Saturday, August 31, 2019

A Hunger Artist Analysis Essay

Franz Kafka is the author and writer of the poem â€Å"A Hunger Artist†. ‘‘The Hunger Artist’’ has fascinated about fasting and one of the main reasons is how less people have taken interest in participating in this weird act making it rare thing to do. While ‘‘The Hunger Artist’’ was fasting years ago, people were paying for admission to go and witness this wise and unique behavior. ‘‘The Hunger Artist’’ kept he himself concealed a cage and his priority was to be able go hungry more than 40 days. There are butchers who keep an eye on ‘‘The Hunger Artist’’ to make sure he can’t cheat the people who take interest in him by sneaking a little food here and there which makes him pretty angry and frustrated. Pablo Picasso drew a famous portrait called Crucifixion years ago. If you look at the portrait and have a good understanding of ‘‘The Hunger Artist’’ it is easy to comprehend and see some similarities between them. The Crucifixion shows a whole variety of colors red, green and yellow representing its tone. In the picture there is a strong view of passion, tragedy and sacrifice which all kind of fits into the tone of ‘‘The Hunger Artist’’. The photo shows a significance of being one of the most popular religious paintings. One interesting fact about the portrait was that Picasso had intended to have looked at only by his close friends Franz Kafka’s main point is to show how there is a capitalism of art that has a bad reputation by others. He even painted a very unique portrait of ‘‘The Hunger Artist’’ that shows ‘’‘The Hunger Artist’ ’passionate about his fasting and fame is he is achieving from the public. This stories genre can also be seen in the Picassos photo ‘Crucifixion’. If you look really hard at the photo you can see woman surrounding the Christ on the cross. It is obvious that the Christ was getting attention and specifically in that picture there were woman trying to come to his aid. Similar to the way two women were trying to help ‘‘The Hunger Artist’’ and help him out of his cage but him initially refused. As you get deeper into the story it’s noticeable that ‘‘The Hunger Artist’’ is not as independent as he was early. After some time an impresario is told to administer the show and guide ‘‘The Hunger Artist’’. The impresario gives ‘‘The Hunger Artist’’ a certain amount of time to fast and these causes ‘‘The Hunger Artist’’ to lose his free will. ‘‘The Hunger Artist’’ had his cage placed by the animals so that the people walking by to observe would have to run into him regardless. A lot of people pass with no disregard but he does eventually get the attention of quite a few viewers. Fafka shows the famous ‘‘Hunger Artist’’ going through such emotional pain and being recognized as a sort of icon to society. Much like the cage that he is in shows him being imprisoned, Picassos painting he also gives a very unique description of the Christ suffering which is very similar to ‘’The Hunger Artist’’ because shows an expression of the Christ’s frustration and dealing with a great amount of pain he is going though especially because he has no way of getting himself off that cross unless he asks for help. Like the â€Å"The Hunger Artist† he was refusing to beg for mercy and peacefully died on the cross. ‘‘The Hunger Artist’’ has a weird obsession with fasting and he makes people believe it’s a simple thing to do, but a majority of people do not believe him. To him a great public performance is him sitting a cage suffering and starting to slowly die from the severity of the starvation. It makes ‘‘The Hunger Artist’’ happy to see people enjoy food in front of him while he fasts and the feeling of him viewing that makes him feel more superior. He does want anyone to judge his art and even there really no one that can fully understand what his main point for fasting is but that makes him proud about his craft. What makes it a great twist is that audience may not understand the art but enjoys it while ‘‘The Hunger Artist’’ understands and does not enjoy it. Kafka kind of creates a similarity and comparison with suffering between ‘‘The Hunger Artist’’ and Jesus Christ . the impresario proves to the audience how weak and exhausted ‘‘The Hunger Artist’’ is with pictures. The people’s sudden change of behavior when viewing art is one the things Kafka digs deep into. In the painting ‘’Crucifixion’’ you can also see the Christ has one of his arms stretched out and the other hidden the bright light, on either side of the Christ are the moon and the sun. If you also look very carefully you can see two people sitting below the Christ playing a game of dice on a table just below the cross. This shares a similarity with The Hunger Artist because a majority of people who visited the zoo observed â€Å"The Hunger Artist† and acted like nothing was out of the ordinary. That’s how people treated the Crucifying of the Christ years and years ago, it didn’t seem cruel or hurtful it was just a normal religious practice occurring. His way of dealing with his freedom loss was to continually pushing to show the significance of his art. Even though ‘‘The Hunger Artist’’ would like everyone’s attention that’s looking at the animals he mainly focuses on the people who just stare and observe him to challenge the people in the zoo. Getting very fed up because to his knowledge the people are not really all that interested and he cloaks his anger without showing any signs of madness and to them he’s sort of a like a freak . But he never stopped and continued on entertaining people. Pablo Picasso shared a great sense of wanting to bed remembered for his old Egyptian style oil paintings. He actually had been in love with the two women seen in the photo; their names were Marie Therese Walter, and Olga, his wife.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Lan-Base Attendance Monitoring and Payroll System Essay

1.1 Introduction Modernization changed our lifestyle. Technology improves us to spend time and spaces in remarkable ways. Due to rapid technological changes new things to produce better way of doing things through the help of technology. In our present life style people find way to improve their living day by day .This improvement was obviously seen in our modern technology, such modern machine, improvised gadgets, robotics and the most popular and widely influential is the modern computer. Modern computer helps people to lessen their work in such particular field of industry, particularly for those activities that requires computation storage of information presentation security and many uses of system software by the company, organization and in some aspect of educational areas. One of these changes is through the use of LAN-Based Attendance Monitoring and Payroll System of Caltex Gasoline Station which is programmed automatically set the time and date employees log; so that the office assistant mo nitors the record and liable easily access the payments of the employees. In the field of Information technology the knowledge in creating a LAN-Based Attendance Monitoring and Payroll System of the employees are one of the most important parts to keep a certain business stable also includes the monitoring of the employees and the payroll. The Owner can’t assure that his employee is arriving on time in Gasoline Station and he can’t also assure if the computation of the payroll is correct and accurate. 1.2.1 Background of the Study The Caltex Techron Balite Merchandise started as a Federal Gasoline station in 2007. After three years Federal Gasoline Station experienced bankrupt because of the competition in other gasoline station. The owner of Federal Gasoline Station decided to sell the property of Federal Gasoline Station to Mr. Danny Reobeca to recover his investment. In the year 2010 September 19, the Caltex Techron merchandising established in Barangay Balite. They started with sixteen (16) employees including (1) one manager, (1) one secretary, (2) two cashiers, and (12) twelve gasoline boys. Nowadays, the Caltex Techron Merchandising has (4) four Gasoline Machines, (3) three Gasoline Tanker, (1) one storage room and (1) one office room. Caltex Techron Merchandising have now (33) thirty three employees including (1) one manager as the owner, (3) three office assistant, (3) three cashier, (2) two guards and (24) twenty four gasoline boys. The operation is 24 hours and has three shifting for gasoline boy and cashiers. First shift (6:00am-3:00pm), second shift (12:00pm-9:00pm), third shift(9:00pm-6:00am), (2) two shifting for the security guard, First shift (6:00am-6:00pm) and second shift (6:00pm-6:00am) while the manager and office assistant work 8 hours start 8:00am to 4:00pm. The facilities of the Caltex Techron Merchandising are complete but proponents found out (2) problem. First, the attendance monitoring of the employee is manual like the traditional. Second, the exact computation of payroll of the employee is manual computation. They have an office assistant in the office room to manage the attendance monitoring and payroll of the employees. 1.2 Statement of the problem 1.2.1 General Problem The Manual attendance and payroll of the employees in Caltex Techron resulting lack of accuracy and security in terms of records. The main problem of manual system is very hard to retrieve information of the employees. 1.2.2 Specific Problem The Caltex Techron Merchandising has also some specific problem as they follow: * Manual recording of the time-in and time-out of the employees. * Using the manual computation of payroll. * Inaccurate employee’s attendance due to manual operation of time keeping. * Unorganized records because of many records that must be filed. 1.3 Objective 1.3.1 General Objective The Proponents aims to develop a LAN-Based Attendance Monitoring and Payroll System that will improve their service in terms of attendance monitoring and payroll of the employee. 1.3.2 Specific objectives * To develop a system that enable to search records easier and faster. * To avoid changing of time that they log. * To develop a system that will monitor the daily time record of employee. * To upgrade and standard the process of computing salaries of employees accurately. * To establish a system that will register the time-in and time-out of employees. * To prevent loosen and break down of the records and files. * To make automated the computation of the salaries of the employees. 1.4 Scope and Limitation The Proponents aims to develop a LAN-Based Attendance Monitoring and Payroll System of the employee for the improvement of Caltex Techron Merchandising. The File maintenance can easily add, search, delete, and update records, with the use of this system. 1.4.1 Scope * Computerize the Attendance of the employee. * Automated computation of salaries. * It gives accurate time and date of the employee’s log. * LAN-based System. * The administrator only has the authority to access the records of the employees. 1.4.2 Limitation * Records only the time and date of log-in and log-out of the employee but it can’t identify who are the real employees. * The LAN-Based Attendance Monitoring and Payroll System embedded only to Caltex Techron. 1.5 Significance of Study This study not only to develop a software system, It also aims to do specific task in a short period of time. Administrator/Manager: * It will help them in terms of less spending space and time. It will help them. Office Assistant: * It will be easy for them to monitor the attendance of the employee and to lessen their work. Employee: * It will be easier to get their salary because of the automatic computation. 1.6 Definition of Terms 1. Automated – To operate by automation. 2. Merchandising – Sales promotion has a comprehensive function including market research, development of new products. 3. Monitoring – A device for observing a biological condition or function. 4. Payroll – The sum necessary for distribution to those on a payroll also the money to be distributed. 5. Salary – Fixed comprehension paid regularly for devices 6. Technology – A capability given by the practical application knowledge. 7. Embedded – Fix to the business company. 8. LAN-Based – the system is running by group of personal computer and associated equipment that are linked by cable, office building and that share a communications line. 9. Manual – work by hand, involving the skills and hard word of hand. 10. Traditional – from generation to generation,† Old style†.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Business Research Methodology and Regular Maintenance

