Interest In Video Games - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 9 Words: 2716 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2019/05/07 Category Entertainment Essay Level High school Tags: Video Games Essay Did you like this example? Introduction Globally people have developed an interest in online gaming and video games. Video games encompass a wide audience, from casual players to professional competitors. The industries strong continual growth in revenue is a sure sign of this fact; however, there are major security concerns for online gamers that need to be addressed from a cybersecurity aspect. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Interest In Video Games" essay for you Create order This term paper focuses on online video gaming, and how the online gaming industry is a target for scams, fraud and hacks as well as some previous major scams and cyber vulnerabilities. This paper will address, as well, whether companies or businesses that create these games have some security in place and if not, how they should protect their users information. Scams Any fraudulent business or scheme that takes money or other goods from an unsuspecting person is known as a scam (Computer Hope, 2017). The Internet has made it easier for thousands of scams to occur daily. In the past couple of years, online gaming scams have soared in an industry that is said to be worth more than $15 billion dollars. In an article, the author identifies seven of the most common types of online gaming scams from Internet fraud to phishing scheme traps, to phony jobs that allure users to test video games. Other scams include fraudulent cellphone use and charges, virtual gold and other imaginary credits bought with real cash, and reliability on illegal forms of content sharing (K, n.d.). Amongst these threats include cellphone dialers, who downloaded an anti-terrorism game onto the victims cellphones, which results in long distance and premium calls being made. Cell phone users will run virtual businesses and other activities through the earning of credits obtained by playing social networking games (K, n.d.). Since credits are so hard to come by, the victims of these games oftentimes encounter other players or even receive emails where they can earn free credits if they view ads or watch a short clip or take part in other quizzes. When users take these test your IQ quizzes, they have to input their cellphone number to obtain the results and some advertising-driven offers are not considered genuine (Keith, n.d.). Lurking in the small, fine print of these offers lays a trick that is old and familiar which pushes the victims to sign up for a recurring monthly fee, of 5-10 dollars. Another deceitful attack is when scammers trick their victims in a one-time fee, typicall y $40 or less, allowing the victim unlimited downloads of most PC or device games like PSPs and Xbox (Keith, n.d.). The users do no realize that they are getting a set of links to torrent sites that enable users to swap games and other files. When a user downloads from a torrent site, they commit an illicit of piracy. These file sharing sites often come riddled with malware, which can further endanger the victims information. The most common scam, phishing, is when attackers send legitimate looking emails to players, asking for information regarding their account, in order to resolve an issue or give a ?special promotion. Once a victim responds to these emails, their original account and information is in jeopardy. One topic in the phishing emails could be the promise of virtual assets like gaming credits, or special equipment which can be bought and sold between players. Amongst this virtual trade lie scammers who sell items they do not have, in hopes of making a quick buck from pl ayers. Scammers will promise, as well, video game testing positions, with pay up to $100 an hour, a list of dead leads for a hefty price, or useless training (Keith, n.d.). Another article that was found talks about seven ways modern games have turned into scams. The seven ways are: 1.) hundred-dollar buttons, 2.) paying for healing, 3.) EAs rating scam, 4.) retroactive ruination, 5.) breaking pieces of the game to sell, 6.) undoing your money, and 7.) turning games into chores (McKinney, 2015). In the game Super Monster Bros, Mario remade with Pok? ©mon sprites, every second tap that a child does on the screen will bring up a purchase confirmation for items, usually that cost $100 dollars. If a child hits yes or sure at the alert that pops up at the start of a new game then that child downloaded a Trojan horse and not a new game and will require the parents credit card. McKinney states that in Dungeon Hunter 4, your options are ?FIGHT, ?ITEM, and ?CREDIT CARD, because you have to buy healing potions (2015). Apparently, each player starts each day with three healing potions. The only way to get more is to pay cash money for them. A game that carves itself into pieces, where the player has to buy items in order to move on, would be Demons score (McKinney, 2015). Demons Scoreis a music/rhythm game where each costume unlocks a new musical theme. A player starts the game with only one costume so if that player wanted to beat the game without buying the extras, he/she would have to repeatedly play the same musical level. On the other hand, there are players who invest time and money in games to continue on with the story just to have it shutdown. SimCity Social, The Sims Social and Pet Society were gaming worlds that EA casually informed its players that they would be shutting down. In that case, the players lost the money that they had invested or bought on those games and EA did not want to give them the money back (McKinney, 2015). The author SebastianZ (Z), an employee with Symantec, mentioned that most phishing attempts target most popular games that have the biggest base of players (2014). Nowadays the cherry on top would be Blizzard. Blizzard is an innovator in the online gaming community as they have created games such as World of Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft and a few others, which are manageable by one shared account, Battle.net and may include a players gaming data, real payment information, such as Paypal or Credit Card information. However, Blizzard is aware of phishing attempts that target unaware gamers and tries to educate and gives recommendations on what not-to-do if one is faced as a target for a phishing email. Phishing does not necessary mean that it will come in email form, according to Z. An online chat system or in-game mail system can be found in every online game nowadays. TrendLabs gives an example of an in-game phishing attack for World of Warcraft. Attackers were tempting the gamers by sending them invitations to beta-testing of World of Warcraft expansion: Mists of Pandaria. If the users participated, they would get a free in-game mount obtained by following the provided link. The player clicks on the link and is brought to a website that poses as a legitimate Battle.net page. Their account would be compromised as soon as they logged in to claim the reward (Z, 2014). Z goes on to explain that in-game trade, account trade or sale, gold and items sale and power leveling are common online game scams that a user may encounter. Vulnerabilities Just like the online gaming industry is prone to scams, it is subjected as well to constant vulnerabilities like distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, spoofed websites, money being stolen with ransomware and scareware, brute force attacks and keyloggers, social engineering techniques, and more. In 2011, the world saw Sonys PlayStation network become a victim of a high-profile DDoS attack and according to Ma, the attacks have gotten more powerful and more frequent (2017). Over the years, companies like Xbox Live, Nintendo, League of Legends, Blizzard, and smaller networks have all suffered devastating DDoS attacks. Since DDoS attacks are growing in frequency and severity, gaming networks that have latency and outage issues struggle (Ma, 2017). Ma in her article, states three types of DDoS attacks that negatively impact gaming servers. The three attacks are: volumetric attacks, protocol attacks and application layer attacks (2017). Volumetric attacks are brute force attacks tha t can include Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) floods, User Datagram Protocol (UDP) floods and spoof packets. When this attack occurs, the bandwidth is flooded and access to online resources is blocked. Protocol attacks target the online server resources that can affect communication equipment such as, firewall and load balancers (Ma, 2017). The most sophisticated types of DDoS attacks, the application layer attacks, are the attacks that mimic human user behavior making them hard to detect. The gaming company Valve owns the multi-OS platform, Steam, which is an e-store for video games. According to Dickson, Steam has more than 125 million members, 12 million concurrent users and thousands of games (2016). Steam offers features for game inventories, trading cards and other valuable goods that users can purchase and attach to their accounts. Cook(a), Dickson and Paganini(a) both state in their articles that a new breed of malware, Steam Stealer, that is responsible for the hij acking of millions of user accounts (2016). All three authors state that Steam, in 2015, admitted that about 77,000 Steam accounts are stolen every month. Kaspersky Lab has identified more than 1,200 specimens of the malware (Dickson, 2016). Cook describes the grey market as the biggest unintended consequence of video games since the move to online (2016a). The grey market is where virtual items through regular game play are sold for real money, with sellers ranging from U.S. college students working for beer money to Chinese children sitting at Internet cafes for 20 hours a day (Cook, 2016a). Paganini states in his article that in 2015 Lizard Squad, a hacktivism group, knocked Sonys PlayStation Network and Microsofts Xbox Live offline on Christmas Day, which affected thousands of gamers and prevented them from accessing both services (2016a). Paganini says that spoofed websites are fake websites that contain malware, where unsuspecting users click on them and have their information stolen. Cybercriminals in 2015 were infecting gamers machines with ransomware. This caused users to not be able to play any of their games until they paid a Bitcoin ransom (Paganini, 2016a). Sony, Ubisoft and others are no exception where cybercriminals pursue log-in usernames and passwords (Paganini, 2016a). In another article by Paganini, Pok? ©mon Go was a game that everyone worldwide went nuts for. Pok? ©mon Go uses augmented reality and the hacking group, PoodleCorp, claimed credit for taking down the servers with DDoS attack (2016b). Users in Europe and US were not able to access the gaming platform because PoodleCorp flooded the servers of the company with so many requests that the servers crashed. Paganini says that PoodleCorp claims it was a test for a bigger offensive which is the most concerning aspect of the attack (2016b). Amir mentions in his article that PoodleCorp is claiming responsibility for DDoS attacks on Blizzard and League of Legend servers. Riot Games created League of Legends, a multiplayer online battle arena video game, for Microsoft Windows and OS X (Amir, 2016). Angry players took their rage to Twitter asking Blizzard support handle about the DDoS attacks. According to Amir, League of Legends decided not to talk about the attack and decided to solve things internally (2016). As if users did not have enough to worry about, Porolli states in his article five threats that online gamers face, which are in no particular order: 1.) TeslaCrypt, 2.) password stealers, 3.) fake game cracks, 4.) fake apps and 5.) phishing. TeslaCrypt falls under malware and it encrypts game-play data for dozens of video games, prompting the user to pay a ransom to decrypt those files. Saved game files, configuration files or game items from Call of Duty and Minecraft were targeted by TeslaCrypt which blocked access. Porolli remarks that TeslaCrypt is no longer operational but the ransomware is still spreading and it not that effective since current games are often designed to save games and settings on the cloud servers (2016). Password stealers are where hackers used social engineering techniques or deceit, through chat message, to have victims install an application. Once a victim downloads the application, which is really malicious software, the victims account credentials are stolen. Another social engineering technique is where players think he/she is installing a crack but the file that is downloaded contains malware and sometimes it cannot bypass the game protections (Porolli, 2016). Among the many games at Google play, an Android Trojan is hidden where attackers can control the Android devices remotely. This Trojan imitates games like Plants vs. Zombies 2 or Subway Surfers. In the year 2016, the video game industry saw a ton of cyber incidents, according to Cook. June 3, 2016 was when Blizzard released Overwatch and within in the first week, thousands of players were permanently banned for cheating. July 7, 2016, Overwatch cheat makers were sued by Blizzard for copyright infringement. Blizzard quoted, millions or tens of millions of dollars in revenue were lost as a result (Cook, 2016b). TinyBuild accused G2A for selling $450,000 worth of stolen game keys on August 1, 2016. On November 14, 2016, hackers stole $15M to $18M in coins from EA, Electronic Arts, FIFA, over a period of two years. The FBI ended up getting involved and the result was the hackers went on trial (Cook, 2016b). Security Who protects the gamers from DDoS attacks and the other vulnerabilities that were mentioned? The responsibility falls to game developers and publishers. PlayFab is a gaming company that provides services for building MMO and other connect games, and tools for operating them, which means keeping track of what players, are doing and customizing the game around their activities, using targeting techniques (Cawley, 2015). PlayFab conducted a survey, with 70% of respondents stated they were unaware that any game company had a security breach. This is a surprise since online gaming breaches have been happening for years. The survey reveale that security is given a back seat and that the game developers and publishers are not dealing with breaches responsibly or openly. Cawley discusses that in the gaming industry, online security issues need to be dealt with and not placed on the back burner (2015). Boutilier tells in his article that Ubisoft, a gaming studio, uses the customer data primarily for their internal marketing and demographic studies according to St? ©phanie Perotti, a vice president with gaming studio Ubisoft. Ubisoft is not the only company that uses its gamers data to improve its ability to sell games. Other companies do it as well. Ubisoft can collect, at any time, information on its customers gaming habits from: the unique identity of the gaming console that was purchased, a users Internet provider, dates and times spent playing Ubisoft games, game scores, metrics and statistics and how much money is spent in-game (Boutilier, 2015). Perotti states, Ubisoft takes the privacy and security of personal information very seriously. If a company will not protect a users data then the user has ways to keep their information safe. Cawley mentions some safety tips a user can do. They are: 1.) do not use the same passwords in multiple games, websites and services, 2.) stick with well-known platforms, 3.) avoid buying virtual goods and credit outside of the game, 4.) use games that accept two-factor authentication, 5.) avoid ad-supported games on smartphones and tablets and 6.) resist the temptation to buy and download cheats from grind automation to anything claiming you can gain game cash for little effort (Cawley, 2015). Two-factor authentication, called 2FA or two-step verification, is a method that requires two different ways to verify someones identity. A user can use his/hers cellphone in addition to a password to protecting their account. Stegner says that Playstation, Xbox, Steam, GOG, Good Old Games, Origin, and uPlay all have ways to enable two-factor authentication (2017). Nintendo does not offer two-factor authentication so a user should choose a hard password that would take years for someone to figure out (Stegner, 2017). Symantec gives tips on how to keep your gaming account secure. The tips are: 1.) always use a secure password and change it every three months, 2.) educate oneself about phishing scams and what to be on the lookout for, 3.) be wary of online gaming forums, 4.) secure ones home network, 5.) remember that gaming companies will never contact a user asking for their credentials and to go directly to the game companys website if there are any issues and 6.) if the gaming company has had a data breach then go to the account immediately and try to change the password. If a user cannot change the password then he/she must contact the gaming company directly.

