Industry & Competitive Analysis Essays - Brewing, Microbrewery, Beer

Industry & Competitive Analysis CHIEF ECONOMIC TRAITS OF THE BEER INDUSTRY The market size of the beer industry is incredible. The wholesale volume in the beer industry is approxiametly $13.7 billion. The industry employes almost 40,000 people. The average worker is paid about $18.27 an hour. As you can see, this is a very large industry which provides many jobs to the american workforce. The market consists of many competitors, some being very large and some operating on a very small scale. The competitive rivalry is broken up into three segments, Natiional, Regional , and Microbrewers. National competitors have a wide market coverage and generally a large company. Regional competitors are smaller than National in the fact that they only distribute in certain regions. Microbrewers are the smallest of the three because their size and capacity limit them to only distribute to small geographic areas. The market growth rate of the beer industry is perplexing. In domestic brands, from 1983 to 1984 there has been a decline in consumption of -1.2%. In the imported section there has been an increase of 14.3%. The total industry as a whole declined .7% from 1983 to 1984. As a result of the decline in consumption of beer a similar result in production occurred with a decline of 1.2% The estimated forecast for 1985 will continue along the same trend as did 1984. The long term outlook for the industry is that sales will remain flat for the next 10 to 20 years. There are many companies in the industry. Through the years the industry has slimmed down quite a bit. The National market consists of ten major competitors. The Competitors in this market are Anheuser-Busch, Miller, Stroh, G. Heileman, Adolphs Coors, Pabst, Genesee, C. Schmidt, Falstaff, and Pittsburgh. The National companies have 51 plant locations across the United States. Market share in the Domestic market ranges from a low of .5% to a high of 34%. The Import market consists mainly of ten major brands also. They are Heineken(Netherlands), Molson(Canada), Beck's(Germany), Moosehead(Canada), Labatt(Canada), St. Pauli Girl(Germany), Dos Equis(Mexico), Foster's Lager(Australia), Amstel Light(Netherlands), and Corona(Mexico). These ten brands hold about 87% of the imported market share. The individual companies range in market share from 34% on down. A few regional companies, and many small microbrewers make up the rest of the companies in the industry. The customers for the beer industry are highly diverse. They range from being highly educated to non-educated, and male to female. Income ranges for those who drink beer are also very diverse. Single people drink more beer than Married according to 1983 U.S. beer drinker demographics. College professors are known to be customers also. Due too lack of information in the case the degree of vertical integration among the companies in the industry is not certain. I am certain that a few of the larger companies have gone into producing their own packaging(Cans, Bottles, etc.). This would be a way to cut out some of the power of suppliers if a company were to do this. The ease of entry in the beer industry is segmented among the three market coverage types. In the national market the ease of entry is low. There are many barriers to entry in the national market. Beer is regulated in 50 different ways in the United States. Large capital requirements and distribution networks make it hard to enter the national market. The regional market is a little easier to get into because of fewer regulations due to smaller market coverage. Capital requirements are not as big in the regional market. Local or microbrewers have the fewest barriers to entry. Capital requirements are small compared to that of a national or regional brewer. Microbrewers generally operate in a small geographic area thus reducing many of the regulations faced by national and regional brewers. Product characteristics vary among the markets. In the national market the beer is highly standardized and heavily advertised. The beer is inexpensive. There is some product differentiation in the market with the broad product offerings that the national brewers can give. ex. Light beer, Amber beer, Low Alcohol, And Malt Liquor. Imports are perceived to be better quality: when in fact, they are really not. Because of this perception, Import beer

EVALUATING NORTH AMERICAN HEALTH SYSTEMS Essays - Health Economics

EVALUATING NORTH AMERICAN HEALTH SYSTEMS Essays - Health Economics EVALUATING NORTH AMERICAN HEALTH SYSTEMS I received an 78% in a third year Public Finance Course for this paper. Criticisms were that I did not detail why private enterprise does not work. Also that a couple of paragraphs were too long. I am a third year Bachelor of Science student majoring in Economics. EVALUATING NORTH AMERICAN HEALTH SYSTEMS INTRODUCTION Compensating the affairs of economic efficiency with the demands of sociopolitical rights is a constant source of tension in Canada and the United States alike. In no other element is this tension more apparent than in the group of complex markets we call the health care system. Canadians have been fortunate enough to receive a universal health care system for nearly forty years. This is a single-payer system funded by the governments, both provincial and federal, but at what costs? Is health care not unlike any other commodity, or is it the privilege of every citizen? Health care has elements of common economic behavior, however, there are also certain social values associated with it. It is this struggle of defining what health care is that causes such anxiety among economists. The Canadian health care system is slowly crippling the economy, and reforms must be devised to preserve the pride of Canada; our health care system itself. The pluralistic health care scheme of the United States, as well, has serious socioeconomic implications, and American policy makers are looking toward the model of the Canadian system for answers. Both the United States and Canada must reform health care policy, but to what extent? Obviously these questions cannot necessarily yield clear, concise answers, however they will provide insight into analyzing the current and proposed systems of health care. Certainly if Canada is to maintain a high standard of care it must adopt an economically efficient, revenue generating system. Moreover the United States must adopt the single-payer system of Canada while still retaining a strong revenue base. This paper will discuss the strengths and shortcomings of the Canadian health care system, and how health care is a sociopolitical enigma. Furthermore, how the single-payer system is the only realistic response to the growing inadequacies within the American socioeconomic status. CANADIAN HEALTH CARE STRUCTURE Serving as a general background in its appraisal, it is necessary to outline the history and the ambient factors of the Canada health care that is so sought after by the United States. The Canadian health-insurance program, called Medicare, is administered by provincial governments and regulated and partly financed by the national government. Medicare pays basic medical and hospital bills for all Canadians, where the governments determine the criterion of basic care, to insure and maintain a standard level of service. As early as 1919, Canadas Liberal party promised national health insurance, but the first real step was taken in Saskatchewan, where in 1947 province wide hospital insurance was introduced. A national hospital-insurance act followed in 1958, and by 1960, 99% of Canadians were covered by government run hospital insurance. Saskatchewan was again the first in 1961 to introduce medical-care insurance which covered doctors services as well. However, this was not an easy tra nsformation. In 1962 when the medical insurance act was implemented, the doctors of Saskatchewan went on strike. As a part of the settlement the government agreed to a modified plan that addressed some of the doctors grievances. Despite the opposition from provinces, doctors and insurance companies, national Medicare legislation was in place by 1967, and today health care is a constitutional right. The arrangement reached by all provinces by 1972 was that the federal government paid half the cost of the provincial plans, provided the plans met five principles: accessibility, universality of coverage, portability from province to province, comprehensiveness of service, and government administration. Under the system the health care provider bills the provincial plan directly. The Canadian Health Act, effective in 1984, clarified the national standards and may penalize provinces that allow doctors to bill for more than the Medicare rate. The Canadian provinces spend a third of their budgets on health and hospitals. High-tech medicine and an aging population have caused Canadas medical costs to rise significantly over the past decade. Increasingly, governments attempt to control costs by promoting personal fitness, cutting back the number

