Null Hypothesis and Yellow Pages

There are many reliable sources that are readily available for researching topics, whether it is for personal or professional use. Two of these sources are known as the Internet and the Yellow Pages. Based upon the test performed, to determine if the Yellow Pages will become obsolete in the near future, the following information was found based on the hypothesis and test results that have been recorded in the passage. There are many people who would prefer the use of the Internet to the Yellow Pages because of the convenience and not having to flip through pages to find what you are looking for.The Yellow Pages have become a thing of the past and is quickly being replaced by new research methods individuals can access via the Internet. In the past twenty years the Internet has continued to grow into what we know today. In 1993 the first primitive search engine was released (Seymour, Frantsvog, & Kumar, 2011). Google became the prominent search engine around 2000 by using an algorithm to rank web pages; the desirable pages would be linked more than others based on importance (Seymour, Frantsvog, & Kumar, 2011).With the growth of the Internet and the rise of technology, there has been an increase in the number of businesses that use the Internet for marketing (Salehi, Mirzaei, Aghaei, &Abyari, 2012). Businesses use the Internet to increase their business and people have easy access to the Internet, which makes it convenient for shoppers online (Salehi, et al, 2012). Our team wanted to determine if the Yellow Pages or printed phone book was becoming obsolete.We believe that with the advancements of the Internet and with the increase of people having smart phones, which have the internet readily available at your fingertips, the phone book is no longer needed and will become an archaic form of obtaining business listings or shopping. To test and evaluate our research issue, we used the five steps of hypothesis testing. In the first step we hypothesized that the Yel low Pages will become obsolete in the near future with the advances of technology such as the Internet. Our team formulated a null hypothesis, which states theYellow Pages will be proven as a viable research method. The second step was introduced to determine the characteristics of our comparison distribution. We polled 84 people, asking each person two questions. The first question was, â€Å"When looking for a business listing, do you look to the Internet/search engines or the Yellow Pages (hard copy)? † and the second question was, â€Å"If you are going to make a purchase, do you look in the phone book, Internet, or both? † Of the individuals polled, 68 were women and 16 were men.There were two individuals who fell into the under 20 category, three in the 21 to 30 group, 17 in the 31 to 40 range, 18 in the 41 to 50 crowd, 38 in the 51 to 60 set, and 6 representatives of the 60 and over. Our results showed for the first question there were 14 individuals who answere d they used the Yellow Pages and 74 who preferred to use the Internet. The second question only yielded five people who answered Yellow Pages while 83 indicated they used the Internet. We set a cutoff point of 50% or . 5 hypothesized means difference of usage among all age groups.This cutoff point was used both as a first method of searching for a business as well as usage in general. The mean for Question 1 was determined to be 3 and for Question 2 the mean was determined to be 13. The Z score for the combined questions was -3. 71. The Z score for the first tail or Question 1 was 1. 64 and the Z score for the second tail or Question 2 was 1. 96. From our research and the data collected, we found that the null hypothesis was rejected. The statistics clearly show that there is over the 50% or . 5 hypothesized means difference. The gap in the Z scores shows a 5. 35 difference for the first question and 5.37 for the second question. Through our research and statistics, we found the res ults to be opposite of our null hypothesis which is the basis for the rejection. â€Å"With the rise of local search sites, social media, and mobile directories, the physical Yellow Pages books delivered to consumers’ doors — long a staple of local marketing — are quickly becoming obsolete. According to data from the Local Search Association, total consumer references to print directories declined from 12 billion in 2009 to 7. 4 billion in 2011, and have most likely declined even more since (Jones, 2013, para. 2)†.There might be some interesting news for local businesses that still use marketing strategies through the Yellow Pages. The Yellow Pages is now offering advice in areas such as SEO, online advertising, paid search, and the effects of an online reputation in the social media. Recent findings show that on average, consumers consult two to three sources of information when intending on making a purchase. These sources include the Yellow Pages, but mostly through search engines. The physically printed Yellow Page book may become a part of history, but it will be a while before it is completely obsolete.â€Å"Today, Yellow Pages and search engines dominate the local search space among all media. Last year, 84% of people used a Yellow Pages product and 76% used a search engine to find a local business (Norton, 2011)†. With that said, there are some things to consider when utilizing the Yellow Pages to advertise your business, like reviewing your competitors ads, including a dedicated phone number, immediately creating a working system to track business leads, and including offers exclusively for ad respondents. The data and statistics we collected lead us to the results that the Yellow Pages will soon be outdated.While modern media like the Internet is on the rise, traditional print media will be pushed off the market. The Yellow Pages have found a way to use this change in marketing as an advantage. They now use new mode rn media to advertise their product as the Yellow Pages online. The Yellow Pages are a name and a brand that people trust, so the concept will never actually be outdated. While the Internet pushes traditional media out of business, like books, newspapers and other print media, those branches have found to be resourceful and will therefore always find a way to survive in today’s ever-changing market.

The Great Gatsby, Chapter 8

Owen Marshall Honors Language Arts, Lohman March 27, 2013 Chapter 8 This chapter begins with Nick talking to Gatsby after the horrible events of the night before. Gatsby tells Nick how he spent his night waiting for Daisy to see him just for her to ignore him the whole time. He then tells Nick about why he fell in love with Daisy, and why he is still so deeply attached to her. Nick then leaves for work, shouting to Gatsby reassuring words seeing as he is obviously lost and depressed.After Nick leaves we are told about the actions of grief stricken George Wilson. We are told that George believed that the driver of the car that killed his wife was Gatsby and George acts upon this information. He spends the day making his way to Gatsby’s house and upon his arrival kills Gatsby in his pool and then ends his own life. Suspense This chapter creates a very deep suspense through the actions of George Wilson.Fitzgerald cultivates this suspense for the climax of the novel by describing George’s actions with little detail, describing them as if we are being told by a police report. He skirts what actually occurred, instead describing the setting in vivid detail. He mentions the â€Å"†¦cluster of leave†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (pg 170) that are in the pool foreshadowing Gatsby’s fate by having the leaves represent the end of the season and the end of his life. Fitzgerald uses this suspense to keep the reader intensely reading keep Gatsby’s death a shock.

Refutation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Refutation - Essay Example First, Bernstein argues that this social networking site causes irritation through nonsensical postings. Second, Facebook lacks the essence of communicating through body language and voice. Third, Facebook users seem to be sharing what is supposed to be personal stuff thus adding to the irritation. Fourth, Facebook users are narcissistic bores who feel the urgent need to frequently update their friends of the silliest things other people would not even care about knowing. Fifth, Facebook users who have shifting personalities cause extreme discomfort to others who know only one of their identities. Sixth, the endless postings about one’s successes tend to bring about jealousy among one’s Facebook friends. Lastly, Facebook becomes a tool for otherwise â€Å"nice† people to conveniently express their violence and aggression against those whom they have difficulty confronting. Although Bernstein’s arguments above may lend themselves to a certain degree of truth, I still disagree. First, the irritation that some Facebook users experience is only a matter of personal opinion. Not everyone would feel the same way with constant, repetitive messages like those saying â€Å"I love you† so it is almost always a case to case basis. Second, although Facebook lacks the actual face of the other person who communicates, it is certainly faster and more easily accessible compared to face-to-face communication. Third, although we know that some things should remain private, we do not have any right to impose on anyone what he must keep to himself. Besides, one’s privacy is no one else’s business. If I would want to blabber endlessly about my break-ups, for example, then no one has any right to stop me from doing that. Fourth, probably what Facebook users who are accused of incessant narcissism actually do is simply express themselves in a no- holds-barred

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot Assignment

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot - Assignment Example As such, they use both the patients and samples from her to carry out tests with the view to making discoveries. Howard W. Jones, the doctor who treated Lacks for the first time at Johns Hopkins Hospital handed over the cells to Gey and forgot about the case. The next time he returns to Lacks’ case is after her death when the hospital carries out a partial autopsy (Skloot, 2011). The did this to understand the behavior of the cells thereby considering her lifeless body as a piece of specimen that would help advance the scientific research. Patents are exclusive rights that a state gives to an individual for a discovery. As such, the individual gains financial benefits from disclosing the information about the discovery for a period. The above definition of patents shows that the rights protect inventions. The definition, therefore, makes the ownership of genetic material controversial since no human can invent genetic materials. The fact that there exist trillions of copies of every gene coupled with the fact that genes lack the quality of inventiveness makes it ridiculous to try and patent such. I, therefore, believe that patenting of genetic materials is wrong. Most people strive to patent such in order to maximize profitability (Moore, 2005). While such is the case, increase in patenting such information would lead to increased secrecy in scientific researches. Researchers should make genetic information public in order to enhance scientific research. This may help improve the quality of life in the society. In the health facility I work for, initiating a patient related research is a systematic process that begins with informing the patient. The doctors explain to the patients the nature of their ailment and explain the importance of the researches. After that, the doctors seek the patient’s permission to take samples of their specimen. After giving a consent to the research process, the doctors initiates the

