ECE420 Journal Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

ECE420 Journal Report - Essay Example It is important to use simple functions and basic algebra to achieve this goal. The curriculum also reveals that it is important to intertwine mathematical concept with real life situations. This will act as an eye opener for the children into the actual applicability of mathematics in the tangible real world (Aiken, 2009). A good example is creating a real life simulation, for example, a pharmacy. The unit also taught me that an effective teacher is one who appeals to each student individually. In essence, an effective teacher has to relate to each student on a personal level and in the process empower the child. This interaction will enable the teacher to pinpoint weaknesses relative to each child and formulate a mechanism to deal with these weaknesses at an early stage. The teacher should also engage the students in setting up class activities. These activities are primarily aimed at teaching students while at the same time keeping them entertained and excited, in the process streamlining early childhood development with the child’s development process (Aiken,

Draft of Song of Solomon Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Draft of Song of Solomon - Essay Example It is about enslavement and the people who tried to escape slavery and try to find their roots back in Africa. In this book the protagonist is Milkman, a young man brought up in a wealthy family but with parents who do not love each other anymore. This is shown when Milkman’s father hits Ruth. Milkman complains to his friend guitar that certain things are making him angry and getting to him. He says, â€Å"I don’t know, guitar. Things seem to be getting to me, you know?†(Morrison, 152).Macon loves money and he loves property. His money has made him oblivious to other people’s problems. He wants his son to be just like him and surely Milkman behaves just like his father. He’s wealthy background makes him oblivious of the black oppression. Furthermore, he has money to spend on women thus treats them with little disregard. This paper is going to discuss how Milkman overcame this lifestyle to become a fully transformed man. Milkman is flawed and this is enhanced by the amount of money his father has. As a matter of fact it is the wealthy background that gives milkman his attitude. Just like his father, milkman is obsessed with money and tends to reason like a white man.Milkman believes in the power of money to gain him freedom and power in life. This is because he uses money to get the things he needs like buying alcohol, women and having a good time, thus he only believes I the power of money. In line with this thinking, he becomes a rude, mean and a dangerous person. His dangerous personality is witnessed when he hits his father for hitting his mother. We see him complain to his friend Guitar ,â€Å"Your daddy slapped your mama, right?†, â€Å"Right.Right.† (Morrison,152).However, he is not dangerous in a bad way like in being violent and murderous. He is just a man who likes to have control of situations and want things to happen his way. Milkman is also a womanizer a trait he enjoyed with guitar his poor friend. He has money and money buys him

Oral Contraceptive Use and the Risk of Meningioma

Oral Contraceptive Use and the Risk of Meningioma Abstract: Oral contraceptive use is a suspected risk factor for the development of a meningioma. This is supported by meningiomas being more common in females than males, the growth of meningiomas being affected by the menstrual cycle and the presence of estrogen, progestogen and androgen receptors on meningiomas. Some previous studies indicate an association between current use of oral contraceptives and the development of a meningioma, but most studies do not show an effect and are of low power to show an association. This case-control study aims to find out if there is an association between current or ever use of an oral contraceptive and developing a meningioma in pre-menopausal females. It also aims to look if this risk differs with hormone type. It does so by comparing cases in the three states of Eastern Australia of women aged between 16 and 45 who require surgical resection or biopsy of their meningioma with population-based controls. Aims: To prove that the use of an oral contraceptive pill is a risk factor for developing a meningioma in pre-menopausal women in Australia. To determine whether the risk of a meningioma that is associated with taking oral contraceptives differs by current use, ever use and type of oral contraceptive. Background: Current oral contraceptive use is suspected to increase the risk of meningioma, but more studies need to be done in order to confirm this association. (1) The most recent study found no increase in risk with ever use of oral contraceptives, but found an increased risk in current users of an oral contraceptive with an OR 1.8, 95% CI 1.1–2.9 in pre-menopausal women. (1) This result is statistically significant at the 5% level. The study was a case-control study which is appropriate as the outcome is rare and the exposure is common. The results from this study are limited from the fact that they only had 87 cases for pre-menopausal women who were using oral contraceptives, but since such a small sample size did pick up an association it makes it more likely to be a true association. This study had a wide variety of exposures they were looking for and so the statistically significant results that they did publish may have been due to chance from looking at so many possibilities. In regards to selection bias in this study the controls were selected by random digit dialling so this would have resulted in people who do not have access to a telephone from being excluded from the study. Controls did end up being more likely to be white, have 16 or more years of schooling and a salary greater than $75,000. If people with these characteristics are more likely to be taking oral contraceptives then it would have resu lted in an underestimation of risk, but this was minimised through adjustment in the analysis. Also only 65% of patients and 52% of controls participated in the studyso if the ones who participated were more or less likely to have taken an oral contraceptive it would have an effect on the relative risk. They did compare the people who participated and those who did not with the known confounders of age and residence and only the control groups differed by age with those who participated being more likely to be old. If the older people were more likely to be taking oral contraceptives it may have affected the results, but this was adjusted for in the analysis to minimise the effect. There is no mention of whether the researchers who administered the interview were blinded so if they were expecting an increased association between oral contraceptives and meningiomas they may have been more likely to find one. In terms of the generalizability of the results it was a multi-centerstudy a nd could be generalizable to the rest of the population in the United States. If different countries had different incidences of certain receptor subtypes of meningiomas then the relative risk may be affected so care should be taken in generalizing the results out of the country. The results cannot be generalised to the less serious meningiomas which do not need surgery as this study did not include them. Another study by Michaud D.S.et al.