Usability evaluation of the website Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Usability evaluation of the website - Essay Example E-commerce websites are designed to offer products/services to interested clients. Nonetheless, ease or difficulty with which clients interact with the e-commerce applications is pivotal to their failure or success. Conventionally, any website must not just be designed to sell or convey information but must go beyond to ensure the needs of the would-be web visitors are adequately met. E-commerce has undergone extensive and remarkable growth in the recent past to supersede human expectations. Today, e-commerce is the largest form of business operation, communication, as well as R & D. Increased acceptance of internet and the move towards globalization as also affected e-commerce trends to a large extent. As a matter of fact, e-commerce marketing and sales have come to occupy a central point in the global economy. 2013 global e-commerce rates have reflected a significant shift in the manner people manage their businesses. The great internet potential has seen many corporations come up with new ways to avail products and services to consumers. In general, global e-commerce trends of 2013 have seen more focus on more personal websites to make shopping more mobile and increase channels. Additionally, global e-commerce 2013 trends reveal that additions to online businesses has raised traffic ratio for store fronts and further boosted online leads/sales. E-commerce websites further offer a platform through which business can globalize their brands and products/services they offer. Overall Problem As already mentioned, http://www.carphonewarehouse.com provides a platform for consumers to purchase electronics and subscriptions for data, voice and messaging services. The paper seeks to assess the website usability issues. General information shared by consumers online with retailers help in application personalization. All factors including age, lifestyle, contacts, friends and family, geography and social status are included during the personalization and play a helpful role in offering relevant and valuable shopping experience for consumers. Global e-commerce trends include the adoption of real time and personalized facilities for everyone who approaches the online market across the globe. Personalization has never been a new concept in this case, but the increasing popularity of personalization shows it is the most widely accepted trend in the global e-commerce 2013 values. Businesses and enterprises – big or small have made it easy and simple for the masses to obtain a personalized, simplified or complex technology in the sectors such as finance, travel, media and many more. The other global e-commerce trend includes incorporating mobility among the online sh oppers. Making your website mobile friendly or developing an application for an android or an iPhone shall no longer be enough. The year 2013 has further opened up avenues to offer advanced facilities. Consumers who have turned entirely towards mobile phone and tablets want newer and better shopping experience with geo-specific or ‘multi-lingual’ content. They expect special offers, various other platform-specific elements and much more to harmonize and add to overall life style of the consumers. The global e-commerce 2013 scenario has witnessed an even higher increase in online consumers, than what it saw when the first Apple product was launched in the global market. Current website interaction and arising usability issues The website is an e-commerce website and is meant to provide visitors

Experiment 4 Rdr - Chemical Equilibrium Essay Example for Free

Experiment 4 Rdr Chemical Equilibrium Essay Iron-Silver Equilibrium In the first phase of the experiment, iron sulfate was mixed with silver nitrate, and the reaction produced solid silver and iron nitrate, which is formally written as, Fe2+ (aq) + Ag+ (aq) ⇄ Ag (s) + Fe3+ (aq) The mixture was then placed in a centrifuge in order for the solid silver to settle and separate from the supernate. The supernate was then tested for the presence of Fe2+, Fe3+ and Ag+ by placing K3Fe(CN)6, KSCN and HCl to 3 separate samples of the supernate. The result of the tests was as follows: 1.Addition of K3Fe(CN)6 After K3Fe(CN)6 was added to the supernate, a Prussian blue precipitate was formed, more formally written as, Fe2+ (aq) + Fe(CN)63- (aq) + K+ (aq) → K∙Fe2(CN)6 (s) This reaction thus proves that the supernate contains Fe2+. 2.Addition of KSCN After KSCN was added to the supernate, a blood red complex was formed, more formally written as, Fe3+ (aq) + SCN- (aq) → FeSCN2+ (aq) This reaction thus proves that the supernate contains Fe3+. 3.Addition of HCl The last test was the addition of HCl to the supernate. This produced a white precipitate, which we can formally write as, Ag+ (aq) + Cl- (aq) → AgCl (s) This reaction thus proves that the supernate conatins Ag+. The 3 tests showed that all 3 ions were present in the supernate. This goes to show that the reaction between iron sulfate and silver nitrate was in a state of equilibrium since both the ions in the product and reactant side were present, meaning to say that the forward and reverse reactions were proceeding at the same rate. Furthermore, the range of the equilibrium constant (Keq) for the reaction of iron sulfate and silver nitrate is from 10-10 to 1010 [1]. Copper-Ammonia Equilibrium The second phase of the experiment dealt with the reaction between copper sulfate and ammonia, more formally written as, CuSO4 (aq) + 2 NH4OH (aq) → Cu(OH)2 (aq) + (NH4)2SO4 (aq) The pale blue precipitate formed at the beginning of the reaction of copper sulfate and ammonia was the Cu(OH)2. From the pale blue color, it turned into a deep cerulean blue when 11 drops of ammonia was added. The solution then went back to the pale blue color after 4 drops of hydrochloric acid was added. The addition of hydrochloric acid added more H+ ions to the solution; therefore, drawing the equilibrium back to the reactant side. This equilibrium reaction is formally stated as, [Cu(H2O)6]2+ (aq) + 4 NH3 (aq) ⇄ [Cu(NH3)6]2+ (aq) + H2O (l) As observed, it took almost 3 times the number of drops of ammonia to change the pale blue color to a deep cerulean blue as compared to the number of drops of hydrochloric acid that changed the deep cerulean blue back to pale blue. This means that the reverse reaction was more spontaneous than the forward reaction. Chromate-Dichromate Equilibrium In the third phase of the experiment, the chromate and dichromate solutions were observed. Chromate had a yellow color, while dichromate had an orange color. When sulfuric