addressing the underlying causes of malnutrition-related morbidity and mortality, long-term solutions for improving maternal and child nutritional status must address the basic causes, such as political, economic and social conditions. While challenges and other considerations exist, the interventions recommended have the potential to make a real and lasting impact in Nepal by reducing the burden of nutrition-related morbidity and mortality. These interventions are cost-effective tools that should be central to any plan to create a bright and healthy future generation in Nepal.

Ethics and Philosophy of Social Research Essay Example for Free

Ethics and Philosophy of Social Research Essay The social research shares with all scientific endeavours the necessity to balance scientific zeal with other ethical values that derive from the social context in which all social research takes place. To some degree, the research ideal of objectivity unavoidably conflicts with humanistic values. Therefore, all researchers must at some time come to grips with this conflict. The issue, however, is especially crucial for social researchers because the focus of their research is the behaviour of other people. Thus, not only the goals of the social research but the very process of data collection is subject to ethical conflicts. The paper contains analysis—the synthesis of research results across a large number of studies—and on the social responsibility and ethical requirements of the social research. The ethical issues which researchers face in their day-to-day study are comparatively consistent across methods. The ethical principles adopted by researchers should govern their actions, whether they take place in field or laboratory environment. To make this point most strongly, this paper contains a separate section, which should serve as a strong point of reference for the social researcher, rather than providing a series of ethical requirements that are spread thinly throughout the various sections of this paper. These issues include the social and ethical responsibilities and constraints connected with the conduct of social research and advancing the cumulative progress of behavioral and social science through integrating and synthesizing findings from different current investigations. The paper hopes to make clear that social research is a collective enterprise undertaken in the context of ethical values. Main body Ethics in Social Research Ethics of Research Design and Methodology Because the subject matter of the social researcher is human behaviour and the processes that are associated with behaviour, it is unavoidable that researcher interests will conflict sometimes with ethical values placed on the rights of people to privacy and self-determination. The guidelines for social research ethics set by the Social Research Association (SRA) (2003) stress the idea of recruiting participants for research on the basis of informed consent —this means that participation must be freewill and with the participants full knowledge of what research will include. However, it is declared that many subjects could not be researched at all if this ideal were entirely met, and that the rights of individuals must be weighed against the possible importance of the research problem. David De Vaus (1996), for example, demonstrated in a verbal conditioning experiment that a full explanation of methods and hypotheses destroyed the phenomenon they were attempting to examine. In cases where full explanation of subject cannot be presented, SRA recommends that â€Å"But there should, at least, be clarity about opt-in and opt-out arrangements, about the length and degree of commitment required of respondents, and about the precise goals of the research. Adequate subject de-briefing also seems essential to this last aim.† Thus, the ethical code does not present free from limitations standards that relieve the researcher of important value judgments. Rather, judgments as to the comparative significance of research programmes and researchers responsibility for the well-being of their participants are the primary bases of research ethics. Deception in the Laboratory The degree to which participation is entirely voluntary is in many cases disputable, depending on the social and institutional pressures to take part in research that are at times involved. But usually, participants in laboratory experiments at least know that they participate in a research study. Notwithstanding, however, the information provided to participants in laboratory investigations is usually smallest, at best, and often purposely deceptive as to the goals of the research study. To what degree this deception is justified by serving scientific purposes and the potential benefit to human welfare is a matter of considerable debate. Some critics claim that no deception is ever reasonable and that it should not be permitted in the interests of social research (Ortmann Hertwig 746-747). Most social researchers, however, take a more temperate view, considering that there is an unavoidable compromise between values of entire honesty and informed consent and the possible value of what can be learned from the research itself. Just as the unimportant lie uttered in the interests of tact or politeness is regarded as acceptable when used in the service of good manners, so a little amount of deception may be acceptable in the service of obtaining reliable research data. However, there is also some controversy over whether social researchers have exceeded this adequate minimum in their research (Barnes 320). For some years the practice of deception in laboratory experiments was considered acceptable by most experimenters. However, an article by Herbert Kelman (1967) reflected a growing concern with accepted among many people, and evidently undisputed, use of deception in social research. Kelmans article argued this practice on both ethical and practical grounds. Ethically, he claimed, any deception disregarded essential norms of respect in the interpersonal relationship that forms between researcher