Thursday, October 31, 2019

Theories and theorists with the causes and responses to problematic Literature review

Theories and theorists with the causes and responses to problematic behaviour in children - Literature review Example One of the most basic debates revolves around the respective importance of the features and qualities that a child is born with, and those that are acquired from the environment as a child matures in the company of other people. This is known as the nature/nurture debate (Eysenk, 1997, 305-309) and a number of psychologists have devised experiments to try and work this out, so that more can be understood about how a child learns to interact with others, absorbing the rules of society and finding ways to adapt to the demands of school. Clearly if scholars can understand how behaviour is acquired, then they have more chance of finding ways to intervene if problems arise in this process. Behaviourism is one of the most well-known theories of child development. The Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) conducted some very famous experiments on animals to research the way that learning takes place. He was primarily interested in physiology and his experiment with dogs showed that a random connection between a certain sound, and a reward of food, meant nothing to a dog at first, but with repeated association of the two, the dog could be trained to respond to the tone, in anticipation of the food, so that when the tone sounded, for the dog would salivate, even though there was no food in the room. Pavlov noted that this reflex action occurred spontaneously in the dog, whenever the stimulus was given, and this was called conditioning and it provided the basis for the theory of behaviourism. An example of the enduring truth of these theories can be observed in some typical behaviours in the context of education: â€Å"†¦ our actions may condition inappropriate a s well as appropriate behaviours, such as the automatic lack of attention to the lesson the moment the bell rings.† (Woollard, 2010, p. 12) Further work on this line of thinking was done by American psychologist Edward Lee Thorndike (1874-1949), based on the way that cats learn to solve puzzles. Thorndike focussed on repetition of tasks, showing that the more frequently an action is required, and the more often a reward is offered for completion of this action, the more likely it is that the animal will learn the action. The implications for child behaviour are that learning should be provided in well structured, rather repetitive ways, with consistency in the reward system so that the child over time learns to fit in with what is expected of him. The psychologist John Watson (1878-1958) used the tools of scientific experimentation to demonstrate the validity of behaviourism: â€Å"Based on his research on higher order animals, Watson strove to bring to psychology the same me asure of objectivity that marked some of the other traditional sciences such as physics and chemistry.† (Hart and Kritsonis, 2006, pp. 2-3) The empirical method, based on experiments and data analysis were a major part of Watson’s behaviourism and he is credited with establishing the credibility of Psychology as a discipline. Continuing in this same vein, B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) developed these ideas using rats initially, and then drawing parallels with child development. He devised experiments in which rats were required to push levers to obtain food, and this was called operant conditioning, because the rats had to actively operate the equipment to achieve the desired result. The important factor which he applied to child behaviour, was that rewards and punishments could be used to condition children to behave in certain ways. Skinner’s behaviour modification theories hold that positive reinforcements, such as praise and encouragement will work more effectivel y than negative reinforcements, such as punishment, because the associations of past experiences will gradually persuade the child

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Criminological Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3

Criminological Theory - Essay Example People consider them as the founding fathers of the classical theories because they are the ones who started enlightening the community on classical thinking. Their aim was to reduce the harshness experienced in the judicial systems during the eighteenth century. The classical theory bases its arguments on the principle of maximum pleasure and minimum pain (Gottfredson, 1990). Bentham is the main contributor to this school of thought, being a utilitarian he was interested in the well-being and happiness of the population. In classicism, punishment is for the good of the criminal. He believes that human behavior is aimed at minimizing pain and maximizing pleasure. Bentham as one of the founders of the classical theorists believes that, it is better to prevent a crime than to let a person commit a crime and then punish him. This theory advocates for a punishment that is equal to the crime committed. Classical thinking has a big impact in criminological thinking and a greater influence in criminal justice. In America and Europe, the idea of giving punishment depending on the nature of crime has created a foundation to the criminal justice systems in the modern society. Classical thinking has led to the decline of torture, use of capital punishment and corporal punishment (Baron, 2003). Over the years since the second half of eighteenth century and nineteenth century, prisons have developed, and the whole concept and idea of prison was to punish the soul and mind and not the body. This was very important in changing a person’s criminal behavior. One of the strengths of the classical theory is that, although it was developed long ago, it has continued to be used in the present judicial system (Baron, 2003). Deterrence as one of the elements in classical thinking helps in reducing crime rate. Classical thinking might be in great use today, but it also has its weaknesses and one of the weaknesses is that, in the

Sunday, October 27, 2019

The Royal Automobile Club business overview

The Royal Automobile Club business overview The Royal Automobile Club was founded in 1897 to provide its members with roadside assistance. It is part of a hugely competitive market where it is involved in a continual tussle with The AA and Green Flag for market superiority. There are fundamental problems in RACs current operations. Customer service is vital aspect of the roadside recovery business and this is where RAC are failing. RAC have had a rising in the number of customer complaints coupled with poor retention of customers. The RAC has to supply its services and respond quickly to all callouts but faces difficulty dealing with the variation in demand. The problems were outlined by Martin Connor, the director of Operations who claimed the only big winners seemed to be the contractors who provide capacity during the night and during periods of overloading. This is a time while the RACs own patrol staff are earning more despite a decline in productivity. The RAC uses private contractors during weekends and at also at night times, they also supplement day patrols if the demand is unexpectedly high. As the contractors dont carry the full RAC branding, customer service was less of a priority to them. Market research had indicated that customers were less satisfied with the service provided by private contractors. The use of such contractors was also expensive, with the average price being  £36 plus. After working a standard forty hour week, at busy periods staff were offered overtime or the option of being on standby. Overtime was paid at time and a half and double on Sundays. Staff had no motivation to complete work as quick as possible as they would be paid however long jobs took. Similarly the standby system was fraught with problems, staff were paid a flat fee of  £6 per job completed. There was no difference in pay with regard to simple jobs that would take a few minutes and more difficult jobs which could take a long time. Staff could log off at any point and would frequently do so if they were offered time consuming jobs. This would force the RAC into delegating to contractors at the much higher cost The patrol attendance rate measures how many of the jobs the RAC undertakes were dealt with by their own staff. In 1999 the rate was averaging 80%. The importance of a high PAR is underlined in the costs which suggest that just a 1% decrease would cost about  £1 million per year in contractors fees. .The RAC has a reputation for offering high quality service a but at a high price. It faced losing its market share as a number of competitors surfaced. It was faced with the problem of improving its operations whilst keeping its membership costs at a competitive price. In an independent survey the RAC was ranked 2nd to the AA in terms of customer satisfaction. The critical customer service factors are in the call taking and how quickly patrols are on the scene and complete the job. Due to more advanced call taking technology the AA was able to offer its members better customer service than the RAC. The importance of a low membership costs could not be underestimated as Green Flag, which had poor customer service feedback from the survey was becoming a leading competitor due to its low costs. The SWOT analysis shows where the RAC need to improve. SWOT analysis Strengths Strong brand Large customer base Good profitability Weaknesses Old fashioned image Capacity easily overloaded. Opportunities Innovative technology New products Threats Competition Technology of cars improving reduction in breakdowns Increased customer expectation Workforce scheduling / Capacity management Literature Review In service industries the matching of capacity and demand is particularly difficult. Capacity management plays an important role in determining how effectively an organisation uses its assets to produce income. (Sun Services, 2007) Capacity management is the ability to balance demand from customers and the ability of the service delivery system to satisfy the demand. (Armistead et al, 1991) There is either too much demand for the capacity, putting a strain on resources, or too little demand, giving rise to unused capacity and a loss in revenue. This is known as the perishability factor. (Mudie et al, 2006) Both of these are an issue for the RAC due to the numerous factors that influence the demand on the patrols such as the weather. The manner in which workforce is deployed is a large determinant of the effectiveness of service organisations. Having more staff than is necessary to provide the desired level of customer service is costly and having fewer staff than is necessary risks poor customer service and the loss of current or future revenue. In an ideal scenario the company has just enough staff available to provide the desired level of service. Temporal variation in customer demand, even within a day, compounds the difficulty of providing the ideal number of staff. One solution is the use of planning intervals of an hour or less, in conjunction with overlapping shifts, and then allowing the number of employees scheduled to change from period to period. The task of providing the right number of employees at the right time is commonly known as workforce scheduling. (Thompson et al 2006) Rotating workforce scheduling is a typical constraint satisfaction problem which appears in a broad range of work places (Musliu, 2005). Poor workforce scheduling often leads to high personnel turnover, absenteeism, resentment, poor job performance and unfit mental and physical conditions situations that translate to loss of productivity, quality and even safety (Hung, 1992) One method to solve capacity issues is to address the schedules of the workers, a re-arranged workweek can be a great recruitment tool. Many people are enthusiastic about receiving one or more extra off-days per week and longer weekends (for the 4-day workweek, there are 52 extra off-days per year). Moreover, fewer work days means including less time and money on commuting and less expenses on meals and childcare. (Hung, 1992) Another factor that can affect capacity is motivation. This can be influenced by shift patterns dictated. Motivation can be increased by adapting work times to individual needs which can change over time, better working conditions (such as security and hygiene), creation of a team spirit or through professional mobility. For example, highly skilled staff can act as tutors to new employees. (Chan et al, 2006). Part time workers can increase the flexibility of operations. A common trend amongst the literature is to offer discounted prices at times to level off the demand. This is a possibility for the RAC who could offer breakdown packages such as weekends only or off peak packages at substantially discounted prices. Competitive Analysis RAC The basic RAC policy starts at  £28. On average there patrols are able to fix 80% at the roadside. The RAC web-site has an active forum, where members can communicate with one another to give advice, this creates an online community. RAC will attend the first five callouts made by a member free of charge and offer priority for vulnerable motorists. Having over 2000 patrols and over 100 years experience are key selling points for the RAC. All labour and fittings costs are included in membership, so members only have pay for the part itself. RAC advertise offers worth over  £500 to try and lure in new members, they include discounts on health insurance, roadside restaurants and UK holidays. (RAC, 2010) Green Flag The Green Flag slogan is driven by performance, Green flag compare themselves to both the RAC and The AA by advertising its average time is under 30 minutes in contrast to their 40 minute average. The claim is backed up with data from 837,962 call outs. Its basic plan begins at  £20, they fix 86% of customers cars at the roadside. A key asset of green flag policies is the availability of the customer to adapt a policy to fit their own circumstances, you dont have to pay the price of other peoples problems . Green Flag offer no callout discounts to members and offer free, unlimited call-outs when you breakdown. They aim to answer calls within 20 seconds. Green flag operates solely through outside contractors, which has a negative affect on its customer service. (Green Flag, 2010) The AA The AA claim to fix more breakdowns by the roadside than anyone else they have strong customer satisfaction and boast 95% of members would recommend the firm to friends. On average the AA arrive within around 40 minutes of members calls. With 3500 patrols the AA has the largest dedicated breakdown patrol force in the UK,; they attend a breakdown on average every 8.7 seconds and repair around 8 out of 10 breakdowns by the roadside. Only the AA has VIxEN, a unique on-board computer to help diagnose faults. At night, as at other times of the day, the AA serves its members with its own patrols and, as with other breakdown providers and some garage agents, when appropriate. (The AA, 2010) Strategic performance objectives The Objective of the RAC is to provide a fast and quality service to its members who breakdown at the roadside. To do this they need to define what the key performance indicators are and what is the expected level. A key performance indicator is a metric that allows you to evaluate whether you are meeting a certain goal. The five kpis for breakdown companies are: Quality : the level of customer service and efficiency of the recovery Cost The cost the customer has to pay Dependability To always have patrols ready for jobs. Flexibility To adapt to unexpected rises in demand. Speed To answer calls quickly, patrol arrive quickly, job completed quickly Recommendations 1 in every 5 jobs completed are being outsourced to contractors costing the RAC a huge amount of money and risking its reputation from its members who have expressed dissastisfaction by the service they have received from such patrols. Clearly changes have to focus around ensuring more callouts are attended by RAC patrols. To do this firstly the RAC need to invest in new calling and dispatch process. More effective call technology can identify the patrol most suitable to undertake each job and can improve customer service relations. More effective utilisation of patrols will ease capacity issues. The overtime payments need to be re-structured so that is no longer based on a per job basis. The current system is open to abuse by patrols who would avoid difficult jobs by logging off. This a key reason for the excessive use of contractors. The pay structure needs to adjusted, Proposed would be a rating scale for the difficulty of jobs completed, patrols could then receive a monthly bonus based on there performance. changed to offer staff incentives and motivation to ensure customer service is top of their priority. These can include monthly bonuses or share schmes. In most cases it may be necessary to establish some scale of gradation of jobs based on some objective assessment and to relate jobs measured on this scale to rates of pay (Wild, 1991) The PAR is reducing by as much as 3% during peak holiday season. A 1% drop in PAR costs  £1 million per year in contractor fees. Holidays need to be re-reanged so that they are equally dispersed around the year. December and January are the busiest months so there must be a limt especially around this time. Monday is the busiest day of the week for the RAC with the weekend the quietist time Workforce schedules can also be adjusted, the current shift system doesnt work. One option would be to switch workers to a four day week. Workers could then have more social hours and capacity could be increased at peak periods. Needs to continue its investment in materials that help drivers fix there own faults, with a particular emphasis on problems caused by winter conditions. This can be the most effective measure to combat capacity problems. Phone operators can try an identify the causes of problems and offer the potential for the member to fix there own vehicle. The staff at RAC are approaching retirement and therefore RAC will need to attract new recruits. It is important that the knowledge built up by years of experience by the senior employees is utilised to enable the training of the new younger employers to be more effective. Staff should be encouraged to present any ideas to senior management that they believe would improve operations. With attractive incentives offered for any ideas that put into practice, the job satisfaction and motivation of employees would be likely to increase. There will be a resistance to change, particularly from the patrols who are seeking more social hours and a generally easier working schedule. The diagram above shows how the proposed changes could improve the operations of the RAC. The main advantage would be seen in the flexibility of the patrols. The RAC need to communicate more effectively with members who broke down. Breakdowns can be highly stressful situations and therefore knowing approximately how long it will take for a patrol to arrive will be a reassurance to the member.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Philippa Foots Hypothetical Imperatives Essays -- Ethics Kant Philoso

