The island or that the island exerts an evil influence on them Essay Example for Free

The island or that the island exerts an evil influence on them Essay Which do you think is more true, that the boys bring evil to the island or that the island exerts an evil influence on them? PLAN: Fear of the unknown, evil exerted upon them, the fear of the unknown makes them believe in the beast, the evil was always in them and because of the circumstances on the island, it takes form as the beast. Lord of the Flies, a William Golding classic, filled to the brim with a meaningful and descriptive story of boys who become stranded on a desert island. Their survival becomes and endless battle among nature, savagery, and The Beast, a fantasy nightmare that manifests itself to become the boys biggest fear. Upon arrival on the island, their confrontation with their situation was blunt, although they did try to appoint a chief, some disagreed with the overall result; and the freckles on Jacks face disappeared under blush of mortification pg. 30. The truth has suddenly been put this boy into his place, who thought he is the most popular on the island, the fact now shows that he isnt. This is a fear, a fear of interrogation, a threat of overpowering and control, and it is this fear that brings the evil to the island. Jacks need to be in control turns him and his followers into savages, and so brings the downfall of their civilisation. After the landing of the dead parachutist, the fear of the unknown begins. They believe that the dead parachutist is The Beast but become too afraid to go and see if it is really a beast; We saw the beast- plain! pg. 122 Sam and Eric both claimed to have seen The Beast, but hadnt confirmed anything. By finishing each others sentences here they show the fear in their voices. This fear is added to the anonymity of The Beast and interpritated as something to be afraid of, and to some, something that can and must be destroyed. The savagery begins. From this savagery comes the hunting of The Beast. Jack demands that they should fight against The Beast putting the idea of an actual beast into the young boys minds, creating an even bigger fear, a fear of the unknown. The more that they think about this beast the more afraid they become, and the more afraid they become the more they think about the beast. Its a vicious cycle with destroyed the entire civilisation on the island. The boys dont kill The Beast because they fail to realise that The Beast is something that they created within themselves, an evil that has been portrayed from the minds of innocent boys, and twisted by the deception of false truth. The island has made the unknown into a nightmare that the boys cant fight.

Atomistic Fabrication Technology to Enhance Accuracy

Atomistic Fabrication Technology to Enhance Accuracy Importance of Atomistic Fabrication Technology to Enhance Machining Accuracy During Electrochemical Machining of Metals Ritesh Upadhyay, Arbind Kumar P.K. Srivastava Abstract Atomistic fabrication technology fully utilizes physical and chemical phenomena with atomistic and electronic understanding. In the case of mechanical machining many defects are introduced when pushing the tool on the workpiece surface and then atoms on the workpiece surface are removed by the displacement and multiplication of such defects. Therefore many defects remain on the workpiece surface after mechanical machining. Machining accuracy is considerably affected by disturbances such as thermal deformation and external vibration because removal depth is dependent on the cutting depth of the tool and is very difficult to manufacture precision products by mechanical machining. In the case of atomistic fabrication technology surface atoms are naturally removed by chemical reaction caused by reactive species and therefore no deformed layer on the workpiece surface. A very high-precision product can be easily manufactured with stable physical and chemical phenomenon used for removal re action. In this paper possibility of atomic level removal of work piece (Iron workpiece) have been explored. The current and voltage requirements for removal of few thousand atoms will be calculated along with. the mechanism of removal of metals in relation with over-voltage and conductivity. Introduction The essence of nanotechnology is the ability to work at the molecular level, atom by atom, to create large structures with fundamentally new molecular organization. Compared to the behavior of isolated molecules of about 1 nm (10 -9 m) or of bulk materials, behavior of structural features in the range of about 10-9 to 10-7 m exhibit important changes. Nanotechnology is concerned with materials and systems whose structures and components exhibit novel and significantly improved physical and chemical processes due to their nanoscale size. The goal is to exploit these properties by gaining control of structures and devices at atomic, molecular, and supramolecular levels and to learn efficient manufacturing and use these devices 1-4. Maintaining the stability of interfaces and the integration of these nanostructures at micron-length and macroscopic scales are all keys to success. New behavior at the nanoscale is not necessarily predictable from that observed at large size scales.The most important changes in behavior are caused not by the order of magnitude size reduction, but by newly observed phenomena intrinsic to or becoming predominant at the nanoscale5-6. These phenomena include size confinement, predominance of interfacial phenomena and quantum mechanics. Once it becomes possible to control feature size, it will also become possible to enhance material properties and device functions Being able to reduce the dimensions of structures down to the nanoscale leads to the unique properties of carbon nanotubes, quantum wires and dots Nanotechnology is the exploitation of the novel and improved physical, chemical, mechanical, and biological properties, phenomena, and processes of systems that are intermediate in size between isolated atoms/molecules and bulk materials, where phenomena length and time scales become comparable to those of the structure. It impl ies the ability to generate and utilize structures, components, and devices with a size range from about 0.1 nm (atomic and molecular scale) to about 100 nm by control at atomic, molecular and macromolecular levels. Novel properties occur compared to bulk behavior because of the small structure size and short time scale of various processes7-8. Electrochemical Reaction When the current passed through a NaCl electrolyte solution following reaction occure NaCl = Na+ + Cl H2O = H + + OH The positive ions moves towards cathode and negative ions