Thailand Highways Management Project Essay - 6796 Words

Thailand Highways Management Project (P075173) Group 3 1. Praphop Anantakoon St101942 2. Lam Quynh Tho St102016 3. Phan Thanh Nga St102056 4. Trinh Thi Kim Phuong St102015 5. Nguyen Thuy Hang St102062 6. Probal Dutta St101941 SOM, May 2005 TABLE OF CONTENT I - INTRODUCTION: 3 1.The rationale of the study. 3 2.The Project Background. 3 2.1. The Project Information: 3 2.2. The Project Organization: 3 II - THE PROJECT DESCRIPTION.. 4 1. The Project Logframe. 4 2.The Project Work Breakdown Structure. 8 3.The Project Cost Estimation. 9 4.The Project†¦show more content†¦2.The Project Background ------------------------ 2.1. The Project Information: The Thailand Highways Management Project (coded as P075173) is a big project covering three sectors, i.e., road and highways (80%), sub-national government administration (20%), throughout the northern areas of Thailand. It is sponsored mainly by the World Bank, accounting for 58% of the total investment capital, and with the counterpart fund presenting for 20% of the USD 146.39 total amount from the Royal Thai Government (hereunder mentioned to as RTG). This total amount is invested disbursed in a 5-year period for four majour programs implemented by the Department of Highways (hereunder referred to as DOH), Ministry of Transportation. 2.2. The Project Organization: DOH is government agency responsible for building and maintaining the national highways network around the country. DOH delegates the work to engineer department. Within the Department, each engineer is responsible for several supervisory works of the road construction and rehabilitation program including the work coordination with the ProjectShow MoreRelatedRice Pledging Schemes1363 Words   |  5 PagesThai Agricultural policies: Rice pledging scheme Thailand is among one of the most suitable regions on earth for agricultural industry. 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Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Use of Technolgy for a Cure Research Proposal

Essays on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Use of Technolgy for a Cure Research Proposal The paper "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Use of Technolgy for a Cure" is an excellent example of a research proposal on medical science. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder refers to the conditions that individuals experience when they have exposed to one or more harrowing events, which includes fighting in a war, accidents, threat to death and sexual assault. Fear and powerlessness are attributed to this condition. In most cases, the diagnosis is administered when the symptoms recur over a month upon the occurrences of the event (Thomas, 2008). The purpose of this study is to examine research questions and hypotheses on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder among adolescents and the use of technology for a cure. It is imperative to note that, technology, in this case, involves the use of the traumatic stressors, which incorporates internet, and computer-based treatments, which include virtual reality treatments. Research questions and relevant Statement of Hypotheses   Research question 1: What are the traumatic and universal stressors that are attributed to the increased symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder among adolescents? Hypothesis I: The youth reports primary life stressors that do not meet DSM-IV criterion A1 for PTSD, will report an equivalent figure of indicators of PTSD comparable to the youth exposed to stressors not meeting the DSM-IV criterion A1 (Thomas, 2008). Research Question 2: What kinds of stressors and life experience that distinguishes the youth who give clinically fundamental signs of PTSD in the nonexistence of a certified traumatic stressor? Hypothesis II: The youth reports primary life stressors that involve key disruptions of family associations or loss of a close acquaintance will give a report of a higher figure of PTSD signs comparable with the youth who report other significant life stressors. Hypothesis III: The present DSM-IV PTSD standard AI for traumatic stressors that needs specific fear of death or grave injury will envisage augmented sum sign report of the past six or so months PTSD among the adolescents who are exposed to the traumatic stressors under the virtual reality treatment (Thomas, 2008). Hypothesis IV: Adolescents of relatively younger age exposed to Potential Traumatic Stressors (PTS) will have a higher possibility of exposure comparable to their older counterparts on the same kind of stressor to certify fear of grave injury or death relative to the stressors (Thomas, 2008). Hypothesis V: The youth repeatedly exposed to potentially traumatic stressors of a vicious form will give a report of the immense overall figure of PTSD signs comparable to youth exposed to an individual traumatic stressor of an aggressive form. Hypothesis VI: The youth exposed to virtual reality traumatic human stressors are expected to report more signs of PTSD comparable with their counterparts exposed to natural traumatic stressors.

Economy in Tibet Free Essays

Economy Since the democratic reform in 1959, and especially since the adoption of the reform and opening-up policy in 1978, Tibet has witnessed remarkable economic development. The Tibetan economy is dominated by subsistence agriculture. The Tibetan yak still plays an important role in Tibetan life. We will write a custom essay sample on Economy in Tibet or any similar topic only for you Order Now Yaks still promote the best way to plow fields in Tibet. The Tibetan economy is dominated by subsistence agriculture. Due to limited arable land, the primary occupation of the Tibetan Plateau is raising livestock, such as sheep, cattle, goats, camels, yaks, horses and some crops such as barley, buckwheat, wheat, potatoes, and assorted fruits and vegetables. Development Zone The State Council approved Tibet Lhasa Economic and Technological Development Zone as a state-level development zone in 2001. It is located in the western suburbs of Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region. It is a flat zone, ideal for construction services , and it has the natural conditions for good drainage. Source: http://www. starmass. com/china_review/provincial_overview/tibet_demographic_economy. htm Tibet demographic analysis and economy overview The service sector plays an important role in Tibet’s economy growth. This is because in 2007, more than half (55%) of the provincial GDP is derived from the service industries. Tourism plays a crucial role to the province’s economic growth. Newly emerging service sectors such as modern commerce, tourism, posts and telecommunications, catering, cultural entertainment and information technology have also been developing rapidly. The construction sector contributes 21% to the provincial GDP, agricultural sector 16% and manufacturing contributes the least- 8% to the total GDP GDP While traditional agricultural work and animal husbandry continue to lead the area’s economy, in 2005 the tertiary sector contributed more than half of its GDP growth, the first time it surpassed the area’s primary industry. Rich reserves of natural resources and raw materials have yet to lead to the creation of a strong secondary sector, due in large part to the province’s inhospitable terrain, low population density, an underdeveloped infrastructure and the high cost of extraction Tibet’s GDP in 2008 reached 39. 6 billion Yuan. The Chinese government says that it exempts Tibet from all taxation and provides 90% of Tibet’s government expenditure. Critics say that the central government is stripping Tibetan resources and neglecting the welfare of Tibetan people. Tibet’s economy has grown on average 15% per year from 2000 to 2006. http://news. xinhuanet. com/english/2009-03/30/content_11098888. htm Report on economic and social development of Tibet www. chinaview. cn 2009-03-30 10:22:48 Source: http://www. starmass. com/china_review/provincial_overview/tibet_demographic_economy. tm Tibet demographic analysis and economy overview The GDP per capita reached 13. 861 Yuan in 2008 for the first time in Tibet’s history. GDP reached 39,5 billion Yuan in 2008. In the first six months of 2008, economic growth in Tibet was halved after the Lhasa riots (a series of riots, protests, and demonstrations that started in the capital of Lhasa and sprea d to other Tibetan areas and a number of monasteries including outside the Tibet Autonomous Region. The violence was mostly directed at Han and Hui civilians). The Lhasa riots led to a slump in tourism and consumption. In recent years, due to increased interest in Tibetan Buddhism, tourism has become an increasingly important sector, and is actively promoted by the authorities. (Philipois) China has invested 310  billion yuan (about 45. 6  billion U. S. dollars) in Tibet since 2001. Industry There was no modern industry or infrastructure before the 1950s With some adjustments, the value of industrial output rose again in the late 1980s. Moreover, as in the rest of China, the ownership structure of industrial enterprises in the TAR also experienced a major change. In 2007, for a â€Å"gross industrial output value† totalling 5,044 million yuan, 33,1  % came from state enterprises, 5. 6  % from collectively-owned enterprises and 61. 3  % from â€Å"others† (private companies, joint ventures and foreign companies). Thus, private enterprise is now the main source of growth in industrial production. Commerce (traditional handicrafts, carpets etc) tourism, catering, leisure and other industries that had never been heard of in old Tibet, are now booming as the primary industries in the region. Prospects for Growth and Development Although Tibet’s society and economy were affected by the March14 Incident in 2008, the impact on most local industries was limited, except for temporary difficulties for tourism in Tibet. In the next few years, Tibet’s economy is expected to maintain sound and rapid development in virtue of favorable factors such as increasing investment and transfer payments from the central government, rising income level of farmers and herdsmen, and burgeoning consumption by local residents. Slides (Philips, just in case you want to use this map†¦ I think it`s a good one) Slide 1: Economy in Tibet Democratic reform in 1959 and reform and opening-up policy in 1978: remarkable economic development in Tibet. Traditionally dominated by subsistence agriculture. Due to limited arable land, the primary occupation of the Tibetan Plateau is raising livestock, such as sheep, cattle, goats, camels, yaks, horses and some crops such as barley, buckwheat, wheat, potatoes, and assorted fruits and vegetables. Slide 2: Yaks still promote the best way to plow fields in Tibet. Slide 3: Development Zone The State Council approved Tibet Lhasa Economic and Technological Development Zone as a state-level development zone in 2001. Location: in the western suburbs of Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region. Flat zone Construction services Natural conditions for good drainage. Slide 4: Tibet`s GDP Industry: no modern industry or infrastructure before the 1950s With some adjustments, the value of industrial output rose again in the late 1980s. Nowadays private enterprise is the main source of growth in industrial production. Newly emerging service sectors: modern commerce, tourism, posts and telecommunications, catering, cultural entertainment and information technology have also been developing rapidly. Tourism: essential for the economic growth. Source: http://www. starmass. com/china_review/provincial_overview/tibet_demographic_economy. htm – Tibet demographic analysis and economy overview Slide 5: Economic Growth and GDP Tibet’s GDP in 2008 reached 39. 6 billion Yuan. Tibet’s economy has grown on average 15% per year from 2000 to 2008. In the first six months of 2008, economic growth in Tibet was negatively affected by Lhasa riots. Source: http://news. xinhuanet. com/english/2009-03/30/content_11098888. htm – Report on economic and social development of Tibet Slide 6 China has invested 310  billion yuan (about 45. 6  billion U. S. dollars) in Tibet since 2001. The GDP per capita reached 15. 000 Yuan in 2009. Source: http://www. starmass. com/china_review/provincial_overview/tibet_demographic_economy. htm – Tibet demographic analysis and economy overview I COULDN`T FIND ANY GOOD VIDEOS†¦ http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=_xkzjvx7SzE;feature=related How to cite Economy in Tibet, Essay examples

