Heart Rate Changes In Different Genders Physical Education Essay

Heart Rate Changes In Different Genders Physical Education Essay This report sets out research based on prior experience and literature carrying out the study of relations between exercise and respiration eventually resulting in variation in pulse rate. In essence the research proposal seeks to understand more about the effect and cause relationship to come out with precise results. The report details the methodological issues connected with the research and it explores the choices and assumptions necessary in planning the research. The aim of the study was to see the effect of age and gender on pulse rate variation in response to exercise. For this investigation we made sure the practical is safe because we would not do things that would affect people and also we would not be dangerous to others. We needed to use pulse-meter to check pulse rate down every finding. In our research it was expected that the pulse rate would increase during the time of exercise and also the breathing rate would be faster than normal and that gender and age would affe ct the pulse rate of people. The weights (dumbles) were given to the subjects to use for five minute and one of us assisted them to make sure they used the weights properly. The pulse rate was noted down before the experiment with the help of pulse meter and was recorded again after carrying out the five minute round of exercise with the weights. The ages and gender were also noted. The results of the experiment proved that the pulse rate increased by a substantial amount after the exercise had been completed and that females had a higher pulse rate than men. Moreover, it was seen that age mens ages increase, their pulse rate increases and there was no correlation between females ages and their pulse rates. This experiment tests the effects of age, gender and exercise on pulse  rate. Pulse rate represents the beating of the heart, specifically the  ejection of blood from the left ventricle to the general circulation of the body.  Before the start of exercise, your pre-exercise heart rate usually  rises  above normal, and this is called an anticipatory response. During  exercise, respiration increases based on the amount of activity being  done. When exercise is being completed, there is an increased demand  for gas exchange, due to the circulatory system being under continuous  stress. Oxygen consumption increases rapidly, as well as carbon dioxide  production.  Regular exercise also produces changes in circulation. The blood flow  to working muscles increase, and this means that more oxygen and  energy can be delivered to the muscle cells. Blood volume and the  number of red blood cells also increase with this large flow, and  oxygen  levels rise conside rably.  In our experiment we have decided to test a type of exercise;  use of weight (dumbles). This will affect various parts of the body and is designed  to  build up stamina and keep a regular heart beat. Objective This experiment aims to discover how exercise can  affect the pulse rate of any given individual by testing their pulse  rate after different amounts of exercise and how gender and age affects the pulse rate. Literature Review Research has shown that the pulse rate of men is slower than the pulse rate for women. Different researches have been conducted on the effect of exercise on the health of human being. The studies were intended to examine the influence of exercise on pulse rate, heart rate and fitness of people. Experts from cardiac health suggest that the best way to keep hearts healthy is a balanced diet, avoiding smoking, and regular exercise. Exercise that is good for your heart elevates your heart rate. The American Heart Association recommends to do exercise that increases your heart rate to between 50 and 75% of your maximum heart rate. They recommend getting at least 30  minutes of exercise on most days of the week (AHA, 2006). The American Heart Association also suggests that pulse rate for woman is considered normal if it is between 70-80 beats per minute. However, pulse rate may be affected by variables such as age, sex, physical fitness, some drugs/medication, genetics and anxiety. A study of (WebMD Medical Reference from Healthwise) revealed that your pulse changes from minute to minute. It will be faster when you exercise, have fever or when you are under stress. It will be slower when you are taking rest. The institute also did an experiment to see the pulse rate difference in males and females. The results of the experiment were that the pulse rate of the females was in fact higher than the male pulse rate by six beats.   The overall female average was 85 beats per minute and the overall for males was 79 beats per minute. Scott Roberts, Ph.D., FACSM, FAACVPR, is an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Education and Exercise Physiology at California State University, Chico. His primary area of expertise is Clinical Exercise Physiology. He has authored and co-authored 10 fitness and exercise science books and over a hundred articles and chapters in books. His studies tell that women have a higher Heart Rate response than men. This response compensates for the lower stroke volumes women have compared to men. The average amount of blood pumped out of the heart per minute is referred to as cardiac output. Another research by the American Journal of hypertension concluded that there was no influence of the exercise on pulse rate, blood pressure level and rates of hypertension of the elderly population of ages 50 and above. But the research showed that regular exercise can develop better health and fitness in the younger population. According to (Silverstein, Alvin Dr., et al, The Circulatory System Canada; Fitzhenrey and Whiteside Ltd.  1994), age also affects the pulse rate.   The usual pulse rate for a baby embryo is 150 b.p.m. (beats per minute).The average pulse rate of an infant140 b.p.m and 90 b.p.m in seven years old.   A man from 30-40 years old usually has a pulse rate of approximately 72 b.p.m; this differs from 76-80 b.p.m for a woman of the same age.   Elderly people have the lowest of the other age groups, which is around 50-65 b.p.m.   Women usually have higher pulse rates than men.   Another difference among pulse rates is physical activity. Exercising, such as playing sports, speed your pulse rate up and almost double the speed of your heart.   