Connection paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Association paper - Essay Example For King, his detainment turned into the very motivation behind why he composed his letter while Thoreau’s detainment in a manner affected his observations and understanding just as his mental fortitude to communicate his contentions in his article. The two are principled men who gave a valiant effort to remain on what they had faith in even amidst disarray. The two of them present their talk based on reason, utilizing citations from the Bible and all around regarded men; try to be comprehended, engaging sense and reasonableness of the individuals concerned who are government officials, Whites, Blacks, and Clergymen just as examine just laws, low laws, everlasting and regular laws. Right off the bat, the previously mentioned political dissidents reflect in their composed works of their impact from the Bible. As a minister, it was normal for King to specify God and the Bible yet he stressed how men should function with God to achieve His motivations here on earth. Regardless of his co-clergymen’s talk that the social issues King is battling for are issues that the gospel has no genuine worry for, he contends that â€Å"human progress gets through the eager endeavors of men ready to be associates with God†. ... Such citations show how Thoreau utilizes data from the Bible to think about the conditions he is confronting. To make their contentions much more grounded, the two creators named and cited different rationalists, for example, Socrates, St. Augustine, Martin Buber, Confucius and Paley. Lord asserts that he doesn't look to conflict with government while Thoreau remains on the opposite side of the equalization and the two of them are communicated the explanation behind their activities. Lord discussed that he and his partners have gotten their anxiety to the individuals expert for it to be settled. In any case, their requests for balance and just treatment have been ignored with the goal that they needed to fall back on making a move. He introduced how they have acted with all the circumspection in understanding to the conditions in Birmingham and clarified how they at long last need to â€Å"create useful, peaceful strain which is essential for growth†. Also, Thoreau accounts th at he isn't a man who is fierce in communicating at the same time, he â€Å"quietly proclaims war with the State†, talking about his responses to the requests for him to pay â€Å"a certain total toward the help of a clergyman†. Utilizing the citations and savants referenced over, the two authors introduced their sensible activities. They viably clarified the standards on which they remain on and attempted to convince their crowd utilizing scholarly contentions rather than the brutality that they have been seen to hold. Lord and Thoreau have confidence in the presence of unfair laws. Lord characterizes and differentiates just and unreasonable laws to clarify his comprehension of the subject. He cites St. Augustine saying â€Å"an vile law is no

Sample Paper for Competitive Exam free essay sample

A pivotally stacked bar is exposed to a typical worry of 173 MPa. The shear worry in the bar is (A) 75MPa (B) 86. 5MPa (C) 100MPa (D) 122. 3MPa Q. 5 A steel section, stuck at the two closures, has a clasping heap of 200kN. In the event that the section is controlled against parallel development at its mid-tallness, its clasping burden will be (A) 200kN (B) 283kN (C) 400kN (D) 800kN Q. 6 The solidness coefficient kij demonstrates (A) power at I because of a unit distortion at j. (B) twisting at j because of a unit power at I. (C) disfigurement at I because of a unit power at j. D) power at j because of a unit misshapening at I. For an isotropic material, the connection between the Young’s modulus (E), shear modulus (G) and Poisson’s proportion ( µ) is given by ( A) G = E 2(1 +  µ ) ( B) E = G 2(1 +  µ ) (C ) G = E (1 + 2â µ ) ( D) G = E 2(1 ?  µ ) Q. 7  © All rights held by GATE Forum Educational Services Pvt. We will compose a custom exposition test on Test Paper for Competitive Exam or then again any comparative point explicitly for you Don't WasteYour Time Recruit WRITER Just 13.90/page Ltd. , www. gateforum. com No piece of this booklet might be replicated or used in any structure without the composed consent. Examine this inquiries paper at www. gatementor. com. 1 ?CE? Structural Engineering: Gate 2007 Paper http://www. ateforum. com/gate_papers. php Q. 8 A mud soil test is tried in triaxial mechanical assembly in combined depleted conditions at a cell weight of 100 kN/m2. What will be the pore water pressure at a deviator worry of 40kN/m2? (A) 0kN/m2 (B) 20kN/m2 (C) 40kN/m2 (D) 60kN/m2 Q. 9 The quantity of blows saw in a Standard Penetration Test (SPT) for various entrance profundities are given as follows. Infiltration of sampler Number of blows 0-150mm 150-300mm 300-450mm The watched N esteem is (A) 8 (B) 14 Q. 10 6 8 10 (C) 18 (D) 24 The vertical worry at some profundity beneath the side of a 2m x 3m rectangular balance because of a specific burden power is 100 kN/m2 underneath the focal point of a 4m x 6m rectangular balance at a similar profundity and same burden force? (A) 25 (B) 100 (C) 200 (D) 400 There is a free overfall toward the finish of a long open channel. For a given stream rate, the basic profundity is not exactly the typical profundity. What progressively changed stream profile will happen in the channel for this stream rate? (A) M1 (B) M2 (C) M3 (D) S1 The immoderate utilization of water for a harvest during a specific phase of development is 2. mm/day. The most extreme profundity of accessible water is the root zone is 60mm. Water system is required when the measure of accessible water is half of the most extreme accessible water in the root zone. Recurrence of water system ought to be (A) 10 days (B) 15days (C) 20days (D) 25days according to the Lacey’s technique for plan of alluvial chan nels, character the genuine proclamation from the accompanying (A) Wetted border increments with an expansion in configuration release (B) Hydraulic span increments with an increment in residue factor. (C) Wetted edge diminishes with an expansion in configuration release. D) Wetted border increments with an expansion in sediment factor. At two focuses 1 and 2 out of a pipeline the speeds are V and 2V, individually. Both the focuses are at a similar rise. Both the focuses are at a similar rise. The Q. 11 Q. 12 Q. 13 Q. 14  © All rights saved by GATE Forum Educational Services Pvt. Ltd. , www. gateforum. com No piece of this booklet might be repeated or used in any structure without the composed authorization. Examine this inquiries paper at www. gatementor. com. 2 ?CE? Structural Engineering: Gate 2007 Paper http://www. gateforum. com/gate_papers. hp liquid thickness is ?. The stream can be thought to be in compressible, inviscid, consistent and irrotational. The distinction in pre ssures P1 and P2 at focuses 1 and 2 is (A) 0. 5? V2 Q. 15 (B) 1. 5? V2 (C) 2? V2 (D) 3? V2 The nearness of hardness in abundance of admissible breaking point causes (A) Cardio Vascular issues (B) Skin discolouration (C) Calcium inadequacy (D) Increased clothing costs The scattering of toxins in climate is most extreme when (A) natural pass rate is more noteworthy than adiabatic slip by rate. (B) ecological pass rate is not exactly adiabatic slip by rate. C) ecological slip by rate is equivalent to adiabatic pass rate. (D) most extreme blending profundity is equivalent to zero. The alkalinity and the hardness of a water test are 250mg/L and 350 mg/L as CaCo3, separately. The water has (A) 350 mg/L carbonate hardness and zero non-carbonate hardness. (B) 250mg/L carbonate hardness and zero non-carbonate hardness. (C) 250mg/L carbonate hardness and 350 mg/L non-carbonate hardness. (D) 250mg/L carbonate hardness and 100 mg/L non-carbonate hardness. The consistency and stream obstruction of bitumen can be resolved from the accompanying. A) Ductility test (B) Penetration test (C) Softening point Test (D) Viscosity test If a two-path national expressway and a two-path state interstate converge at right edges, the quantity of potential clash focuses at the convergence, expecting that both the streets are two-way is (A) 11 (B) 17 (C) 24 (D) 32 In signal structure according to Indian Roads Congress particulars, if the whole of the proportions of ordinary streams to immersion stream of two directional traffic stream is 0. 50 and the complete lost time per cycle is 10 seconds, the ideal cycle length in seconds is (A) 100 (B) 80 (C) 60 (D) 40 Q. 16 Q. 17 Q. 18 Q. 19 Q. 20 Q. 21 to Q. 75 convey two denotes every Q. 21 For what estimations of ? furthermore, ? the accompanying synchronous conditions have an unbounded number of arrangements? x + y + z = 5; x + 3y + 3z = 9; x + 2y + ? z = ? (A) 2,7 (B) 3,8 (C) 8,3 (D) 7,2  © All rights saved by GATE Forum Educational Services Pvt. Ltd. , www. gateforum. com No piece of this booklet might be repeated or used in any structure without the composed consent. Talk about this inquiries paper at www. gatementor. com. 3 ?CE? Structural Engineering: Gate 2007 Paper http://www. gateforum. com/gate_papers. php Q. 22 A speed vector is given as r V = 5 xy I + 2 y 2 j + 3 yz 2 k . The dissimilarity of this speed vector at (1,1,1) is (A) 9 (B) 10 (C) 14 (D) 15 A body initially at 600C chills off to 400C in 15minutes when kept in air at a temperature of 250C. What will be the temperature of the body toward the finish of 30minutes? (A) 35. 20C (B) 31. 50C (C) 28. 70C (D) 150C The accompanying condition should be numerically fathomed utilizing the NewtonRaphson strategy. x3 + 4x †9 = 0 The iterative condition for this reason for existing is (k shows the emphasis level) 2 x3 + 9 3x k2 + 4 k ( A) xk +1 = 2 ( B) xk +1 = 2 3xk + 4 2 xk + 9 2 (C ) xk +1 = xk ? xk + 4 Q. 23 Q. 24 ( D) xk +1 = 4 xk2 + 3 2 9 xk + 2 ? Q. 25 Evaluate ( A) ? ? sin t dt t 0 ( B) ? 2 (C ) ? 4 ( D) ? 3 Q. 26 Potential capacity ? is given as ? = x 2 + y 2 . What will be the stream work (? ) with the condition ? = 0 at x = y = 0? (A) 2xy (B) x2 + y2 (C) x2 †y2 (D) 2x2y2 Q. 27 ?1 2 ? The reverse of the 2 x 2 lattice ? ? is ? 5 7 ? 1 ? ?7 2 ? ( A) ? 3 ? 5 ? 1? ? 1 ? 7 ? 2 ? (C ) ? 3 ? ?5 1 ? ? Q. 28 1 ? 7 2? ( B) ? 3 ? 5 1 ? ? 1 ? ?7 ? 2 ? ( D) ? 3 ? ?5 ? 1? ? Given that one foundation of the condition x3-102+31x-30=0 is 5, the other two roots are (A) 2 and 3 (B) 2 and 4 (C) 3 and 4 (D) - 2 and - 3 All rights saved by GATE Forum Educational Services Pvt. Ltd. , www. gateforum. com No piece of this booklet might be replicated or used in any structure without the composed consent. Examine this inquiries paper at www. gatementor. com. 4 ?CE? Structural Engineering: Gate 2007 Paper http://www. gateforum. com/gate_papers. php Q. 29 If the standard deviation of the spot speed of vehicles in a roadway is 8. 8 kmph and the mean speed of the vehicles is 33kmph, the coefficient of variety in speed is (A) 0. 1517 (B) 0. 1867 (C) 0. 2666 (D) 0. 646 A metal bar of length 100mm is embedded between two unbending backings and its temperature is expanded by 100C. In the event that the coefficient of warm extension is 12 x 10-6 for every 0C and the Young’s modulus is 2 x 105 MPa, the worry in the bar is (A) zero (B) 12MPa (C) 24MPa (D) 2400MPa An inflexible bar is suspended by three poles made of a similar material as appeared in the figure. The territory and length of the focal pole are 3A and L, individually while that of the two external bars are 2A and 2L separately. On the off chance that a descending power of 50kN is applied to the unbending bar, the powers in the focal and every one of the external poles will be (A) 16. 7 kN every (B) 30kN and 15kN (C) 30kN and 10kN (D) 21. 4kN and 14. 3kN The greatest and least shear worries in an empty round shaft of external measurement 20mm and thickness 2mm, exposed to a torque of 92. 7 N. m will be (A) 59 MPa and 47. 2 MPa (B) 10MPa and 80MPa (C) 118 MPa and 160 MPa (D) 200 MPa and 160 MPa The shear worry at the unbiased pivot in a light emission area with a base of 40mm and stature of 20mm, exposed to a shear power of 3kN is (A) 3MPa (B) 6MPa (C ) 10MPa (D) 20MPa U1 and U2 are the strain energies put away in a kaleidoscopic bar because of hub pliable powers P1 and P2 individually. The strain vitality put away in a similar bar because of consolidated activity of P1 and P2 will be (A) U = U1 + U2 (B) U = U1 U2 (C) U 1 + U2 The privilege triangular bracket is made of individuals having equivalent cross sectional zone of 1550 mm2 and Young’s modulus of 2 x 105 MPa. The level redirection of the joint Q will be Q 135kN 6m Q. 30 Q. 31 Q. 32 Q. 33 Q. 34 Q. 35 P 4. 5m R (A) 2. 47mm (B) 10. 25mm (C) 14. 1mm (D) 15. 68mm  © All rights held by GATE Forum Educational Services Pvt. Ltd. , www. gateforum. com No piece of this booklet might be replicated or used in any structure without the composed consent. Talk about this inquiries paper at www. gatementor. com. 5 ?CE? Structural Engineering: Gate 2007 Paper http://www. gateforum. com/gate_papers. php Q. 36 The impact line outline (ILD) demonstrated is for the part P Q R S strain ILD pressure (A) PS Q. 37 (B) RS (C) PQ (D) QS Consider the accompanying explanations: The compressive quality of solid declines with increment in water1. concrete proportion of the solid blend. 2. Water is a

