Native Americans in the United States Essay

Dentify the economic, political, and/or social causes of the Civil War assess the influence of individuals and groups in the U. S. government on Reconstruction assess the influence of individuals and groups in the South on Reconstruction distinguish and analyze the freedoms guaranteed to African Americans in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution analyze the various components of Jim Crow legislation and their effects on Southern minorities describe efforts by the U. S. Government to assimilate Native Americans into American culture identify significant events that impacted the relationship between the government, Native Americans, and American citizens identify settlement patterns in the American West, the reservation system, and/or the tribulations of the Native Americans from 1865–90 After completing this lesson, you will be able to evaluate the causes and consequences of the Civil War identify the economic, political, and/or social causes of the Civil War assess the influence of individuals and groups in the U. S. government on Reconstruction assess the influence of individuals and groups in the South on Reconstruction distinguish and analyze the freedoms guaranteed to African Americans in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution analyze the various components of Jim Crow legislation and their distinguish and analyze the freedoms guaranteed to African Americans in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution effects on Southern minorities describe efforts by the U. S. Government to assimilate Native Americans into American culture identify significant events that impacted the relationship between the government, Native Americans, and American citizens identify settlement patterns in the American West, the reservation system, and/or the tribulations of the Native Americans from 1865–90After completing this lesson, you will be able to evaluate the causes and consequences of the Civil War identify the economic, political, and/or social causes of the Civil War assess the influence of individuals and groups in the U. S. Government on Reconstruction assess the influence of individuals and groups in the South on Reconstruction distinguish and analyze the freedoms guaranteed to African Americans in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution analyze the various components of Jim Crow legislation and their effects on Southern minorities describe efforts by the U. S. government to assimilate Native Americans into American culture identify significant events that impacted the relationship between the government, Native Americans, and American citizens identify settlement patterns in the American West, the reservation system, and/or the tribulations of the Native Americans from 1865–90.

Obedience vs Responsibility Essay

Obedience and Responsibility In Stanley Milgram’s, â€Å"The Perils of Obedience†, Milgram states â€Å"The essence of obedience is that a person comes to view himself as the instrument for carrying out another person’s wishes, and he therefore no longer regards himself as responsible for his actions. † (Milgram 6) Through his experiments he shows how we obey commands against our better judgment. It my belief that we are generally obedient as long as someone else assumes responsibility for the outcome. Therefore, this poses the question; would we be fully obedient if we were held responsible for the outcome? Milgram’s experiment consists of three roles: the experimenter, the teacher, and the learner. The learner, who is actually an actor, is strapped to an electrocution device is tested on his ability to remember a word of a pair when he hears the first one again. The teacher, the actual test subject, asks the questions and administers a shock ranging from fifteen volts to four hundred fifty volts for incorrect answers. The experimenter is simply there to guide the teacher and record the findings. The experiment begins by the teacher asking the learner questions. When the learner answers incorrectly, the teacher must correct him and administer a shock starting at the lowest voltage. As the experiment continues the voltages increase and so does the reaction from the learner. What begins as minor discomfort on the learner quickly turns into screams of pain and pleas to be released. The experimenter’s job is to record the reactions of the teacher based on learner’s reactions and how long the teacher will continue to go on with the experiment. The results of the first experiment conducted on a group of Yale undergraduates, showed that about sixty percent of them were fully obedient, even to the maximum voltage. (Milgram 2) A colleague of Milgram’s dismissed the findings stating, â€Å"Yale undergraduates are a highly aggressive bunch who steps on each other’s neck on the slightest provocation. † (Milgram 2) He believed that when the experiment was carried out on â€Å"ordinary† people the results would be much different. The second experiment was conducted on professionals, white-collar workers, unemployed persons, and industrial workers. The results were very much the same as those of the Yale students. One specific experiment involving Fred Prozi, a good natured unemployed fifty year old, shows that once responsibility is placed on someone else we are content with following demands that are given. At one point in the experiment Prozi turns to the experimenter and says, â€Å"You accept all responsibility? (Milgram 4) Once the experimenter agrees Prozi continues and inflicts a 450 volt shock numerous times despite hearing the learners scream of agony and pleas to be released. This shows that once we detach ourselves from the responsibility of the outcome, we will comply with the demands given even if the effects of the demands are harmful, destructive and blatantly clear. In a variation of the experiment, the teacher was not required to pull the lever that shocked the learner; rather they just had to administer the word pair test. This removed even more of the responsibility of the teacher, since they were not actually inflicting pain on the victim. The result of the result of this experiment showed that 37 out of 40 adults continued to the highest level on the shock generator. (Milgram 7) We see this type of behavior in everyday society. People are willing to carry out the demands of others if they feel the demands are not neccassarily their views or actions. An example of this could be someone dismissing someone from a job because their senior boss ordered them to. They may not feel the same way about the employee or the descision to fire them, but they remove any emotional responsibility because they were just following orders. An even better example of this would be that of war in modern society. Since soldiers are given orders to kill by their superiors, they can remove any emotional responsibility because they were simply following orders. Likewise, the person odering the soldier to kill someone removes the responsibility on the superior because they are actually committing the act of murder. Also, many Americans can justify was because we as individuals aren’t actually fighting the war and do not see the effects of the war daily. In conclusion, it is my belief that if we were held personally responsible for the demands ordered by another most people would not comply with those demands. It is easy to put our conscience at ease when we are not responsible for the actions ordered by another, it is not as easy if we were to be held responsible. I believe that Milgram’s article proves this to be true, not just in the experiments he conducted in the article but in modern society as well.

Impact on My Life Essay

Ashley Douglass 3rd period Jason When I think of someone who has made an impact on my life, the first person that comes to mind is my older brother Jason. He inspires me to be the best person I can be. Graduating valedictorian from his class and attending Yale University, Jason has shown me that dreams do come true; he reminds me that I must never give up. Growing up, Jason was always the smartest kid in class. He was beating games at age five and had an eloquent vocabulary. At a young age my parents could see that he was a genius; my mom always joked how it was all the Chinese food she ate while she was pregnant with him. After finishing seventh grade, he attended SMU’s talented and gifted program, also known as TAG. This was a summer program where you live in a dorm, go to classes, and earn college credits at a young age. He continued this summer program every year until he graduated high school. After applying to multiple colleges, two schools he had dreamed of going to contacted him and let him know that he had received a fully paid scholarship. These schools were SMU and Yale University. He had to decide if he wanted to stay close to family or move thousands of miles away to Connecticut where he’d never been before. Soon after, he decided to attend Yale University and begin his college adventure on his own. When he moved out, a part of me felt like it was missing. I knew eventually he’d have to leave for college, but I didn’t mentally prepare myself. I would come home from school and go in his room to ask for help with homework and the vacant room reminded me he had left. Even though I wasn’t ready for him to leave, I knew when he left he was leaving to fulfill his dream and make his family proud. Throughout high school he had always dreamed of being a movie director, so right off the bat he chose to major in directing at Yale. Every summer after he had completed his classes, Yale paid for him to study abroad, study film, and film his own movies. Jason is now a senior, and if his script gets picked out of all the directors there, he gets his movie and name on the big screen. What makes Jason stand out from others is how he has never become big headed. Not only does he put other people before himself, he stays humble and he wakes up everyday to make others smile. School has always been his priority, and he tells me religiously to keep my grades up because getting into a good college holds the pathway to my future. Fortunately, he almost has his dream in the palm of his hand. I know with his drive and work ethic, his script has a big possibility of getting picked to be on the big screen. I have always believed in him and I appreciate how he constantly pushes me to be the best I can be. He has shown me that dreams can become reality if you try hard enough. For many years, I’ve always dreamt of being a famous singer. Jason has been by my side since day one and supports my singing. Not only is he my big brother, he is my motivation. Every person he comes across, he treats them with upmost respect and lets them know he will always be there for them. In conclusion, Jason has made the biggest impact on my life out of everyone. Not only does he tell me to follow my dreams, but he pushes me to be the best person I can be. He inspires me with his love, integrity, honesty, and how humble he is. He is important to me because of how supportive he is in everything I do and he is always there for me when I need him even though he is thousands of miles away. He has taught me that you have all the potential inside you to be whatever you want to be. Each day you take a step towards your dream and when times get hard, hold onto it. Because there will be a morning where you wake up and realize you’re the person you dreamed of, doing what you wanted to do all along.