Authority versus Truth in Sophocles Antigone and...

â€Å"Authority cannot afford to connive at disobedience† writes Sophocles in Antigone. This is also a central concern to Aristotle who establishes the importance of ‘Authority’ in the opening lines of his treatise Poltics: â€Å"Since we see that every city-state is a sort of community and that every community is established for the sake of some good†¦it is clear that every community aims at some good, and the community which has the most authority of all and includes all the others aims highest, that is, at the good with the most authority. This is what is called the city-state or political community.† [I.1.1252a1–7](added emphasis) He further states that the city-state comes into being for the sake of life but exists for the sake of the good†¦show more content†¦German sociologist Max Weber defines Authority as the legitimate or socially approved use of power that a person or a group holds over another. Legitimacy is vital to his notion of authority and distinguishes it from coercion, force, power or persuasion. This raises the vital question of where this legitimacy comes from. In Traditional type of authority, the legitimacy is drawn from customs long held by the group and which they consider sacred and whole-heartedly subscribe to. Here power passes from one generation to the next and is usually governed by principles of patriarchy and gerontocracy. Rational-legal authority on the other hand is a form of authority with legitimacy that depends on formal rules and established laws of the state, which are usually written down and are often very complex; as found in all modern bureaucratic establishments. The third and most interesting category that Weber defines is Charismatic authority. Charismatic authority is unusual for it is based on the personal charisma of a single individual whom people deem capable of being in authority based on a display of superhuman prowess. This ‘superhuman-ness’ may be actual or imagined,

How far can trade unions benefit managers as well as workers Free Essays

Introduction A trade union refers to an organization with members consisting of workers and union leadership who are united for the promotion and protection of their common interests. Workers come together in a union so as to pursue such goals as the protection of the integrity of their trade, clamour for higher pay and employment, and better working conditions (Reynolds, 2008). A trade union could refer to: a general union representing workers in a given industry; a craft union representing skilled workers in a specialized field; or a company or house union representing the interests of a single company often without connection with other unions (E. We will write a custom essay sample on How far can trade unions benefit managers as well as workers? or any similar topic only for you Order Now C, 2010). A thriving and well-run business is a fundamental motive for any company, benefitting both the employer (in this regard, the manager) and the employees. It is often argued that the unionization of workers is disadvantageous to employers while enhancing benefits for employees. Tensions and misunderstandings in adversarial relationships often hinder productivity and lead to lost sales, lower output, and mounting costs. If unchecked, they can lead to the detriment of business and eventual loss of employment for the workers as well (Hall-Jones, 2010). This paper explores the advantages and disadvantages that trade unions bear to employers and their employees seeking to show that there is significant benefit in unionization. Benefits to employees are first outlined below and thereafter contrasted with employer benefit and/or disadvantage so as to establish the extent of benefit to both parties. Advantages to employees The primary mandate of unions is to enhance the benefits and recognition of employees in the workplace, protecting them from exploitation. It gives them a platform and a collective voice with which to negotiate with employers on myriad issues including wages, rules of work, complaint procedures, hiring rules, promotion and firing, work-related benefits, as well as safety and other policies governing the workplace. Trade unions also guarantee workers protection from work-related challenges such as lack of promotion, demotion, termination, among others, enhancing their capacity to contest such measures (Phil, 2007). Additionally, unions often organize training and development inclusive of access to government funds and support through union learning reps (Fulton, 2013). This enables workers to realize higher than average wages and gains from work, as well as safeguards to their overall health and safety in the workplace. Advantages to employers  ·This section gauges the benefit of trade unions to employers juxtaposed with employee benefits and/or disadvantage. Employer/manager benefits include: Simpler negotiations With union representatives speaking on behalf of the entire workforce, dealing with unions simplifies negotiation processes eliminating the need to negotiate with multiple employees. This enhances the speed and efficiency of the negotiations. Trade unions can also help in the negotiation of productivity deals enabling increased output and consequently enables the business to afford higher wages mutually benefitting both the employer and the employed (Eironline, 2007). The demonstration of good employment practices can be a significant source of competitive advantage influencing the attitudes of stakeholders and the wider community, and consequently the company’s brand and reputation (Hall-Jones, 2010). However, it is often the case that contests over worker wages/earnings and the employer’s perspective of mounting labour costs are difficult to resolve with each party focused on their particular view. Legally, union members in disagreement with employers are allowed to strike without suffering disciplinary action. This factor often complicates negotiations (E.C., 2010). Strikes and industrial actions cost the company or business money directly from lost production, as well as creating other problems such as withering employee morale and willingness to work and bad publicity. These attendant problems could affect output and/or sales with possible customer boycotts, as well as hindered business relations with vendors or commercial customers in their anticipation of a drop in productivity and inability to deliver on commitments (Hall-Jones, 2010). In this regard, trade unions in their quest for enhanced welfare often engender complications in relations surrounding the entire business, even to the extent of hindering business. However, it is noteworthy that unions are endowed with a wealth of experience regarding employment law which can help in early identification and resolution of problems. Their involvement in such scenarios often stops cases from proceeding to expensive and time-consuming processes such as the employment tribunals (Eironline, 2007).  · Employee satisfaction Unions give employees a voice with which to speak to the employer and bargaining power afforded by the strength and capacity in their numbers. Through this, unions enhance the satisfaction of employees enabling them to increase their average wages as well as benefit packages. This satisfaction which obtains from needs that are met enhances job satisfaction and consequently employee willingness to work harder leading to higher productivity and quality of output (Fulton, 2013). However, the satisfaction of employees deriving from better pay and work conditions often comes at a cost to the employer with consequent upsurges in labour costs being the main disadvantage of unionization of employees. Deductions of dues paid to unions from workers’ pay in addition to increasing costs, also increases the workload of the accounting department (Hall-Jones, 2010).  · Reduction in turnover A workforce comprising of union members is often characterized by reduced turnover with less frequency of employees leaving their jobs. Dues paid for union membership and position in the organization are considered to contribute to this trend often acting as hindrances to employee exit (Eironline, 2007). For the employer (manager) or organization, lower levels of turnover saves the business money in the long term with less expenditure spent in frequent training and induction of new employees (Hall-Jones, 2010). It is however noteworthy that with regard to employers’ actions such as termination, demotion or lack of promotion, and alleged harassment or discrimination, individual employees often lack financial resources and will to pursue complicated contests. With the support of unions, workers are often encouraged and represented in their appeal of such actions or in the filing of suits challenging them (Reynolds, 2008; Fulton, 2013). The effect of this is two-pronged, benefitting and protecting affected employees while adversely affecting employers, complicating business.  · Ease in change processes To stay at the forefront and to enhance competitiveness in the industry, businesses often have to undergo change. Achieving this with multiple employees, each with varied perceptions and opinions is often a significant challenge (Eironline, 2007). However, since employees are more likely to be receptive to unions, partnering with trade unions may improve the chances of success in the change process as well as its effectiveness. Trade unions can be a significant partner in reinforcing the credibility of the messages from the employer as well as reassuring employees and mitigating their anxieties (Eironline, 2007; E.C., 2010). Unionization and its influence can have adverse effects on the control of human resource challenging the instilling of discipline and checking of poor performance. The promotion and termination of workers based on objective parameters such as merit, productivity, among others is hindered with the influence of unions with most of the unions basing their negotiations on workplace rules on seniority rather than merit. The reaction of union and their rules, in this regard, limit the options available to employers and managers (Hall-Jones, 2010). Conclusion On the one hand, union membership enhances the capacity of employees to challenge employer actions, challenges the control of the human resource component in business, and often engenders increases in costs, workload and adverse economic effects attendant to labour unrest. On the other hand, however, trade unions bear significant benefits to both employers and employees. To employers, trade unions enable simpler and effective negotiation processes, early identification and resolution of labour-related problems, reduction in turnover, and as well enhance employee satisfaction. It is also a resourceful partner in the change process. To employees, trade unions provide essential protection from exploitation, a voice in the enhancement of their work life, as well as facilitating training and personal development. From the foregoing argument, it is gathered that trade unions, in spite of its disadvantages, is far more beneficial and could enhance employer-employee relations as well as the outcome of business References Eironline, 2007. TUC promotes business benefits of unions to employers. European Industrial Relations Observatory on-line. Viewed on 9/12/2013 from: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/index.htm European Commission, 2010. Industrial Relations in Europe. Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs Inclusion. EC. Fulton, L., 2013. Worker representation in Europe. Labour Research Department and ETUI. Brussels: ETUI Hall-Jones, P., 2010. Unionism and Economic Performance. Internet article statistics. Viewed on 8/12/2013 from: http://www.newunionism.net/library/ Phil. D., 2007. State of the Unions: How Labour Can Strengthen the Middle Class, Improve Our Economy, and Regain Political Influence. McGraw-Hill Professional. ISBN 978-0-07-148844-0 Reynolds, O., 2008. â€Å"Labour Unions.† In: David R. Henderson (Ed.). Concise Encyclopaedia of Economics (2nd Ed.). Indianapolis: Library of Economics and Liberty. ISBN 978-0865976658. Menezes-filho, Naercio and John van Reenen (2003), â€Å"Unions and Innovation: A Survey of the Theory and Empirical Evidence†, CEPR Discussion Paper 3792. Metcalf, David. (2003), â€Å"Unions and Productivity, Financial Performance and Investment: International Evidence†, in John Addison and Claus Schnabel, eds. International Handbook of Trade Unions, Northampton, Mass.: Edward Elgar, How to cite How far can trade unions benefit managers as well as workers?, Essay examples