Is this the year youre applying to graduate school COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog

Is this the year youre applying to graduate school COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog Is this the year youre applying to graduate school? Even if its not, we recommend you connect with schools that youre interested in early on. Graduate school applications can be time-consuming to gather all of the pieces for, especially if youre juggling several applications on top of your personal and professional life. You also want to make sure that the program you apply to is the best fit for your goals. Columbia SIPA will be participating in the APSIA Online Grad School fair on July 25.  Register today to learn more about what you can do with a SIPA graduate degree our alumni work in everything from international trade policy to counter-terrorism to social impact investing (and much more). APSIA stands for the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs, a network of schools that demonstrate their excellence in career-focused, graduate-level, international affairs education. APSIA schools generally stress the application of theory to practical uses and are focused on helping students become meaningful agents of change. APSIA has a robust list of relevant Fellowships Scholarships  for those interested in policy and international affair graduate studies. If youre in the area, stop by the Summerfest mini graduate fairs coming up this month. SIPA alumni, current students and admissions staff will be here to answer your questions. Summerfest New York City July 17 from 6:00pm â€" 8:00pm International Affairs Building,  Columbia University 420 West 118th Street, Room 1501 New York, NY 10027 Summerfest Washington, D.C.  (July) July 24 from 6:00pm â€" 8:00pm Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies 1740 Massachusetts Ave. NW Washington, D.C. 20036 As a reminder, the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid is closing early today and will be closed tomorrow in observance of U.S. Independence Day.

