Wednesday, July 31, 2019

The Twilight Saga 4: Breaking Dawn 35. Deadline

â€Å"Headed out?† Edward asked, his tone nonchalant. There was a sort of forced composure about his expression. He hugged Renesmee just a little bit tighter to his chest. â€Å"Yes, a few last-minute things†¦,† I responded just as casually. He smiled my favorite smile. â€Å"Hurry back to me.† â€Å"Always.† I took his Volvo again, wondering if he'd read the odometer after my last errand. How much had he pieced together? That I had a secret, absolutely. Would he have deduced the reason why I didn't confide in him? Did he guess that Aro might soon know everything he knew? I thought Edward could have come to that conclusion, which explained why he had demanded no reasons from me. I guessed he was trying not to speculate too much, trying to keep my behavior off his mind. Had he put this together with my odd performance the morning after Alice left, burning my book in the fire? I didn't know if he could have made that leap. It was a dreary afternoon, already dark as dusk. I sped through the gloom, my eyes on the heavy clouds. Would it snow tonight? Enough to layer the ground and create the scene from Alice's vision? Edward estimated that we had about two more days. Then we would set ourselves in the clearing, drawing the Volturi to our chosen place. As I headed through the darkening forest, I considered my last trip to Seattle. I thought I knew Alice's purpose in sending me to the dilapidated drop point where J. Jenks referred his shadier clients. If I'd gone to one of his other, more legitimate offices, would I have ever known what to ask for? if I'd met him as Jason Jenks or Jason Scott, legitimate lawyer, would I ever have unearthed J. Jenks, purveyor of illegal documents? I'd had to go the route that made it clear I was up to no good. That was my clue. It was black when I pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant a few minutes early, ignoring the eager valets by the entrance. I popped in my contacts and then went to wait for J inside the restaurant. Though I was in a hurry to be done with this depressing necessity and back with my family, J seemed careful to keep himself untainted by his baser associations; i had a feeling a handoff in the dark parking lot would offend his sensibilities. I gave the name Jenks at the podium, and the obsequious maftre d' led me upstairs to a small private room with a fire crackling in a stone hearth. He took the calf-length ivory trench coat I'd worn to disguise the fact that I was wearing Alice's idea of appropriate attire, and gasped quietly at my oyster satin cocktail dress. I couldn't help being a little flattered; I still wasn't used to being beautiful to everyone rather than just Edward. The mattre d' stuttered half-formed compliments as he backed unsteadily from the room. I stood by the fire to wait, holding my fingers close to the flame to warm them a little before the inevitable handshake. Not that J wasn't obviously aware that there was something up with the Cullens, but it was still a good habit to practice. For one half second, I wondered what it would feel like to put my hand in the fire. What it would feel like when I burned___ J's entrance distracted my morbidity. The maftre d' took his coat, too, and it was evident that I was not the only one who had dressed up for this meeting. â€Å"I'm so sorry I'm late,† J said as soon as we were alone. â€Å"No, you're exactly on time.† He held out his hand, and as we shook I could feel that his fingers were still quite noticeably warmer than mine. It didn't seem to bother him. â€Å"You look stunning, if I may be so bold, Mrs. Cullen.† â€Å"Thank you, J. Please, call me Bella.† â€Å"I must say, it's a different experience working with you than it is with Mr. Jasper. Much less†¦ unsettling.† He smiled hesitantly. â€Å"Really? I've always found Jasper to have a very soothing presence.† His eyebrows pulled together. â€Å"Is that so?† he murmured politely while clearly still in disagreement. How odd. What had Jasper done to this man? â€Å"Have you known Jasper long?† He sighed, looking uncomfortable. â€Å"I've been working with Mr. Jasper for more than twenty years, and my old partner knew him for fifteen years before that†¦. He never changes.† J cringed delicately. â€Å"Yeah, Jasper's kind of funny that way.† J shook his head as if he could shake away the disturbing thoughts. â€Å"Won't you have a seat, Bella?† â€Å"Actually, I'm in a bit of a hurry. I've got a long drive home.† As I spoke, I took the thick white envelope with his bonus from my bag and handed it to him. â€Å"Oh,† he said, a little catch of disappointment in his voice. He tucked the envelope into an inside pocket of his jacket without bothering to check the amount. â€Å"I was hoping we could speak for just a moment.† â€Å"About?† I asked curiously. â€Å"Well, let me get you your items first. I want to make sure you're satisfied.† He turned, placed his briefcase on the table, and popped the latches. He took out a legal-sized manila envelope. Though I had no idea what I should be looking for, I opened the envelope and gave the contents a cursory glance. J had flipped Jacob's picture and changed the coloring so that it wasn't immediately evident that it was the same picture on both his passport and driver's license. Both looked perfectly sound to me, but that meant little. I glanced at the picture on Vanessa Wolfe's passport for a fraction of a second, and then looked away quickly, a lump rising in my throat. â€Å"Thank you,† I told him. His eyes narrowed slightly, and I felt he was disappointed that my examination was not more thorough. â€Å"I can assure you every piece is perfect. All will pass the most rigorous scrutiny by experts.† â€Å"I'm sure they are. I truly appreciate what you've done for me, J.† â€Å"It's been my pleasure, Bella. In the future, feel free to come to me for anything the Cullen family needs.† He didn't even hint at it really, but this sounded like an invitation for me to take over Jasper's place as liaison. â€Å"There was something you wanted to discuss?† â€Å"Er, yes. It's a bit delicate.. ..† He gestured to the stone hearth with a questioning expression. I sat on the edge of the stone, and he sat beside me. Sweat was dewing up on his forehead again, and he pulled a blue silk handkerchief from his pocket and began mopping. â€Å"You are the sister of Mr. Jasper's wife? Or married to his brother?† he asked. â€Å"Married to his brother,† I clarified, wondering where this was leading. â€Å"You would be Mr. Edward's bride, then?† â€Å"Yes.† He smiled apologetically. â€Å"I've seen all the names many times, you see. My belated congratulations. It's nice that Mr. Edward has found such a lovely partner after all this time.† â€Å"Thank you very much.† He paused, dabbing at the sweat. â€Å"Over the years, you might imagine that I've developed a very healthy level of respect for Mr. Jasper and the entire family.† I nodded cautiously. He took a deep breath and then exhaled without speaking. â€Å"J, please just say whatever you need to.† He took another breath and then mumbled quickly, slurring the words together. â€Å"If you could just assure me that you are not planning to kidnap the little girl from her father, I would sleep better tonight.† â€Å"Oh,† I said, stunned. It took me a minute to understand the erroneous conclusion he'd drawn. â€Å"Oh no. It's nothing like that at all.† I smiled weakly, trying to reassure him. â€Å"I'm simply preparing a safe place for her in case something were to happen to my husband and me.† His eyes narrowed. â€Å"Are you expecting something to happen?† He blushed, then apologized. â€Å"Not that it's any of my business.† I watched the red flush spread behind the delicate membrane of his skin and was glad – as I often was – that I was not the average newborn. J seemed a nice enough man, criminal behavior aside, and it would have been a shame to kill him. â€Å"You never know.† I sighed. He frowned. â€Å"May I wish you the best of luck, then. And please don't be put out with me, my dear, but†¦ if Mr. Jasper should come to me and ask what names I put on these documents †¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Of course you should tell him immediately. I'd like nothing better than to have Mr. Jasper fully aware of our entire transaction.† My transparent sincerity seemed to ease a bit of his tension. â€Å"Very good,† he said. â€Å"And I can't prevail upon you to stay for dinner?† â€Å"I'm sorry, J. I'm short on time at present.† â€Å"Then, again, my best wishes for your health and happiness. Anything at all the Cullen family needs, please don't hesitate to call on me, Bella.† â€Å"Thank you, J.† I left with my contraband, glancing back to see that J was staring after me, his expression a mixture of anxiety and regret. The return trip took me less time. The night was black, and so I turned off my headlights and floored it. When I got back to the house, most of the cars, including Alice's Porsche and my Ferrari, were missing. The traditional vampires were going as far away as possible to satiate their thirst. I tried not to think of their hunting in the night, cringing at the mental picture of their victims. Only Kate and Garrett were in the front room, arguing playfully about the nutritional value of animal blood. I inferred that Garrett had attempted a hunting trip vegetarian-style and found it difficult. Edward must have taken Renesmee home to sleep. Jacob, no doubt, was in the woods close by the cottage. The rest of my family must have been hunting as well. Perhaps they were out with the other Denalis. Which basically gave me the house to myself, and I was quick to take advantage. I could smell that I was the first one to enter Alice and Jasper's room in a long while, maybe the first since the night they'd left us. I rooted silently through their huge closet until I found the right sort of bag. It must have been Alice's; it was a small black leather backpack, the kind that was usually used as a purse, little enough that even Renesmee could carry it without looking out of place. Then I raided their petty cash, taking about twice the yearly income for the average American household. I guessed my theft would be less noticeable here than anywhere else in the house, since this room made everyone sad. The envelope with the fake passports and IDs went into the bag on top of the money. Then I sat on the edge of Alice and Jasper's bed and looked at the pitifully insignificant package that was all I could give my daughter and my best friend to help save their lives. I slumped against the bedpost, feeling helpless. But what else could I do? I sat there for several minutes with my head bowed before the inkling of a good idea came to me. If†¦ If I was to assume that Jacob and Renesmee were going to escape, then that included the assumption that Demetri would be dead. That gave any survivors a little breathing room, Alice and Jasper included. So why couldn't Alice and Jasper help Jacob and Renesmee? If they were reunited, Renesmee would have the best protection imaginable. There was no reason why this couldn't happen, except for the fact that Jake and Renesmee both were blind spots for Alice. How would she begin to look for them? I deliberated for a moment, then left the room, crossing the hall to Carlisle and Esme's suite. As usual, Esme's desk was stacked with plans and blueprints, everything neatly laid out in tall piles. The desk had a slew of pigeonholes above the work surface; in one was a box of stationery. I took a fresh sheet of paper and a pen. Then I stared at the blank ivory page for a full five minutes, concentrating on my decision. Alice might not be able to see Jacob or Renesmee, but she could see me. I visualized her seeing this moment, hoping desperately that she wasn't too busy to pay attention. Slowly, deliberately, I wrote the words RIO DE JANEIRO in all caps across the page. Rio seemed the best place to send them: It was far away from here, Alice and Jasper were already in South America at last report, and it wasn't like our old problems had ceased to exist just because we had worse problems now. There was still the mystery of Renesmee's future, the terror of her racing age. We'd been headed south anyway. Now it would be Jacob's, and hopefully Alice's, job to search for the legends. I bowed my head again against a sudden urge to sob, clenching my teeth together. It was better that Renesmee go on without me. But I already missed her so much I could barely stand it. I took a deep breath and put the note at the bottom of the duffel bag, where Jacob would find it soon enough. I crossed my fingers that – since it was unlikely that his high school offered Portuguese – Jake had at least taken Spanish as his language elective. There was nothing left now but waiting. For two days, Edward and Carlisle stayed in the clearing where Alice had seen the Volturi arrive. It was the same killing field where Victoria's newborns had attacked last summer. I wondered if it felt repetitive to Carlisle, like deja vu. For me, it would be all new. This time Edward and I would stand with our family. We could only imagine that the Volturi would be tracking either Edward or Carlisle. I wondered if it would surprise them that their prey didn't run. Would that make them wary? I couldn't imagine the Volturi ever feeling a need for caution. Though I was – hopefully – invisible to Demetri, I stayed with Edward. Of course. We only had a few hours left to be together. Edward and I had not had a last grand scene of farewell, nor did I plan one. To speak the word was to make it final. It would be the same as typing the words The End on the last page of a manuscript. So we did not say our goodbyes, and we stayed very close to each other, always touching. Whatever end found us, it would not find us separated. We set up a tent for Renesmee a few yards back into the protective forest, and then there was more deja vu as we found ourselves camping in the cold again with Jacob. It was almost impossible to believe how much things had changed since last June. Seven months ago, our triangular relationship seemed impossible, three different kinds of heartbreak that could not be avoided. Now everything was in perfect balance. It seemed hideously ironic that the puzzle pieces would fit together just in time for all of them to be destroyed. It started to snow again the night before New Year's Eve. This time, the tiny flakes did not dissolve into the stony ground of the clearing. While Renesmee and Jacob slept – Jacob snoring so loudly I wondered how Renesmee didn't wake – the snow made first a thin icing over the earth, then built into thicker drifts. By the time the sun rose, the scene from Alice's vision was complete. Edward and I held hands as we stared across the glittering white field, and neither of us spoke. Through the early morning, the others gathered, their eyes bearing mute evidence of their preparations – some light gold, some rich crimson. Soon after we all were together, we could hear the wolves moving in the woods. Jacob emerged from the tent, leaving Renesmee still sleeping, to join them. Edward and Carlisle were arraying the others into a loose formation, our witnesses to the sides like galleries. I watched from a distance, waiting by the tent for Renesmee to wake. When she did, I helped her dress in the clothes I'd carefully picked out two days before. Clothes that looked frilly and feminine but that were actually sturdy enough to not show any wear – even if a person wore them while riding a giant werewolf through a couple of states. Over her jacket I put on the black leather backpack with the documents, the money, the clue, and my love notes for her and Jacob, Charlie and Renee. She was strong enough that it was no burden to her. Her eyes were huge as she read the agony on my face. But she had guessed enough not to ask me what I was doing. â€Å"I love you,† I told her. â€Å"More than anything.† â€Å"I love you, too, Momma,† she answered. She touched the locket at her neck, which now held a tiny photo of her, Edward, and me. â€Å"We'll always be together.† â€Å"In our hearts we'll always be together,† I corrected in a whisper as quiet as a breath. â€Å"But when the time comes today, you have to leave me.† Her eyes widened, and she touched her hand to my cheek. The silent no was louder than if she'd shouted it. I fought to swallow; my throat felt swollen. â€Å"Will you do it for me? Please?† She pressed her fingers harder to my face. Why? â€Å"I can't tell you,† I whispered. â€Å"But you'll understand soon. I promise.'7 In my head, I saw Jacob's face. I nodded, then pulled her fingers away. â€Å"Don't think of it,† I breathed into her ear. â€Å"Don't tell Jacob until I tell you to run, okay?† This she understood. She nodded, too. I took from my pocket one last detail. While packing Renesmee's things, an unexpected sparkle of color had caught my eye. A chance ray of sun through the skylight had hit the jewels on the ancient precious box stuffed high overhead on a shelf in an untouched corner. I considered it for a moment and then shrugged. After putting together Alice's clues, I couldn't hope that the coming confrontation would be resolved peacefully. But why not try to start things out as friendly as possible? I asked myself. What could it hurt? So I guess I must have had some hope left after all – blind, senseless hope – because I'd scaled the shelves and retrieved Aro's wedding present to me. Now I fastened the thick gold rope around my neck and felt the weight of the enormous diamond nestle into the hollow of my throat. â€Å"Pretty,† Renesmee whispered. Then she wrapped her arms like a vise around my neck. I squeezed her against my chest. Interlocked this way, I carried her out of the tent and to the clearing. Edward cocked one eyebrow as I approached, but otherwise did not remark on my accessory or Renesmee's. He just put his arms tight around us both for one long moment and then, with a deep sigh, let us go. I couldn't see a goodbye anywhere in his eyes. Maybe he had more hope for something after this life than he'd let on. We took our place, Renesmee climbing agilely onto my back to leave my hands free. I stood a few feet behind the front line made up by Carlisle, Edward, Emmett, Rosalie, Tanya, Kate, and Eleazar. Close beside me were Benjamin and Zafrina; it was my job to protect them as long as I was able. They were our best offensive weapons. If the Volturi were the ones who could not see, even for a few moments, that would change everything. Zafrina was rigid and fierce, with Senna almost a mirror image at her side. Benjamin sat on the ground, his palms pressed to the dirt, and muttered quietly about fault lines. Last night, he'd strewn piles of boulders in natural-looking, now snow-covered heaps all along the back of the meadow. They weren't enough to injure a vampire, but hopefully enough to distract one. The witnesses clustered to our left and right, some nearer than others – those who had declared themselves were the closest. I noticed Siobhan rubbing her temples, her eyes closed in concentration; was she humoring Carlisle? Trying to visualize a diplomatic resolution? In the woods behind us, the invisible wolves were still and ready; we could only hear their heavy panting, their beating hearts. The clouds rolled in, diffusing the light so that it could have been morning or afternoon. Edward's eyes tightened as he scrutinized the view, and I was sure he was seeing this exact scene for the second time – the first time being Alice's vision. It would look just the same when the Volturi arrived. We only had minutes or seconds left now. All our family and allies braced themselves. From the forest, the huge russet Alpha wolf came forward to stand at my side; it must have been too hard for him to keep his distance from Renesmee when she was in such immediate danger. Renesmee reached out to twine her fingers in thefur over his massive shoulder, and her body relaxed a little bit. She was calmer with Jacob close.I felt a tiny bit better, too. As long Jacob was with Renesmee, she would be all right. Without risking a glance behind, Edward reached back to me. I stretched my arm forward so that I could grip his hand. He squeezed my fingers. Another minute ticked by, and I found myself straining to hear some sound of approach. And then Edward stiffened and hissed low between his clenched teeth. His eyes focused on the forest due north of where we stood. We stared where he did, and waited as the last seconds passed.

