Stretch and support Essay

In order to meet the grading criteria for M1 learners need to explain how promotion is integrated with the rest of the marketing mix in a selected organisation to achieve its marketing aims and objectives. Learners will need to have a thorough understanding of the marketing mix and then be able to apply it to the marketing aims and objectives of their selected organisation. Learners could complete the following activity to help them achieve these criteria. Marketing aims and objectives are the targets that are specifically set for the marketing department in order to help the business achieve its corporate aims and objectives, i.e. the aims and objectives for the business as a whole. 1.Research a company that you are familiar with, for example, Walkers crisps. What do you think are the business aims and objectives of the company? 2.Investigate the type of promotions that your chosen company undertakes as a part of the marketing mix, for example, television advertising. Explain how th e promotions that your chosen company uses relates to other elements of the marketing mix by answering the following questions. How does promotion affect price? How does promotion affect product? How does promotion affect place? 3.How does the integration of all elements of the marketing mix help the company meet its corporate aims and objectives? E2 Evaluate and justify promotional mix In order to meet the grading criteria for D1 learners must evaluate and justify the use of an appropriate promotional mix in relation to marketing objectives for the selected organisation. Learners should start by stating the marketing objectives of the company and then carry out the following activity. 1.Write a paragraph about the strengths of your chosen promotional mix. Which element of the promotion mix is the strongest? 2.Write a paragraph about the weaknesses of your chosen promotional mix. Which element of the promotion mix is the weakest? 3.Write a paragraph about how the promotion mix used helps to meet the marketing objectives of the company. 4.Of all the elements in the promotional mix which do you believe to be the strongest in this instance? Justify your answer. E3 Use of  professional agencies in promotions In order to meet the grading criteria for M2 learners must be able to explain the advantages and disadvantages of using professional agencies in ensuring promotional success. To do this, learners will need to look at the relative merits of using a professional agency over an in-house team. Learners could be shown or seek out examples of promotional campaigns created by professional agencies, for example, television or print advertisements, and then answer the following questions. 1.Which aspects of the campaign(s) do you think an in-house team could perform without the use of a professional agency? 2.Which aspects of the campaign(s) do you think required a professional agency? Justify your answers to both questions. E4 Rationale for a promotional campaign The grading criteria for M3 requires learners to provide a rationale for a promotional campaign. Learners will need to be able to identify each element of a promotional campaign and explain its role. Learners must also say why each element is important in order to develop their analysis. Learners could be given the following task to complete in preparation for the assignment. A health club organisation is planning a new fitness centre in your area. The company has a budget of  £20,000 and will be running its promotional campaign for two months before opening. The company needs to attract a large number of people to sign up for a one-year membership contract. It is targeting the club at both men and women. Using the information above, answer the following questions. 1.Are all elements of the promotional campaign important? Justify your answer. 2.If you have identified some elements that are not important to the campaign, do you think they are required at all?

High School Dropouts Reflection Essay

I believe the dropout rate is so high because, as stated in the article â€Å"High School Dropouts: Costly to American Economy†, â€Å"the teachers [don’t] care, the students [don’t] care.† I believe that lack of interest on both the student’s and the teacher’s part impacts whether a student might drop out. I also believe that factors like, problems at home, bullying at school, etc., also plays an enormous role on the results stated in the articles. Knowing that one of the main reasons of having a job includes, earning money, it leads me to assume that those who drop out do not want to earn less, or be among the 12% of jobless individuals that do not have a high school diploma. Furthermore, I believe that it is evident that a high number or drop outs implies that there are important factors behind what causes an individual to decide to drop out of high school. Looking at the statistics that dropouts cost taxpayers $8 billion annually, and $300 billion dollars in earnings are lost every year due to the decrease in pay of those who do not have a high school diploma, has led me to believe that our state/federal government should eliminate the option of dropping out of high school. It makes no sense that they have not done so, seeing that they have the right, and it is within their power and right to do so. Also, after seeing the statistic that the incarceration rates were 63 times higher among high school drop outs within the ages of 16 and 24, and in an effort to solve two problems: the number of kids that drop out of high school and kids who are behind bars, I believe there should be a greater effort to achieve mass awareness about the negative effects of dropping out of high school early, the same magnitude as the programs and advertisements on breast cancer, and the effects of smoking cigarettes. This plan, although costly, would in turn decrease the amount of high school dropouts, people behind bars, and jobless individuals in this nation. Presidential Election Reflection I believe that out of the five factors listed in the article, the debates are the most important. I believe the debates are important because it allows you to look at each candidate side by side and hear not only their plan on how they plan on turning the economy around, creating jobs, and leading this country on a path that will allow us to decrease this nation’s debt but also to see each candidate’s tactics on using the opposing opponent words or ideas to bash/ or blatantly state why they are wrong. I also believe it is important because you get to actually hear their own words and beliefs, unrehearsed, without a teleprompter, and without being warped in the game of telephone by social media and propaganda. I think that the presidential debates are more important than the electoral map, because the electoral map for the most part generally stays the same and predictable. The ads and messages used to attack the other candidate, or twist the words of another candidate in my opinion are effective, but very childish, immature, and not anything I would imagine a â€Å"president† taking a part of. Propaganda is a very effective way of spreading a message, and getting everyone’s attention, so it’s also important, although not in the same way as the debates are. In my opinion, money is the second most important part of the presidential race. The amount of money a party raises, shows how much they are supported. In the article, it states that â€Å"the Republican Party presidential committees had about $186 million on hand, compared with about $124 million for Mr. Obama and the Democrats.† This shows how both each candidate is supported. I actually have watched one of the debates, as an extra credit assignment for U.S History, and I thought that the debate was interesting, and I liked how the debate was set up.

Reflection on Jack Hodgins ”By the River” Essay

In the story of By the River, the author relates the love story between the young woman, Crystal Styan, and her husband, Jim Styan, in the terms of faith, responsibility and dream. After reading this story, I wonder that why Jim chose to leave and why Crystal still believed he will come back, even though she realized that her dream of the life with him would not come true. When Crystal was in grade ten, she gave up the opportunity of studying further and chose to live a wonderful and idyllic life with Jim. After they moved to the log cabin which sits on the edge of river, they began to build a farm. Since Jim was lack of farming knowledge and had no any experience before, six chickens were frozen to death in the cold winter and the cow that he has just bought stepped off the train and ran away. He eventually abandoned his house and wife irresponsibly and left on the train after he cannot accept the fact that the dream of becoming famer will not come true. In contrast, Crystal always believed his husband and tried her best to help Jim realize his dream, even though sometimes she understood the decision that living with Jim was wrong. Crystal has always loved Jim so that she trusted her husband will be on the way home one day and came to the station to wait him for the past six month. But all are delusional and impossible, her husband will never return on the train, because the conductor told her that he was not on board. In conclusion, this kind of woman, Crystal, is frankly pathetic because her husband ruthlessly abandoned and left her without any words, while Jim is certainly looked down upon by others, because he is self-concern and irresponsible for their love and relationship.

Mapping the Route Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Mapping the Route - Essay Example It can be hard to leave what you are familiar with, and I really admire the owners of the supermarket and knew that they would not be happy to see me go, however it was time to decide on my own. I set a goal of satisfactorily completing a single semester at a local college, just to measure if I could manage it, and much to my surprise I not only finished the semester, I got a credit as well. I got a lot of courage in in this accomplishment, and it actually was not easy, however it afforded me the courage I needed to set life time goals. I realized that I was very good at sciences and how the human body functions. I am now near to complete my diploma in clinical Sciences, having maintained my position as the top student the entire period, and I finally understand that I am being a good model to my son that I always imagined when I was restocking the shelves at the supermarket. I am now planning to take my skills to the next level by pursuing a degree in clinical medicine at University. It is my goal after completing to become a medical officer serving lower income and marginalized communities. I am a naturally a kind person, and due to my lower socio-economic upbringing and life experience, I can relate easily to individuals who may not be willing to go to doctors whom they think as different from them, however whose services they require. I can assist to fill that gap, and thereby encourage more individuals to really get help that they need in a suitable environment. My zeal to my education is sound and I know that, if given the opportunity, I will be able to pass well, and graduate with the education and experience I will require to develop my career as a medical practitioner. I am much relieved and happy to know that I have realized by dream career, and I am ready to start this next level of my education. Obviously the next two years will not be easy- requiring schedules and time management skills – however I

Report on Religious Field Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Report on Religious Field Research - Essay Example By examining deeply and becoming aware of various religious practices of every religion may contribute to understanding and appreciation of each recognized beliefs and values. This is the purpose of this paper. This will also present a unique experience of attending personally one of the church’s services to actually see what is the strength of a certain religious group that holds each member tightly organized and unified in worship to God. Report on Religious Field Service: St. Athanasius Greek Orthodox Church Regardless of where we live, we can see the conspicuous effects of religion in the lives of millions of people. Since religion is about our relationship with God, our spirituality, what is more expected from us is the influence of our religious teachings in our personality, daily conduct, and with our relationship towards the people around us. However, religion with its various forms, created a society characterized with conflicts, battles and even wars, instead of a pe aceful society. We are all aware of the past, wherein some dominant religions in the world played a role in great wars that devastated mankind and caused untold suffering. This may be one major reason why some people refused to talk or discuss about religion. Or maybe, some may experience a heated argument if they discuss about their differences in their religious practices and beliefs. ... Additionally, interest on knowing about other religious beliefs may correct some misconceptions about them. Among the various groups of religion in the world, the dominant one is Christianity. About one quarter of the world’s population claim to be Christian, yet, divided into various sects. The prominent forms are Roman Catholic, the Orthodox Church, the Reformists or Protestants in its numerous sects such as Episcopalian, Lutheran, Calvinist, Baptist, Methodist and other churches. All of these churches consider themselves to be established respectable religion. I am interested to examine and know more about the St. Athanasius Greek Orthodox Church because on my opinion, as I have observed, its religious beliefs and practices are very similar with the Roman Catholic. So, why does this church has to separate itself and be recognized differently? So, I decided to attend one of its Sunday services to see the actual liturgical ceremony and practices. I believe this is one best wa y to correct any misconception about them. To my surprise, the church or cathedral itself is far different from the Roman Catholic Church. It is very colorful because instead of various relics and icons, the church is surrounded by hand-painted illustrations of various Jesus Christ’s image, his twelve apostles, angels and even images of Mary, all painted in the walls. All the paintings have relevant stories on the life of Jesus. According to one worshiper I asked, artworks in the wall contribute to a feeling of heavenly splendor while observing the liturgical ceremony, which is very solemn and serene. He also commented that the paintings in the walls constantly reminding him of the

