Thursday, October 31, 2019

Economy of Switzerland Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Economy of Switzerland - Essay Example The country's political environment too is characterized by a high degree of decentralization with adequate amount of autonomy and authority delegated to the 26 cantons (Datamonitor, 2007). Macroeconomic indicators happen to be good measure of the economic development of a country as these measures keep track of the life-style of the citizens and the problems faced by them while trying to arrange for the living. Sound macroeconomic indicators help in strengthening the base for a lasting growth of a nation. Some of the macroeconomic indicators over the last couple of years can be summarized for the country as follows; Gross Domestic Product (GDP) happens to be the key driver of macroeconomic conditions in a country. It is calculated as1 'the total market value of all final goods and services produced in a country in a given year, equal to total consumer, investment and government spending, plus the value of exports, minus the value of imports'. Switzerland has seen consistent growth in its GDP over the years, but it appears that is not good enough for it to maintain its leading position amongst similarly placed nations. OECD (2007) in its survey, while lauding the high levels of GDP per capita for Switzerland, also expresses concern over the continuous erosion of Switzerland's relative position over the past decade. The report points out that while proper utilization of labor remains high, the productivity levels has dropped down in comparison to other developed economies like Germany, France, Denmark etc. The growth in real GDP for Switzerland over the period of 2001-2006 is as indicated in tabl e-1 Table 1: Switzerland real GDP (Swiss francs billion), 2001-2006 Table-2: GDP per capita growth in Switzerland compared to major Eurozone countries, 2001-2006 and forecast 2007-11 Year GDP (Swiss francs billion) Growth (%) Country CAGR 2001-2006 CAGR 2007-2011 2001 423 1.1 Germany 0.9 1.0 2002 425 0.4 France 1.4 1.5 2003 424 -0.2 Italy 0.6 0.9 2004 434 2.4 Spain 2.9 4.1 2005 444 2.2 Switzerland 1.0 1.4 2006 457 3.0 Source: Datamonitor, U.S Census Bureau International Database, National Statistical Organization- Switzerland CAGR 1.55% Source: Datamonitor, National Statistical Organization- Switzerland Even during the first two quarters of 2007 the GDP growth remained quite encouraging reaching 0.7% in each period, quarter on quarter (OECD, 2007). What is driving the growth is the acceleration in private consumption with an increase in the availability of more job opportunities and labour incomes. In fact in today's market driven economy what makes a big difference in the economic growth is the purchasing power of the workforce which sets a chain reaction in the form of more purchases, more production, and more contribution to the government in the form of taxes, more investments by the industry and expansion of the overall industrial outlook of the nation. Therefore, Switzerland seems to be preparing adequate ground for inviting more investments which obviously helps the government in shelling out more funds for infrastructure and social welfare sectors. For the year 2007 the GDP growth has been estimated around 2.5%, somewhat lower as compared to the 2006 figures but, in view of the global slowdown in economies this percentage appears good enough. The improvement in economic indicators is also on account of

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Character, Dignity, and Self-Respect Essay Example for Free

Character, Dignity, and Self-Respect Essay This paper will summarize the movie Glory and relate one or two characters to Aristotle, Epictetus, and Saint Augustine on character, dignity, and self-respect. Alina Campbell This paper will summarize the movie Glory and relate one or two characters to Aristotle, Epictetus, and Saint Augustine on character, dignity, and self-respect. The movie Glory is based on a true story about the Commander of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry which was the first black regiment to be listed in the service of the United States. It is based on the letters by Col. Robert Shaw. Col. Shaw felt he was involved in something that he was not completely sure about, considering he had previously lost a lot of soldiers to battle. He was now faced with survivor’s guilt which he knew would heal in time. Shaw later became a mighty leader that lead the black regiment to take on the battle in Fort Wagner. Aristotle Character is mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual. Aristotle believed character to be neither a feeling or a capacity or a mere tendency to act in certain ways (Sommers amp; Sommers, 2010). He believed instead that character was a settled condition we are in when we are well off in relation to our feelings and our actions. The virtues of character are dispositions to act in a certain way in response to similar situations. Good conduct arises from habits that in turn can only be acquired by repeated action and correction. Col. Robert Gould Shaw fits Aristotle’s view of Character best in my