Victimization of Women in Society with Regard to Anita Nair, S Ladiescoupe Essay Example

Victimization of Women in Society with Regard to Anita Nair, S Ladiescoupe Essay The undeserved dilemma of modern woman is a recurrent theme of the novels of Bharati, a widely acclaimed author and winner of the National Book critics’ award. She considered her works, a celebration of her emotion that she brings out of her heart. She has depicted very minutely the condition of Asian immigrants in North America, with particular attention to the changes taking place in South Asian women in a new world. She presents all her characters a survivors against the brutalities and violence that surrounded them. A threat that runs through all the novels of Mukherjee is of religious, racial, sexual and economic class difference. Bharati expresses the â€Å"the inner expropriation of cultural identity. Pre-natal reminiscence is the fountain head of the Indian tradition. Encounter between India, England and USA ends in an inter cultural accommodation. The two integral parts of reality are fixity and change. The blending of being and becoming attracts the attention of novelists. Nativity and nationality meet face to face challenging immigrant sensibility and expatriate predicament. Monolithic cultural identity is dissolved in the process of cultural mutation. Thus this is evident in the novel against the background of Tara Lata’s recollection of childhood memory of previous birth and cross cultural pollination. A British becoming an Indian is a matter of attention while at the same time an Indian turning a snobbish British is equally an important subject matter for our concern. The philosophical import of the title, â€Å"From Being to Becoming,† is actually gleaned from the ritual incidents and personages. We will write a custom essay sample on Victimization of Women in Society with Regard to Anita Nair, S Ladiescoupe specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Victimization of Women in Society with Regard to Anita Nair, S Ladiescoupe specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Victimization of Women in Society with Regard to Anita Nair, S Ladiescoupe specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher stated that nothing remains static and so everything is in a state of change or constant transition. This phenomenon is nothing but a movement across cultures. The troublesome question is about the possibility of the life of the mind which transcends space and time. What is native becomes alien and what is alien becomes native. The issue is not so much connected with external space-time framework. But it has lot to do with our inner life. For example, Mishtigunj and Mist Mahal are the creations of John Mist. These places had become the home of ecumenical accommodation. It has turned in to a place which supports Christian unity. The Shoonder Bon village worshipped John Mist as an avatar. Helping the poor, feeding the hungry ones, elevating the life of the depressed, creating schools, building houses, hospitals, supplying the money, the necessary wherewithal, and shaping the body and soul of Shoonder Bon Home are the admirable heroic activities. All his heroic activities had endowed John Mist with the status of divine incarnation. By temperament he was Vedantic and by outlook he was Vedic. Experiences are always universal and they tend to move on in a parallel line. A man born in England getting fully rooted and absorbed in the life of Shoonder Bon village in East can be described as a phenomenon continent. Though the inhabitation is in a specific culture modern like cross-cultural pollination and acculturation are not sufficient to psychoanalyze the life of a soul. The Tree Bride is a powerful depiction of pre-independence India bringing two continents into contact with each other. East and West are traditionally conceived as terms of contrast, but this novel differs from this time-honored way of treating East and West. Shattering and solidifying of cultural boundaries are the two sub-conscious streams pervading the novel. John Mist serves as an example for the first category while Virgil Treadwell is shown as an instance for second category as he happens to be an East India Company official and a commissioner with an Anglophile and Edwardian bent of mind looking to formal, external decorum and spectability as norms of good behavior. But the novelist is preoccupied with mysticism and transformation of consciousness. Therefore anectodes, precedents and succeedents are only matter of chronology, history and geography. Human beings are irrespective of time, place and age. Anti-British and pro-British elements are attitudes which are incidental and largely history. The novelist does not spare her satirical pen where the British rule in India is concerned. Brahmo Samaj, a revival Indian Renaissance Movement, comes under severe scrutiny in the novelist’s hands. It can be clearly seen that the artist shows her inward respect over Jaikrishna Gangooly, the great grandfather of Tara, and his daughter, the Tree Bride. They also respected the Gangooly family for it is more attached to Arya Samaj which came as a corrective to Brahmo Samaj. The first movement endorses the philosophy of liberal, scientific Westernization while the second accepts the same phenomenon with a great deal of reservation. The business of Bharati Mukherjee is to be true to the facts of life. She acknowledges the fact that the British lifted India from the deep slumber of decadence. At the same time the novelist mounts a frontal attack on the British strategy of perpetrating the foreign rule through religious divisions. â€Å"It is easy for an English-educated, middle-class Indian (or Pakistani or Bangladesh) to fall in line with colonial prejudice. Thirty thousand British bureaucrats and â€Å"factors† were able to rule ten thousand times more Indians by dividing Muslims from Hindus, Persian Zoroastrians from Muslims, Sikhs from Hindus, and nearly everyone, including Hindus, from castes like lazy Brahmins and money-grubbing banias†. 