and research participant. Besides, the practice might have extreme methodological implications as participants become less naive and extreme suspiciousness begins to have an effect upon the outcomes of all research. To avoid these problems, Kelman advised that social researchers (a) reduce the unnecessary use of deception, (b) explore ways of counteracting or minimizing its negative consequences when deemed necessary, and (c) develop new methods, such as role playing or simulation techniques, which substitute active participation for deception (Kelman 10-11). Practices of experimenting with these alternative methodologies have been tried, but the results are consisting of conflicting thoughts, at best (Crespi 23). Thus, the general agreement in the social research is that some level of deception is often necessary to produce realistic conditions for testing research hypotheses. However, such deception needs to be justified by the nature and significance of the research question being studied. As James D. Faubion (2005) put it, â€Å"The social researcher whose study may have a good chance of reducing violence or racism or sexism, but who declines to do the study simply because it requires deception, has not solved an ethical problem but only traded one for another† (860). Ethical Issues in Field Research Although much of the discussion about the ethical implications of deception concentrates on laboratory experimentation, study conducted outside the laboratory often considers a number of other ethical issues and concerns. Besides issues associated with consent to participate, researchers also must think over issues of privacy and confidentiality when research data are collected in field surroundings (Boruch 102). Because a main benefit of field research, from a scientific point of view, is the chance of obtaining samples of behaviour under naturally occurring circumstances, it often is beneficial to conduct such research under conditions in which the nature of the research is concealed. Therefore, the participants may not only be mislead regarding the goals of the research, but may even be uninformed that they are the subject of research in the first place. The use of â€Å"frugal† measures highlights this strategy (Ortlieb 2002), but even more traditional methods of data collection, such as the interview or questionnaire, are often conducted in such a manner as to conceal their true goal. Some researchers consider the practice of concealed observation or response elicitation as passable as long as it is limited to in fundamental way â€Å"public† behaviors or settings usually open to public examination. Adam Ashforth (1996), for example, presented a review of settings and behaviours for which concealed research methods have been used. However, there is the question of subjective definitions of what form â€Å"public† behaviours, specifically in urban settings where social norms lead to the probability of anonymity in public surroundings. Because by definition field research includes some act of intervening on the part of the researcher in the stimulus conditions to which the uninformed participants are exposed, ethical question about hidden observation is further difficult to understand because of concern over the nature of such manipulations. Instances of practice of experimenting in field settings comprise systematic variation of the content of applicant briefs sent to potential employers (Ashforth 1996), differential behaviour on the part of salesmen regarding customers (Fairclough 2003) or customers toward salesmen (Fairclough 2003). To some degree these all fall within a â€Å"normal range† of human behaviour in public surroundings, the only difference being their methodical manipulation by the researcher. Yet, collecting data about individual behaviour in these cases evidently violates the spirit of â€Å"informed consent, † in particular when researchers conclude it is best not to inform individuals which have been observed even after the fact (Seiber 268). The Regulatory Context of Research Involving Human Participants The preceding discussion of ethical dilemmas is contemplated to present the idea that there are no easy, certain rules for deciding whether a specific research strategy or method is ethical or not. Rather, difficult enough to construct opinion is involved in weighing the possible value of the research against potential stress or other costs to research participants. Ethical decision making includes a cost—benefit analysis rather than the consideration of certain strictures and rules (Alvaro Crano 13). Much of the responsibility for decision making falls on the individual researcher, but one person alone is not always the best judge of what is of considerable importance and necessary research and what is possibly harmful to participants. Actually, there is good evidence that biases enter into scientists evaluations of the quality of their own research (Kimmel 1991). Therefore, the conduct of social research that meets reasonable ethical standards and methods is not just a matter of persons judgment, it is the law. Almost all social research that is supported by funds or conducted in educational or research institutions that receive funding (of any kind) is subject to regulations concerning the conduct of social research. The primary agency is The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) which is the UKs leading research funding and training agency addressing economic and social concerns. ESRC provides certain principles for protecting the welfare and dignity of human participants in research and provides policies and procedures that are required of institutions in which such research is conducted. The ESRC expects that the research it supports will be conducted according to a high ethical standard. This Research Ethics Framework (REF) sets out good ethical practice in UK social research.Although REF is a mandatory aspect of social research which involves human participants, it does not absolve the researcher from any further responsibility for the ethical conduct of his or her research.

