Nursing Research Article Critique Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Nursing Research Critique - Article Example A good article provides information on the geographical location of the study as well as the type of target population being explored. Although, the authors do not share any information on the location of the study but they mentioned the target population, the surgical patients. The article narrates the problem statement in a clear way; mentions the study variables as well as the population involved. The authors want to assess the impact of the education of nurses in the hospitals over the care and eventually the mortality status of these patients. This is an important area which is feasible to carry out and will result in interesting findings which will be generalized on similar hospitals. Since a researcher has to present a new idea, hypothesis or pose a research question based on some violence. This can be constructed once there is no information, or the previous research suggests some new research activity or previous evidence raised new questions. Whatever be the case, literature review becomes significantly important to build the situation! This literature review, actually, favors and opposes some of the issues and new research is proposed, in a way to decide the conflict. Yes, literature review in this article is comprehensive. The sources are very much relevant to the topic and almost all are primary ones. Both types of viewpoints, supporting and opposing, have been added which lead to the development of a rational for the next study, the current one! Theoretical/conceptual framework The authors have not described anything explicitly as theoretical or conceptual framework. But the way rational is developed based on the existing evidence and the arguments in the favor of testing the research question are impressive. The authors have taken up various concepts related to the topic and discuss them clearly; they also link these concepts. They have not provided the formal definition of various terms but have described them well. There is no information which suggests that the framework is strong enough to make judgments. Hypothesis/Research Questions This article does not state any research question or hypothesis right away as a question or hypothesis but build a rationale and make statements which go in the direction of a research question or hypothesis. Actually, an explicit hypothesis is important for making the future research design and analysis. In this article when the authors write the statement of hypothesis they take into account the variables, independent and dependent. In fact, research questions have not been raised or stated in real sense but the issues which need to be explored have been described very well. Strictly speaking, the research questions have not been written in the article so they cannot delineate the study. Quantitative Designs This study was carried out using cross-sectional design which has been mentioned clearly in the methodology section. For this hypothesis, design is fine as far as the determination of association is concerned between the independent and dependent variables are concerned. But this design cannot determine the cause and effect association as

A Sociological Look at the Feminist Movement & the Civil Rights Movement Essay Example for Free

A Sociological Look at the Feminist Movement the Civil Rights Movement Essay For centuries, large groups of individuals have come together to oppose prevailing ideas, challenge conformity and promote great change in beliefs, government policy and overall social reform. Whether it is an instinctual component of human existence or a way of survival as learned from previous generations, social reform is an integral part of Western culture’s growth and development into modern society. When discussing this topic, two very great movements come to mind. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s and the Feminist Movement of the 1960s and 1970s serve as two meaningful and consequential social reform movements. When examined from the sociological perspectives of symbolic interactionism, functional analysis and conflict theory, one can stand to gain a varied ability to conceptualize social phenomenon such as the Civil Rights and Feminist Movements. This writing will serve to review these movements from the three sociological perspectives including the influential impact that society and people have had on one another. Through the first sociological perspective of Symbolic Interactionism, the Civil Rights and Feminist Movements can be interpreted in terms of the symbols for which both represent. Symbolic interactionism examines the symbols that people attach meaning to as well as the impact that their subjective meaning has on the way in which they act (Henslin). Prior to the Civil Rights movement, there were many derogatory words associated with minorities, specifically those of the black race. These words were negative in their connotation and conveyed a sense of inferiority associated with unintelligence and animalistic characteristics. Due to the negative perception of the black race, day to day living had many other symbolic representations of the division between whites and blacks beyond just the words used to describe the segregation. Jim Crow laws, for example, ensured that public facilities maintained the segregation of blacks as it was believed for them to be inferior to the white race including public restrooms, water fountains, parks, theaters, railways, schools and hospitals. The quality of the segregated facilities was, of course, inferior. (Pillai) The many symbols associated with minorities were viewed in a positive light by those superior because they helped to maintain the stability of their beliefs, the conformity and social order for which they sought. As the Civil Rights Movement went underway, the negative symbols associated with minority groups were challenged. As great strides were made to grant equality, the symbolic representation of blacks as inferior to whites slowly shifted thus causing a reform. Symbols that once ensured the segregation of minorities were no longer such. The Supreme Court’s ruling of segregation in schools as unconstitutional granted for equal education and â€Å"freedom rides† helped to desegregate interstate travel (Pillai). Employment discrimination and segregation of public facilities were eventually outlawed (â€Å"Civil Rights Movement†). Although many symbolic representations of how minorities were once subjectively viewed still resonate with many today, the Civil Rights Movement can be said to have challenged and restructured the symbolic representations of minorities thus impacting how we as human beings interact with one another. Prior to the Feminist Movement, many symbols represented the subjective opinions of women and therefore dictated how women were viewed and treated. Women have often been described as the weaker sex, passive, emotional, un-intellectual and dependent (Evans). They were expected to dress a certain way including little to no make-up, no pants and of course, nothing deemed overtly sexy. Women in the workforce were given positions of the clerical nature and often in factory assembly lines. They were viewed as meek and were expected at all times to be respectful, polite, refined and pleasant, never to engage in rowdy behavior or use profanity. (Freeman) Symbolically, women were expected to get married, raise children, cook, clean and maintain an orderly household. Again, the symbols associated with women were believed to be positive by those superior because they maintained the stability of their beliefs. Eventually, many women began to challenge the symbols associated with them including their traditional roles and they began re-thinking the meaning of womanhood which eventually led to the Feminist Movement which similar to the Civil Rights Movement, resulted in reform. New symbols associated with women began to emerge and offered a new subjective view reflecting equality and potential for greatness. Some of these symbols include more gender neutral clothing, the right to sexual expressiveness, diminished emphasis on the double standard and the right to hold jobs of equal pay (Evans). Although some sense of the belief of women as inferior to men still holds true today and can be seen in such concepts as ‘the glass ceiling’ effect, the Feminist Movement played an essential role in reforming the symbols and subjective meanings that are representative of women. When examining these two movements from the Functional Analysis perspective, one will see how many different facets to our society come together to comprise the overall structure, similar to how many different puzzle pieces come together to form the whole picture. Functional analysis looks at how the many different aspects of society are interdependent and together contribute to how society functions at large (Henslin). Examining from a smaller level, it becomes apparent that there were many facets to maintaining the segregation and oppression of minorities and women. Segregated schools systems were inferior in quality in terms of the education being provided to minorities thus resulting in the diminished growth of educational and mental development of black children. The jobs then made available to black men were often that of manual labor requiring limited intelligence. (Pillai) Women often times were educated in order to be groomed for positions such as clerical work and home economics thus unable to really attain higher education (Evans). This kept them working at lower rates and often times they were not up to the educational capacity required to hold higher positions. Religious oppression as well kept women in a role of inferiority often denying them roles in churches and synagogues which men believed were supported by biblical versus such as 1 Corinthians 14 34-45 which stated that women should be kept quiet in the church (Sink). Minorities and women followed suit for so long and did not challenge the status quo out of fear of repercussions. So, for quite some time, these many facets, all interrelated, served to keep the overall picture together and functioning quite well which was a good thing for those viewed as superior. Taken as a whole, if the belief were that minorities and women were inferior and should be kept that way, the many facets of our society such as school, the workplace and religion served to keep that overall vision intact for so long and it worked well to serve that overall belief. It was not until social reform brought about by the Civil Rights and Feminist Movements that those aspects of our society were forced to change in order to support the new vision that minorities, women and proponents of equal rights sought to create. The third perspective of sociology, known as Conflict Theory, is one that promotes social change. Conflict Theory suggests that anywhere inequality potentially exists, there will be competition for scarce resources, contributory to the ever-changing nature of society (Henslin). Interest in Conflict Theory appeared to arise during the 1960s perhaps due to this being a time of turbulent change. The Civil Rights and Feminist Movements were alive during this time. The social order that the ‘elite’ were attempting to force upon minorities and women were being considerably challenged and this evoked fear in those wanting to maintain control. During the Civil Rights Movements, as blacks sought to gain racial equality, desegregation and the right to vote, the ‘elite’ began to fear the loss of ownership of economic, political and social systems and as well feared non-whites gaining control over whites (â€Å"The Civil Rights Movement†). During the Feminist Movement, as women sought to gain empowerment, higher education, equal pay and a voice in government, the ‘elite’ began to fear the loss of job security and better pay as well as concern for who will maintain the household and care for children (Evans). Control over such scarce resources is the driving force in establishing and maintaining social order and just as conflict theory suggests, when inequality exists such as that experienced by minorities and women, there is bound to be conflict which is not only evident in the Civil Rights and Feminists Movements, however on-going and still evident in our society today. When examined from the three sociological perspectives of symbolic interactionism, functional analysis and conflict theory, the contributory factors and ultimate results of the Civil Rights and Feminist Movements can be identified and conceptualized. These two significantly impactful movements lend themselves to having an improved understanding of the many facets that have helped maintain certain aspects of how our society functions and also the many challenges and changes that our society have undergone. The growth and development of Western culture has been largely influenced by social reform including the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s and the Feminist Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. It seems safe to speculate that large groups of individuals will continue to come together to challenge prevailing ideas, defy conformity and advocate for great changes in beliefs, government policy and overall social reform. Works Cited â€Å"Civil Rights Movement†. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. n.d. 8 Dec. 2012. Evans, Sara. â€Å"Women’s Liberation Movement.† Research. Our Voice Our Country. 2009. Our Voice Our Country, Inc. 8 Dec. 2012 Freeman, Joy. â€Å"From Suffrage to Women’s Liberation: Feminism in Twentieth Century America†. Women: A Feminist’s Perspective. n.p. 1995. 8 Dec. 2012. Henslin, James. Essentials of Sociology A Down to Earth Approach. 9th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2011. Pillai, Prabhakar. â€Å"1960s Civil Rights Movement in America†. Buzzle. Buzzle. 2011. 8 Dec. 2012. Sink, Nancy. Women’s Liberation Movement. 1960s – 1980s Women’s Liberation Movement. Evans and Sink. 2008. Nova Online. 8 Dec. 2012

Julius Caesar - Citizen Of Rome :: essays research papers

Julius Caesar-Citizen of Rome My name is Felicius Dedecus, and I live in Rome. I am a common citizen, and work in the local bakery. I am married to a charming lady named Antonia. We have been married for only a couple of months, and we do not have any children. We are not yet prepared to have a child, because we cannot financially support one. Once the bakery starts going well, we will have a child. I work during the days, and Antonia, being a lady, does not work so she could take care of the child. I begin to laugh, when I imagine a woman working somewhere other than in the kitchen. It would be quite an odd sight. I hear people shouting. It seems to be coming from the Capitol. I am heading towards there, to find out the reason for all of this commotion. The greatest man that I have ever known is dead. His name was Caesar, and he was a beloved benefactor and a hero. He defeated Pompey's sons, and would do anything to benefit Rome. Rome will never profit from this man again, for he was stabbed by a sword. Honorable Brutus, his best friend, helped in the killing of Caesar. All actions of this noble man, in the past, have been admirable. I am at the Forum, and the funeral for beloved Caesar is about to take place. Brutus will explain his reasons for murdering Caesar, which will surely be logical. Then, Mark Antony will be delivering a speech, and conducting the funeral rites. The funeral speech, or Laudatio Funebris, is a common Roman custom. This funeral promises to be chaotic, and I am not sure what is to come for Rome. Brutus is about to speak. My co-worker at the local bakery, Ragorius, says aloud what many of us Roman citizens are thinking. He says, "We will be satisfied; let us be satisfied." I am anxious to hear Brutus' speech, for I am very curious to hear the justification of the murder. Had anyone else killed Caesar, in no circumstance, would I have listened to their speech. However, Brutus is reputable, and his dignified presence gets him replies upon his request. He asks us, "Be patient till the last . . . hear me for mine cause and be silent." When Brutus said this, I immediately obeyed him. He says, ". Julius Caesar - Citizen Of Rome :: essays research papers Julius Caesar-Citizen of Rome My name is Felicius Dedecus, and I live in Rome. I am a common citizen, and work in the local bakery. I am married to a charming lady named Antonia. We have been married for only a couple of months, and we do not have any children. We are not yet prepared to have a child, because we cannot financially support one. Once the bakery starts going well, we will have a child. I work during the days, and Antonia, being a lady, does not work so she could take care of the child. I begin to laugh, when I imagine a woman working somewhere other than in the kitchen. It would be quite an odd sight. I hear people shouting. It seems to be coming from the Capitol. I am heading towards there, to find out the reason for all of this commotion. The greatest man that I have ever known is dead. His name was Caesar, and he was a beloved benefactor and a hero. He defeated Pompey's sons, and would do anything to benefit Rome. Rome will never profit from this man again, for he was stabbed by a sword. Honorable Brutus, his best friend, helped in the killing of Caesar. All actions of this noble man, in the past, have been admirable. I am at the Forum, and the funeral for beloved Caesar is about to take place. Brutus will explain his reasons for murdering Caesar, which will surely be logical. Then, Mark Antony will be delivering a speech, and conducting the funeral rites. The funeral speech, or Laudatio Funebris, is a common Roman custom. This funeral promises to be chaotic, and I am not sure what is to come for Rome. Brutus is about to speak. My co-worker at the local bakery, Ragorius, says aloud what many of us Roman citizens are thinking. He says, "We will be satisfied; let us be satisfied." I am anxious to hear Brutus' speech, for I am very curious to hear the justification of the murder. Had anyone else killed Caesar, in no circumstance, would I have listened to their speech. However, Brutus is reputable, and his dignified presence gets him replies upon his request. He asks us, "Be patient till the last . . . hear me for mine cause and be silent." When Brutus said this, I immediately obeyed him. He says, ".

