Marketing Segmentation Essay

Market segmentation is the process of dividing up a market into more-or-less homogenous subsets for which it is possible to create different value propositions. At the end of the process the company can decide which segment(s) it wants to serve. If it chooses, each segment can be served with a different value proposition and managed in a different way. Market segmentation processes can be used during CPM for two main purposes. They can be used to segment potential markets to identify which customers to acquire, and to cluster current customers with a view to offering differentiated value propositions supported by different relationship management strategies. In this discussion we’ll focus on the application of market segmentation processes to identify which customers to acquire. What distinguishes market segmentation for this CRM purpose is its very clear focus on customer value. The outcome of the process should be the identification of the value potential of each identified segment. Companies will want to identify and target customers that can generate profit in the future: these will be those customers that the company and its network are better placed to serve and satisfy than their competitors. Market segmentation in many companies is highly intuitive. The marketing team will develop profiles of customer groups based upon their insight and experience. This is then used to guide the development of marketing strategies across the segments. In a CRM context, market segmentation is highly data dependent. The data might be generated internally or sourced externally. Internal data from marketing, sales and finance records are often enhanced with additional data from external sources such as marketing research companies, partner organizations in the company’s network and data specialists (see Figure 5.2 ). The market segmentation process can be broken down into a number of steps: 1. identify the business you are in 2. identify relevant segmentation variables 3. analyse the market using these variables 4. assess the value of the market segments 5. select target market(s) to serve. Sales forecasting: Slide #6 (p. 136-8) The second discipline that can be used for CPM is sales forecasting. One major issue commonly facing companies that conduct CPM is that the data available for clustering customers takes a historical or, at best, present day view. The data identifies those customers who have been, or presently are, important for sales, profit or other strategic reasons. If management believes the future will be the same as the past, this presents no problem. However, if the business environment is changeable, this does present a problem. Because CPMs goal is to identify those customers that will be strategically important in the future, sales forecasting can be a useful discipline. Sales forecasting, some pessimists argue, is a waste of time, because the business environment is rapidly changing and unpredictable. Major world events such as terrorist attacks, war, drought and market-based changes, such as new products from competitors or high visibility promotional campaigns, can make any sales forecas ts invalid. There are a number of sales forecasting techniques that can be applied, providing useful information for CPM. These techniques, which fall into three major groups, are appropriate for different circumstances. ââ€"  qualitative methods: customer surveys sales team estimates ââ€"  time-series methods: moving average exponential smoothing time-series decomposition ââ€"  causal methods: leading indicators regression models. Qualitative methods are probably the most widely used forecasting methods. Customer surveys ask consumers or purchasing officers to give an opinion on what they are likely to buy in the forecasting period. This makes sense when customers forward-plan their purchasing. Data can be obtained by inserting a question into a customer satisfaction survey. For example, ‘In the next six months are you likely to buy more, the same or less from us than in the  current period? ’ And, ‘If more, or less, what volume do you expect to buy from us? ’ Sometimes, third party organizations such as industry associations or trans-industry groups such as the Chamber of Commerce or the Institute of Directors collect data that indicate future buying intentions or proxies for intention, such as business confidence. Sales team estimates can be useful when salespeople have built close relationships with their customers. A key account management team might be well placed to generate s everal individual forecasts from the team membership. These can be averaged or weighted in some way that reflects the estimator’s closeness to the customer. Account managers for Dyno Nobel, a supplier of commercial explosives for the mining and quarrying industries, are so close to their customers that they are able to forecast sales two to three years ahead. Operational CRM systems support the qualitative sales forecasting methods, in particular sales team estimates. The CRM system takes into account the value of the sale, the probability of closing the sale and the anticipated period to closure. Many CRM systems also allow management to adjust the estimates of their sales team members, to allow for overly optimistic or pessimistic salespeople. Time-series approaches take historical data and extrapolate them forward in a linear or curvilinear trend. This approach makes sense when there are historical sales data, and the assumption can be safely made that the future will reflect the past. The moving average method is the simplest of these. This takes sales in a number of previous periods and averages them. The averaging process reduces o r eliminates random variation. The moving average is computed on successive periods of data, moving on one period at a time, as in Figure 5.10 . Moving averages based on different periods can be calculated on historic data to generate an accurate method. A variation is to weight the more recent periods more heavily. The rationale is that more recent periods are better predictors. In producing  an estimate for year 2009 in Figure 5.10 , one could weight the previous four years’ sales performance by 0.4, 0.3, 0.2, and 0.1, respectively, to reach an estimate. This would generate a forecast of 5461. This approach is called exponential smoothing. The decomposition method is applied when there is evidence of cyclical or seasonal patterns in the historical data. The method attempts to separate out four components of the time series: trend factor,  cyclical factor, seasonal factor and random factor. The trend factor is the longterm direction of the trend after the other three elements are removed. The cyclical factor represents regular long-term recurrent influences on sales; seasonal influences generally occur within annual cycles. It is sometimes possible to predict sales using leading indicators. A leading indicator is some contemporary activity or event that indicates that another activity or event will happen in the future. At a macro level, for example, housing starts are good predictors of future sales of kitchen furniture. At a micro level, when a credit card customer calls into a contact centre to ask about the current rate of interest, this is a strong indicator that the customer will switch to another supplier in the future. Regression models work by employing data on a number of predictor variables to estimate future demand. The variable being predicted is called the dependent variable; the variables being used as predictors are called independent variables. For example, if you wanted to predict demand for cars (the dependent variable) you might use data on population size, average disposable income, average car price for the category being predicted and average fuel price (the independent variables). The regression equation can be tested and validated on historical data before being adopted. New predictor variables can be substituted or added to see if they improve the accuracy of the forecast. This can be a useful approach for predicting demand from a segment. Activity-Based Costing: Slide #7 (p. 138-40) Customer Acquisition costs Terms of Trade Customer service costs Working capital costs Activity-based costing The third discipline that is useful for CPM is activity-based costing. Many companies, particularly those in a B2B context, can trace revenues to customers. In a B2C environment, it is usually only possible to trace revenues to identifiable customers if the company operates a billing system requiring customer details, or a membership scheme such as a customer club, store-card or a loyalty programme. In a B2B context, revenues can be tracked in the sales and accounts databases. Costs are an entirely different matter. Because the goal of CPM is to cluster customers according to their strategic value, it is desirable to be able to identify which customers are, or will be, profitable. Clearly, if a company is to understand customer profitability, it has to be able to trace costs, as well as revenues, to customers. Costs do vary from customer to customer. Some customers are very costly to acquire and serve, others are not. There can be considerable variance across the customer base within several categories of cost: ââ€"  customer acquisition costs : some customers require considerable sales effort to move them from prospect to fi rst-time customer status: more sales calls, visits to reference customer sites, free samples, engineering advice, guarantees that switching costs will be met by the vendor ââ€"  terms of trade : price discounts, advertising and promotion support, slotting allowances (cash paid to retailers for shelf space), extended invoice due dates ââ€"  customer service costs : han dling queries, claims and complaints, demands on salespeople and contact centre, small order sizes, high order frequency, just-in-time delivery, part load shipments, breaking bulk for delivery to multiple sites ââ€"  working capital costs : carrying inventory for the customer, cost of credit. Traditional product-based or general ledger costing systems do not provide this type of detail, and do not enable companies to estimate customer profitability. Product costing systems track material, labour and energy costs to products, often comparing actual to standard costs. They do not, however, cover the customer-facing activities of marketing, sales and service. General ledger costing systems do track costs across all parts of the business, but are normally too highly aggregated to establish which customers or segments are responsible for generating those costs. Activity-based costing (ABC) is an approach to costing that splits costs into two groups: volume-based costs and order-related costs. Volume based (product-related) costs are variable against the size of the order, but fixed per unit for any order and any customer. Material and direct labour costs are examples. Order-related (customer-related) costs vary according to the product and process requirements of each particular customer. Imagine two retail customers, each purchasing the same volumes of product