How can we explain Americas involvement in the Vietnam War. To what Essay

How can we explain Americas involvement in the Vietnam War. To what extent did America get it wrong, terribly wrong - Essay Example In the North, the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam first proclaimed in September 1945, which the French had fought to suppress; in the south, the Government of the Emperor Bao Dai, which the French had sponsored. Both governments were committed to achieve the unity of the country. In the south, the chief minister Ngo Dinh Diem, the strongest figure in the government faced lots of difficulties because the gangster called as Binth Xuyen controlled the country side which was a total failure in the field of agriculture, communication and defence.Ngo Dinh diem defeated both Binh Xuyen, Bao Dai and proclaimed himself as president of the Republic of Vietnam on 26th Oct 1955.President Diem was greatly helped by United States and it disapproved of the Geneva agreement as a partial victory for the communists and was determined that they should make no further advance. In the last critical months of the Indo- China war, it had developed the view that the situation in the whole South East Asia was in danger of slipping under the pressure of the Soviet Union and China, that if the South Vietnamese or any other friendly government was allowed to fall to the communists, the others might fall down one by one. In the months following the Geneva agreement, the Eisenhower Administration took the basic decision to assist the South Vietnamese Government economically and to help it to build up its forces for internal security. On 8 Sep 1954, it led Australia, Britain, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand in the signature of the South East Asia Collective Defense Treaty. The "free territory under the jurisdiction of the state of Vietnam" together with Cambodia and Laos were designed in a protocol as coming under the provisions of the Treaty The final Declaration of the Geneva Conference had affirmed the unity of Vietnam and had envisaged the holding of general elections in July 1956. However, the South Vietnam Government had protested against the proceedings at Geneva and then proved to have no intention of holding elections jointly with the North. The wartime destruction was greater in North than in the South. The authority of Dang Lao Dong and the president Ho Chi Minh like they made local Mines, factories and industries were nationalized; those measures resented the people which led to execution and "suicides" in November 1956. When the quarrel between the Soviet Union and China developed in the late 1950 the North Vietnam reduced its dependence on them it was seen in their share of foreign aid had fallen from 65.3 to 19 percent in 1962.From 1956 onwards discontent with the rule of President Diem grew in the South. His manner of ruling, arbitrary arrests, censorship, suppression of dissent, were resented.Some economic progress was made but that was confined to the towns. In the countryside, broken land reform was implemented but it was too little. The communists were able to make use of this discontent. By the end of 1960, the South Vietnamese Government was faced with full scale insurgency, with the Communists in control o f the Mekang delta, the coastal provinces north-east of Saigon, and the highlands in Central Vietnam. Over the next