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The topic is about different social class school have different works(read two articles I provide, then write paper on the basis of two articles) - Essay Example Economically sound students can acquire knowledge from different sources whereas students from poor economic backgrounds may struggle to get enough resources for their learning needs. For example, computers and internet are essential for the students to get proper insights into the topics they learned in the class. However, poor students may not have the financial abilities to purchase it. Jean Anyon categorised schools into five different groups based on their social class; Working-class, middle-class, affluent, professional, and executive elite schools. On the other hand, Malcolm X illustrates how a learner may take responsibility of his/her own learning as he uses his new skill of reading and hunger for knowledge to learn the history of prejudice and discrimination against â€Å"the black man†. This paper analyses how active and analytical learning pedagogy and approaches as experienced by Malcolm X in comparison to Jean Anyon’s various social class based teaching me thods prove to be an effective pedagogy of teaching and learning as well as preparing our future leaders. Passive education or teaching is taking place in working class schools. â€Å"Social studies in the working-class schools is also largely mechanical, rote work that was given little explanation or connection to larger contexts. In one school, for example, although there was a book available, social studies work was to copy the teachers notes from the board. Several times a week for a period of several months the children copied these notes† (Anyon, p.5). â€Å"I read the histories of various nations which opened my eyes gradually, then wider and wider† (Malcolm, p.4). Both Malcolm and Anyon are saying the same thing that active education or teaching is not taking place in America, at least in the lower category schools. Teachers in such schools are not much interested in explaining the topics in detail. They will never try to explain the purpose, aim, and

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Experimental economics, summary paper - Essay Example The people bidding do not know the reserve price. Another rule is that the seller cannot bid on himself to avoid prices going up artificially. This practice is unethical and illegal. â€Å"No auction house that values its reputation – and the long run profits its reputation secures – would systematically engage in this practice† (Ashenfelter). The fact that reserve prices are kept secret is considered by many an illogical tactic. This occurs because the most dominant strategy used is to bid up in regards to the true valuation of the object which makes the optimal reserve price identical irrelevant of the reserve price being known or kept a secret. Another variable that must be considered in the English auction system is buy-in rates. Sometimes buy-in rates are high despite the fact that the reserve price is also high. These types of sellers are looking to maximize their profit both in terms of final price and buy-in revenues. Auctions that are able to get a lot o f bidders to buy-in generate greater profits than places with few bidders participating in the game. Low turnout of bidders is an undesirable marketplace. When this occurs many sellers prefer to take their items off the market temporarily to protect themselves against collusion from the buyers in an attempt to depress the price. The highest bidding in an auction is only accepted if the bid ends up exceeding the reserve price.