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Chaser

Philosophy 6: Ethical Issues in Business Midterm Essay Chase Novak Dr. Parker Need or Greed? New Protocol: How Drug’s Rebirth as Treatment for Cancer Fueled Price Rises Immanuel Kant-Kantian Deontology John Locke- The Justification of Private Property Adam Smith-Benefits of the Profit MotiveMilton Friedman- The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits Thesis: An examination of the case study New Protocol: How Drug’s Rebirth as Treatment for Cancer Fueled Price Rises relies heavily on a keen understanding of the social and economic implications of a capitalist system, and once taken into account it is clear that Celgene Corp. is justified in raising prices based on the business market philosophies asserted by Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, Emanuel Kant, and John Locke. Word Count: 1690Perhaps the most difficult situation in business arises when the indigent desire the product being sold. Political pressure is often put on the company to lower prices in order to accommodate the less fortunate consumer, however, this is in direct conflict with the company’s paramount goal of making the largest profit possible. Issues are increasingly complex given the supply-demand aspects of society and the incentive for production. For these reasons approaches to business that emphasize profit over availability can indeed help society in many ways.Upon the question of ethics one must view the entire market as a whole and the benefits of competition when deciding a fair price. An examination of the case study New Protocol: How Drug’s Rebirth as Treatment for Cancer Fueled Price Rises relies heavily on a keen understanding of the social and economic implications of a capitalist system, and once taken into account it is clear that Celgene Corp. is justified in raising prices based on the business market philosophies asserted by Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, Emanuel Kant, and John Locke.Celgene’s decision to raise prices is complex and though at first glance may appear to be fueled by greed it is in fact a necessary and beneficial step in Celgene’s continued production of the medicine thalidomide along with researching other medical advances. Celgene Corp. ’s decision to incrementally raise prices is justified by Adam Smith’s free market philosophy in which he describes competitive production as the main force behind societal development and improvement. Though there has been little affect to the cost of production for thalidomide, the nature of free market production dictated the rise in price.This, according to Smith is a natural element of the free market, â€Å"As every individual [†¦] endeavors as much as he can both to employ his capital in the support of domestic industry, and so to direct that industry that its produce may be of the greatest value, every individual necessarily labors to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can† (Donaldson, 167). In t his quotation, Smith is explaining how every individual’s personal strive for success, in the form of production, helps to improve society as a whole.If each individual’s ultimate goal is to increase their wealth, and if increased wealth is sought through improved production, then the competition for wealth will undoubtedly result in improved production. Improved production can mean either cheaper manufacturing, resulting in lower costs for the consumer, or a better product, which will also help society. Smith continues on to say that this competition is self-perpetuating and that the profit made off of production is reinvested to further improve manufacturing. Evidence of this can be observed in the Celgene Corp. aising of prices on thalidomide which resulted in, â€Å"The ability to [†¦] fund the pharmaceutical industry’s research and development programs, which bring new medicines to patients† (Donaldson, 151). This can be further proven by the fa ct that Celgene’s R&D department uses almost half of the company’s revenue (Donaldson, 154). In this example, Celgene is able to provide consumers with newer and more effective medication as a result of its competitive pricing of thalidomide. Though many critics of Celgene would call the corporation’s decision to raise prices a genuinely greedy and selfish act, Smith sees nothing wrong with such a move.On this issue Smith states that an individuals self-centered motives often improve society: â€Å"By pursuing his own interests he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it† (Donaldson, 167). Given Celgene’s perceived self-centered actions, Smith would note that this type of free market behavior is positive and is guided by an â€Å"invisible hand† which helps such behavior to be beneficial to society as a whole. The next philosopher to be examined would argue that the â€Å"invisible h and† that Smith speaks of is indeed separate from the political realm.Milton Friedman continues with Smith’s line of logic as he asserts that the chief concern of the businessman must be to make a profit under socially acceptable means and that the defining of â€Å"social responsibilities† must be left in the political sphere. Celgene’s chief executive, John Jackson, was the primary force behind the company’s decision to raise prices. Jackson’s actions are perfectly ethical according to Friedman who writes, â€Å"What does it mean to say that the corporate executive has a â€Å"social responsibility† in his capacity as a businessman?If this statement is not pure rhetoric, it must mean that he is to act in some way that is not in the interest of his employers† (Donaldson, 35). Jackson answers to a board that represents the stockholders of the company and it is his ethical obligation to them to make a profit. Celgene was losing m oney until 2002, which obviously necessitated an increase in price (Donaldson, 153). Jackson’s move to incrementally increase the price of thalidomide was not unethical because he has an obligation to stockholders to deliver a profit.Furthermore, Friedman asserts that it is not the corporate executive’s job to act as a moral entrepreneur as he is ill fit to do so. Friedman stresses that calls for executives to act â€Å"socially responsible† are unethical as socially impactful decisions, such as price adjustment, must be left up to publically elected officials with knowledge of the social and economic implications of such actions (Donaldson, 36). Friedman makes a vital point as it explains that the social responsibility falls on the public and its publically elected officials to enforce social justices through legislature.Therefore if the public desired Celgene to lower prices of thalidomide then it must require it to do so through law. Furthermore since no law exists requiring Celgene to sell thalidomide at a certain price, then Celgene is perfectly ethical and justified in raising its prices. If executives like Johnson adjusted prices according to their personal beliefs then huge portions of society would be heavily affected by such decisions and thus the public should reserve the right to solve such social dilemmas through democratic means in the form of law.Emanuel Kant’s philosophy of the â€Å"categorical imperative† also works to ethically justify the pricing of thalidomide by expressing the need for a universal standard of ethical practice. Though Kant would most likely desire a socialist utopia or at least complete universal healthcare, neither is realistic in the present day. In a Kantian society individuals would want free healthcare for everyone. No ethical issues would be in question if everyone received their entire healthcare for free.The result is a derived understanding of his categorical imperative, which ex plains a desired scenario in which on party acts onto another party in the same manner he himself wishes to be treated (Donaldson, 112). In this sense, under a capitalist system, Celgene is responding to the market by acting accordingly and raising its prices to increase production. The most basic element of ethics lies in John Locke’s philosophical explanation of product ownership and it works to prove Celgene’s right to raise its prices.At the very heart of business is the ownership of a private property which one elects to sell for a profit. According to Locke, God made the earth for man to exploit for his personal needs and thus it is logical that some men will not have common ownership of the land (Donaldson, 158). Locke’s philosophy on private property explains that man has the right to own property and that he alone can chose how to use his property. Using this justification, Celgene’s ownership of thalidomide entitles them to price it at any rate it sees reasonable.Moreover this justification is ethical because it comprises the sole force behind production. If corporations like Celgene cannot retain the right to ask for their own price for the products that they produce then there exists no incentive to produce. As a society we cannot force companies to produce essential information, technology, or medicine without an incentive. That is not how society works. Rather, our society is functions under an incentive-based system, which uses competition to provoke the best and brightest to produce the most important products for society’s use.If Celgene was made to sell their products at a price convenient for the consumer but crippling to the manufacturer then production would decline and society would falter. Thus to ensure continued production and quality corporations such as Celgene must be allowed to conduct business according to their best interests with regard to price. Society hinges on the expectation that companies will provide the food, goods, and medicine that it requires to function, however, certain elements must be in place in order to ensure the continued production of such commodities.As explained by Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, Emanuel Kant, and John Locke, society is improved by a free market system in which revenue from production is poured back into production to result in the overall improvement of society as a whole. Though some may see a raise in price as unfair, one must view such circumstances from the standpoint of the corporation, as business is a constant back-and-forth between the consumer and producer.The overarching ethical theme of the case study focuses on the need to provide the medical sector with the necessary profits to continue its research and development programs in the efforts of advancing the entire field for the betterment of society. This is surely an ethical endeavor. Works Cited: Donaldson, Thomas, and Patricia Hogue. Werhane. Ethical Issues in Business a Philosophical Approach. Upper Saddle River (N. J. ): Prentice Hall, 2008. Print.