Edgar Alan Poe Biography Essay Example For Students

Edgar Alan Poe Biography Essay The Life Of Edgar Alan Poea Biography1809 1849 He gained some fame from the publication in 1845 of a dozen stories as well as ofThe Raven and Other Poems, and he enjoyed a few months of calm as a respected criticand writer. After his wife died in 1847, however, his life began to unravel even faster as hemoved about from city to city, lecturing and writing, drinking heavily, and courting severalolder women. Just before marrying one, he died in Baltimore after being foundsemiconscious in a tavern possibly from too much alcohol, although it is a myth that hewas a habitual drunkard and drug addict. Admittedly a failure in most areas of his personal life, he was recognized as anunusually gifted writer and was admired by Dostoevsky and Baudelaire, even if not alwaysappreciated by many of his other contemporaries. Master of symbolism and the macabre,he is considered to be the father of the detective story and a stepfather of science fiction,and he remains one of the most timeless and extr aordinary of all American creative artists. Edgar Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 19, 1809, the second ofthe three children of David Poe and Elizabeth (Arnold) Poe, both of whom wereprofessional actors and members of a touring theatrical company. Eclipsed by his morefamous wife, his own promising career ruined by alcoholism, Poes father deserted thefamily when Edgar was still an infant; nothing conclusive is known of his life thereafter. While appearing professionally in Richmond, Virginia, Poes mother became ill and died onDecember 8, 1811, at the age of twenty-four. Her three children, who wouldmaintain contact with one another throughout their lives, were sent to live with differentfoster families. Edgar became the ward of John Allan, a successful tobacco merchant inRichmond, and his wife Frances, who had no children of their own. Although neverformally adopted by them, Poe regarded the couple, especially Mrs. Allan, as parents, andhe took their surname as his own middle name. In 1815, business reasons led Allan tomove to England for what would be a five-year stay. Both in London and then inRichmond after the familys return, Poe was well educated in private academies. In 1825,he became secretly engaged to a girl named Elmira Royster. The engagement, opposed byboth families, was subsequently broken off. In 1826, Poe entered the University of Virginia, newly founded by formerPresident Thomas Jefferson. He distinguis hed himself as a student, but he also took todrinking, and he amassed gambling debts of $2,000, a significant amount of money at thetime, which John Allan, although he had recently inherited a fortune, refused to honor. After quarreling with Allan, Poe left Richmond in March 1827 and sailed to Boston,where, in relatively short order, he enlisted in the United States Army (under the nameEdgar A. Perry, and claiming to be four years older than his actual age of eighteen) andpublished a pamphlet called Tamerlane and Other Poems, whose author was cited on thetitle page only as a Bostonian. This little book did not sell at all, but its few survivingcopies are among the most highly prized items in the rare-book market; one accidentallydiscovered copy, bought for a dollar, was recently auctioned for $150,000. Poes militarycareer went more successfully. After two years, he had been promoted to sergeant major,the highest noncommissioned rank. He was honorably discharged in 1829, and decided toseek an appointment to West Point in the hope of becoming a career commissionedofficer. He entered West Point in May of 1830, but chafed under the regimen and, afterdeliberately missing classes, roll-calls, and compulso ry chapel attendance, was expelled inJanuary 1831. He gained some fame from the publication in 1845 of a dozen stories as well as ofThe Raven and Other Poems, and he enjoyed a few months of calm as a respected criticand writer. After his wife died in 1847, however, his life began to unravel even faster as hemoved about from city to city, lecturing and writing, drinking heavily, and courting severalolder women. Just before marrying one, he died in Baltimore after being foundsemiconscious in a tavern possibly from too much alcohol, although it is a myth that hewas a habitual drunkard and drug addict. Admittedly a failure in most areas of his personal life, he was recognized as anunusually gifted writer and was admired by Dostoevsky and Baudelaire, even if not alwaysappreciated by many of his other contemporaries. Master of symbolism and the macabre,he is considered to be the father of the detective story and a stepfather of science fiction,and he remains one of the most timeless and extraordinary of all American creative artists. In 1829, Poe had published a second collection of verse, which attracted littlemore attention than its predecessor. A third volume, funded through contributions fromfellow cadets, appeared in 1831. Among its contents was To Helen, which had beeninspired by Jane Stanard, the mother of one his Richmond schoolmates. Poe referred toher as the first, purely ideal love of my soul. Also in 1831, Poe went to Baltimore, wherehe moved in with his widowed aunt Maria Clemm, his fathers sister, who was to be themost deeply devoted of his several mother-figures, and her eight-year-old daughterVirginia. It was in this period that he began to achieve wider recognition as a writer. In1832, he published five tales in the Philadelphia Saturday Courier. In 1833, he entered acompetition sponsored by the Baltimore Saturday Visiter (sic), winning the second prize inpoetry for The Coliseum and the first prize in fiction for MS. Found in a Bottle. In1834, the publication of The Visionary in Godeys Ladys Book marked the first timethat his fiction appeared in a magazine of more than local circulation. Frances Allan had died in February 1829, and John Allan, who was by this timepermanently alienated from Poe, had remarried in October 1830. On Allans death in 1834,Poe received nothing. Effectively disinherited, unsuited for business or the military, Poeturned to journalism, the one avenue likely to afford a successful career to someone of his interests and abilities. Through therecommendation of the novelist John Pendleton Kennedy, who had been one of the judgesof the Saturday Visiter contest, Poe began in March 1835 to contribute short fiction andbook reviews to the Richmond-based Southern Literary Messenger. In a period ofAmerican literature not notable for them, Poe exhibited coherent aesthetic principles andhigh critical standards, and within months his vigorous and uncompromising reviewsbegan to increase the Messengers circulation and t o enhance its reputation, prompting itspublisher to make Poe his principal book reviewer and editorial assistant. By the end ofthe year, Poe, who had moved to Richmond with Virginia and Mrs. Clemm, was namededitor in chief. In May of 1836, he secretly married Virginia, his first cousin, who was thennot quite fourteen years of age. .u3369dcb6e748580ad3237755f667878e , .u3369dcb6e748580ad3237755f667878e .postImageUrl , .u3369dcb6e748580ad3237755f667878e .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u3369dcb6e748580ad3237755f667878e , .u3369dcb6e748580ad3237755f667878e:hover , .u3369dcb6e748580ad3237755f667878e:visited , .u3369dcb6e748580ad3237755f667878e:active { border:0!important; } .u3369dcb6e748580ad3237755f667878e .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u3369dcb6e748580ad3237755f667878e { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u3369dcb6e748580ad3237755f667878e:active , .u3369dcb6e748580ad3237755f667878e:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u3369dcb6e748580ad3237755f667878e .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u3369dcb6e748580ad3237755f667878e .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u3369dcb6e748580ad3237755f667878e .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u3369dcb6e748580ad3237755f667878e .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u3369dcb6e748580ad3237755f667878e:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u3369dcb6e748580ad3237755f667878e .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u3369dcb6e748580ad3237755f667878e .u3369dcb6e748580ad3237755f667878e-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u3369dcb6e748580ad3237755f667878e:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Death Of Salesman (4885 words) EssayDissatisfied both with his salary and with limits on his editorial independence, heresigned from the Southern Literary Messenger in January 1837. Struggling to supportVirginia and Mrs. Clemm through freelance writing, he moved his family first to NewYork and then to Philadelphia as he sought another editorial position. Despite financialdifficulties, Poe was able in this period to advance his own writing career, publishingreviews, poems, and especially fiction in various journals and in several volumes. In 1839,he began to write regularly for Thomas Burtons Gentlemans Magazine, contributing afeature article and a number of book reviews ea ch month. Once again, Poes editorshipbrought dramatic advances in both quality and circulation, but he was dismissed from thisposition in June 1840 after once again quarreling with his publisher. Failing in attempts tofound his own journal, in 1841 Poe became an editor of Grahams Magazine, a new journalformed by George Graham through a merger of his magazine The Casket with theGentlemans Magazine, which he had bought from Burton. Once more the pattern playeditself out: the magazine thrived under Poes direction, he wanted a higher salary and a freereditorial hand, and he left his positionalthough this time on relatively good terms withthe publisher. Poes personal fortunes once more suffered reverses as his writing careeradvanced. In January 1842, Virginia suddenly began to hemorrhage from the mouth, thefirst indication that she had contracted tuberculosis. She was seriously ill for a time, andwould never again be truly healthy. Poe also had renewed difficulties in his attempts tofind steady employment. But in 1843 he published several works, including The Tell-TaleHeart, in James Russell Lowells short-lived journal The Pioneer, and in June of that yearhis story The Gold-Bug won a $100 prize in a contest sponsored by the PhiladelphiaDollar Newspaper. Widely reprinted, it made Poe famous with a broad fiction-readingpublic, but he did not become financially secure. Owing to lax copyright standards at thetime that allowed for widespread reprintinga condition that Poe himself editorializedaboutwriters did not profit directly from the popularity of their work. In 1844, Poemoved to New York, where he lectured on American poetry and con tributed articles tonewspapers and magazines. The year 1845 would bring both triumphs and the beginning of a final downwardspiral in Poes life. His poem The Raven appeared in the New York Evening Mirror inJanuary, and was an instant success with both readers and critics. He began writing for theBroadway Journal, became its editor in July, and shortly thereafter fulfilled a longstandingdream by becoming its owner as well. But a series of articles in which he groundlesslyaccused Henry Wadsworth Longfellow of plagiarism did harm to Poes reputation, andVirginias health problems became severe. Financial difficulties, his worry over Virginia,and his own precarious physical and emotional state caused him to cease publication of theBroadway Journal after less than six months as its proprietor. He moved out of New YorkCity to a cottage in then-rural Fordham (now a heavily urban section of the Bronx), wherein the midst of poverty, ill health, and Virginias now grave illness, he still somehowc ontinued to earn a small income writing reviews and articles. A satirical piece on fellowwriter Thomas Dunn English provoked from its subject a scurrilous personal attack in theEvening Mirror, which led Poe to sue the publication. Although he would win the suit andcollect damages the following year, the whole episode was a great strain upon Poesalready fragile nervous system. On January 30, 1847, Virginia died, plunging Poe into an emotional and physicalcollapse that lasted for most of the year. In 1848, he was briefly engaged to marry SarahHelen Whitman, a widowed poet several years his senior, but their relationship was tenseand strained, and the engagement was broken off. He went to Richmond in the summer of1849, hoping to find financial backing for yet another journal, and while there he wasreunited with and re-engaged to Elmira Royster, his first love, now herself a widow. Hesailed from Richmond to Baltimore, where on October 3, 1849, he was found outside apolling place (it was election day), in a state of delirium and wearing shabby and ill-fittingclothing. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he raved feverishly for several daysbefore dying on October 7 at the age of forty. Neither the circumstances that had led to hiscondition nor the exact cause of his death have ever been satisfactorily determined. Poesposthumous reputation sustained grievou s and long-lasting damage from a libelousbiography by Rufus Griswold, whom Poe himself had appointed his literary executor, andrumors, mostly unfounded, circulate to this day about Poes mental state and personalhabits.