Performance Evaluation of Banking Industry in Bangladesh Essay Example for Free

Performance Evaluation of Banking Industry in Bangladesh Essay Banking is an essential industry that affects the welfare of all other industry and the economy as a whole. In fact, growth and development of a country significantly depend on the level of growth and development attempted by the banking sector. There is a consensus regarding the positive role played by the financial sector in promoting economic development (Gerschenkron, 1962; Patrick, 1966; Galbis, 1977). In Bangladesh, banking sector has flourished a lot compared to other sectors of the economy. But the role of this key sector in national development is not satisfactory. There is not only an extremely strong capital stock but the rate of capital formation is also very meager. The current rates of domestic savings and investments as a % of GDP are 20.2 and 24.4% respectively (Bangladesh Bank Annual Report 2004-05). In the past, the rate of savings and investment were much lower than the present rate. Therefore, development plans of Bangladesh have been largely aid development. Between 1972-73 and 1981-82, aid has financed on an average of 75% of fixed investments and the lions share of the development budget (ERD). Under these Circumstances, internal resource mobilization is an urgent necessity for a self-reliant Bangladesh. Towards this end, banking Industry may play a crucial role in mobilizing community’s savings and channeling the same into the socially desirable sectors of the economy. As financial intermediaries, banks can play a crucial role in of most economies. In the absence of effective functional securities market, the banking sector in Bangladesh takes the lead in mobilizing resources and allocating funds to profitable ends. The effectiveness of financial intermediation can affect economic growth. The financial intermediation affects the net return to savings and gross return to investment. The prominence of financial institutions for rapid economic growth is unanimous. The bank based view of financial system highlights the positive role of bank in mobilizing resource, identifying good projects, monitoring managers and managing risks. The role of banking institutions as intermediary between the investor and entrepreneur is of vital importance in a developing country like Bangladesh. The evaluation of Banks performance is a complex process involving interactions between the environments, internal operations, and external activities. In performing this evaluation concerned authorities in the banking sector prior to independence felt for resource mobilization and using the same in the desired sectors. For this reason all the commercial banks were nationalized immediately after independence (Bhattacharjee, 1989). Development of private sector is essential to cope with the challenges of globalization. But considering the socio-economic condition of Bangladesh, extreme privatization, particularly in the banking sector, may not be desired. Because, even though, the number of private banks (local foreign) are increasing and the number of nationalized banks are decreasing, still the NCBs occupy a dominant place in the banking sector of the country and play a pioneering role in capital formation, stimulating the level of industrialization, poverty alleviation and human development and in the overall economic development. NCBs provide loans to productive and priority sectors both public and private covering agriculture, industry, trade and commerce. On the contrary, private banks mainly operate in towns and metropolitan cities and do business with noted entrepreneurs and with the affluent sections of the society; while foreign banks operate only in the cities and do business with the elite section of the society. Hence, this paper focused on the performance of the banking sector in general with a wider lance. As financial intermediaries, banks can play a crucial role in the most economies. In the absence of effective functional securities market, the banking sector in Bangladesh takes the lead in mobilizing resources and allocating funds to profitable ends. The effectiveness of financial intermediation can affect economic growth. The financial intermediation affects the net return to savings and gross return to investment. The prominence of financial institutions for rapid economic growth is unanimous. The bank based view of financial system highlights the positive role of bank in mobilizing resource, identifying good projects, monitoring managers and managing risks. The role of banking institutions as intermediary between the investor and entrepreneur is of vital importance for a developing country like Bangladesh. So the study is a demand of the time for better progress towards a developed future. 2.0 Conceptual Background of the Study Performance indicates the degree of management’s success in allocating the sources of the firm’s capital to productive use and is focused in the in the market value of the firm’s capital. Performance may be defined as the accomplishment of the goals which are taken into consideration. The word performance may be the synonym of efficiency in the context of business phenomenon. Many scholars opined that performance of a firm may be considered as the term managerial performance. An evaluation of performance indicates to what extent an enterprise achieves its target. Evaluation is a judgment worth of something and like all judicial matters, it calls for justice, equity and good conscious on the part of the person making the evaluation. It is to be considered an integral part of the management control on a continuous and systematic basis. Performance evaluation is an essential tool of management. It is relevant both in seeking answer to various questions to be asked about area of activities in which performance might be improved. The main purpose of performance evaluation is to assist in decision on two levels i.e. at a lower level. It can be used to inform the day to day decision making of the management indicating how to maintain the efficiency and effectiveness of the banks in short term. At a higher level it can be used to inform the annual planning and budgeting process in which decisions are taken about the long term deployment of resources and target for achievement. Thus it can be said that performance evaluation means a method under which the performance of an organization is evaluated differently. In Bangladesh performance of banking sector was considered with a very high note from the very beginning. It was felt that new born liberated country will need the performance of banking sector to keep the economy live. In doing so, after the war of liberation, the banks operating Bangladesh(except those incorporated abroad) were nationalized. These banks were merged and grouped for achieving the goal of government and people. With the passage of time the number and types of bank expanded and the area of banking support is also enlarged vividly. For this, study becomes a necessity to find out loop holes as well as areas so that service can be expanded towards all necessary ends. For doing so banking industry plays a pivotal role in capital formation and stimulate the level of industrialization, poverty alleviation and human development. In a sense, healthy banks and healthy economies seem to go together. Therefore, performance of such organizations particularly; operational efficiency, management soundness, productivity, profitability and social profitability are of great concern. An in-depth study to analyze the performances of the banking industry of Bangladesh by applying the most widely used indicators of bank performance could be worth while. The banking industry of Bangladesh is composed of five types of banks viz. Nationalized Commercial Banks(NCBs), Specialized banks(SBs), private Commercial Banks(PCBs), Foreign Commercial Banks(FCBs) and Islamic Banks(IBs) differ in their motives. Different types of banks give priority to different stakeholders. So, performance analysis as a whole can make the industry more creative and more supportive to achieve their organizational goal as well as can help the nation to avoid poverty and learn to lead prospective lives. Because , performance analysis as a whole will bring out all loop holes for back benchers in this sector and allow them with information to go ahead with prospective mentality. 3. Objectives of the Study The broad objective of this proposal is to make a comprehensive analysis of growth, productivity, profitability and performance of the banking industry in Bangladesh and to suggest measures for improving their performance. The specific objectives of the proposal are as follows: †¢ To analyze and compare the growth trends of banking facilities/services and output of banking sector as an industry. †¢ To measure and compare the productivity trends of banking sector. †¢ To compare overall performance of the cross section of banks from various angles. †¢ To conduct an in-depth analysis of the causes of lower or higher levels of productivity and performance (if any) among all banks. †¢ To evaluate existing remittance disbursement system and direct its profitable utilization through proper planning and action. †¢ To suggest the possible lines of actions to improve the performance of various categories of banks. 4. Justification of The Study 1. Literature Review From a detail literature review it is found that a good number of researches were conducted in the field of performance evaluation in banking sector. But unfortunately, Performance Analysis of Banking Industry in Bangladesh as a whole was not conducted. As such the literature review of the following articles, journals and research work compelled me to have a distinct idea that a research of having a complete picture of Banking industry is a demand of the time. As such my literature review found following ideas: Abedin, Roy and Mustafi(1989) in a study titled, â€Å"A Preliminary Note on Measurement of Productivity in the Commercial Banks of Bangladesh,† mentioned that there was a steady growth of bank output during 1975-1988. The output was measured as the volume of working fund handled per employees. There were variations in the levels of productivity of different types of banks. They also mentioned about a falling trend of productivity index of private banks with little variations during 1985-88. In case of Foreign banks they reported a sharp fall of productivity index from 100 in 1985 to 37 in 1986, then a rising trend. The limitations of his study were that he did not considered the social aspects of the Banks. The data on working fund were not comparable with any published data of Bangladesh Bank (BB) due to using the end June and end december figures of every year. The study neither attempts to analyze the causes of lower or higher productivity of banks nor strongly suggests the measures for increasing the levels of the banks productivity. Cookson(1989) in his article titled, â€Å"Productivity in the Banking Industry in Bangladesh† stated that productivity in the banking industry is very difficult to estimate by using available data. He also said that the conceptual difficulties limit comparisons among the banks in Bangladesh. In this paper the author tried to give a proper definition of labor productivity in commercial banking. He pointed out that the productivity of the total commercial banking system was stagnant. However, he took a partial approach for measuring productivity of the banks. In no way it reflected the total productivity scenario of the banking sector. Shakoor(1989) ’s paper on â€Å"Measurement of Profitability in Commercial Banks in Bangladesh† investigated the nature of productivity of four nationalized commercial banks(NCBs) during 1972-86 and that of five private commercial banks (PCBs) during 1983-86. The paper focused on some selected indicators of general productivity and profitability, such as deposits, advances, income, spread, expenditure etc. per employee and per branch. He used some statistical measures such as averages, standard deviation and coefficient of variations both NCBs and PCBs. The other statistical measures like, trend, correlation, regression analysis etc. were not used by the author. He observed that the productivity of the NCBs in Bangladesh had an increasing trend during 1972-86 and the productivity of the selected private banks showed better situation when compared with that of NCBs during the period under study. But, his study had limitations and in no way that reflected the total productivity trend of the commercial banking sector as a whole. Bhattacharjee and Saha(1989) in their joint eff0rt titled, â€Å"An Evaluation of Performance of NCBs In Bangladesh† tried to measure the performance of NCBs for th1973-1987. They analyzed the performance of NCBs on the basis of five sets of indicators. They are: (a) General business measures in terms of total business, deposit, advances, gross income and net profit; (b) Social profitability measures in terms of deposit mobilization (time deposit), branch expansion. (number of branches) and employment generation; (c) Branch Performance Measures in terms of profit per branch, deposit per branch, business per branch and gross income per branch; (d) Employee performance measures in terms of profit per employee, income per employee and business per employee; (e) Profitability measures in terms of rate of profit on equity, profit per unit of deposit and profit per unit of advances. The authors found upwards trends in almost all the performance measures. Besides, inter bank and intra bank variations in performance measures were also observed by them. Observing ‘means’ and ‘standard deviations’ of selected measures in NCBs , the authors reported that the NCBs could maintain the rising trends. They mentioned that in spite of disinvestment of two NCBs and growing importance attached to the development of private banking, the NCBs still played a dominant role in the banking sector. They hoped that achievement of the NCB sector may further be enhanced if due care is taken to improve the existing planning and monitoring system of relative operational performance aspects of thee banks. Abedin(1990) in his book titled â€Å"Commercial Banking in Bangladesh: A Role of commercial Study of Disparities of Regional and Sectoral Growth Trends(1846-1986),† examined the role of commercial banks under the private ownership(1846-1970) in increasing regional and sectoral disparities in rendering the banking services in Bangladesh. He also investigated the part played by the commercial banks under the public ownership(1971-1986) in mitigating any such disparities. In this perspective the author tried to critically examine the growth trends of banking facilities in Bangladesh for the period from 1846 to 1986. This study analysed the impacts of nationalization of commercial banks on different regions and sectors of Bangladesh economy after the independence of the country. The author identified some factors influencing credit deployment such as legal requirements of cash reserve, political pressure on the bank executive etc. There are some other important factors, which should not be overlooked. Such as, motivation factor of the bank executives, job security, honesty etc. The study rightly identified that, regional economic disparities led to the growth of regional imbalances in the distribution of banking facilities. The political economy of the monetary policy and banking was also responsible for this(page 260). To discuss about limitations it can be said that, within the scope of a single thesis, to deal with a large number of issues is neither possible nor desirable. The author admitted that many current issues of banking operations could not be analyzed in this dissertation. It would be more worthy and specific if some of the key issues were mentioned. Chowdhury(1990) in his dissertation titled â€Å"An Evaluation of the Performance of Commercial Banks in Bangladesh† assessed the overall contribution of the commercial banks in the financial development of Bangladesh. He analyzed the trend of commercial bank’s branch expansion, deposit mobilization and deployment of credit for the period 1972-86. The productivity and profitability aspects of the Nationalised Commercial Banks (NCBs) and Private Commercial Banks(PCBs) for the period 1983-1986(covering a period of four years) were also examined in the dissertation. The study covered all commercial banks excluding foreign and Islamic banks and used secondary data. The study stated that the growth pattern of the financial development and the contribution of commercial banks towards financial development in Bangladesh was not only uneven but also very slow. The study observed that the growth and development of commercial banking in Bangladesh during 1972-86 was not satisfactory. The author observed that the trends of profits, profitability and productivity of the commercial banks, over the entire reference period, were characterized by uneven variations indicating unsystematic and unplanned business expansion of the commercial banks. The study identified that the frequent variations in the ‘burden’ of the commercial banks was mainly responsible for the uneven trends in profits and profitability. Like any other study , the study had also some shortcomings. The post denationalization and privatization period 1983-86 (four years) was too short in comparison to the pre denationalization or nationalized period 1972-1982 (11 years). The period considered (1983-1986 i.e. four years)for the comparative analysis between the performance of NCBs and PCBs was very early to mature. Since the study measured the productivity and profitability performance using single measures such as ratio of net profit volume of working fund, ratio of total income to total expenditure and ratio of total income to manpower expenses, those measures had limits to justify the results. If some additional measures had been used, then the results might be more realistic. So this study has some limitations and inadequacies which are expected to be minimized in the present study. Moniruzzaman and Rahman(1991) made a comparative study of pre and post denationalization periods in the article titled, â€Å"Profitability Performance of Denationalized Banks- A Comparative Study of the Pre and Post Denationalization Periods.† They Observed that the profitability performance of Uttora Bank Limited and Rupali Bank Limited became unsatisfactory after denationalization. But in the case of Pubali Bank Limited, they observed a Decreasing trend before denationalization and increasing trend after denationalization. The limitations of the paper are that, they had taken into consideration a very short period of three years before and three years after denationalization of the two banks. They did not try to find out why profits of those denationalized banks (Uttora, and Rupali Bank limted) were falling. They used the variables like total expenses , total income, net income and total assets only. They ignored other important variables, such as deposits, advances, number of Bank branches, number if employees etc. So the study was very limited and incomplete.