(2010) found an OR 3.61, 95% CI 1.75–7.46 comparing current users of the oral contraceptive to never users. (2) This was in a large prospective cohort study called the EPIC cohort study. One flaw in this study was the possibility of diagnostic bias if the users of oral contraceptives were more likely to be investigated and diagnosed with a meningioma which would have increased the association. A strength of this study is the objective measuring of exposure status. They also identified a dose-response trend in pre-menopausal women using an oral contraceptive (HR [95% CI]: 1.21 [0.36-4.06], 1.55 [0.53-4.56], 2.97 [1.08-8.15], 3.22 [1.04-10.0], 3.60 [1.00-13.0] for 1 5-10-15 years of use, respectively, p-trend = 0.01). (2) There have been a few other studies, but none have found a statistically significant risk. (3,4,5) These case-control and cohort studies all have a relatively small number of cases and therefore low power to pick up a true ass ociation. In the case-control trials recall bias is difficult to rule out as well as selecting a suitable population that resembles the cases. Furthermore only one of these looked for an association in those on current oral contraceptive use. This calls for a larger study with more power which can pick up an association even if it is quite small. There are a few findings that point towards a possible association between meningiomas and certain hormones. One of these is the fact that meningiomas are more common in females than males, especially in their reproductive years. (6) Another study has found oestrogen, progestogen and androgen receptors associated with some meningiomas. (7) An older study as well as a more recent case reports indicated that meningiomas become more symptomatic with changes in the menstrual cycle and during pregnancy. (8,9) These all point towards a possible association between estrogen or progestogen and meningiomas therefore it is an important area to research in order to expand knowledge on this common type of brain tumor. Study Design: The type of study design required to answer the aims is a case-control study. As developing a meningioma is a rare outcome, especially in the age group this study is based in, and the exposure of current use of an oral contraceptive is common this makes a case-control study the most efficient way to study this association. Compared to a cohort study they are rapid and cost-effective as cohort studiesrequirea very large population and a long follow-up period to have enough power to detect an association. A randomised control trial would be more likely to have the results not affected by confounding, but the study would be unethical. This study must be based overseas in order to increase the number of cases per year. All Australian states and territories have mandatory reporting of all cancers which will allowthe identification of cases. (10) The incidence of meningioma in Australia is approximately 1.1 to 1.8 cases per 100,000 person years with a 2.6:1 female to male ratio. (6) For this reason and the fact that the incidence is less frequent in a younger population it requires a multi-centre approach and an extended study period are needed in order to have a sufficient number of cases. The source population will beall females between the ages of 16 and 45 in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland and cases will be drawn from the cancer registry as they become available. The control group will be population-based and selected from the census. In order to determine the sample size needed for this study the biostatistician will be informed that the study needs to have a large enough power to pick up a 10% increas ed risk. The result should be statistically significant at 5%. The biostatistician needs to know the expected incidence of the meningiomas in these territories and the proportion of people expected to be using the two types of oral contraceptives. This can be found through state-specific trends or may use the mean and standard deviation from previous years’ data. The number of cases this study requires will determine how long the study will run for. In order to minimise selection bias the criteria for each of the groups needs to be strictly defined. The case criteria is a meningioma of grade I, II or III according to histological diagnosis by a pathologist. The exposure of current use of an oral contraceptive is defined as taking any oral contraceptive for at least 3 months previous to the diagnosis or in the case of controls 3 months before entry into the study. The exposure status of ever use of an oral contraceptive is defined as if the participant ever taking a single oral contraceptive pill. The population from which the cases arise from are all women between the ages of 16 and 45 in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. People will be excluded from the study if they do not speak English, if they have had a previous meningioma, if they have had a brain tumor of unknown pathology, if they have a diagnosed mental health condition, if they have had breast cancer and if they are from a different state or out of the country. Controls will be selected randomly and matched in terms of age, ethnicity, area of residence and socioeconomic status which are all factors that could potentially confound the relationship due to affecting the exposure and the outcome, but not being on the causal pathway between the two. A total of 4 controls will be obtained per case due to the abundance of controls and the relatively small effect of adding any more controls. The cases and controls will be contacted for participation in the study through mail and if they accept to be in the study a survey will be sent that includes questions related to the confounding factors and the exposure including questions for those who have ever used an oral contraceptive for what duration and which type of oral contraceptive. Information about other possible confounding factors such as smoking status and alcohol use will also be collected. In order to make it more likely that the study participants are representative of the population the variables that are matched for in each group and the rates of smoking and alcohol use will be compared to the rates in the whole population. These variables will also be compared to those people who dropped out of the study when possible to aid in identifying a systematic difference between those who participated and those who did not. To give an improved chance of patient participation a second survey will be sent to the patient s if they do not respond within 2 weeks. If the participants are interviewed then the interviewer will have a priori knowledge of the group the participant is associated with and might bias the results towards a significant result. In order to minimise information bias the cases and controls should be blinded in regards to the aim of the study. To aid in achieving this, the survey sent out to the participants will include questions in regards to other medicines and lifestyle factors such as smoking and drinking. This will prevent the study participants from falsifying their exposure status to agree with what the study is trying to find out and hence would falsely increase the negative risk. One of the largest problems in case control studies is recall bias. To help minimise it a pamphlet with the type of oral contraceptives and what they look like will be included. Everyone in the study gets the same survey and the diagnostic criteria for meningioma are the same in all centres in Australia so information bias from