How to Get a Commercial Drivers License (CDL)

How to Get a Commercial Drivers License (CDL) Congratulations on your decision to start your career as a Professional Truck Driver! You are entering a field that is in high demand, so your chances of getting a job and becoming a truck driver are more than excellent!The first thing you have to do is to get your commercial driver’s licence (CDL).Different states have different guidelines, click on your state below to find out how you can get started.AlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareDistrict of ColumbiaFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaRhode IslandSouth CarolinaNorth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinWyomingThe Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration works with each individual state to license and certify drivers.The Commercial Motor Vehicle Sa fety Act of 1986 was designed to improve highway safety. It ensured that drivers of commercial vehicles are qualified to drive them and removed unsafe drivers from the highways. The Act established minimum standards and required states to upgrade their existing programs.Before the Act was passed, even in states with separate license classes, drivers were not necessarily tested in the types of vehicles they would be driving. States must now test commercial drivers according to federal standards to ensure that drivers know how to operate the trucks or buses they intend to drive.CDL Classes for Every StateThere are separate classes of commercial driver’s licenses. Every state issues licenses in these categories:Class A: Any combination of vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating (GWVR) of 26,001 or more pounds, provided the GVWR of the vehicle(s) being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.Class B: Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle tow ing a vehicle not in excess of 10,000 pounds GVWR.Class C: Any single vehicle, or combination of vehicles, that does not meet the definition of Class A or Class B, but is either designed to transport 16 or more passengers, including the driver, or is placarded for hazardous materials.The license allows you to drive at the class(es) below it. So If you have a Class A license, you can drive Class A, B, and C vehicles. Those with a Class B license can drive Class B and C vehicles.EndorsementsTo be licensed for certain types of commercial vehicles, extra testing is required. If you pass, you will receive an endorsement on your CDL. These are the endorsements that you can apply for:T―Double/Triple Trailers (knowledge test only)P―Passenger (knowledge and skills tests)N―Tank Vehicle (knowledge test only)H―Hazardous Materials (knowledge test only)S―School Buses (knowledge and skills tests)Applying for a Hazardous Materials Background CheckAfter you get a C DL, apply for a background check from the  TSA if you’ll be obtaining a hazardous materials endorsement. You may do this online or by contacting a TSA agent. They will ask for:Your CDL or CDL permit number.Proof of legal status.Proof of Identity.Next, the TSA will ask you to go to a fingerprint office to give your fingerprints. The TSA and the FBI will conduct background investigations. You will be responsible for various  fees.   Learn more here.If you already have your noncommercial driver’s license, check this round up of state guidelines and see what you’ll need to do to be certified to drive safely behind the wheel of a commercial rig!

Meet the Seven Celestial Sisters of the Sky

Meet the Seven Celestial Sisters of the Sky   In the story Top 10 Cool Things in the Sky, you get a sneak peak at a little star cluster that is famous the world over. Its called The Pleiades and makes its best appearance in the night skies from late November to through March each year. In November, theyre up from dusk to dawn. This star cluster has been observed from nearly every part of our planet, and everyone from amateur astronomers with small telescopes to astronomers using Hubble Space Telescope  has taken a shot of it.   Many of the worlds cultures and religions focus on the Pleiades. These stars have had many names and show up on clothing, flats, pottery, and artwork. The name we know these stars by now comes from the ancient Greeks, who saw them as a group of woman who were companions to the goddess Artemis. The seven brightest stars of the Pleiades are named after these women:   Maia, Electra, Taygete, Alcyone, Celaeno, Sterope, and Merope. There is a fascinating Wikipedia look at the Pleiades in different cultures here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades_in_folklore_and_literature.   So, What are the Pleiades to Astronomers? They make up an open star cluster that lies about 400 light-years away, in the direction of the constellation Taurus, the Bull. Its six brightest stars are relatively easy to see with the naked eye, and folks with very sharp vision and a dark sky sight can see at least 7 stars here. In reality, the Pleiades has more than a thousand stars that formed in the last 150 million years. That makes them relatively young (compared to the Sun, which is about 4.5 billion years old). Interestingly enough, this cluster also contains many brown dwarfs: objects too hot to be planets but too cold to be stars. As theyre not very bright in optical light, astronomers turn to infrared-sensitive instruments to study them. What they learn helps them determine the ages of their brighter cluster neighbors and understand how star formation uses up the available material in a cloud. The stars in this cluster are hot and blue, and astronomers classify them as B-type stars. Currently the core of the cluster takes up an area of space about 8 light-years across. The stars are not gravitationally bound to each other, and so in about 250 million years they will begin to wander away from each other. Each star will travel on its own through the galaxy. Their stellar birthplace probably looked largely like the Orion Nebula, where hot young stars are forming in a region of space about 1,500 light-years away from us. Eventually these stars will go their separate ways as the cluster moves through the Milky Way. Theyll become whats known as a moving association or a moving cluster.   The Pleiades appear to be passing through a cloud of gas and dust that astronomers once thought was part of their birth cloud. It turns out this nebula (sometimes called the Maia Nebula) is unrelated to the stars. It does make a pretty sight, though. You can spot it in the nighttime sky pretty easy, and through binoculars or a small telescope, they look spectacular!

Write a response to the film Supersize Me by Morgan spurlock. What was Movie Review

Write a response to the film Supersize Me by Morgan spurlock. What was new to you What surprised you Did you agree with the arguments presented - Movie Review Example His practical demonstration was appreciated by people at large and the ones who wanted to take a leaf out of his book by a lesson gained also did so. The thing which was new to me was his desire to defy the odds and do the same thing again, and again for a period of more than a month. I actually seem to agree with the arguments that have been made within the movie itself because Morgan had a point which he wanted to convey. Also the manner in which he stuck on to his chosen diet for over 30 days showed his persistence and resilience which was there to prove a point. Morgan was successful in telling all and sundry how fatal these foods are their avoidance can mean immensely fit health domains for the people at large. I appreciate the task undertaken by Morgan to shoot this documentary as he had a solid case which he wanted to

