Understanding The Definition Of Internationalisation Systems Commerce Essay

Understanding The Definition Of internationalisation Systems Commerce Essayexternalization consists of standardized harvest-feasts or service through with(predicate) glob eachy standardized merchandise and w atomic number 18 processes that target standardized customer inescapably. Internationalisation arsehole be described as the process of channelize magnitude involvement in planetary operations (Welch Luostarinen, 1988 36).A nonher definition proposed by Calof and Beamish (1995 116) denotes internationalization as the process of adapting firms operations (strategy, structure, resources, etc) to international environments. Kutschker and Burle (1997) as both definitions encounter crucial fact internationalisation needs an all overall support from the governance as it is changing the environment to expand in non-homogeneous tact the process mostly consists of macro factors to evolve.3. The Uppsala Approach in detailThe Uppsala attack was an outcome of Swedish research ers (Johanson and Wiedersheim-Paul, 1975 Johanson and Vahlne, 1977) which focused their interest on the internationalization process. analyse the internationalization of Swedish manufacturing firms, they developed a model of the firms choice of workplace place and form of entry when going abroad. Their work was fascinated by Aharonis seminal (1966) study. (Svend and Hollensen2004)It is seen that companies range their operations in abroad in fairly nearby grocery and gradually penetrated distant commercialise. Companies should entry in new market with the exportationing agents and sales subsidiaries. The approach specifies come in relation between market companionship and market commitment is postulated, as knowledge foundation be self-possessed with effective use of human resources. Consequently, the better knowledge about a market toilette be derived, the to a great extent(prenominal) valuable are the resources and the stronger the market position of the firm. Up psala approach requires general knowledge and market specific knowledge, where as market specific knowledge asshole be derived from serviceable experiences by enter the new market. However the approach stress on experimental tuition as it cannot be acquired by objective knowledge (e.g., through marketing researches or reports) and must be gained principally through direct experience. As the approach deals with experimental learning the human resource should be managed in proper manner.It has distinguished between four different modes of entering an international market, where the successive stages represent higher degrees of international involvement market commitment.They as followStage 1 No regular export activities (sporadic export).Stage 2 Export via free-living representatives (export modes).Stage 3 boldness of a outside sales subsidiary.Stage 4 Foreign issue manufacturing unitsThese four stages deal with as no regular export activities in new market and knowing the m arket by experimental learning which helps in utilization of resources in effective charges. Exporting through independent agent can be suitable way of entering in new market as most of the firms prefer the way of entry.Consequently, the threats and opportunities in a new market will be discovered in the beginning by those people who are working there. Experience generates business opportunities and constitutes a driving force in the internationalization process (Johanson and Vahlne, 1990 33).The model is founded on four core concepts grocery store knowledge, market commitment, commitment decisions and current activities. Market knowledge and market commitment at a certain augur in fourth dimension are assumed to affect the commitment decisions and how the activities are carried out in the subsequent period, which in its turn will influence market knowledge and market commitment at later stages. On the basis of these four concepts, and by making the assumption of instrumentali sm, the model predicts that the underlying pattern of firms internationalization is to start and continue to set up in sound one or in a few neighbouring countries, rather than to invest in several countries simultaneously and That the enthronisations in a specific res publica are carried out cautiously, sequentially and concurrently with the learning of the firms people run in that market. Firms are supposed to enter new markets with successively greater psychic distance and the market investments develop according to the so called arrangement chain. Mats Forsgren. (2000.p5)This model deals with entering new market which is nearby or investing in single country rather than making a mess. It has leapfrogging propensity which allows entering in distant market. It shows companies can learn from their past experiences and practical knowledge. In these cases, competitive forces and factors override psychic distance as the forefront explanatory factor for the firms process of i nternationalization. Furthermore, if knowledge of transactions can be transferred from one country to another, firms with extensive international experience are credibly to perceive the psychic distance to a new country as shorter than firms with little international experience it can affect the smaller firms in case of psychic distances. The approach requires long term involvement in market to gain knowledge. The approach can be woo efficacious to kick in at initial stage provided can force long time evolve the payoff barriers.The approach underlies crucial brilliance people interest manifold in the process. By sales subsidiaries it can be easy to find problems and opportunities in the market.3.1 AdvantagesIt deals with indirect export of product with help of external export agents or merchants. Low embody entry method which helps using capital in other factors quickest way of entering the new markets. Establishing foreign sales subsidiaries can help change magnitude sa les, strength customer base in market and halts market sentiency about the product which identifies customer tastes and cultural factors which whitethorn change as per new market. By using foreign manufacturing unit labour cost and cost of achievement can be minimized.DrawbacksOccasional exporting of goods can divert customers interest. Lack of knowledge in initial phase as the exporting is done by agents or exporting merchants. Inter-organizational learning in a business network implies that deep and long-lasting business relationships promote the assimilation of tacit knowledge from the different factors in the market. Human resources knowledge programmes should be to gather knowledge about market. The Uppsala Model implies that different groups at the operational level get hold of a profound influence on the internationalization process. It is a relatively extreme bottom-up perspective, where the bottom plays the ahead(p) part and the headquarters play walk-on parts. It is not ease to apply for small firms in case of psychic distance.4. Macro environmental forces and continue on an organisations internationalisation decision-making process.PartnershipsAs Partnerships and Alliances are increasing as companies incarnate it is not always desirable to manage all stages. These may misdirect when the organisation wants go solo in the market as finis integration, domestic or international, are mentioned as the biggest challenges for alliances.Distribution channelsThe scattering channels may affect as carrying products to versatile place where there is insufficiency roadways or long distance it may cost more than estimation cost of distribution of material to market.TechnologicalTechnology continues to uphold the biggest current and future touch on on organizations. At the same time the Internet and intranets are changing the way employees interact with customers and each other. It needs innovation in the technology and manufacturing process, the services should be customer friendly, riotous reaction, and acceptance of change.CompetitorsThey may create obstacles in entering the market and go out misleading informations about market to stop new firms and may create monopoly for some products.Public pressure groupsThese factors directly affect or jounce the organization and they influence the managerial decision, the organizational goals, structure and targeted groups of customers.Competing Political, sustainability of the Physical Environment, Advances in Science and TechnologyethnicalAs per the new market it is disfranchised cope up with diverse cultural factors involved, Cultural, and Religious Ideologies. Regional, cultural groups may involve in restricting the foreign companies to enter in the market to nationalise the switch.SuppliersSuppliers of raw material and various inventories for production as it may impact on cost of production and it may change from market to market factors change.5. Example related to Int ernationalisationVarious industries in automobile urinate approached this kind of strategy in strong global competition. such as SKODA, VOLKSWAGEN, VOLVO, GENERAL MOTORS, and Productivity within the industry has risen over the years, and consumers are offered increasingly better products at deject prices. More and more manufacturers are establishing plants in countries where production costs are considerably lower and in any case purchasing more components there. In time, production costs for the major(ip) producers will essentially be at the same level.5.1 StrategiesMost of these companies have first started with exporting the products and then by and by studying market started their production in developing nations. The Volkswagen throng safeguards its future through local production operations with integrated growth in markets such as mainland China, India and Russia. Worldwide, the Volkswagen Group has 61 production facilities in 21 countries. General motors and Skoda hav e their production houses in developing nations where the cost of production is less as compared to exporting the products. In case of VOLVO about 95% of the companys production capacity is dictated in Sweden, Belgium, Brazil and the USA. But the company is moving towards low cost of production countries such as China, India and about 22% of their production is from Brazil. go on to cut costs and drive out decomposableity in all aspects of operations.5.2 More efficient purchasingPurchasing is another area where we have implemented changes in order to improve our cost position mainly through better coordination at the global level they have in any case intensified our cooperation with suppliers in order to cut the costs of components. But there is a good deal still to be done. Among other things, we are increasing the share of purchases from low-cost countries.5.3 Moving production to low-cost countries in that location has been change in the business model for units that could b e considered as non-core operations or in which profitability was as well as low. For example, instead of continuing production in the US and EUROPEN nations, which was less and in some cases non profitable, they have started to out-source their products from the manufacturers in China and Brazil and India. Maintaining competitive production in the changing the business models. It is also important to continue relocating production from high-cost to low-cost countries. Most of companies goals are too achieved by 2012.Sources Companies website www.volvo.com/trucks,www.gm.com www.volkswagen.com/annualreport, www.new.skoda-auto.com6. The Process of InternationalisationInternationalisation fundamentally alters the price-setting strategies of domestic economic agents. This is true for agents operating in product markets, factor markets and pecuniary markets. At a micro level, internationalisation directly alters pricing behaviour by deepening product and factor markets. More emf buye rs and sellers imply greater competition and a reduction in excess returns. At a macro level, internationalisation also has the potential to change the incentives faced by public policy makers (David Gruen and Geoffrey Shuetrim 1994.P.312)From the above definition it can be derived that trade between two or more nation where there is potential buyers and sellers of good in which the pricing behaviours may alter from product and various factors involved in market which directly or indirectly benefits consumers .The factors involved in these process may vary from place to place but to enter new market knowledge is essential. It can be complex as policy and regulations change as per the market. It can make potential market for customers. There are various trade unions to promote international trade such as WTO World Trade Organisation, EU European union , ASEAN Association of South-East Asian Nations, NAFTA North American discharge Trade Agreement ,AFTA ASEAN Free Trade Area, COMESA C ommon Market for east and Southern Africa. They encourage the trade within the members union.7. Main challenges in InternationalisationThe informal trade barriers for internationalisation are such as lack of information on business opportunities and weak contract enforcement.The Financial shoot such as exchange rate risk, political risk and point of reference risk as they may change as per the market mend local trade.Foreign regulatory environment can change the norms of trade for the industries.The lack of domestic support structure in way of financial support, advice by responsible people can make a change.Cultural and linguistic barriers cannot be changed as we have seen in case of various fast food companies e.g. K.F.C in India and Japan.The geographic distance between nations can make impact on their trade system.There must be two way communications among countries members which are involved in the system.As the market changes there has to be innovation in the product which suits to the market.absence seizure of specialised labour in work force can be challenging impact on organisation in internationalisation of market.There has to promotion of networks to gather information about new market.The border zones and cross-border cooperation in various nations the cross-border situation is critical most of the times these may impact on system.8. CONLIUSIONThis report is made to analysis the internationalisation is widely seen to be the dominant tendency of our time and it is very complex process and not easy to apply in practical. There various macro aspects have affect the decision making process of organisation. These factors can be taken under control by the firms. According to the report it is specified that after using the processes there can proper utilization of resources the organisation can minimize the cost of production. The internationalisation is challenging process with changing markets and foreign regulatory environments. Moving production to low-cost countries is effective factor in internationalisation as it can be efficient utilization of investment in new market. There are various organisations which help in the process as WTO, EU, and ASEAN.

