Is Competition Good? Essay

Physical punishment is normally used by parents specifically use on pre-school child. This is due to the reason that this way is quicker to discipline their children. Although there has been several discussions and debates focused on the effectiveness of spanking, parent still use such approach in disciplining their children. The spanking usually occurs when the children are already four years old. The study also shows that corporal punishment is more general among minorities and poor families. Apart from physical punishment, yelling and swearing in front of the children are also considered as harmful. One of the negative effects brought by physical punishment is the strong tendencies of children to develop anti-social behaviour. The idea of corporal punishment is based on offense and leads to violent behaviour both exhibited by the parent and eventually the child. Also, the child could channel the aggression to other people for example bullying their classmates in school. Besides, lying, cheating, and stealing could be traced to a child history who suffered from corporal punishment. Another side that needs to be considered is that the development of anti-social behaviour surround all socio-economic groups. According to some studies, the intended effect created by physical punishment is reversed in the long term. Spanking and slapping are proven to be ineffective strategy in promoting discipline. In reality, children who are inflicted of pain in the form of spanking and slapping have shown the highest tendencies of suffering from behavioural problems. When parents use strict methods discipline, children could exhibit anxiety, helplessness, and depression. Child abuse is often used as a counter argument to the rampant use of corporal punishment. If it’s usually done to children, such method would hinder the growth of young bodies. Moreover, children are not able to absorb  pain, which in some instances lead to injuries. Most of the reported injuries have been due to parents losing their control. There is also no direct evidence showing children fearing their parents when subjected to corporal punishment. The most common response from children includes isolation and rebelling from their parents. The corporal punishment could destroy relationships and lasting effects on the psyche of the children. Corporal punishment tends to diminish the moral values and pro-social behaviour of children. At an early age, children understand that to solve all the problems should involve violence and physical pain. Another critical element of physical punishment is its affect the mental health of the children being subjected to it. Some parents misunderstanding obedience and discipline with fear. There is the possibility that children become more secretive and this affects the dynamics of a parent-child relationship. In a nutshell, the disadvantages of physical punishment outweigh by a huge margin the benefits of spanking. Except promoting good behaviour and discipline, corporal punishment produces adverse effects. Parents have embraced traditional methods, but evidence through the years suggests that traditional physical punishment needs to end.

Eliot Rosewater

â€Å"God bless you Mr. Rosewater† is a phrase spoken but never meant. Eliot Rosewater serves a purpose to everyone but himself within the God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater standing as a back post for the weak and merciful poor, and as an undeniable powerhouse amongst the wealthy. Eliot Rosewater is as confused about himself as all others are around him, having enough money to take care of an entire family, yet spreading the wealth amongst his community. He lives alone inside of himself, standing by the telephone day and night, waiting for a phone call. This is what makes Eliot Rosewater the unlikely hero, he is a fool and a criminal in the minds of his father and his colleagues yet he stands as a god amongst his community, the people he cares about more than life itself. Eliot Rosewater stands out to the reader and the characters within the novel due to his lack of the one trait we all share, greed. The actions of Eliot show that he is a man that has struggled to do more than is expected of him, feeling guilt; he is a character that is struggling to make things right in a world he does not understand. Eliot Rosewater inherits the Rosewater fortune after his father sees him fit to do so, leaving Eliot in charge while his father remains senator of Rosewater, Indiana. Rosewater begins as a man that’s apparently very intelligent but feels lost in the world that surrounds him. He sees no purpose for himself, as of this time he was not head of the Rosewater Foundation. Eliot attends schools such as Harvard during his young adult life. After graduating from Harvard, Eliot deems himself unfit to continue through the motions of society and instead enlists himself into the military. After returning home from the war he marries a woman named Sylvia and tries to begin a new life. However, he is plagued by his responsibility for the death of a child during the war. Rosewater begins to drink while trying to maintain a life with his new love and be the head of the Rosewater Foundation. Eventually Eliot is an alcoholic and his marriage is in pieces, the only thing thriving being his foundation. Sylvia becomes obsessed with the wealth, feeling indifferent to the struggles of those less fortunate, breaks down and is told by her doctor to divorce Eliot and leave the county. Eliot becomes a volunteer fireman and a philanthropist, struggling to help the community due to the fact that his life is in shambles. Eliot realizes that his greatest purpose in this world is to take care of his family, the community of Rosewater, Indiana. Eliot takes care of his community through actions such as donations and help money. Sleeping by a telephone, Eliot is awakened each night with a phone call from someone in distress, asking them how much it would take to keep them alive for one more week. Eliot begins to act simply for his community, often times ignoring his own needs such as hunger and thirst. Eliot’s later actions show how he has changed as a person throughout the book, beginning life lost, he maneuvered through life without meaning or purpose. Eliot enlists in the army, showing that he feels that there is something better that he could do with his life. Eliot then lives the rest of his life in regret, hating himself for what he did to that child during the war, disconnecting himself from Sylvia and his father, hating that he can have so much money with the awful thing he did while so many of the good innocent hard working people of his community have nothing. By Eliot giving money to the members of his community we can tell that he is truly sorry for what he has done and is seeking forgiveness for his actions, perhaps trying to pay a debt to God or even to that child. This changes him from an innocent man with no purpose in life, to a guilty man who has a debt to repay, therefore pushing his life in a direction, toward helping his community. His feelings and actions can be seen on page 193: â€Å"Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies — â€Å"God damn it, you've got to be kind. † The significance of Eliot Rosewater is more than just a character, if you can call him that. Eliot Rosewater stands as a symbol, a purpose and an idea set in motion, a breathing thought. As Kurt Vonnegut says: â€Å"A sum of money is a leading character in this tale about people, just as a sum of honey might properly be a leading character in a tale about bees. â€Å" Money stands as a leading character in the novel; Eliot simply stands as the hands that hold it. Mr. Rosewater can’t really be put into the categories of â€Å"flat† or â€Å"static† because he simply does not act like a character within a novel should act. Eliot never shows his guilt or feelings to anyone, and instead the reader must find out about it through the narrator, Kurt Vonnegut. To the reader Eliot seems completely sane and almost appears as the hero of the tale, where as his relationship to the other characters tells a different story. Eliot stands as a radical, a man with no purpose or understanding of the cast system. Eliot Rosewater begins with a clean slate, going nowhere in his life. He ends with a few chips on his shoulder, yet with a purpose in his life more important than any of the other characters. Rosewater gives his fortune away to his community, claiming them as his children. Eliot’s characteristics stand him apart from every other character, being the only selfless character within the entire novel. His suffering leads him to completely happiness at the climax of the novel, leaving his friends and family in with misunderstanding stares.

Informative Speech Outline, Children and Violence Essay

General Purpose/ Goal: To inform. Specific Goal: I want my audience to know more about TV violence and children’s exposure to it. Thesis Statement: My informative speech is going to inform you about the definition of violence, how the media rates violence, and children’s exposure to media violence. Organizational Pattern: Topical INTRODUCTION I. Mahatma Gandhi said, â€Å"An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.† II. Today I am going to inform you about the issues of TV violence and the impact of the contents’ exposure to children. III. I am not a parent myself; however this issue should be of concern to each and every one of you because children are our future and we should do what we can to keep our futures looking bright. IV. From the definition of violence, how the media rates violence, and children’s exposure to media violence. (Transition: With that being said, let me tell you about what the definition of violence is and what is considered to be violent.) BODY I. What is considered to be violent can vary greatly, depending on the people you address. A.As stated in the Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, violence is defined as, â€Å"an exertion of physical force so as to injure or abuse (as in warfare effecting illegal entry into a house)† and/or, â€Å"an instance of violent treatment or procedure†. B. According to law.yourdictionary.com, violence is defined as, â€Å"the use of physical force, especially physical force utilized with malice and/or the attempt to harm someone.† C. Both of these definitions are pretty similar, basically meaning violence is anything involving the use of physical force to cause harm to others. 1. Violence can be anything from punching someone in the face to something more severe, such as stabbing someone with a knife and killing them. 2.Law enforcement punishes people that act violently and the severity of the punishment depends on the age of the criminal and the type of violence committed. (Transition: With that knowledge of what violence is, let me inform you of how the media rates violence.) II. The media has a general guideline for the suitability of shows for different age groups. A.Television shows have audience ratings, designed to help indicate which audience the TV program is appropriate for. 1.TV-Y, which is appropriate for all children, targeting children from ages 2-6 yrs. Old. 2.TV-Y7, directed to older children. Ages 7yrs. old and up. 3.TV-G, general audience. 4.TV-PG, parental guidance suggested. May contain material that parents may find unsuitable for younger children. Including moderate violence, some sexual situations, infrequent coarse language, or some suggestive dialogue. 5.TV-14, parents strongly cautioned. Ages 14 yrs. and up. To include: intense violence, intense sexual situations, strong coarse language, or intensely suggestive dialogue. 6.TV-MA, mature audience only. Unsuitable for children under 17. Contains graphic violence, explicit sexual activity, or crude indecent language. B.Even though there are warnings for the material that you are about to view on the TV, these warnings don’t physically stop you from watching the content that isn’t appropriate for your age group. (Transition: Now that you see the relationship between media and violence, let’s talk about my last main point, which is children’s exposure to media violence.) III. With the media increasing the amount of violent shows aired, children are becoming more exposed to the content. A. The media doesn’t necessarily target children as their main audience, but children nowadays do have more access to exposure of it on TV, whether it is due to the lack of parents monitoring what children watch or the mere public airing of it. B.According to the American Academy of Pediatrics website, â€Å"they found that children’s shows had the most violence of all television programming and that statistics read that some cartoons average twenty acts of violence in one hour, and by the age of eighteen children will have seen 16,000 simulated murders and 200,000 acts of violence on television.† 1.The American Academy of Pediatrics website also says that, â€Å" Television programs display 812 violent acts per hour; children’s programming, particularly cartoons, displays up to 20 violent acts hourly. C.The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry says that, â€Å"hundreds of studies of the effects of TV violence on children and teenagers have found that children may: become â€Å"immune† or numb to the horror of violence, gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems, imitate the violence they observe on television; and identify with certain characters, victims and/or victimizers.† D.Professor Craig Anderson testified before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee hearing in 2004, stating three effects of exposure to media violence, â€Å"short-term effects: aggression increases immediately after viewing a violent TV show or movie, and it lasts for at least 20 minutes. Long term effects: children who watch a lot of violent shows become more violent as adults than they would have become had they not been exposed to so much TV and movie violence. Long-term and short-term effects occur to both boys and girls.† CONCLUSION I. In conclusion II. I have told you about the definition of violence, how the media uses violence for entertainment, and about children’s exposure to TV violence. III. Please take this information to heart, when you’re sitting down on your lazy boy recliner after work and trying to choose something to watch on TV. IV. So I ask you, is your eye really worth the violence? Works Cited â€Å"ACT Against Violence : Media Violence & Children : At Home.† Adults and Children Together Against Violence Web Site. N.p., 2013. Web. 13 Feb. 2013. . Adams, Nicole. â€Å"How Tv Violence Affects Kids | LIVESTRONG.COM.†LIVESTRONG.COM – Lose Weight & Get Fit with Diet, Nutrition & Fitness Tools | LIVESTRONG.COM. N.p., 20 July 2012. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. . â€Å"Children and TV Violence.† American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. N.p., Nov. 2002. Web. 13 Feb. 2013. . â€Å"Media Violence and Children’s Play.† Sacramento City College. Child Action, Inc, n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. . â€Å"Media Violence, Sex Threaten Kids, Pediatricians Say – ABC