Analysis of C Language and Operators

Analysis of C Language and Operators Introduction In order to perform different kinds of operations, C uses different kinds of operators. An operator indicates an operation to be performed on data that yields a value. Using various operators in C one link the variables and constants. An operand is a data item on which operators perform the operations. C is rich in the use of different operators. C provides four classes of operators. They are 1) Arithmetic 2) Relational 3) Logical 4) Bitwise. Apart from these basic operators, C also supports additional operators. 3.1 Types of operators Type of Operator Symbolic Representation Arithmetic operators + , -, *, / and % Relational operators >,=. Logical operators , II and ! Increment and decrement operator ++ and Assignment operator = Bitwise operators ,I,, », «and Comma operator , Conditional operator ? : 3.2 PRIORITY OF OPERATORS AND THEIR CLUBBING Various relational operators have different priorities or precedence. If an arithmetic expression contains more operators then the execution will be performed according to their priorities. The precedence is set for different operators in C. List of operators with priority wise (hierarchical) are shown in Table 3.2. Table 3.2 List of operators with priority wise Operators Operation Clubbing Priority ( ) [ ] -> . Function call Array expression or square bracket Structure Operator Structure Operator Left to right 1st + ++ ! ~ * Sizeof type Unary plus Unary minus Increment Decrement Not operator Ones complement Pointer Operator Address operator Size of an object Type cast Right to Left 2nd * / % Multiplication Division Modular division Left to Right 3rd + Addition Subtraction Left to Right 4th >> Left shift Right Shift Left to Right 5th > >= Less than Less than or equal to Greater than Greater than or equal to Left to Right 6th == != Equality Inequality Left to Right 7th Bitwise AND Left to Right 8th ^ Bitwise XOR Left to Right 9th | Bitwise OR Left to Right 10th Logical AND Left to Right 11th || Logical OR Left to Right 12th ? : Conditional operator Right to Left 13th =,*=,-=, =,+=,^=, |=,>= Assignment operator Right to Left 14th , Comma operator Left to Right 15th 1) When two operators of the same priority are found in the expression, precedence is given to the extreme left operator. Example Example Example 3.3 COMMA AND CONDITIONAL OPERATOR 1) Comma operator (,) The comma operator is used to separate two or more expressions. The comma operator has the lowest priority among all the operators. It is not essential to enclose the expressions with comma operators within the parenthesis. For example the statements given below are valid. Example 2) Conditional operator (?) The conditional operator contains a condition followed by two statements or values. If the condition is true the first statement is executed otherwise the second statement. The conditional operator (?) and (:) are sometimes called ternary operators because they take three arguments. The syntax of conditional operator is as given below. Syntax Condition? (expression1): (expression2); Two expressions are separated by a colon. If the condition is true expression1 gets evaluated otherwise expression 2. The condition is always written before? Mark. Example Example 3.4 ARITHMETIC OPERATORS There are two types of arithmetic operators. They are 1) Binary Operator and 2) Unary Operator a) Binary operator Table 3.3 shows different arithmetic operators that are used in C. These operators are commonly used in most of the computer languages. These arithmetic operators are used for numerical calculations between the two constant values. They are also called as Binary Arithmetic Operators. The examples are also shown in the Table 3.3 In the program variables are declared instead of constants. Table 3.3 Arithmetic operators Arithmetic Operators Operator Explanation Examples + Addition 2+2=4 Subtraction 5-3=2 * Multiplication 2*5=10 / Division 10/2=5 % Modular Division 11%3=2 (Remainder 2) b) Unary Operators Unary operators are increment operator (++), decrement (- -) and minus (-) . These operators and their descriptions are given in the Table 3.4. Table 3.4 Unary arithmetic operators Operator Description or Action Minus ++ Increment Decrement Address Operator Size of Gives the size of variable a) Minus (-) Unary minus is used to indicate or change the algebraic sign of a value. b) Increment (++) Decrement () Operators The C compilers produce very fast efficient object codes for increment and decrement operations. This code is better than generated by using the equivalent assignment statement. So, increment and decrement operators should be used whenever possible. †¢ The operator ++ adds one to its operand. Whereas the operator subtracts one from its operand. For justification x=x+1 can be written as x++; and x=x-1; can be written as x;. Both these operators may either follow or precede the operand. That is, x=x+ 1; can be represented as x++; 01 ++x; If ++ or are used as a suffix to the variables name then the post increased / decreased operations take place. Consider an example for understanding ++ operator as a suffix to the variable. x=20; y=10; z=x*y++; In the above equation the current value of y is used for the product. The result is 200, which is assigned to z. After multiplication, the value of y is increased by one. If â€Å"++ or -â€Å"are used as a prefix to the variable name