Logical Positivism Essay

Also known as logical empiricism, rational empiricism or neo-positivism, logical positivism is the name given in 1931 by A.E Blumberg and Herbert Feigl to a set of philosophical ideas put forward by the Vienna Circle. This Vienna Circle was a group of early twentieth century philosophers who sought to re-conceptualize empiricism by means of their interpretation of then recent advances in the physical and formal sciences. Hence, the Vienna Circle represented a radical â€Å"anti-metaphysical† stance which held the view that an empiricist criterion for meaning and a logicist conception of mathematics could prove the meaningfulness of statements (Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy). Logical positivism is the school of thought that attempts to introduce the methodology and precision of mathematics and the natural science into the field of philosophy. The movement, which began in the early twentieth century, was the fountainhead of the modern trend that considers philosophy an analytical, rather than a speculative inquiry (Passmore). As a school of philosophy, logical positivism â€Å"combines positivism with a version of apriorism , that is, the view that holds that some propositions can be held true without empirical support† (Wikipedia Encyclopaedia). According to the Oxford Companion to Philosophy, the movement’s doctrine is ‘centred on the principle of verifiability. This holds the notion that individual sentences gain their meaning by some specification of the actual steps we take for determining their truth or falsity’. In essence, logical positivism seeks to verify the meaning in statements through empirical observations. Historical Background of Logical Positivism The position of the original logical positivists was a blend of the positivism of Ernst Mach with the logical concepts of Gottleb Frege and Bertrand Russell. But, their inspiration was derived from the writings of Ludwig Wittgenstein and G.E Moore. According to Passmore, in his article â€Å"Logical Positivism†, the logical positivists thought of themselves as continuing a nineteenth century Viennese empirical tradition, closely linked with British empiricism and culminating in the anti-metaphysical scientifically oriented teaching of Ernst Mach. He further pointed out that in 1907 the mathematician Hans Hahn, the economist and sociologist Otto Neurath and the physicist Phillip Frank, all of whom were later to be prominent members of the Vienna Circle, came together as an informal group to discuss the philosophy of science. In addition, Passmore posited that they did this in hope that they could ‘give an account of science to the importance of mathematics, logic and theoretical physics without abandoning Mach’s general doctrine that science is, fundamentally, the description of experience’ (par. 2). Subsequently, they adopted views from the â€Å"new positivism† of Poincare and coupled it with Mach’s views in an attempt to anticipate the main themes in logical positivism (par. 2). Logical Positivists view of Traditional Philosophy The philosophical position of logical positivism in its original form was the outcome of the profoundly incisive influences of Wittgenstein and Moore (Runes 359). Logical positivists were concerned about the soundness of metaphysics and other traditional philosophy. They asserted that many philosophical problems were indeed meaningless. Hence, they decided to abandon the traditional approach to philosophy and attempted to persuade people to utilise their approach instead. One of the chief tenets of logical positivism was that the supposed propositions of metaphysics, ethics and epistemology were not verifiable and so were not strictly ‘meaningful’.[1] Furthermore, Carnap, of the Vienna Circle, corroborated this view in his work â€Å"The Unity of Science†, when he stated that ‘we give no answer to philosophical questions and instead reject all philosophical questions, whether Metaphysics, Ethics or Epistemology’ (qtd. in the Stanford Encyclopedia of P hilosophy). Therefore, the purpose of the logical positivists was not to renovate the principles of traditional philosophy but to destroy them. Metaphysics was rejected on the grounds that its assertions were meaningless since they could not be verified in experience. Thus, statements about the existence of God were discarded as pointless because they could not be verified. Notably, whereas earlier critics of metaphysics such as Kant and Hume had rejected the claims of metaphysics as a form of theoretical knowledge, the logical positivists took over from Wittgenstein’s â€Å"Tractatus† the rejection of metaphysics as meaningless. Furthermore, the logical positivists argued that the propositions of metaphysics were neither true nor false but could be regarded as pseudo-statements (Logical Positivism 61). Metaphysics was not the only traditional discipline that the logical positivists were concerned about. Likewise, epistemology faced harsh criticisms from them. On one hand, the neo-Kantians saw epistemology as ‘the propaedeutic to metaphysics and all other philosophical disciplines’ (Oxford Companion to Philosophy 647). They maintained that philosophy could be reduced to epistemology in which a topic like â€Å"the reality of the external world† was discussed. On the other hand, for the logical positivists, epistemology was disregarded as a significant branch of philosophy because they thought that there was no way of verifying the assertions postulated by epistemology. They argued that this branch of philosophy was â€Å"quite meaningless like assertions about the Absolute.†[2] They held this position because for them there was no way of empirically verifying that an external world exists which is independent of the world we know now, as such those statements were ignored. Another tenet of traditional philosophy that the logical positivists disagreed with was ethics. Certainly, they all rejected any variety of transcendental ethics and any attempt to set up a â€Å"realm of values† over and above the world of experience. Passmore stated that, Assertions about values thus conceived, fall within the general province of transcendental metaphysics and had therefore been rejected as nonsensical. But while Schlick sought to free ethics from its metaphysical elements by converting it into a naturalistic theory along quasi-utilitarian lines, Carnap and Ayer argued that what are ordinarily taken to be ethical assertions are not assertions at all. For example to say that â€Å"stealing is wrong,† is neither, they suggested, to make an empirical statement about stealing nor to relate stealing to some transcendental realm. â€Å"Stealing is wrong† would either express our feelings about stealing, our feelings of disapproval, or, alternatively (this was where the logical positivist opinions differed), it is an attempt to dissuade others from stealing. In either case, â€Å"stealing is wrong† conveys no information. (par. 17) In addition to the above mentioned concepts, logical positivists also posited the idea that propositions of logic and mathematics were meaningful but their truth was discovered, not by experiment or observation, but by analysis. Also, for logical positivism the ‘business’ of philosophy was not to engage in metaphysics or other attempted assertions about what is the case but rather to engage in analysis. Furthermore, the only genuine propositions were those that are verifiable (Brown et al 218). Basically, the logical positivists’ emphasis was on logic and language. Logical positivists preferred that, instead of accepting traditional philosophy, philosophers should subscribe to the doctrine of verification. Doctrine of Verification Central to the movement’s doctrines was the principle of verifiability, often called the verification principle that is â€Å"the notion that individual sentences gain their meaning by some specification of the actual steps we take for determining their truth or falsity†.