Marketing Plan for Red Bull Company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Marketing Plan for Red Bull Company - Essay Example Cumulatively, the company sold over 35 billion cans worldwide to date. Red Bull is the brand name used by the Red Bull Company from Austriai. This energy drink contains several ingredients, which make it a super energy drink. These include glucose, glucoronolactone, caffeine, sucrose, taurine, and B-group vitamins (Red Bull GmbH, n.d.). This drink trades in two major brands i.e. R-B Energy Drink and R-B Sugar Free. The later is similar to the former, only that it lacks sugars. Aspartame and acesulfame K sweeteners replace this glucose and sucrose. Red Bull enjoys worldwide market coverage as well as global competition from established soft drinks players. Emerging markets for soft drinks and health concerns of consumers are some of the issues affecting the market growth and expansion of the drink. Obesity is also becoming a major threat in the soft drinks market due to the sugars they contain. This is even more challenging to this industry owing to the fact that most of its target ma rket ranges among children and the youth who are most vulnerable to obesity. However, Red Bull managed to maneuver though all these challenges to sit comfortably at the top of preferred energy drinks around the globeii. Current Marketing Situation For any firm that seeks to succeed, it is important to define a company product's position, target and segmentation. In terms of its position, Red Bull is an energy drink that increases concentration, reaction speed, and performance as well as improves people's emotional state. Consumers can find all these benefits when drinking Red Bull. During tiring days, long school days, and stressful work, people want to get a product that helps them to relax their bodies and minds. Moreover, Red Bull provides not only its regular style of beverage but also a sugar-free version for people who are concerned about their health. Red Bull's target market is active males and females between ages of 17 to 35. For this reason, Red Bull targets people in col lege, recent college graduates, and workers who also study. These types of people have active and busy lifestyles that make it hard for them to endure long days and nights. Especially for the workers who study, it is challenging to balance sports, education, clubs and jobs. Red Bull is the solution for people at the turning point in their lives because energy is important component that keeps individuals active to achieve their goals Objectives and Issues Marketing Strategy It is important for the company to have segmentation in order to market its product and have costumers. Red Bull segments its product by demographic, geographic and psychographic components. The main demographic of Red Bull is young males and females between 17 and 35 years old. The geographic component focuses on people who study at places where life is busy and rushed. Bars and clubs near or on these places are also a geographic segment, in which Red Bull concentrates. The psychographic segment includes young s tudents and professionals who have long days filled with study and work, so they get tired and stressed. They want to relax and have fun at night, enjoy the rest of the day and remain active by having energy drinkiii Distribution of Red Bull energy drink is through most gas stations, convenience stores and grocery stores in the U.S. Some of the stores include Safeway, Quick Trip, Conoco, SuperSaver, and 7-Eleven. The product is also available in supercenter stores such as

Subprime Housing Loans Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Subprime Housing Loans - Case Study Example The data sources will come from six sets of data. The aim of the data is to construct a set of borrower characteristics, loan characteristics, property characteristics, lender characteristics and macroeconomic variables. The first data series is the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data from 2000 to 2007. The aim is to obtain individual loan level data (such as whether a loan is being accepted or rejected, loan amount, income, race and gender of the borrower, etc). The HMDA data is also used to derive measures of lender characteristics, the Herfindahl-Hirschmann Index of the Census tract and whether the lender is a bank. The second data set is the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) list of lenders that specialize in the subprime market to code each loan as being subprime or not. The thirda data set is the U.S. Census data to derive Census tract level demographic, property and borrower characteristics. The Census data is matched to HMDA by state, county and Census tract number. The fourth data set is from a major credit bureau for tract median FICO score (MEDFICO) and debt-to-income ratio (DTI), which are widely accepted borrower risk variables used by mortgage bankers and brokers in their lending decision. The credit bureau data is also matched to HMDA data by state, county and Census tract number. ... The first data series is the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data from 2000 to 2007. The aim is to obtain individual loan level data (such as whether a loan is being accepted or rejected, loan amount, income, race and gender of the borrower, etc). The HMDA data is also used to derive measures of lender characteristics, the Herfindahl-Hirschmann Index of the Census tract and whether the lender is a bank. The second data set is the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) list of lenders that specialize in the subprime market to code each loan as being subprime or not. The thirda data set is the U.S. Census data to derive Census tract level demographic, property and borrower characteristics. The Census data is matched to HMDA by state, county and Census tract number. The fourth data set is from a major credit bureau for tract median FICO score (MEDFICO) and debt-to-income ratio (DTI), which are widely accepted borrower risk variables used by mortgage bankers and brokers in their lending decision. The credit bureau data is also matched to HMDA data by state, county and Census tract number. Fifth, I match the House Price Index (HPI) data from the Office Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) to HMDA data by year and Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). This data is used to construct neighborhood house price appreciation rate, which is used to calculate the loan-to-value ratio (LTV). The sixth data set is the macroeconomic data from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco to control for macroeconomic risk.The methodology to be used is the single equation Probit regression.

Does totalitarianism rise out of the shadow of Liberty and Democracy Essay

Does totalitarianism rise out of the shadow of Liberty and Democracy - Essay Example Totalitarianism is defined as the autocratic tyrannical rule of one, who assumes indefinite powers with respect to all subjects governed. Democracy has typically been defined as the rule of majority, where all individuals are considered equal by law, all having equal say in their governance. Liberty, on the other hand, means the freedom of people with respect to religion, speech, property etc. and it has been traditionally affiliated with Democracy, theoretically and practically absent in Totalitarianism. But history holds evidence that Totalitarianism indeed stems from Democratic and Liberal forms of the government – a fact in spite of the contradictory theories. Writers all across the globe have written innumerable articles on this subject, and people continue to deliberate on the linkage between Democracy and Totalitarianism. Indeed, thinkers have continually predicted the collapse of Democracy into Totalitarianism since the beginning of governance. It is said that a Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It only exists till the time voters realize they have voted themselves out of treasuries which collapse due to lose fiscal policies, and Democracy is always followed by dictatorship (Tyler, 1970). This clearly implies that early contemplators clearly predicted this vicious cycle whereby Democracy will lead to Totalitarianism or Monarchy. Tyler had summed up the history of governments of the past two centuries, which clearly depict this phenomenon. Also, some people have recognized this cycle in slightly different way. Some believe the founders of government types knew how Liberty (0% government and 100% liberty) could span into Anarchy and consequently into Totalitarianism (100% government and 0% liberty). The cycle of democracy in this case is recognized as Democracy leading to Socialism, Socialism leading to Fascism, which in turn leads to Totalitarianism

Common Decency Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Common Decency - Assignment Example Unfortunately, the general manager of the hotel was arrogant and disrespectful to the hotel guests. Potential conflict may be avoided if the general manager did not express his emotions with regards to how frustrated he has become with regards to persons with disabilities. Escalation of conflict from potential to actual may be prevented by considering how the client must feel that he could not attend the wedding because his wheelchair could not pass through the function room. A pleasing tone in communicating to the guests may also prevent the escalation of conflict. 3. One conflict involved the non-availability of a room for one hotel guest, despite her presentation of a confirmation number for a reservation that was made two weeks earlier. A solution to this problem would involve the immediate provision of a room for this particular guest and possibly an additional feature, such as a free dinner from the hotel's dining room, free of charge. The other conflict involved the inability of a disabled guest to get into the function room of a wedding. A possible solution to this conflict would involve the movement of tables in the function room and assisting the guest in getting into the wedding reception. 4.

Nursing Care of COPD Patient Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6000 words

Nursing Care of COPD Patient - Research Paper Example Nursing knowledge seeks to derive and acquire a set of rules through explanatory theories leading to the production of critical analysis and thinking skills through which the professional nurse generate integrative understanding about the care she is required to deliver to any patient (Fawcett and Alligood, 2005). The main forms of knowledge that the nurses need to employ in practice are personal practical knowledge, knowledge of medical theoretical knowledge, knowledge about procedures that they need to participate, knowledge on the culture of the ward, and knowledge about how to reflect on the care provided to consolidate the experience and seek more knowledge. However, the academic or theoretical knowledge would also involve seeking evidence from research to inform, guide, and modify practice. Jenny and Loagn (1992) indicated that nurses knowledge also include the knowledge about their patients whom they care since they tend to identify and know the holistic dimensions of the pers on they care, different from their knowledge about their diseases. Melesis (2007) indicated that based on this knowledge, the nurses are concerned with their care which involves "hygiene, rest, exercise, sleep, nutrition, relief from pain, rehabilitation, and safety in the context of a patient’s daily life, state of health or illness, and their environment† (Melesis, 2007). It has been argued that the current care systems based on a holistic approach tends to change the delivery of care by the nurses, and these would require new knowledge and ways of knowing. The traditional models of nursing knowledge and medical-model learning may be inadequate to suffice the needs of these clients. Sullivan-Marx (2006) has indicated continuous development and progress of nursing knowledge through experience from care scenarios (Youngblut and Brooten, 2001).