The Sign of Four Essay Example

The Sign of Four Paper The opening lines suggest that Holmes is a drug addict, alternating between morphine and cocaine, displayed when Watson asks:What is it today? I asked, morphine or cocaine? The drugs have physically taken their toll on Holmes, his white fingers take the needle before injecting the drug in to his sinewy forearm. Watson clearly objects to Holmes use of drugs, but is reluctant to protest, despite his knowledge of the dangers of drugs. Holmes accepts Watsons medical opinion, possibly because he is an army surgeon, however this is one of the rare times where Holmes acknowledges what Watson has to say. Watson is in awe of Holmes, he admires his great powers and repeatedly describes Holmes in an admirable fashion. Holmes can not stand being without work, and he takes drugs to pass the time, because he is restless. His mind rebels at stagnation. Holmes has an inflated opinion of himself, as he describes himself as superior over the police force, and that when Gregson, or Lestrade, or Athelney Jones are out of their depths which is their normal state, the matter is laid before me.  Holmes tends to show no emotion throughout the novel, the first time he shows this is in his critiscism of Watsons work you have attempted to tinge it with romantiscism. He says detection ought to be treated in an unemotional manner. Watson however, displays emotion frequently and it often hampers him in his work, but the romance was there he replies to Holmes critiscism. We will write a custom essay sample on The Sign of Four specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Sign of Four specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Sign of Four specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Watson looks up to Holmes almost like an older brother, and writes A Study in Scarlet specifically to please (him). Watson is irritated by (Holmes) egotism. His egotism surfaces again when he speaks of his French detective colleague. Watson describes the way the Frenchman speaks as a pupil to his master. Holmes is very knowledgable. He has several monographs, and he uses his knowledge to help him in his detection. Holmes takes the smallest details in to account or has Watson puts it an extraordinary genius for minutiae. Holmes uses his observations to deduce his answer, often assuming the most logical explanation, but not expecting an entirely accurate answer. Morstan seems confident from the way Watson describes her, she has a firm step. She possibly had a wealthy upbringing, but has recently come in to financial trouble. She is dressed in perfect taste but her clothes suggested they were created with limited means. Her lip (trembles) as she meets with Holmes, showing she is nervous.  Holmes delights at the prospect of a challenge, he rubbed his hands and his eyes glistened, for it means he has something to tax his mind with. He takes note of everything, opening his notebook. Marston must have been deeply saddened choking sob, and she can recall every detail, such as the exact day of the disappearance third of December 1878. It appears that many people seek guidance from Homles, examples include the Frenchman, Watson, Marston and later Athelney Jones. Watson must feel affection for her, as he gives her a admirable description in the opening paragraph, and that he replied ferverently to her question. He confirms this by calling her an attractive woman after her departure. Holmes is indifferent to this, prompting Watson to call him inhuman sometimes, rearding his lack of emotion. Holmes tells Watson not to allow your judgement to be biased by personal qualities. Holmes appears to be more upbeat when his mind his taxed. Holmes speaks to Watson as a pupil. He asks him questions that he already knows the answer to. Holmes is almost a mentor to Watson. At the end of the paragraph, Watson tries to convert to Holmes pattern of thinking by calling Marston a unit.  Holmes suffers from severe mood swings, a mood which alternated with fits of the blackest depression this is probably caused by his drugs. Watson seems to do a lot for Holmes, he poured out (tea) for him, but Holmes does not seem to do much in reply, concerning house keeping. When it comes to detective matters, Watson never disagrees with Holmes, ever. Holmes is very confident in his ability, which links in with his egotism. However, he takes no chances, and took his revolver with him.  Marston must have been close to Papa as she has a pet name for him. Watson describes a very gloomy scene outside, the mud coloured clouds drooped sadly. While Marston and Watson are slightly affected by emotion, Holmes rises superior over something as petty as emotion. Watson and Marston seem like excited children compared to the unflappable Homles.  Watson has clearly been used to a wealthy lifestyle, he shows this in the scornful way he describes the third rate house. Holmes shows this same first classness about him when he describes the area as not very fashionable. Watson is very distrustful towards the bald headed man as he gives a very negative description of him and his home. The home is described as sordid and common. Thaddeus lives with quite luxurious and Oriental furnishings such as a hookah. Watson has become very defensive for Marstons sake, which could be taken as sign of his affection for her. Thaddeus seems to be a trusting man towards his close companions, but he opposes the police or rough crowds. He describes Bartholomew as more superior to him. He must also have had a very wealthy upbring as he speaks of having to pay a large sum to hush it up. Major Sholto seems to have been greedy and more concerned of damaging his reputation than anything else, even at the expense of his friend. While Thaddeus seems very apologetic, and in giving the pearls to Marston he attempts to apologise, Bartholomew appears to have inherited his fathers greediness, and was reluctant to give over the pearls. Thaddeus seems to be in awe of his brother, who used Holmes-like methods to find the treasure. Thaddeus seems to be able to rise above the temptation of the treasure, whilst the others, apart from Holmes, seem entranced by the thought.

