Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Expectation states theory and gender

Overview of the expectation states theory In the society, people seek to accomplish tasks or goals that are set. They do these in different formations or hierarchies. Therefore, the Expectations States theory explores how states hierarchies emerge in different societal situations where actors are seeking to accomplish goals collectively.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Expectation states theory and gender specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The theory seeks to explain how different factors affect the accomplishment of goals by the actors. It also explains how the different states of the actors affect the expectations as they orient themselves towards the task which they are handling. Task orientation and collective orientation are the key foundations of the conditions on which the theory bases. Differences in performance among actors are derived from status characteristics, which are the social attributes o f individuals who are performing the task. Among the most notable status characteristic, is gender. Different characteristics are likened either male or female. Status features can be either diffuse or specific. Diffuse status characteristics bear generalized expectations, which are integrated on the expectations for any level of competence in a specific task. Certain status characteristics bear cultural expectations for specified competences; competencies assigned to the performance of specific tasks (Delamater, 2006). A lot of social psychology experiments have been performed which have subjected the expectations states theory to empirical evaluations. Most of the empirical studies have been focusing on how the status characteristic especially gender plays out in group roles. Competences about the tasks to be performed in groups are affected by perceptions on gender (Delamater, 2006). Gender has been cited as one of the best examples of diffuse status characteristics. Cultural bel ieves on gender which is widely shared carry the expectations that men are more competent in doing most things.Advertising Looking for research paper on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More There are also widely shared assumptions; that men do perform better in certain tasks like mechanical work while women do better in other tasks for instance nurturing. All these status characteristics play out in different group roles which are assigned to groups bearing all the genders. Status beliefs results in stereotyping of groups. The behaviors of individuals in groups are affected by beliefs on status characteristics, which are transformed to performance expectations. This forms the basis of the status generalization theory which is one of the min sub-theories of the expectation states theory (Delamater, 2006). Gender differences impact on interpersonal behaviors in different ways. This has been explored in many social re searches. Many relatively ancient theories expounding on gender differences in performance of groups have been basing on theories related to sex roles. However, according to the research that was done differences in gender is not consistent in task groups as has been explained in different sex role approaches. The evaluation and the characters of actors of a similar gender often pay out differently when the actors are subjected to differing situations. The behavior of males as well as females ranges with the social circumstances facing them. The evaluation of both males and females are the same when they are both subjected to a similar situation. Males and females portray unilateral forms of behavior when they are exposed to similar social circumstances. Status characteristics theory is a fairly recent explanation of gender differences in different tasks and roles (Delamater, 2006). Gender in interpersonal task roles The argument behind the primary status characteristic is that eval uation and behavioral task differences have to be observed mostly when gender is considered a diffuse status feature. The supportive argument is that gender differences in performance expectations have to result to variations in behavioral profiles between men and women in mixed-sex groups. Behavior can be treated as being a function of performance expectations is impacted upon by the nature of the task that is being performed. This is because tasks are identified as either being masculine or feminine with only a few tasks being considered to be neutral; they can be performed by either gender (Wagner Berger, 1997).Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Expectation states theory and gender specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Each gender has a task advantage when working on tasks that are deemed to fall under the. Therefore, the assumption is that the gender with the task advantage has to be seen as being more co mpetitive compared to the other gender. This means that the opposite of this is true where the gender that is working on a task deemed to belong to a different gender is disadvantaged. This brings about discouragement of different genders to perform certain tasks with competition only prevailing in the natural tasks. Many cultures still confer high status on the male gender when they are working that tasks that are considered to be natural (Wagner Berger, 1997). Gender wage gap and expectations in the labor industry Gender expectations also play out in the labor industry; job expectations. Gender wage gap in the labor industry can to a wide extent attributed to gender perceptions. Different genders make different choices, which affect their performance on the job. Different genders have different chores, which affect their expectations on work and off work. The expectations of workers can be a very significant determinant of gender gaps. There is a model which was developed basing on the Bayesian updating. For each gender in this model, the corresponding parent gives information that is basis upon which children make expectations. Therefore, the past differences in choices and preferences over cross gender occupations have an impact on the belief of the prevailing generation and may pose even more adverse effects. Even though, men and women may have similar preferences, their choice of careers often varies. In discharging work roles, the expectations of discrimination are eminent and will often have long-run impacts on the gender that feels discriminated against. Most often, women are on the receiving end when it comes to gender discrimination in labor with only few cases applying tom men (Filippin Ichino, 2005).Advertising Looking for research paper on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Therefore, it is evident that the expectations of men and women at work are a force behind the performance in their work roles. More often than not, women have lower expectations on the performance or discharge of duties which is the reason why they come lower in performance ranks. Therefore, the status of female when it comes to jobs is mostly low because of they set their expectations lower. This is aggravated by other factors like gender discrimination further bringing down the status of the feminine gender. This is supportive of the empirical outcomes of the expectation status concept. The expectations of different genders over work begin when they are in the universities where men set high standards of work expectations than women. Therefore, men end up advancing more on jobs than women. This is not an obvious case as there are exceptions. A number of women are sensitized by the empirical outcomes of status expectations thence end up setting high expectations, which propel then to greater heights in the labor industry (Filippin Ichino, 2005). Gender, Hierarchy in Leadership Gender stereotypes have been, for a long time, argued to be a substantial barrier of excellence performance women in strategic leadership posts in the society. Gender expectations affect the ability and the urge of different gender groups in accessing or ascending to leadership. The rising of women into high leadership position in both the private and the public sectors has been raising questions over the long held outcome of status expectations theory. The 21st century has seen the number of women rising and assuming bigger leadership positions in different public positions. Women have been influenced socially by the resurgence in the number of feminine movement and activists. These have helped to position women by boosting their motivation and expectations and thence their status (Carli Eagly, 2001). Gender disparities are still playing an active role in social development patterns . There is a wide gap in the ration of men to women in leadership. The expectations of women are still ranked low by the society because of the low held opinion and expectations of them. The hierarchies in power are still favoring the men more than women. Women are classified as a weaker sex; a factor that enhances to inferiority attitude in them (Carli Eagly, 2001). Expectation states and influence networks Efforts have been made to link the attitude change theory, social influence network theory and the effect control theory to the status expectations theory. Both theories link up in one aspect, which are performance expectations. The interpersonal relations in task groups are affected by sentiments and attitudes of the gender groups. The attitudes of group members in the status expectations theory are not consensual. The expectations are shaped by pre-formed attitudes of the individual members in group tasks. The attitudes of men are often similar. The same case applies to the a ttitude of women. Even in situations where there is consensus in group tasks, men and women will have internal differing attitudes about the situation. The sentiments of different group members arise from interpersonal influences, which arise from the sentiments from the members of a task group. Gender plays an important role in the process (Friedkin Johnsen, 2003). Gender roles in social influence Research in social influence patterns has shown that men have more influence as compared to women. This influence of gender in social influence is nonetheless dependent on a number of moderating factors. Influent ability in social influence is impacted, by the way, in which women and men are influenced in social relations. The exerting of social influence has varying degrees depending on gender. Men are deemed to have more influence in social issues as they are more assertive. The composition of different genders in interactions helps in moderating gender differences in groups. The expec tation states theory posits that the effects of gender on interactions depend on gender salience as well as status characteristic. Women are often ranked low in status as well as expectations (Carli, 2001). Therefore in social interactions, men are usually graded higher in terms of resistance levels. The resistance of the male gender to the female influence is usually higher. This is because of the status of men in the society. Men are boosted by the expectations on them. All these accord power to men and help them in maintaining their status in the society. Gender is thus a strong status feature as explored in the expectations status theory. Task competence affects social influence ability of both men and women but in varying degrees (Carli, 2001). Gender stereotypes and social roles Gender stereotypes are also influenced by the emotional vulnerability of different gender groups. The societal culture has held the view that men are different from women. Women and men end up conformi ng to stereotypes that are gender born because of emotional vulnerability. Emotional vulnerability results in conformity to stereotypes because of normative expectations. This can easily be tested in relationships. The social role theory is more proactive in the explanation of conformity trends to gender stereotypes. Women and men behave in certain gender-typed ways. This is because the social roles that are performed by each of the gender group are linked to different expectations and calls for different skills. Because of the social roles that they play, women seem to be more emotional. Examples of these tasks include caring for children. In situations which do not involve the stereotyped roles, men and women are argued to behave in a similar manner. Women are more proactive in mentoring relationships as opposed to men because of the position they occupy in the discharge of most social roles (Vogel, Wester, Heesacker Madon, 2003). Gender, expressive traits and parenting expectati ons As individuals grow, they are continuously socialized into certain ways of behavior. This is done through parenting. When they reach the adulthood stage, there are expectations of them to be in a position to perform certain social roles. Therefore, expectations are nurtured from unusually early stages of growth of people. Both boys and girls react differently to the nurturance by their parents. Men and women have different gender traits. These traits have an effect on the parenting expectations of both young men and women. Options and decision channels that are exposed to the teenagers end up affecting their expectations. These may either solidify the expectations or they may disperse the expectations of orientation towards certain social roles and responsibilities. Women tend to view family roles as being central to them. Being a woman is likened to being a mother thereby the assumption of motherly roles begins this