Operations of Natural Monopolies Samples †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Operations of Natural Monopolies. Answer: Economics Individual Assignment Essentially, natural monopolies exist due to the existence of high entry barriers for other firms into the industry thus creating a single producer of goods and services with no close substitutes. Regarding regulation of natural monopolies there is need to properly understand market structure of natural monopolies, analyze merits and demerits of this market structure and its relevant theories. Also, it is important to illustrate the methods used by government to regulate the operations of natural monopolies. Moreover, it is vital to understand how the government enforces its regulation to achieve the desired regulatory goal. Equally, it is important to understand why the government considers it necessary to regulate the operation of natural monopolies. Ways to Regulate Price Setting of a Natural Monopoly Undoubtedly, government regulation of the optimum prices for natural monopolies is vital for consumer protection and welfare. Noteworthy, most governments have incorporated taxation as a way to regulate the price of goods and services offered by natural monopolies in the sense higher taxation is placed on higher prices of goods and services(Boundless,2017) Additionally,price ceiling has been implemented by most governments to contain the prices of monopolies in that the government sets a price limit for a given good or service thus curtailing the freedom of natural monopolies from charging excessive prices(Welker,2013). The government creates a maximum price that sellers can charge for their goods and services. Consequently, this leads to the regulation of the price charged by natural monopolies. Further average cost pricing which reduces the flexibility of firms to set their own prices is considered effective in regulating pricing in monopolies. For some natural monopolies, the price of goods and services are typically low due to the fact that average total production cost continues to decline over a period of time(Pettinger,2012)Further, low cost are boosted by the fact that there is a fixed cost hence a natural monopoly can operate without competition thereby maintain considerably lower prices thus no need for government price control measures (Open Text, 2017)However, there will be need for government to maintain anticompetitive measures for other firms to deter competition for natural monopolies who might otherwise raise their prices in the event of competition. Also, government ownership of natural monopolies keeps prices in check in the sense that the goal of operation will be public interest and consumer protection rather than profit maximization which might trigger exploitative prices(Spaulding,2017).The government can naturally monopolies necessary services such as water and electricity supply so as to be able to avail the services to most citizens, the rich and the poor due to affordability capabilities .Also, price floor have been implemented by various governments to ensure natural monopolies make a substantial profit and at the same instance protect the consumers through setting of minimum price for commodities and services. Price floors are meant to help business make profits despite minimum prices. Additionally, price caps have been used to control the price of goods and services for consumer welfare (Tejvan, 2017) Usually price caps are determined by regulatory bodies. Through price capping,monopolies are forced to adopt prices way below the set price over a given period of time (Open Text, 2017).Usually, price capping encourages significant price drops of goods and services over a given time frame. For instance, most economies have water and electricity regulatory bodies under the government which decides the maximum price. Predominantly, regulatory bodies are meant to control the price of commodities. Also, yardstick or the rate of return approach is used to regulate prices in that the size of the monopoly is considered with the optimal profit from the capital such that in the case of excessive profits ,price cuts are implemented(Tejvan,2016)Usually, yarding allows monopolies to cover their cost of operation while having substantial returns . Predominantly, legislation has been used to regulate various business activities and pricing for goods and services is no exception. Most economies have enacted price regulations Acts and guidelines to guide monopolies and other firms in other market structures such as duopolies, on the minimum and maximum price for goods and services. For instance, the Independent Republic of Papua Guinea,has enacted the Prices Regulation Act (Chapter 320) of its National laws(Independent Commission for Consumer and competition and Commission 2017)Most government have statutes regulating the prices of goods and services ,most specifically ,there are acts of parliament on utilities. Usually utilities include services such as water and electricity. Largely, the non-existence of natural monopolies through encouragement of competition from other industry players by government through relatively low barriers will reduce monopoly power over price control thus regulating price of goods and services.In the event that theres perfect competitive market according to the concept of perfect competitive markets, then theres consumer sovereignty as opposed to monopoly power under natural monopolies .Natural monopolies are price setters as opposed to price takers in perfectly competitive markets. Ideally, perfect competitive markets are the best market structure. In the event that natural monopolies are eliminated or unable to exist, then it follows naturally that theres no need for regulation by government .Theres need for government to establish competitive business environment to balance out market structures. Alternatively, price control for monopolies can be regulated through marginal cost pricing which requires that all natural monopolies to produce goods and services where the quantity of goods supplied touches the demand curve thus setting the price for the commodities and services produced by the natural monopoly (Open text,2017) Through marginal costing, consumers are assured of surplus at considerably lower prices.Further, theresallocate efficiency for firms adopting marginal cost system of pricing attributed to the marginal cost of goods incurred in production of the quantity supplied.Additionally, cost plus regulation whereby government set price levels over a given period of time through addition of normal profit rates to accounting costs of the firm has been adopted. Lastly, the implementation of a government based deficiency scheme of payment will for a long way in reducing the price of goods and services offered in the market and the same goes for natural monopolies (ILRI, 2017)Through the deficiency scheme of payment, producers of a good or services are given compensated profits on condition that they charge low prices for consumer welfare. Moreover, theres a consumer subsidy which is aimed at boosting consumption at considerably lower prices with no impact on natural monopolies(ILRI,2017)A consumer subsidy reduces the prices for goods and services thus making them affordable for the consumers. The subsidy is offered by the government to its citizen for domestic consumption and benefits. Reasons for Regulation Essentially, governments may regulate the price of goods and services to protect consumers from exploitative prices in that without regulation, natural monopolies will set higher prices to maximize profits which ends up hurting the consumers(Tejvan ,2016) .Further, regulation of natural monopolies is done to avoid or reduce allocativeinefficiencies for natural monopolies(Stanbury,2015).Perfect competitive firms are likely to experience allocative efficiency as compared to natural monopolies(Tejvan, 2016)Economically and theoretically, perfect competitive markets are ideal for consumer welfare and are considered economically and allocatively efficient as contrasted with natural monopolies. Further, Monopolies are regulated to prevent abuse of power(Pera, n.d).Typically, monopolies are price setters thereby making consumers price takers. Typically, profit maximization being the main goal of operating an enterprise, natural monopolies are likely to charge the highest price for goods and services in the absence of government regulation(Bigger, 2008) In addition, monopolies are regulated for quality assurance reasons. Due to the existence of a monopoly, the firm might not fulfill the minimum quality standards hence the need for government to intervene and ensure that the quality of goods and services to be observed.Also, throughregulation, deadweight loss is eliminated according to the deadweight loss hypothesis thus the ad vocation of marginal costing to regulate monopolies (Bigger, 2008) In addition, regulation of natural monopolies is vital in creating competition and providing an equal footing for other firms in the industry(Brink of Economic thoughts,2017).Lack of competition,leaves consumers at the mercy of the natural monopoly and other firms who would otherwise venture into that industry are prevented to by high entry barriers and other advantages enjoyed by natural monopolies(Amir,2015) .Further,natural monopolies undermine consumer choice and sovereignty due to the lack of variety or substitute goods or services and price setting power respectively(Economics Online,2017)More so,the ability of monopolies to regulate their output may be abused through limited supply thus denying consumer surplus in order to hike prices for profit maximization at the expense of the consumer . Economic efficiency is also another motivator for government regulation in the sense that unregulated monopolies are likely to have prices way above the marginal cost and high production costs which is considered economically inefficient(Boundless,2017)Further, market failure motivate the need for regulation. Also, natural monopolies may depict high production costs just to deter entry of prospective firms into the industry in an attempt to maintain monopoly power over its market share. Perfectly competitive market structures are considered economically and allocatively efficient hence making them the ideal market structure whereas natural monopolies are considered inefficiently economic and allocatively thus the need for government intervention to promote efficiency. Typically, quality assurance is vital for consumer welfare hence the need for government intervention in the operation of natural monopolies to ensure consumer get the best quality goods and services.Usually,without any form of regulation or monitoring,producers might get sloppy and greedy thereby producing substandard goods which are harmful for consumption(Knownai,2011)By and large,regulation of monopolies exists to protect smaller firms likely to enter the market dominated by monopolies(C.s. Stanford,N.d)in the case of regulation through windfall taxation systems, governments aim to encourage reinvest of profits incurred by natural policies as opposed to payment of dividends to its shareholders .In a way ,regulation helps distribution of income between producers and consumer. Through regulation of monopolies, restrictive trade practices and barriers are eliminated.Essentially, the existence of a monopoly is characterized by high operating cost, high entry barriers into the industry, large economies of scale among other factors thus the need for government regulation to allow entry of other smaller and upcoming firms (Investopedia, 2017) Natural monopolies deny other investors from entering its share of the market due to the various advantages it has over smaller firms. Smaller firms are unable to easily enter a naturally monopolized market as opposed to perfectly competitive markets.Ideally,consumer interests such as choice, variety and sovereignty are realistic in a perfectly competitive market as opposed to a naturally monopolized market thus the need for regulation. Conclusion Undeniably, there are concepts, theories and principles advocating for and against government intervention in the affairs of natural monopolies. Seldom do natural monopolies exist but they do. Majorly, Regulation is all about consumer surplus, satisfaction, choice, sovereignty and welfare as opposed to profit maximization .Regulatory measures are enforced by government based agencies and bodies, mainly through legislation. The most common ways of price control of monopoly power is through price ceiling, price capping, taxation, average cost pricing and marginal cost pricing.Most of these regulatory prices are considered not mutually beneficial for consumers and producers. Arguably, regulation seeks to protect the interests of consumers rather than natural monopolies or producers. All in all, government intervention through regulation is faulted for the unforeseeable consequence of optimum price and output which is more theoretical than practical. Further, government regulatory bodys employees are considered a tax burden on ordinary citizens. Besides, natural monopolies rarely exist and if they do, they last for a short period of time thus making regulation not a full proof solution for market failure and inefficiencies. Nonetheless, the heart of regulation is in the right place as it seeks to protect the consumer, who is considered weak as compared to producers.Through regulation, most government strive to achieve consumer protection and welfare while creating a friendly and competitive business environment as opposed to profit maximization which is considered ideal for most economies as compared. References Amir.(2015)Advantages and Disadvantage of Monopoly.Economics Guide.Retrieved from https://www.economicsguide.me/?page_id=1044 Bigger, D. (2008) The Rationale for monopoly legislation: Why do we regulate monopolies? Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Retrieved from https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/The%20Rationale%20Reg%20Connf%29.pdfs Boundless.(2017)Regulation of Monopoly.Boundless. Retrieved from https://www.boundless.com/economics/textbooks/boundless-economics-textbook/monopoly-11/monopoly-in-public-policy-74/regulation-of-natural-monopoly-279-12376/ Brink OfEconomic Thoughts. (2017)Regulation of natural Monopolies .Word Press. Retrieved from google.com/amp/s/harshmohit.wordpress.com/2017/01/11/ regulation-of-natural-monopolies/amp C.s. Stanford. (N .d)Government Regulation of Monopolies .Stanford.Edu. Retrieved from https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs181/projects/corporate-monopolies/government.html Economics Online. (2017)Monopoly .Economics Online. Retrieved from https://www.economicsonline.co.uk/Business_economics/Monopoly.html I.LR.I. (N. d.)What effects do current policies Have? .FAO .Retrieved from https://www.fao.org/wairdocs/ilri/x5547e/x5547e0y.htm Independent Competition and consumer Commission.(2017)Prices Regulation Act,(Chapter 320). Gov.PG .Retrieved from https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/The%20Rationale%20For%20Natural%20Monopoly%20Regulation%20-%20%28ACCC%20Reg%20Conf%29.pdf Investopedia. (2017)Monopoly.Investopedia.Retrieved from www.investopedia.com/terms/m/monopoly.asp Joskow, L.P. (2006) Regulation of Natural Monopolies .MIT.Edu. Retrieved from https://economics.mit.edu/files/1180 Knownai. (2011)Advantages and Disadvantages of a Monopoly market.Tough Nickel. Com. Retrieved from https://toughnickel.com/business/Advantages-And-Disadvantages-Of-A-Monopoly-Market Open Text.(2017)Principles of Economics:11.3.Regulating Natural Monopolies .Open Text. Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/principlesofeconomics/chapter/11-3-regulating-natural-monopolies/ Pera, A. (N. d) Deregulation and privatization in an economy-wide-Context .Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/eco/reform/35381774.pdf Pettinger, T. (2017) Average Cost Pricing .EconomicsHelp. Retrieved from www.economicshelp.org/blog/glossary/average-cost-pricing/ Spaulding, W. (2017) Monopoly Regulation. This matter. Retrieved from https://thismatter.com/economics/monopoly-regulation.htm Stanbury, T. W. (2015) Economic Regulation .The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved from www.theCanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/m/article/economic-regulation/ Tejvan. (2016)Regulation of Monopoly. Economics Help. Retrieved from https://www.economicshelp.org/microessays/markets/regulation-monopoly/ Welker, J. (2013) Economics in plain English: Monopoly prices to regulate or not to regulate. Welkerswikinomics. Retrieved from https://welkerswikinomics.com/blog/2013/03/04/monopoly-prices-to-regulate-or-not-to-regulate-that-is-the-question/