Philippa Foot's Hypothetical Imperatives Philippa Foot finds trouble with the arguments of Kant, who said that it was necessary to distinguish moral judgments from hypothetical imperatives. Although this may have become an unquestionable truth, Foot says that this is a misunderstanding. Kant defined a hypothetical imperative as an action that addresses what "should" or "ought" to be done. He believed that the necessity of performing a certain action was based on other desires. This particular action would only be important if it was beneficial for another reason. It is prudent that a man feel the responsibility to achieve his own wants. However, Kant speaks of a second group of imperatives known as "categorical imperatives." These are actions which are important in themselves, without considerations of any other matter. At a glance it appears that Kant is accurate in saying that moral judgments are categorical imperatives. Perhaps the best way to analyze this is to break down the uses of the words "should" and "ought." For example, consider a man in a business suit looking lost a railroad station on a Friday afternoon. One would point the man to the train that will take the man home, assuming the man in the business suit was on his way home. If however, that man is headed somewhere else, then the statement should be withdrawn. Our should is unsupported. However, the use of should and ought in moral contexts is different. The situation changes if the man being advised is receiving suggestions regarding a moral judgment. An opinion on a moral judgment does not need to be backed up because in essence it is not an opinion. Rather, it is a strict rule in which the considerations of the man do not matter. One need not ... ...w a matter of etiquette or moral judgment without questioning why he must do it, this same man can refuse to follow the rules until a reason to follow is stated. This leaves us with one conclusion, which is best stated by Philippa Foot: Kant and his followers defend having morals in the group of categorical imperatives "are relying on an illusion, as if trying to give the moral `ought' a magic force." Society is losing grip as a result of lacking explanation of moral law. There is no hard evidence backing moral judgment and society is losing touch with doing "what's right." Foot claims that we maintain moral judgments to be categorical imperatives simply because in doing so we are forced to care about the issue. Analyzing this from a broader stance, we are conditioning ourselves to believe in something that will hopefully influence the betterment of society.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Extraction of Eugenol from Cloves Oil

