Significant Health Care Event Essay Example for Free

Significant Health Care Event Essay While writing this paper on health care it will be discuss how some significant event relates to the changes taking place in health care today. It will also examine if this event made an impact in the historic evolution of health care. Last thing this paper will discuss is do my personal belief and values agree with this change? This significant event is technology. The growth of technology has played a role in how health care is changing in the United States. According to Leiyu Shi â€Å"technological revolution has been primarily responsible for bringing medicine into the public domain. Technology have open debate over how people will pay for health care, what kind of health care they will receive and what role will governments play in health care. Health care has gone through three historic phases; the first phase was preindustrial era that was from the middle of the 18th century to the latter part of the 19th century. The second phase postindustrial era started in the late 19th century and the phase the country is currently in the corporate eras, which mark the growth of globalization, organizational integration, managed care, and information revolution. There have been several ways technology has changed health care services. One way is the improvement in records keeping. This makes it easier to keep up with patient’s records and help hospital workers do their job more effectively. Record keeping was made safer and easier when hospitals went to electronic health records, errors was far less than before electronic records. It also makes it quicker access for the physicians and staff to find files that was needed in a timely manner. By having this information on a screen in front of the physician, it makes the physician be able to make a decision based on a patient entire medical record. The Internet has empowered patient to research their own symptoms and find a doctor of their choice. Hospitals are using websites, blog, and social media to connect with potential patients and to get the good thing that they are doing to help people when they are sick. Technology offered patient hope of finding a cure or a much easier and faster way of doing procedures. Technology has changed the world, now we can take college classes’online, grocery shop from your home and technology has made a major improvement in the health care field. The digital revolution has completely changed the way we get information on, and treatment for, our health. I believe technology has helped the growth of healthcare and it will continue to make thing better for the patients and healthcare across the United States. I personally agree that technology will continue to help with the ever growing need for more ways to do patient friendly surgeries for health care and I witness this as an employee of a health care facility. For example I watch the way some procedures are done with the new technology da vinci robotic surgery. According to Intuitive Surgical Thanks to a breakthrough surgical technology, there is a new category of minimally invasive surgery for which you may be a candidate. It is an effective, minimally invasive alternative to both open surgery and laparoscopy. Through the use of the da Vinci ® Surgical System, surgeons are now able to offer a minimally invasive option for complex surgical procedures. Before this technology came to the hospital the surgery required large open incisions, this meant recovery time was more and also it was proven the patients will be in more pain this way. The da vinici surgery has help patients get back to their normal lives faster, shorter hospital stay, and less pain. In conclusion health care is in a better place today because of the significant event of technology being part of health care. Scientist will continue to strive and make new technology to improve the way surgery is done. Government has to find a way to come together on how Americans can afford to have healthcare. My beliefs and values are that the United States has to move toward making sure all Americans have health insurance.

Unified Power Quality Conditioner Engineering Essay

Unified Power Quality Conditioner Engineering Essay Abstract-The aim of this paper is to present a constant frequency unified power quality conditioning system(CFUPQC)which consists of an unified power quality conditioner(UPQC) extended by adding a frequency changer in between the shunt active filter and series active filter . The series active filter and shunt active filters mainly used to compensate the voltage, current imbalance and harmonics. The frequency converter is used to compensate the supply frequency when it varies beyond the power quality limit. The proposed configuration all converters are connected back to back on the dc side and share the common dc link capacitor. The simulation results are presented to confirm that the new approach has better performance than the traditional UPQC. Index Terms-CFUPQC, frequency changer, voltage source converter (VSC), Matlab simulink INTRODUCTION Uunifed power quality conditioner is an advanced concepts in the area of power quality control. The basic working principle of unified power quality conditioner is based on series and parallel power converters that share a common dc link [1].Unified power quality conditioner is used to compensate voltage sag, voltage swell [2] , current harmonics [3] it is also creates an impact on the reactive power [4] through shunt voltage source inverter and series voltage source inverter. In order to avoid the switching oscillation, a passive filter is applied at the output of each inverter. At the output of shunt inverter a high pass second order LC filter is allocated and the output of series inverter low pass second order LC resonance filter is allocated. UPQC controller provides the compensation voltage through the UPQC series inverter and conditioning the current through the shunt inverter by instantaneous sampling of load current and source voltage. The reference current are compared with the shunt inverter output current (,) and are fed to hysteresis type (PWM) current controller. There are some problems with PQC. As the supply frequency changes the UPQC will not compensate the voltage sag and swell and current harmonics properly. This happens due to the presence of LC filters at the Inverters output terminals. It is directly affected by the variation of supply frequency. Fig.1: Basic Configuration of Constant Frequency Unified Power Quality Conditioner (CFUPQC) Fig 1 shows the proposed improved configuration of constant Frequency unified power quality conditioner. This modified unified power quality conditioner concepts enables the PWM converter to perform not only active filtering purpose, also the function of frequency changer. The compensation principle of the CFUPQC will be described in the coming sections. The proposed unified power quality conditioner has to satisfy the following requirements. Reactive power is maintained at minimum value. The load voltage should be maintained at the rated supply voltage. Maintain the input current with very low harmonic content. Assure the supply frequency is permissible within the power quality limits .The simulations result will be presented to validate the proposed CFUPQC. frequency quality indices In order to characterize the power system frequency under normal operating condition the following indices are used Where fr is the rated frequency (50 or 60) Hz and f is the real frequency. The relative frequency deviation (2) The integral deviation during the delay required to ensure appropriate of clock synchronized to the electrical network frequency (3) According to the standard En 50160/2006rated frequency of supply voltage is 50Hz.Under normal operation conduction the mean value of the fundamental frequency measured over loss stay within the following range. 