Mit Case Study

BCG – Join BCG – Interview Prep – Practice Cases – Distribution†¦ http://www. bcg. com/join_bcg/interview_prep/practice_cases/dis†¦ The Boston Consulting Group Home > Join BCG > Interview Prep > Practice Cases > Distribution Strategy Distribution Strategy Crafting a Distribution Strategy for a Sugar Cereal Manufacturer Your client is the sugar cereal division of Foods Inc. , a U. S. -based distributor and manufacturer of packaged foods. According to the division president, Foods Inc. ‘s traditional strength has been with grocery stores, which still account for the majority of its $1. billion in sugar cereal sales. But Big M Mart, a discount chain, has been growing at a healthy rate of almost 15 percent per year and has now become Food Inc. ‘s largest customer. Your client is not sure how to react, and has asked BCG for assistance with its distribution strategy. Establish Understanding of the Case First, let me make sure I understand t he problem. Our client specializes in sugar cereals traditionally distributed through grocery stores. Sales to Big M Mart, a discount chain, have been growing at 15 percent per year, and the chain has recently become the largest distributor of the client's product nationwide.We are here to help evaluate the distribution strategy in light of Big M Mart's growth. That is correct. Could you explain to me how grocery stores differ from discount stores? Sure. Grocery stores generally specialize in food, as well as selling some household goods and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals. Discount stores, on the other hand, offer food alongside a wide variety of merchandise, including clothing, home electronics, and housewares. Does Big M Mart market its food products differently than do grocery stores? Discount stores advertise lower prices for a wide variety of foods, particularly staple, nonperishable foods.Could I take a moment to write a few notes to myself? Please feel free. Set Up the Fram ework Before making recommendations, I think we would need to evaluate whether sales growth at Big M Mart is good or bad for Foods, Inc. To do that, I would first look at how its sugar cereal performance at Big M Mart compares with that in other distribution channels. Second, I would look at its performance at Big M Mart in relation to competitors' performance. Next, I would determine what drives customer purchases. Finally, I would want to understand the supply chain.That certainly sounds like a reasonable approach. Let's proceed. Evaluate the Case Using the Framework 1 of 6 10/2/09 6:57 PM BCG – Join BCG – Interview Prep – Practice Cases – Distribution†¦ http://www. bcg. com/join_bcg/interview_prep/practice_cases/dis†¦ First, I would like to get a better sense of where Big M Mart stands in relation to our client's other distribution channels by examining the client's sales data and margins, by distributor. The marketing department does not hav e margins by channel, but tracks sales and volume for its top five distributors.What does this imply about Big M Mart as a distribution outlet? It looks as if the top distributors have been growing more important, but particularly Big M Mart, which is growing faster than all the others. This is particularly true when we look at volume, where Big M Mart's growth is much higher than that of the other four channels. And how could you interpret what these data says about margins? While the client's sales through other distribution channels are growing faster than volume, Big M Mart volume and sales growth are the same, so the average price paid by Big M Mart has remained constant.That implies that sales growth at Big M Mart could have negative implications for our client's margins. Next, I would like to look at how our client is doing in relation to the competition within Big M Mart. Have they been gaining or losing market share? How might you find that out? I would try to interview Big M Mart's purchasing personnel, since they would probably track those data for their own purposes. Why would they want to talk to you? How might you approach such an interview? I would approach the purchasing personnel and suggest that our client and Big M Mart work ogether to identify best practices to reduce costs and increase sales of sugar cereals at Big M Mart. Let's say in a perfect world you could get a breakdown of Big M Mart sales for the four largest competitors (see market shares below). 2 of 6 10/2/09 6:57 PM BCG – Join BCG – Interview Prep – Practice Cases – Distribution†¦ http://www. bcg. com/join_bcg/interview_prep/practice_cases/dis†¦ What can we infer about our client's competitors within this channel? Who should they be worried about? It looks like our client is losing market share, as is Tasty Breakfast, while Cereal Co. nd Private Label are gaining share. Private Label, however, looks to be growing from a very small base. I w ould like to explore why our client is losing market share to Cereal Co. at Big M Marts. Are their prices better than those of our client? After a period of price wars six to seven years ago that lowered industry margins, the cereal companies have refrained from price competition within the same channel. If prices are not driving the difference, I would look at other factors such as brand selection, percentage of shelf space, product placement, and in-store promotions.Visits to Big M Marts indicate that each name-brand company holds 30 percent of the shelf space, while private label has 10 percent. Cereal Co. brands, however, tend to be placed lower on the shelf than your client's products. Well, I suspect that children are a large target market for the sugar cereal manufacturers. The lower shelf placement could be especially important to children who are looking at the different types of cereals. Are there any other promotions? Some Cereal Co. brands have sales promotion tags, and the team notes that store flyers advertise specials on Cereal Co. rands for Big M Mart customer cardholders. So, even if all the companies are maintaining product prices, maybe Cereal Co. is strategically discounting prices to gain market share. It seems as if there is evidence of cooperation between Cereal Co. and Big M Mart. Do we know anything about their relationship? During earlier discussions with Big M Mart, you discovered that your client's competitors have 50 sales representatives dedicated to the Big M Mart account. Your client has seven. Cereal Co. appears to be dedicating more resources to its relationship with Big M Mart than our client is.This may explain its better product placement and promotion programs. 3 of 6 10/2/09 6:57 PM BCG – Join BCG – Interview Prep – Practice Cases – Distribution†¦ http://www. bcg. com/join_bcg/interview_prep/practice_cases/dis†¦ I think I have a good sense of distribution and competition. I would now like to look at the customers and understand why they select the products they do. One hypothesis I have is that shifting brand loyalties are hurting our client's market share at Big M Mart. That's interesting. What do you think might motivate purchases of sugar cereals?There are lots of factors, such as the games in the boxes, the price of the cereal itself, how it tastes. To better understand consumer behavior, we might conduct market research, possibly through focus groups, customer observation, and price sensitivity studies. BCG teams often do such research. Let's assume your team conducts some analysis. Your research concludes that most buyers tend to fall into two categories. Approximately 60 percent of buyers go straight to one cereal and grab it. We can call this group the â€Å"brand-loyal† shoppers.Another 40 percent of shoppers look at all the cereals and then select one that interests them. Let's call this group the â€Å"impulse† buyers. For the brand-loya l shopper, the priority would be product availability, while product placement would be important for consumers who like to shop around. Within these groups, are consumers price sensitive such that one brand can lure shoppers loyal to another brand? In general, your research indicates that consumers are not price sensitive and are extremely loyal to their preferred brand.But when the preferred cereal is unavailable, the brand-loyal customers will purchase discounted cereals approximately 35 percent of the time. Well, from that information, it appears that price is not a major driver of purchases unless the preferred cereal is out of stock. In these stock-out situations, you said, brand-loyal customers will purchase discounted cereals 35 percent of the time. What happens when the customer does not purchase a discounted cereal? In approximately 25 percent of cases, the customer walks away without purchasing any cereal at all.In the remaining 40 percent of cases, the brand-loyal custom er will act like an impulse shopper and select another brand. Interesting. It seems as if product availability could be a major driver of total cereal volume for Big M Mart. Of course, we would need to know how often stock-outs occur that cause consumers to walk away without purchasing cereal occur. Since I have a pretty good understanding of customer motivation, I'd now like to ask a few questions about the client's supply chain. I would want to talk to our client's distribution personnel to understand the distribution process and to determine how often stock-outs occur.Can you describe how our client's cereal is distributed at Big M Mart? Cereals are distributed from the factory to the distributor's warehouse twice monthly. The retailer then stocks the shelves itself. Do we have any knowledge about when the individual stores are out of stock? No, we do not, since our client only delivers to the warehouses and has no direct access to in-store inventory information. Since we identif ied product availability as a key success factor earlier on, I would want to make sure that the stores were stocking the product correctly.Let's say that in your earlier in-store investigations, you found out that Big M Mart stores averaged 15 percent of sugar cereal brands out-of-stock, across all brands. 4 of 6 10/2/09 6:57 PM BCG – Join BCG – Interview Prep – Practice Cases – Distribution†¦ http://www. bcg. com/join_bcg/interview_prep/practice_cases/dis†¦ Stock-outs would be a major problem for our client, since 60 percent of customers look for a specific brand of cereal and 35 percent of them would buy a discounted brand in a stock-out situation.Big M Mart would also have an incentive to reduce out-of-stock incidents, since 25 percent of the time, a brand-loyal customer will walk away without buying anything. Summarize and make recommendations Big M Mart is our client's leading customer, accounting for more than 20 percent of our client's su gar cereal revenue. Although sales to Big M Mart are increasing on an absolute basis, our client's margins there are lower than in its other channels and its competitive position is eroding in that channel. At Big M Mart, our client faces competition from both private label and Cereal Co. although the latter appears to be the greater threat. There appears to be a relationship between Big M Mart and Cereal Co. as evidenced by their joint promotions, the superior placement of the Cereal Co. product, and the substantial resources that Cereal Co. has dedicated to the Big M Mart account. We learned that 60 percent of customers are brand-loyal, implying product availability is most important. However, 40 percent like to try different kinds of cereal, indicating product placement is also important.Purchasers do not appear to be price conscious, unless the type of cereal they are looking for is out of stock, in which case there is a stronger tendency to base purchases on price promotions. I n terms of distribution, our client is making deliveries twice a month to Big M Mart's warehouses. Big M Mart, in turn, is responsible for stocking the shelves. We currently have no direct knowledge of when our client's items are out of stock at the individual stores, but there is evidence that stock-outs do occur with some frequency. Well, it sounds as if you understand the situation. What would you recommend the client do?The sales through Big M Mart appear to have a negative impact on the bottom line, as they have lower margins than sales through grocery stores. The client could work with grocery stores to ensure that they are able to compete effectively with Big M Mart in the sugar cereal market. This strategy could be risky, however, since Big M Mart is a large and important customer. Therefore, I would recommend that our client work more collaboratively with Big M Mart. To defend its current position at Big M Mart stores, the client should move toward a partnership with Big M Mart and dedicate more resources to the relationship.The customer and competitor data indicate that our client's first priority should be to improve distribution to ensure better product availability. In addition, it should push for product placement equal to, if not better than, that of its competitors. Why would Big M Mart be willing to enter into a partnership with Foods Inc? Foods Inc could offer to share its information about customer behavior to help increase revenues for both itself and Big M Mart. Stock-outs hurt Big M Mart in two ways. First, some brand-loyal customers simply walk away without purchasing cereal whenever their preferred brand is unavailable.Second, we know that other brand-loyal customers purchase lower-priced cereal whenever they encounter a stock-out of their preferred brand. Both of these instances lower Big M Mart's revenue. By eliminating stock-outs, Big M Mart could increase its sales by simply ensuring that customers don't walk away without making a p urchase. Converting these purchase occasions to sales would increase Big M Mart's sales of sugar cereals by more than 2 percent(1). Better availability also helps Big M Mart and our client increase their revenue by deterring the brand-loyal shoppers from trading down to lower-priced cereals.Recall that 35 percent of the brand-loyal shoppers purchase a discounted cereal if their preferred brand is not available. If improved distribution now makes the preferred brands more consistently available, the customers will pay a higher price for these products. Finally, we could use the information about consumer purchase behavior to help persuade Big M Mart to 5 of 6 10/2/09 6:57 PM BCG – Join BCG – Interview Prep – Practice Cases – Distribution†¦ http://www. bcg. com/join_bcg/interview_prep/practice_cases/dis†¦ share information about product availability in its individual stores.We could work with our client and Big M Mart to improve the current distri bution system to allow for more economical deliveries, while at the same time ensuring that our client's product is consistently available in the store. Thank you. Those sound like solid recommendations, but I would suggest that you fully understand the root cause of the stock-out situations and the cost to eliminate them before moving ahead. (1) 15 percent out of stock x 60 percent brand-loyal customers x 25 percent willing to forgo purchase = 2. 25 percent 6 of 6 10/2/09 6:57 PM

