Frederick C Hamilton Essay Example for Free

Frederick C Hamilton Essay The architectural sculptured layout of the Fredrick C Hamilton building is on display at Denver Art Museum. The actual building, named after the CEO of the Petroleum company is near completion. Frederick C Hamilton post modern style designed building is a dome, shell shaped architect, comparable to the Sydney Opera House. (http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Architecture) The outside Hamilton building structure is designed using patterns from the expressionism art era. The post modern design is very simplistic, without many intricate details. Anyone viewing the attractive building would be curiously drawn to the building. The Frederick C Hamilton building serves as the main entrance to popular culture and art areas. It is the only dome shaped building in the area, surrounded by buildings with pattern designs from the Renaissance and Romantic art eras. Once inside the building, the person feels transported in totally different planet. The glass ceilings, and skylights allows the sun to shine through, into the building. The creative designed structures portrays a very pleasant atmosphere to everyone entering it. (http://www. designbuild-network. com/projects/dam/) The designer of this coned, alien shaped 350,000 sq ft building is Daniel Libeskined, whom also designed the World Trade Center after the attack. The Frederick C Hamilton building will hold nearly one thousand parking spaces. The construction materials used for the building are titanium, steel, and concrete. The creativity behind the amazing designs centering around romantic style buildings requires real genius imagination.

Education Essays Public Schools Education

Education Essays Public Schools Education Public Schools Education Abstract Public schools have always been a milestone of the social history of the United States. Despite arguments against them, many education researchers believe they still have an important place in the education process. Schools supervisors play an important role in education with a potential to extend their role in evaluation as needed in education reform. The aim of this essay is to provide a brief yet a comprehensive review on the arguments on public education, school supervision, and evaluation of education and school supervisors. Supervising and public schools Public education is a milestone in the US social history. The society is multicultural and ethnically diverse thus; public schools were an endeavor to create a consistent society, starting by young people, through providing a common prospectus coming up from the newly rising Anglo-American culture. The people of the US live a long dated democratic political tradition; therefore, they look at education as a key feature to the principle of equal opportunity. In addition, because of the capitalist economy is one with high competition, education becomes essential to success. Most Americans translate the phrase public education as run by elected civil authorities, and supported by taxpayers so these schools should provide free education. However, schools, by this definition, did not exist in colonial America. Thus, the roots of public education may have come from British Grammar schools, missionary (Spanish) schools in Mexico and Latin America, and possibly the underground secret (clandestine) schools of black slaves. Public education systems reflect the societys preconceptions, economic and political conflicts, and social ranking. Therefore, second to national defense, no government-provided service attracted the attention of the public in the US as education does (Encyclopedia of American Social History, 1993). Arguments on public education West (1994) looked at the history of public (government financed) education in both UK and the U.S, and came out with statements that disapprove the common notion the state should be the major supervisor and support to education. West (1994) showed that percentage of government spending on school education in UK was almost the same before and after schooling laws in 1830. The author inferred that measuring the educational output by the ability to read and write shows no large effect of government involvement. In addition, West (1994), claimed the ultimate development of the public education system was essentially the outcome of the endeavors of individuals managing it, motivated by self-interest. Thus, the result was to substitute, not to support and reinforce the earlier private education system. Young and Block (1999), summarized the arguments in favor of public education, they suggested four categories. The first argument for public education is the assertion that it produces large positive outcome irrespective of cost (economic argument). In other words, by public education rising generations benefit the society as a whole. Therefore, it is logic for the society to share in how to educate, disburse the cost of education, and does not pass on the process completely to private enterprises. In addition, increased economic productivity of educated people reflects on the productivity of the society. A second channel is that public education ensures the moral ideas, concepts, and beliefs the system needs to put in our children. This may not have a direct economic impact but its effect on crime rates, drug abuse and youth culture is evident if proper guidance and coaching are available. Second argument is that public education is necessary because parents may not be adequately educated to choose suitable schooling for their children (education argument). However, whether this argument is an advantage to the public system teaching the youth what the public body wants rather that what they or their parents want, remains open to discussion. This argument explains at most one generation of public education, after that this generation should be able to choose an education for their children. Third, the substantial resources of the government are what can provide proper investment in human capital. In addition, even if most parents can afford educating their children, however, the young generation cannot afford to pay education costs for themselves. A strong argument against a total private system of education (democratic argument) is it endorses and spreads inequality. Children coming from rich backgrounds should not superior education, and added chance of success, irrespective of their skills and abilities. The fact that family environment is a significant forecaster of school performance, increases the effect of this argument. The basic fact remains, since education is important for the public, public education should be available (Young and Block, 1999). School Supervision The rationale (philosophy) of school supervision: The basic objective for education is to provide an environment where all students can learn and eventually become successful and productive members of society.  There are six concepts to succeed as a leader of a school and be able to put this philosophy into action: vision, culture, management, community, ethics, and politics.   The choices to lead (supervise or coach) are the teacher’s response of vision of the education philosophy and aim, practical theories and are affected at the same time by the teachers personality and response to certain situations. Keeping this vision ensures that successful leadership leads to students achievements (Sergiovanni, 2006). Teachers should try to create a tailored plan for all students to ensure that meets everyone’s needs.   The classroom teacher’s must oversee this plan by frequent assessments.   These assessments will guide instructing the students to ensure making that progress for all students.   A supervisor must provide training for teachers, so they meet the eventual goal.   (Nanus, 1992). The culture of the school as a learning community depends on two essential understandings; first, the school is a place where all staff personnel are committed to the success of the school. Second, a learning community is one that accepts others and their differences, and is a community that establishes an environment of good morals as caring and mutual respect.   Developing a school culture is a necessity to develop a learning community. In this respect, supervisors represent the model behavior that sets the school culture (Rooney, 2005). The school community is not only the people within the school, it is the community outside the school related to and mixed up with the school students (as family and community businesses). Thus, the school leader must understand the needs of the community where the school is (Epstein, 1995). In managing resources, the school leadership must guarantee that all school sections receive satisfactory awareness.   A school leader must have a clear vision for student accomplishment and learning curve.   Teachers and support staff dealing with students must have a matching vision, as they are members of the school team. School ethics relates mainly to shared and common caring, respect and decency. The school leader must be an ethical role model for those in the school, and must display the spirit of standard morals and professional standards at all times.   The leader must be an example to respect, even-handedness, reliance, and integrity in all decisions.   