Strategy is futuristic business thinking about present business challenges and future opportunities. The strategic technique effective for this is a "model" of how one's company now operates but should change to operate in the future-a "strategic business model." A strategic model of a business of a corporation summarizes the future policies of the business that will prepare it to perform in the future. Six different kinds of generic business models that can be used in strategy are summarized.

A business model is an abstraction of a business identifying how that business profitably makes money. Business models are abstracts about how inputs to an organization are transformed to value-adding outputs. All models of organizations are models of a kind of"open system" (Betz, 1968); one important version of this is the now famous "value-added" model of Michael Porter (1981). As summarized in Exhibit 1, a value-adding open-system model of an organization is described as taking resources from its environment and transforming these to value-added outputs sold back into its market environment. The transformation of input resources into output products/services is performed by the processes and operations of the business. The Porter model is only one of several kinds of business models one can use in strategic planning.

Strategic thinking about how a business now makes money and how it must change to continue making money is the bottomline for strategic management. For example, in thinking about the future capabilities of an organization, Clayton Christensen and Michael Overdorf (2000) emphasized the need to consider resources, processes, and values in an existing organization-- compared to the challenge of needed change. The resources of a business consist of tangible resources (such as its personnel, equipment, facilities, cash flows, location, etc.) and intangible resources (such as design capability, brand names, relationships to customers and suppliers, etc.). The processes of a business consist of the activities and procedures with which a business procures resources, adds value, and produces and sells products and services. Thus, issues about change also require asking questions such as, "What changes in processes and procedures are necessary to produce new kinds of value and/or address the needs of new kinds of customers?" The value dimension of an organization (sometimes called "corporate values") is the standard by which management and other employees set priorities and judge the importance of activities and results. A strategic business model is a systematic list of the policies that will guide the future specification of inputs, outputs, processes, and values of the complete operations of the business of the corporation.

The importance of conceiving a good business model was emphasized by the experience of the many new companies (dot.coms) begun in the Internet growth years of 1996-2000. Hundreds of dot.coms were begun with extensive venture capital funding, and many without having a viable business model. Then in the year 2000, over 125 of these companies folded as they ran out of capital and had not yet become profitable (and found new financing difficult to achieve). The often-repeated moral then was that a good business model is necessary for profitability and survival.

Traditionally, many strategy texts have used a variety of strategy analysis techniques for formulating strategy alternatives (i.e., David, 2001). Some examples of these are: Threats-- Opportunities-Weaknesses-Strengths (TOWS) matrix, Strategic Position andAction Evaluation (SPACE) matrix, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) matrix, Internal-External (IE) matrix, Grand Strategy (GS) matrix. While these techniques are useful for emphasizing different views on strategic choice, they do not provide the bottomline of strategy-a specific model of how the business should operate in the future-the strategic business model. Accordingly, for a modern strategy process, the concept of the strategic business model should be used as the analytical baseline of the strategy process.

Business Models

As shown in Exhibit 2, a generic business model can be constructed with inputs and outputs to the business. There are four major kinds of inputs and outputs useful to construct a business model, and these are resources, sales, profits, and capital. Resources and sales provide the issues for the direct production transformations of a business operation. For example, in manufacturing operations, material resources are manufactured into physical products for sale. In service operations, requests for services are transacted into service sales. Profits and capital measure the value of the business operations. Profit is a measure of business efficiency-the difference between prices and costs of sold products/services. Capital is a measure of the asset value of the business-the difference between equity and liabilities.

In this paper, an overview of different analytic queueing models for traffic on road networks is presented. In the literature, it has been shown that queueing models can be used to adequately model uninterrupted traffic flows. This paper gives a broad review on this literature. Moreover, it is shown that the developed published methodologies (which are mainly single node oriented) can be extended towards queueing networks. First, an extension towards queueing networks with infinite buffer sizes is evaluated. Secondly, the assumption of infinite buffer sizes is dropped leading to queueing networks with finite buffer sizes. The impact of the buffer size when comparing the different queueing network methodologies is studied in detail. The paper ends with an analytical application tool to facilitate the optimal positioning of the counting points on a highway.