Contemporary Research on Parenting

Contemporary Research on Parenting: The case for Nature and Nurture W. Andrew Collins, Eleanor E. Maccoby, Laurence Steinberg, E. Mavis Hetherington and Marc. Bornstein Current findings on parental influences provide more sophisticated and less deterministic explanations than did earlier theory and research on parenting.Contemporary research approaches include: (a) behavior-genetic designs, augmented with direct measures of potential environmental influences; (b) studies distinguishing among children with different genetically influenced predispositions in terms of their responses to different environmental conditions; (c) experimental and quasi-experimental studies of change in children’s behavior as a result of their exposure to parents’ behavior, after controlling for children’s initial characteristics; and (d) research on interactions between parenting and nonfamilial environmental influences and contexts, illustrating contemporary concern with influences bey ond the parent-child dyad.These approaches indicate that parental influences on child development are neither as unambiguous as earlier researchers suggested nor as insubstantial as current critics claim. Although the use of donor sperm to enable couples with an infertile male partner to have children has been practiced for many years, it is only since 1983, following advances in reproductive technology, that infertile women have been able to conceive a child using a donated egg (Lutjen et al. , 1984; Trousin, Leeton, Beasanka, Wood, & Conti, 1983). This procedure involves fertilization of the donated egg with the father’s sperm in the laboratory, followed by the transfer of the resulting embryo to the mother’s uterus. Thus, it is now possible for children to be born to, and raised by, mothers with whom they have no genetic link.A number of concerns have been expressed regarding the potential negative consequences of gamete donation for children’s psychological well being, the most common of which is that the practice of keeping information about genetic origin secret from the child may have and adverse effect on the quality of parent-child relationships and consequently on the child (Daniels & Taylor, 1993; Schaffer & Diamond, 1993). As few children are told that a donated sperm of egg had been used in their conception, the large majority grow up not knowing that their father or mother is genetically unrelated to them. Findings suggestive of an association between secrecy about genetic parentage and negative outcomes for children have come from research on adoption.It has been demonstrated that adopted children benefit from knowledge about their biological parents, and that children who are not given such information may become confused about their identity and ar risk for emotional problems ( Hoopes, 1990; Sants, 1964; Schechter & Bertocci, 1990; Triseliotis, 1973). In the field of assisted reproduction, parallels have been drawn with th e adoptive situation and it has been suggested that lack of knowledge of, or information about, the donor may be harmful for the child (Clamar, 1989; Snowden. 1990; Snowden, Mitchell, & Snowden, 1983). From a family therapy perspective, secrets are believed to be detrimental to family functioning because they create boundaries between those who know and those who do not, and cause anxiety when topics related to the secret are discussed (Karpel, 1980).In examining the particular case of parents keeping secrets from their children, Papp (1993) argued that children can sense when information is being withheld due to the taboo that surrounds the discussion of certain topics, and that they may become confused and anxious, or even develop symptoms of psychological disorder, as a result. A further concern raised by the use of gamete donation is that parents may feel or behave less positively toward a nongenetic than a genetic child. It has been argued that the child may not be fully accept ed as part of the family, and that the absence of a genetic tie to one or both parents may have an undermining effect on the child’s sense of identity (Burns, 1987). It has also been suggested that whether or not gamete donation has been used in thechild’s conception, the stress of infertility may lead to dysfunctional patterns of parenting, which may result in negative outcomes for the child (Burns, 1990).In spite of the expectations that children conceived by gamete donation may be at risk for psychological problems, a previous study of assisted reproduction families by the present authors (Golombok, Cook, Bish, & Murray, 1995) foud a greater involvement in parentiong aoun donor insemination parents than among a control group of parents with a naturally conceived child, with no differences in the quality of parent-child relationships between donor insemination parents and either adoptive parents or parents with a genetically related child conceived by in vitro fertil ization. The children in these different family types were functioning well and did not differ with respect to their emothions, behavior, or relationships. It was concluded that a strong desire for parenthood seemed to be more importand than genetic relatedness for fosteringtive outcomes may be expected in families where the child and the father are genetically unrelated compared with families where genetic link exists between the father and the child.

Conduct Disorder and it's affect on African American Males Research Proposal

Conduct Disorder and it's affect on African American Males - Research Proposal Example Until the society adopts a new orientation about the basic problem and undertake modern therapy to invite all African Americans males in the mainstream, give respectful understanding and let them feel self esteemed the problem can't be solved for good. Over the last ten years, young Africans American males have been over represented in virtually every negative social conditions of American society. These include incarceration, crime victimization, poverty and unemployment. Currently, nearly one of three or 32.2 percent of African Americans numbering 8, 17400 are under criminal justice supervision such as incarceration, probation, and parole. They have the strongest likelihood of being victims of perpetrator of murder, robbery and aggravated assault. (IvoryAchebeToldson, Esoteric group therapy: Counseling African American adolescent males with conduct disorder remarks in the journal of African American studies) This is a dismal picture of African Americans adults in USA. Approximately five percent of all children in the United States, ages 4-17, suffer from conduct disorder, which involves chronic, serious anti-social behavior problems. Likely symptoms that are found in such boys are frequent and persistent lying, physical cruelty, sexual activity fire-setting, vandalism forcible or stealing that begins much earlier than normal juvenile delinquency and is much more severe. African American males between 15 years to nineteen years die from homicides, which is as high as 46 times compared to the white counterparts. During 1980-1995 the rate of suicide among this age group had increased from 5.6 to 13.8 per hundred thousand of population. This is reverse trend compared to the earlier trend when European American youths had more suicide rates than the African American. "These figures should not be surprising since adolescent African-American males in contemporary American society face major challenges to their psychological development and well-being. In addition to dealing with the physical, mental and emotional issues typically experienced during adolescence, adolescent African-American males are confronted with unique social and environmental stressors. They must frequently cope with racism and its associated stressors, including family stressors, educational stressors, and urban stressors," said Dr. Xanthos. Conduct disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis defined as "a repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior in which the basic rights of others and major age-appropriate societal norms or rules are violated," Rolf Loeber, Ph.D., of the University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues investigated the relationship between Conduct disorder (CD) in young men and carrying a concealed gun with him. He showed how gun carrying is associated with crime in adulthood. He asserts that using weapons is also a symptom of CD, but he is not certain about how many boys with CD illegally carry concealed guns before the age of 18 and

Cleveland Clinic Case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Cleveland Clinic Case - Essay Example Such case demands the clinic to improve its hospital-physician relationships. A good hospital-relationship would increase the market share because the physicians are often the source of patient referrals. In addition, physicians have proved their worth in increasing the hospital quality. The physicians are the ones offering the clinic’s services; hence, a good relationship with the clinic would be a quality improvement strategy (Lee, 2013). Beyond improving the clinic’s quality, a good hospital-physician relationship would improve the clinic’s population health management methods. The physicians would offer the insights about the areas of need in the population. In the long run, the image of the clinic would improve, and Cleveland would grow significantly. The clinic has proved its love for technology. Investing in technology has made it easier for Cleveland’s management to connect easily with physicians and the community. Furthermore, the technology would enable the management to seek the necessary data that would improve service delivery. A good technology in healthcare systems is crucial in capturing the correct metrics used in medicine and track the growth progress. Finally, the clinic would grow bigger if it merges with other hospitals and healthcare systems. Mergers and acquisition have been successful in the healthcare system. It would enable Cleveland and other clinics to share their

