Characteristics of the Romantic Music Period

It is arguable that some Romantic music made greater demands upon its listeners than did music of previous historical periods. What were those demands? Why did these changes come about? And what strategies can you formulate for listening to this music today? In consideration of the musical changes present in the Romantic era, this essay will contend that these changes are very much related to the wider social and technological changes in society around that time. Thus, it is important to identify the broad time period encompassed by this era. The definition of Romanticism in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is: â€Å"A movement or, more commonly, period of cultural history. When understood as a period, Romanticism is usually identified with either the first half or the whole of the 19th century. The term is used with reference primarily to the arts, but it can also embrace philosophy, socio-political history and, more widely, the ‘spirit’ of the era. † [i] Consequently, this essay views that Romantic music encompasses the whole of the nineteenth century and will consider some of the key changes which occurred around that time period. It has been argued that these changes have resulted in music which makes greater demands upon its listeners and this essay will highlight these demands and how they were influenced by those social and technological changes of that time, concluding with strategies for listening to this music today. Some of the music which can be used to illustrate these changes are specific works by Beethoven, a composer, who is viewed as a major influence on the music of the nineteenth century. This can be evidenced by the Grove article on Romanticism, which deems it to be widely accepted that Beethoven â€Å"inaugurated a ‘Romantic era’†[ii]. The demands of Romantic music are characterised by several key changes. These changes can be summarised as follows: an increased intensity, both technical and musical; a greater use of radical contrasts in the music and a significant increase in the length of musical compositions. The increased intensity of Romantic music can be demonstrated by an analysis of the Diploma syllabus of the ABRSM[iii]. This syllabus provides an â€Å"authoritative assessment framework† [iv] for technical and musical ability and one can see that the vast preponderance of its pieces fall into the Romantic category. Furthermore, as one progresses through the levels of syllabus, the â€Å"repertoire becomes more demanding† [v] and the volume of Romantic pieces increases steadily. A major factor in this change is the related technological advancements of that time period which resulted in the upgrading of a number of musical instruments to more advanced forms. This can be illustrated with reference to the specific example of the piano, an instrument refined considerably during the Romantic period. Key changes incorporate the introduction of modern style pedals, greater string diameters and tensions, an extended number of octaves, the double escapement action and the cast iron frame[vi] [vii]. Thus, the instrument of the nineteenth century is far superior to its eighteenth century counterpart. The resultant musical changes include a greater quantity of octaves available and a greater range of power and dynamics made available to the composer. This had the obvious corollary of composers producing pieces with greater use of radical dynamic contrasts. According to Winter[viii], Romantic composers used their new piano to great effect: The single most important development in the sound of the Romantic piano was doubtless the new emphasis on the sustaining (or damper) pedal. † These key changes of distinctive contrasts and increased intensity were aided by the accompanying social change in music around the Romantic period, which can be characterised by the rise of the virtuoso. Franz Liszt, the legendary pianist, dazzled audiences across Europe, garnering rave reviews wherever he travelled, considered by The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians to be â€Å"the greatest piano virtuoso of his time† [ix]. The improved piano was critical to his displays of technical prowess. Without it he would not have been able to play pieces as demanding on the instrument. The â€Å"hitherto unimagined difficulty† [x] of his Vingt-quatres grandes etudes pour le piano[xi], was considered too much by the composer, he revised the Etudes and later published his Etudes d'execution transcendante[xii], – the latter still ferociously difficult but surpassed in that respect by the former. Given that a key feature of Liszt’s playing style and compositions was technical skill, one could argue Liszt could not have been the performer, or composer, he was, in the preceding century. Nicolo Paganini was another virtuoso of the highest calibre – a violinist[xiii]. He, too, gave fantastic performances to rapturous crowds in numerous countries. William Ayrton, editor of The Harmonicon, remarked that: â€Å"[H]is powers of execution are little less than marvelous, and such as we could only have believed on the evidence of our own senses; they imply a strong natural propensity for music, with an industry, a perseverance, a devotedness and also a skill in inventing means, without any parallel in the history of his instrument. † [xiv] Paganini, similar to Liszt, composed works for his instrument, which were considered some of the hardest in its repertoire[xv] – pushing the boundaries of the Romantic violin to previously unseen heights. An excellent way for a virtuoso to show off their talents is a concerto. The concerto provided a perfect vehicle to showcase the new technically advanced instruments and the music that could be performed on them[xvi]. One characteristic of Romantic concertos is their length. Indeed, this increased length is another key aspect of Romantic music as a whole. To take one concrete example of this, Vladimir Askenazy’s interpretations of Beethoven’s piano concertos[xvii] are significantly greater in length than his interpretations of Mozart’s concertos[xviii]. Further illustration of this is the opening movements of Beethoven’s piano concertos numbers 4 and 5, which both last longer than a number of Mozart’s concertos in their entirety and are longer, by far, than any of Mozart’s first movements. Similarly, other forms of musical composition demonstrated increasing length during the Romantic era. Beethoven’s Piano Sonata number 29 ,‘Hammerklavier’, being a case in point, according to Marston[xix], the extremely long solo piece was â€Å"most likely the longest ever written at that time†. The Hammerklavier sonata is also a perfect example of the other previously stated Romantic characteristics. The use of pianississimo and fortissimo a bar apart in the final section of the first movement is but one example of the radical contrasts present in the piece as a whole[xx]. Another hallmark of Romantic music is present in this piece: extreme technical difficulty – Andras Schiff declared Hammerklavier â€Å"virtually unplayable† [xxi]. This increase in length was also evident in the Romantic symphony. One striking example being Beethoven’s Symphony number three, ‘Eroica’, first published in 1804 [xxii], at the very dawn of musical Romanticism – its opening movement â€Å"dwarf[s] any comparable previous movement† [xxiii]. According to Bonds[xxiv], Eroica is the start, for Beethoven at least, of music displaying profound Romantic characteristics: â€Å"Particularly from the ‘Eroica’ onwards, Beethoven was seen to have explored a variety of ways in which instrumental music could evoke images and ideas transcending the world of sound. Overall, these properties of Romanticism were influenced by the social changes of the nineteenth century. These changes meant that composers of the Romantic era had greater freedom than ever before. Unlike their counterparts in previous historical periods, they no longer had to be almost entirely dependent on the church or the state or weal thy, upper-class patrons[xxv] [xxvi]. As highlighted previously, musicians could support themselves by giving public concerts, â€Å"Paganini earned so much money in one year that he could have bought 300 kilos of gold. [xxvii] [xxviii] As we can see in this example from Grove, the orchestra of the Romantic age was distinctly different from its predecessors in that it was not for the personal amusement of royalty or a symbol of status: â€Å"During most of the 18th century orchestras had been an accompaniment to and an expression of aristocratic court culture; in the 19th century the orchestra became a central institution of public musical life. † [xxix] Given the demands illustrated through these changes, several strategies are suggested. One possible strategy would be to learn a piece. As reading music is a necessary precursor to this, it would be a required and fruitful use of one’s time to learn to do so if the skill has not already been learnt. Learning to play a piece of music would be the ideal realisation of this strategy. However, this is not always possible and would be impractical for a piece with a large number of parts – a symphony, for example. Nevertheless, one can study and appreciate the technical or musical difficulty involved in a piece without being able to master it. Once able, listening to a piece of music whilst consulting the score is also a useful tool for following a piece and picking out specific parts. This is especially true of any orchestral piece. Another related strategy would be to try and put oneself in the shoes of a listener of the Romantic era. Listening to recordings performed on period instruments would be an ideal method of doing this. Also, learning more about the people of the period and what it would have been like for a nineteenth century person to listen to a certain work for the first time would be a further way to pursue this strategy. To learn, and appreciate, any other art forms linked with a piece of music is another strategy for listening to Romantic music – for example, Beethoven’s Symphony number 9. Beethoven based the final movement on the poem ‘Ode to Joy’ by Friedrich Schiller[xxx] – the movement is scored for orchestra, four vocal soloists and a choir – who sing the words of the poem. The case can be made that, to fully appreciate this work, one must appreciate the poem on which it is based. Additionally, understanding of the language the words are in – German – would take this strategy even urther. Separating a piece of music into parts is another strategy for listening to Romantic music. For example, a symphony or sonata can be listened to as individual movements, easier to absorb than, perhaps, thirty minutes or an hour’s worth of music. Exploring huge compositions or collections at one time is not the correct strategy, the sheer volume of n otes can be daunting and there is a danger that listening to too much music dulls one to the finer points of that music, it simply becomes noise. The distinct movements many composers put in their music should be utilised when first discovering a work, only once more understanding is cultivated should one attempt to listen to an entire concerto, sonata or symphony. Conclusively, it has been shown that Romantic music made greater demands upon its listeners than did music of previous historical periods. These demands were: increased technical and musical intensity; the use of bold, vivid contrasts and a considerably augmented duration of musical compositions. These changes came about due to technological advancements of the period, less reliance on patronage and the ‘musician’ became a respected and viable profession in the nineteenth century. There are many strategies which can be devised for listening to Romantic music, in the present day. These are: learning how to read and play music; to put oneself in the shoes of a listener of the time period; to study any art forms which are linked to a piece of Romantic music and dividing a composition into more easily manageable sections. These strategies will further aid the listener in appreciating and understanding Romantic music. ———————- [i] Jim Samson, â€Å"Romanticism†, Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, [Accessed 2 December 2009] [ii] Jim Samson, â€Å"Romanticism†, Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, [Accessed 2 December 2009] (1. History of usage) [iii] ABRSM, â€Å"Music Performance Diploma Syllabu s from 2005†, [Accessed 2 December 2009] [iv] Ibid. [v] Ibid. [vi] Philip R. Belt, Maribel Meisel/Gert Hecher, Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, [Accessed 2 December 2009] (5. The Viennese piano from 1800. ) [vii] Michael Cole, â€Å"Pianoforte†, Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, [Accessed 2 December 2009] (6. England and France, 1800–60. ) [viii] Robert Winter, â€Å"Pianoforte†, Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, [Accessed 2 December 2009] (2. Romantic period) [ix] Alan Walker, et al. , â€Å"Liszt, Franz†, Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, , [Accessed 2 December 2009] [x] Howard Ferguson and Kenneth L. Hamilton, â€Å"Study†, Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, [Accessed 2 December 2009] [xi] Franz Liszt, Vingt-quatres grandes etudes pour le piano, 1839, Vienna: Haslinger [xii] Franz Liszt, Etudes d’execution transcendante, 1852, Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hartel xiii] Edward Neill, â€Å"Paganini, Nicolo†, Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, [Accessed 2 December 2009] [xiv] Edward Neill, â€Å"Paganini, Nicolo†, Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, [Accessed 2 December 2009] (7. France and Great Britain, 1831–4, and last years, 1835–40. ) [xv] Ibid. [xvi] Arnold, Denis and Timothy Rhys Jones, â€Å"con certo†, The Oxford Companion to Music Oxford Music Online, [Accessed 2 December 2009] [xvii] Ludwig van Beethoven, Beethoven: The Piano Concertos, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, cond. by Georg Solti, (Decca, 1995) xviii] Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart: The Piano Concertos, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Philharmonia Orchestra, cond. by Vladimir Ashkenazy, (Decca, 1995) [xix] Nicholas Marston, â€Å"Approaching the Sketches for Beethoven's ‘Hammerklavier’ Sonata†, Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 44, No. 3 (Autumn, 1991), p. 404-450, University of California Press on behalf of the American Musicological Society, p. 404 [xx] Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Sonata no. 29 ‘Hammerklavier’, 1891, Stuttgart: J. G. Cotta Final three bars of first movement – â€Å"Allegro† [pic] [xxi] Andras Schiff, Lecture on Piano Sonata no. 9 ‘Hammerklavier’ by Ludwig van Beethoven, Wigmore Hall, May 2006, Published by The Guardian, [Accessed 2 December 2009] [xxii] â€Å"‘Eroica’ Symphony†, The Oxford Dictionary of Music, 2nd ed. rev. Ed. Michael Kennedy. Oxford Music Online, [Accessed 2 December 2009] [xxiii] Mark Evan Bonds, â€Å"Symphony†, Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, [Accessed 2 December 2009] (II. 19th century, 2. Beethoven) [xxiv] Ibid. [xxv] Joseph Dyer, â€Å"Roman Catholic church music†, Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, [Accessed 2 December 2009] (V. The 19th century, 1. Catholic church music and the Romantic aesthetic. [xxvi] Joseph Dyer, â€Å"Roman Catholic church music†, Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, [Accessed 2 December 2009] (IV. The 18th century) [xxvii] John Spitzer and Neal Zaslaw, â€Å"Orchestra†, Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, [Accessed 2 December 2009] (7. The Romantic orchestra (1815–1900). ) [xxviii] Edward Neill, â€Å"Paganini, Nicolo†,Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, [Accessed 2 December 2009] (8. Playing style. ) [xxix] John Spitzer and Neal Zaslaw, loc. cit. [xxx] Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony no. 9, ca. 1925, Leipzig: Ernst Eulenburg