A study from Brigham and Womens Hospital also conveys the message that the human health can be judged by four vital signs which are Pulse rate, Body temperature, Respiration rate and the Blood pressure. All of these signs can be controlled and regulated by doing regular exercise. Like all other researches Texas Heart Institute also came up with a thought that exercise can help your body in many ways. Aside from helping you to keep a healthy body weight, exercise increases your mobility, protects against bone loss, reduces your stress levels and pulse rates, and helps you feel better about yourself. And research has shown that people who exercise are less likely to develop heart disease, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol levels. People of any age or fitness level can benefit from some type of exercise, be it running, walking, ballroom dancing, water aerobics, gardening, or any activity you choose. A study from NEMA (National Emergency Medicine Association) shows that many athletes have pulse rates in the 40 60 range depending on how fit they are. In general a lower pulse rate is good and exercise programs helps doing so. In addition to that declines will be seen in resting heart rate, blood pressure, and stress levels as well. Overall body changes will also be experienced including weight loss and increase of lean body mass. Hypothesis Development Null Hypothesis H0 = There is no relationship between the age, gender and pulse rate. HO: p à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚   0 Alternative Hypothesis HA = There is a relationship between the age, gender and pulse rate. HA: p = 0 Theoretical Framework The dependent variable here is the pulse rate which changes when exercise is carried out. So, exercise, gender and age are the independent variables which can be manipulated to determine the change in pulse rate. Some intervening variable also interrupt the independent variable and create a discrepancy in the results. Identification of Variables Independent Exercise Age Gender Dependent Pulse Rate Intervening variables Such as illness, faulty tools etc. DIAGRAM Dependent Variable Independent Variables Age Gender Exercise Pulse Rate Intervening Variables illness, faulty tools Methodology Nature Of study the nature of the study is hypothesis testing. Data Collection The data for our research was obtained through experiment and some secondary sources of information, which included internet articles, journals and books. Population Our target population consisted of males and females living in Lahore. Sample The sample comprises of 1070 people, half males and half females. Instruments The instruments used were two dumbles weighing 5 kg each, a stopwatch and a pulse meter. Procedure: The methodology was based on field Experiment research. 1070 people (half males and half females) were approached in different parks and market areas of Lahore. Convenience sampling was used i.e(willing people were chosen to be a part of the experiment). Their pulse rates were recorded before exercise. They were each asked to use lift two weights of 5 kg each for five minutes. Their pulse rate after the exercise was then recorded using the pulse meter. Their age and gender was recorded. The results were then recorded in SPSS and conclusions were drawn based on the collected results. Reliability The reliability of the instruments was ensured through test-retest method. For test-retest reliability method five males from the sample were chosen. Their pulse rate before exercise was recorded twice after a time interval of two minutes. The results obtained in both the attempts co-related to a high degree (Co-efficient=0.87). Validity The content validity is ensured since the pulse meter is measuring the pulse of a person per minute. Results The results of the experiment are as follows: Descriptives: The results show that the mean values of pulse rate in males are lower than the mean values of the pulse rate in females. This shows that females have a higher pulse rate than men. The results also prove that the pulse rate increases after exercise, as the means of the pulse rates before exercise are lower than the means of the pulse rates after exercise. N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Without Exercise male 1070 55 105 85.09 10.227 With Exercise male 1070 82 144 116.03 13.118 Valid N (listwise) 1070 N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation With Exercise Female 535 96 144 120.41 10.060 Without Exercise Female 535 70 105 92.19 6.373 Valid N (listwise) 535 Correlation: The table below shows a weak positive correlation between age of males and their pulse rate without exercise. This means that as the ages of males increase, their pulse rate increases. The value is significant. Age Without Exercise pulse Age male Pearson Correlation 1 .270(**) Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 535 535 Without Exercise pulse males Pearson Correlation .270(**) 1 Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 535 535 ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). The table below shows that there is almost no correlation between the age of females and their pulse rate without exercise. This means that the two variables are not related. Age Female Without Exercise pulse Age Female Pearson Correlation 1 .043 Sig. (2-tailed) .317 N 535 535 Without Exercise pulse female Pearson Correlation .043 1 Sig. (2-tailed) .317 N 535 535 Graphical representation of results Discussion We are of the view that when the body is exercising the muscles respire to  produce energy, so the muscles can contract. Oxygen is needed for this  process; the oxygen is carried in the hemoglobin of the red blood  cell. The heart and lungs need to work harder in order to get a  greater amount of oxygen to the muscles for respiration. In muscle cells digested food substances are oxidized to release energy. These  oxidation reactions are called cellular respiration. When muscles use  oxygen in order to respire the process is called aerobic respiration:  The heart rate rises because during exercise, cell respiration in the  muscles increases, so the level of carbon dioxide in the blood rises.  Carbon dioxide is slightly acid; the brain detects the rising acidity  in the blood, the brain then sends a signal through the nervous system  to the lungs to breathe faster and deeper. Gaseous exchange in the  lungs increases allowing more oxygen into the circulatory syst em and removing more carbon dioxide. The brain then sends a signal to the  senatorial node to make the heart beat faster. As a result the heart  rate would rise.  