moves towards anode. Each Na+ ions gain an electron and is converted to Na . Hence Na+ ions are reduced at the cathode by means of electrons. Cathode Reaction: Na+ + e = Na Na +H2O = NaOH + H+ 2H+ + 2e = H2 It shows that only hydrogen gas evolve at cathode and there will be no deposition Anode Reaction: Fe = Fe2+ +2e Fe2+ + 2Cl = FeCl2 Fe2+ + 2OH = Fe (OH)2 FeCl2+ 2OH = Fe(OH)2 + 2Cl 2Cl →Cl2 + 2e 2FeCl2 + Cl2 = 2FeCl3 H+ + Cl = HCl 2Fe(OH)2 +H2O +O2 = 2Fe(OH)3 Fe(OH)3 + 3HCl = FeCl3 + 3H2O FeCl3 + 3NaOH = Fe(OH)3↓ + 3NaCl Theoretical Aspects Building block atoms play an important role in future atmostic fabrication technology. Material removal rate for removal of Fe work piece at atomic level have been calculated by using Faraday’s law. Where MRR = Metal Removal Rate , A = Atomic weight, I = Current, Z = valency, F = faraday’s constant . The results are shown in figure 1, Fig 1 Plot of Metal Removal Rate against Current Density, A=55.85,Z=2,F=96500 It is clear from the figure that very low current is needed for atomic scale removal of iron atoms from the iron work piece. The requirement of voltage for removal of iron at atomic scale have been calculated using ohm’s Law and shown in figure 2 Fig 2 Plot of Metal Removal Rate against Voltage, where specific conduction=0.0387ohm-1 cm-1others  parameter are same as in figure 1. It is clear from the figure that voltage requirement is very low. The current and voltage data for removal of few thousand atoms shows that conductivity and over-voltage play important role in current carrying process. Effect of electrolyte conductivity on MRR: Electrolytes are substances that become ions in solution and having capacity to conduct electricity. The electrolyte has three main functions in the ECM process. It carries the current between the tool and the workpiece, it removes the product of the reaction from the cutting region, and it removes the heat produced by the current flow in the operation. Electrolytes must have high conductivity, low toxicity and corrosivity, and chemical and electrochemical stability. The rate of material removal in ECM is governed by Faraday’s laws and is function of current density which depends upon the concentration of electrolyte with increase in concentration of electrolyte the MRR increases continuously up to a limiting value after which if further increase in concentration is made the MRR decreases due to decrease in ionic mobility. Effect of Over voltage: The over-voltage is the important parameter which restrict the material removal rate and is sensitive to tool feed rate and equilibrium machining gap. Material removal rate decreases due to increase in over voltage and decrease in current efficiency, which is directly related to the conductivity of the electrolyte solution. Over voltage was calculated as: à ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬Å¾V = V – where à ¯Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬Å¾V = over voltage, V = applied voltage, Ï = density of work piece, F = Faraday constant, K = conductivity / specific conductance of electrolyte solution, A = atomic number of work piece metal, Ye = equilibrium gap and f = tool feed rate. The variation of over voltage with equilibrium gap is shown in Figure 3 which indicate that over-voltage decreases linearity with increase in equilibrium gap. When equilibrium gap approaches to zero, over voltage approaches to applied voltage. Figure 4 shows variation of tool feed rate with overvoltage, which shows that over voltage decreases sharply with penetration rate and goes to negative side after a certain tool feed rate. Negative value of V, seems to be unreal because un-matching long range values of penetration rate for single fixed value of equilibrium gap. Fig 3. Plot of Over voltage against equilibrium machining gap Fig 4. Plot of over voltage against penetration gap Conclusion: The effort is made to focus on the importance of atomistic fabrication technology with the effect of key factors like over voltage and electrolyte concentration influencing the quality of machined surface and dimensional accuracy. The application of this technology during machining of metals and alloys proves that the electrochemical reactions can be used for nanometer accuracy, which allows high precision machining. The set up including power supply, electronic circuit, tool and electrolyte feed devices have been proposed to perform nano electrochemical machining in order to enhance the machining accuracy. References: Mukherjee S.K, Kumar S , and Srivastava P.K effect of electrolyte on the current- carrying process in electrochemical machining. J . Mechanical Engineering Science 221,1415 -1419 2007. Stotes J, Lostao A, Gomez C, Moreno , Baro A.M. Jumping mode AFM imaging of biomolecules in the repulsive electrical double layer ultra microscopy 1-6 2007. McGeough, J.A. principles of electrochemical machining chapterIII (chapman,Hall.London) 1974. Ma, and R. Schuster, Locally enhanced cathodoluminescence of electrochemically  fabricated gold nanostructures, Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, vol. 662, pp. 12–16, 2011. McGenough J A, Leu M, Rajurkar K P, et al. â€Å"Electroforming process and application to  micro/macro manufacturing. CIRP Annals—Manufacturing Technology†, 50(2): 499-514, 2001. Zhang Z Y, Zhu D, Wang M H. â€Å"Theoretical and experimental research into electrochemical  micromachining using nanosecond pulse† Chinese Journal of Mechanical Engineering;  43(1): 208-213, 2007 [in Chinese]. Lee E S, Baek S Y,Cho C R. â€Å"A study of the characteristics for electrochemical micromachining with  ultrashort voltage pulses† The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology; 31(7-8):  762-769, 2005. Schuster R., Kirchner V, Allonue P, and Ertl G, â€Å"Electrochemical micromachining,† Science 289, 98–  101_2007. Datta M, Shenoy R. V, and Romankiw L. T, â€Å"Recent advances in the study of electrochemical  micromachining,† ASME J. Eng. Ind. 118, 29–36,1996. Datta M, â€Å"Microfabrication by electrochemical metal removal,† IBM J. Res. Dev. 42, 655–669,1998.   Rajurkar K.P, Kozak J, and Wei B, Study of Pulse Electrochemical Machining Characteristics â€Å"Annals  International College for Production Research† Vol. 42, 231-234, 1993. Hocheng, H., Kao, P. S. and Lin, S. C., â€Å"Prediction of the Eroded Profile during Electrochemical  Machining of Hole,† Proc. JSME/ASME Int. Conf. Materials and Processing, pp. 303_307 (2002).   Keown, Mc. P. A., â€Å"The Role of Precision Engineering in Manufacturing of the Future,† Annals CIRP,  Vol.36, pp. 495_501 (1987). â€Å"Electrochemical Machining in Production Technology, HMT, Bangalore, Tata McGraw Hill  Publishing Company, New Delhi, India, p. 478 (1980).