Changing the system Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Changing the system - Term Paper Example I work in an in-patient and out-patient hospital. The hospital has many different departments, the nursing department being one of them. I will use the systems theory to my work system as a nurse within the hospital. The supra-system is the society. One of the roles of society is to maintain the wellbeing of everyone in it. Super-system is comprised of the healthcare sector. Each society normally has a healthcare system whose role is to provide healthcare to all. Individual hospitals are the systems. In each hospital, there are different mechanisms put in place to ensure that members of society access health care services. Subsystems are hospital departments, individual nurses working in each of these departments, materials used in each of the departments. In each hospital, there are nurses, doctors, medical equipment and drugs that are used to ensure that members of society are healthy (Patton and McMahon, 2006). The hospital provides a platform through which individual members of society can access the healthcare services that they need. Nurses play a major role in ensuring that the system is efficient. Therefore, there is a well-established nursing department which has been given different roles to ensure that patients get the best possible healthcare services from the hospital. The input is the factor that is necessary to enable nurses to do their work well (Joslyn and Heylighen, 1992). The input in this case consists of the set of guidelines that the nurses must follow in order to work professionally. In the hospital, there are certain guidelines that regulate how nurses report for their shifts and how they carry out their specific duties. The main components of output in this case are the nurses themselves, the practice of nursing, the patient (client) and the hospital itself (Patton and McMahon, 2006). The nurses provide direct healthcare services to

Existentialism - God Essay Example for Free

Existentialism God Essay What is the meaning of life. The meaning of our lives, the purpose, and the dreams both dashed and realized, and the expectations forced upon us by others. In other words how do you translate what life is? Translation means to explain in simple terms. What is it supposed to be about? There are different answers for different people at different times in their lives. A persons lifetime is filled with self-examination. Why am I here? What am I doing? Is this as good as it gets? You have a beginning. Youre in the middle, and your story hasnt ended yet. If one would recognize the greatest things we have in life, they would not be asking this question. These great things are faith, hope, and love. Faith is the one that can keep one from asking questions. If God wanted us to know something, then we would know it. In most religions, Christian ones in particular, the question of meaning in life is inextricably wrapped up in a relationship with God. Living in, for, with, and through him. Therefore, how one answers the meaning of life question bears directly the existence of God. Soren Kierkegaard said to be the father of existentialism maintains that there are three basic answers to the question of the meaning of life. He called these stages of life, because he believed that people progressed from one stage to the next. Whether or not that is true, there do seem to be at least three fundamental outlooks on life. One is a life devoted to pleasure. This value perspective can be shown by a person whose only concern is for what they are doing now. They would rather gain from pleasures in life without any regards to how they might affect their future. Another stage is those choosing ethical and moral paths. People who are honest and loyal demonstrate this in their everyday lives. Finally, there is a live religiously. This has been the popular way of life for many of us. It is going to church and practicing your faith Stace argues, the present age has begun to weaken faith in God. The concept of a supernatural person has begun to seem unlikely to many people. The Bible no longer seems as respected for many Catholics. While many people say they believe in God they are beginning question whether faith and God are the answer to the meaning of life. Most of us whether we choose to admit it or not show that material things are what we base our lives around. These ideas are at the heart of existentialism, which is a view of life that says that human beings are the creators of their own sense of meaning or purpose. The most famous existentialist, John Paul Sartre in his books and novels developed several themes that portray existentialism. The first is the notion that existence precedes essence. A legacy of traditional philosophy has been that we have a fixed human nature. Sartre challenged that we have no such set purpose or meaning. Our real meaning or who we are is a result of our decisions. We are what we decide. The second associated concept is the importance of human freedom. Sartre believed that every human being has the freedom to live life as we choose to. He believed that we are often terrified by our freedom, and in fact frequently do not want to take responsibility for our own actions. This attitude Sartre called bad faith. Bad faith is an act of self-deception in which we rationalize our actions as being caused by circumstances instead of being self-caused. Basically blaming others for our own deceptions and mistakes. The third major concept of existentialism is the idea of the Absurd. The philosopher Albert Camus popularized this concept. The concept of the absurd is promoted by atheistic existentialist, such as Sartre and Camus. The similarity between Christian and atheistic existentialist is the significance of human freedom and the belief that we are the makers of our own lives One of the most significant pieces of the decline of religious faith is the continuing awareness that there may not be any purpose in life. Both Albert Camus, and Stace, write from this perspective. They believed that traditional Christians have found security in the belief that their lives are invisibly directed or orchestrated by God. That we have assumed that God has a plan for our life, that things happen for a purpose. But as we experience, if we do, the decline of faith or the reality of God in our lives, we come to realize that perhaps we are more responsible than God is for what happens to us. We begin to realize or suspect that it is we, not God, who is the creator of our lives. We are responsible for who we become. Of course, there are always going to be those people who doubt everything God stands for. For them, the body dies and eternity is darkness, I suppose. The fight is going to be, perhaps even as it has been a battle between those who reject God and the, and those who know that God is real. The soul is ones conscience. Without the acknowledgement of that soul, there is no inner voice that helps guide him in the decisions that he makes. Yet, the soulless atheists still seek to discover the meaning of life, and this is where the battle is fought. They are simply stating that there is no meaning to their lives they have no soul, there can be no meaning. Theists realize life isnt fair. People arent created equal. Atheists believe that until all people actually are equal, life is meaningless, and this is the connection we have to make for them. People are not equal, people will never be equal, and if this equality is the requirement for accepting the meaning of life, then life will always be meaningless. If ambition brings about advantage, those advantages must be neutralized. This is the goal of the atheist. If there is nothing but darkness after life, the goal must be to create heaven on earth. Everyone has questioned their purpose in life for example in his article, My Confession, Leo Tolstoy has gone through his life without ever really questioning the meaning. Then he periodically questioned it until one day he eventually could not picture himself living anymore until he came up with an answer to his questionings. All the things he was thought to be living by no longer made any sense or had any meaning at all to him. He tried to answer his question many different ways, but whichever way he went he kept coming up with a dead end. He first thought the answer must be his family. Although he loved them very much, as humans they are confronted with the same questions he is. They are living this lie right along with him pretending that they have all the answers, or just simply ignoring the questions. He next thought the answer to be in his work. Eventually, coming to the realization that with all of his success in art and poetry he had become distracted. He was using art as a decoy. Without knowing his answers to the meaning of life, it was wrong and useless to depict these lies to others. He soon felt as if life had stopped, and was even contemplating suicide when he came to the realization that faith is present in each one of us and is what makes our lives meaningful. Everyone must believe they have a purpose here, for if they didnt they would not be living at all. For life to have true meaning, that meaning must come external to the individual and be somehow consistent with life as a whole. Christians would argue that only God could grant this. It is the helping hand, which guides us through life with an honest and loving heart. Jesus is the only man to lead a true, meaningful life. His life is really the only life of meaning and it is only through him that we have the opportunity to live meaningful lives. Without accepting this answer, one will have only difficulty for the rest of their lives, especially in answering the question of the meaning of life. If you accept this answer, however life is much simpler, because your search is over. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life? John 14:6. The way the truth and the meaning of life itself. There are scriptural accounts of people claiming to see God, and while a witness is more proof than no witness is, there is no way to scientifically verify these statements. They must be accepted purely on faith. Some say that the existence of humans or planetary balance is proof that God exists. These do not prove He exists. Christians believe God is in control of everything in the universe, and created the same. God created all beings, and every atom in this universe. We know God exists because He says He does. The bible is His word, left for us to read. Psychologist Viktor Frankl wrote in Mans search for Meaning that we should not ask what we expect from life, but what life expects from us. He was making the point that people must deal with what daily tasks are put in front of them. Instead of arguing and complaining, we have to take action. Our strength is shown through the soul survival of the hardships we face. Which brings us to the problem philosopher John Hick was facing. In his article, The Problem of Evil he asks the question, if God is perfectly loving, he must wish to abolish evil. But evil exists; therefore God cannot be both omnipotent and perfectly loving. The very fact that there is such suffering gives good cause to doubt not only the value of the whole human race, but also the existence of God. A God that can be said to care in the slightest for whats been created, any God who has power over all things, who is anything other than a horrible monster who finds cruel unusual joy in squeezing every last drop of suffering out of them. It would rule out anything even vaguely resembling the God that Christians speak of. A God who deserves our utter hatred not our worship. However, Hick found that although harsh and painful, evil did have purpose in the world. He stated in his article, the finest characteristics of personal life must have a good deal in common with our present world. It must operate according to general and dependable laws: and it must involve real dangers, difficulties, problems, obstacles, and possibilities of pain, failure, sorrow, frustration, and defeat. Without these sufferings, we would not be able to know what happiness and love really was. Evil provides us with the possibility of soul making, and according to free will, we must choose our fate. The Laws of nature must be abided by without them the world could not exist. God may be creating the lesser of the evils. There must be suffering in order for God to give inner strength that compensates for loss, and gives the sufferer inspiration to live faithfully and effectively. What God provides are the resources so we can face the suffering and make something positive come from it. He gives the direction and power to make these resources work. He gives hope and wisdom to find the way past the suffering, and to learn from it. John Paul II gave us an outline of what is believed to be the salvific meaning of suffering. Suffering as he wrote in the Apostolic Letter Salvifici Doloris, cannot be transformed and changed by a grace form outside, but from within? This question of human suffering is not answered directly by God. As man begins to share in the sufferings of Christ, the answer is discovered within in him. Suffering changes and can either increase or decrease, and in those moments Christians become aware of Gods closeness. We are given inner peace and spiritual joy when we suffer generously. When we are suffering we are never alone we are with Christ. With Christ everything has meaning whether its moments of happiness and peace or of pain and suffering. Nothing in life can be fully explained without God. . Look to the bible and Jesus gives us the answer. Love God with your whole heart, mind, body and soul. Love your neighbor as yourself. If you do this, you are following all the commandments. Humble yourself and give the praise and glory to our creator. God the Father our creator is love and he loves you very much. God created us to worship him and he deserves all the praise because he is the first and the last. He has no beginning and no end. Just look around and take in all the beauty he has created. Everyone is special and made in the image of God. We are nothing without our creator. Sin will keep us from God for he is pure and perfect. It is hard to let go of pleasure and putting ones self first. However, the key to peace and happiness is to surrender your freewill to God, the author of life, and he will give you complete, happiness, peace, contentment and purity you are looking for. That is what we were created for. God is made evident every day when the sun comes up, and there is still air to breathe, and you made it through the night. One cannot believe that everything we know was created by accident. Things are just too perfect to have happened by chance. Man is too corrupt a creature to have invented the beautiful things in the world, as in faith, hope and love. He allows evil in this world because He wants us to have the opportunity to choose either Him or evil, thereby proving our love for Him. If His were the only game in town, then there would not be a free will conscious choice for Him. It is evident that the meaning of life has to far to complex for any one to fully understand or agree on the same answer. All these ideas of these different philosophers are not necessarily inaccurate, just incomplete. All pieces to a puzzle that one has no way of fully figuring out. No one has seemed to accomplish this yet in life. There are so many obstacles that we face as we try to achieve a higher good. Many of these are based in the fact that we are human beings, and because of that are flawed by the ways of our culture. Things such as self-doubt, worry, ignorance, and the values put into our heads since the day we were born all are roadblocks on our way to a higher level. Also being human beings makes vulnerable to the ways of the world around us, so it is not easy to block these things out of our lives. This life is a stage in which we are to develop our minds, bodies, and souls to their highest potential in preparation for the afterlife. Only God could ever really show anyone true meaning.