The Internet In Everyday Life Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Internet In Everyday Life - Research Paper Example The United Kingdom also contributed to the development of the internet. No exact date is particularized when the internet came into being. It is estimated that from early to mid of 1980 internet was well established. From that point in time, the network of internet experiences continuous exponential growth with its connection with personal, institutional computer or mobile. The funding of many private organizations and U.S made the commercial backbone strong for the development of networking technologies with the merge of several networks. From the very beginning, the academic sector is widely using the internet. The commercialization of the internet resulted in incorporation and popularization of all the aspects of human life. Presently the use of internet has been so popular that more than 2.4 billion people of the world are experiencing these networking technologies. This case study is based on the research question that the use of the internet should be restricted or not. The thesis of this research paper is that internet is introduced for all people. It is made available to all. But restricting the internet, it creates barriers to the purpose of introducing it. The objective of this research paper is to focus on the advantage and benefits of the internet. The contribution of the internet in developing the world is also highlighted here. The Internet has numerous advantages with some major disadvantages. This research paper aims to establish the fact that restrictions of internet usage will hamper the growth and development of many things which are associated with various aspects of human life and professions. According to the authors Samuel J. Best, Andrew Smith, Clark Hubbard, Brian Krueger internet is very popular in data collection as it solves complex questions for making quick administration, flexibility.

The Personal Application Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

The Personal Application Assignment - Essay Example We fight all the time over petty matter like who will pay the bill and who will take the car front seat, what we wonder about is when wars will end. The people we meet on an everyday basis on the campus are either groups of natives or groups of non-natives. No mixes of non-ordinary type. People who try to form such groups either fall out in some semester over cultural differences or over religious matters. People who are hardliners, somehow find excuses to impose ‘my way or the highway’ sort of values on the group. That is when the group starts to fall apart. I always think and always have thought that our group of friends is the most awkward type. We were all sitting in a coffee house once when I said it out loud. I was seconded and even laughed at, especially by Jerry. Sabrina the smart one as she calls herself said that she thought it was a rare thing and not many people were gifted. I agreed with her. Isaid I felt at home with was everybody, even though none of them spoke mynative language. That stunned my friends a bit. Silence at the table brought home a realization which we never actually thought of earlier. I was the only guy who actually was of Asian origins while all others were either Europeans or Americans. For us it has never been about rules, it has always been about discovering new things together.My friends had come to love anIndonesian dessert which is I make at home. We went with Arthur on his religious trip, met with Matilda’s guy and discovered that they will marry soon enough, learnt about law and congratulated Sabrina on picking such a boring subject.Together we went to see the Grand Canyons which was my idea and the Disney World which was the girls’ idea during the term break; driving from one place to the other. I think of our group and our mischiefs often. Not that we were into serious kind of stuff. We were just the naughty kind of

Add Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Add - Research Paper Example This article gives most of the details outlined above, such as the fact that it appears a Saudi airline truly did serve donkey meat, and is useful because it is one of the most reputable news organizations to report on the findings. It points out that Saudi airlines has mostly Muslim customers, who would be especially upset about the donkey meat. Saudi airlines constitutes a three start airline because it meets satisfactory standards in every category of airline care, including food. This means that the expectation level of a passenger on this airline should be fairly high, because they are paying for an airline that is supposed to deliver consistently good qualities of service in every area. Donkeys are considered Haram animals (forbidden animals) to be eaten because of their having cloven hooves. This means that it would be against religious practice for many Muslims to eat Donkey, even accidentally, and could be very troubling to a Muslim who

Operation and logistic management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Operation and logistic management - Assignment Example For better understanding the purpose of operations management and its relationship with organizational strategy, it is important to look at a case study. An operations and logistics management case study of Domino’s Pizza in India will clearly explain the relationship between strategy and operations management. As the tagline of Dominos explains, the vision of Dominos Pizza is to become the pizza delivery experts. Dominos Pizza was called Dominick’s Pizza in the initial years when it was owned and operated as a small pizza shop by Dominick De Varti. It was bought by Thomas S Monaghan and James S Monaghan in the year 1960. From 1961 onwards it was owned and operated by Thomas when James sold his entire share to Thomas. In was later on renamed as Dominos Pizza and adopted a mass expansion strategy ever since. â€Å"Dominos philosophy rested on two principles – limited menu and delivering hot and fresh pizzas within half-an-hour.† (ICMR, 2010) Dominos entered the Indian market in the late 90’s when the market was just beginning to adapt to the fast food culture. The management saw an immense potential in the Indian market and had formulated a mass expansion plans in the country. This case study will give a clear insight into the strategic choices used by Dominos fo r managing its Indian operation. â€Å"An operation is transforming process converting a set of resources (INPUTS) into services and goods (OUTPUTS).† (Jpcmedia, 2010) For Dominos, the operations begin from the stage when it orders the raw materials like wheat, vegetable and other ingredients. As Dominos is in the food industry it is of utmost importance that the quality of the product should be given higher attention from the very beginning. The next operational challenge for the company is distribution of the processed raw materials to the different stores. Next is the step where customers are involved. That is, taking orders from the customers. Customers order pizza over the

Nixon-Kissinger Years Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 8750 words

Nixon-Kissinger Years - Essay Example (Nixon- Mao talks) "Henry Kissinger had been the primary architect of the "opening" to communistChina, while working secretly behind the scenes to oust the Republic of China(Taiwan) from the United Nations, which free China had helped to found. He emergedas spokesman for appeasement of and "rapprochement" with the Soviet Union, andpromoted policies which guaranteed the Soviet Union a strategic superiority over the U. S".(Allen)Cold war and domestic political considerations very likely made Nixon and Kissinger less eager todisclose the specifics of the pledges on Taiwan or the candid discussions of Soviet policy. ThatNixon and Kissinger routinely offered the Chinese intelligence briefings has already beendisclosed in declassified documents published by the National Security Archive. Kissinger pioneered the policy of dtente with the Soviet Union, seeking a relaxation intensions between the two superpowers. As a part of this strategy he negotiated the Strategic ArmsLimitation Talks (culminating in the SALT I treaty) and the anti-ballistic missile treaty withLeonard Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. "The United States is failing as a leader of the free world. It is being outgunned, outflanked, andoutmaneuvered by the world communist movement. A nation which had an unquestioned eight- hundred percent strategic military superiority over the Soviet Union in 1960 was settling,sixteen years later, for second...That Nixon and Kissinger routinely offered the Chinese intelligence briefings has already been disclosed in declassified documents published by the National Security Archive. Kissinger pioneered the policy of dà ©tente with the Soviet Union, seeking a relaxation in tensions between the two superpowers. As a part of this strategy he negotiated the Strategic Arms. Limitation Talks (culminating in the SALT I treaty) and the anti-ballistic missile treaty with Leonard Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. â€Å"The United States is failing as a leader of the free world. It is being outgunned, outflanked, and outmaneuvered by the world communist movement. A nation which had an unquestioned eight- hundred percent strategic military superiority over the Soviet Union in 1960 was settling, sixteen years later, for second place status†. (Allen) Kissinger also sought to place diplomatic pressure on the Soviet union; to accomplish this he made two secret trips to the People’s Republic of China in July and October 1971 to confer with Premier Zhou Enlai, then in charge of Chinese foreign policy. This set the stage for the ground breaking 1972 summit between Nixon and Zhou and communist party chairman Mao Zedong as well as the modernization of relations between the two countries, ending 23 years of diplomatic isolation and mutual hostility and resulting in the formation of a strategic anti-Soviet Sino-American alliance.

The impact of the new technologies is revolutionising typographic Essay

The impact of the new technologies is revolutionising typographic practice. How is typograhpy and the role of typographic designers changing to meet new challen - Essay Example drew Haslam (2005), in their book Type and Typography, referred to the term as that concerned with the creation of typefaces and their arrangement to convey a message. (introduction) There are various other versions of these definitions but it all boils down to one thing: Typography’s existence occurred sometime in the 15th century and is tied with the invention of the printing press because it was responsible for the mechanical notation and arrangement of language. To borrow the words of Philipp Meggs, Rob Carter and Ben Day (2002): â€Å"The development of printing technology so drastically changed the nature of written communication that the term typography was coined to describe the study, use, and design of sets of identical repeated letterforms. According to Meggs, Carter and Day, the invention of typography was, in fact, the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, writing that the earliest mechanization of a handicraft is the hand-lettering of books. (p. 103) With the above information established, we underscore that typography evolves because of technology and thus, have had slightly differing meanings at different periods of history. In the age of the metal type, for instance, type and typeface were distinguished from each other, while in today’s digital age, they are used interchangeably. This will discussed, further later on. Peter Bil’ak offered us an interesting perspective when he said that typography should not be connected to any specific medium because it tends to change and evolve. The idea is that we continue to define and redefine the visual systems of visual language. We see this in the great leap we have achieved since the cave paintings to the synthesis of the digital pictographs. Tova Rabinowitz (2006) tells us that the widespread participation in typography’s recent evolution and its vibrant and experimental nature present an optimistic outlook for the continuation of type as a vehicle for expression and a democratizing cultural