Preserving Minority Languages

Preserving Minority LanguagesOn the other hand, according to Anthony Ellis, it would be trifling to insist that extinction of terminology causes extinction of culture because wrangle is not whole culture simply just star part of it (Ellis, 2005). Nevertheless, according to David Harrison, linguist and professor of the Swarthmore College, terminologys oerhear been shaped by plenty to serve as repositories for cultural knowledge, efficiently packaged and readily transmittable across generations. (Harrison, 20077). In other words, it is whole-important(a) for human race to keep the conservation of nonage spoken address receivable to its cultural honors academic, cultural and social revalues.The first cultural value of nonage terminology is its academic value. Linguists especially have academic manic disorder for harboring and researching minority languages. They should study many different languages to restore their all functions and structures of endangered languag es. It must also be noted that linguists need to hold back many youngsters at school to transmit their native languages to next generations. More over, one(a) of most important causal agent why it is essential to keep minority languages researching is that academically new and attractive facts atomic number 18 always discovered in minority languages.Ubykh, one of minority language of the North-western Caucasian group verbalise by the Ubykh masses until the early 1990s, was regarded as a language which has a large number of consonants (Romaine, 2007). Recent researches, however, show that some African language have more consonants than Ubykhs. Furthermore, linguists found an African language called Hixkaryana, which has about 350 speakers. The reason why this language and its adjacent languages have an attention is that they are cases of language which place their object first when they run into a sentence. For an instance, if the slope sentence, I love you, is made, the sen tence in Hixkaryana should be you love I rather of I love you. In the case of Korean and Japanese, they have the prototypical structural order, Subject + Object + Verb(SOV). They say I you love whilst incline speakers say I love you. It is clear that contemporary English has self-evident sentence order, Subject + Verb + Object(SVO). However, Irish puts its verb first. Unfortunately, linguists predict that object-initial languages such as Hixkaryana allow for vanish in the next century. (Nettle Romaine, 200011)At this point, it should be academically asked that why object-initial languages are hard to survive in the modern era. This is the academic uncertainty which needs to be examined by researching minority languages. There get out be a number of these kinds of academic questions from minority languages. This academic knowledge will be a massive legacy for human race. This is why we write minority languages.The second cultural value of minority language is the value abou t its ethnic individualism operator. One of the most important factors of ethnic identity is language. In the time of globalisation, identity of populate is defined by the language that they speak and write rather than the region that people live. For an example, although every people in London speak common language, English, it is unsure that all of them are English people because some of them have their native languages. It doer that people can find their ethnic identity when they speak their native languages.The immensity of ethnic identity acquired by using native languages is closely link with national pinnacle of each country. For example, one of the urgent issues of Ukraine after freedom in 1991 was to establish its linguistic identity to rise up the stature of nation-state. After breaking up Soviet-union, one of differences between other nation-states and Ukraine was the define of Russian. Unlike other nation-states, Russians was used in more widely and stable made an impact on culture, science, management and so on in Ukraine. In this situation, Ukraine declared the new constitution and it expressed all the way that on that point is only one national language. By this process, Ukrainian became only one official language of Ukraine. People who used Ukrainian thought that people who still used Russian didnt have any ethnic identity as the member of Ukraine (Zhurzhenko, 2002).For another example of historically dark side, during the Japanese occupation in the past, Hangeul, Korean native language made by Sejong the Great in 1443, was strictly banned to use among Koreans as a colonial policy for ethnocide. Koreans were forced to change even their Hangeul names to Japanese names. Koreas national stature could not help fall.These historical facts above clearly demonstrate that language can not be divided from the ethnic identity. For this reason, if minority languages become extinct, the ethnic identity of those who use minority language will be disappeared as well.The third cultural value of minority language is its aesthetic value. Every language has its aesthetic values. This is expressed by art works through languages such as novels, poets and even music. question has shown that there is the tendency to regard analogies between artforms and linguistic structures as germane(predicate) and illuminating. (Kraut, 2007177). It is said that Jazz improvisation is analogous to spontaneous speech.(ibid). In other words, it means that all minority languages have their alone(p) aesthetic values.For an instance, mainland China is unified multiracial nation and 56 tribes are living unneurotic in an extensive land. The numbers of minority tribes languages are around 60. til now though they are minority languages, their aesthetic values are proved by their literatures. Tibetians literary value is excellent and its Gesaer, written in the thirteenth century BC, has been well-known as the longest heroic epic over the world. Dong, one of minority ethnic groups in China has their native language, Kradai. It is told that Kradai is a profusion of musical value because it has various tones and vocabularies. Kradai has been developed in unique musical ways of Dongs people. It is known that Kradai is the most complex language over the world because it has 15 tones whilst the language of the Han race in China has 4 tones. As a matter of fact, its complexity contributed to make its aesthetic value. Therefore, it is raw(a) that this great value dies if minority languages of Chinas minority ethnic groups die.For these three cultural values, which are academic, ethnic and aesthetic values, it is self-evident that minority languages are definitely deserved to be protected and transmit to their next generations as their great legacy. That is to say, minority languages are not a part of culture and a method of communications but culture itself. When a language dies, a culture dies.ConclusionIn conclusion, it is urgently asked at this time to protect minority languages. Firstly, it is essential that the endangered languages ought to be found, stabilised all linguistic functions and all people help them be transmitted to next generations. Secondly, it is needed to make preserving minority languages be an important part of Conservation ethic. It means that people should realise that our language is equally one of the great ingrained environments and endeavour to protect our linguistic environment. Lastly, there has to be unremitting achievement for native language education even if it is minority language. For an instance, some Korean scholars pointed out to Koreas education environment just focused on English instead of Hangeul, Korean language and predicted there will be no Hangeul after 200 years if we keep this education system. Minority language education is important especially for next generations. Therefore, the fact that extinction of a language engenders extinction of a culture should be r emembered to all generations and make a great effort to preserve minority languages.BibliographyEllis, Anthony (2005). Minority Rights and the saving of Languages. Cambridge Journals 199-217. The Royal institute of Philosophy.Harrison, David. K. (2007). When Languages Die The Extinction of the Worlds Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge. USA, Oxford University Press.http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7206411.stm (Accessed 08 November 2010).Kraut, Robert. (2007). Artworld Metaphysics. Oxford Scholarship Online January 2008.Nettle, D. and S. Romaine (2000). Vanishing voices the extinction of the worlds languages. Oxford, Oxford University Press.Romaine, Suzanne. (2007). Preserving Endangered Languages. Language and linguistics compass 1/1-2115-132. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.Zhurzhenko, Tatiana. (2002). Language Politics in coetaneous Ukraine Nationalism and Identity Formation. IWM Junior Visiting Fellows Conferences, Vol. XII/2.

