Sunday, May 24, 2020

Investigation Of Turkish Students Mathematics...

Investigation of Turkish Students’ Mathematics Performance based on PISA 2012 Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between selected student- and school-level variables and mathematics performance of Turkish students using PISA 2012 dataset. Two research questions were investigated: (1) How much do schools vary in their mean mathematics achievement in Turkey? (2) Which student- and school-level variables are associated with students’ mathematics performance in Turkey based on PISA 2012 results? Theoretical Framework PISA is a 3-year cycle of international assessment, which has been organized by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since 2000. The primary aim of the PISA assessments is to determine the extent to which young people, who are 15-years old, have acquired the wider knowledge and skills that they will need in their real-life challenges with considering a literacy perspective in reading, mathematics, and science. According to PISA 2012 overall results, Turkey ranked 44th, 42nd, and 43rd positions across the 65 countries in mathematics, reading and science, respectively (OECD, 2014b). In this present study, some student- and school variables were chosen to determine if there is any effect on students’ mathematics performance in Turkey. Gender is the first variable coming to mind when someone starts an educational research because there are not any certain statements; therefore, the influences of gender on the

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Public Awareness And Knowledge Of Multiple Sclerosis

In order to examine public awareness and knowledge of multiple sclerosis, a small scale survey and personal interviews will be utilized. Part 1: Quantitative study The first study of the research project will use a quantitative approach to investigate public awareness. It will consist of a convenience sampling technique in which a survey will be given to an undergraduate class at Wilfrid Laurier University to obtain information regarding the public’s understanding of multiple sclerosis. Convenience sampling is the most logical approach for the quantitative study because finding individuals representative of the entire population would be difficult due to time constraints and lack of resources and would be beyond the scope of this research project. The undergraduate class chosen at random by Dr. Timothy Gawley and Dr. James LeClair will provide the optimal sample size of 80 to 100 individuals. The purpose of the quantitative study is to provide details on the general awareness of multiple sclerosis among a small sample of the undergraduate students at Wilfrid Laurier University. It will determine if public awareness is sufficient or highly inadequate in this group of individuals and if awareness programs would be beneficial. These results could also infer awareness patterns that may be present at a larger scale of the population and motivate larger magnitude studies to be completed. If similar results are seen in larger magnitude studies, it could encourage multipleShow MoreRelatedSymptoms And Treatment Of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Essay1181 Words   |  5 PagesAmyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as ALS or sometimes called Lou Gehrig’s Disease, is a progressive neurological disease affecting the nerves that control voluntary muscle movement. It is the most common type of motor neuron disease. 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Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Haier Acquisition Interest in Ge Appliance Free Essays