acid was added to a sample of chromate and dichromate solutions, the yellow chromate solution turned orange, while the dichromate solution remained orange. The equation for the chromate’s change in color is as follows, 2 CrO42- (aq) + 2 H+ (aq) → H2O (l) + Cr2O7- (aq) When sodium hydroxide was added to a sample of chromate and dichromate, the chromate solution remained yellow, while the orange dichromate solution turned yellow, formally written as, 2 OH- (aq) + Cr2O7- (aq) → 2 CrO42- (aq) + H2O (l) The change in color of chromate as hydrochloric acid was added and the change in color of dichromate as sodium hydroxide was added was due to the instability of the reactions, causing a shift in the equilibrium. The acid H2SO4 (sulfuric acid) was used in the reaction since it’s a strong acid, and strong acids dissociate more. The added H+ ions increase the concentration, therefore, shifting the equilibrium. Based on the observations made, it could be said that the dichromate solution is stable under acidic conditions, while the chromate solution is stable under basic conditions. Iron-Thiocyanate Equilibrium In the fourth phase of the experiment, iron trichloride was reacted to thiocyanate giving way to this reaction, [Fe(H2O)6]2+ (aq) + SCN- (aq) ⇄ [Fe(SCN)(H2O)5]2+ (aq) + H2O (l) The reaction produced a light orange solution, which was then tested to determine to which direction the equilibrium shifted when Fe3+, SCN- and NaCl were added. The result of the tests was as follows: 1.Addition of Fe3+ After FeCl3 was added to a sample of the solution, the light orange color of the solution became a darker shade of orange, which could be said to show a shift to the right. 2.Addition of SCN- After KSCN- was added to a sample of the solution, the shade of orange of the solution was lighter than the solution when FeCl3 was added, but darker than the original light orange color. It could then be said that the equilibrium shifted to the right. 3.Addition of NaCl Lastly, NaCl was added to a sample of the solution. It was observed that the resulting solution had a lighter shade of orange than that of the original. With this, it could be said that the equilibrium shifted to the left. The shift to the left of the equilibrium was brought about by the reaction of Cl- (from NaCl) with Fe(SCN)3. Cobalt-Cobalt Chloride Equilibrium The last and final phase of the experiment was on the reaction of cobalt dichloride and hydrochloric acid which could be formally written as, [Co(H2O)6]2+(aq) + 4Cl- (aq) ⇄ [Co(Cl)4]2-(aq) + 6H2O(l) The first part of this phase reacted cobalt dichloride with hydrochloric acid. The pink color of the cobalt dichloride (Co2+) turned blue (CoCl42-) when hydrochloric acid was added. In the second part of this phase, the test tube containing cobalt dichloride was immersed in a boiling water bath. The pink color of the solution turned blue when the temperature increased. With this, it could be said that the equilibrium shifted to the right upon heating. When the temperature is increased at constant pressure, an exothermic reaction would proceed backward or shift to the left. In this case, the increase in temperature made the equilibrium shift to the right; therefore, the reaction is said to be endothermic. CONCLUSION The experiment basically could be summarized into the 5 different equilibrium states. First, the iron-silver equilibrium states that reactants and products could indeed co-exist in a system. Second, the copper-ammonia equilibrium states that certain chemicals could affect the state of equilibrium of a system. Third, the chromate-dichromate equilibrium states that increasing the acidity or basicity of the solution could either move the equilibrium forward or backward. Fourth, the iron-thiocyanate equilibrium states that â€Å"An increase in the concentration of the reactant or a decrease in the concentration of the product shifts the direction of the reaction towards the production of more products to return to the equilibrium position. On the contrary, a decrease in the concentration of the reactants or an increase in the concentration of the product shifts the equilibrium position towards the production of more reactants.† [3] Lastly, the cobalt-cobalt chloride equilibrium states that an increase in temperature in an endothermic reaction favors product formation, therefore shifting the equilibrium to the right. On the contrary, increasing the temperature in an exothermic reaction favors reactant formation causing a shift to the left. RECOMMENDATIONS The methods and procedures done in the experiment are sufficient to obtain the data and results needed. No further recommendation is needed. REFERENCES [1] Petrucci, Ralph et.al. General Chemistry: Principles and Modern Applications, 10th ed.; Pearson Canada: Toronto, Ontario, 2010. [2] Padolina, Ma. Cristina et.al. Conceptual and Functional Chemistry: Modular Approach, Vibal Publishing House, Inc.: Araneta, Quezon City, 2004. [3] Chemical Equilibrium. [Online]. http://www.scribd.com/doc/30015115/Expt-9-Chemical-Equilibrium (accessed last January 15, 2013)

China Social Classes

China Social Classes The social class structure of China has a long history, ranging from the feudal society of imperial times to the industrialising and urbanising society of today. The traditional Chinese social structure was distinct in many ways from the Western societies. Not only has the Peoples Republic by far the largest population ruled by a single government, and has lacked an institutional church or otherwise powerful religious elite, it has also always had a unique and highly developed lineage system operating alongside a centralised bureaucratic political structure. The former disparities have led Whyte et al (1977) to conclude that modern processes of social change would proceed differently from both the West and other developing economies. The main aim of this essay is to describe and account for the changes in Chinas social classes since 1949. It is important, however, to firstly define this term so that a clear distinction of the social groups within the Chinese society can be drawn. It will become apparent, that not only have the changes for the various classes been vast, but also that the Maoist government had been hugely occupied with stratifying their people as a means to abolish the class structure to ultimately reach an egalitarian society. The principal line of reasoning of this paper is that these conflicting events have created the greatest divide amongst Chinese society, i.e. between the rural and the urban population, whose consequences are still omnipresent today more than thirty years after Maos death. â€Å"Class, at its core, is an economic concept; it is the position of individuals in the market that determines their class position. And it is how one is situated in the marketplace that directly affects ones life chances.