Descriptive Essay Example

Descriptive Essay Example We all know college is hard; if it were easy, everyone would have a degree and no one would ever ask for help. But here at Crafton Hills College, tutors are available to help out students in any way, so that those who struggle can do well and be successful. These mentors don’t just lecture, they take the time to make sure students understand and comprehend what is being taught. Tutors are at hand for a variety of subjects, some have appointments for one on one time and others are for use at one’s convenience.The best part is, students don’t have to search for a tutor, or post flyers saying â€Å"HELP NEEDED. † CHC has a Tutoring Center, completely free, which is easy to find and a perfect environment to learn and study. Although Crafton is a large campus, finding classes and certain buildings isn’t so hard with a few directions. In order to find the Tutoring Center, it is necessary to know and understand the layout of the c ollege. The most prominent building on campus is the LRC, Learning Resource Center, where the Tutoring Center, Lecture Hall, Library, Teaching Center and other services are obtainable.The campus is shaped like a long chain, and the LRC is located behind the chain closest to Student Services offices. It is the newest edition on campus, and its appearance is very up to date and modern. The LRC has replaced the old library in an outstanding way. This center is 3 stories tall, with large glass paneled walls on all sides. Entranceways are at use on opposing sides of the building, depending which direction you are coming from. But the main entry is through the large glass double doors on the eastern side of the LRC.Once inside, one will be standing in a grand hallway, with cream marble floors and tall neutral colored walls. There are two doors on the left which lead to an auditorium, and two doors on the right which are bathrooms. Keep walking forward and in view will be a large opening o n the right hand side; this is the library. The library can be of great use to students, so let’s take a few moments to look over this area. Besides the Tutoring Center, the library is also very resourceful and entirely useful.It’s filled with computers, private rooms, a small auditorium, a copy room and thousands of books (which are found on the top floor of the LRC). Writing tutors will encourage students to visit the library, especially when it comes to research papers. Now, continuing on to the Tutoring Center, a few more steps and you have reached a set of stairs that lead downward. Down these twenty or so steps is the Tutoring Center. After reaching the bottom, there is a small doorway to the left and a sign that says â€Å"Welcome to the Tutoring Center! †, as a confirmation that one is indeed in the right place.The Tutoring Center is a large rectangle shaped room, with small separate glass enclosed rooms around the edges. The rooms on the left and right are offices of some professors an instructors, while the back wall has some small rooms for study groups and private tutoring lessons, with one very large room painted bright yellow. A front desk is located to the immediate right once entered. Here is where anyone can receive information about the Tutoring Center and view waiting lists for certain subject tutors; flyers and booklets are also free to take.The center of the room has two long tables with twenty computers on both sides for student use, and on each side of those tables are four small square tables with four chairs each for groups or alone work. These separate tables also have power outlets so students can bring laptops or tablets. A student doesn’t have to make an appointment to see a tutor, they can put their name on the waiting list, or just ask a tutor who is not busy at that moment. Help is always available here. Learning specialists are available for english, math, writing and other specific classes; some tut ors are multi subject oriented.Student workshops are also optional for use. This includes MLA/APA format information, note-taking tips, conducting research, study skills, and test-taking strategies. DLA, directed learning activities, can be done as well. These help in strengthening particular english skills and some teachers even accept them as extra credit. Helpful coordinators can be found in the TC who plan summer programs, such as the bridge program, which helps students who are enrolled in pre-req english and math classes; and this helps the tutoring center by bringing in more students.The library is not the only section of the LRC that holds books, the TC has a textbook for every english, math and science class as a reference for CHC students. On busy days, one can find the TC completely filled with students, and still there is available help. Groups of students help others and the tutors are still around for support and confirmation of ideas. People who aren’t proficie nt in a general field learn through others and eventually can help others with the same problems that they once had. Many students have found the Tutoring Center to be of great use, for many reasons besides tutoring.It’s located right on campus, and is open for most of the school day, which means anyone can stop by before class, after class and in between classes. Despite it’s name, students don’t have to go to the Tutoring Center for tutor help. It’s a great place to study, work on homework, and a few tutors are available for immediate help if there is no time to wait. The center is a student-oriented environment with people dedicated to helping any student with a problems or questions. If some spare time is in hand, stop by the Tutoring Center, so it’s features and helpfulness will be fresh in mind.

Why Canadians Should Leave Afghanistan

since February 2002, approximately 15, 000 Canadian soldiers have served in Afghanistan. 78 Canadian Forces (CF) casualties have occurred, including one diplomat. The role of the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan is often debated. Many disagree with the mission and want the CF to leave Afghanistan now. Doing this however would only be failing the Canadian commitment to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and NATO. Canada should keep its commitment and remain in Afghanistan until the mission is complete. Afghanistan is in state that is almost beyond third-world. However, the mission that Canada is currently involved in has improved the country drastically and will continue to do so as long as the mission continues. So why take the chance and leave when Canada could further development and security ? Canada is not just involved in a combat role. We are also deployed to help rebuild the country. If Canada leaves now we would not only break our commitment to NATO, however to the Afghan people who really need the help as well. Three major reasons to why Canadians are still in Afghanistan and should continue to be in Afghanistan are national security, development of infrastructure and systems , and economics. This alone should be the reason why the Canadian forces should continue their duty in Afghanistan. Even though Canadians are spending billions of dollars ensuring the safety and security of a country that is highly regarded as â€Å"hopeless† in a sense where its highly doubted that this country will ever be stable. It is not only there obligation but there duty because of the commitment they made and as one the wealthier countries Canada cannot stand idly by and fail to help one of the poorest countries in the world. There are now 2,500 Canadian Forces personnel participating in the Afghanistan mission most of them being in the most most troubled province of Kandahar. They are there to help the security situation and to help extend the authority in the government. Also the Canadian forces is training both the Afghanistan National Army and Afghani police force and by doing this, citizens could feel more eat ease knowing that their local police force or national army could provide safety and security from the warlord and tali bans. However not only are we providing security for Afghanistan but to the Canada as well. Canada for many years has been one of al-Qaeda’s top hated countries. Canadian citizens think that just because there aren’t as recognized as the states in a bad way that we can be safe from attacks such as 9/11. Really we almost definitely could be next to be attacked. Afghanistan is a home for terrorist organizations and criminals. So, by staying in the country to try and eliminate the insurgency we are really protecting the national security of Canada. The same also applies to the countries surrounding Afghanistan. A secure Afghanistan means a secure Central Asia. Afghanistan is situated between a a pre-nuclear Iran on one side and a post-nuclear Pakistan on the other, geo-politically this can be a problem if Afghanistan fails to establish a self rule government, because then the neighbors will get involved and de-stabilize a radio active region. This is why the Canadian forces are in Afghanistan to prevent situations like theses from occurring. The whole mission is to educate and act as security for this nation until it could help and provide for its own. If Canadians pull out now what was the reason for coming in the first place ? It would be a waste of time, life and money the only logical thing to do is to stick with it and hope for the best. Canadians are often saying is Canada willing to commit themselves to decades of involvement in Afghanistan, which could cost hundreds of Canadian lives and billions of dollars with no guarantee of ending up with a normal society. This is true to a certain degree that lives will be lost and money will be spent. However is it not the outcome of the situation that counts ? If 1 Canadian dies 1000 people cry If 1000 Afghans die 1 person cries† Canada should be looking towards the future because realistically if we pull out now more Canadian lives could potentially be at stake from al qeida and other terrorist groups. Canada is pushing forward trying to make a Dependant state become independent and yes, this will cost some lives and the use of money but it will benefit them in the long run. S ince there time in Afghanistan, Canada has helped the development process immensely by building infrastructure, impementing vaccination programs, health related issues and an education system. accination program has nearly eradicated the disease in Kandahar province and throughout southern Afghanistan. Second, infant mortality in the region has taken a dramatic downturn. Also there are a lot more children than the previous generation and this is very vital to the development of Afghanistan. The Canadian international development agency is the main contributer to the development aspects of things. They have taken on the role of Investing in the future of Afghan children and youth through development programming in education and health and improving the lives of Afghans, especially women and children. The Afghan people are relying on the international community to help them rebuild their lives and their country after having suffered through decades of instability, oppression and insurgency. By supporting the rebuilding of institutions such as independent courts, police and an army, Canada is laying the ground work out for afghans. This shows that Canadian efforts are not going to waste and more importantly that they are slowly making a change and even though it has taken them 11 years to do so, Canada is finally starting to see results in which do not occur over night. Some people might argue the fact that the government is using the taxpayers money for something that has no beneficial value to the Canadian citizens. People need to realize that Afghanistan was a training ground for terrorists whose actions disrupted Canadian lives and economy. In order to prevent this from happening again Canada is instituting a government system and a strong military force. Also there trying to find a different source in which the afghan economy can flourish because right now Afghanistan main source of income are poppy fields however we know I as heroin. lowly womens ability to explore and achieve improved economic potential is healthier and generates hope for a brighter future for them and their families. Furthermore economic empowerment is not a womens issue its a development issue, there isn't a better way to improve a county's living condition than to empower women. If there are more people in th working class than the country could generate more income. Canad a's involvement allowed women to take a minor step into empowerment, which as we all know is a great deal in Afghanistan. However the problem for the country isn't that it cant generate income, it is that it can development a great economy but the ground work to start them off was never there until the Canadians showed up. The fact is that Afghanistan has substantial untapped natural resources, including not only oil, natural gas and copper but hydro-electric power sources as well. Developing Afghanistan's capacity to export energy could help improve the nation's economy and defuse regional tensions. Canadian corporations should be ready to take part in such major development projects. Our involvement would benefit both Canada and Afghanistan. With so much going for Afghanistan development process and the minor risks taken by Canada, why shouldn't they stay and continue the job that they committed to. The only logical answer could be if there was no development process and the whole was failure, but its not Canada is building and reshaping Afghanistan economy, government. A major step as already been taken by granting women some rights and citizens of Canada need to take notice of this. If canada keeps this up lowly but surely Afghanistan will be a independent country with limited terrorism.