opinion. He was not only the commander of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, their voice. The black men that fought with Shaw were slaves that wanted to fight for their freedom. When Shaw was told of the United States Government planning to form this regiment of black soldiers he agreed to take the Commanding position. He then asked his best friend Major Cabot Forbes to fight along with him and Forbes accepted. At one point Shaw fights for these men to get the proper uniform and boots. He also refuses pay along with them after finding out that they are paid less than the white soldiers. Both Shaw and Forbes strongly connected with this group of men: the angry Private Trip (Denzel Washington); Private Jupiter Sharts (Jhine Kennedy); Corporal Thomas Searles (Andre Braugher), a very smart and educated man that grew up with Shaw and worked for Shaw’s father, and Sgt. Maj. John Rawlins (Morgan Freeman), a runaway slave who speaks with the voice of wisdom and reason. Dignity is the state of quality of being worthy of honor or respect. Aristotle’s view on dignity consists of the consciousness that we deserve honors, not in processing them. You cannot earn dignity through external awards; instead it is something you bestow upon yourself. â€Å"Dignity consists not in possessing recognition from others, but in consciousness that we deserve recognition from others† (Sommers amp;Sommers, 2010). The character played by Morgan Freeman, Rawlings, knew that being a slave was not worth much, so he decided to help Shaw fight the battle at Fort Wagner. Forbes also displayed dignity in the movie. Forbes was Col. Shaw’s best friend and is who told Col. Shaw of this regiment. Due to the type of relationship the two had, Col. Shaw asked Forbes to come along with him to prepare the black slaves. Forbes agreed and stood by Col. Shaw and these black men through the name calling, getting the proper shoes, and receiving their uniforms like the white soldiers had while fighting in the Civil War. Aristotle describes the position of character, dignity and self- respect as character being a state concern with choice, lying in a mean relative to us, that this is determined by reason and in such a way that a man of wisdom would determine it. It is a mean between two vices that depends on excess that depends on defect (Sommers amp; Sommers, 2010) Aristotle feels neither a feeling nor a capacity nor a tendency to behave in specific ways. It is the settled condition we are in when we are well off in a relation to our feelings and actions when we are in a mean or intermediate state in regard to them. Meaning we have a vicious character that we are badly off in relation to feeling and actions, and we fail the means in regards to them. The character that I felt showed this type of role would be Denzel and Andre’s characters, known as Trip and Thomas. Trip was a runaway slave that was very angry. He didn’t have anybody and had been previously beaten several times. Trip had specific thoughts of the white man and they were that the slaves were seen as monkeys. He thought that the slaves should be dressed up in uniform and fight, since the white men would only get themselves killed and wouldn’t be able to win. Andre Braugher played Thomas. He was an educated man that had worked for Col. Shaw’s father. He believed that black men should know how to read and have pride within themselves. In the movie Glory, Thomas had learned to take a lot. Thomas assumed that since he and Col. Shaw were close friends that he would be treated a bit differently, but to his surprise, he was called out by his best friend to train a lot faster than he was and then yelled at. Thomas learned much at the end of the movie, including self-respect. Thomas had been shot in a previous battle and he asked Col. Shaw to promise that he wouldn’t send him back, which Shaw didn’t allow Thomas to continue in battle. Later in the movie, Col. Shaw asks who would be willing to standin the place of the flagman, should something happen, and Thomas stated that he would and did. Epictetus Epictetus held the Orthodox Stoic view that everything in the universe is directed by divine will. Epictetus was different from the early stoics in that he believed happiness was found in maintaining one’s moral character as opposed to striving for moral excellence. He emphasized self-knowledge and keeping one’s moral character in order as the way to achieve a happy life. Epictetus warned his students to expect persecution since their actions and attitudes would be different from those around them. He encouraged them to view life as an athletic challenge, a festival or a short military service, where success would come from a combination of correct choices and skill. Epictetus believed that â€Å"grief was the most offensive emotion; he considered the suffering of grief as an act of evil. It was a willful act, going against the will of God to have all men share happiness† (Stockdale, 1995). Col. Robert Shaw, through his personal growth and internal realizations fulfilled his leadership duties on the battlefield, as well as beyond. He chose to take the beliefs he had from his life prior to war to another