Owning a bar in the Hobart City is quite an interesting and a fascinating idea. Since the citizens of the Hobart city are quite extrovert, they usually like to spend their leisure hours in a sophisticated bar with their friends or dear ones. The name of the bar will be â€Å"On the Groove.† The plan is that the bar will be having a club with dance floor accompanying it. It is very important to conduct primary and secondary research so that it turns into a successful venture in the long run. The three important issues which is required to be analysed for the opening of a bar in Hobbit are the Location for the setup of bar, to compete with the prevailing competitors and their innovative ideas and the cost involved for setting up and maintenance in a regular manner (Grapebar.com.au, 2016).   The locations of the bar play a major role in its growth and development throughout its existence. Many a time due to the location of bar it gains popularity and customer’s attention as compared to those which are located in less popular areas. The choice of location will totally depend upon the bar will look, the kind of customers which it expects and the level of its contribution which towards the society. The next step will be to decide whether to purchase the requisite location or to take it up on lease. This decision will be depending upon the level of budget which has been proposed for â€Å"on the groove†. At last, it will depend on the owner of the bar how to sync the concept of the bar with the proposed location in order to achieve the best competitive advantage with respect to location and its services. At times, due to the popularity of location, customers usually gets attracted towards the bar to spend their leisure time and this automatically becomes one of the reason behind significant increase in the level of revenue for the bar. So, by choosing proper location for â€Å"On the Groove† the owner can expect increase the level of revenue and can expect prospective advantages accruing from it (Entrepreneur, 2016). It is very important for a bar to always come up with innovative ideas so that it does not loses its customers and it's quite capable to attract the prospective ones regularly. Like, along with the dance floor you can have a mixture or a combination of Sports Bar and beer bar at the same time. This will attract those kinds of customers who are inclined for the above said specialty. It will also be a one stop destination for those people who want to enjoy the drink along with grooving on the dance floor.   With the growing rapid changes in the needs of the customers, it has turned very important to have innovative ideas and to implement the same in the business from time to time. This will not only increase the number of customers but will also increase the level of prospect for the survival in this kind of industry. Not only this, it will be quite successful in gaining an edge upon its competitors in the market. It is very important for being a successful business owner, to underst and the latest Buzz in the market, to remain alert with the changing needs and wants of the customers and also conscious or proactive towards the environment. If the owner of â€Å"On the Groove† is quite innovative and creative it will be a plus point for him to carry out the concept of bar in the Hobart City (Entrepreneur, 2016). In order to proceed further with the concept of setting up a bar it is very important to analyse the target market in the industry. For this, critical analysis and research is to be conducted by collecting data regarding need of the customers in the form of surveys, the current position of similar bars in the state, level of regular and fixed type of investments by its competitors etc. The first and foremost step involved is the amount required for rent or lease followed by the level of investment in fixtures, various licences, opening stock, utilities, payroll, marketing expenses, legal services, types of insurance, accounting and various other miscellaneous expenses . Just for the purpose of consumption, it would be advisable to have 10% of the total other expenses to be allocated for miscellaneous expenses. This will be referred as total initiation cost for â€Å"on the groove†. Other cost like security terms for safety in order to prevent breakout is another important aspe ct to maintain a bar. From the owners point of you, raising a bar is equivalent to nurturing a child right from giving a name to it, ensuring its smooth functioning, hassle-free, higher revenue earnings   can be compared to the style of parenting having a child who is happy, well assured, adjusted and ready for his adulthood in the coming future.   Proper cash settlement by means of collecting the same from the customers, distributing among the employees in terms of their salaries and keeping aside owners share of profit can to add different setup inside the bar for effective cash management setup. This will be the additional cost for the owner. If the owner of the bar has conducted its cost benefit analysis and have considered the above mentioned cost it would be advisable to move ahead with on the groove. Profitability should be ensured to the owner after adjusting all the above mentioned cost judiciously (Entrepreneur, 2016). The above three factors play a major role in deciding the commercial viability of the bar in the Hobbit City. If all the three factors shows positive response during analysis, it would be quiet beneficial to the owner to have a bar in the City. Being updated with innovative ideas and controlled cost it will be a successful venture (Grapebar.com.au, 2016). Entrepreneur. (2016). How to Start a Bar/Club. [online] Available at: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/41460 [Accessed 11 Dec. 2016]. Fell, J. (2016). Three Things About Owning a Bar That Might Surprise You. [online] Entrepreneur. Available at: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/219351 [Accessed 11 Dec. 2016]. Grapebar.com.au. (2016). The Experience Grape – Wine | Food | Bar. [online] Available at: https://grapebar.com.au/the-experience/ [Accessed 11 Dec. 2016].

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Organizational Tax Research and Planning - Estate Tax Paper

Organizational Tax and Planning - Estate Tax - Research Paper Example The total value of estate tax is referred to as Gross Estate, while the tax itself is estimated by taking the Fair Market Value of the total taxable estate. If the estate is associated with any Mortgage or fees payable for setting the estate, then the Gross Estate is adjusted to that amount. The Net Value of Estate, which is reduced by the value of exemptions stipulated in the Laws, is the net amount after allowing for all the possible deductions. Case advise In the current case, a wealthy couple owns a farm and a number of businesses that they would like to bestow to their three children. They would like to be advised how to minimize tax against this property, so their children can enjoy the maximum benefit. In order to effectively bequeath the property to their descendants when they die, the couple should exercise proper estate planning, and particularly focus on matters of he estate tax. Looking at the provisions of Estate Tax, it appears that Estate Tax is a must pay tax that is imposed on the transfer of property following the death of the transferor. While it is not possible to avoid this tax, there are a number of ways that the couple can use to evade or legally minimize the impact of this tax. The couple should ensure that they choose the most efficient method of transferring property to their descendants by minimizing estate tax. This includes use of techniques that guarantees minimization of estate tax, which will be discussed later in this paper. Question 2 The current IRS’s provision is that Estate Tax is taxable up to a maximum rate of 35% and exempted up to $120,000. When computing the amount of taxable estate amount, some specific deductions are also available, which are valid up to the end of 2013 only. Beyond this exemption, the value usually reduces to $1,000,000 while the Estate Tax increases to 55%. Some of the significant changes, which have been suggested by the US President, include increasing the tax rate to 45% and introducing an exemption of up to $3,500,000. Certainly, this proposal will not go down very well with the taxpayers and if it is implemented in its current status, it is likely to cause more harm than the benefit it is intended for. The suggestion will impose a heavy burden on the US public, and hence it is important for the congress to device ways of making estate tax provisions friendlier to the taxpayers. In this regards, different congress groups have suggested a number of proposals, which include the following. i. The Extenders group from the farming estate has suggested that the status quo should be upheld in the future, which means the tax collector should continue exempting up to $5,120,000 and imposing tax at the rate of 35%. ii. The conformers support the president’s proposal, which will reduce the amount of exemption to $3,500,000 and increase tax rate to 45%. Therefore, their wish is that this proposal is incorporated in the Estate Tax laws. iii. The Reversers group demands th at the 2001/2002 tax provisions should be reinstated. This provision puts exempted amount at $1,000,000 and the Estate Tax at 55%. Ideally there are five options open to the current estate tax. These include: (i) amendment of the estate tax, (ii) passing of a compromise bill, (iii) extension of TRUIRJCA, (iv) maintaining of the status quo, and (v) implementing of the new suggestion in its current st

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Writing Assignment - State of the Union Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Writing Assignment - State of the Union - Essay Example Therefore, this is the work of the Senate but he points out that it has failed to do so. The President claims that he will use all his powers to make sure that the systems work as required and promises that this will happen by the end of the year. In his proposal, he tells the chairman of the House committee to prepare a bill that is aimed to measure those crossing the US border illegally. The bill targets to improve the equipment and the technology employed at the Southwest border. As a response to the proposed law, Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) a Republican, who also is the incoming House chair points out that; there was an anticipation of advancing the border legislation with the aim of providing additional fencing, surveillance, bettering visa tracking technology and enforcing the workforce related to this department. The enforcement should be done by making the use of e- verify mandatory, coming up with a system for employers to check the validity of their potential employees being in the USA soil. The senator points out that, the stated measures would be a vital and important component of any prospected immigration reform like the one stated by the president in his proposal. Again, the president points out that, including specific border targets for security improvement is vital in ensuring an evident progress on the run to reforming immigration practices in the US. The president also says that, there is the need to improve the U.S worker programs so as to address the rising demand for workers from outside the country. These workers come into USA country to fill both high and low skill positions that the Americans workers lack. In his proposal to the Congress, the president also addresses the issue of immigration. He points out that, several reforms should be employed so that the tax collection process in the USA is streamlined. The president talked about