1. Introduction and Motivation

Congestion is a function of the number of vehicles on the road, showing the need for well-performing traffic models that capture this specific relationship. Traffic Hows are usually modelled empirically: speed and How data are collected for a Sj)(1CiHc road and econometrically fitted into curves, i.e.. the spoed-How-donsity diagrams (Daganzo, 1997). Alternatively, (mainly supported by the increasing computer performance), one may use simulation to model traffic Hows [e.g., leading to the wellknown car-following models, see Transportation Research Board (1996); Zhang and Kim (2005)]. Th(1Se approaches are however limited in terms of predictive power and sensitivity analysis. Moreover, these techniques are highly data-dependent and (computer) time-dependent and as such, not directly applicable in the decision process of various policy makers (Jain and MacGregor Smith, 1997).

As an alternative to these methodologies, analytical models based on queueing theory could be used to model traffic flows. This review paper intends to give an overview of the different efforts in the relevant traffic flow literature where queueing models are used. The contributions of this paper are twofold:

First, the methodology to model road networks using analytical queueing models is reviewed in detail. The current methodology is however mostly limited to single node analysis, i.e., single stage queueing models. As in practice traffic passes through a multitude of nodes, the extension towards network models is necessary. In this paper, it is proposed that a road network can be represented as a queueing network where vehicles spend time. This time spent is dependent upon the occupation of the road network, i.e., a high occupation or traffic intensity will lead to more time en route. Consequently, the performance indicators of the queueing networks will be used to determine the time on the road. Note that the term congestion will be used here in a strictly queueing theory sense meaning more than one customer in the system leading to traffic intensity strictly larger than zero. When considering getting stuck in traffic (stand still), the term traffic jam will be used.

Secondly, in the late 1990s, more and more vehicle detectors have been installed throughout the world to record the passing of vehicles (Newell, 2002; Ehlert et ai, 2005). Mostly, the decision concerning the location of the detector is arbitrarily (e.g., near an off-ramp or on-ramp). Based on the insights obtained from the literature on finite versus infinite queueing networks applied to traffic environments, a policy tool is developed to determine the optimal positions of the vehicle detectors on highways. The tool i)roi)osed in this paper determines, based on the expected traffic intensity, the optimal number and the best, locations for the different detectors to adequately monitor traffic.

This paper is organized as follows. First, in Sec. 2, a broad literature review on queueing models applied to traffic flows is presented. Based on the latter, an extension in the direction of queueing network analysis for traffic networks is presented. It is split up into two major paths depending upon the buffer size: nodes having an infiniti! buffer size (Sec. 3.1) or nodes having a finite buffer size (Sec. 3.2). The developed models (networks with infinite and finite buffer size) are compared with each other and differences are evaluated (Sec. 4). In Sec. 5. a tool (based on the elaborated queueing analysis) to determine the optimal places of the different counting points on the road is presented. Then, future research opportunities are discussed (Sec. 6). The last section concludes this review.

2. Literature Overview

In this paper, traffic How models based on queueing theory are considered. The following subsections explain the basic concepts in detail and give relevant references. The interested reader on the history of traffic flow theory in general, is referred to, e.g., Newell (2002) or Daganzo (1997).

It started in 1950 when a next-door neighbor, who was a technical representative for LTV, gave John Heyde's wife a blue-colored model of the Regulus I missile. A 1957 graduate of the Naval Academy who earned his wings a year later, Heyde was naturally inclined to admire things that fly. Although he didn't realize it at the time, the acquisition of the Regulus ignited in Heyde what became a life-long avocation collecting aircraft models, most of military planes. These were not the kit type, but the already assembled desk-top versions favored by defense contractors. The collection grew steadily over the years, propelled by Heyde's unending enthusiasm and quest for models.

"I was not a dealer," said Heyde, "I would trade model for model now and then but primarily I was a collector. I had a number of duty tours in the Washington D.C. area and in my visits to various offices I would see a display model on someone's desk or shelf and simply ask for it with the intent to display the collection for others to enjoy."

CDR Heyde retired in 1977 after logging over 3,400 hours, mostly in P2V Neptunes. While on active duty he became an aeronautical engineering duty officer, earned an MS in astronautics from the Air Force institute of Technology, an MBA from the Harvard Business School, served in the Bureau of Weapons (NAVAIRSYSCOM) and was a DoD staff member for the National Aeronautics and Space Council at the White House. His final tour was as Deputy to the Director of Defense Research & Engineering (DDR@ In the course of these assignments, he had the opportunity to visit many aviation-oriented offices where more often than not people were willing to turn over models to him. Moreover, after retiring from the Navy he worked a full second career as Executive Vice President in charge of all Washington D.C. operations for the Astro-Tech company, an aeronautical type organization. He retired for good in August.

