Compare and Contrast Vertebrate and Invertebrate Vision Essay Example

Compare and Contrast Vertebrate and Invertebrate Vision Paper Although vertebrates and invertebrates originally evolved from a common ancestral root, both have developed very different physical utilities for vision. Both are fairly effective and have taken many millions of years to evolve. They contain many common underlying mechanisms but differ in the features used to provide them. The definition of an eye is an organ of visual perception that includes parts specialized for optical processing of light as well as well as photoreceptive neurons (Alberts). The main feature of an eye therefore, in all organisms that possess one, is the collection of photoreceptors used in converting light energy into action potentials (electrical energy). When comparing vertebrate and invertebrate vision, the two best-studied cases are the compound eye exemplified by arthropods and the simple eye used in vertebrates. The main difference between the compound and simple eye is that the compound eye uses a spatial array of lenses so that each image in a local region of visual space falls onto one or a few photoreceptors. The simple eye, however, uses a single lens to image the world onto an array of photoreceptors. Compound eyes produce mosaic images. The compound eye is made up of many optical units called ommatidiums, each of which is aimed at a different part of the visual field. Each ommatidium samples a different part of the visual field through a separate lens. In a simple eye, each receptor cell samples part of the field through a lens shared by all receptor cells. In compound eyes, each ommatidium samples an angular cone-shaped portion of the environment, taking in about 2-3i of the visual field. We will write a custom essay sample on Compare and Contrast Vertebrate and Invertebrate Vision specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Compare and Contrast Vertebrate and Invertebrate Vision specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Compare and Contrast Vertebrate and Invertebrate Vision specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer In contrast, each receptor of a simple eye may sample as little as 0. 2i of the visual field. In addition, the simple eye, inverts the image that falls on the retina. Since the receptive field of each ommatidium is relatively large, compound eyes have lower visual acuity than simple eyes. The mosaic image formed by a compound eye is also coarser than that of a simple eye. The simple eye in vertebrates focuses incident light in two stages. In the initial stage, incident light rays are refracted as they pass through the clear outer surface of the eye, called the cornea. They are further refracted as they pass through a second structure, the lens, and finally form an inverted image on the rear internal surface of the eye, the retina. Objects at different distance can be focussed in higher vertebrates by changing the curvature and thickness of the lens, which affects its focal length, the distance at which an image passed through the lens comes into focus. Diffraction is a property of all light and because of this, the angular resolution (resolving power) of any eye is limited by the diameter of its lens. The larger the lens diameter, the higher spatial resolution. The biggest problem for compound eyes is that the resolution is limited because the facets of the individual lens are so small. A compound eye of a given size will have a much lower resolving power than a simple eye of the same size. Optical superposition compound eyes are one way of increasing the effective lens diameter. This structure works by using several separate elements to image incident rays onto a single point, such as a single photoreceptor. This method is used in insects such as fireflies. Another way, is to use neural superposition. Simple eyes on the other hand, use a single lens, and have evolved entirely separately in the cephalopods and vertebrates. The octopus is a good example because the optical design of its eyes is remarkably similar to the vertebrate eye. The one major difference, however is that in octopus eyes, as in all fish eyes, the lens is much more powerful because it has to compensate for the loss in refractive power from the cornea, due to being underwater. Simple eyes have a much larger lens diameter which means that the spatial resolution achievable is much higher than is ever possible with a compound eye. Experiments by Kirschfeld have suggested that in order to obtain the same spatial resolution as a human eye, a compound eye would need to be about 1m across. The eye is a complex structure which has caused many arguments between evolutionary biologists and theologists. Theologists believe that the eye is so perfectly designed to harvest light, and that no intermediary design would be effective, that it must have been created by a divine designer. Biologists believe that it was created step-by-step through natural selection, and that any one step is always an improvement on the last, and thus the eye did not have to be this complex to be of benefit. This argument can be backed up by the evidence of optical diseases in which humans are handicapped in their sight, yet to them, the vision they have is better than none at all, as was a primitive form of an eye. Myopia (short-sightedness) and hypermetropia (long-sightedness) occur when the optical image of a point at infinity (i. e. he far point) falls respectively in front of or behind the retina. These errors commonly occur when the eyeball is too long, or too short, and is easily corrected with a concave or convex lens. These diseases are commonly found amongst the elderly who no longer have such deformable lens and so have difficulty varying the curvature of the lens, and thus focussing on objects at different distances effectively. This is an accommodation problem. Accommodation (discovered by Helmholz) is brought about by the ciliary body that acts on the zonular fibres that support the lens. It contains circumferential (circular) muscle fibres that allow it to act as a sphincter. The lens can be dilated by relaxing the circumferential fibres, and is said to be unaccommodated. The radial fibres of the ciliary body also act by pulling outwards on the zonular fibres that support the lens, thereby thinning it. The lens is accommodated when the circumferential fibres contract, and the lens is forced to shrink. The tension in the zonular fibres is reduced, and the lens is allowed to relax into a thicker, more curved shape, with greater refractive power. A related neuronal mechanism produces binocular convergence, in which the left and right eyes are positioned by the ocular muscles so that the images received by the two eyes fall on analogous parts of the two retinas, regardless of the distance between the object and the eyes. When an object is close, each of the two eyes must rotate towards the middle of the nose; when an object is far away, the two eyes rotate outward from the midline. Photoreceptors transduce photons of electromagnetic radiation from the visible light spectrum, into electrical signals that can be interpreted by the nervous system. The energy of the electromagnetic radiation varies inversely with its wavelength, and we perceive this variation in energy as variation in colour. The outermost layer of the vertebrate retina includes two classes of photoreceptor in vertebrates: rods and cones. There are about 100 million rods in the eye and 5 million cones. A small central area called the fovea, is densely packed with cones, but in the periphery, rods outnumber cones by 20:1. Cones function best in bright light and provide high resolution, whereas rods function best in dim light but provide much less resolution. In humans, cones mediate colour vision, and rods mediate achromatic vision. These different properties are used to expand the visual capabilities of animals living in certain conditions. For example, animals that live in flat, open environments such as