level. Shaw struggled with the question of equality among the races yet he recognized the character and desires of the Black Americans and chose to act on their behalf as well as the Unions. Shaw felt that his soldiers, regardless of color, deserved respect just as much as the white soldiers. Shaw was willing to not take pay to make a point that his soldiers deserved the same pay as their fellow white soldiers. He stuck his neck out to make sure they received the proper gear in order to fight. Shaw had finally decided to not let the grief from the prior battle to control him, he chose to help in the happiness of the slaves and continue to fight for their freedom. Saint Augustine Augustine’s approach was not just brilliant, it was practical. His insight is intellectually credible and emotionally satisfying in that it gives hope and offers meaning to the Christian trying to make sense out of life in a fallen world (Sommers amp; Sommers, 2010). To Augustine, anything that had being was good. Good as the ground of being was perfectly good, along with everything he brought into being. This goodness was a property that came in varying degrees. The obstacles that Col. Robert Gould Shaw had to overcome is the fact that he failed in battle another time. He had to pick himself back up, and he then led the black regiment in the Civil War and was refused to let these black soldiers be treated with any less respect than the white soldiers. Another hardship that Col. Shaw and his black soldiers had to endure was the fact they were getting under paid, they were not given the proper shoes to march in, and the fact they were not given the proper uniforms like the other soldiers. Col. Shaw had shown a life of character, dignity and self- respect by being the honorable Commander that he was. Col. Shaw never let others views get in the way of his personal view of his soldiers. Col. Shaw had self- respect even though he had been defeated, prior to leading the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry soldiers with dignity and never gave up on them.  He was a man that believed in faith and that the black soldiers were no different than any others.

Sunday, October 27, 2019

The Great Wall Motors Business Essay

The Great Wall Motors Business Essay This narrative focus on the competitive position of great wall motors which is one of the top privately owned enterprise in China was specified on both A share market in china mainland and H share market on Honkong. The Great wall motors established in 1976 and it is named after the Great Wall of China (wiki).The company started with manufacturing of Great wall light vans and great wall deer pickups. The great wall deer pickups create a breakthrough in the production line of the company. By the end of 1998 great wall pickups ranked No. 1 in domestic pickup market. Nowadays Great wall motors reach the top level by producing 3 main categories of Haval SUV, Great Wall PC and Wingle Pickup with more than 30 supplementary branches with 45000 employees. Today Haval SUV sustained the top rank in sales and export volume in China for 9 years and Wingle Pickup ranked first in units of market share, export volume and sales in China. It has achieved a fairly good brand name by producing a monthl y sales of above 10,000 units illustrates its excellent capacity when compared to Joint-Venture brands. Great wall motors brand philosophy stick on specialization, dedication and focus. This philosophy helps to illustrate its strategic vision and specialising spirit from dedicated focus philosophy to effective operational management and conclusively to worldwide leading brand. Moreover its brand strategy focuses on creating a category of leading brands. The brand development strategy of Great wall motors helps them to be keeping pace with the world tide. (1 para about the content description) External Environment The Environment is a framework that provides means of survival for the organisation. It can bring threat as well as opportunities to the organisation(Johnson, et al., 2010). This part analyses the external environment of great wall motors using Pestle analysis. Pestle analysis Organisational environment includes all the elements outside the boundary of organisation that can create potential impact to the organisation positively and negatively(Samson Daft, 2012). Pestle analysis is a tool used for analysing the macro-environment in which the organisation operates. It is a tool that exclusively scans the political, economical, social, technological, legal and environmental factors that influences the organisation and it can also be used to evaluate the market growth and decline. Pestle lists of 6 external environmental factors are explain later in appendix 1. However, This part examins in detail about the 6 pestle factors that affects the great walls environment . (Downey, J. (2007). Strategic analysis tools. London: The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) a.Technological Technological factors covers different methods adopted by organisation to deliver better efficient and quality products with in minimum time slots(Njanja, Martin, Rene, 2012). It includes the way