How to Write a Deep Exploratory Essay on “What’s in a Name”

How to Write a Deep Exploratory Essay on â€Å"What’s in a Name† In the previous two guides, you learned 10 facts for an exploratory essay on â€Å"What’s in a Name?† and 20 topics for an exploratory essay on â€Å"What’s in a Name?†. In this final guide, how to write a deep exploratory essay on â€Å"What’s in a Name?†, you’ll learn how to write an exploratory essay. This will help you tremendously since it provides tips and tactics on how to effortlessly write a liberal exploratory essay. Unlike other essays, an exploratory essay is something that should be liberal with an exceptional structure, and everything that is written on paper must be clear, concise and to the point. Although it’s challenging to write a perfect exploratory essay, the practice in itself, is worthwhile. How do you write a perfect exploratory essay without making mistakes? Here’s how: Choose a Topic Before you start writing an exploratory essay, you should first choose a topic on which you’re highly knowledgeable. The topic you chose should have credible sources to back up your argument, otherwise it won’t be as remarkable as it can be. A good topic is one where questions begged to be asked, the facts are hard to find, has a multitude of different perspectives to make for a compelling argument and links to a hard-pressing issue. Introduction The introduction should include everything you plan to discuss in your exploratory essay. This is why the first paragraph is always written in the end so that you know what you’ve written, rather than what you are going to write. An introduction is what catches the eye of the reader and persuades him/her to read further. The introduction should include the following: A problem you’ve found in a particular subject People or institutions involved in creating that problem The solution to that problem or sources that lead to the solution Your overall point of view on the problem Body The body includes arguments related to the problem. These arguments are supported by strong evidence and credible sources which give your point of view density so that readers are persuaded relate to your perspective – this is exactly what an exploratory essay is all about. However, discussing different perspectives all the while is highly recommended. When you start to discuss different perspectives, even if they oppose your arguments, you are in a better position to attract the audience’s attention. This way, it becomes easier to skew your audience’s   perspective towards your own and convince them that your argument is a positive one. Conclusion Don’t mix up the conclusion and summary. While the conclusion includes a portion of what you’ve written in the article/essay, it’s merely a paragraph which highlights important parts of your work; for example, the problems and its solutions. It is important to write why you’ve taken a keen personal interest in the topic first and then conclude it with convincing evidence and credible sources, so the reader knows you’ve done your homework. Before Submitting Your Assignment Here are some things you should do first: Proofread: Everyone makes mistakes, you cannot simply write a marvellous essay without making a few blunders. It’s only natural. However, proofreading will effectively eliminate the ‘little blunders’ and make your writing virtually flawless. Preview: Make everything is laid out as it should be: fonts, paragraphs, headings, title, margin, page size, etc. Now you are ready to submit your assignment. We are certain that you’ll receive admiration and highly positive feedback from your professor because every student who has read our guides, has always succeeded in writing a liberal and beautiful essay.

Satisfying all stakeholders when the business is competing in mature Essay - 2

Satisfying all stakeholders when the business is competing in mature product markets is difficult. Discuss - Essay Example Therefore, the management should ensure that the business is making profits all through the year. This is not an easy task especially when a firm is in the mature competition stage. In this stage, all the competitors have established markets. They are all struggling to get an extra market to expand their operational sphere (Neale and Haslam, 1994:120). Since the stakeholders have entrusted the management to deal with the business, they will only require satisfactory results. As such, most of the managers have to develop strategies that will improve on the overall business performance. In many developed countries, many businesses have been in the market for a long time. Therefore, they have firmly established their business links. This leaves a mature competitive market. In such a market, most of the industries fight for a low margin that is not aligned to a certain product. Therefore, they have to be convincing enough to attract such a market. For example, close to 80 percent of the industries in the United States are already in the mature market bracket. Therefore, they have to compete in ensuring they develop a wider market niche. This could be rather indulging as all of them are utilising varying strategies. Impressing stakeholders in a mature competitive environment is a hard task especially when the demand for the product is saturated. This is as a result of too much supply from a large number of manufacturers and industries, thereby making the market saturated. As such, the demand for the products only increases in negligible proportions. In some situations, the demand for products in this market slowly declines, which reflects a similar record in the sales of individual companies. In such an instance, the industry or firm should look for ways of attracting customers from the saturated market, who are already allied to specific products. Therefore, they have to practically convince the market to start using their products and abandon the others from the c ompetitors. This is harder as compared to approaching a new market that does not have any experience in using product of such nature. A mature market has industries and firms that have a considerable financial muscle. Therefore, investing in emergent technologies can add huge value to managing the value chain. As such, companies invest in modern technologies which are used to improve on efficiency in production. Since their production is in large scale, they accrue the benefits of economies of large scale production (Haslam, Neale and Johal, 2000:67). In such a situation, the market is flooded with goods from different industries and firms, which is uncontrollable in liberalised markets. Practically, these businesses reduce overheads in relation to transport, labour and manufacturing when producing and supplying the products in the market on large scale basis. This could lead to high discount rates to consumers thereby reducing the prices of commodities across the entire supply chai n. This could drive some other industries out of the market as the pricing drop could render theirs uncompetitive. Since time immemorial, there has been no generation of specific solutions or formulas that could be used by businesses in a mature competition. As a fact, they have to generate different strategies in ensuring they have a niche market (Ferrell and Hartline, 2010:541). Therefore, this makes it hard for the management to

Toyota Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Toyota - Research Paper Example Toyota also has to adhere to the regulations set up by the respective government rates concerning its fuel policy. The oil industry is an obvious major stakeholder in the company and it has to liaise with it for successful business. The company strives to ensure delivery to consumers as soon as possible. It uses the Just-In-Time system of vehicle production whose aim is to manufacture the vehicles ordered by customers as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Only what has been ordered is manufactured to avoid backlogs and maintain continuity of production. The company makes sure that the spare parts necessary for assembly are already in stock so that when an order is placed, work begins immediately without further delays. The parts used are then ordered and replaced in successive production; stock out are not allowed. Toyota provides excellent after-sales services and has been ranked highest on the basis of dealership service performance assessment. Customers are in a position to gain from an array of services including service initiation, vehicle pick-up, service advisers, quality assurance and facilities. Focusing on customers and interacting personally with them enhances overall customer delights and promotes brand loyalty. As far as quality is concerned, Toyota has put emphasis on quality assurance systems with Total Quality Control activities implemented to ensure quality issues arising are solved as soon as possible and recurrences avoided in advance. During production, defects are checked during each process and strict inspection procedures are carried out to maintain quality end products. There has been a significant increase in demand for vehicles around the world as people become more financially empowered. In an effort to have a market share of this growth Toyota has increased its employees and suppliers. Unfortunately, it seems that it’s

Life of Muhammad Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Life of Muhammad - Essay Example The past scriptures are the most accurate sources of information about the history of the Muslim community. The writings found in the books such as the Quran adequately inform about the history of early Islam and related practices. The Muslim holy book is comprehensive in tracing the events that Muslims went through, the practices they engaged in and their lifestyles (culture) capturing the changes experienced from Mecca to Medina (Deen 126). It is regarded by the Muslims as the true word of God. The fact that it addresses some of the difficulties the Muslim community of that time went through makes it a valuable tool for digging the occurrences that the people experienced. Consequently, Hadith is another essential source of information about the history of Islam. The abundant information about the history of Islam today has been sourced from hadiths. Muslim laws that are still practiced today are based on the writings inscribed in the hadiths. The fact that hadiths were written during the ancient times makes them reliable. They provide factual information about the practices and lives lived by the Muslim community in the early times. For instance, Muhammad himself wrote a hadith about the interpretations he had about the religious life of the Muslims. Significantly, the Muhammad’s biography written to unfold the life of Muhammad both found in the Quran and Ibn Ishaq’s work reveals more deeply the history of Islam. The struggles and challenges Muhammad went through and the works he carried out are well documented in various works. For instance, Ibn Ishaq lived in the ancient times when Muhammad was still alive and his reports are believed to be an accurate reflection of what exactly constituted Prophet Muhammad’s life. The Dome of the Rock has also explored the practices and movements of the Muslim community extensively (Lings 110). There are also secondary sources that attempt to demonstrate the history of Islam. Films such as Life of Muhammad have