early. Gender traits and changes in the societal view affect t he expectations in the assumption of parenting roles. The roles of men and women are becoming more integrated and resulting in a shift in expectations on social roles of both genders (Yaremko Lawson, 2007). Gender evaluation in role groups Women and men evaluate themselves differently. Girls have been argued to evaluate themselves highly in minor groups as compared to their self-evaluation in large groups. Women tend to be less confident in large groups and will usually have low expectations when in such groups. Gender is likened to status and prestige and posited in the expectation status theory. Therefore, differences exist in the way women and men evaluate their power in the society. As a result of the effects of the status theory, it can easily be observed that men are more powerful when it comes to group roles as compared to their female counterparts (Martinot, Dà ©sert Redersdorff, 2008). Men often take with them the gender privileges which have been awarded to them by the society. This explains why they perform better even in the seemingly female dominated professions. Even in groups with a majority composition of female, men are more proactive in attaining the outcomes of the group. The status that has been accorded to men by the women has led to low self-rating of women by women themselves. Belonging to a minority class is likened to being put under a magnifying glass as in the glass ceiling concept. Members belonging to the minority status do not only judge themselves but are also judged by others. Women often emerge with a low status in majority work or task groups (Martinot, Dà ©sert Redersdorff, 2008). Gender communication and expectation states The tasks that are performed in the society are judged and evaluated differently depending on the gender of the actors. In leadership, women are usually evaluated on a lower scale. The scale depends on competence and the likeability. In the evaluation of gender roles, different cues are used and are i ntegrated with theory to bring out the results which help in bringing out the results. The results are further used in coining expectations of the actor. In work situations, women are given a favorable evaluation on promotion and hiring functions, but not on competence evaluation. The cognitive abilities in the lens differ between genders. Gender assumptions affect the rating of actors basing on their traits. It encourages stereotyping which in most cases distorts the gender status roles on certain tasks. It widens the status gap between men and women, which is sometimes too wide; which might not be the case. Constructive processes are more prevalent in gender perception, and they end up impacting on the expectation of genders when it comes to the discharge of roles (Koch, 2004). Men and women have different aspirations, which all affect the formulation of expectations on both groups. This is evident in the role congruency theory which is a sub-theory of the status expectations theo ry. According to the sub-theory, women have to be judged lower on aspects of likeability especially when a high visual dominance ratio is used. This is because women more often violate gender expectations. Competence ratings do not post significant differences in gender rates as it is appearing in the empirical analysis of the expectation status theory (Koch, 2004). Gender perceptions and status in technical disciplines Males and females are argued to originate from different sets of experiences. Therefore, gender is a formidable force in the expectations and perceptions of both male and female. This is supportive of the societal structures and orientation which socialize men and women in different ways. This ends up even affecting the choice of careers as has been seen in different learning institutions. The male and female students rate themselves differently when it comes to different technical courses. Males are rated higher in terms of attitudes on technical abilities and cours es like computer knowledge and proficiency. They even end up performing well in the technical subjects thereby upgrading their status and raising expectations. Women add to these expectations and status by depending on male students to help them out in these courses. However, this is not always this is not always the case as it has been found that other surrounding factors like exposure to technology affect the perceptions and expectations (Adibifar, 2007). References Adibifar, K. (2007) â€Å"Students’ perceptions of the use of technology: Does students’ gender make a difference in their perceptions of using technology in teaching?†. Electronic Journal of Sociology, Iss. 1, PP. 1-11. Carli, L. L. (2001) â€Å"Gender and Social Influence†. Journal of Social Issues, 57(4): 725-741. Carli, L. L Eagly, A. H. (2001) â€Å"Gender, hierarchy and Leadership: An Introduction†. Journal of Social Issues, 57(4): pp. 629-636. Delamater, J. (2006). Handbook of social psychology. Berlin: Springer. Filippin, A Ichino, A. (2005) â€Å"Gender wage gap in expectations and realizations†. Labor Economics, 12: pp. 125–145. Friedkin, N. E Johnsen, E. C. (2003) â€Å"Attitude change, affect control, and expectation states in the formation of influence networks†. Power and Status Advances in Group Processes, 20, 1–29. Koch, S. C. (2004). Constructing gender: A lens-model inspired gender communication approach. Sex Roles, 51(3-4), 171-186. Martinot, D., Dà ©sert, M Redersdorff, S. (2008) â€Å"When Girls Evaluate Themselves Better Than Boys in Minority Groups: Role of the Performance Context†. Current Research in Social Psychology, 13(20). Vogel, D. L., Wester, S. R., Heesacker, M Madon, S. (2003) â€Å"Confirming Gender Stereotypes: A Social Role Perspective†. Sex Roles, 48(11-12): pp. 519-528. Wagner, D. G. Berger, J. (1997) â€Å"Gender and Interpersonal Task Behaviors: Status Expectation Accountsà ¢â‚¬ . Sociological Perspectives, 40(1): pp. 1-32. This research paper on Expectation states theory and gender was written and submitted by user Sonia Frye to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Diversity in the german workforce essays

Diversity in the german workforce essays The Diversity of Women and Guest Workers in the German Workforce Management of diversity through out the German workplace is much like building a bridge. Think of 5 different mountains, all different in their own way and all separate from each other. In order to explore each one of these mountains there must first be a clear connecting pathway that allows a safe and reliable passage from one to the next. A bridge. With out these pathways it becomes unclear as to what the next mountain holds and one is only able to make assumptions about what stands in front of them. When this concept is brought into the workplace it is easy to see that sometimes these bridges do not present a clear cut pathway. People begin to make assumptions with change becoming somewhat of a negative and becoming opposed by the majority. In order to best understand the people around you it is necessary that? and methods are available so that? and accepting diverse people is less of a challenge. In an ideal world everyone is treated differently, no matter what their rac e, ethnicity, colour, religion, education and sexual preference. In reality, very few companies around the world have reached a stage where diversity is truly valued, especially within Germany. Through out the past century Germany has become riddled with historic moments which have caused dramatic changes to the diversity of their workforce. Though these are significant topics it is not to be the focus of this paper. The purpose of this paper is to show exactly how events such as World War II and the fall of the Berlin wall affected the acceptance of both women and guest workers within the country. For many centuries, a woman's role in German society was summed up and constrained by the three "K" words: Kinder (children), Kirche (church), and Kche (kitchen). Sometimes the fourth "K" is mentioned: Kleider (clothes). However, throughout the 20th century women have gradually w...

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Becoming an Intellectual Craftsman Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Becoming an Intellectual Craftsman - Essay Example The intellectual craftsman trusts their imagination, memory, and experience to craft an idea that will resonate through a targeted audience. A fundamental principle of the intellectual craftsman is that they are always functioning as craftsmen. Every waking experience contributes to their well of knowledge and catalogue of ideas. They do not simply work as scholars; they are thinkers that do not separate their craft from their life. They continually strive to gain new experience that they can add to their breadth of knowledge, while not yet being aware of how today's most trivial experience may contribute to tomorrow's groundbreaking truth. The intellectual craftsman trusts this knowledge, as it is the most important component of any truly original intellectual thought. Storing this knowledge for later use is all just a part of the craft. Becoming an intellectual craftsman begins with the amassing and storing of these thoughts, ideas, and experiences. They are stored as materials in the tools of the intellectual trade such as notes, journals, diagrams, and the most trusted corners of the academic mind. Once the intellectual craftsman has gathered their materials and tools it is time to assemble, disassemble, and reassemble them into a concrete set of ideas that have form and substance. Here is where the craftsman separates themselves from the technician. Becoming an intellectual craftsman demands trusting your imagination enough to stretch its limits and examine the subtle connections that bind your experiences into a cohesive unit. Developing the art, or the craftsmanship, is really just a matter of letting the imagination run free. The craftsman differs from the technician as the craftsman assumes the risk of imagination. As the imagination runs free, ideas combine, reinforce, invert, and create new strains of thinking. They form building blocks of ever-larger concepts until the idea becomes prioritized as a set of questions that need to be answered. The academician has expanded their imagination and constructed unique concepts and viewpoints out of the basic material of experie nce. They have become an intellectual craftsman. Just as a cabinetmaker needs a building to practice their trade on, the intellectual need an audience to ply their craft. Left alone, ideas are nothingness. Ideas only come alive and take form when they are shared with an appreciative audience that can understand the nuance and rigor involved in the process. This demands that the intellectual craftsman becomes a communicator. Becoming a communicator of academic ideas requires putting complex ideas and concepts into a language that conveys the meaning, while still remaining understandable by the intended audience. One does not become an intellectual craftsman by communicating with pseudo-scientific hyperbole that is designed to shade the meaning and mask the truth from the audience. Becoming an intellectual craftsman is learning the language of their peers and applying it wisely and with restraint. In conclusion, intellectuals create a piece of work through the systematic application of the process of craftsmanship. The process begins by gaining the materials and methods that are everywhere all around us. Becoming an intellectual craftsman means learning to recognize the importance of every experience and every idea without

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Strengths and Weaknesses of Porters Five Forces Analysis Essay - 1

Strengths and Weaknesses of Porters Five Forces Analysis - Essay Example From this study, it is clear that the model was framed way back in the 1980s when the business trend was much more different than it is today. It provides a general overview of the external environment. Any new business can use it to analyze the market they are entering before starting their venture and customize their plan according to the results obtained from it. Though there are certain limitations, it covers more or less all the aspects a businessman should consider before starting a new venture. As the study outlines Porters five forces model is by far the most simple and easiest tool to understand the industry structure. Understanding the industry structure is vital to plan effective strategies to gain a competitive edge. Industry structure is nothing but a set of characteristics which is shaped by the economic and technological factors prevalent there. Understanding the causes which determine the success or profit of one particular brand will help others plan their strategy accordingly. Porters five forces analysis helps them do the same. For example, consider a person wants to start an online shopping website. There are already thousands of shopping websites on the internet. They have to give something new and attractive to the customers and manage the heavy competition from others. Porter’s five forces model acts as a checklist of the new businessman enlisting all the important entities to be checked. They prompt them to check the core competitors in the industry first like eBay. The website owner might decide to cater the needs of certain kind of people interested in high-class antique products, as there are so many websites selling apparels and related accessories. Second, Porters model prompt them to check the threat of new entrants and substitutes.