Monday, July 29, 2019

Corruption: Essay and Students

GEORGIA | 45 Youth Against Corruption: An National Essay Contest (Georgia) Summary The project Youth Versus Corruption consisted of a series of discussions culminating in a school essay contest for 14-15 year olds. Students were encouraged to develop and express their attitudes towards corruption and lawfulness, whilst raising their awareness on the issue through discussions with guest speakers and by writing creative essays. This empowering project captivated the interest of students by providing an opportunity for their opinions to be heard at national level, and by inviting famous people to attend discussions at schools.The project was carried out by Transparency International Georgia between September 2003 and February 2004 in 19 schools in six regions of Georgia1. TI-Georgia worked closely with the Georgian Ministry of Education’s Culture of Lawfulness Project. 2 Background â€Å"During this period of injustice in the country ordinary citizens were hurt most. They longed for money to buy bread, and this is the reason why people started mass protests against the government. The government was unable to use force against its people.High officials had committed so many crimes that they could no longer redeem themselves. Each one of them was involved in corruption and everyone was aware of this fact. After the change of government all the corrupt people became very scared, some of them fled the country, others were arrested†¦ â€Å" Zaza Datukshvili (15) Recent research leaves little doubt that the difficult economic and political situation in Georgia can be attributed largely to high levels of corruption. The attitude of citizens to corruption has also been problematic.Although the negative impact of corruption on a larger scale is widely accepted, its effect on everyday life often remains obscured. Where it is recognised, people are generally pessimistic about the prospects of fighting corruption successfully. Consequently, there is an urgent n eed for awareness-raising campaigns that draw attention to the everyday effects of corruption and the effective means to curb 1 2 The regions included Tbilisi, Senaki, Telavi, Tianeti, Batumi, Gori Funded by the Open Society Georgia Foundation, OSGF, and the US Department of Justice 46 | GEORGIAThe project in numbers 19 schools and 589 students took part in this project; 758 questions were asked on the issues of corruption and legality at the meetings with guest-speakers; 411 essays were written during the contest. corruption. This increased awareness is vital for Georgia’s success and the mobilisation of young people is especially crucial in this regard. A course entitled ‘Culture of Legality’, focusing on law and corruption issues, was introduced and piloted in 19 schools by the Ministry of Education in 2002. It was financed by the American National Strategic Information Center.The ministry dubbed the project a success and integrated the course into the curricu lum of grade 9 (14-15 year olds) for the following academic year (20032004). The course became obligatory for all 147 Tbilisi (Georgia’s capital city) schools as well as in those regional schools where the course was piloted. The ministry intends to bring this course to all Georgian schools over the next two years. The project In conjunction with this new course, TI-Georgia carried out a youth awareness-raising campaign, which included a series of discussions, culminating in an essay contest.The project sought to sensitise young people to issues of corruption and legitimacy and to lend greater impact to the anti-corruption programmes already carried out in schools. The essay component in particular gave students the opportunity to express their ideas and to use knowledge gained from the discussions. The contest also sent a signal that society was interested in youth voices. After a selection process, the nine best essays were published in Georgia’s premiere newspaper, 24 Hours, and posted on TI-Georgia’s website.In introducing this campaign to Georgian schools, TI-Georgia worked closely with the Culture of Legality Programme, the Ministry of Education, the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs, and the Anti-Corruption Council of Georgia. TI-Georgia, along with these organisations, offered special prizes for winners, using funds provided by the Soros Foundation. Additionally, prominent panellists in the discussion sessions distributed their books to the students for free. The project also coincided with the pre-revolutionary demonstrations in Georgia, which influenced its implementation. The project commenced in Septem- GEORGIA | 47Carola Huebner-Kruzinna (13), Nicaragua ber and October, just preceding the November 2003 elections followed by the Rose Revolution of 23rd November. People were very preoccupied with the upcoming elections, and, as a result, students and teachers were often absent from school. Planning and organisation The campai gn, Youth Versus Corruption, took place over 6 months. The first month focused on preparation and logistics, during which a project booklet was published with a complete description of the project. The project working group held a meeting with the participant schools’ teachers and Ministry of Education representatives.The working group consisted of a TI coordinator, a professional linguist, a representative of Ministry of Education, a poet, a writer, a lawyer and a journalist. At the first meeting the group discussed the following topics: which issues and questions would best engage the students; the best guest speakers for 14-15 year olds; and how to structure the discussions and essay contest to the age and knowledge level of the students. 48 | GEORGIA Four working meetings were held over two months to establish the form of the contest and a mechanism for evaluating essays.A list of potential guest speakers was established, the format for their discussions was developed, to pics were selected for the essay contest, and project follow-up measures were determined. Students were asked to select the guests they wanted to meet. Their selections included many media representatives. With its extensive network of connections TI-Georgia was able to arrange for these prominent personalities to come speak to the students. Teachers who had taught the Culture of Legality course were contracted as local coordinators for each school.They assisted in organising project events and participated in the preliminary grading of essays. Information booklets and posters were distributed to schools where the discussion sessions were arranged. The following topics for the essay contest were selected: Is injustice the source of corruption, or is corruption the source of injustice? Describe a corrupt person (appearance, life-style) and how they differ from other people; Imagine that you work in an organisation that condones corruption. What would you do? Discussion forums Discuss ion forums were held as a preparatory stage for the essay contest.For each discussion forum, one guest speaker was assigned to each school. In some cases this would be a poet, in other cases, a journalist or famous lawyer. The atmosphere at the events was charged with excitement. The students, especially those from the regions, were thrilled at the chance to meet well-known Georgians they knew from print or television. The parents of the students were also very eager to cooperate and gave useful feedback. The dialogue centred on the students’ personal experiences with corruption, and what they had done to solve or work within the situation.The discussion forums were structured to be interactive. At the beginning of the session, guests would speak about themselves, offer a topic for discussion or invite students to ask questions. TI-Georgia recorded all questions, and used these results to devise essay topics that would be of real interest for the students. Students in the reg ions were more active during the discussions than their counterparts in the big cities and later also took a more independent position in their essays. The urban youth was less optimistic but better informed. In particular, students from schools in the capital were not as active in discus-GEORGIA | 49 sions and were often quite cynical in response to the issues raised. In the more isolated regions, these discussion sessions with famous guest speakers became important events. Although conceptualised as a preparatory stage in the essay contest, it became apparent that the discussion forums were no less important than the contest itself. Student essays were solicited from those schools that participated in the forums. The forums took place during the first few months of the project and the essay contest in the last few months. In sum, there were 19 meetings at 19 separate schools.Each meeting featured one guest speaker and 30-35 students, meaning that, overall, around 600 students part icipated. Essay contest As Georgian school curriculum does not offer specific courses on essay writing, TI-Georgia coordinated a workshop on writing instruction in all participant schools prior to the contest event. The contest then took place on 15th and 16th December 2003. The students were given the three topics outlined above to choose from and two hours to write their essays. They were encouraged to use various written styles to express their opinions on corruption. The evaluation of the essays was conducted in two stages.In order to ensure impartiality, the essays were first evaluated by teachers from other participat- 50 | GEORGIA ing schools. The top ten per cent of essays were selected during this initial evaluation and sent to an independent jury established by TI-Georgia. The jury was composed of a writer, an education official, lawyers, a linguist, and a TI representative. The essays were evaluated on a ten-point system based on four criteria: analytical skill, creativit y, personal expression and command of the Georgian language. Of the over 500 submissions, three winners and eight runners-up were announced.The winning essays, as previously mentioned, were published in the newspaper 24 Hours and on the TI-Georgia website. An awards ceremony was held on 24th December 2003 at the Open Society Foundation Georgia conference hall. TI-Georgia awarded the winners special certificates and prizes. All teachers, jury members, nominated students, partner organisation representatives, guest speakers and donors were invited to the event. Results â€Å"How would corruption be created if there was no injustice? In a just state everything and everyone must serve justice, but does not corruption create injustice?I believe that it is no news for anyone that the truth in Georgia does not have a very big value. Many people ignore the truth and act in an illegal and unjust way. † Tamar Mebonia (15) An evaluation questionnaire was designed to identify changes in students’ views on corruption before and after the programme, and they were disseminated after the contest. The questionnaires also solicited student opinions on which features the programme might add or change, and the students generated a list of potential guest speakers for the next implementation of the project.Empowering students The most important achievements of the campaign were the large number of participants involved and the apparent change in students’ attitudes. Youths that participated in the project learned that their opinions and ideas were valuable and relevant to society. In particular, the interviews revealed that students do have strong views on corruption, but feel that no one is interested in their opinions on the subject. The project was valuable to them as it gave them the opportunity to express their views, which were taken seriously.Furthermore, teachers realised the benefits of discussing the subject of corruption with their students, and of adding such a discussion to the curriculum. GEORGIA | 51 Challenges â€Å"First of all, civil education must become part of the school curriculum, so that the new generation has a different ideology, so that she does not look at injustice as if it were none of her business and so that she takes action in the fight against injustice. She can do this by not offering bribes to the teacher; this will go a long way towards eradicating corruption and injustice. Tamuna Papavadze (15) Although the project was an overall success, TI-Georgia encountered a number of difficulties along its way. For example, the Ministry of Education attempted to control the process and wanted to interfere with the selection of guest speakers and discussion topics. TI-Georgia dealt successfully with this problem by seeking support from other NGOs and putting pressure on the ministry as a collective force. The ministry asked TI not to bring revolutionary activists into schools as guest speakers, at one point goi ng so far as to ask that the project be called off.In addition, they requested that they be informed of the essay topics before staging the contest. Fortunately, TI-Georgia did not make any concessions in these cases, as it had the support of most school officials. The change in administration after the revolution allowed it to continue the second phase of our project without interference. Winning the interest of young people for this project was a central challenge. To this end, TI-Georgia used a few key incentives, including contests and awards, the chance to have an essay published and reach the greater public, and the opportunity to meet major Georgian celebrities.Competitions are not typical in Georgian schools, and the prospect of a contest with awards and public exposure was exciting and motivating for the students. The most difficult and time-consuming part of the project was negotiating with guest speakers and organising their visits. As mentioned before, the project coinci ded with Georgia’s Rose Revolution. This caused a great deal of scheduling difficulty, as most of the planned speakers were active participants in the revolution. In the end, though, TI Georgia successfully held 19 discussions with students in six Georgian regions.Recommendations Most of the participants said that the contest was interesting for them as a way of sharing their opinions, but some still doubted that their ideas would be taken seriously by adults. Therefore, it would be good to expand the distribution of the winning essays, not just to newspapers and websites, but to television stations, radio and other schools. The essays could also be publicly 52 | GEORGIA presented to high-level officials who would then respond directly to the students.There are plans for follow-up projects, specifically to expand the programme to other schools and to first-year university students. Project description by: Lana Ghvinjilia For additional information, please contact: Transparenc y International Georgia at [email  protected] ge The best essays can be read on the website of Transparency International Georgia in English and Georgian language. Address: Transparency International Georgia 18, Rustaveli Ave 0108, Tbilisi Georgia Tel: +995-32-996 615 Fax: +995-32-997 292 Email: [email  protected] ge Website: www. transparency. ge