Correspondence packet Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Correspondence packet - Article Example This social group has proved to constitute the bulk of our consumer audience (which isn’t surprising as the clothes produced by our company are orientated on youth), and we need to sense their needs and tendencies in their behavior accurately in order to increase our benefit. Thus, as marketing researches show, the internet has become virtually the main tool for advertising and promoting goods among a very wide category of consumers. Thus, our target audience tends to use the internet the most among all other media, and it is the area where we need to display our significant place in fashion clothing industry. Our surveys show that about three quarters of our target audience tends to use internet daily. On the other hand, popularity of television has dropped considerably in the recent years. This tendency, as you can clearly see, has a profound impact on our industry, too, as we currently focus our major efforts on the outdoor advertising and TV commercials. DIVERSE clothes, Inc. must shift focus from TV advertising to the Internet advertising using all its means like banners, pop-ups and e-mail ads. Changing our strategy will allow us to reach the greater number of our potential consumers who are young adults. The World-Wide-Web provides a valuable platform to place ads with the aim to reach millions of consumers around the world (Hamel). Again, surveys indicate that such websites as Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, Twitter and YouTube are among the top 10 most visited websites. This gives us a hint about where our efforts should be concentrated therefore. If we shift focus from radio and TV advertising to the popular Internet sites, we will increase popularity of our company and achieve much success in promotion of our products. And, obviously, the rate of sales is likely to increase considerably. Concerning the financial aspect of the issue, I would like to suggest simply redirecting

The performance management system of Colbran Medical Institute Essay

The performance management system of Colbran Medical Institute - Essay Example They tend to contribute towards their organization staunchly and scrupulously only when they are motivated, and their contributions are valued and appreciated by their organization. Valuing ones contribution and supporting their initiatives is possible only when an organization realizes its employees’ contribution in a way it should be realized. This is possible with proper implementation of an objective performance management system. Using objective measures of performance evaluation makes employees clear that organization follows procedural justice and rewards them according to their contribution. The end result of objective performance evaluation is motivation, commitment, encouragement, job satisfaction, and greater employee retention that contribute towards organization’s profitability in the long run. Moreover, with objective performance appraisal followed by good reward administration makes employees loyal and more committed towards their respective organizations . Thus, we can say that objective performance evaluation followed by performance appraisal accompanied with proper reward administration makes employees motivated and committed towards the organization. ... When organizations communicate their employees the performance standards and key performance indicators clearly, that helps businesses in achieving competitive advantage because employees with a clear goal of what is expected of them, in terms of their performance, become more devoted and committed towards the organization. They tend to direct their behaviors in a direction that lead towards successful completion of their tasks. In addition to this, with management by objectives (MBO) and clear performance standards, employees get a clear track and set their individual goals in chase of achieving organizational objectives. According to Armstrong (2000), performance management is a shared process between employees and managers. In huge organizations, managers set clear objectives and performance standards, and communicate them to the employees so that they can direct their behaviors towards the accomplishment of organizational goals. However, the basic purpose of performance managemen t as outlined by Armstrong (2000) is the establishment and identification of the means of getting better output or results at individual, team, and organizational level by communicating the performance standards and objectives clearly to each of the entity whose contribution towards the organization is considered as worthy and important. According to Philpott and Sheppard (1992), the fundamental goal of the implementation and establishment of performance management system is to develop an organizational culture that nurtures employees for continuous improvement of business processes and their own skills, knowledge, and abilities. Providence of a guideline and development of a working ladder is

Marketing and consumer behavior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Marketing and consumer behavior - Essay Example This is due to the weakness of lack of understanding of the cultural philosophy of company by the buyers. At this point, the urgent need to deeply look at consumer buying and its influence on the organisation in the market is respectfully essential. The purchasing behaviour for business consumer and non-business consumer tends to be distinctively different; characteristics of each group can be summed up into few elements that have a power to draw a comparison between them. These elements include: For the company examined, the characteristic of buying quantity is related to other multi corporation companies. The brand Tomy Hilfiger has wide distribution channels over the world. The company spent more than three billion in 2002 to supply channels. Table 1 shows the differences between business buyer and consumer purchasing behaviour. Using numerous methods such as CPL advertising that ask consumers who are interested in their products to sign in for new newsletters so that the customers emails can be generated in order to reach targeted audience in consumer market. (www.panforix.com). The capability of companies to sustain their consumers to buy more products with the purpose of generating more profits seems not to be characterized by simplicity. Culture, personality and motivation are three of several components of consumer’s influential factors which have a great impact on their purchasing behaviour (Yakup&Jablonsk,2012). Culture is defined as â€Å"sum of a shared purpose among members of societies, customs, norms and traditions â€Å". Thus, buyers’ conduct is affected by this, when decisions are made. Saudi Arabia as an emergent market and most important market for foreign sourced products has become culturally more sensitive. Market segmentation and targeting are main issues raised by this. Saudi female buyers are more willing to buy smart clothes than buying American casual clothing style while Saudi males are more pleasant to buy branded

Look at each questions, and answer the questions Essay

Look at each questions, and answer the questions - Essay Example , increased production levels, efficiency and employment all together positively impact the economics of free trade country as it results in rising living standards and increased real incomes (Edge, n.d.). In case of global or regional economic recession, the country’s economy is more dependent on global economy and therefore it is less stable in terms of export incomes, GDP, and employment in export-oriented industries. In the developing countries free trade has a high risk of â€Å"eating† smaller national producers/companies by large international giants as competition between these two parties would not be equal. In case there are no measures undertaken by government in order to protect national producer/manufacturer there is a high risk of occupation of the market by foreign goods (Edge, n.d.). (b) Assume that two countries are competitors in the international trade markets. The two governments are thinking about whether it is profitable to adopt a free trade policy or not. The entries in the table below are showing (in millions of pounds) the gains of each policy. Find the Nash equilibrium. Analyse how you conclude to your answer. The table below illustrates, that when there are imposed restrictions (tariffs) for both countries, both A and B countries lose. If country A introduces free trade policy, then country B will be better off with imposed restrictions as it gets 70 million of pounds with restrictions and only 60 million with free trade. If country A imposes restrictions, then country B is better off with high tariffs, as it will get 20 million of pounds with free trade and 30 million with imposed restrictions. If country B introduces free trade, then country A is better off with free trade as it will get 60 million with free trade and 20 million with imposed restrictions. If country B imposes restrictions, then country A is better off with imposed restrictions, as it gets 30 million imposed restrictions and only 20 million from free trade. The

Corporate Social Responsibility Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Corporate Social Responsibility - Essay Example These can include (but may not be limited to) employees, customers, suppliers, community oraganaizations, local neighborhood and shareholders.'-Wikipedia.CSR entails that corporations should contemplate the actual and impending effects of their decisions on other stakeholders as well. It is correlated with the principles of sustainable development, which propagate that social, environmental and other consequence of business decisions should be taken into consideration. These two aspects can be better understood by examining the shareholders and stakeholders theories. The main ideas of the two theories are juxtaposed under the following heads. Director's fiduciary duties: The Shareholder's theory advocates that value maximization should be the governing corporate objective. It makes a plea that the interest of the shareholders should precede over that of other constituents, based on the presumptions of capitalism. The supporting view is that, the directors fiduciary duty is to run the company in the interest of the shareholders.Tradional property rights are cited as a justification for this argument. The shareholders are the owners of the company, therefore they hold property rights. ... The chief proponents of the stakeholders' theory are Donaldson and Preston. According to this school of thought, directors should have multi fiduciary duties towards all the stakeholders. Stakeholders are the people who affect and are affected by the company. The stakeholders view of strategy is an instrumental theory of the corporatin, integrating both the resource based view and the market based view, it is opposed to the view where the company solely tries to increase the value for shareholding. The stakeholder group should not be treated as a mean to some end but must be participative in detreming the direction of the company in which they hold stake. Basis for determining business relationships: As per the shareholders' theory, business relationships are determined by legal contracts. Thus, it recognizes accountability towards those parties with whom explicit legal contacts have been signed. It follows Sternberg's argument that such contracts are made under 'libertarian free contracting". This vastly limits the scope of the corporation's obligations. On the other hand, the stakeholders' model advocates social and moral obligations towards all those who affect or get affected by the company, these obligations may be become binding on the company via legal or implied contracts. Both the theories accept that the firm is a nexus of contacts but differ about the basis for determing those contacts. Objective of wealth creation: The two theories take different stands about the nature of these contracts. Kay's work in strategic management (Kay1993), show that managing contracts on collaborative, 'relational' basis can lead to competitive advantages directly benefiting shareholders. Thus, shareholder's theory acknowledges that contacts should be

Introduction to Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 2

Introduction to Psychology - Essay Example This paper shall use various criteria or psychological affectations in order to thoroughly assess the subject matter at hand and to comprehensively evaluate the workings of the human mind and of human behavior. According to some experts, the biological and behavioral theories can be closely linked with each other. In analyzing human behavior, some authors and researchers look to the biological make-up of a person – in other words, his internal environment which would involve his brain processes, as well as the interaction of his hormones. His genetic predisposition is also considered in this theory as part of the factors influencing his behavior (Cichetti & Cohen, 2006). In further explaining human behavior, authors go one step further and consider the external environment of a person where the behavioral and sociological theories are often used to understand specific patterns of human interaction (Cichetti & Cohen, 2006). These authors then consider the relationship between these theories – the internal and the external environment in order to explain and understand human behavior. In other words, these two theories, as explained by some authors can, at some point during hum an development, interact and overlap with each other. However, inasmuch as they seem to be essentially related to each other in terms of continuity, they still are still basically different theories. One of the major differences between these two theories is the fact that the biological theory of psychology emphasizes that human behavior is shaped by biological and physiological processes (Bernstein, Penner, Clark-Stewart, & Roy, 2008). As was previously mentioned, psychologists explain that this theory evaluates the â€Å"psychological effects of hormones, genes, and the activity of the nervous system, especially the brain† (Bernstein, Penner, Clark-Stewart, & Roy, 2008, p. 18). So for instance,

Implement a program for juveniles Research Paper

Implement a program for juveniles - Research Paper Example Social dealings that guarantee smooth progressing of social relationships are now disintegrating. Lifestyles are changing and are becoming less predictable and more varied. Rapid population growth, inaccessibility of support services, unemployment amongst youth, overcrowding in poor neighborhoods, poverty and disintegrating families, etc. are some of the burdens the youth of today has to deal with. The young generation, irrespective of gender, country of residence or social origin is imperiled to risks, but on the other hand they are also presented with new opportunities; some of them beneficial while others may possibly be harmful. Quite frequently, young people commit numerous offences like; becoming drug addicts and using violence against peer. The youth indulge themselves into illegal activities due factors like; lack of adequate youth activities in underprivileged areas and increase in single-parent families or families with both parents working etc. This reduces the number of role models children have to look up to while growing up. (Youth Mentoring, 2003) This raises the need for youth mentoring programs to provide the youngster with role models and assist children to develop emotionally and socially. Such programs help children learn to comprehend their feelings and communicate them. Juvenile programs are designed to enable kids to relate to their own age group and also develop relationships with adults. There was a time when juveniles were thrown into jails and had to serve long prison terms and physical punishments just like adults. Though longs term sentences, corporal punishments and even death sentences are still practiced, but reformers who were concerned about harsh treatment of children urged the government to establish separate court system for the young criminals. The court here acts as a guardian or parent to help and protect children.