50 Hz+ 1%.ie 49.5-50.5Hz for 99.5%of the year 50 Hz+ 4%.ie 47-52Hz for 100%of the time. But as power frequency may not be exactly 50Hz within the time interval. The fundamental frequency output is the ratio of the number of integer cycle counted clearing 10s time interval divided by the cumulative value of the integer value. The step taken to maintain the frequency with in required limits render deviation from the normalized value very rate phenomena. In this way an analysis is of the influence of frequency variation on the final customer is only for a reduced interval about +3Hz of the rated value and for rather short period. Within the reduced variation field (40%)a considerable number of static customers are not affected by the system variation(rectifier , resistance, ovens, electric arc ect)but 60%of the consumers (fans, motors ect)affected by the frequency variations. The asynchronous and synchronous driving motors connected the supply network used extensely in individual acceleration have the power frequency changes. Depending on the mechanical characteristic spee d of the motor and also depends on the supply frequency [13].The speed of asynchronous motors or synchronous motor unlimited drags to the electric power supply variations s proportional to the applied voltage frequency. The frequency variation leads to the correspond modification of the process production time throughout the supply with a reduced frequency depressing the supply frequency capacitive circuit, transformer, relay coil are affected Constant Frequency Unified Power Quality Conditioner (CFUPQC) CFUPQC structure Fig.3: Proposed Configuration Modified configuration of UPQC consist of shunt active filter, series active filter, voltage source inverter and voltage source converter shown in Fig(3).CFUPQC similar to the UPQC expect the frequency changing section. UPQC has the potential drawbacks in the hybrid filtering performance. Since its filter in characteristics depends on load impedance and supply frequency. CFUPQC series active filter is used for compensation the voltage harmonics and voltage imbalance In addition the voltage source converter supplies the AC to DC power and is fed to common DC link. The CFUPQC consists of parallel active filter (PAF) that eliminates load harmonics and compensates load reactive power. The control equation is Ipf=G.IL (4) Where g is the control function, is fundamental frequency.IL is the load current, Ipf is the parallel filter input current components for compensation are extracted from load current and load voltages using theory while the converter is a current controlled device using 20 kHz clocked hysteresis band. Series active filter (SAF) that compensates supply harmonics flicker, voltage sag/swell, unbalance and diode + capacitor type load harmonics to flow in to the parallel filter. Control equation is comp (5) Where k is regulator gain, Usf is the series filter voltage, Ish are harmonic supply current and Ucomp is compensation voltage needed to remove supply voltage imperfection. Ish are extracted to theory. Active rectifier (AR) for real power transfer to/from common DC bus and for DC bus control. Switching losses and power received from the dc link capacitors through the series inverter can decrease the average value of dc bus. Other distortions such as unbalanced conditions and sudden changes in load current can result in oscillation in dc bus voltage .In order to solve the fluctuated dc voltage the three phase rectifier is used .DC bus voltage is maintained constant using three-phase rectifier converter for bi-directional power flow and is controlled in such a way that it is insensitive to supply voltage imperfections. Rms value of the output voltage Vorms=0.9558Vml Rms value of the output current Iorms=0.9558Iml Where ml is maximum value of line current. Multi stage 48 pulse voltage source inverter (VSI) supplies the constant power frequency when the supply frequency will change. Here multilevel voltage source inverter is used, to eliminate the harmonic component of the output. The frequency converter is placed in between the series and shunt active filters. Normally the voltage source converters (rectifiers) generate the current harmonics. In order to avoid the harmonics and reactive power the rectifier is placed at the middle of the two active filters. Similarly if the load is increased voltage dip may occur in front of voltage source inverter. At the same time series active filter compensate the voltage problems. Control system of the CFUPQC shunt Part Fig.4: Control System of the Shunt CFUPQC 1) CFUPQC shunt inverter control system: In the Fig (4) shows the shunt inverter controlling block diagram of CFUPQC using synchronous reference frame theory where the sensitive loads current are . The measured currents of load are transferred in to frame using sinusoidal functions through synchronous reference frame conversion. The sinusoidal functions are obtained through the grid voltage using phase lock loop(PLL). Here the currents are divided in to ac and dc components (6) (7) The equation (6) and (7) and are the real and reactive components.ac components and dc elements can be derived by low pass filter.are the dc components and are the ac components of . The control algorithm corrects the systems power factor and compensates all the current harmonica component by generating the reference currents given in equation = (8) = (9) The reference current is transferred in to frame through reverse conversion of synchronous reference frame. Resulted reference current () and the output current of shunt inverter () are fed to the hysteresis band controller. Now the required controlling pulses are generated and the required compensation current is generated by the inverter applying these signals to shunt inverters power switch gates. 2) CFUPQC Series Inverter Control System Fig.5: Control System of the Series CFUPQC 2) CFUPQC series inverter control system: Fig (5) shows the CFUPQC series inverter controlling block diagram using synchronous reference frame theory. In this method the desired value of load phase voltages in d axis and q axis is compared with the load voltage and the result is consider as the reference signal. The supply voltage detected is detected and transformed in to the synchronous reference frame using (10) The compensating reference voltage in the synchronous reference frame is defined as (11) The compensating reference voltage in (11) is then transformed back into the reference frame .Resulted reference voltage () and the output current of shunt inverter () are fed to the hysteresis band controller. The required controlling pulses are generated and the required compensation voltage is generated. 3) Control system of 48 pulse voltage source inverter: 48-pulse voltage source converter consists of four three phase, 3-level inverters and 4 phase-shifting transformers creating phase shift of +/- 7.5 °degree. This transformer setup neutralizes all odd harmonics up to 45th harmonic. Eight 6-pulse inverters are combined to obtain a 48-pulse with the purpose of reducing harmonic content. Table 1 shows the values of phase shifts which are applied to the inverter voltages in two steps, namely in firing pulses and in Zig-zag transformers, to create a 48-pulse waveform at the output . Table 1:48 Pulse voltage source Inverter Coupling transformer Gate pulse pattern Phase shifting transfer Y-Y +11.25 ° -11.25 ° Δ-Y -18.75o -11.25o Y-Y -3.75o +3.75o Δ-Y -33.75o +3.75o Y-Y +3.75o -3.75o Δ-Y -26.25o -3.75o Y-Y -11.25o +11.25o Δ-Y -41.25o +11.25o content in the order of n= 48m ±1, where m= 0, 1, 2. The main-inverter intermediate-circuit capacitors together have an energy storage capacity of only 15 J/kVA. An output switching frequency of 1 kHz is chosen, which is fairly reasonable for this converter. Input is a frequency reference, which is passed through a rate limiter in order to be within the limits of maximum acceleration. Fig.6: Control System of the Frequency changer CFUPQC Except for the 23rd and 25th harmonics, this transformer arrangement neutralizes all odd harmonics up to 45th harmonic. Y and D transformer secondarys cancel harmonics 7+12n (7, 19, 31, 43,)and 5+12n (5, 17, 29, 41,) .In addition, the 15 ° phase shift between the two groups (Tr1Y and Tr1D leading by 7.5 °, Tr2Y and Tr2D lagging by 7.5 °) that allows cancellation of harmonics 11+24n (11, 35,) and 13+24n (13, 37,). Considering that all 3n harmonics are not transmitted by the transformers, the first harmonics that are not canceled by the transformers are therefore the 23rd, 25th, 47th and 49th harmonics. By choosing the appropriate conduction angle for the three-level inverter (ÏÆ' = 172.5 °), the 23rd and 25th harmonics can be minimized. Using a bipolar DC voltage, the voltage source inverter thus generates a 48-step voltage approximatly a sine wave. The secondary sides of the coupling transformers are connected in series to sum the output voltages of individual VSIs and resul ts in a multi-pulse phase voltage which can be expressed mathematically as follow (12) Both equations (12) and (13) which are phase-to-phase and phase-to-neutral voltage representations, respectively, show that harmonics up to 47th order are inherently filtered. The signalization of the 48-pulse inverter are generated for the inverter having -41.25 of gate pulse phase and directly fed to the corresponding inverter. PWM signals for the remaining inverters are obtained by applying relevant phase shifts to the set of PWM signals generated. For example, in order to obtain the pulses for the inverter having -11.25o of gate pulse +30o of phase shift is applied to the closed loop current controllers output. In practice, the phase shifting of the pulses is realized by applying a delay in the first cycle. The generated set of pulses is the earliest set appearing at the time-line and since it is not possible to apply a negative delay the earliest appearing set is generated and the rest are delayed accordingly. When the supply frequency is exceeded beyond the power quality limit the constant frequency voltage source inverter control system change the load from source power supply to the constant frequency inverter power supply. Simulation Results The proposed system, simulation results is simulated by MATLAB software. Fig 7Current harmonic minimization when the supply frequency is normal In the above simulation some capabilities of UPQC to solve power quality problems are shown. The nonlinear load which is produced harmonic current to the network. Fig. 7 shows that the shunt part of UPQC compensates these harmonics