Prices of Palladium Metal Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Prices of Palladium Metal - Assignment Example The diagram given below explains the phenomena: D` D S P1 P2 D D` The diagram exhibits that when alternative metals are found to be usable in manufacture of automobile converters, then Platinum and Titanium are no longer needed for use in automobile converters (Sharma, 2009). Hence, there is a consequent movement in the aggregate demand curve for automobile converters, shown with the movement of curve DD to D`D`. The shift in aggregate demand curve shows there is lesser inclination of buyers of Platinum and Titanium buyers to purchase these metals at a given price level (Agarwal, 2007). The shift in aggregate demand curve alters the equilibrium point at which aggregate demand curve DD intersects with aggregate supply curve SS (Mendes, 2011). It is important to note that the supply curve remain unchanged because suppliers are willing to supply Platinum and Titanium metals at the same price and quantity as before. The new equilibrium point corresponds to a lower price of the metals and reduced quantity of metal being traded in the market (Baurnol, 2011). The elasticity of both demand and supply curve is taken as being ‘unit elastic’ because both suppliers and buyers have alternative materials available. Hence, at the new equilibrium point both price and quantity consumed of the two metals is lower than it was before. The net outcome is a fall in both prices and quantity consumed of the two materials. ii) The above mentioned change took place merely due to the reduced demand for the physical metal in the market. However, another effect takes place in the market after the news of alternative metals become public (Henderson, 2003). The second effect is termed as speculation effect. The speculators in the metal market either maintain a physical stock in their possession or futures contracts of these metals with the hope of selling these metals at a profit. When the news of alternative metals becomes public, these speculators will try to rid themselves of their possession of metal immediately. Their attempt would be motivated by the urge to go out of market before market goes down to a very low level. D S S` P1 P2 This second effect of the decisions of these speculators will change the supply in the market of the alternative metals. There is going to be a short-term increase in the supply of Platinum and Titanium due to unloading effect of speculators. This movement is depicted the diagram above with the rightwards movement of the supply curve. The net effect of this movement is a further decrease in the price of the commodity in the market (Fisher, 2007). However, the effect of reduced quantity consumed will be partly compensated by a partly increase in consumption. Those manufacturers which used to find Titanium and Platinum as too costly would now be able to afford these metals in manufacture of automobile converters. Therefore, the net effect of the above two phenomena in the market for precious metals would be a significant dec rease in the prices of the metals (which could certainly be referred to as a ‘market crash’) and a partly decrease in consumption of Titanium and Platinum. Impact on the Market for Nissan and Mazda The impact of technological breakthrough will also be felt on the market for automobiles as well. In this section, the impact on the market demand and prices of both Mazda and Nissan is discussed. The graphical

Green benefits of ITS - PRESENTATION Research Paper

Green benefits of ITS - PRESENTATION - Research Paper Example he reduction of emissions but also to the financial support of the communities (Institute for Sustainable Communities, 2010, p.1); however, in the case of failure ITS could cause severe financial losses depending on the size of the relevant plan (Tignor et al. 1999) The studies used in this research paper are based on data of different type, depending on the mode of research employed in each case. High emphasis is given to reports published by governmental and non-governmental organizations operating in this area as these bodies are most likely to have access to critical data in regard to this subject. The advantage of these studies/ reports is that they refer to actual aspects, i.e. forms, benefits and problems, of ITS; in this way, it is easier to check the current performance but also the future risks of these systems. The benefits achieved in Syracuse through the update of the city’s signaling system are, all, related to sustainability (Halkias and Schauer 2004). The specific system is based on a computer application, appropriately tuned for covering the city’s needs in terms of transportation while fuel consumption is kept at low levels, as possible. It should be noted that the above system has been evaluated after 3 years of its establishment, a fact that denotes the need for a particular period of time before checking the effectiveness of such systems. In a study developed by the US Department of Transportation in 2013 the benefits of Automated Signal Systems were explored. The key benefits of these systems are those presented in slide 6. Among these benefits the most important seems to be the following: a) delays due to signaling problems, which represent the 10% of traffic delays, have been decreased, b) travel time can significantly increased in case of problematic signal systems; with automated signal systems the travel time can be reduced even by 10% (US Department of Transportation 2013). It should be noted that the increase of average speed, a

The role of social capital in the business start-up and Essay

The role of social capital in the business start-up and entrepreneurial development - Essay Example Capital, as stated by the economists, is a produced means of production. The expenditure incurred on capital in business is often termed as investment. This is because with the benefits of investments, an organization can generate economic surplus in future. The concept of social capital has gained importance in the contemporary business world. This concept was initially introduced by the sociologists and political scientists. In the current epoch, the concept of social capital withholds all those social relations that possess productive benefits within them. It is true that the success of growth or prosperity of an organization is derived with the help of easy access of financial or productive factor resources. However, goodwill and social relations are also important for determining factors that influence the success of a new business organization. The brand loyalty for a product can be developed by the consumers only if they are able to use the product. However, it is only social capital that can enhance the brand value of an organization at its initiation period. The business environments in the commercial marketplaces in the current era are highly competitive. In this situation, social capital acts as a core competence and helps a business to start-up efficiently. It also helps these new firms in developing and enhancing their entrepreneurial skills in business (Block, 1982). Literature Review The social capital largely helps the growth of an organization since its inception. Today at the business start up stage, the social networks of the entrepreneurs are utilized. In the later stage, the concept of networking between the business promoters falls under the context of social capital. It is true that by using social capital, the new business organizations gather human and financial capital in their business. This helps the organizations to develop their business in the contemporary competitive marketplaces. It is thus believed that in the modern days, succ ess of business organizations can only be achieved through a quantifiable amount of social capital. Unlike the concept of human and financial capital, social capital is intangible in nature and hence, it is highly difficult to measure it. It is thus true that the recent scholars face difficulty to precisely measure the exact amount of social capital required for business development. In 2001, Cote and Healy had stated that social capital relates to the norms, network and values of a business organization. Measuring the value of social capital has been considered to be one of the most primary tasks of World Value Survey in 2001. Hjollund and Svendsen had stated that the primary well-being of a new venture can only be established by the use of social capital (Stryker, 1998). In the society, social capital not only helps in the formulation of new business firms, but also facilitates the job creation activities. Thus, many economists suggest that in the long run, social capital helps to reduce the amount of unemployment. This is because social capital aids the formation of new firms or business ventures in an economy, thereby raising the employment opportunities in the same. It should also be analyzed that the rate of economic growth in a nation depends on the rate of new business formations. Thus, indirectly social capital is the underlying driving force for economic progress in a nation. In the

Faith of Children by Proxy Essay Example for Free

Faith of Children by Proxy Essay In response to the query as to how an infant can be capable of making an act of faith, which is regarded as being necessary for baptism; Catholics refer to faith of infants born into Christian home, as guaranteed by faith of their parents and sponsors. The parents of such infants have the bounding duty to bring them up as Christians. When such children have grown in the faith their baptism is now given ‘confirmation’. In Mark 2: 1-5, an example of faith by proxy, sufficient for salvation of another is often cited by Catholics. ‘And after some days, He again entered into Capernaum. And it was heard that He was in the house. And so many gathered that there was no room left, not even at the door. And He spoke the word to them. And they came to Him, bringing a paralytic, who was being carried by four men. And when they were not able to present him to Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. And opening it, they lowered down the stretcher on which the paralytic was lying. Then, when Jesus had seen their faith, he said to the paralytic, â€Å"Son, your sins are forgiven you. †Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ {Mark 2:1-5} In this passage, the Lord Jesus offered salvation and remission of sins to a paralytic man, based on the faith of those who brought him to Jesus, not necessarily on the faith of the sick man himself; because he was obviously incapable of professing his own faith. Therefore in like manner, Catholics who take their infants to Jesus for baptism are substituting their faith for that for the faith of their children. Another example of faith of one person guaranteeing salvation for another is found in the book of Matthew: ‘And when he had entered into Capernaum, a centurion approached, petitioning him, and saying, â€Å"Lord, my servant lies at home paralyzed and badly tormented. † And Jesus said to him, â€Å"I will come and heal him. †And responding, the centurion said: â€Å"Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my servant shall be healed†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬  And, hearing this, Jesus wondered. And he said to those following him: â€Å"Amen I say to you, I have not found so great a faith in Israel†. And Jesus said to the centurion, â€Å"Go, and just as you have believed, so let it be done for you. † And the servant was healed at that very hour. { Matthew 8: 5-13} Salvation for Whole Household Examples abound in the Holy Scriptures where the faith of the head of a household led to salvation of the whole household, children included. In Acts11, we read about a man being saved along with his entire household after Simon Peter had preached the gospel to them. ‘†¦. And he described for us how he had seen an Angel in his house, standing and saying to him: ‘Send to Joppa and summon Simon, who is surnamed Peter. And he shall speak to you words, by which you shall be saved with your whole house. ’ And when I had begun to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, just as upon us also, in the beginning. ’ {Acts 11:13-15} Therefore, Catholics take the informed Biblical view that since a whole household can be saved by the profession of faith of the head of the house and consequently all members of the household are baptized including little children, the Bible supports the Catholic practice of baptism of infants. Authority from Church Accepted Tradition The second major source of authority for the Catholic practice of baptizing infants is the accepted practice dating back to the very beginning of Christianity, the Apostolic Church. Right from the earliest days of the Christian Church, infant baptism has been an accepted practice. One Church authority, Origen wrote in the third century AD: Baptism is given for the remission of sins; and according to the usage of the Church, Baptism is given even to infants. And, indeed, if there were nothing in infants that required the remission of sins and nothing in them pertinent to forgiveness, the grace of Baptism would be superfluous. (Origen, Homily on Leviticus 8:3 AD 244) The Roman Catholic Church which succeeded the early Apostolic Church reaffirmed the correctness of the practice of baptism for infants and has continued the practice to this day. WORKS CITED Origen, Homily on Leviticus 8:3 AD 244 The Sacred Bible: The Acts of the Apostles http://www.catholicdoors.com/

