Social problem Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Social problem - Essay Example Clearly, there are a number of factors involved in making social change. Time does play a part but changes normally do not come of their own accord. There are several forces such as political influences, technological innovations, economic changes, legal demands and other catalysts which drive how a social problem can become a social issue that demands action from the people at large (Hill, 2003). An analysis of these forces therefore is very important for all students of sociology and human behaviour since an understanding of these forces can lead to an understanding of how the norms of society change. In many ways, these forces are also connected with each other and certain drivers of social change overlap amongst the factors mentioned above. For example, the media is one source of social awareness which overlaps with technology and with the economy since individuals which are socially better off may have access to various types of media such as the internet and foreign news sources while those in a lower stratum of society may not be aware of such avenues of getting of information (Baldock, 2004). Therefore, it is better if an analysis is made individually for these factors to show they can convert issues into social problem. Perhaps the easiest way today to make an issue a social problem is to bring it into politics and it can easily be used to distract the public from other issues which might be more pertinent or important. For example, the war on terrorism is a prime situation where the attention of the media, the newspapers, public opinion as well as private discussion were all diverted towards the topic and other problems like the genocide in Sudan, the rising poverty levels of the world and the problem of the environmental degradation of the planet due to human activity were all pushed under the carpet. This situation, If not permanently true, was at least very true for the time being. For example, the case of

Computer Security Incident Response Team Essay Example for Free

Computer Security Incident Response Team Essay In the last decade, more and more companies have started to look into e-commerce to connect them to the infinite world of global suppliers, partners, consumers and much more. This boom in technology has placed multiple assets are risk from a security stand point allowing hackers/crakers and anyone on the internet to gain access to these network and gain information or try to jeopardize business to a point where it stand stills. Increase in Denial of service attacks, child pornography, virus/worms and other tools used by individuals to destroy data has lead to law enforcement and media to look into why and how these security breaches are conducted and what new statutory laws are needed to stop this from happening. According to CSI computer crime and security Survey 2007, the average annual loss reported by security breach has shot up to $350,424 from 168,000 the previous year. To add to this, more and more organizations are reporting computer intrusions to law enforcement which inclined to 29 percent compared to 25 percent the year before. 1] To be successful in respond to an incident, there are a few things that need to be followed: 1. Minimize the number of severity of security incidents. 2. Assemble the core computer security Incident Response Team (CSIRT). 3. Define an incident response plan. 4. Contain the damage and minimize risk. [3] How to minimize the number of severity and security incidents: It is impossible to prevent all security related incidents, but there are things that can be done to minimize the impact of such incidents: †¢Establishing and enforcing security policies and procedures. Gaining support from Management in both enforcing security policies and handling incide nts. Accessing vulnerabilities on the environment on regular basis including regular audits. †¢Checking all devices on certain time frames to make sure that all the updates were performed. †¢Establishing security policies for both end users and security personal and asking for security clearance each and every time an access is granted. †¢Posting banners and reminders for responsibilities and restriction of use of applications, and other systems on the network. †¢Implementing secure password polices thought the network. Checking log files on regular basics and monitoring traffic. †¢Verifying backups are done on regular basics and maintained in an appropriate manner. This would also include the new email backup policy laws. †¢Create Computer Security Response Team (CSIRT) [3] Security threat is the same for both large, small, and government organizations and therefore it is important that regardless of what the company has for its security measures, it also ha s a written document that establishes guidelines for incident response. Incident respond planning is a set of guidelines that document on security incident handling and communication efforts. This plan is activated when an incident that could impact the company’s ability to function is established. Computer Security Incident Response Plan (CSIRP) should contain the following: 1. Mission: Things the response team will be responsible for, including how to handle incidents as they happen and what steps are necessary to minimize the impact of such incidents. 2. Scope: this would define, who is responsible for which area of security, it can include things like application, network(s), employees, communication both internally and to the public and much more. . Information flow: How information will be handled in case of an emergency and how it will be reported to the appropriate authority, pubic, media and internal employees. 