Doctrine of Precedent Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Doctrine of Precedent - Essay Example Therefore, there is a dire need for a coherent case law. This is because it helps in strengthening the predictability of decisions and improves their authority. The doctrine of precedent also known as stare decisis provides that the decision of a higher court within the same jurisdiction acts as binding authority on a lower court within the same jurisdiction (Brassil & Brassil 2000). However, the decisions of higher courts act only as persuasive authority to lower courts in different jurisdiction. Therefore, the concept of judicial precedent requires cases to be decided in a similar way when the material facts are the same. The doctrine is only concerned with the legally material facts in order to arrive at similar decisions (Siltala 2000). On the other hand, Ratio decidendi translates to â€Å"reason of deciding† and can be defined as the material facts of a given case in addition to the decision thereon. Under common law, the doctrine of precedent is used to offer direction, certainty, consistency, and impersonality (Harlow 2005). Even as the doctrine of precedent is one of the most significant features of the common law, this doctrine is not without challenges. It is very important for any judge to identify a clear ratio decidendi in any precedent (Duxbury 2008). One of the main challenges in making decisions guided by precedents is the possibility of two conflicting methodologies employed by Lords to reach a decision. This paper will focus on the impact of the two conflicting approaches used by Lords Wilberforce and Bridge in McLoughlin v O’Brian 1983 and show how the choice between these two conflicting approaches would result to completely different results for the claimants in Alcock v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police 1992. McLoughlin v O’Brian 1983 AC 410 In this case, the plaintiff’s husband and their three children were involved in a road accident that was allegedly caused by negligence of the defendants. The accid ent caused the death of one of the plaintiff’s children while the husband and the other two children sustained serious injuries. When the accident happened, the plaintiff was at home two miles away from the scene. A motorist who witnessed it at the scene passed the information on the accident to the plaintiff. After the information, the plaintiff was taken to the hospital where her family members were admitted. When she looked at the extent of their injuries and the news of the death of her daughter, the plaintiff suffered severe and continuous nervous shock. The plaintiff sued the defendants claiming damages against them for the nervous shock, distress, and injury to her health ultimately caused by the defendant’s negligence. However, the suit was not successful because the judge felt that the plaintiff’s injury was not reasonably foreseeable. The plaintiff believed that the defendant’s negligence led to her suffering. This case involved the tort of negl igence that has been a topic of discussion on the evidence of negligence (Stephenson 1996). In tort law, negligence is defined as the failure to execute reasonably, that is, as a normal man would perform. Therefore, according to Harlow (2005) â€Å"negligence is the omission to do something which a reasonable man, guided upon those considerations which normally regulate the demeanor of human affairs, would do, or do something which is prudent and reasonable man would not do.† Having defined negligence as a tort, it is of importance to note that it has remained the most vital tort in modern law (p. 8). This is because it utterly concentrates on the infringement of a legal duty to take care, which may result to damage of property or injury to the claimant. Negligence is known to cause individuals

In your view what makes UBS successful Give evidence of how your Essay

In your view what makes UBS successful Give evidence of how your personal qualities (rather than qualifications) would contribute to our success - Essay Example The company's keen insight into the importance of providing clients services that reach far beyond each client's basic needs separates it from the rest and fuels its success. When a client begins a relationship with UBS, her financial adviser takes time to understand what her goals are. The client receives services that far surpass satisfying her financial needs. A financial firm is only as good as its analysts. UBS clearly appreciates this with depth and flair and this is one of the many reasons for its success. To be the world's leading financial firm, UBS excels at clients' success by drawing on the firm's expertise - expertise that is gained from picking the keen and sharp brains of its employees. Besides being an industry leader in terms of compensation/revenue ratio, UBS adopts a culture that nurtures the best talent and allows outstanding individuals to thrive, while encouraging an esprit de corps, teamwork and loyalty. Such a positive working environment, in turn, encourages professionalism and technical excellence, with the highest integrity and standards in the work of its staff. In today's fast developing economy, being the best also means being far-sighted. Undoubtedly, UBS' history of thinking ahead is a key ingredient in its recipe for success.

Film analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Film analysis - Essay Example People positioned in the front become more clearly seen than those at the back (Gernot 35). Lighting in the film is plentiful and majorly used to emphasize more on the comments the general gave to the soldiers in the line (Riviere 23). For instance, in the short clip, lighting in the front becomes brighter while as one moves towards the back, lighting on the faces of the soldiers becomes reduced. In addition to lighting, the soldiers are in the hall and viewers could be able to see it clearly (Gernot 44). In the film, all the soldiers wear the same costume, that is, the soldiers wear white tops while the general wears a green combat. The soldiers remain in a line, and their faces remain positioned straight ahead. In addition, they remain totally alert in the whole clip indicating obedience of power just like in the real army. Though the setting, of the film remains in a hall, but still the element of obedience by the soldiers any place they belong becomes depicted in the film (Gernot 66). In terms of sound, it is realistic. There is no music played in the back in order for the audience to concentrate more on the words the general speaks to the soldiers. In this case, the general congratulates the first soldier as being a genius. The purpose of no music in the film also brought out the element of soldier- general relationship pretty well (Riviere 23). The atmosphere brought about in the short clip remains to be tense. Often the interaction between the general and the soldiers always expected to be tense. Soldiers often become expected to obey all commands from the soldiers (Gernot 56). In a realistic manner, the clip became meant to bring such aspects of tension, and the obedience soldiers have for their general in detail. The soldiers remain the position in one straight line, none looking sideways, but straight ahead away from the camera. The camera becomes positioned in the film in one direction, in order to capture the line of soldiers. In addition, the camer a utilized lighting by ensuring the clip became a close up to concentrate more on the commentary of the general to the soldier, for example, the two general and the soldier in the front become well lit compared to those at the back (Gernot 76). Furthermore, the camera became set in a way to show the element of aspect ratio and dimension pretty well, that is, people in the front became shown in the clip as bigger compared to people at the back. Moreover, in terms of clarity, people at the front remained clearer than people positioned far away from the camera in order to bring the element of aspect ratio in the clip. In conclusion, the clip remained to convey the message it meant to convey is a professional manner. The audience eventually could get the meaning of the commentary from the general to the soldier and acknowledge the importance of setting. Works Cited Gernot Friedbacher, Henning Bubert. Surface and Thin Film Analysis: A Compendium of Principles, Instrumentation, and Applic ations. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2011. Riviere, J. C. Film analytical techniques. New York: Clarendon Press,

Financial plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Financial plan - Essay Example During this time, a majority of the students on campus leaves and return to their homes and if they have a pet, they must either take it home with them where it might not be allowed, or they have to find a boarder, which is where we come in. We will be offering not only students, but also all members of the Bloomington community, the ability board their animals for extended periods for a fee. Some of the major sources of revenue to the Hoosier Pet Palace include pet grooming and boarding, breeding, and handling. On the other hand, the expenses are in the form of food for dogs, veterinary services, wages, electricity, interest on loan and others. Situational Review Hoosier Pet Palace is a unique entity, being the first to incorporate both pet care service and waste food recycling, Hoosier Pet Palace has a great potential for growth and limited competition in Bloomington, Indiana. There are two major pet care service providers in Bloomington: Canine Companions and The Dog House. Canine Companions was established in 1993 that distinguish themselves from others as â€Å"the only complete full-service one-stop pet care facility in the Bloomington area.† Not only do they provide daycare, they also provide boarding programs, medical treatments, training, exercise options, and grooming services. The Dog House, established in 2005, prides themselves as â€Å"Bloomington’s first and only cage-free boarding and doggy daycare facility.† Both of them have been in Bloomington for years and have established a customer base, which would compete directly with Hoosier Pet Palace. However, unlike Hoosier Pet Palace, they only provide caring services for dogs. Not only would Hoosier Pet Palace provide our service to owners of dogs, we would also provide our service to owners of cats, rabbits, birds, and more. Sources of Start-up Funding Hoosier Pet Palace needs approximately $185,000 for start-up and is in the process of going to banks and different loan agenc ies to borrow sufficient starting capital to acquire all necessary property, materials, and resources. We will be presenting our business plan to different loan agencies hoping for investment. We believe that our business will be successful because of the need that we will be satisfying. Our target market is in abundance in the Bloomington area, so we see a direct need to have an animal boarding facility available to them. Another reason we believe our business will be successful is because of the â€Å"green† initiative that we will be basing our company off. This will appeal to not only the students of the community but also the environmental friendly activists in the community. Strategy for Paying the Loan The bank loan is the largest expense the Hosier Pet Palace will incur throughout the first three years of operation. The business believes it will be successful in its activities and generate enough revenue to continue the business and pay the loan. This is justified by the fact that the target market is abundant in the area and there is need for an animal boarding facility. In addition, the college students have many pets that need services that will be offered by Hoosier Pet Palace. Operational Expenses during start-up Period Hoosier Pet Palace needs approximately $185,000 for starting up the business. This money will go into paying start-up expenses shown in the table below and acquiring the list of equipment for pet care.

The History of Rasselas by Samuel Johnson Essay

The History of Rasselas by Samuel Johnson - Essay Example This paper looks at the various incidences in which Samuel Johnson used satire in the book, The History of Russelas. Johnson in the novel The History of Russelas explores the life of the prince of the Abyssinia kingdom. The book, exploring the differences in the life of the prince in the valley where they had quality life and had access to any manner of luxury and that of the nobles, explores the satirical side of life in a palace. The comparison of the two different lives of the people living in the kingdom draws the irony of the different statuses of people in habiting the society. Although written in the 1880s, the differences in social status of the people in the society were apparent, just they currently exist. In its own diction, satire explores the various issues in the society that appear weird and funny. Out of normality, the family of the king was hidden in a valley, surrounded by mountains and forests. Whether for beautification purposes or for safety, the setting of the h ome was weird. What, with the seclusion form the hustle and bustle of the palace? Away from the people and into the wilderness, a place that did not have people, different kinds of animals inhabiting the region, that freely mingled with the servants of the kingdom. What was the essence of the family being kept far away from the normality of life? It did not make sense. Some may argue that the king found it safer there, while others may hold that the king wanted a peaceful life for his family. For people to live in harmony, they need to coexist together and show true brotherhood and sisterhood. The king chose to put his family in seclusion from the public and the reality of life. How were they supposed to coexist with the rest of the people if they were not used to living with them? They were used to the animals inhabiting the valley, and the usual servants who served them and took care of them from the time of their birth. They were not used to new faces, or new visitors. How were t hey expected to live with the rest of the people the day that they were left out of the valley? The prince was to marry someday, while the daughters would too get married. How were they supposed to find their companions if they did not leave the valley? For twenty six years, the prince never left the valley; he saw no new faces, neither the face of the sun outside the valley. How was he expected to rule the people after taking over from his father as the heir of the kingdom? The actions of the king did not make much sense. His intentions beat logic when a person thinks of the reasons why he chose to provide them with the kind of lifestyles that he deserved. Perhaps he was to get them their life partners. However, how were they to live from the time they were released form the valley? Maybe he intended to get them families and keep them there forever. Whichever plan that he had, the actions of the king did not make sense. The family, whether royal or not should have been left to free ly mingle with the society. Contrary to this, he would have left them walk around the kingdom and see other people and the kind of work and lives that they lived. The prince found the life of living in the valley boring, in contrast to the life of that of the people living outside the valley in the free world. As he grew up, not only did he get used to the music that was being played by