This will promote the highest morals and ethics throughout the school personnel and gain parent’s trust (Sergiovanni, 2006). Supervisors and Education reform: In education reform, educational supervisors need to add concepts of coaching to the scope of their mission to be able to readjust the notion of educational supervisor. There is no clear definition to educational coaching, yet the term implies teaching, supervising, building, and following up the learning and skill development curve of students. This sounds similar in many ways to supervision, it is true there are connections between ideas and procedures of both terms. Van Kessel (2007) was more direct in describing the mainstay qualities of coaching. As described by Van Kessel (2007), coaching represents individualized, mutual effort, spotlights students’ progress, and focuses on results. Its center of attention is on developing solutions and not only on analyzing problems. It looks at objectives development and goal establishment in cooperation among the coach, teachers and students. It needs building up a methodical goal-directed process to advance goal achievement. Further, the coach should motivate student responsiveness to support learning and development. Finally, coaching focuses at stimulating self-directed and self-reflective learning, and at developing self-regulated progress to back unremitting change (van Kessel, 2007, English translation). Evaluation of education and school supervisors Formative-Summative evaluation: Defining formative assessment points to the assumptions and actions educators can take based on the results of an assessment; in other words, it is progression of plans and practices following an appraisal. Integrating the perception of formative assessment in education occurred over 35 years ago into the practice of education. In procedural terms, it means that students do not advance to the forecoming learning objective unless they pass an assessment in the present one. Finishing a specific learning unit, the teacher initiates an exercise based on a standardized teaching method. The teacher conducts an assessment for that unit, based on the students’ results; the teacher then classifies students into those who have mastered the unit and those who are not. For the unsuccessful group, the teacher employs diagnostic information collected from the assessment to apply corrective action usually in the form of directions to support the student’s weaknesses in understanding the subjects of the test. Thus, an essential point of formative assessment concept is that its main objective is to heighten students’ teaching (William, 2006). Formative assessment may take many forms (verbal, writing, small or focus group†¦) depending on the aims of evaluation and the students skills teaching aimed to develop (William, 2006). Summative evaluation, on the other hand, is a product (education) evaluation (Jeffs and Smith, 2005). It aims at evaluating the outcome and efficiency of an initiative, a process or a project (as education). Thus, it emphasizes on the aims and consequences of education. It seeks to clarify if a process working in a certain place can work in another place with the same conditions. In simple words, Summative evaluation is a way to decide the value of an education program at the end its activities. Thorough complete (comprehensive) testing or widespread all-inclusive (full-field) studies are the common methods of performing summative assessment. Its main use is to collect data on the effect of a running program in society for sometime (Jeffs and Smith, 2005). Role of supervisors as it relates to evaluation School supervisors perform three interlinking roles, they are control and assessment, providing support and offer guidance, and take the part of liaison (connection) officer between the higher education authorities and the school. The control function relates closely to inspection, and covers educational and administrative domains. This control function relates to evaluation of teachers and assisting staff. Support and guidance functions whether to teachers or student need knowledge of evaluation both formative and summative. Connecting schools with higher educational authorities is a form of upright liaison function; however, supervisors can also play a parallel horizontal liaison role spreading ideas and creating a school learning environment among the staff and students. There is an increasing awareness’ that supervisors role should extend to system evaluation because there is a need to education reform and increasing the quality function of the available schools (International Institute of Educational Planning (UNESCO), 2007) Conclusion My idea of a school supervisor entails belief, hope, and engagement in students’ interests. My belief is teacher supervision is more like coaching a team coming up with reliable and genuine ideas that can be signs of devotion and real hard work of teachers. I also believe in the important role public schools play in the society and that education reform should start within the school environment first. My hope is to be able to achieve the high expectations of a school supervisor in advancing students’ learning, share positively in teaching planning and processes, and fulfill my responsibilities in creating a caring and respectable learning environment. I can assess the students’ interests and needs as well as assess the quality of school supervision through performing continuous evaluation. I will also be able to recognize where I can improve the teachers performance and to prove professional endeavors that will help improving the process of public education. I will have my share in backing the commitments to the state law and policies of board of education as well as the district education guidelines documents. References Encyclopedia of American Social History (Volume 3) (1993). The American Religious Experience. Retrieved 10/06/2008, from Epstein, J. (1995). School/family/community partnerships: caring for the children we share. Phi Delta Kappan, 76(9), 701-712. International Institute of Educational Planning (UNESCO). (2007). Reforming school supervision for quality improvement: Module 2: Roles and functions of supervisors. Paris: IIIEP/UNESCO. Jeffs, T. and Smith, M. K. (2005). Informal Education. Conversation, democracy and learning (3rd edition). Nottingham: Educational Heretics Press. Nanus, B. (1992). Visionary leadership: creating a compelling sense of direction for your organization. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley Sons Inc. Rooney, J. (2005). School culture: an invisible essential. Educational Leadership, 62(5), 86. Sergiovanni, T. (2006). The principalship: a reflective practice perspective (5th edition). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Van Kessel, L. (2007). Coaching, a field for professional supervisors. Ljetopis socijalnog rada, 14(2), 387-432. West, E G (1994). Education and the state. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund Inc. William, D. (2006). Formative assessment: Getting the focus right. Educational Assessment, 11(34), 283-289. Young, A and Block, W. (1999). Enterprising Education: Doing Away with the Public School System. International Journal of Value-Based Management, 12, 195-207.

Test case prioritization and regression test selection

Test case prioritization and regression test selection 1. introduction The significance of software testing process and its affects on software quality cannot be taken too lightly. Software testing is a fundamental component of software quality assurance and represents a review of specification, design and coding. The greater visibility of software systems and the cost associated with software failure are motivating factors for planning, through testing. A number of rules that act as testing objectives are: * Testing is a process of executing a program with the aim of finding errors. * A good test case will have a good chance of finding an undiscovered error. * A successful test case uncovers a new error. Software maintenance is an activity, which includes enhancements, error corrections, optimization and deletion of obsolete capabilities. These modifications in the software may cause the software to work incorrectly and may affect the other parts of the software, as developers maintain a software system, they periodically regression test it, hoping to find errors caused by their changes. To do this, developers often create an initial test suite, and then reuse it for regression testing. Regression testing is an expensive maintenance process directed at validating modified software. Regression Test Selection techniques attempt to reduce the cost of regression testing by selecting tests from a programs existing test suite. The simplest regression testing method, retest all, it is one of the conventional methods for regression testing in which all the tests in the existing test suite are re-run. This method, however, is very expensive and may require an unacceptable amount of time to execute all tests in test suite. An alternative method, regression test selection, reruns only a subset of the initial test suite. In this technique instead of rerunning the whole test suite, we select a part of test suite to rerun if the cost of selecting a part of test suite is less than the cost of running the tests that regression test selection allows us to exclude. Of course, this approach is unsatisfactory as well test selection techniques can have significant costs, and can abandon tests that could disclose faults, possibly reducing fault detection effectiveness. [1] To reduce the time and cost during on testing process, another approach, Test Cases Prioritization in a testing procedure can be favorable for engineers and customers. In Test Case Prioritization techniques, test cases are executed in such a way, that maximum objective function like rate of fault detection can be achieved. In section 2 of this paper, we have described different types of Regression Test Selection techniques and we discussed various categories of these types point out by various authors then moving into the details of selective and prioritizing test cases for regression testing. In this section, we also describe several techniques for prioritizing test cases and we evaluate their ability to improve rate of fault detection, according to various authors. In the next section, we in particular describe the Regression Test Selection techniques and Test Case Prioritization problems. Subsequent sections present our analysis and conclusions 2. Regression testing During a software development life cycle, regression testing may start in development phase of system after the detection and correction of errors in a program. Many modifications may occur during the maintenance phase where the software system is corrected, updated and fine-tuned. There are three types of modifications, each arising from different types of maintenance. According to [2], corrective maintenance, commonly called fixes, involves correcting software failures, performance