[3] According to logical positivism, there are only two sources of knowledge: logical reasoning and empirical experience. The former is analytic a priori, while the latter is synthetic a posteriori; hence synthetic a priori knowledge does not exist (Murzi 7). For logical positivists, the meaning of a statement lies in the method of its verification. This means that a statement has meaning if, and only if, it is verifiable† (Bochenski, 57). Verifiable, in this sense, means that the statement is derived from knowing the conditions under which it is true or false. If the statement cannot be proven true or false it is disregarded as meaningless. Carnap emphasized in â€Å"Logical Positivism† that only meaningful sentences were divisible into (theoretically) fruitful and sterile, true and false propositions (61). In essence, a sequence of words is meaningless if it does not, within a specified language, constitute a statement. Ayer also defined, explained, and argued for the verification principle of logical positivism. Ayer expressed, in his book Logical Positivism, the view that â€Å"sentences (statements or propositions) are meaningful if they can be assessed either by an appeal directly or indirectly to some fundamental form of sense-experience or by an appeal to the meaning of a word and the grammatical structure that constitute them. In the former case, sentences are said to be synthetically true or false; in the latter, analytically true or false.† Once the sentences under examination fail to meet the verifiability test, they are labelled meaningless. Therefore statements about metaphysical, religious, aesthetic, and ethical claims are considered insignificant. For the logical positivists, based on the verification principle, an ethical claim would have meaning only in so far as it professed something empirical. For example, â€Å"if part of what is meant by ‘X is good’ is roughly ‘I like it,’ then ‘X is good’ is false.† The primary ‘meaning’ of such sentences is emotive or evocative. Thus, for Ayer, ‘X is good’ is a meaningless utterance. As such statements are not verified by looking at the entire words in a sentence but by minutely analyzing the words singularly in a sentence to determine there meaning. Likewise, for Carnap, words or sentences must be verified by certain criterion, for instance, the syntax of a word must be fixed, that is in each use of the word in what Carnap calls an ‘elementary sentence’ the meaning must be unchanging. Secondly, for an elementary sentence containing a word, it must be determined from what sentence is the word deducible, and what sentences are deducible from the word. Also, under what conditions should the word or sentence be considered to be true or false, how is it to be verified and what is its meaning? For instance, take this example by Carnap using the word ‘anthropods’. Anthropods are animals with segmented bodies and jointed legs (this is the elementary sentence) from this it can de deduced that X is an animal, X has a segmented body, X has jointed legs. Hence, â€Å"by means of these stipulations about deducibility or truth- condition, about the method of its meaning of the elementary sentence about anthropod, the meaning of the word is fixed.† In this way every word of the language is reduced to other words and finally to the words which occur in the so-called â€Å"observation sentences† or â€Å"protocol sentences.† Carnap claims that it is through this reduction the word acquires meaning. (Logical Positivism 62-63). Problems with Logical Positivism In the Contemporary European Philosophy, Bochenski claimed that the doctrine used by logical positivists to verify sentences involved great difficulties of various kinds. For instance, a one protocol-sentence can be called into question and tested by another protocol-sentence, such as; the sanity of a physicist can be called into question and examined by the psychiatrist (58). The question has been asked of the logical positivist as to the basis of the protocol sentence, but they replied by stating that the object of experience can only be sensations. Questions of reality are ‘pseudo-problems,’ because we can never encounter anything but sensations and we can never verify the existence of things that are other than our sensations (59). Bochenski also commented that since verifications are made by the senses, â€Å"no statement can be verified other than those relating to the body and its movements; all statements of introspective psychology and classical philosophy are unverifiable, therefore meaningless.†[4] It follows that the only meaningful language is that of physics, and that all science should be unified. One condition remains to be fulfilled according to Bochenski and that is, for a statement to have meaning: it must be built in accordance with the syntactical rules of language. Therefore, it is meaningful to say, â€Å"the horse eats† but â€Å"the eat eats† has no meaning. Also statements that you and I know such as, ‘I love you Mummy’ or ‘I am feeling really sad today’ would have no meaning because they cannot be empirically verified. How then would we express our sensations? There is therefore no guarantee that things verified will remain verified; for example, it was commonly known that the world was flat and that if you go to the end you will fall off, this was how it was known to be until it was rediscovered by Columbus and his men that the world was round. Another problem outlined by Passmore is that, because â€Å"the meaning of a proposition is the method of its verification,† it is not a scientific proposition. Positivists responded to this by claiming that it should not be read as a statement but as a proposal, that is, a recommendation that propositions should not be accepted as meaningless unless they are verifiable. In response to Passmore’s statement, Carnap suggested that the verifiability principle is a clarification which will distinguish forms of activity which are otherwise likely to be confused with one another; metaphysicians will thus be able to tell what propositions are meaningless (Logical Positivism). Impact on Subsequent Philosophy Passmore wrote that logical positivism is dead, or as dead as a philosophical movement ever becomes; but it has left a legacy behind. Logical positivism