The Attitude of the Youth towards Classical Music Essay

The Attitude of the Youth towards Classical Music - Essay Example There is a need o discuss the opinions of the youth on the subject.  .  Personal preferences and liking have  a strong link to the field of consumer behavior. Personal choices of the consumer depend on the background they come from and the life style they lead. Music is enjoyed by almost all segments of the population. Each segment has their own tastes of music, they may vary from soulful to rock, pop and even classical music. The section liking classical music is reducing and especially in the younger generation. we don’t find many people that like classical music.  According to Philip Hart  (1973), the data available of the entire mass of the American orchestra depicts that the information is less concrete considering any aspect related to its audience. The symphony orchestra has diversified instruments; with time the composers have to work with complex things and their works written are more intricate that are suitable to the artistic needs required (Unger-Hamilton et. al 1988).Traditional music has become obsolete in today’s lifestyle, and the essence of music is focused more towards the bodily rhythmic movements  and the catchy notes  that provides, rather than the main influence  and quintessence of the form o f classical music. The need for classical music has been eradicated and the thirst for pop music is both commanding and influential.  Classical music is considered as the most primitive form of music. Sadly, the youth today gives no importance and holds no desires to learn classical music.  In many cultures the study of classical music was a must but youth nowadays are losing interest in learning this genre of music. In this chapter the topic of classical music will be introduced giving an introduction related with the younger generation.  The history of classical music will be observed and its quintessential nature will be brought into discussion.   

Spring by Edna St. Vincent Millay and the Sick Rose by William Blake Essay Example for Free

Spring by Edna St. Vincent Millay and the Sick Rose by William Blake Essay The first poem is called, Spring, by Edna St. Vincent Millay and the second poem is called, The Sick Rose, by William Blake. The two poems are similar in the way that the personas express their feelings towards life. Beauty, the seasons of life, and the meaning of life are the focuses of both poems. What is the meaning of life?: a question that has been asked since the beginning of mankind. This question is asked in the beginning of Spring. The narrator of the poem seems really depressed because of the way she expresses her attitude towards life. In the very beginning of this poem the narrator is asking what the purpose of life is. So from the start this poem seems to be very gloomy. We seem to ask what the meaning of life is more, when we are sad, depressed or maybe something/someone has turned against us; Like in the poem, The Sick Rose. In this poem the narrator says, O Rose, thou art sick! The invisible worm, That flies at night, In the howling storm. In my opinion the narrator is saying that life isnt worth living and we are all like worms in a storm. Basically he/she is saying that life is a very confusing and frustrating place sometimes. In my opinion the deeper meaning is that in reality a worm is so tiny compared to the rest of the world. When the narrator says, That flies at night, this just emphasizes even more about how small and invisible this worm is. When it is dark outside you can hardly see anything, so it would clearly be impossible to see something invisible. I think that what this poem is trying to portray is, that we as human beings are very tiny compared to the whole world and that we as individuals are invisible. So in theory, I think that this poem is about how the narrator thinks that one person cant make a difference in life. In a way this is similar to the first poem because the author has a negative attitude towards life and does not think highly of it, Life in itself Is nothing Both poems have a very negative outlook on life. Although there is one major difference and this comes at the end of both poems. Though both may seem to end on a negative note, Spring (the first poem) seems to end more positively, April comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing with flowers. In the end of the poem the narra tor seemed to end negatively but yet still recognized the beauty in life. In, Spring, the narrator feels that she is not beautiful enough. I think  that she is trying to portray that everyone wants to be beautiful but not everyone is going to be. This is similar to, The Sick Rose, because in this poem beauty is destroyed by love just like in the first poem when beauty is eventually destroyed because death is inevitable. Both poems show a different attitude towards beauty. Spring, ends by recognizing beauty while, The Sick Rose, ended by killing it. Both poems have a season theme. In the first poem the season is obviously Spring. The narrator in this poem Spring talks about the, strewing flowers, but she does not set the mood for spring. In this poem it is very depressing when it should be happy, with flowers blossoming, animals coming out of hibernation, leaves are just starting to bud on the trees, and so on. That is how Spring should be, but in this poem it is portrayed as the worst of all four seasons. In, The Sick Rose, poem the season must be Autumn because everything is gloomy, the leaves are falling off the trees, flowers are withering, and its always raining. The mood in this poem fits the season perfectly. In conclusion, both poems discuss the meaning of life. The first ends more positively but they both still have negative attitudes. In, Spring, the narrator does not like beauty but by the end she changes her opinion while the second poem is interpreted as beauty being killed by those who love it. Both poems incorporate the seasons of life but the season fits the mood better in the second poem. True beauty and the meaning of life can only be discovered by actually living life itself.

