Regional Innovation Policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Regional Innovation Policy - Essay Example Any regional initiative must evolve from a partnership of business, governments, non-profits and education/training institutions. In the Cleveland area, a partnership in North-eastern Ohio undertook a project to identify industry "clusters" within the region that were competitive in the global economy. The project, the Northeast Ohio Regional Economic Development Strategies Initiative, is a partnership of the Akron Regional Development Board or ARDB, Cleveland Tomorrow (a committee of the CEO's of the region's largest companies), and the Greater Cleveland Growth Association or GCGA (the Chamber of Commerce for the City of Cleveland). NOREDSI's goal was to promote industrial clusters in the region, so as to become more globally competitive. This initiative sought to generate a bottom-up, private sector program in which interrelated private firms within an identifiable "cluster" could work together to identify and resolve common needs and concerns. This research identified six industry clusters (metalworking, plastic products and chemicals, motor vehicles and equipment, insurance, biomedical products, and instruments & controls) that were relatively competitive or had competitive advantages in the region. In a series of cluster forums with these industries, private sector participants identified six main issues as barriers to retaining regional competitive advantages. They were: workforce/education; technology/R&D; entrepreneurship; regulatory/tax policies; quality of life; and, infrastructure. Unfortunately for the Cleveland area, the need for human capital development appears to be especially great if its major industries are not to wither. If a region is attempting to be globally competitive, a well-trained workforce is essential to increasing the levels of productivity. One of the public sector's most vital economic development initiatives, first, is to reach consensus with regional industries on the skill sets needed by firms and, then, to adopt policies ensuring that students can attain them in all districts throughout the region. Another very important area is constituted by the services that state and local governments provide to businesses directly. These include promoting entrepreneurial skills and technological upgrading, providing an advanced physical infrastructure, and helping businesses through tax and regulatory relief. Finally, state governments should develop and encourage taxing policies, which benefit regions. The most commonly used example of tax policy designed to enhance the economic development benefits to a region is Minnesota's shared tax base. Put simply, economic benefits (e.g., taxes) generated by a firm's location in a city in the region accrue to all cities in the region. The regional level may be important for firms attempting to achieve global competitiveness. The question arises as to what strategies local communities can commence, and what policies local or state governments can initiate, in order to raise the innovativeness and competitiveness of regional firms. Regional innovation policy and its relationship with the regio

The most important threat to network security Assignment

The most important threat to network security - Assignment Example Authentication works on the principles that the presented data must match the data that is already in the database and this is where it can also be turned into the main threat. Featuring authentication as a major threat in network security is based on the fact that user access is granted based on database information. The authentication system can grant access to about anyone who provides similar data to the one pre-stored in the database system. Therefore the person does not have to be the real owner of the information in order to access it. This information could have been phished, eavesdropped or generally illegally obtained from a target victim. Now, authentication proves to be an important threat as it used by almost everyone across the globe and is thus a gateway through many secured systems. From the above discussion we can conclude that authentication remains to be a living matter in internet security. As technology gets better and more advanced, malicious internet users exploit the slightest weaknesses in authentication systems using the very advanced technology meant to provide

Rubrics In Evaluating Student Works Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Rubrics In Evaluating Student Works - Case Study Example The author citing (Nitko, 2001) (Moskal, 2000) said, " A holistic rubric requires the teacher to score the overall process or product as a whole, without judging the component parts separately. In contrast, with an analytic rubric, the teacher scores separate, individual parts of the product or performance first, then sums the individual scores to obtain a total score." Mertler, (2001) citing Chase (1999) suggested that holistic rubrics are customarily utilized when errors in some part of the process can be tolerated provided the overall quality is high. He cited Nitko (2001) further said that the use of holistic rubrics is probably more appropriate when performance tasks require students to create some sort of response and where there is no definitive correct answer Hence when talking of overall quality holistic is preferable aside from somewhat quicker scoring process than the use of analytic rubrics (Mertler, 2001, citing Nitko,(2001). This is basically due to the fact that the teacher is required to read through or otherwise examine the student product or performance only once, in order to get an "overall" sense of what the student was able to accomplish (Mertler, 2001). Mertler, 2001 citing Nitco ( 2001) prefers the use of analytic rubrics when fairly... it ( 2001) prefers the use of analytic rubrics when a fairly focused type of response is required, that is, for performing tasks in which there may be one or two acceptable responses and creativity is not an essential feature of the students' responses. He also suggested the use of the same in making an assessment on a multidimensional level. A rubric measures performance and measuring performance is just one of the functions of a teacher hence prior to design a specific rubric, a choice scoring holistically or analytically must be made.