IP addressing scenario Essay

When is it worth setting up a DHCP server for your office and how many computers would you say is the minimum amount that really justifies the work of setting up the server? Let’s first explore what DHCP is so we can understand what it does and can accurately answer the question at hand. DHCP stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol and provides a mechanism for conveniently assigning network addresses and other network configuration parameters to a system upon request, usually when it is first bootstrapped or attached to the network. This is what allows you to manage the IP address of any given computer on your network from one location. Being that we ran out of addresses for IPv4 and are now basically only using borrowed addresses Maintaining the IP address for a network individually would be a huge chore for any network professional. Thankfully DHCP was invented making our job a little easier. Now the question is when is it worth setting up a DHCP server? In my opinion that would be, with anything larger than 2 computers. I am going to want to be able to manage the computers on my network from one location, my location. I am not going to want to have to get up from my desk, interrupting my current task to configure your IP address while making sure the IP address I am assigning isn’t a duplicate. This basically comes down to how much work you want to do as a network manager. Do you want to continually update and configure computers, at each individual desk, every time their IP address is released, or anytime you need to add computers to your office, or do you want to be able to do it from the comfort of your own computer? For me, I would be ok with 2 computers to maintain but any more then that and I am going to want the DHCP server set up.

Five Important Nataraja Shrines of Tamil Nadu Essay

There are lots of temples in Tamil Nadu where Siva is worshipped as Nataraja. Lord Siva, as the god of dance is known as Nataraja. There are lots of temples in India and especially in Tamil Nadu where Siva is worshipped as Nataraja. But, there are mainly five places in Tamil Nadu where the cult of Nataraja is worshipped with gaiety and pomp. The dancing deity Nataraja can be seen in these Pancha sabbas or five halls of Tamil Nadu. The five temples – Chidhambaram, Maduarai, Thiruvilankadu, Tirunelveli and Kutralam, are very revered and is known as the five sabhas. It is said Lord Shiva has danced at these five places as Nataraja – the dancing form of Shiva, to benefit different devotees. Kanaka Sabha: The most important shrine for Nataraja is the Kanaka Sabha or golden hall at Chidambaram. The Nataraja dances here in the Ananda Tandava or the dance of bliss form and he is called Kanaka Sabhapati or the Lord of the Golden Hall. This temple has been sung in a lot of Dhevaram and Thiruvasakam. Here Lord Shiva is worshipped in all the three forms, namely, arupa – which is called chitambara rahasyam, aruparupa – shiva lingam and rupa – nataraja. Nataraja was the favourite deity of the Chola kings of Tanjavur and hence they kept idol of Nataraja in all the Siva temples built by them in various places in their empire in Tamil Nadu and all over in South India. Chidambaram marks an important stage of evolution of southern Indian architecture. Rajatha Sabha: Rajatha Sabha or silver hall (velli ambalam) at the Minakshi Sundareshwarar temple in Madurai is another important Natarja shrine of Tamil Nadu. Nataraja is shown in a very rare posture here. He is shown his right leg raised and dancing on the dwarf (apasmara purusha) with his left foot. Both the main image of stone (moolavar) and the processional image (utsava murti) in this shrine are in unusual posture. The usual posture of Nataraja is dancing with his right leg placed on the dwarf with his left leg upraised. The change in posture of Nataraja here is linked with the legend (sthala-purana) of this place. It is said that the Pandyan king of Madurai was a devotee of Nataraja and under pressure from a rival Chola king, tried to master dance. But while trying to do so, he realised the difficulty of the task. He was filled with agony to see his favourite deity dancing with his right foot always as he did feel while doing himself. So, he prayed Lord Nataraja to change his posture so that he does not get tired in a same posture. The Lord listened to his request and changed his posture. So, Nataraja is seen dancing on his left foot here. One of the five important shrines of Nataraja can be seen at Madurai in Tamil Nadu. Here the dancing posture of Ambalavanan (Lord Siva) with ten hands can be seen only in the Velli ambalam at Madurai. Here the dance performed by Nataraja is known as Paramananda Thandavam and also as Chokka Thandavam. It is also known as Sundara Tandavam. Tamra Sabha: Another important Nataraja shrine of Tamil Nadu is situated at the Nellaiappar temple in Tirunelveli. The Tamra Sabha or the hall of copper is found here in the vast campus. Here the icon of Lord Siva is made of Bronze and is encircled by a prabha or aura of very attractive workmanship. It is said that the Nataraja image here was originally in the temple of Agnishwaram. Once a fire out broke here and then it was kept on the bed of a river. Later, it was brought to the Nellaiappar temple and worshipped here. Ratna Sabha: The Ratna Sabha or the hall of rubies in Tiruvalangadu is another important Nataraja shrine of Tamil Nadu. It takes approximately two hours from Chennai by road to reach Tiruvalangadu. The Lord here is called Ratna Sabhapati or the Lord of the Hall of rubies. There is a mythical story related to this place and the shrine. It is said that once Siva and Kali had a dance contest. At that time Kali was in a very angry mood and could not be pacified easily. Initially, Kali gave a better performance than Siva. But, later Nataraja (Siva) performed the Tandava dance also known as the Chanda (terrific) tandava and lifted his leg up above his head. Then, Kali out of modesty accepted her defeat. Lord Nataraja won the contest but he also declared that Kali was second to none than himself in dance. There is a very stunning metal image of eight-armed Siva dancing in the Urdlwa Tandava can be seen in this temple. There is also a small shrine nearby and there is another metal image of Kali who is also eight-armed can be seen. Chitra Sabha: The last among the five Nataraja shrines in Tamil Nadu is situated at Kuttralam. The Chitra Sabha or the hall of paintings is found here in Kuttralam, which is famous for its waterfalls. Here the lord Siva is known as the Kuttralanathan. But, all the rituals conducted here are first offered for Nataraja and then for Kuttralanathan. Here, Nataraja is known as Ananda Nata-rajeshwarar or the God of Blissful Dance. Kuttralam has nine Water Falls: 1. Main falls 2. Chitaruvi 3.Shenpagadevi falls 4. Thenaruvi 5. Five falls 6. Orchard falls 7. New falls 8. Tiger falls 9. Old Courtallam falls. Legends on Chitrasabhai goes like – The wedding of Shiva and Parvathi attracted huge celestial crowd at Himalaya that Shiva requested Saint Agastyar to proced southwards to balance the earth, and Agastyar is said to have created the Shivalingam here by shrinking an image of Vishnu, hence the name Kutralam. The Chitra Sabha is located outside the areas of the main temple. It is actually a huge hall built in a typical Kerala style. A huge painting of Nataraja in Tanjavur style can be seen here.

Hitchcock makes Psycho a frightening and worrying experience Essay Example

Hitchcock makes Psycho a frightening and worrying experience Essay Example Hitchcock makes Psycho a frightening and worrying experience Essay Hitchcock makes Psycho a frightening and worrying experience Essay The film Psycho, was filmed on 16 June, 1960. This film is world renowned and was an immediate box-office success. Psycho was described as the most astounding, audacious and successful film ever made. It was directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1960. This film is in black and white but it had an option to be in colour but it had too much blood present in the scenes to be in colour. Psycho was not rated until 1968 when it was rated M for mature audiences only. It was voted eighteenth place in the greatest American movies and first in 100 most thrilling movies ever. Psycho was the first film to introduce a single main character and kill her halfway through the film; this confuses the audience as they dont know what will happen next. Psycho was based on what was thought to be the original Psycho called Ed Gein who was one of the most notorious murderers in American history. His bizarre natures of his crimes were disgusting and shocked the world. Hitchcock makes Psycho a frightening and worrying experience for his audience by maintaining suspense at pivotal moments throughout the film. The music is a vital part of the film which mirrored the action during the film; the screeching violins emerge at tense moments and occur at a murder scene, this music is tense and frightening. Psycho is one of the most successful films ever made, even to this very day. Part of its success is due to the fact that it was one of the first films shown on screen that did not follow the ordinary sequence that so many films used to portray. It was made to completely terrify and hold the audience firmly in their seats, as well as to capture people all over the world with its remarkably thrilling music, making hearts beat faster every second. The film is a frightening and worrying experience at times, the audience feels involved in the film because the camera angles were made in a way which made you feel like you were involved. Hitchcock chose to have this film in black and white to manipulate the audience into fear and to being frightened. Hitchcock clearly shows his desire to involve the audience as much as possible to create suspense and to make the audience frightened and worried throughout. When the policeman is talking to Marion we feel her fear because of her emotions, for example her eyebrows raised, biting of lip and the nervous pitch to her voice. We also feel Marions fear because the policemans face has backlighting on it which chisels out features and the glasses conceal identity which makes you feel cautious. The Bates house is gothic looking and it is dark and daunting which makes the setting feel uninviting. When Norman Bates was speaking to private detective Arbogast he said Old habits die hard. There are other scenes where there is irony like when Arbogast was murdered the way he fell down the stairs Alfred Hitchcock tried to make it look funny in a very sick sense of humour. There is a tree next to Norman Bates in a poster, the tree is dead, the branches have been broken, and its a sort of description of Norman Bates. The camera creates suspense in the film for example, when Arbogast was in the Bates household while he was walking up the staircase the camera moved onto his mothers room where we saw the door open but Arbogast didnt see it and he got killed. Also another part of the movie where the camera creates suspense is in the shower scene, Marion Crane is having a shower the camera moves towards the door she does not realise but someone has come in. Norman Bates then pulls the shower curtain and kills her. The high pitch music warns the audience that something bad is going to happen and in the shower scene when the murder is happening there is a lot of quick edits which show the chaos of the scene. The audience feel involved but also frightened because we never see the stabbing and it is left to our imagination. As the audience is feeling involved, when Marian is in the shower we feel vulnerable and frightened of what might happen. When the killer emerges there is back-lighting which conceals identity and this is worrying as we cannot identify or clearly see the killer. Throughout the film the audience is involved and we are very frightened when Marian is struggling and there is close-ups of her which makes the audience feel involved and feel her struggle. An element of pathetic fallacy is present when Marian is driving into the Bates Motel which hints that something bad is going to happen. When Norman Bates clears the murder scene you can clearly see he is mechanical with his clear-up and makes you assume that he has done this before. During the shower scene we can see Marion looks vulnerable in Picture B and we sense that something is going to happen. We see the terror and desperation in Marions face with a close up of her mouth opened wide shown in Picture A. The shower scene is a brilliant scene which employs great techniques: Mother/Norman arrives, and the violins start Marion screams, and I think we do also. Famous image and extraordinarily dramatic: Marion stabbed to death, slides along the wall. Blood flows. This part was accused to be one of the most shocking and Hitchcock was accused to use the noise of the water falling down a toilet. This technique is wonderful cross-fading on Marions dead eye. Throughout Psycho, high pitch music, backlighting and close-up camera angles create tension in the film Psycho and make the audience feel involved but also frightened and worried.