Geographic Information System (GIS) Benefits and Constraints

Geographic Information System (GIS) Benefits and Constraints Benefits and Constraints of Using Geographic Information System (GIS) 1. Introduction 1.1 Research Background This is no more evident than in the proliferation of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) across a variety of disciplines, with the common goal of capturing, storing, analysing and visualizing spatial information. GIS in practice, by virtue of its technical complexity and cost, has traditionally been limited to the operations of Governments and commercial organisations (Craig et al., 2002). Despite these barriers non-profit organisations and community groups are increasingly looking to adopt GIS on the premise that it will be able to positively transform their operations through better decision making and influencing public policy through greater analysis and the presentation of professional visualisations (Sieber, 2000b, Sieber, 2000a). Given this burgeoning interest, there has been a concerted effort by GIS and Society (GISoc) research groups to develop and espouse concepts such as Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) which provides a unique approach to make GIS and spatial data availa ble to non-traditional users allowing them to integrate local knowledge and engage in decision making (Sieber, 2006). 1.2 Research Objectives The focus of this research project is to investigate the benefits and constraints for the application of a Geographic Information System (GIS) within a community based project. Specifically the research considers a reframing of PPGIS to help better guide the processes, resources and characteristics required to implement a community based GIS. The following questions will guide the research and development of the community-based GIS: Do contemporary PPGIS pragmatic approaches address the original ontological debates of GIS and Society? Can psychogeographic principles help better guide the requirements for a community based GIS? What spatial data sets are available and usable for community groups within Melbourne, Victoria? Do available datasets satisfy the requirements of community groups? Can community knowledge be effectively integrated with traditional spatial data sources? 1.3 Research Rationale As people become more aware of local, regional and global issues through the mainstream media and the Internet they, as a result, expect to be better informed by Governments and organisations and allowed to contribute to decisions that shape their own lives and the society in which they live. If those issues comprise spatial knowledge, then a GIS is a natural option for facilitating discussions and conveying local knowledge (Carver, 2003). Despite this opportunity to empower communities many GIS practices (including PPGIS) and available spatial data often do not adequately represent community needs and concerns (Elwood, 2006). This research thus aims to explore and develop a framework for which current GIS and related technologies can be successfully reconstructed to allow communities to express their own knowledge about place and spatial relations through visualizations and narratives. Specifically, the proposed research has been designed to assist the Blackburn Lake Sanctuary (BLS) Advisory Committee to implement a GIS which will be enable them to store and map the location of various vegetation and salient features within the BLS in Melbourne, Victoria. By integrating publicly available data sets with community knowledge it is hoped that it will further legitimise the activities of the BLS Advisory Committee while not compromising their goal of contributing to local government policy and increasing the effectiveness of their activities. 1.4 Research Methodology Contained here is an outline of the subsequent chapters and research methodology. The research will be organised into three major chapters literature review; case study; and discussion and conclusions. Chapter Two Literature review examines the relevant literature regarding GIS and Society, PPGIS and psychogeography providing an overview of the historical background and ontological framework of these research paradigms. An examination of the principles of psychogeography and the research design of previous PPGIS studies will be completed, providing a comparative study of their different methodologies and methods. These comparisons will assist in developing a theoretical framework for a community-based GIS which will guide the case study to follow. Chapter Three Case study introduces the Blackburn Lake Sanctuary case study and attempts to implement the methods established within the theoretical framework introduced in chapter two. An exploratory case study has been employed because it is a valuable method for investigating the nature and effects of implementing technology within a complex milieu (Sieber, 2000b). In order to increase the rigour and validity of the case study observations, open-ended interviews and questionnaires will be conducted. Chapter Four Discussion and conclusions reviews the research objectives in relation to the major research findings as well as the limitations of the methods and theories employed. Pattern matching techniques will be employed to compare the observed and verified information with the framework developed through the research project. If the observed and predicted information correspond then the research methodology maybe strongly validated (Sarantakos, 1998). This chapter also addresses the limitations of the research and future research opportunities. 1.5 Conclusion This chapter has established the objectives and rationale for conducting research into developing a community-based GIS. A research methodology has also been proposed to describe how the research statement and associated objectives will be achieved. The next chapter will review the relevant literature including theoretical models and research methodologies used by previous researchers in the field of PPGIS and psychogeography. 2. Literature Review 2.1 Introduction In the previous chapter, the objectives, rationale and methodology were presented to help guide the research into developing a community-based GIS. The research outlined in this thesis covers a number of interdisciplinary fields all of which are continually evolving. These fields include public participation GIS (PPGIS), community mapping and psychogeography. This chapter begins by investigating the role of GIS in society including the motivation and foundation for PPGIS and the advantages and disadvantages of PPGIS praxis. The chapter also explores the topic of psychogeography and the reasons why its principles may help characterise and drive the successful development of a community GIS. 2.2 GIS and Society a brief history Mountains dark with forests rose above the rooftops, the jagged black summits silhouetted against the evening light. Higher than them all, though, was the tip of the Schneeberg, glowing, translucent, throwing out fire and sparks, towering into the dying brightness of a sky across which the strangest of greyish-pink cloud formations were moving, while visible between them were the winter planets and crescent moon. (Sebald, 2002: 50) Storytelling is an extremely powerful means for conveying an image of the world and in some way or another every story takes place somewhere and relates knowledge of geography and a sense of place (Cartwright, 2004, Erle et al., 2005, Cartwright et al., 2009). One way to represent geographic stories and our understanding of the spatial organisation of the physical environment and its relationship with humans is through a map. An attempt to bring together the science of geography with the art of map making has been the Geographic Information System (GIS) which is a computer system for capturing, storing, querying, analysing and displaying geographically referenced data (Chang, 2008). What differentiates a GIS from other databases and computer systems is its ability to combine large amounts of spatial data from diverse sources, group the data into layers or categories, analyse the data for patterns or relationships and produce improved visualizations (Sieber, 2000a, Sieber, 2000b). Fo r these reasons GIS technology has become an important tool for use by many levels of Government, Universities and organisations involved in activities ranging from conservation, advertising and marketing, health, crime, land-use planning and social services or any activity containing a spatial component (Sieber, 2006). However it is only recently that GIS use has expanded to non-traditional users such as non-profit organisations and community groups. This accessibility has been the result of decreased costs in hardware, software and improved user interfaces which means the user no longer has to learn specialised command languages (Craig et al., 2002). The attraction to the utility of GIS, by non-traditional users, is much the same as traditional users in that it can assist in new ways of understanding a problem, but it may also help in influencing public policy through more sophisticated analysis and the presentation of professional looking images (Sieber, 2000b). Despite this perceived ease-of-use and increasing ubiquity, the GIS has been criticised by some circles as being an elitist technology which merely enhances existing power structures (Carver, 2003). This critique is heavily influenced by postmodernist principles, which place an increasing emphasis on the contributions of wider society and recognises that knowledge and values are constructed through a multiplicity of social and cultural forces. These arguments first surfaced within the paradigm of critical cartography which exposed the inherent subjectivity in, and rhetorical content of maps, thus implying that maps are as much a reflection of (or metaphor for) the culture that produces them, as they are an abstraction of the physical environment (MacEachren, 1995). These examinations have also been employed within social and critical GIS debates which challenge the use of GIS in decision making as being objective and neutral. Instead it has been maintained that GIS utility is often c onfined to experts whom produce privileged knowledge given their unique access to data, technology, resources and position to structure the inquiry and design the output (Duncan and Lach, 2006). This view of GIS as a return to the principles of technocratic positivism may be construed as anti-democratic because decisions reliant on a GIS may exclude diverse forms of spatial data, such as community knowledge, in favour of ordered Government data conceptualised into points, lines and areas (Crampton and Krygier, 2006). Many academics, such as Pickles (1995), believe that the increased popularity of GIS within the geography discipline has meant that the availability and access to geographic data has become more influential than knowledge or experience of a unique environment or subject (Craig et al., 2002). Concerns regarding the hegemonic and subjective role of GIS lead to a number of workshops in the mid-nineties on GIS and Society (GISoc) sponsored by the National Centre for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) (Craig et al., 2002). GISoc was focused on how the spread of the technology was affecting the political, economic, legal and institutional structures of society; and how societal processes affect the form taken by the technology itself (Carver, 2003: 65). GISoc research furthermore questioned whether current GIS practices and available spatial data adequately represented community needs and concerns and whether a new ontological framework was needed to help empower less privileged groups in society (Elwood, 2006). It was questioned whether it would be possible to develop a bottom-up GIS which could successfully incorporate community participation and thus either displace or validate decisions made with top-down GIS approaches, implemented in most Government and commerci al GIS projects (Craig et al., 2002). From these reflections the notion of Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) was developed and defined as a variety of approaches to make GIS and other spatial decision-making tools available and accessible to all those with a stake in official decisions. (Schroeder, 1996) In other words, the intention of PPGIS praxis was to incorporate local community perspectives into decision making, ideally leading to solutions which might otherwise not have been attained using traditional data sources and esoteric problem framing and analysis (Carver, 2003). Even though PPGIS was initially seen as a reconstructed democratic GIS, there is still much polarized debate regarding whether GIS technology is empowering or marginalising. These opinions, however, can often be seen as a reactive and predisposed view of information technology (IT) in which individuals and groups must react to the technology as having a positive or negative social effect (Sieber, 2000a). The effectiveness and social and political implications of GIS use within communities, however is much more complex and is generally contingent on a set of unique local factors such as culture, policies, standards, people and technology (Duncan and Lach, 2006). While PPGIS applications are an extremely positive move to address the original GISoc concerns regarding the social, political and knowledge practices of GIS contemporary PPGIS have seemingly introduced new contradictions concerning data access, representation and hegemony (Elwood, 2006). For instance, although much literatur e acknowledges the importance of bridging the gap between technology and community knowledge, many PPGIS applications continue to adopt a technocratic view of GIS and are often lacking extensive public interaction let alone the integration of community data (Sieber, 2006). The next section of this thesis examines more closely the current contradictions in PPGIS applications, paying particular attention to the ambiguities in the use of the terms public and participation. The purpose in critiquing the underlying assumptions of these terms is to further an understanding of the original ontological meaning of PPGIS and how the varying use of the terms has affected the incorporation of community knowledge in PPGIS projects. 