company establish its work methods and patterns, knowledge, materials, tools and methods followed for achieving expected outcome and finally how the information structures used. In this modern world of technology, It act as one of the answer for many problems that restrict the growth of business(Njanja, et al., 2012).For Chinese automobile companies its not adequate to clutch production capacity so they need to implement more innovative techniques. So Great wall motors significantly encourages technical advancements and innovations and assert on independent R D within the organisation (CHINA: Great Wall Motors first science-and-technology festival inaugurated, 2011).During last 5 years, Great wall motors has invested more than 3 billion RMB for the development and software for R D. So that it has been accredited as High-Tech Corporation, Postdoctoral Science research Institute, National Recognized corporation Technique centre, National innovative corporation, Provincial automobile engineering technique centre. Great wall motors would utilise the exclusive pool of development and innovations for Chinas automobile brands. As a result of these great-leap-forward developments Great wall motors succeeded to achieve international quality standards in performance of vehicles for their existing and future models like Germany vehicles standard in controlling stability and bodywork rigidity, NCAP five stars standards in safety, Japanese vehicle standard in NVH, reassuring wear, exquisite project and North American, European and other high-end target market requirements in emission(CHINA: Great Wall Motors first science-and-technology festival inaugurated, 2011).Great wall motors planning to invest a 5 more billions to R D development in the coming years so as to build first cl ass well maintained international RD with better experiment facilities, to set up a well qualified and efficient international RD, to beat world level first class technical innovations, to satisfy technical demands or aspirations of customers so as to rocket their additional value and improve their competitive ability of products . b.Social: In china, customers are not much interested in hybrid and electric technology, so there are not many firms producing hybrid cars and electric cars. It offers better opportunity for great wall motors in this field as they have only limited competitors. For a short run, they can have a great market share in this field. But in a long run, more competitions will occur, when more and more firms came to use this technology. Today customers are looking for better performing and mileage cars. Hybrid cars of great wall motors have better mileage and performance when compare with other hybrid cars. But it is not up to the level of petrol cars performance, so still customers prefer to use petrol cars because of their standard performance. So it is very much mandatory to improve their technology in hybrid cars to make its performance better than petrol cars. c.Economic As a result of severe price hike of oil the demand for hybrid and electric cars are continually rising. Great wall motors is one of the leading automobile company in china conducting its research and development in hybrid as well as electric cars. Because of price hike in oil the demand for petrol cars are falling down. On one hand, they can impose or introduce their hybrid and electric car technologies as the demand for this are increasing. But on the other hand, as there are hybrid or electric cars, customers were less interested in buying their petrol cars. As they have hybrid and electric cars, their revenue will not break down even if there is fall in demand of petrol cars. In a long run, they can improve their sales and productions by concentrating more on hybrid and electric cars. Chinese automobile market shows a severe growth of 1/3 recently. This means still there exist more opportunities for great wall motors to grow and expand their activities. They can expand their sales and revenue more if the market is bigger. d. political: role of government Chinese government is going to invest billions of dollars in hybrid technology. Great wall motors is one of the automobile company well known for its research and development in hybrid technology. If they successfully proved that their technology is worth for investment, they can get billions of dollars for their research development in this technology. Now Chinese government is planning to buy a large number of hybrid cars for use in china within 2 years. As great wall motors are already producing hybrid cars, the plan of Chinese government may put them forth to increase their production to fulfil the wishes of their government. Recently, the official vehicle options adopted by ministry of industry and information technology were announced. Including Haval H6 and H5, 25 vehicles of GWM were listed. As a result Haval become most prominent brand in the inventory.SUV because of its versatility it becomes a model with fast growth among customers and market. Due to this new policy of official vehicles, it become popular not only among common customers but broadly requested by officers also. Now a days Haval