rabbits, usually have horizontal regions within the retina that contain a high density of cones. This concentration of cones is called the visual streak. This region corresponds to the horizon in the visual world and is thought to confer maximal resolution in this part of the scene, allowing the animal to interpret shapes on the horizon with great precision. A receptor current exists for all sensory receptors which are usually modulated by the stimulus. In the case of vertebrate photoreceptors, the light stimulus actually reduces the circulating current, by causing the closure of ion channels. Although both invertebrates and vertebrates have eyes containing photoreceptors, they differ in their structure. Vertebrate receptor cells contain a segment with an internal structure similar to that of a cilium. This cilium connects the outer segment, which contains the photoreceptive membranes to the inner segment, which includes the nucleus and mitochondria. The photoreceptors of many invertebrates lack the ciliary structure that connects the inner and outer segments of vertebrate rods and cones and the lamellae and or stacks of disks containing visual pigment. Instead, the visual pigment is located in the microvilli formed by the plasma membrane, and these pigment-containing microvilli are organised into rhabdomeres. Visual pigments consist of 2 major components: a protein (opsin) and a light-absorbing molecule (either retinal or 3-dehydroretinal). Opsins are protein visual pigment molecules consisting of 7 transmembrane ? -helix domains. Opsins are coupled to photopigment molecules that are structurally altered by the absorption of photons, and in turn modify the opsin protein. The retinal molecule assumes two sterically distinct states in the retina. In the absence of light, the opsin and retinal are linked covalently and retinal is in an 11-cis formation. The covalent bond allows this light-absorbing molecule to act as a powerful antagonist. On capturing a photon, the retinal isomerises into the all-trans configuration, initiating a series of changes in the visual pigment, as the molecule is rendered enzymatically active. When light hits the photopigment, an intermediate metharhodopsin II forms that activates the G-protein transducin. Transducin activity closes Na+ channels and the receptor cell hyperpolarizes. Activated rhodopsin is hydrolysed spontaneously to retinal and rhodopsin which is hydrolysed spontaneously to retinal and opsin which are both used repeatedly. Studies made on the horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus have revealed a lot about vision. The crab has paired lateral compound eyes as well as five simple eyes: medial and lateral pairs on the dorsal surface and a single unpaired simple eye on the ventral surface. The compound eyes are typical compound eyes whereas the simple eyes are similar in structure to the simplest eye known, which consists of a shallow open pit lined with photoreceptor cells that are backed by screening pigment. Each ommatidium of a compound eye contains several photoreceptor cells. The photoreceptor cells of the Limulus compound eye are located at the base of each ommatidium. Each ommatidium lies beneath a hexagonal section of an outer transparent layer, the corneal lens. Visual transduction takes place in 12 retinular, or photoreceptor, cells. Each retinular cell has a rhabdomere, a part of the cell in which the plasma membrane is thrown into densely packed microvilli, making this the part of the cell that captures light energy. The microvilli greatly increase the surface area of the plasma membrane, which increases the probability that incident light will be captured by the rhodopsin molecules embedded in the membrane. Together, the 12 rhabdomeres of the retinular cells make up a rhabdome, which surrounds the dendrite of an afferent neuron, the eccentric cell. Depolarisations of the plasma membrane can be recorded in the retinular cells when the eye is exposed to very dim light. These quantum bumps increase in frequency as the light intensity increases (i. e. as more photons impinge on the receptors). The bumps are electrical signals generated as a result of the absorption of individual quanta of light. How can capture of a single photon lead to rapid release of so much energy? In this case, through a cascade of chemical reactions inside the cell that includes G-protein activation. Activation of the G-protein cascade occurs by diffusional contact between activated rhodopsin and molecules of G-protein, which are activated sequentially, as explained above; the activated g-protein in turn activates an effector enzyme, the PDE (phosphodiesterase); this is a 1:1 step, i. e. it has no amplification. A second stage of amplification occurs because the activated PDE is an enzyme which catalyses the destruction of cGMP. The net effect is to open ion channels, allowing cations to enter the cell. In Limulus, the receptor current through the light activated channels is carried by Na+, K+ and some Ca2+. This current causes a depolarising receptor potential. When the light goes off, the channels close again, and the membrane repolarises. The sensitivity of individual photoreceptors drops with exposure to light. This light adaptation is thought to be mediated by Ca+ ions, which enter the cells when light causes ion channels to open and which by some mechanism then reduce the current through light-activated channels. Although the Limulus eye is simple compared to that of invertebrates, the visual system is capable of generating electrical activity that parallels some of the more sophisticated features of human visual perception. The crab does however lack the degree of colour perception seen by the human eye, because it lacks the short and long wave colour pigments in its cones. It is interesting to see how two totally different mechanisms of visual perception can be so different yet interrelated in many ways, and that they have involved independently to perform the same function.

American Experience in Huck Finn Essays

American Experience in Huck Finn Essays American Experience in Huck Finn Essay American Experience in Huck Finn Essay Essay Topic: Mark Twain The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn â€Å"All modern American Literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.. † claimed Ernest Hemingway, a American author and journalist. This quote represents the idea and perception of Huckleberry Finn as a defining moment in American Literature, a time when a new culture was being formed west of the Atlantic that had many different subjects and characteristics than that of the literature in Europe. What makes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn so original and such a representation of America is that whatever Huckleberry Finn, the character, is about or can be defined by, is what America was all about. Through this complex character, Mark Twain was able to create a new American experience and show the reader all about it. The main characteristics of the American experience that Mark Twain represented through this character included a social commentary on the southern culture and its response to slavery and its general antebellum culture, the nature that defines America and how America defines its nature and the freedom from it, and the new anti-materialistic hero. The opening of the book deals with the most serious issue depicted; the idea of slavery and the response of the southerners to its injustices. The majority of the American experience of slavery and its response are shown through the relationship between the main protagonist, Huck and his friend Jim. When Jim first approaches Huck to tell him that he has run away from his master Huck replies, â€Å"People would call me a low down Abolitionist and despise me for keeping mum- but that don’t make no difference. I ain’t agoing to tell.. † (1379). In a time when it was illegal to aide slaves in their escape, Huck was just beginning to start his moral dilemma of his loyalties to the law, and his friendship