Watch List Essay Example

Watch List Essay â€Å"Trouble with the Terrorist Watch List Database† 1. Please read the case study that starts on the next page. 2. Answer all 5 questions below. 1. What Information Systems concepts are illustrated in this case? 2. Why was the consolidated terror watch list created? What are the communication benefits of the list? (Comm) 3. Describe some of the weaknesses of the watch list. What management, organization, and technology factors are responsible for these weaknesses? 4.What steps would you take to correct some of the weaknesses identified in question 3? 5. Do you believe that the watch list represents a significant threat to individual’s privacy or Constitutional rights? Why or why not? Discuss the importance of business communication ethics in this case. Chapter 6 Foundations of Business Intelligence: Databases and .. ,? ~;,,,:,~,,:,::q7 !69 , , ~' ~~ ~ Y)~ ~ , . Trouble with the TerJorist Watch l. ist DatabaSc:! t~~A;jAt1IHt . w~ ~ , †¢ †¢. . ~1 :, , _ ~ ,1 eASE STUDY ,, d: , ,~ ~ ,. n the aftermath ofthe 9-11 attacks, both critics and defenders of the information systems employed by the U. S. intelligence community united to help analyze where things went wrong and how to prevent future terrorist incidents. The FBIs Thrrorist Screening Center, or TSC, was established to organize and standardize information about suspected terrorists between multiple government agencies into a single list to enhance communication between agencies.A database of suspected terrorists known as the terrorist watch list was born from these efforts in 2003 in response to criticisms that multiple agencies were maintaining separate lists and that these agencies lacked a consistent process to share relevant information concerning the individuals on each agencys list. Records in the TSC database contain sensitive but unclassified information on terrorist identities, such as name and date ofbirth, that can be shared with other screening agencies. Classified information about the people in the watch list is maintained in other law enforcement and intelligence agency databases.Records for the watch list database are provided by two sources: the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) managed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence provides identifying information on individuals with ties to international terrorism. The FBI provides identifying information on individuals with ties to purely domestic terrorism. These agencies collect and maintain terrorist information and nominate individuals for inclusion in the TSCs consolidated watch list. They are required to follow strict procedures established by the head of the agency concerned and approved by the U. S. Attorney General.TSC staff must review each record submitted before it is added to the database. An individual will remain on the watch list until the respective department or agency that nominated that person to the list determines that the person should be removed fr om the list and deleted from its database. The watch list database is updated daily with new nominations, modifications to existing records, and deletions. The list has grown to over 750,000 records since its creation and is continuing to grow at a rate of 200,000 records each year since 2004. lnforn:ation on the list is distributed to a wide range of gow:rn- I ent agency systems for use in efforts to deter or detect the movements of known or suspected terrorists, including the FBI, CIA, National Security Agency (NSA), 1tansportation Security Administration (TSA), U. S. Department of Homeland Security, State Department, U. S. Customs and Border Protection, Secret Service, U. S. Marshals Service, and the White House, among others. Airlines use data supplied by the TSA system in their NoFly and Selectee lists for prescreening passengers, while the U. S. Customs and Border Protection system uses the watch list data to help screen travelers entering the United States.The State Departmen t system screens applicants for visas to enter the United States and U. S. residents applying for passports, while state and local law enforcement agencies use the FBI system to help with arrests, detentions, and other criminal justice activities. Each of these agencies receives the subset of data in the watch list that pertains to its specific mission. For example, records on U. S. citizens and lawful permanent residents are not exported to the State Department system for screening visa applicants because these individuals would not apply for a U. S. visa.All of these databases require certain minimum biographic or identifying data to accept records from the consolidated watch list. When an individual makes an airline reservation arrives at a U. S. port of entry, applies for a U. S. visa, or is stopped by state or local police within the United States, the frontline screening agency or airline conducts a name-based search of the individual against the records in the terrorist watch list database. When the computerized name-matching system generates a hit (a potential name match) against a watch list record, the airline or agency will review each potential match.The agency or airline is supposed to resolve any obvious mismatches that crop up. Matches that are clearly positive or exact matches that are inconclusive (uncertain or difficult to verify) are referred to the applicable screening agencys intelligence or operations center and to the TSC for closer examination. In turn, TSC checks its databases and other sources, including classified databases maintained by the NCTC and FBI, to confirm whether the individual is a positive, negative, or inconclusive match to the watch list record.TSC creates a daily report summarizing all J 270 Part Two Information Technology Infrastructure positive matches to the watch list and distributes them to numerous federal agencies. While the unification of various terrorism watch lists has been a positive step towards streamlin ing the process oflocating and apprehending terrorists, the project has been a slow and painstaking one, requiring the integration of at least 12 different databases. ! Wo years after the process ofintegration took place, 10 of the 12 databases had been processed.The remaining two databases (the u. s. