Rhetorical Advertisement Analysis Essay

Teen pregnancy is one of the most serious issues in the American society. Three in ten teen young women get pregnant before their twenties. We have heard about the bad consequences of teen pregnancy in movies, talk shows, news, and many other social media. The Candies Foundation Organization is a non-profit organization that tries change the way youth in America thinks about teen pregnancy and parenthood. This organization decided to use advertisements to persuade teenagers to consider the consequences of having a baby. Therefore, I chose an advertisement from this organization. And I am here to tell you that this advertisement is so powerful that it is likely to reach its intended audience. The advertisement is composed of two parts equally. On the left side, it is a portrait of a female celebrity with a serious facial expression. On the right side, it is a question written in large font with a small text and an image of a crib below it. The question is: â€Å"Not really the way you pictured your first crib, huh?† The crib has a simple design. The advertisement is basically black and white with a touch of a hot pink color. This color only appears in the name of the organization, which is at the bottom of the portrait, and parts of the question. The rhetorical appeals are included in the advertisement to persuade the audience to think about whether or not they are ready to have a baby. The Candies Foundation Organization uses pathos to appeal to both women and man’s emotions and gain further support for their foundation. It uses sex and emotional appeals and made the advertisement engaging not only to men, but also to women. It uses a more mainstream and modern sex appeal to send the message to its intended audience. There are few advertisements that include a portrait of a female celebrity in them. However, this organization used the advantage that celebrities draw audience’s attention. It used a celebrity called Fergie, who is a well-known singer and actress in the modern days. In fact, the portrait successfully made the ad to appeal only to teenagers. While the portrait is attention catching by taking up half of the advertisement, the organization simply used the celebrity’s facial expression as an emotional appeal. The celebrity’s face is made more beautiful with a touch of make-up focusing on the eyes. The advertisement gains more attention with this portrait for the simple fact that the celebrity is looking straight at the audience. However, the celebrity is not smiling or staring at the audience. It is only a conventional look, in fact, the one that people give when they are talking to someone. It is this look and the emotion she lacks, that creates a strong feeling in the audience. It is also this look that attracts perfectly the audience’s full attention for the advertisement. The celebrity, a female, to the point, adds credibility to the advertisement because a female voice has more strength than a male’s in this situation. Men are always interested in their opposite sex. Women always have the feelings of jealousy and insecurity. Furthermore, the organization effectively opens the advertisement for all genders by using a female celebrity. Now, the advertisement not only attracts teen girls’ attention, but also boys. The organization also uses ethos to appeal a personality in the message. The combination of colors adds a special effect to the advertisement, making it much easier for the audience to relate the portrait with the text. Since the celebrity’s picture is gray and white, it mirrors the question perfectly. As soon as the picture captures the audience’s attention, the attractive color automatically pulls the attention toward the question. The contrast of the colors used in this advertisement effectively brings out the advertisement’s own style. It uses a hot-pink color and white for the question and a dark black color as background. Hot-pink color lover or not, the style surely catches the attention of everybody. The white color also stands out in the dark black background, highlighting the question and giving it more importance. An image of a baby’s crib also lies right below the question, which adds more credibility to the advertisement. The organization is not using an image of a decorative crib in this situation. In fact, it uses an image of a traditional crib. It made the crib look simple, original, and plain, in order to appeal to teenagers rather than adults. I consider that the organization assumes that having an image of a crib in the advertisement will lead the audience to realize the message in depth. Therefore, I consider that they are correct with their assumptions. The crib image does make the question more thoughtful and it encourages teenagers to think seriously about the difficulties of having a child. Unlike other advertisements, the Candies Foundation uses a single question to deliver their message. â€Å"Not really the way you pictured your first crib, huh?† By using logos, this advertisement leads the audience to question themselves about their sexual decisions. The slang word, â€Å"crib†, has a double meaning of â€Å"home† and â€Å"baby’s crib†. The exclamation, huh, has a strong sense of interrogation. The combination of these two words gives a better expression and power to the question. Because the advertisement is targeting teenagers instead of adults, the word huh precisely adds credibility to the question. Using logos and ethos, the question is being asked properly along with an image of a baby crib that strikes fear into the audience. After the audience read the question, automatically they start thinking about few general propositions such as: Do I want to give a home like this one for my baby? Can I afford all the expenses of having a baby? Do I have a permanent job? Am I old enough? Am I ready to be a mother? Am I ready to be a father? Do I really want a baby at all? Without doubt, they will answer: NO. The organization did not ask the audience these questions directly nor gave any quantitative facts about babies. However, it used logos to make its audience reason logically and then the audience themselves can draw a specific truth from the propositions they have made. After the audience had thought about the question, they inevitably agree with the truth that the advertisement carries. In conclusion, this advertisement is effective. It is strong, meaningful, and attractive at the same time. The rhetorical appeals included have successfully persuaded its intended audience to prevent teen pregnancy. The great combination of pathos, ethos, and logos that the organization used in this advertisement builds a positive thought that will stay in the audience’s mind for a long time. This thought deeply discourages teenagers to have sex. This thought can also be a motivation for parents to advise their children and furthermore, the organization gains more outside supports to decrease teen pregnancy growth.

Mass Effect Ending Controversy

In game shown Normandy fighting in the final battle to retake Earth from Reaper forces peephole not telling us why Joker retreated from the battle as the victory fleet continues to fight the Reapers. Leaving fans questioning if the only reason for it was to have the Normandy crash on a unknown world for a Adam and Eve illusion in one of the three endings in this case synthetic where Sheppard is given the choice to merge humanity with synthetic life to increase understanding and to prevent further wars.Also raises the question why the other crew members would abandon Sheppard so readily and everyone who was fighting to save the galaxy. 2. Beam me up Sheppard Members from your squad who were with you in the final run to the citadel suddenly appear out of the crashed Normandy with no explanation of how they got there. This is made worse as Gamers love interest for Sheppard suddenly emerges from the ship making gamers question further why they would abandon Sheppard after 2-3 games.No mo urning or empty grave for Sheppard. 3. Destruction of the Mass Relays In all the endings no matter what you pick or how high your Effective Military Strength Is the Mass Relays get destroyed. When in the Arrival DICE for Mass Effect it was established that destruction of a Mass Relay will completely obliterate a solar system. As shown on the galaxy map Sheppard would have killed billions of souls in the few seconds than the Reaper themselves would ever have. No matter the explosion it would have the same effect. 4.The Victory Fleet Stranded With the Mass Relays gone the entire fleet would be stranded at Earth which is made of thousands of ships and hundreds of different races. Which all of which would be orbiting a ruined and devastated Earth that might not be able to support its own people. While the Quarries and Turbans can't even eat human food. Supplies would run out would the fleet starve to death ? 5. Collected War Assets for What ? Fan's expected a suicide battle like Mass Ef fect g's ending only involving the entire galaxy.Also that the hours of gamely , Multilayer and Relationships that would have been repaired would have been shown in the final battle as none of the forces you collect are shown fighting during the take back of earth. Battle takes place same as space. With humans looking at a multi colored explosion surrounding Reaper forces. 6. No Closure At the end of Mass effect the game prompts you to buy more content and an insulting scene where a grandpa tells a story to a child and refers to our hero as â€Å"The Sheppard† .No closure on what happened to the people we cared about for five years except for the relationship which developed between Joker and DEED which started in Mass Effect 2. No scenes showing what happened to your character's friend or minor species also undoes some of these friendships as we don't see were telling stories of Sheppard which means hero. Or seeing tall on her homework rebuilding it all Were left teahouse is that there all stranding in the sol system. 7. Another Twist Ending?Players left no choice by developer instead going for a twist ending that is barely relevant to the story which offers no pay off . 8. The Final Revelation The God Child) After your hit by Harbingers beam things go off the rails. As you see both Anderson and The illusive man on the Citadel which player's would like an option to save Anderson and an option to convince the illusive man to stand down. It feels cheap to be introduced to the ultimate villain â€Å"the god child † as the true force your fighting against in the last few minutes of the trilogy.As he destroys the mysterious and lore with the reapers by saying Hess the one that created them and the reason for the creation was using circulatory logic saying the created will always rebel against the creator after you make peace teen the quarries and the get during a key part of the game disproving this. As this child says † without us synthetics w ould destroy all organics† when during the final scenes On Rancho the Get primes addresses Admiral Ran and says † your welcome to return to Rancho Admiral Ran with us. 9. Shepherd's Acceptance of the God Child's Bonkers logic Extended cut Good â€Å"Mass Effect 3 may have added a multilayer component, but many fans were interested in keeping their experience restricted to the single- player. That's why some were upset to learn that certain scenes (like Sheppard apparently surviving in the â€Å"destroy† ending) can only be seen by raising Galactic Readiness – something that can't be done through single-player missions. Teases been changed with the Extended Cut.According to Beware, your Effective Military Strength only needs to be about 3, 100 to see all of the scenes. As long as you're thorough in your solo efforts, you won't miss anything important at the end anymore. † Bad â€Å"One of the major complaints about the original endings is how all thr ee of them were basically the same, with just different colors for the beam shooting out of the Citadel. There's still mom of that going on here, even with the new endings.Many scenes are reused or only altered slightly from one ending to the next† ugly : The worst looking part of the new content is the series of AD art that appears in the red, green, and blue endings. They are supposed to depict friends and allies living their lives in the post-war world, but the static images feel odd and out-of- place considering the cinematic flair of every other major moment in the series. They aren't even in-game stills; they're more like concept art. I'm sure Beware has a reason for making the choice, but that doesn't change the fact hat a slideshows feels cheap and cheesy.

