Macaulay Honors College Essay - What You Should Look For

Macaulay Honors College Essay - What You Should Look ForWhat should you look for in a Macaulay Honors College Essay? A Macaulay Honor College essay is written for and given to the class president. While students read them they are an important part of the class. They provide motivation for the class president has to be able to take good care of them.First off, make sure the students are enthusiastic about their assignment. I see this sometimes where students get really excited about a project they are going to be working on but they never come up with any ideas and end up giving up after two weeks. The class should love what the students are doing so that when they do start writing they will be able to focus. The most important thing is to let the students know that they are the experts and the professor needs to respect that.Second, do not use extraneous information. Students do not need information that is not relevant. Even if it is on a side note. Also, make sure you don't have a lot of extraneous information because then it will be difficult to point out important information later on. If you write this way it will be more difficult to remember and understand.Third, try to use interesting facts that will keep the student's attention as long as possible without boring them out. You want to get as much information out of them as possible and in the process make the class as enjoyable as possible. It will also be easier to teach them once they read your paper if they are learning things that they already know.The main thing to do is to get started writing the paper as soon as possible. They need to know that you are in charge and that they are the ones who write the paper. This will show them that you care about them and they will respect you more. Let them know what they need to do, and go through the steps until they are done.The best way to begin is by looking at the topics on the essay. Get ready for them and make sure they are well thought out and compre hensive. Ask students how they would like to be addressed in the essay. Most students are good about telling you if they are happy or not with something. Now it is time to think about what you want to accomplish with the paper.Once you know what you want to accomplish with the essay, now is the time to start writing it. Make sure you write the essay and have students read it so that they can help to improve it. Then you can show them how to write an essay and some exercises that they can do. Make sure that the students who are reading the essay understand the important information so that they are not reading filler. Now is the time to ask them questions so that you can improve the essays and make them better.Remember that the entire process from choosing the topic, choosing the topic authors, getting students to help, getting the essay ready and finally having the essay read is fun. Make sure that you do not forget about them.

How to Write a Narrative Paper

How to Write a Narrative PaperA narrative paper is a paper that combines a thorough discussion of the subject matter in the essay, with a brief but well-researched and engaging summary of the author's own personal experience. There are many people who write narrative papers every year because they combine well-researched, important content, with an engaging and appealing summary.The purpose of the paper is to show how good writing skills can be translated into a great essay. A well-written paper can be considered excellent quality and can result in a high grade for your students, providing the audience has a strong base for evaluation.There are many elements to consider when writing a narrative paper. Here are some pointers to help you along the way.Writing in a style that will get the point across to the audience. Your narrative paper is not just about helping your audience to understand the subject, but also using the many different ways that you can tell a story, one that is compe lling and interesting.A successful narrative should have the skill to create interest and excitement. This is especially true if you are using a story that involves a lot of detail and personal detail. So, if you are going to include those elements in your paper, make sure that you explain the purpose of each detail in your essay.An appealing story must have a distinct voice and must reflect the writer's unique perspective on the topic. Make sure that you clearly explain what motivates the writing in your narrative.Another crucial point to consider is to keep the length short. The length should be one paragraph that is only a few lines long.As you can see, there are many elements to consider when writing a narrative paper. When you learn how to properly present your ideas, as well as how to create the right voice, you will have a far better chance of being an impressive essay writer.

Business Analysis Essay - 1650 Words

Business Analysis (Essay Sample) Content: NameCourseInstructorDateIntroductionThis paper tries to outline a marketing arrangement that will help notify the Irish community what Repak is and more so, what it does. It give details how to put into service an online multimedia communications campaign with emphasis on how to create a positive brand that will impact the minds of consumers. This essay begins with a thorough analysis of what Repak is as an environmentally friendly organization, and what its present external environment is like. Secondly, it identifies the internal situation at Repak by looking at its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). It then looks at the target market as well as the marketing mix.Finally, it will present several recommendations. Repak and Its External Environment: A PEST Analysis the Irish industry founded Repak in 1997, with the purpose of promoting recycling. Repak is a non-profit organization funded by the contributions of the members of the industry. Repak helps businesses comply with the requirements of the law with regard to the recovery and recycling of the items used for packaging the goods and services they sell. Repak does not do the recycling directly.Rather, it pays contractors and local authorities to facilitate the actual collection and recycling of the packaging materials used by Irish businesses. The following portrays a concise political, Social, technological, economic, and (PEST) investigation of Repak.PoliticallyRepak is in an exceptional position to maximize its associations with regional and national authorities. After all, it is helping businesses comply with the Waste Management (Packaging) Regulations of 2007 (Repak, n.d.). Local authorities are also bound to benefit from a relationship with Repak because they are being contracted to deal with the collection and actual recycling of the packaging of business products and services.EconomicThe economic outlook for Repak is also good. Businesses need to comply with t he Waste Management Regulations 2007. As such, they will need to communicate with Repak so that they can meet such regulations. This means that Repak is assured of clients that will use its services.SocialThe awareness of the importance of recycling is gaining more popular support amongst the citizens of Ireland and other countries. As such, companies that decide to become members of Repak will enjoy popularity, too.TechnologicalAlthough Repak does not directly engage in collecting and recycling packaging, the technology involved is continuously being developed, and Repak stands to gain from such innovations. One more thing, the Internet and the World Wide Web are also gaining popularity all over the world. Repak can also develop and use this technology to promote its message and its services. SWOT scrutiny of Repakà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬s online functionalities, Repak is using online media extensively. It has a website, which contains very useful information for people who visit the site. In addition to articles, it has videos, audio resources, as well as a blog. The following looks at the SWOT analysis of Repakà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬s online media.Toward the end, some recommendations will also be given for some improvement. Strengths Repakà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬s website looks inviting, and it utilizes earth colours thus giving credence to its pro-Earth advocacy and services. The website can be easily navigated even by a young user. In addition to text articles, the website contains videos that will capture the attention of its visitors.A quick check at also reveals that the Repak website, , has a high Google Page rank of 5/10, which means that it has high authority based on Googleà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬s algorithm.WeaknessesPerhaps one of the weaknesses is that Repak is maintaining a separate website for the promotion of awareness about the importance of recycling at Another weakness is that the Face book page of Repak relatively does not have a lot of fans. The purpose of Face book, and any social ne tworking site for that matter, is interaction. The Face book page of Repak, however, is full of updates from Repak, but there are not a lot of comments from other Face book users. That is certainly a weakness in Repakà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬s online presence.OpportunitiesThe world of online social networking is an underdeveloped area in Repakà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬s online media strategy. However, it can be maximized by the organization. It should identify the sites where it can maximize its impact. Another opportunity for Repak is to monitor news and blogs dealing with environmental awareness and recycling, and forge some form of online collaboration with them so as to maximize the impact of its online presence.ThreatsIf the Waste Management (Packaging) Regulations 2007 is removed, dissolved, or changed, then Repak might lose some of its possible client base in the market. Another threat is the presence of competitors, which could lure away other members of Repak.Target MarketAnalysis Repak has two kinds o f online audienceà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬one is the businesses that use packaging for their products and services and the other is common Irish folks at homes and schools. The previous kind of audiences can go to to learn about the services offered by Repak. The latter kind of audiences has to go to The kinds of action expected from each type of audience are also different. For businesses, the website intends for them to sign up with Repak to use its services. For the Recycle More website, the apparent intention is promotion of awareness amon...