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Automatic Biometric Identification System and the FBIs Integrated Fingerprint Identification System) are both fingerprint databases, and not technically watch lists. There is still more work to be done to optimize the lists usefulness. The TSCs list has introduced new issues and concerns regarding the adequacy ofthe information systems involved in the maintenance and usage of terrorism-related data.Reports from both the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Office of the Inspector General confirm that the list contains inaccuracies and that policies for nomination and removal from the lists are not uniform between governmental departments. There has also been public outcry resulting from the size of the list and well-publicized incidents of obvious non-terrorists finding that they are included on the list.Information about the process for inclusion on the list must necessarily be carefully protected if the list is to be effective against terrorists; if the algorithms behind the list were public knowledge, terrorists could more easily avoid detection, defeating the lists purpose. On the other hand, for innocent people who are unnecessarily inconvenienced, the inability to ascertain how they came to be on the list is upsetting. Given the lists large size and constant growth rate one major criticism is that the criteria for inclusion on the list may be too minimal.While the specific criteria for inclusion on the list are not public knowledge, government agencies populate their watch lists by performing wide sweeps of information gathered on travelers, using many misspellings and alternate variations of the names of suspe cted terrorists. This often leads to the inc! usion of people that do not belong on watch lists, known as false positives. It also results in some people being listed multiple times under different spellings of their names, so the 750,000 records do not correspond to 750,000 different individuals.Reports indicate that certain individuals may have as many I as 50 different records on the list due to various aliases and alternate spellings of their names. From December 2003 through May 2007, individuals were positively matched to watch lists 53,000 times. Many individuals were matched multiple times. While these selection cliteria may be effective for tracking as many potential terrorists as possible, they also lead to many more erroneous entries on the list than if the process required more finely-tuned information to add new entries.Notable examples of false positives include U. S. Marine Daniel Brown, who was stopped at the airport for additional screening after an 8-month tour in Iraq; senator Ted Kennedy, who has been repeatediy delayed in the past because his name resembles an alias once used by a suspected terrorist; and John Anderson, a 6-year old boy who was stopped at an airport for additional investigation despite his young age. Like Kennedy, Anderson may have been added because his name is the same or similar to a different suspected terrorist.These incidents call attention to the quality and accuracy of the data in the TSC consolidated watch list. In June 2005, a report by the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General found inconsistent record counts, duplicate records, and records that lacked data fields or had unclear sources for their data. Although TSC subsequently enhanced its efforts to identifY and correct incomplete or inaccurate watch list records, the Inspector General noted in September 2007 that TSC management of the watch list still showed some weaknesses.Critics of the list question whether or not a list that will soo n grow to over a million entries could have any real usefulness or significance in apprehending terrorists. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has been a vocal critic of the size of the list, claiming that it harasses and needlessly violates the privacy of thousands of people in an effort to monitor the movements of a decidedly smaller group of suspects. Senator Joe Lieberman, the Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, said of the list that serious hurdles remain if it is to be as effective as e need it to be. Some of the concerns stem from its rapid growth, which could call into question the quality ofthe list itself. Given the option between a list that tracks every potential terrorist at the cost of unnecessarily tracking some innocents, and a list that fails to track many terrorists in an effort to avoid tracking innocents, many would choose the list that tracked every terrorist despite the drawbacks. But to make matters worse for those already inconvenienced by Ch apter 6 Foundations of Business Intelligence: Databases and Information Management 71 wrongful inclusion on the list, there is currently no simple and quick redress process for innocents that hope to remove themselves from it. The number of requests for removal from the watch list continues to mount, with over 24,000 requests recorded (about 2,000 each month) and only 54% of them resolved. The average time to process a