Roche Pharmaceuticals Operations Planning Research Paper

Roche Pharmaceuticals Operations Planning - Research Paper Example Sales & Operations Planning At Roche an efficient sales & operations planning is used in order to balance demand and supply, to align mix and volume and for integrating financial and operating plans. This has been facilitated by using of Enterprise Resource Planning systems discussed in later sections. At Roche, the top management takes ownership of the sales and operations planning process. The management considers it a source of delivering business plans and strategies. The medium to long term decisions are taken by the top executives while the short term decisions are taken by the middle management. Various products at Roche pharmaceuticals are divided into families which makes it easier for management to review them for planning. Roche believes in proactive management rather than reactive crisis management. Hence, the sales and operations plan are designed well ahead of time. The sales and operations planning process also encompasses risk analysis and mitigation. The various possible scenarios in the planning horizon are studied and plans are made to tackle sudden rise or fall in demand and resources. After the plans have been decided at the top, they are communicated throughout the organization for smooth and accurate implementation. Broadly speaking, 5 steps are followed by Roche for Sales and Operations Planning. In the first steps, all new product development programmes are reviewed with the help of Research and Development Department. The information obtained acts as input for the sales and operations planning process. The concerned risks and assumptions are also documented. In the second step, a new sales and demand plan is created. The forecasts made here are dependent upon inputs from various stakeholders in the meeting. Roche accomplishes forecasting with the help of SAP ERP tools. The system generated forecasts are shared with all stakeholders. Any changes suggested are incorporated after discussion and the final forecasts are developed. These forecasts act as input for demand planning meeting. The concerned risks and assumptions are documented. In the third step, an operations plan is prepared in order to fulfill demands for each time period. For this the old operations plan is studied and the differen ces are noted. In the new operations plan, these differences are adjusted keeping in view the various resource constraints and inventory levels. The operations plan is multiplied by bill of materials required for each product family to arrive at total required resources. The required resources are compared with available resources. If there are significant differences, solutions to fill those gaps are identified and documented. In the fourth step, the impact of operations plan on other departments such as Accounts, finance, IT and sales is studied. Reconciliations and corrections are done to address concerns of various departments. Finally the key recommendations and potential scenarios are studied to from an agenda for the final Sales and Operations Planning meeting. The agenda is shared before the meeting for everyone to understand. In the fifth step, final Sales and Operations meeting is conducted. In the final meeting, the progress on previous sales and operations plan is studie d, plan for each product family is reviewed, approvals are made and new proposals are decided. The minutes of meeting and action plans are then communicated to various stakeholders (PHS, 2006). 5.3. Aggregate Planning Strategies Roche pharmaceuticals uses aggregate planning for achieving its medium term objectives. The activities are planned at various

Nasser Speak Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Nasser Speak - Assignment Example Their populations are constantly rising hence there is need to exploit their own natural resources to increase the level of production. By doing so, they can produce more units in the economy; sales more to the foreign nations and in return provide them with foreign earnings. These earnings can be invested back and provide the much needed growth. As long as they are self-independent, they will minimize the decision made to them by the foreign countries and can concentrate on their own development. Individuals however should not just own land for their selfish interest like the capitalist. But they should do so as a way of promoting the society and improving status. This formed the basis of states to provide services like irrigation so that they can maximize their output in the best interest of the society. Countries should make decisions that are centered towards industrial development to ease the pressure on the agricultural sector has been the case in Egypt. This made easy by the development of modern scientific technology. Output will increase and full exploitation of the available resources done with ease. The citizens should not fear of any unemployment due to technology but should rejoice since major sectors will be opened and give them more opportunities. But even if we have to produce, we should do so in a manner that balances between the consumer needs and the nation’s goals. Agriculture impacts the livelihood of citizens directly as opposed to the industrial nature of countries more so in African countries. From the excess produce, the country and citizens can invest in agricultural industries. Thus we should compliment both agricultural sector and industrial for greater growth in the economy. Our production as a result of the mass resources within our nations should provide equality in all fronts. It

Nursing documentation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Nursing documentation - Essay Example (Ammenwerth et al., 2003; Audit Commission, 2002) 'A nurse from Coventry was recently removed from the national register after failing to keep accurate records for patients in her care. She was found guilty of seven charges of misconduct. The committee heard that she failed to ensure care plans were prepared for several patients covering issues such as diabetes, pain management and dietary needs. On one occasion, she failed to notify staff of a patient's increased risk of hemorrhage following a drug error. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) found the nurse had systematically neglected a basic and crucial duty to keep proper records for the management of patient care.' (Griffin, 2004) And this is only one of the cases found in literature, in relation to the negligence, with which the nurses treat the importance of making records. Castledine (2005) reports about the failures to carry on proper documentation in the Freda House. Freda House is described by him as the establishment for treating blind people. Due to the improper records, which one of the nurses - Bob - was making, many patients and older people in the Freda House were mistreated and had health complications. As a result, 'The managers of Freda House decided to refer Bob to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) because of the poor explanations and excuses for his actions. He was charged by the NMC with: (1) Completing medication records when the drugs had not been administered; (2) Falsely completing nursing records relating to wound dressings which had not been changed; (3) Failing to change residents' dressings while indicating that he had done so in the patients' care plans; (4) Failing to report at handover to the nurse in charge that he had not administered drugs or changed patients' dressings; (5) Failing to clean the eyes of a resident.' (Castledine, 2005). Of course, this only proves how nurses have got accustomed to the thought that documentation is the skill second to nursing (Tingle, 2001), not understanding its importance for the patient's health. The similar cases are also described by Tingle (2001), British Journal of Nursing (October, 2000), Johnston (1998), Moody (2001). It was surprising to read the work of Bjorvell, Wredling and Thorell-Ekstrand (2003), in which they have come to conclusion that 'most participants, regardless of group, perceived nursing documentation to be beneficial to them in their daily practice and to increase patient safety'. Why then do we have so many reports of the health complications, which appear as a result of the misleading or false nursing records (Anderson, 2000; Charles et al, 2000; Tingle, 1998) Many articles describe the importance of carrying correct nursing records. (Wright, 2003; Scottish Executive, 1999; Nursing and Midwifery Council, 2002; Dion, 2001) For example, Owen (2005) writes in her article, that 'Documenting patient care is extremely important in the community setting as nurses usually visit patients alone, sometimes with long periods between each visit. The only way that the nurse can legally communicate the care that has been delivered is by writing effective records. Nursing records are usually held by the patient, enabling information to be shared easily between visiting practitioners.

Global Strategy - Benchmarking Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Global Strategy - Benchmarking - Assignment Example In this case, the benchmark is a Swedish furniture giant IKEA. This effect can be felt because it one of the leading global furniture shops who have also felt the effect of fluctuations in profit margins before rising again to achieve its level of competitiveness (Baldegger, 2012). The IKEA pioneered the initiatives of benchmarks by expanding regionally both in Europe and China, the market for its products had risen by 40% despite the fact that its local markets were still not making enough profits. Besides, when the company ventured into the United States Market, it was forced to redesign its commodities so as to suite the need. This led to sudden fluctuation of IKEAs’ market, but was later revived due to market stability and high demand (Peng, 2014). IKEAs’ success in the global market has been highly dependent on strategic benchmarking. This involves laying down all the strategies needed to improve the success of the company. Having realized that the local markets were not giving substantial returns to the company, IKEAs’ ventured into the global market by making modification on its brand to suite the demand of a particular business. In essence, in the United States, the company decided to construct their store layouts to look like typical layout apartments. Besides, the company made joint ventures with the locals, and this was used as a strategy to test new markets (Peng, 2014). The benchmark that has been implemented by this company did not hinder in any way the success of its local markets because these markets were already making losses. Moreover, the company benchmark was based on cost, promotion and design, which differed from one area to another. Therefore, each area was best suit to set up its own business (Peng, 2014). Any business organization who ventures into global markets must be ready to face numerous risks such as the risks of wining the trusts of

Franchise business and none-franchise business Essay - 2

Franchise business and none-franchise business - Essay Example Block Real Estate Brokerage firm interviewed obtains its materials and supplies exclusively from the franchisor. One of the company’s managing directors interviewed asserted that due to the gap created by the ever growing demand for houses in the urban areas contributed to the development of the company specializing in real estate. Since different people have different tastes in terms of houses within which they would like to live, customer satisfaction is guaranteed by providing information on all types of houses to enable quick decision making. The working population formed the majority of urban dwellers who needed quality housing facilities and this was the rational for starting Block real estate brokerage firm (Cross and Miller 56). What started as Block Consultancy in real estate eventually turned into a full-fledged firm. The quick pace of developments was attributed to the vision and objectives set by the parent organization. Initially the organization only depended on a single individual to manage meetings with customers, persuading them to accept their housing brokerage services. With the ever increasing population the demand for housing facilities also increased leading to an increased customer base. This caused further expansion of its business operations incorporating technological advancements like the internet, phones and fax machines in order to effectively manage the business. The firm’s structure and size increased in order to meet the new demands. The benefits of a franchise type of business are that; (1) it requires less capital to begin than other businesses as it allows the company to grow capital invested by the individual franchise; (2) It also allows multiple units to be opened at the same time which are supported by the parent organization in terms of advertisements and other promotional activities; (3) such a business has a greater market because of the availability of the availability of the

Marketing plan report for Masafi company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Marketing plan report for Masafi company - Essay Example It would examine the trends and choices for marketing and running the business. The report goes on to examine some important trends in the markets and deduce the competitor positions. It would identify the marketing potential and from there, the paper would formulate and recommend a marketing plan after identifying the marketing gaps that exist in Masafi. Background Analysis Masafi is focuses on mineral water and other food products that they produce in their factory and sell to customers in the Middle East, Persian Gulf and different parts of the world. Their products are unique and are tapped from the rich oases and mountains of Masafi, a region in the north-east of the United Arab Emirates. Masafi's competitive strength is in the fact that it produces world class water and consumer goods with a high degree of natural freshness and health potentials. Masafi is also reputed for being environmental-friendly in its approach of doing things. Past History The Masafi mountains and region is a vegetated mountainous region in the United Arab Emirates. The region contrasts the area in the vast west of the region which is mainly a sandy desert area. Masafi has a reputation of being an area with numerous springs and oases which were documented in Roman times. The locals of Masafi have always made use of the water and natural resources and sent them to different parts of the country for generations. However, in 1976, Masafi was officially incorporated with the view of commercializing the sale of water from the springs of the Masafi geographic area (Masafi Corporate, 2013). Masafi started with a small portfolio of just producing bottled water to consumers around the local area. It used traditional systems and methods of collecting water and sending it out to nearby communities. In 1990, Masafi expanded to different parts of the UAE. They sold their mineral water to large cities of the United Arab Emirates. In 1995, Masafi expanded to different portfolios. They produced ju ices from natural fruits, flavoured water, potato chips, and Basmati rice. The biggest product, the 4G (Four Gallon) water was added in 2000. In 2008, Masfai gained a reputation as a natural, organic and health product when they entered the beverage market. This quest was to make the company a fast-moving consumer goods company (FMCG) by 2011. They continued to produce 100% pure and natural products for consumers in different parts of the Persian Gulf Region. Export increased with the growth of the Emirati economy. This led to the sale of Masafi products to Africa, the Middle East and different zones around the region. Organizational Setup Masafi has a capital base of $5.5 million . This capital enables it to continue to produce and fund its operations and expansion drives. The company is involved in different projects in different parts of the country. Masafi has over 1,000 employees. The primary plants are located in the Masafi regions. However, the company has different warehousi ng networks around the country which enables it to distribute the products to the various cities and the ports of UAE. Masafi maintains a major recycling system on its site which allows it to recycle the plastics and other containers that are used to carry out the activities of the company. Masafi is one of the most profitable entities in the industry. In 2008, they increased their profits by 36% from 2007 records (Zawya, 2009). This represents a revenue of $26

Cyclical, Frictional and Structural Unemployment Statistics Project

Cyclical, Frictional and Structural Unemployment - Statistics Project Example Fifty percent, 10 percent, 30 percent and 10 percent of the total U.S unemployment accounts for unemployed persons due to layoff, those who have already quit their previous jobs, those reentering the labor force and new entrants to the labor force respectively. According to the Bureau of labor statistics, the number of unemployed persons in the U.S stood at 11.7 million while the unemployment rate stood at 7.6 percent in March 2013. This was a decrease from 7.7 percent in the previous month. In March 2013, the unemployment rate for adult males was 6.9 percent, adult females 7.0 percent and youths 24.2 percent. Categorized according to race, the unemployment rate for whites was 6.7 percent, blacks 13.3 percent, Hispanics 9.2 percent and Asians 5.0 percent.   In the same month, the number of persons unemployed for 27 or more weeks, stood at 4.6 million accounting for 39.6 percent of the unemployed. The labor force participation rate reduced by 0.2 percent while the civilian labor for ce reduced by 496,000. The involuntary part-time workers dropped by 350,000 to 7.6 million in March. They are regarded as involuntary part-time workers because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job. In the same month, employment in the retail sector declined by 24,000 while employment in the health sector, professional and business services increased by 23,000 and 51,000 jobs respectively.The construction industry added 169,000 jobs. Job decline in clothing and accessories stores stood at 15,000, building material and garden supply stores at 10,000 and electronics and appliance stores 6,000. Some sectors in the government such as Postal Service employment fell by 12,000. Compared to previous months, major industries such as mining, manufacturing, wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, information, financial activities, state government, and local government recorded dismal changes in employment. Since 1948, to 2013, the average u nemployment rate has been 5.81 percent. The highest unemployment rate was in 1982 hitting a high of 10.8 and the lowest ever was in 1953 hitting a low of 2.50 percent. Unemployment is defined as the fraction of the total people looking for a job to the total labor force. Since the great depression, the U.S has recorded the highest stretch of the  unemployment rate of above 8 percent. The congressional budget office projects that the unemployment rate will remain above 8 percent until 2014.