Relationship Between Photography Art And Psychology Photography Essay

Relationship Between Photography fine prowess And Psychology Photography EssayI count that commodious inventionistry and photography squeeze out be produced as a conduce of psychicalal energy realised from re evokeed feats and instincts being effectively airt into a yeasty activity. I in identical manner cerebrate that a great deal of art created is a lead and expression of what Freud referred to as the Death Drive. Furtherto a greater extent I believe that increased levels of psychic energy and tension can be linked to the production of great art.Freuds goal arrest possibility was premiere base revealed in his 1920 essay Beyond the Pleasure principle. Feud formulated this system after induceing closely with patients suffering from severe trauma. Through off the prototypical World contend Freud spent a great deal of succession chokeing with and observing the behaviour of the soldiers who had fadeed from the battlefields and trenches. M both(prenominal) of these soldiers were suffering from Traumatic War Neuroses (which is now referred to as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). Freud observed that the soldiers such(prenominal) had a aptness to dream, obsess, mentally repeat and in some severe cases re-enact the traumatic neverthelessts they had witnessed. This neurotic attachment to the trauma seemed to contradict Frauds previous essay The Pleasure Principle which suggests that the individual is constantly seeking to maximize his or her possess pleasure. Freud suggested that the capitulum is split into deuce-ace distinctive groups. Firstly we know the conscious, which is home to those thoughts and perceptions of which a someone is fully aw be. Secondly we form the pre-conscious, which is where we store our fuckledge and memories and thirdly we have the unconscious, which is material that can non be made available voluntarily such as fears, unacceptable internal desires, irrational wishes, shameful experiences, selfish submits, abominable urges and violent motives. The three layers of some consistencyality ar oft personateed as a mental iceberg, which is economic consumptiond to illustrate the incredible size of the unconscious.It is big to substantiate that according to Freud the termination fix is part the id. The id is the most free and primitive part of a persons personality and is the system we come outfit with at take. According to Freuds essay The Pleasure Principle the id does not know right from wrong, it has no perception of morals, values or standards it simply seeks to exploit its own pleasure. The self begins to develop after birth as the tyke begins to interact with their environment. The ego operates on the reality principle, which is survival orientated and prevents the person from doing any intimacy that is overly detrimental. The highly ego develops later as a outcome of societys values, morals and standards being passed onto the tiddler through interaction wit h some other tribe and adults. The super ego is the part of the personality that strives for perfection and whole kit in contradiction to the id. Be engender the id and super ego are so dramatically distant it falls on the ego to act as the middleman. The ego moldiness satisfy the ids primitive impulses without offending the super egos moral character whilst overly taking into consideration the reality of the situation.Human beings are torn amidst two opposing instinctive engages. On the one contri providede we have the Eros (the biography drive). The Eros is a creative drive that promotes and supports harmony, reproduction, sexual companionship and preservation of both the self and the species. On the other hand we have the Thanatos (Death Drive). The Death Drive is self-destructive and instinctively seeks aggression, compulsion, repetition and obliteration. Freud believed that the Death Drive is a persons drive towards last and the wish to return to an inanimate state. There are more socially acceptable shipway of expressing the creative and sexual needs of the Eros without offending the moralistic super ego. It is the Death Drives destructive and aggressive characteristics that are more difficult to express. This could way out in mindless aggression, masochism and hate.Be bring forth the ego has such a difficult clipping satisfying the impulses of both the id and the super ego it uses tools often referred to as self-importance Defence Mechanisms to reduce anxiety and protect self-esteem. These defence mechanisms include denial, displacement, intellectualization, dateion, reaction formation, rationalisation, regression, sublimation and suppression.The ego defence mechanisms are used to push something that causes you anxiety into the unconscious. Freud believed that any psychic energy that is repressed would later have to emerge in one way or another. Freud stated that the psyche works to hold fast rid of this energy in three ways. The scra tch is catharsis, which will light up the psychic energy through unconscious impulses such as jest and crying. Sublimation is the second method that the psyche uses to channel the psychic energy. Sublimation converts the instincts and impulses to allow the person to express them in a way that is acceptable to the super ego write books, paint pictures, build bridges, do research, learn mathematical equations and so on (Nye 1999 pg 14) .If you cannot sublimate enough it can seriously affect your mental health. The displacement of the hold in instincts then takes the form of the third method, which is neuroses. The neurosis is revealed in the form of symptoms. These symptoms work to reduce the psychic tension but are also detrimental to the person. These symptoms could manifest themselves in some forms such as depression, phobias, coercions, denial and psychosis. This is why art is often used as an vary therapy. The psychic tension is encouraged to manifest itself into somethi ng creative rather than let it quietly fester into symptoms.Of the three defence mechanisms sublimation is the one that interests me the most. Sublimation is the mechanism that Freud believed could abide an overall explanation for operativeic talent and the production of great art Since artistic talent and capacity are intimately connected with sublimation we moldiness admit that the genius of the artistic function is also inaccessible to us a unyielding psychoanalytic lines (Clark 1965 pg165).Freuds essay on da Vinci da Vinci illustrates his theory regarding sublimation and its connection to artistic creativeness and genius. It is democraticly believed that da Vinci da Vinci was homosexually inclined. He never married and was in fact charged with the act of anal intercourse twice in 1476 but was later released and the case dropped due to a lack of witnesses. Although anonymously accused of the act many of Leonardos contemporaries also believed him to be homosexual, Freud also believed this.It is the Oedipus compound that Freud believed could explain Leonardos homosexual inclinations. According to the Oedipus complex small children whilst in the Oedipal phase of libidinal and ego development (between the ages of three and five) harbour unconscious drives and odorings which centre slightly the complete possession of the leaven of the opposite sex, in the case of a male child the contract would go the subject of this fixation. The child would then be in accept competition for the mothers affection with the arrest who at this take according to the child has become an intruder in the kindred. This would at first lead to booking but the child soon realises that the develop is bigger and in a position of authority. As the child then begins to recognise that the mother loves the father he wants to emulate his fathers masculine traits and behaviour in order to become more like him to earn favour with his mother.It is interesting that the Oedipus compl ex takes it ring from the Greek mythological charter Oedipus who kills his father and marries his mother. Freuds views on this character were merciful he statedHis destiny moves us notwithstanding because it might have been ours because the oracle laid the comparable curse upon us earlier our birth as upon him. It is the fate of all of us, by chance, to direct our first sexual impulses towards our mother and our first hatred and our first murderous wish a achievest our father (Freud 1889 p296)Leonardo was an illegitimate child, later adopted by his father and brought up in his fathers household.There is no historical record which indicates what kind of relationship Leonardo may have had with his mother or his step mother, or which tells us what kind of plenty they were. Nor is it known at what age Leonardo was remote from his mother to be brought up by his step mother and father (Storr 1999 pg75/76)According to Freuds theory regarding the Oedipus complex if Leonardo did not have a sufficient mother figure he would have had no need to emulate his fathers masculine traits and behaviour. This is what led Freud to conclude that Leonardo was homosexual.Being homosexual, and not being able to express himself openly would have been a great cause of stress and anxiety for Leonardo. This stress and anxiety was repressed into his unconscious and could have ultimately led to mental heath symptoms had he not been able to sublimate it so effectively. Freud believed that Leonardo was sublimating his sexuality into something more appropriate. The suppressed drives and instincts of Leonardos id were being sublimated through his creativity so effectively that he was able to create some of the innovations most amazing art works and inventions. The irony of Freuds theory is that if Leonardo had been allowed to be openly gay he would not have created this work.So what characteristics reveal the presence of the cobblers last drive and when is the demolition drive recog nizable in art? I believe that the demise drive can be observed in the work of many great artist and photographers. Common physical formulations of the final stage drive in art include such bleak and unwholesome imaging as the grim reaper, skulls, blood, crows and hooded figures, but the manifestation does not ceaselessly come out of the closet in such a literal way. The death drive is often expressed in works of art through subliminal and emblematical methods. Freud interpreted art in a standardised way to how he interpreted dreams It was natural that he should apply the same technique of adaptation to works of art as he did to dreams, phantasies and neurotic symptoms. Just like dreams Freud believed that art is an expression of unconscious. The Death Drive cannot always manifest itself overtly in art. Its type is often symbolic as the super ego would be damaged by anything that society deems a taboo or unacceptable.Although Freuds theory regarding the interpretation of dreams was not an aesthetic one, I believe that the connection between what a person dreams and what is expressed by the subconscious during the put to work of sublimating psychic energy into a creative form turn overs many similarities and could so be analyzed in a similar way. Although the Freudian analytic thinking of dreams focuses more on how the subconscious deals with and associates with our memories and emotions I think the same abbreviation can be used to look at how our subconscious deals with and expresses these same memories and emotions physically.One of the most obvious examples of an artist that depicts the death drive in his artwork is Damian Hirst. Hirst who has been described by a London art critics as the hooligan genius of British art seems to have an unhealthy obsession with death, his work is famously dark and notoriously unpleasant and unwholesome. Death, destruction and imagery related or connected to mortality are reoccurring themes in a great deal of Hirsts work, so much so that his work is often instantly identifiable purely from its subject matter.Hirst became a household shout after exhibiting a series of deceased animals that included a fourteen-foot tiger shark a sheep and a cow that were all preserved in a specially created formaldehyde solution. The title of the exhibition The Physical impossible action of Death in the Mind of Someone Living seems to suggests that you cannot witness or experience your own death, an interesting title stimulaten the capacitys and the nature of the exhibition. Hirsts work is an examination of the processes of life and death the ironies, falsehoods and desires that we mobilize to negotiate our own alienation and mortality. By preserving and then exhibiting these dead animals Hirst forces his interview to confront death head on. In my eyes this shocking tactic sums up scarcely how the death drive can express itself in art . The death driveHirst is also famous for creating a life size hu man being skull cast in platinum titled For the Love of God. The skull is encased in 8601 diamonds and is currently the most expensive piece of art ever created. The use of a real human skull -which according to Hirst was purchased in Islington emphasises his fixation with mortality. The skull, which to many is regarded as the ultimate sign of death could be interpreted as an obvious incarnation of Hirsts own death drive. When discourseed by the Guardian composition regarding his luxurious crystal skull Hirst was quoted I just want to celebrate life by saying to hell with death, Death is such a line aspect of Hirsts work but so to is the controversy that surrounds it.Not moreover is Hirsts work an artistic representation of the themes and imagery often associated with the death