International Global Marketing - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 9 Words: 2836 Downloads: 9 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Marketing Essay Type Analytical essay Level High school Did you like this example? International Global Marketing Executive Summary The purpose of this report is to integrate the business idea in the form of a formal business plan. The business idea is implemented to analyze the business environment; Businessman with his business by helping to oversee the creation and presentation; And business and financial plan to implement the idea of ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹ÃƒÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹having a budget to work with. After its production, the business plan and plot optimal budget targets, and as such, suppliers and investors, etc., which, in its entirety for all that was mentioned above it is clear that the program will work as a business partner to help. Below is a summary of the report. It is recommended that you read the entire report. Table of Content Acknowledgement0 Executive Summary..0 Introduction05 The Product and Business Idea à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" Skagen Designs06 The Vision Care Industry.07 Marketing Plan Of Skagen Desing Sun Glasses.08 The 4 Ps of Sk agen Designs..09 Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "International Global Marketing" essay for you Create order Product.09 Place10 Price11 Promotion..12 Display Tactics and Fundraising..12 The Financial Plan.13 Price13 Promotion..14 Conclusion.15 References.16 Introduction Most customers do than to make it easier to see black. For them its a sense of style, health and safety, or to clients who need glasses to match the special duties of a commitment, whether its something standing still. designer eyewear sunglass market retail price ranging from a couple of dollars to hundreds of dollars a pair, Vision Monday, according to a $ 3 billion a year industry. Sunglasses for the high-fashion boutiques from the local hardware store, retail stores, and sold all kinds. Where do you want to increase your income and well-thought-out marketing plan, sell your sunglasses. at the behavior of sunglasses as the first deputy. Style, therefore, an important facet of marketing to emphasize the sunglasses. Your promotional materials to ensure that your target market will reflect the aspirations of the people who epitomize. Your customers and your marketing materials, your sunglasses to look cool and hip when you think about how the film is going to be wearing the same shade as theyll be more inclined. The suns rays can cause physical damage to the eyes of many Americans and more memory. By urging the audience to market your sunglasses sunglasses provide protection. Talk about lenses, of 40 adults currently do not wear sunglasses and do not wear them while driving should be noted that almost half. The suns ultraviolet rays and the quality of information security without a pair of sunglasses that can cause harm to an audience that is beneficial. Some of their offerings by targeting a specific audience sunglasses companies narrow victory. Others in a way you will not be able to meet their unique needs of military pilots Marketing sunglasses if, for example, be able to win. Outdoor sports enthusiasts or motorcycle sunglasses, stocking, especially how you do your marketing on the Internet and social media in particular, can be profitable. If you think a group that sets them apart from the compet ition and the need for your sunglasses will work especially well. The Product and Business Idea à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" Skagen Designs Skagen Designs has been a period of time that is integrated with a business idea entrepreneur. The entrepreneur has been operating for the past 28 years, eye care professionals, and thus he is deeply conscious. In essence, the business concept design for a long period of stagnation in the field reveals the lack of innovation in the design. His idea of ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹ÃƒÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹a marketing and business entrepreneur invention is using as a lever. This topic will be discussed later in this report in detail.Collection of frames will be two parallel Skagen Skagen Youth Collection Heritage Collection Design and Designs: The design of the former in the Western world and ethnic fashion jewelry-crafting their own annex with Israeli outfit. Titanium, gold and silver products, including stainless steel, as well as combinations of the above acetate frames valuable and high quality material. This package price will be set at the elite level of the glass Skagen Collection copies bodies provides innovative idea of ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹ÃƒÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¹a completely sarcastic gift level. It is possible to combine different items in the frame. Provides an additional opportunity for personal expression of this idea. The design concept of signature of men and women who form the rim proven in a number of models. This design signature on the market, the product key differentiator from other elite models in eyewear. Modeling of the worlds most successful forms of eye glasses rim design melded Jewelers and ethnic artists include work by hand. Less expensive models are set to feature more commercial style, but in terms of a typical production line: the two collections stamp that represent the basic models for men and women. The models in the worlds most successful models in the modeling of the eye forms the basis of the guidelines include the goldsmith craft. Conceptual bear the stamp of the other models, but it is possible to produce a regular production line. As mentioned above, the most important benefit is to introduce the innovative ideas that are never collected. Our evaluation of the planned recovery is not perfectly satisfied with knowing that there is a latent satisfy market demand. Thus, small-scale market entry attractive margins can involve moving high volumes of production. The Vision Care Industry In the last ten years, the vision care industry has been growing steadily. 2000 sales of $ 16.5 billion of ophthalmic frames, $ 16.0 billion in 1999, the sun rose and the dollar sales and units sold wear development experience; Lens materials and treatments for premium retailers, distributors and manufacturers of almost $ 8.3 billion. The following in-depth description of the industry, from the point of view it is a promising investment opportunity in the industry all the hallmarks of a multi-billion dollar business that can be inferred: Steady growth Favourable demographic trends Strong brand penetration High-margin products Technological advancements Industry consolidation Emerging global markets Wholesale eyeglass fashion and function combined power gradually driving. Legal and lens module up to 18% from 1995, 1999 and $ 13.3 billion in first. This business plan is a complete lack of optical lenses, sunglasses and eyeglasses market refers to the market. According to the above-mentioned law on appraisal businessman optical lenses and lens module contributes 35%. We have a market share of approximately $ 8.6 billion in the stands, and that is why interest. Marketing Plan Of Skagen Desing Sun Glasses Risks and opportunities for the systematic mapping of institutions, working with several distributors on a geological site with a marketing plan defines the fairway. Initially, it will not be allowed to run with the big chains. After penetration of the product on the market, the distribution is considered to be the largest series. Distributors operating production, innovative idea and as aforementioned, because of a lack of innovation, relative to a vacuum state at th e time of market segmentation, product penetration should emphasize. There are factors that will shape the marketing standard selection: Penetration into a new market New and unknown product à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" risk involved Resource constraints of investment in advertising The entrepreneur does not operate the marketing system themselves in US The 4 Ps of Skagen Designs Marketing decisions generally fall into the following four controllable categories: Product Price Place (distribution) Promotion Product/Service The term product refers to tangible, physical products as well as services. Here are some examples of the product decisions to be made: Brand name Functionality Styling Quality Safety Packaging Repairs and Support Warranty Accessories and services Skagen Designs is an eyewear. Skagen Designs is a good brand in the eyewear industry. Skagen Designs product from the customer wants and what it does not meet that need. Just googols but several models of Skagen. Skagen screech googols mirrors some of the guarantor. Skagen Designs rack fast, stylish and different from others, such as one which produces eyewear companies. Skagen Designs Skagen traditional model of the day but by the customer, such as a change of fashion of the day of their older models and design, I know that at the present time to wear: Skagen Googols its traditional sales. Skagen company has some features like UV protection, because of the high price of the item. Skagen Sunglasses will give bad effect on the side of the eye. So this type of product features to meet customer requirements and helps. If customers or not this type of features they are driving a car or a party for some time while wearing googols About Skagen Designs Customer may not use the gift to speak with reality. How and where will the customer use it? Skagen Designs to protect their eyes from the sunrays during the companys 1937 consumers started wearing these. But now it has become part of fashion. If someone wearing a branded clothes, he was wearing sunglasses branded if anyone, is to give a good impression. Skagen black, silver and gold in three colors such as sunglasses Designs Skagen Designs The three different models in different colors. Audi is the most popular figures of around Skagen wearing sunglasses. It has become a symbol of the living statues. Skagen Skagen company also designs all the things on the market to create a branded product .These trying to sell their products at lower prices because of the competition of never. Place When we talk about the product or service Skagen Designs buyers do not see, the first thing out there? Skagen sunglasses are the products of a universal. Skagen Skagen designs show rooms and optical shops selling sunglasses. Skagen Designs opened in big cities and small towns of their sales. Skagen Designs Super moles and businesses to sell their products on the premises. He also set up a special shop in moles Skagen someone is buying all type of option, so if he wants to buy Skagen Designs sunglasses sell.so use of the Net. Those with high purchasing power of the consumer product Skagen Designs. Skagen so that he paid a high price to buy it and use it and want to feel proud of the level designs is a product of society. There is no need for any type of sales force. Price Price Decisions Some examples of pricing decisions to be made include: Pricing strategy (skim, penetration, etc.) Suggested retail price Volume discounts and wholesale pricing Cash and early payment discounts Seasonal pricing Bundling Price flexibility Price discrimination Price skimming technique of Skagen. Skagen Designs to build their image of the company is a good brand, so use it to the stock market skimming. The company has the flexibility to use the same pricing strategy for any price. Some companies give discounts for winter. What is the value of the product or service to the buyer? Promotion In the context of marketing and promotion as a marketing communication, with the goal of creating a positive customer response reflects different aspects of the product and contact information. Focus on Women Women do not wear sunglasses to protect their eyes only; Sunglasses are a fashion statement. Fifty percent of all revenue sunglass IBIS World, according to a marketing research company, created by women. Therefore, a customer can pick up a pair for himself as well as for every child in the next Skagen Womens sunglasses, kids sunglasses Designs by adding the size of the market will increase. Glasses, you can see what looks like shes trying on several pairs of Skagen sunglass display Designs must be near. Know Whats Hot Sunglasses, as fashion items, and go out of style. Sunglasses upscale boutiques, stores and fashion magazines, research by looking in the mirrors to keep up with the trends. What we see in the press is what we have available at Skagen Designs. Celebrity Fashion affect the Skagen Designs include sunglasses. People like Us Weekly and Entertainment Weekly that the celebrity magazines, Skagen Designs sunglasses fashions and preferences about whats happening now Display Tactics Skagen Designs sunglasses as eye candy, and show off to their best advantage. Easy choice for a customer if the customer does not have to browse through the offer, shell probably quit buying, thats a lost potential sales. Less than the cost of the sunglasses display racks, display cases. Designer glasses that cost $ 100 or more in a display case, which effectively prevent shoplifting, as shown. Glass is a way of coordinating color. For example, all yellow and red glass and so forth to be together. As another option, aviator, metal edges and is oversized, Skagen style products will display the inventory. Skagen is a shop window display of sunglasses is very important. If we need to grab the attention of customers, we design Skagen an appealing and eye-catching way to display the sunglasses rack. We have to make them stand out from the usual scenarios can combine colors and positions. This attracted customers, and they want to see Skagen Designs first sunglasses. Online An online presence with a blog or website that allows customers to see what we have to offer. Blog visitors, answer questions and post tips and special offers contact or discuss what is happening in the world of Skagen Designs sunglasses. Skagen Designs sunglasses listening form to post photos to Facebook, and Twitter friends and followers on social media to take advantage of the interest. We have in stock many popular styles are asked to vote for their favorite sunglasses Hold a contest. Like any business marketing strategies for their websites should consider using virtual tools. They are interested in buying products that customers can access information about the place where one is, because it is important to have a website. Sunglasses, a good idea to include the subject of articles or regular prize draws will host the free sunglasses or discount coupons. Virtual provides customers we are featuring special sunglasses. The important thing is to inform people about the sunglas ses as well as interactive content on the website is that you can add. Sunglasses a coherent marketing strategy which is related to the previous point, a virtual store on the website, should include designing and developing. In a virtual store for the convenience of online shopping is growing every day, which is a favorite alternative. Wholesale sunglasses that we have access to Skagen Skagen more people should consider developing a virtual store if you want to increase Designs product design, we can directly feel the transaction. Fundraising Create A vision-based charity for every pair of sunglasses sold during a specific period of time to donate $ 1 to create a fundraising event. Skagen Designs participate in the local newspapers, online community sites and social media sites to advertise the event. Skagen Designs detriment of assistance in the event as well as the community increases. The Financial Plan As you can read in the following section provides an overview of the industry profits against the cost of education, there is a lot in this field. Defines a very high rate of return on investment in this situation. Annual sales of about $ 3.7 million a year for the purpose of the first cycle, we can come up with $ 2.7 million in gross profit. Wholesale Price (lead attached table summarizing and see chart) 26.7% of the cycle. The first year (with the Israeli tax) profit after tax is expected to be $ 0.5 million and $ 1.3 million in the fifth year of an increase. $ 0.9 million in annual profits after tax to average. Conclusion Several basic points should be used in a marketing strategy for sunglasses to achieve success.Skagen Sunglasses are a new breed of product which caters to all niches of the market requirement. Be it sports or pure fashion, the Skagen design range of sunglasses are made to suite each and every person in the market, which means Skagen targets a large market base in the US alone. Since Skagen is already a big player in the wrist watch market arena, investing in diversifying their products will not be huge challenge. Although unlike watches, sunglass marketing techniques are quite different and somewhat challenging as to the fact that the sunglass is a health related product (Eye care) as well as a must have fashion accessory. References A Standard Business Plan Outline | Bplans. 2015. A Standard Business Plan Outline | Bplans. [ONLINE] Available at: https://articles.bplans.com/a-standard-business-plan-outline/. [Accessed 19 February 2015]. 10 New Ideas And Products That Will Change Business As Usual In 2014 Forbes. 2015. 10 New Ideas And Products That Will Change Business As Usual In 2014 Forbes. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/markfidelman/2014/02/19/10-new-ideas-and-products-that-will-change-business-as-usual-in-2014/. [Accessed 21 February 2015]. Shackelford Family Eye Care. 2015. Shackelford Family Eye Care. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.visionsource-shackelfordfamilyeyecare.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=site.services. [Accessed 24 February 2015]. The 4Ps The marketing process McDonalds Restaurants | McDonalds Restaurants case studies and information | Business Case Studies. 2015. The 4Ps The marketing process McDonalds Restaurants | McDonalds Restaurants case studies and inf ormation | Business Case Studies. [ONLINE] Available at: https://businesscasestudies.co.uk/mcdonalds-restaurants/the-marketing-process/the-4ps.html#axzz3SpvhsDhi. [Accessed 26 February 2015]. What Is a Financial Plan for a Business? Definition, Example Quiz | Education Portal. 2015. What Is a Financial Plan for a Business? Definition, Example Quiz | Education Portal. [ONLINE] Available at: https://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/what-is-a-financial-plan-for-a-business-definition-example-quiz.html. [Accessed 03 March 2015].

The Sunni Shia Conflict Essay - 1341 Words

Sunni Shia Conflict Syria is currently all over the news regarding what many have to come to see as a civil war. A term like civil war needs to identify the players and the reasons for the war. In this case the players are being identified as pro government or antigovernment with a Sunni or Shia overtone. Sunni and Shia are the two major sects of Islam and both have a historical based conflict going back to the death of the Prophet Muhammad and how Muslims should be governed. This conflict has caused tensions and violence to flare up throughout Islamic history. This conflict has carried into modern times and has becoming a rallying point for Muslim people calling for change with their government and across the Middle Eastern region. The†¦show more content†¦Ali’s son Husayn was sought out and asked to lead a revolt against the Uyammad’s. When Husayn set out on his journey to overthrow Yazid, the current caliph, his â€Å"supporters† failed to join his ba nd. Husayn and 72 of his followers were killed on the plains of Karbala, Iraq. Thus the Shi’at Ali (Party of Ali) or Shia sect of Islam was born (Egger 2004). The Sunni sect would continue to support what they saw as the traditional path of Islam. From this initial split other divisions and changes occurred within the religious practices and laws of Islam. While both share a belief in the Qur’an and the sunna (sayings or actions) of the Prophet Muhammad there are religious and legal differences. Imams are by the Shia definition the divinely guided ones but the Sunni defines Imaans as saints (Diffen n.d.). The Shia declared Ali and his descendants Imams with a special connection to the will of God with religious and legal authorities. The number of Imams and who were truly the divinely guided Imams would split Shias. There arose many branches but it came down to three main ones the Twelvers, the Seveners, and Zayids (Goldschmidt Jr. 2013). The Imams were mystical bein gs and the Twelvers believe that the 12th Imam disappeared and will one day return to set thing right for Muslims. Within the Sunni sect there are four branches of Islamic Law:Show MoreRelatedThe Conflict Between Shias And Sunni959 Words   |  4 Pagesdivided into two groups, Shia, Sunni and their view of the religion Islam. The blood shadings between Shia and Sunni in the history of Islamic interfaith differences have affected future generations, since the death of Prophet Muhammad in A.D. 632, which have affected educational and social opportunity for future generations. So, dose believing in will of G-d bring peace or death, hate or hormone? What is the mission of Islamic groups who call themselves Sunnis and Shias, to bring peace to the worldRead MoreSunni Shia Conflict Essay857 Words   |  4 PagesSaudi Arabia and Iran Saudi Arabia considers itself to be the Protector of Islam as they contain Mecca and Medina as well as oversee the Hajj. The Sunnis are the dominate form of Islam in Saudi and its main branch is called Wahhabism. It is a very strict form of Islam that is based on the literal interpretation of the Qur’an and allows for no other versions of Islam, like Shiism (StevenAU 2004). Iran has long been defined as the central power of Shiism especially following the 1979 Islamic revolutionRead MoreThe Sunni Shia And Arab Israeli Conflict1028 Words   |  5 PagesLeslie Orozco Professor Petrovic International Conflict 17 May 2016 The Sunni-Shia and Arab-Israeli Conflict Throughout the course, various religious and ethnic violent conflicts have been discussed. Two of the most important and most present in current times is the Sunni-Shia and the Arab-Israeli conflicts. Although both conflicts are still very relevant today, the structural and triggering conditions that contributed to the conflict began many years ago and since then have escalated to the pointRead MoreThe Longest Running Fued is the Sunni and Shia Conflict1698 Words   |  7 PagesThe Sunni and Shia conflict is currently the longest running feud in the world. Both groups possess an extreme hatred for one another. Over the years, these two groups have openly expressed their hatred with one another through violent killings. This split between the Shia and Sunni originates all the way back in the 7th century. Their difference was based on political differences. As a part of my essay I will explain the difference and origins of the split between the Shi’a and Sunni and also coverRe ad MoreSaudi Arabia Versus Iran And The Ongoing Sunni Shia Conflict2147 Words   |  9 Pagesthe Ongoing Sunni-Shia Conflict†. The paper will delve into the historical split between the Sunni and the Shia, as well as the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Iran given the fact that Saudi Arabia is a predominantly Sunni state while Iran is a predominantly Shia state. Evidently, this ancient divide is contributing in one way or the other to the resurgence of conflict in Muslim countries especially in the Middle East. For instance, it is this struggle between the Sunni and the Shia that feedsRead MoreDifferences Between Sunni And Shia886 Words   |  4 Pagesthemselves between two subgroups: Sunni and Shia, between the two major denominations of the religion, there have been wars, rivalries, and revolutions due to the cultural difference in beliefs. There are more similarities than differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims. However, the differences are what create tension between the two types of Muslims and tensions between countries. These tensions can also be directly tied to the meanings of Sunni and Shia. In Arabic, Sunni means â€Å"one who follows the traditionsRead MoreThe Conflict Between The Between Civilizational Blocks, Muslim And Muslims1141 Words   |  5 PagesIslam must be done. Muslims are split into two mains branches: Sunnis and Shia. The origin of this division was a dispute right after the death of the Islam’s founder, Prophet Muhammad, in 932. The subject of the dispute is â€Å"Who should lead the Muslim community?†. In the whole world there is a broad majority of Sunnis, who represents between 80 to 90% of Muslims and Shia Muslims are representing only 10% of the Muslim population. Shia Muslims and Sunnits Muslims share many fundamental practices andRead MoreIslam and Great Sectarian Divi de1098 Words   |  5 Pagesfaiths by Shias and Sunnis is truly staggering.  This is specially so when one considers the tiny differences that define and divide them. Since the earliest days of Islam in the 7th century when the schism first tore the young Muslim community apart, the two sects have been warring incessantly. Untold thousands have been killed over the years, and this internecine war continues to devastate communities and nations. I am not qualified to go into the rights and wrongs of this old conflict. HoweverRead MoreIn Pakistan, Which Aspires To Be A Islamic State, Sectarian1475 Words   |  6 PagesIn Pakistan, which aspires to be a Islamic state , sectarian conflict is part of, and interacts with, broader issues concerning the place of Islam in public life. There are sectarian identities which diversify each group and say who belongs to what sect , for example the believing of attending a mosque or madarasa. Islamization, or the introduction of Islamic norms and institutions through government policy or decree, is another factor which has often provoked and defined sectarian controversiesRead MoreSunni-Shiite Conflict1583 Words   |  7 PagesThe Sunni and Shiite branches of Islam have been feuding for hundreds of years dating back to the beginning of the Islamic religion. The deity or god of the Sunnis is Allah. The Sunni branch of Islam is the larger of the two branches with over 80% of the Muslim population. The Sunni are the majority in most of the countries that have Islamic followers. There are a few different translations of what Sunna stands for, one of which is â€Å"Habitual Practice.† The differences between the two branches can