Lord Of The Flies :: essays research papers

Lord of the Flies   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Lord of the Flies deals with universal truths because many of the characters have characteristics we can relate to which makes the book more interesting. One of the characters is Jack. Throughout the book Jack wants to be the leader of the boys on the island. Jack also does not like work. He likes to go out and hunt, Jack considers hunting as fun, have parties, and do whatever he wants. We see this because he is never working and is always out hunting. Even when he finally becomes the leader he does not take responsibility. All he does is hunt and party. We see that he is not responsible because he throws a party and they get so carried away that someone was killed. Jack’s character makes the book stronger because Jack possesses the same ruthlessness and savageness that is in many of us and we can relate to that. Another thing we all can relate to is Jack wanting to be the leader because at one time or another we have all wanted to be the leader of something. Since universal t ruths are things we can relate to, this ties into universal truths because we can relate to wanting to be the leader.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another character is Piggy. From the beginning of the book when Piggy told Ralph what the kids at school used to call him until the end of the book where they take Piggy’s glasses and later on kill him. Piggy is being made fun of which is all a form of mockery. Nobody likes to be made fun of and people can relate to the torture of being picked on. Piggy has a medical problem, which is asthma. This kept him from doing many things. Most of the time he sat and thought about ways to improve life on the island. Piggy was more of a thinker then a doer. During the book Piggy loses his pride, honor, and self-confidence but he tries to regain that when he faces Jack after his glasses were stolen.