Identity Theft: Exaggerated Risk or Real Threat? Essay

Introduction â€Å"You have $92.13c left in your Chase bank account, contact us today with your details to switch from telephone banking to online banking† – I was in the country barely 72 hours and I was already subject to someone attempting to steal my Identity! I am referring to the past summer that I spent in America working under a student visa. After registering my mobile phone and opening my first American bank account, I started getting texts like the one above. This my was my first personal exposure to the problem of Identity theft, and after a quick Google search to enquire what I was dealing with, I found that it was a very common occurrence in America; More than 57 million American adults receive â€Å"phishing† attack emails & texts every year – from hackers or cyber thieves who pretend to be trusted service providers to steal consumer account information, and more than half of those who responded become victims of Identity Theft (Gartner Research, Phishin g Attack Victims Likely Victims for Identity Theft). Lucky I didn’t respond to that text then, aren’t I? That was just my small run in with what has become a global problem over the last decade. And, the more I delved into the reading for this topic, the more I became aware of the vast amounts of literature available to me. I felt none of the other topics for this assignment had such in depth reading, which was mostly available online to me. There was online e-books, some of which I purchased; â€Å"Identity Theft Secrets: Exposing The Tricks of The Trade† – By Dale Penn, and â€Å"Double Trouble† – by Neal O’Farrell. Research websites were also helpful, like the Gartner Research website. I found some very interesting websites online, one of which I’ll give a mention; â€Å"Publications USA† – an American government run website, it had a section to provide American consumers with information on Identity Theft. Sites like these helped me understand the impact of Identity Theft on the consumer, how the consumer battles it – and ultimately this showed me how business must deal with it, in their every day transaction s with consumers. There was a vast amount of Scholar articles I found online, through Google scholar of course, they took very interesting views on the problem, and posed some very good questions. These articles included; â€Å"Did Privacy issues cause identity theft?† to articles such as â€Å"Identity theft: Myths, Methods and the New Law†. Also, simply with a quick look at the papers every Sunday for the past few weeks, I found plenty of material in them – Papers such as the Sunday Business Post, The Financial Times, The Guardian & The Irish Times. They always provided me with something to read that was related to identity theft. After reading all this material, I saw both sides of the argument. Most do believe Identity theft is a Real Threat to business and consumers alike. I will quickly look at how much of a problem this has become, and I will then point to some of the major cases, and the impact of these cases on business. However, there are the those that believe Identity theft is over exaggerated, I will look closely at how researchers collect their data for research, and I will also look at the impact of this over-exaggeration within business, how it has sparked some companies within the protection business to come under scrutiny for over-exaggerating the risk of Identity Theft. Why and how do Identity Thieves do it? â€Å"Cybercrime has surpassed illegal drug trafficking as a crime enterprise† – [Symantec Corporation, 2009] Identity thieves use the Internet as a weapon against individual consumers by taking personal and financial information, such as credit card numbers and social security numbers, and then using that information to, purchase products or launder money (Identity thieves have been known to purchase cars and homes or even create criminal records under another individual’s identity) [Overseas Digest, When Bad Things Happen To your Good Name]. Such a scheme can be devastating for an identity theft victim and can create financial costs for credit card companies and other commercial entities. According to Columbus state university research, computer fraud in general, within the U.S. alone, exceeds $3 billion each year, and in the U.K. exceeds  £2.5 billion each year [Columbus State University, 2011]. These statistics alone show the huge impact of computer fraud and identity theft on the economy and businesses in the world we live in today. It shows what a lucrative business Identity Theft has become today. Cases of Identity Theft Causing a â€Å"Real Threat† in Business Arguably the most famous case of Identity Theft is that of Frank Abagnale, who was depicted in the 2002 Hollywood blockbuster movie â€Å"Catch Me if You Can† [DreamWorks (film), 2002]. In the 1960’s, Abagnale eluded authorities by posing as characters such as an airline pilot, doctor, assistant Attorney General, and history professor, all the while racking up $4 million in bad cheques [Posing Facts, 10 bizarre cases of Identity Theft]. This bizarre case of Identity theft is portrayed in a comical sense in the film, with Tom Hanks left chasing shadows. But for businesses in today’s society it is far from comical, as the protection of consumers’ information poses major issues within business today. The best way to see the affects of Identity Theft on business is to actually take a look at some of the major cases within the last few years. This will show the business issues and the impli cations it is having on business on a daily basis. The headlines within the last few years have highlighted the threat that Identity Theft poses. In what was dubbed at the time the largest ever case of identity theft to be prosecuted by the American Department of Justice [CBS News, 23rd Feb 2010], the â€Å"Miami Hack Pack† (dubbed that by [Miami New Times, May 20th 2010]) stole over 100 million credit Card details over the course of 4 years. The credit card details, which they hacked, were stored by a number of companies; one of which was T.J. Maxx, a British retailer (they would be known here in Ireland for their chain of stores called â€Å"T.K. Maxx†). The hackers gained access to the company systems of T.J. Maxx and stole personal information of over 45 million credit card and debit cards in July 2005. These cards belonged to the company’s customers who purchased items from January 2003 to November 23, 2003, however the company did not discover the theft until much later in 2007 [Identity Theft Awareness, 2011]. Deepak Taneja, chief executive of Aveska, a firm that advised the company on information security commented at the time; â€Å"It’s not clear when information was deleted, it’s not clear who had access to what, and it’s not clear whether the data kept in all these files was encrypted, so it’s very hard to know how big this was,† [St. Petersberg Times, 30th March 2007] – This quote shows the issues TJ Maxx faced at the time. They simply didn’t know how large this was, added to this was the fact that it took nearly 2 years to find the breach. A combination of the above led to huge consumer outrage at the way T.J. Maxx handled their customers’ information, and left consumers baffled as to why T.J. Maxx held onto the details for 2 years after the transactions had taken place. Many experts speculated that TJ Maxx would pay dearly for the incident. Customers would abandon the brand for fear their personal information would be exposed, and investors would avoid the brand because of crippling fines and costs faced by the company. However, in the 12 months that followed the announcement of the breach, TJ Maxx never looked better. Revenues increased Profits increased, and share price increased [Neal O’Farrell, Double Trouble; 12 Reasons why we’re Losing the Battle against Identity Theft]. But what does this mean? Could this have been contrived as a clear message to TJ Maxx and other businesses that not only is a data breach no big deal any more, but it may just be another acceptable cost of doing business? Perhaps. But there is still no doubting the potential impact of a company’s consumer information being breached. And, in the case of TJ Maxx, if the right procedures were followed, this kind of occurrence may have been preventable. Despite the fact their Brand and profits didn’t suffer, TJ Maxx realised this was a major wake up call. And it was still a learning curve for any business looking in. Lessons must be learnt: 1) Collect only the minimum personal customer information needed to complete a business transaction. 2) Retain the collected personal information for only as long as needed per business and legal requirements. 3) Monitor systems to detect unauthorized software and suspicious network traffic such as unusual data download in terms of size and time. [Identity Theft Awareness, 2011]. Businesses must constantly consider their risks and assess their internal controls to prevent costly incidents and their unintended consequences. As far as TJ Maxx, the company spent over $130 million to deal with the consequences of this international identity theft case. Even though their Brand didn’t seem to suffer, and profits rose and investment wasn’t hindered, TJ Maxx couldn’t afford to take this risk again. [Neal O’Farrell, Double trouble] The second case I’ll look at is that of Sony’s PlayStation Network hack earlier this year. The details of 77 million of Sony’s online PlayStation Network customers were breached. This most recent major intrusion has shown that Identity Theft is still a major issue for large corporations. This case again raised major questions about online transactions [The Guardian, April 2011]. Confidence in E-Commerce has always been a major problem for business [OECD; Reinforcing consumer confidence- Key to Boosting e-commerce], it has been for years, after all, it’s the reason that most think twice before making an online purchase, it’s that lingering feeling that overshadows an online purchase. It is an obstacle that is being slowly removed, but set backs like this do not help, as Steve Curran, creative director at the Brighton-based studio Zoe Mode, told Develop Magazine; â€Å"From my perspective, the bigger issue is not about the PlayStation Network, but confidence in digital distribution generally. For every story like this that breaks in the mainstream press, consumer confidence about their details being safe is eroded. Confidence [in online transactions] has been building up, and I think will continue to, but this is a blip. It could be a little step back† [Develop Magazine, †Digital distrust could follow†, 2011]. This hack was a major set back for the company’s on going battle for control of the gaming market with Microsoft’s Xbox. And it was up to Sony to rebuild confidence in their brand after the major breach [The Guardian, April, 2011]. Is it an â€Å"Exaggerated Risk†? One thing I did notice when I was doing my research was that, most of the information we have on cyber crime losses is derived from surveys. But can one form an accurate estimate by survey alone? J. Ryan & T. Jefferson claim in their book â€Å"The Use, Misuse, and Abuse of Statistics in Information Technology†, that losses are extremely concentrated, so that representative sampling of the population does not give representative sampling of the losses as a whole. They also argue that losses are based on unverified self-reported numbers. Not only is it possible for a single outlier to distort the result, we find evidence that most surveys are dominated by a minority of responses in the upper tail [J. Ryan and T. I. Jefferson; The Use, Misuse, and Abuse of Statistics in Information Security Research]. In the 1983 Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances an incorrectly recorded answer from a single individual erroneously in inflated the estimate of US household wealth by $1 tr illion. This single error added 10% to the total estimate of US household wealth [Dinei Florencio & Cormac Herley, Microsoft research; Sex, Lies and Cyber-Crime Surveys]. In the 2006 Federal Trade Commission (FTC) survey of Identity Theft the answers of two respondents were discarded as â€Å"not being identity theft† and â€Å"inconsistent with the record†. Inclusion of both answers would have increased the estimate by $37.3 billion, in other words it would have changed the estimate 3 fold [Federal Trade Commission, 2007]. In surveys of sexual behaviour men consistently report having had more female sex partners than women report having had male sex partners (which is impossible). The difference ranges from a factor of 3 to 9. It is pointed out that a tiny portion of men who claim, e.g., 100 or 200 lifetime partners account for most of the difference. Removing the outliers all but eliminates the discrepancy [Florencio & Herley, Microsoft Research]. These seem like simple mistakes, which could be avoided, however safeguards against producing these erroneous results seem largely ignored when it comes to Cyber-Crime surveys [Florencio & Herley]. So, what does this potential over exaggeration mean for business? This over exaggeration and bad estimates can have huge consequences on both resource allocation and in policy issues within business and government alike. Imagine this, in a simple scenario; a research company comes out with staggering new figures about the rise in Identity theft, online fraud, and the number of companies being sued by customers who were affected by their bad data protection protocols. This type of scenario has happened before; take for example the research conducted by the ITRC (Identity Theft Resource Center) in 2008. They reported that Data Breaches soared by 47% over 2007 [ITRC, 2008 Data Breach Totals Soars]. These kind of estimates can cause alarm bells to ring for some businesses, they in turn may pump more funds into the data protection systems in their own firm to prevent what they believed were â€Å"Real Threats†. Yet, as highlighted above there could be major issues with these statistics, and Florencio & Herley even mention the discrepancies of the ITRC yearly surveys in their book. Again, imagine the implications of such research on policy issues, especially government policy issues. If the government take the results of a certain survey on Identity Theft as a perceived â€Å"Real Threat†, and adopt major measures to tackle it, it could have major implications on business. For starters, it could damage consumer confidence in E-Commerce. Like I mentioned before, it’s the reason we all think twice before making a purchase online and isn’t it the reason for the introduction of Prepaid Credit Cards? People who have never experienced Identity Theft take measures to avoid it. And this could be all down to policy measures. Exaggerated Risk on business in the industry On 29th March 2011, CPP Group PLC, a British based company selling life assistance products, announced that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) would be launching an investigation into the sale of one of its products to U.K. customers. The product included services such as credit-score monitoring, an Internet search facility alerting the user of inappropriate use of their data and a caseworker to help the person reinstate their identity [The York Press, 30th March 2011]. The financial services Authority’s investigation centres around allegations that CPP overstated the risk of identity theft when selling insurance for that purpose. As a result in the investigation, CPP had to suspend all sales of its identity theft protection product with immediate effect. The product includes services such as credit-score monitoring, an Internet search facility alerting the user of inappropriate use of their data and a caseworker to help the person reinstate their identity. And, after announcing the news to the London stock exchange, shares in CPP fell a staggering 46% from  £2.35 to  £1.50, within one day of trading [Financial Times, March 2011]. The reason for this dramatic fall was, as Chief Executive Eric Woolley stated, â€Å"Card and identity protection products in the U.K. accounted for more than 60 per cent of CPP’s business† [Eric Woolley, March 2011]. This shows how exaggerating the risk of Identity theft within this type of organisation can cause massive losses for a business. In one fowl swoop CPP Croup PLC lost almost half its market capitalisation, just because they were â€Å"under investigation† for over stating (A.K.A Exaggerating) the risk of Identity theft through calls to potential customers. This example shows that some can, and do, overstate the risk of Identity theft, and they reap the rewards as a result, as they can sell the technology to tackle it. Conclusion In the introduction I provided an overview of some of the literature and then within the assignment I took a look at both sides of the argument. Through the major cases above I have shown how Identity Theft is a Real Threat to business. However it is also a threat to small businesses, small businesses must follow the same guidelines as highlighted in the TJ Maxx instance. Failure to could possibly lead to the damaging effects of major fines, lawsuits and the damaging of the brand image of a company, as well as deterring investors. Don’t forget the wider implications for business, with the growing trend towards e-commerce, many companies want to take advantage of this, however major data breaches as seen above can hamper the consumer confidence and set back this industry. Again this is a threat to business in this area. Is Identity theft over-exaggerated? You may think I strayed from the point a little here, but I felt it was important to look at this side of the argument, and what drives it. What mainly drives it is that backing of the argument that the surveys conducted are unreliable. I am personally not over awed by this argument, however the people who make the argument point to some interesting evidence of the inaccuracy of surveys from some top researchers in Identity Theft. A look into the CPP Group case gives another side to the exaggerated risk argument. Do people/corporations over-exaggerate the risk for their own benefit? Perhaps. But that is where regulation steps in, and in the case of CPP they had to change their marketing strategy within a few weeks once the FSA began an investigation. Overall, this was a very interesting topic to research, and it opened my eyes to some new areas of IT within business and some of the problems it must tackle. Bibliography 1.Gartner Research, Phishing Attack Victims Likely Targets for Identity Theft, 4th May 2004; (http://www.social-engineer.org/wiki/archives/IdTheif/IdTheif-phishing_attack.pdf) 2.Symantec Corporation; â€Å"Cyber Crime has Surpassed Illegal Drug Trafficking as a Criminal Money-maker; 1 in 5 will become a Victim† – Sept 10th 2009; (http://www.symantec.com/about/news/release/article.jsp?prid=20090910_01) 3.Overseas Digest; â€Å"Identity Theft: When Bad things Happen to your Good Name†. – February 2001; (http://www.overseasdigest.com/odarticles/idtheives.htm) 4.Columbus State University;â€Å"Is There a Security Problem in Computing?† -17 February 2011; (http://csc.columbusstate.edu/summers/notes/security.htm) 5.DreamWorks (film); â€Å"Catch me if you Can† – December 25th 2002; (http://www.angelfire.com/biz7/netmeeting/catchme.html) 6.Stefan Nagtegaal; â€Å"Data Theft: 100 million Records stolen† – 13th August 2008; (http://whereismydata.wordpress.com/tag/tjx/) 7.CBS News; â€Å"11 Indicted in Largest ID Theft Case Ever† – Feb 23rd 2010; (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/05/tech/main4323211.shtml) 8.Miami New Times; â€Å"The Biggest Identity case ever. Right here in Miami† – May 20th 2010; (http://www.miaminewtimes.com/content/printVersion/2270696/) 9.Identity Theft Awareness; â€Å"TJ Maxx Identity Theft† – 2011; (http://www.identity-theft-awareness.com/tj-maxx.html) 10.St. Petersberg Times; â€Å"TJX Hacker Theft May be Largest Security Breach. Data from 45.7-million Cards illegally Obtained† – March 30th 2007; (http://www.sptimes.com/2007/03/30/Business/TJX_hacker_theft_may_.shtml) 11.Neal O’Farrell; E-BOOK: â€Å"Double Trouble; 12 Reasons why we’re Losing the Battle against Identity Theft† – 2011; (http://www.identityguard.com/downloads/ebook-double-trouble.pdf) 12.The Guardian; â€Å"PlayStation Network Hack: Industry Reactions and Theories† – 29th April 2011; (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2011/apr/29/psn-hack-industry-reactions?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487) 13.OECD; â€Å"Reinforcing consumer confidence- Key to Boosting e-commerce† – 16TH November 2009; (http://www.oecd.org/document/20/0,3746,en_21571361_43348316_44078356_1_1_1_1,00.html) 14.Develop Magazine; â€Å"Dvs on PSN hack; digital distrust could follow† – 27th April 2011; (http://www.develop-online.net/news/37568/Devs-on-PSN-hack-Digital-distrust-could-follow) 15.J. Ryan and T. I. Jefferson; â€Å"The Use, Misuse, and Abuse of Statistics in Information Security Research† – 2003. (http://www.belt.es/expertos/HOME2_experto.asp?id=5752) 16.Dinei Florencio & Cormac Herley, (Microsoft Research) â€Å"Sex, Lies and Cyber-Crime Surveys†. (http://www.belt.es/expertos/HOME2_experto.asp?id=5752) 17.Federal Trade Commission; â€Å"2006 Identity Theft Survey Report† – November 2007. [http://www.ftc.gov/os/2007/11/SynovateFinalReportIDTheft2006.pdf] 18.ITRC; â€Å"2008 Data Breach Total Soars† – June 15th 2009; (http://www.idtheftcenter.org/artman2/publish/m_press/2008_Data_Breach_Totals_Soar.shtml) 19.The Financial Times; â€Å"CPP in free fall amid FSA worries† – March 29th 2011; (http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/89a516dc-5a38-11e0-86d3-00144feab49a.html#axzz1eB8FvcKU) 20.The York Press; â€Å"FSA’s concerns contested as CPP Claims ‘highest level of integrity’ â€Å"- March 30th 2011; (http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/business/news/8941469.Watchdog___s_concerns_contested_as_CPP_claims____highest_levels_of_integrity___/)

