Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Nebulized Furosemide

COPD is noted as being the fourth leading cause of mortality in the United States. Mortality is expected to increase among COPD patients despite advances in its management. As exacerbations and hospitalizations characterize a key driver of the cost and morbidity of COPD, significance should be placed on interventions aimed at delaying the advancement of disease, inhibiting exacerbations, and reducing the risk of co-morbidities. Treatment for COPD has been at of a standstill in recent years. Beta2 antagonists, corticosteroids, and theophylline have been at the helm. However, nebulized furosemide has pushed its way from the background into the forefront recently. A major cause of disability and anxiety, dyspnea is the most prominent†¦show more content†¦Assuming that inhaled furosemide alleviates dyspnea principally through vagal mechanisms, it should be a possible treatment for dyspnea. (Insert Introduction) Overview of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Although not curable, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a familiar, treatable, but avoidable disease that is still a huge health problem in the United States. According to the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease, â€Å"COPD is the fourth leading cause of chronic morbidity and mortality in the United States and is projected to rank fifth in 2020 as a worldwide problem according to a study published by the World Bank/World Health Organization.†1 Mortality from COPD is also expected to increase despite medical advances in the treatment of the disease. Small airway disease found in chronic bronchitis, and parenchymal destruction found in emphysema contribute the chronic airflow limitation experienced by COPD patients. COPD reduces the sensory conduits maintaining both respiratory and cardiovascular systems.2 The sensory receptors that might play a substantial role in autonomic dysfunction in COPD patients are metabolic and pulmonary stretch receptors; central and peripheral chemoreceptors; cold receptors; arterial and cardiac baroreceptors; bronchopulmonary C-fibers; arterial chemoreceptors; four to five different types of airway receptors innervated by the vagus; slowly adapting stretch receptors

Adolf Hitler And Joseph Stalin - 1872 Words

The world is divided into two, the light and the dark. The exact definition of good and evil is up for debate, but there are situations that are well known for being personifications of good and evil. For example, George Washington, Martin Luther King, and Abraham Lincoln are prime examples of the goodness in society. There are, however, prime examples of the evil in the world personified a few men. Examples of these men are Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. Both of these guys are known as evil men who rose from humble beginnings to forever infamy for their misuse and practical terror in power usage. Adolf Hitler is a well known name. Often used to represent the personification of evil, this man with the swastika has more to him than meets†¦show more content†¦This led to even more psychological damage to ensue. Hitler by this point had lived life to see only misery, loss of family, and failure at almost every turn. Things, however, were about to become interesting for the soon to be leader of the Nazis. After World War One, otherwise known as the â€Å"Great War,† Germany was in a time of crisis and political instability. Because Germany lost the war, the treaty of Versailles forced Germany to not only be responsible for their own reprimands, but everyone who participated in the war (mainly repay France.) Germany was also humiliated by losing most of their army and territories due to this treaty. In addition, to add to the economic crisis of Germany, according to http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/germany/hitlerpowerrev1.shtml â€Å"In 1929, the American Stock Exchange collapsed, and caused an economic depression. America called in all its foreign loans, which destroyed Weimar Germany. Unemployment in Germany rose to 6 million.† Hitler had become very interested in politics. He joined the â€Å"a member of the National Socialist German Workers Party,† otherwise known as the Nazi party. At first, Hitler had little more than an anti-semitic attitude and a great speaking capability. Hitler tried to just start a revolution in the streets at first. This attempt was halted by the remainingShow MoreRelatedAdolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin1033 Words   |  5 PagesAdolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin are two of the most sadistic dictators of the past century. They both reigned terror in Europe during World War II. Fueled by rage and anger, Hitler and Stalin rose to power and exploited their beliefs throughout Germany and Russia. Stalin turned Russia into a Communist country while Hitler was turning Germany against Jews. The leadership of these dictators brought death and fear to many who opposed them. Hitler and Stalin both shared deprived childhoods, vicious fathersRead MoreAdolf Hitler And Joseph Stalin1314 Words   |  6 Pagesdictators who stand out, Hitler and Stalin. 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The Generals came up with a pincerRead MoreThe Strengths And Weaknesses Of Joseph Stalin And Adolf Hitler Essay1855 Words   |  8 Pagesthis paper is to explain the strengths and weaknesses of Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler with regards to their respective leadership styles and their interaction with their subordinates. I will analyze each leader’s qualities and then compare them to one another as I close out this document. This paper will rely extensively on knowledge gained through reading of two sources of documentation. The first document from Seweryn Bialer called â€Å"Stalin and His Generals† and the second document is from AlbertRead MoreComparing The Way Of Adolf Hitler, A Fascist Dictator, And Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin1629 Words   |  7 PagesTo analyze the differences in the way Adolf Hitler, a fascist dictator, and Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, a communist dictator, controlled their countries and made political decisions, we have to learn what Fascism and Communism are. 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The difference and similarity between their ideology, usage of propagandaRead MoreComparing Adolf Stalin And Adolf Hitler And Hitler843 Words   |  4 PagesAdolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin are 2 notoriously known people in world history. Both Stalin and Hitler are known for the great number of deaths they have caused. Although both men have totally different reasons on why they killed so many people their ways of leadership are somewhat alike. Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin both use propaganda as a technique to get people to support them. Using propaganda shows the public what they want to hear and see, even if it’s not true they use this method to trickRead MoreEssay on A Comparison of Hitler and Stalin1126 Words   |  5 PagesA Comparison of Hitler and Stalin Angelica Calvillo HIS 306: Twentieth-Century Europe April 26, 2010 Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union are two controversial regimes. Hitler and Stalin were both Dictators of the countries they ruled. When Hitler and Stalin are compared, we can clearly see that each one of them were cold blooded killers. They are both responsible for an absurd amount of innocent deaths. Hitler is believed to be responsible for killing at leastRead MorePolitical Ideologies During The Twentieth Century1310 Words   |  6 PagesDuring the period leading up to World War II, there were two men who were on opposing sides; the men were Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin. These men were each triumphant in their rise to power in their countries and they were very comparable in the ways that they succeeded. Their success was mostly attributed to their new ideas and their politics. As well, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, two of the greatest dictators in world history demonstrated differences in ideology and the way they rise to powerRead More Postion Paper: Who Was More Carzed Stalin Or Hitler1586 Words   |  7 PagesCrazed: Stalin or Hitler? nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The obviously more crazed man was Joseph Stalin. Stalin was more crazed because over his time and rule, he killed millions upon millions more people that Hitler. Joseph Stalin is also more crazed because he did not kill other people he was racist against, but simply because he wanted to kill. The book Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives, states quot; Adolf Hitlers actions can not even be compared to the monstrous actions of Joseph Stalinquot;