Lyme Disease and How the Immune System Responds Research Paper

Lyme Disease and How the Immune System Responds - Research Paper Example Early symptoms are then further divided into localized which usually include a characteristic circular rash, fever, malaise and flu like symptoms. The symptoms of early disseminated infection are mainly due to the spread of the bacteria in the blood stream in two to three days after the initial infection and include dizziness, migrating pain in the muscles, palpitations, neuroborreliosis and infections of the lymph nodes. The disease could also lead to many cardiac anomalies like atrioventricular block. The disease if not treated properly or left untreated could lead to its persistent chronic form. The major parts of the body that are usually affected by this late, chronic form of the disease are eyes, brain and heart. Extreme cases of the disease may also lead to paraplegias. Pathogenesis The pathogenic organism is present in the saliva of the ticks and transferred to the blood stream while the ticks are feeding on the human blood. The tick’s saliva protects the organism and allows it to invade the dermis while avoiding the initial protective system of the human body. After invasion, an inflammatory response develops against the organism which is usually is the cause of its characteristics initial lesions. Neutorphils however fail to invade the site of infection, enabling the bacteria to survive linger at the site of infection. ... RESPONSE OF THE IMMUNE SYSTEM Innate Immunity Innate immune response is usually the body’s first and immediate response to any foreign antigen; in this case the bacteria (Borrelia). The cells usually involved in providing the innate immunity are called as the natural killer cells which include neutrophils, dendritic cells, monocytes and granulocytes. However in Lyme’s disease neutrophils usually fail to invade the site of infection which allows the organism to survive for a longer duration. In the absence of neutorphills, the dendritic cells acquire a primary role of killing the pathogen. The dendritic cells engulf the bacteria by the process of phagocytosis. After the bacterium is phagocytosed, it is either killed by lysosomal enzymes or by the production of toxic substances e.g. Nitric Oxide, that degrade bacterial cell membrane leading to its death (Dietrich and Hartung 2001). Dendritic cells having acquired this primary role of killing the cells perform many other f unctions too in the early manifestation of the infection. The dendritic cells cause the release of several mediators e.g. IL8, 12 and 1 as well as TNF alpha. All these mediators released by dendritic cells play an important role in the early defenses against the disease as well as development of the acquired immunity. Complement system Apart from the innate response that is directly involved in the killing of foreign pathogens, one important aspect of immunity against borrelia infection is the activation of the complement system. The complement system is a complex of 20 proteins which are activated by the antigen antibody complexes. Functions of the complement system involves: activation of specific immune mechanisms e.g. release of certain chemical mediators, direct

The Public Need to Know Essay Example for Free

The Public Need to Know Essay Research has shown that children born in the 2000‘s have a 1-3 chance of developing type two diabetes, and 7% of obese five to seventeen year olds has at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease. â€Å"Over the past 30 years childhood obesity has more than tripled in the United States. According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, obesity in children is one of the easiest medical conditions to recognize but most difficult to treat. (Wittman,2010 pg.75).† are now federal guidelines now in place that all school are required to meet. These new federal nutrition guidelines are now tough, due to the changes in state and federal laws the government has banned the use of pesticides in crop growing. The federal government has finally step in and made new laws to save the children of our future. Infusing the new health and nutrition program to ensure meals are well balanced and nutritional for students growth and development is one of the best thing they come have ever implemented, many of these new meal requirements as part of their â€Å"program nutrition standards set forth by the USDA require most schools to increase the availability of whole grains, fat-free and low-fat fluid milk in school meals; reduce the levels of sodium, saturated fat and Tran’s fat in meals; and meets the nutritional needs of school children within their calorie requirements (Johnson, RK, et al. 1998).† This brochure will identify the economy issues, special need for the students been served, developing a standard health and nutrition menu for schools and the benefits of changes that’s have been made in the school lunch menu. Some of economy issues for school lunch and breakfast pr ograms were re-authorized with significant improvements to make it easier for eligible children to be enrolled. By doing the re-authorization will allow underprivileged children in families that receiving government asseds to automatically receive free school meals without having to complete an application, and school districts will have to review a sample of applications more carefully to make sure families are  eligible. With nutrition and health meals in school that are high in fat, sodium, cholesterol and they were very unhealthy meals. All of this was done to cut the cost of foods. The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) that started in 2006 was the second largest food and nutrition assistance program which and provided over 28 million low-cost or free lunches to children on a typical school day at a Federal cost of $8 billion for the year (Economic Research Report 1998). The NSLP report provides background information on the, including historical trends and participant characteristics. It also addresses steps being taken to meet challenges facing administrators of the program, including tradeoffs between nutritional quality of foods served, costs, and participation, as well as between program access and program integrity. The special need is for students to be offer a variety of healthy foods in school meal and snack programs that will prevent childhood obesity and diabetes. Schools are required by law to offer school meals and snacks that are consistent with the federal government’s dietary guidelines. Having these programs has allowed students to develop healthy eating habits and to learn to enjoy many different foods. Healthier meals provide energy and nutrients for students. These are special needs because schools where given students food that was unhealthy and causing childhood deaths. These new programs that have been enforced has help decrease childhood diabetes and obesity. FIGURE 5-1 Excerpt from a late version of the Menu Development spreadsheet for estimating and evaluating the average daily energy and nutrient content that would be provided by possible meal patterns for breakfast, using preliminary targets for schoolchildren ages 5–10 years kindergarten through grade 5. (Joh nson, RK, 1998 pg. 295) TABLE M-6 Sample Lunch Menus: High School MONDAY| TUESDAY| WEDNESDAY| THURSDAY| FRIDAY| WEEK 1| | | | | Choice of:| Choice of:| Choice of:| Choice of:| Choice of:| Sloppy Joe (3.6 oz) on WW Roll| Regular or Spicy Chicken Strips (3oz)| Pineapple Glazed Turkey Ham (2 oz)| Nachos Grande with Tortilla Chips (2 oz)| Teriyaki Chicken Dippers (3 oz) with White Rice (1 c)| Cheese Lasagna (1oz) with Marinara Sauce ( ½ c)| Chicken Patty (2.5 oz) on WW Roll| Hamburger (2.7 oz) on Bun| Chicken Patty (2.5oz) on WW Roll| Corn Dog  (4oz)| Assorted Pizza (6.3oz)| Assorted Pizza (6.3 oz)| Assorted Pizza (6.3oz)| Assorted Pizza (6.3 oz)| Assorted Pizza (6.3 oz)| Cheeseburger (2.7oz meat, 1 oz RF cheddar cheese) on Bun| Grilled Chicken Salad (2 oz chicken, 2 oz black beans, 1 c spinach, cherry tomato)| Chef Salad (1 oz turkey, 1 oz ham, 0.5 oz LF cheese,  ½ egg, 1 c dark green leafy blend, cherry tomato, cucumber)| Taco Salad (2 oz taco meat, 1 oz shredded cheddar, 0.25 oz tortilla chips, 1 c dark green leafy blend)| Black Bean Salad ( ½ cromaine, 2 oz black beans, 1⠁„8 c corn, 1⠁„8 c p ineapple)| Deli Roll Salad (1oz turkey, 1 oz LF cheese, 1 c romaine blend, tomato)| Sub Sandwich (1.5 oz turkey, 0.5 oz RF cheese) on Hoagie Bun (4†)| Roast Beef Sub (2 oz roast beef, 1 oz RF cheese, romaine leaf, tomato) on WW Hoagie Bun (5†)| Veggie Sandwich (2 oz RF cheese, lettuce, tomato, cucumber) on Hoagie Roll (5†)| Deli Turkey Sub (2 oz turkey, 1 oz RF cheese, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, red onion) on WW Hoagie Roll (5†)| Sub Sandwich (0.75oz turkey ham, 0.75 oz turkey salami, 0.75 oz turkey bologna, 0.5 RF cheese) on WW Hoagie Roll (5†)| Veggie Wrap (romaine, 2 oz monterey jack cheese, cucumber, red pepper, tomato, matchstick carrots) in WW Tortilla| Buffalo Chicken Wrap (2.5 oz chicken, 1 oz LF cheese, romaine leaf, 1 oz ranch dressing) in WW Tortilla| Turkey Club Wrap (2 oz turkey, 1 oz RF cheese, lettuce, tomato, 1 oz ranch dressing) in WW Tortilla| Italian Wrap (1 oz turkey salami, 1 oz turkey ham, 1 oz LF cheese, romaine leaf, tomato) in W W Tortilla| | Green Beans ( ½ c)| Sweet Potatoes ( ½ c)| | Baked Potato Wedges ( ½ c)| Vegetarian Beans ( ½ c)| Fresh Mini Carrots ( ½ c)| Fresh Zucchini Slices ( ½ c)| Golden Corn ( ½c)| Sliced Summer Squash ( ½ c)| Developing a standard health and nutrition menu for schools involve there were five major steps taken to help develop the menu : (1) consideration of the adequacy of the meal planning approaches in current use; (2) the selection of the new meal planning approach; (3) the identification of an established food pattern guide to serve as a basis for school meal patterns for planning menus that are consistent with Dietary Guidelines for Americans; (4) the design and use of spreadsheets to test possible meal patterns against the preliminary nutrition targets established in Chapter 4; and (5) the testing of a series of possible standards for menu planning and evaluation of the resulting menus in terms of nutrient content, cost, and suitability for school meals (School Meals: Building Blocks for Healthy  Children) The benefits of these programs are typically acquired during person’s childhood according to The Dairy Council. Therefore, healthier school lunches would lead to healthier nutritional choices throughout childrens entire lifetimes. By making healthy school lunches the norm as opposed to the exception, children will inadvertently learn about nutrition and healthy eating. The reverse is also true; children who are provided with sugary, fatty foods at school can develop poor eating habits that can last a lifetime but by have this program is has decrease childhood diabetes and cholesterol. References Wittman, Demand Media; Candy Vs. Vegetables Healthy, Unprocessed Lunch Choices, 2010 Johnson, RK, et al. Journal of Child Nutrition and Management, 1998. 2:95-100. Gettlinger, MJ, et al. Journal of the American Dietetic Association,