44) It shows that the need of the British empire could be better fulfilled by the Indians than by the English men. Macaulay’s limited psychoanalysis of the situation was right as far as his administrative framework was involved. But he failed to see the spontaneous mystical influence of each culture over the other. The novel contains two layers of unfolding its theme. One layer is obviously concerned with the co nsequences resulting from the setting up of the East India Company. To a historian, the other layer remains obscure and somewhat non-logical. But the novelist takes immense care to distribute the emphasis in an equable manner for the purpose of achieving cultural comprehensiveness in the historical-cum-artist portrayal of personages. Macaulay saw culture and civilization in the mass as a consolidated unified framework. That is after all a nineteenth-century Benthamite utilitarian rationale. It is the justification or rationalization of relating to the utilitarian philosophy of Jeremy Bentham. A mass tendency validates an individual wishing after some cultural fallback. Man in the mass is metaphorically dead. Only the individual who does not align himself with the mass tendency is alive. Every culture is in a state of being and becoming and what is far more important is that one emerges into the other. There is always an interplay between the two. The reason is that every society is subject to mutation and change. No culture has come to stay like a consolidated stone. History events and the march of time leave no society and culture untouched. The richness of any antiquity is never lost in the exposure of any historical, social and cultural metamorphosis. The novel brings out this idea of absorption and assimilation: In my mind, the history of the British in India is a story of adventure gone bad, where the thrill of new encounters, the lure of transformation†¦started drying up†¦Maybe there is a limit to the human capacity for wonder or the ability to absorb the truly alien without trying to reduce its dimensions and tame its excess. (48) It is clear that the stand of outside time is true and enduring . Simultaneously some other mysterious element enters time to put life through a process of transmutation. Frequently at such moments cultural upheavals occur. One such movement is the encounter between England and India in the wake of the setting up of the East India Company as the nucleus and the wing of the British Empire. The powerful depiction of the scenes and a comprehensive portrayal of significant characters enables us to come to terms with the psycho-social implications of what they stand for and where the repercussions lead to. A head-on collision between the sociology of the society and the psychology of the individuals is perceptible. Demonstrably Eliot’s theory of past influencing the present and the present equally modifying the past is at work in the novel. A discussion taking place in San Francisco among Tara and Bish,Yash Khanna and Victoria Khanna is related to a memorable historical event in Shoonder Bon village (in East Bengal). The information so secured about this past is more by coincidence. The restlessnes of Tara’s spirit and the probability involved in her rumbling upon some material link the present with the past. It is the matter of sheer chance. Nevertheless it has value. Victoria Khanna’s grandfather was Virgil Treadwell. As he was in Indian Civil Service, he was posted as a district commissioner in Bengal in 1930. The Six containing old ledgers of grandfather is a historical record about him. Victoria Khanna informs Tara about these materials. An impetus from the research into the past history Tara Lat Gangooly is the outcome of Tara’s inner prompting of her reminiscent prevision of a remote historical record of Mishtigunj which presents a parallel equivalent to an idealist view of a world of unalloyed joy and bliss. The random availability of record by sheer coincidence or accident from the hand of Victoria Khanna leads to the fulfillment of such a goal of study and investigation. Mist Nama is a powerful poetic depiction of a rich rewriting of the ancient Indian Vedic history by a British-turned Hindoo, John Mist. The question, â€Å"Who contributes† is as much important as the question â€Å"What is contributed. † John Mist is the creator of an ideal social order. Mist-Nama is a practical rendering of a life-vision. A British Hindu stood for the Hindu-Moslem unity. His governing philosophy in the language of the novelist was the harmonious combination of the ‘two’ of everything and it meant occupation and employment for both Hindus and Moslems in an equitable proportion. He conducted hectic commerce and business enterprises and whatever he earned, he shared with all. A profit-making East India Company British ship dropped a legacy making sailor-turned savior, John Mist. There were many Indians who became pseudo-British by their outward forms of Westernization like Virgil Treadwell. At the same time there were many British like John Mist, David Llewellyn and Coughlin Nigel who became true Indian Hindoos by their inner transformation of being. Imitation must contain an element of creative transformation; otherwise it can turn into mere form and decorum ending in an emptiness of being. The context for the discussion of the relationship between ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ is demonstrably evident here. The truth to be established is that’ being’ and’ becoming’ are not the usual dichotomies but they are two indivisible sides of the same coin. Tara and John Mist appear as immigrants. Immigrancy is equated with loss of something and a search for true â€Å"something. † Tradition and convention describe nativity as something which is independent upon space, time, history and geography. This is a monolithic vision of culture and nativity. Nativity is therefore defined as a belonging to a culture and sharing oneness with it. But Bharati Mukherjee establishes another view that nativity is independent of all factors