† (Hurst, 2007) This was theorized by Weber in his three-component theory of stratification which includes wealth, prestige and power on the basis of unequal access to material resources.† (Weber, 1964). One of the most prominent Chinese sociologists and author of Xiangtu Zhonguo, Fei Xiaotong, argues that Chinese society consists of a meticulous ranking of people, who are classified according to distinct categories of social relationships. While western societies are made up of an organisational mode of association (tuantigeju), Chinese society is created by applying logic of chaxugeju, i.e. an egocentric system of social networks linking people together in multiple ways through moral demands on each person in a specific context. As such, Fei argues, China should not be viewed as a class-based but a net-work based system. This notion is a harsh contrast to the Marxist interpretation and to the use of class-analysis that Mao and others applied in an attempt to change Chinese society and to mobilise the peasantry, rather than as a way to understand it. Maos idea was to use Marxism to break through the old relational bonds of society, which he labelled feudalistic, and to create new ca tegories for rebuilding the social order. Much of the difficulties in understanding the Chinese concept of class stems from the tumult within the society it is intended to analyse. As Kraus (1981) notes first revolution, then rapid industrialisation have compressed a broad range of radical social changes within a single generation. And most of all, â€Å"changing Chinese approaches to the class system of the PRC are themselves elements in the social conflict which they prescribe, illuminate and obscure† (ibid). The Party had a great interest in class analysis, which was purely strategic, never academic. Maos 1926 essay â€Å"the Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society† opens with the question â€Å"Who are our enemies? Who are our friends?† (Selected Works of Mao Tse-Tung, 1967). In order to reach one day the desired egalitarian society that Marx had proposed for the future the party had to specify the social order of the present time and of each individual c itizen. That way, potential support could be identified and mobilised, the enemies isolated and the intermediate classes be persuaded to join sides with the revolutionaries. In an attempt to identify the people who should receive benefits and those who should lose them, the Party applied a complex system of over sixty class designations which ranged from categories that were clearly bad such as capitalists and landlords, through to intermediate designations of petty bourgeoisie and middle peasant, to the workers and poor peasants in whose name the revolution had been made.1 The unfamiliarity of the ordinary people and many cadres with the Marxist notion of class categories led Mao to demand the press to publish the categories in newspapers so that all persons could understand the significance of their new class designations. Since the revolution was based in rural areas, the semi-feudal set of class designations was more elaborate than others. Kraus (1981) suggests that the differen tiation of rural classes was complex both because of the wide-ranging relationships which they encompassed and because of the Partys experience with them. It is for this reason that the designation of strata within classes was particularly rich, including e.g. hired agricultural labourer, poor peasant, middle peasant, rich peasant etc., while the varieties of landlords are even more impressive and contain a certain connotation, such as enlightened landlord, bankrupt, tyrannical, reactionary, hidden or overseas Chinese landlords. Although the Party worked systematically in applying the theories of Karl Marx in designating the different classes, and although Marxs theory of class has been subject to considerable controversy among academics and practicing revolutionaries, it is certain that Marx never understood class to be what twentieth-century western social science calls stratification. Unlike the latter, which is essentially a static concept, class is embedded in history, is dynamic and is centred upon the question of change. Dahrendorf (?) adds that, for Marx â€Å"the theory of class was not a theory of a cross section of society arrested in time but a tool for the explanation of changes in total societies.† Social Change under Mao: During empirical times prestige was generated from education, abstention from manual labour, wealth expended on the arts and education, as well as a large family with many sons and an extensive personal network. In summary, there was no sharp divide between the elite and masses, and social mobility was possible and common. Chinese society since the second decade of the twentieth century, has been the subject of a revolution intended to change it in fundamental ways. As the model shows, Chinese society now has a peasant class, a working class (which includes urban state workers and urban collective workers as well as urban non-state workers and peasant workers), a capitalist class (about 15 million), a cadre class (about 40 million and a quasi-cadre class (about 27 million). According to Li Yi the basic pattern of Chinese society was established by 1960, and all changes since then, including the economic reforms in the 1980s have only been modifications and adjustments to the pattern. Li describes this pattern as â€Å"cellular†, i.e. most people belong to one large, all-embracing unit such as a factory, government office of village. The main transformation of the society was carried out by the party during the 1950s in a series of major campaigns. Society was organised â€Å"vertical†, i.e. each individual and social group was put into a hierarchically organised system as opposed to belonging to social institutions that were organised horizontally by their members. On the macro-level one could find the pervasive system of the cerntralised buraucracy (xitong) which itself was organised according to the ‘branch (tiao) principle. The micro-level was represented by work-units (danwei), state-enterprises and rural collectives, which encompassed each individuals live comprehensively. As White (1993) notes, this â€Å"system of verticality has led to social encapsulation† , which means that individuals and groups were â€Å"encloistered† within their units and separated from other units at the same level. Cadres after 1950s: After 1949, the Communist Party cadres became the new