Movie comment Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 14

Comment - Movie Review Example As Robert Levin reviews, â€Å"La Mission is a quiet, authentic movie about life in the hardscrabble Mission District of San Francisco. It features a charismatic lead performance by Benjamin Bratt, while writer-director Peter Bratt depicts the neighborhood with a keenly observed sense of the close-knit macho culture at its core.† (Levin) Therefore, it is significant to realize that the drama film makes a perfect portrait of the old-world style milieu in order to present the interracial and other lifestyle issues in today’s urban environment. The major contribution to this effective handling of the social issues is made by the characters and themes of the movie. The characters in the movie such as Che Rivera, Jesse, Lena, Rene, and Smoke represent the various aspects of the interracial and lifestyle issues of the contemporary world. In fact, the story is narrated in the background of a father’s love for his son turning out to be his disgust for the son’s ga y relationships. However, themes such as interracial and lifestyle issues of the modern urban environment predominate the entire movie and the characters of the movie also contribute to the successful portrayal of these themes. In Emily Wilson’s interview with Benjamin and Peter Bratt the issues of Latino masculinity, power, community pride, and identity emerged and it is fundamental to realize that the filmmaker effectively merges these elements to produce a wonderful film of concurring themes. Thus, it becomes evident that the entire movie focuses on the life and social issues of the Mission and it remains as the merging force. â€Å"The brothers grew up in the neighborhood and have always wanted to make a film about the Mission, which they say had a big influence on them†¦ For Peter Bratt, movie making is about social justice, and in La Mission he wanted to explore the presence and acceptance of violence in our daily lives.† (Wilson) It is, therefore, essential to comprehend

Cultural baggage and Cultural tourism by Dr Jim Butcher, an evaluation Essay Example for Free

Cultural baggage and Cultural tourism by Dr Jim Butcher, an evaluation Essay Dr Jim Butcher, the author of the article above, has researched on its various facets of tourism such as its moralization, innovations, and cultural, ethical, ecological and anthropological aspects and also as a tool for sustainable development. He has several publications to his credit (www. canterbury. ac. uk). The article under review authored by Dr Butcher appears as a book chapter in the Book â€Å"Innovations in Cultural Tourism†(2001) edited by him. Key issues of the article are the positive and potential aspects of cultural tourism which some critiques discount it as antidevelopment and prone to cause conflicts between the host and the tourist. The author is of the view that cultural tourism has its roots to the man’s craving for alien cultures and the need for relief from monotony of modernity and as such it has naturally come as a blessing to the economically backward regions. He has found three aspects of culture as a function, as a past and as a difference overshadowing the goodness of cultural tourism. The main aim of the author is to dispel the negative impression created by these aspects in the minds of the critics. The book chapter under evaluation is not in layman’s language. Even a discernible student of tourism would find it difficult to distinguish between cultural baggage and cultural tourism or relationship between the two terms. Whatever Dr Butcher says about cultural tourism has been in one aspect or another touched upon by his peers. That the cultural tourism has come of age and is capable of benefiting the economically weaker nations or places within nations and that it promotes cultural exchanges, fusion of culture, that it simply promotes or creates awareness of host’s culture and that it has been gradually making countries sans boundaries with only natural barriers by creating a feeling of oneness, have all been also discussed by other authors on the subject if one happens to visit the website of the UNESCO on cultural tourism. (unesco. org) and many others. His unique findings are that the ‘over functional culture’, its ‘past’ character and its â€Å" difference† outlook overshadow the real creative character of cultural tourism. He has taken pains to explain all the three in almost four pages out of hardly six, which is an indicator of his serious concern towards Cultural Tourism. His conclusion that cultural tourism results in economic development is indeed true. Man is basically gregarious and therefore cultural tourism with its benefits is unstoppable. The cultural tourists and the hosts are the actors and we are the audience. It means differently to each one of them. If the actors are allowed to have their own way, the inevitable result will be what the author Dr Jim concludes with, that is development. There is no doubt cultural tourism is growing segment of the travel market â€Å"Mass marketing is giving way to one-to-one marketing with travel being tailored to the interests of the individual consumer. A growing number of visitors are becoming special interest travellers who rank the arts, heritage and/or other cultural activities as one of the top five reasons for travelling†(nasaa-arts. org). It has been said that mass tourism has had its detrimental effects but there are advocates for mass tourism for its own benefits. Certain undesirable conflicts of cultures are just harmless side effects and are not to be taken seriously for the sake of larger benefits cultural tourism. On the whole Dr Jim’s contribution in this chapter leaves the reader more informed and makes him act responsibly as an audience whether as a policy maker or whoever, in order to preserve and promote the goodness of cultural tourism markedly different from mass tourism. REFERENCES Butcher, J. (ed) (2001), Innovations in Cultural Tourism, ATLAS, Tilburg http://www. canterbury. ac. uk/business-sciences/sport-science-tourism-and-leisure/staff/dr-jim-butcher. asp accessed on July 12, 2006 http://www. nasaa-arts. org accessed on July 13, 2006 http://portal. unesco. org/culture/en/ev. php-accessed on July 13, 2006