Market Potential Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Market Potential - Case Study Example The savings that arise from the 20% of the high income groups can then be used to facilitate the small scale businesses to develop in the rural areas, making them flourish and reducing the stark disparity between the two income classes. 2) With 65% of the population living in the rural areas, there is an opportunity to set up industries that can make the country self-sufficient in the creation of goods that it imports at present like iron, steel, telecommunication equipment etc. in this way the gap between exports and imports can be widened, improving the overall economy of the country. Rural areas can be honed to cultivate the lands by the use of locally developed modern machinery to cut down the imports of industrial inputs through backward integration. In this way new avenues can be utilized to improve the income distribution’s polarity. 3) With the HDI of 0.72 the country shows that the indicators are better and there is a potential of urbanizing the rural populations. This means that life expectancy, education and income levels are increasing in the country making people adopt a different mindset and have an increase in purchasing power. Thus, Shopping malls and brands could have a potential scope in the country and it wouldn’t be wrong to foresee a demand for such goods in the future. These brands could be developed locally as well; for example, one of the major exports of Serendib is shoes. If the focus is on creating and developing its own brand and then stepping into the international arena, there is a chance of leveraging out the lost income in form of provision of unbranded footwear to big brands abroad. 4) While the HDI of 0.72 indicates a good standard of living in the country, this can be seen as an opportunity to provide opportunities to the people. When there are adequate facilities and ample resources available, there is a scope for investment. Serendib can be profitable for technological business