upper class in China, with the revolutionaries ruling the country. Their status allowed them access to materials and options that werent fairly distributed or otherwise reachable. Especially housing, which was in great demand particularly in the larger cities, was easily accessible for cadres who were protected from the intense competition for the scarce living space. Countryside: When the communists came to power in the 1950s, the social hierarchy changed fundametally. The communist party held peasants and those people in esteem who had joined the communist revolution. In an attempt to reduce rural inequalities, resources were confiscated from the wealthy, and since wealth consisted primarily of agricultural land, the landlord families were the target of harsh punishment campaigns. Many of the latter as well as educated elites lost their land and other properties and many were executed in retribution for the exploitation of tenant farmers. From 1951 one, the initial land reform redistributed the confiscated land equally and foremostly to those families who didnt own any for them to farm privately. In 1953, however, a series of reformes were implemented in which the government began taking back this land, designating it as community property. â€Å"Families were required to work larger plots of land collectively, in groups of twenty to forty households† (bookrags.com, 2008) and the harvest was split between the government and the collective. At the same time, local governments took over commerce, shops, markets and other forms of private trade and replaced them by supply and marketing cooperatives and the commercial bureaus of the local governments. Thus, instead of using the farmed produce for themselves and instead of selling of the surplus on local markets, individuals were â€Å"paid† for their efforts in points by the newly established supply cooperatives, which then periodically traded the grain for money. On the whole, the size of the unit was increased and the role of private ownership as well as inherited land was decreased. By the early 1960s, an estimated 90 million family farms had been replaced by about 74,000 communes. Maos overall vision was to capitalise on the sheer number of peasants and effecitvely produce a surplus harvest that would help industralisation. This was known as the Great Leap forward, which is now widely regarded as a failure since it had resulted in the death of more than twenty million peasants. Urban life after 1950: At the same time as the land reforms were implemented in rural areas, large industries and in fact virtually all privately owned business were nationalised in the cities and craft enterprises and guilds were reorganised into large-scale cooperatives which became the branches of the local governments. Just as farmers were put into communes, state workers were placed in large work units called danweis. In an effort to ensure full employment, market competition in these firms was eliminated. People leaving school were assigned jobs bureaucratically, and once matched a job, employees could not quit voluntarily. But they could not be fired either, and thus had a job guaranteed in the same company for life with their children inheriting their position. In fact, there did not exists such a word as ‘unemploment in the Chinese language, according to the idea that there exist no unemployment in socialist countries, only individuals â€Å"waiting for work† (Imamura, 2003). Mobility within the danwei mostly only consisted of gaining administrative promotions. Since most of the alternative routes to social mobility were closed off, formal education continued to be the primary avenue of upward mobility. But since the urban education reform grew at a rate much faster than in rural areas, more and more workers were high school graduates. The slowing of state industries and the increasing number of qualified middle class candidates contributed to the fact that it became increasingly difficult to obtain a position as a state worker. Hence, urban youths not selected for further eduaction and those looking for work were often sent to rural areas to work in agriculture. This flow has been increased by more intensive mobilisation and a new law was passed that demanded secondary school graduates to work in agriculture for at least to years before becoming eligible for further schooling. In this mode, a total of 12 million urban youths were moved to the countryside betwee n 1968 and 1975 (Whyte et al, 1977). These large transfers of urban people to rural areas were made possible by the state monopoly over employment and urban housing, by the hukou registration and rationing, and by the impressive political network that had alrady been established in all neighbourhoods. On the whole, one can say that this rural settlement has been accomplished by social pressure rather than by incentives to move. It is debatable whether this massive programm of population transfers was intended primarily to â€Å"avoid having large numbers of ‘unemployed people living in cities parasitically† (Bernstein, 1977), or whether this was meant to be part of a more positive effort to close the rural-urban gap by supplying villages with well-educated and more scientifically sophisticated personnel. Urban inequalities were further reduced through salary compression in firms. Differences in the salary paid for high-skill, high-prestige occupations such as doctors and other professionals, and blue-collar work such as unskilled factory employees was decreased dramatically. Efforts were also maid to downplay the social importance of the former and to increase the prestige of the latter. Ever concerned about economic inequalities, the government also appropriated wealth and abolished labout markets in urban areas. Privately owned housing was seized and subdivided into much smaller living spaces. Effectively, families could rent apartments but never purchase them, which abolished a key element in wealth inequalities because properties could not be perpetuated from generation to generation any longer. Communist overall: position? It is readily distinguishable that communism has brought about far-reaching changes in China with the rural population having to adjust to the shifting ideological currents. Traditionally, the average citizen, and especially the more than eighty percent rural population, had little or nothing to do with the central of local government. Most peasants lives were centred on their home village or township, while the family was the main unit of economic production and social activity. The Maoist revolution, however, injected the Communist party into every sphere of rural and urban life and every