and it is more connected with inner being and less with spontaneous factors. A search for realization of inner being is conserved by the novelist as nativity. The idea of birthplace being conserved as nativity is different from the idea of describing nativity as sharing oneness with the inner being which is independent of spacing the framework. The drama is that being turns into becoming and being from becoming turns into being. The novelist holds two views which are not contradictory as each other. John Mist says: â€Å"having come nowhere, he had everywhere to go. Having had nothing, he has had everything and anything at his disposal. † (27) Elsewhere the novelist says that where one inherits nothing, he is entitled to everything. Freedom of immigrancy and liberty of any form of absorption put the being and the becoming in a process of creative interplay. Mukherjee acknowledges the fact that life is an unpredictable mystery:â€Å"We have been trained to think of Mishtigunj as home in ways that our adopted homes, Calcutta and California, must never be. Ancestors come and to, but one’s native village, one’s desh, is immutable. (29)† Tara realizes her native home as Mishtigunj in a state of immigrancy. But the home of John Mist is the same Indian village. Tara and John Mist realized their nativity in different ways where ‘being’ and’ becoming’ move and merge into each other. John Mist is the creator of Indian Mishtigunj and he is a British who discovers his sweet home in this village. Tara, an Indian immigrant in San Francisco, discovers home in the British created legendary village, Who is an immigrant? Who is a native? These questions get simultaneously juxtaposed. Home if therefore or it needs to be defined where one’s being is. In comparison with Tara and John Mist, Virgil Treadwell is less a better human being in spite of his being absorbed in the new phenomenon called Eurasianism. He could plot along with the British and spy on Tara Lata Gangooly’s house. These facts have deprived him of his inner being. His Eurasianism corrupted his nobility, introducing falsity. He sold his soul and made his profit whereas John Mist gave away his profit to people and he discovered his soul in his sacrifice. Bharati Mukherjee says that when the British like Virgil Treadwell spoke of profit John Mist thought in terms of leaving legacy. Therefore the concept of total objectivity of culture dies-down in the birth of polyvalent cultural subjectivity. Tara, Virgil Treadwell and John Mist are varying examples of the new proposition. With John Mist loss of objectivity (British culture) ends in discovery of subjectivity. Here the words’ loss’ and ‘gain’ and ‘objectivity’ and ‘subjectivity’ and’ being’ and ‘becoming’ are more connected with subconscious realization of one’s inner being. In the case of Virgil Treadwell, British gain meant Indian loss whereas conversely in the case of John Mist’s British loss meant Indian gain. The novelist uses very sensational generalizations to illustrate this truth:â€Å"All the could-have-beens and should-have-beens of history, the best of the East meeting the best of the West, etc. , etc. , shrink from grandeur to petty profit-taking. (48) The question ‘Who conquered whom’ melts into insignificance: â€Å"history is written by victors, but in the case of India, it’s not always clear who won, is it? 90) It is that both the victor (West) and the vanquished (East) mutually enriched the sensibility of the two cultures. It is a strange divine coincidence that John Mist’s creation of the â€Å"Mist-Nama† and â€Å"Mishtigunj† is along a line which the ancient tradition of India endorses. The discovery of such a wonderful treasure is made possible by the research work of an Indian immig rant in America, Tara. Both John Mist and Tara are in a way immigrants. The philosophical axiom is that cultures are not fixed entities like â€Å"quantity. Naturally ‘being’ and’ becoming’ are not static. The mutations have repercussions. Though the word ‘being’ created a misleading picture of fixity and permanence, it has the character of fabric. The British conquest of India forms the context of the new in which these issues are raised indirectly. The history of Mishtigunj created by British Hindu John Mist puts obstacles in the way of glibly accepting the two categories ‘being’ and ‘becoming’. What determines history is not its concern with outward form but the ‘inner implications’ is which it unconsciously creates. It is this history which has created a martyr, John Mist. Tara Lata Gangooly represents the best of the East and her predecessor John Mist represents both the best of the East and the best of the West. Characters like Virgil Treadwell are more concerned with the British form and decorum than with the essence of life. Both John Mist and Tara Lata Gangooly live at a deeper level while men like Virgil Treadwell move on a superficial plane. There are many places where Virgil Treadwell is compared to Churchill and Nixon and he is satirized subtly. Both John Mist and Tara Lata died a martyr’s death. The former was hanged in 1880 on a charge of disobedience of the British Colonial venture and the latter died in a prison in 1943 on the same charges of treason, sedition and disobedience. These events and situations by themselves are utterly insignificant. But the effect and impact they leave have a lasting value. It is this fact which enable the readers arrives at a philosophical link between being and becoming both is that the reality of life permits a movement between being and becoming. Liking John Mist, Tara Lata, Virgil and their life styles lead the leader draw an intelligent interference events and circumstances keeps them in a state of transition and transformation. It is a great achievement on the part of the novelist to aim at an imaginative-historical reconstruction of Mishtigunj. Bharathi Mukherjee is not a thoughless immigrant. Her loyalty to the essence of life gives her a new responsibility to rephrase the issue of the contact and correlation between being and becoming.