Workplace Discrimination in the Canadian Police Essay

Police agencies are becoming more accustomed to hiring police officers of all cultures and ethnicities. However, like most careers an individual will choose to pursue there is always the possibility of them being discriminated against. A common type of discrimination police officers face is one based on their race or ethnicity. An officer is likely might experience racial discrimination in the form of harassment in the workplace. An example of this is a co-worker using racial slurs or unfavourable remarks towards an individual. Another form of discrimination in the workplace is the degrading of an individual based on their race or ethnicity, suggesting that their race or ethnicity is what got them here and not their hard work. Male and†¦show more content†¦An internal example of employment discrimination in the police workforce is the promotion of a male officer before a female officer, simply because he is a male. Even though the female officer does a better job than her counterpart and has superior credentials that are suitable for the promotion, there are still police departments out there that ignore these factors and give such promotions to male officer. Like employment discrimination, sexual discrimination is something both male and female officers’ face in the workforce, internally and externally. However, it is the female officer that is the more common victim to this rather than their male counterpart. An example of internal sexual discrimination would be a male officer telling there counterpart that â€Å"women have no right being in part of an organization that strongly relies on men to get the job done.† This may also be known as a form of sexual harassment toward a co-worker which is unacceptable in any job. An example of external sexual discrimination would be when a female officer arrives to the scene of a crime and the victim refuses to cooperate with them because of the fact that they were expecting assistance from someone of more masculinity, like a male officer. Ethically, if any of these scenarios were to happen to either gender of law enforcement, the best thing to do once more is set aside all emotions for the time being.Show MoreRelatedCode Of Ethics Within Policing1018 Words   |  5 Pagesthe York Regional Police and The Canadian Nurses Association. The York Regional Police Service, formed on January 1, 1971, is consisted of 14 municipal police departments as well as the York County Security Police. Relatively new, the York Regional Police continue a tradition of police service that spans more than (200) two hundred years. Since 1971, York Region has grown at an extraordinary rate and today, the communities of York Region are served by more than 1,364 full-time police professionals andRead MoreImproving Workplace Opportunities For Women1590 Words   |  7 Pagescreating anti-discrimination laws that have performed a critical role in expanding workplace opportunities for women. However, these laws failed to guarantee workplace equality since female workers still face discrimination through significant pay gaps for similar job duties, lack of representation in boards and high paying positions, and also face sexual harassment at the workplace. Reports reveal that women still have a long way to go to achieve equality for themselves in their workplaces. More thanRead MoreDiscrimination, Policies, And The Gender Wage Gap1088 Words   |  5 Pages Discrimination, Policies, and The Gender Wage-Gap   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   For decades, the gender wage-gap has been an ongoing issue in Canada. Since then, women’s rights have changed and allowed them to obtain career positions much like men. Although women have successfully fought for their rights, the issues of the gender wage gap, and sexist stereotypes continue in Canada. The Canadian Government needs to strengthen its discrimination policies so it can rectify and allow for equal opportunity, support parentalRead MoreCanadian Constitution Act of 19822240 Words   |  9 Pagesmyself thinking sociologically when I realized that equality in Canada is less practiced as what the Canadian Constitution Act of 1982 claims. In this constitution, it is stated that every individual should be treated equally regardless of their race, ethnicity, colour, religion, sex, age, and any disability; however, in reality, individuals experience inequality in the form of racism throughout the Canadian society. For instance, a few months a go, a black male was asked to leave the St. Laurent shoppingRead MoreThe Canadian Labor Market Of Canada1274 Words   |  6 PagesThere is a very strong emphasis on human rights systems and laws to address discrimination in Canada. Unfortunately simultaneously, Canadians also have a heritage of racism. It is not targeted only at Aboriginal persons, contrary to a common belief; it is also targeted towards other groups also, consisting of Chinese, African, South Asian, Japanese, Muslim and Jewish Canadians. Even today the Canadian structures and systems are affected by this legacy distressing the lives of everyone and especiallyRead MoreA Brief Note On Global Gender Inequality Issues1334 Words   |  6 PagesNations set a target that government should make strategies to empower women and reduce their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS Women are prohibited of ownership of land by families. United Nations passed Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEFDAW) which provided women with freedom and protected their rights especially towards the ownership of inheritance Women only earned 77% of wage for the same amount of work what men do. Gender inequality in Canada is not allowedRead MoreDiscrimination Against Older Workers During The Labor Market Across Canada1762 Words   |  8 PagesDiscrimination against older workers is one of the forbidden grounds of discrimination in the labour market across Canada. Age discrimination affects an older adult’s career, advancements, opportunities, and privileges in the labour market. Furthermore, older adults tend to be marginalized, institutionalized, and stripped of responsibility, power, and their dignity (Nelson 208). The Canadian population is aging rapidly and that changes in the population age structure have led to considerable discussionRead MoreSteps to Improving the Socioeconomic Conditions of the Aboriginal Population in Canada1177 Words   |  5 Pages 2000). The issue of poverty is not without resolve. Awareness programs can be set up to educate the aboriginal peoples of the need for education. Low income and subsequent poverty are attributed to the lack of proper education. The aboriginal Canadians should be encouraged to complete their studies to land employment and hence a source of income (Wilson and MacDonald, 2000). The government should be pushed into making quality education accessible to the aboriginal communities. This would involveRead MoreThe Black Lives Matter Movement2077 Words   |  9 Pagessocieties today. Racism and social inequality is present in regards to all skin colours, ethnicities and religions, however, in our modern western societies, racism is predominantly seen placed upon black African American citizens. In everyday Canadian community’s blacks are reputedly discriminated against though it may not always be face to face. In my essay I will discuss the Black Lives Matter movement and how it has educated and shined light onto the epidemic many of us thought was notRead MoreMidterm 1 Sample Multiple Choice Questions Essay1260 Words   |  6 Pages a) Women and visible minorities are victims of systemic discrimination which can be overcome by programs designed to increase diversity; b) Women and visible minorities are victims of systemic discrimination and are given special treatment under the law; c) Women and visible minorities are victims of systemic discrimination which justifies reverse discrimination; d) Women and visible minorities are given equal opportunity in the workplace through programs designed to increase diversity; e) Both

The Effects Of Air Pollution On The World - 1299 Words

Environmental Pollution Environmental pollution is a very serious problem in American and the world. Environmental pollution has many different faces from air pollution to water pollution. But the main one I am going to focus on is air pollution and how it affects us in a negative way. In this paper I am going to show you how air pollution can affect us and how it can affect the world. I am also going to show how we can prevent pollution from getting any more out of hand that it already has. According to the world health organization 8.9 million people die from air pollution every year. It is worst in the highly populated areas of the world such as Los Angeles, Mumbai, Beijing, and Cairo. Asthma has been increasing over the years because of air pollution and many other diseases has been linked to air pollution. The sources I am going to use as evidence of this silent killer are going to show how air pollution can affect someone in a negative way, who are the main victims of air pollution, and if there are anyways we can prevent air pollution from expanding and causing an even higher mortality rate. The main victims of air pollution are the children William Suk has a PHD in microbiology and is director of both the Center for Risk Integrated Sciences (CRIS), and the Superfund Research Program, as well as the chief of the Hazardous Substances Research Branch in the NIEHS Division of Extramural Research and Training. â€Å"Exposures to environmental pollutants during windows ofShow MoreRelatedThe Effects Of Air Pollution On The World1336 Words   |  6 Pagespropellants used to spray chemicals. The Industrial Revolution left an impact on the world far greater than just inventions and set forth a world of change. 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It compares all of the above with respect to pollution control as well as the expenses associatedRead MoreThe Effects Of Air Pollution On The World s Air899 Words   |  4 Pages Air pollution is a major issue in our general public nowadays. We run over it inside, when individuals have been smoking, and outside, where engine vehicle fumes contaminates the air. For quite a long time researchers have been cautioning us that contaminated air is a danger to our wellbeing. It appears these notice are not being taken intensely enough. In all actuality air contamination is deteriorating, particularly in populated societies. We should consequently make immediate move to advanceRead MoreOverview of Air Pollution1861 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction Air pollution remains one of the most urgent and serious problems facing the world today. Research studies conducted in the past have clearly indicated that in addition to harming the environment, the effects of air pollution on human health are particularly adverse. In this text, I discuss air pollution, its causes, and effects. Further, I propose solutions that could be embraced to rein in the problem of air pollution. Air Pollution: An Overview Air pollution in the words of MillerRead MoreEffects Of Air Pollution Essay855 Words   |  4 PagesNia Wilson The effects of Air pollution Environmental pollution is the key concern for the humanity. It does not have any borders each member of our planet is affected by its devastating effects. Air pollution is the main factor contributing to general environmental problems. It is the emission of particulates, harmful materials, and biological molecules in the Earth’s atmosphere and is caused by both human and natural factors. The effects of air pollution are shocking. 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Effective teaching free essay sample