institution of society. Thus, for the average Chinese citizen, whether rural or urban, Communism has brought about an almost intrusive role of governmental element into the daily life and embedded itself in the operations of all significant facets of the economy and society. The formerly local, small-scale and fragmented power structure was replaced by a national and well-integrated bureaucratic s ystem. The unpredictable consequences of market forces were replaced by administrative allocation and changing economic polices enforced by the government. Rural-Urban-Divide Marx did, moreover, make out the elimination of the distinction between city and countryside as one of the major goals of the future Communist society. In the 1950s, however, and ironically enough in light of Marxist pretensions the Party drove a wedge between rural and urban areas that was novel in Chinese history. Solinger (1999) explains that its chief purpose was to lock onto the land a potential underclass, ready to be exploited to fulfill the new states cherished project of industrialisation. The party used administrative orders and resource controls to isolate the urban population, not just geographically but socially as well. Although Marx had predicted that only capitalist states would do so, the party hoped to be to be able to draw upon the peasantry as an industrial reserve army. The Hukou-System By the 1960s the Chinese government had implemented their policy of household registration which was different from anything that had previously existed both in China and in the rest of the socialist world. The aim of the hukou system was to avoid over-urbanisation, to make distribution of state services through the work units and communes easter and to better prepare the population for a possible invastion by the Sovjet Union. It eliminated geographical mobility entirely since it â€Å"fixed people permanently on the basis of their birth place or their husbands residence† (Cheng and Selden, the City) and thus made it illegal to migrate from the countryside into cities.Accordingly, all persons were required to register their place of residence officially, with records maintained by the public security office of the higher agricultural cooperative in the countryside and in the neighborhood in cities. From then on, residence status became an ascribed, inherited one, which determ ined an individuals entire livelihood and welfare based on the location of the registration. Since rations of grain, cloth and other needed articles were tied to ones hukou, individuals living in urban areas without permission had to live off friends, relatives or the black market. Although a class system in the usual sense was abolished, a new set of categories, if not precisely a new class system supplanted the dismantled class hierarchy of the past. There were 6 different levels of ranks, in descending order: peasants, non-peasants, city and town residents, urbanities, those in large cities, and those in cities directly administered by the central government. â€Å"Just after liberation, peasant households did not fell lower rank (diren yideng) and urban ones did not feel higher Later, a great difference in interest came from the differences in where one lived†¦ A ranking structure was gradually established with the peasant household at the lowest level.† (Ging, Zhongguo xianxing). Therefore, one can conclude that the hukou system did actually set up a new class distinctions between the rural and urban populace. This understanding of class draws upon Honigs work on the ethnicity of native place in China, in which she offers the rich insight that native-place identity, and thus the urban-versus-rural-identity can well serve as â€Å"a metaphor for class† (Honig, Creating Chinese Ethnicity). The boundaries placed around the rural population as a whole rendered the peasantry as a separate, inferior class or status group in comparison to urban residents. Because the generic peasant was not legally prohibited from migrating, when the Hukou was destroyed in (?), migration took on a totally state-determined and ‘class-based dimension. As Kraus rightly states, â€Å"the CCP first set boundaries around peasants, marking them off as a separate, ascribed status group almost a pariah class and then barring them from entering urban areas.† Or if they did enter, it was never as citizens, but as subjects, who were not supported with the rationed food or access to welfare services. When peasants and semi-peasants entered the city, the often felt comparatively deprived by the tightly locked city walls. Whereas everyone was poor in the country side, differences in wealth were readily obvious after entering the city. Impact of Economic Reform on Chinese Society On the eve of reform, the structure of Chinese civil society was similar to a typical less-developed country of the third world, despite Maos efforts to make certain industrial and technological advancements, which were most notable in the nuclear armaments sector. As Chinese social statistical data (Zhongguo shehui tongji ziliao) states, in 1978 eightytwo percent of the population were rural, 71% of the countrys labour force worked in agriculture or related activites, 93.3% worked in manual labour as opposed to mental ones and the private sector was negligible so that the main destinction was between state and collective sectors. The vast majority of the people, i.e. 76% worked in rural collectives, and only 5.1% in urban collectives. 18.6 % of the people worked for state enterprises. White (1993) concludes, that this institutional devide reinforced the rural-urban distintion because levels of income and conditions of work were generally superior in state firms. Since the rise of ot her classes such as self-employed or private entrepreneurs was prohibited, Chinas social structure on the eve of reform was relatively homogenous. According to White, the ‘official structure only contained two classes (workers and peasants) and one stratum (intelligentsia). In an attempt to further homogenise the members of each social group, uniform conditions of work were imposed upon them and the emergence of internal differences limited. The economic reforms, on the whole, have affected the specific social classes in different ways and have led to changes in the existing groups and have even led to the rise of new ones. This has created a new political environment which may affect the fundamental credibility of the communist regime and may influence the policy process in the future. The main impact of the reforms on society can be described as its shift â€Å"away from the state and its ancillary agencies† (ibid) towards individuals, households, firms