The Darknet And The Future Information Technology Essay

The Darknet And The Future Information Technology Essay People have always copied things. In the past, most items of value were physical objects. Patent law and economies of scale meant that small scale copying of physical objects was usually uneconomic, and large-scale copying (if it infringed) was stoppable using policemen and courts. Today, things of value are increasingly less tangible: often they are just bits and bytes or can be accurately represented as bits and bytes. The widespread deployment of packet-switched networks and the huge advances in computers and codec-technologies has made it feasible (and indeed attractive) to deliver such digital works over the Internet. This presents great opportunities and great challenges. The opportunity is low-cost delivery of personalized, desirable high-quality content. The challenge is that such content can be distributed illegally. Copyright law governs the legality of copying and distribution of such valuable data, but copyright protection is increasingly strained in a world of programmab le computers and high-speed networks. The dramatic rise in the efficiency of the darknet can be traced back to the general technological improvements in these infrastructure areas. At the same time, most attempts to fight the darknet can be viewed as efforts to deprive it of one or more of the infrastructure items. Legal action has traditionally targeted search engines and, to a lesser extent, the distribution network. As we will describe later in the paper, this has been partially successful. The drive for legislation on mandatory watermarking aims to deprive the darknet of rendering devices. We will argue that watermarking approaches are technically flawed and unlikely to have any material impact on the darknet. Finally, most content protection systems are meant to prevent or delay the injection of new objects into the darknet. Based on our first assumption, no such system constitutes an impenetrable barrier, and we will discuss the merits of some popular systems. We see no technical impediments to the darknet becoming increasingly efficient (measured by aggregate library size and available bandwidth). However, the darknet, in all its transport-layer embodiments, is under legal attack. In this paper, we speculate on the technical and legal future of the darknet, concentrating particularly, but not exclusively, on peer-to-peer networks. The rest of this paper is structured as follows. Section 2 analyzes different manifestations of the darknet with respect to their robustness to attacks on the infrastructure requirements described above and speculates on the future development of the darknet. Section 3 describes content protection mechanisms, their probable effect on the darknet, and the impact of the darknet upon them. In sections 4 and 5, we speculate on the scenarios in which the darknet will be effective, and how businesses may need to behave to compete effectively with it. 2 The Evolution of the Darknet We classify the different manifestations of the darknet that have come into existence in recent years with respect to the five infrastructure requirements described and analyze weaknesses and points of attack. As a system, the darknet is subject to a variety of attacks. Legal action continues to be the most powerful challenge to the darknet. However, the darknet is also subject to a variety of other common threats (e.g. viruses, spamming) that, in the past, have lead to minor disruptions of the darknet, but could be considerably more damaging. In this section we consider the potential impact of legal developments on the darknet. Most of our analysis focuses on system robustness, rather than on detailed legal questions. We regard legal questions only with respect to their possible effect: the failure of certain nodes or links (vertices and edges of the graph defined above). In this sense, we are investigating a well known problem in distributed systems. 2.1 Early Small-Worlds Networks Prior to the mid 1990s, copying was organized around groups of friends and acquaintances. The copied objects were music on cassette tapes and computer programs. The rendering devices were widely-available tape players and the computers of the time see Fig. 1. Content injection was trivial, since most objects were either not copy protected or, if they were equipped with copy protection mechanisms, the mechanisms were easily defeated. The distribution network was a sneaker net of floppy disks and tapes (storage), which were handed in person between members of a group or were sent by postal mail. The bandwidth of this network albeit small by todays standards was sufficient for the objects of the time. The main limitation of the sneaker net with its mechanical transport layer was latency. It could take days or weeks to obtain a copy of an object. Another serious limitation of these networks was the lack of a sophisticated search engine. There were limited attempts to prosecute individuals who were trying to sell copyrighted objects they had obtained from the darknet (commercial piracy). However, the darknet as a whole was never under significant legal threat. Reasons may have included its limited commercial impact and the protection from legal surveillance afforded by sharing amongst friends. The sizes of object libraries available on such networks are strongly influenced by the interconnections between the networks. For example, schoolchildren may copy content from their family network to their school network and thereby increase the size of the darknet object library available to each. Such networks have been studied extensively and are classified as interconnected small-worlds networks. [24] There are several popular examples of the characteristics of such systems. For example, most people have a social group of a few score of people. Each of these people has a group of friends that partly overlap with their friends friends, and also introduces more people. It is estimated that, on average, each person is connected to every other person in the world by a chain of about six people from which arises the term six degrees of separation. These findings are remarkably broadly applicable (e.g. [20],[3]). The chains are on average so short because certain super-peers have many links. In our example, some people are gregarious and have lots of friends from different social or geographical circles.. We suspect that these findings have implications for sharing on darknets, and we will return to this point when we discuss the darknets of the future later in this paper. The small-worlds darknet continues to exist. However, a number of technological advances have given rise to new forms of the darknet that have superseded the small-worlds for some object types (e.g. audio). 2.2 Central Internet Servers By 1998, a new form of the darknet began to emerge from technological advances in several areas. The internet had become mainstream, and as such its protocols and infrastructure could now be relied upon by anyone seeking to connect users with a centralized service or with each other. The continuing fall in the price of storage together with advances in compression technology had also crossed the threshold at which storing large numbers of audio files was no longer an obstacle to mainstream users. Additionally, the power of computers had crossed the point at which they could be used as rendering devices for multimedia content. Finally, CD ripping became a trivial method for content injection. The first embodiments of this new darknet were central internet servers with large collections of MP3 audio files. A fundamental change that came with these servers was the use of a new distribution network: The internet displaced the sneaker net at least for audio content. This solved several problems of the old darknet. First, latency was reduced drastically. Secondly, and more importantly, discovery of objects became much easier because of simple and powerful search mechanisms most importantly the general-purpose world-wide-web search engine. The local view of the small world was replaced by a global view of the entire collection accessible by all users. The main characteristic of this form of the darknet was centralized storage and search a simple architecture that mirrored mainstream internet servers. Centralized or quasi-centralized distribution and service networks make sense for legal online commerce. Bandwidth and infrastructure costs tend to be low, and having customers visit a commerce site means the merchant can display adverts, collect profiles, and bill efficiently. Additionally, management, auditing, and accountability are much easier in a centralized model. However, centralized schemes work poorly for illegal object distribution because large, central servers are large single points of failure: If the distributor is breaking the law, it is relatively easy to force him to stop. Early MP3 Web and FTP sites were commonly hosted by universities, corporations, and ISPs. Copyright-holders or their representatives sent cease and desist letters to these web-site operators and web-owners citing copyright infringement and in a few cases followed up with legal action [15]. The threats of legal action were successful attacks on those centralized networks, and MP3 web and FTP sites disappeared from the mainstream shortly after they appeared. 2.3 Peer-to-Peer Networks The realization that centralized networks are not robust to attack (be it legal or technical) has spurred much of the innovation in peer-to-peer networking and file sharing technologies. In this section, we examine architectures that have evolved. Early systems were flawed because critical components remained centralized (Napster) or because of inefficiencies and lack of scalability of the protocol (gnutella) [17]. It should be noted that the problem of object location in a massively distributed, rapidly changing, heterogeneous system was new at the time peer-to-peer systems emerged. Efficient and highly scalable protocols have been proposed since then [9],[23]. 2.3.1. Napster Napster was the service that ignited peer-to-peer file sharing in 1999 [14]. There should be little doubt that a major portion of the massive (for the time) traffic on Napster was of copyrighted objects being transferred in a peer-to-peer model in violation of copyright law. Napster succeeded where central servers had failed by relying on the distributed storage of objects not under the control of Napster. This moved the injection, storage, network distribution, and consumption of objects to users. However, Napster retained a centralized database  [1]  with a searchable index on the file name. The centralized database itself became a legal target [15]. Napster was first enjoined to deny certain queries (e.g. Metallica) and then to police its network for all copyrighted content. As the size of the darknet indexed by Napster shrank, so did the number of users. This illustrates a general characteristic of darknets: there is positive feedback between the size of the object library and aggregate bandwidth and the appeal of the network for its users. 2.3.2. Gnutella The next technology that sparked public interest in peer-to-peer file sharing was Gnutella. In addition to distributed object storage, Gnutella uses a fully distributed database described more fully in [13]. Gnutella does not rely upon any centralized server or service a peer just needs the IP address of one or a few participating peers to (in principle) reach any host on the Gnutella darknet. Second, Gnutella is not really run by anyone: it is an open protocol and anyone can write a Gnutella client application. Finally, Gnutella and its descendants go beyond sharing audio and have substantial non-infringing uses. This changes its legal standing markedly and puts it in a similar category to email. That is, email has substantial non-infringing use, and so email itself is not under legal threat even though it may be used to transfer copyrighted material unlawfully. 2.4 Robustness of Fully Distributed Darknets Fully distributed peer-to-peer systems do not present the single points of failure that led to the demise of central MP3 servers and Napster. It is natural to ask how robust these systems are and what form potential attacks could take. We observe the following weaknesses in Gnutella-like systems: Free riding Lack of anonymity 2.4.1 Free Riding Peer-to-peer systems are often thought of as fully decentralized networks with copies of objects uniformly distributed among the hosts. While this is possible in principle, in practice, it is not the case. Recent measurements of libraries shared by gnutella peers indicate that the majority of content is provided by a tiny fraction of the hosts [1]. In effect, although gnutella appears to be a peer-to-peer network of cooperating hosts, in actual fact it has evolved to effectively be another largely centralized system see Fig. 2. Free riding (i.e. downloading objects without sharing them) by many gnutella users appears to be main cause of this development. Widespread free riding removes much of the power of network dynamics and may reduce a peer-to-peer network into a simple unidirectional distribution system from a small number of sources to a large number of destinations. Of course, if this is the case, then the vulnerabilities that we observed in centralized systems (e.g. FTP-serve rs) are present again. Free riding and the emergence of super-peers have several causes: Peer-to-peer file sharing assumes that a significant fraction of users adhere to the somewhat post-capitalist idea of sacrificing their own resources for the common good of the network. Most free-riders do not seem to adopt this idea. For example, with 56 kbps modems still being the network connection for most users, allowing uploads constitutes a tangible bandwidth sacrifice. One approach is to make collaboration mandatory. For example, Freenet [6] clients are required to contribute some disk space. However, enforcing such requirements without a central infrastructure is difficult. Existing infrastructure is another reason for the existence of super-peers. There are vast differences in the resources available to different types of hosts. For example, a T3 connection provides the combined bandwidth of about one thousand 56 kbps telephone connections. 2.4.2 Lack of Anonymity Users of gnutella who share objects they have stored are not anonymous. Current peer-to-peer networks permit the server endpoints to be determined, and if a peer-client can determine the IP address and affiliation of a peer, then so can a lawyer or government agency. This means that users who share copyrighted objects face some threat of legal action. This appears to be yet another explanation for free riding. There are some possible technological workarounds to the absence of endpoint anonymity. We could imagine anonymizing routers, overseas routers, object fragmentation, or some other means to complicate the effort required by law-enforcement to determine the original source of the copyrighted bits. For example, Freenet tries to hide the identity of the hosts storing any given object by means of a variety of heuristics, including routing the object through intermediate hosts and providing mechanisms for easy migration of objects to other hosts. Similarly, Mnemosyne [10] tries to organize object storage, such that individual hosts may not know what objects are stored on them. It is conjectured in [10] that this may amount to common-carrier status for the host. A detailed analysis of the legal or technical robustness of these systems is beyond the scope of this paper. 