Hybrid Vehicles Essay Example for Free

Hybrid Vehicles Essay The 21st century is considered as the time for more advance development and innovation of the human society. Prior to this era, mankind has already been busy with making ground-breaking design to significantly improve how people live their lives. However, due to changing times, these actions have resulted to some consequences that initiated changes for the better and for the worse. Some of the changes that have transpired in the past nine years since the commencement of the 21st century are the occurrence of global warming and the recently devastating global financial crisis. Evidently, these problems have been caused by humans but they are aware that these crises exist. Because of their realization, many learned as well as ordinary individuals have drafted solutions on how to mitigate the effects and even eradicate the problems at hand. In relation to the growing threat of climate change and fiscal recession, experts have devised a simple apparatus that would address these two problems. This wonder solution is the hybrid vehicle. Nowadays, it is common knowledge that global warming is mainly caused by the emission of harmful gases in the earth’s atmosphere. More so, the increase in oil prices has been one of the major factors for the decline of the US economy. Through the hybrid automobile, these alarming causes can be directly dealt with if this type of automobile will be utilized for public transportation. By doing this, the production of carbon emissions can be greatly reduced, fares would significantly decline and use of gas would be lessened thus helping millions of commuters to save money and at the same time the environment. A hybrid vehicle is a specific kind of automobile that has â€Å"two or more major sources of propulsion power. † This vehicle is usually made out of a â€Å"conventional gasoline and electric motor. † These two parts are the source of power for a hybrid which means that gas and electricity or any other renewable energy such as â€Å"hydrogen, propane, CNG and solar energy† are simultaneously used to run the vehicle. As a result, fuel â€Å"efficiency, increase in horse power, longer driving range and reduced greenhouse gas emissions† can all be accomplished by one single machine (What-is-what. com, 2007). In comparison with regular and other green cars available in the market, the hybrid vehicle is more beneficial to use. Hybrid vehicles can only accumulate an â€Å"average of 33 to 60 miles per gallon during city driving and 27 to 68 miles per gallon in highway driving. † According to the Environmental Protection Agency, these numbers are way better than the performance of other types of vehicles. This only shows that by using hybrid vehicles, users can definitely reduce their gas expenses. In a year, this type of vehicle can consume only $600 to $700 worth of gas which is lower to the average cost of $2000 annually using ordinary vehicles. Also, a hybrid is only low maintenance due to the fact that it utilizes less gas which results to less strain on the engine. Furthermore, the battery is another major part of the hybrid that supplies energy to the motor. This power source can be regularly drained and recharged but need not to worry about its durability because it was made to withstand various problems. Also, most manufacturers offer warranty just in case it wears out (Green Living Answers, 2009). In contrast with electric cars, a hybrid has smaller batteries which do not require constant charging. In addition, using electric cars can cause some drawbacks such as â€Å"availability of charging stations, lack of range, low top speed, and lack of acceleration† (Halt, 2009). Moreover, there are numerous initiatives pioneered by the government and business establishment in order to provided monetary incentives and perks to hybrid users. First, the â€Å"Federal Tax Credits for Advanced Vehicles† which entails â€Å"new tax credits for advanced vehicle technologies ranging from $250 to $3,400 depending on the vehicles level of fuel economy improvement. † Second incentive is giving out discounts for auto insurances on hybrid vehicles. Third, hotel discounts are given to users of hybrid vehicles (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2007). Given all these facts, it is apparent that hybrid vehicles can bring positive changes to the current global situation. By employing this innovation on a large scale, revolutionary transformation can immediately be seen and felt by the public. In this case, the looming threat of climate change and oil price hike can be alleviated by using Hybrid vehicles for mass transportation. References Green Living Answers. (2009). Hybrid Cars vs Regular Cars. Retrieved May 4, 2009, from http://www. greenlivinganswers. com/hybrid-vehicles/hybrid-cars-vs-regular-cars Halt, G. (2009, March 19). Electric Cars Vs Hybrids. Retrieved May 4, 2009, from http://ezinearticles. com/? Electric-Cars-Vs-Hybridsid=2120736 What-is-what. com. (2007, November 2). What is a Hybrid Vehicle? Retrieved May 4, 2009, from http://what-is-what. com/what_is/hybrid_vehicle. html Union of Concerned Scientists. (2007). State and Federal Hybrid Incentives. Retrieved May 4, 2009, from http://go. ucsusa. org/hybridcenter/incentives. cfm

Role of a Customer Champion

Role of a Customer Champion Key role of marketing is to act as customer champion to the organization. There are two highlight points in this argument, one is if organizations have to act as customer champions among all the other orientations that they can choose, and the other one is if it is the role of marketers in each organization to be the customer champion between other alternative positions. Marketers roles in an organization Marketers role by the time: Pull/push method: Since 1950, marketing has been on a push/pull model that the manufacturer designs a product to fulfill a need and then persuades the customer to buy that product by advertisements, promotions and different kinds of distribution tactics. Customer-centricity: the next level of marketers role in organizations with more involvement of customers. Customer advocacy: a new era in marketing in which marketer is the customers advocate.(Urban, 2005) The marketers role has significantly changed during the past years, for example the development of social media, made the marketers role more strategic and complicated. Considering the history of business, it shows that marketing has played a role in even the simplest early businesses.(burrow, 2009) In marketing, there are metrics that relate to customer satisfaction: advocacy, loyalty, margin, market share and the rest. Marketers main jobs are creating a marketing plan that ensures the metrics are on the right track, and engaging and supporting everyone across the business to ensure delivery. In other words, their role is to create the future and deliver it today. We all know that marketing is about more than creating the advertisements. (Gooding, 2006) New products and services require marketing, in order to find and build relationships with different types of customers, to speak to them in an innovative way and sometimes reach them through different channels. Marketers have to connect with mass-market consumers and help them to imagine how this new product would enhance their life. It is not a small task. (Kelley, 2010) They should also be involved in product development, and since they are the closest to customers opinion, it is their responsibility to share new ideas to match the companys offer to the customers needs and wants. ( Asis, 2003)Most fundamentally, marketers must bring the outside-in perspective to balance, and often lead the inside-out aspects of business.(Fisk, 2006) Different approaches Product-orientation: the companys knowledge about its customers is often vague and general. The customers segmentation is not very precise, and since the company cannot predict the customers behavior accurately, the strategic objectives of the firm are also unclear.(Matheson, 2006) Customer-centricity: is the orientation of a company to the needs and behaviors of its customers, rather than the internal drivers, like quest for short-term profit. (Landy, 2010)From this basic strategic difference other different organizational features flow. These are the two extremes, but different strategies in every organization will result in different degrees of customer-centricity. Nokia is a good example of a hybrid structure of products and customers. It moved from a product-centric company to one that is still product-centric, but also has added a customer-centric component.(Galbraith, 2002) Knowing which type of marketing organization exists within a company is crucial. Every organization has to ensure that their type of marketing organization actually fits what the company is trying to do. (Mitchel, 2006) Market and customers changes Customers today are more different and individual, more intelligent and difficult than ever, while 100 years ago, a new car buyer would be more than happy to buy a Ford Model T, a model that hardly changed in decades, in any color as long as its black. (Fisk, 2006) Thanks to new media, Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube, eBay, Amazon and etc. customers now have an unlimited access to information about a company, its products, customer reviews, seller rating and almost whatever they want to know in no time. There are no time and place barriers any more. No matter where the customers are, they can buy from everywhere. Therefore the old methods of marketing are much less effective now customers can easily find competing products and compare them in order to find the best product at the lowest price. With the simple and visible star ratings, even they do not have to bother themselves reading through lots of comments.(Urban, 2005)So in such a market it is almost impossible to survive without transparency. Although among all these approaches in the 21st century customer-centricity is the most popular and successful one but there is an exceeding tactic with almost the same basic principals called customer champion. Definition of customer champion: Advocate for your customers and they will advocate for you. It is a two-way relationship between the company and its customers for a common benefit of both. (Urban, 2005)In very simple words they become a trusted resource and partner. They build trust and respect. Customer champions believe that when you focus on the relationship rather than the business, business will come. (OBrien, 2010). The whole concept is to motivate some changes in the organizations approach toward customer-centric strategy in order to meet new changes, in which customers are in power, they have various needs, their own independent means to research the market and more bargaining power. Also they are now more individualistic.(Fisk, 2006) This approach is mostly based on representing the customers interest by providing them complete and unbiased information, always be there for them and give them some advice on which product is the best, even with comparing with competitors. This kind of partnership leads to a long-term loyalty.( Urban, 2005) Besides having the skills in customer-centricity, using revolutionary tools to gain value from customer conversations is one of the must dos in order to be a customer champion. It can be achievable by seeing things through the eyes of the customers and serve them as a dedicated consultant. It sounds more like a slogan rather than a strategy, to bring the voice of the customer to the centre of the business, but by utilizing certain skills it will be possible.(Newby, 2010) By being transparent they have to tell the truth to the customer. Therefore considering the quality of the products or services becomes very important. They should be good -not necessarily the best- in quality to eventually win the customers and maintain them for a reasonably long time.(Urban, 2005) Why customer champion The markets change, the economy changes, customers change. If we are not in alignment with the voice of the customer, and if we are not nimble or humble enough to make the changes, we are not there.(Mainz, 2010) Successful examples in the market like Tesco, PG, IBM and lots of other businesses illustrate the effect of changing the organizations approach with the flow of the super quick changing market. Tesco is the market-leader supermarket in the UK, with a significant presence in Eastern Europe and South-east Asia. They think of marketing as looking after their customers. Actually their core purpose is to create value for customers to earn their lifetime loyalty. They do this by responding to the different and constantly changing needs of all of their customers to deliver what they want, when they want. (Dibb and Simkin, 2006)And this is their secret for such a big success. In IBM even the bonuses are based on customer satisfaction. In addition to the fact that others experiences are promising, there is another reason for organizations that encourage them to go for being a customer champion and it is the image. Some companies believe that it can build brand image and customer loyalty and at the end it results in delight the customers and increase revenue. It can be a differentiation value for the organization in market.(Gunn, 2010) Marketers as customer champions Customer champions may have different jobs and responsibilities, but they share a common passion for the customer. Customer satisfaction and positive feedbacks are satisfying result for them.(Collins, 2009) The customer champion may live on the edge of the organization. By having a constant contact with the customers, they can understand their needs, become familiar with their actions and behaviors. (Kelley, 2010) The marketing people should take the lead in this way, because they are best placed to act as both the voice of the customer and an effective part of business plan. (Gooding, 2006) And also regarding to the nature of the marketing -mostly interaction and communication with customers- it makes more sense to think about marketers as the customer champions. Possible solutions As it is mentioned before the push/pull method has been the core of marketing for the past 50 years. Actually it was a solution to economics of mass production. But now with more powerful and wiser customers, the time pressure of the modern life and new technologies, this method does not work anymore. It may result in a short term winning in the sales but undoubtedly will end in losing the customers. They also can choose to continue with customer-centricity approach, which was urged by the saturation of push/pull marketing and also intense competitive market especially around quality and price. This is the approach of many leading companies in recent years. By emphasizing on customer satisfaction criteria, creating consistency in customer interactions, trying to satisfy the customer with higher quality products and with more customized services. They try to use one-to-one marketing and understand each customer and then deliver a consistent service to that customer. It seems an effective way and customers may like this one-to-one connection, but the problem is the huge amount of data, which companies are getting from CRM programs. (Urban, 2005)They keep receiving feedbacks from customers but most of the times they do not take these feedbacks into account for the upcoming steps. These feedbacks are data, and data is not information, information is not knowledge, and knowledge is no t insight. Insight is more profound.(Fisk, 2006) In fact considering the results, for most of the companies, CRM is just an improved way of pull/push marketing. As mentioned above The third way that they can follow is customer advocacy approach, being a loyal representative of customers interests and provide them with open, honest and thorough information. They have to simply reflect the reality, because customers now have the ability to find out the truth. (Urban, 2005) Conclusion Accepting this concept as a leading approach in the organization and the translation of customer champion from words to action is a tricky job; it requires lots of care, knowledge and skills. It also needs a crystal clear visioning. As technology advances and consumers become more knowledgeable, selling a product will increasingly demand a well-defined target segment and thorough understanding of customer needs, interests and frustrations. And it just can be achieved by the relationship, which is defined as customer champions.(Fisk, 2006) The point is that marketers as a customer champion would result in satisfied customers but not necessarily every happy customer is a result of a customer advocate marketer. Customer advocacy is the right way to do marketing; it is honest, open, and ethical. It can be a difficult decision to make as well, since it may result in short-term losses. But by committing to customers this approach is an easy and long-term decision; in long-term perspective businesses in the front line are the winners. Customers trust them and it will be very difficult for the competitors to change the customers mind and persuade them to switch to a new manufacturer. (Urban, 2005) By taking this approach, based on the information that companies can get from the customers, products and services will improve. As a result sales will increase and the company can produce more efficiently and costs can decline. But the problem is how to use this knowledge.(Burrow, 2008) I think in todays extremely competitive market, organizations cannot just compete on price and product. They have to deliver a great customer experience and build an extra ordinary trust among customers. The penalty for not doing so is greater than ever since consumers will complain on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.(Caballero, 2009) It is the matter of how to implement it. By doing it correctly, the organizations can gain huge opportunities that competitors can never touch.