from a manufacturer. Customer 1 makes no product or process demands. The sales revenue is $5000; the gross margin for the vendor is $1000. Customer 2 is a different story: customized  product, special overprinted outer packaging, just-in-time delivery to three sites, provision of point-of-sale material, sale or return conditions and discounted price. Not only that, but Customer 2 spends a lot of time agreeing these terms and conditions with a salesperson who has had to call three times before closing the sale. The sales revenue is $5000, but after accounting for product and process costs to meet the demands of this particular customer, the margin retained by the vendor is $250. Other things being equal, Customer 1 is four times as valuable as Customer 2. Whereas conventional cost accounti ng practices report what was spent, ABC reports what the money was spent doing. Whereas the conventional general ledger approach to costing identifies resource costs such as payroll, equipment and materials, the ABC approach shows what was being done when these costs were incurred. Figure 5.11 shows how an ABC view of costs in an insurance company’s claims processing department gives an entirely different picture to the traditional view. ABC gives the manager of the claims-processing department a much clearer idea of which activities create cost. The next question from a CPM perspective is ‘ which customers create the activity? ’ Put another way, which customers are the cost drivers? If you were to examine the activity cost item ‘ Analyse claims: $121 000 ’ , and find that 80 per cent of the claims were made by drivers under the age of 20, you’d have a clear understanding of the customer group that was creating that activity cost for the business. CRM needs ABC because of its overriding goal of generating profitable relationships with customers. Unless there is a costing system in place to trace costs to customers, CRM will find it very difficult to deliver on a promise of improved customer profitability. Overall, ABC serves customer portfolio management in a number of ways: 1. when combined with revenue figures, it tells you the absolute and relative levels of profit generated by eac h customer, segment or cohort 2. it guides you towards actions that can be taken to return customers to profit 3. it helps prioritize and direct customer acquisition, retention and development strategies 4. it helps establish whether customization and other forms of value creation for customers pay off. ABC sometimes justifies management’s confidence in the Pareto principle, otherwise known as the 80:20 rule. This rule suggests that  80 per cent of profits come from 20 per cent of customers. ABC tells you which customers fall into the important 20 per cent. Research generally supports the 80: 0 rule. For example, one report from Coopers and Lybrand found that, in the retail industry, the top 4 per cent of customers account for 29 per cent of profits, the next 26 per cent of customers account for 55 per cent of profits and the remaining 70 per cent account for only 16 per cent of profits. Lifetime Value Estimation: Slide# 8 (p. 141-2) The fourth discipline that can be used for CPM is customer lifetime value (LTV) estimation, which was first introduced in Chapter 2. LTV is measured by computing the present day value of all net margins (gross margins less cost-to-serve) earned from a relationship with a customer, segment or cohort. LTV estimates provide important insights that guide companies in their customer management strategies. Clearly, companies want to protect and ring-fence their relationships with customers, segments or cohorts that will generate significant amounts of profit. Sunil Gupta and Donald Lehmann suggest that customer lifetime value can be computed as follows: Application of this formula means that you do not have to estimate customer tenure. As customer retention rate rises there is an automatic lift in customer tenure, as shown in Table 2.2 in Chapter 2. This formula can be adjusted to consider change in both future margins and retention rates either up or down, as described in Gupta and Lehmann’s book Managing Customers as Investments. The table can be used to assess the impact of a number of customer management strategies: what would be the impact of reducing cost-toserve by shifting customers to low-cost self-serve channels? What would be the result of cross-selling higher margin products? What would be the outcome of a loyalty programme designed to increase retention rate from 80 to 82 per cent? An important additional benefit of this LTV calculation is that it enables you to estimate a company’s value. For example, it has been computed that the LTV of the average US-based American Airlines customer is $166.94. American Airlines has 43.7 million such customers, yielding an estimated company value of $7.3 billion. Roland Rust and his co-researchers noted that, given the absence of international  passengers and freight considerations from this computation, it was remarkably close to the company’s market capitalization at the time their research was undertaken. Clustering (144): slide #9 Clustering techniques are used to find naturally occurring groupings within a dataset. As applied to customer data, these techniques generally function as follows: 1. Each customer is allocated to just one group. The customer possesses attributes that are more closely associated with that group than any other group. 2. Each group is relatively homogenous. 3. The groups collectively are very different from each other. In other words, clustering techniques generally try to maximize both within-group homogeneity and between-group heterogeneity. There are a number of clustering techniques, including CART (classification and regression trees) and CHAID (chi-square automatic interaction detection).7 Once statistically homogenous clusters have been formed they need to be interpreted. CRM strategists are often interested in the future behaviours of a customer: segment, cohort or individual. Customers ’ potential value is determined by their propensity to buy products in the future. Data miners can build predictive models by examining patterns and relationships within historic data. Predictive models can be generated to identify: 1. Which customer, segment or cohort is most likely to buy a given product? 2. Which customers are likely to default on payment? 3. Which customers are most likely to defect (churn)? Data analysts scour historic data looking for predictor and outcome variables. Then a model is built and validated on these historic data. When the model seems to work well on the historic data, it is run on contemporary data, where the predictor data are known but the outcome data are not. This is known as ‘ scoring ’ . Scores are answers to questions such as the propensity-to-buy, default and churn questions listed above. Predictive modelling is based on three assumptions, each of which may be true to a greater or lesser extent: 1. The past is a good predictor of the future †¦ BUT this may not be true. Sales of many products are cyclical or seasonal. Others have fashion or fad lifecycles. 2. The data are available †¦ BUT this may not be true. Data used to train the model may no longer be collected. Data may be too costly to collect, or may be in the wrong format. 3. Customer-related databases contain what you want to predict †¦ BUT this may not be true. The data may not be available. If you want to predict which customers are most likely to buy mortgage protection insurance, and you only have data on life policies, you will not be able to answer the question. Two tools that are used for predicting future behaviours are decision trees and neural networks. Decision trees (145): slide #9 Decision trees are so called because the graphical model output has the appearance of a branch structure. Decision trees work by analyzing a dataset to find the independent variable that, when used to split the population, results in nodes that are most different from each other with respect to the variable you are tying to predict. Figure 5.12 contains a set of data about five customers and their credit risk profile. We want to use the data in four of the fi ve columns to predict the risk rating in the fifth column. A decision tree can be constructed for this purpose. In decision tree analysis, Risk is in the ‘ dependent ’ column. This is also known as the target variable. The other four columns are independent columns. It is unlikely that the customer’s name is a predictor of Risk, so we will use the three other pieces of data as independent variables: debt, income and marital status. In the example, each of these is a simple categorical item, each of which only has two possible values (high or low; yes or no). The data from Figure 5.12 are represented in a different form in Figure 5.13 , in a way which lets you see which independent variable is best at predicting risk. As you examine the data, you will see that the best split is income (four instances highlighted in bold on the diagonal: two high income/good risk plus two low income/poor risk). Debt and marital status each s core three on their diagonals. Once a node is split, the same process is performed on each successive node, either until no further splits are possible or until you have reached a managerially useful model. The graphical output of this decision tree analysis is shown in Figure 5.14 . Each box is a node. Nodes are linked by branches. The top node is the root node. The data from the root node is split into two groups based on income. The right-hand, low income box, does not split any further because both low income customers are classified as poor credit risks. The left-hand, high-income box does split further, into married and not married customers. Neither of these split further because the one unmarried customer is a poor credit risk and the two remaining married customers are good credit risks. As a result of this process the company knows that customers who have the lowest credit risk will be high income and married. They will also note that debt, one of the variables inserted into the training model, did not perform well. It is not a predictor of creditworthiness. Decision trees that work with categorical data such as these are known as classification trees. When decision trees are applied to continuous data they are known as regression trees. Neural Networks (147): slide #9 Neural networks are another way of fitting a model to existing data for prediction purposes. The expression ‘ neural network ’ has its origins in the work of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Researchers in this field have tried to learn from the natural neural networks of living creatures. Neural networks can produce excellent predictions from large and complex datasets containing hundreds of interactive predictor variables, but the neural networks are neither easy to understand nor straightforward to use. Neural networks represent complex mathematical equations, with many summations, exponential functions and parameters. Like decision trees and clustering techniques, neural