Comprehending English text

Comprehending English text CHAPTER 1 1.0 Introduction Reading ability is a very important element in a higher education level. Since English has become the lingua franca or the language of all regions, students of a higher education as in the tertiary level must be able to read and comprehend English text. Reading is a vital for an individual especially students of a higher education for many reasons. Reading is done by most people in order to obtain information, to make decision or for pleasure. Professionals too read to expand their knowledge and skills. Hence, the ability to read well is a valuable asset because any act either education professional or less need at least some reading ability. Furthermore, tremendous quantity of reading material makes the reading possible. However, if an individual can read but could not understand the meaning of what he has read, then the reading served no purpose to him. In fact, he will face a lot of problem in order to acquire information. Since reading skill plays a major role in education, great emphasis is given towards this skill started from the early school. Knowledge in most cases is imparted through printed material. Therefore, in order to have an effective teaching learning atmosphere, the students should be able to read and comprehend English text. Same goes when the students are in the higher education level, reading is still one most important skill to be mastered as there are thousands of education source are written in English. Reading is an active mental process which deals with interaction between readers and the text. A good reader is hypothesized as who are not only able to comprehend the text as a whole but are also who are able to employ various skills such as scanning, skimming, locating information, predicting, understanding, sequencing and interfering while comprehending the text. Weak readers on the other hand may only read the text where they can only understand the text at the surface level. 1.1 Background Of The Problem Difficulties in comprehending English text within Malaysian students have occurred so many years ago. In order for them to excel in the higher education level as in the tertiary level depends very much on their ability to read and comprehend text because reading is a fundamental asset for every individual. Brunan W.K (1980) for instant defines reading as a two way interaction in which information is exchange between the reader and the author. From many researches done, it shows that there are a lot of difficulties faced by Malaysian students and also by the native speakers in comprehending English text. This happen caused by several factors or problems that contribute to the difficulty of comprehending text such as low vocabularies, different social background knowledge, sentence length and also the term used. Based on my own experience, I am facing with students who are having this kind of problem, difficulties in comprehending English text. This happen when they are given a text written in English such as journals by their lecturer as the material was the source of the subject matter, they rather ask me or some students who are good in English to translate the text into Malay language. This shows that they are having problem in comprehending English text. I do believe that they can read but what makes them refuse to read is because they cant understand or comprehend the text. 1.2 Problem Statement This problem arises when the students read English text or materials but could not be able to comprehend them. They simply could not get the essence or the main idea of the writing which would be very problematic when it comes to the higher education level. From my own observation which is concern with some UPSI students of different courses such as Sport science, Science, Business Study and Counseling, it was initiated that they are having problem in comprehending English text even though most of the references regarding the courses are most found in English language. As a result of having problem in comprehending English text, they face other difficulties when carrying out assignments or presentations. In order for them to understand and comprehend the text, they need the text to be translated into Malay Language as Malay language is their first language. People with a good language of English will be chosen as their translator. Hence their English skill will never develop. This is a very serious matter because they could not comprehend English text. It means that they are having problem with their reading skills. This study is necessary to find the difficulties faced by the students of various courses studying in a tertiary level at Sultan Idris Education University and it is hoped that this study will help the teachers as well as the students of how to handle these difficulties. 1.3 Purpose of The Study The purpose of this study is to investigate the difficulties faced by the students of various courses studying in a tertiary level at Sultan Idris Education University in comprehending English text. This is because being able to understand English text is necessary since English language is concerned to be the language used in most of the reference books. This study will also help teachers to know what are the difficulties that actually faced by the students and it is hoped that this difficulties can be eased to enhance students reading ability. I will analyze and look what are the problems faced by the students and what strategies that they do in order to overcome that problem. From the data gained, some suggestions will be added in contributing to the diminution of the problem. 1.4 Research Questions There are three questions that need to be answered as a guide throughout the study as well as a means for the data collection. The research questions are as follows: What are the main problems faced by the students in comprehending English text? What strategies they use to understand the English text? How do these difficulties effect on their study? 1.5 Theoretical Framework In this study, I am using two (2) theories that match the topic of difficulties in reading comprehension. The first theory is the schema theory which is based on the assumption that the readers prior knowledge directly impacts new learning situations. In schema theory the concept of Schema has been used to understand the major factor that affecting comprehension process. The concept of schema comprising of knowledge about concept, concepts: objects and the relationships they have with other objects, situations, events, sequences of events, actions, and sequences of actions. The schema theory is relevant to this study as the study investigate the difficulties faced by students in comprehending English reading text. In this context the readers knowledge about the topic is to be considered as the existed prior knowledge of the reader. According to the theory the existed prior knowledge on their first language (L1) will be used in comprehending reading text in their second language (L2) which is English. The second theory that will be used in this study is interactive approach by Grabe (1991). According to Grabe in his interactive approach model, interaction occurred between the reader and the text whereby the reader constructs meaning based partly on the knowledge drawn from the text and partly from the existing background knowledge that the reader has. This theory is suitable for the study as the study was aimed to investigate how students deal with the reading difficulties that they encounter. 1.6 Significance of the Study This study is beneficial to certain group of people because it might help them in some aspect of learning and teaching. This study is relevant as a guide for teachers in school to be prepared for some possibilities they might face in teaching their students. Besides that, this study will also give brief suggestions to the students on how they can deal with such a problem in reading. It is hope that from this study, the students will be much aware about their weaknesses and try to overcome and improve the weaknesses. University students are the most targeted group to view this study as it provides them with suggestions regarding problems in reading English text. The suggestion might help them to become a better reader and excel in their field. 1.7 Limitation of the Study In this study, there are several limitations that might occur. In order to get the data, I will use two methods. Those methods involve quantitative and qualitative design. For the quantitative design, I am going to distribute questionnaires for them to answer. The qualitative design on the other hand involves interviewing some respondent and it will be carried out verbally. I might have problem regarding data collection. Firstly, the data gathered from the questionnaires might not be as perfect as I wanted them to be. This is simply because the subjects are students of other courses that I am not familiar with. There is a tendency that they might simply answer the questionnaire without really focusing on the issue. This is something that usual to happen when questionnaires are being distributed. Besides that, I might have to face the risk that the questionnaires returned to me will not be as the same number as I have distributed them at the first place. Another limitation that I might face is from the interview. The respondent might not be able to communicate in English very well. As for that, a mixture of Malay language and English will be use in the interview. The idea is to get the information regarding the problem.