"The collection expanded and in time I had gathered models representing just about every aircraft, American and foreign, which had flown in the last several decades. I asked various foreign embassies to assist and they supplied models. The Japanese and Swedes were particularly helpful. Mostly, I acquired the models through direct personal contact in the various offices I visited or worked in as part of my regular duties."

Importantly, as the collection expanded, Heyde held exhibits of the models at the Army Navy Club in Washington D.C. which were exceptionally well received. The acquisitions steadily increased.

"I was honored by the son of Walter Diehl, who gave me his personal collection," said Heyde. "His father was a legendary BuAer engineer and figured importantly in the development of early Naval aircraft. George Spangenberg and Hal Andrews, NAVAIRSYSCOM stalwarts and Honorary Naval Aviators 12 and 22, also assisted as did so many others. Indeed, I spent my last two active duty years in the Pentagon and averaged collecting a model a day in that time."

Here's the shocker. The John Heyde collection reached an astounding 2,400 aircraft, and virtually every model was and remains in mint condition!

So vast was his aerial armada that virtually every nook and cranny of the Heyde's Northern Virginia home was used to accommodate the models. The attic, garage and closets functioned as homespun hangars. The benign ultimatum from his patient spouse was inevitable and came in 1984 when Cynnie said. "One more model and I'm out of here!"

Heyde contacted Tim Wooldridge, a retired Navy captain working at the National Air and Space Museum, and asked if NASM would be interested in taking over the collection. Officials examined the models and were delighted with the offer. Consequently, the 2,400 were carefully measured and logged - a laborious but happy chore - and officially transferred to museum custody.

At this writing, the majority of the models are in storage at the museum's Paul Garber Restoration (Silver Hill) Facility in Maryland. A large glass case enclosing over a 100 of them is on display there but the rest are protected by plastic covering and are carefully arranged on sturdy metal racks over eight feet high in a warehouse at Silver Hill. Others are packaged in huge boxes bearing the Heyde name, awaiting ultimate shipment to the Dulles extension of the Museum (see photo of VADM Engen and the facility elsewhere in this issue). Another group resides in the National Air and Space Museum itself and can be viewed by appointment as they are not on the museum floor.

John Heyde is a lifetime member and avid supporter of ANA and the Navy - one of his two daughters is a commander in the Nurse Corps and carrying on the Heyde military tradition. He remains close to the collection in mind and spirit. Last August he contributed a model of the C130J Hercules and examined the Silver Hill portion of the collection for the first time in years.

"I am immensely pleased the models have found a caring home at the National Air and Space Museum. When I visited them recently, I was thrilled to see they are being maintained like rare gems. Of course, to me, they are.

The Texas Water Development Board on October 26 announced the completion of its project, mandated by the 77th Legislature (2001), to develop or obtain groundwater availability models (GAM's) for all of the major aquifers of Texas. All of the models, reports, and support data are available at the TWDB website - www.twdb.state.tx.us/gam - or by request from the Board.

The Legislature funded the GAM program to develop numerical groundwater flow models to help groundwater conservation districts, regional water planning groups, and others assess current groundwater availability and the effect of pumping and drought on the state's groundwater resources. New models developed via the GAM process also had substantial stakeholder involvement. Some of the GAM's represent the first water modeling of any kind in the area.

TWDB staff developed five of the models - the Hill Country segment of the Trinity Aquifer; the northern and San Antonio segments of the Edwards Aquifer; the southern part of the Gulf Coast Aquifer; and the Edwards-Trinity (Plateau) and Cenozoic Pecos Alluvium Aquifers.

TWDB contractors developed eight of the models - the northern and southern parts of the Ogallala Aquifer; the northern, central, and southern parts of the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer; the Seymour Aquifer; the northern segment of the Trinity Aquifer; and the Barton Springs segment of the Edwards Aquifer. TWDB staff and a contractor jointly developed a model of the central Gulf Coast Aquifer.


The Board and Harris-Galveston Coastal Subsidence District funded a project for the U.S. Geological Survey to develop a model of the northern part of the Gulf Coast Aquifer. El Paso Water Utilities and the U.S. Geological Survey supported development of models for the Mesilla and Hueco Bolson Aquifers. The Edwards Aquifer Authority is developing a new model for the San Angonio segment of the Edwards Aquifer that will be available by the end of 2004.

Lets start with some definitions first :

Business : The occupation, work, or trade in which a person is engaged: e.g. the wholesale food business.

Process : A series of actions, changes, or functions bringing about a result: e.g. the process of digestion; the process of obtaining a driver’s license.