Asian Society Lived Experience And Asian Food History Essay

Asian Society Lived Experience And Asian Food History Essay Asian society is comprised of the broad range of land, different weather and geographical environment has resulted in the different food accordingly, in the mean time, the development of the Asian countries has placed the serious effect on the constitution of local food as well. And it provides a series of lived experience of the society through the food as well. In the following section, the reflection on the lived experience from the food would be described in detail. In first section, it is mainly focus on the eastern Asian countries such as China, Japan and Korea, and then the south Asia and South Asia has been analyzed with the typical countries such as India and Thailand, furthermore, the Meddle Asian country such as Kazakhstan has been described, in the end, the western Asian country and Arab country such as Turkey and Saudi has been discussed as the typical representative to be discussed. Main section In China, the people in North China prefer to each noodle, the people in South China prefers to eat rice. It is linked deeply with the different geography environment in China (Tang and Fong, 2004). The boundary line between North China and South China is the Huai River and Qinling Mountains, in the South of the area, the weather is relatively warm and rains much, it is appropriate to cultivate rice, and in the North of the area, the weather is relative cold and dry, they have to cultivate the wheat which need little water and cold-resistant. In the daily life, people in the South area would prepare the dish and eat rice with the dish, but in North of China, they usually make the food with wheat flour and eat directly without dish. In China, with the development of the daily life level, people not only focus on the obtainment on the energy, but also the dish appearance as well as the dinner atmosphere (Halbrendt, 1994). Take radish for example, either the red radish or the white radish, the different shape would created, and different name would be created, even it can be decorated in the upper class dinner as well, in other words, it has reflected the rich life experience of the people as well. With the food cultural development, the dinner in China has been requested on the strict requirement, even the color, flavor and taste has been requested further. Even the dinner has the further development on the dish name, taste pattern, entertainment during the dinner. It is confirmed that the name of the dish has reflected the historical experience, such as Dongpo meat, it is said that it is the favorite food by the famous poem poet in Song dynasty-Su Dongpo. In Japan, the dish can be named as Japanese Cooking, the cooking style is very special. In fact, it is descended from the Chinese food. Japanese food is comprised of rice, Japanese soup and seasonal vegetable. The same as China, Japan food is focus on the dish shape as well, probably the taste is very common, but the shape of dish would easily inspire the appetite. Japan is the island country, the warm weather and typical season has enriched the seafood. In the daily life of Japan, they are interested in the peaceful and simple life, in the dish, they manage to put less oil in the dish in order to foster the insipidity food. In the mean time, the humility and harmony is the main rhythm in the daily life. Thus they would not like to slaughter the big dumb in order to save the animal life, and the little plain is difficult to cultivate dumb in large quantity. Thus the beef and pork is not the key food before 1950s (Novotny and Boushey, 2003). Generally speaking, the food culture in Japan has been affected by the Chinese culture deeply, they are focus on the family dinner in the weekend, and the family members would sit behind the big table, the soup is also packed in the big bowl, and decorated with sushi and sashimi, the dish would be usually prepared by the females, which reflects the social status of the females in Japan society. But in the recent years, the family dinner preparation has been reduced gradually, in the one hand, the western fact food culture has placed the serious effect on Japan society, more and more Japanese has become interested in the fast food from the western countries, it is linked deeply with the quickened life rhythm in Japan, the other aspect is that with the development of Japan economy and the aging population, it requires more people to finish the task in fluency, more and more females in Japanese family has gone out of the home and contributes to Japanese economy. Thus they would not have more relaxed time to prepare the delicious food for the family all the time. Korea has been under the agricultural society for a long time. Thus their main food is the rice. And the country is near the sea, fish is the main food for Korea as well. Pickled vegetable, Hoisin and Soybean paste are the typical ferment food, which is for the nutrition value and special odor (Beghin and Park, 2003). The pickle vegetable in Korea is famous in the world. In the earlier time, the economy in Korea is not very developed, the society is the agricultural society at the time, due to the poor technology of agriculture and the limited land resources, the people in Korea cannot have enough food after their hard work on the land. They have to adopt the more economic way to save the limited food. And the pickled vegetable is just appropriate for their daily life. The pickled vegetable is mainly the cabbage, they wash it clearly and pickle it with the salt, and then put it into one big tank, and the cabbage would be able to storage for several months, they usually consider it as the important food when they last the time of food shortage. After the years descendent, the daily life of Korea have been improved greatly, they would not be afraid of food shortage any more, but the pickled vegetable has become the delicious food in the table of Korea. In addition, the people in Korea are very focus on the traditional family. They usually hold the large size family dinner party in order to emphasis the sense of family. Probably the family members would be consisted of grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters. The females in the family would positively take the private traditional delicious food on the table to be spilt to other family member in order to link the positive family emotions well. Even in Korea society, the government would also make measures to encourage the people who cooked well, for example, one famous TV play named Da ChangJIn has described the story that one female from the very poor family has worked very hard on the cooking, in the end, she has been approved by the Korea government and been prized for the top honor, in some sense, it has reflected the food culture of Korea as well. In Thailand, the country is near the sea and in the tropic zone, the broad plain is rich in rice, vegetable and coco, the endless sea line has brought a lot of seafood for Thailand, thus Thailand food is consisted of seafood, fruit and vegetable. It is focus on the taste, it is the rich flour with the pepper, garlic, caraway, curcuma, lemon-glass, coconut and other plant from the tropic zone, the rich flour is linked with the Thailand food would be extended into more types of Thailand special food. The Thailand Soup, Garlic and toast are the representative food of Thailand. The key food is the rice in Thailand, and decorated with the garlic, fish or soup. They usually use the sword and fork to get the food, the local specialties such as seasonal fruit or snack made from flour, egg, coco milk and palm sugar. One special snack is the stew, in Thailand, the lemon shrimp soup is the positive food to maintain the family harmony as well as the couple emotion, the females in the family woul d be proud of preparing the delicious stew for the husband. Thailand s not good at utilize china, thus in the earlier time, the people in Thailand would like to pack the rice with the local plantain leaf, and obtain the food with the hand directly, the traditional dinner pattern in Thailand has not much tools. Till now, the dish wares in Thailand is still very simple, it is comprised of soup spoon, chopstick and a plate, in some sense, the dinner patterns has been affected by China as well, but the taste is much different from China, in fact, the local special taste of food has attracted a lot of customers in the world. The middle Asian food is popular in the five countries in middle Asia. Kazakhstan is famous on the mixed noodle, toast, horse meat, horse milk and so on. Uzbekistan owns toast and fruits. Kazakhstan owns toast fish and types of milk bean curd. Kyrgyzstan is the typical middle Asian country in the Asian area. The country is mainly comprised of mountain and grassland, the agricultural and pastoral is developed. Thus a lot of live stock has enriched their food, the milk from the animals is their main drink such as purified yoghurt and yoghurt cheese. The horse meat, beef, camel meat is their main food. Considering that the local handicraft industry is not developed in the past time, they have no technology to produce iron tools, thus till now their stewed meat has still deserved the traditional way, they usually killed the horse at first, and then break it down, and the iron pan is the boiled water, the bone would be put into the iron pan at first, the bunch of meat would put into the i ron later, people would sit in a circle to enjoy the meat in the pan. It is the very typical life experience in the society of Kyrgyzstan. In