Components when the supply frequency is normal. Now assume that a deep and unbalance voltage sag, as occurs at t = 0.2 s to 0.25 s and voltage swell occurred 0.26 and lasts for 0.3 second. Fig.8. Sag swell condition when the supply frequency is normal In Fig(8) the UPQC inject the compensation voltage via series inverter and compensate efficiently at 0.2 second sag condition and voltage swell condition at supply frequency normal (60Hz) Fig .9.Series UPQC when the frequency exceed the power quality limit In fig 9 shows the operation of UPQC when the supply frequency exceeds the power quality limits the output was not found satisfactory .The supply beyond the power quality limit (greater than 63 Hz)at 0.25 second the load voltage waveform varies. The frequency increase rapidly the voltage waveform highly distorted as shown in the simulation results Fig 9. Based on the simulation result Fig 10 it is intended that if the supply frequency varies greater than power quality limit the load current wave form is distorted. If the frequency increases the wave form also distort rapidly as shown in fig10. Fig 10. CF- UPQC Operated when Frequency greater than the Power quality limits Fig 11. CF- UPQC Operated when Frequency greater than the Power quality limits Fig 11showsthe proposed CFUPQC model was simulated for a period of 0.01 sec to 0.5 sec from the results in fig 11, it was seen that at 0.28 sec the supply frequency crossed the power quality limit at 0.29. Fig.12. CF-UPQCs inverter supplying current under over frequency condition The above simulation shows the 48 pulse inverter carries the load current when the supply frequency varied beyond the power quality limit. When the frequency exceed the limits at 0.28 sec. the voltage source converter supply the power. The above simulation result Fig(13) clearly shows when the frequency changes the asynchronous motor speed also changes and the UPQC also not deliver the voltage sinusoidal. In this case the load connected in to paper mills, relays are affected. Fig.13. UPQC connected asynchronous motor under over frequency condition Fig.14. CFUPQC connected asynchronous motor under over frequency condition The proposed model simulation fig 14 shows when the supply frequency change the motor speed not changed and the CFUPQC also work satisfactory TABLE I11 PARAMETER VALUES OF THE UNDERPROPOSED SYSTEM Power quality problems UPQC UPQC CF-UPQC CF-UPQC Frequency Hz 58-62Hz >62Hz-60-

The Organizational Orientation Of Loreal Marketing Essay

The Organizational Orientation Of Loreal Marketing Essay In technique progress era, development of technology, science, education, economy and society offer people to have better quality of living. One part of this, it is high demands and possibility to satisfy them in terms of the external beauty and health. In our days, most of people would like to be attractive, fit and nice-looking. The global world we are living in sets stereotypes that become models. Models are represented extensive all around us in everyday life such as on the TV, in the commercials, in the magazines, on the billboard, in the fashion shows, in the streets and even at school or at workplace. Consequently, a lot of people want to look like models. Men and women would like to have a smooth and clear skin with a perfect body shape for a magnificent life. These desires and trends are rising and seen as a gold mine for the beauty care market. Concerning to the growth of purchasing power in customers and market trend that community turn out to be more conscious of hygiene and beauty, it affects to the quick growth in beauty care industry, particularly in this decade. Due to the characteristic of the market is quite high by value, thus it attracts many companies to enter to this market frequently. Huge number of domestic and multinational companies tries to take as much advantages as possible on the beauty market. Because of the attractiveness, rapid growth and high potential the beauty products market could be characterized like highly competitive and customer market. For achieve success on this field, company should have high level of technology and innovations, for be able to satisfy customers needs in high quality innovative beauty products. But staking only on technology will not bring victory. Nowadays, the most important capabilit ies for the company it is talent to market their product effectively by correctly using marketing mix, choosing right marketing strategy and determine strength, weaknesses, opportunities and treats of company. Correct applying marketing mix, which is a combination of main marketing elements (4 Ps): product, price, place and promotion, is a key element of companys success. In this coursework we are trying to explore and evaluate the Marketing activities of LOreal. LOreal is one most famous and largest and successful world player on cosmetic market, one of the biggest in the world due to the size, total revenue, profitability, and growth rate. We have analyzed the marketing strategies of LOreal throughout detection of the Organization Orientation, realizing the impact of the Marketing Mix and an internal and external (SWOT) analysis of the company will also be given in this paper. Companys History LOreal is one of the biggest companies in France, in the worlds largest manufacturing of high quality cosmetics and perfumes. LOreal registered office in Paris and head office in the Paris suburb of Clichy, Hauts-de-seine, France. The LOreal Company has 68900 employees worldwide. The lead the cosmetics worldwide and distributed the product 130 countries with 27 global brands. These brands annual sales are superior à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬50 million. They produced 5 key expertises for the customer they are hair care, hair color, skin care, make-up and Fragrances. It boasts a world-wide distribution network as well as the industrys highest research and development budget and the largest cosmetological laboratory in the world.(LOreal, 2012) LOreal is a listed company, but the founders daughter Liliane Bettencourt, her name is Eugne Schueller. On July 30, 1909, Schuller registered his company, the Socià ©tà © Franà §aise de Teintures Inoffensives pour Cheveux (Safe Hair Dye Company of France literally French Society of Inoffensive Tinctures for Hair), the original LOrà ©al. The guiding principles of the company, which eventually became LOreal, were research and innovation in the field of beauty. The key people of this company are Jean-Paul Agon(Chairman and CEO), Lilliane Bettencourt(Non-executive director and major shareholder).LOreals story begins in turn-off century paris, at the time when women of the demi-monde dyed their hair, their choice restricted to fiery red or coal black. In 1907, Eugene Schueller, a young chemist, began to concoct the first synthetic hair salons in the morning under the brand name Aureole. His strategy was successful: within two years he established the societe Francaise des teintures in offensive Pour chevex, which soon afterward became LOreal.(LOreal,2012) In 1912, the company extended its sales to Austra, Holland and Italy and by 1920. LOreal products were available in a total of 17 countries, including the United States, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Equador, Bolivia, and the Soviet Union and in the Far East. The end of the world war LOreal was celebrated by the Jazz age, when short hairstyles became fashionable, with a new emphasis on shape and color. In 1920, the small company employed three chemists. By 1950, the research teams were 100 strong; that number reached 1,000 by 1984 and is nearly 2,000 today. By the end of the 1920, there were 40,000 hair salons in France alone and LOreals new product ocap, imedia Liquide and coloral captured the its first move toward diversification, purchasing the soal company Monsavon. LOreal has five worldwide research and development centers: two in France: Aulnay and Chevilly; one in the U.S.: Clark, New Jersey; one in Japan: Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture; and in 2005. one was established in Shanghai, chi na. A future facility in the US will be in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey. (LOreal, 2012) In the 1930s and 1940s, platinum-haired screen idols such as Jean Harlow and Mae West made blond hair especially popular and bleaches such as LOrà ©al Blanc sold well. LOrà ©al was quick to make use of both old and new media to promote its products. In 1933, Schueller commissioned famous artists of the time to design posters and launched his own womens magazine, Votre Beautà ©. Dop, the first mass-market shampoo, was promoted through childrens hair-lathering competitions at the highly popular French circuses and by 1938 LOreal was advertising its hair products with radio jingles.