New Imperialism in Africa (Sudan and Egypt) Essay

New Imperialism in Africa (Sudan and Egypt) - Essay Example There were spurts of resistance to foreign invasion and dominance throughout Africa. Iweriebor (n.d.) points out that colonization of Africa was primarily orchestrated by European powers. The drive for conquest and colonization of Africa was for obtaining economic, political and social advantages among competing European powers. The underlying source of competitive powers among European states was the capitalist incentive. European powers were searching for natural resources, markets and ultimately profits in order to obtain economic, political and social dominance over one another. Specifically, Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Portugal were aggressively attempting to gain dominance in Europe and it was believed that acquiring foreign territories globally would improve economic, political and social prowess. The social problems that colonizing Africa was intended to address were unemployment, displacement, homelessness, poverty and many other social issues arising out of i ndustrialization. Roger, L. and History Guy Media. â€Å"The Wars of Sudan: From Egyptian Conquest to the Present†. Master of Arts Military History, Norwich University, 2011. http://www.historyguy.com/wars_of_sudan.htm (Retrieved March, 29th 2012). ... n 1875 and 1877, with Egypt’s control of Sudan, Sudan became involved with Egypt’s retaliation when Ethiopia attempted to take control of the coastal area of the Red Sea. Between 1881 and 1885, Egypt was a protectorate of the British. During that time, the Mahdi, a Sudanese religious official started a resistance movement against Egypt’s control over Sudan. The British deployed military aid to Egypt. It was only after a long drawn out war that the Egyptians and the British would withdraw. The Sudanese War lasted from 1896-1899 marking the return of the British and the Egyptians who defeated the resistance movement rejuvenated by the Khalifa, successors to the Mahdi. During the Second World War, Egypt and Britain controlled Sudan. The British in particular, began a movement to affect the liberation of Ethiopia from Sudan. Essentially, division in Sudan during the joint occupation of Egypt and the British had long-lasting consequences for Sudan with civil wars, and uprisings dividing the country most notable was the Darfur War from 2003-2010. 2011, independence referendum resulted in even more unrest within Sudan. CIA World Factbook. â€Å"Sudan.† Central Intelligence Agency. (n.d.). https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/su.html (Retrieved March, 29th, 2012). Sudan received independence from Britain in 1956 and the consequences of imperialism and colonization of Britain is evidenced by the country’s economic, social and political struggles since that time. Politically, there is a struggle between Islamic and non-Arab Sudanese in the South seeking political and social dominance in Sudan. As a result, Sudan has suffered through two protracted civil wars during the greater part of the 20th century. The results have been devastating as Sudan

Financing Organizational Technology Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Financing Organizational Technology - Coursework Example In this ever changing global business scenario, for a company to stay ahead of its competitors, there is a need to think out of the box, think slightly outside of the monetary profit that the company would get, and look objectively at what the company stands to gain or lose from their outsourcing decisions. FINANCING ORGANIZATIONAL TECHNOLOGY IT OUTSOURCING IN TODAY’S WORLD In today’s highly competitive business management scenario, outsourcing is the most effective way to decrease costs and overheads for more time-consuming and man hour depleting tasks for most companies. IT services such as call center services and e-mail are the tasks that are most commonly outsourced by companies. The main benefit of outsourcing is the fact that to most companies, outsourcing is a lot cheaper for them, because the companies they contract are dedicated to this task, so they charge less than what the companies might have to spend in order for them to do the tasks themselves. Also, it allows the company to focus its efforts and man power towards other objectives and problems that are more important. The management does not have to waste time on such menial tasks, and can turn their heads to more significant problems (Innes, Liu, Miller, 2008). Now people usually just look at the direct financial indicators involved in outsourcing, which is undoubtedly the single most important factor which needs to be taken into account. However, when it comes to IT, only the financial indicators do not give a complete or the most accurate picture of the investment or consequences of outsourcing (RivardNah & Aubert, 2008). Globalization and the ever changing technological scenario of the world has changed the way business is carried out. Core business processes are no longer looked upon as the sole responsibility of the owner. The management of the companies no longer distinguishes between core and non-core business processes, but views them as dispensable components that they ca n either focus on themselves, or outsource to external partners. In order for a company to reach a decision as to whether it is going to outsource a certain task, there are some criteria against which the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing to that company are evaluated (Innes, Liu, Miller, 2008). The main points include: 1. Profitability 2. Capital Structure of the Company 3. Debt Measures of the Company These are some of the main points an organization must keep in mind before outsourcing it’s tasks. The company must also keep in mind the aspects of the organization that it is contracting for the outsourcing, which include: 1. Sales Achievements 2. Performance 3. Quality of Service 4. Responsiveness 5. Competence 6. Reliability 7. Satisfaction As can be seen above, profitability heads the list of criteria against which the outsourcing decision is to be judged. The most obvious financial benefit is the fact that the outsourcing would cost less money for the company a s compared to doing the work internally, thereby resulting in an increase in profits. Since the personnel cost of the IT department decreases, the cost of goods sold would also decrease (IBM Corp, 2008). However, profitability refers to not just the visible financial benefit that the company would get from outsourcing, but also that the company will be able to reduce the costs in

Childhood studies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Childhood studies - Essay Example The approach postulated by Aries was later amplified and to some extent misinterpreted by intellectuals who noticed the appalling characteristics of the pre-modern childhood. For instance, the increased death rates, harsh discipline muted to the children, and the idea of child labour. Additionally, some patterns were observed to be surrounding the childhood concept. For example, societal naming system that derives names of the dead in naming newborn children. Indeed, the system was a cavalier approach to the death of the infants and individuality of the children (Stearns, 2005, p.4). Morrison (2012, p.28) argues that in the attempt to find answers to the overarching problems that face the children in the contemporary world, there is a need to focus on the academic works. The global history of children adds to the advancement of the conditions of numerous children in today’s world. Professors and scholars can greatly inspire their learners to focus care on the rights of children, provide critical thinking perspectives and problem-solving techniques as a necessity to turn care into actions. Essentially, global childhood historians can serve the purpose of consultancy for policy-makers and activists who seek the parallels of history regarding children issues. Further, historians can trace the root causes of the problems that faced children including child labour and violence. Therefore, the disadvantaged and destitute children must not receive blame for existing conditions. Scholars, for example, Shulamith Shahar critiqued and proved wrong Aries’ theory that childhood had no abode in the medieval world. In his book Childhood in the Middle Ages, Shahar claims that the theory postulated by Aries is erroneous since no community can physically survive in the absence of child nurturing traditions, channels of knowledge transmission, and rich avenues for the young to socialize. Further, Shahar maintains that just because the middle-aged children were involved in

English Class Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 5

English Class - Essay Example The piece is evidently written in the past tense recalling the young Langston bowed on the mourning benches in his wishful attempt to see Jesus, but resorting to lie after failing to do so. The expressions of remorse after the event ended and young Langston’s loss of faith are also written from Old Langston’s perspective. The concluding paragraph further reinforces the fact that the story is indeed written from a man’s perspective as opposed to a boy’s perspective when it states â€Å"†¦ for I was a big boy twelve years old †¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Langston). Some people believe that â€Å"Salvation† was written as a part of Langston Hughes’ autobiography â€Å"The Big Sea† (Carrillo). However, the biography holds but an excerpt of the response Langston obtained from his story â€Å"Salvation†. His style of narrating his memory about the events at church allows the reader to relate to his story and evaluate the writer accordingly. It feels as though â€Å"Salvation† is a window to Langston Hughes’ life through which he let the readers learn from and intrude upon his youth. It gives the reader a feeling of knowing the author personally. â€Å"Salvation† seems to be an autobiographical piece through which Langston Hughes has shared his experiences and declared how events had molded his journey through

Do culture and claims to human rights stimulate or limit change in Essay

Do culture and claims to human rights stimulate or limit change in international order - Essay Example Realism on the other hand believe that the way that international order is achieved is through states’ pursuit of power (Bromley and Smith, 2004). Liberalism theories of transformation are especially useful for analyzing whether or not culture and claims to human rights stimulate or limit change in international order. Liberalism theories draw attention to universality and particularity. In this regard, the question for consideration is different standpoints (particularity) find commonality and thus universality in structuring international order (Bromley and Smith, 2004). Human rights in the international political order is often perceived in terms of universality, yet strands of particularity are observed. Therefore, according to cultural relativism, while it is often claimed that human rights are universal because we are all human beings, there are individual claims that what rights are applicable and inalienable depends on cultural values, beliefs and practices (Donnelly, 2007). Cultural relativism is said to be more profound with the challenges resulting from globalization and a multicultural world (Ayton-Shenker, 1995). Disparities in terms of income, access to resources, cultural clashes and so on have raised concerns about whether or not universality in the international ordering can be achieved amidst profound and divergent particularity. Ayton-Shenker (1995) argues that cultural clashes and inequitable differences threatens the international order in that societies may inevitably resort to cultivating their own cultural values and identities. This research paper will therefore use liberalism theories of transformation, especially concepts of universality and particularity to analyse whether or not culture and claims to human rights stimulate or limit change in international order. This research paper hypothesized that if cultural relativism