Monday, August 26, 2019

Essay assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Assignment - Essay Example However, these programs cannot eliminate food insecurity completely. This work represents the project, including the number of strategies, which will help to reduce the rate of food insecurity in the USA. The first measure, which must be included in the program, is an annual monitoring of the state of food security. The forecast of socio-economic development of the country should contain the current and medium-term balance of production and the consumption of basic foodstuffs. This step will give the government an opportunity to predict the gabs in the process of development of the food market and take steps for their elimination. The second measure includes the introduction of the analysis of price and food proportions into the practice of the government in order to increase the volume of agricultural products, raise the investment attractiveness of the industry, ensure its financial sustainability and profitability. An important problem of food security remains the quality of food. The poor areas of the USA are often imported with the products, which are of low quality and do harm to human health. Considering this issue, it is necessary to organize a system of quality control of the imported products for the whole technological chain. The particular attention should be paid to the turnover of raw materials and food products with the high level of genetically modified sources. It is necessary to introduce the measures for stimulation and certification of eco products. At the state level, the government should actively promote healthy nutrition policy. The next measure concerns the building of a strong nutrition safety net. Even those people, who have a good level of income, can face financial troubles, caused by seasonal unprofitability, family conditions and so forth. In this case, it is important for them to be supported by the state authorities by means of the available access to the USDA’s assistance

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Conflict Interests and Goals Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Conflict Interests and Goals - Case Study Example During the conflict, it is important for the leader to be clear about the goals of the group, who often have multiple goals, in order to effectively manage conflict within its members. Since individual goals are usually contradicting in the conflict, they often cause confusion and internal tension between the group members. To diminish the costs and damages associated with conflicts, group members are required to be cautious and plan out their goals. This supports them to outline the nature of the conflict more noticeably, so that the conflicting parties are able to react maturely. (Cengage, 2008) While goals may evolve over the course of conflict, starting with a practically focused image of their goals and objectives helps parties to manuever conflicts with less resistance. (Foundation Coalition, 2011) How each TRIP goal functions for 2-3 of the people involved in the case study? TRIP goals with reference to â€Å"The Show Must Go On†: Topic Goals: Topic Goals are goals conc erning substantive issues that explain the nature of desires of each person associated with the conflict. They describe what the members are fighting for (Conflict Purple Group, 2011).

Human Resources Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Human Resources Development - Essay Example British government took the initiatives related to National Vocational Education and Training (NVET) about 40 years back with the development of state intervention during 1964 to 1980. The VET system in UK was radically reformed during 1980's. Such reforms included policies encouraging strong partnerships between employers and the world of education and training, replacement of most of the levy supported industry training arrangements with employer led national sector skills organisations, development of a national qualification framework and Legislation enabling the delivery sector of VET on a trajectory of growth and change. And it was during 1991 to 1997 that NVET was embedded in lifelong learning. The Moser report in 1999 found that one in five British adults was functionally illiterate (Harrison, 2002). This report underlined a need to take up the challenge of addressing issues of both supply and demand. This would result in an improvement in the quality of provision on offer an d an increase in the number of adults coming forward to take up this provision. The report recognized that to achieve this, there could be no quick fix solution and only a long-term strategy can achieve such synchronization. With these kinds of inputs the NVET has been undertaking corrective courses from time to time, in order to be more effective for the purpose. The government has an ambitious target of reducing the number of functionally illiterate people to half of the present figure by 2010. In view of the evolving global economy, which demands appropriately skilled workforce, most of the governments around the world are currently undertaking reforms of their education and training systems, with inclusion of the vocational streams into the system. UK faces several challenges under the globalisation regime, including continuing changes in technology, which is bound to shape the nature and demand for skills. Such initiatives have been effective to the extent that the wages of a trained individual are of course more that that of an un-trained one. Similarly the industry is also benefited by the training, as it doesn't have to spend much time, energy and resources on developing the individual, while the individual proves to be productive from day one. With other factors remaining unchanged, a better match of vocational skills and industry needs would no doubt increase the expectation that the labor market will reward vocational skills better than general education. For example; Nursing training and education has resulted in improvement in health care occupation. This has helped in long-term care for older people, reduced sedation and restraint, greater willingness to encourage autonomy and independence, and improved communication between workers and users (Nolan & Keady, 1996). For social care

Saturday, August 24, 2019

The effect of Indian culture on McDonalds advertising Research Paper

The effect of Indian culture on McDonalds advertising - Research Paper Example Like McDonald’s advertisement in Hindi which was made to reach out to majority of the people seeking happiness, as Hindi is the prominent language in India. It has also named its product in Hindi like Chicken Maharaja-Mac. In any country non-verbal communication plays a vital role in its culture. India is rich with her ceremonial greetings. Each gesture has its own language. Hence marketers need to be clear about the meanings associated with each of the symbols and signs. Like McDonald. The logo of McDonald now not just represent a hamburger restaurant, it has changed in India to represent vegetarian foods also. Since in India, the concept of beef was not allowed across many states, hence McDonald changed their strategy to introduce vegetarian restaurants in India. Also it uses a mannequin representing a joker with folded hands doing Namaste in Indian style. It represents greetings in Indian culture. Rituals and customs are ways in which a society practices of follows their religious beliefs. These are also passed down from generation to generation. The purpose of rituals is to maintain social acceptances, social bondage, and satisfaction. Consumers are also guided by these rituals. McDonald had to change their marketing strategy to introduce items of Indian origin like Wraps Pizza McPuff, McAloo Tikki Burger, Mc Veggie, and Curry Pans to make win over the consumers. Traditions are the rules which society follows and each religion has their unique tradition to follow. Over the years this tradition does evolve to accommodate new traditions. For a company this tradition guides the responses of consumer in response to a strategy. Indians by are vegetarian by religion. Hence McDonald understood the huge potential of making money from vegetarian outlets. Hence they also opened vegetarian outlets to adapt to Indian society. In a country like India, which has many subcultures in it, good taste means many different things to a variety of

Friday, August 23, 2019

Tax avoidance; a debate easily resolved Assignment

Tax avoidance; a debate easily resolved - Assignment Example According to, European Commission: Consultation on Double Non-Taxation Cases. (2012, May 1), tax avoidance is an approach where individuals use the legally provided tax policies to reduce the burden of taxation on them. In as much as such act is legal we will find that morally it is repugnant. In addition, the UK law tries as much as possible to minimize the loopholes that individuals are likely to use in tax avoidance schemes. The challenge though has been the sheer fact that the UK tax law is targeted as opposed to being purposive. There has been a consistent crop up of schemes that go around the law and these have further fueled legislative action. It is in record that so many commentators have advocated for the formulation of legislations to counter tax avoidance in general. This has been fueled by the fact that the establishment of the GAARs would ensure that efforts by the public to avoid taxation are thwarted (Freedman 2004). This further ensures that the taxpayer and the lawm akers divert their energies and efforts to other more productive activities. The tax authority is as well given the chance of being in the position of simplifying the law without being undermined. Among many other things, tax avoidance has been viewed to as well be an ethical issue in business. Companies have been found to seek for the minimization of their tax liabilities as a part of good governance through tax planning. They do so by making use and exploiting all the tools made available to them by the governments of the day (Sikka 2013). Such tools include allowances given, deductions advanced, and rebates. While tax planning is an open, convenient and compliant behavior, tax avoidance is a complex issue for most companies in the UK. Tax avoidance is a legitimate and it is the use of tools such as financial instruments to achieve tax desires that are favorable to the taxpayer while unanticipated by the government. Companies can employ the use of overseas

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Numerical Methods to solve equations Essay Example for Free

Numerical Methods to solve equations Essay The table above shows the numbers of iterations each method took in order to come to the same degree of accuracy. The Newton-Raphson method was the quickest, finding the root within a certain degree of accuracy in only three iterations. Second was the Decimal Search, which took five iterations and last was the Rearrangement Method, which took the most number of iterations, 6. Newton-Raphson method is clearly the fastest and the most efficient method to use as the number of iterations needed to find a root to a degree of accuracy is small. However, this method is very tiresome to calculate by hand and the tiniest mistake can result in a wrong answer. The Decimal Search takes more iteration; but, this method is the easiest and easily understood. However, this method is best done on a spreadsheet, where you would be able to spot the sign change easily. The Rearrangement Method takes slightly more iteration but it provides the root to any degree of accuracy. Also, the formula is iterative, therefore, it is not very time consuming. However, finding can be tricky. In terms of the software used, Decimal Search was the easiest as it only required spreadsheet which is not difficult to use. Although making the tables can be repetitive, any faults can easily be rectified. Both the Newton-Raphson Method and the Rearrangement Method used a calculator to work out the iterative steps. This was often very time-consuming and frustrating as simple mistakes could let to the wrong route. Autograph was used to draw all the graphs and show the methods at work. It was not hard to use but tricky, due to the different options available.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