(LOreal, 2012) In 1953, LOreal won an advertisement Oscar, the first in a long series of awards. In 1994, LOreal buys control of corsair from Nestle, Bettencourt. On 17 marches 2006, LOreal purchased cosmetics company The Body Shop for à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¤652 million. In October 2011 , the LOreal started the largest factory in the Jababeka industrial Park, Cikarang, Indonesia with total investment of US 50 million. The production will be absorbed 25 percent by domestic market and the will be exported. In 2010 significant growth occurred at Indonesia with 61 percent increase of unit sales or 28 percent of net sale. LOrà ©als structure remains unchanged, with the group consisting of a federation of competitive companies, including 147 production and distribution facilities worldwide, divided into five divisions. Only research and development facilities and overall management control are centralized.(LOreal, 2012) The current ownership of this company are 27.5pc by the Bettencourt family, 26.4pc by Nestle, 3.9pc by treasury shares and remaining 42.2 are public (LOreal, 2012). The Organizational Orientation of LOreal There are various types of business orientations 3.1 Production Orientation Production orientation is a marketing concept that concentrates on the interior capabilities of the firm rather than on desires and needs of customers. This type orientation means that management assesses its resources and reply on these questions: What is easy to produce using our equipment?, What services are most convenient for the firm to offer and Where do our talents lie (Lamb, Hair, McDaniel, 2011). According to Brassington Pettitt (2006), production orientation emphasizes on affordability and availability of the products and thus production oriented firms focuses on efficient production and distribution techniques. A production orientation short falls because it doesnt consider whether the products that the company produces most efficiently also meet the needs of customer. Sometimes when competition is weak, production oriented-company could survive. 3.2. Product orientation Product oriented company believes that they have a best product, based on the quality and features, and their consumers will like these goods and services. (Learn Marketing, 2010). Adcock et, al. (2001) state that product orientation is concentrated on products rather than needs and customers desires. Quality and design of products are main value categories for the companies which apply product orientation. Brassington Pettitt (2006) say that these companies suppose that the consumers are concerned in the products and that they are interested in the quality. 3.3. Sales Orientation The company with a sales orientation assumes that customers show buying inertia and have to be persuaded into buying more. According to Brassington Pettitt (2006) sales oriented firms thinks that the products are sold, not bought. They emphasize on advertising, direct mail, e-mail blasts and other sales techniques, assuming that the customers are reluctant to purchase. These actions can result in short-term gains in audience. But because of the company is not communicate with the consumers, the sales oriented companys constantly has to recruit a huge number of subscribers who do not renew (Byrnes, 2009). 3.4. Marketing Orientation Market orientation means put customer at the heart of business. Adcock (2001) says that market orientation takes place when the consumers identify the difference in a company and when all the advantages proposed to the consumers are measured. According to Jobber (2001) marketing oriented organizations concentrate on the consumer wants and for them the opportunities arise from the changing wants of the consumers or market. Brassington Pettitt (2006) believe that a company which is concentrated in its marketing and production activities with the understanding of the consumer wants and satisfaction is market oriented. The main benefit of a company being market oriented is that it would have a top consumer value and there would be a coherence in higher performance in the business. The concept of market orientation is laid on three pillars of customer focus, coordinated marketing and profitability. Customer focus: at the middle of creating future corporate strategy lay consumer centricity. To serve the clients rather than sell products is a main philosophy of the company. Realize consumers as a strategic assets companies establish long-term relationships with clients. Coordinated Marketing: marketing has to become a synchronized, cross-disciplinary function of company. Customers are duty of the entire company. These factors have together detained marketing from becoming a coordinated activity that involves supplementary functions such as finance, operations, human resources and strategy within any company. Profitability: profitability includes both financial dimensions (such as ROI, EVA, and market share) and non-financial dimensions (such as behavioral patterns, awareness and attitudes). This set observation would allow companies to make equilibrium between sh ort term and long term profitability with regard to the long term financial health of the company (Venture Republic, 2012). LOreal concentrates on their customers and tries to find out their material and emotional wishes. Company obtains a wide range of products and consumed by all age groups. According to LOreal (2012) mission of company: Beauty for all. LOrà ©al proposes women and men global the best of quality, effectiveness and safeness cosmetics innovation. It pursues this goal by meeting the endless diversity of beauty needs and desires worldwide (LOreal, 2012). Group enables to meet the expectations of every customer while adapting to local distribution conditions worldwide their organizations of groups divisions. LOreal has five main Business Divisions: LOreal Luxe, Consumer Products, Professional Products, Active Cosmetics and The Body Shop (LOreal, 2012). According to LOreal 2012 Beauty for all also means beauty for each individual. LOreal is influenced that there is no sole and unique model of beauty, but a limitless variety forms of beauty, tied to periods, cultures, history and individualities. LOreal try to realize strategy of universalizing beauty. Company wants to build a new respectful and more attentive globalization universalizing beauty model. Universalizing beauty is adapting beauty and make it accessible for everyone, without making it global or uniform. This aim means that they try to change the market wants and implement new beauty concepts. To achieve this goal, company has considerably reinforced Research and Innovation panelsl in all the main markets of tomorrow, whereas extending their industrial cover age. LOreal observes local beauty needs and customs. The centricity of the project of targeting new customers is a companys research, and is creating itself to take up the challenge: to produce cosmetics products modif ied to the enormous variety of the world, LOreal has set up research hubs in each region (LOreal, 2012). Company facilitates access to cosmetics products. To make the best in beauty availablae for everyone, LOrà ©al takes steps forward each year. Company are able to reach every customer with a portfolio of 27 international brands and an organizational structure, at the same time let be for the specifics of distribution in every country. In this terms LOrà ©al pushes back boundaries and takes up the challenge of more and more available innovation (LOreal, 2012). Thus its crystal clear that LOreal is a Market Oriented company whereas they attempt to understand the customer or market needs and manufacture products respectively to accomplish the companys goals. And they highlight that people are the major strength of the firm. Internal / External audit of LOreal 4.1. Brands and Products LOreal produces and distributes five main groups of products. Professional Products. The Professional Products Division sells its products via hair salons worldwide. The portfolio of professional products is able to satisfy the needs of all types of salons. Being a privilege partner of hairdressers, LOreal offers best technologies and high-level of education what allow provide customers with professional services. In this group include brands: Redken, Kerastase, Matrix, PureOlogy, Shu Uemura art of Hair, Mizani, Kerskin Esthetics. Total sales of these products in 2011 were 2 813.8 millions euro and growth 2011/2010 posted +3.6%. The biggest sales are in geographic zone North America 1 018.6 millions euro, but more quick growth of sales 2011/2010 was estimated by geographic zone New Market +6.3% and its sales 2011 accounted for 817.6 million euro (LOreal, 2012). Consumer Products. According to LOreal (2012): The Consumer Products Divisions mission is universal: to offer the best in beauty innovation to the greatest number of people on every continent at accessible price. Its brands are available in all mass-market channels (hypermarkets, supermarkets, drugstores and traditional stores). The division is the spearhead of the groups quest to win over a further billion consumers. This division includes the most famous brands of the group: LOreal Paris (premium brand with Elseve, Elnett, Studio Line, Perfection, Plenitude, Body Expertise, Dermo-Expertise, Solar Expertise, Kids, Progress Homme, Men Expert and Ombrelle), Garniere (includes brands like Ambre Solaire, Fructis, Nutrisse, Ultra Doux, Skin Naturals, Neutralia and Obao), Maybelline, Softsheen-Carson, Club des Createurs de Beaute and essie (LOreal, 2012). Total sales of division in 2011 were 9 835.2 million euro and were shown growth 2011/2010 approximately +3.2%. In geographic zone