then pre increment/ decrement operations take place. Consider an example for understanding ++ operator as a prefix to the variable. x=20; y=10; z=x*++y; In the above equation the value of y is increased and then used for multiplication. The result is 220, which is assigned to z. The following programs can be executed for verification of increment and decrement operations. Example 3.4 Example 3.5 c) Size of 0 and Operator The size of ( ) operator gives the bytes occupied by a variable. The number of bytes occupied varies from variable to variable depending upon its dab types. The operator prints address of the variable in the memory. The example given below illustrates the use of both the operators. Example 3.6 3.5 RELATIONAL OPERATORS These operators are used to distinguish between two values depending on their relations. These operators provide the relationship between the two expressions. If the relation is true then it returns a value 1 otherwise 0 for false relation. The relational operators together with their descriptions, example and return value are described in Table 3.5. Table 3.5 Relational Operator Operators Description or Action Example Return Value > Greater than 5>4 1 >= Greater than equal to 11>=5 1 = = Equal to 2==3 0 ! = Not equal to 3!=3 0 The relational operators symbols are easy to understand. They are self-explanatory. However readers benefit a program is illustrated below. Example 3.7 Example 3.8 Example 3.9 Example 3.10 3.6 LOGICAL OPERATORS The logical relationship between the two expressions are checked with logical operators. Using these operators two expressions can be joined. After checking the conditions it provides logical true (1) or false (0) status. The operands could be constants, variables, and expressions. The Table 3.6 describes the three logical operators together with examples and their return values. Table 3.6 Logical Operators Operator Description or Action Example Return Value Logical AND 5>3 5 || Logical OR 8>5 || 8 ! Logical NOT 8 ! = 8 0 From the above table following rules can be followed for logical operators. 1) The logical AND ( ) operator provides true result when both expressions are true otherwise 0. 2) The logical OR (I I) operator provides true result when one of the expressions is true otherwise 0. 3) The logical NOT operator (!) provides 0 if the condition is true otherwise 1. Example 3.11 Example 3.12 Example 3.13 Example 3.14 Example 3.15 Example 3.16 3.7 BITWISE OPERATORS C supports a set of bitwise operators as listed in the Table 3.7. C supports six bit operators. These operators can operate only on integer operands such as int, char, short, long int etc. Table 3.7 Bitwise operators Operator Meaning >> Right shift ^ Bitwise xor (Exclusive OR) ~ Ones complement Bitwise AND | Bitwise OR Example 3.17 Example 3.18 Example 3.19 Example 3.20 Example 3.21 SUMMARY You have now studied the various operators such as arithmetic, logical and relational which are essential to write and execute programs. The precedence of the operators in the arithmetic operations furnished in the form of a table. The conditional comma operators and programs on them, also described in this chapter. You are made aware of the logical operators OR, AND and NOT. Full descriptions on bit wise operators have been illustrated. Numerous Simple examples have been provided to the users to understand the various operators. The reader is expected to write more programs on this chapter. EXCERSICES Answer the following questions. 1. Explain different types of operators available in C? 2. What are the uses of comma (,) and conditional (?) operators? 3. What are Unary operators and their uses? 4. Describe logical operators with their return values? 5. Distinguish between logical and bitwise operators. 6. What are the relational operators? 7. What is the difference between = and = = ‘? 8. What are the symbols used for a) OR b) AND c) XOR d) NOT operations? 9. Explain the precedence of operators in arithmetic operations? 10. List the operators from higher priority to least priority? 11. What is the difference between %f and %g? 12. What is the difference between division and modular division operations? 13. What are the ASCII codes? List the codes for digits 1 to 9, A to Z and a to z. We have already seen that individual constants, variables, array elements and function references joined together by various operators to form expressions. We have also mentioned that C includes a number of operators which fall into several different categories. In this chapter we examine certain of categories in detail. Specifically, we will see how arithmetic operators, unary operators, relational and logical operators, assignment operators and the conditional operator are used to form expressions. The data items that operators act upon are called operands. Some operators require two operands, while others act upon only one operand. Most operators allow the individual operands to be expressions. A few operator permit only single variables as operands (more about this later). 