this is unlikely. There also needs to be timely addition of the cases into the cancer registry, otherwise the study will mainly look at the meningioma cases with longer survival. If oral contraceptive s are more likely to cause a meningioma with a worse prognosis then the risk will be lower than it actually is. The results from the study will be presented as: The odds ratio reported would be after analysis to take into account that the cases each had 4 individually matched controls. The adjusted OR takes into account that smoking status and alcohol use may be confounders. This study is ethically sound. It is observational so there is no intervention for the patient. It is also optional and provides no advantage or disadvantage for those participating. Confidentiality will be maintained as only study researchers will have access to the data and none of the data reported in the study will be able to be linked to a specific patient. The study is feasible, but depends on the sample size that is required. In terms of cost there are no biological tests that need to be performed as all information required is obtained through a survey. The cost of mailing out the surveys and paying staff to collect the information and analyse the data must be considered and budgeted accordingly. One of the advantages of case control studies is looking at multiple exposures hence including other exposures that are of interestcould increase the value of the study and make it more cost-efficient. Implications: There are many benefits to this study. As oral contraceptives are already known to increase the risk of other cancers like breast and cervical cancer, if a causal relationship is found with meningioma, this is another cancer risk that patients must be informed before taking the oral contraceptive. (11) When oral contraceptives will be linked to meningioma, prescribing patterns for those patients who are already at an increased risk for example if they had previous radiation exposure must change. Also patients who have had a previous diagnosis of meningioma would need to strongly consider avoiding taking any oral contraception. These patients would need to find alternate treatment or alternate methods of contraception. If there is an association in the combined oral contraceptive and not the progestogen oral contraceptive this can be recommended to those at risk of developing a meningioma. Another use for determining if there is an associated risk would be through finding treatments o r cures for meningiomas. If estrogen or progestogenis found to be related to the development of meningiomas further studies could find a pathway that causes this increased risk and treatments focused on disrupting this pathway may be effective. References: Claus EB, Calvocoressi L, Bondy ML, Wrensch M, Wiemels JL, Schildkraut JM. Exogenous hormone use, reproductive factors, and risk of intracranial meningioma in females. Journal of neurosurgery. 2013;118(3):649-56. Michaud DS, Gallo V, Schlehofer B, Tjonneland A, Olsen A, Overvad K, et al. Reproductive factors and exogenous hormone use in relation to risk of glioma and meningioma in a large European cohort study. Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology. 2010;19(10):2562-9. Benson VS, Pirie K, Green J, Casabonne D, Beral V. Lifestyle factors and primary glioma and meningioma tumours in the Million Women Study cohort. Br J Cancer. 2008;99:185–190 Hatch EE, Linet MS, Zhang J, Fine HA, Shapiro WR, Selker RG, et al. Reproductive and hormonal factors and risk of brain tumors in adult females. Int J Cancer. 2005;114:797–805 Johnson DR, Olson JE, Vierkant RA, Hammack JE, Wang AH, Folsom AR, et al. Risk factors for meningioma in postmenopausal women: results from the Iowa Women’s Health Study. NeuroOncol. 2011;13:1011–1019 Dobes M, Khurana VG, Shadbolt B, Jain S, Smith SF, Smee R, et al. Increasing incidence of glioblastomamultiforme and meningioma, and decreasing incidence of Schwannoma (2000-2008): Findings of a multicenter Australian study. Surgical neurology international. 2011;2:176 Schnegg JF, Gomez F, LeMarchand-Beraud T, de Tribolet N. Presence of sex steroid hormone receptors in meningioma tissue. Surgical neurology. 1981;15(6):415-8. Bickerstaff ER, Small JM, Guest IA. The relapsing course of certain meningiomas in relation to pregnancy and menstruation. J NeurolNeurosurg Psychiatry. Cushing H, Eisenhardt L: Meningiomas: Their Classification, Regional Behavior, Life History, and Surgical End Results. Springfield, Ill: Charles C Thomas, 1938, 785 pp Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2013) Cancer Registration in Australia, Available at: http://www.aihw.gov.au/cancer-registration-in-australia/ (Accessed: 6th April 2014). Burkman R, Schlesselman JJ, Zieman M. Safety concerns and health benefits associated with oral contraception. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 2004; 190(4 Suppl):S5–22.

Contemporary Music and the Effects It Has on Youth Essay -- Essays Pap

Contemporary Music and the Effects It Has on Youth In a book written on Abraham Lincoln, the author states, "Who writes the Nation’s songs shapes the nation’s souls." (1) This statement is true. A quick look back at the music of the 1960's and 70's and the effects it had on society proves the statement. The question then arises, how does contemporary music effect modern society? More importantly how does it effect the most easily influenced group, the youth? There is no doubt that much of the popular music in 90’s culture has a negative message. The rise of rap, especially gangster rap and the continual popularity of heavy metal are major contributors to the negative message. The message in turn has a very negative effect on children. The language and actions described in this music gives kids a false perception of what the world is truly like. It also portrays to them that the actions are socially acceptable or good. Youths of the present have a much more difficult path to adulthood then the youth of the past. On a regular basis they are subjected to violence, drugs, and sex. Often times they are faced with making a decision for or against one of these vices. The majority of children will do what they think people they look up to will do. Often times the people they look up to are celebrities in music who send out a negative message. These celebrities often glorify sexism, violence, and drug use. 2-Live Crew was one of the first controversial rap groups to integrate itself into the public eye. Their lyrics, which are tame by today’sstandards, are sexually explicit and objectify women. "Their lyrics not only fail to satirize the myth of the hypersexual black, they also commit the moral blunder of sexualizing the vi... ... End Notes and Bibliography 1.)U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Governmental Affairs. Subcommitte on Oversight of Governmental Management, Restructuring, and the District of Columbia. Music Violence: How Does it Affect Our Children. 105th Congress, 1st Session, 6 November 1997. Pg. 1 2.)Epstein, Johnathon S. ed. Adolescents and Their Music: If It's Too Loud, You're Too Old. New York: Garland Publishing, 1994. Pg. 172 3.)Rose, Tricia. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Hanover: Wesleyan University Press, 1994. Pg 128-129 4.)See Epstein, Pg. 175 5.)See Congress, Pg. 1 Additional Works Potter, Russell. Spectacular Vernaculars. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995. Ro, Ronin. Gangsta. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996.