2.4.3 Attacks In light of these weaknesses, attacks on gnutella-style darknets focus on their object storage and search infrastructures. Because of the prevalence of super-peers, the gnutella darknet depends on a relatively small set of powerful hosts, and these hosts are promising targets for attackers. Darknet hosts owned by corporations are typically easily removed. Often, these hosts are set up by individual employees without the knowledge of corporate management. Generally corporations respect intellectual property laws. This together with their reluctance to become targets of lawsuits, and their centralized network of hierarchical management makes it relatively easy to remove darknet hosts in the corporate domain. While the structures at universities are typically less hierarchical and strict than those of corporations, ultimately, similar rules apply. If the .com and .edu T1 and T3 lines were pulled from under a darknet, the usefulness of the network would suffer drastically. This would leave DSL, ISDN, and cable-modem users as the high-bandwidth servers of objects. We believe limiting hosts to this class would present a far less effective piracy network today from the perspective of acquisition because of the relative rarity of high-bandwidth consumer connections, and hence users would abandon this darknet. However, consumer broadband is becoming more popular, so in the long run it is probable that there will be adequate consumer bandwidth to support an effective consumer darknet. The obvious next legal escalation is to bring direct or indirect (through the affiliation) challenges against users who share large libraries of copyrighted material. This is already happening and the legal threats or actions appear to be successful [7]. This requires the collaboration of ISPs in identifying their customers, which appears to be forthcoming due to requirements that the carrier must take to avoid liability  [2]  and, in some cases, because of corporate ties between ISPs and content providers. Once again, free riding makes this attack strategy far more tractable. It is hard to predict further legal escalation, but we note that the DMCA (digital millennium copyright act) is a far-reaching (although not fully tested) example of a law that is potentially quite powerful. We believe it probable that there will be a few more rounds of technical innovations to sidestep existing laws, followed by new laws, or new interpretations of old laws, in the next few years. 2.4.4 Conclusions All attacks we have identified exploit the lack of endpoint anonymity and are aided by the effects of free riding. We have seen effective legal measures on all peer-to-peer technologies that are used to provide effectively global access to copyrighted material. Centralized web servers were effectively closed down. Napster was effectively closed down. Gnutella and Kazaa are under threat because of free rider weaknesses and lack of endpoint anonymity. Lack of endpoint anonymity is a direct result of the globally accessible global object database, and it is the existence of the global database that most distinguishes the newer darknets from the earlier small worlds. At this point, it is hard to judge whether the darknet will be able to retain this global database in the long term, but it seems seems clear that legal setbacks to global-index peer-to-peer will continue to be severe. However, should Gnutella-style systems become unviable as darknets, systems, such as Freenet or Mnemosyne might take their place. Peer-to-peer networking and file sharing does seem to be entering into the mainstream both for illegal and legal uses. If we couple this with the rapid build-out of consumer broadband, the dropping price of storage, and the fact that personal computers are effectively establishing themselves as centers of home-entertainment, we suspect that peer-to-peer functionality will remain popular and become more widespread. 2.5 Small Worlds Networks Revisited In this section we try to predict the evolution of the darknet should global peer-to-peer networks be effectively stopped by legal means. The globally accessible global database is the only infrastructure component of the darknet that can be disabled in this way. The other enabling technologies of the darknet (injection, distribution networks, rendering devices, storage) will not only remain available, but rapidly increase in power, based on general technological advances and the possible incorporation of cryptography. We stress that the networks described in this section (in most cases) provide poorer services than global network, and would only arise in the absence of a global database. In the absence of a global database, small-worlds networks could again become the prevalent form of the darknet. However, these small-worlds will be more powerful than they were in the past. With the widespread availability of cheap CD and DVD readers and writers as well as large hard disks, the bandwidth of the sneaker net has increased dramatically, the cost of object storage has become negligible and object injection tools have become ubiquitous. Furthermore, the internet is available as a distribution mechanism that is adequate for audio for most users, and is becoming increasingly adequate for video and computer programs. In light of strong cryptography, it is hard to imagine how sharing could be observed and prosecuted as long as users do not share with strangers. In concrete terms, students in dorms will establish darknets to share content in their social group. These darknets may be based on simple file sharing, DVD-copying, or may use special application programs or servers: for example, a chat or instant-messenger client enhanced to share content with members of your buddy-list. Each student will be a member of other darknets: for example, their family, various special interest groups, friends from high-school, and colleagues in part-time jobs (Fig. 3). If there are a few active super-peers users that locate and share objects with zeal then we can anticipate that content will rapidly diffuse between darknets, and relatively small darknets arranged around social groups will approach the aggregate libraries that are provided by the global darknets of today. Since the legal exposure of such sharing is quite limited, we believe that sharing amongst socially oriented groups will increase unabated. Small-worlds networks suffer somewhat from the lack of a global database; each user can only see the objects stored by his small world neighbors. This raises a number of interesting questions about the network structure and object flow: What graph structure will the network have? For example, will it be connected? What will be the average distance between two nodes? Given a graph structure, how will objects propagate through the graph? In particular, what fraction of objects will be available at a given node? How long does it take for objects to propagate (diffuse) through the network? Questions of this type have been studied in different contexts in a variety of fields (mathematics, computer science, economics, and physics). A number of empirical studies seek to establish structural properties of different types of small world networks, such as social networks [20] and the world-wide web [3]. These works conclude that the diameter of the examined networks is small, and observe further structural properties, such as a power law of the degree distribution [5], A number of authors seek to model these networks by means of random graphs, in order to perform more detailed mathematical analysis on the models [2],[8],[21],[22] and, in particular, study the possibility of efficient search under different random graph distributions [18],[19]. We will present a quantitative study of the structure and dynamics of small-worlds networks in an upcoming paper, but to summarize, small-worlds darknets can be extremely efficient for popular titles: very few peers are needed to satis fy requests for top-20 books, songs, movies or computer programs. If darknets are interconnected, we expect the effective introduction rate to be large. Finally, if darknet clients are enhanced to actively seek out new popular content, as opposed to the user-demand based schemes of today, small-worlds darknets will be very efficient. 3 Introducing Content into the Darknet Our analysis and intuition have led us to believe that efficient darknets in global or small-worlds form will remain a fact of life. In this section we examine rights-management technologies that are being deployed to limit the introduction rate or decrease the rate of diffusion of content into the darknet. 3.1 Conditional Access Systems A conditional-access system is a simple form of rights-management system in which subscribers are given access to objects based (typically) on a service contract. Digital rights management systems often perform the same function, but typically impose restrictions on the use of objects after unlocking. Conditional access systems such as cable, satellite TV, and satellite radio offer little or no protection against objects being introduced into the darknet from subscribing hosts. A conditional-access system customer has no access to channels or titles to which they are not entitled, and has essentially free use of channels that he has subscribed or paid for. This means that an investment of ~$100 (at time of writing) on an analog video-capture card is sufficient to obtain and share TV programs and movies. Some CA systems provide post-unlock protections but they are generally cheap and easy to circumvent. Thus, conditional access systems provide a widely deployed, high-bandwidth source of video material for the darknet. In practice, the large size and low cost of CA-provided video content will limit the exploitation of the darknet for distributing video in the near-term. The same can not be said of the use of the darknet to distribute conditional-access system broadcast keys. At some level, each head-end (satellite or cable TV head-end) uses an encryption key that must be made available to each customer (it is a broadcast), and in the case of a satellite system this could be millions of homes. CA-system providers take measures to limit the usefulness of exploited session keys (for example, they are changed every few seconds), but if darknet latencies are low, or if encrypted broadcast data is cached, then the darknet could threaten CA-system revenues. We observe that the exposure of the conditional access provider to losses due to piracy is proportional to the number of customers that share a session key. In this regard, cable-operators are in a safer position than satellite operators because a cable operator can narrowcast more cheaply. 3.2 DRM Systems A classical-DRM system is one in which a client obtains content in protected (typically encrypted) form, with a license that specifies the uses to which the content may be put. Examples of licensing terms that are being explored by the industry are play on these three hosts, play once, use computer program for one hour, etc. The license and the wrapped content are presented to the DRM system whose responsibility is to ensure that: The client cannot remove the encryption from the file and send it to a peer, The client cannot clone its DRM system to make it run on another host, The client obeys the rules set out in the DRM license, and, The client cannot separate the rules from the payload. Advanced DRM systems may go further. Some such technologies have been commercially very successful the content scrambling system used in DVDs, and (broadly interpreted) the protection schemes used by conditional access system providers fall into this category, as do newer DRM systems that use the internet as a distribution channel and computers as rendering devices. These technologies are appealing because they promote the establishment of new businesses, and can reduce distribution costs. If costs and licensing terms are appealing to producers and consumers, then the vendor thrives. If the licensing terms are unappealing or inconvenient, the costs are too high, or competing systems exist, then the business will fail. The DivX DVD rental model failed on most or all of these metrics, but CSS-protected DVDs succeeded beyond the wildest expectations of the industry. On personal computers, current DRM systems are software-only systems using a variety of tricks to make them hard to subvert. DRM enabled consumer electronics devices are also beginning to emerge. In the absence of the darknet, the goal of such systems is to have comparable security to competing distribution systems notably the CD and DVD so that programmable computers can play an increasing role in home entertainment. We will speculate whether these strategies will be successful in the Sect. 5. DRM systems strive to be BOBE (break-once, break everywhere)-resistant. That is, suppliers anticipate (and the assumptions of the darknet predict) that individual instances (clients) of all security-systems, whether based on hardware or software, will be subverted. If a client of a system is subverted, then all content protected by that DRM client can be unprotected. If the break can be applied to any other DRM client of that class so that all of those users can break their systems, then the DRM-scheme is BOBE-weak. If, on the other hand, knowledge gained breaking one client cannot be applied elsewhere, then the DRM system is BOBE-strong. Most commercial DRM-systems have BOBE-exploits, and we note that the darknet applies to DRM-hacks as well. The CSS system is an exemplary BOBE-weak system. The knowledge and code that comprised the De-CSS exploit spread uncontrolled around the world on web-sites, newsgroups, and even T-shirts, in spite of the fact that, in principle, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act makes it a crime to develop these exploits. A final characteristic of existing DRM-systems is renewability. Vendors recognize the possibility of exploits, and build systems that can be field-updated. It is hard to quantify the effectiveness of DRM-systems for restricting the introduction of content into the darknet from experience with existing systems. Existing DRM-systems typically provide protection for months to years; however, the content available to such systems has to date been of minimal interest, and the content that is protected is also available in unprotected form. The one system that was protecting valuable content (DVD video) was broken very soon after compression technology and increased storage capacities and bandwidth enabled the darknet to carry video content. 3.3 Software The DRM-systems described above can be used to provide protection for software, in addition other objects (e.g. audio and video). Alternatively, copy protection systems for computer programs may embed the copy protection code in the software itself. The most important copy-protection primitive for computer programs is for the software to be bound to a host in such a way that the program will not work on an unlicensed machine. Binding requires a machine ID: this can be a unique number on a machine (e.g. a network card MAC address), or can be provided by an external dongle. For such schemes to be strong, two things must be true. First, the machine ID must not be virtualizable. For instance, if it is trivial to modify a NIC driver to return an invalid MAC address, then the software-host binding is easily broken. Second, the code that performs the binding checks must not be easy to patch. A variety of technologies that revolve around software tamper-re