American Luxury Brand Case Studies Essay

Arrowood Times are not promising for boutique American wineries, with many closing, plowing under their fields, or selling | | | |out to larger interests who have the resources to survive the down market. The worldwide glut of wine grapes from a | | | |succession of bumper harvests, increased competition from bottom tier and lower cost imports (among them Chile, Australia and| | | |South Africa) has California in a tailspin. There is also a Californian producer nicknamed â€Å"Two Buck Chuck† selling wines at | | | |US-3/bottle, 10 million bottles sold in the USA so far this year alone. Another indicator is the fall in demand for organic | | | |produce. During the boom years, consumers were prepared to pay premium prices for certified organic fruits and vegetables. | | | |Only the most efficient and well-managed farms will survive the collapse of that segment of market, which also supplies | | | |grapes to the organic winemakers. | | | | | | | |Arrowood typifies the small boutique Sonoma winery: in business 15 years, their name made on well-regarded wines in low | | | |production from a beautiful state-of-the-art facility. The brand is always fully subscribed for its yearly limited edition | | | |bottlings. The company cannot surrender its premium cachet by backing off on pricing, which begins at /bottle from the | | | |winery, higher at retail. Two years ago Arrowood unsuccessfully attempted to position high-end Syrah as a new trend, charging| | | |prices comparable to high-end Cabernets. The public was not so easily convinced. Demand is down for their commercial | | | |production, and today they have inventory of Syrahs, which can’t be offered at less than originally asked, without devaluing | | | |the brand. | | | | | | | |Best & Co. | | | | | | | | Best & Co., originally a multi-storied department store on Lower Fifth Avenue, New York City, stayed in business for nearly a| | | |century before closing its doors in the 1960s. Oriented exclusively for children, Best relaunched two years ago under the new| | | |stewardship of Susie Hilfiger. The legacy brand was renowned for its fine quality merchandise and exceptional customer | | | |service, founded upon the idea that children are important. Hilfiger opened a Connecticut store, resurrecting the original | | | |logos and interior design, and subsequently added a high-end boutique in Bergdorf Goodman’s Manhattan location. In addition, | | | |the company has both online and catalog channels for offering their fine line of house brands and imports. | | | | | | | |Blackglama This Seattle-based fur cooperative established its brand with the highly regarded â€Å"What Becomes a Legend Most? † | | | |campaign, almost thirty years ago. A spinoff of the parent brand named American Legend Mink, Blackglama created its brand | | | |perception by associations with personalities of international stature, among them Callas, Dietrich, Garbo, Hepburn, Loren | | | |and Pavarotti, captured in artistic black and white photography. Since 2002 the brand has reinforced its franchise with the | | | |relaunch of its classic campaign featuring an international supermodel. Throughout its brand life, Blackglama has been | | | |uncompromising in price, sophistication and quality, always holding to the top tier. A true American luxury brand. | | | | | | | |Cadillac Cadillac Motors, which later became a division of General Motors, dates from the early days of mass-produced | | | |automobiles. It is the oldest surviving American luxury car brand. Once a synonym for the highest quality in vehicles, by the| | | |1950s the brand had become the favorite of Texan oil millionaires, Arab potentates and Elvis Presley, who habitually gave | | | |them away by the dozens to his entourage. Cadillac began to lose market share in the 70s with increased competition from | | | |Ford’s Lincoln division, and the introduction of other luxury vehicles –primarily of Japanese manufacture- who marketed to a | | | |younger, newly-affluent demographic. Cadillac unsuccessfully responded by attempting a downsized model, Cimarron, 1982-88, | | | |driving brand perception lower. Today, Cadillac is perceived as retiree’s car, while it retains some small segment of the | | | |limousine business. A partnership with Pininfarina 1987-1993 produced a visionary prototype, Alante, intended to compete with| | | |the Mercedes SL. Cadillac launched the Escalade, a hybrid SUV in 2000. In today’s hyper-competitive environment with a | | | |climate of weakened sales on all fronts, the glory days of a top-tier luxury brand seem to be history. In an attempt to | | | |recapture the magic, this summer Cadillac released a ,000 limited-production 2-seat sportscar, the XLR. | | | | | | | |Callaway Clubs This manufacturer of high end golf clubs since 1982 has a reputation as the best in the business. They scored | | | |a major product success story in the 1990s with their signature top-of-the-line â€Å"Big Bertha† titanium driver, a technological| | | |innovation which transformed the game through its distance-enhancing features. They continue to expand their line of clubs, | | | |but low-end brand extensions such as active wear, luggage and footwear prevent Callaway from reaching the highest luxury | | | |tier. | | | | | | | |Harley-Davidson The iconic American motorcycle sustains a proud history, enduring product quality and a high price point. In | | | |the face of increased competition in 1987, Harley sent a management team to Japan to learn about superior production | | | |techniques. Today’s median customer is 55 years old, a buyer who recognizes that the brand personifies the outlaw | | | |sensibilities, romance of the open road, and the American Dream of unbridled freedom. However, numerous brand extensions and | | | |licenses, many of them downmarket, i. e. cigarettes and clocks, have kept Harley in the middle levels of the luxury category. | | | | | | | |Hamilton An American watchmaker, founded in 1892 in Lancaster, PA, known for innovative case design and watch technology. | | | |Hamilton today is a member of The Swatch Group, the largest watch producer and distributor in the world, thus losing some of | | | |its uniquely American imprint. Association with Hollywood movies like â€Å"Men In Black†, and an entry level price point of under| | | |0 keeps the company short of luxury. But superior collectible designs and a high historical profile, including introducing | | | |Pulsar, the world’s first digital watch, suggest a brand occasionally skirting the luxury franchise. | | | | | | | |Hummer A classic instance of brand hijacking, where consumers attach attributes to a product that its manufacturer never | | | |intended. The Humvee originated as a government contract vehicle, designed for the military. Survivalists, conservatives, and| | | |yuppies adopted it as their signature icon vehicle, with some cachet attached to its 0,000 price tag. It has since become the| | | |Rapper car of choice, and a popular status vehicle. After unexpected market demand, Hummer – an Indiana-based division of GM-| | | |recently introduced two low-cost, downsized models in the ,000 range, thus moving the brand below its prior designation as | | | |premium luxury. | | | | | | | |Hyatt An interesting attempt in progress to enter the luxury lodging space in Europe. Hyatt’s new five-star Park Hyatt | | | |Paris-Vendome hotel hopes to compete with properties such as the Ritz, Georges V, and Au Duc de Lorraine. They break from the| | | |tradition of Belle Epoque style, relying on ultramodern design, younger staff, while continuing to emphasize first-class | | | |service. It’s a brave undertaking, what with their existing perception as a middle-level American hospitality brand. It takes| | | |several years to establish a hotel property, so the jury will be out for some time. | | | | | | | |Kiehl’s A family-owned pharmacy, in business since 1851 at the same single NYC location, manufacturing its own vast, | | | |proprietary line of skin care products. The company has built some distribution at other retail outlets. Brand image relies | | | |on generic style packaging and no advertising, a high service and satisfaction proposition, product integrity and community | | | |involvement. Kiehl’s narrow product focus, body care products, occupies a space at the mid-level price point, thus holding | | | |it, perception-wise, a tier below the luxury category, despite department store outlets in the luxury cosmetics area. In | | | |recent history the brand has gained a cult following in the entertainment industry, and stars have consequently promoted the | | | |product line. In response to improved demand, Kiehl’s recently began a retail expansion in 8 cities with their own | | | |storefronts, designed to resemble a traditional pharmacy. Kiehl’s also created an equine line of show-quality standard | | | |grooming products for horses and ponies. The association with the equestrian world adds some higher value perception to the | | | |brand, despite its mid-range price point and no-image packaging. | | | | | | | |Lincoln This ubiquitous sub-brand was created by Ford to compete with Cadillac’s luxury franchise. It has since supplanted | | | |Cadillac as preferred limousine brand and is now primarily associated with the ‘town car’, on which most high-end car service| | | |fleets are built. Two years ago Lincoln attempted to create a hybrid fusion