Preschool Teachers Actions for Integrating Children with Disabilities

This paper, written by Hsin-Hui Huang and Karen E. Diamond, investigates the effect of information about a child’s disability on preschool teachers’ actions in integrating children with disabilities in their classroom. Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Preschool Teachers’ Actions for Integrating Children with Disabilities specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Of special interest was whether the gravity of a child’s educational requirements and the teacher’s knowledge about the disability condition were linked to teacher’s responses towards incorporating such children in their classrooms. To determine whether there was a link, Huang and Diamond collected information from 155 preschool teachers in two US states to asses how they responded in terms of degree of comfort, classroom adaptation, and need for assistance. The researchers’ findings showed that pre-school teachers ’ responses to their pupils’ disability were dissimilar irrespective of the diagnostic labels. The teachers treated children with mild disabilities with more care than those who were physically disabled. Besides, contrasted with children with diagnostic labels, the teachers treated children without any diagnostic labels with more care. Teachers’ training and practice in handling disabled children were linked to their degrees of comfort. The results corroborated earlier studies that had showed that teachers, from preschool through secondary school, are liable to include a child with minor disability in their classroom than those with severe conditions (Huang and Diamond, 2011). Importance of the Study For along time, children with disabilities, both major and minor, have been discriminated against in educational institutions, the trend has continued despite the fact that some children have previously excelled and even outshone their counterparts who are deemed as ‘normal’. Besides, children with disabilities have exceptional abilities that can be nurtured and bred so that the children can achieve their full potential. The study is important towards understanding teacher’s responses towards accepting disabled children in their classes, and their differing responses based on disability labels.Advertising Looking for report on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Findings from the study can be used by stakeholders in the academic sector to promote the intake of disabled children in mainstream classrooms. The findings can also assist in the development of a curriculum for training teachers that gives them an understanding of various disability conditions and how to treat children with such conditions. The training curriculum can also quell any misconceptions based on the teachers’ incorrect knowledge towards integrating children with disabilities. The training can be extended to primary and high school teachers. Finally, the findings from the study can be useful in addressing teachers’ stereotypes regarding children’s disability conditions by focusing on the children’s individual abilities, skills and education needs rather than branding them on their disability. Application The findings from this study are vital towards my future career as a preschool teacher. First, it lays bare the fact that ‘disability is not inability’. Every child should be judged based on his/her skills and abilities rather than on the disability. Having learnt this, I intend to incorporate all children in my future classroom and determine each child’s aptitude. To accomplish this, I will strive to understand each child’s disability condition in depth and how the child can be assisted to realize his/her full potential. The author’s conclusion that teachers should focus on individual children’s aptitudes and learning needs rather than the label attached to their disability’ (Huang and Diamond, 2011) is the highlight of the article. In my future career, I will treat each child equally, rather than on their disability labels or learning needs. An understanding of each child’s disability will be essential in achieving this mission. Reference Huang, H., and Diamond, K. E. (2011). Early Childhood Teachers’ Ideas about IncludingAdvertising We will write a custom report sample on Preschool Teachers’ Actions for Integrating Children with Disabilities specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Children with Disabilities in Programmes Designed for Typically Developing Children. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, Vol. 56, No. 2, June 2009, 169–182. This report on Preschool Teachers’ Actions for Integrating Children with Disabilities was written and submitted by user Brecken Cook to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

The eNotes Blog Poets in Black and White Remembering Lucille Clifton and RobertFrost

Poets in Black and White Remembering Lucille Clifton and RobertFrost Lucille Clifton and Robert Frost At this month, we are taking some time to remember two great American poets:   Lucille Clifton and Robert Frost.   Clifton passed away on February 17, 2010, and March 26 marked Frosts birthday. Seldom have two writers articulated their view of the United States in such unique and memorable ways. Lucille Cliftons often highly personal poems focused on what it was like to be an African-American woman living in the twentieth century. Her voice has been characterized as earthy and reminiscent of the rhythms of  the black oral tradition.   One of her poems that embodies all three of these characteristics is The Lost Baby: the time i dropped your almost body down down to meet the waters under the city and run one with the sewage to the sea what did i know about waters rushing back what did i know about drowning or being drowned you would have been born in winter in the year of the disconnected gas and no car we would have made the thin walk over the genecy  hill into the canada winds to let you slip into a strangers hands if you were here i could tell you these and some other things and if i am ever less than a mountain for your definite brothers and sisters let the rivers wash over my head let the sea take me for a spiller of seas let black men call me stranger always for your never named sake Cliftons collection of poems  Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir, 1969-1980 was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1988.   Twelve years later, in 2000, Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems, 1988-2000 won a National Book Award. Like Clifton, Robert Frost too also wrote of the American experience, but from the vantage point of a white New Englander. However, where Clifton is typically sparse and direct, Frosts poems are frequently long and colloquial.   And while he is often thought of as Americas kindly grandfather poet, in fact, Frost could be quite dark and brooding.   For example, consider his poem Acquainted With the Night: I have been one acquainted with the night. I have walked out in rain and back in rain. I have outwalked the furthest city light. I have looked down the saddest city lane. I have passed by the watchman on his beat And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain. I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet When far away an interrupted cry Came over houses from another street, But not to call me back or say good-bye; And further still at an unearthly height, A luminary clock against the sky Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right. I have been one acquainted with the night. Robert Frost won the Pulitzer Prize four times: 1924 for New Hampshire: A Poem With Notes and Grace Notes 1931 for Collected Poems 1937 for A Further Range 1943 for A Witness Tree Frost died on January 29, 1963. He was 89 years old.

E-Commerce Website Description Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

E-Commerce Website Description - Term Paper Example The last thing under the first part is business growth and competitive analysis. Under this,we look at the competitors of the business and how the website quality and technical specifications will allow it exist in the market segment. It also describes the strategic assessment of the customers’ needs. The next section describes the functional requirements of windows blind website. This incorporates what the system can and must do. Each deliverable is described in details on the basis of the functions to be implemented. This section also lists down all the users and their tasks are also elaborated. The functional specifications are further divided into technical specifications and the non-technical specification. The technical specification directly addresses the requirements of the website while the non-technical specifications assist the technical specification in the realization of the objectives described in the first section. The final section presents aaa description of t he site map and the user testing framework. The site map shows all the pages and sections available in the website. It also describes the basic functionalities of the website. It also includes the technical specification documentation and the dimensions of ecommerce security which must be realized by any ecommerce website. These dimensions include authenticity, confidentiality, integrity, non-repudiation and availability. The paper describes how windows blind website achieves all these dimensions. Introduction Windows blind ecommerce website is a website which automates business transactions and that deals in IT products. Its processes are in position to achieve five dimensions of ecommerce security which are confidentiality, integrity, authenticity, non-repudiation and availability. Windows blind has three different users with different privileges. These users are the visitors (non-registered users), customers (registered users) and the administrators. Once the visitors enter the s ite they are expected to register. Registration involves filling of forms or provision of user credential which are eventually stored in the central database for the next login attempts by the registered users. Integrity is the ability to ensure that data being displayed on a network or being transmitted or received over the Internet has not been altered in anyway by an unauthorized party. An e-commerce customer can examine message integrity if the contents are questionable and out of character for the person who sent it. The system administrator must deal with the issues of integrity when determining who should have authority to change data. The more people with authority to change data, the greater the threat of integrity both outside and inside Non repudiation is the ability to ensure that ecommerce parties do not deny their online actions. Windows Blind ecommerce website achieves non repudiation by the use of an arbitrator which implements the public key cryptography to ensure t hat a client or customer is authenticated before any transaction. Confidentiality on the other hand is the ability to ensure that the message sent across the website reaches the intended recipient. Windows blind website achieves confidentiality by a process known as secure electronic transaction. This process requires that the transacting party obtains a public key from a trusted certificate authority. Situation analysis Presented is an ecommerce website known as windows