2.3 What does the Public and Participation in PPGIS really mean? Any process or technology which enhances a communities access to information and provides the chance to participate in decision making should be seen as a step in the right direction; however the original ontological framing of GISoc has become misconstrued by some practices of PPGIS (Carver, 2003). The original concept and application of PPGIS has been reshaped and become more disparate over the years as a range of disciplines (such as urban planning and conservation), have applied different approaches and technologies to achieve a unique set of priorities and goals (Sieber, 2006). Furthermore the growing enthusiasm of Governments and commercial organisations for participatory planning has lead to a number of diverse initiatives which vary in terms of the inclusiveness of community knowledge and empowerment potential (Elwood, 2006). However, public participation is a complicated concept that can have multiple meanings which lead to numerous interpretations and societal expectations (Schlossberg and Shuford, 2005). An examination of the nature of public and participation practices in GIS applications is thus critical in developing a greater understanding of the ambiguities in the PPGIS process and how these may have diverged from the original vision of GISoc. It is extremely important to identify whom the public is when engaging a PPGIS project because it will ultimately determine who is included within the project and what types of outcomes and goals may be achievable (Schlossberg and Shuford, 2005). The Collins English Dictionary (1982) defines public (adj) as a means of relating to, or concerning the people as a whole reflecting the intended meaning within PPGIS; and many applications do continue to be developed for a general public (Sieber, 2006). There is however a number of PPGIS projects who take a more ambiguous view of public and often use it interchangeably with definitions which more loosely resemble a stakeholder. In other words many projects deem their public to be those who are affected by, bring knowledge or information to, and possess the power to influence a decision or program (Sieber, 2006). The public and their interests are often, however, very different from stakeholders and thus would heavily influence the problem f raming and objectives of a GIS project (Wood, 2005). Furthermore a public can be demarcated by a range of factors such as geographical, economic, social or political; and the composition of a public may change over time (Schlossberg and Shuford, 2005). Determining what constitutes the public has become especially complicated as technology has become more pervasive. For instance a web-based GIS may potentially be accessible by a wider portion of society however it raises questions around digital divides and geographic scale. Thus, is anyone who is able to access the application still deemed part of the public even though they maybe geographically distant to the issue and decision making? (Sieber, 2006) In general people local to an issue should be interested enough to get involved in a debate given their geographic proximity. It has been demonstrated however that as scale increases not only do people at regional, national and global levels become interested and involved in an issue but also a higher percentage of people at the local do as well because it has amplified into a wider discourse (Carver, 2003). Consequently Aitken (2002) suggests that instead of perceiving issues or decision making as being scale dependent and developing PPGIS projects for stakeholders which have their scale fixed, GIS projects should, alternatively, be directing their attention towards developing a GIS which would enable community issues and knowledge to jump scale from local to larger public discourses or vice versa (Aitken, 2002, Sieber, 2006). This is an important aspect because there is often a concern that local activities are dismissed as being part of community politics and are denied significant advancements by State and Federal Governments and thus the opportunity to emerge and engage individuals at all scales (Aitken, 2002). From this perspective a community-based GIS, where community is defined as a group of individuals who are bound together by a common characteristic or a common intent and who enjoy a relatively high degr ee of mutual social interaction (Jones et al., 2004: 105) offers the prospect of transcending the rigid scale conceptualised upon community politics and local activism enabling them to contest structures of power and dominance at the very scales they exist (Aitken, 2002, Gaile and Willmott, 2005). Harris and Weiner (1998) acknowledged in their research on the power relations associated with GIS use that participatory GIS practices have the potential to simultaneously empower and marginalise groups (Sieber, 2006). As a result it is imperative to understand the nature of the participatory process and who benefits and why (Craig et al., 2002). One such way to help conceptualise the levels of public participation is through a ladder metaphor. First conceived by Arnstein (1969), the basic premise of the participation ladder is that each rung of the ladder represents a different level of participation the bottom rung represents zero opportunity to participate while each rung above represents increased level of participation in the decision making and thus greater public empowerment (Carver, 2003). Wiedemann and Femers (1993) later produced an adaptation of the ladder which conceived of public participation as not only providing access to information but also suggesting that inform ing the public of decisions is another form of participation (Tulloch and Shapiro, 2003). This concept is significantly flawed as it firstly misrepresents the commonly understood meaning of the word participation in PPGIS which The Collins English Dictionary (1982) defines as to take part, be or become involved, or share. Secondly the ladder metaphors do not acknowledge the potential for participation to change over a period of time (Schlossberg and Shuford, 2005). Thirdly, the participation models fail to include oppositional groups whom do not cooperate with public decision making but participate in the formation public policy through other influential methods such as protests (Sieber, 2006). The incorporation of the word participation in many GIS projects implies a method of consensus building which presupposes a level of top-down decision-making as well as a degree of homogenization between participants. Certain individuals however may be better able to participate or contribute to decision making than others. Consequently, disproportional levels of participation may effectively disempower individuals and adversely affect the desired outcomes of a community (Sieber, 2006). Consequently some scholars have insisted on applying participatory for autonomous grassroots activities and employing participation to describe those projects which are more top-down in their approach (Elwood, 2006). Again while this is a neat way to demarcate GIS projects which employ various degrees of top-down and bottom-up methods these definitions fail to acknowledge that both methodologies are crucial to any successful GIS project and community decision making. In fact it is fervently maintained that in order to enable citizens to better identify and comprehend how the role of GIS and technical discourses are bound up in decision making and how decision making can be informed by GIS knowledge, communities must have access to spatial information developed by Governments and commerc ial organisations as well as contributing their own spatial knowledge (Brown, 1998). Within this section it has been demonstrated that the attitudes and arguments that frame many PPGIS projects have succeeded in producing an illusion of influence and contribution by communities to decision making when actual control still resides with the traditional powers, such as Government. Instead of attempting to build an impossible consensus amongst a public with disparate tastes, values and experiences, a community-based GIS should concentrate on developing a communitys ability to construct their own facts with the aid of available third party resources, from which their personal geographic stories may emerge and translate to various members of society (Wood, 2005). Another way forward could be to draw upon principles of Situational psychogeography which also attempts to combine subjective and objective modes of study by positing that ones self cannot be divorced from the urban environment and that ones psyche and knowledge of the city must transcend the individual if it is t o be of any use in the collective rethinking of the city (Sadler, 1998, Wood, 2005). In the following section an examination of the origins of psychogeography will be conducted clarifying how the principles behind this practice may help establish a framework for practice of GIS and Society and specifically the incorporation of local knowledge in GIS. 2.4 What exactly is Psychogeography? During the 1950s a number of highly politicised groups emerged in opposition to the ideals of modernism; these groups promoted programs that would reform the practice of art and life by directly intervening in the human environment and bringing about a social revolution (Sadler, 1998). One such group were the Lettrist International who conceived of the notion of Unitary Urbanism, which would later be the developed into the praxis of Psychogeography. Unitary Urbanism was envisaged as the theory of the combined use of arts and techniques for the integral construction of a milieu in dynamic relation with experiments in behaviour. (Knabb, 2006: 52) In other words, Unitary Urbanism was considered a social project whose vision was the unification of space and architecture with the social and individual body (Sadler, 1998). In 1957 the Lettrist International and the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus (IMIB) merged to form a new artistic-activist movement known as the Situationist International (SI). The SI was similarly critical of modernist principles which anteceded the rational mind at the expense of the imagination. These criticisms are most clearly evident in the SIs opposition to modern architecture and urban planning which they argued shaped people into rigid patterns of behaviour (Sadler, 1998). Furthermore they believed that increasing urbanism and capitalism had reduced life to mere production and consumption behaviour that ensured that everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation. (Debord, 1964) In other words experienced space had been reduced into mere representations of spaces and in turn re-envisaged as capitalist spaces (McDonough, 2002). SI believed that members of society were increasingly experiencing life as spectators devoid of dialogue and wi thout a sense of being involved or interacting with one another. Once this spectacle of modernity and urbanism, represented through images, products and activities, and authorised by the state, had been unveiled, society would be able to rediscover the authenticity of city life underneath (Debord, 1964). By resisting the hegemony of the state the SI sought to radically transform urban spaces through different practices including the subversion of cartography. Specifically by directing the spectators senses towards the contradictions in the abstractions and mediations of the state, the aim was to draw the spectator into activity by provoking his capacities to revolutionize his own life (Debord, 1957: 25). Taking from the original methodology of Unitary Urbanism, psychogeography was proposed as a method of urban investigation which studies the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organised or not, on the emotions and behaviour of individuals. (Debord, 1955) In other words, psychogeography was intended as a methodology to help make people aware of the ways in which the urban environment and everyday life is conditioned and controlled and encouraged the exposing of these concerns (Plant, 1992). Psychogeography in practice utilised a technique conceived as the Theory of the Dà ©rive, in which individuals dà ©rive (literally: drifting) through an environment letting themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain while still seeking to unmask the contradictions in the abstracted space (Plant, 1992). The dà ©rive was an attempt to reappropriate the meaning of the city by removing the myths in the states representations by having people walk and experience the landscape first hand, thus constructing through narratives a more concrete collective space (Mcdonough, 1994). While the dà ©rive offered a new way of surveying urban space, a new way of representing these spaces had yet to be found. The SI were not disillusioned with the idea of mapping practices, in fact they regarded mapping as an important component to aid in the changing and organisation of urban spaces (Pinder, 1996). They believed however, that the structures and imperatives utilised in mapping exposed the desires of those wishing to impose order upon the city. The SI ambition was thus to illustrate the strange logic and apparent disorder of cities by producing maps which demonstrated those intimacies of the city typically absent from a traditional street or topographic map (Sadler, 1998). Consequently the SI developed a concept called Dà ©tournement, which loosely translates as a diversion or rerouting of pre-existing aesthetic elements (Knabb, 1995). An example of this is where existing maps and aerial photographs were juxtaposed or rearranged to produce a new spatial meaning; an a lternative experiential or existential truth (Ungar, 2005). Thus the SI were able to reconstruct the cartography of a city by reconciling conventional geographies, sociologies, and cartographies together with experienced spaces, producing a map which is terrestrial, fragmented, subjective, temporal, and cultural (Sadler, 1998: 82). While Debord announced the disbandment of the SI in 1972, the traditions underpinning psychogeography continue to influence many works of literature, films, urban design and geographic practices (Ford, 2005). Wood (2005) draws attention to one contemporary psychogeography project Jake Bartons City of Memory which combines psychogeographic principles with a GIS to build a collective urban memory through the participation of a number of people. In an interview with Wood, Jake Barton described his project as utilising top-down and bottom-up resources to create an emergent and curated experience. Precisely by extending these terms to form the foundation of any GIS and Society project, Wood hypothesised that what would emerge was a GIS designed by a third-party or community-based intermediary (top-down); the public would formulate a specific framework that fits their unique goals (bottom-up); the bottom-up and top-down activities and goals are not independent of each other, but rather c o-exist (curated); the outcome of the project has not been foreseen or influenced towards a specific outcome by any party, but rather emerges organically from the facts obtained and analysed (emergent). Thus resulting in a map and information which has not been exactly made by the public but which without it has no content at all and deflates into a frame around nothing (Wood, 2005: 13). Following on from this preliminary research by Wood a wider investigation of these terms will be conducted, laying the framework for a more appropriate community-based GIS as originally envisaged in GISoc debates. 2.5 Top-down Top-down integration of GIS is usually undertaken by an outside individual or agency who provides the GIS model, data, analysis and representation (Talen, 2000). Often the major distinction between a top-down and bottom-up approach, in participatory projects, is determined by where the decision making lies and by the level of commitment required by the public. With a top-down approach a Government or organisation would typically provide the data and representations which would be used in deliberation with the public, who are required to make a short-term commitment. In contrast, a bottom-up approach would require the public to have ongoing access to GIS data and the resources to capture data, conduct analysis and produce representations (Talen, 2000). Governments and commercial planners will often implement a participatory GIS with top-down goals in order to better understand a neighbourhood dynamic, improve public sector management and enhance social service provision. This process theoretically serves the public by introducing policies and services based on a communitys perception of the data, analysis and representations framed by Governments and planners (Sieber, 2006). Top-down GIS models can also help circumvent deterrents such as cost, complexity and access to data which often impeded non-profit and community groups from implementing a GIS. The cost of hardware and GIS software have decreased dramatically over the years and there are now many open source GIS solutions available for free use; however it has been shown that any cost and resources required in the implementation, operation and maintenance of equipment, no matter the amount, will be a significant barrier for adoption, especially for underprivileged groups (Brodnig and Mayer-Schà ¶nberger, 2000, Leitner et al., 2002). Furthermore many individuals may lack knowledge about the availability and means of obtaining a GIS and spatial data (Elwood, 2007). Many of the GIS packages available are user-friendly for many operations, however the more functionality a group requires for their GIS, the greater

