Dealing With Physical Abuse

The Struggle Physical Abuse Brings People all around the world have suffered from being abused verbally and physically, causing a struggle because they don’t know how to handle these types of situations. In the short story Runaways by Karen Brennan, the main character Lou is physically abused by her husband, which leads Lou to run away, causing problems between friends and family. What are you without loved ones? When you really care about someone you will give an arm and a leg for him or her but once they cross a line they shouldn’t, it feels like the world is supposed to end.In Lou’s situation this is exactly what happened to her. She gave her entire life to her husband and her children. Unfortunately her husband didn’t care about her feelings and cared more about what he wanted than what would keep her happy. Physical abuse in a relationship is a key factor of failing marriages. Lack of communication can lead to physical abuse. Throughout the time that Lou and her husband have been married, they have been through a lot. One thing that might have started all their arguing besides his drinking problem may be that they â€Å"have difficulty talking to each other†(Brennan,501).Lou states, â€Å"My husband didn’t always beat me. In the beginning he was just irresponsible. I could live with that. He drank too much and in the worst times he drove too fast with the babies in the car†(Brennan,501). Lou’s husband beats her so often, she is afraid to go to sleep. When her husband was drunk he became a whole different person, â€Å"he was a maniac when he was drunk†(Brennan,501). â€Å"Its unfair the advantage that men have†(Brennan,501) because woman should be able to stand up for themselves without worrying about what the guys reaction will be.Lou is a woman who will put others before herself. She is a mother of four children and wants everyone happy. For instance, a lot of mothers’ first rea ction to their children crying is to beat them and tell them to â€Å"stop whining†. Lou has been beaten by someone she truly loves so why would she want to beat four people she loves unconditionally, her children. Lou states, â€Å"I am not one of those mothers who turns around in the car and swats the kids on the legs and tells them to shut up. I have never believed in that. When they whined, I told stories.I told them about a family who sailed away in an orange balloon†(Brennan,501). Lou had hit her breaking point and had to runaway from her problems. But is running away the answer? Often people who are physically abused turn around and abuse others. For Lou, it was a different story. She was not a young adult who abused her children because her husband abused her. Many people take their anger out on others because it is a way to make themselves feel better. Lou possibly could have felt pressure to raise her four children with her husband being involved.Lou was stro ng enough and didn’t stay in an abusive relationship just for the children because she knew leaving was the best decision for her at the time. Through all the ups and downs Lou went through with her husband in the end she felt like she was left with nothing. â€Å"a woman without a husband is like an ocean without a sea†(Brennan,500). Its hard being happy if you don’t have the people you cherish most in your life around you. A person can struggle with a bunch of emotions and if you don’t have the support of people that care about you, the situation gets a lot harder.When you are surrounded with people that want the best for you, then you will get though your struggles with someone by your side, not alone. I personally know someone who went through something very similar from what Lou went through. My cousin who is now 25 years old has been dealing with family problems ever since she was about 10 years old. I have heard all these stories about my cousin an d her family from my parents. I was always curious and wanted to know what was happening but it was not my place to ask questions because it might be a sensitive topic for her.Her father was a heavy drinker which caused him to be very angry not only friend friends but especially with his family. My cousin Kelley was the youngest of the two kids. She has an older sister who was 4 years older than she is. Night after night her father kept drinking excessively. The family knew what was coming along with his drinking, his anger. One night it got really bad, he yelled at Kelley for the littlest things, things that were not even a big deal. One time, she didn’t wash her plate after dinner because she was too tired and wanted to go to bed.He became highly upset and rushed into her bedroom, slapped her, and told her to get up and clean her plate. Each day he got worse and worse. After a couple years went by Kelley, her mom, and he sister could no longer handle him and his drinking pr oblem. They moved out when he was at work so he could not say anything about it. The girls moved far away and did not tell anyone where they were going because they did not want their father to find out. They knew he would make a big deal about it. Three girls living on their own trying to survive must have been hard.Having a main man in their life was their leading factor to surviving. Without her dad paying for everything and supplying for the family, it’s difficult for the girls. Somehow her father found out where they were and made them come back. They decided to give their father one more chance, thinking that things would be different but they only got worse. He thought they would leave him again so he tried to be more protective which only caused his anger to be worse than it already was. As Kelley matured throughout the years she realized she no longer wanted to have her dad in her life at all so she lost all contact with him.She got her own apartment and did almost a ll her daily actives on her own. After everything that happened with her dad, she didn’t want to depend on anyone else but herself. This made it difficult for Kelley to keep close friendships with her girlfriends because after her father, she thought that everyone she truly cared about would let her down like he did. Kelley’s fear of having to abandon ones she love caused her to have little friends. She was afraid to trust anyone at all because she believed that friendships and relationships don’t last forever.Later when Kelley became a young adult she realized that she could not go on any longer not having her father in her life and having little friends that she can count on. Being on your own is tough. So Kelley allowed her father to re enter her life but not fully be involved 100%. She realized although she had been through a lot over the years, having her dad around again was exactly what she needed to be happy again. As the years go on, you find out who yo u need in your life and who you would be okay without. I thought that Lou and my cousin Kelley’s story were similar due to running away from their problems.Although Lou was physically abused and Kelley was verbally abused their problems with the men in their lives bring their two stories together. Not having a close relationship with someone who means the world to you has to be really hard. Especially for Kelley, being so young and thinking you dad would be someone you would look up to as the years went on. Her father ended up being someone she never thought he would be, which had to of been beyond upsetting. As for Lou, the man who has been the love of her life for years now and has children who look up to him is not the type of father they though he was going to be.Its hard putting all your effort into someone and believing they are going to give their best to you and then be let down. Being let down is very hurtful and can cause someone a lot of pain, for instance Lou and Kelley. Although Lou and Kelley did not end with the same feelings at the end of both of their stories they still dealt with the same process. Work Cited Alvarado, Beth, Barbara Cully, and Michael Robinson. â€Å"Runaways. † Writing as Revision. Boston, MA. : Pearson Custom Pub. , 2003. 499-509. Print.

Logic Gates

A Project Report On WORKING OF LOGIC GATES SUBMITTED BY:- Shamil Choudhury ROLL__________ No_____________ Karimganj Junior College Of Science CONTENTS†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. TOPICS Page No 1. CERTIFICATE1 2. INTRODUCTION 2 3. THEORY3-4 4. EXPERIMENT5-6 5. RESULTS 7 6. CONCLUSION. 7 7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 8 8. REFERENCE 9 INTRODUCTION A gate is a digital circuit that follows certain logical relationship between the input and output voltages. Therefore, they are generally known as logic gates — gates because they control the flow of information. The five common logic gates used are NOT, AND, OR, NAND, NOR. Each logic gate is indicated by a symbol and its function is defined by a truth table that shows all the possible input logic level combinations with their respective output logic levels. Truth tables help understand the behavior of logic gates. These logic gates can be realized using semiconductor devices. Here we will investigate on the working of first three logic gates i. e. OR, AND, and NOT gate. OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT To demonstrate the working of logic gates using torch bulb, battery and switches. APPARATUS REQUIRED To demonstrate the working of the logic gates we require the following apparatus:- i) A BATTERY OF 6 V. ii) TWO SWITCHES (KEYS). iii) TORCH BULB. iv) CONNECTING WIRES THEORY There are three basic logic gates: 1. The OR Gate * An OR gate has two or more inputs with one output. It operates in such a way that a output is high (i. e. 1) if one of the two inputs (or both the inputs) is high. The symbol of OR Gate is It works on the following truth table:- 2. The AND GATE * An AND gate has two or more inputs and one output. It operates in such a way that the output is high (i. . 1) when both the inputs are high. The symbol of AND Gate is It works on the following truth table:- 3. The NOT Gate * The NOT gate has single input and single output. The output is not the same as input. If the input is low (i. e. 0), the output is high (i. e. 1). On the other hand, the output will be low (i. e. 0) if the input is high (i. e. 1). In other words it performs a negation operation on the input and call ed the invertor. The symbol of NOT Gate is It works on the following truth table:- PROCEDURE (1) Working of OR Gate The electric circuit diagram is as shown Using the above circuit diagram we proceed as follows: (i) The switches S1 and S2 are not pluged and the glow of the bulb is recorded (do not glow) . (ii) Now the switch S1 is plugged (not S2), it is found that the bulb glows. (iii) Now the switch S2 is plugged (not S1), it is observed that the bulb glows. (iv) Both the switches are plugged, the bulb glows. (2) Working of AND gate The electric circuit diagram is shown Using the above circuit diagram we proceed as follows: (i) The switches S1 and S2 are not plugged and the glow of the bulb is recorded (do not glow) . ii) Now the switch S1 is plugged (not S2), it is found that the bulb does not glow. (iii) Now the switch S2 is plugged (not S1), it is observed that the bulb does not glow. (iv) Both the switches are plugged, the bulb glows. 3. Working of NOT gate The electric circuit diagram is shown Using the above circuit diagram we proceed as follows: (i) The switch S is not plugged and the glow of the bulb is recorded(the bulb glows) . (ii) The switch S is plugged and the glow of the bulb is recorded(the Bulb does not glow). RESULT 1. Results for the OR gate S1 | S2| Bulb glows| Off On Off On| Off Off On On| No Yes Yes Yes| 2. Results for the AND gate S1 | S2| Bulb glows| Off On Off On| Off Off On On| No No No Yes| 3. Results for the NOT gate S| Bulb glows | Off On| Yes No| CONCLUSION Thus we find that the logic gates works according to their corresponding truth table. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I extend my sincere thanks to our Dr Sujit Tiwari for his advice and help in the matter of preparing the project. I also express my deep sense of gratitude to my friends forextending all possible help in supplying project information, which I have used while preparing the project. They have given lots of information for preparation of the report I sought. My parents have supplied me all kinds of necessary materials and information for the report files. Hence, I am grateful to them also. REFERENCE [1] Concept of Physics – H. C. Verma. [2] Comprehensive Practical Physics.