What Is Systematic Literature Review Information Technology Essay

What Is Systematic Literature Review Information Technology Essay Empirical software engineering requires the scientific employment of qualitative and quantitative data to realize and improve the software product and process. To conduct empirical studies, the process steering steps to be performed and research strategy are very essential elements [11]. Apart from the traditional method such as experiments, case studies and surveys, the systematic literature review, also called systematic review, is another strategy becoming normally used in empirical software engineering in order to identify relevant empirical studies and combine results to provide reliable information for researcher. This paper aims to provide the general idea of systematic review, process to conduct the review according to the existing guideline and suggestion to improve the guideline. The paper is structured as follows: section 1 gives an introduction to systematic review, explains the reason why systematic review is needed, discusses the differences from narrative review and pros and cons of systematic review. Section 2 explains process of conducting systematic review in detail according to Kitchenham ¿Ã‚ ½s guideline [1]. Since there are still some restrictions and gaps could be improved in the guideline, section 3 described those limitations and provides suggestions for improvement. Lastly, section 4 presents some concluding remarks. 1.1 What is Systematic literature review? Systematic literature review is the methodology that researchers use to gather and evaluate available information to specific research topic. The use of a SLR is mainly proposed to provide an unbiased and systematic approach to answer a structural question which focuses to research topics. The studies or articles that used for systematic review are called primary studies, the systematic review itself is considered as the secondary studies. The review process is very formal with strict procedures and sequence. Each step of the process must be well-defined and can be reproducible by other researchers. The selection criterion of primary studies and type of acceptable information are also defined before hand and thoroughly reviews. To identify the primary studies is done by the use of searching technique. All search methodology and selection criteria are transparent for the reader by described in review protocol. Thus, this means other readers can replicate this review in systematic way. Finally, selected primary studies are analyzed and aggregated, in which forming a systematic review for answer the research questions. 1.2 Why Systematic reviews is needed? Originally, systematic review has been introduced in medical and clinical field as a way to help clinical practitioner finds the answer to their question relating to their practices. Before systematic review was implemented, researchers have difficulties in several areas that traditional review cannot satisfy their need. There is no structural way to review primary studies and to ensure that all related evidence has been evaluated. To summarize and evaluate the knowledge from primary studies is very difficult and also because each study may use different design and organization of information may be vary. The result from traditional review is difficult to evaluation if there is conflicting result. Many times, reader of the review have some doubt to the quality of researchers ¿Ã‚ ½ work since the review method is not clear and explicit. In addition, due to broad scope of traditional review, the result of the review can easily be bias as the selection choice by reviewer may not be co nsistency without well defined guideline of the selection. Thus, systematic review methodology has been introduced to address those difficulties. Systematic review process have increasingly recognized and replaced traditional reviews in many academic fields including software engineering discipline since it provides effective way to summarize and determine research result to help those researchers in their studies. The researchers can utilize systematic review to design new studies that previously difficult in the past with traditional review. With systematic review, it helps reducing reviewer bias since it uses objective and reproducible criteria for primary sources selection with strict assessment of the resources. It also help s researchers to combine result from several small studies in which can help them conclude more precise and dependable result. Moreover, it assists in identifying gap that researchers could make further investigation [1]. 1.3 Differences between Systematic and Unsystematic review There are several key differences between systematic review and unsystematic review or traditional review. This topic will discuss each difference of these two types of review. First, the search for primary studies of these two reviews is widely different, with traditional review, the scope of primary studies search usually have wide range of coverage with no strict rules how to search. In contrast, the search of primary studies in systematic review is very focused on the topics, researchers need to identify question and predefined search rules that can be reproducible by other researchers. Second, the primary sources selection process is also different. With systematic review, selection process has to be predetermined; researchers must decide which type of resources is acceptable for the review so that the selection process is explicit and transparent, and then select primary sources with these strict rules and criteria. Unlike systematic review, traditional review selection process does not have specified criteria on the selection process and dependent on researchers experiences to select the primary sources. Finally, the evaluation method of systematic review followed strict evaluation rules to evaluate each of selected primary sources while traditional review is variable based on individual researchers methods. 1.4 Advantages and disadvantages of Systematic review Though there are several advantages that researchers can utilize systematic review method in their studies, there are still some disadvantages remain comparing with traditional review. Researchers will need to aware and select review type that is appropriate with their situation. This topic will discuss both advantage and disadvantage of systematic review. Advantages  ¿Ã‚ ½ One of the major advantages of the systematic review is that it improves the precision and completeness of the result. Because systematic review process uses well-defined method to search and select for primary studies in which will result in less biased sources comparing with traditional review  ¿Ã‚ ½ The systematic review process helps researchers to identify the consistency or inconsistency of the result from its selection process. If result is consistent, it provides strong answer to researchers ¿Ã‚ ½ questions. If not, researchers can identify the gap and then study the variance. This benefit will be difficult to identify through traditional review process.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Systematic review can apply statistic technique (meta-analysis) to help combining data from more than one primary studies which will give more precise answer to researchers question than using only one primary study. With traditional review, it will be more difficult for researchers to compare and conclude the result from several primary studies to answer their focus question. Disadvantages  ¿Ã‚ ½ Because of its limited focus and predefined method, as it is the advantage of systematic review, it can be disadvantage in some cases. Since the process does not allow comprehensive coverage of the evidence to answer research topics. Thus, researchers must carefully determine their condition and select technique appropriately. In general, traditional review is more useful if researchers want to obtain more broad perspective of their research topic comparing to systematic review.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Traditional review is more useful if the researched topic is the brand new topic, since not much primary studies will be available. Traditional review will have more information coverage than systematic review.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Due to its strictness in process and methodology, systematic review process usually needs more time and effort from researchers to conduct the review. 2. Systematic review guidelines As first introduced in medical research studied, systematic review has also been brought to software engineering field by B. Kitchenham (2004). Since software engineering research method is less strict and less experimented-dependent comparing with medical studies, the revision is needed in the process of systematic review to adapt to the characteristic of software engineering studies. The guidelines emphasize the distinction to medical systematic reviews and guide the software engineering researchers how to perform a systematic review. There are several activities involves in the systematic literature review and they are specified in the guideline. In this section, I refer to the guideline suggested by Kitchenham [1] which describes a systematic review process into three main phases: Planning the review, Conducting the review and Document or Reporting or the review. Each of them consists of order of stages. The implementation each phase involves iteration, feedback and refinement in order to move to next stage and finally reach satisfactory outcomes as illustrated in figure 1. Please note that there are some more optional stages described in the guideline. But I only refer to the stages that are essential to be performed Fig. 1. Phases in Systematic Review 2.1 Planning the review In the first phase of the review, the final outcome which would be produced is a review protocol. It is considered as a plan which defines the research questions that will be addressed by the review and basic review procedures. The planning phase consists of the following stages:  ¿Ã‚ ½ Identification of the need for a review  ¿Ã‚ ½ Specifying the research question(s)  ¿Ã‚ ½ Developing a review protocol  ¿Ã‚ ½ Evaluating the review protocol 2.1.1 Identification of the need for a review Before conducting the review, the reasons behind why the systematic review could answer the research questions or could be useful for further must be given. Originally, the need for a systematic review initiates from the demand to fairly sum up all existing information about some phenomenon. Probably the reasons are to represent more general conclusions instead of just obtaining from individual studies, or may be carried out to lead up to further research activities. In particular, Kitchenham notes that the researchers should first make sure that a new systematic review is really needed before starting the review. And they should consider finding any existing systematic reviews relates to the topic of interest. It could be possible that they do not even need a new systematic review if there existed. Besides, the already published systematic review could help construct a protocol. 