Free Essays on Gender Roles in the Work Place

Within the â€Å"Western† culture of North America, gender is socially constructed as a â€Å"new culture† that influences people’s lives in various different aspects. Society creates the rules for what constitutes being a man or women, which create different experiences for both sexes socially, economically, and politically. In this essay, I will argue that the structure, processes, and operation of corporations are affected by gender ideologies that are established and reinforced by society. As a result, being a male or female has its advantages and disadvantages when working in the labour force. Moreover, women have always been seen at a disadvantage compared to men in terms of labour market related aspects such as, promotions, wage increases, and respect! More importantly, I will analyze this issue of gender and organization in relation to the Gendered Organization Theory and my personal experiences at my work (Future Shop) to provide a theoretical and practical understanding of this issue occurring within society. Currently, I work for Future Shop as a sales associate in the Communication Department. I have been employed with the company for almost a year and have observed and experienced different situations that have been influenced by gender ideologies created by society. More importantly, many of these experiences have provided myself a better understanding of how gender has become an important tool of control for organizations that create different work inequalities between men and women. One author Joan Acker, discusses the issue of gender and organizations by arguing that there are 5 Interacting Processes of Gender Segregation which can be found in most corporations. The author argues that corporations are not gender neutral and explains how gender, the body, and sexuality, are all part of the processes of control in corporations/organizations. Acker (1990) states, â€Å"Images of men’s bodies and mascu... Free Essays on Gender Roles in the Work Place Free Essays on Gender Roles in the Work Place Within the â€Å"Western† culture of North America, gender is socially constructed as a â€Å"new culture† that influences people’s lives in various different aspects. Society creates the rules for what constitutes being a man or women, which create different experiences for both sexes socially, economically, and politically. In this essay, I will argue that the structure, processes, and operation of corporations are affected by gender ideologies that are established and reinforced by society. As a result, being a male or female has its advantages and disadvantages when working in the labour force. Moreover, women have always been seen at a disadvantage compared to men in terms of labour market related aspects such as, promotions, wage increases, and respect! More importantly, I will analyze this issue of gender and organization in relation to the Gendered Organization Theory and my personal experiences at my work (Future Shop) to provide a theoretical and practical understanding of this issue occurring within society. Currently, I work for Future Shop as a sales associate in the Communication Department. I have been employed with the company for almost a year and have observed and experienced different situations that have been influenced by gender ideologies created by society. More importantly, many of these experiences have provided myself a better understanding of how gender has become an important tool of control for organizations that create different work inequalities between men and women. One author Joan Acker, discusses the issue of gender and organizations by arguing that there are 5 Interacting Processes of Gender Segregation which can be found in most corporations. The author argues that corporations are not gender neutral and explains how gender, the body, and sexuality, are all part of the processes of control in corporations/organizations. Acker (1990) states, â€Å"Images of men’s bodies and mascu...