The History Use Of Prosthetics Health And Social Care Essay

The History Use Of Prosthetics Health And Social Care Essay The term Prosthesis can be defined as an artificial replica that replaces human damaged or lost body part. In the field of arthroplasty or joint replacement surgery, prosthesis is defined as an artificial joint that replaces the arthritis affected or damaged human articulation (i.e., bone joint). The primary objective of the arthroplasty is to relief patients from arthritis pain in addition with restoring joint functions. Though in most of the cases the reason behind the arthroplasty is the arthritis pain, its not only the reason. Human articulations can be damaged by severe impacts or unusual stresses. Prostheses are usually made for human main joints such as hip, knee, elbow, shoulder, wrist etc. Long term results of the arthroplasty depend to a great extent on the quality of prosthesis implantation. The application of the robotics technology in the field of arthroplasty reduces the inaccuracy that occurred in conventional joint replacement surgery such as misalignment, rotation er ror, resection etc. On the other hand, in the field of biomechatronics (i.e., the science of fusing artificially intelligent devices with the human body), prosthesis is defined as an artificial substitute for a missing body part. Human limb amputation can causes due to trauma, tumor, congenital, disease, etc. According to biomechatronics, prostheses are considered as those which replace human lost arms and legs. The development of the biomechatronics provides useful technology for the robotic prosthesis. Robotic prosthesis act as an extended body part of the amputees by using which amputees can be able to perform his/her daily life activities and take care of them by using their own body functions. As a result, robotic prostheses provide an independent life and more productive role of these people in the society. In addition with the prostheses mentioned above, artificial eyes, teeth, artery, and heart valves are also correctly termed as prostheses. TRANSHUMERAL PROSTHESIS FOR ABOVE-ELBOW AMPUTEES Transhumeral Prosthesis can be defined as a prosthesis that is designed for the people who have lost their arm just above the elbow joint (i.e., above-elbow amputees). Human arm amputation can caused due to congenital (birth defect), tumor, trauma, disease, etc. circulatory disease, cancer and infections are considered as the major categories of disease which may require surgical removal of human arm. Moreover, the civil wars and more specifically wars in Sri Lanka, Iraq and Afghanistan producing an unprecedented number of amputees. Although nothing can ever become a perfect substitute for a missing arm, the intension of the transhumeral prosthesis is to compensate for the lost functions of the above-elbow (AE) amputees absent arm, so that they can lead an independent life and play more productive role in the society. HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF THE PROSTHETIC ARM Prostheses have been found around for thousands of years, however real advancement and fabrication of the prostheses have started about 500 years ago [01]. According to the medical museum exhibited at the University of Iowa titled History of Prostheses, earliest prostheses were used by soldiers dating back to 484 B.C. Hegesistratus; a Persian soldier around 490 B.C. cut off part of his own feet in order to escape from the prison and later replaced it with a wooden foot [02]. In 61 A.D., Pliny the Elder wrote about the Roman General Marcus Sergius who had lost his right arm during the Second Punic War (218-201 B.C.). Later he had replaced that by an iron arm to support his shield and he returned to battle [03]. During the middle ages, 15th and 16th centuries cosmetic prostheses were usually made from iron. At that period, blacksmiths and armor makers designed the prostheses for the soldiers after modeling their suits of armor. In the 16th century, the great French arm surgeon Ambrose Pare, designed several limb prostheses in addition with practicing surgical amputation. In 1818, Peter Baliff appears to have been the first person to introduce the use of the trunk and shoulder girdle muscles as sources of power to move the prosthetic arm. In 1844, the first transhumeral amputation replacement used Baliffs principle to apply flexion for the elbow joint [03]. The prosthetic arm using this concept is termed as Mechanical or Body Powered prosthetic arm and still extremely famous among the amputees society. By 1860, the Crimean and Italian campaigns of the French Empire left many soldiers in need of prostheses, and their call was answered by the Comte de Beaufort [01] [03]. The Comte de Beaufort designed several limb prostheses using the articles of clothing, pulleys and levers. After the World War I and II, a tremendous loss of manpower in USA and Europe served as a catalyst for the rapid development of the prosthetic arm. In 1948, N. Wiener proposed the concept of Cy bernetics i.e., the study of control and communication between the human and the machine [04], which plays an important role later for the development of the prosthetic arm. In 1949, Samuel Anderson created the first electrically powered prosthetic arm using the external power with support from the US Govt. and IBM. The first myoelectric arm was developed by Russians in 1958 and later on Otto Bock Company revealed the commercially available prosthetic arm for general application which was the first made versions of the Russian design [03]. CLASSIFICATION OF THE PROSTHETIC ARM Prosthetic arms can be grouped into three general categories: 1) Non-functional or Cosmetic Prosthetic Arm As the name implies functioning of these prostheses has less priority than the appearance, weight, wearing comfort and easy handling. These are the oldest and available for 2000 years. Though cosmetic prostheses offer a more natural look and feel, they sacrifice functionality and versatility while also being relatively expensive [05]. 2) Mechanical or Body Powered Prosthetic Arm The power to operate these prostheses comes from the users own body. In this system, the user wears a harness that translates the shoulder motion into elbow flexion motion and action of gravity force generates the elbow extension motion. The earliest model of this prosthetic arm was the Ballif arm [06]. These prosthetic arms are light weight and less expensive than the others however it requires large amount of forces to actually move the elbow [07]. 3) Externally Powered Prosthetic Arm Most advanced commercially available prosthetic arm in which power to operate the prosthetic arm comes from the external sources such as electric motor and battery pack. Most of these prostheses are operated by using users stump arm muscles EMG signals. This type of prostheses provides greater proximal functions, increased cosmetic appeal but also tend to be much heavier and expensive than any of the other categories [07]. Present State and Proposed Transhumeral Prosthesis Recent progress in biomechatronics technology brings a lot of benefit to increase the mobility of above-elbow (AE) amputees in their daily life activities. A transhumeral or AE prosthetic arm is used to compensate for the lost functions of the AE amputees absent arm. A number of commercial prosthetic arms have been developed since last few decades. However, many amputees have not used them due to the discrepancy between their expectations and the reality. The main factors causing a loss of interest in presently available prosthetic arms include low functionality and poor controllability [08]. Since the concept of Cybernetics proposed by N. Wiener [04], a number of research works have already been carried out and are ongoing for the development of prosthetic arm. At present, Utah arm, Boston Elbow, and Otto Bock are considered as the pioneers in this field which are shown in Fig. 1 [09]-[12]. However, currently, commercial prosthesis available on the market for the AE amputees provides a limited DOF. Most of these prostheses provide elbow flexion-extension motion with a terminal device attached at the end. In addition to the elbow motion, some prostheses provide forearm supination-pronation motion and a single DOF at the terminal device for grasping object. Some passive DOF, which are useful to generate an optimal pre-determined configuration during performing certain tasks [13], are sometimes included in the prostheses. Commercially available expensive cosmetic prostheses offer a more natural appearance and simple control. However, their dexterity is relatively very poor compared to the human arm. Human arm generates precise and complex motions during daily life activities which are almost impossible to be generated by using a limited DOF prosthetic arm. As a result, the presently available commercial prostheses have failed to gain wide acceptance among AE amputees. Figure 1: Commercially Available Externally Powered AE Prosthetic Arm [14]. In order to improve the quality of life of AE amputees and to increase their mobility in daily life activities (like, eating, drinking, dressing, brushing etc.), a 5 DOF externally powered transhumeral prosthesis is proposed in this thesis. The prosthesis is designed to generate elbow flexion-extension, forearm supination-pronation, wrist flexion-extension and radial-ulnar deviation, and hand grasp-release motion. Currently, no commercial transhumeral prosthesis provides a combination of wrist flexion-extension and radial-ulnar deviation motion, which have uttermost importance to perform daily life activities. In recent years, a number of prostheses capable of generating multi-DOF motion have been proposed for upper limb amputees [13], [15]-[19]. However, none of these provide a combination of forearm and 2 DOF wrist motion with the exception of an arm designed for above-wrist amputees to provide wrist flexion-extension and forearm motion [18]. Bio-Mechanics of Human Upper Limb Before develop a robotic arm