drive but I believe that it is also a direct manifestation of the psychic energy created by the death drive. This energy is being sublimated into a creative art form. The work of Hirst would seem, if anyth ing to be the artistic representation of someone with a wildly overactive active death drive, if this is neat what has caused this? Looking into Hirsts childhood and early life in that respect are some(prenominal) interesting events that could explain his need to sublimate psychic energy into other activities. Sigmund Freud believed that by viewing and analyzing a piece of art in a way similar to analyzing dreams he could gain an incite into the unconscious drives and instincts that helped create them. what he did with varying success, was to discover in the work of art order of the artists presumed infantile conflictsHirsts parents separated when he was s coin bank in truth young, as a result his mother struggled to deal with his wild and often criminal behavior. Hirsts relationship with his mother became ever more strained as she failed to tolerate his acts of rebellion. The interval of his parents at the age of twelve would have been a great cause for stress and anxiety. A s tress that could have comfortably developed into a mental illness had he not been able to sublimate this psychic energy so successfully through his works of art. The breakdown in the relationship between Hirst and his mother would also have been cause of anxiety. It is perhaps due to this anxiety that he was able to achieve and be so successful in later life.Hirst struggled as an artist throughout the first 23 days of his life, He persisted despite many complications and rejections, first at school and then sixth form where he was finally admitted only after his art t from each oneer pleaded passionately with the staff begging them to give him a place. subsequently two age spent in sixth form he left with an E grade A-Level in prowess. After sixth form Hirst was then turned down and refused introduction to the Leeds College of Art and Design but eventually managed to gain admission after he submitted a successful application. After his cadence at college Hirst worked for two eld on various building sites before applying for a place to composition Fine Art at Goldsmiths University in London. Again Hirst was initially refused admission but later reapplied and was granted a place. The struggle of Hirst to succeed in his artistic career in itself would be a great cause of stress and negative tension. Could this tension and psychic energy be the central cause of hisHirsts confrontation with deathArtists have always been fascinated with death. The artist almost instinctively seeks to address and confront death. This desire to seek out and vitrine death is reflected in the photographic work of Erik Van Der Weijde. Weijde is a professional self-publishing photographer whose work is usually architecture related and whose work is often released in intricately created limited editions.Weijdes work based in Germany looks at buildings and architecture built and used by the Nazis between 1943 and 1945. The project titled Siedlung which translates as neighborhood or settlement is a locomote that focuses on houses built by the Nazis for the German working class NSDAP members. The world of these houses was a powerful propaganda tool for the Nazi party, which artificially removed people from unemployment and enforced a deliberate sense of unity and uniformity. The first thing that I notice roughly these images is how insentient and sterile they appear. The houses are healthful kept but there is no sign of life. There are no people in the streets, no visible animals. There is not even a single bird visible in the sky. This freakish deadpan aesthetic is obviously an expression of Weijdes death drive and his intentionally simple images create a surreal soberness that unsettles the viewer. The photographs themselves whilst working salubrious as a set do not follow any traditional systems or rules regarding traditional architectural photography. The images have a opened feel to them, the effect of which is a sinister voyeuristic overtone that adds to the disquieting image subjects.Weijdes other photographic projects include a set of photographs interpreted at a location where Marc Dutroux used to go skating before he started kidnapping girls This project is very similar to his project about Nazi architecture. The project simply titled Ice-skating lanes consists of a inviteion of images taken outside a skating rink. Similarly to the Nazi project the images give no evidence or make any reference to the events that took place. perchance taken out of context these images would not be so cold and sobering.Both of these projects have been shot within the last couple of years Ice-skating lanes is dated 2006 and Third Reich 2007. Weijde has decided to shoot the majority of the images in these projects not in colour but in black and white. I feel that the black and white images are much more effective and beseech a much stronger sense of dread. Death is a state of reductivism and this deliberate decision to remove col our from the images gives them an archival feel, which if anything strengthens the morbidly unsettling automatic teller captured in the photographs. The production or creation of an archive reflects the death drives compulsive need for repetition. Weijdes images are so simple in fact that they gain a surreal, otherworldly characteristic. The subject of Weijdes work is so frequently morbid that it is impossible to make out his obvious enthrallment with death nor is it possible to ignore his deliberate pursuit and confrontation of death. I believe that Weijde is a confessedly example of how the death drive can inspire art or photography. Weijdes interest lies purely in the fascination he has regarding the locations of these terrible incidents, he is not financially motivated nor does he seek controversy.The fascination of documenting death and destruction does not end with Eric Van Der Weijde. Photographers from all over the world share a similar bond with death, a bond draws the m to scenes of unimaginable carnage. Enrique Metinides is known for his macabre depictions of life in Mexico City. Having photographed his first dead body before the age of twelve, Metinides developed an obsession with documenting the recently deceased, for years he slept with his radio tuned into the frequencies of various essential services such as the police, ignition brigade and ambulance, desperately trying to eavesdrop and listen in on breaking news on disasters and tragic events that was being relayed from call centers to the emergency services. Sleeping in his clothes and listening long into the night Metinides was always prepared to leave his house at a moments notice in order to follow a scoop.Metinides employed a series of illegitimate methods to ensure that he was always first on scene, these methods included wall hanging around outside the various police stations and morgues and volunteering with the Red insure so that he could arrive on scene with ambulances and p aramedics, by doing this he was able to document the events without any interference from the public or police. The length that Metinides went to in order to ensure his place at the front of each incident illustrates his commitment and dedication to his work, a dedication that is shared by many artists and photographers. It is possible that this energetic drive was fuelled by Metinidess own death drive the sublimation of which resulted in the obsessive habits and behavior he developed in order to successfully pursue his work. Metinidess preparations often gave him the edge over the press and other reporters allowing him to be first on the scene of each disaster, fortify with his trusted camera he documented each gruesome and bloody(a) incident.During his career Metinides worked for the Nota Roja (bloody news). Whilst working for the bloody news Metinides built a morbid portfolio of suicide come outers, decapitated bodies, street stabbings, crime scenes, accidental electrocutions , car wrecks, aeroplane crashes, exploding gas tanks, train derailments and other disasters. Metinidess photography is unpleasantly tragic he depicts these scenes of carnage in such a stark and unforgiving way. The images take issue considerably from the archival styled work of Eric Van Der Weijde in both content and style. Eric Van Der Weijdes images exhibit the death drive in a more subtle and symbolic way that at first glance could easily be missed, whereas the work of Metinides expresses the death drive in a much more aggressive way. This is partly because the work of Eric Van Der Weijde is inspired by acts from the past concentrating on documenting them in the present whereas Metinidess work focuses on the chaos, atypical and spontaneous nature of life and death. The subject matter of Metinidess work is so brutally shocking that it almost seems unreal. The images are almost driven to the point of abstraction as the audience is forced to confront the death that Metinides has photographed. These images arent loud magazine photoplays. The deaths and disasters are real.So why was Metinides so obsessed with confronting death? What was it that he sought to document? The underlying cause of Metinidess build up of psychic energy which lead to the necessity of sublimation was not a result of repressed sexual as it had been with Leonardo Da Vinci, nor was it the result of a broken home or childhood conflicts with his mother. I believe that Metinidess finished career developed as a result of the first dead body he encountered as a child.The son of a popular restaurant owner young Metinides befriended the policemen and women that would eat there. They invited him to the station where he encountered his first corpse the corpse had been laid on a track and beheaded by a train This scene took the fear out of me, so I could continue to look at these kinds of images for the next fifty years From then on Metinides used his box camera to take and collect pictures of a ccidents. Now this of course is not the usual behavior of a teen boy and I believe could be the route of his lifetime fascination with the dead.Other interesting facts known about Metinides are that he is a passionate collector of various objects, particularly model ambulances and police cars which he owns over 4000 of. Excessive collecting is often linked to the death drive as the death drive seeks repetition. Metinides is also an obsessive archivist who even till this day compulsively catalogues video footage of live accidents from television for a increment personal archive again this behavior could be argued to be the result of the death drive but interestingly could also be explained by the Eros, the life drive that instinctively seeks to preserve and create.In an interesting interview with Metinides conducted by VMAGAZINE he tells of an incident where a man attempted to jump from the top of the Torero Stadium building because, he said he treasured to feel what death felt li ke. Metinidess work cannot visually convey what death feels like but it does however illustrate what death feels like to those around it.Personally I believe that Metinides work goes way beyond even the most compelling of photojournalism. When viewing Metinidess work I feel myself raddled into his images. I feel like I am watching the events from a safe distance but then the realization dawns that I am not alone. In many of Metinidess images large crowds of people have gathered around the scene of the accident and as I stare transfixed on the limp, lifeless body of a child or the cold dead face of a motor accident victim I slowly begin to pan out and notice the crowds of people not looking at the wreckage and chaos, instead there gaze is directly at me. People in the crowds are often looking straight into the genus Lens of Metinidess camera it makes us, as the audience feel uncomfortable as there eyes meet with our own but at the same time this awkward eye contact completes the c ycle of voyeurism.In a similar fashion to Damian Hirst Metinidess work exploits death. His whole career has been built around the drab and unfortunate events that ended with a person losing their live. It seems that being able to face death, whether morally right or not can be very profitable business. Death is a constant theme in the archives of art and photography, I believe that the popularity of the subject lies in the audiences desire to understand and confront their own mortality...work shows how fragile we are and how suddenly life can be taken away from us. The fact that these images remain so prize and that Metinides is still regarded as Mexicos most popular newspaper photographer suggests that the obsession with death lies not just with the artist or the photographer but also with the audience. Perhaps the need for an artist to confront or portray death is not only a response to their own death drive but also to the death drive of their audience. I believe that by viewi ng work by artists such as Metinides the audience is able to sublimate some of their own negative energy. Art has long been known for its therapeutic propertiesConclusionPsychic energy is what fuels a persons actions. Art is a direct sublimation of this psychic energy. If you are intumesce balanced and mentally well rounded you will have less of this psychic energy to draw from. So basically the more screwed up and mentally unstable you are the more psychic energy you have to express in your artwork. This is why many great artists are often on the edge/ bourne of a mental break down.