Assisted Suicide Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Assisted Suicide - Essay Example Kevin is in the hospital suffering from mouth cancer and has been told by many doctors that he will not survive for many days. He is suffering from extreme pain which is unbearable without medications. He urges his family members to help him get relieved of the pain. Moreover it is also learned that his cancer is untreatable and he would die soon or late even if the medications are continued. It is in this situation that the possibility of assisted suicide is taken into consideration by the family members and John. Now it is for them to decide as to if to carry out the process or not. John wants the process to go ahead so that he can die easily. In my belief this situation can only be handled by assisted suicide so that his pain can be relieved. In my belief assisted suicide should be made legal for those people who are mentally sound to make decisions. It is the last moments of life which put people in a terrible condition that they are forced to take decisions which would take thei r life. In these conditions it should be analyzed as to if these individuals have a normal state of mind or not. As time passes by it is seen that individual rights have been understood and in my belief it is the right of an individual to decide as to if he has to choose between death and life. It is entirely the decision of the person involved because he feels all the pain and agony. When a person cannot bear this pain he can opt for assisted suicide in my belief. Assisted suicide is the best option for these kinds of patients because they can help in other ways too. The hospital in which these patients are admitted may be on life support for many days before dying naturally. It is better to put them through this phase of life as it would make way for other patients in better conditions to get the quality care. Hence the resources would not be wasted if assisted suicide is opted for in these situations (Quaghebeur et al 2009). However on the other hand I also argue that the patient s who do not have a normal state of mind should not be allowed to undergo this process. The state of mind of the patients can be checked by seeing if the person responds to other things normally too. The critics of Euthanasia have other concerns as they believe that following this practice may divert the professionals from their original line of work. The doctors and physicians were supposedly the ones who saved the lives of people and provided them the hope of living their lives and providing them with the best possible forms of treatment. Their function is not to kill them out of mercy. So if a doctor or physician carries out such a practice then he is disobeying the rules set out for him in this field (Mengal et al 2002). I agree with Wolf’s view after she is considering her views on assisted suicide. She saw her own father’s death and realized the suffering of death. She is right in considering about her opinions on assisted suicide. However if the other point of v iew regarding assisted suicide is taken into consideration it can be concluded that Susan Wolf is wrong in her plea. In many cases it is seen that people after suffering from immense agony and pain do recover. This can be the case for many people and assisted suicide should be discouraged if this view is kept in mind. On the other hand considering the views about civil liberties one can conclude that assisted suicide should be made legal and everyone should be allowed to seek the option if they want to. Susan Wolf has the right to consider her views about assisted suicide as

A Ladder of Citizen Participation Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

A Ladder of Citizen Participation - Case Study Example Tangent basically comprises studio practice and field practice, where the former includes architectural design and consultation, while the latter deals with the design, participatory place-making, make workshops, and also planning. Both the components involve the company’s work with students and professionals belong to different fields such as design, education, performance, carpentry, and emergency shelter building as well as a variety of community groups. For my internship, I worked with two of my classmates as a team to provide assistance to Sally in terms of completing two projects in a deadline of three weeks, and more projects for the remaining two weeks. The majority of time was spent working at Sally’s private studio in Centrespace, while the remainder was spent working in UWE. The first project involved helping the Architecture Centre in Bristol to set up an exhibition for May 1st, in terms of celebrating Bristol’s victory of being the European Green Capital 2015. The main idea behind this event was to bring people together through the exhibition, workshops talks and other activities in order to provide a forum to discuss and come up with solutions to maintain a more sustainable future (The Architecture Centre, 2015). The second project, on the other hand, revolved around collaboration with the history department in UWE, in order to hold the event ‘Crafts Walk’ for the 7th of June. This walk that will be held within the Bristol historic center is aimed at restoring the value of historic monuments so as to revitalize the old culture and traditions in a better light. The main focus of these projects was on different theories of planning, and after the undertaking of this internship, I have been able to gain an in-depth understanding of planning in its practical aspect. This experience has rendered good insight into the world of planning, and this will significantly help me to make up better plans and take better planning decisions in my future.

Logistics Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Logistics Management - Essay Example Alcoa serves the aerospace, automotive, packaging, building and construction, commercial transportation, and industrial markets, bringing design, engineering, production, and other capabilities of Alcoa's businesses as a single solution to customers. The company has 116,000 employees in 44 countries. In 2006 it was 10 times safer to work for Alcoa than it was in 1991. Alcoa makes a very sustainable product: almost 70% of the aluminum ever produced is still in use, equal to 480 million metric tons (529 million tons) of a total 690 million metric tons (761 million tons) manufactured since 1886. Every day, worldwide, Alcoa: A logistics manager is a person who manages the processes involved in a supply chain and is responsible for it. He is in relation to many work groups for example retailers, customers and manufactures. All the work is expected from a logistics manager is to order all the production processes so that customer finally gain enough satisfaction with the product or service purchased. The role of a distribution manager coordinated with logistics management skills is controlling the stock and market, control on warehousing and transportation affairs and having control on the structures and making sure that everything is in place and works in order. One important key that plays a vital role in logistics management is Information Technology. Logistics managers make the most of Information Technology to forecast too complicated behaviours of system as complex as stocks or project completion times. They also take the advantage of information industry in predicting the costs and evaluation or pr ocesses inside the structure of large companies.3 A person in this position may be assigned to any of the following tasks according to the need of the company which is hiring a Distribution/Logistics Manager. Here are some of the roles of a Distribution/Logistics Manager: "monitoring the quality, cost and efficiency of the movement and storage of goods; coordinating and controlling the order cycle and associated information systems; analyzing data to monitor performance and plan improvements; allocating and managing staff resources according to changing needs; liaising and negotiating with customers and suppliers; Developing business by gaining new contracts, analyzing logistical problems and producing new solutions. When managing warehouse or transport staff, the role may also include: implementing health and safety procedures; managing staff training issues; motivating other members of the team; project

Management in a Globailsed world Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 4

Management in a Globailsed world - Assignment Example This paper seeks to address some questions on globalization as listed below: Globalization entails activities that assist countries and societies to broaden and deepen thus increasing their interdependence around the world. Broadening and deepening is the establishment of links and using them to increase the regularity and intensity of the communications, transactions, relationships and general interactions among the involved societies and states (Cohn, 2011). Globalization has led to developments in management and other significant sectors in the corporate world as companies come up with excellent strategies to overcome the competition and as a way of keeping up with the trends. The vast growth in international market relates with developments in areas such as communication and transportation technologies that are the key facilitators of the strategic links between the participating states and MNCs. However, globalization’s impact varies in the different countries and in most cases; it threatens the domestic autonomy causing issues among the local economies. Upon entry into the international market, countries take up new roles and responsibilities, which do not restrict them from making policy choices. The policy choices are the determinants of states and societies’ experiences of globalization i.e. unity and cooperation or fragmentation and conflict. A good example is the case of Multinational Corporations (MNCs), companies that distribute goods and services across borders with an aim of spreading ideas and controlling assets in more than one state. They play a significant role in globalization and most people argue that they make the greater part of it. MNCs mostly practice Foreign Direct Investments (FDI): this way they are able to manage rights and control economic transactions in different states. Today, there is no certain way to predict global markets because of promptly altering

Media Analysis Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Media Analysis Paper - Essay Example al justification for pre-emptive military action became irrelevant in the public’s mind influenced by vivid media images of the tragedy of September 11. However, the result of a government exploiting public grief with a media propaganda blitz has in turn resulted in thousands of innocent Iraqis dying and â€Å"the deaths of hundreds of American/Allied forces, and the destruction of the Iraqi infrastructures – all of which were seemingly forgotten† (Kamalipour & Snow, p.2). As a result, the use of the media has undoubtedly been integral in warfare campaigns, however the concomitant result of this is arguably that â€Å"it the dawn of the third millennium†¦. We as human beings have made no progress towards elevating humanity to its potential level of civility† (Kamalipour & Snow, p.2). This in turn correlates to the assertion of McLuhan that the â€Å"medium is the message†, which is the famous phrase propounded by Marshall McLuhan in â€Å"Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man†(1964). The central premise of McLuhan’s proposition is that the nature of the medium is what influences audience perception of the actual message regardless of content (McLuhan, 1964). In further developing this argument, McLuhan posits that the precise characteristics of the medium will engage an audience in different ways, which ultimately influences the communication of the actual media message (McLuhan, 1964). For example, in comparing how messages are conveyed in comics and movies, McLuhan describes movies as high definition in engaging the audience attention, in contrast to the low definition of the comic which requires a more participatory role of the audience to ascertain content message (McLuhan, 1964). The focus of this paper is to critically evaluate the impact of the media in relation to contemporary warfare with a contextual study of the recent Israel military campaigns in Gaza through a comparative analysis of Old Media versus New Media. Moreover, this paper