system to mimic to the human arm, the physics of the human upper limb should be thoroughly studied. Accordingly the upper limb mainly consists of three major components, the shoulder complex, elbow complex and wrist joint. Mainly the shoulder complex is built with three bones, clavicle, scapula and humerus and four articulations: the glenohumeral, acromioclavicular, sternoclavicular and scapulothoracic, with the thorax as a stable base. The only point of skeletal attachment of the upper extremity to the trunk occurs at the sternoclavicular (SC) joint. At this joint the clavicle joints to the sternum, the middle bones of the rib cages. The clavicle is connected to the scapula at its distal end via the acromioclavicular (AC) joint. At this joint, most of the movements of the scapula on the clavicle occur, and the joint handles large contact stresses as a result of high axial loads that are transmitted through the joint. The scapula interfaces with the thorax via the scapulothoracic (ST) joint. This is not a typical articulation, connecting bone to bone. Rather, it is a physiological joint containing neurovascular, muscular, and bursal structures that allow for a smooth motion of the scapula on the thorax. The final articulation in the shoulder complex is the shoulder complex is the shoulder joint, or the glenohumeral (GH) joint. Motions of the shoulder joint are represented by the movements of the arm. This is a synovial ball-and-socket joint that offers the greatest range of motion and movement potential of any joint in the body. The shoulder complex can be mimic to a ball-and-socket joint and can be modeled accordingly. The proximal part of the humerus, humeral head and the female part of the scapula, glenoid cavity respectively act as the ball and the socket of the joint. The main motion of the shoulder joints are shoulder flexion/extension, shoulder abduction/adduction and internal/external rotation. During this each motion, the position of the centre of rotation of the shoulder joint changes. The distal part of the humerus is connected to the elbow joint or the radioulnar joint. The elbow is considered a stable joint, with structural integrity, good ligamentous support, and good muscular support. It consists of three bones of the arm and the forearm, humerus, radius and ulna. Movements between the forearm and the arm takes place at the ulnohumeral and radio-humeral articulations, and movements between the radius and the ulna take place at the radioulnar articulations. The ulnohumeral joint is the articulation between the ulna and the humerus and is the major contributing joint to flexion and extension of the forearm. The joint is the union between the spool-like trochlea on the distal end of the humerus and the trochlear notch on the ulna. The second joint participating in flexion and extension motion of the forearm is the radiohumeral joint. At the distal end of the humerus is the articulating surface for this joint, the capitulum, which is supheroidal and covered with cartilages on the anterior and inferior surface. The top of the round radial head butts up against the capitulum, allowing radial movement around the humerus during flexion and extension. The capitulum acts as a buttress for lateral compression and the other rotational forces absorbed during throwing and other rapid forearm movements. The third articulation, the radioulnar joint, establishes movement between the radius and the ulna in pronation and supination. There are actually tw o radioulnar articulations, the superior in the elbow joint region and the inferior near the wrist. Also, midway between the elbow and the wrist is another fibrous connection between the radius and the ulnar, recognized by some as a third radioulnar articulation. The hand is primarily used for manipulation activities requiring very fine movements incorporating a wide variety of hand and finger postures. Consequently, there is much interplay between the wrist joint positions and efficiency of finger actions. The hand region has many stable yet very mobile segments, with complex muscle and joint actions. The wrist consists of 10 small carpal bones but can be functionally divided into the radiocarpal and the midcarpal joints. The radiocarpal joint is the articulation where movement of the whole hand occurs. The radiocarpal joint involves the broad distal end of the radius and two carpals, the scaphoid and the lunate. There is also minimal contact and involvement with the trinquetrum. This ellipsoid joint allows movement in two planes: flexion-extension and radial-ulnar flexion. It should be noted that wrist extension and radial and ulnar flexion primarily occur at the radiocarpal joint but a good portion of the wrist flexion is developed at the midcarpal joints Wrist motions are generated around an instantaneous center. The path of the centrode is small, however, customarily, the displacement of the instantaneous center of rotation is ignored and the rotation axes for the flexion/extension and ulna/radial deviation are considered to be fixed. The axes pass through the capitate, a carpal bone articulating with the third metacarpal. Although it is considered that wrist joint motions are generated with respect to the two axes, some research [11] has proved that the motions are generated with respect to four axes. The wrist flexion axis and the extension axis are different. Similarly the radial deviation axis and the ulnar deviation axis are also different. Therefore, the 2DOF of the wrist are through four axes. Although flexion and extension motions have different axes they are intersected in a point in capitates. Similarly, radial and ulnar deviations axes are also intersected. When we consider that flexion and extension motions have one axis and similarly ulnar and radial deviations have one axis, the slight offset of the rotational axes of the flexion/extension and the radial/ulnar deviation is approximately 5 mm [8], [12]. In addition the motion ranges of the upper limb are as follows.[23] G. Thompson and D. Lubic, The Bionic Arm: New Prosthetic Devices Fuse Man and Machine, Seventh Annual Freshman Conf., pp. 1-8., April 5, 2007. History of Prostheses, 2008, UIhealthcare.com. Available at: http://www.uihealthcare.com/depts/medmuseum/wallexhibits/body/histofpros/histofpros.html R. H. Meier, D. J. Atkins, Functional Restoration of Adults and Children with Upper Extremity Amputation, Demos Medical Publishing Inc. New York, 2004. N. Wiener, CYBERNETICS or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, MIT Press, 1948. S. Nasser, D. Rincon, and M. Rodriuez, Design of an Anthropomorphic Underactuated Hand Prosthesis with Passive-Adaptive Grasping Capabilities, in Proc. of Florida Conf. on Recent Advances in of Robotics, Florida, May 25-26, 2006. W. J. Gaine, C. Smart, and M. B. Zachary, Upper Limb Traumatic Amputees Review of Prosthetic Use, Journal of Hand Surgery, vol. 22B, no. 1, pp.73-76, 1997. J. A. Doeringer and N. Hogan, Performance of Above Elbow Body-Powered Prostheses in Visually Guided Unconstrained Motion Tasks, IEEE Trans. on Biomedical Engineering, vol. 42, no. 6, pp.621-633, 1995. M. C. Carrozza, P. Dario, F. Vecchi, S. Roccella, M. Zecca, and F. Sebastiani, The Cyberhand: On the Design of a Cybernetic Prosthetic Hand Intended to be Interfaced to the Peripheral Nervous System, in Proc. of 2003 IEEE/RSJ Int. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems, vol. 3, pp.2642-2647, 27-31 Oct., 2003. S. Lee and G. N. Saridis, The Control of a Prosthetic Arm by EMG Pattern Recognition, IEEE Trans. Auto. Contr., vol. 29, pp. 290-302, 1984. S. C. Jacobson, D. F. Knutti, R. T. Johnson, and H. H. Sears, Development of the Utah Artificial Arm, IEEE Trans. on Biomedical Engineering, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 249-269, April, 1982. R. N. Scott and P. A. Parker, Myoelectric Prostheses State of the Art, Journal of Medical Engineering and Technology, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 143-151, 1988. Otto Bock Arm Prostheses, Available at: http://www.ottobock.com. M. Troncossi, V. P. Castelli, and A. Davalli, Design of Upper Limb Prostheses: A New Subject-Oriented Approach, Journal of Mechanics in Medicine Biology, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 387-390, 2005. D. H. Plettenburg, Upper Extremity Prosthesis Current Status and Evaluation, VSSD Publications, 2006. A. Z. Escudero, J. Alvarez, and L. Leiza, Development of a Parallel Myoelectric Prosthesis for Above Elbow Replacement, in Proc. of Second Joint EMBS/BMES Conf., pp. 2404-2405, Houston, TX, USA, Oct. 23-26, 2002, T. Tsuji, O. Fukuda, H. Shigeyoshi, and M. Kaneko Bio-Mimetic Impedance Control of an EMG-Controlled Prosthetic Hand, in Proc. of the IEEE/RSJ Intl. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 377-382, 2000. O. Fukuda, T. Tsuji, M. Kaneko, and A. Otsuka, A Human-Assisting Manipulator Teleoperated by EMG Signals and Arm Motions, IEEE Trans. on Robotics and Automation, vol. 19, no. 2, pp.210-222, 2003. K. Ito, T. Tsuji, A. Kato, and M. Ito, An EMG Controlled Prosthetic Forearm in Three Degree of Freedom Using Ultrasonic Motors, in Proc. of IEEE Int. Conf. on Engineering and Biology Society, vol. 4, pp.1487-1488, 1992. Y. Saito, A. Ogawa, H. Negoto, and K. Ohnishi, Development of Intelligent Prosthetic Hand Adapted to Age and Body Shape, in Proc. of IEEE Int. Conf. on Rehabilitation Robotics, pp.384-389, Chicago, USA, 2005. C. P. Neu, J. J. Crisco and S. W. Wolfe, In Vivo Kinematic Behavior of the Radio-Capitate Joint during Wrist Flexion-Extension and Radio-Ulnar Deviation, J. Biomech., vol. 34, pp. 1429-1438, 2001. F. H. Martini, M. J. Timmons, and R. B. Tallitsch, Human Anatomy, Prentice Hall, Pearson Education, Inc, 2003, ch. 8. Y. Youm, Design of a Total Wrist Prosthesis, Ann. Biomed. Eng., vol. 12, pp. 247-262, 1984. D.C Boone and S.P Azen, Normal Range of Motion of Joints in Male Subjects, in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, vol. 61, pp.756-759, 1979. www.jbjs.org