and groups. The change in the relationship between the state and society has brought about an uneven redistribution of economic power for the latter and this dispersion of greater social power has opened up the potential for a new social sphrere with greater social autonomy from the state. One can possible observe the shoots of an incipient civil society which also brings about crucial implications for Chinas long-term political future. These shifts were part of a broader process of rapid social differentiation. Chinese social structure has become more complex both in terms of structure and attitudes because the existing classes have itself become more internally complex due to diversification in the different economic sectors, in the forms of ownership and the levels of income. Some of the new classes and strata that have emerged are: The nuveau-riche peasant, who have made money quickly in recent years through specialised agricultural production or diversification into the local industries, trade and services. (see Song article); Private entrepreneurs in the cities, who have accumulated small fortunes through personal initiatives, specialised skills or good guanxi-networks; A growing number of entrepreneurial managers in state-owned enterprises who are well attuned to the spreading logic of market competition. Moreover, Chinese society has become more fluid and dynamic again and there has been a rapid increase in horizontal mobility within the countryside, between urban and rural areas and between regions. Conclusion: The political apparatus used to destroy the old inequalities has itself given rise to a new set of social distinctions. Political power has been employed to transform Chinese society but it seems that the Party changed society faster than it has been able to modify its comprehension of a dynamic social structure. As Wallerstein concludes, â€Å"classes do not have some permanent reality. Rather, they are formed, they consolidate themselves, they disintegrate or disaggregate, and are reformed. It is a process of constant movement, and the greatest barrier to understanding their action is reification.† In the capitalist society movement between classes is a possibility. Hence the use of the term â€Å"The American Dream† to show the ability of people to ascend to a higher class through hard work and ingenuity. â€Å"Class composition is forever changing, to the point where there may be a completely new set of families.† (Schumpeter, 165) Furthermore, Chinas leaders wanted to change some aspects that were found in the traditional society such as the content of education and rural tenure, but they left other aspects, e.g. the family structure, largely untouched. In the villages the army offered the only reasonable alternative to a lifetime spent in the fields, and in fact, demobilised soldiers staffed much of the local administrative structure in rural areas. Systematic attempt by the regime to contain society within a limited number of categories. 1 see handout about social classes References: Hurst, Charles E. (2007). Social Inequality Forms, Causes, and Consequences Sixth Edition. Allyn and Bacon Boston, MA. Weber, Max. (1964). The Theory of Social and Economic Organization. edited by Talcott Parsons. New York, NY: The Free Press Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1967, 1:13 (Wallerstein, I. (1975) ‘Class-Formation in the Capitalist World-Economy, Politics and Society, Volume 5(3) p. 369) White, G. (1993), Riding the Tiger The Politics of Economic Reform in Post-Mao China. London: Macmillan. http://www.bookrags.com/research/social-stratificationchina-ema-05/ as at 3rd. April 2008. Imamura, H. (2003) ‘Unemployment Problems and Unemployment Insurance in China Far Eastern Studies Vol.2 (March), pp.45-67. Whyte, M.K., Vogel, E.F., and Parish, W.L. (1977) ‘Social Structure of World Regions: Mainland China Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 3, pp. 179-207. Bernstein, T. (1977) The Transfer of Urban Youth to the Countryside: Revolutionary Change in China. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press. Zhongguo shehui tongji ziliao (ZGSHTJZL; China Social Statistical Data

Olaudah Equiano :: essays research papers

Olaudah Equiano   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Olaudah Equiano was an African American that fell into slavery. He was forced like many other African Americans during the 17th and 18th century. In the short story about Olaudah Equiano, it tells about his life and what he went through being a slave. The Narrative has some similar things that we went over in class. I am going to discuss a few topics about Equiano and other slaves.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  First, there was a lot of trading or bartering going on with the white slave owners. They would use their slaves as a material item and not think of them as a person. They thought of them like a product or money. The trade involved the Americans, the Africans, and finally the West Indies. America mostly traded rum for slaves, Africa traded there own people (which would become slaves to whomever owned them) for sugar and molasses with the West Indies. The West Indies would trade rum, molasses, or sugar to America for slaves. This created a “Triangular Trade.'; It was the most popular and resourceful method to get slaves, rum, or any other thing that a certain country wanted. It worked out for everybody trading except for the slaves. Equiano was traded for such items in the Narrative. The first person to “own'; Equiano was a Quaker named Robert King. He did most of his business in the West Indies. Equiano was eventually traded for sugar cane and was forc ed to go on a slave ship. The conditions were horrible.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Equiano was transported on a slave ship called the “Zong.'; The British Republic owned the Zong. Equiano, as well as the other slaves were stuffed under the cargo area. There was so many slaves that they could hardly breathe. They were always hungry because of the little amount of food and the large amount of slaves. Disease spread throughout the ship causing many slaves to die. They would also die of hunger and getting beaten so much by the white crew onboard. Equiano had to survive in these conditions for long periods of time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Equiano was from Nigeria and lived in a powerful village called Essako. The British kidnapped him in 1756. He was kidnapped with his sister and dragged away from there home. A lot of the whites would just go into villages and start taking African Americans to be their slaves or to trade them for goods.