In fall 2009, the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation launched the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project to test new approaches to measuring effective teaching. The goal of the MET project is to improve the quality of information about teaching effectiveness available to education professionals within states and districts— information that will help them build fair and reliable systems for measuring teacher effectiveness that can be used for a variety of purposes, including feedback, development, and continuous improvement. The project includes nearly 3000 teachers who volunteered to help us identify a better approach to teacher development and evaluation, located in six predominantly urban school districts across the country: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Dallas Independent School District, Denver Public Schools, Hillsborough County Public Schools (including Tampa, Florida), Memphis City Schools, and the New York City Department of Education. As part of the project, multiple data sources are being collected and analyzed over two school years, including student achievement gains on state assessments and supplemental assessments designed to assess higher-order conceptual understanding; classroom observations and teacher reflections on their practice; assessments of teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge; student perceptions of the classroom instructional environment; and teachers’ perceptions of working conditions and instructional support at their schools. The project is directed by Thomas J. Kane, Deputy Director and Steven Cantrell, Senior Program Officer at the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation. Our lead research partners include:  ¦Ã‚ ¦  ¦Ã‚ ¦  ¦Ã‚ ¦  ¦Ã‚ ¦  ¦Ã‚ ¦  ¦Ã‚ ¦  ¦Ã‚ ¦  ¦Ã‚ ¦  ¦Ã‚ ¦  ¦Ã‚ ¦  ¦Ã‚ ¦  ¦Ã‚ ¦  ¦Ã‚ ¦  ¦Ã‚ ¦  ¦Ã‚ ¦  ¦Ã‚ ¦  ¦Ã‚ ¦ Mark Atkinson, Teachscape Nancy Caldwell, Westat Charlotte Danielson, The Danielson Group Ron Ferguson, Harvard University Drew Gitomer, Educational Testing Service Pam Grossman, Stanford University Heather Hill, Harvard University Eric Hirsch, New Teacher Center Dan McCaffrey, RAND Catherine McClellan, Educational Testing Service Roy Pea, Stanford University Raymond Pecheone, Stanford University Geoffrey Phelps, Educational Testing Service Robert Pianta, University of Virginia Rob Ramsdell, Cambridge Education Doug Staiger, Dartmouth College John Winn, National Math and Science Initiative Introduction For four decades, educational researchers have confirmed what many parents know: children’s academic progress depends heavily on the talent and skills of the teacher leading their classroom. Although parents may fret over their choice of school, research suggests that their child’s teacher assignment in that school matters a lot more. And yet, in most public school districts, individual teachers receive little feedback on the work they do. Almost everywhere, teacher evaluation is a perfunctory exercise. In too many schools principals go through the motions of visiting classrooms, checklist in hand. In the end, virtually all teachers receive the same â€Å"satisfactory† rating. 1 The costs of this neglect are enormous. Novice teachers’ skills plateau far too early without the feedback they need to grow. Likewise, there are too few opportunities for experienced teachers to share their practice and strengthen the profession. Finally, principals are forced to make the most important decision we ask of them— granting tenure to beginning teachers still early in their careers—with little objective information to guide them. If we say â€Å"teachers matter† (and the research clearly says they do! ), why do we pay so little attention to the work they do in the classroom? If teachers are producing dramatically different results, why don’t we provide them with that feedback and trust them to respond to it? Resolving the contradiction will require new tools for gaining insight into teachers’ practice, new ways to diagnose their strengths and weaknesses and new approaches to developing teachers. In the Fall of 2009, the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation launched the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project to test new approaches to identifying effective teaching. The goal of the project is to improve the quality of information about teaching effectiveness, to help build fair and reliable systems for teacher observation and feedback. OUR PARTNERS Although funded by the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation, the MET project is led by more than a dozen organizations, including academic institutions (Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Stanford University, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, University of Virginia, and University of Washington), nonprofit organizations (Educational Testing Service, RAND Corporation, the National Math and Science Initiative, and the New Teacher Center), and other educational consultants (Cambridge Education, Teachscape, Westat, and the Danielson Group). In addition, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and Teach for America have encouraged their members to participate. The American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association have been engaged in the project. Indeed, their local leaders actively helped recruit teachers. 1 T he 2009 New Teacher Project study, The Widget Effect, found that evaluation systems with two ratings, â€Å"satisfactory† and â€Å"unsatisfactory,† 99 percent of teachers earned a satisfactory. In evaluation systems with more than two ratings, 94 percent of teachers received one of the top two ratings and less than one percent were rated unsatisfactory. Initial Findings from the Measures of Effective Teaching Project | 3 Yet, our most vital partners are the nearly 3000 teacher volunteers in six school districts around the country who volunteered for the project. They did so because of their commitment to the profession and their desire to develop better tools for feedback and growth. The six districts hosting the project are all predominantly urban districts, spread across the country: CharlotteMecklenburg Schools, Dallas Independent School District, Denver Public Schools, Hillsborough County Public Schools (including Tampa, Florida), Memphis City Schools, and the New York City Department of Education. THE THREE PREMISES OF THE MET PROJECT The MET project is based on three simple premises: First, whenever feasible, a teacher’s evaluation should include his or her students’ achievement gains. Some raise legitimate concerns about whether student achievement gains measure all of what we seek from teaching. Of course, they’re right. Every parent wants their children to build social skills and to acquire a love of learning. Likewise, our diverse society needs children who are tolerant. However, these goals are not necessarily at odds with achievement on state tests. For instance, it may be that an effective teacher succeeds by inspiring a love of learning, or by coaching children to work together effectively. We will be testing these hypotheses in future reports, using the data from our student surveys. For example, it may be possible to add measures of student engagement as additional outcome measures. This would be particularly useful in grades and subjects where testing is not feasible. Others have raised separate concerns about whether â€Å"value-added† estimates (which use statistical methods to identify the impact of teachers and schools by adjusting for students’ prior achievement and other measured characteristics) are â€Å"biased† (Rothstein, 2010). They point out that some teachers may be assigned students that are systematically different in other ways—such as motivation or parental engagement—which affect their ultimate performance but are not adequately captured by prior achievement measures. As we describe below, our study aspires to resolve that question with a report next winter. At that time, we will be testing whether value-added measures accurately predict student achievement following random assignment of teachers to classrooms (within a school, grade and subject). However, in the interim, there is little evidence to suggest that value-added measures are so biased as to be directionally misleading. On the contrary, in a small sample of teachers assigned to specific rosters by lottery, Kane and Staiger (2008) could not reject that there was no bias and that the value-added measures approximated â€Å"causal† teacher effects on student achievement. Moreover, a recent re-analysis of an experiment designed to test classroom size, but which also randomly assigned students to teachers, reported teacher effects on student achievement which were, in fact, larger than many of those reported in value-added analyses (Nye, Konstantopoulos and Hedges, 2004). Value-added measures do seem to convey information about a teacher’s impact. However, evidence of bias at the end of this year may require scaling down (or up) the value-added measures themselves. But that’s largely a matter of determining how much weight should be attached to valueadded as one of multiple measures of teacher effectiveness. 4 | Learning about Teaching Second, any additional components of the evaluation (e. g. , classroom observations, student feedback) should be demonstrably related to student achievement gains. The second principle is fundamental, especially given that most teachers are receiving the same â€Å"satisfactory† rating now. If school districts and states simply give principals a new checklist to fill out during their classroom visits little will change. The only way to be confident that the new feedback is pointing teachers in the right direction—toward improved student achievement—is to regularly confirm that those teachers who receive higher ratings actually achieve greater student achievement gains on average. Even a great system can be implemented poorly or gradually succumb to â€Å"grade inflation†. Benchmarking against student achievement gains is the best way to know when the evaluation system is getting closer to the truth—or regressing. Accordingly, in our own work, we will be testing whether student perceptions, classroom observations and assessments of teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge are aligned with value-added measures. Third, the measure should include feedback on specific aspects of a teacher’s practice to support teacher growth and development. Any measure of teacher effectiveness should support the continued growth of teachers, by providing actionable data on specific strengths and weaknesses. Even if value-added measures are valid measures of a teacher’s impact on student learning, they provide little guidance to teachers (or their supervisors) on what they need to do to improve. Therefore, our goal is to identify a package of measures, including student feedback and classroom observations, which would not only help identify effective teaching, but also point all teachers to the areas where they need to become more effective teachers themselves. Initial Findings from the Measures of Effective Teaching Project | 5 The Measures To limit the need for extensive additional testing, the MET project started with grades and subjects where most states currently test students. We included those teaching mathematics or English language arts in grades 4 through 8. In addition, we added three courses which serve as gateways for high school students, where some states are using end-of-course tests: Algebra I, grade 9 English, and biology. The following data are being collected in their classrooms. Measure 1: Student achievement gains on different assessments Student achievement is being measured in two ways, with existing state assessments and with three supplemental assessments. The latter are designed to assess higher-order conceptual understanding. By combining the state tests and the supplemental tests, we plan to test whether the teachers who are successful in supporting student gains on the state tests are also seeing gains on the supplemental assessments. The supplemental assessments are Stanford 9 Open-Ended Reading assessment in grades 4 through 8, Balanced Assessment in Mathematics (BAM) in grades 4 through 8, and the ACT QualityCore series for Algebra I, English 9, and Biology. Measure 2: Classroom observations and teacher reflections One of the most difficult challenges in designing the MET project was to find a way to observe more than 20,000 lessons at a reasonable cost. Videotaping was an intriguing alternative to in-person observations (especially given our aspiration to test multiple rubrics), but the project had to overcome several technical challenges: tracking both students and a non-stationary teacher without having another adult in the classroom pointing the camera and distracting children, sufficient resolution to read a teacher’s writing on a board or projector screen, and sufficient audio quality to hear teachers and students. The solution, engineered by Teachscape, involves panoramic digital video cameras that require minimal training to set up, are operated remotely by the individual teachers, and do not require a cameraperson. 2 After class, participating teachers upload video lessons to a secure Internet site, where they are able to view themselves teaching (often for the first time). In addition, the participating teachers offer limited commentary on their lessons (e. g. , specifying the learning objective). Trained raters are scoring the lessons based on classroom observation protocols developed by leading academics and professional development experts. The raters examine everything from the teacher’s ability to establish a positive learning climate and manage his/her classroom to the ability to explain concepts and provide useful feedback to students. The Educational Testing Service (ETS) is managing the lesson-scoring process. Personnel from ETS have trained raters to accurately score lessons using the following five observation protocols:  ¦Ã‚ ¦ Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), developed by Bob Pianta and Bridget Hamre, University of Virginia 2 S imilar cameras have been developed by other suppliers, such as thereNow (www. therenow. net). A commercial version of the camera used in the MET project is available from Kogeto. (www. kogeto. com). 