3.1 ARITHMETIC OPERATORS There are five arithmetic operators in C. They are Operator Purpose + addition subtraction * multiplication / division % remainder after integer division The %operator is sometimes referred to as the modulus operator. There is no exponentiation operator in C. However, there is a library function (pow) to carry out exponentiation (see Sec.3.6). The operands acted upon by arithmetic operators must represent numeric values. Thus, the operands can be integer quantities, floating-point quantities or characters (remember -that character constants represent integer values, as determined by the computers character set). The remainder operator (%) requires that both operands be integers and the second operand be nonzero. Similarly, the division operator (I) requires that the second operand be nonzero. Division of one integer quantity by another is referred to as integer division. This operation always results in a truncated quotient (i.e., the decimal portion of the quotient will be dropped). On the other hand if a division operation is carried out with two floating-point numbers, or with one floating-point number and one integer, the result will be a floating-point quotient. EXAMPLE 3.1 EXAMPLE 3.2 EXAMPLE 3.3 Operands that differ in type may undergo type conversion before the expression takes on its final value. In general, the final result will be expressed in the highest precision possible, consistent with the data types of the operands. The following rules apply when neither / operand is unsigned. 1. If both operands are floating-point types whose precisions differ (e.g., a float and a double), the lower precision operand will be converted to the precision of the other operand, and the result will be expressed in this higher precision. Thus, an operation between a float and a double will result in a double; a float and a long double will result in a long double; and a double and a long double will result in a long double. (Note: In some versions of C, all operands of type float are automatically converted to double.) 2. If one operand is a floating-point type (e.g., float, double or long double) and the other is a char or an int (including short int or long int), the char or int will be converted to the floating-point type and the result will be expressed as such. Hence, an operation between an int and a double will result in a double. 3. If neither operand is a floating-point type but one is a long int, the other will be converted to long int and the result will be long into Thus, an operation between a long int and an int will result in a long int. 4. If neither operand is a floating-point type or a long int, then both operands will be converted to int (if necessary) and the result will be into Thus, an operation between a short int and an int will result in an int. A detailed summary of these rules is given in Appendix D. Conversions involving unsigned operands are also explained in Appendix D. EXAMPLE 3.4 EXAMPLE 3.5 EXAMPLE 3.6 EXAMPLE 3.7 EXAMPLE 3.8 EXAMPLE 3.9 3.2 UNARY OPERATORS C includes a class of operators that act upon a single operand to produce a new value. Such operators are known as unary operators. Unary operators usually precede their single operands, though some unary operators are written after their operands. Perhaps the most common unary operation is unary minus, where a numerical constant, variable or expression is preceded by a minus sign. (Some programming languages allow a minus sign to be included as a part of a numeric constant. In C, however, all numeric constants are positive. Thus, a negative number is actually an expression, consisting of the unary minus operator, followed by a positive numeric constant.) Note that the unary minus operation is distinctly different from the arithmetic operator which denotes subtraction (-). The subtraction operator requires two separate-operands. 3.3 RELATIONALAND LOGICAL OPERATORS There are four relational operators in C. They are Operator Meaning > greater than >= greater than or equal to These operators all fall within the same precedence group, which is lower than the arithmetic and unary operators. The associatively of these operators is left to right. Closely associated with the relational operators are the following two equality operators. Operator Meaning == equal to != not equal to The equality operators fall into a separate precedence group, beneath the relational operators. These operators also have a left-to-right associatively. These six operators are used to form logical expressions, which represent conditions that are either true or false. The resulting expressions will be of type integer, since true is represented by the integer value 1 and false is represented by the value 0. EXAMPLE 3.15 EXAMPLE 3.16 EXAMPLE 3.17 EXAMPLE 3.18 EXAMPLE 3.19 EXAMPLE 3.20 3.4 ASSIGNMENT OPERATORS There are several different assignment operators in C. All of them are used to form assignment .expressions which assign the value of an expression to an identifier. The most commonly used assignment operator is = Assignment expressions that make use of this operator are written in the form identifier = expression where identifier generally represents a variable, and expression represents a constant, a variable or a more complex expression. EXAMPLE 3.21 Remember that the assignment operator = and the equality operator == are distinctly different. The assignment operator is used to assign a value to an identifier, whereas the equality operator is used to determine if two expressions have the same value. These operators cannot be used in place of one another. Beginning programmers often incorrectly use the assignment operator when they want to test for equality. This results in a logical error that is usually difficult to detect. Assignment expressions are often referred