How have anthropologists responded to colonialism in different Essay - 2

How have anthropologists responded to colonialism in different historical moments - Essay Example In some cases, anthropology is into smaller units namely linguistic, bodily, archaeology and cultural anthropology. Therefore, anthropology seeks to understand the various facets of culture within a given society therefore reflects on the tools, techniques, values, beliefs, economic mechanisms, social institutions and struggles of prestige within any given societal setting (Pritchard, 1969, p.30). With a wider spec, applied anthropological study helps in solving modern problems. Anthropologists not only use colonialism as a historical object of observation but also as a technique of control, which emerged from colonial dialect. Anthropology categorizes colonialism in dissimilar ways. The anthropology of colonialism categorically seeks to determine contemporary anthropology in relation to the colonial background under which it emerged. Ethno history on the other hand, seeks to draw boundaries between history and anthropology, neo-Marxism and feminism for instance fuel economic interes t of change and consequently in colonialism among the peasant societies in relation to their mode of production and form of economy. Anthropology of colonialism’s notions, through culture and method, has always turned out to have specific colonial functions or uses (Asad, 1973, p.5). Evans-Pritchard, in his book, â€Å"The Nuer†, indicates that society surrounding the Nuer people happens through groups and cattle. The Nuer is a pastoralist community residing along the upper part of the Nile. Their social structure was drawn from individualistic perspectives and lacked laws and leaders. Social order in society was maintained based on societal values and tribe orientation within a lineage system (Pritchard, 1940, p.9). From a scholarly perspective however, â€Å"The Nuer† is an intensive ethnographic study coined by Evans-Pritchard about the unusual and interesting people. To this people, economic relationships are of social nature hence everything that the people of this ethnic setting do, is bound by the factor that they belong to one community and they are therefore bound by their relation by productive system. Evans Pritchard, through his book therefore emphasizes on the lack of laws, government, political organizations and authority in the social systems of the Nuer hence a paradox in their political structure. He denotes that classification among these people is only in their relation to other political setups and it arises because of tribal hostility and aggression. This therefore means that, the availability of tension brings about sense of form. Because of this, social life therefore balances wrongs and individuals within the society. Through Evans-Pritchard’s writings, it is clearly indicating that through anthropologies colonialism should actually be analyzed as a culture, which has an origin from colonial control, which is set on a historical background, in this case, therefore, culture and history supplement each other in the manner in which they relate. In order to understand this interesting relationship, one ought to know the classifications and functions of culture through the history of colonial governments. Through the understanding of Evans-Pritchard’s work, we can deduce that anthropologists and historians in most instances agree that we all ought to be sensitive to contexts. The Nuer, therefore,

Modern nation-state and transnational entities Essay

Modern nation-state and transnational entities - Essay Example The emergence of the modern nation state dates back to the 1700s. Before the emergence of nation-states, monarch systems were the governing tools, but later sovereignty came to change people’s way of life. Sovereignty recognized people as citizens with a role to play in government rather than subjects. The issue of nationalism is also viewed by many as a political ideology. The French revolution played a significant role in the emergence of modern nationalism (ZÃ ¼fle, 2011). Nationalism has many positive attributes in any nation-state. One of the attributes is that nationalism promotes democracy. This occurs because nationalism advocates for popular sovereignty and supports the idea that political power is legitimately held by people. People use the political power to put others in power to work as their agents. Nationalism also promotes economic growth within a country. Therefore, nationalism offers the opportunity to build a colonial power, to use resources to improve people’s life as well as economic infrastructure. The other impact of nationalism is that it promotes diversity and experimentation. This is evident in democratic nations through the way people from different walks of life maintain their own culture and values (Godfrey, 2004). Characteristics of modern nation-state In order to understand the concept of modern nation-state, it is necessary to define a nation, state and country. This is because the four terms apply to refer to political, economic, social and cultural contributors in the international system. Modern nation-state refers to single or multiple nationalities that come together to form a political union. The nation-state is responsible for identifying official languages, laws, currency system, and ordering elements of society through bureaucracy. A nation-state is only recognized when a nation of people forms its own country or state. Japan qualifies to be a nation-state (Chernilo, 2007). A nation state is highly politically oriented. Nation states refer to the political units comprised of national groups. A nation state also shows a highly centralized public administration. Traditionally, a nation state exists to ensure that there is a self- governing territory within a nation in an aim to attai n any power. For example, in Japan, the population is of Koreans and Chinese blood, but there is a recognized language and culture. This fact makes a nation-state more powerful and organized than a nation. A nation-state provides a political personification as well as wider scope of power. In a nutshell, a nation-state is a hybrid of a nation and a state (Teichova, 2003). On the other hand, a nation refers to a group of people who share similar demography and culture similar to those of a community, and are able to make independent political decisions. People within a nation just believe of its existence making it intangible. A nation has members who have a common identity that make them different from others. In some situations, the term nation is exclusively used to refer to ethnic grouping. Unlike a nation-state, a nation is a socio-cultural entity comprised of people sharing a common language and culture. An example of a nation is the Basque, which forms part of northern Spain a nd southern

Cigarettes Smoking Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Cigarettes Smoking - Coursework Example Smoking cigarettes are harmful and often leads to addiction, which can ultimately lead to death and other health complications. Cigarettes have an addictive element in them known as nicotine and some other flavorful additives, which causes addiction. In the United States, cigarettes account for about 440, 000 deaths annually. There are many causes of smoking, which include, the body needs some nicotine especially in the case of addicts for physical reasons; secondly, for psychological reasons, which is one of the most important factor explaining why people smoke e.g. due to low self-esteem. Either other people get attracted into smoking out of peer pressure especially the youth, or some people develop the habit because they were passive smokers at some point and finally turned into active smokers. Smoking cigarettes cause a number of health problems to the smokers. Firstly, they increase the chances of one developing heart disease, stroke, and cancer. Smoking increases the chances of men suffering from lung cancer by 23 times, while in women it raises the chances by 13 times when compared to non-smokers. In addition, smoking is a slow way of dying because of the harmful effects cigarettes have on the body. Other notable damages smoking has on the body include the effect on the mouth, eyes, stomach and the pancreases and throat. It is estimated that on average smokers in America spend about $1000-$1500 annually in buying cigarettes. Smoking causes weight loss for children born by mothers who are active smokers.

Family Biography Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Family Biography - Essay Example This paper illustrates that the author’s parents met many years back when they were appointed as prison guards in OJT. At that time, his Dad was divorced and was 30 while his Mom was married to another man and was 25 years of age. His Mom and Dad started seeing each other about which his Mom’s husband knew nothing. They fell in love with each other. His Dad could do anything for her because she was smart, skinny and attractive. He would drive miles just to see her for an hour. To the author, he was a very superficial person giving importance to looks rather than the person inside. He always liked skinny women and loathed bigger ones. As for his Mom, even though she was pretty, she was very rude and rough in her behavior. That is why she did not have many friends. Since she was attractive, nobody ever held her accountable for her terrible behavior. She always thought that she was right even when at times she would be wrong. She has always been very bossy in nature and ob livious to what others think of her. She was, and is till now, very possessive toward the author. The researcher knew that she loved him very much but her possessiveness and messing with everybody who tried to pick a finger at the authorreally ripped the researcher of his personality. The researcher was not humble anymore. Until now, the researcher share a love-hate relationship with her and the reseahasr have not been able to change his feelings toward her no matter what she does for him.  ... I would miss my older Dad too much and developed a constant hatred for my Mom for tearing apart the family. I knew she was the one who had always started the fights. But now, everything had changed and a new guy had come into my life as my real Dad. I came to know about this fact when I was about 7 or 8 years of age and I would not understand why it all happened. After a couple of years, I realized that my Mom was getting better along with my Dad. They seemed to love each other quite well. They would take me for outings and helped me do my homework. We became a happy family. My Dad is a bit superficial person in that he likes me being always in good shape. He likes cars, houses, money and beauty. But still I think I like him a lot because he enjoys sports with me. He attends my parent-teacher meetings with my Mom. I like both of them being there for me whenever I need them. They communicate with me whenever they want me to do something for them and make me understand the logic behind . When I was growing up, I wanted to be a doctor. My parents wanted me to go into law school. So, they made me understand why they wanted me to become a lawyer. Once I got into the habit of coming home late in the evening because I started hanging out with my friends. My Dad did not shout at me; instead, he talked to me about the issue. He made me understand why late nights would be harmful for me. I understood and straightened myself. We go to visit friends and family and invite them to our house. My Mom, at times, shouts and makes issues of small things but my Dad and I handle her quite well with her temper tantrums. I wish she could leave

Assessment Of My Leadership Styles Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Assessment Of My Leadership Styles - Coursework Example Evidently, I am a worthwhile leader who has been helping my organization to grow. Such leadership styles have been attainable mainly because of my admirable leadership qualities such as confidence, cooperation, commitment, tolerance, creativity, accountability, and honesty. These are traits which if nurtured, can make me be a great leader in future. However, for me to achieve much, I need to undertake a lot of training on communication and critical thinking skills. These can be of great importance because they can enable me to develop effective interpersonal communication skills which are necessary for creating healthier interpersonal relations with everyone around me. Besides, it would make me be a model leader whose traits should be emulated. In conclusion, I would like to agree with the assertion that leadership is innate. However, everyone should go ahead to learn good leadership strategies and nurture them. Having known exactly what I want, I have become a conscious leader who i s very concerned about the welfare and prosperity of my workers. With democratic, laissez-faire and transactional leadership styles, I have a long way too. However, I need to acquire the necessary training that can help me to have a self-awareness, identify my weaknesses and make the necessary improvements. Even before filing the inventory, I knew that I am a transactional leader. Since I assumed power, I have been keen on the performance of my juniors. Anyone who demonstrates exemplary performance has been offered contingent rewards.