Emotion Destination Internet - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 23 Words: 6865 Downloads: 6 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Statistics Essay Did you like this example? Measuring Emotion from Holiday Destination Homepages: An Australian Context Chapter 1: Introduction Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Emotion Destination Internet" essay for you Create order As use of the Internet has spread widely into our society, cyberspace has become an important part of our daily life (Hefley and Morris, 1995). According to a recent survey on Internet usage in the Australia, 56% of the total population used the Internet in the year 2006, and that percentage increases to 63% in the year 2007 (GMID, 2008).The maturation of Internet has led to a rapid development in a variety of destination offerings, services, and information quality, which have increased the ease of use, usefulness, security, and playfulness of websites (Gretzel, Yuan, Fesenmaier, 2000; Hanna Millar, 1997; Marcussen, 1997; WTO Business Council, 1999). To enhance the shopping and browsing experience, differentiate between tourism websites, and further increase online sales, destination marketers continue to offer improved website features (Hess, 2005; Lohse et al., 2000). Research supports the influence of destination homepages features on consumer experiences and their resulting effects on consumer attitude towards a website (Cano Prentice, 1998; Gretzel et a1., 2000; Klein, 1998). Offering a destination on a website, such as virtual tour, picture of destination, animation, image interactivity is important because presentation of destination homepage facilitates positive consumer responses, due to resulting hedonic or experiential value(Bigne, Andreu, Gnoth, 2005; Ha and Perks, 2005). As a typical interface in cyberspace, destination homepages can basically be considered as collections of slides composed of diverse visual(e.g. picture,color,text, multimedia presentation) and auditory stimuli (e.g.music, sounds) designed to directly engage the user in the interaction while he/she is navigating through cyberspace (Laurel, 1993). Accordingly, homepages thus also have the potential to elicit universally shared emotions in their user. In its past destination homepages tended to focus on providing cognitively convenient functions, such as search engines or directories. Therefore, most prior studies of tourism website have focused on the cognitive aspects of homepages (e.g. Sigala, 2002). However, as users gradually grew accustomed to these basic functions, providing cognitively convenient functions is not sufficient to satisfy user needs (Picard and Andrew, 1998). The advance of computer graphics increases the importance of aesthetic design of user interfaces, which provide users with emotional experiences (Oliver, 1996; Ngo and Byrne, 2001). Empirical evidence exits in the marketing literature supporting the argument that distinct aspects of product differentiation are captured in both the utilitarian (functional) and hedonic (aesthetic/affect laden) dimensions (Chittrui, 2003). That is why not all online travel consumers are motivated by the functional and utilitarian aspects of a destination Website such as price and place. Particularly when homepages are used for holiday destination, the emotional aspects of homepages have gained increased importance (Schenkman and Jonsson, 2000). Also in a study by Huang (2003), emotional experiences in an online shopping environment were found to be positively related to a customers intention to explore or purchase from website. This is because emotions were found to influence both users memories of products and their decision processes when they purchased products (Kim, 1998; Lee, 1998a). However, in contrast to the ample amount of research focusing on cognitive functions of homepages, only a few studies have focused on the emotional aspects of destination homepages (Fesenmaier, 2007). Among these few studies on the emotional aspects have several limitations (Kim and Moon, 1998; Lee, 1998b). First, the emotional dimensions that had been used in previous studies did not reflect or useful to the characteristics of homepages of the destination specifically rather it belongs to the website, which is an extensive concept by its feature. Also, these because emotional dimensions they borrowed were found in the design of physical products (Lee, 1998b). Therefore, we cannot be sure whether the emotional dimensions used in those studies accurately measure the emotions that users feel with diverse homepages. Second, prior studies did not consider the affective qualities of the destination homepages that had been used by homepage designers to elicit diverse emotions (Kim and Moon , 1998). Finally, prior studies did not identify any quantitative relations between the affective qualities of the destination homepage and browsers emotion in response to those affective qualities (Fesenmaier, 2007). Thus it was not clear which factors are closely related to which emotional dimension, how strong that relation is and what emotions have been evoked. Site developers therefore have to depend on insights and common sense in developing homepages, since they do not know the generic emotions evoked by various homepages or ways to evoke the generic emotions efficiently using design factors. Therefore, the objective of the study is to identify the affective qualities of destination homepages to measure the affective response of the homepage browsers. to identify a quantitative relationship between the affective responses of the browser and the affective qualities of the destination homepages The present study will contribute to research on emotional aspects of consumer behavior during tourism website browsing. Structure of the Thesis In order to achieve the research objective a theoretical basis has to be shaped that will be described in chapter 2. It will present a combination of earlier research and studies related to emotional experience, homepages in general and destination homepages. Chapter 3 reports the research design and methodology of the first experiment experiments. The results of the experiment itself will be presented in chapter 4. The research design of the second experiment will be covered in chapter 5, followed by the results in chapter 6. Subsequently, chapter 7 discusses both experiments; its methodology and results. It also presents final conclusions and recommendations for further research. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW The following areas of literature were covered to identify the proposed objective for the present study: (1) The emergence of eTourism, (2) Research in Tourism website (3) Emotional experience and Human-Computer Interaction (4) Methods used to Measuring website experience (5) Presence of emotions in destination homepages (6) Affective qualities in destination homepages (7) expression of emotions (8) Affective States (9) Measuring Emotions 1. Emergence of eTourism Tourism is an information extensive product, since it exists only as information at the point of sale, and cannot be sampled before the purchase decision is made (WTO Business Council, 1999). Unlike durable goods, intangible and variable tourism services cannot be physically displayed before purchasing. Tourism products are therefore almost exclusively dependent upon representations and descriptions, i.e. information in printed or audio-visual formats. Communication and information transmission tools are therefore indispensable to the global marketing of the tourism industry (Sheldon, 1997). The information-based nature of tourism product denotes that the Internet, which recommends global reach and multimedia capability, is gradually more important means of promoting and distributing tourism services (Walle, 1996). Tourism has become a highly competitive product over the world. Competitive advantage is vital for this industry as it is increasingly driven by science, information technology and Innovation. Tourism has become the worlds leading industry and its growth shows a consistent year to year Increase. The World Tourism Organization (2005) predicts that by 2020 tourist arrivals around the world would increase over 200%. Tourism-related services have emerged as a primary product category to be promoted and distributed to consumer markets through the Internet (Connolly et al., 1998, Sussman Baker, 1996; Archdale et al., 1992., Millman, 1998; Underwood, 1996). Travel usually rates among the top three product/service categories purchased via the Internet, as indicated by numerous consumer surveys (Heichler 1997; Tweney 1997; Yoffie 1997). Machlis (1997) suggested that travel is the single largest revenue generator among consumers on the Internet, totaling U.S. $800 million in 1997. As a primary source of tourist destination Information for travelers approximately 95% of Web users use the Internet to gather travel related information and about 93% indicate that they visited tourism Web sites when planning for vacations (Lake, 2001). The number of people turning to the Internet for vacation and travel planning has increased more than 300% over the past five years. The World Wide Web facilitated the entire interactivity and networking between computer users by using the Internet to allow instant access and distribution of tourism information as well as to support and gradually re-engineer the reservation of tourism organizations (WTO, 1995; Smith Jenner, 1998). Now more people have access from work or Internet cafes even from countries that are not technologically advanced or wealthy. This exemplifies that gradually the Internet is becoming persistent among all economic classes. Most Internet users are educated professionals who travel regularly and therefore should have a higher disposable Income. Increasingly consumers become familiar with ICTS and expect that tourism suppliers will have interactive interfaces on-line to support purchasing and discussion about specific requirements. The Internet, in particular, enables travellers to access reliable and accurate information as well as to undertake reservations in a fraction of the time, cost and inconvenience required by conventional methods. An interactive Website provides a good opportunity for the numerous suppliers involved in a tourism destination to sell different product and service which are sought by individual visitors. An interesting part is using interactive methods of guiding Individuals through the enormous range of destination options are available. In this sense the Internet is not dissimilar to traditional marketing that consumers seek to simplify their choice by using a combination of intermediaries, trusted brand names and established business relationships. Apart from simply broadcasting information to letting consumers interact with the Web site content allows the tourism organization to engage consumers interest and participation to capture information about their preferences, and to use that information to provide personalized communication and services. The content of tourism destination Web sites is particularly important because it directly influences the perceived image of the destination and creates a virtual experience for the consumer. This experience is greatly enhanced when Web sites offer interactivity (Cano Prentice, 1998; Gretzel et al., 2000) With the increasing importance of online sales for tourism and hospitality products (Visa Europe, 2003) and the growing number of online tourists patronising tourism Webstores, it is crucial to develop a better understanding of the profile and behaviour of Internet surfers and shoppers. A number of research efforts have concentrated on general tourist information search behavior (Chen, 2000; Chen Gursoy, 2000; Fodness Murray, 1999; Gitelson Crompton, 1983; Schul Crompton, 1983; Snepenger, Megen, Snelling Worrall, 1990; Vogt