Firewall Effects on Network Performance | Evaluation

Firewall Effects on Network Performance | Evaluation In an age where our society relies so heavily on electronic communication, the need for information security is constantly increasing. Given the value and confidential nature of the information that exists on todays networks, CIOs are finding that an investment in security is extremely beneficial. Without security, a company can suffer from theft or alteration of data, legal ramifications, and other issues that all result in monetary losses. [The Best Damn Firewall Book Period] Corporations are realizing the need to create and enforce an information security policy. As a  result, IT professionals are constantly being challenged to secure their networks by installing firewalls that provide more secure [Cisco Security Specialists Guide to PIX Firewall]. Firewalls are essential components in improving network security. Most firewalls are deployed at the edge of the network to filter legitimate traffic, and can be deployed in the core of the network to further supplement and protect the capability of the network and the application running over the network to deliver required services to the end user. Firewalls have become increasingly complex, evolving from offering traditional firewall capabilities to protect networks, to offering application-aware processing of several Internet protocols. Brief literature review: Firewalls are the first front line defense mechanism against intruders ,a firewall system can operate at five of the seven layers of the OSI reference model. However, most firewall systems operate at only four layers: the data link, network, transport, and, possibly, application layers. Based on the simplicity or complexity of a firewall product or solution, the number of layers covered varies. For example, a standard IP access control list (ACL) on a Cisco router functions at OSI Layer 3, and an extended IP ACL functions at Layers 3 and 4. [cisco press cisco router firewall security] Firewalls work by inspecting different fields in headers of the packet, finding the matching rule and doing the action specified in the rule. Common firewalls (and rules) examine at least IP addresses, next protocol type (TCP or UDP) and in case of TCP or UDP their respective port numbers. That usually gives five different variables (source destination address, protocol, source destination port) to work with. [Optimizing firewall performance]. [Performance analysis of the Linux firewall in a host]. As example ,a firewall that operates at only Layers 3 or 4 can filter only on IP protocol information, IP addresses, and TCP or UDP port numbers; it cannot filter on application information such as user authentication or commands that a user enters. Therefore, the more layers a firewall can process information from, the more granular it can be in its filtering process. [cisco press cisco router firewall security] There are many considerations that organizations should include in their firewall selection and planning processes. Organizations need to determine which network areas need to be protected, and which types of firewall technologies will be most effective for the types of traffic that require protection. [ Guidelines on Firewalls and Firewall Policy]. In addition, Incorporating a firewall into a network structure is likely to increase processing and even create bottlenecks [Evaluation of Firewall Effects on Network Performance] ,whereas Each rule that a firewall has to analyze results in additional processing overhead. This means that the more rules a firewall has, the longer it will take for the firewall to determine whether or not the packet in question may pass through. [Firewalls Overview and Best Practices]. As result Firewalls are one key factor in network performance. If they cant process their rules fast enough then the whole network slows down. [ Optimizing firewall performance] Some studies shows that the firewall is sensitive to the number of rules, the type of filtering, and the transmission rate. The results of our first scenario demonstrate that for each type of filtering, latency increases linearly as the number of rules increase. [Performance analysis of the Linux firewall in a host] Scope and limitation of the study: There are some points may represent the scope and limitation of the study, including: This project focus on evaluating the effect of firewall performance using an OPNET Modeler network simulator and analyzing on different scenarios and to compare the performance impact when firewall applied. This project also focusing on effects of firewall filtering on network performance. In this study we are going to select special type of firewall application firewall The number of workstation is limited which wont exceed 200 nodes. The result will be collected is based on the simulation so may be this result will not be applicable in real hardware. Statement of the research problem: This research reports on the evaluation of using firewall in three different scenarios, which can show the impact of applying the application firewall on the performance of the network. Therefore, the research addresses the following research problem: How can we make trade-off between the security and performance? Essentially I argue that in order to investigate the feasibility of getting the trade-off of using the firewall, its necessary to compare the result when the firewall applied in different scenario, it might be depends on the policy or function nodes. Research questions: To address the research problem identified in the previous section, the following research questions have been designed: What are negative aspects of firewall? What are positive aspects of combined security and performance? What are the effects of firewall in the link utilization? What are the effects of firewall in the Real time application? Research objectives: The main objective of this research is to investigate the impact of firewall policy on the performance of the network. To identify negative aspects of firewall. To determine positive aspects of combined security and performance. To examine the effects of firewall in the link utilization. To identify the impact of firewall in real-time application. To compare the result from different scenario to estimate the effects of policy. Significance of the study: The growing Demand for using firewall by the internet users and companies to provide more protection for them and the influence of apply firewall policy in the network performance gave the impetus for this study. To verify that we propose here three different scenarios, CNTs as the one of the components of MMIC transmission lines to enhance the electrical performance. This material offer some remarkable characteristics for microelectronics applications and their large kinetic inductance (skin effect), long mean free paths, high current carrying capability and high thermal conductivity made them ideal candidates for RF/microwave applications as transmission lines. Research methodology: The research methodology work will go through four stages namely: theoretical stage, data analysis and design stage, lab stage, and evaluation stage. Theoretical stage: The objective of the theoretical stage is to constitute a theoretical frame to enable the success of the lab stage through that frame. Data analysis and design stage: In this stage, all related data obtained in the theoretical stage will be analyzed and then a selection process will be done in order to get the high quality CNT and the right design for CNT-based TLs to be able to accomplish the research questions through synthesis and characterization process. Lab stage: At this stage, firstly, the growth parameters will be optimized by using chemical vapor deposition growth method In order to produce large scale and well-aligned CNTs. Next, the characterization process will be done on the samples. SEM, FESEM, and HRTEM techniques will be used to study the morphology of the samples. XRD and EDEX techniques are used to study the samples crystallographic structures and composition elements in the samples respectively. For electrical characterization, I-V and resistivity measurements using four point probes will be applied for low frequency. Lastly, in the implementation process, the determined high quality CNT will be used to fabricate transmission lines, and then RF characterization will be done using VNA at different frequencies. Evaluation stage: The experimental results are analyzed to evaluate the effectiveness of the new variables in order to get the best CNT for the TLs. Current Stage: For device applications, the orientation of the CNT is particularly important. Therefore currently, the growth parameters are optimized by using chemical vapor deposition growth method and then, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is used to study the morphology of the samples in order to get large scale and well-aligned CNTs. The fabrication of CNTs on P-type silicon substrates; size 1 cm by 1 cm were done using nickel (Ni) as catalyst. The first process is to remove any impurity and oxidization on the Si substrate surface. The substrate will go through stages of cleaning process, starting with acetone, methanol and then rinsed with deionized water to remove organic contaminants and particles. Then, the Si wafer was cleaned by hydrogen gas to remove natural oxide. Next, a thin Ni film was deposited on a substrate as catalyst using Electron-Beam evaporator and the substrate was placed on alumina boat before placed inside a double-heater TCVD. The first heater was set at 1000 °C to decompose methane, while the second was set at 800 to 1000 °C for pre-treatment of the catalytic film. As A. Awang Teh et. al. proposed [41] a precursor of ammonia and methanol solution at ratios of 5:8 was used to enhance the growth of CNT in methane ambient. The second heater was first switched in flowing Argon at 100 sccm. When the temperature of the second heater reached setting point and stayed stable, first heater was then switched on and methane gas was flown at flow rate of 10-50 sccm. The total growth time of the CNTs varied from 30 to 3 hours. Finally, methane gas was turned off and the furnaces were cooled down to room temperature in flowing Argon at 100 sccm to avoid carbon oxidation. After fabrication is completed, The CNT morphology was examined using SEM. Figures 1- 6 show the growth of CNTs on Si substrate using Ni with different thicknesses and subjected to methane ambient at 850 oC for 2 hours. One of the first things to note is that the catalyst thickness affects the diameter and density of the CNT. The catalyst film thicker, the larger diameter and more density CNT we can get. Also, it can be seen clearly this relationship from the SEM results shown in fig.11 to 14. Furthermore, from the SEM image shown in figure 4 the least nickel or carbon nanoparticles protrude from the nanotubes was observed. These conductive nanoparticles cause electrical shorts between interconnects for device fabrication. For this reason we can consider that the optimum nickel catalyst thickness in our case is 10 nm. A final point to note is that there is no CNT at all in figure 1. It means that the catalyst film thickness is very thin and after recombination the size of catalyst nanoparticles is too small to synthesis CNTs. Another key parameter to affect CNT growth is temperature gradient. As we can see from the SEM results shown in figures 7-20, by controlling the growth temperature we can increase the growth efficiency and purity. At reaction temperature 900 °C, the growth of clean CNTs was observed. However, no CNTs were formed when the growth temperature exceeded 900 °C. Instead, amorphous carbon was observed on the surface of the substrate. Besides catalyst and temperature gradient, carbon source flow rate also plays an important role in the CNT growth. It can be stand out from experimental results shown in figures 21 to 28 that a higher flow rate will increase the decomposition rate, and consequently the growth rate of CNT. However, when the flow rate of Ni was 10 sccm there is not enough reactant to react with the catalyst and just catalyst nanoparticles were observed. The gas flow rate affects not only CNT density but also nanotubes diameter. The higher gas flow rate, the larger diameter of nanotubes will grow. However, after a critical point, increasing the flow will change the carbon product from CNTs to carbon nano-fibers (CNFs), as it was observed from the result. The last growth parameter we have optimized is syntheses time. From experimental results shown in figures 29 to 32 we can find the relationship between the syntheses time and the length on nanotubes. Longer synthesis time with longer catalyst lifetime, longer CNT we can get. More optimization and characterizations must be done on the samples in order to get well-aligned and density MWCNT, before transmission line fabrication. Preview of the thesis: This thesis is organized into five chapters. Chapter One serves as an introduction to this study, providing the theoretical framework, research objectives and significance of the present study. It also offers a brief overview of the methodology that is employed. Definitions and delimitations that map out the boundaries for the present study are also outlined. Chapter Two provides the literature review for this study and serves to develop key issues related to the theoretical framework. The third chapter is on methodology. This study approaches the issues of fabrication, simulation and modulation. The fourth chapter reports the results of the content analysis and discusses the findings. The fifth chapter reviews the research questions and summarizes the thesis. This chapter also provides suggestions for future research. Network Security is one of the most important fields dealing with the Internet. The ability to access and transfer information in a few seconds allows the government, companies, educational institutions, and individuals to accelerate the decision process or simply be informed. However, information can be very valuable and there is a need for better and faster security systems to protect information and networks. Therefore, it is best to limit the number of rules to no more than 30-50. However, for best performance, less than 25 rules are recommended. Also, firewalls process their rule base from the top down. As soon as the firewall finds a rule that applies to a particular packet, the rule is applied and the packet is processed (either allowed to continue or dropped). It is recommended that the most important and most utilized rules should be at the top of the rule list. This prevents the firewall from having to process through a number of rarely used rules to finally get to rules that apply to the majority of the network traffic. Determining the correct order of rules for a particular implementation is an ongoing process. Initially, there is a significant amount of testing and trial-and-error involved in determining the correct order that the rules should be in. Also, the rule base should be reviewed periodically to see if the organizations requirements or network usage has changed that wou ld require the reordering of existing rules as well as adding or removing rules. Finally, one should make sure to keep the number of domain objects in the rule base to a minimum, and also make sure that these objects are kept towards the bottom of the rule base list. Firewalls Overview and Best Practices There are many aspects to firewall management. For example, choosing the type or types of firewalls to deploy and their positions within the network can significantly affect the security policies that the firewalls can enforce. Policy rules may need to be updated as the organizations requirements change, such as when new applications or hosts are implemented within the network. Firewall component performance also needs to be monitored to enable potential resource issues to be identified and addressed before components become overwhelmed. Logs and alerts should also be continuously monitored to identify threats-both successful and unsuccessful. Firewall rulesets and policies should be managed by a formal change management control process because of their potential to impact security and business operations, with ruleset reviews or tests performed periodically to ensure continued compliance with the organizations policies. Firewall software should be patched as vendors provide updates to address vulnerabilities. [ Guidelines on Firewalls and Firewall Policy] The firewall can become a bottleneck. All network traffic that passes between the Internet and the DMZ, the DMZ and the private network, and potentially, the Internet and the private network, must be inspected by the firewall. This can result in the firewall becoming a bottleneck and reducing the performance between the network and the Internet.

What is a virus - computer :: Computer Science

What is a virus - computer What is a VIRUS Virus (computer), self-duplicating computer program that interferes with a computer's hardware or operating system (the basic software that runs the computer). Viruses are designed to duplicate or replicate themselves and to avoid detection. Like any other computer program, a virus must be executed for it to function-that is, it must be located in the computer's memory, and the computer must then follow the virus's instructions. These instructions are called the payload of the virus. The payload may disrupt or change data files, display an irrelevant or unwanted message, or cause the operating system to malfunction. Computer viruses activate when the instructions-or executable code-that run programs are opened. Once a virus is active, it may replicate by various means and tries to infect the computer's files or the operating system. For example, it may copy parts of itself to floppy disks, to the computer's hard drive, into legitimate computer programs, or it may attach itself to e-mail messages and spread across computer networks by infecting other shared drives. Infection is much more frequent in PCs than in professional mainframe systems because programs on PCs are exchanged primarily by means of floppy disks, e-mail, or over unregulated computer networks. Viruses operate, replicate, and deliver their payloads only when they are run. Therefore, if a computer is simply attached to an infected computer network or downloading an infected program, it will not necessarily become infected. Typically a computer user is not likely to knowingly run potentially harmful computer code. However, viruses often trick the computer's operating system or the computer user into running the viral program. Some viruses have the ability to attach themselves to otherwise legitimate programs. This attachment may occur when the legitimate program is created, opened, or modified. When that program is run, so is the virus. Viruses can also reside on portions of the hard disk or floppy disk that load and run the operating system when the computer is started, and such viruses thereby are run automatically. In computer networks, some viruses hide in the software that allows the user to log on (gain access to) Types of VIRUS There are five categories of viruses: parasitic or file viruses, bootstrap sector, multi-partite, macro, and script viruses. Parasitic or file viruses infect executable files or programs in the computer. These files are often identified by the extension .exe in the name of the computer file. File viruses leave the contents of the host program unchanged but attach to the host in such a way that the virus code is run first. These viruses can be either direct-action or resident. A direct-action virus selects one or more programs to infect

Cisco Systems Essay -- essays research papers

Case Study: The Internet and the New Information Technology Infrastructure 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Describe the competitive business environment in which GM is operating General Motors, while they are the largest automobile maker, are currently going through a decline in sales. Their competition is extremely stiff. With competitors such as Ford, Chrysler, and other Japanese vehicles that have lower production costs and include better styling issues and quality in mind, this makes for a difficult struggle for GM. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  GM remains a far-flung vertically integrated corporation †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Makes 70% of their own parts While GM makes their own parts, other companies, such as Daimer-Chrylser purchases their parts from other vendors with whom they can haggle over their prices. With such advances in the automobile industry, this brought about a race for companies surrounding GM to produce more vehicles quicker and allowed for faster sales. While some may say that GM still builds quality cars, they are by no means keeping up with the competition in production areas. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Describe the relationship between GM’s organization and its information technology infrastructure. What management, organization, and technology factors influenced this relationship? GM’s organization found that its system as a whole was falling behind in technology. Their design group could not relate with other sectors of the company, as each division of the company was on their own software and hardware database. No one particular system communicated with another. In the early 80’s GM tried to integrate their system by using EDS (Electronic Data Systems) and they were able to streamline their computers together. Their current CIO Ralph Szygenda has managed to bring the company to its feet once again by bringing in several new changes. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Replaced many systems with standardized software for all computers which in turn was networked to other systems †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Created programs that would correlate with one another and enabled data sharing †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Consolidated legacy systems and databases Management realized that without sharing the data and having a system that could run smoothly they would soon fall to their knees. When they began reali... ...e problem is quickly finding the car that the customer wants, which is a strategy better known as Locate-to-Order. To reach this goal, GM must create a regional inventory of the vehicle pool that will be shown on the Internet so that regardless of the vehicles’ location, potential buyers can find â€Å"their† vehicle. There is one flaw in the system that manufacturers and dealers must deal with in the business. They must realize that customers will require varying styles, colors and other options and they (the company) must be ready at the drop of a hat to have the product readied. The inventory must be stocked and ready to be sold. Internet technology could be the catalyst for GM to reconstruct its entire value chain, transforming itself into a customer-focused business that provides many different electronic services to consumers, as well as cars. â€Å"Built-to-order† has been around the auto industry for a long time, but only for very expensive cars, and it required a waiting period of two to three months before delivery. This system would greatly reduce finished vehicle inventory costs as well as generate other production cost savings, potentially saving GM $20 billion per year.

