Pricing Strategy Essay

Pricing refers to the process of setting a price for a product or service and more than any other element of your marketing mix, will have the biggest impact on the amount of profit you make. Developing an effective pricing strategy is a critical element of marketing because pricing is the only element of the marketing mix that creates sales revenue; the other elements create costs and sales volume. An effective pricing strategy will help you: meet your profit objectives meet or beat your competitors’ prices retain or increase your market share match the image or reputation of your business, product or service match your offer to market demand To arrive at a price for your product or service you’ll need to: Establish what it costs to offer and deliver your products. Without this knowledge, you’ll have no idea whether your prices are sufficient to not only cover all your costs, but to return a profit. Few businesses have failed because their prices are too high, however, many have folded because their prices weren’t high enough to cover costs or generate a profit. Conduct market research to establish what price your competitors are charging and what is the optimum price customers would be willing to pay for your product. Your price will inevitably fall somewhere between that which is too low to produce a profit and that which is too high to generate any demand. The pricing structure A pricing structure consists of a base (or list) price and a variety of price modifiers which depend on the type of product you are selling and the type of market in which you operate. The most common price modifiers are outlined below: Quantity discount – an incentive to buy more. Settlement discount – an incentive to pay quickly. Promotional discount – a discount for a specific period of time. Seasonal discount – an incentive to clear seasonally sensitive stock. Cash rebate – an after-sale incentive linked to a specified target. Ranging allowance – paid to a reseller in return for them stocking your product. Promotional allowance – for participation in a promotional campaign. Delivery fee – an amount you charge for delivering the product. Credit card fee – an amount you charge on credit card purchases. At the end of the day, your objective should be to achieve the best possible price for your products or services taking into account: The value they provide for your customers – ie: how they satisfy their needs and wants in terms of features, benefits, utility value and prestige. Your cost structure – what is your break-even point and how much profit do you want to make? Go to the Financial section for more information on calculating your break-even point and determining profit targets. The competitive environment – what do your competitors charge for similar products and services? Your competitive advantage – do the products or services provide advantages that warrant a price premium? The economic and market environment – what is the level of demand in your industry? A business can use a variety of pricing strategies when selling a product or service. The Price can be set to maximize profitability for each unit sold or from the market overall. It can be used to defend an existing market from new entrants, to increase market share within a market or to enter a new market. Businesses may benefit from lowering or raising prices, depending on the needs and behaviors of customers and clients in the particular market. Finding the right pricing strategy is an important element in running a successful business.[1] Method of pricing in which all costs are recovered.The price of the product includes the variable cost of each item plus a proportionate amount of the fixed costs. Contribution margin-based pricing[edit] Main article: Contribution margin-based pricing Contribution margin-based pricing maximizes the profit derived from an  individual product, based on the difference between the product’s price and variable costs (the product’s contribution margin per unit), and on one’s assumptions regarding the relationship between the product’s price and the number of units that can be sold at that price. The product’s contribution to total firm profit (i.e. to operating income) is maximized when a price is chosen that maximizes the following: (contribution margin per unit) X (number of units sold). In cost-plus pricing, a company first determines its break-even price for the product. This is done by calculating all the costs involved in the production, marketing and distribution of the product. Then a markup is set for each unit, based on the profit the company needs to make, its sales objectives and the price it believes customers will pay. For example, if the company needs a 15 percent profit margin and the break-even price is $2.59, the price will be set at $2.98 ($2.59 x 1.15).[2] Creaming or skimming[edit] In most skimming, goods are sold at higher prices so that fewer sales are needed to break even. Selling a product at a high price, sacrificing high sales to gain a high profit is therefore â€Å"skimming† the market. Skimming is usually employed to reimburse the cost of investment of the original research into the product: commonly used in electronic markets when a new range, such as DVD players, are firstly dispatched into the market at a high price. This strategy is often used to target â€Å"early adopters† of a product or service. Early adopters generally have a relatively lower price-sensitivity – this can be attributed to: their need for the product outweighing their need to economise; a greater understanding of the product’s value; or simply having a higher disposable income. It will maximize profits for the better of the company. This strategy is employed only for a limited duration to recover most of the investment made to build the product. To gain further market share, a seller must use other pricing tactics such as economy or penetration. This method can have some setbacks as it could leave the product at a high price against the competition.