Effective Teaching Strategies for Deaf Students

Effective Teaching Strategies for Deaf Students What protocol would you put in place to ensure that pupils hearing aids and other amplification equipment are working optimally and used appropriately and that other aspects of your role in relation to audiology are met? Give the rationale for the procedures that you have specified. How would you evaluate the effectiveness of procedures that you have established? Rationale From the outset it is essential to determine what a ‘protocol is? As stated in the online Ask Oxford Dictionary protocol has many definitions, the one I believe provides a clear definition in this instance is â€Å"The accepted code of behaviour in a particular situation†. (Ask Oxford, Nov 2009) An educational establishment where children are using hearing aids and other amplification equipment would benefit from a protocol being in place. This would ensure that children using amplification equipment are accessing the curriculum at an optimal level. Teachers of the Deaf have a duty to ensure that each childs equipment is working and allowing them to learn and thrive within their educational environment by carrying out the protocol that is in place. It is therefore the duty of the teachers of the Deaf to carry out checks on the equipment. A protocol is therefore required to ensure that all Teachers of the Deaf are carrying out the same procedures and there is consistency through out the school. â€Å"Teachers should aim to give every pupil the opportunity to experience success in learning and to achieve as high a standard as possible.† (NCDS, 2005, p.5) By carrying out the checks, Teachers of the Deaf establish good practice and in turn aim to allow pupils to succeed. The children benefit when the protocol, which the school employs, is shared with parents and carers. Listening and learning take place in both the home and school environment. This would extend the â€Å"accepted code of behaviour† to the home life optimising the childs access to everyday learning experiences. With the need for a protocol established it is also necessary for that protocol to become a routine as to how, when and why Teachers of the Deaf should apply the specialised knowledge they have within their specific educational establishment. â€Å"Teachers of the deaf are specialist teachers, whose firm base in audiological knowledge is a fundamental part of their specialism† (Malthy and Knight, 2000, p.vii) Putting into practice a clear set of guidelines allows for each individual, working with children using these devices, to know who is responsible for each area and who to report faults to. This is the case, especially when multi-agency teams are involved in an individuals learning. To answer the question outlined I intend to: Describe the setting to which the protocol applies to Discuss the aims of the protocol and whom it applies to Review and evaluate the effectiveness of the protocol in relation to practice and research Protocol Setting The setting to which this protocol applies to is unique, in Scotland, in the sense that it is a mainstream school where hearing-impaired children are fully integrated into mainstream classes. Children have access to a full curriculum, which enhances their educational experience. (See Appendix 1 for a full policy statement) Teachers of the Deaf are also used in a unique way they are class committed in a mainstream environment with no more than four hearing impaired children in their class. It is important now to emphasise that the teachers have a responsibility and a duty of care to hearing and hearing impaired pupils in class. It is recognised in Watson. L and Parsons.J (1998) that the majority of Teachers of the Deaf are working in mainstream schools either as part of a unit or in peripatetic work but in this setting children are fully integrated into mainstream classes. This setting provides a real life setting for the children as hearing and hearing-impaired peers work together as they would in everyday life. This allows an inclusive ethos to develop educating respectful and open-minded individuals. It allows for the development of a safe and secure environment where all children feel valued and equal. Aims The aims of the protocol are clearly set out in the Aims of the Audiology Programme (Appendix 1). They are in bold and easily identified on the page. This is of great benefit to Teachers of the Deaf and other individuals that encounter the document. The mix of visual diagrams and the clear print allows this section to be user friendly and less intimidating to the user. The initial statement presents a positive and motivating aim for everyone involved. I will look at each aim individually and discuss how effectively the protocol (Appendix 2) achieves those aims. All pupils with a hearing impairment will be assessed regularly through a range of tests. Included in the protocol are the schools own testing strategies, which are of great importance as they make the protocol more meaning full to the individual establishment as these tests will differ depending on establishment. In Appendix 2, the protocol outlines the different checks that would take place to ensure that pupils hearing is assessed regularly. The G.A.P assessments are included in each child record and include a variety of linguistic and speech tests that are outlined in Appendix 2 and are carried out by the in house Speech Therapists. The Ling Speech Sound Test could be included in this however; it is outlined in the actual protocol. It will be used to gather information on how well a pupil is able to identify frequency elements in sounds. Ideally, this should be carried out before teaching and listening takes place to ensure that the amplification equipment is working optimally. If the test highlights any frequency issues, the stetoclip can be used to investigate further. In the event of everything, appearing to be working properly the issue can be raised with the educational audiologist on their visit to the school. They can then investigate and adjust amplification equipment to ensure opt imal teaching and learning conditions are maintained. Tympanometry tests are carried out and a record kept in each pupils file. This provides information on the middle ear. It looks like an audiogram, which can be difficult to interpret. If the information from this was translated into a report that was more understandable Teachers of the Deaf could use this information and translate it positively into their teaching environment so that it makes learning more accessible to the child and in turn meets the needs of the pupil. Other tests included in the protocol are Pure Tone Audiograms aided and unaided. These tests are usually used to determine the degree of deafness. The tests are carried out using different frequencies and intensities. The tests can be conducted through air conduction, using headphones or bone conduction using a bone conduction headband. Air conduction: this is where the individual wears headphones, the tester then selects pure tones from different frequencies and intensities. This test relies on the person being tested to be honest. Once the test is completed the range of deafness is apparent however the cause is not. Bone conduction: this is conducted in a similar way to air conduction. Maltby and Knight (2000) explain that it determines the nature of deafness. The signals are passed through the skull bone and travels to the cochlea. â€Å"The difference between the air conduction result and the bone conduction result is known as the air-bone gap and this indicates the extent of any conductive hearing loss.† (Maltby and Knight, 2000, p.34) The results produced are displayed on an audiogram. It is important to emphasise that these tests are not carried out by Teachers of the Deaf but by audiologists. However, it is important that Teachers of the Deaf are aware of them and how results can be used to improve a pupils residual hearing. This brings me to the point I made earlier on how the audiogram can be difficult to interpret. It would be of great advantage to teachers, parents, and other professionals if the information were transposed into a report, which can be used to benefit the child. The use of pupils residual hearing will be maximised Many factors can contribute to ensuring that a childs residual hearing is maximised. In Appendix 2 it outlines the documentation and assessments, each individual will undertake during their time in school. This part of the protocol needs to be looked at as Record of Needs is being replaced with Additional Support Plans and Co-ordinated Support Plans. This highlights the need for the protocol being a working document and not something that is just produced to meet audiology requirements. In completing these assessment such as Pure Tone Audiograms aided and unaided and Tympanometry Records all agencies involved will be able to contribute to the action that should be taken within the educational environment to maximise the pupils residual hearing. In addition to this it is of great importance to consider the acoustic setting as this contributes to how well residual hearing is maximised. This leads on to the next aim. The acoustical settings for learning will be monitored and acted upon where necessary. In every classroom, there is background noise and this contributes to how effective a hearing aid can be. â€Å"Hearing aids work well when there is little or no background noise† (Maltby and Knight, 2000, p.61) However, this is unrealistic to attain within an educational environment. Children are often working in groups and teaching can take place in whole class settings where they can be further away than what would be desired for optimal hearing. The hearing aid volume can be increased however this will amplify the background noise that is present also. A quiet learning environment is one, which would provide optimal learning conditions however in a mainstream school this is unlikely. The increased class effects noise. Areas, which contribute to background noise within a mainstream class are, movement, chairs being pushed and pulled, bags being accessed and the rustling this produces, increased amounts of talking, group activities going on independently when other direct teaching is taking place. All of these can lead to a poor acoustic setting. It would therefore be beneficial for the protocol to include measures for the Teachers of the Deaf to assess this before teaching in this environ ment. They could use a sound level meter, which encourages the teacher to put his or herself in the position of the deaf child and try to remove any pieces of furniture, which are not essential which sounds can reflect off. The teachers are also able to position themselves around the class identifying where the best place for a deaf child to sit within the class is. This allows for greater access to teaching and learning and ultimately reducing some of the background noise. As the background noise does not only come from the people inside the class, it is important for the teacher to do this so that outside noises are reduced. Traffic, toilets, general outside activity, weather can all be heard in the classroom. (Maltby and Knight 2000) It would therefore be of great value for the protocol to offer ways of minimising background noises within the classroom setting however it doesnt provide ways of making the classroom acoustically sympathetic. Reducing background and reverberation could be set out in guidelines and could provide suggestions. â€Å"An acoustically good environment is crucial for effective classroom listening †¦ schools provide an acoustically hostile environment that particularly disadvantages hearing aid wearers.