Busn311 Unit 2 Ip Free Essays

Unit 2 – Probability and Distributions Leah Lopez American InterContinental University Abstract Within this email, I will cover different probabilities within your company. This information can help you to understand whether or not your employees are satisfied with their jobs or not. Also within the results of this survey, you will find that your employees are not distributed equally in terms of gender. We will write a custom essay sample on Busn311 Unit 2 Ip or any similar topic only for you Order Now Memo To: AIU From: Leah Lopez Date: November 13, 2012 Subject: Survey of employees at American Intellectual Union Dear AIU: Within this email, I will be providing some information from a survey that was given to your employees. This information can help you to understand how satisfied your workers are with their jobs. This will also help you to understand whether or not you should hire more women and men to even out the gender amongst certain departments. Overview of the Data Set The current data set is comprised of 64 individuals who were surveyed, and this is a part of the sample of the population at American Intellectual Union, and these individuals were identified by 5 characteristics: gender, age, position (hourly or salaried), tenure, and how they felt about job satisfaction on a scale of one to seven. The qualitative variables include: gender, department, and position. The quantitative variables include: age, tenure, and job satisfaction. Use of Statistics and Probability in the Real World There are several different ways that statistics and probability could be used in the real world. You could see this used in the horse races, the lottery, certain things in the stock market, also in marketing in a corporation. The Value of Statistics Every corporation that is successful exhausts statistics. It does not matter if they are operating a small fish store or they are a member of a board for a huge business, almost every decision made by a corporation is based on statistics. Averages, means and medians are a part of a business’s everyday life. Whether it is a chart, a data set, a correlation, or a bias, there is some sort of tool that will make sure your company is successful (Ayres, 2009). Data sets are one of the easiest statistical devices for businesses and one that you will probably exhaust daily without realizing it. When a person is reading over his/her bank statements, and taking care of daily business, they are more than likely going over a data set. When you pick up the morning paper and look at how your company’s stock is performing, you are looking at figures gleaned from a data set. When using the words average, mean or deviation, you’re describing statistical tools that are currently being exhausted in your business (Ayres, 2009). Charts aren’t just a pretty picture of an aspect of your business they are a visual representation of a data set. Whether you are looking at a bar chart of sales or a pie chart of company profits, these snapshots can tell you where your business is performing well and where it is performing poorly. From bank balances to employee compensation, charts and graphs can give you a visual picture of any part of your company which deals with data (Ayres, 2009). Correlations are where one event causes another. For example, you may notice that customers who buy a certain type of product are more likely to purchase another type of product. However, just because you think one event is causing another doesn’t necessarily make it true; it could be a coincidence. Correlation analysis allows you to figure out whether one event is causative or not. A knowledge of correlations can be invaluable in planning sales and marketing campaigns (Ayres, 2009). Every business uses or produces some kind of statement or resolution; however, these may not always come out to be reliable. Errors may be present in the data collection, different sources do not always have the same information and there also could be mistakes in he calculations. Bias is when statistical results are different from the real — or true — value. A knowledge of bias will help you to understand which results are worth using for your business (Ayres, 2009). Distributions A distribution table can keep all of this information (numbers, row data) handy. A person can look, and say, oh, the participants in this survey were 75% male, or 25 % female. The managers can â€Å"see† the information and not just the raw data. Then complete the following distribution tables. Please pay attention to whether you should present the results in terms of percentages or simple counts. Distribution of Individuals by Gender |Gender |Percentage | |Females |50% | |Males |50% | Tenure with Company Distribution by Gender Please note that you do NOT have to convert these into percentages. You may leave them in a count format. |Under 2 years |2-5 Years |Over 5 years | |Male | |8 |11 | | |13 | | | |Female | |10 |3 | | |19 | | | Percentage of the Survey Participants in Each Department |Department |Percentage | Information Technology |34% | |Human Resources |25% | |Administration |41% | Sample Mean for Extrinsic Value by Gender |Gender |Mean Extrinsic Value | |Male |5. 32 | |Female |5. 36 | Probabilities The probabilities that will be calculated here are that an individual will be between the ages of 16-21; that an individual’s overall job satisfaction will be 5. 2 or higher; females working in human resources; and a n individual’s intrinsic satisfaction is 5 or more. This information will be useful to AIU because they can look at these probabilities and find out what they need to change to increase job satisfaction, and they can also see whether or not they have an equal amount of females and males working in each department. |Classification |Count |Probability | |Probability that an individual will be between |18 |28% | |16–21 years of age | | | |Probability that an individual’s overall job |35 |55% | |satisfaction is 5. or lower | | | |Probability that an individual will be a female |5 |8% | |in the human resources department | | | |Probability that an individual will be a |12 |19% | |salaried employee whose intrinsic satisfaction | | | |value is 5 or more | | | Probabilities in the Business World The theory of probability is actually the study of non-planned happenings. This type of study, of course, is math-related, and started when people would try to win card and dice games for money. Each and every decision that is made in a business setting has some sort of risk involved with it. With this being said, it seems that in the business setting, probability would be used to handle a business’s financial risks. Even the choices that are made by management have a probability of succeeding or (S. , 2010). Conclusion I hope that you have found all of the information within this survey of use. Using the information within this email can help you to improve working conditions for your employees. Sincerely, Leah A. Lopez Senior Board Member References Ayres, I. (2009, August 13). The Value of Statistics. Retrieved from Freakonomics: http://www. freakonomics. com/2009/08/13/the-value-of-statistics/ S. , E. (2010). How Probability is Used in Business. Retrieved from Reference. com: http://www. reference. com/motif/science/how-probability-is-used-in-business How to cite Busn311 Unit 2 Ip, Essay examples

Kristen with an EN free essay sample

When asked why she named me Kristen, my mother will usually say that she â€Å"likes the E-N. It sounds like a strong person’s name, and a strong woman’s name.† I’m sure she didn’t pick my name or its uncommon spelling lightly. She miscarried eight months into her previous pregnancy, and my first moments of life represented our combined tenacity. Although my mother and I had been a team since I had taken my first breath, circumstances with my father were always drastically different. He abused me, and I did not question his narcissism or his violent reprimands. Instead, I determined to please him by performing amicably and silently in both school and sports. I was a perfect mannequin, posed and composed, and completely fake. Afraid of punishment, I existed but did not live. This changed when I was fifteen. My mother, a strong woman in her own right, stole my sister and I away on a Saturday when my father was on a business trip. We will write a custom essay sample on Kristen with an EN or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page She situated us in a new house and began divorce proceedings. My new family gradually lost everything associated with our former seemingly-Stepford existence. We were pariahs, cast out by our ultra-conservative church and our ultra-conservative friends, even as our father continued to harass us from afar. People refused to admit that my father was capable of the actions he committed, and I used my mannequin-like skills to hide (successfully, I might add) the pain I felt because of it. Regardless of what other people thought had transpired, I was diagnosed with a very real case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder because of my father’s abuse. I felt like Sisyphus, faced with the eternally lonely, grueling task of both balancing and moving a formidable burden. I had to make progress, but how, exactly? What would be at the top of the hill but the beginning of another effort? In the beginning I found no answers. As I relentlessly attempted to steer my burden back and forth, life pr esented me with an interesting opportunity: Would I, Kristen, like to change my name? At first, my answer was a qualm-free â€Å"of course.† Maybe if I changed what I called myself, I wouldn’t be Sisyphus any longer. Maybe, just maybe, I would forget about that boulder. Midway through extensive official name-changing paperwork, I entertained a strange thought. People had always misspelled my name, making it â€Å"Kristin† with an I-N instead of â€Å"Kristen† with an E-N, and thereby completely trouncing its significance. Even as I endeavored to change my name, remembering this annoyed me. Pause. I still wanted this symbol of my old life. My old strength, my old legacy, my old self; I myself, Kristen with an E-N, survived my old life. I surely had the strength to carry on now, unashamed of my past and unafraid of confronting my future. I thought of my mother, who had aptly named me so that I would have Sisyphean strength to confront life’s Sisyph ean obstacles. That day, I began again like I had when the umbilical cord was cut. I believed that I could carry my burden, and I did that, and more – I beat PTSD, broke out of my mannequin-esque state, and began to discover who I really was. I began to love the journey back and forth as I embraced my new self while keeping my old name, Kristen with an E-N.