Death and Absurdism in Camus’s The Stranger Essay

In his novel The Stranger1, Albert Camus gives expression to his philosophy of the absurd. The novel is a first-person account of the life of M. Meursault from the time of his mother’s death up to a time evidently just before his execution for the murder of an Arab. The central theme is that the significance of human life is understood only in light of mortality, or the fact of death; and in showing Meursault’s consciousness change through the course of events, Camus shows how facing the possibility of death does have an effect on one’s perception of life. The novel begins with the death of Meursault’s mother. Although he attends the funeral, he does not request to see the body, though he finds it interesting to think about the effects of heat and humidity on the rate of a body’s decay (8). It is evident that he is almost totally unaffected by his mother’s death – nothing changes in his life. In other words, her death has little or no real significance for him. When he hears Salamano, a neighbor, weeping over his lost dog (which has evidently died), Meursault thinks of his mother – but he is unaware of the association his mind has made. In fact, he chooses not to dwell on the matter but goes to sleep instead (50). It is when he is on the beach with Raymond Sintes and M. Masson and they confront two Arabs (who have given Raymond trouble) that Meursault first seems to think about the insignificance of any action – therefore of human existence. He has a gun and it occurs to him that he could shoot or not shoot and that it would come to the same thing (72). The loss of a life would have no significance – no affect on life as a whole; and the universe itself is apparently totally indifferent to everything. Here he implicitly denies the existence of God, and thus denies morality, as well as the â€Å"external† meaning (if it may be so distinguished from the internal or individual existential meaning) of life and death. (This latter, existential meaning is later affirmed, as we shall see. ) Meursault kills one of the Arabs in a moment of confusion, partially out of self-defense, but does not regret it eve though it means going to prison and, ultimately, being executed. He has the fatalistic feeling that â€Å"what’s done is done,† and later explains that he has never regretted anything because he has always been to absorbed by the present moment or by the immediate future to dwell on the past (127). In a sense, Meursault is always aware of the meaninglessness of all endeavors in the face of death: he has no ambition to advance socio-economically; he is indifferent about being friends with Raymond and about marrying Marie; etc. But this awareness is somehow never intense enough to involve self-awareness – that is, he never reflects on the meaning of death for him – until he is in prison awaiting execution. Of course, the â€Å"meaning† of another’s death is quite difference from the â€Å"meaning† of one’s own death. With the former, one no longer sees that person again; with the latter, one’s very consciousness, as far as we know, just ends – blit! – as a television picture ends when the set is switched off. Death marks all things equal, and equally absurd. And death itself is absurd in the sense that reason or the rational mind cannot deal with it: it is a foregone conclusion, yet it remains an unrealized possibility until some indeterminate future time. The â€Å"meaning† of death is not rational but, again, is existential – its implications are to be found not in abstraction but in the actuality of one’s life, the finality of each moment. Before his trial, Meursault passes the time in prison by sleeping, by reading over and over the newspaper story about the (unrelated) murder of a Czech, and by recreating a mental picture of his room at home in complete detail, down to the scratches in the furniture. In this connection, it must be admitted that he is externally very sensitive and aware, despite his lack of self-understanding and emotional response. This is evidence by his detailed descriptions. He is especially sensitive to natural beauty – the beach, the glistening water, the shade, the reed music, swimming, making love to Marie, the evening hour he like so much, etc. He even says that if forced to live in a hollow tree truck, he would be content to watch the sky, passing birds, and clouds (95). After his trial (in which he is sentenced to be executed), he no longer indulges in his memories or passes the time in the frivolous way he was accustomed to spend Sundays at home. At first, he dwells on thoughts of escape. He cannot reconcile the contingency of his sentence (Why guilt? Why sentenced by a French court rather than a Chinese one? Why was the verdict read at eight pm rather than at five? etc. ) with the mechanical certainty of the process that leads inevitably to his death (137). When he gives up trying to find a loophole, he finds his mind ever returning either to the fear that dawn would bring the guards who would lead him to be executed, or to the hope that his appear will be granted. To try to distract himself from these thoughts, he forces himself to study the sky or to listen to the beating of his heart – but the changing light reminds him of the passing of time towards dawn, and he cannot imagine his heart ever stopping. In dwelling on the chance of an appeal, he is forced to consider the possibility of denial and thus of execution; therefore, he must face the fact of his death – whether it comes now