4 Top Tips for the Common App Honors Section

4 Top Tips for the Common App Honors Section SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips When you’re applying to college, each part of your application counts. You want to maximize every opportunity to make yourself stand out from the thousands of other applicants vying for a spot at the school of your dreams. One of the many places you can distinguish yourself is in the Common App Honors section. In this article, we’ll talk about what the Honors Common App section is and how to maximize it to show your best work. What Is the Honors Common App Section? You can find the Honors section in the Education section of the Common App. The instructions for this section are simple: you can list up to five honors in 100 characters or less. You’ll need to indicate the name of the honor, the years you received it, and the level of the honor: school, state/regional, national or international.A school-level award means that only the students in your school could qualify for that award. A national-level award means that students in your country could qualify for that award. The larger the pool of potential applicants, the more impressive your award will seem. You’ll want to lead with your most impressive awards first. What Count as Honors for the Common App? You might be wondering what should be listed in the Common App honors section and what should be listed elsewhere - in your activities, for example. In general, honors that are tied to your extracurricular activities should be listed in the activities section, while those that aren’t connected to a specific activity should be listed in the honors section. For example, if you earn a varsity letter for the football team, you can put that in the activities section, because it’s directly related to an activity at school. If you’re a National Merit Semi-Finalist, on the other hand, you’ll want to include that in academic honors, since it doesn’t easily tie to a specific activity. 4 Tips for What to Include in the Honors Common App Section You don’t have a ton of room on the Common App to list and describe your honors, so you should keep it brief and use the space allotted as strategically as possible. Here are tips for what to include and how to write in the Common App honors section. #1: Lead With Your Most Impressive Achievements You should lead with your most impressive achievements and make sure that only the best honors make it onto your application. Don’t, for instance, include that you were voted â€Å"Most Likely to Forget When Graduation Is† by your peers- stick to real honors that you had to compete to get. #2: Describe the Award If It’s Unclear While national awards like National Merit are self-explanatory and obvious to the admissions committee, city or school-level awards might not be. Use the 100 characters of space to describe what it is and why isn’t important, like so: â€Å"Julius Caesar Award for the Highest Latin Score in All of Rome.† You should avoid using acronyms unless they’re widely recognizable (think SAT-level recognizable); otherwise, they’ll just confuse the admissions committee and take away from your achievement. #3: Indicate the Level of Competitiveness Show off! Use your character limit to show why the award was important. If you won money, say so! If you were selected as one out of 15,000, own it! The more competitive you make the prize (particularly for city and school level honors), the more your application will stand out. #4: Be Honest It should go without saying, but don’t lie on your application just to make yourself sound better. Not only is that a scummy thing to do, it can result in some serious punishments. You’re already a stellar applicant - focus on your real achievements, rather than your fake ones. Recap: Filling Out the Common App Honors Section The Common App honors section is a great place to call attention to your different achievements. Don't be shy - celebrate the hard work you've done and the recognition you've received for said hard work! What’s Next? Wondering how to prepare for your college interview? Check out this list of college interview tips to be sure you know exactly what to prepare for during your interview. Headed to an interview soon? This list of questions to ask a college interviewer will help you get the most out of your experience. Are you worried about standardized tests and their role in your college application? Read this article to find out when these tests might not matter for you.Also take a look at this list of colleges that don't require SAT scores. Want to build the best possible college application? We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League. We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. We want to get you admitted to your dream schools. Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in.

College Admissions Diversity Essay Sample and Critique

College Admissions Diversity Essay Sample and Critique This example of a college admissions personal essay fits  option #1 of the current Common Application: Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it.  If this sounds like you, then please share your story. Carrie focuses on the issue of diversity and how her Goth identity could contribute to the richness of her campus community. Carries Common Application Essay on Diversity Give Goth a Chance When I sat down to write this essay, I tried, as my high school English teacher always instructed, to imagine the audience for my writing. The more I thought about it, the more I pitied the college admissions screeners who would be reading a thousand essays on diversity. Along with the expected takes on race and ethnicity, how many of those essays would present their authors as outcasts, loners, kids who didn’t fit in at his or her school? How could I present myself as someone unique and interesting - strange, even - without falling prey to the clichà © of the self-pitying social misfit? Let me be direct: in some ways, I am the antithesis of what one might picture as a student who contributes to campus diversity. I am white, middle-class, and heterosexual; I have no physical handicaps or mental challenges apart from a tendency towards sarcasm. But when I receive college brochures picturing smiling, clean-cut teens dressed in the latest from Abercrombie Fitch and lounging on a blanket in the sun, I think, those people are not like me. Simply put, I am a Goth. I wear black, lots of it. I have piercings and ear gauges and tattoos. My hair, naturally the same sandy blonde that the rest of my family shares, is dyed jet, sometimes highlighted in streaks of purple or scarlet. I rarely smile, and I don’t do sun. If I were inserted into those brochure photographs of typical college students, I would look like a vampire stalking her wholesome prey. Again, I am imagining my reading audience, and I can almost see my readers’ eyes roll. So you’re a little weird, kid. How does that contribute to campus diversity? Well, I think I contribute plenty. Diversity goes beyond the physical; race or ethnicity might be the first things one thinks of, but really, it is a question of what makes someone the person that he or she is. Diversity might be considered in terms of economic or geographical background, life experiences, religion, sexual orientation, and even personal interests and general outlook. In this respect, my Goth identity contributes a perspective that is far different from the mainstream. Being Goth isn’t just about physical appearance; it’s a way of life that  includes not only individual tastes in music, literature, and popular culture, but also particular beliefs about philosophy, spirituality, and a range of other human issues. To give just one example, I am planning to major in Environmental Studies, and while it might seem odd to picture a ghoulishly-dressed girl who adores the natural world, it was my Goth outlook that led me to this academic interest. I read voraciously, and am drawn to subject matter that is somewhat dark; the more I read about humanity’s impact on the planet and the near-apocalyptic dangers posed by global climate change, pollution, overpopulation, the manipulation of the food supply and other environmental threats, the more interested I became, and the more determined that I should become involved. I, along with other members of my school’s Environmental Club, started a campus recycling program, and lobbied our superintendent to install in all classrooms power strips that are used to easily shut down equipment such as printers and computers at the end of the day, thereby conserving energy and generating significant savings for our school. I was drawn to this dark subjec t matter of environmental crisis, not to wallow in it or savor the Schadenfreude, but to change it and make the world a better place. I know Goths look a little funny, as we wear our ebony trench coats in seventy-degree weather. I know we seem a little odd as we gather in shady nooks to discuss the latest episode of True Blood. I know professors may sigh as we swell the enrollments of poetry and art classes. Yes, we’re different. And we - I - have a lot to contribute. Critique of Carries Essay on Identity or Diversity Writing about identity or diversity for the  Common Application essay presents a writer with specific challenges. In broader terms, however, all college admissions essays must accomplish a specific task: the admissions folks will be looking not just for good writing skills, but also evidence that the writer has the intellectual curiosity, open-mindedness, and strength of character necessary to be a contributing and successful member of the campus community. Carries essay succeeds on this front. Essay Title In general, Carries title works fine. It clearly captures the subject of the essay - approaching Goth with an open mind. Also, the allusion to John Lennons Give Peace a Chance  is appropriate given the songs message about acceptance and understanding. Its not a title that is highly original, and it isnt the best hook for grabbing the readers attention, but it is still a solid title.  The best essay titles  often strive for clarity, not cleverness. Essay Topic Carrie takes a risk in her essay. When you read advice about college admissions interviews, youll often be told to dress somewhat conservatively, get rid of the pink hair and remove all but the most innocuous piercings. The danger of looking too far out of the norm is that you may encounter an admissions officer who isnt open-minded or who feels disturbed or uncomfortable with your appearance. While you dont want to cater to peoples biases, you also dont want to diminish your chances of getting into college. Carrie, however, isnt one to tone down her identity during the admissions process. Her essay blatantly states this is who I am, and she makes it the job of the reader to overcome his or her preconceptions. There is a slight danger that she will get a reader who refuses to accept the Goth culture Carrie describes, but most readers will love the way Carrie approaches her topic as well as her straight-shooting style. The essay has a level of maturity and self-confidence that the reader will find attractive. Also, the reader is likely to be impressed by the way that Carrie imagines her audiences reaction. She has clearly encountered prejudice before, and she preempts it when she imagines the admissions folks reading her essay. Choice of Essay Prompt The current Common Application essay option #1  is a smart choice for Carries topic, for the essay certainly is about a central part of her identity. Carrie clearly shows how she will add an interesting and desirable element to the campus community. The essay demonstrates that she has thought about identity and diversity, that she is open-minded, and that she has a thing or two to teach others about their preconceptions and biases. She weaves in enough details about her passions and accomplishments to debunk any knee-jerk assumptions a reader might make about a Goth. The share your story essay prompt is wonderfully broad, and it can lead to a range of topics. An essay on ones love of crafts to ones non-traditional home situation can all work with Common Application option #1. Essay Tone Carries essay approaches her topic seriously, but it also has a pleasing smattering of humor. Little phrases like I dont do sun, and, a tendency towards sarcasm capture Carries personality in an economical manner that will also get a nice chuckle from her readers. In general, the essay has a great balance of seriousness and playfulness, of quirkiness and intellect. The Quality of the Writing The quality of the writing in this essay is superb, and it is even more impressive because Carrie is going into the sciences, not the humanities where we might expect to see stronger writing. The essay has no grammatical errors, and some of the short, punchy phrases reveal a high level of rhetorical sophistication. If you take apart the essay sentence by sentence, youll notice a huge variety in sentence length and structure. The admissions officers will immediately recognize Carrie as someone who has a mastery of language and is prepared for college-level writing. The length of the essay is right near the 650-word limit, but thats fine. Her essay is neither wordy nor repetitive. The essays by  Lora  and  Sophie  are both strong, but both could use some cutting and revising to get the length down. Carrie writes economically; every word counts. Final Thoughts Think about the impression you have when you finish reading Carries essay. You feel that you  have gotten to know her. She is someone with an offbeat appearance, but she is wonderfully comfortable with who she is. The self-confidence and self-awareness demonstrated in the essay will certainly impress her readers. Carries essay teaches her reader something, and the mastery of language is remarkable. Admissions officers are likely to finish the essay thinking three things: They want to get to know Carrie better.They think Carrie would make a positive contribution to the campus community.Carries reasoning and writing skills are already at the college level. In short, Carrie has written a winning  Common Application essay. Carrie comes across as an intelligent and likable woman who will contribute to the campus community in meaningful ways. Also, her essay gets at the heart of her unique personal story - theres nothing generic about what she has written, so the essay will stand out from the crowd.