It is ironic and coincidental this memo comes on the heals of the massive Anheuser-Busch/InBev acquisition. The leak of our interest in GE Appliance by Wall Street Journal blog â€Å"Deal Journal† has not sullied our position or interest. It is strongly recommended Haier begin to line up financing for an asset purchase of GE Appliance. We will write a custom essay sample on Haier Acquisition Interest in Ge Appliance or any similar topic only for you Order Now Louisville, KY-based GE Appliance is an attractive acquisition target for Haier.As the US market continues to be brand driven, Quingdao Haier (and Haier America) is looking at its best chance to move full steam into the US market. Haier has showed initial success moving into niche areas of the US market through compact refrigerators and air-conditioners. The acquisition of GE Appliance, a 101-year old titan in the U. S. white goods industry will fulfill Haier CEO Zhang Ruimin’s belief that â€Å"All success relies on one thing in overseas markets—creating a localized brand name. We have to make Americans feel that Haier is a localized U. S. rand instead of an imported Chinese brand. The acquisition of GE Appliance will not be a quick, slam dunk in the U. S. market. Haier will not be able to simply slap a Haier sticker on a GE product. Haier will not be able place a GE sticker on a Haier product. To fully take advantage of the opportunity, Haier must be strategic about the rollout of the acquisition, significant changes to the GE brand and the homogenization of brands. Bringing GE Appliance under the Haier umbrella may remove some of the substantial roadblocks to getting top tier retailers and â€Å"big-box† stores to market Haier products. Bringing GE Appliance under the Haier umbrella may help alleviate the stigma Haier endures as a Chinese import. Haier is no slouch in the global white goods market. To be clear, Haier boasts incredible volume. However, Haier’s American brand quality reputation would obviously be helped by fusing GE’s track record of customer satisfaction. The GE brand not only has incredible longevity but is still an industry leader in well-crafted appliances. Caution must be paid to the reality that Haier-GE may suffer initially as reputations of high-quality and low-quality are married together.There is intense pressure in Washington, D. C. and across the US market to alleviate the amount of US holdings owned by Chinese-backed organizations. As the US economy continues to struggle more and more media sources are highlighting the fact China owns $ billions of US debt. From a public policy standpoint, this fact merely highlights how important US-China relations are. But from a public relations standpoint, a multi-billion dollar purchase of a long-standing, trusted US company by a relative new-coming Chinese firm will be difficult enough overcome politically.It might be near impossible to do if the purse strings are attached directly to the Chinese government or the major financing banks. A move similar to Lenovo’s slow-play transition from IBM computers to Lenovo may not have the same positive result. Recent massive recalls of Chinese-made products, food and cosmetics have created unease about imported goods. One of the strongest assets Haier will purchase is GE’s public image as a long-standing industry leader. The US market for appliances is still brand driven.Haier America has made great strides infiltrating the market through small appliances like dormitory refrigerators and window-sill portable air conditioners. But the cost of developing and marketing a full-line of products in major retailers without an industry reputation behind your name (as Samsung and LG already boast) may exceed the capital outlay needed to fund an outright acquisition of market share. It is believed other named bidders may not be in the same advantageous position as Haier.Electrolux, LG and Bosch are already heavily marketing a full range of appliances in every major market. Moves by any of these manufactures might cannibalize their market share as consumers opt between the GE brand and other established brands. Haier’s small market share serves as an advantage in that consumers choice of a GE (and eventually Haier) product will only enhance value to Haier. At the same time, Haier must stress the quality of product gained through the acquisition of GE. LG has already attained a number one customer satisfaction rating from fickle J.D. Power and Associates for washers and dryers. There is immense value in Haier’s ownership of the GE brand. Such value may warrant a higher-than-expected winning bid for the assets GE is the standard bearer in the US appliance, manufacturing, advanced technology, energy and healthcare industries. The GE philosophy of treating efficiency and cost-conciousness like a martial art coupled with an intense drive for innovation can only be an asset to Haier. On an initial pass, the strategy and vision of Haier are perfectly matched.Taking a page from Haier’s playbook, increasing global brand awareness, achieving global expansion of operations using a localized approach for each new market and establishing a foothold in new markets to eventually introduce full line of products can be accomplished with the right recipe following a GE-Haier Merger. This acquisition represents a great deal to be gained by both sides. In a recession crunched 2007, GE Appliance generated $7. 2 billion in gross revenue. An impressive statistic by itself made even greater by the immense drain of medium manufacturing the U. S.This strength means GE can command a price at the higher end of the industry-estimated $5 billion to $8 billion price tag. The ability to respond quickly to market demands is a strength Haier already possesses. It is thanks to this fast-acting product development that Haier has staved off intense competition in China and Asia. In addition to that, the Haier group’s Haier Logisitics is a gem in the organization which will only be enhanced with a GE/Haier merger. Haier Logisitics â€Å"just-in-time† distribution may provide incredible value to the labor-cost-heavy American white goods giant. CEO Zhang’s (and indeed the entire organization’s) focus on localizing manufacturing, development and distribution plays into this merger. GE Appliance already has an incredibly interconnect channel for manufacturing-to-point-of-sale. Why would Haier not want to tap into such a resource? There is not a retail point in the U. S. which does not carry GE products. Without a full line of products introduced in the market, even if every store that carried a GE product carried a Haier product, the unrealized market share would be tremendous.This acquisition gets a full, multi-faceted line of GE/Haier products (which have already met stringent U. S. manufacturing standards) in the stores much more rapidly. Haier would be wise to slowly homogenize the GE brand with Haier. At all costs, this merger should avoid following the path of U. S. -based Whirlpool. The conglomerate is managing a dozen brands of a wide variety of price points. The purchase of a steady, tried-and-true name like GE, while trying to get greater volume purchase from Chinese-made plants, requires Haier to consider re-badging Haier America’s products as GE lines.Haier’s very own CEO Zhang Ruimin summed up our recommendation for the acquisition of GE Appliance best, â€Å"This may be our best and last opportunity to get solid footing in the U. S. market. † Source consulted Chen, George and Michael Flaherty, â€Å"Haier reportedly sniffs U. S. opportunity in GE  unit† International Herald Tribune from Reuters News Service. May 22, 2008 Gerard, Kim â€Å"What to make of LG and Haier eyeing GE’s appliance unit† cnet. com May 27, 2008 How to cite Haier Acquisition Interest in Ge Appliance, Papers