Model : A schematic description of a system, theory, or phenomenon that accounts for its known or inferred properties and may be used for further study of its characteristics: e.g. a model of generative grammar;

“cited from : process. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved April 30, 2007, from Dictionary.com website”

So Business Process Modelling can be defined as a schematic representation of activities and functions performed by an organization to achieve success in their trade and services offered to the market and customers.

I am sure that there would be a lot of gaps in above definition, if we attempt to make it complete but one thing can be inferred clearly : For a Business to go about doing its business and provide the right services and products to its customer, its understanding and control on how they perform and operate is essential and infact in current age, a competitive edge.

Hence, Business Process Modeling can be viewed as a very critical activity both from a business and technology perspective. The reasons for doing process modelling can be many, but we can outline the same into following:

Process Documentation : Need for organization to document their business processes Process Improvement Exercise: Organizations looking for performing an analysis of current processes and how the same can be improved. Process modeling here would be just a part of the approach in this case. Typically a BPI activity would involve analysis of current as-is process, refinement of processes based on six sigma, lean etc. and coming out with a revise To-BE process. Enterprise Systems Implementation : Though some might call it a myopic view to process modeling, however traditionally and even today many organizations have carry out process modeling work before implementation of major IT system for e.g. ERP, CRM, Order Management systems etc. This definetely is a wise choice considering that most of the enterprise systems being deployed has an impact on how you perform your business going forward. Again details of best practices in this space can be a separate discussion itself. Especially the discussion around need for doing process modeling/analysis first or choosing the systems and then pursuing process modeling. I had a discussion with one of my clients once in which it was latter and my fundamental question was now will you change your process for the system or vice versa and whether the whole choice of the system would have been different if they already had an idea of their processes which needed automation help. Anyways there are pitfalls both sides.

Enterprise Architecture : Many organizations have a separate Enterprise Architecture practices and one area of EA is Process/Business Architecture. So organizations do carry out process modeling work as a standalone aspect to achieve a decent view. However in this case process modeling could be a very abstract representation of processes due to the high level view typically required from EA viewpoint. Organizations could go into details, but in my experience its not easy to get funding for doing Process modeling work just as a project without linking it to some specific business related project/budget. Thats a pity, sometimes as EA teams can add real value given the resources to do detailed analysis of Enterprise’s architecture. Infact with SOA becoming essential approach within many EA teams, I think process modeling in detail provide greater value and help in identifying the correct service mapping.

BPM : Process modeling is also the starting point for a Business Process Management projects. Typically BPM tools will provide their own modeling tools, so care must be taken to identify the need for process modeling. Whether it should be only for the particular BPM projects or its maintained in some bigger/central process repository. I prefer a central Process repository for all process models for e.g. in tools like Telelogic system architect, aris, case wise etc. and picking out process for BPM implementations from central repository or better still create BPEL from the process models directly. However this aspect of product integration is not the most mature and care is needed before use.

Ok, I am sure there are many more benefits of process modeling and I would get time later to elaborate in other articles/blogs. Lets move into some aspects of how to build better process models. Some of the pre-requisites for process modeling are as follows:

1) People: You need to have good skills within the team from various perspectives, you need good business analysts to undertand what needs to be modeled and engage with business users accordingly. You also need a good scribe or modeler who understands how to map the requirements into models. As we are limiting it to modeling space, you may not require people with six sigma, lean,simulation skills though they would take part at appropriate phase in analysis.

2) Tools : you would need appropriate tools to model the business processes. It could start with basic word processing tools like word, move into graphic tools like visio to sophisticated tools like aris, system architect. Choice of tools would depend on requirements and objectives for modeling and obviously other factors like cost, skill sets etc. I personally feel that modeling efforts in tools like word and visio is a myopic view to modeling and processes are assets of any organizations and should be available centrally to be updated constantly. You should consider a repository based tool which supports standard modeling and reporting techniques to provide long term benefits.

3) Standards : Its very essential for an organization to choose and follow a common methodology for process modelling. We have over the years used multiple methods for process modeling like flow charts, petri-nets, Event based process charts and now with new standards like Business Process Modeling notations ( http://www.bpmn.org ), the choice is much simpler. A standard based approach allows a common ground for process understanding and discussion which can be a nightmare otherwise. In my experience I have seen companies using a pot-pouri of process techniques, some which are home grown with different symbols and color combinations meaning different things to different departments in the same company. The issues become manifold when you try to come out with cross-functional process maps based on proprietary notations. So in my opinion organizations should consider formalizing on a process modeling standard before starting any major modeling exercise.