failures, and implementation failures in order to keep the system working properly. Adapting the system in response to changing data requirements or processing environments constitutes adaptive maintenance. Finally, perfective maintenance covers any enhancements to improve the system processing efficiency or maintainability. Based on of modification of specification authors identify two type of regression testing, Progressive regression testing involves a modified specification. In corrective regression testing, the specification does not change. Corrective regression testing Progressive regression testing * Specification is not changed * Involves minor modification to code (e.g., adding and deleting statements) * Usually done during development and corrective maintenance * Many test cases can be reused * Invoked at irregular intervals * Specification is changed * Involves major modification (e.g., adding and deleting modules) * Usually done during adaptive and perfective maintenance * Fewer test cases can be reused * Invoked at regular intervals Table 1: Differences between Corrective and Progressive Regression Testing According to [2], table 1 lists the major differences between corrective and progressive regression testing. Regression testing is defined [3] as the process of retesting the modified parts of the software and ensuring that no new errors have been introduced into previously tested code. There are various regression testing techniques as given by various researchers are: (I) Retest all, (II) Regression Test Selection and (III) Test Case Prioritization. Retest-All Technique reuses all tests existing in test suite. It is very expensive as compared to other techniques. In this report our main focus on Regression Test Selection and Test Case Prioritization. Let P be a procedure or program, let P be a modified version of P, and let T be a test suite for P. A typical regression test proceeds as follows: 1. Select T C T, a set of tests to execute on P. 2. Test P with T, establishing Ps correctness with respect to T. 3. If necessary, create T, a set of new functional or structural tests for P. 4. Test P with T, establishing Ps correctness with respect to T. 5. Create T, a new test suite and test history for P, from T, T, and T. Although each of these steps involves important problems, in this report we restrict our attention to step 1 which involves the Regression Test Selection problem. 2.1. REGRESSION TEST SELECTION Regression Test Selection technique is less expensive as compare to retest all technique. Regression Test Selection techniques reduce the cost of regression testing by selecting a subset of an existing test suite to use in retesting a modified program. A variety of regression test selection techniques have been describing in the research literature. Authors [1] describe several families of techniques; we consider five most common approaches often used in practice. 1) Minimization Techniques: These techniques attempt to select minimal sets of tests from T that yield coverage of modified or affected portions of P. One such technique requires that every program statement added to or modified for P be executed (if possible) by at least one test in T. 2) Safe Techniques: These techniques select, under certain conditions, every test in T that can expose one or more faults in P. One such technique selects every test in T that, when executed on P, exercised at least one statement that has been deleted from P, or at least one statement that is new in or modified for P. 3) Dataflow-Coverage-Based Techniques: These techniques select tests that exercise data interactions that have been affected by modifications. One such technique selects every test in T that, when executed on P, exercised at least one definition use pair that has been deleted from P, or at least one definition-use pair that has been modified for P. 4) Ad Hoc / Random Techniques: When time constraints prohibit the use of a retest-all approach, but no test selection tool is available, developers often select tests based on hunches, or loose associations of tests with functionality. One simple technique randomly selects a predetermined number of tests from T. 5) Retest-All Technique: This technique reuses all existing tests. To test P, the technique selects all tests in T. According to [3], Test Selection techniques are broadly classified into three categories. 1) Coverage techniques: These consider the test coverage criteria. These find coverable program parts that have been modified and select test cases that work on these parts. 2) Minimization techniques: These are similar to coverage techniques except that they select minimum set of test cases. 3) Safe techniques: These do not focus on criteria of coverage, in contrast they select all those test cases that produce different output with a modified program as compared to its original version. Regression test selection identifies the negative impact of modifications applied to software artifacts throughout their life cycle. In traditional approaches, code is modified directly, so code-based selective regression testing is used to identify negative impact of modifications. In model-centric approaches, modifications are first done to models, rather than to code. Consequently, the negative impact to software quality should be identified by means of selective model-based regression testing. To date, most automated model based testing approaches focus primarily on automating test generation, execution, and evaluation, while support for model-based regression test selection is limited [4]. Code-based regression test selection techniques assume specification immutability, while model-based techniques select abstract test cases based on models modifications. Thus, in model based Regression Test Selection techniques, the existing test suite can be classified into following three main types: 1) Reusable test cases: Reusable test cases are test cases from the original test suite that are not obsolete or re-testable. Hence, these test cases do not need to be re-executed. 2) Re-testable test cases: Test cases are re-testable if they are non-obsolete (model-based) test case and they traverse modified model elements. 3) Obsolete test cases: Test cases are obsolete if their input had been modified. Regression Test Selection techniques may create new test cases that test the program for areas which are not covered by the existing test cases. Model based Regression test suite selection that utilizes Unified Modeling Language (UML) based Use Case Activity Diagrams (UCAD). The activity diagrams are commonly employed as a graphical representation of the behavioral activities of a software system. It represents the functional behavior of a given use case. With behavior slicing we can built our activity diagram. This diagram gives us qualitative regression tests. Using behavior slicing each use case divided into a set of unit of behavior where each unit of behavior represents a user action.[5] An activity diagram has mostly six nodes: 1. Initial node 2. User Action node 3. System Processing node 4. System Output node 5. Condition node 6. Final node 2.3. TEST CASE PRIORITIZATION The main purpose of test case prioritization is to rank test cases execution order to detect fault as early as possible. There are two benefits brought by prioritization technique. First, it provides a way to find more bugs under resource constraint condition and thus improves the revealed earlier; engineers have more time to fix these bugs [6]. Zengkai Ma and Jianjun Zhao [6] propose a new prioritization index called testing-importance of module (TIM), which combines two prioritization factors: fault proneness and importance of module. The main advantages of this prioritization approach are twofold. First, the TIM value can be evaluated by analyzing program structure (e.g., call graph) alone and it also can be evaluated by incorporating program structure information and other available data (e.g., source code changes). Therefore, this approach can be applied to not only regression testing but also non-regression testing. Second, through analyzing program structure, we can build a mapping between fault severity and fault location. Those test cases covering important part of system will be assigned high priority and executed first. As a result, the severe faults are revealed earlier and the system becomes reliable at fast rate. The main contributions of authors [6] are: * They propose a new approach to evaluate the testing importance for modules in system by combining analysis of fault proneness and module importance. * They develop a test case prioritization technique, which can provide test cases priority result by handling multiple information (e.g., program structure information, source code changes) and can be applied to both new developed software testing and regression testing. * They implement Apros, a tool for test case prioritization based on the proposed technique, and perform an experimental study on their approach. The result suggests that Apros is a promising solution to improve the rate of severe faults detection. Authors consider a sample system, which consists of six modules: M1-M6 and there exist some call relationships between each module. A test suite includes six test cases T1-T6 that covers the M1-M6 respectively. Some modules are dependent on each other. They are finding fault proneness and fault severity by using TIM from this system. They conclude the prioritization result (T3, T6, T4, T2, T5, and T1) on the bases of analyzing structure of system. For calculating this result they had developed some formulas and equation. [6] They also did some experiment with two Java programs along JUnit test cases: xml-security and jtopas. They select three sequential versions of the two java programs and apply newly developed software testing and the regression testing. They perform some experiment for finding fault proneness and severe fault. They also introduce the importance of any module using weight fact. Authors [7] explore value-driven approach to prioritizing software system test with the objective of improving user-perceived software quality. Software testing is a strenuous and expensive process. Research has shown that at least 50% of the total software cost is comprised of testing activities.They conclude that, their approach of prioritization of test cases is work effectively with regression and non-regression testing by analyzing the program structure. They make a reach on prior TCP which have two goals: (1) to improve customer confidence on software quality in a cost effective way and (2) to improve the rate of detection of severe faults during system-level testing of new code and regression testing of existing code. They present a value-driven approach to system-level test case prioritization called the Prioritization of Requirements for Test (PORT). PORT based on following four factors. 