Isolation of Acetyleugenol (Clove Oil) from Cloves Purpose In this experiment, you will obtain the essential oil from cloves by steam distillation. You will then separate a component (acetyleugenol) from the oil by liquid-liquid extraction. Finally, you will isolate the acetyleugenol by using a rotovap for reduced pressure distillation, which will remove the organic solvent (dichloromethane). Background Whole cloves contain between 14% and 20% by weight of essential oils, but only half of that can be isolated as acetyleugenol. Clove oil contains two basic compounds: eugenol and acetyleugenol.As a result of Dalton’s Law and Raoult’s Law, both of these substances can be removed from the cloves with a steam distillation. Eugenol is polar due to the acidic hydroxyl (OH) group, but acetyleugenol is not polar. As a result, they can be separated by extraction from a 5% aqueous NaOH solution. Acetyleugenol will dissolve in the organic CH2Cl2 layer, while eugenol remains in the aqueous base layer as a phenoxide. This can be seen in the reaction below (where ArOH is eugenol), because dissolved ions prefer the aqueous phase. ArOH(aq) + OH-(aq) ? ArO-(aq) + H2O(Liq)Acetyleugenol has no acid proton, and cannot ionize. So, it prefers the organic phase. Essential oils from plant materials are used today for medicinal and other purposes. Among these oils are camphor, quinine, oil of cloves, cedarwood, turpentine, cinnamon, gum benzoin, and myrrh. The U. S. FDA has declared clove oil to be the most effective remedy for a toothache. Substances 25 g whole cloves (350 g per lab section) 100 ml DI water (1. 5 L per lab section) 10 ml 5% NaOH (150 ml per lab section) 45 ml CH2Cl2 (650 ml per lab section) Mg SO4 or Na2SO4 (anhydrous) Apparatus Items in kit 50-ml round-bottomed flask distillation head thermometer adapter large bore condenser Claisen adapter 125-ml separatory funnel Items not in kit Plastic funnel 100-ml graduated cylinder stands and clamps aluminum foil heating mantle (for 250-ml flask) 250-ml separatory funnel 125-ml Erlenmeyer flask w/ stopper Rotovap Procedure 1. Place 25 g of whole cloves in a 250-ml round-bottomed flask, and add 100 ml of DI H2O. A plastic funnel can be used if necessary to transfer the cloves into the flask. 2. Set up a well-clamped simple distillation apparatus with the large bore condenser.Insert a Claisen adapter with a 125-ml separatory funnel between the flask and the distillation head, similar to Fig. 23. 4 of Zubrick. Ensure the valve on the separatory funnel is closed. Then cover the flask, distillation head, and the bottom of the heating mantle with aluminum foil to insulate for a faster distillation rate. 3. Collect 60 ml of distillate. Also, simultaneously heat distilled water to ~90oC on a hot plate for addition in step 4. 4. Add 60 ml of hot H2O to the separatory funnel, then open the stopcock to add the water to the flask. Be sure to remove stopper from funnel before opening its valve.Also, be s ure to close the valve after adding the water. 5. Collect another 60 ml of distillate. 6. Add 10 ml of 5% NaOH solution to the distillate to neutralize (deprotonate) the eugenol. 7. Acetyleugenol is not very soluble in H2O, and is easily extracted from the distillate with CH2Cl2. Place the 130 ml of distillate solution in a 250-ml separatory funnel and remove the acetyleugenol with three 15-ml portions of CH2Cl2. Gently shaking the separatory funnel will fail to remove the acetyleugenol, however vigorous shaking will produce a boundary layer that is a visible organic- aqueous emulsion.Therefore, shake vigorously, and remove the lower layer up to, and not including, the emulsion. Caution -Pressure typically builds inside separatory funnel when shaken! Be sure to vent stopcock frequently while shaking! Do not vent towards yourself or any other individual! 8. Combine the CH2Cl2 extracts in a 125-ml Erlenmeyer flask and add just enough anhydrous magnesium sulfate or sodium sulfate (dryi ng agents) so that the solid no longer clumps together. Stopper the flask, and let stand 5 minutes. (Note that stopper size is printed on the flask. ) 9.Decant the organic solution into a weighed 250- or 500-ml round-bottom flask. Leave solid drying agent behind. 10. With the instructor’s assistance, evaporate the solvent with the â€Å"rotovap† to isolate the liquid acetyleugenol. Obtain product mass. Waste Disposal The used cloves can be discarded in the trash. The aqueous waste can be neutralized, and then emptied into the sink. Place used drying agent in the waste jar. Lab techs will place collected solvent from the rotovap in the waste jar as well. Recommended Reading Small Scale Syntheses, pp 25-26 (steam distillation) and 28-29 (extraction).McMurry, J. , Organic Chemistry, pg 626 in 8e, or pg 603 in 7e (phenoxides). Zubrick, J. W. , The Organic Chem Lab Survivor Manual, 6th Ed, pp 183-7 (steam dist), 196-9 (rotovap) and 321-2 (steam dist theory). www. chemfinder . com en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Clove Data To Collect Determine mass of Acetyleugenol after evaporating the solvent in the rotovap. Theoretical Yield Basis: See background section for maximum obtainable quantity. Actual Yield Basis: Report the recovered mass divided by the theoretical yield. Also report recovered mass divided by the initial mass of cloves.For the compounds isolated section, find systematic names, as well as tabulated MP’s and BP’s, for both compounds. Post-Lab Q’s 1. Why is eugenol soluble in aqueous base while acetyleugenol is not? (Hint: McMurry describes some important properties of phenols) 2. How can the eugenol be separated from the aqueous base layer? (after the acetyleugenol has been removed) 3. What properties of clove oil make it an effective remedy for a toothache? 4. How does steam distillation extract water-insoluble oils from the cloves? (Hint: What do Dalton’s Law and Raoult’s Law tell us? ) 5. How does the rotovap fun ction?

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Power point use in work envirnoment Essay

Cynthia Computer Application-205 Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Microsoft Word-Microsoft Corporation was founded in 1975 lead global in the development and production of software and software-related services and solutions. Initially known for home computers, Microsoft, headquartered in Washington, now offers various operating systems and software for desktop computers. This multinational company strives to help the worldwide business community improve efficiency and productivity. In recent years, this company has battled criticism concerning what some consider monopolistic, anti-competitive business practices. Despite legal setbacks including antitrust violations sanctioned by the US Department of Justice, Microsoft remains a major player in its field. In today’s business environment demands the sharing of data, mobile technology and speedy communication. Microsoft provides tools enabling business to be productive and communicate effectively regardless of location. Outlook serves as the portal for e-mail, tasks, calendar and contacts. Microsoft office line workspace, boasting online storage space, enables users to save access and share documents throughout the world. Mobile Technology like smartphones, which supply the user with advanced computing options allow you to stay connected to businesses. Microsoft office Accounting Express 2008 offers small start-up or at home businesses a resource for accounting processing and procedures. The software includes invoices, budget and finance template and profit and loss statements. Office Excel surpasses manual, paper-based spreadsheets in terms of ease of use and accuracy. Businesses confront an ever-growing number of security threats. Many businesses elect to use Microsoft Vista operating system as a measure to protect their data. Vista boasts account control, troubleshooting and diagnostic features and spyware blocker. Microsoft Security Essentials, introduce in 2009, offers antimalware solutions at no cost to consumers who use Genuine Windows-based PCs. Large business may choose Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate; Ultimate offers Bit Lockers Drive Encryption for maximum data protection. Microsoft lost its standing as the leading global software company in May 2010. Apple, once on the verge of extinction focused on innovative, new consumer products to generate growth; a popular line of hand-held devices contributed to the company’s surge in profitability. In contrast, Microsoft, despite sporadic new systems releases, primarily lies mainly on preserving the existing business. Although Microsoft remains a strong player in the market, the company continues to face stiff competition. PowerPoint is an excellent tool for employee training and online learning. Business owners and company managers can use the programs to create compelling and interactive slide shows to demonstrate new products, train new workers and help existing customers get the most out of the products they buy. In fact there are a great many advantages to using PowerPoint as an online learning tool. One of the most powerful things about PowerPoint is the fact that it can corporate animation features and clip art. Its ability to incorporate sound is another powerful benefit of PowerPoint as an online learning tool. The sound functions of this program can make the slide show more interactive and less boring, and too can encourage visitors to stay with the training. Companies can use this interactive feature of PowerPoint to overcome problems and make their training sessions compelling. PowerPoint contains a number of powerful interactivity tools that makes it easy for users to engage the attention of the entire online audience. The improvement done to Excel 2007 and Excel 2010 is the ability to group the dates in the dropdown list into years and months. That means you don’t have to create a new column to identify the years and months of each row using Excel formulas. In Excel 2010, you can customize your own Ribbon tab. It can be used as commands in one place. In this way you do not have to click from one tab to another to find your commonly used command. In the earlier years of Excel (2003 and below), sorting can only be done based on the color coding in the cell, Not only that, you can also sort the records by the font color. That’s new in Excel 2002 and 2010. Multiple conditional is not made easy Excel 2007 and 2010. In the older Excel version 2003 and below, we are to count based on one single condition. When using Excel 2003, multiple conditions sum has to be done using the formula SUMPRODUCT or combining all the conditions into one before applying the formula SUMIF to data. With the new Excel 2007, you can now easily sum up the values based on more than one condition by using the SUMIF’s fomula.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