Analysis of an Advertisement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Analysis of an Advertisement - Essay Example It has been observed for a long period of time that there is more information that audience derives from the advertisements presented by the media than the common outward message that is displayed to the casual eye. Advertisements, similar to any other forms of communication, functions best when they strike the desires of the audience. The general ambience of the advert is that which triggers excitement from the audience. The advert exhibits a world of happiness that eliminates technological strain with the introduction of a multitasking device (Barnet and Bedau 138). The mood created by the advert is majorly depicted through the use of a variety of colors which may be attributed to the universality of the device. The employment of a variety of colors in the advert draws the attention and feelings of a majority of the audience who may have different tastes and preferences as regards colors (Barnet and Bedau 143). The advert also creates a mood of acceptance of the product on display by exposing much more than the customers may have in their expectations. This has been achieved through revealing a number of features besides the primary ones that appear on the screen. This paints an image of an extra ability of the device to perform much more operations in a better and a more efficient manner. In addition to the use of colors to attain the attention of the audience to the appealing product, there is also the use of many symbols and signs which depict or make communications to the target audience (Barnet and Bedau 165). ... for a long period of time that there is more information that audience derives from the advertisements presented by the media than the common outward message that is displayed to the casual eye. Advertisements, similar to any other forms of communication, functions best when they strike the desires of the audience. The general ambience of the advert is that which triggers excitement from the audience. The advert exhibits a world of happiness that eliminates technological strain with the introduction of a multitasking device (Barnet and Bedau 138). The mood created by the advert is majorly depicted through the use of a variety of colors which may be attributed to the universality of the device. The employment of a variety of colors in the advert draws the attention and feelings of a majority of the audience who may have different tastes and preferences as regards colors (Barnet and Bedau 143). The advert also creates a mood of acceptance of the product on display by exposing much more than the customers may have in their expectations. This has been achieved through revealing a number of features besides the primary ones that appear on the screen. This paints an image of an extra ability of the device to perform much more operations in a better and a more efficient manner. In addition to the use of colors to attain the attention of the audience to the appealing product, there is also the use of many symbols and signs which depict or make communications to the target audience (Barnet and Bedau 165). With the roles these symbols and signs play in the advert, they have a remarkable impact on the general perception of the product on advert. Such symbols include those standing for the feature like facebook (f), yahoo (Y!), Google (g), the image of an envelope for text and

Group Project - Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Group Project - Leadership - Essay Example ent within the organization along with the hiring of individuals that helps the organization to develop their basic conceptual framework of theory and principle. Environment in an organization is the atmosphere in which the employees of an organization work as a team rather than to be on their own as individual to achieve a goal. Where as, culture of an organization consists of same beliefs, concepts, norms and values. Altogether, they make the organization’s personality. Though, it may be clear that culture is an environment of the organization that makes employees feels comfortable to share their ideas and beliefs while working as a single team. The experienced executives and founders of the company can bring it in and enhances it via other employee by giving them training for none but to sense. Culture is negotiable, that is, a whole team can together change the culture of the organization as if the strategies goes against the will of employees they never own them and though it effects the achievement of the goal instantaneously. Culture may be weak or strong, it may be said as different views and norms sometimes may create subculture in different departments of an organization and this may lead to a non-successive organization. A culture in an organization can be made effective in a manner that all the employees of the company works whole heartedly to achieve the goal as a single team. It can only be done when besides keeping a formal relation among the co-workers they have full freedom to share their ideas and beliefs. They should be paid a deserving salary and moreover rewarded with incentives and bonuses. Their seniors should appreciate them. All employees should know very clearly about the culture of the organization and though a part of it that senior makes their juniors trained fully and welcome them to show up confidently. Formulation of policy and administration involving people to provide decisions and supervise the culture and tasks performed