1) Requirements volatility Is based on the number of times a requirement has been changed during the development cycle. 2) Customer priority Is a measure of the importance of a requirement to the customer? 3) Implementation complexity Is a subjective measure of how difficult the development team perceives the implementation of requirement to be. 4) Fault proneness Of requirements (FP) allows the development team to identify the requirements which have had customer-reported failures. They claim in research paper, Prioritization of Requirement Test (PORT) has great impact on finding severe fault at system level. They are emphasis on Customer priority in TCP for improve the fault detection. Today software industries are working on neutral manner. They set neutral value to all requirements use cases, test cases and defects. To improve the customer satisfactions in software engineering world they are presenting a value-driven approach for system level testing. In these days Regression Test Case Prioritization techniques use structural coverage criteria to select the test cases. They are leading their ideas from structure level to code level TCP for both new and Regression tests. This Paper has two main objectives: 1). Find severe faults earlier 2). Improve customer confidence on particular system. Researchers describe several techniques [8] for prioritizing test cases and they empirically evaluate their ability to improve rate of fault detectionà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬a measure of how quickly faults are detected within the testing process. An improved rate of fault detection during regression testing can provide earlier feedback on a system under regression test and let developers begin debugging and correcting faults earlier than might otherwise is possible. Their results indicate that test case prioritization can significantly improve the rate of fault detection of test suites. Furthermore, their results highlight tradeoffs between various prioritization techniques. Test case prioritization can address a wide variety of objectives. In practice, and depending upon the choice of objective, the test case prioritization problem may be intractable: objectives, an efficient solution to the problem would provide an efficient solution to the knapsack problem [8]. Authors consider nine different test case prioritization techniques. T1: No prioritization One prioritization technique that authors consider is simply the application of no technique; this lets us consider untreated test suites. T2: Random prioritization Random prioritization in which authors randomly order the tests in a test suite. T3: Optimal prioritization An optimal ordering of test cases in a test suite for maximizing that suites rate of fault detection. In practice, of course, this is not a practical technique, as it requires knowledge of which test cases will expose which faults. T4: Total branch coverage prioritization We can determine, for any test case, the number of decisions (branches) in that program that were exercised by that test case. We can prioritize these test cases according to the total number of branches they cover simply by sorting them in order of total branch coverage achieved. T5: Additional branch coverage prioritization Total branch coverage prioritization schedules test cases in the order of total coverage achieved. However, having executed a test case and covered certain branches, more may be gained in subsequent test cases by covering branches that have not yet been covered. Additional branch coverage prioritization iteratively selects a test case that yields the greatest branch coverage. T6: Total fault-exposing-potential prioritization Statement- and branch-coverage-based prioritization consider only whether a statement or branch has been exercised by a test case. This consideration may mask a fact about test cases and faults: the ability of a fault to be exposed by a test case depends not only on whether the test case reaches (executes) a faulty statement, but also, on the probability that a fault in that statement will cause a failure for that test case. Although any practical determination of this probability must be an approximation, we wished to determine whether the use of such an approximation could yield a prioritization technique superior in terms of rate of fault detection than techniques based on simple code coverage. T7:Additional fault-exposing-potential (FEP) prioritization Analogous to the extensions made to total branch (or statement) coverage prioritization to additional branch (or statement) coverage prioritization, we extend total FEP prioritization to create additional fault-exposing-potential (FEP) prioritization. This lets us account for the fact that additional executions of a statement may be less valuable than initial executions. In additional FEP prioritization, after selecting a test case t, we lower the award values for all other test cases that exercise statements exercised by t. T8: Total statement coverage prioritization Total statement coverage prioritization is the same as total branch coverage prioritization, except that test coverage is measured in terms of program statements rather than decisions. T9: Additional statement coverage prioritization Additional statement coverage prioritization is the same as additional branch coverage prioritization, except that test coverage is measured in terms of program statements rather than decisions. With this technique too, we require a method for prioritizing the remaining test cases after complete coverage has been achieved, and in this work, we do this using total statement coverage prioritization. 2.3.1. Search Algorithms for Test Case Prioritization There are many search techniques for test case prioritization, which are being developed and unfolded by various researchers in the field. 1) Greedy algorithm: Works on the next best search philosophy. It [9] minimizes the estimated cost to reach a particular goal. Its advantage is that it is cheap in both execution time and implementation. The cost of this prioritization is O(mn) for program containing m statements and test suite containing n test cases. 2) Additional Greedy algorithm: This algorithm [9] uses the feedback from previous selections. It selects the maximum weight element from the part that is not already consumed by previously selected elements. Once the complete coverage is achieved, the remaining test cases are prioritized by reapplying the Additional Greedy algorithm. The cost of this prioritization is O(mn2) for program containing m statements and test suite containing n test cases. 3) Hill Climbing: It is one of the popular local search algorithms with two variations; steepest ascent and next best ascent. It is very easy and inexpensive to execute. However, this has cons of dividing O(n2) neighbors and is unlikely to scale. Steps of algorithm are explained in [9]. 4) Genetic Algorithms (GAs): Is a search technique [9] based on the Darwins theory of survival of the fit test? The population is a set of randomly generated individuals. Each individual is representing by variables/parameters called genes or chromosomes. The basic steps of Genetic Algorithm are (1) Encoding (2) Selection (3) Cross over (4) Mutation. 3. CONCLUSION In this paper we discussed about Regression test selection and Test Case Prioritization Selection. Regression testing is a style of testing that focuses on retesting after changes are made. In traditional regression testing, we reuse the same tests (the regression tests). In risk-oriented regression testing, we check the same module functionality as before, but we use different tests. Any test can be reused, and so any test can become a regression test. Regression testing naturally combines with all other test techniques. Therefore we use Test Case Prioritization technique inside Regression Testing. Test prioritization makes strengthen our regression testing for finding more severe fault in earlier stages. In this paper we discussed about different factor of prioritization. Customer priority has a great impact on PORT. Our view about both test case selection is, First version of test suite which developed by developer should have concrete test cases. Also at the same stage we should perform some prioritization. With earlier prioritization of test cases we can reduce our cost, time, effort and maximize customer satisfaction 4. References [1] Todd L. Graves, Mary Jean Harrold, Jung-Min Kim, Adam Porters, Gregg Rothermel, An Empirical Study of Regression Test Selection Techniques, Proceedings of the 1998 (20th) International Conference on Software Engineering, 19-25 April 1998 Page(s):188 197. [2] Leung, H.K.N., White, L., Insights into Regression Testing, Proceedings., Conference on Software Maintenance, 16-19 Oct. 1989 Page(s):60 69. [3] K.K.Aggarwal Yogesh Singh, Software Engineering Programs Documentation, Operating Procedures, New Age International Publishers, Revised Second Edition 2005. [4] Naslavsky L., Ziv H., Richardson D.J., A Model-Based Regression Test Selection Technique, ICSM 2009. IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance, 20-26 Sept. 2009 Page(s):515 518. [5] Gorthi R.P., Pasala A., Chanduka K.K.P., Leong, B., Specification-Based Approach to Select Regression Test Suite to Validate [6] Changed Software, APSEC 08. 15th Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference, 3-5 Dec. 2008, Page(s):153 160 [7] Zengkai Ma, Jianjun Zhao, Test Case Prioritization based on Analysis of Program Structure, APSEC 08. 15th Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference, 3-5 Dec. 2008, Page(s):471 478 [8] Srikanth H., Williams L., Osborne J., System Test Case Prioritization of New and Regression Test Cases, 2005 International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering, 17-18 Nov. 2005, Page(s):10 pp. [9] Rothermel G., Untch R.H., Chengyun Chu, Harrold M.J., Test Case Prioritization: An Empirical Study, (ICSM 99) Proceedings. IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance, 30 Aug.-3 Sept. 1999, Page(s):179 188 [10] Zheng Li, Mark Harman, and Robert M. Hierons, Search algorithms for regression test case prioritization, IEEE Trans. On Software Engineering, vol 33, no.4, April 2007.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Essay -- Ebenezer Scrooge