to as assignment statements, since they are usually written as complete statements. However, assignment expressions can also be written as expressions that are included within other statements (more about this in later chapters). If the two operands in an assignment expression are of different data types, then the value of the expression on the right (i.e., the right-hand operand) will automatically be converted to the type of the identifier on the left. The entire assignment expression will then be of this same data type. Under some circumstances this automatic type conversion can result in an alteration of the data being assigned. For example: A floating-point value may be truncated if assigned to an integer identifier. A double-precision value may be rounded if assigned to a floating-point (single-precision) identifier. An integer quantity may be altered if assigned to a shorter integer identifier or to a character identifier (some high-order bits may be lost). Moreover the value of a character constant assigned to a numeric-type identifier will be dependent upon the particular character set in use. This may result in inconsistencies from one version of C to another. The careless use of type conversions is a frequent source of error among beginning programmers. EXAMPLE 3.22 EXAMPLE 3.23 EXAMPLE 3.24 EXAMPLE 3.25 THE CONDITIONAL OPERATOR Simple conditional operations can be carried out with the conditional operator (? :). An expression that makes use of the conditional operator is called a conditional expression. Such an expression can be written in place of the more traditional if -else statement, which is discussed in Chap.6. A condition expression is written in the form expression 1 ? expression 2 : expression 3 When evaluating a conditional expression, expression 1 is evaluated first. If expression 1 is true (i.e., if, its value is nonzero), then expression 2 is evaluated and this becomes the value of the conditional expression. However, if expression 1 is false (i.e., if its value is zero),then expression 3 is evaluated and this becomes the value of the conditional expression. Note that only one of the embedded expressions (either expression 2 or expression 3) is evaluated when determining the value of a conditional expression. EXAMPLE 3.26 EXAMPLE 3.27 EXAMPLE 3.28 EXAMPLE 3.29 LIBRARY FUNCTIONS The C language is accompanied by a number of library functions that carry out various commonly used operations or calculations. These library functions are not a part of the language per se, though all implementations of the language include them. Some functions return a data item to their access point; others indicate whether a condition is true or false by returning a 1 or a 0, respectively; still others carry out specific operations on data items but do not return anything. Features which tend to be computer-dependent are generally written as library functions. For example, there are library functions that carry out standard input/output operations (e.g., read and write characters, read and write numbers, open and close files, test for end of file, etc.), functions that perform operations on characters (e.g., convert from lower- to uppercase, test to see if a character is uppercase, etc.), and function that perform operations on strings (e.g., copy a string, compare strings, concatenate strings, etc.), and functions that carry out various mathematical calculations (e.g., evaluate trigonometric, logarithmic and exponential functions, compute absolute values, square roots, etc.). Other kinds of library functions are also available. Library functions that are functionally similar are usually grouped together as (compiled) object programs in separate library files. These library files are supplied as a part of each C compiler. All C compilers contain similar groups of library functions, though they lack precise standardization. Thus there may be some variation in the library functions that are available in different versions of the language. A typical set of library functions will include a fairly large number of functions that are common to most C compilers such as those shown in Table 3-2 below. Within this table, the column labeled type refers to the data type of the quantity that is returned by the function. The void entry shown for function srand indicates that nothing is returned by this function. A more extensive list, which includes all of the library functions that appear in the programming examples presented in this book, is shown in Appendix H. For complete list, see the programmers reference manual that accompanies your particular version of C. A library function is accessed simply by writing the function name, followed by a list of arguments that represent information being passed to the function. The arguments must be enclosed in parentheses and separated by commas. The arguments can be constants, variable names, or more complex expressions. The parentheses must be present, even if there are no arguments. A function that returns a data item can appear anywhere within an expression, in place of a constant or an identifier(i.e., in place of a variable or an array element). A function that carries out operations on data items but does not return anything can be accessed simply by writing the function name, since this type of function reference constitutes an expression statement. Table 3-2 Some Commonly Used Library Functions Function Type Purpose