New Market was estimated highest sales (3 957.1 million euro), most successful business segment was Make-up (2 882.3 million euro sales 2011, +6.2% sales growth) (LOreal, 2012). LOreal Luxe. The Products Division the Luxury products division combines together a exclusive set of brands, concentrating particularly on three key business segments: skincare, make-up and fragrances. Products of this division are delivering throughout department stores, perfumeries and travel retail outlets, free standing stores and through e-commerce websites. Brands are: Lancome, Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani, Biotherm, Cacharel, Diesel, Maison Martin Margiela, ViktorRolf, Ralph Lauren, Kiehls, Shu Uemura, Stella Mc Cartney. Based on reported figures sales 2011 this division amounted to 4 506.6 millions euro and increase of 6.5%. Like-for-like, i.e. based on the comparable structure and identical exchange rate, the sales growth was +8.2%. Dynamic New Market achieved sales growth of +12.3% based on reported figures and +14.0% on like-for-like. The most successful was Skincare business segment, it delivered sales growth of 14.6% like-for-like and 13.6% based on report figures (LOreal, 2012). Active Cosmetics. The active Cosmetics division sells its products worldwide in all types of health channel (pharmacies, drugstores, medi-spas and dermatologists). Its unique portfolio of six admiring brands (Vichy, La Roshe-Posay, Skinceuticals, Inneov, RogerGallet, Sanoflore). These products satisfy the need for beauty through the skins health and active cosmetics divisions works in close partnership with health professionals, dermatologists, paediatricians and doctors practicing aesthetic medicine. It is have made the division world number one in dermocosmetics. The Active Cosmetic Division delivered in 2011 growth of +3.2% like-for-like and +2.6% based on the reported figures, driven by its successes in New Markets and North America (LOreal, 2012). The Body Shop. The body Shop was established in 1976 in the United Kingdom by Dame Anita Roddick. The Body Shop has strong ethical commitment and well-known by its sensorial products stimulated by nature. More than 65% of the products contain Community Fair Trade ingredients. At the end of 2011, the Body Shop sales recorded like-for-like growth at +3.8% and 3.9% based on reported figures. The brand is delivering strong growth in the New Markets. (LOreal, 2012) 4.2. Marketing Strategy LOreal company is present in 130 countries in the world. It sells 130 products every second. The group have more than 50,000 outlets throughout the world. Now days, LOreal is the biggest international brand in Cosmetics. The marketing strategy of LOreal mainly depends upon customer needs. They had done in-depth research of all the cultures and people of different countries. According to the company, tomorrows beauty will be global and universal and will respect the unique nature of each region. LOreal Researchs mission will, therefore, be to understand and adapt to all women and men in order to offer the best of cosmetics in terms of quality, efficacy and safety. The ability to innovate for new markets must therefore rely on in-depth knowledge of the culture, needs and preferences of Chinese, Indian and Brazilian consumers. By placing the consumer at the heart of research and innovation, LOreal has decided to create the Consumer Insights International division as well as regional res earch and innovation hubs innovation will take place by knowing customers habits. For example in India from ancient days Indian women uses eye color by themselves. As we know innovation takes place on customer base. They took inspiration of this and planned new innovation of the product far Indian women in order to reach their expectation of the customers. By this we can know how LOreal company plans the innovation of product by having deep research of skin of different cultural people and also having knowledge about hair of different cultural people and reaches the customers expectations. So this is the LOreal intelligent business plan. The RD department of LOreal will release new formulas based on to enhance customers product experience because if they can know that it would be useful far them to innovate better product far customers (LOreal, 2012). Advertisement is the main strategy used by the LOreal company .It is one of the worlds biggest advertising spenders. The cosmetics giant adverts far Maybelline make up, Elseve shampoos, Lancà ´me perfumes, and other products. These will fill television mostly and magazine pages around the world. they spend 75% on television and 20% on the print magazine and others on billboards et LOreal shows low interest spending on internet (Marketing Planet, 2011). The LOreals new product development strategy. The way they have successfully managed and achieved the considerable market shares through RD efforts . LOreal innovations has been success in the diverse segments of global market Moreover, the company follows a three tier strategy for producing commercially viable products. The three structured strategy includes LOreals advanced research, applied research and product development, each stage having its own unique functions to perform in order to create successful innovations. LOreal is a Paris-based cosmetics company with having sales $ 26.96 billion in the year 2011. LOreal entered mainland of china in the year 1996 after that LOreal started growing successful market in china now it holds second highest percentage of market share and established three factories in china and they had released 17 brands within two local Chinese cosmetics brands created a successful market. LOreal targeted Chinese young women, but LOreal company have focus ed on male customers of china here they played a strategy. The Chinese younger generation was interested in tennis. So LOreal became the sponsor of the 2011 Shaanghai Rolex masters to attract the male viewers and company was cooperated with the most popular p2p steaming media site in China it is also called as pptv with the help this media LOreal launched a new product named hydra energetic anti-dullness moisturizing gel cream the choice of successful tennis masters after that the LOreal got tremendous viewers responses with the help of pptv from this they learn preferences and needs to innovate new products to target the market (LOreal, 2012). The global beauty company LOreal is looking for Africa to increase the market. The continent provides potentially huge market. The company was present since from 100 years Africa became strategically market of the LOreal group as the population of Africa is about a 1 billion people where LOreal product have good demand far products in the market LOreal will continue to launch technologically advanced products, backed by strategic marketing campaigns, into the African market. This will continue to give us a major competitive advantage that will ensure that LOreal maintains its leadership for the next 100 years. (LOreal, 2012). LOreal presently offers the following products in the Netherlands: Plenitude and Recital under the LOreal brand name, and Ambre Solaire under the Garnier Institute brand name. LOreal Nederland has been considering whether to introduce the Synergie skin care line and Belle Couleur hair colorants line into the Netherlands.synergie and Bele Couleur are marketed under the Garnier Institute name in France. The Netherlands market has several challenges new product launches are difficult (especially from a relatively unknown company like Garnier) and the distributor channel is becoming more powerful. Also, retailers have been offering their own private-label products and can develop them at lower prices within 6 months. We had first considered adding Synergie and Belle Couleur under the Garnier name and positioning them towards the lower end of the market price-wise. However, we feel this is inherently too risky. LOreal, even under the Garnier Company name, does not want to wage war in the commodity market of cosmetics. There may not be enough product differentiation to disallow the Garnier products from cannibalizing the LOreal products. People would eventually find out the Garnier and LOreal was the same Company, and that could cheapen the whole product line. LOreal is a premier supplier of quality cosmetics (LOreal, 2012). 