Cloud Computing with Machine Learning for Cancer Diagnosis

Cloud Computing with Machine Learning for Cancer Diagnosis Cloud computing with Machine Learning could help us in the early diagnosis of breast cancer Junaid Ahmad Bhat, Prof. Vinai George and Dr. Bilal Malik Abstract— The purpose of this study is to develop tools which could help the clinicians in the primary care hospitals with the early diagnosis of breast cancer diagnosis. Breast cancer is one of the leading forms of cancer in developing countries and often gets detected at the lateral stages. The detection of cancer at later stages results not only in pain and agony to the patients but also puts lot of financial burden on the caregivers. In this work, we are presenting the preliminary results of the project code named BCDM (Breast Cancer Diagnosis using Machine Learning) developed using Matlab. The algorithm developed in this work is based on adaptive resonance theory. (Explain the results of this work here ..). The aim of the project is to eventually run the algorithm on a cloud computer and a clinician at a primary healthcare can use the system for the early diagnosis of the patients using web based interface from anywhere in the world. Keywords— Adaptive Resonance theory, Breast Cancer Diagnosis, FNA I. Introduction The breast cancer is one of the common cancers and ranked second in the world after the lung cancer. (1)This type of cancer also ranked second in northern India. (1)Breast cancer is one of the leading cancers found in Kashmir (1) .Classifying the cells into the malignant and benign is the main goal in the diagnoses of breast cancer and misclassification could cost pain to the patients and extra burden to health care providers. Due to noise in the data, the problem to classify becomes non-trivial and has thus attracted researchers from machine learning to improve the classification.(2) Researchers have used different machine learning algorithms to improve the diagnosis of breast cancer. (3) And Neural Networks is one of the machine learning algorithms, which has been widely used for diagnosis of breast cancer. In order to achieve the exactness Adaptive Resonance theory that is one of the variants of Neural Network been used for prediction purposes. Neural Network gained importance in 505 till late 60s due to its accuracy and learning capabilities but got diminished in 80s due to its computational cost. With the advancement in technology (4) Neural Networks are becoming popular due to their ability to achieve non-linear hypotheses even when input feature scale is large (4). This work proposes to use a variant of neural networks based on adaptive resonance theory to improve the breast cancer diagnosis. This algorithm has been developed and tested in Matlab 2012.has been tested on lot of real life problems that include automated automobile control, for classification purposes and for the detection of intruders in the battlefield. II. Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) The Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) is a neural network architecture that generates suitable weights (parameter) by clustering the pattern space. . The motive for adapting ART instead of a conventional neural network is to solve the stability and plasticity problem. (5) ART networks and algorithms keep the plasticity to learn new patterns and prevent the amendment of patterns that it learned earlier. The stable network will not return the previous cluster. The operation of ART works as it accepts an input vector and classifies it into one of the clusters depending on to which cluster it resembles. If it will not match with any of the category then a new category is created by storing that pattern. When a store pattern is, bring into being that matches the input vector within a specified tolerance that made it to look like the input vector. The pattern will not be modified if it doesnt match the current input pattern within the vigilance parameter. With the help of it the problems associated with stability and plasticity can be resolved. (5) Figure 4 Art 1Neural Network Architecture A. Types of Adaptive Resonance Theory 1) Adaptive Resonance Theory 1 It is the first neural network of Adaptive Resonance theory. It consists of two layers that cluster the pattern from the input binary vector. It accepts the input in the form of binary values (6). 2) Adaptive Resonance Theory 2 It is the second type of neural Network of Adaptive Resonance theory .It is complex than that of ART1 network and accepts the values in the form of continuous valued vector. The reason of complexity for ART 2 is that it possesses the normalization combination and noise inhibition alongside it compares the weights needed for the reset mechanism. (6) B. Working of ART 1 Neural Network The art Neural Networks works in the following fashion, which comprises of three layers and each layer has its own role to play. 1) Input layer 2) Interface layer 3) Cluster layer The parameters used in algorithm are as: Num = Number of Symptoms M = Clusters as {benign ,Malignant} bwij =Bottom up weights Twij = Top down weights P =Vigilance parameter S = Binary forms of the input symptoms X = Activation vector for interface ||x|| =norm of x or sum of the components of x Step 1: Initialize Parameters L > 1 and 0 Initialize weights 0 ij (0) ij (0)=1 Step 2: While stop condition is false, perform step 3 to 14 Step 3: For each training input do step 4 to 13 Step 4: Set Activation of all F2 units to 0 Set Activation of F1(a) units to binary forms of Symptoms vector Step 5: Compute the sum of the symptoms ||s|| = ∑ i Si Step 6: Send the symptom vector from input layer to interface layer xi = si Step7: The cluster node that is not inhibited If yj != -1 then yj = ∑ bij *xi Step8: While reset is true, perform step 9-12 Step 9: Find J such that yi >= yj for all nodes j If yj = -1 then All then odds are inhibited thus cannot be clustered Step 10: Recomputed activation vector x of interface unit Xi= si *tji Step 11: Compute the sum of the components of vector x ||x||= ∑I Xi Step 12: Test for reset condition if ||x|| / ||s|| Yj = -1 (inhibited node j) Move to step step 8 again if ||x|| / ||s|| >= p then move to next step Step 13: Update the bottom up weights and top up weights as: bij (new)=L*xi / L 1 +| |x|| and Tji (new)=xi Step 14: Test for the stopping condition if((bij(new_val)==bij(previous_vreeal)))(tij(new_val)==tij(previous_val))) III. Classifying Breast Cell The data set for this research was taken from Mangasarian and Wolberg. This data set was obtained by taking Fine Needle Aspirates (FNA) approach. (7) This data set is available for public in UCI repository. (7) It contains 699 samples of patients consists of two classes 458 as benign cases and 451 malignant cases. The following are the attributes of the database: Sample Code Number Clump Thickness Uniformity of Cell Size Uniformity of Cell Shape Marginal Adhesion Single Epithelial Cell Size Bare Nuclei Bland Chromatin Normal Nucleoli Mitosis Class We have taken this data in its original form. This dataset is available in UC Irvine Machine Learning Repository (7) IV. Experiment Our Experiment consists of four different modules which is further divided and does work in the following sequence as given in the figure 5 below. Figure 5: Modules of the Algorithm A. Modules of the Experiment 1) Pre processing In our dataset, not all the features are taking part in the classification process thus; we remove patients id feature. Then we left with ten attributes so we separate the feature set from the class values as Xij and Yi. a) Data Normalization After preprocessing stage Normalization of Xij (nine feature vectors) need to perform by using this equation: New_val = (current _val min value) / (Max value min value) Where, New_val = New value after scaling current_val = Current value of the feature vector Max_val = Maximum value of each feature vector Minvalue = Minimum value of each feature vector b) Data Conversion The new values (New_val) after getting from the previous step are truncated and converted into binary format. Then grouping was done on the base of range; the values falling in the range of 0 to 5 assigned as 0. Whereas, values in the range from 5 to 10 are assigned as 1.Then each sample as an input is given to ART1 network for training and testing purpose. 2) Recognition Stage Initially all components of the input vector were assigned to zero because no sample was applied to the input layer. This sets the other two layers to zero there by disabling all the neurons and results in zero output. Since all neurons are at the same stage, thus every neuron has an equal chance to win. The input vector then applied in the recognition layer, at each neuron performs a dot product between the input vector and its weight vector. A neuron that comes with the greatest dot product possesses the weights that most excellent matches input vector. It inhibits all the other outputs from that neuron from that layer. This indicates the recognition layer stores the patterns in the form of weights associated with neurons one for each class. 3) Comparison Stage In the recognition layer the network fired passes one back to the comparison layer when it passes the output signal. The comparison neurons that will fire are the one those receive simultaneously from the input feature vector and the comparison layer excitation vector. If there is a mismatch between these two, few neurons in the comparison layer will fire to the next layer until X got over. This means that the pattern P being feedback is not the one sought and neuron firing in the recognition layer should be inhibited. Then comparison of the symptoms vector and the inner layer vector and if the value is less then vigilance parameter, the network causes reset which causes the firing neuron in the recognition layer to zero and disable it for the current classification. 4) Search Stage The classification process finishes if the reset signal is not generated. Otherwise other patterns were researched to find the correct match. This method continues until either all the stored pattern has been tried or all recognition neurons are inhibited. V. Results The performance of the Algorithm studied is as under: The Training percentage and testing percentage total time taken and the relative efficiency when vigilance parameter is 0.5 is given by the chart. Figure 6 : The classification performance on Vigilance parameter 0.5 The efficiency of the Network with vigilance parameter 0.7 on different percentage of training and testing sets given in figure 7. And on taking the vigilance parameter as 0.7 but on different percentage of training and testing dataset we got better efficiency than that of in figure 7 as shown in figure 8. Figure 7: The Classification performance on Epoch 0.7 Figure 8: Calculation of Efficiency on different proportion of data The efficiency of the Network with vigilance parameter 0.9 on different percentage of training and testing sets given as under: Figure 9 : The Efficiency of the Network on Vigilance Parameter 0.9 The Maximum and Minimum time for training the Network on different tolerance factors is in the table as: Table 1: Calculation of Training time VI. Conclusion In this paper, we evaluated the adaptive resonance theory for the diagnosis of breast cancer using Wisconsin as data set. Several tests has been taken on different proportion of training and testing dataset and we concluded that by taking the vigilance parameter as 0.5 and taking the ratio of data as 90% for training and 10 % for testing we could achieve the better results. Although we have taken into account all the parameters in the further scope of research, we use the feature selection process so that we can reduce the time and improve the accuracy. In addition to that, we take the dataset from the local hospital so that we use that for the benefit of the society. References Journal of Cancer Research and Therapeutics. Afroz, Fir, et al. 2012, Vol. 8. Heart Disease Diagnosis using Support Vector. Shashikant Ghumbre, Chetan Patil,Ashok Ghatol. Pattaya: International Conference on Computer Science and Information Technology, Dec. 2011. Stefan Conrady, Dr. Lionel Jouffe. Breast Cancer Diagnostics with Bayesian Networks. s.l.: Bayesia, 2013. DONG, Yiping. A Study on Hardware Design for High Performance Artificial Neural Network by using FPGA and NoC . s.l.: Waseda University Doctoral Dissertation, July -2011. S N Sivanandan, S Sumathi , S N Deepa. Introduction to Neural Network and Matlab 6.0. s.l.: Tata Mc-Graw -Hill, 2006. Evaluation of Three Neural Network Models using Wisconsin Breast Cancer. K. Mumtaz, S. A. Sheriff,K. Duraiswamy. UCL Wisconsin data set. [Online] [Cited: 30 10 2014.] http://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml/datasets/Breast+Cancer+Wisconsin+(.