2.1.2 Specifying the research question(s) This is the most important stage of the systematic review process. The research questions can be seen as a goal of the review since they drive the whole process of systematic review. To be in detail, the search process is conducted with the aim to classify primary studies that discuss the research questions. Furthermore, the data extraction and analysis processes must extract and synthesize the data in such a way to answer the questions. Kitchenham notes that asking the right question is the important issue in any systematic review. She provides some guideline questions to help in construct the correct questions. She also discusses the characteristics and various types of research questions which are proper for the systematic review. For detailed structure of the questions, the PICOC (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcomes, and Context) criteria are used to define the review question elements. Besides, Kitchenham discusses about the different kinds of experimental designs to derive the acceptable studies. In particular, she argues whether studies based on primary studies of one particular type should be accepted for systematic reviews in software engineering. 2.1.3 Developing a review protocol A review protocol is a concrete plan which details the process and strategy to perform a particular systematic review. A pre-defined protocol is crucial to minimize the possibility of researchers ¿Ã‚ ½ bias. The protocol contains all the essentials of the review and some other planning information. The elements described in protocol are: background, research questions, planned search strategy, study selection criteria and procedures, quality assessment criteria and procedures, data extraction strategy, data synthesis strategy and project timetable. Kitchenham suggests that the review protocol should be piloted during its development to find mistakes in the data search procedures, in which it can help to improve the review methodology. 2.1.4 Evaluating the review protocol Because the review protocol is significant for the systematic review, it should be evaluated before execution. The evaluation procedures are done by asking researchers or experts to review the protocol and the agreements among all reviewers must be reached. 2.2 conducting the review This is the execution phase which follows the plan defined in the review protocol. The final outcomes of the systematic review are generated in the end of this phase. To conduct the review, the subsequent stages must be carried out:  ¿Ã‚ ½ Identification of research  ¿Ã‚ ½ Selection of primary studies  ¿Ã‚ ½ Study quality assessment  ¿Ã‚ ½ Data extraction and monitoring  ¿Ã‚ ½ Data synthesis 2.2.1 Identification of research Since the systematic review aims to find all possible of available publications relating to the research question and make conclusion in a fair manner, how to generate the search strategy and publication bias are the critical issues that Kitchenham discusses in this stage. The search strategies defined in the protocol are used to discover the relevant publications. In general, the search strategies are done iteratively by trial searches using different combinations of search terms and in consultations with relevant experts. Typically the search term can be obtained by separate the research questions into individual elements base on PICOC criteria and then create a list of synonyms and relevant words. Another good way to derive the search term is by analyzing the heading of journals. Kitchenham notes that the search strategy should be designed to detect articles that report pessimistic results in order to illustrate researchers ¿Ã‚ ½ bias. Other major concerns regarding the systemat ic review are the completeness and repeatability. Kitchenham suggests that the review process must be transparent and replicable. By providing sufficient detail when documenting the review, this enables the study to be replicable and allows the external reader to evaluate the search terms. And the search terms should be documented properly. 2.2.2 Selection of primary studies The purpose of the selection process is to assess if obtained primary studies have any actual relevance to the research questions. So that we can identify ones that provide direct information for the review. This process should proceed according to the plan defined in the protocol. Kitchenham explains that the study selection is a multistage process. Firstly, base on the research questions, the researchers should define the study criteria to point out the direct relevant studies. These inclusion and exclusion criteria should be piloted to ensure the reliability and correctness when interpreted. The exclusion criteria should be applied first in order to exclude any irrelevant studies. Kitchenham suggests keeping the record of excluded publication with the reason of exclusion just after all unrelated publications have been filtered out. Then the inclusion criteria are applied to remaining studies. Kitchenham also mentions about how to increase trustworthiness of the process in an attem pt to decrease the possibility of bias. 2.2.3 Study quality assessment After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria to select the primary studies, the quality of primary studies is also considered significantly important to be assessed. Kitchenham describes how important of the quality assessment for example, to allow researchers to evaluate differences in the study, and to weight the importance of each study when synthesize the results. She also discusses about the hierarchy of the evidence described in medical guidelines. Base on their assumption, this hierarchy can be used to control the sorts of study included in the systematic review and it is a ground for the initial quality evaluation. To explain, the top of the hierarchy is the evidence from systematic reviews and controlled experiments, which is believed in the medical area that it is more reliable than the bottom level evidence such as the evidence from expert opinions. However, this argument was later proved that it is not always true. After that, Kitchenham describes about how to defi ne and to use the quality instruments. Basically, checklists are used to assess quality in detailed. To construct the checklists, factors that could bias study results are considered. 2.2.4 Data extraction and monitoring Once the primary studies have been selected, the next step is to extract the relevant information. The extraction process should be performed as defined in review protocol which will describe the extraction forms used to collect the data from the filtered primary studies and also the procedure of data extraction. Kitchenham discusses what should be contained in the data collection form. Not only the information to facilitate the answer of review question and the criteria for quality assessment are included, but also the basic information such as name of reviewer, date of performing data extraction and publication detail must be given. Importantly, the extraction form must be piloted before implementation. Kitchenham suggests that there should be two or more researchers perform data extraction independently. And they have to set agreements either by consensus or by using additional researchers to resolve disagreements on the data. If each paper cannot be assessed by at least two resea rchers, some checking technique, such as random sample of primary studies, has to be employed to ensure that the data are extracted correctly. Monitoring data is also important to perform in this stage. Kitchenham notes that multiple publications of the same study should not be contained in the systematic review since it can lead to bias. It is sometimes needed to contact the authors to make sure if those publications refer to the same study or not and also to derive the required information if the data obtained from studies are missing or we need some unpublished data. 2.2.5 Data synthesis Data synthesis aims to gather and summarize the data extracted from selected primary studies. Same as other stages, the activities to be performed should be defined in the review protocol. Base on Kitchenham research on various options of data combination from several types of studies, sensitivity analyses is suggested to perform to find out the impacts on the synthesis results where some studies are higher quality than others. 2.3 Reporting the review The purpose of this last phase is to write the results of the review. The guidelines explain there are three main stages in this phase  ¿Ã‚ ½ Specifying dissemination mechanism  ¿Ã‚ ½ Formatting the main report  ¿Ã‚ ½ Evaluating the report The final report does not only include the answers to the intended research questions, but it also need to specify the dissemination strategy so that the researcher can expose the result efficiently. Kitchenham presents seven mechanisms to disseminate the systematic reviews results. They are: a) Academic journals and/or conferences b) Practitioner-oriented journals and/or magazines c) Press Releases to the popular and specialist press d) Short summary leaflets e) Posters f) Web pages g) Direct communication to affected bodies Basically, the results are reported in two formulas: in a technical report or in a conference or journal paper. After writing the reports, it is necessary to perform evaluation. Kitchenham discusses evaluation technique for each type of reports. One effective technique is organizing a peer review. The structure and contents of report papers can be seen in the Kitchenham ¿Ã‚ ½s guideline [1]. 3. Improvement suggestions on Systematic review guidelines This section aims to present limitations and to provide suggestion for improvement on each step of the systematic review guidelines on software engineering. The recommendations are collected base on lessons learned and experiences from various articles which utilize systematic review as literature review technique. The study reported in [7] reveals that one of the significant problems of publishing low quality systematic review is that some people conducting systematic review do not understand exactly what systematic review is and how to perform it. So, they end up with having no obvious research questions, explicit search strategy and so on. The subsequent suggestions should be always kept in mind before starting and while performing the systematic review  ¿Ã‚ ½ Thoroughly review and study the guidelines, e.g. Kitchenham ¿Ã‚ ½s guidelines.