with Jim. This brings about a side note on the American experience of slavery that is not as developed as the response to slavery in Huck and that is: how does a person act and feel in a society in which they have friends that can become slaves. In many Abolitionist books and essays at the time, the reader was directed to feel for the slave as a man, as a brother. They used emotions to show the hardships of the slaves and play upon the guilt of the white American to end slavery. In Huckleberry Finn, Twain asked the reader to determine how they would act on slavery when they saw their friends under servitude. This was a large issue because it brings out personal alliances with cultural alliances of the south. However, the main American experience Twain is trying to develop on slavery is not the personal relationship and whether or not slavery was a terrible issue, it was the southerners response to slavery. This is exemplified by two separate cases. The first is with slavery and Jim, and the second is with Huck’s abusive and drunken father who would â€Å"lay drunk with the hogs in the tanyard† (1359). Both of these issues were just symbols of the southern distorted culture of the time. A culture that could enslave a man, calls themselves good Christian men, and then falls asleep drunk. What is peculiar about this novel is not necessarily Twain’s feelings regarding the morality of this culture. It is fairly obvious that he disapproves of such and shows that it is a morally defunct society, but rather what makes this novel truly representative of the American experience is showing how even someone who is not morally corrupted acts upon it. Huck, who is shown through his helping of Jim and his friendship with Jim, clearly understands the injustice of slavery and the immoral acts his father does. What does he do about it though? Does he seek to transform this southern society through work or a mini-revolution? No, he just simply moves along. This is the central irony of the book, and thus represented of one of the ironies of the American experience in the 19th century. Huck Finn chooses to leave intact this society that is clearly in need of change, and just simply leaves the place behind. It shows that he is against slavery and the ideals of the south and thus won’t live in it, but he also won’t change it. This was one of the most prominent experiences of America in the 19th century. Many whites disagreed with slavery, but if it did not affect their lives, as they were not necessarily the culprit or the victim, they just went on living their lives. The most common feature of this novel is movement. While this was crucial in developing the irony that was the southern response to slavery, it is also important in itself. In this novel, the main characters are always going somewhere, leaving a place in which they didn’t like or had a bad experience, and moving on to the next. This sense of freedom from nature was feature that is distinctly American. In the novel, the river was a entral metaphor as it brought them food, their raft, but also gave them a means of transportation. The American experience of traveling for the sake of traveling and expanding yourself in nature is shown from their experiences with movement in the river. Huck Finn was a character who is always in motion, always free. This was seen by the fact that he did start out the trip trying to pr ovide freedom for Jim up the river, but when they passed Cairo he did not stop. In fact, the new route would take them to New Orleans, a slave-trading capital of the south at the time (Johnson). The freedom that nature provided Huck was seen by his depiction of the nights on the raft as â€Å"It’s lovely to live on a raft. We had the sky, up there, all speckled with stars.. † (1423). This freedom brings a release from the world of land, the towns where people were entrapped in a cycle of guns, alcohol, and racism. He does not see in moral meaning in nature like the transcendentalists of the time, rather it was an escape of the modern world, a place to have pleasant feelings. This freedom is an American experience. In just a purely physical sense, America has the opportunities for freedom. Vast lands, ample rivers, defined seasons all allow the American to seek freedom from society. This is something that was not seen in Europe as you were subjected to just your own country’s land through language, cultural, and physical barriers. This idea of jumping on a raft and finding your freedom, both spiritually as in the case of Huck and physically in the case of Jim, is something that represents a true American experience. This myth of the open frontier continued in writing for decades to come, a myth that would allow the individual American to escape the rapidly growing urban centers that were developing an uneducated middle-class. The last particularly American subject is the hero of the novel himself, Huck. Huck is envisioned as this romantic anti-society anti-inheritance hero. In coming-to-age novels of the time, many were determined to show the process the character mature, moving past their youthful selves and into a role of social acceptance of culture. Huck represents a new American subject, on who speaks as he wishes, and does as he wants. Because of his traveling lifestyle, Huck does not concern himself with inheritance or money for any matter. What mattered most for Huck in the story was the materials that made the journey possible. He was not concerned with his social class, his need for a life with a wife, kids, and money. This metaphor represents the American Anti-materialistic culture that was forming, and thus Twain depicted it as such in his story. The sense of anti-conformity culture was the subject, a view that was depicted primarily by Huck. To combat the idea that Huck was just a child, and this is how he was supposed to act, Twain introduces two characters. The Duke and Dauphin, con-artists who swindle people out of their money by performing productions represent the free nature, the anti-materialistic culture that Huck represents. While these two do act in order to obtain money, the goal of the money is not to obtain a higher social order, but to carry on in life. It supplies their thirst for fun. This was seen when after a heist, the Duke asks to count the money so that they can â€Å"take and give it to the girls† (1451). This shows that they went about their plan yes for the money, but the money was not an object that they desired; it is what it can be immediately used for that defines it. This was against the European experience of inheritance and the desire to better oneself in a Victorian fashion, and represented an American subject. Huck finds out throughout the story and the encounters with the people in the towns, how to live in order to escape the social conformity, thus creating his own identity. This idea of putting your obligations to you self-creation and fun, and not to the creation of a self that is defined by community or cultural standards was an effective approach to an American subject. In an extended metaphor, Huck Finn and his friends and acquaintances represent an American subject. Their reactions to slavery represent the blind eye and unwillingness to put about change in the southern culture of slavery and racism, a subject that would arguably represent the south to this day. At the same time, the river which took them away from their culture as opposed to fighting it, also represents the freedom of America, a subject Twain makes sure he repeats throughout the novel. Lastly, the characters themselves represent a new age of anti-materialism, a staunch contrast to the European idea of self-betterment for the sake of culture and standing. In all, these metaphors all show a new American subject. Cited: Twain, Mark. â€Å" The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. † The Harper Single Volume American Literature. Ed. McQuade et al. New York: Longman. 1999. 1355-1522 Walter Johnson, Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999, p. 2 and 6.