Advertising Proposal for EduTot

Executive Summary EduTot is a company that was started in the 1990s to provide a completely integrated education system to students through provision of toys, programs and plays that incorporate play and growth. This is an advertising plan for the company in order to increase its competitiveness in the domestic market and aid the efforts of the company to go global.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Advertising Proposal for EduTot specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The research entails an understanding of the company’s products, the competitor and the strategies used by the company against those used by the competitors. A marketing strategy, marketing rationale and marketing objectives are also considered. Then the advertising strategy in terms of media mix, media choice, seasonality, tone, geographical considerations and other factors are developed. The budget for the advertising is drawn on monthly basis and then the strategy, methodology and objectives of advertising evaluation determined. Situation Analysis Current Users This section explores the users of a company’s products. A good understanding of the users is important since it enables the company to formulate better marketing strategies that will appeal to the customers (Hackley 23). The understanding of the customers can be achieved by looking at the demographic features of the customer such as occupation, marital status, ethnicity, education levels, income brackets, age brackets and number of children among other demographic considerations. The psychographic features such as lifestyle of the users, tastes and preferences also provide a good understanding of the users. After this understanding, one is able to come up with a prospect definition for the customers. 1. Demographic ProfileAdvertising Looking for research paper on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OF F Learn More Occupation – the users of the products of EduTot come from various occupational backgrounds. This is because the company manufactures toys and other programs for use in teaching of young children. The customers for the products are the parents of students who come from different occupations. However, a great percentage of the users are schools and teachers thus the main occupation of the users of the products of EduTot is teachers or education specialists and specifically early childhood educationists. Marital status – the users of the products of EduTot are married, single, divorced, separated or widowed. In other words, there is no specific target in terms of marital status for the products of the company Ethnic background- the users of the products of EduTot are from diverse ethnic backgrounds although many users are Americans. This is because the company was started in America and that is the country of operation. Education- the products for the company are most appropriate to teachers and educationists whose education level varies from university graduates to college graduates. Age – the users are not of a specific age group, but the most common users who are teachers are adults. Income – the EduTot’s products target the middle class people in the society with moderate income. There income is neither low now high. Children – the number of children is not applicable for users of products of EduTot. 2. Psychographics/ Lifestyle VALS in marketing stands for Values, Attitudes and Lifestyles and it is a tool used for establishing the psychographic factors of the customers (Hackley, p. 35). People can be grouped into different VAL categories depending on things that motivate them and resources available to them. The users targeted by EduTot Company are achievers and strivers because they are teachers, parents and educational centers who strive to achieve academic excellence for their children. 3. Prospect Definition The prospect definition is a statement that identifies potential customers to be targeted. Because EduTot Company has been successful in America, it is good for the company to explore other international markets (Sutherland and Sylvester 67). Thus, the prospect definition for the company is new customers of middle-income class in Britain and Japan. Geographic emphasis The products from EduTot Company do not have a strict geographical emphasis. The targeted geographical areas are the urban areas since they have high population and thus more education centers. Seasonality Seasonality refers to the occurrence of high sales and low sales in business. Seasonality is a factor to EduTot Company products. The company records high sales when schools are about to open and lower sales later. This is because when schools are about to be opened, that is when most schools, educationists and parents look for the required materials for education.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Advertising Proposal for EduTot specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Product evaluation Under the product evaluation, issues related to the products of EduTot Company will be discussed and they include history of the products; sales history, pricing and distribution channels currently employed by the company to sale its products and the brand character. EduTot was started in the early 1990s in United States of America with the aim of providing education aids, which would ensure a completely integrated learning process in the early stages of children’s growth. The company started producing toys, games and computer software that could provide values such as analysis skills and problem solving skills in children. Since its inception, the sales of the company have been in an upward trend and in 2009; the company recorded a record US $ 120 million. The pricing strategy in use by the Company is cost plus pricing. The company sets a price that enables it to cover the production, services cost, and a profit margin on top of the cost of production. The distribution channels used by the company is use of wholesalers and retailers who sale the products to the consumers. The targeted wholesalers and retailers are those who sale education materials and bookstores. This channel is more effective since it involves lower cost of distribution and it ensures high market penetration. EduTot estimates that it has made a penetration of 4% in market outlets in US. The products are placed in shelves facing customers and places where the customers can have easy access to the products. The EduTot Company commands respect from retailers and wholesalers in the market due to quality of products and thus they readily allow space for products. Some retailers however face out of stock problems due to distribution problems by wholesalers. EduTot highly employs the push strategy to promote goods and services since the products are still new in the market.Advertising Looking for research paper on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More It is also good to evaluate the brand character of the products of EduTot limited. The current pricing is acceptable and affordable to many customers since the profit margin added is no too high. The products are of high quality since the toys are durably made of bright colors, safe for children use and they promote learning. The computers software and other learning programs are user friendly and reliable to the consumers. The packaging is also attractive protects the quality of the products. It also enhances convenience in transportation since the toys are parked in cartons. Compared to the products of competitors, the products of EduTot Company are more reputable. The problems that the products solve are lack of an education system that promotes wholesome growth and learning. The overwhelming benefits to the users are achievement of completely integrated growth of their children while at the same time enhancing their safety. Production of the toys, software and other education pr ograms require creativity in order to make use of the changing technology. EduTot is thus required to continually look for ways to improve on their products in terms of technological advancements, changing education requirements and safety. There are no notable competitors to EduTot in provision of childcare toys and education programs. The competitors are small and they are still in the infancy stages thus they command a minimal share of the market. The competitors are few in number and they target specific states in US. Most of the competitors use the pull strategy to promote their products because they target a smaller market. They do not have good reputation with retailers and wholesalers because their products are too localized, are of low quality and high priced. The pricing strategies used by the competitors are penetration strategies since the competitors are new in the market. The products are of poorer quality than EduTot’s products in terms of performance, durabili ty and safety. Their packaging is similar to that of the EduTot’s products hence it can be concluded that the products from EduTot are superior to those of competitors. The mode of advertising used by the companies is use of newspapers and posters. Their weakness is lack of appropriate slogan for their brands hence their brands are not more recognized than EduTot’s brands. Research Objective The research objective of this paper is to determine the advertising marketing strategies applicable to EduTot Company in order to maintain and increase their market share and enter into the global business scene. Strategy The strategy for the advertising and product campaign is promotion of the customer benefits, increase of brand awareness and promotion of the differentiating features of the EduTot’s products. The advertising will be aimed at improving the brand image of EduTot Company. Methodology In development of the advertising strategy and the product campaign strateg y for EduTot Company, the background information about the products is sought. The product history, current marketing strategies, distribution channels and pricing strategies is provided. In addition, an overview of the competition in terms of product quality, distribution and pricing is done. The media mix is then decided, the marketing objective or aim established and the advertising strategy developed. Summary Of Findings The advertising strategy more suitable for the products of EduTot Company is an aggressive campaign with a global outlook and one that makes use of a good media mix is appropriate for the products of the company. It is also found out that the advertising strategy should be aimed at informing the customers on benefits and features of the products and changes in prices. Other needs for the advertising strategy are to persuade customers to buy the products from the company. Problem: Opportunity Statement EduTot Company has been successful in the United States of Am erica for over twenty years. The company has created and maintained a big market share and it has continued to recorder increasing sales. Over the past ten years, competition has been growing in the education sector and this has been caused by introduction of small companies who provide accessories to certain states in US. This has forced the EduTot Company to formulate long-term strategies in order to maintain market share and find other markets. The company decided to embrace globalization strategy. The research problem or opportunity statement for this paper is thus to develop an effective advertising strategy that will help EduTot Company to maintain market share as well as to get new markets internationally. Marketing Objective The marketing objectives for EduTot Company’s products are: To maintain market share To get new markets in the global market To satisfy the needs of the customers To ensure the products are within customers’ reach To develop affordable and quality products to consumers Marketing Rationale The marketing rationale for this company is to identify the customer needs and satisfy those needs well than the competitors. Another rationale is to identify potential markets and penetrate into the markets. The company also seeks to create new markets through exploration of international markets. Advertising Creative Creative advertising strategies used to promote the brand image of a product, persuade the customers to buy and use the product. It employs the use of slogans, good publicity and other sales promotion strategies. The creative advertising strategies can be weak, semi-strong or strong depending on their intensity. The big idea is to show the main features of the products of EduTot. The support for the main idea is accessibility, durability and other features such as information on price changes. The tone used is persuasive but also aggressive in nature and the emphasis is on sampling of customers who have experienced t he products. Advertising Media Media refers to the channels that can be used to pass the information to the users. A choice of media is made depending on the target audience, coverage, marketing objective, cost and other factors. Objective The objective of the advertising media is to reach the target market effectively. This means that the media should pass the information without distortions and that the media should be cost effective. The target audience for EduTot Company is the elite who are involved in education sector. A media chosen should create an appeal to the elite. Because the company has chose Britain and Japan for international business, the media should be able to cover those two markets in addition to addressing the market in America. There is seasonality in advertising for the products of EduTot Company since the company expects to sell more when the schools are about to open. The media used should reach the targeted group but it should not be so frequent. This is t o cut down on advertising costs and to avoid boredom. The media should take into consideration technological advancements and lifestyles of the targeted group of customers. Strategies This means the media mix, types of media, geographical use and seasonality of media considerations in advertising. For EduTot, a mix of both print and electronic media is recommended. The company should advertise through newspapers, televisions, posters and most importantly, online. It should therefore develop a website for use in marketing the products. The website should be interactive and it should allow customers and other people to contribute to the development of the product. The types of media for use are not limited. The company can use any media that has a national and international appeal. Because of technological advancements and diversity of users, the media formats to be used are not limited (Brainmass 2). The company can use short plays, songs, pictures and other formats as long as they p ass the message and appeal to the targeted customers. The media to be used should reach the international markets (Britain and Japan) as well as all the states of US. Advertising should be continuous but its aggressiveness should vary with seasonality of demand. Tactics The tactics to be employed by EduTot should be to for the company to identify itself with customers, make the customers believe that the company understands their needs and ensure that the message is aggressively delivered to the customers. Multimedia recommendations Objective Multimedia refers to use of more media to pass the same information, either at the same time or at different times. The objectives of multimedia use for EduTot Company should be: Pass the information in a cost effective manner Create easy understanding of the message Well customized to address different time and place situations Enhance quality of the message being delivered. Strategy To enhance the choice of multimedia that addresses all the objectives above, EduTot should come up with adverts that employ the use of pictures, sound, short movies or videos as well as pictures. These will be effective since they will help the company to pass the information in a cost effective manner. Methodology The best methodology would be to play audio adverts when the people are relatively busy, like when they are travelling or working. When the people are at home, video and music adverts will be better because people are relaxed and they have time to listen to them. Flowcharts And Schedules The following should be the flow chart for the establishment of the advertising campaign: Budget Advertising budget for EduTot Company Media Cost (US $) Newspapers: Local newspapers (10 adverts per month @ $ 30,000) 300,000 International newspapers (15 Adverts @ $ 40,000) 600,000 Radio advertising (30 Runs per month @ $ 20,000) 600,000 Billboards and outdoor advertising (10 billboards @ $ 100,000) 1,000,000 Internet advertising (Cr eation and maintenance of website) 500,000 Fliers (10,000 @ $ 1) 10,000 Market survey and research (200 hours @ $ 20) 4,000 Advertising evaluation (200 hours @ $ 10) 1,000 Total 315,000 Campaign Evaluation/ Testing The advertising strategy chosen should be tested, implemented, and then reviewed to know whether it is effective. The objective of campaign evaluation or testing is to ascertain the effectiveness and suitability of the chosen strategy to know whether it needs to be revised or not. Another objective is to keep track of all the costs and schedules to ensure that everything goes according to plan. The strategy or methodology for evaluation of strategy is gathering of data regarding the expenditure and results and then comparing them with the targets. This will show the extent to which the advertising strategy has accomplished the targets hence its effectiveness. Works Cited Brainmass. The four P’s of marketing for EduTot in Germany and Japan. 2010. June 5, 2011. https://brainmass.com/business/international-markets/four-ps-marketing-edutot-germany-japan-329372 Hackley, Christopher. Advertising and Promotion: Communicating Brands. London: SAGE, 2005. Print Sutherland, Max and Alice Sylvester. Advertising and the Mind of the Consumer: What Works, What Doesn’t, and Why. Crows Nest: Allen Unwin, 2009. Print. This research paper on Advertising Proposal for EduTot was written and submitted by user Josephine Fry to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Printable SAT Practice Tests PDFs 18 FREE Official Tests