So as we can see its process modeling is an important step in providing a clearer picture to a business regarding the activities they perform and also through analysis the impact it has on its business and underlying infrastructure. The business has to play an important role in sponsoring initiatives supporting process modeling and architecture especially when embarking on a BPM/SOA journey.

Kapil Pant has 8+ years of experience in pre-sales, business analyst, solution architect, and EA consulting role.

Core experience in Consulting on Enterprise Architecture and BPM with a strong understanding of leading EA frameworks viz. Zachman, TOGAF, eTOM & SID etc. Kapil is currently engaged in BPM consulting wrt Business Process Management workshops, BPMS tools study and recommendations, BPM Architecture, implementation and governance consulting.

A Case for Simulation

Companies practicing Lean Six Sigma without process modeling and simulation techniques need to consider what these practices can provide in terms of risk-analysis and decision-making (such as cost estimating, scheduling, resource allocation, engineering design, etc.) by modeling the probabilistic behavior of a system, process or service.

Specifically process modeling and simulation can accomplish the following:

• Predict performance of current processes against effectiveness, readiness and cost to determine areas of significant improvement potential

• Enable rapid analysis in situations with either extensive data or no data

• Provide an understanding of why key factors have the highest impact on results and where to focus efforts

• Meet quality objectives by determining optimal specifications and tolerances

• Communicate findings in a simple, highly visual manner

Why companies don't practice Process Modeling:

The most common reasons companies restrict the use of process modeling and simulations involve cost, timing, safety concerns, lack of simulation/modeling experienced resources, and/or unavailable or lack of skills in using modeling and simulation tools.

One of the greatest complaints we hear from senior managers is "projects are successfully completed, but I'm not seeing a significant change to the bottom line." That's because in the Define stage of (DMAIC), Lean Six Sigma experts don't have enough information to quantify the benefits. They are predicting a bottom line financial benefit without truly understanding how the process behaves, let alone how it would behave after the change. Without seeing the big picture you may complete a successful Lean Six Sigma project and see no impact in dollars for your organization. There is a better way. With process modeling you create a simple simulated model of the process. You will visually see which projects will affect the total output, and which will sub-optimize the system.

For example, Figure 1 shows that "Judy," as secretary, has a job that is currently taking 20 minutes and requires 20 additional minutes of transportation. The Value Stream map process captures the variation in the time it takes her to complete a task, ranging from 15 to 120 minutes, with an average of 60 minutes. It also shows that Judy has the longest queue time of 240 minutes.

Why Practice Process Modeling:

Process modeling and simulation can be invaluable in situations where the construction of a real world model is infeasible. Process modeling helps to visualize a proposed system, facility layout, or other process change. It can help answer "what if" questions and scenarios within a given confidence level. Process Modeling and simulation can often demonstrate the effectiveness (or lack of) of a new design or process through the exploring the implications of operational changes and the investigation of the impact of changes in the marketplace.

Key advantages of integrating Lean Six Sigma phases (DMAIC) with process modeling:

• Overall interdependencies in process. The standard Lean Six Sigma toolbox has no way of showing the interdependencies between one area of the process and another. In complex change initiatives where there are interdependencies between processes, when incidents happen that cause delays, bottlenecks, variability, etc., if you can't show the interdependencies, understanding the system and resolving issues is very difficult. If you can't understand the system and pinpoint the waste and bottlenecks, changing the system could be risky and typically does not provide the desired results. A simulated model shows those interdependencies, which allows for the uncovering of changes that will affect the overall system

• Risk free experimentation. It is proven that real-time experiments are costly and can have an enormous negative impact on the system. If you are experimenting with a simulated model of the system, the only cost is setting up the experiment and reviewing the results. There are no negative impacts to system output or to the morale of the workforce in trying new process experiments. You can change the parameters, run various scenarios and if the desired outcome is not achieved, you can pinpoint the root causes, all the while gathering more information about system behavior - without any disruption to the real system.

• Reduced experimentation time. You can run hundreds of experiments a day rather than hundreds of days per experiment. Many processes have a cycle time of weeks or even months. Running enough replications of an experiment to validate the results can be overwhelming. With a simulated model, you can run as many computer simulations as you want and develop plans based upon the review of results.