Purpose Of School Management System Computer Science Essay

Purpose Of School Management System Computer Science Essay Computer technology is used to provide facilities to user to perform their jobs quickly and accurately. That is why computer is used in most organizations to maximize the efficiency and performance of the organization. The objectives of the latest technology are to speed up the system, to reduce the errors and to develop error free inputs, as invalid inputs are the main cause of computer mistakes and a computer never makes mistakes of its own. Every nation in the world want to develop the technological excellence to reduce problems and store its progress in the record, so we as developing nation should realize this trend and should need to adopt this high speed technology. Computer technology is not used only in science and arts, but it is also applied in all sorts of data processing activities. 1.1 Purpose of School Management System (SMS): Now these days computer play very important role in any formal organization, because computer works faster and accurate than human. The purpose of developing the SMS system of any organization is that to make easy to management to store a large number of data/reports into the computer. It is difficult for any management to store the large number of data manually or in papers. In that case when any user wants to take information it is very difficult for management to provide information immediately. It is very time consuming process. But by using computer it takes only few minutes/seconds. 1.2 Perspective of School Management System (SMS): This product is being produced for an educational institute FG public school to maintain it records. This software is basically for the use of administrator of management of this institute they will use it for storing the records and retrieve the information for the users. It is new computerized project of this institute, before this they works manually. 1.3 Scope of School Management System (SMS): SMS is intended to help the any institute that wants to store their students and management records into the computer. Our software is specially designed for an educational institute FG public school. Our SMS software will fulfill all the requirement of FG public school. It will store all the personal and academic information of the students. It will also store the fee information of the students. Management will get information of any student who studied/studying in this institute till now easily. This software will also help the management to store their employeeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s information including their personal information and salary information. Payroll system is very important of any organization .so this software will also handle the pay roll system of this institute. If will also store the results of the students. 1.3.1 Objectives: Now these days computer play an important role in any organization because computer can easily manage the great number of data as compare to human. User can easily access data on right time in computer. FG public school has been working for 17 years. This school has a great number of students. So it is difficult for the management to get information about this institute on right time. When computer system play in this institute it will make easy to manage and access data of this institute. The School management system (SMS) based upon the following objectives: (a) Record Keeping The first objective of this system is to maintain the data of all the student and teacher in database. It maintains the personal record as well as the academic record of the student. It maintains student fee record and dues record. Teacher personal record and salary record are also store in the software. SMS also manage class record, subject record, examination record. (b) Reports Reports are the most important outputs of school management system (SMS). SMS create the following reports. Total number of student in the class Student admission reports Character certificate of the student Submitted Fee reports Submitted due reports Teacher Appointment Letter Teacher Experience reports Salary reports Bonus reports Examination report Detail Marks Certificate 1.4 Operation on SMS The school management system facilitates the user in following respects. 1.4.1 Data Entry Entering the correct and reliable data to the proposed system is the most important factor. The proposed system will facilitate the user with user-friendly screen, which will help the users to enter the correct data to proposed system easily. Different checks have been applied in the program for the validity of data so that wrong information cannot be entered into the system easily. 1.4.2 Updating Mistake in the entry process are possible to occur. These mistakes needed to be corrected at the right time so that the data remain correct. Any mistake during the entry process can be corrected through this option. 1.4.3 Deletion We can easily delete a particular record by requesting through entering the identity number or name of an item. The specified record is deleted from the database, which is not required anymore. This rarely occurs because most of the record are stored permanently, which may be referenced in later time. 1.4.4 Data Retrieval The main purpose of data retrieval is to describe and explain ways and methods by means of which we get the required information from the system. The most imported operation in a system is the utilization or retrieval of the stored data. Different programs have been developed for this purpose. In these programs different queries are developed. These queries provide different facilities to the users. For example, if a user wants to retrieve the data of a particular product then he will be given different option for the searching criteria such either through Category or name for both Imported as well as local Supplies. The system will provide all the information about the speechified criteria similarly; a user will be given choice to print the resulted output. 1.5 Software quality attributes: These are several quality attributes in our proposed system. 1.5.1 Correctness: Our proposed system will fulfill all the requirement and objectives of the user. User will find correct result that who wants. 1.5.2 Efficiency: The data retrieval and storage of data will be made efficient, for instance in previous system it took a considerable amount of time to retrieve information from the huge registers. 1.5.3 Flexibility: The system will be capable of making changes end enhancements in accordance with the future needs of the managements. 1.5.4 Security: Only authorized people can make the changing in the database. We will provide the login for the user. 1.5.5 Maintainability: If any error occurred in the system then it will easily maintain. 1.5.6 Reliability: Our purposed system will much reliable as compare to manual. 1.6.7 Reusability: Our software is reusable for any other institute with some miner changing.