Cloud Computing with Machine Learning for Cancer Diagnosis

Cloud Computing with Machine Learning for Cancer Diagnosis Cloud computing with Machine Learning could help us in the early diagnosis of breast cancer Junaid Ahmad Bhat, Prof. Vinai George and Dr. Bilal Malik Abstract— The purpose of this study is to develop tools which could help the clinicians in the primary care hospitals with the early diagnosis of breast cancer diagnosis. Breast cancer is one of the leading forms of cancer in developing countries and often gets detected at the lateral stages. The detection of cancer at later stages results not only in pain and agony to the patients but also puts lot of financial burden on the caregivers. In this work, we are presenting the preliminary results of the project code named BCDM (Breast Cancer Diagnosis using Machine Learning) developed using Matlab. The algorithm developed in this work is based on adaptive resonance theory. (Explain the results of this work here ..). The aim of the project is to eventually run the algorithm on a cloud computer and a clinician at a primary healthcare can use the system for the early diagnosis of the patients using web based interface from anywhere in the world. Keywords— Adaptive Resonance theory, Breast Cancer Diagnosis, FNA I. Introduction The breast cancer is one of the common cancers and ranked second in the world after the lung cancer. (1)This type of cancer also ranked second in northern India. (1)Breast cancer is one of the leading cancers found in Kashmir (1) .Classifying the cells into the malignant and benign is the main goal in the diagnoses of breast cancer and misclassification could cost pain to the patients and extra burden to health care providers. Due to noise in the data, the problem to classify becomes non-trivial and has thus attracted researchers from machine learning to improve the classification.(2) Researchers have used different machine learning algorithms to improve the diagnosis of breast cancer. (3) And Neural Networks is one of the machine learning algorithms, which has been widely used for diagnosis of breast cancer. In order to achieve the exactness Adaptive Resonance theory that is one of the variants of Neural Network been used for prediction purposes. Neural Network gained importance in 505 till late 60s due to its accuracy and learning capabilities but got diminished in 80s due to its computational cost. With the advancement in technology (4) Neural Networks are becoming popular due to their ability to achieve non-linear hypotheses even when input feature scale is large (4). This work proposes to use a variant of neural networks based on adaptive resonance theory to improve the breast cancer diagnosis. This algorithm has been developed and tested in Matlab 2012.has been tested on lot of real life problems that include automated automobile control, for classification purposes and for the detection of intruders in the battlefield. II. Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) The Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) is a neural network architecture that generates suitable weights (parameter) by clustering the pattern space. . The motive for adapting ART instead of a conventional neural network is to solve the stability and plasticity problem. (5) ART networks and algorithms keep the plasticity to learn new patterns and prevent the amendment of patterns that it learned earlier. The stable network will not return the previous cluster. The operation of ART works as it accepts an input vector and classifies it into one of the clusters depending on to which cluster it resembles. If it will not match with any of the category then a new category is created by storing that pattern. When a store pattern is, bring into being that matches the input vector within a specified tolerance that made it to look like the input vector. The pattern will not be modified if it doesnt match the current input pattern within the vigilance parameter. With the help of it the problems associated with stability and plasticity can be resolved. (5) Figure 4 Art 1Neural Network Architecture A. Types of Adaptive Resonance Theory 1) Adaptive Resonance Theory 1 It is the first neural network of Adaptive Resonance theory. It consists of two layers that cluster the pattern from the input binary vector. It accepts the input in the form of binary values (6). 2) Adaptive Resonance Theory 2 It is the second type of neural Network of Adaptive Resonance theory .It is complex than that of ART1 network and accepts the values in the form of continuous valued vector. The reason of complexity for ART 2 is that it possesses the normalization combination and noise inhibition alongside it compares the weights needed for the reset mechanism. (6) B. Working of ART 1 Neural Network The art Neural Networks works in the following fashion, which comprises of three layers and each layer has its own role to play. 1) Input layer 2) Interface layer 3) Cluster layer The parameters used in algorithm are as: Num = Number of Symptoms M = Clusters as {benign ,Malignant} bwij =Bottom up weights Twij = Top down weights P =Vigilance parameter S = Binary forms of the input symptoms X = Activation vector for interface ||x|| =norm of x or sum of the components of x Step 1: Initialize Parameters L > 1 and 0 Initialize weights 0 ij (0) ij (0)=1 Step 2: While stop condition is false, perform step 3 to 14 Step 3: For each training input do step 4 to 13 Step 4: Set Activation of all F2 units to 0 Set Activation of F1(a) units to binary forms of Symptoms vector Step 5: Compute the sum of the symptoms ||s|| = ∑ i Si Step 6: Send the symptom vector from input layer to interface layer xi = si Step7: The cluster node that is not inhibited If yj != -1 then yj = ∑ bij *xi Step8: While reset is true, perform step 9-12 Step 9: Find J such that yi >= yj for all nodes j If yj = -1 then All then odds are inhibited thus cannot be clustered Step 10: Recomputed activation vector x of interface unit Xi= si *tji Step 11: Compute the sum of the components of vector x ||x||= ∑I Xi Step 12: Test for reset condition if ||x|| / ||s|| Yj = -1 (inhibited node j) Move to step step 8 again if ||x|| / ||s|| >= p then move to next step Step 13: Update the bottom up weights and top up weights as: bij (new)=L*xi / L 1 +| |x|| and Tji (new)=xi Step 14: Test for the stopping condition if((bij(new_val)==bij(previous_vreeal)))(tij(new_val)==tij(previous_val))) III. Classifying Breast Cell The data set for this research was taken from Mangasarian and Wolberg. This data set was obtained by taking Fine Needle Aspirates (FNA) approach. (7) This data set is available for public in UCI repository. (7) It contains 699 samples of patients consists of two classes 458 as benign cases and 451 malignant cases. The following are the attributes of the database: Sample Code Number Clump Thickness Uniformity of Cell Size Uniformity of Cell Shape Marginal Adhesion Single Epithelial Cell Size Bare Nuclei Bland Chromatin Normal Nucleoli Mitosis Class We have taken this data in its original form. This dataset is available in UC Irvine Machine Learning Repository (7) IV. Experiment Our Experiment consists of four different modules which is further divided and does work in the following sequence as given in the figure 5 below. Figure 5: Modules of the Algorithm A. Modules of the Experiment 1) Pre processing In our dataset, not all the features are taking part in the classification process thus; we remove patients id feature. Then we left with ten attributes so we separate the feature set from the class values as Xij and Yi. a) Data Normalization After preprocessing stage Normalization of Xij (nine feature vectors) need to perform by using this equation: New_val = (current _val min value) / (Max value min value) Where, New_val = New value after scaling current_val = Current value of the feature vector Max_val = Maximum value of each feature vector Minvalue = Minimum value of each feature vector b) Data Conversion The new values (New_val) after getting from the previous step are truncated and converted into binary format. Then grouping was done on the base of range; the values falling in the range of 0 to 5 assigned as 0. Whereas, values in the range from 5 to 10 are assigned as 1.Then each sample as an input is given to ART1 network for training and testing purpose. 2) Recognition Stage Initially all components of the input vector were assigned to zero because no sample was applied to the input layer. This sets the other two layers to zero there by disabling all the neurons and results in zero output. Since all neurons are at the same stage, thus every neuron has an equal chance to win. The input vector then applied in the recognition layer, at each neuron performs a dot product between the input vector and its weight vector. A neuron that comes with the greatest dot product possesses the weights that most excellent matches input vector. It inhibits all the other outputs from that neuron from that layer. This indicates the recognition layer stores the patterns in the form of weights associated with neurons one for each class. 3) Comparison Stage In the recognition layer the network fired passes one back to the comparison layer when it passes the output signal. The comparison neurons that will fire are the one those receive simultaneously from the input feature vector and the comparison layer excitation vector. If there is a mismatch between these two, few neurons in the comparison layer will fire to the next layer until X got over. This means that the pattern P being feedback is not the one sought and neuron firing in the recognition layer should be inhibited. Then comparison of the symptoms vector and the inner layer vector and if the value is less then vigilance parameter, the network causes reset which causes the firing neuron in the recognition layer to zero and disable it for the current classification. 4) Search Stage The classification process finishes if the reset signal is not generated. Otherwise other patterns were researched to find the correct match. This method continues until either all the stored pattern has been tried or all recognition neurons are inhibited. V. Results The performance of the Algorithm studied is as under: The Training percentage and testing percentage total time taken and the relative efficiency when vigilance parameter is 0.5 is given by the chart. Figure 6 : The classification performance on Vigilance parameter 0.5 The efficiency of the Network with vigilance parameter 0.7 on different percentage of training and testing sets given in figure 7. And on taking the vigilance parameter as 0.7 but on different percentage of training and testing dataset we got better efficiency than that of in figure 7 as shown in figure 8. Figure 7: The Classification performance on Epoch 0.7 Figure 8: Calculation of Efficiency on different proportion of data The efficiency of the Network with vigilance parameter 0.9 on different percentage of training and testing sets given as under: Figure 9 : The Efficiency of the Network on Vigilance Parameter 0.9 The Maximum and Minimum time for training the Network on different tolerance factors is in the table as: Table 1: Calculation of Training time VI. Conclusion In this paper, we evaluated the adaptive resonance theory for the diagnosis of breast cancer using Wisconsin as data set. Several tests has been taken on different proportion of training and testing dataset and we concluded that by taking the vigilance parameter as 0.5 and taking the ratio of data as 90% for training and 10 % for testing we could achieve the better results. Although we have taken into account all the parameters in the further scope of research, we use the feature selection process so that we can reduce the time and improve the accuracy. In addition to that, we take the dataset from the local hospital so that we use that for the benefit of the society. References Journal of Cancer Research and Therapeutics. Afroz, Fir, et al. 2012, Vol. 8. Heart Disease Diagnosis using Support Vector. Shashikant Ghumbre, Chetan Patil,Ashok Ghatol. Pattaya: International Conference on Computer Science and Information Technology, Dec. 2011. Stefan Conrady, Dr. Lionel Jouffe. Breast Cancer Diagnostics with Bayesian Networks. s.l.: Bayesia, 2013. DONG, Yiping. A Study on Hardware Design for High Performance Artificial Neural Network by using FPGA and NoC . s.l.: Waseda University Doctoral Dissertation, July -2011. S N Sivanandan, S Sumathi , S N Deepa. Introduction to Neural Network and Matlab 6.0. s.l.: Tata Mc-Graw -Hill, 2006. Evaluation of Three Neural Network Models using Wisconsin Breast Cancer. K. Mumtaz, S. A. Sheriff,K. Duraiswamy. UCL Wisconsin data set. [Online] [Cited: 30 10 2014.] http://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml/datasets/Breast+Cancer+Wisconsin+(.