In God's Grandeur by Hopkins and Ozymandias by Shelley, which speaker Essay

In God's Grandeur by Hopkins and Ozymandias by Shelley, which speaker makes a more convincing argument against human ambition How does he do it - Essay Example The speaker discusses the message he received from a traveler about a sculpture in Egypt. Evidently, both poems give attention to human ambitions, although in different perspectives. This paper will highlight how each poem develops a convincing argument against human ambition. Evidently, the speakers in each poem are against human ambition, as this paper will depict. In the poem titled Gods Grandeur, the speaker says, â€Å"The world is charged with the grandeur of God/ It will flame out, like shining from shook foil; / It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil† (1-3). In these three lines, the speaker suggests that God’s glory has evidently filled the world, causing it to shine and flair. In addition, God’s glory causes intense flashes of light to be evident on the earth. The speaker compares God’s greatness and His works on earth to an electric current charging the earth. However, after introducing the measure of God’s greatness exhibited on the earth, the speaker goes forth to discuss how human beings do not heed God’s spirit but rather choose to destroy the earth. The speaker says the following, In the above lines, the speaker pinpoints how different generations have been working on the earth with their activities having negative effects on the earth. It is unfortunate that human beings have occupied different parts of the earth and immensely destroyed nature. For example, during the industrial revolution, all the vegetation was cut down and tall buildings replaced the tree. The speaker makes it evident that human beings have lost any connection to nature. He uses the last line in that stanza to highlight that human beings wear shoes that serve as a barrier between their feet and the earth. For this reason, it becomes impossible for human beings to remember the advantages of living in harmony with nature. In the second stanza, the speaker highlights how God’s greatness keeps renewing the earth despite the destruction caused

Explaining and evaluate principles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Explaining and evaluate principles - Essay Example Second, the necessity of checks and balance, again with the end view to avoid or thwart tyranny that the people must give its consent on important matters of governance. We can take an extreme case as an example to illustrate this point such as leaders cannot just do whatever they want with the governed such as throwing anybody in jail they dislike or disagree with. The political liberties (including physical liberties) of the people must be ensured for a leader to govern. If a government or leader will do the example such as illegally detaining people it do not like or disagreed with, then it is also the right of the people to rebel and the options available to do this are in multitude but that would be digressing to discuss them. Important aspects of governance that affects the people must also have the consent of the people. One example is the choice of leader, which Locke also agreed, must have the consent of the people through an election. ... Mill also put forth the consequential theory on freedom that an individual’s course of action is acceptable for as long as it is good for the majority of the people which in a way modern government uses a guide when it disposes policies into action. With regard to freedom of speech John Stuart Mill is quite liberal in his point of view and it seems that he make an exception to this general theory that freedom must be regulated. In general, Mill argues in his consequential theory that an individual is free to pursue a course of action or interest for as long as it do not harm to other. But in the expression of thought and discussion, Mill argued that it should not be abridged. His contention is that an individual’s capacity to express opinions and to discuss must be exercised in full and not to be suppressed. He did not argue for this naively. Mill knows that not all opinions are truthful and good. In fact, he mentioned that opinions and thoughts can be entirely false, p artially true and wholly true which in all, is an inestimable and could benefit the common good. Mill argues for this as; First, if any opinion is compelled to silence, that opinion may, for aught we can certainly know, be true. To deny this is to assume our own infallibility. Secondly, though the silenced opinion be an error, it may, and very commonly does, contain a portion of truth; and since the general or prevailing opinion on any subject is rarely or never the whole truth, it is only by the collision of adverse opinions that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied. Thirdly, even if the received opinion be not only true, but the

Sociology - Article Critique Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Sociology - Article Critique - Assignment Example There are many questions involved in this article that target the laws and regulations, causes of child labor, working conditions and environment, education and training, consequences of child labor, and so on. However, the author didn’t ask any questions directly, instead Menelievich gathered all the information and statistics in the article and then discussed them and finally summed everything up with own solutions and ideas. This is what makes this article a succinct but well bodied research. The writer talks about the causes of child labor by covering up the most important factors in a very succinct manner. Following are the causes of child labor in a brief manner to make the topic clear: I. Poverty & Ignorance of parents Poverty is of course the foremost reason of child labor. When a family is poor and the guardian is unable to feed their kids, they find no other way but to put their children on work despite of the fact that the children’s age is for studying and n ot working. ... not expect to be totally supported by its family and this is what makes the child see no abnormality in missing school and to start working (Menelievich,1979, p. 560). III. Lack of schools and adequate educational infrastructure When there will be less schools and inadequate educational infrastructure, there are fewer chances that the children will be educated. So it’s essentially important that there are enough schools in each country, city and town so the children can get education. When the children will be involved in educational activities, their parents will not consider taking them out from the schools and putting them in on work. IV. Parent’s unawareness about the harms of child labor As mentioned at by Menelievich, â€Å"The age at which children start working varies but in a good many countries there are still children who are working at as early an age as 6. For example, a study carried out in India revealed that 24.6 percent of the children surveyed had sta rted work between the ages of 6 and 9, 48.4 percent between 10 and 12, and 26.9 percent between 13 and 15 (Menelievich, 1979, p. 562).† Furthermore; â€Å"In Bombay it was found that children employed in hotels and restaurants were working an average of over 11? hours a day, while in Santiago de Chile they were putting in between 10-13 hours a day (Menelievich, 1979, p. 562).† Now anyone can realize how an early age labor life can crush a child’s innocence and personality. 6-12 is the age of children when they are growing up and their emotions, personality talents are being built so when they are put on labor; they lose their childhood. Furthermore, prolonged exposure to heat, sun, dust, insects, chemicals, wind etc effects the physical health of the child immensely which can cause skin diseases,

Decision making of Sears Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Decision making of Sears - Coursework Example By the year 2014, more than 1600 employees had stopped working for the organization. The company has to make various decisions in order to solve its problems. One of its problem-solving strategies should be based on the consistency theory. It holds that an external and internal system of business should be aligned effectively for it to be successful. One of factors that contributed to firm’ problems included its internal conflicts within the management system. Lack of agreement among managers in the organization made its executives to quit. For the business to increase its efficiency, there should be should be consistency in its decision making process (Jiang, Xiao, Li, et al 4). The other effective strategy that the firm should implement includes increasing public commitments. Public commitment enhances a business success because it positively influences its customers. Public commitment includes increasing the quality of products and offering goods at reasonable prices. Public commitment makes customers to feel secure. It motivates them to spend their money on the company products. Pubic commitment also includes other things such improving customer’s experience by making the good unique from competitors. Sears stores relied on the tradition appearance of its shopping center which failed to attract many customers (Jiang, Xiao, Li, et al 7). Another factor that led to the company failure includes lack of customer engagement. The company should analyze the needs of its customers in order to engage them effectively. Customer engagement enables a company to satisfy their needs effectively. Sears’ lack of this engagement was proved when it failed to teach its customers the new technology. In addition, it ignored the customers’ views. Customer engagement helps a business to create a strong relationship with its customers which in turn helps in increasing their loyalty. Sears also failed because it focused on the wrong

The Microsofts Company Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Microsofts Company Culture - Essay Example Business is a monopoly of strategies to start with. In a world advancing with globalization and changing with progressing innovation, constant evaluation and re-designing of policies is a necessity for business survival. Organizational behavior, strategies, decisions, environment and workforce determine the organizational success and its promotion towards progress and advancement. It is thus a necessity to look into the policies of successful companies, to render, adhere and change what’s not working to what’s the best. One such company which has achieved to do this is an American public multinational corporation- The Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft Corporation has efficiently articulated its policies and strategies to remain sustainable in their top position, for almost a decade. With offices in more than 60 countries, Microsoft earns more than US$16.5 billion in operating income with approximately 71,170 employees (Microsoft Corporation Annual Report 2006).Since Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation, the public is also an asset to it. Microsoft’s Windows operating system is home to over 95% of the world computers (Johnson, Scholes and Whittington, 2008). Microsoft has a global reach in terms of software, operating systems, internet portals etc., all being used by over millions of not only individuals, but by millions of organization and businesses hub. Some of the most widely used and innovative Microsoft products are Windows, Office applications and Microsoft Windows. Microsoft has also also has stepped inside the cable television market with MSNBC as well as MSN Internet Portal. Â  

Decision making of Sears Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Decision making of Sears - Coursework Example By the year 2014, more than 1600 employees had stopped working for the organization. The company has to make various decisions in order to solve its problems. One of its problem-solving strategies should be based on the consistency theory. It holds that an external and internal system of business should be aligned effectively for it to be successful. One of factors that contributed to firm’ problems included its internal conflicts within the management system. Lack of agreement among managers in the organization made its executives to quit. For the business to increase its efficiency, there should be should be consistency in its decision making process (Jiang, Xiao, Li, et al 4). The other effective strategy that the firm should implement includes increasing public commitments. Public commitment enhances a business success because it positively influences its customers. Public commitment includes increasing the quality of products and offering goods at reasonable prices. Public commitment makes customers to feel secure. It motivates them to spend their money on the company products. Pubic commitment also includes other things such improving customer’s experience by making the good unique from competitors. Sears stores relied on the tradition appearance of its shopping center which failed to attract many customers (Jiang, Xiao, Li, et al 7). Another factor that led to the company failure includes lack of customer engagement. The company should analyze the needs of its customers in order to engage them effectively. Customer engagement enables a company to satisfy their needs effectively. Sears’ lack of this engagement was proved when it failed to teach its customers the new technology. In addition, it ignored the customers’ views. Customer engagement helps a business to create a strong relationship with its customers which in turn helps in increasing their loyalty. Sears also failed because it focused on the wrong

Managing High Performance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Managing High Performance - Essay Example There is collective ownership of the work. On the other hand, autocratic system excessive control in the autocratic system creates resentment, absenteeism and increased turnover. Decentralized system is favorable to centralized system. Though certain decisions will have to remain at the main office, certain functions will be left with the smaller units. In the decentralized system, each of the units will have the power to make their own decisions as regards most matters. This will help in greater participation by the employees in the project work, and will foster faster decision making (Reddin, 1999). Self directed work teams are preferable to conventional teams (Wright, 2006). The self directed work teams are particularly important because it is the team- not the supervisor which assigns the work, the team completes the whole piece of work, are responsible for and have the authority to correct problems with work flow as they occur. In addition, the team also receives rewards and feedbacks at the team level. This reinforces hard