Culture of an Organization Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Culture of an Organization - Research Paper Example In the said article, the report clearly states that there was major collaboration between the US and Mexican informants which resulted to the fall of some major drug cartels across Mexican boundary. Although Mexico was no longer part of the US’s area of responsibility, powerful and influential drug cartels in the said country remain to affect the US which usually would result to its continuing problem and fight with major prevailing crimes. In the article of Thomson, it also states that American officials believe that the Drug Enforcement Administration informants having link with cartels are of great help in tracking down culprits of major crimes. The US law enforcement agency is a significant component of the country’s criminal justice system. This agency must have important information as basis prior to its actual decision-making process towards the society’s concerns on criminal activities initiated by highly systematic criminal individuals, groups or organiz ations. This agency is therefore having a strong culture about relying on exact information. Its ability to incur services from Drug Enforcement Administration informants is a remarkable justification of its existing culture. In other words, informants have critical role to play towards the kind of decision that the US law enforcement agency must remarkably apply. ... e US law enforcement agency must therefore improve further its capacity to track down criminals and one way of doing so is to establish a high system of information-based system. Informants are significant components of it, which only means that they are elemental factors for the future directions of the US law enforcement agency. After all, an organization must remarkably consist of a social network which would not only make monitoring of flow of information and work output possible, but as well as culture (Carpenter, Bauer & Erdogan, 2009). In the case of the US law enforcement agency, its potential networks for the fulfillment of its objectives involve the informants as its external stakeholders. The second article is â€Å"Independent Agency Gets New Powers to Prosecute New York Police Officers† written by Baker and published in New York Times. Board lawyers have been given the chance to act as prosecutors instead of the police agency employees in cases when police officer s will be subjected to internal or administrative discipline (Baker, 2012). According to Baker, this was the response of the federal government after the Police Department faced cases concerning corruption, stop-and-frisk practices, lack of integrity of its crime data, and some associated violations in policing. All of these are potential grounds and bases concerning series of Wall Street protests against the Police Department. In this agreement, civilians at last have the opportunity that their voices be heard through the Civilian Complaint Review Board. Based on the above summary of the second article, it is clear that civilians are therefore other external stakeholders that have potential impact on the decision-making of criminal justice agencies. After all, it is the people which the criminal

Organisational Transformation in Practice Essay - 2

Organisational Transformation in Practice - Essay Example Each of the several departments and business units need to revamp their working and management styles while gradually imbuing the change concept. Moreover the process of organizational transformation helps the employees to gain huge insights into the change process. However the process of organizational transformation also renders potential obstacles and challenges to the managers which must be effectively managed to render efficiency. Organizational transformation as a change process becomes effective if the newer business processes and innovations brought about are rightly absorbed by the existing business climate. Similarly while recruiting newer employees or installing newer machineries and production systems learning must be rendered to train the recruited workforce to inherit the existing organizational culture. Again the existing pool of human resources must be also trained to gain insights about operating the newer machineries to rightly adjust them to the innovative environm ent. (Brynjolfsson, Renshaw & Alstyne, 1997). The process of organizational transformation is found to be a spontaneous process involving the transformation of several organizational factors and business processes. Each of the different organizational factors like human and technological attributes tends to act in a collaborative manner to help in the transformation of organizational dynamics. The several business departments pertaining to customer servicing, resource allocations, financing and billing and inventory and management of distribution channels all contribute to the process of organizational change by effectively altering the existing operational and business processes. (Kamoche, Cunha & Cunha, 2002, pp.182-185). Self awareness - Feelings and thoughts The experience of organizational transformation can be studied along certain relevant parameters like alterations in management and leadership styles, alterations along the personal and at the employee level and changes alon g the organizational climate as a whole. Organizational leaders become closely associated with the transformational themes introduced in the concern to bring about a holistic change in the existing business processes. The approach of the business leaders to help in rendering change in the business processes brought about the theory of ‘transformational leadership’. Leadership aspects in the organizations underwent large amount of transformations owing to changes in the external business environment. Moreover transformation brought about in the existing leadership styles also called for large amount of changes in the behavioural patterns of the leaders making them more courageous and accountable. Further the above aspect also demanded the leaders to develop their visionary potential and thereby inculcate an environment of spontaneous learning. (Simic, 1998, pp.50-51). Similarly the roles of managers also assume equal importance and potential to guide the different organi sational levels to rightly adapt the change process. Role of managers in the change process involve guiding the people to perform in an efficient manner in respect to the changing environment. It is observed in this respect that the upper management body of the organisations operate based

Amazon Ebusiness Essay Example for Free

Amazon Ebusiness Essay Amazon was founded in 1994, spurred by what Bezos called regret minimization framework, his effort to fend off regret for not staking a claim in the Internet gold rush. Company lore says Bezos wrote the business plan while he and his wife drove from New York to Seattle , although that account appears to be apocryphal. The company began as an online bookstore; while the largest brick-and-mortar bookstores and mail-order catalogs for books might offer 200,000 titles, an online bookstore could offer more. Bezos named the company Amazon after the worlds largest river. Since 2000, Amazons logotype is an arrow leading from A to Z, representing customer satisfaction (as it forms a smile); a goal was to have every product in the alphabet. In 1994, the company incorporated in the state of Washington, beginning service in July 1995, and was reincorporated in 1996 inDelaware. The first book Amazon.com sold was Douglas Hofstadters Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought. Amazon.com issued its initial public offering of stock on May 15, 1997, trading under theNASDAQ stock exchange symbol AMZN, at an IPO price of US$18.00 per share ($1.50 after three stock splits in the late 1990s). Amazons initial business plan was unusual: the company did not expect a profit for four to five years. Its slow growth provoked stockholder complaints that the company was not reaching profitability fast enough. When the dot-com bubble burst, and many e-companies went out of business, Amazon persevered, and finally turned its first profit in the fourth quarter of 2001: $5 million or 1 ¢ per share, on revenues of more than $1 billion, but the modest profit was important in demonstrating the business model could be profitable. In 1999, Time magazine named Bezos Person of the Year,  recognizing the companys success in popularizing online shopping. Amazon.com products and services: Amazon product lines include books, music CDs, videotapes and DVDs, software, consumer electronics, kitchen items, tools, lawn and garden items, toys games, baby products, apparel, sporting goods, gourmet food, jewelry, watches, health and personal-care items, beauty products, musical instruments, clothing, industrial scientific supplies, and groceries. The company launched Amazon.com Auctions, a Web auctions service, in March 1999. However, it failed to chip away at industry pioneer eBays large market share. Amazon.com Auctions was followed by the launch of a fixed-price marketplace business, zShops, in September 1999, and the now defunct Sothebys/Amazon partnership called sothebys.amazon.com in November. Auctions and zShops evolved into Amazon Marketplace, a service launched in 2001 that let customers sell used books, CDs, DVDs, and other products alongside new items. Today, Amazon Marketplaces main rival is eBays Half.com service. In August 2005, Amazon began selling products un der its own private label, Pinzon; the trademark applications indicated that the label would be used for textiles, kitchen utensils, and other household goods.In March 2007, the company applied to expand the trademark to cover a more diverse list of goods, and to register a new design consisting of the word PINZON in stylized letters with a notched letter O whose space appears at the one oclock position.. Coverage by the trademark grew to include items such as paints, carpets, wallpaper, hair accessories, clothing, footwear, headgear, cleaning products, and jewelry.On September 2008, Amazon filed to have the name registered. USPTO has finished its review of the application, but Amazon has yet to receive an official registration for the name. Amazon MP3, its own online music store, launched in the US in September 25, 2007, selling downloads exclusively in MP3 format without digital rights management.