4. Services provided: This document should contain all the services that are either provided to the users or services that are used or bought from other vendors including testing, education, service provider issues to name a few. [2] The CSIRT team must contain several members including a Team leader which will monitor changes in individual’s actives and responsibility of reviewing actions. An Incident Lead, that will be dedicated as the owner of set of incidents and will be responsible for speaking to anyone outside the team while and corresponding changes and updates. A group of individual’s part of the CISRT team called members will be responsible to handle responsibility of the incident and will monitor different areas of the company. Other members of this team should include Legal help, public relations officers, contractors and other member of management both from business and IT that can help during security breaches. If an Incident has occurred, it is important to classify this as an incident severity. Most companies use between Severity 1-5. 1 being the highest and 5 being the research phase where no system or user’s are affected. For most system anything under Severity 3 is not a major impact of the system but if there is a system wide issue that requires immediate attention, a severity 1 or 2 would fall under the category of Incident response procedure and set up a high alert. The cost of an incident can be very high, depending on the loss of data, therefore identifying the risk and all the real threat fall under this category. Once the incident has been identified it should go into the assessment phase, where it should be determined if the system can be bought back up again and how much damage is done. If the business is impacted assessment should be done. The assessment includes forensic investigation usually involving a team of expert that look into the how many computer were affected, what kind of information was stolen or changed, entry level of attacks, potential damage done by incident, recovery process and the best way to assess this from happening again. The next phase of this is containment, which is the assessment of damage and isolation of other systems that can also be compromised including network. Backup of the system in the current state should be done at this time for further forensic investigation. Analyzing of log files and uncovering systems that were used like firewalls, routers should be identified. Any modification of files including dos, exe should also be carried out in this phase. Once all this is done, the next step is Recovery. Recovery is restoring clean data back the system so it can perform is function as required. After installing last good backup, it is important to test the system before putting this in production again. Further surveillance of network and application should be set in place as intruders might try this again. Every company today, weather small or big needs an incident response unity to defend itself against predators on the web. The government agencies has set some rules and regulations on such standards and are required that company follow these standards to avoid further disruption of the service. This becomes even more critical for companies that play important place in the economy like credit card, health, insurance and much more. Several regional companies today can help plan CSIRP plan that provide help creating a team of individuals that can act fast in such situations. The implementation of such plan cost less in the long run, when compared to companies that don’t have such response plan and loose data that is critical to their survival.

Introduction Of Leadership And Mentoring Management Essay

Introduction Of Leadership And Mentoring Management Essay According to Northouse, P, leadership is defines as a process whereby a person influences a group of persons to achieve a destination. In simple terms, leadership is a transactional event that occurs between these individuals instead of a characteristic that resides in the leader. This definition also includes goals attainment and these goals are pursuit by the leader and the followers. Another great definition is given by Batten (1989) who defines the leadership as a development of a complete system of expectations in order to determine evoke and implement the strengths of all resources the most important of which is people. 1.1 Definition of Mentoring According to Garvey (2004), mentoring is defines as a human interaction which depends on an intended purpose of the relationship between the individuals. It involves two people talking with a purpose for the main benefit of one of the individual. Mentoring also is a term that describes a confidential relationship between two people in making improvement in work or knowledge and through this process enhancing their capacity (Clutterbuck, D Megginson, D . 1995). 1.2 Characteristic of a Good Leader As Cox, D (1996) has stated leadership is a position that must be earned day by day. Effective leaders are foremost effective people in an organization. Thus, the characteristics of the leaders are very important. The following list five of characteristics that seem especially important to make up a good leader: Integrity Good leaders who possess the higher standard of integrity will make their followers trust them. A leader who is centered in integrity will meet his or her commitment and will be honest in all dealings. Therefore, followers will find them reliable and trustable. George, M.D (2005) has written that integrity requires the ability to understand oneself honestly and acceptance of ones self. Confidence Building self-confidence is always the preliminary to become a good leader. Having confidence in leaders is about having belief that they will act in effective and efficient way to accomplish goals. As Vojta (2010) stated, leader who possess confidence in himself or herself has the ability to influence an organization internally and externally. However, Adair (1997) agrees that confidence is essential but overconfidence will lead to arrogance. Vision A good leader possesses great vision to foresee a variable future state for the organization. Leaders need to be able to makes vision tangible and communicate the vision clearly to organization in a way that gains commitment. According to Bennis, W (2009), vision is an important characteristic to be an effective leader because lack of a clear vision will lower the effectiveness of a leader. Respect Respect should not be restricted only from the team members to the leader. As a good leader, he or she must treats all team members with respect and dignity all the times. Respect is simply treating team members as leader wish to be treated. This is a vital characteristic of an effective leader. Shriver, S (2011) suggests that leader must make sure they treat all human beings with respect regardless of differences. Locus of control Lee, Don Tsang and Eric (2001) state that a successful leader shows a high standard of internal locus of control. Leaders high on the internal locus of control are more likely to experience success and they also believed that their success is due to their personal efforts that they implement. 