The length of exercise is  increased; the number of beats per minute will rise. The number of  beats per minute rises steadily because the amount of exercise is gradually increased. The heart reacts to this by increasing the number  of times per minute that it beats so that the muscles have enough  oxygen and glucose to work with the greater amount of exercise. In a trial the body temperature of the  exerciser will rise. The heat of the body will increase the heart  rate which will adversely affect our results, making them less  accurate and reliable. We cannot control if the body heats up during  exercise, only to the extent of using a fan to cool the epidermis of  the skin which would lower the temperature of the blood, thus reducing  the bodys core temperature. This would then keep the heart ra te at a  more natural level when a sample will be exercising. The intervening variables which may act at the point of time and are hard to calculate may affect the findings but we are trying to minimize the chance of error by taking measures. Although exercise increases pulse rate, age and gender definitely have an impact on it also. We saw that as age in men increases, their pulse rate also increases, whereas in females, there is no correlation between the age and pulse rates. Moreover, the mean values of pulse rates for females are higher than the mean values of pulse rates for men. Acknowledgements Our debt to people who have supported us in this whole project is enormous. We highly appreciate their complete support, interest, patience and lucid explanations. We highly appreciate the coordination of individuals most of whom we didnt know who cooperated and showed their consent to complete our research. We are really thankful to Mr. Humair Hashmi who taught and led us to the path of attaining a successful Research. References http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL_udi=B7CVK-4HCDTJ6-3_user=10_rdoc=1_fmt=_orig=search_sort=d_docanchor=view=c_acct=C000050221_version=1_urlVersion=0_userid=10md5=c933d0d1170fe63eac5d49a773503097 www.coursework.info//Investigation_to_see_the_effect_of_exerc_L47472.html wiki.answers.com//Why_is_the_pulse_rate_high_after_exercise   www.studentcentral.co.uk//Investigation_to_see_the_effect_of_exerc_L100012.html http://www.cheathouse.com/essay/essay_view.php?p_essay_id=91613 www.jstor.org/stable/80790   http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/science/sci5a/sci5aq7?view=get http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=1fid=793376jid=ECPvolumeId=2issueId=04aid=793364 www.tki.org.nz/r/science/science/isact_pulse_rates_e.php   http://www.molecularstation.com/research/effect-of-exercise-and-massage-on-the-pulse-rate-arterial-pressure-and-electrocardiogram-in-patients-during-cardiological-rehabilitation-after-myocardial-infarction-5767998.html http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=121764 lose-5-pounds.homeunix.net/effect-of-exercise-on-pulse-rate-pulse-rate.htm ccgi.dcpmicro.plus.com//files/pdf//exercise%20pulse%20rate.pdf   www.patentstorm.us/patents/RE40401.html www.sd67.bc.ca/schools/salc/biology%2012//bplab.pdf   www.umm.edu//what_effects_does_exercise_have_on_other_conditions_000029_8.htm www.deniseallen.org/images/lecture/module3/bplab001.pdf www.8starshop.com//exercise-stop-watch-calorie-heart-pulse-rate-counter.html jp.physoc.org/content/76/1/39.full.pdf http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Exercise-Stop-Watch-Calorie-Heart-Pulse-Rate-Counter_W0QQitemZ250512726867QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxq20091012?IMSfp=TL091012157003r8163 AHA, 2006. Target Heart Rates, American Heart Association [accessed June 20, 2006 http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4736. WebMD Medical Reference from Healthwise http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/pulse-measurement American Journal of Hypertension http://www.nature.com/ajh/journal/v18/n4s/abs/ajh2005608a.html Brigham and womens Hospital http://brighamandwomens.staywellsolutionsonline.com/Library/Encyclopedia/85,P00866 Texas Heart Institute http://www.texasheartinstitute.org/HIC/Topics/HSmart/exercis1.cfm NEMA (National Emergency Medicine Association) http://www.nemahealth.org/programs/healthcare/heart_rate_pulse.htm

1-Year Marketing Plan Essay

Introduction This one-year strategic marketing plan for Great Gaming Graphics (3G) has been created by its founder to obtain additional private funding for the company. Great Gaming Graphics has been launched two years ago and the discrete graphic chip prototypes that got developed during this time shows great promise, offering computer gaming graphic speeds in excess of 220% compared to the competition. The prototypes have been put on graphic card reference boards for standard PC’s and distributed to PC Gaming Review sites, PC Gaming magazines and PC Game companies for testing/review purposes and the reception was extremely positive. Alongside with this the Gaming Review Sites and Magazines published their findings in their publications and the reception of the general public (through letters, blogs) has been extremely enthusiastic. The next step in the process is to bring the prototype to market (expected launch is Q3 2015 and evaluate entry into new markets (mobile and High Performance Computing) See more:  The Story of an Hour Literary Analysis Essay Mission Statement Great Gaming Graphics mission statement is as follows: â€Å"The best Gaming experience in the world. Period!!!!!!!† The Product  3G has developed graphic chips for the PC gaming market. The graphic chips (lower end model 3G100 and higher end model 3G200) offer substantially higher frame rates per second with the maximum feature set enabled (Anti-Aliasing at maximum) than the competition. The experience for the video gamer is that games can run with live like graphic experience on large resolution screens (including 4K screens) without any stutter of the motion (at least 60hz up to 4K resolution). Consumer Product Classification Gaming Graphics Cards are shopping products. Consumer usually spend 1-3 month researching the product they are looking at buying and replace their cards within 12-36 month, depending if they are hardcore or casual gamers. Gamers usually have a graphic chip brand affiliation (either AMD or NVidia), but will sway to another brand if the performance is at least 20% higher for  the same price. Graphic Cards are usually ordered through online retail outlets like Amazon, Newegg and TigerDirect. Target Market The target market for the 3G products are computer gamers (Males in the age group 14-50 years old), PC/Notebook OEM’s (HP, Dell, Lenovo, ASUS, MSI etc.) and Graphic Card Manufactures. The gaming market represents at least 100 Mio people globally, based on the best-selling computer games ever sold. The target audience for the product is split into three distinctive groups: The Casual Gamer The term â€Å"casual gamer† is often used for gamers who primarily play casual games, but can also refer to gamers who play less frequently than other gamers. Casual gamers may play games designed for ease of gameplay, or play more involved games in short sessions, or at a slower pace than hardcore gamers. The types of game that casual gamers play vary, and they are less likely own a dedicated video game console. The casual gamer represents approx. 