The North Face Essay Example for Free

The North Face Essay The majority of the company’s products are sold in premium sporting goods retailers, and specialty backpacking, mountaineering, and skiing retailers. The North Face provides gear for professional and amateur athletes and enthusiasts using high-quality, technical outerwear. This company also sponsors major events to maintain and even increase its public profile. In 2010, The North Face sponsored the Ski Challenge, the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc in France and the Lava redo Ultra Trail in the Italian Dolomite Mountains (Kennedy, 2012). The North Face has very stiff competition from well known companies such as Columbia Sportswear, and Patagonia. However they have fascinating state of the art technology to distance themselves from their competitors. Despite The North Face filing for bankruptcy in the late 90s, profits have risen by 37 percent the past year. This is mostly because of the popularity of the brand in Asia and its sponsorship for the Winter X-Games. It has earned a reputation as the ultimate, authentic outdoor brand. Their slogan â€Å"Never Stop Exploring,† has become popular amongst all athletes and outdoor enthusiasts. This outdoor apparel powerhouse has a very large and loyal fan base, and the demand for outdoor apparel is on the rise. In North America, performance outdoor apparel has grown 19% from 2004 to 2010. This trend is supposed to continue for at least another five years. As The North Face has been creating products with great quality and endurance, they plan to focus toward a greener supply chain and operations. Partnering with the blue sign sustainability standard for textile production, will help separate The North Face from their main market competitors Columbia Sportswear, and Patagonia. By looking at financial records, The North Face surpasses its second largest competitor, Columbia Sportswear, proving that it is the best in the industry. The North Face is named after the coldest most unforgiving side of a mountain, and has helped explorers reach unbelievable heights in the Himalayas. This remarkably powerful corporation is going to continue to design and provide the best for all outdoor enthusiasts, remaining on top for years to come. The North Face was chosen due to its involvement in both the sport and recreation fields. Their mission statement is â€Å"Never Stop Exploring†. Their vision statement as a business is â€Å"Our passion is beyond setting records and achieving fame. For us, its all about changing lives, not just our lives, but also, the lives of those people who inspire us to aim for extraordinary dreams† (Over 40 Years of Innovation and Exploration, 2012). For more than 40 years, The North Face has been distributing an extensive line of performance apparel, equipment, and footwear. The company’s purpose is to push the boundaries of innovation so their customers can push the boundaries of exploration (Over 40 Years of Innovation and Exploration, 2012). The North Face is extremely proud to be the first choice of equipment and apparel for the world’s most accomplished climbers, explorers, and winter sport enthusiasts. In 1966, Douglas Tompkins and Kenneth Klopp founded The North Face in San Francisco’ North Beach neighborhood. They chose this name of their equipment retail store because the north face of a mountain in the northern hemisphere is generally the most difficult face to climb (Our Story, 2011). By 1968, The North Face was designing and manufacturing its own type of technical mountaineering apparel and equipment. By the end of the 1980s The North Face became the only supplier in the United States to offer a comprehensive collection of high-performance outerwear, skiwear, sleeping bags, packs and tents (Our Story, 2011). The North Face brand was created to give customers exactly what they need and they are concentrating on creating environmental friendly and high sustainability products. They wanted to give the customers huge satisfaction and build trust between them and the brand. By using products, which support better performance and comfort at different locations and climatic conditions, creates a long-term relationship with the customers. In the past innovative product design and consistent development and introduction of new products have always been North Face’s greatest strengths. In 1975 North Face introduced a standard in the outdoor equipment industry with its geodesic dome tent. This design became the standard for lightweight, high-performance tents used in high-altitude and polar expeditions (Our Story, 2011). The geodesic dome also became very popular for general backpacking and camping as well. The same year North Face also introduced another original, sleeping bags incorporating shingled construction of synthetic insulation. Like the dome tent, these sleeping bags have become the industry standard (Our Story, 2011). An â€Å"extreme skiwear† line was later introduced which involved a complete line of severe cold weather clothing. By the late 1980s North Face were the only manufacturer and distributor in the United States of a comprehensive line of premium-grade, high-performance equipment and apparel used in mountaineering, skiing, and backpacking (The North Face Inc, 2009). Currently, Geoffrey D. Lurie leads The North Face team as Chief Executive Officer, and Director (Company Overview of The North Face, Inc. 2011). The North Face is owned by VF Corporation, who is lead by the team of Eric C. Wiseman and Robert K. Shearer (About VF Management Team, 2012). The VF Corporation is a leader in branded lifestyle apparel including jeans wear, outdoor products, image apparel, sportswear and contemporary apparel brands. The principal products and services offered by The North Face are men, women, and children outdoor apparel for hiking, cold weather climates, running, rock climbing, and camping. They offer equipment such as tents, sleeping bags, back packs, and kits for rock climbing, and camping. They offer services such as events throughout the year that give their customers opportunities to enjoy the outdoors while also getting to know the brand. Today, The North Face offers a wide variety of products like outdoor equipment such as thermal tents, and climbing tools. They are very famous on college campuses these days with their outer wear ranging from their jackets to winter hats and gloves. These products meet customers’ needs and wants by providing quality winter and hiking gear. The North Face touches customers emotionally by satisfying their technological needs. Every product they make is made with the thought that â€Å"each consumer is an explorer and they require a product with high quality, comfort and something they would value for the long–term† (Our Story, 2011). They value their customers and stick to their company values of using high quality fabric, testing their products endlessly, and constant improvement (Our Story, 2011). The demand for The North Face products will definitely increase in the future. Global demand for performance outdoor apparel worn by individuals taking part in sports pursuits is outpacing other sectors of the total active sportswear market, according to a new report from just-style, with growth set to soar by 22% over the next six years†(Smith, 2011). In North America, performance outdoor apparel has grown 19% from 2004 to 2010. This trend is supposed to continue for at least another five years. Europe is suppose to have a predicted 18% increase within the next 5 years (Smith, 2011). Outdoor apparel will be very successful in the developed world, but in third world countries they will hardly grow at all. In the past, outdoor retail products were seen more as a luxury rather than a necessity. Lucky for The North Face, the economy hasn’t really impacted the company as a whole compared to the industry in general. The North Face is classified as a â€Å"premium brand†, thus targeting â€Å"high educated individuals†. New stores have continued to open, and plans to grow and expand are emphasized each day. Just like any organization, The North Face has high objectives in regards to their products and services. One objective is to improve the brand value perception from 65% to 85% by the end of the year (2010 Sustainability Report, 2010). Based on a survey that was conducted, 65% of the respondents think that they are getting a great value out of The North Face Products for the amount they pay. Whereas another survey shows that the brand is not too affordable. Another objective for The North Face is to increase customer loyalty from 68% to 85% by the end of 2012 (Over 40 Years of Innovation and Exploration, 2012). Based on the brand research, they found out that only 74% of The North Face customers are more likely to buy its products again. Finally, The North Face plans to expand the product offering of the company from 4 to 6 activities. Their newest targets include runners and bikers. After conducting a survey with their customers, The North Face found that the top activity that respondents participate in, other than hiking, are biking and running. Therefore, The North Face wants to include more gear to accommodate this new market of runners and bikers. In order to reach its goals, The North Face plans on taking steps in order to meet its objectives. To achieve its goals, The North Face plans on creating strong awareness campaigns that emphasize the product technology and value of the products in order to decrease the perception of having prices way too high for a said product (2010 Sustainability Report, 2010). In order to increase customer loyalty The North Face Plans on developing more community outreach programs to engage customers. A simple solution is in place for the running and biking market, just simply begin developing products for that target market. The use of advertisements will help The North Face keep in touch with the customers and constantly remind them of product’s positive values (Over 40 Years of Innovation and Exploration, 2012). Maintaining long-term relationships with happy and satisfied customers will encourage them to continue buying the products. The technology used to make The North Face products is blue sign approved fabric. The blue sign standard guarantees that along the entire production chain products only contain components and pass through processes that are harmless to people and the environment (The Board Room Eco Apparel Environmental Standard, 2012). By supporting the blue sign standard, The North Face can focus not only on creating high performing, quality products but also on assuming greater responsibility for our consumers and the environment by minimizing the ecological impact of their supply chains (Product Responsibility, 2010). In addition to working with their primary suppliers, The North Face works hard to influence additional supply chain partners to partner with the blue sign system in 2010. Viewing the macro-environment surrounding The North Face is very interesting. Many factors influence the production of products, sales, and innovation. Social trends include brand popularity as well as possible body image and health issues. Everyone wants to fit in with the new styles, therefore with The North Face on the rise; sales will increase and become popular among customers. Since The North Face promotes healthy living, healthy lifestyles among consumers will become a huge trend with trying to stay in shape and avoiding obesity. Politically and economically, healthcare bills could determine if people would venture out and do adventurous activities with risk involved. Higher taxes and unemployment rates will pose a huge threat to The North Face due to its high prices. Currently, natural trends that are being used include the use of blue sign fabric technology explained earlier and finding innovative ways to recycle and reuse resources for future products. Technological trends that are being used include partnering with the most innovative leading materials engineers. With this partnership, The North Face creates the technically advanced fabrics needed to develop clothing and equipment that meet their high standards (Our Research, Design ; Development Process, 2011). One great example is the partnership with W. L. Gore, who helped design PacLite, â€Å"the most compressible, lightest weight GORE-TEX shell fabric available† (Our Research, Design ; Development Process, 2011). As The North Face has been creating products with great quality and endurance, they plan to focus toward a greener supply chain and operations. At least 65 percent of the fabric it uses to conform to the blue sign sustainability standard for textile production by 2015 (Guevarra, 2011). After two years of working with major suppliers to apply blue sign guidelines, 27 percent of the fabric used in The North Face products meets the standard (Guevarra, 2011). The further upstream we go, the more impact we have on [easing] the environmental impacts,† Adam Mott, corporate sustainability manager for The North Face (Guevarra, 2011). With that being said, the greatest benefits result by improving the sourcing and manufacturing of prime materials that are used in its products. The North face customers are usually single middle-middle or upper-middle class people, whose main occupation is teaching or having part time summer jobs. They are college or professional customers between 25 to 45 years old (Demographics of The North Face, 2012). Their income ranges between $40,000 to $60,000 dollars. They are consistent users with heavy frequency of purchase and conduct searches on the Internet (Demographics of The North Face, 2012). Surveys and studies show The North Face customers are interested in running in marathons and also environmentally aware. They enjoy being independent and typically purchase high performance products (Demographics of The North Face, 2012). The company targets prospect customers who are trying to explore new locations for outdoor activities like running. The customers are generally people who are trying to fit in the new environment or society. The North Face has very stiff competition from three major well known companies such as Patagonia, Columbia Sportswear, and Nike. Patagonia and Columbia Sportswear are in the same category of â€Å"outdoor† lifestyle brands, and Nike on the other hand targets a much larger variety of customers. Patagonia’s mission statement states: â€Å"Build the best product, do no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis† (Our Reason For Being, 2012). Founded by the mountaineer Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia, like The North Face, is a company that is deeply committed to preserving the earth and creating sustainable products. In 1972, Yvon Chouinard developed the idea of going green mountain climbing after finding out that the climbing gear his company manufactured damaged cliffs (Beginnings and Blacksmithery, 2012). Chouinard later developed aluminum chocks to replace the steel climbing gear. The Columbia Sportswear Company is positioned directly against The North Face and Patagonia. While The North Face and Patagonia target the extreme outdoor adventurers, Columbia Sportswear appeals more to the casual outdoor enthusiast. They believe that â€Å"the outdoors isn’t all about remote expeditions or climbing the world’s highest mountains. Anyone can enjoy the outdoors† (Columbia’s History, 2012). They are definitely aiming to sell to a much larger crowd of customers compared to Patagonia and The North Face. Columbia Sportswear is sold in over 100 countries worldwide. They use state of the art technology known as Omni technology, which focuses primarily on comfort focuses on comfort (Omni-Technology, 2012). Core technologies serve the following functions: thermal comfort, water repellent, lightweight, advanced traction, sun protection, advanced evaporation, advanced cooling, waterproof and breathable (Omni technology, 2012). Nike is the world’s leading supplier of athletic shoes and apparel. Each product line they offer is branded such as, Nike Golf, Nike Pro, Air Jordan, etc. Nike’s marketing and branding strategy is a key component to their huge success. Nike’s logo, â€Å"The Swoosh†, is one of the most recognizable logos in the entire world. They target the mainstream athletic crowd with their apparel, commercials and sponsorships. Competitively, all four companies have incredibly strong cultures and each has their own sets of strengths and weaknesses. Out of these sport and recreation apparel powerhouses, Patagonia, is the most serious threat to The North Face. However The North Face has some unique features that gives it an advantage over Patagonia and the rest of its competition. The North Face is a very trendy brand, and very popular with college students. It is available in thousands of retails stores for easy access, creating more of a mass market appeal. trendy brand of the two, hugely popular among college students and widely available nationwide in thousands of retail locations. Thus, The North Face has more mass-market appeal. On the other hand, Patagonia only has a handful of retail locations in areas that aren’t as populated. This happens to be part of their marketing strategy. The North Face’s marketing strategy is to focus on the athlete and their performance in The North Face gear. Patagonia focuses more on the clothing it sells, not the model. They place an emphasis on the fabric technology that they use in their marketing and only display their clothing on their website and catalogs. This is an area where both of these companies could improve on. North Face as a whole company is financially healthy. This is determined through the financial ratios provided by the annual report of V. F. Corporation for the year 2012. The North Face is a subsidiary to the VF Corporation and is represented as the stock symbol VFC on the New York Stock Exchange. In order to determine The North Face’s health, profitability ratios and its subcomponents were analyzed. Profitability ratios show the business’s ability to generate revenue as compared to its expenses and other relevant costs incurred during a specific period of time (Profitability Ratios, 2012). These ratios include profit margin, return on assets, capital structure, and return on investment. The North Face’s financial ratio for profit margin is 47. 9%. This was determined by taking the net income, dividing it by the corporation’s revenue, then multiplying the quotient by one hundred. The return on assets is 9. 5% which is determined by taking the company’s net income and dividing it by their total assets. The capital structure of the North Face is 24. 3%. To calculate the capital structure, you must take their long term debt, and divide it by shareholders equity plus their long term debt. Calculating the return on investment, you must take the gain from interest; subtract it by the cost of investment, then divide by the cost of investment. The North Face’s return on investment is 14%. The current accounts payable is $868,870,000, current ratio is 1. 91%, the working capital is 1. 2B, and their long term debt is 1. 83B (VF Corporation, 2012). The North Face company is healthy because their working capital is only 300 million less than their long term debt and they have a positive $868,870,000. 00 accounts payable balance. Financial records were not available for Patagonia, The North Face’s top competitor. Columbia Sportswear, The North Face’s second largest competitor, financial ratios were looked at instead. Columbia Sportswear as a company is also financially healthy. This is determined through the financial ratios provided by the annual report of COLM for the year 2012. Specifically we focused on the profitability ratios and its subtopics to determine the health of the company. Their financial ratio for the profit margin is 46%, ratio for return on assets is 7. 5, capital structure -5%, return on investment is 9. 6%, accounts payable is $148,700,000, and their current ratio is 3. 9% (Columbia Sportswear Company COLM, 2012). The North Face exceeds Columbia in all four categories. The North Face’s profit margin is 47. 9% compared to Columbia’s 46%. In return of assets, The North Face comes out on top with 9. 50% opposed to Columbia’s 7. 5%. The North Face’s capital spending is at 24. 0%, way above Columbia’s -0. 05%. In the fourth and final category, return on investment, The North Face closes it out with a 14% to Columbia’s 9. 60%. These ratios are so different because The North Face is more successful and sells more inventory than Columbia. They also get a much larger market draw. The North Faces product and clothing line is helping the company meet its objectives. This is because they are very successful and have nearly a 50% profit margin. In conclusion, The North Face, part of the Vanity Fair Corporation, was founded in 1966 later opening its first retail store in 1968. The company, located in San Leandro, California, brings the most technically advanced products in the market to accomplished mountaineers, climbers, skiers and explorers. The majority of the company’s products are sold in premium sporting goods retailers, and specialty backpacking, mountaineering, and skiing retailers. The North Face provides gear for professional and amateur athletes and enthusiasts using high-quality, technical outerwear. Their slogan â€Å"Never Stop Exploring,† has become popular amongst all athletes and outdoor enthusiasts. This outdoor apparel powerhouse has a very large and loyal fan base, and the demand for outdoor apparel is on the rise. As stated earlier, in North America, performance outdoor apparel has grown 19% from 2004 to 2010. This trend is supposed to continue for at least another five years. As The North Face has been creating products with great quality and endurance, they plan to focus toward a greener supply chain and operations. Partnering with the blue sign sustainability standard for textile production, will help separate The North Face from their main market competitors Columbia Sportswear, and Patagonia. By looking at financial records, The North Face surpasses its second largest competitor, Columbia Sportswear, proving that it is the best in the industry. The North Face is named after the coldest most unforgiving side of a mountain, and has helped explorers reach unbelievable heights in the Himalayas. This remarkably powerful corporation is going to continue to design and provide the best for all outdoor enthusiasts, remaining on top for years to come.