[3] Decoy pricing[edit] Method of pricing where the seller offers at least three products, and where two of them have a similar or equal price. The two products with the similar prices should be the most expensive ones, and one of the two should be less attractive than the other. This strategy will make people compare the options with similar prices, and as a result sales of the most attractive choice will increase.[4] Freemium[edit] Main article: Freemium Freemium is a business model that works by offering a product or service free of charge (typically digital offerings such as software, content, games, web services or other) while charging a premium for advanced features, functionality, or related products and services. The word â€Å"freemium† is a portmanteau combining the two aspects of the business model: â€Å"free† and â€Å"premium†. It has become a highly popular model, with notable success. High-low pricing[edit] Method of pricing for an organization where the goods or services offered by the organization are regularly priced higher than competitors, but through promotions, advertisements, and or coupons, lower prices are offered on key items. The lower promotional prices are designed to bring customers to the organization where the customer is offered the promotional product as well as the regular higher priced products.[5] Limit pricing[edit] Main article: Limit price A limit price is the price set by a monopolist to discourage economic entry into a market, and is illegal in many countries. The limit price is the price that the entrant would face upon entering as long as the incumbent firm did not decrease output. The limit price is often lower than the average cost of production or just low enough to make entering not profitable. The quantity produced by the incumbent firm to act as a deterrent to entry is usually larger than would be optimal for a monopolist,  but might still produce higher economic profits than would be earned under perfect competition. The problem with limit pricing as a strategy is that once the entrant has entered the market, the quantity used as a threat to deter entry is no longer the incumbent firm’s best response. This means that for limit pricing to be an effective deterrent to entry, the threat must in some way be made credible. A way to achieve this is for the incumbent firm to constrain itself to produce a certain quantity whether entry occurs or not. An example of this would be if the firm signed a union contract to employ a certain (high) level of labor for a long period of time. In this strategy price of the product becomes the limit according to budget. Loss leader[edit] Main article: Loss leader A loss leader or leader is a product sold at a low price (i.e. at cost or below cost) to stimulate other profitable sales. This would help the companies to expand its market share as a whole. Marginal-cost pricing[edit] In business, the practice of setting the price of a product to equal the extra cost of producing an extra unit of output. By this policy, a producer charges, for each product unit sold, only the addition to total cost resulting from materials and direct labor. Businesses often set prices close to marginal cost during periods of poor sales. If, for example, an item has a marginal cost of $1.00 and a normal selling price is $2.00, the firm selling the item might wish to lower the price to $1.10 if demand has waned. The business would choose this approach because the incremental profit of 10 cents from the transaction is better than no sale at all. Market-oriented pricing[edit] Setting a price based upon analysis and research compiled from the target market. This means that marketers will set prices depending on the results from the research. For instance if the competitors are pricing their products at a lower price, then it’s up to them to either price their goods  at an above price or below, depending on what the company wants to achieve. Odd pricing[edit] In this type of pricing, the seller tends to fix a price whose last digits are odd numbers. This is done so as to give the buyers/consumers no gap for bargaining as the prices seem to be less and yet in an actual sense are too high, and takes advantage of human psychology. A good example of this can be noticed in most supermarkets where instead of pricing at $10, it would be written as $9.99. This pricing policy is common in economies using the free market policy. Pay what you want[edit] Main article: Pay what you want Pay what you want is a pricing system where buyers pay any desired amount for a given commodity, sometimes including zero. In some cases, a minimum (floor) price may be set, and/or a suggested price may be indicated as guidance for the buyer. The buyer can also select an amount higher than the standard price for the commodity. Giving buyers the freedom to pay what they want may seem to not make much sense for a seller, but in some situations it can be very successful. While most uses of pay what you want have been at the margins of the economy, or for special promotions, there are emerging efforts to expand its utility to broader and more regular use. Penetration pricing[edit] Main article: Penetration pricing Penetration pricing includes setting the price low with the goals of attracting customers and gaining market share. The price will be raised later once this market share is gained.