BUS305, Competitive Analysis and Business Cycles Mod 2 Case Assignment Essay

BUS305, Competitive Analysis and Business Cycles Mod 2 Case Assignment - Essay Example The proponents of rent control cite inflation and lack of affordability of housing units, arguing that shelter is a basic need that government policy should address. High rents would discourage industries because relocation of workers would be costly, and the arbitrary or unreasonable raising of rents of landlords, exercising their market power, can force workers to move out of areas of employment, with attendant high costs to them. Therefore some kind of control is necessary. The proponents also argue that present conditions are not really that bad for the landlords because of "vacancy decontrol" allowed, when they can raise the rent to about market clearing level once a tenant moves out. Also in some areas, new construction is exempt from rent control, no doubt a compromise solution to the possible incidence of urban decay caused by lack of maintenance of rental properties subject to rent control. There are also tax deductions that landlords are allowed to make on the properties - such as those that pertain to depreciation and real estate taxes. In some jurisdictions, landlords are allowed to raise rents at a certain ratio in relation to the increase in the Consumer Price Index, say, 60 per cent. It is not as bad for landlords as it is often portrayed. Those who are against rent control are numerous and preponderant. Many studies have confirmed that rent control benefits tenants and harms landlords (Nicholson, 1997). Even in the 1950s, waiting times for new apartments in Sweden were said to have reached 3 years because of the shortage. Secondly, rent controls affect housing quality: Landlords can refuse to do maintenance and repair work on the pertinent unit thus reducing their quality and the supply of units. If tenants insist that maintenance work be done, landlords can always tell them to leave if they are unhappy. The deterioration of housing units subject to rent control is such that Vietnamese Foreign Minister

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Source Essay Health Crisis Obesity Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Source Health Crisis Obesity - Essay Example In the medical world, among the several indicative parameters to determine the well being of a person is through Body Mass Index that is proportionate with his weight and height. A deviation from the normal range signifies that the person is obese. At present, 44 Million adults belong to the obese category, while an additional 6 million more have BMI's, a hundred times more than an obese. Otherwise labeled by the author as "super-obese" (Schloser 240,241). According to several studies conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the rate at which these numbers grow every year does not qualify age, gender, race or even educational level. Currently, it is postulated by CDC, that 37 states in America have obesity rates of over 15%. Accordingly, this is attributed to the fact that good economy renders inexpensive and hefty meals, resulting to an increase volume consumption that is coupled with a sedentary lifestyle. A major point stressed by this article is the lingering e ffect brought about by the advertising industry, resulting to this epidemic no longer responsive to healthy management by conscious choice. Statistics shows that a number of food-joint positions their product in market by offering large portion serving owing to the idea of getting your money's worth.

Saturday, July 27, 2019

Toy store investigation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Toy store investigation - Essay Example There was another aisle called â€Å"Little Mommy†, which consisted primarily of baby dolls, stroller, baby bottles and fake diapers. The final aisle was called â€Å"Princess and Meâ€Å". This was my favorite aisle, because it was so fascinating and eye catching. It was filled with princess crowns that are covered in fake jewels. It also had adorable shoes with heels, as well as fairy tale wings, tutus and ballerina shoes. There were many things I found very disturbing about this section. The first thing was the way they portrayed a woman’s role to these young girls, particularly at this age because their brains are like sponges. I feel this is just teaching them when they grow up they have to cook, clean and take care of their children while looking fabulous. I was also shocked by the career choices that are given to young girls as well. Motherhood was the number one role that was illustrated in this section. They also expect the girl to be friendlier and less viol ent because of the language used on the packages. They frequently uses words like ‘pretty‘, ‘lovely‘, ‘friends‘, and ‘together‘. These words are displayed in a round smooth lettering. The boys’ section was directly across from the girls’ section, decorated all in blue. This section was also categorized by different themes.

Friday, July 26, 2019

Societal Issues in The Lord of the Flies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Societal Issues in The Lord of the Flies - Essay Example Right and wrong begin to fall to the wayside with the introduction of the hunt. Jack uses clay to disguise his face and trick the pigs, changing the visual representation of himself, moving further from society and rendering himself unrecognizable. Both Ralph and Jack still have some connection to the past, but Jack is moving away from it to create his own world governed by the laws of hunting and survival. Without any adults on the island, the boys must learn to govern themselves; however, problems ensue.The youngest, the least influenced by society, are the first to run away, the first to show anarchy and the breakdown of societal control. The boys give up the chance for rescue for the chance to kill. Their value system has shifted significantly. The degradation of the natural world through burning fires or killing pigs mirrors the breakdown of the boys' socialized humanity. Roger throws stones near one of the younger boys, Henry.He aims a few yards away, still following the laws of society.Civilization forces him to limit his primitive violent instincts, but these constraints no longer fetter him by the end of the novel.

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Amnesia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Amnesia - Essay Example There are other details of amnesia of this kind which vary according to different conditions. In contrast functional or psychological amnesia has been classically retrograde meaning the person is not able to recollect past experience. With the recent surge in awareness of relation between body, cognition, intellect, and mind, a newer branch of science, namely, cognitive neuropsychiatry examines this psychic disease process more intensely. In this assignment two articles, one from the news or popular lay media and the other from scientific experimental literature will be examined critically in order to find out the scientific information and knowledge update related to psychological amnesia with the basic research hypothesis, although no organic brain lesion has been demonstrated in functional amnesia, there is a solid scientific basis and cause effect relationship for this type of amnesia. Killian (2009) in his article titled "Amnesia put her life on hold; now, she's graduating" in May 15, 2009, NewsRecord describes the case of Marshall, who following a bout of viral encephalitis in the senior year of her high school had amnesia. This followed an illness of high fever, followed by loss of memories. The author quotes Marshall's experience of sudden loss of memory, which led to loss of all touch to her old and acquainted environment, and following this incident, she could not remember anything of her past life, and it was something like "first memory of the world" at all. She could not recognize any one in her family, but she could remember habitual works such as "tying the lace of my shoes." This illness led to her admission to the hospital where her stay lasted for 7 days. During this time, it was diagnosed that the infection involved certain areas of brain where certain types of memories and skills were affected. After coming back home, the previously used practiced tasks were difficult to do, and she needed help in her household chores. There was obviously an identity crises where she failed to recognize herself, family, or even personal things as her own. Her academic achievements in the school before this incident were outstanding, both in studies and extracurricular activities. She had been a outgoing student at North Iredell High School. She was a musician and a drum major in the school band. After this incident, she was withdrawn and shy, and her former friends appeared to her as strangers, and this led to considerable alienation. There was obviously a change in her personality, but her amnesia contributed to it in a greater extent. Her mother pursued her educations, and since she had enough credits from her school, with her grades she was accepted in many schools. On the day of her high school graduation she could not make out what is graduation, and how it was important for her, although her family was very happy for her. A break came while she followed a program Starting Over, when she decided not to join college and decided that she will have to rebuild her connections with the real world. She was growing but very slowly, and in this reality TV show, she came to realize what she had lost and how she can progress in her life with new goals. Meanwhile, she joined college with her brother, and she decided to major in communications. She is expected to graduate soon. This news is a report of an incident where the author has taken poetic license.