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Business modelling for decision makers Coursework

Business modelling for decision makers - Coursework Example This is dependent on the arrival time of each of the vehicles as well as the wait time that is expected with each one. It was assumed that each of the cars would take an average of 3 minutes in wait time to fill up the tank. The RN1 and RN2 were created with the average time which each vehicle would arrive. Since these were based on the arrival time according to random intervals, this helped to give average times of the main time when each vehicle would arrive. To determine the wait time and the average time at the pump, there was a basis of seeing when the first vehicle would arrive at the pump filling station. It was expected that no other car would be at the filling station at that time. If a car was at the station before the other, then the duration of waiting time was calculated with the outcome being a 3 minute time at the station and the remainder of the time being based on the amount of wait time that each vehicle had to take. This gave an average wait time for each of the ve hicles and provided insight into the vehicles that were seeking fuel at random times. The vehicles which arrived first determined the wait time for the vehicles that arrived later. For instance, if a vehicle arrived 2 minutes after a car before, then it was expected that there would be a wait time before the vehicle would fill up the gas. The advantage of the gas filling station comes with the expectations from the owner, which is that 65% arrive 4-5 minutes after the previous vehicle. This lowers the amount of wait time and allows the vehicle to be free. However, if a vehicle arrives within the 1-3 minute time frame, then there is an expected wait. If this occurs continuously then it is expected that the wait time will increase according to the number of vehicles, time spent at the pump and the wait in which the vehicle had from the previous vehicle that was filling up at the pump. This caused some of the vehicles to wait for up to 9 minutes before having the opportunity to fill up their vehicle. However, this balanced out because of the five minute intervals that were between vehicles which caused some portions of the pump to not service vehicles at a given time. The assumptions made with this particular chart were based on several factors. The first was that it would take an average of 3 minutes for each vehicle to complete what is needed. However, it was also stated that this was the average of all vehicles as stated by the owner. This fluctuation would change the wait time of all vehicles and would alter the results. It was also assumed that the vehicles arrived at the random intervals provided and would have to wait for the previous vehicles to finish filling. However, this would alter according to the speed of the last vehicle and the lining that was taking place with the vehicles. The system used within the gas station would

Friday, November 15, 2019

Study On The Biomedical Model And Biopsychosocial Model

Study On The Biomedical Model And Biopsychosocial Model According to World Health Organization(WHO,2003) heath is defined as state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Every human being on earth desire for a good health. Good heath assists us to gain better value of life. When the good health is affected, every patient who suffers from any kind of heath disorder or illness are usually in a fragile condition of mind or curious. So the approach toward them by medical practitioners should be to explain their current situation and to help them. There are few models of health created and used in hospitals or clinics in order to guide the medical practitioners in treating the patient. This includes biomedical model, social model and biopsychosocial model. Most commonly used in practice today are biomedical model and biopsychosocial model. Before the development of biopsychosocial model, biomedical model used in practice. Biomedical model states that good health is the freedom from pain, defect or disease. It mainly focuses on physical factors that affects the health such as biochemistry, physiology and pathology of disease. It does not include social or psychological factors into account. In 1977 George L. Engel questioned the dominance of the biomedical model via well known journal, Science. He also explained the need for a new model that was more holistic. He said that in order to provide a basis for understanding the determinants of disease and arriving at a rational treatments and patterns of healthcare, a medical model must also take into account the patient and the social context in which he lives. So in the same year biopsychosocial model was theorized by L.Engel. According to OSullivan Schmitz (2007, p.28), patient outcomes improved considerably when they are treated with consideration, educated on their condition and are shown respect by the therapist and staff of the hospital. When treated as such, rehabilitative goals set by therapists can be attained as patients have more confidence in themselves and in their therapist and are willing to go the extra mile to regain normal functional independence. This particular approach is known as the Biopsychosocial m ethod. Recently Borrell-Carrio, Suchman, and Epstein (2004, p. 576) said, The biopsychosocial model is both a philosophy of clinical care and a practical clinical guide. Philosophically, it is a way of understanding how suffering, disease and illness are affected by multiple levels of organization, from the societal to the molecular. At the practical level, it is a way of understanding the patients subjective experience as an essential contributor to accurate diagnosis, health outcomes, and humane care. Biopsychosocial model which is a more complete conceptual framework emphatizes on biological, social and psychological factors, all play an important role in human functioning when the person is affected by any disease or illness. A.Fava(2008,pg 200) states that study of very disease must include the individual, his/her body and his /her surrounding environment as an essential components of the total heath system. During my first clinical placement, I had the opportunity to observe and note the implementation of the biopsychosocial model by the physiotherapist in the treatment of patients in a private hospital. Implementation of biopsychosocial model is clearly seen in a patient who is 23 years old, Mr K. When the patient first entered the centre Mr X, who is the physiotherapist responsible greet Mr K with smile on his face and introduce himself to the patient. According to the doctors report, Mr K had minor operation due to his right anterior cruciate ligament(ACL) tear few weeks before. Mr X begin his session by assessing the patient subjectively. Throughout the assessment Mr X asked the patient questions regarding his symptom and social life which leads to the symptom. At first, Mr K refused to respond to Mr xs questions. But after few minutes of conversation, Mr X managed to gain Mr Ks respond. This is maybe because Mr X listen to the patient carefully and maintained eye contact with the patient which make the patient to trust him. Richard S Irwin (2006,page 573) states that good physiotherapy-patient communication includes understanding(18%) and talks to me (15%) were the most important characteristics, followed by cares (10%) , listens (8%) and respect (7%). Pekka Larivaara (2001,page 9) states that skilled physiotherapist convey warmth and attention by their forward posture, eye contact and expressive face, gesture and tone. At the end of subjective assessment, Mr X got to know that Mr K is a professional football player and he had lateral ankle ligament spran three years before. Before begin the physical examination , Mr X politely asked the patient to lie on the examination table. After getting the patients consent the physiotherapist palpated below the knee of the patient to check for any different symptoms such as swelling or redness around the calf muscle. According to Petty (2004,page 340),informed consent is a paramount to ensure that the patient fully understand what is being carried out and that he has the right to refuse or accept the treatment given. Then physiotherapist measured the range of motion of flexion of the patients affected knee. During the measurement, Mr X observed the patients facial expression. He realized that the patient having difficulty in flexing his knee after certain level. He also noticed that the patient is depressed and down due to his recent condition which preventing him from carrying out his daily activities. So the physiotherapist motivated the patient and gave him moral support.he promised the patient that he would be back to his normal lifestyle within 6 months. Before the physiotherapist begin his treatment , he explained about the treatment which going to be given to the patient. He also explained about the benefits and outcomes of the treatment. He positioned the patient in supine lying by place a pillow under his head and a towel under his thigh. This is to make sure that the patient is in comfortable position to receive the treatment. Petty (2004 , page 341) states that patients comfort is paramount as it induces relaxation and enhances the adherence to the treatment. Patients comfort during treatment session is a supreme importance to their believe in the medical professionals, treatment, and their capability to relax when they undergo treatment plus patients choice of treatment positions should be respected. Physiotherapist also make sure that the height of the examination table is parallel to his waist level to ensure that he can easily reach the patient. Physiotherapist then applied cold pack and TENSE to the patient to relieve his pain. The treatment session took place for 15 minutes. Later, Mr X teaches the patient on how to use the elbow crutches. At the beginning stages the patient find it difficult to walk with the crutches. But after the physiotherapist assist him for few hours, Mr K manage to walk with the crutches. According to OSullivan , the supportive use of hands can allay fears and instill confidence while ensuring safety. The key to success in using guided movement is to intersperse active practice with guided movement, providing only as much assistance as needed and removing assistance as soon as possible. He came for treatment continuously for few weeks. Physiotherapist praised him upon his success in walking throughout the treatment period. According to Pekka Larivaara(2001) patient-centered physiotherapist acknowledges and appreciates the patients effort to cope with his/her symptoms and problems.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare

CSC 1208 – BASIC COMPUTING ASSIGNMENT 2 Technology is evolving from time to time. As time goes by, new technology has come into place replacing the aged technology. However, we realized that without the previous technology, it is impossible for the new generation to enjoy the benefit of the technology we have today. To appreciate the golden aged technology, discuss in your group about an elder technology right from the beginning until how their evolved and improved to the latest technology today in a variety of fields including in education, finance, government, health care, science, publishing, travel, manufacturing, hospitality and media.Marking Scheme This assignment is 10% of coursework. Your assignment must include the following: 1. Assignment Cover Page 2. Assignment Marking Scheme 3. Assignment Question 4. Table of Content 5. List of Figures 6. List of Table 7. Introduction – Synopsis 8. Objectives 9. History 10. Evolution 11. Latest technology 12. Contribution o f the technology 13. Room for Improvement 14. Conclusion 15. References 16. Appendix – Presentation slides . Table of Contents: Acknowledgementvi Technology in Robotics based on Artificial Intelligence Perspective. 1. 1 Objectivesvii 1. Introduction to Robotics based on Artificial Intelligenceviii . Introduction to Roboticsix 3. Introduction to Artificial Intelligencex 4. History of robotics. xii 5. History of Artificial Intelligencexiii 6. History of robotics based on artificial intelligencexiv 7. Evolution in technology in robotics. xvi 8. Evolution of Artificial Intelligencexvii 9. Latest Technology in Roboticsxix 10. Contribution of Robots to the human society. xx 11. Latest Technology in Artificial Intelligencexxi 12. Advantages and Disadvantages of Technology in Artificial Intelligencexxiii 13. Advantages and Disadvantages of Artificial Intelligencexxv 14. Conclusionxxix 15.Appendixxxx * Acknowledgement We would like to express our deepest gratitude to Mr. NorShahriel f or his guidance and help in carrying out this project. We also wish to thank INTI’s library, Tan Sri Abdul Majid for the resources that was used for this research. We would like to thank the creators of google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin for creating such a wonderful website and helping us save time from having to travel to the library. * Technology in Robotics based on Artificial Intelligence Perspective. 1. 