80% of the gaming market. The casual gamer will upgrade his gaming experience from build-in graphics (at time of purchase of the PC/Laptop), if the price is low enough to justify the upgrade. The price a casual gamer is willing to pay for a better gaming experience is up to $50. Mainstream Gamer A mainstream gamer is a player with a wider range of interests than a casual gamer and is more likely to enthusiastically play different types of games, but without the amount of time spent and sense of competition of a hardcore gamer. The mainstream gamer enjoys games but may not finish every game they buy and doesn’t have time for long MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) quests. The mainstream gamer represents approx. 15% of the gaming market. The mainstream gamer will seek out the best bang for the buck regarding his/her gaming experience and is willing to spend up to $200 for a graphic card. Hardcore Gamer A hardcore gamer is a player that spends the majority of his/her free time with gaming. The hardcore gamer is very competitive, often owns the latest high-end technology (High-End PC’s, Consoles, Multi-Monitor Setup, 7.1 Sound  System etc.), are very technology savvy and often seek out and participate in gaming communities. The hardcore gamer represents only about 5% of the gaming market, but a large part of the earnings for the gaming hardware producers, because the margin of the high-end products are substantially higher than in the other categories. The hardcore gamer will seek out the best performing product, no matter what the price is. Some hardcore gamers install up to 4 graphic cards (with a total price of up to $3000 for the Graphic System alone) to have the best gaming experience possible (very high resolution across multiple screens and all graphic options enabled for the best experience) Competitive Situation Analysis Analysis of Competition using Porter’s 5 Forces Model Competitive Rivalry The discrete PC graphic card market generates approx. $6 billion revenue annually on a global scale. The two competitors in this market are AMD (Radeon) and Nvida (GEForce) with a roughly equal market share of about 20% each. Even though Intel is considered to be the market leader in PC graphics, they only have CPU embedded graphics with low performance/features and are currently not considered a competitor. NVidia has recently released an upgraded product line (Mainstream to High-End), with performance increases of approx. 20% across the product line and power reduction of approx. 25% compared with the previous models. Pricing got slightly reduced within the classification of their products (~$200 Mainstream, ~$300 Enthusiast, ~$600 High-End) to gain market share against its only competitor who hasn’t upgraded its product line yet. Nvidia is still producing its upgraded product line in a 28nm process and is not going to 20/16nm before the end of 2016. 3G’s current prototype is already produced in 20nm and is slated to be on 16nm at Q1/2016, which gives it an even greater greated competitive advantage over Nvidia, considering that smaller structures allow substantially faster performance of graphic chips while at the same time reducing power requirements. AMD’s current product line is still based on the three year old Graphics Core Next (GCN) design, which has been refined over the years but is clearly at its limit. Power consumption of AMD powered  graphic cards is almost twice of Nvidia’s and more than 4 times of the 3G prototype. 3G has a clear advantage against both competitors, considering that 3G’s high-end prototype is currently 220% faster than either competitor, with a power use advantage of at least 50% which results in not only a lower power bill for the end consumer of the graphic card but as well reduced cost for cooling components. Additionally the low power requirements allow the use of smaller and cheaper power supplies, which is going to reduce the overall cost of a PC gaming machine even further. One large advantage of the reduced power requirements is that the graphics chip can be used in the upcoming STEAMOS machines (small form factor PC gaming machines, which resemble video game consoles) without sacrifice to performance. Threat from New Entrants There is a potential that ARM (with Mali) and Qualcomm (Adreno) redesign their current SoC (System on a Chip) products and license it to third parties to produce discreet graphic chips. Both companies offer their current products only in the mobile market (Phone/Tablets), which is high volume with a substantially lower margin per chip sold than the discreet PC graphic market. Alongside with this, both companies are in a very good position to drive power requirements even further down, considering their experience with the low power requirement of battery operated systems like phones and tablets. Threat from Buyers The following two potential issues arise from an end customer perspective. 1. Competitive products catch up or exceed with 3G’s product performance at the same price point, which will lower the appeal for end-consumers to use the 3G product. 2. A change in gaming habits to games that don’t have the high graphic power requirements and therefor curbing demand for the overall discreet graphic chip market. Threat from Suppliers Considering the initial lower volume of the product for production in a Semiconductor Fab (TSMC, Samsung etc.) 3G might get bumped to a lower priority if larger customers of the Fab are asking for a larger part of the capacity, due to higher demand. There is a limited amount of Fab Capacity available and it is not easy to move to another Fab (ramp-up time approx. 6 month). Therefor the contracts with the Semiconductor Fab have to be structured in a way to have a guaranteed amount of product delivered (with penalties associated if not fulfilled) plus a contract  clause to allow ramp up of production by 10% on a monthly bas e. Once 3G is getting bigger, it might make sense to pursue a dual supplier strategy, with the advantage of not relying on a Single Fab to produce all graphic chips and the disadvantage alongside with this with not getting high enough volume discounts. Threat from Substitutes One potential issue arising in the future is that IGP (Integrated Graphic Processing) units that are part of a CPU (Intel, AMD and SoC’s) are becoming powerful enough to play the most demanding games and therefor a dedicated Graphic Chip is not going to be required anymore. At this stage this is not a threat for the next 3 years (according to 5 year roadmaps of potential CPU/SoC providers), but could certainly change in the future. It takes 2-3 years to develop a competitive product and there is usually enough advanced notice in the market that a new competitor