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Marketing - The movie ' Valentines Day ' Term Paper

Marketing - The movie ' Valentines Day ' - Term Paper Example It is the sheer ingenuity of these marketing and promotional campaigns that sell the movies regardless of how critics evaluate them. This is best accentuated by the example of the release and eventual success of the movie ‘Valentine’s Day’ which immediately stormed up to the top of the charts and made millions of dollars despite the fact that the movie failed to offer a plot that was anything beyond appalling and was popularly disparaged by critics. Not only the gist is vague, the movie has also been criticized for being loaded with offensive, controversial and questionable content (Goodwyn). However, it managed to achieve the number one rating when it opened and caused quite a stir in the box office. The movie was marketed with the obvious yet the most selling strategy of being tied with a major and popular holiday. To title the film after Valentine’s Day is a very calculated effort to capitalize on the emotions that are elicited around this holiday and at the same time to target an audience for whom the movie becomes a prime attraction on this very particular day just because of its name as it is a perfect present as well as a ‘going-out’ event. Lucy Fisher captures this is a very sleek manner when she comments that "People are prodded to buy something for the occasion, and in this case, its a movie ticket.. it doesnt matter about the quality† (Hare, 2010). Not only that, it a clever ploy to target women who are lured into the trap of saccharine love stories, cute stuff toys, red roses and the fever of the holiday. It is in this way that the movie self-advertises itself by its name enough to drive hundreds and hundreds of love-struck couples of all age s, young group of friends or even those lonely ones who need an exciting event towards the path that leads to the theaters. Even if the movie is perceived to be of poor

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Sustainability Contents Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Sustainability Contents - Essay Example The fast rate at which business dynamics are changing, given the emergence of new opportunities at every turn should ensure that this field remains in high demand. The rate of growth being witnessed in many new fields as clean energy technology, among others, should ensure the growth security of this sector. The discussion we had after your school career day gave us an insight on your interest in the business world, especially your affinity for piloting projects and providing solutions for roadblocks faced in the completion of these projects. This is a rare yearning, which should see you aim to make your enthusiasm available to corporations and other organizations. After making us aware that you were pursuing a bachelors of Arts degree in Management of technology, in business, we agreed that the best options this gave you were either project consultancy, or project management. Project management involves the planning and facilitation of projects with a goal of completing the job with in the budget within a stipulated time (Schmidt, 2009). As a project consultant, you would be required to provide information to project teams of cross-functional nature on how to implement company directives, while also offering management and leadership services during this implementation (Wysocki, 2011). Purpose, Scope and Limitations of the Report This report aims to delve into the striking divergence and convergence of responsibilities and duties associated with project management and consultancy. It also aims to provide you with recommendations as pertains to your career choice. In order for you to make the most favorable career choice that suits your talents and desires, this report will focus on offering you detailed information on the various dynamics involved in both career choices. Our focus will be on the academic requirements, duties and responsibilities of both careers, remuneration packages associated with the same careers, job outlook in the future, and prevalent wor king conditions. Our research also revealed that academic qualifications and hard-earned experience are, but only a part of the requirements needed in today’s cutthroat business world, especially in your preferred field of project management and project consultancy (Ferraro, 2012). There are factors that are weightier on the minds of corporations and organizations when hiring in these fields. Over the years, with experience and understanding of the industry, other certifications not covered in the bachelor’s degree curriculum are becoming vital and almost staple in the qualifications for consideration when hiring in this industry (Firm, 2004). This report aims to furnish you with some distinct qualifications that will bring you on a level field with the rest of the field, while also maintaining your competitive edge in the field. We will also aim at providing clients with ideas on how to maintain your competitiveness once established in industry circles. When concludin g this report, we will also give clients our pieces of advice based on our advice, and the information that you gave us during our discussion. This report, however, might not be adequate if you are interested in finding more information about how these fields’ of project management and project consultant relate to other sections, and departmental divisions in the various companies. This is because it will derail us from the topic of discussion, and we might spend more time focusing on inter-departmental relations rather than the dynamics of your career of choice. Since

Film responses 13 Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Film responses 13 - Movie Review Example The jump cut shows Antoine in the bathroom. He wipes the mirror and there is a voice-over of the teacher saying: â€Å"I deface the classroom walls.† The voice-over is a distancing technique. It helps people to think about the kind of boy that Antoine is and the kind of life that he has than feel for him as a delinquent. When his father appears in the mirror to show his socks with many holes, it shows the theme of mixing genres, of including comedy in a dramatic moment. This is part of the auteur theory where Truffaut includes small things that matter to a leisure narrative development, especially the wit and charm of the characters. Try to make a point of not choosing opening scenes or scenes that are featured on You Tube.When you find a scene that clearly shows French New Wave technical & thematic elements--note those elements as you  describe each scene in vivid detail--using film terms whenever appropriate.  Remember--its always easiest to work your way chronologically through the scene--describing what you see as the narrative unfolds.   Important--Make sure you also extend your description into a discussion of the purpose and/or effect of various technical or elements of mise-en-scene choices. The assignment this week will help prepare you for next weeks

Monday, July 22, 2019

Latinos and other races Essay Example for Free

Latinos and other races Essay Researchers did a study on bicycle helmet use in a rural Georgia town. They observed children riding bicycles during specified days and times over a five month period, both before and after incentive programs like free helmet distribution and bike safety education. Another â€Å"incentive† was that kids’ bicycles would be impounded if they were found riding without a helmet. Researchers canvassed the towns on Friday afternoons and most of the day Saturday, as these were determined to be the most popular riding times. They observed the riders indirectly and noted the child’s age, gender, race, and helmet use. Data was collected for children who were between the ages of 5 and 13, which are the ages that the helmet law covered. The researchers found that these measures increased helmet use from 0% to about 45%. Sampling for this study was somewhat difficult. Because the researchers were using only observation, and they did not track any individual riders or interact with them in any way, they were unable to guarantee that the riders were actually of the targeted age. This is especially true of older kids, between the ages of 10 and 13, as these kids have extremely varying sizes and presence or absence of secondary sexual characteristics, which were two of the determining factors in determining the child’s age. Sampling the older group was also difficult because not everyone in this age group actually received a helmet, since they went to a larger school that included children from another town. The results for this age group, then, are probably skewed and possibly not very valid. The town’s racial make up, too, was heavily slanted towards black children, with 75% black and 25% white children. Due to cultural differences between black and white children, researchers may need to repeat these studies in communities where racial make up is more heavily white, and communities which include Asians, Latinos, and other races. Each culture is individual and each would likely have a different reaction to the helmet laws and police enforcement. Within this community, the researchers probably should have used only the 5 – 10 years age group, as this group could be more carefully controlled. Researchers were aware that this age group, which attended elementary school, did all receive free helmets and bicycle education. They also would possibly have an easier time observing age, as size is more indicative in younger children rather than in older children. This study was somewhat valid. The researchers admit that they were unable to track individual riders, so when they had four observers canvassing the town at once, it was possible that certain riders may have been recorded several times (a possibility that the researchers themselves are aware of, but are not concerned with). Noting, as they said, â€Å"rides† instead of â€Å"riders† also is a limitation, although the researchers felt that their method of observation led to more accurate data than self-reported data via telephone or mail surveys. It is possible that the same group of children was observed multiple times during each session, and in fact overall helmet use was lower. This, too, depends on how the researchers define â€Å"rate of helmet use,† because number of rides where a helmet is used, and the number of riders who use a helmet is a different measure. Another issue with validity is that it was impossible for researchers to track how frequently individual riders wore their helmets. It is possible that some children always wore one, and other children rarely or occasionally wore one. A better measure of helmet use would have been to track individual children and to note how frequently they wore their helmets while riding their bikes. Police enforcement is another issue in this study. Every community who adopts a program of this type may choose a different kind of enforcement, or none at all. This community allowed parent citations (which were rarely used) and bike impoundment (parents had to go and pick the bike up at the police station, where they proved helmet ownership or were offered a free helmet, and they were also re-educated on bike safety). Other communities may rely more heavily on citations, or they may choose fines. Fines were not a good option for this community, as it was a rural community where a large minority lived below the poverty line. Another issue is that the police may be perceived differently in different areas. As the researchers noted, even the knowledge of police presence and enforcement was enough for many children to wear their helmets. This suggests a respect for the police force, which is common in rural areas. In other areas, especially urban, police may not be regarded so highly, and enforcement may become a larger problem. In an urban area, the sheer number of children would also possibly be prohibitive. This study was fairly reliable. Researchers followed up on the helmet use unofficially after 2 years and came up with similar results, which indicates both that helmet use was continuing and that the study was able to achieve the same results. Other studies, if they used the same observation methods, would probably also achieve similar results. This study is repeatable as written, despite its flaws. A better way to do this study would be to gather two groups of children: experimental and control. Both groups would be surveyed and observed for their helmet use at the beginning of the study, and these numbers would be compared. Then, the experimental group would be given the bicycle safety education and be offered free helmets. The second group would be told they should wear helmets but not offered extensive bicycle education or given free helmets. The researchers would then track individual riders through observation on at least a weekly basis to see how many in each group wore their helmets on a frequent basis. This would allow researchers to track â€Å"riders† instead of simply rides, and to make sure that each child was only counted once in their statistics. It would also show the effect of bicycle education and offering free helmets on helmet use. It is likely in this particular study that children only began to wear their helmets because they were offered free helmets. If they had been asked to go and buy helmets, cost would likely have been prohibitive in a rural, low socio-economic area. Therefore, providing the helmets was a key point in the plan. It may be interesting to do a study where children are provided with bicycle education and a list of resources on where to purchase helmets, but not actually provided with them. This study would best be done in a suburban area where the socio-economic status was higher, and would show the effect of bicycle education and possibly police enforcement on helmet use. Since further studies are possible and needed, and since the researchers themselves are aware of the study’s limitations, it would be prudent not to extend these results to all communities and situations. The study is ideal for the researchers’ purposes but has a highly limited scope. Overall, this research is very interesting. Regardless of the study’s limitations, introducing bike safety and helmets into the community resulted in statistically significant increases in helmet use, which purportedly resulted in fewer bike-related injuries and deaths. This is a step in the right direction, and although more research and more community programs are needed to both increase helmet use and decrease injuries, this study shows that programs are effective and change is possible.

