The Invisible Hand and Utility Remain Relevant Influencing Marketing Theory Consumer Behavior

The invisible hand continues to influence marketing theory consumer buyer behavior. Utility will continue to be an important element in marketing theory and particularly consumer buyer behavior. Interestingly, consumer behavior is no longer constrained by traditional human behavior. Free markets, unparalleled technological computing power, low costs of capital and access to interpret infinite data sets will continue to fuel consumer buyer behaviors. Global leader’s awareness of market evolution will continue to loosen the choke hold via taxation, subsidy, and oppression expanding reach of all goods and services within the global economy

The uses of process modeling : a framework for understanding modeling formalisms

There is wide-spread recognition of the urgent need to improve software processes in order to improve the performance of software organizations. Process models are essential in achieving understanding and visibility of processes and are important for other uses including the analysis of processes for improvement. It has been increasingly difficult to compare and evaluate the variety of process modeling formalisms that have appeared in recent years without a clear understanding of precisely for what they will be used. The contribution of this paper is to provide an understanding and a fairly comprehensive catalog of the applications of process modeling for which formalisms may be used. The primary mechanism for doing this is a guided tour of the literature on process modeling supplemented by recent industrial experience. In the paper, basic definitions concerning processes, process descriptions and process modeling are reviewed and then uses of process modeling are surveyed under the following headings: communication among process participants, construction of new processes, control of processes, process· analysis, and process support by automation. Comments are offered on paradigms for process modeling formalisms and directions for future work to permit evolution of a discipline of process engineering are given

Reconsidering Pitch Centricity

Analysts commonly describe the musical focus upon a particular pitch class above centricity. But this seemingly simple concept is complicated by a range of factors. can be understood variously as a compositional feature, a perceptual effect arising from or listening strategies, or some complex combination thereof. Second, the relation the theoretical construct of tonality (in any of its myriad conceptions) is often not consistently theorized. Finally, various musical contexts manifest or evoke pitch centricity in seemingly and to differing degrees. This essay examines a range of compositions by Ligeti, Carter, and others to arrive at a more nuanced perspective of pitch centricity - one that takes perceptual foundations, recognizes its many forms and intensities, and addresses its tonal structure in a given composition

Practical and Philosophical Reflections Regarding Aural Skills Assessment

Assessment in aural skills courses is a tricky intersection of instructors’ expectations, students’ skills in audiation, students’ perceptions and anxieties regarding assessment and performance, and the peculiarities of evaluative instruments. After several years in my teaching position at a large university, I became increasingly dissatisfied with assessment in the second-year aural skills program I coordinate. In short, I was displeased both with the nature of the student activities we evaluated and with the ways in which success on those activities was measured. Students’ and instructors’ frustrations convinced me of the need to make assessment more obviously relevant, less intimidating to students, and more reflective of students’ success in mastering the skills we hope to foster. My hope in sharing the problems I identified, and my responses to them, is to inspire introspection about what our aural skills assessment methods actually measure, the expertise we intend for students to gain from this part of their music studies, and the potentially dangerous distance between these two things. I must acknowledge in advance that, throughout this article, I presume an orthodox approach to collegiate aural skills instruction. Such an approach provides students with strategies for completing common audiation activities such as melodic and harmonic dictation and sightsinging, alongside in-class practice employing these strategies. Students’ mastery of audiation skills is tested periodically with dictation activities (i.e., quizzes and/or exams) and singing activities (i.e., “hearings” or “audits”), student performance on these activities is measured with an assessment tool, and the measurement becomes a basis for students’ grades in the class. It would be disingenuous to imply that this model is the only way in which an aural skills curriculum could work, or that it is without its faults. But rather than attacking this broad-stroked outline, which mirrors normative curricular practice at a great many American postsecondary schools that offer music degrees (including my own), in this essay I will consider closely the role and makeup of assessment activities in this model. Doing so can strengthen the student outcomes of such programs—and our measurements of those outcomes—without upsetting the entire curricular apple cart

The Demographic and Morphological Characteristics of Black Bears in the Smoky Mountains