networks need to be trained to recognize patterns on sample datasets. Once trained, they can be used to predict customer behaviour from new data. They work well when there are many potential predictor variables, some of which are redundant. Case 5.2 Customer portfolio management at Tesco Tesco, the largest and most successful supermarket chain in the UK, has developed a CRM strategy that is the envy of many of its competitors. Principally a food retailer in a mature market that has grown little in the  last 20 years, Tesco realized that the only route to growth was taking market share from competitors. Consequently, the development of a CRM strategy was seen as imperative. In developing its CRM strategy, Tesco first analysed its customer base. It found that the top 100 customers were worth the same as the bottom 4000. It also found that the bottom 25 per cent of customers represented only 2 per cent of sales, and that the top 5 per cent of customers were responsible for 20 per cent of sales. The results of this analysis were used to segment Tesco’s customers and to develop its successful loyalty programmes. SWOT and PESTE (p. 154-5): slide# 10 SWOT is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. SWOT analysis explores the internal environment (S and W) and the external environment (O and T) of a strategic business unit. The internal (SW) audit looks for strengths and weaknesses in the business functions of sales, marketing, manufacturing or operations, finance and people management. It then looks cross-functionally for strengths and weaknesses in, for example, cross-functional processes (such as new product development) and organizational culture. The external (OT) audit analyses the macro- and micro-environments in which the customer operates. The macro-environment includes a number of broad conditions that might impact on a company. These conditions are identified by a PESTE analysis. PESTE is an acronym for political, economic, social, technological and environmental conditions. An analysis would try to pick out major conditions that impact on a business, as illustrated below: political environment : demand for international air travel contracted as worldwide political stability was reduced after September 11, 2001 economic environment : demand for mortgages falls when the economy enters recession. social environment : as a population ages, demand for healthcare and residential homes increase technological environment : as more households become owners of computers, demand for Internet banking increases environmental conditions : as customers become  more concerned about environmental quality, demand for more energy efficient products increases. The micro environmental part of the external (OT) audit examines relationships between a company and its immediate external stakeholders: customers, suppliers, business partners and investors. A CRM-oriented SWOT analysis would be searching for customers or potential customers that emerge well from the analysis. Th ese would be customers that: 1. possess relevant strengths to exploit the opportunities open to them 2. are overcoming weaknesses by partnering with other organizations to take advantage of opportunities 3. are investing in turning around the company to exploit the opportunities 4. are responding to external threats in their current markets by exploiting their strengths for diversification. Five forces The five-forces analysis was developed by Michael Porter. 17 He claimed that the profitability of an industry, as measured by its return on capital employed relative to its cost of capital, was determined by five sources of competitive pressure. These five sources include three horizontal and two vertical conditions. The horizontal conditions are: competition within the established businesses in the market competition from potential new entrants competition from potential substitutes. The vertical conditions reflect supply and demand chain considerations: the bargaining power of buyers  the bargaining power of suppliers.  Porter’s basic premise is that competitors in an industry will be more profitable if these five conditions are benign. For example, if buyers are very powerful, they can demand high levels of service and low prices, thus negatively influencing the profitability of the supplier. However, if barriers to entry are high, say because of large capital requirements or dominance of the market by very powerful brands, then current players will be relatively immune from new entrants and enjoy the possibility of better profits. Why would a CRM-strategist be interested in a five-forces evaluation of customers? Fundamentally, a financially healthy customer offers better potential for a supplier than a customer in financial  distress. The analysis points to different CRM solutions: 1. Customers in a profitable industry are more likely to be stable for the near-term, and are better placed to invest in opportunities for the future. They therefore have stronger value potential. These are customers with whom a supplier would want to build an exclusive and well-protected relationship. 2. Customers in a stressed industry might be looking for reduced cost inputs from its suppliers, or for other ways that they can add value to their offer to their own customers. A CRM-oriented supplier would be trying to find ways to serve this customer more effectively, perhaps by stripping out elements of the value proposition that are not critical, or by adding elements that enable the customer to compete more strongly. Strategically Significant Customers (157) slide #11 The goal of this entire analytical process is to cluster customers into groups so that differentiated value propositions and relationship management strategies can be applied. One outcome will be the identification of customers that will be strategically significant for the company’s future. We call these strategically significant customers (SSCs). There are several classes of SSC, as follows: 1. High future lifetime value customers : these customers will contribute significantly to the company’s profitability in the future. 2. High volume customers : these customers might not generate much profit, but they are strategically significant because of their absorption of fixed costs, and the economies of scale they generate to keep unit costs low. 3. Benchmark customers : these are customers that other customers follow. For example, Nippon Conlux supplies the hardware and software for Coca Cola’s vending operation. While they might not make much margin from that rela tionship, it has allowed them to gain access to many other markets. ‘ If we are good enough for Coke, we are good enough for you ’ , is the implied promise. Some IT companies create ‘ reference sites ’ at some of their more demanding customers. 4. Inspirations : these are customers who bring about improvement in the supplier’s business. They may identify new applications for a product, product improvements, or opportunities for cost reductions. They may complain loudly and make unreasonable demands, but in doing so, force change for the better. 5. Door  openers : these are customers that allow the supplier to gain access to a new market. This may be done for no initial profit, but with a view to proving credentials for further expansion. This may be particularly important if crossing cultural boundaries, say between west and east. One company, a Scandinavian processor of timber, has identified five major customer groups that are strategically signi ficant, as in Figure 5.22 . The Seven Core Customer Management Strategies (158-9) slide # 12 This sort of analysis pays off when it helps companies develop and implement differentiated CRM strategies for clusters of customers in the portfolio. There are several core customer management strategies: 1. Protect the relationship : this makes sense when the customer is strategically significant and attractive to competitors. We discuss the creation of exit barriers in our review of customer retention strategies in Chapter 9. 2. Re-engineer the relationship : in this case, the customer is currently unprofitable or less profitable than desired. However, the customer could be converted to profit if costs were trimmed from the relationship. This might mean reducing or automating service levels, or servicing customers through lower cost channels. In the banking industry, transaction processing costs, as a multiple of online processing costs are as follows. If Internet transaction processing has a unit cost of 1, an in-bank teller transaction costs 120 units, an ATM transaction costs 40, telephone costs 30 and PC banking costs 20. In other words, it is 120 times more expensive to conduct an in-bank transaction than the identical online transaction. Cost-reduction programmes have motivated banks to migrate their customers, or at least some segments of customers, to other lower cost channels. An Australian electricity company has found that its average annual margin per customer is $60. It costs $13 to serve a c ustomer who pays by credit card, but only 64 cents to service a direct debit customer. Each customer moved to the lower cost channel therefore produces a transaction cost saving of more than $12, which increases the average customer value by 20 per cent. Re-engineering a relationship requires a clear understanding of the activities that create costs in the relationship (see Case 5.3). 3. Enhance the relationship : like  the strategy above, the goal is to migrate the customer up the value ladder. In this case it is done not by re-engineering the relationship, but by increasing your share of customer spend on the category, and by identifying up-selling and cross-selling opportunities. 4. Harvest the relationship : when your share of wallet is stable, and you do not want to invest more resources in customer development, you may feel that the customer has reached maximum value. Under these conditions you may wish to harvest, that is, optimize cash flow from the customer with a view to using the cash generated to develop other customers. This may be particularly appealing if the customer is in a declining market, has a high cost-to-serve or has a high propensity-to-switch to competitors. 5. End the relationship : sacking customers is ge nerally anathema to sales and marketing people. However, when the customer shows no sign of making a significant contribution in the future it may be the best option.You can read about strategies for sacking customers in Chapter 9. 6. Win back the customer : sometimes customers take some or all of their business to other suppliers. If they are not strategically signifi cant, it may make sense to let them go. However, when the customer is important, you may need to develop and implement win back strategies. The starting point must be to understand why they took their business away. 7. Start a relationship : you’ve identified a prospect as having potential strategic significance for the future. You need to develop an acquisition plan to recruit the customer onto the value ladder. You can read about customer acquisition strategies in Chapter 8.