Big Data: Map Reduce Based Outlier Identification for Fraud

Big Data: Map Reduce Based Outlier Identification for Fraud Big Data: Fast, Parallel Map Reduce based outlier identification for Fraud and Intrusion Detection Pooja Vijay Pawar Ann Marie Joy Abstract One of the most challenging aspect of Big Data analytics is real time monitoring of data. Larger and larger amount of data is being collected and stored on a daily basis, thus increasing the need for quick, effective and efficient way of analysing the data in determining potential malicious data. Also network security threats are increasing at an alarming rate and are becoming increasingly sophisticated and difficult to detect. Web traffic generated by non-human activities such as botnets or worms consume network resources, delude people and affect network security. Most of the existing work in Fraud Detection/Intrusion Detection regard being an outlier as a binary property. In this paper we use a relative density based approach implemented as a MapReduce job, which gives a sense of degree of a data point being an outlier; this is more meaningful and also better immune to false positives. Keywords Big Data, Fraud detection, Intrusion Detection, Hadoop, Outlier, Cluster, Security, Relative Density, LOF 1. Introduction We are currently living in a world where we are surrounded and ruled by data. Continuously, exponentially huge amounts of data is collected, stored, processed and made available in a variety of forms every day. Recently, Network Intrusion and Fraud detection has received increased attention with regard to network security, mainly due to this. Big Data is drastically changing the way in which we detect fraud and intrusion in real time using advanced analytic solutions that are very powerful, complex and fast. In this paper, we propose a methodology to detect Fraudulent Web traffic and Intrusion in a network using MapReduce-based outlier detection. These features help in filtering out clients that generate abnormal traffic and specifically show different levels of potential anomalous traffic for each suspicious client. The detected abnormal web traffic can be visualized easily and this method can be implemented for large networks and can be scaled accordingly. Outlier can be defined as a data which is very distinct from the other data of the same dataset, based on some distance measure. Outlier detection, being a significant data mining problem has engendered a lot of research interest in the recent past. As a result, various methods for outlier detection have been developed particularly for dealing with numerical data. However, outlier detection for categorical data still remains an unexplored field. Addressing this requirement, we propose a two-phase algorithm for detecting outliers in categorical data based on a novel definition of outliers. This algorithm initially explores a clustering of the given data which is followed by the ranking phase for determining the set of most likely outliers. The proposed methodology is expected to show better results as it can identify different types of outliers, using independent ranking scheme based on the inherent clustering structure of the given data. Hadoop is a very popular open source Apache project, which is used for storing and processing huge volume of data on commodity hardware. Hadoop package mainly consists of MapReduce Engine and Hadoop File system. Many Frameworks have been built on top of Hadoop. Using the distributed architecture of Hadoop in this paper we discuss how we can exploit it for identifying outliers in captured network data. 2. Related Work There has been lot of research and number of techniques which have been developed in the past two decades with respect to fraud detection and Intrusion Detection. Lot of machine learning techniques such as Neural Networks, Markov model, K Nearest Neighbour have drawn special attention. In this paper we use unsupervised Machine Learning techniques to identify fraudulent transactions using Hadoop. Most current practices to the process of detecting intrusions exploit some form of rule-based study. Rule-based analysis depend on sets of predefined rules that are configured by an administrator and are automatically created by the system. The use of automated system techniques in intrusion detection mechanisms was a significant milestone in the development of effective and practical detection based information security systems. Rule-based systems suffer from an incompetence to detect attacks situations that may occur over an extended duration of time. However most significant benefit of neural networks in intrusion detection is the capability of the neural network to learn the characteristics of abnormal attacks and recognize instances that are unlike any which have been detected before by the network. Majority of studies that proposed Hidden Markov Model to implement IDS are related to host-based systems, i.e., IDS that analyses the actions performed on a single host to detect attempts of intrusion. 3. Outlier Detection Algorithms Outliers can be detected using various different techniques. Some of the techniques are discussed below 3.1 Distance-based and Clustering Approaches Distance-based methods do not make conventions for the data since they basically compute the distance between each point. For example, Knorr et al. Proposed a k-NN technique where, if m of the k nearest neighbours of a point are within a specific distance d, then the point can be classified as normal. Knorr et al. points as an outlier if at least p% of the points in the dataset lie more than distance 10 d from it. These methods show high computational complexity (e.g. nearest neighbour based methods have quadratic complexity with respect to the number of data points) which renders them impractical for really large datasets. Several approaches may be engaged to make the k-NN queries faster (to achieve linear or logarithmic time), such as an indexing structure (e.g. KD-tree, or X-tree); however these structures have been shown to break down as the dimensionality grows. Clustering can be defined as the task of grouping a set of objects in such a way that objects in the same group share some feature similarity among each other than to those in other groups. Clustering is one of the very popular techniques currently being used in outlier detection. Any object that has weak membership to the cluster it belongs to is a potential outlier. If there are any small clusters from other clusters, then the smaller cluster could potentially be an outlier. For instance there could be many different kinds of fraudulent transactions which might have high similarity among themselves and form a cluster. There are additional problems with clustering. Clustering algorithms are optimized to find clusters rather than outliers. Hence, sometimes it may be hard to tell whether a cluster belongs to fraudulent transactions or some new emergent buying behaviour of a legitimate user. Hence before making a final call we must perform additional analysis. 3.2 Statistical distribution Statistical outlier detection was one of the most basic approaches dating back to the 19th century. Multivariate statistical methods have been proposed, together with use of robust outlier’s estimates of the multidimensional distribution parameters, e.g. minimum covariance 9 determinant (MCD) and minimum volume ellipsoid (MVE). One critical problem of statistical-based methods is the suitable model for each dataset and application. Also, as data rises in dimensionality, it becomes ever more perplexing to estimate the multidimensional distribution. As the data increases in dimensionality, data ranges through a larger volume and becomes sparse. In addition to the reduction this has on performance, it also spreads the convex hull, thus altering the data distribution. This can be improved by pre selecting the most noteworthy features to work, projecting to a lower-dimensional subspace, or applying Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Another methodology to deal with higher dimensio nalities is to organize data points in convex hull layers according to their peeling depth, based on the idea that outliers are data objects with a shallow depth value. Fig 1 In this approach one main assumption is that data objects follows a certain distribution (E.g. Gaussian) and normal data objects occur in a high probability region of this model. Fig.1 shows an example where there is high concentration of data points lying in the normal region which associates to normal data points; the mini distributions on both sides of the normal distributions are possible outliers. As shown in Fig.1 outliers will deviate strongly from this distribution. There are lot of issues with this technique too, main being the curse of dimensionality, other being lack of robustness. This is because Mean and standard deviation are very sensitive to outliers. 3.3 Density Based approach In this technique we compare the density around a data point with the density around its local neighbours. The computed density is called an outlier score. The main assumption here is that the density around a normal data point is almost similar to the density around its local neighbours. Here Density/Outlier score means that some clusters are densely packed and some others are not. Mathematically, it is defined as the inverse of the average distance to the k nearest neighbours. Lower density of a data point signifies that the probability of it being an outlier is very high. There have been many variants of Density based approaches suggested in the past few decades, majority of which deal with decreasing the computational time complexity. In Fig.2 the points which are densely packed, appearing yellow indicate normal data points, the ones which are away from the cluster are outliers, possible candidates for malicious data. In this paper, we use this technique to determine possible candidates for outliers. 4. Experiment For our experiment we used KDD Cup 1999: Computer network intrusion detection dataset for testing and evaluating our approach. We used Relative Density [3] based approach for our system. Which involved 4 Map Reduce Tasks. The Algorithms works as follows: Computing K-NN [3] We begin with the notion of K-Nearest Neighbour of object p. Definition: K-Nearest Neighbour of object p For any positive integer k, the k-distance of object p, denoted as k-distance (p), is defined as the distance d(p,o) between p and an object o ∈ D such that: (i) For at least k objects o’∈D{p} it holds that d(p,o’) ≠¤ d(p,o), and (ii) For at most k-1 objects o’∈D{p} it holds that d(p,o’) . Given the k-distance of p, the k-distance neighbourhood of p contains every object whose distance from p is not greater than the k-distance, i.e. Nk-distance (p) (p) = { q ∈ D{p} | d(p, q) ≠¤ k- distance(p) } These objects q are called the k-nearest neighbours of p. We use 2 MapReduce tasks, one to compute the pairwise distance between data points as explained above and other to compute the density of the data point. The density of a data point is simply the inverse of the average distance to the k nearest neighbours. Finding all the neighbourhood group the data points are associated with and also give them unique id We define one more term reachability distance of an object p w.r.t the data point o to determine the neighbourhood. Definition: Reachability distance of an object p w.r.t. object or Let k be a natural number. The reachability distance of object p with respect to object o is defined as reach-distk(p, o) = max { k-distance(o), d(p, o) }. The higher the value of k, the more similar the reachability distances for objects within the same neighbourhood. We use the same MapReduce class as before with slightly different configuration to identify the neighbourhood. Once neighbourhood are identified they are given a unique ID. Using previous results, create a mapping between data point and its density. In a typical density-based clustering algorithm, there are two parameters that define the notion of density: (i) a parameter MinPts specifying a minimum number of objects; (ii) a parameter specifying a volume. These two parameters determine a density threshold for the clustering algorithms to operate. That is, objects or regions are connected if their neighbourhood densities exceed the given density threshold. To detect density based outliers, however, it is necessary to compare the densities of different sets of objects, which means that we have to determine the density of sets of objects dynamically. Therefore, we keep MinPts as the only parameter and use the values reach-distMinPts(p, o), for o ∈ NMinPts(p), as a measure of the volume to determine the density in the neighbourhood of an object p. Definition: Density of an object p lrdMinPts(p) = 1/ Intuitively, the local reachability density of an object p is the inverse of the average reachability distance based on the MinPts- nearest neighbours of p. Note that the local density can be ∞ if all the reachability distances in the summation are 0. This may occur for an object p if there are at least MinPts objects, different from p, but sharing the same spatial coordinates, i.e. if there are at least MinPts duplicates of p in the dataset. For simplicity, we will not handle this case explicitly but simply assume that there are no duplicates. Hence in our MapReduce implementation, first we sort the data points based on density data and the neighbourhood, such that in the input for the reducer, we get first value as density, and the subsequent values are the neighbourhood ids. Determining the Relative Density or LOF (Local Outlier Factor) Results from the previous step is then used in another MapReduce task to compute the relative density or also called as Local Outlier Factor (LOF). Definition: LOFMinPts(p) = The outlier factor of object p captures the degree to which we call p an outlier. It is the average of the ratio of the local reachability density of p and those of p’s MinPts-nearest neighbours. It is easy to see that the lower ps local reachability density is, and the higher the local reachability densities of ps MinPts-nearest neighbours are, the higher is the LOF value of p. In the following section, the formal properties of LOF are made precise. To simplify notation, we drop the subscript MinPts from reach-dist, lrd and LOF, if no confusion arises. Finally, Data Points which have low relative Density or LOF are determined as possible candidates for outliers. 