Analysis Of Luxury Hotel Emirate Palace

abridgment Of Luxury Hotel Emirate palaceIntroductionThe Emirate palace is the most luxurious hotel in Abu Dhabi universe the second s sluice superstar hotel of the world. Construction of the hotel is done with the utmost possible standards of comfort and luxury. It is built in 1000 hect ars of beautiful landscapes. stem of the hotel is grittyly commendable with exclusively the facilities. It has 20 various places for culinary delights, capacious parking place, 2 helipads, 300 live, 90 suits, 48 collection inhabit, and a huge conclave centre. The train of various swear outs melt downd by the hotel is of really(prenominal)(prenominal) high attribute. (Minghetti., 2003)Some of the major function in the hotel industry be the client proceedss, room religious gos, layout divine nurses, spirit table gos etc. These work constrain a great importance in the hospitality industry and even to a greater extent for a hotel equal Emirate Palace. Providing good cl ient avails in the hotel industry is the most fine objective to re principal(prenominal)(prenominal) competitive and paid in the abundant run of the calling. Customer helping is a typifyually signifi flowerpott facet of the hospitality industry. Customers of hotels need the employees to fulfill their various requirements and consequently find on interacting with t stitch all the era during their stay in the hotel. (Fitzsimmons., 1999)tourism is an alpha sector of the UAE and thus the hospitality and tourism industry is well-heeled and competitive there. There atomic number 18 a large number of hotels in Abu Dhabi which fulfils all the requirements of location, accommodation and budget of the nodes. To gain a competitive knock against in the market it is advisable for a hotel to fashion rigorously for the good of the client serve. Providing exceptional guest emolument is a very critical rationalise for the hospitality industry. Customers of hotels expect a go od level of wait on from the hotel employees and if not go awayd than they may often looking at dissatisfied only if they ar given snap off usefulness than the expectations they canful be made feel redundant and grave for the hotel and can suffer sure that during the next understand in the city they result stay in the same hotel. The main objective of good customer service is bringing the customers back. This can be done if the level of service plyd to the customer is good enough to labour him so that he should a spread a plus feedback intimately the hotel that provide retract more customers to the hotel. The main focus of customer operate is the customer satisfaction to gain retention by making blotto and long consideration relations. (Dominici., 2010)Following work up show the service intention of a luxury hotelMission and Vision of Emirate PalaceThe mission of the hotel is to leave behind clients the most exclusive and unique experiences.The strategic vi sion of the Emirate Palace is to make out as a worlds most luxurious hotel and leisure destination and to lead the industry. An other(a) vision of the hotel is to contribute in making Abu Dhabi the centre of cultural activities of the Middle East and Emirate Palace a milestone in the plain which can host some(prenominal) prestigious sporting event in Abu Dhabi.Customer serve ups in Emirate PalaceFollowing argon the main customer work offered in the Emirate PalaceHotel Reservations Emirate Palace has a very nice expertness to make makings in the hotel. It has an online substitute opening where customer can make acquire bookings for their stay in the hotel. Customer can likewise check the status of availability of board on the in store(predicate) go withs when he wants to visit the hotel. M any(prenominal) online allowance options atomic number 18 in stock(predicate) on the website for the convenience of the customer to fill payment option which suits them the mos t. Reservation portal also gives many offers on the advance booking of rooms. (Dhabi.)Meetings and Conferences The Emirate Palace has 48 conference rooms, a large conference centre, a ballroom with a capacity of 2400 guests, a huge auditorium able to accommodate 1100 seats. These meeting and conference halls atomic number 18 best suitable for a gathering of 1000 plenty or a private confidential meeting of 10 people. The conference rooms feature projectors, LCD screens, microphones, Wi-Fi data dodging and audio and characterisation conference system preinstalled. (Dhabi.) leaf node Relations Emirate Palace utilize to earmark high level of customer service to the guests of the hotels. It is one of the most master copy hotels in the world so the list of the hotel guests is also very exclusive. after acquire pampered with the world class customer service the customers be welcomed to provide an honest feedback about their stay in the hotel. This feedback is helpful in maint aining long term birth with the customers. (Dhabi.)Membership The hotel provides the facility of membership with the group. This membership facility is very purposeful in causal agency of urgent bookings in the hotel. Members of the hotel are the customers who used to visit the hotel more often. This facility is the benefit of the long term relationship surrounded by the hotel and its customers. The members of the hotel are given priority in case of unavailability of enough vacancies in the hotel.Comments/Suggestions Collecting feedback from the customers is a critical issue for providing the best customer services in the industry. Words from the customers are very burning(prenominal) for the hotel. These feedbacks are used to improve the superior of service if needed.transit Visas for UAE UAE is the main place of attraction for the tourists all around the globe. Tourism is an important industry in the UAE and people used to visit UAE both for work and fun. The hotel helps its customers to provide transit visas for the UAE during their stay in the country. Acquiring visas is the most time consuming task for a visit in a outside country. This herculean task is made easy for the customers by the Emirate Palace by providing them the transit visas for the UAE. The Emirate Palace get transit visas of 14 daytimes issued for the customers at bottom 7 working days. ( jump Visas for the United Arab Emirates)Events Calendar Schedule of the coming events in Abu Dhabi, UAE and Emirate Palace is available on the website of the hotel. This knowledge can be very helpful for the customers of the hotel to make mental qualification accordingly if they want to attend a current event in the hotel. The event calendar is used for getting cultivation about the latest events going to be held at the hotel. (Dhabi.)IT pantryman Service Till directly the Emirate Palace used to provide a personal butler for every room and suite but now the butler service has taken a step ahead and the hotel is providing an IT butler for private consultation. This IT butler service is 247 facilities for IT assistance and support of the customer. Emirate Palace is used to host many conferences and workshops for many IT companies.Online stamp In case a customer needs printed copy of round of his roll so he does not have to go to a printer to get his scroll printed. The Emirate Palace provides the service of online printing. The customer has to upload the electronic copy of the put down on the web portal of the hotel and rules of order it for printing. Nominal charges are relevant on printing of documents. This service adds nurse to the customer services provided by the hotel. (Dhabi.)Leisure Healthcare The hotel has unlimited leisure and recreational facilities available. The hotel has health spa, fittingness suites, energy zone, tennis and paddle programs for health and fitness of the customers. Many peeing sports activities are facilitated by the h otel where the customers can enjoy the thrill of the open sea. Sarab cut back is a children playground well equipped with slides and swings and many child activities unionized by the beach club. (Dhabi.) analytic thinking of Customer Service exertions in Emirate PalaceService operation management is all bout the operate by which institution produce services which are useful for the customer. Operation management takes care of managing the edge of end product of services. The work at of geological fault of gossip resources in the return of services is called an operation. (JPC Media LLC )The operation abut of transforming inputs into creates certainly adds some value (apart from the exist of input) to the final product or service which is called the value added to the service.The Emirate Palace provides a very high level of service to its customer. This level of service can be produced only if the organization incorporates a service operation management which keeps a wat ch on the process of production of services. Various customer services in the Emirate Palace are discussed higher up and here these services are be analyzed on the fabric of service operation management. (JPC Media LLC )Hotel Reservation In the Emirate Palace the hotel reservation system is a customer service. In the operation of this service the inputs given are the web portal for the reservation system where the queries for the availability of rooms on are asked, and information (like number of rooms, number of guests, adults or children, date of reservation) from the customer is also require. Another input is the payment options for the advance booking.The transformation process of this service includes the changes in the database of the hotel reservation system. The database provides the results of the queries made by customer regarding the emptiness of room on the given date. The process of reservation also includes the consummation of union for the reservation made in the hotel.Output from the transformation process is the customer service for making advance reservations in the hotel. The process provides information about the availability of rooms or suites on the token date when customer wants it. The process also provides the information about all the types of rooms and suites in the hotel, their specifications, facilities in the rooms, and charges of the rooms. Using this information customer can choose the type of room and services they need. After making the payments for the reservation customer can get his room booked in the hotel on the want date. (JPC Media LLC )Meetings Conferences The Emirate Palace is one of the best venues for brass conference and summits. Meetings and conferences of many international companies are arranged at the conference rooms and auditorium of the hotel. The input in the operation of this facility are the space of the meeting rooms, gadgets like the LCDs, microphones, projectors, other services like, Wi-F i internet, audio or video conferencing systems. These additional services act as input of this customer service. Another input is the piece of information provided by the customer about his requirements of the meeting or conference rooms. switching process of the above input gadgets and services into the desire output of the service include a few steps. Conference rooms or auditorium are booked for various purposes. So first of all the requirements of the customer are studied and an estimation of the budget is given to the customer. If the customer needs any changes then the budget is revised otherwise next step that is adroitness of the extra facilities like Wi-Fi, projectors, LCDs are done in conference rooms and the rooms are ready and well furnished for the meetings going to held there. roaring billet meetings and government conferences and summits without any disturbance or interrupt overdue to some missing equipment or service are the output of this service operation. Sat isfied customer is the intangible and most important outcome from the operation. (JPC Media LLC )Guest Relations Emirate Palace is one of the few hotels which provide seven star facilities to its customers. So the list of guests of the hotel becomes very exclusive as many government official, Hollywood stars, and sports star used to visit the hotel. The input in the service operation is the guests and the employees of the hotel.The process of the operation involves the interaction between the customers and the employees of the hotel. Guests used to keep on communicating with the hotel ply during all the hours of the day and the response of the module plays a crucial role in the process of transforming inputs in the desired output. The hotel faculty is well trained in the field of hospitality and fulfills all the needs of the guests of the hotel.The output of this service operation is the long term relationship with the customers. A happy guest with the facilities of the hotel wi ll give a positive feedback of the customer services of the hotel. Apart from the positive feedback another important output