[6] Predatory pricing[edit] Main article: Predatory pricing Predatory pricing, also known as aggressive pricing (also known as â€Å"undercutting†), intended to drive out competitors from a market. It is  illegal in some countries. Premium decoy pricing[edit] Method of pricing where an organization artificially sets one product price high, in order to boost sales of a lower priced product. Premium pricing[edit] Main article: Premium pricing Premium pricing is the practice of keeping the price of a product or service artificially high in order to encourage favorable perceptions among buyers, based solely on the price. The practice is intended to exploit the (not necessarily justifiable) tendency for buyers to assume that expensive items enjoy an exceptional reputation, are more reliable or desirable, or represent exceptional quality and distinction. Price discrimination[edit] Main article: Price discrimination Price discrimination is the practice of setting a different price for the same product in different segments to the market. For example, this can be for different classes, such as ages, or for different opening times. Price leadership[edit] Main article: Price leadership An observation made of oligopolistic business behavior in which one company, usually the dominant competitor among several, leads the way in determining prices, the others soon following. The context is a state of limited competition, in which a market is shared by a small number of producers or sellers. Psychological pricing[edit] Main article: Psychological pricing Pricing designed to have a positive psychological impact. For example, selling a product at $3.95 or $3.99, rather than $4.00. There are certain price points where people are willing to buy a product. If the price of a product is $100 and the company prices it as $99, then it is called  psychological pricing. In most of the consumers mind $99 is psychologically ‘less’ than $100. A minor distinction in pricing can make a big difference in sales. The company that succeeds in finding psychological price points can improve sales and maximize revenue. Target pricing business[edit] Pricing method whereby the selling price of a product is calculated to produce a particular rate of return on investment for a specific volume of production. The target pricing method is used most often by public utilities, like electric and gas companies, and companies whose capital investment is high, like automobile manufacturers. Target pricing is not useful for companies whose capital investment is low because, according to this formula, the selling price will be understated. Also the target pricing method is not keyed to the demand for the product, and if the entire volume is not sold, a company might sustain an overall budgetary loss on the product. Time-based pricing[edit] Main article: Time-based pricing A flexible pricing mechanism made possible by advances in information technology, and employed mostly by Internet based companies. By responding to market fluctuations or large amounts of data gathered from customers – ranging from where they live to what they buy to how much they have spent on past purchases – dynamic pricing allows online companies to adjust the prices of identical goods to correspond to a customer’s willingness to pay. The airline industry is often cited as a dynamic pricing success story. In fact, it employs the technique so artfully that most of the passengers on any given airplane have paid different ticket prices for the same flight.[7] Value-based pricing[edit] Main article: Value-based pricing Pricing a product based on the value the product has for the customer and not on its costs of production or any other factor. This pricing strategy is frequently used where the value to the customer is many times the cost of  producing the item or service. For instance, the cost of producing a software CD is about the same independent of the software on it, but the prices vary with the perceived value the customers are expected to have. The perceived value will depend on the alternatives open to the customer. In business these alternatives are using competitors software, using a manual work around, or not doing an activity. In order to employ value-based pricing you have to know your customer’s business, his business costs, and his perceived alternatives.It is also known as Perceived-value pricing. Other pricing approaches[edit] Other pricing strategies include Yield Management, Congestion pricing and Variable pricing. Nine laws of price sensitivity and consumer psychology[edit] In their book, The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing, Thomas Nagle and Reed Holden outline nine â€Å"laws† or factors that influence how a consumer perceives a given price and how price-sensitive they are likely to be with respect to different purchase decisions. [8][9] They are: Reference Price Effect – buyer’s price sensitivity for a given product increases the higher the product’s price relative to perceived alternatives. Perceived alternatives can vary by buyer segment, by occasion, and other factors. Difficult Comparison Effect – buyers are less sensitive to the price of a known or more reputable product when they have difficulty comparing it to potential alternatives. Switching Costs Effect – the higher the product-specific investment a buyer must make to switch suppliers, the less price sensitive that buyer is when choosing between alternatives. Price-Quality Effect – buyers are less sensitive to price the more that higher prices signal higher quality. Products for which this effect is particularly relevant include: image products, exclusive products, and products with minimal cues for quality. Expenditure Effect – buyers are more price-sensitive when the expense accounts for a large percentage of buyers ’ available income or budget. End-Benefit Effect – the effect refers to the  relationship a given purchase has to a larger overall benefit, and is divided into two parts: Derived demand: The more sensitive buyers are to the price of the end benefit, the more sensitive they will be to the prices of those products that contribute to that benefit. Price proportion cost: The price proportion cost refers to the percent of the total cost of the end benefit accounted for by a given component that helps to produce the end benefit (e.g., think CPU and PCs). The smaller the given components share of the total cost of the end benefit, the less sensitive buyers will be to the components’ price. Shared-cost Effect – the smaller the portion of the purchase price buyers must pay for themselves, the less price sensitive they will be. Fairness Effect – buyers are more sensitive to the price of a product when the price is outside the range they perceive as â€Å"fair† or â€Å"reasonable† given the purchase context. The Framing Effect – buyers are more price sensitive when they perceive the price as a loss rather than a forgone gain, and they have greater price sensitivity when the price is paid separately rather than as part of a bundle.