[This was the first online offering of DRM-free music from all four major record companies. In August 2007, Amazon announced AmazonFresh, a grocery service offering perishable and nonperishable foods. Customers can have orders delivered to their homes at dawn or during a specified daytime window. Delivery was initially restricted to residents of Mercer Island, Washington, and was later expanded to several  ZIP codes in Seattle proper. AmazonFresh also operated pick-up locations in the suburbs of Bellevue and Kirkland from summer 2007 through early 2008. In 2008 Amazon expanded into film production, producing the film The Stolen Child with 20th Century Fox. Amazon.com has incorporated a number of products and services through development and acquisitions. The Honor System was launched in 2001 to allow customers to make donations or buy digital content, with Amazon collecting a percentage of the payment plus a fee. The service was discontinued in 2008. and replaced by Amazon Payments. Amazon launched Amazon Web Services(AWS) in 2002, which provides programmatic access to latent features on its website. Amazon also created channels to benefit certain causes. In 2004, Amazons Presidential Candidates allowed customers to donate $5–200 to the campaigns of 2004 U.S. preside ntial hopefuls. Amazon has periodically reactivated a Red Cross donation channel after crises such as the 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the 2004 earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean. By January 2005, nearly 200,000 people had donated over $15.7 million in the US. Amazon Prime offers two day shipping with no minimum purchase amount for a flat annual fee, as well as discounted priority shipping rates. Amazon launched the program in the continental United States in 2005, in Japan, the United Kingdom and Germany in 2007, and in France (as Amazon Premium) in 2008. Launched in 2005, Amazon Shorts offers exclusive short stories and non-fiction pieces from best-selling authors for immediate download. By June 2007, the program had over 1,700 pieces and was adding about 50 new pieces per week. In November 2005, Amazon.com began testing Amazon Mechanical Turk, an application programming interface (API) allowing programs to dispatch tasks to human processors. In March 2006, Amazon launched an online storage service called Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). An unlimited number of data objects, from 1 byte to 5 gigabytes in size, can be stored in S3 and distributed via HTTP or BitTorrent. The service charges monthly fees for data stored and transferred. In 2006, Amazon introducedAmazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS), a distributed queue messaging service, and product wikis (later folded into Amapedia) and discussion forums for certain products using guidelines that follow standard message board conventions. Also in 2006, Amazon introduced Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), a virtual site farm, allowing users to use the Amazon infrastructure to run applications ranging  from running simulations to web hosting. In 2008, Amazon improved the service adding Elastic Block Store (EBS), offering persistent storage for Amazon EC2 instances and Elastic IP addresses, static IP addresses designed for dynamic cloud computing. In 2007 Amazon launched Amapedia, a wiki for user-generated content to replace ProductWiki, the video on demand s ervice Amazon Unbox, and Amazon MP3, which sells downloadable MP3s. Amazons terms of use agreements restrict use of the MP3s, but Amazon does not use DRM to enforce those terms. Amazon MP3 sells music from the Big 4 record labels EMI, Universal, Warner Bros. Records, and Sony BMG, as well as independents. Previous to the launch of this service, Amazon made an investment in Amie Street, a music store with a variable pricing model based on demand. Also in 2007 Amazon launched Amazon Vine, which allows reviewers free access to pre-release products from vendors in return for posting a review, as well as payment service specifically targeted at developers, Amazon FPS. In November 2007, Amazon launched Amazon Kindle, an e-book reader which downloads content over Whispernet, via the Sprint Nextel EV-DO wireless network. The screen uses E Ink technology to reduce battery consumption. In 2008 Amazon stated that its Kindle-based library included 200,000 titles. In December 2007, Amazon introduced SimpleDB, a database system, allowing users of its other infrastructure to utilize a high reliability high performance database system. In August 2007, Amazon launched an invitation-only beta-test for online grocery delivery. It has since rolled out in several Seattle, Washington suburbs. In January 2008 Amazon began rolling out their MP3 service to subsidiary websites worldwide. In December, 2008, Amazon MP3 was made available in the UK. In September, IMDB and Amazon.com launched a Music metadata browsing site with wiki-like user contribution. In November, Amazon partnered with Fisher-Price, Mattel, Microsoft and Transcend to offer products with minimal packaging to reduce environmental impact and frustration with opening clamshell type packaging. Amazon Web Services launched a public beta of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud running Microsoft Windows Server and Microsoft SQL Server. Amazon Connectenables authors to post remarks on their book pages to customers. WebStore allows businesses to create custom e-commerce websites using Amazon technology. Sellers pay a commission of 7 percent, including credit-card processing fees and fraud protection, and a subscription fee of  $59.95/month for an unlimited number of webstores and listings. Why Amazon.com is successful as a business on internet and has excellent capabilities supported by information system and e-commerce? Amazons initial business plan was unusual: the company did not expect a profit for four to five years. Its slow growth provoked stockholder complaints that the company was not reaching profitability fast enough. When the dot-com bubble burst and many e-companies went out of business, Amazon persevered, and finally turned its first profit in the fourth quarter of 2001: $5 million or 1 ¢ per share, on revenues of more than $1 billion, but the modest profit was important in demonstrating the business model could be profitable. In 1999, Time magazine named Bezos Person of the Year, recognizing the companys success in popularizing online shopping. Amazon changed the way it does business through the years. First it was an online book seller. Next it expanded into selling music and videos. Then it offered toys, consumer electronics and software to its customers. These were linked with a host of new products until this very day. Amazon has a constantly evolving product line. Its competitors have a hard time catching up with the innovator. During its initial years of operation, Amazon was not making any real profit. It practiced instead the habit of reinvesting its income into new markets. This it did to make possible for its customers to make wider choices for the companys offerings. Inventory management is an important function for any business and its efficient implementation can play a major role in reducing costs within a company. Policies, procedures, and techniques employed in maintaining the optimum number or amount of each inventory item. The objective of inventory management is to provide uninterrupted production, sales, and/or customer-service levels at the minimum cost, Levi D. S. et al (2003). Levi explains that a high-quality inventory management system provides a smooth and efficient supply chain by reducing costs and time. Initially when a company is established, key individuals may perform su ch tasks as purchasing, manufacturing or inventory control with little problem in terms of overlapping functions. But as a company expands it may be necessary to