will be the next stay of the guest in the hotel. Managing sanitary and long term relations with the guests is important in the retention of the customers. (JPC Media LLC )Transit Visas for UAE Emirate Palace helps its customers in getting the temporary tourist visas of the UAE. comment for the service operation is the customers documents, and charges of the visa. These are the requirements for getting the transit visa for UAE for the customers of Emirate Palace.The process of the service operation involves many steps as it has to go through a government protocol which is a bit time consuming but less than what it takes to get a transit visa directly from UAE embassy. impact of the visa application takes at least 7 working days. The result of visas is under control of the Immigration department of Abu Dhabi.Transit visa sensible for 14 days from the day o f arrival in UAE is the output of the transformation process. A scanned copy on the mail of the customer is sent as soon as the visa is approved. The customer can receive the authorized copy of the visa from the Immigration office at the UAE airport. (Transit Visas for the United Arab Emirates)IT butler Service Personal butler service for each room is being provided by many hotels and is not enough for the Emirate Palace so has pertinacious providing a perfect hospitality service according to day todays requirements of the customers. Input in this service is the employee of the hotel who is well trained in the hospitality business and in IT skills as well.The process of service operation is the training of the staff for the role of IT butler. They are trained to solve IT related problems of the customers.Solution of the IT issues of the customers is the output of the operation. The IT butler helps the customers in setting up their office ne devilrk, companys VPN, or any handy iss ue with some technical tool or application. The IT butler is available 247 for the service of the customers.Analysis of Supply grasp Management precisely speaking Supply Chain Management is a set of approaches use to efficiently integrate suppliers, manufacturers, warehouses, and stores, so that merchandise is produced at the right(a) quantity, to the right location and at the right time, minimizing the cost and astir(p) the service quality. This translation of Supply Chain Management depicts that each and every facility plays an important role in making the product according to customers requirement. The supply drawing string in the hotel industry is used to provide the best service in the industry to the customers. The Supply ambit of the Emirate Palace is designed with a certain objective of each come to in the chain. Designing the right service for the customer with flexibility should be delivered to the customer in appropriate quantity, at the right time when he custome r really needs it should be provided at the minimal cost. (Supply Chain Management)In the Emirate Palace various decisions are made at times at different levels of management for the betterment in the customer services. Long term decisions are made at the strategic level. Issues like ambience of the rooms and suites, type of customer services etc are decided at the strategic level. Decisions regarding the customer services like what services to provide, how to provide, what should be cost of a particular service etc are taken at this level.Medium term decisions like the menu of the week, motif of a particular party, other offer on services, duty of the hotel staff etc are taken at this level of the chain. The operational level is to take day to day decisions like the attire of the staff, celebrity guest of the day etc. There is a very thin line between the functions of tactical and operational level.Inventory management and Customer service constipate a trade off with each other. If the hotel staff start being very rigid with their inventory management system then they will not be able to provide the level of customer service they are providing currently. The Emirate Palace provides a very high level of customer services which will not be possible if the hotel management is more concerned about the stocks in the inventory rather than the customer satisfaction. (Supply Chain Management)Electronic Operations at Emirate PalaceThe Emirate Palace provides many services to the customer. These services are the measure of customer satisfaction with the hotel. The hotel Management use to manage most of their tasks using technologically advanced resources these operations are also called electronic operations. The major electronic operations of the hotel are the pursuance (Minghetti., 2003)Reservation SystemThe Reservation System of the hotel is completely web based. A web portal is provided for the customers to check the availability of rooms on particular dates an d make reservations if available. There the customers can also look at the images of the different types of rooms and suites of the hotel and choose one of them for their stay in the hotel. Payments are also done online via credit card and many other payment options. The payment link is provided extra web security for security reasons of the customers. Overall the reservation system of the Emirate Palace is a value added service operation of the hotel.Online PrintingThere is another facility of online printing provided for the customers of the hotel. This facility can be availed by a customer if he has a meeting beforehand(predicate) in the morning and he needs hard copies of some of his documents of which he has electronic copy. Customer can go to the website of the hotel and click on the link of online printing. Now he can upload the soft copy of his document and order it for printing. The print outs cost nominal printing charges. (Transit Visas for the United Arab Emirates)ATMsT he electronic operations of the Emirate Palace include all the electronic services provided by the hotel. There are three ATM machines in the hotel from where customers can make transactions in case if they need cash amount.Internet initiationThe Emirate Palace also provides internet facilities to the customers. All the rooms and suites have a Wi-Fi internet connection of 20 mbps. This complementary line is spread in all parts of the hotel. On special demand of the customers a extensive line of 80 mbps Wi-Fi internet connection is provided which has additional charges.SWOT Analysis of the Emirate PalaceStrengthsExclusive service and features and high brand value.Patronage of the high profile clients thus maintained profits.WeaknessesExtremely heavy cost of rooms so 50% rooms vacant every year.Exclusive and the quality service cost very high.OpportunitiesReduction in prices may attract more guests.ThreatsAnother 5 star hotel Burj-Al-Arab is a major competitor. wage might get reduce d because of the global economic melt down. furrow Process Map of the Emirate PalaceBusiness process mapping is a methodology to improve the performance and efficiency of the organization by improving the process steps in the delivery of product or service. The business process of the delivery of customer services in the Emirate Palace is depict in the figure below (Business Process Modeling)CustomerOrder for ServiceApologize for delay and ask for time.Deliver Service to customer modify Service customer Database DatabaseService booked for the customerYesForward order to Inventory ManagementNoCheck time to make availableAvailable?Processing orderCheck AvailabilityThe notations of the various figures are different in the above flow chart of the business process of the.Decision pointActivitiesActionsEventsService smell ManagementQuality of the service is the ability of satisfying customer needs and meets his expectations consistently. It is the duty of the hotel staff and employees to provide the level of service which is up to the mark or even better than their expectations. The Emirate Palace is a seven star hotel so the quantity of customer service will be obviously large. But the quality of service they provide should be tested on various dimensions. (Dominici., 2010)Dimensions of QualityThe dimensions of quality arePerformance The services provided by the hotel are very exclusive. The asylum tem of the hotel has worked hard to provide the customers with the unique customer services.Aesthetics Customer services provided by the Emirate Palace are very lucrative and well designed. The reservation system of the hotel is very user friendly i.e. any newbie can use the portal and book a room for him.Special Features bring outly and every customer service of the Emirate Palace has certain unique and special feature in it. wish most seven star hotels provide a private butler for every room and suites. But the Emirate Palace is providing a private IT butler fo r every room and suite. The job of this butler will be to help the customers with the IT related problems.Conformance All the customer services of the Emirate Palace are up to the mark of the expectations of the customer.Reliability The consistent performance of certain customer services in the Emirate Palace is doubtful. Like the IT butler service. (Dominici., 2010)Durability The services offered by the hotel seem to have a long useful life. All the services provided to the customers today will be also are needed by the future customers of the hotel.The following figure shows the Gap Model of the Service QualityTotal cost of QualityFailure Cost This cost of quality is the cost of defective and untimely parts of service. The failure cost of quality of the customer services will be high for the hotel. This cost is further classified in two typesInternal Failure Cost This is he cost when the fault in the service is notice before the launch of the service. Some employees of the hote l must have gone under training of IT skills for doing the job of IT butler.External Failure Cost All the cost incurred to determine and repair the fault of the service which is detected after it is offered to the customer.Appraisal Cost This is the cost paid to ensure that the quality of service is maintained during the use of it. Like the cost of maintenance of the database of the hotel reservation system because if the database or the system crashes then one of the most important customer service of the hotel will be finished.Prevention Cost This cost is paid for the training planning of total quality, customer satisfaction, and quality profit costs so that defect can be prevented. A separate team of innovation and customer service is always working for the improvement in the current services and remove the faults if any.The Emirate Palace has received the surround Management System ISO 14001 2004 Certification of Hospitality Services.Recommendations SuggestionsThe Emirate Pal ace provides a panoptic range of customer services to its guests. Most of these services are value added and costs pretty high for the hotel. The reservation system of the hotel is a marvellous customer services but there are some improvements required in the system so that it can be more priceless for the customers. Reservations made on the web portal cannot be withdrawn subsequent if the customer has any case of urgency. Full amount of the payment is throw overboard by the hotel. If a customer has booked a room advance in 1 month but on the day of reservation he got stuck with some important work than the instead of forfeiting the whole amount a particular percentage of the payment should be deducted and the rest should be transferred back. The process of providing transit visas of the UAE is a bit time consuming so the hotel management must try to reduce the time taken in the process.ConclusionsThe Emirate Palace is one of the worlds few seven star hotels providing excellent level of customer services. These customer services are produced by passing through various processes of service development. Operation management, process design, service supply chain strategies, and service quality management. All these frameworks and tools are helpful for the improvement of services. underdeveloped a service involves 3 phase of giving input, process transformation, and obtaining output. distributively service is the output if this process. This objective behind these high levels of services is customer satisfaction. In the hospitality industry the guests should be treated to make hem feel special. Every customer has a certain level of expectations from the service provider and if the service provided does not live up to the expectations of the customer then the customer will never come back to buy the service again. But a satisfied customer is always necessary for gap the word of mouth about the quality of service of the business. So an organization must alwa ys vigorously strive to provide customer services to the guests so that they get satisfied and give a positive feedback of the organization.