A pill bug is an insect that forms a hard shell around its soft flesh whenever startled or scared. Just like this pill bug, humans guard themselves from anything that hurts them without realizing that they are shutting out the most precious moments of their lives. Ebenezer Scrooge, the main character of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, is a cold man. He finds what he defines as true happiness in the form of money and wealth. At first he only seems to be a machine living in a human form, but as Scrooge's true journey and hardships are revealed, it becomes difficult to blame only Scrooge for his independence. It is inevitable that Scrooge's rudeness and impudent ferocity towards people led to the mistreatment of his dead body, but Scrooge's walls were not built for nothing. As the story progresses, and his true story from start to finish is revealed. There is no one person to blame, for it was the wrong of everyone. As Blaise Pascal once said, â€Å"All of humanity's problems ste m from a man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.† At first glance, Ebenezer Scrooge is a strange man. In his old age, he lives alone in a manor that was once owned by his deceased business partner, the only person he ever interacted with. His thoughts are always cruel and thoughtless as it is displayed when Scrooge says, â€Å" 'If they would rather die,' said Scrooge, 'they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population' †(10). At the story's start, Scrooge is an antisocial person who avoids interactions with people claiming that they are useless. He is viewed by others as a demeaning figure who is to be shunned because of his uninviting manner. People who were content with their lives were surrounded by their peers and neighbors and never encour... ...p to humanity. He once dared to venture to the depths of darkness, where all hope of ever returning would be lost, but he was saved by the the Spirits who helped him realize that he was terrorizing himself. In the end, Scrooge lived with a bigger smile, louder laugh, and jollier step than anybody else; it was a happy ending. Had Scrooge not changed, it would have ended on a dark note with many forgotten deaths and unfortunate stories of dead bodies. Everyone has a choice. Which path of Scrooge will you take? There is no way to limit what society gives us and what problems we are presented in the beginning, but they way we handle and solve these problems become the basis of our everyday lives all the way to our last breath. Every moment in between will cherished as if the last and no person will ever go unfullfilled. Works Cited A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Gun Control in Canada Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive Essays

  Ã‚  Ã‚   There has been considerable debate recently in Canada over the issue of gun control. The Canadian parliament enacted the Firearms Act to enforce gun control by requiring gun owners to register their firearms. Just recently, the government of Alberta lead in a charge, including five other provinces and numerous pro-gun groups, complaining that the law is unconstitutional and intrudes on provincial jurisdiction. They also claim that the act infringes on property and civil rights that are guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Parliament contends that the government of Canada is within its rights to protect public safety. Pro-gun control organizations, police chiefs and the City of Toronto also back the Firearms Act. The enacting of the Firearms Act by the government of Canada is legitimately constitutional and is within the jurisdiction of Parliament as it only seeks to protect the well being of Canadians. Furthermore, this legislation does not intrude on provincial jurisdiction because it is a representation of all Canadian’s rights.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Canadian law that requires the licensing and registration of handguns has been around since the 1930’s. The new statute, enacted in 1995 is currently under heated debate, the act extends the licensing and registration requirements to shotguns and rifles. Wendy Cukier, president of the Coalition for Gun Control says, â€Å"More Canadians are killed with rifles and shotguns every year than with handguns†. The ultimate purpose of the Act according to the government is to reduce firearm offences and violent crimes including murder. Moreover, Cukier believes the real issue is saving lives, as licensing and registration help make gun owners more accountable. She also points out a list of kids killed with firearms- a boy shot at a birthday party, a Grade 3 student shot as his twin played with a rifle. Gun control advocates may also highlight some other incidents involving firearms including the 1989 massacre at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique that claimed the lives of fourteen women and the recent school shooting that killed a fifteen-year old student. Ironically, the shooting occurred at a Taber, Alberta high school, the same province that is leading a fight to strike down the Firearms Act as unconstitutional. On February 21 and 22 of this year, the Supreme Court of Canada was asked to rule whether th... ...legitimate recreational pursuits; and guns are the tools of some trades. At the same time, guns intimidate; guns maim; and guns kill. It is precisely because of this paradox that guns are used for good as well as evil- that controversy surrounds government efforts at gun control.† It is clear that the new firearms legislation is looking out only for the best interests of the citizens of Canada. Public safety and well-being undoubtedly takes precedence to a traditional gun culture. The argument by pro-gun advocates that licensing and registering firearms will turn them into criminals is invalid since guns have the potential to seriously injure and kill people and thus, should be treated with caution and special care.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Firearms Act enacted by the government of Canada should be considered as a positive notion and not as a law that invades on property and civil rights. The reason why Canada is a safe country is all due to our strict gun control laws. Moreover, if this statute was struck down as unconstitutional, there is no doubt in my mind that Canada would head towards a gun culture society that would inevitably lead to more violent crime and murders involving firearms.

Euroland Food S.a

UVA-F-1356 Euroland Foods S. A. ACCESSING YOUR DOCUMENT(S) Please follow these instructions to successfully access your document(s): 1. Enter your email address and click Submit. Note: Your email is the email address used to create your Darden Business Publishing account when you placed your on-line order. 2. Agree to the Terms of Use; doing so will permit you to unlock the document. 3. Select â€Å"Allow† to enable the PDF document to communicate with the external servers. (Failing to â€Å"Allow† will render the document to remain inaccessable. ) DOCUMENT EXPIRATION Our electronic delivery system is a convenient way for ou to immediately access your document and print it, while always being able to access the most current version. This document will expire in 90 days after you first open it. When the expiration date passes, the document will be locked and inaccessible, so be sure to print your hard copy if you require it. After the document is unlocked, you will be ab le to view and print it for 14 days off-line; after that, you must go to the â€Å"My Account† section of DardenBusinessPublishing. com and log into the document under â€Å"Digital Downloads†. ? Automatically sign me into this document in the future. (Do not select this when using a public computer)TERMS OF USE †¢ I understand and agree that this document will be active for viewing and printing for 90 days from the date I first open it. After 90 days, I will receive an expiration notification, and I will no longer have access to the electronic document. †¢ I understand that I may access this document on up to two different computers within the 90-day active period. †¢ I agree not to forward this document to anyone else. †¢ I agree to print only one copy of this document for my personal use. †¢ I agree to print multiple copies only if I have already purchased copyright permissions for the exact number of copies I wish to make.Document ID: 2012 -1-23 ( Version 2. 6. 0 B uild The protectedpdf technology is  © Copyright 2006 Vitrium Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved. Patents Pending. UVA-F-1356 Version 1. 1 EUROLAND FOODS S. A. In early January 2001, the senior management committee of Euroland Foods was to meet to draw up the firm? s capital budget for the new year. Up for consideration were 11 major projects that totaled more than (euro) EUR316 million. Unfortunately, the board of directors had imposed a spending limit on capital projects of only EUR120 million; even so, investment at that rate would represent a major increase in the firm? current asset base of EUR965 million. Thus, the challenge for the senior managers of Euroland Foods was to allocate funds among a range of compelling projects: new-product introduction, acquisition, market expansion, efficiency improvements, preventive maintenance, safety, and pollution control. The Company Euroland Foods, headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, was a multinational producer of high-quality ice cream, yogurt, bottled water, and fruit juices. Its products were sold throughout Scandinavia, Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, western Germany, and northern France. (See Exhibit 1 for a map of the company? marketing region. ) The company was founded in 1924 by Theo Verdin, a Belgian farmer, as an offshoot of his dairy business. Through his keen attention to product development and shrewd marketing, the business grew steadily over the years. The company went public in 1979, and, by 1993, was listed for trading on the London, Frankfurt, and Brussels exchanges. In 2000, Euroland Foods had sales of almost EUR1. 