Discuss the whether you believe that the reading on the passive-aggression organization has implications in the UAE

Yes! I should say that passive-aggression organization has implication in the UAE because as Gary Neilson, Bruce Pasternack, and Karen Van Nuys pointed out, no company that has never suffered such syndrome. The passive-aggression organization syndrome is a general situation that has been experienced by business organizations not only in many parts of America, but also in Europe.As Neilson, Pasternack, and Van Nuys stated, problems develop gradually as company grows through a series of â€Å"well-intended but badly implemented organizational changes†¦,† I believe that passive-aggression organization has implication in the UAE because controlling and delegating authority by those at the top often creates problems and complexities that can result to this problem. The survey that was conducted by Booz Allen Hamilton reveals that one in five of about 30,000 respondents to a global online survey admitted they suffered this syndrome.In my view, it is reasonable to say that passi ve-aggression has implications in the UAE. Provide a workplace example from your own experience where you have observed attribution theory occurring. Attribution theory occurs perhaps in every work place where there are both a sound leadership and performance failures. In the banking sector where performance required among employees were customer relations and number skills, occurrence of attribution theory is often seen in this context. Poor performance outcomes are blamed on someone’s customer relation’s skills.Bank employees are paid not only to cater to the need of the clientele; they are also paid to show customer care which mat require skills. Employees often attribute their failures to their lack of skills in customer relations skills. Discuss what you believe is the most important factor to be managed when implementing a change program in the workplace. I believed that the most important factor to be managed when implementing change program in the work place is the change process itself as this could be easily misunderstood by the employees.There are some aspect that needs to be considering when implanting this change such as the behavior of the individual in the organizational settings and the consequences of this change in the employee performance. In the organizational setting, Vecchio stressed that organizational culture provides influences among the employees that could motivate them to bring out their best. Thus, when implementing a change program in the work place, it is important to consider how the change process will have impact on the organizational setting.

Report on the net export component of the aggregate expenditures for Research Paper

Report on the net export component of the aggregate expenditures for the Manitoba macroeconomy - Research Paper Example h in exports was strong in the three year period of 2004 to 2007 but negative growth in exports was experienced by the economy partly in 2008 and more pronounced in 2009. The exports amounted to 26.7 billion dollars in 2009. In spite of the decline in export growth the economy was the third highest in terms of export value. The chart below provides the evidence of the exports of the economy over a definite time period. The exports within Canada actually increased by about 2.4% in the year 2008 but the exports to other countries suffered a decline of 3.1% in the same year. The fall in exports in 2009 is the highest recorded data since 1981. The recession and the economic slowdown was the contributing factor to the slowdown. According to the Manitoba Bureau of Statistics the economy experienced an expansion of 2.2% in 2011. However, according to the major economic forecasters the GDP will increase by 2.4% and 2.2% in 2012 and 2013 respectively. The economy experienced second best annual growth rate over the period of 2006 to 2011. The following chart shows a comparison between the expansions of the Manitoba economy with that of Canadian economy (Province of Manitoba, 2012). The investment survey conducted by Statistics Canada published the report in February, 2012. They projected the capital investment in the economy to increase by 4.7%. This rate is below the rate of growth in capital investment of Canada which is at 6.2%. The private investment is estimated to achieve an expansion of 8.3% while the public investment will increase by 3.1%. The capital investment projection was revised to an expansion by 1.5% from the forecasted value. The total capital investment increased by record amount of 11.4 billion dollars for the year 2011. In the four year period ranging from 2006 to 2010 the economy surpassed the national annual growth in capital investment. In the first half of 2012, the exports on merchandises increased by 8.5% (Baragar, 2011). During the same time the

Psychological pressure Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Psychological pressure - Essay Example In case the pressure has grown or has an everlasting effect, it may cause psychological illness or long term chronic diseases. Pressure can be as a result of both daily responsibilities and routine events, or it can as well be caused by unusual events such as illness or trauma of oneself or family member. Human body highly respond to psychological pressure by releasing stress hormones (such as epinephrine) which in turn increases blood pressure, increases speed heart rate, and raises blood sugar level (Dambacher and HÃ ¼bner, 13). In order to perceive threats a person acts on the changes with greater strength and speed. It is therefore essential to learn how to deal and handle those pressures. However, a person has to clearly understand the causes of psychological pressure. This is to aid reduce the negative impact of pressure in people’s lives enabling them to live a more healthy lives. By meeting live threatening events, people have the kind of oppressive feeling of psychological pressure which at times is represented by cognitive, emotion and behavioral responses. Psychological pressure has shown can cause stress and research has indicated that people who have suffered long term effect of stress can develop digestive problems, fertility problems, urinary complications, and a low immune system. The impact is large such that they are also more prone to viral infections such has flu or common cold and headaches, sleep disorders, depression and also anxiety. Psychological pressure can be caused by social or cultural factors and shifts; it can as well be as a result of psychological changes or physiological shifts, including required socialization changes. It can be as a result of traumatic experience that happened suddenly or some chronic tension. Situations such as unfavorable working conditions, financial breakdowns, death of family members or a friend, divorce or separation of spouse, are always greater contribution of psychological

Back to our place(Someplace of my memory) Essay

Back to our place(Someplace of my memory) - Essay Example In America, I suppose it would be a Vehicle Testing Station. As I remember, there were hundreds of taxies, so it might even have been a cab company, like Yellow Cab. In the mornings, it used to be a little crowded, with neighborhood people complaining about the waste oil flowing downhill from the top, to the housing area. This is the only bad memory that comes to mind about that place. However, residents did nothing more, other than to murmur sulkily to express displeasure about that oil. Around midday on Sundays, after having a light lunch, my family would take four badminton rackets, a few shuttlecocks, and some water to drink, and would step inside the 400 square yards area of that big car park up the hill. With a light heart, we would pass by the black written sign "Car Inspecting Office of Eastern Part", as if the sign did not exist. A few neighbors would already be there, playing side by side, as everyone had fun, and enjoyed their games. It seemed as though nobody cared about original purpose of the place. Instead, It played the role of a little camping spot and family play area. For my family, the white lines for car parking became the perfect place to play badminton, the markings were just right. We would start for home at dusk, cooled by a fresh breeze, smelling the sweet scent of sweat that wafted skywards on that gentle wind, tired but happy. On weekdays, around the... If we put those lines, that looked like a chessboard, together as a set of twelve, it became a great soccer field, or the place for dodge ball played on a group of lines, in exactly the same way. We would never go back home until darkness fell, making us afraid. The only exception that would stop our play for a time was when we heard our mother's voices. They would call us loudly for dinner, sounding very far away in the darkness. Those friends, and sound of my mother's voice, filled with alarm, have been a pattern and part of my life throughout my entire childhood and beyond. The scenes from those times remain unforgettable to me, for all my life. But sometimes things did not always happen that way, and the happy scene would be disturbed. We would hear another voice coming toward us, not the loving concern heard in our mother's calls. There were two sides to this place, a different aspect that stays in my memory. The office would never be totally empty, even though we hoped it would be. After 5.00 PM, when the workers went home, a few people would always be on duty there. Though they did not often confront us, there was a sort of competition, as they did not want to let the balance of power between neighborhood and workers, pass to our side, making us the winners. To assert their position of being 'in charge', sometimes, the person on duty would make us leave, and we had a lot of fun hiding from them and watching carefully for a chance to get back inside the car park again. But in my memory, I can see that they were only human too, the same as we were, and we saw that side of them often. When they became bored sitting in the office, they would come out and play with our soccer