request in 2008 is 40 days, which, although a mild improvement from 44 days in November 2007, is not fast enough to keep pace with the number of requests for removal coming in.As a result, lawabiding travelers that inexplicably find themselves on the watch list are left with no easy way to remove themselves from it. In February 2007, the Department of Homeland Security instituted its Itaveler Redress Inquiry Program (TRIP) to help people that have been erroneously added to terrorist watch lists remove themselves and avoid extra screening and questioning. John Anderson s mother claimed that despite her best efforts, she was unable to remove her son from the watch lists.Senator Kennedy reportedly was only able to remove himself from the list by personally bringing up the matter to Thm Ridge, then the Director of the Department of Homeland Security. Security officials say that mistakes such as the one that led to Anderson and Kennedys inclusion on no-fly and consolidated watch lists occur due to the matching of imperfect data in airline reservation systems with imperfect data on the watch lists. Many airlines dont include gender, middle name, or date ofbirth in their reservations records, which increases the likelihood offalse matches.While government agencies have been able to synchronize their data into a single list, there is still more work to be done to integrate that list with those maintained by airlines, individual states, and other localities using more information to differentiate individuals. The TSA is continuing to update their screenin g process so that the government, not individual airlines, is responsible for matching travelers to watch lists. Privacy is yet another concern surrounding the watch list.One way to improve screening and help reduce the number of people erroneously marked for additional investigation would be to use a more sophisticated system involving more personal data about individuals on the list. The TSA is developing just such a system, called Secure Flight, but it has been continually delayed due to privacy concerns regarding the sensitivity and safety of the data it would collect. Other similar surveillance programs and watch lists, such as the NSAs attempts to gather information about suspected terrorists, have drawn criticism for potential privacy violations.Additionally, the watch list has drawn criticism because of its potential to promote racial profiling and discrimination. Some allege that they were included by virtue of their race and ethnic descent, such as David Fathi, an attorney for the ACLU of Iranian descent, and Asif Iqbal, a U. S. citizen of Pakistani decent with the same name as a Guantanamo detainee. Outspoken critics of U. S. foreign policy, such as some elected officials and university professors, have also found themselves on the list. A report issued in March 2008 by DOJ Inspector General Glenn A.Fine and reports from the GAO also indicated that the FBI lacked standard and consistent procedures for nominatiug individuals to the list, perfOlming modifications to information, and relaying those changes to other governmental offices. The FBI sometimes delayed updating the list with new information or removing people from the list who were no longer deemed a threat. Nominations from FBI field offices were sometimes inaccurate or incomplete. FBI field offices submitted names of people who were not subjects ofterrorism investigations directly to the NCTC, bypassing the required headquarters review that could catch errors.FBI officials claim that the bu reau has made improvements, and now requires field office supervisors to review watch-list nominations for accuracy and completeness. Some non-FBI offices, including the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Thbacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF); and others reported that they did not believe themselves to be a part of the watch list information process, or that they disagreed with the FBI over what constituted terrorist activity.Many DOJ offices acquire terrorism-related information that would help the FBI in populating the watch list, but share that information in an informal way and sometimes not at all. Improved coordination between the FBI and other intelligence agencies would go a long way towards improving the quality and efficacy of the terror watch list. The TSC is taking actions to improve watch list data and procedures for managing these data. The sooner, the better-in early 2008 it was revealed that 20 known terrorists were not correctly listed on 72 PartTwo Information Technology Infrastructure the consolidated watch list (whether these individuals were able to enter the U. S. as a result is unclear). Sources: Bob Egelko, Watch-list Name Confusion Causes Hardship, San Francisco Chronicle, March 20, 2008; Siobhan Gorman, NSAs Domestic Spying Grows as Agency Sweeps Up Data, The Wall Street Journal, March 10, 2008; Ellen Nakasliima, Reports Cite Lack of Uniform Policy for Terrorist Watch List, The Washington Post, March 18, 2008; Scott McCartney, When Your Name is Mud at the Airport, The Wall Street Journal,January 29, 2008; Audrey Hudson, Airport Watch List NowReviewed Often, The Washington Times, April 11, 2008; Mimi Hall, 15,000 Want Off the U. S. Terror Watch List, USA Today, November 8, 2007 and Terror Watch List Swells to More Than 755,000, USA The/ay, October 23, 2007; Justice Department Report Tells of Flaws in Terrorist Watch List, CNN. com, September 7, 2007; Burt Helm, The Terror Watch Lists Tangle, Businessweek. com, M ay 11, 2005, Paul Ro «enzweig and Jeff Jonas, Correcting False Positives: Redress and the Watch List Conundrum,The Heritage Foundation, June 17, 2005.