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Blondes Across Borders free essay sample

She pulls back a strand of her short, curly blonde hair and gives me a smile from across the room. â€Å"What’s wrong?† she asks me, as she climbs onto her side of the bed. I give her a weak smile, â€Å"Nothing,† I reply, maybe a little too fast for it to sound natural. She looks as me questioningly but lets it go. She begins to talk about her boyfriend back home, her eyes glazing over dreamily as she reminds me once again that when they get married, I am invited to the wedding. I settle down next to her in the bed as she makes wedding plans, explaining to me that she wants to have her wedding in Nauvoo, and that that’s not so far for me to travel. I jokingly declare I might not even be old enough to drive by the time she’s married, and she laughs knowing that my 16th birthday will be in February and that she won’t even be back in the States until June. She continues to make plans as she falls asleep, and I try to listen, to reply at appropriate times, but my mind is someplace else. I keep thinking about earlier in the evening, and about how the person next to me isn’t quite the person I thought I knew. On August 30, 2008, I—a scared and excited teenager—set off for a new world. Only four months earlier I had decided I was going to spend the first semester of my sophomore year in Ecuador. I had been sure about my decision, until this day, when I was confronted with the giant O’Hare airport and realized that Ecuador was going to be much bigger than O’Hare, and that everyone there wouldn’t even speak my language. I was just about to ask my parents to turn around, to take me back home, when I saw a girl with short, curly, blonde hair, waiting in line for the plane, wearing the same t-shirt I was wearing. I walked over to her, and quietly said â€Å"We’re wearing the same t-shirt,† she looked at my shirt, and then at her own, and sure enough we were both wearing the t-shirt our study abroad agency had told us to wear on the plane. Without saying anything else, she gave me a huge hug. I felt so comfortable in her embrace, even though we h ad never met before, and I knew then that we would be best friends. â€Å"I’m Emily,† she said, pulling me out of the embrace, even though I had figured that out since we were the only two girls going to Ecuador through our agency. â€Å"Zoe,† I replied, and gave her another hug. Emily and I were almost inseparable in Ecuador. I had always wanted an older sister, and I had finally found one. She and I were almost the same person. We both were fascinated by the Spanish language and Ecuadorian culture. We’d often play a game we liked to call â€Å"only in Ecuador†, where we would say stuff like â€Å"You know you’re in Ecuador when†¦there’s a pharmacy on every corner,† and â€Å"You know you’re in Ecuador when†¦the eggs in the grocery store aren’t refrigerated.† We both loved to laugh, and we’d often come up with the silliest jokes that no one else would think was funny but it would get us laughing hysterically. We were both so close to our families, and we would hold each other when a wave of homesickness overcame us. We used to finish each other’s sentences. Though we had only known each other for a short time, our mutual experiences made us closer than knowing each other for a long time would have. We were together for the good times, but we were also together for the bad times. One time we went shopping together at the artisan market, and among other things we purchased matching llama sweaters. These ugly striped wool sweaters with llamas on them were all the rage among American tourists (marketed as something worn by the natives which, of course, no native actually wore) and we eagerly put them on as soon as we bought them. We spent most of the money we had brought with us, because we had been warned not to carry too much cash around with us. After shopping, we got on a bus headed toward home, but unsure where it would eventually lead, got off soon. When we got off the bus a young man in raggedy clothes confronted us. He asked us for money and we politely said â€Å"no.