India, people would like to adopt the flavor as the decoration, even they has applied the flavor into the dish as well, which is one special on the Indian food (Derrickson, Fisher and Anderson, 2000). Considering that peopleà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s preference on the flavor is different, thus the flavor ratio in the dish is different accordingly. And it is the Hinduism popular country, a series of religion custom has placed the serious effect on the Indian food (Adhikari, 2000). The cow is considered as the holy animal in India, they would not eat any food with the beef, in addition, Moslem would not allow the drink with any alcohol. The food is linked deeply with the religion in India, which is the greatest characteristic in India (Hamlett, Bailey, Alexander and Shaw, 2008). In addition, the hot weather in India has requested the food hot flavor. A lot of garlic would be use into the rich and dish in order to encourage the appetite under the hot weather. Since that the excessive restri ction on the meat in religion, the mead cooking in India is not developed, and not to be the key dish as well, the vegetable with the garlic is the market of Indian food (Joshi and Lamb, 2000). For Turkey, the special geographical location has decided the food has mixed the oriental food an d western food. The historical empire in Turkey has included the western Asia, North Africa and South Europe, the huge land area has mixed the variety of food and gradually become the special food culture in Turkey. And the local resident is comprised of Christ, Islam and so on. The intricate nation and broad land areas in the past time has provided the enough room to cultivate the local food culture. The people from the oriental countries has enriched the dinner with rice and noodle, the people from the western countries has enriched the dinner with cheese and bread, even the people from the nomadism had brought the fresh milk, the rich types of plant and descended palace cooking from the empire time has placed the deep effect on the Turkey cooking. The dish usually includes the cereal food with soy sauce, vegetables, meat soup and olive. Their breakfast is similar with the western coun tries due to the cultural effect. They usually adopt the cheese, bread and fresh fruit such as olive or tomato as the food, in noon, they prefer the stew and salad, and in the evening, the dinner is very grand, most of time the family member would sit together to have the dinner in order to increase the family emotion. And more dishes would be enriched in the dinner as well, a lot of appetite snack and delicious fruit would be prepared and the tea would be adopted as the drink, in fact, the people in Turkey is good at enjoying the life. The intricate area distribution had made the food very diversified, the fresh fish from the Mediterranean is thanks to the hard work of fisher, and the delicious grape juice is the favorite drink which is cultivated in the plain of Turkey. The Turkey hamburger with the meat is from the grassland of Turkey. In other words, western sea line has constitutes the daily life of fisher, and the plain near the sea had resulted in the daily life of famers, the north grass land has confirmed the daily life of herder, the intricate environment has enriched the Turkey food. Saudi Arab is the typical countries in the western Asia, desert, torridity, gale wind and drought has been comprised of the local environment (Palaniswamy, 2001). It places the important impact on the rough and open characteristic of the people in Saudi. Their food is simple as well. The desert and black tea is their favorite. The poor geographical environment has requested the local people to prefer the food with less water, because Saudi is the country with little drink water, thus the Arab big bread cake is the main food in Saudi, it is toasted by the special stove, and the price is cheap, thus most of Arab families prefer it as the important food (Musaiger and Abuirmeileh, 1998). Conclusion After the serious discussion in the section above, it is confirmed that Asian food is diversifies, and the lived experience of Asian countries is different as well. Different countries lived experience can be reflected from local food as well. Based on the section, the geographical gap has made the countries constitutes the local special food culture. The Confucianists culture and religion culture had put the different food culture on the society. It is confirmed that China, Japan and Koreas is much different from India, Turkey and Saudi on the item. But different food in these countries has just reflected their real lived experience of the society, it would be highly beneficial to make they further research on Asian culture as well.

America Needs More Gun Control Laws Essays -- Argumentative Essays, Pe

According to James Madison in his Federalist Papers, â€Å"Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms,† (Raymond). Madison may be correct about Americans having more rights than many other countries, but sometimes the government has too much trust in the American people. Taking away all privately owned guns is not the answer, because doing so would consequentially create a communist state. Instead, the best solution is to control who buys guns and for what purpose. There are over 283 million licensed guns in the U.S. (Herbert p1), which does not include the unregistered and illegal guns people own, buy, and sell from the underground economy and other sources. The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides the rights to bear arms, but when people are killing innocent people, should all Americans have that right? More than 50% of U.S. homes own one or mor e guns (White p1). It is completely unnecessary for so many men and women to own firearms and have concealed weapons to have ready for â€Å"whenever they feel necessary†. A major problem that the government also has is the horrible regulation system on checking up on gun shops and the N.R.A. Gun shops are supposed to check every person who wants to buy a gun to make sure they do not have any bad history or mental disabilities. Some stores, unfortunately, choose not to do so. The N.R.A. sometimes sells guns to â€Å"bad people† who should not be qualified to possess such a powerful weapon. Privately owned firearms should not be legal because less restrictive laws lead to illegal sale, homicides, and accidental deaths that could all be prevented. Since the Mayflower landed on P... ...k] 24 Apr. 2009, A19 sec. A Culture Soaked in Blood. New York Times. Web. 19 Jan. 2015. . New York Times [New York] 8 Apr. 2009, A26 sec. Columbine Plus 10. New York Times. Web. 19 Jan. 2015. . Spitzer, Robert J. The Politics of Gun Control. Chatham: Chatham House, 1995. Print. Waggoner, Dr. Should Federal Gun Control Laws in America Be Tightened? Fall 2007. Web. 19 Jan. 2015. White, Deborah. Pros & Cons of Gun Ownership & Use Laws for Individuals. About.com. Web. 19 Jan. 2015. .

Essay examples --

Sympathy is a feeling of understanding which cannot be easily denied. Feeling sympathy towards someone or something comes naturally to humans. It is not required that one must undergo the same challenges to understand a person’s struggle. The extent of one’s sympathy depends upon the extremity of one’s plights. Regardless of who or what, everyone has felt sympathy or has been given sympathy. Euripides, a famous Grecian playwright wrote Greek tragedies known for eliciting sympathy from the audience. An example of this is Euripides’ play Medea. Medea is one of Euripides’ most well known characters Euripides created Medea to be a sympathetic character. Medea was originally published in Greek; therefore many aspects of the play may have been lost in translation as it is difficult to translate both the literal and implied meaning of the original play. Although many may dispute that Medea is a sympathetic character it is evident through, various sacrific ial acts of love, Medea’s unstable mental state and role as a foreign woman in the ancient Greece society help Euripides portray Medea as a sympathetic character as conveyed by his social commentary. Sacrifices are often made in one’s everyday life. However, it is the repercussions of these sacrifices that elicit sympathy from one’s peers. Medea with, â€Å"...her heart unhinged in her love for Jason...persuaded the daughters of Pelias to kill their father† (Euripides 8-10). Euripides uses a mythological allusion by briefly referring to the legendary journey of Jason and the Argonauts. Euripides portrays Medea as a character who selflessly victimizes herself. Through this sacrificial act of love Medea, victimizes herself by acquiring enemies on Jason’s behalf. Furthermore, Medea betrays her... ...cal to further develop a clear understanding of her motives. Although Medea’s actions were arbitrary and illogical, the reasoning behind her actions was completely selfless and motivated by love. Additionally, Medea’s irrational state of mind contributes to her illogical selfless actions. Euripides demonstrates how Medea allows herself to be a victim to her anger which overpowers her rational thinking. Furthermore, Euripides’ social commentary on the role of women and foreigners in the ancient Greece society display how Medea is poorly judged due to both these factors and her disinterest in conforming to societal norms. Therefore, it is apparent that Euripides created Medea as a sympathetic character. Although many aspects of the original play may have been lost in translation, it is proven that Medea is in fact a sympathetic character as shown through her plights.