5. Conclusion Existing Intrusion detection system are in nascent stage in handling extremely large traffic and the data transfers in large Networks. MapReduce Framework can handle large amount of data quickly and efficiently. Thus our proposed methodology for Outlier detection using Relative Density based approach not only can handle large amount of data but also scales easily. In near future full of MapReduce based IDS needs to developed and evaluated. We also plan to explore multiple classifier system compared to single classifier to get improved results. 6. Acknowledgement This work is supported by CSE Department, PES Institute of Technology. 7. References [1] Barnett, V., Lewis, T. (1995). Outliers in Statistical Data. Wiley, 3rd Edition. [2] Davide Ariu, Giorgio Giacinto, and Roberto Perdisci, Sensing attacks in Computers Networks with Hidden Markov Models. [3] Ng, Jorg Sander, Hans-Peter Kriegel, Raymond T, Markus M. Breunig. LOF: Identifying Density-Based Local Outliers [4] Manh Cong Tran, Lee Hee Jeong, Yasuhiro Nakamura. Abnormal Web Traffic Detection Using Connection Graph. [5] Suri, N.N.R.R. Centre for AI Robot., Bangalore, India Murty, M.N. ; Athithan, G..An algorithm for mining outliers in categorical data through ranking. [6] Kuo Zhao, Liang Hu. Intrusion Detection and Prevention in high speed network.[7] Qing He Yunlong Ma, Qun Wang, Fuzhen Zhuang, Zhongzhi Shi.Parallel Outlier Detection Using KD-Tree Based on MapReduce [8] Koufakou, A. Sch, FL Secretan, J., Reeder, J., Cardona, K., Georgiopoulos, M.Fast parallel outlier detection for categorical datasets using MapReduce. [9] Ganesh Ananthanarayanan, Srikanth Kandula, Albe rt Greenberg, Ion Stoica, Yi Lu, Bikas Saha, Edward Harris . Reining in the Outliers in Map-Reduce Clusters using Mantri. [10] H. GuÃÅ'ˆnes KayacÄ ±k, A. Nur Zincir-Heywood, Malcolm I. Heywood. Selecting Features for Intrusion Detection:A Feature Relevance Analysis on KDD 99 Intrusion Detection Datasets. [12] E. Eskin, A. Arnold, M. Prerau, L. Portnoy, S. Stolfo, â€Å"A geometric framework for unsupervised anomaly detection: Detecting intrusions in unlabeled data,† in Applications of Data Mining in Computer Security, Chapter 4, D. Barbara and S. Jajodia (editors), Kluwer. [13] Q. He, F.Z. Zhuang, J.C. Li, Z.Z. Shi. Parallel implementation of classification algorithms based on mapreduce. International Conference on Rough Set and Knowledge Technology. [15]Koufakou, A., Ortiz, E., Georgiopoulos, M., Anagnostopoulos, G., Reynolds, K., A Scalable and Efficient Outlier Detection Strategy for Categorical Data, Intl Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence ICTAI, October, 2007. [16] Big Data Analytics for Security Intelligence, CLOUD SECURITY ALLIANCE September 2013. [17] DuMouchel W., Schonlau M.: â€Å"A Fast Computer Intrusion Detection Algorithm based on Hypothesis Testing of Command Transition Probabilities†, Proc. 4th Int. Conf. on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, New York, NY, AAAI Press, 1998, pp. 189-193. [18] Ramaswamy S., Rastogi R., Kyuseok S.: â€Å"Efficient Algorithms for Mining Outliers from Large Data Sets†, Proc. ACM SIDMOD Int. Conf. on Management of Data, 2000. [19] Fawcett T., Provost F.: â€Å"Adaptive Fraud Detection†, Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery Journal, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Vol. 1, No. 3, 1997, pp. 291-316. [20] Holtz, Marcelo D., Bernardo M. David, and Rafael Timà ³teo de Sousa Jà ºnior. Building Scalable Distributed Intrusion Detection Systems Based on the MapReduce Framework. Telecomunicacoes (Santa Rita do Sapucai) 13 (2011): 22-31. [21] DuMouchel W., Schonlau M.:  "A Fast Computer Intrusion Detection Algorithm based on Hypothesis Testing of Command Transition Probabilities†, Proc. 4th Int. Conf. on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, New York, NY, AAAI Press, 1998, pp. 189-193. 1 Onida Electronics: New Product Launch Onida Electronics: New Product Launch LAUNCHING OF A NEW PRODUCT ONIDA LAPTOPS COMPANY DESCRIPTION ONIDA is one of the largest television manufacturing companies in INDIA. It is one of the largest and rapid growing companies in the same field. Onida as a company was founded in 1981 as a public company. Its head quarter is in MUMBAI, MAHARASHTRA, INDIA. Onida deals in a type of industry known as electronic industry. Onida Company started their business with electronics and then expanded their business with various products as LCD TVS, PLASMA TVS, TELEVISIONS, DVD AND HOME THREATER SYSTEM, AIR CONDITIONERS, WASHING MACHINES, MICROWAVES, PRODUCTS RELATED TO PRESENTATION, and INVERTERS AND ALSO MOBILE PHONES. Onida Company is a most popular brand now. It has got his network as 33 branch offices and 208 customer relation centers. Also the company is having 41 depots spread all over the country. Onida is also having a market capitalization of 400 crore approx. also onida electronics won an award as AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN ELECTRONICS in 1999 from MINISTRY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Onida is one of the largest rapid growing companies. It is one of the most successful companies in term of professionalism. The main objective is to prove quality of competitive prices and customer satisfaction. It is one of the objective is to provide NOTEBOOK PC as ensured quality, availability and customer satisfaction. This following marketing plan forms the basis for the launching of ONIDA LAPTOPS by ONIDA COMPANY one of the famous company in India. The analysis will allow us to follow for the achievement of the companys strategic goals. ONIDA LAPTOPS will be marketed to reinforce the companys status as leader in innovation and successful product launching. This new product launching will enable us to add RS.100 crores to companys turnover with a forecasted sales growth prospect of 10-15% over the next 5 years. And while satisfying the need and designing the product to match individuals lifestyle. Success will be reflected by a sizeable capture of market shares within this market, while strategically carrying the company up to the top spot as the market leader in laptop segment. Export potentials in the market will be considered in all the western countries as USA, Russia, France, and Iraq. Nigeria, Yemen and even further expansion can be planed. The main aim of the company is to attract a sizeable market share of the laptop segment. Also the number of customers depending upon laptops rather than personal computers is taken care off. The main aim is to sell one lakh units of laptops in the first year considering as this brand as a new brand and being expertise in the related field having manufactured the product for several brands and having also sold its own televisions. EXPECTED TURNOVER Above chart shows the expected turnovers in crores over the coming years in turnover of onida laptops in various countries. In 2009 as the product is being launching in 2009 only so started expected turnover will be near about 90 lakhs. With the continuous supply of good quality and good work with good customer service expected turnover will start increasing. Company is planning to use new technology and other servicer beneficial for customers and company in terms of turnover which will help in increase the expected turnover to 150 lakhs in 2012. This proves that launching of onida laptops will be beneficial for the organization. SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS ONIDA NOTEBOOK PC is a new expansion line of onida. Onida television portfolio has been well received and now ONIDA NOTEBOOK PC is going to be launched for onidas continues success and future profitability. Onida as a company is famous for quality products at reasonable prices and it offer best facilities. It will offer NOTEBOOK PC or LAPTOPS in various configuration as well as prices to satisfy every kind of customer. One important key to success or for the development of the product is to create product awareness and growth of customer base. MARKETING SUMMARY Marketing summary of onida laptops possess sufficient information about the market needs and customer needs, wants, desires and demands. It will also help to give right offer to right customer so that company can achieve customer satisfaction and can communicate with them in a better way. Also this lead to have some important information about customer which will help to make customer a delightful customer. TARGET MARKET The target market of ONIDA LAPTOPS or NOTEBOOK PC is shown below: Above shows that there is a target market of onida laptops as CORPORATE USERS END USERS OTHERS Environmental analysis Macro environmental factors Growing disposable income and low penetration levels would ensure greater share of wallet for the consumer industry and would help in achieving the predetermined targets. The inventions and innovations would help in shaping the industrys future. It would be necessary to catch the changing trends in consumer lifestyles and offer the right product at right time to facilitate further growth and achievement of targets. There is a need to launch a product which will give maximum customer satisfaction and satisfy there needs. Micro environmental factors The cost would further come down with enhanced possibilities of better and easy cross border talks with suppliers worldwide and the range of offerings Would go up. With the increase in number of players, there would be more action and the industry would feel the buzz around it and would need constant high pitch communication with the customers. Network has a strong influence on the buying decision and the organization that would manage the channel better, would have a substantial edge over the others. Competitive Strategy Onida will try to offer more valuable offerings to the customers and would try to manage customer relationships. Onida as a company in order to be effective and ahead of competition would try to maximize benefits to the consumers. They will also react strongly to price changes made by the competitors and organizations would look at integration on backend as well as the front ends. MARKET DEMOGRAPHICS The profile of ONDA NOTEBOOK PC or LAPTOPS customer consists of the following GEOGRAPHIES, DEMOGRAPHICS, and BEHAVIOR FACTOR: GEOGRAPHICAL FACTORS Geographical factors have been classified as: ONIDA NOTEBOOK will have specific domestic geographic target area. They will serve the product to domestic market. Onida will try to cover the Metropolitan area through their own distribution channel. DEMOGRAPHICAL FACTORS Demographical factors have been classified on the basis of the following attributes: There will be almost same featured notebook pc or laptop for the corporate, end users and other users. University teachers and other researchers can use it for their research work and analyzing the environment. High, Middle, Upper middle and middle class use it and reasonable pricing strategy will help to purchase of these notebook pc by every potential users. BEHAVIOUR FACTORS Its a general behavior of every human that NOTEBOOK PC or LAPTOP increases the status and prestige of the user. In todays busy world there is need of a product which is available with consumer anywhere or any time and at every period of time. Customer feel that they have a separate image and prestige by using ONIDA LAPTOPS. MARKET NEED FOR ONIDA LAPTOPS ONDA LAPTOPS will provides its customers the opportunity to choose NOTEBOOKs with different configuration and varieties.These laptops will also fulfill the requirements of customers and also provide benefit as:- Reasonable pricing Consumer needs a high quality product at reasonable price, for that reason ONIDA try to provide high quality product at a reasonable price. So that more and more customer can be attracted towards onida notebook pc. High quality Consumer want high quality product, which is must be high in regard to performance. ONIDA tried to meet this need of consumer at its level best. Quality was the main point to be taken care of by the company as this the main motto of company. Different varieties Choices of customer vary from person to person .So ONIDA provides different laptop with different features. And provide laptops with different configuration. Product availability One of the important things to be taken care of is Customer and customer seeking availability of product so that they can buy the product at any time they need. MARKET TRENDS ONIDA will produce different type of laptop which not only fulfill quality demand of customer but also reasonable price. So that more and more customer will purchase these laptops. Now a days NOTEBOOK PC production company is growing and more competitors are coming in the market. Now even customer are more aware about the product for that reason they want different types of product with different features and different styling features. The market for LAPTOPS with new and new technologies is growing faster, competition are increasing in these markets. Thus, ONIDA made segments for their product. They divided their customer in to three groups, and give emphasis on each of the group. So that company can capture all kind of customers in market. MARKET GROWTH Gradually total ONIDA Company is going upward with a strong competition. With the increase in domestic market, our international market growth statistics is increasing day by day. Now with the launch of new laptops with newer technology the market share of our company is going to increase further. COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES Onida will try to offer more value offerings to the customers and would try to manage CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP. The firms in order to be effective and ahead of competition would try to maximize benefits to the consumers. Firms would react strongly to price changes made by the COMPETITORS and organizations would look at INTEGRATION on BACKEND as well as the FRONTENDS. CURRENT MARKET SITUATION OF LAPTOP MARKET Market Overview Luxury goods are now being perceived as necessities as now customers are having higher disposable incomes being spent on lifestyle products. There is a discernible shift in the consumers preference in favor of higher-end, technologically superior branded products, the demand being spurred by increasing consumer awareness and preference for new models now the modern educated customer is not confined to old technologies and old products. Now customers want to try newer products with newer technologies. Quality products with superior technology and technology up gradation have helped the industry to achieve higher growth in terms of volume and also higher realization in value terms. Rate