History Of Philippine Monetary System

History Of Philippine Monetary System Most people dont spend much time wondering what money is, their major concern is how much they have, and how to get more. Usually, the question of what money IS arises only when money ceases to function properly. In economics (properly understood), the answer to the question what is money? consists of three words: Thats all. Yet the conception of a medium of exchange ranks below only language (with its corollaries speech and the written word) as the greatest intellectual discovery in history. Without language, the exchange of anything but the most rudimentary ideas is impossible. Without money, the production and exchange of anything but the most rudimentary goods and services is impossible. It is not difficult or time consuming, or inefficient, it is IMPOSSIBLE! Animals dont exchange (or trade) amongst one another. They are self-sufficient, or they take from each other, or they exercise the prerogative of superior strength and/or cunning. There are some human beings who get along in a very similar fashion, but the overwhelming majority recognises the benefits of voluntary exchange. Strictly speaking, the use of the word voluntary in this context is redundant. The phrase your money or your life is not the precursor to an exchange, whether the person uttering it brandishes a gun or a government identity card. The first rule of any voluntary exchange is simplicity itself. If two people are willing to exchange, each must view the results of the exchange as being beneficial. If either of them is not of that view, the exchange will not take place. Direct exchange, or barter, is exactly that my good or service for your good or service. The problem is that I might want what you have to offer, but you might not want what I offer in exchange. With no medium of exchange, there is no deal. Indirect exchange takes place when one party has a medium that is always acceptable, not for what it is, but for what can be done with it. If you offer me money, I will accept it, because I know that I can exchange it for what I want, whenever I want it. Indirect exchange involves the use of MONEY the medium of exchange. Money is the universal key, it fits all locks. And the world it has unlocked is the world we live in today. Money has made the division of labor possible. It has made specialization possible. It has made the accumulation of wealth over periods which exceed a human lifetime possible. Perhaps most important of all, it has hugely advanced the potential for amicable interaction between people. To survive as such, and to prosper, a rational animal must exchange. He or she has language, to exchange ideas, and money, to exchange the fruits of ideas. From that foundation, everything else we see around us has been built. That covers the concept or idea of money. But an idea, as such, does not exist as a physical entity. Money must be a physical entity. Neither the electronic money of today nor the notes and coin which circulate as cash has any official or legal connection with Gold and Silver. But they once did, and most people think that they still do. As long as that situation persists, the modern monetary system will function. Now, how does one go about choosing what is to be used as money? Simple, one looks for the most tradable good, the good which is in highest demand, the good that has begun to be accepted, not as an end in it, but as a means to an end. Money is the good that people do not want to consume, but want to use to make further exchanges easier. Human beings have lived together for more than two million years. Money in its modern form coin of fixed weight and denomination came into use less than three thousand years ago. It took a long time to discover the physical good which best serves the purpose of a medium of exchange. (http://www.the-privateer.com/gold-b.html) Functions Money as a Unit of Value The first function of money is to be a unit of value or a unit of account. The monetary unit is the unit in terms of which the value of all goods and services is measured and expressed. The value of each good or service is expressed as a price, which is the number of monetary units for which the good or service can be exchanged. If the price of a pen is Rs. 10 then a pen can be had in exchange for ten monetary units (where the monetary unit in this case is the rupee). Measuring values in monetary units helps in measuring the exchange values of commodities. If a pen is worth Rs. 10 and a notebook is worth Rs.20 then a notebook is worth two pens. Further, accounting is simplified, as all items will be recorded in terms of monetary units that can be added and subtracted. Money is a useful measuring rod of value only if the value of money itself remains constant. This is similar to saying that a scale is a useful measure of length only if the length of the scale itself is constant. The value of money is linked to its purchasing power. Purchasing power is the inverse of the average or general level of prices as measured by the consumer price index etc. As the general price level increases, a unit of money can purchase a lesser amount of goods and services so the value or purchasing power of money declines. So, m oney will be a useful unit of value only as long as its own value or purchasing power remains constant. (http://hubpages.com/hub/Functions-of-Money) Money as a Medium of Exchange Money also acts as a medium of exchange or as a medium of payments. This function of money is served by anything that is generally accepted by people in exchange for goods and services. Anything has been quite a variety of things across places and times. Some of the things that have served as money are clay, cowry shells, tortoise shells, cattle, pigs, horses, sheep, tea, tobacco, wool, salt, wine, boats, iron, copper, brass, silver, gold, bronze, nickel, paper, leather, playing cards, debts of individuals, debts of banks, debts of governments, etc. Money will then reduce the time and energy spent in barter. The person who owned a cow can now simply sell it to the person who offers the most money for it and then buy the bullock cart from another person who offers him the best bargain. Ultimately, all trade may be considered barter one good or service is traded for another good or service -either directly, or indirectly with money acting as the intermediary. However, by acting as an intermediary, money increases the ease of trade. Money is also called a bearer of options or generalized purchasing power. This indicates the freedom of choice that the use of money offers. The owner of the cow need not procure goods and services from those to whom he sold his cow. He can use the money to buy the things he wants most, from those who offer him the best bargain (not necessarily those who bought his cow), at the time he considers most advantageous (not necessarily immediately). Again, this function can only be performed properly if the value of money remains constant. (http://hubpages.com/hub/Functions-of-Money) Money as a Standard of Deferred Payments If money performs the previous two functions then it may also perform the function of being the unit in terms of which deferred or future payments are stated. Examples of situations where future payments are to be made are pensions, principal and interest on debt, salaries etc. As long as money maintains a constant value through time, it will overcome the problems associated with making future payments with specific commodities. (http://hubpages.com/hub/Functions-of-Money) Money as a Store of Value If money becomes a unit of value and a means of payment then it may also perform the function of serving as a store of value. The holders of money are holders of generalized purchasing power that can be spent through time. They know that it will be accepted at any time for any good or service and is thus a store of value. This function will be performed well as long as money retains a constant purchasing power. (http://hubpages.com/hub/Functions-of-Money) It may be noted that any asset other than money may also perform the function of store of value, for example, bonds, land, houses, etc. These assets have the advantage that, unlike money, they yield income and may appreciate in value over time. However, they are subject to the following: (1) They may involve storage costs, (2) They may not be liquid in the sense that they could not be quickly converted into money without loss of value, and (3) They may depreciate in value. A person may choose to store value in any form depending on considerations of income, safety and liquidity. (http://hubpages.com/hub/Functions-of-Money) Kinds Commodity Money Commodity money refers to money whose value comes from a commodity out of which it is made. Examples of commodities that have been used as money include gold, silver, copper, salt, large stones, decorated belts, shells, and cigarettes. Commodity money is to be distinguished from representative money which is a certificate or token which can be exchanged for the underlying commodity. A key feature of commodity money is that the value is directly perceived by the users of this money, who recognize the utility or beauty of the tokens as they would recognize the goods themselves. That is, the effect of holding a token for a barrel of oil must be the same economically as actually having the barrel at hand. This thinking guides the modern commodity markets, although they use a sophisticated range of financial instruments that are more than one-to-one representations of units of a given type of commodity. In situations where the commodity is metal, typically gold or silver, a government mint will often coin money by placing a mark on the metal that serves as a guarantee of the weight and purity of the metal. In doing so, the government will often impose a fee which is known as seigniorage. The role of a mint and of coin is different between commodity money and fiat money. In situations where there is commodity money, the coin retains its value if it is melted and physically altered, while in fiat money it does not. Commodity money often comes into being in situations where other forms of money are not available or not trusted. Various commodities were used in pre-Revolutionary America including wampum, maize, iron nails, beaver pelts, and tobacco. In post-war Germany, cigarettes became used as a form of commodity money in some areas. Cigarettes are still used as a form of commodity money in prison cell. Although commodity money is more convenient than barter, it can also be inconvenient to use as a medium of exchange or a standard of deferred payment due to the transport and storage concerns. Accordingly, notes began to circulate that a government or other trusted entity (e.g. the Knights Templar in Europe in the 13th century) would guarantee as representing a certain stored value on account. This creates a form of money known as representative money the beginning of a long slow shift to credit money. Historically gold was by far the most widely recognized commodity out of which to make money: gold was compact, easy to work into more beautiful jewelry, had decorative and functional utility as a finely strung wire or thin foil leaf, and most importantly, could always be traded for other metals to make weapons with. A state could be described as a political enterprise with sufficient land, gold and reputation for protecting both, e.g. the Fort Knox gold repository long maintained by the United States, could reliably issue certificates to substitute for the gold and be trusted to actually have it. Between 1933 and 1970, one U.S. dollar was technically worth exactly 1/35 of a troy ounce (889 mg) of gold. However, actual trade in gold as a precious metal within the United States was banned presumably to prevent anyone from actually going up to Fort Knox and asking for their gold. This was a fairly typical transition from commodity to representative to fiat money, with people trading i n other goods being forced to trade in gold, then to receive paper money that purported to be as good as gold, and then ultimately see this currency float on commodity markets. However, commodity money remained active in the background in some form or another, and seems to have been revived thanks to global capitalism, wherein a currency is widely traded as a commodity. One way to view such trade is that currency of resource-rich nations tends to be tied to the price of those particular commodity items until it becomes a developed nation. Thus, one could see the nominally fiat money of say Cuba as being tied to the commodity sugar globally, rather than to the military power of Cuba that holds within its own borders. Also, commodity supplies and protections of supplies by states military