• Impact of change on the existing process. Processes that achieve the goal of Lean Six Sigma (or a high sigma quality level) fall out of specification if the volumes change. For example, a 50% change to incoming calls to a call center may cripple a customer-oriented sales process. Planning for change in your system by using a simulated model to understand the effects of volume change, product stream substitution, staffing policy or other changes can significantly reduce project risks and the associated costs.

Advertising photography essentially involves modeling and human subjects. And if you aspire to be a model, then the ad industry of UK is something that you would love to find yourself in. Not just lucrative opportunities but also it is one of the best place to grow as a model. But before you step in this world of modeling and advertising photography, you need to have the right mindset. Here is what you can expect in the forth coming days, once you step into this world of advertising photography.

The most important thing that you should always have is - time. You should always be approachable for photographers and clients. Projects have a bad habit of popping up from nowhere and clients do come in the last minute, when it is very difficult to get good models to showcase the benefits of their products or services. Therefore, you should be ready for such end moment calls. This requires models to be professional. Professionalism for models has two aspects - one, the model should emote well, as desired for the campaign. And second, the model should have a good rapport with the photographers. Now let me explain both of them. First, the model will have to express in the right way while being shot. Surprise, shock, sorrow, joy, satisfaction, different human emotions and different facial expressions. It is imperative for the models to put forth the right facial expressions to show just the emotion that the client wants in the advertisement.

The second aspect is also very important for a perfect shot. A model has to have a good rapport with the photographer who is going to shoot him. When the comfort level is good, the understanding between the two is better and therefore the expressions are closer to perfection. And that helps it to get more impressive.

Everyone from industry insiders to well-meaning friends and relatives will tell you that the child modeling and acting world is very competitive. This is true. BUT, there are absolutely things that you can do to give your child the edge and open the door for them to an exciting and hopefully lucrative new world.

And here's one of the key things you should know...

Children with great parents are at a real advantage!

The truth is, a parent can enhance or ruin a child's chances to break into modeling and acting.

So what makes a great industry parent?

• An easy-going but focused personality

• Lots of patience

• Good organizational skills

• The ability to get along well with lots of different types of people

• A mind open to suggestions and able to be objective about their child

• An involved, loving, positive attitude

• A watchful and calm presence who can stay firmly in the background

Usually a full-time parent at home works best. If that isn't an option, there must be a reliable adult who is ready and able to ferry the child to auditions and bookings on very short notice.

Stage parents ar a huge red flag to agents and clients. If agents get any sense when interviewing a new child that the parent will be overbearing, they won't sign the child no matter how wonderful she is.

If your a parent's personality tends to be on the controlling, helicopter-parent side, try to incorporate a more positive, less off-putting attitude. Once you find trustworthy professionals to work with (And you'll know how to find them after this course!) you need to step back and let them do your job.

NEW YORK The organ-iser of the city's fashion shows has issued guidelines to tackle the problem of too-skinny models but stopped short of banning them from catwalks as Milan has done. The Council of Fashion Designers of America recommended models with eating disorders seek treatment, young models work limited hours, healthy food be supplied backstage and smoking and alcohol be banned.

THESE are the two teenage girls who will be battling it out in front of millions of TV viewers over the next five days to win the chance to become a supermodel.

Alicia Bostock (left), and Elizabeth Edwards, 16, have already seen off 3,998 rivals in Channel 4's Model Behaviour contest.

At stake is a year's modelling contract with Premier Model Management, who represent Claudia Schiffer and Naomi Campbell.

Hat designer Alicia, 18, from Sheffield said: "I'm chuffed. This whole experience has been bizarre." Schoolgirl Elizabeth added: "I am so happy, I have always wanted to be a model and I'm really going to try really hard to make this work."

One of the judges Angus Munro, of Premier Model Management, said: "The girls have what is known in the fashion industry as the X Factor, an indescribable quality that sets them apart from other pretty girls."

Modeling back good speech is a powerful way to help children learn speech sounds and good grammar. In some cases it can even decrease the need for speech-language therapy.

For sounds:

* When your child says a word and “misses” a sound say the word back to them in a very positive way placing emphasis on the sound that they had problems with. Place emphasis by saying the sound louder, longer, by tapping your finger on the side of your mouth when you say the sound and by repeating it. If he said “The tat is nice” you could say “Yes, that is a very nice cat. I like cats. I think the cat likes you. Look the cat has a brown foot.” By repeating the word several times you are adding power to the modeling. Of course you would never want to correct your child in a way that would make them feel bad about how they are talking. Saying “No that’s not the right sound. Say it this way, say cat.”, only makes your child feel bad about their talking.