Fesenmaier, 1998). However, insufficient research attention has been paid to online consumer search behavior in the travel and tourism field. Despite the wide-spread discussion of e-commerce advantages, research of e-commerce business models in the tourism literature has, to date, focused primarily on organisational, business and technical factors (Sigala, 2004). In contrast psychological factors (e.g emotion, motivation, attitude, mood) which influencing the shape and adoption of tourism website have not been adequately addressed. But it is important to understand the needs that consumers have with respect to being involved in e-commerce within the tourism and hospitality context. Investigative rather than simply descriptive information about online travelers should help tourism and hospitality firms make better decisions about their marketing strategies, segmentation and personalisation practices (Sigala, 2004). Thus, in addition to demographics, tourism and hospitality marketers need to know the intrinsic as well as extrinsic benefits/value that e-shoppers seek when engaging in e-shopping as well as the atmospheric and environmental signs that can influence Webstore adoption and use. To achieve this other under-utilised sub-fields of psychology can also be considered as potential explanatory patterns of e-commerce adoption and use (Aldersey Williams, 1996). Specifically to design and develop techniques to measure the affect of non-verbal response behavior of prospective travelers when considering holiday de stinations by using tourism websites. (2)Research in Tourism website This chapter reviews the research in tourism website. In line with the growth of online travel, there has been an increase in academic and practitioner publications equipped at understanding how to effectively build and evaluate hospitality and tourism websites. Researchers also investigate the challenges of identifying, attracting and retaining customers in the online market as well as the issue of understanding consumers perceptions towards destination website. Some of the researchers also aim to identify the determinants that influence potential travelers to use the Internet for travel planning and to show their interrelations. Murphy et al. (1996) were among the first researchers to examine online marketing effectiveness in hospitality and tourism. These researchers evaluated 36 restaurant websites using the categories of email contact, online sales promotions, frequent specials, directions, reservations, email newsletter, franchising, coupons, recruiting and contests. ). During this period a variety of approaches have been suggested or used for measuring the effectiveness of tourism and hospitality Websites. Murphy, Forrest, Wotring and Brymer (1996a) analysed the Websites of 36 hotels in late 1995, and identified 32 categories of hotel Website features, which they subsequently grouped into promotion and marketing, service and information, interactivity and technology, and management. In the mid-to-late 1990s, practitioners and academics tried to understand the Web and the people who were using it to for travel information and bookings (Bonn, Furr, Susskind, 1998, 1999; Jung, 1999; Kasavana, Knutson Polonowski, 1997; Smith Jenner, 1998; Walle, 1996; Weber Roehl, 1999). In the late 1990s, other factors such as accessibility, segmentation, positioning, consumer research and timeliness emerged, and were also used to evaluate various tourism and hospitality websites (see Morrison et al., 1999; Weeks and Crouch, 1999). By 2000, academic papers on website evaluation expanded to include, visitor attraction centres, convention centres, tour wholesalers, travel agents and ski resorts. Other factors that emerged as important in the evaluation of hospitality and tourism websites were levels of information on websites, availability of virtual communities to share travel experiences, the actual customer decision making process (looker vs. booker behaviour), and special online pricing and promotion (Dellaert, 2000; McLemore and Mitchell, 2000; Tierney, 2000). Perry (2002) employed relationship marketing mechanisms such as reservations, loyalty programmes, newsletters, feedback, consumer services, public relations, information, special gestures, value-added services. Frsich and Robins (2002) explored the use of the Internet in terms of constructing a self-image for the world. In 2003, the balanced scorecard tool introduced to evaluate the Web marketing efforts of Bed Breakfasts, Destination Marketing Organi zations (DMOs), NTOs and convention centres (Kim et al., 2003; St. John et al., 2003; so and Morrison, 2003). Apart from the balanced scorecard approach, Choi (2003) evaluated 100 restaurant websites in terms of information clearing house, public relations, interactive brochure, virtual storefront and direct sales, marketing research, and encouragement. Murphy et al. (2003) explored email management, online relationship, and electronic customer service of hotel websites. Other factors such as product, price, promotion, place, In 2004 and early 2005, researchers continued to use the modified balanced scorecard approach to evaluate the marketing effectiveness of hospitality and tourism websites (Douglas and Mills, 2004; Kline et al., 2004; Lee et al., 2004; Morrison et al., 2004; Myung and Morrison, 2004; Yuan et al., 2004 Additional factors emerged in the research stream included facilities information, customer contact, and perceived ease of use, surrounding area information and usability performances (Law et al., 2004; Vrana et al., 2004; Yeung and Law, 2004). A model of online consumer attitudinal change (Han and Mills, 2005) and pictorial and textural analysis (Hellemans and Govers, 2005) were also developed to examine DMO websites. In 2005 Sigala developed an evaluative framework of Web interpretation practices to examine tourism websites. Few papers examined website effectiveness through surveys, textual analysis and experiments (Dellaert, 2000; McLemore and Mitchell, 2000; Tierney, 2000; Frsich and Robins, 2002; Nysveen et al., 2003; Stergiou and Airey, 2003; Gretzel and Fesenmaier, 2005; Kao et al., 2005). From the above discussion it is imperative to say that most of the previous research contemplates the functionality or usability of the destination website. Only recently a few specific research (Douglas et al., 2007; Kim and Fesenmaier, 2008)have been targeted the evaluation of non instrumental qualities of the destination website and their impact on browser. More specifically, there is not a single research that targeted the non instrumental qualities of destination homepages. Where as studies by Levene (2006) and Widyantoro and Yen (2001) seem to suggest that when an online travel planner first evaluates a Web site, he or she evaluates the Web site within a short period of time in an attempt to form an overall impression of it. That is, these studies indicate that when information searchers access a Web site, a rapid and almost unconscious but complex thought process is activated (Gladwell 2005; Lindgaard et al. 2006; Winter, Saunders, and Hart 2003). In their research, Kim and Fe ssenmier 2008 describes, that first impressions aroused through an immediate interaction with Web page enables information searchers to make a quick choice about the particular Web site and even subsequent decisions. Importantly, these reactions have a potentially long-lasting effect (i.e., halo effect) whereby they support the search for or interpretation of, information in a way that confirms ones preconceptions (Lindgaard et al. 2006; Nickerson 1998). That is why this research attempts to explore a new emotional aspect of destination homepages through investigating the affective qualities of destination homepages and measuring browsers perceived affective qualities. The next chapter will review the emotional experience in Human-Computer Interaction. 3. The Emotional experience in Human-Computer Interaction This chapter describes the importance of emotion in HCI Most of the earlier HCI design guidelines for websites have focused on the cognitive efficiency of websites. However, as functionality and reliability improved, users needed to be satisfied in other ways. The growing possibilities of the internet (Web 2.0) and the advance of computer graphics, offered web developer the platform to provide users with more positive emotional experiences (Oliver 1996; Ngo and Byrne 2001). Designing interfaces for emotion proved to be an effective method to improve the communication in the online environment (Picard and Klein 2002) and to maximize the effect of online advertising in homepages (Singh and Dalal 1999). Visual design plays an important role in this step, but is more than that. Pleasurable interfaces are also fun to play with. The fluidity of the graphics is engaging, and provides visceral experiences (Norman 2006). These are experiences that appeal to the senses. It can therefore be said that it is worth striving for a positive user experience, as it will satisfy the user and will most likely improve his feelings about the producer of the product. Furthermore, customers will leave the websites that they experience as negative. Schenkman Jonsson (2000) were among the first to propose that evoking specific emotions should be a part of a web developers overall site design strategy. Mahlke Thring (2007) proposed a model to understand emotional experience in interactive contexts. They believe that perceived instrumental qualities that are related to the usability and usefulness of a system, and perceived non instrumental qualities that result from a systems appeal and attractiveness draw attention to the system users. Both types of quality are likely to influence the third component: the emotional reactions that accompany the users interaction with the system. Perceived instrumental qualities are related to the usability of the system. Perceived non-instrumental qualities as the quality aspects of an interactive system that address user needs that go beyond tasks, goals and their efficient achievement. Over the past few years, various concepts of these noninstrumental qualities were discussed (e.g. Jordan 2000; Rafaeli and Vilnai-Yavetz 2003; Hassenzahl 2004; Lavie and Tractinsky 2004; Norman 2004).. In order measures emotion, it is important to know how the noninstrumental qualities relate to the elicited emotions. The non instrumental