1 Objectives * To understand the computer science branch, ‘Artificial intelligence’ To appreciate the benefits of Artificial Intelligence in Robotics. * To be aware of the growth of Artificial Intelligence in Robotics. * To keep updated with the evolution in the technology in Robotics. * To learn how human’s view on robots have changed according to different times. * To bring attention to the contribution of artificially intelligent robots in the human society. * To understand how Artificial Intelligence came about. Introduction to Robotics based on A rtificial Intelligence In robotics, you can never deny that artificial intelligence is the most exciting field you can find.Despite that, it has it controversial moments as well because as we all know robot can do work as it has been programmed, but can it ever be as intelligent as a human? This question lingers in the mind of researchers and to resolve this particular statement, it will definitely take a long time. Therefore, people should put it aside and continue to improve robots for the sake of a better future. As everyone is aware, robots can only absorb a certain amount of knowledge compared to humans but what humans don’t have is a guaranteed error free day.Robots can be programmed to not make the same mistakes that humans always do. But then again, even if humans are smarter, it is hard to avoid certain habits which lead to repeated mistakes over and over again. To see the ability of robots, recently in Japan, researchers have taught robots how to dance. Dancing used to be a skill only a human was able to do, but now even robots are able to do it. This shows how technology has improved through the years. Robots are able to help in the education field too, as robots can now interact socially with humans.Since the world’s population has limited working educationist/teachers/lectures in this modern world, robots would make a great addition to the educational field. Although this might take a few more years to make it perfect, the base is already in progress now, and as time passes by, robots will get even better. Robots are also key in the manufacturing sector as quantity is important when it comes to gain in profit. A robot can work 24 hours in a day without stopping and this makes everything move faster and therefore increases production.Fewer work forces will be used and thus it will not be time consuming anymore. But the presences of humans are still necessary in the manufacturing sector to keep a watchful eye on these robots to make su re that it is error free. In the future, robots will continue to evolve in line with artificial intelligence itself and will benefit the society in so many ways. There will be a time when people go to a supermarket one day, and see it all operated by robots and not a single human in sight except for the manager in charge.This will be an amazing sight to see but it needs a lot of planning and work. Researchers are currently working on both of these elements to create and modify what people have now into something great. One day, yes. Introduction to Robotics As a generation very dependent on technology, robots have certainly played a major role in the modern day society. Over the years, the definition of robots has varied from person to person. Many may perceive them to be androids, human-like dolls made out of metal with computerized brain that has been instructed to obey everything a human says.Others might identify robots as a device, programmed to do various tasks in places such as factories where human abilities are inadequate and labor cost are high. In anyway, robots have been created and developed to make peoples’ work easier and their lives more comfortable. Robots for many years have been a subject of interest for many sci-fi movies, books and animations while also being one of the most challenging fields in science where scientist have struggled to create the most human-like mechanical doll movies and cartoons have portrayed robots to be. Cool Japan’, one of the programs belonging to the Japanese news channel, NHK world recently discussed on the view of robots around the world and it was proven that the Western side of the world viewed humanoid robots negatively and didn’t encourage the creation of the robots that are able to feel and think like a man, as they have been stereotyped by books and movies that to be life threatening that could cause the human race to be enslaved by them.Meanwhile, the Eastern side of the world (count ries such as Japan, Korea, China, etc) viewed robots in more open minded ways and actually promoted building robots that can act and think like a human. Scientists have still yet to create the a perfect robot that can act and respond to any actions or words out of their programmed instructions but as technology develops in a rapid speed, it might not be long before the robot who can feel and think like humans might be invented. Introduction to Artificial IntelligenceArtificial Intelligence is a branch of Science that is embedding human characteristics into the machineries by performing simple tasks by fixing specifically programmed rules. It’s also commonly known to be Computer Science but however it branches out to many more fields such as Mathematics, Psychology, Biology and Philosophy. The fundamental point of Artificial Intelligence is that every programmed set of rules is expressed as an algorithm. There’s no denying that computers are able to process logic but th e ability if a machine can think remains unknown to scientist and researchers.Figure 1 – The four approaches of Artificial Intelligence Figure 1 – The four approaches of Artificial Intelligence As you can see in Figure 1 – It shows Four Approaches of Artificial Intelligence. We can then divide the approaches into ‘human centered approach and rationalist approach’. The first human centered approach would be The Cognitive Modeling Approach where machines are able to think humanly. Basically, this approach relies more on Human Psychology. We would have to analyze how the mind works so then it would be implement and express the theory as a computer program into the machine.If the computer program is able to match the timing and human behaviors then it would be possible to program machines like the operations that are already in humans. Then you have the first rationalist approach of â€Å"Laws of Thought† which is when machines are able to think rationally. Aristotle, the Greek philosopher was the first to attempt to classify â€Å"right thinking†. He basically provided the given argument structures which will always generate the correct conclusions given that it is in right environment.The laws that he laid out for the future, became the operation of the mind which then was categorized as logic. With this as their basis, it allows Logicians to build programs within Artificial Intelligence to create intelligent systems in the future. The second human centered approach is the Turing Test approach when computers are able to act humanly when given a set of questions that were prepared by a human. In order for the computer to pass the test it would have to fulfill these criteria: To enable the computer/machine to communicate successfully in English * To store what the computer/machine what it knows or hears * To use stored information to answer questions and to draw new conclusions * To adapt to new circumstances and to detect and conclude patterns Lastly, you would have the second rationalist approach which is the Rational Agent approach where machines are able to act rationally. An agent is something that acts and computer agents have attributes that differentiate them from the other typical programs.A Computer Agent is able to operate by observing their environment, persistence, adapting to change and capable to take on another goal – like humans do. Rational Agent is when it acts to achieve the best outcome even when the situation is vague it is still able to give the ‘best expected outcome’. History of robotics. The early name for Robots was ‘Automaton’ and was very different from modern day robots. They were merely mechanical (often made out of wood), operating in a limited amount of steps. They were mainly created as toys.However, the origin of robots can be dated all the way back the early civilizations and even in myths and legends. The earliest concept of Automaton recorded in history was in 400 B. C when Archytas of Tarentum, a Greek mathematician (also the inventor of screws and pulley) built a mechanical bird of which he called, â€Å"The Pigeon,† This mechanical bird is also believed to serve as one of the first models for modern airplanes. In the period when building robots was believed to be impossible due to lack of resources and limited knowledge, various individuals had their own description/ idea of how a robot should be.They all had different versions but the basic concept was a piece of man-made doll built to serve mankind. The famous artist, Leonardo DaVinci himself had drawn a design consisting of what resembled an armored knight from the medieval times. During the time when computer was yet to be invented, the earlier form of robots came with the use of simple Physics principles consisting of few processes that were repeated throughout and none of them had a brain like today’s robots. Such forms include t he Flute player which played 12 different songs, invented by a French Inventor, Jacques de Vaucanson in 1738.The 19th century was the peak for most robot creations. The term ‘robot’ was first coined by a Czech author, Karel Capek in 1921, where it was introduced in his play, R. U. R (Rossuum’s Universal Robots). The first invention of modern robots only arrived in the early 1950s by George Charles Devor, who invented the first industrial robots (machine arms used in factories). Robots enjoyed their popularity in the 1970s mainly due to the Hollywood movie, ‘Star Wars’ by George Lucas where the plot was set in a future where human beings lived together with robots.The movie allowed people to visualize themselves in the far future and therefore its fame was celebrated widely all over the world. History of Artificial Intelligence The first time that Artificial Intelligence was coined in 1956 by John McCarthy in the Dartmouth Conference. He is one of the founders of AI research and he defined the field by ‘getting a computer to do things when done by people, are said to involve intelligence’. However, in 1950 it was Alan Turing that introduced the Turing Test which is machine learning, genetic algorithms and reinforcement learning.This discovery was not categorized as Artificial Intelligence but Turing was articulate in his 1950 article â€Å"Computing Machinery and Intelligence† which became the step before Artificial Intelligence was recognized by John McCarthy in 1956. The Dartmouth Conference was a stepping stone as it expanded due to a range of theories and principles by dedicated researchers. The first computer was built back in 1941 – but it was not until 1950’s that scientists realized that the link between human intelligence and machines weren’t too farfetched.The concept of Artificial Intelligence was a slow on-going process as it took nearly a decade for scientists and researchers to re-examine the ideas that were formed in the Dartmouth Conference. Nevertheless, it introduced all the major figures of Artificial Intelligence to each other. Evidently, for the next 20 years Artificial Intelligence was dominated by lecturers, students, and colleagues at MIT, CMU, Stanford and IBM. After the Dartmouth Conference, two researchers from Carnegie Tech Newell and Simon developed the ‘Logic Theorist’. In the eyes of other researchers and scientists it was an ‘overoptimistic vision’ from the two scientists.Logic Theorist was a theory that was based on Even though it was a breakthrough for the newly found Artificial Intelligence branch it led them to a bigger success which was the ‘General Problem Solver’. The two researchers Newell and Simon redeemed themselves with their creation of the ‘GPS’. It is a computer program that imitates the way humans solve problems. History of robotics based on artificial intelligence Ro botics is one of the sub divisions in artificial intelligence and as you might not know, it definitely has a rich history behind it. As we all know, history is very important when it comes to understanding a certain topic.We might know a certain something based on what it is now, but what we usually do not know is where it all started. History is something that will enrich your mind about a certain something and will definitely be a helping factor in understanding certain topics. Since, robotics has a really long and wide history, understanding and doing research about it needs a proper timeline to help us keep track of the progressions of it. In 1932, the first real robot was made in Japan. This specific robot was called ‘Lilliput’. It was just merely 15 cm tall and was made out of tinplate.The Japanese had made a big step in innovation and they have been evolving ever since. In 1950, the great Alan Turing proposed a test to determine a fact that stated if a machine ha d the power to think for itself. In order to determine if the machine could pass the test, it was required to be indistinguishable from a human during conversation. This test was named the ‘Turing test’. During the year 1954, the first robot arm was invented by George Devol and John Engleberger. This creation became the first robot to complete general and tasks including multitasking on a factory assembly line in the company General Motors.In 1957, ‘Sputnik’ was launched by the Soviet Union and was called the first artificial orbiting satellite. This marks the beginning of the space race between them and the American people. In 1964, the first computer started to mass produced by IBM 360. The computers we are using today are all based on this particular computer by IBM. In 1969, the United States finally made themselves on to the moon. Using the latest technology of space and robotics, they sent Neil Armstrong onto the moon. The famous ‘R2D2’ f rom the movie Star Wars is now famous among all of us as the talking robot could interact with humans and also perform certain tasks.In 1986 Honda launched the making of a walking humanoid robot. Based on the images describe in movies, Honda wanted to build a similar object which was real. Although it was tough, Honda tried their best. Also in the same year, LEGO started producing educational products that was done to contribute to younger generation to give them a clearer picture of how robots were like. Until today, we can see LEGO products still on shelves at supermarkets and toy stores. From the small picture of robot, to the real thing, it shows that it all started from an idea to a real one. In 1994, the University of Carnegie invented an eight-legged walking robot.This spectacular robot was used for a historic evolution in robotics. This robot was used to collect volcanic gas samples from Mt spur. The name of this robot was ‘Dante II’. After the successful projec t, it proved that humans were able to build a robot that was heat-resistant. This was important because humans managed to achieve an incredible feat because robots could now be used to go to places that even humans will have a hard time going. On May 11 1997, a world was chess champion was defeated at this own game by an IBM built computer which was called ‘Deep Blue’.This achievement was amazing due to the fact that now a machine built by humans could now challenge a complex human mind. In the same year, Lego launched the first Robotics invention system that used small components that are also educational for kids. This small model was key to the development of robots because humans could experiment future creations. In 1999, Sony released the first version of AIBO which was robotic dog which had the ability to entertain, learn and also communicate with its owner. This invention was a hit in the market and SONY made plenty of profit from t and production was continued with newer and more sophisticated models. The main target market for this product was for children, many of them were amazed by the abilities of this robotic dog, and all of this was made possible by the evolution of robotics itself. In the millennium of 2000, Honda made an improved version of its creation by introducing the robot ASIMO which was a new generation of humanoid robots. Honda which is a car company took a risk of venturing out of their field to robotics and all of it paid off when the robot made an incredible display at many international technology exhibitions worldwide.In 2008, robotics made a grand entrance into the household department by the introduction of the Roomba robotic vacuum which has since sold over 2. 