Printable SAT Practice Tests PDFs 18 FREE Official Tests SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips In this article, I'll tell you where to find all official, printable SAT practice tests andanswer keys. This comprehensive guide gives you access to more SAT practice tests than any other online guide. In addition, you'll learn key strategies that'll help you make big improvements on SAT practice tests you can print out. Free Printable SAT Tests (Current 1600 Format, 2016-Present) Currently, there are 10 available practice tests for the redesigned SAT, all of which have been provided by the maker of the SAT itself, theCollege Board. These tests are the absolute best ones to use for your SAT studies since they're the most similar to the test. Practice Test 1:Questions | Answers | Answer Explanations | Essay Practice Test 2:Questions | Answers | Answer Explanations | Essay Practice Test 3:Questions | Answers | Answer Explanations | Essay Practice Test 4:Questions | Answers | Answer Explanations | Essay Practice Test 5:Questions | Answers | Answer Explanations |Essay Practice Test 6:Questions | Answers | Answer Explanations |Essay Practice Test 7:Questions | Answers | Answer Explanations |Essay Practice Test 8:Questions | Answers | Answer Explanations | Essay Practice Test 9: Questions | Answers | Answer Explanations Practice Test 10: Questions | Answers | Answer Explanations Don't forget to fill in your answers with theSAT answersheet. Disappointed with your scores? Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points?We've written a guide about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: Free Printable SAT Tests (Old 2400 Format, 2005-2016) These next tests follow the old 2400format of the SAT, with separate Critical Reading, Math, and Writing sections. (By contrast, on the current SAT, your Reading and Writing scores are combined for a total Evidence-Based Reading and Writing score.) Despite their somewhat out-of-date structure, these tests can be useful for your studying.Just keep in mindall the major differences between the old and current SAT. I recommend using these tests more as training sessions than as full-on practice for the SAT. Official SAT Printable Practice Test 2013-14:Questions|Answers Official SAT Printable Practice Test 2012-13:Questions|Answers Official SAT Printable Practice Test 2007-08:Questions|Answers Official SAT Printable Practice Test 2004-05:Questions|Answers It might look as though I've skipped a few years here, but I actually haven't: all the tests for the yearsnot listed are repeats of those above, including the 2011-12, 2010-11, 2009-10, 2008-09, 2006-07, and 2005-06 practice tests. So if you find these tests on other forums or websites, don't waste your time taking them since they're the exact same as the ones already listed. We're going way back into the past for this next set of SAT tests. Free Printable SAT Tests (Very Old 1600 Format, Pre-2005) Before the SAT underwent a redesign in 2016, the last time it had changed was in 2005, back when it jumped from a 1600-point scale to a 2400-point scale. Despite this massive shift in scoring, only a few major differences could be found between the very old 1600 SAT and the old 2400 SAT. Other than those, most of the test remained the same. As a result, these very old SAT practice tests are a hidden gold minethat few students know of. By taking these tests, then, you'll have that much more of an edge over other test takers. Before I give you the links, though, note a few important caveats: You can skip the analogies questions on Reading. These are the questions that look like "CAR : ENGINE ::." Since they're no longer on the SAT, there's no point in studying them. You can skip the comparison questions on Math. This question type presents two boxes and asks you to decide whether A or B is greater. Again, these aren't on the current SAT, so you don't need to worry about these. There is no Writing section on these tests.Therefore, make sure you use supplementary prep materials to study the grammar and question types you'll need to know for the current SAT's Writing and Language section. Be grateful you don't need to answer some of these old-format questions- analogies were the primary reason that the SAT had a bad reputation for forcing students to memorize vocab! Official SAT Test 2004-05:Questions|Answers Official SAT Test 2003-04:Questions|Answers Official SAT Test 2002:Questions + Answers Official SAT Test 2001:Questions + Answers 6 Tips for Getting the Most Out Of SAT Practice Tests Each SAT practice test requires around four hours of intense focus, so it's important to utilize them effectively. Below are six critical strategiesto follow each time you take a practice test. #1: Print Out the Test and Take It on Paper Because the SAT is a paper test (as opposed to a computer test), it's best to take the practice tests on paper. Also, make sure youdo your scratch work directly on the test.Don't get out separate pieces of scratch paper to use since on the actual test you won't get any scratch paper (but will be allowed totake notes directly in your test booklet). Finally, if you're taking the optional Essay section, practice writing your essay using the lined paper included with your practice test. #2: Use Strict Timing on Each Section Although time pressure can be intimidating,it's important to follow official SAT time limits as closely as possible onpractice tests. Why? If, for example, you spend just two extra minutes on a section, this could raise your score by hundreds of points, since the extra time allowed you to answer more questions than you would've been able to within the actual time limit. As a result, your practice SAT score becomes inflated and doesn't give you an accurate indicator of your actual scoring ability. Here's an overview of the official time limits for each SAT section as well as how long you should spend (roughly) per question: SAT Section Time # of Questions Time per Question Reading 65 minutes 52 75 seconds Writing and Language 35 minutes 44 48 seconds Math No Calculator 25 minutes 20 75 seconds Math Calculator 55 minutes 38 87 seconds Make sure togive yourself breaks, too! #3: Take the Test in One Sitting The SAT is a marathon of a test, lasing around four hours on an early Saturday morning. Many of my students have told me how difficult it was to stay focused the entire time and keep themselves from making careless mistakes at the end. Preparing for the SAT is like training for a marathon: you need to ensure you have enough stamina to make it through the test.And the best way to do this is to take each practice test in one sitting, as if you were taking the actual SAT. If it's too difficult for you to find the time to take a practice test in one sitting, go ahead and split it up over several days- just make sure youadhere to the time limits for each section. Ultimately, it's better to do some SAT practice than none at all! #4: Review Your Mistakes (and Your Correct Answers, Too) Practice tests aren't just good for getting to know the SAT format and sections- they're also great for learning from your mistakes. For every practice SAT test you take, spend time reviewing both questions you got wrong and questions you got right. If you don't know why you missed a question, don't just skip it and move on; doing this means you won't learn what kind of mistake you made, raising your risk of making it over and over again. This habit can hamper your score pretty drastically. So make sure to approach your SAT prep with this in mind: quality over quantity. I'd rather have you take three practice tests with detailed review than six practice tests with no review. #5: Take At Least 4 Practice Tests Before the Actual SAT From my experience with thousands of students, this magic number works best at getting students really comfortable with the SAT in all major respects, including timing and endurance. If you want to take more than four tests, go ahead and try it out- just make sure that you balance your prep with some focused studying on your weaknesses so that you can make faster progress. #6: Use Supplemental Resources If Necessary Some students are great at learning the ins and outs of the SAT through practice tests alone- they recognize their mistakes, understand why they made them, and avoid making them in the future. But most students need additional help to pinpoint their weaknesses and teach them the skills and strategies needed for success on the SAT. If practice tests aren't enough for you, download our free guide to help you figure out which SAT prep method works best for you. What's Next? Want to get a perfect SAT score?Take a look atour famous guide to a 1600, written by an expert SAT perfect-scorer. Aiming high on each SAT section? Then read our individual, in-depth strategy guides to help you reach an800 on SAT Reading, SAT Math, and SAT Writing. Want to improve your SAT score by 160points?We have the industry's leading SAT prep program. Built by Harvard grads and SAT full scorers, the program learns your strengths and weaknesses through advanced statistics, then customizes your prep program to you so you get the most effective prep possible. Check out our 5-day free trial today:

MRKT Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

MRKT - Assignment Example Imber’s , Jane, and Betsy-Ann Toffler’s dictionary states the meaning of alternative media as channels of in-store promotions, shopping cart advertisements, video kiosks in shopping malls, business publications, trade journals, flyers, and telephone directories. While researching for this paper, I came across the business card of a divorce lawyer James A.W. Mahon on a blog of Alex Beker related to creative ideas. The card could be torn in half and both the sides bear the same details for the clients. This is an alternative source of promotion for the service as it involves no print, electronic and the outdoor mode of advertising. This innovative idea of a business card would be enough for James to generate a buzz in the market and build a strong clientage and he may also not have enough capital to advertise on the mass media which is an expensive vehicle. Works Cited Imber, Jane, and Betsy-Ann Toffler.  Dictionary of Marketing Terms. Hauppauge, NY: Barron's, 2000. Int ernet resource. Beker, Alex. John St. Toronto. James A.W. Mahon Divorce Lawyer. Alex Beker 2007. Internet Resource. http://scratchyourhead.blogspot.com/2007/01/john-st-toronto-james-aw-mahon-divorce.html