† (Maltby and Knight, 2000, p.54) Therefore, guidelines within the protocol should encourage the use of carpets, curtains blinds, acoustic ceiling tiles and soft materials, which can in turn absorb and reduce the amount of background noise. (BATOD, 2001) This will help promote the fruitful learning environment outlined in Appendix 1. As classrooms are, in general, noisy places to be it would also be of great value that the protocol takes into account classroom management strategies, laying out rules for talking and listening. Establishing a whole school approach would provide consistency for not only the children but also the Teachers of the Deaf who undoubtedly have varied teaching styles and approaches. â€Å"†¦It is the teachers responsibility to maintain discipline and cooperation and thus reduce noise levels. Ensuring only one person talks at a time. (Maltby and Knight, 2000, p.58) Fm and Sound Field systems help reduce the amount of background noise as this amplifies one source of sound benefiting the hearing aid or cochlear implant user. This will allow for enhanced teaching and learning taking place and allow the learner to become more focused and interactive with the lesson in hand. It is therefore of great importance that they are utilised effectively. Sound Field systems not only benefit hearing-impaired children in the class but those of hearing children as well. This is due to the teachers voice being amplified and making it clear for all present in the room. Brett and McCraken (1998) have referred that some authorities are not using the system successfully and in turn not providing children with the heightened sensory provision. The system not only increases the volume of the person using it but also helps eliminate noises in the classroom, which can be controlled such as movement, chairs moving, quiet discussions. This has outlined the importance of monitoring the acoustic setting for the children it has also highlighted areas in which the protocol could be improved to optimise the service provided to the children. Including these areas would make Teachers of the Deaf and Teachers of the Deaf in training more aware of areas which can be detrimental to the learning environment and moreover have a negative impact on the childs learning. The amplification needs of each pupil will be assessed and addressed. Each child is an individual and in turn, each child has individual needs. So it is of the utmost importance that Teachers of the Deaf regularly assess the equipment each child uses. This will ensure that faults are highlighted quickly and fixed without any real issues arising for the child and their learning. Brett and McCracken (1998) outline the particular needs of a Hearing Aid wearer and provide outline for assessing the equipment. These include making sure that hearing aids are well fitted and that the individual is able to hear in a range of environments. These are of great importance in a school as children are moving from area to area rather than being stationary in the one environment. This is where the acoustic setting assessments are monitored and acted on if necessary. Tests are carried out, which were discussed in the first aim, to gather information. This information can then be used to make decisions regarding amplification equipment of each individual making sure that Teachers of the Deaf are meeting the needs of each child. The amplification equipment and technology will be working to optimum effect and will be used effectively. It is essential that this aim is addressed in the protocol as teachers and parents should be checking the childs amplification equipment on a daily basis. This will allow problems to be detected quickly and rectified. In turn, this will maximise the potential learning that, the child has access to and allow the child to engage fully in their learning and the social interactions, which can take place within the classroom. This is concurred by Maltby and Knight; they believe that auditory equipment if working properly will enhance the learners experiences and the overall progress which a child can make. This setting is one, which uses oral communication, and not signing so any problems with amplification equipment is extremely detrimental to the childs development. â€Å" †¦ without effective exposure to the sounds of the environment and particularly of speech the opportunity to develop spoken language will be diminished.† (Maltby and Knight, 2000, p.38) The mainstream protocol for this setting outlines how to check all different kinds of amplification equipment. However it may need updated as, no child now wears the Sprint (the body worn processor) as this just adds to the bulk of the protocol and the amount of paper which you have to go through especially if you are new to the school. In addition to this upon evaluating the protocol, I also feel that there should be a checklist record for each child, keeping track of any issues with equipment. This could be a simple tick list to ensure that time constraints do not impose an issue for the teachers. This would provide useful information for the educational audiologists when they visit asking if there have been any problems. This is of greater use in the lower end of the school where the children are less able to vocalise any issues, which they may be having. As it is just now, there is no such method of recording and Teachers of the Deaf are making notes on an informal basis with no consistency being formed throughout the establishment. Parents should be considered also; they could be consulted on what would be easily managed for them at home, so that the protocol can be continued there, as it is of great importance that the equipment is at an optimal level there also. Appendix 2 outlines the checks, which should be carried out on a daily basis. Daily checks begin with a visual check. By looking closely at the casing of a hearing aid or cochlear implant cracks can be identified. Moulds and tubing can be looked at and the build up of wax or condensation can be apparent. It has been argued that it is not the role of the Teacher of the Deaf to clear wax obstructions from tubing and ear moulds (NCDS, 2005) in the case of children there might not be anyone else. In meeting the overall aim of the protocol â€Å" †¦ to provide a fruitful learning environment†¦Ã¢â‚¬  it is essential that we do what we can to meet each childs individual needs. In the setting which this protocol applies, as stated before it is an oral one, it is important that the older children become responsible for checking their equipment and that the Teachers of the deaf promote each individuals independence and provide support for these checks only when needed. In this setting, other equipment is used also Radio aids and Sound Field systems are in place to provide further amplification. These have been included in the protocol along with whose responsibility it is to check these and how often the checks should be carried out. â€Å"Deaf pupils who are being educated orally without any sign support will be highly dependent on amplification, both in the form of personal hearing aids and other equipment, for example radio aids.† (Gregory, Knight, McCracken, Powers and Watson, 1998, p.138) This quote highlights the greater importance placed on amplification equipment in a mainstream school and the necessity for it to work optimally. This equipment is what the children solely rely on to communicate effectively with. Radio aids should be checked monthly using a test box. This can highlight any problems with equipment and it will ensure that the hearing aid is producing sound at a high intensity this should also be carried out across a number of frequencies. It is also important that hearing aids and processors also be checked monthly to ensure that they are in line with the manufacturers specifications. Teachers of the Deaf are not responsible for these tests and are not fully trained in the technologies used to carry out these tests however they should be aware that they take place and of their importance in ensuring that amplification equipment works at its optimal level. In this setting and as stated in the protocol (Appendix 2) the Depute Head is responsible for ensu ring these tests are completed. I am of the opinion it would be beneficial for the protocol to outline what a Teacher of the Deaf should do when the equipment is not working properly. For example if shoes or links are faulty are there temporary replacements, or are there contacts in place with manufacturers to highlight faults. It would not be the responsibility for the Teacher of the Deaf to contact manufacturers directly but that of the Depute Head however there needs to be a record or pro-forma included in the protocol for passing this information on the Depute Head to guarantee that any problems are rectified quickly. Evaluation The technology surrounding audiology and amplification equipment is evolving so the first point is that the protocol should be regularly evaluated and adapted to ensure that it fits the requirements of the equipment being used. As I stated previously there are steps and procedures included in the document that no longer apply to children in the school, I am not saying this should be discarded completely however it can be removed from the working document until required, if ever required again. The steps are clear and it is identify who is responsible for each job; however some equipment is checked annually. I feel that as there is a heavy daily reliance on these pieces of equipment and there is a strong argument that these checks should be more frequent. This would allow for problems and issues to be identified and rectified more quickly. Especially when these equipments help achieve the aims outlined in the protocol (Appendix 1) In addition to more frequent checks it would beneficial to have a check list and record sheet this would benefit, not only Teachers of the Deaf but parents, audiologists and other professionals that work with the children. It would allow for quick reference for any issues children are having with their hearing aids or cochlear implants and would highlight any recurring problems. This information would be recorded in a consistent format providing continuity throughout the school. It would also be provided to parents to allow them to keep checks on their childs equipment. With everyone using the same format, the child can be encouraged to become more responsible for maintaining and checking their own equipment. Not only does audiology evolve but also education and the way we approach teaching and education is continually evolving so the protocol should be updated with these changes. That is in Appendix 1 the policy statement outlines that the establishment follows the 5-14 guidelines. This is still the case however the Curriculum for Excellence is becoming the more dominant tool in the planning and implementing of lessons and therefore should now be included also. The greatest indication of how successful the protocol has been is whether it is still meeting the needs of the children it poses to serve. It would therefore be good sense to establish a working party within the establishment to evaluate how well it is doing this, and adapt it to be more successful or it could be added for discussion to the agenda of the Hearing Impairment meetings, which are held regularly. This would incorporate views of everyone working with the document and not just a selected few on the working party. Conclusion The protocol, which appears in Appendix 2, is one, which is already in place, and I have broken it down and looked at the aims that it says it achieves. As a Teacher of the Deaf, this protocol is established and has to be adhered to. It is an important agreement, which has to be followed by all Teachers of the Deaf, to ensure that the needs of each child within a class are being met. â€Å"One way to ensure the teacher of the deaf and other professionals working with deaf children are meeting their obligations is to devise an audiology protocol.† (Course Team University of Birmingham, 2009, Unit 4 p.80) I feel that this protocol has plus points and negative ones. It achieves all of the aims outlined however it has not been updated in some time. With new equipment, needing to be included i.e. our new FM system and older amplification equipment, which is not currently in use needing to be removed. It would also benefit from additions, some parts being condensed into a daily check sheet, which would be more time efficient as it operates within a mainstream school. This would allow for even younger children becoming more familiar with the checks they should carry out. Moreover, I feel there should also be a place for a parental part of the protocol as they are a vital part of their childs life. Even though it is heavy on wordage, it does include pictures of the equipment in question allowing for quick finding of the part of the protocol, which relates to children in your class. The protocol does establish the roles of individuals and the duties and responsibilities that they have. It also states timelines for different checks whether they are daily, weekly or annually. It outlines what should be present in each class for carrying out checks, e.g. First Aid Kit. To conclude I do feel that this protocol does suffice but would benefit from regular updates as needs change and children within educational establishments continually move on. As a teacher and particularly for Teachers of the Deaf it is important to meet the needs of every child. As a profession we endeavour to do this and having a protocol allows for consistency and continuity throughout the stages. We have ambition for all our young people and we want them to have ambition for themselves and to be confident individuals, effective contributors, successful learners and responsible citizens. All Scotlands children and young people need to be nurtured, safe, active, healthy, engaged in learning, achieving, included, respected and responsible if we are to achieve our ambition for them.† (December 2009, Scottish Government) In managing the protocol more successfully, we will achieve the above aim as set by our Government and all the aims outlined within the document of the establishment. In doing this the needs of all children that are taught, within the setting, are met.