Helping the Private Sector to Achieve and Maintain Infrastructure Security

Helping the Private Sector to Achieve and Maintain Infrastructure Security The infrastructure security has always been on the highest level for the US government. Still, the September 11, 2001 was the breaking point which is considered to be the start for heightened interest in critical infrastructure protection, both in public and in private sectors. To understand the main purpose of the research, it is crucial to check the main notions which are going to be considered, critical infrastructure in private sector.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Helping the Private Sector to Achieve and Maintain Infrastructure Security specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Critical infrastructure is the notion which identifies physical and computer-based systems, like telecommunications, banking, transportation, water and energy resources, etc. The private sector of the country’s economy is characterized by the organizations which are not controlled by the state, like private firms, companies, banks and ot her private non-government organizations (Radvanovsky and McDougall 5). Thus, the main purpose of the research is to consider the main security strategies the private sector uses in the relation to the protection of critical infrastructures. The USA has a Department of Homeland Security which helps the private sector to cope with the problems it may face. Critical Infrastructure Protection Challenges for Private Sector There are a number of different challenges a private sector should cope with the purpose to organize critical infrastructure protection properly. There are a number of different normative laws which are aimed at analyzing those challenges and offering some decisions to solve them. Considering the challenges in addressing cybersecurity, the following key ones may be identified: the organizational stability should be achieved, the roles and capacities of the cybersecurity should be considered and the awareness should be increased, the efficient partnership with stakehol ders should be considered, the information exchange should be on the high level (Powner 12). Private sector also faces other challenges, like securing control systems. One the one hand, technological innovations are involved in the sphere and allow specialists to control the process by means of different facilities. On the other hand, the specialized security technologies for control systems are not invented yet due to a number of reasons. Moreover, there are some ideas that securing control systems are not justified economically that create some problems. Finally, the security control systems may become the issue for conflicts on the basis of the priority notion (Dacey 18).Advertising Looking for essay on government? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More There are a number of challenges private sector faces in the informational sphere. National Infrastructure Protection Center is the organization that helps the private se ctor cope with those challenges as the establishment of the correct information-sharing relations with the state is the first step for dealing with the problem. These challenges should be faced both by the private sector and by the Department of Homeland Security, even though it is the state institution, the security is going to be on the highest level in the private sector only when the government supports it. Introduction to Threat and Risk Analysis Models To conduct the critical infrastructure protection properly and on the highest level, the risk assessment in the sphere should be provided. Risk management and critical infrastructure protection in the private sector should be conducted on the basis of the assessment, integration, and management of such facilities as threats, vulnerabilities, and consequences. To conduct the risk assessment in the private sector, the following steps should be considered in this succession: The identification of the most critical infrastructures, Identification, evaluation and assessment of the threats, Consideration of the vulnerability of those critical assets, Specification of expected risks along with the expected consequences, The next stages should be followed to prioritize risk reduction activities. That is, the specialists should state and evaluate the ways aimed at reducing the risks which have already been highlighted and prioritize risk reduction by means of the risk reductions strategy. The private sector should collaborate with the government with the purpose to be aware of the innovations in the critical infrastructure protection field and to count on the state and its help. The role of the government in the security of the private sector is crucial. The Homeland Security Act of 2002 and other administration documents are directed at helping the private sector to cope with the threats and minimize the risks to minimum. Basic Principles for Critical Infrastructure Protection The fundamental principles for crit ical infrastructure protection may be based on the CARVER method. This method is based on six factors which influence the efficiency of the procedure. CARVER method is a military strategy which is used for identifying the targets for the attacks. It is reasonable to consider these principles for identifying the threats in the private sector directed at critical infrastructure.