1.3 Characteristic of a Good Mentor To be a good mentor, mentor need to display certain characteristics. Although not all successful mentors will displays every characteristics listed as below, but these characteristic are highly desirable characteristics for all mentors. There are certain key characteristics a good mentor should possess: Enthusiastic A successful mentor believes that the mentee will enthusiastically share the knowledge and skills with the mentee. Mentor allows mentee to explore their feelings and thoughts openly with them. A good mentor possesses enthusiastic attitude are interested in and willing to listen with care and concern (Starcevich, Matt. 2005). Patience Effective mentors are patient by nature. They allow the person being mentored to make mistakes and encourage them learn from the mistakes. A good mentor will know how to respond with patience and grace. Honest A good mentor is the one who willing to provide honest feedback to the mentee. Good mentor thinks that it is their responsibilities to be honest to the mentee. They believe that there are huge lessons for mentee to learn as they speak the truth, transparent about their past experience and share with honesty (Cate, R. 2012). Supportive In order to be an effective mentor, he or she has to be supportive rather than critical. Good mentor are willing to give moral support and encouragement to help mentee to improve their performance. Most of the mentors have already achieved success and they are now giving support to mentee to meet the goal (Campbell, M.J. 2006). 1.4 Leadership Roles and Responsibilities There are several roles and responsibilities that a leader has to consider. Firstly, the world renowned business trainer, Tracy, B.S (2002) suggests that the role and responsibility of a leader is to solve problems and make decision. Leader has to make sound decisions that help the organization to achieve its target. To make a suitable decision, leader need to ensure that all discussion is productive and solve all the greater problems, in order to lead the team toward the decision. Secondly, leader has the role and responsibility to set a good example for the followers. Leader must strive for a good ethic and traits which leader wants his or her followers to follow. Thirdly, according to Fayol, H (1949), delegation of tasks is an important role and responsibilities of leadership. Leaders have to recognize the abilities of their subordinates by assigning them with important task. Leaders must understand the strengths and weaknesses of subordinates so that they may assign the task to a proper person. Lastly, leaders possess the role and responsibility to motivate their followers to produce effective result. To do so, leaders should encourage them by giving recognition awards, remind them the desire to achieve and give support in their work (Rampur, S . 2011). 1.5 Mentoring Roles and Responsibilities The mentor plays certain roles and responsibilities. Firstly, according to Byington, T (2010), mentor has the role and responsibilities to provide guidance and feedback to mentees on task progression. A mentor should provide guidance based on their experience and give constructive feedback which is in connection to the established target. Secondly, mentor has the role and responsibility to actively listen to their mentees problems. The mentor need to show respect by listening attentively to the problems of the mentee (Marquardt,M.J and Loan,P. 2006). Thirdly, as a mentor, he or she possesses the role and responsibility to generate motivation with the mentee. Mentors can motivate the mentee through encouragement or rewards, to drive a mentee to meet the ambitious goal. Lastly, mentors have the role and responsibility to act as a positive role model for their mentees. In order to set a good role model for the mentee, mentor must demonstrates a positive attitude and strive for a good wo rk ethics. This can helps to sets an example for their mentees to follow (Parkinson, L. 2010). 1.6 Benefits of Leadership According to Bennis (1999), the benefit of leadership is that it helps to increase productivity. Leaders have the role to provide guidance to their team members, to motivate team members and to solve any problems. Thus, team members are empowered to succeed and increase the productivity. Robert Zemsky and Susan Shaman of the University of Pennsylvania have conducted a research of 3,200 U.S. companies, the research showed that a 10 percent increase in spending for development leadership will increase an 8.5 percent in productivity. Besides that, leadership also helps to develop a better vision which simplifies in solving problem and also creating a mission statement and actionable goals. This statement and goals will be used to lead the team member to success. In addition, one of the benefits of leadership is limits employee turnover. This is because leadership encourage leader to motivate the employees, respect them and provide support to them to make them stay on the job. As a resul t, companies get to keep talented employees while reducing the recruitment costs (Jones, P.B. 2008). Leadership can also help a company maintain focus on its business. In large companies, there are many managers attempting to make decision. Leadership can get managers and staff on the same page and let them focus on the original company vision (Vitez, O. 2009). 