SUV becomes one of the top brands in the Chinese office cars market for bulk purchase by government departments of fire fighting, roads and expressway governance. However in china, there are some restriction on car ownership in some part of cities, as part of reducing traffic congestion and accidents. To some extent, the legal restrictions and tax increase affects the sales and revenue of great wall motors. (http://sites.cdnis.edu.hk/students/100106/2011/03/31/pest-analysis/) e.environmental(green): green issues,pollution,waste Environmental factors have greater role in automobile industry as they cause severe hazards to living creatures by air pollution. To eliminate these harmful hazards and achieving fuel efficiency in their vehicles, Great wall motors introduced technological innovations in diesel engines like turbo charging and emissions technologies. So that they succeeded to achieve narrow emission with attractive fuel economy and better power output(Anonymous, 2011). They are also trying to implement green diesel technology in their vehicles. With this technology in vehicles, great wall motors are demanding an eco-friendly environment with energy saving performance. By this technology, the chairman of the company believes that, they created a breakthrough in high-efficiency vehicles with energy saving power(CHINA: Bosch cooperates with Great Wall Motors for green diesel technology exhibition, 2012). f. legal: health safety regulations Great wall motors give more importance for health safety of their customers. For that they introduced advanced all wheel driving technology in their vehicles(Anonymous, 2011). 2.Porters five force analysis Porters five force theory was developed by Michael E. Porter in 1979 for evaluating and identifying the current strengths and market positions of different business firms.The Pictorial representation of porters five force is shown in appendix 2 and the porters five forces analysis of great wall motors is explained as follows: (Downey, J. (2007). Strategic analysis tools. London: The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) a.threat of new entrants This is one of the severe threats faced by great wall motors. There are several reasons for this threat. As china is one of the growing economies, the market demand for cars is continually increasing. As a result of this, many new automobile companies are trying to walk carefully to the early stage of automobile life cycle. Then only they can withstand in this industry in future developed stages. Moreover the faint intellectual property laws enable new companies to copying the design as well as other properties of others. So that they can develop new innovations in efficient and effective manner than researching and development procedures. b. Bargaining power of buyers or customers This power is also moderately high for great wall motors as there are so many automobile manufacturers both in china and international markets other than great wall motors. So that its too difficult to withstand in this market without implementing any striking innovations. c. Threat of substitutes In China, Mass- transit could affect the car sales badly. But today in this growing economy there exist a vogue in china that, people considered car as their status symbol. So if any one comes to be financially stable then he ends up with buying a car rather than depending on cheapest modes like mass- transit or bicycles. So the impact of substitutes doesnt effects great wall largely. (http://porters-5-forces.blogspot.com.au/2011/11/porters-five-forces-analysis-china.html) 3. Strategic capabilities a) Three high strategies To enhance the products quality, Great wall motors made three highs strategies namely high performance, high technology and high quality. So that they are encouraged to use high tech innovations and better performing designs to their products for getting excellent and effective quality products. While competing with other international leading brands, the three high strategies made them fit to keep a highly accelerated momentum in their sales. In the aspect of 3 high strategies they recently signed the strategic cooperation agreement with many international companies like TRW, Valeo, Bosch, BorgWarner, Ricado, Mahle, Autoliv, and Brose in product manufacturing. The relationship of great wall motors with these international giants compelled them to upgrade their product quality by conducting thorough research and development of technologies. b) Established branding based on category Great wall motors is the chinas 1st automobile company that established their brands with the category. According to their view point, real brand would be the representative of distinguishing model in customers mind. As a result of this category branding, they are enjoying solid advantages including: For many years, their Haval SUV and wingle Pickup have been recorded as No: 1 in sales market. In the coming years also GWM decided to focus on 3 main categories PC, SUV and Pickup and they wants to become top most in the market with each of 3 brands in paramount positions with Haval- as chinas best selling SUV brand, great wall PC as chinas leading