Doves Campaign for Real Beauty Case Study Essay Example

Doves Campaign for Real Beauty Case Study Essay TABLE of CONTENTS TOPICPAGE Executive Summary1 Problem Statement2 Situation Analysis: Objectives and Goals, Background, Market and External Environment Analysis2 Situation Analysis: Competition Analysis3 Situation Analysis: S. W. O. T. Analysis4 Situation Analysis: Segmentation Analysis5 Situation Analysis: Consumer Analysis6 Key Success Factors and Uncertainties6 Analysis of Alternative Solutions7 Recommendations9 Action Plan and Contingency Plan10 Bibliography11 Executive Summary Kerstin Dunleavy needs to determine how to maintain the Dove brand’s momentum. The key objectives and goals of the Dove product line is to increase market share, develop a strong marketing campaign, retain functional strengths of the brand, maintain the image of the â€Å"Real Beauty† campaign, and staying ahead of competition. Due to the highly competitive industry, marketing communication is critical to ensure campaign momentum. Kerstin must decide how to keep the drive of the initial campaign going. This will be achieved by introducing a new campaign. Through the use of internet, billboards, and media advertising, sincere communication will be achieved by the use of the concept copy thrust. An analysis of how communication messages will reach target market, what the message should communicate, public relation tactics, and sales promotion will take place in order to ensure the objectives and goals of the second phase of the Dove campaign is successful. Case Study: Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty Problem Statement: Unilever’s Dove beauty product has proven successful of its relaunch and repositioning strategy. We will write a custom essay sample on Doves Campaign for Real Beauty Case Study specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Doves Campaign for Real Beauty Case Study specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Doves Campaign for Real Beauty Case Study specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Despite this success, Kerstin Dunleavy needs to determine how to maintain the brand’s momentum while staying ahead of the competition and continuing to redefine beauty by maintaining a sense of integrity in society. Kerstin Dunleavy is required to use different advertising, publicity and sales promotion strategies in order to continue onto phase two of the Dove relaunch campaign. Situation Analysis: Objectives and Goals: Initially, Unilever’s objectives and goals of rebranding Dove’s image were to increase market share, develop a strong marketing campaign and retain the functional strengths of the brand. Because of the success from the societal marketing techniques in Dove’s initial campaign, these objectives have expanded to include maintaining the image of â€Å"Real Beauty†, staying ahead of competition and improving communication about Dove’s products in order to increase the sincerity of their advertisements. Background Analysis: Unilever was one of the largest consumer products companies in the world. The company had modified its branding policies in recent years. These modifications have emphasized brand names and a new public image. Unilever have four product lines that are organized into Cooking and eating, Beauty and Style, Healthy Living and Around the House. The Beauty and Style product line had developed Dove in the United States as a non-irritating skin cleaner. An independent study found Dove to be milder than 17 leading soaps and eventually they expanded its product line to included body wash, facial cleansers, moisturizers, deodorants and hair care products. Revenues from this product line reached $3 billion in 2005. Market and External Environmental Analysis: The beauty industry is highly competitive, with well-supported brands, big advertising budgets and a high degree of product similarity. Because of these factors, marketing and communications are crucial to Dove’s success. The development of a strong ethical position has catapulted Dove into a socially sound campaign. In the beauty industry, there is a misconstrued social image of what beauty is all about. This image has had negative effects on women all over the world. Low self-esteem, narrow definition of beauty, and obesity has been the result of advertising campaigns by beauty product companies. The Dove Research Study provided an opportunity for Dunleavy’s team to recreate the beauty image. This recreation has proven to increase Dove’s social responsibility to help women feel good about themselves again. Dove had developed self-confidence work shops for women and girls, which are in line with its objective of maintaining the â€Å"Real Beauty† image. Using women from different ethnic background is also a good strategy for Dove to continue. This strategy welcomes international women differences and Dunleavy’s team gained a competitive advantage by using women of all shapes, sizes and color. Dunleavy’s team used technology in innovative ways to launch the website campaignforrealbeauty. com, online vote casting, chat rooms, electronic billboards and mobile marketing events. The use of technology to market is becoming increasingly popular and Dunleavy should continue to be cutting edge in this category. The website chat rooms will give light to what women want in products and it will also develop a database to help accessing the target market preferred with mass advertising. Since the Unilever Company sells its products internationally, Dunleavy must be aware of many countries advertising legal requirements. This could pose a challenge from the Western Advertising campaign and the Eastern Advertising campaigns. The Internet campaigns with the new Canadian privacy laws may also have different legal restraints that will need to be carefully researched. For example, some chat forums and personal information may need to be protected. The beauty industry has continued to grow. In fact, even in a recession, the beauty industry has flourished and has not been impacted by a decline. With the advances of new technology and ew product awareness, the beauty product industry has been able to deliver products to its customers at reasonable prices. Competition Analysis: Because the beauty industry is highly competitive with similar products, competitors have turned their advertising emphasis from product-related variables to consumer-related variables. This means appealing to the consumer’s emotional psyche and situational influence has become increasingly important. Dove has stepped out of the box and went against its competitors in order to separate themselves and gain a competitive advantage in order to appeal to these emotional psyches. S. W. O. T Analysis: Strengths:  ·Established in 1957, Dove was found to be milder than 17 leading bars of soap.  ·Unilever is one of the largest consumer product companies in the world.  ·The Dove product is a pioneer of its type of product.  ·Unilever has devoted a big advertising budget to rebrand the Dove line and its product image.  ·The first phase of the relaunch of the brand has proven successful.  ·Unilever has quality products and is well positioned.  ·Dove was the first company to redefine the image of beauty; this gives them the competitive advantage. They are now seen as an industry expert with top-quality brands.  ·The creation of the Self-Esteem fund was established and other Not for Profit groups have flourished and women and girls are feeling better about themselves. Weaknesses:  ·Similar product qualities as competitor’s products.  ·Because Dove was the first to redefine beauty, all eyes are on them as a new industry leader.  ·Highly competitive pricing; therefore, leads to small profit margins Opportunities:  ·Redefining Beauty allowed the Dove campaign to distinguish themselves as a quality product and socially responsible company. The new image of what women perceive beauty to be is an opportunity for Dove to develop a strong ethical position and realign ethical and social strategies with their products.  ·Since the campaign, sales have continued to rise, but high product saturation suggests that the industry is in its maturity stage.  ·Technology has allowed the Dove Campaign to reach women internati onally.  ·Free Media coverage by means of journalists, TV shows (Oprah), high profiled debates, and open forums have given Dove free press on their products and their public image. Threats  ·Highly competitive environment. The relaunch campaign could fizzle away and competitors could imitate Dunleavy’s campaign.  ·Since there is a lot of free media coverage, Dove is unable to control this coverage and some negative publicity could be reflected on them. Segmentation Analysis: Segmentation Chart for Dove Beauty Products SegmentYoung WomenMid Aged WomenPrime Time Women Qualifying Dimensions Who? Girls and Women Age16 to 29Women Age 30-39Women Age 40 and older What? Moisturizing creams, tanning enhancer creams, acne creams, cleansers, SPF ProductsMoisturizing creams, cleaners, SPF productsPro-Age wrinkle creams, cleansers, Oils Why? Used to treat different skin problems at different stages of life. Reduce the acne and moisturizeUsed to treat different skin problems at different stages of life. Example reduce the appearance of the start of fine lines and wrinklesUsed to treat different skin problems at different stages of life. Example reduce appearance of wrinkles TrendsGrowingGrowingGrowing Determining dimensions Benefits soughtTo promote a habit of proper cleaning patterns and applying sunscreenTo promote a habit of applying sunscreen and how to prevent early appearance of wrinklesTo reduce the appearance of wrinkles and to properly moisturize Consumer Analysis: Dunleavy’s first phase of the campaign targeted 30 to 39 year old women. This target market is selected because these women have not yet tried skin-firming products. The broader segment is any woman who uses creams, soaps and lotions. In order to convey its message effectively to its target audience, the Dove Research Study revealed that all women want to be beautiful, but was feeling pressure from beauty product advertising to convey to an unrealistic image of beauty. Unilever used this research and insight to have women look at themselves and open a dialogue on what beauty is. Due to this newfound beauty image, consumers have reacted to the Dove product line by switching from competitor’s products. Consumers are becoming loyal and consumer retention is high. This increase in market share gives Dove an opportunity to retain this specific target market in the future. If consumer retention is achieved, then a new target market could be established for women 40 and older. At this age women would start to see the effects of aging and creams geared specifically to this new stage of life could be promoted. See Exhibit 1 for additional information. Key Success Factors and Uncertainties Key Success Factors. The main factors, which are vital to the success of the continued momentum of Dove’s campaign, need to include a sense of integrity in its repositioning strategy, and to complete a value-driven marketing communication strategy, in order to increase the sincerity of their advertisements. Maintaining the image as the â€Å"industry expert† and â€Å"top-quality† brand is also a key success factor. Key Uncertainties. The biggest uncertainty with the phase two of the relaunch of the Dove Campaign is how the competition will react to the campaign and if they follow suit, what Dove can do to stay a step ahead. Analysis of Alternatives Screening Criteria: Three decision criteria will be applied to each of the suggested alternatives to select the best fit for Dunleavy’s phase two of the relaunch campaign. Those criteria are:  ·the alternatives ability to market effectively to the desired target market.  ·the alternatives ability to effectively convey the sense of integrity and positive attributes of what â€Å"Real Beauty† should portray  ·the alternatives ability to remain an industry expert and product quality image Alternatives: Alternative #1 – Develop and present a strong presentation to continue the â€Å"Real Beauty† campaign Pros:  ·Presentation will convey the positive aspects of the current campaign by highlighting key factors of success. The campaign would continue to be used as a promotional tool, which focuses on the ability to reach a mass target market.  ·A strong social and ethical presence is created and brand loyalty and longevity is established. Cons:  ·Since the campaign has proven to be such a success, competitors may follow suite with a similar campaign and Dove may find themselves blending with them. This alternative is considered to be a viable alternative as it meets all of the decision criteria; however since competition is fierce in this industry, it is likely Dove’s competitors will follow suit and Dove would then lose their competitive advantage. Alternative #2 Develop and present a strong presentation to introduce a new campaign, with the continued use of internet, billboards and media advertising. Special attention will be given to the concept of copy thrust, in order to improve the sincerity and communication that is desired with the Dove products. Pros:  ·Presentation will introduce a new campaign, but focus on key objectives and goals sought by Unilever.  ·Keep ahead of the competition by being unpredictable in its marketing campaigns and also by being an industry leader.  ·Campaign could be directed at a new target market, which would increase market share  ·New campaign can use already established media and technology to promote its products and connect with its target market. Cons:  ·A new advertising campaign can be costly. There is a risk that the new campaign will not be successful and will be over shadowed by phase one of the â€Å"Real Beauty† campaign, that is, high expectations to live up too. This alternative is considered to be a viable alternative as it meets all of the decision criteria, it is considered to be a stronger alternative than alternative #1 because it allows Dove to remain an industry expert and stay a step ahead of its competitors. It also allows Dove to control the communication me ssages to its target customers. Evaluation of alternatives. Alternative 1 satisfies some of the evaluation criteria, by continuing to provide good branding image. It will also continue to enforce the new idea of the â€Å"Real Beauty† image. Alternative 2 is the best option, as it will allow Dove to step ahead and create a new target market. Because of the success of the first campaign, Dove is in the public eye and how messages are reaching the target audience is crucial to keeping the momentum alive. Analysis of Alternatives Decision Matrix To determine the best alternative a weighted decision matrix and rating scale is used. For rating the alternatives, 1 is a low rating and 5 is a high rating. Alternatives Evaluation criteriaWeight12 #1-Market effective the desired target market25%34 #2-Convey a sense of integrity25%34 #3–Retain strength of the Dove brand25%44 #4-Ability to remain an industry expert25%35 Weighted Total 100%. 751. 25 Alternative 2 offers the greatest match to the evaluation criteria as it received the highest weighted total in the decision matrix. Recommendation: While both of the alternatives meet the decision criteria and are considered viable alternatives, a choice between the alternatives should be made based on their order of effectiveness from the decision grid. Alternative two offers an introduction to a new target market, improved communication strategies and maintenance of the â€Å"top brand quality† and â€Å"industry expert† image. Dunleavy needs to follow specific advertising, publicity and sales promotion strategies to ensure the new campaign continues the required momentum that Unilever is looking for. The following action plan will explain how to achieve these desired objectives and goals. Action Plan: Short Term (0-6 months): Analysis of the how the communication messages will reach the target market. Dove’s promotion method should be to communicate brand and product information to its potential target market and influence their behaviour and attitudes. Dove has accomplished this successfully by means of mass selling. This method should be continued in the new campaign as it has the ability to reach a large audience at the same time, which proves to be cost effective. The new campaign should focus on institutional advertising, that is, continue to promote the company’s image and reputation. Since Dove is at the maturity stage and brand insistence is increasing, Dunleavy should promote the new product by reminder advertising. Since the new market of women over 40 is being targeted, the Dove Pro-Age product line should be the main product promoted. The development of new billboards, a new product website, and advertising campaigns are communication tools that need to occur. Analysis of copy thrust, that is, what the message should communicate. Dunleavy needs to listen to the research and use the AIDA model to help guide what messages should be on the Billboards, new website and advertisements. Attention – Continue to use real women in advertising and billboards. Holding Interest – the use of women over 40 is a must and their experiences and attitudes must be portrayed in order to set the tone of the ads desired. Arousing Desire – the desire to stay looking young, yet embracing age will be a key requirement in the ads as well. Obtaining Action – is the desired end result that the Dove product is looking for. By using direct-response ads to encourage consumers to research or encouraging Pro-Age instead of Anti-Age may be a technique to spark buying behaviour and it will keep in line with the original â€Å"real beauty† image. Increase Public Relations Continue to work with media to generate positive publicity of growing old gracefully and embracing the prime time stage of life. This type of advertising strategy has work well for dove in the past and it has many benefits. For example, it is free; highly credible with consumers, uninvasive, and the audience is more attentive. Dove will need to ensure the copy thrust of publicity is what it is intending to say. The one draw back of free publicity is that Dove will not be able to totally control what is said; however, they can steer the media into the right direction. Since the current image of Dove associated with media is favorable, this should be a relatively easy task. Sales Promotion A sales promotion should be used to generate and stimulate the new target market. This can be done by customers going onto the new product website, to access free products or coupons. Sales promotion will only last for a short time, but may entice customers to switch from a competitors brand, or try a new product. Longer Term: Once the communication strategies are in place, Dove should continue to support its Not for Profit groups and foundations. By showing this continued support, Dove is showing how committed they are to ensuring confidence in woman is important to them. This will increase brand insistence, consumer loyalty, and company image. Monitoring website traffic, forums, and comments should also continue. This will give Dove insight to creating new products, and learn the new trends in marketing. Contingency Plan: If the new campaign does not flourish the â€Å"Real Beauty† Campaign should continue and new ideas should be generated in order to stay ahead of competition. Dunleavy needs to be consistent in her communications to the public and each message should be carefully analyzed in order to portray the proper image. Bibliography 1. Perreault, William. , McCarthy, Jerome. , Meredith, Lindsay. , Ricker, Lynne. , (2007). Basic Marketing A Global-Managerial Approach 12th Edition. 2. Web site www. doveproage. com 3. Web site www. campaignforrealbeauty. com