* Once your child has gotten fairly good at saying the sounds you could draw their attention to problem sounds a bit more by asking if they heard the right sound when they say a word. If he tried to say “spoon” and it came out “poon”, you could say, “Hmmm, I didn’t hear the snake (s) sound, did you? Lets try again.” Giving sounds labels such as “the snake sound” often helps younger children understand what you mean. Make sure to also point out times where your child has gotten sounds that he is working on right. Especially praise times where your child goes back and “fixes” sounds on his own.

For grammar:
* Use the same modeling idea of going back and saying words over in a very positive way, placing emphasis on words that were missed. For grammar place emphasis by saying the word louder and by repeating it. If you child said “Him is nice” you could say “Yes he is nice. He is fun to play with.”

The technique of modeling dough had its beginnings with the Classical Romans, Greeks and Egyptians when they would pay homage to their gods with offerings of figures made from dough. Later in nineteenth century Germany salt was added to stop mice eating the creations.

Today modeling is particularly suitable as a craft idea for kids of any age. It is soft, safe, non-toxic and great fun. Although the children can use polymer clay and self hardening clays salt dough clay is great fun to make.

You will need very little for this craft idea for kids and will probably have most of the items in your home. Items such as paint, varnish, pastry cutters, moulds, bowl and rolling pin will probably be enough. For the actual bread dough recipe you will need plain flour (not self-raising), salt and water.

Recipe:

2 cups plain flour
1 cup salt
1 cup water

Mix together flour, salt and half the water in the mixing bowl. Knead the mixture adding more water gradually until it is smooth and firm. Do not add too much water as it will become sticky and sag. Remove the mixture from the bowl and knead for a further 10 minutes. It is best to leave the dough to rest for 30 minutes in an air tight container.

By adding 1 tablespoon on vegetable oil you will add suppleness to the dough or 1 tablespoon of wallpaper paste for elasticity.

Model the dough into desired shapes and bake at 120 deg C or 250 deg F until completely hard all over. It is important to place the finished craft objects in a dry atmosphere and not in a steamy or damp area as they may deteriorate. The dough crafts can be left natural, painted and varnished or the dough can colored with food coloring before baking. Anything that is heatproof can be used, such as broken china but do keep an eye on the kids near the oven.

Typically there wouldn't be a chance for short models without the Internet, or at least it wouldn't be so easy to call yourself a model. These days you can download a photo on a website like onemodelplace, imodel, modelmayhem or musecube and in moments become a model, but having a photo on a free Internet modeling website is only a baby step towards getting legit modeling work.

Here are 5 tips on getting ahead by using the Internet as a petite model.

1. Be careful which photographs you download and show. It might be intriguing to only put sexy or bikini shots up, but by doing this you limit your audience and resume. By audience and resume I mean, if you are using the Internet to market yourself you need to show your diversity not just one side to your modeling ability. If you have only bikini photos up and no headshots or smiling shots, you wont be considered for commercial print or lifestyle or editorial work.

2. Be honest and up front with your goals. Don't work with photographers who don't have any goals if you take modeling seriously. Make goals, say " I want to be a in a magazine in a year." Then focus on that goal and the type of magazines that might be easy access to getting inside of.

3. Finding a magazine. If you are 5 foot there is still a magazine out there for you. Consider these types of magazines because modeling is more than Playboy and Vogue. Craft Magazines, Knitting Magazine, Bridal Magazines, hair magazines, Home and Garden type of magazines, furniture magazines, travel magazines, trade publications like the lingerie magazines, beauty business magazines, luxury magazines,...see there is a lot more than just high end fashion.

4. Have a point when you shoot, rip out magazines samples, style the hair, the clothing, the makeup, think deeper about your shoots because your images will sell you. They speak without words about the type of model you are...and most importantly about where you are going.

Just because you are short, petite, or curvy doesn't mean you can't model. But be realistic. You might never be a supermodel, but you can enjoy making some nice extra cash as a model and gain some editorial, commercial, and magazine and editorial work along the way and maybe meet some great friends too.

If you want to be a model and you aren’t sure how to start an instinct might be to go to the Internet. Which isn't a bad idea considering it is so easy to start on the web. It isn't bad idea if your small town doesn’t suffice to give you a good feeling about getting with a modeling agency but first I have some other hints that might help you to get your foot into the door since you should not rely on one source to get your ahead.