Cyberworlds Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Cyberworlds - Essay Example Their avatars would come over and help me clear a field or build a house, even run a business. This added to the social interactivity of the game. By helping each other out in the tasks, we managed to get to know each other quite well in the cyberworld that we functioned in. It was fun to relate to one another in this world because we could not see what the other looked like at the moment and we did not care. As long as the game avatars did as they were told by their controllers, the game was a peaceful and friendly one. That is perhaps the reason why I sometimes find myself spending as much as 12 hours in a day playing the game. My friends and I go on adventurous treks through the forests in this game and accomplish a lot thanks to the power of cooperation. Due to the numerous fun activities that can be done within the virtual world and the fact that I can interact with other people in the social world who may or may not be in my friends list, I find that I enjoy being a part of this virtual reality. It is because of the easy access that my friends and I have into each others virtual world that I found myself coming to the realization that a virtual world can actually exist and the place becomes real, because my friends and I can see it on our monitors and we can touch each other through the virtual world action lists. This means that what is virtual to most has become reality to us. That is why I disagree with the statement from our reading that dictates that : â€Å"... place† and â€Å"virtual† cannot coexist: there is no â€Å"place† in the virtual beyond the metaphor. â€Å" The two places can actually exist because the technology exists to make the place real for the game participants. Everything from the headset microphones to the personalized avatars allows us to communicate with one another instantly and share concerns that for the bystanders are â€Å"virtual† concerns but

International Business - Global Marketplace Case Study

International Business - Global Marketplace - Case Study Example Going international at times looks logical when we look at these pull factors. Economists are not in agreement as to a common definition of multinational or transnational enterprises (MNE/TNC). Multinational corporations have many dimensions and can be viewed from several perspectives (ownership, management, strategy and structural, etc.) (Root. 1994, Hill, 2007). According to Hill (2007), a global enterprise (or transnational corporation) is a corporation or enterprise that manages production establishments or delivers services in at least two countries. Most multinationals have budgets that exceed those of many countries (Hill 2007). This paper is aimed at analyzing and discussing the potential impacts of globalization on a chosen multinational. The first part of the paper presents activities of Tesco, the second part looks on the positive impact of globalization on Tesco, the third sections focuses on the negative impact of gobalisation on Tesco while the last section presents the conclusion. 1.1 Overview of the Company in Question-Tesco Founded by Jack Cohen in 1919, Tesco Plc has come a long way and has established itself as the largest super store in Europe. At the turn of the century, Tesco became very proactive in coming up to the requirements of the new ear and tesco.com was launched, followed by aggressive entry into international markets like Malaysia, Japan & Turkey, China & the US. Today, the international operations of Tesco yield more profit as compared to the profits in the Europe market. More than half of Tesco's selling space is in markets outside Europe (Tesco Review 2007). The Tesco Plc website states "shareholders. Today the Group operates in 12 markets outside the UK, in Europe, Asia and North America. Over 160,000 employees... As the report declares recent changes in the international market scene, politics and environment have forced companies in the quest and optimisation of various options. With the rational ranging from optimisation of resources, being more responsive with the various stakeholders and keeping the pace of learning and employees development in their world wide operations. According to the report findings it is clear that moving global, shouldn’t be an overnight decision in multinational enterprises. Such a move should be carefully given a second thought, as it involves not only a total strategic reorientation but a major change in an organisations capabilities, resources and challenges. Companies going global should be able to face the challenges of thinking globally and implementing locally. There is no doubt operating internationally rather than domestically presents organisations with many new opportunities. From access to new markets, tactical and strategical positioning to a pool of information for subsequent product development. Going international at times looks logical when we look at these pull factors. Tesco denotes its success to an aggressive global strategy of geographic diversification. In its attempt to renew the brand and keep it in sync with changing customer tastes and keeping up the growth figures in future, Tesco follows various strategies including international diversification, providing value to customers, product diversification, innovation, and umbrella branding.

Teaching Science During the Early Childhood Years Essay

Teaching Science During the Early Childhood Years - Essay Example These professionals include all the individuals who directly serve children right from their through the age of 8 (Who are Early Childhood Professionals). Thus such schools and centers help in the initial development of mental, physical and social growth of the child along with education. The importance of educators in these centers is evident from the fact that children in early childhood education programs require teachers who are not only academically qualified but also have a sound knowledge in child development. Instead a high-quality support system should be offered to teachers in addition to a competent pay package and opportunities for professional development (Hyson, Tomlinson and Carol). In order to gain high-quality knowledge on early childhood education it is necessary to enroll in programs that are based on the National Association for the Education of Young Children Standards (NAEYC) which help prepare graduates competently for this profession as it not only includes ch ildhood education but also concentrates on learning the overall development of the child, to effectively communicate with the families, using assessments appropriately and altogether helps in becoming a through professional in this field.

Persuasive Speech Essay Example for Free

Persuasive Speech Essay Persuasive Speech Attention Getter: I would like to start my presentation off by telling you all to ask yourselves a series of fairly straight forward questions. I want you to take a look at you’re, any hand and ask your selves â€Å"Who’s hand is this? † Do the same with your other hand, and now both legs and your arms if you would like. If I am not mistaking the answer to all your questions are mine right. They are your hands, legs, and arms. What I am trying to get through to you all today is that your body is your body and that a person should be able to profit of his or her own body if done in a safe and controlled way. Audience Motivation: By attending this presentation today you will come to realize that some of the laws and effects of prostitution are scoured and misunderstood. You will see that prostitution is not all bad like it is portrayed to be. Speaker Credibility: I have researched and been intrigued of this topic for several years now. While reading numerous books, articles and also speaking with two former prostitutes whom they would like their name to stay anonymous. I feel as though I have gained the knowledge to successfully debate the controversial issue of legalizing prostitution here in America. Thesis Statement: While supporting the legalization of prostitution I will provide you all with accurate and up to date statistical information concerning prostitution and how the anti-prostitution laws are clearly not working. I will give you some benefits on is to why prostitution should be legal, and why we can make prostitution a safe job for males and females. Main Body A. According to an article titled â€Å"The Oldest Profession† Published in 2009 by Prostitute’s Education Network in New York, Arrest figures in 2009 range over 500,000 and over 2 million people in the US have worked as prostitutes. Anti-prostitution laws are not working the frequency of prostitution is not been affected by anti-prostitution laws. For instance over the past decade prostitution has steadily increased by 9%. What anti-prostitution laws have done is merely drive prostitution underground, creating a much more dangerous situation for prostitutes, their customers, and society. Currently most everywhere in the United States, our legal system penalizes prostitutes and their customers for what they do as consenting adults. Money is still spent on law enforcement efforts to catch prostitutes and their customers. Once caught, justice departments have to process these people through very expensive systems. What are the end results? Police personnel and courtrooms are overburdened with these cases, having little or no impact on prostitution. The prostitutes and their customers pay their fines and are back to the streets in no time in a revolving door process. Catch and release may work for recreational fishing but it has no deterring effect on prostitution. Verbal Citation: (Journal Article): â€Å"The Oldest Profession† by James Rupert Published by Prostitute’s Education Network in 2009 B. When reading an article titled â€Å"Legalized Prostitution† published in 2010, by The Liberator in New Jersey, it gave me some great facts on the benefits that would come out of the legalizing of prostitution. If you would think about it making prostitution legal will allow the act to be managed instead of ignored. Pimps and organized crime figures, which regularly treat their workers on subhuman levels, would no longer control women. In some countries, prostitute rings buy and sell women on the black market, force their women to comply through violence and create unhealthy working conditions. When prostitutes operate independently and in secret, many times they become abused by their own customers. Also It is estimated that 100,000 to 3 million teens are nearly invisibly prostituted per year in the United States. If we allow prostitution to remain hidden from view and basically invisible to the law as it is today, we allow a number of teens to be swept up into prostitution every year. When adult women decide to exchange money for sex, it is a personal choice open to them under a free democratic society. When troubled minors who do not yet have the social survival skills decide to prostitute, they are often manipulated by opportunists who exploit these teens, typically leading to horrific ends. Regulated prostitution has many benefits encounters can happen within controlled environments that bring about safety for both the customers and the prostitutes. Prostitutes would no longer be strong-armed by pimps or organized crime rings. Underage prostitution would be significantly cut. Another benefit on the government side is that making prostitution legal would mean that it is a business and as such is subject to taxation and government regulation. During recent stories a girl who called herself a hofessional and said that she made half a million dollars last year doing something that she enjoyed. She said that she plans to retire at age 30 as a millionaire and then get married and have a family. Taxes on several girls with that kind of income would make quite a bit of revenue plus from all the pimps and other related businesses not to be forgotten and this money can easily go to helping the economy. Verbal Citation: (journal Article) by Patrick Hatcher published, by The Liberator in 2010 C. Lastly after speaking with the two former prostitutes who shall remain unnamed they brought to my attention that legalizing prostitution it would provide a healthier living place. This is why; the health of the girls would be monitored weekly if it was legalized. There are about 30 legal brothels operating in Nevada at the moment, and the girls and guys in them are all checked for Sexually Transmitted Diseases and many other things such as cervical cancer, uterine cancer, and breast cancer several times a month. If the girls are healthy and disease free then that means the customers wont be passing around any problems to other partners. With all the disease and other medical problems being brought in by all these illegal immigrants, legalizing and monitoring the prostitutes would help eliminate at least one source of disease. Conclusion: While advocating for the legalization of prostitution, I have brought forth to you strong statistical facts showing that anti-prostitution laws are not cutting it, benefits that prostitution will provide, and how we can make prostitution a safe occupation. Thank you.