Care Plan Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Care Plan - Assignment Example on the patient was educated on the proper consumption of food, hygiene and other activities so that the clinical care process would not be too debilitating or stressful. Based on the symptoms such as shortness of breath and obstruction in breathing, diagnostic tests were carried out and the final diagnosis was arrived at which was emphysema and COPD. The patient’s case was a Pulmonary Clinical one and he was therefore educated on some of the very important aspects of the case. Firstly, right from the onset, the patient was educated on the importance of taking an active part in the whole health care process from decision – making, planning, assessment and treatment to ensure proper adjustment in the delivery of health care. The patient was kept motivated and focused by the caregiver who showed concern and empathy for the disabilities experienced, through dialogue and communication not only with the patient but with other family members to gauge the level of support rendered by them. Subjective data such as dry cough, shortness of breath, fever, poor appetite, and sore throat were collected for diagnosis. Assessment was made on the background of the patient. Close communication with the patient in the form of dialogue and questioning was maintained throughout the delivery of care, so the patient understood the health issues he faced, and hence would make better adjustments. The patient was a sociable individual who socialized among members of her church and she made regular visits to her primary health care physician and also took part in support groups as she was lonely. She also did sewing to pass her time. Smoking was one of the bad habits she had and she smoked a pack of cigarettes each day which has served to impact her health and worsen the situation, but she denied alcohol abuse. Insurance took care of some of her medical expenses but she also received other medication from her physician. The patient was educated on the harmfulness of smoking and

Cultural Considerations Essay Example for Free

Cultural Considerations Essay This paper will examine and assesses the cultural concerns and influences of today’s societies with mixed cultures and the effect on the criminal justices system. The paper will address how the cultural concerns and influences affect justice and security administration and practice. The paper will show some contemporary methods by the police and security used in societies of mixed cultures. The paper will address how these influences and considerations relate to and affect nondiscrimination practices within the criminal justice system. Finally, the paper will address Sir Robert Peel’s nine principles and how they fit into today’s police departments. The military occupation of numerous countries in the Middle East and Europe has brought police practices into question. The local police forces have been trained by the military in which the rules are different. The free people are suffering abuse at the hands of the police in those countries. In those cases where militant law is present and security is more prevalent, the police appear to work more for the current occupying military than for that country’s government or the people. More than 200 cases of torture have either been investigated or court marshaled by the United States in violation of the United Nations anti-torture body in 2006. This increase in torture may be caused by racial, ethnic, and religious differences in the contemporary War on Terrorism (French Wailes, 2008). The abuse on that scale does not occur within the United States; however, a problem still exists with the assessment of police and security personnel. These practices are scrutinized by the military, governments, security agencies, and local and foreign police. Of course, these practices question discrimination and profiling. Profiling is one of the major concerns here in the United States. Some confusion exits between profiling and racial profiling. A person cannot be profiled by a police officer based on color, sex, religion, or culture. However, a person can be profiled if he or she matches the description of a suspect. The measures currently used to assess officers are objective and may disclose intimate aspects of the person tested. The standard for recognition in the United States is the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) that was established in 1979. Psychological testing is in place, however; standards are not set by CALEA, and each agency conducts their own testing (French Wailes, 2008). In 1973, the National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals recommended that every police agency follow a formal selection process that includes a written test of mental ability or aptitude, an oral interview, a psychological examination, and a background investigation. It was believed that introducing greater screening and standardization to the selection process would result in a more qualified police force. International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) developed several guidelines for pre-employment psychological evaluations. These recommendations address such issues as validation of testing instruments, compliance with legislation, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), using qualified psychologists familiar with the relevant research, and content of the written reports (Cochrane, Tett Vandercreek, 2008). Compliance with such acts as the ADA indicates the implementation of diversity in the testing process. A few of the most common comprehensive personality tests given to police officers during their psychological testing include the following: Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness (NEO) Personality Inventory, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–2(MMPI-2), and Inwald Personality Inventory (IPI). Traits from the NEO Personality Inventory–Revised, which was based on the five-factor model of personality, have also shown to be predictive of police performance. The MMPI-2 and the IPI have been shown to be effective in predicting several job criteria for police officers as well (Cochrane, Tett Vandercreek, 2008). Today’s American policing and justice system is based on English principles and English common law. One such tradition was limited police authority. This gives way to liberties and freedoms and limits governmental authority. Another tradition was the localized police control as opposed to a national, centralized police force as experienced in many other countries. This turned out to be both an advantage and a detriment. The localization resulted in fragmentation and decentralization of law enforcement. The advantage was acquiring little national control (Walker Katz, 2011, p. 24). Peel believed that prevention of crime could be accomplished without intruding into the lives of citizens so he developed the nine principles of community policing. His first concept was the basic mission of police was to prevent crime and disorder. The prevention of crime makes the job easier of the police. Police presence is deterrence, therefore prevents crime from occurring. This is the basis for today’s community policing concept. The public must also approve of the actions of the police in the performance of their duties. The people must work voluntarily with the police in observance of the laws to maintain public order (History, 2002). The public must comply voluntarily with the laws and work with the police. Most people do what is morally correct; in turn the police also must do what is lawfully correct. The police are directed by the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights to safeguard every citizen’s right from interference from government. These philosophies are still observed today. If a citizen does not approve of the conduct of the police, a complaint is filed. If the public does not agree with a law, they work to make changes. If the public fails to observe the law, there are consequences, such an arrest or a fine. Another concept concerns the use of physical force to gain compliance. The public is cooperative with the police whereas physical force not need be employed. If compliance is not gained and physical force is required, the force will not be so great as to be considered excessive (History, 2002). The Constitution provides rights to the people and protects them from the police in this area. Laws in most states specifically write out what is considered â€Å"force,† when and how it can be used. Last, the police are specifically trained in the application of force through means of various weapons and hand to hand combat. This force is not to be excessive, not to be used as punishment, or in a punitive manner. The force used is that reasonable force to effect and arrest, to protect oneself or another from death or great bodily harm. The police serve both the public and the law, they shall not show impartiality, but to the law. The officers are also members of the public. Any interest the public has would also be interest to the police (History, 2002). In this case, the officer may come from any background may be either sex or any race. The officer must show fairness to members of other groups and not discriminate against those members or members of his or her own group. The officer shall treat everyone as equally as possible. The police are hired to uphold the law, at the same time serve the public. Peel’s theory indicates, when a conflict arises, the service to the law should outweigh the public service. This concept is contradictory to today’s practices. Policing has become â€Å"customer service†-oriented, where the customer is always right. The officers are members of the public, when they are in an off duty capacity, they are afforded the same rights as any other citizen. However, they should govern themselves as an upstanding citizen because they do represent the law. The final concept indicates the effectiveness of policing is the lack of crime and disorder. This concept is known as preventative policing. In today’s society, the crimes are not occurring where there is a high police presence. So, Peel’s principles are still used to some extent. The demographics have changed since his time. People and crimes have evolved. People’s values have changed, whereas they are tolerant of certain crimes. The attitudes toward police have changed. In a location where there is a strong police presence, fewer crimes occur. This is consistent with Peel’s concept. However, if the demographics of the neighborhood are less desirable, the people of the neighborhood indicate the police are prejudiced and do not want the police in the neighborhood. Thus, more crimes occur in this less protected neighborhood. If fewer police are present, the response time for an officer to an incident is longer because there are fewer officers and more calls. The ratio of officers to calls is higher. In these cases discrimination is blamed for the increased of police presence and the lack of it as well. The affected parties assume they are discriminated against because more police are in their areas, where more crime occurs. However, when the police are not present, they blame the police for the increase in crime because the police are not present. In conclusion, most of Sir Robert Peel’s principles can be applied to the organization of a police department today. In fact, many departments in England still work by his principles. Some need to be altered to accommodate today’s society to be more â€Å"customer† friendly. The United States Constitution and Bill of Rights need to be recognized, as well such as the Due Process Clauses to both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments if his principles are applied.