The Data Inscription Standard Computer Science Essay

The Data Inscription Standard Computer Science Essay Whenever data is exchanged electronically many times the privacy of the data is a required. Encryption is used to restrict unintended recipients from viewing the data, which are deemed confidential and potentially dangerous if made known to irresponsible parties. In other word, encryption is the procedure of transforming plain text data that can be read by anyone to cipher text data that can only be read by someone with a secret decryption key.A message before being changed in any way is called plain text. Plain text messages are converted to ciphertext via some encryption method. An enryption method is called a cryptosystem. In 1972, the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), a part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, initiated a program to develop standards for the protection of computer data. The Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology (ICST), one of the major operating units of the National Bureau of Standards, had been recently established in response to a 1965 federal law known as the Brooks Act (PL89-306) that required new standards for improving utilization of computers by the federal government. Computer security had been identified by an ICST study as one of the high-priority areas requiring standards if computers were to be effectively used. A set of guidelines and standards were defined by the ICST that were to be developed as resources became available in computer security. The guidelines were to include areas such as physical security, risk management, contingency planning, and security auditing. Guidelines were adequate in areas not requiring interoperability among various computers. St andards were required in areas such as encryption, personal authentication, access control, secure data stor-age, and transmission because they could affect interoperability. Standards can be divided into different sections: basic, interoperability, interface, and implementation. 1. Basic standards (also called 4standards of good practice) are used to specify generic functions (services, methods, results) required to achieve a certain set of common goals. Examples include standards for purity of chemicals, contents of food products, and in the computer field, structured programming practices. 2. Interoperability standards specify functions and formats so that data transmitted from one computer can be properly acted on when received by another computer.The implementation (hardware, firmware, software) or structure (integrated, isolated, interfaced layers) need not be specified in interoperability standards, since there is no intent of replacing one implementation or structure within a system with another. 3. Interface standards specify not only the function and format of data crossing the interface, but also include physical, electrical, and logical specifications sufficient to replace one implementation (device, program, component) on either side of the interface with another. 4. Implementation standards not only specify the interfaces, functions, and formats, but also the structure and the method of implementation. These may be necessary to assure that secondary characteristics such as speed, reliability, physical security, etc. also meet certain needs. Such standards are often used to permit component replacement in an overall system. Services or Applications The basic DES algorithm can be used for both data encryption and data authentication. 1. Data Encryption: It is easy to see how the DES may be used to encrypt a 64-bit plaintext input to a 64-bit cipher text output, but data are seldom limited to 64 bits. In order to use DES in a variety of cryptographic applications, four modes of operation were developed: electronic codebook (ECB); cipher feedback (CFB); cipher block chaining (CBC); and output feedback (OFB) [26] (Figs. 1-4). Each mode has its advantages and disadvantages. ECB is excellent for encrypting keys; CFB is typically used for encrypting individual characters; and OFB is often used for encrypting satellite communications. Both CBC and CFB can be used to authenticate data. These modes of operation permit the use of DES for interactive terminal to host encryption, crypto-graphic key encryption for automated key management applications, file encryption, mail encryption, satellite data encryption, and other applications. In fact, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to find a cryptographic application where the DES cannot be applied. Figure 1: Electronic codebook (ECB) mode. Figure2: Cipher block chaining (CBC) mode. History of encryption In its earliest form, people have been attempting to conceal certain information that they wanted to keep to their own possession by substituting parts of the information with symbols, numbers and pictures. Ancient Babylonian merchants used intaglio, a piece of flat stone carved into a collage of images and some writing to identify themselves in trading transactions. Using this mechanism, they are producing what today we know as digital signature. The public knew that a particular signature belonged to this trader, but only he had the intaglio to produce that signature. Of course, technology today has evolved at such rapid pace that the need to protect information grows with the lessening reliability of older encryption techniques. Basic modern encryption is not much different from the ancient civilisations substitution using symbols. Translation table, lends itself very well in making a piece of data generally unreadable. However computers today are much too advanced that translation table is easily broken and thus no longer viable. Instead encryption today has grown into such specialised field that involve mathematical, non-linear cryptosystem that even a relatively powerful computers take months or even years to break the ciphertext. The origins of DES go back to the early 1970s. In 1972, after concluding a study on the US governments computer security needs, the US standards body NBS (National Bureau of Standards) now named NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) identified a need for a government-wide standard for encrypting unclassified, sensitive information.[1] Accordingly, on 15 May 1973, after consulting with the NSA, NBS solicited proposals for a cipher that would meet rigorous design criteria. None of the submissions, however, turned out to be suitable. A second request was issued on 27 August 1974. This time, IBM submitted a candidate which was deemed acceptable a cipher developed during the period 1973-1974 based on an earlier algorithm, Horst Feistels Lucifer cipher. The team at IBM involved in cipher design and analysis included Feistel, Walter Tuchman, Don Coppersmith, Alan Konheim, Carl Meyer, Mike Matyas, Roy Adler, Edna Grossman, Bill Notz, Lynn Smith, and Bryant Tuckerman. NSAs involvement in the design On 17 March 1975, the proposed DES was published in the Federal Register. Public comments were requested, and in the following year two open workshops were held to discuss the proposed standard. There was some criticism from various parties, including from public-key cryptography pioneers Martin Hellman and Whitfield Diffie, citing a shortened key length and the mysterious S-boxes as evidence of improper interference from the NSA. The suspicion was that the algorithm had been covertly weakened by the intelligence agency so that they but no-one else could easily read encrypted messages.[2] Alan Konheim (one of the designers of DES) commented, We sent the S-boxes off to Washington. They came back and were all different.[3] The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence reviewed the NSAs actions to determine whether there had been any improper involvement. In the unclassified summary of their findings, published in 1978, the Committee wrote: In the development of DES, NSA convinced IBM that a reduced key size was sufficient; indirectly assisted in the development of the S-box structures; and certified that the final DES algorithm was, to the best of their knowledge, free from any statistical or mathematical weakness.[4] However, it also found that NSA did not tamper with the design of the algorithm in any way. IBM invented and designed the algorithm, made all pertinent decisions regarding it, and concurred that the agreed upon key size was more than adequate for all commercial applications for which the DES was intended.[5] Another member of the DES team, Walter Tuchman, stated We developed the DES algorithm entirely within IBM using IBMers. The NSA did not dictate a single wire![6] In contrast, a declassified NSA book on cryptologic history states: In 1973 NBS solicited private industry for a data encryption standard (DES). The first offerings were disappointing, so NSA began working on its own algorithm. Then Howard Rosenblum, deputy director for research and engineering, discovered that Walter Tuchman of IBM was working on a modification to Lucifer for general use. NSA gave Tuchman a clearance and brought him in to work jointly with the Agency on his Lucifer modification.[7]and NSA worked closely with IBM to strengthen the algorithm against all except brute force attacks and to strengthen substitution tables, called S-boxes. Conversely, NSA tried to convince IBM to reduce the length of the key from 64 to 48 bits. Ultimately they compromised on a 56-bit key.[8] Some of the suspicions about hidden weaknesses in the S-boxes were allayed in 1990, with the independent discovery and open publication by Eli Biham and Adi Shamir of differential cryptanalysis, a general method for breaking block ciphers. The S-boxes of DES were much more resistant to the attack than if they had been chosen at random, strongly suggesting that IBM knew about the technique in the 1970s. This was indeed the case; in 1994, Don Coppersmith published some of the original design criteria for the S-boxes.[9] According to Steven Levy, IBM Watson researchers discovered differential cryptanalytic attacks in 1974 and were asked by the NSA to keep the technique secret.[10] Coppersmith explains IBMs secrecy decision by saying, that was because [differential cryptanalysis] can be a very powerful tool, used against many schemes, and there was concern that such information in the public domain could adversely affect national security. Levy quotes Walter Tuchman: [t]he asked us to st amp all our documents confidential We actually put a number on each one and locked them up in safes, because they were considered U.S. government classified. They said do it. So I did it. Bruce Schneier observed that It took the academic community two decades to figure out that the NSA tweaks actually improved the security of DES. Encryption Now a Days Industrial espionage among highly competitive businesses often requires that extensive security measures be put into place. And, those who wish to exercise their personal freedom, outside of the oppressive nature of governments, may also wish to encrypt certain information to avoid legalities that entailed possession of such. With respect to the Internet, there are many types of data and messages that people would want to be kept secret. Now that commercial trading on the Net is a reality, one of the main targets of data encryption is credit card numbers. Other information that could otherwise benefit or educate a group or individual can also be used against such groups or individuals. Security Problems That Encryption Does Not Solve While there are many good reasons to encrypt data, there are many reasons not to encrypt data. Encryption does not solve all security problems, and may make some problems worse. The following sections describe some misconceptions about encryption of stored data: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Principle 1: Encryption Does Not Solve Access Control Problems à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Principle 2: Encryption Does Not Protect Against a Malicious Database Administrator à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Principle 3: Encrypting Everything Does Not Make Data Secure Principle 1: Encryption Does Not Solve Access Control Problems Most organizations must limit data access to users who must see this data. For example, a human resources system may limit employees to viewing only their own employment records, while allowing managers of employees to see the employment records of subordinates. Human resource specialists may also need to see employee records for multiple employees. Typically, you can use access control mechanisms to address security policies that limit data access to those with a need to see it. Oracle Database has provided strong, independently evaluated access control mechanisms for many years. It enables access control enforcement to a fine level of granularity through Virtual Private Database. Because human resource records are considered sensitive information, it is tempting to think that all information should be encrypted for better security. However, encryption cannot enforce granular access control, and it may hinder data access. For example, an employee, his manager, and a human resources clerk may all need to access an employee record. If all employee data is encrypted, then all three must be able to access the data in unencrypted form. Therefore, the employee, the manager and the human resources clerk would have to share the same encryption key to decrypt the data. Encryption would, therefore, not provide any additional security in the sense of better access control, and the encryption might hinder the proper or efficient functioning of the application. An additional issue is that it is difficult to securely transmit and share encryption keys among multiple users of a system. A basic principle behind encrypting stored data is that it must not interfere with access control. For example, a user who has the SELECT privilege on emp should not be limited by the encryption mechanism from seeing all the data he is otherwise allowed to see. Similarly, there is little benefit to encrypting part of a table with one key and part of a table with another key if users must see all encrypted data in the table. In this case, encryption adds to the overhead of decrypting the data before users can read it. If access controls are implemented well, then encryption adds little additional security within the database itself. A user who has privileges to access data within the database has no more nor any less privileges as a result of encryption. Therefore, you should never use encryption to solve access control problems. Principle 2: Encryption Does Not Protect Against a Malicious Database Administrator Some organizations, concerned that a malicious user might gain elevated (database administrator) privileges by guessing a password, like the idea of encrypting stored data to protect against this threat. However, the correct solution to this problem is to protect the database administrator account, and to change default passwords for other privileged accounts. The easiest way to break into a database is by using a default password for a privileged account that an administrator allowed to remain unchanged. One example is SYS/CHANGE_ON_INSTALL. While there are many destructive things a malicious user can do to a database after gaining the DBA privilege, encryption will not protect against many of them. Examples include corrupting or deleting data, exporting user data to the file system to e-mail the data back to himself to run a password cracker on it, and so on. Some organizations are concerned that database administrators, typically having all privileges, are able to see all data in the database. These organizations feel that the database administrators should administer the database, but should not be able to see the data that the database contains. Some organizations are also concerned about concentrating so much privilege in one person, and would prefer to partition the DBA function, or enforce two-person access rules. It is tempting to think that encrypting all data (or significant amounts of data) will solve these problems, but there are better ways to protect against these threats. For example, Oracle Database supports limited partitioning of DBA privileges. Oracle Database provides native support for SYSDBA and SYSOPER users. SYSDBA has all privileges, but SYSOPER has a limited privilege set (such as startup and shutdown of the database). Furthermore, you can create smaller roles encompassing several system privileges. A jr_dba role might not include all system privileges, but only those appropriate to a junior database administrator (such as CREATE TABLE, CREATE USER, and so on). Oracle Database also enables auditing the actions taken by SYS (or SYS-privileged users) and storing that audit trail in a secure operating system location. Using this model, a separate auditor who has root privileges on the operating system can audit all actions by SYS, enabling the auditor to hold all database administrators accountable for their actions. See Auditing SYS Administrative Users for information about ways to audit database administrators. You can also fine-tune the access and control that database administrators have by using Oracle Database Vault. See Oracle Database Vault Administrators Guide for more information. The database administrator function is a trusted position. Even organizations with the most sensitive data, such as intelligence agencies, do not typically partition the database administrator function. Instead, they manage their database administrators strongly, because it is a position of trust. Periodic auditing can help to uncover inappropriate activities. Encryption of stored data must not interfere with the administration of the database, because otherwise, larger security issues can result. For example, if by encrypting data you corrupt the data, then you create a security problem, the data itself cannot be interpreted, and it may not be recoverable. You can use encryption to limit the ability of a database administrator or other privileged user to see data in the database. However, it is not a substitute for managing the database administrator privileges properly, or for controlling the use of powerful system privileges. If untrustworthy users have significant privileges, then they can pose multiple threats to an organization, some of them far more significant than viewing unencrypted credit card numbers. Principle 3: Encrypting Everything Does Not Make Data Secure A common error is to think that if encrypting some data strengthens security, then encrypting everything makes all data secure. As the discussion of the previous two principles illustrates, encryption does not address access control issues well, and it is important that encryption not interfere with normal access controls. Furthermore, encrypting an entire production database means that all data must be decrypted to be read, updated, or deleted. Encryption is inherently a performance-intensive operation; encrypting all data will significantly affect performance. Availability is a key aspect of security. If encrypting data makes data unavailable, or adversely affects availability by reducing performance, then encrypting everything will create a new security problem. Availability is also adversely affected by the database being inaccessible when encryption keys are changed, as good security practices require on a regular basis. When the keys are to be changed, the database is inaccessible while data is decrypted and re-encrypted with a new key or keys. There may be advantages to encrypting data stored off-line. For example, an organization may store backups for a period of 6 months to a year off-line, in a remote location. Of course, the first line of protection is to secure the facility storing the data, by establishing physical access controls. Encrypting this data before it is stored may provide additional benefits. Because it is not being accessed on-line, performance need not be a consideration. While an Oracle database does not provide this capability, there are vendors who provide encryption services. Before embarking on large-scale encryption of backup data, organizations considering this approach should thoroughly test the process. It is essential to verify that data encrypted before off-line storage can be decrypted and re-imported successfully. Advantages EFS technology makes it so that files encrypted by one user cannot be opened by another user if the latter does not possess appropriate permissions. After encryption is activated, the file remains encrypted in any storage location on the disk, regardless of where it is moved. Encryption is can be used on any files, including executables. The user with permission to decrypt a file is able to work with the file like with any other, without experiencing any restrictions or difficulties. Meanwhile, other users receive a restricted access notification when they attempt to access the EFS encrypted file. This approach is definitely very convenient. The user gets the opportunity to reliably and quickly (using standard means) limit access to confidential information for other household members or colleagues who also use the computer. EFS seems like an all-around winning tool, but this is not the case. Data encrypted using this technology can be entirely lost, for example during operating system reinstallation. We should remember that the files on disk are encrypted using the FEK (File Encryption Key), which is stored in their attributes. FEK is encrypted using the master key, which in turn is encrypted using the respective keys of the system users with access to the file. The user keys themselves are encrypted with the users password hashes, and the password hashes use the SYSKEY security feature. This chain of encryption, according to EFS developers, should reliably protect data, but in practice, as explained below, the protection can be ultimately reduced to the good old login-pass-word combination. Thanks to this encryption chain, if the password is lost or reset, or if the operating system fails or is reinstalled, it becomes impossible to gain access to the EFS-encrypted files on the drive. In fact, access can be lost irreversibly. Regular users do not fully understand how EFS works and often pay for it when they lose their data. Microsoft has issued EFS documentation that explains how it works and the main issues that may be encountered when encrypting, but these are difficult for regular users to understand, and few read the documentation before starting to work. Data Encryption Challenges In cases where encryption can provide additional security, there are some associated technical challenges, as described in the following sections: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Encrypting Indexed Data à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Generating Encryption Keys à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Transmitting Encryption Keys à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Storing Encryption Keys à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Changing Encryption Keys à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Encrypting Binary Large Objects Encrypting Indexed Data Special difficulties arise when encrypted data is indexed. For example, suppose a company uses a national identity number, such as the U.S. Social Security number (SSN), as the employee number for its employees. The company considers employee numbers to be sensitive data, and, therefore, wants to encrypt data in the employee_number column of the employees table. Because employee_number contains unique values, the database designers want to have an index on it for better performance. However, if DBMS_CRYPTO or the DBMS_OBFUSCATION_TOOLKIT (or another mechanism) is used to encrypt data in a column, then an index on that column will also contain encrypted values. Although an index can be used for equality checking (for example, SELECT * FROM emp WHERE employee_number = 987654321), if the index on that column contains encrypted values, then the index is essentially unusable for any other purpose. You should not encrypt indexed data. Oracle recommends that you do not use national identity numbers as unique IDs. Instead, use the CREATE SEQUENCE statement to generate unique identity numbers. Reasons to avoid using national identity numbers are as follows: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ There are privacy issues associated with overuse of national identity numbers (for example, identity theft). à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Sometimes national identity numbers can have duplicates, as with U.S. Social Security numbers. Generating Encryption Keys Encrypted data is only as secure as the key used for encrypting it. An encryption key must be securely generated using secure cryptographic key generation. Oracle Database provides support for secure random number generation, with the RANDOMBYTES function of DBMS_CRYPTO. (This function replaces the capabilities provided by the GetKey procedure of the earlier DBMS_OBFUSCATION_TOOLKIT.) DBMS_CRYPTO calls the secure random number generator (RNG) previously certified by RSA Security. Note: Do not use the DBMS_RANDOM package. The DBMS_RANDOM package generates pseudo-random numbers, which, as Randomness Recommendations for Security (RFC-1750) states that using pseudo-random processes to generate secret quantities can result in pseudo-security. Be sure to provide the correct number of bytes when you encrypt a key value. For example, you must provide a 16-byte key for the ENCRYPT_AES128 encryption algorithm. Transmitting Encryption Keys If the encryption key is to be passed by the application to the database, then you must encrypt it. Otherwise, an intruder could get access to the key as it is being transmitted. Network encryption, such as that provided by Oracle Advanced Security, protects all data in transit from modification or interception, including cryptographic keys. Storing Encryption Keys Storing encryption keys is one of the most important, yet difficult, aspects of encryption. To recover data encrypted with a symmetric key, the key must be accessible to an authorized application or user seeking to decrypt the data. At the same time, the key must be inaccessible to someone who is maliciously trying to access encrypted data that he is not supposed to see. The options available to a developer are: Storing the Encryption Keys in the Database Storing the Encryption Keys in the Operating System Users Managing Their Own Encryption Keys Using Transparent Database Encryption and Table space Encryption Storing the Encryption Keys in the Database Storing the keys in the database cannot always provide infallible security if you are trying to protect against the database administrator accessing encrypted data. An all-privileged database administrator could still access tables containing encryption keys. However, it can often provide good security against the casual curious user or against someone compromising the database file on the operating system. As a trivial example, suppose you create a table (EMP) that contains employee data. You want to encrypt the employee Social Security number (SSN) stored in one of the columns. You could encrypt employee SSN using a key that is stored in a separate column. However, anyone with SELECT access on the entire table could retrieve the encryption key and decrypt the matching SSN. While this encryption scheme seems easily defeated, with a little more effort you can create a solution that is much harder to break. For example, you could encrypt the SSN using a technique that performs some additional data transformation on the employee_number before using it to encrypt the SSN. This technique might be as simple as using an XOR operation on the employee_number and the birth date of the employee to determine the validity of the values. As additional protection, PL/SQL source code performing encryption can be wrapped, (using the WRAP utility) which obfuscates (scrambles) the code. The WRAP utility processes an input SQL file and obfuscates the PL/SQL units in it. For example, the following command uses the keymanage.sql file as the input: wrap iname=/mydir/keymanage.sql A developer can subsequently have a function in the package call the DBMS_OBFUSCATION_TOOLKIT with the key contained in the wrapped package. Oracle Database enables you to obfuscate dynamically generated PL/SQL code. The DBMS_DDL package contains two subprograms that allow you to obfuscate dynamically generated PL/SQL program units. For example, the following block uses the DBMS_DDL.CREATE_WRAPPED procedure to wrap dynamically generated PL/SQL code. BEGIN SYS.DBMS_DDL.CREATE_WRAPPED (function_returning_PLSQL_code()); END; While wrapping is not unbreakable, it makes it harder for an intruder to get access to the encryption key. Even in cases where a different key is supplied for each encrypted data value, you should not embed the key value within a package. Instead, wrap the package that performs the key management (that is, data transformation or padding). An alternative to wrapping the data is to have a separate table in which to store the encryption key and to envelope the call to the keys table with a procedure. The key table can be joined to the data table using a primary key to foreign key relationship. For example, employee_number is the primary key in the employees table that stores employee information and the encrypted SSN. The employee_number column is a foreign key to the ssn_keys table that stores the encryption keys for the employee SSN. The key stored in the ssn_keys table can also be transformed before use (by using an XOR operation), so the key itself is not stored unencrypted. If you wrap the procedure, then that can hide the way in which the keys are transformed before use. The strengths of this approach are: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Users who have direct table access cannot see the sensitive data unencrypted, nor can they retrieve the keys to decrypt the data. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Access to decrypted data can be controlled through a procedure that selects the encrypted data, retrieves the decryption key from the key table, and transforms it before it can be used to decrypt the data. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ The data transformation algorithm is hidden from casual snooping by wrapping the procedure, which obfuscates the procedure code. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ SELECT access to both the data table and the keys table does not guarantee that the user with this access can decrypt the data, because the key is transformed before use. The weakness to this approach is that a user who has SELECT access to both the key table and the data table, and who can derive the key transformation algorithm, can break the encryption scheme. The preceding approach is not infallible, but it is adequate to protect against easy retrieval of sensitive information stored in clear text. Storing the Encryption Keys in the Operating System Storing keys in a flat file in the operating system is another option. Oracle Database enables you to make callouts from PL/SQL, which you could use to retrieve encryption keys. However, if you store keys in the operating system and make callouts to it, then your data is only as secure as the protection on the operating system. If your primary security concern is that the database can be broken into from the operating system, then storing the keys in the operating system makes it easier for an intruder to retrieve encrypted data than storing the keys in the database itself. Users Managing Their Own Encryption Keys Using Transparent Database Encryption and Table space Encryption Transparent database encryption and table space encryption provide secu