Fast Fourier Transform Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Fast Fourier Transform - Essay Example A second approach includes just a single hardware operator of the butterfly type, and intending to perform in succession the computations corresponding to all the butterflies of all the stages of the graph. Such an approach has the drawback of requiring a very fast hardware operator. An input memory separate from the memory is required for writing the intermediate computation results. This avoids access conflicts when a data block enters the operator while the previous block is still being processed. It is therefore necessary to provide two memories of N0 complex words, where N0 denotes the initial size of the Fourier transform. This leads to an overall circuit of considerable size, especially when N0 is large. An intermediate approach includes a hardware operator of the butterfly type per stage of the graph, as well as a storage element. This includes delay lines or shift registers, whose function in to input the data to the operator in the right order, while aware of the butterflies of the graph of the relevant stage. Such architectures are termed serial or pipelined according to terminology well known by one skilled in the art. More precisely, an electronic device for computing a Fourier transform having a pipelined architecture comprises a plurality of successive processing stages connected in series between the input and the output of the device by internal data paths. These stages respectively comprise processing means and storage means. The processing means performs processing operations for Fourier transforms of smaller elementary sizes than the initial size on blocks of data whose sizes are reduced in succession from one stage to the next. The term "initial size" of the Fourier transform is understood here and in the remainder of the text to mean the size of the blocks received as input to the device by the first stage. The elementary sizes of the Fourier transforms performed by the various stages may be identical and equal to the radix of the Fourier transform; i.e., a Fourier transform with uniform radix. However, they may be different from one stage to another, as in the case of Fourier transforms with mixed radix. US Patent No. 6,098,088 discloses Fast Fourier Transform processor architecture, based on radix-22 single path delay feedback (R22SDF) architecture. Input data is applied to a series of pairs of butterfly means, each pair including a first type of butterfly and a second type of butterfly, with each having a feedback path from its output to its input. Until the end of the series is reached, the output of the second butterfly in each pair is applied to a multiplier, before the multiplier output is applied to the first butterfly in the subsequent pair. In order to be able to use Fast Fourier Transform processor architecture in a data communications system such as an OFDM Ultra Wideband (UWB) communications system, the processor must be able to handle a high data rate. Moreover, the hardware cost of the processor is an important factor. According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided an apparatus for performing a Fast Fourier Transform operation, the apparatus comprising: an input, for receiving input data; a plurality of first data processing paths, each being adapted to perform said Fast Fourier Tran