6 | Learning about Teaching  ¦Ã‚ ¦ Framework for Teaching, developed by Charlotte Danielson (2007)  ¦Ã‚ ¦ Mathematical Quality of Instruction (MQI), developed by Heather Hill, Harvard University, and Deborah Loewenberg Ball, University of Michigan  ¦Ã‚ ¦ Protocol for Language Arts Teaching Observations (PLATO), developed by Pam Grossman, Stanford University  ¦Ã‚ ¦ Quality Science Teaching (QST) Instrument, developed by Raymond Pecheone, Stanford University A subset of the videos is also being scored by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). In addition, the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) is scoring a subset of videos using the UTeach Observation Protocol (UTOP) for evaluating math instruction, developed and field tested over three years by the UTeach program at the University of Texas at Austin. Measure 3: Teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge ETS, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Michigan’s Learning Mathematics for Teaching Project, has developed an assessment to measure teachers’ knowledge for teaching—not just their content knowledge. Expert teachers should be able to identify common errors in student reasoning and use this knowledge to develop a strategy to correct the errors and strengthen student understanding. The new assessments to be administered this year focus on specialized knowledge that teachers use to interpret student responses, choose instructional strategies, detect and address student errors, select models to illustrate particular instructional objectives, and understand the special instructional challenges faced by English language learners. Measure 4: Student perceptions of the classroom instructional environment Students in the MET classrooms were asked to report their perceptions of the classroom instructional environment. The Tripod survey instrument, developed by Harvard researcher Ron Ferguson and Administered by Cambridge Education, assesses the extent to which students experience the classroom environment as engaging, demanding, and supportive of their intellectual growth. The survey asks students in the each of the MET classrooms if they agree or disagree with a variety of statements, including: â€Å"My teacher knows when the class understands, and when we do not†; â€Å"My teacher has several good ways to explain each topic that we cover in this class†; and â€Å"When I turn in my work, my teacher gives me useful feedback that helps me improve. † The goal is not to conduct a popularity contest for teachers. Rather, students are asked to give feedback on specific aspects of a teacher’s practice, so that teachers can improve their use of class time, the quality of the comments they give on homework, their pedagogical practices, or their relationships with their students. Measure 5: Teachers’ perceptions of working conditions and instructional support at their schools Teachers also complete a survey, developed by the New Teacher Center, about working conditions, school environment, and the instructional support they receive in their schools. Indicators include whether teachers are encouraged to try new approaches to improve instruction or whether they receive an appropriate amount of professional development. The survey is intended to give teachers a voice in providing feedback on the quality of instructional support they receive. The results potentially could be incorporated into measuring the effectiveness of principals in supporting effective instruction. Although we have not yet had a chance to analyze those data for the current report, they will be included in future analyses. Initial Findings from the Measures of Effective Teaching Project  7 Stages of Analysis The MET project will be issuing four reports, starting with this one. In this preliminary report of findings from the first year, we focus on mathematics and English language arts teachers, in grades 4 through 8, in five of the six districts. (The student scores on the state tests were not available in time to include teachers in Memphis). We report the re lationships across a variety of measures of effective teaching, using data from one group of students or school year to identify teachers likely to witness success with another group of students or during another school year. At this point, we have classroom observation scores for a small subset (less than 10 percent) of the lessons collected last year. Given the importance of those findings, we will issue a more complete report in the spring of 2011, including a much larger sample of videos. Our aim is to test various approaches to classroom observations. Third, late in the summer of 2011, researchers from RAND will combine data from each of the MET project measures to form a â€Å"composite indicator† of effective teaching. That report will assign a weight to each measure (classroom observations, teacher knowledge, and student perceptions) based on the result of analyses indicating how helpful each is in identifying teachers likely to produce exemplary student learning gains. Our goal is to identify effective teachers and effective teaching practices. To do so, we need to isolate the results of effective teaching from the fruits of a favorable classroom composition. It may well be easier to use certain teaching practices or to garner enthusiastic responses from students if one’s students show up in class eager to learn. If that’s the case, we would be in danger of confusing the effects of teachers with the effects of classroom characteristics. Like virtually all other research on the topic of effective teaching, we use statistical controls to account for differences in students’ entering characteristics. But it is always possible to identify variables for which one has not controlled. The only way to resolve the question of the degree of bias in our current measures is through random assignment. As a result, teachers participating in the MET project signed up in groups of two or more colleagues working in the same school, same grade, and same subjects. During the spring and summer of 2010, schools drew up a set of rosters of students in each of those grades and subjects and submitted them to our partners at RAND. RAND then randomly assigned classroom rosters within the groups of teachers in a given grade and subject (so that no teacher was asked to teach in a grade, subject or school where they did not teach during year one). Within each group of teachers in a school, grade and subject, teachers  effectively drew straws to determine which group of students they would teach this year. At the end of the current school year, we will study differences in student achievement gains within each of those groupings to see if the students assigned to the teachers identified using year one data as â€Å"more effective† actually outperform the students assigned to the â€Å"le ss effective† teachers. We will look at differences in student achievement gains within each of those groups and then aggregate up those differences for â€Å"more effective† and â€Å"less effective† teachers. Following random assignment, there should be no differences—measured or unmeasured—in the prior characteristics of the students assigned to â€Å"more effective† or â€Å"less effective† teachers as a group. If the students assigned to teachers who were identified as â€Å"more effective† outperform those assigned to â€Å"less effective† teachers, we can resolve any lingering doubts about whether the achievement differences represent the effect of teachers or unmeasured characteristics of their classes. Better student achievement will require better teaching. The MET project is testing novel ways to recognize effective teaching. We hope the results will be used to provide better feedback to teachers and establish better ways to help teachers develop. 8 | Learning about Teaching What We’re Learning So Far Before describing the measures and analysis in more detail, we briefly summarize our findings so far.  ¦Ã‚ ¦ In every grade and subject, a teacher’s past track record of value-added is among the strongest predictors of their students’ achievement gains in other classes and academic years. A teacher’s value-added fluctuates from year-to-year and from class-to-class, as succeeding cohorts of students move through their classrooms. However, that volatility is not so large as to undercut the usefulness of value-added as an indicator (imperfect, but still informative) of future performance. The teachers who lead students to achievement gains in one year or in one class tend to do so in other years and other classes.  ¦Ã‚ ¦ Teachers with high value-added on state tests tend to promote deeper conceptual understanding as well. Many are concerned that high value-added teachers are simply coaching children to do well on state tests. In the long run, it would do students little good to score well on state tests if they fail to understand key concepts. However, in our analysis so far, that does not seem to be the case. Indeed, the teachers who are producing gains on the state tests are generally also promoting deeper conceptual understanding among their students. In mathematics, for instance, after adjusting for measurement error, the correlation between teacher effects on the state math test and on the Balanced Assessment in Mathematics was moderately large, . 54. Teachers have larger effects on math achievement than on achievement in reading or English Language Arts, at least as measured on state assessments. Many researchers have reported a similar result: teachers seem to have a larger influence on math performance than English Language Arts performance. A common interpretation is that families have more profound effects on children’s reading and verbal performance than teachers. However, the finding may also be due to limitations of the current state ELA tests (which typically consist of multiple-choice questions of reading comprehension). When using the Stanford 9 Open-Ended assessment (which requires youth to provide written responses), we find teacher effects comparable to those found in mathematics. We will be studying this question further in the coming months, by studying teacher effects on different types of test items. However, if future work confirms our initial findings with the open-ended assessment, it would imply that the new literacy assessments, which are being designed to assess the new common core standards, may be more sensitive to instructional effects than current state ELA tests.  ¦Ã‚ ¦ Student perceptions of a given teacher’s strengths and weaknesses are consistent across the different groups of students they teach. Moreover, students seem to know effective teaching when they experience it: student perceptions in one class are related to the achievement gains in other classes taught by the same teacher. Most important are students’ perception of a teacher’s ability to control a classroom and to challenge students with rigorous work. Initial Findings from the Measures of Effective Teaching Project | 9 While student feedback is widely used in higher education, it is rare for elementary and secondary schools to ask youth about their experiences in the classroom. Nevertheless, soliciting student feedback is potentially attractive for a number of reasons: the questions themselves enjoy immediate legitimacy with teachers, school leaders and parents; it is an inexpensive way to supplement other more costly indicators, such as classroom observations; and the questionnaires can be extended to non-tested grades and subjects quickly. Our preliminary results suggest that the student questionnaires would be a valuable complement to other performance measures. Classroom observations are the most common form of evaluation today. As a result, our goal is to test several different approaches to identifying effective teaching practices in the classroom. In our work so far, we have some promising findings suggesting that classroom observations are positively related to student achievement gains. However, because less than 10 percent of the videos have been scored, we will be waiting until April to release results on the classroom observation methods. MEASURING TEACHER-LEVEL VALUE-ADDED In order to put the measures of student achievement on a similar footing, we first standardized test scores to have a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1 (for each district, subject year and grade level). We then estimated a statistical model controlling for each student’s test score in that subject from the prior year, a set of student characteristics and the mean prior test score and the mean student characteristics in the specific course section or class which the student attends. (We provide more details in the Technical Appendix. ) The student characteristics varied somewhat by district (depending upon what was available), but typically included student demographics, free or reduced price lunch, ELL status and special education status3. The statistical model produces an â€Å"expected† achievement for each student based on his or her starting point and the starting point of his or her peers in class. Some students â€Å"underperformed† relative to that expectation and some students â€Å"overperformed†. In our analysis, a teacher’s â€Å"value-added† is the mean difference, across all tested students in a classroom with a prior year achievement test score, between their actual and expected performance at the end of the year. If the average student in the classroom outperformed students elsewhere who had similar performance on last year’s test, similar demographic and program participation codes—and classmates with similar prior year test scores and other characteristics—we infer a positive value-added, or positive achievement gain, attributable to the teacher. Using this method, we generated value-added estimates on the state assessments and the supplemental assessments for up to two course sections or classrooms teachers taught during 2009-10. We also calculated valueadded estimates for teachers on state math and ELA test scores using similar data we obtained from the districts from the 2008-09 school year. (To be part of the MET project, a district was required to have some historical data linking students and teachers. ) 3 T  he student-level covariates used in the regressions included, in Charlotte-Mecklenburg: race, ELL status, age, gender, special education, gifted status; in Dallas: race, ELL, age, gender, special education, free or reduced lunch; in Denver: race, age and gender; in Hillsborough: race, ELL, age, special education, gifted status, and free or reduced lunch; in NYC: race, ELL, gender, special education, free or reduced lunch. Differences in covariates across districts may reduce the reliability of the value added est imates. 10 | Learning about Teaching In addition to state tests, students in participating classes took a supplemental performance assessment in spring 2010. Students in grades 4-8 math classes took the Balanced Assessment in Mathematics, while students in grades 4-8 English language arts classes took the SAT 9 Open-Ended Reading assessment. We chose these two tests because they included cognitively demanding content, they were reasonably well-aligned with the curriculum in the six states, had high levels of reliability, and had evidence of fairness to members of different groups of students. Balanced Assessment in Mathematics (BAM): Each of the test forms for the Balanced Assessment in Mathematics (BAM) includes four to five tasks and requires 50-60 minutes to complete. Because of the small number of tasks on each test form, however, we were concerned about the content coverage in each teacher’s classroom. As a result, we used three different forms of the BAM—from the relevant grade levels in 2003, 2004 and 2005—in each classroom. In comparison to many other assessments, BAM is considered to be more cognitively demanding and measures higher order reasoning skills using question formats that are quite different from those in most state mathematics achievement tests. There is also some evidence that BAM is more instructionally sensitive to the effects of reform-oriented instruction than a more traditional test (ITBS). Appendix 1 includes some sample items from the BAM assessment. SAT 9 Reading Open-Ended Test: The Stanford 9 Open-Ended (OE) Reading assessment contains nine openended tasks and takes 50 minutes to complete. The primary difference between the Stanford 9 OE and traditional state reading assessments is the exclusive use of open-ended items tied to extended reading passages. Each form of the assessment consists of a narrative reading selection followed by nine questions. Students are required to not only answer the questions but also to explain their answers. Sample items. from the Stanford 9 OE exam are available in Appendix 2. MEASURING STUDENT PERCEPTIONS College administrators rarely evaluate teaching by sitting in classrooms—as is the norm in K–12 schools. Rather, they rely on confidential student evaluations. Organizers of the MET project wondered whether such information could be helpful in elementary and secondary schools, to supplement other forms of feedback. The MET student perceptions survey is based on a decade of work by the Tripod Project for School Improvement. Tripod was founded by Ronald F. Ferguson of Harvard University and refined in consultation with K-12 teachers and administrators in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and member districts of the Minority Student Achievement Network. For the MET project, the Tripod surveys are conducted either online or on paper, at the choice of the participating school. For online surveys, each student is given a ticket with a unique identification code to access the web site. For the paper version, each form is pre-coded with a bar code identifier. When a student completes a paper survey, he or she seals it in a thick, non-transparent envelope. The envelope is opened only at a location where workers scan the forms to capture the data. These precautions are intended to ensure that students feel comfortable providing their honest feedback, without the fear that their teacher will tie the feedback to them. The Tripod questions are gathered under seven headings, or constructs, called the Seven C’s. The seven are: Care, Control, Clarify, Challenge, Captivate, Conf.