Working With Survivors of Trauma Essay -- Post-traumatic stress disord

Bio-psychosocial Assessment Presenting Issue Spartacus came to seek the help of a mental health specialist since he was experiencing a number of difficulties in his life after his service at the U.S. Army. He â€Å"felt different† on his return to home and found it exceedingly tough to blend in into the family life as he did before going to serve in the army. The emotional attachment he had with his family members such as the wife and the son had disappeared. Spartacus not attend to the son accordingly as a father should. Though he knew that this was not right, he could not bring himself to a solution and that is the reason why he sought specialized help. The problem had persisted for a while and Spartacus knew that the situation was getting worse. It was interfering with his day-to-day functioning. He wanted help so that he could revert back to his normal function just like in the period before living for the military. He could not sleep, he was constantly nervous, he felt less motivated and showed a general loss of ap petite. Demographic Information Spartacus is an African American male aged 25 years. He has served in the U.S. military for with multiple deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan. He had returned to his home in U.S having suffered many physical injuries during one of the combats. He was (and is still) married to Tamika and they have a son who is three years old. Current Living Situation Spartacus spent most of his time in solitude, away from the wife and son. He easily got irritated and found comfort in smoking cigarette. In his loneliness, Spartacus could spend many hours replaying the scenes from his combat experience. He always felt jumpy. Birth and Developmental History Having been born 25 years ago... ... useful evidence that helped in coming up with the right treatment for Spartacus. Bibliography Chang, Y., & Hsiao, S. (2006). Quality of Life: Scaling with Maslow‘s Need Hierarchy. Gerontology, 52(6), 376-376. Hofmann, S. G. (2007). Enhancing exposure-based therapy from a translational research perspective. Behavior Research and Therapy, 45(9), 1987-2001. Kennedy, J. E. (2007). Posttraumatic stress disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder-like symptoms and mild traumatic brain injury. The Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development, 44(7), 895-920. Resick, P. A., & Miller, M. W. (2009). Posttraumatic stress disorder: Anxiety or traumatic stress disorder?. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 22(5), 384-390. Taylor, S. (2004). Understanding and treating health anxiety: A cognitive-behavioral approach. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 11(1), 112-123.