Citizenship and The French Revolution Essay -- European History Resear

Citizenship and The French Revolution The French Revolution of 1789 changed the meaning of the word â€Å"revolution.† Prior to this year, revolution meant restoring a previous form of government that had been taken away. Since then, revolution has meant creating a new institution of government that did not previously exist. This required that a constitution be drafted. After a series of four mini-revolutions from May to July, the â€Å"Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen† was released on the twenty-sixth of August, 1789. When the French revolutionaries drew up the Declaration, they wanted to end the traditions surrounding hereditary monarchy and establish new institutions based on the principles of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment brought the application of scientific laws and formulas to society through the use of observation and reason rather than religion or tradition. The Declaration â€Å"brought together two streams of thought: one springing from the Anglo-American tradition of legal a nd constitutional guarantees of individual liberties, the other from the Enlightenment's belief that reason should guide all human affairs. Reason rather than tradition would be its justification.†1 â€Å"Men are born and remain free and equal in rights,† began the â€Å"Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen,† a document that was supposed to be applicable to all Frenchmen. But did the Declaration really apply to the Jews, Black African slaves, and women in the same respect as it applied to its creators, and was it even intended to do so? Historians have taken diverse approaches to the study of the French Revolutionary era. Perhaps this is because the French Revolution impacted different groups of people in quite contradictory ways. The interests o... .... PRIMARY SOURCES Hunt, Lynn, ed.. The French Revolution and Human Rights: A Brief Documentary History. Boston, New York: Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press, 1996. Very useful collection of primary sources including from the French Revolution including The Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen and the Declaration of Rights of Woman among others, with good biographical references. WEBSITES Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution. Washington, D.C.: the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, and New York: the American Social History Project at the City University of New York, supported by the Florence Gould Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. American Social History Productions, Inc., 2001. [cited 4 November 2001.] Available from the World Wide Web: (http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/index.html.)

Workplace for Disabled Employees Essay -- Exploratory Essays Research

Workplace for Disabled Employees      Ã‚  Ã‚   A person with a disability, or handicap, can be defined as someone with a physical or mental impairment, which has a substantial or long-term adverse affect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities (Employment 2). Handicap workers face many challenges in the work place that the average person overlooks. Also, many special arrangements and alterations have been made to the workplace for people with handicaps. Accessibility, transportation, workload, and salary are just some of the many issues that must be considered with the prospect of employing the handicap.    In some ways, most every individual is disabled to some degree. People who wear corrective lenses are visually disabled. People without a college degree are often considered educationally disabled. Any physical or mental trait that prevents a person from performing to the same level as an unimpaired person could be considered a handicap. However, wearing glasses and not having a college degree are not usually considered to be traits that get in the way of every day life. Most disabilities that affect a person by societal standards are mild to extreme physical limitations and/or mental retardation.    Often the focus of comedic routines, people with speech impairment face ridicule and embarrassment with he simple act of trying to communicate with others. Stuttering, foreign accents, and difficulty with vowel pronunciation all affect the meaning behind the spoken language. For example, a statement made quickly with a harsh tone could be perceived as anger. The same statement made with a slower and softer voice could be considered as sadness. Considered these inflections w... ...fectively allow these individuals to become part of the nation's labor force (Vocational 1).    Works Cited    "Employment Opportunities for People With Disabilities". http://www.opportunities.org.uk/aboutthecharity/. com. December 4, 2001. Garcia, Linda J.; Barrette Jacques; Laroche, Chantal. "Perceptions of the Obstacles to Work Reintegration for Persons with Aphasia". Aphasiology Mar2000, Vol. 14 Issue 3, p269, 22p. http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/vii.htmlz. December 10, 2001 Inge, Katherine J.; Strobel, Wendy; Wehman, Paul; Todd, Jennifer; and Pam Targett. "Vocational Outcomes for Persons With Severe Physical Disabilities: Design and Implementation of Workplace Supports". NeuroRehabilitation, 2000, Vol. 15 Issue 3, p175, 13p Stark, Pete. "Stark Introduces Disabled Workers Opportunity Act". FDCH Press Releases, 02/06/2001.       Workplace for Disabled Employees Essay -- Exploratory Essays Research Workplace for Disabled Employees      Ã‚  Ã‚   A person with a disability, or handicap, can be defined as someone with a physical or mental impairment, which has a substantial or long-term adverse affect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities (Employment 2). Handicap workers face many challenges in the work place that the average person overlooks. Also, many special arrangements and alterations have been made to the workplace for people with handicaps. Accessibility, transportation, workload, and salary are just some of the many issues that must be considered with the prospect of employing the handicap.    In some ways, most every individual is disabled to some degree. People who wear corrective lenses are visually disabled. People without a college degree are often considered educationally disabled. Any physical or mental trait that prevents a person from performing to the same level as an unimpaired person could be considered a handicap. However, wearing glasses and not having a college degree are not usually considered to be traits that get in the way of every day life. Most disabilities that affect a person by societal standards are mild to extreme physical limitations and/or mental retardation.    Often the focus of comedic routines, people with speech impairment face ridicule and embarrassment with he simple act of trying to communicate with others. Stuttering, foreign accents, and difficulty with vowel pronunciation all affect the meaning behind the spoken language. For example, a statement made quickly with a harsh tone could be perceived as anger. The same statement made with a slower and softer voice could be considered as sadness. Considered these inflections w... ...fectively allow these individuals to become part of the nation's labor force (Vocational 1).    Works Cited    "Employment Opportunities for People With Disabilities". http://www.opportunities.org.uk/aboutthecharity/. com. December 4, 2001. Garcia, Linda J.; Barrette Jacques; Laroche, Chantal. "Perceptions of the Obstacles to Work Reintegration for Persons with Aphasia". Aphasiology Mar2000, Vol. 14 Issue 3, p269, 22p. http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/vii.htmlz. December 10, 2001 Inge, Katherine J.; Strobel, Wendy; Wehman, Paul; Todd, Jennifer; and Pam Targett. "Vocational Outcomes for Persons With Severe Physical Disabilities: Design and Implementation of Workplace Supports". NeuroRehabilitation, 2000, Vol. 15 Issue 3, p175, 13p Stark, Pete. "Stark Introduces Disabled Workers Opportunity Act". FDCH Press Releases, 02/06/2001.      