1.7 Benefits of Mentoring According to Makin, L (2010), mentoring can benefit the organization by retaining the business knowledge and practical experience from long-term employees. This is because mentor will transfer their insight, knowledge and past experience of the company with the mentee so that mentee can gains potential knowledge about the organisation from the mentor. Besides that, mentoring can benefit the organization to become more productive. Mentor will provide guidance and help employee to seek solution to overcome the problem. Hence, employee can accomplish the task quickly, accurately and increase the productivity of the business. Organisations may incur additional cost problems when employee solves their problems inaccurately without a mentor. Moreover, mentoring allows organization to enhance professional development through sharing of skills, information and behaviors. Lastly, mentoring also can help to improving skills such as communication, listening and questioning skills. This could he lp mentee to gain better understanding of how to interact with others now and in the future (Morley, M. 2012). 1.8 Principles of Leadership Sugar, B (2008) has demonstrated that there are several principles linked to leadership. They are : Be technically and tactically proficient Leader must be technically proficient by demonstrate the ability to accomplish the mission and able to answering the questions. Technically competent leader will earn the respect of their followers.   Seek self-improvement Leaders must have a clear understanding of themselves through determine their strong and weak personal qualities. Self-improvement can be achieved by questioning and observing. Leader can seek for honest evaluation of others of their leadership ability. This could help them to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Make a sound and timely decision As a leader, he must be able to make a sound and timely decision through practicing estimates of the situation. To make a sound decision, leaders need to consider the effects of the decisions in the organisation and also accept the suggestions of the subordinates. Set an example Set the example to followers is considered one of the leadership principles as leadership is taught by example. If leaders can keep a positive attitude and high personal standards, then leaders can get the same attitude and same personal standard of their followers. This is because leader is an inspiration to all the followers. 1.9 Principles of Mentoring Rolfe, A (n.d) has written that mentoring is underpinned by several key principles that must be understood by mentor. They are : The professional relationship Mentor and mentee must maintain a professional relationship through acknowledge the one anothers contribution and celebrate their achievements. Other than that, mentee and mentor need to develop mutual trust and respect each other to maintain a professional relationship. Needs and Goals This principle drives the relationship between mentor and mentee. The mentor helps mentee by determining the desire goal, giving feedback and formulating steps to achieve the goal. Then mentee will consider the steps given by the mentor and implements the action to achieve the desire goal. Active Listening Mentors often act as sounding boards for the mentee. Mentor must be able to listen the mentees questions, ideas and plans. Therefore, their conversation becomes a dialogue where ideas and plans are shared. Limitations Mentee can seek for the idea and information from mentor. However, mentee must also refer to other resources such as professional counselling services. A mentee must recognize the limitations of a mentor and cannot demand a mentor to know everything. Part 2 : Discussion on the Competencies needed Introduction of Competencies Dubois, D (1998) defines competencies as certain personal characteristics, knowledge, skills, mindsets, skills and thought patterns that applied whether in singularly or in combinations of these, to bring a great performance. 2.1 Competencies needed by leaders The first key competency needed by leaders is self-awareness which allows leaders to have a clear understanding of their personality including strengths and weaknesses, reactions to problems and sources of frustration (Schein, E.H. 1978; Goleman, D. 1998). Both Schein (1978) and Goleman (1998) suggest that leaders having a clear perception of their personalities can help them to regulate of their emotions and make a change they want. It also enables leaders to understand their followers so that they can maintain an effective relationship with their followers. The second competency needed by leaders is engagement in personal transformation. Brake (1997) describes this competency as a desire to enhance personal skills and knowledge and stay up to date. The reflections of personal transformation are strong, willing to learn new things, re ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡ective learning and no limit assumptions. The leader who possesses the competency of engagement in personal transformation will accept the criticism and learn from the criticism (Spreitzer, 1997). Engagement in personal transformation is also includes items such as being open to change (Jordan and Cartwright, 1998) and willing to change personal perceptions (Harris and Moran, 1987). The third competency is visioning thinking. Frank (2005) describes this competency as the ability to provide a vision, foresee the future within the organisation. To create a best vision requires leader to get many ideas and supports from others. Hence, leaders can partnering with their team members, key employees or executive members throughout the organisation. 2.1 Competencies needed by mentors Building Rapport is one of the most fundamental mentoring competencies needed by mentors. Kram (1983) defines building rapport as the skills of the mentor to recognize and manage positively a lack of rapport. An inappropriate balance of common ground and dissimilarity will lead to weak common bond between mentor and mentee. Mentor can use open-ended questions to find some common ground between them to help establish an instant rapport between mentor and mentee. The second competency needed by mentors is active listening. An efficient mentor has to listen on all levels and understand what is the mentee body language message tells, what messages do mentors get through observing their facial expressions. These elements tell clearer than the words alone (Rogers, C.R. 2009). Rogers (2009) also suggests the balance of power is one of the competencies that are found in the most mentors. This competency enables mentor to determine the balance of power between mentor and