or later. One he really, honestly admits death’s inevitability, he allows himself to consider the chance of a successful appeal – of being set free to live perhaps forth more years before dying. Now he begins to see the value of each moment of the life before death. Because of death, nothing matters – except being alive. The meaning, value, significance of life is only seen in light of death, yet most people miss it through the denial of death. The hope of longer life brings Meursault great joy. Perhaps to end the maddening uncertainty and thus intensify his awareness of death’s inevitability (therefore of the actuality of life), or, less likely, as a gesture of hopelessness, Meursault turns down his right to appeal (144). Soon afterwards, the prison chaplain insists on talking to him. Meursault admits his fear but denies despair and has no interest in the chaplain’s belie in an afterlife. He flies into rage, finally, at the chaplain’s persistence, for he realizes that the chaplain has not adequately assessed the human condition (death being the end of life) – or, if he has, the chaplain’s certainties have no meaning for Meursault and have not the real value of, say, a strand of a woman’s hair (151). Meursault, on the other hand, is absolutely certain about his own life and forthcoming death. His rush of anger cleanses him and empties him of hope, thus allowing him finally to open up — completely and for the last time — to the â€Å"benign indifference of the universe† (154). He realizes that he always been happy. The idea of death makes one aware of one’s life, one’s vital being – that which is impermanent and will one day end. When this vitality is appreciate, one feels free – for there is no urgency to perform some act that will cancel the possibility of death, seeing as though there is no such act. In this sense, all human activity is absurd, and the real freedom is to be aware of life in its actually and totally, of its beauty and its pain. ALBERT CAMUS’ THE STRANGER WHAT IF THE PAST HAS NO MEANING AND THE ONLY POINT IN TIME OF OUR LIFE THAT REALLY MATTERS IS THAT POINT WHICH IS HAPPENING AT PRESENT. TO MAKE MATTERS WORSE, WHEN LIFE IS OVER, THE EXISTENCE IS ALSO OVER; THE HOPE OF SOME SORT OF SALVATION FROM A GOD IS POINTLESS. ALBERT CAMUS ILLUSTRATES THIS EXACT VIEW IN THE STRANGER. CAMUS FEELS THAT ONE EXISTS ONLY IN THE WORLD PHYSICALLY AND THEREFORE THE PRESENCE OR ABSENCE OF MEANING IN ONE’S LIFE IS ALONE REVEALED THROUGH THAT EVENT WHICH HE OR SHE IS EXPERIENCING AT A PARTICULAR MOMENT. THESE THOUGHTS ARE PRESENTED THROUGH MEURSAULT, A MAN DEVOID OF CONCERN FOR SOCIAL CONVENTIONS FOUND IN THE WORLD IN WHICH HE LIVES, AND WHO FINDS HIS LIFE DEPRIVED OF PHYSICAL PLEASURE–WHICH HE DEEMS QUITE IMPORTANT–WHEN UNEXPECTEDLY PUT IN PRISON. THE OPENING LINE OF THE NOVEL SETS THE TONE FOR MEURSAULT’S DISPASSION TOWARDS MOST THINGS. THE NOVEL IS INTRODUCED WITH THE WORDS: â€Å"MAMAN DIED TODAY. OR YESTERDAY MAYBE, I DON’T KNOW† (3). ALTHOUGH THE UNCERTAINTY ORIGINATES WITH AN AMBIGUOUS TELEGRAM, IT SEEMS THAT THE TON†¦ †¦ MIDDLE OF PAPER †¦ †¦ OR THEIR EMOTIONS IN GENERAL. HE DOES NOT FOLLOW ‘CONVENTIONAL’ SOCIAL BELIEFS NOR DOES HE BELIEVE IN GOD, NOR SALVATION. MEURSAULT HOWEVER LOVES HIS LIFE. IT IS A PURE LOVE DERIVED FROM ENJOYING HIS EXISTENCE ON A DAY-TO-DAY BASIS, RARELY LOOKING BACK AND NEVER LOOKING FORWARD. HIS LOVE IS NOT DEPENDENT ON DOING WHAT SOCIETY OR SOME RELIGION HAS DEEMED CORRECT, BUT ON WHAT HE FEELS HE WANTS TO DO DESPITE WHAT MOST WOULD CONSIDER COMMON. WORK CITED CAMUS, ALBERT. THE STRANGER. TRANS. MATTHEW WARD. NEW YORK: VINTAGE INTERNATIONAL, 1989. IN ALBERT CAMUS’ â€Å"THE STRANGER† THE â€Å"STORY OF AN ORDINARY MAN WHO GETS DRAWN INTO A SENSELESS MURDER† IS TOLD. TAKING PLACE IN ALGERIA THIS MAN, MEURSAULT, IS CONSTANTLY IN A CLIMATE OF EXTREME WARMTH, AS ARE ALL THE INHABITANTS THEREIN. THE SUN, THE SOURCE OF LIGHT AND THE CAUSE OF THIS WARMTH, IS THUS A VITAL AND NORMAL PART OF HIS LIFE. IT BRINGS WARMTH AND COMFORT YET IT CAN ALSO CAUSE PAIN AND SICKNESS. THROUGHOUT MOST OF HIS LIFE MEURSAULT HAS LIVED WITH THE CONFLICTING FORCES OF THE SUN AND LIGHT, AS A FRIEND AND FOE. HOWEVER IN CHAPTER 6 THESE FORCES BECOME UNBALANCED AND THE SUN BECOMES AN AGGRESSOR CAUSING MEURAULT PHYSICAL PAIN AND JOLTING HIM INTO VIOLENT ACTION. ALTHOUGH THE SUN BECOMES INCREASINGLY AGGRESSIVE AS THE NOVEL TRANSPIRES, IN THE BEGINNING ITS FORCES WERE BALANCED CAUSING SOME GOOD AND SOME BAD EFFECTS. THE MOST EVIDENCE OF THE SUN AS A FOE IS FOUND DURING MEURSAULT’S MOTHER’S WAKE AND FUNERAL. DURING THE WAKE MEURSAULT IS CONSTANTLY â€Å"BLINDED† BY THE BRIGHT LIGHT. THIS COMBINED WITH â€Å"THE WHITENESS OF THE ROOM† â€Å"[MAKES HIS] EYES HURT. † HOWEVER, THIS SAME LIGHT ALSO CREATES A â€Å"GLARE ON THE WHITE WALLS†¦. MAKING [HIM] DROWSY† AND ALLOWING HIM RESPITE FROM THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIS MOTHER’S DEATH. SO, ALL AT ONCE LIGHT WAS GOOD AS WELL AS BAD FOR MEURSAULT. AGAIN, DURING THE FUNERAL â€Å"WITH THE SUN BEARING DOWN† THE HEAT WAS â€Å"INHUMAN AND OPPRESSIVE,† CAUSING MEURSAULT GREAT PHYSICAL DISCOMFORT. YET, IN THE SAME TOKEN, THE HEAT IS ALSO â€Å"MAKING IT HARD FOR [MEURSAULT] TO †¦ THINK STRAIGHT† THEREBY ALLOWING HIM AN ESCAPE FROM HIS MOTHER’S DEATH. NOT ALL OF THE SUN’S EFFECTS HAVE A FLIP SIDE HOWEVER; THROUGHOUT THE NOVEL â€Å"THE SUN [DOES MEURSAULT] A LOT OF GOOD,† BY WARMING HIM AND MAKING HIM FEEL ALIVE. THUS, ALTHOUGH BOTH POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE SITUATIONS COME FROM THE†¦