The John Newbery Medal and Current and Past WInners

The John Newbery Medal and Current and Past WInners In the United States, the John Newbery Medal is the most prestigious childrens book award that an author can receive. The Newbery Medal is an annual children’s book award administered by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC of the American Library Association (ALA). According to the ALSC section of the ALA Web site, To be selected as the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children, the book must have been published the previous year in English by an American publisher in the United States. The John Newbery Medal, commonly referred to as the Newbery, has been awarded every year since 1922. It is named for John Newbery, an eighteenth-century British bookseller. To be eligible for a Newbery, either winning the Newbery Medal or having your book designated a Newbery Honor Book, the following terms must also be met: The author(s) must be either citizens or residents of the United States. Fiction, non-fiction, and poetry are all eligible, but reprints and compilations are not. The book must be written for children, with children defined as â€Å"persons of ages up to and including fourteen.† The book must be an original work. A book that was originally published in another country is not eligible. The 2016 Newbery Award Winners The 2016 Newbery award winners, the Medal winner, and three Honor Books  include a picture book, a graphic novel, a fairy tale with historical elements and historical fiction. Below is a brief look at the winners and reviews of the books. 2016 John Newbery Medal Winner Author Matt de la Peà ±a won the 2016 Newbery Medal for his picture book Last Stop on Market Street, which Christian Robinson illustrated. The publisher is G. P. Putnam’s Sons, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA). Matt de la Peà ±a is most well-known for his young adult novels, which include Mexican WhiteBoy, The Living, and The Hunted. He is also the author of the Infinity Ring middle-grade books and one other picture book A Nation’s Hope, The Story of Boxing Legend Joe Louis. 2016 Newbery Honor Books The War That Saved My Life,  by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. While featuring a historical World War II setting, the characters are products of Bradleys imagination. Dial Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) is the publisher. For more information, read the book review of The War that Saved my Life.Roller Girl,  written and illustrated by Victoria Jamieson.  Roller Girl is Victoria Jamieson’sfirst graphic novel for middle-grade readers, and she brings to it her own experiences with the sport of roller derby.  Dial Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) is the publisher.  For more information, read the book review of .Echo, by Pam Muà ±oz Ryan. Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc. is the publisher. Ryan, the author of more than 40 books, has received numerous awards for her writing, including winning the Pura Belprà © Medal twice, for The Dreamer and Esperanza Rising.  For more information, read the book review of E cho. If you are looking for more good books geared towards the 9- to 14-year-old age range, be sure and take a look at the following features about children’s books that have received Newbery Medals or honors: John Newbery Medal Winners: 2015 to 1922The 2014 Newbery Medal Winner and Honor BooksThe 2013 Newbery Medal Winner and Honor BooksThe 2012 Newbery Medal Winner and Honor BooksThe 2011 Newbery Medal Winner and Honor BooksThe 2010 Newbery Medal Winner and Honor BooksThe 2009 Newbery Medal Winner and Honor Books. Source: ALSC/ALA

Eusebius and the History of the Church Term Paper

Eusebius and the History of the Church - Term Paper Example the lines, it is also to Eusebius’ merit that most, if not all of his sources were properly credited, and acknowledged, which is very unusual for historians at that time. One of the most noted and referred books written by Eusebius is Ekklestiastices Historias, or The History of the Church, was originally in Greek, and was translated in numerous languages during the course of history. This paper will focus on the eighth book, which tells about the persecutions of emperors from Diocletian to Maximian, and the tenth book, which is about the reign of Constantine and the tolerance of the Romans to Christians that resulted in the time of peace and tranquility. The eighth book in Eusebius’ Ekklestiastices Historias tells of the rise of the Christian faith, as well as its fall, which he accounts to the events that he himself experienced in his own time.3 Initially, the Roman rulers and officers were very favorable with regards to those of the Christian faith. Aside from lettin g the lesser of the people worship in accord to their own chosen faith, Christians were also able to hold offices, govern and rule, as well as to mingle with the upper ranks of the Roman Empire. Moreover, the clergy and other church leaders were also treated with respect not just by their own people, but also those Romans with noble birth.4 With the arrival of peace and tolerance, however, internal discord starts to brew within the structure of the Christian church itself. Due to the gains the Christians had in freedom, fights among them became common. These fights not only included the worshippers, but also their church leaders as well. Eusebius attributed the succeeding events to Divine intervention, when persecutions to Christians in the government offices and the army started. While initially there was not much thought given about it, as the changes in the governance kept sliding past the Christian groups bit by bit, after several generations the Christians were once again subje ct to the punishments that the early martyrs undertook. The different manners that the Roman Empire tortured its citizens of the Christian faith were described in detail by Eusebius. Among these forms of capital punishments are: death by strangling; beheading; being burned while still alive; bodies thrown into the depths of the sea; even digging up the corpses of some and being thrown in the sea as well, thinking that these bodies might become the subject of worship by those who remain. 5 The destruction of churches and the burning of scriptures during the reign of Diocletian during his reign in 284-305 were also recorded in full detail. As the festival of the Savior’s passion (Easter) approached, aside from the demolition of churches and the eradication of Christian scriptures, those of the Christian faith holding ranks in offices were immediately removed, and those who continue to

The importance of an enterprise resource planning system Essay

The importance of an enterprise resource planning system - Essay Example The three tier architecture of client server is exploited to a great extent by enterprise resource planning. For ERP systems other enabling technologies comprise of Workflow, Group Ware, Work Group, Data Warehousing, Electronic Data Interchange, Intranet, the Internet, etc. There are some important characteristics of ERP that has made this framework beneficial for all contemporary organizations as highlighted in figure 1. Firstly, the flexibility of ERP in terms of responding to any form of organizational changes. The technology of client server supports ERP to access a wide array of database ends. An ERP framework demands an open system architecture. This indicates that any module can be detached as and when required without causing an impact on other modules. ERP system is comprehensive by nature since it needs to support various functions. This system is not just confined to the organizational boundary and needs to deliver best business practices. The major areas benefitting throu gh these systems are inventory management, procurement or supplier management, financial management, customer flexibility or responsiveness and personnel management. In the overall context, ERP provides multi-facility, multi-platform, multi-mode manufacturing, multilingual and multi-currency facilities. ERP also helps to reduce information gap existing between organizations. Business benefits from ERP with examples ERP systems are able to provide a competitive advantage to all organizations in terms of increasing business performance.