How To Use Marketing Performance Metrics To Improve

How To Use Marketing Performance Metrics To Improve Peter Drucker once said, â€Å"What gets measured gets managed.† And he was right. When you  have numbers and data, you  study them; you  wonder how you can make them better, especially if they involve sales. And in the world of content marketing, measuring blogging productivity has become a critical piece of any strategy that results in visits, return visits, lead generation, and, ultimately, conversion. The marketing performance metrics- or tools you  use to measure the value of the content you  write- have become quite sophisticated. And you  can use  them to inform all of the decisions you  make about the content on your blog. This is exciting stuff to help you reach your goals and improve  the content youre already publishing. Lets take a look! How To Crush Your Goals With Marketing Performance Metrics via @AndyPreislerBonus! Get your free Google Analytics dashboard  custom-built to complement this post to help you quickly spot many of these marketing performance metrics at a glance. It's complete with tons of links to related reports to explore your data even more in-depth to help you understand how your marketing is performing today and how you can improve your blog. Begin With Your Marketing Goals You users are publishing content because you have big goals to reach.  Figure out  your general marketing goals first, something like: Grow your trafficGrow your leadsGrow your customer base Once you have your foundation- the understanding of what you want to achieve with your marketing- you can then look into the  marketing performance metrics that will guide you toward actual data you will use to measure those goals. A super effective and easy way to define your goals is with the SMART goal setting process: Specific: What, when, and why.Measurable: This is where your marketing performance metrics come in to help you know when you accomplish your goal.Attainable: Requirements necessary to achieve your goal.Realistic: Acknowledge the road blocks that would prevent you from reaching the goal.Time-sensitive: Start and (most importantly) end dates. So, a format like this is what you're looking for: Beginning, January 1, 2016, we will increase our blog and website traffic to 1 million monthly page views by December 1, 2016, to help marketers plan better content while establishing ourselves as  an authority in our niche. The rest of this guide will walk you through choosing the marketing performance metrics you’ll use to measure your progress toward your goals. Recommended Reading:  How To Leverage Your Best Content To Meet Your Marketing Goals Understand The Basic Marketing Performance Metrics Your content creator should be an expert in two things: Creative and engaging writing.Using  analytics tools to measure the effectiveness of content that is created and published on your blog that will help you reach your goals. The basic metrics are all available through Google Analytics, a free tool that will provide huge amounts of data and deep insight into how your  content is really doing. Pro Tip: Setting up Google Analytics is pretty easy. Just follow this handy guide brought to you by the search engine itself. These are all about quantity and can be used to tell a big story in the following ways: Users: This number is a total of how many separate visitors come to your blog over a set period of time. The same visitor is not counted twice. This is the first step in a longer process of analyzing what you are doing right and wrong- the more, the better.Number of pageviews: Once a visitor lands on your blog, are they accessing other pages of your site from your blog? This is important information to have because it demonstrates that a visitor is impressed enough with a post to then check out your site as well.Bounce rate: When someone visits your blog and opens a post, do they stay or do they bounce out within the first 10 seconds? If the number is high, at least the first part of that post content is  not what they expected to see- an opportunity for you to improve.Inbound links: How many visitors are coming in from outside places via an external link? This means people think your content is important enough that they have provided a link to it in something they have written. All of these metrics give you important data that should tell you if your posts are doing the job or not. And Google Analytics does a great job of generating this kind of data for you, although some content marketers use other tools that may go a bit deeper, such as Whoopra or Clicky. The data should tell you specific things.  Low traffic and low â€Å"staying power†- as seen through pageviews and bounce rate- means that your content may need  a major facelift. Either you are not capturing visitors with your titles and first 100 words, or the content in the remainder of the post is not engaging them enough to stay, read, and, ultimately, share. On the other side, if traffic is good and there is high â€Å"staying power† and movement from a post to other pages, you have a winner. The content is good and is well suited to be  repurposed and recycled. Recommended Reading: 3 Hidden Google Analytics Reports To Help You Understand Your AudienceHow To Unlock Quality Content From Your Low-Performing Posts Create Better Content With Audience Performance Metrics These metrics are often called the â€Å"feel good† or â€Å"vanity† measurements. It’s nice to see good numbers of views and comments, because you feel like  other awesome folks appreciate your content. Yay for us! Numbers of views within a set period of time:  Track the number of views (usually in a month), along with the amount of time spent once a post is opened. You could also combine the number of comments a post receives or the decline of views as a post ages.Comments per views:  If, for example, you are getting a comment for every 50 views of a post, you have a winner. That content should be used again, in a different way.Views vs. users: You will also want to know who among your visitors are unique repeat visitors. The repeat visitor number is an important one, because research shows that conversions often come from visitors who view between 5–9 times. These people are highly active- the visitors you have managed to engage well. It's a solid goal to increase the numbers of your  highly engaged audience. You can determine the type of content they enjoy and plan for more of it by analyzing the posts that your highly engaged visitors view.Number of shares per article:  When you get the data on share numbers from each post, and even better, to which social media sites those shares are going, you have some pretty valuable information. Now you can choose the networks where you may want to expand your presence because your audience is clearly using certain networks more than others. It also gives you  an understanding of what content is the most popular  so you can replicate your success. Your marketing calendar shows you which blog posts are getting the most shares right in your top posts page. shows the social shares for every blog post you publish. Find ways to build upon the popular  blog posts you publish that  generate tons of long views and comments, and engage your visitors. You could possibly: Publish  new posts covering related ideas.Repurpose the blog posts  into different media.Optimize that existing content with better graphics  to increase time on page.Add  downloads  into your posts to convert that traffic  into email subscribers. Google Analytics does a fine job of generating vanity data, although some marketers prefer to use Mint, a tool that can also tell you from where your viewers are coming. A Word Of Caution: There is a growing group of content marketing experts who believe that bloggers spend too much time (and money) and give too much importance to vanity metrics analysis. Jason Amunwa is the director of products at Filament, who warns: Vanity metrics do nothing for your actual website objectives, but make your marketing efforts look good. This is problematic, because oftentimes they siphon effort and focus away from the things that could really move the needle for you. Engagement metrics tell you what content is truly performing for you, what’s just â€Å"meh†, and what’s ripe for enrichment and optimization;  in short, engagement metrics tell you where the real opportunities are for growth. Consider  your vanity audience metrics as a learning tool to understand what is popular to create better content. That said, if your main goal is to grow your customer base, let conversions be the metric that influences your content creation process the most. Recommended Reading:  What Really Is Your Social Media ROI? Optimize For Conversion With  Content Performance Metrics This is the truly actionable part of your marketing performance metrics, because you will get invaluable information about how your blog is doing and what you specifically need to do to improve your blogging productivity. Check out three types of marketing performance metrics for your content- content life, content engagement, and content conversions. Content Life (Longevity) Every post has a shelf life. You need to track this so you know how long each post continues to receive views. How many views do you get the first 6 hours, the first day, the first week, and the first month? And what times and days are are you getting the most views?  With the right analytics, you can understand  the longevity of individual posts and an average longevity of all of your posts combined. This kind of information can drive your decisions about what content ideas work well and how to flesh out your blog schedule and social media promotion: Which posts are the most popular? The style and content is obviously right, so you will want to mimic that as much as possible.Which posts are the least popular? You know what style and content not to post again.Which posts have the greatest longevity? Is there a particular common aspect of those? Do you have embedded videos, infographics, etc. on those with a longer shelf life? Again, this tells you what to mimic in future posts.What is your average longevity number?  Your average longevity number is the number of days your posts typically have a lot of interaction before fading. If  your posts  are getting the most views within the first three days, and then viewership is dropping off, you know you need to post every three  days to keep your  blog filled with fresh content. Alternatively, you could use  a tool like to share your content more on social media to extend the life of your content. You can use these Google Analytics reports to understand when you are getting the most pageviews, visits, and leads to help you publish  and share content at the best times when your audience is most engaged. Do you look at content longevity? The metric can help you plan  a better #blogschedule.Recommended Reading: When Is The Best Time To Publish A Blog Post?What 10 Studies Say About The Best Times To Post On Social Media Content Engagement Part of evaluating engagement, of course, includes some of the vanity metrics you just learned about. How many comments and shares are you getting? High numbers indicate that your viewers are actually taking the time to check out  your entire post and are so  engaged that they want to comment or to share that content with others. Which  types of media  complement your posts the best?  So you're blogging, but you're probably including different types of content into your posts. When you share that advanced media like infographics and videos to your social networks, what is performing better for your audience?  This kind of information will tell you which types of posts you want to link to which social media.Measure the time spent on each post by each visitor. If a visitor stays 3 minutes or more, that visitor will most likely return, and studies show that you need to capture a visitor within the first 10 seconds if they're going to stay. If you're getting lots of bounces within that first 10 seconds, you need to do something about your headlines  and your blog post introductions.  You can also get data on whether a visitor is actively engaged with your content or whether the page is open by sitting on a background tab right in Google Analytics.Are viewers scrolling through other posts  after they spend time reading one? This is clearly engagement, and the longer they spend doing this, the more likely they are to come back again. And if you really want to dig deeper, you can track the specific posts a visitor views and collect data on that, so that you know which posts of the past are still piquing interest- review that content and see how you can repurpose it. Personalized content is trending now, so this is a great way to prepare for it!Viewer Loyalty: Google Analytics calls this â€Å"frequency† or â€Å"recency.† How often does the same viewer come and how many days before they come back? Chartbeat  conducted a loyalty study and found that anyone who comes 5 times in a month will keep returning regularly after that.Recommended Reading: 4 Lessons From Psychology That Will Help You Grow Your Blog Content Conversions Conversions are any action  you want a viewer to take, whether that is a sale or an action that may funnel that conversion to an eventual sale. You need to know the percentage of visitors that take some action after having been on your blog- giving an email address signing up for a newsletter, taking a free trial, etc. Lead generation metrics: Are they converting before they read your content or afterward? This will tell you if your posts are productive or not. If conversions are occurring after your content is read, your inbound blog posts are doing their job.Sales generation metrics: If specific content is generating purchases on the part of viewers, you will know that you want to get that type of content into as many posts as possible. Google Goal Analytics can give you great data through conversion reports, and these are pretty critical, because, after all, marketing exists for one purpose- to sell. Create your goals in Google Analytics now: Create, edit, and share goalsCreate and customize dashboards You can request conversion rates per page on your entire site, which will include your blog, and then compare the percent  of conversions for each page. And, if you dig deeper, you can get a report that shows the page that was the original view of that conversion. If you find that a healthy percentage of conversions begin with a view of a blog post, then these posts are paying off well. If you have lots of views, comments, and shares but not a good conversion rate, then all you have are vanity views. Analytics tools are sophisticated, rather amazing, and can really help you make some big  decisions about  your blog content. Turning your marketing performance  metrics into actionable ways to improve your blog will help you create better content and focus that content on achieving your goals.