The US border Security Essay Example for Free

The US border Security Essay Discussed in this essay is an outline of US borders and security related to them. The geographic and strategic value of the borders has been described in the beginning. Then the origin and purpose of United States Border Patrol has been discussed. Mentioned in the middle body are the steps or actions that USBP had taken so far in for safeguarding the borders along with the trouble they have endured in curbing issues such as illegal immigration, drug and human trafficking and screen immigrants for the signs of terrorism. Also discussed in length are human and drug trafficking that takes place across US border and how these things make their way into United States. The United States policy regarding border security is briefly discussed and the essay is closed with an analytical conclusion. US Border Security Since the beginning of civilization, borders have perhaps been the most valued asset nations consider themselves to have. Wars have been waged for the sake of their protection or expansion but they have been regarded sacredly none the less. As humanity progressed into the latter centuries, the concepts and its rigidity regarding the borders of a state kept on changing as the ancient world had open and unmanned borders. United States of America, since its creation has been guarding her borders with absolute zeal and dedication. Acquiring the half of the north American continent, United States is flanked by ocean on both its east and west side, whilst it shares its borders with Canada in the north and from Mexico in the south. Being one of the richest, most advanced and highly organized countries of the world, United States borders have been the object of fascination for its neighboring countries, specially Mexico being a third world country living right at the door step of US. Adhering to a strict and stern immigration and interior policy, people from all across the globe find it difficult to get entrance into the US without severe securitization. Offering the glorious prospects of freedom, financial security, safeguarding of rights and its ability to assimilate the diverse cultures of the world into its own, almost every person in the world has been enchanted by the prospect of living a life in the US, the Land of the Free. That is the reason its 8,000 miles long border have been violated enough times, specially from the south as immigrants from all across South American wishes to live a life of peace in the US. Along with the sea of illegal immigrants, US borders also face smugglers of both drugs and contraband items because of being one of the most lucrative markets in the world. Coupled with these troubles, US borders have been guarded highly as means of not permitting terrorist from making their way into US. The taste of 9/11 is something that US hasn’t quite forgotten yet. Thus, the border security of United States is not only one of the highest efficient and vigilant in the world, it is also one of the most sensitive one due to its immense size. Its importance can be summed up in the words of Ronald Regan as he said: The simple truth is that weve lost control of our own borders, and no Nation can do that and survive. We ignore Americas lost sovereignty at our own peril† (cited in www. usborderwatch. com) Overview The land border of US along with Canada spans 5,525 miles and is the longest non-militarized border in the world. There are 84 land POEs (Point Of Entry) along the northern border, which include but are not limited to three in Idaho,13 in Maine, three in Michigan, five in Minnesota, 10 in Montana, 12 in New York, 18 in North Dakota, seven in Vermont, and 12 in Washington. Around 250,000 people enter the United States from Canada. Canada is the single largest trading partner of the United States, with the total trade exceeding almost $372 billion in 2003. In fact, the largest trade link in the world is the Ambassador Bridge (connecting Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario) that has more than 7,000 trucks crossing daily transporting goods worth more than $120 billion per year. The southern land border with Mexico is 1,933 miles across and has 25 land POEs, six of which are in California, six in Arizona, two in New Mexico, and 11 in Texas. Over 800,000 people arrive from Mexico daily. Mexico is United States second largest trading partner, with the trade of $220. 3 billion in 2003, down from $247. 2 billion in 2000. The coast line of the United States is 12,479 miles long and there are 143 sea POEs. Some sea and river POEs are principally commercial ports while others receive passengers (Border Security: Inspections Practices, Policies, and Issues, 2004). In order to be able to cope with such a vast border from which not trade merchandise has been able to pass but also torrent of immigrants, either legal or illegal along with the high possibility of drugs, liquor, contraband items and smuggled good, US Border Patrol was founded in 1924 which after 85 five years is among one of the finest law enforcement organizations in the world. United States Border Patrol (USBP) Founded in 1924, the U. S. Border Patrol was established in El Paso, Texas, and Detroit, Michigan. Its primary purpose was to curb the illegal entry of aliens, contraband, and the flow of forbidden liquor from Mexico and Canada into the United States. Under the authority of the Immigration Act, approved by Congress on May 28, 1924, the Border Patrol was created as a uniformed law enforcement branch of the Immigration Bureau (â€Å"85 Years Of Protected By†, 2009). Back in those days, smuggling of liquor from Canada and Mexico was an immensely lucrative business and invited illegal immigrants to have a go at their lucks in United States. Today, the USBP’s primary mission is to detect and prevent the entry of terrorists, weapons of mass destruction, and illegal aliens into the country, and to interdict drug smugglers and other criminals along the border. The Homeland Security Act of 2002 dissolved the Immigration and Naturalization Service and placed the USBP within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) (Border security, the role of US border patrol, 2008). In the wake of 9/11, USBP’s funding and man power has been increased exponentially by the consent of Congress. Now having almost 18,000 agents in 20 sectors, and 164 stations all across the United States, its objectives and strategies also include the prevention of terrorists from entering the United States soil along with the detection and neutralization of weapons of mass destruction. Perhaps the toughest task USBP has to do is to curb the flow of illegal immigrants the swarms the borders of United States, especially the southern border. Due to the fact that over 97% of unauthorized migrant apprehensions occur along the southwest border, the USBP deploys over 90% of its agents there to deter illegal immigration. In 1993, a study commissioned by the Office of National Drug Control Policy pointed out to the fact that the southwest border was becoming the den of illegal immigrants noting as an example that 6,000 illegal immigrants attempted to enter the United States every night along a 7. 5 mile stretch of the San Diego border. The study also concluded that drug smuggling was a serious threat all along the southwest border, and recommended that the entries of the illegal immigrants should e prevented at the border rather than arresting them after entrance. This consequently led to USBP’s implementation of its first National Strategic Plan (NSP) in 1994. National Strategic Plan An endeavor to gain control over the overrun borders, NSP started out as a multiphase programs so as to maximize the USBP’s resources and their implementation on the areas of greatest entry of illegal immigrants and goods. The focus of the NSP was an operational strategy known as â€Å"Prevention Through Deterrence. † The strategy’s goal was to place USBP agents and resources directly on the border in order to prevent the entry of illegal aliens, rather than attempting to arrest aliens after they have already entered the country. Strategy’s phase I was called program â€Å"Hold the Line† at El Paso sector, which focused on the deployment of the agents deep into the borders in order to detect any alleged or attempted entries of border crossing rather than apprehending the culprits in the city streets and wasting precious time as it was relatively easy to catch border crossers in the wide open desert. The program wasn’t a complete success as it merely shifted the border crossing point from El Paso to somewhere else. San Diego’s Operation Gatekeeper followed after the El Paso program and many agents were deployed along the San Diego border. Aiding them was the state of the art ground sensors, infra-red cameras and stadium lights along with landing mats used as a border fence. Phase II of the program included the expansion of Operation Safeguard (1999) in Tucson, Arizona, operation Rio Grande (1997) in the McAllen and Laredo sectors of Texas, and an increased emphasis on securing the northern border. Phase III was set to involve the remaining areas of the southwest border as well as the coastal waters around Florida and Puerto Rico (Border security, the role of US border patrol, 2008). After the fateful events of 9/11, the USBP has modified its directives and prioritizing the prevention of terrorist penetration through the borders. As the investigations relating to 9/11 revealed that the terrorists had roamed freely across US with the status of illegal immigrant and prepared for the attacks from with in the US soil, USBP in collaboration with Immigration and Custom’s Enforcements, Anti Smuggling Units and CBP’s intelligence has directed all its attention towards the alien penetration across the US border. USBP revealed their new strategy to cope with the terror threats from entering US via illegal border crossing in March 2005. The five major points of that strategy are as follows. Establishing the substantial probability of apprehending terrorists and their weapons as they attempt to enter illegally between the ports of entry; Deterring illegal entries through improved enforcement; Detecting, apprehending, and deterring smugglers of humans, drugs, and other contraband; Leveraging â€Å"Smart Border† technology to multiply the deterrent and enforcement effect of Agents; Reducing crime in border communities, thereby improving the quality of life and economic vitality of those areas (Border security, the role of US border patrol, 2008). Striving hard to get the task done, the Homeland Security Department last year awarded one of the most ambitious technology contracts in the war on terror, a 10-year deal estimated at up to $10 billion to the global consulting firm Accenture. In return, the company would provide services to create a â€Å"virtual border that would electronically screen millions of foreign travelers. Termed as US-VISIT program, which stands for the United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology, started in July 2003. The US-VISIT system must eventually cover nearly 7,000 miles of borders along Mexico and Canada, including more than 300 land, air and sea ports that witness 450 million crossings a year (Higam OHarrow Jr. , 2005, p. A01). Human and Drug Trafficking across US borders Aside from the newly instilled fear of terrorism, United States faces the troublesome elements of smuggling of drugs and human trafficking and most of these gruesome things wade their way into America by means of illegal border crossing. Addressing the human trafficking element first, â€Å"The U. S. State Department’s 2005 Report on Human Trafficking estimates that between 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year and almost 20,000 are trafficked across U. S. borders alone† (â€Å"Combat Trafficking in Persons†, 2005). The horrible side of this gruesome business is that most of the trafficked persons are children. Extremely lucrative and seemingly unobtrusive, â€Å"human trafficking is considered to be the third-largest source of criminal income worldwide, generating an estimated $9. 5 billion per year. It is also closely linked with money laundering, document forgery, drug trafficking and international terrorism. † (Keefer, 2006, p. 5). According to John P. Torres, deputy assistant director for smuggling and public safety at the United States Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cross border human trafficking is a â€Å"significant risk to national security and public safety† (Seper, 2004). Drug trafficking is the problem that has plagued US since its very beginning. The very purpose of the establishment of USBP was to prohibit smuggled drugs from entering American territory but even after 85 years, the problem has not been fully curbed yet. It is the most lucrative organized crime operation in United States with its annual income estimated to be â€Å"as high as $110 billion† (â€Å"America’s Habit†, 1986). Cocaine being the most sought after drug, as its roots of origin are literally buried in South American countries, other popular drugs such as marijuana and heroin make its way into United States by means of either maritime vessels or through southern border. The numerous drug cartels active in United States gets their drugs en route Mexico regardless of the joint ventures both countries engaged in so as to hamper the drug trafficking. Mexico itself cultivates heroin and due to its lightly guarded 2,000 miles border with United States is the chief trafficker of heroin in USA. Drugs also are brought in underground through tunnels; some 100 have been discovered since 1990 along the 1,950-mile U. S. -Mexico border. The most sophisticated tunnels have lights, air systems and hydraulics (Feyerick et al, 2009). Regardless of extra tight security since 9/11 drug somehow is making its way into United States and hasn’t completely been stopped yet. Aside from human and drug trafficking, the USBP also has to look out for items of contraband nature such as weapons and pirated merchandise. With such a huge number of people passing through both north and south borders of United States, hunting down illegal immigrants, terrorists, drugs and pirated merchandise has become a daunting task for USBP. United States Border Security Policy Aware of its much sought after status, United States border security has always been very clear and its primary motive is to make sure the safety and its borders from the swarms of illegal immigrants and smuggled goods. The primary emphasis of the policy is about the status of immigrants who crosses both the borders of north and south to gain access into United States. Being in excellent terms with the government of Canada, the northern border of United States is subjected to less scrutinizing as compared to the southern one that’s in contact with Mexico. The residents of Mexico are issued a special Mexican Laser Visa that grants them access into US for as long as 6 months. Southern border, being constantly breached by illegal immigrants and smugglers is a highly watched territory where thousands of people pass every day thus making it extremely difficult for CBP and USBP to keep an eye out for anomalies. Keeping that in mind, granting Visa is not the only procedure to gain access into United States. Interviews are conducted, data is cross referenced and surveillance is mounted so that only the right person could be able to go through the gates of US. In the post 9/11 times, the security checks has been doubled and it has become the â€Å"primary mission of CBP is to prevent terrorists and terrorist weapons from entering the country. However, other components of CBP’s mission include interdicting other prohibited items such as illegal drugs, ammunition, firearms, and counterfeit goods; and monitoring trade compliance† (Border Security: Inspections Practices, Policies, and Issues, 2004). Conclusion The border patrol strategy was aimed at strengthening of United States immigration laws and strove for decreasing the number of illegal immigrants coming into the United States by increasing controls at the its borders. Previously the resources were primarily directed at strengthening the border patrol along the southwest border, to curb the entrance of illegal immigrants and smuggled goods but the terrorist attacks, however, brought attention to the northern border, which has been understaffed and lacked the necessary technology to adequately screen individuals seeking entry into the United States. Several pieces of legislation passed in the 107th Congress authorized and appropriated funding for additional staffing and resources along the northern border. Regardless of its outstanding services and capabilities, USBP has not been able to completely tackle the problem of illegal immigrants and smuggled merchandise. Many reasons, such the sheer size of the borders, the number of immigrants passing through it every and the dogged determinacy of people willing to enter the Land of the Free etc may contribute to its incomplete success. But that still doesn’t change the fact that US borders are much more safe and vigilant in the presence of United Stated Border Patrol. Reference â€Å"85 years of protected by† retrieved May 24, 2009 from http://www. cbp. gov/xp/cgov/border_security/border_patrol/85th_anniversary. xml/. â€Å"Americas Habit†, Drug Abuse, Drug Trafficking, Organized Crime Presidents Commission on Organized Crime, 1986, retrieved May 24, 2009 from http://www. druglibrary. org/SCHAFFER/GOVPUBS/amhab/amhabc3. htm/. â€Å"Border Security: Inspections Practices, Policies, and Issues†. CRS Report for Congress, 2004. Order Code RL32399, Congressional Research Service, The Library of Congress. â€Å"Border Security: The Role of the U. S. Border Patrol†. CRS Report for Congress, 2008. Order Code RL32562, Congressional Research Service, The Library of Congress. Feyerick, Deborah; Cary, Michael Steffen, Sheila. â€Å"Drug smugglers becoming more creative, U. S. agents say† April 16, 2009, retrieved May 24, 2009 from http://edition. cnn. com/2009/CRIME/04/16/creative. drug. smugglers/index. html/. Keefer, Sandra L. , â€Å"Human Trafficking And The Impact On National Security For The United States† March 2006, U. S. Army War College Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania 17013, p. 5-8. OHarrow Jr. Robert Higham, Scott. â€Å"US Border Security At Cross Roads† Washington Post, Monday, May 23, 2005, p. A01. Regan, Ronald. Quotation. Retrieved May 24, 2009 from http://usborderwatch. com/. Seper, Jerry. â€Å"Human Smuggling a Security Risk. † Washington Times. 19 May 2004, retrieved May 24 2009 from http://www. washingtontimes. com/functions/print. php? StoryID=20040518-103934-8980/. Trafficking in Persons Report, U. S. Department of State, 2005, retrieved May 24, 2009, http://state. gov/g/tip/tiprpt/2005/46606. htm/.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