Similarities And Differences Of Buddha And Christ

Religion is somewhat important to a lot of people around the world. It helps us guide in our everyday life. To follow the beliefs and traditions brings faith to whatever religion we are into. In our era today, we come up with a lot of religions and two of the major religions are Buddhism and Christianity. Buddha specifically said not to believe to the things that is passed on and that we’re just written down etc. on face value. He did not urge us to put faith just in texts, or enough faith in their value to trawl through them-quite the opposite.What we’ve known is that, all Buddhist school agrees that one’s salvations from suffering are in one’s own hands. Siddharta Gautama was born into a royal family in the sixth century B. C. His experiences when he was a young adult with the outside world sent him to look out a greater understanding of life and spiritual understanding. Siddhartha achieved the powerful enlightenment through seeking guidance. He was know n as the Buddha from that point which means â€Å"the Enlightened One†.From then on and for the rest of his life, Buddha traveled from great distances to teach people about the one path of salvation. His pupils continued to extend his teachings after Buddha’s death. Hinduism, the most widespread religion in India, had become tightly controlled when Buddhism developed. And today, Buddha’s teachings still followed by a lot of people throughout the world. â€Å"Christ† as the identification, Jesus is not accepted within Judaism.Christians are called â€Å"Nazarenes† in Talmudic Hebrew because in the New Testament, Jesus is described in as being from the city of Nazareth. Being a â€Å"Christian,† one has to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, some believe that an individual must attend a mass and go to church and participate in baptism. Death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is necessary to others, instead of a belief and acceptance in their life. â€Å"Nicene Creed† is the ancient text, which some theologians consider a Christian who accepts this.This is accepted by the Orthodox, Anglicans, Catholics, Lutherans and the rest of the mainline Protestant Churches. In spite of important differences of interpretation and opinion, Christians share a set of beliefs that they hold as essential to their faith. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is considered and said to be the cornerstone of their faith among all Christians and the most important event in human history. Within the body of Christian beliefs, the death and resurrection of Jesus are the two most core events on which much of Christian doctrine and theology depend.Christians commemorated these essential doctrines of the Christian faith during Good Friday and Easter Sunday, particularly during liturgical time of Holy Week. One wrote, â€Å"If Christ was not raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your trust in god is useless. † Christians believe th at one can be saved from sin and have eternal death through faith in Jesus. The Gospel of John said that He â€Å"takes away the sins of the world†. One’s reception of salvation is related to justification. Generally, Christian churches accept and teach the New Testament account of the resurrection of Jesus.A lot of people believe that Christ may have been inspired by Buddhism, and that the texts of the Nag Hammadi and Gospel of Thomas influence this. Apparently, It has also been asserted that the story of the birth of the Buddha was well known in the West, and it was influenced the story of the birth of Jesus. The two major religions which are Buddhism and Christianity are compared and emphasized their differences by a lot of scholars, perceived similarities in the teachings in the spiritual intent and practices.It is said to be that it may be the result of a direct or indirect influence of Buddhism on early Christianity, or arising from separate but similar developme nts, or remain divided whether the religious parallels are coincidental. Jesus is not mentioned in any Buddhist text and so, Buddhist views of Jesus differ. â€Å"That there are startling coincidences between Buddhism and Christianity that cannot be denied, and it must likewise be admitted that Buddhism existed at least 400 years before Christianity.I go even further, and should extremely grateful if anybody would point out to me those historical channels through which Buddhism had influenced early Christianity. † Buddha the new born prince is adored and predicted by seer Asita and is celebrated his birth. Jesus the new born prince is adored and predicted by seers â€Å"from the east† who celebrated his birth. Buddhist Trinity (Tiratna) and Baptism: â€Å"I take refuge, Lord, in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. † â€Å"Enough, I say, with this external bath. I am satisfied with this internal bath: confidence in the Blessed One. â€Å"Jesus Trinity and B aptism is written as follows: â€Å"baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit†. Lastly, if there are any similarities and differences on people, the faith and respect to each other’s religions is still one of the most important things that should always be present to anyone whether in a Catholic teaching, in Buddhism, or any form of religion. R E F E R E N C E S Woodhead, L. An Introduction to Christianity. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Lopez, D. S. Jr. (2001) The Story of Buddhism: A Concise Guide to its History & Teachings. New york: Hyper Collins Publishers Inc

Pride and Prejudice: Book Review Essay

Pride and Prejudice, a classic novel by Jane Austen, tells the story of a complicated love that develops between what was thought to be two very different personalities. The protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet, misjudges a man upon rumor and appearance, but finds out she is extraordinarily wrong. The novel explains how difficult it is to fully understand someone after settling upon assumptions and being under the influence of the authorities around them. However this is the trial one must pass in order to find true love or friendship. Social class was a major influence throughout the 1800s, when this story takes place. Unfortunately, the Bennet family was fairly poor compared to Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy’s. This is where some of the conflict originates from. The Bennet girls fall in love with upper class men despite their social order which prevents them from being a desirable pair. On the other hand, the poor end of the relationship would benefit from a marriage to a rich family. Characters such as Elizabeth and Jane are torn apart as they struggle against the pressure from their mother and other aristocrats that frown upon their relationships with Darcy and Bingley. The novel primarily focuses on the personalities and actions of female characters as they strive to gain happiness. However, the women in this novel can be divided into two groups. The first includes characters such as Mrs. Bennet, Miss Bingley, Lydia, and Lady Catherine. These women have the tendency to manipulate the world around them in their favor. They display all the faults in women; greed, over confidence, and stupidity to name a few. The other half of women consists of Jane and Elizabeth Bennet, and Georgiana Darcy. These characters can be thought of as the good-hearted women. Although they have some realistic faults, their overall personality reflects the honest side of women. Jane and Elizabeth, regardless if they come from the same family as Lydia and Mrs. Bennet, appear to be more intelligent judging from actions they take and the way they respond to things. The two  Bennet girls are not as heavily concerned with money as the other women. Also, Georgiana is a shy girl that does not have the arrogant personality that is often obtained by women of high rank and or wealth. Austen is able to create a miniature representation of women in English society just by a few characters in this story. She criticizes ignorant women with similar mindsets as the first group of women (including Lydia, etc.) that she encountered from her experience. Readers are able to conclude from this novel that most women in the 1800s desired only marriage that would lead to wealth, gaining social rank, and saw it as their sole responsibility to become wives. The author restores some dignity in women by adding characters such as Elizabeth who have the sensibility and modesty that allows them to reflect upon their mistakes, while others never admit to theirs. Austen suggests ideal women should be like Elizabeth and not what the characters of the book consider accomplished. In addition, male characters in Pride and Prejudice also have a variety of personalities. Characters such as Mr. Darcy have their faults towards the beginning but are able to fix them as the story progresses. For instance, Mr. Darcy’s pride and shyness contradicts itself, however both play an active role in giving Elizabeth the wrong impression. His secret love comes to believe the man as arrogant and unpleasant. In fictional reality, Mr. Darcy is actually a very gracious man, but is unable to express his thoughts in a polite manner especially to people he has never been acquainted with. Elizabeth also goes through the same process as she gains more information about Darcy from others, himself, and through personal experience. The prejudice that develops on Elizabeth’s side creates the drama that drives this story to be exciting. In reality, the traits these characters have are quite common. By nature, human beings have the urge to create assumptions towards other people. They may be wrong, but it is only natural to have them. It is the goodness of the person that prevents them from presenting these assumptions without evidence. Some characters fail to do this, and whenever they approach an idea in their favor, they must share it. Whether we realize it or not, we  have many faults. The morals of the story encourage the initiative that should be taken to fix the mistakes we make. This novel teaches us not to misjudge a person without completely understanding them, which formulates the title, Pride and Prejudice. The story not only gives a happy ending, but a resolution to overcoming influences that have nothing to do with the actual relationship between people. An appropriate judgment can only be made by individuals themselves. I would recommend this story to people who have been troubled with similar situations when it comes to judging or leaving a positive impression on others. The morals in Pride and Prejudice are put into relatable context to the real world. I am sure it will affect the reader’s viewpoint in one way or another, as it did for me. Not only is this story for those troubled in relationships, but the fact that it is a beautiful love story should not be disregarded. I would definitely be interested in reading similar books like this or other novels by Jane Austen because I fell in love with the characters and the author’s writing. The style of writing that colored each picture and thought that went into every sentence was very well done. 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Relations between Indians and English settlers essays Ever since the development of the Roanoke colony in 1585, the relationship between the English settlers and the Native Americans has always been unstable and dangerous. Native Americans would originally consider becoming allies with the new intruders, yet as time went on; a war would emerge between Native Americans and the English settlers as to control the land. This course of action -initially trying to be friends, and eventually ending up being archenemies- gives the impression of being the basic prototype that existed in the New World. One of the best examples to demonstrate the tensions that existed among the English settlers and the Indians is the settlers clash with the Powhatan tribe. When the English landed in Jamestown in 1607, the dominant tribe of the area was the Powhatan, which was named so after the tribes leader, Chief Powhatan. At first, the Powhatan thought that these new intruders might be able to aid them in their struggle for land and power over the other tribes in the area. However, such optimism in hopes of becoming allies vanished as English settlers ran out of food and started to steal and take food from the Native Americans. In 1610, any notion of alliance between the Powhatan and the Virginia settlers was instantaneously revoked when Lord De La Warr arrived with a declaration of war against all Indians in the Jamestown area. Lord De La Warr used his "Irish Tactics" of burning houses and crops and taking prisoners to destroy the Native Americans in what was known as the First Anglo-Powhatan war. A peace treaty was signed, but it only lasted eight years. The Powhatan killed 347 settlers, which lead to the Virginia Company giving orders for "a perpetual war without peace or truce." Although the Powhatan made one more attempt at destroying the Virginians, they were defeated again in the Second Anglo-Powhatan war. The peace treaty of 1646 eliminated all chance of the Powha...