How does the 30 year plan for greater Adelaide aims to aid the Essay

How does the 30 year plan for greater Adelaide aims to aid the environmental protection and the relationship between environment - Essay Example The 30-year plan for greater Adelaide is made up of targets, policies, and governance directions that will aid in the general forecast period development of the greater Adelaide and the surrounding environment. Its key function includes the provision of dynamic target expressions of the region and particular advice with regards to lands that should be allocated as employment lands. 30 Year Plan of the Greater Adelaide Introduction The 30-year plan of Greater Adelaide provides directions and policies of land use, which will be incorporated into structure plans, including those of local Development. It provides population growth, employment and housing targets that are specific to each region. Environmental protection is also among the main functions of the 30-year plan for Greater Adelaide by ensuring sufficient plans for protection of the environment. Priorities of the use of land for employment and housing alongside infrastructure and long-term transport plans are set aside. Importa ntly, the well-developed transport network of the Greater Adelaide owes its success to the towns planning where the bus and train services are balanced and operated by contracting transit companies for effectiveness (Cervero, 1998, p 363). Plans for essential services such as water, health, electricity, and education are also set aside while activities of labor markets, industries, and lands are planned for economic growth. The 30-year plan is generally inclusive of the state competitiveness and productive capacity with regards to the mineral resources and primary productions of the Greater Adelaide. Implementation of the 30-Year Plan for Greater Adelaide In general terms, the 30 year plan of the greater Adelaide is a blueprint for solving environmental and economic issues that are being faced by the region. Public opinions and views are being put place through the comprehensive Plan where the community views are critical for development. The 30 year Plan is meant to enhance competi tiveness of South Australia through the efficient planning systems while ensuring that the region remains livable among its dwellers. The Plan addresses the problems of climate change, economic growth, population growth, technological advancement, ageing population and most important of all is the protection of the environment in its natural state. The plan is characterized by affordable strong housing and creation of employment for a vibrant economy and resilient urbanization. Through the 30 year plan, the region ensures housing and employment creation is achieved while preserving their heritage and maintaining a bigger portion of the metropolitan Adelaide in its previous state. The 30-year plan is meant for long-term benefits, as it combines all the essential elements to be planned to achieve sustainable development and environmental protection of the Greater Adelaide. Environmental protection of the Greater Adelaide bases its efforts on the South Australian Department for environ ment and heritage, which seeks to examine environmental issues through the program of free community forum. The community forum is proved useful to environmental protection as depicted by â€Å"the construction of a green roof and living wall display† (Hopkins and Goodwin, 2011, p.251). This 30 year plan of the greater Adelaide is underpinned with the largest spending in infrastructure in the history of South Australia. The plan involves additional

English Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 23

English - Essay Example The absence of the physical identity of the individuals in the internet tended to loosened them up as they become invisible behind their digital personality. This has created problems such as; â€Å"the growing incidence of online fraud and identity theft, privacy incursions, copyright infringements, trademark violations, domain name disputes, spamming, computer viruses, inadequate or vaguely defined consumer protection laws, and terrorist-related and pornographic websites† (David 2006). These issues became so alarming that the idea of regulating internet came into mind. Many people are suggesting that perhaps it is now time for the government to step in to enforce its police power to stop these issues online. But one cannot help to think whether it is proper for the government to step in the cyberspace and whether it will be effective if ever it has to step in. Without doubt, the internet needs some sort of regulation of acceptable conduct but whether it should be the government who should enforce it is questionable. Governments are limited by geography and laws are relative depending on what country are you from. What is acceptable in one country may not be permissible in another. Say for example in China where it is not advisable to speak against the government while it is perfectly alright in the United States and such right is even protected by its laws. Given such relativity of laws, it would be difficult for any government to enforce its laws on other sovereign state for that would tantamount to conflict. Government is also a suspect in terms of policing the cyberspace. We have already seen in other countries how government can react when given the prerogative to regulate the internet. It abridges information and censures freedom of speech. Classic example is Libya where anti-government forces has to find creative means to access the internet just to share to the world what is happening there during its revolution. Libyan government literally

Games Theory Essay Example for Free