A Model Of Consumer Behavior Online

A Model Of Consumer Behavior Online Del Monte operates in a very competitive global food industry. In addition to manufacturing canned fruits and vegetables for human consumption, Del Monte produces pet food such as Gravy Train, 9 Lives, and Meow Mix. Therefore, using market research the company constantly looks for innovative ways to increase its competitive edge. The company also decided to implement social media. Once Del Monte made the decision to deploy social media projects, the company had to decide how best to use social media research to support its diverse product line-in this case dog food. The Solution The basic idea was first to connect and collaborate with dog lovers via social networks. Since the corporate IT department was not equipped to deal with social network research, Del Monte hired Market Tools Inc., a market research firm. With the help of Market Tools Inc., Del Monte began offering an online platform for customers to chat and comment on blog entries about different Del Monte products. Using their propriety software, Market Tools monitors millions of relevant blogs in the blogsphere as well as forums in social networks, in order to identify key ideas and issues that consumers are interested in, analyze them, and then predict consumer behavior trends. To analyze the collected data, Del Monte teamed up with Umbria (a division of J. D. Power and Associates), a pioneer in drawing market intelligence from the online community. Umbria assisted in further analysis of and in profiling the collected information. Such analysis is usually done by using computerized tools such as monitoring consumer interactions, analyzing consumers sentiments, and using social analytics methods (e.g., see Hedin, et al. 2011 and Jayanti 2010). By utilizing social media, Del Monte can conduct market research much more efficiently. The conventional approach was to use questionnaires or focus groups that were expensive and difficult to fill with qualified participants. Using social media, Del Monte can gather much of the same or more qualitative data faster and at a lower price. All that is required now is to monitor customer conversations, collect the data, and analyze the vast amount of information. The software also facilitates subgroup creation, idea generation, and panel creation. The results of the analysis help Del Monte understand its customers and consequently plan its marketing activities, communication strategies, and customer service applications. The results also help evaluate the success of marketing campaigns, how well the business processes accomplished the goals, and better justify proposed new activities. The Experiment Del Monte used the above application first to help improve its dog treat, Snausages Breakfast Bites. For guidance, Del Monte relied on its dog lovers social community. By monitoring customer blogs and by posting questions to customers to stimulate discussions, Del Monte used text analysis methods to investigate the relationship between dogs and their owners. Del Monte concluded that owners of small dogs would be the major purchasers of Snausages Breakfast Bites. The company also found differences due to the age of owners, and discovered other people-dogs relationships. Next, a small sample of the improved dog food was produced and tested in the physical market. As a result of both social media and physical research, the product design decisions were revised. Also, marketing promotions were modified. The product sells better because the dogs love it. Finally, the new approach solidified the community of dog lovers who are happy that their opinions are considered. The Results Product cycle time was reduced by more than 50 percent to only 6 months, and Del Monte was able to develop a better marketing communication strategy. Furthermore, the analysis helped the company better understand customers and their purchasing activities as well as predicting market trends and identifying and anticipating opportunities. Note: Similar research on cat food was conducted in 2012 in an online survey, by Kelton Research, using e-mail invitation and an online survey. For details see Meow Mix (2012). Sources: Compiled from Steel (2008), Greengard (2008), Hedin et al. (2011), Jayanti (2010), Meow Mix (2012), Wikivest (2012), and Market Tools (2008). What we can learnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ The opening case illustrates that market research can be useful in a competitive market by providing insights for better product development and marketing strategy. In this case, the company collected data online from its socially-oriented customers. Market Tools Inc. monitored conversations (over 50 millions of them) on blogs and discussion rooms to find the voice of the customers. The collected data were then analyzed. The results of the analysis helped Del Monte improve its dog food and devise new marketing strategies. Market research, as seen in the case, is related to consumer behavior, purchasing decision making, behavioral marketing, and advertising strategies; all these topics are addressed in this chapter. 9.1 Learning About Consumer Behavior Online Companies are operating in an increasingly competitive environment. Therefore, they please customers and influence them to buy their goods and services. Finding and retaining customers are major critical success factors for most businesses, both offline and online. One of the key elements in building effective customer relationships is an understanding of consumer shopping behavior online. A Model of Consumer Behavior Online For decades, market researchers have tried to understand consumer shopping behavior, and have summarized their findings in various models. The purpose of a consumer behavior model is to help vendors understand how a consumer makes a purchasing decision. If a firm understands the decision process, it may be able to better influence the buyers decision, for example, through advertising or special promotions. Before examining the consumer behavior models variables, lets describe who the EC consumers are. Online consumers can be divided into two types: individual consumers (who get much of the media attention) and organizational buyers, who do most of the actual shopping in cyberspace in terms of dollar volume of sales. Organizational buyers include governments, private corporations, resellers, and nonprofit organizations. Purchases by organizational buyers are generally used to add value to materials or products. Also, organizational buyers may purchase products for resale without any further modifications. We discuss organizational purchasing in detail in Chapter 5 (e-procurement) and will focus on individual consumers in this chapter. The purpose of a consumer behavior model (for individuals) is to show factors that affect consumer behavior. Exhibit 9.1 shows the basic elements of a consumer behavior model. The model is composed of two major parts: influential factors and the consumer decision process. [Insert Exhibit 9.1 here] Æ’ËÅ" Influential factors. Five dimensions are considered to affect consumer behavior. They are consumer characteristics, environmental characteristics, merchant and intermediary characteristics (which are at the top of the exhibit and are considered uncontrollable from the sellers point of view), product/service characteristics (which include market stimuli), and EC systems. The last two are mostly controlled by the sellers. Exhibit 9.1 illustrates the major variables in each influential dimension. A more detailed description is provided in Online File W9.1. Æ’ËÅ" The attitude-behavior decision process. The consumer decision process usually starts with a positive attitude and ends with the buyers decision to purchase and/or repurchase. A favorable attitude would lead to a stronger buying intention, which in turn would result in the actual buying behavior. Previous research has shown that the linkages among the previously mentioned three constructs are quite strong. For example, Ranganathan and Jha (2007) found that past online shopping experiences have the strongest associations with online purchase intention, followed by customer concerns, website quality, and computer self-efficacy. Therefore, developing a positive consumer attitude plays a central role in the final purchase decision. The Major Influential Factors These factors fall into the following categories: Personal characteristics. Personal characteristics, which are shown in the top-left portion of Exhibit 9.1, refer to demographic factors, individual preferences, and behavioral characteristics. Several websites provide information on customer buying habits online (e.g., emarketer.com, clickz.com, and comscore.com). The major demographics that such sites track are gender, age, marital status, educational level, ethnicity, occupation, and household income, which can be correlated with Internet usage and EC data. Males and females have been found to perceive information differently depending on their levels of purchase confidence and internal knowledge (Barber et al. 2009). A recent survey by Crespo and Bosque (2010) shows that shopping experience has a significant effect on consumer attitude and intention to purchase online. Psychological variables such as personality and lifestyle characteristics are also studied by marketers. These variables are briefly mentioned in several places throughout the text. The reader who is interested in the impact of lifestyle differences on online shopping may see Wang et al. (2006). Product/service factors. The second group of factors is related to the product/service itself. Whether a consumer decides to buy is affected by the nature of the product/service in the transaction. These may include the price, quality, design, brand, and other related attributes of the product. Merchant and intermediary factors. Online transactions may also be affected by the merchant that provides the product/service. This group of factors includes merchant reputation, size of transaction, trust in the merchant, and so on. For example, people feel more secure when they purchase from Amazon.com (due to its reputation) than from a no-name seller. Other factors such as marketing strategy and advertising can also play a major role. EC systems. The EC platform for online transactions (e.g., security protection, payment mechanism, and so forth) offered by the merchant may also have effects. EC design factors can be divided into motivational and hygiene factors. Motivational factors were found to be more important than hygiene factors in attracting online customers (Liang and Lai 2002). Perceived usability is highly related to user preference for commercial websites (Lee and Koubek 2010). Motivational factors. Motivational factors are the functions available on the website to provide direct support in the transactional process (e.g., search engine, shopping carts, multiple payment methods). Hygiene factors. Hygiene factors are functions available on the website whose main purpose is to prevent possible trouble in the process (e.g., security and product status tracking). Environmental factors. The environment in which a transaction occurs may affect a consumers purchase decision. As shown in Exhibit 8.1, environmental variables can be grouped into the following categories: Social variables. People are influenced by family members, friends, coworkers, and whats in fashion this year. Therefore, social variables (such as customer endorsement, word-of-mouth) play an important role in EC. Of special importance in EC are Internet communities (see Chapter 7) and discussion groups, in which people communicate via chat rooms, electronic bulletin boards, twitting, and newsgroups. These topics are discussed in various places in the text. Cultural/community variables. It makes a big difference in what people buy if a consumer lives near Silicon Valley in California or in the mountains in Nepal. Chinese shoppers may differ from French shoppers, and rural shoppers may differ from urban ones. Other environmental variables. These include aspects such as available information, government regulations, legal constraints, and situational factors. [Comp: please shade the bullet list] Section 9.1 Ã… ¸ Review Questions 1. Describe the major components and structure of the consumer online purchasing behavior model. 2. List some major personal characteristics that influence consumer behavior. 3. List the major environmental variables of the purchasing environment. 4. List and describe five major merchant-related variables. 5. Describe the relationships among attitude, intention, and actual behavior in the behavior process model. 9.2 The Consumer Purchasing Decision-Making Process Consumer behavior is a major element in the process of consumers decisions to purchase or repurchase. A Generic Purchasing-Decision Model From the consumers perspective, a general purchasing-decision model consists of five major phases (Hawkins and Mothersbaugh 2010). In each phase, we can distinguish several activities and, in some, one or more decisions. The five phases are (1) need identification, (2) information search, (3) evaluation of alternatives, (4) purchase and delivery, and (5) postpurchase activities. Although these phases offer a general guide to the consumer decision-making process, one should not assume that every consumers decision-making process will necessarily proceed in this order. In fact, some consumers may proceed to a specific phase and then revert to a previous phase, or they may skip a phase altogether. The phases are discussed in more details next. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Need identification. The first phase occurs when a consumer is faced with an imbalance between the actual and the desired states of a need. A marketers goal is to get the consumer to recognize such imbalance and then convince the consumer that the product or service the seller offers will fill this gap. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Information search. After identifying the need, the consumer searches for information on the various alternatives available to satisfy the need. Here, we differentiate between two decisions: what product to buy (product brokering) and from whom to buy it (merchant brokering). These two decisions can be separate or combined. In the consumers search for information, catalogs, advertising, promotions, and reference groups could influence decision making. During this phase, online product search and comparison engines, see examples at shopping.com, buyersindex.com, and mysimon.com, can be very helpful. (See decision aids in Chapter 3.) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Evaluation of Alternatives. The consumers information search will eventually generate a smaller set of preferred alternatives. From this set, the would-be buyer will further evaluate the alternatives and, if possible, negotiate terms. In this phase, a consumer will use the collected information to develop a set of criteria. These criteria will help the consumer evaluate and compare alternatives. For online consumers, the activities may include evaluation of product prices and features. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Purchase and delivery. After evaluating the alternatives, the consumer will make the purchasing decision, arrange payment and delivery, purchase warranties, and so on. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Postpurchase activities. The final phase is a postpurchase phase, which consists of customer service and evaluation of the usefulness of the product. Customer services and consumer satisfaction will result in positive experience and word-of-mouth (e.g., This product is really great! or We really received good service when we had problems.). If the customer is satisfied with the product and services, loyalty will increase and repeat purchases will occur afterward. [Comp: please shade the bullet list] Several other purchasing-decision models have been proposed. A classic (1925) model for describing consumer message processing is the Attention-Interest-Desire-Action (AIDA) model at Wikipedia (see AIDA at Wikipedia). It argues that consumer processing of an advertising message (part of the information search phase) includes the following four stages: 1. A-Attention (Awareness). The first step is to get the customers attention. 2. I-Interest. By demonstrating features, advantages, and benefits, the customer becomes interested in the product. 3. D-Desire. Convice the customers that they want the product or service and that it will suit their needs. 4. A-Action. Finally, the consumer will take action toward purchasing. Now, some researchers also add another letter to form AIDA(S), where: 5. S-Satisfaction. Customer satisfaction will generate higher loyalty and lead to repurchase after using a product/service. (Loyalty, satisfaction, and trust are discussed in Online File W9.2.) A recent version of AIDA is the AISAS model proposed by the Dentsu Group that is tailored to online behavior. The model replaces decision with search and adds share to show the increased word-of-mouth effect on the Internet. It indicates that consumers go through a process of Attention-Interest-Search-Action-Share in their online decision process. This model is particularly suitable for social commerce. Customer Decision Support in Web Purchasing The preceding generic purchasing-decision model was widely used in research on consumer-based EC. In the Web-based environment, decision support is available in each phase. The framework that is illustrated in Online File W9.3 shows that each of the phases of the purchasing model, which were described earlier, can be supported by both a consumer decision support system (CDSS) that facilitates the process and Internet and Web-aiding facilities. The CDSS facilities support the specific decisions in the process. Generic EC technologies and analytics provide the necessary mechanisms as well as enhanced communication and collaboration tools. Specific implementation of this framework and explanations of some of the terms are provided throughout this chapter and the entire text. The planner of B2C marketing needs to consider the Web purchasing models in order to better influence the customers decision-making process (e.g., by effective one-to-one advertising and marketing). [Insert Exhibit 9.2 here] Online File W9.1 shows a model for a website that supports buyer searching and decision making. This model revises the generic model by describing a purchasing framework. The model is divided into three parts. The first includes three stages of buyer behavior (see top of exhibit): identify and manage buying criteria, search for products and merchants, and compare alternatives. Below these activities are boxes with decision support options that support the three top boxes (such as product representation).. The second part of the model (on the right) has a box that includes price, financial terms, shipping and warranty negotiations. These become relevant when alternatives are compared. The third part at the bottom of the exhibit, major concerns are cited. Players in the Consumer Decision Process Several different people may play roles in various phases of the consumer decision process. The following are five major roles: 1. Initiator. The person who first suggests or thinks of the idea of buying a particular product or service. 2. Influencer. A person whose advice or view carries some weight in making a final purchasing decision. 3. Decider. The person who ultimately makes a buying decision or any part of it-whether to buy, what to buy, how to buy, or where to buy. 4. Buyer. The person who makes an actual purchase. 5. User. The person who consumes or uses a product or service. [Comp: please shade the number list] A single person may play all the roles if the product or service is for personal use. In this case, the marketer needs to understand and target such individuals. In many situations, however, different people may play different roles. For example, a newly graduated engineer proposed to buy a car for his mother, which was followed by suggestions from his father and friends. Finally, he followed his fathers suggestion to buy the car. When more than one individual comes into play, it becomes more difficult to properly target advertising and marketing. Different marketing efforts may be designed to target people who are playing different roles. Section 9.2 Ã… ¸ Review Questions 1. List the five phases of the generic purchasing-decision model. 2. Use an example to explain the five phases in the generic purchasing-decision model. 3. Describe the supporting functions available in Web-based purchasing. 4. Describe AIDA and AISAS models and analyze their differences in illustrating an online purchasing behavior. 5. Describe the major players in a purchasing decision. 9.3 LOYALTY, SATISFACTION, AND TRUST IN E-COMMERCE Good online marketing activity can generate positive effects, which are generally observed as trust, customer satisfaction, and loyalty. Loyalty is the goal of marketing, while trust and customer satisfaction are factors that may affect customer loyalty. CUSTOMER LOYALTY One of the major objectives of marketing is to increase customer loyalty (recall the Netflix case). Customer loyalty refers to a deep commitment to repurchase or repatronize a preferred product/service continually in the future, thereby causing repetitive same-brand or same brand-set purchasing, despite situational influences and marketing efforts that have the potential to cause switching behavior. Customer acquisition and retention is a critical success factor in e-tailing. The expense of acquiring a new customer can be more than $100; even for Amazon.com, which has a huge reach, it is more than $15. In contrast, the cost of maintaining an existing customer at Amazon.com is $2 to $4. Attracting and retaining loyal customers remains the most important issue for any selling company, including e-tailers. Increased customer loyalty can result in cost savings to a company in various ways: lower marketing and advertising costs, lower transaction costs, lower customer turnover expenses, lower failure costs such as warranty claims, and so on. Customer loyalty also strengthens a companys market position because loyal customers are kept away from the competition. In addition, customer loyalty can lead to high resistance to competitors, a decrease in price sensitivity, and an increase in favorable word of mouth. Loyalty programs were introduced more than 100 years ago and are widely used among airlines, retailers, hotel chains, banks, casinos, car rentals, restaurants, and credit card companies. But now, loyalty programs have been computerized and expanded to all kinds of businesses. For example, Octopus Hong Kong (octopuscards.com), a stored-value card operator, launched a reward program for consumers aimed at increasing card usage across Hong Kong. Reward points are gained by purchasing at a number of leading merchants across the territory, including Wellcome, Watsons, UA Cinemas, and McDonalds. Each Octopus card can store up to 1,000 rewards points, which can be redeemed on the next purchase. FANCL, see the company atfancl.com, a Japanese cosmetics and health-care company, offers the FANCL point program where consumers earn FANCL points that are saved for gift redemption. However, the introduction of Internet technologies and social networking has the potential to undermine brands and discourage customer loyalty. The customers ability to shop, compare, get quick advice from friends, and switch to different vendors becomes easier, faster, and less expensive, given the aid of search engines and other technologies. Furthermore, customers are less loyal to the brand because of the lower switching costs for them to take advantage of special online offers and promotions, as well as to try new things. It is interesting to note that companies have found that loyal customers end up buying more when they have an optional website from which to shop. For example, W.W. Grainger, a large industrial-supply company, found that loyal B2B customers increased their purchases substantially when they began using Graingers website (grainger.com). (See Chapter 4 for more information.) Also, loyal customers may refer other customers to a site, especially with word of mouth in social networks. Therefore, it is important for EC companies to increase customer loyalty. The Web offers ample opportunities to do so. E-Loyalty E-loyalty refers to a customers loyalty to an e-tailer or a manufacturer that sells directly online, or to loyalty programs delivered online or supported electronically. Companies can foster e-loyalty by learning about their customers needs, interacting with customers, and providing superb customer service. Another source of information is colloquy.com, which concentrates on loyalty marketing. In an online environment, merchant ratings can be the source of interpersonal communication and are obtained from other consumers, not just friends and family. It is interesting to note that positive customer reviews have considerable impact on repurchase intention. It is not the total number of reviews that influences customer repurchase intention, but the percentage of positive reviews. This increases e-loyalty. (For reviews and recommendations in social networks, see Chapter 7.) Also, online ratings and word of mouth may undermine the effects of competitors low prices. For example, Amazon.com has higher prices than Half.com, but Amazon.com is still preferred by many customers. The difference is that Amazon.com has customer reviews and other personalization services, and Half.com does not. Many factors may affect customer loyalty and e-loyalty. A typical model is to check the relationship quality between retailers and their customers, which often is composed of trust, satisfaction, and commitment. Satisfaction and trust are particularly important because they will lead to commitment. For example, a recent study by Cyr (2008) found that e-loyalty is affected by trust and satisfaction across different cultures. Hence, we shall further discuss these two factors. SATISFACTION IN EC Satisfaction is one of the most important success measures in the B2C online environment. Customer satisfaction is associated with several key outcomes (e.g., repeat purchase, positive word of mouth, and so on) and it can lead to higher customer loyalty. A survey indicates that 80 percent of highly satisfied online consumers would shop again within two months, and 90 percent would recommend Internet retailers to others. However, 87 percent of dissatisfied consumers would permanently leave their Internet retailers without any complaints (Cheung and Lee 2005). Satisfaction has received considerable attention in studies of consumer-based EC. For example, ForeSee Results, an online customer satisfaction measurement company, developed the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) (theasci.org) for measuring customer satisfaction with EC. The Customer Respect Group (customerrespect.com) also provides an index to measure customers online experiences. The Customer Respect Index (CRI) includes the following components: simplicity, responsiveness, transparency, principles, attitude, and privacy. Researchers have proposed several models to explain the formation of satisfaction with online shopping. For example, Cheung and Lee (2005) proposed a framework for consumer satisfaction with Internet shopping by correlating the end-user satisfaction perspective with the service quality viewpoint. The framework is shown in Exhibit 9.3. The ability to predict consumer satisfaction can be useful in designing websites as well as advertising and marketing strategies. However, website designers should also pay attention to the nature of website features including navigational, visual, and information design (Cyr 2008). Different features have different impacts on customer (dis)satisfaction. If certain website features, such as reliability of content, loading speed, and usefulness fail to perform properly, customer satisfaction will drop dramatically. In contrast, if features such as those make the usage enjoyable, entertaining, and useful, they could result in a significant jump in customer satisfaction. [Insert Exhibit 9.3 here] Factors that Affect Consumer Satisfaction with Internet Shopping TRUST IN EC Trust is the psychological status of depending on another person or organization to achieve a planned goal. When people trust each other, they have confidence that their transaction partners will keep their promises. However, both parties in a transaction assume some risk. In the electronic marketplace, sellers and buyers do not meet face to face. The buyer can see a picture of the product but not the product itself. Promises of quality and delivery time can be easily made-but will they be kept? To deal with these issues, EC vendors need to establish high levels of trust with current and potential customers. Trust is particularly important in global EC transactions due to the difficulty of taking legal action in cases of a dispute or fraud and the potential for conflicts caused by differences in culture and business environments. In addition to sellers and buyers trusting each other, both must have trust in the EC computing environment and in the EC infrastructure. For example, if people do not trust the security of the EC infrastructure, they will not feel comfortable about using credit cards to make EC purchases. EC Trust Models Trust in e-commerce is often called online trust. Several models have been put forth to explain the factors that may affect online trust. For example, Lee and Turban (2001) examined the various aspects of EC trust and developed the model shown in Online File W9.2. According to this model, the level of trust is determined by numerous variables (factors) shown on the left side and in the middle of the exhibit. The exhibit illustrates the complexity of trust relationships, especially in B2C EC. [Enter Exhibit 9.4 here] EC Trust Model A newer model expands previous ones to include internal and external factors. Internal factors are directly related to online services provided by the vendor, and external factors are those that have indirect relationships (Salo and Karjaluoto 2007). How to Increase Trust in EC Consumer trust is fundamental to successful online retailing; it is considered the currency of the Internet. The following are representative strategies for building consumer trust in EC. Improve Your Website. The most important factor that affects online trust is the quality of the website. Cyr (2008) found that the navigational, visual, and information design of a website affect consumer trust. Gregg and Walczak (2010) reported a positive relationship between website quality and trust. Higher perceived website quality induces higher trust and price premium based on a survey of 701 eBay users. Therefore, how to design the EC website that delivers high-quality information and navigational experience