Comparing blake’s london and wordsworths unpon west minster bridge Essay

How do the poets use Structure, language and form in the two poems to help present their visions of London? William Blake’s ‘London’ 1793 and William Wordsworth’s ‘Composed upon Westminster Bridge’ 1802 stage two contrasting views of London. Having both been written in the Romantic period, the two poets use their personal experience of London to illustrate the different visions of the city. Wordsworth adopted the Petrarchan pattern (abba abba cdcdcd) to create his flowing sonnet that describes the silent, undying beauty of London; the intimacy with his description could be inspired by classical poets such as Horaz, Virgil and Ovid. Blake however hardened to use a more harsh approach, delivering his dramatic reality of the dejected city. The two poems hold an expressive passion throughout and both have a deeper inner meaning than what’s seen at surface value. At a first glance, these two poems seem the complete opposite. One compliments the natural beauty of London whilst the other only states the traumatic situations faced through a sinister, dark city. This style could have been inspired by Blake’s surrounding of the French revolution which was imminent over London, there’s a possibility that the murder and violence could have encouraged Blake to give his reality of the capital in the 18th century. Despite the obvious differences, the techniques and narrative set out by both poets are similar. Both Blake and Wordsworth chose to underline their visions of London by using some sort of rhyming scheme and iambs to manipulate the sounds and rhythm. Wordsworth’s undoubted admiration of London is expressed through his constant use of elegant praises. He masters a faint use of a strange paradox through the first lines saying earth has nothing more ‘fair’ which exemplifies a tranquil, natural beauty, undisturbed by the obvious industrial city. The paradox having been established at the beginning of the octave stating the impossible unity of both a natural beauty and industrial development is explained towards the end through the line, ‘like a garment, wear’. This reveals that the city is wearing the natural ‘beauty of the morning’ rather than being it. This structural technique continues in his next lines completing his paradoxical image. The fact that the city is ‘bare’ relates back to the first contradiction by suggesting that London wears ‘the smokeless air’ that is the ‘fair’ beauty. Wordsworth uses the petrarchan pattern to compliment the imag e of the uninterrupted London. The poets emotion filled description of a motionless London implies that he rather prefers a non-industrializing, natural capital compared to the 19th centuries bustling metropolis. In his sestet (cdcdcd) the poet emphasizes the connection of whole poem has and how it coheres well together. He does this by using the sestet- steep, deep, asleep- to draw attention to that fact that the city is invalid in the way that the commerce of London has not yet awaken but is asleep. He keeps this in mind whilst still stating that the fact of the matter is, the city is more alive through its natural presence. The way he describes the river ‘glideth at his own sweet will’ gives the reader a sense of undisturbed freedom and also relates to the poets overflowing, relentless and poignant description. Wordsworth creates a more flattering image of London when he explains how the sun has lightened it perfectly, ‘Never did the sun more beautifully steep’. The line: ‘in his first splendour,’ makes the poet appear to be referring to ‘god’ through his supposedly absent minded mention of ‘his’ but he’s not because previously he mentioned that the never had the ‘sun more beautifully steep’. This makes sense as the idea of the sun steeping gracefully over London ties in with the poems overall goal to exploit the capital as some sort of wonderful place however the idle image of the originator who created ‘valley, rock, or hill;’ formulate the idea that Wordsworth is talking about ‘god’ as having the first insight into the capital and how it hasn’t changed through his eyes, looking past the ‘ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples’. Thus creating a more colloquial style of writing; however there is the fact that this poem was written in the 19th century where everyone would have believed in ‘god’. This idea could be the underlining of the word ‘sun’. I believe that Wordsworth’s sole adopted style is smooth and poetic, he holds a passion for the topics he chooses to write about which flatter his nature inspired manner. Other poems by Wordsworth which support my supposition are ‘I wander lonely as a cloud’ and ‘Three years she grew in Sun and Shower’. In the 4th stanza the tone of the poem suddenly changes into an ominous low mood with a lingering and menacing spell. The word ‘most’ has a lasting significance in the line as it institutes the fact that prostitution is causing this wild midnight rush. The changed tone of the poem and the imagery created in this stanza stands out as a dramatic close the blatantly sorrow-filled poem. Adding to the sharpness of the bitter ending, the tone that is usually poetic with a bouncy rhythm has stopped delivering the full force of what Blake calls ‘reality’.

Cost of Capital

We've regarded how cyber crimes impact the performance and how we can measure the impact of cyber crimes. Case study of Amazon Inc. epresents the main and general information about the ompany, identifies its mission and objectives. We've evaluated the current situation in company's business and performance. Our case also determined and found exposures of Amazon Inc. to cyber threats. We've reviewed the strategy and performance of the company from four perspectives: financial, customer, internal, innovation learning &growth perspective. On the basis of our findings we've given specific recommendations to the company that would help to achieve its goals and maintain leadership in the market of online retail.Recommendations correspond to four perspectives we've used to review performance of the company. We are onvinced that cyber defense is an integral part of company's performance and hence the performance management. 2. Introduction 2. 1 Cybercrimes in information age Cybercrimes appe ared at the same time as the Internet. And the ways and technologies of crimes were, are and would be improving along the development of machines and technologies in the whole and in particular the Internet. Cybercrimes became the part of our world and in order to protect us from that, governments of all countries provide the laws to prevent from such things.Also there are companies, which provide the security services against cybercrimes: Cyberpath, ESET, TDI and any others. But, unfortunately, they cannot solve all the problems. The existing criminal laws in most countries should cover computer-related crimes or electronically perpetrated crimes. 2. 