4.3. Relationship Management LOreal, the worlds largest skin care and cosmetics company. This is wanted to enlarge the span of marketing for its extra products distribution. The customer relationship management is mainly targeting the customers for evaluating their products.CRM solution has to improve the customer reliability and decrease the agitate. Overall view is very important then, by standardizing on one database solution, there will be a need to develop our stiffness to react rapidly with new marketing campaigns and promotions. After that, the next part is to make new valuable use of marketing budgets through new accurate target. Escalating customer knowledge means increasing the efficiency of marketing investments. (LOreal, 2012) Circumstances: There are 18 global brands which include Ralph Lauren, Lancà ´me, and Garnier -LOreal is the worlds leading cosmetics, skin care, and luxury products producer. The company distribute their products to 130countries on five continents, moreover its also a essential business at Asia and also in the South Korea. LOreal frequently innovates to continue the marketplace share and, as a effect, required to extend its high performance in the industry by sharpening its knowledge of customers by rolling out a company-wide customer relationship management (CRM) system. The Paris-based company decided to focus on its luxury product division, which had an ideal customer basis and the most probable to enhance its marketing campaigns. Marketing experts were persuaded that the greater knowledge of the customer would increase the opportunity for cross selling. For example, a data-mining study on customer behaviours for Lancà ´me France showed strong cross-selling prospective to market beauty products for lips with other products such as nails. To cross sell effectively, LOrà ©al needed to create a single in-house database with all its customer data, which previously had been hosted by a number of different agencies. Example, it is useful to know which 20 per cent of customers are responsible for 50 per cent of the total revenue-this knowledge helps us target promotions and service dollars on our most valuable customers, says Giacchetti. Key factors: LOrà ©al previously worked with Microsoft for IT services worldwide, but the company turned first to Accenture for consultancy on implement a CRM solution.In adding to Siebel Business Analytics. The company is also using HP StorageWorks for its storage area network, as well as other HP hardware. Customer Manager says that the major benefit of Siebel Consumer Goods 7.7 is that advertising sales, and customer service are fully incorporated. This helps companies develop their product management, increase deal and customer marketing return on investment, decrease their customer service costs, and build customer loyalty and demand. The industrial planning was defined by Microsoft Services, aid by Avanade a joint venture between Microsoft and Accenture that specialize in solutions implemented in a Microsoft environment. Together, the team designed and implemented a pilot CRM solution in South Korea, which was chosen because of its complicated multi-channel marketing including point of sal e, Web, e-mail, and wireless messaging.mInitially, Siebel Consumer Goods and Siebel Analytics were implemented on top of a Microsoft SQL Serverà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ 2000 database. Through the volume licensing Enterprise Agreement LOrà ©al has with Microsoft, SQL Server 2000 was later upgraded to Microsoft SQL Server 2005. LOreal also chose the Microsoft environment for the development of its Web sites. In December 2005, following the success of the pilot in South Korea, LOrà ©al extended the solution to support the mass-market domain in France, which is already increasing the customer knowledge segment of the database for direct-mail promotions. Giacchetti says: Were looking at a global rollout of the solution over three to five years. Change management in CRM takes time, especially when 99 per cent of promotions are targeted on the product rather than the customer. However, were working on introducing the CRM solution in the United States and China in 2006 and are starting several projects in Europe. Were seeking to cover half of the total number of country operations in three years and 70 per cent in five years. In some of the smaller centres, CRM will not be applicable. (LOreal, 2012) Benefits LOrà ©al has improved customer brand loyalty, benefited from a significantly improved response rate and lower cost of direct mail. It now has a consistent 360-degree view of its customers across multiple marketing channels. Customer Satisfaction Strengthens Loyalty LOrà ©al operates in a highly competitive market for luxury beauty products, where customer retention is a key performance indicator. Giacchetti believes the most significant benefit has been improved brand loyalty. We can now classify value customers more easily and aggressively retain them, she says. There is less risk of customers switching to other brands because of their disappointment at random treatment. Previously, we targeted customers based on their age, but now we consider past purchasing history and other benchmarks, which makes targeting much more effective. Higher Response Rate, Lower Costs Siebel Business Analytics is helping LOreal mount cost-efficient direct-mail campaigns and increase revenue per sale. Giacchetti says: With the Siebel solution running on Windows Server, we achieved a 57 per cent decrease in the volume of direct mail on one promotion. Through more accurate targeting, we achieved a remarkable 62 per cent response rate. In another campaign for skincare, we cut the volume of direct mail by half and achieved a 78 per cent response rate. 360-Degree View of the Customer LOreal is building a CRM system that provides a complete view of the customer, spanning all available brands across multiple channels, including the companys 200 Web sites and thousands of offline point-of-sale terminals and call centers. Giacchetti says: In the past, campaigns were product based, and we did not retain a history for each customer. With our knowledge about the customer, we can now integrate data from different channels and segment customers according to value and behavior. Georges-Edouard Dias, Strategic Business Development Division, LOrà ©al, says: Siebel is the best solution we have found to manage an end-to-end process from consumer analysis and segmentation to creation, execution, and measurement of the success of marketing campaigns. Product Campaigns Generated Faster By implementing a single CRM system and a powerful in-house database solution, LOrà ©al has improved time to market for its product campaigns. It is now easier to share best practice and make use of sophisticated data-mining scoring for targeting. Giacchetti says: We are now more agile as a business. We can accurately quantify the effectiveness of marketing investments and customer/segment profitability. 4.4. Corporate Structure Chairman and CEO. Jean-Paul Agon is energetic, constructive and unwavering always strives for tangible results. With a spanning background of challenges, environments and responsibilities, he has displayed his leadership skills by key expertise of in-depth knowledge of how the company works, an international approach and a global vision of major challenges ahead. He was born in France in 1956 and joined LOreal in 1978

Significance of Chapter 5 in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Essay

Comment on Chapter 5’s significance in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Famous writer, Mary Shelley was born in London in 1797. She was the daughter of writer William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. Shelley’s mother sadly died while giving birth to her. This was an influence included in the later successful novel ‘Frankenstein’. At 19, she married poet Percy Shelley, who she married in 1816. Together, Mary and Percy had five children, but only one survived past childhood. This tragedy, along with the early death of her mother influenced Mary Shelley's theme linking creation with death. She started to write Frankenstein at the age of 18, completing it in less than a year. She said the idea came to her in a dream, and dreams are created by unrelated events, and memories. Science became one of the main influences for Shelley’s novel. At the time, the influences of the scientific world became fascinating to everyone. The idea of bringing people back to life was being tested by some of the most intelligent minds. The main character in the story, Victor, grew up in Geneva, where Mary Shelley wrote the novel. Whilst staying there, Mary, Percy and Byron then met ‘Monk’ Lewis who was famous for writing supernatural novels. Byron’s group talked for hours on end, and reading ghost stories. He challenged the group to write a ghost story – Frankenstein. Frankenstein is a gothic fantasy novel as it features horrifying events, stormy and dark settings, satanic imagery and themes of revenge and pursuit. The novel was purposely written to shock and scare readers. The novel has been suggested to be a romantic, psychological, social, political tale. However, I think that it is a philosophical tale. Certain events which... ...ontrast to this statement a little bit later on, ‘†¦and I selected his features as beautiful’ - Victor goes from negative to positive. Another significant aspect of chapter 5, is Shelley’s description of Victor’s nightmare, which shows how disturbed he is by his creation. Shelley immediately links the ‘birth’ with death, and mentions Elizabeth, Victor kissing her while she is being killed. ‘†¦imprinted the first kiss on he lips, they became livid with the hue of death.’ This is ironic because Elizabeth is murdered later on in the story, by Victor’s creation. Shelley also uses a variety of motifs. ‘By dim and yellow light of the moon’, this phrase is associated with the monster, as it appears when the monster is created. When the monster threatens revenge, it comes across as an eerie moment. ‘One hand was stretched out’. This is again, a different motif.