Quantization effects in digital filters

Quantization effects in digital filters ABSTRACT: Quantization effects in digital filters can be divided into four main categories: quantization of system coefficients, errors due to A-D conversion, errors due to roundoffs in the arithmetic, and a constraint on signal level due to the requirement that overflow must be prevented in the comparison. The effects of quantization on implementations of two basic algorithms of digital filtering-the first-or second-order linear recursive difference equation, and the fast Fourier transform (FFT) are studied in some detail. For these algorithms, the differing quantization effects of fixed point, floating point, and block floating point arithmetic are examined and compared. The ideas developed in the study of simple recursive filters and the FFT are applied to analyze the effects of coefficient quantization, roundoff noise, and the overflow constraint in two more complicated types of digital filters frequency sampling and FFT filters. Realizations of the same filter design, by means of the frequency sampling and FFT methods, are compared on the basis of differing quantization effects. All the noise analyses in the report are based on simple statistical models for roundoff and A-D conversion errors. Experimental noise measurements testing the predictions of these models are reported, and the empirical results are generally in good agreement with the statistical predictions INTRODUCTION: Digital filters are widely used in modern signal-transmission systems. The first-order filters are used for extracting lower-frequency or upper-frequency signals. Quantization errors due to the finite number of binary digits in the representation of numbers are typical of digital filters. Quantization is a representation of data samples with a certain number of bits per sample after rounding to a suitable level of precision. Quantization errors in a Digital Signal Processing (DSP) system can be introduced from three sources; one source is input quantization, a second is coefficient quantization and the third is the finite precision in the arithmetic operations. The quantization error in the arithmetic operations can be controlled by carefully selecting the size of buffer registers according to the input word length. Quantization errors from input and filter samples are considered in this article. The effects of quantization errors and the tradeoffs required between precision and hardware resources are discussed in relation to the implementation of the DSP in Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). This article is divided into three main sections; quantization effects for upconversion, quantization noise due to rounding off arithmetic and quantization effects for digital beamforming (DBF). Fixed length samples cause reduction in the filter dynamic range and gain resolution. Quantization In digital signal processing, quantization is the process of approximating (mapping) a continuous range of values (or a very large set of possible discrete values) by a relatively small (finite) set of (values which can still take on continuous range) discrete symbols or integer values. For example, rounding a real number in the interval [0,100] to an integer 0,1,2,100. In other words, quantization can be described as a mapping that represents a finite continuous interval I = [a,b] of the range of a continuous valued signal, with a single number c, which is also on that interval. For example, rounding to the nearest integer (rounding  ½ up) replaces the interval [c .5,c + .5) with the number c, for integer c. After that quantization we produce a finite set of values which can be encoded by say binary techniques. A. QUANTIZATION EFFECTS ON UPCONVERSION: In multirate systems, upconvcersion can be achieved with oversampling and filtering techniques. For the proposed digital TIGER system, input Gaussian pulses are upsampled to produce higher order Nyquist zones. A high pass FIR filter is employed to acquire a spectral zone at the expanded band edge. In this case, higher efficiency is possible by exploiting filter symmetry. For a higher throughput rate, polyphase implementation of the FIR filters can be employed. Since signal amplification is performed in the analog domain, a high speed 14 bit DAC is used for digital to analog conversion. Finite precision causes similar effects in the input data samples and filter coefficients. Fixed word length effects on filter coefficients, filter length and dynamic range are described in the following sections. 1. Sensitivity of Filter Coefficients to Quantization Finite precision plays a significant role in the dynamic range of filter gain and DC offset. A large number of quantization levels will decrease the quantization error; on the other hand it requires larger silicon space to implement the design. The quantization affects the input Gaussian pulse and the filter coefficients. The pole and zero maps show perturbations in Figure 1 when samples are restricted to finite word length. The filter coefficients in the lower parts are constrained to 14 bit quantized samples and the length of the filter is 100 taps. This constraint arises from the fast DAC of 14 bit width used for converting a digital signal into the analog domain. Since the dynamic range of the quantizer is less than that of the filter coefficients, the quantized coefficients are disturbed from the unit circle. The gain of the quantized filter response is displayed in Figure 1 which is distinctly less than that for the infinite precision filter. For these simulations infinite prec ision representation is regarded as floating point, which provides significantly better precision than the quantization levels discussed here. The zeros around Z = -1 are responsible for passband attenuation and are less displaced. As the dynamic range of the quantizer is increased to match the filter coefficients, the signal to quantization noise ratio (SNR) improves, but at the cost of increased hardware resources. Similar results can be obtained for the input Gaussian pulse when quantized to specified fourteen bit word lengths. Finite precision is hardware efficient since the system data width is less than the infinite precision (or floating point) case. Quantization reduces a few out of 100 coefficients to zero, which will further ameliorate the memory cell and arithmetic processing requirement. Quantization also reduces the filter gain compared to infinite precision samples; however this reduction is acceptable as long as it remains within an attenuation limit. The fourteen bit quantizer provides more than 80dB attenuation which is better than the standard of 60dB used by many communication systems. 2. Quantization Effects on Filter Order For direct conversion transmission, a cascaded design performs better than a single stage. This is because quantization errors are reduced with a lower filter order. Secondly a lower order design requires less logic resources. Quantization errors vary with the length of a filter and we now study the effects of the filter order on the quantization error. A simulated result is shown in Figure 2, where quantization error is plotted against variable filter order. The quantization is performed by rounding the infinite precision samples to the closest fixed point value. The quantization error increases with increased filter order, since the highest power index in the filter polynomial is the most affected by the rounding. When the quantizer is increased with one more bit in the precision, the error is reduced by approximately 6dB as would be expected. The lower order filter provides better dynamic range than the higher order for eight and nine bit quantizers. This fact is also evident in Figure 2. At lower filter order of fifty, accumulative quantization error is around -43dB and at higher order of 200, it is -31dB. The 12dB difference is equivalent to two additional bits in quantization. Non-linear effects of the quantization can be reduced using a smaller filter order in the modulator. Since the cascaded design comprises a filter of lower order, compared with the single model, it introduces less quantization error than the single stage. 3. Quantization and Word length The dynamic range of the scaled filter depends on the number of bits assigned to the quantizer. For maximum signal power, the quantizer range should be equal to the signal magnitude. An FIR filter with filter variance 2 f s and quantization noise variance 2 n s has a signal to noise ratio of This expression can be used to estimate the appropriate word length for the FPGA implementation. A comparison of SNR versus word precision using the above expression has been calculated and is shown in Figure 3. From this graph it is evident that for each bit added to the word length, there is approximately a six decibel improvement in the SNR. For a higher precision level, a system can still be implemented, but at the cost of increased FPGA logic resources. B. QUANTIZATION NOISE DUE TO ROUNDING OF ARITHMETIC: In the poly phase filter, like in any other filter, quantization has to be performed on the result of any arithmetic operation. This is because any such operation requires more bits to represent the result than is required for each of the operands. If the Word length were always to be adjusted to store the data in full precision, this would be impractical, as there would soon be too many bits required to be stored in the available memory. Therefore, the word length of the internal data, has to be chosen, and the result of any arithmetic operation has to be constrained back to using the quantization scheme chosen from the ones shown in the previous section, as appropriate for the given application. The quantization operation may cause a disturbance to the result of the arithmetic operation. For normal filtering operations, such a quantization disturbance can usually be successfully considered as white noise and modeled as an additive noise source at the point of the arithmetic operation with the quantization step equal to the LSB of the internal data, . This certainly is not the case for zero-valued or constant input signals. However, modeling the quantization has-in most cases-the purpose of determining the maximum noise disturbance in the system. Hence, even if the additive quantization noise model gives overestimated values of the noise for very specific signals, this fact does not decrease the usefulness of the approach. After the shape of the quantization noise power spectral density (NPSD) is found, it can be used to identify regions that might cause overloading or loss of precision due to arithmetic noise shaping; also the required input signal scaling and the required