fiat remain critical to trade, and there are active commodity market speculations on the stability of certain states, e.g. speculation on the survival of the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq has from time to time driven the price of oil. Some argue that this is not so much a commodity market but more of an assassination market speculating on the survival (or not) of Saddam himself. Finally, commodity money is undergoing a more direct revival thanks to theorists of green economics, natural capitalism and global resource banking, some of whom suggest a form of money based on ecological yield. They argue that the outputs of natural capital are the only genuine commodities air, water, and calories of renewable energy we consume being mostly interchangeable when they are free of pollution or disease. However, such goods cannot be held directly, and so it is common to suggest that representative money be issued based on enhancing and extending natures services, giving one the right to receive the yield as a benefit. They argue that reframing political economy to consider the flow of these basic commodities first and foremost, avoiding use of military fiat except to protect natural capital itself, and basing credit-worthiness more strictly on commitment to preserving biodiversity rather than repayment of debt, as in the current global credit money regime anchored by the Bank for International Settlements, would provide measurable benefits to human well-being worldwide. Some seek to replace the B.I.S. with a Global Resource Bank to manage global resources outside national jurisdiction for global benefit. Others would replace the gold standard with a biodiversity standard. It remains to be seen if such schemes have any merit other than as political ways to draw attention to the way capitalism itself interacts with life. Critics of this type of proposal often note that, as with other transitions from commodity to representative money, inadequate substitutes will be made on a just trust me basis as per Greshams Law which states that bad money drives out good. Other proposals, such as time-based money, rely on the availability of human labor as a commodity, especially within a community, which is presumably harder to guarantee access to, but also harder to steal. Still others deny the utility of co modifying labor as such, and suggest making free time the standard, since physical capital used for leisure, sport, art, theatre, and other forms of play is co modifiable and possible to control. (http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Commodity_money) Credit Money Credit money refers to money that constitutes future claims of a valuable item against an entity. The holder of credit money can use it to purchase goods and services; when the holder wants to, he or she can redeem it to get the item by which it is backed. Credit money is made of a material that has low intrinsic value compared to the value it represents when exchanged. Some types of credit money include IOUs, bonds and money market accounts. Some people also consider paper money and coins to be credit money because they have no intrinsic value and can be exchanged for valuable commodity. To illustrate how this concept came about, consider English goldsmiths, who centuries ago used to keep deposits of precious metals. They issued paper notes to those who deposited gold or silver for future redemption. These goldsmiths realized that they did not need to completely back their notes with precious metals because only a small fraction of holders come back to convert their notes. The goldsmiths then issued non-backed notes as loans to people who needed funds and received profits from interest payments. These notes constituted the early form of credit money. When a government issues banknotes, it decides on a valuable commodity on which to fix them, gold or silver, for example. It then fixes a stable value on the banknotes and sets them as a medium of exchange. The government can choose to maintain enough valuable commodities to let everyone with banknotes redeem it. The government can also choose to keep just enough valuable commodities to satisfy the small fraction of people who actually want to make the redemption. In this sense, banknotes are credit money because people can use them to redeem gold or silver. In modern monetary systems, however, the central bank often issues money that is not backed by valuable commodity. The size of the money supply in these systems does not depend on the availability of valuable commodity or the obligation of the central bank to repay credit money with valuable commodity. This kind of money is known as fiat money and is the most ubiquitous form of money in most modern monetary systems. Credit money can also refer to any claim on valuable commodity that is used as a medium of exchange instead of banknotes. Checks, IOUs and bonds that can be redeemed for banknotes are examples of this. Sometimes credit money has a maturity date, as in the case of checks where the bank pays the check recipient a certain amount of banknotes at maturity. Fiat Money Fiat money is the opposite of honest money. Fiat money is money that is declared to have value even if it does not. Honest money has value regardless of what people say. Gold and silver are often referred to as honest money and since they have been dug out of the ground at considerable expense, they do have value regardless. People will pay variable sums for them. Fiat money is also known as paper money, or electronic money. Since there is nothing behind paper money but the obligation of a state to redeem it in more paper or electronic money, fiat moneys ultimate worth is questionable at best. In fact, there is a history of states walking away from the face value of the fiat money that has been printed (created). But if one has it in ones possession, it is impossible to walk away from the value of gold and silver and contrary to fiat money, they have an inherent quality. Mainly an outgrowth of central banking, in the modern age, fiat money probably would not be attractive without state support. Thats because fiat money, unlike fractional reserve money, has no inherent value. Fractional reserve banking, in fact, is a private market phenomenon in which private banks provide paper notes the face value of which adds up to more than the reserves held by the bank. There is a history of successful fractional reserve banking efforts within the private marketplace; however fiat money ALWAYS collapses, as it is impossible to issue a substance of value year after year and generation after generation that HAS no value. In the United States, the worlds largest and most dominant economy, the greenback became a fiat currency when President Richard Nixon broke the final link between gold and the dollar in 1971. He did this because the French were apparently threatening to redeem their dollars in gold and either the US central bank and/or Treasury did not have enough gold to In any event, Nixon severed the dollars relationship to gold and ever since then the world has embarked on a bold experiment in which the global, anchor currency has no specific relationship to an underlying asset. Predictably, this has meant that the United States has continually created more and more fiat dollars, thus inflating the overall stock of dollars and making them worth less and less. China, one of the worlds most ancient civilizations, is said to have had no less than eight separate interregnums of fiat currency each collapsing and then being replaced by another. In the 1800s, fiat money was even banned by the Chinese. Today, however, the Chinese government is once again a user of fiat money along with the rest of the world. Fiat money has never been as prevalent perhaps as in the modern age. But that doesnt make it any healthier or less prone to failure. Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. (http://www.thedailybell.com/803/Fiat-Money.html) Legal Tender Money Legal tender is any form of payment that must be accepted for a debt, according to the laws of the area. Generally, the term refers to government-issued cash money such as bills and coins, as opposed to credit lines, checks, or cards. The laws surrounding legal tender have proved vital in the formation of the fiscal policy of many nations. (http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-legal-tender.htm) The term legal tender means currency that is legally permitted to be used to obtain goods or services in a particular country. Immediately recognized as legal tender for purchases and to settle outstanding debts, currency remains the single most common of all liquid assets that are used on a consistent basis by retail customers. (http://www.wisegeek.com/topics/legal-tender.htm) II. Development of Philippine Money Pre-Hispanic Era Archaeological evidence indicates that small seafaring communities existed throughout the Philippine Archipelago for at least 2000 years, prior to the arrival of the Spaniards. The chief means of trading was barter. Records show that Chinese merchants came to the Philippines to trade porcelain, silk and metalwork in exchange for gold, pearls, beeswax and medicinal plants, which the Philippines is naturally rich in. Excavations also unearthed gold ingots, known as piloncitos, the first recognized form of coinage in the country. Barter rings in different sizes, gold ornaments and beads were the other objects used as medium of exchange during the period. (http://www.bsp.gov.ph/about/history/story2.asp) Spanish Era The Galleon Trade, which started during the colonization of the Philippines in 1565 and lasted for 250 years, was responsible for transforming Manila into a trade center for oriental goods. These were brought across the Pacific, in exchange for odd-shaped silver coins called cobs or macuquinas. Other coins that followed were the dos mundos or pillar dollars in silver, the counterstamped coins and the portrait series, also in silver. In the 18th century, the Royalty of Spain authorized the production of copper coins by the Ayuntamiento or Municipality of Manila in response to the acute shortage of fractional coins. These were called barrillas which first appeared in 1728.In 1852, the first banknotes called pesos fuertes were issued, and in 1861,the Casa de Moneda de Manila minted the first gold coins with the word Filipinas inscribed, which were called Isabelinas and Alfonsinos. (http://www.bsp.gov.ph/about/history/story3.asp) Revolutionary Period On August 23, 1896, the Cry of Balintawak, headed by Andres Bonifacio signaled the start of the Philippine Revolution. After General Emilio Aguinaldos proclamation as President of the First Philippine Republic, Two types of 2-centavo copper coins were struck in the army arsenal of Malolos. Because their mintage was so few, they are considered extremely rare collection. Paper notes were also issued, but the circulation was limited because the government was short-lived. (http://www.bsp.gov.ph/about/history/story4.asp) American Regime When the Americans took over the Philippines in 1901, the US Congress passed the Philippine Coinage Act, which authorized the mintage of silver coins from 1903 to 1912. Subsequently, Silver Certificates were issued until 1918. These were replaced with Treasury Certificates from 1918 to 1935. The American Government deemed it more economical and convenient to mint silver coins in the Philippines, hence, the re-opening of the Manila Mint in 1920, which produced coins until the Commonwealth Period. This also became the first seat of the Central Bank in 1949. (http://www.bsp.gov.ph/about/history/story5.asp) World War II During the Japanese Occupation from 1941 to 1944, two kinds of notes circulated the Japanese Invasion Money issued by the Japanese Government, and the Guerrilla Notes or Resistance Currencies issued by Filipino guerrillas. (http://www.bsp.gov.ph/about/history/story6.asp) Republic Period Republic Act No.265 created the Central Bank of the Philippines (CBP) on January 3, 1949, which was vested the power of administering the banking credit system of the country. Initially, the CBP issued the Victory Notes with the overprint Central Bank of the Philippines in 1949. The first official banknotes issued by the Central Bank were the English series in 1951, followed by the Pilipino series in 1967, the Ang Bagong Lipunan series in 1973 and the New Design series in 1985. Central Bank coins of the English series were also issued in 1959, followed by the Pilipino series in 1967, and the Ang Bagong Lipunan series in 1975. The Flora and Fauna series were introduced in 1983, and subsequently, the improved version in 1992, until the demonetization of all the series in 1998. (http://www.bsp.gov.ph/about/history/story7.asp)