abs(i) Int Return the absolute value of i. ceil(d) double Round up to the next integer value (the smallest integer that is greater than or equal to d). cos(d) double Return the cosine of d. cosh (d) double Return the hyperbolic cosine of d. exp (d) double Raise e to the power d (e =2.7182818. .. is the base of the natural (Naperian) system of logarithms). fabs (d) double Return the absolute value of d. floor (d) double Round down to the next integer value (the largest integer that does not exceed d). fmod (d1,d2) double Return the remainder (i.e., the noninteger part of the quotient) of d1/d2, with same sign as d1. getchar () int Enter a character from the standard input device. log (d) double Return the natural logarithm of d. pow (d1,d2) double Return d1 raised to the d2 power. printf(†¦) int Send data items to the standard output device (arguments are complicated see Chap. 4). pitcher  © int Send a character to the standard output device rand ( ) int Return a random positiv e integer. sin (d) double Return the sine of d. sqrt (d) double Return the square root of d. srand (u) void Initialize the random number generator. scanf(†¦) int Enter data items from the standard input device (arguments are complicated see Chap. 4). tan (d) double Return the tangent of d. toascii  © int Convert value of argument to ASCII. tolower  © int Convert letter to lowercase toupper  © int Convert letter to uppercase. Note: Type refers to the data type of the quantity that is returned by the function. c denotes a character-type argument i denotes an integer argument d denotes a double-precision argument u denotes an unsigned integer argument EXAMPLE 3.30 EXAMPLE 3.31 Review Questions 1. What is an expression? What are its components? 2. What is an operator? Describe several different types of operators that are included in C. 3. What is an operand? What is the relationship between operators and operands? 4. Describe the five arithmetic operators in C. Summarize the rules associated with their use. 5. Summarize the rules that apply to expressions whose operands are of different types. 6. How can the value of an expression be converted to a different data type? What is this called? 7. What is meant by operator precedence? What are the relative precedence’s of the arithmetic operators? 8. What is meant by associativity? What is the associativity of the arithmetic operators? 9. When should parentheses be included within an expression? When should the use of parentheses be avoided. 10. In what order are the operations carried out within an expression that contains nested parentheses? 11. What are unary operators? How many operands are associated with a unary op erator? 12. Describe the six unary operators discussed in this chapter. What is the purpose of each? 13. Describe two different ways to utilize the increment and decrement operators. How do the two method differ? 14. What is the relative precedence of the unary operators compared with the arithmetic operators? What is their associativity? 15. How can the number of bytes allocated to each data type be determined for a particular C compiler? 16. Describe the four relational operators included in C. With what type of operands can they be used? What type of expression is obtained? 17. Describe the two equality operators included in C. How do they differ from the relational operators? 18. Describe the two logical operators included in C. What is the purpose of each? With what type of operands can they be used? What type of expression is obtained? 19. What are the relative precedence’s of the relational, equality and logical operators with respect to one another and with respect to the arithmetic and unary operators? What are their associativities? 20. Describe the logical not (logical negation) operator. What is its purpose? Within which precedence group is it included? How many operands does it require? What is its associativity? 21. Describe the six assignment operators discussed in this chapter. What is the purpose of each? 22. How is the type of an assignment expression determined when the two operands are of different data types? In what sense is this situation sometimes a source of programming errors? 23. How can multiple assignments be written in C? In what order will the assignments be carried out? 24. What is the precedence of assignment operators relative to other operators? What is their associativity? 25. Describe the use of the conditional operator to form conditional expressions. How is a conditional expression evaluated? 26. How is the type of a conditional expression determined when its operands differ in type? 27. How can the conditional op erator be combined with the assignment operator to form an if -else type statement? 28. What is the precedence of the conditional operator relative to the other operators described in this chapter? What is its associativity? 29. Describe, in general terms, the kinds of operations and calculations that are carried out by the C library functions. 30. Are the library functions actually a part of the C language? Explain. 31. How are the library functions usually packaged within a C compiler? 32. How are library functions accessed? How is information passed to a library function from the access point? 33. What are arguments? How are arguments written? How is a call to a library function written if there are no arguments? 