internal arithmetic word length can be estimated for a given noise performance. The standard methods of estimating the maximum signal level at a given node are L1-norm (modulus of the impulse response-worst-case scenario), L2-norm (statistical mean-square), and L -norm (peak in frequency domain giving the effect of the input spectral shaping). These norms can be easily estimated for the given node from the shape of the NPSD. The quantization noise injected at each adder and multiplier, originally spectrally flat, is shaped by the noise shaping function (NSF), , calculated from the output of the filter to the input of each of the noise sources, i.e., to the output of each of the arithmetic operators. These functions were calculated for all of the all pass filter structures are shown in Fig. 2. The shapes of the nontrivial of the NFS are shown in Fig. 3. The accumulated quantization NPSD transferred to the output, , is obtained by shaping the uniform NPSD from each of the quantization noise sources by the square of the magnitude of the NFS corresponding to the given noise injection point and can be described by The results show that all structures perform in a way very distinct from the other ones. Structure (a)has the best performance at dc, half-Nyquist , and Nyquist , where the NPSD falls toward minus infinity. Its two maxima are symmetric about and independent of the coefficient value. The peaks are distant from for small coefficient values and approaches it as the coefficient increases. Structure (b) has uniform noise spectral distribution as all the arithmetic operations are either at the filter input-then noise is shaped by the allpass characteristic of the whole filter-or at its output. Structure (d) also has a minimum at v=0.25 . Its average noise power level decreases as the value of the all pass coefficient increases. Structure (c), the best from the point of view of the required guard bits, has its maximum at v=0.25 going toward infinity for coefficient values approaching one. This effect is a result of the denominator of the Nth-order all pass filter causing the poles of the filter to move toward the unit circle at normalized frequencies of v=2pik/N,k=0.N-1 for the coefficient approaching one. If there is no counter effect of the numerator, like for the case of P1(Z) for structure (c) and for structure (a), then the function goes to infinity. Even though structure (c) goes to infinity at v=0.25 for alfa=1, it has the lowest average noise power from all the structures. This structure has a big advantage in terms of the number of required guard bits and ease of cascading a number of them into higher order all pass filters. If the filter coefficients appro ach one, then the increase in quantization noise power could be countered with few additional bits. Using other structures would only replace the problem of dealing with an increase in the quantization noise with the problem of having to increase the number of guard bits required to deal with an increase of the peak gains. The NPSD of the quantization noise at the output of the poly phase structure can be calculated as the sum of the NPSD at the output of all all pass filters in the filter scaled by the 1/N factor N, being the number of paths. If the filter is cascaded with another filter, the NPSD of the first one will also be shaped by the square of the magnitude of the second filter. sources. The intention was to check the correctness of the theoretical equations by applying the white noise sources instead of quantization and by performing the quantization after addition and multiplication (rounding and truncating) to verify the shaping of the quantization noise and its level both for white input noise sources and real-life signals. The shape of the output quantization noise accumulated from all arithmetic elements for a wide-band input signal assuming, for simplicity, no correlation between the noise sources, is shown for all considered all pass structures in Fig. 4. The solid curve indicates the theoretical NSF that is very well matching the median of the quantization noise (curves lying on top of each other). The quantization noise power increase calculated for the given coefficient was 8.5 dB for structure (a), 6 dB for structure (c), 7.3 dB for structure (d), and 9 dB for structure (b). It is clear that the quantization noise differs from the assumed white n oise characteristic. However, the approximation still holds with an accuracy of around 5-10% depending on the structure of the input signal. An example of more accurate modeling of the quantization noise caused by arithmetic operations can be found in (a). The arithmetic quantization noise certainly decreases the accuracy of the filter output. The value of the arithmetic word length has to be chosen such that the quantization noise power is smaller than the stop band attenuation of the filter and the stop band ripples. In certain cases, the design requirements have to be made more stringent to allow some unavoidable distortion due to the arithmetic word length effects. For the case of decimation filters for the based A/D converters, the quantization noise adds to the one originating from the modulator. In such a case, each stage of the decimator has to be designed so that it filters out this noise as well. The verification of the peak gain analysis was performed by applying single-tone signals at the characteristic frequencies- where functions from Fig. 2 have their extremes-and by using wideband signals to make sure that the estimates are accurate. The experimental results confirmed the theoretical calculations. The results of the simulation for the white noise input signal of unity power are given in Fig. 8. The simulation was performed for a white noise input signal of unity power in order to have a uniform gain analysis across the whole range of frequencies. The theoretical shape of the gain is shown by a solid line that is very closely matching the median value of the signal at the test points. C. QUANTIZATION EFFECTS ON DIGITAL BEAMFORMING: The quantization of infinite precision samples into fixed word length degrades the phased signals. As was discussed in the previous section, the use of more levels for higher precision decreases the quantization error at the expense of larger hardware resources. For a reduced precision level, quantization error is spread to the main beams and to the grating lobes as well. In this section we present effects of quantization on beam resolution and associated grating lobes. 1. Quantization effects on Beam Pattern Phased signals have similar quantized effects on main beam resolution as the filter samples. However non-linearity arises in the sidelobes since the quantizer is not of adequate resolution to represent small changes that affect the sidelobe levels. In order to investigate the quantization effects, an example is presented with fixed word length delay samples. The coefficients of the time vector are quantized into four and ten bits; the increased number of bits will reduce the quantization effect. For an actual design the fixed bit width will depend on available hardware resources. The quantized beam in Figure 1 shows that a four bit fixed number does not adequately represent the beam pattern and thus introduces quantization noise. The ten bit numbers will also introduce quantization error, but at a lower level as shown in Figure 1(b). As can be seen from this simple example, the four bit quantization compromises the sidelobes at the 20dB level, while the ten bit quantization provides a reasonably faithful reconstruction of the theoretical sidelobes at this level. Therefore we conclude that for the 14 bit DAC of the proposed system, the sidelobe level will be essentially unaffected by the quantization at the -20dB level. 2. Sensitivity of Sidelobe Levels to Quantization Quantization causes gain errors in sidelobe levels. Higher resolution in quantization introduces lower quantization error. The graph in Figure 1 shows that the four bit samples result in a quantization error which reduces the first sidelobe gain while producing a gain error in the second sidelobe. The quantization error changes the dynamic range of the grating lobes and degrades the adjacent beam resolution for multiple beam systems. A simulated graph is displayed in Figure 2 to demonstrate non-linear behavior of the quantizer in the sidelobe resolution. For a lower order quantizer, the quantization step is not perfectly matched with the sidelobe levels. For the first sidelobe, the quantized resolution is less than the infinite precision case, although it approaches the floating point value with increasing quantized levels. Figure 2(a) shows that for a three bit quantizer, the first sidelobe resolution is at -18dB, while at ten bits it approaches the infinite precision value of -13.5dB. Unlike the first sidelobe, the second sidelobe exhibits higher resolution error at a lower precision level, since the quantizer can not represent the dynamic range adequately. Again, quantization error reduces with an increase in the number of bits. CONCLUSION: In this paper, effect of fixed word lengths on signal upconversion, quantization noise due to round of arithmetic and quantization effects on digital beam forming have been discussed. For the digital up conversion process, the quantization error can be described using pole/zero filter and frequency response plots. Filter resolution and stop band attenuation are degraded when quantization is introduced. For an increase in filter order, the quantization error increases as the highest order in filter polynomial is effected the most. To overcome this limitation, the number of precision levels of a quantizer can be increased, however this will require increased logic resources for FPGA implementation. Quantization effects in phasing are more complex than in the filter quantization since finite precision degrades the side lobe resolution. For lower precision levels, the quantization error exhibits non-linear behavior in the second side lobe. The quantization error is higher for lower precision levels. In order to overcome these non-linear effects, a precision level of more than eight bits is required. Performance of the proposed digital system will be effectively unaffected by the fixed word length limitations since a system data bus of at least 14 bits is suggested. REFERENCES: A. B. Sripad and D. L. Snyder, A Necessary and Sufficient Condition for Quantization Errors to be Uniform and White P. P. Vaidyanathan, On coefficient-quantization and computational roundoff effects in lossless multirate filter banks. 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Miles Franklins My Brilliant Career Essay -- Franklin My Brilliant Ca