LOreal Essay Example

LOreal Paper Promotion refers to any marketing activities that are intended to inform, persuade or motivate current and potential customers into buying or supporting a product or service. So as a result of this the promotional mix is a combination of promotional methods used to communicate with target customers. The promotional mix is split up into eight main methods of promotion, these methods are; Using the corporate image. Public relations. Personal selling. Advertising. Exhibitions. Sponsorships. Direct marketing. Sales promotion. The first method I am going to look into for the promotional mix is Using the corporate image. This is when a company uses promotion through the reputation of their business. This can either be through either the company being very profitable or even being a green business that cares for the environment. The corporate image is the public perception of the company rather than a reflection of its actual state. We will write a custom essay sample on LOreal specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on LOreal specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on LOreal specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The next method that Im going to be looking into in the promotional mix is Public relations. Public relations is the process of communication of a specific message to organisations stakeholders. The purpose of public relations is to achieve positive publicity from the customers or potential customers. Public relations has to be very effective and the way that this method can deliver being effective is by being planned and controlled and be ready to deal with any situations that arise and continue to deliver effective service over a long period. The next method that Im going to look into in the promotional mix is Personal selling. Personal selling is face-to-face selling in which a seller attempts to convince a customer to make a purchase. A way that personal selling is used in the promotional mix is by increasing business sales, this can be done in two ways these are;   Cross-selling which is done by selling a product that is related to the product that the customer or potential customer has bought or is about to buy. An example of this is if a customer walked into a phone store and the employee persuades the customer to buy a phone case for the phone they have just purchased.   Up-selling is done if a customer walks into a store and is going to purchase a product or service and an employee persuades them to upgrade to get a more expensive better product than what they were looking for. By providing personal selling in the promotional mix it helps businesses to remain competitive against its competition. Another way that personal selling is used is by developing the customer care in the business by gathering feedback off the customers to see what they can improve or add to the service they are providing. This might be by training up staff better so they know more about all the products or services that the company offers so they can help customers make a better purchase. The next method that Im going to look into in the promotional mix is Advertising. Advertising is used to promote a product or service; advertising can be done through celebrities. Such as the new Morrisons advert staring Freddy Flintoff, by using a celebrity in the advert is persuades the customers to shop their as a celebrity is being seen doing so themselves so they want to follow the celebrity trend. The next method that Im going to look into in the promotional mix is Sponsorships. Companies use sponsorships as a way of advertising themselves to the public. An example of this is companies sponsoring the London 2012 Olympics such as McDonalds and Heineken. The next method that Im going to look into in the promotional mix is Direct marketing. Direct marketing is a direct marketing communication with the customer. An example of direct marketing can be;   Direct mail.   Mail orders.   Tele-marketing.   Door to door distribution. The next method that Im going to look into in the promotional mix is Sales promotion. Sales promotion refers to the techniques and methods used by a business to sell its products to either customers or other businesses. Its main purpose is to get customers to purchase the product that the company is trying to sell. An example of this could be by offering a 10% discount to the product or service if you buy a particular newspaper. The first business I am going to look into is LOreal with the AIDA model. AIDA stands for; Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. The way LOreal grabs the attention of its customers or its potential customers is by Sponsorships. LOreal has sponsored Fiat Yamaha in the MotoGP and as a result of this they are placing the LOreal logo on their bikes that they will be racing on, because this logo is on the bikes it will attract people that are watching the MotoGP and will stick that business in peoples minds so it will gain attention of the business a lot more. Another way that LOreal will grab the attention of its customers and potential customers is by using the corporate image. As LOreal is a well established hair product brand it will stick in peoples minds when they think of shampoo as they are a top leader in this target market. The way LOreal gets the interest of its customers or its potential customers is by sales promotion. LOreal uses sales promotion on some of its products to get the customers attention of the product, this is sometimes used by using buy one get one free. LOreal mainly use sale promotion when a new product is launched so that the reputation of that product rises and customers become more aware of it, so as a result of this it gains the interest of the customers or potential customers. The way LOreal gains the desire of its customers or its potential customers is by advertising. LOreal uses advertising to gain the desire of the customer for the products that they are trying to sell, such as the LOreal advert for mens deodorant staring Eric Cantona, by seeing a celebrity using the product customers or potential customers instantly want it because it is being used by a celebrity and is deemed good to have. The way LOreal gets the action off the customers is by direct marketing. LOreal uses direct marketing to customers by sending them newsletters telling them personally about products that suits them by seeing what products they have bought before in the past that relates to the products they are trying to sell. As customers receive this newsletter that relates to what they usually buy they take the action of making a purchase of a new product to test it out and see what it is like. Another way LOreal gets the action off customers is by personal selling. LOreal uses personal selling in the form of cross-selling for some of its products by selling products that relate to the product they have already purchased such as if a customer bought moisturiser then employees for LOreal would try and sell them post balm. The communication model is used in advertising. The company encode the message which they are trying to get across to their current and potential customers in the television advertisements which the viewers will then decode the information in the way they perceive the message. The aim of this method is to persuade the customers to purchase the product in question. The way that LOreal creates an appropriate mix is by splitting up the mix into different categories, these are;   Short term and Long term goals the short term goal is to get the funds to make the new products and bring the new product out to the market. The long term goal is to make the product well established   Target market and exposure to the media the target market that LOreal are aiming for is both men and women between the ages of 16-65, they expose this to the media and aim their products to who they are aiming to, such as a girly magazine that targets teenagers.   Type of market the market that LOreal is in is cosmetics, skincare and head care.   Changing market conditions LOreal needs to take into account the recession so that they are bringing out products that customers can buy whilst money is an issue and spending has to be careful.   Budget and timing LOreal need to budget the products they are making so that the company doesnt make a loss by too many being made, not only this but the time to make the products cant be to long in case there is a huge demand for it. The next business I am going to look into is Compare the Market with the AIDA model. AIDA stands for; Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. The way that Compare the Market grabs the attention of its customers or its potential customers is by Sponsorships. Compare the Market has sponsored channel 4 drama and as a result of sponsoring channel 4 drama they have their advertisements placed before a number of television dramas such as ER, Brothers and Sisters and Shameless, because this advertisement is on the channel 4 breaks it will attract people that are watching the television and will stick that business in peoples minds so it will gain attention of the business a lot more. Another way that Compare the market will grab the attention of its customers and potential customers is by using the corporate image. As Compare the Market is a well established comparing website brand it will stick in peoples minds when they think of finding cheap insurance from their advertisements compare the meerkat, as they are a top leader in this target market. The way that Compare the Market gets the interest of its customers or its potential customers is by advertisements. This is done through people on the advertisement saying that they have saved x amount of money by using the website and how quick and easy it is to use. This gets the interest of the customers or potential customers as they realise that by going on the website they can save more money by comparing different insurance companies all on one page. The way that Compare the Market gains the desire of the customers or its potential customers is by advertisements. This is done by people knowing that by using this website you will only have to fill out your information once, and the rest will be done by the website. This gets the customer desired by only having to fill out information once instead of a lot of times on a number of different websites. Not only this but when on advertisements it tells you that on average people save around à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½200 this gets them wanting to go on it. The way that Compare the Market gets the action of the customers or its potential customers is by people going on the webpage. Once there on the page and filled out their details and realise how cheap some of the insurance quotes are then they are more likely to make a purchase as it is so simple. The way that Compare the Market creates an appropriate mix is by splitting up the mix into different categories, these are;   Short term and Long term goals the short term goal for Compare the Market is to get the reputation up of the website. The long term goal for Compare the Market is to be the market leader in this market.   Target market and exposure to the media the target market for Compare the Market is between the ages of 17-80 both men and women.   Type of market Compare the Market is in the insurance market.   Changing market conditions in the recession a lot of car insurance companies decided to promote offers such as purchase a year car insurance and get the first two months free, as a result of this Compare the Market are able to market these deals.