The Social Mobility Of My Family

The Social Mobility Of My Family The following paper includes research of Social mobility within social classes and how this has affected my family. This is a controversial issue whether socioeconomic inheritance or the class one is born into plays a role to the social mobility of the individual in one direction or another. I will give examples of my familys social mobility for the past four generations. Some may argue that starting off at a lower social class can restrict one from social mobility. From this perspective, it is thought that not having access to education or many opportunities for success make it much harder to get out from under a life of always working from paycheck to paycheck. On the other hand, others argue that we all have the same opportunity to advance our social status and move up or down the class structure within generations. The textbook spells out several different philosophies in regards to social class. Karl Marx believed that social class was created by a persons relationship with labo r. Marx separated people into those who own the means of production, and those who sell their labor (Henslin 188). Another concept the textbooks talks about was established by Joseph Kahl and Dennis Gilbert, and they based their opinions on Max Weber. Weber alleged social class is a large collection of individuals who are categorized carefully to each other in property, power and prestige (Henslin 202). Kahl and Gilbert added to this notion to include a persons education or lack thereof. Kahl and Gilbert state that today the quality of education that an individual receives also denotes the capabilities a person may possess. Kahl and Gilbert created a class social structure that contained of capitalist, upper middle class, lower middle class, working class, working poor and underclass. The higher one is in social class the greater their property or income is, along with prestige of the university they attended and the power they hold in their occupation. After analyzing the two diffe rent ideas of social class structure, I believe the most adequate structure is the social class structure of Kahl and Gilbert. Their structure allows for more wisdom and inconsistency in social class as well as superior means for explaining the difference of classes. My familys story My analysis of my familys social mobility starts with my mothers grandparents. Prior to the great depression they were that of upper middle class and would have been considered very well off. They had several farms a very large house with servants and over 1000 acres. My grandfathers part within the family of 8 was to work on the farms with his older brother getting a management role and other siblings going to college and waiting to be married. My grandfather was a very hard worker and fell into the role to handle the farms and such even though he was from the same class as the rest of the family he was seen as lower because of his younger age and hardworking mentality. Much of the family looked down on him for getting his hands dirty. His father did not allow him to continue school and he dropped to work the farms in the 8th grade. His older brother and father handled the money and management of the farms operations until the Great Depression occurred in the late 20s. After a fire which resulted in them losing several animals, a house and barn as well as other circumstances from the depression they ended up losing it all. My grandfather ended up renting a farm being a time of the dust bowl he was unable to raise sufficient crops so he began buying horses and cattle that were in poor health for very little. He would clean them up train the horses and sell them back months later for a large profit. He did this several time until he eventually saved enough to buy back the family farm where he began to milk cows and cash crops as the land was much better. My grandmother came from a very low social class but did get to go to college as her oldest sister and her husband made it possible by paying for all of their siblings to go to college as well as they both became professors and continued to live very frugal lives never having children and having a very giving life. My Grandmother graduated college at 16 and soon met my Grandfather they had 5 children with my mot her being the youngest. My grandmother started teaching soon after the children were out of diapers. A very large age gap made it so that my mother was still young when the oldest brother joined the navy during WWII. A few years later my mothers other siblings went off to college as the economy recovered as a result of the war. My mother and father started dating while my mother was 16 and they married soon after meeting and had my oldest sister at age 17. They moved into a small house just down the road from my grandparents farm and had three more children. Eventually my father built us a house on the family land that my grandmother gave them. My father is a very hardworking man and worked as a farmhand then a machinist and a carpenter until an accident in 1975 that left him disabled and unable to work. This along with a recession in the 1980s hurt my parents financially. After struggling to make things work they divorced in 1981. My mother, brother and I moved to an apartment in M adison. My sisters moved out by themselves or with boyfriends and got working class jobs as my parents did not have the means to help pay for college. Our income, status and social class level dropped to the poverty level. Living in a single parent household led by the mother we experienced the Feminization of Poverty (Henslin, p. 206). My father was on disability with very little means to even care for himself let along his children. My mother took on several jobs but with no education it never seemed to be enough. I started working to pay for food and such and help out with clothes and such. I was washing dishes and odd jobs mowing lawns. On my fifteenth birthday I decided to move out on my own. My mother had met someone and they were getting married. He had moved in and I did not get along with him or my mother very well. I tried to do well in school but trying to make rent made that a difficult task. I did try and go to college but never having enough money for rent or food made that impossible. I eventually dropped out of school and took on construction jobs. I guess I inherited some of those skills from my father and I am not afraid of hard work so I focused on that. I did well in construction and eventually married and had two children. During the 2000 construction boom I flipped several houses and built myself a very nice house. I had moved my family back up to middle class life. After my children were born my wife struggled with depression and eventually it got so bad that we decided to separate and were divorced in 2002. I had decided I would not make my children go through what I went through with my parents divorce so I decided to give it all to them and my ex-wife so we would not have to sell the house and make them possible change schools. I had paid down the mortgage to around 100,000 on a house that is worth well over 500,000. I took all other bills credit cards and car payments. I felt with my skills that I would be able to rebuild my life and they would be taken care of. Then a recession hit slow at first with construction getting slower and slower and eventually in 2008 the economy got really bad. It has been hard to turn around and the recession could not have hit a worse time. I have actually moved several times in the past years downgrading to a lesser quality home and car to save money. With very little work and the economy slow to recover I decided to apply to go to school. This is my second semester at Madison College and I am doing well. I am on the deans list with a current 3.9 GPA. Being the only one of my siblings going to college it is important that I finish. I am hopeful that the US economy turns around and I can find a decent job or get my business back making money. The problem is that I am now somewhat stuck not making enough to borrow money to buy my way out and with no college education to get a great paying job while the construction market is saturated and not coming back very fast. Having circumsta nces affecting each generation has had an impact on the social mobility of my family in a negative way starting with the great depression and continuing with the current recession. I feel that education is a key factor for social mobility. In the past younger siblings lost out on getting to go to college and getting to take over families businesses with the oldest male child usually taking over. My view My own view is that while there is a real disadvantage with education and opportunity advantages it is still possible to move up or down within social class that we were born into but for some it is very hard if not impossible. Though I concede that this may be a hard thing to overcome and defiantly harder for the lower class than within the middle or upper class. I still maintain that good work ethic and faith can increase the success of social mobility. For example my grandfather took an approach to find new innovative ways to make money and save for the right opportunity to come and then follow through. Although some might object that upper middle class and upper class should not have to pay for those born into lower class. I would reply that it is our social responsibility to give everyone an education and increase the opportunity for success for each and every individual within the United States. The issue is important because of how we are evolving humanity and making everyone so they can contribute to their potential is better for all. The alternative is that many will go on welfare or break laws and end up in prison as they have no way out of the life they were born into. This cost is much higher than the cost an education would be. Family disruption or economic loss The experience of family disruption during childhood substantially increases the odds of ending up in the lowest occupational stratum as opposed to the stable families having a better chance to be in a high class. Family disruption also weakens the association between dimensions of occupational origins and destinations. The socioeconomic destinations from nonimpact family backgrounds bear less resemblance to their socioeconomic origins that those from intact backgrounds. Those from traditional two-parent homes exhibit a stronger pattern of intergenerational occupational inheritance than those from disrupted families. Upward income mobility has decreased to such a point that the United States appears to have the highest rate of income inequality in the industrialized world, according to the non-partisan Congressional Research Service. Longstanding partisan battles in Congress about policy issues such as instituting a more progressive tax code, the tax treatment of capital gains and in heritance, and the expansion of social welfare benefits like food stamps and healthcare in recent years have not ended very well for the nations poor. Empirical analyses estimate the United States is a comparatively immobile society, that is, where on starts in the income distribution influences where one ends up to a greater degree than in several advanced economies (Cite). Reports suggest the U.S. is no longer, if it ever was a nation where the poorest can feasibly lift themselves up by their bootstraps. If income were equally distributed, each fifth household would account for 20 percent of total income. The poorest of these has long since accounted for far less than its proportionate share, barely budging from about 4 percent in recent decades, according to the U.S. Census Bureau (Cite). Meanwhile, since 1968 the middle class has seen its total income share decrease steadily, while those among the top-fifth of earners particularly the top 5 percent have seen their incomes skyr ocket. For instance, the top 5 percent held 22.3 percent of the nations wealth in 2011, up from 16.3 percent four decades earlier. The advantages offered by an affluent lifestyle clearly influence an individuals chances for economic mobility, the CRS reports. According to an analysis of empirical data, the study authors estimate there is a positive relationship of about 0.5 between a parent and adult income. Children of parents with above-average salaries are more likely, on average, to also bring in high incomes. Half the economic advantage the children of well-off families enjoy comes from having been born into wealthy families in the first place. On top of that, the chances of adults moving up from their initial income economic position has decreased or remained stagnant in recent decades, which is of particular concern since most Americans still believe economic mobility in the U.S. is completely within their reach. Americans may be less concerned about inequality in the distrib ution of income at any given point in time partly because of a belief that everyone has an equal opportunity to move up the income ladder. Different types of family structures experienced during childhood have varying effects on socioeconomic attainment and social mobility. Those within the middle class will, statistically, experience some economic mobility. According to a study by the Pew Economic Mobility Project, 43 percent of children whose parents were born in the bottom one fifth remained at the bottom when they became adults. In contrast, 40 percent of children born to parents at the top one fifth were also at the top as adults. The study compared intergenerational mobility rates between 1984 to 1994 and 1994 to 2004. Conclusion The topics of particular importance in contemporary sociology seem to be the inequality of educational opportunity and mechanisms of social mobility or immobility. Also the effects of the households saving behavior and the implication of this behavior for the distribution of wealth and the relationship between the extent of free enterprise and opportunity in the economy and socioeconomic mobility, that is, the movement of families across wealth classes over time. Some studies suggest that as technology advances, lower income workers do not have the skills or educational requirements to keep up with changing labor needs. The demand for highly skilled workers trained in engineering or information technology has elevated, while the need for lower skilled and middle skilled workers has diminished which is one of the casualties of globalization. The philosophical battle over how to achieve economic growth and social mobility has escalated to a point that conservatives have resisted attemp ts to direct more investments in programs such as early childhood education and college tuition aid. The battle continues as Democrats are pushing for more investments in social safety net programs while Republicans are calling for a self-reliant approach. Education gap creates more inequality and arguably promote equality in the opportunity to move up the income ladder, which an increasingly unequal distribution of income may suggest a lack of and which may itself curb the potential productive capacity of the economy an education gap is one of the main reasons commonly offered to explain the nations widening income inequality. Although many still firmly believe, and constantly argue, that Americans have an equal opportunity to move up the economic ladder, the researchers conclude that opportunity is far from equal.