IT Professional Presentation Essay Example for Free

IT Professional Presentation Essay Presentations are meant to be professional with a lot of effort required in the structuring of speech and the assurance of putting across the right message. Professionals in any field or walk of life need to have a good speech which would make them better presenters and hence a noticeable being among all the other employees. An organization has hundreds and thousand and sometimes even more than that employee in number. To make oneself noticeable in the eyes of the one that matter, makes a lot of difference in the career growth. Hard work is something that everyone does but few are those who are able to present it in a manner that enables the top officials to notice you. There are many ways to present and presentations are becoming increasingly common in today’s world. PowerPoint and Flash are the most utilized of all but written means of assistance and even plain verbal speech is also presentation. All these means of presenting are justified depending on the situations and the matter to be presented. Hence, it is not the material that matters to a large extent but it’s what you say right at the right time is what matters. Introduction Information system can be any organised combination of people, hardware, software, communication networks, and data resources that collects, transforms, and disseminates information in an organisation. Like any other system operates within an environment, information system and technology are very important in contemporary business, because they have become a significant component for success in any organisation, such as university, healthcare centre and company. However these are the most important and vital in internet business area because it cannot be managed without information system and technology. In addition internet business can increase their sales and profits by implicating efficient and effective e-commerce which is one of major parts of information system. There are big names that are involved with the IT industry such as the Amazon. com which is solely an internet based company. Other multinationals such as McDonalds are also involved in it despite being a fast food organization. Brief information regarding the two organizations are as follows. Critical Analysis of the Presentations ‘Things they are Achangin-1’ talk about the computer and Information Technology details. It starts off with telling the memory capacity of a computer. The different memories and the capacities that a computer and its hardware has, is explained in the presentation. Along with that it talks about the computer networking and the usage of broadband. It had become increasingly famous and popular in the current years and most of the people in the world have it. ‘Things they are Achangin-2’ on the other hand talks about other energy sources such as batteries and cars and how their mechanism works. These two mentioned sources have also become increasingly important over their years for day to day life. Along with that it has compared their mechanical sources with human body and mind and has talked about the structure of a robotic body. Delivery Channel Strategy ‘Delivery Channel Strategy’ defines the objective of delivery channel which are Projecting and representing the brand defending and developing the active consumer base, obtaining new customers and meeting essential service requirements. It also talks about the benefits of branches, which branches are used more for financial services and why. It explains self servicing and explains the benefits of automated machines which empower the customers. It takes into account the different product used by the financial institutions and their usage. Key Implications of Delivery Strategies In order to have an effective delivery strategy, one needs to take into account all the aspects that come before that as well in order to execute the plan in the most effective manner possible. The following delivery process is explained with an example of Amazon. com, the online trading place. a) Goods, products, ecommerce solution: It started off as a book store with an online presence but later on it kept on adding products in its portfolio and now they have different categories in which they divide their products into such as ‘Books, Music and Movies’, ‘Clothing and Accessories’, ‘Computer Office’, ‘Consumer Electronics’, ‘Food and Household’, ‘Health and Beauty’, ‘Home and Garden’, ‘Kids and Toys’, ‘Sports and Fitness’, ‘Tools and Automotives’, ‘Bargains’ and ‘Gifts and List’. There are further bifurcations within these categories as well which offers further variety to the customers. There services are divided into the categories of ‘Make Money’, ‘For the Community’, ‘For Developers’, ‘For Advertisers’ and ‘Partner Services’. .A9. com caters to the information content requirement which is a search engine present directly on the Amazon. com. (Amazon, 2007). b) Performance and services: The existence of the website over this long period of time indicates its efficiency and the level of customer satisfaction. The website is very well put together so that the customer can easily find their way through to their desired destination. â€Å"Amazon. com, BN. com, and Half. com aren’t getting any complaints at all because they are very simple to use and to understand. Each of these web sites are made for the computer illiterate or just plain lazy† (B2C e-commerce design and performance for Amazon. com, BN. com, Half. com, n. d. ). c) Personalization: The site lay out of the website is also user friendly and it takes no time to find where one wants to go unlike the complicated sites which are hard to browse. It offers the customer to personalize by offering a shopping cart just like an actual shopping mall to create a sense of personalization. They have many products and services and â€Å"different categories of all their items. They also have the option to make â€Å"Your Store,† this is where they store all the information that you like the best and what products you are most interested in† (B2C e-commerce design and performance for Amazon. com, BN. com, Half. com, n. d. ). This gives a sense of individuality to the customers wanting them to come back for a visit. d) Communities and Look and Feel: Amazon. com also offers chat forums for the customers in order to discuss their views and opinions. This is also one reason for the customers to visit the website. ‘Internet Chat Headset Forum’ is one of the examples of their chat forums and virtual customer online communities. The storefront of Amazon. com has been rated high as it offers a number of varieties on the page and also provides clear layout for the customer to assess where they are required to go. e) Incentives: Amazon. com offers different incentives to the customers such as bargains of Friday Sales, Today’s Deals and many more. It offers auctions and personal accounts to give the customers a sense of individuality and personalization encouraging them to visit more often. f) Security Reliability For such sites security is utmost important and therefore it can be said that â€Å"Security and Privacy Policy for these are very well put together and are very private† and one has to â€Å"go through various checks and double checks for e-mail and password verifications. This ensures that the website company and you have the right passwords and e-mail addresses for your privacy and protection. They also have protects programming on their sites to ensure that no one can get you password, e-mail address, and most important your credit card number† (B2C e-commerce design and performance for Amazon. com, BN. com, Half. com, n. d. ). g) Successful achievement One of the many highlighted features of the website is that very recently â€Å"Amazon. com is to Webcast Investor Conference Presentation Morgan Stanley Technology Conference† (Business News, 2007) which is considered to be a huge achievement for the organization along with earning million of dollars of revenue. Another one of its achievements could be the introduction of software called the Amazon S3â„ ¢ which is â€Å"a simple storage service that offers software developers a highly scalable, reliable, and low-latency data storage infrastructure at very low costs† (Amazon Web Services Launches Amazon S3, a Simple Storage Service for Software Developers, 2005). Ethics and Professionalism in the ICT discipline ‘Ethics and Professionalism in the ICT discipline’ talks about the importance of the code of ethics in the professional environment not for one’s career but for the sustainability of its moral values. It describes Ethics as Doing good, Not doing bad, Not screwing people, Only screwing the competition, Letting the competition screw you, Doing things right, Doing the right thing. Key Implications These key implications of Ethics in IT are explained with respect to the example of Amazon. com. For such sites security is utmost important and therefore it can be said that â€Å"Security and Privacy Policy for these are very well put together and are very private† and one has to â€Å"go through various checks and double checks for e-mail and password verifications. This ensures that the website company and you have the right passwords and e-mail addresses for your privacy and protection. They also have protects programming on their sites to ensure that no one can get you password, e-mail address, and most important your credit card number† (B2C e-commerce design and performance for Amazon. com, BN. com, Half. com, n. d. ). Risk Assessment of Ethics in IT Despite the existence of internet over the years, it has still not been able to gain trust regarding the transactions online. Amazon. com along with other organization based online for selling face the challenge of assurance of security to its customers. As for Amazon. com, it failed to provide trust in regard of security to e-commerce project because they did not concern about technical risks. Despite the presence of a huge customer base, a lot of potential customers are hesitant to buy from amazon. com because of this particular reason. However, there is a long procedure regarding the security of credit cards and its personal information which is utilized by many websites present today. â€Å"Many sites that accept credit cards claim they are secure when they have an encryption certificate. This is where you can see the padlock symbol at the bottom of the screen. The encryption certificate encodes the message with the credit card details when it is sent and the organization issuing the certificate (e,g, Thawte or Verisign) verify the business before they issue it. (E-commerce Security, n. d. ). Amazon. com follows the same long procedure of ensuring that the customer feels safe but even then there is a lot of chance of stealth of the information and its misutilization might lead to disastrous losses to an individual. This is the fear that stops the potential customers from entering into the market of internet. â€Å"If credit card numbers are stored on a server they are still potential targets for a hacking attack. Afferent Media protects its server with anti virus and firewall systems. Its ultimate defense though is that it does not store any credit card numbers† (E-commerce Security, n. d. ). Hence, despite the effort, due to technical risk involved Amazon. com is facing the same threat as many other online retailers. Although Amazon. com has developed a trustworthy image over the years but when it comes to monetary losses people are hesitant to take risk as the loss incurred might get too huge to counter. This technical risk can however be countered in order to gain the potential customers that are hesitating at the moment. This can be countered if â€Å"transactions are carried out in real time, in just the same way as an EFTPOS machine. The message is encoded and sent to the bank, if the card passes the checks then funds are transferred directly to the vendor. This is just like when you buy petrol or shop in a supermarket. The vendor swipes your card in and EFTPOS machine, they do not store the card details. † (E-commerce Security, n. d. ). Like every weakness, if this factor is also addressed in its early stages it might not even classify as a problem and may be included in one of the challenges but the more Amazon. com delays it, the more it might lead to disaster and reduction of customer base. It has the advantage that the solution has already been identified, therefore the company just needs to incorporate this procedure in its security e-commerce procedure and keep proper checks and balances over a period of time and the job is done. Once the authenticity of the procedure is verified, it would not be hard for customer to develop trust in the online services. Despite the overall success of the organization, there are still factors that it needs to counter before the issues convert into real threat to the existence of the organization. The security factor is always vital in e-commerce as no customers would want to risk their monetary gains for shopping online. Lean Thinking ‘Lean Thinking’ is a presentation which defines the importance of customers with the help of practical examples taken from different scenarios. It also takes into account the impact of value on customer’s choice and the importance of value in a product. Key Implications McDonalds is a world wide known brand and hence it is famous and loved all around the world for its customer hospitality. A fast food chain, so customer friendly has also made use of the IT sources which is explained as further. The company is a fast food chain across the world known by the name of McDonalds. It is world renowned and is among the top most fast food chains across the globe. It has different kinds of fast foods in its menu ranging from rapid on-the-go burgers to healthy breakfasts and other food items. The organization is known for its quality and variety in food across the globe along with paying its full due to the corporate and social responsibility to the members of the society. Our organization not only is concerned about regular people who are health or weight conscious but also make sure that people with certain individual problems are also given attention to. The entire nutrition information is available on its website and can be completely relied on as it is taken from â€Å"from testing conducted in accredited laboratories, published resources, or from information provided from McDonald’s suppliers. The nutrition information is based on standard product formulations and serving sizes. All nutrition information is based on average values for ingredients from McDonald’s suppliers throughout the U. S. and is rounded to meet current US FDA NLEA guidelines† (McDonalds – USA, 2006). Despite of enjoying the top most notches in most of the countries we are present in; it is made sure that the organization does not lag in its due responsibility towards its customers, employees or the society it caters to which is evident by the brochure of Corporate Responsibility by McDonalds. This brochure is known as ‘The McDonalds USA Corporate Responsibility Brochure’ and another third worldwide corporate responsibility report has been published recently in 2006. It has the ability to adapt to country to country environment and culture. It pays utmost importance to kids and their meals and therefore because of that reason we have specialized meal for children as well. These meals are set with kids preferences in mind and offers incentive such as toy gifts which children can enjoy along with their respective meals. Capabilities and Potential with Risk Assessment McDonalds is known for its customer service and for increasing indulgence in the technology sector as well. McDonalds has some of Information technology involved in its procedures as well as to offer to the customers. As a Manager it is very important to be well equipped and well informed regarding the knowledge of the on-going dynamics in the information technology sector of the country. The advancement of the organization in the information technology sector is indicated by the fact that it offers one of the most novel technologies of the information system which is the McDonald’s Wireless Connectivity. It offers Wi-Fi service to its customers so that they can even bring their work to McDonalds along with enjoying a good meal. Its not just limited to United States which is one of the most technologically equipped country of the world but 7,000 outlets around the globe. We believe in giving the best to our customers and Wi-Fi is a part of it as â€Å"We believe in bringing you innovative and convenient services that enhance your McDonalds restaurant visit, and Wi-Fi is a perfect example. As McDonalds continues to deliver fast and friendly food service at more than 30,000 convenient locations around the world, you can now enjoy the possibility of staying connected with friends, family and co-workers† (McDonalds Wireless Connectivity, 2006). Apart from this, our organization has even stepped in introducing a technology that would bring into use the real time network used by huge and well-known places such as Wal-Mart. In order to manage its hardware and software in different location across the globe, it took help of the Fujitsu Philippines Incorporation to implement a system the system. The system is called Help Desk which enables in the monitoring of the inventory system and the management of the SMS and documents. Due to Help Desk the technical support service now take half the time it previously did. (McDonalds Philippines improves customer service via technology, 2007). Due to high volume of sales of McDonalds around the globe, the manual or low level storing data system is not anymore a product of efficiency for the organization. Therefore, it has moved a step forwards and â€Å"The PC POS system replaced proprietary computer registers that delivered information to in-store processors. These computers are a McDonalds restaurants black box, recording information on operations such as an individual stores total sales for the day, and the number of patties, buns, cups and other products used, and delivering it back to the McDonalds mainframe systems in Oak Brook each night over a modem connection† (Food, Folks and Forecasting, 2006). We as Managers also make use of this technology to place orders to the suppliers for replacement as well, hence making tasks easier for everyone of storing the large bulks of information everyday. The Future of Business Information System ‘The Future of Business Information System’ talks about the consultancy by Dennis Keeling. It takes into account the trends in business cycle, the types of business applications and the industry changes. It talks about different operating systems and system designs and data file structure. Key Implications of The Future of Business Information System The most upcoming trend in the future is outsourcing. Outsourcing is a trend that has recently become very popular among the multi-million and multi-billion organizations around the world. Outsourcing â€Å"often refers to the delegation of non-core operations from internal production to an external entity specializing in the management of that operation† (Wikipedia, n. d. ). There are various functions of an organization that are not the main operations and therefore can be outsourced to other parties such as â€Å"Business segments typically outsourced include information technology, human resources, facilities and real estate management, and accounting. Many companies also outsource customer support and call center functions, manufacturing and engineering† (Wikipedia, n. d. ). There are several reasons why one would outsource their operations to an outside party, which might include the purpose of exploiting cheap labor in case of third world countries or utilizing the efficiency of specialized expertise in a particular field of work. Outsourcing might also involve reducing the cost even it effects their quality to a slight extent. IT outsourcing helps improve the efficiency of IT department as after outsourcing there is special attention given by an entire group people to only one operation, hence in return increasing its importance and therefore its efficiency. IT outsourcing might also be done due to cost reduction by utilizing brains that are willing to work for less as compared to the human resource that is present domestically. Along with a lot of benefits in outsourcing, there comes a bucket full of criticism as well. The critics believe that outsourcing reduces the quality of the operation outsourced hence reducing the overall performance of the organization. Hence, it is believed that organizations reduce their cost by compromising on their quality and exploiting cheap labor by outsourcing. On the other hand â€Å"proponents of outsourcing believe that arguing that outsourcing leads to lower product quality is pointless because if it were true, consumer demand will force firms to shift back to producing the good or service in-firm rather than out-firm† (Wikipedia, n. d. ). Risk Assessment regarding Future of IT With respect to outsourcing, the possible risk or problems that IT could face in the future are as explained further. There are different outsourcers depending to where they are located. They include three kinds that are outsourcing, offshore outsourcing and offshoring. Although these terms are used as a replacement of the other but their meaning is different from one another. Outsourcing is the allocation of an organization’s operation to another responsible party. Now the difference lies in the presence of this third party, that is, if the third party is located outside the host country, it is known as offshore outsourcing. While on the other hand, offshoring is when an operation of an organization is taken to another country without transferring control to the third party. Hence the difference is of transfer of control to another party, that is, the power remains within the organization in case of offshoring while in offshore outsourcing it is transferred to the third party. In case of IT offshore outsourcing, the main country that receives the majority deals is India due to its IT success in recent years with able IT graduates and world-renowned IT universities present in India. Different problems might occur due to the location of the outsourcer, that is, in case of offshore outsourcing, the cost of checks and balances, transportation, dealing across distances might end up being equal or surpassing the cost cut that is the purpose of outsourcing. Hence, nullifying the effect of outsourcing with the cost incurred for distant dealing. â€Å"One issue offshoring of technical services has brought more attention to is the value of education as an alleged solution to trade-related displacements† (Wikipedia, n. d. ). The foreign location of the outsources in case of offshore outsourcing and the exapanding of business globally in case of offshoring might also be subject to crticism due to the reason that it causes the host country to suffer with opportunities travelling to other countries rather than being available to others. Hence, along with certain positive outcomes, outsources is subjected to a sufficient amount of criticism as well. In order to counter the crticism, it would have to scrutinze itself and remove such drawbacks. Weaknesses in Current Information Technology Capabilities However, the McDonalds journey may be rapidly moving towards the success ladder but there are several pitfalls that have occurred in its Information System and its capabilities. For us as managers, it is very important to identify those pitfalls and rectify them as soon as possible in order to avoid any forthcoming problems or issues. The technological world is an extremely rapidly evolving environment, with information becoming obsolete after a certain period of time. Hence, it is very important for the Managers to take that into account and be on the constant guards to protect their image. Wi-Fi is a very innovative and healthy technology but in those countries that are well equipped to support this kind of technology and the citizens prefer to have it in a restaurant. As per a management’s perspective, to implement it in a country like Bangladesh or Pakistan, where there isn’t much knowledge of technology among the masses, would not only be unfeasible but also irrelevant expenditure. As for the PC POS System implemented, it does save time but being a Manager it is very important to receive the detailed information to further process it for other uses which it failed to do. â€Å"The data that is batch-dumped to the McDonalds mainframe system in Oak Brook every night doesnt offer the detail McDonalds executives needed and, worse, took as long as a week to be compiled analyzed and distributed to managers who would then order more patties, buns, etc. from McDonalds vendors†. Hence, it needs to take that into account as well. Professional Presentations Requirement of Soft Skills All the organization of such calibre are required to have high aptitude personnel in it with the presence of hard skills as well as soft skills. In order to sell your product, one has to make sure that its presentation and the its communication is up to the mark. The more the people are convinces the more is the popularity of the product or service meant to be. It is very important for a professional to possess the skills of speaking well and hiring such professional can be a tedious process but all the effort is worth it. Hiring is a very difficult process; it takes a lot of time, patience, and money. Gone were the days when management only looks for technical skills alone, now, they are more focused with soft skills referring to non technical skills of an individual. What are soft skills? According to Mannering (1998) they are considered to be harder to identify, to distinguish. Ironically, for many managers, the soft skills are the hard skills. Ask anyone who has had to manage change, deal with organizational politics, or build a disparate group of people into an effective team (Holbeche, 2006). Platinum skills are developed through training and delegation, active listening, giving and receiving feedback, and creating a motivational environment. (Topchik, 2004). Companies Who Values Soft Skills Fujitsu Here’s an excerpt from an article â€Å"Hi-tech soft skills† IT Training; Jan2007 Fujitsu Services has set up an international Management Academy, headed by Paula Graham (right), to help IT professionals brush up on their interpersonal skills As they progress up the career ladder, many IT professionals could find themselves at a crunch point. They have been hired and valued primarily for their technical and engineering abilities, but as they become more senior they will be expected to adopt more custodial and managerial responsibility over junior colleagues. But where, along the way, were they supposed to have picked up these managerial and interpersonal skills? IT giant Fujitsu Services is tackling the problem of helping the technical person be a better people manager with a new company-wide experiment in delivering soft skills training at leadership level. This programme is about raising the bar on the organization’s people management skills, adds Jeremy Hill, London-based managing director of training partner DIEU. Fujitsu employees are comprised mostly of IT professionals, yes they have all the various technical skills that needed to become one of their programmers, and they keep on giving other technical trainings in order to stay competitive and knowledgeable on diverse IT trends. And yet, management feels they lack something, they need to brush up with communication skills. Employees needed to be more effective communicators; they need to get their message across clearly with the people they are dealing with. Communication is very essential and powerful tool not everybody has the knock off communication skills, and essentially improvement on this part will have a big impact both for employees and their company.