concentrate on core functions in the aim to have specialized personnel in every department. Each function has an important part to play in the supply chain. The correct management of  inventory enables a company to reduce liabilities and cost of overstocking, to streamline operations and to have better utilized staff. Amazon.com, the worlds largest online retailer and one of the nations biggest book sellers, is one of the iconic companies of the Internet era, Eells S. (2010), and by realizing the importance of inventory management can only improve its supply chain. From the text we can see that when CEO Jeffrey P. Bezos went about setting up Amazon.com, he had a clear aim to offer customers a wide selection of books but at the same time did not want to spend time and money on opening stores and warehouses and in dealing with the inventory. Bezos was hesitant in deciding to maintain Amazons own warehouse but realized that this was the only way for the company to keep customers satisfied. Internet shopping was rapidly expanding and with Amazon now stretching its ranges from not only books but to CDs, toys and hardware, they too were a growing industry. Amazon began setting up warehouses throughout the US, strategically placing them in states with little or no sales tax in order to reduce costs. These warehouses were very well maintained and completely computerized, with each item having a separate code which made inventory management a lot easier. Within the large warehouses, Amazon held all products which were available on the website. This was not always a good idea as it cost Amazon money in order to stock these goods. In the holiday season of 1999, Bezos was determined not to disappoint any customers; therefore he ordered larger amounts of every product. With this large amount of inventory, Bezos found it very diffic ult to manage, so aimed to rearrange the warehouses to accommodate the demand in different regions. They then decided to outsource some of its routines activities so that they could concentrate more on their core competencies. Deciding whether to outsource or not was a difficult decision for Amazon but seen in the Strategic outsourcing book by Greaver M. (1999), he explains that there quiet a number of reasons how outsourcing can be a major advantage. These points are broken into 6 headings; 1. Organizational reasons Enhance effectiveness and focus on what you do best and also makes the company more flexible 2. Improvement driven reasons Improve operating performance and also management and control 3. Finally driven reasons Reduce investment assets and free up these resources for other areas of the business 4. Revenue driven reasons Gain market access and  business opportunities along with accelerating expansion 5. Cost driven reasons Reduce cost through superior provider performance and lower cost structure 6. Employee driven reasons Increase commitment and energy in non c ore areas. Amazon decided to outsource its inventory management, and with this they decided not to stock every item offered on its site. It stocked only the most popular and frequently purchased items and as for the other items, they were requested from the distributor on ordering. The item would be sent to Amazon, unpacked and finally sent to the customer. Amazon entered into an agreement with Ingram Micro Inc. to use its knowledge and experience in the electronic goods and supply chain management in order to provide logistics and order-fulfillment services for desktops, laptops and other computer related accessories. From the case, Kevin Murai, President, Ingram Macro U.S. informs everyone the advantages in which they can offer to Amazons supply chain and satisfaction of customers, â€Å"The customer fulfillment services we are providing to Amazon.com’s computer store will minimize the number of touches to the product, while ensuring a seamless shopping experience for Amazons customers from start to finish†. A collaborative approach was obvious from this. A collaborative partnership has become an alternative approach to care, replacing traditional hierarchical approach as the desired approach to care. The features of collaborative partnerships are (1) Power sharing and sharing of expertise; (2) the pursuit of mutually agreed on, person centered goals and, (3) a dynamic process that requires the active participation and agreement of all partners in the relationship, Elsevier M. (2006). Both Amazon and Ingram Micro both shared the passion for customer satisfaction which was the main driving force to the success of their partnership. Amazon has identified its core competencies as: customer convenience and accessibility, massive selection, personalized service, quality of the site content, quality of its search tools and price, Mulqueen K. (2009). By entering into this partnership it gives Amazon more quality time to put into its core competencies. During the initial stages of Amazons warehousing, it aimed to have every item in stock in o rder to maximize customer satisfaction. By having this inventory, it would enable Amazon to meet the needs of the customers when they purchased the goods online. When the customer chooses the item, Amazon takes it from inventory and sent it to the respective  customer. We can see the logic in which Bezos takes as he is aiming to satisfy every customer in order to build a positive image and reputation of the company. Holding this much inventory on the other can be quite costly and also for a small business which Amazon was when taking on this method can be very difficult to manage. Amazons warehouses were a quarter mile long and 200 yards wide storing millions of books. Each warehouse cost Bezos around 50 million and not only this he started to realize that having all these large amounts of stock was unutilized cash which could be used to improve the business elsewhere. The below image (fig 1.1) gives you an idea of the scale of the warehouses and how an effective inventory management structure is vital. Learning from the difficult holiday season of 1999, Bezos outsourced some of their core competencies in order to pay more attention to othe r areas of the business. In our opinion this was a step in the right direction as when Amazons partners shipped the goods Amazon revamped the layout of their warehouses which makes the items easier to find and allowed customer orders to be sorted more efficiently. In early 2001, when Amazon partnered with Ingram Micro Inc., we feel that this was the correct decision for Amazon in the aim for efficient inventory management and it didn’t take long for changes to be made to the stocking of inventory. Amazon decided to stock only the most popular and most frequently purchased. If an item which wasn’t in stock, Amazon simply ordered in from the distributor and who then shipped it to Amazon where they would unpack it and send it to the customer. This may seem like a longer process but we feel this step which significantly reduce costs and better utilized Amazons finances. This is evident from the case as in December 00; their gross profit was 656.8 million where it was almost doubled in December 02 where the profit was 1,074.9 million. By doing this method, inevitably Amazon reduced holding costs. This method was proving to be a positive for Amazon as the improved inventory management helped Amazon record its first ever profit in 2001. From being initially in a deficit of $2.86 billion seven years earlier, Amazon recorded a net profit of $5 million in the fourth quarter of 2001. By Amazon outsourcing its inventory management, we could see the improvements almost immediately from their financial reports in the case. It is clear in our opinion, that Amazon made the right decision when outsourcing this function. It has reduced cost by keeping fewer inventories  and at the same time has partnered with a company with a great deal of expertise in the technology functions which can again be a major positive for the company. This shows again that outsourcing the inventory function was the correct decision for Amazon. The transfer of Amazons inventory management as shown in the case was a positive influence on the company and we feel that it was a successful task. The reason for this is simple; Amazon has tried and tested various inventory techniques from when it was first established. At first Amazons inventory was too great and was seen to be unutilized cash. Bezos realized that this unutilized cash could possible to used to benefit over departments within the company. The task of outsourcing this area made a profit for the company immediately, at the end of 2001, Amazon had a sales record of 1.1 billion which was a 15% increase on the same period of the previous year. Then again in 2002, we can see from the case that Amazon recorded sales of 3.93 billion which was a 26% increase on the year previous. These figures show that the task of outsourcing inventory for Amazon was an important function which has shown to get record sales for the company and along with the expertise given by Ingram Micro was overall a positive influence on the company. Overall, Amazons decision to outsource its inventory management and concentrate more on