Sunday, July 21, 2019

Challenges Faced by IKEA

Challenges Faced by IKEA IKEA is a house furnishing store that have been franchise store. IKEA was firstly opened in Sweden, the owner and franchiser of IKEA is from Netherlands and store in almost in 31 countries. Their business concept is We shall offer a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them. This source is adapted from IKEA provides catalogue and visiting store for customer so its very easy for customer to choose the furniture and pick it up from the self warehouse. Today customization and new product in market is very important due to customer demanding for more and consumer market is changing faster. (Cox and Alam 1998) IKEA has strong ideas in customizing its product to suit the tastes of local markets because IKEA does all the analysis before venture to other country markets. (Cox and Alam 1998). Initially IKEA was not interested in customizing their product but went enter us market IKEA faces customer indifferences so eventually IKEA decided to customize their product. The reason why today we are discussing about IKEA is because for the first time in history an ordinary furnishing retail shop have been franchise all over the world and become very famous among everyone. (Cox and Alam 1998). Due to that we are going to analysis about IKEAs product and promotion to know their secret of success. The typical IKEA customer is young and low to middle income family and in another word can say as that is IKEA target customer. Marketing mix is has 4 ps: place (distribution), promotion, price and product, three extended marketing mix are people, process and physical evidence. According to Philip Kotler (2006) marketing mix a modern marketing system. This concept helps marketers to market the product more systematically. (Armstrong and Kotler 2006). Product strategy begins from marketing mix. (Armstrong and Kotler 2006). Product is goods that a company wants to sell. (Armstrong and Kotler 2006) IKEA produce almost everything that people need for a home. (Armstrong and Kotler 2006). HISTORY OF IKEA The year IKEA was established in 1943 by Ingvar kamprad to sell, pens, wallets and so on. In year 1958, IKEA grew and was introduced as a leader of Swedish Furniture and started to produce local furniture by local manufacturers. Later creating furniture for flat packs and self-assembly to reduce storage space. IKEA slowly expanded their business by opening up kitchenware and restaurant. The largest furniture IKEA display was in Scandinavia and the first store to be open was in Almhult, Sweden. From there IKEA develeoped by opening more stores in other countries such as Germany, Norway and so forth. The advantages of IKEA selling the product in other countries: less-expensive so customer will afford to buy the product according to the country they are located. There are 279 IKEA stores all over the world and IKEA is store in 36 countries. In 279 stores, IKEA group owns 247 stores in 24 countries and the rest is managed by franchise in 16 countries. In Asia IKEA groups only two stores they are located at Japan and China. The first country that IKEA considered to enter was Japan. Because of differences in mentality, culture, lifestyle, behavior and so on, IKEA faceed failure in Japan. In 1986 IKEA needed to shut down their store in Japan because of failure, they re-entered the market again after two years and opened 3 stores in Japan. The second country that IKEA decided to enter in Asia was China. Almost 6 stores had been opened in China and IKEA decided to open more in the future. IKEA provides abundant resources, cheap labor and invest in China market because to comfort for its investment. Due to bureaucracy system there are some challenges IKEA faces, high tax and so on. IKEA also creates an enterprise myth and become biggest furniture retail in world. Even though Japan and china located in Asia but Japan have unique characteristics. Since Japan needs an adaptation IKEA entered twice in Japanese market in order to establish their market. CORE OBJECTIVES, GOALS AND VISION OF IKEA IKEAs main objective is to invest and expand their business while maximize profit in return. IKEA also ensure that catalogue is distribute to the targeted people, so that they can become IKEA customer in terms of demographic attributes and they might travel to the store. The IKEAs vision is to create everyday life for many people everyday life for the many people. IKEAs goal is to produce or offer a wide range of well designed product, functional home furnishing product, interior and so on in a low price so many people will be afford to buy their products. On top of that IKEA trying level best to build up a good relationship with the customer and come up with funny strategy to attract customer. Basically IKEAs concept is to sell good product in a low price. Challenges faced by IKEA in international environment Furniture from Sweden is sold in the USA  is relatively higher even though the price of Sweden drop every year so IKEA is finding a solution for it, shipping from Europe to other country takes around 1 to 2 months and shipping cost is expensive. Countries like Japan IKEA have to customize the product and packaging according to their taste because previously when IKEA come up with standardization IKEA fails so to overcome this they now maintaining standardization, economy concern by rising living costs and depleting disposable income its a treat on performance of the IKEA business in u.k and u.s.a market specifically. By expand their business abroad IKEA has increase competition for international business and lot of competitor so IKEA had customize and standardize their product to attract the customer but the same IKEA also have to learnt other country market in order to compete wit them. IKEA business is successful in Europe, but it has met lots of challenges in the Chinese market. After 8 years entering into Chinese market, it has opened only 4 shops, and the sales portion in the Chinese market is less than 10% of its outlets. IKEA has been encountered in lot of problems when entering into the market especially developing countries. Product The product is anything that satisfies our want or need and product that can be marketed is including physical goods, services and so on. (Philip Kotler). The product decision also included aspects such as delivery arrangement financing warehousing and things that useful for people. (Philip Kotler) According to IKEA management they did not did any differentiations in their product ranges and way they conduct when going international especially on French and Chinese market. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications) .Product in Swedish and France, there is no major differences between products. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications)In a research the author found out that all of those products were same for example kitchen and dining room, living room, bedroom, the house organization, decoration, lighting, and so forth. Comparing catalogues in different countries the catalogues was almost same and only two dissimilarities was found is: The French catalogue offers cupboards is much more variety of size than Swedish catalogue. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications) The French catalogue presents wider range of available to purchase mattresses. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications) The Chinese catalogues have been divided into 5 categories in order to increase purchase and increase number of localized product in Chinese market. (Bjà ¶rk, 2000, Lewis, 2005) It is it is obvious that localized product is more in Chinese market for example kitchen wares as chopsticks, Chinese textile and so on. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications) Product range is wider in china compare to Sweden and France, during any festival or special occasions IKEA introduce new product in china. (Thrane Carlsen, 2005) IKEA keeps flat packaging strategy and democratic design (function + design + low price = democratic design) strategy on market every market. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications) The product line of IKEA has been considered in every situation as the IKEA identify and also the product concept is given IOS which means IKEA of Sweden. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications). All the product of IKEA which have been selling all over the world is conformed to the European Union (eu) and national norms in order to maintain the quality standard. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications) IKEA with Skanska offer not only product but apartment and furnished by IKEA products. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications). IKEA sells most the product with the same standards because management and communication models wants to expand the same image of Sweden to worldwide. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications). IKEA has to introduce much more localized products into the Chinese market and reduce the price because its relatively higher than domestic furniture products in China. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications) .Due to Chinese market are relatively low cultural content and much more dimensions so more localized products are introduced to the Chinese market. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications) When IKEA sells product to the French market, they must be very careful because French people has high taste of art, and take serious consideration of product design, color shade and so on. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications). IKEA until t oday could maintain their product standard because they manufacture and produce their own product. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications) IKEA only picks good timber in order to produce furniture and pick the best raw material to produce product and also can say as this is the secret of IKEA product. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications) PROMOTION The function of promotion is to attract customer behavior in order to close the deal or sale. (Neil H.Bordens).The way to promote is trough advertisement, sales promotion, public promotion and etc. (Neil H.Bordens).IKEA does not spend that much in promotion but yet they try to use all the time different communication forms to advertise and promote their furniture and so on. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications). Apart from that maybe can find media advertising via television and internet, IKEA catalogue advertisement, like IKEA bedroom-car riding all over USA or big square and so on. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications). The brand IKEA is kept on three markets as every product is sold under IKEA brand, the registered trademark at the world dimension. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications). This brand appears in every product and packaging. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications). In china IKEA first time used media to make promotion by playing 8-minute TV show. (Thrane Carlsen, 2005). All IKEA products could be viewed in catalog or website but must purchase in the store, for Chinese customer furniture are directly delivered to home for free. (Thrane Carlsen, 2005) Basically IKEA come with this catalogue and so on is for family-orientation and IKEAs policy of comfortable home. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications). IKEA have come up with different design of catalogue in different country according to their lifestyle and environment and so on. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications).IKEA has completely different way of communicate with its customer. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications).IKEA Mostly advertises in website and present not only furniture but also involvement latest design of computer science that they have used to attract the customer. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications).IKEA has undertaken a few adaptations in its product design and sales promotions with different focus according to the feature of target market. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications). IKEA give a feeling that IKEAs is very close to the cu stomer, because they have trained the staff in that way to maintain a very good relationship with the customer. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications). By doing this IKEA thinks that is one of the effective ways of marketing and to promote their product to customer. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications). Price Price means the pricing strategy that be used for a product or service. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications). The pricing decision should be taken into account profit margin and probable pricing response of competitor in order to compete with them. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications) The pricing is not only list price but also include discounts, financing and others. Price is one of the most important issues in the process of coming up with ideas, distributing and manufacturing products, designing and so forth. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications). All the company keeps its strategy of prices by offering wide range of products with stylish design, good quality with reasonable price so people can afford to buy it.usuniers argument is about the culture influence on pricing is a bit weak. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications).IKEAs pricing policy is cost oriented as well as customer value oriented but its not necessarily culture based. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications).Despite, china situation is not stable due to economical conditions but they seem to be better and better. (Bjà ¶rk, 2000, Lewis, 2005).IKEA try to maintain the prices all over its shop and mostly succeed but not always those following are IKEAs objective for providing furniture in a lower price in different markets: (Bjà ¶rk, 2000, Lewis, 2005) Learn different elements of the production cost for example color of mugs. (Bjà ¶rk, 2000, Lewis, 2005) Find cheap techniques of production or cheaper manufacturers for example in China. (Bjà ¶rk, 2000, Lewis, 2005) Rduce additional cost in the production, the transport and the management, for example to pack products in flat packages. (Bjà ¶rk, 2000, Lewis, 2005). Long-term orientation is one of the core Chinese cultures people are very concern about the quality and price, so IKEA have to come up with reasonable price in Chinese market. (Bjà ¶rk, 2000, Lewis, 2005) However price is not a problem in Europe, as IKEAs product is always of good quality and lower price, so IKEA focus more on sales promotion to gain the market share in Europe. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications).IKEA designers, manufactures and purchasers still spending most of their days to find a solution to low the price of IKEA product and they wants customer to buy high value product in a cheap price. (E. Lewis; Cyan Communications). CONCLUSION IKEA have franchise their market and also was successful in overseas. In fact IKEA have failed initially before they made it in Japan especially. IKEA have to come up with more strategy and try to venture in more business. They also should open up more IKEAs in overseas and maximize the promotion in order to reach the target customer. Before open up a business IKEA should analysis the country market whether adaption or standardization to be applied in the particular country so that the company will never face failure. From the analysis, it shows that IKEA has strong relationship of network structure, large number and customer in worldwide to internationalize. Actually in a market survey on target customer everyone says that no any command on IKEAs product because their quality of product is very good and worth of buying it and also last for many years. IKEA products are affected in abroad market because of cultural factors and political factors. For example Japan people doesnt like i nternational product and got to customize the product. Political factors are affected like there is some barriers in some countries that standardization packaging is not allowed and they have change the packagings due to this IKEA have to spend allowed. RECOMMENDATION IKEA have to always pre-planned and alert with market situation and move forward in order to ovoid unnecessary cost. They have to come with a strong strategy so that other competitor can beat up their market. IKEA is very confident that their quality of product is very good and competitors cannot compete with but IKEA but mustnt be like that because nowadays cant predict or underestimate about competitor. IKEA always must be ready to face consequence or either successful. IKEA also should promote more their product and organize lot of event in order to make the brand more popular among people. IKEA must give lot of sponsor of charity, sports and all in order to attract customer. The best ways in distribute flyers, article and so on about IKEA products and how good quality products they are using for example.