Fujiwhara Effect - Two Hurricanes Interacting

Fujiwhara Effect - Two Hurricanes Interacting The Fujiwara Effect is an interesting phenomenon which can happen when two or more hurricanes form very near each other. In 1921, a Japanese meteorologist named Dr. Sakuhei Fujiwhara determined that two storms will sometimes move around a common center pivot point. The National Weather Service defines the Fujiwhara Effect as the tendency of two nearby tropical cyclones to rotate cyclonically about each other. Another slightly more technical definition of the Fujiwhara Effect from the National Weather Service is a binary interaction where tropical cyclones within a certain distance (300-750 nautical miles depending on the sizes of the cyclones) of each other begin to rotate about a common midpoint. The effect is also known as the Fujiwara Effect without an ‘h’ in the name. Fujiwhara’s studies indicate storms will rotate around a common center of mass. A similar effect is seen in the rotation of the Earth and moon. This barycenter is the center pivot point around which two rotating bodies in space will spin. The specific location of this center of gravity is determined by the relative intensity of the tropical storms. This interaction will sometimes lead to tropical storms dancing with each other around the dance floor of the ocean. Examples of the Fujiwhara Effect In 1955, two hurricanes formed very near each other. Hurricanes Connie and Diane at one point seemed to be one huge hurricane. The vortices were moving around each other in a counterclockwise motion. In September 1967, Tropical storms Ruth and Thelma began to interact with each other as they approached Typhoon Opal. At the time, satellite imagery was in its infancy as TIROS, the worlds first weather satellite, was only launched in 1960. To date, this was the best imagery of the Fujiwhara Effect yet seen. In July of 1976, hurricanes Emmy and Frances also showed the typical dance of the storms as they interacted with each other. Another interesting event occurred in 1995 when four tropical waves formed in the Atlantic. The storms would later be named Humberto, Iris, Karen, and Luis. A satellite image of the 4 tropical storms shows each of the cyclones from left to right. Tropical storm Iris was heavily influenced by the formation of Humberto before it, and Karen after it. Tropical Storm Iris moved through the islands of the northeastern Caribbean during late August and produced locally heavy rains and associated flooding according to the NOAA National Data Center. Iris later absorbed Karen on September 3, 1995 but not before altering the paths of both Karen and Iris. Hurricane Lisa was a storm that formed on September 16, 2004 as a tropical depression. The depression was located between Hurricane Karl to the west and another tropical wave to the southeast. As hurricane Karl influenced Lisa, the quickly approaching tropical disturbance to the east moved in on Lisa and the two began to show a Fujiwhara Effect. Cyclones Fame and Gula are shown in an image from January 29, 2008. The two storms formed just days apart. The storms briefly interacted, although they remained separate storms. Initially, it was thought the two would exhibit more of a Fujiwhara interaction, but despite weakening a bit, the storms stayed intact without causing the weaker of the two storms to dissipate. Sources: Stormchasers: The Hurricane Hunters and Their Fateful Flight Into Hurricane JanetNOAA National Data CenterAnnual Summary of the 2004 Atlantic Hurricane SeasonAnnual Summary of the 1995 Atlantic Hurricane SeasonMonthly Weather Review: An Example of the Fujiwhara Effect in the West Pacific OceanNASA Earth Observatory: Cyclone GulaCyclones Olaf and Nancy

The Legal Drinking Age in Canada

The Legal Drinking Age in Canada The legal drinking age in Canada is the minimum age at which a person is allowed to buy and drink alcohol, and right now it is 18 for Alberta, Manitoba, and Quà ©bec and 19 for the rest of the country. In Canada, each province and territory  determines its own legal drinking age. Legal  Drinking Age in Canadas Provinces and Territories   Alberta: 18British Columbia: 19Manitoba: 18New Brunswick: 19Newfoundland and Labrador: 19Northwest Territories: 19Nova Scotia: 19Nunavut: 19Ontario: 19Prince Edward Island: 19Quà ©bec: 18  Saskatchewan: 19Yukon Territory: 19 Growing Concern About Alcohol Overconsumption A growing problem of rising and overconsumption of alcohol, particularly among young adults just at the legal drinking age, has raised alarms in Canada.   Since 2000 and  the release of the Canada Low-Risk Alcohol Drinking Guidelines in 2011, the first such national guidelines, many Canadians have been on a mission to reduce alcohol consumption across the board. Much research has been done on how harmful even moderate alcohol consumption can be and the  serious long-term effects on  young adults ages 18/19–24, when risky alcohol consumption peaks.   