Portrait of a Young Man in a Red Cap: Sandro Botticelli :: essays research papers

Portrait of a Young Man in a Red Cap Sandro Botticelli, real name Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi, was one of the greatest painters of the Florentine Renaissance. His work, Portrait of a Young Man in a Red Cap, captures his highly personalized style. He is known for his execution and precise use of lines to portray objects realistically. The Portrait of a Young Man in a Red Cap will be the source of our discussion, but first a background of Sandro Botticelli’s artistic relations is necessary. Botticelli was born in Florence Italy (1445-1510) and worked as an apprentice to a goldsmith early in his career. He then served as an apprentice to the painter Fra Fillippo Lippi. After working with Lippi, Botticelli developed his sense of line working with Andrea del Verrocchio. By 1470 he had his own workshop, where he spent most of his time producing pieces for the Medici family. It was through the Medici family that Botticelli was influenced by Christian Neoplatonism, which exemplified Christian views. From this point Botticelli developed such works as the Portrait of a Young Man in a Red Cap. The painting, which is quite simple in nature, depicts nothing more than the bust of a teenage boy with a red hat on. The boy is uniquely outlined on each side with the right side of his body gently fading into a black backdrop and the left having a sharp and precise line separating him from the black. As the viewer may notice, the young man does not pose any facial gesture which may depict emotion. It is therefore almost impossible to know the feelings of Botticelli’s subject. Many feel that Botticelli was merely documenting the boy’s physical appearance without evoking feeling from his viewers. Botticelli also used much more detail on his face than he did on the clothing of the young man, which supports that it is a portrait. He uses tones of red from the sharp hat to the tones of his skin. A brown color is used to unify his hair, lips, and eyes. The boy’s wardrobe also includes a jacket typical of the time period. In a more in depth look at the portrait, o ne may notice that it shades from a rich red color at the top to a dark brown color at the bottom. The light source shines from the left side of the picture while it brightens the right side of the young man’s body.

Consumer Attitude and Beliefs Essay

1. Explain a person’s attitude towards visiting Disneyland in Hong Kong in terms of the tri-component model. The tri-component attitude model is made up of three major components: (i) The Cognitive Component – a consumer’s attitude is initially based upon their own knowledge and perception through direct experience with the attitude object and related information from other sources. Prior Visit: if an individual has looked at brochures or searched up Hong Kong Disneyland online, then their attitude towards it should be positive, relating to their also positive perception received through information from sources After Visit: after visiting HK Disneyland, the individual would have had direct experience with the attitude object, thus their attitude would be based upon their experience there. (ii) The Affective Component – the emotions and or feelings a consumer associates with a particular brand or product. Prior Visit: assuming that the individual is a fan of rides and an adrenaline rush, the affective component would mostly likely involve the feeling of excitement of visiting Disneyland After Visit: if the individual’s visit to HK Disneyland was positive, they would probably have feelings of happiness and maybe even an emotion of sadness that they have to leave (iii) The Conative Component – the likelihood or tendency of a consumer to undertake a specific action or behave in a certain manner with regard to the attitude object. Prior Visit: since this component is based on an individual’s tendency to act (and not the actual acting), it would depend on each individual’s unique behaviour towards something; e.g. one may have the tendency to get too excited and not be able to concentrate on work properly. After Visit: an individual may hav e the tendency to boast to their friends about how fabulous their visit to HK Disneyland was. 2. Explain how the product manager of a breakfast cereal might change consumer attitudes toward the company’s brand by: a) Changing beliefs about the brand The product manager could change consumer beliefs about the brand by using the cognitive component of the tri-component attitude model, where a consumer’s knowledge and perceptions are acquired via direct experience with the attitude object plus information from other sources. (E.g. adding a  health attribute to the product so that consumers perceive the cereal brand as healthy, changing their beliefs about the brand.) b) Changing beliefs about competing brands The product manager of a breakfast cereal is obviously not able to change the packaging or advertising of a competitor’s brand, thus their marketing strategy to change a customer’s attitude toward competing brands must be accomplished via packaging and advertising strategies of their own breakfast cereal brand. This may be accomplished by assuring that consumers are aware that the breakfast cereal is unique from its competitors and has something to offer that other brands do not. Advertising to customers that this cereal has extra to offer or that other brands have been simply imitating this brand would cause customers to believe that competing brands have simply been deceiving. c) Changing the relative evaluation of attitudes Changing the relative evaluation of attitudes would involve the product manager coming up with a strategy that positively affects and engages a larger number of consumers. This would include appealing customers by making the breakfast cereal stand out amongst other competitors, such as highlighting a significant attributive strength that other breakfast cereals do not offer. The product manager would want to use powerful positive statements to achieve this. d) Adding an attribute Consumer attitudes toward the breakfast cereal could be enhanced by adding a health attribute to the cereal. For example, consumers are most likely to believe there has been product improvement if the product manager decides to add positively perceived ingredients such as protein, fibre, minerals, etc. 3. What sources influenced your attitudes about studying buyer behaviour before class started? Has your initial attitude changed since the unit started? If so, how? The sources that influenced my attitude towards studying buyer behaviour prior starting the unit was mostly based on the unit description from the unit guide and how friends had described the unit  to be like. My current attitude towards the unit has not changed much, except for the fact that the group assignment was actually not as boring as expected but rather quite interesting. 4. Should the marketer of a popular computer graphics program prefer consumers to make internal or external attributions about the success that people have using the program? The marketer of a popular graphics program would most likely prefer consumers to make external attributions about the success that people have using the program. External attributes focus on the properties or features that are externally visible such as reliability and maintainability, hence this type of successful information would appeal more to consumers compare to internal attributions that are not visible. 5. Find an ad for a free service trial (e.g. carwash, free brake check or a free software trial). What attributions would consumers make about the advertiser? What self-attributions would a consumer make if he or she accepted the trial offer? A consumer may make the attribution that the advertiser of Spotify is personally a fan and recommends it. A free trial advertisement sends across a message somewhere along the lines of: â€Å"It’s great. You don’t believe me? Try it for yourself then.† From a consumer’s point of view, it makes the advertiser positive that an individual will not regret testing it out and want to actually purchase it again for an actual monetary amount. Possible self-attributions that a consumer may make if they accept the trial offer would be that they are now in the â€Å"social loop†, or praise themselves for accepting the trial offer and receiving free music on their phone and laptop for 30 days without having to pay. If they enjoyed the trial then an individual would make positive self-attributes and vice-versa. 6. Find examples of advertising that uses fear and humour and discuss why you think they are effective or not effective. Example of Advertisement Using Fear: This advertisement that uses fear in order to raise awareness and prevent people from smoking is effective in my opinion. A non-smoker who saw this would most likely be too scared to ever pick up cigarettes even to test it out knowing the possible consequences can be this bad, let alone death from lung cancer. An actual smoker would hopefully look at this and realise what they are doing to their own bodies and also take into account that this may be them at some point in time. It may not be strong enough to get an addict to completely quit smoking, but hopefully at least cut down. Example of Advertisement Using Humour: Personally I think the use of humour in this advertisement is the perfect way to capture the attention of consumers and potential consumers. Not only would LEGO fans be lured into the advertisement, but even those who have no clue about LEGO or are simply not interested are likely to take notice of the advertisement purely because it is humorous. It also indirectly targets Star Wars fans, allowing the advert to appeal to a whole range of individuals.