The Dangers of Censorship in High School Essay -- Argumentative Persua

The Dangers of Censorship in High School Every day well meaning parents, concerned members of society, and Christian activist groups across the country fight to censor the literature that is being taught in high school classrooms. The word censorship carries all types of implications and angles; it involve s a denial of an author's right to guaranteed freedoms of expression. However, as it relates to education, this issue goes a great deal deeper than the standard First Amendment argument. In attempting to ban certain types of literature from the classroom, censors are taking away the rights of teachers to prepare students for a reality that their parents do not seem to think will ever affect them. They likewise deny students the chance to learn how to rationally make their own decisions and instead try to keep that control for themselves. Censorship is preventing intelligent, thoughtful teachers from pushing students to reach past what is just on the page. Whatever their motives may be, those who seek to repress the use of certain materials are doing more harm than good. Those who actively fight to censor, ban, or restrict the kinds of literature that can be taught in America's classrooms are convinced that anyone who truly believes pornography and obscenity are problems must be in favor of censorship. Kristol (1972) points out that students are being corrupted by books and that anyone who doubts this need only look at the lives of the teachers who oppose him to find adequate proof of the damage they do. He finds that it is the responsibility of the educated in society to regulate censorship, but that these are the very people who are convinced that what is being taught by sensitive educators is indeed appropriate and ev... ...our schools--Censorship of classroom books in the last ten years. English Journal, 86 (2), 21-23. Gardner, R. (1997). A new fashioned book burning. English Journal, 86 (2), 63-64. Greenbaum, V. (1997). Censorship and the myth of appropriateness: Reflections on teaching reading in high school. English Journal, 86 (2), 16-19. Kochman, S. M. (1997). What happens when a high school censors. English Journal 86 (2), 58-60. Kristol, I. (1972). Pornography, obscenity, and the case for censorship. Current issues and enduring questions. (1993). Boston: St. Martin's Press. Lacks, C. (1997). The teacher's nightmare: Getting fired for good teaching. English Journal, 86 (2), 29-32. Rossuck, J. (1997). Banned Books: A study of censorship. English Journal, 86 (2), 67-69. Suhor, C. (1997). Censorship--When things get hazy. English Journal, 86 (2), 26-27.