Free Essays on Wendys And The Fast Food Industry

Wendy’s International & The Fast Food Industry Introduction and Background: Founded in 1969 in Dublin, Ohio, by Dave Thomas, Wendy’s International has grown to be one of the leading companies in the restaurant industry. As of the year 2003, Wendy’s has over 8,000 restaurants worldwide, including more than 3,500 Tim Hortons and 800 Baja Fresh restaurants, which are two companies that Wendy’s owns (Milton, 2003, p. 1). Currently Wendy’s is the third largest fast food chain in the world behind only McDonalds and Burger King (â€Å"Industry Surveys,† 2003, p. 8). This is an interesting company to look at because of the respectable growth Wendy’s has attained while other leading restaurants have faltered. Wendy’s has been able capture market share from historically invincible rivals through better service and a higher quality product. A concern that would keep Wendy’s CEO up at night is if Wendy’s will be able to continue to be innovative and outperform rivals, or will Wendy’s fall victim to the problems that face their competitors from growing to big and losing a sense of consumer demand. The main issue to look at is if Wendy’s can take advantage of McDonald’s and Burger King’s recent troubles in order to become the number one fast food restaurant in the world. The External Environment The external environment has a profound effect, both positively and negatively, on the restaurant industry. Firms have no control over the external environment, but they do have the ability to alter their strategies in order to take advantage of opportunities and to prepare for threats. In the demographic segment, an opportunity that restaurants could exploit is the fact that the baby boom generation, who were the first generation to grow up with fast food, is getting older and has more money to spend on food. Another demographic opportunity is the ever-increasing Hispanic population, which could influence restaur... Free Essays on Wendy's And The Fast Food Industry Free Essays on Wendy's And The Fast Food Industry Wendy’s International & The Fast Food Industry Introduction and Background: Founded in 1969 in Dublin, Ohio, by Dave Thomas, Wendy’s International has grown to be one of the leading companies in the restaurant industry. As of the year 2003, Wendy’s has over 8,000 restaurants worldwide, including more than 3,500 Tim Hortons and 800 Baja Fresh restaurants, which are two companies that Wendy’s owns (Milton, 2003, p. 1). Currently Wendy’s is the third largest fast food chain in the world behind only McDonalds and Burger King (â€Å"Industry Surveys,† 2003, p. 8). This is an interesting company to look at because of the respectable growth Wendy’s has attained while other leading restaurants have faltered. Wendy’s has been able capture market share from historically invincible rivals through better service and a higher quality product. A concern that would keep Wendy’s CEO up at night is if Wendy’s will be able to continue to be innovative and outperform rivals, or will Wendy’s fall victim to the problems that face their competitors from growing to big and losing a sense of consumer demand. The main issue to look at is if Wendy’s can take advantage of McDonald’s and Burger King’s recent troubles in order to become the number one fast food restaurant in the world. The External Environment The external environment has a profound effect, both positively and negatively, on the restaurant industry. Firms have no control over the external environment, but they do have the ability to alter their strategies in order to take advantage of opportunities and to prepare for threats. In the demographic segment, an opportunity that restaurants could exploit is the fact that the baby boom generation, who were the first generation to grow up with fast food, is getting older and has more money to spend on food. Another demographic opportunity is the ever-increasing Hispanic population, which could influence restaur...

Country Analysis (Libya) for International Business Class Essay

Country Analysis (Libya) for International Business Class - Essay Example The Encyclopedia of Nations (2010) delves deeper to reveal the details; the maximum hours of work per week are 48, the minimum age for employment is 18, the average monthly wage is 270 dinars (converting to US$100). Foreign workers do not enjoy all the rights as Libyans and there exists restrictions on income repatriation. Other considerations to make about employment in Libya include the fact that Gaddafi regime made a great deal of effort in preventing the growth of a viable private sector. On a socio-cultural aspect, language is of particular importance to business planners in Libya. Economy Watch (2011) indicates that the major languages spoken in Libya are Arabic, Italian and English, all of which are widely used in the major cities in Libya. Arabic is however the official language in Libya (CIA World Factbook, 2011). This indicates that diversity of languages in Libya is not huge and business planners can therefore undertake activities focused on the three major languages. The fact that the three are largely understood makes it even easier to interact with Libyans while doing business. The ethnic population in Libya is predominantly Berber and Arab who make up 97% of the Libyan population. The remaining 3% consists of Italians, Greeks, Indians, Pakistani, Egyptians, Turks, Tunisians and Maltese among other nationalities in no particular order (Economy Watch, 2010; CIA World Factbook, 2011). According to the US State Department (2011) there are small Tebou and Tuareg ethnic communities in Southern Libya that are mainly nomadic or semi-nomadic. Besides North Africans, West Africa and sub-Saharan nationalities contribute the major portion of the non-Libyan population in the country. Whereas news of ethnic tensions is not common in Libya, the recent uprising was initially observed to follow ethnic patterns unlike the wave of uprisings that characterized the North African and Muslim World in general (Bancroft-Hinchey, 2011). The implications of this to the bus iness planners involves planning to win over the majority and targeting the smaller ethnic populations besides the fact that absence of ethnic tensions means that under a stable regime Libya is an attractive place for business. Gender considerations especially in the labor market in Libya are an extension of the position of the woman in the rest of the society. Encyclopedia of Nations (2010) observes that although Libyan labor law provides for equal opportunities for men and women in the labor market, traditional societal restrictions of women in terms of out-of-home activities ensure that this law is not practical. SIGI (2007) indicates that efforts to address such issues of inequality have been hampered by the fact that it is illegal to form rights groups independent of the Libyan state. Therefore, business planners need to ensure they strike the perfect balance that will adhere to Libyan labor law while at the same time not upsetting the Libyan society in terms of gender issues. The next issue of consideration with regard to socio-cultural factors in Libya is religion in terms of diversity and the extent to which it is influential to culture. A general view of the religious outlook of Libya is provided by Economy Watch (2010), which gives the figures as 97% Muslim and 3% for the rest. Nation Master (2011) provides more comprehensive information indicating that the 97% of Muslims are actually

Healthcare organization service strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Healthcare organization service strategy - Essay Example It also makes it possible to allow them to feel at home with the strengths and weaknesses which are being continuously highlighted. My organization makes it a must to go out of the way to help the customer become delighted with the kind of service that we shall make it available for him. This will ask him to come back again as per his need and thus bring in more customers with him as well. The service strategy that is being made use of within the organization encourages a positive work environment for employees. This is manifested by their desire to do something new each day of the year. There sense of optimism is derived from the fact that they get hailed for doing something worthwhile, which is a clear indication of many things that are being undertaken by their own selves (Perera, 2011). The environment is given support by the actions and decisions of the higher management who knows it best how to inculcate strength of character and the determination which is needed by them at all times. Also it makes them alert to all situations and circumstances which keep on happening regularly within their folds. A healthy environment is dependent upon the rules and policies which exist and I can safely state that these regulations have been much focused towards the tasks which need to be completed in an amicable fashion by the healthcare organization. The organizational vision and mission statements are the pillars of the healthcare service strategy. Since both the vision and the mission bank on strength of character that is presented to the different audiences which come under the aegis of the healthcare domains, the need is to remain one step ahead and satisfy them wholeheartedly. The vision is to give all-out energy and enthusiasm to the end customers who seek to get fit and healthy through the actions and undertakings of the healthcare realms. The mission is manifested through reaching end goals which would bring success towards the ranks of the business in the