Limitations of Access Control Lists in Network Security

Limitations of Access Control Lists in Network Security On the Limitations of Access Control Lists (ACL’s) in Network Security In basic security parlance, the Access Control List (ACL) directly determines which parties can access certain sensitive areas of the network. Usually, there are several. One enables general access to the network, which includes non-sensitive information about company policy and operations (Verma 2004). Access is granted to a general audience and all personnel within the organisation. Confidential files and sensitive data, however, would only be available to a limited number of people, which would be specified. Such delicate information is often only available when accessing a certain terminal. For example, our hypothetical travel agency will allow only the network manager on a particular terminal to PING the proxy servers from the internal LAN as well as deny connections from the Internet to those hosts with private source IP addresses. As with any company, the travel agency wishes to protect its sensitive information from hackers and fellow competitors. The network administrator cr eated ACL’s congruent with the company’s security policy. However, additional protocols will need to be implemented in order to offer the agency the full protection it needs. The purpose of this essay is to highlight the vulnerabilities and limitations of the ACL and suggest supplementary protocols to ensure tighter security. Peter Davis (2002) identified six vulnerabilities of the ACL in the context of testing Cisco’s routers. First, because the ACL will not block the non-initial fragments of a packet, then the router will fail to block all unauthorized traffic. ‘By sending an offending traffic in packet fragments, it is possible to circumvent the protection offered by the ACL’ (Davis 2002). Secondly, if one were to send packet fragment traffic to the router, it is likely that there would be a denial-of-service on the router itself. This is because the router fails to acknowledge the keyword fragment when a user sends a packet specifically to the router (Davis 2002). Third, there is the odd phenomenon of the unresponsive router. ‘The router ignores the implicit deny ip any any rule at the end of an ACL when you apply an ACL of exactly 448 entries to an interface as an outgoing ACL’ (Davis 2002). The result of this would compromise the integrity of network security, as the ACL will not drop the packets. Fourth, modern routers allow support for the fragment keyword on an outbound ACL. In previous models, only the inbound ACL provided support for this keyword while ignoring the outbound ACL (Davis 2002). Fifth, the outbound ACL may fail to prevent unauthorized traffic on a router when the administrator configures an input ACL on some interfaces of the multi-port Engine 2 line card. ‘Any ACL you apply at the ingress point will work as expected and block the desired traffic. This vulnerability can cause unwanted traffic in and out of the protected network’ (Davis 2002). Last of all, even the fragment keyword is not sufficient to get the ACL to filter packet fragments, which would enable an individual or corporation to exploit this weakness—attacking systems that are supposed to be shielded by the ACL on the router (Davis 2002). To avoid many of these pitfalls, Davis recommends that administrators routinely filter packet fragments. Although filtering may be useful, it is insufficient in preventing security breaches according to Kasacavage and Yan (2002). Without supplementary processes, packet filtering will fail to identify the originator of the data, and it would fail to prevent a user from gaining access to a network behind the router. Thus, the creation of extended ACL’s along with the standard is very important. ‘Standard ACL’s can only filter based on the source address and are numbered 0 through 99’(Prosise Mandia, p. 429). Extended ACL’s, in contrast, can filter a greater variety of packet characteristics and are numbered 100-199. In other words, each object is supposed to enforce its unique access control policy (Sloot 1999). For instance, the ACL commands are applied in order of precedence and the second rule will not allow the packets denied by the first rule, even if the second rule does permit that (Prosise Mandia). Filling in the Gaps One recommendation for securing a private network is to use a firewall such as a DMZ LAN. Essentially, it does not have any connections save the router and firewall connections (Kasacavage Yan 2002). This would force all packets of all networks (public and private) to flow through the firewall. This greatly diminishes the breaches common in security systems employing mainly ACL’s as direct unprotected connection with the Internet is judiciously avoided. The problem with the router mentioned by Davis in the previous section was its failure to filter packets going in one direction, or outbound ACL’s with specific identifiers. Installing a firewall at each locus connected to the Internet is highly recommended (Kasacavage Yan 2002). Like most aspects of technology, the ACL must be updated quite frequently. However, this gives the individual employed in this task a high degree of latitude, which is why access to this function must be strictly controlled (Liu Albitz 2006). ‘In order to use dynamic updates, you add an allow-update or update-policy substatement to the zone statement of the zone that you’d like to make updates to†¦it’s prudent to make this access control list as restrictive as possible’ (Liu Albitz 2006, p. 232). As wireless communications technology continues to revolutionize the way people do business, another issue that will concern security administrators is the increase of wireless LAN attacks that result in the loss of proprietary information and a loss of reputation as customers become leery of a company that can easily lose personal data (Rittinghouse Ransome 2004). Most wireless networks identify individual users via the Service Set Identifier (SSID) in such a way that would repel wireless LAN attacks that greatly compromise network security by using the ACL that comes standard with WLAN equipment. Because all devices have a Media Access Control (MAC) address, ‘the ACL can deny access to any device not authorized to access the network’ (Rittinghouse Ransome 2004, p. 126). However, other host-based intrusion detection software such as Back Orifice, NukeNabber, and Tripwire are also instrumental in preventing these attacks. In sum, although it would be impossible to create an impregnable security system, it is necessary to ensure that the system one employs is extremely difficult to breach, with very little profit for their troubles. By identifying the six most significant issues ACL’s face and exploring other ways that network administrators can close the gaps, more sophisticated security protocols can be put into operation. However, while security systems are correcting their weaknesses, computing experts on either side of the law are still finding ways to circumvent them. Controlling access to sensitive data is a necessity in any network, even in an informal file-sharing network. With the enclosed ACL’s, the agency shall be able to successfully diminish its odds of a security breach. Bibliography Davis, P.T. (2002), Securing and controlling Cisco routers, London: CRC Press. [Online at books.google.com] Kasacavage, V. Yan, W. (2002), Complete Book of Remote Access: Connectivity and Security, London: CRC Press Liu, C. Albitz, P. (2006), DNS and BIND: Fifth Edition, Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media Inc. Prosise, C. Mandia, K. (2003), Incident Response Computer Forensics, New York: McGraw Hill Professional Rittinghouse, J.W. Ransome, J.F. (2004), Wireless Operational Security, Oxford: Digital Press Sloot, P., Bubak, M., Hoekstra, A. Hertzberger, R. (1999), High-Performance Computing and Networking, New York: Springer Verma, D.C. (2004), Legitimate Applications of Peer-to-Peer Networks, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley Sons

Angel And Tess :: essays research papers

Angel and Tess: A Romance Fit For the Books? Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, Napolean and Josephine. Throughout society's entire existence, we have known almost innately that these couples belong together, and yet fate intervened to deal their relationship a tragic blow. Yet readers persist on viewing these couples as the most passionate of all times. What makes them so unique? What makes them so compatible? What makes everyone see them as half of a whole instead of two? These couples proved to society that they belonged together, no matter what circumstances they faced . They possessed True Love, the rare gift that makes a relationship last, amidst outer turmoil. In the novel, Tess of the D'Ubervilles, by Thomas Hardy, another literary couple is portrayed. Tess Durbeyfield and Angel Clare appear to be in such an invincible love. The audience believes that they could have a happy life together as a unified couple, but, here too, fate intervenes and Tess is killed. However, the question remains in readers' minds: Wo uld Tess and Angel’s relationship reached the level of perfection in these examples had Tess remained alive? Would their relationship have been successful? There are several factors that can define a successful relationship. In order for a relationship to be worthwhile, the relationship must possess mutual love, respect, and trust, characterized by similar backgrounds, harmonious personalities , and compatibility. Tess and Angel’s love could not have survived for long, because they did not possess these things. Their differences made it too difficult for them to be compatible for long. They had different pasts, different personalities, and different goals and aspirations that prevented true love. Tess Durbeyfield has a difficult past, and it impacts who she grows up to be; her past is always a part of her, a perpetual learning experience. Though she spends some years away from home, Tess's personality is still influenced by her humble beginnings, making it impossible for Angel to fully understand her, because his own childhood was relatively easy compared to Tess's. Tess bears most of the burden in her family. The responsibility of the family's welfare is solely on Tess's shoulders. Her parents, immature and impractical, unwittingly force her to care single-handedly for the family. Her mother even says, "The lady must be our relation, and my projick is to send Tess to claim kin." (21) Joan Durbeyfield wants to take the easy way out and inherit the D'Uberville fortune.

Genetic Engineering Should Not be Banned Essay examples -- Argumentati

Genetic Engineering Should Not be Banned Genetic engineering is a hotly-debated topic. On the one hand, giant corporations, ambitious scientists and powerful politicians are pushing forward with projects they claim will benefit mankind, and on the other, public opinion, environmentalists and consumers' associations are concerned that these projects are insufficiently safeguarded and pose irreversible risks to life on this planet. In this paper I will set out the main issues in the debate on genetic engineering. First I will summarise the history of genetic science, and look at the origins of the debate. Then I will discuss the manipulation of plant, animal and human genes in turn, and consider the possible benefits and dangers of each. Finally, I will suggest that, for all its potential dangers, it is better for research to go ahead openly than for governments to try to ban such research altogether. GE is quite a recent science. DNA, the basic material that determines genes, was discovered in 1953 (the discovery was announced in Nature magazine on April 25th, 1953), and 'It was only in 1956...that cytogeneticists learned that each human cell contains 46 chromosomes' (Lipkin and Rowley, p. 4). 'Recombinant DNA' - which makes it possible to actually change or modify genes - was not discovered until 1973 (Howard and Rifkin, p. 13). However, the debate about GE goes back much further. It was first popularised by Aldous Huxley in his novel Brave New World (1932), in which humans are born in bottles ('test tube babies'), and genetically conditioned to think and behave in certain ways. When GE became a scientific reality in the 1970s, the debate continued to focus largely on the mainulation of human ... ...al groups. Bibliography Published sources: Howard, T., and Rifkin, J., Who should play God? : The artificial creation of life and what it means for the future of the human race ( New York, Delacorte Press, 1977) Karp, L.E., Genetic engineering, threat or promise? (Chicago, Nelson-Hall, 1976). Lipkin, M., and Rowley, P.T., Eds., Genetic responsibility: on choosing our children's genes, (New York, Plenum Press, 1974) Paoletti, R. A., Ed., Selected readings: genetic engineering and bioethics, (New York, MSS Information Corp, 1972) Internet sources: Dr. B. Benoit, 'Human Cloning and Re-engineering': http://cac.psu.edu/~gsg109/qs/emclone.html 'Food for Our Future' (UK Food and Drink Federation website:http://www.foodfuture.org.uk/index2.htm Home Arts web page on Children's Personality: http://homearts.com/rb/mommy/11cperb4.htm