1. Understanding your look: When you don't have a modeling agency saying " yes yes your perfect" you need to know what are your best traits. The first thing to do is go to the mirror. Honestly check your self out and notice what parts of you could be sellable. Even your hands. Modeling isn’t just Playboy magazine or Vogue, it is shoe modeling, hair modeling, hand modeling, and to start self marketing yourself as a model you should know your strengths and accept what you are and aren’t.

2. Flip through some magazines. Magazines you like and want to be in. Get a feel for what is being used in ad campaigns, and editorials. What type of photos are being used in photo spreads and what type of posing is being done. Depending on the style of modeling you want to get into you will need to have knowledge on how to pose, how to move your body, how to be natural, and personable, for this I would rip out magazine editorials and ads which appeal to you and consider them textbook material for your next step. (I am still doing this today.)

3. I would then, to prepare for your first shoot, once you have an idea of the type of modeling you want to do, start to research on the Internet some local schools, colleges, and universities that have photo departments, or if you want to use the modeling forums and internet modeling websites then scout out photographers who submit to magazines and who have done quality work before. Or to work with a more experienced photographer without a budget of your own then you might need a creative tactic. For this you can use the Internet to research photographers from magazines, newspapers and editorial you have seen in magazines and start to get an idea of the type of work they have done and pursue them through email. There is no harm in asking a photographer if he considers test shooting, which means you will shoot with him/her and it will be of no cost to you or him/her and the images will be for both of you. Usually the photographer is testing out an idea and needs a model to practice on. But it can lead to serious work down the road if you sell your self as driven, honest, creative and striving.

The biggest mistake to make is to waste time on the wrong people and photographers who aren't as ambitious as you. So to solve this you need to be very picky but still full of ambition. As a freelance model, it all won’t happen over night so you need to

4. It isn't easy to marketing yourself at the start so I would get a website, You can get a cheap one made at www.siterightnow.com and get a portfolio so you can start building your book. Remember you will only get 2-3 shots for your book per shoot usually so start being picky about your looks and start planning to make a compcard. There is nothing wrong with selling yourself, talking about yourself, and letting people know your goals.

Remember: Modeling has more to do with your outward appearance but being ambitious can also lead you to a lot of work. If you want to get photos for free it is possible. I have never paid for photos, I have always approached photographers and got the shots I needed and you can too!

Isobella Jade is a petite model and author of Almost 5'4" -her petite modeling memoir and she living in New York City and for five years she was a freelance model and acting as her own agent most of the time.

She has been featured on Media Bistro, The New York Post Pulse, Page Six, Advertising Age, Yahoo news, Yahoo Yodel, Gawker, The bookstandard, Fashion Television and magazines nationally and internationally. She has been modeling since 2001. She is the author of Almost 5'4" Confessions of an Unconventional Model, which she is shopping to make into a film. She went to New York Institute of Technology and has her bachelors’ in Advertising and Marketing.

Model PrimePac, Au, Switzerland, installs a Gallus KM 510 inline system for folding cartons. Model PrimePac uses the Gallus machine for UV flexo printing and inline diecutting. Flexo printing is new to the company, which already produced packaging using letterpress, gravure and offset printing. The system's benefits, according to Model PrimePac, are that the modular system can economically produce printed, finished and processed products in a single pass.

Food MicroModel software, developed in the U.K. for use on the personal computer, assists in the development of products and processes that provide an environment unfavorable to S. aureus.

The software comprises a series of mathematical models for predicting the growth, survival and thermal death of foodborne pathogens from Aeromonas hydrophila to Yersinia enterocolitica. There are thermal inactivation models for five pathogens plus the meat spoilage organism Brochothrix thermosphacta. These assist in the design of new heat processes.

The calculations are based on factors such as temperature, water activity, pH, organic acids, carbon dioxide and sodium nitrate. Given the importance of confidence in the quality of the results, one aspect of the software is that each model is validated through practical studies of real foods or against relevant scientific literature.

The Food MicroModel software's flexibility means that predictions for S. aureus can be calculated based on the influence of either single factors or combinations of factors at a range of values. The capability to determine levels of organisms after a period of time - useful for predicting levels where toxin may be produced - may be of particular use to those modeling S. aureus.

Up to 1,000 microorganism/formulation combinations can be produced at any one time for selected stages of the food production chain. Predictive microbiological modeling helps with product formulation, identifying microbiological hazards and assessing risks in products and processes, as well as assessing the effects of storage and packaging conditions on product safety.