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Review several SLR examples and experiences to help you understand the process.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Make sure you understand each step of activities and be reasonable for everything you do.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Record the decisions made during conducting the systematic review as much as possible since this information will be needed for writing the final report. According to [2], they suggest to perform training on systematic reviewing in the very first step in order to make the reviewers familiar with the specific terms in the area where they will conduct systematic review. Furthermore, this helps the reviewers get better understanding about the review process and activities. 3.1 Planning the review During this phase, the main activities to be performed are specifying the purpose of conducting a systematic review, formulating research questions, developing and evaluating a review protocol. 3.1.1 Identification of the need for a review In order to identify the clear statement of the objective of the review, the researchers should use the checklist to help pointing out the reasons and ensure their needs. Regarding this issue, there are several useful checklists provided in Kitchenham ¿Ã‚ ½s guideline [1]. In addition to identify rationale of the review, Staples and Niazi [3] collected information from case studies, surveys, and reports to check if the intended research questions are possible to be answered by systematic review. This is founded very useful since they come to know what is common and uncommon in the research questions. Sometimes people thought the question is normal and feasible to be answered by other researches but in the later phases when they try searching for the related literature, they found that their question is very uncommon and then they have to discard those questions. Another crucial point is that the researchers should try to identify the existing systematic review related to their topics of interested in order to avoid conducting a duplicate review. Nevertheless, it is quite difficult to find published systematic review in the area of software engineering comparing with medicine. Since there is no powerful scientific database which collects systematic reviews of studies related to software engineering empirical studies, like the Cochrane (www.cochrane.com) which stores a large amount of systematic reviews of medical research. Although there are currently several services providing access to sources of software engineering publications, there are still many restrictions of those publications as followings [17]:  ¿Ã‚ ½ The available studies is limited and disintegrated properly since many researchers in this field are focused on their own style to generate result rather than structural review process.  ¿Ã‚ ½ It is difficult to combine the result of software engineering review because the quality of review is so variable with no agreed standard for systematic review for this field.  ¿Ã‚ ½ There is no guideline that is well-accepted, though some guideline has been proposed but it neither addresses all necessary topics nor provided sufficient detail. 3.1.2 Specifying the research question(s) As mentioned before, the research questions are specified as part of the review protocol and will be used to construct the search string for searching related primary studies. Basically they will be revised repeatedly during piloting the review protocol and should not be changed when the protocol is committed. The most important point when formulate the research questions is to make them as obvious and concrete as possible. Other than structuring the question by using the PICOC criteria which is shown in [1], it is essential to specify rationale to formulate a particular question. Tabulate the question and purpose such in table 1 could be helpful. Table 1. Research question Research question Purpose RQ1: RQ2: Brereton et al [4] recommend that during protocol construction, researchers should anticipate to refine their research question both for increasing their understanding and making the automated search more effective. There are several systematic reviews, for example the  ¿Ã‚ ½Systematic literature review of guidelines for conducting systematic literature reviews ¿Ã‚ ½ in [4], which firstly define a few research questions. Later on, after investigation some information sources, those questions are extended in more detailed questions Regarding [5], the research questions are not only the questions that needed to be answer by the review, but also the question providing some idea in the area of such a topic for better comprehension. This is also confirmed by Staples and Niazi [3] since their research questions are part of a larger research project. By performing the systematic review on these questions will help them understand better in the project background. By selecting clear and narrow research questions, it helps confining the scope of a systematic literature. [4] proposes another method that may help to scope the research question. That is a systematic pre-review mapping study. The idea is to map out sorts of studies relating the systematic review question have been conducted. The mapping process can be considered as a quick data extraction but the studies described are not very details. The further information about mapping study can be found at [12]. 3.1.3 Developing a review protocol As explained in the section 2, the protocol provides information of the plan for conduction the review, including, for example, the procedure to be performed, the search strategy for selecting primary studies, the allocation of reviewers to some specific activities and the quality assessment criteria for evaluate primary studies. Lacking of a protocol, some process such as the selection of primary studies or data analysis and synthesis may be motivated by researcher bias [14]. And because one of the key features of the systematic review is repeatable, a well-documented review protocol is needed to guarantee the reproducibility of the review. Many experiences on systematic review show that developing a review protocol is an iteration process that needs several revisions to get the complete protocol. Thus, the researchers should expect protocol changes, take a long time and allot appropriate time for it. Brereton et al [4] suggests all members in systematic review team should participate actively in constructing the review protocol, in which helps all of them get insights about the protocol and understand the process of data extraction. Additionally, piloting the review protocol is highly suggested to be performed. Not only because it supports discovering misunderstandings and mistakes in the data extraction and aggregation process, but also it may specify that the researchers need to change the method planned to deal with the research questions. As mentioned above, the search strategy must be documented in the protocol, enabling the reader of a review to evaluate how accurate and complete this is. However, due to the restriction of existing software engineering search engines that are not well-supported systematic reviews like in medicine, the software engineers should conduct resource-dependent searches. In particular, they might have to use different search string for each searchable sources which have different form interfaces and search syntaxes [4]. The followings are recommendations to improve the search strategy.  ¿Ã‚ ½ Searches should be performed to title as well as abstract [6]. However, before making a decision to accept or reject a primary study, searching on summary and content is founded very useful. Since mostly in software engineering, the abstract and titles are not much indicative [6] and not so dependable for primary studies selection [4].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Any search strategy should be made up of multiple keywords, and it is essential to use a various combinations of terms to get the very successful search [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Using more standardized vocabulary will promote the search results [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ For some software engineering topics, the publications in related fields should be searched as well. i.e. information systems, psychology, economics, quality, artificial intelligence [6]  ¿Ã‚ ½ To get the most out of relevant publications, synonyms of the main search term should be used for search [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ It is likely that adding other more general terms to synonyms of the key search term detects more relevant studies. However, this tends to increase the number of irrelevant articles as well. So, it should only be used when there are a number of systematic review resources available in detecting and rejecting irrelevant articles [6]  ¿Ã‚ ½ It is not necessary to search on all the search fields because it is not considerably benefits the response and also requires a big effort [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Construct search strings using Boolean  ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½AND ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ to link the key terms and  ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½OR ¿Ã‚ ½Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ to group synonyms [4]. An example could be the following: (experiment OR  ¿Ã‚ ½empirical study ¿Ã‚ ½) AND ( ¿Ã‚ ½software cost estimation ¿Ã‚ ½ OR  ¿Ã‚ ½software effort estimation ¿Ã‚ ½)  ¿Ã‚ ½ Try searching from synonyms to the term representing the study type need to search [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Include search fields that typically contain the key terms of the study type such as title and abstract [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ To get the key search terms. ,beak down the research questions into single words pertaining to the types of study that will help answer the question, technology of interested, and the response test [4].  ¿Ã‚ ½ After deriving the key search terms, using various combinations of those terms to perform trial searches [6].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Specifying the year of the paper first published in the search string can help lessen the amount of irrelevant articles [4].  ¿Ã‚ ½ Be careful when using the Basic or Advances search forms because some search engines may produce different results even though the key searched terms are the s