Diel Oxygen Measurements Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Diel Oxygen Measurements - Lab Report Example The water may be used in anthropogenic activity such as cooking and laundry. Measurement of diel changes in dissolved oxygen concentrations of freshwater systems is a widely accepted method of examining its productivity. It measures the dissolved oxygen concentrations twice a day (sunrise and sunset) to determine the gross productivity and respiration of the system (Van de Bogert, 2007). This is based on the carbon dioxide-acquiring and oxygen-producing photosynthesis, as well as the carbon dioxide-producing and oxygen-acquiring respiration. It is thus to be expected that the oxygen is highest during the sunset because the sunlight-requiring photosynthesis happened during the day, and lowest during the sunrise because photosynthesis does not occur to offset respiration (Hansom et al., 2003). In this light we may also expect that the surface is more productive at the bottom than at the surface, because it is more difficult for sunrays to hit deeper areas of the water. The objective of this experiment was to measure the productivity of aquatic systems in San Joaquin Marsh. Specifically, the researchers aimed to measured the dissolved oxygen concentration on the bottom and surface of the marsh, to calculate the productivity/respiratory ratio, and to assess whether the surface and bottom are autotrophic (productivity/respiratory > 1), or heterotrophic (productivity/respiratory Dissolved oxygen concentrations were measured at the surface and bottom of 8 different ponds on the site from Monday, 6:00 am sunrise and 7:45 pm sunset, to Tuesday, 6: 00 am sunrise. After data gathering, productivity/respiratory ratios were calculated as