other funct ions within the business was the correct decision in our opinion. This is proven by the increase in profit since doing so. Amazon managed to outsource this function and still satisfy their customers which is one of their core values along with being innovative. According to businessweek.com, Amazon in 2010 had a net income of $231 million in comparison to $177million in 2009 which again is an indication that the company’s decisions have only had a positive impact as the company continues to grow. This is a positive for the company but in comparison to its main competitor, EBay had a net income of 397.65 million in 2010 which is also seen on businessweek.com. This shows that there is a lot of work done but still in order to compete with its competitors it must still strive to improve. Amazon prides itself on a strong brand, excellent customer service and a well designed, easy to use website. Its use of E-Business strategies enables the company to cut costs better than its competitors and empower its customers by offering them choice. It could be argued that Amazons’ most valuable asset is its CEO and Founder Jeff Bezos. Bezos innovative style has grown the company from  strength to strength and latest figures, according to the website www.siliconrepublic.com show an increase in profit of 36% to $12.95bn for 2010 from a sink to 3.7pc from 5pc at the end of 2009. In 2001, Amazons CEO, Jeff Bezos welcomed competitors rather than fighting them. This decision was initially seen as somewhat controversial. According to Vogelstein (2003) the decision caused such a stir in the book-publishing community that the Authors Guild formally stepped in. They wanted used books sold on a different page from newly published ones. Amazon was able to do this as a result of its efficient inventory management. Vogelstein (2003) states that Amazons warehouses are so efficient that they need to be replenished 20 times per year and they can now handle three times the volume they handled in 1999. The net result of this initiative is increased profits as can be seen from the case. The success of Amazon can be attributed to E-Business. Tedeschi (1999) state; Business on the Internet is cutting significant cost out of the supply chain, with better procurement and resource planning. With Amazon, these cost savings are passed onto the end customer. Through price comparison and transparency on its webpage, customers could make informed decisions based on price. This created massive popularity with its customers. E-Business also creates brand strength. According to Matthewson (2002) a recent survey demonstrated the importance of online brand building, as it showed that six out of ten internet users directly typed into their browser the address of the brand they are interested in buying. The website is said to attract 81 million unique visitors each month .Amazon has capitalized on this process known as cyber-branding. This essentially promotes the company through superior customer service. Its logistics in both inventory efficiency and technology gives it a superior edge over its competitors. Its operations are very efficient due to the strategic locations of its warehouses and headquarters, which have enabled Amazon to cut a lot of its costs. The market in which amazon.com operates and how it is organized by region and country: Amazon.com has always sold goods out of its own warehouses. It started as a bookseller, pure and simple, and over the last decade has branched out into  additional product areas and the third-party sales that now represent a good chunk of its revenue (some estimates put it at 25 percent). Both retailers and individual sellers utilize the Amazon.com platform to sell goods. Large retailers like Nordstrom, Lands End and Target use Amazon.com to sell their products in addition to selling them through their own Web sites. The sales go through Amazon.com and end up at Nordstrom.com, Lands End.com or Target.com for processing and order fulfillment. Amazon essentially leases space to these retailers, who use Amazon.com as a supplemental outlet for their online sales. Small sellers of used and new goods go to Amazon Marketplace, Amazon zShops or Amazon Auctions. At Marketplace, sellers offer goods at a fixed price, and at Auctions they sell their stuff to the highest bidder. Amazon zShops f eatures only used goods at fixed prices. If an item listed on zShops, Marketplace or Auctions is also sold on the main Amazon.com, it appears in a box beside the Amazon.com item so buyers can see if someone else is selling the product for less in one of the other sales channels. The level of integration that occurs on Amazon is a programming feat that few (if any) online sales sites can match. Another sales channel called Amazon Advantage is a place where people can sell new books, music and movies directly from the Amazon warehouse instead of from their home or store. Sellers ship a number of units to Amazon, and Amazon handles the entire sales transaction from start to finish. In all of these programs, Amazon gets a cut of each sale (usually about 10 percent to 15 percent) and sometimes charges additional listing or subscription fees; in the case of Amazon Advantage, the company takes a 55 percent commission on each sale. The Advantage channel is something like a consignment setup, a sales avenue for people who create the ir own music CDs or have self-published a book and are simply looking for a way to get it out there. One of the latest additions to Amazons repertoire is a subsidiary company called Amazon Services. Through Amazon Services, Amazon sells its sales platform, providing complete Amazon e-commerce packages to companies looking to establish or revamp their e-commerce business. Amazon sets up complete Web sites and technology backbones for other e-commerce companies using Amazon software and technology. Target, for instance, in addition to having a store on Amazon.com, also uses Amazon Services to build and manage its own e-commerce site, Target.com. But selling goods isnt the only way to make  money with Amazon.com. The Web sites affiliate program is one of the most famous on the Web. Through Amazons Associate Program, anyone with a Web site can post a link to Amazon.com and earn some money. The link can display a single product chosen by the associate, or it can list several best seller products in a particular genre, in which case Amazon updates the list automatically at preset interv als. The associate gets a cut of any sale made directly through that link. The cut ranges from 4 percent to 7.5 percent depending on which fee structure the associate signs up for (see Amazon Associates for complete program details). The associate can also take advantage of Amazon Web Services, which is the program that lets people use Amazons utilities for their own purposes. The Amazon Web Services API (application programming interface) lets developers access the Amazon technology infrastructure to build their own applications for their own Web sites. All product sales generated by those Web sites have to go through Amazon.com, and the associate gets a small commission on each sale. References * about Ingram Micro. [Online] Available from: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=98566p=irol-aboutIMOverview * Aryasri A R (2007) Managerial economics and financial analysis, 3rd Ed, Tata McGraw-Hill, New Delhi * Bolumole, Yemisi A., Frankel R., Naslund D, 2007. â€Å"Developing a Theoretical Framework for Logistics Outsourcing†, Transportation Journal, [e-journal], Vol. 46 Issue 2, p35-54, 20p, , Available through: Business Source Premier database [Accessed 18 February 2011] * Coltman et al (2000) E-Business: Revolution, Evolution or Hype? (Online) Available http://www.uazuay.edu.ec/bibliotecas/e-business/E-business_Revolution_Evolution_or_Hype.pdf * Dickenson et al (1999) Strategic Analysis Recommendation: eBay, restructuring Process to Retain and Grow Core Business, Pacific Lutheran University. * Eell S. (2010) Amazon.com Inc. [Online] Available: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/amazon_inc/index.html * Elsevier M.