5 million units worldwide. A huge demand was set for this robotic mechanism and is still being produced until today. Lastly, by the timeline explained above, we get to see how robotics has vastly improved in the field of artificial intelligence. It was also beneficial from the olden times until the new era of today. Without the inventions and ideas that were given by inventors of the past, robotics has since developed into a field that humans need in their daily lives.Status is temporary, history is permanent. Evolution in technology in robotics. The birth of robots were mainly celebrated in the West but as time passed, the East had done more for the development and growth in technologies in the robotic field of which Japan is one of the leading countries, contributing to positive opinions among the public regarding humanoid robots. For a form of entertainment for the aristocrats in the 18th century to helping hands in the 19th century, robots have almost taken over job sectors where accurate thinking and high workforce is needed.From Mechanical automatons made partially out of wood that were just invented to awe the public, technology in robots have been developed to act autonomously, which means a robot can do a task without the pres ence of a human. The field of artificial intelligence has given life to modern day robots. Hundred years back, it would have been controversial for a robot to replace a man’s job but robots have been slowly implemented into the contemporary society over the years that it has become a norm to find a factory once filled with people, now with just the presence of the repetitive monotonous sound of machines.Evolution of Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence as it is today, had taken a lot of improvements and is still improving. All of this was made possible by the evolution of it. Evolution plays an important role in anything. Without evolution a new technology could not be vastly improved. To start if off, in 1941 the first electronic computer was named Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) and was introduced to the world. At this time artificial intelligence was not fully recognized yet but this was where it all started. In 1949, the first computer stored program was created . This program was also made commercial.BINAC was a big success because it made a big leap for technology as a whole. In ran a test program which consisted of 23 instructions. Although, it did not have full working functionality, it was still considered the first commercial stored program. In 1956, the Dartmouth conference was held in Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. This was where artificial intelligence was born. This particular conference gave scientists and idea of the benefits of artificial intelligence to humans around the world. Furthermore, this conference did set some critical goals to be achieved in the future. In 1958, the lisp language was invented.This is a programming language which was created to develop a clear list of programming language. In addition to that, lisp machines were specially designed to run lisp programs. Without the creation of these machines, the lisp language could not used to its fullest potential. Today, lisp language still dominates the artifi cial intelligence category and is still widely used around the world. In 1963, ‘DOD’ started their advanced research projects. Now, ‘DOD’ is called DARPA which stands for Defense Advanced Research Project Agency was created after the launch of ‘SPUTNIK 1’ which was the first artificial satellite to be placed in orbit.This agency first dealt solely on space-related projects. When all the agenda’s were taken over by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, they were almost closed down. But that did not prevent them from continuing their verge into the depths of artificial intelligence; they started to conduct research into stealth technology and continuously branched out step by step. Without this particular agency, research into Artificial Intelligence would have stopped long ago. This agency played a big role into the evolution of artificial intelligence as a whole unit.In 1968, the first Micro world Program was invented. This program was named SHRDLU. This program was created to improve the evolving nature of artificial intelligence. Usually, normal scientist will tend to ignore less relevant details. They want to concentrate more on the important details. In artificial intelligence, this could not be done due to the delicate and in-depth nature of it. With this program, artificial intelligence could ensure that programs were capable of intelligent behavior in such a way that simpler forms of the artificial world can be accessed to micro worlds.In 1970 the first expert system was developed. This system was developed by Edward Feigenbaum and Joshua Ledeberg from the University of Stanford in California. Basically, this program was invented to overcome manpower. This program is able to do tasks that regularly need human expertise to complete. With this creation, manpower was reduced significantly. In the year 1972, Prolog Language was revealed. This programming language became a serious competitor to LISP which was widely used before. Until today, these two programming languages are still competing with each other until present.The new significant difference that Prolog Language brought to the world was its ability to make us give emphasis on logical relations between object and entities that are relevant to a certain problem rather than taking procedural steps to deal with it. This gave people a choice of which programming language they preferred. In the year 1986, a total of 425 million U. S dollars was earned from the sales of artificial intelligence based software. During this time artificial intelligence proved that it had an actual stronghold area in the market which was demanded by the world.In 1991, the Artificial Intelligence system was put to test in a military test system which was called ‘Desert Storm’. This was an effective evolution in artificial intelligence. Artificial Intelligence system was used in missile systems by the military and also other military advancements. In addition to that, Apple Macintosh and IBM started to use voice recognition systems that make computers more user-friendly. Day by day the demand for the Artificial Intelligence technology has risen more and more day by day.New advancements and technologies have started to become available to us. Artificial Intelligence has become inevitable for us not to use on a daily basis. In the future, the evolution of artificial intelligence will continue to prosper with time. If evolution stops, things will stay stagnant as it is and we would stop improving. Latest Technology in Robotics In recent years, there’s this ideology that ‘Robots could replace Humans in the Future’. It is a debatable subject in Robotics that due to the constant evolution of technology is making it easier for robots to replace Humans.However, there’s still time for scientists to realize the full potential of Robotics with help from technology. This statement might be proven right as there’s already known robots that are able to execute tasks by thinking analytically by using the set of algorithms and rules that are already built into the robots in order to ‘think like a human’. Robots are the most commonly known examples of Artificial Intelligence and scientists are being more and more innovative by creating more sophisticated and user friendly robots to society.Robots are applicable to any kind of field; it’s already used in Healthcare, Entertainment, Business, Communication and Psychology. So far, no machine is able to pass the ‘Turing Test’ but there are a few machines that made a mark in Artificial Intelligence History. Watson – IBM’s supercomputer that was able to defeat two human beings at the trivia game show Jeopardy. Not only that, this supercomputer managed to beat the reigning world chess champion Garry Kasparov. There’s still room for improvement but so far Robotics is just able to perform only a fraction of what human is able to do.The latest technology is ECCEROBOT 2 (Embodied Cognition in a Compliantly Engineered Robot). It’s basically the first robot to mimic human form with not just the outward form of a human but it also copies the inner structures such as bones, joints, muscles, etc. With this new found breakthrough, researchers are still investigating its human like actions and interactions which has potential and should be built upon for the mere future. The Humanoid robots are finally getting recognition in society and are gaining support from all sci-fi geeks all over the world.Contribution of Robots to the human society. In this modern era, where it has become easier for humans to lose social skills and the ability to take care of others, artificially intelligent robots have taken their place in society; doing the jobs that originally belonged to human. As people’s obligation to take care of their elderly has dissipated in most dev eloped society where individuality mindset have been encouraged, technologies in the robotics fields like nursing robots have filled in the places of nurses and care takers.Robots have not only been created to help the elderly and disabled but has been invented in order to keep children pre-occupied and entertained as the once male-dominated society slowly adapts to the emancipation of woman and the balance in the gender equality. Robots have filled in both the roles of younger caring generation and the elderly watchful eyes. Autonomous robots have been sent as far to space as well where human beings cannot survive due to the condition of it. They have brought back the evidences of outer space, travelling further than human beings and feeding nswers to curious minds. Mankind has created robots in order to serve them but as years have passed, these artificially intelligence machines have surpassed their own masters. Latest Technology in Artificial Intelligence Technology in artificia l intelligence has never stopped developing since we stepped into the millennium due the abundance of technology that is found day by day. With that, latest technology in this field is an important thing to highlight due to the fact that it continues to amaze us by the things artificial intelligence can manage to do.First of all, recently in 2011, an artist and composer by the name of Benjamin Grosser invented an interactive robotic painting machine. This was done after he decided to explore the realms of artificial intelligence and art. Basically, what the robot could do was it could listen to itself with the microphones placed into the machine. After listening to itself, it would paint out an image based on what it interprets after listening to the sounds. Two trays of paint would be placed in between a piece of canvas, and a mechanical arm will perform the painting.Although this technology could not be classified as pass or a fail, it depends on different people. Some would like the fact that a robot can paint, and some would just prefer the old fashioned way. Furthermore, the invention of the SOINN robot by the Japanese has managed to impress us. SOINN which stands for Self Organizing Incremental Neural Network is a revolutionary robot which is able to perform tasks that are related to exploring a new situation and learning how to do it. For example, the robot is able to learn how to pour water into a glass and make it cold by placing ice cubes into the glass.After that, it gives the water to a person. Before the robot starts the task, it tries to acclimatize itself to what is located around it. With this, it performs it tasks better. Moreover, what amazes us even more is when the robot has both of its hands full because it has to decide which item to put down in order to pick up another one. What the researches in Japan have done is create a robot with no specific list of pre-created commands that it has to follow. Therefore the robot is able to think by itself and decide what to do in any given situation.The SOINN robot can also connect itself to the internet and also other robots to help gather information from the web. The researches have provided the robot with power to gain knowledge for it in order to complete any given task that is assigned to it without fail. What we gain for this is a generation of robots that are independent enough to think for itself and complete human related tasks that may seem impossible to complete before the invention of this prime piece of technology. As the research goes on, a new found technology by Toyota has been able to attract many people around the world.Toyota has been able to create a prototype of a smart car which is fitted with voice recognition and also able to detect human motion. This smart car was inspired by video games and mainly the XBOX360. The reason behind this is mainly due to the kinect technology that has been introduced by Microsoft into its game platform. What kinect does i s basically detecting human motion and turning it into a physical action that a human was supposed to perform. But now, with this technology, all a