2 Use of informational technology in fraud The biggest cyber threat is that it may happen at any given time, it is simply impossible to find out when the new wave will hit and more importantly what type of wave will it be. Cyber threat may take different forms.Here are the most common especially for our company. The first and the least dangerous is the threat, which has not material impact on the company. As an example can be the defacing of the company's website by hackers. Second, more serious is the threat, which is haling for the financial gain. Not only have the businesses entered the digital world. The criminals have done the same as well. And nowadays it functions Just like any other business. They have their strategies, management structures, quality control and so on.For example, hackers may obtain company's earnings reports before its official release. Having that knowledge, they may use it in making the decision of buying or selling stocks of that particular company. Keeping pace with new technologies also eeds certain portion of attention. Companies' risk exposure is constantly growing as the companies invest more and more in technologies (social, mobile, cloud, etc. ). All ot those can be a threat at the end ot the day. Mobile, tor instance, put the business in danger as the organization's corporate data suddenly may be assessed from the outside.Furthermore, the employees do not always fully realize the threat they are undertaking by sending, sharing or receiving the information on their personal devices. The same goes for social media, where the personal and professional line is often erased. One way that a hacker can gain illicit access toa system is through â€Å"social engineering†. Social engineering is a term used to describe deception against other humansl . A hacker may devise a scheme to trick another person into providing a username and password.Social engineering is as simple and effective as pretending to leave the room while another is signing onto a computer, all the while peaking around the corner to get a glimpse of logon keystrokes. Social engineering does not always take place face-to-face. Clever hackers have been known to place phone calls pretending to be a corporate help desk person or other legitimate artner asking for information that could compro mise access to computing resources. Imagine how many workstations are left wide open in a building when a fire alarm goes off.How long would it take for the alarm puller to drop a floppy into your desktop computer, initiate a process and be gone? Another category of intrusion tool is known as the scanner, or sniffer. Many operating systems come with vulnerability scanners that assist administrators in finding weaknesses. Public domain and commercial products are readily available, including SARA, Nessus, O SANS Institute 2002, Author retains full rights2. These scanners can reveal service ports that are open for attack and even details about the operating system itself.We should not be naive enough to think that these are out of the reach of the bad guys. Then, password cracking entails creating plain text passwords from their cryptographic hashes. Once the plain text password is garnered, access can be had. Password cracking tools are made available to system administrators for aud iting and recovery reasons. IP3 spoofing is a technique used by hackers as a means to gain hidden, unauthorized access to a target resource. They do this by impersonating a trusted resource.Specifically, a DDoS4 attack may change address information in the IP header of a message to make the target resource think the message is coming from a recognized, friendly port. When this technique is deployed in high volume, the attack can effectively dominate the target machine's resources, causing the target machine to perform sluggishly, or stop processing altogether. In addition to password cracking, social engineering, IP spoofing techniques, hackers have many other ways to perform destructive acts in the cyber realm.They have ways to hijack legitimate sessions, intercept and re-assemble IP fragments, take advantage of buffer overflows or flood a target machine with SYN requests. It is the wide and diverse nature of vulnerability today that argues for a strong cyber security management sy stem, one that begins with comprehensive policy and applies many technologies to achieve defense in depth. 3. Is business performance management relevant today? Business performance management is scientific approach to reaching the set of relevant and time limited goals by applying the definite set of metrics to assess the ffectiveness of resource usage.An evaluation of performance management regards indicators that numerically show the outcome of business activities. There are metrics for evaluating the success of a business: financial, internal, customer, strategic and compliance. Financial metric Financial metric includes sales, profits and costs. This metric shows us if our sales decreased or increased and if decreased, we should investigate why. But more important metric is how our profits behave. If our sales go down, our profits could still increase because we decreased the rate of cost.Internal metric Internal metric provides an evaluation management working at the company. As usual, this metric is better in small companies, because managers are closely connected with the employees rather than in big corporations. Customer metric Businesses exist to serve the needs of their customers. This means that behviour and loyalty of customers, and their level of satisfaction, provide us with a good measure for business long-term health and performance. Strategic metric Companies create strategies to reach short and long-term targets.An evaluation of the strategic performance management includes the quality of execution the trategies that management tried to implement. Strategies specify actions that management expects to achieve the desired result. An evaluation considers implementation of the strategies, successful execution of the planned actions by the company and whether results comply with the goals. Compliance metric Compliance metric measures effectiveness of compliance within the organization. Management should demonstrate ability to comply with financi al reporting standards, regulations and environmental legislation.Ideally, business should not have any imposed sanctions from the authorities. As we mentioned all these metrics are important for successful existence of the company. Without business performance management the company will collapse because, for example, if the company does not know what is its profit or its customer rate, what is inside in the company and so on and so forth. Measuring and keeping track on business's performance is essential for every company. If you don't evaluate your past performance you can't make realistic sustainable plans for the future. Cost of Capital We've regarded how cyber crimes impact the performance and how we can measure the impact of cyber crimes. Case study of Amazon Inc. epresents the main and general information about the ompany, identifies its mission and objectives. We've evaluated the current situation in company's business and performance. Our case also determined and found exposures of Amazon Inc. to cyber threats. We've reviewed the strategy and performance of the company from four perspectives: financial, customer, internal, innovation learning &growth perspective. On the basis of our findings we've given specific recommendations to the company that would help to achieve its goals and maintain leadership in the market of online retail.Recommendations correspond to four perspectives we've used to review performance of the company. We are onvinced that cyber defense is an integral part of company's performance and hence the performance management. 2. Introduction 2. 1 Cybercrimes in information age Cybercrimes appe ared at the same time as the Internet. And the ways and technologies of crimes were, are and would be improving along the development of machines and technologies in the whole and in particular the Internet. Cybercrimes became the part of our world and in order to protect us from that, governments of all countries provide the laws to prevent from such things.Also there are companies, which provide the security services against cybercrimes: Cyberpath, ESET, TDI and any others. But, unfortunately, they cannot solve all the problems. The existing criminal laws in most countries should cover computer-related crimes or electronically perpetrated crimes. 2. 