Context Inference from Social Networks

Context Inference from Social Networks Context Inference from Social Networks: A Tie Strength Based Approach Sneha Kamal Reshmi.S Abstract— All online sharing systems gather data that reflects user’s behavior and their shared activities. Relationship degree between two users is varying continuously. Static friend list in the social network is unable to express it completely. Tie strength is used to quantitatively describe real social relations. It is based on lots of features derived from activities of a user’s in social network. We introduce a model to measure tie strength between users in a given context. Here a novel definition of tie strength is introduced which exploits the existence of multiple online social links between the individuals. The proposed system infer the context from user’s interaction using the applications of Natural language processing methods and clustering techniques. From this context the tie strength between users are found. Then evaluates and analysis the performance of this model. Keywords- Clustering, Natural Language Processing, Social Context, Social Network, Tie Strength I. Introduction A tie is formed between two persons it they are friends or they have interactive behaviors in social network. Strength of a tie represents the degree of relationship between two entities and it can be various. Tie strength in social network depends upon the exchange and transmission of information, and influence between social network users. The friend list of user is incompetent to reflect real social relation of users directly, because all friends are equally treated. Interactive activities such as comment make more sense in maintaining the relationship. So strong tie may have more interactions. Strong ties are peoples which are we really trusted. Although such trusted friendships can provide emotional and economic support. The majority of social media do not incorporate tie strength in the creation and management of relationships, and treat all users the same either friend or stranger. The first attempt to take into consideration is the social role of a friendship was done by Facebook and Google+ by the introduction of the circles. Users can use circles as a technique to organize their contacts, creating different groups for relatives, work colleagues, close friends and so on. But this group of contacts does not provide quantitative information about the real strength of the ties. The most common technique used to measure the tie strength is the closeness of relationship. Thus close friends have strong tie while others have weak ties. Numerous other methods of strengthens have also been proposed. This includes frequency of contacts and mutual acknowledgement of contacts. Other possible indicators of tie strength include extend of multiplicity with a tie, the duration of the contacts, the overlap of membership in an organization between the parties to a tie and the overlap of social circles. However, in our opinion these approaches have some shortcomings. Firstly, the intensity of conversations strongly depends from user to user, making it difficult to understand which of these conversations are dedicated to intimate relationships. Secondly, do not take into account that strong ties must be powered by a form of social grooming that is mainly based on geographical nearness and face-to-face contacts. Our contribution in this paper is assessing the tie strength between two friends on social network. Although distinguishing between strong and weak ties. For that we infer the thematic fields talked about by users with their contacts, is called the social contexts of a user. For this purpose we use the textual information such as photo descriptions, comments, post of users. With users permission we gather such information. NLP techniques are applied to gather such information and find most relevant information is called tag or word. A set of such a tag of a user is called the user’s personomy. The user’s social contexts come out after applying a clustering algorithm over this personomy and classifying the user’s contacts in these clusters. From this clusters find the users with more tie strength. II. Related Works The community can be extracted from social network based on the actions of users in [2]. This method extracts the users that are similar in actions, interests or tastes as a community. Initially a small community will be formed consists of two or more users. Seeing the actions performed by their friends may make users curious. Therefore, similar small communities can be extended to form a larger community. Compared to other method extracted nodes in the communities may not have the best density. In [3] introduce the Virtual Tie Strength (VTS)-scale and their scoring methods appear to provide a valid and reliable measure of tie strength in virtual communities. They developed a model that measures the tie-strength in virtual communities. The VTS-scale is able to distinguishing between two components of tie-strength associates and friendship. But, the content of each component needs more investigation. In [4] observe the communication patterns of millions of mobile phone users. That helps to concurrently study the local and the global structure of a society-wide communication network. Observe the coupling between interaction strengths and the network’s local structure. Then weak ties are removed. In [5] four factors are proposed which depends upon the strength of the tie. They are time closeness intensity and reciprocal service. They argued that degree of overlap between the two individuals friendship network varies depending on the tie strength between the users. Tie strength is depends on the diffusion of influence and information. Most of the network model deals implicitly with strong ties. III. Proposed System The model takes the advantage of users interactions in social networks. It infers the social contexts in which users are involved and which of their contacts belongs to that context. The proposed method consists of 4 modules. They are context data generation, affinity propagation algorithm, context based clustering, tie strength of users. And the output is a community with set of users. Figure 1. Proposed method A. Context Data Generation In this step obtain the interaction of a given user with all other users. In the case of facebook data of a particular user is obtained from the post of the users and comments given to the photos etc. Then apply Natural Language Processing (NLP) to this collected information. It provides a predefined model for sentence splitting, tokenizing and POS tagging. POS tag method in NLP is applied here. B. Tag Cloud Generation Initially from the interaction of users stop words such as ‘and’,’the’,’at’ etc. are removed. This will pass as an input to NLP. NLP will split the given text, using POS tagging. Which identifies each word as part-of-speech category such as Noun, Verb, etc. After keeping the noun and verb all other are removed. The resulting words will consider as a set of tags of a user whose interaction with others. The set of tag of u and v in a social interaction is denoted by T(lu|v), whose tag cloud is denoted by TC(lu|v). Figure 3: Tag Cloud of each user C. Similarity Measurement The main features of the algorithm are Tri-set calculation, similarity computation, seed construction and clustering.Tri set will consist of Cofeature Set (CFS), Unilateral Feature Set (UFS), and Significant Cofeature Set (SCS). Cofeature Set: Consider di and dj, be the two objects in a data set. Suppose that some features of di is also belong to dj. Therefore, construct a new subset consisting of these features and their values in dj. Unilateral Feature Set: Suppose that some features of di, does not belong to dj. Therefore, construct a new subset consisting of these features and their values in di. Significant Cofeature Set: Suppose that some features of di, also belong to the most significant features of dj. So, Therefore, construct a new subset consisting of these features and their values as the most significant features in dj. From this we can calculate the similarity between two points as (1) Where nm ,nq and np are the values of the features with in the set CFS SCS and UFS respectively. And |CFS|,|UFS|, and |SCS|, indicate the number of tuples in CFS(i,j), UFS(i,j), and SCS(i,j)respectively. The set CFS is result of the intersection of the objects. UFS consists of unshared Features. SCS takes into account the most significant features. D. Inferring the Social Context Seed Affinity Propagation Algorithm: Seed Affinity Propagation (SAP) is a semi supervised clustering. The aim is from the initial labeled object we cluster the large number of unlabeled object efficiently. To guarantee accuracy and avoid a blind search for seeds we use Mean Features Selection method. The similarities between tags are passed as input to the algorithm in the form of matrix. The different steps involved in algorithm are: Let D be a data set which consists of set of features of each object and the value associated with these object. Construct the seed from a few labeled object using Mean feature selection Method. Calculate the tri set between the object i and j(CFS(i,j), UFS(i,j), and SCS(i,j)). Similarity calculation between the object using the equation (1). Self similarity computation: Calculate s (l,l) is the mean value of the similarities. These values are referred to as preferences. Initialize the matrixes of messages Message Matrix Computation: Compute availability matrix a (i,j) and responsibility matrix r(i,j). Exemplar selection: By adding the availability and responsibility matrixes we find the exemplar for each object i is the maximum of r(i,j) + a (i,j). Update the matrix using Rt+1 = (1-)Rt+ Rt-1 (2) At+1 = (1-)At+ At-1 (3) Where â‚ ¬ [0,1] is a damping factor. R and A represent the responsibility matrix and availability matrix respectively, and t indicate the iteration times. Iterating steps 6,7and 8 until the exemplar selection result stays constant for a number of iterations. Here the input to the algorithm is is the similarity between the tags mentioned above. It find a number of clusters, but we does not consider all the clusters. We choose K number of clusters base on a threshold value. 2) Other users to social context: After finding the context of a user, we find the other users with the same context. For finding the similarity compare the tag cloud formed during the interaction of u and v (TC(Iu|v)), with the tags in the context of user u TC(cti). ctu|v= (4) Similarity is calculated by using cosine similarity method. Two inputs will consider as vectors. And calculate the angle between these vectors. So the output will be a cluster consists of several users. From this cluster also we find users with strong tie strength. Then the ads will post to this the wall of users who have strong tie strength. Figure 2. Inferring Social context E. Tie Strength Measurements Cluster consists of set of users. They are represented as a graph where nodes are users and edges represent the link between the users. From the given graph we find the tie strength between the users by using similarity and node interaction methods. Output is a weighted graph, where weight in the edge represents the value of tie strength between the two users. Where w represents the intensity of interaction between the nodes, so here we pass the tag weight between the users as w. Td is the set of neighbors of the nodes. If the value of Str(u,v) is greater, indicate that the tie strength between u and v is strong. Figure.5: Graphical Representation of Tie Strength between Users IV. Applications Find the community based on tie strength, so the users in the community may have similar interest. For providing publicity when the ad is posted in the user’s wall, its visibility will be limited to those of his contacts that share a strong tie with the user. So the companies can target the potential customers. V. Conclusion The model takes the advantage of tie strength between the users in the social network to provide publicity to users. Here we applied NLP and data mining techniques. Interaction of users in social network is analyzed using NLP and find Tag cloud of each user. Then calculated the semantic relationship between each tag in the tag cloud. Then apply affinity propagation and obtain the social context of each user. Then associate users in his contacts to the clusters. From this cluster we find the users with strong tie strength. The method will help the companies to find their potential users. Based on the interest of users we can post the corresponding ads to their walls. References Luca Pappalardo, Giulio Rossetti and Dino Pedreschi. â€Å" How well do we know each other? detecting tie strength in multidimensional social networks,† 2012 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining. Seyed Ahmad Moosavi and MehrdadJalali. â€Å"Community Detection in Online Social Networks Using Actions of Users,†978-1-4799-3351-8/14/$31.00  ©2014 IEEE. Andrea Petrà ³czi and Tamà ¡s Nepusz. â€Å"Measuring tie-strength in virtual social networks† http://www.insna.org/Connections-Web/Volume27-2/5.Petrà ³czi.pdf. J.P. Onnela and J. Sarama ¨ ki. â€Å"Structure and tie srength in mobile communication network, † PNAS published online April 24, 2007. Mark S. Granovetter â€Å" The Strength of Weak Ties,† American Journal of Sociology Volume 78 Issue6 (May 1973) 1360-1380. Yaxi He, Chunhong Zhang and Yang Ji. â€Å" Principle Features for Tie Strength Estimation in Micro-blog Social Network † 2012 IEEE 12th International Conference on Computer and Information Technology. Renchu Guan and Xiaohu Shi,† Text Clustering with Seeds Affinity Propagation,† IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, Vol. 23, NO. 4, April 2011. T. Pedersen, S. Patwardhan, and J. Michelizzi â€Å"Wordnet:: Similarity: Measuring the relatedness of concepts,† .Demonstration Papers atHLT-NAACL 2004, 2004, pp. 38–41, Association for Computational Linguistics. FakhriHasanzadeh and MehrdadJalali, â€Å"Detecting Communities in Social Networks by Techniques of Clustering and Analysis of Communications,†978-1-4799-3351-8/14/$31.00  ©2014 IEEE. B. Frey and D. Dueck,†Clustering by passing messages between datapoints,† Science, vol. 315, no. 5814, pp. 972–976, 2007. Sandra Servia-Rodrà ­guez, Ana Fernà ¡ndez-Vilas, Rebeca P. Dà ­az-Redondo, and Josà © J. Pazos-Arias. â€Å"Inferring Contexts From Facebook Interactions: A Social Publicity Scenario,† IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MULTIMEDIA, VOL. 15, NO. 6, OCTOBER 2013.