human has to do is just ensure that the machines understand the motions that are made.For example, when a person is walking towards the car, this prototype is able to detect it and will open the car door. All of this was inspired by the revolution of video gaming consoles. This prototype car will be power by a 100 volt AC voltage and is expecting to have many more features. Although this car is still at prototype level, it will take a few more years to make it into reality. With time, more improvements can be made to ensure the car is suitable for everyone in the world. In the health care industry, artificial intelligence has combined with biochemical understanding to help those in needs.For example, recently it was Memorial Day for soldiers in the United States who have served in Iraq. And for one lucky soldier, Lt. Col. Greg Ganson, hi s dreams of walking again came to life when he was gifted a pair of prosthetic legs. These pair of prosthetic legs is called Power Knee2 which will enable amputees the walk again with more safety and confidence combined together. This is no ordinary prosthetic leg because this one users the combination of artificial intelligence and sensors to make the walking process a better one.Furthermore what the inventors did was connect the prosthetic leg via sensors using Bluetooth to a laptop. This was done during the process of walking to make some required adjustments to the legs to ensure comfort. It is also fully customizable and differs from person to person. Moreover it gives everyone a better chance of achieving what they can get out of real legs. So far, this new invention has made some improvement based on the early 2006 model which was called power knee. This new model is able to adapt to situations such as if a person wants to sit down, climb a fleet of stairs or even lie down.Th e inbuilt sensor will detect these situations and adjust the stiffness of the prosthetic legs. All in all, the latest technology in artificial intelligence has surpassed a lot of expectations and will definitely have the capability to expand even more with the sands of time. Regardless in any field, artificial intelligence benefited. Advantages and Disadvantages of Technology in Artificial Intelligence Technology in Artificial Intelligence is quite a controversial topic – the society’s opinions are quite divided but they cannot stop the Future of Technology as it is constantly evolving.The pros and cons are quite straight forward. Based on several articles, there are several advantages that was constantly brought up * Evolving Relationship of Humans with Computation * Increases Job opportunities * Machines complete the task faster than a human The first point to be discussed would be the ‘Evolving Relationship of Humans with Computation’. The newer and old er generation is welcoming this new era of Modern Technology being used in Artificial Intelligence. It’s at the society’s dispense – it will be there whenever users wants to use it.The second point will be the increased job opportunities for humans to be more specialized in a specific field in order to be more innovative in building new and improved versions of Artificial Intelligence theories. The last and final point will be about technology constantly evolving. This would then increase the level of Artificial Intelligence which will make it even harder for humans to execute the tasks. Which means that it doesn’t require much resources as the machine has the ‘best outcomes’ possible built into the program.This becomes less time consuming as it requires less time for the machine to gather information and resources in comparison if a human was handed this task. This is when Artificial Intelligence is at its advantage – they are emotion less, more efficient and lightens the burden on the human when it comes to doing dangerous or far too complex problems. Along with the pros, there will always be cons that go along with it. There are several disadvantages of Technology in Artificial Intelligence that is not really supported by the intelligent educated people that dare question the theories of Artificial Intelligence in Technology in general.These are the several disadvantages that was brought up * Human Feel * Misuse of this technology * Ability to replace a human job The first disadvantage will be the ‘human feel’ – robots inability to feel the emotional understanding for humans. This will cause the machines lacking in the ability to sympathize with the human situation and this would cause them to act irrationally as a consequence. It’s beyond the company’s responsible for the robots – which results to no-one getting the blame for the machine’s faults. The second disa dvantage will be the ‘misuse of this technology’.Countries are always prepared for war, so with countries in the race of getting the best defense systems if this technology gets into the wrong hands it can inevitably cause mass damage. Artificial Intelligence is also getting incorporated into military training – getting autonomous robot troops to get sent first before the human troops. For example, in the US – they are already testing on this theory which cost them almost twenty five million dollars for just a test run. Its quite a huge risk to take if the technology aren’t able to support the specific needs to minimize damage on the humans.Also, with technology evolving – people are able to hack the system of these robotic troops which can backfire the source control. The third and last disadvantage is that with technology constantly evolving humans are feeling threatened in fear of losing their jobs. Technology has different branches of Art ificial Intelligence and robotics has played a major role in this new era of Technology taking over society. This would then lead to mass unemployment in the future if the future of Technology in Artificial Intelligence is progressing forward. Advantages and Disadvantages of Artificial IntelligenceIn everything single that you do in this world, no matter in what field, there will always be advantages and disadvantages. It’s how they co-relate with each other in everything that we do. In artificial intelligence, different people have different views about it and because of that this research aims to see what those advantages and disadvantages are and how they relate with us. First of all we will talk about the disadvantages of artificial intelligence to give us a better picture of the bad side to this technology phenomenon. The first one is over dependency.When we feel too reliable towards something, we forget that those machines were made by humans. Therefore, machines are no t perfect in every sense and can malfunction and any given point or time. If we are too reliable on them and they fail on us, we will be stuck at a point without any solutions to deal with the situation at hand. We always need to have some sort of backup plan to ensure that if the machines fail, we can overcome the situation straight away and not make any losses or any sorts. The second disadvantage is the lack of human feel. We humans always have a certain touch towards something and of course we have emotions as well.For machines, they don’t have the emotional values to relate with us humans therefore some decisions made could be fatal to us. The more we try to eliminate the number of manpower in our industries; we lack the human feel day by day. It might be good at a point of time or even fatal at another point of time. To stick on the safe side, we should keep the human feel present at all times to keep rationality present in what we do. Besides that, some people think th at artificial intelligence is unethical in a way. To us, we believe intelligence is a gift from god and should be valued not cloned into something.This form of so called ‘playing god’ is not fancied by many. On the other hand we can look at this in different ways. Some people might want to keep their intelligence to themselves but others might want to share it to the world in different forms. With this, everything goes both ways because if our intelligence is captured by the wrong people, misuse of it can lead to unwanted events. On the other hand, if we keep our knowledge to ourselves, the world will not expand in such a way because if we share it with many, more theories and more development will be present and therefore expand the network on artificial intelligence.This is definitely crucial at this era. If machines are able to do all our jobs, we will definitely lose our jobs at the hands of those machines. When everything task is done by machines, the human workfor ce will definitely have a significant decline. The ones most affected will be the ones at the lower levels of management. The higher ones will act as supervisors and with a click of button, machines can be controlled. With many people not having jobs, the crime rate will definitely go up and people will end up committing suicide just to ease their pain.Although machines are able to perform our daily tasks, we still need a workforce to operate them and ensure that everything is running smoothly. If the machines malfunction and there is no workforce, more money will be spent in fixing the machines rather than the salary of every single person working. Having a machine do something will definitely be less time consuming, but having a person operating it and making sure that it is running at full efficiency is something that will benefit us.Furthermore, if machines keep on doing everything for us, the new generation will be born and labeled as a lazy bunch. The new generation will not k now what doing work feels like because machines are doing everything for them. This will also lead to health issues such as obesity. More and more people will be staying at home instead of going out to work. This health issue poses a serious health risk for every country in the world. More and more people will be unhealthy and soon many problems will occur in this world.We should move forward with time and technology but sometimes we just have to think of the consequences before doing a certain thing to ensure both time and consequence are well taken care of in every aspect possible. All these disadvantages stated should be always lingering in our minds so that we remember what will happen if we fail to deal with it. Although the disadvantages of artificial intelligence sounds bad in a way, but there is always some good in it. Listing the disadvantages first opened us up to the possible bad effects of artificial intelligence.In the following page I will continue on discussing the ad vantages of artificial intelligence. When both of this combines, you will get to see a brighter picture on what artificial intelligence really mean to us. Seeing the disadvantages only might give us a bad impression straight away but when we the see the following advantages I will change our mind on our lives of artificial intelligence. To say it is a bad thing, we would jump to conclusions because we our ourselves are the ones who created artificial intelligence and for us not to see the good part it would be a waste to humanity.We only live once and we must make the most of it every single time. The first advantage of artificial intelligence is dealing with the jobs that require human intelligence. Humans are complex organisms with a huge amount of capabilities. For a machine to clone the human brain is amazing and can be considered a good technology innovation. If machines are able to cope with jobs that are supposed to be done by humans, we will be more productive as now we have two brains working as one. With that, it expands the human knowledge in such a way to keep improving time.Before the invention of these things, humans will have to risk their lives during things that seemed very hard to get done. Now, with machines being able to take over their place, it will be a safer method for humans to get work done and no lives have to be risked in the line of work. Safety is one of the main factors of job application in the working world. When people see that a job that used to be risky now has a new method to reduce it, more people would be interested in joining the workforce and thus eliminates the rater of poverty and also homeless people.With more jobs offered, a country will prosper more in the economic sector due to more people working and will contribute in giving the company more help in combination with the machines. Secondly, machines do not stop and get tired. Machines are strictly powered by electric sources and therefore will keep on going no ma tter what are the odds. Humans on the other hand get tired and have certain hours of work; therefore they can only work for certain period of time. For example, if a company is producing cigarettes and needs to have more production done day by day.If this needs to be done, humans can only do it to a certain extent because they need breaks and need to go home. If machines are there to continue the work left off during the night, by the next day double the production will be present. When machines are at work humans can rest and this makes everyone happier in such a way. Artificial intelligence also reduces the risk of anyone getting sick with illness. If a person has to work overtime and is always at the office, the risk of that person getting ill with be high.And what was just pointed out was only for one person, what if it was a whole group of people? More and more people will be affected by this and increase the health risk posed. When machines are there, humans will not have to p ush to limit in everything they do, machines can do it for them and this will save all the hassle of getting ill and having to be admitted to hospital. If this is eliminated, everyone will be living healthy and happy at the same time due the good relationship between man and machine. Next, artificial intelligence has lead to serve as aids. Mainly it has contributed as health aids.People with disabilities now have a place to turn to and technology to help them get through life which is already tough at hand. Nowadays, more and more health related problems are thrown to us with a big bang without a certain solution. With the help of artificial intelligence and research, now medical treatment for these diseases and even machines have been created to help us get through these tough times. Now not only adults have health problems or