Gender Roles in Ancient Greek Society Essay -- Greek Gender Roles

Gender Roles in Ancient Greek Society Throughout history, the roles of women and men have always differed to some degree. In ancient Greece, the traditional roles were clear-cut and defined. Women stayed home to care for children and do housework while men left to work. This system of society was not too far off the hunter gatherer concept where women cared for the house and the men hunted. Intriguingly enough, despite the customary submissive role, women had a more multifaceted role and image in society as juxtaposed with the rather simple role men played. Morals for the two were also different. Men obviously had the upper hand with women being the traditional passive. For an example, it was quite acceptable for a man to commit adultery- however a woman was to remain chaste. The only exception to this was if the lover in question was a god. For some odd reason, it seemed that men were allowed to be philanderers while their wives stayed at home. This is evidenced in the Odyssey quite well- Odysseus the ?hero? is free to sample all the pretty ladies he cares to, whereareas Penelope his wife is expected to fend off all the suitors at home. Predictably, Penelope melts into his arms when she realizes it is her long lost husband without pausing to consider what he has done in his absence. This reaction portrays the unequal morals of Greek society regarding gender. Euripides?s Medea portrays women who are not quite as lucky as Penelope: ?Oh, unfortunate one, Oh cruel! Where will you turn? Who will help you? What house or what land to preserve you from ill can you find? Medea, a god has thrown suffering upon you in waves of despair.? In this play, Medea?s husband Jason has left her and their children to fend fo... ...ing his daughter is excusable. Men and women lived in completely dissimilar spheres, until the time of marriage. Even after marriage, they still retained strong ties to their own spheres by Achilles and Patrocleus. This is aspect of young life is depicted by Sappho in her poems. Apparently alternative lifestyles were commonly accepted in youth and continued throughout adulthood. This passive encouragement of homosexuality further strengthened ties between the separate genders and emphasizing the differences. Human society does not really change. The roles each gender plays in society has not changed drastically since the time of the ancient Greeks, and this goes to suggest that these roles are deeply rooted and possibly genetic. However chauvinistic Greek myths are telling the truth, which explains why they have influenced modern culture to the extent it has.