was essential to the development of early analytic philosophy. It was disseminated throughout the European continent and, later, in American universities by the members of the Vienna Circle. According to the Routeledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, this transplanted to the English – speaking world of ‘analytic’ philosophy. Originally, it set up a series of sharp contrasts: between metaphysics and science, logical and factual truths, the verifiable and the non-verifiable, the corrigible and the incorrigible, what can be shown and what can be said, facts and theories. Logical positivism tremendously influenced the philosophy of science and the application of logic (language) and mathematical techniques to philosophical problems more generally. Logical positivism therefore has an established place in the history and continuing development of philosophy. At least three reasons can be given for this. One is purely historical, regarding the considerable impact and influence of the movement in its glory days. A second lies in the intrinsic interest of its ideas. The third lies in the fact that even if no one today would call themselves a logical positivist some of its main positions, such as verification and emotivism in Ethics, are specification of the actual steps we take for determining their truth or falsity (Hanfling). Also, logical positivism was immensely influential in the philosophy of language. The philosophy of language for the logical positivists is concerned with four central problems: the nature of meaning, language use, language cognition, and the relationship between language and reality. Also, it was used in conjunction with logic (Wikipedia Encyclopedia par 1). The spread of logical positivism in the USA occurred throughout the 1930s. The pragmatic tradition of Pierce, James and Dewey, with its instrumentalist conception of science, provided a healthy stock on which to graft logical empiricism, which, particularly in Carnap’s work, already had a pragmatist bent (Hackers 183). The rise of logical positivism was evident in the European continent. The English philosopher Alfred Jules Ayer played an important role in spreading logical positivism. In his book, Language, Truth and Logic, Ayer completely accepted both the Verifiability Principle and the distinction between analytic and synthetic statements, and so he asserted that metaphysical sentences were meaningless. Furthermore, a direct influence was exerted by Waismann and Neurath who immigrated to England. According to Murzi, in his work â€Å"The Philosophy of Logical Positivism†, in the twentieth century, logical positivism has provided a platform for Italian philosophy, Polish philosophy and Scandinavian philosophy (19). The influence of logical positivism began to diminish around 1960 with the rise of â€Å"pragmatic form of naturalism due to Quine and a historical-sociological approach to philosophy of science due mainly to Thomas Kuhn.† Nevertheless, it must be noted that logical positivism played a very important role in the development of contemporary philosophy, not only for its philosophical principles, but also for its editorial and organizational activities. The efforts of the logical positivists to rid science and meaningful discourse generally, of metaphysics, their attempt to create a ‘unified science’ by laying bare the logical structure of scientific theories and thereby showing the structural similarities, their insistence on logic and empiricism as being the only two reliable and acceptable pillars of knowledge—all these contributed towards a scientific universalism.[5] Logical positivism is studied by many modern day students of philosophy and authors; philosophers well as have written about it thus testifying to its continued existence, if not its practice. Notwithstanding the above mentioned, it is necessary to note that while logical positivism may have laid a platform for other philosophies, its approach seek to have dismissed the traditional philosophies. Now, if one should pursue logical positivism seriously, then as postulated before, certain feelings would become empty. As Coppleston noted, the growth of logical positivism has helped to produce a mental outlook which was unfavourable to metaphysics and to religion (32). Logical positivism is synonymous to an amoral type philosophy and with those tendencies entrenched in our society a chaotic environment would be established. Personally, looking at its attempt to rid itself of things that can not be proven, in every case it has destroyed too much even where philosophers found it difficult to continue writing. Magee in his book, Confession of a Philosopher: A Personal Journey Through Western Philosophy from Plato to Popper, professed to this. For him, â€Å"there was a period in which several of the cleverest philosophers became reluctant to say anything at all, because almost nothing that might be deemed to be worth saying was, unless it was factually provable, permissible.† In conclusion, logical positivism, then, is an approach to verifying the meaning of statements through empirical observation. It is a philosophic tradition that attempted to use science and logic to determine the truth or falsity of statements, and to disprove the meaningfulness of metaphysical, ethical and epistemological ideas as we know them to be meaningful. Like any other school of thoughts in philosophy it has come up against criticisms, however it did make contributions to philosophy and philosophical thinking as we know it today whether it is by being studied, opposed, or supported by philosophers. Works Cited Ayer, A.J. ed .Logical Positivism. New York: Free Press Co-operation, 1959. Bochenski, I.M. Contemporary European Philosophy. London: Cambridge University, 1956. Brown Stuart et al. One Hundred Twentieth Century Philosophers. London: Routledge Publishing Ltd. 1999. Hackers, PMS. Wittgenstein’s Place in Twentieth Century Analytic Philosophy. London: Blackwell Publishers, 1996. Hanfling, Oswald. Logical Positivism. Oxford: B. Blackwell, 1981. Honderich, Ted, ed. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005. â€Å"Logical Positivism.† Concise Routeledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2000. . â€Å"Logical Positivism.† Wikipedia Encyclopedia. 5 Nov. 2006 Retrieved 18 Oct. 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_positivism Magee, Bryan. Confession of a Philosopher: A Personal Journey through Western Philosophy from Plato to Popper. New York: Random House Inc. 1997. Murzi, Mauro. The Philosophy of Logical Positivism†. Online posting. 18 Oct. 2007. http://www.murzim.net/LP/LP00.html Passmore, J. â€Å"Logical Positivism.† The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 26 Oct. 2004 Retrieved 24 Oct. 2007. http://www.comnet.ca/~pballan/logicalpos(passmore).htm Runes, Dagobert. Living Schools of Philosophy: Twentieth Century Philosophy. Iowa: Littlefield, Adams and Co. 1958. Shah, Mohd Hazim. â€Å"Logical Positivism, Scientism, Universalism and Globalization.† Online posting. 11 Jun. 2002. 24 Oct. 2007. http://sts.um.edu.my/E-Library/Lecture%20Notes/SFGS6111/LP2.pdf â€Å"Vienna Circle.† Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 28 Jun. 2006 Retrieved 18 Oct. 2007 http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/vienna-circle/ ———————– [1] Honderich, Ted, ed. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005. [2] Passmore, J. â€Å"Logical Positivism.† The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 26 Oct. 2004 Retrieved 24 Oct. 2007. http://www.comnet.ca/~pballan/logicalpos(passmore).htm [3] Honderich, Ted, ed. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005. [4] Bochenski, I.M. Contemporary European Philosophy. London: Cambridge University, 1956. [5] Shah, Mohd Hazim. â€Å"Logical Positvism, Scientism, Universalism and Globalisation.† Online posting. 11 Jun. 2002. 24 Oct. 2007.