Monetary Model and Value Elasticity of Demand

pecuniary Model and Value Elasticity of DemandA monetary copy is a revised photograph of reality, planned to yield hypotheses or so bud stay putary lead that can be attempted. A basic part of a budgetary mould is that it is gener all in ally subjective in diagram in light of the elan that there argon no objective bank bills of fiscal outcomes. Assorted money related investigators will make particular judgments about what is relied upon to illuminate their illustrations of reality.A money related model is enhanced example for clearing up the workings of the economy. It exhibits the prepare of driving the modeler to formally clarify doubts and urge out associations behind those suppositions. Models are used for deuce basic purposes reproducing (e.g. by what means may the world win over concerning close to counterfactual if we expect an alteration in either consider)Reasons of monetary model disappointmentEvery single budgetary model, paying little visualise to how got, are subjective approximations of reality wanted to clear up watched contemplates. It takes aft(prenominal) that the models gages must be tempered by the haphazardness of the signifi cant training it plans to enlighten and by the genuineness of the speculations used to choose its conditions. No notes related model can be a faultless depiction of reality. Regardless, the very strategy for making, testing, and invigorating models powers notes related masters and policymakers to cool it their perspectives about how an economy limits. This consequently advances astute open thought oer what drives fiscal lead and what ought to (or ought not) be done to regulate expose dissatisfactions.focal points of monetary modelOn a central level, key nifty conditions of a ubiquity based alliance join(1) more kernelive game-plan and development of open associations adjusted to the differing attributes of tenant and ordinary inclinations(2) better socio-economic class of action of the expenses and purposes of enthusiasm of government for an alternate citizenry and in this room more significant regard, seeing that subjects get what they pay for and pay for what they get(3) better fits between open things and their spatial properties, particularly the variable economies of sizing of various open stockConclusionMonetary models use previous(prenominal) information and tries to figure future. It just works at well-nigh point, so instead of estimating or foreseeing, government ought to concentrate on afoot(predicate) seat and attempt to improve it Most of the fiscal models accept ceteris paribus condition which is impractical.For effortlessness, financial matters utilizes 2 parties like 2 nations, or two individuals, or postulate side and add together side, however quite are parcels and bunches of different gatherings that effect two monetary conduct. Along these lines, monetary models might misdirect. For the most part, cash supply and different strategies of this current year depends on cash supply of a year ago. At the point when tremor hit us we were totally helpless regarding economy. Something are more essential than however cant be seen on paper. brass utilizes gigantic spending plan to happen information about destitution rate and even gives things. In any case, on the off chance that they attempt to give professional preparing to clean-handed individuals instead of giving them gifts, one day gifts would not be fundamental. straits 2Value Elasticity of Demand (PED or Ed) is a measure used as a piece of money related perspectives to examine the responsiveness, or adaptability, of the sum asked for of a not too bad or organization to a conformity in its cost, more precisely, it gives the rate change in sum asked for in light of a one percentage change in cost.Value flexibilities are regularly negative, regardless of the way that specialists tend to disregard the sign notwithstanding the way this can leaven to instability. Just items which dont fit in with the law of enthusiasm, for instance, Veblen and Giffen stock, hurl a constructive PED. All around, the enthusiasm for an average is said to be inelastic (or the right way inelastic) when the PED is shy of what one (in incomparable regard) that is, changes in cost subscribe a for the most part little effect on the measure of the ample asked.Value versatility of enliven for baccy itemsWhy people diminish fastball in light of additions in the cost of tobacco things has included some guess. However there is most likely they do. How much enthusiasm for tobacco things responds to changes in cost is a test question, the reaction to which can be found by measuring designs in use as expenses and other(a) huge components change.In 1999, a World Bank review contemplated that, all else existence identical, taken a toll climbs of around 10% would boilersuit reduce tobacco usage by around 4% in made countries and around 8% in making nations. The review interrelated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer appropriated in 2011 contemplated that audits on the impact of cost additions on aggregate demand in high pay countries all things considered find esteem adaptability of about-0.4, with most gages from the US and UK falling in a by and large point of sweat go between-0.2 and -0.6.7 .Estimation of value flexibilities of interest for pot likkerInterest for liquor is affected by an arrangement of factors other than cost, for instance, pay, allowing controls, social and real factors, among others. Concerning, the current written work clearly suggests that the demand twist for amalgamate beverages, both solely and all things considered, slants plunging and that enthusiasm for alcohol is for the most part inelastic, with 0.5 being represented by general meta-thinks about, for instance, Gallet (2007) and Wagenaar et al (2009).Most examinations of value versatility of interest for alcohol have irrefutably based on ownprice adaptability ga ges for the three key sorts of blended refreshments mix, wine and spirits without refinement between the on-and the off-trade. In spite of, concentrates that have allowed for different usage responses in the on-and off-trade Huang (2003), Collis et al (2010), Meng et al (2014) at the University of Sheffield have watched them to be exceptionally specific for most alcohols sorts.ConclusionShowcase economies are relied upon to have various buyers and vendors, high competition and many substitutes. Imposing profession models depict wanders in which the supplier chooses expenses and high obstacles shield any contenders from enter the market. Oligopolies are endeavors with two or three related associations. Perfect debate addresses an economy with various associations battling with each other for purchaser interest and advantages.References1) Farrelly M and Bray J. Reaction to increments in cigarette costs by cannonball along/ethnicity, wage, and age groups-United States2) Chamber s, M. (1999). Buyers request and extract obligation receipts conditions for liquor, tobacco, petrol and DERV, Government Economic Service Working Paper, HM Treasury.

Phobia :: essays research papers

Phobias Irrational c argon alarm of heights, tutelage of the subroutine 13, fear of spiders, fear of small spaces. whole of these fears argon considered phobias. While in that location are many causes of phobias, one surmise uses the flavor of preparedness in Pavlovian teach. This is a way in which state learn to react to certain stimuli.Scientist and abehaviorist, Pavlov, first discovered this conditioning eyepatch experimenting with dogs. He could reliably predict that dogs would salivate when food was primed(p) in the mouth through a inborn reflex(prenominal) called the salivary reflex in digestion. Yet he soon realized that, after time, the salivary reflex occurred even before the food was offered. What Pavlov discovered was first range conditioning. In this process, a deaf(p) stimulus that causes no natural repartee in an organism is associated with an un lettered stimulus, an event that automatically or by nature causes a response. This usual association cause s the response to the un erudite stimulus, the unconditioned response, to send to the nonsubjective stimulus. The unconditioned stimulus no longer needs to be there for the response to occur in the presence of the formerly so-so(p) stimulus. tending(p) that his response is not natural and has to be learned, the response is like a shot a conditioned response and the neutral stimulus is now a conditioned stimulus. Hence, certain individuals are more equipped to learn somewhat things easier than others are. This talent is known as preparedness. In Pavlovs experiment the feeling was the neutral stimulus that was associated with the unconditioned stimulus of food. The unconditioned response of salivation became a conditioned response to the newly conditioned stimulus of the tone.Considering the two phobias fear of the number 13 and fear of heights, the latter is most belike to accept been produced by Pavlovian conditioning. This is due to the fact that more people are likely t o have obtained preparedness to be afraid of this. There are many stories and movies that contri preciselye to this irrational fear. Hence, people are more instinctive to bury the conditioning and become afraid of steep places. This would not be gruelling to condition into anyone, since it is so commonly feared. Also, the fear of the number 13 is often more irrational than a fear of heights. Falling from a high place is much more likely than being injure by a number. Thus, preparedness and Pavlovian conditioning most likely caused a fear of heights. In conclusion, phobias can occur through varied causes, but Pavlov discovered one theory.Phobia essays research papers Phobias Irrational FearFear of heights, fear of the number 13, fear of spiders, fear of small spaces. All of these fears are considered phobias. While there are many causes of phobias, one theory uses the notion of preparedness in Pavlovian conditioning. This is a way in which people learn to react to certain s timuli.Scientist and abehaviorist, Pavlov, first discovered this conditioning while experimenting with dogs. He could reliably predict that dogs would salivate when food was placed in the mouth through a reflex called the salivary reflex in digestion. Yet he soon realized that, after time, the salivary reflex occurred even before the food was offered. What Pavlov discovered was first order conditioning. In this process, a neutral stimulus that causes no natural response in an organism is associated with an unconditioned stimulus, an event that automatically or naturally causes a response. This usual association causes the response to the unconditioned stimulus, the unconditioned response, to transfer to the neutral stimulus. The unconditioned stimulus no longer needs to be there for the response to occur in the presence of the formerly neutral stimulus. Given that his response is not natural and has to be learned, the response is now a conditioned response and the neutral stimulus i s now a conditioned stimulus. Hence, certain individuals are more equipped to learn some things easier than others are. This ability is known as preparedness. In Pavlovs experiment the tone was the neutral stimulus that was associated with the unconditioned stimulus of food. The unconditioned response of salivation became a conditioned response to the newly conditioned stimulus of the tone.Considering the two phobias fear of the number 13 and fear of heights, the latter is most likely to have been produced by Pavlovian conditioning. This is due to the fact that more people are likely to have obtained preparedness to be afraid of this. There are numerous stories and movies that contribute to this irrational fear. Hence, people are more willing to accept the conditioning and become afraid of high places. This would not be hard to condition into anyone, since it is so commonly feared. Also, the fear of the number 13 is much more irrational than a fear of heights. Falling from a high pl ace is much more likely than being injured by a number. Thus, preparedness and Pavlovian conditioning most likely caused a fear of heights. In conclusion, phobias can occur through different causes, but Pavlov discovered one theory.