vehicle called the Blackwood, which one critic | | | |called â€Å"neither practical pickup nor luxury-car stand-in†, and the model was in release only one year before being | | | |discontinued. Lincoln has benefited from the launch of a successful SUV called Navigator. | | | | | | | |NetJets This company is the premier provider in the private jet transportation category, with the largest market share, over | | | |fifty percent worldwide. NetJets sells partial or full shares in new jet ownership to corporate clients and individuals with | | | |a high net worth of million or more. The business model is a unique one, with a number of avenues for tax advantage, and with| | | |a system of buyback and plan conversion guarantees starting at the low end for about 5,000 per year. NetJets is wholly owned | | | |by Berkshire Hathaway, whose boss Warren Buffet was originally a satisfied NetJets customer. He eventually purchased the | | | |entire company, and his deep pockets back the undertaking. NetJets dominates the category, with a fleet of over 450 new, | | ||luxurious aircraft of varying capacities and distance capabilities, a sister company in Europe, in-house safety and training | | | |programs and its own team of meteorologists and dispatchers. No other jet transportation provider in the world can compare. | | | |In fact, competing firms are struggling with older aircraft and anaemic balance sheets. As a strategy to take more business | | | |from the smaller charter companies, NetJets adopted the Marquis Jet Card, a lower price point, lower minimum dollar | | | |entry-level commitment available in units as small as 0,000. The card has performed significantly better than projected. The | | | |company markets itself as the utmost in safety, comfort and security, partnering with Ritz Carlton for service staff | | | |training, and the Mayo Clinic for on-demand medical resources. Advertising and brand messaging are quite confused, delivering| | | |multiple concepts often at odds with each other. But advertising probably does not figure greatly in NetJets’ success. The | | | |most frequently heard challenge to their sales people concerns high cost; an inflexible and uncompromising pricing policy has| | | |stood the brand well. Plus, Buffet’s ownership is enough to convey the distinction and premium luxury prestige conferred by | | | |association with the world’s second richest man. | | | | | | | |Panavision This company has an unblemished 50 year reputation for providing the finest quality cameras and lenses for the | | | |motion picture industry. While not widely known to the general public, Panavision’s reach is universal and international in | | | |the film community, regarded as the best in its category. | | | | | | | |Ritz Carlton The respected hotel chain was acquired in 1998 by Marriott, after a period of expansion into new locations and | | | |properties. The original Boston hotel was immortalized by F. Scott Fitzgerald in the short story â€Å"The Diamond As Big As The | | | |Ritz†. Upholding a standard of excellence in service, the company motto is â€Å"We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and | | | |Gentlemen. † The company prides itself on its Gold Standards, a highly refined system of directives which each employee must | | | |know and understand, a proven technique developed to sustain the brand’s preeminence. Ritz Carlton partners with NetJets in | | | |flight service training, an indication of the exacting standards this fine business model upholds. | | | | | | | |Rosewood Hotels & Resorts Founded in 1987 by Caroline Rose Hunt of Dallas, Texas. â€Å"The moment guests set foot in one of our | | | |hotels or resorts they enter a private world of rare and refined luxury. At the heart of each property is our dedication to | | | |uncompromising quality and exemplary personal service. † The winner of numerous industry and media awards, Rosewood has trophy| | | |properties in the USA, the Caribbean, Asia and the Middle East. A solid premium luxury brand. | | | | | | | |St. Regis The premium luxury division of the Starwood Group, who also run the Westin and W brands, among a range of niche | | | |hospitality groups. Another division, called The Luxury Collection, falls lower in the actual luxury category, bringing | | | |together over 70 international properties, many from the Sheraton Group. St. Regis is a good example of a counterfeit brand, | | | |who bases its reputation on a single legacy property built in 1904. The actual property was acquired by Starwood in 1998, and| | | |the parent company soon added properties under the St. Regis brand name in nine other cities. The flagship NY property and | | | |its affiliates worldwide do reflect the highest standards of hospitality, and so far in their short history deserve the | | | |luxury designation. | | | | | | | |Technicolor The company rose to prominence providing the highest quality in celluloid film stock and processing in an 80-year| | | |franchise, as unchallenged category leader. Technicolor has high associations with the Golden Age of post WWII cinema. The | | | |company has adapted much of its business to new technologies, but it may be the end of their brand domination owing to | | | |inroads made by competitive digital imaging providers. | | | | | | | |Tiffany The quintessential American brand, with old world style and Beaux Arts luxury associations dating back to 1837. | | | |Tiffany’s first store opened in NYC with a policy that every article be marked with a non-negotiable selling price, | | | |accompanied by a guarantee of exceptional quality and customer satisfaction. The company soon innovated the signature blue | | | |bag and sales by catalog. Towards the turn of the century Louis Comfort Tiffany further grew the brand’s prestige with | | | |breathtaking Art Nouveau experimentations in lamps and glasswork. Robber barons relied on Tiffany for everything from fine | | | |china, leaded glass windows, silver goods and engraved stationery to opulent gems. During his 30 year tenure, the legendary | | | |Jean Schlumberger added to the company’s lustre with his elegant and sophisticated jewelry, which combined brilliant | | | |craftsmanship and superior taste in materials. Tiffany’s democratization began in the 1950s when Truman Capote’s story, | | | |â€Å"Breakfast at Tiffany’s† turned the brand into a household word. As Schlumberger’s career began to wane in the 1970s, | | | |Tiffany’s classical glamour began to fade, and the firm sought renewal by releasing a signature fragrance, a puzzling and | | | |incongruous brand extension which seems at odds with the original franchise. Other attempts to create new magic for the brand| | | |include the licensing of designs by Paloma Picasso, whose family name carries the cachet of fine art; but her designs for | | | |silver earrings brought brand perception downmarket, as did comparable designs by Elsa Peretti at a similar low price point. | | | |Tiffany’s history barely reconciles today with its current state: a brand gone slightly south, with a faint memory of a | | | |company who once popularized the iconic myth of The Tiffany Diamond. However, Tiffany’s recent financial performance is a | | | |success story. The stock price has gone from to in the last 12 months, validating the mass-merchandising strategy with | | | |bottom-line results. | | | | | | | |Wolfgang Puck A gradual downmarket slide. Puck’s origins as a celebrity chef in California led to his first brand extension | | | |as author of a best-selling cookbook. Excerpted from his web site, â€Å"†¦the culinary empire he has built since the early 1980s | | | |consists of: the group of fine dining restaurants through which he first rose to prominence; his extensive catering and | | | |events business, which gains international attention through its flagship event, the annual Governors Ball following the | | | | Oscars; and Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Inc., the corporation that controls the Wolfgang Puck ® brand in areas as diverse as | | | |casual and quick-service dining, consumer packaged foods, cookware, book publishing, television, radio and internet | | | |programming, and other franchising, licensing, and merchandising activities. † Puck’s presence in packaged frozen food | | | |products, his industrial-sized Las Vegas location and 75 fast food airport franchises weigh heavily on his former luxury | | | |cachet. He is no longer luxury, simply a high-end mass-market conglomerate. | | | | | | | |Harry Winston Sparse, well-chosen high-ticket, high-visibility advertising and promotion has helped this premium luxury brand| | | |maintain its associations with opulence, new money, and decadence. While Winston has the biggest and most valuable stones, | | | |its designs are no longer considered the most remarkable artistically, simply extravagant, perhaps a bit vulgar. Harry | | | |Winston Ultimate Timepieces, founded in 1998 and based in Geneva, has introduced the new ,000 Opus One Tourbillon watch, | | | |enclosed in a platinum casing, garlanded in gold and diamonds, with Swiss movement. The parent company will always be | | | |associated with the Hope Diamond, which it acquired in 1949 and later donated to the Smithsonian Institution. Could it be | | | |that the brand is tainted or dragged downmarket by associations with rappers, celebrity athletes, Texan oil millionaires and | | | |curvaceous film starlets on Oscar night?