Balance scorecard Essay

Wegmans Food Markets utilized an equalization scorecard to develop their solid business. An adjusted scorecard is intended to decipher the general mission for an organization. The scorecard investigation endeavors to quantify and give input to associations with a specific end goal to help in executing systems and targets. It characterizes the objectives and target organizations vision and SWOTT examination. Wegmans Food Market likewise utilizes the offset scorecard to enhance various interior capacities inside their organization. Financial Perspective The money related point of view reports the inquiry of how shareholders see the firm budgetary objectives. The particular objectives rely on upon the organization’s life cycle. Life cycle is cases of the organization harvest stage, development stage and supports stage. Wegmans Food Market gathers $7 billion –a-year, with 85 grocery stores in Pennsylvania, New York, four in the East Coast states. All Wegmans benefits are furrowed in the organization and imparted to their representative. â€Å"Executives say the company is also  able to invest in its employees and focus on steady, strategic growth because Wegmans are not publicly traded† (Wegmans 2014). The company offers a wide variety of products and services. Wegmans Food has 70,000 products compared to average supermarkets. Wegmans stores offer more customer convenience services than any other supermarket chain. Employee Perspective There are numerous points of interest to being a representative at Wegmans. Wegmans offers adaptable planning, focused and extensive profits bundle, and vocation improvement. Wegmans administration put time and vitality into creating associations with its laborers. For instance, both HR administrators and organization initiative make incessant store visits to converse with its workers about their worries and impart best practices. Since Wegmans genuinely thinks about the workers, the organization is focused on giving remarkable profits to both full-time and low maintenance representatives. Wegmans Food Supermarkets was voted twice as the Best Company to Work For, in the Fortune Magazine 2005 and 2013. â€Å"Wegmans has awarded $95 million in scholarships to 30,000 employees since the company inaugurated the Wegmans Scholarship Program in 1984† (Wegmans 2014). Only 4,000 employees have active scholarships each year. The company pays their employees a competitive wage and offers colleges reimburse tuition. The people Wegmans hire, loves their jobs. Employee Turnover Worker turnover is to the quantity of employees who quit an association and supplanted by new representatives. Worker turnover is measured as a rate which is called, Turnover Rate. The staple business has a high rate of specialist turnover. Various people find their first occupation in a business while in auxiliary school and don’t stay with it for long. Disillusionment with low pay and uninteresting work. Wegmans strives to enable its workers, providing for employees with higher wages and a greater number of chances for prizes than most supermarkets, as indicated by Williams’ book. Wegman’s has a turnover rate of only 7 percent, with 20 percent of representatives staying for a long time or more moreover expect a far reaching part in the anomalous condition of agent turnover in the business. The company use employment offering and a packed workweek furthermore offer working from home for a few workers. Eventually, Wegmans  made an environment that shows representatives they matter. The organization proverb is â€Å"Representatives first, Clients second† is focused around the conviction that when representatives feel administered to, they will thusly show sympathy toward the clients they serve. Customer Perspective â€Å"Customer† is a standout amongst the trickiest viewpoint of the Balanced Scorecard structure. One needs to clearly recognize; who is the â€Å"customer† in customer viewpoints, How to come up with purposes for customer perspectives, How to not confuse customer objectives and desired business products. In 2013, Wegmans got more than 4,000 solicitations from individuals asking the organization to open a store in their group. An alternate 7,000 client kept in touch with say the extent to which they like shopping at Wegmans, on the grounds that they like the items and administrations offered or admire the way Wegmans workers treat them. Wegmans likewise accept that they can accomplish the customer’s objective just in the event that they satisfy the needs of our own kin. â€Å"To our customers and our people we pledge continuous improvement, and we make the commitment†: â€Å"Every Day You Get Our Best† (Wegmans 2013). Wegmans Value and Culture Wegmans share a common set of values-â€Å"Who We Are.† â€Å"Wegmans believes in† (Wegmans2013). Caring We care about the well-being and success of every person. High Standards High standards are a way of life. We pursue excellence in everything we do. Making A Difference We make a difference in every community we serve. Respect We respect and listen to our people. Empowerment We empower our people to make decisions that improve their work and benefit our customers and our company. Internal Operation The Internal Process Perspective concentrates on all the exercises and key procedures needed in place for the organization to exceed expectations at giving the worth expected by the clients. Inner Processes are lead pointers  where administration mediation is conceivable to influence client and monetary results. Internal processes can be grouped into: Operations Management – refining asset utilization, supply chain management, etc Customer Management – increasing and deepening relations, innovation (by new products and services Regulatory & Social – establishing moral relations with the external stakeholders Conclusion Wegmans Food is course before all its opponents because of the total experience they offers clients inside one shopping journey. Helpful people work there. That is on a very basic level the inspiration driving why customers fundamental hold backtracking. . This successful organization is known to be the one of the best organizations to do well. This paper is intended to inform pursuer with the idea of what makes a difference for a fruitful organization. Reference Wegmans Food Markets SWOT Analysis. (2013). Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. SWOT Analysis, 1-6. Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. History. History of Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. â€Å"Funding Universe†. N.P., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2012 www.theclci.com/products_pmms-bsc03.htm