qualities (aesthetic dimensions and hedonic attributes) are measurable and seem useful for the analysis of a HCI system. Not much is known about the influence of the perceived non-instrumental qualities on emotional reactions. (4) Method used to Measuring website experience Numbers of methods implemented to examine HCI experience but in this study only most widely used method is introduced. Data Logging The most common way to measure internet behaviour is by logging persons website usage. How long does a user stay on a site, where did he come from and where is he going to? Where did he leave in an ordering process? And which keywords were used to get to the site? Questionnaires A common way to evaluate user experience is by questionnaires. As example to study non intstrumental qualities of the website Hassenzahl (2004) and Lavie Tractinsky (2004) are most widely used. Webqual (Loiacono, Watson et al. 2000) is another website quality measurement questionnaire. It measures the likelihood that a person will revisit or make a purchase from a specific site in the future Mouse Behaviour A small number of studies has been conducted that focus on mouse behaviour as a user experience response. Chen, Anderson et al. (2001) indicated a relationship between gaze position and cursor position on a computer screen during web browsing. Mueller Lockerd (2001) developed a tool that records the changes in mouse location throughout the user interaction. (5) Presence of Emotion in Destination Homepages. According to the destination industry expert, destination homepage, as a communication tool is the potential to offer high level virtual experiences. Through the progress of media technology in recent years, most consumers can now view the photos and read information about scenic spots through the Internet in order to experience the sights in advance (Klein, 1998). Direct product experiences have consistently been shown to lead to stronger beliefs and attitudes than other media(Marks Kamins, 1988; Smith Swinyard, 1988). Furthermore, Bigne and Andreau (2004) argue that the recognition of these on-line experiences as a distinct product offering is the key to future economic growth when 75% of consumers are lured back to their favourite websites after a positive experience (Ha Perks, 2005). Research confirms the effect of tourism catalogue on experiential value. Destination image in tourism catalogue helped consumers generate a mental scenario or fantasy and resulting in pleasure (Fiore Yu, 2001). Destination homepages also offers experiential value, which is augmented by fantasy, feelings, and fun derived from a virtual product experience (Song, Fiore, Park, 2006). Song et al. (2006) found that homepage features, as virtual tour, photograph, videos, layout and other aesthetic contents positively affected consumer fantasy, which led to browsing enjoyment Shih (1998) proposed that vividness of the image had a positive effect on approach responses towards the Web site. Therefore, level of realism of the image or completeness of sensory information created by an image interactivity function may result in a positive relationship with level of approach response variables. In another study, Griffith et al. (2001) reported that interface design influenced consumer involvement, or perceived relevance of the product to the consumer. An enjoyable and involving experience should enhance approach responses toward the environment (Mehrabian Russell, 1974). Therefore, the image interactivity functions including text and other aesthetic attributes of a homepage may increase approach responses toward online products and stores. The hedonic consumption paradigm in tourism suggests that in many situations consumers seek fun, amusement, fantasy, arousal, sensory stimulation and enjoyment (Holbrook Hirschman, 1982). Emotional experience plays a primary role in creating this enjoyment. Excitement, a combination of pleasure and arousal (Russell Pratt, 1980), can increase approach tendencies, unplanned purchases, and hedonic shopping value (Dawson et al., 1990; Babin Darden, 1995). The homepage may enhance escapist, esthetic and entertainment experiences, which generate pleasure and arousal (Li, Daugherty, Biocca, 2001). With the features of high level of interactivity, vividness, and thus high level of involvement with its users, the homepage enables visitors to transform experiential attributes into more searchable attributes. Thus, in a highly involved virtual environment, tourism marketers has the potentiality of moving tourist from the status of watcher (i.e., passive participation) to player (i.e., active participant) in the realm of experience (Pine Gilmore, 1998) by increasing the level of interactivity and vividness Since the homepage design (including the aesthetic and functional content) will dominate a users evaluation at first sight, and influence users decision making while surfing on the web site, emotional factor certainly should be considered as an important cue when designing the website (Brave Nass, 2003).Meanwhile, there are many studies indicating that emotional factor is an essential element on emotional design. Previous studies in the marketing field provide support for the view that consumers, who respond in a positive emotional way to commercial websites, are more likely to change their attitudes and purchasing intentions. Yet, online consumer search behaviour in the travel and tourism field has drawn little attention (Ha Perks, 2005; Jang, 2004; Kim, Lee Choi, 2003). As the growing number of online tourists are adopting tourism Webstores, it is important to develop a better understanding of the profile and behaviour of Internet surfers and shoppers as well as to link emotions (and to a certain extent attitudes and behaviours) Understanding consumers affective responses becomes critical (Szymanski Henard, 2001; Wirtz et al., 2000; Zins, 2002). Such understanding is vital in tourism services, with important emotional involvement regarding the tourist experience (Barsky Nash, 2002; Ryan, 1999). Thus, much research is required to know as how browser emotionally response to the destination homepages. Knowledge of the process of emotion, i.e. how emotions are evoked, can enhance our understanding of what makes us enjoy interacting with a tourist website. So far, however, little is known about how people respond emotionally to a destination homepage and what aspects of design or interaction trigger emotional reactions. To measure emotional responses can support exploration of relationships between subjective affective responses, and objective interaction and design characteristics. The next chapter will review the affective qualities of destination homepages. (6) Affective qualities in destination homepages It is important to introduce core affect before defining affective quality (AQ) and perceived affective quality (PAQ). In combining various views and studies on affect in psychology over the past several decades, Russell described core affect as a neurophysiological state that is consciously accessible as a simple, nonreflective feeling that is an integral blend of hedonic (pleasure-displeasure) and arousal (sleepy-activated) values (Russell 2003, p.147). Hedonic value refers to the extent to which one is generally feeling good or bad; and arousal value refers to the extent to which one is feeling engaged or energized (Russell 1980). Core affect is primitive and universal. A person always has core affect at any given conscious moment. Core affect per se is free of objects and thus free of the cognitive structures implied (Russell 2003). This concept is similar to what is commonly called feeling, affect (Watson and Tellegen 1988), and mood (Morris 1989). Whereas core affect exists within a person, affective quality exists within a stimulus. Affective quality refers to a stimulus ability to cause a change in a persons core affect (Russell 2003). A stimulus can be a person, place, condition, event, state of affairs, physical object, behavior, etc. In this study, a destination homepage is considered as such a stimulus that contains certain affective quality. Perception of affective quality (PAQ) is an individuals perception of a stimulus affective quality (Russell 2003). PAQ begins with a specific stimulus and remains tied to that stimulus (Russell 2003). The perception of affective quality of the exposed stimuli typically impinges at any one time (how pleasant, unpleasant, exciting, boring, upsetting, or soothing each is), then influences subsequent reactions to those stimuli (Russell 2003). PAQ is considered as the second most primitive concept after core affect (Russell 2003). Note that certain homepage features that are attractive to one person may not be so to another. PAQ reflects such subjectivity. The structure of affect and affective quality has been interpreted in several different ways, each with its own measurement model, conceptual framework, and accumulating literature (Larsen and Diener 1992; Reisenzein 1994; Russell 1980; Schlosberg 1941; Thayer 1989; Watson and Tellegen 1985; Wundt 1912/1924). In the destination web environment, researchers have found that certain affective reactions can be evoked by some aesthetic features of the website, such as colors, music, shapes, layout, information load, images, graph, menu, and so on (Huang 2003; Hwang, et al. 2001; Kim, et al. 2003; Mundorf, et al. 1993; Scheirer and Picard 1999; Schenkman and Jonsson 2000; Tractinsky, et al. 2000; van der Heijden 2003). Aesthetic features of a homepage refer to visual items that can raise the interests of online travellers such as pictures, colours and graphical layout. These visual items would attract the attention of first time visitors and form an initial image of the destination. There are two sub factors in this category destination visualisation and Web design. The Internet allows a website to function not only as a substantive information tool, but also as an online multimedia which can satisfy the visual as well as information seeking behaviour of consumers (Murphy et al., 1996; Cano and Prentice, 1998; Countryman, 1999; Morrison et al., 1999; Benckendorff and Black, 2000; Palmer and McCole, 2000; Jeong and Lambert, 2001; Ismail et al., 2002; Kim et al., 2003; Mills and Morrison,2003). Visuals refer to the quality of the pictures of the attractions, logos and slogans of the destination. The use of colours that