Malaria Essay -- Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Malaria There are a great number of diseases that are endemic in many of the poorer, developing nations due to the lack of sanitation and disease prevention programs in these areas. The steady increase of malaria epidemics in many of the African countries is a point of great concern, because this continent is home to 90% of the world’s total cases of this particular disease. Malaria gets its name from â€Å"mal aria,† meaning bad air, because patients used to blame the sudden illness on the poor air quality of the nearby swamps. Scientists now know that malaria is a parasitic infection caused by a single-celled protozoan, Plasmodium. Of the four types of this parasite, Plasmodium falciparum is recognized as the most dangerous and lethal string that infects human beings. The female Anopheles mosquito transmits the disease through its saliva, and the protozoan enters the bloodstream and is carried to the liver. The indications of the illness can appear within a week of the exposure or it can take up to a year for the effects to become noticeable. Malaria has many flu-like symptoms, such as headache, fever, nausea, vomiting, sweating, tiredness, and general muscle pain. These characteristics are attributed to many forms of illness, which can prove difficult in the diagnosis of this serious disease early enough for effective treatmen t. The treatment of malaria is commonly administered in the form of a DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) antibiotic. This drug works to eliminate the parasite from the patients blood stream and, therefore, limit the chance of communicating the disease and infecting other people. The drug also significantly reduces the frequency of severity of the patient’s symptoms... ...d Pestilence: From Ancient Times to the Present, Rev. Ed. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2001. This article was an updated history of African malaria outbreaks and the specific causes of and reactions to these epidemics. â€Å"Malaria.† CDC Division of Parasitic Diseases Information. 3 Mar. 2002. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. 5 Oct. 2002 . This site gave important information about precautions that travelers should take before going to high-risk areas of the world. â€Å"Malaria Facts.† NIAID Quickfacts Page. 17 Sept. 2002. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH. 6 Oct. 2002 . This NIH site provides an in-depth look at the infection/spread of malaria with multiple links for additional information.