Online vs Offline Distribution Strategies for Hotels

In order to set the context of the presentation, it is important to examine where the distribution strategy takes place in the global marketing strategy. According to Meidan and Lee (1982), four main stages constitute the global marketing strategy of hotels: identification of the target market and the needs of these customers; formulation of the marketing objectives; definition of the constraints (mainly linked to the environment of the hotel); and finally, allocation of marketing resources.This last stage can itself be divided in four components, following the Marketing Mix model of McCarthy (1960): product, place (also called distribution), promotion and price. Before the internet and online technologies, the distribution channels were limited in the hotel industry. They could be separated into two categories: direct and indirect channels of distribution. Direct channel was the internal Sales team of the hotel. Salespeople were of vital importance when it came to â€Å"making cont acts with companies, organisations and channel intermediaries, such as travel agents† (Meidan and Lee, 1982).Indirect channels of distribution include Tour Operators (travel agents), airlines and in centralized operations in the case of franchised or chains of hotels. In these circumstances, what kind of distribution strategy can be put in place? The importance of intermediaries in creating value has been outlined by Dub? and Renaghan (2000). Surveys amongst travel agents have shown that the expectations of these different actors differ. Second in the top ten hotel practices cited by these intermediaries stands the criteria â€Å"hotel has good sales representation†, while first is that the â€Å"hotel has up-to-date reservations computer†.This last argument might nowadays be seen as a required attribute, but in 2000 this was seen as an advantage to the hotel. Another example of distribution strategy is developing intermediaries’ loyalty, and the attribute s leading to this loyalty differ between travel agents and meeting planners. All these criteria changed with the arrival of internet, as studied in the next section. The importance of the internet in marketing and distribution is undisputed by scholars and has been for years.This is no different for Hoteliers who can access this resource through a number of different ways. Their own website allows hotels to have more reactive pricing strategies, keep information about themselves up to date, and provides the easiest method to have contact with customers. Online directory websites, tour operator websites, and travel agency websites all act as intermediaries between the hotel and customer in much the same way as the offline travel agent used to do but to a global audience.Whilst taking a commission these can still be profit maximising channels for hotels because they sell to a broader customer base than the hotel would otherwise have access to. Review websites, whilst not run by hotels either, are also a crucial contact network with consumers. They are trusted by consumers and tap into Word of Mouth which has long been recognized as effective. Search engines have similarly been identified as commonly used by potential tourists and provide huge amounts of traffic to hotel websites.It is therefore important to consider purchasing advertising space through these for the Hotelier’s distribution channel. Whilst search engines and review sites are not technically distribution channels (as you cannot book on them) they are still important to be aware on when looking from a hotel’s perspective at the online system. Having said all this it is important to remember how fast moving the technology is in this section and therefore the best hotels will have an eye on the future and how that will effect distribution channels.This is what the following section will look at. Innovative distribution strategies such as IVR Hotel Reservation System and Promoted Hotels on Google Hotel Finder are the future, where it will be easier for Hoteliers to promote themselves than ever before. It opens a bidding war between various OTA’s to provide the lowest price. Various innovations in social media can eventually lead to the death of Online Travel Agencies. But on the other hand, search engines will have nothing to worry about as there is hardly anything better than search.There has been a rapid increase in mobile bookings in recent years. More and more people have started using their mobile devices to make various reservations. Hence, Hoteliers should also focus more on developing their mobile websites, enhancing the user experience and making their website and content more discoverable by using search engine optimization techniques. They should also ensure that all the content on the site is multi-lingual because information is accessed by a global market.In today’s world, travellers are exposed to so much information coming via different platforms that they no longer keep track of the source of information or even the format. They do not know the difference between media channels and content formats. In other words, the coming together of media channels and consumers has led to a new channel – customer engagement. Hence, hotel distributors should pay more attention to direct online channel and its various sectors such as websites, social media platforms, mobile web development and so on.They need to invest more in multi-channel distribution and marketing strategies. We conclude with a summary of the merits of offline and online distribution channels today. For offline this includes the ability for up-sale to customers, access to a demand of customers wanting an easier time booking holidays that their own distribution channels might exclude, and the fact that the face-to-face contact can provide friendlier interaction with customers the hotel is otherwise not able to provide.Offline will remain important in t he present day by selling more tailor-made products and specific ‘experiences’. For Hoteliers it is important to tap this market as well. At the same time online is obviously an important distribution method as well. It allows hotels greater flexibility and control, a globalisation of the product, increased interaction with customers, an ease of pricing and allows an incorporation of social- and multi-media.