Antony and Cleopatra Essay -- essays research papers

Joseph Innes How does Shakespeare present the sense of opposites or polarities And what is the importance of these to the play? William Shakespeare wrote Antony and Cleopatra around 1606, during the reign of King James  ². The play is a history, set in the time of the Roman Empire many centuries before it was written and based on the well-documented history of Octavius Caesar, Marc Antony and Cleopatra. These characters and their lives were contained in primarily one document: Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, which was translated by Sir Thomas North in 1579. In the creation of the play, Shakespeare kept very close to the plot of North’s history although some characters such as Enobarbus are largely Shakespeare’s creations. In the play, Shakespeare creates two completely different, conflicting worlds from which most if not all of the drama and tension is derived from, causing tension between those living in the two ideals of Rome and Egypt. From the very beginning one of the themes of the play becomes very evident to the audience, the conflict between Rome and Egypt. The two places represent a symbolic clash of ideals in the play. Rome is seen as a place of honor and duty and taken very seriously, this is shown through the actions and behaviour of Caesar, a man with huge responsibilities, and even when his associates are celebrating and getting drunk, he does not. As a contrast, Egypt is shown as a place of indulgence and pleasure, shown this time through Cleopatra’s court, where it seems the inhabitants do nothing but indulge themselves with games, wine and sex. These differences in ideals are so great that the people in Rome treat Antony’s indulgence in Egypt with Cleopatra as a taboo â€Å"this is the news: he fishes, drinks, and wastes / The Lamps of night in revel†(1.4.4-5). Caesar’s condemnation of Antony’s behavior is an example of how much he is despised for turning his back on Roman duty. This clash is in some ways an example of Elizabethan perceptions on the differences between East and West, an obstacle that is impossible for Antony and Cleopatra to overcome. Shakespeare personifies the two poles of the world as the people living there. Caesar is seen as the embodiment of Rome, with his rigid sense of duty and honour, and Egypt is presented through Cleopatra with her excessive and theatrical extravagance and free flowing passio... ... and charming towards Cleopatra, although she knows he is merely trying to avoid her committing suicide, so that she can be his trophy. After this meeting, Cleopatra resolves to follow her plan of death and although Rome may have triumphed at face value, the East is in fact presenting its true spirit, Cleopatra is refusing to become anything but herself. This conclusion to the conflict between East and West is needed to provide a satisfying ending to the play, although neither East or West wins, but is left at a stalemate. The West wins over reason and duty, and yet the East has won through emotion and love, the love between Antony and Cleopatra. The polarities between Antony and Cleopatra are huge and arguably impossible to overcome as the conflict and differences between Egypt and Rome would inevitably end in tragedy. Shakespeare uses this as the centre of his drama, and without it would lose its powerful and emotive realism that Shakespeare spent his life perfecting. In this way, the conflict between Egypt and Rome is the most important theme, as from it spawns the differences in honour, reason, emotion and ideals, thus forming the framework for much more drama beyond it.

Frankenstein :: essays papers

Frankenstein Victor Frankenstein as a Child Abuser In today's court I am going to convict Victor Frankenstein in many murders. He created a being that destroyed the lives of innocent people. Frankenstein never considered how such a creature with a horrifying appearance would be able to exist with humans. He didn't take responsibility for his creature; instead Frankenstein abandoned, neglected, and abused his creature. He never realized that the lack of parental love and guidance would lead the creature to a murderous path. Moreover, Frankenstein kept in secret his creature's existence and chose not to reveal it to his family and friends. By doing so, he jeopardized the lives of his loved ones and put them in danger. With my evidence and supports, I am going to prove that Victor Frankenstein, as a parent, is responsible for the creature's actions causing the deaths of his friends and family. By violating the laws of nature, Victor Frankenstein tried to discover "the cause of generation and life," and "became . . .capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter" (Shelley 68). Days and nights Victor was occupied with his experiment. He forgot about his family and could not see anything beyond his experiment. Victor said that he had "lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit" (70). He had "worked nearly two years for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body" (72). During these two years Victor became selfish and had no contact with his parents, Elizabeth and William, who were impatiently waiting for a letter from there loved one. In her letter to Victor, Elizabeth writes; â€Å"Yet one word from you, dear Victor, is necessary to calm our apprehensions" (68). Victor made the decision to give life to a being without considering the possible consequences of creating life. After "incredible labor and fatigue" Victor finally accomplished his goal. He created a life without any consideration and the only purpose for him was to have supreme power. Victor brought the creature into the world and did not accept his creation. Horrified by his creature, Victor abandoned him. Victor said: "Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I escaped" (85). At this point we see how Victor rejected his responsibilities for his child.