Historical/Cultural Analysis

Historical/Cultural Analysis â€Å"Operation of a Medic. † The text, â€Å"Watching a Medic, Sicily, August 9, 1943†, illustrates the occupation of a medic in action during WWII. This text shows a medic helping another soldier in Sicily. In the background of the image there is a poor and deprived family looking upon the medic performing his duty of helping the injured soldier. This image shows what a medic’s lifestyle was like during the war. Medics had to perform their medical duties in places where injuries occurred, making it especially tough in the areas of where war was occurring.The image shows the historical context of the invasion of Sicily that took place during the same time as the picture. The image also shows the cultural context in relation with the lives of the natives living in Sicily. The occupation of medics and their lifestyle, the topic of war and military invasion, and the inhabitants of the homeland of Sicily, can all be accurately embedded w ithin the tangible meaning of what it was like during the time of this visual text. In the image there is a medic performing a procedure on another soldier that is lying injured on the ground.The injured soldier is lying with his uniform open and his eyes closed. His helmet is lying on the ground beside a poor family that watching the operation happening. The family is in the background and is looking upon with a worried and sad look on their faces. These people are watching the scene of a medic in action from their own doorsteps, which brings attention to the fact that these onlookers are natives of the land where the picture occurred. This distinguishes the awareness of the cultural context that is being revealed in the image by the displaying of what the life was like for a family living in Sicily.The occupation of a medic is one that is very tough and challenging. To become a medic one must first have received medical basic training. They must be able to implement the knowledge and tactics learn in that medical training out on the battlefield. A medic must also be able to think and operate in hostile environments. One medic that served in Sicily during the time of the picture was Jerome McMenamy. McMenamy gives his reflections of working as a medic during the war in an interview. He was asked the uestion: what did you use to alleviate your patients’ pain? McMenamy response was, â€Å"One of the things for a medic in combat is morphine in little tubes. You had a quarter-grain of morphine in there, and you just jabbed it into a guy’s arm and squeezed that tube dry. In a few minutes he was feeling better†(Reynolds, Frank A. ). The treatment of pain, wounds, and minor injures are all examples of duties that medics have to perform during the time of the war. In the image it demonstrates the medic completing these duties.A medic’s occupation during the time of World War II was challenging and also life-threating. Personal accounts of the times of being a medic place a first hand understanding of the true lifestyles that medics had during World War II. McMenamy tells of the hardships he had to go through while being a medic in the war, â€Å"My ankle snapped over a rock and got badly sprained. They put me on kitchen police, and the ankle wasn’t getting any better, but I got though the four months of basic training. They just taped it up, and I was marching with a sprained ankle†(Reynolds, Frank A. . This tells of not only the challenging medical practices that medics had to deal with helping injured soldiers, but also the rough encounters that medics had to overcome. In the image the medic is dressed and suited up as a soldier ready for combat. This suggests that all medics must be prepared in the times of attack, and by doing so they must have completed the four months of basic training that McMenamy discussed. Medics have to participate in the same tough and struggling operations that other soldie rs in the war had to try and complete.The accomplishing of these tough tasks and all the requirements of being a medic has given medics the strength and bravery to go into unfamiliar lands such as Sicily in the image, and perform the medical actions that need to be completed. This enduring and lasting obligation is represented in the visual text by the medic helping a fallen soldier in an area that the medic is not familiar with. The medic being in this unaccustomed area of Sicily brings about the cultural context, and how he is able to perform his duties of a medic while having natives of the region stand close by and watch.Medics had many unpleasant and life threatening experiences in World War II. This brings to attention the experiences of medics in trying to complete their duties in a warzone. Medics have to worry about losing their own life everyday in war while trying to save the lives of others. They have to try to help the injured when not knowing what could happen. This co uld be from an opposing soldier coming up and attacking the medic while the medic is performing an operation on an injured soldier. The medic having no knowledge of the people or things around him is a cultural connection, such as that represented in the image.One invasion that occurred was the Allied invasion of Sicily. The image takes place in Sicily, which gives an historical connection to the battle that occurred in the same place as the picture. The historical connection of the image is the battle that was fought in Sicily during the time of WWII, â€Å"Axis forces struck first at Sicily in July in a amphibious landing that was surpassed in size only by the invasion at Normandy, France, year later. After driving German forces off of Sicily, Allied troops, in September, began a long, costly march up the mountainous Italian peninsula† (Moffett, George).The Allied invasion of Sicily was a major World War II campaign, in which the Allies took Sicily from the Axis. The Allies taking control over Sicily puts a means of emphasis on the historical context in the image due to the fact that the medic in the image is a member of the Allied Forces. The invasion that occurred in Sicily was done by the Allied forces, meaning that the carried out actions by the Allied forces were done on its opponents’ homeland. This shows the cultural connection in the image, due to the fact of the family in the background looking upon the unfamiliar soldier.This medic had to perform his duty being military medical personnel in a place that was uncommon to him. He was doing his work in front of a poor family that were living in the area where the picture was taken. The poor family was looking upon the medic that was preforming his medical practices in their territory of where they live. This shows the cultural connection to the image because of how the medic had to adapt to the area to complete his duty of being a medic in the unfamiliar land of Sicily. This image of a me dic performing a medical practice on an injured soldier shows the job of a medic in action.It does not show the threats that could occur to the medic while he is completing his job. Military medical personnel face the daily threat of gunfire, explosives, chemical weapons, and other battlefield hazards. While medics try to carry out their job of being a medic many get injured due to the fact of all these hazards happening around them. This image shows a glimpse of what a medic’s life was like during the war. The life of a medic during World War II was not that of picture perfect lifestyle, it was more life treating and having to deal with the thought of death occurring any second in the time of war.Which brings notion to the cultural context of the medic in the image, by him not having the knowledge of the environment around him and any possible threats that would come about. Works Cited: Moffett, George. â€Å"Celebrating WWII's other front. (Cover story). † Christian Science Monitor May 1995: 1. Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 Nov. 2011. Reynolds, Frank A. â€Å"Field Medic On The Italian Front. † Military History 22. 8 (2005): 54-68. Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 Nov. 2011.