match with logos, destination pictures and aesthetically appealing backgrounds also contribute to the visual appeal at destination websites. Such visual features enhance online travellers interests as they provide a glimpse of the unknown destination. Online video clips, newsletters or brochures can provide more intense impact as they aid recall and awareness of the destination. The elements that enhance online attributes are site maps, homebuttons, search engines for website contents and directories. Other aspects include a memorable website address, availability of accuracy of links and correct spelling, clear and readable text, clean and uncluttered Web page. The presence of such visualisation elements enhance both the visual experience and the reliability and trustability of information presented by online users. all these factors can be considered as the affective qualities of a homepage in general but till now there is no research that confirmed if picture, color, logos; graphical layouts can be defined as the generic affective qualities for a destination homepages and how they perceived. (7) Expression of emotions According to Desmet (2002) there are four expressive components that shape emotions: Behavioral components: the actions or behaviors one engages in when experiencing an emotion. Such as approach, inaction, avoidance and attack (Arnold 1960). In the face of danger or fear people want to run away and when in love people want to approach and caress. Expressive reactions: the facial, vocal and postural expressions that accompany the emotion. Physiological reaction: the changes in activity in the autonomic nervous system which accompany emotions (activation, arousal, changes in heart rate) Subjective feeling: the conscious awareness of the emotional state one is in. experiencing an emotion. Using expressive and physiological reactions to measure emotions will be limited to interpret. First, the results are related to a select group of discrete (basic) emotions as fear, anger and happiness. While it is believed that for measuring emotions in HCI, more emotions are relevant. Second, the influence of the measurement tool is noticed by the participant, which may distort the results. The focus is therefore moved to the measuring of subjective feelings of participants. This is subject to self-report and therefore applicable in an online environment The field of psychology focuses on dimensional method to analyze emotions by subjective feelings. The following chapter will review the affective state of the browser (8) Affective States Figure: 1 Differentiating affective states (Desmet 2002 p. 4) The term emotion is often misused for a wide variety of experiential phenomena, such as passions, sentiments, temperament and moods. Desmet (2002) defines these phenomena as affective states and distinguishes them into four different segments (after Frijda 1994), as shown in Table 1. The affective states are differentiated, based on two considerations. Affective states can be intentional and non-intentional: states that involve relationship between the person and a particular object are intentional, whereas those that do not involve such a relationship are non-intentional (Desmet 2002 p. 4). Intentional Non-intentional Acute Dispositional Emotions Moods Sentiments Emotional traits Affective states can be acute or dispositional: states that are limited in time are acute: states that are not limited in time are dispositional. Emotions are intentional. They are related to a particular object, whether that object is a person, a product or a website. For example: one is in love with a person, proud of a product or angry at an interface. This also implies that people are usually able to identify this object of their emotion (Ekman and Davidson 1994). However, in some cases a person may be unaware of the cause of their emotion. Emotions are furthermore acute, and their duration is limited to seconds, or minutes at most. Emotions are distinguished from moods, sentiments and emotional traits. Moods tend to have a relatively long-term character but are still limited in time. One can be sad or cheerful for a few hours or several days. They are, in contrast with emotions, not intentional for they are not directed at a particular object but at the surroundings in general (Frijda 1994). Emotional traits are descriptions of ones character and can be seen as long-lasting moods. For instance, being in a sad mood does not mean one is a gloomy person, since a mood is only temporal. Finally sentiments are the dispositional component of emotions, they are long-term attitudes towards particular objects or events. One can love ice-creams or Apple products and have a general disliking of products that are produced by child labour. Because of the acute state of emotions, they are hard to measure. In order to try and measure them, it is therefore important to know how emotions are elicited and how they are manifested by persons. These subjects will be he handled in the following sections. (9) Measuring Emotions This paragraph introduces some methods that are currently used to measure subjective feelings by the dimensional and discrete approach. Measuring Emotions with a Dimensional Approach The dimensional approach captures subjective feelings in a three-dimensional space. This space consists of the dimensions of valence (positive negative), arousal (calm -excited), and tension (tense-relaxed, and sometimes indicated as control, or potency). Because of the difficulty of identifying the third dimension many theorists have limited themselves to the valence and arousal dimensions. Russell (1980) believes affective states as emotions and moods are grounded in simple structures as feeling good or bad, and feeling energized or activated. He proposed a circular structure to map emotional feelings into a two-dimensional (see figure) Basically, in this dimensional approach participants are asked to evaluate how positive/negative and how excited they feel. The answers to these questions determine the position participants take in the circular structure, which serves as an indicator of their emotional state. The dimensional approach of measuring emotions has been used for a long time. Wundt (1896) already discussed the dimensions of pleasure, tension and inhibition in 1896. Mehrabian Russell (1974) used the Semantic Differential Scale (SDS) to measure the three dimensions of value, arousal and dominance on 18 bipolar adjective pairs. Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) Because there were issues about the reliance of a verbal rating system in SDS, Lang (1980) developed a picture-oriented instrument called the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM). Just like the SDS, the SAM uses a 9-point rating scale for each dimension, the items are however nonverbal SAM has been applied for many studies in the field of psychology and consumer research.Tests with SAM (Bradley and Lang 1994) proved that the two dimensions of valence and arousal are pervasive organizers of human judgements. Pleasure reflects ones tendency to approach a stimulus, whereas arousal indexes the amount of vigour associated with a given behavioural choice. Bradley Lang assume that judgements of dominance indexes the relationship between the perceiver and perceived. SAM is limited because it only describes the values of three constructs. It may furthermore prove to be difficult for users to interpret the images without help. Measuring Emotions with a Discrete Approach In the discrete approach of measuring emotions, a list of emotion words is presented. Participants have to rate the intensity of the words. Many verbal questionnaires with different sets of emotion words have been developed in the past. In this section, two instruments of measuring discrete emotions are presented. The first instrument is still under development and approaches the measuring of discrete emotions in a new way by combining it with their position on two dimensions. The second, is a non-verbal approach of rating discrete emotions. Geneva Scherer (2005) developed the Geneva Emotion Wheel, a tool for the verbal report of emotions. It includes 16 emotions categories that are positioned in a circle that is based around two dimensions. The first dimension is the level of perceived control in the situation that generates the emotion. The second dimension is the positive/negative quality judgement of the situation and of the resulting feeling. The user is able to rate the intensity of each emotion category on a four-point scale, represented by the size of the circles next to the emotion words. PrEmo PrEmo is a measurement tool developed by Desmet (2002) to measure fourteen discrete emotions which are elicited by product appearance. Each emotion is portrayed by an animated figure by means of dynamic facial, bodily and vocal expression. The character expresses seven positive emotions (inspiration, desire, satisfaction, pleasant surprise, fascination, amusement, admiration), and seven negative emotions (disgust, indignity, contempt, disappointment, dissatisfaction, boredom, and unpleasant surprise). In experiments with PrEmo, participants were first presented with the image of a product and subsequently instructed to use the animations to report their emotions evoked by the product. This is possible by scoring a three-point scale which is presented on the left side of the animation. The scale represents the following ratings: I do not feel the emotion I somehow feel the emotion I do feel the emotion. Visual feedback of the scorings is provided by the background colour of the anim ation frame.PrEmo is an original way to rate emotions. The most common doubt about the discrete emotion words is whether the labels really express the experienced emotions and to what extent they do express them. A participant might want to respond with a word or category that is not provided in the list. This may force the person to respond with a close alternative. Additionally, the use of expressions (e.g. colloquial language or psychological terms) could make people misunderstand the word. Finally, as researchers often use self-composed lists of discrete emotions, it is hard to compare results of discrete emotion measurements. Therefore from the above discussion we can conclude that dimensional method is the simplest to process and in that case self report seems to be the most practical