Intro Communication Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Intro Communication - Term Paper Example Language plays a considerable role in creating meanings of words. In every language, there are different sets of words and the rules for constructing sentences. Those rules also play their role in creating meanings of the sentences. For example, English-speaking people cannot understand the meanings of the words, which belong to some other language, such as, French language or Spanish language. They need to find the meanings of those words in their own language in order to understand those words. There is a very strong relationship between meanings and language. A person can understand the meanings of only those words, which belong either to his/her mother language or to a language to which the person is familiar. For effective communication to take place, the role of understandable language is very important. A person needs to have complete understanding of the language, which is to be used for communication. When scholars refer to language use as polysemous, they are actually referring to the use of those words, which have different meanings in different languages. Every language has its own set of vocabulary and standards, which play an important role in distinguishing the meanings of the words used in one language from their meanings in other languages. Understanding of polysemy is very important for effective communication to take place in real life situations (Alberts, Nakayama, and Martin). The reason is that there exist many words in almost every language, which have more than one meaning. So in order to know the real meaning of what the other person is speaking, the ability to distinguish between different meanings of the same words is very important. Some words have same spellings but produce different meanings. For example, an English word ‘bat’ has two meanings, which include a stick used to play cricket and an animal. Similarly, the word ‘pupil’ also has two

Discuss the ways in which social class is embodied within British Essay

Discuss the ways in which social class is embodied within British culture in terms of media, lifestyle, consumption and taste - Essay Example ts in various social classes is also impacted by the income earned, occupation and level of education of the members in these social classes (Andersen and Gray, 2008). Social class is normally set up in a hierarchical manner. The social classes are arranged in a hierarchy that ranks from low social status to a high social status. The British society is divided into various classes such that people of the same group or class have similar income, education and occupation. These three aspects differ from one social rank to the next and are very important in creating the differences that occur between these classes (Bell and Hollows, 2006). This fact leads to the general assumption which members of a certain class believe that they have the same status in the society as their fellow colleagues in the same class, lower status compared to members of a higher social class and a higher class compared to members of a lower social class (Bendix and Lipset, 1953). In traditional British culture, the social class used to be determined based on an occupational scale. They rank from higher professional and managerial occupations such as company directors, professors and teachers to those people in the society who are unemployed. Despite the fact that people may assume social classes to be objective they subjectively appear to exist if a certain group of people come to realize their similarity and hence share a common goal and interests (Bihagen, 2000). It is common to find people in the same job group having almost similar income, economic assets, and level of education and hence having a similar lifestyle. In the British culture, the working class a social class in itself. In recent times this is not applicable due to the fact that a labourer in a farm cannot be in the same social class with a senior doctor or an engineer due to the difference in income, education and occupation (Benson, 2003). The British culture has a tradition working class. The traditional working class

A literature review about the role of nutrition information in Research Paper

A literature review about the role of nutrition information in influencing consumer choice - Research Paper Example The pieces of information are inclusive of brand name, price and search attributes that are within a store. There is also set levels of importance given to the visual aids within the product as well as the factual information given. It has been found (Degeratu et al, 55: 2000), that the factual information, such as fat levels, nutritional levels and other measurements, are the most important determinant of what consumers decide to buy from a supermarket (Degeratu et al, 55: 2000). While the nutritional value that is available through information is known as the most important aspect for those buying food, there are also differences in the decision making process. The demographics and expectations from different sets of individuals determine what the most popular items are in supermarkets. For instance, young adults often consume snacks that don’t have the same levels of nutritional values. The decision to choose the snacks is based on the taste, satisfaction and trends that ar e a part of the snacks. It was found through a recent study (Cranage et al, 125: 2003), that there wasn’t a difference in nutritional value when choosing different snacks. Two snacks were given, one with higher nutritional value than the other. ... From these two studies, it can be seen that the nutritional information depicts choices between various types of groups. However, there is a difference in whether the responses are positive or negative as well as what influences consumers with the enjoyment of the food. Through another study (Edwards et al, 332: 2005), there was a question of how negative or positive information influenced those that were deciding to take specific types of nutritional foods. A group was assisted with the purchases that they made by being given information on the food. The information was specifically designed to cause a positive, negative or neutral statement about the food. After eating the food, the participants were given a survey to define the quality of food with nutritional value as well as taste and satisfaction. It was found that the negative information or beliefs about the food caused the participants to be influenced by the food chosen. However, if the food was chosen, despite the negative comments, it didn’t create a negative response after eating the food in satisfaction or the taste value associated with the food (Edwards, et al, 332: 2005). This particular study shows that the information before giving individuals a type of food can influence their decision to buy the food. However, it doesn’t influence the responses that are given after eating the food and making the determination necessary for their own understanding of quality. The attitudes and behaviors that are created from quality have some dependence on the nutritional information. However, there are also cultural and societal trends that begin to influence the choices of those that are buying different types of food

Reasearch paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Reasearch - Research Paper Example Another controversial issue that was facing Hemingway was in regard to his sexual orientation. This is controversial because Hemingway is known to have a deep hatred to the gay people; however, scholars denote that this was with the intention of hiding his sexual orientation. This is because Hemingway is suspected to have been a gay person. It is these types of controversies and issues surrounding the life of Hemingway that could have an impact in negatively affecting his career. This paper examines the controversial manner which Hemingway was able to depict women, and why this could negatively affect his career. Ernest Hemingway is a famous and talented American writer. However, most of his critics do not feel the same. This is because of his writing style, and the various controversies that Mr. Hemingway was able to have. On most occasions, Mr. Hemingway is always compared to famous authors such as William Faulkner and Scott Fitzergerald. However, he has a very different writing style, when it is compared to these famous authors. Furthermore, Mr. Hemingway has made enormous and great contribution to the modern fiction, when he is compared to the above mentioned authors (Boon, 27). However, this assertion is debatable, mainly because he has only a handful of novels and fictions to his name. This is when compared to the above authors, who dedicated most of their lives in writing fiction and novels. Furthermore, he was very particular in regard to his writing (Bloom, 31). He did not just come up with a story, but he analyzed the story carefully, and every sentence, and word, for purposes of e nsuring that the story under consideration would serve its function, and disseminate the intended message. Furthermore, the novels that Hemingway created were following a chronological order. The impact of this order is that the novels were boring, and very typical. For

Total Compensation Methods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Total Compensation Methods - Essay Example Compensation and benefits, like we all know are rewards that an organization gives to its employees in return of their efforts and services that they have given. These rewards may vary from direct to indirect forms. There are various methods to compensate employees and each method and benefits may have its own impact on the employees and on overall the organization, and this is what we are going to discuss below. This is one method of compensating those employees who have certain needed skills, whether job related or not. This is a creative way of paying for the internal skills and gives a flexible job design, where employees could move from one assignment to another on periodic basis. This is another method of compensating employees. Here those employees are compensated who are the key performers. They are though paid within a certain pay range. The organization here does not need to promote its employees, as they would already be paying them more comparatively. Broadbanding normally provides flexibility, entrepreneurial management style and performance orientation. Provides flexibility to the employees, promotes lateral development of employees, helps in developing employees skills and encourages a team focus and directs employees attention away from vertical promotional activities. Impact on organization It make compensation system more simpler that de-emphasizes structure and control and places greater importance on judgment and flexible decision making. Group Incentives, Gain Sharing, Success Sharing These are other methods of compensating employees. Here the compensation, which is the certain amount of profit of the organization, is given not to one but a group those employees who are identified directly with the improvement. The key here is to share the success of the organization with the employees. Impact on employee When the employees see that gain sharing supports a true pay for performance culture, hence they see their progress linked directly to the organization. The commitment to the organization is thus increased. Impact on organization Many organizations already having gain sharing as their means of compensating employees and have found an improved organizational communication, especially between labor and management and between different functional units. Benefit Programs Workers Compensation This is one kind of legally required benefit, which like others is meant for benefiting the employees. This benefit provides a degree of financial protection to those employees who have incurred expenses resulting from job related accident or illness. The organization pays for the workers compensation insurance, and the expense is tied to their past experience and job related accidents and illness. Impact on emplo

International Business and Terrorism in 21st Century Essay

International Business and Terrorism in 21st Century - Essay Example The incident of 9/11 which is the result of terrorism has changed the base of the present century and brought us to question what effects have it caused Of course there have been numerous of negative and positive outcomes of 9/11 incident related to every day life such as difficulty for immigrants of different countries, but more serious affects can be seen in the international business sector, the effects are as same as damaging the base or foundation of a building which would change the entire structure, this exactly what happened in the world as the WTC fell. The economies of various countries have gone down, as the immediate reaction after the fuss was to put restrictions on the imports and making import substitution (promoting the products made by local companies rather than using exported ones) in United States which eventually resulted in loss of multinational companies who were previously making a lot of profitability, this was however anticipated that United States would it self not stop exporting as they had to rely a lot on to it, after the incident of WTC the inflation took place severely and suddenly and so many new sorts of policies were also formed which resulted in bankruptcy, loss and poor financial management of different sizable firms in the United States. In the present discussion I am going to put some light on all the related things happening to businesses and terrorists. President Bush has also paid billions to the United Nations to have a fight against terrorism, which is automatically ensuring us that a lot of money is being wasted in ending such operations, this has caused a lot of disturbance in the economy and it has turned the reaction into a chain, which means that a series of event happened to pursue the objective of eliminating terrorism, business is also one major part of it as country survives on business with other countries, United Nations has the power to accomplish the mission of eliminating terrorism as it can bring in other countries to work with United States as well. We can also say that because of the International Relations, the UN can more impressively bring in other countries to work closely with United States. The government of United States is also welcoming any such offers from the other countries ensuring their willingness to fight against terrorism. However there can be arguments that the money was not wasted as I mentione d earlier that if some action would not have been taken than the terrorists might have kicked us out of our homes, this entire expenditure has ensured us a much secured place to live which was not possible if the terrorists would not have been stopped. Today people don't realize that there is insurance for foreign investors against losses generated by political or social causes in all the countries where operations have taken place, there is insurance against war damage or acts of terrorism, which means that the claims would be reached in trillions and it would be very difficult for the US based insurance companies to pay for the amount which they are sued for, it has generated some serious misunderstanding between the two of these parties,