An Evaluation of the Teacher Certification Process Research Paper

An Evaluation of the Teacher Certification Process - Research Paper Example In this paper, I will endeavor to discuss the traditional route for attaining a teaching certificate, and the alternative routes available to becoming a teacher. Certification, from the very essence of the word, pertains to the process wherein students receive a professional credit from their colleges or universities for completing all the requirements of their curriculum and for being a graduate of their program. Normally, students receive a professional certification through engaging in a four-year college or university degree, which is basically the same for the standard teacher certification route. In the standard route, also called traditional certification process, students have to take a four-year college or university bachelor’s degree (for instance education courses), complete all the requirements from different subjects, serve as a student teacher for a certain number of months under the guidance of a certified classroom teacher, and take the state mandated teaching certification test to obtain a teaching license (Steeley, 2010). The standard certification route requires students to complete a bachelor’s degree with a carefully planned coursework, which means that there are obligatory subjects that students have to take each year of their studies (Teachers Support, 2011). For example, during the first year of their studies students are required to take fundamental courses in English, science, math, and history, or sometimes categorized as the general education courses. In the second year, the students have to take major courses in education, or courses which are more centered on the subject of education, for instance theories in teaching, psychology of teaching, and others. Teaching methods will then be the focus of the students’ third and fourth years, and two of the most critical parts of these teaching methods are the teacher training program and the supervised student teaching. After the completion of all the bachelor degreeâ €™s requirements, the students are expected to take and pass the state mandated standard teaching certification examination. The traditional route for obtaining a teaching certificate is perceived to be most suitable for students who just graduated high school and are pursuing a college education in teaching (Watts, 2008). Since this type of teacher certification sets the highest requirements for teachers, this route is basically appropriate for those students who have the time and financial capabilities to support their studies. On the other hand, the alternative, or non-traditional, routes for obtaining a teacher certification is designed for those individuals who have not completed a four-year bachelor’s degree in education through a university or college but are interested in attaining a certificate in teaching. It might be that these individuals who are seeking for alternative route teaching certificate have already completed a bachelor’s or master’s de gree in a different field, or career changers (Teachers Support, 2011). Furthermore, the alternative routes to certification suit those people who lack the time and money to go through the traditional certification process. The various alternative routes for obtaining a teaching certificate have surfaced due to the alleged shortage of teachers (Steeley, 2010). Due to the highly competitive standards set