Disputes between the European Union and the Rest of the world Essay

Disputes between the European Union and the Rest of the world Introduction                   The sheer size of the EU sheer markets as well as its vast experience of more than forty years in negotiating international trade agreements has made it become the most powerful trading bloc in the world. Moreover, it has become a formidable power through trade, hence creating more problems with the rest of the world. The EU has increasingly used its market access as a bargaining chip to obtain changes within the domestic arena of its trading partners, starting with labor standards to development policies, and internationally, ranging from global governance to foreign policy. Therefore, this paper mainly analyses EU’s power in trade a factor that has made it create tension with the rest of the world. The analysis includes major dilemmas that are associated with how it exercises its trade power and point out why these strategies create tension with other international states. The argument also includes the need for the EU to refine it initial strat egies of accommodation for it to successfully transform its structural power to be more effective and hence have a more legitimate influence.                   Among the first goals of the EU as a trade power is using its power to secure concessions from others on market access. This makes it function as an economic globalization determinant or shaper. Basically, the EU is using its trade power to achieve non-trade objectives that range from the export-specific rules flanking market integration such as social, environment and safety standards to a more political or strategic linkage (Haughton, 2007).The rest of the world is therefore left to wonder if such use of trade power ultimately matters in geopolitical terms. Power in trade                   When we compare the EU and the US, there is no significant difference in the way the two exercise their power in trade at the bilateral levels mostly through agreements that they often have over their access to the market for their goods, capital and services in other regions. Agreements with EU have usually been involved more on reciprocal concessions over tariffs, quotas, and technical barriers to trade. However, concessions can sometimes be asymmetrical, either due to the fact that the EU could be making steeper cuts, or due to the fact that the value of the EU cuts could be greater following the size of the market. Failure to withstand such asymmetries means that the EU, similar to the US, uses preferential bilateral agreements to pry open the available markets that are found in the South as an exchange for accessing its own markets. Regionally, EU power has taken the form of less specific reciprocal concessions. As more nations across the world join regional trading blocs, the aim of the EU is to realize economies of scale through bloc-to-bloc deals. Such first bi-regional trade agreement is still being negotiated since 2000 mainly involving the EU and Mercosur, which is a customs union between Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay created in 1991. It is to be followed by ASEAN (the Association of South East Asian Nations) as new economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with, among others, the Caribbean countries and the Gulf Cooperation Council. It cannot be denied that in Latin America especially, have taken such moves partly in consideration to reaction by USA’s own drive towards regionalism.                   EU’s involvement in multilateral bargaining at the global level has been shaped by its relationship to the US. These two great trade powers have for so long been engaged in what is seen by the rest of the world as a battle of the titans, as each side has been trying to ensure that each of them has a continued access balance towards the market through trade and regulatory deals, if not, to resort to dispute settlement (Grabbe, 2006). As that continues, they have also tried using their trade power to exert their rule of ‘western hegemony’ over the developing world, especially towards the so-called ‘new issues’ that pertain to services as well as intellectual property that were initially introduced during the Uruguay Round. Of late little co-operation has existed between the EU–US regulatory and these two powers have kind of began pursuing sharply diverging tactics, that came up with opposing alliances during the Hong Kong meeting of the Doha Round in December 2005. Power through trade                   The EU tends to be more attached to not only multilateral forms of trade relations but also to the premises of embedded liberalism. Contrary to the US case; the EU’s use of trade in order to achieve non-trade objectives has some pride as a potential instrument of Europe’s geopolitical power. Whilst little doubt exists in regards to the EU being considered as one of the top players in world trade, there has been a lot of keen interest while assessing EU’s identity as a ‘power’ in general. They have however put across various qualifiers in characterizing a mode of influence that can enable them to manipulate others and make them perform according to the interest of the EU.                   Existence of the shift from a post-war to a post-Cold War paradigm of economic hegemony does not seem to be towards only increasing interventionism inside the affairs of trading partners, that even other nations apart from EU promotes. It has also taken other forms absent in the subservience of trade to security imperatives, the power to be yielded from asymmetries in such interdependence, and the ends of increased interdependence, as scrutinized under a mode demanding criteria of legitimacy. Even as the US tries to promote some specific features of an open trading system that tend to serve its domestic interests, the EU instead has been increasingly engaged in a more clever game where values, interests, and model are blurred. It does not just try to promote openness, but are more concern with openness ‘the EU way’. Considering the fact that the EU itself is a system of market liberalization, external efforts that it encourages are regarding replication more than domination                   Most groupings that have come up in the last decade seem to have done so majorly to increase their bargaining power within the trade negotiations against the EU and the US. They forget that having a closer relation to other regions around the world tend to be a means of enhancing the normative power of the EU and a reflection of this power. This is because such EU outstanding context and unique character as an integrative policy among other states is shown to be important. It is not US as a federal state which is relevant to integration among countries, but the EU as a federal union. Therefore, it seems the EU’s support for regional organizations like the Pacific Islands Forum and the African Union is linked to a particular expectation of contribution not only to the economic integration but also to the prevention, management and resolution of inter-state conflicts.                   However, while the EU has considered itself to be the judge of what is right or wrong as a trade power, there is some evidence showing that as a union it is indeed a conflicted trade power. This is a fact since within its different guiding principles; there are various policies which directly contradict each other (Teorell, 2010). Regionalism vs. Multilateralism                   A lot of debate has been going on, whether regional trade agreements have been indeed building blocks or they are just stumbling blocks for multilateralism. The claim by the EU has always been that they are indeed building blocks. This was demonstrated when it defended the relevance of its own approach to the Uruguay Round agenda; as both the EU as well as the GATT at the same time tried to explore the fresh basis of trade in services, of course, with diverse ambitions as to the extent of liberalization. While it was a key player in the launching of the Doha Round, it is also becoming an active promoter of regionalism.                   The question then left to ask is whether these two factions are compatible. Following the sudden jump in terms of free trade agreements to more than 300 like in 2001, the shocking thing is that the WTO has not been able to reach agreement even on a single case report towards any regional agreement in spite of them vowing to participate in the role of regional trade committees. This is in contrast to the Appellate Body which has taken on the issue, for example, they suggested on the need to apply some kind of ‘necessity test’, towards a recent ground-breaking case, where by Turkey and EU were condemned after they increased unnecessary barriers to Indian textiles when Turkey decided to enter its customs union with Europe. Following the move the EU is still drawing lessons. Of course, such judgment may act as an inspiration to the EU policy-makers in their endeavor devise strategies of accommodation trying to tame the trade-diverting effects on regionalism. As an alternative, on the region-to-region front, there could be a possible insertion of clauses that link the implementation of market access deals with progress on the multilateral front, just like it was done with ASEAN. EU’s regionalism can also come under conflict with bilateral agendas of their own partners. Trials by the EU’s strategy of encouraging regional co-operation in the Balkans have come into conflict following its use of trade linkages for domestic change.                   Also, as was realized in the Euro-Med context when the EU sought to draw lessons from past relations with the Mediterranean after its multi-lateralized its relations and encouraged trade among the southern partners by changing its rules of origins and allowance of accumulation, for example, aggregation between the value added to the southern nations. However, following lack of consensus between these economies, such approach has not yet been judged to bear fruit, (Knodt & Jà ¼nemann, 2007). There could be a need for more drastic incentives. Continued systematic promotion of regionalism could be of harm indeed to the EU’s proclaimed development goals. Like, when some analysts argue that being engaged in urging of rapid regional integration in Francophone West Africa was seen as a great contributing factor towards the subsequent instability in the region. The EU sought free movement of goods in this case, but not people, but failing to provide a re distributive wealth mechanism that was to deal with adjustment costs and at the same time undermined government social programs.                   Moreover, most of the deals negotiated throughout the 1990s under the watch of the New Transatlantic Agenda between the EU and the US tended to be vulnerable to similar criticism. In a way they have had a trial to the feasibility of exporting the approach by the EU of market integration through regulatory mutual recognition by the US. However, still it is important for the EU and the US to design such agreements as well as their supporting mechanisms better and make them be open to those who are new who might take the approach of respecting the standards adopted trans-atlantically. Non-discrimination vs. Bilateral preferential relations                   What can be seen as a major variant on the multilateralism –regionalism dilemmas tend to be increasing tension between the vowed commitment of the EU to international trade law, more specifically the highly favored-nation (MFN) principle, as well as the desire of the EU to be able to maintain preferential trading relations with specific countries. The agreement by the EU to the concept of ‘trade distorting’ regimes that stems from some of its members’ colonial pasts, exceeding the entire preferential market access granted to ACP countries, may of course sound as an objective even more commendable as compared to the MFN pursuit of global justice. However, it is important for EU to be clear on the price it has to pay for this moral luxury. Therefore, establishing such tension between international law and special relations tend to be acting geopolitically pitting two sets of developing countries against one another.                   Likewise, the 2001 Everything But Arms initiative (EBA) involvement in granting duty and quota-free access to the entire exports but not where arms and munitions are involved from the least countries that are less developed has faced criticism for excluding the key crops such as sugar, rice and bananas until 2009, as well as for leading in discriminatory practices among developing countries. Vulnerable and small economies that have been included tend to be bound to displace the exports of the same but some countries were excluded. Some States like the Caribbean or the Bangladesh members of the ACP group got a chance to benefit from this preferential trading arrangement with the EU. The WTO has many times condemned such policies. However, most of the member states, like UK, France, or Portugal who are former colonial powers, would not be keen on abandoning a system that is designed to eradicate poverty for the poorest farmers around the world who have bec ome dependent on inflated EU prices. In this instance, the EU has chosen a classic strategy of accommodation: progressive graduation as well as the negotiation of transition systems. Based on the multilateral constraint, EU’s only remaining power tend to lie with determining the speed of transfer of adjustment costs with its trading partners and its import intermediaries.                   This kind of negative power is doomed to unpopularity. Therefore, by EU presenting a new deal like in 2005 of cutting guaranteed sugar prices by 36 per cent over four years, it was predictably criticized on all sides, attacked based on the fact that it was reforming the detriment of poor sugar exporting countries and it was failing to move much further. Somehow, the EU seems to have taken firm grounds stand, ironically, even playing around with the non-discriminatory obligations that are contained within the GSP, at least as under the rule of the WTO 2004 appellate body ruling on EU vs. India. In this case, India was challenging the EU’s modified GSP which tend to provide an additional margin of preference on the part of recipients with drugs enforcement policies where the Commission was involved in inventing the entire list of beneficiaries of the programme without considering any objective criteria. Seen as a brilliant compromise given to the EU given by the AB, the benefit of the doubt based on the fact that indeed the right to modify preferential treatment was not subject to a simplistic constraint of identical treatment among beneficiaries, (Tocci, N., 2007). The AB argued that different developing countries were not situated on the same way when it comes to their different needs and hence could possibly be subject to ‘performance requirements’ as long as the approach were objective, transparent, as well as non-discriminatory in the broad sense. What question perhaps remains to be tested is what are acceptable conditionalities more generally? In a sense, it was important for the EU to develop a more universal approach as to where to draw the line. Western Hegemony Vs. Mediating Power                   An area which has also brought tension is in the EU’s alliance strategy as well as the light it portrays on what kind of actor it really wants to become. As a matter of fact, is it possible for the EU to play the part of the nervous protectionist North (agriculture), the rich liberal North (services), as well as the mediator between the South and the North? Taking the ‘rich North,’ is it necessary for it to generally to always take the US side for it to protect their shared commercial interests? Or it should go for emphasizing its vocation as a mediating power on the global scene, especially between the developing world and the US but at the same time, increasingly, between different interests in the developing world itself? Just as was recently demonstrated by controversies in the Doha Round, not only do multilateral trade negotiations are asking how much liberalization, but they are also asking what kind of liberalization as well as for whose benefit The Uruguay Round basically represent the culmination of an assertive US–EU alliance bent towards a commercially driven line in addition to a grand bargain between their reluctant acceptance of (partial) opening on some tropical/agricultural products and a (delayed) opening on textile, as an exchange for introducing fresh issues within the newly created WTO. In particular, intellectual property issues have exposed the EU to a lot of criticism that comes from the developing world due to the fact it sided with the interest of US multinationals.                   This tension between the North – including the EU – and the developing world started way back. However, a lot of attempt has been made by the EU to establish a reputation as a champion of development including through its 2001 role, when it launched the ‘Doha development agenda. Some other promoted path-breaking declaration on trade and public health has been going on. Like it has opened the way for legalizing broad exemptions from intellectual property constraints during any imports on generic drugs to treat diseases such as AIDS. There are also other initiatives, for example the databank which was set up by the Commission’s Directorate General for Trade in order to assist developing countries in their market access strategies, and have enabled the EU begin to change the image it has in the WTO.                   Following what recently came up in the Doha Round is an indication again to the lack of commitment that the EU has in seeking to marry its natural alliance in most of the domains (not all) with the US and its development advocacy. For example, when a World Bank Study questioned the EU’s ‘demonstration strategy’ through EBA stating that once requirements such as standards as well as rules of origin were taken into account, it was realized that the US was actually more open to LDC exports as compared to the EU. On the other hand, there is failure by the EU to promote multilateral solutions that is capable of addressing perhaps the single most important factor that links trade and poverty such as the massive volatility as well as decline in the price of primary commodities. As a result if the EU is indeed committed to uphold an image as a ‘mediating power’ within the global political economy, it will have no option but to ac tively promote changes in the WTO which the US is likely to actively resist, (Marshall, M., & Jaggers, K.,2010). However, a lot of failure has been manifested by the EU in exploiting a potentially promising strategy of accommodation like putting transatlantic economic as well as regulatory co operation at the service of multilateralism. Internal vs. external objectives                   Somehow, the manner in which the EU is exercising power through trade should be held up to special standards. Claiming consistency between its internal and external actions tend to be at the heart of its legitimate exercise of power. The EU has indeed faced difficulties in an attempt to lead by example in the area of trade. Like, in case where the single market has been premised based on the assumption that free movement of people is a key dimension of market integration, as a matter of fact, what will this one mean for the position taken by the EU on the freedom of movement of people in order to deliver services? In order for EU to be consistent, it will need to invest political capital and more creativity in ‘globalization with human faces’ as well as the manner in which there could be encouragement of back-and-forth movement of people as an alternative to permanent migration.                   The existing tension between the internal and external is well evidenced over agriculture, and came up in the Doha Round. A lot of questions have been raised over the conflicted position taken by the EU regarding agricultural tariffs and subsidies in its commitment to putting multilateralism at the service of development. As a matter of fact, there is no need for denying European citizens their landscape, food security, and way of life. However, it is important to tell them the much it costs, like the number of people who are now living under $1 a day. Also the question can be whether region-to-region agreements tend to be more about promoting regional integration outside the EU ‘per se’ but not taking the form of a worldwide strategy pushing for convergence with European standards as well as mutual opening of markets, thereby supporting EU incumbents. Time and again representatives of Mercosur have stated that they are aiming to follow the EU’s example, which according to them has made Europe ‘less dependent on the outside world, (the EU has stressed market opening). What is interesting is that the current political leadership in Mercosur, particularly President Lula in Brazil, have kind of supported the EU project over the US-led Free Trade of the Americas Agreement, indicating that the EU’s leverage through trade does not show some indications of legitimacy as compared to that of that of the US, (Stephanie Hanson, and Brianna Lee, 2012).                   Moreover, it seems that EU assumes that the liberal recipe of ‘peace through commerce’ which has indeed seems to have worked so well with them applies uniformly anywhere else. Generally, trade is capable of fueling conflict especially when carried out within a context of corrupt governance, deep social inequalities, and unfair rules, as well as without enough attention being paid to its destructive byproducts like export dependence, adjustment costs, price volatility or illegal trafficking. For EU to bring its external action to be in line with its internal philosophy, it needs to establish trade policies that are also sensitive to these potential conflicts. The current certifications efforts for diamonds or timber constitute tend to be a promising starting point. Equal Partnership vs. Conditional Opening                   There is a fundamental contradiction that exists as well within the very idea of ‘normative’ or ‘soft’ power. The language the EU is speaking is of shared norms which are developed through consensus and co-operation. But on the other hand, trade power tends to be the use of ‘carrots and sticks’ in enforcing such norms on trading partners. We are not even surprised that the incorporation of non-trade conditions in trade deals faces great resistance from developing countries, as they just see this to be a blunt coercion. A growing debate is now going on regarding the effectiveness of conditionality, which is now kind of spilling over from the field of aid to that of trade. Regardless of any instrumental argument, what is still being asked is whether a post-colonial power is not suppose to rely on voluntary change as well as the provision of public goods like its markets in bolstering the likelihood of such change. Do we miss to see a contradiction as the EU tries to export norms of its making, which is predicated based on voluntary co-operation between states using its quasi-coercive leverage through trade? Some of the policies such as the EBA undoubtedly tend to lie at the other end of the spectrum; unconditional opening to be a tool for development; having trust that new export opportunities in themselves is likely to encourage desired changes in the beneficiaries. Nevertheless, is it true that this policy is genuinely taking the interests of developing countries to heart, or it is just a public relations coup on the part of the EU? This is a signal to the rest of the world that the EU was eventually acting upon its pro-developing world rhetoric, the EU managed to find their way out in Hong Kong in generalizing the principle under WTO. So far giving way duty/quota-free access to 97 per cent of the products that originates in least developed countries is not welcomed by majority. Trade Liberalization vs. Domestic Preferences                   There is great tension for the EU as a trade power based on the embedded liberalism compromise. The conflict is in the manner of combining a trade liberalization credo with a primary concern for the social effects of market integration. Often, the EU has been facing social demands for protection that somehow may be going beyond the spirit of embedded liberalism. In response to such demands, the Commission’s trade policy-makers under the leadership of Pascal Lamy have developed a fresh conceptual apparatus based on the fact of collective preferences setting up institutions that are capable of forging collective preferences. The end result is diversification of social choices over health care, inter alia food safety, precaution in the field of biotechnology or welfare rights, cultural diversity, public provision of education and health care. However, it is argued that if these concerns justify protection then the EU has the obligation of providing c ompensation to its trading partners. Conclusion                   Indeed, it seems like EU exploits its formidable trade power for pursuing non-trade objectives through conditionality or through fostering regional trade blocs in its own image. This highlights the way the divergences between member states objectives makes it hard for the EU to signal its resolve to the outside world more clearly. Nonetheless, such divergences are themselves a byproduct or an expression of existing tensions between various alternative priorities or even norms that must simultaneously be committed to by the EU machinery, such as nondiscrimination and bilateral preferential relations, regionalism and multilateralism, western hegemony and mediating power, trade liberalization and domestic preferences, internal and external objectives, equal partnership and conditional opening. Due to the fact that legitimacy tends to be the main currency for an aspiring normative power, it will be difficult for the EU to effectively become a power through t rade without addressing what majority of the world considers being unsustainable contradictions. References Haughton, T. (2007). When does the EU make a difference? Conditionality and the accession process in Central and Eastern Europe. Political Studies Review, 5(2), 233–246. Knodt, M., & Jà ¼nemann, A. (2007). 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