Hoofdonderwerp: drugs in de sport

Hoofdonderwerp: drugs in de sport Inleiding We hebben voor het onderwerp drugsgebruik (in de sport) gekozen, omdat we meer willen weten over de effecten van drugs op het menselijk lichaam en wat voor schade dit een mens aan kan richten. Sporten spreekt ons beiden heel erg aan, vandaar dat we voor de combinatie drugsgebruik in de sport hebben gekozen. In de sport hoor je steeds meer over het gebruik van een drugs om de prestaties te verbeteren, zoals bijvoorbeeld EPO in het wielrennen. Wij willen gaan uitzoeken waardoor de drugs de prestaties van een mens kan verbeteren, maar vooral ook waarom sommige drugs schadelijk kunnen zijn voor de gezondheid. Het is ook een zeer actueel onderwerp, kijk maar naar bijvoorbeeld de verdediger van Sevilla, Puerta , die door gebruik van EPO plots in mekaar zakte op het voetbalveld, zonder enig contact met een tegenstander. Er kon ook meteen geconstateerd worden dat het om de drugs EPO ging. Door dit soort nieuws heeft het ons aangetrokken wat de drugs met een lichaam kan doen en dit willen wij dus gaan uitzoeken. Algemene informatie over drugs (doping) in sport Waarom gebruiken sporters doping? Het is voor een normaal mens erg belangrijk om een uitstekende conditie te hebben en dus voor topsporters helemaal. Zij moet keer op keer een topprestatie kunnen leveren. Dit doen sporters meestal door een evenwichtige balans van rust, voeding en beweging. Als sporters dan doping toevoegen aan bijvoorbeeld hun voeding, dan heeft dit meestal een gunstig effect op hun prestaties. Maar hoe werkt die doping nou eigenlijk? Sportprestaties, die voor een groot deel zijn terug te voeren tot spierprestaties, vereisen een in optimaal verkerend spierstelsel dat ze op de juiste manier moet worden onderhouden. Hierbij heeft een scheikundig proces een grote invloed. De voeding die de spieren uit het bloed haalt bestaat voornamelijk uit suikers, met name druivensuiker. Deze suikers worden in de spieren verbrand tot melkzuur. Deze stof wordt beschouwd als een soort vermoeidheidsstof die via de bloedbaan overal in het lichaam komt, en dus ook in de hersenen. Dit vermoeidheidsverschijnsel dient niet a lleen om het wegspoelen van stofwisselingsproducten te bevorderen maar ook om rust te geven aan de lichaamscellen. Een sporter komt dan op het dode punt en raakt volledig uitgeput en dreigt in elkaar te zakken. Er zijn echter ervaren topsporters die weten dat ze dit dode punt kunnen overwinnen. Dit doen ze door hun reserve-energie vrij te maken. Maar ook al kunnen sporters dit, er blijft altijd een moment wanneer de hersenen een einde maken aan onze inspanningen, dit doen de hersenen om het lichaam te behoeden tegen overbelasting. Dit is het moment waarop de doping sporters kan helpen. De meeste doping schakelt namelijk het alarmsysteem van de hersenen uit waardoor sporters langer door kunnen gaan. Als het alarmsysteem uitgeschakeld is wordt het lichaam enorm op de proef gesteld zonder dat je het voelt, want je voelt bijvoorbeeld geen pijn, duizeligheid en vermoeidheid. Ook de levensnoodzakelijke lichaamsreserves worden nu zonder waarschuwing opgebruikt, dit leid vaak tot vergiftigi ngsverschijnselen. De meeste dopinggevallen komen voor in het wielrennen en beroepsvoetbal. Het gebruik van doping werd ontdekt doordat wielrenners of voetballers opeens morsdood neervielen, zonder enige doodsoorzaak. Dit kwam doordat de eerste doping nog niet echt goed was waardoor de sporters dus hun volledige reserves verbrandde. Doping kan ook heel negatieve psychische effecten hebben, zoals verslaving en depressie. Dit gebeurd doordat een sporter beseft dat hij zonder doping niet goed genoeg is. Wat zijn de meest voor komende drugs in sport? Je hebt verschillende soorten drugs die voor verschillende dingen kunnen dienen, sommige drugs benvloeden je gevoelens, bijvoorbeeld marihuana. Andere dienen voor betere prestaties, deze drugs worden veel in de sport gebruikt, dit is echter strafbaar en het kan slecht aflopen, met bijvoorbeeld hartaanvallen. Hieronder staan drugs die veel gebruikt worden in de sport, vanwege verbeterende prestaties van de sporter die de drugs gebruikt of heeft gebruikt. -EPO (erytropoà «tine) -Anabolica -Cocane -(ARA)NESP -HemAssist, -Oxyglobine -RSR-13 -Gentherapie -Amfetamine EPO (erytropoà «tine) Een van de belangrijkste functies van bloed is het transporteren van zuurstof door het lichaam. De rode bloedcellen in ons lichaam binden de zuurstof die tijdens de ademhaling wordt opgenomen. Het gedeelte dat het zuurstof bind heet hemoglobine. Hemoglobine is een roodgekleurd eiwit. EPO staat voor etytropoà «tine, het bestaat uit een eiwitgedeelte en een koolhydraatgedeelte. EPO is een hormoon dat als functie het controleren en stimuleren van de productie van rode bloedcellen in het beenmerg heeft. In het beenmerg zijn EPO cellen de voorstadia van rode bloedcellen. Het heeft twee belangrijke functies voor deze cellen: het bevorderen van een snellere productie en het handhaven van de levensvatbaarheid. Als er een tekort aan zuurstof in de weefsels is zorgt EPO ervoor dat er nieuwe, jonge rode bloedcellen gevormd worden. EPO reguleert dus de vorming van rode bloedcellen in het beenmerg. Sporters gebruiken deze doping om een betere prestatie te kunnen leveren. Dankzij EPO kunnen ze me er zuurstof in hun bloed opnemen en dus langer presteren (ze verzuren minder snel) EPO wordt door het menselijk lichaam zelf aangemaakt, maar het kan tegenwoordig ook in laboratoria gefabriceerd worden. Het is alleen werkzaam als het ingespoten wordt. Als je EPO zou inslikken door middel van een pil dan wordt het gewoon verteerd. Dan komt het dus niet in het bloed en is het dus ook niet werkzaam. Het effect van ingespoten EPO kan ongeveer drie maanden duren. EPO heeft ook nadelen. Het risico van het toedienen van EPO is dat het bloed te stroperig en dik kan worden. Hierdoor loopt de sporter een verhoogd risico op een hartaanval, een beroerte of trombose. Dit is waarschijnlijk ook de doodsoorzaak van de in het voorwoord genoemde Puerta. EPO wordt vooral gebruikt in de duurstort. Dus vooral in het wielrennen, zwemmen en in de loopsport. Het veroorzaakt zoals gezegd vooral een verbetering van het uithoudingsvermogen, en niet van de spierkracht. Bekende EPO-zondaars zijn Richard Virenqu e en David Millar, dit zijn bij de profwielrenners. Er zijn ook natuurlijke manieren om het effect van EPO te kunnen evenaren, bovendien hoeven hier ook geen injecties voor worden te gebruikt. Een van de manieren om het op een natuurlijke manier maken is trainen op grote hoogte. Door de lagere hoeveelheid zuurstof in de lucht, stimuleert het lichaam de aanmaak van extra rode bloedcellen. Dit gebeurt echter niet zoveel als EPO dat doet, het bloed wordt ook niet dikker. Een voordeel van deze methode is dat ook de longen en het hart sterker worden, dit komt door het trainen op hoogte. Ze moeten dan harder werken en worden dus krachtiger. Anabolica Anabolen zijn een drugs die ervoor zorgt dat je spieren meer eiwitten aanmaken, waardoor de spieren sterker worden en in omvang toenemen, omdat ze veel sneller groeien. Deze drug wordt gebruikt door sporters die hun spierkracht en explosiviteit willen vergroten. Daarom zal deze drug veel worden gebruikt in een sport waarbij veel spierkracht vereist is, zoals bijvoorbeeld bodybuilding, rugby en boksen. Gebruikers van anabolen, gebruiken ook diuretica (plaspillen), hierdoor verliezen ze gewicht. De reden dat dit door bijvoorbeeld boksers gebruikt wordt, is omdat ze dan in een lagere gewichtsklasse kunnen boksen. Bij sporters die anabolen gebruiken, moet je niet alleen aan de vechtsport denken, maar het wordt ook veel in de atletiek gebruikt, bij bijvoorbeeld sprinters of verspringers. Hun kunnen de explosieve kracht vooral gebruiken voor de korte afstanden. Het middel nandrolon (anabolica) zorgt ervoor dat je na een zware inspanning heel snel hersteld. Jaap Stam, Edgar Davids en Frank de boer zijn betrapt op gebruik van dit middel. Nandrolon komt ook vaak voor in voedingssupplementen, ze hadden als reden gebruikt dat het middel bij hun was aangetroffen, omdat ze vervuilde voedingssupplementen hadden geslikt. Er zijn dus bepaalde voordelen van anabolen, zoals een veel grotere kracht, wat zal leiden tot grotere spierkracht, grotere spiermassa. Maar de voordelen kunnen lang niet opwegen tegen de nadelen. Er zijn ontzettend veel bijwerkingen door het gebruik van anabolen. Anabolen veroorzaken vierhonderd keer meer bijwerkingen dan alle medicijnen bij elkaar (titel van een artikel) Een paar van de bijwerkingen zijn: *haaruitval *vaak en langdurige hoofdpijn *verslechtering van de ademhaling *borstontwikkeling (bij mannen) *optreden van levertumoren *door een vergroting van de spiermassa, wordt het risico van spierbeschadiging aanzienlijk groter *lagere stem *grote kans op nierziektes (nierstenen) *last van de blaas, vaker naar toilet *geen volledige botontwikkeling (bij onvolgroeide botten) *vergrote kans op hartaandoeningen *bijwerkingen m.b.t genitalià «n *veel last van acne *psychische bijwerkingen zoals, agressie, depressie en slaapstoornissen ( meest voorkomende bijwerkingen) Er zijn nog wel wat bijwerkingen, maar dit zijn de meest opvallende. Je ziet dus dat de voordelen lang niet zo groot zijn als de nadelen van het gebruik van anabolen. Je zou denken dat als je zo de nadelen op een rijtje zet amper gebruik wordt gemaakt van deze drug. Dit is niet juist uit de onderstaande figuur kun je afleiden dat er wel degelijk wat gebruik gemaakt wordt van anabolen. Anabolengebruik per leeftijd Ook kun je afleiden dat er vanaf het 16e levensjaar het gebruik redelijk begint toe te nemen. Maar de leeftijdsgroep tussen de 18 en 26 maken verreweg het meeste gebruik van anabolen. Na deze leeftijden neemt het gebruik flink af. Cocane De meeste mensen kennen cocane alleen als een recreatief middel maar het wordt echter ook gebruikt in de sportwereld. De meest voorkomende effecten van cocane zijn: een sterk opwekkend effect, het vergeten van je zorgen, je krijgt een energieboost, en je bent bijna gevoelloos (dus je voelt bijna geen pijn) Dus als sporters een grote prestatie moeten leveren kan het helpen om cocane te gebruiken. (ARA)NESP, HemAssist, Oxyglobine en RSR-13 Deze drugs worden genoemd als de opvolgers van doping en hebben ongeveer dezelfde werking. Het zuurstoftransport wordt door EPO verbetert en ook door bovengenoemde drugs, dat hebben ze met elkaar gemeen. Een nieuwe methode is het toedienen van bloeddoping, hierbij wordt bloed, rode bloedcellen of verwante bloedproducten bij de sporter genjecteerd. Gentherapie Sporters zouden ook gentherapie kunnen gebruiken om hun lichaam te herconstrueren voor prestatieverbetering. In de tabel hieronder staan enkele genen die de sportprestaties zouden kunnen verbeteren. Amfetamine (speed) Amfetamine is een synthetische drug, het is beter bekend als speed. Amfetamine is zeer verslavend, vooral omdat mensen lusteloos worden als ze het niet gebruiken. Het werkt stimulerend en zorgt dat je slapeloos wordt. De lust tot eten of drinken word minder, daardoor werd het vroeger nog gebruikt als vermageringsmiddel maar tegenwoordig is het verboden. Amfetaminegebruik kan leiden tot ernstige lichamelijk problemen zoals hart en leverfalen. Het heeft ook psychische bijeffecten, je kunt er paranode van worden. Amfetamine is een zogenaamd sympathicomimeticum; het bootst de werking van het sympathische zenuwstelsel na. In het sympathische zenuwstelsel werken belangrijke neurotransmitters als noradrenaline en adrenaline. Amfetamine zorgt ervoor dat deze stoffen extra veel vrijkomen. De activering van het sympathische zenuwstelsel vindt normaalgesproken plaats bij gevaar of spanning. Het lichaam moet dan snel kunnen reageren, de stofwisseling is dan even minder belangrijk en het hongergevoel verdwijnt. Als je amfetamine gebruikt, krijg je dus veel energie, ga je veel praten en kun je last hebben van onwillekeurige bewegingen van het lichaam. Men zweet ook meer en kan hoofdpijn krijgen. Het wordt dus als doping gebruikt omdat je er meer energie van krijgt. Waar komt het woord doping vandaan? Het woord doping is afkomstig uit Engeland. In Zuid-Oost Afrika werd een sterke drank gebruikt als een stimulerend middel, deze drank heette dop. In 1889 komt het echte woord doping voor het eerst voor in een Engels woordenboek. Methodes toediening doping Doping kan op verschillende manier worden toegediend. Wij laten hier een aantal methodes zien hoe men de doping in het lichaam krijgt. Bloeddoping Als een sporter bloeddoping wil gebruiken dan laat hij zes tot twaalf weten voor de wedstrijd bloed aftappen. Het gevolg hiervan is dat ze gaan trainen met een kleiner bloedvolume. Op de dag van de wedstrijd laten de sporters hun eerder afgetapte bloed weer inbrengen door middel van een infuus. Dankzij dit nieuwe bloed neemt het bloedvolume à ©n het hemoglobinegehalte in het bloed toe. Hierdoor kunnen de sporters meer zuurstof opnemen en hebben ze dus een groter uithoudingsvermogen. Het is natuurlijk niet zo gek dat bloeddoping vaak bij duurlopers wordt aangetroffen. Het is ook mogelijk om donorbloed te gebruiken in plaats van het eigen bloed, het nadeel hiervan is echter dat er een risico is op virusinfecties, allergische reacties en afstoot reacties. De algemene bijwerkingen van bloeddoping zijn: bloedstolsels, koorts en koude rillingen. Farmacologische, chemische en fysieke manipulatie Farmacologische, chemische en fysieke manipulatie dienen ervoor om de betrouwbaarheid van de tijdens de dopingcontrole afgenomen urine te benvloeden. Een voorbeeld hiervan is het afgeven van oude of andermans urine, of het toevoegen van stoffen aan de afgegeven urine. Ook het gebruik van epitestosteron, dat het gebruik van testosteron verhult en diuretica vallen onder deze groep. Het IOC stelt manipulatie van een dopingcontrole gelijk aan het gebruik van doping. Waarom is doping slecht? * Doping is oneerlijk. Bij een echte wedstrijd gaat het erom wie de beste, sterkste of snelste is. Als er dan doping wordt gebruikt door een paar sporters, dan worden de niet-dopinggebruikers de dupe. Er is dan geen gelijke kans meer. * Doping kan gevaarlijk zijn. Dat zien we doordat sommige dopinggebruikers een wedstrijd niet overleven. Het lichaam wordt door de doping zo erg uitgeput en vergiftigd dat dit tot gevaar kan leiden. * Doping kan ook andere sporters in gevaar brengen. Als er bijvoorbeeld een wielerrenner ten val komt door zijn dopinggebruik, kunnen heel veel andere renners ten val komen als ze over de desbetreffende renner heen vallen Controles Sporters en doping, het lijkt nooit op de houden. De sporters en organisaties/sponsors hebben er natuurlijk dagelijks mee te maken. En de jacht naar dopinggebruikers is heviger dan ooit. Wat spookt de sporter uit, ook als hij alleen maar traint. En wat doet de sporter dan? De sporters zelf huiveren, waar blijft hun privacy? Zijn ze bij voorbaat al verdacht? Maar de dopingjagers kennen geen genade. Ze verzinnen telkens nieuwe listen. In de topsport willen dopingcontroleurs altijd weten waar een atleet zich bevind, zo kunnen ze hem onverwachts controleren. Dat is nodig, omdat doping vaak tijdens trainingsperioden wordt