A Marxist Reading of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest Essay -- One Flew

Fred Wright, Lauren's instructor for EN 132 (Life, Language, Literature), comments, "English 132 is an introduction to English studies, in which students learn about various areas in the discipline from linguistics to the study of popular culture. For the literature and literary criticism section of the course, students read a canonical work of literature and what scholars have said about the work over the years. This year, students read One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey, a classic of American literature which dates from the 1960s counterculture. Popularized in a film version starring Jack Nicholson, which the class also watched in order to discuss film studies and adaptation, the novel became notable for its sympathetic portrayal of the mentally ill. For an essay about the novel, students were asked to choose a critical approach (such as feminist, formalist, psychological, and so forth) and interpret the novel using that approach, while also considering how their interpr etation fit into the ongoing scholarly dialogue about the work. Lauren chose the challenge of applying a Marxist approach to One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. Not only did she learn about critical approaches and how to apply one to a text, she wrote an excellent essay, which will help other readers understand the text better. In fact, if John Clark Pratt or another editor ever want to update the 1996 Viking Critical Library edition of the novel, then he or she might want to include Lauren's essay in the next edition!" At first glance, a reader may wonder how Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a book depicting a group of mentally unstable men and their boisterous Irish-American leader, connects with the economic and sociological view o... ...lett, Moyra. Marxist Literary and Cultural Theories. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. Print. â€Å"Industrial Revolution.† The New American Desk Encyclopedia. 5th ed. 1989. Print. Kappel, Lawrence. Readings on One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2000. Print. Kesey, Ken. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. Ed. John Clark Pratt. New York: Viking-Penguin, 1996. Print. Viking Critical Library. Loeb, Roger C. â€Å"Machines, Mops, and Medicaments: Therapy in the Cuckoo’s Nest.† Lex et Scientia 13. 1-2 (1977): 38-41. Rpt. Kappel 85-91. Malin, Irving. â€Å"Ken Kesey: One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest.† Critique 5.2 (1962): 81-84. Rpt. in Kesey 440-444. â€Å"Marxism.† The New American Desk Encyclopedia. 5th ed. 1989. Print. Parker, Robert Dale. How to Interpret Literature: Critical Theory for Literary and Cultural Studies. New York: Oxford, 2011. Print.

Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn lived a strategic lifestyle in the English court of Henry VIII. As a pawn of her family, she went from a small girl in the French court to the queen. Henry had an obsession with Anne and would stop at nothing until they were together causing many long term affects on England. Many people had different contrasting views of Anne Boleyn; on one hand she was viewed as a jezebel or concubine by the Catholics but at the same time she was viewed as a saintly queen by protestant writers. Both these conflicting portraits of Anne Boleyn have a degree of truth but at the same time are inaccurate. Through both of these characters Anne Boleyn’s relationship with Henry VIII caused many effects upon England during his reign such as changing how the church had been set up for thousands of years and the way women were viewed in this time. Anne spent part of her childhood in the court of the Archduchess Margaret, the daughter of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, and Mary, Duchess of Burgundy. Anne was around the age of 12-13, as that was the minimum age for a ‘fille d'honneur', also know as a bridesmaid or maid of honor . It was from there that she was transferred to the household of Mary, Henry VIII's sister, who was married to Louis XII of France. Anne's sister Mary was already in ‘the French Queen's' attendance. However, when Louis died, Mary Boleyn returned to England with Mary Tudor, while Anne remained in France to attend Claude, the new French queen. Anne remained in France for the next 6 or 7 years. During her stay in France she learned to speak French fluently and developed a taste for French clothes, poetry and music. While there in France Anne gained a very unique style and grace that made her very noticeable in the English court. Anne brought to England a new mold for a renaissance woman. She was literate and had received a formal education. Along with this Anne brought her French style that spread through the English court. In 1521 or early 1522, with war between England and France imminent, Anne returned home. When she first caught Henry VIII's eye is unknown. He was originally attracted to her sister, Mary who came to court before Anne . She was the king's mistress in the early 1520s and, as a mark of favor; her ather was elevated to the peerage as viscount Rochford in 1525. Mary herself would leave court with only a dull marriage, and possibly the king's illegitimate son, as her reward. Anne learned much from her sister's example. Anne's first years at court were spent in service to Henry VIII's first wife, Katharine of Aragon. She became quite popular among the younger men. She was not considered a great beauty; her sister occupied that position in the family, but even Mary was merely deemed ‘pretty'. Anne’s focuses were her style, her wit and charm; she was quick-tempered and spirited. Her most remarkable physical attributes were her large dark eyes and long black hair. It is likely that Henry sought to make Anne his mistress, as he had her sister Mary years before. Maybe drawing on the example of Elizabeth Woodville, Queen to Edward IV (and maternal grandmother to Henry VIII) who was said to have told King Edward that she would only be his wife, not his mistress, Anne denied Henry VIII sexual favors. We don't know who first had the idea of marriage, but eventually it evolved into â€Å"Queen or nothing† for Anne. How Anne was able to capture and maintain the king's attention for such a long while, despite great obstacles and the constant presence of malicious gossip cannot be explained. Henry was headstrong and querulous. But for several years, he remained faithful to his feelings for Anne and his desire for a legitimate male heir. He sent many love letters to Anne; his campaign to win her became a dangerous obsession lasting for seven years. My mistress and friend: I and my heart put ourselves in your hands, begging you to have them suitors for your good favor, and that your affection for them should not grow less through absence. For it would be a great pity to increase their sorrow since absence does it sufficiently, and more than ever I could have thought possible reminding us of a point in astronomy, which is, that the longer the days are the farther off is the sun, and yet the more fierce. So it is with our love, for by absence we are parted, yet nevertheless it keeps its fervour, at least on my side, and I hope on yours also: assuring you that on my side the ennui of absence is already too much for me: and when I think of the increase of what I must needs suffer it would be well nigh unbearable for me were it not for the firm hope I have nd as I cannot be with you in person, I am sending you the nearest possible thing to that, namely, my picture set in a bracelet, with the whole device which you already know. Wishing myself in their place when it shall please you. This by the hand of Your loyal servant and friend H. Rex His desire for Anne increased his efforts to secure an annulment from his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. During their eighteen-year marriage, Catherine had failed to give Henry a male heir to the throne of England, only producing a daughter, Mary. In 1527 Henry asked the Pope for an annulment of his marriage to Catherine so that he could marry Anne. Because the Pope did not grant Henry his wish, he and his Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy in 1534, which proclaimed the King as head of the Church of England. Although Henry VIII himself was a religious conservative, England slowly began to create the branch of Christianity known as Anglicanism, which often considers itself to have taken a middle road between Luther's and Calvin's Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. It also closely involved Parliament in the key decisions, including the Act of Succession, allowing representatives of the people a vital role in choosing the next dynastic monarch. During Anne’s marriage to Henry VIII, she had a large amount of control over the monarchy. She changed the face of politics in England. Anne Boleyn was intelligent and was not afraid of saying what she thought . It is known that she influenced Henry, and that is a reason why Thomas Cromwell, an English statesman who served as King Henry VIII's chief minister from 1532 to 1540 , conspired to get rid of her. Her influence over the monarch led to Wolsey's fall from grace, and Cromwell blamed her for affecting foreign policy and preventing an English-Imperial alliance. Yet Anne was a woman, and women of the time were not meant to have opinions and meddle in politics. After being married, Anne entered confinement for the birth of her first child on 26 August 1533. The child was born on 7 September 1533 and had the largest effect on England that Anne Boleyn caused. The healthy baby girl called Elizabeth was not the disappointment most assumed, nor did she immediately cause her mother's downfall. The birth had been very easy and quick. The queen recovered quickly. Henry had every reason to believe that strong princes would follow. It was only when Anne miscarried two sons that he began to question the validity of his second marriage. It was a tedious and frightening dance for Anne. During the two and a half years after Elizabeth's birth, she was rarely secure or certain of her position and the king's affections. The continued lack of an heir and Anne's miscarriages reminded him of Katharine. Like most of his contemporaries, the king blamed his wife when she did not conceive or carry to term. Anne had one last chance, and in June 1535, became pregnant again. She lost that child as well, in January 1536. She was reported to have said, â€Å"I have miscarried of my savior. † Katharine of Aragon died in January as well, just a few days before Anne's miscarriage. These events, taken together, pushed Henry into action. While Katharine lived, most of Europe, and many Englishmen, had regarded her as his rightful wife, not Anne. Now he was rid of Katharine; if he were to rid himself of Anne, he could marry again – and this third marriage would never be tainted by the specter of bigamy. He had her arrested, charged with adultery, witchcraft, and incest; the charges were ludicrous even to her enemies. As queen of England, Anne was tried by her peers; the main charge was adultery, and this was an act of treason for a queen. No member of the nobility would help her; her craven uncle Norfolk pronounced the death sentence. A skilled swordsman was brought over from France. She was assured that there would be little pain. She replied, with typical spirit, ‘I have heard that the executioner is very good and I have a little neck. ‘ Anne had prayed for exile and to end her days in a nunnery, but now faced a more tragic fate. She met it with bravery and wit. She was brought to the scaffold at 8 o'clock in the morning on 19 May 1536. It was a spectacle that had never happened before, the first public execution of an English queen. Anne, who had defended herself so ably at her trial, chose her last words carefully: ‘Good Christian people, I am come hither to die, for according to the law, and by the law I am judged to die, and therefore I will speak nothing against it. I am come hither to accuse no man, nor to speak anything of that, whereof I am accused and condemned to die, but I pray God save the king and send him long to reign over you, for a gentler nor a more merciful prince was there never: and to me he was ever a good, a gentle and sovereign lord. And if any person will meddle of my cause, I require them to judge the best. And thus I take my leave of the world and of you all, and I heartily desire you all to pray for me. O Lord have mercy on me, to God I commend my soul. ‘ She was bent at the scaffold and killed by beheading . Today, this woman who lived 500 years ago is still having books, programs and movies written and made based upon her life. Also there are many websites, blogs, and forums discussing her strategic life and notoriety. Anne Boleyn did not just affect England with her wit, grace, and strong determination, she affected the entire world.