Religion - Cardinal John Henry Newman Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Religion - Cardinal John Henry Newman - Essay Example However, the pertinent role of The Analogy of Butler in the religious opinions of Newman is often stressed. â€Å"In respect to his intellectual training, Newman was indebted to Dr. Hawkins for more exactness in the statement and greater precision in an argument... The Analogy of Butler formed, as in the case of so many others, a turning point in the history of our author’s religious opinions.† (Kickham, 116) Therefore, Cardinal Newman presents the major influences on his religious opinions in his Apologia pro Vita Sua and the Preface added to this book illustrates the major influences and turning points in his religious opinions. â€Å"The following History of my Religious Opinions, now that it is detached from the context in which it originally stood, requires some preliminary explanation... An impression of this kind was almost unavoidable under the circumstances of the case, when a man, who had written strongly against a cause, and had collected a party round him b y virtue of such writings, gradually faltered in his opposition to it, unsaid his words, threw his own friends into perplexity and their proceedings into confusion, and ended by passing over to the side of those whom he had so vigorously denounced.† (Newman, 3) One of the prevailing themes of Newman’s teachings was to emphasize value-focused education and he regarded education as not useful to humanity without ‘the influence of Go’s grace’. The outward training should be duly supported by an inward help and grace which is provided by Christ and his Holy Spirit.

Construction Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Construction Law - Essay Example As the contractor was excluded from the design stage so the employer retains the risk for any mistakes or errors in the design (Gerrard, 2012). On the other hand, in the ‘Design and Build procurement’, the contractor is assigned the responsibility for both, designing and construction by the employer. All the Design and Build strategies have the same parameter, that the contractor will become responsible for design and construction of the project at a given point of time for a fixed amount of money. The client/employer is required to seek professional help for preparing a detailed statement of requirements before signing a contract with the contractor. Thereafter, the contractor will be liable for design, labour, material which will lead to a single point of responsibility. The contractor’s efficiency will escalate as he exercises control over design and construction. Moreover, any arguments over design will be between the contactor and professionals instead of the employer and professionals. 1.(b). Engineers are going to be appointed by the employer or contractor depending on the procurement model. A chief engineer should be nominated if several engineers from various fields are to be appointed. Engineers should be given authority and access if the design is based on a process of technology, to which the employer holds licence. Under the standard build procurement, an engineer is required to meet the employer’s needs for inviting tenders. On the other hand, in a design and build procurement, the role of an engineer is based on providing a performance specification, standards for material input and design which will be included in the Works Specification (NEC Contract, 2012). To be more precise, a structural engineer is responsible for designing the structure of a building together with drainage and installation. He will also provide professional and expert opinion to the client about the structure and cost of every part of the buildin g. His work must co-ordinate with the architect and services engineer. A services engineer’s role is to design and identify mechanical and electrical services keeping in view the employers specifications. They are to provide advice on matters like environmental issues, sustainability and cost. Following novation, engineers will be responsible to the contractor instead of the employer (APUC, 2012). 1.(c). Compensation events are those which do not arise because of a default on the contractor’s part and therefore entitle him to compensation in price and time. A resource forecast is used to assess the impact of any compensating event on cost and time. Compensation event pass through notification, quotation, revision and implementation stages. An event should meet the criteria mentioned in Clause 60 of NEC3 to be treated as a compensation event (Eggleston, 2006). Clause 60(1) states that: â€Å"A Project Manager gives an instruction changing the works information except: a. A change made in order to accept a defect or b. A change to Works Information provided by the Contractor for his design which is made either at his request or to comply with other Works Information provided by the Employer.† In this scenario, the Employer has instructed the Contractor to provide a design on an arch detail which was not included in the original

Pel Appliances Essay Example for Free

Pel Appliances Essay In 1986-87, the company started manufacturing of refrigerators in technical collaboration with M/s IAR-SILTAL of Italy. In 1987, PEL deep freezers were also introduced in technical collaboration with M/s Ariston of Italy. In 2006, the Company has started manufacturing of split type air conditioners of various capacities as the customer choice has shifted from window type to split type. The product has been well received in the market. This encourages the company to multiply its production in the coming year. Today, PEL has become a household name. Its products are not only in great demand in the local market but the Company has started exporting its appliances The company comprises of two divisions: * Appliances Division * Power Division Pak Elektron Limited (PEL) is the pioneer manufacturer of electrical goods in Pakistan. It was established in 1956 in technical collaboration with M/s AEG of Germany. In October 1978, the company was taken over by Saigol Group of Companies. Since its inception, the company has always been contributing owards the advancement and development of the engineering sector in Pakistan by introducing a range of quality electrical equipments and home appliances and by producing hundreds of engineers, skilled workers and technicians through its apprenticeship schemes and training programmes. The company comprises of two divisions: * Ever since their launch, PEL air conditioners have a leading position in the market. PEL air conditioners cooling performance has been tested and approved by Copeland and ITS USA. With the shift of users preference from window type to split type air conditioners, PEL has started manufacturing split type air conditioners. PEL Refrigerators The manufacturing of refrigerators started in 1986-87 in technical collaboration with M/s IAR-SILTAL of Italy. Like the air conditioner, PELs refrigerators are also in great demand. Today, PEL Crystal has 30% market share. Its cooling performance is tested and approved by Danfoss, Germany and its manufacturing facility is ISO 9002 certified by SGS Switzerland. PEL Deep Freezers PEL deep freezers were introduced in 1987 in technical collaboration with M/s Ariston of Italy. Because of durability and high quality, PEL deep freezers are the preferred choice of companies like Unilever. Power Division manufactures energy meters, transformers, switchgears, Kiosks, compact stations, shunt capacitor banks etc. All these electrical goods are manufactured under strict quality control and in accordance with international standards. PEL is one of the major electrical equipment suppliers to Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) and Karachi Electrical Supply Corporation (KESC), which are the largest power utilities in Pakistan. Over the years, PEL electrical equipment has been used in numerous power projects of national importance within Pakistan. PEL has the privilege of getting its equipment approved and certified by well-reputed international consultants such as: * Preece, Cardew and Rider, England Harza Engineering Company, USA * Snam Progeti, Italy * Societe Dumezm, France * Miner ;amp; Miner International Inc. USA * Ensa, France In spite of stiff competition from emerging local and multinational brands, PEL Groups appliances and electrical equipments have remained in the spotlight due to constant innovation. Strategic partnership with multinationals of repute have enabled the PEL G roup to incorporate new technologies into existing product ranges, thus giving the Pakistani market access to innovative, affordable and quality products. PEL was 16th Company in Pakistan which got ISO 9002 Certification in 1997, since then PEL Management is applying this International Standard Practices for Effectively Managing Quality of Products and Services that Company Offers. The International Standard Practices in PEL have been Upgraded as per the Revised   ISO 9001 Standards and its   Scope of Application   is expanding ever since and Top Management is Committed to make PEL a Total Quality Management (TQM) Company. In this Company Quality is the Subject of Management at all Levels.