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Routing Protocol Simulation With NS2

Routing Protocol Simulation With NS2 Network simulation is a method of investigation in network technology. In the process of investigating a new technology, due to various reasons, it is costly and unrealistic to physically test a network system. In such situation, simulation becomes one of the best available solutions in testing, evaluation and validation. Network simulation has the features of small cycle and low cost, and it is easier for researchers to use others research, in order to concentrate on the particular part and no need to waste too much time on other part of the system. NS2 is a simulation platform that is developed in free open source for network technologies. Researchers can easily use it for the development of network technology. Until today, NS2 contains rich modules that are almost related to all aspects of network technology. Wireless network communications obtained a rapid development in recent years. Ad hoc networks do not need the support of cable infrastructure; the communication is achieved by free mobile network hosts. The emergence of ad hoc network has promoted the achievement of the process of free communication at any environment, at the same time it has also provided an effective communication solution of military, disaster relief and temporary communications. Considering the ad hoc network is constantly moving, and the network topology is changing, therefore the traditional internet routing protocols (e.g. RIP, OSPF) are not be able to adapt into the actual need of ad hot networks. Therefore there are many specialised routing protocols are designed for the ad hoc network, the aim of this paper is to compare, analyse and evaluate the most popular routing protocols for ad hoc networks by running the simulation test with NS2. Introduction A mobile ad hoc network (MANET), sometimes called a mobile mesh network, is a self-configuring network of mobile devices connected by wireless links. Along with the desire of get rid of the wired network constraints and be able to communicate at any time and any place, wireless network communications obtained a rapid development in recent years. Mobile communications can be achieved by portable computers with wireless interface equipped and PDAs. Most current mobile communications require a wired infrastructure, e.g. base station. To be able to communicate without fix infrastructure, a new network technology Ad Hoc network technology arises at the historic moment. Ad hoc networks do not need the support of cable infrastructure; the communication is achieved by free mobile network hosts. The emergence of ad hoc network has promoted the achievement of the process of free communication at any environment, at the same time it has also provided an effective communication solution of military, disaster relief and temporary communications. Each device in a MANET is free to move independently in any direction, and will therefore change its links to other devices frequently. Each must forward traffic unrelated to its own use, and therefore be a router. The primary challenge in building a MANET is equipping each device to continuously maintain the information required to properly route traffic. Such networks may operate by themselves or may be connected to the larger Internet. Ad-hoc network was originally used in the military field. With the developments of wireless networks, it has begun the development in the civilian fields. A mobile ad-hoc network does not need any infrastructures, any node can quickly and automatically form the network, and each node can move freely and is able to join or leave the network at any time. The characteristics and advantages of fast deployment, invulnerability makes mobile ad-hoc becoming more and more widely used in either military or civilian fields. In recent years, as the emerging wireless communication network, Ad-hoc is gradually attracting more attention of the industry and become a research hotspot. Ad-hoc networking supports flexible and convenient communication without the support of infrastructure, this technique broadens the fields of mobile communications and has a bright future. Ad hoc network can be regarded as the cross of mobile communication and computer network. In ad hoc networks, computer network packet exchange mechanism is used rather than circuit switching mechanism. Communication hosts are usually portable computer, personal digital assistants (PDA) and other mobile devices. Ad Hoc network is different from mobile IP network in the current Internet environment. In mobile IP networks, mobile hosts can link and access the network through fixed wired network, wireless link and dial up link, and in ad hoc network, these is only a wireless link connection. In mobile IP networks, the communication need to be supported by adjacent base stations and still using the traditional internet routing protocol, however, ad hoc networks do not have the support of these facilities. In addition, a mobile host in the mobile IP network is only an ordinary end device which does not have routing function. When the mobile host moves from one zone to another does not chan ge the network topology, and in Ad Hoc networks the movement of mobile hosts would lead to topology change. The thesis is to research on the Ad-hoc networking mode and its network layer through simulation with NS2, mainly focused on the comparison and analysis of the popular ad-hoc routing protocols. The aim of this article is to research and develop on the key technology of self-configuring network routing protocols, based on ad-hoc network structure. Wireless Ad-Hoc network Structure and Characteristics Ad Hoc wireless network has its own particularity, in the formation of actual use of the working network, the application size, scalability and the reliability and real-time requirements must be taken full account. In addition, due to the unique structure of the ad hoc network, the characteristics of ad hoc network should be fully considered when design and build the network, which will help us to design a routing protocol that is suitable for particular network structure in order to maximise the performance across the network. Ad-hoc network Structure Ad Hoc wireless network topology can be divided into two kinds: Flat structure and hierarchical structure, in flat network structure, all network nodes have equal status. However, in the hierarchical structure of the Ad Hoc wireless network topology, the whole network is composed of clusters for the subnet, each cluster consists of a cluster head and multiple cluster members, the cluster heads forms a higher level network. Each cluster head and cluster members are dynamic and automatic networking. The hierarchy is based on different hardware configurations, and hierarchical structure can be divided into single-band and multi-band classification structure. Single band hierarchy use single frequency in communication, all nodes use the same frequency. But in multi-band hierarchy, if there are two networks in different levels exist, the lower level network has a smaller communication range and higher level network has a larger communication range, cluster members use the same frequency to communicate, cluster head nodes uses one frequency to communicate with cluster members and another frequency to maintain the communication with cluster heads. There are advantages and disadvantages exist in either flat or hierarchical network structures: the structure of flat structure network is simple, each node has an equal status, there are multiple paths exist in communication of the source node and destination node, therefore no network bottlenecks, and the network is relatively safe. However, the biggest drawback is the limited network size, when the network scale expanding, routing maintenance overhead exponential growth and consume the limited bandwidth; Hierarchical network structure is not limited by the scale of network, the scalability is good, and because of clustering, routing overhead is relatively smaller, although there is the need of complex cluster head selection algorithm in hierarchical structure, but because of hierarchical network structure with high system throughput, node localisation is simple, therefore ad hoc network is now increasingly showing grading trend, many network routing algorithms proposed are based o n the hierarchical network structure model. Ad-Hoc network Characteristics Wireless ad hoc network is a combination of mobile communications and computer networks, each node in the network have both router and host functions. The characteristics of ad hoc networks in mainly in the following areas: Dynamically changing network topologies: Ad Hoc networks have no fixed infrastructure and central management communications equipment, network nodes can randomly move to any direction in any speed rate, coupled with the power change of wireless transmitter device, the environment impact and the signal mutual interference between each other, which all will result in dynamic changes of the network topology. Limited resources: the working energy provided to the mobile hosts in Ad Hoc networks are limited, and the mobile host with more energy loss, will reduce the Ad Hoc network functions; on the other hand, the network itself provides limited bandwidth and signal conflicts and Interference, which results the mobile host with limited available bandwidth which is normally far less than the theoretical maximum bandwidth. Multi-hop communication: if two network nodes are not in the same network coverage due to the limited resources available, multi-hop may be used in Ad Hoc network communication, in order to achieve the communication between the source host and destination host which are not in the same network coverage. Limited physical security: the communication of Ad Hoc network nodes are through the wireless channel, the information transmitted is very vulnerable, and eavesdropping, retransmission, falsify or forgery attack can be achieved easily, If routing protocol once suffered the malicious attacks, the whole self-organizing networks will not work properly. These features of the Ad Hoc network have made a special request in the routing algorithm design. A reasonable routing algorithm must take the factors of limited network resources, dynamic network topology changes and improve the network throughput into account. Ad-Hoc Wireless network routing protocols The key issue in ad hoc network design is to develop a routing protocol that is able to provide high quality and high efficient communication between two nodes. The mobility characteristic in the network makes the network topology constantly changing, the traditional internet based routing protocol is unable to adapt to these characteristics therefore the routing protocol that is specialised for ad hoc networks is needed, According to earlier on the Ad Hoc network architecture and features described, the design of the routing protocol must meet the following conditions: The need of rapid response capability for dynamic network topology, and try to avoid routing loops from occurring, and provide simple and convenient network node localise method. Must be efficiently use of the limited bandwidth resources, and try to compress unnecessary overhead. Limit the number of intermediate transfer during the implementation of multi-hop, generally not more than 3 times. Must minimise the launch time and amount of launch data, in order to save limited working energy. In possible conditions, make the design of routing protocol with securities to reduce the possibility of being attacked. Routing Protocols According to the specific characteristics of ad hoc wireless network routing protocols, in recent years, there are a variety of ad hoc network routing protocols have been proposed. IETFs MANET working group is currently focused on research Ad Hoc network routing protocols, and protocols many protocol drafts, such as DSR, AODV, ZRP etc. in addition, the professional researchers also published a extensively amount of articles related to Ad hoc network routing protocols and proposed many network routing protocols for the ad hoc networks, such as DSDV, WRP etc. According to the routing trigger principle, the current routing protocols can be divided into three types: Proactive Routing protocol, Reactive routing protocol and Hybrid routing protocols. Proactive Routing protocol Proactive routing protocol is also known as Table-driven routing protocol, each node maintains a routing table that contains the routing information to reach the other node, and updates the routing table constantly according the network topology changes, and therefore the routing table can accurately reflect the topology structure of the network. Once the source code needs to send messages, the route to the destination node can be immediately obtained. This type of routing protocol is usually modified from the existing wired network routing protocol to adapt to the wireless ad hoc network requirements, such as the Destination-Sequenced Distance Vector protocol, which is modified from the Routing Information Protocol (RIP). Therefore, this type of routing protocol has a small delay, but requires a lot of control message, the overhead is large. Commonly used proactive routing protocols include DSDV, HSR, GSR, WRP etc. Destination-Sequenced Distance Vector (DSDV) DSDV avoids the generation of routing loops by set serial number for each route, using time-driven and event-driven technology to control the transfer of routing table, i.e. a routing table is kept in each moving node locally, it contains valid points, routing hops and destination routing serial number etc. destination routing serial number is used to distinguish old and new route to avoid routing loops. Each node periodically sends the local routing table to the neighbour nodes, or when the routing table changes, the information will also be passed to neighbouring nodes, when there is no moving nodes, use a larger packet with longer interval to update the route. When the neighbouring node receives the information contains modified routing table, it will first compare the serial number of destination node, the routing with larger serial number will be used and the one with smaller serial number will be eliminated, and if the serial number are the same, the best optimised route (e.g. shortest path) will be used. Each node must periodically exchange the routing information with adjacent nodes, the routing information update is also can be triggered by the changes in routing table. There are two ways to update the routing table, Full dump, i.e. the topology update message will include the entire routing table, which is mainly applied to the case of fast changing network. Another way is Incremental update, in which update message contains only the changed part in routing, such way is usually used in a network with slower changes. Hierarchical State Routing (HSR) HSR is a routing protocol that is used in hierarchical network, nodes