OUTSOURCING AND OFFSHORING Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

OUTSOURCING AND OFFSHORING - Essay Example In other cases an organization may source or offshore when a process can be completed in a better and cheaper manner when using external providers. Customers just like the sourcing and off shoring companies have a part to benefit. Customers benefit from better products and services that follow increased competition, a factor that also comes with reduction in prices. Out Sourcing and off shoring companies also present several disadvantages for the companies involved. The major disadvantages are Loss of supervisory control of the process, loss of flexibility in responding to the transformations in business situation and the loss of internal and external client focus. These practices also pose the risk of possible loss of confidentiality by the concerned organizations. Out Sourcing and off shoring in many cases is met with lots of resistance from the natives, influenced by their inherent

Can other parts of a crime lab be as scientific as the DNA lab Essay

Can other parts of a crime lab be as scientific as the DNA lab - Essay Example Many police and anti-crime organizations the world over still rely on fingerprint evidence to track down a criminal but this technique has recently been put into doubt. Part of the reason is that new DNA technique is more accurate and reliable but most organizations lack the expensive equipment and expertise to do DNA testing. However, experts claim fingerprinting is not 100% fool-proof or reliable. Overview of fingerprinting – the first-ever precedent-setting criminal case in which the only evidence of fingerprints left at the crime scene was used to convict a suspect was the Rojas murders; this was a case in Necochea, Argentina back in 1892 in which the mother killed her two young children but originally accused her neighbor of the twin murders. However, when she was confronted with the incriminating evidence of bloody fingerprints on her door post, she admitted to the crime. Prior to fingerprinting, there was also the Bertillion system that had utilized a set of body measurements to identify and classify people; it was named after Alphonse Bertillion who was a French anthropologist. However, the famous case of Will West – William West in which two people had the same measurements, had almost the same names also and almost identical facial features (based from their photographs) called his systems reliability into question and caused doubts among criminologists. Fingerprinting was found to be reliable than the Bertillion system, in the same way that DNA testing is today more reliable than fingerprinting. Basic scientific principles – the method of fingerprinting was first developed by a great British anthropologist named Sir Francis Galton who first suggested the use of fingerprints based on the uniqueness of very minute details. It was another Englishman named Sir Edward Henry, assigned to Bengal, India as inspector general of the police during the