mentee and to be understand about their desire achievements. Mentor has to empower his or her mentee to work out the skills at mentors disposal and impose his own agenda in order to achieve mentors goal. Part 3 : Mentoring at Work During February 2011 to November 2011, researcher worked as a senior accounting assistant for an accountancy firm Wezmart International Company, before taking up a degree in Teesside University. During that working period, researcher has encountered many mentoring opportunities. Researcher has applied several roles and responsibilities, characteristics and skills as a mentor. It also helped researcher to gain lots of valuable experience and knowledge in the mentoring scheme. While researchers works involved a range of mentoring tasks, there are several characteristics of a mentor that researcher has displayed in mentoring the beginning accounting juniors. Firstly, researcher has to exhibit the patience and tolerance in mentoring juniors to accomplish their task. Kanaskie (2006) suggests that mentor must possessed patience as all tasks take time and learning a new knowledge requires repetition. Therefore, researcher allows her juniors to make mistakes and she believed that her juniors will learn from the mistakes. For example, researcher showed patience by invested time to teach juniors how to use accounting software to generate financial statements of the company. Secondly, researcher was very supportive to coach beginning accountants to improve their accounting knowledge wherever their knowledge level. Researcher provided her juniors with helpful instructional support, direction and encouragement to support her juniors to provide accurate and timely acc ounting reports of the companies. Thirdly, researcher has to display the characteristic of empathy. Card Rogers (1985) describes empathy as accepting others without making judgments. For example, researcher accepted the new accounting staff as a developing accountant and did not judge the accounting reports prepared by them as being poorly prepared. Empathy allows the researcher to gain clear understand the perspective of the mentee. During that time, researcher has possessed certain roles and responsibilities of a mentor to maintain a successful relationship between her juniors. One of the roles and responsibilities is provides development feedback to the juniors. Researcher, as senior of her juniors, understood that she had an obligation to offer guidance and feedback on her juniors works. This allowed her juniors to identify their strengths or weaknesses about their accounting works and then motivate them to work on areas of weakness. Besides that, the researcher also assisted the juniors to build self-confidence. Juniors may feel lack of confidence to navigate challenging accounting tasks as they were still new in the career. Therefore, researcher encouraged juniors to take risks, accept any challenges situation and overcome difficulties to meet their achievement. Researcher also suggested juniors to have a realistic expectation and make a positive decision in order to help them build self-confidence. Moreover, researcher also possessed the mentors roles of listen actively and be sensitive to the mentees needs. Researcher had to listen without judgment and interruption to enable juniors to bring their problems or concerns to the surface (Ryan, V. 2012). Last but not least, researcher also set a positive example to her juniors by showing good personal attitudes (Loretto, P. 2012). For example, researcher followed all the instructions given by accounting executive and prepared timely financial reports so that researcher can demand the same positive behaviour from juniors. In order to assess researchers potential to mentor others, researcher has summarised the researchers competencies in a theoretical framework which suggested from Clutterbuck (2000) within Figure 1 below. click to expand Figure 1:  The 10 mentor competencies suggested from Clutterbuck (2000). Researcher believes that mentoring requires a whole range of competencies to meet a desire goal. These competencies are include self-awareness, communication competence, good humour, interest in developing others, goal clarity, behavioural awareness, conceptual modeling, professional savvy, commitment to own learning and relationship management. First of all, researcher possessed the self-awareness in order to understand and control their emotions, strengths and weaknesses. For example, researcher handled her own impatience and tiredness appropriately when giving suggestions to her juniors. This helped juniors to understand the effects emotions may have on behavior and also maintain a good relationship with the juniors. Researcher also developed the communication competence to meet the needs of juniors. Researcher practiced effective communication competence with juniors by understand the juniors interpersonal style and using active listening. For an instance, researcher listened to a junior described his confusion of unable to determine which accounting methods will be best suited for accounting task. Researcher then provided constructive suggestion to help juniors overcome her confusion. This could optimize the communication between their both. Besides that, researcher also practiced good humour to boost the morale of her juniors. Researcher believed that it is the best method to relieve stress and tiredness from the juniors (Clutterbuck, D. 2000). For example, researcher tried to relieve tension of juniors during the tough times, especially the accounting report submission period. Other than that, researcher also possessed the high interest in developing others. Researcher is interested to assist her juniors to achieve their potential. By providing encouragement and supports, such as encourage juniors to participate in accounting update seminar that will improve juniors accounting knowledge. Moreover, researcher developed goal clarity to help the juniors understand and determine the achievable goal. Researcher need to discuss the goal with the juniors and set a dateline to juniors to reach the goal, such as complete the ABC company financial reports within one week, to ensure that the juniors can accomplish the goal within the deadline (Adrian, Z. 