Characteristics Of Major Agro Ecological Zones Environmental Sciences Essay

Africa is a really big continent with highly broad scope of dirts ( Bationo et al. , 2006 ) . The soils scope from shoal with meager vital capacities to deeply weather-beaten profiles that recycle and back up big biomass. In many parts of Africa, inappropriate land usage, hapless direction and deficiency of inputs have led to dirty eroding, salinization and loss of flora ensuing in a diminution of agricultural productiveness ( Bationo et al. , 2006 ) . In Africa and peculiarly Southern Africa, the most confining factor to agricultural productiveness is soil birthrate ( Ramaru et al. , 2000 ) . Soil birthrate is defined as a status of the dirt that enables it to supply foods in equal sums and in proper balance for the growing of specified workss when other growing factors, such as visible radiation, H2O, temperature, and physical, chemical and biological conditions of dirt, are favourable ( van der Watt and new wave Rooyen, 1995 ) . Large countries of sub-Saharan African ( SSA ) soils, in peculiar, are affected by assorted types of debasement, including birthrate diminution ( FAO, 2001 ) . Soil birthrate diminution is a impairment of chemical, physical and biological dirt belongingss. The chief contributing procedures, besides dirt eroding, are: diminution in organic affair and dirty biological activity ; debasement of dirt construction and loss of other dirt physical qualities ; decrease in handiness of major foods ( N, P, K ) and micro-nutrients ; and increase in toxicity, due to acidification or pollution ( FAO, 2001 ) . Soils in most of SSA have inherently low birthrate and do non have equal alimentary refilling ( FAO, 2001 ) . The SSA has the lowest mineral fertiliser ingestion, about 10 kilogram foods ( N, P2O5, K2O ) /ha per twelvemonth, compared to the universe norm of 90 kilograms, 60 kilogram in the Near East and 130 kg/ha per twelvemonth in Asia ( Stoorvogel and Smaling, 1990 ) . Agricultural growing in sub-Saharan African states somewhat increased over the past three decennaries, although non in line with the high population growing rate ( FAO, 2001 ) . Food production per capita in sub-Saharan Africa ( SSA ) has declined since the 1970s, in contrast with the addition in Asia and South America ( Figure 1.1 ) . Soil productiveness in SSA is besides constrained by fruitlessness ( low rainfall ) and sourness ( FAO, 2001 ) ( Table 1.1 ) . South Africa has to confront high population growing, poorness, accelerated dirt debasement and increasing force per unit area on land ( FAO, 1999b ) ( Table 1.1 ) . Depletion of dirt birthrate, along with the related jobs of weeds, plagues, and diseases, is a major biophysical cause of low per capita nutrient production in Africa. This is the consequence of the dislocation of traditional patterns and the low precedence given by authoritiess to the rural sector ( Sanchez, 1997 ) . The 1996 World Food Summit highlighted sub-Saharan Africa as the staying part in the universe with diminishing nutrient production per capita ( Figure 1.1 ) . The worst degrees of poorness and malnutrition in the universe exist in this part ( Sanchez et al. , 1997 ) . A squad of scientists has identified worsening dirt birthrate as the cardinal agronomic cause for worsening nutrient productiveness in Africa. A â€Å" Soil Fertility Initiative for Africa † has been created by a group of international organisations including the World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization ( FAO ) , International Center for Research on Agroforestry ( ICRAF ) , International Fertil izer Development Center ( IFDC ) , International Fertilizer Association ( IFA ) , and International Food Policy Research Institute ( IFPRI ) . Table 1.1: Features of major agro-ecological zones in Africa ( FAO, 1986 ) Figure 1.1: Regional tendencies in nutrient production per capita ( FAO, Statistical Analysis Service, 2000 ) As the chief beginning of economic activity in SSA is agricultural production, worsening dirt productiveness means non merely that less nutrient can be grown but besides that production of hard currency harvests for export is endangered ( FAO, 1999a ) . It is hence indispensable that production and dirts be managed in a sustainable manner, so that the present coevals is fed and soil conditions are improved to back up future coevalss. The Republic of South Africa covers an country of 121, 9 million hour angle and has a entire population of about 46,6 million people ( NDA, 2007 ) . Approximately 83 % of agricultural land in South Africa is used for graze, while 17 % is cultivated for hard currency harvests. Forestry comprises less than 2 % of the land and about 12 % is reserved for preservation intents ( NDA, 2007, Land Type Survey Staff, 1972-2002 & A ; Land Type Survey Staff, 1972-2006 ) . Land used for agribusiness comprises 81 % of the state ‘s entire country, while natural countries account for approximately 9 % ( Abstract, 2005 ) . High-voltage cultivable land comprises merely 22 % of the entire cultivable land and merely approximately 13 % of South Africa ‘s surface country can be used for harvest production ( NDA, 2007 ) . Slightly more than 1,3 million hour angle of land is under irrigation. Rainfall is distributed unevenly across the state, with humid, semitropical conditions happening in the E and dry, desert conditions in the West ( NDA, 2007 ) . The most of import factor that limits agricultural production is the non-availability of H2O. About 50 % of South Africa ‘s H2O is used for agricultural intents. Areas of moderate to high cultivable possible occur chiefly in the eastern portion of the state, in Mpumalanga and Gauteng states ( Figure 1.2 ) . Scattered spots besides occur in KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Limpopo states. Low to marginal possible countries occur in the eastern half of the state and in parts of the Western Cape. Map in Figure 1 shows big countries in the desiccant parts of South Africa ( e.g. south-western Free State ; western parts of the Eastern Cape and the North West Province ) that are being cultivated, but which are non classified as holding any possible for cultivable agribusiness. Repeated harvest failure and subsequent forsaking of these less than fringy lands can hold of import effects for dirt eroding and land debasement in general ( Hoffman, M.T. & A ; A. Ashwell, 2001 ) . Figure 1.2: The distribution of cultivable possible land in South Africa ( ARC – ISCW, 2002 ) . Soil birthrate challenges coupled with deficits of rainfall could ensue in a compounded job of nutrient deficit and dearth. For dirt birthrate to be sustained, extracted dirt foods must be replenished dirt foods, but in big countries of Africa and other parts of the universe, more dirt foods are extracted than replenished ( Ndala and Mabuza, 2006 ) . There is hence planetary concern of birthrate direction particularly with the recent additions in nutrient monetary values. Soil birthrate and its direction therefore have continued to play an of import function in farm productiveness. Farmers, their advisers, and any agriculturists need to be knowing of the dirt belongingss which have an influence on dirt birthrate, some of which include dirt texture, construction, organic affair, cation exchange capacity, base impregnation, bulk denseness and pH. These belongingss besides have an influence in finding land capableness for agribusiness as they are besides cardinal indexs for dirt quality . Although important advancement has been made in research in developing methodological analysiss and engineerings for battling dirt birthrate depletion, the low acceptance rate is a ground for the big difference between husbandmans ‘ outputs and possible outputs ( Bationo et al. , 2006 ) . This survey therefore aims to find the influence of dirt physico-chemistry and clay fraction mineralogy on the birthrate position of selected potency uncultivated cultivable dirts of University of Limpopo Experimental farm ( Syferkuil ) in Limpopo Province. This will promote enlargement of cultivable agribusiness in the country to better the supports in footings of relieving nutrient insecurity and poorness.PROBLEM STATEMENTWhen measuring land for agricultural capablenesss, properties such as incline, stoniness and thickness of the dirt stratum are taken into consideration. Soil physico-chemical and dirt clay mineralogical belongingss are frequently overlooked. Ekosse et Al. ( 2011 ) showed th at these dirt physico-chemical and clay mineralogical belongingss and their composings play a important function in suitableness of land for cultivable agribusiness. Information on the mineralogy and alimentary position of uncultivated dirts in Limpopo Province is missing, particularly of dirts found in the communal countries where smallholder agribusiness is practiced. Such information is important for any scheme that seeks to increase and better the productiveness of cropped or possible cultivable agricultural land. One of import requirement of nutrient security is entree to land, as more people need to bring forth their nutrient supplies and do a life from the land. Traditional land direction systems are dependent on the handiness of sufficient land to let long fallow periods to keep dirt birthrate. When there is no more entree to new land, the fallow land has to be used and soil birthrate falls. More intensive usage of the land besides implies that it becomes more prone to dirty eroding. To keep and raise its productiveness, new sustainable direction steps have to be introduced. As the chief beginning of economic activity in Limpopo Province besides excavation is the agricultural production, worsening dirt productiveness non merely means less harvests is grown but besides that, production of hard currency harvests and income are endangered. Huge bulk of South Africans, peculiarly Limpopo occupants, purchase their staple nutrient from commercial providers, instead than turning them themselves ( Statistics South Africa, 2009 ) . Rising nutrient monetary values, peculiarly of corn and wheat which are the staple diet of the hapless in South Africa, pose serious jobs for the urban and rural hapless as most are net purchasers instead than agriculturists of their basic nutrient. Recent information from the Food and Agricultural Organisation ( 2009 ) and Heady & A ; Fan ( 2008 ) suggest that nutrient monetary values will increase steadily over the following decennary even if there are some fluctuations and the occasional bead in monetary values ( Evans, 2009 ) . Thi s therefore poses the demand for more enlargement of cultivable land for agribusiness so as to better supports of the hapless families. Population force per unit area and urban enlargement seem to be doing the loss of high possible agricultural lands. Hence nutrient demand is lifting which leads to nutrient insecurity, therefore extension of cultivable agricultural lands would extremely be required. In a recent survey, Van Averbeke and Khosa ( 2007 ) reported that while income is the most of import determiner of family nutrient security in some countries around Limpopo Province, nutrient obtained from assorted types of dry-land agribusiness contributed significantly to household nutrition. They argue that without farming the nutrient security of these families would be reduced, particularly for the ultra-poor. The land is used beyond its capableness, the type of use would non be sustainable and the land debasement would ensue. Equally of import is the fact that if land is used below its true capableness so the full economic potency of the usage of the land would non be realized. Although small production addition has taken topographic point at the Experimental farm ( Syferkuil farm ) , which has been obtained by cultivation of hapless and fringy lands, the productiveness of most bing lands has been ignored. With population go oning to increase in the country and the state as a whole, the demand to take note of the fallow or abundant lands on the farm has become more of import. Bettering dirt birthrate could trip rural and national economic development, achieve long-run nutrient security and better husbandmans ‘ criterions of life, while extenuating environmental and rural migration. Therefore, rectifying land debasement and heightening productiveness through appropriate dirt directio n and preservation can play a major function in accomplishing farm family nutrient security and agricultural development in the country. This research will therefore contribute to the bing database on the physico-chemistry and mineralogy of agricultural dirts of Limpopo Province, peculiarly those at Syferkuil farm. It will besides help husbandmans and persons around the country with information and consciousness on the birthrate position and capableness of the dirts in their community, so they can originate agricultural activities on those lands which are left fallow or abundant.1.3. AIM OF THE STUDYThe purpose of this survey is to find the dirt physico-chemistry, clay mineralogy and birthrate position of selected uncultivated cultivable dirts within the University Of Limpopo Experimental Farm Of Capricorn District in Limpopo Province, with the position of placing extra potency cultivable lands for agribusiness in the part.1.4. Aim OF THE STUDYTo find physico-chemical belongingss of selected uncultivated and cultivated dirts on the farm and their influence on dirt birthrate. To find the clay mineralogical composing of the selected uncultivated and cultivated dirts on the farm and their influence on dirt birthrate. To find the chemical science of the selected uncultivated and cultivated dirts on the farm and their influence on dirt birthrate. To find the birthrate index of the selected uncultivated and cultivated dirts on farm and their influence on dirt birthrate. To bring out and understand the function of dirt physico-chemical and clay mineralogical belongingss act uponing the birthrate of the selected dirts on the farm.RESEARCH QUESTIONSThese inquiries will help in achieving the aims of the survey: What are the physico-chemical belongingss of the selected dirts? What is the clay mineralogical composing of the selected dirts? What is the chemical composing of the selected dirts? What is the birthrate index of the selected dirts? Make the dirt physico-chemical and clay mineralogical belongingss affect the birthrate position of the selected dirts on the farm for sustainable agribusiness?HypothesisThis research will be guided by the undermentioned hypotheses: Most possible uncultivated cultivable lands on the farm could be used to spread out and better agricultural outputs. Soil physico-chemical and clay mineralogical belongingss with their influence on dirt birthrate are cardinal indexs for sustainable agribusiness.1.7. Rationale OF THE STUDYSouth Africa has a broad scope of dirts of different