(2006) The Collaborative Partnership approach to Care, Ann Millar, Toronto Canada. * Downes Mui (1999) Unleashing the Killer App: Digital Strategies for Market Dominance, Harvard Business School Press. * Galente J. (2010) Amazon.com’s Profit Forecast Falls Short of Estimates [Online]. Available: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-10-21/amazon-com-s-profit-forecast-falls-short-of-estimates.html * Gitman McDaniel (2008) The Future of business: The Essential, South-Western Cengage Learning, OH * Greaver M (1999) Strategic Outsourcing: A Structured Approach to Outsourcing Decisions and Initiatives, AMACOM; illustrated edition, NY. * Hardman R (2009) Santas not so little helper: Todays the busiest online shopping day of the year. So are they ready at the biggest grotto this side of Lapland? [Online] Available: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1233766/Santas-little-helper-Todays-busiest-online-shopping-day-year-So-ready-biggest-grotto-Lapland.html * Ingram Micro Talks Cloud With Amazon, Rackspace, Salesforce.com. [Online] Available from: http://www.mspmentor.net/2010/06/07/ingram-micro-talks-cloud-with-amazon-rackspace-salesforce-com/ * Ingram Micro reports about increasing business demand in iPad. [Online] Available from: http://iphoneroot.com/ingram-micro-reports-about-increasing-business-demand-in-ipad/print/ * Johnson et al (2008) exploring corporate strategy, text and cases, 8th ed, prentice hall, NY * Kardes Gurumurthy (1992) Order-of-Entry Effects on Consumer Memory and Judgment: An Information Integration Perspective, Journal of Marketing Research, 29 (3), pp. 343–357 * Lankford W.M., Parsa F (1999). Outsourcing: A primer, Journal of Management Decision, [e-journal], Vol. 37 Issue 3/4, p310, 7p, Available through: Business Source Premier database [Accessed 18 February 2011] * Levi et al (2003) Design and Managing the Supply Chain, Concepts and strategies and case studies, Second edition, The McGraw – Hill companies, NY. * Matthewson J (2002) E-Business: A jargon-free practical guide, Butterworth-Heinemana, Oxford * Mulqueen K. (2009) Consulting For Human Resources Organizational Development Training, [Online] Available: http://www.consulting4hr.com/articles.html * People carrying dollar. [Online] Available from: http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-18434335/stock-photo-people-carrying-dollar.html * Save money buying used books at Amazon.com. [Online] Available from: http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/006969.html * Sanders et al (2007) A Multidimensional Framework for Understanding Outsourcing Arrangements, Journal of Supply Chain Management, [e-journal], Vol. 43 Issue 4, p3-15, Abstract only. Available through: Business Source Premier database [Accessed 18 February 2011] * Scandoval (2002) How lean can Amazon Go? (Online) Available http://news.cnet.com/2100-1017-886784.html * Tedeschi R (1999), A Market that Dwarfs Retail E-Sales, New York Times,

Mind, Matter and Descartes :: Philosophy essays

Mind, Matter and Descartes "Cogito Ergo Sum," "I think, therefore I am," the epitome of Rene Descartes' logic. Born in 1596 in La Haye, France, Descartes studied at a Jesuit College, where his acquaintance with the rector and childhood frailty allowed him to lead a leisurely lifestyle. This opulence and lack of daily responsibility gave him the liberty to offer his discontentment with both contrived scholasticism, philosophy of the church during the Middle Ages, as well as extreme skepticism, the doctrine that absolute knowledge is impossible. Through the most innovative logic since Aristotle's death, as well as application of the sciences, he pursued a lifelong quest for scientific truth. Philosophy is believed to have begun in the sixth century in ancient Greece. In fact, the word "philosophy" is the Greek term for "love of wisdom" (Pojman). After notable minds of the Ancient World such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, by modernist standards, original thinking ceased for many centuries. Throughout the following period, later known as the Middle Ages, the world was dominated by dogma of the Catholic Church. Scholasticism allied with severe punishment for heresy prevented rationalization outside of religion. Descartes was the first to bring philosophy to its "Renaissance" (Strathern 7-9). He questioned the reality of everything, including God. Though he was a devout Catholic, and later proved the existence of God mathematically, he founded and popularized the concept of questioning that which is taught. Descartes' philosophy was an attempt to create a genuine foundation upon which further scientific developments would be established. His devotion to math's methodic nature and invariability lead him to apply these concepts to all other ideas. He hypothesized that "those propositions which one could come to understand completely would be self evident, since one's knowledge about them would not depend upon knowledge of any other propositions; therefore they were suitable to stand as fundamental assumptions, to be the starting points from which other propositions could be deduced" (Walting). He realized that he knew nothing for certain except for the fact that he was thinking, which proved that he existed; "Cogito Ergo Sum." "Descartes argues that all ideas that are as clear and distinct as the Cogito must be true, for, if they were not, then Cogito also, as a member of the class of clear and distinct ideas, could be doubted" (Walting). Descartes theorized that each person has an innate idea of a perfect being.

Decision Making Process Paper

Decision-Making Process Paper MGT/230 June 26, 2011 Abstract The decision-making process has six stages. These stages consist of identifying and diagnosing the problem, generating alternative solutions, evaluating alternatives, making the choice, implementing the decision, and evaluate the decision. Choosing to go back to school and what school to attend was a problem that I had that needed to be figured out. I did not use the decision-making process; if I had I am not sure if my decision would have been the same. Deciding to go back to school was something I thought about for a few months but taking the steps to do so was something that only took an hour to do. The decision-making process has six stages but I may have only taken three of those steps in my process. The decision-making stages are to identify and diagnose the problem, generate alternative solutions, evaluate alternatives, make the choice, implement the decision, and evaluate the decision (Management, 2011). To identify and diagnose the problems means to recognize a problem or something he of she wants to do that exist and solve it. Generate alternative solutions can be divide into two categories, which are ready-made solutions and custom-made solutions. Ready made solutions are solutions you have tried before or advice from others with similar problems, and custom made solutions are solutions designed for a specific solution. Evaluate alternatives means deciding which solution will be best and which solution will fit the problem that you have. After considering all the solution, you will have to make a choice. Once you have made your choice, implement the decision. Implement the decision means to take action. Start the plan to solve your problem. The last stage is to evaluate the decision by collecting information on how well the decision is working. These are the six stages of the decision-making process. My problem was deciding ongoing back to school and which school to attend. My steps were to think about what would be best and my family in regard to me to go back to school, which school to go to, and apply to that school. My family was involved in y process because I wanted their input on everything that I did. My first step was to discuss the idea ongoing back to school, which to my family was not an issue because they believed that I had so much knowledge that I needed to do something with it, but I was hesitant because of my children. My second step was to decide which school to attend. The choice was between University of Phoenix and Gaston Community College. I choice these two schools because my stepmother goes to Phoenix and she advis ed me it would be a good opportunity. Gaston Community College was a suggestion my boyfriend had because it was close to where I lived but the only problem was my children were not in daycare, so who would be able to watch them and I was in school. Another problem was they did not offer any online programs that year in my field. My decision was easy because I thought of my children first. The last step I took was applying to University of Phoenix. I did not take the same steps as the decision-making process contains but I may have taken a few. I did identify that I had a problem, came up with solutions, make a choice and implemented my decision. The decision-making process has six steps, but I only used four of those steps in my process. If I had used the decision-making process my decision may be different. If I had thought about every detail of my life, for example, my children going to school this year, I may have chosen the community college because it would have been convenient at the time. Also if I had taken the steps to talk to daycares about putting my youngest child in one, I would not have to worry about finding a babysitter when I went to school. The decision-making process would have made me ask questions about what I wanted and what I could do. The process also would have allowed me to evaluate my decision and determine if a community college would have been right. My problem was going back to school and which school to attend. I may not have followed the decision-making process but I do believe I have made the right choice. The decision-making process has six stages: identify and diagnose the problem, generate alternative solutions, evaluate alternatives, make the choice, implement the decision, and evaluate the decision. The decision-making process can be very effective if one were to use it. Reference Bateman, T. S. , and Snell, S. A (2011). Management: Leading & Collaborating in a Competitive World (9th e. d. ). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.