Integrated and Collaborative Working Essay

What is integrated and collaborative working and why is it so important in childhood practice? The numerous well-publicised child protection cases such as Baby P and Daniel Pelka have emphasized just what can happen when services fail to work collaboratively and this shows why integrated working and collaborative practice is vital and imperative. The outcomes of fatal accident enquiries, like the cases of the children mentioned, continually conclude that a lack of communication between agencies with regards to sharing of relevant information and concerns regarding vulnerable children are one factor which requires to be addressed. The idea behind multi-agency working is that children and families who may require additional assistance are supported effectively and efficiently, therefore minimising or even preventing any difficulties from arising. Children develop in different ways and achieve developmental stages at different rates therefore a diversity of skills and support from a ran ge of different professionals is required in order to successfully meet these needs. On 10th December 2008, the Scottish Government launched The Early Years Framework to highlight the importance of working in professional partnership to give children the best possible start in life. The Scottish Executive’s concern for social inclusion and desire to promote ‘joined up’ policies, an increased demand on services from service users and not to mention the focus on child-centeredness are just a few justifications for such a focus on and drive towards collaborative practice. The benefits of integrated working are enormous as all professionals implement a holistic approach, and working in partnership creates better quality services. Integrated working ensures early identification of any difficulties by efficient sharing of relevant information, thus ensuring that appropriate intervention can be delivered timely. Families also develop closer relationships with a variety of agencies throughout the stages of assessment/intervention resulting in better support and engagement of families, and subsequently the needs of the child are more likely to be met. Another benefit is that the more collaborative working that is carried out between agencies, the more knowledge is transferred between professionals allowing for a more well-informed and proficient team around the child. This could also potentially reduce the need for more specialised services. By working in a collaborative way it also allows for critical reflection allowing all agencies to participate in decision-making while refining their  knowledge. With that being said, we are faced with a number of barriers that can often make integrated working less than simple. These can include poor communication both within and between agencies, and to some degree a lack of uncertainties in roles and responsibilities, inconsistencies regarding legisla tion, confidentiality and the sharing of information. Funding streams are often a barrier to collaborative working. One which I can relate to in my workplace is little to no access to IT equipment and/or compatible systems which would facilitate sharing of information. Some research has been carried out in relation to personality traits within teams and Belbin’s team roles theory shows the importance of recognising the strengths and weaknesses of individuals utilizing the strengths of each person in order to create a productive and efficient team, a clearly beneficial factor in collaborative working. While utilizing the strengths, it is important to manage the weaknesses suggesting that an unbalanced team could just as likely become a barrier. The importance of collaborative working can be seen in the example of a Speech and Language Therapist (SLT). This professional works in close partnership with children and their families, not to mention other professionals. Their job is to assess children with speech, language and communica tion difficulties or those with difficulties eating, drinking or swallowing. Communication is an important part of child development which affects every other area of progression. SLT are an invaluable link between education and health as they are skilled at identifying potential underlying difficulties/disorders. There are many factors an SLT has to consider including the impact these difficulties have on the child’s life and the urgency of such a referral. Integrated working is crucial as professionals gain a full family history, thorough assessment of every aspect of the child’s life, and pull this together into a formulation about the child’s difficulties and how they are being maintained. If such a comprehensive assessment was not available then an SLT could potentially arrive at an inaccurate formulation of a child’s difficulties due to incomplete information which other agencies may hold. The significance of effective integrated working is clear in this case, as the barriers previously discussed can make the job of Speech and Language Therapists very difficult as an inaccurate formulation may result in serious implications for a child’s intervention. An Educational Psychologist is another professional  that heavily relies on effective integrated working. The purpose of these professionals is to work with children and young people who are having difficulties with achieving their learning potential. Gone are the days where the only rationale for such issues was innate condition of the child which required treating. Instead psychologists are considering the need for adjustments in certain external influences such as environment, curriculum and peers as well as internal factors like child resilience as possible solutions to such difficulties. This does not undermine the possibility of organic causes such as autism etc. Their role is vital in supporting children, families, and educators whereby children are not achieving their maximum level of educational attainment for whatever reason (be it social, emotional, familial, or academically) and educational psychologists must work with many different agencies in order to gain a full and clear assessment of all potential factors and causes. Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory explains how lives are affected by people and events around us, further evidence that psychologists have good reason to believe that certain difficulties children face are in fact to do with these external influences. Bronfenbrenner’s theory is based on five levels of social interaction and its effects. The first level, Microsystem is based on the most direct interactions. Family, peers, school, work or the area in which an individual lives. Mesosystem follows and includes the relationships between microsystems. Next is Exosystem which involves the connections with a social environment in which the individual doesn’t have direct interaction. Macrosystem is the influence of culture, religion, traditions and media. These differ and conflict in different countries. The fifth level Chronosystem consists of the significant events that occur in an individual’s life, such as getting married or divorced etc. Bronfenbrenner believed that the influence of environmental factors was paramount in shaping the development of children from childhood to adulthood. The Scottish Executive published ‘It’s everyone’s job to make sure I’m alright’ (2002). The focus of this child protection review was an audit of the practice of police, medical, nursing, social work, children’s reporter, and education staff concluding that everyone has a duty and role in safeguarding and ensuring the welfare of children. The audit was based on a sample of 188 cases which covered the range of possible concerns about children from early  identification of vulnerability to substantiated abuse or neglect (both of which are significantly detrimental to childhood development). Neglect and abuse can be deemed as the environmental influences suggested by Bronfenbrenner that manipulate a child’s progression. In many cases the audit found that children were not receiving the services they required and many could not access services such as health care if their parents/carers did not cooperate. This highlights the importance of integrated and collaborative practice and the need for sharing of information across agencies regarding concerns with vulnerable children. Good practice included the provision of help to parents and children as and when was needed, timely responses, early thought and preparation, and accurately assessing the source of the risk. In order to properly assess a childs risk, a multiagency approach is required in order to gain a comprehensive assessment of the child’s needs. Every professional involved in providing a service to children has a duty to ensure their safety and promote psychological wellbeing. In order to do so profe ssionals must share information when there are concerns about a child’s presentation in order to gain a comprehensive assessment of a child’s needs. Every Child Matters is a UK Government initiative for England and Wales launched in 2003, partly in response to the death of Victoria Climbie. It is one of the most important policy initiatives and development programmes in relation to children and children’s services. It has been the title of 3 Government papers, which lead to the Children Act 2004. The main aims of Every Child Matters are for every child, whatever their background or circumstances, to have