physico-chemical and clay mineralogical composing. Limpopo Province entirely has a diverseness of dirts and climatic conditions allowing a assortment of different signifiers of agribusiness, ( White Paper on Agriculture, 1995 ) . In support of nutrient security and ego saving, it is now strategically of import for any country to hold available information on the comparative suitablenesss of their dirts for agribusiness, so that penchant may be given for the land more suited for agribusiness. In this procedure, it is of import to cognize the comparative quality of the land so that its usage can be regulated in conformity with the suitableness of the peculiar dirts. Local husbandmans have ever relied on the agricultural research end product and extension from Syferkuil experimental farm since their clime, and the dirts they farm on developed from the same parent stuff as the 1s at Syferkuil. The environing farm community and governments of the country, will therefore benefit from this survey by obtaining information on the physico-chemistry and clay mineralogy of their dirts every bit good as the dirts ‘ comparative suitableness for agribusiness. Economically, capableness categorization of the dirts in Mankweng country can help in promoting the governments toward induction of the assorted farming systems on the identified possible cultivable lands. In this manner single dirts could be best utilised for the types of agricultural production for which they are best and most economically suited.1.8. STUDY AREAThe location, topography, clime, flora, dirts, geology and hydrology of the country are briefly described below in the subsequent subdiv isions.1.8.1. Location of the survey countryLimpopo is South Africa ‘s northernmost state, lying within the great curve of the Limpopo River. The state borders the states of Botswana to the West, Zimbabwe to the North and Mozambique and Swaziland to the E as shown in Figure 1.3 ( DBSA, 1998 ) . Limpopo Province is divided into five Municipal territories ( Figure 1.3 ) : Capricorn, Mopani, Sekhukhune, Vhembe and Waterberg, which are further divided into 24 local Municipalities ( Limpopo Province Natural Resource Maps, 2003 ) . The Province occupies a entire surface country of 125A 755 km2, approximately 10.3 % of South Africa ‘s land country ( Limpopo Province Natural Resource Map, 2003 ) .The population is about 5 355A 172 which is 11.3 % of South African population ( Statistics SA, 2003 ) . Syferkuil is the experimental farm of the University of Limpopo ( 23o49 ‘ S ; 29o41 ‘ Tocopherol ) situated in the Mankweng country, in Capricorn territory municipality, South Africa. The farm is 1 650 hour angle in size ( Moshia et al. , 2008 ) . Syferkuil experimental farm, for about 39 old ages now ( Moshia et al. , 2008 ) has served as the chief Centre of University of Limpopo ‘s horticultural, agronomic, and carnal production researches, on which both undergraduate and alumnus pupil researches along with hands-on preparations are conducted. The farm is bordered by five populated rural agriculture communities which are Mamotintane, Ga-Makanye, Ga-Thoka, Solomondale and Mankweng. On this farm, approximately 25 hour angles are presently allocated for rain fed harvests, 80 hour angle for irrigated harvests, and 40 hour angle are used for rotary motion of winter and summer harvests. The 80 hour angle irrigated harvests are served by an machine-controlled additive mo ve irrigation system ( Moshia, 2008 ) . Figure 1.3: Locality Map of the survey country Figure 1.4: A scale aerial exposure map ( scaly 1: 10 000 ) of University of Limpopo ( Syferkuil ) ‘s experimental farm ( Moshia et al. , 2008 )1.8.2. Land-Use of the survey countryLimpopo Province constitute a sum of 12.3 million hectares land, out of which about 9.24 million hour angle. is utilised as farming area ( LDA, 2002 ) . This 9.24 million hectares of farming area about 0.93 million hour angle. of it is utilised as cultivable land, 6.68 million hour angle. as natural graze, 1.7 million hour angle. For nature preservation, 0.1 million hour angle for forestry and for other intents. Seventy six per centum of the cultivable Land is allocated to dry land ( 0.7 million hour angle ) cultivation and merely 0.223 million hour angle for irrigation systems.1.8.3. Geology of the survey countryThe geology of Limpopo is complex and diverse ; it varies from Palaeo-Archaean mafic, ultramafic and felsic extrusives to Mesozoic sedimentary stones and inundation basalts ( RSA Geological Map series, 1984 ) . The stone formations in the State can be considered in four chief divisions based on clip and general homogeneousness viz. : the Archaean, by and large known as the ‘Basal ‘ or ‘Fundamental ‘ Complex ; the Pre-Cambrian, or Algonquian Systems ; the Palaeozoic, pre-Karoo Formations ; the Mesozoic and the Karoo System. The topography of the part varies from comparatively level countries to cragged terrain ( Barker et al. , 2006 ) . Limpopo is rich in minerals with economic value ( White Paper on Agriculture, 1995 ) . Prevailing minerals in the eastern portion of Limpopo include Pt and its group metals, chrome, Cu, phosphate and andalusite. The Western side is characterised by Pt, granite, and coal minerals, while diamonds, coal, magnesite, and hints of granite dominate the Northern portion of the Province. Mineral resources that are presently being mined in the state are Andalusite, Antinomy, calcite, chrome, clay, coal, Cu, diamonds, emeralds, felspar, fluorite, gold, granite, limestone, magnesite, manganese, cosmetic stone-Slate, phosphate, Pt, salt, sand & A ; rock, silicon oxide and Zn ( Dramstad et al. , 1996 ) .1.8.4. Climate of the survey countryLimpopo falls in the summer rainfall part with the western portion of the Province being semi-arid, and the eastern portion mostly sub-tropical, ( Limpopo Province Natural Resource Maps, 2003 ) . The western and far northern parts of the Province experience frequ ent drouths. Winter throughout Limpopo is mild and largely frost-free. The mean one-year temperatures for the southern to cardinal plateau countries of the state is by and large below 20oC ; in the Lowveld and northern parts mean one-year temperatures are above 20oC. The state receives summer rainfall between October and March peaking in January. The average one-year precipitation ranges between 380mm in the North and merely over 700mm in parts of the Waterberg ( Koch, 2005 ) . The clime of the survey site is classified as semi-arid with the one-year precipitation of approximately A ±495 mm per annum. The average one-year temperature of 25A ±1oC ( soap ) and 10A ±1oC ( min ) was common during the old ages of survey. Annually, the farm averages 170 frost-free yearss widening from late October to mid April. Figure 1.5: Monthly norm rainfall as recorded in the Limpopo Province ( LDA, 2002 ) Rainfall informations ( figure 1.5 ) indicating that most rainfall occurs between November and March, runing between 80 millimeters and 130mm. It should, nevertheless, be noted that these figures indicate an mean rainfall and lower rainfall can be expected in most territories.1.8.5. Dirts of the survey countryThere are broad assortments of dirts that occur in the Province, be givening to be sandy in the West, but with more clay content toward the E, ( Limpopo Province Natural Resource Maps, 2003 ) . The dirts are differentiated based on deepness, the nature of diagnostic skylines and parent stuffs, ( FAO, 1999 ) . Those dirts are chiefly developed on basalt, sandstone and biotite gneiss and are by and large of low built-in dirt birthrate ( FAO, 1999 ) . Limpopo Province has diverse dirts, nevertheless, five major dirt associations have been identified, ( FAO, 1999 ) : of which Dystrophic, ruddy and xanthous, good drained clayed dirts are extremely leached, clay-like, acidic dirts found in the high rainfall countries of Drakensberg and Soutpansberg scope. They are bouldery, found on steep inclines and are of low birthrate. As such, they by and large have limited value as cultivable land but are suited for afforestation. Red, yellow and Grey dirts in caternary association are flaxen and loamy dirts in the 300-600 millimeter rainfall belt in the western and northwesterly portion of the Province. They are suited for cultivable agriculture, but by and large occur in the low rainfall countries west and north of Thabazimbi, Vaalwater, Lephalale and Polokwane. Black and ruddy clay dirts have with changing sums of stone and lithosol, found in a narrow strip analogue to the eastern boundary line, the Springbok Flats ( Settlers and Roedtan ) a nd the southwesterly boundary near Dwaalpooort and Derdepoort. Although extremely erodible, they are utilised extensively for dryland harvests such as cotton and winter cereals. Duplex and paraduplex dirts are characterized by surface soil that is distinguishable from sub-soil with respect to texture, construction and consistence. Major happenings are in Sekhukhune, south to southwest of Lephalale in Waterberg territory, between Louis Trichardt and Tshipise, and subdivisions of Vhembe District near the eastern boundary line. They are by and large non utilised as cultivable land due to high erodibility. Poorly developed dirts on stone consist of surface soil overlying stone or weathered stone. They are found to the E of the Drakensberg, including a big subdivision of Mopani District, and E and West of Musina. They tend to be bouldery, with shallow dirts and hence by and large unsuitable for cultivable agriculture. Black and ruddy, fertile clay dirts occur on the Springbok Flats, with ruddy brown sandy loam to the Northern and Western portion of the state, ( FAO, 1999 ) . The mountains have deeper, extremely leached ruddy dirts in wetting agent countries, with more open stone where it is besides dry. Red brown, gravelly dirts, which have a low birthrate, predominate on the Lowveld, the best agricultural dirts being alluvial dirts next to the rivers. The Province has a few high possible countries for dryland harvest production and many chances for extended ranching and irrigated fruit and harvest production, ( Limpopo Province Natural Resource Maps, 2003 ) .1.8.6. Vegetation of the survey countryThe geographical location, rainfall forms and varied physical and climatic conditions have given rise to diverse flora across the state. The flora found in the state have been classified into inland tropical wood ; tropical shrub and Savannah ; pure grassveld ; and false grassveld types ( Development Ban k of South Africa, 1998 ) . The inland tropical woods include the northeasterly mountain sourveld and Lowveld rancid Bushveld types. Tropical shrub and savannah comprise the Lowveld, waterless Lowveld, Springbok flats turf thornveld, other sod thornveld, waterless sweet bushveld, mopani veld, assorted bushveld, lemony assorted bushveld and rancid Bushveld types ( Limpopo Province Natural Resource Maps, 2003 ) . Pure grassveld types include the northeasterly flaxen Highveld types. The false grassveld types include the Polokwane tableland false grassveld.1.8.7. Topography of the survey countryLimpopo Province has diverse topographic characteristics. In the E is the level to gently undulating Lowveld field, at an height of 300 to 600 m, bounded in the West by the Northern Drakensberg escarpment and Soutpansberg, with steep inclines and peaks up to the 2000m ( LDA, 2002 ) . The about degree Springbok flats in the South prevarication at an height of 900 m, while the Waterberg and Blouber g to the North, with rippling to really steep terrain, reach 2 000 m. The North- Western zone is a level to rippling field, which slopes down to the North and West at 800 to 1 000 m.1.8.8. Hydrology/Water Resources of the survey countryThe Department of Water Affairs and Forestry ( DWAF ) classifies South Africa as a water-stressed state, prone to fickle and unpredictable extremes such as inundations and drouths that cut down land to a dry and waterless barren ( Water Research Commission, 2002 ) . Water resources in South Africa are limited doing them critically of import for the sustainable economic and societal development of the state ( Dennis and Nell, 2002 ) . This is one of the grounds why it is of import to protect the scarce H2O resources of the state. Rivers are the chief beginning of H2O for the state. In the Limpopo Province, there are Four Management Areas viz. : Limpopo ; Luvubu & A ; Letaba ; Krokodil Wee & A ; Merico and Olifants ( NDA, 2000 ) . Applied research on irrigation and fertiliser methods are practiced on the research secret plans on the farm. There are two 10-ha secret plans fitted with separate irrigation systems used by research workers and pupils for research on field harvests.1.8.9. Agricultural activities of the survey countryThe agricultural sector in the state is divided into three wide sub-sectors viz. commercial farms, emerging commercial farms and subsistence farms, ( Development Bank of South Africa, 1998 ) . The commercial farms fall in the larger farm size class, emerging commercial farms in the medium size and subsistence farms in the smallest size ( LDA, 2002 ) . The emerging and subsistence farms are jointly called small-scale farms which are largely located in the former fatherlands. The varied climes of Limpopo Province allows it to bring forth a broad assortment of agricultural green goodss runing from tropical fruits such as banana, Mangifera indicas to cereals such as corn, wheat and veggies s uch as tomatoes, onion and murphies ( NDA, 2001 ) . Limpopo Province has big country of land suited for dry-land production ( LDA, 2002 ) . Maize is the staple nutrient of bulk of people in Limpopo Province and is mostly grown by the different classs of husbandmans both for family, industrial and carnal ingestion. On the footing of country and volume of production, it remains the most of import cereal grain produced in the Province despite the dry and drought prone agro-ecology of much of the part ( LDA, 2002 ) . Climatic fluctuation could take to fluctuations in maize outputs. As a basic nutrient in the Province, corn has a big and stable market and is the most of import agricultural merchandise in South Africa ( NDA, 2001 ) .1.9. Summary of chapterThe chapter has clearly provided the background of the survey sketching the general construct of clay mineral and their influence on dirt birthrate for harvest production. It has besides outlined the purposes, aims, research inquiries, job statement, principle and hypothesis of the researc h undertaking. The map of the survey site exemplifying the location of the site in Capricorn territory municipality and the suitableness map of the survey site has been provided. The geology, mineralogy, clime, dirts and agricultural activities of the survey site have besides been outlined. The dirt physico-chemical and clay mineralogical belongingss are reviewed in the subsequent chapter.