The Effect of Canadian Drinking-Age Laws A 2014 study by a scientist with the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) Faculty of Medicine concludes that Canada’s drinking-age laws have a significant impact on youth mortality. Writing in the international journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, Dr. Russell Callaghan, a UNBC  Associate Professor of Psychiatry, argues that, when compared to Canadian males slightly younger than the minimum legal drinking age, young men who are just older than the drinking age have significant and abrupt increases in mortality, especially from injuries and motor vehicle accidents. â€Å"This evidence demonstrates that drinking-age legislation has a significant effect on reducing mortality among youth, especially young males,† says Dr. Callaghan. The minimum legal drinking age is 18 years of age in Alberta, Manitoba, and Quà ©bec, and 19 in the rest of the country. Using national Canadian death data from 1980 to 2009, researchers examined the causes of deaths of individuals who died between 16 and 22 years of age. They found that immediately following the minimum legal drinking age, male deaths due to injuries rose sharply by ten to 16 percent, and male deaths due to motor vehicle accidents increased suddenly by 13 to 15 percent. Increases in mortality also appeared immediately following the legislated drinking age for 18-year-old females, but these jumps were relatively small. According to the research, increasing the drinking age to 19 in Alberta, Manitoba, and Quà ©bec would prevent seven deaths of 18-year-old men each year. Raising the drinking age to 21 across the country would prevent 32 annual deaths of male youth 18 to 20 years old. â€Å"Many provinces, including British Columbia, are undertaking alcohol-policy reforms,† Dr. Callaghan said. â€Å"Our research shows that there are substantial social harms associated with youth drinking. These adverse consequences need to be carefully considered when we develop new provincial alcohol policies. I hope these results will help inform the public and policymakers in Canada about the serious costs associated with hazardous drinking among young people.† High Canadian  Alcohol Prices Tempt Importers There has been a movement to encourage lower consumption by  increasing or maintaining the overall price  of alcohol through interventions, such as excise taxes and indexing prices to inflation. Such pricing, according to the Canadian Center on Substance Abuse, would encourage production and consumption of lower-strength alcoholic beverages. Establishing minimum prices, the CCSA said, could remove inexpensive sources of alcohol often favored by young adults and other high-risk drinkers. Higher prices are seen as a disincentive to youth drinking, but lower-priced alcohol is readily available across the border in the United States. Both  visitors and Canadians are tempted to bring in large quantities of alcoholic beverages bought in the United States, which can be about half the price of such drinks in Canada.   How Much Duty-Free Alcohol Can Visitors Bring?​ If you are a Canadian or a visitor to Canada, you are allowed to bring a small quantity of alcohol (wine, liquor, beer, or coolers) into the country without having to pay duty or taxes as long as: the alcohol accompanies you.you meet the minimum  legal drinking age  for the province or territory at which you enter Canada.   Canadians and visitors  may bring in  only  one of the following.  If larger quantities are imported, the entire amount will assess duties, not just the amount exceeding these duty-free quantities: 1.5 liters (50.7 U.S. fluid ounces) of wine, including wine coolers over 0.5 percent alcohol. This is equivalent to (up to) 53 fluid ounces or two 750 ml bottles of wine.  1.14 liters (38.5 US fluid ounces) of liquor. This is equivalent to  (up to)  40 fluid ounces  or one large standard bottle of liquor.  Up to 8.5 liters of beer or ale, including beer coolers with more than 0.5 percent alcohol. This is equivalent to 287.4 US fluid ounces or about 24 cans or bottles (355 ml or 12.004 US fluid ounces each). For Canadians  returning after a stay in the U.S., the amount of personal exemption is dependent on how long an individual was out of the country. The highest exemptions accrue after stays of more than 48 hours. If Canadians have been on a day trip to the United States,  all the alcohol brought back to Canada will be subject to the usual duties and taxes.  In 2012, Canada changed exemption limits to more closely match those of the U.S. Source Callaghan, Russell. Canadian Drinking-Age Laws Have Significant Effect on Deaths Among Young Males. Matt Wood, Newsroom, University of Northern British Columbia, March 18, 2014, BC Canada. Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction. Youth Alcohol Use and Its Harms: Case Study in the Community of Sherbrooke (Report). Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, 2018, ON Canada.