† We had been asked for money all day, and had very little left in our pockets. Unfortunately this was no ordinary beggar. He pulled out a sharp piece of glass from a broken beer bottle and threatened to hurt us if we didn’t empty our pockets. Our hearts pounded as we remembered all the warnings and horror stories we had heard of tourists maimed by just such a thief. We gave him everything that was in our pockets (all of $1.50) and hoped it would be enough. Emily clutched her purse, hoping he was desperate enough to take the money and not demand more. She was right, and he walked away with our money. We were able to walk the rest of the way home, shaken but unscathed. Though no blood had been shed that day, Emily and I became bonded as if by blood. That day, we truly became sisters Emily taught me many things, like how to text really fast, and how to make homemade Oreo cookies, and how to see the positive in every situation. But the most important thing I learned from Emily was probably something she never knew she taught me. That night, when I realized I didn’t really know the true Emily, we had been watching a movie. We had bought it off a street vendor for only a dollar, but the label was in Spanish so we didn’t really understand what it was about. It sounded like a romantic comedy, just what we were looking for for our sleepover. We made popcorn, got comfortable on Emily’s host mom’s bed (the only place in the house with a TV) and we turned it on. The first scene was of a couple at a bar. The man sees some friends in the bar and invites them to sit at the table. The man then leaves to get the friends some drinks. One of these friends is a woman, and she sits right next to the man’s wife, and while he is off at the bar, she begins to flirt with the man’s wife. At this point, Emily asks me to turn the movie off. I agree, because it was making me a little uncomfortable as well. Emily went to her room to find another movie to watch, and while she was gone I tried to figure out why I was uncomfortable. I realized that it was the smile on the wife’s face as she returned the flirting of the other woman. I was uncomfortable that this woman was lying to her husband and how she probably had been the whole time they were married. So, when Emily returned I asked her why she was uncomfortable with the movie, feeling sure she’d say the same thing. But she said something else, something I hadn’t even really thought about. It was the fact that there was a woman flirting with another woman that was the problem for her. I realized in that moment that Emily and I weren’t the same person. I have best friends who are gay, and in my school people are very open about their sexuality. I am a strong believer in Christianity, but I would describe myself as a â€Å"progressive Christian† and unlike some Christians, I have never believed that homosexuality is a sin. But Emily did, and I realized that there were other things I probably disagreed with her on as well. She was a conservative, her parents had voted for George W. Bush both times, while mine voted for anyone but him. I live in a town with people of many different racial and socio-economic backgrounds, while hers is filled with middle-class white people. As she slept there next to me I lay awake wondering: Does this change my relationship with her? Could I be friends with someone who was practically opposite from me in many of my major values and beliefs? Part of me realized that she wasn’t any different today than she was yesterday, that she had always been this way and I was just seeing her differently. But the other part of me didn’t think we could overcome this barrier. We were from incompatible worlds, there was no way I would be able to relate to her now. At this point in my thinking, when I had almost decided that this could ruin our friendship forever, Emily must have rolled over in her sleep, because I looked at her. I looked at her and saw the same smiling face I had seen that first day in the airport. I smelled her hair on the pillow next to mine, the same as it always smelled on our thousands of sleepovers. I remembered the laughing mouth that would talk a mile a minute every day at recess, grateful to have someone to speak to in English. I understood then that this wouldn’t ruin our friendship. I understood that we were similar, in important ways, and just because we were different didn’t mean I couldn’t relate with her. Emily was the older sister I had always wanted, and that wasn’t going to change. That night I realized that Emily was not the person I thought she was, but that I loved her anyway. She taught me that people don’t have to have the same fundamental beliefs for me to love them. She taught me that love could cross borders. Maybe, even, that it should cross borders.