at a higher level saves all the location information of its peers, logical sequence address is assigned along from the root node at the highest level to the leaf node at the lowest level, node address can be used by sequence address. Global State Routing (GSR) GSR protocol works similar with the DSDV mechanism, it uses link-state routing algorithm, but avoids the flooding of routing packets, which includes an adjacent node table, network topology table, next hop routing table and the distance table. Wireless Routing Protocol (WRP) WRP is a distance-vector routing protocol, each node maintains a distance table, routing table, link overhead table and packet retransmission table, through the Short Path Spanning Tree (SST) of the neighbouring node to generate its own SST, and then transmit updates. When there is no any change in the network routing, the receiver node must return an idle message to show the connection, otherwise modify the distance table to look for better route. The feature of this algorithm is that when any changes of the neighbouring node is detected, and then checks the sturdiness of all adjacent nodes in order to eliminate the loop, has a faster convergence. Reactive Routing Protocol Reactive Routing protocol is also known as on-demand routing protocol, it finds the route only when needed. Nodes do not need to maintain routing information constantly, it will initiate route look up only when the packet is need to be sent. Compare with proactive routing protocols, the overhead of reactive routing protocol is smaller, but the packet transmission delay is larger, which means it is not suitable for real time applications. Commonly used reactive routing protocols include AODV, DSR, TORA and so on. 2.2.2 Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) DSR is designed to restrict the bandwidth consumed by control packets in ad hoc wireless networks by eliminating the periodic table-update messages required in table-driven approach. DSR is composed of two main mechanisms Route Discovery and Route Maintenance. The Route Discovery mechanism is used when the source node needs to send a packet to the destination node but does not know the route. When the source node is using a source route to reach the destination node, source node uses the route maintenance mechanism to identify the route that cannot be used due to the topology changes. In DSR, route discovery and route maintenance mechanisms are fully on-demand operation, DSR does not require any periodic routing broadcast packets and link state detection packets. 2.2.3 Temporally Ordered Routing Algorithm (TORA) TORA is an adaptive distributed routing algorithm based on link reversal method, which is mainly used for high-speed dynamic multi-hop wireless network. As a source initiated on-demand routing protocol, it is able to find multi-paths from the source to the destination node. The main characteristics of TORA are, when topology changes, the control message transmission in local area of topology changes only. Therefore, the node only needs to maintain the information of adjacent nodes. The protocol consists of three parts: route generation, route maintenance and route deletion. In the initialisation stage, the transmission sequence number of the destination node is set to 0. The QRY packet which contains the destination node ID broadcast by the source end and a node with a transmission sequence number that is not 0 responses to the UDP packet. The node that receives UDP packet has the sequence number higher than the source node by 1, and the node with higher sequence number is set as the upstream node. Through this method, a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) from the source to the destination node can be created. When nodes move, routes need to be rebuilt. In the route deletion phase, TORA removes the invalid route by broadcasting a CLR. There is one problem that exists with TORA, which is when multiple nodes proceeds to route selection and deletion, routing oscillation will be produced. 2.2.4 Ad-hoc On-Demand Distance Vector Routing (AODV) AODV is an improvement to the DSDV algorithm, but the difference with DSDV is that it is a Reactive routing protocol. In order to find the route leading to the destination node, the source end will broadcast a routing request packet, and adjacent in turn broadcast the packet to the surrounding nodes until the packet was sent to the destination node, or, to the intermediate node which has the routing information to the destination node. A node will discard duplicated request packet received, the serial number of routing request packet is to prevent routing loops, and is able to determine whether the intermediate node has responses to the corresponding routing requests. When a node forwards a route request packet, it will mark the ID of its upstream node into the routing table, in order to build a reverse route from the destination node to the source node. When the source end moves, it will re-initiate route discovery algorithm; if the intermediate nodes move, then the adjacent node wi ll find the link failure and send the link failure message to its upstream node and spread the message all the way to the source node, afterwards the source node re-launches the route discovery process according to the circumstances. The achievement of AODV is a combination of DSR and DSDV protocols. It has the features of route discovery and route maintenance in DSR, and at the same time use by-hop routing, sequence number and Beacon messages that adopted in DSDV. Hybrid Routing Protocol In wireless ad hoc networks, neither proactive nor reactive routing protocols alone can solve the routing problem completely, therefore hybrid routing protocols which combines the advantage of both proactive and reactive protocols have been proposed by the researchers, such as the Zone Routing Protocol (ZRP). ZRP is a combination of proactive and reactive routing protocols, all nodes within the network to themselves as the centre of a virtual zone, the number of nodes in the area is related to the radius set of the zone, and the areas overlap, this is the difference with clustering routing. It uses proactive routing algorithm within the zone, the centre node uses Intrazone Routing protocol to maintain in the zone. Literature Review Network Simulation Tool The platform that will be used in simulation is Windows XP Professional + Cygwin + NS2. NS2 is a simulation platform that is developed in free open source for network technologies. Researchers can easily use it for the development of network technology. Until today, NS2 contains rich modules that are almost related to all aspects of network technology. Since the release 2.26, NS2 has stopped support with Windows platforms, therefore to get the latest NS2 running on the Windows XP, Cygwin is needed. Cygwin is an UNIX emulator on Windows platform. Implementation Configure simulation platform Normally, NS2 simulation can be divided into the following steps: 1. Compose necessary components: i.e. add or remove new components 2. Testing: test whether the component composed is validated. When the component in the library satisfies the simulation needs (e.g. simulation process based on existing protocols in the library),then the simulation starts from the third step. 3. Compose Otcl script file: configure the topology structure of the simulating network, and identify the basic link features, protocols that have been used by moving nodes, and number of nodes etc, and binding the terminal device protocol, setting the scene and traffic load of simulation (TCP stream or CBR stream), setting simulation start and end time etc, and set trace objects of the script file, trace file is the file that records all of the events of simulation process, and also can set the nam object at the same time, nam is the tool to demonstrate the network running animation. 4. Use NS command to execute script file: once executed, *.tr file will be generated in the same directory of the script file, to record the simulation results. if nam object is set in the script file, *.nam file will be generated in the same directory. 5. Analyse trace file: due to the large size of trace file, we will need to compose gawk program to process the data after simulation (calculate packet delivery date, routing overload, and throughput etc), then use the drawing tools to produce the graph for direct analysis. In NS2 the classic routing protocols such as DSDV, DSR, TAORA and AODV are already integrated; the source code of routing protocols is located in C:cygwinhomeAdministratorns-allinone-2.34ns-2.34, show in figure 1.1 Take AODV as an example (fig. 1.2), within the ADOV folder, aodv.cc and aodv.h are the most important files, they defines the main functional features. Under general circumstances, we do not need to modify the source code of the protocols. Fig.1.2 AODV Routing Protocol Simulation scripting According to the simulation model designed, each routing protocol (DSDV, DSR, AODV, and TORA) will be compared in small (20 nodes) and medium (50 nodes) ad hoc wireless network. The corresponding scripts composed are: dsdv.tcl, dsr.tcl, aodv.tcl and tora.tcl (see appendix). Taking aodv.tcl as an example, the coding is show in fig.3.2.1 Partial scripts in aodv.tcl Some script explanation of most important codes in aodv.tcl set val(ifq)Queue/DropTail/PriQueue; #Interface queue set val(nn)50; #Number of nodes in simulation scenario set val(rp)AODV; #Routing protocol to be simulated set val(stop)300 #Simulation time length set val(x)500; #Length of scene set val(y)500; #Width of scene set val(tr) out50.tr #Output trace file set val(nam) out50.nam #Output nam file set opt(cp) cbr50 #Stream file set opt(sc) scen50 #Scene file In addition, write the following statement in script head to generate a simulation ns_ object: set ns_[new Simulator] Tracking the file object is used to specify the Trace file (with .tr extension) in recording of the simulation data. NS2 supports record application layer, routing layer, MAC layer and node movement those four types of data in difference layers. The data that needs to be recorded can be specified in settings in the simulation process. The data in of each layer that trace object specified are all recorded in the trace file, labels are added to distinguish them. In addition, NS2 also supports NAM tool simulation process visualisation, such function needs to generate the NAM trace file object to specify the trace file of records of simulation data. The following statements are used to generate those two trace file object described. #Generate trace file: $ns_use-newtrace set tracefd[open out50.tr w]; $ns_trace-all$tracefd #Generate NAM trace file object: set namtracefd[open out50.nam w] $ns_namtrace-all-wireless$namtracefd$val(x)$val(y) Data Stream Generation Tool Data stream generation tool cbrgen is used to generate traffic loads, which can generate the TCP steam and CBR steam. Cbrgen.tcl file (see appendix) can be used as following: Codes are defined as following: -type #TCP stream or CBR stream -nn #Number of nodes -seed #Specify number of random seeds -mc #Maximum connection of each node -rate #Overload of each stream connection The format is used as following: ns cbrgen.tcl [-type cbr|tcp] [-nn nodes] [-seed seed] [-mc connections] [-rate rate] Movement Scene ./setdest is used to randomly generate the nodes movement scene needed form wireless network, used as following (2 versions): ./setdest -v -n -p -M -t time> -x -y or ./setdest -v -n -s -m -M -t -P -p -x -y Which speed type set to uniform/normal ¼Ã…’pause type set to constant/uniform. NAM animation The NAM function is used to run the animation of specific trace output format, the output file can be based on real or simulated environment. For example, the trace file that is from the output of NS simulator. The commands to control to control NAM animation in NS2 as following: nam out.nam 1. Node $node color [color] Setting the colour of node $node shape [shape] Setting shape of node $node label [label] Setting name of node $node label-color [lcolor] Setting display colour of node name $node label-at [ldirection] Setting display location of node name $node add-mark [name] [color] [shape] Add annotation $node delete-mark [name] Delete annotation 2. Link and Queue $ns duplex-link attribute: orientà £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ colorà £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ queuePosà £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ label 3.Agent Use the following commands to make the agent you wish to display appears as AgentName in the box. $ns add-agent-trace $Agent AgentName The parameters of movement scene and node flow are in the tables shown below: Parameter of node movement scene: Parameter Number of nodes Moving range Resting time Simulation time Values set 20, 50 500 x 500 m 1 s 300 s Parameter of node movement scene: Parameter Maximum moving speed Packet size Node communication distance Type of service Values set 5, 10, 15, 10, 25, 30-50 512 byte 250 m CBR Trace file analysis Performance parameter analysis model The indicator to measure the performance of ad hoc network routing protocol is commonly including qualitative indicator and quantitative indicator. Qualitative indicator describes the overall performance of a particular aspect of the network, such as the security, distribution operation, provide loop free route and whether to support single channel etc. and quantitative indicators can describe the performance of a certain aspect of the network in more details. The quantitative indicator of packet delivery ratio, average end to end delay and throughput etc are often used to measure the performance of network routing protocols. a. Packet delivery ratio: is a ratio of the number of packet sent from the source node and the number of packet that have been received by destination node in the application layer, which not only describes the loss rate observed in the application layer, but also reflect the maximum throughput supported by the network. It is the indicator of routing protocol completeness and correctness. End to end average delay: it can be calculated with the following equation, which N represent the packets successfully delivered, rt represents the time that packet reached the destination node, and st represent packet sending time. Routing overhead: Routing overhead is the total number of control packets of all routes, in a multi-hop routing each hop transmission is equivalent to one packet transmission. Routing overhead can be used to compare the scalability, the ability to adapt to network congestion and the efficiency of different routing protocols. It can be calculated with the following formula: Routing overhead = The Total number of routing control packets Gawk code The output file out.tr generated in simulation analysis will be filtered by selecting all of the packets in Agent layer, calculate all the number of data packets sent by this layer and the number of data packets that has been successfully received, and then divide the number