disabilities, children are now climbing up the list of people with health problems. The death rate will definitely go down with these new inventions as we al l have something that may help us n a way to cure the pain and the sickness. If we manage to overcome all these health problems with the help of technology, the world would turn into a happier place and not a place which leads us to endure suffering instead of happiness in our lives. Lastly, the power that artificial intelligence holds is limitless in such a way that it has the power to do everything that is thinkable and not thinkable. Humans tend to make errors and by us knowing this fact, we are able to program a certain machine to ensure that the machine does not make the same mistakes.By doing this less mistakes will be made and everything will run smoothly as planned. Rather than us learning from our mistakes, we should program it to a computer because a computer does not make any mistakes. We would then expand the boundaries of everything on this earth because if we stop moving forward we will stop the flow of technology as a whole and thus stop improving on what we have now. At the end of the day, all we can do is look at the future and ensure that we have now will get better in time.We definitely are not able to predict the future and the challenges we are going to face but what we can do is take good care of the resources in technology that we have now and nurture and improve them day by day until we reach the future. All we can do is hope for the best and that everything we have now will be relevant in the upcoming years of our lives. We should ensure that the advantages of artificial intelligence do not turn into disadvantages and the disadvantages should be always remembered and not turn into something far more worst.We strongly believe that artificial intelligence has gave us and is going to give us more good than bad because it was invented by humans for a reason and the main reason is to help other humans. If it was bad, we could have seen far worst consequences. Even though I think of it as a good thing, we should always remember not to let it fall in the wrong hands with crazy minds to protect this world. Conclusion As the world becomes very advanced in technology, it has been hard to keep up with the ever-so growing advancement into the computerized world. The robotic technology has benefited the human kind greatly in various ways.However, as people lose their heads in this advanced society, they have failed to realize that robots are a helping hand and a guide, not a replacement. There are fields robot cannot fill in the position for a human but as robots become more intelligent, people find themselves turning lazier. Half of the population in the developed world has become dependent on robot personals and misuses robots by over-using them. Robots have made people’s lives comfortable and safer. However, at the same time they have caused the world’s employment rate to plummet and some jobs to extinct.As the popular belief goes â€Å"If you suffer now, you will enjoy later- if you enjoy now, you will suff er later†, this is a very true saying that shows that in order to achieve happiness, people have to go through hardship but however, if we are lazy and don’t go through any hardship, there will be a time we pay the price for it which here could be set as an example for a sluggish human being relying on robots to do everything. For people who encourage the full implementation of robots with artificial intelligence into the working sector, they have failed to see beyond their own comfort and at other people’s situation.If the society was one day supposed to be run by robots, then there wouldn’t be any need for human kinds. Therefore, although there is the resource and the knowledge to create robots, while appreciating the tasks they have done for us, we also have to realize our limits and set a bar to how dependant on robots do we really want to be? Appendix Anonymous, [No Date], Automata, mechanical toys, http://www. mechanical-toys. com/History%20page. htm , [Accessed time: 7/11/2012] Anonymous,1998, Robotics: A brief history, http://www-cs-faculty. stanford. edu/~eroberts/courses/soco/projects/1998-99/robotics/history. tml, [Accessed time: 6/11/2012] Bambi Turner, 2012, 10 Ways Artificial Intelligence Will Affect Our Lives, http://dsc. discovery. com/tv-shows/curiosity/topics/ways-artificial-intelligence-will-affect-our-lives. htm, [Accessed time: 7/11/2012] Dr. E, 2011, Advantages and Disadvantages for Artificial Intelligence, http://www. infobarrel. com/Advantages_and_Disadvantages_for_Artificial_Intelligence_The_Pros_and_Cons_of_AI, [Accessed time : 8/11/2012] Hans Moravec, 2009, Rise of the Robots- The future of Artificial Intelligence, http://www. scientificamerican. com/article. cfm? d=rise-of-the-robots, [Accessed time: 7/11/2012] Ian Paul, 2011, Tech of the Future, Today: Breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, http://www. pcworld. com/article/220685/tech_of_the_future_today_breakthroughs_in_artificial_intelligence. html, [ Accessed time: 9/11/2012] James Isom, , 2005, Brief history on robots http://robotics. megagiant. com/history. html [Accessed time: 5/11/2012] Marcus du Sautoy, 2012, AI robot: how machine intelligence is evolving, http://www. guardian. co. uk/technology/2012/apr/01/ai-artificial-intelligence-robots-sautoy, [Accessed time : 5/11/2012]

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Financial analysis for smartphone industry

After a heat discussion, our team chose the smart phone industry for the following two reasons. Firstly, telephone is a significant communicating instrument around the world today. International Telecommunication Union predicts that the number of cell phones would exceed the number of human beings in 2014. Secondly, with the increasingly functions of smart phone, it plays a vital role in the relevant industries. The flourishing development of smart phone industry also accelerates the development of other industries such as the cell phone battery industry and cell phone game industry. . 1 Industry Analysis We are talking about smart phone industry specifically. The newly formed competitive market includes hardware manufacturing, operating systems and content. Looking back on the history, leaders of those fields have changed a lot, as Monika, Motorola and RIM have been transcended by Apple, Samsung and other brands. Apply Porter's five force analysis to smart phone industry. Starting f rom threat of entry, software faces this more because of open platforms. Floods of capitals are required for R and operation levels, thus this threat is moderately high.Substitutes like Pads, Notebook and laptops have entered the market causing the threat. Threat also comes from suppliers, fragmented supply and the difficulty of vertical integration have impeded company profiting. But the threat is low overall. Meanwhile, buyers also impact threat by various demands and higher bargaining power. All these four threats result in a high threat of rivalry. Brand and concentrated market also matter. For the industry status, in 2011, the smart phone application market was about USED 6. 7 billion which is expected to be USED 1 55 billion with CARR of almost 55% from 2011 to 2017.In addition, worldwide sales of smart phones to end users totaled 968 million units in 2013, an increase of 42. Percent from 2012. Sales of smart phones accounted for 53. 6 percent of overall mobile phone sales in 2013 which accounts for 75. 8% of the overall mobile handset revenue. 1. 3 Firm description We choose six companies in smart phone industry to do some analysis. They are Sony, Apple, Samsung, ETC, Black Berry and Monika. The firms we choose represent different level of performance in the industry. Apple and Samsung are outstanding firms with higher net income and greater profitability.MONIKA, SONY and Blackberry are firms once created brilliant achievements but suffer from ailing business in the past 3 years. ETC is a newly brought-in competitor with advanced technology in developing smart phones. The six firms experienced different types of history. Samsung struggled with poor quality and inferior products in its earlier times. Apple seemed to grow gradually since it was established. On the contrary, Blackberry and MONIKA were once outstanding in the industry. SONY (SONY Ericson) left behind when transforming from mobile phones to smart phones.ETC has a short history. Most of the f irms experienced several important mergers or acquisition in the past 5 years. Badly-performed firms shrink while well-performed ones expand their equines by proper selling plans or acquisitions. Some important events are as follows. Microsoft declared to acquire Ionians mobile business and large amounts of patent portfolios with 7. 17 billion dollars. Blackberry made an announcement that the corporation agreed to be acquired by Fairfax Financial Holdings at the price of 47 billion, though the selling plan turns out to be failed.SONY and Ericson were incorporated into Sony Mobile Communications. 2. Past performance analysis Note: Risk free rate: US. Government bond rate for 5 years Expected market return: historical industry return for 5 years 2. 1 Samsung 013 is a fancy year for Samsung, possessing the biggest market share in smart phone for 31. 5% ahead of 15. 5% for Apple. For the first sq in 2013, PEE ratio decreased from 9. 09% to 6. 99% and it rose to 7. 30% in SQ. For the cap ital structure, 93. 2% was financed by equity and bond took up 6. 7%. Stock return for 2013 is -3. 7%. Move to past areas. PIE ratio experienced biggest decrease from 1 1. 88% to 7. 04%. Stock return is waving from 2. 98% to 28. 53%. Now focus on past areas. PEE ratio as 1 1. 88% peaked in 2011 standing out from a general downward trend. Besides, the releasing of GALAXY Tab 3 and GALAXY Note 10. Drove inventory turnover ratio higher. The peak for debt to equity ratio appeared in 2011 which is 0. 1446 and the trend is downward. Stock return in 2009 is highest for 64. 42%. The cost of equity for Samsung is 27. 63% given its current beta is 1. 12.For the dividend policy, the payout ratios are 12. 3%, 9. 3%, 6. 0%, 5. 1% and 7. 11%respectively since 2009. The most recent dividend pay date is on August 26, painting out 75. 4 million USED. On July 17 2012, Samsung acquired the handset operations of CARS Pl, and invested a 4. 9% stake in the company later. It is the largest acquisition cas e for Samsung since the 1997 uncial crisis. Actually, Samsung completed 5 acquisitions in 2012 which is more frequent than before. Acquisitions progress appears in net income rising from in 2011 to and to in 2012 and 2013.Inventions also declined from 3,859,994 to 2,918,234 until 2013. Samsung sold a record 86 million smart phones in Quaff 2013 and widened its lead over Apple selling 51 million for phone 5. 2. 2 Monika In 2013, Monika had a negative PEPS, showing that Monika didn't do well in 2013. The inventory turnover was about 6. 0, lower than the industry average (about). ROE was negative. The debt/asset ratio was 72. 59%. The dividend per share was O in 2013. The stock return was 97% in 2013 and the cost of equity for Monika is 8. 66%, given its current beta is 1. 3. Looking at the past 3 years, we find Debt/Equity ratio of Monika was increasing constantly. The ROE ratio was always negative over the past three years, decreasing from 2011 to 2012 and increasing from 2012 to 201 3. The dividend per share decreased from 0. 33 in 2011 to 0. 13 in 2012, then too in 2013. The stock return increased from -55% in 2011 to -23% in 2012, then to 97% in 2013. Considering the past five years performance, we find that Monika did quite a good Job in 2009 and 010 because its PIE ratios were positive and really high.The dividend per share decreased from 0. 41 in 2009 to 0. 31 in 2010. The trend of dividend per share from 2009 to 2013 is declining. The stock return increased from 2009 to 2013 while it was negative from 2009 to 2012. As for important events, on September 3rd, 2013, Microsoft declared to acquire Ionians mobile business and a large amount of patent portfolios with 7. 17 billion dollars. The stock price of Monika soared from about 3 dollars per share to about 8 dollars per share from August 29th, 2013 to November 18th, 2013.We compare the financial performance of the third quarter and fourth quarter of 2013 and find that net income increased a lot from -91 mil lions to -millions of dollars. 2. 3 Apple In 2013, Apple had a perfect performance. The ROE (about 0. 3064) and PIE ratio (about 15. 21) are both three times higher than the industry average, Besides, the inventory turnover of Apple is about 83, Apple is already well-known for its supply chain. The company's 40. 31% of assets came from debt and 59. 69% of assets came from equity. The of PAPAL in 2013 is 0. 74, and the cost of capital for PAPAL is 22. 3 percent in 2013.In the past 3 years, the current ratio and price-earnings ratio did not change a lot, but ROE decrease sharply in 2013, and the debt/equity decreased in 2012 and increased in 2013, meaning that the company issued more stocks than bonds in 2012. The annual stock return 0. 013 in 2013, 0. Tent 2012, and 0. 243 in 2011. Looking back over 5 years, the ROE increased from 2009 to 2012 and decreased in 2013. The inventory turnover went up sharply from 2012 and went down a little in 2013, which is partially because of the phon e ass's huge success. In addition, PAPAL began giving shareholders a quarterly dividend of $2. Per share in 2012. This dividend yield is about 1. 2% higher than the industry average. Apple's business philosophy is to acquire small companies that can be easily integrated into existing company projects, so Apple did more than 60 small acquisitions in the last decades. Apple merged plenty of software makers including Sir. After the acquisition, Sir has been an intelligent personal assistant and was introduced as a feature of the phone AS. This technical innovation has been a huge success so that more than 50% profit of Apple company came from phone in 2012. 2. ETC 013 is a struggling year for ETC, we can see that most of the key ratios of the company are under the industry average, profitability measures are almost all negative, and ROE are -1. 67, indicating that ETC failed to earn enough profit to even cover its expense. The high Debt/equity ratio (1. 