The Characteristics And Applications Of Manets Computer Science Essay

The Characteristics And Applications Of Manets Computer Science Essay Chapter 1 The advent of ubiquitous computing and the creation of new, powerful, efficient, portable computing devices have focused the importance of mobile and wireless networking. Mobile wireless communications and networking is an emerging technology that allows users to access information and services electronically at any time, regardless of their geographic positions. There are two types of wireless networks: infrastructure based wireless networks and infrastructure-less wireless networks (ad hoc networks). The infrastructure based wireless networks have routers and gateways as stationary components to which mobile nodes within the network connect. Mobile nodes connect to the nearest base station whose communication radius covers the area that the nodes are in. When a mobile node moves out of the coverage area of a base station, it is handed off to a new base station that covers the area that the node is now in. Cellular phone technology is a typical example of an infrastructure network. The second type of wireless network is the ad hoc network. The term ad hoc tends to different forms and can be mobile, stand alone, or networked[1]. A Mobile Ad hoc NETwork (MANET) is a self-organized wireless communication short lived network that contains collection of mobile nodes. The mobile nodes communicate with one another by wireless radio links without the use of any pre-established fixed communication network infrastructure or centralized administration, such as base stations or access points, and with no human intervention [2, 3, 5, 6, 7]. Self-organizing means that MANETs have the ability to spontaneously form a network of mobile nodes or hosts, merged together or partitioned into separate networks on-the-fly depending on the networking needs and dynamically handle the joining or leaving of nodes in the network. The major objectives of self organized MANET are: scalability, reliability, and availability. Mobile nodes are low capacity autonomous computing devices that are capable of roaming independently. Because of the fact that nodes are mobile, the network topology changes rapidly and unpredictably over time. Each mobile node acts as both a host and a specialized router to relay information (forward packets) to other mobile nodes. The success of the communication highly depends on the other nodes cooperation. The nodes themselves are responsible for dynamically discovering other nodes to communicate in radio range. Figure 1.1: Heterogeneous Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) Typical MANET nodes are Laptops, PDAs, Pocket PCs, Cellular Phones, Internet Mobil Phones, Palmtops or any other mobile wireless devices. These devices are typically lightweight and battery operated. Figure 1.1 illustrates an example of a heterogeneous MANET and its communication technology which contains one PDA, one pocket PC, one laptop, one mobile phone and one mobile device. Since mobile phone is outside pocket PCs transmission range, the data from pocket PC to mobile phone must be retransmitted by laptop. 1.1.1 Characteristics of MANETs The main characteristics of MANETs are: the complete lack of centralized control, lack of association among nodes, rapid mobility of hosts, frequent dynamically varying network topology, shared broadcast radio channel, insecure operating environment, physical vulnerability and limited availability of resources, such as CPU processing capacity, memory power, battery power, and bandwidth [2, 6, 7, 8]. Dynamic Network Topologies: The nodes in MANETs are free to move independently in any direction. The networks wireless topology may change frequently and randomly at unpredictable times and primarily consists of bidirectional links. Low Bandwidth: These networks have lower capacity and shorter transmission range than fixed infrastructure networks. The throughput of wireless communication is lesser than wired communication because of the effect of the multiple access, fading, noise, and interference conditions. Limited Battery Power: The nodes or hosts operate on small batteries and other exhaustible means of energy. So, energy conservation is the most important design optimization criteria. Decentralized Control: Due to unreliable links, the working of MANET depends upon cooperation of participating nodes. Thus, implementation of any protocol that involves a centralized authority or administrator becomes difficult. Unreliable Communications: The shared-medium nature and unstable channel quality of wireless links may result in high packet-loss rate and re-routing instability, which is a common phenomenon that leads to throughput drops in multi-hop networks. This implies that the security solution in wireless ad hoc networks cannot rely on reliable communication. Weak Physical Protection: MANETs are more prone to physical security threats than fixed-cable nets. Mobile nodes are usually compact, soft and hand-held in nature. Today, portable devices are getting smaller and smaller. They could get damaged or lost or stolen easily and misused by an adversary. The increased possibility of different types of attacks should be carefully considered. Scalability: Due to the limited memory and processing power on mobile devices, the scalability is a key problem when we consider a large network size. Networks of 10,000 or even 100,000 nodes are envisioned, and scalability is one of the major design concerns. 1.1.2 Applications of MANETs There are many applications of MANETs. The domain of applications for MANETs is diverse, ranging from small, static networks that are constrained by power sources to large-scale, mobile, highly dynamic networks. Significant examples include establishing survivable, efficient, dynamic communication for: network-centric military/battlefield environments, emergency/rescue operations, disaster relief operations, intelligent transportation systems, conferences, fault-tolerant mobile sensor grids, smart homes, patient monitoring, environment control, and other security sensitive applications. Most of these applications demand a specific security guarantees and reliable communication [2, 5, 7, 9]. Some well known applications are: Military Tactical Operations: For fast and possibly short term establishment of military communications and troop deployments in hostile and/or unknown environments. Search and Rescue Operations: For communication in areas with little or no wireless infrastructure support. Disaster Relief Operations: For communication in environments where the existing infrastructure is destroyed or left inoperable. Law Enforcement: For secure and fast communication during law enforcement operations. Commercial Use: For enabling communications in exhibitions, conferences and large gatherings. For some business scenarios, the need for collaborative computing might be more important outside office environments than inside a building. After all, it is often the case where people do need to have outside meetings to cooperate and exchange information on a given project. 1.1.3 Routing in MANETs Node mobility has a large impact on the behavior of ad hoc networks. The nodes in the network are free to move independently in any direction to change the routes. Every node in MANET acts as a router that discovers and maintains routes in the network. The nodes themselves are responsible for dynamically discovering other nodes to communicate. When a node wants to communicate with a node outside its transmission range, a multi-hop routing strategy is used which involves some intermediate nodes. The networks wireless topology changes frequently and randomly at unpredictable times. In order to allow truly spontaneous, infrastructure-less networking and efficient end-to-end communication with the network of nodes, a routing protocol is used to discover the optimal routes between the nodes. Hence, the primary challenge is to establish a correct and efficient route between a pair of nodes and to ensure the correct and timely delivery of packets. The routing protocols meant for wired networks cannot be used for MANETs because routing in MANETs is nontrivial due to the highly dynamic nature of the mobile nodes. Route construction should be done with a minimum of overhead and bandwidth consumption. An extensive number of research works on designing the various routing protocols proactive, reactive, and hybrid have been proposed in the literature and widely evaluated for efficient routing of packets [3]. However, they do not address possible threats aiming at the disruption of the protocol itself and often are vulnerable to node misbehavior. A node dropping all the packets is considered as malicious node or selfish nodes. A malicious node misbehaves because it intends to damage network functioning. A selfish node does so because it wants to save battery life for its own communication by simply not participating in the routing protocol or by not executing the packet forwarding. A malicious node could falsely advertise very attractive routes and thereby convince other nodes to route their messages via that malicious node. With the lack of a priori trust between nodes, current ad hoc routing protocols are completely insecure and optimized only to spread routing information quickly as the network changes [4]. 1.1.4 Security in MANETs Security is an essential service for MANET because all network services are configured on-the-fly. When the security of a given MANET architecture is not properly designed from the beginning, it is difficult to achieve the security goals in practical networks during the network deployment [12, 13]. To secure a MANET, one usually considers the objectives confidentiality (privacy), availability, integrity, authenticity and non-repudiation. Confidentiality ensures that secret information in the network is never revealed to unauthorized nodes. i.e. the assurance that data is not disclosed to unauthorized parties. Availability ensures that the requested network services, such as bandwidth and connectivity, are available in a timely manner and service is not denied to authorize users. i.e. the assurance that data is readily accessible. Integrity ensures that message or packet being transferred between nodes is not altered or corrupted. i.e. the assurance that data is genuine. Authentication ensures the correct identity of the peer node it is communicating with. Non-repudiation ensures that the originator of a message cannot falsely deny having sent the message. i.e. the assurance that a node cannot later deny the data was sent by it. Node mobility in a MANET poses many security problems and vulnerable to different types of security attacks than conventional wired and wireless networks due to their open medium, dynamic network topology, absence of central administration, distributed cooperation, constrained capability, and lack of clear line of defense. The unconstrained nature of a wireless medium of MANETs allows the attackers for interception, injection, and interference of communication. Without proper security, mobile hosts are easily captured, compromised and hijacked by malicious nodes. Malicious nodes behavior may deliberately disrupt the network so that the whole network will be suffering from packet losses. Damages include leaking secret information, message contamination and node impersonation. Before MANETs are successfully deployed, security issues must be addressed. Usually, cryptographic techniques are used for secure communications in wired and wireless networks. The method of using security solutions of traditional wired networks is not suitable for providing security in MANETs. The main problem of any public-key based security system is to make each users public key available to others in such a way that its authenticity is verifiable. Conventional security solutions to provide public key management is implemented with public key infrastructure (PKI), in which a trusted third party (TTP) holds the public key certificates of all participating entities and acts as an online certification authority (CA) to provide a public key verification service. MANETs do not provide on-line access to trusted authorities or to centralized servers. Implementing public key management and certificate distribution is more challenging due to the problematic key exchange, session handling , absence of any infrastructure and centralized services, frequent node mobility, wireless link instability, possible network partitions, and configuration of all network services on-the-fly. For these reasons, traditional security solutions that require on-line trusted authorities or certificate repositories are not well suited for securing MANETs. Use of public key cryptography and certificates is one of the effective ways of securing a MANET. The main security problems that need to be dealt with in MANETs are: the secure storage of key/data in the devices; the authentication of devices that wish to communicate to each other; the secure key establishment of a session key among authenticated devices; and the secure routing in multi-hop networks [4]. 1.1.5 Security Attacks in MANETs Security means protecting the privacy (confidentiality), availability, integrity and non-repudiation. Security implies the identification of potential attacks, threats and vulnerability of a certain system from unauthorized access, use, modification or destruction. A security attack is any action that compromises or bypasses the security of information illegally or in an unauthorized way. The attack may alter, release, or deny data [10, 11, 14]. The attacks on the MANETs can be broadly classified into two categories: passive attacks and active attacks as shown in Figure 1.2. Both passive and active attacks can be made on any layer of the network protocol stack [3]. Figure 1.2: Types of security attacks Passive Attacks: A passive attack attempts to retrieve valuable information by listening to traffic channel without proper authorization, but does not affect system resources and the normal functioning of the network. Figure 1.3 shows a schematic description of a passive attacker C, eavesdropping on the communication channel between A and B. Figure 1.3: A passive attack The different types of passive attacks are eavesdropping (information leakage), traffic monitoring, and analysis. Passive attacks are very difficult to detect because they do not involve any alteration of the data. The emphasis in dealing with passive attacks is on prevention rather than detection. One of the solutions to the problem is to use powerful encryption mechanism to encrypt the data being transmitted, thereby making it impossible for the attacker to get useful information from the data overheard. Eavesdropping (information leakage) is a very easy passive attack in the radio transmission environment, where malicious nodes capture all traffic, including routing traffic, and thus obtain routing information. When one sends a message over the wireless medium, an attacker equipped with a suitable transceiver in the radio range of the transmission can intercept and capture all traffic including the sensitive routing information. The sender or the intended receiver has no means of detecting if the transmission has been eavesdropping in the radio transmission by the adversary who do not physically connect to the medium. Traffic monitoring collects information of network nodes such as the identities and locations of nodes and the amount of data transmitted among them. Traffic analysis means that a malicious node analyses all captured/received traffic in order to extract information about the characteristics of transmission, such as, which nodes are communicating frequently or exchange huge amounts