Auditors Responsibility for Detecting Fraud Assignment

Auditors Responsibility for Detecting Fraud - Assignment Example Business failure occurs when a business is unable to repay its creditors or meet investors because of prevailing business conditions. A recent fraud that shocked the financial society is the financial collapse of Lehman Brothers, a big investment firm in U.S. Reuters carried news report that the accounting firm of Ernest & Young helped to hide financial problems of Lehman Brothers that led to its downfall (McKena, Francine,2010) Reuters reported that Ernest & Young tolerated the fraudulent transactions of Lehman Brothers that used an accounting technique known as â€Å"Repo 105, a business model designed to hide billions in liabilities. The firm used this technique to hide as much as $50 billion in assets from the balance sheet. (McCool Grant, 2010) As a process, management puts the internal control to be assured that operations are in place. Internal control, as Carl Haus(2014) defined, are rules designed to promote proper functioning of business. It is also designed to protect company assets, Cari suggested. In this context, Independent auditors rely on the accuracy of internal controls to form their opinions. As such, management has the responsibility of providing a reliable financial position of the company. Based on this premise, failures of internal control started with top management who failed or ignored internal controls for a dependable financial reporting. The Auditors, on their part failed or disregarded the weaknesses of financial information or errors presented so as not to disrupt the operations of Lehman Brothers. Financial statements done by Lehman Brothers were manipulated by management to make it appear that it was a sound company.  

The Differences in Economic Coverage conducted by The New York Times Essay

The Differences in Economic Coverage conducted by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal - Essay Example ommunist Movement’s elites; the week before gave out a pattern for refurbishing over the coming year that demands authorizing customers and simplifying Beijing’s clutch on important firms long managed by the government. Its clearing objectives constitute simplifying hindrances for foreign capital in a few firms; raising the engagement of private investors in government ruled enterprises and offering the nation’s huge rural demography larger availability of cash. For a long time, a single important step, that is a demand to simplify China’s single-child rule, indicates an intention to struggle with the accumulating forces for an aging community. Several people claim that even extra theatrical steps are required. However, Beijing’s declaration proposes that elites need to make sure that China has a steady pool of workforce; and remains a healthy development market for decades to come. The motive in the nation is optimistic and the citizens of China ar e ready to cooperate (Baker 1). As well, the New York Times reporting on the Federal Reserve officials claimed that several of them are unwilling to move on with the Fed’s incentive movement in its present state. Thus, they struggled at their most current conference with different means of promoting an economy that yet requires aid. The debates, defined in the normal report of the conference in October that the Fed issued on Wednesday, did not provide any sudden reform in rule (Appelbaum 1). Officials agreed at the conference to push ahead with the present operation, despite the report claiming that a reform could emerge â€Å"at one of its coming conferences†. The framework of that change has been obvious for some time. The Fed wishes to lower and then postpone its monthly buys of assets and mortgage-backed... This paper is the best example of comparison of economic coverage of similar events, performed by two renowned American newspapers. On the economic front, visions and approaches of these two outlets vary. For instance, the NYT on the Chinese economy claimed that an agreement was reached at the Third Plenum that the nation must change from a development plan concentrated on manufacturing exports in the U.S. and different affluent nations, to one that attracts high promotion from its 1.3 billion customers. On the other side, the WSJ, argues that: business may triumph huge if China pursues through on its promises to provide the market a higher responsibility in the globe’s second biggest economy As well, the NYT reports, that on the Federal Reserve officials agreed at the conference to push ahead with the present operation, despite the report claiming that a reform could emerge â€Å"at one of its coming conferences†. The WSJ on its part claimed that data obtained from the Federal Open market Committee conference largely proposes that economic activity has moved on growing at a reasonable speed. On the euro zone economy, the NYT claimed that the euro zone economy marked moment in the third quarter of the calendar, increased by simply 0.1% from the second quarter. This illustrated frustrating hopes that a completely fledged revival was lastly taking hold following five decades of depression and declination. The WSJ on its part accounted that another indicator for the euro zone economy assumed an expected twist for the worse this month as an economic trust sign declined.

The Refector Educator Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 7250 words

The Refector Educator - Essay Example The work of a teacher, his/her own human shortcomings, the current state of our society, and the present culture of the school environment also provide powerful distractions to me in truly realizing the potential of my vocation as a teacher - barriers that seem to prevent me from truly living the vision of education that I profess. I am often asked: Why teach when you could do something more profitable Isn't teaching beneath your skill and intelligence I need to answer this question and focus more directly on articulating and implementing my vision in order to be in harmony with myself and my vocation. For, if the vision is superficial or hazy, the effectiveness of the teaching as well as the vocation as teacher is in serious jeopardy. Vision can be better understood, more focused, and more concrete if one concentrates on the component parts and their interaction. If we imagine the vision graphically the outer border of the "construct" indicates the parameters of the vision since every vision has some limit of expansion. Setting the boundaries is important because the clearer the boundaries, the clearer the vision. If they are obscure, the vision will be vague and diffuse. The model can encompass three primary internal components of vision: energy, ideals, and values. Each of these internal components is pointed toward the center, the form of the vision. At this point we encounter the intrusion of "current reality," the other primary, but external, element of the "vision". Thus, "current reality" confronts or collides with the three other primary components. This produces either internal "conflict" or 'choices", i.e. the external expression of the resolution of the confrontation in some decisive way. When the teac her operates out of choices, he/she moves toward "current reality" with "vision". If the teacher fails to make a decisive choice, the inner conflict that one experiences usually results in delusion. The various essential components of the educator's vision and my as well are explained below. Energy is the first component. It is the most basic part of the human personality and may be described as an inner drive, impulse, desire, or personal ambition. Energy denotes psychological force or power, and it is considered to be the most primitive of the human personality functions. Ideals connect the individual to a "higher order." These include the part of the human personality that dictates rules and regulations and establishes ethical and moral thinking. In psychoanalytic theory, this would be referred to as the "super ego" with its two component parts: "conscience" (that which presents taboos and punishes) and "ego ideal" (that which offers sanctions and rewards). For Parker Palmer for example, an ideal for the teacher should include "creating a space in which obedience to truth is practiced" (1998, p.12). Ideals can sometimes conflict with energy desires, particularly in the area of moral decision-making. Values present the next component. They define what I most cherish about life and what I most treasure in my vocation as a teacher. Values can be inherited from parents, religious sources, culture, or personal growth. Values frequently include portions of ideas listed under energy and ideals yet values tend to be an entity in themselves. Values can include both tangible and intangible objects which symbolize personal fulfillment and gratification for the