Politics and the Environment :: Environmental Climate Change

The July 9, 2002 release of the World Wildlife Fund’s third â€Å"Living Planet† report - which asserts that the human race is currently consuming resources at a rate 20% percent greater than the Earth’s ability to regenerate - coincided unsurprisingly with the simultaneous release of two counter-dispatches by the Cato Institute. In conjunction with an additional counter-argument published in the Institute’s August 26 edition of â€Å"Policy Analysis,† these two dispatches serve as a fairly accurate example of Conservative/Libertarian criticisms of the environmentalist movement or at least as examples prominent enough to merit scrutiny. The August 26 piece, written by Jerry Taylor, draws heavily on evidence presented by Patrick J. Michaels, a professor of meteorology whom William K. Stevens of the New York Times regards as arguably one of â€Å"the two most persistent and visib!le† scientists skeptical of climate change. The other two dispat ches, written by Reason magazine’s science correspondent Ronald Bailey and the late anti-Malthusian environmentalist critic Julian L. Simon, though both originally published prior to the WWF’s â€Å"Living Planet† report are still relevant because of the prominence of their critique within policy circles advocating free markets and limited government. The Living Planet report, itself, is divided into two distinct parts. The first is the Living Planet Index, which was calculated by measuring population data from 1970 to 1995 for three abstracted categories of wildlife - forest, freshwater, and marine. The data used for the Index was gathered by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC). The Living Planet Index is primarily an indicator of ecosystem health as a function of species decline and as such will not be focused on in depth here as it does not pertain directly to the global warming debate. The second part of the report (the WWF’s assessment of humanity’s Ecological Footprint) hopes to measure the amount of the Earth’s biologically productive land that the global population, a nation, and an average member of that nation inhabits in one year. The footprint is measured in Global Hectares: a measurement defined by the WWF as â€Å"one hectare of biologically productive space with world average productivity.† There are currently 11.4 billion hectares of biologically productive land total - one quarter of the planet’s surface. Of these 11.4 billion hectares: 2.0 bil is ocean, 1.5 bil is cropland, 3.5 bil is grazing land, 3.8 bil is forest cover, .3 bil inland water, and .

Comparing Hamlet by William Shakespeare and The Killings by Andre Dubus

Comparing Hamlet by William Shakespeare and The Killings by Andre Dubus Losing a loved one to tragedy, especially two most brutal and malicious tragedies as these, will torture the minds of any and all men. Terrifying thoughts, even carefully planned acts of revenge will plow themselves into your brain. It is how we react to these situations that can and will forever define that man, his life, and his actions. In these two stories, Hamlet's father and Matt Fowler's son are murdered with jealous motives of romance, ambition, betrayal and rage. Revenge captures the hearts of both characters, but in different forms. Hamlet sees his fathers ghost and is told if he ever loved his father he is to ?[revenge his foul and most unnatural murder]?. The brutal slayer of Fowler?s son is out on bail and faces minimal jail time for the life of Frank Fowler, Matt?s youngest son. Matt decides to take the law into his own hands and with the help of a friend, plans and executes the murder of Richard Strout. With the killer of his son bar-hopping around town and his wife broken apart with grief, Matt Fowler loses himself in revenge. He begins to carry an unregistered gun hoping to confront Strout and kill him in ?self-defense?. He is defeated in his professional life, losing his nerve as a hard-working bank manager, unable to look his customers in the eye without shying away in fear and grief. Finally confessing himself to a poker buddy, his murderous intentions rush out onto the table. His friend, who?s sympothy and loyalty may be excessive, agrees to help Matt take his revenge on Strout. Hamlet, instead, seeks his revenge alone. When Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernardo take Hamlet to see the ghost of his father, he follows the ghost... ...n a dish served cold. Though he found the nerve to seek his revenge, I doubt he ever stopped replaying the events of that night in his head, wondering if he did the right thing, and if the pricetag for it was going to be hell or prison. Neither Hamlet nor Fowler forgive the men who wronged them, and their lives, consumed with the idea of injustice, were ruined along with almost everyone else?s. For Fowler, the answer was easy: Kill and don?t get caught. He thought only of the best way to get away with it, forgetting his morals and judgement. I question how hard he thought if he should do it or not. His instincts told him to kill, and that is what he did. Hamlet, on the other hand, fought with himself over and over about how to appropriatly handle his revenge, and opportunity presented itself, as it always does, with time. Regretfully, he was mortally wounded.