2 Use of informational technology in fraud The biggest cyber threat is that it may happen at any given time, it is simply impossible to find out when the new wave will hit and more importantly what type of wave will it be. Cyber threat may take different forms.Here are the most common especially for our company. The first and the least dangerous is the threat, which has not material impact on the company. As an example can be the defacing of the company's website by hackers. Second, more serious is the threat, which is haling for the financial gain. Not only have the businesses entered the digital world. The criminals have done the same as well. And nowadays it functions Just like any other business. They have their strategies, management structures, quality control and so on.For example, hackers may obtain company's earnings reports before its official release. Having that knowledge, they may use it in making the decision of buying or selling stocks of that particular company. Keeping pace with new technologies also eeds certain portion of attention. Companies' risk exposure is constantly growing as the companies invest more and more in technologies (social, mobile, cloud, etc. ). All ot those can be a threat at the end ot the day. Mobile, tor instance, put the business in danger as the organization's corporate data suddenly may be assessed from the outside.Furthermore, the employees do not always fully realize the threat they are undertaking by sending, sharing or receiving the information on their personal devices. The same goes for social media, where the personal and professional line is often erased. One way that a hacker can gain illicit access toa system is through â€Å"social engineering†. Social engineering is a term used to describe deception against other humansl . A hacker may devise a scheme to trick another person into providing a username and password.Social engineering is as simple and effective as pretending to leave the room while another is signing onto a computer, all the while peaking around the corner to get a glimpse of logon keystrokes. Social engineering does not always take place face-to-face. Clever hackers have been known to place phone calls pretending to be a corporate help desk person or other legitimate artner asking for information that could compro mise access to computing resources. Imagine how many workstations are left wide open in a building when a fire alarm goes off.How long would it take for the alarm puller to drop a floppy into your desktop computer, initiate a process and be gone? Another category of intrusion tool is known as the scanner, or sniffer. Many operating systems come with vulnerability scanners that assist administrators in finding weaknesses. Public domain and commercial products are readily available, including SARA, Nessus, O SANS Institute 2002, Author retains full rights2. These scanners can reveal service ports that are open for attack and even details about the operating system itself.We should not be naive enough to think that these are out of the reach of the bad guys. Then, password cracking entails creating plain text passwords from their cryptographic hashes. Once the plain text password is garnered, access can be had. Password cracking tools are made available to system administrators for aud iting and recovery reasons. IP3 spoofing is a technique used by hackers as a means to gain hidden, unauthorized access to a target resource. They do this by impersonating a trusted resource.Specifically, a DDoS4 attack may change address information in the IP header of a message to make the target resource think the message is coming from a recognized, friendly port. When this technique is deployed in high volume, the attack can effectively dominate the target machine's resources, causing the target machine to perform sluggishly, or stop processing altogether. In addition to password cracking, social engineering, IP spoofing techniques, hackers have many other ways to perform destructive acts in the cyber realm.They have ways to hijack legitimate sessions, intercept and re-assemble IP fragments, take advantage of buffer overflows or flood a target machine with SYN requests. It is the wide and diverse nature of vulnerability today that argues for a strong cyber security management sy stem, one that begins with comprehensive policy and applies many technologies to achieve defense in depth. 3. Is business performance management relevant today? Business performance management is scientific approach to reaching the set of relevant and time limited goals by applying the definite set of metrics to assess the ffectiveness of resource usage.An evaluation of performance management regards indicators that numerically show the outcome of business activities. There are metrics for evaluating the success of a business: financial, internal, customer, strategic and compliance. Financial metric Financial metric includes sales, profits and costs. This metric shows us if our sales decreased or increased and if decreased, we should investigate why. But more important metric is how our profits behave. If our sales go down, our profits could still increase because we decreased the rate of cost.Internal metric Internal metric provides an evaluation management working at the company. As usual, this metric is better in small companies, because managers are closely connected with the employees rather than in big corporations. Customer metric Businesses exist to serve the needs of their customers. This means that behviour and loyalty of customers, and their level of satisfaction, provide us with a good measure for business long-term health and performance. Strategic metric Companies create strategies to reach short and long-term targets.An evaluation of the strategic performance management includes the quality of execution the trategies that management tried to implement. Strategies specify actions that management expects to achieve the desired result. An evaluation considers implementation of the strategies, successful execution of the planned actions by the company and whether results comply with the goals. Compliance metric Compliance metric measures effectiveness of compliance within the organization. Management should demonstrate ability to comply with financi al reporting standards, regulations and environmental legislation.Ideally, business should not have any imposed sanctions from the authorities. As we mentioned all these metrics are important for successful existence of the company. Without business performance management the company will collapse because, for example, if the company does not know what is its profit or its customer rate, what is inside in the company and so on and so forth. Measuring and keeping track on business's performance is essential for every company. If you don't evaluate your past performance you can't make realistic sustainable plans for the future.

ghost story Essay Example