Miles Franklin's My Brilliant Career Topic: Give a detailed analysis of a key scene or passage from "My Brilliant Career" by Miles Franklin. The focus and essence of My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin is centred on the relationships and interactions of Sybylla Melvyn (the key character of the novel), towards other characters. The ways in which she reacts to different people and why she reacts in a particular manner, are perhaps more crucial and intriguing to the reader, than any distinct event throughout the novel.   Sybylla's logic and thinking about herself, others and life, have been moulded by her very influential relationships with her mother and father.   Her view on life and the roles of men and women has also been influenced by literature she has read.   Moreover, her affinity with her parents in childhood and as a young woman has plainly made its mark on her further relationships, especially with men. The most prominent male relationship Sybylla encounters is with her lover, Harold Beecham.   Sybylla's relationship with Harold as described in Chapter 20 illustrates the influences of her parents and literature.   In   Chapter 20, Sybylla hits Harold across the face with a riding whip, when he tries to kiss her.   Yet Harold Beecham appears to be the perfect figure and the perfect man and indeed, Sybylla loves him, although she does not like to admit this.   For example, her "train of thought was interrupted by our host, who appeared in the doorway, clad from sole to neck in white" (Franklin 137).   He is her knight in shining amour, but even so she strikes him.   To Sybylla, Harold always appears somewhat 'forbidden'.   Perhaps subconsciously, he is the materialised embodiment of her father, Richard Melvyn.   In her e... ...y saying "Is this not rather sudden?   You have given me no intimation of your intentions" (Franklin 140).   Perhaps still disturbed by his manner, this is partly the reason why she hits Harold afterwards. Sybylla Melvyn is simply a confused adolescent, with all the problems and feelings of a young woman growing up.   She has a large amount of emotional turmoil in her mind and is doing what she can to adjust to her ever changing environment.   Sybylla is paranoid and neurotic and her values, beliefs and ideals have been easily influenced by her childhood relationship with her parents.   As a consequence, her actions reflect these influences, which are deeply etched in her mind.   By examining her relationship with Harold Beecham we are able to understand that her attitude towards his affections are a result of both her parents influence and her reading material.  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  

Neo Nazis :: essays research papers fc

â€Å"Two Neo-Nazis have been convicted of murdering Black teenager Benjamin Hermansen. A third defendant has been convicted of being an accessory to the attack. The killing of 15-year-old Benjamin Hermansen while he was meeting a friend near his home in Oslo sparked outrage. Tens of thousands of Norwegians took to the streets a few days after the death to protest against racism and violence. Oslo City Court convicted Joe Erling Jahr, 20, and Ole Nicolai (Kvisler), 22, both linked to the Boot Boys neo-Nazi group, of murder. Jahr was sentenced to 16 years in prison and (Nicolai) Kvisler 15 years. Veronica Andreassen, 18, was convicted as an accessory to the assault and jailed for three years. The court said the murder was planned, racially motivated and committed by members of a Neo-Nazi group partly to spread fear. It also found that Jahr and (Nicolai) Kvisler had each stabbed Hermansen with different knives. "Benjamin Hermansen would not have been attacked if his skin had been the same colour as the defendants," the court's ruling said. The court said Jahr and (Nicolai) Kvisler had gone out that night with the intention of "getting a foreigner" and had brought knives. It said that while Andreassen did not participate in the attack, she went with them despite knowing they planned violence. Hermansen, who was active in his school and sports, was born and raised in Norway. He also had spoken out against racism on national television a few months before his death after he was assaulted by neo-Nazi youths during a soccer tournament in Denmark. â€Å" (fare.net) That was a news article I found on a Norwegian anti-racist website. It happened only a few days ago on January 21st in Norway. This shows the prevalence of racism still going on today. The group responsible for the murder belonged to an organization that calls themselves the Neo-Nazis. One of the questions I’ve always asked in my history classes, is â€Å"Why do we need to know about all this stuff that happened so long ago?† Last year, my history teacher, Mr. Slater, gave me an answer. He said we need to learn about history, or we will be doomed to repeat our past mistakes. With that said, I’ll talk about how Nazism started. In the beginning, there was Adolf Hitler. He lived a somewhat uninteresting life as a child. His father was a customs official at the border separating Austria and Germany. Neo Nazis :: essays research papers fc â€Å"Two Neo-Nazis have been convicted of murdering Black teenager Benjamin Hermansen. A third defendant has been convicted of being an accessory to the attack. The killing of 15-year-old Benjamin Hermansen while he was meeting a friend near his home in Oslo sparked outrage. Tens of thousands of Norwegians took to the streets a few days after the death to protest against racism and violence. Oslo City Court convicted Joe Erling Jahr, 20, and Ole Nicolai (Kvisler), 22, both linked to the Boot Boys neo-Nazi group, of murder. Jahr was sentenced to 16 years in prison and (Nicolai) Kvisler 15 years. Veronica Andreassen, 18, was convicted as an accessory to the assault and jailed for three years. The court said the murder was planned, racially motivated and committed by members of a Neo-Nazi group partly to spread fear. It also found that Jahr and (Nicolai) Kvisler had each stabbed Hermansen with different knives. "Benjamin Hermansen would not have been attacked if his skin had been the same colour as the defendants," the court's ruling said. The court said Jahr and (Nicolai) Kvisler had gone out that night with the intention of "getting a foreigner" and had brought knives. It said that while Andreassen did not participate in the attack, she went with them despite knowing they planned violence. Hermansen, who was active in his school and sports, was born and raised in Norway. He also had spoken out against racism on national television a few months before his death after he was assaulted by neo-Nazi youths during a soccer tournament in Denmark. â€Å" (fare.net) That was a news article I found on a Norwegian anti-racist website. It happened only a few days ago on January 21st in Norway. This shows the prevalence of racism still going on today. The group responsible for the murder belonged to an organization that calls themselves the Neo-Nazis. One of the questions I’ve always asked in my history classes, is â€Å"Why do we need to know about all this stuff that happened so long ago?† Last year, my history teacher, Mr. Slater, gave me an answer. He said we need to learn about history, or we will be doomed to repeat our past mistakes. With that said, I’ll talk about how Nazism started. In the beginning, there was Adolf Hitler. He lived a somewhat uninteresting life as a child. His father was a customs official at the border separating Austria and Germany.

A Day In The Life Of A Gnome :: essays research papers

A Day in the Life of a Gnome Once upon a time there was a gnome named Knob, who lived the far off land of Gnomania. Gnomania is a huge underground lair with only one entrance. The only entrance to this lair is by swimming down to the bottom of the ocean floor and knocking on a large clam. On the other side of this clam is an old grouchy gnome named Stubby whose only job was to keep the clam clean, and listen for the knock of incoming visitors. To assist Stubby in guarding the clam, he had a pet snark. A snark is an animal or pet that can be used as a watchdog. One day Knob went to visit his grandmother in the land of Gnollie which is about a guzillion centimeters away from Gnomania. On his way to his grandmother's house he ran across a garden. Upon stumbling on the garden, he decided to be thoughtful and pick some tulips for his grandmother. Tulips were her favorite snack. While approaching his grandmother's house, he found something to be very strange. His grandmother was hovering on an hummingbird, while picking apples from her tall twenty-foot appletree. After contemplating on this strange doing, he decided not to let it bother him. After seeing Knob approach her house, Knob's grandmother whistled for the hummingbird to bring her down so she could greet him. She greeted him with a loud burp which was a common courtesy among Gnomanians. After greeting him she also sprinkled him with some of her fairy dust. She handily carried it around in her turban. She naturally invited him in for dinner where they ate lots of mosquitoes. After dinner, they watched a cheap imitation of television. They used a big box to put different animals in and called it the Discovery channel. By the end of the day Knob was getting a little weary, so he decided to return home. When he returned form Gnollie his pet snark was there to welocme him home. He welcomed his snark back by feeding it fisheyes or to us humans dog biscuits. After the short snack, Knob and his snark went back to his teepee where they hibernated until the next morning. The next day Knob met up with his friend Door. Door was a runaway gnome who lived on the streets of Gnomania. They met one day by accident. Since Door lived on the streets, he had to steal food to survive. One day when Door was running away from a gardener he ran full speed into Knob.