gebruikt om conditie en kracht op te bouwen. De dopingcontroleurs hebben als doel dat de topsport dopingvrij wordt en dat er gelijke regels komen voor sporters in alle landen. Veel sporters vinden de strenge meldregels maar niets en vinden de controles een inbreuk in hun privacy. Dat er ook veel gecontroleerd wordt in voetbal en hockey vinden de beoefenaars maar raar. Zij vinden dat het meer moeite kost dan dat het oplevert. Er is wel een plan dat sporters zelf mogen bepalen welk uur van de dag ze beschikbaar zijn voor controles. De controleurs vinden dit een redelijk compromis, waar de sporters goed mee zouden kunnen leven. Als een sporter dit ook niet wil heeft hij een probleem. Bescherming van privacy is belangrijk, maar het gaat ook om de schone sport. Als je naar dopingcontroles kijkt is er wat betreft het aantal dopingcontroles doorgaans een groot verschil tussen dopinggevoelige en andere sporten. Dit blijkt uit een ronde langs dertig topsporters. Schaatsen en wielrennen steken er in Nederland met kop en schouders bovenuit als het gaat om de meeste controles. Bij de meest dopinggevoelige sporten spelen zaken als uithoudingsvermogen en kracht vaak een doorslaggevende rol. Prestatiebevorderende middelen hebben, zo blijkt uit onderzoek, hebben daar meer effect dan in de zogenoemde spelsporten of behendigheidssporten waar zaken als inzicht en techniek geregeld doorslaggevend zijn. Het blijkt dat wielrenners gemiddeld twintig keer per seizoen gecontroleerd worden, dit gebeurd dan meestal rond wedstrijden. Ook als een topsporter bijvoorbeeld wereldkampioen is kan hij veel meer controles verwachten. Een goed voorbeeld van een sporter die vorig seizoen enorm veel gewonnen heeft is de schaatser Sven Kramer. Hij zegt dat hij vorig seizoen zo ongeveer vijfentwintig keer gecontroleerd is! Behalve voor wielrennen en schaatsen gelden ook atletiek en zwemmen als dopinggevoelige sporten. Zij zijn na de wielrenners en schaatsers de sporters die het meest gecontroleerd worden. Ook in deze sporten geldt dat hoe dichter een atleet de wereldtop nadert, hoe vaker de controleur langskomt. Na deze sporten volgt het voetbal als meest geteste sport, maar hier verschilt het aantal tests per individuele sporter. Ajacied George Ogararu zegt dit jaar twee keer gecontroleerd te zijn, terwijl Klaas-Jan Huntelaar in zijn hele loopbaan slechts vier keer een plas heeft moeten inleveren. De controleurs * De Nederlandse Dopingautoriteit, in Capelle aan de IJssel, voerde vorig jaar 2.825 controles uit. De kosten daarvan bedroegen meer dan 780 duizend euro. * De Dopingautoriteit controleert een groep sporters van 59 bonden, waarbij het niveau (nationale top) het criterium is: van biljart tot voetbal. * Sporters die een Nederlandse controleur treffen, hebben altijd iemand tegenover zich die in dienst is van de Dopingautoriteit. Maar de opdrachtgever is niet altijd hetzelfde. Verreweg de meeste controles (2.211 in het jaar 2006) hebben plaats in het kader van het nationale antidopingprogramma, gefinancierd door de sportkoepel NOC*NSF. * Daarnaast krijgt de Dopingautoriteit ook van (internationale) sportfederaties opdrachten. In het jaar 2006 gebeurde dat in totaal 614 keer. De Dopingautoriteit voerde in 2006 uitsluitend urinecontroles uit. Dat gebeurde in 33 procent van de gevallen rondom trainingen of bij sporters thuis. Tegen 52 sporters (41 mannen en 11 vrouwen) werd een zaak aanhangig gemaakt wegens overtreding van de reglementen. De krachtsporten waren daarin het best vertegenwoordigd als het ging om prestatiebevorderende middelen. Vijf rugbyers hadden in hun urine sporen die wezen op het gebruik van cannabis, cocane of amfetamine. In totaal werden twaalf sporters betrapt op het roken van een jointje, drie op het gebruik van cocane. * Soms zijn er in Nederland ook buitenlandse dopingcontroleurs actief. Die werken voor de mobiele brigades van de internationale sportfederaties. * Naast de NOC*NSF (internationale) sportfederaties kunnen ook particuliere organisaties opdracht geven tot controles. Het bekendste voorbeeld daarvan is de organisatie van de Ronde van Frankrijk (Tour de France). In Nederland onderwerpt onder meer de Rabo-wielerploeg zijn renners aan dopingcontroles. Ons onderzoek: Interviewen van bepaalde sportmensen Om verder in te gaan op het gebruik van doping in de sport gaan we een paar verschillende interviews opnemen bij verschillende sporters, zodat we dieper ingaan op het gebruik van drugs in verband met de sport. Ook willen we meer te weten komen over de ervaringen die sporters opdoen in hun sport, gedurende hun loopbaan. Door verschillende type sporters te ondervragen kunnen we de verschillen in het drugsgebruik in een bepaalde tak van de sportwereld onderzoeken. Zo komen we bijvoorbeeld tot de conclusie dat er in het wielrennen meer gebruik gemaakt wordt van drugs dan in de atletiek. De verschillende interviews vergelijken we dan en hieruit kunnen we weer bepaalde dingen afleiden. Interview voor profielwerkstuk Wat is de invloed van doping in sport Beste Jack van Hulten, Wij (Jasper Kerstes en Bob van Asten) moeten voor school een profielwerkstuk maken. Hiervoor moeten we ook onderzoek doen, dit doen we door middel van interviews. Het onderwerp is drugs (doping) in sport. We interviewen U omdat we dit onderwerp willen bekijken vanuit verschillende takken van sport. We vragen U om de vragen zo uitgebreid mogelijk te beantwoorden. 1.Hoelang fluit u al? Ik fluit vanaf sinds augustus 1987 amateurs en betaald voetbal vanaf 1 juli 1992 2.Wat zijn de mooiste momenten uit uw fluitcarrià ¨re? De wedstrijden die ik het mooist vond om te fluiten waren: Ajax PSV (Johan Cruyf schaal 2002) FC Viking Chelsea (Uefa Cup 2002) 3.Wat vind u van dopinggebruik in sport in het algemeen, en in het voetbal? Degene die betrapt worden op dopinggebruik moeten voor hun leven geschorst worden. 4.Weet u ervan dat er soms doping gebruikt wordt in het voetbal? (vooral cocane en EPO, aan EPO is de Spaanse international Antonio Puerta aan overleden) Ik heb dit via de media inderdaad vernomen, ik vind het erg triest maar toch ook eigen schuld dikke bult. 5.Heeft u wel eens meegemaakt of gedacht dat een voetballer dopingmiddelen gebruikt heeft tijdens een wedstrijd? Nee, dit heb ik nog nooit meegemaakt. 6.Weet u wat u moet doen als een speler zijn bewustzijn verliest tijdens een wedstrijd? Ja, ik ben zelf opgeleid als BHV-er met cursus reanimatie. Echter ik zal zeker de wedstrijd meteen stoppen en er spoedig een arts bijhalen, dat zijn immers de specialisten. 7.Snapt u dat veel sporters tegenwoordig snel doping gebruiken? Nee, je gaat in de sport een uitdaging met jezelf aan, dat wil zeggen met je eigen lichaam. Hard werken (trainen) en gezonde voeding zijn de enige juiste bouwstenen, dus ik vind doping gebruik onnodig en niet eerlijk. 8.Kent u de gevolgen die sommige soorten doping kunnen hebben? Ik heb er wel eens een tv-programma over gezien. De gevaren zijn duidelijk aanwezig dus moet dit al meer dan een voldoende waarschuwing zijn om er niet aan te beginnen! 9.Vind u dat voetballers vaker gecontroleerd moeten worden op gebruik van doping? Dit gebeurd namelijk nog niet veel. Ik weet dat dit inderdaad niet veel gebeurd, wat mij part mogen profvoetballers na elke wedstrijd gecontroleerd worden. 10.Vind u dat sommige doping gelegaliseerd moet worden, of moeten alle stimulerende middelen verboden worden? Ik zou het liefst zien dat alle doping verboden wordt. Er moet ervoor gezorgd worden dat topsport puur natuurlijk blijft. 11.EPO is een middel dat ervoor zorgt dat bloed meer zuurstof kan opnemen, en is in kleine doseringen niet gevaarlijk. Vind u dat iemand met een slechte conditie EPO zou mogen gebruiken? Nee, in geval van een slechte conditie moet je of harder trainen of anders niet deelnemen in competitieverband. Interview voor profielwerkstuk Wat is de invloed van doping in sport Jef van vliet, begeleider internationale scheidsrechters. Hoelang fluit u gefloten?. Ik heb gefloten van 1969 tot 1997, waarvan de laatste 15 jaar in het betaalde voetbal. Wat doet u nu precies in de voetbal wereld? Op dit moment ben ik docent opleidingen scheidsrechters, ik beoordeel de scheidsrechters in het betaalde voetbal en daarnaast begeleid ik de scheidsrechters bij internationale wedstrijden in Nederland. Wat zijn de mooiste momenten uit uw fluitcarrià ¨re? De 4 jaar welke ik als internationaal scheidsrechter heb gefungeerd en daarnaast o.a. de bekerfinale Ajax-Heerenveen in 1996. Wat vind u van dopinggebruik in sport in het algemeen, en in het voetbal? Doping hoort niet in de sport thuis. Weet u ervan dat er soms doping gebruikt wordt in het voetbal? (vooral cocane en EPO, aan EPO is de Spaanse international Antonio Puerta aan overleden) Dat is iets wat je niet hard kunt maken, maar zal zeker wel voorkomen. Heeft u wel eens meegemaakt of gedacht dat een voetballer dopingmiddelen gebruikt heeft tijdens een wedstrijd? Niet zelf meegemaakt, maar dat wil natuurlijk niet zeggen dat het niet gebeurd. Weet u wat u moet doen als een speler zijn bewustzijn verliest tijdens een wedstrijd? Ja dat weet ik, daar zijn standaard afspraken over. Snapt u dat veel sporters tegenwoordig snel doping gebruiken? Ik snap dit niet, sport hoort zuiver te zijn, dus zonder doping. Kent u de gevolgen die sommige soorten doping kunnen hebben? Jazeker, kijk maar naar Maradonna, wat is er over van de sportman? Vind u dat voetballers vaker gecontroleerd moeten worden op gebruik van doping? Dit gebeurd namelijk nog niet veel. In het Nederlandse betaalde voetbal word er wekelijks gecontroleerd, en zeker bij internationale wedstrijden. Vind u dat sommige doping gelegaliseerd moet worden, of moeten alle stimulerende middelen verboden worden? Binnen elke sport dan ook moeten stimulerende middelen verboden worden. Sport hoort clean te zijn, anders is het natuurlijk niet eerlijk. EPO is een middel dat ervoor zorgt dat bloed meer zuurstof kan opnemen, en is in kleine doseringen niet gevaarlijk. Vind u dat iemand met een slechte conditie EPO zou mogen gebruiken? Nee, dan moet een sporter maar gewoon niet meedoen of meer trainen want sport hoort clean te zijn zoals ik bij de vorige vraag al zei. Interview voor profielwerkstuk Wat is de invloed van doping in sport Interview met Michel Stolker, een oud-profwielrenner. Wij (Jasper Kerstes en Bob van Asten) moeten voor school een profielwerkstuk maken. Hiervoor moeten we ook onderzoek doen, dit doen we door middel van interviews. Het onderwerp is drugs (doping) in sport. We interviewen U omdat we dit onderwerp willen bekijken vanuit verschillende takken van sport. We vragen U om de vragen zo uitgebreid mogelijk te beantwoorden. Wat zijn uw grootste sportprestaties? 7e In de ronde van Spanje (22 dagen) Winnaar van de Midi Libre (meerdaagse wielerwedstrijd in Zuid-Frankrijk) in 1962. Hier reed ik dankzij een enorm goede vorm het peloton op 20 minuten en werd ik niet teruggepakt en reed vele tegenstanders eraf Etappes in de Ronde van Italià « en in de Ronde van Spanje. Drie deelnames aan de Tour de France (1956, 1957 en 1962) Ik was vooral knecht in de meeste ploegen (dit betekent dat hij vooral voor de toppers is zijn ploeg moest rijden) Dit deed ik vooral voor Jacques Anquetil, wat die man kan was echt onvoorstelbaar! Topsport is ontzettend zwaar, als je goed wilt rijden moet je enorm veel trainen, hierdoor verminder het sociale contact heel erg. Heeft u veel overwinningen geboekt in uw carrià ¨re als profwielrenner? Ik heb in de Ronde van Lombardije het bergklassement gewonnen, de Midi Libre en vele andere koersen. In totaal heb ik 25 koersen gewonnen, waarvan 20 zonder doping gebruik en 5 met. Hoeveel jaar heeft u als profwielrenner gereden en voor welke ploegen? Ik heb 11 jaar als prof gefietst in de volgende ploegen:  · 1956 Locomotief-Vredestein  · 1957 Locomotief-Vredestein  · 1958 Magneet-Vredestein  · 1959 Magneet-Vredestein  · 1960 Helyett-Fynsec-Leroux  · 1961 Helyett-Fynsec-Hutchinson  · 1962 Saint-Raphael-Helyett  · 1963 Saint-Raphael-Gitane  · 1964 KAS-Kaskol  · 1965 Fyffes  · 1966 Willem II-Gazelle Wat vindt u van de vele dopingschandalen in de tour van de laatste jaren? Het is een grof schandaal hoe het nu gaat in de wielerwereld, ik zal een voorbeeld geven. Toen Jan Ullrich uitging in een discotheek waar wel 2000 mensen waren, werd hij gepakt op verdenking van drugs/doping gebruik. Dus alleen Ullrich terwijl ruim de helft van de aanwezige doping gebruikte, dit vind ik echt niet kunnen. Ik wil overigens wel zeggen dat de Tour de France goed te rijden is zonder doping. Het is eigenlijk ook triest als je naar de medische wereld kijkt, tegenwoordig schrijven doctoren enorm veel middelen uit, je krijgt overal wat voor. Maar wielrenners mogen eigenlijk niets hebben. Wat ik ook bijna zeker weet is dat Lance Armstrong doping heeft gebruikt, hij werd in 1993 wereldkampioen en kreeg in 1996 teelbalkanker. Hoe kan iemand die zo jong is nou teelbalkanker krijgen? Ik denk dat het komt omdat hij grote hoeveelheden doping kreeg. Er zijn zoveel dingen waardoor je beter gaat rijden, ik noem anabolen en hormoonpreparaten. Doping is heel verleidelijk, vaak is de pakkans klein (vooral vroeger) dus dan gebruikte je doping. Vooral het vele geld heeft de sport naar de klote geholpen. Wat vindt u van dopinggebruik in het algemeen? Als je naar sporters in het algemeen kijkt, vooral in het voetbal, zijn ze enorm gespierd en erg groot. Ik denk niet dat dit alleen komt door training, ze moeten wel wat gebruiken, waarschijnlijk zijn het anabolen. Het grote geld dat er tegenwoordig in de topsport rondgaat doet rare dingen met mensen. Ik zal hier ook een voorbeeld van geven. Jaren geleden werden er een heleboel sporters aangesproken. Zij kregen een vraag voorgeschoteld gekregen: Ik kan van jou een olympisch kampioen maken, maar dan moet je wel enorm veel pillen waar je binnen 5 jaar van dood kunt gaan, zou je het doen? Deze vraag werd door 72% beantwoord met ja! Dit zegt toch wel iets over hoe graag mensen willen winnen en waarom ze naar doping grijpen. Het is geen goede zaak maar veel sporters kijken vooral naar de voordelen. Gebruikte u veel stimulerende middelen (geen doping) maar drankjes, suikers en dergelijke in uw carrià ¨re? Ja, dit moet wel want dat is essentieel. Ik at tijdens mijn wielercarrià ¨re veel rijstevla, glucosetabletten, bananen en heel veel suiker. Je moet wel veel eten anders red je het niet en kun je niet meer verder, je kunt namelijk de hongerklop krijgen. Dan wordt alles zwart en ben je niet meer in staat om fatsoenlijk te rijden. Wat heeft u allemaal meegemaakt met doping tijdens uw prof wielercarrià ¨re? Wij kregen veel spullen aangeboden maar er werd zelden of nooit gecontroleerd. Ik heb in mijn carrià ¨re niet meegemaakt dat renners bewusteloos raakte of overleden door doping. Heeft u er wel eens aan gedacht zelf doping te gebruiken en zo ja waarom en wat voor soort doping? Ja, ik wilde beter presteren daarom heb ik doping gebruikt. Iedere profsporter wil zo goed mogelijk presteren, dit ten koste van bijna alles. Je leeft echt als het ware voor je sport, de rest komt pas op de tweede plaats. Ik heb niets over mijn dopinggebruik te verbergen, ik vind het juist goed dat ik het eerlijk toegeef. De mensen w