Annotation of Toby Fulwiler’s “Provocative Revision” Essay Example for Free

Annotation of Toby Fulwiler’s â€Å"Provocative Revision† Essay Provocative Revision by Toby Fulwiler is an essay that talks about how he, as an experienced teacher of writing, has come up with different techniques in the overlooked art of re-writing. His paper specifically discusses about where, when, and how to revise. To successfully do this, he presents four provocative suggestions to help students in revising their papers. These techniques are: limiting, adding, switching, and transforming. Limiting. Generalization is bad in writing. The cure for this, Fulwiler argues, is limiting. Generalities do not have much appeal because most people already know about them. What catches the readers’ attention are details of things they already know. Telling details makes subjects come to life. Fulwiler further suggests limiting on time, action, scope, and focus. Adding. The natural thing to do in revisions is to add new information. Some techniques on adding are adding dialog and interviews. Adding dialog adds drama and appeal. Adding interviews, on the other hand, makes the paper more credible, especially when experts are part of the interview. Switching. Switching involves re-writing the story by using a different approach or perspective. Sometimes, a change in point of view makes a paper interesting. A change of voice â€Å"changes the nature of the information and the way it is received† (Fulwiler 165). Changing voice could mean changing the point of view from first to third person, from subjective to objective, and vice-versa. Transforming. Transforming involves overhauling the whole paper, making the way it is presented totally different from its preceding draft. Provocative Revision Critique/Comments Toby Fulwiler, establishes his credibility in the subject of revising by saying that he has been teaching writing for a long time; a good technique to persuade an audience to listen to what he is saying. Despite his extensive experience in education, he humbly says that his education is far from over. He also says that despite him â€Å"provoking† his students to revise their papers, he makes sure that the students’ styles are kept. There is some truth in his views on generalization as a bad technique. Unfortunately, the world still has much to learn. Sometimes general things can be new to some people. Since Fulwiler has a specific audience in mind, his assumption is valid; otherwise, he too is guilty of generalization. Another thing worth commenting on his subject on limiting is the way he makes limiting like tabloid writing—he says that details on personalities, problems, and scandals are interesting subjects. He presents a problem in his teaching—students who don’t do their own work. He claims that by making students revise their work, he can make students (even those that don’t do their own) do their own work. He fails to realize that the students who ask others to do their work for them may do the same thing with the revisions. Other than these, the rest of Fulwiler’s article is quite good; he provides passages from his students’ work as examples for bad and good writing. The good news is that those that turned out to be bad examples at first, turned out to be good papers after some revision using the techniques presented. Work Cited Fulwiler, Toby. â€Å"Provocative Revision. † The St. Martin’s Sourcebook for Writing Tutors. 3rd Ed. Christina Murphy and Steve Sherwood. Boston, New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008. 156-168.

Aristotle Essay -- essays research papers fc

Aristotle One of the greatest thinkers of all time was Aristotle-322 BC, the Ancient Greek philosopher. He has practically influenced every area of present day thinking. His main focal points were the natural and social sciences. In Stagira, a town on the northwest coast of the Aegean Sea, in the year of 384 BC Aristotle was introduced to the world. He grew up a wealthy boy. His father was friends with the noble king of Macedonia, and as a young man he spent the majority of his time at the Macedonian court. At the age of seventeen, he was sent away to study in Athens. It was there that he transformed to a disciple of Plato. Over time, Aristotle became the "mind of the school". Later in his life, he followed his mentor and became a teacher in a school on the coast of Asia minor. Aristotle was the professor of young prince Alexander, who went on to become the ruler Alexander the Great. Aristotle was the first known person to make major advances in the fields of logic, physical works( such as physics, meteorologists, ect.) , psychological works, and natural history( modern day biology). His most famous studies are in the field of philosophical works. His studies play an important role in the early history of chemistry. Aristotle was the first person to propose the idea of atoms matter and other grand ideas. Aristotle made the first major advances in the field of philosophy of n...