Case Analysis of Unidentified Industries2006 Essay Example

Case Analysis of Unidentified Industries2006 Essay Example Case Analysis of Unidentified Industries2006 Essay Case Analysis of Unidentified Industries2006 Essay `Case analysis of Unidentified Industries2006 Although different industries have their own characteristic, we can see some common features in certain industries. Thus we divide them into 4 kinds: Service, retail trade, manufacturer and online seller. List as below: Classification of Different Industries and their features 1. Service (Table 1) Advertising agency (AG) Commercial bank Health maintenance organization (HMO) >Their services are based on human resources. They do not need a lot of PPE or inventories and lots of money (like long-term debt). Since they provide their service first and the customers always pay at the end of the service, their account should be high. So now we want to find an industry that is zero inventories, low PPE, high accounts receivable and low long-term debt. See the table 1, we find E, G and N each has a very high accounts receivable, low inventories and PPE. It shows that they are all service industries. Now we have to look deeply to find the difference among these three industries. First, N has an extremely high accounts receivable (90%) and the longest receivables collection period (4,071 days). And their biggest part of liabilities is notes payable. It really meets the features of Commercial bank. So N is Commercial bank. What the different between E and G? We find that their percentages of balance sheets are almost the same. So we have to find some clues from selected financial data. It shows that their Receivables collection period and Revenue/total assets are pretty difference. With common sense, we know that HMO will have a longer Receivables collection period (They provide the service first and wait for the insurance company to pay for their service fee) and lower Revenue/total assets (Since AG is a pretty low cost industries, all we need is idea and time) when compares with AG. So G is AG and E is HMO. Result: Advertising agency (AG) >G Commercial bank> N Health maintenance organization (HMO) > E Airline > Both of them need certain PPE and their accounts receivable will not so high, which is not the same as the other three. Since air planes are very expensive, so the Airline Company maybe has a very high PPE, and certain long-term debt (to buy the airplanes). What is more, they do not have inventories, which is totally different from Family restaurant chain. So we look at the table and try to find a company that has high PPE, zero inventories, middle or high long-term debt. Only M meets the requirement. So M is Airline. Airline > M 2. Retail trade (Table 2) Bookstore Chain Retail drug chain Retail grocery chain Department store chain Features: Certain PPE, high inventories, high inventory turnover. >B, I, J, K It is hard to tell the different among them. In common sense, Retail drug chain always has a high Common stock. And Department store chain may have a high PPE. Department has a long Receivables collection period(Because they use their â€Å"own brand† charge card). So we can guess that Bookstore Chain> B Retail drug chain> K Retail grocery chain> I Department store chain> J 3. Manufacturer (Table 3) Pharmaceutical manufacturer(PM) Electric and gas utility(EG) Features: High PPE, Low inventories>D and L PM have a longer Receivables collection period (because they will not receive the money until their drugs can be sold by the drug retailer). , high level of receivable collection, and high price(drugs are always expensive) EG may have a higher PPE (since most of their products are relying on the PPE), and their receivables collection period should be around 31 days (just like the electric bills), so 40 days just meet it. So L should be EG. We can guess H is Electric and gas utility and L is Pharmaceutical manufacturer. Result: Pharmaceutical manufacturer(PM)>D Electric and gas utility(EG)>L 4. Online seller (Table 4) Online bookseller Online direct factory to customer personal computer vendor Features: Low PPE, low inventories, high cash > C and A For Online bookseller, they do not need long-term debt. For Online direct factory to customer personal computer vendor, since they sell most of their products to business ways and they do not