Juror Organised Highly Conscientious Philosophy Essay

Juror Organised Highly Conscientious Philosophy Essay 12 Angry Men is a story of 12 juries making decision for a boy who have been accused for murdering his own father. A jury not only symbolizes democracy, but also embodies important cultural values which teamwork. The movie, 12 Angry Men clearly depicts how a random group of people can come together for a common goal, and in this case specifically to reach a final verdict. Each member possesses specific personality traits and diverse backgrounds that affect the decision making process. In the beginning, eleven juries out of twelve voted guilty. Only Juror No.8 voted the boy is not guilty. Juror 8 thought that they should re-examine the evidences again and not simply make decision on the boys life within five minutes. All of them agreed to speak out their opinions about the case. Most of them voted guilty based on the evidences and testimonials by the witnesses. 2.0 Personalities According to the Gordon Allport, personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychological systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment In other words, the ways in which a person reacts or interacts with others. Actually, it is the mixture of characteristics or traits that form a persons character and makes the person unique from another. In the movie 12 Angry Men the twelve juries got twelve different personalities. Hence, by using the personality traits models, like Big Five Model we have analyzed what kind of personalities they fall into. 2.1 Juror#1- Responsible, Conscientiousness Firstly, Juror #1 was the leader (foreman) of the twelve jury board. Throughout the discussion on whether the boy who was accused as a murderer of his father is guilty or not, he acted as a responsible leader. We discover that he handled situation in an organized way, for example- at start he suggested everyone to sit by their numbers and after that when everyone was settled on their seats he explained what they are supposed to do, and also when Juror#12 was distracted from his responsibility as a juror, Juror#1 reminded him his reason to be in the juror board. So, this proves that he has high conscientiousness. Furthermore, his agreeableness is also quite high as he considered others opinion about voting at first and keeping everyones view in front according to jury numbers and so on. In addition, his emotional stability is high, he was calm throughout the discussion even when 10th Juror questioned his leadership by asking him to stop treating them as kids, he did not raise his voic e too much but he just offered Juror#10 to take over his position. 2.2 Juror#2- Mild Openness to Idea It was the first time as a juror for Juror#2, so he was at first clueless about how thing works in a juror discussion. He was not very comfortable to voice out his ideas about why he thinks the boy is guilty, he just believes the evidences and the words he heard from the case. It gives the idea that his openness to new things is not high; he is not autonomous when taking decision. But he got more involved as the discussion goes on after a while and when the Juror#8 was showing out his doubt about the truth of the evidence, Juror#2 took notice of the logic behind the doubts and eventually supported Juror#8. 2.3 Juror#3- Stubborn Next, Juror#3 was the one who changed his vote to not guilty in the end. His stubbornness made him stick towards voting guilty throughout the discussion. He did not want to listen to any opinion other than his; he also denied the facts that make the evidences doubtful, this makes him low on agreeableness. Furthermore, he is low on conscientiousness as he did not feel responsible for the boys life, he thought that the courtroom was sleepy, people are talking too much when the case was obvious, and it is just a waste of time and money for him, even when the Juror#8 was giving out his view instead of listening carefully why Juror#8 thought the boy might not be guilty Juror#3 was playing with Juror#12. Next, he also lost his temper when Juror#8 was convincing others with his reasons of having doubt on the evidences and the number of vote for not guilty was increasing, he yelled at those who changed their mind, he was emotionally unstable. 2.4 Juror#4- Organised, Highly Conscientious Now, we move to Juror#4. He gives an impression of a very professional and organized person because he supported his view about the boy being guilty with facts and logic, without simply just saying guilty because the court said so. Despite that, he is highly conscientious as he took his duty as juror seriously. He was emotionally stable and opens to others opinion. He was not influenced by others, when making decisions he was independent, rational and calm. He changed his vote only after Juror#8 and Juror#9 gave him enough evidence (e.g. remembering the movie name, marks of spectacles on the womans nose) to doubt his decision over the kid as the murderer. However, at the beginning of the discussion he showed a little negative thinking about the slum and the people who live there by saying He was born in a slum. Slums are breeding grounds for criminals, I know as a view its no secret. 2.5 Juror#5- Introvert Next, Juror#5 shared the same background in terms of environment and culture in which, the boy who was accused to be murderer grew up. He was not comfortable to judge the boy and also did not want to give reason behind his vote at first. He showed the symptoms of an introvert person. Later on when he connected the evidence with his own experience and when he was offended by having a background that was born in a slum, he changed his vote to not guilty. 2.6 Juror#6- Simple When we come to Juror#6, we can know that he was a simple man. When it was his time to give his opinion on the cause of voting guilty he simply said there was a motive like every murder case and the picture presented in the court makes it obvious that the boy killed his father, he could not argue with the fact Juror#8 brought in front of him then. He just agrees with the court decision. He never became hyper throughout the meeting; he tried to stop whenever people got into fight just like Juror#4. In the movie we could also see his feeling of responsibility towards the old man. 2.7 Juror#7- Irresponsible, Irrational We realized that Juror#7 was the most irresponsible and irrational. He wanted the discussion to finish as fast as possible so that he could go to watch a baseball match. To him, the life of a person was like a child play to him. He did not fulfill his responsibility as a jury which makes him low on conscientiousness. He related the boys past offences to judge him as guilty. 2.8 Juror#8- High in conscientiousness, Emotionally Stable Next, Juror#8 is the most important character in the story, because of him everybody started to think the case from a what if situation. He felt responsible for the boys life, he presented his opinion with logic, he thought about the reliability of the evidence presented in the court, he put a lot of effort to show the leaks in the evidences (e.g. the knife, the old man testimony about seeing the boy running down the stairs, women who saw the murder from a moving train). This proves he is high on conscientiousness. He was emotionally stable even though he was frequently questioned about his decision. Just once he lost temper for a bit because Juror#3 was not paying attention to his talk. 2.9 Juror#9- Old, Timid, Low Confidence Level The negative personalities can be detected through Juror#9. He is very old and afraid to voice out his thought. His confidence level is low as he does not have the strength to argue with the other juries who were younger than him. He was threatened by Juror#10. At a point of time he wished he was younger to voice out his argument. However, he is a very good observer. He was the second not guilty voter. He changed his vote when he saw Juror#8s view connects with his observation. His observing quality supported Juror#8s doubt about the evidences throughout. His decision making was based on intuition where he himself also not sure whether the story told by the defendant was true or not. He just thinks that they need to discuss further before sending the defendant for the execution. 2.10 Juror#10- Hyper, Emotionally Unstable The most emotional character was Juror#10 as he was the most hyper, emotionally unstable person in the group. He did not want to hear any argument that contradicts with his opinion about the boy, he shouted, yelled at those who thought the boy was not guilty. His judgment was discriminative. He referred the boy as trash, animals, drugged up person who do not care about peoples life and kill them without having any proper reason; he is just like other people who grow up in the slum. 2.11 Juror#11- Introvert In contrast to Juror#10, Juror#11 has an introvert personality. He was not noticeable at the beginning of the movie. During the time of voting he raised up his hand with some hesitation after seeing the majority were raising hands to vote as guilty. At first he observed Juror#8, Juror#9 and Juror#5s logic in voting not guilty then he changed his vote and started to share his opinion. He was open towards the facts presented by Juror#8, 9 and 10. Although he was calm all the way but when Juror#7 changed his vote to not guilty without giving any proper reason he burst out in anger seeing that childishness over a serious matter. This also shows that Juror#11 is conscientious. 2.12 Juror#12- Extrovert Lastly, Juror#12 at the beginning tried to interact with other juries; it shows that he is an extrovert. But when the discussion started he did not expressed much, instead he was carried away with his own personal job. His agreeableness level was high. He did not have his own thinking or opinion on the case; he was easily distracted by the two parties (guilty and not guilty) in the discussion. When majority vote for guilty, then he raises his hand. He was unsure about his own decision. This decision making may be affected by his high agreeableness personalities that caused him to listen, or even follow others opinion without own judgment. 3.0Values Actually, values were developed from a belief that people hold in. Hence, value is defined as specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence. Normally, they contain a judgmental element in that they carry an individuals ideas as to what is right, good, or desirable. We realize values are important in this movie because they contain jurors interpretations of right and wrong. We will classify and interpret the values found in each characters of 12 Angry Mens using Rokeach Value Survey which is consists of terminal values and instrumental values. 3.1 Juror#1-Equal Opportunity As we know, foreman should be fairer and stress on equality. Juror#1 is the foreman of the jury. He has terminal value of equality which is equal opportunity for all juries to vote. He is serious about his authoritative role and wants to be as fair as possible to everyone. He offers everyone an equal opportunity to vote and speak out their opinion whether the boy guilty or not guilty. He also has instrumental values of broad-minded. He is open-minded in listening and accepting every jurors opinion. For instance, he accepted the proposal of Juror#8 to have a round of secret vote. His broad-minded values also affected his decision making. He vote for guilty at first, but with the reasonable doubt with all the evidence, he shift to not guilty at last. His decision making was quiet rational and did not shift too often as what Juror#12 did. 3.2 Juror#2-Polite Juror#2 is a quiet man who is easily persuaded by the opinions of others and cannot explain the roots of his opinions. He has instrumental values of polite. He is trying to voice out his own opinion with polite way. His politeness can be seen through the discussion process where he kept one asking question in a polite manner and gain respect from other Jurors. 3.3 Juror#3- Capable, Courageous Now we move to another instrumental value, which are capable and courageous. Juror#3 has instrumental values of capable and courageous. He stands up for his belief that the boy is guilty based on the facts such as the switchblade used as the murder weapon and evidence from the witness. However, his strong belief on the defendant must guilty was also influenced by his bad relationship with his son who hit and left him, which thus lead him to be irrational in analyzing the reasonable doubt for those evidences and decisions made. 3.4 Juror#4-Logical, Broad-Minded Juror#4 has instrumental values of logical and broad-minded. He logically related his decision with the evidences. On the other hand, he is also able to listen to other juries opinion. He was convinced by Juror#9 that the witness across the road may not really see what is happening at the murder place. He tries to support his own decision by further analysis of the facts with logical ways. 3.5 Juror#5-Forgiving, Logical Next, we can find instrumental value of forgiving on Juror#5. Although he got offended when Juror#3 and Juror#10 criticizing him on his background, however he is still willing to forgive them. Witnessing knife fights and normal slum behaviour, he feels obligated to explain an experience that would later help the jurors vote not guilty. The ability to link his experience of knife fights and normal slum behaviour to this case whereby the defendant is also from slum shows that Juror#5 has instrumental value of intelligence in his thinking. 3.6 Juror#6-Respect, Loving Now let us move to Juror#6 who has terminal values of respect and instrumental values of loving. He respects Juror#9 which is the eldest among them. He tries to let Juror#9 has the chance to voice out his opinion. Juror#6 bravely stands up to Juror #3 when he speaks rudely to Juror #9, threatening to hit Juror #3 if he ever speaks to the old man like that again. 3.7 Juror#7-Pleasure, Cheerful Meanwhile, terminal values of pleasure and instrumental values of cheerful are clearly shown on Juror#7. He is a baseball fan. He bought two tickets to watch live baseball game on that particular day. During the break time of the discussion, everyone was tensed with how things going to be as a jury, but he still could talk with others cheerfully. 3.8 Juror#8-Logical, Responsible Juror#8 has instrumental values of logical and responsible. He does not believe the evidence that presented by lawyer. He analyzed evidence by using logic. For instance, he questioned on the old man who claimed himself had taken fifteen seconds from his bedroom to rush to his front door and gotten a look on the murderer. He does not simply make a decision that may destroy the boys life. He feels that as one of the Juror, he has the responsibility to make a right decision. This is clearly shown when he first voted not guilty because he wants further discussion and not to decide the defendants life just within five minutes without any further discussion. Majority were trying to give some pressure to the Juror#8 for his odd decision. But the pressure could not shake off his decision; he stood strong with his own decision which was affected by his values. 