is going to enter the specific segment. SWOT Analysis In this first paragraph, please introduce the SWOT analysis. For more information, see the recommended text. This section is laid out to summarize the analysis in a table, and is then followed by more detailed explanations of each item. Please see specific instructions in the four sections below the table. STRENGTHS *indicates core competency *Worldclass ASIC Engineering Team Experience of the Executive Management Team Strong capital base WEAKNESSES Only two Graphic Card Manufacturers signed up to produce Graphic Cards based on 3G chips No PC OEM relationships established yet No reputation yet OPPORTUNITIES Approaching the mobile market (Phones/Tablets), with either licensing the technology to SoC companies Finance the game development efforts of Independent Game Companies to focus their efforts specifically on the 3G product Develop out of the existing product a GPGPU, to be used in Supercomputers. THREATS Competition (AMD and NVdia) moving to new Fab technology faster than 3G, removing the advantage on the power front Competition launching new designs that are as efficient as 3G’s, but with the advantage of greater brand recognition Game Developers hitting a plateau with their new generation of games, that don’t require anymore improvements on the graphics card front Strengths 3G’s first strength is having a world-class ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) engineering team. The members of the team have on average 15 years’ experience in the field of development of low power and high performance ASIC and some of the members of the 3ZG engineering team have been instrumental on developing in the past key products in the graphics card market. The second strength of 3G is the extensive experience of the executive management team. The CEO of 3G used to serve as the president of AMD (direct competitor) for over 10 years. The Sr. Vice President of engineering was the head of engineering at 3DFX in 2001 and after the acquisition of 3DFX by NVidia, he served as the head of engineering products until joining 3G. The Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing has over 20 years’ experience in building rapid growth sales and marketing teams in seven companies. The third strength/advantage 3G has is its strong capital base. 3G got ove r the past 2 years funding from venture capital in excess of $175 million and currently still has $100 million in the bank, which at current and planned spending levels should sustain the company for another 30 month. Weaknesses The first weakness in 3G’s strategy is that 3G has only managed to sign-up two mid-tier Graphic Card Manufactures (EVGA and XFX). The Graphic Cards Manufactures use the reference boards 3G delivers and implement their own cooling solution plus additional tweaks to boost performance of the cards by 5%-10%. A large part of the Mainstream and Hardcore Gamers like to buy their graphic cards from the top graphic card companies (ASUS, MSI, GigaByte), due to the custom designs and extended warranties. This might limit the initial availability of cards in the market until 3G can sign-up the top graphic card companies as well. The second weakness in the strategy is that 3G has not established any relationships with PC OEM’s (Dell, HP, Lenovo etc.),  which will limit the initial exposure of the product to the mainstream and hardcore gaming user. 3G will start pursuing 6 month after the launch of the product the PC OEM’s, to start including the lower end 3G products in their offerings. The third weakness in the strategy is that 3G doesn’t has the reputation of the two main competitors. AMD and NVidia have both been in the graphic card marketplace for almost 20 years and the end consumer knows what to expect from both companies. 3G is new to the game and will need to build this reputation over time to gain the confidence of the gamers. Opportunities Additional opportunities persist for 3G in several areas that can be explored once 3G had a successful launch of its core product and got additional funding for development. The first opportunity is in the mobile market (phone/tablets). 3G is actively looking into creating reference designs for the mobile market that satisfy the unique requirements present (very low power, with fast performance). The big advantage of the mobile market is that the volumes of the market are extremely high (total annual volume in excess of 1 billion units) and 3G would only need to license the product to SoC companies (e.g. Samsung, MediaTek, Apple, Allwinner) versus getting into production as well. The second opportunity for 3G is the GPGPU (General Purpose Graphic Processing Unit) market, to develop cards that will power Supercomputers. The current prototype is already ahead of the completions (NVidia’s Tesla and Intel’s XEON Phi) and this is a very high margin, but low volume market that will give 3G additional market recognition. The third opportunities for 3G is to finance the game development of up-and-coming independent game developers to specifically optimize the games for the 3G product line. AMD (with Mantle) and NVidia (with PhysX) have been quite successful with the strategy to boost the sales volume of their products. Threats 3G wants to look at potential threats that can derail the strategy in the future and has identified the following three areas: The first threat is that 3G’s competitors are moving faster to a new fab technology than currently presented in their roadmap, which would allow them to come closer to 3G’s low power requirements and allows them as well to boost the performance of their current generation of graphic chips without redesign.  The second threat comes from 3G’s competitors launching radically new design concepts for their graphic cards, which are equal or better to 3G’s design. This would remove 3G’s current advantage entirely and 3G would potentially lose market share. The third threat not only for 3G but as well for 3G’s competitors comes from Gaming Developers hitting a plateau with their next generation of games, which won’t require anymore additional performance from graphic chips. The graphic chip market is largely driven by game developers putting graphic features in place that require substantial upgrades to older gaming platforms. One example of developers driving the graphics chip market was the release of Crysis by Crytek in 2007, which was not playable (with all graphic options enabled) even on high-end hardware available at the time. It took almost four years to have powerful enough graphic chips to be able to play the game with all options enabled, which gave the gamer an almost super realistic view. Market Objectives (launch Q3 2015) During the next year, 3G seeks to achieve the following objective using their marketing mix, including product, price, place (distribution), and promotion strategies. Successful launch of the 3G graphic chip/card on a global scale.