The effects of technology on teenagers

The modern technological world is swiftly changing and advancing before our very eyes. Technology has become part of our every day lives with, mobile phones, laptops, iPods, Wi-Fi spots available nearly everywhere, mp3 players and an enormous array of gaming consoles – there is no avoiding it. Technology has fully developed into the 21st century and seems to have brought with it an unending list of potential detriments. These especially have negative effects on teenagers although it is argued that technology may have also provided a positive impact on today’s youth, for instance, an increase in social activity. I myself, being a teenager of the 21st century cannot even begin to fathom the capabilities of technology. The possibilities are literally endless, however if used without discretion it could also create a generation that solely relies on technology for satisfaction and happiness. The first main problem technology brings to teenagers is the Internet – a global network connecting millions of computers. Now you may be failing to see what the problem is in this description but the budding dangers of the Internet are extremely high and are all around even if they don’t seem obvious at first. Seeing as the Internet is a huge part of a teenager’s life because it provides so many positive opportunities, it isn’t hard to fall into the easy traps of the Internet. For example information such as pictures, projects, videos and documents can be sent with a click of a button; it primarily simplifies teenage life. So, where is the issue in this? The key issue is that whatever goes on the Internet can never truly be gone, even after it has been deleted. The moment that something is posted online, it falls into the hands of millions of strangers who can then download that photo or video, or save a copy of that post. My main point is that what goes on the Internet stays on the Internet and could most likely end up downloaded on someone’s computer. Recently, this issue has affected more and more teenagers. This is mainly because the youth of today are so used to using the Internet, it has become a part of their life but so many are unaware of how to stay safe online. In addition to potentially putting yourself in danger at the click of a button, technology can also take a toll on your behaviour. As teenagers we are still discovering ourselves and establishing our identities. The majority of us have a strong desire for acceptance in society and the images that are available for teenagers to see on the Internet or on television have a strong effect on the process of becoming who we are. These images often stimulate the ideals of the perfect body or how you should behave, especially for young girls. In one study, 69% of girls said that models they see on television fix their idea of what a perfect body shape is. With this much influence from technology it isn’t surprising that eating disorders have grown 400% since 1970. Girls as young as eight years old are becoming conscious of their weight because of these ideals that are set by the world of technology. As upsetting as these statistics are, it does reflect life for young people in the 21st century. Most teenagers can say they have been influenced by the images they see online but the real problem that technology brings is that nowadays, more often than not; these influences are being taken to extremities. Most importantly, technology can be affecting our health. During the past 20 years, obesity in young people has risen drastically and the main contributor is technology. Today, teenagers spend a lot more time in front of the television, or playing video games or using computers. Technology has become a constant companion, completely replacing the idea of active play. More than 40 studies have proven that technology contributes to an inactive lifestyle and weight gain in teenagers. Therefore, this issue is also a reflection of teenage life nowadays as child obesity has become a social epidemic Overall, technology is the perfect example of what life is like in the UK in the 21st century. It is the one thing that has developed the most throughout the years; almost to an extent where people rely on it so much they cannot live without it. It is certainly a huge aspect of young people’s lives as a recent survey showed that 93% of all teenagers aged 12-17 uses the Internet or emails. The worrying statistic is that 58% of teens don’t believe that posting photos or other personal information on social networking sites is unsafe. Things like this are an even bigger aspect of teenage life and unfortunately also reflects life in the 21st century as teenagers are becoming increasingly active online and are at a high risk of falling into the trap of online predators. Nevertheless, I am not completely against technology. I am part of that 93% of teenagers and of course it does have its benefits too, such as educating us, making life easier and simply for its entertainment and social capabilities.

Free Essays on Parents

Parents are very influential in the way their child views his or her surroundings. The majority of children get their thoughts, ideas and views from their parents. When poverty is present in a child’s life it tends to shape the way he or she view things in the world. Finally, the immediate surroundings or environment can have an impact on a child’s views. In The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros Esperanza is faced with these three aspects in her childhood. Esperanza’s lack of parental guidance, the poverty surrounding her, and the environment she lives in influence the way she views life. Raising a child is sometimes a difficult task. Children are often adventurous in seeking answers to the questions they have about life and where they fit in. Parents have the responsibility of answering these questions, and these answers are often opinionated which provide the child with the same views as the parent. Esperanza views her mother as a pretty, warm loving person: â€Å"my mother’s hair, my mothers hair, like little rosettes, like little candy circles all curly and pretty because she pinned it in pincurls all day, sweet to put your nose into when she is holding you, holding you and you feel safe†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (6). As Esperanza’s parent, it is her responsibility to recognize how much Esperanza looks up to her and to set good examples for her to follow, but she always doesn’t do so. The day of her cousin’s baptism her mother doesn’t bring home the shoes Esperanza wanted for her new outfit, showing Esperanza she really doesn’ t care about her feelings. Once they arrived at the baptism her mother again sets a bad example and begins to drink, but she gets out of hand and becomes ill from it. â€Å"Mama dances, laughs, dances. All of a sudden, mama is sick† (47). She is demonstrating that it is all right to drink heavily in front of children. All this is shaping Esperanzas’ beliefs, she is being led in a negative di... Free Essays on Parents Free Essays on Parents Parents are very influential in the way their child views his or her surroundings. The majority of children get their thoughts, ideas and views from their parents. When poverty is present in a child’s life it tends to shape the way he or she view things in the world. Finally, the immediate surroundings or environment can have an impact on a child’s views. In The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros Esperanza is faced with these three aspects in her childhood. Esperanza’s lack of parental guidance, the poverty surrounding her, and the environment she lives in influence the way she views life. Raising a child is sometimes a difficult task. Children are often adventurous in seeking answers to the questions they have about life and where they fit in. Parents have the responsibility of answering these questions, and these answers are often opinionated which provide the child with the same views as the parent. Esperanza views her mother as a pretty, warm loving person: â€Å"my mother’s hair, my mothers hair, like little rosettes, like little candy circles all curly and pretty because she pinned it in pincurls all day, sweet to put your nose into when she is holding you, holding you and you feel safe†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (6). As Esperanza’s parent, it is her responsibility to recognize how much Esperanza looks up to her and to set good examples for her to follow, but she always doesn’t do so. The day of her cousin’s baptism her mother doesn’t bring home the shoes Esperanza wanted for her new outfit, showing Esperanza she really doesn’ t care about her feelings. Once they arrived at the baptism her mother again sets a bad example and begins to drink, but she gets out of hand and becomes ill from it. â€Å"Mama dances, laughs, dances. All of a sudden, mama is sick† (47). She is demonstrating that it is all right to drink heavily in front of children. All this is shaping Esperanzas’ beliefs, she is being led in a negative di...

Silver-Spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus)