Why Did Adolf Hitler Become A Hate Filled Dictator? :: essays research papers fc

Why Did Adolf Hitler Become A Hate Filled Dictator?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Adolf Hitler; throughout the entire world this name is synonymous with World War II and the Holocaust. Hitler was the notorious anti-semetic Chancellor of Germany who initiated World War II. Many different events in Hitler’s life led to his eventual hatred for specific cultures, i.e. Jewish and Marxist groups.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   On April 20, 1889 Adolf Hitler, was born to Alois Hitler and Klara Polzl Hitler and baptized a Roman Catholic (History Place). As a young boy in Austria he was spoiled by his mother, who feared that she might lose another child; however from his father he received verbal and physical abuse because he expected total discipline. When Hitler attended school at a monastery he admired the way the Abbot controlled his monks with supreme authority. Hitler’s father and the Abbot both expected to have total control of their domains, because of this Hitler’s thought of control could have already been forming in his young mind.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Around 1896 the family moved for the second time, to a small house, near a cemetery, which in the next few years would become home to Hitler’s younger brother, Edmund, and his father, Alois. Both of these deaths would send Hitler into the first of a long line of depressions. At the age of 13 Hitler became the head of his household and received his first taste of power and money.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Education, Hitler found somewhat easy and received good marks at the beginning, however things would eventually change. Hitler found out that he had a good ability to remember buildings and draw realistic renderings of them from memory which will come into play later on in his life. After Hitler became bored with school he started making trouble and eventually dropped out at the age of 16 which began his years of dilettante, aimless existence, reading, painting, and wandering around (Biography).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After Hitler’s mother died leaving him as an orphan, Hitler left for Vienna to attend the Academy of Fine Arts. However he failed the entrance exam twice and again began to wander aimlessly as a homeless orphan,his only income being small paintings of local landmarks, namely buildings, which he sold. This is when Hitler discovered anti-semetism and his racial views in the form of Mayor Karl Lueger and Lanz von Liebenfels, some prominent locals, that would remain as the Nazi ideology for some time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hitler moved to Munich in 1913 where he joined a Bavarian regiment in the German army to fight in World War I.

The FLSA: Exempt Vs. Non-exempt Employees Essay -- Labor Compare Contr

The FLSA: Exempt Vs. Non-exempt Employees President Franklin D. Roosevelt enacted the FLSA on June 25, 1938. It was signed in as a federal labor law to provide criteria for governing general labor practices such as overtime, minimum wages, child labor protections and equal pay. The Fair Labor Standards Act is a long and extensive document in and of itself. It defines many exceptions and exemptions. For purposes of this paper the portion of the FLSA that will be concentrated on is the difference between exempt and non-exempt employees.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Let’s begin by defining exempt and non-exempt. Non-exempt employees are those that are paid on an hourly basis and receive overtime compensation at one and one-half times their base pay for all hours worked in excess of some standard threshold. In most cases this â€Å"threshold† is 40 hours, but that is not always the case. Dividing the annual salary by 2080 to give a base hourly amount can derive the base pay for most, not all but most, employees. Exempt employees are those that do not receive compensation of any kind for hours worked in excess of whatever the threshold maybe. By definition of law exempt employees must be paid on a salary basis and job duties performed by said employee must be high-level such as executive, administrative or professional. To decide whether an employee meets the criteria for being exempt, there are two tests – the duties test and the salary basis test.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For the salary basis test, employees ...

A Mans Struggle to Heal Himself in Big Two-Hearted River Essays

A Man's Struggle to Heal Himself in Big Two-Hearted River Ernest Hemingway's "Big Two-Hearted River"* is such a rich text that it has probably received more literary critical attention than many novels of several times its length. Hemingway's ardent use of intricate detail and his intentional, calculated use of short, simple sentences help to make "River" a treasure chest of critical ideas and possible interpretations. Historically, much of the criticism of "River" has examined the dark underlying themes of the story, such as the alleged omission of some preceding, devastating event and Nick's wounded spiritual and mental state. These sentences, such as "There was no town, nothing but the rails and the burned-over country," are representative of the abundance of similar language throughout the story and make it easy to understand why many critics focus on dark themes, devastation and mental instability. Without denying or dispelling any of the valid "dark" critiques, I intend to show that "River" may also be easily understood in a more posi tive light as an account of one man's struggle to heal himself by returning to what he knows and loves. The intense detail that abounds within the story makes an easy job for the deconstructionist. The intricate descriptions of Nick's actions are susceptible to deconstructive criticism, as may be seen in James Twitchell's "The Swamp in Hemingway's 'Big Two-Hearted River." Twitchell focuses on the physical improbability of the swamp existing adjacent to the river as it is described in the story. A swamp is an area where the water moves very slowly, if at all; however, Nick describes the river as being lined with boulders, having a pebbly bottom, and "fast moving water" (209). Twitchell po... ... Green, James L. "Symbolic Sentences in 'Big Two-Hearted River.'" Modern Fiction Studies 14 (1968): 307-312. Kyle, Frank B. "Parallel and Complementary Themes in Hemingway's Big Two-Hearted River Stories and 'The Battler.'" Studies in Short Fiction 16 (1979): 295-300. Smith, B.J. "' Big Two-Hearted River:' The Artist and the Art." Studies in Short Fiction 20 (1983): 129-32. Stewart, John F. "Christian Allusions in 'Big Two-Hearted River.'" Studies in Short Fiction 18 (1978): 194-96. Svoboda, Frederic J. "Landscapes Real and Imagined: 'Big Two-Hearted River.'" Hemingway Review 16 (1996): 33-42. Twitchell, James. "The Swamp in Hemingway's 'Big Two-Hearted River.'" Studies in Short Fiction 9 (1972): 275-76. Weeks, Lewis E. Jr. "Two Types of Tension: Art Vs Campcraft in Hemingway's 'Big Two-Hearted River.'" Studies in Short Fiction 11 (1974): 433-34.

Alliant health system Essay

From my point of view no strategy is perfectly sound. There are some or other lacking points in every strategy. In case of alliants strategy, although they have made quite advancements but in last 5yrs they have hit a few unexpected obstacles and drawbacks that has staggered their progress. alliants were only been able to lay the base. The working of alliants was facing the problem of in cordiality to the total quality management philosophy. For alliants to eliminate the problem the quality process still needs a jumpstart ,even the physicians show broader there view point, implementation of an IT system that fully supports total quality management by getting them the data and the important facts it need to have to in cooperate innovation in future in their organisation. Even the CEO wolford said that he cannot talk about any one area which is doing substantially well than its competitors. alliants were finding a problem to get plans into implementation. Even as per the statistics the unable to monitor rate was around 2% to 70%. How well have they implemented the quality strategy? Alliants thought of a new action plan to introduce total quality management with the help of quality management team with a 10 pointer action setup. This time they were determent that the implementation of plans takes up systematically. Mainly 4 area of TQM strategy were taken of well. 1) CARES+ – this process was implemented all across the alliants. This helped in shifting from the traditional system of the planning to the improvement of the quality which was highly efficient. 2) EQUIP- this was an idea to give voice to the employees. They were allowed to share their point of view and give their ideas, innovations and communicate with the higher management of the organisation. 3) . Quality Improvement Teams- these teams brought the technicality and specific analytical tools to bring implementation in action. 4) . Critical Paths 3. Evaluate their information technology needs. Believed information technology (I/T) is a key in the future strength of TQM Need â€Å"expert systems – computers to help the mind† â€Å"Was a shift in focus: to patient-oriented systems rather than functional, â€Å"stove pipe† applications that met narrow departmental needs. Physicians, clinical support professionals, and administrators could share information and drive continuous improvement in service â€Å"HELP offered advice on possible diagnoses, cost-effective treatments, resource scheduling, and drug contraindications. † New I/T strategy offered significant advantages over Alliant’s existing patchwork of stand-alone systems: System worked concurrently – advice was available as patient was being treated Had the potential to improve coordination dramatically by collecting data from all corners of the hospital into a single patient-centered system 4. Would you proceed with HELP? From my point of view, yes we should proceed with HELP. As this improving the quality, saving time and even the paper. This system has helped the hospital in making the whole organisation a one working unit. This is basically a single patient orient system that has all the information about every patient who has been admitted in any of their hospital in any other area. This has eliminated the repeated data and has been proved to be more productive, efficient and well organised. 5. What would you do to make sure implementation is successful? The steps which i would take will involve