the support they need to: stay safe, healthy, enjoy and achieve, economic wellbeing, and positive contribution. Each of these themes have a detailed framework attached whose outcomes require multiagency partnerships working together to achieve. Every Child Matters advocates that it is essential that all professionals working with children are aware of the contribution that could be made by their own and each other’s service and plan and deliver their work accordingly (Baker R 2009). Every Child Matters has been infl uential throughout the UK-Getting it Right for Every Child is the equivalent approach in Scotland. The Scottish Government recently published Getting It Right for Every Child  (GIRFEC), which was designed to create a consistent, child-centred approach within and across the agencies who are involved with children and young people. Getting it right for every child is being threaded through all existing policy, practice, strategy and legislation affecting children, young people and their families. GIRFEC uses the Wellbeing Wheel (Appendix 1) or the SHANARRI indicators as they’re often referred to, in order to create a consistent way for professionals in multi-agencies to assess a child’s development and general wellbeing. SHANARRI is an acronym for the eight indicators (Safe, Healthy, Achieving, Nurtured, Active, Respected, Responsible, Included) used to make the evaluation of a child’s welfare in order to help them develop their full potential. It is important that everyone is assessing the same aspects of a child’s wellbeing using their own unique professional training and skills by using these indicators as guidance. This allows all agencies involved to have the same shared understanding of a child’s needs and the support they require. The Scottish Government values the purpose of collaborative working and in order to do so effectively, there must be certain legislation inaugurated. The Children (Scotland) Act 1995 is a child-centred piece of legislation that outlines the provisions offered to children and families and the duties of the local authorities to children’s wellbeing regarding support, safeguarding and intervention. The act emphasizes the importance of the child’s welfare and gives the child the right to have their views considered, when key decisions are being made about their life, incorporating UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is law that all agencies must adhere to th is act when working with children and families requiring additional needs, ensuing successful multi-agency working. The Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001 was established to create regulations to which all social care services must adhere to in order to improve and maintain a high quality of care, otherwise they are no longer permitted to provide a service. With Care Inspectorate, the regulatory body ensuring that all care services are following the National Care Standards set by the Scottish Government, it’s easy to see how encouraging everyone to offer the same high quality of care can support collaborative working by sharing knowledge, skills and practice. â€Å"A well-qualified, professional workforce is the most important factor in delivering the quality of services that will give children the best possible  start in life.† (QAA Scotland) The Benchmark Statements for Childhood Practice outlines the expectations from SSSC and ensures that lead practitioners in childcare settings are qualified to high standard and competent in working collaboratively with parents, families a nd other agencies. As previously discussed, when agencies do not work collaboratively there can be devasting impacts which in extreme cases can contribute to fatality which is highlighted by the Victoria Climbie Inquiry Report, 2002-3. Victoria Climbie died in the intensive care unit of St Mary’s Hospital Paddington in February 2000, aged 8 years old. Her death was caused by multiple injuries arising from months of ill-treatment and abuse by her great-aunt and her partner. Victoria’s death led to a public enquiry and produced major changes in child protection policies. One of the recommendations from the fatal accident enquiry was that society should be aiming to ensure that there are systems in place which detect what is happening at an early stage so as to be able to intervene successfully to protect the child. This tragically did not happen for Victoria. She was failed comprehensively by all the services she was known to and who should have ultimately protected her. Despite repeated contacts with different services, no proper assessment was ever undertaken, and no more was known about Victoria when she died than was known about her the day after she arrived in the country. The very fact that her case was closed by Haringey Social Services the day she died points to the scale of failure. So too does the fact that the authorities charged with her care almost without exception failed to talk to Victoria directly, instead addressing their concerns to those responsible ultimately for her death. Peter Connelly (also known as the case of baby P) was a 17month old baby who died in London after suffering over 50 injuries in an 8month time period, during which time he was repeatedly seen by Haringey Children’s Services and NHS health professionals. The case caused shock and concern partly because of the magnitude of Peter’s injuries, and partly because Peter had lived in the borough of Haringey, under the same child care authorities that had already failed 10 years earlier in the case of Victoria Climbe which had, as previously stated, led to a public enquiry resulting in measures being put in place in an effort to prevent similar cases happening. The child protection services of Haringey and other agencies were widely criticised. Following the conviction, 3 enquiries and a nationwide review of social service care were launched. Over the course of months, Peter was admitted to hospital with a range of injuries including bruising, scratches and swelling to the head. The serious case review concluded that there were instances of mishandling by officials, missed and delayed meetings, miscommunication among officials, and a failure to follow through with decisions related to the child’s safety. Parental involvement is high on the Scottish Government’s expectations and working within a community nursery run by a committee of parents requires a great deal of collaborative working in order for the nursery to run efficiently and effectively. Finding a balance of what parents want, what children need, while embracing the Curriculum for Excellence requires a great deal of expedient communication. It requires successful sharing of knowledge and skills between experienced parents and qualified practitioners. The most productive committee would ideally be influenced by Belbin’s team role theory, however finding volunteers to be on such a committee can be difficult. Working collaboratively with agencies such a Visual Screening and Oral Health can have tremendous benefits to children’s wellbeing, is essential in promoting a healthy lifestyle and can offer preventative interventions. Working with other agencies such as Speech and Language Therapists and Educational Psychologists requires a great deal of integrated and collaborative working also and with the introduction of standardised referral forms has helped to establish consistency in information gathering which is a step towards more collaborative working, however working in such a small nursery, communications with these agencies can be infrequent and having such little experience dealing with these agencies, st aff can sometimes lack confidence and knowledge how to fill out paperwork and follow procedures. A suggestion would be to offer more in-house training regarding these procedures to ensure that when issues do arise staff feel competent in dealing with these situations. The importance of transitions for children going to school seems to be high on the local authorities’ agenda. There are many initiatives that would be highly beneficial to children but trying to obtain the involvement of other nurseries can sometimes be difficult. Poor communication and incapability to participate can be an obstacle often hard to overcome due to  other establishments’ finances, staffing issues and in some cases the unwillingness to take part. Attending liaison meetings with other nurseries to share knowledge, ideas and information is a great source of collaborative practice, but again this requires the willingness to be involved. One of the biggest barriers in collaborative working is poor communication. It is everyone’s role to ensure that as much information is shared with all agencies involved, the importance of this cannot be stressed enough. How little knowledge some professionals have regarding the roles of others can also be a hindrance. In order to improve collaborative working an increased awareness of the roles and responsibilities of other agencies is imperative. Reference List A Guide to GIRFEC, Scottish Government, 2013 Baker R, 2009, Making Sense of Every Child Matters – Multi-professional Practice Guidance, Policy Press Early Years Framework, Scottish government, Edinburgh, 2008 Every Child Matters, Sept 2003. www.everychildmatters.gov.uk House of Commons Health Committee: The Victoria Climbie Inquiry Report, 2002-3 It’s everyone’s job to make sure I’m alright, Report of the child protection audit and review. Scottish Government, 2002 The Case of Child A. Haringey council, 2008, 11-12 The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, The Standard for Childhood Practice, 2007, Linney Direct, Mansfield The Structure of Belbin’s Team Roles. Fisher et al, 1998, Journal of Occupational and Organisational psychology, 71, 283-288