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Helping the Private Sector to Achieve and Maintain Infrastructure Security specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This method should be used to prioritize the targets which are considered to be the most vulnerable. Thus, the CARVER method is based on the following components, Criticality, Assessibility, Return, Vulnerability, Effect, and Recognizability. The main principle of this method is to identify the infrastructure with the highest value and to try to protect it by much attempt. The main idea of the criticality is to identify the target which plays crucial role in the achieving the goal and the elimination of which will put a private company much behind. The accessibility means that the company should consider whether the target easily reached or not. The critical infrastructure protection means high level of security and low level of accessibility. The company should check the return capacity of all the critical infrastructures and pay more attention to those which capacity to return is lower. The vulnerability of the target is really essential. The company should try to organize the work in such a way that all objects and targets which may be considered as vulnerable should be protected better. The effects should always be predicted. It is important for the private company to understand the outcomes of the threat in order to prevent those in case of any problems. It is also important to understand that the recognizability of the critical infrastructure is also essential. The private sect or should protect its points with the purpose to reduce the risk for the target to be recognized by the competitor and either copied or destroyed (Pavlina n/p). Vulnerability Analysis Models Using the vulnerability analysis model, the company should follow the next steps to make sure that the competing agents are not going to reach the critical infrastructure and are not able to violate the company security. It may be concluded that the main purpose of the vulnerability analysis is to check and reduce the systems which may be available for natural and man-made damages. Thus, the steps one should follow to complete this method are: a) to identify the gaps and research needs in the sector, b) to check the competitors which may be suspected in organizing the attack, and c) to develop the strategies aimed at reducing the threat. The main purpose of this model is to encourage businessmen and entrepreneurs to protect their strategic objects better or, vice versa, to find faults in the cri tical infrastructure protection of the competitors and to use the information to combat them on the business arena (Catlin and Kautter 3).Advertising Looking for essay on government? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Introduction to CI/KR Dependencies and Interdependencies The Department of Homeland Security has identified the Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources (CI/KR) which are protected by the government no matter whether public or private sector is involved in the affair. It is obvious that DHS cannot cope with all the CI/KR, so there are a number of other departments which help. To provide an effective protection of the CI/KR, the public and private sectors should establish good relationships based on the ideas and information exchanges, security planning with sharing the best practices, the coordinating structures should be perfectly established, the collaboration with the international community is important as well as the building of public awareness. The DHS identifies the following CI/KR: agriculture and food, commercial facilities, dams, energy, information technology, postal and shipping, banking and finance, communication, defense industrial base, transportation systems, chemi cal, critical manufacturing, emergency services, healthcare, nuclear reactions, materials and wastes, and water (â€Å"Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources†). If any of those CI/KR are involved into private sector, the company managers should care greatly of its security. Concepts of Continuity Of Operations (COOP) Plans and Continuity Of Government (COG) Continuity of operations is the notion which may be defined as a government effort to make sure that Primary Mission Essential Functions are going to work in spite of any incidents, including natural disasters, technological attacks and other accidents. The main purpose of COOP is to make the private sector, which deals with CI/KR, continue its work no matter what is happening in the country. The Continuity of Operations (COOP) Plan is a map for implementing the program designed by the Continuity Program (FEMA n/p). The Continuity of Government (COG) is defined as the necessity for the government and all its structures and operations to function without paying attention to any of the incidents which happen in the country. The main purpose of the COG is to provide the constitutional protection to the citizens of the country and the constitutional form of the government (FEMA n/p). In conclusion it should be stated that the proper functioning of the government is possible only in case if the private and public sectors work together and are able to collaborate with each others. It is crucial to understand that the critical infrastructure of the company should be properly protected. This means that the CARVER method should be applied to make sure that the cyber systems as well as other engineering systems are properly protected. The vulnerability analysis is really helpful for maintaining security in the critical infrastructure. The Continuity of Operations (COOP) and the Continuity of Government (COG) are the document which state that all systems and projects essential for the state should function, no matter what is happening in the country. Catlin, Michelle and Donald Kautter. â€Å"An Overview of the Carver Plus Shock Method for Food Sector Vulnerability Assessments.† Federal state department of agriculture 18 July 2007. Print. â€Å"Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources.† Department of Homeland Security. 2010. Web. Dacey, Robert F. â€Å"Critical Infrastructure Protection: Challenges and Efforts to Secure Control Systems.† United States Government Accountability Office 30 March 2004. Print. FEMA. 2010. Web. Pavlina, Steve. â€Å"How to Prioritize.† Pavlina LLC May 22, 2007. Web. Powner, David A. â€Å"Critical Infrastructure Protection: Challenges in Addressing Cybersecurity.† United States Government Accountability Office 19 July 2005. Print. Radvanovsky, Robert and Allan McDougall. Critical Infrastructure: Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. New York: Taylor and Francis, 2010. Print.