of data. This information could be exploited to launch further attacks. Active Attacks: An active attack attempts to alter or destroy system resources and the data being exchanged in the network by injecting or modifying arbitrary packets, thus gain authentication and tries to affect or disrupt the normal functioning of the network services. An active attack involves information interruption, modification, or fabrication. Figure 1.4: An active attack As shown in Figure 1.4, an active attacker C can listen, modify, and inject messages into the communication channel between A and B. Active attacks can be either internal or external [5]. External attacks are carried out by nodes that do not belong to the network. These attacks are launched by adversaries who are not initially authorized to participate in the network operations and access the resources without authorization. External attacks usually aim to cause network congestion, denying access to specific network function or to disrupt the whole network operations. Bogus packets injection, denial of service, and impersonation are some of the attacks that are usually initiated by the external attackers. Internal attacks are from compromised nodes that are part of the network. Compared with external attacks, internal attacks are more serious and hard to detect because the attackers know valuable and secret information from compromised or hijacked nodes and possess privileged access rights to the network resources. Active attacks, whether carried out by an external adversary or an internal compromised node, involves actions such as impersonation (masquerading or spoofing), modification, fabrication and replication. The active attacks are classified into different types: MAC Layer attacks, Network Layer attacks, Transportation Layer attacks, Application Layer attacks and Multi Layer attacks as shown in Figure 1.5. MAC Layer Attacks: Jamming Attack In this form of attack, the adversary initially keeps monitoring the wireless medium in order to determine the frequency at which the receiver node is receiving signals from the sender. It then transmits signals on that frequency so that error free reception at the receiver is hindered [3]. Figure 1.5: Classification of security attacks Network Layer Attacks: Wormhole Attack In this attack, two compromised nodes can communicate with each other by a private network connection. A malicious node captures packets from one location in the network and tunnels these packets to the other malicious node at another location. The second malicious node is then expected to replay the tunneled packets locally. The tunnel between two colluding attackers is referred to as a wormhole. The wormhole can drop packets by short-circuiting the normal flow of routing packets or it can selectively forward packets to avoid detection [15, 16, 17]. Black Hole Attack A black hole attack is a kind of denial of service where a malicious node attracts all packets by falsely claiming (advertising) a shortest path to the destination node whose packets it wants to intercept and then absorb them without forwarding to the destination [15]. i.e. a malicious node falsely advertise itself as having the shortest path to the destination node whose packets it wants to intercept causing all nodes around it to route packets towards it. Sinkhole Attack In a sinkhole attack, the adversarys goal is to attract nearly all the traffic from a particular area through a compromised node, creating a metaphorical sinkhole with the adversary at the center. Because nodes on or near the path that packets follow have many opportunities to tamper with application data [18, 19]. One motivation for mounting a sinkhole attack is that it makes selective forwarding trivial by ensuring that all traffic in the targeted area flows through a compromised node, an adversary can selectively suppress or modify packets originating from any node in the area. Gray Hole Attack A gray hole attack is a variation of the black hole attack, where the malicious node is not initially malicious, it turns malicious sometime later. In this attack, an attacker drops all data packets but it lets control messages to route through it [20, 21]. This selective dropping makes gray hole attacks much more difficult to detect than black hole attack. Byzantine Attack In this attack, a compromised intermediate node or a set of compromised intermediate nodes works in collusion and collectively carries out attacks such as creating routing loops, routing packets on non-optimal paths, and selectively dropping packets. Byzantine failures are hard to detect because throughput of attacker nodes as same as other nodes [22]. Information Disclosure Attack In this, a compromised node attempts to reveal confidential or important information regarding the network topology (the structure of the network), geographic locations of nodes, or optimal routes to unauthorized nodes in the network [7][23]. Resource Consumption Attack In this attack, a malicious node deliberately tries to consume/waste away the resources of other nodes present in the network by requesting excessive route discovery (unnecessary route request control messages), very frequent generation of beacon packets, or by forwarding unnecessary packets (stale information) to that node. The resources that are targeted are battery power, bandwidth, and computational power, which are only limitedly available in MANETs [24, 25]. Man-In-The-Middle Attack In this, the attacker exists as a neighbor to any one node in the routing path and alters data that is being transmitted and injects modified packet into network. i.e. a malicious node impersonates the receiver with respect to the sender, and the sender with respect to the receiver, without having either of them realize that they have been attacked with an intension to read or modify the messages between two parties [12]. Neighbor Attack In this attack, upon receiving a packet, an intermediate node records its ID in the packet before forwarding the packet to the next node. An attacker, however, simply forwards the packet without recording its ID in the packet to make two nodes that are not within the communication range of each other believe that they are neighbors (i.e., one-hop away from each other), resulting in a disrupted route. The goal of neighbor attackers is to disrupt multicast routes by making two nodes that are in fact out of each others communication range believe that they can communicate directly with each other [15]. Routing Attacks In this attack, attackers try to alter the routing information and data in the routing control packet. There are several types of routing attacks, such as routing table overflow attack, routing table poisoning attack, packet replication attack, route cache poisoning attack, and rushing attack, mounted on the routing protocol which are aimed at disrupting the operation of the network [3]. Ã ¢-Â ºRouting Table Overflow Attack In this attack, an adversary node advertises routes to non-existing authorized nodes present in the network. The main objective of such an attack is to cause an overflow of the routing tables, which would, in turn, prevent the creation of entries corresponding to new routes to authorized nodes. Proactive routing protocols are more vulnerable to this attack compared to reactive routing protocols. Ã ¢-Â ºRouting Table Poisoning Attack In this attack, a malicious node sends false routing updates to other uncompromised nodes. Such an attack may result in suboptimal routing, network congestion or even make some part of the network inaccessible. Ã ¢-Â ºPacket Replication Attack In this attack, an adversary node replicates stale packets. This consumes additional bandwidth and battery power resources available to the nodes and also causes unnecessary confusion in the routing process. Ã ¢-Â ºRoute Cache Poisoning Attack This attack occurs when nodes are in the updating mode of their tables route. Information stored in the routing tables deleted, changed, and injected with false information. Ã ¢-Â ºRushing Attack In this case, an adversary can rush some routing packets towards the destination, leading to problems with routing. i.e. an adversary node which receives a route request packet from the source node floods the packet quickly throughout the network before other nodes which also receive the same route request packet can react. On demand routing protocols that use route discovery process are vulnerable to this type of attack [26]. Stealth Attacks Stealth attacks are classified into two classes. The first class of attacks attempts to hi-jack or perform traffic analysis on filtered traffic to and from victim nodes. These attacks are mounted, for example, by the modification of routing information. An attacker can divert traffic by using authentic routing messages to fool honest nodes into disrupting their routing tables. The second class partitions the network and reduces good put by disconnecting victim nodes in several ways. For example, the attacker can route a large amount of data through the victim node. This may totally consume the nodes energy resources or create a perception of unavailability due the large quantities of messages being dropped by the victim. Consequently the node under attack will not be used by neighboring routers and becomes isolated. The methods are referred to as stealth attacks since they minimize the cost of launching the attacks and reduce the visibility of the attacker [27]. Transportation Layer Attacks: Session Hijacking Attack Session hijacking is the major transport layer attack. Here, an adversary takes control over a session between two nodes. Since most authentication processes are carried out only at the start of a session, once the session between two nodes gets established, the adversary node masquerades as one of the end nodes of the session and hijacks the session. Session hijacking occurs on two levels: the network level and application level. Application Layer Attacks: Repudiation Attack Repudiation attack is the main application layer level attack. Repudiation refers to the denial or attempted denial by a node involved in a communication of having participated in all or part of the communication [3]. Non-repudiation is one of the important requirements for a security protocol in any communication network and assures that a node cannot later deny the data was sent by it. Multi Layer Attacks: Multi-layer attacks are those that could occur in any layer of the network protocol stack. Denial of service, impersonation or sybil attack, manipulation of network traffic, device tampering, jellifish attack and eclipse attack are some of the common multi-layer attacks. Denial of Service Attack In this attack, an adversary always attempts to prevent legitimate and authorized users of network services from accessing those services, where legitimate traffic cannot reach the target nodes. Denial of Service (DoS) attacks are against CPU power, battery power and transmission bandwidth. A malicious node may launch a DoS attack against another node by requesting routes from that node, or by forwarding unnecessary packets to that node in an attempt to wear down (draining) the other nodes batteries. A DoS attack can be carried out in many ways and against any layer in the network protocol stack, namely, physical layer, link layer, and network layer [4, 12, 31]. Sybil Attack This attack is also known as masquerade or impersonation or spoofing attack. In this attack, a single malicious node attempts to take out the identity of other nodes in the network by advertising false/fake routes. i.e. an attacker pretends to have multiple identities obtained either by impersonating (forges) other nodes or by making use of false identities. It then attempts to send packets over network with identity of other nodes making the destination believe that the packet is from original source [28]. Sybil attacks are classified into three categories: direct/indirect communication, fabricated/stolen identity, and simultaneity. In the direct communication, Sybil nodes communicate directly with legitimate nodes, whereas in the indirect communication, messages sent to Sybil nodes are routed through malicious nodes. An attacker can fabricate a new identity or it can simply steal it after destroying or temporarily disabling the impersonated node. All Sybil identities can participate simultaneously in the network or they may be cycled through [29]. Misrouting Attack This attack is also known as manipulation of network traffic attack. This is a very simple way for a node to disturb the protocol operation by announcing that it has better route than the existing one. In the misrouting attack, a non-legitimate node redirects the routing message and sends data packet to the wrong destination. This type of attack is carried out by modifying metric value of a route or by altering control message fields of a route or modifying the final destination address of the data packet or by forwarding a data packet to the wrong next hop in the route to the destination [30]. Device Tampering Attack (Weak Physical Protection) Unlike nodes in a wired network, nodes in MANETs are usually compact, soft, and hand-held in nature. They could get damaged or lost or stolen easily and misused by an adversary. In military applications, mobile nodes are subject to capturing, compromising and hijacking. In such hostile environments, it is almost impossible to provide perfect physical protection [3]. Jellyfish Attack A jellyfish attacker first needs to intrude into the multicast forwarding group. It then delays data packets unnecessarily for some amount of time before forwarding them. This result in significantly high end-to-end delays and, thus, degrades the performance of real-time applications [31]. Eclipse Attack A pattern of misbehavior called an eclipse attack, which consists of the gradual poisoning of good (uncompromised) nodes routing tables with links to a conspiracy of adversarial nodes (compromised nodes) [12, 15, 18]. 1.1.6 Security Solutions in MANET Various kinds of security attacks are possible on ad hoc routing. Due to inherent characteristics, MANETs are highly susceptible to malicious attacks. To overcome these attacks, available security solutions are used. Attack prevention measures can be used as the first line of defense to reduce the possibilities of attacks. There are two types of security solutions: preventive and detective to overcome these attacks. Preventive solutions are typically based on message encryption techniques, while detective solutions include the application of digital signature and cryptographic hash functions. The prevention schemes proposed for external attacks are key and trust management, whereas the countermeasures for internal attacks are secure routing protocols [5, 7]. 1.2 Motivation of the Work Providing security for MANETs is a difficult problem. The method of using security solutions of a traditional wired network is not suitable. All those methods require online trusted authority. In contrast with conventional networks, MANETs do not provide on-line access to trusted authorities or to centralized servers. For this reason, key management is particularly difficult to implement in such networks. However, key management is deemed as the fundamental essential part of any secure communication. There are two ways to introduce security in MANETs: 1. through a single authority domain, where certification and keys are issued by a single authority, and 2. through full self-organization, where security does not rely on any trusted authority or fixed server. Conventional public key management is implemented with public key infrastructure, in which a trusted third party (TTP) holds the public key certificates of all participating entities and acts as an online