produce things actually, so their inventory turnover should be very high, like C (79. ). So we can easily distinguish it from online bookseller. Thus Online bookseller>A Online direct factory to customer personal computer vendor>C 5. Others (Table 5) Restaurant chain Computer software developer There are only two industries left: H and F F has a higher Common stock, since computer software developer company like Apple, they has really high common stock, so we can guess that F is Computer software developer, while H should be restaurant chain. Restaurant chain > H Computer software developer > F . Final results: A>Online bookseller B>Bookstore Chain C>Online direct factory to customer personal computer vendor D>Pharmaceutical manufacturer E>Health maintenance organization F>Computer software developer G>Advertising agency H>restaurant chain I>Retail grocery chain J>Department store chain K>Retail drug chain L>Electric and gas utility M>Airline N>Commercial bank Table 1 |Balance Sheet Percentages |E |G |M |N | |1. Cash and marketable securities |8 |11 |18 |2 | |2. Accounts receivable |37 |51 |2 |90 | |3. Inventories |0 |0 |0 |0 | |4. Other current assets |5 |0 |6 |0 | |5. Plantequipment(net) |4 |7 |66 |0 | |6. Other assets |46 |32 |8 |9 | |7. Total assets |100 |100 |100 |100 | | | | | | | |8. Notes payable |6 |8 |4 |73 | |9. Accounts payable |39 |46 |4 |5 | |10. Accrued items |1 |2 |0 |0 | |11. Other current liabilities |9 |0 |19 |0 | |12. Long-term debt |15 |7 |10 |15 | |13. Other liabilities |6 |0 |15 |0 | | | | | | | |14. Preferred stock |0 |0 |0 |0 | |15. Common stock |25 |37 |48 |7 | |16. Total liabilities and net worth |100 |100 |100 |100 | |Selected Financial Data | | | | | |17. Current assets/current liabilities |0. 92 |1. 1 |0. 94 |1. 17 | |18. Cash, MS, and Ars/current liabilities |0. 082 |1. 1 |0. 72 |1. 17 | |19. Inventory turnover(X) |NA |NA |NA |NA | |20. Receivables collection period(days) |201 |89 |12 |4071 | |21. Total debt/total assets |0. 21 |0. 16 |0. 14 |0. 88 | |22. Long-term debt/capitalization |0. 33 |0. 14 |0. 16 |0. 15 | |23. Revenue/total assets |0. 675 |2. 079 |0. 542 |0. 081 | |24. Net profit/revenue |0. 074 |0. 022 |0. 072 |0. 204 | |25. Net profit/total assets |0. 05 |0. 045 |0. 039 |0. 016 | |26. Total assets/net worth |4. 03 |2. 74 |2. 1 |13. 28 | |27. Net profit/net worth |0. 2 |0. 123 |0. 082 |0. 218 | Table 2 |Balance Sheet Percentages |B |I |J |K | |1. Cash and marketable securities |12 |3 |1 |8 | |2. Accounts receivable |3 |3 |8 |12 | |3. Inventories |42 |22 |17 |35 | |4. Other current assets |2 |3 |5 |2 | |5. Plantequipment(net) |25 |55 |36 |41 | |6. Other assets |16 |13 |33 |3 | |7. Total assets |100 |100 |100 |100 | | | | | | | |8. Notes payable |0 |3 |4 |0 | |9. Accounts payable |26 |17 |16 |24 | |10. Accrued items |22 |4 |0 |5 | |11. Other current liabilities |0 |9 |3 |5 | |12. Long-term debt |0 |33 |27 |0 | |13. Other liabilities |17 |13 |10 |7 | | | | | | | |14. Preferred stock |0 |0 |0 |0 | |15. Common stock |35 |21 |41 |59 | |16. Total liabilities and net worth |100 |100 |100 |100 | |Selected Financial Data | | | | | |17. Current assets/current liabilities |1. 23 |0. 96 |1. 34 |1. 69 | |18. Cash, MS, and Ars/current liabilities |0. 31 |0. 21 |0. 36 |0. 59 | |19. Inventory turnover(X) |2. 7 |10. 2 |2. 3 |5. 7 | |20. Receivables collection period(days) |7 |4 |41 |16 | |21. Total debt/total assets |0 |0. 35 |0. 31 |0 | |22. Long-term debt/capitalization |0 |0. 57 |0. 37 |0 | |23. Revenue/total assets |1. 613 |2. 956 |0. 675 |2. 767 | |24. Net profit/revenue |0. 029 |0. 016 |0. 063 |0. 037 | |25. Net profit/total assets |0. 046 |0. 047 |0. 042 |0. 102 | |26. Total assets/net worth |2. 84 |4. 67 |2. 35 |1. 69 | |27. Net profit/net worth |0. 131 |0. 218 |0. 104 |0. 173 | Table 3 |Balance Sheet Percentages |D |L | |1. Cash and marketable securities |19 |0 | |2. Accounts receivable |8 |5 | |3. Inventories |5 |2 | |4. Other current assets |8 |6 | |5. Plantequipment(net) |14 |69 | |6. Other assets |46 |18 | |7. Total assets |100 |100 | | | | | |8. Notes payable |10 |3 | |9. Accounts payable |2 |5 | |10. Accrued items |1 |0 | |11. Other current liabilities |11 |5 | |12. Long-term debt |5 |30 | |13. Other liabilities |14 |26 | | | | | |14. Preferred stock |0 |1 | |15. Common stock |56 |29 | |16. Total liabilities and net worth |100 |100 | |Selected Financial Data | | |17. Current assets/current liabilities |1. 