History of political parties in the United States Essay

For many years, there have been two major political parties in the United States. Today’s American political parties, Democratic Party and the Republican Party developed from the federal and anti federal parties. However, although no other major political parties have developed, the constitution of the United States does not restrict creation of more parties. The reason for dominance of the United States politics by the democrats and the republicans has been due to the belief among the Americans that their candidate will win only if they are from a major political party. The founding fathers of the United States of America had a negative view of political parties. They were influenced by classical republicans who argued that political parties would promote factional interests and misconduct of public officials. However, the Jeffersonian and Hamiltonians later emerged which was followed by the federalists and anti federalists which led to the formation of a federal government towards the end of 18th century. As the political leaders tried to address issues related to economical and social interest of different regions, they mobilized support from different regions to secure political influence during the election. The federalist focused on the interest of the elites in New England and states in Middle Atlantic. They advocated for a more vigilant government that will secure and give room for their economic development. The Republicans, who were anti federalist, on the other hand promoted social pluralism and supported commercial policies that promoted an economy dominated by agriculture (Boyer, Para 1). Although the fight between the Federalist Party and the Republican Party was severe, the activities of political parties in the early 19th century were limited and the voters’ turnout was low. Parties did not develop extensive systems to promote their interest while voters were less committed to their parties. In 1815, the Federalist Party collapsed while the Republican Party split into different factions. In 1820, political parties reappeared with more struggles and battle for authority and influence in the central government. By mid 19th century, a need for an organized electorate and election process had evolved. The Republicans and the Federalists evolved into the Democrats and the Whigs respectively. A Democratic President, Andrew Jackson, was elected in 1828 who favored a limited government. He was opposed by the Whigs who supported an economically oriented government. During the same time, the political parties were greatly influenced by religion. Political parties used campaigns extravaganza and newspaper to spread their ideologies and gather support among the voters while the voters increased their loyalty to the parties and large number were involved in elections. The authorities of the political parties increased. The presence of Electoral College in the constitution restricted the number of major political parties while parties limited the number of candidates at the local level (Aldrich, p 126). War between political parties became unusually intense after the civil war. The fight was between two parties in an election that was considered the best structured and most partisan in the history of the United States. With the increased industrialization, the federal economic policies were supported by the economic elites which called for the Republican to strengthen their pro commercial positions. On the other hand, the Democrats had support from the agricultural states in the south and among the town immigrant laborers who had run away from the Republicans’ hostility. However, the Democrats did not win all support from the agricultural states and the laborers while the Republicans were favored by partisan loyalty, war memories and hostility of ethnic groups. The less economically empowered workers and farmers in the west did not give room for the developing third parties in the populist era and the gilded age. These parties included the Greenback labor in the gilded age and the Populist Party in the populist era. In the mid 1890s election campaigns, the Democrats led by Bryan attracted these small factions in a bid to beat the Republicans in the 1896 general election. However, this strategy did not work as they were beaten by the Republicans led by McKinley. This election transformed the politics of the United States and the Republicans dominated the American politics for a long time (Payan, pg 23). The progressive era also saw some changes in the political parties. More and more economic elites started gaining interests in politics and political parties. Businessmen combined efforts with political reformers to strengthen the remaining anti-party opinions among the Americans and completely changed political culture in the United States. Using their anti partisan ideologies, they pushed for politics which are unselfish and corruption free. They pushed for legislations that limited the parties control over nominations and election processes. This was a big blow for the political parties since this was their major source of funds to fund their activities and this limited the operations of political parties. This move had far reaching consequences on political parties (Boyer, Para 8). In 1930s, major reshuffling of ideologies affected political parties. Among the Democrats, a group of urban politicians rose to seek federal welfare policies which were a major blow to their dedication to limited government. The great depression also led to alignment of the electoral systems which had a negative impact on Republican Party. Led by Roosevelt and his New Deal promise to the Americans, the Democrats took the advantage of the situation by expanding the role of the central government and promised the Americans prosperity socially and economically. However, they received some resistance from the south who opposed the liberal democrats’ idea about civil right although many republican loyal African American defected to support the New Deal. For survival, some of Republican politicians adopted democrats’ ideas as the Republican Party lost popularity among the voters. However, they were able to revive their political influence during the reign of President Eisenhower in mid 20th century. In 1960s, Democrats rose to power and with the backup from some liberal Republicans; they promoted their social policies including civil rights of minority groups (Schlesinger, p 177). Some political alignment took place in 1960s where several republicans defected and joined the democrats while many white Americans in the south defected and became republicans. The effects of progressive era event become increasingly evident and political parties were becoming less influential in the election process. The advent of television as a means of passing political ideologies also transformed political parties. The identification of voter with political parties and loyalty weakened as voters became less settled. Voter reacted to every day’s political crisis and supported a more charismatic politician as opposed to pegging on party loyalty (Boyer, Para 10). The alleged abuse of office and powers by the politicians, such as in the Vietnam War and the involvement of White House officials in the Watergate scandal which accompanied defections from political parties destabilized the electoral systems. The antigovernment disposition of the public favored the republican in the 1980s which led to election of the conservative President, Reagan. The Democrats were accused of poor policies that led to inflations and riots over civil rights. Reagan administration weakened the Democrats’ policies which increased the polarity between the two parties in terms of ideologies. In 1994, the Republican reacted against the incumbent democrats and controlled the congress for the first time in four decades. However, their gains were limited since the democrats dominated the presidency in 1990s. Towards the end of the 20th century and beginning of 21st century, the role of political parties deteriorated where voters shifted parties depending on the candidate (Boyer, Para 10). Today, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party controls the politics of the United States. However, the party loyalty has completely faded in many parts of the country where voters supporting a candidate and not the political party. People have had different views about the future of political parties. Some people suggest that the current political parties will not survive for the next generation while other opposes that view. Others have suggested some conservatives may break away from the current parties and form a third major party. Conclusion Political parties have played an eminent role in the politics of the United States for many years. They unite people with same political principles and have always been used as channels of change. However, the American politics have been dominated by two parties all way long. Many changes have however affected the political parties. The power of influence of political parties reduced significantly in the 20th century where voters became less loyal to their parties.

Dells Value Chain Essays

Dells Value Chain Essays Dells Value Chain Paper Dells Value Chain Paper Dell’s Value Chain 1. How has Dell used its direct sales and build-to-order model to develop an exceptional supply chain? Dell has used its direct sales and build-to-order model to develop an exceptional supply chain by taking customer feedback very seriously. Dell uses the feedback to further evaluate and when necessary, implement change to improve their supply chain. The company maintains close-knit relationships with customers, and maintains very close, professional relations with their suppliers. Dell collects a larger amount of customer information than is the industry norm. This also works to the companys advantage. The close-knit relationships with customers that Dell maintains allow the company to determine what products must be supplied, and how quickly they must be supplied. By doing so, Dell is able to maintain a continuously low level of inventory, while ensuring that customer demand is adequately satisfied. Dell also has used a different approach than the norm in their supply chain management. Dells strategy is to integrate every single process, from the very beginning, to the very end, without any other interference. Through strategic planning, Dell discovers exactly what it is that customers want. With the information, further research and development is implemented by the company. The company then begins strategically marketing the highest target groups for their products, before product release. Information is then automatically released to suppliers, who can in-turn develop demand projections for the marketed Dell products. This entire system is accomplished in a relatively short span of time, which adds to the exceptional supply chain in force at Dell. 2. How has Dell exploited the direct sales model to improve operations performance? The main way that Dell has exploited the direct sales model to improve operations performance is by establishing an e-commerce model accomplished directly through the Internet. By utilizing the e-commerce model, it allows Dell to bring their products directly to the consumer in a very short time span. Consumers can order their products directly from Dells website, with delivery expected in a matter of a few days. Furthermore, customers can hand-design their own Dell computer system with a handful of mouse clicks. By making this possible to the consumer, the consumer gets exactly the product that they want, designed and loaded with the exact requirements specific to each individual consumer. This allows Dell to maintain very low levels of inventory. The e-commerce model allows Dell to attract thousands of businesses, which encourages bulk ordering of Dells products. Through the e-commerce strategy, Dell also has customized supplier information. Dells suppliers can log-on to view immediate information regarding the current and waiting orders that Dell has, which allows the suppliers to know the exact supply needs of the company, at any given moment. 3. What are the main disadvantages of Dells direct sales model? The main disadvantage of Dells direct sales model is the high cost of shipping Dell products. The computers are shipped directly from the Dell factories, to consumers and businesses worldwide. Because no intermediary is used, the company cannot take advantage of any form of economies of scale, by shipping quantities of products to various destinations. Another main disadvantage is that because Dell handles the transaction from the very beginning to the very end with no other direct company involvement, Dell must also handle all aspects of the transaction, including providing all customer support from beginning to end. Dell must assume all costs that would normally be handled by a retailer or other intermediary, who ships bulk orders to stores for retail. Due to these reasons, Dell experiences an advantage in increased sales from the e-commerce model, but is at a disadvantage by having to bear the full amount of all support related expenses. 4. How does Dell compete with a retailer who already has a stock? Dell competes with a retailer who already has a stock by higher profit margins. The greatest advantage Dell experiences are the direct elimination of all retail and distribution costs for their products. Because Dell does not have to operate multiple locations, warehouses, etc, they can offer their products at lower prices, which attract even more consumers. Dell does not have the same high fixed expenses that their competitors have, who operate multiple factory locations. Dell also competes with retailers who already have a stock by doing just the opposite not carrying a stock. When a consumer wants a particular model of computer, the retailer must have the item in stock. When a customer shops at Dell, the customer designs exactly what they want. A customer can design a very basic, bare-bones model, or a model that includes almost limitless options. The computer is then built in a matter of hours. The customer has his or her own, custom-designed system in a matter of a few days. There is no waiting for out-of-stock products, and Dell holds minimal inventory by utilizing such a well-designed system. 5. How does Dells supply chain deal with the bullwhip effect? The Bullwhip Effect in itself is a situation whereby the variation in orders is heightened as it gradually moves up the supply chain through a specific process. The process moves from consumer to distribution, and then moves to suppliers. To deal with the Bullwhip Effect, Dell is open with sharing knowledge with their suppliers. They hold long-term, intimate relationships with their suppliers, who in-turn can cater to the very specific needs of Dell. Dell also deals with the Bullwhip Effect by keeping constant, vigil watch on demand for their products. Carefully planned management is vital in Dell figuring out the exact demand at any given moment. Dell has accomplished this by constructing web pages for their suppliers to log on to, to give the supplier immediate knowledge regarding current demand (orders). The suppliers then immediately know what the demand is for the components that they supply to Dell for their systems. Suppliers can also see from the web pages how much stock Dell has on-hand of the supplied components at any given moment, giving the suppliers an advantage so as to know what immediate steps need to be taken based on current demand levels. By using such a real-time process, there is no build-up, nor any stagnation of supplies or components, from Dell suppliers. Dells use of this system has virtually eliminated the Bullwhip Effect.