Dentistry :: essays research papers

I began this paper with certain ideas regarding the carries process. It is a known fact that fluoride helps to prevent carious lesions. Not a whole lot of studies or information is out there on what I sought out to find. That would be the relationship between calcium phosphate and carious lesions. I am familiar with the remineralization process of enamel, and so I decided my topic would appropriately be that calcium phosphate can prevent carious lesions by helping to remineralize the enamel. It was difficult to find material to support this topic. While researching, I came across numerous products that contain calcium phosphate and claim to what I would like it to do.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Carious lesions don’t just develop over night. It is a process and it takes a long time, any where from six months to two years. Dental caries is a dynamic process characterized by alternating periods of demineralization and remineralization (Harris and Garcia-Godoy 45). Enamel is composed of densely packed hydroxyapatite crystals. The hydroxyapatite crystals are made up of tricalcium phosphate. During demineralization this is what is lost. Once enough of this mineral is lost, part of the tooth structure will collapse forming a cavity. Remineralization is when those ions lost are redeposited in a demineralized area. It all starts small. We have that wonderful acquired pellicle which is like fly paper for bacteria. When the bacteria accumulates a plaque is now present. The bacterial plaque will produce acids, which can eventually cause the enamel structure to collapse (Winston 1580).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Since calcium and phosphate are what is lost during demineralization, for the remineralization to occur we must replace these minerals. Saliva naturally contains calcium and phosphate (Winston 1580). Each person can have a different salivary concentration of these minerals. It was found that men have a higher concentration of salivary calcium than women (Sewon 917). There are any number of factors that play hand in hand with a high level of salivary calcium. High calcium content of the saliva gives us a high rate of remineralization after initial demineralization. It was noted that the number of decayed, missing, or filled teeth was lower in patients with high salivary calcium (males). Some drawbacks to having this much mineral content in the saliva are more bleeding on probing. This is due to an increase in plaque. It was also found that this calcium rich plaque hardens very rapidly.