The Stranger from Albrt Camus Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Stranger from Albrt Camus - Essay Example Firstly, there was no ethical compulsion on Meursault to kill that unknown person without any cause. In businesses, some companies often produce some unethical moves especially against their cutthroat competitors. Those tactics might not have any legal consequence but they are unethical nevertheless. Secondly, businesses do not believe in humanity or feelings for humanity. They carry out their businesses only to maximize the wealth of owners regardless of humanity being suffered simultaneously. In exactly the same way, the act of Meursault on her mother’s funeral demonstrates the lack of feelings for humanity. The relationship of Meursault has been quite absurd such that there is a justification or rational of doing any particular conduct. Even killing a person should have any particular reason. This shows that Meursault did not believe in existentialism as he thought that a human life does not have any purpose for existence. The existence of human is not necessary according to Meursault and he better thought of getting rid of the person by killing him, showing an absurd state of

Neurological Disorders Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Neurological Disorders - Essay Example Acetycholine esterase (AChE) "plays an important role in the regulation of functions of central and peripheral nervous systems. AChE hydrolyses the cationic neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh)" (Da Ros, 2006). Curare poison, from the bark of a tree in South America, binds to the ACh receptors but doesn't activate them. To understand how this works is to think of it described "as a lock and a key ("lock and key model"). The neurotransmitter (the key) fits the receptor site (the lock). Some drugs act just like the key and attach to the receptor site, conveying a signal just like the neurotransmitter (e.g., nicotine). Other chemicals attach themselves to receptor sites but do not convey a message (e.g., the curare poison). This prevents the neurotransmitter itself from conveying the signal and is like a key that fits a lock but does not actually turn the lock, blocking the real key instead." (Palmer, 2003) This is further explained by the following diagram provided by J.K. Palmer at Eastern Kentucky University: It has been found that organopesticides (OP) bind to acetylcholinesterase and inhibit its normal activity. This will affect muscle tissue by "targeting and depressing acetylcholinesterase activity in a dose-dependent manner, leading to an excessive acetylcholine output, nerve paralysis and finally death.

Care of Creation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Care of Creation - Essay Example This applies to my experience of that hour spent in God’s creation and my renewed appreciation for the Sabbath, an old practice that has gained a new modern dimension. This experience has given me a renewed vision of God, the purpose of my life and of those around me, more especially the people who depend on me for pastoral leadership, and of what I need to do to be more effective as a follower and pastor, of one who leads others to God’s kingdom and who is led by the hand by the Divine Master. My first lesson is that of having gained a deeper understanding of the meaning of the Sabbath, a weekly reminder that God blessed and made holy this day of rest (Bass 78). Being the perfect teacher he is, God laid down in scripture that on the Sabbath day, he rested, not so much to tell us that he got tired from all that creating stuff, because God by definition does not get tired. Rather, God rested to show us how important it is to spend time, slow down, experience moments of t ranquility and peace, and reflect on the important things in life. God in his divine wisdom foresaw how exciting the world would become, and how man and woman would be so caught up with the beauties and riches of this world that we forget why we are alive and how we ever get to be here at all; in a word, to â€Å"remember who we are and what is important† (Bass 88). Just looking around me and reflecting on what I witnessed that Sabbath hour, I remembered those words about Jesus looking at the people around him who went around like sheep without a shepherd, living lives devoid of meaning and purpose. We work so hard to earn money so they can enjoy life, but with the economic difficulties happening all around us, many realize that making both ends meet is not easy. Likewise, we experience that the world, limited and full of evil, only offers limited and imperfect happiness. The second series of lessons proceed from the renewed understanding of the Sabbath. Experiencing the Sabb ath with a deeper and more personal and spiritual meaning made me realize that I too have been engrossed with the worldly dimension of life and even of prayer and worship. I have focused on the means and not the ends, on the form, not the substance, and on the body of faith, not in its soul. Like the religious leaders of whom Jesus warned the people to do what they preach, but not do as they do, I realized that pastors who should lead their flocks to God are focusing too much on â€Å"preaching and teaching† instead of â€Å"leading and living by doing†. Sure, one needs to preach and teach, but the best way to learn is by doing, watching and learning from the example of Jesus himself, who taught by word and example. Like most pastors, I need to hone and develop that dual vision of which Scharen and Volf (97) wrote, of seeing material things and their relation to God, as source, creator, joy, good, gift, talent, the one to which everything leads, to see the invisible Go d in the visible things of the material universe. A more effective pastoral leadership must be characterized by a spiritual life grounded on God through prayer and the imitation of Jesus’ life of sacrifice and love for all souls, even those

To what extent has Henry VIIs success as the first of the Tudor Essay

To what extent has Henry VIIs success as the first of the Tudor Monarchs been exaggerated - Essay Example This was shown in his productive use of the chamber system for money matters during his â€Å"personal rule† from 1503-1509, which Edward IV (1471-1483) introduced previously. Furthermore, we find fault in Christine Carpenter’s observation that Henry â€Å"became king under better circumstances than any other† – because the country itself was battered and bruised from the long and arduous Wars of the Roses. The above issues are just some of the arguments that make Henry VII’s alleged success controversial and exaggerated. But in order to come to a conclusive and relatively balanced position as to how exaggerated Henry’s success has been, it is imperative to review some of the historiographical evidence available to us from contemporary and modern day accounts. Why would anyone want to distort or exaggerate Henry’s success? Usually the answer can be found embedded in matters concerning patronage, flattery and the obvious fact that few individuals would wish to risk their lives in making the king appear ignorant or incompetent. For starters, I can easily understand what Michael Sittow’s portrait of Henry in 1505 was trying to depict. Sittow conveyed a man that is richly dressed (showing his omnipotent Tudor badge) with the faint presence of what seems a slight, grudging smile. Here, we first encounter the exaggeration in terms of his physical appearance. If Sittow’s portrait were entirely accurate, for instance, then why would Pietro Torrigiano’s sculpture be so very different? As Dawson stated, they are so peculiarly distinct from each other that the latter’s Henry â€Å"could be a different man.† Torrigiano used higher cheekbones and a longer nose, which, no doubt, modified to take after the â€Å"high Roman fashion† reflected in Shakespeare’s own, Antony and Cleopatra. Obviously, the sculptor aimed to create a domineering, decisive and commanding figure.