Analysis of Weinbergers Concepts of Cyberwarfare

Analysis of Weinbergers Concepts of Cyberwarfare In June 2010, analysts from the antivirus software company VirusBlokAda examined a computer in Iran due to suspicion of malware activity. Lurking inside the machine was a computer worm known as Stuxnet. Stuxnet possessed an array of abilities, among them was the ability to target the software that controls pumps, valves, generators and other industrial machines (Weinberger, 2011). Unlike other viruses that use forged security clearances to gain access into systems, Stuxnet took advantage of two digital certificates of authenticity stolen from respected companies (Weinberger, 2011). Furthermore, it exploited four different zero day vulnerabilities' which are security gaps that system creators were unaware of (Weinberger, 2011). According to Liam O Murchu, chief of security response of Symantec, once Stuxnet infected a system, the crucial parts of its executable code would become active only if that machine was also running Siemens Step 7, one of the many supervisory control and data (SCADA) systems used to manage industrial processes (Weinberger, 2011). Symantec also discovered that the majority of infections were in Iran and that the infections seemed to have been appearing there in waves since 2009 (Weinberger, 2011). Further investigation performed by Ralph Langner, a control-system security consultant, resulted in evidence that Stuxnet had been deliberately directed against Iran, the most likely target being Irans Nuclear Enrichment Facility in Natanz. (Weinberger, 2011). According to Langner, Stuxnet was designed to alter the speed of the delicate centrifuges which separated Irans rare but fissionable isotope uranium -235 from the heavier uranium -238 (Weinberger, 2011). Improper alteration of the cent rifuges could result in them spinning out of control and breaking. Although the Iranian Government refuses to admit that Stuxnet was responsible for the destruction of many centrifuges at Natanz, the results from Langner and others is credited by reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency. The IAEA documented a precipitous drop in the number of operating centrifuges in 2009, the year that many observers think Stuxnet infected computers in Iran (Weinberger, 2011). There is no evidence beyond rumor that Israel or the US Government may have been behind the attack. Symantec notes that a name embedded in Stuxnets code, Myrtus, could be a reference to a biblical story about a planned massacre of Jews in Persia (Weinberger, 2011). Moreover, Langner believes that the U.S. Government could have been behind the attack considering they possess both the required expertise in cyber warfare and a long-standing goal of thwarting Irans nuclear ambitions (Weinberger, 2011). Irrespective of Stuxnets creator, the main growing fear is who will redesign it. Stuxnet was the first weapon created entirely out of code and proved that groups or nations could launch a cyber-attack against a societys vital infrastructures (Weinberger, 2011). Many of the investigators that studied Stuxnet concluded that it essentially laid out a blueprint for future attackers to learn from and perhaps improve (Weinberger, 2011). Stuxnet opened a new era of warfare and with its code available online for anyone to study and improve, it has computer scientists like Yuval Elovici concerned that the next wave of cyber-attacks would be much stronger than the impact of setting several atomic bombs on major cities (Weinberger, 2011). In IS THIS THE START OF CYBERWARFARE? Sharon Weinberger questions whether or not Stuxnet started a new era of warfare. One might find that Weinbergers use of supporting evidence from many credible sources imposes a compelling answer to an interesting topic of study. Weinberger emphasizes the inferred answer is indeed yes, Stuxnet introduced a new era of warfare. Statements such as Stuxnet is the harbinger of a new generation of cyber threats and that it provided chilling proof that groups or nations could launch a cyber-attack against a societys vital infrastructures are well validated by the many investigators that studied it (Weinberger, 2011). Overall, one would appreciate Weinbergers supportive writing style and the information she presented in this article. Weinberger was heavily resourceful and made certain that every point she made was reinforced by credible supporting evidence. Furthermore, one would relish how she tailored her article to a broader audience. Easy and straightforward for a non tech-savvy individual to understand, and yet interesting to captivate the minds of those that are tech-savvy, she capitalized on the statements made from some of the most respected cyber security experts in the world. As a student who often finds himself being the rescue to many of his friends or familys infected PCs, choosing Stuxnet as my topic of study seemed like the obvious choice. I have always been very interested in computer malware since the day my laptop first got infected. I was bombarded with annoying ads telling me that I had a virus on board and that I needed to type in my credit card number to purchase antivirus protection. Although very annoying, it had me asking myself many questions like how did this happen, isnt Windows secure and best of all how do I delete my browsing history. Since then, I have always had a keen interest in malware and have developed a hobby of testing the capabilities of different antivirus programs in VMware Player. I find many things interesting about Stuxnet but the thing I find most interesting is how it spread. Although Stuxnet possessed the ability to spread through networks, it couldnt infect industrial control systems via the internet since a majority of them lack internet connectivity to protect them from malware and hostile takeover. (Weinberger, 2011). To get past this obstacle, Stuxnet had the ability to covertly install itself on a USB drive (Weinberger, 2011). Like a biological virus, Stuxnet used humans (plant operators specifically) as its host of transmission. If one careless plant operator were to plug in an infected USB flash drive into a control-system computer, Stuxnet would begin its destruction.   Weinberger, S. (2011, June 9). IS THIS THE START OF CYBERWARFARE? Nature, 142-145. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.uproxy.library.dc-uoit.ca/docview/872363390?accountid=14694 Last years Stuxnet virus attack represented a new kind of threat to critical infrastructure. Just over a year ago, a computer in Iran started repeatedly rebooting itself, seemingly without reason. Suspecting some kind of malicious software (malware), analysts at VirusBlokAda, an antivirus-software company in Minsk, examined the misbehaving machine over the Internet, and soon found that they were right. Disturbingly so: the code they extracted from the Iranian machine proved to be a previously unknown computer virus of unprecedented size and complexity. On 17 June 2010, VirusBlokAda issued a worldwide alert that set off an international race to track down what came to be known as Stuxnet: the most sophisticated computer malware yet found and the harbinger of a new generation of cyberthreats. Unlike conventional malware, which does its damage only in the virtual world of computers and networks, Stuxnet would turn out to target the software that controls pumps, valves, generators and other industrial machines. It was the first time wed analysed a threat that could cause real-world damage, that could actually cause some machine to break, that might be able to cause an explosion, says Liam O Murchu, chief of security response for the worlds largest computer-security firm, Symantec in Mountain View, California. Stuxnet provided chilling proof that groups or nations could launch a cyberattack against a societys vital infrastructures for water and energy. We are probably just now entering the era of the cyber arms race, says Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer for F-Secure, an antivirus company based in Helsinki. Worse yet, the Stuxnet episode has highlighted just how inadequate are societys current defences and how glaring is the gap in cybersecurity science. Computer-security firms are competitive in the marketplace, but they generally respond to a threat such as Stuxnet with close collaboration behind the scenes. Soon after Virus- BlokAdas alert, for example, Kaspersky Lab in Moscow was working with Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, to hunt down the vulnerabilities that the virus was exploiting in the Windows operating system. (It was Microsoft that coined the name Stuxnet, after one of the files hidden in its code. Technically, Stuxnet was a worm, a type of malware that can operate on its own without needing another program to infect. But even experts often call it a virus, which has become the generic term for self-replicating malware.) One of the most ambitious and comprehensive responses was led by Symantec, which kept O Murchu and his worldwide team of experts working on Stuxnet around the clock for three months. One major centre of operations was Symantecs malware lab in Culver City, California, which operates like the digital equivalent of a top-level biological containment facility. A sign on the door warns visitors to leave computers, USB flash drives and smart phones outside: any electronic device that passes through that door, even by mistake, will stay there. Inside the lab, the team began by dropping Stuxnet into a simulated networking environment so that they could safely watch what it did. The sheer size of the virus was staggering: some 15,000 lines of code, representing an estimated 10,000 person hours in software development. Compared with any other virus ever seen, says O Murchu, its a huge amount of code. Equally striking was the sophistication of that code. Stuxnet took advantage of two digital certificates of authenticity stolen from respected companies, and exploited four different zero day vulnerabilities previously unidentified security holes in Windows that were wide open for hackers to use. Then there was the viruss behaviour. Very quickly we realized that it was doing something very unusual, recalls O Murchu. Most notably, Stuxnet was trying to talk to the programmable logic controllers (PLCs) that are used to direct industrial machinery. Stuxnet was very selective, however: although the virus could spread to almost any machine running Windows, the crucial parts of its executable code would become active only if that machine was also running Siemens Step7, one of the many supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems used to manage industrial processes. Many industrial control systems are never connected to the Internet, precisely to protect them from malware and hostile takeover. That led to another aspect of Stuxnets sophistication. Like most other malware, it could spread over a network. But it could also covertly install itself on a USB drive. So all it would take was one operator unknowingly plugging an infected memory stick into a control-system computer, and the virus could explode into action. 6.1 Murky Motives It still wasnt clear what Stuxnet was supposed to do to the Siemens software. The Symantec team got a clue when it realized that the virus was gathering information about the host computers it had infected, and sending the data back to servers in Malaysia and Denmark presumably to give the unknown perpetrators a way to update the Stuxnet virus covertly. Identifying the command and control servers didnt allow Symantec to identify the perpetrators, but they were able to convince the Internet service providers to cut off the perpetrators access, rerouting the traffic from the infected computers back to Symantec so that they could eavesdrop. By watching where the traffic to the servers was coming from, O Murchu says, we were able to see that the majority of infections were in Iran at least 60% of them. In fact, the infections seemed to have been appearing there in waves since 2009. The obvious inference was that the virus had deliberately been directed against Iran, for reasons as yet unknown. But the Symantec investigators couldnt go much further by themselves. They were extremely knowledgeable about computers and networking, but like most malware-protection teams, they had little or no expertise in PLCs or SCADA systems. At some point in their analysis they just couldnt make any more sense out of what the purpose of this thing was, because they were not able to experiment with the virus in such a lab environment, says Ralph Langner, a control-system security consultant in Hamburg, Germany. Langner independently took it upon himself to fill that gap. Over the summer, he and his team began running Stuxnet in a lab environment equipped with Siemens software and industrial control systems, and watching how the virus interacted with PLCs. We began to see very strange and funny results immediately, and I mean by that within the first day of our lab experiment, he says. Those PLC results allowed Langner to infer that Stuxnet was a directed attack, seeking out specific software and hardware. In mid-September 2010, he announced on his blog that the evidence supported the suspicion that Stuxnet had been deliberately directed against Iran. The most likely target, he then believed, was the Bushehr nuclear power plant. 6.2 Industrial Sabotoge Speculative though Langners statements were, the news media quickly picked up on them and spread the word of a targeted cyberweapon. Over the next few months, however, as Langner and others continued to work with the code, the evidence began to point away from Bushehr and towards a uranium-enrichment facility in Natanz, where thousands of centrifuges were separating the rare but fissionable isotope uranium-235 from the heavier uranium-238. Many Western nations believe that this enrichment effort, which ostensibly provides fuel for nuclear power stations, is actually aimed at producing a nuclear weapon. The malware code, according to Langner and others, was designed to alter the speed of the delicate centrifuges, essentially causing the machines to spin out of control and break. That interpretation is given credence by reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, which document a precipitous drop in the number of operating centrifuges in 2009, the year that many observers think Stuxnet first infected computers in Iran. True, the evidence is circumstantial at best. We dont know what those machines were doing when they werent in operation, cautions Ivanka Barszashka, a Bulgarian physicist who studied Iranian centrifuge performance while she was working with the Federation of American Scientists in Washington DC. We dont know if they were actually broken or if they were just sitting there. Moreover, the Iranian government has officially denied that Stuxnet destroyed large numbers of centrifuges at Natanz, although it does acknowledge that the infection is widespread in the country. And IAEA inspection reports from late 2010 make it clear that any damage was at most a temporary setback: Irans enrichment capacity is higher than ever. However, if Natanz was the target, that does suggest an answer to the mystery of who created Stuxnet, and why. Given the knowledge required including expertise in malware, industrial security and the specific types and configurations of the industrial equipment being targeted most Stuxnet investigators concluded early on that the perpetrators were backed by a government. Governments have tried to sabotage foreign nuclear programmes before, says Olli Heinonen, a senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and former deputy director-general of the IAEA. In the 1980s and 1990s, for example, Western governments orchestrated a campaign to inject faulty parts into the network that Pakistan used to supply nuclear technology to countries such as Iran and North Korea. Intelligence agencies, including the US Central Intelligence Agency, have also made other attempts to sell flawed nuclear designs to would-be proliferators. Stuxnet, says Heinonen, is another way to do the same thing. Langner argues that the government behind Stuxnet is that of the United States, which has both the required expertise in cyberwarfare and a long-standing goal of thwarting Irans nuclear ambitions. Throughout the summer of 2010, while Langner, Symantec and all the other investigators were vigorously trading ideas and information about Stuxnet, the US Department of Homeland Security maintained a puzzling silence, even though it operates Computer Emergency Readiness Teams (CERTs) created specifically to address cyberthreats. True, the CERT at the Idaho National Laboratory outside Idaho Falls, which operates one of the worlds most sophisticated testbeds for industrial control systems, did issue a series of alerts. But the first, on 20 July 2010, came more than a month after the initial warning from Belarus and contained nothing new. Later alerts followed the same pattern: too little, too late. A delayed clipping service, said Dale Peterson, founder of Digital Bond, a SCADA security firm in Sunrise, Florida, on his blog. There is no way that they could have missed this problem, or that this is all a misunderstanding. Thats just not possible, says Langner, who believes that the Idaho labs anaemic response was deliberate, intended to cover up the fact that Stuxnet had been created there. But even Langner has to admit that the evidence against the United States is purely circumstantial. (The US government itself will neither confirm nor deny the allegation, as is its practice for any discussion of covert activity.) And the evidence against the other frequently mentioned suspect, Israel, is even more so. Symantec, for example, points out that a name embedded in Stuxnets code, Myrtus, could be a reference to a biblical story about a planned massacre of Jews in Persia. But other investigators say that such claims are beyond tenuous. There are no facts about Israel, declares Jeffrey Carr, founder and chief executive of Taia Global, a cybersecurity consulting company in Tysons Corner, Virginia. 6.3 The Aftermath The who? may never be discovered. Active investigation of Stuxnet effectively came to an end in February 2011, when Symantec posted a final update to its definitive report on the virus, including key details about its execution, lines of attack and spread over time. Microsoft had long since patched the security holes that Stuxnet exploited, and all the antivirus companies had updated their customers digital immune systems with the ability to recognize and shut down Stuxnet on sight. New infections are now rare although they do still occur, and it will take years before all the computers with access to Siemens controllers are patched. If Stuxnet itself has ceased to be a serious threat, however, cybersecurity experts continue to worry about the larger vulnerabilities that it exposed. Stuxnet essentially laid out a blueprint for future attackers to learn from and perhaps improve, say many of the investigators who have studied it. In a way, you did open the Pandoras box by launching this attack, says Langner of his suspicions about the United States. And it might turn back to you guys eventually. Cybersecurity experts are ill-prepared for the threat, in part because they lack ties to the people who understand industrial control systems. Weve got actually two very different worlds that traditionally have not communicated all that much, says Eric Byres, co-founder and chief technology officer of Tofino Industrial Security in Lantzville, Canada. He applauds Symantec, Langner and others for reaching across that divide. But the effort required to make those connections substantially delayed the investigation. The divide extends into university computer-science departments, say Byres, himself an ex-academic. Researchers tend to look at industrial-control security as a technical problem, rather than an issue requiring serious scientific attention, he says. So when graduate students express interest in looking at, say, cryptography and industrial controls, they are told that the subject is not mathematically challenging enough for a dissertation project. Im not aware of any academic researchers who have invested significantly in the study of Stuxnet, agrees Andrew Ginter, director of industrial security for the North American group of Waterfall Security Solutions, based in Tel Aviv, Israel. Almost the only researchers doing that kind of work are in industrial or government settings among them a team at the Idaho National Laboratory working on a next-generation system called Sophia, which tries to protect industrial control systems against Stuxnet-like threats by detecting anomalies in the network. One barrier for academics working on cybersecurity is access to the malware that they must protect against. That was not such a problem for Stuxnet itself, because its code was posted on the web shortly after it was first identified. But in general, the careful safeguards that Symantec and other companies put in place in secure labs to protect the escape of malware may also inadvertently be a barrier for researchers who need to study them. If youre doing research into biological agents, its limited groups that have them and they are largely unwilling to share; the same holds true for malware, says Anup Ghosh, chief scientist at the Center for Secure Information Systems at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. To advance the field, researchers need access to good data sets, says Ghosh, who was once a programme manager at the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and is now working on a malware detector designed to identify viruses on the basis of how they behave, rathe r than on specific patterns in their code, known as signatures. Academic researchers are also inhibited by a certain squeamishness about digital weaponry, according to Herb Lin, chief scientist at the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the US National Research Council in Washington DC. He points out that to understand how to guard against cyberattacks, it may help to know how to commit them. Yet teaching graduate students to write malware is very controversial, he says. People say, What do you mean: youre training hackers?' 6.4 Preparing for the Next Attack A study last year by the JASON group, which advises the US government on science and technology matters, including defence, found broad challenges for cybersecurity (JASON Science of Cyber-Security; MITRE Corporation, 2010). Perhaps most important was its conclusion that the field was underdeveloped in reporting experimental results, and consequently in the ability to use them. Roy Maxion, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who briefed JASON, goes further, saying that cybersecurity suffers from a lack of scientific rigour. Medical professionals over the past 200 years transformed themselves from purveyors of leeches to modern scientists with the advent of evidence-based medicine, he notes. In computer science and in computer security in particular, that train is nowhere in sight. Computer science has developed largely as a collection of what Maxion calls clever parlour tricks. For example, at one conference, the leading paper showed how researchers could read computer screens by looking at the reflections off windows and other objects. From a practical point of view, anyone in a classified meeting would go, pooh, he says. In places where they dont want you to know [whats on the computer screen], there are no windows. Yet, that was the buzz that year. Maxion sees an urgent need for computer-science and security curricula to include courses in traditional research methods, such as experimental design and statistics none of which is currently required. Why does it matter? he asks. Because we dont have a scientific basis for investigating phenomena like Stuxnet, or the kind of defences that would be effective against it. Also troubling for many of the Stuxnet investigators was the US governments lacklustre response to the virus (assuming that it was not the perpetrator). Stuxnet represents a new generation of cyberweapon that could be turned against US targets, but there is no evidence that the government is making the obvious preparations for such an attack for example, plans for a coordinated response that pools resources from academia, research institutes and private business. Other countries seem to be taking the threat more seriously. Some of Chinas universities and vocational colleges have reportedly forged strong connections with the military to work on cybersecurity, for example. And Israel also seems to be exploiting its computing expertise for national security. A few months before the discovery of Stuxnet, Yuval Elovici, a computer scientist and director of Deutsche Telekom Laboratories at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba, Israel, told Nature that he was working closely with the countrys Ministry of Defense on cybersecurity. He presciently warned that the next wave of cyberattacks would be aimed at physical infrastructures. What would happen if there were a code injection into SCADA? What if someone would activate it suddenly? Elovici asked. He and other experts have been warning for several years now that such an attack on SCADA systems controlling the electricity grid could spark nationwide blackouts, or that the safety systems of power plants could be overridden, causing a shutdown or a serious accident. Similar disruptions could hit water and sewage systems, or even food processing plants. Such attacks, Elovici warned, are both realistic and underestimated. Asked how bad one would be, Elovici was unequivocal. I think, he said, it would be much stronger than the impact of setting several atomic bombs on major cities.