Digital Fortress Chapter 71-75

Chapter 71 Tokugen Numataka lit his fourth cigar and kept pacing. He snatched up his phone and buzzed the main switchboard. â€Å"Any word yet on that phone number?† he demanded before the operator could speak. â€Å"Nothing yet, sir. It's taking a bit longer than expected-it came from a cellular.† A cellular, Numataka mused. Figures. Fortunately for the Japanese economy, the Americans had an insatiable appetite for electronic gadgets. â€Å"The boosting station,† the operator added, â€Å"is in the 202 area code. But we have no number yet.† â€Å"202? Where's that?† Where in the vast American expanse is this mysterious North Dakota hiding? â€Å"Somewhere near Washington, D. C., sir.† Numataka arched his eyebrows. â€Å"Call me as soon as you have a number.† Chapter 72 Susan Fletcher stumbled across the darkened Crypto floor toward Strathmore's catwalk. The commander's office was as far from Hale as Susan could get inside the locked complex. When Susan reached the top of the catwalk stairs, she found the commander's door hanging loosely, the electronic lock rendered ineffective by the power outage. She barged in. â€Å"Commander?† The only light inside was the glow of Strathmore's computer monitors. â€Å"Commander!† she called once again. â€Å"Commander!† Susan suddenly remembered that the commander was in the Sys-Sec lab. She turned circles in his empty office, the panic of her ordeal with Hale still in her blood. She had to get out of Crypto. Digital Fortress or no Digital Fortress, it was time to act-time to abort the TRANSLTR run and escape. She eyed Strathmore's glowing monitors then dashed to his desk. She fumbled with his keypad. Abort TRANSLTR! The task was simple now that she was on an authorized terminal. Susan called up the proper command window and typed: ABORT RUN Her finger hovered momentarily over the ENTER key. â€Å"Susan!† a voice barked from the doorway. Susan wheeled scared, fearing it was Hale. But it was not, it was Strathmore. He stood, pale and eerie in the electronic glow, his chest heaving. â€Å"What the hell's going on!† â€Å"Com†¦ mander!† Susan gasped. â€Å"Hale's in Node 3! He just attacked me!† â€Å"What? Impossible! Hale's locked down in-â€Å" â€Å"No, he's not! He's loose! We need security inhere now! I'm aborting TRANSLTR!† Susan reached for the keypad. â€Å"DON'T TOUCH THAT!† Strathmore lunged for the terminal and pulled Susan's hands away. Susan recoiled, stunned. She stared at the commander and for the second time that day did not recognize him. Susan felt suddenly alone. Strathmore saw the blood on Susan's shirt and immediately regretted his outburst. â€Å"Jesus, Susan. Are you okay?† She didn't respond. He wished he hadn't jumped on her unnecessarily. His nerves were frayed. He was juggling too much. There were things on his mind-things Susan Fletcher did not know about-things he had not told her and prayed he'd never have to. â€Å"I'm sorry,† he said softly. â€Å"Tell me what happened.† She turned away. â€Å"It doesn't matter. The blood's not mine. Just get me out of here.† â€Å"Are you hurt?† Strathmore put a hand on her shoulder. Susan recoiled. He dropped his hand and looked away. When he looked back at Susan's face, she seemed to be staring over his shoulder at something on the wall. There, in the darkness, a small keypad glowed full force. Strathmore followed her gaze and frowned. He'd hoped Susan wouldn't notice the glowing control panel. The illuminated keypad controlled his private elevator. Strathmore and his high-powered guests used it to come and go from Crypto without advertising the fact to the rest of the staff. The personal lift dropped down fifty feet below the Crypto dome and then moved laterally 109 yards through a reinforced underground tunnel to the sublevels of the main NSA complex. The elevator connecting Crypto to the NSA was powered from the main complex; it was on-line despite Crypto's power outage. Strathmore had known all along it was on-line, but even as Susan had been pounding on the main exit downstairs, he hadn't mentioned it. He could not afford to let Susan out-not yet. He wondered how much he'd have to tell her to make her want to stay. Susan pushed past Strathmore and raced to the back wall. She jabbed furiously at the illuminated buttons. â€Å"Please,† she begged. But the door did not open. â€Å"Susan,† Strathmore said quietly. â€Å"The lift takes a password.† â€Å"A password?† she repeated angrily. She glared at the controls. Below the main keypad was a second keypad-a smaller one, with tiny buttons. Each button was marked with a letter of the alphabet. Susan wheeled to him. â€Å"What is the password!† she demanded. Strathmore thought a moment and sighed heavily. â€Å"Susan, have a seat.† Susan looked as if she could hardly believe her ears. â€Å"Have a seat,† the commander repeated, his voice firm. â€Å"Let me out!† Susan shot an uneasy glance toward the commander's open office door. Strathmore eyed the panicked Susan Fletcher. Calmly he moved to his office door. He stepped out onto the landing and peered into the darkness. Hale was nowhere to be seen. The commander stepped back inside and pulled the door shut. Then he propped a chair in front to keep it closed, went to his desk, and removed something from a drawer. In the pale glow of the monitors Susan saw what he was holding. Her face went pale. It was a gun. Strathmore pulled two chairs into the middle of the room. He rotated them to face the closed office door. Then he sat. He lifted the glittering Beretta semi-automatic and aimed steadily at the slightly open door. After a moment he laid the gun back in his lap. He spoke solemnly. â€Å"Susan, we're safe here. We need to talk. If Greg Hale comes through that door†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He let it hang. Susan was speechless. Strathmore gazed at her in the dim light of his office. He patted the seat beside him. â€Å"Susan, sit. I have something to tell you.† She did not move. â€Å"When I'm done, â€Å"he said, â€Å"I'll give you the password to the elevator. You can decide whether to leave or not.† There was a long silence. In a daze, Susan moved across the office and sat next to Strathmore. â€Å"Susan,† he began, â€Å"I haven't been entirely honest with you.† Chapter 73 David Becker felt as if his face had been doused in turpentine and ignited. He rolled over on the floor and squinted through bleary tunnel vision at the girl halfway to the revolving doors. She was running in short, terrified bursts, dragging her duffel behind her across the tile. Becker tried to pull himself to his feet, but he could not. He was blinded by red-hot fire. She can't get away! He tried to call out, but there was no air in his lungs, only a sickening pain. â€Å"No!† He coughed. The sound barely left his lips. Becker knew the second she went through the door, she would disappear forever. He tried to call out again, but his throat was searing. The girl had almost reached the revolving door. Becker staggered to his feet, gasping for breath. He stumbled after her. The girl dashed into the first compartment of the revolving door, dragging her duffel behind her. Twenty yards back, Becker was staggering blindly toward the door. â€Å"Wait!† He gasped. â€Å"Wait!† The girl pushed furiously on the inside of the door. The door began to rotate, but then it jammed. The blonde wheeled in terror and saw her duffel snagged in the opening. She knelt and pulled furiously to free it. Becker fixed his bleary vision on the fabric protruding through the door. As he dove, the red corner of nylon protruding from the crack was all he could see. He flew toward it, arms outstretched. As David Becker fell toward the door, his hands only inches away, the fabric slipped into the crack and disappeared. His fingers clutched empty air as the door lurched into motion. The girl and the duffel tumbled into the street outside. â€Å"Megan!† Becker wailed as hit the floor. White-hot needles shot through the back of his eye sockets. His vision tunneled to nothing, and a new wave of nausea rolled in. His own voice echoed in the blackness. Megan! David Becker wasn't sure how long he'd been lying there before he became aware of the hum of fluorescent bulbs overhead. Everything else was still. Through the silence came a voice. Someone was calling. He tried to lift his head off the floor. The world was cockeyed, watery. Again the voice. He squinted down the concourse and saw a figure twenty yards away. â€Å"Mister?† Becker recognized the voice. It was the girl. She was standing at another entrance farther down the concourse, clutching her duffel to her chest. She looked more frightened now than she had before. â€Å"Mister?† she asked, her voice trembling. â€Å"I never told you my name. How come you know my name?† Chapter 74 Director Leland Fontaine was a mountain of a man, sixty-three years old, with a close-cropped military haircut and a rigid demeanor. His jet-black eyes were like coal when he was irritated, which was almost always. He'd risen through the ranks of the NSA through hard work, good planning, and the well-earned respect of his predecessors. He was the first African American director of the National Security Agency, but nobody ever mentioned the distinction; Fontaine's politics were decidedly color-blind, and his staff wisely followed suit. Fontaine had kept Midge and Brinkerhoff standing as he went through the silent ritual of making himself a mug of Guatemalan java. Then he'd settled at his desk, left them standing, and questioned them like schoolchildren in the principal's office. Midge did the talking-explaining the unusual series of events that led them to violate the sanctity of Fontaine's office. â€Å"A virus?† the director asked coldly. â€Å"You two think we've got a virus?† Brinkerhoff winced. â€Å"Yes, sir,† Midge snapped. â€Å"Because Strathmore bypassed Gauntlet?† Fontaine eyed the printout in front of him. â€Å"Yes,† she said. â€Å"And there's a file that hasn't broken in over twenty hours!† Fontaine frowned. â€Å"Or so your data says.† Midge was about to protest, but she held her tongue. Instead she went for the throat. â€Å"There's a blackout in Crypto.† Fontaine looked up, apparently surprised. Midge confirmed with a curt nod. â€Å"All power's down. Jabba thought maybe-â€Å" â€Å"You called Jabba?† â€Å"Yes, sir, I-â€Å" â€Å"Jabba?† Fontaine stood up, furious. â€Å"Why the hell didn't you call Strathmore?† â€Å"We did!† Midge defended. â€Å"He said everything was fine.† Fontaine stood, his chest heaving. â€Å"Then we have no reason to doubt him.† There was closure in his voice. He took a sip of coffee. â€Å"Now if you'll excuse me, I have work to do.† Midge's jaw dropped. â€Å"I beg your pardon?† Brinkerhoff was already headed for the door, but Midge was cemented in place. â€Å"I said good night, Ms. Milken,† Fontaine repeated. â€Å"You are excused.† â€Å"But-but sir,† she stammered, â€Å"I†¦ I have to protest. I think-â€Å" â€Å"You protest?† the director demanded. He set down his coffee. â€Å"I protest! I protest to your presence in my office. I protest to your insinuations that the deputy director of this agency is lying. I protest-â€Å" â€Å"We have a virus, sir! My instincts tell me-â€Å" â€Å"Well, your instincts are wrong, Ms. Milken! For once, they're wrong!† Midge stood fast. â€Å"But, sir! Commander Strathmore bypassed Gauntlet!† Fontaine strode toward her, barely controlling his anger. â€Å"That is his prerogative! I pay you to watch analysts and service employees-not spy on the deputy director! If it weren't for him we'd still be breaking codes with pencil and paper! Now leave me!† He turned to Brinkerhoff, who stood in the doorway colorless and trembling. â€Å"Both of you.† â€Å"With all due respect, sir,† Midge said. â€Å"I'd like to recommend we send a Sys-Sec team to Crypto just to ensure-â€Å" â€Å"We will do no such thing!† After a tense beat, Midge nodded. â€Å"Very well. Goodnight.† She turned and left. As she passed, Brinkerhoff could see in her eyes that she had no intention of letting this rest-not until her intuition was satisfied. Brinkerhoff gazed across the room at his boss, massive and seething behind his desk. This was not the director he knew. The director he knew was a stickler for detail, for neatly tied packages. He always encouraged his staff to examine and clarify any inconsistencies in daily procedure, no matter how minute. And yet here he was, asking them to turn their backs on a very bizarre series of coincidences. The director was obviously hiding something, but Brinkerhoff was paid to assist, not to question. Fontaine had proven over and over that he had everyone's best interests at heart; if assisting him now meant turning a blind eye, then so be it. Unfortunately, Midge was paid to question, and Brinkerhoff feared she was headed for Crypto to do just that. Time to get out the resumes, Brinkerhoff thought as he turned to the door. â€Å"Chad!† Fontaine barked, from behind him. Fontaine had seen the look in Midge's eyes when she left. â€Å"Don't let her out of this suite.