3.9 Juror#9-Intellectual, Logical Follow with Juror#9 who has instrumental values of intellectual and logical. Although he is the eldest among them still he paid a lot of attention during the trial and looked into detailed on every witness. He convinced Juror#4 on the reasonable doubt on the woman has deep marks on her nose, which means she is wearing spectacles and might not be able to see clearly on the murder case that happened across the road with train passed by and just got up from bed which is not putting on her spectacles. This shows how he used his intelligence and observance in daily life in this case. 3.10 Juror#10-Courageous Next, Juror#10 has instrumental value of courageous. He is standing up for his belief that with the background of the boy comes from, which is born in a slum, the boy must be guilty. This has become his prejudice which caused him fail to think and decide rationally on whether the boy is guilty or not. Besides that, Juror#10 also has terminal value of self-respect. He holds very high esteem not to be someone from the slums. Juror#10s decision making was affected by his perceptions towards the background of the defendant which occurred from his self-esteem values that want to be differentiated from people of that background. 3.11 Juror#11-Responsible Instrumental value of responsible can be found on Juror#11. He felt the responsibility being juror to give the correct judgment on the defendant and believe in justice. Besides that, Juror#11 also has instrumental value of logical. He is observant with the facts and changed his vote to not guilty due to the doubt on whether the defendant would have reasonably fled the scene and come back three hours later to retrieve his knife. His decision is based on logical thinking about how a normal people might act after committing a murder. 3.12 Juror#12-An Exciting Life Lastly, Juror#12 has terminal value of having an exciting life. He involves actively in social activities and his work. However, this has caused him often distracted during the discussion of the jury. 4.0 Attitude Attitudes are evaluative statements or judgments concerning objects, people, or events. Attitudes give warnings of potential problems and influence behavior. Attitudes have three components which are cognitive (evaluation), affective (feeling), and behavioral (action). In this movie, most of the jurors have a positive attitude that the boy is guilty. They believe that the evidences are solid, which is the cognitive component for their attitude. Following with this, the affective component of their behaviour were set up whereby they feel the boy is guilty. Subsequently, it affected their behaviour component and they voted the boy is guilty. Conversely, Juror#8 has a different attitude compared to other Juries. He thinks there are a lot of reasonable doubts in the evidences yet no one questioned the validity of those evidences in the court. This has become the cognitive component for his negative attitude towards the boy is guilty. He feels that the boy might not be guilty, which is the affective component of his attitude. Because of this, he voted the boy as not guilty and wants to have a discussion with other jurors on the evidences. 5.0 Emotion and Mood After discussing the personality and values depicted by the 12 Angry Men, emotion and moods are two other important variables that affect decision making process. Actually, emotions are intense feelings directed at someone or something while moods are less intense feelings than emotions and often lack a contextual stimulus. In addition, emotions are reactions to a person or an event but moods usually are not directed at a person or an event (Robbins, S.P. Judge, T.A. (2013) Organizational Behavior). In 12 Angry Men movie, decisions making of 12 juries whether that young boy guilty or not guilty are always affected by their emotions and moods. Thus, having a stable emotion is necessary for them to make a rational decision. 5.1 Juror#1- Mood: Neutral to Bad; Emotion: Frustration Juror#1 is the foreman of the jury and he shows his leadership at first and neutral mood. However, he gets frustrated when other jurors questioned his leadership. He wants to be as fair as possible and try to maintain a relaxed and calm mood when discussion is going on. Luckily, he was able to regulate back his emotion to normal state and facilitate the discussion at the mid. 5.2 Juror#2- Mood: Anxious; Emotion: Nervous On the other hand, Juror#2 is a quiet and the most timid guy in the group. Having his first time to deliberate in such jury case made him anxious and fear to voice out his opinion. He was easily persuaded by other jurors due to his lack of self confidence. Besides, he also failed to explain the roots of his opinion that grounded his decision at the beginning. However, his courage to voice out his opinion has been mounting as the discussion goes further. 5.3 Juror#3- Mood: Bad; Emotion: Angry Let us move to the main antagonist of the movie, Juror#3. Juror#3 is a person who quick to lose his temper. His was having a bad mood since the beginning when he complains on the lawyers talked for so long even on such an obvious case. He gets angry when Juror#8 and other members disagree with his opinions, and his anger becomes stronger when other jurors change their vote from guilty to not guilty. He believes that the defendant is absolutely guilty until the very end of the play. His emotion gets affected in this case because he has poor relationship with his own son, which causes him to have biased views. Being in angry emotion and biased views has caused him irrational in making decision on guilty and not guilty for the defendant until the very end of the movie. His decision making was based on his own experience that does not related much to the trial. 5.4 Juror#4- Mood: Neutral; Emotion: Calm We realize that Juror#4 is a logical and well-spoken stockbroker. Being rational while maintaining his calm mood allowed him to have the most stable emotion throughout the discussion and able to discuss and make decisions rationally. For instance, he urges fellow jurors to avoid emotional arguments and engage in rational discussion. When one of the jurors says this is not an exact science, he does not take into account the feelings, the passions and the characters of the people involved in the case. Other than that, most of the jurors mood has been affected and they got frustrated easily as they were staying in a no air-conditioned room in a hot sunny day. Yet, under this hot environment, he is the only juror that does not take his jacket off and always adapt for logical thinking and able to make reasonable decision. 5.5 Juror#5- Mood: Anxious to Neutral; Emotion: Nervous Next, Juror#5 has an anxious mood when expressing his opinion especially in front of the elder members of the group. He is under emotional stress because of having the same background with the boy which is growing up in the slums. This appears one of the main reasons for him voting guilty at first because he does not want compassion to influence his decision. However as the trial goes on he is able to gain more confident to voice out his opinion and sharing his experience on knife fights and normal slum behaviour that convinced other jurors there is reasonable doubt on the evidences. This makes him emotionally more stable and his mood also back to neutral. Juror#5s decision was affected by his emotion whereby at first he passes his chance to give reason why he voted guilty for the trial which maybe feeling of ashamed for having the same background with the defendant that is living in slum, uneducated and bad environmental where knife fighting was just a common phenomena. 5.6 Juror#6- Mood: A little tensed; Emotion: Calm Juror#6 is a regular employee that has high agreeableness to others. He has little tense mood because of everyone in the room is better qualified than him in making decisions and offering explanations and opinions. However he has a stable emotion that enables him to see the good in others. 5.7 Juror#7- Mood: Good to Bad; Emotion: Frustration Juror#7 is the only one that really has no opinion on this case. This can be shown by when he follows others suggestion and changes his vote easily just because he wants to go back home early. One of the sources of emotions and mood which is social activities has influenced his mood throughout the discussion. He felt happy at the beginning as he could go to watch live baseball game. However, his mood turned down and get frustrated when the discussion takes longer. His emotion and decision making was distracted by the baseball game as he wanted to speed things up a bit so he can be out of the jury room as soon as possible to enjoy his baseball game. 5.8 Juror#8- Mood: Neutral to Good; Emotion: Determined and Calm In contrast to Juror#7, Juror#8 stands firm on his decision grounded with his reasonable doubt on the evidences. Juror#8 is a caring man and he feels the responsibility to care about the boys life. Maintaining a stable emotion enables Juror#8 have a logical mind and able to make a rational decision. He has put more thoughts into the case than any other jurors which make him able to prove and explain the situation in different ways to persuade other jurors change their vote. For example, he bought the same knife used as murder weapon that is not ordinary and tried to prove the reasonable doubts on those witnesses such as the old man who drags one foot when he walks because of stroke, able to rush to the front door from his bedroom which is quite distance away in fifteen seconds and managed to look on the murderer. Juror#8 also has high emotional intelligence in this movie that he always shows the right feeling and knows how to control his own emotion even every other juror has voted g uilty but he is the only one to vote not guilty at the first. Besides that, Juror#8 urges others to be patience with the discussion and contemplate the details of the case. 5.9 Juror#9- Mood: Neutral; Emotion: Calm Next, Juror#9 is a wise old man with his great life experience and he has quite a unique way of looking at this case. His calm and relaxed mood allows him to think logically and be a good observer. He is the first one who realizes the woman, who testified that she saw the murder, had deep marks on the side of her nose and it means she wears glasses. This has put on reasonable doubt that the woman who just got out from bed may not wearing glasses, and thus it is likely for her not able to see clearly the murder across the road. He has high positive mood which is alert. For instance, he is the first to openly recognize Juror#10s racist attitude, stating that What this man says is very dangerous. 5.10 Juror#10- Mood: Bad; Emotion: Angry Let us proceed to Juror#10. Juror#10 is the most horrifying character in this movie. He tries to force his opinion of guilty to other jurors and gets angry easily when other jurors opinion is not same with him. He votes guilty and does not even try to hide the fact that he does so because of the boys social background. He has a strong stereotyping attitude and this stopped him to think rationally and voted the boy guilty just because of the boys background. This has lead to other jurors turning their back on him near the end of the movie after his outburst that shows his prejudice on the defendant. 5.11 Juror#11- Mood: Neutral; Emotion: Calm When we come to Juror#11, we know that he is an immigrant watchmaker. He believes in justice and feels he is responsible to make the correct judgment for the case. He tries to keep himself calm and relaxed throughout the discussion. This stable emotion allows him able to look at both sides of the problem. However, Juror#11 lost his temper once when he was horrified by juror#7 who voted not guilty just because want to make the trial ends as soon as possible. 5.12 Juror#12- Mood: Anxious; Emotion: Nervous Eventually, Juror#12 is an arrogant and impatient advertising executive. He has an anxious mood for the discussion to be over so that he can get back to his career and his social life. His decision gets affected by his nervous mood. This can be shown by when he change his vote easily just to follow majority and do not have his own opinion. 6.0 Other Variables That Affects Decision Making Process 6.1 Hot Environment Besides the abovementioned variables like personality, values, attitudes, emotions and moods, external factor do affect the decision making process also. One of the most prominent external factors is the environment for the discussion room. When all the jurors entered the discussion room, they found that the room was hot due to the breakdown of the air-conditioner. As a result, all the jurors just kept on finding ways to make the rooms more ventilated instead of seeking for discussion. So, the morale of all jurors has been lowered down by the hot and non-conducive environment and affects the discussion process. Definitely, they would just hope that the discussion may be ended up quickly and this drives them to make illogical decision. 6.2 Stereotype Next, the shortcut of stereotyping people used by the eleven jurors except Juror #8 in judging the suspected murderer will affect the decision making process too. Juror #3 has related his son with the suspected murder attitude. In fact, the Juror#3 did not get along with the suspected murderer attitude. He said that How kids are nowadays. He mentioned that he had a bad relationship with his son after his son hit him. Following his bad experiences, Juror#3 perceived that all teenagers were rebellious and will attack his own father. So, his stereotyping attitude has affected his decision making process and made him stressing that The boy is guilty. Another prominent stereotyping judgment can be discovered through the accusation of Juror#10 that the boy was deemed to be guilty was due to his family background. He cited that the suspected murders slum background as the evidence for him to kill his father. Undoubtedly, this stereotyping attitude will affect their decision making especiall y Juror#3 and Juror#5 and vote the boy to be guilty. 6.3 Bounded Rationality and positive Intuition Apart from those discussed variables, Juror#8 has exhibited the positive elements in making rational decision. The positive elements are bounded rationality and positive intuition. Juror#8 has constructed simplified models model that extract the essential features from problems without capturing the complexities. For example, Juror#8 has questioned about the validity of the old mans testimonial. Hence, he extracted the essential features that Can the old man who had suffered a stroke and could only walk slowly, gotten to the door to see the suspected murderer ran to the downstairs in fifteen second? in a clear manner. Furthermore, the Juror#8 also has portrayed positive intuition that mentioned that he felt the boy will not kill his father and there is a doubt about the validity of the witnesss testimonial. He once told other Juror You dont believe the boy, then why you believe the women? 6.4 Overconfidence bias However, there are several decision biases and errors happened throughout the hot discussion among those 12 angry Jurors. The first common bias shown by majority of Jurors except 8th Juror is overconfidence bias. This can be evidence through the opening of the scene where majority of the Jurors were complaining and presuming the obvious guilt of the suspected murderer. Most of them were overconfidence that the defendant had definitely killed his father. Besides that, when there was a new doubt arose like switchable knife that was not as unique as the Juror mention, most of them just upset that they were still arguing the facts and cannot go home. Hence, their overconfidence about defendant was the murderer causes them could not have a rational discussion and develop reasonable doubt. Luckily, there was 8th Juror tried to lead the team to the rational path. 6.5 Anchoring Bias Furthermore, we can detect numerals biases rooted in the mind of the Juror#3. Fro