Games Theory Essay In game theory, Nash equilibrium (named after John Forbes Nash, who proposed it) is a solution concept of a game involving two or more players, in which each player is assumed to know the equilibrium strategies of the other players, and no player has anything to gain by changing only his own strategy unilaterally. If each player has chosen a strategy and no player can benefit by changing his or her strategy while the other players keep theirs unchanged, then the current set of strategy choices and the corresponding payoffs constitute Nash equilibrium. Stated simply, Amy and Phil are in Nash equilibrium if Amy is making the best decision she can, taking into account Phils decision, and Phil is making the best decision he can, taking into account Amys decision. Likewise, a group of players is in Nash equilibrium if each one is making the best decision that he or she can, taking into account the decisions of the others. However, Nash equilibrium does not necessarily mean the best payoff for all the players involved; in many cases, all the players might improve their payoffs if they could somehow agree on strategies different from the Nash equilibrium: e.g., competing businesses forming a cartel in order to increase their profits. The prisoners dilemma is a fundamental problem in game theory that demonstrates why two people might not cooperate even if it is in both their best interests to do so. It was originally framed by Merrill Flood and Melvin Dresher working at RAND in 1950. Albert W. Tucker formalized the game with prison sentence payoffs and gave it the prisoners dilemma name (Poundstone, 1992). A classic example of the prisoners dilemma (PD) is presented as follows: Two suspects are arrested by the police. The police have insufficient evidence for a conviction, and, having separated the prisoners, visit each of them to offer the same deal. If one testifies for the prosecution against the other (defects) and the other remains silent (cooperates), the defector goes free and the silent accomplice receives the full one-year sentence. If both remain silent, both prisoners are sentenced to only one month in jail for a minor charge. If each betrays the other, each receives a three-month sentence. Each prisoner must choose to betray the other or to remain silent. Each one is assured that the other would not know about the betrayal before the end of the investigation. How should the prisoners act? If we assume that each player cares only about minimizing his or her own time in jail, then the prisoners dilemma forms a non-zero-sum game in which two players may each either cooperate with or defect from (betray) the other player. In this game, as in most game theory, the only concern of each individual player (prisoner) is maximizing his or her own payoff, without any concern for the other players payoff. The unique equilibrium for this game is a Pareto-suboptimal solution, that is, rational choice leads the two players to both play defect, even though each players individual reward would be greater if they both played cooperatively. In the classic form of this game, cooperating is strictly dominated by defecting, so that the only possible equilibrium for the game is for all players to defect. No matter what the other player does, one player will always gain a greater payoff by playing defect. Since in any situation playing defect is more beneficial than cooperating, all rational players will play defect, all things being equal. In the iterated prisoners dilemma, the game is played repeatedly. Thus each player has an opportunity to punish the other player for previous non-cooperative play. If the number of steps is known by both players in advance, economic theory says that the two players should defect again and again, no matter how many times the game is played. Only when the players play an indefinite or random number of times can cooperation be an equilibrium (technically a subgame perfect equilibrium), meaning that both players defecting always remains an equilibrium and there are many other equilibrium outcomes. In this case, the incentive to defect can be overcome by the threat of punishment. In casual usage, the label prisoners dilemma may be applied to situations not strictly matching the formal criteria of the classic or iterative games, for instance, those in which two entities could gain important benefits from cooperating or suffer from the failure to do so, but find it merely difficult or expensive, not necessarily impossible, to coordinate their activities to achieve cooperation. Strategy for the classic prisoners dilemma The classical prisoners dilemma can be summarized thus: Prisoner B stays silent (cooperates) Prisoner B confesses (defects) Prisoner A stays silent (cooperates) Each serves 1 month Prisoner A: 1 year Prisoner B: goes free Prisoner A confesses (defects) Prisoner A: goes free Prisoner B: 1 year Each serves 3 months Imagine you are player A. If player B decides to stay silent about committing the crime then you are better off confessing, because then you will get off free. Similarly, if player B confesses then you will be better off confessing, since then you get a sentence of 3 months rather than a sentence of 1 year. From this point of view, regardless of what player B does, as player A you are better off confessing. One says that confessing (defecting) is the dominant strategy. As Prisoner A, you can accurately say, No matter what Prisoner B does, I personally am better off confessing than staying silent. Therefore, for my own sake, I should confess. However, if the other player acts similarly then you both confess and both get a worse sentence than you would have gotten by both staying silent. That is, the seemingly rational self-interested decisions lead to worse sentences—hence the seeming dilemma. In game theory, this demonstrates that in a non-zero-sum game a Nash equilibrium need not be a Pareto optimum. Although they are not permitted to communicate, if the prisoners trust each other then they can both rationally choose to remain silent, lessening the penalty for both of them. We can expose the skeleton of the game by stripping it of the prisoner framing device. The generalized form of the game has been used frequently in experimental economics. The following rules give a typical realization of the game. There are two players and a banker. Each player holds a set of two cards, one printed with the word Cooperate (as in, with each other), the other printed with Defect (the standard terminology for the game). Each player puts one card face-down in front of the banker. By laying them face down, the possibility of a player knowing