Charles Dickens Essay Example for Free

Charles Dickens Essay Examine the presentation of the three spirits and Marleys ghost in A Christmas carol and show the differences and similarities in their appearance, attitude towards Scrooge and the effect upon him. Consider also the spectre in The Signalman In a Christmas carol by Charles Dickens, the four ghosts are all described differently. They all help to change scrooge into a nicer person. The ghosts all act disparately and look disparately. Scrooge has a different effect on each one of the ghosts, two of the ghosts he likes and one of the ghosts he dislikes. Scrooge is also treated dissimilar, some ghosts care for him, and others are forceful. The ghost of Marley appears first, he is described as In his pigtail, usual waistcoat, tights and boots; the tassels on the latter bristling, like his pigtail, and his coat-skirts, and the hair upon his head. Marley also had a chain around his middle, which was long and wound about him like a tail. The chain was made of cash boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deed and heavy purses wrought in steel. Marleys body was transparent, so Scrooge could see the 2 buttons on his coat behind. He also had a handkerchief wrapped around his head and chin which held his jaw up. The ghost of Christmas past turns up next. He is described as a strange figure-like a child; yet not so like a child as like an old man, viewed through some supernatural medium. Which gave him the appearance of having receded from the view, and being diminished to a Childs proportions. The ghosts hair hung about its neck and down its back. His hair was white, as if with age; but his face wasnt old, and didnt have any wrinkles in it. He had long and muscular arms, like his hands. Its legs and feet were delicately formed. The ghost wore a white tunic, and round its waist was a lustrous belt. It held a branch of fresh green holly in its hand; and in singular contradiction of that wintry emblem, had its dress trimmed with summer flowers. The strangest thing about the ghost was that from the crown of its head sprang a clear jet of light, which by all was visible to see and was doubtless the occasion of its using, in its duller moments, a great extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its arm. The next ghost was the ghost of Christmas present, he was clothed in one simple deep green robe, which was bordered with white fur. This garment hung so loosely on the figure, that its capacious breast was bare, as if disdaining to be warded or concealed by any artifice. His feet was also bare, and on its head it wore no other covering than a holly wreath with shining icicles. Its dark brown curls were long and free; free as its genial face, its sparkling eye. Its open hand, its cheery voice, its unconstrained demeanour, and its joyful air. Around the ghosts middle was an antique scabbard; but there wasnt a sword in it, and the ancient sheath was eaten up with rust. The last of the ghosts to meet Scrooge was the ghost of Christmas yet to come. You couldnt see any of its facial features because it was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its face, its head and its form, and left nothing of it visible, save one outstretched hand. Because of this it would have been difficult to detach its figure from the night, and separate it from the darkness by which it was surrounded. The spectre in the signalman by Charles Dickens isnt described very well in the story, all we know is that the spectre is a man and he has a sleeve over his arm. His voice was hoarse with shouting halloa, below there! In the Christmas carol, Marley is a friendly ghost and he is very nice, he enjoys being in the company of Scrooge, Scrooge says you were always a good friend to me. He obviously cares about Scrooge because he wouldnt have gone there to warn him about the three ghosts and what would happen to him if he kept hating Christmas. Marley was the only true friend Scrooge has had. The ghost of Christmas past is nice, friendly and reasonable. The ghost cared for Scrooge, he once asked him whats the matter? Even though he is nice and friendly, he forces Scrooge into seeing things that he doesnt want to see. For example Scrooge says leave me, take me back, haunt me no longer. But the relentless ghost pinched him in both arms and forced him to observe what happened next. The ghost of Christmas present is a kind and jolly ghost. The ghost and Scrooge were cheerful when they visited homes. The spirit stood besides sickbeds, and they were cheerful and they were patient in their greater hope, by poverty and it was rich. The ghost makes Scrooge more relaxed around him, he isnt frightened, and he is calm in the ghosts presence. Like the ghost of Christmas past, this spirit is also forceful and makes him see what he doesnt want to see. The ghost of Christmas yet to come doesnt speak at all, this ghost is the one Scrooge is scared of most. Scrooge feared the silent shape so much that his legs trembled beneath him, and he found that he could hardly stand when he prepared to follow it. Scrooge is frightened of him the most because he doesnt know what his personality is like; with the other ghosts they were kind and caring. This ghost just points to places. But when Scrooge saw his grave then he got worried and cried hear me! I am not the man I was, I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse. Why show me this if I am past all hope? When Marley visits Scrooge, he is scared at first, because he doesnt know who it is, until the ghost got a bit closer, Scrooge was surprised to see his old friend, when Marley walked off to the window it beckoned Scrooge to approach, which he did.