What Is the Significance of Grading Sysytem Essay Example for Free

What Is the Significance of Grading Sysytem Essay With the implementation of the K to 12 Basic Education Program, the traditional numerical values in the report cards of students will no longer appear. Instead, the Department of Education (DepEd) will be using a new grading system to assess and rate learning outcomes of students in public elementary and high schools. Effective this school year, DepEd said parents and student will no longer see numbers in the report cards of students from Grades 1 to 10. Based on DepEd Order No. 31, Series of 2012, or the â€Å"Policy Guidelines on the Implementation of Grades 1 to 12 Basic Education Curriculum (BEC) Effective School Year 2012-2013,† Education Secretary Armin Luistro ordered public schools to implement the K to 12 BEC, particularly on Grades 1 and 7 which will be most affected by the new curriculum, and challenged schools â€Å"to implement the guidelines in creative and innovative ways for the curriculum can be localized without compromising the philosophy of total learner d evelopment. † â€Å"The new grading system seeks to measure the students’ level of proficiency at the end of each quarter,† Luistro said. â€Å"The assessment process is holistic and aims to ensure the quality of student learning with emphasis on formation and development,† he explained. DepEd, Luistro said, â€Å"will also release another separate order with more details on the new rating system.† In the new grading system, letter â€Å"A† will reflect as highest the grade; letter â€Å"P† as second highest; and letter â€Å"B† as the lowest. Luistro explained that the letters actually represent â€Å"levels of proficiency as abbreviated†. To rate the learning outcome of students, teachers will be giving a grade â€Å"A† (â€Å"Advanced†) to students with 90 percent and above rating; â€Å"P† (â€Å"Proficient†) to students with 85 to 89 percent rating; â€Å"AP† (â€Å"Approaching Proficiency†) to s tudents with 80 to 84 percent rating; â€Å"D† (â€Å"Developing†) to students with 75 to 79 percent rating and â€Å"B† (â€Å"Beginning†) to students with 74 percent and below rating. Luistro said that teachers will still measure students’ progress with numerical values, but their letter equivalents above will be used in report cards â€Å"so that the focus will be less on competition and more on achieving standards of learning.† At the end of the quarter, Luistro explained that the performance of students shall be described in the report card based on the level of proficiency. When the teacher gives â€Å"B† it means that the student â€Å"struggles with his/her understanding; pre-requisite and fundamental knowledge and/or skills have not been required or developed adequately to aid understanding.† Students given with â€Å"D† are those that â€Å"possess the minimum knowledge and skills and core understandings but needs the help throughout the performance of authentic tasks† while those given â€Å"AP† are students that have â€Å"developed the fundamental knowledge and skills and core understandings and with little guidance from teacher and/or with some assistance from peers, can transfer these understandings through authentic performance tasks.† Those that are given â€Å"P† are students that have â€Å"developed fundamental knowledge and skills and core understandings and can transfer them independently through authentic performance tasks† while students given with â€Å"A† are those that â€Å"exceeds the core requirements in terms of knowledge, skills, and understandings and can transfer them automatically and flexible through authentic performance tasks.† Luistro said that the assessment process to be used is holistic, with emphasis on the formative or developmental purpose of quality assuring student learning. â€Å"It is also standards-based as it seeks to ensure that teachers will teach to the standards and students will aim to meet or even exceed the standards,† he added. Luistro added that student performance will still be assessed at four levels, including Knowledge with 15 percent; Process or Skills with 25%; Understanding with 30%; and Products/Performances with 30 % with a total of 100%. The results of the student’s performance, Luistro added, will be summed up based on these levels to come up with a numerical value. â€Å"The corresponding level of proficiency will appear on the report card at the end of the quarter,† he explained. At the end of the four quarters, Luistro explained that the Final Grade for each learning are shall be reported as â€Å"average of the four quarterly ratings, expressed in terms of the levels of proficiency.† Also, he said that â€Å"the general average will be computed based on the final grades of the different learning areas, and will be expressed in terms of the levels of proficiency with the numerical equivalent shall appear in parenthesis.† Luistro also stressed that promotion and retention of students shall be by subject meaning those students whose proficiency level is â€Å"B† at the end of the quarter or grading period â€Å"shall be required to undergo remediation classes† after class hours so that they can immediately catch up as they move to the next grading period. â€Å"If by the end of the school year, the students are still at the ‘B’ level, then they shall be required to take summer classes,† he said. Meanwhile, some parents and students – particularly those who are grade-conscious – expressed reservation to the new grading system. When showed that sample report card to Mylene Cuevas, mother to fourth year high school (Grade 10) student Liza Mae, she was confused. â€Å"Kung ganito ang gagamitin na grading system, ano ang mangyayari sa ranking ng mga bata? Paano pipiliin kung sino ang magiging first at second honors? (If they will use this grading system, what will happen to the ranking of students? How will they choose who will be the first or second honors?)† she asked. Last school year, Liza Mae ranked second honor. This year, she is eyeing to be the first honor to increase her chances to avail of scholarships once she enrolls in college. â€Å"Kasi sa scholarship or discounts sa tuition, mas malaki ang coverage kapag first honor or valedictorian ka. Kapag ganito ang grading, (letters instead of numbers), mahirap ang ranking, (In getting scholarships or discounts in tuition, bigger coverage is given if you’re first honor or valedictorian. If letter grades will be used, ranking will be more difficult),† she said. The DepEd, on the other hand, said that when it comes to honor students, â€Å"they shall be drawn from among those who performed at the Advanced Level.† â€Å"We will come up with subsequent guidelines will be issued as basis for ranking of honors,† Luistro assured. Meanwhile, Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Episcopal Commission on Youth (ECY) Executive Secretary Fr. Conegundo Garganta called on the DepEd to look into the possibility of using idle buildings as a way of addressing classroom shortage. Garganta said the government can use idle buildings, such as those that have been sequestered by the government, to house additional classrooms. â€Å"Maybe the government can use their police power to ask permission to use these abandoned structures,† he said in a church-organized forum. (With a report from Leslie Ann G. Aquino)

Arab Spring and the French Revolution Essay Example for Free

Arab Spring and the French Revolution Essay Prosper (Reap the rewards of your preparation and performance) The essay must include the following: Introduction paragraph (5 points) * First sentence is a quote used to â€Å"hook† the reader * You need to â€Å"in-text cite† the source of the quote * Then at least three sentences of French Revolution, Arab Spring background/historical context that sets up the thesis * Utilize facts from the French Revolution and Arab Spring * (Meaning: don’t respond to the prompt in the first four sentences) Thesis (15 points) A sophisticated, insightful, crystal clear thesis that states your argument and â€Å"drives† your essay * Thesis makes a claim that is analytical answering â€Å"why† or â€Å"How† (Hint: use the word â€Å"because†) * The thesis is the last sentence of the Introduction but is linked to each body paragraph topic (Claim) sentence Body Paragraphs Claim/Evidence (10 points) * Each topic (Claim) sentence must link to the Thesis otherwise I won’t read the paragraph; therefore no checks! * Each topic sentence must be supported with evidence from resources (utilizing details/facts—Characters, Setting, Plot, Quotes†¦Do Not Generalize!!! * A good rule of thumb is that each topic sentence (body paragraph) is supported with three evidences. Body Warrant/Analysis (10 points) * Include creative and thoughtful analysis * Make sense of FR/Prompt by stating something interesting and unique * Utilize â€Å"Big Idea† terms in your paragraphs (Analogy, Cause and Effect, Compare and Contrast, Foreshadowing, Irony, â€Å"Nothing New Under the Sun†, Paradox, â€Å"Turning Points†) * Explain the â€Å"Big Ideas† thoughtfully and completely Conclusion paragraph (5 points) Wrap the essay up with a conclusion that restates the main points of your essay * Do not include a new argument to the conclusion * Say something interesting: Leave me in awe, impressed; move my heart and mind! Mechanics/ MLA Requirements (10 points) * Excellent sentence structure, grammar and punctuation * The paper fulfills all MLA requirements (see checklist) * The Works Cited page is properly formatted (see checklist) * All of the required sources (3) are cited properly in the paper * The paper was submitted to turnitin. com by the deadline * The paper must be 850 1000 words Essay Rubric Unique/Original Strong Useful Basic Lacking Introduction (5/55)ExemplaryCommendable Capable Fair Poor 5 4. 5 4 3. 5 3 Proper Introduction†¦ * First sentence used to â€Å"hook† the reader * You need to â€Å"in-text cite† the source of the quote * Then at least three sentences of FR, Arab Spring background/historical context that sets up the thesis Unique/Original Strong Useful Basic Lacking Thesis (15/55)ExemplaryCommendable Capable Fair Poor 15 14 13 12 11 10 * A sophisticated, insightful, crystal clear thesis states your argument and â€Å"drives† your essay * Thesis makes a claim that is analytical answering â€Å"why† or â€Å"How† (Hint: use the word â€Å"because†) * The thesis is the last sentence of the Introduction but is linked to each body paragraph topic (Claim) sentence 2+ 21 20 19 17 16 13 12 11 Body: Claim/Evidence (10/55)ExemplaryCommendable Capable Fair Poor 10 pts 9 pts. 8 pts. 7 pts. 6 pts. * Each topic (Claim) sentence must link to the Thesis otherwise I won’t read the paragraph; therefore no checks! * Each topic (Claim) sentence must be supported with evidence from resources (utilizing details/facts People, Setting, Quotes†¦Do Not Generalize!!! ) * Each detail/fact will be checked (). The more checks () the better! Unique/Original Strong Useful Basic Lacking Body: Warrant/Analysis (10/55) ExemplaryCommendable Capable Fair Poor 10 pts 9 pts. 8 pts. 7 pts. 6 pts. * Include creative and thoughtful analysis * Say something interesting and unique * Utilize â€Å"Big Idea† terms in your sentences (Analogy, Cause and Effect, Compare and Contrast, Foreshadowing, Irony, â€Å"Nothing New Under the Sun†, Paradox, â€Å"Turning Points†) * Explain the â€Å"Big Ideas† thoughtfully and completely The ideas of the paper flow logically and are exceptionally stated Unique/Original Strong Useful Basic Lacking Conclusion (5/55)ExemplaryCommendable Capable Fair Poor 5 4. 5 4 3. 5 3 * Wrap the essay up with a conclusion that restates the main points of your essay * Do not include a new argument to the conclusion * Say something interesting: Leave me in awe, impressed; move my heart and mind! Excellent Strong Useful Basic Lacking ExemplaryCommendable Capable Fair Poor 0 pts 9 pts. 8 pts. 7 pts. 6 pts. Mechanics/MLA (10/55) * Excellent sentence structure, grammar and punctuation * The paper fulfills all MLA requirements (see checklist) * The Works Cited page is properly formatted (see checklist)