Genetic Algorithm (GA) as Optimization Technique

Genetic Algorithm (GA) as Optimization Technique Preference learning (or preference elicitation) is a critical problem in many scientific fields, such as decision theory [1,2], economics [3,4], logistic [ref] and database [5]. When modeling user preference, researchers often model the preferences as a solution to an optimization problem which maximizes some utility function. In reality, however, we are not a-priori given a utility but have only access to a finite historical user choice data. Therefore, the passive preference learning problem, that is, how to learn user preferences using her historical choice data, has gained a lot of attention in recent years. When dealing with preference learning, it is often assumed that user preference over the values of each attribute is independent of the values of other attributes. However, this assumption is not a sound in many world scenarios. For example, as it is shown in Fig. 1 for cloth shopping problem, one might choose the color of her shoes depending on the color of dress she will buy, i.e. her preference over shoes color is conditioned by the available dresses. More formally, we say the preferences induced by the users behavior are intrinsically related to textit{conditional preferential independence}, a key notion in multi-attribute decision theory[20]. Conditional preference networks (CP-nets) have been proposed for such problems [4] and have received a great deal of attention due to the compact and natural representation of ordinal preferences in multi-attribute domains [8-12, 17-19,22]. Briefly, a CP-net, fig. 1, is a digraph, whose nodes correspond to alternative attributes and edges correspond to the dependency between nodes and each node is annotated with a conditional preference table which describe the preferences over that particular attribute (chapter 3). It is sometimes claimed that CP-nets are `easy to elicit [16]. That is, we first explain CP-nets to the user, and then ask her to write down the CP-net that best describes her decision-making process [18,30]. However, it has been shown that when facing the choices, people often act differently from what they described previously as their preferences [39,40,97,103]. As an example, Kamishima and Akaho [53] point out that when customers were asked to rank ten sushi items and then later to assign rating scores to the same items, in 68% of the cases, the ordering implied by the ratings did not agree with the ranking elicited directly only minutes before. Based on these experiments, several CP-net learning algorithms have been developed depend on the users choice data. Some algorithms work on the historical choice data [23,64], a process known as passive learning. Others actively offer solutions in an attempt to learn the users preferences as they choose [23,29,47,58].   The work of this paper falls into the category of passive learning, in which the learner uses the recorded users choices and then fits a CP-net model to the observed data. Formally, we collect the set of samples $S = {o_i succ o_i}$, where   $o_i succ o_i$ means that the user strictly prefers outcome $o_i$ over outcome $o_i$ and then find a model $N$ that can best describe $S$. Such set of samples may be gathered, for instance, by observing online users choices. Table1 shows the number of binary CP-nets up to 7 nodes, i.e. each outcome consists of 7 attributes [A250110]. From the values, it is evident that, even for a small number of attributes, finding the best CP-net is not a trivial task due to the huge size of the search space. textbf{inja np-completo begoo.} To the best of our knowledge, there is no existing approach that can perform well on problem with more than 7 attributes hence they are not practical when facing real world problems, in which the alternatives usually consist of tens or even hundreds of attributes. Another problem that rises when learning preferences from human subjects is the possibility of noise or comparison data that are ultimately inconsistent in the chose data-set $S$. While noise is results of the observation of the users behavior,   inconsistency is the result of randomicity of the users behaviors; that   is, the transitive closure of data-set may result in a cycle in which some outcome $o$ is seen to be preferred to itself. The objective of most CP-net learning techniques is to learn (i.e. rebuild) a CP-net that can describe the whole data-set[ref]. However, since the $S$ is not usually clean,   there is no possibility of finding such a CP-net, that is consistent with every example in $S$. This fact motivated us to frame the CP-net learning problem as an optimization problem that is, to identify a model that maximizes some objective function, $f$, with respect to choice data-set. In this work, we utilized the power of Genetic Algorithm (GA) as an optimization technique. GA is an optimization algorithm inspired from the mechanism of natural selection and natural genetics, which can work without any a-priori knowledge about the problem domain and have received a growing interest in solving the complex combinatorial optimization problems especially for their scalability as compared with the deterministic algorithms [1]. In this work, we investigate the feasibility of implementing the GA to solve the passive CP-net learning problem.

A Semester of Work :: What I Learned From Work

The fall of my nineteenth year promised to be a long one. For the first time in thirteen years I found myself out of school. I was employed at the same mind numbing job that I had held for the last three years. While most of my friends were back in school after their summer break, I was back at home after a year of living in a college dorm. The transition was not an easy one for me, and I looked upon my semester off with little optimism. The previous fall was one of much more hope and excitement. At the age of eighteen, I was ready for college. I chose to attend State University, not far from my home, but still far removed from my former life, as I was moving away from my parents and into a dorm. I was to attend State with two of my closest friends from high school, and live with one of them. My major was undecided, so I planned on taking the general education requirements. I was quite unsure of what college held for me, but was eager to find out. It was not long before I discovered that, for me, college held boredom and feelings of uselessness. While I enjoyed some of my professors and courses, I treated college just as I had treated high school. The game plan was to show up, do just enough work to "earn" an A, and leave without gaining any pesky knowledge. Just like in high school, I executed this plan brilliantly, and found myself with a high grade point average and an even higher level of ignorance. Eventually, this method began to wear on me. As I was accomplishing nothing, feelings of guilt began to arise for the amount of money my parents were pumping into my education. Damned by a sense of self awareness, I realized that I was little more than a spoiled brat with time to waste. I finally began to look to the future and question where my life should lead. However, as I remained unsure of what direction I wanted to take, I became more frustrated than ever before. My solution? Run away from my problems. This brilliant idea initially manifested itself in a plan to travel the country for a semester. A Semester of Work :: What I Learned From Work The fall of my nineteenth year promised to be a long one. For the first time in thirteen years I found myself out of school. I was employed at the same mind numbing job that I had held for the last three years. While most of my friends were back in school after their summer break, I was back at home after a year of living in a college dorm. The transition was not an easy one for me, and I looked upon my semester off with little optimism. The previous fall was one of much more hope and excitement. At the age of eighteen, I was ready for college. I chose to attend State University, not far from my home, but still far removed from my former life, as I was moving away from my parents and into a dorm. I was to attend State with two of my closest friends from high school, and live with one of them. My major was undecided, so I planned on taking the general education requirements. I was quite unsure of what college held for me, but was eager to find out. It was not long before I discovered that, for me, college held boredom and feelings of uselessness. While I enjoyed some of my professors and courses, I treated college just as I had treated high school. The game plan was to show up, do just enough work to "earn" an A, and leave without gaining any pesky knowledge. Just like in high school, I executed this plan brilliantly, and found myself with a high grade point average and an even higher level of ignorance. Eventually, this method began to wear on me. As I was accomplishing nothing, feelings of guilt began to arise for the amount of money my parents were pumping into my education. Damned by a sense of self awareness, I realized that I was little more than a spoiled brat with time to waste. I finally began to look to the future and question where my life should lead. However, as I remained unsure of what direction I wanted to take, I became more frustrated than ever before. My solution? Run away from my problems. This brilliant idea initially manifested itself in a plan to travel the country for a semester.