Public Service Broadcasting Essay -- essays papers

Public Service Broadcasting From the establishment of the BBC in the late 1920s, British audiences were given the opportunity of taking part in a shared national experience and interest. Since that time, an apparent agreement has existed as to the general aims of broadcasting by the BBC which fell under the heading â€Å"public service broadcasting.† Although the BBC no longer enjoys a broadcasting monopoly, the promise to provide a mix of programming by which audiences may be educated as well as entertained has been emulated by the other terrestrial broadcasters, beginning with ITV in the 1950s. However, recent years have shown a breakdown to this widespread agreement and the term â€Å"public service broadcasting† now seems to exist as more of an amorphous notion than anything with a real concrete description. Perhaps because the term brings with it a number of complexities that serve to hinder the mission of public service broadcasting. How does one determine what someone else should watch? What type of person would be making that decision and does it have the potential to be elitist? Can a single broadcasting entity actually appeal to one mass audience in a society as diverse as Britain’s? And does the concept of this â€Å"national interest† even exist at all? It’s questions like these that bring to mind potential problems with the programs broadcast by the BBC and indicate that there is a lot more imbedded in the concept of public service broadcasting than one might assume. For no matter how no matter how much its traditions purport to reach out to create a cohesion for a mass audience, public service broadcasting can also contribute to a very misrepresentative appearance of British society. One aspect of the television medium that is so unique is its pervasive nature on our lives. For many, it is not only the primary source of entertainment and information, but also of education. Therefore, in a public service sense it is necessary to go beyond merely producing quality programs, even producing quality programs at peak hours that will attract a large audience. Rather, it also involves providing a focus for those activities which are best regarded as a common experience. Whether it be a the Wedding of Charles and Diana, a World Cup Football match, or news of a fateful event, â€Å"television has a unique ability to generate a sense of c... ...s, rather than the audience that own the station. Its centralized monopoly can serve a censoring body and does not allow all voices in society to have a voice, although the BBC deems itself representative of a national institution. For this reason it cannot be justified to have a mass audience pay for a license fee that may not be catering at all to their interests or culture and perhaps the only way to justify the programming of the BBC is by adopting a method of optional subscription fees. As far as it may have developed since the time of its founding, the BBC still remains somewhat stuck to its original ideals which have made it impossible to become that national institution that it claims to be. Bibliography: British Broadcasting Corperation. Our Commitment to You. London: BBC Publications, 1998. Department of National Heritage. The Future of the BBC. London: Department of National Heritage, 1994. Green, Damien. A Better BBC: Public Service Broadcasting in the 90s. London: Center for Policy Studies England, 1991. MacCabe, Colin. The BBC and Public Service Broadcasting. London: Manchester University Press, 1986. Madison, James. Federalist Paper No. 10

Investment Analysis-Derivatives: Options and Warrants Essay

This report will encompass brief explanation of common derivatives namely, options and warrants. What are Options? A contract which enables the investor to buy or sell a particular financial instrument is known as an option ( Rao, 2003, p. 676). The underlying financial product in equity option is stocks. These contracts have expiry dates; hence an investor can exercise option before its expiration. The options can be exercised at a specific price which is known as striking price or exercise price (Rao, 2003, p. 676). Essentially options are of two types, call option and put option. Call option:   It is an option which allows the option holder to buy or call a specific number of shares at a specific price, within an already specified time period (Rao, 2003, p. 677). For instance, 3 months ago, an investor purchased a 6-months call-option on 500 shares of Hewlett Packard at the strike price of $40 per share. If the current market price of the stock is $50, the investor has a choice to exercise the option and purchase 500 shares at $40 instead of $50. This implies that an investor would want to buy a call option if he expects the market price to rise above the exercise price (Rao, 2003, p. 677) Put option: It is an option which allows the option holder to sell or put a specific number of shares at a specific price, within an already specified time period (Rao, 2003, p. 678). This is exactly vice versa to call option; therefore an investor would purchase a put option if he expects the market price of the stock to get lower than the exercise price. Risk and Returns associated with options A lot of investors employ options as tools to mitigate their risk in investment, in other words, they insure their investment in stock against any fall in market price (Rao, 2003, p. 679). For e.g. an investor holding a put option has saved himself from even a 100 percent decline in the market price of shares of ABC Company, and he can still sell the stocks at the specified strike price. This practice is also known as hedging, as the name suggests; the investors hedge their risk in the respective investment. However, despite its ability to hedge risks, it should never be neglected that like any other investment it has no guarantee of 100 percent return or security. An investor can risk investing huge sum in the shape of premium price of an option. For e.g. if an investors buys a call option and the price of the stock falls below the exercise price, he gets exposed to potential losses. But it is evident that the losses will be relatively lower than what actual stock holders will bear. Hence it can be verifiably be said that options are great instruments for mitigating risk, provided that an investor is able to predict the future stock price movement with much precision and exercise options at the right time in order to make profit. What are warrants? A warrant is a security issued by a company which grants the warrant holder, a right to purchase a specific number of common shares at a specified price, before the warrant expires (Mathur, 2000, p. 436). Investors exercise their warrants when they buy shares directly (trading between the broker and the investor), or trade over the counter. Warrant holders have no claim on dividends and no voting rights. Warrants also are issued with bonds and preferred stocks.   Moreover, warrants with bonds can be traded separately in the market as well (Mathur, 2000, p. 437). Characteristics of Warrants There are three main characteristics of warrants which are as follows, 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Expiration date: Investors can exercise their option of converting the warrants into shares any time before the warrant expires (Mathur, 2000, p. 437). Generally the life of a warrant is 5-10 years. Hence, during this time, the warrant holder can easily exercise the warrant as per the need and opportunity. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Premium price: The price that warrant holders agree to pay for buying shares in future, is known as exercise or premium price Mathur, 2000, p. 437). This price is generally 10% to 30% above the prevailing market price of the shares. For e.g. if the market price of Microsoft Corporation is $80, then the warrant issued can be set at $96 (20% above the market price). Therefore, if the stock price rises, the warrant holder can either exercise the warrant to buy shares or sell the warrant in market. However, if the current market price of the stock becomes equal to or less than the exercise price, the value of the warrant becomes zero (Mathur, 2000, p. 438). 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Exposure to investor: Warrants are always issued by with provisions which clearly specify the number of shares that can be bought with a single warrant (Mathur, 2000, p. 438).