Functional Role of Neurogenesis in Humans

Functional Role of Neurogenesis in Humans Self-renewing stem-like cells in the adult hippocampus have captured the imagination of neuroscientists and clinicians for decades. Unfortunately, there have been relatively few studies investigating the functional role of AHN in humans. Throughout this thesis, I have described a number of studies in which we undertook the challenge of identifying indirect correlates of AHN in humans as well as elucidating the functional role of adult-born granule cells in everyday memory. We accomplished this by assessing various lifestyle- and blood-based factors known to influence neurogenesis from the animal literature and comparing these factors to behavioural performance on tasks which tested the proposed roles for AHN in learning and memory. There has been much speculation regading the functional role of neurogenesis in humans. Computational modellers and theorists have proposed several distinct roles for AHN in cognition based on what is known of their location in the brain, functional connectivity with surrounding regions and physiological poperties. Some have proposed that the constant turnover of newborn cells in the hippocampus would allow memory storage for novel events, while avoiding interference with older memories, a computational process termed pattern separation (Becker et al., 2005; Chambers and Conroy, 2007; Appleby and Wiskott, 2009; Becker et al., 2009; Weisz and Argibay, 2009; Aimone and Gage, 2011). However, events occurring close together in time may be subject to enhanced interference because the same population of cells would be firing in response to each event encountered. This process of increasing interference between events occurring close together in time is referred to as pattern integration (A imone et al., 2006). Indeed, some studies have shown paradoxical improvements in working memory tasks following ablation of neurogenesis (Saxe et al., 2007). However, working memory circuits outside of the hippocampus may be responsible for such improvements. Across short timescales, the majority of behavioural evidence from rodents has actually demonstrated that the role for neurogenesis in cognition, although seemingly widespread, converges on one function in particular. The formation of context-shock associations is impaired in animals lacking neurogenesis (Saxe et al., 2006; Winocur et al., 2006; Imayoshi et al., 2008; Warner-Schmidt et al., 2008; Wojtowicz et al., 2008; Hernandez-Rabaza et al., 2009; Ko et al., 2009; Guo et al., 2011; Nakashiba et al., 2012; Pan et al., 2012b), especially when the shock is relatively weak or training paradigm relatively short (Drew et al., 2010; Pan et al., 2012a, 2013). Animals lacking neurogenesis are also impaired at discriminating between o verlapping odor pairs (Luu et al., 2012) or between nearby, but not far apart spatial locations (Clelland et al., 2009). In contrast, upregualting neurogenesis via aerobic exercise or genetic manipulation has been shown to increase AHN and leads to enhanced behavioural pattern separation or CFC performance (Creer et al., 2010; Sahay et al., 2011; Kohman et al., 2012). While it seems like a wide-variety of tasks require adult-born granule cells, many, if not all of these tasks require overcoming interference. All of these tasks require the animal to form separate representations of similar stimuli, regardless of whether the stimuli are different contexts, objects, spatial locations or odours. This is why I say that AHN is required for a wide-variety, yet specific set of memory tasks. The behavioural requirements of tasks shown to depend on neurogenesis have differed substantially, but the psychological construct shown to rely on AHN has been fairly consistent. Neurogenesis may further help separate similar events occurring over longer time periods (Becker, 2005; Aimone et al., 2006; Becker and Wojtowicz, 2007). A distinct pool of newborn neurons would help to add a degree of contextual novelty to similar events that are separated by a sufficient amount of time. Without new cells being added to the hippocampal network, the same populations of cells would end up reperesenting multiple different memories, leading to catastrophic interference (Wiskott et al., 2006). This account of the role for neurogenesis in learning and memory has generally been reffered to as the memory retention hypothesis throughout this thesis. In contrast, others have proposed that the addition of newborn cells to the hippocampus would result in existing connections being altered in such a way that information is lost (Feng et al., 2001; Deisseroth et al., 2004; Frankland et al., 2013). This account of the role for neurogenesis in learning and memory has generally been referred to as the memory clearance hypothesis throughout this thesis. Behavioural evidence from non-human animal studies has supported the memory retention hypothesis, especially for spatial or context-rich memories. For instance, rodents with ablated neurogenesis display marked deficits in remembering the platform locaton following MWM training across long, but not short timescales (Snyder et al., 2005; Deng et al., 2009; Jessberger et al., 2009; Kitamura et al., 2009; Inokuchi, 2011; Pan et al., 2012a, 2012b, 2013). In contrast, some studies have shown impaired long-term retention of fear memories in younger mice with relatively high rates of neurogenesis compared to their older counterparts (Akers et al., 2012). When older mice had wheel-running- or antidepressant drug-induced enhancement of neurogenesis, they were impaired on tests of remote memory compared to control mice (Akers et al., 2014). Therefore, it would seem that behavioural evidence from rodents has also supported the memory clearance hypothesis. The persistence or clearance of memories as a result of ongoing neural turnover in the DG may depend on the type of memory. There is evidence to suggest that spatial memories are always dependent on the hippocampus (Snyder et al., 2005; Deng et al., 2009; Jessberger et al., 2009). For these memories that are permanently hippocampal-dependent, AHN may help keep overlapping events disctinct from one another, thereby promoting long-term retention of the original memory. On the other hand, fear memories may be supported by regions outside of the hippocampus (Kitamura et al., 2009). Thus, for those memories that can be supported by extrahippocampal structures, AHN may accelerate the process of systems consolidation (Kitamura et al., 2009), shifting the dependence of the memory from the hippocampus to neocortical regions (McClelland et al., 1995; Squire and Alvarez, 1995; Maviel et al., 2004; Squire and Bayley, 2007). While animal studies have provided val uable clues as to the importance of AHN in learning and memory, it has nonetheless become apparent that studying the functional role of neurogenesis directly in humans is the critical next step that must be taken in order to alleviate some of the confusion generated in non-human animal studies. In the set of studies that comprise this thesis, we have demonstrated that change in aerobic capacity following chronic physical activity correlates with change in performance on a putatively neurogenesis-dependent visual pattern separation task. On the other hand, stress and depression scores had opposing effects on behavioural pattern separation performance. Importantly, neither exercise response nor depression scores predicted performance on other trial types within the BPS-O, repeated or novel items, nor the visuo-spatial CANTAB ® PAL task. We have also shown that lower stress and depression scores are associated with improved visual object recognition on repeated items following a two-week delay from the study phase. Further, on two-week delayed retention tests, participants scored near chance at identifying lures as â€Å"similar†, regardless of stress and depression levels. Interestingly, they more often misclassified these items as â€Å"new†, as opposed to â €Å"old†. Our results provide indirect evidence from human participants that AHN is important for pattern separation across shorter delays, while contributing to the persistence of memories for repeated items across extended time intervals. Future studies could explicitly test the memory clearance hypothesis in humans by measuring recognition memory across longer timescales with a pro-neurogenic intervention, such as long-term exercise, in between study and test. Pattern separation and memory retention (or clearance) may be coexisting phenomena. The addition of immature neurons to the hippocampus may at first bias the network towards pattern separation, as opposed to pattern completion, thereby reducing interference between events (Yassa and Reagh, 2013). In turn, the amount of pattern separation may decide what information will be subject to reconsolidation and what information will be cleared (Yassa and Reagh, 2013). Reconsolidation is the process whereby an existing memory becomes susceptible to change. If an event is considered similar, but not the same as, a previously stored event then the original memory may be modified to accommodate the discrepent information. Thus, the constant addition of adult-born neurons to the hippocampus may serve as a means of adding contextual information to existing memories. However, the original memory may be altered so drastically during reconsolidation that it is no longer accessible (essentially cleare d), depending on the amount of interference between the original memory and the novel event. Indeed, a number of computational models predict that the addition of newborn neurons to an existing circuit would hinder retrieval of previously stored memories (Deisseroth et al., 2004; Weisz and Argibay, 2009, 2012). On the other hand, if two events are considered one in the same, then information may be strengthened, although more generalized in nature. As these adult-born neurons that once contributed to pattern integration or pattern separation continue to mature and establish new synaptic connections with the pre-existing circuitry, they may destabilize previously established memories in the hippocampus, leading to the loss of previously stored information (Josselyn and Frankland, 2012; Frankland et al., 2013; Yassa and Reagh, 2013). In turn, the clearance of older memories would make room for new ones and the newborn neurons would become part of the physical storage site for new memo ries (Josselyn and Frankland, 2012). Thus, both processes may be beneficial in their own way. Whether or not memory clearance is a benefit or detriment to memory performance really depends on the relative importance of information is being cleared. Correlates of Neurogenesis in Humans and Animals Neurogenesis is down-regulated in a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders, so being able to characterize AHN in vivo is critical for better disease prevention and/or treatment. Unfortunately, there is no way to non-invasively quantify newborn cells in the living human hippocampus. Therefore, it has been difficult to improve our understanding of how neurogenesis influences the onset or recovery from certain disorders associated with downregulated neurogenesis, such as depression. In addition, we cannot assess the specific contribution of newborn neurons to learning and memory.