The Downfall Of Macbeth In Mac :: essays research papers

People and ideas can greatly affect the outcome of a person's life, determining whether the outcome will be successful or disastrous. Decisions and actions can also influence outcome. This is the case in Macbeth. Many factors cause the ruin of Macbeth and for that reason, all the blame for his downfall cannot be placed on Macbeth himself, despite the fact that he is the one that commits or has people commit the murders which lead to his downfall. Lady Macbeth's encouragement and convincing lead Macbeth to take the first step towards his destruction. The witches and their prophecies are equally accountable, since the witches reveal their predictions to Macbeth, giving him a glimpse into his future. This glimpse represents the beginning of the end of his life. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, as well as the witches and their prophecies are all responsible for Macbeth's downfall.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The witches are responsible for the downfall of Macbeth because they are the ones which reveal the prophecies to Macbeth. 1. Witch. All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis! 2. Witch. All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! 3. Witch. All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King here- after!1 If Macbeth had never encountered the witches, they would never have revealed the prophecies to him. He would have become the Thane of Cawdor, and he would never have even considered the idea of making himself the King of Scotland. It would have remained a fantasy that would probably never have come true in the way that it did. The witches are the ones who allow Macbeth to discover his future, and by doing this, they give him the opportunity to consider making the prophecy come true. The only way to do this is to murder Duncan, the present King of Scotland. At first he is reluctant to do so. Lady Macbeth points out that he has the perfect opportunity, since the King will be spending the night at their castle, Inverness. Macbeth's conscience, however, is holding him back from committing the murder. He's here in double trust: First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed; then as his host, Who should against his murderer shut the door. Not bear the knife myself. (I. Vii. ll 12-16) He realizes that he has a responsibility to Duncan to protect him from a murderer and not to actually murder Duncan himself. Macbeth is also supposed to be loyal to the king, especially since he is a relative and a subject.

Obesity and the American Disabilities Act :: Obesity and the ADA of 1990

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) bans discrimination based on disability. It provides individuals with disabilities civil rights protections like those provided to individuals on the basis of race, sex, national origin and religion (Mathias, 2003). The ADA defines â€Å"disability† as a physical or mental impairment that limits one or more major life activities and will not consider obese individuals as disabled unless the weight limits a major life activity. Federal courts have ruled that morbid obesity falls under the category of medical conditions which limit one or more life activities (Garcia, n.d). The Civil Rights Act of 1964 established basic federal laws on employment discrimination. It does not identify weight as a protected characteristic, and as a result, does not provide protection for obese individuals who have been discriminated against by potential or current employers. Obesity is now being called an epidemic affecting millions of individuals in the United States. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has taken the position that morbid obesity, even if voluntary, can be a protected disability under the ADA. Obesity-related health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension are considered disabilities based on the ADA. The article on obesity in the workplace tells the story of Joseph O’Connor. Mr. O’Connor sued McDonald’s for discriminating against him in violation of the ADA. He alleged that McDonald’s refused to hire him as a cook because of his obesity. Mr. O’Connor claimed his obesity was a disability and McDonald’s discriminated against him because of this disability. McDonald’s sought to dismiss the case, stating Mr. O’Connor was not disabled within the meaning of the ADA. The federal court, however, refused to dismiss the lawsuit. The court held that Oâ€℠¢Connor must be given the chance to prove that he is protected under the law (Garcia, n.d.). The challenge in dealing with the controversy, of discrimination and disability, surrounding obesity must involve the legal and medical communities.

feline leukemia virus :: essays research papers fc

FELINE PANLEUKOPENIA VIRUS Virus Classification:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Order:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Mononegavirales  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Family:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Parvoviridae   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Subfamily:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Parvovirinae   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Genus:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Parvovirus  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Species:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Feline panleukopenia virus Also called feline infectious eneritis, feline â€Å"distemper†, and feline ataxia or incoordination. Examples of other viruses belonging to the same genus as Feline panleukopenia virus include Canine parvovirus type 2, Porcine parvovirus, Mink enteritis virus, and Raccoon enteritis virus. Virus Structure:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Feline panleukopenia virus (FPV) is a small (20 nm) autonomous , non –enveloped, icosahedral, single-stranded DNA virus that is approximately 5,120 nucleotides in legnth. The genome encodes for two genes which each form two proteins by alternative mRNA splicing. The non-enveloped capsid is assembled from 60 copies of a combination of the overlapping capsid proteins VP1 and VP2. The virus contains three capsid proteins. The capsids normally enter cells by clathrin-mediated endocytosis. Replication of the virus in the host occurs in cells that are rapidly dividing. FPV can survive in pH ranging from 3 to 9. The virus is highly resistant to most disinfectants (ether, chloroform, acid, alcohol, and heat), but is susceptible to Clorox bleach. History and Natural Biology of Feline Panleukopenia Virus:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Feline panleukopenia is endemic to cats worldwide. The virus has been identified since the early 20th century. The virus is so severe that it was referred to as â€Å"cat plague† in earlier times when infections worldwide nearly wiped out cat populations in certain geographic areas. Now FPV rarely occurs in domestic populations in which vaccination is routinely practiced. There is a seasonality to the occurrence of FPV that usually coincides with the production of new populations of susceptible kittens. This seasonal effect may vary according to geographic location. In the northeastern United States, most cases of FPV are seen in the summer and early fall. However, outbreaks of FPV may occur at any time of the year. It is thought that feral domestic cat populations are a natural resevior for Feline panleukopenia virus. Clinical Features and Viral Pathogenesis:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  All members of the cat family (Felidae) are susceptible to infection with feline panleukopenia virus (FPV), as are raccoons, and minks, in the family Procyoniclae. Three major body sytems are affected by FPV. FPV specifically depresses the white blood cells and thus the immune system of the host, it attacks the rapidly reproducing cells lining the gut, and FPV affects the reproducing cells of the cerebellum and the retina of the eye when they are in their developing stage. The system it chooses depends on the age of the cat at the time of infection.

Master of Business Administration program at Georgia State University

I have chosen the flexible Master of Business Administration program at Georgia State University because it offers the best academic and skills training that would help me become better at what I do. At present I am interested in learning communication and analytical skills, how to be decisive and the importance of teamwork. I believe that these skills are necessary for the success of my career as a financial accountant and I know that I would be able to learn this through the challenging curriculum of Robinson College.Work experience is necessary for real life application, but education broadens one’s thinking and perspectives. My main reason for pursuing an MBA is because I want to further myself in the accounting field. Through the training of the MBA program I will be equipped with the skills that would allow me to help businesses expand in their operations while focusing on management and employee connections.Personally I believe that I have the leadership skills and the creative perspective for growth to be successful in my chosen career but I am also aware that I lack the educational background. By enrolling in the MBA program of Georgia State University and practicing my profession, I know that I would be able to become a financial advisor wherein I could help clients increase their revenues by using internal assessments and other strategies. I hope to become a financial accountant in the future and work on financial analysis and prepare fiscal reports.Through several work experiences I realized that I could do anything I set my mind to accomplish; that through hard work and determination I could rise from a party coordinator to manager. I also learned that a successful business enterprise is possible if there is honesty and complete customer satisfaction. I have had the opportunity to work as a Payroll and Tax Specialist, and here I have learned that customer satisfaction and the highest quality service is the best way to develop customer loyalt y.All of these experiences have no doubt enriched my professional career but I also know that I need to learn more about this field of specialization and I am most happy when I am learning something new. I know that I belong to Georgia State’s MBA program; it has the right balance of academic and practical training that appeals to me. My contributions to the university will be my collective perspective, my determination to succeed and moral character. My degree in Bachelors in Family and Consumer Sciences has imbued me with the knowledge and sensitivity to understand people.By becoming a member of the MBA program I will bring with me this humanitarian perspective and help influence other business professionals to do the same. I am determined to finish this degree and I am prepared to give my best in accomplishing the requirements of the course and to actively participate in each class. The strong business ethics and professional accountability of Robinson College is the best place to foster and develop my skills and personality.