PC brand and wingle -as chinas best pick up brand. With this 3 leading brand positions, the brand name of Great wall motors strongly supported. (http://www.topgreatwall.com/great/page.php?lang=enpage_name=about) c)capabilities:- GWM continue to maintain a steady sustainable growth in the auto market, because of its steady operation and focusing strategy. They also followed a routine of valuing RD within the company so that they succeed in keeping up the quality of their products by updating technologies (News). Recent data published by NPCA (National passengers cars association) shows that that GWM holds a prominent position in top 10 sales list during the first half of year 2012.When NPCA narrowed the list, GWM is the only independent brand which hold such a fabulous position. Recently, the seminar conducted by GWMs technology centre announced that comprehensive proving ground will be finished by end of 2013. GWM is really proud to have first absolute proving ground among Chinese independent automobile companies. From their beginning onwards GWM gives more priority for product quality. They constantly assured their product quality by product quality maintaining systems. As they give more value for product development and quality test, proving ground was one the major project of GWMs research development centre. The effort of GWM on development of proving ground illustrates the strategic thinking of management and professional operation of GWM. d)STRENGTH In 2011, Chinese automobile market faced a recession because of different factors. When compare with the sales record of 2010, it shows a 30 % fall in overall sales volume. Moreover Chinese independent brands are more brittle and their share got skid sharply. Even in such a dim market, GWM maintained an excellent growth within their industry. According to the chairman of GWM, a strong brand might be a leader in their locality and may act as representative of its product kind in customers mind.GWM is the first automobile industry which introduced brands in their products types. To a large extent, branding their products helps GWM to improve their overall performance and to remain competitive in global market. Recently GWMs president shared their secret behind success that focusing on high-quality products rather than making low quality and low priced products. Moreover in this year, they are planning to focus on the improvement of sales outlet and terminal services. So they will conce ntrate on solving customers problems. (Official website) 4. Internal environment The value chain system is accomplished to recognise the line of activities committed by the organisation for creating a product or service. The primary activities are the activities that the firm engages for creation and delivery of a product within the organization through various logistics and external activities include production and sales. The supporting activities are activities that the organisation employs for polishing the efficiency and effectiveness of primary activities. This analysis helps managers to understand the operational level at which the product undergoes for developing value and this understanding is more superior in the success of all the firms (Porter, 2012). This paper centred on various primary and secondary activities undertaken by great wall motors. Value chain activities Inbound logistics involves activities that concerned with receiving, storing, and distribution of inputs needed for manufacturing products. Great wall motors maintained to receiving goods from suppliers all around the world in order to maximise their availability of goods. Great wall motors follows a just in time approach for handling their goods. Just in time is an approach of reducing in-process inventory and associated  costs for improving the investment return on business. Operation stage is the most difficult phase as it involves the activity of converting the raw materials received into a final product. Great wall motors are famous for their reliability because of their efficient operations. Here in this phase great wall assembles all the materials needed for Individual operations including systematization of parts for a car and final tuning of car engine. In Outbound stage, great wall distribute their finally polished vehicles to wholesalers, retailers, or to consumers. Grea t wall managed to maintain their showrooms in different countries for making their products easily accessible to customers. The marketing strategy that great wall adopted was their primary lead for securing a dominant position in the automobile industry. They maintained a customer oriented pattern in their business operations and also they managed to meet their customers demand. Great wall focused more on marketing communication and promotion mix in this area. Great wall had given more priority for their customers. So in the area of services they focussed more on final checking, complaint handling, after-sales services and so on. (Official website) SWOT Analysis Strengths Strong distribution network in china Succeeded in identifying local market demand Lower operating budget depend on economy scale, low cost of land and