From Pullout to Inclusion in a Service-Learning Project :: Teaching Education Research

From Pullout to Inclusion in a Service-Learning Project Introduction Service-learning is no mystery to those who have been working with English Language Learners in the United States, who are often marginalized immigrants and refugees, and who for linguistic and cultural reasons are misunderstood. TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) professionals are frequently their mouthpiece, if not their advocates. As advocates of these â€Å"other† cultures and languages (who generally support bilingual education), we are seen as a kind of pariah perpetuating the immigration and â€Å"illegal alien problem.† Not surprisingly, given the increase of immigrants and refugees in the U.S. in such a short span of time, many teachers and administrators have relied on their best instincts rather than the best theories or methods to work with English language learners. For one thing, the populations keep changing. Within less than a decade, many programs have served students from diverse backgrounds with completely different needs ranging from low literacy Hmong to high literacy Russians. Teachers are often called on to be experts without having sufficient training in language teaching methodology or in second language and literacy development. Despite their exemplar methodologies in other ways (e.g., task and project based learning, critical thinking, cooperative learning), they do what they think is best, most often relying on their own past experiences learning a foreign language in the U.S. Moreover, TESOL professionals (not a monolith, we understand) are accustomed to enormous linguistic an d cultural variety along with a fair amount of ambiguity. Unknowns abound in our world. When service-learning merges with TESOL, what is called for is a new kind of expertise. In this paper, we set out to question the elusive nature of expertise in company with service learning. Expertise within any discipline is an ambitious goal and even under the best circumstances, liberal arts faculty rarely think of themselves as preparing experts. In the TESOL world we have long since known that our expertise is not locked in our own ability to â€Å"technify† our students (or our teachers), or to fill young (and old) minds with theory. Following Edward Zwotkowski (1999) we understand that expertise encompasses more that theoretical understanding and technical skill; it also includes the in-depth knowledge that comes from having lived with a problem or set of circumstances over an extended period of time. We have not had to look very hard to find those living with kinds of problems.

The Bubonic Plague: A Snapshot of Recovery; A Comparison of Tuscany An

On October 21st 1629, near the border of Switzerland, the Florentine Observer in Milan wrote to Florence reporting that a captain of Lecco arrived in great haste to inform â€Å"virulent plague had been ascertained†. In the absence of knowledge concerning the plague, or any way to prevent it, they placed all affairs pertaining to public health in the hands of guards who would naturally be the first line of defense. However, after laborious trial and error, Florence and Tuscany experienced deaths of enormous proportion. In the 17th century the Italian economy entered a long recession. Trade and industry declined, Italian agriculture stagnated, and poverty and banditry increased. Meanwhile Italy was struck by plague. One of the most advanced parts of Italy had fallen from grace. Interestingly, this situation is rather similar to the American recession in 2008. In both, governmental leaders in aftermath-implemented solutions, which helped improve their citizen’s quali ty of life, while enhancing the relationship between an individual and the appropriation of goods. The Emblem Of Public Health—An Unraveled Fabric Along with sudden outbreak, it was widely agreed that the incidence of plague was much greater among the lower classes than that of the upper. Concomitant with any overcrowded or unsanitary conditions, this is logical for despite nobilities â€Å"more delicate and tender† characteristics, they were free to flee and able to afford remedies unable to the common man. With little known about vaccinations, the establishment of a sanitary â€Å"cordons† was the first â€Å"preventative measure people could resort to besides prayers and processions†. In spite of the limited remains of a once fruitful population, the government tried to r... ...Giulia. Histories of a plague year: the social and the imaginary in baroque Florence. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. Print. Cipolla, Carlo M.. Before the Industrial Revolution: European society and economy, 1000-1700. New York: Norton, 1976. Print. Cipolla, Carlo M.. Cristofano and the plague; a study in the history of public health in the age of Galileo. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973. Print. Fletcher, Robert. A tragedy of the great plague of Milan in 1630. Italy: The Lord Baltimore Press, 1898. Print. Kleiner, Fred S., and Helen Gardner. Gardner's art through the ages: a global history. 13th ed. Boston, MA: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2009. Print. Labarge, Margaret Wade. A baronial household of the thirteenth century. Brighton: Harvester, 1980. Print. Pollitzer, R.. Plague. Geneva: World Health Organization, 1954. Print.