Monday, August 19, 2019

Custom Essays: Imagination versus Realism in Hamlet -- GCSE Coursework

Imagination versus Realism in Hamlet      Ã‚  Ã‚   Is the Shakespearean tragic drama Hamlet basically an imaginative work or basically a realistic work? This essay seeks to answer this question and related questions, with the help of literary critics.    Harold Goddard’s essay, â€Å"Hamlet: His Own Falstaff,† highlights the battle between poetry and realism (history) in the play:    Hamlet, the conclusion is, is a failure because the materials Shakespeare inherited were too tough and intractable. Too tough and intractable for what? That they were too tough and intractable for a credible historical picture may be readily granted. But what of it? And since when was poetry supposed to defer to history? Two world wars in three decades ought to have taught us that our history has not gone deep enough. But poetry has. The greatest poetry has always depicted the world as a little citadel of nobility threatened by an immense barbarism, a flickering candle surrounded by infinite night. The â€Å"historical† impossibility of Hamlet is its poetical truth, and the paradox of its central figure is the universal psychology of man. (14)    Robert B. Heilman in â€Å"The Role We Give Shakespeare† indicates how the Bard’s rich imagination is the cause which gives the effect of universality of appreciation to his work:    Shakespeare has both feet on the ground; but in him the common ground is transfigured, revealed in a new dimension; nothing is too mean for him, but the mean itself is raised to a supernal plane. Shakespeare is the ultimate all-purpose book, with imaginative breadth and depth, for a humanity not limited by age or sex, immediately open to all who will read (a view not entirely shared by the caste of professional interpr... ...s.com/hamlet/other/essayson.htm#demag-ess N. pag.    Pitt, Angela. â€Å"Women in Shakespeare’s Tragedies.† Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Rpt. from Shakespeare’s Women. N.p.: n.p., 1981.    Rosenberg, Marvin. â€Å"Laertes: An Impulsive but Earnest Young Aristocrat.† Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Masks of Hamlet. Newark, NJ: University of Delaware Press, 1992.    Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http://www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html    West, Rebecca. â€Å"A Court and World Infected by the Disease of Corruption.† Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Court and the Castle. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1957.