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Apple Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Apple Strategy - Essay Example This has been done using the quality employees who they employ. In recruiting the new employees, Apple does not necessarily follow what most companies have been doing. Contrary, Apple looks for great sales persons who have been using their products and have consequently developed a likeness of the same. By doing this, they help differentiate true enthusiasm and the salespersons believe in the products. The company has gone further to invent black cards. This strategy is to be used by their customers whereby they can issue black cards to their employees. The cards have an Apple emblem and they contain some written materials on the sidelines. This card directs the Apple customers to talk to the company. On the rear side of the black card, it recommends the Apple customers to fill in, whereby they indicate, whether they have received good customer service or not. Moreover, the company has also developed an idea of a store within a store. This has been achieved through the setting up of Apple shops in big departmental stores and supermarkets such as the Best Buy. They have also placed Apple consultants at this shops whereby they train employees about their brands and all others (Apple Inc., 2010, p.1). For Apple to climb to such heights, the company has developed a distribution and market segment that has overseen the brand name attain global recognition. Through its distribution and marketing segment, the company sells its product throughout the world using online stores, retail stores, direct sales force, third-party wholesalers, resellers, and value-added resellers. The company also sells to consumers, of large-scale and small-scale, and small and medium sized business, creative customers, education, enterprise, and the government (Apple Inc., 2010, p.1). Business Strategies Apple has employed high standard of business strategy, which are followed by all members of the institution. This is done because the company is committed to delivering nothing but the best personal computing, moveable digital music and moveable communication practice to customers, scholars, instructors, commerce, and administration agencies through its groundbreaking hardware, software, peripherals, amenities, and internet offerings. The company’s business level strategies shows the companies unique ability to come up with, and develop the companies own operating system, hardware, application software, and services to deliver its clienteles different products and elucidations with superior ease-of-use, seamless integration, and innovative industrial design (Apple Inc., 2010, p.1). This company believes strongly in the need for continued investments in research and development. The reason is that the development of this will enhance innovativeness in its products and technologies. In the business level strategies, the company considers the use of cost leadership. This is done in order to compete for a wide customer base, which is usually based on its prices. How ever, the products developed by Apple are expensive for moderate people in other countries outside the US. Nevertheless, these prices are based on internal efficiency so that the company can form a margin, which will sustain above average returns and cost to the customer so that customers will purchase Apples products. This happens since the technology sector is standardized whereby if a company fails to achieve certain targets, other rival companies will surpass it. Some of Apples largest competitors are Samsung and HTC. However, there has been a continuous effort to lower the cost to be relative to customers (Apple Inc., 2

Dove Evolution of brand Essay Example for Free

Dove Evolution of brand Essay In 2007, Unilever’s Dove was the world ‘s number-one â€Å"cleansing â€Å" brand in the health and beauty sector. Dove Competed in all categories like cleansing bars, body washes, hand washes, face care, hair care, deodorants, anti-perspirants, and body lotion.Their competitor are PG (Procter and Gamble’s) ivory, KAO’s Jergens, Beiersdorf’s Nivea. The first Dove Product â€Å"Beauty Bar† was launched in 1957 with campaignâ€Å" Dove Soap doesn’t dry your skin because it’s one-quarter cleansing cream†. Dove positioning their product to functionality superiority product. It’s can no longer be accepted because functionality meant different things in different categories Dove was tapped to become master brand in 2000, Dove entries in all personal categories and Dove become masterbrand. To build masterbrand needed to do something different. Dove do a process of exploratory market research, consultation with experts, conversation with women, and message testing led to â€Å" The Campaign for Real Beauty†. Now Dove success become masterbrand under the title of The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. Dove success giving a single identity to the wide range health and beauty products. Dove also organizing for brand management to support this champaign. Read Also:  Ideas for an Exploratory Essay Question Analysis 1. What is brand in the definition of Dove ? Answer : Based on Merriam-Webster, Dove is a. a small wild bird that is related to pigeons b. a gentle woman or child c. a person who does not want war and does want peace Dove is a symbol for peace, love and honesty. Dove Brand definition is a soap that give you real beauty because its more gentle than another soap so it would not dry out your skin the way soap did. So people does not worries about dry skin if used it because it was not technically soap at all. It is milder than soap-based bars. 2. What does Dove’s market positioning in the 1950s? What is its positioning in 2007? Answer : In 1950’s The first Dove product, called a beauty bar was launched in 1957. It was positioned upon its function as a superior product that doesn’t dry out the skin the way soap did. It was marketed through a mix of marketing communication tools like the Television, print media and bill boards. The advertising message was â€Å"Dove soap doesn’t dry your skin because its one-quarter cleansing cream† which was illustrated with photographs that showed cream being poured into a tablet. The advertising aspired to project honesty and authenticity, preferring to have natural looking women testifying to Dove’s benefits rather than stylized fashion models. In 2007 Dove become a Masterbrand, its name is used for all beauty bar category in Unilever, such as deodorants, hair care products, facial cleansers, body lotions, and hair styling products. The old positioning of Dove is focus on functional superiority and it can no longer be accepted because functionality meant different things in different categories. After a process of exploratory market research, consultation with experts, conversation with women, the positioning of Dove is â€Å"The campaign for Real Beauty†. The campaign begin with using ordinary people in supermodel contexts and for books of nudes featuring plain-looking models. The result was the so-called Tick-Box campaign. In this campaign, billboards were erected and viewers were asked to phone 1-888-342-DOVE to vote on whether a woman on the billboard was â€Å"outsized† or â€Å"outstanding.† The next campaign  were known internally as the Firming campaign because they promoted a cream that firmed the skin. They featured six â€Å"real† women cheerfully posing in plain white underwear. The company wanted the ads to â€Å"change the way society views beauty† and â€Å"provoke discussion and debate about real beauty.† The next step in the campaign was particularly controversial. At a Dove leadership team offsite meeting, an effort was made to engage executives in the idea behind The â€Å"Campaign for Real Beauty† by filming their own daughters discussing their self-esteem challenges. Stage four of the Real Beauty campaign involved not an advertisement, but a film. The resulting digital film was known as â€Å"Evolution†. Given its unusual length, television was not an option, and in October 2006 the film was posted to YouTube and within three months, it had been viewed three million times. 3. How did Unilever organize to do product category management and brand management in unilever before 2000? What was the corresponding structure after 2000? How was brand meaning controlled before 2000 and how is it controlled at the time of the case? Answer : Before 2000, within a product category the firm often offered multiple brands, each led by a brand manager. In effect, each brand operated as a separate business, competing with its siblings as well as the products of other firms. A staff of brand assistants executed the policies of the brand manager. Each brand manager was charged with the responsibilities of a general manager in relation to the brand, including design of strategy, delivery of profit targets, and power over many of day-to-day marketing decisions such as advertising and target promotions that were needed to achieve profitability. In 2000, Unilever began to split responsibilty for a brand between two groups, one charged with development of the brand and the other charged with building the brands in specific markets. Brand Development was centralized and global in scope. Brand Building was decentralized according to the major geographic regions in which Unilever operated. Before 2000, brand meaning controlled by Brand Manager, but at the time of case brand meaning idea is created by Brand Development but bringing to life by Brand Building. 4. Spend a little time searching blogs, using Google search, and any social media, to get a sense of what people saying about Dove today. What does this discussion contribute to the meaning of the brand? Facebook Dove Indonesia have 23.027.326 Fans Followers Dove Indonesia : 19.4K Yes, people is feel the real beauty of themselves by using Dove. Dove makes the Real Beauty. Recommendation In the Future dove must be have line extension product such as cosmetic product, to enlarge their category product, but must have same positioning with their campaign â€Å" For Real Beauty† The position must be stand for a point of view Dove can enlarge their business to retail shop (cosmetic shop) to sell all dove product and communicated their brand. To organize Brand Management, Dove under Unilever must maintain split responsibility between Brand Manager and Brand Development.