Monday, October 21, 2019

Unrestricted Submarine Warfare and How It Caused Germany to Lose WWI

Unrestricted Submarine Warfare and How It Caused Germany to Lose WWI Unrestricted submarine warfare is the practice of using submarines to attack and sink all forms of enemy shipping, whether they are military or civilian. It is most closely associated with the First World War when Germany’s decision to use USW brought the US into the war and led to their defeat. The Blockades of World War 1 In the build-up to the First World War, Germany and Britain were involved in a naval race to see how many bigger and better battleships could be created. When this war began, many expected the resulting navies to sail out and fight a great naval battle. In fact, this only ever almost happened at Jutland, and that was inconclusive. The British knew that their navy was the only part of their military who could lose the war in an afternoon and decided not to use it in a massive battle but to blockade all the shipping routes to Germany and try and starve their enemy into submission. To do so they seized the shipping of neutral countries and caused a lot of upset, but Britain was able to soothe ruffled feathers and come to agreements with these neutral countries. Of course, Britain had the advantage, as it was between Germany and the Atlantic shipping routes, so US purchases were effectively cut off.Germany also decided to blockade Britain, but not only did they cause upset they caused th eir own destruction. Basically, the German above sea fleet was restricted to cat and mouse operations, but their submarines were told to go out and blockade the British by stopping any Atlantic trade reaching them. Unfortunately, there was one problem: the Germans had bigger and better submarines than the British, who were backward in understanding their potential, but a submarine can’t easily board and sail off a vessel like the British ships were doing. The Germans thus began sinking the ships coming to Britain: enemy, neutral, civilian alike. Unrestricted submarine warfare, because there were no restrictions on who to sink. Sailors were dying, and theoretically neutral nations like the US were livid.In the face of opposition from the neutrals (like the US who threatened to join the war), and demands from German politicians for the submarines to be brought under control, the Germans changed tactics. Unrestricted Submarine Warfare In early 1917, Germany still hadn’t won the war and there was a stalemate on the battlefields of Western Europe. But Germany knew they were out producing the allies when it came to submarines and were still having success with their more careful policy. High command wondered: if we began unrestricted Submarine warfare again, could our blockade force Britain to surrender before the US was able to declare war and get their troops over the seas? It was an incredibly risky plan, but German hawks believed they could starve Britain out in six months, and the US wouldn’t make it in time. Ludendorff, practical ruler of Germany, made the decision, and in February 1917 unrestricted submarine warfare began.At first, it was devastating, and as supplies in Britain dwindled the head of the British Navy told his government they could not survive. But then two things happened. The British began using the convoy system, a tactic used in Napoleonic times but adopted now to group travelin g ships into tough groups, and the US entered the war. The convoys caused losses to reduce, German submarine losses increased, and the specter of US troops finally broke the German will to continue after their last throw of the dice in early 1918 (a move which occurred as the Germans tried a last land tactic before the US arrived in force). Germany had to surrender; Versailles followed.   What should we make of unrestricted submarine warfare? This hinges on what you believe would have happened on the Western Front had the US not committed soldiers to it. On the one hand, by the successful allied attacks of 1918 US troops hadnt arrived in their mega millions. But on the other, it took the news that the US was coming to keep the Western allies functioning in 1917. If you had to pin it on one thing only, unrestricted submarine warfare lost Germany the war in the west, and so the whole war.

Sunday, October 20, 2019

An Analysis of P.S. I Love You

Running Head: P. S. I LOVE YOU 1 An Analysis of P. S. I Love You Tammy McDaniel ENG 225 Jonathan Beller August 15, 2011 P. S. I LOVE YOU 2 An Analysis of P. S. I Love You The 2007 film, P. S. I Love You, is a film about learning to let go and move on with your life after the death of a spouse. The Film stars Hilary Swank, Million Dollar Baby and Gerard Butler, 300. It also stars Lisa Kudrow as Denise, Gina Gershon as Sharon, James Marsters as John, Kathy Bates as Patricia (Hollys mom), Nellie McKay as Ciara (Hollys sister), Harry Connick Jr. s Daniel, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as William. This paper will critique the film, P. S. I Love You, through textual and formal analysis focusing on the following elements.. Storytelling, Acting, Cinematography, Editing, Sound, Style and Directing, Societal Impact, Genre, and Film Criticism and Analysis. By examining the films technical elements, you can gain a better understanding of the directors vision of the film. P. S. I Love You is a 2007 American drama directed by Richard LaGavenese. The screenplay by LaGavenese and Steven Rogers is based on the 2004 novel P. S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern. This film was shot on locations in New York City and county Wicklow, Ireland. (Imdb. com) In this film, P. S. I Love You, Hilary Swank plays Holly, an American who marries an Irishman,Gerry (played by Gerard Butler). Gerry is Hollys soul mate, the love of her life. A few weeks shy of her 30th birthday Gerry dies from a brain tumor. Holly feels so lost without Gerry that for weeks she stays in her apartment and does not want to see or talk to anyone except Gerry. On her 30th birthday her friends come over to force her to celebrate and get out of her slump. A cake arrives mysteriously. When opened Holly finds a tape recorded message from Gerry. He tells her that she will receive a series of letters and that she has to do what each letter says. A different letter will arrive each month for ten months. The letters range from singing Karaoke to P. S. I LOVE YOU 3 going to Ireland with her friends. During the course of these letters Holly is pushed into a new future. Gerry has sent her on a journey to discover who she is without him in her life. Gerry ends each letter with P. S. I Love You. The filmmakers presented this film in chronological order to show how Holly deals with her life without Gerry and how she finds the courage to move on. This film takes place in a years time with a few flashbacks to help you understand the love that Holly and Gerry shared. Some of the settings used in this film include: Holly and Gerrys apartment, Hollys Moms bar, and Ireland. Holly suffers from an internal conflict. She knows that she will have to let Gerry go but, she does not want to. She resolves this conflict by reading Gerrys letters and doing what he asks. The letters in this film are a symbolic gesture of Gerrys love for Holly and him wanting her to move on with her life and not be depressed that he is gone. People who have lost a loved one can understand the internal conflict that Holly suffers from. This makes the movie more real to these people. I think this film ends up being a Situational Irony occurs when we expect one thing to happen and something else does. (Goodykoontz Jacobs, 2011). Through out the entire movie film you believe that Gerry set everything up with the post office so the letters arrive to Holly on certain days. At the end of the film you find the Gerry talked Hollys mom into delivering the letters to Holly. Against her feelings that this was not good For Holly she does what Gerry asks. The dialogue in this film allows you to see how Holly goes from being depressed to being happy with her life. You can tell the difference when Holly is talking to someone that she is slowly letting go of Gerry. I believe that the plot and the character drives the film forward. The plot P. S. I LOVE YOU 4 consists of carefully chosen elements from the tory that the writer feels the viewer needs to know and has arranged into a consciously designed order, leaving out some things and possibly repeating other things more than once. (Goodykoontz Jacobs, 2011) I feel that this goes hand in hand with Hollys mom being the one delivering the letters. The character drives the film,because you want to see how Holly handles receiving the letters and following through with what Gerry wants her to do. This is a film that uses flashbacks to help you understand certain things. The flashbacks in this film allows the audience to see just how much Gerry loved Holly. It shows that he loved her so much he wanted to help her move on with her life. He wrote those letters knowing that he was going to die. He wanted to help ease Hollys pain after he was gone. I feel that the flashbacks in this film help the film so much, because without them you would never really know how much Gerry loved Holly. This Film used realism acting. This is acting that does not draw attention to itself but instead gives the impression of genuine human action and emotion. (Goodykoontz Jacobs, 2011) I believe that both Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler are wild card actors. Wild card actors are actors that can play a wide variety of characters equally without becoming typecast. (Goodykoontz Jacobs, 2011) Both Hilary and Gerard I feel are actors that can do any kind of role. Hilary has done roles from Million Dollar Baby to Boys Dont Cry. Gerard has done roles from 300 to Bounty Hunter. Bot h can do comedy, drama, and romance. Which is what P. S. I Love You is. I thinks that the casting in this film was excellent and I do not feel that anyone was miscast. I feel that it helped quite a bit knowing who these actors were before seeing this movie and I do not feel that their persona distracted from their character. While watching this film I forgot that I was watching Hilary Swank and was just watching Holly. There is a scene in the P. S. I LOVE YOU 5 few weeks after Gerrys death where Holly is lip-syncing to a Judy Garland song. I feel that this scene shows us just how much Holly misses Gerry. She has let herself go. Her clothes are dirty as is her hair. The apartment is a total wreck (trash, food, old take-out, and dirty dishes everywhere). When you see all this you view Holly as a depressed and sad person. At the end of the year Holly is clean and dresses very nice and you view her as happy and enjoying her new life. What drew me to this movie in the first place was the title and the actors. After seeing the movie after taking this class I found that I enjoyed the movie in a different and better way. When you notice small things that you did not notice before this class I feel that you can understand the movie better. When you understand how a movie is made it opens up a lot of different aspects of learning for you. If the director is responsible for the film overall, in a general way, the cinematographer is specifically responsible for its look, in very specific, shot–by–shot terms. He or she is responsible for the images that the camera sees, and by extension the images that the audience will see in the finished film. (Goodykoontz Jacobs, 2011) This film uses a variety of different shots. They vary fr om long shots, medium long shots, medium shots, and medium close-up shots. Most directors use several takes, and different camera setups or versions, of the same scene. This allows them to pick and choose the best of what they have shot and to put scenes together in the way that most effectively tells the story they are trying to tell. In order to have a variety of shots to edit together, however, all those different types of shots must be photographed in the first place. (Goodykoontz , 2011) This is the job of the Cinematographer and I feel that this cinematographer did an excellent job doing just that. P. S. I LOVE YOU 6 The cinematographer choice in lighting for different parts of the the movie was superb. For the funeral scene the cinematographer used low-key lighting. For the rest of the film he used high-key lighting. I like movies that a full of color. I have only one black and white movie that I like (Casablanca). The cinematographer uses Saturation color, Desaturation color, and The Golden Hour color in this film. Saturation color is deep, vibrant, bright, pure color. (Goodykoontz , 2011) and is used through most of the movie. Desaturation color has been muted, appearing less intense, which contributes to a more realistic, often–gritty look. (Goodykoontz Jacobs, 2011) and I feel is used during some f the funeral scene. The Golden Hour color also known as the magic hour (although it actually lasts only about 20 minutes), is the term used for the time of day just before sunrise and the time just after sunset, when colors appear more warm, almost glowing, and there are no shadows, since the sun is not in the sky. (Goodykoontz , 2011) is used during the outdoor scenes in I reland. All three used in the same movie allows the audience to feel different emotions through out the film. For the apartment a narrow focus is used to make the apartment feel smaller and more claustrophobic. When watching a movie at home I prefer watching it in widescreen compared to full screen. Widescreen allows the audience to feel like they are at a movie theater. Watching a movie on full screen feels like you are missing parts of the movie. The cinematographer wants you to focus on the characters more so than the background, but at times I feel like her wants you to also focus on the background at the same time. An example of this would be when Holly and Gerry meet for the first time in Ireland. You are focused on the characters but at the same time you are also focused on the beautiful scenery of Ireland. That is also the same for when the Holly, Denise, and Sharon are stuck on the boat. P. S. I LOVE YOU 7 The editors use fade-out/fade-in and direct cut shots. An example of a fade-out/fade-in shot would be after the opening scene and after the opening credits. An example of a direct cut shot would be when the girls are stuck in the boat on the lake. The next scene shows another boat coming to save them. The editor also used an establishing shot during the scenes to let you know who, what, and where for a scene. An example of this would be when Holly and Gerry meet for the first time. You know that it is Holly and Gerry in the scene, you know that they are meeting for the first time, you also know that they are in Ireland. There is also a lot of shot/reverse-shots in this movie. An example of this would be when Holly and Gerry are in their apartment at their own dressers arguing. The camera moves from Holly to Gerry through out the entire argument so you can see each of their expressions and you can also see if they make faces at each other because of something the other said. There are two kinds of film sound used in this movie. They are dialogue and voice-over. Dialogue is when two or more characters are speaking to each other. Through dialogue you feel how the characters are feeling and also you understand what is happening. An example of this would be when Holly and her mom are arguing that Holly is obsessed with the letters. You understand that Patricia does not like the letters at all. Voice-over is when a character’s voice narrates the action to help the audience understand what is going on. (Goodykoontz Jacobs, 2011) Another form of sound you have in a film is the score or the background music. This music allows the audience to experience a whole other experience during a movie. The score can make you happy, sad, scared, or excited. It also can portray how a character is feeling at the exact moment. P. S. I LOVE YOU 8 To me Richard LaGravenese is a director that likes to tell a story and show meaning in his work. In addition to P. S. I Love You his work includes: Water for Elephants, Freedom Writers, and Living Out Loud. I believe that this film is very well made. I have never seen a movie by this director before I could not tell you about how he approaches the subject matter of the film. I do not know anything about this directors own personal vision, however, by looking at his other pieces of work it seems to me that he runs toward romance and films that tend to have a meaning behind them. For this film I believe his meaning is that after losing a loved one you can move on and have fun again and enjoy your life. This film is a Drama and Romance movie with a sub-genre of comedy. I went into this film thinking it was a romance movie. While watching it a realized that it was a lot more than that. The purpose of a drama is to allow the audience to feel what the characters are feeling. The purpose of a romance is to feel the love that the characters share. The purpose of a comedy is to allow the audience to laugh with the characters. I feel that this is a film that can influence society. I say that because I feel that after seeing a movie like this people would want to have that kind of love. When my sister and I walked out of the theater we both said I want a man to love me like that! This is a film that allows the audience to escape from their daily lives and have a good time. What is more fun than laughing and crying at the same time when watching a movie? To me the answer is nothing is more fun. This film is Rated PG-13 for sexual references and brief nudity. This is definitely not a movie for a child younger than 13. P. S. I LOVE YOU 9 As with all films you will have critics that tell you whether a film is good or not. That critic can be a professional critic, a family member or a friend. I found a phrase and a quote in our text that explains what a critic is. What is a critic? There are many definitions, some of which are unflattering, including as they do charges of jealousy, mean–spiritedness, and flat–out incompetence. Ironically enough, one of the best definitions comes from a character in a film, and in an animated film, at that. In Pixar’s film Ratatouille (2007), Peter O’Toole provides the voice of Anton Ego, a famous food critic feared for his discriminating palate and his withering criticism. When he samples food that has secretly been prepared by a rat, everyone fears the worst (particularly the rat). However, Ego begins his review with a spirited defense of the art of criticism, observations that apply just as much to film criticism as to food criticism. In the movie Ego says, In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations; the new needs friends . . . Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere. (Bird, 207) (Goodykoontz Jacobs, 2011) I myself do not read or listen to a critic or a review. If you do and that person said that a movie was bad than you might have missed a very good movie. P. S. I LOVE YOU 10 I watched this movie again with my sister before writing this assignment and as we watched I found myself telling my sister what kind of shots were being used and explaining what a fade-out/fade-in was. Watching this movie after taking these few weeks of class I understood the movie in a different and good way. I believe that the director wanted the audience to feel what Holly does and through his direction I did. After I was finished examining the films different technical elements, I definitely gained a better understanding of the directors vision of the film. In conclusion I want to say that after taking this class and learning all about Storytelling, Acting, Cinematography, Editing, Sound, Style and Directing, Societal Impact, Genre, and Film Criticism and Analysis I am more in tune to how a movie is made and find that I enjoy watching movies a little better now that I understand what goes into it. Sometimes theres only one thing left to say P. S. I LOVE YOU P. S. I LOVE YOU 11 References Goodykoontz, B. Jacobs, C. P. (2011) Film: From Watching to Seeing. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Retrieved from https://content. ashford. edu/books/AUENG225. 11. 2 IMDB. (2011). P. S. I Love You. Retrieved from http://www. imdb. com/title/tt0431308/combined LaGravenese, R. (Director). (2007). P. S. I Love You. [Motion Picture]. USA:

Friday, October 18, 2019

Literary analysis on A Good Man Is Hard To Find by Flannery O'Conner Research Paper

Literary analysis on A Good Man Is Hard To Find by Flannery O'Conner - Research Paper Example But a modicum of insight into the interests and craftsmanship of Flannery O’Connor makes her writing commendable on both literary and religious grounds. â€Å"Cathartic bitterness, a belief in grace as something devastating to the recipient, a gelid concept of salvation, and violence as a force for good† (Galloway) characterize her work. She was well aware of her dual role as a Catholic writer and a fiction writer. She only tried to homogenize both. Thus where the religious dimension was never far away from her writing she was also influenced by Martin Heidegger’s concept of dasein: the moment of death makes a man’s existence replete with meaning. She blends characterization with the setting and works out the meaning of the story. In the following analysis let us look at the dynamics of characterization, theme, and setting in Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find. Good characters inspire strong feelings. Characterization should not begin and end midway but should be continued till the end as the characters evolve. Extraneous characters should be avoided and all the characters should contribute in varying degrees to the progress of the plot and depth of the story. A Good Man Is Hard to Find is a reasonable example for good characterization. The action in the story unfolds through the grandmother. She is the volatile person in the story with a glib tongue. The old lady is however a Christian only by appearances. Her moral platitude is her reality. When that is stripped by her confrontation with the killer there is no future for the character of the grandmother. "Why youre one of my babies. Youre one of my own children!" (O’Connor 132). These words are definitely not to influence the killer against shooting her but it is her saving moment of grace where she realizes the hollowness of her hitherto existence and recognizes the Misfit as the medium of the grace. O’Connor was compassionate to her

Analysis of the Picture Girl with Pearl Earring Created by Johannes Essay - 10

Analysis of the Picture Girl with Pearl Earring Created by Johannes Vermeer - Essay Example I’ve heard about the work of art earlier, but I have never thought about it as a great masterpiece. About a year ago, I read an article, about the most significant pictures of the world and found out that â€Å"Girl with a pearl earring† was one of them. I thought that it might be a really good picture, as the filmmakers even created a movie, which showed the audience the history of its creation. A few months later, my friend invited me to attend a local art gallery and I agreed. Going around the boring representations of nature and abstract figures, which meaning I could not understand, I ran against one reproduction, which attracted my attention and it was â€Å"Girl with a pearl earring†. I came closer to it in order to analyze it in greater details. A few minutes I stood calmly looking at the elements of the picture, trying to figure out of what everyone found so special about it. Dark ground, light face’s shades and the most important - sad, but a mys tique look of the girl, which hid some kind of a secret. I looked attentively on the main heroine of the picture. Who was she? Where was she from? Why did she look so sad? What is her history? On my way home, I noticed that I thought over these questions, trying to answer them. At home, I decided to search for this information on the internet. However, there was very little data about it. It is not known whether the author wrote it for himself or somebody else. According to one of the versions, the artist depicted his own daughter Mary. In any case, it is clear that this is an unusual portrait. The artist tried to capture the moment when a girl turns her head towards the viewer to someone whom she had just noticed. Much attention is focused on the girls’ pearl earring. The picture was painted by means of oil. The author used an unusual technique â€Å"tronie†, which was typical for the XVII century.