of growth in production has been more in terms of quantity or in volume growth rather than the growth in value terms for a number of products. This has happened because of constantly falling prices over the years due to competition among the MAJOR PLAYERS, AGGRESSIVE MARKETING STRATEGIES AND DECLINING IMPORT TARIFFS. Competition has forced companies to offer efficient AFTER SALE SERVICE and support and this, in turn, has swayed customer preference for good brands. There are positive growth trends in Technological goods segments white goods and consumer electronics during and points to sustained growth because of emerging opportunities and strong fundamentals of the economy. Because of growth in production in the organized segment and domestic availability of branded products due to lowering of import duties and other liberal measures, the share of unorganized segment has come down sharply to only 8 to 10 per cent from 40 to 50 percent. The price difference between branded and unbranded goods has narrowed down and with branded players providing good after sales services and support consumer prefers to buy branded products. The industry related to technology appears to have two clearly differentiated segments. The MNCs have an edge over their Indian counterparts in terms of technology combined with a steady flow of capital. The domestic companies compete on the basis of their well-acknowledged brands, an extensive distribution network and an insight into local market conditions. Competitive strategies revolve around strong brand differentiation and prices. Bargaining power of customers is high due to availability of many brands. Demand is Cyclical and seasonal. Demand is high generally on the basis of requirement of customers as corporate customer or end user. Demand for technology is present throughout the year. There is no preference on the basis of any special month when demand for technology is more in one month than other month. Rural India which accounts for nearly 70% of the total number of households, offers plenty of scope and opportunities for the white goods industry. Increasing consumer awareness and preference for new models have added to the demand in rural areas also. And evolution of education had made more and more people rely on technology. Attractive consumer loan schemes with reduced interest rates over the years by the financial institutions and commercial banks and the hire-purchase schemes have added to the surge in demand. Besides, the consumer goods companies are themselves coming out with attractive financing schemes to consumers through their extensive dealer network. The usage of internet by the market functionaries has lead to intelligence sales of the products. It has helped sustain the demand boom witnessed recently in this sector. SWOT ANALYSIS (STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES, THREATS) STRENGTHS Quality product and services. Popular brand name. Continuous research and development Strong existing distribution channel. Increased share of organized sector as compare to unorganized sector. Attractive design. Body made of silver and plastic and available in many colors. Most of the buyers are satisfied. Presence of established distribution networks in both urban and rural areas. WEAKNESSES Poor government spending in infrastructure and other related things. Lack of promotional activities by companies. Low purchasing power of consumers Insufficient capital. Legal and political barrier regarding import, tax and shipment and other difficulties. Difficulties due to competitors. Old technologies. OPPURTUNITIES Low penetration levels Demand of NOTEBOOK PC is increasing. Improved market portfolio. Greater demand due to changing lifestyles Increasing sales throughout the country and internationally. Availability of easy finance. Promotional activities to increase brand image. Growing disposable income of consumers Increasing demand in rural sector. THREATS Strong competitors Legal political difficulties regarding import duty, tax etc. Entrance of new competitors in the market. The price of NOTEBOOK or laptops is decreasing continuously. Cheap Imports from Singapore, China and other Asian countries Higher import duties on raw materials imposed in the Budget 2008-09. COMPETITORS Onida has established its own market. But still they have to face the competitors. Some of the major competitors of onida laptops are: HP: HPs NOTEBOOK is having maximum market share in capturing the market of NOTEBOOK PC in India as well as internationally. HPS notebooks are produced in China. They are holding a leading position for long time in NOTEBOOK PC in our country. ACER: Acer is the Chinese producer of NOTEBOOK or laptops. ACER has its maximum market share of NOTEBOOK PC in Bangladesh. They have fewer shares in Indian market as compare to acre. COMPAQ: Mitsubishi is Taiwan Company. COMPAQ was an automobile company initially. Now it is producing NOTEBOOK PC also. It is now giving a strong competition to notebook or laptop market. DELL: Firstly they produce televisions. But now they have enhances its business by producing NOTEBOOK PC. And DELL is now giving a strong competition in laptop market as well as technological market. MARKET SHARE OF ONIDA PRODUCT OFFERING ONIDA will offers different type of configuration at different price to our consumer for chooses their expected product. Following are the items:- POINTS OF SUCESS Strong quality Better customer relationship management Better service Operational efficiency and integration Effective channel management Constant product change and product mix management Image of brand and product Distribution channel Retention of customer MARKETING STRATEGIES Marketing strategies are helpful in creating awareness, interest and appeal from our target market. So that more and more market can be capture. Basically marketing strategy is based on superior performance of the following areas: Different configuration. Product quality. Delight user. MISSION The main mission is to provide quality and product at a competitive price. Growth in diversity and continuous contribute to the growth is being the main market challenger. Also To benefit society at large through Innovation, Quality, Productivity, Human Development and Growth, and to generate sustained surpluses, always striving for excellence, within the framework of law, and in nothing but the truth in which we base every action 3.2 Marketing Objective Capture the market as a market leader. To attain quantitative and qualitative leadership in the technological sector. Maintaining positive and increased sales growth than the competitor. Increase the market share by market development and services. To increase product awareness and sales by persuasive promotional activities. Becoming a globally recognized and prestigious company through synergistic business investment. Differentiation through innovation and passion through empowerment. Also cost through economies of scale and world class systems and procedures that bring in delight of stakeholders. FINANCIAL OBJECTIVE The company aims to sell one lakh units of NOTEBOOKS in first year of its launching and is expecting a target turnover of Rs.100 Crores from laptop market in first year. It expects to grow at 10-15% in next five years by satisfying customer needs through its offerings. They aim to make considerable profits and achieve economies through backend and front end integration. And maintaining double digit each year. STP (SEGMENTATION, TARGETING, POSITIONING) SEGMENTATION OF MARKET The company has segmented its target market on the basis of incomes and lifestyles. People who are well educated, have lifestyle as an important element and have high income can buy laptop. TARGET MARKET The potential consumers are separated into various segments- Corporate User End User and others. The primary marketing opportunity is sell laptops to these well defined, accessible target market segments. Corporate User: Corporate users are the users who buy the laptops for their official purpose only. The MD, GM, DGM, CEO and other. Levels in offices are the main corporate users. End User: End users are the users who buy the laptops for their personal use. Teachers, Students of private University, businessman etc are mainly consider as the End users. Others: other then as mention above. POSITIONING IN MARKET Onida is trying to maintain its position as a NOTEBOOK company. The position will be achieved by providing quality product, competitive price, and according to consumers demand and by delighting consumers. There should be experienced managers to make awareness about the product to customer. Company is also promising to offer quality offerings and better services and make a satisfied consumer as its brand ambassador. The companys will advertise its product as the synonym of truth and providing it at a reasonable price. STRATEGIES ONIDAS main primary marketing strategy is to seek and firstly create customer awareness regarding the products as well as availability of product. Other marketing strategy are- Providing Total Quality Management (TQM) Customer Orientation Providing international standard products To increase the product line as well as length as per the expectations of the consumers Competitive prices of product. MARKETING MIX ONIDAS marketing mix is comprised of the following approaches to product, price, promotion, and place or customer service. PRODUCT o BRAND NAME The name of the brand is ONIDA NOTEBOOKS. o PPRDUCT CLASSIFICATION ONIDA NOTEBOOK has five types of product. These are-W125U-T3000, W3001U-T4150, W4200-T4500, W4510U, W5520U o QUALITY OF PRODUCT ONIDA is mainly popular for the maintaining of high quality of its products. Total Quality Management (TQM) is purely practiced here. o DESIGN Attractive Design, Color, configuration, Comfortable weight. o PACKING ONIDA supply the notebooks to the users with attractive packaging. It provides special cartoon with strong handling of the NOTEBOOKs to its dealers. o Size The products size vary from to one product series to other product series o Service ONIDA provides best after sales service and take feedback for its products. PROMOTION o SALES PROMOTION ONIDA provide initially shot-term incentives to encourage and purchase or sale of its products. Occasionally company has decided to give special discounted price for its products. Company also decided to give T-shirts, caps, bags etc. to lure the customers. o ADVERTISEMENT Company decided to gives advertisement for ONIDA NOTEBOOK through newspaper, billboard, popular magazine, leaflets, sponsoring on game competition, internet etc. o PERSONAL SELLING ONIDA company is also deciding to sell laptops through personal selling but till now we havent arrange any kind personal selling. PRICE o LIST PRICING Pricing of the product are being made on the basis of technology used in the product and depending upon the various series of onida. The various pricing of various varieties of laptops are: o DISCOUNT Company has decided to allow discount facilities to all the retailers and dealers. o Payment period ONIDA will sell NOTEBOOK on credit to its distributor and retailers and after the sale e period of 2 months can be given for making payment. PLACE CHANNELS ONIDA has its own distribution channel for the distribution of their products. DISTRIBUTOR ONIDA have own distribution channel for distributing their products. Location ONIDA covers district areas of our country to capture the market for their products. TRANSPORTION FACILITIES ONIDA has its own transportation facility for its distributors. Distributors are themselves responsible for taking the products to their showrooms. MARKETING RESEARCH One of the important things is research work. Research is very vital for any company to know about current market position and also to predict future needs. Information is collected through the dealer and retailer. o Question How did you hear about our ONIDA NOTEBOOK product? note the answer and this answer can be use for the promotional activities. o Customer suggestion New feedback service and customers suggestions system to gain additional information. They want to know from the customers about- à ¼ What suggestion do you want to give to company to improve our product? à ¼ Why do you need a laptop and why onida laptop only? FINANCIALS It is very important while the launching of a product to take care of the financial overview of ONIDA NOTEBOOK related to marketing activities. ONIDA address brake even analysis (BEA), sales forecast, expense forecast, and showed how this activity are link to the marketing activity. BREAK EVEN ANALYSIS Break even is a point where cost is equals to sales. The break-even analysis below shows the number of single sales, or units, that we must realize to break-even. Analysis of breakeven point is based on the cost and the sales of a company. SALES FORECAST: Sales forecast means planning or estimation of sales so that future sales can be assessed. ONIDA thinks that the sales forecast will be achieve into the five main streams; W1250U-T3000, W3001U-T4150, W4200U-T4500, W4510U and W5520U. This will steadily increase the sales. As the advertising budget allows the target market forecast, the listed of all the potential customers get divided into separate groups. The forecasted customers group divided into various categories: Corporate Users, End Users and others. EXPENSE FORECAST Every company has to make a prior forecast of expenses. It is important to mark such forecast to limit the expenses made in future. These expenses are to be budgeted at approximately 5% of total sales for 2007-08 and 6% for 2008-09. Mainly expenses are to be tracked in the major marketing categories as:-NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENT, PROMOTIONAL EVENTS, BILLBOARDS, PRINTED LEAFLETS, and ADVERTISEMENT IN TELEVISIONS ETC. CONTROLING FACTORS The main purpose of ONIDA NOTEBOOKs marketing plan is to serve as a guide for the organization while launching of the laptops successfully. This plan is all about implementation and changing the business and also to make it better. In this marketing plan we look at specific implementation programs, and the details that it takes to make it happen. The following are the areas which will be specially monitored to enhance the performance of company and launching of laptops. Contingency Planning Contingencies likely to arise: Price War New Technologies in the market More Competitors Companys Strategy to counter the same: Creating value preposition Continuous innovation and product development Creating distinct brand identity