The Importance Of Online Reviews

The Importance Of Online Reviews In the wake of digital age, the internet offers a relatively complete and comprehensive environment for people all over the world to communicate and share information. The form of film review is reforming as well. From traditional critics of experts to review of ordinary audience (Awad, Dellarocas Zhang, 2004), cyber world offers a newly effective channel for audience sharing their comments about movies; cinema industry also encounters more challenges on box office from consumers (Boatwright, Kamakura Basuroy, 2005). For film industry, online review of critical audiences plays an important role. On one hand, the good comments of a movie can attract more audiences in general. On the other hand, the good comments do not necessary mean high box revenue and vice verse. The impact of film review has been proved by previous study on motion pictures (Litman, 1983; Eliashberg, Shugan, 1997; Basuroy, Chatterjee, Ravid, 2003; Desai, Basuroy, 2005; Gemser Gerda, 2007). However, most study tends to research film review from traditional critic review of journals or other form of articles while less study approach to the impact of online review on box office success. Within this paper, I approach to explore the correlation between the online review of new social media and the box office success of different types of movie. Although there are previous researches about the influence of online review on box office, those researches tend to study the whole catalog of film. In differ from previous research, the target of this paper is to find out to what extent online review could influence box office success and whether the impacts of different types of movies are the same. According to Gino and Ferrian research (2006), new social media can reflect the successful of the movie to a great extent. Audiences preferences and tastes can and stimulate final box office as much as the most positive comments from newspaper. Comparing with traditional media, such as articles written by critics or reporters on influential newspaper and magazine, obviously new social media is more powerful and covers a lager scope of audiences. By offering the opportunity to share preferences among ordinary audience, online movie database has established (www.IMDb.com). In the next couple of years, IMDb has expanded fast and became the best known platform for sharing information of the movie. The famous TOP 250 Movies list represents the best movies around. By cooperating with major film company and convenient operating platform, it has been recognized by both experts and audiences. The online ranking order of movies in IMDb, as the most direct and transparent approach to reflect th e positive or negative review of movie, is decided by normal audience worldwide. Due to the reliability and authoritative data of IMDb, this paper focus on online ranking order of IMDb. By dividing the first 100 movies of TOP 250 Movies into different catalogs which are artistic film and commercial film, the paper tests the correlation between the box office and the four independent box office drivers that are production budget, awards obtained, MAPP rating and online ranking order. In order to explore the correlation, this paper uses two equations for multiple regression analysis to test the possible difference between artistic film and commercial film by running SPSS. Comparing the results of outputs, there is statistical significance of both kinds of film. However, for artistic film, online ranking order has relatively less impact on box office while the most important determinant is awards. Meanwhile, the result of commercial film shows the strongest correlation between online ranking order and box office success comparing with other determinants. Thus, I con clude that higher online ranking order indicates higher box office of commercial film. As for artistic film, how many awards it obtained is the most important reason for box office. To be admitted, there are some limitations of the paper due to the small sample size of the research. Literature review 2.1 Artistic film and commercial film Film industry as an important part of creative industry has created huge fortune in both material and psychological of human contemporary history. Although there are plenty of types of movie and different catalog involved, considering the high marketing participation, film industry classifies two catalogs which can generalize all are types of movie. The two catalogs are labeled as major and independent films (Zuckerman Kim, 2003), or art house and mainstream films (Gemser, Oostrum Leenders, 2007). The reason of the different names attributes to the slightly difference about definition and criteria. However, those differences reflect the degree of artistic and commercial of a film (Bagella Becchetti, 1999). Thus, artistic and commercial film can be summarized as the most applicable assortment for film industry. Within this paper, I apply the concept of artistic film and commercial film on my research target since it is a relatively comprehensive classification. According to the author of Cinema of Outsiders: The Rise of American Independent Film, who had interviewed dozens of independent director and film researcher, whether a film could be defined as artistic or commercial film can be judged from two aspects. One is based on the way indies1 are financed, the other focuses on their spirit or vision (Emanuel Levy, 1999). The former concept refers to marketing issues including distribution and budget. While the latter one tends to be a abstract definition which is the fresh perspective, innovative spirit and personal vision that are determining factors. Since the concept is too ambiguous, the distinction between artistic film and commercial sometimes to be blurred to a great extent. Even a number of insiders of film industry tend to ignore the difference between artistic film and commercial film. Joseph Burstyn, a film distributor offered his point of view about artistic film. He said, I hate the expression art filmà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ there are o nly two kinds, good films and bad films. Based on his opinion, there is no fixed meaning of art film. And obviously the concept of art film and commercial is flexible because of the increasing complexity of producing a film due to the financial issue of the film. Nevertheless, there still are certain standards for distinguishing artistic film and commercial film according to previous study. The factors might determine whether a film belongs to artistic film or commercial film refers to several more practical elements that contain production budget and advertizing effect (Geer, 1998), the participation of super stars and award-winning situation (Bagella Becchetti, 1999), the number of released screen (Reinstein Snyder, 2005), or the story line and the narrative structure of the movie (Bordwell Thompson, 2001). Those elements construct the standards of judging whether a movie is an artistic or a commercial one. And the two types of film construct the success of movie industry. Since there are different criteria of artistic film and commercial film, the box office success, the potential influence, and the reputation are distinct. Traditional concept about artistic film tends to be closed to the definition of independent movie which indicates independent production without any financial support of the eight major film company, MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), Paramount, 20th century Fox, Warner Brothers, RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum), Universal, United Artists, Columbia Pictures (Levy, 2001). However, throughout the development of the century, the eight companies have been through broken, emerged and rebuilt. The concept is not suitable anymore. In my research, I only focus on the distinction of box office success between the artistic film and commercial film by texting different determinants of box revenue. In order to research the correlation between online review and different types of film, which are artistic film and commercial, I consider three elements which ar e production budget, language (English/non-English) and the number of released screen as the criteria that can classify all the films preciously into artistic film and commercial film. Since I conduct quantitative research in this paper, the three factors could offer a clarity standard for classifying artistic film and commercial film. 2.2 The function of film review First of all, film as information good has an important characteristic, which is experience good. The feature of experience good is that consumers must experience it before they know what it is (Hal, 1998). This factor results in a permanent problem which is incomplete pre-purchase information. Thus, reviews of film help overcoming this problem to a great extent. By providing evaluations and comments to potential consumers are ubiquitous in digital age (Hal, 1998). Although it is still a limited access for consumers getting to know the product, reviews play a curial role in the whole film industry, especially before video image became popular. Due to the importance of review in film industry, there are plenty of studies and researches about the influence of film reviews. To be more specific, most researches discover the relationship between reviews and box office success. And the result proved to be positive in most cases (Wyatt, 1991). Nevertheless, there are a number of different study implies opposite result of the correlation between box office success and positive review. Negative or positive review does not indicate the significant relationship between box office success and the movie performance. For instance, Transformer as one of the best known profitable series of film history did not earn too much positive review from professional experts or public. However, the worldwide box office of Transformer reached 836,297,228 US dollars worldwide, four times more than production budget, according to official data collection of IMDb. Most study about how review impacts box office tends to have the similar conclusion that there is significant-but-weak association between judgments of reviewers and box office success (Holbrook, 2007). Based on previous research, there is a significantly positive correlation between the average of ratings in two critical guidebooks and distribution rentals (Prag Casavant, 1994). On the other hand, there are evidence indicating a negative relation between the earnings of selected films and their critical evaluation, which could be explained by the application of technical and analytical considerations and stringent artistic standards in critical evaluations, whereas audiences looked simply for enjoyable entertainment (Hirschman Pieros, 1985). To explain the different result, there is the assumption that ordinary consumers like more accessible, realistic forms of entertainment, while professional critics give higher ratings to more complex, abstract, and intellectually demanding artwork (Holbrook, 1999). Despite of previous research on correlation between box office success and review, the perspective of the research is