the other players selection in advance is eliminated (although revealing ones move does not affect the dominance analysis[1]). At the end of the turn, the banker turns over both cards and gives out the payments accordingly. Given two players, red and blue: if the red player defects and the blue player cooperates, the red player gets the Temptation to Defect payoff of 5 points while the blue player receives the Suckers payoff of 0 points. If both cooperate they get the Reward for Mutual Cooperation payoff of 3 points each, while if they both defect they get the Punishment for Mutual Defection payoff of 1 point. The checker board payoff matrix showing the payoffs is given below. These point assignments are given arbitrarily for illustration. It is possible to generalize them, as follows: Canonical PD payoff matrix Cooperate Defect Cooperate R, R S, T Defect T, S P, PWhere T stands for Temptation to defect, R for Reward for mutual cooperation, P for Punishment for mutual defection and S for Suckers payoff. To be defined as prisoners dilemma, the following inequalities must hold: T R P S This condition ensures that the equilibrium outcome is defection, but that cooperation Pareto dominates equilibrium play. In addition to the above condition, if the game is repeatedly played by two players, the following condition should be added.[2] 2 R T + S If that condition does not hold, then full cooperation is not necessarily Pareto optimal, as the players are collectively better off by having each player alternate between Cooperate and Defect. These rules were established by cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter and form the formal canonical description of a typical game of prisoners dilemma. A simple special case occurs when the advantage of defection over cooperation is independent of what the co-player does and cost of the co-players defection is independent of ones own action, i.e. T+S = P+R. The iterated prisoners dilemma If two players play prisoners dilemma more than once in succession and they remember previous actions of their opponent and change their strategy accordingly, the game is called iterated prisoners dilemma. The iterated prisoners dilemma game is fundamental to certain theories of human cooperation and trust. On the assumption that the game can model transactions between two people requiring trust, cooperative behaviour in populations may be modelled by a multi-player, iterated, version of the game. It has, consequently, fascinated many scholars over the years. In 1975, Grofman and Pool estimated the count of scholarly articles devoted to it at over 2,000. The iterated prisoners dilemma has also been referred to as the Peace-War game. If the game is played exactly N times and both players know this, then it is always game theoretically optimal to defect in all rounds. The only possible Nash equilibrium is to always defect. The proof is inductive: one might as well defect on the last turn, since the opponent will not have a chance to punish the player. Therefore, both will defect on the last turn. Thus, the player might as well defect on the second-to-last turn, since the opponent will defect on the last no matter what is done, and so on. The same applies if the game length is unknown but has a known upper limit. Unlike the standard prisoners dilemma, in the iterated prisoners dilemma the defection strategy is counterintuitive and fails badly to predict the behavior of human players. Within standard economic theory, though, this is the only correct answer. The superrational strategy in the iterated prisoners dilemma with fixed N is to cooperate against a superrational opponent, and in the limit of large N, experimental results on strategies agree with the superrational version, not the game-theoretic rational one. For cooperation to emerge between game theoretic rational players, the total number of rounds N must be random, or at least unknown to the players. In this case always defect may no longer be a strictly dominant strategy, only a Nash equilibrium. Amongst results shown by Nobel Prize winner Robert Aumann in his 1959 paper, rational players repeatedly interacting for indefinitely long games can sustain the cooperative outcome.

Amazon.com :: GCSE Business Marketing Coursework

Amazon.com In 1994, Jeffery Bezos noticed an important statistic about the Internet -- the fact that its usage was growing at 2300 percent a year. He was quick to become a part of such rapid growth; he began selling books on-line. He chose books over the vast number of products that could be sold on-line because of their volume. There were 1.5 million English-language books in print and 3 million books in all languages worldwide, while the largest physical bookstore in the world only carried 175,000 of the 1.5 million titles. Bezos made several decisions while starting his company; all of them seeming to be wise ones. For example, although it would seem unimportant for a virtual business, he was very selective in choosing a good location to start his business. He decided on Seattle: a place with lots of technical talent, near a large number of books; a nice place to live, and most importantly, it was in a small state -- to avoid customers having to pay sales tax due to the business’s presence in that state. Amazon.com was launched in July 1995. Sales picked up rapidly. By the end of 1996, its revenues reached $15.6 million, which was three times larger than the revenues of a large Barnes & Nobles superstore. The firm continued to expand and revenues continued to increase to a whopping $147 million in 1997. Despite the growth and huge revenues that Amazon.com made, the company still had net losses for 1996 and 1997. Bezos seems to have a good feel of the market. He has several services and functions that â€Å"cater† to the needs of the customers. His number one focus is customer service. Every decision, change, or acquisition that he makes is based, he claims, on making things better for the customer. After learning about Bezos technological and operational advances and efficiency, as well as his number one concern to satisfy the customer, one would wonder why his company is still experiencing loss year after year.