6 billion. Ice cream accounted for 60% of the company? s revenue; yogurt, which was introduced in 1982, contributed about 20%. The remaining 20% of sales was divided equally between bottled water and fruit juices.Euroland Foods? s flagship brand name was ? Rolly,? which was represented by a fat dancing bear in farmer? s clothing. Ice cream, the company? s leading product, had a loyal base of customers who sought out its high-butterfat content, large chunks of chocolate, fruit, nuts, and wide range of original flavors. This case was prepared by Casey Opitz and Robert F. Bruner, Dean and Charles C. Abbott Professor of Business Administration, and draws certain elements from an antecedent case by them. All names are fictitious. The financial support of the Batten Institute is gratefully acknowledged.It was written as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright 2001 by the University of Virginia Darden School Foundation, Charlottesville, VA. All rights reserved. To order copies, send an e-mail to [email  protected] com. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means? electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise? without the per mission of the Darden School Foundation. -2- UVA-F-1356 Euroland Foods sales had been static since 1998 (see Exhibit 2), which management attributed to low population growth in northern Europe and market saturation in some areas. Outside observers, however, faulted recent failures in new-product introductions. Most members of management wanted to expand the company? s market presence and introduce more new products to boost sales. Those managers hoped that increased market presence and sales would improve the company? market value. The company? s stock was currently at 14 times earnings, just below book value. This price/earnings ratio was below the trading multiples of comparable companies, and it gave little value to the company? s brands. Resource Allocation The capital budget at Euroland Foods was prepared annually by a committee of senior managers, who then presented it for approval to the board of directors. The committee consisted of five managing directo rs, the president directeur-general (PDG), and the finance director. Typically, the PDG solicited investment proposals from the managing directors.The proposals included a brief project description, a financial analysis, and a discussion of strategic or other qualitative considerations. As a matter of policy, investment proposals at Euroland Foods were subject to two financial tests: payback and internal rate of return (IRR). The tests, or hurdles, had been established in 1999 by the management committee and varied according to the type of project as shown in Table 1. Table 1. Project hurdles. Minimum Acceptable IRR Maximum Acceptable Payback Years 1. New product or new markets 12% 6 years 2. Product or market extension 10% 5 years 3.Efficiency improvements 8% 4 years 4. Safety or environmental No test No test Type of Project In January 2001, the estimated weighted-average cost of capital (WACC) for Euroland Foods was 10. 6%. In describing the capital-budgeting process, the finance director, Trudi Lauf, said: We use the sliding scale of IRR tests as a way of recognizing differences in risk among the various types of projects. Where the company takes more risk, we should earn more return. The payback test signals that we are not prepared to wait for long to achieve that return. -3- UVA-F-1356 Ownership and the Sentiment of Creditors and Investors Euroland Foods? s 12-member board of directors included three members of the Verdin family, four members of management, and five outside directors who were prominent managers or public figures in northern Europe. Members of the Verdin family combined owned 20% of Euroland Foods? s shares outstanding, and company executives combined owned 10% of the shares. Venus Asset Management, a mutual-fund management company in London, held 12%.Banque du Bruges et des Pays Bas held 9% and had one representative on the board of directors. The remaining 49% of the firm? s shares were widely held. The firm? s shar es traded in Brussels and Frankfurt, Germany. At a debt-to-equity ratio of 125%, Euroland Foods was leveraged much more highly than its peers in the European consumer-foods industry. Management had relied on debt financing significantly in the past few years to sustain the firm? s capital spending and dividends during a period of price wars initiated by Euroland. Now, with the price wars finished, Euroland? bankers (led by Banque du Bruges) strongly urged an aggressive program of debt reduction. In any event, they were not prepared to finance increases in leverage beyond the current level. The president of Banque du Bruges had remarked at a recent board meeting: Restoring some strength to the right-hand side of the balance sheet should now be a first priority. Any expansion of assets should be financed from the cash flow after debt amortization until the debt ratio returns to a more prudent level. If there are crucial investments that cannot be funded this way, then we should cut th e dividend!At a price-to-earnings ratio of 14 times, shares of Euroland Foods common stock were priced below the average multiples of peer companies and the average multiples of all companies on the exchanges where Euroland Foods was traded. This was attributable to the recent price wars, which had suppressed the company? s profitability, and to the well-known recent failure of the company to seize significant market share with a new product line of flavored mineral water. Since January 2000, all the major securities houses had been issuing ? sell? recommendations to investors in Euroland Foods shares.Venus Asset Management had quietly accumulated shares during this period, however, in the expectation of a turnaround in the firm? s performance. At the most recent board meeting, the senior managing director of Venus gave a presentation, in which he said: Cutting the dividend is unthinkable, as it would signal a lack of faith in your own future. Selling new shares of stock at this dep ressed price level is also unthinkable, as it would impose unacceptable dilution on your current shareholders. Your equity investors expect an improvement in performance. If that improvement is not forthcoming, or worse, if investors? opes are dashed, your shares might fall into the hands of raiders like Carlo de Benedetti or the Flick brothers. 1 1 De Benedetti of Milan and the Flick brothers of Munich were leaders of prominent hostile-takeover attempts in recent years. -4- UVA-F-1356 At the conclusion of the most recent meeting of the directors, the board voted unanimously to limit capital spending to EUR120 million in 2001. Members of the Senior Management CommitteeSeven senior managers of Euroland Foods would prepare the capital budget. For consideration, each project had to be sponsored by one of the managers present. Usually the decision process included a period of discussion followed by a vote on two to four alternative capital budgets. The various execu tives were well known to each other: Wilhelmina Verdin (Belgian), PDG, age 57. Granddaughter of the founder and spokesperson on the board of directors for the Verdin family? s interests. Worked for the company her entire career, with significant experience in brand management. Elected ? European Marketer of the Year? n 1982 for successfully introducing low-fat yogurt and ice cream, the first major roll-out of this type of product. Eager to position the company for long-term growth but cautious in the wake of recent difficulties. Trudi Lauf (Swiss), finance director, age 51. Hired from Nestle in 1995 to modernize financial controls and systems. Had been a vocal proponent of reducing leverage on the balance sheet. Also, voiced the concerns and frustrations of stockholders. Heinz Klink (German), managing director for Distribution, age 49. Oversaw the transportation, warehousing, and order-fulfillment activities in the company.Spoilage, transport costs, stock-outs, and control systems w ere perennial challenges. Maarten Leyden (Dutch), managing director for Production and Purchasing, age 59. Managed production operations at the company? s 14 plants. Engineer by training. Tough negotiator, especially with unions and suppliers. A fanatic about production-cost control. Had voiced doubts about the sincerity of creditors? and investors? commitment to the firm. Marco Ponti (Italian), managing director of Sales, age 45. Oversaw the field sales force of 250 representatives and planned changes in geographical sales coverage.The most vocal proponent of rapid expansion on the senior-management committee. Saw several opportunities for ways to improve geographical positioning. Hired from Unilever in 1993 to revitalize the sales organization, which he successfully accomplished. Fabienne Morin (French), managing director for Marketing, age 41. Responsible for marketing research, new-product development, advertising, and in general, brand management. The primary advocate of the re cent price war, which, although financially difficult, realized solid gains in market share. Perceived a ? window of opportunity? or product and market expansion and tended to support growth-oriented projects. Nigel Humbolt (British), managing director for Strategic Planning, age 47. Hired two years previously from a well-known consulting firm to set up a strategic planning staff -5- UVA-F-1356 for Euroland Foods. Known for asking difficult and challenging questions about Euroland? s core business, its maturity, and profitability. Supported initiatives aimed at growth and market share.Had presented the most aggressive proposals in 2000, none of which were accepted. Becoming frustrated with what he perceived to be his lack of influence in the organization. The Expenditure Proposals The forthcoming meeting would entertain the following proposals in Table 2: Table 2. Project proposals. Project Expenditure (euro millions) Sponsoring Manager 1. Replacement and expans ion of the truck fleet 33 Klink, distribution 2. A new plant 45 Leyden, production 3. Expansion of a plant 15 Leyden, production 4. Development and roll-out of snack foods 27 Morin, marketing 5. Plant automation and conveyor systems 21 Leyden, production . Effluent-water treatment at four plants 6 Leyden, production 7. Market expansion southward 30 Ponti, sales 8. Market expansion eastward 30 Ponti, sales 9. Development and introduction of new artificially sweetened yogurt and ice cream 27 Morin, marketing 10. Networked, computer-based inventorycontrol system for warehouses and field representatives 22. 