ghost story Essay Example ghost story Paper ghost story Paper Essay Topic: Amy Tan Short Stories Blankets ghost story BY sahi12112 Sign In Sell Your Art Top of Form Bottom of Form etchagirl Portfolio Wake Up Call (a ghost story in about 500 words) Wake Up Call (a ghost story in about 500 words) The lake closed over her nose and mouth as Sara sucked in a lung-full of cold, black water. On her next breath, she opened her eyes and saw the red LCD shining: 12:02 AM. Again. Three nights in a row, same dream, same time. Sweat dripped from her hair and drenched her nightgown. Sara stumbled to the bathroom, turning on all of the lights to shake off the aura of the dream that still clung to her. Steam from the shower filled the bathroom and Sara breathed it in deeply. She could still smell the dankness of her dream. She dropped her head and closed her eyes. They snapped back open as a hissing vortex suddenly sucked all of the steam into the drain at her feet. In the same instant, a fish-dead hand slid across her shoulder. She screamed and threw her body against the shower wall, turning the showerhead to the left. The water scalded her neck, shoulder and hand as she battled to stop the flow. Adrenaline, pain and fear drove her stiffly from the shower. : The room was bright. Normal. Her body shook convulsively and she reached for a towel to warm herself. The towel brushed her badly burned shoulder and she hissed in pain. It sobered her and she headed to the kitchen where she kept the emergency burn salve. In the kitchen, the salve was already laid out, with fresh gauze, waiting for her. Normal went away again. The old woman spoke warmly, Here, let me get that for you. It was my fault so sorry but it IS awfully difficult to get your attention! Sara was frozen in shock. The woman placed a cup in her hand. Here drink this. Coffee. You need it. Sara sipped wordlessly, numb to the un-reality. l cant stay long, said the old woman. Manifestation takes sooo much energy. Easier to show up in a dream, but you kept drowning on me! She let out a little chortle. Shock and disbelief turned to annoyance and the very-real pain in her shoulder made her angry. Well, youVe got my attention now what do you WANT? Its not what I want, but what you want, my dear. l want you to go leave me alone. Thats one option. YouVe been given a choice. You are due to die. The old woman let it sink in. Im here to prove that we do go on, after we die. Thats supposed to be reassuring? The hair on Saras arms stood up. For many people it is. Your choice is this: tell people what youVe experienced here tonight give them hope, or die at 12:02 tomorrow. As the last word left her lips, the woman started to fade. Its up to you, dear.. . For the first time in days, Sara felt calm. She placed a terry-cloth robe gingerly on her freshly-bandaged shoulder, took a sip of coffee and dialed the phone. Next Previous Skip to content. EServer ? » Tlctlon nome ? » snort Hctlon ? » Fiction Search Sections Home Contact Us Journals News Novels Short Fiction SiteMap Web Links Navigation Biographies Criticism The Innocence of Father Brown Un Mudo en la Garganta Rex Stout: Short Stories Short Fiction of Ovidiu Bufnila Short Stories of Charles Chesnutt A Ghost Story A GHOST STORY by MARK TWAIN A Gnost story From Sketches New and Old, Copyright 1903, Samuel Clemens. This text is placed in the Public Domain (May 1993). I TOOK a large room, far up Broadway, in a huge old building whose upper stories had been wholly unoccupied for years, until I came. The place had long been given up to dust and cobwebs, to solitude and silence. I seemed groping among the tombs and invading the privacy of the dead, that first night I climbed up to my quarters. For the first time in my life a superstitious dread came over me; and as I turned a dark angle 0T tne stalrway ana an InvlslDle cooweD swung Its slazy WOOT In my race ana clung there, I shuddered as one who had encountered a phantom. I was glad enough when I reached my room and locked out the mould and the darkness. A cheery fire was burning in the grate, and I sat down before it with a comforting sense of relief. For two hours I sat there, thinking of bygone times; recalling old scenes, and summoning half-forgotten faces out of the mists of the past; listening, in fancy, to oices that long ago grew silent for all time, and to once familiar songs that nobody sings now. And as my reverie softened down to a sadder and sadder pathos, the shrieking of the winds outside softened to a wail, the angry beating of the rain against the panes diminished to a tranquil patter, and one by one the noises in the street subsided, until the hurrying foot- steps of the last belated straggler died away in the distance and left no sound behind. The fire had burned low. A sense of loneliness crept over me. I arose and undressed, moving on tiptoe about the room, oing stealthily what I had to do, as if I were environed by sleeping enemies whose slumbers it would be fatal to break. I covered up in bed, and lay listening to the rain and wind and the faint creaking of distant shutters, till they lulled me to sleep. I slept profoundly, but how long I do not know. All at once I found myself awake, and filled with a shuddering expectancy. All was still. All but my own heart I could hear it beat. Presently the bed- clothes began to slip away slowly toward the foot of the bed, as if some one were pulling them! I could not stir; I could not speak. Still the blankets lipped deliberately away, till my breast was un- covered. Then with a great effort I seized them and drew them over my head. I waited, listened, waited. Once more that steady pull began, and once more I lay torpid a century of dragging seconds till my breast was naked again. At last I roused my ener- gies and snatched the covers back to their place and held them with a strong grip. I waited. By and by I felt a faint tug, and took a fresh grip. The tug strengthened to a steady strain it grew stronger and stronger. My hold parted, and for the third time the blankets slid away. I groaned. An answering groan came from the foot of the bed! Beaded drops of sweat stood upon my forehead. I was more dead than alive. Presently I heard a heavy footstep in my room the step of an ele- phant, it seemed to me it was not like anything human. But it was moving FROM me there was relief in that. I heard it approach the door pass out without moving bolt or lock and wander away among the dismal corridors, straining the floors and Joists till they creaked again as it passed and then silence reigned once more. When my excitement had calmed, I said to my- self, This is a dream simply a hideous dream. And so I lay thinking it over until I convinced yself that it WAS a dream, and then a comforting laugh relaxed my lips and I was happy again. I got up and struck a light; and when I found that the locks and bolts were Just as I had left them, another soothing laugh welled in my heart and rip- pled from my lips. I took my pipe and lit it, and was Just sitting down before the fire, when down went the pipe out of my nerveless fingers, the blood forsook my cheeks, and my placid breathing was cut short with a gasp! In the ashes on the hearth, side by side with my own bare footprint, was another, so vast that in comparison mine was but an infants! Then I had HAD a visitor, and the elephant tread was explained. I put out the light and returned to bed, palsied with fear. I lay a long time, peering into the dark- ness, and listening. Then I heard a grating noise overhead, like the dragging of a neavy Doay across tne moor; tnen tne tnrowlng clown 0T tneD y ana tne snaKlng of my windows in response to the con- cussion. In distant parts of the building I heard the muffled slamming of doors. I heard, at inter- vals, stealthy footsteps creeping in and out among the corridors, and up and down the stairs. Some- times these noises approached my door, hesitated, and went away again. I heard the clanking of chains faintly, in remote passages, and listened while the clanking grew nearer while it wearily climbed the stairways, marking each move by the loose surplus of chain that fell with an accented rattle upon each succeeding step as the goblin that bore it ad- vanced. I heard muttered sentences; half-uttered screams that seemed smothered violently; and the swish of invisible garments, the rush of invisible wings. Then I became conscious that my chamber was invaded that I was not alone. I heard sighs and breathings about my bed, and mysterious whis- perings. Three little spheres of soft phosphorescent light appeared on the ceiling directly over my head, clung and glowed there a moment, and