method to use. METHODOLOGY Participants: the number of participant for the first is 20 and they are all iniversity students. To measure the affective qualities of the destination homepages, each of the samples will be given the printed picture of 25 different destination homepages. The homepages are selected as they are not popular and as obscure to reduce the bias to a particular homepage. The text used in the homepages is in English language. After viewing each of the pages for ten seconds the sample will be asked to rate the pages in a five point Likert scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree to identify the affective qualities of the homepgaes. Following the first test a panel of homepages will be selected and will be used in the second test to measure the affective state of the browser. In the second test the Russels dimensional scale of emotion will employed to measure the perceived affective qualities. Justification of the survey questionnaire in the first test Color Vision is one of the most important senses of human beings. We see everything through eyes. People have different responses to different objects with colors. For example, food with different color designs will give consumers different perceive flavors. (Garber, Hyatt, and Starr, 2000). Also, consumers judge the quality of things by colors. Previous researches found that color is a direct indicator for consumers to evaluate the quality, for instance, tomatoes, citrus and cranberries (Francis, 1995). In the era of e commerce, companies are losing customers as a result of having color on websites that do not accurately show the actual color of product which is being sold (Nitse, Parker, Krmwiede and Ottaway, 2004). Therefore, color has been influential in consumers decisions. There have been numbers of studies that have investigated that the application of colors on websites, such as that the influence of color on time perception (Gorn, Chattopadhyay, Sengupta, Tripathi 2004.), the per formance in a visual search task of color and website design(Robert and Paul, 2003), the influence of color on click rate (Zviran, Teeni, and Gross, 2006), the effect of visual stimuli, (i.e. the design of color) on mail survey response rates (LaGarce, R. and Kuhn, L. D. 1995), the effect The studies about the effect of colors on emotions, feelings, and series of purchasing behavior are all positive. Question 1, 2, 11 have been supported by these theories. Picture Viewing affective pictures elicits a number of physiological reactions in cardiovascular, electrodermal, and somatic systems. For instance, skin conductance responses are larger when viewing emotionally arousing pleasant or unpleasant pictures, compared to neutral pictures. Findings from another (Jeong and Choy, 2004) study indicated that if a hotel Website provided a variety of pictures of the hotel and featured service personnel or guests in the pictures, customers tended to have more favorable attitudes toward the hotel Website because they could mentally picture the overall image of the hotel and benefits of the service, and imagine actually experiencing the service.It is clear that affective pictures are effective cues in activating emotional response. Question 3, 4,7,11 correspond with these theories. Pleasure Pleasure is the extent to which the visitor perceives the homepage wattching to be enjoyable and is considered a prerequisite for a successful site. Chen et al. suggest that the level of entertainment offered by a web site is a key predictor of user attitude towards the site. Childers et al. (2002) argued that the extent to which a web site evoked hedonic feelings significantly affected the Internet shopping experience of the customer. This was further confirmed by Eroglu et al. (2003). Provision of multimedia elements, such as graphics, audio, video, and backgrounds, is considered significant in enhancing web site content and increasing attractiveness. Further, using interesting themes, flashy graphics, or appealing site design may make a web site experience entertaining and increase visitors likelihood to conduct business. Question 5,6, 8,9,10 supported by these theories. please see the attached survey

Cheating and the History of Mankind - 614 Words

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The Comedy in Chivalry Free Essays

Jordynn Barnes April 16, 2013 The comedy in Chivalry The historical adulteration of chivalry in Don Quixote by Cervantes ties in to its literary parody. Don Quixote parodies the anticipation of chivalric affection: lone knights had lost their military essence. The dominant classes still served the ideology of chivalry. We will write a custom essay sample on The Comedy in Chivalry or any similar topic only for you Order Now The loss chivalry can be tied into the War of the Alpujarras. The knights, the caballeros de cuantia, were obligated to keep their horse and armor ready for serving the king, but slowly and shamefully they were unprepared. The knight’s individual language of knightly service represents the parody realism of chivalry as foolish as Don Quixote could fantasize about. Also, The knight’s materialistic behavior and desire of self-interest represented the character Sancho Panza. Don Quixote has read about chivalric romance and he tried to imitate the knights-errant. This is comical, because he had such a since of mission. These knights that he was trying to imitate were so far from being chivalric, yet he thought otherwise. The armor that the knights used to wear was for military purposes, but while going on his missions through La Mancha, he made sure to have his armor on. This was strange to the La Mancha town’s people, because wearing armor did not necessarily mean that knight was chivalric. Chivalry was long dead, and people only knew of it through books; it was not a practice they were used to. Don Quixote attempted to bring back this practice, and this draws attention to the interlude between social hierarchy and the principles that it sustained. This story of Don Quixote is a burlesque epic of the chivalry romance. Cervantes tried to teach the readers the sincerity by creating a ridiculous comedy my mocking and ridiculing the time period. Cervantes first shows how the protagonist’s noble knightly manner is old fashioned. The comedy is easy to understand, because the dynamics of the story are simple. Don Quixote tries to act out what he has read in the stories, for example, he lets prostitutes pamper him, because he says that they are princesses. In chapter three, he lets the innkeeper properly knight him, because he has not yet been knighted yet. Don Quixote thought that it was a knight’s duty to protect the citizens, so another comical scene in the novel is when Don Quixote tries to save a boy from being beaten from his master. Don Quixote tried to revolve the conflict, and he felt satisfied when he rode off on his horse; but little did he know is that the master beat the worker boy even worse after Don Quixote had left. â€Å"We can define comedy as something that entertains the reader and that makes us want to laugh out loud and Cervantes succeeds in doing this through his use of parody and satire and burlesque, slapstick and simple self-reflexive comedy. Along with the comedy, Cervantes uses adventures and shock through Don Quixote’s character to further entertain. Don Quixote had intervals of lucidity and moments of insanity. A moment of insanity is when he used the galley slaves to help fight off the guards so that he could reach his princess. Don Quixote freed the galley slaves, and in return the galley slaves beat Don Quixote, and left him. â€Å"Cervantes places particular emphasis on the comedy of appearance, comedy of situation and the comedy of action during Don Quixote’s adventures and it is the use of these devices that makes the story so humorous from beginning to end. The theme of appearance is used to show the burlesque role of chivalry in the story. The material appearance of Don Quixote and his horse Rocinante, as well as Don Quixote’s vision on the banal places he stumbles upon proceeded to generate the foundation for laughter. The fact that Don Quixote had used cardboard as a visor showed in itself the humor from the description of his appearance. Not only did he use cardboard, he held his helmet together by green ribbons, and when the innkeeper had asked him to take his helmet off he said no, because taking it off would make the helmet fall apart. How to cite The Comedy in Chivalry, Papers

Organisational Context Medibank Travel Insurance

Question: Write a report on Medibank Travel Insurance. Answer: Background summary Insurance is a process by which one party agrees to compensate the other party in case of certain events happening. This cover is provided by the first party in return of payment of a certain amount called premium by the second party. There are different types of insurances like life insurance, health insurance, general insurance, etc. people have become more aware of the need to insure themselves against different types of risks which can cause financial and physical losses to the individuals. As the demand for insurance products grew over a period, the number of companies providing insurance services has also grown. In Australia also there are several companies providing insurance. The general insurance companies in Australia have existed for a long period of time. The insurance industry in Australia is regulated by a prudential regulator called Australian Prudential Regulation Authority. This authority is concerned with the implementation of Insurance Act. Further there is a corporate regulator called Australian Securities and Investment Commission which follows Insurance Contracts Act. There is also an organization of the general insurance industry of Australia called Insurance Council of Australia. This organization also creates awareness about general insurance issues among the people (Insurance Council Of Australia, 2016). The general insurance industry in Australia is characterized by high degree of competition among insurance firms. There are also many fluctuations in the earnings of the insurers. The Global Financial Crisis of 2008 affected the general insurance industry in Australia adversely (Accenture, 2016). Further, floods and other natural disasters in 2010-2011 also led to increased claims by people who had taken insurance policies. This created