† Brinkerhoff nodded and hustled after Midge. Fontaine sighed and put his head in his hands. His sable eyes were heavy. It had been a long, unexpected trip home. The past month had been one of great anticipation for Leland Fontaine. There were things happening right now at the NSA that would change history, and ironically, Director Fontaine had found out about them only by chance. Three months ago, Fontaine had gotten news that Commander Strathmore's wife was leaving him. He'd also heard reports that Strathmore was working absurd hours and seemed about to crack under the pressure. Despite differences of opinion with Strathmore on many issues, Fontaine had always held his deputy director in the highest esteem; Strathmore was a brilliant man, maybe the best the NSA had. At the same time, ever since the Skipjack fiasco, Strathmore had been under tremendous stress. It made Fontaine uneasy; the commander held a lot of keys around the NSA-and Fontaine had an agency to protect. Fontaine needed someone to keep tabs on the wavering Strathmore and make sure he was 100 percent-but it was not that simple. Strathmore was a proud and powerful man; Fontaine needed a way to check up on the commander without undermining his confidence or authority. Fontaine decided, out of respect for Strathmore, to do the job himself. He had an invisible tap installed on Commander Strathmore's Crypto account-his E-mail, his interoffice correspondence, his brainstorms, all of it. If Strathmore was going to crack, the director would see warning signs in his work. But instead of signs of a breakdown, Fontaine uncovered the ground work for one of the most incredible intelligence schemes he'd ever encountered. It was no wonder Strathmore was busting his ass; if he could pull this plan off, it would make up for the Skipjack fiasco a hundred times over. Fontaine had concluded Strathmore was fine, working at 110 percent-as sly, smart, and patriotic as ever. The best thing the director could do would be to stand clear and watch the commander work his magic. Strathmore had devised a plan†¦ a plan Fontaine had no intention of interrupting. Chapter 75 Strathmore fingered the Berretta in his lap. Even with the rage boiling in his blood, he was programmed to think clearly. The fact that Greg Hale had dared lay a finger on Susan Fletcher sickened him, but the fact that it was his own fault made him even sicker; Susan going into Node 3 had been his idea. Strathmore knew enough to compartmentalize his emotion-it could in no way affect his handling of Digital Fortress. He was the deputy director of the National Security Agency. And today his job was more critical than it had ever been. Strathmore slowed his breathing. â€Å"Susan.† His voice was efficient and unclouded. â€Å"Did you delete Hale's E-mail?† â€Å"No,† she said, confused. â€Å"Do you have the pass-key?† She shook her head. Strathmore frowned, chewing his lip. His mind was racing. He had a dilemma. He could easily enter his elevator password, and Susan would be gone. But he needed her there. He needed her help to find Hale's pass-key. Strathmore hadn't told her yet, but finding that pass-key was far more than a matter of academic interest-it was an absolute necessity. Strathmore suspected he could run Susan's nonconformity search and find the pass-key himself, but he'd already encountered problems running her tracer. He was not about to risk it again. â€Å"Susan.† He sighed resolutely. â€Å"I'd like you to help me find Hale's pass-key.† â€Å"What!† Susan stood up, her eyes wild. Strathmore fought off the urge to stand along with her. He knew a lot about negotiating-the position of power was always seated. He hoped she would follow suit. She did not. â€Å"Susan, sit down.† She ignored him. â€Å"Sit down.† It was an order. Susan remained standing. â€Å"Commander, if you've still got some burning desire to check out Tankado's algorithm, you can do it alone. I want out.† Strathmore hung his head and took a deep breath. It was clear she would need an explanation. She deserves one, he thought. Strathmore made his decision-Susan Fletcher would hear it all. He prayed he wasn't making a mistake. â€Å"Susan,† he began, â€Å"it wasn't supposed to come to this.† He ran his hand across his scalp. â€Å"There are some things I haven't told you. Sometimes a man in my position†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The commander wavered as if making a painful confession. â€Å"Sometimes a man in my position is forced to lie to the people he loves. Today was one of those days.† He eyed her sadly. â€Å"What I'm about to tell you, I never planned to have to say†¦ to you†¦ or to anyone.† Susan felt a chill. The commander had a deadly serious look on his face. There was obviously some aspect of his agenda to which she was not privy. Susan sat down. There was a long pause as Strathmore stared at the ceiling, gathering his thoughts. â€Å"Susan,† he finally said, his voice frail. â€Å"I have no family.† He returned his gaze to her. â€Å"I have no marriage to speak of. My life has been my love for this country. My life has been my work here at the NSA.† Susan listened in silence. â€Å"As you may have guessed,† he continued, â€Å"I planned to retire soon. But I wanted to retire with pride. I wanted to retire knowing that I'd truly made a difference.† â€Å"But you have made a difference,† Susan heard herself say. â€Å"You built TRANSLTR.† Strathmore didn't seem to hear. â€Å"Over the past few years, our work here at the NSA has gotten harder and harder. We've faced enemies I never imagined would challenge us. I'm talking about our own citizens. The lawyers, the civil rights fanatics, the EFF-they've all played a part, but it's more than that. It's the people. They've lost faith. They've become paranoid. They suddenly see us as the enemy. People like you and me, people who truly have the nation's best interests at heart, we find ourselves having to fight for our right to serve our country. We're no longer peacekeepers. We're eavesdroppers, peeping Toms, violators of people's rights.† Strathmore heaved a sigh. â€Å"Unfortunately, there are naive people in the world, people who can't imagine the horrors they'd face if we didn't intervene. I truly believe it's up to us to save them from their own ignorance.† Susan waited for his point. The commander stared wearily at the floor and then looked up. â€Å"Susan, hear me out,† he said, smiling tenderly at her. â€Å"You'll want to stop me, but hear me out. I've been decrypting Tankado's E-mail for about two months now. As you can imagine, I was shocked when I first read his messages to North Dakota about an unbreakable algorithm called Digital Fortress. I didn't believe it was possible. But every time I intercepted anew message, Tankado sounded more and more convincing. When I read that he'd used mutation strings to write a rotating key-code, I realized he was light-years ahead of us; it was an approach no one here had never tried.† â€Å"Why would we?† Susan asked. â€Å"It barely makes sense.† Strathmore stood up and started pacing, keeping one eye on the door. â€Å"A few weeks ago, when I heard about the Digital Fortress auction, I finally accepted the fact that Tankado was serious. I knew if he sold his algorithm to a Japanese software company, we were sunk, so I tried to think of any way I could stop him. I considered having him killed, but with all the publicity surrounding the algorithm and all his recent claims about TRANSLTR, we would be prime suspects. That's when it dawned on me.† He turned to Susan. â€Å"I realized that Digital Fortress should not be stopped.† Susan stared at him, apparently lost. Strathmore went on. â€Å"I suddenly saw Digital Fortress as the opportunity of a lifetime. It hit me that with a few changes, Digital Fortress could work for us instead of against us.† Susan had never heard anything so absurd. Digital Fortress was an unbreakable algorithm; it would destroy them. â€Å"If,† Strathmore continued, â€Å"if I could just make a small modification in the algorithm†¦ before it was released†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He gave her a cunning glint of the eye. It took only an instant. Strathmore saw the amazement register in Susan's eyes. He excitedly explained his plan. â€Å"If I could get the pass-key, I could unlock our copy of Digital Fortress and insert a modification.† â€Å"A back door,† Susan said, forgetting the Commander had ever lied to her. She felt a surge of anticipation. â€Å"Just like Skipjack.† Strathmore nodded. â€Å"Then we could replace Tankado's give-away file on the Internet with our altered version. Because Digital Fortress is a Japanese algorithm, no one will ever suspect the NSA had any part in it. All we have to do is make the switch.† Susan realized the plan was beyond ingenious. It was pure†¦ Strathmore. He planned to facilitate the release of an algorithm the NSA could break! â€Å"Full access,† Strathmore said. â€Å"Digital Fortress will become the encryption standard overnight.† â€Å"Overnight?† Susan said. â€Å"How do you figure that? Even if Digital Fortress becomes available everywhere for free, most computer users will stick with their old algorithms for convenience. Why would they switch to Digital Fortress?† Strathmore smiled. â€Å"Simple. We have a security leak. The whole world finds out about TRANSLTR.† Susan's jaw dropped. â€Å"Quite simply, Susan, we let the truth hit the street. We tell the world that the NSA has a computer that can break every algorithm except Digital Fortress.† Susan was amazed. â€Å"So everyone jumps ship to Digital Fortress†¦ not knowing we can break it!† Strathmore nodded. â€Å"Exactly.† There was a long silence. â€Å"I'm sorry I lied to you. Trying to rewrite Digital Fortress is a pretty big play, I didn't want you involved.† â€Å"I†¦ understand,† she replied slowly, still reeling from the brilliance of it all. â€Å"You're not a bad liar.† Strathmore chuckled. â€Å"Years of practice. Lying was the only way to keep you out of the loop.† Susan nodded. â€Å"And how big a loop is it?† â€Å"You're looking at it.† Susan smiled for the first time in an hour. â€Å"I was afraid you'd say that.† He shrugged. â€Å"Once Digital Fortress is in place, I'll brief the director.† Susan was impressed. Strathmore's plan was a global intelligence coup the magnitude of which had never before been imagined. And he'd attempted it single-handedly. It looked like he might pull it off too. The pass-key was downstairs. Tankado was dead. Tankado's partner had been located. Susan paused. Tankado is dead. That seemed very convenient. She thought of all the lies that Strathmore had told her and felt a sudden chill. She looked uneasily at the commander. â€Å"Did you kill Ensei Tankado?† Strathmore looked surprised. He shook his head. â€Å"Of course not. There was no need to kill Tankado. In fact, I'd prefer he were alive. His death could cast suspicion on Digital Fortress. I wanted this switch to go as smoothly and inconspicuously as possible. The original plan was to make the switch and let Tankado sell his key.† Susan had to admit it made sense. Tankado would have no reason to suspect the algorithm on the Internet was not the original. Nobody had access to it except himself and North Dakota. Unless Tankado went back and studied the programming after it was released, he'd never know about the back door. He'd slaved over Digital Fortress for long enough that he'd probably never want to see the programming again. Susan let it all soak in. She suddenly understood the commander's need for privacy in Crypto. The task at hand was time-consuming and delicate-writing a concealed back door in a complex algorithm and making an undetected Internet switch. Concealment was of paramount importance. The simple suggestion that Digital Fortress was tainted could ruin the commander's plan. Only now did she fully grasp why he had decided to let TRANSLTR keep running. If Digital Fortress is going to be the NSA's new baby, Strathmore wanted to be sure it was unbreakable! â€Å"Still want out?† he asked. Susan looked up. Somehow sitting there in the dark with the great Trevor Strathmore, her fears were swept away. Rewriting Digital Fortress was a chance to make history-a chance to do incredible good-and Strathmore could use her help. Susan forced a reluctant smile. â€Å"What's our next move?† Strathmore beamed. He reached over and put a hand on her shoulder. â€Å"Thanks.† He smiled and then got down to business. â€Å"We'll go downstairs together.† He held up his Berretta. â€Å"You'll search Hale's terminal. I'll cover you.† Susan bristled at the thought of going downstairs. â€Å"Can't we wait for David to call with Tankado's copy?† Strathmore shook his head. â€Å"The sooner we make the switch, the better. We have no guarantees that David will even find the other copy. If by some fluke the ring falls into the wrong hands over there, I'd prefer we'd already made the algorithm switch. That way, whoever ends up with the key will download our version of the algorithm.† Strathmore fingered his gun and stood. â€Å"We need to go for Hale's key.† Susan fell silent. The commander had a point. They needed Hale's pass-key. And they needed it now. When Susan stood, her legs were jittery. She wished she'd hit Hale harder. She eyed Strathmore's weapon and suddenly felt queasy. â€Å"You'd actually shoot Greg Hale?† â€Å"No.† Strathmore frowned, striding to the door. â€Å"But let's hope he doesn't know that.†