Contemporary Issues in Auditing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Contemporary Issues in Auditing - Assignment Example An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe our that our audit will provide a reasonable basis for our opinion. Our audit procedures will include test of of documentary evidence supporting the transactions recorded in the transactions, tests of physical existence of inventories, and direct confirmation of receivables and certain other assets and liabilities by correspondence with selected customers, creditors, legal counsel, and banks. At the conclusion of our audit, we request certain written representations from you about the financial statements and other related matters. Our fees for this audit will be based on the time spent by various members of our audit staff at our regular rates, pus direct direct expenses. We will notify you immediately if any circumstances we encounter that could significantly affect our initial audit fee estimate f In order to us to work as efficiently as possible, it is understood that your accounting staff will provide us with the prior year's trial balance on or before January 15, 2008, and also with the schedules and and account analysis described on the separate attachment. It is standard operating procedure tha... ..................... February 20, 2008 Delivery of audit report......................... March 5, 2008 Our fees for this audit will be based on the time spent by various members of our audit staff at our regular rates, pus direct direct expenses. We will notify you immediately if any circumstances we encounter that could significantly affect our initial audit fee estimate f8,000. In order to us to work as efficiently as possible, it is understood that your accounting staff will provide us with the prior year's trial balance on or before January 15, 2008, and also with the schedules and and account analysis described on the separate attachment. If these arrangements re in accordance with your understanding, please sign this letter in the space provided and return to a copy to us at your earliest convenience. Very truly yours,----------------------------------- Carter and Corbin Chartered Accountants Accepted by: ____________________ Date Ethical Part cover 15% - The information that should be passed to the new auditors- clearance from previous auditor To the Stockholders, Rentokill Initial London November 28, 2007 Dear sir/maa'am: It is standard operating procedure that a new external auditor must contact your company's former external auditor. Thus, please send us recommendation letter addressed to your prior

Their bottoms are the wrong shape The theory of established outsider Essay

Their bottoms are the wrong shape The theory of established outsider relations and female jockeys - Essay Example The argument that women riders are â€Å"outsiders† within the racing figuration is derived from Elias’ theory of established and outsider relations and the method chosen for the study is a s series of eight semi-structured interviews with female jockeys who are already established in their careers. The article starts with a quotation from a female jockey who professes to hate being referred to as a â€Å"female jockey† and this highlights the tension that exists in the minds of many professional women who find themselves a focus of extra attention just because their gender is different from the large majority of participants in a certain field. The historical and cultural dominance of masculinity in sport generally encourages this tendency and racing is quite typical in this respect. Citing Cassidy (2002) and Grimes and Ray (1995) the authors demonstrate that vertical gender segregation is a feature of employment in the sport of racing, with women occupying the majority of low status roles, such as groom, while the higher status roles are generally occupied by men. The existence of male-only trainers is cited as another example of the systematic exclusion of women from prestigious roles, with the direct consequence that women obtain fewer mounts than their male counterparts. After this anecdotal introduction there is a discussion of theoretical concepts such as social habitus, insider and outsider, group disgrace and group charisma. The term â€Å"habitus† is drawn again from Elias, rather than Bourdieu, and defined as â€Å"second nature† (Van Krieken, 1998, p. 47) or â€Å"the level of personality characteristics which individuals share in common with fellow members of their group† (Mennell, 1992, p. 30). The authors emphasise a collective view of habitus, in terms of the way a whole society develops over time, again following Elias, rather than the more personal, psychogenic approach of Bourdieu, although both psych ogenic and sociogenic aspects in habitus are recognised as important. The concept of power is discussed in terms of its relational and processual role, as a constant factor in all human relationships. Here again, the collective aspects are highlighted, and the authors cite the example of group power relations between an estate and a village in the work of Elias and Scotson (1964/1994). The terms â€Å"insider† and â€Å"outsider† describe not just the physical location of these two groups, but the differences that they perceive in their own role, and the power relationship that exists between the two. The power differences in the Elias and Scotson study was internalised by both groups, so that the insider villagers developed a positive â€Å"group charisma† image while the outsider estate inhabitants internalised a largely negative we-image. This is accepted by Velija and Flynn as a valid model which can be applied to other types of interdependent groups in a fi guration, including contexts such as gender relations. A number of studies are cited to demonstrate the outsider groups tend to identify with the insider group rather than with each other and that acceptance of inferior status was generally accepted by the outsider group. The work of Ernst (2003) shows that in sport women can be categorised as outsiders and that they generally have less confidence than men, and are judged both differently and more severely. These patterns are deep seated, and even when organisational change is introduced such as in the merger of women’s and men’s cricket organisations in England and Wales, the established power relations and self-images remain (Velija and Malcolm, 2009). Jockey figuration is examined in detail, starting with the history of women’