financial problems for the insurance industry in Australia. A large amount of reserves with the insurance companies were used for settling claims of customers. But the insurance industry has recovered from such setbacks. It has to face more challenges as customers have become more price sensitive. They have become more aware of the insurance products and compare insurance policies offered by different companies before making a purchase decision. Medibank Private Limited is one of the leading insurance companies of Australia (Medibank Private Limited, 2016). The company has been doing well in selling different types of insurance products, but its market share in the travel insurance business is lesser than that of many other companies. Medibank has planned to launch again its travel insurance business. There is the need for the company to follow a new marketing strategy to increase its travel insurance business. Products and service There are a variety of reasons that make people buy a travel insurance policy. There are individuals who have apprehensions that their luggage might get lost while they are travelling. They want insurance so that they get compensated if such a thing happens. Some of them feel that they would suffer if their important documents get lost during a journey. Further there are many who are worried about the medical expenses in a foreign country. Medibank should look thoroughly into the purposes for which people buy insurance while designing its travel insurance products. The company should offer a comprehensive travel insurance plan that compensates for lost luggage, medical expenses, flight accidents, etc. Further the consumer should be provided the option to cover for expenses arising out of cancellation of trip. The idea is to cover all the important objectives for which the consumers buy travel insurance. There is need for proper market research by the company (Zimmerman and Blythe, 2013). In this case premium to be paid by the customer would vary according to the number of options the customer has selected. The company should focus primarily on the proper development and promotion of this insurance plan also because it would cover the needs of different types of people like those going on a vacation, educational tours, visiting relatives, etc (Ettlie and Rosenthal, 2011). the company should set up the goal of earning maximum revenues by selling this insurance plan. Instead of having too many insurance policies the firm should focus a large proportion of its energy in making this insurance plan a success. Apart from the above discussed insurance plan, the company should also have insurance policies tailored to meet the needs of business people and those travelling for medical purposes. The company should aim to provide professional services relating to issues like claim settlement, medical services in hospitals abroad and any other required documentation. The enterprise should make use of latest technology in offering its services. The company should have processes which are transparent and fair for the customers. Pricing Medibank wants to beat the competition in the travel insurance sector. One of the most important tools to achieve this objective is to fix the prices of its insurance policies, that is, premiums, at a lower level than its competitors (Zielke, 2010). The company needs to bring down the cost of operating its business. This can be achieved by having innovative processes and better training of its employees. The company needs to be agile and respond to the needs of its customers with speed. The decision making in the company should be quick. The claims of customers should not be kept pending for too long. When the customer contacts the company, then the executives of the enterprise should be prompt and show empathy. As the company lowers its premiums, the volume of its business is expected to rise as the consumers in the insurance sector of Australia are very particular and sensitive about the price of an insurance policy. The customers are looking for value for their money. As Medibank provides good quality services for a reasonable price, its customers in the travel insurance space would increase (Steenkamp, Heerde and Geyskens, 2010). Medibank has been doing well in other types of insurance like health and life insurance. People in Australia know about the company. The company can convey to its customers that lower premiums do not mean lower quality of service. The enterprise should have the objective of reducing or cutting costs without compromising on quality. Further while fixing premiums for travel insurance policies, the company should take into consideration factors like the total cost of the tour, its length, age of people being insured and the number of insurance covers that the customer wants. Place and distribution Medibank makes use of modern technology to sell its travel insurance policies. Any individual can buy an insurance policy of the company by applying online at the enterprises website. The company has kept the procedure for buying the insurance policies online simple (Lunt and Carrera, 2011). There is some information that the customers have to provide and they get a quotation. But Medibank should provide more information to a consumer when the individual uses the online process for buying travel insurance policy of the company. There are many online customers who buy an insurance policy only after comparing the insurance policies of different companies. Medibank should provide a comparison of the features of insurance products of the company with that of the insurance policies of the other companies in a concise way to the online consumers. The information should be provided in an attractive way. The company should aim to sell a large proportion of its insurance policies online. This method is also less costly and less time consuming. The company should strengthen its information technology section to help the marketing department in making sales online. The company needs to properly organize its online operations. The company should develop more advanced application (software) that can be downloaded by consumers on their mobile phones. This software would help the consumers buy insurance products of the company online. The effort of the company should be to make the process of buying insurance from the company more convenient for the consumers. Medibank also sells its insurance policies through intermediaries like brokers and travel agents (Manzano and Valpuesta, 2010). The company should organize workshops and training events for the agents and brokers. The company should provide them with more detailed information regarding its insurance products. Further there can be sessions to teach communication and marketing skills to these people. Medibank should also provide competitive commission and benefits to these people (Eckardt and Doppner, 2010). Promotional mix The market for insurance products in Australia is very competitive. Medibank Private Limited is one of the leading sellers of life insurance and health insurance in Australia. The company has an identity in the market. The enterprise should make use of this goodwill created over a period while selling its travel insurance products also. The company should convey in its promotional messages in the media that the same company with excellent management skills, knowledge and products has now come with better travel insurance products. The firm should do some introspection regarding how the company has been able to do so well in selling the other kinds of insurance products (Zimmerman and Blythe, 2013). Medibank should try to associate with travel and tourism programs on television and radio. The company can also sponsor sports events especially adventure sports like skiing and rowing held in tourist destinations to target the people who visit such places. The firm can make its website provide more information and if possible make it interactive (Lunt and Carrera, 2011). The idea is to create an inclination in the consumer to travel by showing how enjoying and safe the experience can be if the consumer has brought travel insurance from the company. Conclusion Insurance industry is a very important part of any country as it helps people face numerous types of risks. In case of any tragic incident happening, the insurance firm bears the cost out of the premiums collected by it from a large number of people. But in case of losses being very large, even the insurance companies find their resources too stretched. There is element of risk for the companies also. In Australia such a situation arises when there are natural problems like floods. The insurance companies therefore need to decide with utmost care what premiums to charge from their customers. There is lot of competition in the insurance industry in Australia. The companies cannot charge too high premiums but they have to charge a sufficient amount so that they do not find themselves facing liquidation in case of natural disaster happening. The insurance business needs to be carried out in a professional way. Some companies find it difficult to survive in insurance industry. Medibank, as a company, should realize that competition is part of business. Further the enterprise needs to understand what its competitors are doing to be more successful. The firm should see whether it is not getting repeat customers due to its poor service. The company should train its employees better. After a customer buys the insurance from the company, the person should get the service promised by the firm. It is sometimes easier to build expectations but difficult to live up to them. References Accenture (2016) How Australian Insurers Can Achieve Profitable Growth In A Challenging Market Overview. A Eckardt, M. and Doppner, S. (2010) The Quality Of Insurance Intermediary Services: Empirical Evidence For Germany, Journal of Risk And Insurance, 77(3), pp. Ettlie, J. and Rosenthal, S. (2011) Service Versus Manufacturing Innovation, Journal of Product Innovation Management, 28(2), pp. 285-299, Insurance Council Of Australia (2016) Issues And Submissions. Lunt, N. and Carrera, P. (2011) Systematic Review Of Web Sites For Prospective Medical Tourists, Tourism Review, 66(1/2), pp. 57-67, Manzano, J. and Valpuesta, L. (2010) The Decline Of The Traditional Travel Agent Model, Transportation Research Part E: Logistics And Transportation Review.