Indian Role in Afghan and Its Implication of Pakistan Essay

1.Afghanistan continues to be a proxy ‘playing ground’ for diverse outside powers with Russia in near vicinity and US in West. The decade old US meddling after the failure of Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 has yielded more familiar results i.e. ethnic and cultural tensions, warlordism, drug-trafficking and rampant corruption. It is not that these traits did not exist in the Afghan society before US invaded Afghanistan but US invasion provided a surge in these attributes. 2.Afghanistan is a fault line where many outside powers are jostling for both influence and position. Some of this jostling remains overt, as in the case of US and its allies, and some of it is not, as in the case of Indian proxy war on Pakistan through Afghanistan. The Indian activities in Balochistan and FATA got a boost when US homed on to it for replicating its mandate in Afghanistan and preserve its interests post withdrawal. After intense interaction between the respective national security advisors, India agreed to fit into American boots. By doing so India would be benefited on two counts i.e. by safeguarding US interests in Afghanistan, it can accrue more American favors ranging from military to nuclear technology and it will expand its anti-Pakistan network in Afghanistan and continue sponsoring terrorist activities across borders into Pakistan. As a first step to place India in Afghanistan, US helped India sign an accord with Karzai titled ‘Strategic Partnership Agreement’ that would allow India exploit its provisions to cement its involvement in Afghan military and civil affairs. 3.AIM. 4. SEQ PART 1 INDIAN ROLE IN AFGHANISTAN PART 2 IMPACT ON PAKISTAN PART 3 ANALYSIS RECOMMENDATION PART 1 INDIAN ROLE IN AFGHANISTAN 5.The regional security dynamics in South Asia are driven by the conflict between India and Pakistan. Pakistan fears strategic encirclement by India if the Afghan government leans too much towards India, while India is afraid of Pakistan using Afghanistan as a convenient strategic staging area and a back door. Giving a military role to Indians in Afghanistan will simmer the existing tensions between the two countries on various issues while America wraps up its Afghan venture. With the added dimension of nuclear-armed India – Pakistan rivalry combined with likely strife taking place between the warlords and the central government in Kabul and a perpetual conflict between the warlords and the Taliban may create a civil war that no one would like to happen. 6.On October 4, 2011, New Delhi and Kabul have signed a historic Agreement on Strategic Partnership (ASP) which will further strengthen the relations between the two neighbors. India is the fifth highest donor in Afghanistan with $2billion of aid and also engaged in various development projects in Afghanistan and the recent visit by Afghan President Hamid Karzai also marks the collaboration of expanding the training of Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). The growing partnership between New Delhi and Kabul has ensured some anxious moments with in Pakistan who doubts Indian presence in Afghanistan as a threat to them. 7.India is now geared up to impart extensive training to the fledgling Afghan National Army at training institutions across the country. Three areas have been identified under the ‘Agreement’ so far i.e. increase in number of Afghan trainee officers, specialized training to already serving mid and higher-level officers in ANA and training Afghan soldiers in counter insurgency and counter terrorist operations. The Indian military institutions earmarked for the purpose comprise the Commando School in Belgaum in south India, the Counter-Insurgency and Jungle Warfare (CIJW) School in Mizoram in the north East and the High Altitude Warfare School in Sonamarg, Indian Occupied Kashmir. 8.The relations between India and Afghanistan were strengthen more after the visit by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to Kabul , which was after the gap of six years and he sent the message that, unlike the West, New Delhi has no ‘exit strategy’ from Afghanistan and will stay here to bring peace and stability in the country as well as in the region. There are also active negotiations taking place between the US and India to replace US trainers in Afghanistan for providing continuity in training of Afghan security forces once US withdraws from Afghanistan. 9.The fall of the Taliban regime in 2001 allowed India to expand its influence in Afghanistan dramatically. Its engineers and IT specialists poured in as part of its most ambitious aid package – worth more than $1.5 billion – to build remote mountain roads, establish telephone, internet, and satellite links and reopen schools and hospitals. Washington encouraged India’s involvement and believed it could use the soft power of its popular Bollywood film industry and other cultural links to encourage tolerance and pluralism in the country. Meanwhile, Delhi’s contribution towards Afghan reconstruction cannot be denied. The country’s four landmark projects are the Delaram-Zaranj road, transmission lines providing Uzbek electricity to Kabul, the hydroelectric Salma Dam and a new parliament building in Kabul – the latter two of which are still under way. The $500m newly committed aid by India will be used for development and infrastructure projects in agriculture and mining. Through its provision of education, medical treatment and small-business support, India has projected considerable soft power in Afghanistan. It provides 2,000 scholarships to Afghans annually for schooling and training in India, including for 500 Afghan civil servants. More than 100 Indian-supported but Afghan-owned small development projects are being implemented. Indian medical missions in Kabul, Jalalabad, Kandahar, Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif provided free treatment for more than 350,000 Afghans in 2009-10. PART 2 IMPACT ON PAKISTAN 10.Much distrust exists between Islamabad and Delhi over their respective activities in Afghanistan. Islamabad perceives New Delhi’s presence and influence as a deliberate attempt to encircle Pakistan and prevent it from attaining the strategic depth it needs in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s government often accuses India’s embassy and four consulates in Afghanistan of carrying out clandestine operations against Pakistan in its tribal areas and restive province of Baluchistan. Pakistan has claimed that India arms and funds Baluchi rebels and the Pakistani Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP), which India denies. Pakistan resents the goodwill of Afghans towards Indians. For its part, Delhi sees Pakistan as attempting to force it from Afghanistan. The Indian government charges that ‘elements’ in Pakistan – essentially its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate – planned the 2008 and 2009 terror attacks on the Indian embassy in Kabul (which Islamabad denies) and says that the Pakistan-based Haqqani terror network was responsible for carrying them out. 11.Indians replicating the role of US trainers in Afghanistan spells danger for Pakistan. The placement of Indian trainers may create more rifts in the already volatile bilateral relationship between India and Pakistan. Some of the opinion makers even go to the extent to term it on par with Kashmir. Some simplistic and narrow analyses have also linked the signing of the ASP to the worsening of US-Pakistan relations following the attack on the US embassy in Kabul, and of Afghan-Pakistan relations following the assassination of former President Rabbani and the suspension of the peace process with the Taliban thereafter. What has missed the eye is that the ASP was long in the making to address the Afghans’ long-standing demands. On the other hand, Islamababad did refrain from commenting on the Indo- Afghan partnership but the Pakistani defense analyst Ayesha Siddiqa says that â€Å"despite not commenting on this issue, the fact is that Pakistan does not like what has happened as they are crying for so long that Indian presence in Afghanistan would hurt Pakistan interests†. 12.India and Afghanistan’s problem is that Pakistan doesn’t agree and that sees India’s involvement in Afghanistan is a threat to its ‘strategic depth’ according to a concept in which Afghanistan is acknowledged as Pakistan’s backyard in which India has no right to hang out, whereas for India, which had been frozen out under the Taliban regime as a supporter of the Northern Alliance’s warlords, Afghanistan holds the keys to the Central Asian mineral and energy reserves it needs to sustain its rapid economic growth. To that end, and to increase its chances of gaining access to Afghanistan’s own rich reserves of iron ore, India has pledged another half a billion dollars in aid and the same is really affecting Pakistan’s and the things are even getting more worsen. Afghanistan is also keen to encourage India in this and it doesn’t want Pakistan to be its sole customs guard or jailer, and it has seen how vindictive its twin can be. When India’s Kabul embassy was blown up by a suicide bomber in 2008, killing 41, including India’s defence attachà ©, American officials said they had evidence that members of Pakistan’s ISI intelligence service had been involved in the plot. 13.There was a time when India was quite taken aback by that change of mood among regional neighbours that forced her to immediately seek new avenues to intervene. Indian psychological anguish, sense of alienation and feelings of failure in Afghanistan have revamped Indian diplomatic efforts with enhanced lobbying and manipulative methodology to mark their presence in Afghanistan. In this backdrop, Afghan Foreign Minister Dr. Abdullah Abdullah’s recent statement that India has a critical role to play in their country is a sign of persistent Indian clout in Afghanistan. Hence, Indian diplomatic efforts in Kabul to drive a wedge between Pakistan and Afghanistan to ensure that mutual relationship between the two inseparable neighbors remain tense. In this context, India aggressively propagates that al-Qaeda and Taliban are having safe heavens in major cities of Pakistan to show Pakistan in bad light and create ill feelings between the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan. India’s Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao talking at a South Asia initiative talk on â€Å"India’s global role† in Harvard University a few months back said: â€Å"We have direct interest in Afghanistan, not because we see it as theater of rivalry with Pakistan but because of the growing fusion of terrorist groups that operate from Afghanistan and Pakistan and their activities in India†. PATR 3 ANALYSIS 13. The reality is what meets beyond the eyes. India has interest in Afghanistan but not in its stability and for this purpose Indian intelligence agencies have been trying to create rift among various segments of society in Afghanistan. The instability in the Afghan society will not only help India consolidate its place in Afghanistan but also facilitate in destabilizing the arch-rival Pakistan and energy rich Central Asian Republics (CARs). In the pursuance of same, India invested over a billion US dollars to have an economic clout in Afghanistan and surged its presence in terms of intelligence cooperation through opening of new consulates. These consulates are used to continue destabilization of both Pakistan and Afghanistan and their respective interests. New Delhi’s billion dollars aid to Kabul is being actually dispersed among Indian companies working in Afghanistan for use in the projects that would help India consolidate its place in Afghanistan and Central Asia. 14.For instance, construction of road linking Chahbahar Port in Iran with Afghanistan was part of the encirclement plan and to secretly ship explosives, arms and ammunition from India in the name of construction material. India has also started showing its friendly gestures to Iran as well. In a bid to make Iran forget that India voted against its nuclear programme in the IAEA and supported sanctions on Iran, New Delhi is now often found advocating that Iran has a right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy. All this flattery is to keep Afghanistan accessible through the Iranian corridor. Afghanistan is important to India to achieve its vested interests in the region. India’s long and tumultuous history of capturing and grabbing natural resources and territories, which includes valley of Jammu & Kashmir and state of Nagaland, in order to expand its size and power, is no more a hidden fact. The expansionist agenda of India disqualifies it to be a regional power what to speak of assigning her a greater role in regional peace initiatives. 15.Had India been that justified mediating power and peace lover, it would not have back-stabbed Iran on nuclear issue merely on the basis that another nuclear armed country in the region is not in India’s interest. Also Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and Maldives would not have been a victim of Indian bully. Indian occupied Kashmir is another burning example of Indian usurpation. Northeast India, a region not very well known outside South Asia, is a hotbed of Indian state terrorism and numerous armed insurgencies. Recommendations 16.It will be in the interest of the region if the US reconciles with the India-Pakistan milieu in the Afghan context and leave Afghanistan to the Afghans to decide their own fate. As the Agreement on Strategic Partnership (ASP) was signed between New Delhi and Kabul, there was an immediate reaction from Islamababad that in such an agreement â€Å"the fundamental principle of ensuring the stability in the region must be taken in the account†. This shows that how anxious Islamababad is over the growing Indian presence in Afghanistan. India’s engagement in Afghanistan has been painted by many western analysts as a zero-sum game vis-à  -vis Pakistan. Yet, despite being the largest regional donor in Afghanistan, and the fifth largest internationally, India finds it increasingly difficult to operate in Afghanistan. There have been two suicide bombings of its embassy in Kabul, the first of which killed two senior Indian diplomats, two security personnel and 50 Afghans. A terror plot targeting the Indian consulate in Jalalabad was foiled. Since 2001, 20 Indian nationals have been killed. But New Delhi is also aware of the fact that until all the groups engaged in stopping the violence the path of development and progress will not be achieved. New Delhi is also aware of the fact that the role of Pakistan is also very crucial in bringing stability in the region but is also aware of the fact that any peace process will succeed only when the violence is completely shut. CONCL In short, India has no legitimate interests in Afghanistan but is keen to have a permanent role in Afghanistan in order to fulfill its vested agenda to destabilize Pakistan – major irritant in the way of establishing Indian supremacy in the region – and to have significant influence over central Asian states. From Indian side, anything that is being projected, promoted or displayed through media and friendly gestures is merely eyewash. So in view of these bitter realities, is India worth assigning a greater role in regional peace initiatives? In view of the past experience, Iran can be fool enough to walk hand in hand and in sync with India on Afghanistan? Would Kabul keep on closing its eyes on facts and will remain in state of denial vis-à  -vis New Delhi? It is time to realise that India is not a compulsion, all that is needed to make a right choice. The relation between India and Afghanistan is entering into the new horizon and it will be interesting to see how Pakistan will respond to this new growing relationship. The coming days will be the testing times for India and Afghanistan as United States is preparing to leave Afghanistan which will enable Pakistan to use its clout in Afghanistan for their strategic interests.