22) makes its stock risky. The o f ETC in 2013 is 1. 88, while the industry average is only 1. 12. High makes the cost to raise capital high too. The cost of capital for ETC is 10. 13 percent in 2013. Looking back over 3 years, we found that Itch's profit has been declining since 2011, inventory turnover declined from 12. 8 to 7. 0 due to the poor sale and management problem. The annual stock return -0. 525 in 2013, 0. 064 2012, and -0. 392 in 2011. Looking back over 5 years, it is clear that the business boomed during 2009 and 2011, and started to fall behind since then. The sale increased by about 1 11% from 2009 to 2010, but stock price has fallen by 90 percent since then. Besides, the company prescribed at least 50% of the total dividend be distributed as cash dividend, it pay dividend in July or August every year. ETC believe that acquisitions are the key to help ETC quickly grow to compete with its competitors.So ETC spent more than $700 lions on acquisition in 2010 and 2011 trying to gain market share. Major mergers include SO Graphics, Beats Electronics LLC, and etc. However, Itch's acquisition strategy didn't work well as expected. Those deals neither helped ETC to boost its brand image or to win the law suit, the sale have also been decreasing since the requested of 2011. 2. 5 Sony From 2009 to 2013, Sony had gone through a road of difficult and twists. In 2013, Sony didn't have a well performance. Its current ratio, ROE and inventory turnover ratio is under industry average.To be specific, its inventory turnover ratio is the lowest. Through its PEE ratio is strangely high, I think it mostly related to the small profit number. Looking back over 3 years, we can see most ratio, including ROE and inventory turnover ratio, had a peak in 2012. Especially ROE had a soaring from 2011 to 2012. There are four reasons. First, Sony Corp. acquired the remaining 50% stake from ELM Ericson Telethon ABA on February 15, 2012, which made mobile phone sales increased a lot. Last, the yen devalued. Lo oking back over 5 years, the current ratio and ROE had a drop until 2011.The inventory turnover ratio had a peak in 2010 while he debt-equity ratio increased until 2012. Actually, Sony had negative net income for consecutive four years. Not only it is a result of disasters such as JP Tsunami, but also it is because the yen appreciate and digital products from Japan were shocked by other goods. The stock return ratio of Sony from 2009 to 2011 has dropped from 0. 5 to -0. 47. However, it began to increase then. The ratio in 2013 is about 0. 15. It is consistent with what ROE shows. The cost of equity is 52. 72%. It is large due to the high Arm (29. 64%) and high risk (beta-?I . 2). 2. 6 Blackberry 2013 is not a pleasant year for Blackberry. The ability to generate profit is far behind its peer competitors. PEPS and ROE of the firm are -1. 23 and -6. 61% due to the negative net income. However, the current ratio highly above the industry average (about 1. 09). Stocks risk of Blackberry is low, measured in of 0. 48. Based on p, the cost of capital is 3. 70%. On account of the bad performance over the year, annual stock return in 2013 is -0. 426. Looking back to the past three-year performance, Blackberry dropped from its recent peak in 2011 to historical worst.Blackberry experienced a terrible service interrupt in Cot, 2011, which severely damaged the rim reputation and directly caused the following bad performances. Business declined sharply in 2012, with falling ROE and PEE ratio. In retrospect the performance in last five years, we could see that even under unpleasant financial crisis, Blackberry still could hold itself. PEE ratio was 17. 1 in 2009 and 10. 0 in 2012, both showing a good prospect, however, the ratio then began to decrease sharply after 2010. Annual stock return was at first positive in 2009(0. 19), but it has fallen below zero ever since. Inventory turnover is quite stable during the whole period. No dividend has been strutted during recent five years because of the disappointing performance. Most important series of restructuring events in Blackberry's history appeared in the year 2013. BlackBerry first announced to have reached a potential acquisition agreement with its biggest shareholder Fairfax Financial on Seep 23rd, after this good news, the stock price of BlackBerry shot up 0. 6 dollars. But the potential acquisition plan didn't last for a long time.In Novena, 2013 BlackBerry declared the breakdown of the selling plan. By pm Novo 4th, the stock price of BlackBerry has dropped 1. 44 dollars (18. 53%). 3. Future performance analysis . 1 Pro formal Pro formal of Cash Flow Pro formal of Balance Sheet & Income Statement Note: Erg (regression) W-M (weighted-moving-average method) Final (final forecast) We complete the pro formal by three steps. First step is to do an autoregressive analysis to forecast the data of 2014 and 201 5 through the historical data from 2009 to 2013. Then, we computed the weighted average by givi ng the weight of 0. 5, 0. 1, 0. 15, 0. 3, and 0. 4. Finally, we find some forward looking data predicted by economic forecasters on the internet and use moving weighted average method to get final data which are more efficient. What is more, if there is no forward looking data, we use weighted average on the regressive result and average result. We combined two different methods to do the forecast. Because every method has it is own drawback. For the regression method, it cannot show that the latest data, which indicates the trends more accurately, is more vital than the previous one.And the weighted average can overcome this drawback by giving the latest data more weights. But for some items like income, we think the result of regression method is more accurately. So we combined these two methods by using weighted average. 3. 2 Recommendation We divided the analysis of future performance of PAPAL into two parts: The analysis of data and the analysis of reality. Firstly, Let us focu s on the forecast data. We analyze three kinds of vital data measuring the performance of PAPAL. The first one is earnings per share (PEPS), which reflects the ability of company to generating profit.We forecast this data by regression, which is to estimate the net income and shares and do a Multivariate regression. The result is around 45. Then, there are five websites give out the PEPS estimate around 47. 9. We give them weights and get the final data of 47. . PEPS is the dollar value of earnings per each outstanding share of a company's common stock. Higher PEPS means that the company can generate more net income by each share and it can use less capital to get higher profit. Besides, the dividend may be high because of the high PEPS. The forecast data 47. In 201 5 is higher than today's data and it is reliable, because the net income and the shares are both increasing and the increasing speed of shares is slowly. So the performance of PAPAL will be better in the future. The seco nd one is PIE ratio. We use the weighted average method to get PIE in 201 5, which is 13. 2, and we also use the regression method to get it, which is 13. 44. We find that the forecast PIE ratio in Yahoo is 13. 07, which is not a high one. Theoretically speaking, a stock with low PIE ratio is a good one to investment, because the purchase cost is low.Besides, we think the value of PAPAL is underestimated now because of the high PEPS and the low PIE ratio. The price of stock will go up in the future. The third one is ROE, which shows how well PAPAL uses investment funds to earnings growth. We use the weighted average method to get ROE in 201 5, which is 36. 34%, and we also use the regression method to get it, which is 38. 6%. The average number is 37. 6%. ROE measures the rate of return on the shareholders' equity of the stock owners, which measures a firm's ability of generating profits from every unit of shareholders' equity.Generally speaking, ROES more than 10% are considered go od. Besides, the ROE of PAPAL is a reliable one, because the debt asset ratio is not high. In conclusion, we recommend that stockholders could hold Pal's stock for a long time because of the low PIE ratio and the high ROE. Performance we forecasted originates from two reality parts, one is expected increase based on past and current situations and the other is unexpected hangs including systematic and unsystematic risks align with future. The anticipated two opportunities for Apple are analyzed as following.The global market for smart phone will grow in few years based on GIG prediction and the annual sale is expected to increase from 1 billion in 2013 to 1 . Billion in 2017. Until the end of 2013, the SIS system accounted for 41. 2% and Android is 51. 9% comparatively. This intense rising user trend will amplify the market pie. The other is the cooperation with China Mobile. Above million regular customers of China Mobile will assist the sales rise for Apple. Unexpected systematic risk consists of interest rate risk and foreign currency risk. The company typically invests in highly-rated securities and changes in U.S. Interest rates affect the interest earned on the company's cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, the fair value of those securities, as well as costs associated with hedging. In the third quarter of 2013, the company issued $17. 0 billion of long-term debt, which included $3. 0 billion of floating-rate notes. In addition, Apple is a net receiver of foreign currencies and changes in exchange rates, particularly strengthening of U. S. Lars will negatively affect its net sales and gross margins expressed as U. S. Dollars originally. Unsystematic risk involves Apple's internal specific performance.New products release like will be a main source. The attraction of next generation Apple phone is controversial and based on past dissatisfying sales of phone and pad, their growth rate nearly held constant. Some people concern its innovation w ithout Jobs but some analysts note that the bigger size for phones will eliminate advantage of Android system brands like Samsung. Charm of wearing new product which is twitch concretely is also worth anticipating ND we may get some indicts from the coming WAD held in Los Angels. Beyond this, Apple will increase repurchase of stocks and issuance of dividends.According to Sanford C. Bernstein prediction, Apple will issue BIB dollars dividends in 2015. This will increase the value of stocks held on shareholders if the PEE ratio increased after the issuance. 4. Relative Performance According to the comparison of 5 key ratios, the underperforming corporations are SONY, Blackberry, ETC and MONIKA. Most of the firm shared common problems in several aspects as lack of innovative products and inventory management, while mom have critical faults in designing strategies. Relative performance and recommendations are as follows.According to the lowest inventory turnover ratio of Sony among its industry peers, one recommendation for Sony is to turn over its inventory quickly. It can improve its supply chain, manage efficiently to product appropriately. Due to the fast update of digital products, long inventory turnover period will enlarge the risk and the cost. Besides, 3. 1% of the market share is so small compared with Samsung and Apple that its ROE can't increase smoothly. The key to increase its market share is to launch the new production. Only by creating great mobile phones like phone, can Sony rebuild its Sony Time.Similar problems appeared in Blackberry and Monika. Most of Blackberry's profitability ratios as PEE, ROE and PEPS are under industry average due to firm's negative net income. The reasons are lack of attractive application programs and disappointing new product. Apple's phone and Google's Android squeezed the market share of Blackberry smart phone. The newly launched table PC was also not satisfying with simple functions but high selling price. Blackber ry should not only depend on its good reputation in E-mail recessing system, but focus more on user's entertainment experience like fancy interface and programs.Besides, Blackberry is the only one who ignores the prospect in China. To recover from declining tendency, a competitive product is required to open its Chinese market. The negative ROE and low inventory turnover ratio indicates that MONIKA is losing money . The reason is that the product of Monika is not as popular as that of other leading companies like Apple and considered to be lack of innovation, and its Simian operating system (until 2013) is not advocated by developers. So Monika should increase funding for research and develop products that appeal the consumers.Given that the mobile phone business of Monika was acquired by Microsoft on April 5th, 2014 (the acquisition was started on September 3rd, 2013), Microsoft should learn a lesson from the failure of Monika. ETC has been struggling in China due to price competit ion and limited distribution. Many people think the wrong high-end market strategy got ETC into trouble. To get out of woods, ETC may need to forget its strategy on high-end market and consider a partnership (merger) with another smart phone company that could provide synergy.Chinese smart phone makers sell products domestically because they have weak brand awareness in other regions, but ETC has established solid brand awareness in the United States and Europe, which Chinese handset makers could capitalize on. And ETC could get resources to get through this situation and look for new chances for development. So a merger with Chinese films could be a win-win. 5. Conclusion From the perspective of companies in the smart phone industry: Considering the fast speed of development of Asia-Pacific market, each company should strive to evolve Asia-Pacific market.Moreover, the target market of the company must be effective. As for products, companies should develop the products that satisfy consumers' preference. From the perspective of investors: The smart phone industry has a great development potential, so investors have substantial investment opportunities in this industry. But investors should cautiously determine the invested companies. We recommend selecting invested companies according to their past and future financial performance, the fitness between their products and the preference f the market, the market strategies and so on.