Concepts of Confucianism and Daoism free essay sample

Concepts of Confucianism and Daoism Author’s Name Institutional Affiliation Abstract Confucianism is seen or viewed as a way of achieving the full potential in persons thus attaining harmony in society and the world through moral cultivation. All Confucians share the conviction that it is possible to transform oneself and all of society through the cultivation of virtue. This paper therefore discusses various concept and assumptions of Confucianism mainly ren, xiao, li and yi and it also touches on Daoism. Concepts of Confucianism and Daoism Confucianism can be defined as a way of achieving the full potential of human life and attaining harmony in society and the world through moral self-cultivation. It is agreed among Confucian thinkers that the cultivation of moral virtues through which a person learns to be fully human is fundamental to human and social well-being. Confucius or Kong Zhongni was born in China where he was well known as Kong Fuzi and by the time he was growing up he personally experienced the poverty, political abuse and hardship that affected the lives of ordinary people. Confucius shared a belief that although the way of humans is established in the way of heaven and operates in harmony with the way of nature it is to the ideals and exemplars of the human way that we must turn to for guidance for the purpose of reforming and renewing the society. Naturalism agrees that it is nature that is taken as the ultimate source of values whereby the human principles for human action and life are taken from nature. On the other hand supernaturalism argues that a being or power other than human beings or nature is taken to be the ultimate source of value. The supernatural being regulates both nature and humans making them subordinates. Humanism is a concept whereby humanity, rather than the nature or God is taken as the ultimate source of values. In humanism people look to the best of their human practices to find the principles that provide for goodness and happiness. The main concepts of Confucianism are those of human goodness (ren), propriety (li), filiality (xiao), and rightness (yi). The word ren has been translated in many different ways to mean â€Å"virtue,† â€Å"humanity,† â€Å"benevolence,† â€Å"true manhood,† â€Å"moral character,† â€Å"love,† â€Å"human-goodness,† and â€Å"human-heartedness† among other meanings. Human-heartedness suggests that ren makes us human because it is a matter of feeling as well as thinking therefore becoming the foundation for all human relationships. This reveals the Chinese emphasis on the heart, rather than the head, as the central feature of the human nature. Confucius understood that the way of humanity is highly personal, lies within each human being, and must be realized in one’s personal life and one’s personal relationships. Confucius once answered his student who asked the definition of ren that it meant the action of loving men. Ren’s ultimate principle of action reveals that a superior man never abandons humanity (ren) even for the lapse of a single meal and in moments of haste he acts according to it and in times of difficulty or confusion he acts according to it. One who departs away from ren is not expressing the fullness of humanity. A resolute scholar and a man of humanity will never seek to live at the expense of injuring humanity and he would rather sacrifice his life at the expense of realizing humanity. It is ren, ultimately that makes life worth living. Conscientiousness or zhong agrees that one has to strive to be the best he or she can be and to do the best one can do while Altruism (shu) consists in putting oneself in place of others, extending ren to all relationships. The way of zhong and shu incorporates the golden rule of Confucius namely treat others as you wish to be treated. It is only through enriching and optimizing human relationships that self and society can achieve their highest perfection. It is observed that ren is the basis of humanity and the ultimate guide to human action, Confucius recognized that more immediate and concrete actions are needed in every day life. The concrete guides to every day human action is found in the rules of propriety (li) governing customs, ceremonies, and relationships established by human practice over the ages. Therefore li is the ceremonial or ritual means by which the potential of humanity i. e ren is realized. On another occasion when Confucius was asked what is ren about he replied by saying to master oneself and return to propriety (li) is humanity (ren). Self-mastery refers to the self-development that overcomes selfishness and cultivates the inner qualities of humanity that include sincerity and personal rectitude. Confucius also believed that if a man can for one day master himself and return to propriety, all under heaven will return to humanity. To practice human is the human choice thus what meks li a standard of conduct is the fact that it is in accord with ren. Therefore customs and regulations cannot be in accordance with ren if they are not li. The individuals own humanity can be evoked and developed through true ren. Embodies of li included ceremonial activities and they were very clear to Confucius as of one day he is said to sigh after a ceremony. Confucius was attached to a remark that li was the principle by which the ancient kings embodied the laws of heaven and regulated the expression of human nature and therefore he who has attained li lives and he who has lost it dies. To understand the importance of li we need to examine the meaning this concept had on Confucius and his predecessors. The word li can be used in many ways to give different meanings and this may include religion; general principle of social order; the entire body of social, moral and religious practices taught by conficius. Li can also be viewed as a system of well defined social relationships with definite attitudes toward one another, love in the parents, filiality in the children, respect in the younger brothers, friendliness in the elder brothers, loyalty among friends, respect for authority among subjects, and benevolence in rulers. Thus li entails moral discipline in personal conduct and also means propriety in everything. Li is that important to Confucius that it must be looked deeply whereby we find that the earliest notion of it is religious where it is concerned with the rights of religious activities performed by the emperor to secure the blessings of Heaven and support of the spirits for his reign. This soon came to denote most emperor’s duties as well as a did range of other rituals, such as marriage, and military and government festivals and therefore the sense in this coincides with amore or less elaborate set of rules and conventions, requiring strict observation for public activities. The second notion of li explains it in terms of customary code of social behavior and in this sense it is customary law, or common morality. Therefore in this particular sense li takes the place of written law though it differs from the written law in that it is positive rather than negative. Li was generally assumed to conform to aristocracy. The last meaning of li describes it as anything proper and conforming to the norms of humanity. All the meanings of li are related and all refer to acts that are public and are ceremonial, acts constituting the important rituals of life for example exchange of greetings between two people or mourning rites for a deceased relative. A ceremony is considered public in the sense that it involves at least two people in relationship with each other. The development of ren is backed by the shared participation in life with other persons who are fundamentally a like in their common human nature. Yu Tzu, a favorite student of Confucius, said, â€Å"filiality (xiao) and brotherly respect are the root of humanity. This is the virtue of reverence and respect for family and firstly parents are revered because life itself is generated from them. Therefore it is important to protect the body from harm just to show reverence to the parents since the body is from these parents. Honoring the parents can be shown by protecting the body. Reverence in bigger part can be shown to parents by doing well and earning them respect. Xiao concentrates in bringing parents emotional and spiritual richness. And, equally important, after parents are dead, their unfulfilled aims and purposes should be the aims and purposes of the children which is even more important than offering sacrifices to the departed spirits. The xiao virtue influences actions outside the family circle and becomes a moral and social virtue. Children acquire love from their brothers and sisters after showing respect and reverence for their parents and when this is accomplished the children can love all humankind thus the beginning of ren was found in xiao. Confucius also stressed another necessary virtue for developing ren and that is yi usually translated as rightness. He argued that the superior man regards rightness (yi) as the substance of everything. Yi tells us about the right way of acting in certain situtions so that we will stay in the same line as ren demands. It mainly deals with morality which determines a person’s ability to recognize what is right and do the right. Confucius viewed this ability in terms of a person’s character or uprightness. Yi talks of morality in that a person who sees an opportunity for personal gain thinks first about whether it will be morally right (yi) to do so. Such a person is able to sacrifice his or her own life for someone in danger. In yi since its morally right action we therefore see that some actions must be performed for the same reason that they are right. Other actions may be performed for the sake of something valuable they bring about i. e. for the sake of profit. This is contrary to the actions performed according to yi which are only performed because they are right. It is evident that li, xiao and yi make the characteristics of a superior person who has both humanity and morality cultivated in him therefore becoming the opposite of the person who is morally uncultivated. Embodiment of ren through li, xiao and yi will result in a well ordered society. Therefore people must have faith or sincerity in these virtues for there to be good governance and harmonious social order. Along with Confucianism, Daoism/Taoism is one of the greatest indigenous philosophical traditions of China. The Daoist ideas and concerns include wuwei meaning effortless action, ziran meaning naturalness, how to become a shengren i. e sage or zhenren i. e realized person and the mysterious Dao meaning way. Daoism is described as a retroactive grouping of ideas and writings which were already at that time one to two centuries old, and which may or may not have been ancestral to various post-classical religious movements. Wing-Tsit a philosopher spoke of Daoist religion as a degeneration of Daoist philosophy arising from the time of celestial masters. Wing – Tsit viewed that Daoist philosophy (daojia) and Daoist religion (daojiao) are absolutely different traditions and therefore trying to separate the two is more of the western frame of reference we use than of Daoism itself. The ideas of the Daoist fermented among master teachers who had a holistic view of life. These Daoists practiced meditation and physical exercises, studied nature for diet and remedy, practiced rituals related to their view that reality had many layers and forms with whom/which humans could interact, led small communities, and advised rulers on all these subjects. The teachings of the masters gradually became more available through their masters. Therefore it’s difficult to separate Daoism from religion or philosophy since it is evident in both. Daoism is clearly understood in Chinese language since it originates in China. References Koller M. J. (2006). Asian Philosophies.