labor, cheap plant cost, and own production of spare parts for its vehicles Better payment collection procedure encourages it with little debt. Weaknesses It is very much weak in its research developments settings. It depends on talented professionals from other designer companies to develop designs for their models. According to their record, their RD expense accounts only a small percentage of its total sales. Opportunities Expansion of SUV sales leads to an outstanding growth for global vehicle market. China witnessed steady sales in SUV market during 2008-2011.Greatwalls low production cost floor and its paramount position in SUV market enable them to achieve a robust growth in global auto market. Its cost structure encourages the demand of great walls vehicles in global market. Chinas VAT rebate policy allows great wall to enjoy the higher margin in exporting their products to overseas market. Threats Conclusion

Friday, October 25, 2019

Essay --

The main questions addressed in this research were based on the Medicago Truncatula- Sinorhizobium symbiosis that form indeterminate (non-reproducing bacteria) nodules. a) to see whether M. truncatula displays partner choice in picking the most efficient rhizobia between nitrogen fixing and non fixing bacteria in both pre- infection and post- infection scenarios. b) the authors also wanted to see if legumes can alter their allocation of carbon photosyntates to each nodule depending on how efficient the rhizobia is in each nodule. Authors of this article did this research because this symbiotic relationship is widely studied, but all the research done so far have been on determinate (bacteria is able to reproduce) nodules1 rather than indeterminate nodules. In previous research it was found that determinate nodules show both partner choice and allocation differentiation between efficient and non- efficient rhizobia. Answer2: Authors hypothesized that in Medicago Truncatula- Sinorhizobium that form indeterminate nodules will show partner choice in both pre infection and post infection scenarios and select for the most efficient rhizobia partner. They also hypothesized that the legume will show differential allocation of carbon photosyntates in each nodule depending on the number of nitrogen fixing and non fixing rhizobia in each nodule. Answer3: Figure # What method(s) gave this data? What do these data show? Figure1a The authors performed a split- root experiment to obtain data based on three different parameters and then used MANOVA analyses to compare the three parameters used in the experiment. They used Post hoc on all the measurements to use it to graph the differences. ANOVA to compare the mean of the two strains used... ...thors hypothesis. However, they were not able to show difference in the resource allocation to each nodule depending on the efficiency of bacteria in each nodule. Therefore they concluded that sanctioning is not present is not present in all legume unlike the partner choice. Answer5: The authors think that the discrepancy in the results of the previous researches and theirs regarding allocations by the legume to nitrogen fixing and non- fixing bacteria is that the authors used M. truncatula- sinorhizobium indeterminate nodules whereas other researchers used either soybean or yellow bush lupin determinate nodules. Since this is the first time such model is presented I think that there should be more researches focusing only the sanctions by legumes to the bacteria to better understand the symbiosis between M. truncatula - Sinorhizobium and sanctions in general.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Gatsby Closing Lines

â€Å"‘Can’t repeat the past? ’ [Gatsby] cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can! ’â€Å" In so much as two lines the novel was born with one of its main themes – the vast obsession with the past and the failure to accept that it is, contrary to what Gatsby says, impossible to recreate. As the novel concludes, Nick reflects, â€Å"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. † In some instances, â€Å"beating against the current† is considered a positive quality; an optimistic life-force that compels us all to battle our fate with sheer will.However, Nick seems to note that this battle is lost long before it is fought, that fatalism is a better way to live. All things considered, the significance and importance of our past ultimately defines our dreams of the future, yet we are inherently tied to the past and cannot transform our dreams to reality. Gatsby’s fatal flaw was his profoun d refusal at accepting the past and undoubtedly, his profound refusal at accepting who he is. From the get go Gatsby acquired an intense hatred for poverty – after attending St.Olaf’s College for two weeks he dropped out because he could not deal with the janitorial job that he was paying his tuition with. Following his falling in love with Daisy, his motivation to become wealthy increased, and after Daisy’s marriage to Tom his motivation only multiplied from there. So began his dedication to winning Daisy back, the beginning of beating against the current he should have simply let carry him. Gatsby completely