Corporate Financing Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Corporate Financing Report - Essay Example The company's chief also stated that this is done to increase the value of business for shareholders and to utilize the cash which is lying idle. The article is about financial management, because according to the fundamental principle, any cash lying idle is decreasing its future value. Therefore, all cash must be earning some returns too keep up with the future value. On the other hand if you look at the article critically, there are some weak arguments in it. When the firm says that it want to diversify to spread the risk, it should be aware that recession hits all the business and they may not be able to cover the losses. Similarly, firm will also have to make deep analysis about the future value of their investment. They cannot just invest in anything but they should make sure that they investing at the right place where the firm is not using future value of their cash, in other words, returns on this investment or profits should be greater than inflation rate in the country. Only this way future value of their money will remain stable and writer should have discussed this point in his article. If you have been able to crack a continued trend in the market about inflation rate and interest rate, you should adjust your capital spending on the basis of these. You should always go for those assets which are going to give you more return than inflation rate. ... you 12% returns whereas inflation rate in your country is 13%, then you should not buy this assets because you will be 1% worse off or your money value will be decreasing over time. Similarly, you should go for those assets which are giving you returns of more than the inflation rate and in this way purchasing power of money will not be deteriorating. Similarly, you should borrow money to invest in capital expenditure, only if it is deemed that you'll get more returns than the interest rate. If you buy an asset giving you 5% return whereas you have borrowed money at the rate of 8% then you will not be benefiting from that purchase but instead you will be losing money. So, identifying the market trend, it is imperative that all capital spending should be linked with inflation and interest rate. Such expenditures should only take play if the returns of this spending are greater than the forecasted inflation and interest rate. References James Pethokoukis, Reuters, Written on 10 June

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Training Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Training - Coursework Example Potential vendors will be selected based on their language and communication skills since the seminar needs someone who can accurately and audibly deliver the message. Moreover, the person must have an in-depth insight into psychological aspects of human resource. These qualities can be tested through interview. Although the organization is passionate about developing the employees, the training method they use is not appropriate and effective enough. With such a large workforce, giving an umbrella course means specific individual needs are not factored in. Also, the training offered only ‘during the time of need’ is not effective. It is recommended that training programs be diversified and offered early enough to make them effective (Werner and DeSimone, 2012). Case study is definitely the most effective method as it exposes trainees to the real practical world with which they can relate. Trainees are presented with examples they see every day making them capture and remember much about the training (Werner and DeSimone,

Statistics are Misleading in the Media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Statistics are Misleading in the Media - Essay Example Many of the unsuspecting readers are often oblivious of the fact that people creating and quoting statistics do have personal agendas and vested interests (Hodges 2). Thus most of the social statistics is often colored by such devious intentions. The journalists in their zeal for bolstering on the issue under consideration do tend to exaggerate or subdue the available statistical findings (Calif 2). Many a times the entities like governments, political parties and NGOs purposely furnish tainted statistical data and studies so as to accentuate or dilute a specific issue. Thus it is important for any discerning citizen to investigate the basic parameters surrounding a statistical quote that is the entity who created a statistical study (Best 27), the purpose for which a given statistical data was created (Best 28) and the manner in which a statistical research was carried out (Best 29). Sad, but true, many of the subscribers are mostly not so astute, systematic and methodical in their analysis of the statistics published in media and are therefore vulnerable to ending up with faulty perceptions, false notions and misguided views. It is really imperative to understand the dynamics by which statistics is exaggerated, downplayed or manipulated by the media to send a specific message to the masses. Many a statistical studies prefer to choose the samples as per their convenience (Best 52). The samples for statistical studies are often chosen by the media in a non scientific way and at random that go well with their limited budgetary resources. Hence such samples fail to represent the total population and do yield false conclusions. Besides the statisticians hired by the media houses are oft deficient in the expertise to wean out the mutations incorporated while sampling a population. There is no denying the fact that the statistical studies conducted in an academic environment are not bound by the compulsion to yield black and white results. It is a reality that if an academic study ends up with open ended conclusions, the researchers do prefer to leave them as such and never rush in to deduce faulty hypothesis. However, this is not always true so far as media reports are concerned. Most of the media reports by their very nature are expected and bound to give concrete conclusions underlying a statistical study. Thus when the journalists are pushed by their voracious readers to yield results, they often do not hesitate from culling out nonrealistic guesses from the available statistical figures (Best 32). In fact, to sensationalize their news reports, media houses even go to the extent of exaggerating or downplaying the results attributed to a given statistical study. If nothing else, commercial success is often too big a motivation to prevent them

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Albert Hourani and Ibn Khaldoun Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Albert Hourani and Ibn Khaldoun - Essay Example Hourani, in his book, presents his political views while he traces the emergence of Islam, which was born into a pagan area influenced by Christianity and Judaism, where the great powers exercised no direct control that is a breeding ground in both the political and religious. A new political order, headed by a new elite, following the Arab tribes of Mecca, went up between the two empires. The precise role that Mohammed has played in these events is uncertain because the history of his time was reconstituted in writing nearly a century after his death. These biographies tell of events concerning his life, his revelation and his action may not have been fabricated. Muhammad began to communicate his message, announcing the end of the world, the arrival of Reckoning, asking to submit to the Will of Allah, the Arabic word for the God of monotheism. His relations with other tribes deteriorated so quickly that he left Mecca for Medina in the Hijra, the Hijra, which marks the beginning of t he Muslim era. In Medina, Muhammad gathered an increased number of supporters and fought to Quraysh. For Ibn Khaldoun, morality matters in the relationship between the individual and the state to the extent that any resolutions or acts taken by the ruler should be evaluated by the moral principles of the society. As one of the great political thinkers and anthropologists, he was greatly affected by the Islamic traditions that values morality above one’s own interests.

Statistics are Misleading in the Media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Statistics are Misleading in the Media - Essay Example Many of the unsuspecting readers are often oblivious of the fact that people creating and quoting statistics do have personal agendas and vested interests (Hodges 2). Thus most of the social statistics is often colored by such devious intentions. The journalists in their zeal for bolstering on the issue under consideration do tend to exaggerate or subdue the available statistical findings (Calif 2). Many a times the entities like governments, political parties and NGOs purposely furnish tainted statistical data and studies so as to accentuate or dilute a specific issue. Thus it is important for any discerning citizen to investigate the basic parameters surrounding a statistical quote that is the entity who created a statistical study (Best 27), the purpose for which a given statistical data was created (Best 28) and the manner in which a statistical research was carried out (Best 29). Sad, but true, many of the subscribers are mostly not so astute, systematic and methodical in their analysis of the statistics published in media and are therefore vulnerable to ending up with faulty perceptions, false notions and misguided views. It is really imperative to understand the dynamics by which statistics is exaggerated, downplayed or manipulated by the media to send a specific message to the masses. Many a statistical studies prefer to choose the samples as per their convenience (Best 52). The samples for statistical studies are often chosen by the media in a non scientific way and at random that go well with their limited budgetary resources. Hence such samples fail to represent the total population and do yield false conclusions. Besides the statisticians hired by the media houses are oft deficient in the expertise to wean out the mutations incorporated while sampling a population. There is no denying the fact that the statistical studies conducted in an academic environment are not bound by the compulsion to yield black and white results. It is a reality that if an academic study ends up with open ended conclusions, the researchers do prefer to leave them as such and never rush in to deduce faulty hypothesis. However, this is not always true so far as media reports are concerned. Most of the media reports by their very nature are expected and bound to give concrete conclusions underlying a statistical study. Thus when the journalists are pushed by their voracious readers to yield results, they often do not hesitate from culling out nonrealistic guesses from the available statistical figures (Best 32). In fact, to sensationalize their news reports, media houses even go to the extent of exaggerating or downplaying the results attributed to a given statistical study. If nothing else, commercial success is often too big a motivation to prevent them

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Education of the filipino Essay Example for Free

Education of the filipino Essay ?According to the article, it seems that foreigners, especially the Americans influence us in a lot of different ways. They influence us in terms of speech, sense of style and clothing, food we eat, the movies we watch and even how we think and decide. And for that, I can say that our minds are somewhat manipulated by the Western culture and thus, we think and act as if we were like them. Where is the modern day Crisostomo Ibarra and Maria Clara who took their stand for the traditional way of living? Where are the people who care enough to preserve our culture and tradition? I agree with Renato Constantinos statement in which I would quote Education is a vital weapon of people striving for economic emancipation, political independence and cultural renascence. One must be aware of the countrys problems, understand the solution and be caring and courageous enough to work and sacrifice for our countrys salvation. We Filipinos must work hand in hand to achieve one goal. In my opinion, many Pinoys want the Philippines to be an American state because for them, lying in independence could mean poverty. Hopeless and grim as it may seem. For me, its not just the government and the system that has problem here, its the people and their manners plus attitude. It is also said that the most effective way of subjugating people is to capture their minds. In doing so, we are tricked into doing or being someone we are unlikely to be and some of our beliefs and stand can be swayed by such illusions of freedom to express. As long as feelings of resistance remain in the hearts of the vanquished, no conqueror is secure and as long as we are strong and sure of ourselves, we can avoid being swayed by others. The Filipinos mentality sometimes just escapes me. Many are bias and many are just plain jealous of the fact that Filipinos can be smart too. A lot cant still accept that fact. On the other hand, there are several weak beings that move beside the authorized person holding the power against them or what we call puppets. The American culture has been a part of the Filipinos lives. But despite of that I believe that we must preserve our resources and Filipino values to an extent. The fact still remains that these people are in a conquered nation whose national life had to be woven into the pattern of American dominance. The drawback is that we still rely on first world countries such as the United States for support financially and economically. Absurd as it may sound but the truth remains that we are poor and we need them to survive. A classic example would be us students most especially those taking up Nursing. We are struggling hard to finish this course because of its demands abroad. Many are aiming to seek for better job opportunities abroad. I would be lying if I say that I am taking up Nursing because I want to serve my country, but who doesnt want a brighter future? Now wheres my sense of nationalism? I say Im just being practical. Its much better to accept the fact that we, Filipinos are diverse in culture and language as well as our way of thinking because we have been influenced by so many cultures internally and externally. It is true that education will bring emancipation and the right education will broaden our perspective and hopefully, appreciate and capitalize on the diversity to propel us forward.