Aqualisa Quartz: Simply a Better Shower Essay

INTRODUCTION Our report aims at developing a marketing plan for Aqualisa Quartz shower. The product was launched and in spite of being much better than the existing showers in the U.K market in terms of water pressure, ease of installation, use and design, it didn’t have very impressive sales figures in the first four months. This report delves into the details as to why the launch was not successful and what can be done now to improve the situation of the product and the company. It is very important to reflect on the ways through which a company can increase sales together with its brand quality because usually, there is a strong competition in the industry and the companies have to choose among the ways through which they might win the market and this requires a lot of research. Companies should be aware of one key concept which is â€Å"you can’t be everything to everybody.† Our report elaborates on the industry, the company, the customers and the product itself to give a n overview of the whole situation and finally, it suggests the recommendations and the implementation plan. INDUSTRY ANALYSIS Quartz entered the market when only about 60% of U.K homes had showers and archaic plumbing some of which dated back to the Victorian period was still common in many houses. There were two major problems regarding the shower system in the U.K: low pressure and high fluctuations in temperature, which were addressed through the use of either electric showers or special U.K shower valves. The three main types of shower that existed in the market were Electric showers, mixer showers and power showers each having their own positive and negative features. Electric showers had one advantage over the other two types and that was â€Å"not requiring hot water supply.† The disadvantage of such a shower was that the electrical components were usually mounted in a cumbersome white box which could be seen in the shower stall. Another weak point in these showers was that they had not solved the problem of low flow rate. Aqualisa sold electric showers under the separate brand name of â€Å" Gainsborough.†Electric showers covered 61% of the units sold in the market. (See EXHIBIT 1) The mixer shower which covered 30% of the  units sold in the market (see EXHIBIT 1) came in two types; manual and thermostatic. The thermostatic type created comfortable temperature but manual ones were very inconvenient. The mixer shower required both hot and cold water, additional pump to address pressure problems, and the installation typically required excavation of the bathroom. No wonder it was selling half the volume electric showers were selling. Aqualisa had Aquavalve and Aquavalve 609, the latter being the core product of the company. The third type was integral power showers which covered only 9% of the units sold in the market. These showers required both hot and cold water as well. The bulky box on the wall was another problem with these ones and more importantly, they were regarded as less reliable compared to mixer showers. Aqualisa’s primary product in this category was Aquastream thermostatic. What was noteworthy in the shower industry was the fact that there was hardly any innovative movement in the industry in terms of functionality ,that is to say, possible innovations mostly happened in the cosmetic part of the product and major manufactures recycled their product line every four or five years. Aqualisa could take advantage of this weak point in the industry and be the winner. The question that remained to be answered was how? CUSTOMER ANALYSIS Most customers disliked two major problems of the existing showers- poor pressure and varying temperature. Consumers complained about other problems as well. They were not happy with hard-to-turn valves, leaky seals and worn-out showers. On the other hand, brand awareness was very low among the customers and only one brand (Triton) had been able to build brand awareness at the customer level (see EXHIBIT 1). Shower buyers in the U.K fell into one of these three pricing segments: premium, standard and value. Customers in the premium segment cared about the style of the shower and the performance or service of the product was not of importance to them. They normally shopped in showrooms. On the contrary, customers in the standard segment preferred performance and the  service provided with the product and they usually relied on an independent plumber to recommend a shower to them. Thirdly, customers in the value segment were primarily concerned with convenience and price. They did not like the idea of excavation in their showers and they mainly relied on a plumber to select the product for them. In addition to these segments, there were two more segments: do-it-yourselfers and developers. Do-it-yourselfers shopped at retail outlets and were interested in cheap models that were easy to install and they did not care about the unattractive bulky shape of the showers. Landlords and apartment dwellers were the main customers and electric showers were the overwhelming choice in this segment. Finally, developers were the customers who preferred reliable, nice-looking products that could work in multiple settings. Besides, developers did not have to worry about the pressure problems because new houses were almost exclusively built with high-pressure systems. The important characteristic of this segment was their price sensitivity. Aqualisa, knowing this behavior, had sold them its redesigned Aquavalve showers under the brand name of ShowerMax at a lower price and the developers loved it because it gave them the Aquavalve technology at a remarkable lower cost. Are plumbers regarded as channels or customers? Channels are customers too. Either way, they are important buyers and, at the same time, influential ones. Plumbers tried to install a special shower wherever they normally went for a job because unfamiliar showers could bring about unknown problems regarding and a revisit to fix the problem led to an extra cost for the plumbers. Furthermore, plumbers could receive some sort of service form the manufacturer if they stuck to that special brand. Generally, plumbers did not trust innovation especially if it involved electronics because of their bad experiences with the poorly designed products in the past. They wanted a shower that was easy to install with a guarantee to not break down or require servicing. Plumbers had a remarkably strong involvement in mixer shower selection (48%) whether directly or indirectly (see EXHIBIT 2).Apart from that, 54% of the mixer shower installation was carried out by them (see EXHIBIT 3).Aqualisa had the second biggest market share in mixer showers having Aquavalve 609 as their core product in that category (see EXHIBIT 1). Aquavalve 609, selling 60000 units per year, was considered Aqualisa’s  top-selling shower and it was regarded by the plumbers as being a high-quality reliable mixer shower with state-of-the-art technology. Therefore, Plumbers perception of the brand was quite positive. THE COMPANY AND THE CHANNELS OF DISTRIBUTION Showers were sold through three channels of distribution, which were trade shops, showrooms and DIY outlets. Trade shops carried products of all the brands in the market and all they cared about was to make sure they had the right stock of products that were in demand. The main customer of trade shops were plumbers who worked for developers, showrooms, contractors and customers. Aqualisa brand was available in 40% of trade shops. The second channel was showrooms which tended to be more high-end. Showrooms often offered more than just showers and they offered installation services by subcontracting with contractors and plumbers. Aqualisa brand was sold in about 25% of them.DIY sheds offered discount, mass-market do-it-yourself products. Electric showers, being cheaper, were selling really well in this channel (see EXHIBIT 4).Aqualisa had no product in this channel but its Gainsborough was available in 70% of these outlets. Aqualisa’s brand had always been considered as a strong one in the U.K and the company had been recognized as having top-quality showers, a premium brand and a good service. The company’s market share in mixing showers was ranked second and ranked third in the overall U.K shower market. The company had to take these facts into consideration and not make a decision regarding positioning and target marketing that would lead to a decrease in these values. However, the company had encountered some problems too. There was a strong competition in terms of product quality in the first place and the company had to be on its toes to deal with this case. Moreover, Aqualisa products were seen to be overpriced and this was something the competitors could take advantage of. Also, in terms of services, Aqualisa had become a little sloppy and it had not improved its 10% rate of break down for many years. Although it had a 25% net return on sales, its future was not secured. PRODUCT ANALYSIS Aqualisa’s new product would eliminate almost all the problems that the customers had including the cumbersome box in the shower, the low pressure and the