Amines Functionalized Upconversion Nanoparticles Synthesis

Amines Functionalized Upconversion Nanoparticles Synthesis Chapter 1 Introduction Introduction To cure deadly disease such as cancer, significant endeavors have been done in synthesizing nanomaterials (Xue et al., 2011). Ideal nanoparticle system will own multimodality for imaging and therapy. It will carry out as an excellent bioprobes to find disease site and as a carriers to target cells. In biomedical field, they have been demonstrated to be useful in immunoassays, gene assays, and photodynamic therapy. For this application, utilization of upconversion luminescence (UCL) emission is favorable (Zhou et al., 2013). Upconversion luminescence is a process where low energy light is converted to higher energy light through sequential absorption of multiple photons induced by low power continuous wave laser. The utilization of near infrared (NIR) laser to induced the multiple photons energy transfer impart to the minimization of auto-fluorescence, less damage to cells, and larger penetration depth compete with ultraviolet (UV) excitation (Shen et al., 2012). Inorganic rare earth (RE) (lanthanide) nanomaterials lately have been exposed to be most preferred luminescent biolabels, due to the rigid crystal host lattice maintain the emitting RE dopants from environmental effects. Furthermore, lanthanide ions are acknowledged to show efficient upconversion luminescence. Inorganic crystals do not exhibit upconversion luminescence at room temperature. The upconversion phenomena particularly takes place in singly or multiply doped host systems. Therefore, researches focus on materials that composed of a crystalline host and RE dopants attached to the host lattice in low concentration. Behave as multipurpose bioprobes implemented in nanomedicine, upconversion nanoparticles (UCNP) should be come up with uniform size and morphology, water soluble, and appropriate surface functional group for bioconjugation as well as high luminescent efficiency (Sun et al., 2014; Li et al., 2010). To fulfil these requirements, many attempts have been allocated to the controlled synthesis. Previous Study Kramer et al. (2004) reported the successful preparation of hexagonal sodium yttrium fluoride based green and blue emitting upconversion phosphors. The acquired phosphor materials reveal no deterioration under high-power infrared laser excitation. Li et al. (2008) prepared hexagonal phase NaYF4:Yb, Er/Tm nanocrystal with a â€Å"user-friendly† method by constructing small solid-state crystal nuclei and further growth and ripening of the nuclei. All the nanocrystals revealed strong upconversion fluorescence. Li et al. (2008) reported successful preparation of multicolor core/shell-structured upconversion fluorescent nanoparticles. This was the first report in the field using such nanoparticles for bioimaging. In this work, uniform hexagonal-phase NaYF4 nanospheres with strong upconversion fluorescence and core/shell silica/NaYF4 structures are produced, with uniform silica coating on the surface. Jalil et al. (2008) synthesized uniform silica coated hexagonal phase NaYF4 nanocrystal with strong NIR to visible upconversion fluorescence. The results from this study revealed that the silica coated NaYF4 upconversion nanocrystals displayed good in vitro and in vivo biocompatibility, demonstrating their potential applications in both cellular and animal imaging systems. Hu et al. (2009) prepared uniform silica-coated NaYF4: 20 mol% Yb, 2 mol% Er nanocomposites with good dispersibility, containing organic dye incorporated in the silica shell and folic acid conjugated on the surface of the shell. The core–shell nanocomposites are 20–22 nm in size, water soluble, and buffer stable, with good photostability and biocompatibility. Garcia et al. (2012) prepared a novel strategy for the therapeutic delivery of nitric oxide to physiological target. They demonstrated the use of upconverting nanoparticles to facilitate NO uncaging from a well characterized precursor by 980 nm irradiation from a simple NIR diode laser operating in the continuous mode. Chien et al. (2013) formulated upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) as the NIR-triggered targeting and drug delivery vehicles that successfully deliver in vitro and in vivo for near-infrared light photocontrolled targeting, bioimaging, and chemotherapy. Problem Statement As described previously, UCNPs are considered as useful biomaterials in biomedical application. The unique properties of UCNPs have given interest to many researchers to functionalize the surface for biological usage. A sort of method to synthesize UCNPs have been evolved. There are three common methods usually used, co-precipitation (Yi et al., 2004), thermal decomposition (Li et al., 2008), and hydro(solvo)thermal (Liu et al., 2007). Thermal decomposition is the best technique to obtain highly monodisperse UCNPs. In this method, rare earth (RE) trifluoroacetates are heated to attain thermal equilibrium in the presence of oleic acid and octadecene. Here, oleic acid function as a stabilizing agent to terminate particle agglomeration, while octadecene behave as a high boiling point solvent (Boyer et al., 2006). The oleic acid forms a coordinate bond to the surface of particles, so causing it hydrophobic. UCNP prepared via thermal decomposition is well dispersed in organic solvents such as cyclohexane but insoluble in aqueous solution. If employed in biosciences, UCNPs particularly are implemented in aqueous solution. Therefore, they have to be dispersible in water. To make it water dispersible, we need to modify the surface of upconversion nanoparticle. A common method to make it water dispersible is by coating with silica layer (Li et al., 2008). In order to be applicable in affinity assays and bioassays, the surface of UCNPs has to be functionalized to facilitate covalent immobilization of appropriate biomolecules. Such surface chemistry is expected to be versatile to facilitate immobilization of proteins, receptors, enzymes, or nucleic acid oligomers. Therefore, here we studied about the surface functionalization of upconversion nanoparticles for biological usage. Research Objectives In this study, amines functionalized upconversion nanoparticles were synthesized using stober process with hydrothermal treatment to enhance the amines stability on the surface. The size and zeta potential of particles are characterized by using dynamic light scattering in various solvent. The morphology of particles are characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The amines substitution level and amines stability on the surface is characterized by using fluorescamines assay in various solvent.

Essay --

Sandra Anderson DSOC 3010: Theories of Society and Development December 13th, 2013 defines explains argues recognizes details illustrates notes asserts shows suggests affirms 1. Do processes of globalization pose a challenge to classical theories of modernity? If so, how? And what is the significance of the distinction between ‘Globalization Theory’ and a ‘Theory of Globalization’? â€Æ' 2. Discuss the notion of postmodernity as developed by Jean Franà §ois Lyotard, and the counter-critiques of it by Jà ¼rgen Habermas and Anthony Giddens. Jean Franà §ois Lyotard’s concept of the â€Å"postmodern condition† is concerned with the status of knowledge in society (Hall, 1996, p. 640). The central characteristic component of the Enlightenment approach, according to Lyotard, is its concern with scientific legitimacy, particularly the â€Å"objective and impartial knowledge of the world† rather than the prevailing â€Å"narratives† or stories that individuals create to give their lives significance (Hall, 1996, p. 640). Narratives, as per the Enlightenment approach, taint real, scientific knowledge by offering existential or ideological comforts through â€Å"their essentially local, social, and personal contexts† (Hall, 1996, p. 640). In fact, Lyotard believes that the Enlightenment idea of â€Å"pure† knowledge is a formidable myth, specifically the concept that scientific knowledge is never tainted with narrative stories, since much of the objective knowledge derived from science is vindicated by mentions of metanarratives, or what Lyotard refers to as â€Å" higher-level storylines† (Hall, 1996, p. 640). Scientific progress, combined with economic growth in society, is hardly ever viewed objectively, especially since the former is thought to necessitate the latte... ...istribution-recognition dilemma through â€Å"socialism in the economy plus deconstruction in the culture† (Fraser, 1995, p. 91). Fraser compares socialism in the economy with transformative redistribution politics, where the fundamental political-economic organization of society is reformed primarily through the relations of production and through the social allocation of labor thus improving the living circumstances everyone in society (Fraser, 1995, p. 83). Fraser also likens deconstruction in the culture to transformative recognition politics, where prevailing collective identities and disparities would be destabilized, in turn restoring the self-esteem and confidence of members of disparaged groups (Fraser, 1995, p. 83). Once we embarks on these revolutionizing policies, Frye argues, can society â€Å"meet the requirements of justice for all† (Fraser, 1995, p. 93) â€Æ'

The Sense of Scents, the Sense of Self :: Biology Essays Research Papers

The Sense of Scents, the Sense of Self For this paper, I'd like to revisit some of the questions left unanswered in my last paper regarding the sense of smell. In that paper, I outlined some of what is now understood about how smells are identified and the initial levels of how that information is coded in the brain; for this paper I would like to trace that path (as much as possible) through to my experience of smell and then to see if my experience matches the proposed models. From this perspective, I'd like to take a last look at the "brain = behavior" equation and the notion of the "I - function" and see if I can't make some final sense of it all in a way which is not utterly dissonant with my own experiences. Let's look at smell again, then. My last paper left off with the following conclusions regarding the olfactory system. There are between 500 and 1000 unique protein receptor genes which are expressed only in the olfactory epithelium. These receptors each respond to a unique odorant or to a unique feature on an odorant molecule (epitopes). It is suggested that there is a one - to - one relationship between a specific odorant, its protein receptor, and the sensory neuron: that is, any given sensory neuron expresses only one type of receptor and is therefore responsive to only one kind of odorant. Each type of neuron is randomly distributed across one of four zones within the olfactory epithelium. The information from this population coding is then reorganized, as these axons leave the epithelium and travel to the olfactory bulb, into a very specific, spatially organized map of activity across the several hundred kinds of receptors. The span between the 1000 types of receptor neurons, a nd discrimination amongst 10,000 odors, is bridged in the interpretation of the ratios and relationships of activity level across the population. The olfactory bulb was compared to an operators switchboard, and the process of odor identification was likened to determining which switchboard lights were flashing. The obvious question then becomes, what parts of the brain watch over the olfactory bulb, monitor its activity and interpret that activity? What parts of the brain assign meaning and identity to each pattern of stimulation, and then choose an appropriate response? Some of these questions have been addressed by Walter Freeman in his investigations, and he has several useful insights into the process of preattentive perception, or the almost instantaneous recognition of the familiar. The Sense of Scents, the Sense of Self :: Biology Essays Research Papers The Sense of Scents, the Sense of Self For this paper, I'd like to revisit some of the questions left unanswered in my last paper regarding the sense of smell. In that paper, I outlined some of what is now understood about how smells are identified and the initial levels of how that information is coded in the brain; for this paper I would like to trace that path (as much as possible) through to my experience of smell and then to see if my experience matches the proposed models. From this perspective, I'd like to take a last look at the "brain = behavior" equation and the notion of the "I - function" and see if I can't make some final sense of it all in a way which is not utterly dissonant with my own experiences. Let's look at smell again, then. My last paper left off with the following conclusions regarding the olfactory system. There are between 500 and 1000 unique protein receptor genes which are expressed only in the olfactory epithelium. These receptors each respond to a unique odorant or to a unique feature on an odorant molecule (epitopes). It is suggested that there is a one - to - one relationship between a specific odorant, its protein receptor, and the sensory neuron: that is, any given sensory neuron expresses only one type of receptor and is therefore responsive to only one kind of odorant. Each type of neuron is randomly distributed across one of four zones within the olfactory epithelium. The information from this population coding is then reorganized, as these axons leave the epithelium and travel to the olfactory bulb, into a very specific, spatially organized map of activity across the several hundred kinds of receptors. The span between the 1000 types of receptor neurons, a nd discrimination amongst 10,000 odors, is bridged in the interpretation of the ratios and relationships of activity level across the population. The olfactory bulb was compared to an operators switchboard, and the process of odor identification was likened to determining which switchboard lights were flashing. The obvious question then becomes, what parts of the brain watch over the olfactory bulb, monitor its activity and interpret that activity? What parts of the brain assign meaning and identity to each pattern of stimulation, and then choose an appropriate response? Some of these questions have been addressed by Walter Freeman in his investigations, and he has several useful insights into the process of preattentive perception, or the almost instantaneous recognition of the familiar.