65 |0. 95 | |18. Cash, MS, and Ars/current liabilities |1. 12 |0. 37 | |19. Inventory turnover(X) |1. 6 |19. 8 | |20. Receivables collection period(days) |68 |40 | |21. Total debt/total assets |0. 15 |0. 33 | |22. Long-term debt/capitalization |0. 08 |0. 47 | |23. Revenue/total assets |0. 439 |0. 423 | |24. Net profit/revenue |0. 158 |0. 068 | |25. Net profit/total assets |0. 069 |0. 029 | |26. Total assets/net worth |0. 78 |3. 3 | |27. Net profit/net worth |0. 23 |0. 096 | Table 4 |Balance Sheet Percentages |A |C | |1. Cash and marketable securities |54 |39 | |2. Accounts receivable |7 |24 | |3. Inventories |15 |2 | |4. Other current assets |2 |11 | |5. Plantequipment(net) |9 |9 | |6. Other assets |11 |15 | |7. Total assets |100 |100 | | | | | |8. Notes payable |0 |0 | |9. Accounts payable |37 |43 | |10. Accrued items |15 |26 | |11. Other current liabilities |0 |0 | |12. Long-term debt |41 |2 | |13. Other liabilities |0 |11 | | | | | |14. Preferred stock |0 |0 | |15. Common stock |7 |18 | |16. Total liabilities and net worth |100 |100 | |Selected Financial Data | | | |17. Current assets/current liabilities |1. 52 |1. 11 | |18. Cash, MS, and Ars/current liabilities |1. 8 |0. 91 | |19. Inventory turnover(X) |11. 4 |79. 8 | |20. Receivables collection period(days) |12 |36 | |21. Total debt/total assets |0. 41 |0. 02 | |22. Long-term debt/capitalization |0. 86 |0. 11 | |23. Revenue/total assets |2. 297 |2. 19 | |24. Net profit/revenue |0. 042 |0. 064 | |25. Net profit/total assets |0. 097 |0. 155 | |26. Total assets/net worth |15. 02 |0. 6 | |27. Net profit/net worth |1. 459 |0. 865 | Table 5 |Balance Sheet Percentages |F |H | |1. Cash and marketable securities |49 |1 | |2. Accounts receivable |13 |1 | |3. Inventories |2 |7 | |4. Other current assets |6 |3 | |5. Plantequipment(net) |4 |81 | |6. Other assets |25 |6 | |7. Total assets |100 |100 | | | | | |8. Notes payable |0 |6 | |9. Accounts payable |4 |7 | |10. Accrued items |3 |8 | |11. Other current liabilities |25 |13 | |12. Long-term debt |0 |16 | |13. Other liabilities |10 |9 | | | | | |14. Preferred stock |0 |0 | |15. Common stock |58 |41 | |16. Total liabilities and net worth |100 |100 | |Selected Financial Data | | | |17. Current assets/current liabilities |2. 18 |0. 37 | |18. Cash, MS, and Ars/current liabilities |1. 94 |0. 08 | |19. Inventory turnover(X) |5. 2 |22. 3 | |20. Receivables collection period(days) |77 |2 | |21. Total debt/total assets |0 |0. 23 | |22. Long-term debt/capitalization |0 |0. 26 | |23. Revenue/total assets |0. 636 |1. 9 | |24. Net profit/revenue |0. 285 |0. 059 | |25. Net profit/total assets |0. 181 |0. 112 | |26. Total assets/net worth |1. 74 |2. 45 | |27. Net profit/net worth |0. 314 |0. 275 |

Make Your Own Homemade Hand Sanitizer

Make Your Own Homemade Hand Sanitizer Some commercial hand sanitizer contains ingredients as scary as the germs they protect you from, so why not make your own hand sanitizer from ingredients you select? This is an excellent project for kids as well as adults since the project can be expanded to include a discussion about hygiene and disinfection. Youll save money, protect yourself from germs, and can customize the scent of the hand sanitizer so it doesnt smell medicinal. Homemade Hand Sanitizer Ingredients 2/3 cup 99% rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol) or ethanol1/3 cup aloe vera gel8-10 drops essential oil, optional (such as lavender, vanilla, peppermint, grapefruit)bowl and spoonfunnelrecycled liquid soap or hand sanitizer bottle Make Hand Sanitizer Nothing could be easier! Simply mix the ingredients together and then use the funnel to pour them into the bottle. Screw the pump back onto the bottle and youre ready to go. How It Works The active ingredient in this hand sanitizer recipe is the alcohol, which needs to comprise at least 60% of the product in order to be an effective disinfectant. Essential Oils in Hand Sanitizer In addition to adding fragrance to your hand sanitizer, the essential oil you choose may also help protect you against germs. For example, thyme and clove oil have antimicrobial properties. If you are using antimicrobial oils, only use a drop or two, since these oils tend to be very powerful and might irritate your skin. Other oils, such as lavender or chamomile, may help soothe your skin.