5 Klink, distribution 11. Acquisition of a leading schnapps brand and associated facilities 60 Humbolt, strategic planning 1. Replacement and expansion of the truck fleet: Heinz Klink proposed to purchase 100 new refrigerated tractor-trailer trucks, 50 each in 2001 and 2002.By doing so, the company could sell 60 old, fully depreciated trucks over the two years for a total of EUR4. 05 million. The purchase would expand the fleet by 40 trucks within two years. Each of the new trailers would be larger than the old trailers and afforded a 15% increase in cubic meters of goods hauled on each trip. The new tractors would also be more fuel- and maintenance-efficient. The increase in the number of trucks would permit more flexible scheduling and more efficient routing and servicing of the fleet than at present and would cut delivery times and, therefore, possibly inventories. It -6- UVA-F-1356 would also allow more frequent deliveries to the company? s major markets, which would reduce the loss of sales caused by stock-outs. Finally, expanding the fleet would support geographical expansion over the long term. As shown in Exhibit 3, the total net investment in trucks of EUR30 million and the increase in working capital to support added maintenance, fuel, payroll, and inventories of EUR3 million was expected to yield total cost savings and added sale s potential of EUR11. million over the next seven years. The resulting IRR was estimated to be 7. 8%, marginally below the minimum 8% required return on efficiency projects. Some of the managers wondered if this project would be more properly classified as ? efficiency? than ? expansion.? 2. A new plant: Maarten Leyden noted that Euroland Foods yogurt and ice-cream sales in the southeastern region of the company? s market were about to exceed the capacity of its Melun, France, manufacturing and packaging plant. At present, some of the demand was being met by shipments from the company? s newest, most efficient facility, located in Strasbourg, France.Shipping costs over that distance were high, however, and some sales were undoubtedly being lost when the marketing effort could not be supported by delivery. Leyden proposed that a new manufacturing and packaging plant be built in Dijon, France, just at the current southern edge of the Euroland Foods marketing region, to take the burden off the Melun and Strasbourg plants. The cost of that plant would be EUR37. 5 million and would entail EUR7. 5 million for working capital. The EUR21 million worth of equipment would be amortized over seven years, and the plant over ten years.Through an increase in sales and depreciation and the decrease in delivery costs, the plant was expected to yield after-tax cash flows totaling EUR35. 6 million and an IRR of 11. 3% over the next 10 years. This project would be classified as a market extension. 3. Expansion of a plant: In addition to the need for greater production capacity in Euroland Foods? s southeastern region, its Nuremberg, Germany, plant had reached full capacity. This situation made the scheduling of routine equipment maintenance difficult, which, in turn, created production scheduling and deadline problems.This plant was one of two highly automated facilities that produced the Euroland Foods? s entire line of bottled water, mineral water, and fruit juices. The Nurembe rg plant supplied central and western Europe. (The other plant, near Copenhagen, Denmark, supplied the Euroland Foods northern European markets. ) The Nuremberg plant capacity could be expanded by 20% for EUR15 million. The equipment (EUR10. 5 million) would be depreciated over seven years, and the plant over ten years. The increased capacity was expected to result in additional production of up to EUR2. 5 million a year, yielding an IRR of 11. 2%. This project would be classified as a market extension. 4. Development and roll-out of snack foods: Fabienne Morin suggested that the company use the excess capacity at its Antwerp spice- and nut-processing facility to produce a line of dried fruits to be test-marketed in Belgium, Britain, and the Netherlands. She noted the strength of the Rolly brand in those countries and the success of other food and beverage companies that had expanded into snack food production. She argued that the Euroland Foods? reputation for wholesome, quality pr oducts would be enhanced by a line of dried fruits and, further, that name -7- UVA-F-1356 association with the new product would probably even lead to increased sales of the company? s other products among health-conscious consumers. Equipment and working-capital investments were expected to total EUR22. 5 million and EUR4. 5 million, respectively, for this project.The equipment would be depreciated over seven years. Assuming the test market was successful, cash flows from the project would be able to support further plant expansions in other strategic locations. The IRR was expected to be 13. 4%, slightly above the required return of 12% for new-product projects. 5. Plant automation and conveyer systems: Maarten Leyden also requested EUR21 million to increase automation of the production lines at six of the company? s older plants. The result would be improved throughput speed and reduced accidents, spillage, and production tieups.The last two plants the compan y had built included conveyer systems that eliminated the need for any heavy lifting by employees. The systems reduced the chance of injury by employees; at the six older plants, the company had sustained an average of 223 missed-worker days per year per plant in the last two years because of muscle injuries sustained in heavy lifting. At an average hourly total compensation rate of EUR14. 00 an hour, more than EUR150,000 a year were thus lost, and the possibility always existed of more serious injuries and lawsuits. Overall, cost savings and depreciation totaling EUR4. 3 million a year for the project were expected to yield an IRR of 8. 7%. This project would be classed in the efficiency category. 6. Effluent-water treatment at four plants: Euroland Foods preprocessed a variety of fresh fruits at its Melun and Strasbourg plants. One of the first stages of processing involved cleaning the fruit to remove dirt and pesticides. The dirty water was simply sent down the drain and into th e Seine or Rhine Rivers. Recent European Community directives called for any wastewater containing even slight traces of poisonous chemicals to be treated at the sources, and gave companies four years to comply.As an environmentally oriented project, this proposal fell outside the normal financial tests of project attractiveness. Leyden noted, however, that the water-treatment equipment could be purchased today for EUR6 million; he speculated that the same equipment would cost EUR15 million in four years when immediate conversion became mandatory. In the intervening time, the company would run the risks that European Community regulators would shorten the compliance time or that the company? s pollution record would become public and impair the image of the company in the eyes of the consumer.This project would be classed in the environmental category. 7 and 8. Market expansions southward and eastward: Marco Ponti recommended that the company expand its market southward to include s outhern France, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain, and/or eastward to include eastern Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Austria. Ponti believed the time was right to expand sales of ice cream, and perhaps yogurt, geographically. In theory, the company could sustain expansions in both directions simultaneously, but practically, Ponti doubted that the sales and distribution organizations could sustain both expansions at once.Each alternative geographical expansion had its benefits and risks. If the company expanded eastward, it could reach a large population with a great appetite for frozen dairy products, but it would also face more competition from local and regional ice cream -8- UVA-F-1356 manufacturers. Moreover, consumers in eastern Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia did not have the purchasing power that consumers to the south did.The eastward expansion would have to be supplied from plants in Nuremberg, Strasbourg, and Hamburg. Looking southward, the table s were turned: more purchasing power and less competition but also a smaller consumer appetite for ice cream and yogurt. A southward expansion would require building consumer demand for premium-quality yogurt and ice cream. If neither of the plant proposals (proposals 2 and 3) was accepted, then the southward expansion would need to be supplied from plants in Melun, Strasbourg, and Rouen. The initial cost of either proposal was EUR30 million of working capital.The bulk of this project? s costs was expected to involve the financing of distributorships, but over the 10-year forecast period, the distributors would gradually take over the burden of carrying receivables and inventory. Both expansion proposals assumed the rental of suitable warehouse and distribution facilities. The after-tax cash flows were expected to total EUR56. 