Nmap Lab Exercise Essay

2. Is Nmap able to identify the operating system running on each system? Is there any Nmap feature that can be used to guess the OS of a host? Explain your answer. Using the ports that are open and the probable services running on those ports, determine what operating systems are running on the devices. Explain your answer. Nmap was not able to classify the operating system (OS) running on all â€Å"3† hosts provided during the exercise. However, Nmap  was able to identify and determine the OS running on â€Å"Host 1† as presented in Figure 1: Host 1 (192.168.100.103). Located in Nmap there is an attribute which is used to conjecture the OS of a target host. If an individual decides to limit the OS detection to the targets, one can use one open and one closed port by using the (osscan-limit) feature command. With this scan Nmap will attempt a (TCP-SYN) connection to 1000 of the most common ports as well as an ICMP echo request to determine if a host if up. On the other hand if Nmap cannot make a perfect match for an OS it will guess something that is close, but not 100% exact (Orebaugh & Pinkard, pp. 111, 2008). This approach is more aggressive and is called (osscan-guess). The initial scan determined that â€Å"Host 1† was running (Microsoft XP SP2 or SP3) validated by the fact that port 445 is open providing Microsoft -ds services. By using the feature attribute (osscan-guess) as described above Nmap determined that â€Å"Host 3† is running (Linuz 2.6X-2.4X â€Å"96%†) as shown in â€Å"Figure 4† below. When running (osscan-limit & osscan-guess) in Nmap I was unable to determine the OS of â€Å"Host 2† due to the fact that all ports were closed. Figure 4 3. Which host appears most secure? Least secure? When running the scans in Nmap, â€Å"Host 1† appears to present the least amount of security of all three hosts in the exercise. This host had the most open ports and by running a rudimentary scan Nmap was able to disclose the operating system of the host. Host 2 was reasonably secure, due to that not even an â€Å"OS Fingerprinting† scan could disclose much about the system. This scan required the use of more advanced attributes to reveal what OS â€Å"Host 2† was running, inevitably the results were ball park answers. In this exercise â€Å"Host 3† has been determined to be the most secure, based on that not even advanced scanning features of Nmap were able to unveil what OS is running on the host. Of the three hosts delivered in the exercise, â€Å"Host 1† had nine open ports, â€Å"Host 2† had two open ports, and the most secure â€Å"Host 3† only publicized one open port. 4. Describe several uses of Nmap. Nmap (Network Mapper) is an open source tool that is used by network administrators and IT security professionals to scan enterprise networks, looking for live hosts, specific services, or specific operating systems (Orebaugh & Pinkard, p. 34, 2008). Nmap has a variety of features, and  territories the aptitude to perform basic scans, while incorporating the capability to command advanced scans containing a mass of options scanning across a huge continuum of IP address universes while logging specific file types or systems. Nmap has the ability to perform packet fragmentation, TCP scan flags customization, and IP and MAC address spoofing to name a few advanced features of many offered in this scanning tool. Nmap can also discover host, and do proper port scanning. Host discovery is a great way to create and maintain an asset database and to discover rogue devices on the network. The real power attribute of Nmap is port scanning, and its efficiency in security auditing, asset manage ment, and especially compliance. Port scanning gives the ability to locate systems with file sharing ports or unauthorized FTP servers and printers. Open ports disclose potential and probable security weaknesses, provide application and services inventory, and validate compliance with approved software guidelines (Orebaugh & Pinkard, p.99, 2008). 5. Which feature(s) of Nmap did you find the most useful and why? The most useful and most operable feature of Nmap is â€Å"OS Fingerprinting†. This feature offers the most depth of results when running a scan of a host. OS Fingerprinting yields information regarding open ports, types of services, as well as the operating system running on the host. OS Fingerprinting is both passive and active, meaning, in the passive it involves sniffing network traffic at any given connection point and matching known patterns that match pre-existing OS identities. In the active this feature requires the use of a set of specialized probes that are sent to the system in question; the responses from the active give insight to what type of OS has been installed. With the availability of these different attributes to one feature gives the IT professional a full scope and clear picture of the host that is being targeted in the scan. 6. Which feature(s) of Nmap did you find the most difficult to use and why? This was my first time using a system like this and struggled with all the features at first. Thus, after performing significant research I have come to the conclusion that using (osscan-guess) can arise significant problems and red flags and this command as described is giving a guess that near-matches aggressively. This command relays back possibilities, and the match has to be very close for Nmap to do this by default. The only positive to this command is that Nmap will tell you when an imperfect match is printed and will display is confidence level by percentage for each guess. 7. Research a command or feature that you consider important but not covered in the lab. Describe its usage and report your findings when running the command against the host in the lab. The one command of interest is the â€Å"sV† command which enables version detection, with attributes of (intensity, light, all, and trace). When performing a version scan, Nmap sends a series of probes each of which is assigned a rarity value between one and nine. The lower-numbered probes are effective against a wide variety of common services, as the higher numbered probes are rarely useful. The intensity level specifies which probes should be applied, and the default is (7). Version light is a convenience for (version-intensity 2) which makes the scanning much faster, but less likely to identify services. Command (all) in â€Å"sV† is an alias for (version-intensity 9) ensures that every single probe is attempted against each port. The last attribute to the feature is (version-trace) which causes Nmap to print out extensive debugging information about what version scanning is doing. As shown in Figure 5 below the (sV) flag tells Nmap to try to determine service version information, this command of version feature is dependent upon the OS Fingerprint scan finding an open TCP or UDP port. Therefore, after the port discovery, version detection takes over and starts its process of probing for information regarding what is open and running on the target (Orebaugh & Pinkard, p.167, 2008). Figure 5: ASSINGMENT PART B NESSUS SCANNER B. Lab Questions: Part B 1. What operating systems are running on different hosts? The operating systems running on each host are the following: Host 1: Microsoft Windows XP SP2 or SP3 Host 2: Linux Kernal Host 3: Linux 2.6X or Linux 2.4X 2. What web server (if any) is running on each computer? According to the screenshots displayed in (Figures 1-3), â€Å"Host 2† appears to running a multicast domain name service (MDNS) server on port 5353 using the UDP protocol. The third host is running a domain name service (DNS) server  on port 53 using TCP protocol and MDNS server on port 5353 using the UDP protocol. It could not be distinguished if â€Å"Host 1† is running any web servers, but ports (80-HTTP) and (443-HTTPS) are both open when running the scan. 3. What are the several services running on each computer? Below will be snap shots of each host providing the services provided by each host. Figure 6: Host 1: 192.168.100.103 Figure 7: Host 2: 192.168.100.105 Figure 8: Host 3: 192.168.100.106 4. Which host had the highest number of vulnerabilities? And which had the least number of vulnerabilities? Based off the scan run on each host, host 1 (192.168.100.103) had the highest number of vulnerabilities, while host 2 (192.168.100.105) provided the least number of vulnerabilities. Host 3 provided no high risk vulnerabilities, one medium risk with two open ports. The details for each host are provided below. Host 1: 192.168.100.103Vulnerabilities: 71 Host 2: 192.168.100.105Vulnerabilities: 49 Host 3: 192.168.100.106Vulnerabilities: 22 5. Identify one high severity vulnerability for each computer (if there is one). Describe the vulnerability and discuss control(s) to minimize risk from the vulnerability. Default password (user) for â€Å"user† account; Microsoft Windows SMB shares unprivileged access When performing the scans for all three hosts, only host (1 & 2) produced high severity vulnerabilities. The vulnerability that produced the biggest red flag in my analysis was protecting user passwords. My scans produced both in host (1 & 2) that default password (user) for â€Å"user† account was at high risk. This vulnerability can be very dangerous to an organization and the users that operate within the network, cloud databases, and encrypted files. This vulnerability can be attributed to pre-established policies on lockout threshold, lockout duration, and cache size. According to Oracle, protecting user accounts is vital and the usernames are stored in a domain server and  are hashed. This vulnerability can be fixed by setting a threshold on an account after invalid attempts to log-in to an account exceed the desired attempts. The numbers of failed user password entries are set before the account is then locked, and subsequent attempts to access the account the account remains locked until the administrator re-sets the password. The lockout duration is the number of minutes that a user’s account remains inaccessible after being locked. Subsequently, administrators should set a cache lockout size which will specify the intended cache size of unused and invalid login attempts. The standard according to Oracle is set at (5), and this is very relevant when a company is audited for IT security. This cache will help the administrator catch logs of failed and unused login attempts for proper compliance reporting. 6. Describe the various uses of Nessus.  Nessus is a vulnerability scanning tool which provides patching, configuration, and compliance auditing. It also encompasses features for mobile, malware, botnet discovery, and sensitive data identification. This is a remote security tool which scans a computer and raises an alert if it discovers any vulnerability that malicious hackers could use to gain access to a computer system that is connected to a network. This operates by running (1200) checks on a given computer, testing to see if any of these other attacks could be used to break the security of a computer and otherwise compromise it. Nessus has many advantages, unlike other scanner solutions Nessus does not make assumptions about your server configuration, yet it is also very extensible, providing scripting language for the IT administrator to write specific tests to the system once the admin becomes familiar with the tool. This tool also provides a plug-in interface. Nessus is open source, meaning it costs nothing and the IT admin is free to see and modify the source as appropriate. This software also encompasses patching assistance when it detects vulnerabilities and it is the best way to mitigate the potential vulnerability (Tenable Network Security, 2014). 7. Which feature(s) of Nessus did you find the most useful and why? The report function is very cohesive and comprehensive which is extremely beneficial to the IT administrator. The client itself will list each vulnerability found as we gauge its level of severity while making appropriate suggestions to the administrator to how the problem may be fixed. The Nessus report lists  the number of hosts tested providing a summary of the vulnerability and detailed instructions and sources to fix the inherent problem. The IT administrator is able to generate graphical reports in vast formats, and this is very beneficial if the administrator is scanning a larger number of computers and would like to get an overall view of the state of the network. 8. Which feature(s) of Nessus did you find the most difficult to use and why? Comparable to my answer given in question (11), the auditing functionality is mediocre at best. It is up to the IT professional or administrator to determine the scope of the vulnerability and may choose to use a different exploitation tool to verify if the reported vulnerabilities credulous. The tool is free, but what price are you willing to risk with using this tool. It also means little support, and understanding false positives. I am by no means an expert when using this tool and really struggled understanding the reports produced. Analyzing the results and recommending valid solutions is the biggest hurdle when using this feature. These vulnerability reports deemed confusing due to the combinations of software and configurations involved. After doing some research it has been established that when provided the report Nessus delivers false-positives because the plug-in is only testing for a software version, or the results produced are unexpected but still somehow valid. If my main responsibility is to evaluate risk, when risk level determines the attention given to the problem, the auditing report should offer this attribute in the report. I noticed that they’re reported as a note or warning and labeled in the plug-in summary as (none; low; medium; high; serious; and critical) though, regrettably these specific classifications are not clear and have been subjectively applied. 9. What are the differences between using Nessus and Nmap? Nessus and Nmap are two solutions that are used for examining the overall security of a network. However, these two scanning solutions are different at a very basic level, Nessus is a vulnerability open source scanner solution whereas Nmap is used to map networks hosts and what ports are open on those hosts. Nessus is installed on a server and runs as cloud application, and the program uses plug-ins to determine if the vulnerability is present on a specific machine. Although, Nessus scans ports similar to  Nmap, Nessus takes those open ports into reason and notifies the user if these ports have potential security threats. In Nessus, the administrator logs into the interface and sets up their own policies, scans, and output reports. These policies are set to determine what specific vulnerabilities are being scanned for (Tetzlaff, 2010). On the contrary, Nmap is a host detection software and port location tool. In Nessus, the tool uses specific vulnerabilities against the host, Nmap discovers the active IP hosts using a grouping of probes (Tetzlaff, 2010). Nmap uses open ports to gather extra intelligence such as versions of databases running on specific servers. This feature is offered once the scan has been completed for the identified hosts on the network.  The grease that this solution holds is host detection and port scanning. 10. What would you change about this lab? Any suggestion or feedback? This lab overall was very challenging for as has this whole experience in the major. I have absolutely no previous knowledge in the field or took classes in undergrad regarding IT or computer science. This is a booming industry and worked closely with the forensic agent group at Department of Treasury, yet never understood the processes and procedures it took to properly manage this content. Moving forward, I would like to see this University system move to a more interactive classroom. Meaning, the ability to offer in face interaction between student and instructor with an application platform like Skype or Google Hangout, as these applications can provide the technology to administer taped or live interaction in the event something is seriously miss-understood. The ability to teach myself the content is very rewarding yet difficult at times. Overall the lab was very influential to my growth in this major, but it would be very beneficial if some sort of video instruction was provided as well as communication means provided be enhanced between the student and instructor. 11. Research a command or feature that you consider important but not covered in the lab. Describe its usage and report your findings when running the command or feature against the host in the lab. When running the scan’s against the provided host with research provided by Nessus, the sensitive content auditing is very cumbersome. This feature was not discussed in the lab, but with researching how to use this solution, I attempted to use this feature in the exercise. It states that it performs agentless audits of Windows and UNIX-based systems to identify sensitive information (PII; Credit Cards;  SSN’s; and Top Secret data) but configuring this feature requires an administrator in-depth knowledge of this feature provided by the program. Without this vital knowledge, and potential plug-ins to enable or disable I became immediately confused as to how to appropriately administer the advanced features of this program. To me as a former investigator this feature is very important in the event that insiders or intruders are attempting to identify sensitive data. This will allow an organization the ability to prioritize security issues. The system feature will inherently allow me to monitor systems and users that are not authorized to process that specific data (Tenable Network Security, 2014). REFRENCES Northchutt, S., Shenk, J., Shackleford, D., Rosenberg, T., Siles, R., & Mancini, S. (2006). Penetration testing: Assessing your overall security before attackers do. CORE Impact: SANS Analyst Program. 1-17. Retrieved from https://www.sans.org/reading-room/analysts-program/PenetrationTesting-June06 Symantec. (2010). Nessus part 3: Analyzing Reports. Retrieved from http://www.symantec.com/connect/articles/nessus-part-3-analysing-reports Tenable Network Security. (2014). Nessus compliance checks: Auditing system configurations and content. 75, 1-37. Retrieved from https://support.tenable.com/support-center/nessus_compliance_checks.pdf Tetzlaff, R. (2010). Nessus vs. nmap: Comparing two security tools. Retrieved from http://www.brighthub.com/computing/smb-security/articles/67789.aspx#imgn_1 Oracle. (2014). Managing weblogic security: Protecting user accounts. BAE Systems. Retrieved from http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E13222_01/wls/docs81/secmanage/passwords.html Orebaugh, A., & Pinkard, B. (2008). Nmap in the enterprise: Your guide to network scanning. Syngress Publishing Inc. Burlington, MA: Elsevier Inc.