Internet and Our Social Life Essay

For a few decades now, the internet has been an important gear in the ticking clock we like to call everyday life. Its significance and usage is ever growing, as well as the number of areas in which it has crept in. The phenomenon that is the internet brought power at the click of a mouse, but as it goes with power, consequences are inevitable. The internet is, undoubtedly, the largest source of information today. It is also a practical tool for managing bank accounts, staying in touch with friends and communicating with people all over the world, with technology that enables you to simultaneously talk while looking at the person on screen and even hold video conferences. But practicality and availability of information are not the only things that attract internet users. In online social communities, forums and game rooms people are given the opportunity to be whoever they want to be. The internet gives us virtual clay which we can use to mold our identities in any way we want. Especially in game rooms, people tend to fantasize and invent characters in order to compensate for the lack of their own. That is how a regular John Doe can go to his boring work every morning, but come back home, turn his computer on and become Zyborg, the hero from outer space. The cyber space can be used as a resort when real life is difficult to deal with. For example, people with low self-esteem or people who lack social skills will probably find online chatting much easier than talking to the person face to face. Such use of internet can make one’s life more interesting or less stressful, but too much time and dedication to it can lead to serious social and psychological consequences. If a person spends too much time on the computer, with its virtual character and virtual friends, he develops a virtual life which he may prefer more than the real one. Consequently, even though he might feel satisfied and safe, he does more damage than good by neglecting some important parts of his regular life such as time with his family, health, responsibilities and productivity. Lately, a diagnosis called Internet addiction disorder has been introduced for people who are thought to spend too much time on the internet. This issue is facing its beginning and it i s still disputed whether it is a real disorder. But according to Dr. Maressa Orzack between 5% and 10% of internet users suffer some form of internet dependency and she lists withdrawal, loss of control, and compulsive behavior as some of the effects. Online dating sites, which people visit in order to find a partner for romantic or sexual relationship, have made courtship easier, but, paradoxically, there have been many cases in which the internet was the prime cause of ending a relationship, marriage or even filing lawsuits. With internet becoming more and more integrated into our lifestyles it is only normal that the effects, both positive and negative, be visible in all aspects of our lives, including socializing. It is nice to be able to see your sister who lives miles away smile for you on screen as if she were in the room with you, or exchange e-mails with a person who you normally wouldn’t have the courage to come up to, but it would be a scary thing if cafes would become empty and internet networks overloaded with Zyborgs.

Social Networking Addiction

The last decade witnessed an explosion of social networks such as Myspace and Facebook, which added a new social dimension to the web. While such networks have made people, communities and groups with shared interests stay more â€Å"connected,† Internet addiction and social network addiction in particular also started being recognized as psychological disorders all over the world. While several 90? studies focused on Internet addiction, the next decade saw the growth of a new addiction related to all manner of social networking sites, especially the current king of the jungle: Facebook. In a recent study from the University of Athens, Greek psychiatrists argued that a woman who had gone as far as losing her job on account of her compulsion to check and update her Facebook, could be identified as a â€Å"social network addict. † Of course, there are different levels of social network addiction. Another recent study carried out at a Czech University analyzed Facebook-related academic procrastination. Though based on a sample too small to draw any general conclusions, one interesting finding of the research was that people tended to be unaware of just how much time they really spent on Facebook, and the effect this might have on their academic performance. On the other hand, it has been noted that there may be a correlation between low self-esteem and a sense of social inadequacy and social network addiction. It seems that many types of social interaction which would present great challenges in the real world for certain types of individuals have been rendered much easier for them in the virtual world, thus putting them at a higher risk of becoming addicted to Facebook and the like. A Mexican study found that Facebook addicts (a category defined by reportedly spending over four hours everyday on Facebook) had a higher incidence of depression and lower physical and general self-esteem levels than less frequent Facebook users. There are many factors that determine the characteristics of Internet and social network addictions in different parts of the world. The nature and scope of these problems are not only affected by technological advancement and the number of computers connected to the Internet per capita and other such quantitative data, but cultural factors are also key in determining the local incidence of these addictions. While social network addiction is not included in the DSM IV, many researchers advocated its inclusion in DSM V, which is currently under way. For example, in a 2008 editorial for the American Journal of Psychiatry, IAD (Internet Addiction Disorder) inclusion advocate Dr. Jerald Block cited the case of South Korea, stating that: After a series of 10 cardiopulmonary-related deaths in Internet cafes  and a game-related murder, South Korea considers Internet addiction one of its most serious public health issues. Using data from 2006, the South Korean government estimates that approximately 210,000 South Korean children (2. %; ages 6–19) are afflicted and require treatment. About 80% of those needing treatment may need psychotropic medications, and perhaps 20% to 24% require hospitalization. Since the average South Korean high school student spends about 23 hours each week gaming, another 1. 2 million are believed to be at risk for addiction and to require basic counseling. In particular, therapists worry about the increasing number of individuals dropping out from school or work to spend time on computers. As of June 2007, South Korea has trained 1,043 counselors in the treatment of Internet addiction and enlistedover 190 hospitals and treatment centers. Nevertheless, the DSMV V draft released earlier this year revealed â€Å"work group members decided there was insufficient research data† to include Internet addiction in the newly created â€Å"behavioral addictions† category. It has been over 13 years since pioneer Kimberley S. Young adapted the DSM IV criteria for gambling addictions to define Internet addiction. While her proposed diagnosis criteria have virally spread (to use a familiar term related to social networking) all over the world, it seems that the scientific community is not yet ready to reach a consensus as to what this type of addiction entails. Social networks have changed the ways we interact with each other enormously. One thing that has changed dramatically is the concept of meeting people. This was brought to my attention a couple of weeks ago, when I met a musician for the first time, whom I had casually crossed online a couple of times. Oddly enough, none of us acted as if this were a â€Å"first meeting. † Another thing that called my attention was when another musician said from the stage â€Å"thank you for coming; because a lot of people say they are attending on Facebook but they never show up. † This also made me think about how much time we are devoting to talking about Facebook, even when we are offline, and how many times we log on to Facebook to show our friends something, even during actual person-to-person meetings or social gatherings. Every drug has a gratification component, and, if social networks are causing an addiction, they must have one too. A very interesting study from the University of Bath tried to identify these gratifications, concluding that: Users derive a variety of uses and gratifications from social networking sites, including traditional content gratification alongside building social capital, communication, surveillance and social networking surfing. The different uses and gratifications relate differentially to patterns of usage, with social connection gratifications tending to lead to increased frequency of use, and content gratifications to increased time spent on the site. While the incidence of social network addictions in other parts of the world may not be as dramatic as Internet gaming addictions, for example, seem to be in some Asian countries, the rapid growth of social networks both in reach and in the number of interaction possibilities, poses new problems everyday for the elaboration of solid diagnostic criteria. From academic procrastination to social impairment as far as real physical interactions are concerned, diminished productivity at work and physical problems associated with a sedentary lifestyle; there seem to be enough problems related to Internet and social network addictions to give researchers enough to work on for many years to come. References Karaiskos, D. , Tzavellas, E. , Balta, G. , & Paparrigopoulos, T. (2010). P02-232 – Social network addiction : a new clinical disorder? European Psychiatry, 25, 855-855 DOI:10. 1016/S0924-9338(10)70846-4 Holbova, P. Academic procrastination on Facebook. Masaryk University, Czech Republic. Herrera, M. , Pacheco, M. , Palomar, J. , Zavala, D. Facebook Addiction Related to Low Self-Esteem, Depression and Lack of  Social Skills. Psicologia Iberoamericana,  Vol. 18 No. 1 (2010). Block, J. (2008). Issues for DSM-V: Internet Addiction  American Journal of Psychiatry, 165(3), 306-307 DOI:  10. 1176/appi. ajp. 2007. 07101556 Report on the American Psychiatric Association’s revisions for DSM V. YOUNG, K. (1998). Internet Addiction: The Emergence of a New Clinical DisorderCyberPsychology & Behavior, 1  (3), 237-244 DOI:  10. 1089/cpb. 1998. 1. 237