34. How is specific information that may be required by the library functions stored? How is this information entered into a C program? 35. In what general category do the #define and #include statements fall? INTRODUCTION C supports a rich set of operators. We have already used several of them, such as =, +. -, *, and, C operators can be classified into a number of categories. They include: 1. Arithmetic operators. 2. Relational operators. 3. Logical operators. 4. Assignment operators. 5. Incrementand decrement operators. 6. Conditional operators. 7. Bitwiseoperators. 8. Speciaolperators. 3.2 ARITHMETIC OPERATORS C provides all the basic arithmetic operators. They are listed in Table 3.1. The operators +, -, * and I all work the same way as they do in other languages. These can operate on any built-in data type allowed in C. The unary minus operator, in effect, multiplies its single operand by -1. Therefore, a number preceded by a minus sign changes its sign. Table 3.1 Arithmetic Operators Operator Meaning + Addition or unary plus Subtraction or unary minus * Multiplication / Division % Modulo division Integer division truncates any fractional part. The modulo division produces the remainder of an integer division. Examples of arithmetic operators are: a – b a + b a * b a / b a % b -a * b Here a and b are variables and are known as operands. The modulo division operator % cannot be used on floating point data. Note that C does not have an operator for exponentiation. Older versions of C does not support unary plus but ANSI C supports it. Integer Arithmetic When both the operands in a single arithmetic expression such as a+b are integers, the expression is called an integer expression, and the operation is called integer arithmetic. Integer arithmetical ways yields an integer value. The largest integer value depends on the machine, as pointed out earlier. In the above examples, if a and b are integers, then for a = 14 and b = 4 we have the following results: a b = 10 a + b = 18 a*b=56 a / b = 3 (decimal part truncated) a % b = 2 (remainder of division) During integer division, if both the operands are of the same sign, the result is truncated towards zero. If one of them is negative, the direction of truncation is implementation dependent. That is, 6/7 = 0 and -6/-7 = 0 but -6/7 may be zero or -1. (Machine dependent) Similarly, during modulo division, the sign of the result is always the sign of the first operand (the dividend.) That is -14 % 3 = -2 -14 % -3 = -2 14 % -3 = 2 EXAMPLE 3.1 Real Arithmetic An arithmetic operation involving only real operands is called eal arithmetic. A real operand may assume values either in decimal or exponential notation. Since floating point values are rou

Imagery and Metaphor in Wilfred Owens Dulce et Decorum Est :: Dulce et Decorum Est Essays

Imagery and Metaphor in Wilfred Owen's Dulce et Decorum Est  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The poem is one of the most powerful ways to convey an idea or opinion.   Through vivid imagery and compelling metaphors, the poem gives the reader the exact feeling the author wanted.   The poem "Dulce et Decorum Est," an anti-war poem by Wilfred Owen, makes great use of these devices.   This poem is very effective because of its excellent manipulation of the mechanical and emotional parts of poetry.   Owen's use of exact diction and vivid figurative language emphasizes his point, showing that war is terrible and devastating. Furthermore, the utilization of extremely graphic imagery adds even more to his argument.   Through the effective use of all three of these tools, this poem conveys a strong meaning and persuasive argument.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The poem's use of excellent diction helps to more clearly define what the author is saying.   Words like "guttering", "choking", and "drowning" not only show how the man is suffering, but that he is in terrible pain that no human being should endure.   Other words like writhing and froth-corrupted say precisely how the man is being tormented.   Moreover, the phrase "blood shod" shows how the troops have been on their feet for days, never resting.   Also, the fact that the gassed man was "flung" into the wagon reveals the urgency and occupation with fighting. The only thing they can do is toss him into a wagon.   The fact one word   can add to the meaning so much shows how the diction of this poem adds greatly to its effectiveness.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Likewise, the use of figurative language in this poem also helps to emphasize the points that are being made.   As Perrine says, people use metaphors because they say "...what   we want to say more vividly and forcefully..."   Owen capitalizes greatly on this by using strong metaphors and similes.   Right off in the first line, he describes the troops as being "like old beggars under sacks."   This not only says that they are tired, but that they are so tired they have been brought down to the level of beggars who have not slept in a bed for weeks on end.   Owen also compares the victim's face to the devil, seeming corrupted and baneful.   A metaphor even more effective is one that compares "...vile, incurable sores..." with the memories of the troops.   It not only tells the reader how the troops will never forget the experience, but also how they are frightening tales, ones that will the troops will never be able to tell without remember ing the extremely painful experience.