2010). Researcher also practiced behavioural awareness to have a clearer understanding of juniors personal behaviours. For an instance, if researcher noticed her junior is an impatient person, researcher will makes quick decision and try to shorter her speech when communicating with the junior. This helped researcher to maintain a good relationship with accounting juniors in the organisation. In addition, researcher also achieved the conceptual modelling competence. The models can be self-created, drawn from elsewhere or created on the spot (Clutterbuck, D. 2000). In order to help juniors easier to understand the models of strategic planning, company structure or career planning, researcher has created a portfolio of models and shared the models to the juniors. Researcher also gained professional savvy through participates in various professional seminars such as IFRS for Accountants In Industry and Practice seminar, pay attention to all the information given by the seminar lecturer and then combined it with her own accounting experience. Researcher believed these can helped her to develop professional savvy and make sound judgement. Furthermore, researcher also committed to self-learning as a role model for accounting juniors. Researcher must improve her own growth if she wants to help juniors develop (Mind Tool Ltd, 2012). Researcher took the opportunities in new experiment such as taking on challenging tasks assigned by accounting executive. This opportunities assisted researcher for powerful learning and helped researcher to enhance her knowledge. Last but not least, researcher also possessed the competence of building relationship management. In order to maintain rapport with juniors, researcher has to develop trust, give respect the juniors and determine some common ground between juniors such as both attended the same high school or same hobbies. Researcher also showed concern for mentee and remembered some personal information of the juniors background such as academic background and birthday date. This helped researcher to establish instant rapport with her juniors. Conclusion

Depth Perception, an Inborn Skill? :: essays research papers

In 1960, Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk conducted an experiment to see whether depth perception is an inborn or a learned skill in humans. They conducted their experiment with a table that had a thick glass surface on half of the table and a solid base on the other half. This created an illusion of a small cliff without the dangers of actually falling. In this experiment, infants ranging from the age of 6 to 14 months were placed on the solid side of the table. The infants’ mothers were placed on the other side of table and were there to coax the infants to the other side. Of the 30 infants tested, 27 of them crossed the glass surface when called while only 3 refused.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Gibson and Walk conducted the same experiment on newborn chickens and goats with astonishing results. When chickens and goats were placed on the solid side, not a single one of them made an error to cross the â€Å"cliff.† The same test was conducted on baby rats whose results fared far worse than the results of the chickens and goats. The rats fared worse because they are nocturnal animals who rely on other senses other than vision to direct them. From this experiment, Gibson and Walk concluded that depth perception was inborn to all animals and humans by the time they achieve independent movement. This is in the case of chickens and goats at birth and for humans at around 6 months of age.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The results of Gibson and Walk’s experiment are very questionable because their control group did not consist of any socially dependant animals. Infants are socially dependent of their mother for survival and nurturing throughout their childhood. Gibson and Walk should have conducted their control experiment on socially dependant animals such as elephants or cheetahs instead of animals that do not rely heavily on their caretaker. In 1985, Sorce, Emde, Campos, and Klinnert conducted the same visual cliff experiment with human infants and their mothers. This time, the mother was instructed to maintain an expression of fear or happiness on the other side of the â€Å"cliff.

Liver cancer or ‘hepatocellular carcinoma’

Liver cancer or ‘hepatocellular carcinoma’ (or malignant hepatoma) is a malignant tumor that develops from the cells of the liver.   The tumor may develop from liver as the primary site, or from spread from other sites in the body (secondary cancer).   Primary cancer of the liver less frequently occurs compared to secondary cancer.   So far, in the year 2007, about 19, 000 new cases of liver cancer (both primary and secondary cancers) have developed in the year, and about 16, 800 patients have died from the disorder (NCI, 2007).   The type of treatment utilized and the outcome of the disorder depend on several factors including staging and spread of the cancer and the general health of the patient (and also other patient factors).If the disorder is detected and treated in the early stages, the outcome is usually better.   Some of the treatment methods recommended for liver cancer include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, liver transplantation, etc.   As th e current treatment available is rather ineffective in treating liver cancers, it is necessary that newer modalities be developed to treat the condition that would be both safe and effective.   Some of the newer therapies that are being researched for liver cancers include chemotherapy, chemoembolization, immunotherapy and radiofrequency ablation (NCI, 2002).Chemoembolization is a procedure characterized by mechanically or surgically obstructing the blood supply to the liver and then administering chemotherapeutic agents into the cancerous site so as to destroy them.   As the level of chemotherapeutic agents is high at the site, they are more capable of destroying the tumor.   Besides, the risk of side-effects are less, as the chances of the drug spreading in the blood is minimal.   Chemoembolization is usually performed to treat liver cancers that cannot be treated by surgery.   