Internal Building Security Proposal Essay

Internal Building Security Proposal Access Control is an important part of any business. Anytime a business is under construction it will be more vulnerable to threats and attacks. Construction will need more protection because of the ability to gain easier access to a building because of the open areas within the building. Certain areas in a building are a target for attacks. Some areas are higher risk because of the information or high-value assets within the building. Access Control is the best way to wing out some threats and minimize other threats. Each individual at an access point will have several types of protection such as gates, lighting, cameras, detectors, sensors and other devices that can check individuals thoroughly and make sure each one is authorized to be in the building. Keeping individuals out that have no authorization can lower threats and minimizes chances of damage occurring externally. Access control will work from the outside in to protect a business. Technology is continuing to get better and there are a lot more devices available that can enhance security and help assist the personnel when concerning responsibilities. Access control still needs the support of security personnel to make sure all the devices are functioning properly. Technology has to be maintained to run properly and do what it is designed to do. Access Control was created to keep unwanted individuals from entering a location and to prevent from any employees or personnel from leaving with any valuable information unnoticed. There are so many ways to access a building that any vulnerable areas may be threatened at some point. Access control helps to minimize the vulnerabilities and lower threats against a business. Construction on a building will leave certain areas vulnerable and will be more difficult to secure because of all the individuals coming from outside of the business to do a job. More people can mean more threats, this will need more protection. Some of the types of technology that are becoming popular for protection are wireless access points, cameras, sensors,  detectors, wands, and computers. Security personnel are using these devices to detect and deter crime in the work environment (University of Phoenix, 2008). Wireless Access points and surveillance are becoming more common because of the portability. It is more difficult to carry around a big computer for monitoring purposes and access control. A wireless computer is much more compact and lighter to carry around while handling the responsibilities of monitoring employees at an access point. A building will also have a way for security personnel to monitor different areas of the building by using cameras. A wireless computer can make it easier to monitor these different areas all in one area. Cameras will not take the place of security but can make it easier for security to cover more ground successfully and still be able to perform other duties. One advantage that cameras have is that as long as maintenance is kept up that cameras will run non-stop even when security is unavailable or just in a different location. Crime can still occur with security on patrol. Areas more vulnerable can use cameras to help catch any activity that seems out of place. In most instances cameras are only viewed when something has already occurred and can validate an individual’s where physical where about during a certain time period. Sensors are a growing trend at access points. Many industrial buildings will have products that employees will have contact with during a work day. A business will use sensors on products to keep track of the location, while in the building. One product may be received and shipped from one location to the next until the process is complete and ready to be shipped to another building. Sensors can also be caught at access points if individuals attempt to leave the building with a product without authorization. One device that can find such sensors is the detector. At several access points for employees’ detectors will be present and scanned over an individual to ensure that no sensors are found before leaving a building during lunch and after work hours. A wand is just one type of detector that will scan and have an alarm go off when it detects certain materials. Individuals will have to physically take anything out of their pockets and show that it is not a business product. Another type of detector is a full body detector that can detect different objects on a person without having to do a strip search. Computers is somet hing that is storing more data for a business and also it has the capability of doing other tasks  such as viewing camera feed during recording, and keeping track of authorization, cards, and keys for employees. At different access gates, a card will need scanning before entering. A computer can make sure that the card scanned at the gate is valid. A private intranet will hold information for a business about employees, customers, employers, and the business products and services. This type of device will have access points within the system. A computer will have a private server but is still running on the internet and can be hacked. Hackers will try and find ways to access the information and retrieve or damage it. A business can find ways to strengthen the access points into the private database and prevent hackers from accessing business information. A computer will have software, updates, passwords, and programs to protect intruders from hacking thedatabase without authorization. Computers need protection to prevent from damage. A system that has been hacked can corrupt the system and make it unusable. A way of protecting a system before it is damaged is having a back-up system. If the system is destroyed the back-up can make a business more prepared for any threats or damage to restore the system back to normal (University of Phoenix, 2011). A business will have certain areas that contain more vital information or equipment that can be threatened by construction. Areas that are more high-value need more layers of protection against any threats. Data of a business will contain information such as customer records which will have information, such as where they live, telephone numbers, full names, social security numbers and more which can be used to commit other crimes such as fraud. High-value areas are more vulnerable because the amount of damage that can be done will cost more than in other areas of the building. For instance, bathrooms of a facility will have little to no products and are less of a risk than an office. So the security will focus more on offices because of the amount of value. Some areas may only include security cameras for monitoring an area. A big high-value area could include the main power room. This area can cause damage to not only the building but also to the equipment. The main power room may have heavier walls, more cameras, passwords, security personnel, and other types of protection. There are several considerations that should be kept in mind such as who can access the room, who will be working in a room that is in the high-value areas? High-value rooms will be threatened  normally both internally and externally. If a construction area is near anything high-value at a business, extra precautions may be taken to make sure the area is secure from both types of threats. Internal building security is important to have for every business to protect the business. A business has many assets that are unable to protect themselves. Security personnel are hired to protect the business, the people, and the environment. In a new building security will be less effective because of financial status and experience with threats. The type of threats will vary and the only way to avoid vulnerabilities is attempting to use other existing buildings methods when concerning access control, surveillance, and the protection of high-value areas. A business has to prepare for threats before they occur and then deal with new ones as they arise if there is no prior experience with the type of threat. For example, hackers are always finding ways to hack a system. No code or encryption that is created is identical and all the programs and software in the world can protect a business from all threats. A business needs constant management to evolve with society and the new changes. Taking advantage of new technologies will improve the chance of success for both the business and security. References University of Phoenix. (2008). Design and Evaluation of Physical Protection and Systems.

With These Hands, With This He essays

With These Hands, With This He essays Born October fourteenth, forty-five years ago, I wasnt always free. I couldnt always read and write. At this moment I am a free woman, telling my story, writing my story. Life for me wasnt always in Boston nor was the road smooth and straight. It wasnt too long ago that I was picking cotton in Virginia. I was a slave. It was a family tradition. My mother and father were slaves brought to the United States from Ghana. They were two of the middle passage survivors. My family- my mother, father, brother and I- were paid for and owned by the Johnsons. We lived in a shack behind the outhouse on the Johnson plantation. Each morning the four of us rose before dawn, before our masters, to begin the daily toil. We did the field labor and farmed the cash crops mainly cotton and tobacco. My fingers, rubbed so raw from the hot sun and constant harvesting that sometimes at night my mother had to wrap them taught with cloths to stop the bleeding. The piercing Virginia sun burned my back day in and day out. It wasnt until I became older in Mississippi that I had a voice free of hoarseness after the endless parched days my mouth and throat experienced in Virginia. My voice was almost depleted. I was accustomed to it. After dusk was when my family was able to rest for the night. Dinner was what our owners no longer wanted, the leftover after theyd picked through and gluttonously eaten. Sometimes my brother would get so hungry during the day he would sneak a bite of tomato or a berry while we worked. He got caught once and Master Johnson whipped him until his skin tore open like a paged snatched out of a book. Tears swelled in my mothers eyes as she bandaged my brother; she could see the blood-soaked cloth sticking to his skin. My life in Virginia wasnt as bad as some of the other slaves. I endured and I lived. All of a sudden one day while picking cotton, Mas...