disregards the fact that despite the past they had together, Daisy has lived a completely different life than when they first met.He is stuck in this cynical past where him and Daisy never parted, a non-existing reality in which she never stopped loving him. He attributes this fantasy to the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, with his mansion a cross the lake it had always been just out of grasp, merely something to admire and dream of from afar. At the end of Chapter 7, Gatsby keeps watch outside of Daisy’s home to make sure Tom does not harm her. Little does he know, the two are inside reconciling their differences over dinner.Gatsby has made it across the lake to Daisy’s porch, to the green light, but unbeknownst to him his dream has dissipated forever. The morning following Gatsby’s gardener states that he plans to empty the pool due to the fact that summer has ended. Not having used the pool the whole summer, Gatsby asks him to wait a day as he still wants to use it. As Nick returns to Gatsby’s mansion later, he discovers him floating dead in his pool. Gatsby’s hopeless grasp on the hope that he can make Daisy love him the way she used to parallels his wanting to use the pool even though summer has already passed.Ultimately, his death is a result of his extensive refusal to accept wh at he cannot control – the passing of time. Nick states, â€Å"He talked a lot about the past and I gathered that he wanted to recover something†¦ that had gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Following his loss of Daisy, it is almost as if Gatsby has lost a grasp on who he is as well.The new identity he created, this â€Å"Jay Gatsby† millionaire, was all created for the sole reason of winning Daisy over. Without Daisy now, what purpose was there to Jay Gatsby’s life? Instead of moving on like one is supposed to, he became dependent on reliving a part of his life where he felt he had reason, he became dependent on this green light. Nick’s closing line conveys the human condition of unreasonably struggling against our predicament, hoping and believing we can control our destin y even as experiences tell us we should not.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Television Is a Great Invention

Some people say television is the worst inventions of modern times. They make this assertion for some reasons. The following points are some of them. First, they think that televisions make people more passive than before. Second, they think televisions contribute to the fact that people are more distant to each other. To begin with, I must admit that the first point is reasonable. With a television all you need to do—and all you can do is to sit on a comfortable sofa and look at the screen. People are becoming more passive simply because there is no interaction and no efforts on them. Everything contains good side and bad side and television has no exception. Yeah, of course, it makes people lazier and passive. They just watch things on TV instead of doing by themselves. But apart from that, television is by all means a great invention. There is only a minority of people who can watch some events on the scene, like some live matches and competitions . So how can the rest of people participate in the events far from the place the events happen? Of course through television which all people are legal and free to enjoy can we do so. In addition, to people who want to travel but with no money, television is undoubtedly a great thing through which people can see the world only by sitting ideally at home. To the second point, I want to say that it is true. Televisions do make people less close to each other. Family get-togethers and conversations are disturbed by TV—when one member is watching TV, he would like others to keep quiet. But everyone have time when he or she is alone. Television alienates people not so much as it provides all kinds of relaxation and entertainment for people when they are alone. Although television addict some adolescents to situation comedies; although televisions put glasses on millions of students' noses; although television reduce communications between families and friends, the advantages of television are far more than the harm it does to us. To us individuals, when we finish a whole day's work and feel exhausted both physically and mentally, we may turn on televisions and have a good relaxation; when we want to get information on sports?entertainment or large events in the world, we turn on televisions and get it from all kinds of TV programs; even when we want to learn English?etiquette or custom of foreign countries, we can turn on the television and get what we need from them, always. In a word, I think television is a great invention which is of great significance to the evolution of human society. References: http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Television-Great-Invention/100718 http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/parents/television/good_things_tv.cfm http://articles.famouswhy.com/the_benefits_and_dangers_of_television/ http://wenda.tianya.cn/wenda/thread?tid=24535823bd68dd80 http://wenwen.soso.com/z/q138729005.htm