However, those patients in whom the liver cancer was advanced, spread to other sites of the bo dy, or developed associated renal failure, were excluded from the study.   Out of 908 patients who were initially identified, 112 matched the criteria and were a part of the study.   The drug frequently utilized is doxorubicin.The initial results that were obtained through the study were promising.   At present, no option is currently available to treat liver cancer.   Liver transplantation may have a few limitations.   Previously arterial embolization was utilized to treat liver cancer, but the survival rates in such cases could not be determined.   In this trial, the 112 patients were divided into 3 groups, and one received arterial emobolization only, the other received chemoembolization (arterial embolization and chemotherapy) and the third received conservative treatment.   The results obtained through chemoembolization were amazing.   21 out of the 40 patients treated by this method died (survival rate was 47.5 %).On the other hand, 25 out of the 35 patients tr eated through conservative methods died (survival rate 29 %) and 25 out of 37 (survival rate 32.5 %) died from receiving treatment through arterial embolization.   However, the complete or long-term results could not be obtained through this trial, as the initial results demonstrated that chemoembolization results were very beneficial.   The one-year survival rate for chemoembolization was about 82 % and the two year survival rate was about 63 %.   The one-year survival rate for arterial embolization was 75 % and two-year survival rate was 50 %.   The one year survival rate for conservative treatment was 63 % and the two year survival rate was 27 % (NCI, 2002).Radiofrequency ablation is frequently utilized to treat liver cancers that cannot be treated by surgery or other methods.   In this technique, a specialized probe that emits certain waves, and generates heat in the tissues is utilized.   The probe generates heat, and the cancerous cells are destroyed.   This proc edure is usually conducted under anesthesia (NCI, 2002).Pancreas cancer or ‘islet-cell cancer’ is a malignant tumor that develops from the cells of the pancreas.   It is a rare form of cancer, and in the US, in 2007, about 37, 000 new cases of pancreas cancer has developed and about 33, 370 individuals died from the disorder (NCI, 2002).   Pancreatic cancer may be difficult to be diagnosed early and treated problem, as the pancreas is a tiny internal organ and usually the condition does not produce any signs or symptoms.   Presently, surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy are utilized to treat pancreatic cancer.   Immunotherapy is still undergoing research for its effectiveness and safety in treating pancreatic cancer.A clinical trial was performed to determine the effectiveness of treating pancreas cancer with gemcitabine and chemoradiation.   The effectiveness of 5-fluroracil (an chemotherapeutic agent) and radiotherapy was compared to gemcitabine, along wit h 5-fluroracil and radiotherapy.   One out of every five pancreatic tumors can be treated by surgery.   Besides, the outcome following surgery for pancreatic cancers is very poor. The tumor can recur, thus reducing the survival rates.   Presently, in the US, chemoradiation is frequently utilized along with surgery in treating pancreatic cancers.   5-Flurouracil is frequently utilized in the chemoradiation.   As the chances of recurrences are still high with this modality, researchers have suggesting a clinical trial in which an additional chemotherapeutic agent is utilized along with the standard therapy.Gemcitabine was the drug selected to be utilized along with 5-flurouracil and radiotherapy, following surgery.   The main aim of the study was to demonstrate an improved outcome or a better survival rate following use of this combination in treating pancreas cancer.   About 442 individuals were selected for this trial and were divided into 2 groups.   The individuals of both groups had undergo surgery to remove the tumor and had to also undergo chemoradiation later.   In the first group, gemcitabine was administered before and after the chemoradiation, whereas in the second group, 5-Flurouracil was administered before and after the surgery.   Tumors that developed from the head and the tail of the pancreas were included in the study.   Gemcitabine used to treat pancreatic head tumors along with chemoradiation was had a survival period of about20.6 months.On the other hand, about 16.9 months was the survival period of those who received 5-Flurouracil.   The there year survival rate in those who received gemcitabine was about 32 %, and the three year survival rate in those who received 5-Flurouracil was about 21 %.   However, the risk of side-effects was higher in individuals who received gemcitabine.   These cells tended to destroy the blood cells.   Supportive drugs seemed to be more beneficial in treating gemcitabine-induced depr ession in the blood cell counts.   The study demonstrated that gemcitabine was more effective in treating tumors arising from the head of the pancreas after surgery, than 5-Flurouracil (NCI, 2006).Another study was conducted to determine the beneficial effects of gemcitabine along surgery, and surgery alone.   The study population (consisting of 368 individuals) was divided into two groups, the first group was administered gemcitabine following surgery, and the second group was treated with surgery alone.   The study demonstrated that recurrence rates of the tumor treated with gemcitabine and surgery was much better than those treated by surgery itself.   Recurrence occurred after 13.4 months in those treated with gemcitabine and after 6.9 months in those treated with surgery alone (NCI, 2007).References:National Cancer Institute (2002), Liver Cancer – Introduction. Retrieved on April 14, 2006, from NCI Web site: https://www.cancer.gov/publications/patient-education/w yntk-liver-cancerNational Cancer Institute (2005), Islet cell cancer, Retrieved on April 14, 2006, from NCI Web site: https://www.cancer.gov/National Cancer Institute (2005), Pancreatic Cancer, Retrieved on April 14, 2006, from NCI Web site: https://www.cancer.gov/types/pancreaticNational Cancer Institute (2007), Liver Cancer Home Page. Retrieved on April 14, 2006, from NCI Web site: https://www.cancer.gov/types/liver