3 million for southward expansion and EUR48. 8 million for eastward expansion. Marco Ponti pointed out that southward expansion meant a higher possible IRR bu t that moving eastward was a less risky proposition.The projected IRRs were 21. 4% and 18. 8% for southern and eastern expansion, respectively. These projects would be classed in the marketextension category. 9. Development and introduction of new artificially sweetened yogurt and ice cream: Fabienne Morin noted that recent developments in the synthesis of artificial sweeteners were showing promise of significant cost savings to food and beverage producers as well as stimulating growing demand for low-calorie products. The challenge was to create the right flavor to complement or enhance the other ingredients.For ice cream manufacturers, the difficulty lay in creating a balance that would result in the same flavor as was obtained when using natural sweeteners; artificial sweeteners might, of course, create a superior taste. In addition, EUR27 million would be needed to commercialize a yogurt line that had received promising results in laboratory tests. This cost included acquiring s pecialized production facilities, working capital, and the cost of the initial product introduction. The overall IRR was estimated to be 20. 5%.Morin stressed that the proposal, although highly uncertain in terms of actual results, could be viewed as a means of protecting present market share, because other high-quality icecream producers carrying out the same research might introduce these products; if the Rolly brand did not carry an artificially sweetened line and its competitors did, the brand might suffer. Morin also noted the parallels between innovating with artificial sweeteners and the company? s past success in introducing low-fat products. This project ould be classed in the new-product category of investments. 10. Networked, computer-based inventory-control system for warehouses and field representatives. Heinz Klink had pressed unsuccessfully for three years for a state-of-the-art -9- UVA-F-1356 computer-based inventory-control system that would lin k field sales representatives, distributors, drivers, warehouses, and possibly even retailers.The benefits of such a system would be shorter delays in ordering and order processing, better control of inventory, reduction of spoilage, and faster recognition of changes in demand at the customer level. Klink was reluctant to quantify these benefits, because they could range between modest and quite large amounts. This year, for the first time, he presented a cash-flow forecast, however, that reflected an initial outlay of EUR18 million for the system, followed by EUR4. 5 million in the next year for ancillary equipment. The inflows reflected depreciation tax shields, tax credits, cost reductions in warehousing, and reduced inventory.He forecast these benefits to last for only three years. Even so, the project? s IRR was estimated to be 16. 2%. This project would be classed in the efficiency category of proposals. 11. Acquisition of a leading schnapps2 brand and associated facilities. N igel Humbolt had advocated making diversifying acquisitions in an effort to move beyond the company? s mature core business but doing so in a way that exploited the company? s skills in brand management. He had explored six possible related industries in the general field of consumer packaged goods and determined that cordials and liqueurs offered unusual opportunities for eal growth and, at the same time, market protection through branding. He had identified four small producers of well-established brands of liqueurs as acquisition candidates. Following exploratory talks with each, he had determined that only one company could be purchased in the near future, namely, the leading private European manufacturer of schnapps, located in Munich. The proposal was expensive: EUR25 million to buy the company and EUR30 million to renovate the company? s facilities completely while simultaneously expanding distribution to new geographical markets.The expected returns were high: after-tax cash flows were projected to be EUR198. 5 million, yielding an IRR of 27. 5%. This project would be classed in the new-product category of proposals. Conclusion Each member of the management committee was expected to come to the meeting prepared to present and defend a proposal for the allocation of Euroland Foods? s capital budget of EUR120 million. Exhibit 3 summarizes the various projects in terms of their free cash flows and the investment-performance criteria. 2 Any of various strong dry liquors, such as a strong Dutch gin.Definition borrowed from American Heritage ® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed. -10- UVA-F-1356 Exhibit 1 EUROLAND FOODS S. A. Nations where Euroland Foods Competed Note: The shaded area on this map reveals the principal distribution region of Euroland? s products. Important facilities are indicated by the following figures: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium Plant, Antwerp, Belgium Plant, Strasbourg, France Plant , Nuremberg, Germany Plant, Hamburg, GermanyPlant, Copenhagen, Denmark Plant, Svald, Sweden Plant, Nelly-on-Mersey, England Plant, Caen, France Plant, Melun, France -11- UVA-F-1356 Exhibit 2 EUROLAND FOODS S. A. Summary of Financial Results (all values in euro millions, except per-share amounts) Fiscal Year Ending December 1998 1999 Gross sales 1,614 1,608 1,611 Net income 77 74 56 1. 13 1. 08 0. 81 Dividends 30 30 30 Total assets 716 870 984 Shareholders? equity (book value) 559 640 697 1,271 1,258 784 Earnings per shareShareholders? equity (market value) 2000 -12- UVA-F-1356 Exhibit 3 EUROLAND FOODS S. A. Free Cash Flows and Analysis of Proposed Projects1 (all values in euro millions) Project 1 2 Expand Truck Fleet (note 3) Investment Property Working Capital 3 New Plant (Dijon, France) 4 5 6 Expanded Automation Plant and (Nuremberg, Conveyer Germany) Snack Foods S ystems 7 8 9 10 Southward Expansion (note 5) Eastward E xpansion (note 5) A rtificial S weetener InventoryControl S ystem StrategicA cquisition (note 6) 30. 00 3. 00 37. 50 7. 50 15. 00 0. 00 -17. 10 -11. 85 4. 50 5. 25 6. 00 6. 75 7. 50 10. 50 11. 55 -45. 00 3. 00 7. 50 8. 25 9. 00 9. 38 9. 75 10. 13 7. 50 7. 88 8. 25 35. 63 -15. 00 1. 88 2. 25 2. 63 3. 00 3. 38 3. 75 2. 25 2. 25 2. 25 2. 25 10. 88 6 4 6 5 6 5 7 6 6 4 5 6 IRR Minimum Accepted ROR Spread 7. 8% 8. 0% -0. 2% 11. 3% 10. 0% 1. 3% 11. 2% 10. 0% 1. 2% 13. 4% 12. 0% 1. 4% 8. 7% 8. 0% 0. 7% NPV at Corp. WACC (10. 6%) -2. 88 1. 49 0. 41 3. 74 NPV at Minimum ROR -0. 19 2. 81 0. 82 Equivalent Annuity (note 2) -0. 04 0. 46 0. 13 Y ear 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Undiscounted Sum Payback (years) Maximum Payback Accepted 2. 50 21. 00 0. 00 0. 00 4. 50 0. 00 30. 00 30. 00 EXPECTED FREE CASH FLOWS (note 4) -9. 00 -21. 00 -30. 00 -30. 00 -9. 00 4. 13 5. 25 4. 50 -9. 00 4. 13 6. 00 5. 25 4. 50 4. 13 6. 75 6. 00 4. 50 4. 13 7. 50 6. 75 6. 00 4. 13 8. 25 7. 50 6. 75 4. 13 9. 00 8. 25 7. 50 4. 13 9. 75 9. 00 8. 25 1 0. 50 9. 75 9. 00 11. 25 10. 50 9. 75 12. 00 11. 25 29. 25 7. 88 56. 25 48. 75 22. 50 4. 50 22. 50 0. 00 45. 00 15. 00 -27. 00 4. 50 6. 00 6. 75 7. 50 7. 50 7. 50 7. 50 7. 50 7. 50 7. 50 42. 75 -18. 00 8. 25 8. 25 7. 50 6. 00 -25. 00 -30. 00 7. 50 13. 50 16. 50 19. 50 22. 50 25. 50 28. 50 31. 50 88. 50 198. 50 5 6 5 6 3 4 5 6 21. 4% 12. 0% 9. 4% 8. 8% 12. 0% 6. 8% 20. 5% 12. 0% 8. 5% 16. 2% 8. 0% 8. 2% 27. 5% 12. 0% 15. 5% -1. 31 17. 99 13. 49 13. 43 1. 75 69. 45 1. 79 0. 48 14. 85 10. 62 10. 97 2. 67 59. 65 0. 32 0. 09 2. 63 1. 88 1. 94 1. 03 10. 56 1 The effluent treatment program is not included in this exhibit. The equivalent annuity of a project is that level annual payment that yields a net present value equal to the NPV at the minimum required rate of return for that project. Annuity corrects for differences in duration among various projects. In ranking projects on the basis of equivalent annuity, bigger annuities create more investor wealth than smaller annuities. This refl ects EUR16. 5 million spent both initially and at the end of year one. 4 Free cash flow = Incremental profit or cost savings after taxes + Depreciation Investment in fixed assets and working capital. 5 Franchisees would gradually take over the burden of carrying receivables and inventory. 6 EUR25 million would be spent in the first year, EUR30 million in the second, and EUR5 million in the third. 2

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English perspective The English purpose was to ensure that Scotland would not choose a monarch different from the one on the English throne. The two countries had shared a king for much of the previous century, but the English were concerned that an independent Scotland with a different king, even if he were a Protestant, might make alliances against England. The English succession was provided for by the English Act of Settlement 1701, which ensured that the monarch of England would be a Protestant member of the House of Hanover. Until the Union of Parliaments, the Scots could choose their own successor to Queen Anne: the Scottish Act of Security 1704 explicitly required a choice different from the English monarch. Irish perspective Ireland, the third of the â€Å"sister kingdoms†, was not included in the union. It remained a separate kingdom and indeed was legally subordinate to Great Britain until 1784. Ireland’s benefits from the Union of 1707 were few. Its preferential status in trade with England now extended to Scotland. However, Ireland was left unequal and unrepresented in the Parliament of Great Britain. In July 1707 each House of the Parliament of Ireland passed a congratulatory address to Queen Anne, praying that â€Å"May God put it in your royal heart to add greater strength and lustre to your crown, by a still more comprehensive Union†.[24] The British government did not respond to the invitation and an equal union between Great Britain and Ireland was out of consideration until the 1790s. The union with Ireland finally came about on 1 January 1801.