Is AP Chemistry Hard 5 Key Factors Considered

Is AP Chemistry Hard 5 Key Factors Considered SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips AP Chemistry is an intimidating subject if you're not familiar with the material. There are all these weird formulas with superscripts and subscripts to remember, and it involves what some students view as an unpleasant amount of math. But is AP Chemistry as hard as it sounds? In this article, I'll examine five different factors to reach a conclusion regarding the true difficulty level of AP Chemistry in comparison with other high-level classes. What Determines the Difficulty of an AP Class? 5 Factors Before we talk about AP Chemistry specifically, what are the main factors that determine how hard (or easy) an AP class is? Let's take a look at the top five. Factor 1: Passing Rate The number of test takers who score 3 or higher on an AP test is a good indication of how difficult the AP class is. If a very high percentage of students earn passing scores, it might mean that the class is less challenging. It might also mean, however, that the particular class attracts higher-achieving students who are extremely well prepared and tend to do better on tests across the board. That’s why, in addition to score averages, we also need to consider the perceptions of students and the actual difficulty of the content. Factor 2: 5 Score Rate Another piece of data that's slightly different from the passing rate is the percentage of students earning 5s (the highest possible score) on the AP test. A large percentage of students may pass an AP test, but if only a small group earns 5s, it usually means that true mastery of the subject is hard to come by. The cutoff for a 5 on most AP tests only requires answering 60-70% of questions correctly, so even a 5 doesn't necessarily represent complete comprehension of the material being tested. Factor 3: Content Difficulty The content covered is, of course, a central factor that affects the difficulty of an AP course. Even if most students pass the exam, the class itself might be challenging because of the amount of ground it covers or because of the complexity of the material. In this case, a high passing rate would indicate that only very driven students take the class, and everyone else shies away from it. Factor 4: How Students Perceive the Class The difficulty of AP classes can also be judged by the way students view them. As I mentioned, some classes with high passing rates owe these statistics to self-selection by high-achieving students. That doesn’t mean that these students think the material is easy, though. They’re just more dedicated to working through challenging concepts. Evidently, student feedback can provide yet another perspective on the difficulty of an AP class. Factor 5: When Students Take the Class If students take the class earlier in high school, they're more likely to perceive it as difficult. If they take it their junior or senior year, on the other hand, they're more likely to feel comfortable with the material. Why? By this time, most students have adapted to their high school workloads and have possibly already taken other AP classes, too. These are the five main factors that determine the difficulty of an AP class. In the next sections, I’ll analyze all these factors for the AP Chemistry class and exam to give you a better idea of how much of a challenge they'll present for you. Chemistry's the one with the shapes and stuff, right? (Sorry, I can't use a screencap of Channing Tatum from 21 Jump Street for legal reasons, and I can't say the real line cuz I'm keepin' it clean. But you get the reference- or at least you do now because I overexplained it.) What Do Statistics Say About the AP Chemistry Exam? It's now time for us to determine the difficulty of AP Chemistry specifically. First off, what’s the passing rate for AP Chemistry? In 2017, the passing rate (i.e., the percent of test takers who scored 3 or higher) was 52.4%. This rate is lower than that for the AP Biology test (64.1%) and slightly higher than that for US History (50.9%). Human Geography, US History, US Government and Politics, Physics 1, and Environmental Science are the only tests that have lower passing rates than Chemistry does. This data indicates that Chemistry is a difficult test- but, as you can see, there’s an eclectic mix of different subjects with low passing rates. Passing rates don't always reflect how hard AP tests are; rather, these results represent a combination of which types of students tend to take the class and the objective complexity of the material covered. AP Environmental Science, for example, doesn’t cover super challenging concepts, but students who choose to take this AP class tend to be less intense- they might take it as a one-off AP when they’re in mostly mid-level classes otherwise. Even keeping these factors in mind, I think AP Chemistry’s low passing rate is reflective of a high level of difficulty. Usually, only the most driven students take AP Chemistry, and they’re still not passing the test at an especially high rate. We can also look at the 5 rate for the test. The 5 rate for AP Chemistry is 10.1%. Only six other AP tests have lower 5 rates. This statistic is consistent with the passing rate in terms of AP Chemistry's position among other AP tests. Because the passing rate and the 5 rate are well aligned in this way, I’m inclined to conclude that AP Chemistry is a test on the difficult end of the AP spectrum. You know, the AP spectrum. It's like the color spectrum except with no colors- only darkness and pain. Is the Content of the AP Chemistry Class Difficult? There’s a lot of material covered in AP Chemistry. The course involves memorization of complex principles, mastery of specific mathematical skills, and the ability to visualize interactions between tiny things that can only be represented abstractly. It’s similar to AP Biology in some ways, but it’s even harder to intuitively understand if you don’t know much about chemistry in the first place. Take this official AP Chemistry multiple-choice question, for example: If you haven't taken any chemistry classes, this question will be virtually incomprehensible to you (the answer is D, if you're wondering). There's a whole separate language around chemistry, with symbols and words that are almost never used in daily life- unless you're a chemist or chemical engineer. Questions on a test like AP Biology might ask about advanced concepts, but there aren't as many unfamiliar terms or new ways of thinking involved as there are on the AP Chemistry test. In general, you need a wide range of skills to succeed in chemistry, and these skills build on each other from the ground up. The foundations of the Chemistry course deal with memorizing the properties of different substances and developing an understanding of why they behave in certain ways under certain conditions. You'll use this knowledge to conduct data analysis and do calculations. To show you what I mean, here's an example of a question you might see on the Chemistry test: For part a, the conjugate base form, In-, is the predominant form of HIn in the buffer in Beaker Y. This is because the pH of the beaker (7) is greater than the pKa of HIn (5), which means that the equilibrium reaction will form a significant amount of products (In- and H3O+). For part b, the acid form of HIn predominates the aqueous layer of Beaker X since pH (3) pKa (5). HIn is a neutral molecule, so some of it can dissolve in the oil layer of Beaker X due to London dispersion interactions with the oil (which leads to the yellow color of the oil layer). The oil layer in Beaker Y, on the other hand, is colorless because In- is charged. It will mainly dissolve in the aqueous layer of Beaker Y due to ion-dipole interactions with water. This question asks students to draw on background knowledge of acids and buffer solutions to explain the chemical interactions present in a specific scenario. If you don’t understand the basic concepts of the course, you won’t be able to justify your answers to more advanced problems. The cumulative nature of AP Chemistry's wide-ranging curriculum and the complex critical-thinking skills required to answer most questions on the exam contribute to its reputation as a very challenging course. If you have cracks in your foundation, you'll have to halt construction on the monument to AP Chemistry that symbolizes your understanding of the material. Seriously, though- stop building that thing and do your real homework. Do Students Think AP Chemistry Is Hard? From personal experience, I'd say yes to this question- but ultimately it depends heavily on your aptitude for the material, the quality of your teacher, and your previous experiences with chemistry. As someone who had a terrible AP Chemistry teacher, I found it very difficult to understand the concepts I was being taught. It was especially hard because my high school didn't give us the option of taking an introductory chemistry course before AP. Students who have a stronger background in chemistry might find the class easier to get through, but AP Chemistry is still notorious for having lots of homework and challenging tests. This goes back to one of the factors listed at the beginning of this article: when students tend to take the class. Many high schoolers take AP Chemistry in their junior or senior year after taking an introductory chemistry course. The fact that even these students see AP Chemistry as a hard course validates the judgments we've made thus far about its high difficulty level. Almost every academic skill is involved. You’ll have to deal with problem sets, labs, and extensive memorization of chemical properties. The math aspect of the course includes unit conversions, reaction balancing, and other stoichiometry problems (which use relationships between reactants and products in a chemical reaction to do calculations). If math doesn’t come easily to you, AP Chemistry will be more difficult. Students have varied opinions of the class depending on how it's taught at their schools. The main response is that although it's a lot of work, it can be a rewarding experience. Everyone seems to agree that the quality of teaching has a huge impact on the difficulty level and enjoyability of the class. Here's what some students think about AP Chemistry. Quotes come from College Confidential, and all bold emphasis is mine. I took it sophomore year and it was definitely rough. However, much of that was because of the teacher. If you've already taken CP Chem, AP likely won't be as hard for you as it is for many others. I think that it is hard compared to my other classes (I am taking 5 more APs at the moment in addition to this one), and the science department practically had to beg the ten people that are in the class to take it. Behind Calc BC, Chemistry is the hardest AP at my school as well. However, it is so much fun- a great curriculum. If you love chemistry, or even have an interest in it, definitely take it. If you can look at this without feeling a wave of panic rising in your chest, you'll probably do well in AP Chemistry. Will AP Chemistry Be Hard for You? Based on what we now know about AP Chemistry, how can you determine how hard the class (and test) will be for you? Here are three actions you can take: #1: Ask Teachers and Previous Students About the Class Every school is different, so the AP Chemistry class offered at your school could be more or less demanding than those offered at other high schools. This is why it’s best to consult with people who have the inside scoop. Talk to your current science teacher to see what he or she has to say about AP Chemistry. Will you be able to handle it based on how you did in science this past year? Have students who are similar to you had trouble with AP Chemistry in the past? You can also discuss this with your guidance counselor, who should have access to additional data on how previous students fared in the class. Previous students are great resources as well. If they’ve been through the class, they can give you a better idea of how overwhelming (or underwhelming) the workload actually is. #2: Think About Your Academic Strengths and Weaknesses If you enjoy math and science and are genuinely interested in chemistry, AP Chemistry will be an easier class for you than it would be for someone who would rather never look at a math problem again. Chemistry is more technical and math-centric than AP Biology is. It’s hard to memorize or reason your way out of aspects of the content you only vaguely understand on a deeper level. If you don’t know exactly how to do a chemistry problem, it can start to look like a meaningless jumble of numbers and letters pretty quickly. If you tend to rely on memorization to do well in most subjects, AP Chemistry might be a rude awakening for you. #3: Pay Attention to Your Schedule Only you know how much effort you're willing to put into your classes. However, I can pretty much guarantee that it'll be hard for anyone to take AP Chemistry at the same time as other time-consuming classes, such as AP Biology or AP English Lit. I don't recommend taking more than two intense AP classes simultaneously (see our take on which APs are the hardest), particularly if you have lots of extracurriculars. You should also try to fit an introductory chemistry class into your schedule the year before you take AP Chemistry so that you’re well prepared! If you get to the point where you're eating whole coffee beans to stay awake, it's time to reevaluate your choices. Conclusion: Is AP Chemistry Hard? Based on the evidence I've seen, we can say that Chemistry is one of the harder AP classes. It has a low passing rate, a low 5 rate, and its content is considered pretty challenging from both an objective viewpoint and a student's perspective. Don’t let this scare you away from the subject, though. Chemistry is truly fascinating once you break through the first couple layers of understanding. You'll learn so much about how the world works and why it works that way. If you take an introductory chemistry class beforehand and are prepared to work hard, you'll be more than capable of doing well! What's Next? Still not quite sure what to expect from AP Chemistry? Read this article for more details about the structure and content of the exam. Already taking AP Chemistry and need some extra help? We go over how to balance chemical equations in this guide. Are you planning on taking SAT Subject Tests in addition to APs? Learn about the differences between these two types of tests and which scores matter more to colleges. If you're still trying to figure out your schedule, take a look at this article for advice on which AP classes you should take in high school. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