Research Process Steps - Your Ultimate Guide for Best Papers

Research Process Steps - Your Ultimate Guide for Best Papers Research Process Steps - Your Ultimate Guide for Best Papers College brings a lot of uncertainties – new roommates, living within a budget, making new connections, etc. One thing, however, is quite certain – research paper assignments. You will have many - in fact an average of 32 papers - to write during your four-year march to a Bachelor’s. While you were possibly able to be a bit lazy with the steps in research process in high school, you do not have that luxury now. Every paper you write will be judged on the research you have used, the validity of your thesis statement or research question, and, of course, those pesky details, such as sticking with the specified research paper format style. Here’s a step-by-step guide that should get you great results – results that translate into great grades.                                                                     Ã‚  Step I: Selection and Refinement of a Topic If you goof at this point, your entire paper will suffer, so you have to get this right. In high school, you perhaps chose a factual topic, let’s say, the â€Å"Causes of the Civil War† or â€Å"Pollution of our Oceans.† These topics required you to research facts and report them. You are in the â€Å"big leagues† now, and that will not do. Here are the important parts of selecting that topic: Understand the parameters provided by your instructor. S/he will have guidelines – stick to them. Go through your text and your class notes, and find a topic that interests you. This is important – if you don’t like the topic, the entire process will be drudgery. When you do find a topic, it might be a good idea to run it by your instructor. Another suggestion – try to find one that is not common. When instructors have the chance to read something different, they are happier. Check out research available on your topic. You can usually gauge the refinement of your topic by checking out what research currently exists. If there is too little, you will need to broaden your topic, and vice versa. You need a scholarly thesis. Usually, you can get to this thesis by turning your topic into a question. Instead of â€Å"ocean pollution,† for example, you might ask, â€Å"What are the newest technologies for cleaning up our oceans?† or â€Å"What are the politics that hinder cleaning up our oceans?† These questions will give you your research question and, once you have done some initial research, your thesis statement.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Step 2: The Preliminary Research In the course of selecting your topic, you have done some preliminary research, if only to confirm that there are appropriate and scholarly resource materials available on the topic. If you are in grad school, specifically working on your thesis or dissertation, then your preliminary research will entail much more. You will be using it in writing a research proposal and so will be taking notes as you thoroughly review that research. Do a good job here, because not only will you use that content for your proposal, these resources can form a part of your total body of research for writing a literature review section or chapter.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Step 3: Locating Those Resources Obviously, the first place to look will be the electronic database of your school library. Using keywords and keyword phrases that relate directly to your topic is all you will need. For a larger swath of resources, particularly for grad students, use ProQuest. Here you will find research articles and other scholarly works (e.g., published theses and dissertations). Here is the thing about selection of resources. Secondary materials are perfectly fine for undergraduate work, so long as the author is a respected scholar in the field. No encyclopedic-like resources are acceptable. Obviously, the Internet is an additional source for material, both through generic searches and through subject directories.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Step 4: Assessing those Resources No resource should be considered for use without a check of the author’s authenticity. This means reading his/her bio, either the one that comes with the publication or searching online. A Ph.D. in English does not make an expert in history or economics. The other important consideration is the biases that author’s may have, particularly if your topic is controversial. It is fine to use a biased author, but you must acknowledge that bias in your paper. Especially when using Internet resources, double-check data and statistics you are given. Validating the authenticity of your source material is an extremely important step in the research process. Don’t skip it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Step 5: Taking Notes In high school, you were probably taught the note-card method. Guess what? It really is old-school but it really is still effective and most efficient. Why? Because if each note card holds one piece of information (along with source information), it can be sorted out and placed with similar information from other sources. Ultimately, sorting out those note cards will provide you with your sub-topics. Whether you plan to quote or â€Å"source† something on a note card or not, you still need the resource bibliographical information, so that it may be included correctly in your bibliography.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Step 6: Organizing the information                                                    This can be the most difficult of the research process steps. This is the step at which you have to organize all those note cards into categories, with the expectation of having sub-topics for your outline. This can be frustrating. However, here is a tip that you will not find elsewhere. Get online. Search for research papers on your topic. Take a look and see what sub-topics were used. This will give you an organizational plan to begin with. IMPORTANT: You are looking at organizational structure; you are not looking to â€Å"lift† any part of a paper for your own. You already know how easy it is for your instructor to check, so just don’t do it. For graduate students completing a literature review: you will not have sub-topics in the same manner as undergrad research papers. Your research has involved a review of the relevant research that others have conducted and you will be reporting on their findings as they relate to your research project. Reading through literature reviews of other theses and dissertations on related topics will give you good examples for you to follow.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Step 7: Even a Cursory Outline Will Keep You on track You should construct some type of outline that will cover the order in which you will cover your sub-topics. How detailed you make it depends upon you and the topic. Even a brief very informal outline will help you draft that first copy. Just list your sub-topics and, under each one, a listing of the points you will be covering. This will keep you organized as you construct your paper.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Step 8: The Rough Draft Using the outline, you now write the first draft of your paper. While many say you should not concern yourself with grammar and other composition, it’s a good idea to try to avoid grammar mistakes the first time through – it’s just more you have to clean up later.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Step 9: Editing and Revising Plan on plenty of time for editing and proofreading your paper. Once you have finished your rough draft, set the paper aside for 24 hours. If you try to edit right away, chances are you will miss things. As you begin the editing process, do it in this order: Read the paper first for coherence and flow. Are the sub-sections organized in the right order? Have you made your points clearly? Is there a logical flow of ideas? Look at your transitions from one paragraph to the next and from one section to the next. Will the reader know what to expect next? Does your introduction contain a good statement of your thesis or hypothesis? Does your conclusion sum everything up? Does there need to be a call to action? Once you are satisfied with the flow, it is time to proofread for grammatical, spelling, and mechanical errors (e.g., punctuation). If this is a challenge for you, get someone else to read the paper for you and point out any of these types of errors.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Step 10: Check that formatting Instructors can be sticklers for detail. One of those details is the format style that has been specified. If you are unsure about your in-text citations or your bibliography format, use one of the many tools now available that will format those citations in the style you need.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Step 11: The Final draft Your last step is to type the final copy and submit it.                                                    Other Processes This is a common step-by-step process for research paper construction. You may find an alternative model of the research process, especially as you move into graduate level research and writing or as instructors in various disciplinary field require. This process, however, will give you a basic model that you can use for most any paper you write at the undergraduate level. When You Are in a Bind It happens to the best of students. There is simply too much going on; there are too many paper assignments at the same time; other obligations have prevented you from being able to meet a deadline. In these circumstances, you may need to find a service that can write a research paper for you. This is no reflection on you or your intelligence. It is just a fact of life, and nothing to be ashamed about. In fact, it is a part of learning how to work â€Å"smarter† when you need to.

slaves essays

slaves essays Stephen B. Oates, the author, recalls the unlawful accounts of Nat's mother, Nancy, while being forced into slavery. Being just a teenage, she was abducted in North's Nile River Country by slave raiders. She was then marched hundreds of mils to the coast and sold to the Europeans. She endured the "middle passage" which was the dreaded voyage of being in a crammed small area with many other chained Africans. The results of this torment included suicide, starvation, and death from white man's disease. It was also noted that Nancy tried to kill her baby, Nat, so that she did not have to see him suffer the cruelties of slavery. At an early age Nancy had noticed a special gift that Nat had, such as when he was able to tell stories about his mother before he was born that were never told to him directly. Stephen Oates has a way of writing that transforms the reader into the actual rebellion and allows one to see and feel the circumstances before, during and after the Nat Turner insurrection and the consequences of it to the South.Oates clearly did extensive research on his subject. He manages to unearth many new facts about Nat Turner that were previously unknown. Oates presents a vivid picture of what Nat Turner's life must have been like as a slave. He presents enough facts about Nat Turner to give the reader the beginnings of an idea of what motivated the man. He describes in detail the visions that Nat claimed to have had and the formations of the planned rebellion. Then, once the rebellion starts, Oates gives a moment by moment account. ...

Petrochemical Industry of Saudi Arabia Dissertation

Petrochemical Industry of Saudi Arabia - Dissertation Example The petrochemical industry is regarded as one of the most important of all sectors in the economy of Saudi Arabia owing to the volume and proportion of revenue that it contributes to the national income of the nation. The records of the year 2005 state that Saudi Arabia consists of almost 250 petrochemical firms of diverse sizes which invest a gross yearly amount of US$ 29 billion in the industry. In addition, the nation is accountable for exporting petrochemical products worth US$ 3.2 billion. The nation is also home to the Saudi Arabian Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), which is the world’s 11th largest producer of petroleum and also one of the world’s fastest growing companies (Shoult, 2006). At present, Saudi Arabia is the largest producer of oil in the world accounting for producing 10.5 million barrels per day annually, which serves the needs of one-tenth of the global population. The nation’s potential capacity is believed to be 262 billion barrels per day (Falola & Genova, 2005). The objectives of the present research paper could be stated as follows – †¢ Factors which enhance investment in a sector, i.e., what are the aspects that investors generally examine prior to making investments in a particular sector? †¢ Importance of investment behind the economic development of a nation. †¢ Petrochemical industry, being one of the pillaring sectors, deserves much of the government’s attention. This necessitates the purpose of the paper and the conclusion to be reached hence. Research aims will be – Figure out the extent to which petrochemical industry will be affected by market fluctuations Reach a conclusion regarding the appropriate step to be adopted by potential investors. Forecast the possible trend that the Saudi Arabian petrochemical industry is likely to adopt over the span of another quarter. This forecast could help the national

Self Discovery Journey in Literature Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Self Discovery Journey in Literature - Essay Example The discourse of self initiation should be looked at through the eye glass of the self; the characters created by the two authors display this side of every human being and, the almost desperate search that they start is common for all humans, thus I believe that the personal endeavor and voracious desire for knowledge do not shadow, but rather illuminate my very own understanding of the two books. The confession like statement of this paper that unravels the past fears and discoveries of my self concludes that life and the journey dedicated to spiritual evolution is present in every individual and that such novels as "The Alchemist" and "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" are not only very appealing to the readers, but also manage to bring back into focus the stages of becoming by unweaving and weaving back one's path. The analysis of the given literary corpus proved to reach a difficult point when I compared the styles of the two novels and the two different tones that speak about the becoming of the individual. Coelho's language is easier to apprehend and thus it proved to carry a more explicit message that immediately assures the revelations of the readers in front of a promised destiny. This author's description of the theme 'life as a journey' brings a world of magic and yet simple happiness that seems to be there at the end of the path. Unlike Coelho, Richard Bach imposes upon his readers a metaphor that shadows the plot and the message of the novel. As similar as they may seems, the language of the two novels has two tones: a calm and eventful one in "The Alchemist" and an extortionately dry one in "Jonathan Livingston Seagull". It is difficult and it takes an in-depth analysis in order to be able to set and discuss the intimate coordinates of the two souls that are incorporated in this unf olding. The main idea that this paper managed to discuss and that represents its strong point is the fact that the comparison between the two novels conveys a good understanding of the main characters: the shepherd and the seagull and their dynamics. Leaving aside the plot and focusing on the changes they go through, this paper brings in front of the readers a good understanding of the restless seagull and of the thriving young boy. The paper discussed only a part of the aspects present in the two novels and it did not cover the metaphysical and deeply symbolical dimension of the language. As simple as it may seem, the language used by both Coelho and Bach hides a symbolism that should be discussed in connection with the author's philosophy and not with my own personal believes; the literary analysis of the abstract ideas that come along with the story line is sure to bring a better understanding of the novels. However, this paper does trigger important questions which should be part of a future and detailed study of the transcendental dimensions of the self discovery journey as it appears in "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho and Richard Bach's "Jonathan Livingston Seagull". What's not a part of your paper that you think might help a reader understand or appreciate