The Civil Wars Tragic Legacy :: United States History Papers

The Civil War's Tragic Legacy The Civil War produced at least two important outcomes. First, although it was not President Lincoln's intent, it freed slaves in the Confederate States. Second, it settled, through the force of arms, the question of whether states could secede from the Union. The causes of and the issues surrounding America's most costly war, in terms of battlefield casualties, are still controversial. Even its name the - Civil War - is in dispute, and plausibly so. A civil war is a struggle between two or more factions seeking to control the central government. Modern examples of civil wars are the conflicts we see in Lebanon, Liberia and Angola. In 1861, Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States, no more wanted to take over Washington, D.C. than George Washington wanted to take over London in 1776. George Washington and the Continental Congress were fighting for independence from Great Britain. Similarly, the Confederate States were fighting for independence from the Union. Whether one's sentiments lie with the Confederacy or with the Union, a more accurate characterization of the war is that it was a war for southern independence; a frequently heard southern reference is that it was the War of Northern Aggression. History books most often say the war was fought to free the slaves. But that idea is brought into serious question considering what Abraham Lincoln had to say in his typical speeches: "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." Slavery makes for great moral cause celebre for the War Between the States but the real causes had more to do with problems similar to those the nation faces today - a federal government that has escaped the limits the Framers of the Constitution envisioned. South Carolina Senator John C Calhoun expressed that concern in his famous Fort Hill Address July 26, 1831, at a time when he was Andrew Jackson's vice-president. Calhoun said, "Stripped of all its covering, the naked question is, whether ours is a federal or consolidated government; a constitutional or absolute one; a government resting solidly on the basis of the sovereignty of the States, or on the unrestrained will of a majority; a form of government, as in all other unlimited ones, in which injustice, violence, and force must ultimately prevail.

Sunday, August 18, 2019

Research Paper -- essays papers

Research Paper Inclusion is a type of teaching that is being researched by many school districts across the country. It is the act of combining special education students in a regular classroom environment. Inclusion is a very controversial topic when it comes to the education of children, both regular and special education students. There are many beliefs in the welfare of all students and their ability to learn and function together. This belief has put a damper on school districts adopting the program of full inclusion. People feel that this will cause problems in the classroom for both general education and special education students. They feel that it will be a distraction for all students and that it will harm both their education and their emotional development. The articles that follow show that inclusion is extremely beneficial for all students and that the popular belief and the stereo-types given for full inclusion are not entirely right. The first article, â€Å"Full Inclusion, Dream or Reality,† (1995) focused on the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Act which has had a major impact on the educational rights of all children, specifically children with disabilities. This act ensures that all children have equal rights to education, where these children can expand their knowledge and become educated with the least restriction. Special Education students will be able to be in a classroom with students their age regardless of their skill level or type of disability. This full inclusive setting will allow students to develop socially as well. The students are now able to associate with many different groups of people then if they were segregated in their classroom. These social interactions will p... ...ver, or many people might turn to full inclusion as more research comes out. Bibliography Biklen, D. (2000 November). Constructing inclusion: lessons from critical, disability narratives. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 4 (4). Retrieved 20 April2003 from www.ebsco.com Cavallaro, C & Haney, M. (2002 April). Early Childhood and Inclusion. The ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education. Retrieves 21 April 2003 from http://ericec.org/faq/ec-inclu.html Gibb, G., & Young, J. (1997 July/August). A team-based junior high inclusion program. Remedial and Special Education, 18 (4), 243. Retrieved 20 April 2003 from www.ebsco.com. Morse, T., & Santos, K. (1995 October). Full inclusion: dream or reality? Journal for a Just and Caring Education, 1 (4) 449. Retrieved 20 April 2003 from www.ebsco.com

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Brilliant piece of artwork Essay

This artwork, Moonrise Hernandez, will be critiqued based on the elements and principles of art to determine its meaning. The author, Ansel Adams, created this piece in 1941 in southern Mexico. Here, Adams used black and white film to make an original gelatin silver 16 by 20 photograph. The artwork consists of a moonlit dark sky above a small camp with mountains in the background. The sky appears stormy because the clouds stand out, while the half moon shines well above. The town looks really boring and poor. Plus, the mountains in the background are very tall and appear to be touching the sky. All of these factors contribute to a wonderful photograph. In this piece both elements and principles of art are prominent. The color of the sky is pitch black, which creates emphasis on the clouds, which are bright white. Also, the sky takes up a lot of space in the photograph and it towers over everything. This creates an uneven proportion throughout the piece. Finally, the texture of the clouds appears smooth, while the foreground is very rough. This creates variety throughout the photo. In all, this piece portrays many of the elements and principles of art. The mood in this photograph is depressing because almost half of this picture is black. See above paragraph. The moon against the dark sky in the picture is a symbol of the constant battle against evil that all of us face. The story it tells is that there will be bad times for the town because they’re about to get rained on. In conclusion, this artwork employs mostly emotionalism. This is because it makes the viewer feel sad and lonely. In all, I think this is a brilliant piece of artwork.

Friday, August 16, 2019

Essay on Suicide

In the Aftermath of Teenage Suicide: A Qualitative Study of the Psycho social Consequences for the Surviving Family Members Committing suicide in the teenage years can be perceived as the ultimate rejection of family, of significant others, and of society. This article examines the causes and effect of suicide in the youth of Sweden. In its study, topics such as the background of where signs of com/suicide-speech-outline/">suicide are visible, methods of suicide, and results of suicide.The bereavement process after a suicide may differ qualitatively from other types of losses with prolonged reactions of grief and loneliness, greater feelings of shame, and perhaps most importantly, the prolonged search for the motive behind the suicide. This study examines the topic of teenage suicide through methodical and scientific evidence. In examining this article, the psychiatry of consequences of suicide and how an outsider’s perspective can be used to benefit and heal what was once a b roken family and the people affected by the death.This study’s main purpose was to interview surviving members that had lost a teenager by suicide to increase the understanding of the circumstances that these families are living under and to generate hypotheses to be tested in future research. The study examines how the family will search for monitory signs and clues to make sense of the tragedy at hand. Studies of family reactions following teenage suicide are hampered by the psychological difficulties of approaching the families and recruiting an unbiased sample of survivors.Most interview studies involve samples that are either compromised by a high attrition rate, or based on survivors who organize and actively work through the crisis in support groups for suicide survivors. They derived their study from a larger research project on teenage unnatural deaths in which all teenage suicides were identified and the results were based on file material alone. They used another m ixed method where professionals involved in the aftermath were interviewed to investigate suicide survivors and also parents and siblings.Since all suicide victims were financially dependent on their families and none of the deceased had established a family of their own, the study’s definition of a family was the persons living in the same household as the deceased at the time of the suicide. Persons included by this definition were biological parents, stepfathers, stepmothers, and siblings. To examine the family, a mutual trust and understanding had to be established with the respondents and critical self-reflection.The family had to make it known what was allowed and where the line was so the interviewers didn’t cross it. Because the study is a hypothesis generating study, all interviews were started with broad questions and were closed with questions such as, â€Å"What do you think of this interview? † The most poignant theme of the interviews was the searc h for the â€Å"why? † which still preoccupied most of the parents. This search became more salient when the suicide had come unexpectedly.Most of the teenagers had disguised their suicidal ideation not only from their families, but from other adults and peers. Nearly all parents expressed anger at being deceived, a deception that denied them the opportunity to provide parental support. Most teenagers and their families had lived a pro-social life, which had only increased the confusion and unanswered questions. Several had been known as a â€Å"pride to any parent. † Nonetheless, they still faced problems such as a broken love affair, fear of pregnancy, or difficulties with friends.The families had trouble seeing why what seemed like such trivial teenage problems had transformed into a matter of life and death. In hindsight, they reproached themselves for their ignorance. Even long after the suicide had occurred, families were still struggling to move on. Some parents had entertained the idea of committing suicide themselves, but decided against it since they know all too well the consequences for their actions. Most teenagers who commit suicide do not express suicidal feelings or otherwise hint at forthcoming suicide.To avoid â€Å"bothering† others, many families had withdrawn from casual socializing. The sense of being deceived results in low self-esteem and nourishes feelings of inferiority and shame. Many of the bereaved appeared to be imbedded in silence. Unfortunately, younger siblings had received little help to work the crisis through. These children are more likely to be burdened than older siblings and need more time, more persistence, and an uncompromising readiness by the adult to deal with the most difficult questions.Help needs to be directed as direct help to siblings and parents, as well as to the family as a whole. A teenager suicide is a devastating trauma for the surviving family as a whole and the absence of sustainab le explanations to the suicide is a predominant issue in the grief process. The prolonged social and psychological isolation of the families in grief should be challenged. There is a need for better understanding and treatment schemes for families who have lost a teenage family member in suicide, and especially for the younger siblings who are often forgotten.