A Strategic Choice of Market Segmentation in the Medical Aesthetic Dissertation

A Strategic Choice of Market Segmentation in the Medical Aesthetic Devices industry - Dissertation Example Fashion specialists indicate that fashionable trends start in big cities as centers of invention. However, developed societies like America have shown a big trend in the way the market has responded to the changes in the customer tastes, preferences and need for new devices in the industry (Mei~data, 2012). To this cause, medicine field had evolved from the aspect of just treating diseases to more sophisticated operations like changing the actual form of the human body. Specifically, the medical field has moved to the aesthetic level of changing the physical appearance, whole or in part of the concerned person (Moretti, 2009). With the current generation endeared towards fashion and beauty, the medical aesthetic devices industry has become very interesting although it is still very young, having started just close to 35 years ago. By 2012, the annual industry growth had grown to an all-time high of 11.9%. The devices used earlier on were based on medical use in which case high risk d evices such as lasers were used. However, the needed changes raised the need to have better devices leading to introduction of other devices such as IPL, Electroporation and RF devices. Much safer devices have since been introduced into the market. Beauty salons, Spas and aestheticians then decided on the need to have these devices for their customers. They created a very important market segment (GBI, 2012). Over the years, the complexity of the industry has seen simpler operations carried out at homes and non-specialized places (Jesitus, 2008). This was a market niche that had developed leading to a more rampant consideration as another segment in the industry. These home-based aesthetic medical services became a center of consideration since there had to be pricing, assurance of efficiency of these products, product regulation and marketing (Frentzen, 2013). A strategic direction has to be therefore identified in the market that would effectively and efficiently not only be profi table to the companies in the industry but also serve the market well. Three niche markets are identified therefore for service by this industry; the medical field, home use and the beauty section. Companies have come up and focused in the market through different strategies that have allowed them to venture into different markets as stated by the niches above (Jassal, 2013). There are companies that have concentrated on any of the three choices the companies have come up with aspects of production aiming at devices that; hair removal, acne treatment, skin rejuvenation and many other aesthetic services (Kuechel, 2004). Research Aim Taking a reference at the research question, we get the idea that companies require a strategic choice for their medical aesthetic devices in the three identified market niches. The aim will therefore direct the companies on whether there is need to make changes to their current marketing strategy, expand them or invent new ones. This will also lead to th e invention of the need to either segregate the market or come up with a clearer way of operating. Research Question and Objectives From the hypothetical statement indicated in the proposal, the research questions look to determine whether there is a need for a strategic change for market segmentation for a medically focused aesthetic company considering that there are recent changes and

Investment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Investment - Essay Example Investment A). The discount rate is the interest rate that is used in the determination of the present value of all the future cash flows. It can be taken as the interest rates that the banks obtain for their lending from the federal bank or the rate at which banks charge other banks for overnight borrowings. The discount rate is determined by several factors. First is the general economic conditions i.e. the discount rate will increase during periods in which the inflation rates are high or when the foreign exchange rates are volatile (Bierman & Smidt, 2004). The second factor that influences this rate is the marketability of a firm’s security. Firms whose securities are on high demand will experience a decline in their discount rates. b) Product 1 rate of return The total dividend in a year= 1.5*4=6 Year 1 rate of return= 1+discount/nominal price*100 =1+6/100*100%=7% Year 2-4 rater of return= 6/100*100%=6% Year 5 rate of return= 6+6.4/100*100%=12.4% Average rate of return= ((7+6+6+6+12.4)%)/(5 Years) =7.48% Product 2 rate of return= nominal interest rate =6% Product 3 rate of return Year 1 rate of return=(7-2(premium))/100*100%= 5% Rear 2 and 3 return= nominal rate = 7% Product rate of return= ((5+7+7))/3=6.33% Product 1 looks more attractive because it has the highest rate of return compared to product 2 and 3.