Silver-Spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus) The silver-spotted skipper, Epargyreus clarus, frequents roadsides, fields, and backyard gardens throughout North America. Skippers dash quickly from flower to flower, as if they are skipping around the meadow. What Do Silver-Spotted Skippers Look Like? Chances are youve seen a silver-spotted skipper. With their brown wings and quick movement, they might not be the first butterflies youd stop to observe. Take a closer look, and youll notice bands of orange on the forewings, and a silvery patch in the center of the hindwings. The silver-spotted skipper is the largest skipper in North America, with a wingspan of 1 3/4 - 2 5/8 inches. Silver-spotted skippers have enormous eyes that appear to bulge out from the head. Epargyreus clarus also has short antennae with clubbed ends. The odd-looking caterpillar has an enlarged head capsule and a pronounced neck collar. With a deep rust or black head and two bright red eyespots in the front, the caterpillar appears quite like a cartoon alien from outer space. The larvas body is yellow-green, with thin dark lines running across its width. By some accounts, the silver-spotted skipper lays her eggs on plants near the host plant, but not on the actual host. This requires the newly hatched larva to crawl and locate its food source. Most experts seem to dispute this theory, and argue the butterfly lays directly on the host plant. How Are Silver-Spotted Skippers Classified? Kingdom - AnimaliaPhylum - ArthropodaClass - InsectaOrder - LepidopteraFamily - HesperiidaeGenus - EpargyreusSpecies - Epagyreus clarus What Do Silver-Spotted Skippers Eat? Larvae feed on legumes, especially woody legumes. Black locust is the favorite host plant. Other host plants include honey locust, false indigo, bush clover, and tick-trefoils. Adult silver-spotted skippers nectar on many flowers, but show a clear preference for blue, red, pink, or purple varieties. They rarely visit yellow flowers. The Silver-Spotted SkippersLife Cycle Like all butterflies, the silver-spotted skipper undergoes four stages during its life cycle, a complete metamorphosis. The generations per year vary by region, with southern populations having the most broods. Egg - Green, dome-shaped eggs are laid singly on upper side of leaves.Larva - The caterpillar has a large brown head, with red eyespots at the front. The body is a yellow-green color.Pupa - These skippers overwinter in the chrysalis, hidden in rolled leaf litter.Adult - Adults emerge in spring. Males perch on tall weeds or branches, watching for females. They also patrol for potential mates. Special Adaptations and Defenses ofSilver-Spotted Skippers At night, or when the daytime weather prohibits flight, silver-spotted skippers hang upside down under leaves. Caterpillars build themselves tiny shelters using carefully cut pieces of leaves. As they grow, they abandon their old homes and build larger ones by joining leaves with silk. Where DoSilver-Spotted Skippers Live? Open parks, fields, gardens, and meadows, and where larval food plants are available. In North America, the silver-spotted skipper is common from Mexico to southern Canada, with the exception of the Great Basin region and western Texas. Worldwide reports include sightings in parts of Europe, Asia, and Australia. Sources: Silver-spotted Skipper, Butterflies and Moths of North AmericaSilver-spotted Skipper, Massachusetts Audubon - Butterfly Atlas

American Natural History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

American Natural History - Essay Example These eras are characterized in the essay based on the environmental situation of the Americas and its ways of improving the nature. Lastly, a comparison of the previous and past concepts of improving the nature will also be briefly discussed in this essay. The Colonial Period The Columbian Era October (1492-1502) The highlight of the environmental history of the United States started with Columbus’ arrival in San Salvador. Changes in the Land, written by William Cronon, documented how Columbus’ and other colonists’ arrival marked the beginning of people’s different attitude towards the environment. Columbus’ â€Å"Columbian Exchange† made possible the exchanges of diseases, plants, animals, and others that strengthened the link between Europe and America (Magoc 6). Loss of lives was a result of the natives’ willingness and active participation in trading. Mercantilism, which entails the extraction of natural resources for trading, exi sted between the native Indians and the colonists. By saying so, the gradual destruction of the native Indians’ environment was a result of their willingness in forging trading with the colonists which entails extraction of anything that can be exchanged to the Europeans. In other words, the natives were not forced to engage in trading; they simply did what they think could serve their needs. The precolonial and colonial period were marked by an abundance of natural resources, or as Cronon suggests, â€Å"limitless and overflowing† resources (168). The natives believe that their resources are endless, but the arrival of the Europeans made their beliefs changed. The colonists instilled in them the idea that nature’s abundance is limited. Nature, by all means, can be altered, diminished, or affected depending on how and to what extent the resources are used. Furthermore, land ownership has also altered the way the natives view possessions. The Europeans made them believe that even lands can be traded. The natives’ relationship with the land is a transient one, something that made them utilized the land based on how much it can provide them in a given period of time. What they believed to be traded with the colonists is not the land itself, but the rights associated with its use, such as the rights to till and hunt. However, that is not how the Europeans viewed mercantilism. This is enough to say that complacency and confidence towards the Europeans eventually started the destruction of the environment. Using land to trade is environmentally devastating because no one knows how it is going to be utilized. Altering them for mercantilism purposes destructs the whole naturality of the land. Worse, when one gets benefits from the land after a commercial venture, he or she is not satisfied and wants even more from changing the land. Humans are innately not contented creatures. The evidence, as documented by Cronon, was the European’s demand for fur bearing animals and beaver. As a result, beaver’s population diminished and affected the ecological balance. In Cronon’s words, â€Å"Beaver dams provided a natural alteration of the ecosystem. Eliminating the dam makers meant recreating the environment† (107). When there were acres of arable land, colonists also flocked the area, and this created a

Argument for Right for Gays to Adopt in Virginia Essay

Argument for Right for Gays to Adopt in Virginia - Essay Example In today’s society, there are more than 500,000 foster children waiting to be placed in stable, caring homes (Ruggeri, 29). There is a shortage of people who fit the broader social norm, this being the heterosexual individual or couple, to assist in the adopting process. Because of different political and social division that is present in society, many homosexuals are not given the opportunity to adopt these foster children or any other youths that have been put into the adoption system. Homosexuals, whether coupled or living in individual households, often face pressure from defiant ethical supporters and their social peers because of their lifestyles. When coupled with laws designed to prevent them from attaining equal status, offering themselves as potential parents for awaiting children becomes a significant uphill battle. The division that exists in society about the validity of homosexuals’ claims that they can be stable parents can be witnessed in the many different laws designed to prevent adoption by this social group. For example, a 2006 constitutional amendment banned same-sex marriage in Colorado with similar constraints in Indiana (Padgett, 51). In more progressive states, such as Connecticut and New Jersey, civil unions are allowed under law but are given considerable limitations compared to their heterosexual counterparts (Padgett). These laws, and many others which ban civil unions act as the foundation for why homosexuals are not considered qualified or capable parents for volumes of children looking for support and stability. In homosexual households consisting of two partners, it has been argued by many that extending same-sex marriage rights would tend to normalize the household for potential adopted children.