prone to focus on favorability of journalistic reviews or judgments of film experts (Prag Casavant, 1994). There are relatively less researches concerning about publics review. Due to the popularity of internet, audiences are able to share their review and preference through the internet instantly. Holbrook concludes audiences opinion towards motion picture as popular appeal which contains online rating and review. The popularity of online review is the nature consequence of digital age. Neoclassic theory emphases the importance of demand induces. As for film industry, companies pay attention on the importance of marketing power even more than products themselves (Belaux Marteaux, 2007). Thus, there has been a growing increase in the emphasis of web-related promotion for nowadays film industry (Zufryden, 2000). Zufryden (2000) did the research on the development and empirical testing of a variable mathematical model approach for predicting a films box-office performance as a function of film website activity, as well as other relevant explanatory variables. The results of his study support the relative importance and statistical significance of website activity as a predictor of a new films box-office performance. In accordance with promotion of website, variables including screens, film grade, time from film release, production budget and seasonally were also found to be significant covariate s in the prediction of ticket sales during a films life cycle. Obviously, online review and ranking system account for an important part of variables that can influence box office success according to Zufrydens research. Moreover, Holbrook (1999) summarizes different types of film review according to multiple cultural markets of distinction (Hall, 1992): professional critics versus ordinary consumers, expert judgments versus popular appeal, extensive training versus naive appreciation, emphasis on aesthetics versus entertainment, genuine or pure versus commercial or commoditized art, highbrow versus lowbrow standards, elite versus mass tastes, legitimation versus market success, dominance via cultural capital versus economic capital, autonomous versus heteronomous principle, and restricted versus large-scale production. Own to those different concepts, film reviewers have their own opinions about certain film. The ordinary audience in question does not share in the relevant habits governing the dispositions that guide the professional critics standards of evaluation. Therefore, the different judgments from ordinary consumers are quite personal. However, the influence of those judgments can be differe d according to different tastes. Holbrook (1999) compared popular appeal representing ordinary consumers and expert judgment in order to analyze the most importance variable for box office success. The data Holbrook collected for conducting research focus on polls of film viewers. Since his paper has published in 1999, one year from the establishment of IMDB, the best popular internet movie database, which involves film grade and audiences review. Therefore, there is a gap of studying to what extent online review system can impact a films box office success. My research in this paper would try to fulfill this missing part. The development of IMDB The IMDB has become one of the most popular forums for on-line interaction. The popularity of a movie can be gauged by the number of votes. The establishing of IMDB can be trace back to the late 1980s and early 1990s. Col Needham, the founder of IMDB, created a database that sought to provide useful and up to date movie information online across as many platforms as possible (Dodds, 2006). Since the year of 1990, the technology of constructing web site has developed speedy. Col Needham as a big fan of movie believed that there should be a place in cyber world to offer a free land for sharing ordinary audiences comments2. Therefore, IMDB has been created and expanded quickly since then. Firstly, the IMBD includes new features such as votes awarded to individual films. Later in 1995, it was formally launched and the Amazon.com Company subsequently bought it in the 1998. The site has been further enhanced to allow for greater on-line interaction as well as additional features providing updates on movie releases and film gossip (Dodds, 2006). Till now, IMDB import Metacritic, a similar movie database but focus on judgment of professional movie review like authoritative movie magazines and journals. Although there is increasing number of competitive online movie database, IMDB is still the most reliable, recognizable, professional and comprehensive online movie community containing the largest users and offering the best platform for sharing information and interaction. The ranking system of IMDB represents audiences opinion. The famous Top 250 list indicates the best movie in the history throughout time, culture and races. And the option belongs to ordinary audience. The top 250 films are also based on a weighted rating formula referred to in actuarial science as a credibility formula (Norberg, 2007). In order to create a fair and reliable grading system, IMDB sets a formula to calculate the final result of the movie as the following equation: This formula is equivalent to a Bayesian posterior mean3. In this equation, represents weighted rating, which means final score of the movie. means rating, represents average for the movie as a number from 0 to 10 (mean). refers to number of votes for the movie, more votes represents more influence. indicates minimum votes required to be listed in the Top 250, the current entrance is 3000 votes. is the mean vote across the whole report (currently 6.9)4. Because of my research focus on box office success and online review while IMDB includes all the official data and information, I introduced the brief history of IMDB and rating equation in order to convince people the reliability of this database. Determinants of the successful box office success Investing film industry has been considered as higher risk business even more than stock. Pervious study indicates that only three to four out of ten movies could reach breaking even point, and about one out of ten becoming profitable at the box office success (Valenti, 2004). Although film producers make profit through various channels such as DVD sales and sound track CD or any other related business. Box office still accounts for the largest part of gross revenue for the film market. Furthermore, box office success has been related to the successful of the movie itself to a great extent. Talking about the standards of a good movie, there are diversity of criteria according to different scholar and the era they lived in. In the last century, three indicators of judging success of a movie which are the reviews of professional critics, the size of audience and industry recognition via awards (Hirschman Pieros, 1985). The relationship among the three indicators has certain order. Fir stly reviews of critics come out, followed by amount of audience and finally awards prove the success of the movie. Besides, the three indicators have inside impact on each other as well. As for the determinants of motion picture in the 21st century, there are a number of detailed factors from several disciplines have been used in the literature to understand and explain various aspects of motion picture success (Hennig-Thurau, Houston Walsh, 2007). In general, there are three groups of movie-success drivers have been recognized in this century. The three determinants are movie characteristics, post-filming marketing studio actions, and non-studio factors (Elberse Eliashberg, 2002; Hennig-Thurau, 2001). Movie characteristics refer to star power, director power, cultural familiarity, genre, and certification. However, the research of questioning whether star power related to a successful movie has been published (De Vany Walls, 1999). As for director power, so far there is no empi rical evidence about a successful movie on economy can be decided by director. The second determinant studio actions are the term including the production budget, marketing expenditures, timing, and the number of screens. Finally, non-studio factors contain reviews, awards, consumers perceived movie quality, and early box-office information. The Academy Awards tend to represent a compromise between art and commerce (Caves, 2000). Audiences review does ascend the movies opportunity on obtaining an award. In another word, audiences voice has equal importance as experts judgment. Sony picture indicates that the insiders of film industry believe that movie review is important for box office success (Terry, Butler Armond, 2005). Combining the indication of Sony, one of the largest film companies in the world, the output of commercial film tends to prove Sonys standpoint. Firstly, there is statistic significance according to the output. And R-square is 0.694 which indicates 69.4 percentages dependent variable, in this case, box office, can be explained by the four box office drivers. In another words, the four determinants are major drivers of box office for commercial film. Production budget still has less importance comparing with other independent variables. Meanwhile, awards have positive and strong impact on box office of commercial film as artistic film. However, table 6 shows that among the four elements, the strongest correlation exists between box office and online ranking order. For commercial film, online ranking is the strongest box office driver, f ar more than artistic film. Comparing the outputs of artistic film and commercial film, online ranking order has less influence on artistic film while the strongest determinants of commercial film. Meanwhile, the higher online ranking order do result in better box office success in both artistic film and commercial film. Especially, for commercial film, the recognition from audience attributes to box office to the largest extent. Although there are some distinguish cases, the tendency of impact of online ranking order is quite clear according to the research. Conclusion Summary Online ranking order as the direct and clarify symbol of online review provides important information for audience. This paper tests the correlation between online ranking order and box office success by comparing online ranking order with other determinants of box office. Throughout running multiple regression analysis in SPSS, the result indicates online ranking order has stronger impact on commercial film while less important for artistic film. However, high online ranking order contributes to higher box office in general for any kinds of movie. Limitations This paper only includes four major determinants of box office success. However, other determinants such as released screen, released date, star power and region are also contributing to the box office success. Due to the limited words and research time, there are more important indicators are excluded. Besides, the result could be less trusted and accurate because of relatively small sample size. Furthermore, due to the producing time of some movies are quite old, the lack of some data and currency rate might lead to different results slightly.