then dropped two of them upon my face and one upon the pillow. They spattered, liquidly, and felt warm. Intuition told me they had turned to gouts of blood as they fell I needed no light to satisfy myself of that. Then I saw pallid faces, dimly luminous, and white uplifted hands, floating bodiless in the air floating a moment and then disappearing. The whispering ceased, and the voices and the sounds, and a solemn stillness followed. I waited and listened. I felt that I must have light or die. I was weak with fear. I slowly raised myself toward a sitting posture, and my face came in contact with a clammy hand! All strength went from me ap- parently, and I fell back like a stricken invalid. Then I heard the rustle of a garment it seemed to pass to the door and go out. When everything was still once more, I crept out of bed, sick and feeble, and lit the gas with a hand that trembled as if it were aged with a hundred years. The light brought some little cheer to my spirits. I sat down and fell into a dreamy contem- plation of that great footprint in the ashes. By and by its outlines began to waver and grow dim. I glanced up and the broad gas flame was slowly wilt- ing away. In the same moment I heard that ele- phantine tread again. I noted its approach, nearer and nearer, along the musty halls, and dimmer and dimmer the light waned. The tread reached my very door and paused the light had dwindled to a sickly blue, and all things about me lay in a spectral twilight. The door did not open, and yet I felt a faint gust of air fan my cheek, and presently was conscious of a huge, cloudy presence before me. I watched it with fascinated eyes. A pale glow stole over the Thing; gradually its cloudy folds took shape an arm appeared, then legs, then a body, and last a great sad face looked out of the vapor. Stripped of its filmy housings, naked, muscular and comely, the majestic Cardiff Giant loomed above me! All my misery vanished for a child might know that no harm could come with that benignant countenance. My cheerful spirits returned at once, and in sympathy with them the gas flamed up brightly again. Never a lonely outcast was so glad to welcome company as I was to greet the friendly giant. I said: Why, is it nobody but you? Do you know, I have been scared to death for the last two or three hours? I am most honestly glad to see you. I wish I had a chair Here, here, dont try to sit down in that thing! But it was too late. He was in it before I could stop him, and down he went I never saw a chair shivered so in my life. Stop, stop, Youll ruin ev loo late agaln. I nere was anotner crasn, ana anotner cnalr was resolved Into Its original elements. Confound it, havent you got any Judgment at all? Do you want to ruin all the furniture on the place? Here, here, you petrified fool But it was no use. Before I could arrest him he had sat down on the bed, and it was a melancholy ruin. Now what sort of a way is that to do? First you come lumbering about the place bringing a legion of vagabond goblins along with you to worry me to death, and then when I overlook an indelicacy of costume which would not be tolerated anywhere by cultivated people except in a respectable theater, and not even there if the nudity were of YOUR sex, you repay me by wrecking all the furniture you can find to sit down on. And why will you? You damage yourself as much as you do me. You have broken off the end of your spinal column, and lit- tered up the floor with chips of your hams till the place looks like a marble yard. You ought to be ashamed of yourself you are big enough to know better. Well, I will not break any more furniture. But what am I to do? I have not had a chance to sit down for a century. And the tears came into his eyes. Poor devil, I said, l should not have been so harsh with you. And you are an orphan, too, no doubt. But sit down on the floor here nothing else can stand your weight and besides, we cannot be sociable with you away up there above me; I want you down where I can perch on this high counting-house stool and gossip with you face to face. So he sat down on the floor, and lit a pipe which I gave him, threw ne of my red blankets over his shoulders, inverted my sitz-bath on his head, helmet fashion, and made himself picturesque and comfort- able. Then he crossed his ankles, while I renewed the fire, and exposed the flat, honey-combed bot- toms of his prodigious feet to the grateful warmth. What is the matter with the bottom of your feet and the back of your legs, that they are gouged up so? Infernal chillblains I caught them clear up to the back of my head, roosting out there under Newells farm. But I love the place; I love it as one loves his old home. There is no peace for me like the peace I feel when I am there. We talked along for half an hour, and then I noticed that he looked tire d, and spoke of it. Tired? he said. Well, I should think so. And now I will tell you all about it, since you have treated me so well. I am the spirit of the Petrified Man that lies across the street there in the Museum. I am the ghost of the Cardiff Giant. I can have no rest, no peace, till they have given that poor body burial again. Now what was the most natural thing for me to do, to make men satisfy this wish? Terrify them into it! haunt the place where the body lay! So I haunted the museum night after night. I even got other spirits to help me. But it did no good, for nobody ever came to the museum at midnight. Then it occurred to me to come over the way and haunt this place a little. I felt that if I ever got a hearing I must succeed, for I had the most efficient company that perdition could furnish. Night after night we have shivered around through these mildewed halls, dragging chains, groaning, whispering, tramping up and down stairs, till, to tell you the truth, I am almost worn out. But when I saw a light in your room to-night I roused my energies again and went at it with a deal of the old freshness. But I am tired out entirely fagged out. Give me, I beseech you, give me some hope! I lit off my perch in a burst of excitement, and exclaimed: This transcends everything everything that ever did occur! Why you poor blundering old fossil, you have had all your trouble for nothing you have been nauntlng a IER CASI 0T your- selT tne real car01TT Glant Is In AIDany! 1 Footnote by Twain: A fact. The original fraud was ingeniously and fraudfully duplicated, and exhibited in New York as the only genuine Cardiff Giant (to the unspeakable disgust of the owners of the re al colossus) at the very same time that the latter was drawing rowds at a museum in Albany. Confound it, dont you know your own remains? I never saw such an eloquent look of shame, of pitiable humiliation, overspread a countenance before. The Petrified Man rose slowly to his feet, and said: Honestly, IS that true? As true as I am sitting here. He took the pipe from his mouth and laid it on the mantel, then stood irresolute a moment (uncon sciously, from old habit, thrusting his hands where his pantaloons pockets should have been, and medi- tatively dropping his chin on his breast), and finally said: Well I NEVER felt so absurd before. The Petrified Man has sold verybody else, and now the mean fraud has ended by selling its own ghost! My son, if there is any charity left in your heart for a poor friendless phantom like me, dont let this get out. Think how YOU would feel if you had made such an ass of yourself. I heard his, stately tramp die away, step by step down the stairs and out into the deserted street, and felt sorry that he was gone, poor fellow and sorrier still that he had carried off my red blanket and my bath tub. END. Personal tools You are not logged in Join our Editors Log in Copyright 1994-2013 by the EServer. All rights reserved.