Internet Security Essay

During the past ten years, the intensiveness and variety of electronic financial transactions have increased dramatically. The last decade was characterised by the rapid spreading of financial transactions involving the use of online and/ or remote mechanisms. E-services and e-transactions have become an essential element of the postmodern technological reality. As the number of online financial services increases, so do the number and variety of security threats. Small and large companies are equally vulnerable to the risks of security breaches in various types of financial transactions. These threats are becoming more and more complex and can take full advantage of the existing network and application vulnerabilities. The current state of technology provides numerous solutions to the existing and emerging security threats; however, the success of the proposed countermeasures will depend on how well businesses realise the seriousness of the major security threats and are prepared to invest additional resources in the development and implementation of the complex security strategies. Security threats and statistical information: The current state of literature A wealth of literature was written about the most serious security threats and the financial losses which security breaches and various types of system vulnerabilities cause to large and small businesses. The period between 2006 and 2008 was marked with the slight decrease in the number of financial frauds and security breaches in financial operations: U. S. Federal Trade Commission asserts that frauds as a percentage of online revenue in the United States and Canada has decreased slightly over the past few years and stabilised at 1. 4 percent in 2008 (Paget 2009). Meanwhile, the losses caused by security breaches and financial fraud display a marked increase – in 2008 alone, the American market lost over $4 billion due to security breaches and financial frauds (Paget 2009). This is a 20 percent increase compared with 2008 (Paget 2009). Given the new trends in technology-related financial services and businesses’ striving to reduce their transaction costs, the development of new methods of e-payment and the use of open architectures will create new technological challenges for professionals and new fraud opportunities for hackers (Glaessner, Kellermann & McNevin 2002). The current state of literature provides the basic overview of the most serious security threats and proposes unique solutions businesses and individuals can take to address these threats. Financial transactions and security threats: what literature says The discussion of security threats in the context of e-financial transactions is one of the most popular topics in scholarly literature. Today, the rapid growth of wireless technology and the increasing role of wireless solutions in daily financial operations turn electronic security into the issue of the major public concern. Numerous authors tried to identify the most important security threats and to categorise them according to their severity and define the risks they pose to the stability of the financial e-flows. For example, Glaessner, Kellerman and McNevin (2002) state that the most frequent problems in the financial transactions arena include (a) insider abuse, (b) identity theft, (c) fraud, and (d) hacking. Cate (2005) concentrates on the discussion of identity-based fraud and suggests that account fraud, true identity fraud and synthetic identity fraud are the three most frequent forms of security threats in online financial transactions. In this context, Keller et al. (2005) seem the most objective and detailed in their observation of the existing security threats and financial transaction issues. According to Keller et al. (2005), the first generation of vulnerabilities started in the middle of the 1980s and took a form of boot viruses that affected computers and networks over the course of weeks; the next generation of viruses was spread by means of macros and e-mails. Denial-of-service attacks became prevalent in the middle of the 1990s and still present one of the basic problems in financial transactions domains (Keller et al. 2005). New types of threats include worms that affect individual and multiple computers and networks, and can easily self-replicate to infect large number of users (Keller et al. 2005). Trojans are used extensively to steal passwords or create back doors on computers, compromising network security (Keller et al. 2005). Keller et al. (2005) believe that the rapid expansion of spyware and malware are of particular concern to IT specialists and business people – these programmes are downloaded into computers without users’ knowledge or consent, typically run in the background, track personal information and execute damaging commands. Statistically, every PC contains approximately 27. 5 pieces of various malicious programmes (Keller et al. 2005). Fortunately, IT professionals actively work to develop effective countermeasures against the most sophisticated security threats. Financial transactions and security threats: Potential solutions Given that malware presents one of the most serious issues in the field of electronic financial transactions, numerous authors sought to offer their solutions to the problem. Vlachos and Spinellis (2007) provide an overview of the so-called Proactive malware identification system, which is based on the computer hygiene principles and demonstrates relative effectiveness in combating the risks of malware in financial transactions. Vlachos and Spinellis (2007) call the proposed algorithm PROMIS and base it on a peer-to-peer architecture; the choice of the P2P architecture is justified by the fact that P2P networks often become a propagation vector for various types of malicious software. The P2P architecture used by Vlachos and Spinellis (2007) contains two types of nodes, the member and the super nodes, and all nodes wishing to participate in the discussed P2P networks must authenticate themselves to the super nodes. PROMIS nodes generally fulfill the two basic types of operations – a Notifier daemon regularly checks the log files on the security applications, while a Handler daemon analyses the incoming rates from other peers of the group and computes a global malicious activity rate (Vlachos & Spinellis 2007). The researchers use experimental design to prove that the performance of the P2P group improves proportionately to the number of P2P members. Extensive simulations suggest that PROMIS has a potential to protect the operating networks from known and unknown worm activity (Vlachos & Spinellis 2007). That during virus epidemics PROMIS exploits only specific vulnerabilities and leaves all other systems intact is considered as one of the basic system’s benefits (Vlachos & Spinellis 2007). However, Vlachos and Spinellis (2007) are not the only professionals in the field of financial security. The fact is in that malware is often associated with denial-of-service attacks, which continue to plague the Internet. Malware substantially lower the bar for massive distributed denial-of-service attacks (Wang & Reiter 2008). Unfortunately, the current state of protection against DoS attacks is passive by nature and does not offer incentives to the owners of the Internet networks to protect their computers from the risks of malware (Wang & Reiter 2008). Wang and Reiter (2008) suggest that client puzzles be a potentially effective mechanism against DoS attacks in financial transactions. Client puzzles imply that â€Å"a client solves a computational puzzle for requesting service before the server commits resources, thereby imposing a massive computational burden on adversaries bent on generating legitimate service requests to consume substantial server resources† (Wang & Reiter 2008). End-to-end puzzles imply that each client bidding for a financial service from the Internet server must present his solution to a puzzle; meanwhile, the server will allocate its limited resources to the bidders who solve the most difficult puzzles (Wang & Reiter 2008). In this system, an adversary cannot seize the financial and informational resources of a victim without committing its own resources first (Wang & Reiter 2008). These systems are effective in mitigating DoS threats at all application layers and can be readily interoperable with various legacy systems (Wang & Reiter 2008). These, however, are unique technological solutions to the existing security threats. Other authors offer less sophisticated but no less effective ideas of how to deal with security threats in financial transactions. According to Corzo et al. (2008), Automated Banking Certificates (ABC) can be readily used to timely identify unauthorised financial transactions. In the current system of electronic transactions, a financial transaction is considered authentic if it (a) is performed by an authorised entity; (b) has not been altered since the moment it was generated; and (c) is not a replay of another valid transaction (Corzo et al. 2008). Unfortunately, current banking systems can identify non-valid and fraudulent transactions only by means of audit after the transaction took place; as a result, there is an urgent need to develop a mechanism which will trace and identify fraudulent transactions before and while they are taking place (Corzo et al. 2008). An ABC is a data structure which allows monitoring the relationships between various transactions within one workflow (Corzo et al. 2008). A complete ABC allows tracing operations within workflows that go beyond the boundaries of one financial institution, as long as their tasks are related (Corzo et al. 008). The use of ABC’s in the current system of financial transactions proves that the task of identifying an unauthorised user is absolutely achievable. The use of network smart cards is another potential solution to the existing and emerging security threats. A network smart card â€Å"is a smart card that is an Internet node and is accessible from the Internet† (Lu & Ali 2006). The Smart Card stores user information and provides this information only to the trusted client or server, as soon as the user authorises the service or transaction (Lu & Ali 2006). Smart cards are beneficial in the sense that they can create and maintain secure Internet connections with another Internet node, a web server or a web browser (Lu & Ali 2006). As long as the smart card sends selected user information directly to the service provider, this information does not go through the local computer and the threats of identity theft or similar security breaches becomes minimal (Lu & Ali 2006). Unfortunately, the effectiveness of these developments is yet to be discovered. Meanwhile, companies continue using more traditional solutions to their security issues. The current research suggests that AdAware and Spybot are the most common tools used by businesses to deal with such threats (Keller 2005). Moreover, despite the availability of effective tools that cost little or nothing at all, many businesses recognise that they do not use any spyware at all (Keller 2005). As a result, businesses either lose significant material resources or fail to timely identify the emerging threats. The case is particularly difficult with the so-called insider threats, when security threats are being born from within the business entity. For example, in 2008, the FBI alleged that a former Intel employee copied top secret documents that posed a threat to the future of the whole company and its business projects (Patel 2009). The cases when bank workers become the basic sources of the security threats and the initiators of the complex financial frauds are not rare. As a result, the success of financial transactions, their security, and the technical safety of consumers depends on how well companies realise the seriousness of the security threats and whether they are prepared to deal with them. The current state of technology provides numerous solutions to the security issues in financial transactions, and businesses can secure themselves from the potential risks and failures by using the proposed technological Internet solutions at low or no cost. Conclusion The past years have been marked with the rapid increase in electronic financial transactions. The use of online and/ or remote mechanisms in financial operations has already become an essential element of the daily business routine. Financial transactions are associated with numerous security threats, including identity fraud, insider abuse, and the use of malware and denial-of-service attacks to access and steal personal user information. The current state of literature provides numerous solutions and ideas, which businesses could use to address the existing and emerging security threats. Smart cards, automated banking certificates, and the use of client puzzles are just some out of many ways to address security threats in financial transactions. Unfortunately, businesses often neglect the existing technological opportunities and do not deem it necessary to use effective protection from the real security threats. As a result, the effectiveness and safety of financial transactions largely depends on how well businesses realise the seriousness of the discussed threats and are prepared to invest additional material resources in the development of effective security strategies and solutions.