1984 Summary

'1984' Summary There are few novels as influential as George Orwell’s 1984, which permeated pop culture with concepts like Big Brother and doublethink, while exploring the bleak future Orwell saw in totalitarianism. Part One 1984 begins with Winston Smith coming home to his small, run-down flat. At 39, Winston is old beyond his years and takes his time walking up the stairs, greeted at each landing by a poster stating BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU. In his small flat he can dim the wall-sized telescreen and lower the volume but cannot turn it off. He keeps his back to it because it is a two-way screen. Winston lives in what is known as Airstrip One, formerly Britain, a province of a large nation-state known as Oceania. He looks out his window at the Ministry of Truth where he works revising historical records to conform with the new versions of history the government is always producing. Winston works hard to appear a dutiful and fervent member of the Party, but privately despises it and the world he lives in. He knows this makes him what is known as a thoughtcriminal and assumes he will inevitably be exposed and punished. Winston has purchased a diary from a shop in a proletariat (the lower class of people referred to as proles) neighborhood, and has discovered that the placement of the telescreen in his apartment allows for a small area where he cannot be observed. He skips lunch at the canteen in order to come home and write his forbidden thoughts in this diary out of the telescreen’s range. It is a small act of rebellion. Winston admits to a sexual attraction to a woman at the Ministry of Truth, Julia. He has not acted on his attraction because he thinks she might be spying on him, and suspects she would inform on him. He is also paranoid about his superior, a man named O’Brien whom he suspects is part of the Brotherhood, a resistance movement led by the famous terrorist Emmanuel Goldstein. Part Two When Winston goes to work the next day, he sees Julia with her arm in a sling. When she stumbles, he helps her, and she passes him a note that reads I Love You. He and Julia begin a sexual affair, which is forbidden by the Party; Julia is even a member of the Anti-Sex League. Their first encounter is in a rural area. Later they begin renting a room above the shop where Winston purchased his diary. It becomes clear to Winston that Julia despises the Party as much as he does. The affair sparks memories in Winston of the civil war and his ex-wife, Katharine. At work, Winston meets a colleague named Syme who tells him about the dictionary he is working on for the new official language, Newspeak. Syme tells Winston that Newspeak is designed to make it more difficult for people to think in complex ways. Winston expects that this sentiment will cause Syme to disappear, and a few days later Syme is gone. Winston and Julia create a private sanctuary in the rented room, and tell each other that they are already dead. They believe that the Party will discover their crimes and execute them, but that it cannot take away their feelings for each other. O’Brien contacts Winston, confirms his involvement with the Brotherhood, and invites him to be a part of the resistance. Winston and Julia go to O’Brien’s large, well-appointed home and take an oath to join the Brotherhood. O’Brien gives Winston a copy of Emmanuel Goldstein’s book. Winston and Julia spend their time together reading it, learning the truth behind how the Party maintains its hold on society. They also learn about the use of a technique called doublethink, which allows Party members to believe contradictory concepts with ease, and how history has been changed to support perpetual warfare, which is used to keep a permanent state of emergency in place for crowd control purposes. Goldstein also argues that a revolution would be possible if the proles rose up en masse to oppose the government. While in their rented room, Winston and Julia are denounced by the shop owner, a member of the Thought Police, and arrested. Part Three Winston and Julia are taken to the Ministry of Love for punishment, and learn that O’Brien is actually a loyal party member who poses as a supporter of The Brotherhood in order to expose the disloyal. O’Brien begins torturing Winston. O’Brien is very open about the Party’s desire for power, and tells Winston openly that once he is broken and forced to change his thoughts in support of the Party, he will be placed back into the world for a time as an example, and then killed when his usefulness in that capacity is exhausted. Winston endures horrific pain and psychological stress as he is forced to adopt obviously untrue positions, such as stating that 2 2 5. The goal of the torture is to force Winston to abandon logic in favor of absorbing and repeating whatever the Party tells him. Winston confesses to a lengthy list of imaginary crimes. Winston breaks, but O’Brien is not satisfied, as Winston defiantly tells him that he still loves Julia and O’Brien cannot take that away from him. O’Brien tells him he will betray Julia in Room 101. Winston is taken there, and O’Brien reveals that they know everything there is to know about Winston- including his greatest irrational fear, rats. A wire cage is fitted over his face, and rats are placed in the cage. O’Brien tells Winston that the rats will gouge out his eyes and Winston loses the last bits of his sanity in terror, and just as the rats are coming for him he tells O’Brien to substitute Julia. Having betrayed Julia completely, Winston is truly broken. He is re-educated and released. He spends his days drinking heavily at a cafe. A few days later he meets Julia in a park, and they discuss their torture. Julia admits that she broke as well, and betrayed him. They both realize that their love for one another has been destroyed. They no longer care for each other as they once did. Winston goes to a cafe and sits there alone as the telescreens report an important victory for Oceania in the war against Eurasia. Winston is happy and has no more thoughts of rebellion, thinking that he loves Big Brother, and cannot wait to finally be executed.