Scoliosis Research Paper

Karmin Extra Source Paper Scoliosis is a complex deformity or curvature of the spine and entire torso and has been recognized clinically for centuries (Asher, Marc A. ). â€Å"For a few of the patients an underlying cause can be determined, including congenital changes, secondary changes related to neuropathic or myopathic conditions, or later in life from degenerative spondylosis. However, the cause of most scoliosis is not known and since about 1922 such patients have been diagnosed as having idiopathic scoliosis (Asher, Marc A. ). Based on the observation of three distinct periods of climax, scoliosis has been sub-divided into three groups; infantile, before the age of 3; juvenile, age 5 to 8; and adolescent, age 10 until the end of growth. This categorization is now extensively used. â€Å"Eighty percent or more of idiopathic scoliosis is of the adolescent variety. As it is often not possible to determine the age of onset, age at presentation/detection is more accurate (Canaves e, Federico). † â€Å"The prevalence is very dependent on curve size cut-off point, decreasing from 4. 5% for curves of 6 degrees or more to only 0. 9% for curves of 21 ° or more. It is also very dependent on sex, being equal for curves of 6–10 ° but 5. 4 girls to 1 boy for curves of 21 ° or more (Asher, Marc A. ). † Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis can probably best be considered as a complex genetic trait disorder. There is often a positive family history but the pattern of inherited susceptibility is not clear. Current information suggests that there is genetic heterogeneity. This indicates that multiple potential factors are acting either dependently or independently in its pathogenesis (Asher, Marc A. ).Up to moderate deformities, recognized at a 40 degree curvature, bracing is the most common treatment. Brace treatment has been mainly simulated by directly applying external forces on the rib cage and on the lumbar spine. However, its ef? ciency in prev enting the progression of scoliotic deformities is still controversial and the biomechanics of brace treatment is still poorly understood. For instance, there is still no concurrence about the favorable design of a brace. The shape of the brace, the location of pads attached to the brace, and openings vary amongst orthotists (Clin, Julien).Nevertheless, brace treatment is favorable in comparison to no treatment at all. For example, the Scoliosis Research Society conducted a study in 1985 to scrutinize the correctness of the bracing treatment. â€Å"Patients of the same age, same curve pattern and severity were divided into two groups: one treated with bracing; and the other, untreated. Results published in 1993 demonstrated that brace treatment is effective compared to natural history (Canavese, Federico). † Studies conducted on the number of hours per day of brace-wearing show that the more hours per day the brace is worn, the better the result.The brace is usually prescribe d for fulltime wear with some time set aside for bathing, swimming, physical education and sport. The patient should be encouraged to be pursue sporting activities while continuing to wear the brace if possible. Contact sports are not allowed with the brace to protect other participants, as the brace can significantly injure another if contacted the right way. These activities generally represent an average of two to four hours a day to ensure that the brace is worn 21 to 23 hours daily (â€Å"Minimally Invasive†).Other treatments of scoliosis include surgical treatment to straighten the curve of the spine (Asher, Marc A. ). â€Å"Surgical treatment was initiated in 1914. When the results were evaluated in 1941 they were found to be poor. As a result of the untiring work of John Moe, Paul Harrington, and many others these results had considerably improved by 1962. Due to advances in surgery the number of scoliosis curves greater than 100 ° had dropped considerably by 1973. The indications for surgery as an adult are pain, appearance, and pulmonary problems, i. . shortness of breath. However, it is unusual for these symptoms to be severe enough to warrant surgery. In addition only those with surgery had pain management problems (Asher, Marc A. ). † Although there are some risks associated with surgery they have decreased substantially. Death is very unlikely but can occur, especially in patients operated as adults (Horn, Pamela). â€Å"Knowledge of the natural history of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis has expanded greatly in the last two decades.It has become clear that only about one in ten curves progresses to the point that treatment with bracing is warranted, and only one in 25, or 0. 1%, to the point that surgery is warranted. Bracing appears to prevent about 20% to 40% of appropriately braced curves from progressing 6 ° or more. Surgery, consisting of instrumentation and arthrodesis has virtually eliminated large thoracic curves. Altho ugh most patients are satisfied with their results, follow-up at 20+ years shows significant, clinically relevant decrease in function and increase in pain compared to controls.Re-operation is required in 6 to 29%. And, a very few have pain management problems (Asher, Marc A. ). † Works Cited Asher, Marc A. , and Douglas C. Burton. â€Å"Scoliosis. †Ã‚  Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis: Natural History and Long Term Treatment Effects  1 (2006): 1-10. Web. 23 Sept. 2012. Clin, Julien, Carl-Eric Aubin, Stefan Parent, and Hubert Labelle. â€Å"Biomechanical Modeling of Brace Treatment of Scoliosis. †Ã‚  Effects of Gravitational Loads  (2011): 743-53. International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering 2011, 02 Feb. 2011. Web. 3 Sept. 2012. Canavese, Federico, and Andre Kaelin. â€Å"Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis: Indications and Efficacy of Nonoperative Treatment. † Indian Journal of Orthopaedics 45. 1 (2011): Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 3 Sept. 2012. â€Å"Minimally Invasive Scoliosis Surgery: An Innovative Technique In Patients With Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis. † Scoliosis (17487161) 6. 1 (2011): 16-25. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Sept. 2012. Horn, Pamela. â€Å"Scoliosis. † Clinician Reviews 22. 8 (2012): 16-22. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Sept. 2012.