The Nighttime Sky Holds Many Stars

The nighttime sky looks like it has millions of stars visible to observers. Thats because we live in a galaxy that has hundreds of millions of them. However, we cant really see all of them with the naked eye from our backyards. It turns out that the skies of Earth have, at most, around ten thousand stars that can be spotted with the naked eye. However, not everyone can see all the stars; they see only whats overhead in their own region. Light pollution and atmospheric hazes reduce the number of stars that can be seen even more. On average, however, the most anyone can really see (with very good eyesight and from a very dark viewing area) is around three thousand stars. People living in very big cities still see a few stars, while those in country areas away from lights can see more.   The best places to see stars are dark-sky sites, such as Canyonlands National Park or from onboard a ship in the middle of the ocean, or high in the mountains. Most people do not have access to such areas, but they can get away from most city lights by going out into the countryside. Or, if viewing from in the city  is someones only choice, they can pick an observing spot that is shaded from nearby lights. That increases the chances of seeing a few more stars.   If our planet was in a region of the galaxy with a lot more stars, chances are stargazers really WOULD see tens of thousands of stars at night. Our section of the Milky Way is, however, less well-populated than the core for example. If our planet could be in the center of the galaxy, or perhaps in a globular cluster, the sky would shimmer with starlight. In fact, in a globular cluster, we might never have dark skies! In the center of the galaxy, we might be stuck in a cloud of gas and dust, or perhaps be subjected to forces from the black hole at its heart. So, in a way, while our location in the outskirts of the Milky Way reveals fewer stars to stargazers, its a safer place to have a planet with dark skies.   Stargazing Among the Visible Stars So, what can be learned from the stars that observers CAN see? For one thing, people often notice that some stars appear white, while others are bluish, or orangey or reddish.   Most, however, appear to be a dull white.  Where does the color come from? The stars surface temperature gives a clue—the hotter they are, the more blue and white they are. The redder they are, the cooler they are. So, a blue-white star is hotter than a yellow or orange star, for example. Red stars are usually fairly cool (as stars go). Its important to remember, however, that a stars color isnt vivid, its more likely very pale or pearlescent. Also, the materials that make up a star (that is, its composition) can make it look red or blue or white or orange. Stars are primarily hydrogen, but they can have other elements in their atmospheres and interiors. For example, some stars that have a lot of the element carbon in their atmospheres look redder than other stars.   Figuring out Brightness of Stars Among those three thousand stars, observers can also notice differences in their brightnesses. A stars brightness is often referred to as its magnitude and thats simply a way to put numbers to the different brightnesses we see among all the stars. What affects that brightness? A couple of factors come into play. A star can look bright or dim depending on far away it is. But, it can also look bright because its very hot. Distance AND temperature play a role in magnitude.   A very hot, bright star that lies very far away from us appears dim to us. If it was closer,   it would be brighter. A cooler, intrinsically dim star might look very bright to us if it was very close by. Most stargazers are interested in something called visual (or apparent) magnitude, which is the brightness it will appear to the eye. Sirius, for example, is -1.46, which means that its quite bright. It is, in fact, the brightest star in our night sky. The Sun is magnitude -26.74 and is THE brightest star in our daytime sky. The dimmest magnitude anyone can detect with the naked eye is around magnitude 6.   The intrinsic magnitude of a star is how bright it is due to its own temperature, regardless of distance. Astronomy researchers are much more interested in this number since it gives some clue about conditions inside the star. But, for backyard stargazers, that figure is less important than visual magnitude.   While our viewing is limited to a few thousand stars (with the naked eye), of course, observers can seek out more distant stars using binoculars and telescopes. With magnification, new populations of stars widen the view for observers who want to explore more of the sky. Edited and expanded by Carolyn Collins Petersen.