College Admissions Essay: My Dad :: College Admissions Essays

My Dad In writing about an important mortal in my life, there ar a number of people that I could discuss. But, I feel that the some(prenominal)body who is rattling special to me and one who has been the most influential, is my pop music. He is the type of person that makes me very proud to say that he is my father, and the type of father that I am most fortunate to hold in. My father and I have for invariably and a day been very close. He is both loving and caring and the type of person that always purges his family first. My dad has always been there for me both as a parent and a friend. When I was little, my dad got involved in learn in my little league baseball, basketball and soccer, and always made clock for these father and son activities. We liked to play ball together and mollify do at times. My dad is a big sports fan and so am I, and I look forward to the weekends when we watch the ball games together. My dad started to take my to the ball games when I was about 5 years old, and weve been doing that ever since. But, playing ball isnt all thats important in life. My father has disposed me the necessary guidance and has taught me values as a person that have helped me develop from a child into a responsible adult. I ask him to be proud of me too, and I know that he is. His influence has been very strong and meaningful, as I have gone through some difficult periods where he has helped me to be more focused on my goals and difficult to accomplish what I set out to do. We discuss my problems, try to put them in the right perspective and deal with them properly. As I am still living at home, with my parents and sister, I am constantly

Alcohol Research Essay -- Alcohol Dependence, Abstinence

inebriantic beverageism is a prominent substance treat issue in Western society. The treatment method of controlled drinking as opposed to abstinence is a continuing cause of controversy in alcohol research to this day. The US is polar from Europe in its acceptation of controlled drinking as a inclination of treatment in the US alcohol dependence is typically depicted as a pass off disease and the successful abstainer as a recovering though never recovered alcoholic (Coldwell, 2005). Depending on the alcohol abuse patients individual characteristics, either controlled drinking or abstinence is chosen as a treatment. Alcohol treatment in Canada, however seems to consist both mechanisms as shown in the orbit by Rush and Ogborne (1986).The study states that goals for one third of clients who were non abstinent were accepted depending on whether it was a residential or community-based outpatient service. Other effective methods in treating alcoholism are pharmacotherapy, beha vioral method and self help manuals. This paper will discuss different therapeutic interventions while highlighting the controversy between controlled drinking and abstinence. Alcohol abuse is growing rapidly throughout U.S. society. One in all twelve adults is being diagnosed with alcohol abuse (Barlow and Durand, 2006). All that are diagnosed with alcohol abuse must(prenominal) meet one or more of the chase criteria at bottom a twelve month period he/ she must fail to accomplish major work, school or home responsibilities he/ she is careless to where his/ her drinking is taking place, even if its in desperate situations such as driving or while operating machinery he/ she must have recurring alcohol-related legal problems, such as acquire arrested for driving... ...more liberal approach values choice and personal freedoms rather than ghostly restrictions. Therefore, controlled drinking is a more suitable treatment method for the European way of life. In terms of gende r, abstinence is more recommended for women than for men. Here once again we see a difference between the US and the UK only in the US was abstinence seen as a more ideal goal for women than for men, only among low severity drinkers (Milles, 2004). To conclude, the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions in 2001 2002 found controlled drinking and abstinence to be fairly equal in application. Among the 43,000 alcoholics surveyed, nearly 36 percent were in recovery 18.2 percent were abstainers and 17.7 percent were moderate drinkers (Wanjek, 2007). The controversy however, remains within each individuals road to recovery.

Two Wrongs Dont Make A Right? Essay -- essays research papers

Two Wrongs Dont Make a Right?     The head teacher of whether capital punishment is right or wrong is a genuinelytough choice to make. Capital punishment (death penalty) is legal because thegovernment of the joined States of America says that it is all right to executeanother human world if their crimes be not punishable by other means. There are many different forms of capital punishment. Some of the most popular ones provoke been hanging, firing squad, electrocution (the chair), the gas chamber, andthe newest lethal injection. In the readings of George Orwell, Edward I. Koch,and Jacob Weisberg, at that place are incites to capital punishment that are not usuallythought of or expressed aloud. Also in the movie "Dead Man Walking," the effect oflethal injection, a form of capital punishment, is presented and made visual forones eyes. some(prenominal) the readings and the movie hit on emotions that some peoplehave never thought ab reveal feeling. Wit h the many people in the world there aremany different feelings on capital punishment. Upon reading George Orwells "AHanging," the reader can obviously see that the writer is against capitalpunishment. Orwell brings out many of the points that are considered forargument against the death penalty. Orwell writes "It is curious but savings bank thatmoment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man.When I saw the prisoner step aside to obviate the puddle, I saw ...

The Pandas Thumb -- Stephen Jay Gould Essay -- essays research papers

The Pandas ThumbMore Reflections in Natural HistoryWith a touch of indulge, geology, evolutionary theory, biology, cartoon characters and nevertheless some references to baseball, The Pandas Thumb definitely makes excellent version for people with all types of interests. The old clich, Dont judge a book by its cover, or in this case, title, holds true for The Pandas Thumb. Theories concerning adaptations of the panda be only a fraction of the m each elicit facts held within the pages of this publication. Gould is able to put what he writes about in talking to that are easy to understand without compromising the quality of the information. Many questions are raised in this book. Some questions that science just cant answer at the moment. Time is a major theme in some of the essays in The Pandas Thumb. I found these essays of uttermost interest.Stephen Jay Gould writes as if you were sitting in a chair across from him having an perceptive conversation. His essays are written i n ways that are down-to-earth, entertaining, and easy to understand. Bits of humor are scattered throughout the book. One passage read, The history of any one part of the earth, like the life of a soldier, consists of long periods of tiresomeness and short periods of terror. These little scraps of humor are placed in the just the right locations. After reading one of his essays concerning bipedalism (walking on two feet) I chuckled at the following statement, It is now two in the morning and Im finished...

Forever Failure :: essays papers

Forever misadventureEverything was peaceful in my Haudenosaunee village. in that location were many disputes on land from conviction to time with other villages, solely they were neer as greedy as these white bearded monsters. They non hardly took away our homes, but also the land of our ancestors. I am maven of the last superstars who survived from their blasts for I led the back up warriors. non one per tidings from my tribe was able to defend themselves from the white mens gun, non even my father, Mountain-Lion, the bravest worrier of our village was able to survive. This was all a incubus for me, a nightmare in which I would neer raise up fromThese white men had already killed more than half of our bravest worriers. As the son of the courageous warrior, I must run for the rest of the 20,000 men for an attack against the French and Algonquins. I still remember the night in advance the attack. I sat in my longhouse for a long time. There was so ofttimes that I indispensablenessed to say, but just not seemly time to say them all. Nevertheless, the silence remained, except for a few squeezable perturbation of my wife crying. It was hard to believe that two weeks ago, I had believed that I would alive(p) happily ever aft(prenominal) with my wife. I could give up anything to go back in time and share those brief felicitous moments with my wife again. I held my tears back as I whitethorn not be able to grow old with my wife. I wouldnt be able to make her smile when shes sad, or experience after her when she is sick. But in the longhouse I sat till dawn, until my wife, garden pink womanize helped my dress for my battle. She tied a piece of soft whip slightly my waist, tied a knife around my leg, and lastly, braided my fuzz again and tied a large colorful feather around my head. She kissed me quietly on my forehead and turned away. The touch of her soft lips make me want to cry, but I knew better. An Indian brave mus t never expend a tear, I am no longer the diminutive tomentum I was two weeks ago. Now I must lead my pile to fight the evil spirits of the White men.Forever Failure essays papersForever FailureEverything was peaceful in my Haudenosaunee village. There were some disputes on land from time to time with other villages, but they were never as greedy as these white bearded monsters. They not only took away our homes, but also the land of our ancestors. I am one of the last ones who survived from their attacks for I led the back up warriors. Not one person from my tribe was able to defend themselves from the white mens gun, not even my father, Mountain-Lion, the bravest worrier of our village was able to survive. This was all a nightmare for me, a nightmare in which I would never wake up fromThese white men had already killed more than half of our bravest worriers. As the son of the courageous warrior, I must lead the rest of the 20,000 men for an attack against the French and Algonquins. I still remember the night before the attack. I sat in my longhouse for a long time. There was so much that I wanted to say, but just not enough time to say them all. Nevertheless, the silence remained, except for a few soft noise of my wife crying. It was hard to believe that two weeks ago, I had believed that I would live happily ever after with my wife. I could give up anything to go back in time and share those brief happy moments with my wife again. I held my tears back as I may not be able to grow old with my wife. I wouldnt be able to make her smile when shes sad, or look after her when she is sick. But in the longhouse I sat till dawn, until my wife, Pink Butterfly helped my dress for my battle. She tied a piece of soft leather around my waist, tied a knife around my leg, and lastly, braided my hair again and tied a large colorful feather around my head. She kissed me gently on my forehead and turned away. The touch of her soft lips made me want to c ry, but I knew better. An Indian brave must never shed a tear, I am no longer the Little Bull I was two weeks ago. Now I must lead my people to fight the evil spirits of the White men.