Crically Evaluate the Claim That Infants Have an Innate Knowledge of Object Properties. Use Evidence to Support Your Argument

Critically evaluate the claim that infants have an innate knowledge of object properties. Use evidence to support your arguments. Object properties have been systematically associated with the Piagetian approach of cognitive development and in particular the sensorimotor period. Until the 1970’s, Piaget’s influential stance that knowledge of object properties is only learned from around nine months old had not been questioned.However, due to more contemporary studies there have been claims that not only do younger infants exhibit behaviours suggesting that Piaget’s assumptions may underestimate cognitive abilities but some studies have controversially suggested that newborns have shown to have a certain amount of innate knowledge. This has lead to claims that there are some innate or core cognitive abilities for dealing with object properties, in contrast to Piaget’s view that ‘humans do not start out as cognitive beings’ (Berk, 2009).It is im portant to state the significance of grasping the notion of object properties because according to Piaget this represents the start of symbolic thought or mental representation – an expression of intellectual behaviour (Davies & Houghton, 1991). However, this claim is a subject of dispute for investigators, who disagree on the degree of this inbuilt knowledge. This essay shall be using relevant research to critically evaluate the claim that infants have an innate knowledge of object properties, concentrating on the notion of object permanence.Piaget theorised that knowledge of object permanence does not begin until the coordination of secondary circular reaction substage of sensorimotor period. He provided evidence for his assumptions, such as obscuring an object from an infant using a hand and seeing whether the child would reach for the object. Piaget concluded that the lack of searching by the infant implied a lack of object permanence, but Bower (1971) criticised Piagetâ €™s use of search tasks because infants could be lacking the performance ability for reaching rather than competence to understand object permanence.Therefore, studies were conducted using visual methods, whereby the infants’ looking was used to measure object permanence (Bower et al, 1971, 1972) to address the flaw in Piaget’s method by bypassing the need for the infant to perform the reach. Bower (1971) conducted a study showing infants a moving object disappearing behind a screen, and the results suggest infants from four to six months old show evidence of object permanence and as early as eight weeks old in a few participants, thus strongly contradicting Piaget’s assumptions.In addition to this visual method, Baillargeon (1985; 1987) used habituation as it is concluded that infants spend longer looking at new stimuli, therefore infants are familiarised with it. Baillargeon and DeVos (1991) habituated infants to a small carrot, then a tall carrot moving s ide to side behind a screen, alternately. Violation-of-expectation test trials were conducted, whereby the screen that had previously hidden the carrots changed in colour and included a window. The infants were shown the small carrot trial which follows physical laws, and were then shown the tall carrot trial which violates physical laws.Results showed that infants as young as two and a half months looked longer at the tall carrot event than the short carrot event, suggesting that younger infants have some understanding of object properties. However, there have been criticisms of both the habituation technique and the violation-of-expectation-method. Bogartz (2000) is suspicious of the use of the habituation technique as he states that infants will react with interest to any novel stimuli. He also criticised the way the results were analysed separately, suggesting they should have been analysed together.Further, the violation-of-expectation method has been labelled as only measuring some sort of implicit understanding of object properties rather than the fully-conscious understanding that Piaget was referring to in his theory (Berk, 2009). Nevertheless, Baillargeon insists that the consistent findings from this and other studies use essential controls that aren’t included in opposing studies (Bogartz, Shinskey & Schilling, 2000), and also uphold that the findings can be generalised to lots of object related unexpected events (Berk, 2009).Interestingly though, some researchers do not halt at the suggestion that Piaget underestimated younger infants cognitive abilities, but instead refute Piaget’s assumption that ‘humans do not start out as cognitive beings’ (Berk, 2009) and in fact have some innate cognitive abilities. There have been suggestions that knowledge of object properties depends on visual information relating to perceptual abilities of the infant, addressed in a study by Valenza, Zulian and Leo (2005). They tested infantsâ €™ ability to recognise a correspondence between one version of a simple shape with another.Results showed infants recognised a correspondence more between a partly occluded shape and a non occluded shape than a non occluded shape and an unoccluded shape with a gap, implying that there may be some innate ability. The importance of the simplicity of the shapes used in Valenza et al’s study (2005) had been addressed by other researchers such as Kellman and Spelke (1983) who stated that the type of visual information used by younger infants differs from the visual information used by older children, therefore implying that there may be different thresholds of information needed for different ages (Johnson, 1995).A study was conducted using a rod and box display with additional motion cues on two and four month olds. Despite the first experiment showing that infants at two months old held no preference for the disjointed rod, when the proportion of the box occluding the rods was decreased the two month olds showed a preference for the broken rod display over the complete rod display, therefore suggesting that there may be an innate low level representation of object properties (Kellman & Spelke, 1983).This and further studies (Kamawata et al, 1999) lent support to Johnson’s (1995) threshold model where visual information must match the perceptual abilities of infants in order to show knowledge of continuous object properties along with attending abilities. However, some researchers take on a more reserved view, giving potential alternative explanations for the innate knowledge of object properties.For example, following on from certain studies using darkness to hide objects resulting in evidence that infants search in the darkness earlier than they search for objects hidden by an occluder (Bowers and Wishart, 1972), Shinskey and Munakata (2003) conducted a study comparing the two conditions. Infants were given toy and no-toy trials in both the da rkness and the occluder (a cloth) conditions. Results support the notion that infants are ore sensitive to searching for objects in darkness compared to objects hidden by an occluder. Researchers gave three potential explanations for this dissociation. Firstly, a means-end explanation was given, stating that they simply searched more in the dark because they don’t have the physical ability to retrieve the occluder, lending support to Piaget’s concept that the ability to problem-solve lays with means-end action sequences (Berk, 2009).Secondly, graded representations may explain why infants’ representations can resist an interference of darkness to allow reaching but the interference may be too severe when an object is occluded. The results also introduced the notion of interruption of a plan to reach for the object due to a one second delay before the infants’ arms were released which may have led to less searching on occluder trials (in addition to anothe r object in the way).The researchers seemed to conclude that this study has supported the concept of a genuine sensitivity to objects hidden in darkness and that the origin of this dissociation between an occluder and darkness lies with the complications of retrieval. However, another potential explanation could be linked to Piaget’s observation that when one object is placed on top of another the infant cannot distinguish one from the other, leading back to idea that it can be representatively complicated.On the whole, a large section of the research on knowledge of object properties conflict with Piaget’s assumptions. Findings show his theory underestimates the abilities of infants (Bower, 1971; 1972; Baillargeon, 1985; 1987; 1991), and although these studies are not free from criticisms (Bogartz, 2000), support of these findings is abundant, along with some controversial findings which suggest low level innate knowledge of object properties.Valanza, et al (2005) stu dy was supported by others (Kellman & Spelke, 1983; Kamawata et al, 1999) and the threshold model was proposed (Johnson, 1995). Nevertheless, other studies showing dissociations between abilities of searching for objects using darkness and occluders are less willing to settle for the explanation of innate knowledge and provide alternatives, including a means-end explanation, the notion of graded representations and interestingly the concept of interruption of a plan (Shinskey & Munakata, 2003).In conclusion, while there is convincing evidence that Piaget strongly underestimated the abilities of younger infants, the claim that infants have an innate knowledge of object properties remains questionable, as although evidence for it introduces some potentially interesting advances, there is simply not enough known, specifically into where the complications of the knowledge lies and if this were ascertained then a greater understanding could be reached. References Berk, L. E. (2006). Chil d Development (7th ed. . Needham Heights: Allyn & Bacon Davies, R. & Houghton, P. (1991). Mastering Psychology, The MacMillan Press Ltd: London Kellman, P. J. & Spelke, E. R. (1983). Perception of partly occluded objects in infancy. Cognitive Psychology, 15, 483-524. Shinskey, J. L. , & Munakata, Y. (2003). Are infants in the dark about hidden objects? Developmental Science, 6(3), 273-282. Valenza, E. , Zulian, L. , & Leo, I. (2005). The role of perceptual skills in newborns' perception of partly occluded objects. Infancy, 8(1), 1-20.