Information Theory and Thermodynamics

Information Theory and Thermodynamics In order to develop better tools, machines and technology we have had to develop our understanding of the physical world. This has allowed us to construct machines that are more capable than those preceding it. The French scientist Carnot was studying machines and was trying to understand how to make them better and more efficient. As part of his studies he calculated the maximum efficiency of any machine and was able to relate this to temperature. Carnots idea was to simplify the machine to its simplest form (this generality that makes it universal) and analyse that Carnot knew that machines of the time (and of today) work as a result of a temperature difference across the machine. In his time it was obvious, fire produced steam which turned a turbine that did work; today is not too different, all of our machines still need a temperature difference to make them work, however the temperature difference driving the machines may be at some distance, for example a power station producing electricity. Even wind, and solar require temperature differences to work. Analysing these machines further lead to concepts that we, perhaps, take for granted: work, power and energy notable examples. Whilst working on these concepts Boltzmann came up ideas that grew into statistical thermodynamics. It was extended and correctly describes a whole range of phenomena. The idea of thermodynamics is to relate various physical properties of a substance to the bulk behaviour of the constituent parts within. Microstates and Macrostates: Boltzmann realised that by knowing the number of different states that a system could be in and the number of configurations that each state would enable him to work out the probability of a particular state occurring. And that on average when something is observed it is more likely to be found in one of its more probable states. Many systems have lots of moving components and this means that over time a system will have evolved into a more probable state. This may now seem obvious, but it hadnt been pointed out explicitly at the time. A Macrostate is the global state of a system. For example if we consider a box with red, blue and green balls a possible macrostate might be to find all of the red balls are in the bottom left corner, whilst all of the others are randomly distributed in the rest of the box. Another example of a macrostate might be that the total electrical charge of block could be Coulombs. A Microstate is one particular configuration of the system that produces a macrostate. In the balls example if the balls are identical apart from colour we can permute the balls with the same colour amongst themselves and end up with different microstates. An example with the charged block might be that we have 4 particles each with charge as one microstate, and another might be to have 1 particle with and another with Below is a figure that represents a hypothetical macrostate of three colours of balls three particular microstates that can be used to achieve it. In the leftmost diagram we have a macrostate with all of the red balls in the bottom left corner, the other diagrams show different permutations of the balls that also achieve the desired macrostate. In order to calculate the probability of this state we would need to know how many combinations of it there are. This is a simple counting argument: we have 1 way of putting the green ball in its spot, two ways of putting the blue balls in their position and ways of arranging (we can pick any of the 5 to go in the corner, then any of the remaining 4 to go next to that, then any of the remaining 3 etc). There are a total of 8 balls and so the In general if there are objects we have possible arrangements; if we also have different types and if of them are of type 1 (say red), are of type 2 and are of type then we can find the total number of permuted arrangements with: We can use these two facts to calculate the number of accessible microstates of type , this is called the weight of the microstate and is denoted by, : The weight of a microstate is proportional to the probability of the system being in it. So one way to calculate the probability of being in the state is via: where the summation is over the weights of all the other possible microstates. A handy way to view a microstate is with a pack of cards (Birks bath), in a pack of playing cards the statistical weight of a club is 13 since there are 13 of then the statistical weight of a queen is 4. The probability of selecting a club card is the chances of picking out a club are times greater than picking out a queen. The statistical weight of the queen of hearts is 1. There is one obvious constraint that can always be imposed and that is that the total number of particles is the sum of the number of particles in each state: We can impose other constraints on the system as they are required later. Because the particles of each type are identical it is natural to assign a probability that a randomly selected particle is of type, , as: We are also able to define an Expectation value for the system. If we were interested in the average occupancy of each of the types we would have: which would represent the average occupancy of each type. If we were interested in the charge (or energy (I shall use for either) we would similarly have: Let us take some examples and compute the statistical weights, average occupancy and average energy (represented by the value of the type index e.g. if , the energy would be two units). I shall consider that the atoms are all identical apart from the energy that they have and that a macrostate is the same for each. For the first case let us assume that we have 5 atoms and the macrostate corresponds to an energy of 5 units. The table below shows that (for example) the microstate 3 has a weight of 20, this means that there are 20 microstates