Macroeconomics - Term Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Macroeconomics - Term Paper - Essay Example In the regulation of the money in circulation, central bank makes adjustments to the interest rate that entails the price of borrowing money. This paper keenly discusses fiscal and monetary policies theories and application. Fiscal policy In their efforts to regulate spending and maintain taxation at an affordable level, governments emulates three types of fiscal policies. The first one is neutral fiscal policy. This type of policy is adopted when the economy is in equilibrium. One of the key aspects of neutral fiscal policy is that all the fund that the government uses to establish projects such as roads, factories, ports among others, is full obtained from tax revenue (Hansen 34). Another type of fiscal policy that government can use to achieve economic development is the expansionary fiscal policy. This entails a situation whereby government spending exceeds tax collected from the residents. This will mean that governments must look for donors to fund them so that they are able to maintain their economy at a competitive level. The policy must be looked keenly to make sure that funds borrowed from the donors are not diverted to other unplanned project .The third policy is contractionary fiscal policy. ... The federal government controls how the money is shared according to the financial year and how they have planned for the budget. The budget must be gone through by the stake holders that include president and the congress. The two bodies must work together so as to come with a comprehensive report that is going to make life bearable to its citizens (Larch and Nogueira 46). The president makes sure that the proposed budget is passed to the congress so that they can decide how much money the government is going to spend on public needs for example, the issue of security is a problem world wide and health care .On the other hand expansionary fiscal policy is commonly used by the federal government to make sure that their business problems are stabilized. Another application area in expansionary policy is the issue of unemployment to its citizens. The unemployed high number of people has to borrow money and return the same money with low interest. In contrast, contractionary fiscal poli cy is mainly used by the central bank or the finance ministry to make sure that the rapid economy growth of a country is put under control. This means that the government must come up with the measures to control it. The government has to increase the interest rates, the central bank then regulates the money their customers are going to deposit and the notes the other bank are going to hold. Monetary policy Monetary policy refers to the process by which the government through central bank regulates the money supply to its citizens with aim of controlling price fluctuations (Heyne et al, 19). This means that the government must make sure that the prices of commodities are stable. The government must still ensure that the interest rates and exchanges rates are guarded fully against

The Teach for America helps the education reform Essay

The Teach for America helps the education reform - Essay Example ugh the TFA wants to make the best reforms for the American educational system, critics argue that the short duration training is not enough for the corps members. This has brought forth the debate as to whether or not the TFA is indeed making a positive change in the society or if it is making matters worse by giving students inexperienced teachers to guide them. Teach For America (TFA) is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1989 by Wendy Kopp. The organization operates on the motto: â€Å"One day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education† and is driven by its mission: â€Å"To eliminate educational inequality by enlisting high-achieving recent college graduates and professionals to teach for two years in low-income communities throughout the United States.† In its first year of operation, TFA recruited and placed 500 teachers in various schools across the nation. The number has risen by over 50% over the decades. As suggested in its mission; the TFA recruits college graduates and professionals to teach in urban and rural communities throughout the US for two consecutive years. The recruits are known as corps members, and they do not have to be certified teachers (Tulenko 20). The corps members in TFA are cheaper so that they will give pressure to the tenure teachers to improve teaching performances.  Most of the TFA corps members are fresh college graduates who are eager to make a change in the society. Majority of them are hoping that they will be in a position to help the underprivileged students form low income families to get better grades. Many of them are liable to hearsay about the training program offered by the TFA and how it is aimed at making positive educational reforms. They are also aware of the fact that they will be placed in jobs at various schools across their country. Unaware of the problems that they will encounter due to poor training, they enroll for the program. Once they have

Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR) Essay -- Discovery, Faustyn Edmun