Marketing Analysis: Mayo Clinic

Marketing analysis mayonnaise Clinic December 14, 2012 Marketing abridgment mayo Clinic mayo Clinic is in the traffic of providing patient explosive bear trim done and through their legion(predicate) an(prenominal) distinguishable Clinics and infirmarys. They be ranked come up two as one of the extend twenty hospitals for heart and heart surgical process per the Forbes run of bakshish hospitals, and they ranked lxx one out of one snow in the top one ampere-second military posts to proceeding (Forbes, 2012). The mayo Clinics be a non-for-profit hospital and article of belief center that is nonoriety throughout the constituteation. They became cognise as the hospital that treats the diseases no early(a) facility or medical checkup student want to treat.They have oer thirty eight ampere-second physicians and scientist as sanitary as over fifty dollar bill thousand Allied hygienicness help lap upers on their payroll. They overly have thirty si x hundred medical residents, fellows and schoolchilds through their medical schools. Their slogan is We strive to piece the im think fit into the possible (mayonnaise Clinic Annual Report, 2011). The mayonnaise Clinic pull offd for more than one million patients at its camp functions in Minnesota, Florida, Arizona and Mayo Clinic wellnessyness System, a net snip of clinics, hospitals and health fright facilities serving more than s neverthe slightty communities in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin (Mayo Clinic Annual Report, 2011, pg. 7, para4). From their beginning in 1863, William Worrall Mayo insisted on specimens that would be considered innovative for the time. And as the demand for their services increased, they formed a police squad of dilutes and demeanor forers and became the maiden private integrated group practice. Initially this practice of team cut back among doctors was viewed as unconventional, but soon patients realized the advantages of the pooled resourc es, having doctors and scientist at a lower outrank the same roof with knowl process and skills, patients and student came from approximately the world to learn and be treated (Dickson, 2012).Mayo Clinic over one hundred age ago made it crystalise through its bang and vision that the patients interests would non be served tumesce if doctors were competing with each early(a). William Mayo emphasized that making a allegiance to the patient doctors must(prenominal) make a commitment to each refreshed(prenominal) proceed interest by every ingredient of the staff in the professional get on with of every other member, would be racy to nourishing the organizations future. Patients ar the Mayo Clinics first precession and they do non mingy c be on a patients competency to pay.most of the staff is not even aw be of a patients status, which allows them to give the patients the best cargon possible without having to worry roughly creation compens satisfactory (Mayo Cl inic, nd). The Mayo Clinic has some fierce competition, such as Johns Hopkins Hospital. Johns Hopkins is an institution with a mission to repair the health of our companionship and the world by setting the standard of righteousness in patient c be. They too encourage with commercials on television, radio, and in the news temper.They have network Social media marketing in place and through their multi-media relations staff, they are able to pierce the market of patients within the united States and abroad. (Johns Hopkins Hospital, nd). The services they reach out are comparable to The Mayo Clinic and both are rated in the top 25 best hospitals to work for by healthExecNews. com. However, Johns Hopkins did not make the top 100 list for Forbes. The four Ps ( crossroad, Place, Price, Promotion) ProductBrand Mayo Clinic the name whole is know as a attractor in the medical field for their sanctified physicians, scientists and allied health staff that work unneurotic as a team to put the necessitate of the patient first, known as The Mayo Effect. There are three important hospitals and several clinics that offer medical treatments and services as well as training, residencies and fellows for medical professions (Mayo Annual Report, 2011). Product features Patient satisfaction and feature care given to patients are some of the main reasons that patients choose the Mayo Clinic.Known as the place to go for specializing in treating complex illnesses, patients derriere pursue in uninhibited care, regard slight of ability to pay (Mayo Clinic, nd). Packaging The Mayo Clinic is well known throughout the world for their research as well as their teaching facilities for medical professions. In addition, they contributionner with galore(postnominal) facilities to serve communities in five states, age maintaining three main Hospital facilities in Minnesota, Arizona, and Florida (Mayo Clinic, nd). Product lines They have several, mainly books and CD s on health and wellness.They also have a customer base of over 900,000 plenty for their Mayo Clinic health Letter and Mayo Clinic Womens HealthSource subscriptions, which are mailed periodic with a quarterly special report as part of the subscription. Having tested the market for potential net income subscriptions in 2007, they found many were not interested, but in 2008 the test showed thither was more interest in that choice (Fletcher, 2010). Place Channels of distribution Most referrals are from interchange of mouth state recommending the organization because of a good obtain they had.Media Mayo utilized the local media by offering their physicians the opportunity to share their expertise with the society through bi-monthly consumer health segments (Weiss, 2009) net Mayo can be found on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Linkedin, and their new patient communicate Sharing MayoClinic (Weiss, 2009). Advertising Mayo utilizes media through stories and partnerships with t he local news as well as sponsoring health events. They do not use mass media advertising and they cuss on their reputation (Weiss, 2009).Physician referrals come from around the world, because Mayo has a reputation of affectionateness for patients others may not want the quarrel of caring for or they do not know how to (Weiss, 2009). Physical distribution serve are administered through care givers and physicians during visits to each the hospital or office visits. The Mayo Effect uses strategies to achieve their goals and mission with collaboration, expertise and compassionate commitment to the health and blessedness of their patients (Mayo Annual Report, 2011).Retailing choices Patients have several choices to receive services, through the hospital, a clinic visit, and now the slight clinic. Mayo has two trice clinics that are a go in center and are used to assess and treat modest conditions, and monitor inveterate conditions of patients and no employment is required. The wait time is normally less than 15 minutes. (Keckley, Ph. D. , P. H. , 2008). Inventory decisions The minute clinics are a new way to call for patients that may have less imperative postulate such as sick throat, pink eye, minor cuts and burns, or chronic diseases that may need monitoring.The clinics offer walk-in services to anyone, and they have the ability to look up patient records through electronic medical records (EMR) leaving no paper record needing to be stored. Centers are cosmos staffed by nurse practitioner and physician assistants with assistance of proprietary technology designed to help diagnose and treat non-serious medical conditions. These centers are now being seen in many pharmacy chain stores and even places like Wal-Mart and Target.Jumping on the band patrol wagon so to speak, Mayo clinic sees the Minute Clinics as a source of patient referrals for their physicians as some patients that come for treatment leave alone be referred to a Mayo Clinic doc tor if there is a need for get married up or if their drinking condition demand more treatment then the Minute Clinic can provide (Keckley, Ph. D. , P. H. , 2008). Price Cost- base set Most health care is found on a health amends frame making payments based on a third party remunerator carcass, so the monetary value for care is usually set by entities outside of the doctor-patient relationship.Because of this system, providers do not need to compete for patients based on money prices. Medicare sets prices and national policies for health care services, plot of ground health restitution companies negotiate with providers for services and they offer incentives to press comprises and reduce performing unessential procedures (Nelson, 2009). Value-based pricing In comparison, Mayo is a high cost provider when compared to other Minnesota providers, and many insurance providers list Mayo in the bottom of their tiered health plans, based on cost not quality.Mayo may need to charge more to private pay patients to entomb the shortfalls from uncompensated care and existence payers (Medicare and Medicaid). Because public payments rarely cover the cost of care, providers must charge private payers higher(prenominal) order if they expect to stay in product line (Nelson, 2009,para 15). As we enter into new reforms being designed to cut costs and advance quality care the current system is about to change and we can solitary(prenominal) hope for the better.Competition-based pricing The Mayo Clinic is able to moderate costs level, because they pay their physicians a salary and not on a fee for services like many other health care organizations do. organism a center for excellence, they rank higher in quality of care than other organizations which gives them an advantage when negotiating with insurance companies on the price for services. Because they have an integrated approach, they perform less unnecessary procedures than other organizations, which g o away keep a patients overall cost down (Nelson, 2009). PromotionCommunication plans Mayo Clinic is on the cutting edge by initiating an electronic database which allows interaction with other physicians and shared information through an draw agreement and e-consultants. With changes coming in the health care delivery system, and payers, Mayo is aggressively expanding their affiliation with other providers. Being known as a center for excellence, they are often called to give a mention on difficult cases. Becoming an concord of the Mayo Clinic gives the provider the ability to use their name in advertising as well as consult with the Mayo Physicians.The goal of Mayo Clinic is to be the drawing card in efforts to get hospitals and physician groups to work together more effectively to improve quality and lower costs (Graham, 2012). state-supported relations Being a induct and leading the way is not new for the Mayo Clinic, being one of the first to initiate a Facebook web var let that people can write on its wall and share all types of content, is a way of communicating and gaining customers. People are using the site to share stories about their own or a family members watch with the Mayo Clinic. These stories are than shared and desire making this a form of word of mouth.Many pass on visit the site which also offers information and short videos on different subjects, as well as health support issues. They also have Podcasts that are offered at the iTunes store, and it once reached 29th in the Top 100 (Rollyson, 2008). Advertising Mayo has not spent a bulk of money on advertising and relies on reputation to bring in the patients. However, when they undetermined the Florida clinic in 2008, patients were not banging down the doors so to speak and they realized they infallible to do something to attract the patients (Weiss, 2009).They rely on word of mouth and have taken initiatives that bring awareness to the organization. Having a Facebook page, Twitter, YouTube, Podcasts, local television health segments that allow people to call with concerns or ask questions, monthly new magazine and by sponsoring community health events. Employees are also a source of advertising, many are intellectual to share the Mayo philosophy (the needs of the patient come first) with others. gross sales and selling activity Being a not for profit organization, they are more concerned with quality as this will bring quantity.The Mayo clinic offers advertising ads and sponsorships in their e-newsletters and magazines as well as community events that promote health awareness. However, their financial goals take a backseat to their mission, which is to focus on the patients and merging the needs of the patient first. Making themselves present on social media sites as well as sponsoring community events that promote health awareness, they are able to draw fear to their name. Having a strong reputation for quality care and their desire to put the p atients needs before the need for payment, sets a standard that many organizations could learn from.Overall the Mayo Clinic system and philosophy sets a standard that is in a class of its own. Gaining a reputation that has lasted over a hundred years as one of the best organizations to be a patient of or to work for says a lot for the way they are doing business. Offering other facilities and organizations the opportunity to be affiliated with the Mayo system will continue to bring awareness to the dirt and promote their way of helping people, while bring the medical profession together working as a team. theatrical role Dickson, F. (2012, May 5).The Mayo Mystique. Marketing Health Services. Retrieved From http//www. marketingpower. com/ResourceLibrary/MarketingHealthServices/Pages/2012/Spring%202012/The-Mayo-Mystique. aspx Fletcher, H. ( 2010, August). Truth in Advertising. northbound American Publishing Company. Retrieved from http//www. targetmarketingmag. com/article/mayo-cli nic-puts-straightforward-direct-mail-creative-test/1 Forbes. (2012, July 17). Still the One Cleveland Clinic Retains Top defect On US News & earth Report Heart Hospital Rankings. Forbes. comLLC.Retrieved from http//www. forbes. com/sites/larryhusten/2012/07/17/still-the-one-cleveland-clinic-retains-top-spot-on-us-news-world-report-heart-hospital-rankings/ Graham, J. , (2012, Aug. 24). Mayo Clinic Seeks to Extend it Reach with serial publication of Affiliations Around the Country. Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Retrieved from http//www. kaiserhealthnews. org/Stories/2012/August/24/Mayo-Clinic-Extends-Reach. aspx Hathaway M. , & Seltman, K. (2001, Winter). International Market Research at the Mayo Clinic. Marketing Health Services.