Monday, October 14, 2019

Distinguishing Men From Animals With Culture

Distinguishing Men From Animals With Culture For culture is the sociological term for learned behaviour: behaviour which in man is not given at birth, which is not determined by his germ cells as the behaviour of wasps or the social ants, but must be learned anew from grown people by each new generation. The degree to which human achievements are dependent on this kind of learned behaviour is mans great claim to superiority over all the rest of creation; he has been properly called the culture being animal. Benedict Different people may have different definition of culture. The most common definition of culture is that culture means the mode of human activities, such as human knowledge, learning and belief which are integrated in the symbolic thoughts. Culture includes ideas about identity, nature, social relationship and so on, as well as artifacts. This topic is based on several assumptions. Firstly, this essay assumes that humans are not animals and only men have culture while animals do not have any. I also assumed that culture can be definite. In the following, I will discuss the perspective of human in the point of view for zoologists, and also the inter-specific relationships between human and animals. This might counter my argument of culture distinguishes men from animals. Secondly, I will discuss Zoologist accounts on the human-animals inter-specific relationship To zoologists, all animals (including human beings) are equally interesting. For them, all animals undergo the inter-specific relationship which is in the food chain, i.e. prey, symbiont, competitor, parasite and predator, and human beings exist in these pair of species. According to The Naked Ape (1967) by British zoologist, Desmond Morris, Any species which competes with us for food or space, or interferes with the efficient running of our lives, is ruthlessly eliminatedà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Large carnivores have been out other serious competitors and these too have been eliminated wherever the population density of out species has risen above a certain level. Same as in the predator relationship, we humans are involved in it. Morris (1967) stated that larger carnivores such as sharks which are the killers are accounted for more humans deaths than any other is one cannot devour the nutritious corpuses it produces. Moreover, Morris (1967) also pointed out that the inter-specific relationship appears to human and other animals not only in the food chain, but also in other ways. For example, human beings could not resist to say Hi or any other greetings to his/her own pet, such as his/her own dog. Even we all know the animals will not understand, we still could not resist the temptation. We could not explain that. The response was just triggered off inside us when we see the animal. Furthermore, Morris (1967) also pointed out that out love or hatred to the animals is also included in the human-animal relationship. Through this, we can see the inter-specific relationship between human beings and animals exist in the vast amount of cultures, or even, we carried further in these relationships than other animals. Therefore, to zoologists, humans are not unique in these respects. Biological differences between human and other animals However, biologist anthropologists and other biologists may argue that there is something which is different in human than in other animals, which this will lead to human are not animals (which I assumed before). So what distinguishes us from other species on animals? Gorillas and chimpanzees are close primate relative to humans. Compare to chimpanzees, human has 98 percent of genes same as the chimps. The differences between human and chimpanzees were brought by the 2 percent difference in our genes. Biological anthropologists believe that human beings have got a familiar skeletal hallmark. The major difference is that humans are bipedalism (standing on two legs) and the adaptation of the straight, upright gaits. Humans are having particular small teeth and large braincase as well. The 2 percent difference also brought the difference of using modern language to communicate idea. Human beings also use culture, which are complex ideas to survive. These are all the anatomical character of human beings. Human evolution in human brains: What is in the Homo sapiens mind? According to Jerome Kagan (2004), at the end of the first year, human and chimpanzee infants are similar to each other, Both of the species locomote, attend to unexpected or unfamiliar events, and remember where an attractive object disappeared ten seconds earlier. However, 24 months later, maturational changes occur in human brain and it brought four unique quantities for humans: (1) Children can infer varied thoughts and feelings in others; (2) Children use a symbolic language with a grammar and semantic categories for events that share no physical feature; (3) Understand for the concepts of good. Bad, right and wrong; (4) Become consciously aware of some of their intentions and feelings. Moreover, Kagan also stated that chimpanzees are incapable of appreciating the partner intends to engage in reciprocally cooperative act has no implication for the gaining of food or protectionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Every two-year-old child makes this simple assumption automatically. Therefore, it is beli eved that a pair of chimpanzees could not throw a ball back and forth between them, while a pair of humans will assume to throw the ball back. One of the unique characteristic in human brains is the feeling of guilty. Human is the only animal species which will feel guilty, it is not possible even in our close primate relatives such as the chimpanzees. Kagan explained that Guilt requires an agent to know that a voluntary act that could have been suppressed has hurt another. Guilt requires the ability to reflect on a past action that injured another in some way, to realize that the behaviour could have been inhibited, and to appreciate that the self was the cause of the ethical violation. During human evolution, human developed to be conscious and aware to others feeling, while other animals did not. Thus, the feeling of guilty is one feature which makes human unique. Kagan pointed out another unique quality of Homo sapiens is the consciousness of ones feelings, intentions and properties, which is called sensory awareness. According to Kagan, there is not just only one form to awareness. It is believed that all these awareness require the brain circuits. There is awareness in properties such as consciousness in ones physical features, beliefs, talents and social categories. The other form of awareness is the awareness that one is about implement or suppress an action. Neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga believes that there is another form of consciousness which is the interpretation of ones feelings and perceptions. However, these four forms of consciousness are not evolved in the same time, they evolve in different ages in the humans early childhood. In the first year, there will be the appearance of the awareness of sensory. In the second year, children will smile after completing a difficult task. It is not until the third year of life that childr en will be aware of their intentions and that they can describe what they are doing. Finally, in the fourth year, children can regularly integrate the present moment with their recollections of the past and begin to be able to interpret others feeling and perceptions. However, for apes, they do not possess any other forms of consciousness apart from the sensory consciousness. In terms of consciousness, human is unique. Another unique quality in the Homo sapiens is that they are the animal species which are willing to limit their offspring from inclusive fitness (the ability of an organism to ensure the survival of their own offspring or to see how their genes pass on). The family size in human families is thus decreasing. Meanwhile, in other species, they will reproduce the offspring as much as they can, so that their species would not extinct due to any environmental factors, such as drought, lack of food, lack of shelter, disease and so on. For example, female fish will lay their eggs as much as possible so that there will be a greater chance for the eggs being fertilized. Moreover, this will increase the survival rate as most of the eggs will be eaten by other marine animals or bigger fishes. This will ensure their species would not be extinct. The same theory to increase the chance of survival of offspring is also applied in all other animals, such as dogs, cats and turtles. Therefore, human is unique by limiting their offspring. Human cognition Michael Tomasello brought up the idea of ratchet effect in human cultural evolution . The most distinctive characteristic of human cultural evolution as a process is the way that modifications to an artefact or a social practice made by one individual or group of individuals often spread within the group, and then stay in place until some future individuals make further modifications and these then stay in place until still further modifications are made. The major part of the ratchet effect takes place in childhood. Taboos For Vezo people, what makes human different from animals is taboos. They believe that it is taboos which make us humans. Human beings practice a whole range of taboos which animals dont. Lambek (1992) noted that taboos are distinctive at every level of social inclusion, from humanity viewed as a whole down to the individual. The Vezos have different taboos to show respect to animals. According to Astuti (2000), Vezos do not hunt or eat dolphins because they are generous towards human. Therefore, taboos on eating or hunting dolphins as dolphins saved peoples lives by gently keeping them afloat and pushing them back to the land after their canoes had capsized. However, children are too young to know about taboos and moral issues. They do not have taboos. If taboo is the unique quality of human beings, are children considered as animals? For me, children are considered as premature humans, which they do not have much experience on what is happening in the world. Even as I mentioned above, the brains undergoes human evolution and become more consciousness and awareness in their first four years of life. They are unwise and do not understand anything. However, as they grew up, and their perspectives will be changing. For example, after they have faced the life and death of their animal pets or toys, they will understand more about human death. And as what Astuti mentioned, this will contribute to transform their appreciation of the boundary between animals and people Until they understand and appreciate the boundary between animals, they will become a mature human. It takes 5-12 years for a child to become a mature human. Therefore, taboos ma y be a unique quality for Homo sapiens.

Sunday, October 13, 2019

macbeth :: essays research papers

MACBETH In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, there are power struggles that interfere with personal relationships. The love and honor of the state or the love and loyalty of family is brought up to question. State and family are very similar, as they are both very important. But which one is more is not an easy question. In the eye’ of Macbeth and Macduff, characters in Macbeth the answer is simple, state. Loyalty to state is more valued to Macbeth and Macduff.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Macduff must not care for his family for he would not leave them all alone. â€Å"To leave his wife, to leave his babes, His mansion and his titles in a place from whence himself does fly? Act 4 Sc 2; these are the words of lady Macduff talking about her husband. If Macduff loves his family he would at lest tell his wife where he has run off to so she does not worry. It is easy to see that Macduff loves his country more than his family. â€Å"Wear thou thy wrongs; The title is affeered. Fare thee well, lord. I would not be the villain that thou think’st for the whole space that’s in the tyrant’s grasp and the rich East to boot.† Act 4 Sc3 this shows Macduff’s feelings about the situation of Macbeth being king. Macduff does not want to see the country of Scotland suffer, and he is showing his loyalty to king Duncan by going to his son Malcolm the person who should be king.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As with Macbeth the title of king is of more importance than a friend who he has been in battle with and is as his right hand man. â€Å"My noble partner you greet with present grace and great prediction of noble having and of royal hope,†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Act 1 Sc 3 this is of Banquo talking about Macbeth as these are traveling along together. Banquo is as a loyal partner and friend to Macbeth. But because Macbeth thinks that he is a better leader he does not want Banquo and his sons to rule the country. â€Å"Your children should be kings† Act 1 Sc 3. Even with Banquo being a noble friend this prophecy scares Macbeth and is left with one choice to kill his friend. â€Å"With barefaced power sweep him from my sight.† Act 3 Sc. 1. All this for the kingdom. Macbeth’s insecurity led him to believe that Macduff was betraying him and ordered the killing of Macduff’s family.