Recently, in the Journal of Rheumatology in an interesting discussion concerning the application of ESR and CRP (C-reactive protein) appeared inaccurate information about the history of the discovery of ESR. Crowson, Rahman and Matteson in the article (1) and later in the discussion (2) suggested that the discovery of ESR occurred in the 20s of the last century. However, the discovery was not made in the 20s of the Twentieth Century, but at the end of the Nineteenth Century. For the sake of the highest standards of the discussion, in all its aspects, we would like to remind that the discoverer of erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) was a Polish physician Faustyn Edmund Biernacki (1866-1911) (3,4,5,6,7). He announced the discovery in 1897 in two articles simultaneously: one written in Polish in Gazeta Lekarska (4) and the second in German in the Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift (5). It is also possible to identify, as an important historical fact, the exact day of Biernackiâ€℠¢s discovery. Shortly before the publication of works describing ESR, on the 22nd of June 1897 during a meeting of the Warsaw Medical Society Biernacki presented five most important conclusions from his observations (6,7). These conclusions were as follows: blood sedimentation rate and volume of residue produced is different in different individuals; blood with small amounts of blood cells sediments faster; blood sedimentation rate depends on the level of â€Å"fibrynogens† in the blood plasma; during the course of febrile diseases (rheumatic fever included) with large amounts of plasma fibrinogen the ESR is increased, and in the defibrinated blood the sedimentation process is slower. The findings presented by Biernacki clearly show the clinical significance of th... ...Medica Scandinavica and in the same year 1921. Biernacki on the other hand presented his discovery in German and Polish more than twenty years before. Therefore, is it possible that in the scientists noted only the reports of the discovery presented in English and in one magazine? Or is it just an oversight resulting from an insufficient scientific knowledge about (or of?) historical facts? In order to maintain the highest standards of scientific reliability the â€Å"ESR test† should be named by specifying the method used e.g. Westergren’s ESR test method. The ESR test was discovered by Biernacki, and Westergren’s achievement was the development of a new laboratory technique. We postulate that in the scientific reports in which there is a historical aspect of the introduction of the ESR test (even if only as a reference), Biernacki’s discovery was not overlooked.

Numbermatching.com business strategy

Advertising is an impersonal selling and communication method which makes use of various types of media to reach the target public in short time. Advertising aims at gaining exposure, creating awareness, changing attitudes of target customers in favor of sponsors product and services and also at effecting sales and improving corporate image. Media Selection for No. 1 match Media planning includes decisions relating to which media should be used and when and how often should advertisements be placed in the selected media. The basic purpose of media planning is to optimize the communication reach to the relevant audience within the available budget. Effective and efficient adverting rests on decisions based on collecting data from appropriate internal and external sources. a)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Press (including all types of newspapers and magazines): wider circulation, limited life, good for mass communication and reminder message. b)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Direct Mail: Restricted circulation, flexible usage, private in nature, high impact. c)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Outdoor (including hoardings, posters, neon signs): local circulation, durable, reminder media. d)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Radio: Wide reach, cuts through illiteracy barriers, quick reminder messages possible. e)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Television: Combines both Audio and Visual, limited reach, high degree of viewers involvement, suitable for product demonstration. f)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Miscellaneous (such as exhibition/fairs): Local reach, good product demonstration, impactful response. Promotion: It is through Budget, theme, media, timing. If major resources are to be committed, plan for measurement of promotional effectiveness should be include feedback from the market place, marketing research. Like products and prices, customization of advertising and promotion are very much possible in cyber marketing. Besides customization, the customer is contacted when he is giving full attention to the website. In fact, when a customer views any site he has done so after deliberate and conscious effort and choice. This increases his commitment to the message that he is viewing on the internet. It generates a hierarchy of impacts like creation of awareness, interest, desire and action on the consumer. Internet has been found to be amenable to finer tuning for most of these impacts. As a result, it is possible to better transport the customer from one level of impact to the next higher one and do so more quickly. The combination of this factor with the feature of individualization makes the output very powerful. Direct Marketing All corporate marketing activities have to be necessarily carried out in such a way that they lead to generation of surplus funds. Market segmentation helps in optimising the marketing mix for a segment. The output of a segmentation analysis is a profile of customer target group focusing on details that will best help to develop product, promotional, pricing and distribution strategies. The set of benefits sought to build the configuration of benefits sought and then select benefits in our offering that will constitute a critical advantage to act as the buying inducement. Segmentation of a market is not an arbitrary process, but neither is there a unique set of segments to be discovered. The two approaches, top down and bottom up (logical division and offering) which are used for breaking up. Public Relations measuring the degree of success of a public relations campaign or improving the response of personnel in numbermatch.com Measuring performance against standards Measurement of performance against standards should ideally be a forward-looking or on proactive basis with a view to detecting deviations in advance of their occurrences, and should be avoided by appropriate corrective action ‘in advance’. The project manger can often predict probable perceive much ahead of schedule, it should be uncovered as early as possible. References Philip Kotler (2002), 11th ed., â€Å"Marketing Management†, PHI-New Delhi