Data on age, sex, body measurements, survival, and reproductive condition were collected from 1702 black bears (Ursus americanus) trapped in the Smoky Mountains (SM), 1972-1989. The age structure suggested a lightly to moderately exploited bear population. Bears of Great Smoky Mountain National Park (GSMNP or Park) were significantly (P = 0.026) older (mean = 4.52 yr) than those of Pisgah (3.86 yr) National Forest (P \u3c 0.076). SM females had a mean minimum reproductive age of 4.2 yr, birth interval of 2.4 yr, and litter size of 2.0 cubs. The percentage of lactating females was significantly associated with age (X2 = 20.6, 2 df, P \u3c 0.001), and lactation rates were significantly related to white oak mast production (r2 = 0.51, P \u3c 0.01). The annual mortality rate was 26% and was lowest for Park bears (22%) and highest for those of the national forests (30%). Density ranged from 0.09 to 0.35 bears/km2, and the intrinsic rate of growth (2-11%) indicated a slightly to moderately increasing population. Both extrinsic and intrinsic factors govern the population. Food is the chief control of bear reproduction. Hunting mortality appears to regulate the bears population in the national forests, and male aggression and subsequent subadult dispersal govern bear abundance of the less-exploited Park population. Given these factors, and the cumulative effects of inconsistent hard mast production, poaching, and a habitat threatened by the gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar), roads, and resort development, this bear population may be jeopardized. Gender was associated with the bear\u27s status (i.e., panhandler/wild) (panhandler: 60% male, wild: 54% male, P = 0.056). Wild male bears were significantly older than panhandler males (3.9 vs 2.9 yr, P = 0.0001); wild female bears were older than panhandler females (4.9 vs 3.7 yr, P = 0.004). Male and female panhandlers were significantly heavier than their wild counterparts (P \u3c 0.05), and panhandler bears grew faster than wild bears. The number of lactating females was significantly associated with status (P \u3c 0.001); 56% of the panhandler and only 33% of the wild females were lactating. Panhandlers were more fertile and larger than wild bears likely reflecting the panhandlers\u27 better access to and use of high-energy, human-made foods particularly during years of natural food shortage. Small amounts of these foods, the availability of which varies with panhandler bear management, appear to make differences in body size. Dispersal and the large home-range size of the males and subadults probably explain the propensity of these bears to become panhandlers. The above findings as well as differences in demographic characteristics among wild bears within the Smoky Mountains are further discussed as they relate to the nutritional qualities of the environment. Neck and chest circumferences and total length were significant (P \u3c 0.0001) predictors of body weight. The predictive capabilities of these variables were reliable, especially at the low0to-mid range of bear weights. This predictive relationship should ease the collection of weight data on black bears in the Smoky Mountains

The Structure and Genesis of Copland\u27s \u3ci\u3eQuiet City\u3c/i\u3e

Aaron Copland’s Quiet City (1940), a one-movement work for trumpet, cor anglais, and strings, derives from incidental music the composer wrote for an unsuccessful and now forgotten Irwin Shaw play. This essay explores in detail the pitch structure of the concert work, suggesting dramatic parallels between the music and Shaw’s play. The opening of the piece hinges on an anhemitonic pentatonic collection, which becomes the source of significant pitch centres for the whole composition, in that the most prominent pitch classes of each section, when taken together, replicate the collection governing the music’s first and last bars. Both this principle and the exceptions to it suggest a correspondence to the internal struggles of Shaw’s protagonist, Gabriel Mellon. In addition, Quiet City offers a distinctive opportunity to observe the composer’s assembly of a unified tonal structure. Sketch study makes it possible to observe the composer altering his original material in ways that reinforce tonal connections across the span of the piece

Reconsidering Pitch Centricity

Analysts commonly describe the musical focus upon a particular pitch class above centricity. But this seemingly simple concept is complicated by a range of factors. can be understood variously as a compositional feature, a perceptual effect arising from or listening strategies, or some complex combination thereof. Second, the relation the theoretical construct of tonality (in any of its myriad conceptions) is often not consistently theorized. Finally, various musical contexts manifest or evoke pitch centricity in seemingly and to differing degrees. This essay examines a range of compositions by Ligeti, Carter, and others to arrive at a more nuanced perspective of pitch centricity - one that takes perceptual foundations, recognizes its many forms and intensities, and addresses its tonal structure in a given composition

Brazil; Our Economic Partner: A Study of Brazil and the Future of our Trade

This 62 page thesis examines Brazil\u27s history, resources, industrialization and relations with the United States