with the occupancy levels given that correspond to the macrostate We can tabulate the various combinations as below: microstate number Occupancy of type i weight probability n0 n1 n2 n3 n4 n5 1 4 0 0 0 0 1 5 0.0397 2 3 1 0 0 1 0 20 0.1587 3 3 0 1 1 0 0 20 0.1587 4 2 2 0 1 0 0 30 0.2381 5 2 1 2 0 0 0 30 0.2381 6 1 3 1 0 0 0 20 0.1587 7 0 5 0 0 0 0 1 0.0079 totals 15 12 4 2 1 1 126 1 Average occupancy 2.222 1.389 0.794 0.397 0.159 0.040 Table 3.1: Table showing occupancy levels for a 5 atom system with a macrostate of 5. This table was generated by finding all of the numbers that sum (in this case) to 5 which is the macrostate. It shows the number of atoms with a particular energy in the columns headed , the statistical weight of each microstate is in the weight column, the probability column next to it shows the probability of randomly selecting this microstate from a given macrostate (in this case 5 atoms and a total energy of 5). The row titled average occupancy shows the expected occupancy of an energy level of type , calculated from the table. Looking at the table there are two equally most likely microstate arrangements. The first of these corresponds to and , both occurring with a probability of 0.238. Another possible macrostate is listed below, this time we have 7 atoms and an energy of 7 units. The headings of the table are the same as in the previous example. We can see that the weight of the most probable microstate is 420 and that we have a probability of 0.245 of randomly selecting one of them. The occupancy levels are: microstate occupancy of type i weight probability n0 n1 n2 n3 n4 n5 n6 n7 1 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 7 0.004 2 5 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 42 0.024 3 5 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 42 0.024 4 5 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 42 0.024 5 4 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 105 0.061 6 4 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 210 0.122 7 4 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 105 0.061 8 4 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 105 0.061 9 3 3 0 0 1 0 0 0 140 0.082 10 3 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 420 0.245 11 3 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 140 0.082 12 2 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 105 0.061 13 2 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 210 0.122 14 1 5 1 0 0 0 0 0 42 0.024 15 0 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.001 totals 51 30 11 6 3 2 1 1 1716 1 Average occupancy 3.231 1.885 1.028 0.514 0.228 0.086 0.024 0.004 Table A3 2: a seven atom system with a total energy of seven A final example consists of a system of 10 atoms and a total energy of 9. As will be readily seen as the number of atoms and the energy increases the number of microstates corresponding to a given macrostate increases so does the size of the table. It was quite difficult to work out the number of combinations of energy that could occur and I wouldnt want to do it again for larger tables. In the next part we shall use the method of Lagrange multipliers to massively simplify the calculations for the probabilities and expectations. For the case of 10 atoms and an energy of 9 units. We see that the most probable microstates have the following occupancy levels: The most probable microstate has a probability of 0.1555, but there is another microstate that is only slightly less probable (a probability of 0.1300) and this has occupancy levels of: The two least likely microstates are the following: Both have a probability of 0.0002 which is very small indeed. Table 3 is below: d occupancy of each type i weight probability n0 n1 n2 n3 n4 n5 n6 n7 n8 n9 1 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 10 0.000205677 2 8 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 90 0.00185109 3 8 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 90 0.00185109 4 8 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 90 0.00185109 5 8 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 90 0.00185109 6 7 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 360 0.00740436 7 7 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 720 0.014808721 8 7 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 720 0.014808721 9 7 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 360 0.00740436 10 7 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 360 0.00740436 11 7 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 720 0.014808721 12 7 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 120 0.00246812 13 6 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 840 0.017276841 14 6 2 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2520 0.051830522 15 6 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 2520 0.051830522 16 6 1 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2520 0.051830522 17 6 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2520 0.051830522 18 6 0 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 840 0.017276841 19 5 4 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1260 0.025915261 20 5 3 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 5040 0.103661045 21 5 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2520 0.051830522 22 5 2 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 7560 0.155491567 23 5 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1260 0.025915261 24 4 5 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1260 0.025915261 25 4 4 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 6300 0.129576306 26 4 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4200 0.086384204 27 3 6 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 840 0.017276841 28 3 5 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2520 0.051830522 29 2 7 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 360 0.00740436 30