Lord of the Flies Essay

Statement Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the prosecution will prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that the defendant, Jack Merridew, is guilty of two counts of murder. We will show that Mr. Merridew was fully responsible for the deaths of Simon and Piggy when the boys were stranded on an island without adult supervision. We will show that Jack quickly became a sadistic savage who believed that the rules and laws of civilization did not apply to him. He constantly fought against and disobeyed Ralph who was the democratically elected leader of the boys. He valued killing above all other activities and constantly tried to convince the other boys to follow him and not listen to Ralph. Although the circumstances surrounding Simon’s death were accidental, the prosecution will show that Jack’s behavior caused the boys to act as killers. Jack ruled his boys through fear and he made them follow him because they believed that he could protect them. We will show that Jack knew that the beast was not real but he pretended it was so that all the boys would continue to be afraid. One of Jack’s strategies to make the boys feel braver was that he created the death chant, â€Å"kill the beast, cut his throat, spill his blood. † Also Jack created the dance where a boy pretended to be a pig while all the other boys stood around him and pretended to spear him to death. It was in the middle of this crazed dance that Simon stumbled out from the jungle and all the boys fell upon him and killed him. The prosecution will also present evidence that shows that Jack was responsible for Piggy’s death. Shortly after the boys crashed, Jack broke Piggy’s glasses making Piggy even more helpless than he already was. Then Jack raided Ralph’s camp and stole Piggy’s glasses. This final act was a death sentence for Piggy because without his specs he could not see the rock tumbling down the mountain towards him that killed him. The prosecution will also show that from the very beginning Jack’s hatred of Piggy influenced all the boys. Jack hated Piggy because Piggy was fat and physically weak. Jack believed in the law of the jungle, which states that only the strong survive. Jack makes up the chant â€Å"kill the pig† and this chant always causes the boys to be frenzied, crazed, unthinking savages. â€Å"Kill the pig† could be seen as being close to â€Å"kill the piggy† so it’s not a surprise when Piggy is finally killed. Piggy wants Ralph to remain the leader because he knows that he is protected and won’t be hurt by Jack as long as Ralph is the leader. When Piggy is killed, Ralph is no longer the leader and after Piggy dies Jack screams â€Å"that’s what you’ll get† and he throws his spear at Ralph. Questions for Witnesses Ralph 1. When Jack threw his spear at you and then hunted you, did you think that he was going to kill you? 2. Were you afraid of Jack? 3. Was Jack a bully? Sam and Eric 1. Did Jack’s boys ever hurt you? 2. Were you afraid of Jack? 3. When Jack kidnapped you and tied you up did you want to be part of his tribe? Piggy’s Auntie 1. How well could Piggy see without his glasses? 2. If Piggy had been wearing his specs could he have seen the rock coming towards him and gotten out of the way? 3. Since Jack stole his glasses do you believe that Jack is responsible for Piggy’s death? Naval Officer 1. When you arrived on the beach what was Ralph doing? 2. How did all the boys look? 3. Do you think that they were playing a game or was the hunt real? Roger 1. What do you admire about Jack? 2. When you pushed the rock down the mountain and killed Piggy how did you feel? 3. When you were torturing Wilfred and Sam and Eric did you believe that this was wrong? Jack’s Parents 1. Did Jack ever get in trouble at school for being a bully? 2. When Jack played with other boys what kinds of games did he like to play? 3. Did Jack ever steal anything? Percival 1. Were you afraid of Jack? 2. Why did you choose to join Jack’s tribe? 3. Do you think that Ralph or Jack was the better leader? Maurice 1. Why did you choose to go with Jack to steal Piggy’s glasses? 2. Why didn’t you just ask Piggy if you could borrow his glasses? How did you feel when you knocked over the littluns’ sandcastles? Robert 1. When you pretended to be the pig, were you hurt? 2. Were you afraid during this activity? 3. Were you afraid of Jack? Closing Statement Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, we believe that the constitution has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the defendant, Jack Merridew, is a sadistic bully without conscience or regard for the laws and appropriate behavior that are part of civilized society. Jack chose to be a savage criminal on this island. He disobeyed Ralph’s rules that provided structure and order. Ralph was the elected leader and Jack intentionally broke away from this group and formed his own tribe of savage hunters. He ruled this group through fear and physical violence. The boys of Jack’s tribe paid no attention to morals or good behavior. They simply did what they wanted to do and never stopped to say to themselves, â€Å"Is this a good way to behave? † or â€Å"is this right? † From the beginning Jack was a boy who was obsessed with hunting and killing pigs. Then he became a complete savage and the sport of hunting pigs became boring. He needed more excitement so he invented the sport of hunting and killing human beings. You the jury have the responsibility to render a verdict of guilty for two counts of murder. Jack is responsible for the deaths of Simon and Piggy. It is true that he did not push the rock down the mountain that killed Piggy. But he was responsible for creating a tribe of boys who no longer had good moral behavior and who didn’t value human life. It is true that Jack alone that Jack did not kill Simon. But he was responsible for creating the frenzied crazed behavior through his chant and dance that led to Simon’s death. Jack is guilty of murder. The prosecution rests.

Chipotle Case Analysis

Chipotle Case Analysis-By Team PYSHEN Strategic Issue: Chipotle plan to find out a correct and effective strategy to continue its sustainable growth and to maintain its profitability by penetrating high market share while competing with its powerful rivals in the fast-casual food industry. External Environment analysis: GENERAL: 1. Demographic: Population size (O): potential increase in US; Age structure: mainly servicing adult between 18-49 years old; Geographic distribution (O): 39 states in the US, 1 in British and 2 in Canada; Ethnic Mix: N/A; Income Distribution: medium or high income (Customers willing to pay the premium). . Economic (T): stagnate, increasing food cost price (demotic 3. 9%, global 37%) and customers’ dwindling budgets. 3. Political (T): ICE shifts its focus; PETA asked to use CAK; definition of healthy food. 4. Sociocultural (T): Higher wage for CIW. 5. Technological: Prevailing Social media (O); Tortilla grill machine (T). 6. Global: Cultural difference s for new stores (T) in international markets. 7. Physical Environment: N/A. INDUSTRY: 1. New entrants (H): Low Barrier, small economies scale, product taste better, and small capital requirements. 2. Suppliers (L): customized food, many local farms. . Buyers (H): low switch costs, sales represent all revenue. 4. Substitute (H), low switch cost, many choices. 5 Rivalry (H), many equally balanced competitors; low storage cost. Internal Environment Analysis: Tangible Resources: Financial (S): High ROI (approx. 10%) and operation cash flow. (V) Capacity to borrow: N/a. Organizational: autonomy in operation, strong incentive. (V). Physical: 22 independent distributers with high qualities. (R), hard to get â€Å"A† location, and higher cost of construct, new stores’ sales are cannibalized by existing ones. W), local supplier and regional distributer, which reduce cost of transportation (V, R, I) Tech: No tortilla grill (W). Intangible resources: Human (S): Restaurateur prog ram to train and reward managers to stay (V, I, R); Internal staff promotions and development (V). Innovation (S): Simple approach to menus with lots of combinations (V, I, R), Menu & Taste (V, R, I, N), Open kitchen design (V, I, R). Reputation (S): Brand name (V, I, R, N); organic, fresh and sustainable ingredients (V, I, R, N); LEED certified restaurants (V, R).Capabilities: relies on strictly chosen suppliers (I). HR: well motivated and empowered (V, I). Marketing (S): effective promotion of brand name (offer free burritos to neighboring; participation in charity fundraiser; setting up event) (V, I, R, N); valuable word-of-mouth from Facebook (V, I). Management information system: N/A. Management (W): simple structure with single office control may reduce the oversight. Manufacturing (S): food productions are reliable with high quality (V, R, I, N). R&D: (N/A).Core competencies: unique menu design, great taste with its sustainable ingredients and quick service visible for custom ers differentiate Chipotle from others. Strictly chosen suppliers help Chipotle meeting its food in integrity goals. Competitor Analysis: Chipotle has bunch of competitors, and Panera is the most powerful one. Both Panera and Chipotle strive to provide quality food with fast service, focus on building their brand image and establish loyal customer relationship to drive repeat sales, and are unwilling to finance themselves by credit (no long-term debt).However, Panera heavily relies on franchise to expand its market, and develops catering business to promote its sales in future, which parts Chipotle doesn’t involve. In fast-casual food market, Panera is a very strong competitor. Business level strategy: differentiation by offering sustainable ingredient and better taste as well as satisfied fast service. Alternatives: 1. Globalization by franchise: Chipotle only has three foreign stores, which located only in Anglo-Saxon countries.However, enlarging its foreign market is a lon g-term task, and is required more financial support. In current status, Chipotle has faced supplier shortage problem. Therefore building local suppliers is becoming more critical issue and need great efforts, and whether this activity can guarantee enough supplies, which meet Chipotle’s strict standards, is still in doubt. A better way is to franchise in international markets because local managers will more familiar with the needs of local customers. Another reason is that Chipotle is reluctant to finance by debt.Through franchising in foreign markets, Chipotle may gather positive cash flows to fund company owned restaurants in U. S. , and avoid large uncertain expense, cultural shock as well as political risks that may be incurred in foreign markets. 2. Exploiting its suppliers: A possible way to penetrate more market share is to exploit and streamline its suppliers. The case shows that the company developed its suppliers by restrict quality, price and protocol standards. S ome supplies shortages have been happened and some restaurants cannot operate smoothly without key ingredients.Chipotle did a good job in its downstream business, which is to provide a qualified food and services; however, it upstream still needs to be well exploited efficiently to meet the huge needs of customers. Two feasible ways may not only lower the food cost but also overcome the shortage. One is developing more qualified suppliers in foreign markets. Although, the requirement of suppliers is hard to meet, Chipotle could corporate with local governments to acquire standardized supplies (successful example is KFC in China). The tariff and freight may be offset by lower labor cost.The other way is to tap into more potential suppliers, with an enlarged supply chains, the company may enjoy a lower cost by economic scale effect. Recommendation: Comparing with the above alternatives, we recommend Chipotle to adopt the second one. The relationship with suppliers is considered as one of its capabilities, and thus, adopting the second method may involve less risky. If the company implements it appropriately, an efficient and effect supply chain could also become its core competency, reduce its cost of goods sold and achieve expected SSS growth.