The Turn-A-Card Behavior Management Plan

The Turn-A-Card Behavior Management Plan A popular behavior management plan most elementary teachers use is called the Turn-A-Card system. This strategy is used to help monitor each childs behavior and encourage students to do their best. In addition to helping students display good behavior, this system allows students to take responsibility for their actions. There are numerous variations of the Turn-A-Card method, the most popular being the Traffic Light behavior system. This strategy uses the three colors of the traffic light with each color representing a specific meaning. This method is usually used in preschool and primary grades. The following Turn-A-Card plan is similar to the traffic light method but can be used throughout all elementary grades. How it Works Each student has an envelope containing four cards: Green, Yellow, Orange,  and Red. If a child displays good behavior throughout the day, he/she remains on the green card. If a child disrupts the class he/she will be asked to Turn-A-Card and this would reveal the yellow card. If a child disrupts the classroom a second time in the same day he/she will be asked to turn a second card, which would reveal the orange card. If the child disrupts the class a third time he/she will be asked to turn their final card to reveal the red card. What it Means Green Great job! Working well throughout the day, following rules, demonstrating appropriate behavior, etc.Yellow Warning Card (breaking rules, not following directions, disrupting the classroomOrange Second Warning Card (still not following directions) This card means that the student loses free time and takes a ten minute time out.Red A Note and/or Phone Call Home A Clean Slate Each student starts off the school day with a clean slate. This means that if they had to Turn-A-Card the previous day, it will not affect the current day. Each child starts the day with the green card. Parent Communication/Report Student Status Each Day Parent-communication is an essential part of this behavior management system. At the end of each day, have students record their progress in their take-home folders for their parents to view. If the student did not have to turn any cards that day then have them place a green star on the calendar. If they had to turn a card, then they place the appropriate colored star on their calendar. At the end of the week have parents sign the calendar so you know they had a chance to review their childs progress. Additional Tips It is expected that each student stays on green throughout the day. If a child does have to turn a card, then kindly remind them they get to start fresh the next day.If you see that a particular student is getting a lot of warning cards then it may be time to re-think the consequences.When a child has to turn a card, use this as an opportunity to teach the child the correct behavior that should have been displayed.Reward the students that stay on green all week. Have Free-Time Friday and allow students to choose fun activities and games. For the students that flipped over an orange or red card during the week, they will not be able to participate.

To date human rights law has contributed little in terms of gender and Essay

To date human rights law has contributed little in terms of gender and sexuality related rights. Discuss - Essay Example Contextually, we must proceed to analyse the effects of human rights law in relation to gender and sexuality linked rights. This paper utilises a detailed review of academic and legal literature which is followed by a legal analysis. Next, case examples have been appended and the paper finally culminates at an appropriate conclusion. Evolution of the human rights law framework is one of the relatively recent developments. To understand the implications, backgrounds and characteristics of gender and sexuality related rights in relation to human rights, review of the literature related to feminism and feminist jurisprudence in particular becomes rather important. Hilaire Barnett has attempted to evaluate the relevance and implications of feminist jurisprudence from feminist, historical, socio-cultural and legal perspectives.1 Historical evidence of discrimination against women can be empirically testified by the practices like Chinese footbinding, female circumcision, Hindu suttee of India, European witch murders, wife sale in England, etc. A comparative analysis of these historic socio-cultural trends reveals the existence of certain tendencies in the society which give rise to gender-based violence against women. The legal developments too have been affected in efforts to curb these tendencies. For example, British colonial rulers in India had to pass a legislation that stopped the practice of Hindu suttee during the 19th century. Hence, gender inequalities and related violence have been intercultural and appropriate legal action in this regard must always be welcome.2 Further, analysis of gender based crime against women is extremely important in the context of criminal law as well. Law’s engagement with the female body is not only an ethical but also a technical issue in evaluating the existing criminal law framework.3 Addressing discrimination issues in regards of women is thus important in the context of UK. In fact, British women

External and Internal Environments Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

External and Internal Environments - Term Paper Example This also indicated that this firm is the 14th most profitable when compared with many other firms of its size (Kurtz & Boone, 2011). Upon considering further metrics, Forbes Global 2000 ranked General Electrics as the third largest company in the world. This paper seeks to discuss the internal and external environments of General Electrics Company. Segments of the general environment The general environment revolves around every condition in the outside or external environment, which is part of a background context of a managerial decision-making. In simple terms, the general environment of an organization is generally the outer layer that widely affects the organization indirectly and in many ways (Heide, 2008). Typically, environmental issues that may affect an organization consist of the social cultural conditions, economic conditions, technological conditions, political and legal conditions and demographic conditions. With reference to the General Electrics Company, two segments of the general environment would rank highest in their influence on this corporation. They are technological conditions and economic conditions (Griffin, 2012). Particularly, every company that chooses to invest heavily in technological advancements stands to benefit a lot especially when it outshines its competitors. General Electronics deals with products and services wherein technology plays a huge role in their success or failure. For instance, General Electrics offers healthcare products (P&Ls) for surgical operations (Kurtz & Boone, 2011). In this business, General Electrics offers a market-leading healthcare in interventional imaging and intra-operative that facilitates guidance for minimal invasive surgical procedures. Imaging products for surgery are integral in more than one sector as they are also pragmatic in other fields, which include orthopedics, general surgery, neurosurgery, cardiology, urology, GI and for specified processes such as management of pain (Heide, 2008 ). Indeed, technological conditions rank highest in its influence on the General Electrics operations. This is so because the world is today flooding with different ways of meeting the same goal but with different means indicating that technology is playing a huge role in influencing the functioning of many corporations (Ireland, Hoskisson, R. & Hitt, 2008). Economic conditions would also rank highest in their influence on the General Electrics provision of services since economic conditions change with time. Profoundly, a company’s performance and operations depend highly on the economic conditions of the time (Ireland, Hoskisson, R. & Hitt, 2008). Economic conditions would rank highest in influencing the operations and performance of this corporation because uncertainty regarding current global economic status poses great risk as its core consumers may continue postponing their spending decisions (Kurtz & Boone, 2011). This could be in response to negative financial news, u nemployment, tighter credit and/or deterioration of the asset or income values. Hence, economic conditions would rank highest in influencing the service provision of this corporation given such uncertainties could cause material negative effects on demand of the company’s products and services (Griffin, 2012). General environmental factors like the economic conditions and technological state have a heightened rank in the operations an