varying temperature. Aqualisa had come up with the idea of locating the mechanism remotely outside the shower which would eliminate the need for excavation. Aqualisa launched Quartz into the market after three years of development. The product came into two versions: standard shower designed for installations that already had a pump and pumped shower which included a pump. One of the key advantages of quartz was its ease of installation. While other showers took two whole days to install, Quartz would take only four hours and this was a great source of pleasure both for the customer and the plumber. In addition to all other advantages like high pressure, stable temperature, ease of installation and remote mechanism, the one touch control mounted on the shower wall was appealing to the customers as well. Quartz was loved by everyone; parents liked it because its automatic temperature control was safe for their children who could shower on their own now; the elderly loved it because they did not have to struggle with stiff valves and so on. Quartz had some other potential features as well, which had not yet been put into effect. The Body Jet product and the Slave Remote were two additional products that could boost the sales of the product in the future. The Body Jet product was so popular among women because they could wash their bodies without getting their hair wet and the slave remote enabled the consumer to control the temperature from a distance. STRATEGIC RECOMMENDATIONS It is time to recommend the best target market to Mr. Rawlinson now. We would recommend that he choose the first option which is targeting the customers directly. Before we talk about the pros and cons of this approach, let’s consider the other two options which are targeting do-it-yourselfers and targeting developers. The do-it-yourself sheds, as said before, simply offer cheap and easy to assemble showers. Therefore, this place is not a proper place for a premium brand like Quartz. Besides, Quartz is an expensive product and it cannot be a fit in the DIY sheds; the customers who go there are basically looking for cheap showers rather than expensive ones no matter  what the function is. As long as the customer is unaware of the fantastic features of the new product he/she will not consider buying it when there are much cheaper alternatives which have proved to be good enough for their price. The advantage of targeting the DIV sheds is that because these outlets introduce easy to install showers, the customers who have that advantage in mind, will go there and they will get interested in the unique features of Quartz especially its ease of installation. As a result, some of them may buy the product and after experiencing the convenience in using it they will recommend it to others. The third option which is targeting the developers may seem interesting at first because they can have a huge volume of sales at the start and increase their profits but in practice, it is not going to be so. The developers want a very low price for their mass purchases and this is not what the company might want to encounter for two reasons; firstly, the image of the product as an innovative premium brand is lost and secondly, the company’s profits plummet due to the almost 50% discount that the developers might expect. If the company focuses on developers, it will only cover 15% of overall shower sales in the U.K (see EXHIBIT 6) while there is a much more potential for shower installation because of other reasons like replacement or new penetration. One might say that targeting developers is beneficial because developers subcontract plumbers to install the showers for them and the plumbers having experienced the ease of installation may use Quartz for their independent jobs as well. However, this does not sound practical because plumbers are not satisfied with electric showers whatsoever and they try to avoid new products because those types of showers might cause unprecedented problems which lead to extra costs for them. Apart from that, plumbers receive less installation fees working for 4 hours while with other products they will spend a lot more hours and receive higher installation fees. The first option which is targeting the customers directly seems less disadvantageous although it is more risky. As rule of thumb, higher risk is associated with higher return. Targeting the customers directly using the media might be costly but the probable high returns from that cover the  costs very quickly. A large scale campaign would cost about â‚ ¬3 million to â‚ ¬4 million over two years. The company is presently in a good financial status with 25% net returns on sales. Therefore, it would be rational if it used some of that profit on advertising its new product and thought of this expenditure as investment rather than cost. The breakeven point for Quartz is 18710 units (see EXHIBIT 5).Since Aqualisa has a good market share; it could definitely sell more than the breakeven point units. Total number of units sold in a year only for Aqualisa products (excluding Gainsborough) is 122000(see EXHIBIT 1).This big number looks promising. Here is what Aqualisa should do: It should have a large-scale advertisement on the product, flood the trade shops with the product and enjoy results! You might say this is insane and there is going to be a deadly cannibalization by applying this plan. Well, there might be some cannibalization but it does not do much. Let’s consider a pessimistic result in terms of units sold if cannibalization occurs. Currently, Aqualisa is yearly selling 6000 units of electric showers, 94000 units of Mixer showers and 22000 units of Power showers (see EXHIBIT 1). Assume that in case of cannibalization, the number of units sold per year change into: 0 units of electric showers, 70000 units of mixer showers, 15000 units of power showers and 30000 units of their new product, Quartz. By looking at the manufacturer’s price in EXHIBIT 8 and multiplying them by the number of units sold accordingly we can calculate the sales for each case. The normal case has sales of â‚ ¬37.3 million and the second case that happens after the launch of Quartz and the consequent cannibalization has sales of â‚ ¬44.71 million. It brings about a â‚ ¬7.41 million increase in sales (see EXHIBIT 9). Quite remarkable! The two channels that are proper for Quarts are trade shops and showrooms. Quartz has already attracted a lot of customers in the showrooms and the company just has to keep that excellence in place using their great service. Currently, only 40% of trade shops offer Aqualisa’s products. Aqualisa should improve this number to 70% or more through the launch of Quartz. In addition, this approach may encourage the plumbers to switch to Quartz as their default shower for installation although they might not like to switch to a new product with unprecedented f eatures. IMPLEMENTATION PLAN For the implementation plan, we will elaborate on the strategies the company should apply in terms of the 4Ps which are _product_, _price_, _placement_ and _promotion_. The product was analyzed in the product analysis sector and there is much more to say about it. Regarding price we should say that Quarts seems to be overpriced but in reality it is not. Here is the reason we claim so. Consider the top-selling product Aqualisa has in the market, that is to say, Aquavalve 609.the price of this product is â‚ ¬715.but once the customer buys the product the real costs begin to show themselves. This type of shower needs two days for complete installation which means 16 hours for the plumber; the plumber charges â‚ ¬60 per hour. Then, the installation fee is â‚ ¬960(16*60).there are also other costs like additional booster pump(â‚ ¬450) and excavation charge(â‚ ¬200).the sum of all these is â‚ ¬2325 which is the total cost for Aquavalve showers. Now let’s see how mu ch a Quartz Standard costs: â‚ ¬850 for product purchase and â‚ ¬240 for four hours of installation (4*60) and 450 for additional booster pump. No excavation is needed. The sum of these ones is â‚ ¬1560.it is remarkably lower than the one incurred by Aquavalve. The role of Promotion begins from this stage. The company should clearly inform the customers of the hidden charges of other showers (not mentioning Aquavalve) through the advertisements in different media like the TV, newspapers and magazines. On the whole, the company should implement a problem solving approach in their advertisements.This simple information will create a good image in the minds of the customers and they will know that the price is placed somewhere between their valuation of the product and the cost of it. The company could also apply transformational appeals in their approach regarding creative strategies to persuade the customer. One example would be displaying a happy businessman who has had a great day and at the end of the day when he wants to take a shower, he faces the low pressure or the varying temperature of the shower. The ad could quickly turn that situation to a pleasant one by focusing on Quartz and the difference it makes. The actions to be taken regarding product placement were mentioned in the recommendation part, which was targeting trade shops and showrooms as their channels of distribution. This creates a mainstream positioning ,which will be more profitable because the product is not highly priced if you look at it economically, taking all its advantages over the other showers into  consideration.